Innehållsförteckning för #249 från AppleMagazine

China’s ambitions to become a pioneer in nuclear energy are sailing into troubled waters. Two state-owned companies plan to develop floating nuclear reactors, a technology engineers have been considering since the 1970s for use by oil rigs or island communities. Beijing is racing Russia, which started developing its own in 2007, to get a unit into commercial operation. In China’s case, the achievement would be tempered by concern its reactors might be sent into harm’s way to support oil exploration in the South China Sea, where Beijing faces conflicting territorial claims by neighbors including Vietnam and the Philippines. Chinese news reports say plans call for deploying 20 reactors there, though neither developer has mentioned the area. Tensions ratcheted up after a U.N. arbitration panel ruled July 12 that Beijing’s claim…

Jun Hyuk Bang founded Netmarble Games in 2000 and has grown it into a powerhouse mobile gaming company with nearly $1 billion in annual revenue. Its game, “Seven Knights,” has broken into Japan’s list of top 10 mobile games. Now, the South Korean company has designs on the U.S. Last year, it bought California company SGN for $130 million. Netmarble plans an initial public offering of stock in the upcoming year, possibly in the U.S. Bang spoke with AppleMagazine recently through a translator on why the U.S. is important and what’s next for mobile gaming. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length. Q: Why is it important to get into the U.S.? A: When we talk about mobile games, the U.S. market by itself is smaller than…

When seconds count, the right clothing matters For the Rio Olympics, Nike used 3-D printing technology to develop small silicone protrusions for redirecting air flow around the runner. Body scanners helped Adidas design suits to keep swimmers in ideal form. Swiss cycling specialist Assos turned to wind tunnels to craft custom, form-fitting suits for the U.S. cycling team. Innovations in suits and shoes have sped up, thanks to advancements in how clothing is designed and tested - all as manufacturers get creative in working around rules enacted to prevent the apparel equivalent of doping. “We make sure we stay inside those rules, but we will get to the very edge of them if we can,” said Adam Clement, senior creative director for team sports at Under Armour. “Our goal is…

One of Google’s sister companies will team up with pharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline to develop tiny implants that can tap nerves and change their electronic signals as a way of treating chronic illnesses. GSK and Verily Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, have agreed to create a new company known as Galvani Bioelectronics, which will be based in Britain, with a second research hub in South San Francisco, California. They said Monday that they will invest 540 million pounds ($714 million), with GSK owning 55 percent of the venture and Verily the rest. In the growing field of bioelectronic medicine, the implants that are used to cuff a nerve are currently the size of a jelly bean. The aim is to make them as small as a grain…

In another move to break from YouTube, music video brand Vevo has cut a deal to license videos from Warner Music, repairing a rift between major labels that began with the launch of the service seven years ago. Erik Huggers, who took over as CEO of Vevo in April, on Tuesday called the deal an important milestone as it forges a “new relationship” with Warner. Vevo is co-owned by major labels Sony and Universal. Warner has its own channel on YouTube. Warner CEO Steve Cooper called the deal the latest way it was attempting to “unlock the true value of music videos.” Vevo relaunched its mobile app last month in a refresh that Huggers said paved the way for more original content and an ad-free subscription plan.…

Apple is disarming - or at least it’s dumping an emoji that depicts a realistic-looking revolver and replacing it with a brightly colored toy water pistol instead. The tech giant is releasing some new emoji images for iPhone and iPad users who use the cartoonish icons when they send messages. They’ll be available this fall with iOS 10, the next major revision of Apple’s mobile software. Other new emoji will depict women in athletic and professional roles, as well as a rainbow flag. Gun-control advocates had urged Apple to dump the handgun emoji. It’s also drawn controversy in cases where students used it in ways perceived as threatening. The squirt gun may still look like a pistol, however, to recipients who view the message on a non-Apple device.…

Online shoppers want their packages - now. And Amazon is spending heavily to make sure that happens. Amazon’s Prime service has, at heart, always been about free two-day shipping. The $99 annual subscription includes a variety of other goodies, but the near-instant gratification of fast, no-extra-cost delivery was the program’s original draw, and remains central to its appeal for its estimated 60 million subscribers. But fast delivery - everything from Prime’s two-day service to one-day or one-hour options, grocery delivery and delivery for third party sellers - doesn’t come cheap. In the April-June quarter, for instance, Amazon spent $3.88 billion on its distribution network, or what it calls “fulfillment,” up 35 percent from the prior year. The company spent $13.41 billion on fulfillment in all of 2015, up 25 percent…

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday filed a $100 million lawsuit against Comcast, saying the cable and internet giant deceived customers into paying tens of millions of dollars in fees for a “near-worthless” service protection plan. Ferguson, who filed the lawsuit in King County Superior Court, said at a news conference that in addition to its misleading service protection plan, Philadelphia-based Comcast committed more than 1.8 million violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Act by charging improper service call fees and using improper credit screening practices. “This case is a classic example of a big corporation systematically deceiving Washington state consumers and putting profits above those consumers,” said Ferguson said. According to the lawsuit, Comcast misled 500,000 customers in Washington state by having them pay a $4.99 monthly…

The Israeli military is warning its soldiers about a new threat: the widely popular mobile phone game “Pokemon Go.” The army said Monday it has banned its forces from playing the game on Israeli military bases due to security concerns. In a directive to soldiers and officers, the army warned the game activates cell phone cameras and location services, and could leak sensitive information like army base locations and photographs of the bases. The military is also concerned that soldiers could download a fake application that impersonates “Pokemon Go” but could leak information from soldiers’ phones. “Pokemon Go” players roam streets and buildings holding up their mobile phones and following a digital map to catch creatures that appear on the screen. Israeli civilians are also being warned about the perils…

Bob Costas and other top members of NBC’s Olympics coverage team veered between optimism and caution in predicting Rio de Janeiro’s ability to pull off a successful Summer Games and said NBC will cover the good and bad. Other Olympics have taken place without significant difficulties and he hopes it will be the same for Rio, Costas said Tuesday. But he then ticked off the daunting list of challenges faced by the Brazilian city. It would be “naive” to think it isn’t grappling with security worries, pollution and political turmoil along with a deep recession that’s occurred since Rio won the Games, Costas said. He spoke to TV critics from Rio by satellite, along with executive producer Jim Bell and correspondent Mary Carillo. The opening ceremony airs Friday on NBC,…

A federal judge has tossed out a jury’s decision calling for Apple to pay $625.6 million in damages to a Nevada company that claims Apple infringed on its patents for technology used in Apple services like FaceTime and iMessage. The judge decided Apple didn’t receive a fair trial in a Texas courtroom earlier this year because jurors heard arguments stemming from two separate lawsuits, creating potential for confusion because some of the claims had also been argued in an earlier trial. The claims were brought by VirnetX, a company that buys technology patents and aims to make money from licensing fees and lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder ruled Friday that the two lawsuits should get separate retrials this fall. Apple declined comment. VirnetX did not immediately respond Monday.…

The Angry Birds Movie Based on the infamous app and game that took the world by storm, this movie looks at the back-story of the iconic characters, and just what it was that made them so angry... FIVE FACTS: 1. Since it was released in 2009, the Angry Birds game has been downloaded more than three billion times across all versions and platforms of mobile devices. 2. The Angry Birds Movie’s production budget of $80 million (with an extra $100 million spent on marketing) makes it the costliest film ever to come out of Finland, besting the previous record holder Big Game’s budget of $9.7 million. 3. Unlike the characters featured in the games, the animation team decided to give the film counterparts animated arms from the shape of the…

Virgin Galactic says it has received an operating license for its space tourism rocket from the Federal Aviation Administration. Virgin Galactic says the operating license awarded by the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation will ultimately permit commercial operations. The company said Monday the licensing process involved a review of the system’s design, safety analysis and flight trajectory analysis. Virgin Galatic’s first spaceship broke apart in 2014 during its fourth rocket-powered test flight when the co-pilot prematurely unlocked a key system. The second version of the company’s SpaceShipTwo was unveiled in February. The first taxi test of the new spacecraft took place Monday morning at the Mojave, California, airport. The taxi test evaluated and calibrated navigation and communications telemetry systems as it was pulled by a sports utility vehicle.…

Verizon said Monday that it plans to pay about $2.4 billion to buy Fleetmatics, which makes software used by cable companies, energy providers and others to manage their fleets of vehicles. Verizon will pay $60 for each share of Fleetmatics, a nearly 40 percent premium of the stock’s closing price of $42.96 Friday. Fleetmatics, based in Dublin, said it has more than 37,000 customers that use its software to track the location of vehicles driven by workers. Verizon, which provides cellphone and internet service, said the deal will boost its workforce management business. The new deal comes a week after New York-based Verizon said it would pay $4.8 billion to buy Yahoo Inc.’s websites , apps and other properties. Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. slipped 77 cents to $54.64 in…

Officials say a computer service used by the campaign of Hillary Clinton was hacked as part of a broader breach of the Democratic National Committee, an intrusion for which the Russian government remains the leading suspect. The breach affected a DNC data analytics program used by the campaign and a number of other organizations, according to the Clinton campaign. Outside security experts reviewing the campaign’s computer system have found “no evidence that our internal systems have been compromised,” the campaign said in a statement issued Friday. The campaign did not specify what types of data the service was analyzing, but partnerships with modern e-commerce companies can allow sophisticated tracking, categorization and identification of website visitors. This can help organizations tailor their online content, advertising and solicitations to be more effective.…

The latest Summer Olympic Games are just around the corner, with the official opening ceremony taking place on August 5. A huge $15.7 billion investment has been ploughed into Rio, encompassing refurbished stadiums, a brand new Olympic Village, new venues, roads and an infrastructure to serve the hundreds of thousands of expected guests. With more than 10,000 athletes from 206 nations set to compete in 28 different sports, it’s an exciting time for everybody involved, whether you’re a fan of sports or are more interested in the cultural and touristic opportunities presented by the event. As such, now is firmly the time to get involved in the Olympics action. Whether you choose to do so by booking a flight to Rio de Janeiro or by enjoying the competition in the comfort of…

It’s almost game time in Rio, but first there’s the pageantry of the Olympic opening ceremony. Always splashy affairs, the parade of athletes this time around will take place Friday night at Maracana Stadium with a country-by-country show of fashion, along with speeches, flag-raising and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. For now, enjoy these moments from opening ceremonies of Olympics past: LONDON 2012 First there was the green of the English countryside, then along came the queen. Queen Elizabeth II “parachuted” into the stadium with James Bond, the one that’s Daniel Craig. Craig played himself after a fictional trip from Buckingham Palace to the stadium in a helicopter. The queen and 007 did not actually take flight, FYI. More slapstick ensued when “Mr. Bean” actor Rowan Atkinson banged out…

Matt Damon came back strong after his nine-year hiatus from the Bourne series this weekend.“Jason Bourne”earned $59.2 million in its first days in theaters, according to studios Monday. It easily topped the charts and is a promising start for the film, which cost around $120 million to produce. STX Entertainment’s raunchy, R-rated comedy “Bad Moms”also had a phenomenal debut, surpassing its modest $20 million production budget in its first weekend in theaters.“Bad Moms,”which stars Mila Kunis, earned $23.8 million to take third place. It narrowly missed second to“Star Trek Beyond,”which brought in $24.8 million in its second weekend in theaters. Rounding out the top five were“The Secret Life of Pets”in fourth with $18.9 million, bringing its total to a whopping $296.9 million after just four weeks, and, in fifth place,“Ice…

Traveling to the Olympics? Don’t let illnesses meddle with your fun. Roughly half a million people from around the world are expected to travel to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. And while Zika is in the spotlight, there are other bugs and health problems that Olympic athletes and spectators should keep in mind. What’s the biggest threat? Health experts say the most likely cause of death or serious harm to travelers everywhere is injuries from car accident, falls, crime or other mishaps. But that’s not what’s on the minds of people headed to the Olympics, said Dr. Nicholas Van Sickels, associate director of Tulane University’s travel medicine clinic in New Orleans. “Zika is what brings them in the door,”Van Sickels said of recent clinic visitors. A look at those…

You’ll be able to unlock Samsung’s new phone by just looking at it. The Galaxy Note 7 will come with an iris scanner, which matches patterns in your eyes with what was detected by your phone during setup. It offers an alternative to fingerprint ID, which doesn’t work well when fingers are wet. Of course, the four-digit passcode will still work. “We challenged our engineers to design a security system that’s convenient and safe at the same time,” said Justin Denison, a senior vice president for product strategy at Samsung. “It took five years to perfect, but it only takes a glance to unlock your phone.” Samsung isn’t first, though. Microsoft’s Lumia 950 phones had it. Beyond that, the updates in the Note 7 are mostly enhancements, such as a…