Innehållsförteckning för #138 från AppleMagazine

The 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo wasn't as dramatic as last year's, when Sony and Microsoft were battling for attention in advance of the fall debuts of their new game consoles, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This year, the focus was on new games to play on those machines, so those of us who attended E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center this week had a lot more fun. And the competition is far from over. Here are some winners and losers from the video-game industry's biggest convention. - PLAYSTATION VS. XBOX: Consumers have bought a few million more PS4s than Xbox Ones, but that doesn't mean Sony can rest on its laurels. Upcoming PS4 games include the steampunk thriller "The Order: 1886," new installments of the popular "Uncharted" and…

When AwesomenessTV launched as a YouTube channel two years ago, it was a bet by veteran TV and movie producer Brian Robbins on the ability of teen and tween audiences to find videos they love to watch online. On Monday Robbins kicks off DreamWorks TV, another YouTube channel that represents one of the first attempts by Hollywood to mesh the polished look of movies with the chaos of content on the Internet. The channel is aimed at 6 to 11 year olds and will have a mix of videos featuring characters familiar to DreamWorks Animation audiences - like "Shrek" and Po from "Kung Fu Panda" - alongside those who haven't yet made it big - like cardboard cut-out news anchors from "The Report Card." The hope is that kids who…

iOS #01 – Heads Up! By Warner Bros. Category: Games Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #02 – Minecraft – Pocket Edition By Mojang Category: Games Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #03 – Blek By Denis Mikan Category: Games / Price: $2.99 Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 – Afterlight By Simon Filip Category: Photo & Video Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #05 – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 By Gameloft Category: Games / Price: $4.99…

In the Lonely Hour (Deluxe Version) Sam Smith British singer-songwriter Sam Smith has been a breath of fresh air in pop, soul and R&B, having come to prominence on garage-house duo Disclosure's UK and US top 20 hit/latch". He has since won both the 2014 BRIT Critics' Choice Award and BBC Sound of 2014 poll, and now comes his debut studio album, In the Lonely Hour, which centers on the theme of unrequited love. FIVE FACTS: l. “Lay Me Down","Money on My Mind"and "Stay with Me" have all been released as singles from the album. 2. Smith has described the album's overall theme as "sad". 3. Of the album's title, he has added: "People are saying/Oh but it's too sad', but that's what it's about. I was sad and I…

Facebook is taking another stab at ephemeral mobile messaging with an app called Slingshot. The app is designed to appeal to fans of Snapchat and other messaging apps that let people send self-destructing messages to friends. Slingshot draws inevitable comparisons to Snapchat. Facebook even tried to buy Snapchat's maker - for $3 billion, according to published reports. But there are some key differences between the two. -AVAILABILITY: Facebook began making Slingshot available Tuesday to U.S. users, though the company accidentally released it last week in Apple's app store, giving some vigilant Facebook watchers an early glimpse before the app was removed from the store. Slingshot works with both Apple and Android devices. A Facebook account isn't required. -HOW IT WORKS: After downloading, you can sign up either with a Facebook…

Companies had not been allowed to make use of images where features smaller than 50cm were visible. But one imaging firm, Digital Globe, said it would be able to sell images that showed features as small as 31cm. One lawyer told the BBC he expected "repercussions" from people worried about their privacy. Marc Dautlich, from Pinsent Masons, said there may be "national security considerations" to address as well. Currently, some sensitive locations around the world are obscured or blurred on mapping websites. The decision was made after Digital Globe applied to the US Department of Commerce asking for restrictions to be lifted. 'MANHOLES AND MAILBOXES' Digital Globe said new satellites would be launched to take advantage of the ruling. The company's Worldview-3 satellite is due to launch in August and…

...AND SO MANY OF THE GADGETS THAT CAN HELP If you asked the random person in the street some 10 or 15 years ago about the latest in technology, this being the pre-smartphone (and certainly pre-iPhone) age, they might have been much more likely than now to cite in-car satellite navigation systems. In the year 2014, it wouldn't exactly be right to suggest that such systems have bitten the dust, but they have certainly evolved, now often coming in the form of an app on the aforementioned mobile handset. Head to the iOS App Store and click 'Navigation' among the list of categories, and you'll be presented with all manner of relevant apps for getting you on your way somewhere, from popular free apps like Google Maps, Waze Social GPS,…

INTEROPERABILITY FEATURES, iCLOUD DRIVE AND SO MUCH MORE The annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) didn't disappoint in 2014. Sure, we didn't get that eagerly awaited iWatch, Apple TV or even a new iPhone or iPad, but what we did get might just make a bigger difference to your Apple experience over the next year or so. Major software announcements were made at this year's keynote, launching both iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. With the former iDevice platform having been covered in these parts previously, we thought we'd give the latter Mac operating system a similar 'closer look'. There's certainly a lot to talk about, from a refreshed design language and the integration of iOS 8 to the Swift programming language and iCIoud Drive, each of which we suspect will…

Like the deep-sea craft James Cameron used to dive nearly seven miles down in the Pacific, the long-awaited screenplays for his three sequels to "Avatar" will soon pop to the surface, probably within weeks. Mr. Cameron, an avid adventurer as well as one of Hollywood's most successful directors, has been working for much of the last several years on the "Avatar" films, when he was not indulging his other passion and exploring the deepest parts of the ocean. Forthose who share Mr. Cameron's moviemaking adventures — particularly executives at 20th Century Fox, which released "Avatar" to about $2.8 billion in worldwide ticket sales almost five years ago — delivery of finished scripts will signal the beginning of perhaps their grandest enterprise. Fox, as well as Mr. Cameron and his cohorts…

Apple has reached a settlement on the damages owed to consumers for orchestrating a scheme to drive up the prices of digital books. Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed in a document filed late Monday. More details will emerge in a filing due by July 16 in a New York federal court. Lawyers representing consumers across the country had been seeking up to $840 million in damages. A trial on the damages claims had been scheduled to begin Aug. 25 in New York. In another trial last year, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled that the iPad and iPhone maker colluded with several major publishers to boost electronic book prices from April 2010 to May 2012. Apple Inc. has appealed Cote's decision. The Cupertino, California, company has steadfastly contended that…

The U.K.'s electronic spy agency is legally allowed to track the online activities of millions of Britons who use U.S-based platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google, Britain's top counterterrorism official has said. In a witness statement made public Tuesday, Office for Security and Counterterrorism chief Charles Farr said data sent on those services is classed as "external" rather than "internar communications because the companies' servers are based outside Britain. Amnesty International said that amounted to "industrial-scale intrusion," but Farr said this did not amount to mass surveillance because the vast majority of messages intercepted in this way are not read. The distinction between external and internal interactions is significant because Britain's electronic intelligence agency, GCHQ, has broad powers to intercept communications outside the country, but needs a warrant and…

The Obama administration has brought unprecedented criminal charges against five officials in the Chinese military for hacking into private U.S. companies' systems and stealing trade secrets. It was the first time the U.S. has revealed any evidence the Chinese government was going after American companies' private information for economic gain. Q. What happened? A. A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh charged five Chinese military officials with hacking into six U.S. companies' systems, conducting economic espionage and stealing trade secrets. The targeted companies are leaders in the nation's nuclear power, metals and solar products industries: Alcoa World Alumina, the nation's largest producer of aluminum; Westinghouse Electric Co., one of the world's leaders in the development of nuclear power technology; Allegheny Technologies, a large metals company; U.S. Steel Corp., the largest steel…

iOS #01 – FIFA Official App By FIFA Category: Sports Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #02 – Angry Birds Epic By Rovio Entertainment Ltd Category: Games Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #03 – Guess The Emoji : Emoji Pops By Conversion, LLC Category: Games Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #04 – WatchESPN By ESPN Category: Sports Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. #05 – TwoDots By Betaworks One Category: Games Requires iOS 6.1 or later.…

The LEGO Movie There has never before been a full-length theatrical movie dedicated to those knobbly bricks we all love so much, but now it's finally here - and was well worth the wait. The ordinary, rules-following LEGO mini figure Emmet is inexplicably identified as the savior of the world, and subsequently drafted, unprepared, into a fellowship of strangers intent on stopping an evil tyrant - with hilarious results. FIVE FACTS: 1. The film's many voice talents include Chris Pratt, Will Ferreilf Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett and NickOfferman. 2. The Los Angeles Times described The LEGO Movie as receiving "nearly unanimous positive reviews”. 3. The film has grossed a total of $466,644,435 worldwide. 4. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the original score. 5. Co-director Christopher Miller has said that the look of…

YouTube will launch a new subscription music service, the company acknowledged Tuesday after being dragged into a public dispute over royalties that will result in the blockade of some independent artists' music videos. The Google Inc.-owned video site said in a statement that it is "adding subscriptionbased features for music on YouTube" and that "hundreds of major label and independent artists" have signed on. The paid service - to be launched within a few months - will likely allow playback of videos without ads and allow for offline playback on mobile devices. That's according to two people familiar with the matter. The people weren't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The people also confirmed that a small number of independent artists who had not agreed to…

U.S. wireless carrier AT&T is expected to exclusively sell Amazon's much expected smartphone that will be unveiled Wednesday at an event in Seattle. The arrangement, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal, is not surprising considering that AT&T already provides wireless services to other Amazon devices, such as the Kindle tablets and e-readers.AMazon is expected to unveil a smartphone that could very well shake up the mobile device market, with its reported 3D imaging technology. Apple had a similar arrangement with AT&T in 2007 when it was launching the iPhone, which lasted more than three years giving the carrier a crucial advantage over rival Verizon. The deal will also help AT&T increase its subscriber base, as it is in an intense battle with Verizon and could expect increased competition…