Innehållsförteckning för #159 från AppleMagazine

Siri, meet Alexa. Amazon is introducing a voice-recognition service called Amazon Echo that comes with a speakerlike wireless device just in time for the holiday shopping season. Responding to voice commands after the “wake word” Alexa, the device offers updates on news and weather and provides hands-free voice control for Amazon services such as Prime Music. It has an accompanying app for tablets and smartphones. Amazon has been expanding its offerings for members of its $99 annual Prime loyalty club and other Amazon shoppers. It launched a smartphone, the Fire, earlier this year, and has offered a set-top video streaming device, a streaming video service, grocery delivery, music streaming and original TV shows such as the critically acclaimed “Transparent” starring Jeffrey Tambor. The Echo, its latest offering, is available by…

Hackers stole 53 million email addresses in addition to customers’ card data, Home Depot said Thursday. The nation’s largest home improvement chain had disclosed the massive, months-long breach of 56 million debit and credit cards in September. Home Depot’s breach surpassed Target’s pre-Christmas 2013 data theft, which compromised 40 million credit and debit cards and hurt sales and profits. Since late last year, Michaels, SuperValu and Neiman Marcus have been among a string of retailers that have also reported breaches, though they were smaller. While shoppers appear to have grown numb to the hacks, the breaches have forcing changes in retailing. Target’s breach pushed banks, retailers and card companies to increase security by speeding the adoption of microchips in U.S. credit and debit cards, which supporters say are more secure.…

iOS #01 - 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. #02 - Spider-Man Unlimited By Gameloft Category: Games Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone #03 - Yik Yak By Yik Yak, LLC Category: Social Networking Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 - Amazing Thief By Ketchapp Category: Games Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #05 - Bicolor…

Maleficent Follow the untold story of the quintessential Disney villainess - played by Angelina Jolie - in this live action reimagining of the 1959 Walt Disney animated classic, Sleeping Beauty. Maleficent zooms in on the elements of the betrayal of the eponymous character - fiercely desiring to protect the moors over which she presides - that turn her pure heart to stone. FIVE FACTS: 1. Principal photography took place between June and October 2012. 2. The film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood in May this year. 3. It has grossed $757,628,891 worldwide. 4. The film was scored by James Newton Howard. 5. The movie’s title song is “Once Upon a Dream”, taken from the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty and covered for Maleficent by Lana Del Rey. The…

Wireless? Bar codes? What’s the best way to pay with your phone? Apple Pay Google Wallet and a few other services use a wireless technology called near-field communication, or NFC. With Apple Pay the phone unlocks automatically when you hold it near the NFC reader on the merchant’s payment system. You’re then prompted to scan your fingerprint to authorize the transaction. Google Wallet isn’t quite as fast, as it requires a passcode. Some big merchants including Wal-Mart, CVS, Rite Aid and 7-Eleven are developing their own systems based on bar codes. Some have even disabled their NFC equipment in the meantime. Their system, CurrentC, is expected to debut next year. For now, bar-code payments tend to be made through apps for specific stores, such as Starbucks. NFC transactions tend to…

BlackBerry, which has completed the first phase of its two-year turnaround plan, is now focused on profitability and will not spread itself thin by attempting to launch too many new devices, its chief executive said. John Chen, who took the reins at the struggling mobile technology company in November 2013, has moved rapidly to try to get the one-time investor darling back on track. The company has sold assets, struck partnerships to lower manufacturing costs and broaden app offerings, and raised cash via the sale of real estate holdings in its hometown of Waterloo, Ontario. “Once we turn this company to profitability again, I will do everything I can to never lose money ever again,” Chen told Reuters in an interview this week. “That is definitely something I am very…

BlackBerry, which has completed the first phase of its two-year turnaround plan, is now focused on profitability and will not spread itself thin by attempting to launch too many new devices, its chief executive said. John Chen, who took the reins at the struggling mobile technology company in November 2013, has moved rapidly to try to get the one-time investor darling back on track. The company has sold assets, struck partnerships to lower manufacturing costs and broaden app offerings, and raised cash via the sale of real estate holdings in its hometown of Waterloo, Ontario. “Once we turn this company to profitability again, I will do everything I can to never lose money ever again,” Chen told Reuters in an interview this week. “That is definitely something I am very…

WHY WE AREN’T ENTERING A NEW ERA OF APPLE MALWARE Over the last week or so, we’ve seen some curious headlines in the world of Apple: those talking in sensationalist tones about a possible new era of Apple malware and viruses. It’s all come about as a result of supposed threats to iOS and OS X called “WireLurker” and “Masque Attack”. Is there much reason for you to panic? As ever, the answer is “no”, but also as ever when it comes to all things Apple, it helps to know the exact reasons why. First of all, if you’re wondering how the Cupertino firm could have possibly lost its reputation of being almost completely imperious to the malware and viruses that have long plagued more ‘open’ platforms, don’t fret -…

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 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #03 - Goblin Sword By Eleftherios Christodoulatos Category: Games / Price: $0.99 Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 - Sleep Cycle alarm clock By Northcube AB Category: Health & Fitness / Price: $0.99 Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for…

The Endless River (Deluxe Edition) Pink Floyd The legendary English progressive rockers Pink Floyd complete their studio discography with The Endless River, the group’s first release since the death of keyboardist and founder member Richard Wright, who features posthumously. Indeed, the album - which mostly consists of ambient and instrumental music - has been described as a “swan song” for Wright. FIVE FACTS: 1. The Endless River is also the third studio album to be released by the David Gilmourled Pink Floyd, following Roger Waters’ 1985 departure. 2. It is based on 20 hours of unreleased material that the band wrote, recorded and produced with Wright during sessions for its previous studio album, 1994’s The Division Bell. 3. Work on the album was completed in 2013 and 2014 in Gilmour’s…

NASA’s biggest test flight in years remains on track for next month, despite last week’s space-related accidents. Officials said Thursday everything looks good for the Dec. 4 launch of NASA’s new Orion capsule. This one will not carry a crew. Future Orions are meant to carry astronauts on missions of deep-space exploration, including, one day, trips to Mars. The spacecraft will blast off atop a Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The four-hour flight will send it on two laps around Earth - and as far as 3,600 miles into space - before parachuting into the Pacific, Apollo style. William Hill, who helps run exploration systems development for NASA, said the test flight systems have nothing in common with either the Orbital Sciences rocket that blew up at liftoff…

SURPRISE NEWS ALSO SEES JOHN LASSETER’S DIRECTORIAL RETURN Do you remember Toy Story, that staggering 1995 box office success that firmly installed the name of the Pixar animation studio in the minds of movie-goers everywhere? Or what about either of its sequels, particularly 2010’s Toy Story 3, which saw the boy at the centre of the saga - Andy - mark his transition from childhood to adulthood by handing his old toys to a young girl, Bonnie? Well, we’re now set to get a fourth addition to the franchise. So seemingly perfect was the ending of Toy Story 3, that few people ever contemplated that the series would make a big screen return. Fair enough, so Woody and Buzz haven’t exactly faded into obscurity, having continued to appear in various…

At the beginning of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare,” the recently released installment in Activision’s blockbuster military shooter franchise, the player is dumped from the sky in a drop pod onto an urban battlefield, smashing into skyscrapers and landing in a futuristic, war-torn rendition of a city that’s rarely depicted in video games: Seoul, South Korea. It’s a “Wizard of Oz” moment for the “Call of Duty” series. The interactive medium has long built digital playgrounds based on real-world locales. However, recent technological leaps, as well as an endless string of games set in ubiquitous locations like New York and Los Angeles, have motivated developers of some of the year’s biggest and most anticipated games to boldly go where they haven’t before. “I think designers are on the lookout for…

Google has signed a long-term lease for part of a historic Navy air base, where it plans to renovate three massive hangars and use them for projects involving aviation, space exploration and robotics. The giant Internet company will pay $1.16 billion in rent over 60 years for the property, which also includes a working air field, golf course and other buildings. The 1,000-acre site is part of the former Moffett Field Naval Air Station on the San Francisco Peninsula. Google plans to invest more than $200 million to refurbish the hangars and add other improvements, including a museum or educational facility that will showcase the history of Moffett and Silicon Valley, according to a NASA statement. The agency said a Google subsidiary called Planetary Ventures LLCwill use the hangars for…

Attempt at your own risk: For an entire week, I left all my cash and credit cards at home to see how well wallet-free mobile services work in the real world. Apple Pay has gotten a lot of attention in recent weeks, but there are lots of other mobilepayment systems. Google Wallet uses a similar wireless technology called NFC, or near-field communication. Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts have apps that generate bar codes for their stores. A phone case called LoopPay mimics the signals produced by card swipes so you can pay with your phone just about anywhere credit cards are accepted - at least in theory. The good news: I didn’t get arrested for failing to pay my debts. But on two occasions, friends had to buy me drinks. Another…

Microsoft is offering free upgraded versions of its Office software for iPhones and iPads, as the software giant further embraces the so-called “freemium” strategy favored by many newer companies seeking success online. Give away a basic version of a popular service, and the world may beat a path to your door and be willing to pay a little more for extras, or so the thinking goes. Microsoft, the longtime king of desktop software, has generally protected its model of getting paid upfront for what it developed. But as the company strives to stay relevant for workers and consumers in an increasingly mobile world - and better compete with Google, Apple and others - it is offering substantial versions of its most popular products free of charge for smartphones and tablets.…