Innehållsförteckning för #261 från AppleMagazine

AT&T and Time Warner are playing up how their $85.4 billion merger will lead to innovative new experiences for customers. But analysts, public-interest groups and some politicians are far from convinced. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said it should be killed. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, said less concentration in media “is generally helpful.” And the Republican chairman and Democratic ranking member of the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee said that the deal would “potentially raise significant antitrust issues.” The potential harm to consumers from this deal could be subtle - far more so than if AT&T were simply acquiring a direct competitor like a big wireless or home broadband company. Time Warner makes TV shows and movies; AT&T gets that video to customers’ computers, phones and TVs. But the…

After stumbling in 2016, Apple is betting on a better year ahead. The Silicon Valley tech giant is forecasting a return to growth in iPhone sales this winter, after a rare slump that dropped a wet blanket on Apple’s revenue and stock performance over the last three quarters. The company is also set to unveil new Mac computers later this week, hoping to boost lagging interest in a set of products that are symbolically significant even if they’re less financially important to the company than the iPhone. Apple has been struggling with shrinking demand for its signature products at a time when analysts say it’s increasingly difficult for tech companies to come up with dramatically new features. Many consumers are holding onto their old smartphones and PCs for longer, seeing…

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange first outlined the hypothesis nearly a decade ago: Can total transparency defeat an entrenched group of insiders? “Consider what would happen,” Assange wrote in 2006, if one of America’s two major parties had their emails, faxes, campaign briefings, internal polls and donor data all exposed to public scrutiny. “They would immediately fall into an organizational stupor,” he predicted, “and lose to the other.” A decade later, various organs of the Democratic Party have been hacked; several staffers have resigned and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has seen the inner workings of her campaign exposed to the public, including disclosures calling into question her positions on trade and Wall Street and her relationship with the party’s left . Many of these emails have been released into the…

“Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween” outmuscled the Tom Cruise vehicle “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” at the box office this weekend. Perry’s film netted $28.5 million - slightly higher than initial projections, while the “Jack Reacher” sequel came in slightly lower with $22.9 million, according to studio actuals Monday. The horror pic “Ouija: Origin of Evil” opened in third with $14.1 million. Rounding out the top five were the adult thrillers “The Accountant” with $13.6 million and “The Girl on the Train” with $7.2 million. In limited release, the highly praised indie “Moonlight,” expected to be a significant awards contender this year, got off to a sparkling start earning $402,075 from just four theaters. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution…

Google’s parent company is halting operations and laying off staff in a number of cities where it once hoped to bring high-speed internet access by installing new fiber-optic networks. The company also announced that Craig Barratt, a veteran tech executive who led the ambitious - and expensive - Google Fiber program, is stepping down. In a statement, Barratt said Google Fiber will continue to provide service in a handful of cities where it’s already operating. But it will put further plans on hold in at least eight more metropolitan areas where it’s been holding exploratory talks with local officials. Those include Dallas; Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida; Los Angeles; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; and San Jose, California. Barratt didn’t say how many jobs will be cut.…

Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Barack Obama’s health care law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration confirmed Monday. That’s sure to stoke another “Obamacare” controversy days before a presidential election. Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Some states will see much bigger jumps, others less. Moreover, about 1 in 5 consumers will only have plans from a single insurer to pick from, after major national carriers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna scaled back their roles. “Consumers will be faced this year with not only big…

The top executive overseeing connected vehicles at Nissan and Renault believes the benefits of developing a common technology for connectivity within the Japanese and French auto partnership outweigh the risks of sustaining huge damage from a possible defect or cyberattack. Ogi Redzic, senior vice president at the Renault-Nissan Alliance, oversees such connected services, including staying connected with family, navigating best routes and remote control of vehicles - an area where all the world’s automakers are trying to gain an edge. Redzic, formerly of Motorola and Nokia, was tapped for the post at the alliance earlier this year. He told reporters Tuesday at Nissan’s Yokohama headquarters that the alliance has begun hiring 300 people to build such software applications for future cars, in addition to 300 employees at Nissan Motor Co.…

AT&T is following in the footsteps of its rival Comcast in snapping up its own entertainment conglomerate - in this case, Time Warner. But what’s happened in the aftermath of Comcast’s 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal may cast a shadow over AT&T’s deal. Like that earlier transaction, the $85.4 billion combination of AT&T and Time Warner would create a giant new company that not only produces movies, TV shows and sports and news programming but also delivers them to viewers. Time Warner owns popular channels like HBO, CNN, TNT and TBS, plus Warner Bros. movies such as the Harry Potter and DC Comics superhero franchises, while AT&T has its mobile network and its DirecTV service. AT&T says it is looking for ways to provide innovative new services, which means leveraging Time…

Could millions of connected cameras, thermostats and kids’ toys bring the internet to its knees? It’s beginning to look that way. On Friday (21), epic cyberattacks crippled a major internet firm, repeatedly disrupting the availability of popular websites across the United States. The hacker group claiming responsibility says that the day’s antics were just a dry run and that it has its sights set on a much bigger target. And the attackers now have a secret weapon in the increasing array of internet-enabled household devices they can subvert and use to wreak havoc. MEET THE FIRE HOSE Manchester, New Hampshire-based Dyn Inc. said its server infrastructure was hit by distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks. These work by overwhelming targeted machines with junk data traffic - sort of like knocking someone…

Finding Dory When Dory recalls a childhood memory about “the jewel of Morro Bay, California”, she sets out on a journey with Marlin and Nemo to find her parents. FIVE FACTS: 1. Finding Dory is directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, with co-direction by Angus MacLane. 2. Hank the Octopus has only seven tentacles because of an oversight during the design period. When Pixar tried to attach the eighth tentacle to his body, it wouldn’t fit, so instead, the studio left the number at seven and worked it into the story. 3. Nemo from the original Finding Nemo film was recast because the original voice actor, Alexander Gould, is now 22 years old. The new voice of Nemo is provided by 12-year old Hayden Rolence. 4. Finding Dory had a…

Microsoft’s focus on business software and online services paid off with a surprisingly high profit in its latest quarter, putting its stock on a trajectory toward its all-time high. The fiscal first-quarter results provided further validation for the strategy that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been pursuing since he took over the reins 2 1/2 years ago. Investors were so impressed with Microsoft’s progress in the quarter that the company’s stock surged 6 percent to $60.68 in extended trading after the report came out. If the shares trade similarly during Friday’s regular trading session, they will surpass their previous split-adjusted high of $59.97 reached in December 1999 near the height of the dot-com boom and just before co-founder Bill Gates turned his CEO job over to his longtime friend, Steve…

A massive internet attack that paralyzed Twitter, Netflix and other services is being blamed on a specific kind of malware designed to harness the power of ordinary consumer devices. The bad news: Using it isn’t particularly hard and doesn’t require much money. The malware, known as Mirai, was recently posted online for others to adapt for their own attacks. Researchers say Mirai exploited security vulnerabilities in thousands of internet-connected devices such as web cameras, then used those devices to attack a major internet firm, resulting in widespread outages. Researchers say Mirai has been used before, but not on the scale of Friday’s attacks. Here’s a look at Mirai and what makes it so destructive. WHAT HAPPENED? Dyn Inc., an internet company in Manchester, New Hampshire, said its servers were hit…

Google has designed a giant touch-screen canvas for companies trying to make it easier for their employees to brainstorm as they work on team projects and other assignments. The product is called “Jamboard,” an allusion to its goal of replacing the physical whiteboards that companies have been setting up in meeting rooms for decades. It boasts a 55-inch, ultrahigh-definition screen capable of recognizing the difference between when someone is writing on it with a stylus or touching it with a finger. Google is releasing the device to a small group of companies Tuesday before making it widely available early next year. As with a whiteboard, employees can post their ideas, documents and images on the Jamboard, only they won’t need markers, tape or sticky notes to do it. Instead, they…

A Chinese electronics maker that has recalled millions of products sold in the U.S. said Tuesday it did all it could to prevent a massive cyberattack that briefly blocked access to websites including Twitter and Netflix. Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology has said millions of web-connected cameras and digital recorders became compromised because customers failed to change their default passwords. Liu Yuexin, Xiongmai’s marketing director, told The Associated Press that Xiongmai and other companies across the home surveillance equipment industry were made aware of the vulnerability in April 2015. Liu said Xiongmai moved quickly to plug the gaps and should not be singled out for criticism. “We don’t know why there is a spear squarely pointed at our chest,” Liu said. The hack has heightened long-standing fears among security experts that the…

You probably already know whether you’ll vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton on Election Day, leaving one important question to consider when you walk into your polling place: Is it OK to take a picture of your ballot? While secrecy in the voting booth has become a thing of the past for those ready to share their views and daily lives on social media, laws nationwide are mixed on whether voters are allowed to take pictures of themselves in the act or of their ballots - “ballot selfies”. Federal judges have struck down bans on selfies in New Hampshire and Indiana, and rules have been changed in places like California and Rhode Island, but in many states it’s still a violation that carries potential fines or jail terms. There…

HOW THE CUPERTINO FIRM’S PRODUCTS LINK TOGETHER – AND EXCEL APART One of the standout aspects of Apple’s products is the ability that they have to work seamlessly together. The Apple ecosystem has long been a highly coherent one, but what are the various strengths of Apple’s current products – not only in isolation, but when they are used together? If you’re the owner of some of the latest Apple products, surely one of the most attractive features of these devices is that they can seamlessly work together to provide you with a fully integrated network. The technology that allows Apple’s products  to work together is called Continuity, which makes it simple to transfer calls, texts and emails between compatible devices. You can even turn your products into mobile hotspots.…

Lady Wood Tove Lo The second studio album from award-winning songwriter Tove Lo features her unique blend of contemporary ‘80s-inspired EDM and raw lyrics. FIVE FACTS: 1. Tove Lo’s real full name is Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson. 2. Her grungy, brutally honest take on modern pop music has earned her the title of “Sweden’s darkest pop export” from Rolling Stone magazine. 3. In 2014, Lo released a line of clothing inspired by the lyrics of her EP, Truth Serum. 4. The nickname Tove Lo comes from Lo’s grandmother, her called her Lo at age three because of her love of lynxes. In Swedish, ‘lo’ is the singular for lynxes. 5. Tove Lo’s musical inspirations include Amy Winehouse, Silverchair, Jeff Buckley, Robyn and Mikky Ekko. The Serpent Only Lies Crowbar This…

The Obama administration’s “18F” program to create its own version of a high-tech startup for government digital projects has foundered since its launch in 2014, losing nearly $32 million as its staff spent most of its time on unbillable work, according to a new inspector general report published Monday. The comparisons to some Silicon Valley startups were stark: Senior 18F managers overestimated the amount of money their projects would recoup; increased hiring using special rules every three months since April 2014; and devoted less than half the program’s staff time on projects for which it could bill other federal agencies, the report said. It noted the 18F program has “struggled financially” and “has not developed a viable plan to achieve full cost recovery.” In one case, 18F hired a full-time…

The International Space Station received its first shipment from Virginia in more than two years Sunday following a sensational nighttime launch observed 250 miles up and down the East Coast. Orbital ATK’s cargo ship pulled up at the space station bearing 5,000 pounds of food, equipment and research. “What a beautiful vehicle,” said Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, who used the station’s big robot arm to grab the vessel. The capture occurred as the spacecraft soared 250 miles above Kyrgyzstan; Onishi likened it to the last 195 meters of a marathon. Last Monday’s liftoff from Wallops Island was the first by an Antares rocket since a 2014 launch explosion. Orbital ATK redesigned its Antares rocket and rebuilt the pad. While the Antares was grounded, Virginia-based Orbital ATK kept the NASA supply…

AT&T says a streaming service with more than 100 popular TV channels that’s coming out next month will cost $35 a month. That’s far less than the typical big bundle of channels on cable, which a recent survey from Leichtman Research Group says costs about $100, on average. But it’s comparable to the price of Dish Network’s Sling TV streaming service, which, granted, has fewer channels at that price. It is $20 cheaper than Sony’s PlayStation Vue streaming service tier with a similar number of channels. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced the pricing of the streaming service, called DirecTV Now, at the WSJ.D conference while onstage with Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. Dallas-based AT&T is buying HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. owner Time Warner for $85.4 billion. The phone company…