Innehållsförteckning för #445 från AppleMagazine

The new coronavirus doesn’t care about a blue uniform or a shiny badge. Police, firefighters, paramedics and corrections officers are just a 911 call away from contracting COVID-19 and spreading it. With N95 masks hanging off their duty belts and disposable blue gloves stuffed in their back pockets, they respond to radio calls, make arrests and manage prisoners. But their training never covered something quite like this — what has been called an “invisible bullet.” It’s sickened thousands of America’s first responders and killed dozens more. But many have recovered, and they’re going back to work — back to the crime scene, back into the ambulance, back to the jail. Going back to this deadly pandemic’s front lines. They go with a lingering cough and lost weight. They toss and…

Every once in a while, social media lights up with photos or video from flights that are nearly full, with passengers clearly violating advice from public health officials about social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. That raises the question: How can planes still be full when air travel is down more than 90% from a year ago? In some cases, airlines are creating the crowds by canceling other flights and packing passengers on the few remaining planes. Carriers say, however, that they are taking action to ease passengers’ fears about coronavirus contagion. Some are blocking middle seats — or letting passengers pay extra to guarantee an empty seat next to them. They are also starting to require passengers to wear facial coverings. Here are some questions and answers about flying…

Goodbye lockdown, hello smartphone. As governments race to develop mobile tracing apps to help contain infections, attention is turning to how officials will ensure users’ privacy. The debate is especially urgent in Europe, which has been one of the hardest-hit regions in the world, with nearly 140,000 people killed by COVID-19. The use of monitoring technology, however, may evoke bitter memories of massive surveillance by totalitarian authorities in much of the continent. The European Union has in recent years led the way globally to protect people’s digital privacy, introducing strict laws for tech companies and web sites that collect personal information. Academics and civil liberties activists are now pushing for greater personal data protection in the new apps as well. Here’s a look at the issues. WHY AN APP? European…

The Assistant (2020) Would-be film producer Jane (Julia Garner) lands her dream job as a powerful entertainment mogul’s junior assistant. However, amid her usual predictable assistant duties – making coffee, ordering lunch, taking phone messages and so on – she becomes more and more aware of the abuse that colors every aspect of her workday, and decides to take a stand against it. FIVE FACTS: 1. The Assistant is a drama film written, directed, produced and edited by Kitty Green. 2. It stars Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh, Kristine Froseth and Noah Robbins alongside Garner. 3. The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2019 . 4. The movie helps to explain how sexually predatory behavior by powerful men frequently remains hidden. 5. The Hollywood…

War is futile. War is a waste. War lays ruin to generations of promising young people. It’s the message of so many war films, but even more when the war in question is not between nations but between urban gangs — youths killing each other over petty grievances and turf battles that mean nothing to anyone else. Such films generally do not conclude there’s anything useful about gang violence. Seen in that light, “Blue Story,” a chronicle of youth gangs in south London, is hardly revolutionary. What distinguishes this debut feature from Andrew Onwubolu, aka Rapman, is firstly its storytelling structure, making welcome use of the writer-director’s rap talents to serve as a Greek chorus. And secondly its cast, with several vital performances of note, especially from heartbreakingly vulnerable newcomer…

Virgin Galactic’s spaceship VSS Unity landed in the New Mexico desert last Friday, marking its first glide flight from Spaceport America as the company moves toward commercial operations. The company announced the flight on social media and shared photos of the craft on the runway and members of the crew stationed far apart around the special carrier plane that ferries the smaller spaceship to high altitude. After years of development and testing at Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California, Virgin Galactic is close to starting actual operations at its futuristic terminal and hangar in southern New Mexico. The company has not set a date for the first commercial flights but has said it anticipates doing so in 2020. A small number of test flights are needed before Virgin…

In just 50 years, 2 billion to 3.5 billion people, mostly the poor who can’t afford air conditioning, will be living in a climate that historically has been too hot to handle, a new study said. With every 1.8 degree (1 degree Celsius) increase in global average annual temperature from man-made climate change, about a billion or so people will end up in areas too warm day-in, day-out to be habitable without cooling technology, according to ecologist Marten Scheffer of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, co-author of the study. How many people will end up at risk depends on how much heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions are reduced and how fast the world population grows. Under the worst-case scenarios for population growth and for carbon pollution — which many climate scientists…

Apple has confirmed that its first-ever virtual Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 22, where the firm will show off new versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS and give beta access to developers who create compatible products and software. With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic causing shockwaves around the world and with all-but-essential travel in many countries banned temporarily, the company was left with no choice but to take its event online. Others, like Google and Facebook, canceled their events. WWDC20 will be available in the Apple Developer app on the Apple Developer site for all developers for free, and it’s expected that the “main keynote event” will be free for all to view. Speaking of the upcoming presentation, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide…

With consumers cooped up at home amidst the coronavirus crisis, more and more of us are turning to our phones to fill our time and stay in contact with loved ones. Though all networks have reported an increase in user engagement, it’s the viral video app TikTok that has benefitted from lockdown the most, passing the two billion user mark. But its success poses new questions: how safe is the new kid on the block, and what’s the future of social media? TWO BILLION USERS In September 2018, TikTok celebrated hitting 500 million monthly users around the world. In less than 18 months, the Chinese-owned social network has quadrupled its user base, at a time when rivals Twitter and Facebook struggle to hold onto audiences and see advertising revenues fall.…

Hundreds of people are rolling up their sleeves in countries across the world to be injected with experimental vaccines that might stop COVID-19, spurring hope — maybe unrealistic — that an end to the pandemic may arrive sooner than anticipated. About 100 research groups are pursuing vaccines with nearly a dozen in early stages of human trials or poised to start. It’s a crowded field, but researchers say that only increases the odds that a few might overcome the many obstacles that remain. “We’re not really in a competition against each other. We’re in a race against a pandemic virus, and we really need as many players in that race as possible,” Dr. Andrew Pollard, who is leading the University of Oxford’s vaccine study, told the press. The hard truth:…

Dark Lane Demo Tapes Drake Considered a warm-up to the Toronto native’s sixth album that is expected to arrive this summer, Drake’s latest commercial mixtape follows the release about a month earlier of the dance-routine-ready “Toosie Slide”. FIVE FACTS: 1. Drake was born Aubrey Drake Graham on October 24, 1986. 2. “Toosie Slide” is titled after social media influencer Toosie . 3. The rapper also pays homage to the late King of Pop on the track, with the lines “I could dance like Michael Jackson” and “It’s a ‘Thriller’ in the trap where we from”. 4. He has said of the creation of the mixtape that “my brothers put together a lot of the songs people have been asking for (some leaks and some joints from SoundCloud and some new…

Taika Waititi, the New Zealand filmmaker of “Jojo Rabbit” and “Thor: Ragnarok,” will direct a new “Star Wars” film. Waititi had for months been expected to take the reins of the galaxy far, far away, having already directed the season finale of the “Star Wars” streaming spinoff “The Mandalorian.” But the Walt Disney Co. waited until the franchise’s unofficial holiday, May the Fourth, to make Waititi’s hire official. Waititi will co-write the film with Krysty Wilson-Cains, who wrote the World War I thriller “1917” with Sam Mendes. Both Waititi and Wilson-Cains were screenplay nominees at the Academy Awards earlier this year; Wilson-Cains for the original script to “1917” and Waititi for his adapted Nazi satire “Jojo Rabbit.”Waititi won. The announcement potentially suggests the new path forward for “Star Wars” theatrical…

From the marbled halls of Italy to the wheat fields of Kansas, health authorities are increasingly warning that the question isn’t whether a second wave of coronavirus infections and deaths will hit, but when — and how badly. In India, which relaxed its lockdown this week, health authorities scrambled Wednesday to contain an outbreak at a huge market. Hard-hit New York City shut down its subway system overnight for disinfection. Experts in Italy, which just began easing some restrictions, warned lawmakers that a new surge of infections and deaths is coming, and they urged intensified efforts to identify victims, monitor their symptoms and trace their contacts. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting with the country’s 16 governors that restaurants and remaining shops will be allowed to reopen in the…

China plans to send four crewed space missions and the same number of cargo craft to complete work on its permanent space station within about two years, officials said after the launch of a newly designed spacecraft aboard the latest heavy-lift rocket. The announcement by the country’s crewed space program further cements China’s aspirations to rival the U.S., Europe, Russia and private companies in outer space exploration. The unmanned spacecraft and its return capsule were flung into space aboard a Long March 5B rocket in its debut flight Tuesday evening from the Wenchang launch center in the southern island province of Hainan. The capsule is reportedly an improvement on the Shenzhou capsule based on the former Soviet Union’s Soyuz model and can carry six astronauts rather than the current three.…

Airbnb says it is laying off 25% of its workforce as it confronts a steep decline in global travel due to the new coronavirus pandemic. It’s a serious setback for the 12-year-old home-sharing company, which just a few months ago was valued at $31 billion and planning a hotly anticipated IPO. Airbnb lists around 7 million properties on its web site. In a letter to employees, CEO Brian Chesky said the San Francisco-based company is letting 1,900 of its 7,500 workers go and cutting businesses that don’t directly support home-sharing. Those include its investments in hotels, air transportation and movie production. “We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime,” Chesky wrote. Chesky said Airbnb expects its revenue to drop by more than half this year. The…

Intel is buying transportation-planning service Moovit for $900 million as the world’s largest computer chip maker moves further down the road in its effort to build self-driving cars. The deal announced this week gives Intel another tool to use in its push to become a major player in the race to create the technology needed to build fleets of taxis that will be able to transport passengers without a human driver behind the wheel. Moovit, an 8-year-old company based in Israel, makes an app that compiles data from public transit systems, ride-hailing services and other resources to help its 800 million users plan the best ways to get around. Intel plans to combine Moovit with Mobileye, a self-driving car specialist that Intel bought for about $15 billion in 2017. Since…

Many Americans are getting their first taste of what pandemic shopping looks like at their local mall. Simon Property Group, the nation’s largest mall operator, reopened several dozen shopping centers across Texas, Georgia and roughly ten other states between Friday and Monday. There, a new reality is on display: Play areas and water fountains are off limits. Employees wear masks and shopping in groups is banned. Shoppers can also get their temperature checked for free on the premises. Among other changes: Every other urinal and sink is taped off, and there’s ample space between seating in the food court. Simon also has technologies that will make sure occupancy will not exceed one person for every 50 feet (15 meters). But despite all the safety measures, the question remains: Will anyone…

Tyler Rake sounds like a Mad-Libs action hero name. When you add to the mix that this character actually, literally kills someone with a rake, it starts to veer into parody territory. That’s why it’s somewhat surprising that the film built around that wonderfully silly name, “ Extraction,” is entirely sincere and also pretty fun. “Extraction,” on Netflix Friday, is a straightforward shoot-em-up about a jaded mercenary, Mr. Rake, played by Chris Hemsworth, who’s hired to save the 14-year-old son of a drug lord from another drug lord in Bangladesh. It doesn’t do anything to push the genre forward, but it’s better than you might think, existing comfortably somewhere on the action flick spectrum between Tony Scott and Peter Berg. Much of that rests on Hemsworth’s (very large) shoulders. The…

The moment in the virtual sun has arrived for simulated racing and the thousands of gamers who always wanted to race like Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jeff Gordon at NASCAR tracks from Dover to Daytona. Sports fans discovered over the last few weeks on national TV a not-so-hidden secret in the racing community: the NASCAR champs and IndyCar drivers wanted to compete like their fans — to hook up a simulator rig, grab a wheel and go head-to-virtual head with the best in the field without risking a real slam into the wall at more than 200 mph (321.87 kph). The races have set viewing records, filling the yawning gaps in sports programming and helping make iRacing, headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, a breakout company during the coronavirus pandemic. “I don’t…

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Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong on Wednesday expressed remorse but did not admit to wrongdoing over his alleged involvement in a 2016 corruption scandal that spurred massive street protests and sent South Korea’s then-president to prison. The vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest producer of computer chips and smartphones, promised Wednesday to end heredity transfers of control of South Korea’s largest business group, promising not to pass the management rights he inherited from his father to his children. Lee also said Samsung would stop suppressing employee attempts to organize unions. Lee’s news conference followed a review by a Samsung committee of external experts, led by former South Korean Supreme Court justice Kim Ji-hyung, of Samsung’s corporate behavior. It concluded he should apologize over the graft allegations and address problems…

The U.S. renewable energy industry is reeling from the new coronavirus pandemic, which has delayed construction, put thousands of skilled laborers out of work and sowed doubts about solar and wind projects on the drawing board. In locked-down California, some local agencies that issue permits for new work closed temporarily, and some solar companies furloughed installers. In New York and New Jersey, SunPower CEO Thomas Werner halted installation of more than 400 residential solar systems, fearing for his workers’ safety. As many as 120,000 jobs in solar and 35,000 in wind could be lost, trade groups say. “There are many smaller companies going out of business as we speak,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “Up to half our jobs are at risk.” Leaders are…