Innehållsförteckning för #515 från AppleMagazine

Researchers have completed a comprehensive online map of the world’s coral reefs by using more than 2 million satellite images from across the globe. The Allen Coral Atlas, named after late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will act as a reference for reef conservation, marine planning and coral science as researchers try to save these fragile ecosystems that are being lost to climate change. The group announced completion of the atlas this week and said it is the first global, high-resolution map of its kind. It gives users the ability to see detailed information about local reefs, including different types of submarine structure like sand, rocks, seagrass and, of course, coral. The maps, which include areas up to 50 feet (15 meters) deep, are being used to inform policy decisions about…

Solar energy has the potential to supply up to 40% of the nation’s electricity within 15 years — a 10-fold increase over current solar output, but one that would require massive changes in U.S. policy and billions of dollars in federal investment to modernize the nation’s electric grid, a new federal report says. The report by the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy says the United States would need to quadruple its annual solar capacity — and continue to increase it year by year — as it shifts to a renewable-dominant grid in order to address the existential threat posed by climate change. The report released this week is not intended as a policy statement or administration goal, officials said. Instead, it is “designed to guide and…

Ask for a roast beef sandwich at an Arby’s drive-thru east of Los Angeles and you may be talking to Tori — an artificially intelligent voice assistant that will take your order and send it to the line cooks. “It doesn’t call sick,” says Amir Siddiqi, whose family installed the AI voice at its Arby’s franchise this year in Ontario, California. “It doesn’t get corona. And the reliability of it is great.” The pandemic didn’t just threaten Americans’ health when it slammed the U.S. in 2020 — it may also have posed a long-term threat to many of their jobs. Faced with worker shortages and higher labor costs, companies are starting to automate service sector jobs that economists once considered safe, assuming that machines couldn’t easily provide the human contact…

Technology companies that led the charge into remote work as the pandemic unfurled are confronting a new challenge: how, when and even whether they should bring long-isolated employees back to offices that have been designed for teamwork. “I thought this period of remote work would be the most challenging year-and-half of my career, but it’s not,”said Brent Hyder, the chief people officer for business software maker Salesforce and its roughly 65,000 employees worldwide.“Getting everything started back up the way it needs to be is proving to be even more difficult.” That transition has been complicated by the rapid spread of the delta variant, which has scrambled the plans many tech companies had for bringing back most of their workers near or after Labor Day weekend. Microsoft has pushed those dates…

Americans have become obsessed with collectibles, bidding up prices for trading cards, video games and other mementos of their youth. The frenzy has brought small fortunes to some, but a deep frustration for those who still love to play games or trade cards as a hobby. Among the items most sought after — and even fought over — are the relics of millennials’ childhoods. These include copies of trading cards such as Pokemon’s Charizard and Magic: The Gathering’s Black Lotus as well as Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. game cartridges. Some cards are selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars and an unopened Super Mario game recently sold for an astonishing $2 million. This is more than a case of opportunistic collectors looking to cash in on a burst of nostalgia…

If the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taught us anything it’s that heroes arise from unexpected places. For their 25th film entry, that place is valet parking. The titular hero of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is laying low living on tips as a hotel parking attendant in present-day San Francisco when we meet him as an adult. He doesn’t even fly to work; he takes the bus. But by the time the film is over, he’s a glorious addition to the Marvel universe, a tried and dependable warrior whose valor has been tested in more than one dimension and joined by a predominantly Asian cast. And forget about the bus — now he rides dragons. Simu Liu plays our hero with Spider-Man’s aw-shucks sweetness but a lethality…

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group said it will spend $15.5 billion to support President Xi Jinping’s campaign to spread China’s prosperity more evenly, adding to pledges by tech companies that are under pressure to pay for the ruling Communist Party’s political initiatives. Alibaba said it will invest in 10 projects for job creation, “care for vulnerable groups” and technology innovation. Its 100 billion yuan ($15.5 billion) pledge includes 20 billion yuan ($12.5 billion) for a fund to “cut income inequality” in the company’s home province of Zhejiang, south of Shanghai. Alibaba and other Chinese tech giants including games and social media service Tencent Holdings Ltd have announced plans to invest in social welfare, technology development and other ruling party priorities in response to pressure to align with Beijing’s political and economic…

Ford Motor Co. has hired a former executive from Apple and Tesla to be the company’s head of advanced technology and new embedded systems, a critical post as the auto industry moves to adopt vehicles powered by electricity and guided by computers. Before Doug Field joined Ford, he was a vice president of special projects at Apple and a engineer at Tesla. Apple has been rumored to be working on its own car project for some time, but the details have been kept under tight wraps. Field also worked on Tesla’s Model 3 vehicle. Field will be in charge of building out passenger systems like navigation, driver-assist technology, connected systems and cybersecurity across all of Ford’s products. He will also be in charge of making sure Ford products work well…

Apple might be best known for its consumer electronics like iPhones and iPads, but behind the scenes, the Cupertino company is extending its interests far beyond. Right now, health is a key priority, with Apple investing billions in research and development to create products that help us live longer. However, Tim Cook and Co are now looking further afield: to space. MONITORING HEALTH WITH THE APPLE WATCH In recent years, Apple has transformed the health and wellness landscape with its Apple Watch. Once considered a gimmick and something exclusively for fitness fanatics, the wearable is now one of the company’s biggest product categories, and it’s directly saved dozens of lives around the world. As Apple continues to introduce new technologies into the smartwatch, like blood oxygen level monitoring, Apple Watch…

Back in the spring, a shortage of computer chips that had sent auto prices soaring appeared, finally, to be easing. Some relief for consumers seemed to be in sight. That hope has now dimmed. A surge in COVID-19 cases from the delta variant in several Asian countries that are the main producers of auto-grade chips is worsening the supply shortage. It is further delaying a return to normal auto production and keeping the supply of vehicles artificially low. And that means, analysts say, that record-high consumer prices for vehicles — new and used, as well as rental cars — will extend into next year and might not fall back toward earth until 2023. The global parts shortage involves not just computer chips. Automakers are starting to see shortages of wiring…

Cellphones across New York and New Jersey pulsed with urgent warnings of catastrophic flooding as the fury of Hurricane Ida’s remnants, carrying torrential rains, upper New Jersey and New York City. The first alerts of severe weather blared across millions of phones at 8:41 p.m. that night when the National Weather Service warned of dangerous flash flooding from the looming storm. Officials would issue three more alerts, late into the night, urging people to immediately head for higher ground and to stay out of rising floodwaters. A barrage of other alerts from a litany of apps lit up phone screens throughout the night — prompting some to wonder if people were just too inundated with information to take the threat seriously. Experts call it“warning fatigue,”and no one can be sure…

Jungle Cruise Scientific researcher Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) and her brother and assistant MacGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall) are led through the Amazon jungle by riverboat captain Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) on a mission to find an ancient tree unparalleled in its healing abilities. FIVE FACTS: 1. This film is inspired by the attraction and ride of the same name at various Disney theme parks. 2. Many of the corny puns used by Frank in the film have been lifted straight from the Jungle Cruise attraction. 3. The name of Blunt’s character references Katharine Hepburn, who starred in the similar 1951 film The African Queen and had the full name of Katharine Houghton Hepburn. 4. On that occasion, Hepburn co-starred with Humphrey Bogart, whose look in The African Queen inspired…

“What is life worth?” asks Washington lawyer Kenneth J. Feinberg (Michael Keaton) in the opening scenes of the based-on-a-true-story drama “Worth,” while writing the question on a blackboard for a room full of law school students. To Feinberg, it’s not a trick question or a moral one. It’s a calculation. There are legal parameters and predictions of future earning power that dictate the answer. “The answer is a number,” he says. “And that’s the job” In Sara Colangelo’s “Worth,” which premieres Friday on Netflix, Feinberg’s formulas are dramatically tested in extraordinary tragedy. After Sept. 11, Feinberg is among those brought to Washington to advise on compensation for the families of the victims. The idea floated is that Congress, for the first time, should create a fund for the families affected.…

El Salvador is betting that this week’s pioneering adoption of Bitcoin will spur its economy, especially one of its most crucial sources of revenue: money sent home by Salvadorans in the United States. A fervent proponent of the cryptocurrency, President Nayib Bukele has asked the more than 2 million Salvadorans who live overseas to send their remittances in Bitcoin, arguing it will be cheaper than transferring dollars. He also says it will stimulate foreign investment. “It will be a great benefit for our people,” he has written in Twitter. But both those at home and abroad are uncertain if the plan, which takes effect Tuesday, will work as intended. Some say the system is too complicated and opaque. Others worry about the way Bitcoin values can rise and fall sharply…

Over the past week or so, Apple has eased some longstanding restrictions that helped make its App Store into a big moneymaker for the company. The company has long required app developers to pay high commissions to Apple on the sales of paid apps as well as purchases of subscriptions or digital items inside their apps. Apple is facing some significant pressure to open up the App Store further. A federal judge is soon expected to return a verdict in an antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, that seeks to strike down much of Apple’s commission system. And earlier this week, the South Korean legislature passed a law that would allow developers to sidestep payment systems run by both Apple and Google — and the commissions…

There will be something missing at two Whole Foods stores opening next year: the rows of cashiers. Amazon, which owns the grocery chain, said this week that it will bring its cashier-less technology to two Whole Foods stores for the first time, letting shoppers grab what they need and leave without having to open their wallets. Cameras and sensors track what’s taken off shelves. Items are charged to an Amazon account after customers leave the store with them. But there will be an option for those who want to shop the old-fashioned way: Self-checkout lanes will be available that take cash, gift cards and other types of payment. The company first unveiled the cashier-less technology in 2018 at an Amazon Go convenience store and has expanded it to larger supermarkets.…

Just six years ago, Elizabeth Holmes seemed destined to fulfill her dream of becoming Silicon Valley’s next superstar. She was the subject of business magazine cover stories describing her as the youngest self-made female billionaire in history, former President Bill Clinton was reverently quizzing her about her thoughts on technology, and then Vice President Joe Biden was hailing her ideas as an inspiration. Now Holmes is about to head into a San Jose, California, courtroom to defend herself against criminal allegations depicting her as the devious mastermind of a fraud that duped wealthy investors, former U.S. government officials and patients whose lives were endangered by a blood-testing technology that never came close to fulfilling her bold promises. If convicted by a jury in a trial, Holmes could be sentenced to…

Since the COVID-19 vaccine started becoming available in the U.S., there have been more opportunities to impulse spend on items and experiences that you didn’t get to enjoy early in the pandemic. With the freedom to do more, consumers are spending more. For the first seven months of 2021, retail sales were up 15.5% compared to that same period in 2020, according to calculations by the National Retail Federation. As some restrictions have eased, it’s likely that you’ve had new spending needs: returning to work, visiting with friends and family, and partaking in other back-to-normal activities. But when the nonessentials threaten to put your finances in jeopardy, it’s important to keep your financial goals on track. Here are five strategies to help you navigate impulse spending. 1. WAIT A DAY…

Heavy metal icons Iron Maiden’s 17 th studio album is permeated with Japanese influences – right down to the cover art, which features the band’s versatile mascot Eddie in samurai attire. The album’s Japanese-language title roughly translates into English as “tactics and strategy”. FIVE FACTS: 1. This is not the first time Eddie has referenced Japanese culture, as he appeared with a samurai sword on the cover of the band’s Maiden Japan EP in 1981. 2. Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson recently reflected to Apple Music that the band “has always been quite popular in Japan”, which he calls “a pretty exotic place”. 3. Nonetheless, according to Dickinson, most of the new album’s songs are unrelated to Japan’s “very rich samurai history”. 4. Dickinson enthuses that the title track “has got…

The Middle East got its first completely automated cashier-less store, as retail giant Carrefour rolled out its vision for the future of the industry in a cavernous Dubai mall. Like Amazon’s breakthrough unmanned grocery stores that opened in 2018, the Carrefour mini-market looks like any ordinary convenience store, brimming with sodas and snacks, tucked between sprawling storefronts of this city-state. But hidden among the familiar fare lies a sophisticated system that tracks shoppers’ movements, eliminating the checkout line and allowing people to grab the products they’ll walk out with. Only those with the store’s smartphone app may enter. Nearly a hundred small surveillance cameras blanket the ceiling. Countless sensors line the shelves. Five minutes after shoppers leave, their phones ping with receipts for whatever they put in their bags. “This…

Residents in Wrangell and Petersburg now have the ability to text 911 for help when calling isn’t an option. “It’s been working out excellent,” Petersburg Police Department Chief James Kerr said. “It’s designed for the hearing impaired or domestic violence situations. If you can’t talk to the dispatch, but you need help, you can text.” A third-party provider helped implement the technology with the two police departments. “One of the really big benefits I see with this is for search and rescue,” Kerr said, noting Alaska’s rugged terrain can make it difficult to get a call signal. “But you can send a text through. It gives us GPS coordinates and everything else.” The Juneau Police Department is also investigating a similar system, Lt. Krag Campbell said in an email to…