Innehållsförteckning för #257 från AppleMagazine

Autonomous vehicle software startup nuTonomy has made rides on its self-driving taxis available to the general public in Singapore for free, expanding a first-in-the world run that was initially invitation-only. While multiple companies, including Google and Volvo, have been testing self-driving cars on public roads for several years, nuTonomy announced in August that was the first to offer autonomous taxi rides. It beat Uber, which started offering rides in autonomous cars in Pittsburgh last week. The Singapore trial was limited to a 2.5-square-mile (6.5-square-kilometer) business and residential district called “one north.” NuTonomy CEO Karl Iagnemma said Friday that the test area has since been doubled by the government. The approved route does not include any highways. NuTonomy, a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced Friday that the public…

As investors and investigators weigh the damage of Yahoo’s massive breach to the internet icon, information security experts worry that the record-breaking haul of password data could be used to open locks up and down the web. While it’s unknown to what extent the stolen data has been or will be circulating - or how easy it would be to use if it were - giant breaches can send ripples of insecurity across the internet. “Data breaches on the scale of Yahoo are the security equivalent of ecological disasters,” said Matt Blaze, a security researcher who directs the Distributed Systems Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, in a message posted to Twitter . A big worry is a cybercriminal technique known as “credential stuffing,” which works by throwing leaked username…

WHAT IS MACHINE LEARNING? From Ex Machina to Blade Runner, artificial intelligence has long been referenced – and threatened – in modern culture, but it is only now becoming part of our everyday technological lives. A method of data analysis, machine learning is the process of automating ‘learning’ by using algorithms to store and analyze data in ways that benefit the end user. Apple’s Siri is a prime example of how artificial intelligence is being used by the technology giants of today, with the virtual assistant offering information and answering precise questions on demand. Beyond the world of Apple, the technology is being used in a variety of ways to improve the day-to-day lives of its users. Over at Facebook, chatbots can be used to gain information, book Uber cabs and…

All those cars on California’s famously gridlocked highways could be doing more than just using energy - they could be producing it. The California Energy Commission is investing $2 million to study whether piezoelectric crystals can be used to produce electricity from the mechanical energy created by vehicles driving on roads. The commission is in the process of choosing a company or university to take on small-scale field tests. It will study how the small crystals, which generate energy when compressed, could produce electricity for the grid if installed under asphalt. Scientists already know the technology works, but the state needs to figure out whether it can produce high returns without costing too much. Similar projects in other parts of the world have been discontinued. “It’s not hard to see…

The showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was the most-watched presidential debate ever, with 84 million viewers. The Nielsen company said the viewership, over 13 different networks, toppled a record that had stood for 36 years. The previous record for presidential debate viewership was the 80.6 million people who saw the only debate in 1980 between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan. At the time of the Carter-Reagan debate, the U.S. population was 226 million. Now, it is 324 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. No debate since then had exceeded 70 million viewers. Social media was humming, too, with Nielsen saying there were some 17.1 million Twitter interactions involving 2.7 million people on Monday. Tivo said that the moment during the debate that…

A new study paints a picture of an Earth that is warmer than it has been in about 120,000 years, and is locked into eventually hitting its hottest mark in more than 2 million years. As part of her doctoral dissertation at Stanford University, Carolyn Snyder , now a climate policy official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, created a continuous 2 million year temperature record, much longer than a previous 22,000 year record. Snyder’s temperature reconstruction, published Monday in the journal Nature , doesn’t estimate temperature for a single year, but averages 5,000-year time periods going back a couple million years. Snyder based her reconstruction on 61 different sea surface temperature proxies from across the globe, such as ratios between magnesium and calcium, species makeup and acidity. But the…

Apple will be setting up its London headquarters in the boiler room of the Battersea Power Station, a London landmark that has long defined the skyline on the south bank of the River Thames. The building with four towering chimneys part of a multibillion pound restoration effort for the area. Apple and its 1,400 employees will become the largest office tenant on the development site that will include homes, businesses and leisure facilities. “It is a further sign that London is open to the biggest brands in the world and the leading city for trade and investment,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said. Apple’s decision is seen as a boost to the development projects in an area where demand has been slowing because of a luxury property glut. The station, which…

German data protection authorities on Tuesday ordered Facebook to delete data, such as phone numbers, it has received from its subsidiary WhatsApp. Facebook acquired the global messaging service two years ago and announced this summer that WhatsApp would begin sharing the phone numbers of its users with the social network as part of a program to synchronize the two businesses. But Hamburg’s Commissioner for Data Protection ruled that Facebook “neither has obtained an effective approval from the WhatsApp users, nor does a legal basis for the data reception exist.” “After the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook two years ago, both parties have publicly assured that data will not be shared between them,” the agency said in a statement. “The fact that this is now happening is not only a misleading…

Carmakers are finding the Paris auto show , held in a city whose mayor wants to ban diesels to reduce pollution, to be a fine place to show off new zero-emission electric vehicles. Most prominently, Volkswagen will unveil a small electric car as part of its pivot from diesel to more electric models as it struggles to recover from its scandal of rigging more than 11 million cars to evade diesel emissions tests. And Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz will unveil a luxury electric SUV aimed at warding off competition from, among others, all-electric upstart Tesla. Showing electric cars will help avoid a faux pas in a city where the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has campaigned against pollution from conventional autos. The Sunday before the show opened, she held a second “Day Without…

Does “Pokemon Go” have a second act? The mobile phone app was an instant hit when it debutedin July. Crowds stampeded after a Vaporeon in Central Park and people fell off cliffs playing it in California. At an Apple event on Sept. 7, Niantic CEO John Hanke said 500 million people had downloaded the game in just two months. It was the first mobile game to go mainstream in a big way since “Candy Crush” in 2014 or “Angry Birds” in 2012. It was also the first to incorporate augmented reality, a blending of the real and virtual worlds. But the buzz has decidedly cooled. Last Tuesday, the game ended its reign as the top-grossing U.S. iPhone app after 74 days on top, replaced by “Clash Royale,” a popular battling…

Once a month in the summer, a small parking lot on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus transforms into a high-tech flea market known for its outlandish offerings. Tables overflow with antique radio equipment, some of it a century old. Visitors can buy a telescope that’s the size of a cannon. One man has hauled in a NASA space capsule he owns. It’s known as Swapfest, a place where tinkerers from across New England go to buy and sell the gadgets they can’t find in stores. Some arrive searching for parts to build robots. Others are amateur radio enthusiasts adding to their collections. For some, it’s simply an outdoor museum of the strange and surprising. “You can pretty much find all things nerdly,” said Steve Finberg, an MIT alumnus and…

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey said Monday the part-owner of two information technology firms and an employee fraudulently used a visa program to reduce skilled labor costs. Prosecutors filed conspiracy charges against Sowrabh Sharma, of New York; his two firms, Jersey City-based SCM Data and MMC Systems, of Ashburn, Virginia; and Shikha Mohta, a Jersey City man who is head of finance for both companies. Sharma was arrested Monday and was scheduled to make his initial court appearance later in the day. It’s not known if he has an attorney who could comment on the accusations. Mohta was arrested in May 2015 and remains free on a $100,000 bond. In a statement, prosecutors said the companies offered consultants to clients in need of IT support. The firms recruited foreign nationals,…

I.T. A man who seemingly has it all – a loving family, a successful career, and a state-of-the-art smart home – soon finds his life in tatters after his I.T. consultant turns against him, with his home soon following. FIVE FACTS: 1. The movie was financed by Voltage Pictures, which was responsible for the likes of Dallas Buyers Club, Don Jon, and The Hurt Locker. 2. The film was directed by John Moore, who has also worked on Max Payne and The Omen. 3. Pierce Brosnan has also starred in several James Bond movies, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Mars Attacks!. 4. The movie was released to a limited number of theatres and video on-demand services by RLJ Entertainment. 5. It was produced in part by Brosnan’s friend and producing partner Beau…

The Justice Department’s top national security official is leaving his position next month, the department announced Tuesday. John Carlin, who has led the department’s national security division since 2014, will be leaving government on Oct. 15. The department did not reveal what Carlin, 43, plans to do next, but it said he would take some time off and spend time with his family. “John Carlin has been a trusted and tireless leader of the Justice Department’s National Security Division,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement. “He is wholly devoted to the department’s most important mission - protecting our country against acts of terrorism and other national security threats - and he has set a high standard by relentlessly pursuing those who seek to harm our people and threaten…

It’s not too late to get moving: Simple physical activity - mostly walking - helped high-risk seniors stay mobile after disability-inducing ailments even if, at 70 and beyond, they’d long been couch potatoes. One health policy specialist said the study released Monday suggests prescribing exercise may be just as important as prescribing medications. “Once you lose that mobility piece of your life, then you really lose independence,” said Patricia Katz of the University of California, San Francisco, who wasn’t part of the new research but said physicians need to put the findings to use. Katz called it striking that among the walkers, “if you start to have problems, you have a greater ability to recover and get your functioning back.” Older adults often shift back and forth between independence and…

BlackBerry plans to stop making its signature smartphones internally, signaling a strategic shift for a company that built its reputation on innovative smartphone technology. Rather, all development for BlackBerry-branded phones will be left to BlackBerry’s partners, which will license BlackBerry’s technology and brand, while the Canadian company concentrates on growing its software business. “We believe that this is the best way to drive profitability in the device business,” BlackBerry chairman and CEO John Chen said in a statement Wednesday. He said the move will reduce BlackBerry’s expenses by eliminating the need to carry inventory and by reducing staff and equipment requirements. BlackBerry was considered a game changer in 1999 when its RIM 950 allowed on-the-go business people to access email wirelessly. BlackBerry devices were popular for nearly a decade; users…

Yahoo has been struggling for years to keep people coming back to its digital services such as email. That challenge just got more daunting after hackers stole sensitive information from at least 500 million accounts. The startling breach disclosed last week is believed to be the largest to hit a single email provider. The security breakdown risks magnifying Yahoo’s preexisting problems - specifically, that it is losing users, traffic and the advertising revenue that follows both, to rivals such as Google and Facebook. Some snarky online commentators quipped that the hack would have been far more devastating if people actually still used the company’s services. While there’s some truth to that observation, millions around the world still rely on Yahoo mail and other services, and are now potentially at risk…

Facebook is apologizing to advertisers for what it calls an error that overstated the average length of time users watched videos on the site. The measurement didn’t affect how much Facebook charges to run video spots, but analysts say ad agencies may have used the Facebook estimates as a key metric when they plan campaigns and decide how much advertising to place on Facebook or competing sites. Facebook executive David Fischer said his company recently discovered its method of calculating the average viewing time didn’t include times when people watched a video for less than three seconds. That had the effect of making average times seem longer. Fischer said Facebook has corrected the error, but analysts say it underscores the need for independent verification of such advertising metrics.…

Social media app Snapchat is introducing video-recording glasses called Spectacles and is changing its company name to incorporate the new product. The glasses can record video 10 seconds at a time by tapping a button on the device. The video is then uploaded to the popular image-messaging app via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The glasses are the first hardware from the Los Angeles-based company. The glasses record so-called “circular video,” meaning it plays full-screen on any device in any orientation. They will be available in the U.S. in the fall on a limited basis and cost $130. In a way, the Spectacles recall Google’s venture into eyewear, Google Glass, which took photos and video. But that device also had a screen that let you surf the web as well and…

Ape In Pink Marble Devendra Banhart The ninth studio effort from the American ‘freak-folk’ singer-songwriter is just as charming as his previous efforts. It is a must-buy for fans of the likes of Joanna Newsom. FIVE FACTS: 1. Banhart has previously worked with the likes of MGMT, Beck and members of The Strokes. 2. His middle name, Obi, is modeled after the Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi. 3. His 2009 album What Will We Be was nominated for a Grammy in 2011 for Best Recording Package. 4. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship, but dropped out to busk and perform in Europe. 5. He is signed to Young God records, owned by Michael Gira of experimental rock act Swans. The Black Parade/ Living with Ghosts…

Airline pilots and air traffic controllers are on schedule to switch to text communications at most of the nation’s busiest airports by the end of the year, a milestone that holds the potential to reduce delays, prevent errors and save billions of dollars in fuel cost, says the Federal Aviation Administration. Controllers and pilots will still use their radios for quick exchanges like clearance for takeoff and in emergencies and situations where time is critical. But the nation’s air traffic system is gradually shifting to text messages for a majority of flying instructions. That’s a big advantage, say government and industry officials, because up until now longer and more complicated instructions like a route change for pilots of planes waiting to take off are communicated verbally, with each word laboriously…

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit accusing a high-flying Silicon Valley software company of systematically discriminating against Asian job applicants over the last five years. Palantir Technologies was co-founded by prominent tech financier Peter Thiel with backing from an investment arm of the CIA. The Palo Alto, California, company makes data analytics software used by the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies, along with banks, insurance companies and other private clients. The lawsuit claims Palantir routinely eliminated Asian job candidates during the resume-screening and telephone-interview stages of the company’s hiring process. The claims are based on a statistical analysis conducted by federal officials responsible for making sure government contractors comply with anti-discrimination rules. Palantir denied the allegations, saying the government’s analysis is flawed.…

Apple is extending its push into selling business technology by forging a partnership with the Deloitte consulting firm to advise companies on using iPhones, iPads and Apple software in the workplace. While Apple primarily sells to the consumer market, it’s confronting a global slowdown in consumer demand for smartphones and tablets. That’s spurred the Cupertino, California, tech giant to announce business-focused partnerships with companies that sell technology to corporate customers. These include IBM, SAP and Cisco. Apple says it sold $25 billion worth of products and services to businesses in the 12 months through September 2015. That was a 40 percent increase, but just a slice of its $233 billion in total sales. CEO Tim Cook told The Associated Press that Apple will soon announce figures that show more growth.…