AppleMagazine #161

PLENTY OF REMOTE CONTROL FUN TO BE HAD We’re big fans of toys - especially ones that make the most of the very latest technology. As Christmas looms and your younger (or perhaps not-so-young) friends and relatives compile their wish lists, or even as you consider what you might want to buy for yourself, all manner of newly-launched toys are appearing on the horizon. One of them is the Sphero Ollie - and we’d like to reassure you that it’s more than just another remote controlled toy. You’d be forgiven for thinking that it was, to be fair. On first spying this curious toy, we must admit that we thought it looked rather unassuming. Of course, many astonishing toys are like that these days, but even so, we found it…

Yahoo will supplant Google’s search engine on Firefox’s Web browser in the U.S., signaling Yahoo’s resolve to regain some of the ground that it has lost in the most lucrative part of the Internet’s ad market. The five-year alliance announced Wednesday will end a decade-old partnership in the U.S. between Google Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation, which oversees the Firefox browser. The tensions between Google and Mozilla had been rising since Google’s introduction of the Chrome browser in 2008 began to undercut Firefox. Google’s current contract with Mozilla expires at the end of this month, opening an opportunity for Yahoo to pounce. Even though Chrome is now more widely used, Firefox still has a loyal audience that makes more than 100 billion worldwide search requests annually. Yahoo is hoping to…

Even casual viewers of online video will appreciate the ability to watch it on a bigscreen TV. For about $100, you can get a great streaming TV device to do that. Or for about a third of that, you can get a pretty good one. Content selection varies, but all offer such basics as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. After trying out 10 streaming devices, I have three recommendations and an honorable mention: AMAZON FIRE TV STICK A “stick” is a cheaper, lightweight version of a regular streaming device, often with poorer performance. That’s not the case with the $39 Fire TV Stick, which is why I’m recommending it over the $99 Fire TV The processor isn’t as powerful, and there isn’t as much working memory. But in my tests, video…

WHAT WE CAN EXPECT FROM WATCHKIT We were all excited about Apple’s longawaited wearable, the simply-titled Watch, when it first broke cover in September. We weren’t even given a precise release date, still only knowing that it will become available to buy at some point early next year. What we do know, though, is that the Apple Watch is worth making a fuss about. Now, the device’s developers’ toolkit - WatchKit - has been launched. WatchKit is all that the already well-established iOS developer community needs in order to create apps for the upcoming wearable - that’s right, they can get to work before it even makes an appearance on store shelves. In announcing WatchKit’s launch, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, said that it was for…

Aereo, an online startup that tried to offer a cheaper alternative to cable TV, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection less than five months after an unfavorable ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The company backed by media mogul Barry Diller allowed people to watch and record broadcast TV online for $8 a month on tablets, phones and other gadgets. Unlike Hulu and other online video services, Aereo offered live streaming of broadcast channels. The Supreme Court ruled this summer that Aereo had been operating like a cable TV company, meaning that unless it paid broadcasters licensing fees, it was in violation of copyright law. Aereo suspended its operations three days later. The company got its start in New York and had expanded to about 10 other metropolitan areas,…

Against the team of hackers, the poor car stood no chance. Meticulously overwhelming its computer networks, the hackers showed that - given time -they would be able to pop the trunk and start the windshield wipers, cut the brakes or lock them up, and even kill the engine. Their motives were not malicious. These hackers worked on behalf of the U.S. military, which along with the auto industry is scrambling to fortify the cyber defenses of commercially available cars before criminals and even terrorists penetrate them. “You’re stepping into a rolling computer now,” said Chris Valasek, who helped catapult car hacking into the public eye when he and a partner revealed last year they had been able to control a 2010 Toyota Prius and 2010 Ford Escape by plugging into…