Innehållsförteckning för #160 från AppleMagazine

The largest solar power plant of its type in the world - once promoted as a turning point in green energy - isn’t producing as much energy as planned. One of the reasons is as basic as it gets: The sun isn’t shining as much as expected. Sprawling across roughly 5 square miles of federal desert near the California-Nevada border, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System opened in February with operators saying it would produce enough electricity to power a city of 140,000 homes. So far, however, the plant is producing about half of its expected annual output for 2014, according to calculations by the California Energy Commission. It had been projected to produce its full capacity for 8 hours a day, on average. “Factors such as clouds, jet contrails…

Facebook is once again trying to simplify its privacy policy largely to address criticisms that it’s too complex and lengthy for the average user. Laid out with illustrations into short subsections, the new policy explains what types of information Facebook collects and how it uses the data. The new policy is 70 percent shorter than the old one. Many of the changes are cosmetic, designed to make the policy easier to digest. Still, it helps to go through it to get an idea of all the things Facebook knows about you. Users have until Nov. 20 to comment on the proposed changes or ask questions. A finalized version will take effect soon after that. Here are five things to remember about Facebook’s data policies. LOCATION, LOCATION Facebook only recently began…

Sony’s PlayStation 4 video-game console has built an impressive lead over its competitors. That’s good news for holiday shoppers because it has driven Microsoft and Nintendo to offer more budget-friendly holiday deals on their consoles. Microsoft Corp.’s $350 Xbox One packages have jettisoned the Kinect motion-sensing device, which some gamers didn’t find appealing because it gave them more exercise than they would have liked. Instead, you get a copy of either “Assassin’s Creed Unity” or “Sunset Overdrive.” Meanwhile, Nintendo has a $300 Wii U package with “Super Mario 3D World.” Sony Corp.’s console still costs $400, but you can get “Grand Theft Auto V” updated with better graphics, free with one PS4 Black Friday bundle. Of course, your gaming loved one probably already has the latest console. In that case,…

If I Stay Mia Hall expected her hardest ever decision to be whether to head to Juilliard to chase her musical dreams, or instead be with Adam, her beloved. That changes drastically after what should have been a carefree family drive leaves her fighting for her life. One decision remains for her - one that will decide not just her future, but her ultimate fate. FIVE FACTS: 1. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Gayle Forman. 2. It stars Chloe Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley, Joshua Leonard, Stacy Keach and Aisha Hinds. 3. The movie grossed $78,274,843 worldwide. 4. Music was composed for the film by Heitor Pereira. 5. Previous contenders to play Mia included Dakota Fanning and Emily Browning. 22 Jump Street…

AT & T Mobility, the nation’s second-largest cellular provider, said Friday it’s no longer attaching hidden Internet tracking codes to data transmitted from its users’ smartphones. The practice made it nearly impossible to shield its subscribers’ identities online. The change by AT & T essentially removes a hidden string of letters and numbers that are passed along to websites that a consumer visits. It can be used to track subscribers across the Internet, a lucrative data-mining opportunity for advertisers that could still reveal users’ identities based on their browsing habits. Verizon Wireless, the country’s largest mobile firm, said Friday it still uses this type of tracking, known as super cookies. Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis said business and government customers don’t have the code inserted. There has been no evidence that…

Don’t live your life through a screen. That’s the premise behind HTC’s new Re camera, which aims to let users document all of life’s little moments and actually experience them, too, instead of watching through a viewfinder or a screen. In fact, the Re doesn’t have either - we’ll get to that. The camera, launching Saturday in the U.S., is tiny, waterproof and easy to grip. But, at $199, is it good enough to replace your smartphone or digital camera? HOW IT WORKS Some people asked if it was an asthma inhaler, but the Re is better described as a miniature submarine periscope, about the size of a small candy bar. There’s no need to turn it on. You grab it, and it’s ready to shoot. To take stills of…

RUMORED LARGER DEVICE COULD BE VERY GOOD NEWS Looking at the Apple product range right now, including both the devices presently available and those in the pipeline for the coming months, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there’s not much more the Cupertino firm could do. However, there must certainly is one more product in the offing for early next year, at least if widespread reports are to be believed: an iPad Pro. The most recent October keynote was a big one for all admirers of Apple’s wellestablished tablet, with a lithe iPad Air 2 breaking cover alongside the iPad mini 3. Indeed, the use of the term ‘Air’ mimics the naming conventions applied to the MacBook Air and Pro laptops, which begs the question... will we get a more…

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 - Instagram By Instagram, Inc. Category: Photo & Video Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus. #04 - YouTube By Google, Inc. Category: Photo & Video Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.…

FOUR (Deluxe Edition) One Direction There have been few more exciting pop acts since the turn of the Millennium than One Direction, and on the evidence of this, their fourth studio album, they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. FOUR is undeniably personal fare from the English-Irish boy band, showing off singer-songwriter, R & B and piano-driven rock styles. FIVE FACTS: 1. One Direction first came to prominence on the British televised singing competition The X-Factor in 2010. 2. They subsequently scored hit singles including “What Makes You Beautiful”, “Live While We’re Young” and “Story Of My Life”. 3. The band was proclaimed as Billboard’s Top New Artist of 2012. 4. 2013’s Midnight Memories album made One Direction the first group in the history of the US Billboard 200 to have…

Nokia is back in the fray. Just months after selling its ailing handsets unit to Microsoft, the Finnish company is launching a tablet. The new offering operates Android instead of the Windows software that Nokia adopted on its cellphones when it started a strategic partnership with Microsoft in 2011. The 7.9-inch Nl tablet will first be available in China in the first quarter of 2015 with an approximate price tag of $250, before being introduced to other markets. Sebastian Nystrom from Nokia’s technologies unit said Tuesday that the former global mobile phone leader was “pleased to bring the Nokia brand back into consumers’ hands.” Nokia’s earnings have improved since its $7.2 billion sale of its handset unit to Microsoft. The slimmed-down company has three remaining operations: networks, mapping and software.…

ORIGINAL CAST RETURNS WITH NEW ADDITIONS Calling all aficionados of science fiction action films! Are you still catching your breath after the blockbuster success of the Divergent movie earlier this year? The woman behind the original Divergent trilogy of adventure novels, Veronica Roth, certainly has reason to be pleased with the $288.75 million pulled worldwide by the last flick, and there’s already a sequel on the way. Roth only wrote her debut novel, Divergent, in 2011, but earlier this year came the release of its film adaptation, with Lucy Fisher, Pouya Shabazian and Douglas Wick on production duties, while Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor handled the screenplay. As you might expect, the cast was also pretty formidable, with Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoe Kravitz,…

I never would have considered writing this review on my iPhone if I hadn’t upgraded to Apple’s new operating system, iOS 8. With the free upgrade, typing on the iPhone’s touch keyboard doesn’t seems as tedious, cumbersome or infuriating as it did before, when a rather dim-witted “auto-correct” system would slip in words that made people look illiterate or, even worse, inappropriate. The new “QuickType” keyboard is smart enough to anticipate what you’re typing, such as the next logical word in a phrase. You’re constantly shown three word choices in a gray ribbon above the keyboard. When the right word appears, tapping on it automatically inserts it into the text to save keystrokes. I just avoided 15 by tapping on “automatically” and “keystrokes” when they popped up. If that’s not…

iOS #01 - Five Nights at Freddy’s 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 - 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. #03 - Dirt Trackin’ By Tim Bennett Category: Games / Price: $2.99 Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 - Heads Up! By Warner Bros. Category: Games / Price: $0.99 Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #05 -…

A burst of sunshine in the spring could be just the wakeup call for Europe’s comet lander. Scientists raised hopes Monday that as the Philae lander nears the sun its solar panelpowered battery will recharge, and the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet will send a second round of scientific data back to Earth. Since landing with a bounce on the comet Wednesday Philae has already sent back reams of data that scientists are eagerly examining. But there were fears its mission would be cut short because it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff. Its signal went silent Saturday after its primary battery ran out. Shortly before that happened, the European Space Agency decided to attempt to tilt the lander’s biggest solar panel toward the…

WhatsApp, the globally popular instant messaging system owned by Facebook, has begun using a powerful new encryption program aimed at protecting users’ conversations from unwanted surveillance and snooping. The messaging service, which has 600 million users and is especially popular in Europe and Asia, added the new encryption to its last update for Android smartphones, according to Open Whisper Systems, the San Francisco-based software group that developed the “TextSecure” program with help from U.S. government grants and private funding. Privacy advocates say WhatsApp’s decision to incorporate so-called “end-to-end” encryption will help users communicate without the fear of someone reading their messages. WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum has said he’s deeply committed to user privacy because he grew up in the Soviet Union during the 1980s, when his mother and other adults…