Innehållsförteckning för #438 från AppleMagazine

To make room for toilet paper, hand sanitizer and other items in high demand during the global viral pandemic, Amazon said it is limiting what brands and independent sellers can send to its warehouses for the next three weeks. Among the products that can be shipped to Amazon include canned beans, diapers, dog food, disinfecting wipes, medical supplies and various household goods. Items like jeans, phone cases and other non-essentials will not be allowed. “It’s pretty disruptive,” says Greg Mercer, the CEO of Jungle Scout, a software platform for Amazon sellers that predicts sales data. Merchants send their products to Amazon to store in their warehouses until a shopper buys it. Amazon then packs up the products and ships it to the customer. Third-party sellers who sell most of their…

With the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak forcing governments to close schools, sporting events, communal spaces and more, businesses are taking the situation into their own hands, encouraging their staff to work from home. With the virus continuing on its path of destruction and no clear end in sight, the pandemic could change the way we work forever. BIG COMPANIES CHANGING POLICIES We’re living in truly unprecedented times. Not only has the World Health Organization called COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic, but stock markets are hemorrhaging billions, countries are closing their borders, and businesses are beginning to feel the pitch. With a vaccine at least six months away and governments imposing new social distancing measures, we knew it wouldn’t take long for businesses to introduce their own coronavirus policies to protect their staff,…

APPLE HAS INTRODUCED AN ALL-NEW MACBOOK AIR, OFFERING FASTER PERFORMANCE, A NEW SCISSOR-SWITCH MAGIC KEYBOARD, TWICE THE STORAGE THAN THE PREVIOUS GENERATION, AND A NEW LOWER $999 PRICE TAG. The company had planned to launch a range of new products at a special March event from its Apple Campus, but the ongoing coronavirus outbreak forced the Cupertino firm to change its strategy. Rather than holding off until its virtual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple made the decision to launch the new MacBook Air on its site. The new MacBook Air offers up to twice the CPU performance than the previous generation thanks to the latest 10th-generation Intel Core processors up to 1.2GHz quad-core Core i7 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.8GHz, and up to 80% faster graphics performance, perfect for…

Little Women New York City teacher Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) reflects on a life in which her sister Amy (Florence Pugh) studies painting in Paris. Meanwhile, the eldest March sibling, Meg (Emma Watson), is married to a schoolteacher and shy sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen) suffers a serious illness. FIVE FACTS: 1. This is writer-director Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel of the same name. 2. Coincidentally, Alcott herself was recently depicted on-screen by Zosia Mamet in the Apple TV+ series Dickinson, starring Hailee Steinfeld as the poet Emily Dickinson. 3. Controversially, despite the film’s critical and commercial success, Gerwig was denied an Academy Award nomination for her directorial work here. 4. The Columbia Pictures logo opening this film is actually the 1990s version – a nod…

Anyone tuning into the new TV series “Motherland: Fort Salem” will find a few changes in the America depicted. For one thing, women are in charge of the military. For another, they’re all witches. Freeform’s 10-episode first season is set in an alternate, present-day United States where magical women make up the armed forces and are fighting a shadowy terrorist threat. It’s a TV show like no other. Think of “Charmed” mashed with “The Man in the High Castle.” It’s the brainchild of creator and executive producer Eliot Laurence, who said the idea came to him years ago like a lightening bolt — witches plus military. “I had not seen that. And who knows? In the history of fantasy writing, I’m sure many people have tackled this combo. But for…

The Walt Disney Co. will release “Frozen 2” on Disney Plus several months early to give families cooped up by the coronavirus a welcome distraction — and give its streaming service a boost. Disney announced that “Frozen 2” began streaming on Disney Plus this week, three months earlier than expected, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Most upcoming new releases have been postponed due to the virus, including Disney’s own lineup. “Mulan” had been set to hit theaters next week. Few March or April movies remain on the calendar. Some movie theaters have shuttered, though most are currently imposing new restrictions on audience crowding to help facilitate the social distancing recommended by health officials. The move by Disney could presage how other media companies funnel their films to…

Fox News Channel’s influential prime-time lineup is starting to reflect the changed realities of the coronavirus outbreak, without embracing old enemies. The network most popular with President Donald Trump’s supporters has added a daily coronavirus-themed show and extended news hours, is practicing social distancing on the air and is frequently featuring guests like Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Nicole Saphier. With the country hunkering down to protect against the virus’ spread, talk of “hysteria” and “panic” was gone from the prime-time opinion lineup that is the network’s engine. Sean Hannity promised “facts without fear” and said that “we are all Americans.” Laura Ingraham said federal guidelines restricting movement should be taken extremely seriously. Some things remained consistent: There was time to criticize Democrats and non-Fox media. The sister channel Fox…

French regulators fined Apple 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) on Monday for striking deals to keep prices high, in the biggest-ever such sanction by France’s Competition Authority. The agency said Apple and top re-sellers agreed to align prices with Apple’s own pricing for its iPads and some other products. The deals did not concern iPhones. Calling the fine “disheartening,” Apple defended its operations in a statement saying its “investment and innovation supports over 240,000 jobs across the country.” Apple added that: “It relates to practices from over a decade ago and discards thirty years of legal precedent that all companies in France rely on with an order that will cause chaos for companies across all industries.” Two “premium” French Apple re-sellers, Tech Data and Ingram Micro, were also fined a…

Governments and central banks are scrambling to find ways to keep businesses from going bankrupt as the virus outbreak grinds the world economy to a halt. A day after Wall Street endured its worst daily drop since the crash of 1987, European markets wavered, while U.S. stocks recovered about half of their losses. There is tremendous volatility, with the extent of economic damage from the pandemic still anyone’s guess. Factories are closed, retail stores are closed, travel has ground almost to a halt and billions of people are sheltering at home, going outside only to find essential supplies. Here is a look at how the outbreak is reshaping the global economy and how individuals, businesses and governments are responding. GOVERNMENT & CENTRAL BANKS Where to begin is an enormously complex…

The U.S. internet won’t get overloaded by spikes in traffic from the millions of Americans now working from home to discourage the spread of the new coronavirus, experts say. But connections could stumble for many if too many family members try to videoconference at the same time. Some may have to settle for audio, which is much less demanding of bandwidth. Separately, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia applauded announcements by several major U.S. internet providers for taking temporary measures — including the suspension of data caps, free public Wi-Fi and free broadband for households with children who lack it — designed to better accommodate remote access for students, workers and public health officials. He and 17 other colleagues, Democrats and independents, had called for such measures in a letter to…

Google sister company Verily has launched a website to screen people who think they might have COVID-19 and point them to testing sites. But you probably can’t use it to get tested quite yet. Verily, a health tech company owned by Google parent Alphabet, launched the screening tool for those that live in or near Santa Clara County and San Mateo County south of San Francisco. The screening form said it was “unable to schedule more appointments at this time.”Verily said the actual testing is conducted by health care providers from different organizations and Verily is in charge of “clinical oversight.” Some people won’t even get that far. Answering “yes” to having severe symptoms, for instance, leads the site to explain that “in-person COVID-19 testing through this program is not…

City of Love Deacon Blue The Scottish pop rock band Deacon Blue have captured an unmistakably romantic feel with their ninth longer-player, which is bound to rekindle memories of the outfit’s glory days of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. This is the band’s first album since Believers in 2016. FIVE FACTS: 1. This album was recorded in the Gorbals area of the Scottish city of Glasgow. 2. Lead singer Ricky Ross said he chose this recording location after finding out that “there are bones reputedly belonging to St Valentine in St Francis’ church ” there. 3. The album’s title track was chosen as its lead single. 4. The band’s most successful self-penned song by chart placing is 1988’s “Real Gone Kid”, which reached number eight on the UK singles…

It might be too harsh to recommend practicing social distancing with the new Vin Diesel movie “Bloodshot,” but I wouldn’t want to shake its hand, either. David S. F. Wilson’s film comes not from Marvel or DC but the pages of Valiant Comics. Its central character, a former soldier named Ray Garrison (Diesel), is brought back to life with 124 125 nanotechnology that gives him superhuman strength and the ability to immediately be healed by microscopic robots. He awakes to a muscleman’s dream, lifting enormous barbells and trading a punching bag for a concrete pillar. What could be better? Well, the downsides include the haunting memory of the murder of Garrison’s wife and the eventual realization that his creator, Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pearce, classing up the joint), can turn him…

You’re washing your hands countless times a day to try to ward off the coronavirus. You should also wash that extension of your hand and breeding ground for germs — your phone. Tests done by scientists show that the virus can live for two to three days on plastic and stainless steel. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends cleaning all “high-touch” surfaces daily, including phones, keyboards and tablet computers. But cleaning your phone improperly can damage it. You want to avoid getting moisture inside it or scratching the surface. Don’t spray cleaners directly on the phone, don’t dunk it in cleaning solutions, don’t spray it with compressed-air devices used to clean keyboards and avoid rubbing it with abrasive materials. Instead, start by turning off the phone and unplugging…

Stuck at home this week? The planets and our moon are providing some early morning entertainment. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and a crescent moon will be clustered together in the southeastern sky just before daybreak. Mercury will peek above the horizon. All this is happening amid the earliest March equinox in 124 years. The vernal equinox, which marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere — and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere — will occur late Thursday night in the U.S. That’s the earliest since 1896. This is also a good time to spot Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky. Barely 8.6 light-years away, Sirius is especially brilliant this time of year. It’s also known as the Dog Star because it’s in the Canis Major constellation. To spot…

The European Union’s space agency’s earth-observation satellites have detected a significant reduction in the pollutant nitrogen dioxide, a byproduct of the use of diesel motors and other human activities, in northern Italy as the advance of the COVID-19 has led to drastic measures curtailing ordinary life. The agency’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reported this week that with the “abrupt changes in activity levels” in northern Italy, it has tracked a “reduction trend” of nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, for the last four to five weeks. So far, Italy has been the hardest hit country in Europe by the new coronavirus, and the government has implemented a wide lockdown, encouraging its 62 million people to stay home unless it’s absolutely necessary to go out. Similar drops in pollutants were detected in China…

The coronavirus is dealing a death blow to the longest U.S. economic expansion on record, triggering layoffs and putting intense strain on the nation’s financial system. In a cruel paradox, the very steps that are needed to contain the outbreak — quarantines, travel restrictions and business closures — are bringing everyday business to a halt and shoving the U.S. economy into recession for the first time since 2009. “The more rapidly you want to contain the virus, then the more severe the lockdown has to be and the more severe the disruption to economic activity is,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “The hope is, the more severe the lockdown, the sharper the rebound will be.’’ The “Lockdown Paradox,” he calls it. Much will depend on how…

APPLE TAKES THE iPAD PRO TO THE NEXT LEVEL Apple is taking the iPad Pro to the next level with the launch of an all-new device, featuring an innovative new A12Z Bionic chip that will make the iPad more powerful and faster than most Windows PC laptops. Featuring an Ultra-Wide camera, studio-quality microphones, a stunning dual-camera setup and a new LiDAR Scanner that offers cutting-edge depth-sensing for augmented reality, Apple has put the Pro back into the iPad. Apple will also launch iPadOS 13.4 in the coming days, bringing trackpad support to the iPad for the first time with an all-new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, offering a desktop-like experience on a stunning touchscreen device. However, Apple hasn’t copy and pasted code from macOS – it has developed an all-new…

The Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process. U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and take another look at how it evaluated technical aspects of the companies’ proposals to run the $10 billion computing project. The filing doesn’t address Amazon’s broader argument that the bidding was improperly influenced by President Donald Trump’s dislike of Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos. Bezos owns The Washington Post, a news outlet that Trump has often clashed with. Amazon Web Services is a market leader in providing cloud computing services and had long been considered a leading candidate to run the…

Fittingly, few films in recent memory arrive with a bigger target on its back than “The Hunt.” Our quick advice? Lower your weapons. The horror-thriller with a healthy side of political commentary was pulled from release last summer following backlash to its trailer depicting a group of wealthy, liberal Americans kidnapping and hunting down red-state stereotypes for fun. Some commentators — including the president of the United States — were quick to criticize the film in the wake of several mass shooting despite never seeing it, denouncing the notion of elitist Democrats brutally killing so-called “deplorables.” And, to be sure, it does depict that. But anyone who actually watches the whole film will clearly be rooting for the deplorables. It’s not the Right but the Left that comes off far…

U.S. movie theaters have closed nationwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, turning dark nearly all of the country’s 40,000-plus screens in an unprecedented shutdown. With most of Hollywood’s March and April releases already postponed, the Walt Disney Co. also cleared out its May releases as well, including Marvel’s “Black Widow.” The largest chains had tried to remain open even as Hollywood postponed its upcoming release plans and guidelines for social distancing steadily diminished the recommended size of crowds. But after President Donald Trump on Monday urged against gatherings of more than 10 people, AMC Theaters, the nation’s largest chain, said Tuesday its theaters would close altogether. AMC said the latest guidelines made movie theater operations “essentially impossible.” It said it would close all locations in the U.S. for at least…

If you are going to stockpile anything these days, consider liquid savings. A stash of easily accessible money to tap for emergencies is always important, but it is critical at times like these when people face potential layoffs and deep economic uncertainty. Experts generally suggest having three to six months of savings on hand, but that can be tough for many people who are living paycheck to paycheck. At least one-quarter of American adults say they wouldn’t be able to cover an unexpected expense of $400, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve. “There are far too many Americans who are financially unprepared for an economic downturn, and lack of sufficient savings will be most people’s Achilles heel,”said Bruce McClary, spokesman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, a…

Apple said its annual developers conference would take place entirely online this year, joining a growing list of companies that are canceling big, in-person events as the coronavirus spreads. Thousands of engineers and customers attend the Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, which is in its 31st year. Apple said it would give $1 million to organizations in San Jose, California, to help with the money they would lose from Apple canceling the in-person event. The event had been held in San Jose for the past few years. Google and Facebook also canceled their flagship developers conferences in the face of coronavirus health concerns. Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett told shareholders that they won’t be allowed to physically attend the company’s May 2 annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, because of…