Innehållsförteckning för #526 från AppleMagazine

Susan Goodell needed help. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Goodell, CEO of the El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank, would look out the window at the long line of clients picking up the food available that day, while she and others answered calls from others who couldn’t travel to a distribution point. “We were getting just horrible phone calls from our seniors, from people with disabilities, people who were COVID-positive and couldn’t leave their homes to get food,” Goodell said. “We were distributing food here at the site and other sites from about 6 a.m. till about 7 at night. Then, at the end of the day, the staff would pack up food and deliver it to people’s homes.” So, earlier this year, when the food delivery…

Apple announced it is suing Israel’s NSO Group, seeking to block the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire company from breaking into Apple’s products, like the iPhone. Apple said in a complaint filed in federal court in California that NSO Group employees are “amoral 21st century mercenaries who have created highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery that invites routine and flagrant abuse.” Apple said NSO Group’s spyware, called Pegasus, had been used to attack a small number of Apple customers worldwide. “State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering. NSO Group has broadly denied wrongdoing and said its products have been used by governments to save lives. “Pedophiles and terrorists can…

If anyone has a good idea on how to put a nuclear fission power plant on the moon, the U.S. government wants to hear about it. NASA and the nation’s top federal nuclear research lab put out a request for proposals for a fission surface power system. NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the moon by the end of the decade. “Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp,” Sebastian Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the lab, said in a statement. If successful in supporting a sustained human presence on the moon, the next objective would…

Major League Baseball and the players’ union have agreed to move the upcoming deadline for teams to offer contracts to certain players in order to keep them out of potential limbo in the event of a work stoppage next month. The tender deadline was moved from Dec. 2 to Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. The sport’s collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m., and it’s not expected that MLB and the union will agree on a new deal before then. A lockout and roster freeze could begin Dec. 2. Teams have until the deadline to decide whether to offer 2022 contracts to players with fewer than six years of major league service, including those eligible for salary arbitration. The labor dispute could take months to resolve, and if…

Snoop Dogg Presents Algorithm Snoop Dogg Having recently taken up the role of executive creative consultant for Def Jam Recordings, prolific rapper Snoop Dogg has since released a new compilation of material from several stars – including himself – who have become strongly associated with the record label during its history. FIVE FACTS: 1. Big-name artists represented on the album include Method Man, Usher, Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes. 2. Snoop Dogg unveiled the album to music industry insiders at a Manhattan recording studio on October 26, 2021. 3. “There’s so much talent on the record,” Snoop enthused , adding: “So many styles of music, it breaks the algorithm.” 4. The first single released from the album was “Big Subwoofer”, recorded by the rap supergroup Mount Westmore – comprising Ice…

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” — the direct cinematic follow-up to the 1984 classic — is haunted, of course. But not in a good way. Director and co-writer Jason Reitman’s sequel leans so hard into his dad’s original that it sometimes seems like a checklist of the megahit’s touchstones, from the Ecto-1 tricked-out Cadillac, to Stay-Puft marshmallows, appearances from the surviving Ghostbusters and even the same Ray Parker Jr. theme song. It has taken Ivan Reitman’s original — which had the feel of an anarchic “Saturday Night Live” skit taken as far as it could go — too seriously. It fetishizes the ghost-trapping equipment and limps along until the original actors arrive — one cynically resurrected — to wring some sort of emotion it hasn’t earned. The film is set several decades after…

In a rock concert-like atmosphere, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced that his government will build an oceanside “Bitcoin City” at the base of a volcano. Bukele used a gathering of Bitcoin enthusiasts to launch his latest idea, much as he used a an earlier Bitcoin conference in Miami to announce in a video message that El Salvador would be the first country to make the cryptocurrency legal tender, A bond offering would happen in 2022 entirely in Bitcoin, Bukele said, wearing his signature backwards baseball cap. And 60 days after financing was ready, construction would begin. The city will be built near the Conchagua volcano to take advantage of geothermal energy to power both the city and Bitcoin mining — the energy-intensive solving of complex mathematical calculations day and…

Job candidates rarely know when hidden artificial intelligence tools are rejecting their resumes or analyzing their video interviews. But New York City residents could soon get more say over the computers making behind-the-scenes decisions about their careers. A bill passed by the city council in early November would ban employers from using automated hiring tools unless a yearly bias audit can show they won’t discriminate based on an applicant’s race or gender. It would also force makers of those AI tools to disclose more about their opaque workings and give candidates the option of choosing an alternative process — such as a human — to review their application. Proponents liken it to another pioneering New York City rule that became a national standard-bearer earlier this century — one that required…

The European Space Agency says the launch of a new NASA telescope to replace the famed Hubble observatory is being postponed to allow experts to check the device for possible damage following an incident at its spaceport in French Guiana. The ESA said in a statement that technicians had been preparing to attach the James Webb Space Telescope to a launch vehicle adapter when a clamp band suddenly loosened, jolting the delicate observatory. “A NASA-led anomaly review board was immediately convened to investigate and instituted additional testing to determine with certainty (that) the incident did not damage any components,” ESA said. “NASA and its mission partners will provide an update when the testing is completed at the end of this week.” ESA said the telescope will now launch aboard an…

Is travel safe during the pandemic this holiday season? It depends. It can be safe if you’re fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but officials say people who haven’t gotten the shots should delay travel. Regardless of vaccination status, all travelers should keep taking precautions like avoiding indoor, unmasked crowds, says Dr. Keith Armitage, an infectious disease expert at Case Western Reserve University. “The delta variant has really brought us back to an earlier time in the pandemic,”he says. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says not to travel if you’re sick, or if you tested positive for COVID-19 and your isolation period isn’t over yet — even if you’re fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated people who decide to travel should get a COVID-19 test one to three days before travel and…

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Long after escaping the clutches of the Ten Rings organization as a teenager, skilled martial artist Xu Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) is drawn back into it by its leader, his own father Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), and soon finds himself on a search for a mythical village. FIVE FACTS: 1. This is the 25th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). 2. The film is based on the superhero Shang-Chi, who made his comic-book debut in December 1973. 3. A film about Shang-Chi was considered back in the late 1980s, with Brandon Lee – son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee – eyed for the lead role. However, this plan ultimately fell through. 4. In 2001, Stephen Norrington announced that he was going…

Italy’s antitrust watchdog has fined Apple and Amazon a total of more than 200 million euros ($225 million) for cooperating to restrict competition in the sale of Apple and Beats branded products in violation of European Union rules. An investigation found that provisions in a 2018 agreement between the U.S. tech giants limited access to Italy’s Amazon marketplace to selected resellers, the Italian Competition Authority said this week. The watchdog slapped Apple with a 134.5 million euro ($151.32 million) fine and Amazon with a 68.7 million euro ($77.29 million) penalty. It also ordered them to end the restrictions and give resellers access in a “non-discriminatory manner.” Both Apple and Amazon said they would appeal. “The proposed fine is disproportionate and unjustified,” Amazon said. “We reject the ICA’s suggestion that Amazon…

Internet problems continue to slow down many students in the U.S. state of New Mexico, but a pilot project using TV signals to transmit computer files may help. State public education officials distributed devices to eight families in the city of Taos that allow schools to send them digital files via television. The boxes the size of a deck of cards allow digital television receivers to connect with computers using technology called datacasting. Many rural areas of New Mexico are too far from internet infrastructure like fiber cables and cell towers but do get TV reception. In October, local broadcasting affiliates of New Mexico PBS finished testing the technology to make sure they could set aside bandwidth not taken up by TV show broadcasts and dedicate it to broadcast downloadable…

Samsung is planning to build a $17 billion semiconductor factory outside of Austin, Texas, amid a global shortage of chips used in phones, cars and other electronic devices. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has scheduled a press conference this week to make an economic announcement; he is expected to unveil the Samsung investment at that time, according to a person familiar with the plan who wasn’t authorized to speak about it publicly ahead of the official announcement. News of the Samsung announcement was reported earlier by the South Korean news agency Yonhap. The chip shortage has emerged as both a business obstacle and a serious national-security concern. Short supplies of semiconductors kicked off by COVID-era shutdowns have hampered production of new vehicles and electronic devices for more than a year. New…

NASA launched a spacecraft Tuesday night on a mission to smash into an asteroid and test whether it would be possible to knock a speeding space rock off course if one were to threaten Earth. The DART spacecraft, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in a $330 million project with echoes of the Bruce Willis movie “Armageddon.” If all goes well, the boxy, 1,200-pound (540-kilogram) craft will slam head-on into Dimorphos, an asteroid 525 feet (160 meters) across, at 15,000 mph (24,139 kph) next September. “This isn’t going to destroy the asteroid. It’s just going to give it a small nudge,” said mission official Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which is managing the project.…

Wireless carrier T-Mobile agreed to pay $19.5 million in a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission over a 12-hour nationwide outage in June 2020 that resulted in thousands of failed 911 calls. The FCC said that as part of the settlement, T-Mobile will also commit to improving communications of outages to emergency call centers, among other measures. The agency said there was a “complete failure” of more than 23,000 911 calls because of the outage. There were also calls that did go through but without key information, like a callback number or location data. The FCC’s investigation said the outage began because of a failure in part of T-Mobile’s network, which was made worse by routing and software errors. The Bellevue, Washington, company said that the June 2020 episode was…

You can now manage most aspects of your money without ever consulting another human being. You can budget, borrow, save, invest, buy insurance, prepare your tax return and create a will — among many other tasks — by using apps, websites and software. But technology still has limitations, especially when you’re facing a money situation that’s complex or involves judgment calls. Consider consulting a human expert in the following situations: 1. YOU’RE CREATING AN ESTATE PLAN Insurers typically can’t cancel a policy after 60 days unless you fail to pay premiums, commit fraud or make serious misrepresentations on your application, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group. However, insurers can decide not to renew your policy when it expires. With auto insurance , you often have many options…

Mirabel is extraordinary, in that when it comes to her family, she is totally normal. That’s the set-up for Disney’s absolutely charming new animated musical “Encanto,” which flips the typical children’s movie script. Instead of few magical people amid a sea of ordinary, here the ordinary is, well, weird. “I will stand on the side/When you shine,” Mirabel sings to her special brothers and sisters, though she confesses, “I’m not fine.” It’s only appropriate that “Encanto” — fueled by eight original songs by “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda — turns into that most special thing of all: A triumph in every category: art, songs and heart. It starts with Mirabel Madrigal, a saucer-eyed, sweet hearted youngster from a magical family in Colombia, where their vibrant house holds many generations. Every Madrigal…

WhatsApp is adding more details to its privacy policy and flagging that information for European users, after Irish regulators slapped the chat service with a record fine for breaching strict EU data privacy rules. Starting Monday, WhatsApp’s privacy policy will be reorganized to provide more information on the data it collects and how it’s used. The company said it’s also explaining in more detail how it protects data shared across borders for its global service and the legal foundations for processing the data. WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, now renamed Meta Platforms. With the update, users in Europe will see a banner notification at the top of their chat list that will take them to the new information. WhatsApp is taking the action after getting hit with a record 225…

Democrats and climate activists generally supported President Joe Biden’s decision to release a record 50 million barrels of oil from America’s strategic reserve, even as the move appeared to contradict his long-term vision of combating climate change. The U.S. action, announced this week in coordination with countries such as India, the United Kingdom and China, is aimed at global energy markets and helping lower gasoline prices that have risen more than a dollar per gallon since January. But it could also undermine Biden’s climate goals, including a 50% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Some leading climate hawks, however, said they were not concerned by the move because they see it as a short-term fix to meet a specific problem. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who has focused on combating…