Innehållsförteckning för #175 från AppleMagazine

As a major wireless show continues this week in Barcelona, Spain, Apple is highlighting the capabilities of its iPhone cameras with a gallery of photos taken by its users around the world. Apple’s campaign comes as Samsung unveiled new phones with improved photo-taking capabilities. The two companies have been fierce rivals, and one research firm said Tuesday that Apple bested Samsung as the world’s top smartphone maker in the last three months of 2014. Apple Inc. isn’t at the Mobile World Congress show this week, but is making its presence felt, as new phones are inevitably compared with iPhones. Apple has its own event Monday in San Francisco, where it’s expected to reveal more details about its upcoming smartwatch. Here’s a look at some of the developments at and beyond…

Google will soon be offering cellular network plans in a bid to bridge the gap between the realms of Internet services and mobile device software it dominates. Vice President Sundar Pichai says Google, the leading Internet search engine and mobile software provider, is working with unnamed network operators on developing a cellular plan. “You will see us announce it in the coming months,” he said at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona. “I think we are at a stage where it is important to think about hardware, software and connectability together. “We want to be able to experiment along those lines.” Pichai called Google’s plan to offer cellular services “a project” and insisted that the Internet company isn’t a threat to traditional telephone and Internet service providers. Pichai…

With tens of millions of gamers now regularly spectating video games online and in real-world arenas, game developers looking to create the next “StarCraft” or “League of Legends” might learn a few lessons at this year’s Game Developers Conference. For the first time, the annual gathering of game creators that’s usually centered on polygons and artificial intelligence, was hosting a special summit Tuesday dedicated to competitive gaming - or esports (e-sports), as it’s known. Influential esports figures were scheduled to give talks with such titles as “Legal Issues in Competitive Gaming” and “Building a Sport: The Design Philosophy of league of Legends.’” “We’ve had a few individual esports talks in the past but nothing stand-alone” said Simon Carless, executive vice president at UBM Tech Game Network, which hosts GDC and…

Serena This Susanne Bier directed period drama stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper as newlyweds running a timber business in 1930s North Carolina. George Pemberton (Cooper) struggles to keep his timber empire afloat, his life becoming even more complicated when his wife, Serena (Lawrence) learns that she cannot bear children. FIVE FACTS: 1. Serena is based on Ron Rash’s 2008 novel of the same name. 2. The film was originally to be directed by Darren Aronofsky, with Angelina Jolie as the title character. 3. Lawrence and Cooper got along so well on Silver Linings Playbook that they decided to join forces again on Serena. 4. Filming took place at Barrandov Studios in the Czech Republic from March to May 2012. 5. The movie premiered at the BFI London Film Festival…

Sony plans on putting its virtual-reality headset on consumers’ noggins next year. The gaming and electronics company announced Tuesday at the Game Developers Conference that its VR system nicknamed Project Morpheus will debut in the first half of 2016. Sony Corp. originally unveiled a prototype of the headset at last year’s gathering of video game developers. The headset works in tandem with Sony’s PlayStation 4 console and camera by covering users’ vision and simulating virtual worlds on screen. Sony flaunted an updated version of the VR headset prototype at Tuesday’s event. While it largely resembles the prototype introduced last year, the new version redistributes weight toward the back of the user’s head and features a screen that can slide back and forth to accommodate eyeglasses. The new prototype also features…

Last fall, Apple launched Apple Pay, bringing mobile-payment technology to the iPhone. Samsung now wants to get that on Android phones - at least the ones it makes. The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones announced Sunday will come with mobile-pay capabilities. Samsung’s payment service won’t come until this summer, and will launch only in the U.S. and South Korea at first. Here’s what’s known about Samsung Pay and how it compares with Apple Pay and Google’s own efforts for Android. Q. How does Samsung Pay work? As with Apple Pay, customers will simply tap their phone on a retail store’s payment machine. Apple and Samsung phones use a wireless technology known as near-field communication, or NFC. The payment machine also needs NFC, something many merchants won’t have until this…

VAULTS APPARENTLY BEING BUILT IN APPLE STORES The ever-popular Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has been turning yet more heads recently - as well as pricking a fair few ears. That’s partly because he has been touring Europe, paying a visit to Apple’s Covent Garden retail store in London, as well as heading to Germany to visit Chancellor Angela Merkel. But in the process, he has also been revealing more about one of the most eagerly awaited wearables of all time: the Apple Watch. We’re still a month away from the Watch hitting the shelves - that’ll be in April, following a March 9 launch event - but in the meantime, Apple has been working hard to not only finalize production, but also prepare its sales operation for the onslaught of…

FILM IS A KEY TEST OF SMITH’S STAR POWER Is Will Smith still a grade-A Hollywood star after 2013’s After Earth, the critical and commercial flop in which he starred alongside son Jaden? It’s a question that many industry observers and fans are asking, and if we were going to get an answer to it any time soon, it was always going to be in how his latest effort - the romantic dark comedy Focus -was received. Unfortunately, the answer was inconclusive, with the film topping the box office on lower-than-expected takings. Let’s get the essential facts out of the way first. $19.1 million was enough to make the Glenn Ficarra and John Requa directed effort top dog at the North American box office in its opening weekend. Given his…

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It’s a noticeably moodier Big Sean who greets us from the outset of this, his third studio album, which sees the rapper joined by such guest talents as Kanye West, Chris Brown, Drake, Ty Dollar Sign and John Legend. West was also largely responsible for the album’s production, alongside the likes of DJ Mustard, Vinylz and Mike WiLL Made-It FIVE FACTS: 1. Big Sean is the stage name of Sean Michael Leonard Anderson. 2. He was born in Santa Monica, California on March 25, 1988. 3. His debut album was Finally Famous in 2011. 4. Lead single “I Don’t Fuck With You” topped the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot Rap Songs and Rhythmic charts. 5. According to Samantha O’Connor of Exclaim!, “Big Sean has reached a personal high by…

From the ground in this extreme northern part of Antarctica, spectacularly white and blinding ice seems to extend forever. What can’t be seen is the battle raging thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) below to re-shape Earth. Water is eating away at the Antarctic ice, melting it where it hits the oceans. As the ice sheets slowly thaw, water pours into the sea -130 billion tons of ice (118 billion metric tons) per year for the past decade, according to NASA satellite calculations. That’s the weight of more than 356,000 Empire State Buildings, enough ice melt to fill more than 1.3 million Olympic swimming pools. And the melting is accelerating. In the worst case scenario, Antarctica’s melt could push sea levels up 10 feet (3 meters) worldwide in a century…

Samsung’s new Galaxy smartphones improve in two major areas: design and picture quality. Samsung ramped up its camera technology in last fall’s Galaxy Note 4, and the camera is even better in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge announced Sunday. More importantly the new phones have a more stylish design. I had less than 90 minutes to try out the new phones in controlled settings, so it’s too early for a definitive assessment. But I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far. The phones will start selling in April, at prices not yet determined. DESIGN For years, Samsung phones have had removable backs made of plastic. That allowed for battery replacement, but made the phones look cheap. I’m glad to see the metal frame and glass back in the new…

Hewlett-Packard is buying wireless networking company Aruba Networks for about $2.7 billion, in what amounts to HP’s first major acquisition since its disastrous purchase of a British software company in 2011. Aruba, based in Sunnyvale, California, makes Wi-Fi networking systems for shopping malls, corporate campuses, hotels and universities. Its business has grown as more people are using mobile devices at work, school and elsewhere. Aruba may help HP capitalize on that trend, which has cut into sales of traditional HP products such as desktop computers. The deal also could help HP compete with tech rivals such as Cisco Systems and gain new access to Asian markets, particularly in China. Cisco currently sells about half of all commercial wireless networking gear worldwide, according to UBS analyst Amitabh Passi. He estimates HP…

iOS #01 - Minecraft - Pocket Edition By Mojang Category: Games / Price: $6.99 Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #02 - Trivia Crack (Ad Free) By Etermax Category: Games / Price: $2.99 Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #03 - Heads Up! By Warner Bros. Category: Games / Price: $0.99 Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 - Scholly: Scholarship Search By Scholly, LLC Category: Education / Price: $0.99 Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #05 -…

Skrillex and Diplo release their first album as a duo under the Jack U banner, complete with a lead single — “Take U There” — that features Canadian musician Kiesza. Other guests on the dance and house infused album include Justin Bieber, Missy Elliott, AlunaGeorge and 2 Chainz. FIVE FACTS: 1. Jack Ü formed in 2013, and consists of Mad Decent founder Diplo and OWSLA founder Skrillex. 2. The duo’s debut performance as Jack Ü was at the Mad Decent Block Party in San Diego on September 15 of that year. 3. Diplo has said that Skrillex “was one of the first producers I met when I moved to LA… we just [have] always been really close musically with our ideas.” 4. Kiesza was asked to contribute vocals to “Take…

Ten-year-old Alexis Carey has a rare but intractable form of epilepsy, Dravet Syndrome. The genetic disease causes severe and multiple seizures, which often leave parents guessing if the terror of watching their child seize up will pass or turn fatal. Her Boise, Idaho, family learned that oil extracted from marijuana had helped other children and wanted to see if it would help Alexis too. “Parent to parent, when you’re in a small community and 10 people that you know are all having success, that’s no longer anecdotal,” Clare Carey, her mother, said. “That’s hope.” But Idaho’s stringent marijuana laws do not allow for medicinal use. The family began lobbying lawmakers to decriminalize the oil almost two years ago. Now, they’ve got some legislative backers and an upcoming hearing, as Idaho…