Innehållsförteckning för #232 från AppleMagazine

Less than a year after New York banned fracking, dashing the hopes of farmers who had hoped to reap royalties from natural gas leases, the commercial solar industry is courting landowners for energy production. Buoyed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s renewable energy plan and the extension of the 30 percent federal tax credit in December, solar companies in recent months have blanketed rural areas with mailings seeking leases on farmland for solar arrays spanning 20 acres or more. While some farmers welcome the opportunity to earn up to $2,000 an acre annually for the next 20 years or so, some agricultural advisers, community leaders and lawyers are urging caution. “These are complex business transactions masquerading as lottery tickets,” said Chris Denton, a southern New York lawyer who helped landowner groups…

Facebook is rearranging the notification panel on its mobile apps in an effort to widen the audience watching live video on its social network. The shift announced Wednesday is part of Facebook’s effort to turn its live video feature into a marquee attraction as more people use their smartphones to record and share snippets of their lives. Facebook is moving the button for its Messenger service so that the new video option can be highlighted on the notification panel. When pressed, the video button will show a directory of live streams from a user’s friends, as well as segments available to anyone on the world’s largest social network. Messenger notifications will move to the top of Facebook’s mobile apps near the search box. The app update for Apple and Android…

The revelation that the FBI was able to break into a secured iPhone without Apple’s help won’t take a bite out of Apple’s brand reputation, but consumers will be looking for security improvements soon. The Apple brand has already withstood worse. In 2014, hackers posted nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities after guessing their passwords and breaking into their Apple iCloud accounts. Beyond security, Apple has faced complaints that the iPhone 6 Plus bent too easily and that the iPhone 4 lost signal strength when users held it a certain way. In each case, Apple’s reputation recovered - and the company went on to sell 232 million iPhones last year. And on Thursday, crowds formed at some stores as the new iPhone SE went on sale, though the…

A government-sponsored committee is recommending standards that could clear the way for commercial drone flights over populated areas and help speed the introduction of package delivery drones and other uses not yet possible, The Associated Press has learned. The Federal Aviation Administration currently prohibits most commercial drone flights over populated areas, especially crowds. That ban frustrates a host of industries that want to take advantage of the technology. “Every TV station in the country wants one, but they can’t be limited to flying in the middle of nowhere because there’s no news in the middle of nowhere,” said Jim Williams, a former head of FAA’s drone office who now advises the industry for Dentons, an international law firm. Cellular network providers also want to loosen restrictions so drones, also known…

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” showed some signs of weakness in its second weekend in theaters with a dramatic 69 percent drop from its debut last week. The superhero pic still easily took first place with $51.3 million, which bumped its domestic total to $260.4 million. Holdovers “Zootopia” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” trailed far behind in second and third place with $19.3 million and $11.2 million respectively. Among the few modest new openers, the faith-based “God’s Not Dead 2” was the only one to crack the top five, opening in fourth place with $7.6 million. It was just slightly more than “Miracles From Heaven” which took fifth place in its third weekend in theaters with $7.3 million. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters…

A workplace exercise challenge using pedometers and social media in a global competition shows potential to improve health in a study involving almost 70,000 employees in 64 countries. In the program, office teams compete against each other or with groups at companies in other countries to see who can take the most daily steps during a 100-day challenge. Workers post progress on a special social media website - for motivation and to egg on rival teams. The study found workers on average increased their daily activity by 3,500 steps, exercised for almost one extra day per week, reduced sitting time by about 45 minutes daily, and lost about three pounds during the contests. Whether the changes were lasting isn’t known. The research was presented Sunday in Chicago at the American…

In the global race to create more efficient and long-lasting batteries, some are betting on nanotechnology - the use of minuscule parts - as the most likely to yield a breakthrough. Improving batteries’ performance is key to the development and success of many much-hyped technologies, from solar and wind energy to electric cars. They need to hold more energy, last longer, be cheaper and safer. Research into how to achieve that has followed several avenues, from using different materials than the existing lithium-ion batteries to changing the internal structure of batteries using nanoparticles - parts so small they are invisible to the naked eye. Nanotechnology can increase the size and surface of batteries electrodes, the rods inside the batteries that absorb the energy. It does so by effectively making the…

The hackers who seriously disrupted operations at a large hospital chain recently and held some data hostage broke into a computer server left vulnerable despite urgent public warnings in 2007 and in 2010 that it needed to be fixed with a simple update, The Associated Press has learned. The hackers exploited design flaws that had persisted on the MedStar Health Inc. network, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss the findings publicly. The flaws were in a JBoss application server supported by Red Hat Inc. and other organizations, the person said. The FBI, which is investigating, declined to discuss how the hackers broke in. The JBoss technology is popular because it allows programmers to write…

The government hack of an iPhone used by a San Bernardino killer serves as a reminder that phones and other electronic devices aren’t impenetrable vaults. While most people aren’t targets of the NSA, FBI or a foreign government, hackers are looking to steal the financial and personal information of ordinary people. Your phone stores more than just selfies. Your email account on the phone, for instance, is a gateway to resetting banking and other sensitive passwords. Like washing your hands and brushing your teeth, a little “cyber hygiene” can go a long way toward preventing disaster. LOCK YOUR PHONE WITH A PASSCODE Failing to do so is like leaving your front door unlocked. A four-digit passcode - and an accompanying self-destruct feature that might wipe a phone’s data after too…

SCIENTISTS BEING HELPED TO IMPROVE PEOPLE’S LIVES Amid such higher-profile and more feverishly spoken-of developments at Apple’s March 21 keynote as the announcement of the 4-inch iPhone SE and a 9.7-inch version of the iPad Pro, it would have been easy for some observers to miss news that could have much more profound implications for many people’s daily lives - including those who will never pick up an iDevice. We are, of course, referring to the newly unveiled CareKit and improvements to the year-old ResearchKit. Now, in an Apple world becoming increasingly populated with pretty much everything-Kit, it can be easy to lose track of what each of them mean - not least as you may not come into direct contact with them as the average iGadget user, given their…

Virtual reality is a trip, but an even wilder ride could be around the corner as mind-bending startups and technology trendsetters try to emblazon the world with interactive holograms that enlighten, entertain and empower us. The concept, known as augmented reality, looks like something out of a science-fiction movie. Think Tony Stark, the comic-book character who scans information-filled holograms beamed in front of his “Iron Man” mask, or John Anderton, the character that Tom Cruise played while flipping through digital screens floating in the air in “Minority Report.” It hasn’t yet advanced as far as virtual reality, which is getting attention with this week’s release of the much-hyped Oculus Rift headset from Facebook. But augmented reality has the potential to touch far more people because it’s designed as a seamless…

Star Wars: The Force Awakens The first Star Wars movie in a decade is just as epic and enthralling as the last. The seventh installment in the franchise is set 30 years after the defeat of Darth Vader, and sees a group of heroes search for Luke Skywalker, the last ever Jedi. FIVE FACTS: 1. This movie marks the only time Harrison Ford has received top billing in a Star Wars movie, making him the first non-Jedi character to be credited first. 2. The film had a budget of $200 million, which was the highest of a Star Wars film upon release. 3. By signing on to direct this film, J.J. Abrams became the first director to direct a Star Trek (2009) film and a Star Wars film. 4. Pre-sale…

Facebook is training its computers to become seeing-eye guides for blind and visually impaired people as they scroll through the pictures posted on the world’s largest online social network. The feature rolling out Tuesday on Facebook’s iPhone and iPad apps interprets what’s in a picture using a form of artificial intelligence that recognizes faces and objects. VoiceOver, a screen reader built into the software powering the iPhone and iPad, must be turned on for Facebook’s photo descriptions to be read. For now, the feature will only be available in English. Until now, people relying on screen readers on Facebook would only hear that a person had shared a photo without any elaboration. The photo descriptions initially will be confined to a vocabulary of 100 words in a restriction that will…

The TV content ratings system consistently fails to protect children from adult fare and must be overhauled, a watchdog group said Monday. A Parents Television Council study released Monday faulted the 20-year-old system over how shows are rated, who rates them and an alleged lack of transparency. Young viewers routinely are exposed to graphic violence, explicit sex, profanity and other adult content in shows that are labeled as suitable for children, said Tim Winter, the group’s president. That’s because of inherent flaws in the ratings system, he said, including the oversight board’s structure and the fact networks rate their own programs. The 24-member TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board is made up largely of representatives from the broadcast networks and cable channels whose programs are subject to the ratings. “No other…

Demand for Tesla Motors’ new lower-priced electric car continued to climb over the weekend with pre-orders rising to 253,000. CEO Elon Musk tweeted the numbers on Saturday, which jumped 28 percent from 198,000 Friday. People pay $1,000 to reserve their vehicle. The Model 3 is less than half the cost of Tesla’s previous models, and its range is about double what drivers get from current competitors in its price range, such as the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3. It starts at $35,000 and has a range of 215 miles per charge, which is far more than most people drive each day. The orders came from across the globe even though the car isn’t scheduled for sale until late in 2017.…

Apple turned 40 on Friday, and it’s a very different company from the audacious startup that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak launched in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976. Today, the maker of iPhones and Mac computers is the world’s most valuable public corporation, with 100,000 employees and a new, multi-billion dollar headquarters in Cupertino, California, set to open next year. But despite its astounding financials - Apple reported $53 billion in profit on $233 billion in sales last year - some critics have suggested Apple’s best years are behind it, as it has struggled to come up with new products and match the phenomenal success it has had in recent years. Not surprisingly, longtime employees like software vice president Guy “Bud” Tribble disagree. “We still think we’re going to…

North Korea has officially announced it is blocking Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and South Korean websites in a move underscoring its concern with the spread of online information. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications announcement was posted this week at the country’s main mobile service provider, Koryolink, and other places serving Internet users. Very few North Koreans have Internet access. Typically they can see only a sealed-off, government-sanctioned intranet. But foreigners had previously been able to surf the Web with almost no overt restrictions, though most likely with behind-the-scenes monitoring of their Internet activities. The new restrictions will make it more difficult for visitors or the small community of foreign residents in North Korea to post real-time information about the country to the outside world, and will further limit the ability…

Lukas Graham Lukas Graham The third studio album from the Danish pop-soul outfit is the first album of theirs to receive a worldwide release, and features the number one hit “7 Years”, as well as singles “Mama Said” and “Strip No More”. We reckon it’s highly likely you’ll be hearing more and more of this band in the coming months – get a head start by buying the album today. FIVE FACTS: 1. The band have been active since 2011. After releasing several homemade music videos, they were soon signed to Copenhagen Records. A string of successful singles soon followed, as did a debut album that went quadruple-platinum in Denmark. 2.“7 Years” has peaked at number one on charts across the world, including the UK Singles chart, where it became…

Drone delivery might be years away in the U.S., but it’s becoming a reality in Rwanda Wthis summer. A San Francisco-based drone delivery company says it’ll start making its first deliveries of blood and medicine in Rwanda in July. Zipline International Inc., backed by tech heavyweights like Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures, demonstrated its technology for journalists last week in an open field in the San Francisco Bay area. In a demo broadcast on Periscope on Friday, a staffer launched a fixed-wing plane weighing just 22 pounds off a launcher that used compressed air. Electric-powered propellers took it the rest of the way, on a flight that could extend to 75 miles round trip, using military-grade GPS and software to navigate. As it dipped low before the drop-off area, the…

WhatsApp says it’s now using a powerful form of encryption to protect the security of photos, videos, group chats and voice calls in addition to the text messages sent by its more than a billion users around the globe. The popular service owned by Facebook began applying “end-to-end” encryption to standard messages sent on Android smartphones in 2014. After gradually expanding to other formats, WhatsApp confirmed Tuesday that its encryption now works with all forms of communication on its app for Android phones, Apple’s iPhones and other devices. Encryption has become a hotly debated subject, with some U.S. authorities warning that criminals and violent extremists can use it to hide their tracks. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, who grew up in the Soviet Union, says he believes consumers should have easy-to-use…