Indholdsfortegnelse for #424 i AppleMagazine

With Apple inviting the world’s most prolific developers to an exclusive Media Event in New York City to honor the best iOS apps and games of 2019, we take a closer look at the winners and reminisce on one of the most exciting years in the history of the App Store… NEXT-LEVEL APPS Last month, Apple sent out invites for an exclusive media event to be held on December 2 in New York City. At the time, journalists were speculating whether the Mac Pro and other new devices would be unveiled on the day, but it soon became clear that Tim Cook was ready to take a new approach to honor the top apps of the year. It’s a tradition for the Cupertino company to compile a list of the…

Grants from a robotics education fund have been awarded to 101 New Hampshire schools so far up from 57 last year, the state Department of Education said this week. The grants totaling $522,000 fund the purchase of robotics kits, stipends for coaches, and competition expenses. Schools can still apply. The purpose of the program is to motivate students to pursue educational and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, while building critical life and work-related skills. Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said robotics tournaments combine teambuilding, problem solving, and hands-on high-tech experience. “Funding is still available, and I would encourage any eligible school with a robotics team, or starting one, to apply,” he said. To be eligible, students must attend public, traditional or charter schools; the school must develop a…

DISPLAY ADVANCES PAYING OFF FOR THE MAC AND APPLE TV+ When Apple recently revealed that it would release its long-anticipated 6K-resolution Pro Display XDR on December 10, it was a reminder of how the company continues to push up standards in screen technology. Indeed, Jonny Evans of Computerworld declared that the new monitor “sets the bar for pro displays”. However, Apple’s commitment to innovating in the display space can be traced as far back as the 1980s, with the new display hardly the only recent example. INTRODUCING THE APPLE PRO DISPLAY XDR What actually is the Pro Display XDR? It’s a professional-grade, 32-inch display capable of 6K-resolution output. It’s also the first Apple-branded display since the Apple Thunderbolt Display was discontinued in 2016, but the new monitor is far from…

Two dozen state attorneys general are asking a federal agency to implement better online protections for children. The bipartisan coalition submitted a letter to the Federal Trade Commission on Monday asking the agency to strengthen the rules surrounding the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13. The letter also asked for enhanced prohibitions on using that information to track children on the internet. “Without modification to the current rule, companies will continue to build profiles on children based on collected data,”Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III said in a statement. “Those profiles will be used to target them for many decades to come.” The letter says that websites and mobile applications often collect personal information from users, ranging from search histories to geological information. The…

Romance Camila Cabello The Cuban American’s second studio album is largely inspired by her relationship with Canadian Shawn Mendes, who she duets with on “Señorita”, the number one U.S. Billboard Hot 100 hit. Elsewhere, the album’s heart-warming and moody material has been compared to the output of such artists as Ariana Grande and The Weeknd. FIVE FACTS: 1. Camila Cabello – full name Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao – was born in Cojímar, Cuba on March 3, 1997. 2. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, formed on the U.S. edition of The X Factor in 2012. 3. Her debut solo single, “Crying in the Club”, was released in 2017. 4. Romance will be supported by The Romance Tour , from May to September 2020.…

Nominations for the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards: Best motion picture, drama: “The Irishman”; “Marriage Story”; “1917”; “Joker”; “The Two Popes.” Best motion picture, musical or comedy: “Dolemite Is My Name”; “Jojo Rabbit”; “Knives Out”; “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood”; “Rocketman.” Best foreign language film: “The Farewell”; “Les Misérables”; “Pain and Glory”; “Parasite.” Best animated motion picture: “Frozen 2”; “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”; “The Lion King”; “Missing Link”; “Toy Story 4.” Best actress in a motion picture, drama: Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet”; Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story”; Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”; Charlize Theron, “Bombshell”; Renée Zellweger, “Judy.” Best actor in a motion picture, drama: Christian Bale, “Ford v Ferrari”; Antonio Banderas, “Pain and Glory”; Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”; Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”; Jonathan Pryce, “The Two Popes.”…

One Kreps brother uses a wheelchair and the other doesn’t, yet they are able to play sports together on a level playing field thanks to an augmented reality system developed at the University of Michigan. The technology, called iGYM, allows people with mobility disabilities and their non-disabled peers to exercise together in a fun environment. The system carries several games. “This is something that’s kind of neat, where they can both play,”said father Erik Kreps, who brought 10-year-old Darren and 9-year-old Bryan to Ann Arbor on a recent Sunday to use the iGYM system. Bryan, who has a neuromuscular disorder, uses a wheelchair and a walker to help him get around. Both mobility aids are welcome on the court that iGYM projects onto the floor. In one game — a…

For years, Kim Cobb was the Indiana Jones of climate science. The Georgia Tech professor flew to the caves of Borneo to study ancient and current climate conditions. She jetted to a remote South Pacific island to see the effects of warming on coral. Add to that flights to Paris, Rome, Vancouver and elsewhere. All told, in the last three years, she’s flown 29 times to study, meet or talk about global warming. Then Cobb thought about how much her personal actions were contributing to the climate crisis, so she created a spreadsheet. She found that those flights added more than 73,000 pounds of heat-trapping carbon to the air. Now she is about to ground herself, and she is not alone. Some climate scientists and activists are limiting their flying,…

Amazon has signed a lease for a new office space in Manhattan that will house more than 1,500 employees, less than a year after pulling out of a deal for a larger headquarters in the borough of Queens after politicians and activists objected to nearly $3 billion in incentives. The new office almost immediately renewed a debate over whether the tax breaks and other incentives were excessive, given the likelihood that Amazon would continue to expand in New York City regardless because of the city’s large talent pool. The online retail giant received no incentives for its new 335,000-square-foot complex in a building near Hudson Yards, a high-end commercial and residential development on the west side in midtown Manhattan. Amazon said the new office will open in 2021 and will…

Facebook is rebuffing efforts by U.S. Attorney General William Barr to give authorities a way to read encrypted messages. The heads of Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Messenger services told Barr and his U.K. and Australian counterparts that Facebook is moving forward with plans to enable end-to-end encryption on all of its messaging services. End-to-end encryption locks up messages so that not even Facebook can read their contents. WhatsApp already uses end-to-end encryption. Facebook plans to extend that protection to Messenger and Instagram Direct. Barr and other officials had asked the company in October to hold off. In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they insisted that precluding access by law enforcement could hinder efforts to prevent or investigate crimes. The letter repeatedly emphasized the dangers of child sexual exploitation to…

Santa Claus House operations manager Paul Brown says that the business is almost like an “Alaska house.” “You know, in Alaska, as you have a new kid, you just add a bedroom to the house?” Brown said during a recent interview with the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. “That’s kind of the story of Santa Claus House. Eventually it will just be this huge giant building with all different rooms coming off it.” Brown was referring to the 2018 renovation of the North Pole business, which saw its retail space double in size as part of the largest refurbishment the store has seen since the 1970s. Brown has been working at the Santa Claus House for about 20 years. “I worked my way up to management,” he said. “I actually married into…

Would you like to ride in Eddie Redmayne’s beautiful balloon? Tom Harper’s “The Aeronauts,” starring Felicity Jones and Redmayne, is loosely based on a record-setting 19th century balloon expedition into the atmosphere. On Sept. 5, 1862, James Glaisher (Redmayne) took off from London with the aim to ascend higher into the firmament than anyone had before in a balloon floated by coal gas. Hot air balloons haven’t often been the favored modus of flight in movies. They have historically rated somewhere in between blimps and feathered bird suits. Since “The Wizard of Oz,” it’s been mostly losing air, save for the occasional cameo: the aloft opening of Tarkovsky’s “Andrei Rublev” (1966), the harrowing runaway balloon of the Ian McEwan adaptation “Enduring Love” (1997). But Harper, the British director of one…

Netflix says that 26.4 million households worldwide watched “The Irishman” in its first week of streaming. That figure includes those who watched at least 70% of Martin Scorsese’s 3 1/2 hour crime epic.Netflix selectively announces viewership for its films and series, and they aren’t substantiated by third-party data firms. Nielsen last week estimated that “The Irishman” had an average viewership of 13.2 million in its first five days in the U.S. About one in five viewers watched the film in its entirety over its first day of streaming on Nov. 27, Nielsen said. If Netflix’s figures are accurate, that would make “The Irishman” one of this year’s most widely watched Oscar contenders. The film, made for about $160 million, played exclusively in theaters for about three weeks, but the largest…

Three men were charged with running a cryptocurrency mining operation that officials labeled a “high-tech Ponzi scheme” that bilked investors out of $722 million, federal officials announced Tuesday. Matthew Goettsche, 37, was arrested Tuesday in Colorado, while Jobadiah Weeks, 38, was taken into custody in Florida and Joseph Abel, 49, was arrested in California, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. It wasn’t immediately clear whether they had attorneys who could speak for them. According to federal prosecutors, the men ran a business called BitClub Network from April 2014 through this month that promised earnings to investors who bought shares in its supposed cyrptocurrency mining pool. Mining involves using computers to solve mathematical problems in order to record virtual currency transactions. Miners receive cryptocurrency for their work. But the earnings reported…

Information technology problems at the U.S. Census Bureau have been fixed or are in the process of being remedied, despite recent reports raising concerns about the bureau’s preparedness for the 2020 Census, the agency’s director said. Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham said in a brief interview with The Associated Press during a visit in Florida that the agency’s IT systems are undergoing “some tremendous testing.” “There were some previous reports ... that have been overcome by events in that we have made the progress needed in remedying them,” Dillingham said while visiting Orlando City Hall. Dillingham was in Florida to promote the Census Bureau’s efforts to recruit and hire as many as 500,000 temporary workers for next spring’s 2020 Census. The once-a-decade head count is the largest peacetime operation by…

Social media companies are failing to stop manipulated activity, according to a report by NATO-affiliated researchers who said they were easily able to buy tens of thousands of likes, comments and views on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Most of the phony accounts and the activity they engaged in remained online weeks later, even after researchers at the NATO Strategic Command Centre of Excellence flagged them up as fake. The center, an independent group based in Latvia that advises the military alliance, said the findings contrast with statements from tech companies that say they’ve been working harder on stamping out manipulation. “Overall social media companies are experiencing significant challenges in countering the malicious use of their platforms,” the report said. Online manipulation emerged as a major issue for tech companies…

Tired of San Francisco streets being used as a testing ground for the latest delivery technology and transportation apps, city leaders are now requiring businesses to get permits before trying out new high-tech ideas in public. Supporters of the legislation, which the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved this week, say it is the first of its kind in the U.S. They say it’s long overdue in a city that’s a hub for major tech companies but is more accustomed to reacting to the sudden arrival of new technology — such as when hundreds of dockless electric scooters appeared overnight last year. The e-scooter trend has led to complaints from people in cities across the country. The tech industry has showered San Francisco with high-paying jobs and cemented its reputation as…

Abominable (2019) The discovery by mischievous friends Yi, Jin, and Peng of a young yeti on their apartment roof leads them to embark on a thrilling journey to bring the magical creature back to his family. However, to do so, they have to stay a step ahead of a wealthy financier and a determined zoologist seeking to capture the beast for their own gain. FIVE FACTS: 1. Abominable is a computer-animated adventure film written and directed by Jill Culton, and co-directed by Todd Wilderman. 2. The movie stars the voices of Chloe Bennet as Yi, Albert Tsai as Peng, and Tenzing Norgay Trainor as Jin. 3. The English stand-up comic and actor Eddie Izzard also features, as the voice of Burnish, the wealthy head of Burnish Industries who wants to…

The Golden Globe TV nominations were most striking not for what they included, but what they didn’t: The traditional broadcast networks were completely shut out in all 55 nominations. It was a crowning moment for Netflix, and not just for the jeweled one on Queen Elizabeth’s head. The streaming service, which dominated the Globe nominations overall, edged out HBO to win the most TV nods. Netflix got 17 TV nods, to go with its 17 on the movie side. HBO was a close successor at 15. Two Netflix shows got four nods: “The Crown,” in its new Olivia Colman incarnation, in the drama category, and “Unbelievable” in the limited series category, tying with HBO’s “Chernobyl.” The shutout, believed to be for the first time, of the broadcast networks — ABC,…

New results from the largest long-term study of brain development and children’s health raise provocative questions about obesity and brain function. Does excess body weight somehow reduce brain regions that regulate planning and impulse control? Is obesity a result of that brain difference? Or are eating habits, lifestyle, family circumstances and genetics to blame? Previous studies in children and adults have had conflicting results. The new research doesn’t settle the matter and outside experts cautioned that misinterpreting it could unfairly perpetuate weight stigma. But an editorial published with the study this week in JAMA Pediatrics called it an important addition to mounting evidence of a link between weight, brain structure and mental function. If follow-up research confirms the findings, it could lead to new ways to prevent obesity that target…

SpaceX made an early holiday delivery to the International Space Station last weekend, bringing muscle-bound “mighty mice,” pest-killing worms and a smart, empathetic robot. The station commander, Italy’s Luca Parmitano, used a large robot arm to grab onto the Dragon three days after its launch from Cape Canaveral. The two spacecraft soared 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the South Pacific at the time of capture. “Whenever we welcome a new vehicle on board, we take on board also a little bit of the soul of everybody that contributed to the project, so welcome on board,” Parmitano told Mission Control. It marks the third visit for this recycled Dragon. Flight controllers quickly secured the capsule to the orbiting lab, paving the way for the hatch to open and the unloading to…

Global concerns about climate change are not stopping General Motors from making large SUVs for U.S. drivers. GM on Tuesday rolled out the next generation of its big truck-based SUVs with more space and features. They’re also heavier with only a small improvement in gas mileage. The 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban will come out in the middle of next year. They’ll be longer and weigh more, because customer research showed a need for more interior space. “People wanted a greater ability to haul families and their cargo, so that was the baseline that set our decision-making process,” said Dwight Schoenefeld, lead development engineer on the SUVs. But Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, a Washington environmental group, said GM and other automakers spend billions on advertising to…