Innehållsförteckning för #248 från AppleMagazine

Seeking a wider digital audience, Verizon is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion in a deal that marks the end of an era for a company that defined much of the early internet but struggled to stay relevant in an online world dominated by Google and Facebook. It’s the second time in as many years that Verizon has snapped up the remnants of a fallen internet star. The nation’s largest wireless carrier paid $4.4 billion for AOL last year. The two brands will be rolled into the same operation. “We have enormous respect for what Yahoo has accomplished: This transaction is about unleashing Yahoo’s full potential,” AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said in a statement. Despite Yahoo’s travails, its operations are a prize for Verizon, which wants to capitalize on the growing…

San Francisco wants people who rent out their homes through Airbnb and other online platforms to follow some rules, and it wants the platforms to advertise only those rule-abiding listings - or face steep fines. That means Airbnb and others must stick to advertising San Francisco hosts who have registered with the city and haven’t exceeded the number of nights they’re allowed to rent. The penalty? Platforms can be fined up to $1,000 a day per violation. Now, Airbnb is suing its hometown, arguing that it’s not responsible for making sure hosts follow city rules and that San Francisco, the place that birthed some of the world’s most innovative startups, is undermining a bedrock principle that allowed those companies to flourish in the first place. In its federal lawsuit filed…

The head of the company behind “Pokemon Go” says more capabilities for the wildly popular smartphone game are coming, including the ability to trade Pokemon. During an appearance at a San Diego Comic-Con event Sunday, said the update to add trading is “at the top of our priority list,” but no release date has been set. Hanke also says future versions of the game could include customizable PokeStops and the addition of other Pokemon characters. He calls “Pokemon Go” a game “we expect to run for years” and adds “we’re going to continue to invest in that way.” The augmented reality game allows users to hunt Pokemon on their smartphones in real world locations.…

LG Display Co., a supplier of Apple’s iPhone screens, said Wednesday that it will invest 1.99 trillion won ($1.75 billion) to produce flexible displays for smartphones, in a sign that more high-end smartphone makers may adopt flexible screens in the near future. The South Korean company said mass production of flexible displays will start in late 2018, at a scale that will supply enough 5.7-inch sized flexible screens for 3 million handsets per month. The flexible displays will be made of advanced materials called OLEDs, or organic light emitting diodes, which display more saturated colors, such as a darker black, than LCDs. While Apple still uses LCD screens for its iPhones, a growing number of mobile phone makers have adopted OLED screens for their flagship phones as they have resolved…

The anti-heroes of “Mr. Robot” and “Suicide Squad” are breaking into San Diego Comic-Con in 360 degrees. The creators of the USA Network hacker drama and the Warner Bros. supervillain mash-up respectively premiered virtual reality experiences Thursday in atmospheric venues located outside the San Diego Convention Center. Unlike most other promotional VR content released alongside films and TV shows, the “Suicide Squad” and “Mr. Robot” short VR films featured their counterparts’ casts and crew. In the case of “Mr. Robot,” the original, 12-minute VR experience was directed by series creator Sam Esmail and stars Rami Malek as he undergoes an emotional, marijuana-fueled flashback as “Mr. Robot” protagonist Elliot Alderson. The short VR film initially premiered Thursday during a Petco Park event before doors opened to a venue a few blocks…

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice The sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel sees DC Comics favourites Batman and Superman battle it out against each other, whilst the world grows wary of both of their intentions. FIVE FACTS: 1. The first live-action movie to feature Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman together. 2. The 46th highest-grossing movie of all time. 3. This will be the tenth time Batman has been portrayed since 1943. Superman, on the other hand, has been portrayed sixteen times since 1939. 4. Superman only had 42 lines of dialogue throughout the entire movie. 5. Jimmy Fallon once asked Ben Affleck what his daughters thought of him being Batman and he said, “They don’t care. All they want to watch is Frozen.” Zootopia In one of the most…

It’s a sweltering afternoon in Hollywood and Matt Damon has just gotten out of couple’s therapy. Don’t worry, it was just with Jimmy Kimmel - a continuation of the fake feud that started over 10 years ago before the two had even met. “It takes a really surreal turn because we got a real therapist and we play it totally straight,” said Damon seated in the green room of Kimmel Studios. After “therapy,” Damon had about 10 minutes to do a photo shoot, film an intro for a festival he can’t attend and scarf down a salad. This is life on the blockbuster circuit. Damon, 45, is promoting “Jason Bourne,” a film that nine years ago both he and director Paul Greengrass thought would never happen. After three movies exploring…

For Dorkas Kaya and other young patients with HIV, seeing the walls of their residential treatment facility transformed with broad splashes of color and graffiti-like scribbles brought a singular reaction: “Whoa!” Artist Jose Parla spent several days last week decorating bedrooms, hallways and common areas of the Incarnation Children’s Center in his signature improvisational style, the latest project in a charitable effort that commissions top contemporary artists to make pediatric health facilities less intimidating. “We were all like ‘whoa,’ yelling, ‘cause it’s so different,” said Kaya, a 19-year-old who has been in the center for three years. “I like the colors. It brings life to the place.” The nonprofit RxArt’s simple mission is to help children heal through the power of art by taking their mind off their surroundings, even…

1994 Stanford University computer graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo begin compiling “David’s and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” in a trailer on campus. Within a few months, they change the name to “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” which is abbreviated to Yahoo. 1995 Yahoo incorporates as a company, raises its first $1 million in venture capital and hires Tim Koogle as CEO to replace Yang. 1996 Yahoo prices its initial public offering of stock at a split-adjusted 54 cents per share. The shares closed at a split-adjusted $1.375 on the first day of trading. Its shares finished at $39.38 last week. 1997 Yahoo launches its free email service after acquiring the technology in a $94 million purchase of Four11. 1999 Yahoo buys Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion,…

The Japan launch of “Pokemon Go” on Friday included the game’s first partnership with an outside company: fast-food giant McDonald’s. About 400 McDonald’s Japan outlets are “gyms,” where players can battle on their smartphones. The other 2,500 are “Pokestops,” where they can get items to play the game. The hope is, presumably, that they may also buy a Big Mac in the process. Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based games industry consultant, explained earlier this week why this partnership between the Pokemon Co., McDonald’s Japan and “Pokemon Go”-developer Niantic Inc. could be big for the gaming industry. His comments were edited for space and clarity. “POKEMON GO” IS ALREADY RAKING IT IN From the game industry (perspective), the critical point here is that this game is making money from in-app purchases. It’s…

The world’s first round-the-world flight to be powered solely by the sun’s energy made history Tuesday as it landed in Abu Dhabi, where it first took off on an epic 25,000-mile (40,000-kilometer) journey that began more than a year ago. Since its March 2015 take off, the Swiss-engineered Solar Impulse 2 has made 16 stops across the world without using a drop of fuel to demonstrate that using the plane’s clean technologies on the ground can halve the world’s energy consumption, save natural resources and improve quality of life. After landing the plane, pilot Bertrand Piccard was greeted outside the cockpit by his Solar Impulse partner and fellow pilot Andre Borschberg. They hugged and pumped their fists in the air. “The future is clean. The future is you. The future…

Her computer, Karin Strauss says, contains her “digital attic” - a place where she stores that published math paper she wrote in high school, and computer science schoolwork from college. She’d like to preserve the stuff “as long as I live, at least,” says Strauss, 37. But computers must be replaced every few years, and each time she must copy the information over, “which is a little bit of a headache.” It would be much better, she says, if she could store it in DNA - the stuff our genes are made of. Strauss, who works at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, is working to make that sci-fi fantasy a reality. She and other scientists are not focused in finding ways to stow high school projects or snapshots or other…

Star Trek Beyond (Music from the Motion Picture) Michael Giacchino The soundtrack to one of the most anticipated movies of the year is a must for any fan of the stellar franchise. FIVE FACTS: 1. Rihanna released a single for the movie, although it is not featured on this album. 2. The movie is dedicated to the memory of Anton Yelchin (Chekov) as well as fellow Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy, who died during pre-production. 3. This movie takes place two and a half years after Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). 4. This is the first non-comedy movie that Simon Pegg has written. 5. Giacchino has also worked on Up, Zootopia, and The Incredibles. Everybody Looking Gucci Mane The sixth studio album from one of the last decade’s most prominent…

Next summer the “Guardians of the Galaxy” are taking over theaters and Disneyland. Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige announced Saturday at Comic-Con that a Guardians of the Galaxy ride, Mission Breakout, is in the works. It will take over what is currently the Tower of Terror at Disneyland starting next summer in conjunction with the release of the sequel. Stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and Dave Bautista attended the annual fan convention with director James Gunn to tease new footage focusing heavily on the Baby Groot character in addition to a new trailer for the irreverent space crew. The trailer confirmed Kurt Russell’s previously hush-hush role: Star Lord’s father. Pratt, reprising his role as Star Lord, said the film picks up a few months after the first left off.…

The first national system intended to prevent hobby drones from interfering with planes and helicopters fighting wildfires has launched, federal authorities say. The U.S. Interior Department announced the kickoff of the pilot project Monday that uses a smartphone app and real-time wildfire information to create virtual boundaries, or geofences, that drones can’t cross. Officials say drones colliding with firefighting aircraft could be catastrophic. Planes and helicopters have been grounded numerous times this year because of drones, most recently on Sunday in Southern California where 10,000 homes are threatened by fire. Earlier this month authorities arrested a man they say flew a drone over a Northern California wildfire and grounded firefighting aircraft. “We believe this program, which uses the global positioning system to create a virtual barrier, will move us one…

Twitter is in danger of becoming the next internet company forced into a desperation sale if it cannot find a way to start luring people and advertisers back to its sometimes-befuddling messaging service. The 10-year-old company’s second-quarter report, released Tuesday, provided another sobering snapshot of Twitter stuck on a treadmill, as other digital communications channels such as Facebook and Snapchat are racing ahead in the battle for people’s attention and allegiance. Twitter averaged 313 million users a month in the April-June period, a gain of just 3 million from the previous quarter. Even more telling, Twitter has added only 9 million monthly users since the San Francisco company brought back co-founder Jack Dorsey as CEO a year ago. Dorsey has tried to shake things up by rolling out a “Moments”…

Verizon’s deal for Yahoo could give the phone company a stronger foothold in digital advertising as it takes what it knows about its customers’ whereabouts and combines that with Yahoo’s popular destinations and AOL’s advertising expertise. To boost traffic and revenue even more, Verizon could also ship some phones with Yahoo apps already installed. Ultimately, Verizon could do what Yahoo alone could not: make money off its highly trafficked properties, such as Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Finance. But Verizon also faces the same challenges a stand-alone Yahoo had: how to get better ad rates through personalization and targeting, when Google and Facebook are already adept at that. Although the new Verizon would be No. 3 in the $60 billion U.S. market for digital advertising, “one shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking…

Aware of the reports of “Pokemon Go”-related mishaps elsewhere, Japan’s government-run National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity has issued a flier with these nine public safety tips to keep overly enthusiastic players from getting into trouble. The smartphone game was released in Japan last week: PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION The government says when registering, a player should use a nickname that a third party cannot use to identify the player. It also advises against posting photos taken near one’s home on social media, as the location could be ascertained. BEWARE OF FAKE APPS The government warns there are possibilities that there are apps that contain viruses, and urges users to download the game’s app from legitimate distribution channels. DOWNLOAD WEATHER APPS “Pokemon Go” users who play outside need…

At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 13, Apple announced plans for an overhaul of its OS X operating system. Not only was the firm about to drop the OS X name entirely, but it was ready to unveil a whole raft of changes to the much-loved desktop OS. THE NAME One of the biggest changes to macOS this year is, of course, to its name. Since 2001, Apple has been running with the OS X branding for its desktop operating system, and recently crossed over the 10.10 mark. However, with the announcement of macOS Sierra, things are beginning to look a little different. In an attempt to unify the names of its operating systems, OS X has been dropped, with Apple now referring to the system as macOS,…

Marissa Mayer was a rarity: A major tech-company CEO who served while pregnant and, later, as a mother of young children. But her trailblazing has done little to meaningfully improve the second-class status of women in tech, a more deep-seated problem that will take many years - and certainly more than one person - to fix. Like any CEO, Mayer really had one job: To run her company. Reviews on that are mixed at best. Her turnaround efforts largely failed; the internet titan once worth $130 billion was sold for a tiny fraction of that. But the company’s problems didn’t start with Mayer, who points out that Yahoo’s audience grew under her tenure. But to many people, she represented much more than that. Her life became a lens through which…

“Star Trek Beyond” easily topped the domestic box office in its first weekend in theaters with $59.3 million, but the real winner was “Lights Out,” which cost Warner Bros. $5 million to make and landed in third place with $21.7 million out of the gate, studios said Monday. “Star Trek Beyond,” the third film in the rebooted series, cost an estimated $185 million to produce. While its debut was healthy, it is over $10 million shy of the second installment’s opening in 2013. “Ice Age: Collision Course” bombed in its domestic debut with $21.4 million, putting it in fourth place behind “Lights Out,” and the more direct competitor, “The Secret Life of Pets,” which hung in second place with $29.6 million after three weeks in theaters. Sony’s “Ghostbusters” reboot fell…

A new Illinois law limits how police can use devices that cast a wide net in gathering cellphone data and are at the center of a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department. Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the legislation into law on Friday and drew immediate praise from civil libertarians. The technology, a cell site simulator, is perhaps best known by the brand name Stingray. It gathers phone-usage data on targets of criminal investigations, but it also gathers data on other cellphones - hundreds or even thousands of them - in the area. The new law requires police to delete the phone information of anyone who wasn’t an investigation target within 24 hours. It also prohibits police from accessing data for use in an investigation not authorized by a judge. A…

You can expect to hear a lot more from Apple about the virtues of mobile apps and online services in coming months. And for good reason: They’re just about the only part of Apple’s business that’s growing right now. Apps and services have always been key to the appeal of Apple products. But with iPhone sales down for the second quarter in a row - and speculation that a major redesign won’t arrive until late next year - Apple is talking up its online business, promoting it with new kinds of ads and even sponsoring an upcoming reality TV show called “Planet of the Apps.” The giant tech company sold 40.4 million iPhones in the last quarter - 15 percent fewer than a year ago, according to its earnings report Tuesday.…

Chinese video streaming company LeEco is breaking into the U.S. TV market by buying Vizio, a manufacturer of budget-priced sets. The combination promises a marriage of hardware and content as tightly linked as your smartphone is to your monthly voice and data plan. The $2 billion purchase announced Tuesday marks another ambitious foray by LeEco. The company’s chairman and CEO, billionaire Jia Yueting, is also behind Faraday Future, an electric car company building a massive plant near Las Vegas. At an event in Los Angeles, Jia promised “disruptive pricing” reminiscent of how it bundles video subscriptions with smartphone and smart TV purchases in China. He also said the company would launch its U.S. presence in a few months with an event in Silicon Valley, where it has opened its U.S.…