Innehållsförteckning för #483 från AppleMagazine

As the pandemic raged through the U.S., Microsoft’s business continued chugging ahead and beat Wall Street expectations for the last three months of 2020, powered by ongoing demand for its workplace software and cloud computing services as people worked from home. The company reported fiscal second-quarter profit of $15.5 billion, up 33% from the same period last year. In a statement, CEO Satya Nadella called it “the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry.” Net income of $2.03 per share beat Wall Street expectations. The software maker posted revenue of $43.1 billion in the October-December period, up 17% from last year and also beating forecasts. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting Microsoft to earn $1.64 per share on revenue of $40.2 billion for…

The 2020 Tesla Model Y is an intriguing pick for an electric SUV. It has a relatively small footprint but provides cavernous passenger and cargo space. And with a current entry price of $43,190 including destination and handling fees, it’s also one the most affordable electric SUVs around. But there’s a new rival aimed at taking on the Model Y: the all-new 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E. The Mach-E is priced competitively. It starts at $43,995 and, unlike Tesla, still qualifies for federal tax credits. But which EV is better? Experts tested both to find out. DRIVING PERFORMANCE Teslas have earned a reputation for laughably quick, sports car-beating speed, and it holds true for the Model Y. Even when you aren’t trying to break the sound barrier, the Model Y provides…

Twitter is enlisting its users to help combat misinformation on its service by flagging and notating misleading and false tweets. The pilot program unveiled this week, called Birdwatch, allows a preselected group of users — for now, only in the U.S. — who sign up through Twitter. Those who want to sign up must have a U.S.-based phone carrier, verified email and phone number, and no recent Twitter rule violations. Twitter said it wants both experts and non-experts to write Birdwatch notes. It cited Wikipedia as a site that thrives with non-expert contributions. “In concept testing, we’ve seen non-experts write concise, helpful and easy-to-understand notes, often citing valuable expert sources,” the company wrote in a blog post. Twitter, along with other social media companies, has been grappling how best to…

Los Dioses Anuel AA & Ozuna “There’s no other artist that I feel flows and hits perfectly with me,” the Latin trap pioneer Anuel AA has revealed to Apple Music about the reggaeton titan Ozuna, with whom he intensely collaborates on his new studio album, the Spanish-language Los Dioses. FIVE FACTS: 1. Anuel has explained the decision behind the divinely-inspired album title: “It is thanks to God that we are in this elite league.” 2. Anuel AA and Ozuna were both born in Puerto Rico – the former in the northeastern coastal area of Carolina and the latter in the Puerto Rican capital, San Juan. 3. Anuel AA’s real name is Emmanuel Gazmey Santiago, while Ozuna’s is Juan Carlos Ozuna Rosado. 4. The two artists have previously teamed up on…

Internet users across the northeast U.S. experienced widespread outages for several hours Tuesday, interrupting work and school because of an unspecified Verizon network issue. “An internet issue impacting the quality of our Fios service throughout the Northeast has been resolved,” said spokesman Rich Young in an emailed statement Tuesday afternoon. He said service levels “are returning to normal” and the company is investigating what happened. The service interruptions were unrelated to a cut fiber in Brooklyn, New York, which caused problems for people in the area. There are about 6.5 million Fios internet customers. People posting on Twitter reported having issues connecting with various online services in the region stretching from Washington, D.C., to Boston. That densely populated area includes key U.S. government services as well as major financial companies…

The first private space station crew was introduced this week: Three men who are each paying $55 million to fly on a SpaceX rocket. They’ll be led by a former NASA astronaut now working for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the trip for next January. “This is the first private flight to the International Space Station. It’s never been done before,” said Axiom’s chief executive and president Mike Suffredini, a former space station program manager for NASA. While mission commander Michael Lopez-Alegria is well known in space circles, “the other three guys are just people who want to be able to go to space, and we’re providing that opportunity,” Suffredini told to the press. The first crew will spend eight days at the space station, and will take…

The NFL is bringing its awards for novel advancements in athletes’ safety and performance to television. Next Tuesday night during Super Bowl week, the league will air its sixth annual “1st & Future” competition. The show is set for 8 p.m. EST on NFL Network. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald and Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon Web Services, which is collaborating with the league, will be on hand as $150,000 in prize money is handed out on the telecast. Innovators and data scientists have been awarded a total of $750,000 for their winning pitches in past years. “The 1st & Future program has grown substantially over the last few years as a direct result of the fact that we have been able to attract innovative…

Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong and prosecutors have decided not to appeal a court ruling that convicted him for bribing South Korea’s former president for business favors, confirming a prison term of two and a half years for the country’s most influential corporate leader, according to lawyers and court officials. But Lee’s legal troubles aren’t over. He has been indicted separately on charges of stock price manipulation, breach of trust and auditing violations related to a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates. The deal helped strengthen Lee’s control over Samsung’s corporate empire. The bribery allegation involving Lee was a key crime in the 2016 corruption scandal that ousted Park Geun-hye from the presidency and sent her to prison. In a much-anticipated retrial of Lee last week, the Seoul High Court found…

Google’s parent company is letting the air out of an internet-beaming balloon company that was providing online access from the stratosphere. The plan to shut down Loon was announced last weekend, ending what started out nine years ago as one of Google’s secret projects in its so-called “moonshot factory,” a division now called X. Google, Loon and X all are owned by Alphabet Inc., which draws upon Google’s digital advertising empire finance risky ideas like internet-beaming balloons and another high-profile flop, internet-connected glasses. As reflected by its name, Loon was viewed as a crazy idea from the start. Yet Google’s hopes for the project were a lofty as the high-flying balloons themselves when the company finally took the wraps off the project in New Zealand in June 2013. The ambitious…

Apple made a serious leap forward with the iPhone in 2020 introducing a raft of new features like a stunning new design, 5G connectivity, MagSafe charging, and super-spec cameras. In bringing LiDAR and ProRAW to the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, Apple has delivered the most impressive photography on a smartphone to date, so let’s look at how to use the tools to their maximum. NEXT-LEVEL CAMERAS It’d be highly unusual for Apple to release a new iPhone without at least tweaking the camera set-up, and 2020’s iPhone 12 range did not disappoint. The iPhone 12 Pro models, consisting of the standard Pro and Pro Max, feature LiDAR scanners on the back for the first time, following on from the success of the same mysterious dot that…

The streaming wars have already started. We have seen how successful streaming services have become especially now that people are more likely to binge-watch different movies and shows through online streaming. Seeing that they could capitalize on the success of streaming services, Disney started their own service called Disney+. Given the fact that Disney owns the rights to Marvel Studios and that the company will be streaming only Disney content on their own streaming service, Disney+ has a large roster of Marvel films and shows that you can stream using your mobile device, your computer, or your television. MARVEL MOVIES AND TV SHOWS We are not strangers to movies and TV shows based on Marvel characters and comic books as they have been around for a while already. But the…

The potential pitfalls of a movie that brings together Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown for a night on February 25, 1964, seem so numerous, so prone to falling into caricature, that “One Night in Miami ...” feels like a miracle. The concept comes from Kemp Powers (co-director of the recent Pixar film “Soul”), a playwright who used a real occurrence — the four Black icons did gather that night, after 22-year-old Cassius Clay dethroned world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston — for an acclaimed one-act play that imagined what they might have talked about behind closed doors. “One Night in Miami ...,” the directorial debut of Regina King, turns Kemp’s play into a scintillating dialogue of African American activism and artistry, with a quartet of impassioned…

Lani Muller doesn’t have to visit a doctor’s office to help test an experimental COVID-19 vaccine — she just climbs into a bloodmobile-like van that parks on a busy street near her New York City neighborhood. The U.S. is rightly fixated on the chaotic rollout of the first two authorized vaccines to fight the pandemic. But with more vaccines in the pipeline — critical to boosting global supplies — scientists worry whether enough volunteers will join and stick with the testing needed to prove if they, too, really work. Those studies, like earlier ones, must include communities of color that have been hard-hit by the pandemic, communities that also voice concern about the vaccination drive in part because of a long history of racial health care disparities and even research…

Deputies with the Bernalillo County sheriff’s department are now equipped with body cameras. Sheriff Manuel Gonzales unveiled the device that all 310 deputies will now be wearing after a newly approved state law requiring law enforcement to have body cameras. “For the record, I didn’t invest in a camera. I invested in a digital evidence management system,” Gonzales said. “And that creates law enforcement trust and community relations.” Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, has agreed to a more than $3 million, five-year contract for the BodyWorn camera by Utility, Inc. The contract covers two cameras in each vehicle, Wi-Fi hot spots for the cruisers, uniform tailoring to hold the devices and a holster that will automatically activate the cameras when a gun is drawn. The device can record videos, take…

Two major casino companies announced deals with daily fantasy sports providers as they seek to expand their reach and integrate different forms of fan engagement with professional sports into their gambling operations. In the first deal, announced this week, Bally’s continued its acquisition juggernaut by acquiring the daily fantasy sports company Monkey Knife Fight in an all-stock transaction that further widens the fast-growing company’s drive to add casino, online sports betting and media companies. Caesars Entertainment also announced a strategic investment in SuperDraft, a daily fantasy sports company launched in September 2019, with the option to acquire the whole company over time. Daily fantasy sports involves players assembling virtual rosters of professional athletes, and then competing against others based on the performance of those athletes in real life. It is…

Google says it believes hackers backed by the North Korean government have been posing as computer security bloggers and using fake accounts on social media while attempting to steal information from researchers in the field. Google didn’t specify how successful the hackers were or what kind of information could have been compromised. Experts say the attacks reflect North Korean efforts to improve its cyber skills and be able to breach widely used computer products, such as Google’s Chrome internet browser and Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system. While the country has denied involvement, North Korea has been linked to major cyberattacks, including a 2013 campaign that paralyzed the servers of South Korean financial institutions, the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures, and the WannaCry malware attack of 2017. The U.N. Security Council…

Google says it’s making progress on plans to revamp Chrome user tracking technology aimed at improving privacy even as it faces challenges from regulators and officials. The company gave an update on its work to remove from its Chrome browser so-called third-party cookies, which are used by a website’s advertisers or partners and can be used to track a user’s internet browsing habits. Third-party cookies been a longtime source of privacy concerns and Google said a year ago that it would do away with them, in an announcement that shook up the online advertising industry. The changes will affect Chrome, the world’s dominant web browser, as well as other browsers based on Google’s Chromium technology such as Microsoft’s Edge. Rival browsers Safari and Mozilla Firefox have already removed third-party cookies…

The man who designed some of the world’s most advanced dynamic robots was on a daunting mission: programming his creations to dance to the beat with a mix of fluid, explosive and expressive motions that are almost human. The results? Almost a year and half of choreography, simulation, programming and upgrades that were capped by two days of filming to produce a video running at less than 3 minutes. The clip, showing robots dancing to the 1962 hit “Do You Love Me?” by The Contours, was an instant hit on social media, attracting more than 23 million views during the first week. It shows two of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid Atlas research robots doing the twist, the mashed potato and other classic moves, joined by Spot, a doglike robot, and Handle,…

Our Friend When Nicole Teague (Dakota Johnson) is diagnosed with terminal cancer, her husband Matt (Casey Affleck) becomes her caretaker, a task he finds overwhelming until the couple’s best friend Dane Faucheux (Jason Segel) generously puts his own life on hold to help them. FIVE FACTS: 1. The film was titled The Friend before receiving its current title. 2. The movie’s world premiere took place at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2019. 3. The film’s creators only got permission to include music from the rock band Led Zeppelin days before the film was broadcast at TIFF. 4. The Brad Ingelsby-penned screenplay is based on a true story told in an award-winning article for Esquire . 5. The article, written by the real-life Matthew Teague about his wife…

Last week Daisy Ridley and Jennifer Hudson went to a movie premiere together. They posed for photos and made remarks from a stage while an audience watched quietly. Or, more accurately, their avatars did. The actors were actually on different continents, brought together for a few minutes through virtual reality headsets to walk a red carpet, pose for photos in front of a step and repeat and to speak to a crowd of other avatars on behalf of their short film “Baba Yaga.” It’s being called the first ever VR movie premiere. “I truly feel like I went to a premiere,” Hudson said later. “But I didn’t leave home! I think it’s a cool way to do it, especially right now.” She especially liked seeing her team and how much…

Can COVID-19 vaccines be mixed and matched? Health officials say both doses should be of the same kind. The COVID-19 vaccines rolling out in the United States, the United Kingdom and other parts of the world so far require two shots given a few weeks apart. In the U.S. where vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are being distributed, health officials say the two aren’t interchangeable even though they’re made similarly. In “exceptional situations” when the same kind isn’t available or if it’s not known what was given for the first shot, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in recently updated guidance that it’s OK to give whichever vaccine is available for the second shot. The agency noted that the recommendations could be updated as more information becomes…

It was a tough year here on Earth, but 2020 was a bright spot for space exploration. SpaceX sent its futuristic Starship to new heights, three countries launched Mars missions, and robots grabbed debris from the moon and an asteroid. Next year promises more, including a planned launch of the Hubble Space Telescope’s successor. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that space themes are having a moment in home decor. When so many of us Earthlings are stuck at home because of the pandemic, space imagery can add a sense of adventure or whimsy to rooms, walls and ceilings. “I’ve done outer space, and starry skies,” says New York interior designer Patrice Hoban. “My clients love using stars as a backdrop in nurseries. I’ve also worked with glow-paint to add an…

The United Nations warned that the world economy is “on a cliffhanger,” still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic whose impact will be felt for years but still expected to make a modest recovery of 4.7% in 2021 which would barely offset 2020 losses. The U.N.’s new report on the World Economic Situation and Prospects said the once-in-a-century crisis sparked by the global impact of the coronavirus caused the global economy to shrink by 4.3% in 2020 -- the sharpest contraction in global output since the Great Depression that began in 1929 and far higher than the 1.7% reduction during the Great Recession of 2009. “The depth and severity of the unprecedented crisis foreshadows a slow and painful recovery,” said U.N. chief economist Elliott Harris, the assistant secretary-general for economic development.…