Indholdsfortegnelse for #391 i AppleMagazine

PLENTY OF CHATTER ABOUT A NEW EXTERNAL MAC MONITOR As always, there exists an abundance of rumors regarding what Apple will unleash at its next event. The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is set to hit San Jose on June 3 until June 7, and attendees are encouraged to join thousands of “coders, creators, and crazy ones” in order to achieve the “insanely great”. Sounds great, right? Well, it probably will be for the lucky thousands of attendees who will engage with more than 100 tech and design-focused sessions, and have the opportunity to learn from Apple’s own engineers. Alongside the opportunity to connect with fellow app developers, there will also be a chance for keen coders to receive expert guidance on their own app designs. Apple usually kicks off each…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk expects to start converting the company’s electric cars into fully self-driving vehicles next year as part of an audacious plan to create a network of robotic taxis to compete against Uber and other ride-hailing services. The vision sketched out during an event at Tesla’s Silicon Valley headquarters requires several leaps of faith — something that the zealous investors and consumers who view Musk as a technological genius often are willing to take. But self-driving car experts fear Musk is shirking public safety in an effort to boost Tesla’s stock and sell more of the company’s electric cars. This amid lingering questions about whether the 15-year-old automaker can consistently make money. “It sounds like a pipe dream that he’s selling people,” said Raj Rajkumar, an electrical and…

Google affiliate Wing Aviation has received federal approval allowing it to make commercial deliveries by drone. It’s the first time a company has gotten a federal air carrier certification for drone deliveries. The approval from the Federal Aviation Administration means that Wing can operate commercial drone flights in part of Virginia, which it plans to begin later this year. The FAA said Tuesday that the company met the agency’s safety requirements by participating in a pilot program in Virginia with the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership and Virginia Tech, and by conducting thousands of flights in Australia over the past several years. “This is an important step forward for the safe testing and integration of drones into our economy,”Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said in a statement. Wing said the approval “means that…

Marshall University students can use their own electronic devices to access buildings on campus, pay for meals and other uses. Officials at the university in Huntington, West Virginia, announced the launch Tuesday of school-issued identification cards on iPhone and Apple Watch. Marshall says it’s the first school in West Virginia and among the first 10 nationwide to offer the technology that uses readers where the ID cards are accepted on and off campus. Apple says the arrangement enables students to leave their physical wallets behind. Other mobile ID tasks include buying items in the university bookstore or in vending machines and printing documents. The mobile ID works with iPhone 6 and later models and Apple Watch Series 1 and later.…

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part After everyone was left “Happy” at the end of the first LEGO movie, the people of Bricksburg now face a new threat. LEGO DUPLO invaders threaten the city from space and set out to destroy everything in their path. Only Emmet, Lucy, Batman and co stand in their way, and must unite and entertain once again. FIVE FACTS: 1. The release date of the movie was pushed back nearly two years, due to the release of the spin-off movies The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie. 2. Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Sweet Mayhem, has a small scar on her right eyebrow coincidentally caused by tripping on a piece of Lego when she was 10. 3. Jason Momoa plays Aquaman in the…

Samsung is pushing back this week’s planned public launch of its highly anticipated, $2000 folding phone after reports that reviewers’ phones were breaking. The company had been planning to release the Galaxy Fold on Friday, but instead it will now run more tests and announce a new launch date in the “coming weeks.” The delay is a setback for Samsung and for the smartphone market generally, which had been pinning some hopes on the folding phone to catalyze innovation in the industry. The Galaxy Fold, with its $1,980 price tag, was not intended to be a mass market hit, but many hoped it would hint at a new wave of smartphone advances — an area that has been lagging in recent years. But device reviewers quickly found issue with the…

Eyeing that can of soda in the supermarket cooler? Or maybe you’re craving a pint of ice cream? A camera could be watching you. But it’s not there to see if you’re stealing. These cameras want to get to know you and what you’re buying. It’s a new technology being trotted out to retailers, where cameras try to guess your age, gender or mood as you walk by. The intent is to use the information to show you targeted real-time ads on in-store video screens. Companies are pitching retailers to bring the technology into their physical stores as a way to better compete with online rivals like Amazon that are already armed with troves of information on their customers and their buying habits. With store cameras, you may not even…

A British cybersecurity researcher credited with stopping a worldwide computer virus has pleaded guilty to developing malware to steal banking information. Federal prosecutors in Wisconsin and Marcus Hutchins’ attorneys said in a joint court filing last Friday that the 24-year-old agreed to plead guilty to developing malware called Kronos and conspiring to distribute it from 2012 to 2015. In exchange for his plea to those charges, prosecutors dismissed eight more. “As you may be aware, I’ve pleaded guilty to two charges related to writing malware in the years prior to my career in security,” Hutchins said in a statement on his website . “I regret these actions and accept full responsibility for my mistakes. Having grown up, I’ve since been using the same skills that I misused several years ago…

The small list of states that allow either texting while driving or hand-held cellphone use is shrinking after the Arizona House last week overwhelmingly approved a cellphone use ban and sent it to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for his expected signature. Arizona, Missouri and Montana had been the only three states that hadn’t banned texting while driving. Arizona will join 16 others that bans all use of a hand-held cellphones while driving. The 44-16 vote on the toughest of three proposals debated by House lawmakers comes after years of inaction by the Republican-controlled Legislature. The Senate earlier approved it on a 20-9 vote. Ducey has pledged to sign the measure, which takes effect in January 2021. More than two dozen cities enacted local bans that will remain in effect until…

Internet giants like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are facing tougher calls for regulation than ever before, as the devastating impact of social media on our children’s health begins to come to the fore. This week, we take a closer look at the “social generation,” exploring what needs to be done to create a safer, more positive digital environment for everyone… DAMAGING IMPACT Today’s millennials and Gen Zers are living in truly unprecedented times, with their smartphones now “constant companions” that alert them to updates on their friends, their favorite celebrities, and the goings on around the world. Youngsters are always-on, always updating, and always glued to their phones - teenagers spend an average of nine hours per day online, with many “worried” they’re spending too much time browsing social networks…

Twitter Inc. trumpeted strong quarterly growth in earnings and users while President Donald Trump tweeted criticism of the social media site for allegedly discriminating against him politically. The company said net income for the first three months of the year rose on strong ad demand. Daily users rose 11% to 134 million for the first quarter of 2019, thanks to both “organic growth as well as ongoing product improvements and marketing.” The San Francisco company started disclosing its daily user base in the previous quarter. These are users who log into the site at least once a day and see advertisements on the platform. Twitter says daily metric will replace its monthly user count, which it will stop disclosing. Shortly after the numbers were released, Trump took to Twitter to…

A Houston public library that was already closed for renovations when it was damaged by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 will reopen next year as the city’s first full TECHLink center. TECHLink is a digital creative space that offers access to numerous state-of-the-art technologies. A $1.6 million gift for the Amanda E. Dixon Neighborhood Library means the site will have the latest interactive technology, including a professional music and video-recording studio, the Houston Chronicle reported. The reconstructed library will help expand the minds and imagination of the next generation of Houstonians, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a written statement. The new center is scheduled to open by mid-2020. Huey German-Wilson, president of the Trinity Houston Gardens Super Neighborhood, said residents had been asking for the building to be repaired for years.…

The Ghost of Ohio Andy Black Andy Black’s second solo album continues his exploration of his rock roots, with dark gothic sounds and ‘80s synth-tinged melodies laced with his iconic, chilling vocals. Is this who he really is? Or is he still finding that out? It sounds like he’s comfortable with this newfound freedom either way. FIVE FACTS: 1. His real name is Andrew Dennis Biersack, and he is the lead vocalist of rock band Black Veil Brides. 2. In 2011, while on stage with Black Veil Brides, he fell and shattered three ribs. 3. Despite dressing in black and having black hair, Biersack is actually a natural blond. 4. He has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 5. A keen actor before his music career, he turned down a role in…

SpaceX has suffered a serious setback in its effort to launch NASA astronauts into orbit this year, with the fiery loss of its first crew capsule during testing. Over the weekend, the company’s recently flown Dragon crew capsule was engulfed in smoke and flames on an engine test stand at Cape Canaveral. SpaceX was testing the Dragon’s abort thrusters when Saturday’s accident occurred. The company said the test area was clear and no one was injured. This capsule flew to the International Space Station last month on a crew-less trial run, and it was supposed to be reused in a launch abort test in June. Another capsule was supposed to follow with two astronauts as early as July. Astronauts haven’t launched from Florida since 2011. NASA said it’s too early…

A participant in the federal program shielding young immigrants from deportation is suing a Silicon Valley company, saying she was denied a job she was qualified for despite being authorized to work in the U.S. The case is one of several filed recently against major U.S. corporations that allegedly refused to employ people enrolled in the federal program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. It allows immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children to remain in the country. On Tuesday, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund sued VMware in federal court in California, saying the software company violated the Civil Rights Act when it denied Sandy Vasquez a job. VMware, according to the lawsuit, refuses to hire people authorized to work in the U.S.…

Tesla plans to cut its board of directors from 11 to seven in a move the electric-car maker says will allow the board to act more nimbly and efficiently. Tesla says the four directors who will depart aren’t leaving because of any disagreement with the company. The board has come under closer scrutiny since August, when CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he had lined up funding and was considering taking the Palo Alto, California-based company private at $420 per share. That didn’t happen, and regulators accused Musk of securities fraud. Tesla disclosed the upcoming changes to the board in regulatory filings last Friday. Brad Buss, a director since 2009, and Linda Johnson Rice, who joined the board in 2017, plan to leave at the annual meeting in June. Two early…

In the world of autonomous vehicles, Pittsburgh, Phoenix and Silicon Valley are bustling hubs of development and testing. But ask those involved in self-driving vehicles when we might actually see them carrying passengers in every city, and you’ll get an almost universal answer: Not anytime soon. An optimistic assessment is 10 years. Many others say decades as researchers try to conquer a number of obstacles. That makes Tesla’s declarations that it will offer fully autonomous vehicles by the second quarter of next year all the more striking. The company announced its ambitious plans during an investor conference this week. But skeptics doubt that Tesla can pull it off. Here are the problems that researchers must overcome to start giving rides without humans behind the wheel: SNOW AND WEATHER When it’s…

Tech workers in China protesting a corporate culture of grueling work schedules are getting some support from their U.S. peers. A fast-growing campaign started by Chinese software developers on the code-sharing platform GitHub has contributed to a public debate over work-life balance in China’s tech industry. It’s known as 996.ICU, referring to expectations that young people work 12-hour days, six days a week if they want financial success — and the idea that following such an illegal workweek can land them in an intensive care unit. A group of tech workers at Microsoft, which owns GitHub, distributed an open letter that urges the company to protect the widely shared GitHub page from censorship. It follows reports that some Chinese domestic web browsers have restricted access to the page.…

The World Health Organization has issued its first-ever guidance for how much screen time children under 5 should get: not very much, and none at all for those under 1. The U.N. health agency said Wednesday that kids under 5 should not spend more than one hour watching screens every day — and that less is better. The guidelines are somewhat similar to advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics. That group recommends children younger than 18 months should avoid screens other than video chats. It says parents of young children under two should choose “high-quality programming” with educational value and that can be watched with a parent to help kids understand what they’re seeing. Some groups said WHO’s screen time guidelines failed to consider the potential benefits of digital…

Satisfaction is a complicated concept in Marvel Land. On the one hand, every morsel of pre-release information is obsessively poured over in feverish anticipation. But by the time the movie is coming out, a sudden hush comes over die-hard fans who, to avoid spoilers, have abandoned their phones, detached from the grid and found a quiet ditch to lay in until the coast is clear and the multiplex is open. It’s an anguished dance between wanting to know everything and nothing, at once. And it never ceases. No Marvel ending (usually) lasts past the credits. Those fans won’t read this review, but “Avengers: Endgame” will, I suspect, offer them gratification and maybe a welcome moment of respite. “Endgame” not only answers the cliffhanger of its predecessor — that puny $300…

NASA’s InSight lander has picked up a gentle rumble at Mars, believed to be the first marsquake ever detected. InSight’s quake monitor recorded and measured the faint signal April 6, and scientists announced the finding. While the rumble sounds like soft wind, scientists believe it came from within the red planet. The Paris Institute of Earth Physics’ Philippe Lognonne, who’s in charge of the experiment, said it’s exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active. Mars is not nearly as geologically active as Earth and, like our moon, lacks tectonic plates. “We’ve been waiting months for a signal like this,” Lognonne said in a statement. InSight’s lead scientist, Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said this carries out the scientific work begun by…

No need for hymnals in the church pews? Using a mobile phone to put an offering in the collection plate? At many places of worship, technology plays an important role. At Winchester Church of God in Frederick County, for instance, the words to hymns are projected onto a large screen at the front of the sanctuary so the congregation can sing along. For the pastors and others facing the congregation, there is a smaller screen at the back of church that they can use. When it comes to contemporary worship, this is nothing new, says Jeremy Miller, Winchester Church of God’s executive pastor. Hymnals? “We don’t use them,” the 38-year-old said, shaking his head, and haven’t for years. With so many old hymns and new worship songs, it’s impossible to…