Innehållsförteckning för #431 från AppleMagazine

You may not think you’re in the same league as Jeff Bezos when it comes to being a hacking target. Probably not, but you — and just about anyone else, potentially including senior U.S. government figures — could still be vulnerable to an attack similar to one the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner apparently experienced. Two U.N. experts this week called for the U.S. to investigate a likely hack of Bezos’ phone that could have involved Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A commissioned forensic report found with “medium to high confidence” that Bezos’ iPhone X was compromised by a video MP4 file he received from the prince in May 2018. Bezos later went public about the hack after the National Enquirer tabloid threatened to publish Bezos’ private…

Melanie Musson in Belgrade, Montana, does a lot of driving with her four girls. Juggling a broad age range, 1 to 9, she’s forever searching for ways to keep them all entertained without relying entirely on video. While she still adores paper and tablet books for her kids, Musson said: “I think when they hear without seeing, they have to make up visuals in their heads. That’s so good. They have to be engaged and get more out of it.” There are plenty of quality audiobooks, podcasts and music for the young, she noted, but weeding through thousands of selections and jumping from platform to platform is a challenge since audio content has exploded over the last few years. Dad blogger Balint Horvath in Zurich agreed after trying to make…

Apple is still reaping huge profits from the iPhone while mining more moneymaking opportunities from the growing popularity of its smartwatch, digital services and wireless earbuds. That combination produced a banner season for a company whose fortunes appeared to be sliding just a year ago amid declining sales for the iPhone, its marquee product for the past decade. Apple’s fiscal first-quarter results, released Tuesday, provided the latest proof that the fears hanging over the consumer electronics icon might have been unfounded. Apple’s profit and revenue for the October-December period topped analysts’ projections, providing another boost to a stock that has more than doubled in less than 13 months. The shares surged more than 2% to $325.33 in extended trading after the numbers came out. That’s up from $142 in January…

Ford v Ferrari The visionary automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and British-born professional racecar driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) build a revolutionary new racecar, the Ford GT40, to take the challenge to Ferrari’s team at France’s 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. FIVE FACTS: 1. This is an adaptation of a real-life story, with Shelby and Miles far from the only real-life characters depicted in the film. 2. For example, Alex Gurney plays his father, racing driver Dan Gurney, in the film. 3. Also featured are villainous portrayals of Leo Beebe and Henry Ford II, both real-life and high-profile Ford executives – leading the Ford company to distance itself from the film before its release. 4. Despite being marketed as Ford v Ferrari in North America, the movie…

Singer Billie Eilish, who gave voice to young people struggling with depression on a do-it-yourself album she made at home with her older brother, is atop the music world. The 18-year-old made history at the Grammy Awards last weekend. Not only did she become the youngest person to win one of Grammy’s top awards — record, song and album of the year, and best new artist — Eilish is the first artist to sweep all four since Christopher Cross in 1981. Her triumph came on a night made somber by the death of former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. It also ended a tumultuous week for the Recording Academy that included its ousted CEO accusing the Grammys nominations process of being rigged, and Diddy calling out the organization for…

The United Nations has been hacked. An internal confidential document from the United Nations, leaked to The New Humanitarian and seen by The Associated Press, says that dozens of servers were “compromised” at its offices in Geneva and Vienna. Those include the U.N. human rights office, which has often been a lightning rod of criticism from autocratic governments for its calling-out of rights abuses. One U.N. official told the AP that the hack, which was first detected over the summer, appeared “sophisticated” and that the extent of the damage remained unclear, especially in terms of personal, secret or compromising information that may have been stolen. The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity to speak freely about the episode, said systems have since been reinforced. The level of sophistication…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced a new fast-track visa to attract more of the world’s best scientists to the U.K. in hopes of creating a global science “superpower.” Johnson paired the announcement of the Global Talent route program with a pledge of 300 million pounds ($392 million) for research into advanced mathematics. The money will help fund researchers and doctoral students whose work in math underpins myriad developments such as safer air travel, smart phone technology and artificial intelligence. The new visa route will have no cap on the number of people able to come to the U.K. under the program. It starts next month. “The UK has a proud history of scientific discovery, but to lead the field and face the challenges of the future we need to…

Sale ending soon! Only two left! This is a hot item! If you’ve shopped online, you’ve probably seen those messages. What you may not realize: They’re designed to make you spend more. Online stores have adopted tricks used for years by infomercials and home shopping networks. The only difference now: online stores are trying to get you to click the buy button. After reviewing 200 of the top shopping sites, including Amazon, eBay and Macys.com, a study by the University of Michigan’s School of Information found that all the sites had an average of 19 features that could encourage impulse buying, such as limited-time discounts and wording that made an item seem like it was almost out of stock. The best way to combat them? Being aware of the tactics…

As iPhone and iPad sales begin to fall, Apple is focusing its attention on professional users, introducing a bunch of new hardware to compete in an increasingly crowded - but lucrative - market. With the launch of Pro Mode for macOS, the company could be onto a winner… PRO MODE POWERS UP YOUR TECH As Apple looks to unlock new revenue streams and appease its professional user base, the company could be on the verge of launching one of its most exciting features to date. Rather than beefing up its iMacs and MacBooks with high-end specs, Apple looks set to launch Pro Mode, boosting performance in some apps to allow for improved speed and productivity . Apple recognizes that, when it comes to professional and high-end computers, Windows and the…

U.S. consumer confidence showed a strong gain in January, bolstered by continued strength in the job market. The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index rose to a reading of 131.6 this month, up from 128.2 in December. Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said that the increase, which followed a more moderate advance in December, reflected a more positive assessment of the current job market and increased optimism about future job prospects. ’“Optimism about the labor market should continue to support confidence in the short-term and, as a result, consumers will continue driving growth and prevent the economy slowing slowing in early 2020,” Franco said. The Conference Board’s present situation index and its expectation index both showed gains in January. Consumer confidence surveys…

Hotspot Pet Shop Boys The legendary British synth-pop duo completes their trilogy of albums produced by the Los Angeles-based producer Stuart Price. The “banging and lasers” of 2013’s Electric and 2016’s Super are slightly powered down for Hotspot, the boys’ love letter to the German capital, Berlin. FIVE FACTS: 1. The Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, first met in a chance encounter at a London electronics store in 1981. 2. The new album’s title is partly derived from Berlin’s history as the “hotspot” of the Cold War. 3. Hotspot was primarily recorded at Berlin’s Hansa studio, located only about 150 meters from where the Berlin Wall once stood. 4. The lead single, “Dreamland”, is a collaboration with another British synth-pop act, Years & Years. 5. All three…

As entertainment companies roll out new streaming services, they’re stocking them with the goodies from their own content archives, hoping that the loss of income today will mean more money rolling in from subscribers in the future. In its fourth quarter, AT&T said that bet cost it $1.2 billion in revenue. AT&T isn’t alone in doing this. Comcast’s NBCUniversal took back “The Office ” from Netflix for Peacock; Disney grabbed its movies for Disney Plus. Disney has said it lost about $150 million in licensing revenue in its 2019 fiscal year from terminating deals with Netflix and other services. AT&T’s WarnerMedia is launching HBO Max in May and decided to keep “Friends” and “Big Bang Theory” for itself to bolster the service as its traditional TV customers melt away. The…

The PGA Tour is closing in on its next television rights deal, likely to be announced after the West Coast swing now that the digital side is coming together. Two people aware of the negotiations say ESPN has emerged as the winner of the streaming sweepstakes, which currently belongs to NBC Sports. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal is not finalized. Live streaming would be available on ESPN+. It would not be the first time ESPN+ has shown the PGA Tour. It had a portion of PGA Tour Live in 2018 — it was run by BAMTech, of which Disney had acquired a controlling stake the previous summer. PGA Tour Live moved to NBC Sports Gold for 2019 and this year. ESPN previously…

Climate change is a man-made problem, but the solution doesn’t have to come at the expense of fossil fuels, said Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. Gordon, who spoke at the Wyoming Press Association’s banquet in Casper, said developing carbon capture technology could be the solution. “This is a climate crisis we really need to address,” said the first-term Republican governor. “But we can only address it if we are serious about what the solutions are.” Wyoming is setting the stage for being part of the solution, Gordon said. The School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming has been researching carbon capture technologies that could reduce pollution from burning coal to make electricity in an effort to sustain the demand for Wyoming coal. Wyoming has passed legislation to govern carbon…

Hundreds of employees are openly criticizing Amazon’s record on climate change despite what they say is a company policy that puts their jobs at risk for speaking out. More than 300 employees of the online retail giant signed their names and job titles to statements on blog post on Medium. The online protest was organized by a group called Amazon Employees For Climate Justice, an advocacy group founded by Amazon workers that earlier this month said the company had sent letters to its members threatening to fire them if they continued to speak to the press. “It’s our moral responsibility to speak up, and the changes to the communications policy are censoring us from exercising that responsibility,” said Sarah Tracy, a software development engineer at Amazon, in a statement. Amazon…

General Motors is spending $2.2 billion to refurbish an underused Detroit factory so it can build a series of electric and self-driving vehicles, eventually employing 2,200 people. GM said in a statement that the factory will start building the company’s first electric pickup late in 2021, followed by a funky-looking self-driving shuttle for GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle unit. The truck will be the first of several electric vehicles to be built at the plant, which straddles the border between Detroit and the enclave of Hamtramck. The company has plans to revive the Hummer nameplate for one of the vehicles. In November of 2018 GM announced plans to close the factory along with three others in the U.S. But the company promised to reopen Detroit-Hamtramck to build electric vehicles during last…

After nearly 11 months in orbit, the astronaut holding the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman can’t wait to dig into some salsa and chips, and swim and surf in the Gulf of Mexico. NASA astronaut Christina Koch told this week — her 319th consecutive day in space — that taking part in the first all-female spacewalk was the highlight of her mission. She’s been living on the International Space Station since March and returns to Earth on Feb. 6, landing in Kazakhstan with two colleagues aboard a Russian capsule. Koch said she and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir appreciated that the Oct. 18 spacewalk “could serve as an inspiration for future space explorers.” “We both drew a lot of inspiration from seeing people that were reflections of…

Guy Ritchie’s honor-among-thieves meta-caper “The Gentlemen,” with Matthew McConaughey, has all the tailored tweed suits and smoky atmosphere of a handsome scotch commercial. “The Gentlemen” might not be an ad, but Ritchie’s film is most assuredly selling something. It’s selling a vision in which “real men” handle their business with a touch of class. There are those who get it (handsome, heterosexual white men) and those who don’t (overambitious minorities, predatory gay men). In “The Gentlemen,” any criminal aspirant lacking the proper panache is set straight, until the underworld empire of crime boss Mickey Pearson (McConaughey) has been sufficiently protected. “If you wish to be the king of the jungle, it’s not enough to act like the king. You must be the king,” McConaughey’s gangster intones in the film’s opening.…

Airbnb is giving a few people a chance to spend a two-month sabbatical in the Bahamas in an attempt to boost the Caribbean island damaged last year by Hurricane Dorian. At least 67 people were killed and more than $3.4 billion in damage was caused when Hurricane Dorian swept through the country’s hundreds of islands in October 2019. Aribnb has offered other sabbaticals over the past year to promote the environment. For their latest offer, five people have a chance to visit the three islands within the Bahamas that were not affected by the storm: Andros, Eleuthera and Exumas. There, those selected will work on projects for two months including coral reef restoration, pineapple farming, boating building and more, working with the Bahamas National Trust. The nonprofit manages the country’s…

Britain decided to let Chinese tech giant Huawei have a limited role supplying new high-speed network equipment to wireless carriers, ignoring the U.S. government’s warnings that it would sever intelligence sharing if the company was not banned. Britain’s decision is the first by a major U.S. ally in Europe, and follows intense lobbying from the Trump administration as the U.S. vies with China for technological dominance. It sets up a diplomatic clash with the Americans, who claim that British sovereignty is at risk because the company could give the Chinese government access to data, an allegation Huawei denies. “We would never take decisions that threaten our national security or the security of our Five Eyes partners,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, referring to a security arrangement in which Britain, the…

Business around the world that have grown increasingly reliant on big-spending tourists from China are taking a heavy hit, with tens of millions of Chinese residents restricted from leaving their country as the coronavirus spreads. Hotels, airlines, casinos and cruise operators were among the industries suffering the most immediate repercussions, especially with the outbreak occurring during the Lunar New Year, one of the biggest travel season in Asia. What happens in China means a lot more to the world economy than it did when the SARS outbreak struck nearly two decades ago. In 2003, China accounted for 4.3% of world economic output. Last year, it accounted for 16.3%, according to the International Monetary Fund. Tourism from China was already down before the virus hit due in part to the Hong…