AppleMagazine - November 24, 2017 PDF

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POLITICS OR TESLA WANTS

POLICY? BEHIND TO ELECTRIFY BIG
THE DISPUTE OVER TRUCKS, ADDING TO
AT&T-TIME WARNER ITS AMBITIONS
42
MEG WHITMAN
STEPPING
DOWN AS HP
ENTERPRISE CEO
14 132
HULU SUED FOR NOT OFFERING AUDIO SERVICE FOR BLIND CUSTOMERS 08
GOV. BAKER CALLS FOR PASSAGE OF CELLPHONE DRIVING BAN 22
FCC CHAIRMAN SETS OUT TO SCRAP OPEN INTERNET ACCESS RULES 26
MARVELL TECHNOLOGY BUYING CHIP MAKER CAVIUM IN $6B DEAL 34
VOLVO TO SUPPLY UBER WITH THOUSANDS OF SELF-DRIVING CARS 38
APPLE DELAYS RELEASE OF HOMEPOD SPEAKER UNTIL EARLY 2018 50
VW TO SPEND $40B ON ELECTRIC CARS, TECHNOLOGY THROUGH 2022 68
MARS THEORY GETS DUSTED: STREAKS MAY BE SAND, NOT WATER 70
UBER REVEALS COVER-UP OF HACK AFFECTING 57M RIDERS, DRIVERS 76
THEME PARK EXPO OFFERS PREVIEW OF WHAT’S NEW FOR 2018 82
SPORTS BETTING CASE COULD PAY OFF FOR INTERNET GAMBLING 86
BOX OFFICE TOP 20: ‘JUSTICE LEAGUE’ FALLS TO $93.8 MILLION 114
IN ‘COCO,’ PIXAR JOURNEYS TO MEXICO AND BEYOND THE GRAVE 124
TECHNOLOGY HELPS BLIND STUDENTS ‘SEE’ CAMPUS TOUR 136
UN PANEL AGREES TO MOVE AHEAD WITH DEBATE ON ‘KILLER ROBOTS’ 158
IRAN-BASED HACKER CHARGED WITH TRYING TO EXTORT HBO 164
CHINA SAYS EX-TOP INTERNET REGULATOR UNDER INVESTIGATION 168
TOP 10 APPS 94
iTUNES REVIEW 98
TOP 10 SONGS 148
TOP 10 ALBUMS 150
TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS 152
TOP 10 TV SHOWS 154
TOP 10 BOOKS 156
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HULU SUED FOR
NOT OFFERING
AUDIO SERVICE
FOR BLIND
CUSTOMERS
Advocacy groups have sued Hulu in an effort

to force the subscription streaming service to
provide an audio track that helps people who
are blind or visually impaired enjoy TV shows
and movies.
The federal lawsuit filed in Boston this week asks

the court to declare that Hulu’s failure to provide
services for the blind violates the Americans
with Disabilities Act. The groups say Hulu has
refused to do so despite repeated requests from
advocates and blind customers.
“They want to enjoy Hulu like everyone else in

the country,” said Meredith Weaver, an attorney
with Disability Rights Advocates, which filed the
lawsuit on behalf of the American Council of the
Blind, Bay State Council of the Blind and a blind
Massachusetts couple.
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based Hulu

didn’t immediately respond to an email.
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The groups want Hulu to provide audio tracks
that describe a scene, facial expressions or
actions during a pause in dialogue. The audio
track “describes what a sighted person might
take for granted and blind or visually impaired
person can otherwise only experience through
whispers from a sighted companion,” the
lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also seeks to ensure people

who use screen readers can use Hulu’s
website and applications. Screen readers convey
what’s seen on a website or apps
using audio or braille.
“Movies and television are pillars of American

culture,” said Kim Charlson, president of the
American Council of the Blind. “As delivery
of such media transitions to video streaming
services, it is critical that these platforms be
accessible in order to ensure the inclusion
of blind and visually impaired individuals in
contemporary society.”
Most major movie companies already provide

audio description tracks, and audio exists for
many TV shows and movies that are available on
Hulu, the lawsuit says.
Netflix in 2015 started offering an audio track

for the show “Daredevil” that features a blind
superhero after fans complained. In a settlement
reached last year with the American Council of
the Blind and others, Netflix agreed to expand its
audio description offering and make its website
and mobile apps accessible for people who rely
on screen reading software.
The Hulu competitor says it now provides audio

description for most its original titles and some
other TV shows and movies.
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POLITICS OR
POLICY? BEHIND
THE DISPUTE OVER
AT&T-TIME WARNER
AT&T is vowing to fight the U.S. government

to save its $85 billion bid for Time Warner, after
the Justice Department sued to block the deal
on grounds it could hike television bills and
hamper innovation.
The government’s objections have raised red

flags for those who worry that the White House
is using the merger-review process to try to hurt
Time Warner-owned CNN, with which President
Donald Trump has tangled frequently.
Here’s a look at what’s behind the deal:
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WHY DOES AT&T WANT TO
BUY TIME WARNER?
As U.S. wireless growth slows down, AT&T has
been looking for ways to marry its nationwide
wireless business with video, which Americans
increasingly watch on the internet.
AT&T bought satellite TV company DirecTV in

2015. Buying Time Warner would give AT&T
more video through such cable networks as
HBO, CNN and TBS and the Warner Bros. movie
studio. AT&T can deliver this video over the
internet, including its cellular network.
AT&T also hopes to use Time Warner content to

support an advertising business that could stand
up to Google and Facebook, which dominate
the digital-ad industry and are increasingly
interested in video themselves. AT&T also could
use Time Warner’s video to support its wireless
business. AT&T already discounts its streaming
service, DirecTV Now, and even HBO, which
it doesn’t own yet, to lure customers to its
unlimited phone data plans.
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Image: Alex Wong
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WHAT WILL IT MEAN FOR RIVALS
AND CONSUMERS?
AT&T says it will be able to package and deliver
video more cheaply, over the internet, rather
than in expensive cable bundles.
But the government worries that AT&T would

be able to charge rival distributors such as cable
companies “hundreds of millions of dollars
more per year” for Time Warner’s programming
— payments that would ultimately get passed
down to consumers through their cable bills.
And the Justice Department’s antitrust chief,
Makan Delrahim, warns that the deal could hurt
innovation, particularly in online
television services.
WHY HASN’T THE DEAL CLOSED?

The Justice Department wants AT&T to sell
assets. A person familiar with the situation, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because the
person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, had
said the Justice Department wanted AT&T to sell
either DirecTV or Turner, the Time Warner arm
that holds CNN, TBS and TNT.
AT&T wasn’t interested in doing so, prompting

the lawsuit to block the deal.
DOES THIS INVOLVE THE WHITE HOUSE?

The Justice Department is supposed to make
merger reviews based solely on antitrust law.
But Trump’s strongly voiced disdain for CNN

has raised the specter of political influence
behind the scenes. As a candidate, Trump
vowed to block the deal because it concentrated
too much “power in the hands of too few.”
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As president, Trump has often blasted CNN
for its coverage of him and his administration,
disparaging it and its reporters as “fake news.”
Delrahim has said the president did not tell him

what to do. White House spokeswoman Sarah
Huckabee Sanders said Monday she wasn’t
aware of any specific action related to the case
taken by the White House.
“I’m not going to get involved in litigation,”

Trump told reporters Tuesday. “But personally
I’ve always felt that that was a deal that’s not
good for the country. I think your pricing’s
going to go up.”
Even the perception of White House

involvement could influence the deal-review
process. The president’s vocal opposition to
CNN and the deal will come up in any lawsuit,
said Matthew Cantor, an antitrust attorney.
Other experts don’t believe political pressure
from the White House should sway the judge,
who will decide on the merits of the case.
HOW UNUSUAL IS THIS?

The government has filed or threatened
lawsuits to block several high-profile deals in
the past, in industries as varied as telecom
and health care. But most of those involved
direct competitors.
In “vertical” deals, where a competitor isn’t

eliminated, it’s harder for the government to
show how consumers would be harmed. The
last time the U.S. government won a court
victory in a vertical antitrust case was in 1972,
when the Supreme Court said Ford’s takeover
of a spark-plug business violated antitrust law.
Image: Joe Raedle

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Image: Elise Amendola
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GOV. BAKER CALLS
FOR PASSAGE
OF CELLPHONE
DRIVING BAN
Gov. Charlie Baker for the first time this week

threw his support behind a proposal that would
ban motorists in Massachusetts from holding
their cellphones while they drive.
Baker, a Republican, endorsed the Senate-

passed bill while also urging drivers to use
caution and avoid distractions while traveling
over the Thanksgiving holiday period.
“During the holiday season, millions of people

will travel across the Commonwealth to be with
loved ones, and we are making it a priority to
keep the roads safe,” said Baker, in a statement.
“We encourage everyone to travel safely and
limit dangerous behaviors like distracted or
impaired driving.”
The bill would make it illegal for motorists to

use their cellphones, GPS or other electronic
devices except with hands-free technology. An
exception would be made for emergency calls.
It also would be illegal to access social media,
make video calls or use any camera function
while driving.
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Drivers would be allowed a single touch or
swipe to activate a hands-free mechanism.
When asked about the legislation in the past,

Baker has been non-committal, saying only that
he would “carefully review” the bill if it reached
his desk.
The Senate approved the measure in June

but it has yet to be debated in the House. The
Legislature is currently on recess until January.
More than a dozen states require hands-free

cellphone use by drivers, including Connecticut,
New Hampshire, New York and Vermont.
Massachusetts law already bans texting while

driving, and any cellphone use at all by drivers
under 18.
Cellphone use is considered one of the

leading causes of distracted driving, which
claims thousands of lives in the U.S. each year,
according to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration.
Baker also announced that he was filing two

other bills related to traffic safety. One would
give state transportation officials greater
authority to establish and enforce lower speed
limits within active road construction sites, and
double fines for speeding within work zones.
The other bill seeks uniform standards for the

admissibility in court of a type of vision test
sometimes given drivers suspected by police of
being impaired.
Secretary of Public Safety Dan Bennett said fatal

crashes have been increasing in recent years.
“Stronger laws deter unsafe and impaired driving

behaviors and help assure that police have the
ability to keep our roads safe,” said Bennett.
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Image: Steven Senne
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FCC CHAIRMAN
SETS OUT
TO SCRAP
OPEN INTERNET
ACCESS RULES
The chairman of the Federal Communications

Commission set out Tuesday to scrap rules
around open internet access, a move that would
allow giant cable and telecom companies to
throttle broadband speeds and favor their own
services if they wish.
Ajit Pai followed through on a pledge to try

to repeal “net neutrality” regulations enacted
under the Obama administration. The current
rules treat internet service providers such as
Comcast, AT&T and Verizon as if they were utility
companies that provide essential services, like
electricity. The rules mandate that they give
equal access to all online content and apps.
Pai said those rules discourage investments that

could provide even better and faster online access.
Instead, he said new rules would force ISPs to be
transparent about their services and management
policies, and then would let the market decide.
“Under my proposal, the federal government

will stop micromanaging the internet,” Pai said
in a statement.
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Pai distributed his alternative plan to other
FCC commissioners in preparation for a Dec.
14 vote. Pai promised to release his entire
proposal Wednesday. Although the FCC’s two
Democrats said they will oppose the proposal,
the repeal is likely to prevail as Republicans
dominate 3-2. The vote for net neutrality in
2015 was also along party lines, but Democrats
dominated then.
Equal treatment for all web traffic has been a

fundamental principle of the internet since its
creation but companies have increasingly put
their thumb on the scales of access. AT&T, for
example, doesn’t count use of its streaming
service DirecTV Now against wireless data
caps, potentially making it seem cheaper to
its cellphone customers than rival TV services.
Rivals would have to pay AT&T for that privilege.
Regulators, consumer advocates and some tech

companies are concerned that repealing net
neutrality will give ISPs even more power to
block or slow down rival offerings.
A repeal also opens the ability for ISPs to charge

a company like Netflix for a faster path to its
customers. Allowing this paid-priority market to
exist could skew prices and create winners and
losers among fledgling companies that require a
high-speed connection to end users.
Pai, who was appointed by President Donald

Trump, said in an interview on Fox News
Radio that Trump did not have any input on
his proposal. Asked whether deregulation
would result in higher prices and put speedy
internet access out of the reach of blue-collar
Americans, Pai said “it’s going to mean exactly
the opposite.”
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Image: Bloomberg
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“These heavy-handed regulations have made
it harder for the private sector to build out the
networks especially in rural America,” Pai said.
In a Wall Street Journal editorial published

Tuesday, Pai cited a report by a nonprofit think
tank, the Information Technology & Innovation
Foundation, that said investment by the dozen
largest ISPs fell about 2 percent from 2015 to
2016, to $61 billion. The group didn’t link the drop
solely to the stiffer rules introduced in 2015.
The attempt to repeal net neutrality has

triggered protests from consumer groups and
internet companies. A data firm called Emprata
that was backed by a telecom industry group
found in August that after filtering out form
letters, the overwhelming majority of comments
to the FCC — about 1.8 million — favored net
neutrality, compared with just 24,000 who
supported its repeal.
Carmen Scurato, director of policy and legal affairs

for the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said ISPs’
ability to impose monthly caps on data use already
act to raise prices and limit access. Repealing net
neutrality, she said, “is just erecting more barriers.”
Among those that will be hit hardest are startups

that depend on high-speed internet connections
for growth, said Colin Angle, co-founder and CEO
of iRobot, maker of the Roomba robot vacuum
cleaners. He said his own company wouldn’t be
dramatically affected in the near term, but the
nascent robotics industry overall might.
“The need for these robots to consume

bandwidth is certainly on the rise,” Angle said.
Google said in a statement that net neutrality

rules “are working well for consumers and we’re
disappointed in the proposal announced today.”
Image: Saul Loeb
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Other tech companies were more muted, with
some referring instead to their trade group, the
Internet Association. Netflix, which had been
vocal in support of the rules in 2015, tweeted
that it “supports strong #NetNeutrality” and
opposes the rules rollback.
But the streaming-video company said in

January that weaker net neutrality wouldn’t hurt
it because it’s now too popular with users for
broadband providers to interfere.
AT&T executive vice president Joan Marsh

said new rules requiring ISPs to disclose their
management practices will keep them honest.
“Any ISP that is so foolish as to seek to engage in
gatekeeping will be quickly and decisively called
out,” she said in a statement.
Comcast said its commitment to consumers will

remain the same. “We do not and will not block,
throttle, or discriminate against lawful content,”
Comcast’s senior executive vice president David
Cohen said.
Pai’s plan also restores the Federal Trade

Commission as the main watchdog to protect
consumers and promote competition.
But Democratic Commissioner Mignon L.

Clyburn said the proposal was “a giveaway to the
nation’s largest communications companies.”
Pai’s proposal on net neutrality comes after the

Republican-dominated commission voted 3-2
last week to weaken rules meant to support
independent local media, undoing a ban on
companies owning newspapers and broadcast
stations in a single market.
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Image: Andrew Harnik
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Image: David Paul Morris
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MARVELL
TECHNOLOGY
BUYING CHIP
MAKER CAVIUM IN
$6B DEAL
Marvell Technology has bid about $6 billion

for Cavium in a cash-and-stock deal that would
create a chip maker to compete with Intel and
other giants in the industry.
The potential deal extends a long-running

consolidation for computer chip producers
which are trying to grow so that they can
better supply tech leaders like Apple, Google
and Samsung.
Last week, Qualcomm rejected an unsolicited,

$103 billion buyout from Broadcom, saying the
bid was too low.
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Qualcomm last year said it would buy NXP
Semiconductors for $38 billion. That deal
remains under regulatory review. Avago
Technologies purchased Broadcom for $37
billion in 2016.
Under the proposed deal announced this week,

Cavium shareholders will get $40 per share and
2.1757 Marvell common shares for each Cavium
share they own.
Cavium Inc. stockholders are expected to own

about 25 percent of the combined company.
Marvell CEO Matt Murphy will lead the

combined company, with Cavium co-founder
and CEO Syed Ali serving as a strategic adviser
and board member.
Cavium makes chips for wired and wireless

tech products and is prominent in networking
technology. Marvell makes application-specific
chips and integrated circuits for data storage.
The combined company would be able to
trim costs and offer a more robust package to
potential customers.
Shares of Cavium, based in San Jose, California,

surged 6 percent. Shares of Marvell Technology
Group Ltd., which has its U.S. headquarters in
Santa Clara, California, fell slightly.
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VOLVO TO SUPPLY
UBER WITH
THOUSANDS OF
SELF-DRIVING CARS
Volvo Cars said this week it will sell tens of

thousands of self-driving cars to Uber, which is
expanding to become an operator and owner of
its own car fleet.
Volvo said in a statement that it would provide

the San Francisco-based ride-sharing company
with its XC90 premium SUVs complete with
autonomous driving technologies, from 2019
until 2021. The framework deal is non-exclusive.
“The automotive industry is being disrupted

by technology and Volvo Cars chooses to be an
active part of that disruption,” said Volvo Cars
CEO Hakan Samuelsson.
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The carmaker, owned by China’s Geely Holding
since 2010, didn’t disclose the agreement’s
value or the precise number of vehicles. Media
reports suggest Uber is buying up to 24,000
autonomous Volvo cars.
The deal is based on an alliance Volvo

announced with Uber last year when the two
companies said they would collaborate on
developing self-driving cars, pledging to invest a
combined $300 million to the project.
Jeff Miller, Uber’s head of auto alliances, said

Monday the company was “thrilled” to expand
its partnership with Volvo.
“This new agreement puts us on a path towards

mass produced self-driving vehicles at scale,”
Miller said in a joint statement with Volvo.
Volvo Cars key manufacturing plant is located in

Goteborg, Sweden.
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TESLA WANTS
TO ELECTRIFY BIG
TRUCKS, ADDING
TO ITS AMBITIONS
After more than a decade of making cars

and SUVs — and, more recently, solar panels
— Tesla Inc. wants to electrify a new type of
vehicle: big trucks.
The company unveiled its new electric

semitractor-trailer last week near its design
center in Hawthorne, California.
CEO Elon Musk said the semi is capable of

traveling 500 miles (804 kilometers) on an
electric charge — even with a full 80,000-pound
(36,287-kilogram) load — and will cost less
than a diesel semi considering fuel savings,
lower maintenance and other factors. Musk said
customers can put down a $5,000 deposit for
the semi now and production will begin in 2019.
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“We’re confident that this is a product that’s
better in every way from a feature standpoint,”
Musk told a crowd of Tesla fans gathered for the
unveiling. Musk didn’t reveal the semi’s price.
Even so, the company already is starting to

get orders. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s
largest retailer, said in a statement that it has
pre-ordered five Tesla units in its Walmart
U.S. division and 10 units at Walmart Canada.
Midwest retailer Meijer said it has reserved
four trucks. And Arkansas trucking company
J.B. Hunt said it has reserved “multiple” tractors
that it will deploy on the West Coast but didn’t
specify how many.
Tesla unveiled its new electric semitractor-trailer

Thursday (16) night near its design center in
Hawthorne, California. CEO Elon Musk said the
semi is capable of traveling 500 miles on an
electric charge - even with a full 80,000-pound
load. (Nov. 17)
The truck will have Tesla’s Autopilot system,

which can maintain a set speed and slow down
automatically in traffic. It also has a system that
automatically keeps the vehicle in its lane. Musk
said several Tesla semis will be able to travel in a
convoy, autonomously following each other.
Musk said Tesla plans a worldwide network of

solar-powered “megachargers” that could get
the trucks back up to 400 miles of range after
charging for only 30 minutes.
The move fits with Musk’s stated goal for the

company of accelerating the shift to sustainable
transportation. Trucks account for nearly a
quarter of transportation-related greenhouse
gas emissions in the U.S., according to
government statistics.
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But the semi also piles on more chaos at the
Palo Alto, California-based company. Tesla is
way behind on production of the Model 3, a
new lower-cost sedan, with some customers
facing waits of 18 months or more. It’s also
ramping up production of solar panels after
buying Solar City Corp. last year. Tesla is
working on a pickup truck and a lower-cost
SUV and negotiating a new factory in China.
Meanwhile, the company posted a record
quarterly loss of $619 million in its most
recent quarter.
On Thursday night, Tesla surprised fans with

another product: An updated version of its
first sports car, the Roadster. Tesla says the new
Roadster will have 620 miles of range and a top
speed of 250 mph (402 kph). The car, coming in
2020, will have a base price of $200,000.
Musk, too, is being pulled in many directions.

He leads rocket maker SpaceX and is dabbling
in other projects, including high-speed transit,
artificial intelligence research and a new
company that’s digging tunnels beneath Los
Angeles to alleviate traffic congestion.
“He’s got so much on his plate right now. This

could present another distraction from really
just making sure that the Model 3 is moved
along effectively,” said Bruce Clark, a senior vice
president and automotive analyst at Moody’s.
Tesla’s semi is venturing into an uncertain

market. Demand for electric trucks is expected
to grow over the next decade as the U.S.,
Europe and China all tighten their emissions
regulations. Electric truck sales totaled 4,100 in
2016, but are expected to grow to more than
70,000 in 2026, says Navigant Research.
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Tesla Semi truck and Roadster event in 9 minutes
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But most of that growth is expected to be for
smaller, medium-duty haulers like garbage
trucks or delivery vans. Those trucks can have a
more limited range of 100 miles (160 kilometers)
or less, which requires fewer expensive batteries.
They can also be fully charged overnight.
Long-haul semi trucks, on the other hand, would

be expected to go greater distances, and that
would be challenging. Right now, there’s little
charging infrastructure on global highways.
Without Tesla’s promised fast-charging, even
a mid-sized truck would likely require a two-
hour stop, cutting into companies’ efficiency
and profits, says Brian Irwin, managing director
of the North American industrial group for the
consulting firm Accenture.
Irwin says truck companies will have to

watch the market carefully, because tougher
regulations on diesels or an improvement in
charging infrastructure could make electric
trucks more viable very quickly. Falling battery
costs also will help make electric trucks more
appealing compared to diesels.
But even lower costs won’t make trucking a sure

bet for Tesla. It faces stiff competition from long-
trusted brands like Daimler AG, which unveiled
its own semi prototype last month.
“These are business people, not fans, and they

will need convinced that this truck is better for
their balance sheet than existing technology. It
probably is, based on the specs provided, but
this isn’t necessarily a slam dunk,” said Rebecca
Lindland, an executive analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
Musk said Tesla will guarantee the semi’s

powertrain for one million miles to help alleviate
customers’ concerns.
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APPLE DELAYS RELEASE
OF HOMEPOD SPEAKER
UNTIL EARLY 2018
Apple is scrapping its plan to release its new

internet-connected speaker in time for the
holiday season.
The delay announced last week means Apple’s

HomePod speaker won’t be available in the U.S.,
U.K. and Australia until early next year. Apple
intended to release the $349 HomePod in early
December so it could be on holiday shopping
lists and compete against Amazon’s Echo and
the Google Home speaker.
Apple now says it needs more time to perfect

the speaker’s technology.
The company is touting the HomePod as a high-

fidelity speaker programmed to learn people’s
tastes so it can become a digital disc jockey that
can automatically play tunes that its listeners
will like. The HomePod also will include Apple’s
voice-activated assistant Siri to respond to
requests like the Echo and Google Home.
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Image: Leon Neal
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Black Friday can be an incredibly exciting time,
as typically expensive products of a huge variety
are given hefty price cuts that, for many of us,
finally bring them into the realm of affordability.
Unfortunately, however, plenty of other people
besides you will be keeping an eye on those
bargains - and this is why, to get the discounted
goodies you most want, you should act not only
quickly but also cleverly. What a relief, then, that
great retail apps can help you do that.
Black Friday routinely refers to November’s

fourth Thursday - the day after Thanksgiving
Day. However, Black Friday has long ceased
to be merely a day and has since grown into
what could be more accurately described as
an entire season of bargains. For that reason,
while November 24 - on which Black Friday
falls this year - will have passed by the time you
read this article, keep in mind that it is the
following weekend that is often dubbed the
“Black Friday weekend”.
That Black Friday sales are limited to a single

day is one of the common Black Friday myths
highlighted by DealNews. However, you
shouldn’t relax too much about your chances
of cost-effectively landing that dream gadget
or other item you especially want. As some
products might sell out worryingly quickly, you
could benefit from using apps to speedily access
information about new deals as they emerge.
The process of actually buying an item can also
be quicker through an app.
With the iOS App Store at your disposal, you

have access to a treasure trove of fantastic retail
apps. Nonetheless, discerning which of the App
Store’s retail apps are “fantastic” might not be
entirely straightforward. Apps can significantly
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differ in the range and appeal of deals that they
offer - while the choice of payment methods can
also influence how fast you can seal a purchase.
Here is our selection of those retail apps which
will let you enjoy the most hassle-free shopping
this Black Friday.
THE APPLE (STORE) OF YOUR iPHONE

The Black Friday period can see some decent
savings on Apple devices. After all, given the
high prices that these devices typically demand,
there is plenty of room for leeway on these
prices. The best Black Friday deals tend not to be
from Apple itself; however, the official Apple
Store app remains worth seriously considering
for several reasons.
For instance, it will recommend particular items

based on what Apple products you are already
using. This enables you to quickly see which
products - such as cases and other accessories
- are compatible with your current devices. The
app also supports Apple Pay, which lets you
authorize a payment by simply putting your
finger on your iOS device’s Touch ID fingerprint
sensor - there’s no need to spend time manually
filling in billing information before a purchase
can go ahead.
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#01 – Apple Store
By Apple
Category: Shopping
Requires iOS 10.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad,
and iPod touch.
Image: Thomas Trutschel

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NO JUNGLE TO WADE THROUGH WITH
THIS AMAZON
The Amazon app still doesn’t support Apple
Pay. This is a real disappointment given not only
Amazon’s prominence in online retail, but also
the impressive offerings in its Black Friday Deals
Week. Not a single product category has been
left untouched by this sale; the thousands of
discounted items which you can peruse include
the ecobee4 Alexa-supporting Thermostat, Bose
noise-cancelling headphones, and the LG B7A
and Sony X900E 4K TVs.
There’s also the option to pay just $0.99 for three

months of Amazon’s Music Unlimited streaming
service and save money on BeatsX wireless
headphones and several popular iPhone X cases.
Well, given the $999 starting price of the iPhone
X, you are bound to appreciate saving money on
accessories for it. Amazon will also daily add new
deals to its Black Friday Deals Week sale.
DON’T HAVE YOUR BACK TO

THE WALMART
Walmart is another Apple Pay holdout with
its app. Though the retail chain does offer its
own payment service Walmart Pay through this
app, this QR-code system is intended only for
use within Walmart’s bricks-and-mortar stores
rather than online as well. The absence of Apple
Pay support is a shame - as, while Walmart has
also resisted calling its current discounts “Black
Friday” deals, they could be deemed such deals
in all but name due to the impressively large
savings that can be made.
Walmart instead calls its sale a “Holiday Specials”

sale, in which more than 2,000 products have
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#02 – Amazon – Shopping made easy
By AMZN Mobile LLC
Category: Shopping
and iPod touch.
#03 – Walmart – Shopping and Saving

By Walmart
Category: Shopping
and iPod touch.
Image: Sarah Tew/CNET

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#04 – Etsy – Shop Creative
By Etsy, Inc.
Category: Shopping
and iPod touch.
62
been discounted. The especially exciting steals
here include a $398 55-inch Vizio 4K TV, an
Xbox One bundle - including two games - for
$249, and a 2-in-1 ASUS ZenBook priced at just
$449. If it’s specifically Samsung devices that
you are after, Walmart has even set up a special
Samsung Savings Event that, until November
27, discounts a range of Samsung TVs, tablets,
phones and more.
ETSY: AN ET-CITING PLACE TO SHOP

Black Friday can seem like a very convenient
time to buy Christmas gifts for family and
friends; however, walk into your average store
and you might struggle to find something that
would come across as genuinely unique and
thoughtful. You can have a similar problem
when perusing the product range on retail apps,
but there’s one particular app which can help
break this deadlock and is a big favorite of ours
for that reason. That app is... Etsy.
Etsy is essentially a massive marketplace where

sellers from all over the world can sell various
creative, handmade and vintage goods. This
marketplace’s global reach means that you
are likelier to be spoilt for choice than short of
it. You can easily browse the product choice
on Etsy’s iPhone and iPad apps; the latter is
particularly joyous when you scroll through a
comprehensive gallery of items, as many more
of them can be shown on-screen at a time. Both
apps also support Apple Pay.
GET REAL! IT’S THE REALREAL

Luxury items might appear particularly ideal
to buy during the Black Friday season. After all,
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#05 – The RealReal - Buy+Sell Luxury
By TheRealReal Inc.
Category: Shopping
and iPod touch.
these items can be expensive... but, sadly, still

be relatively expensive even after Black Friday
price cuts are factored in. The answer to your
problem might be The RealReal, an app which
specializes in offering pre-owned luxury goods.
Fashionable clothes, jewelry, fine art, watches
and more can be perused through the app - and,
whatever item you buy, it will be authentic.
This authenticity is verified by The RealReal’s

own team of experts that includes certified
gemologists, handbag experts and apparel
specialists. This in-house verification happens
even as The RealReal permits sales from third-
party sellers through the app. Those sellers can
enjoy up to 70% of what price their items sell
for, while the potential savings for shoppers
reach 90% in comparison to retail prices. Apple
Pay is also included among the choice of
payment methods.
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Image: Leon Neal
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YOU DON’T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE
BACK TO BLACK
It’s worth pointing out that, though browsing
the selection on apps can be a very useful
means of uncovering bargains while the Black
Friday season is running, many of these apps
can remain very convenient all year round. You
might even find that Black Friday deals don’t
include the particular items you most want, or
that those items are actually cheaper long after
Black Friday has come and gone. Thankfully,
retail apps can alert you when the genuine
bargains do arrive.
For example, you should probably forgo buying

holiday decorations during any of the Black
Friday sales, as these items will currently be
high in demand; therefore, it wouldn’t make
good business sense for retailers to apply
big discounts to them on Black Friday. Those
discounts are likelier to arrive in January - when
many of your other favored items could also be
at their cheapest.
by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan
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Image: Bobby Yip
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VW TO SPEND
$40B ON
ELECTRIC CARS,
TECHNOLOGY
THROUGH 2022
Volkswagen says it plans to spend more than 34

billion euros ($40 billion) over the next five years
on developing electric cars, autonomous driving
and other new technologies.
The German automaker released the figure

Friday after its supervisory board discussed the
company’s plans for the 2018-2022 period. It said
most of the money will go into the electrification
and hybridization of all its brands’ models.
Volkswagen in September announced a long-

term electrification campaign, saying its brands
would introduce 80 new electric vehicles by 2025.
By 2030, it plans to offer at least one electric variant

of each of its roughly 300 models. The group
includes carmakers such as Audi, Porsche, Seat and
Skoda as well as the core Volkswagen brand.
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70
MARS THEORY
GETS DUSTED:
STREAKS MAY
BE SAND,
NOT WATER
A new study suggests that dark streaks on Mars

represent flowing sand — not water.
Monday’s news throws cold water on 2015

research that indicated that lines on some
Martian slopes were signs of water currently on
the planet. Instead, Arizona scientists report in
Nature Geoscience that these lines appear more
like dry, steep flows of sand, rather than water
trickling downhill, at or near the surface.
If water is present, they said, it’s likely a small

amount — and not conducive to life.
NASA, though, said the jury is still out.
The lead scientist for NASA’s Mars exploration

program, Michael Meyer, points out that the
latest study does not rule out the presence of
water. But he acknowledges, “It just may not be
as exciting as the idea of rivers going down the
sides of cliffs.”
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provided

the images of these so-called recurring slope
lineae, or RSL. Thousands have been spotted on
Mars, from the equator midway to each pole.
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The team led by the U.S. Geological Survey’s
Colin Dundas in Flagstaff, Arizona, measured
151 of these dark lines at 10 sites. Most of them
end with slopes between 28 degrees and 35
degrees, a match for active sand dunes on both
Mars and Earth, according to the researchers.
A thin layer of dust on top that shifts and
sometimes brightens the surface might help
explain why these streaks seem to occur in the
Martian summertime and then disappear, only
to reappear the next year.
If these lines are dry, “this suggests that recent

Mars has not had considerable volumes of liquid
water,” the researchers write.
That’s key because water in liquid form would be

essential to microbial life.
Dundas and his colleagues stress that many

questions remain, demanding further study.
To Meyer, this is what makes Mars so fun.

Scientists have long gone back and forth
thinking of Mars as being dry or wet depending
on the most recent data.
“I still think that Mars poses a great potential for

having had life early on in its history,” Meyer said.
“As long as that’s true, we also have a reasonable
possibility of life still being on Mars. It just
happens to be cryptic or well hidden.”
NASA currently has no rover — either at Mars

or in development — capable of climbing such
steep slopes. That has engineers coming up with
ideas like Martian helicopters or drones.
“But going from a clever idea that works in your

sandbox to something that goes to Mars takes
a fair amount of engineering development,”
Meyer said.
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NEW US WEATHER SATELLITE LAUNCHED
FROM CALIFORNIA
An advanced U.S. weather satellite designed to
improve the accuracy of extended forecasts has
been launched into polar orbit from California.
The Joint Polar Satellite System-1 lifted off from

Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:47 a.m. PST last
Saturday (18) atop a United Launch Alliance
Delta 2 rocket.
The satellite is the first of four next-generation

spacecraft for NASA and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration.
Circling the Earth from pole to pole 14 times a

day, JPSS-1 carries a suite of five instruments
intended to make global observations that will
improve forecasts of severe weather events
three to seven days beforehand.
The satellite also will contribute to near-term

weather forecasts, climate and ocean dynamics
research, among many other uses.
Image: Kim Shiflett

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Image: Thomas Samson
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UBER REVEALS
COVER-UP OF
HACK AFFECTING
57M RIDERS,
DRIVERS
Uber is coming clean about its cover-up of a

year-old hacking attack that stole personal
information about more than 57 million of the
beleaguered ride-hailing service’s customers
and drivers.
So far, there’s no evidence that the data taken

has been misused, according to a Tuesday
blog post by Uber’s recently hired CEO, Dara
Khosrowshahi. Part of the reason nothing
malicious has happened is because Uber
acknowledges paying the hackers $100,000 to
destroy the stolen information.
The revelation marks the latest stain on

Uber’s reputation.
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The San Francisco company ousted Travis
Kalanick as CEO in June after an internal
investigation concluded he had built a culture
that allowed female workers to be sexually
harassed and encouraged employees to push
legal limits.
It’s also the latest major breach involving a

prominent company that didn’t notify the people
that could be potentially harmed for months or
even years after the break-in occurred.
Yahoo didn’t make its first disclosure about

hacks that hit 3 billion user accounts during
2013 and 2014 until September 2016. Credit
reporting service Equifax waited several
months before revealing this past September
that hackers had carted off the Social Security
numbers of 145 million Americans.
Khosrowshahi criticized Uber’s handling of its

data theft in his blog post.
“While I can’t erase the past, I can commit on behalf

of every Uber employee that we will learn from our
mistakes,” Khosrowshahi wrote. “We are changing
the way we do business, putting integrity at the
core of every decision we make and working hard
to earn the trust of our customers.”
That pledge shouldn’t excuse Uber’s previous

regime for its egregious behavior, said Sam
Curry, chief security officer for the computer
security firm Cybereason.
“The truly scary thing here is that Uber paid a

bribe, essentially a ransom to make this breach
go away, and they acted as if they were above
the law,” Curry said. “Those people responsible
for the integrity and confidentiality of the data
in-fact covered it up.”
Image: Matthew Lloyd

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The heist took the names, email addresses and
mobile phone numbers of 57 million riders around
the world. The thieves also nabbed the driver’s
license numbers of 600,000 Uber drivers in the U.S.
Uber waited until Tuesday to begin notifying

the drivers with compromised driver’s licenses,
which can be particularly useful for perpetrating
identify theft. For that reason, Uber will now pay
for free credit-report monitoring and identity
theft protection services for the affected drivers.
Kalanick, who still sits on Uber’s board of

directors, declined to comment on the data
breach that took place in October 2016. Uber
says the response to the hack was handled by
its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, a former
federal prosecutor whom Kalanick lured away
from Facebook in 2015.
As part of his effort to set things right,

Khosrowshahi extracted Sullivan’s resignation
from Uber and also jettisoned Craig Clark, a
lawyer who reported to Sullivan.
Clark didn’t immediately respond to a request

for comment sent through his LinkedIn profile.
Efforts to reach Sullivan were unsuccessful.
Uber’s silence about its breach came while it was

negotiating with the Federal Trade Commission
about its handling of its riders’ information.
Earlier in 2016, the company reached a

settlement with the New York attorney general
requiring it to take steps to be more vigilant
about protecting the information that its app
stores about its riders. As part of that settlement,
Uber also paid a $20,000 fine for waiting to notify
five months about another data breach that it
discovered in September 2014.
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Image: Spencer Platt
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82
THEME PARK EXPO
OFFERS PREVIEW
OF WHAT’S NEW
FOR 2018
This year’s theme park expo in Orlando, Florida,

features the latest products, technology and
trends in rides and the next big food items, all of
which could be coming to an amusement park
near you as early as the summer of 2018.
A record 37,000 attendees are getting a chance

to look at what 1,000 vendors representing
more than 100 countries have to offer for the
upcoming year. The expo is sponsored by the
International Association of Amusement Parks
and Attractions (IAAPA).
Here are some of the exciting things to look

forward to in 2018 and beyond:
BACK TO THE FUTURE: If you are into dizzying

thrills, then the Time Traveler ride, which is
debuting next summer at Silver Dollar City in
Branson, Missouri, is for you. Time Traveler drops
you at a 90-degree vertical angle right out of
the gate and it only becomes more intense
from there with three inversions at speeds up to
around 50 mph (81 kph), all while spinning. It’s
being billed as the fastest, steepest and tallest
spinning roller coaster.
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WARP SPEED: A ride manufacturer called
Skyline Attractions has been shopping its
compact double-car roller coaster, Skywarp,
for the past two years and the company finally
has a buyer. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in
Vallejo, California, will debut Skywarp in the
summer of 2018. The 30-foot (9-meter) tall, 290-
feet (88-meter) long coaster features two cars
speeding around each other on double loops.
A NEW SPIN: The first-generation of rafting

rides spun riders around while taking them over
rapid waters. Well Infinity Falls, set to debut at
SeaWorld in Orlando next summer, has that and
then some. The twisting raft ride by Intamin
begins with an elevator lift that launches eight
passengers in a river and eventually sends them
to a 40-feet (12-meter) drop. And from there a
wild and rough adventure begins.
UNDERWATER: Perhaps the most innovative

ride on display at the expo this week is still in the
concept phase but once it hits the market it will be
a must ride. It’s called Aquaticar, which will be the
first underwater driving experience. Passengers
will be able to steer their way through a marine life
experience while being submerged underwater
with an oxygen-filled canopy covering their heads.
The two-passenger car, designed by Sub Sea
Systems, moves at a rate of 130 feet (40 meters) per
minute, or about the speed of a casual walk.
PIZZA CONE: There are plenty of new food

items on the horizon but the one that may draw
the most interest is an all-time favorite with a
twist. A New Jersey-based company is shopping
a pizza in a cone concept that will definitely be a
winner with kids. Pizza sauce, cheese and choice
of toppings are stuffed into a cone-shaped crust
and then baked.
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86
SPORTS BETTING
CASE COULD
PAY OFF FOR
INTERNET
GAMBLING
Internet gambling in the United States has been

limited to just three states since it began in
2013, but it could soon get a big boost from an
unlikely source: the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some gambling industry officials, regulators

and analysts think that a favorable ruling by the
high court in New Jersey’s challenge to legalize
sports betting could also lead to an expansion of
internet gambling.
“If we win sports wagering, online gaming will

go to every state that adopts sports betting,”
said David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey
Division of Gaming Enforcement, who predicts
a favorable sports betting ruling could help
internet gambling “explode” across the nation.
“As soon as sports wagering is legalized, online
gambling will follow right behind it.”
The Supreme Court will hear arguments in New

Jersey’s case on Dec. 4; a ruling could be weeks
or months away. The state is taking aim at a
1992 law that forbids state-authorized sports
87
gambling in all but four states that met a 1991
deadline to legalize it: Delaware, Montana,
Nevada and Oregon. Nevada is the only state to
allow single-game wagering.
The sports leagues oppose the lawsuit, arguing

that legalized sports betting could taint the
public’s perception of the integrity of their games.
Americans already illegally bet up to $60

billion annually on sports using offshore sites
and bookmakers, according to Eilers & Krejcik
Gaming. It estimates that 32 states could offer
legal sports betting within five years if the
Supreme Court rules in New Jersey’s favor,
creating a legal market of more than $6 billion.
If all 50 states joined in, the U.S. market could be
worth up to $15.8 billion, they estimate.
States are already prepping for a favorable ruling

on sports betting: 13 introduced legislation
regarding sports betting this year. Pennsylvania
and Connecticut both passed measures to
regulate sports betting if it becomes legal.
Chris Grove, who tracks gambling legislation for

Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, predicted at least 20 states
will consider similar bills next year, and possibly
more if the court rules in favor of New Jersey.
Experts think that the sports betting legislative

push would likely help expand internet gambling.
David Schwartz, who runs the Center for Gaming
Research at the University of Las Vegas-Nevada,
says that offering online casino games and sports
betting would go hand-in-hand online.
“It makes a lot of sense to offer sports betting

over the internet,” he said. “Once you have the
systems for letting people bet on sports in place,
it isn’t a huge step to permit them to bet on
casino games or poker as well.”
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Image: Luis Davilla
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New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada began
offering internet gambling in 2013 and it will
start in Pennsylvania next year.
New Jersey is by far the largest market, on track

to take in $250 million from internet gambling
this year. Delaware had taken in just over $2
million this year through the end of October,
and Nevada does not report its internet
gambling revenue separately from its brick-and-
mortar casino revenue. Sports betting through
mobile apps is also offered in Nevada.
New Jersey recently joined a multi-state

compact with Nevada and Delaware to allow
players to bet against each other, which could
help allay complaints by some online poker
players that the jackpots offered are too small to
attract more players.
Richard Schwartz, whose Rush Street

Interactive oversees operations for the
playsugarhouse.com internet gambling site,
said that merging sports and internet betting
would attract a new, coveted demographic.
“I think it would attract a customer in their 30s

or younger instead of the mid-40s or older
that you see in casinos now,” he said. “It’s a new
demographic that is very attractive.”
Internet gambling became legal thanks to a U.S.

Justice Department legal interpretation under
the Obama administration that states offering it
would not violate federal law. But there remains
considerable uncertainty as to whether the
administration of President Donald Trump,
the first former casino owner to be elected
president, might move to reverse that ruling.
Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson, a

Republican mega-donor who has supported
91
Trump, is a staunch opponent of internet
gambling. He has vowed to spend as much
money as it takes to outlaw it. Though those
efforts have yet to bear fruit, some in the
industry say the uncertainty of whether internet
gambling might be banned is making them
hesitant to commit the millions of dollars it costs
to set up an online operation.
A Justice Department spokesman would not

discuss whether the Trump administration might
take action or seek legislation to ban internet
gambling or to legalize it. In an interview with
The Associated Press during the presidential
campaign last year, Trump declined to take a
position on internet gambling, saying “I have a
lot of friends on both sides of this issue.”
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#01 – Rules of Survival
By NetEase Games
Category: Games / Free
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#02 – YouTube
By Google, Inc.
Category: Photo & Video / Free
#03 – Snapchat
By Snap, Inc.
#04 – Messenger
By Facebook, Inc.
Category: Social Networking / Free
#05 – Dune!
By Voodoo
#06 – Instagram
By Instagram, Inc.
#07 – Facebook
By Facebook, Inc.
#08 – Words With Friends 2-Word Game

By Zynga Inc.
#09 – Bitmoji - Your Personal Emoji

By Bitstrips
Category: Utilities / Free
#10 – Netflix
By Netflix, Inc.
Category: Entertainment / Free
94
#01 – GarageBand
By Apple
Category: Music / Free
Compatibility: OS X 10.10 or later
#02 – WhatsApp Desktop

By WhatsApp Inc.
Compatibility: OS X 10.9.0 or later, 64-bit processor
#03 – Open Any File

By Rocky Sand Studio Ltd.
Compatibility: OS X 10.10 or later, 64-bit processor
#04 – 1Doc: Word Processor for Writer

ByChengyu Huang
Category: Business / Free
#05 – PDF Reader Pro Free

By PDF Technologies, Inc.
Category: Business / Free
#06– OneDrive
By Microsoft Corporation
Category: Productivity / Free
#07– Microsoft OneNote

By Microsoft Corporation
Category: Productivity / Free
#08 – Kindle
By AMZN Mobile LLC
Category: Reference / Free
#09 – The Unarchiver

By Dag Agren
#10 – Xcode
By Apple
Category: Developer Tools / Free
Compatibility: OS X 10.11.5 or later
95
#01 – Heads Up!
By Warner Bros.
Category: Games / Price: $0.99
#02 – Minecraft
By Mojang
#03 – kirakira+
By Kentaro Yama
Category: Photo & Video / Price: $0.99
#04 – Plague Inc

By Ndemic Creations
#05 – Bloons TD 5
By Ninja Kiwi
#06 – NBA 2K18

By 2K
Requires iOS 9.0 or later.
#07 – The Game of Life

By Marmalade Game Studio
#08 – Facetune
By Lightricks Ltd.
Category: Photo & Video / Price: $3.99
#09 – MONOPOLY Game

By Electronic Arts
#10 – Geometry Dash

By RobTop Games AB
Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
96
#01 – The Sims™ 2: Super Collection
By Aspyr Media, Inc.
#02 – Magnet
By CrowdCafé
Category: Productivity / Price: $1.39
#03 – Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro

By Systweak Software
Category: Photography / Price: $1.39
#04 – Dr. Cleaner Pro

By Trend Micro, Incorporated
Category: Utilities / Price: $20.99
#05 – Logic Pro X

By Apple
Category: Music / Price: $279.99
#06 – RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum

By Aspyr Media, Inc.
#07 – Mirror for Samsung TV

By AirBeamTV BV
Category: Video / Price: $13.99
#08 – Home Design 3D

By Anuman
Category: Graphics & Design / Price: $8.49
#09 – PomTimer
By Bech LLC
Category: Productivity / Price: $1.39
#10 – Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018

By Adobe
Category: Photography / Price: $84.99
97
Trailer
Movies
&
98
TV Shows
The Hitman’s
Bodyguard
When the world’s top protection agent (Ryan

Reynolds) is called upon to guard the life of
the world’s most notorious assassin (Samuel
L. Jackson), the two are in for an outrageous
24 hours from England to the Hague.
FIVE FACTS:
1. The movie poster showing Ryan Reynolds
carrying Samuel L. Jackson is a spoof of the
poster for The Bodyguard (1992).
2. The script from the film was among the top
2011 Black List of unproduced screenplays.
by Patrick Hughes 3. Throughout the film, Samuel L.

Genre: Action & Adventure Jackson speaks one hundred and
Released: 2017
Price: $19.99
twenty-two expletives.
4. The painting in Mr Seifert’s office is a
replica of “Judith Beheading Holofernes”
83 Ratings
(1599-1602) by Caravaggio.
5. Jeff Wadlow was going to direct the
movie but left to finish True Memoirs of an
International Assassin (2016).
Rotten Tomatoes
39 %
99
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) Official Clip “Nuns”
Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson
100
101
Band Aid
A feuding married couple (Zoe Lister-Jones

and Adam Pally) embark on a last-ditch
attempt to save their relationship by starting
a band and turning their fights into songs.
FIVE FACTS:
1. The movie’s tagline “misery loves
accompaniment” is a play on the phrase
“misery loves company”.
2. Colin Hanks and Zoe Lister-Jones play
a married couple on the CBS show “Life in
Pieces” which also starts Angelique Cabral.
3. This is the directorial debut of Zoe
Lister-Jones.
4. Colin Hanks and Majandra Delfino had
already worked together in Roswell (1999).
5. The movie is produced by Mister Lister
films, a company founded by Lister-Jones
and her partner Daryl Wein.
102
Trailer
by Zoe Lister-Jones
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2017
Price: $9.99
44 Ratings
Rotten Tomatoes
85 %
103
Clip 2: Just Play (HD)
104
105
Genre: Pop
Released: Nov 10, 2017
15 Songs
Price: $13.99
19887 Ratings
“Look What You Made Me Do”
106
Music
reputation
Taylor Swift
In ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ Swift

declares her old self dead, both a warning
to her detractors and a full-scale artistic
transformation. All of these songs have a
newfound complexity, with lyrics that are
provocative, dark and meaningful.
FIVE FACTS:
1. Taylor was the first country singer to win
an MTV Music Award.
2. She has received more than 200 awards
from nearly 600 nominations, some of which
include Grammy Awards, Billboard Music
Awards and American Music Awards.
3. She funds the Taylor Swift Education Center
at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
4. Her hit song ‘Change’ was the official
theme song used during the 2009 Summer
Olympic Games.
5. It took Taylor less than 24 hours to get Apple
to back down from their decision to not pay
royalties to artists for songs played during the
trial of its Apple Music streaming service.
107
“…Ready For It?”
108
109
Everyday Is
Christmas
Sia
Comprising all-original songs, Everyday Is

Christmas is a refreshing take on the often-
tiresome seasonal record. With cheery
melodies and bright instrumentation, the
spirit of the holiday is encompassed in songs
like ‘Candy Cane Lane’, ‘Puppies Are Forever’
and ‘Sunshine.’
Genre: Holiday
FIVE FACTS: Released: Nov 17, 2017
10 Songs
1. Sia starred as herself on a 1997 episode of Price: $9.99
the Australian soap Home and Away.
2. She is notoriously shy and has written 332 Ratings
about her reasons for not wanting to buy
into the fame side of the music industry.
3. She has worked in the music industry
for over 20 years, penning hits for other
artists including Britney, Kylie, Beyoncé
and Rihanna.
4. She has said that, as a child, she imitated
the performing styles of Stevie Wonder,
Aretha Franklin and Sting.
5. She provided the lead vocals for the
English downtempo group Zero 7 on their
first three studio albums.
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“Everyday Is Christmas”
111
112
“The Greatest”
113
BOX OFFICE TOP 20:
‘JUSTICE LEAGUE’ FALLS
TO $93.8 MILLION
114
“Justice League” opened even lower than Warner It left room for the family friendly drama
Bros. estimated on Sunday. “Wonder” to make a surprisingly strong showing
in second place with a $27.5 million launch.
According to final tally of the weekend’s box
office receipts, the costly superhero ensemble pic “Thor: Ragnarok” fell to third place in its third
grossed $93.8 million from 4,051 North American weekend in theaters with $21.7 million, while
theaters making it the first film in the DC “Daddy’s Home 2,” in its second weekend, took
Extended Universe to debut under $100 million. fourth with $14.4 million.
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Also in weekend two, “Murder on the Orient
Express” placed fifth with $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
Monday by comScore:
1. “Justice League,” Warner Bros.,

$93,842,239, 4,051 locations,
$23,165 average, $93,842,239, 1 Week.
2. “Wonder,” Lionsgate, $27,547,866,

3,096 locations, $8,898 average,
$27,547,866, 1 Week.
3. “Thor: Ragnarok,” Disney, $21,669,600,

$247,265,770, 3 Weeks.
4. “Daddy’s Home 2,” Paramount,

$14,435,710, 3,575 locations,
$4,038 average, $50,212,157, 2 Weeks.
5. “Murder On The Orient Express,”

20th Century Fox, $13,807,562,
$51,735,924, 2 Weeks.
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6. “The Star,” Sony, $9,812,674,
$9,812,674, 1 Week.
7. “A Bad Moms Christmas,” STX

Entertainment, $7,000,378,
$51,022,533, 3 Weeks.
8. “Lady Bird,” A24, $2,516,399,

238 locations, $10,573 average,
$4,688,874, 3 Weeks.
9. “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing

Missouri,” Fox Searchlight, $1,102,166,
53 locations, $20,796 average, $1,536,391,
2 Weeks.
10. “Jigsaw,” Lionsgate, $1,081,772,

1,201 locations, $901 average,
$36,462,005, 4 Weeks.
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11. “MET Opera: The Exterminating Angel
(2017),” Fathom Events, $950,000,
900 locations, $1,056 average, $950,000,
1 Week.
12. “Blade Runner 2049,” Warner Bros.,

$626,039, 466 locations,
$1,343 average, $89,276,502, 7 Weeks.
13. “Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea

Halloween,” Lionsgate, $471,319,
718 locations, $656 average, $46,649,659,
5 Weeks.
14. “Geostorm,” Warner Bros., $410,166,

502 locations, $817 average,
$32,669,328, 5 Weeks.
15. “Loving Vincent,” Good Deed

Entertainment, $403,603,
212 locations, $1,904 average, $4,641,218,
9 Weeks.
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16. “Let There Be Light,” Atlas
Distribution Company, $362,598,
542 locations, $669 average, $6,738,588,
4 Weeks.
17. “The Florida Project,” A24, $299,566,

217 locations, $1,380 average,
$4,306,658, 7 Weeks.
18. “The Lego Ninjago Movie,” Warner

Bros., $255,248, 455 locations,
$561 average, $58,938,889, 9 Weeks.
19. “Only The Brave,” Sony, $242,406,

363 locations, $668 average,
$17,655,285, 5 Weeks.
20. “Happy Death Day,” Universal,

$224,815, 427 locations,
$526 average, $55,398,005, 6 Weeks.
Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast

Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics
are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney,
Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned
by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are
owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units
of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors
including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn;
Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by
AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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IN ‘COCO,’
PIXAR JOURNEYS
TO MEXICO
AND BEYOND
THE GRAVE
Pixar films have never been shy about death. The

“Toy Story” films are, in part, about mortality. The
poetic highlight of “Up” is a wordless sequence
of a spouse’s passing. The Earth, itself, was left for
dead in “Wall-E.”
But Pixar plunges fully into the afterlife in “Coco,”

a brightly colored fable surrounding the Mexican
holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
The imagery of skeletons and graves in a kids’

movie might have put off other animation
studios. But director Lee Unkrich (“Toy Story 3,”
“Monsters, Inc.“) envisioned a film about family
heritage and keeping alive the memories of
deceased loved ones so they aren’t, as he says,
“just fading photos in an album.”
It’s also a celebration of Mexico, as seen through

the eyes of a 12-year-old boy who dreams of
becoming a musician. But after a feud with his
family, he slips into a wondrous netherworld
where he depends on his long-dead ancestors
to restore him to the land of the living.
125
“Coco” is Pixar’s first feature film with a minority
lead character, and one of the largest American
productions ever to feature an almost entirely
Latino cast (among them Benjamin Bratt and
Gael Garcia Bernal). That makes it something of
a landmark event, one that has already set box-
office records in Mexico where it opened several
weeks early.
But it also took a lot of homework and a lot

of outreach for Pixar to convince Latinos that
the production wasn’t just big-budget cultural
appropriation. Such fears spiked when Disney
tried to trademark “Dia de los Muertos” in 2013.
After a backlash, the studio abandoned the effort.
Charting a different path, Pixar brought in

cultural consultants, including playwright
Octavio Solis and cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, who
had been critical of the trademark bid. Unkrich
retailored the film’s approach, doubling down
on efforts to create an authentic celebration of
Mexican folklore, traditions and music.
“We took every pain that we could along

the way to surround ourselves with cultural
consultants, to spend a lot of time in Mexico,
specifically embedding ourselves with Mexican
families down there,” said Unkrich. “I knew that
there would be a fear that we were going to
lapse into cliche and stereotype and so we did
everything we could to not let that happen.”
It also meant pivoting from Unkrich’s initial idea,

which centered on a Mexican-American boy
who travels to his family in Mexico for the first
time. In that treatment, the young protagonist is
trying to get over the grief of a loss.
“It was born out of the fact that I’m not Latino
myself. I’m American and that was at the time
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128
my natural entrance into a story,” said Unkrich.
“We realized that that thematically was
antithetical to what Dia de los Muertos is also
about, which is this obligation to never forget, to
never let go. We at that point had an epiphany
that we were making the film as outsiders.”
“It didn’t really embrace the DNA of the holiday,

which is not letting go of but staying connected
to,” says Darla K. Anderson, a veteran Pixar
producer. “When we realized that, we definitely
pivoted to embrace more of the connected
nature of Dia de los Muertos.”
Pixar also looked within its own ranks to help

Unkrich craft a culturally faithful tale. Adrian
Molina, an animator on previous Pixar releases,
serves as co-director and helped steer the script.
“Growing up Mexican-American, I know the

transformative power that seeing yourself
represented onscreen has,” says Molina. “My
hope is for anyone who’s a small Latino or Latina
kid and sees this film that that has an impact on
how they see themselves. And if you’re coming
from a different experience, recognizing the fact
that there’s Latino and Latina heroes and the
beauty of a Mexican family.”
Hispanics are one of the largest demographics of

regular moviegoers, yet they are seldom catered
to. They last year accounted for 23 percent of
frequent moviegoers in the U.S. and Canada,
according to the Motion Picture Association
of America.
Mexican music, too, plays a central role in the

film. For that, composer Michael Giacchino
(“Up,”“Ratatouille”) collaborated with Mexican-
American composer Germaine Franco. A
research team was dispatched to Mexico City
129
to bring back musical styles from throughout
the country. And DJ and producer Camilo Lara
served as musical consultant.
“It was important for me to know as much as I

could about every style, every location in Mexico
— how the music differs from place to place,”
said Giacchino. “I really wanted the music to feel
authentic real. So homework was a huge part of
the job. Normally, music is the job. This had the
extra layer of homework.”
The whole production, from Unkrich’s initial

pitch to completion, took six years. Pixar, where
animators often toil in secrecy, found itself
“inviting people in,” says Molina.
“And that meant really asking the question at

every stage of the process: Is this reflective of
these families? Is this reflective of the traditions?”
says Molina. “Wherever it fell short, we wanted
to open the door, ask the question and make
it better.”
Those six years included changes outside the

filmmaker’s control. Donald Trump’s presidency
has put strains on U.S.-Mexican relations, as has
his ambitions to build a border wall. Though the
film derived simply from Unkrich’s fascination
with the Dios de los Muertos, Giacchino says
that “now it feels more than ever to make a
movie like this.”
“We think that we’ve built a bridge with this

movie,” says Unkrich. “It’s a confusing world we
live in right now and there’s a lot of negativity but
I think we all feel honored and grateful that we’re
able to put something positive into the world
that’s hopeful and will hopefully do its own part
to erode the artificial barriers we put between us.”
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MEG WHITMAN
STEPPING DOWN AS
HP ENTERPRISE CEO
Meg Whitman, who oversaw the breakup of

one of Silicon Valley’s pioneering companies,
is stepping down as CEO of Hewlett Packard
Enterprise Co.
HPE said Tuesday that Whitman will hand

over the reins of the company to its president,
Antonio Neri, on Feb. 1.
Whitman, 61, took over in 2011 at the former

Hewlett-Packard Co., a company founded in
1939 and for years a tech bellwether. But it
had struggled to keep up with industry trends
toward mobile and cloud computing, shedding
thousands of jobs in the process.
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In 2015, Hewlett Packard was split in two: one
company, HP Inc., sells PCs and printers. The
other led by Whitman, HPE, is focused on selling
data-center hardware and other commercial
tech gear to other big organizations.
Since the breakup, Palo Alto, California-based

HPE has furthered its transformation, spinning
off a big chunk of its business software line-up
last year in an $8.8 billion deal with Micro
Focus International PLC.
Both Whitman and Neri, 50, will serve on

HPE’s board.
Whitman said Tuesday she plans on taking “a

little bit of downtime” after a 35-year career.
And she ruled out working for a competitor.
“I’ve become quite loyal to Hewlett-Packard

and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise,” she said.
“I love this company and I wouldn’t ever go
to a competitor.”
She was in the running to replace Travis Kalanick

as the CEO of ride-hailing app Uber but that job
went to Dara Khosrowshahi in August.
Before HP, Whitman served as chief executive

of eBay Inc., a company she steered from a
fledgling startup with just 30 employees
into a household name beginning in 1998
until 2008. She also ran an unsuccessful
California gubernatorial campaign, which
cost her $144 million.
Forbes recently listed her net worth as $3.2

billion. That makes her No. 6 on the magazine’s
list of U.S. women who made their fortunes.
HPE’s stock dropped 6.5 percent in after-hours

trading Tuesday following the announcement.
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136
TECHNOLOGY
HELPS BLIND
STUDENTS ‘SEE’
CAMPUS TOUR
As Nick Cantos slid on a sleek pair of glasses, a

voice spoke out to him through his iPhone.
“I see the George Mason statue,” a woman’s voice

said. “It looks like a bronze statue, standing tall,
with a scroll in his left hand.”
Nearby, Nick’s brothers, Leo and Steven, were

also busy putting on their glasses, making
adjustments here and there.
The three of them, aged 18, are triplets from

Arlington, Virginia, who are completely blind.
And the glasses they have on are no ordinary
spectacles. They are glasses from Aira, a San
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Diego-based company that has developed smart
glasses to help the blind and visually impaired
with everyday tasks. The glasses are equipped
with a camera, which feeds a video stream to a
remote agent who then narrates what they see in
real time over the phone for the user.
The woman speaking to Nick was Erin Cater, one

of Aira’s network of about 100 agents across the
United States. From about 2,700 miles away in
San Diego, she served as Nick’s eyes, describing
for him everything that came within the
camera’s field of vision.
“It’s like an audio description of life,” Nick said.
On a recent warm fall morning, Nick, Leo,

and Steven took a tour of George Mason
University with their father, Ollie Cantos, and
the university’s assistant director of admissions,
Lauren Wagner.
The brothers, who were born blind, last month

became the first blind triplets to make the rank
of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy
Scouts of America.
They graduated from high school this June

and will defer college by a year so they can
attend an intensive, six-month training course
at the Carroll Center for the Blind, just outside
of Boston, to learn the skills needed for
independent adult living.
For now, they got a taste of the college campus

experience in all its sensory glory. They smelled
the autumn leaves, heard the leaf blowers in the
distance, felt the energizing bustle of students.
And with the Aira glasses, they experienced
a slice of daily life at a level of detail that they
never had before.
139
As Nick made his way slowly through the heart
of campus, he tried to figure out the material he
was walking on.
“Is it cobblestone?” he asked Cater, the Aira agent.
Cater told him that it was a mix of brick and

concrete. Then she went on to describe his
surroundings in exact, real-time detail. A student
in a blue tank top just walked by, she said. A
man pushing a black catering cart of food just
crossed in front of him. And a golf cart just drove
by on the left.
“A golf cart?” said Nick, incredulous. “Wow.”
Nick paused outside the main student center. To

his left, about 12 feet away, stood a large sign,
but Cater couldn’t quite make out what it said.
So she snapped a photo from the video feed,
zoomed in, and read the sign. She told Nick it
said “Roger Wilkins Plaza.”
All this new information, Nick said, “is a new level

of enhancement for me.” He even wants to go
on a big hike up a mountain, and get to actually
enjoy the scenery — unlike the last hike he went
on, which he found pointless and miserable.
Now, he said, he can’t wait to have an agent

describe to him the sweeping mountain
top vistas.
Suman Kanuganti was playing around with a

pair of Google Glass in 2013 when an idea hit
him: What if his friend Matt Brock, who had lost
his vision several years before, could put these
glasses on, stream video captured through its
built-in camera, and use it to see with the help of
a seeing person — himself?
Kanuganti dove in, experimenting with the

technology. He co-founded Aira in January
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2015, began large-scale trials in mid-2016, and
officially launched the service in April.
Aira has “hundreds” of users, said Kanuganti,

37, who also serves as the company’s chief
executive. The service works on a subscription
model, with a basic plan costing $89 per month
for 100 minutes with a trained agent. The agents,
who are mostly contractors, work on an on-
demand model like that of Uber, logging on to
take users’ calls and being paid for the hours that
they work.
“They have to learn how to think like eyes, not

brains,” said Kanuganti.
The magic in all of this is in the simplicity of the

solution, he added: a missing sensory input, sight,
is replaced with someone else — the agent.
“They become one,” Kanuganti said.
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He shared stories of how the glasses have
helped a mother read bedtime stories to
her child every night; a user who wanted to
assemble Ikea furniture; and a woman who went
grocery shopping.
“She literally cried when she picked out her own

produce,” he said.
Chris Danielsen, the director of public relations for

the National Federation of the Blind, which is an
investor in Aira, said that the new glasses have the
potential to enhance the lives of blind people and
to increase their independence, but added that
it’s important to be realistic in our expectations of
how the new technology will address challenges
faced by the blind community.
“We’re very cautious with saying that technology

like this is going to transform people’s lives,”
said Danielsen. “But what it does is it provides
another layer of information to which we didn’t
have easy access before.”
Just before lunch, Ollie, 47, had to leave for a

work commitment.
“All right sons, I’ll leave you here. Have fun,” he

told them. Then he did a double-take as reality
sank in. “Wow. I’m leaving you at college.”
Ollie, who is blind, works as an attorney at the

Department of Education. He officially adopted
the triplets last November, but they have been “like
dad and sons since 2010,” he said. It was “priceless”
to know that with the new glasses, his sons now
had the ability to make independent decisions.
“It’s literally changing their lives,” Ollie said.
The triplets made their way into the food court

on the main floor of the crowded student center.
It was time to order lunch.
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Patrick Lane, Steven’s agent based in
Jacksonville, Florida, guided him to the Steak
and Shake. As Steven waited in line, Patrick
pulled up the menu on his screen.
There was the Original Double ’N Cheese

Steakburger ’N Fries for $3.99, the
Single Steakburger ’N Fries for $3.29, and the
Triple Steakburger ’N Fries for $3.99. Patrick
read out other options, too, like the specialty
burgers, classic melts and sandwiches.
Steven decided on the Single Steakburger with

fries and a Coke. Minutes later, he picked up his
food, and joined Leo and Nick at a table.
Over burgers, fries, and pizza, the brothers

reflected on the morning’s experience of touring
George Mason campus with their new glasses.
“It feels kind of strange to have vision,” Leo said.

“Things feel a bit easier. . Social interaction is easier.”
“Now we can tell what people are feeling

because we know what they look like. . 95
percent of social interaction is visual, so you’re
basically, with this device, adding that 95
percent,” he added.
Nick, meanwhile, was already thinking about all

the adventures that he’ll go on.
“Now I can do crazier things with my friends

because I can see what things look like,” he said.
And Steven, between bites of his burger,

mulled a question that his brothers were likely
pondering, too.
“Is that what having vision is like?” asked Steven,

wonder-struck by how everyday interactions —
such as ordering lunch — suddenly felt so much
smoother and easier. “Because things go faster.”
146
147
148
THUNDER
ImagIne Dragons
HAVANA (FEAT. YOUNG THUG)

CamIla Cabello
PERFECT
eD sheeran
FEEL IT STILL
Portugal. the man
WOLVES
selena gomez & marshmello
ÉCHAME LA CULPA
luIs FonsI & DemI lovato
WHAT LOVERS DO (FEAT. SZA)

maroon 5
HOME
maChIne gun Kelly, X ambassaDors & bebe reXha
MEANT TO BE
(FEAT. FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE)
bebe reXha
THE THRILL OF IT ALL (SPECIAL EDITION)

sam smIth
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150
REPUTATION
taylor swIFt
THE REST OF OUR LIFE

tIm mCgraw & FaIth hIll
EVOLVE
ImagIne Dragons
EVERYDAY IS CHRISTMAS
sIa
A PENTATONIX CHRISTMAS DELUXE

PentatonIX
LAMBS & LIONS

Chase rICe
NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC, VOL. 64

varIous artIsts
÷ (DELUXE)
eD sheeran
ATOMIC BLONDE
(ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK)
varIous artIsts
FROM THE FIRES

greta van Fleet
151
152
WOLVES
selena gomez
PERFECT
eD sheeran
ÉCHAME LA CULPA
luIs FonsI & DemI lovato
...READY FOR IT?

taylor swIFt
HAVANA (FEAT. YOUNG THUG)

CamIla Cabello
THUNDER
ImagIne Dragons
DESPACITO (FEAT. DADDY YANKEE)

luIs FonsI
LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO

taylor swIFt
LET ME GO
(FEAT. FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE & WATT)
haIlee steInFelD
THE SOUND OF SILENCE

DIsturbeD
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154
OUT OF NOWHERE
grey’s anatomy, season 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
“A KISS BEFORE DYING”
rIverDale, season 2
SOME GUY
the walKIng DeaD, season 8
SOMETHING BORROWED
sCanDal, season 7
FINALE PART 2
ProjeCt runway, season 16
CHAPTER NINETEEN: “DEATH PROOF”

rIverDale, season 2
CHAPTER SEVENTY
jane the vIrgIn, season 4
NUMBER ONE
thIs Is us, season 2
THE TESLA RECOIL

the bIg bang theory, season 11
WINNER WINNER TURKEY DINNER

moDern FamIly, season 9
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156
THE PEOPLE VS. ALEX CROSS
james Patterson
THE MIDNIGHT LINE

lee ChIlD
END GAME
DavID balDaCCI
WONDER
r. j. PalaCIo
THE ROOSTER BAR

john grIsham
ORIGIN
Dan brown
TWO KINDS OF TRUTH

mIChael Connelly
LIAR, TEMPTRESS, SOLDIER, SPY

Karen abbott
HARDCORE TWENTY-FOUR
janet evanovICh
SWEET LITTLE MEMORIES

abbI glInes
157
158
UN PANEL AGREES
TO MOVE AHEAD
WITH DEBATE ON
‘KILLER ROBOTS’
A U.N. panel agreed to move ahead with talks to

define and possibly set limits on weapons that
can kill without human involvement, as human
rights groups said governments are moving
too slowly to keep up with advances in artificial
intelligence that could put computers in control
one day.
Advocacy groups warned about the threats

posed by such “killer robots” and aired a chilling
video illustrating their possible uses on the
sidelines of the first formal U.N. meeting of
government experts on Lethal Autonomous
Weapons Systems this week. More than 80
countries took part.
159
160
Ambassador Amandeep Gill of India, who
chaired the gathering, said participants plan to
meet again in 2018. He said ideas discussed this
week included the creation of legally binding
instrument, a code of conduct, or a technology
review process.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an

umbrella group of advocacy groups, says 22
countries support a ban of the weapons and
the list is growing. Human Rights Watch, one
of its members, called for an agreement to
regulate them by the end of 2019 — admittedly
a longshot.
The meeting falls under the U.N.’s Convention on

Certain Conventional Weapons — also known
as the Inhumane Weapons Convention — a 37-
year old agreement that has set limits on the use
of arms and explosives like mines, blinding laser
weapons and booby traps over the years.
The group operates by consensus, so the

least ambitious goals are likely to prevail, and
countries including Russia and Israel have firmly
staked out opposition to any formal ban. The
United States has taken a go-slow approach,
rights groups say.
U.N. officials say in theory, fully autonomous,

computer-controlled weapons don’t exist yet but
defining exactly what killer robots are and how
much human interaction is involved was a key
focus of the meeting. The United States argued
that it was “premature” to establish a definition.
The concept alone stirs the imagination and

fears, as dramatized in Hollywood futuristic
or science-fiction films that have depicted
uncontrolled robots deciding on their own
about firing weapons and killing people.
161
Ambassador Gill played down such concerns.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have news for you: The

robots are not taking over the world. So that is
good news, humans are still in charge ... We have
to be careful in not emotionalizing or dramatizing
this issue,” he told reporters last Friday.
The United States, in comments presented,

said autonomous weapons could help improve
guidance of missiles and bombs against military
targets, thereby “reducing the likelihood of
inadvertently striking civilians.” Autonomous
defensive systems could help intercept enemy
projectiles, one U.S. text said.
Some top academics like Stephen Hawking,

technology experts such as Tesla founder Elon
Musk and human rights groups have warned
about the threats posed by artificial intelligence,
amid concerns that it might one day control such
systems — and perhaps sooner rather than later.
“The bottom line is that governments are

not moving fast enough” said Steven Goose,
executive director of arms at Human Rights
Watch. He said a treaty by the end of 2019 is “the
kind of timeline we think this issue demands.”
162
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164
IRAN-BASED
HACKER CHARGED
WITH TRYING TO
EXTORT HBO
An Iran-based hacker plotted to extort HBO out

of $6 million by threatening to release stolen
episodes and scripts of hit shows, such as “Game
of Thrones,” at one point taunting the network
with a twist on a catch phrase form that series:
“Winter is coming. HBO is falling.”
An indictment filed Tuesday in federal court in

Manhattan accuses Behzad Mesri of hacking
into the cable network’s computer system in
New York. It says he stole unaired episodes from
shows including “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and
“The Deuce,” story plot summaries and scripts
for “Game of Thrones” and confidential cast and
crew contact lists.
The Mesri, 29, a fugitive living in Iran who

used the alias “Skote Vahshat,” earlier this
year infiltrated computer accounts of HBO
employees authorized to remotely access
the network’s servers, the indictment says.
165
In July, he emailed HBO executives in New
York providing evidence of the hack and
demanding $5.5 million in digital currency, a
figure later raised to $6 million, it says. Included
was an image of “Game of Thrones” Night King
character, leader of an army of zombies, with the
words, “Good luck HBO.”
After HBO apparently refused to pay, Mesri

began leaking portions of the stolen material
on websites he controlled, the indictment
says. One of the leaks was an unaired episode
of a new HBO comedy called “Barry” on which
he superimposed an opening credit showing
the Night King and the “HBO is falling” threat,
according to the indictment.
U.S. authorities described Mesri as a computer

whiz who sometimes works with a hacker
group in Iran called Turk Black Hat Security.
He also has teamed the Iranian military to
conduct cyberattacks targeting military
and nuclear software systems and Israeli
infrastructure, they said.
Although Mesri is not in custody, prosecutors

decided to publicly charge him and put him on
the FBI’s most-wanted list to send a message
to outlaw hackers that U.S. law enforcement
has the means to identify, track and get them
arrested if they travel to countries where the
United States has better relations, acting U.S.
Attorney Joon Kim said.
“Today, winter has come for Behzad Mesri,”

Kim said. “He will forever be looking over his
shoulder. And if he isn’t, he should be.”
In a statement Tuesday, HBO said it is

working with law enforcement but declined
further comment.
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CHINA SAYS EX-TOP INTERNET
REGULATOR UNDER INVESTIGATION
China’s former top internet regulator and

censor is being investigated by the ruling
Communist Party’s anti-corruption arm, the
agency said Tuesday.
The party’s anti-graft watchdog agency said in

a brief statement on its website that Lu Wei is
suspected of “serious violations of discipline.” Until
Tuesday’s announcement, Lu had been deputy
head of the party’s propaganda department.
Lu was known as a hard-liner responsible

for leading the government’s efforts to
tighten control over domestic cyberspace
and championing the party’s position that
governments have a right to filter and censor
their countries’ internet.
He wielded enormous power over what 700

million Chinese internet users could view
online and acted as gatekeeper for technology
companies wishing to do business in China.
No details were given in Tuesday’s

announcement, which comes after a party
Image: Johannes Eisele
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169
congress at which President Xi Jinping was given
a second five-year term as party chief. Lu is the
most senior Chinese official to be investigated
since the party congress closed late last month.
Lu was suddenly replaced as cyberspace chief

in June last year by his deputy, Xu Lin. Lu held
on to his concurrent position of deputy head of
propaganda but kept what observers thought
was an uncharacteristically low profile.
Appointed in 2014 as China’s top internet

regulator, Lu held high-profile meetings with top
executives from foreign technology and internet
companies, including Apple chief executive Tim
Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and Facebook
founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Lu took a hard line in demanding tough security

checks on imported foreign tech products and
keeping out foreign internet companies and
social networks like Facebook in the name of
preserving social stability.
Lu’s departure from the position has not led to

any changes or easing of such demands and
restrictions on information.
In recent years China has pushed cybersecurity

regulations aimed at limiting technology
imported from the West, which Beijing officials
say is necessary given Edward Snowden’s
allegations of U.S. spying via “backdoors”
inserted in exported U.S.-made hardware.
Lu worked his way up the ranks of China’s official

Xinhua News Agency from a reporting job in the
city of Guilin in southern Guangxi province in
the early 1990s to becoming the agency’s vice
president from 2004 to 2011. He was vice mayor
of Beijing from 2011 to 2013.
170
Image: How Hwee Young
171
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