Innehållsförteckning för #386 från AppleMagazine

FACEBOOK AND APPLE BOTH MAKING IT A PRIORITY Change is afoot. After a year now infamous for a range of publically appalling data harvesting debacles, tech giants have taken a look at their practices and begun to change the way they approach data security and privacy. Or, to look at it another, more cynical way – tech giants have acknowledged our need for privacy, made more pertinent by how poorly they managed it in the past, and decided that this is how they can capitalize on it, from here on. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg (he of the Cambridge Analytica scandal ) published a new, “privacy-focused vision for social networking”. Zuckerberg now believes that “the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they…

Apple has unveiled a new iPad that’s thinner and slightly larger than its current entry-level tablet. The new iPad Air will cost $499 and sport a screen that measures 10.5 inches diagonally. That compares with the standard, 9.7-inch iPad, which Apple will still sell for $329. Apple has higher-end Pro models starting at $999. The new iPad Air has several features found in older Pro models, but not the latest. For instance, the iPad Air has a home button with a fingerprint sensor, while the latest Pro ditches that to make more room for the screen. Apple is also refreshing its 7.9-inch iPad Mini for the first time in more than three years. In the past, Apple has sometimes used older chips in the Mini, saving the latest technology for…

Fidelity National Information Services is buying Worldpay for about $35 billion to combine forces as financial transactions increasingly move online. The payment service industry works behind the scenes to help complete the process for purchases. It was a simpler exercise when those transactions took place in person with a swipe of a card. But transactions have largely moved online and grown in complexity, forcing those background players to deal with multiple currencies, various forms of payment and more at lightning speed. The industry also faces a growing base of startup competitors. Fidelity, or FIS as it is known, is a more traditional payment service provider, supporting more staid practices such as banks transactions. Worldpay is the “crown jewel” of the e-commerce niche, said Instinet analysts Dan Dolev and Conan Leon.…

Foxconn Technology Group said that its manufacturing facility in Wisconsin will be producing flat-screen panels by the end of 2020, with construction starting later this year. The news came after the worldwide electronics manufacturing leader sent mixed signals earlier this year about whether it planned to suspend work in Wisconsin. After a meeting with President Donald Trump, Foxconn’s leader recommitted to building a smaller manufacturing facility in Wisconsin than what was originally promised. The Taiwan-based Foxconn is building what is known as a Generation 6 factory, which typically makes smaller liquid crystal display screens for cellphones, tablets, televisions and other devices. It first said it was going to build a larger Generation 10 plant, which would have used glass more than three-times as large as what the smaller facility will…

Nobody Cares, Work Harder Dizzy Wright Maturing with every release, Dizzy Wright’s sixth studio album blends passion with growing empowerment. His prominence is demonstrated here by a gathering of notable collaborators, including Mozzy, Eric Bellinger, Demrick, and Jarren Benton. Dizzy’s ethos is in the title – he continues to dedicate himself to the music, no matter what anybody says. FIVE FACTS: 1. Dizzy’s real name is La’Reonte Wright. 2. He began rapping at eight years old with a group called DaFuture, which included his brother and a very close friend. 3. Influenced by his mother, who was a concert promoter, Dizzy reported at major awards shows in his youth. This early exposure to the industry later influenced his decision to stick to independent labels. 4. When Wright was in seventh…

There’s always that moment on roller coasters when the lap bar gets locked down and you slowly, agonizingly ride up to the first drop. You know the next few minutes are going to be harrowing — you just don’t know how bad. So here’s a warning about the new animated amusement park film “Wonder Park” — it’s going to be more harrowing than you can imagine. A simple, bucolic beginning with the sunny characters exuberantly crying “Splendiferous!” leads to a post-apocalyptic, violent middle that includes killer plush dolls, deadly giant robots, lava and existential crisis. It then ends on a sickly sweet note. The tonal shifts alone are enough to make you want to hurl. The cynicism and ultra-violence of Paramount’s ”Wonder Park ” undermines some top-notch animation, which includes…

Charlie Montoyo thought he would be taking a hard line against video games in his first year as Toronto Blue Jays manager. Before he could put his foot down on Fortnite, the players took it upon themselves to govern their gaming. “We’re going to play less, I know that,” Montoyo said. “It’s actually not my rule. It’s our clubhouse rule.” The role of video games at the ballpark was put in the crosshairs when ESPN reported that veteran first baseman Carlos Santana smashed a television in the Philadelphia Phillies’ clubhouse last September to stop teammates from playing Fortnite. Santana, now with the Cleveland Indians, told ESPN that Phillies players were sneaking into the locker room to play during games. Manager Gabe Kapler acknowledged the Fortnite playing, but he and pitcher…

A drama in which a submersible made an emergency ascent from 250 meters (820 feet) below the Indian Ocean was caused by condensation burning out a small motor in the cockpit, the director of the British-led Nekton Mission said. Oliver Steeds told Media that the burnout produced an acrid smell of smoke which triggered the pilot’s emergency response. “That’s all now been fixed so we’re confident now to undertake a dive,”Steeds said. The American pilot, Robert Carmichael, and the passenger, British scientist Molly Rivers, donned breathing apparatus as the vessel neared the surface. Neither was hurt in Tuesday’s incident during a dive off the Seychelles. The two-person sub returned to the water on Wednesday for tests. With Carmichael and Steeds on board, it dived to 80 meters for roughly two…

Tokyo’s Olympics may become known as the “Robot Games.” Organizers showed off robots that will be used at the new National Stadium to provide assistance for fans using wheelchairs. Tokyo Olympic official Masaaki Komiya pointed out that Japan is known for its robot technology, and the 2020 Summer Games are a good place to show off. “Robots should not overwhelm people,” Komiya, the vice director general to the Tokyo Olympics, told a news conference. “Robots are something that have an amicable relationship with human beings and can work together. That’s the kind of robots we envision.” The robots are made by major Olympic sponsor Toyota Motor Corp. Toyota officials said 16 of the so-called “human support robots” will be used at the National Stadium with five other “delivery support robots”…

Tesla unveiled a new all-electric SUV that the automaker hopes will win over consumers looking for an all-electric alternative in the most popular segment of the auto market. Cheers from a hangar-packed crowd of Tesla customers, employees and members of the media welcomed a blue Model Y as it rolled out onto a stage next to the automaker’s other models. “It has the functionality of an SUV, but it will ride like a sports car,” CEO Elon Musk told the crowd. “This thing will be really tight on corners and we expect it will be the safest midsize SUV in the world by far.” The Model Y seats seven and has a panoramic glass roof and a 15-inch (38-centimeter) touchscreen interface for accessing all the car’s controls. The all-electric, mid-size…

With Apple confirming plans to host the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, we take a closer look at the Cupertino firm’s plans for 2019. With iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS all expected to receive annual upgrades, we ask: what features are rumored, what can Apple learn from Android, and what more can the company do to deliver next-generation software? THE FUTURE IS COMING Widely regarded as one of the most important dates in a developer’s calendar, Apple last week confirmed plans to host WWDC 2019 from June 3 to June 7. As always, interested parties were able to apply to purchase a ticket, priced at $1,599 each, but with room for just 1,000 developers at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, Apple relied on its lottery system to…

German automaker BMW said that profits in 2019 would be “well below” last year’s and that it planned to cut 12 billion euros ($13.6 billion) in costs by the end of 2022 to offset spending on new technology. The company said profits would be eroded by higher raw materials prices, the costs of compliance with tougher emissions requirements and unfavorable shifts in currency exchange rates. The Munich-based automaker also faces increased uncertainty due to international trade conflicts that could lead to higher tariffs. The company forecast a profit margin of 6 to 8 percent for its automotive business, short of the long-term strategic target of 8 to 10 percent, which it said still “remains the ambition” for the company given “a stable business environment.” BMW said it had no plans…

The Fox Studio backlot, first built in 1926 on a Century City ranch in Los Angeles, was enormous. Before much of it was sold off in the 1960s, it was four times the size of its current, and still huge, 53 acres. Shirley Temple’s bungalow still sits on the lot, as does the piano where John Williams composed, among other things, the score to “Star Wars.” A waiter in the commissary might tell you where Marilyn Monroe once regularly sat. When the Walt Disney Co.’s $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox is completed at 12:02 a.m. Wednesday, the storied lot — the birthplace of CinemaScope, “The Sound of Music” and “Titanic” — will no longer house one of the six major studios. It will become the headquarters for Rupert Murdoch’s new…

Months after being fired over old tweets, James Gunn has been rehired as director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Representatives for the Walt Disney Co. and for Gunn confirmed that Gunn has been reinstated as writer-director of the Marvel franchise he has guided from the start. Gunn was fired last July over tweets from nearly a decade ago in which Gunn joked about subjects like pedophilia and rape. Gunn earlier apologized for the tweets, which he called “unfortunate efforts to be provocative.” Disney Chairman Alan Horn at the time said Gunn’s words were inconsistent with the studio’s values. The comments, made from 2008 to 2011, were brought to light by far-right propagandists Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec who combed through Gunn’s social media history after Gunn’s criticism of…

Google unveiled a video-game streaming platform called Stadia, positioning itself to take on the traditional video-game business. The platform will store a game-playing session in the cloud and lets players jump across devices operating on Google’s Chrome browser and Chrome OS, such as Pixel phones and Chromebooks. Google made the announcement at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Some industry watchers were expecting a streaming console, but Google’s platform centers squarely on the company’s cloud infrastructure. “The new generation of gaming is not a box,” said Google Vice President Phil Harrison. “The data center is your platform.” Much like movies and music, the traditional video-game industry has been shifting from physical hardware and games to digital downloads and streaming. Video-game streaming typically requires a strong connection and more computing…

A huge study suggests the Apple Watch can detect a worrisome irregular heartbeat at least sometimes — but experts say more work is needed to tell if using wearable technology to screen for heart problems really helps. More than 419,000 Apple Watch users signed up for the unusual study, making it the largest ever to explore screening seemingly healthy people for atrial fibrillation, a condition that if untreated eventually can trigger strokes. Stanford University researchers reported that the watch didn’t panic flocks of people, warning just half a percent of participants — about 2,100 — that they might have a problem. But even among those flagged, “it’s not perfect,” cautioned Dr. Richard Kovacs of the American College of Cardiology, who wasn’t involved with the study. People who received an alert…

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a received a nearly $29 million gift the university says will be used to enhance research and improve the lives of people with Down syndrome. MIT in an announcement Wednesday said the $28.6 million gift from the Brazil-based Alana Foundation to establish the Alana Down Syndrome Center will combine the expertise of scientists and engineers in an effort to increase understanding of the biology and neuroscience of Down syndrome. The center and an associated technology-development program will work to accelerate the generation, development, and clinical testing of novel interventions and technologies into the disorder. The Alana Foundation is a nonprofit started by Ana Lucia Villela and Marcos Nisti, of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who have a daughter with Down syndrome.…

It appears Apple is planning a week of new product releases, yesterday announcing a refreshed iMac range that offers two-times the performance of previous generation models. That follows on from the refreshed iPad Air and mini, released on Monday. For the first time, the iMac now comes with up to 8-core Intel 9th-generation processors and Vega graphics options, which offers “dramatic increases in both compute and graphics performance”, according to the Apple press release. Whether you’re an everyday iMac user or you rely on Apple’s desktop PC for video editing, streaming, and designing, you should notice that the machine is much faster for everyday tasks, and with a Retina display, all-in-one design, quiet operation, fast storage and memory, the iMac continues to stand as the world’s best desktop computer. Speaking…

Lyft officially kicked off the road show for its initial public offering, saying this week it plans to put more than 30 million shares up for sale with an anticipated price of between $62 and $68 per share. That would raise more than $2 billion for the San Francisco ride-hailing company, pegging its market value at $20 billion to $25 billion, even though it hasn’t been able to turn a profit yet. It’s the first time that Lyft has revealed how much money it hopes to raise in the IPO, and how much it believes it’s worth. Those financial targets could still change as Lyft’s investment bankers gauge demand for the company’s stock leading up to the IPO pricing, which is expected to happen next week. Lyft and Uber have…

Most states ban texting behind the wheel, but a legislative proposal could make Nevada one of the first states to allow police to use a contentious technology to find out if a person was using a cellphone during a car crash. The measure is igniting privacy concerns and has led lawmakers to question the practicality of the technology, even while acknowledging the threat of distracted driving. The future of the Nevada proposal isn’t clear. A similar measure introduced in 2017 failed in the New York Legislature, but lawmakers are considering it again. Law enforcement officials argue that distracted driving is underreported and that weak punishments do little to stop drivers from texting, scrolling or otherwise using their phones. Adding to the problem, they say there is no consistent police practice…

Mary Poppins Returns Decades after she left the Banks’ family home and flew away on her enchanted umbrella, the magical nanny is back. This time, she helps the now-grown-up Michael Banks’ children through a difficult time, showing them the same fun and magic their father enjoyed at the turn of the century. FIVE FACTS: 1. Angela Lansbury and Dick Van Dyke made history during filming, by becoming the oldest woman and man to appear in a Disney film. 2. Julie Andrews, who played the title character in Mary Poppins (1964), turned down a cameo in the sequel out of respect for the new lead actress, Emily Blunt. 3. At 54 years between the original movie and this one, a new record has been set for the longest gap between a…

It’s not uncommon for people to just look at Jodi Benson and burst into tears. Sometimes they hyperventilate or scream. But mostly they break down and start sobbing. Benson will hold them, heaving in her arms, and pat their back gently. Benson isn’t a household name but for many she’s an intimate part of their childhood. She supplied the singing and speaking voice of Ariel, the heroine of the 1989 animated Disney hit “The Little Mermaid,” which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Benson says she will sometimes watch as the stunned movie’s fans virtually go back in time in front of her. “It triggers a memory for them,” she says. “They remember who they were with when they saw the movie the first time. Maybe that sibling is…

For states looking to profit off the new world of legal sports betting, there’s an app for that. The question for state lawmakers: Should they allow it? As state legislatures across the U.S. decide whether to authorize sports gambling, lawmakers are debating whether the bets — like almost everything else in daily life — should be allowed to happen online or made only in-person. Among their concerns is that the accessibility of online betting, especially on mobile devices, could be a pathway for minors to start gambling and make sports betting more addictive. The debate was on display two weeks ago in Rhode Island, where the Legislature sent a bill to the governor that expands the state’s sports betting law by allowing wagers to take place online. Rep. Teresa Tanzi,…

NASA’s plan to scoop up dirt and gravel from an asteroid has hit a snag, but scientists say they can overcome it. The asteroid Bennu was thought to have wide, open areas suitable for the task. But a recently arrived spacecraft revealed the asteroid is covered with boulders and there don’t seem to be any big, flat spots that could be used to grab samples. In a paper released this week by the journal Nature, scientists say they plan to take a closer look at a few smaller areas that might work. They said sampling from those spots poses “a substantial challenge.” “But I am confident this team is up to that substantial challenge,” the project’s lead scientist, Dante Lauretta, told reporters at a news conference. The spacecraft, called Osiris-Rex,…

European Union regulators have fined Google 1.49 billion euros ($1.7 billion) for abusing its dominant role in online advertising, the third big antitrust penalty they’ve given the internet giant since 2017. The latest punishment means the commission has now issued Google with almost $10 billion in fines from probes into various parts of the Silicon Valley tech company’s business. In the latest ruling, Google and parent company Alphabet were found to have breached EU rules by imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with websites that used its AdSense advertising business. That prevented Google rivals from placing their ads on these sites, the EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said this week. “Google abused its dominance to stop websites using brokers other than the AdSense platform,” Vestager told a news conference as she…