Innehållsförteckning för #168 från AppleMagazine

Hackers supporting Islamic militants took over the Twitter and YouTube accounts of a major U.S. military command Monday, in what the Pentagon called an annoying prank that did not breach military networks or access classified data. The hacker group, calling itself CyberCaliphate, was already under FBI investigation for incursions into the Twitter feeds or websites of media outlets in New Mexico and Maryland, prompting officials to question whether the group has any real affiliation with the Islamic State militants. The U.S. and other partner nations have been launching airstrikes against Islamic State insurgents and locations across Iraq and Syria since last summer. U.S. Central Command Twitter accounts in English and Arabic and the YouTube site were quickly removed from the web by military officials. They said they were working to…

President Barack Obama on Monday proposed strengthening laws against identity theft by requiring notification when consumer information is hacked and protecting students’ private data. Obama also called for more free access to all consumer credit rating services. While customers can get annual credit reports free once a year, FICO credit scores typically cost money to obtain, although some banks have been offering them free to customers. Obama applauded those companies for offering the service and called on more to do so. He said a credit score “is like an early warning system telling you that you’ve been hit by fraud so you can deal with it fast.” Obama said identity theft is a growing problem that costs billions of dollars and can “turn your life upside down.” He said the…

The North American International Auto Show begins this week in Detroit with media and industry previews. It opens to the public Jan. 17. Here are some of the new cars and experimental concept vehicles unveiled at the show: HYUNDAI SANTA CRUZ CONCEPT: It’s a crossover in front and a pickup truck in back. Hyundai surprised the auto show with the Santa Cruz, which brought to mind niche vehicles of the past like the Subaru Baja. The Korean automaker thinks the Santa Cruz will appeal to “urban adventurers” and women who occasionally haul stuff but don’t need the capability of a pickup truck. The four-door concept seats five; the bed can expand to the size of a midsize pickup if needed. Under the hood is a 2.0-liter turbocharged diesel with 190…

Gone Girl This drama, based on the Gillian Flynn novel of the same name and directed by David Fincher, sees Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) report his beautiful wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) missing on their fifth wedding anniversary. A media frenzy and legal pressure ensue, as the question arises of whether Dunne may actually be his wife’s killer. FIVE FACTS: 1. Flynn’s Gone Girl novel was published in June 2012. 2. It soon made the New York Times Best Seller list. 3. Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry and Carrie Coon also star in the film adaptation. 4. The film’s world premiere was at the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014. 5. The movie attracted four Golden Globe nominations. Lucy French director Luc Besson continues his visionary streak established…

A shipment of much-needed groceries and belated Christmas presents finally arrived Monday morning at the International Space Station. The SpaceX company’s supply ship, Dragon, pulled up at the orbiting lab two days after its liftoff from Florida. Station commander Butch Wilmore used a robot arm to grab the capsule and its 5,000 pounds of cargo, as the craft soared more than 260 miles above the Mediterranean. The space station’s six astronauts were getting a little low on supplies. That’s because the previous supply ship - owned by another company - was destroyed in an October launch explosion. NASA scrambled to get equipment lost in the blast aboard Dragon, as did school children who rustled up new science projects. Then Dragon was stalled a month by rocket snags; it should have…

A New Delhi court charged an Uber cab driver on Tuesday with rape, kidnapping and criminal intimidation in a case that has renewed a national fury over chronic sexual violence in India. Authorities are still investigating whether Uber should also be charged. Judge Kaveri Baweja ordered the case to begin Thursday in a special fast-track court set up in 2013 to bypass India’s lumbering judicial system. The 32-year-old suspect, Shiv Kumar Yadav, entered a plea of innocence. He has been in custody since a 25-year-old woman filed a police complaint alleging he assaulted her after she hired him for a ride home on Dec. 5 Authorities, meanwhile, were still investigating the possibility of criminal charges against the company for allegedly misrepresenting the safety of its service, police official Brijendra Kumar…

Despite some glimmers of recovery, the personal computer industry is still struggling with declining sales, according to two market reports issued Monday that show global PC shipments fell in 2014 for the third year in a row. One research firm, Gartner, estimated shipments actually increased 1 percent in the fourth quarter. Using different methods, a second firm calculated that shipments fell 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter, but that’s not as bad as the 4.8 percent decline that researchers at International Data Corp. had forecast for the period. “There is improvement in demand,” said Jay Chou, a senior researcher at IDC, although he added that 2014 was “still another difficult year” for the PC industry. Sales actually improved for several of the world’s biggest computer-makers, including Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Dell,…

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Title (Deluxe) Meghan Trainor How do you follow up one of the biggest singles of all time, the criminally infectious “All About That Bass”? Well, by releasing an album that lives up to the hype, that’s how. The 21-year old is making all of the right moves at the moment with her much-admired brand of traditional bubblegum pop and lyrics focusing on female empowerment. FIVE FACTS: 1. Meghan Elizabeth Trainor was born on December 22, 1993 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. 2. She began singing at 6 years old and songwriting at age 11. 3. Trainor is also an alumna of the Berklee College of Music. 4. “All About That Bass” topped the charts in 58 countries and spent eight nonconsecutive weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. 5.…

It’s not just about how many steps you’ve taken or how many calories you’ve burned in a day. Wearable fitness trackers and health monitors are becoming more commonplace and diverse, but just what do you do with all of that data? “We have a lot of people buy wearables and then stop using them,” said Paul Landau, president of Fitbug, a British maker of fitness trackers. Landau attended the International CES gadget show in Las Vegas last week, promoting a series of 12-week fitness coaching programs that offer detailed and custom recommendations for getting in shape. “If you want to help people,” said Landau, “they’ve got to have more than just self-tracking.” Health monitors aren’t just for fitness buffs. Startups and big tech companies at the gadget show promoted all…

THE WIDER IMPACT OF THE APP STORE As a humble Apple customer, you might imagine the App Store and iTunes Store to simply be a treasure trove of media - games, ebooks, apps, music and so much more. These stores have both become so central to the lives of the modern tech fan, that it should barely surprise you to hear of Apple’s announcement that a new record for billings from the App Store was set during the first week of the year. Apple was understandably keen to trumpet its latest impressive set of statistics, declaring that January’s first week saw almost half a billion dollars of expenditure on iOS apps and in-app purchases. Indeed, New Year’s Day 2015 was the biggest sales day ever for the App Store. Such…

ALL OF THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SHOW FLOOR Ah, but you couldn’t possibly have expected the technology world to die down for a little while after Christmas, surely? Yes, you may have barely got rid of the last remaining wrapping paper from your brand-spanking-new smartphone, tablet, PC or other device, but technology never sleeps, and the same has to be said of the wider consumer electronics world, as shown by the impact ofCES2015. The Consumer Electronics Show or International CES has been held since June 1967, and once took place twice a year. Now, it’s just the one date that you need to put in your diary, January, and there’s just the one venue to remember every year - the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada. We wouldn’t recommend turning…

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As exhibitors at the International CES showcase for consumer electronics packed up their booths last week, workers were just getting started recycling what was left behind. Convention-goer badges become room keys, vinyl banners get a new life as ice-skating rink covers or shade tarps and massive magnetic signs affixed to the convention center are ground up and made into new magnets, for example. CES boasted more than 2.2 million square feet of exhibits and 160,000 attendees at the weeklong event. Considered North America’s largest trade show, the event is contracted to return to Las Vegas in 2016 and 2017, and space is reserved through 2025, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Jeff Chase, vice president of sustainability for Freeman - the show’s hired coordinator - said it’s…

Amazon Studios is delivering Woody Allen as creator of his first-ever TV series. The Oscar-winning filmmaker will write and direct all of the episodes of the half-hour series. A full season has been ordered for Amazon’s Prime Instant Video, the company announced Tuesday. The series is expected to premiere in 2016. No details on casting were disclosed, nor was the series title announced. Amazon Studios vice president Roy Price called Allen “a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all time,” keeping him “at the creative forefront of American cinema” during a career that spans 50 years. “I don’t know how I got into this,” the 79-year-old Allen said in a wryly modest statement. “I have no ideas and I’m not sure where to begin. My…