Innehållsförteckning för #406 från AppleMagazine

In one of the iPhone’s biggest updates to date, iOS 13 revolutionizes the smartphone once again. It’s jam-packed with a bunch of improvements including a systemwide Dark Mode, the Find My app, performance enhancements all-new Photos and Reminders apps, and major privacy features. This week, we go hands-on with the beta ahead of its public release… FASTER THAN EVER It wouldn’t be an iOS release without a few performance improvements and iOS 13 is no exception. Indeed, the operating system is faster and smoother than ever before on both new and older devices, with the iPhone 6S and above compatible with the release. Official benchmarks suggest that Face ID unlocks devices up to 30 percent faster than on iOS 12, and many apps now launch up to twice as fast…

An anonymous online forum called 8chan has drawn attention in the wake of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio because violent U.S. extremists have used it to share tips and encourage one another. The site suffered sporadic outages Monday after its cybersecurity provider cut off support for what it called a “cesspool of hate.” WHAT IS 8CHAN? The online message board dates back to 2013. Under the banner of free speech, it allows users to post graphic and extremist content and doesn’t censor posts. The site has been linked to violent extremists. Police are investigating commentary posted on 8chan believed to have been written by the suspect in a shooting Saturday that killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas. If there is a connection, it would be the third known…

News of an alleged Amazon theft ring involving contract delivery drivers is unlikely to make a dent in the online shopping giant’s massive business. But it may make people more wary of letting deliveries into their house when they aren’t there — a nascent project from both Amazon and Walmart. WHAT HAPPENED WITH AMAZON? The theft ring, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit, involved Amazon contract drivers stealing items that were being shipped to customers or returns. Then they resold them to pawn shops, which shipped the items to Amazon warehouses and resold them on Amazon’s sites using the sellers “Bestforyouall” or “Freeshipforyou.” No charges have been filed yet. WILL PEOPLE STOP SHOPPING AT AMAZON? Regular customers probably won’t stop buying from Amazon. People still use Amazon even after…

A federal appeals court has rejected a settlement in a class-action lawsuit alleging that Google spied on users’ online activity using tracking “cookies,” even when privacy settings were set to prevent the snooping. A three-judge panel ruled that a Delaware judge erred in approving the settlement in 2017. The settlement called for Google to stop using the cookies for Safari browsers and to pay $5.5 million to cover plaintiffs’ legal expenses, incentive awards to class representatives, and contributions to data privacy organizations, some with prior ties to Google. In return, Google was released from potential liability for money damages. The appeals panel said the judge’s “cursory” settlement analysis was insufficient. It expressed particular concern about the broad release of claims for money damages and the payments to outside groups.…

Add an “e” and “Hobbs & Shaw” might have been a time-traveling thriller about playwright George Bernard Shaw and 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Tantalizing as such a pairing may have been to the makers of “Fast & Furious,” they have instead opted to, in the franchise’s first spinoff, combine two of the series’ supporting standouts, Dwayne Johnson’s U.S. government agent Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s former British agent Deckard Shaw, for another ballet of Buicks and bullets. Probably a wise choice. It’s difficult to imagine the writer of “Pygmalion” careening down the side of a skyscraper in hot pursuit of Idris Elba. And when it comes to high-octane action spectacles, few are better suited to the task than The Rock and Statham, who both make up with brawn and…

A Southern California hospital spent $72 million on a building designed to do two things after an earthquake: stay standing and stay open. But when a pair of strong earthquakes struck the region last month, the hospital couldn’t use it. Structurally, the building was OK. But some broken pipes flooded a room of mechanical and electrical equipment, and water leaked into operating rooms and elevator shafts. The hospital in Ridgecrest, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, had to evacuate the building as a precaution. Now, Ridgecrest Regional is joining hospitals across the state in questioning standards designed to keep hospitals open after earthquakes. The rules are set to take effect in 2030. Most hospitals in earthquake-prone California have met regulations designed to keep buildings from collapsing in…

The Trump administration has decided to exempt aviation safety and space exploration technology from new sanctions it has levied against Russia in connection with the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. The State Department said that products related to those sectors will not be automatically subjected to an export ban that was announced by President Donald Trump this week. The sanctions do include a presumption of denial for export licenses for items that could be used in the production of chemical and biological weapons. They also mean the U.S. will oppose loans or other assistance to Russia by international financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and bar U.S. banks from participating in non-ruble Russian debt financing. The export ban and financing…

Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. reported Wednesday its fiscal first quarter profit nearly quadrupled to 1.122 trillion yen ($10.6 billion) as its fund investments boosted income. Tokyo-based SoftBank’s April-June profit the previous year had totaled 313.7 billion yen. Quarterly sales climbed nearly 3% to 2.226 trillion yen ($21 billion). The SoftBank Vision Fund has invested in dozens of companies including American entrepreneurships such as work messaging service Slack, ride-hailing Uber, office-sharing company WeWork and delivery business Doordash. Dragging on earnings was U.S. mobile operator Sprint. But SoftBank said Sprint will merge with T-Mobile and will no longer be its subsidiary. The U.S. Department of Justice approved the merger with conditions last month. “It is still not in the final stages of a deal, and there may still be problems,…

An underused money tool that could help a new generation of adults on their path to prosperity isn’t a smartphone app, a virtual currency or a digital payment system. It’s an old-timey credit union. Credit unions, if you’re unfamiliar, are like nonprofit banks. They may not satisfy all your money-management needs, but you’re missing out if you’re ignoring credit unions, which have great interest rates on auto loans, consumer-friendly checking and savings accounts, and low ongoing credit card rates. One example: Fully financing a $30,000 new car over five years would cost about $1,250 less in interest with a credit union auto loan compared with a bank auto loan, based on national average rates. Competitors — megabanks, small community banks and online banks — have their strengths and weaknesses. But…

Do video games trigger violent behavior? Scientific studies have found no link. But the persistent theory is back in the headlines following Saturday’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. An online manifesto thought to be authored by the gunman briefly mentioned the combat game Call of Duty. Then President Donald Trump weighed in, charging this week that “gruesome and grisly video games” contribute to a “glorification of violence.” Trump’s statements were more reserved compared with his last brush with the subject in 2018, when he called video games “vicious” and summoned game-industry executives to meet at the White House, to little lasting effect. The Entertainment Software Association, the biggest video game trade group, reiterated its position that there is no causal connection between video games and violence. “More than 165…

Disney is feeling some pain from its biggest transformation in decades as its acquisition of Fox’s entertainment businesses contributed to a 39% drop in earnings. CEO Bob Iger said one of the biggest issues affecting earnings was underperformance at the Fox movie and TV studio. Tuesday’s results, the first complete quarter with Fox’s businesses included, missed Wall Street’s expectations. Disney’s shares fell 3% in aftermarket trading. The Fox studio was “well below where we hoped it would be when we made the acquisition,” Iger said during a conference call with analysts. Particularly underperforming was “Dark Phoenix,” a Fox X-Men movie that failed to find its audience. That offset box office successes such as “Avengers: Endgame.” Disney completed its $71 billion acquisition of Fox’s entertainment business in March, putting “Cinderella,” ?The…

Avengers: Endgame With Thanos (Josh Brolin) having wiped out half of the universe, it’s left to the remaining Avengers, including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to reassemble and undo the havoc that Thanos has wreaked. There’s also a surprise appearance from a certain Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). FIVE FACTS : 1. Marvel announced this film back in October 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2, but its final official name was not revealed until December 2018. 2. The original title acknowledged the “shared elements”, as producer Kevin Feige explained, between this film and its predecessor, first announced as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1. 3. Although Larson’s solo vehicle Captain Marvel was released in theaters first, her scenes…

To show that Katy Perry and the team that wrote her 2013 hit “Dark Horse” may have heard his song and stole from it, Christian rapper Marcus Gray’s primary evidence was that his 2009 song, “Joyful Noise” had plays in the millions on YouTube and Spotify. Plaintiffs in copyright cases like Gray, who won a $2.78 million victory over Perry and her co-writers, must prove that the artist who stole from them had a reasonable opportunity to hear a song that was widely disseminated, a principle lawyers simply refer to as “access.” But does access have any meaning in a streaming era when almost everyone has access to almost everything? The question, as other issues at Perry’s high-profile trial did, suggested that technology may be outpacing copyright law, and that…

DRUMMING UP BUYERSMILLION DOLLAR LISTING: NEW YORK, SEASON 8 WINDMILLSSUITS, SEASON 9 FRIENDS WITH BENEFITSYOUNGER, SEASON 6 REUNION, PT. 3THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS, SEASON 9 WHO PUT THE ‘MAD’ IN MADISON?SOUTHERN CHARM, SEASON 6 1510BTHE BACHELORETTE, SEASON 15 LOS PECADOS DE LOS PADRESQUEEN OF THE SOUTH, SEASON 4 I DON’T THINK WE CAN BE FRIENDSTHE HILLS: NEW BEGINNINGS, SEASON 1 THE SIGNMARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D., SEASON 6 CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED JANE THE VIRGIN, SEASON 5…

Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. showed a “flying car,” a large drone-like machine with four propellers that hovered steadily for about a minute. The test flight reaching 3 meters (10 feet) high was held in a gigantic cage, as a safety precaution, at an NEC facility in a Tokyo suburb. The preparations such as the repeated checks on the machine and warnings to reporters to wear helmets took up more time than the two brief demonstrations. The Japanese government is behind flying cars, with the goal of having people zipping around in them by the 2030s. Among the government-backed endeavors is a huge test course for flying cars that’s built in an area devastated by the 2011 tsunami, quake and nuclear disasters in Fukushima in northeastern Japan. Mie, a prefecture…

A panel monitoring U.N. sanctions says North Korean cyber experts have illegally raised money for the country’s weapons of mass destruction programs “with total proceeds to date estimated at up to $2 billion.” The experts said in a new report to the Security Council that North Korea is using cyberspace “to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to generate income” in violation of sanctions. Cryptocurrency exchanges deal in virtual money like bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple which use a technology called blockchain. There have been some high-profile cryptocurrency exchange heists including a hack reported last month by Tokyo-based Remixpoint, which runs the BITPoint exchange, causing the loss of 3.5 billion yen, or $32 million, worth of virtual money. The experts’ report said large-scale attacks…

The railroad industry has installed safety technology on nearly 90% of tracks where it is required, federal officials said, but “significant work” is needed to ensure the technology is completely installed by a December 2020 deadline. Federal Railroad Administration chief Ronald Batory told a Senate committee that technology known as positive train control, or PTC, is in operation on more than 50,000 route miles (80,000 kilometers) of the nearly 58,000 miles (93,000 kilometers) where it is required. The GPSbased technology is intended to prevent deadly crashes by automatically stopping or slowing a train before a collision or derailment. Congress required in 2008 that railroads adopt PTC and gave them seven years to do the job. When it became clear that wasn’t enough, Congress extended the deadline through 2018 and again…

Amazon’s self-driving robots will be roaming the streets of another neighborhood. The online shopping giant said Tuesday that the six-wheeled robots, about the size of a smaller cooler, will begin delivering packages to customers in Irvine, California. It comes after Amazon began testing them in a suburb of Seattle at the beginning of the year. Amazon said the robots, which are light blue and have the Amazon smile logo stamped on its sides, are able to avoid crashing into trash cans or pedestrians. Still, a worker will accompany the robots at first. Other companies have been testing similar delivery robots on college campuses, delivering burgers or soda to students. Amazon said its robots, which it calls Scout, will be delivering orders to doorsteps Monday to Friday and only during the…

Two of the largest U.S. newspaper companies have agreed to combine for roughly $1.4 billion, creating a new industry giant that hopes to manage the crisis of print’s decline through sheer size. GateHouse Media, a fast-growing chain backed by an investment firm, is buying USA Today owner Gannett, promising to speed up a digital transformation as readers shift online. The companies say they are committed to “journalistic excellence” — while also cutting $300 million in costs every year. The resulting company would be the largest U.S. newspaper company by far, with a print circulation of 8.7 million, 7 million more than the new No. 2, McClatchy, according to media expert Ken Doctor. Local papers, faced with the complex and expensive process of building digital businesses to replace declines in print…

Care Package Drake This is Canadian rapper Drake’s first compilation album, which brings together songs that were released between 2010 and 2016 but not initially available to purchase or commercially stream. Therefore, it presents an ideal opportunity for fans of the hip-hop star to fill in awkward gaps in their Drake collection and see how the artist’s sound has developed. FIVE FACTS: 1. Drake’s full, real name off-stage is Aubrey Drake Graham. 2. The rapper’s debut studio album, Thank Me Later, was released in 2010 – and the two earliest tracks on Care Package, “I Get Lonely” and “Paris Morton Music”, were released shortly after. 3. Other Care Package inclusions “Dreams Money Can Buy”, “Trust Issues”, “Club Paradise” and “Free Spirit” were released in 2011 as promotional songs ahead of…

Lupita Nyong’o remembers clearly the first time she touched a giraffe. She was 5, and it was part of her childhood education growing up in Kenya to appreciate the wildlife around her. “They weren’t exotic, they were there,” she recalled. Over the years, the Oscar-winning actress has been involved in conservation efforts to preserve wildlife, and has spent time touring the national parks of her homeland where she got to marvel at the beauty of animals up close. So when she was recruited by Simon Fuller to narrate the new Discovery docuseries “Serengeti,” which follows the trials and tribulations of animal families including lions, baboons, hyenas and elephants, it was an energetic yes. But it also attracted her for another reason. “I’ve never heard any one like me narrate these…

A new nuclear test reactor is needed as part of an effort to revamp the nation’s fading nuclear power industry by developing safer fuel and power plants, the U.S. Department of Energy said this week. The federal agency said it will prepare an environmental impact statement as part of the process to build the test reactor in Idaho or Tennessee by the end of 2025. Public comments on the environmental review are being taken through Sept. 4. The Versatile Test Reactor would be the first new test reactor built in the U.S. in decades and give the nation a dedicated “fast-neutron-spectrum” testing capability. Such reactors are called fast reactors. “This testing capability is essential for the United States to modernize its nuclear energy infrastructure and for developing transformational nuclear energy…

South Korea’s president described the country’s escalating trade war with Japan as a wakeup call to revamp its economy and issued a nationalistic call for economic cooperation with North Korea, which he said would allow the Koreas to erase Japan’s economic superiority in “one burst.” President Moon Jae-in made the comments in a meeting with senior aides to discuss Japan’s imposition of trade curbs on South Korea. They came as a surprise since North Korea has raised tensions in recent weeks with tests of new short-range weapons that pose a threat to South Korea’s security. “The advantage Japan’s economy has over us is the size of its (overall) economy and domestic market. If the South and North could create a peace economy through economic cooperation, we can catch up with…