Innehållsförteckning för #225 från AppleMagazine

Uber says that it will pay $28.5 million to settle two lawsuits that said the ride-hailing firm misled customers about its safety procedures and fees. The company told a federal judge in San Francisco that it wants to settle the class-action lawsuits by paying about 25 million riders who made U.S. trips between Jan. 1, 2013, and Jan. 31, 2016. The judge must still approve the deal. “We are glad to put these cases behind us and we will continue to invest in new technology and great customer services so that we can help improve safety in the cities we serve,” the San Francisco-based company said in a statement Thursday. The lawsuits attacked Uber for charging a fee of up to $2.30 per trip for what it called industry-leading background…

When sisters Caroline Clark and Dianne Rissman set up their quilt shop in the house on their family farm in Iowa 2004, vendors they would call about fabric or thread would helpfully tell them it would be easier to order on line. “And we’d say, ‘Yeah, it would, if we could get on the Internet,’” Clark said and laughed. She remembered when it could take an hour to download a Web page using their old dial-up connection. Or, once they switched to satellite, waiting until the late-night period when service was cheaper to upload photos onto their own site. Last fall, they signed up for a new broadband service from their Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative, which serves a region with a population so scattered it has just four customers per mile…

The mobile payments service Apple Pay has been slowly expanding in availability since it was first announced in September 2014. So far, most attention has been on its use at contactless payment terminals in bricks and mortar stores; however, the service is also a payment option within a range of apps. What’s more, there is emerging evidence that this form of Apple Pay could, in the long term, prove a surprisingly big game-changer... APPLE PAY: A SLEEPING GIANT IN E-COMMERCE? A major intent of Apple Pay is to provide a much smoother and quicker alternative to cumbersome and time-consuming payment methods. Many owners of Apple Pay-compatible iPhones will be able to verify its success in this for payments at physical stores; however, traditional methods of buying online can be similarly…

It’s Not Over.... The Hits So Far Daughtry A collection of rock band Daughtry’s greatest hits so far, including top five hits “Home” and “It’s Not Over”. FIVE FACTS : 1. Vocalist and rhythm guitarist Chris Daughtry came 4th place on the fifth season of American Idol, but was offered a record deal by RCA records soon after. 2. “What About Now” was covered by popular Irish boyband Westlift for their 10th studio album. 3. The band have worked with a wide array of popular musical artists from all genres, including Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist Slash, Nickleback, and Bon Jovi. 4. The band have been nominated for 20 awards, winning 12 of them, including Top New Artist from Billboard, and the People’s Choice Award for ‘Best Rock Song. 5. Daughtry’s…

Development of a futuristic weapon depicted in video games and science fiction is going well enough that a Navy admiral wants to skip an at-sea prototype in favor of installing an operational unit aboard a destroyer planned to go into service in 2018. The Navy has been testing an electromagnetic railgun and could have an operational unit ready to go on one of the new Zumwalt-class destroyers under construction at Bath Iron Works. Adm. Pete Fanta, the Navy’s director of surface warfare, has floated the idea of foregoing the current plan to put a prototype on another vessel this year and instead put it directly on future USS Lyndon B. Johnson, though no final decision has been made. “The Zumwalt-class is one of a number of options being explored for…

From the cacophony of day care to the buzz of TV and electronic toys, noise is more distracting to a child’s brain than an adult’s, and new research shows it can hinder how youngsters learn. In fact, one of the worst offenders when a tot’s trying to listen is other voices babbling in the background, researchers said Saturday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “What a child hears in a noisy environment is not what an adult hears,” said Dr. Lori Leibold of Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. That’s a Catch-22 in our increasingly noisy lives because “young children learn language from hearing it,” said Dr. Rochelle Newman of the University of Maryland. “They have a greater need for understanding speech…

A U.S. magistrate has ordered Apple to help the Obama administration hack into an iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in San Bernardino, California. The ruling by Sheri Pym on Tuesday requires Apple to supply highly specialized software the FBI can load onto the phone to cripple a security encryption feature that erases data after too many unsuccessful unlocking attempts. Federal prosecutors told the judge they can’t access a county-owned work phone used by Syed Farook because they don’t know his passcode. By default, Apple has encrypted its iPhones to allow them only to be accessed using a passcode. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a Dec. 2 shooting at a holiday luncheon for Farook’s co-workers. The couple later died in a police gun battle.…

Shares in the mobile payment services company Square rose sharply Friday (12) after Visa disclosed the details of its ownership stake in the company. While Visa’s stake amounts to about 1 percent of the company, and the stake was established at least 5 years ago, investors interpreted the announcement as a major endorsement of Square by Visa, the world’s largest payment processing company. According to a regulatory filing, Visa owns 4.2 million of Square’s Class B shares. While Class B shares are not traded publicly, Visa could convert up to 3.5 million of its Class B shares to Class A, which would give Visa a 9.99 percent ownership of that class of shares. That conversion would amount to just 1 percent of Square’s total outstanding shares, however. Visa’s calculation of…

THE DEVICE THAT TRANSFORMED PERSONAL COMMUNICATION - AND WHAT’S NEXT Where were you when the late Steve Jobs stepped onto the stage of the Moscone Center in San Francisco in January 2007 to debut the very first iPhone, one of the true consumer technology game-changers of recent times? Wherever you were and whatever you were doing, chances are that the mobile device you then had in your pocket was nothing like the genre-transforming smartphone that was already etching its place in history - a history that has continued to be made since then. To get a sense of just how profoundly the iPhone has impacted on today’s modes of personal communication - even for those who have never actually owned Apple’s incredible handset - it is instructive to refer back…

Volkswagen resisted U.S. government efforts to recall more cars and trucks to fix potentially deadly Takata air bags - telling safety regulators that a recall isn’t necessary. But the German automaker, already in hot water with the government for cheating on U.S. pollution tests, eventually agreed to the recall, according to documents posted Friday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website. Volkswagen AG is recalling about 850,000 Audi and VW vehicles in the U.S. from model years 2006 to 2014. But in a letter to the safety agency, the company said the request to recall most of the Volkswagens “may be overbroad.”The letter said most VW and Audi vehicles have air bag inflators made at Takata’s factory in Freiberg, Germany, which have not experienced failures like those made in…

Superhero movies don’t have to be PG-13 to get superhero-sized returns. “Deadpool’s” historic debut proved that and then some. Ryan Reynold’s foul-mouthed, fourth-wall busting character pulled in a massive $132.4 million in its first weekend in theaters, making “Deadpool” the highest ever opening for an R-rated film and for Fox. The Marvel title cost Fox only $58 million to produce, too. “Deadpool’s” expectation-shattering grosses easily beat the weekend’s other new openers. The R-rated rom-com “How to Be Single” opened in third with $17.9 million, while “Zoolander 2” took fourth place with only $13.8 million. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Tuesday…

For elite members of the video game industry, the D.I.C.E. Summit isn’t merely a chance to schmooze at the poker table or on the golf course in Las Vegas. It’s also an opportunity to address issues and innovations, ranging from gender diversity to virtual reality. “It’s really about people in the industry taking a break from what they’re working on and reengaging in this medium they’re so passionate about,” said Martin Rae, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, which organizes the D.I.C.E. Summit. While the 15th annual gathering officially starts Tuesday with poker, golf and “Magic: The Gathering” tournaments, the serious business begins Wednesday morning, when the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Foundation will unveil a new initiative to promote gender diversity in the gaming industry.…

A University of Rhode Island professor has developed a sensor that detects the kind of explosive used in the Paris bombings, to try to stop future attacks. Professor Otto Gregory compares his sensor to a dog’s nose, the gold standard in explosives detection. It “sniffs” the air for vapors emitted from explosives. Inside his laboratory, Gregory is evaluating how well his sensor detects triacetone triperoxide. The Paris attackers packed TATP into their suicide vests and wielded assault rifles, killing 130 people Nov. 13. TATP was also used in the 2005 London bombings, which killed 52 commuters, and by Richard Reid, who tried unsuccessfully to detonate a bomb in his shoe during a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001. TATP is relatively easy to make, and the materials are readily available in pharmacies…

After working 18 years at “The Daily Show,” Kahane Cooperman had only a weekend off last summer before starting a job running Amazon’s new video version of The New Yorker magazine. In retrospect, she considers that a blessing. “I would have lost my nerve if I had more time to think about having to do justice to the institution that is The New Yorker magazine,” said Cooperman, who created the series with “Going Clear” filmmaker Alex Gibney and Conde Nast Entertainment chief Dawn Ostroff. The New Yorker regularly features a formidable mix of deeply reported stories and profiles, fiction, slices of life, cultural coverage and cartoons. Makers of “The New Yorker Presents” achieved the small miracle of capturing the magazine’s rhythm and pioneering a “60 Minutes”-style newsmagazine with the work…

Virgin Galactic later this month in Mojave, California, is preparing to roll out its new SpaceShipTwo, a vehicle the company hopes will one day take tourists to the edge of space. It comes roughly 15½ months since an earlier incarnation was destroyed in a test flight, killing one of the pilots. Despite the setback, the dream of sending tourists to the edge of space and beyond is still alive. Space tourism companies are employing designs including winged vehicles, vertical rockets with capsules and high-altitude balloons. A look at projects currently under development: VIRGIN GALACTIC The most prominent space tourism program, the commercial space line founded by adventurer-business mogul Sir Richard Branson will use a winged rocket plane dubbed SpaceShipTwo, successor to SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 won the $10 million Ansari…

Congress voted Thursday to permanently bar state and local governments from taxing access to the Internet, as lawmakers leapt at an election-year chance to demonstrate their opposition to imposing levies on online service. On a vote of 75-20, the Senate gave final congressional approval to the wide-ranging bill, which would also revamp trade laws. The White House said President Barack Obama will sign it. “The Internet is a resource used daily by Americans of all ages,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who brokered an agreement with a Democratic leader earlier this week that helped clear the way for passage. “It’s important that they be able to do all of this without the worry of their Internet access being taxed.” The ban on local Internet access taxes had broad…

Myspace still exists? It does, and the company that owns the once-ubiquitous social network is being bought by Time Inc. to help the magazine publisher target ads. Time Inc. did not say Thursday what it paid. The publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Time magazines was spun off from entertainment company Time Warner in 2014. It is facing a decline in print ad dollars and posted an $881 million loss last year. Myspace’s parent company is Viant, which says it provides marketers with access to over 1.2 billion registered users. That’s the number of people who have signed in to Myspace since it was created in 2003. Myspace peaked in 2008 with some 76 million U.S. visitors before losing ground to Facebook. News Corp. sold it in 2011 to Justin…

99 Homes A loose adaptation of events that occurred during the housing crash of 2008 sees a single father team up with the same corrupt real estate operator that evicted him and his family in a last-ditch attempt to gain a new home. FIVE FACTS: 1. The movie is not entirely based on a true story, but is rather inspired by true events that have occurred during the eviction process over the past decade or so. 2. Director Ramin Bahrani is a multiple award winner, whose previous work includes Chop Shop (2007) and a music video for popular Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós 3. Lead actor Andrew Garfield has also starred in Doctor Who, The Amazing Spider-Man/ The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and The Social Network. 4. 99 Homes premiered at…

“Star Wars: Episode VIII” has begun filming and has added Benicio del Toro and Laura Dern to its cast. The Walt Disney Co. announced that “Episode VIII” started principal photography at London’s Pinewood Studios on Monday. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the “Star Wars” sequel will follow J.J. Abrams’ box-office smash “The Force Awakens.” It’s set for release in December 2017. Joining returning cast members are the Oscar-winning del Toro, the Oscar-nominated Dern and newcomer Kelly Marie Tran. The production start announcement was accompanied by a brief video that showed shooting picking up right where “The Force Awakens” left off. (Stop here if you don’t want to read a reference to the ending of “The Force Awakens.”) Johnson is shown directing Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) on a remote island…

Astronomers on Thursday announced that their new billion-dollar U.S. observatory has detected a gravitational wave, a phenomenon Albert Einstein predicted a century ago in his theory of general relativity. Here’s what that breakthrough means. WHAT IS A GRAVITATIONAL WAVE? Gravitational waves are extremely faint ripples in the fabric of space and time that come from some of the most violent events in the universe. In this case, it is from the merger of two black holes 1.3 billion light-years away. The way to think of this is to imagine a mesh net and visualize pulling on its ends. Those kinks are sort of like what a gravitational wave does. WHAT IS SPACE-TIME? Space-time is the mind-bending, four-dimensional way astronomers see the universe. It melds the one-way march of time with…

NO WAY OUT THE WALKING DEAD, SEASON 6 IT’S HARD OUT HERE FOR A GENERAL SCANDAL, SEASON 5 THE SOUND OF SILENCE GREY’S ANATOMY, SEASON 12 THE RUN OF HIS LIFE THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY LADY AMBROSIA (NO. 77) THE BLACKLIST, SEASON 3 WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, ANNALISE? HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, SEASON 2 GOD’S GREEN EARTH SUITS, SEASON 5 FROM THE ASHES OF TRAGEDY THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY THE VALENTINO SUBMERGENCE THE BIG BANG THEORY, SEASON 9 FAMILY FIRST KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS, SEASON 11…

Alibaba has bought nearly 33 million shares of online daily deal service Groupon. Groupon Inc.’s stock jumped more than 16 percent in Tuesday premarket trading. The purchase gives the Chinese e-commerce powerhouse about a 5.6 percent stake in Groupon. Alibaba disclosed the purchase in a regulatory filing on Friday. The news comes shortly after Groupon reported a fourth-quarter adjusted profit and revenue that beat analysts’ expectations. Last month Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. reported better-than-expected third-quarter results as it benefits from a shift to mobile spending and a growth in users. Shares of Chicago-based Groupon added 48 cents, or 16.6 percent, to $3.37 before the market open on Tuesday.…