Innehållsförteckning för #254 från AppleMagazine

Older drivers may soon be traveling a safer road thanks to smarter cars that can detect oncoming traffic, steer clear of trouble and even hit the brakes when a collision appears imminent. A few of these innovations, such as blind-spot warning systems, are already built in or offered as optional features in some vehicles, primarily in more expensive models. But more revolutionary breakthroughs are expected in the next few years, when measures such as robotic braking systems are supposed to become standard features in all cars on U.S. roads. Better technology, of course, can help prevent drivers of all ages from getting into accidents. But those in their 70s and older are more likely to become confused at heavily trafficked intersections and on-ramps. Aging also frequently limits a body’s range…

Samsung just released its third virtual-reality headset for its Galaxy phones, while Facebook’s Oculus business and HTC have been shipping more powerful systems connected to high-end personal computers. Sony also has an upcoming system for its PlayStation game console. Yet many people still haven’t experienced VR. Tom Harding, Samsung’s U.S. director of immersive products and virtual reality, spoke recently about VR, including efforts to improve interaction and comfort. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Q: How would you characterize the year in VR? A: We’ve seen the arrival of high-end PC virtual reality. We will see the arrival of virtual reality for game consoles. It helps grow awareness. It excites developers even further to invest time and money in developing premium titles. Q: What do you think…

Brace for a stream of digital leaks and shenanigans by Election Day. Whether it’s newly disclosed Democratic Party emails or someone tampering with voting machines, this year’s presidential election could come with hacking intrigue like none before it. Consider messages stolen from the Democrats by suspected Russian-linked hackers and posted online in the summer by the self-described persona Guccifer 2.0. That trove led to so much outrage from fellow Democrats that the party’s chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was forced to resign. Beyond partisan embarrassment from those leaks, security risks to electronic voting machines have the potential to do even more damage. Compromised machines, producing faulty vote tallies, would raise questions about the very integrity of the political process. “Election administrators are trained to run elections, not defend computer systems,” said…

A Russian blogger who has been sent to pre-trial detention for playing “Pokemon Go” in a church has appealed against his arrest. Russian news agencies on Monday quoted a local court in the city of Yekaterinburg as saying that they have received an appeal from Ruslan Sokolovsky who was ordered last week to stay behind bars at least until November pending trial. Investigators have charged the 21-year old blogger with enticing religious hatred, the same offense that sent two women from the Pussy Riot punk collective to prison for two years in 2012. Sokolovsky has posted a video on his blog showing himself playing the smartphone game in a church built on the supposed spot where the family of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II was killed.…

The low-budget home invasion horror film “Don’t Breathe” led the box office for the second straight week, topping all films over the Labor Day weekend with a four-day haul of $19.7 million. No new entries made much of a dent on the last weekend of Hollywood’s summer season. The DreamWorks period drama “The Light Between Oceans,” starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, opened with $6.2 million Friday through Monday. It was made for about $20 million. Fox’s rival horror film, “Morgan,” was completely overshadowed by “Don’t Breathe. It debuted with just $2.5 million over the holiday frame. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release,…

Europe’s Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a “dark crack” on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday. Rosetta’s camera finally captured images on Friday of the lander on comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko, weeks before the probe’s own mission ends, the agency said . The pictures showing the lander’s body and two of its three legs were taken as Rosetta passed within 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) of the surface. After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet. Philae bounced after its initial touchdown and its precise location on the comet couldn’t be pinned down until now, though its general vicinity…

Notices that personal information might have been compromised will be sent to hunting and fishing license holders in Idaho and Oregon following the breach of a vendor’s computer system. They likely will be sent in Washington state, too. Officials in Idaho and Oregon said Dallas-based Active Network will mail the notices to people in their states following the computer hack last week that shut down online license sales. Washington officials said they’re in contact with the company and expect similar letters to be sent in their state, but that hadn’t been finalized Friday. Officials say the number of records exposed could be in the millions. Online license sales have been halted in all three states until the extent of the hack is fully understood. “They’ve only been able to confirm…

Sony is unveiling a slimmer, lighter, cheaper version of its PlayStation 4, as well as a Pro device targeted at hardcore gamers that features high-resolution images and a 1-terabyte hard drive. The Japanese electronics company revealed the long-rumored updates to its video game console at an event in New York’s Times Square Wednesday. The slimmer, more energy-efficient PS4 effectively replaces the existing model. It will cost $300, down from $350 for the previous version, and go on sale on Sept. 15 in most markets. The PlayStation Pro will cost $400 and go on sale Nov. 10, in time for the holiday shopping season. It will offer 4K gaming, displaying hyper-realistic graphics and immersive visuals - as long as it is hooked up to a HDR, or high dynamic range TV.…

BOLD MOVES FROM CUPERTINO FOR LATEST HARDWARE So, it’s finally happened: the big one. Sure, this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote was also a ‘big one’ for the boys from Cupertino, giving us a first look at the likes of iOS 10, an enhanced Siri and an overhauled Apple Music... but for many observers, it will always be the company’s hardware, rather than software-focused events that are the ones to get truly excited about. With the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2 all breaking cover on Wednesday, September 7, this year’s ‘biggie’ certainly did not disappoint. But what if things hadn’t gone so well at the venerable Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the San Francisco venue that has provided the backdrop for so many other…

Prophecy abounds at the Toronto International Film Festival. Pundits pronounce Oscar guarantees. Buzz, the most cherished commodity at the festival, is measured and speculated on like stock prices. But this year’s festival, teaming with diversity on screen and behind the camera, stuffed to the gills with not just more than 300 films (138 of them premieres) but virtual reality and even a smattering of television, might just offer a broader vision of what’s to come in movies. “If you want to see the future of film, you need to come to Toronto this year,” says Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the festival. “It feels like the range of the lineup in terms of the diversity of the stories that are being told and the storytellers that are telling them, the…

The Jungle Book (2016) Inspired by the 1967 animated movie of the same name, this adaptation – which blends both CGI and live-action – sees orphan Mowgli set out on a journey of self-discovery, assisted by his animal guardians. FIVE FACTS: 1. All of the locations in the movie are computer-generated VFX. The story may have been set primarily in India, but the movie was completely shot at the LA Center Studio in Los Angeles, California. 2. The CG character Baloo is so large and furry, he took almost five hours of rendering time per frame. 3. The talking animals in this movie were created using animal behavior, then having the actors copy those movements in motion-capture VFX. 4. This is the first time that Kaa the snake is portrayed…

“Young Frankenstein” will come alive in theaters once again on Oct. 5, with a live introduction from writer-director Mel Brooks, who will pay tribute to the classic spoof’s late star Gene Wilder. The intro will be broadcast from the 20th Century Fox Lot in 500 theaters nationwide, according to an announcement from Fathom Events Tuesday. In addition to touring the studio lot, where much of the movie was filmed, Brooks is expected reminisce about his friend and collaborator Wilder, who died last Sunday from complications from Alzheimer’s. “Young Frankenstein” is one of Wilder’s most fondly remembered films. The announcement comes on the heels of AMC Theaters bringing other Wilder favorites “Blazing Saddles” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” back to theaters this past weekend. Online: www.FathomEvents.com…

Mostly unnoticed amid the political brawl over climate change, the United States has undergone a quiet transformation in how and where it gets its energy during Barack Obama’s presidency, slicing the nation’s output of polluting gases that are warming Earth. As politicians tangled in the U.S. and on the world stage, the U.S. slowly but surely moved away from emissions-spewing coal and toward cleaner fuels like natural gas, nuclear, wind and solar. The shift has put the U.S. closer to achieving the goal Obama set to cut emissions by more than a quarter over the next 15 years, but experts say it is nowhere near enough to prevent the worst effects of global warming. The overlooked changes took center stage Saturday in China. Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping entered…

Chinese-owned Volvo Cars and Sweden-based automotive safety group Autoliv say they are creating a jointly-owned company to develop autonomous driving software for Volvo cars. The carmaker said Tuesday the new company, which has yet to be named, will develop advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving systems. In a joint statement, Autoliv CEO Jan Carlson said it was “a recognition” that “autonomous driving is the next step to transform road safety.” The company’s initial workforce will be of 200, and is set to start early next year. In August, Volvo Cars announced it was teaming up with ride-sharing company Uber to develop next-generation driverless cars, in a $300 million project. China’s Great Wall Motor and Geely Holding own Volvo Cars.…

Samsung’s Note 7 isn’t the only gadget to catch fire thanks to lithium-battery problems, which have afflicted everything from iPhones to Tesla cars to Boeing jetliners. Blame chemistry and the fact that the batteries we rely on for everyday life are prone to leaking and even bursting into flame if damaged, defective or exposed to excessive heat. That’s because lithium-ion batteries store a lot of energy in a tiny space, with combustible components separated by ultra-thin walls. If something happens to those separators, a chemical reaction can quickly escalate out of control. Samsung hasn’t specified exactly what caused the fires that led to the recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7s Thursday beyond calling it a “battery cell issue .” Still, lithium batteries are so ubiquitous that ordinary users of…

It turns out some wealthy companies are just like some wealthy hedge fund managers: They’re taxed at far lower rates than nearly everyone else. Whether or not Apple used illegal breaks to pay virtually no taxes in Europe over 11 years, as regulators there contend and the company denies, the order last week that it pay billions in back taxes highlights a worrisome divide among the world’s biggest corporations: Some pay relatively little taxes, others a lot. Taxes paid in the U.S. and abroad by tech companies like Apple amounted to 24 percent of their profits in the 10 years through 2014, according to a Credit Suisse report. Energy companies paid 41 percent, nearly double. Experts say a tax system that divides companies so starkly into winners and losers raises…

Drones are racing through central Paris - but they’re not hunting for terrorists, they’ve just been brought out for fun. The city is hosting its first Drone Festival on Sunday, including an international race along the Champs-Elysees. Drones of varying shapes and sizes are zipping along the avenue, lined with trees and luxury stores, in a circuit that stops just shy of the Arc de Triomphe. While drones are increasingly used by French security services, civilians are forbidden from flying them over Paris without special permission. Paris City Hall authorized them for Sunday’s event, aimed at introducing the public to France’s civilian drone industry. France saw a spate of mysterious drone flyovers last year over sensitive sites that worried the authorities.…

Glory (Deluxe Version) Britney Spears The ninth studio album from pop legend Britney Spears is the star’s long-awaited return to top form. FIVE FACTS: 1. The singer began working on the album in 2014; she also renewed her record deal with RCA Records. 2. She has been performing a residency at the AXIS auditorium at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas since late 2013. 3. On Most Requested Live with Romeo, Spears revealed it was her son who chose the name of the album. 4. Spears has topped the list of most-searched celebrities seven times in the last 12 years, a record since the inception of the Internet. 5. She has claimed five Guinness World Records, including ‘Best Selling Album by a Teenage Solo Artist’ and ‘Best…

Paper? Pencils? Laptops? Robots? Teachers are increasingly relying on crowdfunding efforts to stock their classrooms with both the mundane and sometimes big-ticket items. Contributions to education campaigns have climbed on GoFundMe and DonorsChoose, collectively, from just more than $31.2 million in 2010 to nearly $140 million in 2015, the do-it-yourself fundraising sites report. Both sites are on pace to eclipse that in 2016. GoFundMe has collected $58 million in just the last 12 months, and DonorsChoose saw more than 50,000 campaigns live on the site for the first time this back-to-school season. In her first year as an elementary school teacher in Kingman, Arizona, Shannon Raftery raised $340 through crowdfunding to supplement the money she took out of each paycheck to pay for classroom supplies. Now in Philadelphia, she’s looking…

Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica says it is considering selling a minority stake in its British mobile phone operator O2, four months after regulators blocked its takeover. Telefonica SA said in a statement Monday it is looking into a variety of strategic plans for O2, one of the United Kingdom’s major operators. The Madrid-based company said it has already started preparing a possible initial public offering, which it described as just one of the possibilities. The statement said all the options involved Telefonica keeping a majority share. Last May, the European Union’s regulator blocked a $15 billion takeover of O2 by CK Hutchison, citing concerns the deal would have stifled innovation and led to higher prices for consumers. Telefonica is weighed down by some 52 billion euros ($58 billion) in debt.…