Innehållsförteckning för #504 från AppleMagazine

Remember that longing you felt after an episode of “Sex and the City” to shop at the characters’ favorite New York haunts and drink cosmopolitans at the same bars? Or that sense of wanderlust for the seaside cliffs of Ireland after watching “Game of Thrones?” Hollywood’s flattering spotlight has put small towns on the map, like Wilmington, North Carolina, from “Dawson’s Creek” and the woods of Senoia, Georgia, from “The Walking Dead.” And that’s exactly what travel marketers in St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Florida, were hoping to capitalize on when they commissioned an original, scripted TV series, seeking to draw quarantine-weary tourists to the area’s sugar sand beaches. “Life’s Rewards” aired on Amazon Prime last month. The eight-episode show is based on a charming yet cavalier wealth manager who loses…

A House panel pushed ahead Wednesday with ambitious legislation that could curb the market power of tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple and force them to sever their dominant platforms from their other lines of business. Conservative Republican lawmakers haggled over legislative language and pushed concerns of perceived anti-conservative bias in online platforms but couldn’t halt the bipartisan momentum behind the package. The drafting session and votes by the House Judiciary Committee are initial steps in what promises to be a strenuous slog through Congress. Many Republican lawmakers denounce the market dominance of Big Tech but don’t support a wholesale revamp of the antitrust laws. The Democratic-majority committee made quick work of arguably the least controversial bills in the package, which were approved over Republican objections. A measure that…

When U.S. law enforcement officials need to cast a wide net for information, they’re increasingly turning to the vast digital ponds of personal data created by Big Tech companies via the devices and online services that have hooked billions of people around the world. Data compiled by four of the biggest tech companies shows that law enforcement requests for user information — phone calls, emails, texts, photos, shopping histories, driving routes and more — have more than tripled in the U.S. since 2015. Police are also increasingly savvy about covering their tracks so as not to alert suspects of their interest. That’s the backdrop for recent revelations that the Trump-era U.S. Justice Department sought data from Apple, Microsoft and Google about members of Congress, their aides and news reporters in…

The Birthday Cake A decade after his father’s mysterious death, Gio (Shiloh Fernandez) brings a cake to a memorial event held at the home of his uncle, mafia boss Angelo (Val Kilmer). However, it starts dawning on Gio what genuinely happened to his father all those years ago. FIVE FACTS: 1. Ewan McGregor also appears in this film as a long-trusted friendly priest, Father Kelly. 2. McGregor reportedly took only three days to film his scenes. 3. In the story, the cake is baked by Gio’s mother Sophia, who is played by Goodfellas’ Lorraine Bracco. 4. David Mazouz also appears in The Birthday Cake, as the younger Gio. 5. Kilmer and Mazouz have both previously played Batman – the former in 1995’s Batman Forever and the latter in the late-2010s…

Toward the end of “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” there’s a scene where Ryan Reynolds is repeatedly smashing a man’s head into a jukebox aboard a yacht, as sometimes happens. Each time the bloodied head goes in the machine, it triggers a new song. Until it lands on “The Sign” by Ace of Base. “You’re lucky,” Reynolds says to his unconscious rival before walking away to commit more mayhem. “I love this song.” That single scene beautifully captures the essence of the sequel to 2017’s “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” — overly violent, disarmingly cute and overly self-referencing. Fans of the original will get the in-joke about “The Sign” but the sequel itself will not likely make new fans. It suffers from what many sophomore films fall prey to: Same basic idea, but…

China’s biggest banks promised this week to refuse to help customers trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies after the central bank said executives were told to step up enforcement of a government ban. Regulators appear to worry that despite the 2013 ban on Chinese banks and other institutions handling cryptocurrencies, the state-run financial system might be indirectly exposed to risks. Beijing also worries users might evade efforts to monitor and control the financial system. The four major state-owned commercial banks and payment service Alipay promised to step up monitoring of customers and block use of their accounts to buy or trade crypto-currencies. “Customers are asked to be more aware of risks, safeguard bank accounts and not to use virtual currency-related transactions,” China Construction Bank Ltd. said on its website. Similar promises…

It took a few minutes to get used to. The classroom full of city of Gillette workers, not students, sat in desks facing the front of the Gillette College Technical Education Center classroom, but they also were faced in all different directions, looking almost like landlocked scuba divers. Unable to see each other but immersed in virtual reality, they smiled, spun and flailed their arms. Although they work in various city departments, they were virtually taken to a coal mine by the black virtual reality headsets strapped to their heads. VR goggles protruded from their faces but inside their minds, they experienced what it’s like to stand in a coal mine from the seat of a classroom chair, the Gillette News Record reports. The blind spot training program that Gillette…

Tesla might be the first company that springs to mind when you’re in the market for a new electric vehicle, but California-based startup Lucid should not be underestimated. The firm unveiled its breathtaking Lucid Air vehicle last year, offering up to 1065bhp and a claimed maximum range of 517 miles, and last month teased its proprietary operating system that will connect drivers across the United States and around the world. The future is coming. THE WORLD’S MOST AERODYNAMIC LUXURY CAR Lucid’s debut model, Air, has been described by its engineers as the world’s most “aerodynamic luxury car,” with a drag coefficient of just 0.21; that’s 0.01 less than the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class to give you some perspective. The model offers an unrestricted top speed of more than 230 miles per…

Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S. this week to keep users engaged on its platform and to compete with emerging rivals. Facebook says it is allowing public figures with verified accounts to start live audio rooms and invite anyone else to speak. A handful of podcasts will be available to people in the U.S. at first and the company plans to add more down the line. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has appeared on the video streaming app Clubhouse in the past, hosted his own live audio room on his Facebook page last week. “Live Audio Rooms and podcasts rolling out in the US is just the beginning of our audio journey,” wrote Fidji Simo, head of the Facebook app, in a blog post. “Looking ahead,…

Ice Daddy Gucci Mane “I wanted the whole project to feel very indicative of the chapter of my life that I’m in right now,” country star Brett Young explained to Apple Music about his third studio album, which takes in various subjects along the lines of parenthood and nurturing a long-term relationship. FIVE FACTS: 1. Gucci’s previous studio album, Woptober II, peaked at seventh position on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 2019. 2. In the almost two years since then, Gucci has devoted much of his time to nurturing the fruits of his own label, 1017 Records. 3. Ice Davis is Gucci’s first child with his wife, Keyshia Ka’oir. 4. His baby boy also appears on the new album’s cover art, marking the first time he has been…

Steven Spielberg, a filmmaker synonymous with big-screen enchantment, has set a new deal with Netflix in which his production company, Amblin Partners, will make multiple feature films per year for the streaming giant. The partnership, one long courted by Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, is a major get for the company that, amid increasing competition, brings perhaps the most beloved film director more officially into the streaming fold. The deal announced this week doesn’t specifically include any movies to be directed by Spielberg. This December, he will release “West Side Story” theatrically with Disney’s 20th Century Studios. Amblin has a separate deal with Universal Pictures for theatrical releases. “At Amblin, storytelling will forever be at the center of everything we do, and from the minute Ted and I started…

Ever since a track coach named Bill Bowerman tinkered with the idea of pouring rubber into his waffle iron to concoct a better shoe sole for running, Nike and the sport of track and field have become inseparably intertwined. The results of much of that interconnectedness is on full display in the college town of Eugene — which is where Nike was founded and underwrites virtually every facet of sporting life at the University of Oregon. This week, the university is hosting the track and field Olympic trials. Next year, the sport’s world championships — the biggest event in track this side of the Olympics — take the stage. Though frequently scrutinized the way any market leader is, Nike’s command of this sport has been tested over the past few…

GameStop raised more than $1 billion in its latest stock sale, capitalizing on a newly arrived and fervent army of online investors. The video game retailer has taken center stage among a handful of companies that have come to be known this year as meme stocks. The phenomenon has pitted smaller investors who snap up shares of beleaguered companies, against large, institutional investors who have shorted shares of those companies, or bet that shares in those companies will fall. So far, it’s the smaller investors that are taking home big gains, though certainly larger and more sophisticated investors have since jumped aboard for the ride. Shares of GameStop Corp., based in Grapevine, Texas, just outside of Dallas, are up more than 1,000% this year. Another meme stock, the movie chain…

As ransomware attacks surge, the FBI is doubling down on its guidance to affected businesses: Don’t pay the cybercriminals. But the U.S. government also offers a little-noticed incentive for those who do pay: The ransoms may be tax deductible. The IRS offers no formal guidance on ransomware payments, but multiple tax experts interviewed said deductions are usually allowed under law and established guidance. It’s a “silver lining” to ransomware victims, as some tax lawyers and accountants put it. But those looking to discourage payments are less sanguine. They fear the deduction is a potentially problematic incentive that could entice businesses to pay ransoms against the advice of law enforcement. At a minimum, they say, the deductibility sends a discordant message to businesses under duress. “It seems a little incongruous to…

A brisk and bright sun-dappled fable of above-ground adventure and below-the-surface identity, Enrico Casarosa’s “Luca” — a summery, shimmering fish-out-of-water fairy tale — is one of Pixar’s most pure and condensed enchantments. Pixar has plunged into the sea before, of course, in the aquatic “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory.” Lushly detailed waters have been sprinkled through many of the studio’s films, from the rushing river of “The Good Dinosaur” to the frothy seaside surf of “Piper.” One personal favorite: how, after the frantic Paris chase in “Ratatouille,” the diminutive Chef Skinner bobs furiously in the Seine. But in“Luca,”we’re in the ocean to look longingly upon another world, which happens to be our own. Luca Paguro (Jacob Tremblay) is a 13-year-old sea monster who lives off the coast of the Italian…

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European Union regulators have launched a fresh antitrust investigation of Google, this time over whether the U.S. tech giant is stifling competition in digital advertising technology. The European Commission said this week that it has opened a formal investigation into whether Google violated the bloc’s competition rules by favoring its own online display advertising technology services at the expense of rival publishers, advertisers and advertising technology services. The investigation underscores European concerns about Google’s dominance in the online advertising industry and whether it’s exploiting its data advantage to cement its position in the display ad market, which the EU Commission estimates is worth 20 billion euros ($24 billion) annually. This month, France’s antitrust authority fined Google more than 220 million euros for abusing its dominance in online ads while in…