Innehållsförteckning för #556 från AppleMagazine

Researchers from the University of Colorado are studying the Great Smoky Mountains’ synchronous fireflies to determine whether understanding the way they communicate could help with developing robot communication. The fireflies “need to solve complex problems while communicating in large groups, which is something computers need to do,” Orit Peleg, a computer scientist from the University of Colorado at Boulder, told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “So maybe there’s something interesting we can learn about them and apply to man-made systems.” Semi-autonomous robots communicating with flashes of infrared light could be used to locate victims after a natural disaster, for example. The researchers who sojourned to the park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border earlier this month to study the fireflies at their peak included graduate student Owen Martin and postdoctoral researcher Raphael…

A lot can happen in six months. That’s why, as we close out the first half of the year, it makes sense to check in on your financial life. “With inflation, I think people this year are more heavily impacted than they probably have been in many years leading up to this point,” says Jason Dall’Acqua, a certified financial planner and founder of Crest Wealth Advisors in Annapolis, Maryland. “So it’s a good time to see how things have been going ... as well as plan for what lies ahead in the remainder of the year.” So where should you start? Add these four items to your midyear money checklist. REVIEW YOUR INCOME, EXPENSES AND GOALS You don’t have to tally up every penny you’ve made and spent over the…

The wealth-generating hot streak for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has turned brutally cold. As prices plunge, companies collapse and skepticism soars, fortunes and jobs are disappearing overnight, and investors’ feverish speculation has been replaced by icy calculation, in what industry leaders are referring to as a “crypto winter.” It’s a dizzying turn of events for investments and companies that at the start of 2022 seemed to be at their financial and cultural apex. Cryptoevangelizing companies ran commercials during the Super Bowl and spent heavily to sponsor sports arenas and baseball teams. The industry’s combined assets back then were estimated to be worth more than $3 trillion; today, they are worth less than a third of that. Maybe. This week, the price of bitcoin traded at $20,097, more than 70% below…

Twitter’s board has recommended unanimously that shareholders approve the proposed $44 billion sale of the company to billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. Musk reiterated his desire to move forward with the acquisition last week during a virtual meeting with Twitter employees, though shares of Twitter remain far below his offering price, signaling considerable doubt that it will happen. On Tuesday at the Qatar Economic Forum in an interview with Bloomberg, Musk listed the approval of the deal by shareholders as one of several “unresolved matters” related to the Twitter deal. Shares of Twitter Inc. were essentially flat just before the opening bell Tuesday and far short of the $54.20 per-share that Musk has offered to pay for each. The company’s stock last reached…

Ryan Fitzpatrick is taking his magic touch to the broadcast booth. Amazon Prime Video announced this week that Fitzpatrick, the recently retired journeyman quarterback nicknamed “FitzMagic,” is joining the streaming service as an analyst for its first season as the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football.” Fitzpatrick will be part of Amazon’s pregame, halftime and postgame coverage. Although the 39-year-old started for a record nine teams over his 17-year career, only one of this year’s Thursday night matchups features two of his former teams: the Cincinnati Bengals hosting the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 29. “One of the great characters in the league, Ryan has been a fan favorite and a beloved teammate everywhere he’s gone over the last 17 seasons,” Jared Stacy, Prime Video’s director of global live sports production,…

Downton Abbey: A New Era In the late 1920s, Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith), inherits a villa in the south of France, while moviemaker Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy) is preparing to shoot a silent ‘moving picture’ in Downton Abbey to fund repairs to its roof. FIVE FACTS: 1. This is the follow-up to the 2019 movie Downton Abbey, itself a successor to the hit TV drama series of the same name. 2. Imelda Staunton, who plays Lady Bagshaw, and Jim Carter, who portrays Charles Carson, have been married since 1983. 3. Aptly, their characters are at one point mistaken for a married couple in Downton Abbey: A New Era. 4. Also romantically involved in real life are Laura Carmichael and Michael Fox – who, in the…

The British government ordered the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges, a milestone — but not the end — of a decade-long legal saga sparked by his website’s publication of classified U.S. documents. WikiLeaks said it would challenge the order, and Assange’s lawyers have 14 days to lodge an appeal. “We’re not at the end of the road here,” said Assange’s wife, Stella Assange. “We’re going to fight this.” Julian Assange has battled in British courts for years to avoid being sent to the U.S., where he faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. American prosecutors say the Australian citizen helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published,…

The scientific lab that’s home to the world’s largest atom-smasher says it plans to terminate all cooperation with Russia and Belarus over their roles in the war in Ukraine. The announcement was made last week, a day after CERN’s managing council made the decision. In March, CERN suspended cooperation with the two countries over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, which included passage of Russian forces through Belarus for their invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. “The council’s decision confirms the strong condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation aided by Belarus, while leaving the door ajar for continued scientific collaboration should conditions allow in the future,”said CERN director-general Fabiola Gianotti in a statement. The scientific organization said the council“intends to terminate”CERN’s cooperation agreements with Belarus…

At this year’s WWDC, Apple lifted the lid on what’s next for the iPhone as it unveiled iOS 16, introducing a whole host of new features designed to make our devices even smarter and more capable than ever before. From customized Lock Screens to the iCloud Shared Photo Library, the update further refines the world’s most advanced smartphone operating system. PUTTING THE POWER IN USERS’ HANDS This year’s iOS changes might not be as significant or dramatic as they have been in previous years, but it’s clear that Apple wants to further refine what it’s already made great, rather than tearing up the rule book with major design changes for the sake of it. Taking to the stage at WWDC, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, said…

Federal regulators say Verizon and AT&T will delay part of their 5G rollout near airports to give airlines more time to ensure that equipment on their planes is safe from interference from the wireless signals, but the airline industry is not happy about the deal. An airline industry trade group said federal regulators are taking a“rushed approach”to changing equipment on planes under pressure from the telecommunications companies. The Federal Aviation Administration said that the wireless companies agreed to delay some of their use of the C-Band section of the radio spectrum until July 2023. “We believe we have identified a path that will continue to enable aviation and 5G C-band wireless to safely co-exist,”said the FAA’s acting administrator, Billy Nolen. However, aviation groups say the C-Band service could interfere with…

Social media companies would have to make public their policies for removing problem content and give detailed accounts of how and when they remove it, under a proposal being considered by California legislators who blame online chatter for encouraging violence and undermining democracy. The bipartisan measure stalled last year over free speech concerns, but Democratic Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel said he hopes to revive his bill by adding amendments he said will make it clear that lawmakers don’t intend to censor or regulate content. But his bill would require companies to say how they regulate their own content under their social media terms of service. “We think we’ve found a way to thread that needle,” Gabriel said during a news conference promoting what he said is first-of-its-kind legislation. “We’re not telling…

South Korea conducted its first successful satellite launch using a domestically developed rocket on Tuesday, officials said, boosting its growing aerospace ambitions and demonstrating it has key technologies needed to launch spy satellites and build larger missiles amid tensions with rival North Korea. The three-stage Nuri rocket placed a functioning “performance verification” satellite at a target altitude of 700 kilometers (435 miles) after its 4 p.m. liftoff from South Korea’s space launch center on a southern island, the Science Ministry said. The satellite transmitted signals about its status to an unmanned South Korean station in Antarctica. It is carrying four smaller satellites that will be released for Earth observation and other missions, ministry officials said. “The science and technology of the Republic of Korea have made a great advance,” Science…

George Saunders’ short story “Escape from Spiderhead” is not, you might say, an obviously cinematic piece. It’s the kind of subtly unsettling work — stark, moody and dialogue heavy — that could easily be a play or a haunting experimental film. So it’s an especially bold leap to use it as the inspiration for a starry, big budget, Netflix-subscriber-driving event movie, as they’ve done with “ Spiderhead,” which starts streaming Friday. But stranger things have worked for the streamer and who doesn’t like a slick, dystopian sci-fi? Originally published in The New Yorker in 2010, “Escape from Spiderhead” is about a group of prisoners living in a specialized facility who are being subjected to experimental mood-altering drugs, with names like Verbaluce, which makes you speak eloquently, and Darkenfloxx, which makes…

A Google executive warned the U.N. Security Council that cyberattacks, disinformation and other forms of information warfare being waged in Ukraine are a “crystal ball” for future problems elsewhere. “States must find a way to turn the volume down and settle on some kind of deterrence doctrine for the cyber domain,” Jared Cohen said at a council meeting on hate speech, incitement and atrocities in Ukraine. He argued that while tech companies have needed expertise, “there is no magical algorithm or single fix for this,” and finding a solution will take a lot of experimentation. Cohen heads Jigsaw, a part of Google that aims to build technology to combat disinformation, censorship and extremism online. He said Ukraine “has been disproportionately targeted” by advanced cyberattacks since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in…

The historic vote by employees of a Maryland Apple store to unionize — a first for the technology giant — is a significant step in a lengthy process that labor experts say is heavily stacked against workers in favor of their employers. Apple store employees in a Baltimore suburb voted to unionize by a nearly 2-to-1 margin Saturday, joining a growing push across U.S. retail, service and tech industries to organize for greater workplace protections. It’s not yet clear whether the recent wave of unionizations represent a broader shift in U.S. labor. But experts say the current shortage of workers for hourly and low-wage jobs means employees have more power than they had historically, especially when unemployment is low. “It’s not that big a deal to lose one of these…

BMW has a well-established history of developing luxury sport sedans, and now the automaker has set its sights on dominating the all-electric segment with its new 2022 i4. The BMW i4 is about the size of a 3 Series and offers an engaging driving experience. If you’re looking for an alternative to the Tesla Model 3, this could be it. But there’s another small EV also vying for your attention: the Polestar 2. The Polestar 2 hails from Volvo’s nascent EV-only Polestar brand. It boasts excellent handling and impressive tech. Which electric sedan — with a hatchback-style trunk — is the better buy? Experts compared them to find out. RANGE AND CHARGING Range and charging should be a top priority, even when you’re shopping for a performance EV. For 2022,…

Kentucky took a step toward closing its digital divide, when Gov. Andy Beshear announced $203 million in broadband investments — with the promise of more to come — to connect areas with no internet access or chronically slow service. The plan looks to combine a major infusion of federal funds backed by Democratic leaders in Congress with matching money to attain a long-running, bipartisan goal that has long eluded Kentucky’s leaders. Previous efforts have fallen short of bringing the internet to remote parts of the state, where leaders have long viewed it as a key to future economic viability. The persistent lack of access in some parts of the state was laid bare during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, where remote work and schooling were both hampered by…

Facebook will change its algorithms to prevent discriminatory housing advertising and its parent company will subject itself to court oversight to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday. In a release, U.S. government officials said it had reached agreement with Meta Platforms Inc., formerly known as Facebook Inc., to settle the lawsuit filed simultaneously in Manhattan federal court. According to the release, it was the Justice Department’s first case challenging algorithmic discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. Facebook will now be subject to Justice Department approval and court oversight for its ad targeting and delivery system. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called the lawsuit “groundbreaking.”Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke called it“historic.” Ashley Settle, a Facebook spokesperson, said in an email that the company was“building a novel…

Life Is Yours Foals “I can’t see us making a record that’s as dancy and up and energized and simple as this again,” Foals singer and guitarist Yannis Philippakis admitted to Apple Music. It’s ironic, then, that the album was made during a reflective time for the band as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. FIVE FACTS: 1. Life Is Yours is Foals’ seventh studio album. 2. The London group’s fifth and sixth studio albums were the first and second halves of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – released in March 2019 and October 2019 respectively. 3. “It’s a positive and fun record made for communal moments, but the title is quite solemn advice,” Philippakis says about the new album. 4. Philippakis revealed that, lyrically, the title track “is set…

Coinciding with unrelenting cyberattacks against Ukraine, state-backed Russian hackers have engaged in “strategic espionage” against governments, think tanks, businesses and aid groups in 42 countries supporting Kyiv, Microsoft said in a report this week. “Since the start of the war, the Russian targeting (of Ukraine’s allies) has been successful 29 percent of the time,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote, with data stolen in at least one-quarter of the successful network intrusions, “As a coalition of countries has come together to defend Ukraine, Russian intelligence agencies have stepped up network penetration and espionage activities targeting allied governments outside Ukraine,” Smith said. Nearly two-thirds of the cyberespionage targets involved NATO members. The United States was the prime target and Poland, the main conduit for military assistance flowing to Ukraine, was No. 2.…

Heat trapping carbon dioxide emissions from making cement, a less talked about but major source of carbon pollution, have doubled in the last 20 years, new global data shows. In 2021, worldwide emissions from making cement for buildings, roads and other infrastructure hit nearly 2.9 billion tons (2.6 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide, which is more than 7% of the global carbon emissions, according to emissions scientist Robbie Andrew of Norway’s CICERO Center for International Climate Research and the Global Carbon Project. Twenty years ago, in 2002, cement emissions were some 1.4 billion tons (1.2 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide. Driven by China, global cement emissions globally have more than tripled since 1992, recently growing at a rate of 2.6% a year. It’s not just that more cement…