Innehållsförteckning för #592 från AppleMagazine

Speed around a French village in the video game Grand Turismo and you might spot a Corvette behind you trying to catch your slipstream. The technique of using the draft of an opponent’s racecar to speed up and overtake them is one favored by skilled players of PlayStation’s realistic racing game. But this Corvette driver is not being controlled by a human — it’s GT Sophy, a powerful artificial intelligence agent built by PlayStation-maker Sony. Grand Turismo players have been competing against computer-generated racecars since the franchise launched in the 1990s, but the new AI driver that was unleashed last week on Grand Turismo 7 is smarter and faster because it’s been trained using the latest AI methods. “Grand Turismo had a built-in AI existing from the beginning of the…

A lowcredit score can hurt your ability to take out a loan, secure a good interest rate, or increase the spending limit on your credit card. Some reasons for a low score are out of your control — such as unexpected medical debt or a lack of credit history. Credit rating agencies are now working to improve access to credit by giving people more time to pay medical bills before the debt appears in reports, and by removing other debt completely. They’re also making it easier to count rent, utility payments, and other recurring bills — a boon for those who need credit the most. Here’s what to know: WHAT IS A CREDIT SCORE AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Put simply, a credit score is a formula that lenders use…

The United States is ratcheting up national security concerns about TikTok, mandating that all federal employees delete the Chinese-owned social media app from government-issued mobile phones. Other Western governments are pursuing similar bans, citing espionage fears. So how serious is the threat? And should TikTok users who don’t work for the government be worried about the app, too? The answers depend somewhat on whom you ask, and how concerned you are in general about technology companies gathering and sharing personal data. Here’s what to know: HOW ARE THE U.S. AND OTHER GOVERNMENTS BLOCKING TIKTOK? The White House said this week it is giving U.S. federal agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices. Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forced and more than half of U.S. states…

If you’ve ever scrolled through social media posts only to be gripped with envy when you see a friend posing in front of their beautiful house or enjoying themselves at a luxurious resort, then you understand how easy it is to want what other people have. Financial envy is real, and sometimes it can be ugly. “Financial envy is absolutely normal. It’s part of the human condition,” says Yvonne Hampton, who holds a doctorate in personal financial planning and runs a financial therapy practice in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing, she adds. “It’s an opportunity to dig more deeply internally about why we have that feeling so we can work through it and be happier in our own lives.” If you’re wondering how…

Five years ago, scientist He Jiankui shocked his peers and the world with claims that he created the first genetically edited babies. Now, after serving three years in a Chinese prison for practicing medicine without a license, he faces obstacles and critics as he tries to re-enter science. For months he’s been touting plans to develop affordable gene therapies for rare diseases, starting with the muscle-wasting condition Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He announced on social media last fall that he had opened a lab in Beijing. He spoke remotely about this new endeavor at an event in early February hosted by the University of Kent in the United Kingdom. And last week, he announced to the press that he’d received a Hong Kong visa and might want to work in the…

I climbed into the front seat of the air taxi, buckled the seat belt and braced as the aircraft lifted off. The futuristic cityscape of Busan, South Korea, dropped away, and a digital avatar popped up on the windscreen with a message. I couldn’t answer as a wave of motion sickness hit me. The virtual reality goggles combined with motion-simulating seats pitching back and forth and side to side made it feel like I was actually hovering and maneuvering in the air. They also made me so nauseous I had to close my eyes for the rest of the three-minute journey. Welcome to the metaverse — sort of. South Korean company SK Telecom’s air taxi mockup was one of the eye-catching demonstrations at MWC, or Mobile World Congress, the world’s…

As it looks to expand its remit and offer consumers more value for money on its Apple TV+ streaming service, Apple is venturing away from original content, and offering subscribers access to a range of classic titles, bulking out the streamer and increasing competitiveness. APPLE TV+ EXPANSION Apple TV+ has discreetly launched a new feature called “Included with Apple TV+,” offering a complementary selection of third-party movies. This feature includes a rotating selection of films from major studios such as Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Dreamworks, all free to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription costing $6.99/month. While the selection is relatively small (currently consisting of 15 titles), it could be seen as Apple’s first step in the streaming market, setting the stage for a potential challenge to other…

It’s never been this cheap to buy a Tesla. Tesla has made headlines in the past month with a series of price cuts on its vehicles. As a result, the Model 3 sedan is now being sold at a price that is $4,930 lower than the average new vehicle sold in the United States. This means that the Model 3 is now the cheapest it has ever been relative to the average price of a new car in the country. A recent analysis by Bloomberg confirms this. Tesla’s Model Y SUV has also seen a price drop of $13,000 at the beginning of the year. Despite this, it was already the third best-selling SUV in the US in 2021, following Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V. After the Model Y sold…

The richly hard-boiled terrain of detective Philip Marlowe has always been, to quote Raymond Chandler, “a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.” Chandler’s Los Angeles gumshoe has stretched across some of the most fertile decades of American cinema, from Howard Hawks’ seductively cryptic “The Big Sleep” (1946) to Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” (1973). Having been played by Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Mitchum and Elliot Gould, among others, he’s less a character than a legacy to be passed down, like a cherished dark fedora. But it’s been a long time, almost half a century, since Marlowe was notably portrayed on the big screen. “Marlowe,” with Liam Neeson as the private eye, is a reclamation project, a bid to recapture some old-school, tough-talking movie magic. And, intriguingly, “Marlowe” is…

The man credited with inventing the cellphone 50 years ago had only one concern then about the brick-sized device with a long antenna: Would it work? These days Martin Cooper frets like everybody else about his invention’s impacts on society — from the loss of privacy to the risk of internet addiction to the rapid spread of harmful content, especially among kids. “My most negative opinion is we don’t have any privacy anymore because everything about us is now recorded someplace and accessible to somebody who has enough intense desire to get it,” said Cooper, who spoke at the telecom industry’s biggest trade show in Barcelona, where he was receiving a lifetime award. Yet the 94-year-old self-described dreamer also marvels at how far cellphone design and capabilities have advanced, and…

Netflix is cutting its prices in several of its smaller markets in the latest twist on the video streaming service’s efforts to keep its recently revived subscriber growth rolling amid stiffer competition and inflation pressures that are pushing more households to curb their discretionary spending. The lower prices that began to roll out earlier this week affect more than 30 of the roughly 190 countries where Netflix’s steaming service is available — an expanse that has enabled the company to attract nearly 231 million subscribers. The areas getting lower prices include Middle East markets in Yemen, Jordan, Libya and Iran; European countries such as Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, and sub-Saharan African markets. Netflix isn’t changing its prices in any of its largest markets, including the U.S., where it has been…

The push for new, appealing electric vehicles has gained considerable momentum recently. The next few years will see a rollout of EVs in every popular automotive segment, increasing competition and decreasing prices. At the moment, however, all-electric vehicle development costs remain high and most new additions are priced well above equivalent gas-powered models. That means the list of economical EVs isn’t yet extensive, but it does include a handful of cars starting under $40,000. Some of these models will further qualify for federal tax credits that now require American assembly and parts sourcing. CHEVY BOLT EV Starting price: $27,495 Helping pioneer the mass-production EV landscape in 2017, the Chevy Bolt EV tackled range anxiety and affordability in a practical package. The updated version introduced last year adds a more appealing…

Europe’s existing telecom networks aren’t up to the job of handling surging amounts of internet data traffic, a top European Union official said, as he defended a consultation on whether Big Tech companies should help pay for upgrades. The telecom industry needs to reconsider its business models as it undergoes a “radical shift” fueled by a new wave of innovation such as immersive, data-hungry technologies like the metaverse, Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s official in charge of digital policy, said at a major industry expo in Barcelona called MWC, or Mobile World Congress. Breton’s remarks came days after he announced a consultation on whether digital giants should help contribute to the billions needed to build the 27-nation bloc’s future communications infrastructure, including next-generation 5G wireless and fiber-optic cable connections, to…