Innehållsförteckning för #470 från AppleMagazine

The setting: a rolling patch of Pennsylvania farmland, about 15 miles from the little town where “Night of the Living Dead” was filmed. The moment: Halloween season 2020, a moonlit Friday night. She strides up to the hayride and beckons you to the dimly lit tent behind her. Her eyes are hollow. “Blood” streaks her nurse’s uniform. Across her forehead is a deep, oozing wound. “This is the corona tent,” she says. “I’m Nurse Ratched. We’re gonna test you all for the corona.” On the truck, the voice of a teenage girl slices through the darkness: “I TOLD you there’d be a COVID section.” This is Cheeseman Fright Farm, one of those stylish Halloween attractions that emerge from the shadows in the United States of America when the leaves start…

In an unexpected move, Apple announced in late October that it would launch Apple Music TV, a new 24-hour curated live stream of chart-topping music videos, designed to encourage more consumers to subscribe to its Apple TV+ streaming service. The firm’s first foray into live TV might have gone down without much fanfare, but it sets a precedent for the future. INTRODUCING APPLE MUSIC TV It’s been almost a year since Apple launched its premium television streaming service, and though it’s scored a couple of hits and awards for titles like The Morning Show, it’s fair to say that Apple has struggled to convince consumers that it’s a service worth signing up for. At least yet, anyway. Apple offered Apple TV+ for free for consumers who purchased an iPad, iPhone,…

Microsoft reported quarterly earnings this week that beat Wall Street expectations, as it continued to weather the coronavirus pandemic amid increased demand for its flagship software and services. The company reported fiscal first-quarter profit of $13.9 billion, or $1.82 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of $1.54 a share. Microsoft posted revenue of $37.2 billion in the July-September period, up 12% from last year. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $35.8 billion, according to FactSet. The software giant has benefited from a COVID-19-fueled trend of working and learning from home that boosted demand for its cloud computing services and workplace productivity products, such as email and video conferencing. It’s also experienced heightened demand for its Xbox gaming system. The company’s growth was led by its commercial cloud segment, which…

After We Collided Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) struggles in her complex relationship with Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), leading to a breakup. Shortly afterwards, she becomes an intern at Vance Publishing Company, where the prospect of a whole new romance arises. FIVE FACTS: 1. This is the sequel to last year’s After, with both films based on novels by Anna Todd. 2. Langford and Tiffin both reprise their roles from After. 3. However, Peter Gallagher, who portrayed the character of Ken Scott in that film, was replaced by Rob Estes for this one. 4. Unlike the previous film, this one has been written by Todd herself, who wanted to ensure this movie would be more faithful to the literary source material. 5. Todd also makes a cameo appearance in After…

Since Sacha Baron Cohen first appeared as his Kazakh journalist on “Da Ali G Show,” Borat Sagdiyev has been remarkably consistent. The accent is the same. The gray suit is still rumpled. “Nahce” and “Mah Wahfe” regularly exude from him with a mangled melody. Borat hasn’t changed in the last 20 years. But America has. When Baron Cohen last traipsed across the country as Borat, in 2006’s “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” his character’s unapologetic anti-Semitism, misogyny and racism teased prejudices out from all kinds of dark and not-so-dark corners. His comedy revealed a more disturbing, hidden America that was often happy to go along with Baron Cohen’s gonzo act. Fourteen years later, those prejudices aren’t so hard to find. Borat fits right…

A NASA spacecraft is stuffed with so much asteroid rubble from this week’s grab that it’s jammed open and precious particles are drifting away in space, scientists said. Scientists announced the news three days after the spacecraft named Osiris-Rex briefly touched asteroid Bennu, NASA’s first attempt at such a mission. The mission’s lead scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, said the operation 200 million miles away collected far more material than expected for return to Earth — in the hundreds of grams. The sample container on the end of the robot arm penetrated so deeply into the asteroid and with such force, however, that rocks got sucked in and became wedged around the rim of the lid. Scientists estimate the sampler pressed as much as 19 inches (48…

Mac and cheese, 18th-century style. A seven-course meal using only ingredients from a convenience store. A meal that is literally on fire. Four episodes into her new YouTube show, “Stump Sohla,” part of the expanding “Babish Culinary Universe” channel, Sohla El-Waylly has yet to be stumped by a food challenge. El-Waylly became a familiar face on YouTube as a standout on Bon Appetit’s test kitchen channel. But during the nationwide racial reckoning following the police killing of George Floyd, she was among members of the test kitchen who accused the channel’s owner, Conde Nast, of discriminatory compensation and other practices. A Conde Nast representative said race wasn’t a factor in setting pay. El-Waylly departed Bon Appetit in August after failed negotiations. Her new show is her own, pushing her to…

A hacker attack against an upstate New York county’s computer system raised concern that some emailed absentee ballot applications may not be processed, but the state Board of Elections said voting won’t be affected overall. The cyber attack on Oct. 18 encrypted about 200 computers operated by Chenango County and hackers demanded ransom of $450 per computer to unlock the files, Herman Ericksen, the county’s information technology director, said. “We are not paying the ransom,” he said. Last week, the county board of elections released a public statement urging anyone who had sent an absentee ballot application by email since Oct. 15 to call the board to verify it had been received. The statement said the cyber attack would not otherwise impact voting because “the board has redundancies in place…

With next week’s election looming, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google were scolded by Republicans at a Senate hearing for alleged anti-conservative bias in the companies’ social media platforms and received a warning of coming restrictions from Congress. Lawmakers of both parties are assessing the companies’ tremendous power to disseminate speech and ideas, and are looking to challenge their long-enjoyed bedrock legal protections for online speech. The Trump administration, seizing on unfounded accusations of bias against conservative views, has asked Congress to strip some of the protections that have generally shielded the tech companies from legal responsibility for what people post on their platforms. “The time has come for that free pass to end,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Wicker, R-Miss.,…

Chinese tech giant Huawei, one of the biggest makers of smartphones and switching equipment, said its revenue rose 9.9% in the first nine months of this year, but growth decelerated in the face of U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic. Huawei Technologies Ltd. gave no sales figure for the most recent quarter ending in September, but growth for the first three quarters was down from the 13.1% reported for the first half of the year. Huawei is struggling with U.S. sanctions that cut off its access to most American components in a feud with Beijing over technology and security. The White House says Huawei is a threat and might facilitate Chinese spying, which the company denies. Washington also is tightening curbs on access to U.S. markets or technology for other…

Letter to You Bruce Springsteen The legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen reflects on his advanced years with Letter to You, and many of the heartfelt songs were influenced by the recent death of his friend George Theiss. The result is an album that has been hailed by critics for its handling of themes of mortality and aging. FIVE FACTS: 1. “When he passed away, it left me as the only remaining living member of the first band that I had, which was a very strange thought,” Springsteen told Apple Music about Theiss’s death. 2. This album is Springsteen’s first with the E Street Band, his primary backing band, since 2014. 3. Three of the album’s songs – “Song for Orphans”, “If I Was the Priest” and “Janey Needs a Shooter” –…

Yet another service provider is jumping into the TV streaming wars. This time it’s T-Mobile and its TVision service with live news, entertainment and sports channels, starting at $10 a month. T-Mobile says it’s aiming to offer a simpler and and cheaper service for people dissatisfied with cable. But it’s entering a crowded field. And most similar streaming services have found it difficult to sustain low prices over time. TVision will offer three branches of its service. TVision Live will have live news, entertainment and sports channels at three tiers priced at $40, $50 and $60, depending on how many sports channels you want. The $40 option offers around 30 channels including ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, Fox News, ESPN, and Fox Sports Networks. Then there’s TVision Vibe, which is $10…

Whether it’s a ghostly image that makes objects seemingly disappear or a spectral presence turning the steering wheel, modern cars are loaded with more tricks than a haunted house. But these features don’t represent automakers getting in the Halloween spirit — they are actually the latest driving aids designed to make piloting a car easier. Here are a few of experts’ favorite tech features guaranteed to make your hair stand on end. HANDS-FREE DRIVING You drive up a highway on-ramp, merge with traffic and press a button. Remove your hands from the wheel, and the wheel will turn on its own to keep you centered in the lane. Keep your feet away from the pedals, and yet the car slows down and speeds up automatically. You aren’t in the driver’s…

The world’s largest fintech company, China’s Ant Group, will try to raise nearly $35 billion in a massive public offering of stock that would shatter records. Alibaba-affiliated Ant Group, which operates a suite of financial products including the widely-used Alipay digital wallet in China and one of the world’s largest money market funds, will hold dual listings in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Its Shanghai stock was priced at 68.8 yuan ($10.26) each, while its Hong Kong stock is priced at 80 Hong Kong dollars apiece ($10.32). The company will raise about $34.5 billion from the share offering, which is expected to surpass oil company Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion share sale last year, making Ant Group’s offering the biggest in the world. Ant Group will list on the Hong Kong stock…

This coming weekend, CNN’s Sam Feist will distribute to his staff copies of the testimony news executives gave to Congress when they tried to explain how television networks got 2000’s disputed election so spectacularly wrong. It’s required reading — perhaps never more than this year. Media planners are preaching caution in the face of a surge in early voting, high anxiety levels overall and a president who raises the specter of another disputed election. “We need to prepare ourselves for a different kind of election night,” said Feist, CNN’s Washington bureau chief, “and the word I keep using is ‘patience.’” Nearly half of people polled recently by the Pew Research Center said they intend to follow election night returns closely. It’s easy to see this year eclipsing 2008’s record of…

The moon’s shadowed, frigid nooks and crannies may hold frozen water in more places and in larger quantities than previously suspected. And for the first time, the presence of water on the moon’s sunlit surface has been confirmed, scientists reported this week. That’s good news for astronauts at future lunar bases who could tap into these resources for drinking and making rocket fuel. While previous observations have indicated millions of tons of ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon’s poles, a pair of studies in the journal Nature Astronomy take the availability of lunar surface water to a new level. More than 15,400 square miles (40,000 square kilometers) of lunar terrain have the capability to trap water in the form of ice, according to a team led by…

Advanced Micro Devices is buying Xilinx for $35 billion in an all-stock deal that will combine the two Silicon Valley chip makers and accelerate an already rapid-fire pace of mergers and buyouts in the industry. The deal announced puts AMD in a place it wants to be; competing more fiercely with Intel at a time when a global pandemic is driving demand for tech ever higher. More Zoom meetings, more orders online, and more upgrades for companies trying to meet new demands of millions staying at home has led to a seemingly insatiable appetite for computer chips. “Joining together with AMD will help accelerate growth in our data center business and enable us to pursue a broader customer base across more markets,” Xilinx CEO Victor Peng said in a prepared…

No matter how you cut it, “ The Witches ” is a really disturbing tale. Not that one should expect anything else from Roald Dahl, but for some reason this story about a group of grotesquely disfigured women who hate children always seemed extra sinister even within his generally sinister oeuvre. Perhaps it’s because I happened to be a child when the Nicolas Roeg adaptation came out in 1990 and, well, let’s just say the nightmarish image of Angelica Huston transforming into a bald, warty witch made a lasting impression. For many children of the era, Roeg’s “The Witches” was a first foray into horror and a traumatic one at that. This was clearly not lost on the people who hired Robert Zemeckis to do a new adaptation for another…

The popular short-form video app TikTok, still under U.S. government scrutiny for its Chinese ownership, is moving closer to becoming a marketplace for buying stuff. Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify said it’s made a deal with TikTok enabling merchants to create “shoppable” video ads that drive customers to online stores. The partnership was announced amid stalled negotiations for Walmart to buy a 7.5% stake in the video app. Walmart’s planned investment is part of a government-forced deal that would rescue TikTok from a threatened ban by President Donald Trump and advance Walmart’s ambitions for the world of “social commerce.” “If you’re watching a TikTok video and somebody’s got a piece of apparel or an item on it that you really like, what if you could just quickly purchase that item?”Walmart CEO…

It’s a major life milestone, the first time many U.S. teens have ever been on their own. Even in normal times, freshman year in college can be a jumbled mix of anticipation, uncertainty and emotional highs and lows. In these hardly normal times, when the quintessential college experience exists only in catalogs, freshmen are being challenged like never before. Amid pandemic restrictions aimed at keeping students safe and healthy, colleges are scrambling to help them adjust. But many are struggling. Social distancing requirements, mask mandates and daily temperature checks. Quarantine and isolation. Online learning glitches. Campus Black Lives Matter protests. Anxiety over whether to join partiers or hole up in dorm rooms or at home to stay safe. This is freshman year 2020 for many college students nationwide. “There is…

The owner of a cement plant in Florence has started design and engineering work with the goal of making it the first such U.S. facility to use carbon-capture technology on a commercial scale. LafargeHolcim, a global building materials supplier, has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to research and develop a system to capture and sequester the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions. The Swiss-based company is partnering with Svante Inc., a provider of carbon-capture technology, and other firms. Jamie Gentoso, the CEO of U.S. Cement at LafargeHolcim, said the company worked with Svante to build a pilot carbon-capture unit at a plant in British Columbia. “We started this initiative in November of last year,” Gentoso said. “The DOE grant allows us to continue the engineering on…