Innehållsförteckning för #485 från AppleMagazine

Holders of Bitcoin may be able to cash in some of their investment in the digital currency for a brand new electric car. Electric automaker Tesla said that it has invested around $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and it plans to begin accepting the digital currency as payment for its high-end vehicles soon. The price of Bitcoin soared 20% to around $47,000 Monday in reaction to Tesla’s announcement, according to CoinBase. The California-based electric car maker headed by Elon Musk revealed the new strategy in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying its investment in digital currency and other “alternative reserve assets” may grow. Bitcoin has drawn enthusiasts for its scarcity and security, but the volatile digital currency still is not widely used to pay for goods and…

As we come to the end of a collective year of pandemic firsts, Valentine’s Day is next up. And showing love and gratitude can feel more important than ever. Perhaps during a regular year, you and your dearest might have gone out for a romantic dinner, or somewhere special like the theater, a concert, a horse-drawn carriage ride. Or maybe you’d have chosen to stay in and have a quiet evening... but this year we’ve all had a lot of those. If food is your love language, however, there are lots of ways to make this Valentine’s Day feel special without putting your health at risk or spending a lot of cash. COOKING FOR 2 (OR A FAMILY) Starting with the totally DIY: a home-cooked dinner for two. (Or more,…

Parents of schoolchildren learning from home shouldn’t necessarily count on reclaiming the dining room table any time soon. After seeing two academic years thrown off course by the pandemic, school leaders around the country are planning for the possibility of more distance learning next fall at the start of yet another school year. “We have no illusions that COVID will be eradicated by the time the start of the school year comes up,” said William “Chip” Sudderth III, a spokesperson for Durham, North Carolina schools, whose students have been out of school buildings since March. President Joe Biden has made reopening schools a top priority, but administrators say there is much to consider as new strains of the coronavirus appear and teachers wait their turn for vaccinations. And while many…

Zeng Jiajun, a former tech worker, fell in love with social media app Clubhouse, a window through the ruling Communist Party’s pervasive censorship, after listening to a freewheeling discussion between members of China’s Uighur minority and Han majority that wound up lasting 12 hours. Thousands of Chinese flocked to the app, which allowed unfettered discussion with people abroad about democracy, Taiwan and other sensitive topics at a time when President Xi Jinping’s government is increasingly hostile to independent voices. “This kind of communication is rare,” Zeng said. “Hearing someone’s voice can make both sides realize we’re all human.” On Monday, that window slammed shut when Chinese users lost access to Clubhouse, adding it to thousands of websites and social media apps the ruling party blocks the public from seeing using…

“Malcolm & Marie,” at least, looks the part. Shot in slinky black-and-white, with John David Washington and Zendaya playing a sharply dressed couple just back to their stunning, modernist Los Angeles home, “Malcolm & Marie” has the stylized appearance of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” as well as the cocktails and shouting matches. But if Edward Albee’s scathing play and Mike Nichols’ scalding screen adaptation used the anger and pain of a boozing couple to burrow brutally into marriage, the domestic fury of writer-director Sam Levinson’s millennial melodrama is glossier and sexier but of far less substance. In self-indulgent dialogue reverberating around ego, art and filmmaking, “Malcolm & Marie” more reflects a Twitter argument brought to life, with film-theory sparring between Malcolm (Washington), a director, and Marie (Zendaya), the young…

Ocado, one of the biggest internet-only grocery retailers, said this week that sales rose 35% during the last fiscal year as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift toward internet shopping. The company, which is based in Britain but has been expanding with partners in the U.S., Europe and Asia, said retail sales jumped to 2.19 billion pounds ($3.02 billion) in the year through November from 1.62 billion pounds a year earlier. Consumers around the world have scrambled for online grocery delivery slots during the pandemic as shoppers sought to protect themselves by avoiding supermarkets. During Ocado’s fiscal year, U.K. health authorities imposed a raft of social distancing measures and two national lockdowns to control COVID-19. “The rapid acceleration of many pre-existing trends in business and society has been a feature…

A Chinese spacecraft entered Mars orbit on Wednesday on a mission to land a rover and collect data on underground water and possible signs of ancient life, state media said. “China’s probe Tianwen-1 successfully entered the orbit around Mars on Wednesday after a nearly seven-month voyage from Earth,” the Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report. The orbiter-rover combo became the second spacecraft in two days to reach the red planet. An orbiter from the United Arab Emirates led the way on Tuesday. Next week, the U.S. will try to land its Perseverance rover on the Martian surface. Only the U.S. has successfully touched down on Mars — eight times beginning with two Viking missions. A lander and rover are in operation today. All three Mars missions launched last…

As inoculation efforts for the coronavirus ramp up around the world, Facebook says it’s going all in to block the spread of bogus vaccine claims. In practice, that means the social network plans to ban a new bunch of false claims in addition to the manifold false claims about vaccines and COVID-19 that it has already banned. Among Facebook’s new targets: claims include that vaccines aren’t effective or that they’re toxic, dangerous or cause autism, all of which have been thoroughly debunked for both the coronavirus vaccine and any other vaccine. The platform had already prohibited users from spreading falsehoods that such as: masks are ineffective; vaccines cause infertility; vaccines contain tracking microchips; and vaccines don’t actually exist. Plus a whole host of other dangerous misinformation that’s been debunked by…

There’s no denying Valentine’s Day will look a little different in 2021. With restaurants closed in many parts of the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic and international travel all-but-banned, this February 14 will be a more low-key affair. We’ve put together some strategies to help you enjoy a romantic, memorable Valentine’s Weekend using your phone. EXPERIENCES FROM YOUR PHONE Wherever you are in the world, the chances are that this upcoming Valentine’s Day will be more subtle than in previous years, with most of the usual activities canceled or out of reach due to the ongoing pandemic. Though couples would typically flock to Italian restaurants and movie theaters, or perhaps even book a weekend getaway to Paris, we’re forced to be more imaginative and creative this year. The good…

The Michigan State Police told officers to remove a phone app that keeps no record of outgoing text messages, a newspaper reported this week. Col. Joseph Gasper issued the order in a memo obtained by the Detroit Free Press, which had published stories about the use of the Signal app by high-ranking members of the department. “Members who currently have a non-standard communications application installed on their department device shall remove the application no later than February 10, 2021,” Gasper said. Text messages sent using Signal are gone without a trace once deleted, the newspaper reported. The use of Signal was recently disclosed in a lawsuit involving state police. Critics say it can help officials dodge public records requests and frustrate attorneys during litigation. “To ensure the integrity of our…

Rams Sheep-farming brothers Colin (Sam Neill) and Les (Michael Caton) have been estranged from each other for decades. Their feud intensifies after Les’s prize ram is found to have a rare and deadly illness and authorities consequently order that both men’s flocks are purged. FIVE FACTS: 1. This movie is a reinterpretation of the 2015 Icelandic drama film Rams directed by Grímur Hákonarson. 2. The new film’s director Jeremy Sims has described the original as “an incredibly beautiful film and it’s undeniably http://www.if.com.au/jeremy-sims-on-turning-an-icelandic-hit-into-a-mainstream-aussie-drama/ art-house”. 3. The changes the new film makes to the original story include relocating it from a snowy and blizzard-struck Iceland to a drought and bushfire-affected Australia. 4. The new film was shot wholly on location in the small Western Australian farming town of Mount Barker. 5. The…

Religion and horror are hardly novel bedfellows, but writer-director Rose Glass crafts something fresh of the construct in her promising debut“ Saint Maud.”The film follows the psychological undoing of a devout hospice nurse who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of her terminally ill patient. An uneasy and slightly sinister mood is established right from the start and barely lets up for the duration. Lean and measured, Glass’ film drops the audience in the middle of a bloody mess, although it’s ambiguous at first as to whether or not we’re seeing the beginning or the end. There’s a body on an operating table and a young woman in the corner with her face covered in blood. The next image we see is a close-up of boiling tomato soup in a…

Japanese telecommunications and technology conglomerate Softbank Group Corp. reported a whopping 1.17 trillion yen ($11 billion) profit for the October-December quarter as its investments rose in value. SoftBank’s profits were far better than what analysts had expected, zooming up 21-fold from the 55 billion yen profit recorded the previous year. The value of its investments rose, including in DoorDash, a U.S. food delivery service, and Uber, a U.S. technology company that offers ride-hailing and deliveries. Quarterly sales edged up 7% to 1.5 trillion yen ($14 billion). SoftBank’s investment portfolio got an overall healthy boost from the booming global stock market. Although companies have been hurt by the coronavirus pandemic, some companies, including those SoftBank has invested in, are proving beneficiaries of the need for people around the world to stay…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled an ambitious 10-year space program for his country that includes missions to the moon, sending Turkish astronauts into space and developing internationally viable satellite systems. Erdogan announced the program, seen as part of his vision for placing Turkey in expanded regional and global role, during a live televised event laced with special effects. He said Turkey planned to establish “a first contact with the moon” in 2023, when the country marks the centennial of the founding of the Turkish republic. The first stage of the mission would be “through international cooperation,” while the second stage would utilize Turkish rockets, Erdogan said. “Our primary and most important goal for our national space program is the contact of the Republic, in its 100th year, with the…

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez spoke with Elon Musk about the tech billionaire’s interest in digging road tunnels in Miami to alleviate traffic congestion in Florida’s largest metro area. The Musk-owned Boring Co. has built other underground motorways for electric cars in the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas. Suarez said he was looking forward to visiting the construction in Las Vegas. “I think we have a unique opportunity to create a signature project, not just for Miami, but for the world,” Suarez said in a video posted on his Twitter account, pitching this as a transportation solution for the area. Musk estimated the project could cost about $30 million and take about six months to complete, Suarez said. The mayor said he will talk to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade…

Twitter posted solid results for the last three months of 2020, capping what CEO Jack Dorsey called “an extraordinary year” for the platform. New users signed on in large numbers to follow the world’s events in real time despite the challenges of election misinformation and intensifying calls to ban now former President Donald Trump. The San Francisco-based company earned $222.1 million, or 27 cents per share, in the October-December period. That’s up 87% from $118.8 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 28% to $1.29 billion from $1 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 29 cents per share and revenue of $1.18 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. Twitter had 192 million daily users, on average, in the third quarter, up 27% year-over-year.…

Clubhouse, an invitation-only audio chat app launched less than a year ago, has caught the attention of tech industry bigshots like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — not to mention the Chinese government, which has already blocked it in the country. What is Clubhouse, you ask? WHAT IS CLUBHOUSE? The iPhone-only app, once you’re in, lets you start or listen into conversations on a whole host of topics, from tech to pro sports, parenting, Black literature and so on. There are no posts, photos or videos — only people’s profile pictures and their voices. Conversations can be intimate, like a phone call, or might include thousands of people listening to a talk by boldface names, like a conference or stage interview. Think part podcast, part conference…

Medicine at Midnight Foo Fighters “I guarantee that most musicians have that groove or that vibe somewhere within them,” Foo Fighters’ David Grohl tells Apple Music about the funk and disco motifs permeating the rock band’s 10th studio album. “They just may have never found the right time or place to let it out.” FIVE FACTS: 1. Acts that have influenced the party rock feel of the album include ABBA, Prince and David Bowie. 2. Several of the album’s tracks include percussion from legendary drummer Omar Hakim, who had previously played drums on David Bowie’s 1983 hit album Let’s Dance. 3. “I’m a drummer,” Grohl has emphasized, adding: “I explained one time to Pharrell: ‘If you listen to Nevermind, those are disco beats, dude.’” 4. Nevermind is the first album…

Boeing Co. has said it will outsource a significant amount of information technology work to Dell starting in April, including support of cloud services, databases and information technology. The move is expected to eliminate 600 jobs. Susan Doniz, vice president for information technology and data analytics for Boeing, told employees that the eliminated jobs represent about 10% of the company’s IT staff, The Seattle Times reported. Doniz said affected employees, most of whom are not unionized, must either find different work within the company, apply to work for Dell or be laid off. The move is expected to increase the company’s efficiency, simplify operations and “advance our digital transformation,” she said. Boeing declined to provide a breakdown of the affected jobs by state. The Times suggested in its report that…

A spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates swung into orbit around Mars on Tuesday in a triumph for the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. Ground controllers at the UAE’s space center in Dubai rose to their feet and broke into applause when word came that the craft, called Amal, Arabic for Hope, had reached the end of its seven-month, 300-million-mile journey and had begun circling the red planet, where it will gather data on Mars’ atmosphere. The orbiter fired its main engines for 27 minutes in an intricate, high-stakes maneuver that slowed the craft enough for it to be captured by Mars’ gravity. It took a nail-biting 11 minutes for the signal confirming success to reach Earth. Tensions were high: Over the years, Mars has been the graveyard for a…

Polluters must step up their commitments to cutting greenhouse gas emissions before a crucial climate summit in November, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week. Guterres said the global body’s “central objective” this year is to get countries and companies responsible for 90% of the world’s human-made emissions to set credible deadlines by when they will stop adding further planet-heating gases to the atmosphere. Several countries including the United States, China and members of the European Union have already announced plans to achieve “ net zero ” emissions, meaning they will only release as much carbon dioxide and other gases as can be absorbed by natural or technological means. But scientists say some of the targets are too far off and aren’t backed by clear plans that would ensure that…