Innehållsförteckning för #419 från AppleMagazine

As Apple officially kicks off its Apple TV+ streaming service, we take a closer look at its new offering, explore some of the shows you can look forward to, and consider the competition, with Disney, Netflix, and AT&T fighting back in the battle to become King of the Streamers… TRULY IMMERSIVE CONTENT With $210 billion in reserves, a $6 billion investment in content for a TV streaming service didn’t break the bank for Apple. Indeed, though established players like Netflix must raise billions of dollars in debt to fuel their investment in new shows , Apple is able to attract the world’s top talent by flashing its checkbook - and it shows no signs of slowing down. Shows such as The Morning Show and For All Mankind have already been…

PROMISING PLANS FROM THE TEAM AT CUPERTINO While Apple’s work on virtual reality (VR) and related technologies can possibly be traced back as far as the 1990s , the Cupertino company has stepped up its efforts in augmented reality (AR) in recent years. We’ve seen this with the launch of the AR platform ARKit in 2017, while code in iOS 13 suggests that Apple is currently testing an AR headset. More recently, Apple was reported to be partnering with Valve to develop AR headwear possibly penciled in for release next year. Indeed, many recent reports and rumors have centralized around a 2020 release for Apple’s first AR headset. One report from the often less-than-reliable DigiTimes claims that Apple “has partnered with US game developer Valve to develop AR head-mounted display…

Services such as Stitch Fix and Amazon’s Prime Wardrobe have put try-before-you-buy shopping on the map. The concept is simple: Shoppers get apparel, accessories or other goods delivered to try, which they can either send back or purchase. “For many customers who do not enjoy the hustle and bustle of driving to the mall, parking, going through shelves, picking out items and hitting a dressing room, perusing from the comfort of the couch and selecting items to be delivered to the door to try on can be very convenient,” says Casey Taylor, a partner in the retail practice of Bain and Company, a global management consultancy. But sneaky fees and easy-to-miss return windows can lead shoppers to spend more than they bargained for. Here’s how to take advantage of try-before-you-buy…

The losses at Uber are mounting, but the ride-hailing heavyweight now predicts it will be profitable in about two years. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the company’s goal is to reach profitability — when adjusted for interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — for the full year of 2021. “We hope that we’ve shown you that we can execute against not just delivering top-line growth, but also top-line growth with discipline,” Khosrowshahi said on a conference call with investors. “We can only do so with the really, really hard work of all our employees on a global basis, and also the partnership of the cities that we work with, and our drivers.” The San Francisco company picked up the pace of its revenue growth, racking up $3.81 billion in the third…

Here, again, is Johnny. Our glimpses of Jack Torrance are fleeting in Michael Flanagan’s “The Shining” sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” but Stanley Kubrick’s colossal 1980 horror film is seldom out of mind, or out of frame. Even that axe is back. Adapted from Stephen King’s 2013 book, “Doctor Sleep” shifts the story to the tricycle-riding tyke of “The Shining,” Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor), now grown and dealing, understandably, with a few residual psychological issues from his childhood stay at the Overlook Hotel. Yes, Hollywood’s insatiable search for new iterations for old intellectual property has wound its way, like the Torrances’ car meandering up the mountain road, to the House of Kubrick. It’s so overwhelmingly a misguided mission that you want to shout, “Don’t go in there!” And yet “Doctor Sleep” careens…

“My desperation to see Ariana Grande in concert created the perfect trap.” Instead of seeing her sing about love and loss, I got sucked into an online ticket scheme that cost me $75 and a big chunk of my pride. Con artists often get away with scams like these because digital payment services such as Venmo and Apple Cash don’t protect consumers the same way credit cards do. As a rule of thumb, the newer the service, the more likely con artists will target it. “The regulations haven’t caught up with these technology capabilities,” said Krista Tedder, head of fraud management at the advisory firm Javelin Strategy & Research. With credit cards, a federal law caps your liability at $50, and most companies go further with zero-liability policies. Debit cards…

Boeing’s capsule for astronauts underwent its first major flight test Monday, shooting a mile into the air then parachuting back to the New Mexico desert. The Starliner capsule carried no crew, just a test dummy for the 1 ½-minute shakedown of the launch abort system. Only two of the three main parachutes opened, but both NASA and Boeing said astronauts would have been safe if aboard. The abort system is designed to provide a fast getaway for a crew, if there’s an emergency on the Florida pad or in flight. For its next test, Boeing plans to launch a Starliner to the International Space Station next month, without a crew. All three astronauts assigned to the first crew flight — targeted for next year — were present for Monday’s test.…

Google employees are demanding the company issue a climate plan that commits it to zero emissions by 2030. An online petition posted this week bears signatures from more than a thousand Google employees. It also calls on Google to decline contracts that would support the extraction of fossil fuels and to avoid collaborating with organizations involved with the oppression of refugees. Amazon and Microsoft employees have similarly called on their employer to take steps for climate change action. Workers from both companies joined climate marches in September. Google employees have been especially vocal in issuing demands and calling for change within the company. Employees have protested sexual misconduct and forced arbitration practices within the company and Google’s treatment of contract workers.…

Apple has committed $2.5 billion to ease California’s housing crisis, eclipsing similar pledges by fellow Silicon Valley giants Google and Facebook to address a lack of affordable housing in a region where affluent tech workers have helped drive up the cost of homes. Apple’s pledge includes a $1 billion statewide fund creating an “open line of credit” to build new homes for households with low to moderate incomes and a $1 billion homebuyer mortgage assistance fund. “It’s a recognition that the San Francisco Bay Area is in a major housing crisis,” said David Shulman, a senior economist with the Anderson Forecast at the University of California, Los Angeles. Shulman said it’s a good step but might not make much of a difference if it’s just creating “cheap financing” for development…

Google, the company that helped make it fun to just sit around surfing the web, is jumping into the fitness-tracker business with both feet, buying Fitbit for about $2.1 billion. The deal could put Google in direct competition with Apple and Samsung in the highly competitive market for smartwatches and other wearable electronics. But it also raises questions about privacy and Google’s dominance in the tech industry. The company’s announcement came with a promise that it won’t sell ads using the intimate health data that Fitbit devices collect. Fitbit is a pioneer in wearable fitness technology, making a range of devices that have become pop-culture accessories, from basic trackers that count how many steps you take each day to smartwatches that display messages and notifications from phones. They can track…

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw Although they are usually at odds, DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and lawless mercenary Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) team up on a mission to stop a cybergenetically enhanced terrorist, Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), as he seeks to unleash a deadly virus known as Snowflake. FIVE FACTS: 1. Johnson made his first big-screen appearance as Hobbs in 2011’s Fast Five. 2. Meanwhile, Statham debuted in the Fast & Furious franchise in 2013’s Fast & Furious 6, albeit uncredited in a cameo scene. 3. Lethal Weapon director Shane Black was considered as a potential director of Hobbs & Shaw. 4. However, the director’s chair was instead ultimately taken by David Leitch, who had previously directed Deadpool 2. 5. Hobbs & Shaw is Leitch’s first…

Fifty years ago, beloved entertainer Carol Burnett appeared on the very first broadcast of a quirky TV program that featured a bunch of furry puppets. Blink and you might miss it, but Burnett followed a cartoon about a witch called Wanda, which was loaded with words beginning with the letter w. “Wow, Wanda the Witch is weird,” Burnett commented. And then — poof — she was gone. That show was “Sesame Street” and Burnett, like a lot of kids, was instantly hooked. She would return to the show multiple times, including visits to demonstrate to pre-school viewers where her nose was and to smooch a rubber duckie. “I was a big fan. I would have done anything they wanted me to do,” she said. “I loved being exposed to all…

The Daily Orange isn’t daily anymore. The student-run newspaper that has covered Syracuse University since 1903, and trained generations of journalists, now prints three issues per week. Editor-in-chief Haley Robertson wonders where she’ll find advertisers, worries about firing friends, and searches for alumni donors who will pay to send reporters on the road to cover the university’s sports teams. These are problems not unlike those that bedevil executives two or three times her age — evidence of how the news industry’s woes have seeped onto campuses that try to harness youthful energy and idealism to turn out professionals who can inform the world. Meanwhile, college journalism educators are changing the way they teach in a race against obsolescence. They’re emphasizing versatility and encouraging a spirit of entrepreneurship. After some brutal…

Multiple published reports say that the U.S. government has launched a national-security review of the China-owned video app TikTok, popular with millions of U.S. teens and young adults. The reports from Reuters, The New York Times and others said that the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews acquisitions by foreign firms, has opened an inquiry into TikTok owner ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of a predecessor app, Musical.ly. Several senators have recently noted concerns about censorship and data collection on TikTok. The Treasury Department, which houses CFIUS, said it does not comment on specific cases because the agency by law cannot disclose to the public information filed to it. TikTok said it cannot comment on ongoing regulatory processes. But it said it “has made clear that we…

Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. tumbled into losses in the last quarter as its earnings were hammered by money-losing investments, including a bailout for office-space sharing startup WeWork. SoftBank’s founder, Masayoshi Son, said he was regretting “mistaken investment moves.” He said the situation at WeWork was under control, and he expects to turn it around. The Tokyo-based company’s 700 billion yen ($6.4 billion) loss in the July-September quarter compares with a 526 billion yen profit the same period a year ago. SoftBank said Wednesday that it expects a special loss on the value of its shares of subsidiaries and associates of nearly 498 billion yen ($4.6 billion) for its non-consolidated financial statement for the fiscal year ending in March 2020. Last month, SoftBank announced a bailout for WeWork, including…

Apple is still running a well-oiled moneymaking machine despite cooling demand for its hottest product, the iPhone. Sales and revenue in the July-September quarter exceeded Wall Street estimates as Apple’s newest iPhones got off to a better start than expected, even though the devices aren’t that much different from last year’s models. Apple said that revenue rose 2% from the same time last year to $64 billion, despite iPhone revenue dropping 9%. The company’s iPhone sales have now declined from the previous year for four straight quarter. Apple’s quarterly profit dipped 3% to $13.7 billion, but its earnings per share of $3.03 topped analyst projections. In another encouraging sign for the company, Apple’s sales in China recover further from a sharp drop-off earlier this year. That helped ease worries that…

It’s not just eBay anymore. A slew of websites and apps act as virtual thrift stores for vintage devotees, deal hunters and those just looking to unload stuff they don’t want anymore. These sites have proliferated as the recession of a decade ago and the slow comeback in wages since then dramatically altered how people shop. Discounters like T.J. Maxx have been sweeping up, while many traditional retailers have shrunk, gone bankrupt or disappeared. The stigma of “used” has fallen away, and many now shop knowing full well they can sell their pieces later and get some money back. Some consider buying used clothes online a more ecoconscious approach to trends. There’s a range to the Goodwills and consignment stores of the internet. Some cater to kids or young adults;…

Airbnb Inc. says it’s banning “party houses” in the wake of a deadly shooting at an Airbnb rental in California. In a series of tweets, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said that the San Francisco-based company is stepping up efforts to “combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct.” “We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable,” Chesky said. Airbnb has always banned unauthorized parties, but it plans to increase enforcement of that policy. Chesky said Airbnb will expand manual screening of “high risk” reservations that are flagged by its system. Reservations for one night at a large house, for example, might get extra scrutiny. The company also plans to crack down on hosts who allow their homes to become long-term nuisances in…

Wildcard Miranda Lambert By her own admission, country music star Miranda Lambert took a much-needed break halfway through writing her seventh studio album Wildcard. It shows in the finished work, which feels like a fresh start infusing influences of rock ‘n’ roll into the artist’s familiar country sound. FIVE FACTS: 1.“I took the first long stretch I’ve ever had off in my entire career since I was 17,” Lambert told Apple Music about her self-enforced break. 2.“Oddly enough, on my seventh studio album, I feel like I approached it more like my first album than any other record I’ve made,” she also revealed. 3.“Way Too Pretty for Prison” is a lighthearted breakup song where Lambert fantasizes about killing an ex but decides that prison is too unappealing. 4. The album’s…

If you make it free, will they come? Apple, Disney and AT&T’s WarnerMedia want to jump-start their challenges to Netflix by offering freebies and deep discounts on emerging streaming plans. That includes a free year of Apple TV Plus for customers of new Apple devices and a free year of Disney Plus to higher-tier Verizon customers. Some existing HBO subscribers will also get the super-charged version, HBO Max, at no additional cost. Experts say these services can worry later about holding onto customers — perhaps by offering must-see shows they can’t get anywhere else or tying discounts to other services that are difficult to drop. “Next year is a race to aggregate consumers,” said Kevin Westcott, who heads Deloitte’s U.S. telecommunication, media and entertainment consulting business. “The first war is…

California’s attorney general disclosed an ongoing probe into Facebook privacy practices as investigators sought a court’s help in getting documents and answers from Facebook. The California probe, one of many legal inquiries into Facebook, began as a response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and grew into an investigation into whether Facebook has misrepresented its privacy practices, deceived users and broken California law. Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm, gathered details on as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission. The Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion this summer for privacy violations in an investigation that also grew out of that scandal. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra offered few details about the probe. He said he was disclosing it because his office was making a public court filing…

Seeking to bolster its image as a forward-looking metropolis, Dubai hosted the largest-ever international robotics contest, challenging young people from 190 countries to find solutions to global ocean pollution. Event organizers say their selection of Dubai as host reflects a vote of confidence that this oil-rich Emirati sheikhdom can be a global hub for innovation. They also expressed hope that bringing together tomorrow’s scientists and engineers will help develop technologies to solve the world’s most pressing issues, particularly those related to the environment. Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST Global Challenge, said the Middle East represents a part of the world where “the adults have not learned how to play nice with each other” and it was up to young people to fix humanity’s self-inflicted wounds. “We are in an accelerating…

President Xi Jinping promised more gradual market-opening steps at the start of an import fair this week but no initiatives on technology policy and other irritants that sparked a tariff war with Washington. The second China International Import Expo showcases the country’s vast import market of 1.4 billion people to help deflect complaints that it improperly subsidizes industries and shields them from competition. It offers a marketing platform for foreign suppliers of goods from wine to yachts but does less for companies that already are established in China. “The door that China is opening will only open further and wider,” Xi said in a speech to an audience that included French President Emmanuel Macron and prime ministers of Greece, Jamaica and Serbia. Xi affirmed promises to reduce restrictions on foreign…