Indholdsfortegnelse for #368 i AppleMagazine

Amazon is hard to escape. Whether you’ve bought shoes at Zappos, picked up milk at Whole Foods or listened to an audiobook on Audible, you’ve been caught up in Amazon’s growing web of businesses. And now, Amazon’s sprawling empire will stretch even further. The company announced Tuesday that it will open two more bases outside of its Seattle headquarters: one in Arlington, Virginia and the other in New York’s Long Island City neighborhood. Amazon, which got its start as an online bookstore two decades ago, has grown to a behemoth that had nearly $180 billion in revenue last year. Its workforce has ballooned to more than 610,000 employees worldwide, making it the second largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded employer behind Walmart, according to FactSet. That growth has also made its founder and…

In three years, the Uber Eats restaurant food delivery service has grown from an experiment to serving much of the U.S. and major cities worldwide. By year’s end, the ride-hailing company says it will cover 70 percent of the U.S. population and be in 243 metro areas, mainly by expanding into smaller cities. It’s already in over 300 cities in 36 countries with many international deliveries done by bicycle. Jason Droege, an Uber vice president who leads Uber Everything, the unit that explores how to build new businesses off the Uber network, says Eats is growing as fast as the ride-hailing service did in its early days. He talks about the future of the service and demand for getting food delivered to your home. Questions and answers have been edited…

Celebrities offer their thanks, remembrances and condolences in the death of Marvel legend Stan Lee, who died Monday at age 95. “Sad, sad day. Rest In Power, Uncle Stan. You have made the world a better place through the power of modern mythology and your love of this messy business of being human...”The “Hulk” actor Mark Ruffalo, via Twitter. Stan Lee, the creative dynamo who revolutionized the comic book and helped make billions for Hollywood by introducing human frailties in Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk, is dead at 95 “Thank you, Stan, for making me not only the boy I was but also the man I am today. You had great power and you always used it responsibly, fostering billions of dreamers who…

Canadian actor Douglas Rain, who played some of Shakespeare’s most intriguing characters onstage but perhaps is best known for supplying the creepily calm voice of the computer HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” has died at 90. The Stratford Festival said Rain died Sunday of natural causes at St. Marys Memorial Hospital, just outside of Stratford, Ontario. He was one of the festival’s founding company members and spent 32 seasons performing there, until 1998. His roles at Stratford included playing Claudio in “Measure for Measure” in 1954, Malvolio in “Twelfth Night” in 1957, Edgar in “King Lear” in 1964 and Prince Hal in “Henry IV, Part 1’ in 1958, a play and a role he would return to in 1965 and would eventually take on the title role…

Origins (Deluxe) Imagine Dragons The fourth album in just six years from Imagine Dragons is here. Coming just a year after the group’s previous album Evolve, Origins is packed with what seem sure to be further blockbuster hits, especially in this deluxe edition featuring three bonus tracks only available digitally. FIVE FACTS: 1. Some of the songs were written when Imagine Dragons had taken time off their tour. 2. They got their big break when the front man of the band Train fell sick and Imagine Dragons performed at a major Las Vegas festival in their place. 3. The band have called Origins a “sister album” to Evolve. 4. The band’s name is an anagram made up of words they refuse to disclose. 5. 2018 marks the group’s 10th anniversary.…

No, “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” isn’t a Spider-man spinoff about a young woman ensnarled by Peter Parker. But you’d be forgiven for thinking the latest, revamped iteration of Stieg Larsson’s thrillers has some superhero DNA. This, Lisbeth Salander’s third big-screen incarnation in nine years, has morphed the avenging Stockholm hacker into a blander action hero, complete with a Batman-and-Robin-like band of white across her eyes. Following the spikier Swedish trilogy, with Noomi Rapace, and David Fincher’s menacing and murky “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” with Rooney Mara, we can almost palpably feel Lisbeth (Claire Foy this time) being lured out of the shadows and toward a more mainstream movie realm. In this latest chapter, Lisbeth strives, like a Scandinavian 007, to keep a world-threatening atomic weapons program…

For kids growing up in today’s cashless society, the piggy bank is going virtual. Father of two Roland Hall turned to a British startup’s digital pocket money app because his kids were still too young to get bank cards from traditional banks. With prepaid debit cards linked to the app, Hall’s kids, aged 8 and 10, can spend their allowance and chore money by shopping online or by tapping at contactless payment terminals in stores. Sound like a recipe for splurging? Not so, he said. “When kids have cash they want to spend it quickly. They want to go to the shops and spend it on rubbish,” said Hall, an IT project manager. But an app lets them check their balances online, “which actually makes them start thinking about saving…

Amazon, which started as an online bookstore two decades ago, has grown to a behemoth that had nearly $180 billion in revenue last year. It now owns well-known brands including grocer Whole Foods and online shoe-seller Zappos. It also makes movies and TV shows, runs an advertising business and offers cloud computing services to corporations and government agencies. The company has more than 610,000 employees worldwide, making it the second largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded employer behind Walmart. But it was the prospect of 50,000 jobs that led 238 communities across North America to pitch Amazon on why they should be home to the next headquarters. Amazon could have picked a struggling city desperate for new jobs. But instead it went with two of the nation’s largest and most powerful metro areas.…

All of it is possible due to the Smart Lab at the Mitchell Middle School, which is now fully implemented after receiving an additional $25,000 in grant money from America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education program, sponsored by Monsanto. Principal Justin Zajic started looking into replacing the industrial technology course last December and put together a committee involving the Mitchell Area Development Corporation, Toshiba, Muth Electric, Mitchell Technical Institute and other community members, the Daily Republic reported. “We discovered we were having problems getting people into these major tech industries that we have here in Mitchell, so we brainstormed on how to grow locally. We wanted to look at curriculums that would put our middle schoolers on the right path to develop skills for these industries,” Zajic said. The program offers…

The kilogram is getting an update. No, your bathroom scales won’t suddenly become kinder and a kilo of fruit will still weigh a kilo. But the way scientists define the exact mass of a kilogram is about to change. Until now, its mass has been defined by the granddaddy of all kilos: a golf ball-sized metal cylinder locked in a vault in France. For more than a century, it has been the one true kilogram upon which all others were based. No longer. Gathering in Versailles, west of Paris, governments are expected on Friday to approve plans to instead use a scientific formulation to define the exact mass of a kilo. The change is expected to have practical applications in industries and sciences that require ultra-precise measurements of mass. And…

When Jude Law met with J.K. Rowling about portraying the younger version of Albus Dumbledore, the two discussed how to rebuild the fan-favorite character from the “Harry Potter” films. Law spent an afternoon jotting down notes from Rowling who talked to him about Dumbledore’s life before becoming the world’s most powerful wizard. The British actor walked away with a vote of confidence from the famed author, alleviating some pressure on him. Eddie Redmayne shares his excitement about his first day on set opposite Jude Law’s Dumbledore, while Katherine Waterston says the new movie’s links to “Harry Potter” are strong. “When the boss says ‘I like you,’ it gives you a little bit of comfort,” Law said of Rowling, screenwriter of the “Harry Potter” prequel series that is based on her…

The eighth and last season of “Game of Thrones” finally has a date with destiny. HBO said this week that the series will return in April 2019 with six episodes to conclude its run. The fantasy series based on the George R.R. Martin novels has been one of HBO’s most successful shows. A video touting the show’s return next year included clips from seasons past showing both living and dead competitors for the crown of Westeros but didn’t give a taste of the final episodes. HBO isn’t getting out of the “Game of Thrones” business. A prequel created by Martin and writer-producer Jane Goldman is underway, with Naomi Watts set to star, and other spinoffs are possible.…

The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to rewrite rules that limit pollution from heavy trucks but that the EPA says slow the economy. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler argues that new technology can help improve air quality, noting that the regulation of harmful nitrogen oxide emissions hasn’t been revamped since 2000. EPA officials were to announce the plans Tuesday but offered few details and said they were just beginning a regulatory process that can take years. “We are doing it because it’s good for the environment,” said Wheeler, who notes that the EPA is under no requirement to redo the regulation. “Our goal is to update our standards so that we can get these new technologies in use across the country.” The proposed “Cleaner Trucks Initiative” is drawing…

Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. will carry out an initial public offering of its Japanese mobile subsidiary, set for Dec. 19, in what will likely be one of the world’s biggest IPOs. The Tokyo Stock Exchange approved the listing of 1.6 billion shares of SoftBank Corp. Monday, at 1,500 yen ($13) a share, raising potentially more than 2 trillion yen ($20 billion). Founded in 1986, initially running software, broadband and fixed-line telecommunications businesses, the company has expanded to become one of Japan’s top mobile service providers. It was the first carrier to offer the Apple iPhone in Japan. The parent is investing in a range of companies globally, including U.S. wireless company Sprint, British IoT company ARM, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and U.S. ride-sharing service Uber. Recently, SoftBank Group…

Shares of Yelp Inc. took a beating Thursday (08) after the online-reviews site reported soft third-quarter sales and indicated the current period would also be weak. Yelp’s stock was down $12.50, or 29 percent, to $31 in after-hours trading. CEO Jeremy Stoppleman blamed the revenue miss on the company’s new non-term advertising, intended to encourage advertisers to try the site without being tied to longer-term contracts. “While the shift to non-term advertising has opened our sales funnel, it has also made our results more sensitive to short-term operational issues,” Stoppleman said in a new release. He said the company said expected revenue would also take a hit in the fourth quarter. The San Francisco-based company reported revenue of $241.1 million in third quarter, up from $223 million during the same…

GOODBYE, STAN LEE Stan Lee, the legendary Marvel Comics writer, and publisher, has died aged 95. The icon was responsible for characters including Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, and the X-Men, making him a real-life superhero around the world, with millions of adoring fans. In this special edition of AppleMagazine, we look back on his impressive career and explore how his imaginative mind helped create one of the world’s most successful movie franchises. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS Born Stanley Martin Lieber, Stan Lee started his career back in 1939, when he became an assistant at Timely Comics, a firm that would evolve into Marvel Comics by the 1960s. The job paid just $8 per week, and during his early years at the company, he was responsible for filling inkwells, proofreading, fetching…

Ford and Walmart are teaming up to test a self-driving grocery delivery service. The pilot program in Florida’s Miami-Dade County will incorporate Postmates, a logistics company that operates a network of couriers, to deliver groceries and more. The vehicles will collect data on consumer preferences to help the companies understand what people want. Ford said that it’ll also look at different vehicle configurations or modifications that may be needed to accommodate orders such as perishable goods, or when a vehicle is making multiple deliveries on a single trip. Ford will work with Walmart over the next couple months to determine what goods it can feasibly transport and figure out any issues that may need to be addressed to successfully deliver orders via self-driving vehicles.…

The Meg After a notorious shark once thought to be extinct attacks an international research crew and leaves them disabled at the bottom of the ocean, an expert deep sea rescue diver must try to save them and defeat the monster known as the Megalodon. FIVE FACTS: 1. It is based on the 1997 novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. 2. Filming took place in New Zealand. 3. Steve Alten’s daughter appears as an extra in the film. 4. Ruby Rose almost drowned on set. 5. In the book, the Megalodon shark is pure white, but this was too difficult to produce with CGI, so the filmmakers decided to color it like a great white shark. Crazy Rich Asians When native New Yorker Rachel Wu accompanies…

Like the bottomless trunk totted by “magizoolologist” Newt Scamander, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is a mixed bag of wonders. Newt (Eddie Redmayne) can reach into his suitcase and, like Mary Poppins before him, pull out just about anything. And it sometimes feels as though J.K. Rowling — a screenwriter here for the second time — is similarly infatuated by her unending powers of conjuring. In this overstuffed second film in the five-part Harry Potter prequel series, every solved mystery unlocks another, every story begets still more. Narratives multiply like randy Nifflers (one of the many species of creature in Newt’s bag). The usual problem for spinoffs is their thinness or their unfulfilled justification — especially ones that stretch an already much-stretched tale. (There were eight Potter movies.) But…

For the past few years, the smartphone industry has been searching for a breakthrough to revive a market mired in an innovation lull and a sales slump. A potential catalyst is on the horizon in the form of flexible screens that can be folded in half without breaking. Samsung and several rivals are preparing to roll out such screens to make devices more versatile for work and pleasure. The foldable screens could increase display space to the size of a mini-tablet, but fold like a wallet so they revert to the size of regular phones. But there are questions about price and durability. If the new phones fulfill their makers’ ambitions, they will become a leap ahead for an industry whose origins can be traced to the old flip phones…

Spain’s government is eyeing ambitious steps to tackle climate change, including a ban on the sale of gas and diesel cars from 2040. The government presented a blueprint Tuesday that foresees an end to state financial subsidies for fossil fuels and a prohibition on fracking. The working document, obtained by The Associated Press, contains plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent by 2030 and to feed the national energy grid exclusively from renewable sources by 2050. Other European Union countries are assessing similar groundbreaking measures as they look to combat climate change. The minority Spanish government’s goals for its climate policy will need the support of other parties to win approval in parliament. It wasn’t immediately clear when a vote on the measures might take place.…

A congressional advisory panel says the purchase of internet-linked devices manufactured in China leaves the United States vulnerable to security breaches that could put critical infrastructure at risk. In its annual report this week, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission warns of dangers to the U.S. government and private sector from a reliance on global supply chains linked to China, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of information technology equipment. China’s push to dominate in the high-tech industry by 2025 already is a sore point with Washington and a contributing factor in trade tensions that have seen the world’s two largest economies slap billions of dollars in punitive tariffs on each other’s products this year. The U.S. also has had long-running concerns about state-backed cyber theft of corporate secrets,…