Innholdsfortegnelse for #161 i Techlife News

PLENTY OF REMOTE CONTROL FUN TO BE HAD We're big fans of toys - especially ones that make the most of the very latest technology. As Christmas looms and your younger (or perhaps not-so-young) friends and relatives compile their wish lists, or even as you consider what you might want to buy for yourself, all manner of newly-launched toys are appearing on the horizon. One of them is the Sphero Ollie - and we'd like to reassure you that it's more than just another remote controlled toy. You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was, to be fair. On first spying this curious toy, we must admit that we thought it looked rather unassuming. Of course, many astonishing toys are like that these days, but even so, we found it…

WHAT WE CAN EXPECT FROM WATCHKIT We were all excited about Apple's long-awaited wearable, the simply-titled Watch, when it first broke cover in September. We weren't even given a precise release date, still only knowing that it will become available to buy at some point early next year. What we do know, though, is that the Apple Watch is worth making a fuss about. Now, the device's developers' toolkit - WatchKit - has been launched. WatchKit is all that the already well-established iOS developer community needs in order to create apps for the upcoming wearable - that's right, they can get to work before it even makes an appearance on store shelves. In announcing WatchKit's launch, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, said that it was for…

Aereo, an online startup that tried to offer a cheaper alternative to cable TV, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection less than five months after an unfavorable ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The company backed by media mogul Barry Diller allowed people to watch and record broadcast TV online for $8 a month on tablets, phones and other gadgets. Unlike Hulu and other online video services, Aereo offered live streaming of broadcast channels. The Supreme Court ruled this summer that Aereo had been operating like a cable TV company, meaning that unless it paid broadcasters licensing fees, it was in violation of copyright law. Aereo suspended its operations three days later. The company got its start in New York and had expanded to about 10 other metropolitan areas,…

“Mockingjay, Part 1” didn’t catch fire like the previous installments of “The Hunger Games,” but it still had the biggest opening of the year with $123 million at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday. Lionsgate’s “Mockingjay” opened well below the $158 million debut of last year’s “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and the $153 million opening of the 2012 original. But even with a $30-million-plus slide in the franchise, “Mockingjay” far surpassed the previous top weekend of the year: the $100 million debut of “Transformers: Age of Extinction.” The result made for some unusual ironies. The biggest opening of the year (and by a wide margin) was seen by some as a disappointment. After initial box office receipts of “Mockingjay” rolled in Friday suggested a weekend take below…

5 Years of mau5 deadmau5 Canadian progressive-house icon deadmau5 looks back on his career with the release of 5 Years of mau5, which combines past hits by the EDM producer with “exclusive and new remixes from friends of mau5trap”, the record label he founded in 2007. Contributing artists include Dillon Francis, Michael Woods, Chuckie and more. FIVE FACTS: 1. Deadmau5 is the stage name of Joel Thomas Zimmerman. 2. He was born on January 5, 1981 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. 3. He released his debut full-length album, Get Scraped, in 2005. 4. He has recently been involved in a legal skirmish with Disney over the signature mouse head that he wears while performing, on account of its purported resemblance to Mickey Mouse. 5. Other DJs and producers that he has worked alongside…

The head of a British art festival has been named to lead The Culture Shed, a performing arts center planned for Manhattan’s Far West Side. Alex Poots will leave his current positions as artistic director of the Manchester International Festival and of the Park Avenue Armory in September. Culture Shed’s chairman, Daniel Doctoroff, tells The New York Times ( http://nyti.ms/11S9zXv ) that it was looking for someone who was “a cultural entrepreneur.” The Culture Shed will be an exotic structure with translucent, telescoping outer shells that will accommodate art exhibitions, concerts and film screenings. The Times says it could become the new home of fashion Week and a possible anchor for the Tribeca Film Festival. Construction on the $360 million center is under way. It’s expected to be completed in…

The Queen of Soul says don’t waste your money - or soul - on the recently released unauthorized biography about her. In a statement, Aretha Franklin called David Ritz’s “Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin,” a “trashy book.” The two have a history of collaborating: Franklin and award-winning Ritz worked together on her 1999 biography, “Aretha: From These Roots.” He also won a Grammy Award for best album notes for his work on Franklin’s 1992 box set, “Queen of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings.” “As many of you are aware, there is a very trashy book out there full of lies and more lies about me. ... (The writer’s) actions are obviously vindictive because I edited out some crazy statements he had the gall to try and put in my book…

Kurt Cobain is the focus of a new documentary that probes the life and untimely death of the Nirvana singer-guitarist. It will be released in theaters next year and air exclusively on HBO, the network said Tuesday. Co-produced by HBO Documentary Films, “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” is the first documentary made with the cooperation of Cobain’s family. It draws on home movies, journals and other personal archives. It features Nirvana songs and performances and previously unheard Cobain originals. The film’s director-producer, Brett Morgen, has previously made the documentaries “Crossfire Hurricane,” about the Rolling Stones, and “The Kid Stays in the Picture.” Cobain formed Nirvana in 1985, and by the early 1990s was decreed the spokesman of Generation X. He died of suicide in 1994 at age 27.…

With characters like Sherlock Holmes, Julian Assange and Stephen Hawking, Benedict Cumberbatch has accumulated a filmography littered with high IQs. Characters of analytical prowess and fast-deducting intellect have made Cumberbatch something like the ultimate quicksilver mind of the digital age. No actor has made computation sexier. Cumberbatch, relaxing in a Toronto hotel room, quickly points out that he has - like his spineless plantation owner of “12 Years a Slave” or his painfully shy son in “August: Osage County” - played some “pretty dull, ordinary” people: “Let’s say us. I’ve done us, version of me and you,” he says. And yet Cumberbatch is clearly drawn to highly complex, real-life characters under extraordinary circumstances - roles that demand technical preparation (an accent, a stammer), considerable biographical research and a precision of…

“Mad Men” stars Christina Hendricks and John Slattery will be presenting a special award at the International Emmys Gala to the show’s creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner who’s preparing the final episodes of the 1960s Madison Avenue ad agency saga slated to air in spring 2015. Weiner will be receiving the honorary International Emmy Founders Award at Monday night’s ceremony at the Hilton New York. “`Mad Men’ has really come to define television for a whole generation of viewers,” said Bruce L. Paisner, president and CEO of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “It’s an amazing global cultural phenomenon ... a force of nature as much as just a television series.” “Although these are stories in theory out of the 60s, part of the success of the…

Even casual viewers of online video will appreciate the ability to watch it on a big-screen TV. For about $100, you can get a great streaming TV device to do that. Or for about a third of that, you can get a pretty good one. Content selection varies, but all offer such basics as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. After trying out 10 streaming devices, I have three recommendations and an honorable mention: AMAZON FIRE TV STICK A “stick” is a cheaper, lightweight version of a regular streaming device, often with poorer performance. That’s not the case with the $39 Fire TV Stick, which is why I’m recommending it over the $99 Fire TV. The processor isn’t as powerful, and there isn’t as much working memory. But in my tests, video…

WHY PEOPLE ARE SUGGESTING IT COULD BE THE LAST PLATINUM ALBUM To say that 24-year old country superstar Taylor Swift has been doing well as of late would be something of an understatement. In fact, even within the rarefied territory where the Reading, Pennsylvania native currently resides, she is thriving with her most recent album, 1989. But is her success pointing to a more positive future for a currently besieged music industry, or is it a mere anomaly? Ask most informed observers these days, and they'll say that things are in a bad way. Our current pop music landscape is one of ever-declining physical sales - that has been known for a while. But much more recently, digital sales have also dropped - by 13 percent in the first six months…

Will Katy Perry be a firework at the Super Bowl? Will she show them what she’s worth? Will she let her colors burst? NFL announced late Sunday - after rumors swirled for weeks - that the pop star will headline the Pepsi Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 1 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona. It will air on NBC. Perry, 30, has dominated the Billboard charts since releasing her debut in 2008, including nine No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Her sophomore effort, 2010’s multiplatinum “Teenage Dream,” matched the record Michael Jackson set with “Bad” for most songs from a single album to hit No. 1 with five. Perry released “Prism,” another platinum effort, last year. It includes the No. 1 smashes “Roar” and…

The cheapest smartphones don’t have all the gizmos of Apple or Samsung models, but I’m impressed by how many features you do get for roughly a third of the price. Processors are slower, yet that’s not so noticeable for basic tasks such as email, Facebook and weather checks. Video and audio are also enjoyable, as long as I’m not expecting the same performance I get on high-end phones. Batteries don’t last quite as long without a recharge but I still got about seven hours of streaming video on Hulu. Do I really need the nine to 12 hours I can get with an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy? Because you spend so much time with your phone, there’s a case for having the best. But those come with a price tag…

Just in time for the holidays, Google is throwing its money, brain power and technology at the humble spoon. Of course these spoons (don’t call them spoogles) are a bit more than your basic utensil: Using hundreds of algorithms, they allow people with essential tremors and Parkinson’s Disease to eat without spilling. The technology senses how a hand is shaking and makes instant adjustments to stay balanced. In clinical trials, the Liftware spoons reduced shaking of the spoon bowl by an average of 76 percent. “We want to help people in their daily lives today and hopefully increase understanding of disease in the long run,” said Google spokesperson Katelin Jabbari. Other adaptive devices have been developed to help people with tremors - rocker knives, weighted utensils, pen grips. But until…

Apple, already the world’s most valuable company, surpassed $700 billion in market capitalization Tuesday as its stock hit another all-time high. The company unveiled the latest version if the iPhone two months ago and sales have been surging. During its last quarter, Apple sold 39.3 million iPhones and said that it expected revenue from the sale of all of its products to come in between $63.5 billion and $66.5 billion in the current quarter. Apple shares have risen 48 percent in 2014 and the company announced its first stock split in 9 years. Apple’s title as the world’s most valuable company does come with an asterisk, however. While Apple is the first S&P 500 company to exceed $700 billion in value, Microsoft Corp., if adjustments are made for inflation, had…

NEW YORK (AP) -- The musical duo She & Him - that’s Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward - convened a 20-piece orchestra to make “Classics,” a collection of songs written between 1930 and 1974. It’s an eclectic list of compositions popularized by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Herb Alpert, the Righteous Brothers and Dusty Springfield. So we thought it would be fun to talk to the artists about songs that stick out in their minds for various reasons. A SONG YOU’D LIKE TO COVER BUT INTIMIDATES YOU Ward’s choice: “This Is Radio Clash” by the Clash. It’s one of his favorite bands, but he doesn’t think it’s in his vocal range. “There is a certain attitude to their music, and to the Ramones’ music, that I think is untouchable,” he…

Yahoo will supplant Google’s search engine on Firefox’s Web browser in the U.S., signaling Yahoo’s resolve to regain some of the ground that it has lost in the most lucrative part of the Internet’s ad market. The five-year alliance announced Wednesday will end a decade-old partnership in the U.S. between Google Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation, which oversees the Firefox browser. The tensions between Google and Mozilla had been rising since Google’s introduction of the Chrome browser in 2008 began to undercut Firefox. Google’s current contract with Mozilla expires at the end of this month, opening an opportunity for Yahoo to pounce. Even though Chrome is now more widely used, Firefox still has a loyal audience that makes more than 100 billion worldwide search requests annually. Yahoo is hoping to…

One Direction won three honors at the American Music Awards, including artist of the year over powerhouse acts like Beyonce and Luke Bryan, while breakthrough newcomer Iggy Azalea beat out heavyweights Eminem and Drake in the rap categories. Katy Perry, who was absent from Sunday’s award show because of her world tour, matched One Direction for most wins with three. The boy band won also won favorite band, duo or group - pop/rock and favorite album - pop/rock for “Midnight Memories” at the fan-voted show. “This has been a real perfect day ... America feels like a second home to us,” Liam Payne said onstage with his band mates when they won the night’s first award. The group released its new album, “Four,” last week. They wore all black as…

Winners of the 2014 American Music Awards, presented Sunday at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles: Artist of the year: One Direction New artist of the year: 5 Seconds of Summer Single of the year: Katy Perry feat. Juicy J, “Dark Horse” Pop/rock female artist: Katy Perry Pop/rock male artist: Sam Smith Pop/rock band, duo or group: One Direction Pop/rock album: One Direction, “Midnight Melodies” Country female artist: Carrie Underwood Country male artist: Luke Bryan Country band, duo or group: Florida Georgia Line Country album: Brantley Gilbert, “Just As I Am” Rap/hip-hop artist: Iggy Azalea Rap/hip-hop album: Iggy Azalea, “The New Classic” Soul/R&B female artist: Beyoncé Soul/R&B male artist: John Legend Soul/R&B album: Beyoncé, “Beyoncé” Latin artist: Enrique Iglesias Alternative rock: Imagine Dragons Adult contemporary: Katy Perry Contemporary inspirational: Casting…

Guardians of the Galaxy In stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan (Lee Pace), a powerful villain whose ambitions threaten the entire universe, the brash adventurer Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) certainly makes himself a target. In a bid to fend off Ronan, Quill enters an uneasy truce with four cosmic misfits. Expect plenty of fun ‘70s pop tunes and an irreverent departure from the usual superhero movie formula. FIVE FACTS: 1. The film is based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. 2. It is the 10th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 3. James Gunn directed the film, in addition to writing the screenplay with Nicole Perlman. 4. Other members of the ensemble cast include Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper. 5. Its…

Against the team of hackers, the poor car stood no chance. Meticulously overwhelming its computer networks, the hackers showed that - given time - they would be able to pop the trunk and start the windshield wipers, cut the brakes or lock them up, and even kill the engine. Their motives were not malicious. These hackers worked on behalf of the U.S. military, which along with the auto industry is scrambling to fortify the cyber defenses of commercially available cars before criminals and even terrorists penetrate them. “You’re stepping into a rolling computer now,” said Chris Valasek, who helped catapult car hacking into the public eye when he and a partner revealed last year they had been able to control a 2010 Toyota Prius and 2010 Ford Escape by plugging…

Traveling by plane, train or automobile can be a headache. Mixing in Thanksgiving can make it a throbbing migraine. Technology provides some pain relief in the form of apps to let you know which roads are clogged, what gate your flight leaves from and whether trains are running on time. The American Automobile Association forecasts that the Wednesday through Sunday period will see more than 46 million Americans travel at least 50 miles from home - the most Thanksgiving road warriors since 2007. About nine in 10 are expected to drive - or be driven - with about 3.6 million flying. Here are some ways to make the journey a bit less taxing. PLANES FlightAware tracks not only your flight’s status but also any delays or cancellations, even gate changes.…

One grew up idolizing Harry Houdini. The other worshipped David Copperfield. Now they’re both in a place known more for jazz hands than sleight of hand. Italy’s star escape artist Andrew Basso and American Adam Trent, who focuses on technology-based tricks, are two of the seven magicians set to play Broadway this winter in the show “The Illusionists.” It will run at the Marriott Marquis Theatre from Nov. 26-Jan. 4. “It’s been almost 20 years since magic has been on Broadway. To me, it’s been long overdue. But maybe it’s been gone for a reason. It’s been waiting for something like this,” Trent said. The rest of the lineup includes Belgium’s weapon specialist Aaron Crow, campy magician Jeff Hobson, illusionist and “America’s Got Talent” veteran Kevin James, macabre specialist Dan…

Rick Ross had two seizures in a single day, sending him to the hospital three years ago. Health didn’t concern the 300-pound rapper then, but he’s shed nearly 100 pounds in the last seven months by eating healthier foods and embracing a high-intensity workout plan. Ross, 37, says he continues to work long hours creating music, including his seventh album, “Hood Billionaire,” released Monday. It’s the second album Ross has put out this year after the March release of “Mastermind,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. But in the middle of making music and running his Maybach Music Group record label, Ross has made his health a main priority. And now, he believes if he can drop pounds, you can, too. In an interview with…