Innehållsförteckning för #247 från AppleMagazine

Microsoft is backing off its ambitious goal of getting Windows 10 on 1 billion devices by 2018. The company is blaming its own decision to scale back its smartphone business over the last year. Microsoft said that’s slowing efforts to deploy the newest version of its flagship software on PCs, game consoles and mobile devices like tablets and phones. Microsoft says Windows 10 is now running on more than 350 million PCs and other devices. Analysts say that’s an impressive rate of adoption for software released last year. But Microsoft has sold relatively few smartphones and has cut back its phone operation. In a statement Friday, Microsoft acknowledged “it will take longer” to get Windows 10 on a billion devices, but didn’t set a new timetable. Its shares fell 30…

Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. is buying Britain’s ARM Holdings for 24.3 billion pounds ($32 billion), in a deal the British government hailed as a vote of confidence in the country following last month’s vote to leave the European Union. The recommended cash deal underlines the desire of SoftBank, which also owns struggling U.S. telecommunications company Sprint, to expand in the so-called “Internet of Things” - how home devices from smart-thermostats to security cameras and domestic appliances can connect online and work in sync. ARM is renowned as an innovator in the “Internet of Things” - its technology is used in the vast majority of smartphones, for example. “ARM will be an excellent strategic fit within the SoftBank group as we invest to capture the very significant opportunities provided…

What’s helping turn Japanese youngsters into stars on Vine, the Twitter-owned social network devoted to looping, six-second video clips, is the stodginess of this nation’s business world. Japan Inc. companies, both big and small, are generally so clueless about appealing to youngsters - especially young women and especially on social networks - they need all the help they can get from teenage Viners for marketing. Reika Oozeki, 19, became a sensation overnight on Vine when she was just 17, offering snarky sketches of life. “I was studying for tests, and I was bored,” says Oozeki, who started out using her cellphone to shoot videos of herself in pajamas or at school. “I was so surprised it caught on.” Now she has more than 730,000 followers and her videos have looped…

Jessie Levine smiles and shakes her head when she hears the outgoing voicemail message on her iPhone. “I sound young! And fast!” she marvels. “That person never, ever expected to talk like this.” The message was recorded before Levine was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, in early 2015, and before the progressive motor neuron disease caused her speech to become slow and slurred. But as her ability to talk deteriorates, she’s exploring a new way to restore her voice via speech synthesis, or the artificial production of human speech. The technology has been around for decades, but as devices shrink in size, efforts to customize them are expanding. Multiple companies and research groups are using speech synthesis engines to create voices from spoken samples, usually thousands of recorded…

The female-powered reboot of “Ghostbusters” debuted well for a live-action comedy but not so great for a big-budget would-be summer blockbuster. Paul Feig’s new “Ghostbusters” for Sony Pictures opened with $46 million in North American theaters, according to final box office figures Monday. The sum, while the best performance of a live-action comedy since last year’s “Pitch Perfect 2,” wasn’t enough to topple the animated hit “The Secret Life of Pets.”The Universal release earned $50.8 million in its second weekend, bringing its two-week total past $200 million. Sony called the debut of “Ghostbusters” a “triumph,” but analysts are skeptical it will turn a profit for the studio, given the hefty $144 million production budget, plus at least $100 million in marketing. The film, starring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, drew…

Has your child swallowed a small battery? In the future, a tiny robot made from pig gut could capture it and expel it. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are designing an ingestible robot that could patch wounds, deliver medicine or dislodge a foreign object. They call their experiment an“origami robot”because the accordion-shaped gadget gets folded up and frozen into an ice capsule. “You swallow the robot, and when it gets to your stomach the ice melts and the robot unfolds”said Daniela Rus, a professor who directs MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.“Then, we can direct it to a very precise location.” It’s still a long way before the device can be deployed in a human or animal. In the meantime, the researchers have created an artificial stomach…

Yahoo’s latest earnings report leaves no doubt the internet company is stuck in a downward spiral. The company managed to beat Wall Street’s limited expectations for revenue in the April-June quarter. But after subtracting commissions paid to its partners, Yahoo said its revenue fell 19 percent from a year earlier, while its loss widened to $440 million. Yahoo also reported Monday that it’s writing down $482 million in charges related to the declining value of Tumblr, the social-blogging service that Yahoo acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013. Combined with an earlier write-down of $230 million, that indicates Tumblr’s value has plunged by almost two-thirds. What remains unclear is whether Yahoo will abort its long-running turnaround attempts and sell its operations in a move that would likely end the four-year reign…

When the “Star Trek Beyond” cast and filmmakers gathered in Los Angeles last month for Anton Yelchin’s funeral, they had a decision to make. Their film, the third in the rebooted series, was coming out in less than a month and a rigorous press tour was imminent. They could either put themselves out there to promote the film in the raw and devastating weeks following the death of their beloved co-star, or they could withdraw. “We came to the conclusion in the end (that) if we withdraw, we’re going to risk not helping a film that should be seen, not least because it stars Anton Yelchin,” said Simon Pegg. “That’s how we found the strength to be here ... It’s hard to talk about, but we don’t want to not…

Utah’s governor has signed into law a measure that makes the state the first to let authorities jam drone signals and crash the devices specifically for flying too close to wildfires. Republican Gov. Gary Herbert’s office announced Monday that he signed the law over the weekend, just days after lawmakers met in a special session to pass it and a handful of other bills. State Sen. Evan Vickers, who co-sponsored the law, says it technically allows firefighters and law enforcement to shoot down drones, but they probably won’t do that because it’s too difficult. Instead, authorities are expected to use technology that jams signals and crashes drones. Utah passed the law after a drone recently was sighted five times over one wildfire, causing firefighters to ground their aircraft and slow…

If you have been living under a rock, you may not have heard about Pokémon Go. Over the last week, the Nintendo-owned app has dominated both the App Store and the headlines, making waves around the world with its addictive and engaging gameplay. The game uses your mobile phone and a GPS system to offer location-based augmented reality (AR), allowing users to track Pokémon across the globe in real time. As well as giving players an incentive to get outdoors with the aim of finding an elusive Pokémon character, of which there are over 500 to choose from, the game allows users to train their Pokémon and battle with other players – both virtually and in real life – as part of a truly unique gaming experience. Despite its massive…

In a world where there’s a smartphone app for everything, one company - Amazon.com Inc. - has long been the host for an outsized share of online software and computing services. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wants to change that. Nadella has poured billions of dollars into building new data centers around the world, hoping to position Microsoft as the leading alternative to Amazon in selling online computing power - housed in remote centers or “clouds” - to internet startups and big corporations, as well as consumers. As evidence the investment is paying off, Microsoft Corp. reported Tuesday that its Azure cloud-computing business more than doubled in sales last quarter, compared with a year earlier. That growth, combined with increases in revenue from Windows software licenses and other key segments, helped…

Equal In a dystopian society where all human emotions have been eradicated, two people begin a relationship after a mysterious disease allows them to feel again. FIVE FACTS: 1. Equals premiered at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. 2. Director Drake Doremus envisioned Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart as the leads, but only together and if either one of them was unable to do the movie, neither would be in it. 3. Everyone has short hair in the movie, including Stewart and Jacki Weaver. 4. Filming took place in Tokyo, Japan and Singapore. 5. Doremus also worked on Like Crazy (2011). Sing Street This charming coming-of-age movie set in 1980s Dublin follows the tale of Cosmo, a young boy who escapes his strained family life by starting a band. FIVE…

Paramount Pictures has announced a fourth “Star Trek” film with Chris Hemsworth returning to the rebooted franchise. The studio said Monday the next chapter in the sci-fi saga will focus on Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk crossing paths with the father he never met. Hemsworth, who appeared in the 2009 “Star Trek,” will reprise his role as Kirk’s father, George Kirk. No title or release date was announced. The third film the series, “Star Trek Beyond,” hits theaters Friday. In that film, “Fast & Furious” director Justin Lin takes over for J.J. Abrams. No director was announced for the next “Star Trek” sequel.…

In all of last year, there were only 22 days when someone wasn’t shot in Philadelphia. Nearly 1 in 5 victims died. Now, in a bold effort to stem the bloodshed, several Philadelphia hospitals are about to conduct a citywide experiment that will ask: When gunshot or stabbing victims are being rushed to the emergency room by ambulance, could paramedics do more to save them by doing less? It’s a counterintuitive approach that could test long-held beliefs and change practices at trauma centers across the country. And every resident of or visitor to Philadelphia could become a study subject, though the biggest effect will probably be in the most violent neighborhoods - poor, mostly black sections where people are skeptical of essentially being experimented on. During the study, paramedics treating…

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos got to live out every Trekkie’s fantasy by playing an alien in the new “Star Trek” movie. Bezos is listed in the credits for “Star Trek Beyond,” the third installment of the rebooted sci-fi franchise. In interviews Friday, producer J.J. Abrams and director Justin Lin confirmed his appearance in the movie. Lin said the billionaire CEO arrived with plentiful security for a day of filming and waited patiently for crews to shoot the single tracking shot that includes his character. “He was awesome,” Lin said. “It was like a president was visiting, you know? He had a big entourage! But it didn’t matter because he was so into it. He had to wait around all day because it was one day we were shooting like three…

Experts say the development of self-driving cars over the coming decade depends on an unreliable assumption by many automakers: that the humans in them will be ready to step in and take control if the car’s systems fail. Instead, experience with automation in other modes of transportation like aviation and rail suggests that the strategy will lead to more deaths like that of a Florida Tesla driver in May. Decades of research shows that people have a difficult time keeping their minds on boring tasks like monitoring systems that rarely fail and hardly ever require them to take action. The human brain continually seeks stimulation. If the mind isn’t engaged, it will wander until it finds something more interesting to think about. The more reliable the system, the more likely…

The director of an Indiana animal shelter says Facebook has hired a production company to shoot video about its effort to encourage “Pokemon Go” players to walk an adoptable dog. Muncie Animal Shelter director Phil Peckinpaugh said a film crew shot a video about the shelter’s efforts in Muncie on Monday. It’ll appear on Facebook Stories, a produced video series the company says celebrates “the connections people make on Facebook.” Peckinpaugh promoted the program on Facebook after the smartphone game craze sent groups of players walking around the community in search of digital creatures. More than 250 people visited the shelter between July 12 and July 17 after Peckinpaugh advertised the program on Facebook. The post was shared tens of thousands of times as of Tuesday morning. “I just love…

Ghostbusters (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Various Artists One of the most iconic movie franchises around gets a well-deserved, hilarious reboot, and comes with a stunning and varied soundtrack to match. FIVE FACTS: 1. Features artists including former One Direction member Zayn Malik, Fall Out Boy, Mark Ronson and DMX. 2. A third Ghostbusters film had been stalled in development for nearly 25 years, until director Paul Feig pitched a reboot instead. 3. It is the first Ghostbusters movie since Ghostbusters II in 1989. 4. This is the first Ghostbusters film to receive a PG-13 rating. 5. The movie also features a score by composer Theodore Shapiro. Vulnicura Live Björk This collection of live performances – which have finally been commercially released - from one of the most inimitable singer-songwriters of…

After years of spectacular success, Netflix is starting to hit some potholes. The high-flying internet video service added only 160,000 U.S. subscribers from April through June, its lowest gain in the period since splitting up its video-streaming and DVD-by-mail services five years ago. In addition to the U.S. slowdown, Netflix is wrestling with an ambitious international expansion amid stiffening competition, challenges that came into sharper focus Monday with the release of its second-quarter earnings. CEO Reed Hastings blamed the disappointing performance on cancellations by subscribers facing price increases of as much as $2 per month, following the expiration of a two-year rate freeze. “People don’t like price increases, we know that,” Hastings said during a webcast reviewing the second quarter. “It is a necessary phase we must get through.” HIGHER…

University of New Hampshire dairy researchers are more relaxed these days about monitoring pregnant cows: A sensor attached to their tails sends text alerts to help detect when they’re in labor. Moocall measures tail movement patterns triggered by labor contractions. On average, it alerts dairy managers by cellphone and email about an hour before a cow gives birth. Moocall was developed in Ireland and released commercially last year. The company says the University of Kentucky also uses the technology. Doctoral student Kayla Aragona says with about 70 calves are born every year at the farm, it’s a help. But it’s not foolproof. One unhappy cow rubbed her tail up against everything and banged the sensor on the wall to try to get it to fall off, leading to false alarms.…

Federal prosecutors demanded an extra $2.5 million in bail on Friday for a Harvard University-educated businessman extradited from Colombia on fraud charges after they discovered he was wearing a $70,000 watch. U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas in Manhattan agreed to boost bail for Kaleil Isaza Tuzman from $2.5 million to $5 million, but he did not require a doubling of the $500,000 in collateral that the government had requested. He did, though, say Tuzman must post the watch as collateral, too. Tuzman, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, pleaded not guilty on Friday to an indictment charging him with misleading investors and regulators as chairman and CEO of technology startup KIT digital. Tuzman gained a measure of fame when he was featured in the film “Startup.com,” which won the Sundance Film…