AppleMagazine #169

Apple didn't attend last week's gadget show but its presence was felt. Many companies have designed "smart" home products that integrate with Apple's HomeKit, an emerging technology for controlling lights and appliances through a mobile app. There are other efforts to unify smart-home devices, but many of them rely on individual partnerships. That approach is slower than simply having everyone use a common set of tools - in this case, HomeKit. SO WHAT IS HOMEKIT? Think of HomeKit as a way to unify smart-home products from different manufacturers. Currently, if Acme Co. makes a light switch, you need to download Acme's app to control it remotely. Buy a garage door opener from Widget Inc., and you need to use Widget's app. With HomeKit, companies can integrate their apps into a…

A revised settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit alleging Apple and Google conspired with other Silicon Valley companies to block more than 60,000 high-tech employees from getting better job offers. The terms of the new agreement weren't disclosed in a letter filed Tuesday (13) with an appeals court in San Francisco. Donald Falk, a lawyer who filed the letter on behalf of Google Inc., declined to comment Wednesday. The new settlement comes five months after U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected an earlier deal that would have required Apple Inc., Google, Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. to pay $324.5 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging the companies secretly agreed not to recruit each other's workers. Koh concluded the evidence in the case warranted a payment of at…

ADAPTATION OF CHERYL STRAYED MEMOIR IS A BIG HIT One can barely deny the momentous impact of author Cheryl Strayed's memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail since its release in 2012. Sure, it topped the New York Times Best Seller list as well as being the first selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0, but the tale of Strayed's 1,100 mile hike from the Mojave Desert to the border with Washington State also charmed and inspired endless numbers of readers - and may have now even revived Reese Witherspoon's Oscar prospects. That's because, even before the book's publication, movie rights for it had been optioned by the actor's Pacific Standard film company, with Witherspoon slated to portray Strayed. Add celebrated novelist Nick Hornby as a writer…

Google will stop selling its Internet-connected eyewear to consumers until the company can develop a more polished and affordable version that's less likely to be viewed as a freakish device. The sales moratorium on the nearly 2-year-old "Explorer" edition of Google Glass goes into effect Jan. 19. The decision announced Thursday coincides with Glass' spin-off from the secretive Google X lab where it was invented. Glass will now operate in a division steered by veteran marketing executive Ivy Ross, whose past experience includes stints at fashion-conscious companies such as Gap Inc. and Calvin Klein. Ross will report to Tony Fadell, who played an instrumental role in the design of Apple's iPod and now runs the smart-appliance maker Nest Labs that Google Inc. bought for $3.2 billion last year. Google will…

The largest lithium battery factory in the world is getting a new neighbor at an industrial park east of Reno - the world's biggest data center. Las Vegas-based Switch plans to invest $1 billion in the 3 million square foot "supernap" center. It will be built on 1,000 acres at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, where Tesla Motors currently is building its $5 billion gigafactory to make batteries to power its electric cars. Gov. Brian Sandoval announced the plan in his State of the State address Thursday night along with a $1 billion expansion of Switch data space in Las Vegas. "This will make Nevada the most digitally connected state in the nation," Sandoval said in his speech to lawmakers in the Assembly chambers, where Switch CEO and founder Rob…

CES 2015 SERVES UP PLENTY OF EXCITING DEVICES If you're the kind of person who, when you hear the word 'drone', immediately pictures some arcane military operation taking place in a war-torn part of the Middle East, you're already behind the times. That's because the recent International Consumer Electronics Show, or CES 2015, had a host of new drones on display, demonstrating just what is possible with the technology today. It turns out that the possibilities for drones are rich, and should certainly give loyal users of iOS devices something to get excited about. Indeed, there are drones on the market right now for iGadget users, such as the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0, which is capable of capturing HD photos and videos and can be easily piloted via your iDevice, whether…