Innehållsförteckning för #163 från AppleMagazine

Can a company that didn’t exist five years ago, an upstart with a knack for angering regulators who could close it down, really be worth $40 billion? That is the figure that had investors from Wall Street to Silicon Valley abuzz a day after Uber announced it had received more money from venture capitalists than any private company this year. The investment places a value on the car-service company that is higher than American Airlines or Kraft Foods - a stunning vote of confidence. Or maybe it’s just too optimistic. “It gives me a nosebleed,” says Sam Hamadeh, CEO of PrivCo, a research firm. “You’re being asked to buy on pure speculation.” The cash infusion from investors - $1.2 billion for a small stake - comes at a time when…

Sony’s online PlayStation store was inaccessible to users for part of Monday in the latest possible cyberattack on the electronics and entertainment company. Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo said Monday the problem lasted two hours but has been fixed globally. It said the cause is under investigation, but there is no sign of any material being stolen. Last week, the computer systems of Sony Pictures Entertainment were disrupted by a cyberattack and confidential information including unreleased movies was leaked on the Internet. North Korea was among the suspects, but it has denied responsibility. The FBI is investigating threatening emails sent to some employees of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and trying to identify the person or group responsible. There was no indication of a link between the PlayStation and Sony Pictures incidents.…

iOS #01 - Candy Crush Soda Saga By King.com Limited Category: Games Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #02 - Facebook Messenger By Facebook, Inc. Category: Social Networking Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus. #03 - 2 Cars By Ketchapp Category: Games Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 - Heads Up! By Warner Bros. Category: Games Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #05 - iTunes U By Apple Category: Education Requires…

2014 Forest Hills Drive J. Cole The hip hop star has adopted the address of his childhood home - which he only repurchased this year - for the title of his third studio album. The album itself was produced largely by J. Cole himself, alongside such guest talents as Mark Pitts, DJ Dahi, Organized Noise, Vinylz and Elite, the latter a contributor to many of the artist’s past projects. FIVE FACTS: 1. J. Cole is the stage name of Jermaine Lamarr Cole. 2. Cole was born on January 28, 1985 in a United States Army base in Frankfurt, West Germany. 3. At the age of eight months, he relocated to Fayetteville, North Carolina. 4. He began rapping at the age of 12. 5. He came to prominence with the release…

A Chinese government news portal released a photo Monday of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with a copy of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s book on governance at his desk while hosting a top Internet regulator from China, known for tight censorship. Zuckerberg, who has long sought market access to China, where Facebook is blocked, was quoted by China.com.cn as saying he purchased several copies of Xi’s book so he and colleagues could learn about “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The California-based company did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding the visit to Facebook’s offices by Internet regulator Lu Wei. The gesture, interpreted as an effort by Zuckerberg to court the government, disappointed and angered activists in China, who have long held the social networking company in high regard for its ability to…

RECORD RATINGS EVEN HASTENED DAVID LETTERMAN’S RETIREMENT To say that Brooklyn native Jimmy Fallon has enjoyed a rather successful year would be something of an understatement. The 40-year old only took helm of the NBC’s The Tonight Show after this year’s Winter Olympics, replacing Jay Leno, but he has since enjoyed stellar ratings that have made his channel the go-to late-night destination once more, even potentially contributing to the retirement of a legend. There can be no doubt about David Letterman’s justly celebrated status among talk show hosts. He’s been a familiar sight to American households in late-night slots since Late Night with David Letterman debuted in 1982, and just last year, he surpassed his late friend and mentor, Johnny Carson, to become the longest-serving late-night talk show host in…

THANKSGIVING AND BLACK FRIDAY FIGURES ONLY CONFIRM STATUS QUO We all expected the Thanksgiving and Black Friday period to be overwhelming in many ways, as customers both online and offline scrambled for the best deals. Some of us may have decided to brave the worst of the crowds besieging the physical stores, but for those of us who stuck to shopping online, one thing certainly didn’t change: the continued primacy of iOS, as mobile finally overtook desktops for Thanksgiving browsing. Yes, that’s right: according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, mobile devices were the source of 52.1 per cent of traffic on Thanksgiving - a whopping 22 per cent higher than last year. When you consider that as recently as 2010, a mere 6.5 per cent of traffic was mobile traffic,…

iOS # 01 - Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 By Scott Cawthon Category: Games / Price: $2.99 Requires iOS 5.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #02 - MEGA MAN X By CAPCOM Category: Games / Price: $4.99 Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. #03 - Five Nights at Freddy’s By Scott Cawthon itegory: Games / Price: $2.99 Requires iOS 5.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 - 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. #05 - Monument Valley By ustwo™…

Amazon wants you to make an offer sellers won’t want to refuse. For the first time, the largest U.S. online retailer is letting some third-party sellers offer an option where interested buyers can make an offer on an item lower than the listed price. The seller can then accept, counter or reject the offer. The new service comes in the midst of the busy holiday shopping season, which can account for 20 percent of a retailer’s annual revenue. About 150,000 of the millions of items for sale on Amazon are eligible for the service, but that will expand to more third-party sellers in 2015. It is not available for the items that Amazon sells directly. The eligible products are mainly collectibles, including sports and entertainment collectibles like signed jerseys, posters…

The seven largest school districts in the U.S. are joining more than 50 others to start offering introductory computer science to all their students, the White House said Monday. The school districts encompassing New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Houston and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are committing to offer the course in high school or middle school. While some large districts already have computer electives at limited campuses, all are now pledging to make computer science a standard offering district-wide. The College Board, which runs the Advanced Placement program, is also introducing a new course called AP Computer Science Principles that will launch in the fall of 2016. “While no one is born a computer scientist, becoming a computer scientist isn’t as scary as it sounds,” President Barack Obama…

More than a year after federal regulators issued new privacy rules for kids’ mobile apps, online stores are flooded with cute and silly software programs that quietly collect vast amounts of data on the youngest consumers, including a person’s location and even recordings of their voice, according to privacy researchers and consumer advocates. Whether they pass that information on to retailers or seek parental consent first - as required by law - isn’t entirely clear. But if you don’t want your family tracked online by fast food chains, toy stores or other retailers, your choices are limited: Stick the phone in “airplane mode” to shut off the wireless connection and risk losing functionality, or wade through a developer’s privacy policy to make sure you’re OK with how it works. “Kids…

What’s popular? Facebook has a good gauge based on what people type into the box that says, “What’s on your mind?” On Tuesday the company released top 10 lists for 2014, based on the number of posts, comments, likes, photos and videos shared. AROUND THE WORLD: 1. WORLD CUP 2. EBOLA VIRUS OUTBREAK 3. ELECTIONS IN BRAZIL 4. ROBIN WILLIAMS 5. ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE 6. CONFLICT IN GAZA 7. MALAYSIA AIRLINES 8. SUPER BOWL 9. MICHAEL BROWN/FERGUSON 10. SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS IN THE U.S.: 1. EBOLA VIRUS OUTBREAK 2. ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE 3. ROBIN WILLIAMS 4. SUPER BOWL 5. MICHAEL BROWN & FERGUSON 6. WORLD CUP 7. ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT 8. MIDTERM ELECTIONS 9. MALAYSIA AIRLINES 10. ISIS…

Dolphin Tale 2 If Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.) and teens Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff) and Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) are to prevent tailless dolphin Winter being sent to another facility, they will need to find her a new companion, following the death of her aquarium mate. Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson and Morgan Freeman also star in this involving family drama. FIVE FACTS: 1. Dolphin Tale 2 is the sequel to 2011’s Dolphin Tale. 2. Other actors reprising their roles from the previous film include Juliana Harkavy, Austin Stowell and Austin Highsmith. 3. Lee Karlinsky, Julia Jordan and Bethany Hamilton are among the newcomers to the cast. 4. The movie was written and directed by Charles Martin Smith. 5. It has grossed $52,402,100 worldwide. U2: Films of Innocence 11 of the…

NASA: ‘THERE’S YOUR NEW SPACECRAFT, AMERICA!” NASA s newest space vehicle, Orion, accomplished its first test flight with precision and pizazz Friday, shooting more than 3,600 miles out from Earth for a hyperfast, hot return not seen since the Apollo moon shots. For a space agency still feeling the loss of its shuttles, the four-hour voyage opened a new era of human space exploration, with Mars as the plum. It even brought some rocket engineers to tears. “There’s your new spacecraft, America”, Mission Control’s Rob Navias said as the unmanned Orion capsule came in for a Pacific splashdown after two orbits of Earth. NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts out into the solar system, to Mars and beyond. The next Orion flight, also unmanned, is four years…

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that warehouse workers who fill orders for retail giant Amazon don’t have to be paid for time spent waiting to pass through security checks at the end of their shifts. The unanimous decision is a victory for the growing number of retailers and other companies that routinely screen workers to prevent employee theft. The justices said federal law does not require companies to pay employees for the extra time because it is unrelated to their primary job duties. Some workers at Amazon contractor Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc., claim they wait up to 25 minutes to clear security before they can go home. Amazon has disputed those claims. The Supreme Court reversed a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the screenings…