Innehållsförteckning för #387 från AppleMagazine

As well as lifting the lid on a new television subscription service, staring the likes of Oprah and Jennifer Aniston, Apple used its March keynote to announce an array of subscription products, like a premium news service and a cross-platform gaming product. Today, we take a closer look at the new services and consider Apple’s changing strategy for revenue growth. NEXT-LEVEL HARDWARE ON THE DOWNLOW Before Tim Cook and Co hit the stage at the Steve Jobs Theater on Monday (March 25), the company surprised the world by introducing a bunch of new hardware throughout the week prior on the Apple.com store. Apple typically uses its March Special Event to showcase new hardware, like iPads and HomePods, but this year the firm wanted to keep the stage clear for its…

STILL MUCH TO BE LEARNED ABOUT NEW STREAMING SERVICE Apple’s latest big media event on Monday was exciting for more than a few reasons. Of course, the host of stars who took the stage in Cupertino provided plenty of cause for fuss, but much more vital was the justification for their presence. Among the various other major services announcements, was the news that the tech giant of all tech giants has now finally shown its hand in the streaming game – albeit, while still leaving many crucial questions unanswered. True, we’ve long been accustomed to a high level of secretiveness from Apple, but not necessarily so much in the process of them actually unveiling their products and services. So, what do we now know about Apple’s newly unveiled video subscription…

On Monday, Apple launched what some have called a “Netflix for news” — a $10-a-month subscription service that offers access to hundreds of magazines and a handful of newspapers. But most major U.S. news publishers aren’t participating. For Apple, pushing into services could help drum up money as sales of its marquee product, the iPhone, start to slow. It’s also developing an entertainment hub with original shows and movies and launching a new credit card. Readers get access to articles from over 300 magazines, a smattering of digital sites and some newspapers. Human editors will select stories for the app, which will tailor news feeds to a reader’s tastes. Apple pushed a privacy angle, saying advertisers won’t track what you’re reading the way Google and Facebook do across apps and…

Avoid fast food, eat vegetables and exercise. It sounds like generic health advice, but they’re tips supposedly tailored to my DNA profile. The suggestions come from 23andme, one of the companies offering to point you toward the optimal eating and exercise habits for your genetics. As with most dieting schemes, the idea is appealing because it implies there’s an elusive reason why you can’t get in shape — in this case, your genes. But Isaac Ko hane, a biomedical researcher at Harvard, said research in the field is still limited and that there’s little evidence any small effects from genetic variations can be translated into meaningful dietary advice. “By and large, these are not giving a lot of value to the people who are purchasing them,” he said, adding that…

Bad Habits NAV The Canadian rapper’s second studio album arrives just two months after he indicated on Instagram that he could quit music, in solidarity with his Fortnite pal and frequent collaborator Lil Uzi Vert. With its guest appearances from Gunna, Lil Durk, Meek Mill, The Weeknd, and Young Thug, Bad Habits is a project that shows NAV hasn’t lost his hunger for the rap game. FIVE FACTS: 1. NAV is the stage name of Navraj Singh Goraya. 2. He was born on November 3, 1989, and is of Indian Punjabi descent. 3. Goraya’s interest in music began when his mother purchased a boombox for him in the third grade. 4. He was nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at last year’s Juno Awards. 5. Bad Habits boasts a…

Ride-hailing service Uber announced it has acquired Mideast competitor Careem for $3.1 billion, giving the San Francisco-based firm the commanding edge in a region with a large, young, tech-savvy population. Uber said the purchase consists of $1.7 billion in convertible notes and $1.4 billion in cash. It marks the largest technology transaction in the Middle East — outside of Israel — and propels the Dubai-based firm to legendary status among the region’s budding tech startup scene. Under the deal, Careem will keep its brand and app unchanged, at least for now. It will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber and be led by its original founders. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020 and is subject to regulatory approval in several countries. It…

In a remote stretch of New Mexico desert, the U.S. government put in motion an experiment aimed at proving to the world that radioactive waste could be safely disposed of deep underground, rendering it less of a threat to the environment. Twenty years and more than 12,380 shipments later, tons of Cold War-era waste from decades of bomb-making and nuclear research across the U.S. have been stashed in the salt caverns that make up the underground facility . Each week, several shipments of special boxes and barrels packed with lab coats, rubber gloves, tools and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements are trucked to the site. But the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has not been without issues. A 2014 radiation leak forced an expensive, nearly three-year closure, delayed…

Chinese President Xi Jinping has found one country in Europe that isn’t worried about China’s growing global clout or its ambitions to dominate the future of technology: Monaco. Xi visited the tiny Mediterranean principality last weekend as part of a European tour that is clouded by mixed feelings about how to engage with China and benefit from its trade — while setting limits on its appetite for greater economic and diplomatic influence. Xi’s appearance alongside Monaco’s Prince Albert and Princess Charlene marked the first state visit by a Chinese president to the principality. The palace said Monaco is interested in increased trade and economic cooperation with China and “boosting China’s image in the principality.” Monaco last year clinched a deal with Chinese tech company Huawei to develop its 5G telecommunications…

Pinterest is pinning its future on Wall Street, with the digital scrapbooking site last Friday filing for an initial public offering of stock. It follows a similar filing with securities regulators earlier this month by ride-hailing company Lyft in what is shaping up to be a busy season for technology IPOs. Also expected to sell stock to the public in the coming weeks: Lyft rival Uber and messaging app Slack. Pinterest said in its filing that it intends to list itself on the New York Stock Exchange using the ticker symbol “PINS.”The company hasn’t yet said how many shares it’s selling in the IPO or how much money it intends to raise. The San Francisco-based company had revenue of $756 million last year, a 60 percent bump from 2017. It…

Apple’s ambitious leap into streaming video illustrates an escalating trend: Tech’s biggest companies, faced with limits to their growth, are encroaching on each other’s turf. Apple is taking on Netflix by launching a subscription TV service with its own original shows. Facebook is edging into Amazon’s e-commerce sphere by enabling users to make purchases within Instagram. Google, which has already challenged Amazon and Microsoft in cloud computing, is launching an online game service that could undercut the lucrative game-console business at Microsoft and Sony. Apple, which is also launching a gaming service and introducing its own credit card , may be veering the most outside its comfort zone, technology industry analyst Rob Enderle said. “This is an awful lot of breadth really quickly for a company that hasn’t been known…

In a sophisticated targeted espionage operation, hackers infected tens of thousands of computers from the Taiwanese vendor ASUS with malicious software using the company’s online automatic update service, security researchers reported this week. Kaspersky Lab said it detected 57,000 infections among customers of its antivirus software. It estimates that the exploit likely affected more than 1 million computers from the world’s No. 5 computer company. The malware was designed to open a “backdoor” for intruders in the infected machines, researchers said. About 50 percent of the affected Kaspersky anti-virus software customers were in Russia, Germany and France, the company said . The U.S. accounted for less than 5 percent. A Symantec spokeswoman said about 13,000 of its antivirus customers received the malicious updates. The so-called supply-chain attack was first reported…

A major Greenland glacier that was one of the fastest shrinking ice and snow masses on Earth is growing again, a new NASA study finds. The Jakobshavn (YA-cob-shawv-en) glacier around 2012 was retreating about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) and thinning nearly 130 feet (almost 40 meters) annually. But it started growing again at about the same rate in the past two years, according to a study in Nature Geoscience. Study authors and outside scientists think this is temporary. “That was kind of a surprise. We kind of got used to a runaway system,” said Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland ice and climate scientist Jason Box. “The good news is that it’s a reminder that it’s not necessarily going that fast. But it is going.” Box, who wasn’t part of…

Holy superhero fatigue, Batman, “Shazam!” is actually good. OK, so it’s basically “Big” with superheroes and villains instead of businesspeople and girlfriends, but director David F. Sandberg has infused his film with so much heart and charm that it hardly matters. Even the deficiencies, like the sluggish beginning and the random, ridiculous villains, fade away under a haze of goodwill because unlike so many big spectacle action pics with sequels in mind, “Shazam!” actually sticks the landing. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. Don’t worry if you don’t happen to know anything about “Shazam!” or are convinced that you won’t care. I certainly didn’t. Plus, there are a lot of superheroes to keep track of these days and someone who needs an exclamation point is and should be immediately…

The European Union is moving to require cars and trucks to have technology that would deter speeding as well as data recorders to document the circumstances of accidents. Those are among the safety features included in a provisional agreement announced Wednesday by the EU’s executive commission. The package would force vehicles to have so-called intelligent speed assistance, which recognizes speed limits using mapping systems and help drivers observe them by restricting engine power. The driver can override the system by pushing harder on the gas pedal. Earlier versions of the measure envisioned a system that could not be overridden, but that was changed. The onboard data recorder would further deter speeding by registering the car’s speed. “Every year 25,000 people lose their lives on our roads,” said Elzbieta Bienkowska, the…

Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations-backed Conference on Disarmament says his country has not developed fully autonomous weapons systems and has no plans to do so. Nobushige Takamizawa spoke at Monday’s opening of the latest weeklong meeting of government experts in Geneva on the future of “Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems,” also known as “Killer Robots.” Takamizawa’s comments have been widely anticipated in Japan, a country with highly sophisticated technological know-how and concerns about regional security threats — notably North Korea, which in recent years has tested missiles by firing them over Japanese territory. He mentioned “positive effects” of autonomous weapons systems under human oversight, such as saving labor and reducing collateral damage. Opponents of fully automated systems fear that machines could one day conduct wars without human control.…

Facebook is extending its ban on hate speech to prohibit the promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism. The company previously allowed such material even though it has long banned white supremacists. The social network said that it didn’t apply the ban previously to expressions of white nationalism because it linked such expressions with broader concepts of nationalism and separatism — such as American pride or Basque separatism (which are still allowed). But civil rights groups and academics called this view “misguided” and have long pressured the company to change its stance. Facebook said it concluded after months of “conversations” with them that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups. Critics have “raised these issues to the highest levels at…

Computers have become so smart during the past 20 years that people don’t think twice about chatting with digital assistants like Alexa and Siri or seeing their friends automatically tagged in Facebook pictures. But making those quantum leaps from science fiction to reality required hard work from computer scientists like Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun. The trio tapped into their own brainpower to make it possible for machines to learn like humans, a breakthrough now commonly known as “artificial intelligence,” or AI. Their insights and persistence were rewarded Wednesday with the Turing Award, an honor that has become known as technology industry’s version of the Nobel Prize. It comes with a $1 million prize funded by Google, a company where AI has become part of its DNA. The…

Bumblebee The year is 1987, and with the planet of Cybertron having fallen, an on-the-run Bumblebee finds refuge on Earth – or more specifically, a junkyard in a small Californian beach town, where he disguises himself as a Volkswagen Beetle. However, his discovery and befriending by 18-year-old Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) soon begins his journey to hero status. FIVE FACTS: 1. Bumblebee is the sixth installment of the live-action Transformers film series. 2. It is also the first live-action Transformers film not to be directed by Michael Bay, instead serving as Travis Knight’s live-action directorial debut. 3. Bumblebee features many returning characters from previous Transformers films, including Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Arcee, and Bumblebee himself. 4. Members of the cast include Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg, Jr., John Ortiz,…

It’s hard to begin watching the Netflix movie “The Highwaymen” and not think about the way it will inevitably end — in a famous ambush and a hail of bullets. That’s what happened to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow on May 23, 1934, the day the law finally caught up to the couple who had spent years on a multi-state murder spree. For film fans of a certain age, we’ve practically seen the fatal ambush. “The Highwaymen” is haunted by the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde,” which had at its final scene a torrent of gunfire riddling Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. That film romanticized the criminal duo who killed 13, and their fatal ambush seemed less like a necessary law enforcement action than a gutless slaying. Now, 52 years…

The European Commission has ignored U.S. calls to ban Chinese tech supplier Huawei as it announced a series of new cybersecurity recommendations for next-generation mobile networks. In its guidance for the rollout of ultrafast fifth-generation, or 5G, telecom systems across the European Union over coming years, the Commission urged member states to assess cyber threats to the 5G infrastructure in their national markets. The EU’s executive branch said that information should then be shared among EU countries as part of a coordinated effort to develop a “toolbox of mitigating measures” by the end of the year to combat cybersecurity risks across the EU. Commission guidance is non-binding but EU countries often use it as the basis for their own policies. The proposals are a setback for the United States, which…

Tens of thousands of people have marched in cities across Germany to protest planned European Union copyright reforms that they fear will lead to online censorship. The dpa news agency reports the biggest protest last weekend was in Munich, where 40,000 people marched under the motto “save your internet.” Thousands of others took part in smaller demonstrations in the German cities of Cologne, Hamburg, Hannover, Berlin and other cities against the bill that is being voted on this week. The most controversial section would require companies such as YouTube and Facebook to take responsibility for copyrighted material that’s uploaded to their platforms. Proponents say the new rules will help ensure authors, artists and journalists are paid. Opponents claim they could restrict freedom of speech, hamper online creativity and force websites…

Software engineers, entrepreneurs and product managers huddle in small groups, brainstorming ideas and scrawling thoughts onto Post-it Notes on a wall. The project leader exhorts them to “think of products around these themes.” It’s not a startup but a grassroots band of volunteers from London’s tech industry developing websites to prevent Brexit, Britain’s departure from the European Union that has fallen into complete disarray. They hope to put public pressure on politicians to give people a second vote. While the group is small, their engagement in politics underscores the concerns among businesses and entrepreneurs who stand to suffer from tariffs and border checks. “I’ve never been a political person before, really,” said German-born venture capitalist Andreas Cser. A longtime London resident, he joined the group, Tech For U.K., after he…