Innehållsförteckning för #669 från AppleMagazine

At Bullard High School in Fresno, it’s easy to see the benefits of banning students’ cellphones. Bullying is down and socialization is up, principal Armen Torigian said. Enforcing the smartphone restrictions? That’s been harder. Instead of putting their devices in magnetically locked pouches, like they’re supposed to, some kids will stick something else in there instead, like a disused old phone, a calculator, a glue bottle or just the phone case. Others attack the pouch, pulling at stitches, cutting the bottom, or defacing it so it looks closed when it’s really open. Most students comply, but those who don’t create disproportionate chaos. “You should see how bad it is,” Torigian said. “It’s great to say no phones, but I don’t think people realize the addiction of the phones and what…

The North Carolina elections board this week approved the first digital identification that can be used to meet state voter ID requirements, signing off on mobile credentials offered to students and employees at the state’s flagship public university. The Democratic-controlled State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines to sign off on the credentials. It declared that showing the Mobile UNC One Card generated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was a way registered voters could meet the state’s relatively new photo voter ID mandate. The voter ID law sets several categories of qualifying identifications, such as North Carolina driver’s licenses, U.S. passports and some free ID cards. The state board also accepts applications from public and private universities, local government entities and others that want…

HEALTH When a little boy burst into tears in her third-grade classroom last fall, Audrey Jost pulled him aside while the other kids were at recess. He said he was getting headaches and falling behind the other students, so Jost spoke with his parents about getting his eyes tested. A few days later the boy returned with contact lenses, seeming like a different kid, said Jost, who teaches in a public school in Gilbert, Arizona. “It was amazing, just the change that that had in him, academically, socially,” she said. “He just lit up that day.” In her 18 years of teaching, Jost said she’s seen this problem — and its relatively simple solution — many times before, including with one of her own daughters. That’s why experts say late…

Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms has shut down CrowdTangle, a tool widely used by researchers, watchdog organizations and journalists to monitor social media posts, notably to track how misinformation spreads on the company’s platforms. The shutdown, which Meta announced earlier this year, has been protested by researchers and nonprofits. In May, dozens of groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, Human Rights Watch and NYU’s Center for Social Media & Politics, sent a letter to the company asking that it keep the tool running through at least January so it would be available through the U.S. presidential elections. “This decision jeopardizes essential pre- and post-election oversight mechanisms and undermines Meta’s transparency efforts during this critical period, and at a…

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Americans stepped up their spending at retailers last month by the most in a year and a half, easing concerns that the economy might be weakening under the pressure of higher prices and elevated interest rates. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales jumped 1% from June to July, the biggest such increase since January 2023, after having declined slightly the previous month. Auto dealers, electronics and appliance stores and grocery stores all reported strong sales gains. The July retail sales data provided reassurance that the U.S. economy, while slowing under the pressure of high interest rates, remains resilient. It showed that America’s consumers, the primary driver of economic growth, are still willing to spend. The prospect of a still-growing economy is likely to be promoted by Vice President Kamala…

Cisco Systems is planning to lay off 7% of its employees, its second round of job cuts this year, as the company shifts its focus to more rapidly growing areas in technology, such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The company based in San Jose, California, did not specify the number of jobs it is cutting. It had 84,900 employees as of July 2023. Based on that figure, the number of jobs cut would be about 5,900. In February, Cisco announced it would cut about 4,000 jobs. The networking equipment maker said in June that it would invest $1 billion in tech startups like Cohere, Mistral and Scale to develop reliable AI products. It recently also announced a partnership with Nvidia to develop infrastructure for AI systems. Cisco’s layoffs come just…

A group of authors is suing artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, alleging it committed “large-scale theft” in training its popular chatbot Claude on pirated copies of copyrighted books. While similar lawsuits have piled up for more than a year against competitor OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, this is the first from writers to target Anthropic and its Claude chatbot. The smaller San Francisco-based company — founded by ex-OpenAI leaders — has marketed itself as the more responsible and safety-focused developer of generative AI models that can compose emails, summarize documents and interact with people in a natural way. But the lawsuit filed this week in a federal court in San Francisco alleges that Anthropic’s actions “have made a mockery of its lofty goals” by tapping into repositories of pirated writings to build…

More than 17,000 AT&T workers in nine states across the Southeast are on strike after accusing the company of unfair labor practices during contract negotiations this summer. The Communications Workers of America — the union representing the striking employees — said workers walked off the job in response to AT&T’s failure to bargain in good faith. Workers have been attempting to reach a new contract since June. The labor organization said AT&T did not send representatives to the bargaining table who had authority to make decisions and that the company has reneged on agreements made in bargaining. “Our union entered into negotiations in a good faith effort to reach a fair contract, but we have been met at the table by company representatives who were unable to explain their own…

It’s not just you. The word “demure” is being used to describe just about everything online these days. It all started earlier this month, when TikTok creator Jools Lebron posted a video that would soon take social media by storm. The hair and makeup she’s wearing to work? Very demure. And paired with a vanilla perfume fragrance? How mindful. In just weeks, Lebron’s words have become the latest vocabulary defining the internet this summer. In addition to her own viral content that continues to describe various day-to-day, arguably reserved or modest activities with adjectives like “demure,”“mindful” and “cutesy,” several big names have also hopped on the trend across social media platforms. Celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Penn Badgley have shared their own playful takes, and even the White House used…

Facing competition from automakers with lower costs, Ford Motor Co. is shifting its electric vehicle strategy and now will focus on making two new electric pickup trucks and a new commercial van. The company says all will cost less, have longer range and be profitable before taxes within a year of reaching showrooms. Ford, which is losing millions on its current EVs, gave few details about the new products. But it said production of its next generation full-size electric pickup truck in Tennessee will be delayed 18 months, until 2027. The company also says it won’t build fully electric three-row SUVs due to high battery costs, but instead will focus on making those vehicles as gas-electric hybrids. The other new pickup will be mid-sized, based on new underpinnings developed by…

Federal safety officials are requiring inspections of cockpit seats on Boeing 787 Dreamliners after one of the jets went into a dive when the captain’s seat lurched forward without warning and disconnected the plane’s autopilot system. Boeing also has stopped test flights of a new version of its 777 jetliner after discovering a damaged structural part between the engine and the rest of the plane. The new model has not yet been approved by regulators. The Federal Aviation Administration said in an order that it will require operators of 787s to inspect both pilot seats for missing or cracked caps that cover a switch used to move the seats. During a March flight by Chile-based Latam Airlines, the captain’s seat moved forward and hit a switch that disconnected the autopilot…

TikTok pushed back against U.S. government arguments that the popular social media platform is not shielded by the First Amendment, comparing its platform to prominent American media organizations owned by foreign entities. Last month, the Justice Department argued in a legal brief filed in a Washington federal appeals court that neither TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, nor the platform’s global and U.S. arms — TikTok Ltd. and TikTok Inc. — were entitled to First Amendment protections because they are “foreign organizations operating abroad” or owned by one. TikTok attorneys have made the First Amendment a key part of their legal challenge to the federal law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to an approved buyer or face a ban. Last week, they argued in a court document that TikTok’s U.S. arm…

“In space, no one can hear you scream,” went the tagline for the original “Alien” in 1979, a terrifying thought on multiple levels. There may indeed be a scientific rationale for a space scream to be inaudible, but isn’t it scarier to simply realize nobody’s around to hear you? That was the case for Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, once she became the last one standing against the fearsome Xenomorph. Nobody could hear her scream — nobody human, that is — because, duh, everyone was dead. In any case, hearing won’t be a problem here on Earth at any multiplex showing “Alien: Romulus,” the much-anticipated new installment to the “Alien” franchise (not a sequel, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) This is a very big, very (very!) loud, very jumpy…

Target’s comparable sales rose for the first time in a year as grocery aisle deals for cash-strapped customers began to pay off. Sales at stores and digital channels operating over at least the past 12 months rose 2% in the second quarter reversing months of declines, including a 3.7% drop in the previous quarter, and a 4.4% decline during the company’s final quarter of last year. The number of transactions at the Minneapolis retailer increased 3% compared with the same period last year, with all six main merchandising categories, including fashion and home goods, showing strength. Online sales rose 8.7% and comparable sales in clothing increased 3% compared with a year ago as customers embraced new store brands like All in Motion and Wild Fable. Target’s profits and sales beat…