Innehållsförteckning för #230 från AppleMagazine

The Navy is paying for research into an app to screen for autism in the hopes that it could eventually be tweaked to look for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. While developmental and trauma disorders might at first appear strange bedfellows, the researchers and a PTSD expert for the VA say it could be an exciting new direction. Facial expressions can indicate the presence of autism, PTSD and other disorders. The Autism & Beyond app uses a smartphone camera and an algorithm to read children’s facial expressions and assess their emotional responses. The app, which uses a general algorithm, could be expanded to PTSD to monitor people over time if speech and other signals are taken into account, according to Pedja Neskovic, who oversees the project in the Office of…

Online lodging service Airbnb is allowing travelers from around the world to book stays in private homes in Cuba after the San Francisco-based company received a special authorization from the Obama administration, Airbnb announced Sunday. Airbnb was the first major American company to enter Cuba after Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro declared detente on Dec. 17, 2014. The service handles online listing, booking and payments for people looking to stay in private homes instead of hotels. Cuba has become its fastest-growing market, with about 4,000 homes added over the last year. Airbnb had only been allowed to let U.S. travelers use its services in Cuba under a relatively limited Obama administration exception to the half-century old US trade embargo on the island. The expansion of that license gives Airbnb…

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a rare meeting with China’s propaganda chief, at a time when Chinese authorities are tightening control over their cyberspace. Liu Yunshan told Zuckerberg in their meeting Saturday that he hopes Facebook can share its experience with Chinese companies to help “Internet development better benefit the people of all countries,” China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. Zuckerberg was in Beijing to attend an economic forum. China has called for the creation of a global Internet “governance system” and cooperation between countries to regulate Internet use, stepping up efforts to promote controls that activists complain stifle free expression. Facebook and other Western social media, including Twitter, are banned in China. Zuckerberg has long been courting China’s leaders in a so far futile attempt to access…

This Is What the Truth Feels Like Gwen Stefani Gwen Stefani’s third studio album, and her first in a decade, is a triumphant return to form. Featuring comeback singles “Used to Love You” and “Make Me Like You”, it’s a must for any fan of pop music, or any fan of Stefani’s older work. FIVE FACTS: 1. ‘Hollaback Girl’, one of Stefani’s most well-known songs, became the first US digital download to sell one million copies back in 2005. 2. Stefani has won 46 awards for her music in total, including Grammy awards for ‘Best Rap/Song Collaboration’ and ‘Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group. 3. Gwen’s brother Eric founded No Doubt (Stefani also provides vocals for these), but left to become an animator for The Simpsons. 4. Stefani…

Much has been made of both the benefits and dangers that come with strong encryption, especially the methods used by Apple to secure its devices. But new research shows that Apple’s security isn’t as impenetrable as both the company and its critics claim. A team from Johns Hopkins University says it found a security bug in iMessage, the encrypted messaging platform used on Apple’s phones and other devices. The bug would allow hackers under certain circumstances to decrypt some messages. The team’s paper is extremely critical of iMessage’s encryption technology, citing “significant vulnerabilities that can be exploited by a sophisticated attacker.” And it argues that in the long term, the technology needs to be replaced with a more modern mechanism. The paper was published on Monday after Apple’s release of…

Johnson & Johnson has ramped up its ambitious project to learn how to predict who will develop particular diseases and find therapies to prevent or stop the disease early, when it’s most treatable. Since the health care giant announced its groundbreaking project in February 2015, it’s expanded to include two dozen research programs with partners - in government, universities, patient advocacy groups and other drug and diagnostic test companies. Their expertise and resources should speed discoveries and allow Johnson & Johnson to spread its funding across more ventures. On Tuesday, J&J will give an update and announce the latest two projects. They’re meant to identify which pregnant women will develop gestational diabetes, and to identify and treat people at risk of or in early stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,…

Three current or former members of the so-called Syrian Electronic Army have been charged with computer hacking-related conspiracies that targeted the U.S. government, media and private-sector companies, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. The criminal charges against three Syrians were unsealed in U.S. Eastern District Court of Virginia. None are in custody. Prosecutors allege that Ahmad Umar Agha, 22, and Firas Dardar, 27, tricked email users into revealing their usernames and passwords to compromise domestic and international computer systems from 2011 through 2014. They used a common technique known as spear-phishing, in which they forged convincing-looking emails baiting the recipient to click on an included link and reveal their passwords. The government said Agha, known online as “Th3 Pr0,” and Dardar, known as “The Shadow,” are members of the special operations…

When it comes to emojis, the future is very, very ... Face with Tears of Joy. If you don’t know what that means then you: a) aren’t a 14-year-old girl. b) love to hate those tiny pictures that people text you all the time. Or c) are nowhere near a smartphone or online chat. Otherwise, here in 2016, it’s all emojis, all the time. And Face with Tears of Joy, by the way, is a bright yellow happy face with a classic, toothy grin as tears fall. The Face was chosen by Oxford Dictionaries as its 2015 “word” of the year, based on its popularity and reflecting the rise of emojis to help charitable causes, promote businesses and generally assist oh-so-many-more of us in further expressing ourselves on social media…

The Supreme Court is staying out of a dispute between game maker Electronic Arts Inc. and former National Football League players who accuse the company of using their likenesses in the popular Madden NFL video game series without approval. The justices on Monday let stand an appeals court ruling that said the company’s use of the player’s likenesses was not protected as “incidental use”under the First Amendment. The former players sued Electronic Arts in 2010 over the company’s use of “historic teams” and players in Madden NFL games from 2001 to 2009. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2012 that the player lawsuit could proceed. Electronic Arts previously settled a similar case brought by college football and basketball players for $40 million. ALL OF THE EVENTS AND…

Zac Snyder’s thundering and grim “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” offers the kind of blunt, mano-a-mano faceoff usually reserved for Predators, Godzillas and presidential candidates. And just as has often been said of this election year, “Batman v Superman” takes a once almost charming tradition and plunges it into the gutter. Long gone are the telephone booths, corn fields or any other such tokens of innocence. And given the prevailing climate, Snyder may have judged the rock’em-sock’em moment wisely. Gentlemen, keep your fists up and your capes neatly tucked. “Batman v Superman,” as heavy and humorless as a Supreme Court decision, is an 18-wheeler of a movie lumbering through a fallen world. It hurtles not with the kinetic momentum of “Mad Max: Fury Road” nor the comparatively spry skip…

“The Divergent Series” stumbled this weekend as the third movie in the four-picture series, “Allegiant,” opened to only $29 million - a far cry from the previous two films that both debuted in the same time frame to over $50 million. “Allegiant” took second place to Disney’s “Zootopia,” which held on to the top spot in its third weekend with $37.2 million, pushing its domestic total past the $200 million mark. Sony’s faith-based “Miracles From Heaven” debuted in third place with a robust $14.8 million as well. The film starring Jennifer Garner cost only $13 million to produce and has made $18.4 million since its Wednesday opening. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts…

Mercedes got off to the best possible start to the Formula One season with a one-two finish at the Australian Grand Prix, yet the events of the weekend have sown some uncertainty into the team’s bid for a third straight title. Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton at the Albert Park street circuit - his fourth straight victory over his world champion teammate dating back to last season - but the win owed more to the red flag suspension of the race at one-third distance and an ill-advised tire strategy by Ferrari. As cars sat in the pits awaiting the clearing of wreckage from a spectacular crash by McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, tire changes were made and race leader Sebastian Vettel went for the super-soft rubber for his Ferrari while second-place Rosberg…

Thousands of taxi drivers caused traffic chaos in the Indonesian capital Tuesday in a rowdy protest against what they say is unfair competition from ride-hailing apps such as Uber. TV footage showed long lines of taxis and three-wheel minicabs blocking a central expressway, men setting tires alight and jumping on vehicles that refused to join in the protest. An Associated Press reporter witnessed drivers surrounding one taxi, forcing its terrified female passenger on to the road with her luggage. It is the second major protest by taxi drivers in Jakarta this month. They say competition from ride-hailing apps, which don’t face the same costs and rules as regular taxis, has severely reduced their income. Many come to Jakarta from other parts of Indonesia and support their families as taxi drivers.…

Google is opening a cutting-edge online technology center at the studio of one of Cuba’s most famous artists, offering free Internet at speeds nearly 70 times faster than those now available to the Cuban public. President Obama says Google’s efforts in Cuba are part of a wider plan to improve access to the Internet across the island. The U.S. technology giant has built a studio equipped with dozens of laptops, cellphones and virtual-reality goggles at the complex run by Alexis Leiva Machado, a sculptor known as Kcho. President Barack Obama said Sunday that Google was also launching a broader effort to improve Cubans’ Internet access across the island. Neither he nor the company gave details. In an exclusive tour of the site with The Associated Press on Monday, Google’s head…

As it struggles to match the success of its big-screen iPhones, Apple is now contending that small can be beautiful, too. The giant tech company showed off downsized versions of its signature iPhone and iPad Pro tablet on Monday, hoping they’ll appeal to first-time buyers and those who have shied away from the bigger-screen models Apple has sold in recent years. At a time when overall smartphone sales are slowing, Apple touted its new four-inch iPhone SE as the “most affordable” new phone the company has offered. While it comes with an upgraded camera, faster processor and other features, the SE has a starting price of $400, or $50 less than the older iPhone 5S that it’s replacing. By contrast, the iPhone 6S Plus, which had been Apple’s newest and…

The Revenant A frontiersman is left for dead by his team after being mauled by a bear during a fur trading expedition. This movie follows his struggle for survival against the elements, rival hunters, and even some members of his own team... FIVE FACTS: 1. The Revenant resulted in Leonardo DiCaprio’s sixth Oscar nomination, and his long-awaited first ever win. 2. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu, who is famed for being belligerent with his crews, has also directed Birdman (2014) and Babel (2006). 3. Partially based on real events – a man named Hugh Glass was attacked by a grizzly bear in August 1823 and was left for dead by fellow trappers. 4. Rumours spread that DiCaprio slept in the gutted carcass of an actual horse whilst filming that particular scene.…

The government has been adamant for weeks: FBI investigators need to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, and Apple Inc. was the only one that could do it. In a stunning reversal on Monday, federal prosecutors asked a judge to halt a much-anticipated hearing on their efforts to force Apple to unlock the phone. The FBI may have found another way, and Apple’s cooperation may no longer be needed, according to court papers filed late Monday, less than 24 hours before Tuesday’s hearing. “An outside party” came forward over the weekend and showed the FBI a possible method to access the data on Syed Rizwan Farook’s encrypted phone, according to the filing. “Testing is required to determine whether it is a viable method that…

Fresh supplies shipped out late Tuesday for the International Space Station, where the shelves finally are getting full after a string of failed deliveries. Launching beneath the light of a nearly full moon, the unmanned Atlas V rocket provided late-night sparkle as it headed north with its precious cargo and paralleled the East Coast on its way to orbit. Orbital ATK’s Cygnus capsule holds nearly 8,000 pounds of food, equipment and scientific research for NASA, including a commercial-quality 3-D printer anyone can rent and experimental robotic grippers modeled after the thousands of sticky hairs on geckos’ feet. There’s also a fire experiment that will remain on the Cygnus. Researchers will ignite a large-scale blaze, in a contained box, to see how it spreads in weightlessness. The fire will not be…