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APPLE EMBARKS ON EMMY QUEST WITH BIG BET ON VIDEO STREAMING 06 GOT OLD PHONES? HERE’S HOW TO REUSE, RECYCLE OR SELL THEM 16 SELF-DRIVING BOATS: THE NEXT TECH TRANSPORTATION RACE 24 TECH-ORIENTED NEW YORK GRAD SCHOOL LAUNCHED BY CONTEST OPENS 34 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE EQUIFAX DATA BREACH 42 iPHONE X, APPLE TV 4K, WATCH SERIES 3 & MORE BREAK COVER 54 iPHONE X PUTS EXCLAMATION POINT ON APPLE’S PRICING STRATEGY 72 iPHONE X HANDS-ON: APPLE’S LUXURY iPHONE BOTH COPIES AND INNOVATES 80 LAWSUIT TARGETS SEARCHES OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES AT US BORDER 86 SURVIVORS, RELATIVES, VOLUNTEERS CONNECT ONLINE FOR IRMA AID 96 SAMSUNG STEPS UP PUSH INTO AUTONOMOUS DRIVING TECHNOLOGY 104 DIESELS ON DISPLAY IN FRANKFURT AUTO SHOW DESPITE SCANDAL 106 REVIEW: NEW PRODUCER FOR FOO FIGHTERS, SAME ROCK RESULT 116 iTUNES REVIEW 120 THE ‘IT’ FACTOR: HOW A SCARY BIG HIT COULD CHANGE HORROR 136 BOX OFFICE TOP 20: ‘IT’ DEVOURS COMPETITION WITH $123.4M 144 J.J. ABRAMS TO WRITE AND DIRECT ‘STAR WARS: EPISODE IX’ 154 US UPDATES SELF-DRIVING CAR GUIDELINES AS MORE HIT THE ROAD 162 TOSHIBA AGREEMENT ON SALE TO BAIN-LED CONSORTIUM PROTESTED 172 NASA’S SATURN-ORBITING CASSINI SPACECRAFT FACES FIERY FINISH 178 US AGENCIES ORDERED TO STOP USING RUSSIAN COMPANY’S SOFTWARE 186 SEEDING THE FUTURE? ‘ARK’ PRESERVES RARE, THREATENED PLANTS 196 ASIAN BUSINESSES MULL TECH SOLUTIONS TO FIGHT MODERN SLAVERY 204 CHINA’S EVER-TIGHTER WEB CONTROLS JOLT COMPANIES, SCIENTISTS 208 AUSTRIA DOMAIN REGISTRY REJECTS US NEO-NAZI WEBSITE 218 CONFUSION HITS CONSUMER MARKET OVER US BAN OF KASPERSKY 220 ROGUE KOREAN CHILD-MONITORING APP IS BACK, RESEARCHERS SAY 226 REPORTS: CHINA ORDERS BITCOIN EXCHANGES TO SHUT DOWN 234 UK UNIVERSITIES FACE EU STUDENT EXODUS DUE TO BREXIT 238

Image: Gabriel Olsen

APPLE EMBARKS ON EMMY QUEST WITH BIG BET ON VIDEO STREAMING

Television is one of the few screens that has Apple hasn’t conquered, but that may soon change. The world’s richest company appears ready to aim for its own Emmy-worthy programming along the lines of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” Apple lured away two longtime TV executives Jaime Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg from Sony Corp. in June and has given them $1 billion to spend on original shows during the next year, according to a Wall Street Journal report quoting unnamed people. The programming would only be available on a subscription channel, most likely bundled with 7

the company’s existing Apple Music streaming service. Apple declined to comment. While $1 billion is a lot of money, it’s a drop in the bucket for Apple and its $262 billion cash hoard. But it’s still enough to vault Apple into the top tier of tech-industry outsiders producing their own slates of television shows.

HISTORY NOT REPEATING Hollywood has long shuddered at the thought of Apple training its sights on TV the way it once did on the music business. Almost 15 years ago, Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs convinced record labels to let the company sell digital music on its iTunes store for 99 cents a single, a deal the music industry was happy to take in the face of growing music piracy enabled by Napster. Over time, though, Apple’s dominance in digital music chafed music executives, who saw the company siphoning off a chunk of their profits. Movies and television have proven much harder for Apple to crack. The company’s interest in transforming television has been an open secret for years, but Hollywood has so far spurned Apple’s efforts to make itself an indispensable digital middleman for video. In a way, Netflix beat Apple to the punch with its ground-breaking video streaming service. Launched in 2007, that service pioneered “binge watching” of entire TV seasons on any device with an internet connection. That gave new life to existing shows such as “Breaking Bad,” whose creator credits Netflix with its survival , and spawned the creation of other series tailor-made for bingeing. 8

Netflix also helped unleash a crescendo of creativity in Hollywood. Follow-on rivals Amazon and Hulu also boast popular video streaming services, and mainstream broadcasters such as CBS and Walt Disney Co. - the owner of ABC and ESPN, among other networks - are also jumping in.

BUSINESS NECESSITY All of that has increased the pressure on Apple to step up its game in TV - not least because the increasing popularity of streaming is hurting its business of renting and selling video from iTunes. Apple “doesn’t want to be left behind,” said Debby Ruth, senior vice president of consumer research firm Magid. “This is a way for them to put a stake in the ground.” This year, the company released its first two original series - “Planet of the Apps” and “Carpool Karaoke” - on its Apple Music service, which has 27 million subscribers. But neither show has generated much buzz or critical acclaim. The recent hiring of Erlicht and Van Amburg signaled Apple’s intent to make bigger splash. The executives have helped orchestrate several TV hits, including AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” and more recently branched out into video streaming with “The Crown,” which landed on Netflix last year and is up for 13 Emmy nominations in the Sept. 17 ceremony. Apple also has a not-so-secret weapon: hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads already in the hands of faithful fans. It could easily transform those into a marketing platform to lure users to its TV service. 11

MAKING IT IN HOLLYWOOD But the company has a steep hill to climb. Netflix has more than 100 million worldwide subscribers and a video library that will add 1,000 hours of original programming this year alone. And HBO has become the Emmys’ pacesetter since branching into original programming 20 years ago. Both companies vastly outspend Apple’s reported $1 billion production budget. HBO spends about $2 billion annually on its programming, which garnered 111 nominations in this year’s Emmy Awards - more than any other network. Netflix, which boasts the second most Emmy nominations with 91, expects to spend $6 billion on programming this year. Apple is still experimenting in TV, said Gene Munster, a longtime Apple watcher and managing partner with the research and venture capital firm Loup Ventures. “In five years, I bet Apple will either be investing $10 billion a year in content or zero,” said Munster. “It’s going to be one or the other.”

JOBS’ LEGACY Jobs discussed his ambitions to shake up TV with his biographer Walter Issacson shortly before his death in 2011. “He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant,” Isaacson wrote. But no Apple television ever materialized. Instead, Apple has periodically upgraded its Apple TV, which isn’t a television - just a video streaming player that connects to TVs. That device has been losing market share to other streaming players made by Roku, Amazon and Google, according to the research firm Park Associates. Building a successful programming line-up could give Apple more leverage to license shows from other Hollywood production houses. It might even embolden the company to finally release its own streaming TV set. Apple will presumably also want to emulate Netflix’s ability to exploit usage data to determine what it thinks audiences want to watch. Netflix’s data analysis has helped it attract 25.5 million more subscribers in the U.S. alone since the February 2013 debut of its first original series, “House of Cards.” But if Apple decides it needs a little more help in video streaming, Munster thinks there’s in one-in-three chance that it will buy Netflix to instantly gain the cachet and expertise in TV programming that it craves.

Image: Paul Sakuma

GOT OLD PHONES? HERE’S HOW TO REUSE, RECYCLE OR SELL THEM

It’s natural to get the phone-upgrade itch when the likes of Apple, Samsung and others keep coming out with newer models. And sometimes your old phone is just kaput. But what do you do with a serviceable but outdated gadget? Rather than relegate an old phone to a desk drawer, consider reusing, recycling or reselling it. Of course, there’s also the option to donate. Here’s a guide for figuring out what you might do with last year’s model (or even older ones).

DONATE TO CHARITY Several charities accept old phones as a donation. But these groups probably won’t physically give your old phones to people in need. Instead, they’ll often sell your phone to recyclers and keep the money. 17

A nonprofit group called Cell Phones for Soldiers will take your “gently used” phone and sell it to a recycling company. It will then use the proceeds to buy international calling cards for soldiers so they can talk to their loved ones back home. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence works in a similar manner. About 60 percent of the phones it collects are refurbished and resold. The money goes toward supporting the coalition. The remaining 40 percent of the phones are recycled, according to the group’s website. It pays for shipping if you are mailing three or more phones. The group also accepts other electronics such as laptops, video game systems and digital cameras.

SELL SELL SELL Once new models come out, older ones will flood onto eBay and other resale sites, so it might make sense to wait a little. How much money you can make off your old phone depends on the brand and how much wear and tear it’s seen. The resale site Gazelle, for example, is offering $140 for a Verizon-ready Samsung Galaxy S7 in “good” condition. What does “good” mean? The phone has no cracks on the screen or body, powers on and makes calls, and is free of major scratches or scuffs. A “flawless” phone that looks like it’s never been used will land you $15 more. A 128GB iPhone 7 in good condition, meanwhile, will get you $305, at least for an AT&T version. For a Sprint-ready phone, it’s $275. EBay is a bit more complicated. If you’re already a seller in good standing and meet certain standards, you may qualify for a “price 18

Image: Peter Dazeley

guarantee” promotion that will get you $515.26 for the above AT&T 128GB iPhone. Otherwise, eBay says you can get $280 through the company’s “quick sale” program. The video game retailer GameStop also accepts old phones for trade-in, offering either store credit or cash.

REUSE, REPURPOSE Even without cellular service, you old phone will be able to get on Wi-Fi, so you can use it to stream music, post on Facebook or do pretty much anything else you want provided you are in Wi-Fi range. Keep it for yourself, give it to a broke friend, or load it up with kid-friendly apps and games and hand it down to your children. Or just keep it as a backup in case something horrible happens to your main phone. An old phone can tide you over until you can manage repairs or get a replacement.

WHAT UPGRADE? Of course, there’s no rule saying you must upgrade your phone each year, as much as manufacturers would like you to. Is your phone still in fairly good condition? Could you, perhaps, get that cracked screen fixed, delete some videos and apps to free up memory, and clean out accumulated pocket lint in the charging or headphone port? You can try a toothpick or use canned air, but be careful using something made of metal like a paper clip - you could damage your phone. Then you’d really have an excuse to upgrade.

SELF-DRIVING BOATS:THE NEXT TECH TRANSPORTATION RACE

Self-driving cars may not hit the road in earnest for many years - but autonomous boats could be just around the pier. Spurred in part by the car industry’s race to build driverless vehicles, marine innovators are building automated ferry boats for Amsterdam canals, cargo ships that can steer themselves through Norwegian fjords and remotecontrolled ships to carry containers across the Atlantic and Pacific. The first such autonomous ships could be in operation within three years. One experimental workboat spent this summer dodging tall ships and tankers in Boston Harbor, outfitted with sensors and self-navigating software and emblazoned with the words “UNMANNED VESSEL” across its aluminum hull. “We’re in full autonomy now,” said Jeff Gawrys, a marine technician for Boston startup Sea 25

Machines Robotics, sitting at the helm as the boat floated through a harbor channel. “Roger that,” said computer scientist Mohamed Saad Ibn Seddik, as he helped to guide the ship from his laptop on a nearby dock. The boat still needs human oversight. But some of the world’s biggest maritime firms have committed to designing ships that won’t need any captains or crews - at least not on board.

DISTRACTED SEAFARING The ocean is “a wide open space,” said Sea Machines CEO Michael Johnson. Based out of an East Boston shipyard once used to build powerful wooden clippers, the cutting-edge sailing vessels of the 19th century, his company is hoping to spark a new era of commercial marine innovation that could surpass the development of self-driving cars and trucks. The startup has signed a deal with an undisclosed company to install the “world’s first autonomy system on a commercial containership,” Johnson said this week. It will be remotely-controlled from land as it travels the North Atlantic. He also plans to sell the technology to companies doing oil spill cleanups and other difficult work on the water, aiming to assist maritime crews, not replace them. Johnson, a marine engineer whose previous job took him to the Italian coast to help salvage the sunken cruise ship Costa Concordia, said that deadly 2012 capsizing and other marine disasters have convinced him that “we’re relying too much on old-world technology.” “Humans get distracted, humans get tired,” he said. 27

GLOBAL RACE Militaries have been working on unmanned vessels for decades. But a lot of commercial experimentation is happening in the centuriesold seaports of Scandinavia, where Rolls-Royce demonstrated a remote-controlled tugboat in Copenhagen this year. Government-sanctioned testing areas have been established in Norway’s Trondheim Fjord and along Finland’s western coast. In Norway, fertilizer company Yara International is working with engineering firm Kongsberg Maritime on a project to replace big-rig trucks with an electric-powered ship connecting three nearby ports. The pilot ship is scheduled to launch next year, shift to remote control in 2019 and go fully autonomous by 2020. “It would remove a lot of trucks from the roads in these small communities,” said Kongsberg CEO Geir Haoy. Japanese shipping firm Nippon Yusen K.K. operator of the cargo ship that slammed into a U.S. Navy destroyer in a deadly June collision plans to test its first remote-controlled vessel in 2019, part of a wider Japanese effort to deploy hundreds of autonomous container ships by 2025. A Chinese alliance has set a goal of launching its first self-navigating cargo ship in 2021.

CARS VS. BOATS The key principles of self-driving cars and boats are similar. Both scan their surroundings using a variety of sensors, feed the information into an artificial intelligence system and output driving instructions to the vehicle. 29

But boat navigation could be much easier than car navigation, said Carlo Ratti, an MIT professor working with Dutch universities to launch selfnavigating vessels in Amsterdam next year. The city’s canals, for instance, have no pedestrians or bikers cluttering the way, and are subject to strict speed limits. Ratti’s project is also looking at ways small vessels could coordinate with each other in “swarms.” They could, for instance, start as a fleet of passenger or delivery boats, then transform into an on-demand floating bridge to accommodate a surge of pedestrians. Since many boats already have electronic controls, “it would be easy to make them selfnavigating by simply adding a small suite of sensors and AI,” Ratti said.

ARMCHAIR CAPTAINS Researchers have already begun to design merchant ships that will be made more efficient because they don’t need room for seamen to sleep and eat. But in the near future, most of these ships will be only partly autonomous. Armchair captains in a remote operation center could be monitoring several ships at a time, sitting in a room with 360-degree virtual reality views. When the vessels are on the open seas, they might not need humans to make decisions. It’s just the latest step in what has been a gradual automation of maritime tasks. “If you go back 150 years, you had more than 200 people on a cargo vessel. Now you have between 10 and 20,” said Oskar Levander, vice president of innovation for Rolls-Royce’s marine business. 31

CHANGING RULES OF THE SEA There are still some major challenges ahead. Uncrewed vessels might be more vulnerable to piracy or even outright theft via remote hacking of a ship’s control systems. Some autonomous vessels might win public trust faster than others; unmanned container ships filled with bananas might not raise the same concerns as oil tankers plying the waters near big cities or protected wilderness. A decades-old international maritime safety treaty also requires that “all ships shall be sufficiently and efficiently manned.” But The International Maritime Organization, which regulates shipping, has begun a 2-year review of the safety, security and environmental implications of autonomous ships. 33

TECH-ORIENTED NEW YORK GRAD SCHOOL LAUNCHED BY CONTEST OPENS

The city’s quest to make itself a legitimate rival to Silicon Valley as a high-tech hub has long bumped up against some harsh realities, among them the fact it hasn’t had a top-tier technology school pumping out the next generation of entrepreneurs and engineers. A potential answer to that problem, a new technology-oriented graduate school called Cornell Tech, cuts the ribbon Wednesday on the first phase of its new campus on an island in the East River. The collaboration between Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, built with the help of hundreds of millions of dollars from philanthropies and from the city, has just 250 master’s degree students and 50 doctorate students taking classes this fall. But officials hope to ramp up to 2,000 students by the time the campus is fully developed. 35

Part of the concept is to promote close ties between academia and the startup economy, officials said. “Cornell Tech presented an opportunity that is almost unheard of today, to build a new type of academic program and a new type of campus from scratch,” Martha Pollack, the computer scientist who was named the 14th president of Cornell University this year, said in a speech to a business group. She called the school “the first of its kind campus, built for the digital age.” The first three buildings of a 12-acre campus on Roosevelt Island are opening Wednesday after a fledgling Cornell Tech program spent the past four years as a rent-free tenant at a Google office building in Manhattan. The campus was born from a competition held by New York City in 2011, backed by independent then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who made his fortune selling innovative data terminals to Wall Street.

Donations to build the new campus have included $100 million from the former mayor’s charity, Bloomberg Philanthropies, $350 million from philanthropist and duty-free magnate Chuck Feeney and $133 million from Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs. The city provided $100 million in seed money plus development rights on city land. Students in fields including engineering, computer science, business and health tech are living this fall in a newly opened 26-story residence hall with sweeping views of Manhattan on one side and Queens on the other. Cornell Tech’s main academic building, called the Bloomberg Center, looks far more like a tech company than a university. Professors and researchers type away at laptops in the openplan office. If they want privacy for a meeting they can repair to a huddle room. There are no book-lined faculty offices, nor, it appeared during a recent visit, any books at all. “It’s a real shock to the system for those of us who come from academia,” Pollack said. “You can’t imagine going to a faculty member and saying, ‘No, you’re not going to have an office. You’re going to be in an open floor plan.’” The third Cornell Tech building, called the Bridge, is owned by developer Forest City Ratner and will be shared by the school and commercial tenants including, so far, Citigroup and Italian chocolate maker Ferrero, the maker of Nutella. Pollack said the arrangement means that “our students and researchers will interact with startups, entrepreneurs, investors and 39

Image: Bebeto Matthews

established companies all in the pursuit of commercial innovation.” The Technion, Israel’s oldest university, is responsible for two of the seven master’s programs Cornell Tech offers. The programs in health tech and connective media are part of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, which also hosts a post-doctoral startup program for graduates to transform their research into new companies. The Technion’s president, Peretz Lavie, said he was flattered when Bloomberg invited him to enter the competition for a New York campus but he knew that the Technion would need an American partner. The CornellTechnion marriage works because the two universities share similar educational missions, Lavie said. “It’s a match made in heaven for many reasons,” he said in a telephone interview. Bloomberg acknowledged when he announced the competition back in 2011 that it would take time for New York to become the high-tech leader he envisioned. “We understand that we will not catch up to Silicon Valley overnight,” he said. “Building a state-of-the-art campus will take years and attracting a critical mass of technology entrepreneurs may take even longer.” But Bloomberg said he believed that in its first three decades the school could help launch 400 new companies. Cornell Tech officials say that more than 30 startups have been formed out of the program, raising $20 million and employing 105 people. 41

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE EQUIFAX DATA BREACH

Equifax, one of the three main credit reporting companies, said this week that a major data breach exposed Social Security numbers and other important information of millions of people. The breach affected about 143 million in the United States, as well as some people in Canada and the United Kingdom, but Equifax didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t provide a number. Hackers had access to the data between May and July, Equifax said. The company discovered the hack on July 29 and publicly announced it more than a month later on Thursday (07). 42

Here’s what else you need to know about the breach:

WHAT INFORMATION WAS TAKEN? Hackers had access to Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers, credit card numbers and other information. Those are all crucial pieces of personal data that criminals could use to commit identity theft. Those are what John Ulzheimer, an independent credit consultant who previously worked at Equifax, called “the crown jewels of personal information.” Equifax’s security lapse could be the largest theft involving Social Security numbers, one of the most common methods used to confirm a person’s identity in the U.S. The data breach is especially damaging to Equifax, since its entire business revolves around being a secure storehouse and providing a clear financial profile of consumers that lenders and other businesses can trust. The credit profiles it holds contain personal information, like how much people owe on their houses and whether they have court judgments against them.

AM I AFFECTED? Equifax set up a site, equifaxsecurity2017.com, where you can type in your last name and six digits of your Social Security number to find out if your data may have been compromised. Consumers can also call 866-447-7559 for information. The company says it will send mail to all who had personally identifiable information stolen. 44

Equifax is also offering free credit monitoring for a year. The company says the service will search suspicious sites for your Social Security number, give you access to your Equifax report and other offerings. You can sign up at the same site listed above, and the deadline to do so is Nov. 21. Initially, though, there was a catch - signing up would also commit you to binding arbitration with the credit monitor, which would mean giving up your right to sue. Several politicians and consumer groups have criticized this provision. Democrats in the House and Senate called on the company to pull back that requirement. Late Friday, Equifax said the arbitration language that appears on its website “will not apply to this cybersecurity incident.”

WHAT SHOULD I DO? You can view your credit reports for free at AnnualCreditReport.com. You’re entitled to get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three big agencies once every 12 months. Review it closely for unauthorized accounts or any mistakes. And you may need to be vigilant much longer than the free year of credit monitoring Equifax is offering. “If any of the data was exposed, you will be living with that for the rest of your life,” said Rich Mogull, who runs the security research firm Securosis. You can consider freezing your credit reports, but it comes with some downsides. A freeze stops thieves from opening new credit cards or loans in your name, but it also prevents you from opening new accounts. So each time you apply for a credit card, mortgage or loan, you need to lift the freeze a few days beforehand. 47

Freezes can be done online at the websites of the three credit reporting agencies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You’ll need to freeze all three reports for the best protection. Each company will give you a code that you’ll need again in order to lift the freeze, so keep it in a safe place. When you plan to apply for a credit card, mortgage, or other loan you’ll need to go back to each site and lift the freeze. The credit reporting agencies may charge a fee, usually under $10, depending on which state you live in. But it’s free for residents of some states, including Maine, New Jersey and South Carolina. A freeze doesn’t protect you from everything: thieves can still file a fraudulent tax return in your name or charge things to your already opened credit card accounts. A freeze won’t affect your credit score or report. The report stays open and is updated to keep track of your debts, payments and other information.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Equifax is blaming an unspecified “website application vulnerability.” Security experts say it’s hard to say for sure without more information, but such vulnerabilities typically don’t require a lot of sophistication to exploit. Mogull says the web app breach suggests “things are broken down in a couple of different areas.” He says someone likely made a programming or configuration mistake. Corporate culture could also be a factor. Often, Mogull says, corporate security is underfunded or isn’t given the authority it needs to make sure application developers do what’s right. Ryan Kalember of the security company Proofpoint says that even if the vulnerability was known and fixable, “coordination between app developers and security teams in a lot of organizations are not on the best of terms.” Another security expert said the website Equifax created to help customers find out if they were affected raises its own security questions. The site looks like the kind set up by attackers to trick people into disclosing information, says Georgia Weidman, founder and chief technology officer for security firm Shevirah. “It’s teaching people entirely the wrong things about using the internet securely,” Weidman said. She said says she’s also troubled by Equifax’s approach to security generally, including reports that it didn’t respond to basic scripting bugs it was warned about last year. 50

WHO’S INVESTIGATING THIS? Potentially, a lot of people. Credit bureaus like Equifax are lightly regulated compared to other parts of the financial system. U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he will call for Congressional hearings. And Rep. Greg Walden, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says he’ll hold a hearing examining what wrong and how to better protect against future hackings. Several state attorneys general have also said they would investigate, including those from New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, said his office aims to “get to the bottom” of how the breach occurred. Company executives are also under scrutiny, after it was found that three Equifax executives sold shares worth a combined $1.8 million just a few days after the company discovered the breach, according to documents filed with securities regulators. Equifax said the three executives “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares.”

Image: Stephanie Yao Long

Well before Apple’s first media event at the new Steve Jobs Theater got underway on September 12, everyone knew that the Cupertino firm was readying a spectacular announcement. That’s certainly what they ended up getting, too. Apple took the veil off not only the iPhone X, the most significantly revamped iPhone since the very first model back in 2007, but also the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, a 4K-ready version of the Apple TV, and the first Apple Watch with built-in cellular connectivity.

FRESH ANNOUNCEMENTS ABOUT THE APPLE WATCH AND APPLE RETAIL Very appropriately, the first person to speak as part of the event was Steve Jobs himself. In an audio recording, the late Apple co-founder spoke of technology as a gift for humanity - and his successor as Apple CEO, Tim Cook, then arrived on stage to remark: “It’s only fitting that Steve should open his theater.” He touchingly added: “We dedicated this theater to Steve

because we loved him, and because he loved days like this, where we can share our latest products and ideas with the world.” So, what is Apple’s largest product? According to Angela Ahrendts, it’s Apple Retail. The company’s Senior Vice President of Retail took to the stage to enthuse about recent introductions to Apple stores, including the Genius Grove and “Today at Apple” sessions. She also announced that Apple’s Fifth Avenue store will, late next year, reopen with a greatlyexpanded underground level and opened-up plaza - and a new Michigan Avenue store in Chicago will open on October 20 this year. Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, followed up with various announcements about the Apple Watch. With watchOS 4, which will reach Apple Watch users on September 19, the heart rate app will include new measurements - including resting heart rate. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch is set to supply data for the new Apple Heart Study, which will analyze arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation. The study’s first phase will reach the App Store later this year. There will also be a whole new Apple Watch the Apple Watch Series 3. This, Williams revealed, includes cellular connectivity that will rely on an integrated electronic SIM. The device’s display will serve as the multi-frequency antenna for use with LTE and UMTS - and yet, despite the added technology, the new Watch’s casing remains identical in size to the Series 2 model’s. The Series 3 can also make calls without needing to be tethered to an iPhone.

I WANT MY, I WANT MY, AND I’M GOING TO GET A 4K APPLE TV The 4K resolution has produced amazing picture quality for an increasing number of TV viewers over the years - and this has led to the introduction of the Apple TV 4K, as the latest version of Apple’s set-top box is called. Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, explained that the new device supports both 4K and High Dynamic Range or HDR. Also supported are HDR10 and Dolby

Image: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

Vision, and Apple TV screensavers have been remastered to fully utilize 4K HDR. The Apple TV 4K runs on the A10X chip, which also features in the latest iPad Pro models. This chip gives the new Apple TV up to twice the CPU performance and up to four times the GPU performance of the previous Apple TV, which used the now ageing A8 processor. Netflix 4K HDR content, Amazon Prime Video and live sports are all coming to the Apple TV.

NOT THE iPHONE 7S, BUT INSTEAD THE iPHONE 8 The iPhone has seen many impressive advances over the last decade, as Cook reminded us - and, in an introductory video, Apple showed off the successors to last year’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. However, these new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch handsets weren’t the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus. They were what Cook called “a huge step forward for iPhone” - and, apparently to reflect this, the beautifully redesigned devices are officially named the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, said the design was completely new. Both the front and back comprise glass secured together by a band of aerospace-grade 7000-series aluminum. The phones also have True Tone technology, allowing the display to remain consistent in clarity in various lighting conditions. Powering the iPhone 8 series is the new A11 Bionic chip, which has six cores - two for performance and four for high efficiency. Like its predecessor, the iPhone 8 Plus has a dual-lens camera and, with it, Portrait mode in the Camera app. This mode can now be used for Portrait Lighting - a new beta feature where how the subject’s face is lighted can be changed while a Portrait photo is composed. Both that phone and the iPhone 8 can also capture 4K video at 60 frames per second. The hardware is also well-suited to augmented reality - and this was shown with a few demos of AR apps. In the wake of last year’s introduction of the AirPods, Apple’s future is clearly becoming increasingly wireless. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus can both be charged wirelessly. To charge an iPhone 8, you can place it on a charging pad that is based on the Qi standard. Accessory makers including Belkin, Incipio, and Mophie are set to release such pads for the iPhone 8.

“ONE MORE THING”: THE QUANTUM LEAP THAT IS THE iPHONE X Another introductory video showed the design of what Cook said would define the next decade’s path for technology. That product is the iPhone X; Apple execs pronounced the X as “ten”. Schiller returned to the spotlight to enthuse about the iPhone X’s almost edge-to-edge display measuring 5.8 inches and verticallyaligned dual-lens back camera. That display, which has a 2,436 x 1,125 resolution, is branded a “Super Retina Display”; its pixel density is 458ppi, the highest in any iPhone.

There is no Home button or Touch ID sensor on the iPhone X. To wake the display, you simply tap it, while swiping up from the display’s bottom brings up the Home screen. This method can also bring up the multitasking screen. Doubletapping the side button activates Siri - and, with the new Face ID technology, you can unlock the iPhone 8 simply by looking at it. Face ID relies on the front camera, infrared camera, dot projector and ambient light sensor in the TrueDepth camera system. Face ID can learn your face by scanning it during the setup process - and, even at night and if you change your face, such as through growing a beard, Face ID can adapt to such changes. It is also secure; for example, it can’t be fooled by a simple photo of your face. The A11 chip’s secure enclave protects face data - and, while Touch ID has a 1 in 50,000 chance of being compromised by a random person, that likelihood falls to 1 in 1,000,000 in the case of Face ID. Another feature that will be exclusive to the iPhone X is Animoji. These are animated emojis that can take your own facial expressions. A dozen Animojis - including dog, cat, fish, robot and alien ones - will be available for use in the Messages app. On the subject of faces, you will be able to capture amazing selfies with the iPhone X, too. Its front-facing TrueDepth camera can take Portrait mode selfies - complete with bokeh effects - that can also benefit from Portrait Lighting. Schiller further revealed that the iPhone X’s battery life outlasts the iPhone 7’s by up to 2 hours - and, like the iPhone 8 series, the iPhone X can be wirelessly charged on Qi-standard pads. Apple is making its own wireless charging 69

accessory, AirPower, that will launch next year and be capable of charging the new iPhones, the Apple Watch Series 3 and a new wireless charging case to serve as an optional accessory for the AirPods. Exactly when that case will launch remains unknown.

X WILL MARK THE SWEET SPOT IN NOVEMBER All of Apple’s new devices announced on September 12 - except the iPhone X, AirPower and the new wireless charging case for the AirPods - are now available to preorder before they are released to retail availability on September 22. It will be possible to preorder the iPhone X from October 27 before the device’s retail release date of November 3. Aptly, Cook wrapped up the event by saying: “We hope you love what we’ve put out today. We think Steve would be really proud of them.”

by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

iPHONE X PUTS EXCLAMATION POINT ON APPLE’S PRICING STRATEGY

Apple has made a luxury iPhone that punctuates its technological swagger with a high-priced exclamation point. And that exclamation point appears to be a sign of things to come. The long-anticipated iPhone X unveiled Tuesday will sell for $999, double what the original iPhone cost a decade ago and more than any other competing device on the market. That’s very much in line with Apple’s long-term positioning of itself as a purveyor of pricey aspirational gadgets. But it’s also a clear sign that Apple is ramping up that strategy by continuing to push its prices higher, even though improvements it’s bringing to its products are often incremental or derivative. Among other things, that runs contrary to decades in which high-tech device prices have fallen over time, often dramatically, even as the gadgets themselves ran faster and acquired new powers. 73

On Tuesday, for instance, Apple also introduced a TV streaming box that will sell for $179, far more than similar devices, and a smartwatch with its own cellular connection that will cost almost $400. In December, Apple will start selling an internet-connected speaker, the HomePod, priced at $349, nearly twice as much as Amazon’s market-leading Echo speaker. Apple is also raising the price of its runner-up phones, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, which will respectively cost $50 and $30 more than their immediate predecessors, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

PAYING MORE FOR SOMEWHAT MORE The premium pricing strategy reflects Apple’s long-held belief that consumers will pay more for products that are so well designed they can’t fathom living without them. Apple CEO Tim Cook left little doubt in the company’s confidence in the iPhone X (pronounced “ten”), whose name references the decade that’s passed since company co-founder Steve Jobs first pulled out an iPhone that sold for $499. Cook attempted to frame the iPhone X as a similar breakthrough, hailing it as “the biggest leap forward” since the original iPhone. But the original iPhone revolutionized society by putting connected hand-held computers and apps into the hands of millions of ordinary people. The iPhone X mostly promises to do what earlier smartphones have done, only better. The technological wizardry in the iPhone X is unquestionably impressive. It includes a bright new edge-to-edge screen, a special artificial74

intelligence-enabled chip, new sensors for facial recognition and a grab-bag of fun items like animated emojis that mimic your expressions, portrait-mode selfies that blur the background, an augmented reality game platform and wireless charging. Apple said the phone’s battery will last two hours longer than that of the iPhone 7. But rival phones - many of them from Samsung - already offer similar displays, facial recognition, augmented reality and wireless charging, if often in cruder forms that mostly haven’t won over large numbers of phone users.

BREAKING NEW GROUND None of which is to say that Apple won’t break new ground. In particular, the iPhone X gives Apple the opportunity to bring augmented reality - essentially the projection of computergenerated images into real-world surroundings, a la the monster hunts in “Pokemon Go” - into mainstream use. No one can say with certainty what sort of “killer app” will make augmented reality a hit. Whatever it turns out to be, it seems as likely to emerge from an unknown startup as an established company. But Apple is certainly taking a stab at the problem.

On Tuesday, Apple demonstrate a simple use for sophisticated camera technology on the iPhone X with “animoji,” which lets people animate emoji characters with their voices and facial expressions - and then send them to their friends. Showing off a new technology with something that everyday people can use and understand is “what Apple does best,” said Gartner analyst Brian Blau. Augmented reality won’t be restricted to the iPhone X; the apps will also run on hundreds of millions of other iPhones so long as they install new operating-system software called iOS 11 when Apple pushes out a free update next week.

THANKING THE COMPETITION In a way, Apple may have its rivals to thank for this opportunity. Fiercer competition from Samsung, Google and Huawei increased the pressure on Apple to make a big splash with its new iPhone, says technology analyst Patrick Moorhead. “It looks like they have a good chance at creating a new market segment called the ‘super phone,’” Moorhead said. “You could tell they really poured their heart and soul into this.” Other Apple devices are also getting better. A new Apple Watch can finally make phone calls and stream music over cellular networks without an iPhone nearby, and the company’s Apple TV streaming box will now deliver super-sharp “4K” video.

iPHONE X HANDS-ON: APPLE’S LUXURY iPHONE BOTH COPIES AND INNOVATES As soon as you see the iPhone X up close, you’ll realize that it’s nothing like any of the previous models that Apple has released during the past decade. But you might notice striking similarities with some of the sleek smartphones that Samsung, Google and others have been churning out during the past year or two. Like its rivals, Apple has finally gotten around to making a phone with an edge-to-edge display, a nod to consumers’ desire for more space to view their photos, watch movies and TV shows, read books and play games. In that sense, Apple is playing a game of catchup with the iPhone X - a name that refers to the Roman numeral for “10.” But the device still manages to live up to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ mandate to “think different.” The iPhone X comes with what appears to be sophisticated facial recognition. On a basic level, that allows its owner to unlock the phone with a quick glance. But it also opens the door for a menagerie of emojis that can be controlled and manipulated with facial expressions and voice. 80

The phone also provides a spectacular canvas for photos, thanks to a superior camera and a soupedup screen Apple calls a “Super Retina” display. It also costs almost $1,000, an unprecedented price for a mass market phone. That price tag means that most Apple lovers will probably stick with the slightly less expensive iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which will be available Sept. 22 - six weeks before the iPhone X hits the market. But the iPhone X will probably be a hot commodity among status seekers and affluent consumers. Such buyers won’t flinch at paying an extra $300 to own a phone with attractive but still mostly marginal improvements, based on about 20 minutes we spent with the phone in a controlled demo room Tuesday. One of the best things about the iPhone X: It has a larger screen, but isn’t more cumbersome to carry around. The iPhone X’s edge-toedge screen measures 5.8 inches diagonally compared to 5.5 inches for the iPhone 7 Plus and now the iPhone 8 Plus. But the iPhone X’s overall dimensions are smaller than the Plus and just slightly larger than the regular models. That’s bound to appeal to people who like large screens but don’t like oversized phones. On the down side, the iPhone X’s screen isn’t as wide as that of the iPhone 7 Plus or iPhone 8 Plus. What really makes the iPhone X stand out is its new high-resolution display, coupled with its spiffy cameras. Photos viewed on the iPhone X look amazingly vivid and lifelike, right down to the visible blades of glass at a kid’s soccer game or every crease of a blanket blowing in the wind. 83

Emojis have become such a popular way of communication in our smartphone-driven culture that the iPhone X’s “animoji” feature could prove popular as well. This animated feature draws upon the iPhone X’s facial recognition technology and high-end, frontfacing camera to enable people to control the expressions on a dozen different type of emojis. For instance, you can pull up a fox or a rabbit and it will frown or smile in sync with your own expression. The emoji figure will move its mouth when you do; record it and it will speak in your voice. (You can send such videos to friends.) Facial recognition is also the new convenient way to unlock the iPhone X. No more fingerprint scanner: the expansion of the display meant the loss of the home button, which housed that sensor. Apple says this change will allow iPhone X owners to unlock the device with a quick glance under just about any conditions. (The device also can be unlocked with a numeric passcode if facial recognition fails, as it did for one Apple executive during Tuesday’s presentation.) But security might still be an issue, particularly if the iPhone X’s facial recognition can be tricked by intruders trying to break into a device designed for big spenders and luxury lovers. Apple says it turned to mask experts to test and improve the feature, though it acknowledges that twins might trick the phone. Using the iPhone X will also require behavioral changes, such as swiping from the bottom to get the home screen, now that the home button has disappeared. The new phone does add a button on the side to invoke the Siri virtual assistant and Apple Pay. 84

Image: Carolyn Kaster

LAWSUIT TARGETS SEARCHES OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES AT US BORDER

A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday claims the U.S. government’s growing practice of searching laptops and cellphones at the border is unconstitutional because electronic devices now carry troves of private personal and business information. The government has vociferously defended its searches as critical to protecting the homeland. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires law enforcement to secure warrants based on probable cause. Courts, however, have made an exception for searches at U.S. ports of entry and airports. They’ve ruled the government can do warrantless border searches to enforce immigration and customs laws and protect national security. In today’s digital world, these searches should not be conducted without a warrant, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union argue. Top officials at the 87

Department of Homeland Security and two of its units - Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement - are named in the suit. “People now store their whole lives, including extremely sensitive personal and business matters, on their phones, tablets and laptops and it’s reasonable for them to carry these with them when they travel,” said foundation attorney Sophia Cope. “It’s high time that the courts require the government to stop treating the border as a place where they can end-run the Constitution.” The foundation and ACLU filed their suit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on behalf of 10 American citizens and a lawful permanent resident from seven states. The plaintiffs include an artist, two journalists, a limousine driver, two students, a filmmaker, a college professor, a business owner, a computer programmer and an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. All had their electronic devices searched by border agents when they returned from trips abroad, the suit said. None had ever been accused of any wrongdoing. Border officials confiscated several plaintiffs’ devices and kept them for weeks or months. One plaintiff’s security device, confiscated in January, is still in government custody. Matthew Wright, a 38-year-old computer programmer in Colorado, said his phone, laptop and camera were confiscated at the Denver airport on April 21, 2016, as he returned from Southeast Asia where he participated in four Frisbee tournaments. Border agents asked him to unlock his laptop. 88

Image: Mike Blake

“They said ‘If you refuse to unlock it, we’re going to confiscate it,’” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “I said ‘Well, I don’t want that to happen, but I’m not going to unlock it.’ And so they confiscated the laptop and then they confiscated my other electronics - my smartphone and my camera.” When he left the airport, Wright went straight to an Apple store and spent $2,420 for a new laptop and phone, which he needed for work. Fifty-six days after being confiscated, they were mailed back to him. DHS has not yet commented on the suit. But the government has previously emphasized that such searches are exceedingly rare. From last October to the end of March, they affected fewer than one-hundredth of 1 percent of the 189.6 million international travelers who arrived in the United States. Searches, however, are becoming more frequent. In the 2015 fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection searched the electronic devices of 8,503 international travelers. The number rose to 19,033 the next year. In the first half of the current fiscal year, there were 14,993 searches. “The government cannot use the border as a dragnet to search through our private data,” ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari said. 91

DHS officials have asserted that U.S. citizens and everyone else are subject to examination and search by customs officials, unless exempted by diplomatic status. The department says no court has concluded that border searches of electronic devices require a warrant. Searches, some random, have uncovered evidence of human trafficking, terrorism, child pornography, visa fraud, export controls breaches and intellectual property rights violations, according to the department. One plaintiff, Akram Shibly, was ordered to surrender his phone on Jan. 1 as he re-entered the United States after a social outing in Toronto. Shibly, an independent filmmaker from Buffalo, New York, refused to give it up, partly because customs agents had just searched it three days earlier when he returned from a work trip in Toronto. According to the suit, one officer squeezed his hand around Shilby’s throat. Another retrained Shibly’s legs. And a third officer pulled the phone from Shibly’s pocket. The phone, still unlocked because Shilby had never restored the lock screen he had disengaged during the first search, was taken to a separate room and searched. Another plaintiff, Diane Maye, 38, of Orange City, Florida, was stopped on June 25 when she returned at the Miami airport from her vacation in Norway. A border agent led her to a back room where she was instructed to unlock her phone and computer. She complied, but still doesn’t know why she was stopped. One officer kept the phone for 90 minutes to two hours. Another questioned her for a couple of hours about her travels, academic life and career. 92

From June 2008 to November 2009, Maye worked in Iraq managing a defense contract that provided bilingual and cultural advisers to Defense and State department employees involved in reconstruction efforts. They asked her if she knew any Iraqis. “I know literally thousands of Iraqis,” Maye told the AP in a phone interview. Maye, who also wrote a doctoral dissertation on Iraqi politics, is now an assistant professor of homeland security at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She has worked in the defense industry and was a former Air Force captain. “I use my phone for my work. I use my phone for my emails. I have banking information, text messages, photographs,” said Maye, who was released with her computer and cellphone in hand. “While I don’t have anything that I care that people know about, I just didn’t want my privacy in the hands of a security officer. It kinda started to disgust me.”

Image: Wilfredo Lee

SURVIVORS, RELATIVES, VOLUNTEERS CONNECT ONLINE FOR IRMA AID

Worried relatives, generous volunteers, frantic neighbors, even medical providers are turning to social media now that Hurricane Irma wiped out electricity and cell service to communities across Florida, cutting off most contact with remote islands in the Keys. “We all sort of scattered around the country when we evacuated, so we’re trying to stay in touch, by phone, by Facebook, however we can,” said Suzanne Trottier, who left her Key West, Florida home for Virginia almost a week ago as the hurricane approached. “Unfortunately we’ve been really, really looking on Facebook a lot because I have people down there I haven’t heard from,” she said. One of those posts Monday morning brought a bit of good cheer: a photo of a friend who had stayed behind, smiling, healthy and dry. “Such great news” posted Trottier’s husband Neil Renouf, adding a thumbs up. 97

But many questions remain about the situation on the Florida Keys. Irma’s eye slammed into the island chain with potentially catastrophic 130 p.m. early Sunday morning, and more than 24 hours later, friends and family still couldn’t contact people who were riding out the storm. Search and rescue teams were going door-to-door. Facebook groups were still forming Monday to help from afar. Evacuees Of The Keys members shared school closure notices, videos of destruction, and many posts from friends and relatives searching for loved ones. Leah McNally of Fort Lauderdale, whose mother stayed behind at her home in Tavernier, on Key Largo, was relaying information onto Facebook that she heard through a walkie talkie app, Zello, which has been widely used during both Harvey and Irma. “Everything is like a black hole right now but there are people in the keys who are relaying information,” she said. Zello was relaying calls for help, and a team of unofficial dispatchers ran rescue operations to hundreds of locations, warning boaters to stay out of the water due to alligators and snakes. Facebook activated its Safety Check feature for people to let friends and family know they’re safe. Facebook spokesman Eric Porterfield said that by Monday morning, there were already more than 600 posts asking for help, mostly fuel, shelter or a ride, although one woman with broken ribs sought medical advice. There were also more than 2,000 postings offering help, including free housing, clothes and people with chainsaws volunteering for cleanup. 98

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Facebook community fundraisers had already been launched; a woman in France had already collected $12,000 for recovery supplies in St. Barts. Social media has been a game-changer for Americans coping with natural disasters, Fordham University communications professor Paul Levinson said. “In the past, when power went out, the best anyone could do when a hurricane hit was turn on the battery-operated transistor radio,” he said. This helped, but didn’t provide detailed information about loved ones that pops up on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. “As long as the phones are charged, you can find out almost instantly that people in the danger zone are doing OK,” he said. Thus phone charging has become an act of near desperation in some shelters as evacuees tried to plug in to generator power. Some of the online contacts have been truly critical. DaVita Kidney Care, whose patients receive life-saving dialysis three times a week, for four hours per day, was using Twitter and Facebook, along with a blog to inform patients about open centers and hospitals. “We hope that through our social media outreach patients know they can go to any dialysis center to get care,” said spokeswoman Kate Stabrawa for the Denver-based company. People engaging with Irma from well beyond the danger zone use social media “like huddling together during bad times,” said public relations expert Richard Laermer, author of “Trendspotting.” “Social media makes people feel like they are doing something, as opposed to nothing,” he said. 103

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SAMSUNG STEPS UP PUSH INTO AUTONOMOUS DRIVING TECHNOLOGY

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it will invest 75 million euro ($89 million) in TTTech, a Vienna, Austria-based company that makes autonomous driving technologies and safety controls for Audi cars and others, stepping up its push into autonomous driving technology. The new autonomous driving investment comes after the South Korean company completed its acquisition of Harman, which makes car navigation systems and technology for cars to communicate with each other and infrastructure. Samsung also announced that it has created a business unit within Harman to oversee autonomous driving. Samsungâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investment in TTTech is the first from a $300 million fund aimed at adding to its autonomous driving technology. Samsung says the fund will invest in automotive start-ups. Samsung is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest maker of memory chips and smartphones. It does not produce vehicles or own an auto company but it acquired licenses to operate self-driving cars in South Korea and in California to test autonomous driving software and hardware. 105

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DIESELS ON DISPLAY IN FRANKFURT AUTO SHOW DESPITE SCANDAL

Scandals. Recalls. Threats of bans. The diesel engine is a public enemy for many environmental activists and politicians. And yet, when the world’s biggest automakers unveil new models at this year’s auto show in Frankfurt, among the new electric vehicles and digitally-enhanced prototypes there will also be diesel cars. The carmakers at the show, mainly Germany’s big manufacturers, are hoping to modify diesel engines to make them cleaner rather than throw them out altogether. It’s a bid for stability in an industry roiled by change. Here’s a quick look at the major themes and vehicles expected at the Frankfurt International Motor Show, which opens for journalists Tuesday and Wednesday and to the general public from Saturday through Sept. 24. 107

DIESEL DILEMMA German carmakers, which have relied heavily on diesel, have been bruised by controversy over the technology since Volkswagen’s scandal, in which the company admitted to illegally rigging cars to turn off diesel emission controls when not on test stands. Subsequent investigation found that many diesels by other manufacturers met official test standards but emitted far more pollution during every day driving, often by exploiting legal loopholes that permitted them to turn off controls at certain temperatures. German carmakers are recalling some 5 million older diesel vehicles to tweak their engine control software in hopes of warding off pressure for diesel bans in some cities. So expect a lot of emphasis on emissions-free technology such as battery-powered cars. Daimler will show off a fully electric, compact car under its EQ brand, which represents the company’s push into areas it has bundled under the acronym CASE: connected, autonomous, shared and services, and electric. It also will unveil the Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell, a fuel-cell and battery plug-in hybrid that emits only water vapor. Fuel cell-powered cars are not yet a practical option for consumers, with only 33 hydrogen fuel stations in Germany, but it’s one possibility for the future in which government regulation will increasingly require low-emission vehicles.

DIESEL DESPITE THAT But diesel remains in the mix -with what automakers say are better emissions controls to meet European Union standards in which 108

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cars will be tested under real-world driving conditions, as well as on test stands. Diesels get better mileage - a big consumer issue in Europe, where fuel taxes make gasoline painfully expensive. A liter of gasoline costs 1.31 euros in Frankfurt, or $5.97 a gallon. And diesels emit less carbon dioxide, meaning they help meet regulatory limits on the greenhouse gas believed to contribute to global warming. The new T-Roc small SUV from Volkswagen, for instance, will come with three possible gasoline engines to choose from - and three diesels. Automakers “won’t be shouting about it, but diesels will be part of their lineup,” says Ian Fletcher, principal analyst at IHS Market. IHS estimates diesel’s market share will fall from 49.7 percent in Europe to 46.9 percent this year, and to 32.8 percent by 2025. Mercedes-Benz spent 3 billion euros to develop new diesels, which are already being used in its E-Class sedans.

THE HOME TEAM Increasingly, carmakers are finding other ways to unveil new models than auto shows and that has become even more evident ahead of this year’s show. Volkswagen’s Porsche brand showed off its new Cayenne SUV at an extravagant event Aug. 29 with the Bohemian Symphony Orchestra Prague and dancers livestreamed from its home base in StuttgartZuffenhausen. Automakers skipping the show this year include Fiat Chrysler’s namesake Fiat and its Jeep and Alfa Romeo brands, Peugeot and its DS luxury division, plus Nissan, Infiniti and Volvo. 111

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Yet the Frankfurt show remains a very big deal for the home team: Daimler AG’s MercedesBenz luxury brand, Munich-based BMW AG, and Volkswagen, all of which will have giant display stands. Some 1,000 exhibitors will show off 300 premieres on 200,000 square meters of space. Chinese brands WEY and Chery will exhibit for the first time.

DIGITAL AND ELECTRIC DISRUPTION Automakers will be eager to show off technologies that can help people get around without owning a car. That could include ordering rides through an app, sharing someone else’s car for a price, and autonomous vehicles. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, will speak at the opening ceremony, while Google is a sponsor for the media night. Computer security company Kaspersky Labs and AVL Software and Functions GmbH are showing off a product to protect cars from hackers. Daimler announced Wednesday it was investing in peer-to-peer car sharing company Turo and said it plans to fold its own car sharing pilot project, Munichbased Croove, ahead of Turo’s entrance into the German market in 2018.

HOT PRODUCT The main reason to hold an auto show, of course, is to show off autos. Some of the models attracting the most industry attention will include: Audi’s A8 four-door sedan with an eight-speed transmission and all-wheel drive; the eighth generation of the Rolls-Royce Phantom; and a new version of Volkswagen’s Polo compact, which comes in gasoline and, yes, diesel versions. 113

Small SUVs remain a popular category for new vehicles. Car buyers like the higher seating position, while carmakers save development costs by putting a new body style on top of mechanical components theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve already paid to develop for compact cars. They include: the SEAT Arona, Jaguar E-Pace, Kia Stonic, Citroen C3 Aircross, Skoda Karoq, and a so-far unnamed offering from Chery.

HYPERCARS It wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be an auto show without freaky fast, completely unaffordable supercars to gawk at. Daimler has the Mercedes-Benz-AMG Project ONE, a two-seat hybrid with over 1,000 horsepower and a top speed of 350 kph (217 mph.) A teaser photo shows the silhouette of a car with a low silhouette and big wheel wells. 114

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REVIEW: NEW PRODUCER FOR FOO FIGHTERS, SAME ROCK RESULT

Foo Fighters, “Concrete and Gold” (Roswell/RCA Records) When it was learned the Foo Fighters had turned to a polished pop producer for their next album - a hitmaker for Sia, no less - you could be forgiven for fearing the band was shedding their hard-charging skin. After listening to “Concrete and Gold,” it’s clear that’s a bunch of fooey. Greg Kurstin, a member of the indie-pop duo the Bird and the Bee who produced Adele’s “Hello” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” has actually pushed the band into some harder places over the 11 tracks. The Foos can’t stop rocking, even despite an uncredited appearance by Justin Timberlake. Take the outstanding “Run,” which starts with smoldering chords and soft vocals before building into an apex of thrash metal with Dave 117

Grohl impressively reaching deep into his throat, only to repeat the sonic cycle again - and again. This is thrilling, heroic rock, and even harder than the blistering, Grammy-winning single “White Limo” from 2011. “Make It Right” finds the Foos doing their best ‘70s stomping rock impersonation and it goes down well (listen closely and you’ll hear JT offer background harmonizing.) “La Dee Da” is a jolt of glam rock with distorted vocals and nihilistic lyrics. “Dirty Water” is a shimmering, blissed-out slice of ‘60s-inspired alt-rock with an assist from the Bird and the Bee’s Inara George that morphs into a head-banger. The dirge-like title song is reminiscent of classic Pink Floyd. Typically, even when Grohl and Co. try a soft approach - like on the terrific “Arrows” - it’s only a matter of time before they’re smashing away at their instruments. The only exception is the “Happy Ever After (Zero Hour),” a pitch-dark acoustic oddity that sticks out for its lack of bite. The band takes a step toward more Kings of Leon-like arena rock with “The Line” and “Sunday Rain” - featuring, bizarrely, Sir Paul McCartney on drums. And the single, “The Sky Is a Neighborhood,” is a strained reach for a radio hit. But we shouldn’t have worried about a total pop sound: With the Foos, you simply can’t get anything but full-throttle rock. It’s messy but it’s definitely not pop.

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The Big Sick Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expectations and his true feelings.

FIVE FACTS: 1. The movie is based on the story of Kumail Nanjiani and his real life wife, Emily V. Gordon, met and fell in love. 2. In the film, it is mentioned that Kumail is a big fan of the TV show The X-Files. In reality, he appeared in an episode of The X-Files in 2016.

by Michael Showalter Genre: Comedy Released: 2017 Price: $14.99

3. The movie was released in the USA on Kumail and Emilyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 10th wedding anniversary. 4. Before her audition, actress Zoe Kazan watched videos of Kumail and Emily to help get a better understanding of their relationship.

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5. Judd Apatow was attracted to the project because, in addition to it being funny, it tacked a variety of topics and themes including relationships, religion, family and stability.

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The Big Sick Movie Clip - At Bar

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All Eyez on Me The untold story of the prolific rapper, actor, poet and activist Tupac Shakur right from his early days in New York to becoming one of the most recognized and influential voices. His talent, powerful lyrics and revolutionary mindset established him as a cultural icon whose legacy continues to grow long after his death.

FIVE FACTS: 1. Jamal Woolard also portrayed The Notorious B.I.G in Notorious (2009). 2. The movie was released 21 years after the death of Tupac Shakur with the second trailer coming out exactly 20 years after his death and the first on June 16, 2016, which would have been his 45th birthday. 3. Both Sean Combs and Marion ‘Suge’ Knight praised their selective portrayals in the movie. 4. Demetrius Shipp Jr had to lose 18 pounds for his role as Tupac. 5. The movie is named after Tupac’s 1996 album of the same name.

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by Benny Boom Genre: Drama Released: 2017 Price: $14.99

110 Ratings Trailer

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All Eyez On Me - Clip Suge visits Tupac

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Genre: Alternative Released: Sep 8, 2017 12 Songs Price: $9.99

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“Day I Die”

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Music

Sleep Well Beast The National Now nearly 20 years into their career, The National have cemented themselves as a progressive band with broad appeal. Their latest album, Sleep Well Beast, captures them at their moody and majestic best with subtly sad lyrics that capture Matt Berninger’s portraits of a failed marriage.

FIVE FACTS: 1. Four of the band’s albums were included on NME’s 2013 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. 2. Their style has been compared to the likes of Joy Division, Leonard Cohen, Interpol, Wilco, Depeche Mode and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. 3. In 2010 they played in front of over 25,000 people before a speech by President Obama in Madison, Wisconsin and in November 2016, they played a concert for presidential candidate Hilary Clinton. 4. In March 2016, the band announced Day of the Dead, a charity tribute to the band Grateful Dead. 5. In 2008 the band designed a t-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project to raise money for Safe Space NYC, an organization that provides safe refuge for underprivileged children and families in Southeast Queens.

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The National Perform ‘Day I Die’

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All the Light Above It Too Jack Johnson During his time sailing the North Atlantic for the 2017 documentary The Smog of the Sea, Johnson became inspired to write his seventh album. Built around his trademark breezy Hawaiian folk, songs like “You Can’t Control It” and “Sunsets for Somebody Else” are not only politically charged lullabies but a sign of Johnson’s evolving purpose.

FIVE FACTS: 1. Johnson majored in film at the University of California. 2. He is one of the only musicians to appear in ESPN Magazine. 3. Before his music career took off, he had a sponsorship from Quiksilver for surfing gear. 4. In 2002 he started his own record label called Brushfire Records, named after his album Brushfire Fairytales. 5. He provided the soundtrack for the 2006 movie Curious George which became his first number one album and the first soundtrack to an animated film to reach number one in over ten years.

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Genre: Rock Released: Sep 8, 2017 10 Songs Price: $10.99

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“You Can’t Control It”

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“My Mind Is For Sale”

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THE ‘IT’ FACTOR: HOW A SCARY BIG HIT COULD CHANGE HORROR

There are no sure things in Hollywood, but modestly-budgeted horror movies come pretty close. This weekend took that thinking to new heights as the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s “It” shattered records and even the boldest predictions with its $123.4 million debut. Until “It,” no horror movie had ever even opened over $55 million, let alone $100 million. It had a cast with no movie stars and it only cost $35 million to produce - on the high end for a modern horror movie, but minuscule compared to standard superhero budgets, which generally cost over $100 million and often run north of $250 million. Even as the industry continues to lament the year’s lagging box office, which is down around 5.5 percent from 2016, 2017 has been good for 137

horror with massive successes like “Get Out,” ‘’Split,”‘’Annabelle: Creation” and now the new bar set by “It.” “If ‘It’ had made $120 million total it would have been a huge hit,” says Forbes contributor Scott Mendelson. “This is so unprecedented.” There is already a sequel in the works. “It” focuses on the children of Derry, Maine, while Part 2, expected in the third quarter of 2019, will focus on the adults. Mendelson predicts “It’s” success could lead to more modestly budgeted Stephen King adaptations, but cautions against thinking that its results can be replicated. “This was very much the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ of horror movies,” Mendelson said, referring to the Walt Disney Company’s smash live-action hit from earlier this year. “You have a movie that would have been an event by itself, but you also have the source material that captures several generations of interest and nostalgia.” Beyond a newly energized appreciation for King’s box office potential (excluding “The Dark Tower,”) “It” has some wondering whether Hollywood’s horror strategy might shift. “Everyone has been trying to mold themselves into this low budget model that sort of doesn’t work anymore. There are only so many things you can do with a limited budget like that,” said Kailey Marsh, who runs her own management company and founded the BloodList, which highlights unproduced “dark genre” scripts. “What I liked about ‘It’ was that it looked and felt really expensive. It felt as expensive as a $100 million movie,” she said. 138

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“It” hit a cultural nerve and become one of those rare must-see event movies that all studios long for, but the Warner Bros. and New Line production is also a solidly mid-budget filmwhich is its own kind of anomaly in the current moviemaking landscape that has relied heavily on “micro” and low budget horror films in the $3 to $15 million range in recent years. It’s a strategy that has worked well for Blumhouse Productions, the company behind the “Paranormal Activity” series, “Insidious,”‘’The Purge,”‘’Sinister,” and this year’s “Split” and “Get Out”- all of which cost under $15 million and most under $5 million - and something other studios have latched on to as well. Aside from “It,” only a handful of horror films the past five years have touted budgets over $20 million, like “The Conjuring” films which are also from Warner Bros. and New Line. But even their “Annabelle” spinoffs have been made for $15 million or less. “We try to make the best movie that we can with the best content that we can using the best talent that we can. We try to make it at the right price. If the right price is small we’ll try to do that,” said Jeff Goldstein, who heads up distribution for Warner Bros. Marsh expects some studios to take note of the added return on investment that is possible with a slightly bigger budget. “Because Hollywood is reactionary, and rightfully so, I am excited about not having to develop screenplays that are supposed to be capped at $10 million,” Marsh said. “You can get such a better cast and such better quality in the long run.” 143

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BOX OFFICE TOP 20: ‘IT’ DEVOURS COMPETITION WITH $123.4M

No movie stood a chance against “It” this weekend, which took in an otherworldly $123.4 million making it the biggest September opening of all time and the highest horror debut ever by over $70 million. The Warner Bros. production based on Stephen King’s novel cost only $35 million to produce and sets up a sequel that is expected to come out in 2019. In a very distant second place was the Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy “Home Again,” which earned only $8.6 million in its first weekend in theaters. Holdovers populated the rest of the top five, with “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” in third with $4.8 million, “Annabelle: Creation,” in fourth with $4 million and “Wind River” in fifth with $3.1 million. 145

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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:

“It,” Warner Bros., $123,403,419, 4,103 locations, $30,076 average, $123,403,419, 1 Week.

“Home Again,” Open Road, $8,567,881, 2,940 locations, $2,914 average, $8,567,881, 1 Week.

“The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” Lionsgate, $4,801,745, 3,322 locations, $1,445 average, $64,848,752, 4 Weeks.

“Annabelle: Creation,” Warner Bros., $4,003,115, 3,003 locations, $1,333 average, $96,270,125, 5 Weeks.

“Wind River,” The Weinstein Company, $3,132,362, 2,890 locations, $1,084 average, $24,924,354, 6 Weeks.

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“Leap!,” The Weinstein Company, $2,443,405, 2,691 locations, $908 average, $15,817,841, 3 Weeks.

“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” Sony, $2,006,749, 1,657 locations, $1,211 average, $327,694,543, 10 Weeks.

“Dunkirk,” Warner Bros., $1,861,601, 2,110 locations, $882 average, $183,021,880, 8 Weeks.

“Logan Lucky,” Bleecker Street, $1,669,875, 2,167 locations, $771 average, $25,072,116, 4 Weeks.

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“Emoji Movie, The,” Sony, $1,138,516, 1,450 locations, $785 average, $82,595,374, 7 Weeks.

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“Despicable Me 3,” Universal, $933,240, 1,274 locations, $733 average, $259,981,415, 11 Weeks.

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“Girls Trip,” Universal, $819,855, 1,123 locations, $730 average, $113,378,325, 8 Weeks.

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“The Dark Tower,” Sony, $757,159, 948 locations, $799 average, $48,910,620, 6 Weeks.

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“Wonder Woman,” Warner Bros., $660,442, 961 locations, $687 average, $410,501,584, 15 Weeks.

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“Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature,” Open Road, $576,818, 1,235 locations, $467 average, $27,468,712, 5 Weeks.

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“The Glass Castle,” Lionsgate, $533,828, 1,037 locations, $515 average, $16,078,713, 5 Weeks.

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“True To The Game,” Independent, $472,323, 461 locations, $1,025 average, $472,323, 1 Week.

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“All Saints,” Sony, $465,035, 834 locations, $558 average, $4,604,312, 3 Weeks.

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“War For The Planet Of The Apes,” 20th Century Fox, $450,821, 653 locations, $690 average, $145,329,526, 9 Weeks.

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“The Big Sick,” Lionsgate, $441,878, 535 locations, $826 average, $41,990,772, 12 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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J. J. ABRAMS TO WRITE AND DIRECT ‘STAR WARS: EPISODE IX’

J.J. Abrams is returning to “Star Wars,” and will replace Colin Trevorrow as writer and director of “Episode IX,” pushing the film’s release date back seven months. Disney announced Abrams return on Tuesday a week after news broke of Trevorrow’s departure. After several high-profile exits by previous “Star Wars” directors, Lucasfilm is turning to the filmmaker who helped resurrect the franchise in the first place. Abrams will co-write the film with screenwriter Chris Terrio, who won an Oscar for adapting “Argo,” and also co-wrote “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” 155

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As the director of “The Force Awakens,” Abrams rebooted “Star Wars” to largely glowing reviews from fans and more than $2 billion in box office. Abrams had said that would be his only film for the franchise, but he’s now been pulled back in. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said that Abrams “delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for” on “The Force Awakens” and added “I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy.” This move also means Abrams will be the only director aside from “Star Wars” creator George Lucas to direct more than one “Star Wars” film. “Star Wars: Episode IX” was originally slated to hit theaters in May 2019, but in the wake of the shift has officially been pushed back to a Dec. 20, 2019 release. It is the final installment in the new “main” Star Wars trilogy that began with Abrams’ “The Force Awakens” in 2015 and will continue this December with director Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi.” Lucasfilm has had a number of public fallouts with “Star Wars” directors over the past few years. Earlier this year the young Han Solo spinoff film parted ways with director Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and swiftly replaced them with Ron Howard deep into production. In 2015, the company fired director Josh Trank from work on another Star Wars spinoff. And extensive reshoots on “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” led to widespread speculation that director Gareth Edwards had been unofficially sidelined by Tony Gilroy.

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News of Abrams’ return was greeted warmly by fans on social media Tuesday. He hasn’t directed or committing to directing another project since “The Force Awakens,” and instead had been focused on producing. “I’m very much enjoying taking a moment. Since I’ve done the show ‘Felicity,’ I’ve gone from project to project. So it’s been 20 years since I haven’t been prepping, casting, shooting, editing something,” Abrams told The Associated Press in March. That moment, however brief, is over. For Abrams, it’s time to go back to the Millennium Falcon and that galaxy far, far away.

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US UPDATES SELF-DRIVING CAR GUIDELINES AS MORE HIT THE ROAD

The Trump administration unveiled updated safety guidelines for self-driving cars aimed at clearing barriers for automakers and tech companies wanting to get test vehicles on the road. The new voluntary guidelines announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao update policies issued last fall by the Obama administration, which were also largely voluntary. Chao emphasized that the guidelines aren’t meant to force automakers to use certain technology or meet stringent requirements. Instead, they’re designed to clarify what vehicle developers and states should consider as more test cars reach public roads. “We want to make sure those who are involved understand how important safety is,” Chao said 163

during a visit to an autonomous vehicle testing facility at the University of Michigan. “We also want to ensure that the innovation and the creativity of our country remain.” Under Obama administration, automakers were asked to follow a 15-point safety assessment before putting test vehicles on the road. The new guidelines reduce that to a 12-point voluntary assessment, asking automakers to consider things like cybersecurity, crash protection, how the vehicle interacts with occupants and the backup plans if the vehicle encounters a problem. They no longer ask automakers to think about ethics or privacy issues or share information beyond crash data, as the previous guidelines did. The guidelines also make clear that the federal government - not states - determines whether autonomous vehicles are safe. That is the same guidance the Obama administration gave. States can still regulate autonomous vehicles, but they’re encouraged not to pass laws that would throw barriers in front of testing and use. There is nothing to prohibit California, for instance, from requiring human backup drivers on highly automated vehicles, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would discourage that. Automakers - who were growing increasingly frustrated with the patchwork of state regulations - praised the guidelines. “You are providing a streamlined, flexible system to accommodate the development and deployment of new technologies,” Mitch Bainwol, the head of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told Chao at Tuesday’s event. 164

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The alliance represents 12 major automakers, including General Motors Co., Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Motor Corp. But critics said the guidelines don’t ensure selfdriving technology is safe before going out on the road. “NHTSA needs to be empowered to protect consumers against new hazards that may emerge, and to ensure automated systems work as they’re supposed to without placing consumers at risk,” said David Friedman, a former acting NHTSA administrator who now directs cars and product policy analysts for Consumers Union, the policy division of Consumer Reports magazine. Regulators and lawmakers have been struggling to keep up with the pace of selfdriving technology. There are no fully selfdriving vehicles for sale, but autonomous cars with backup drivers are being tested in numerous states, including California, Nevada and Pennsylvania. California, which is the only state that requires automakers to publicly report crashes of autonomous test vehicles, said Tuesday it was reviewing the new guidelines. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles said it plans to continue to update its own guidelines, a process that should be completed by the end of this year. Chao said the federal guidelines will be updated again next year. “The technology in this field is accelerating at a much faster pace than I think many people expected,” she said. 168

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Chao said self-driving cars could help the blind and disabled and dramatically reduce crashes. Early estimates indicate there were more than 40,000 traffic fatalities in the U.S. last year, and an estimated 94 percent of crashes involve human error. Since the new guidelines are policy, not law, they don’t legally change what the state and federal government and vehicle developers can do, said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who tracks government policy on self-driving cars. Some countries, like South Korea, require pre-market government approval before autonomous vehicles can go out on the road, so the U.S. is on the more lenient side, Smith said. Chao’s appearance came at a time of increased government focus on highly automated cars. Earlier Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Tesla Inc.’s partially self-driving Autopilot system wasn’t to blame for the 2016 death of a driver in Florida. But it said automakers should incorporate safeguards that keep drivers’ attention engaged and limit the use of automated systems to the areas they were designed for, like highways. Last week, the U.S. House voted to give the federal government the authority to exempt automakers from safety standards that don’t apply to autonomous technology. If a company can prove it can make a safe vehicle with no steering wheel, for example, the federal government could approve that. The bill permits the deployment of up to 25,000 vehicles exempted from standards in its first year and 100,000 annually after that. The Senate is now considering a similar bill. 171

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TOSHIBA AGREEMENT ON SALE TO BAIN-LED CONSORTIUM PROTESTED

Toshibaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long meandering sale of its computer memory business took another turn Wednesday, as the Japanese nuclear and electronics companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s announcement of a deal with a consortium was immediately met with opposition from U.S. joint venture partner Western Digital. Embattled Toshiba Corp. needs the sale of its lucrative NAND flash-memory SanDisk joint venture to survive. But Western Digital has begun legal action, opposing the sale to anyone else. Toshiba sank into the red for the fiscal year through March. Its money-losing nuclear business in the U.S., Westinghouse Electric Co., filed for bankruptcy protection in March. Image: Kiyoshi Ota

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In the latest move, Toshiba said it entered a memorandum of understanding with Bain Capital Private Equity, which leads the consortium that also includes South Korea’s SK Hynix, and hoped to enter a final decision by the end of this month. But Western Digital protested within hours of the announcement. “We are disappointed that Toshiba would take this action despite Western Digital’s tireless efforts to reach a resolution that is in the best interests of all stakeholders,” it said in a statement, stressing that it has also offered many proposals. Toshiba said it was talking with two others bidders - Western Digital’s consortium and another that includes Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, of Taiwan. Bain has now come up with a new proposal, it said, while noting other negotiations were also ongoing. “Toshiba intends to reach a definitive agreement that fully meets our objectives at the earlier possible date,” Senior Executive Vice President Yasuo Naruke said. Western Digital, which bought SanDisk last year, has argued the sale might violate terms of the joint venture with Toshiba. Such sales can be sensitive because they involve the transfer of technology. Toshiba had said in June its preferred bidder was the Bain consortium, which also includes Innovation Network Corp. of Japan and the Development Bank of Japan, for the sale of the unit called Toshiba Memory Corp. But after Western Digital opposed the move, it said it was talking to others. 174

Image: Goh Seng Chong

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Toshiba’s massive red ink began with the reactors it has been building in the U.S., which are still unfinished, partly because of beefed up safety regulations following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Bain Capital Private Equity, based in Boston, is one of the world’s leading investment firms. The Development Bank of Japan is backed by the government of Japan. The Innovation Network Corp. of Japan is made up of 26 bigname Japanese corporate investors, including Sony Corp., Canon Inc., Toyota Motor Corp. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Toshiba’s earnings reports initially failed to get endorsements from its auditors, meaning that it could have been delisted. But the auditors finally signed off in August after an investigation that centered on whether Toshiba had known in advance the subsequent losses that emerged related to Westinghouse’s acquisition of CB&I Stone & Webster, a nuclear construction and services business. In 2015, Toshiba acknowledged it had been systematically falsifying its books since 2008, as managers tried to meet overly ambitious targets. An outside investigation found profits had been inflated and expenses hidden across the board.

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NASA’S SATURNORBITING CASSINI SPACECRAFT FACES FIERY FINISH

After a 20-year voyage, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is poised to dive into Saturn this week to become forever one with the exquisite planet. There’s no turning back: Friday it careens through the atmosphere and burns up like a meteor in the sky over Saturn. NASA is hoping for scientific dividends up until the end. Every tidbit of data radioed back from Cassini will help astronomers better understand the entire Saturnian system - rings, moons and all. The only spacecraft ever to orbit Saturn, Cassini spent the past five months exploring the uncharted territory between the gaseous planet and its dazzling rings. It’s darted 22 times between that gap, sending back ever more wondrous photos. 179

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On Monday, Cassini flew past jumbo moon Titan one last time for a gravity assist- a final kiss goodbye, as NASA calls it, nudging the spacecraft into a deliberate, no-way-out path. During its final plunge early Friday morning, Cassini will keep sampling Saturn’s atmosphere and beaming back data, until the spacecraft loses control and its antenna no longer points toward Earth. Descending at a scorching 76,000 mph (122,000 kph), Cassini will melt and then vaporize. It should be all over in a minute. “The mission has been insanely, wildly, beautifully successful, and it’s coming to an end,” said NASA program scientist Curt Niebur. “I find great comfort in the fact that Cassini will continue teaching us up to the very last second.” Telescopes on Earth will watch for Cassini’s burnout nearly a billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) away. But any flashes will be hard to see given the time - close to high noon at Saturn - and Cassini’s minuscule size against the solar system’s second largest planet. The plutonium on board will be the last thing to go. The dangerous substance was encased in super-dense iridium as a safeguard for Cassini’s 1997 launch and has been used for electric power to run its instruments. Project officials said once the iridium melts, the plutonium will be dispersed into the atmosphere. Nothing not even traces of plutonium - should escape Saturn’s deep gravity well. The whole point of this one last exercise dubbed the Grand Finale - is to prevent the spacecraft from crashing into the moons of Enceladus (ehn-SEHL’-uh-duhs) or Titan. NASA wants future robotic explorers to find pristine 181

worlds where life might possibly exist, free of Earthly contamination. It’s inevitable that the $3.9 billion U.S.-European mission is winding down. Cassini’s fuel tank is almost empty, and its objectives have been accomplished many times over since its 2004 arrival at Saturn following a seven-year journey. The leader of Cassini’s imaging team, planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, already feels the loss. “There’s another part of me that’s just, ‘It’s time. We did it.’ Cassini was so profoundly, scientifically successful,” said Porco, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s amazing to me even, what we were able to do right up until the end.” Until Cassini, only three spacecraft had ventured into Saturn’s neighborhood: NASA’s Pioneer 11 in 1979 and Voyager 1 and 2 in the early 1980s. Those were just flybys, though, and offered fleeting glances. And so Cassini and its traveling companion, the Huygens (HOY’-gens) lander, actually provided the first hard look at Saturn, its rings and moons. They are named for 17thcentury astronomers, Italian Giovanni Domenico Cassini and Dutch Christiaan Huygens, who spotted Saturn’s first moon, Titan. The current count is 62. Cassini discovered six moons - some barely a mile or two across - as well as swarms of moonlets that are still part of Saturn’s rings. All told, Cassini has traveled 4.9 billion miles (7.9 billion kilometers) since launch, orbited Saturn nearly 300 times and collected more than 453,000 pictures and 635 gigabytes of scientific data. 182

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The European Space Agency’s Huygens lander - which hitchhiked all the way to Saturn aboard Cassini - still rests on Titan. It parachuted down in 2005, about six months after Cassini arrived at Saturn, and relayed data for more than an hour from the moon’s frigid surface. Still believed intact, Huygens remains the only spacecraft to actually land in one of our outer planetary systems. Other than Titan’s size - about as big as Mercury - little was known about Saturn’s biggest and haze-covered moon before Cassini and Huygens showed up. They revealed seas and lakes of methane and ethane at Titan - the result of rainfall - and provided evidence of an underground ocean, quite possibly a brew of water and ammonia. Over at the little moon Enceladus, Cassini unveiled plumes of water vapor spewing from cracks at the south pole. These geysers are so tall and forceful that they actually blast icy particles into one of Saturn’s rings. Thanks to Cassini, scientists believe water lies beneath the icy surface of Enceladus, making it a prime spot to look for traces of potential life. “Enceladus has no business existing and yet there it is, practically screaming at us, ‘Look at me. I completely invalidate all of your assumptions about the solar system.’” Niebur said. “It’s an amazing destination.” That’s precisely why scientists didn’t want to risk Cassini crashing into it, said program manager Earl Maize at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “The book is not complete. There’s more to come” from exploring the planets, Maize said. “But this has been a marvelous ride.” 184

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Image: Pavel Golovkin

US AGENCIES ORDERED TO STOP USING RUSSIAN COMPANY’S SOFTWARE

The U.S. on Wednesday banned federal agencies from using computer software supplied by Kaspersky Lab because of concerns about the company’s ties to the Kremlin and Russian spy operations. The directive issued by acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke comes as various U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies and several congressional committees are investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Kaspersky said in a statement that it was disappointed by the directive and insisted “it does not have unethical ties or affiliations with any government, including Russia.” Duke directed all U.S. federal agencies and departments to stop using products or services supplied directly or indirectly by the Russianowned and operated company. The directive gives agencies 30 days to determine whether they are using any Kaspersky products. The software must be removed from all information systems within 90 days. 187

“The department is concerned about the ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other government agencies,” the directive said. It said the department also is concerned about Russian laws that would permit Russian spy agencies to compel Kaspersky to provide assistance or intercept communications transiting Russian networks. “The risk that the Russian government - whether acting on its own or in collaboration with Kaspersky - could capitalize on access provided by Kaspersky products (in order) to compromise federal information and information systems directly implicates U.S. national security,” the directive said. The directive provides Kaspersky an opportunity to respond or mitigate the department’s concerns. Kaspersky said the company was happy to have an opportunity to provide information to show that the allegations are unfounded. “No credible evidence has been presented publicly by anyone or any organization as the accusations are based on false allegations and inaccurate assumptions, including claims about the impact of Russian regulations and policies on the company,” Kaspersky said. Kaspersky said it is not subject to the Russian laws cited in the directive and said information received by the company is protected in accordance with legal requirements and stringent industry standards, including encryption. “Kaspersky Lab has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage or offensive cyber efforts, and 188

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it’s disconcerting that a private company can be considered guilty until proven innocent, due to geopolitical issues,” Kaspersky said. Electronics retailer Best Buy has removed Kaspersky products from its shelves, although it declined to explain why. Amazon, which sells Kaspersky software, declined to comment. Staples and Office Depot, both of which sell the software, didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment. The chief executive of the software company, Eugene Kaspersky, is a mathematical engineer who attended a KGB-sponsored school and once worked for Russia’s Ministry of Defense. His critics say it’s unlikely that his company could operate independently in Russia, where the economy is dominated by state-owned companies and the power of spy agencies has expanded dramatically under President Vladimir Putin. At a Senate intelligence committee hearing in May, top U.S. officials were asked whether they would be comfortable with Kaspersky software on their computers. “No” was the reply given by then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart. Democrats on Capitol Hill applauded the decision. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, sent a letter to Duke asking the department 190

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for information about the government’s use of Kaspersky products, especially on critical infrastructure and election systems. “While our intelligence agencies may not use Kaspersky software, other federal agencies do,” Klobuchar wrote. “Public contracting reports show that Kaspersky Lab software has been used by the Department of Justice, the Treasury Department, the Department of State and several other agencies. “Given that our intelligence officials would not use Kaspersky Lab software, it is alarming that essential U.S. government agencies do. This is especially concerning because the Russian government is actively trying to undermine our democracy.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who has been voicing concern about Kaspersky for months, said the directive was a positive step. She called the company’s ties with the Kremlin “alarming.” Shaheen has been working to pass a government-wide ban on Kaspersky software, which would effectively make the directive the law. In June, she successfully amended the defense policy bill to ban the Defense Department from using Kaspersky software. Since then, she’s offered another amendment to the bill, which is being debated on the Senate floor, to extend the ban to the entire federal government. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that since the election, questions have intensified about federal information networks use of the Russian company’s software. 192

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“To date, DHS had only issued four binding operational directives to federal agencies and they’ve done so quietly,” Thompson said. “It is clear that DHS’s decision to issue this directive, in a very public way, is significant.”

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SEEDING THE FUTURE? ‘ARK’ PRESERVES RARE, THREATENED PLANTS

An ordinary-looking freezer in a sturdy cinderblock shed at a suburban Boston botanical garden holds what might be New England’s most important seed catalog. Inside the freezer in Framingham are tightly sealed packages containing an estimated 6 million seeds from hundreds of plant species, bearing obscure or hard-to-pronounce names like potentilla robbinsiana. They are rare varieties of plant life native to the region - in some cases found nowhere else in the world - and are in grave danger of vanishing from the landscape. The “seed ark,” as it’s playfully dubbed by the New England Wild Flower Society, is not unlike Noah’s biblical vessel in its quest to preserve from calamity a rich diversity of life. In this case it’s not animals marching two by two but vegetation threatened by any number of things, including natural disasters, climate change, unchecked development or simply being trampled afoot by unsuspecting hikers. 197

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The society’s 2015 survey of more than 3,500 known plant species determined that 22 percent were rare, in decline, endangered or perhaps already extinct. “Plants have always been second-class citizens when it comes to conservation,” said Bill Brumback, the organization’s conservation director who for three decades has supervised the collection and storage of rare seeds in New England. “Animals are much more, shall we say, charismatic. Plants don’t get the same protections under the federal endangered species act.” Teams of staffers and volunteers scour some of the region’s most remote areas in search of plants like Jesup’s milk-vetch, a species so rare it grows in just three tiny clusters along the Connecticut River. Once gathered, seeds are first brought to a facility in western Massachusetts and dried to 20 to 30 percent of relative humidity, said Brumback, explaining that the drying process assures that liquid inside cells won’t expand and crack when exposed to low temperatures. The seeds are then brought to Framingham, sealed in foil envelopes and frozen at -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit), keeping them viable for decades or even centuries, depending on the individual species. “If we have the seed bank we have the genetic material to restore (the plants) and put them back on the landscape,” as a hedge against extinction, said Debbi Edelstein, the society’s executive director.

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The “ark” is housed in a structure built to withstand many ravages of time. But already some seeds have been pulled from cold storage to help repopulate dying species. An oft-cited example is potentilla robbinsiana, also known as Robbins’ cinquefoil, a small yellow-flowered plant found only near the top of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, New England’s highest peak. When hiking trails threatened to destroy the plant, the society worked with Appalachian Mountain Club and other groups on a plan that restored Robbins’ cinquefoil to the point it no longer was considered an endangered species. Rare seed programs aren’t unique to New England. Similar seed banks exist in several other U.S. locations, including the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, California. Conservation efforts have assumed new urgency as scientists worry about the uncertain impacts of global climate change, Edelstein said. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity , she said, has established an ambitious goal of banking 75 percent of the world’s rare seeds by 2020. In the U.S., private conservation groups are shouldering the burden in part because the U.S. is the only major nation that never ratified the little-known 1992 treaty, though American officials over the years have voiced support for its objectives. Preserving plant life is a worthy undertaking on many levels, Brumback said. Even the rarest of plants can be vital to ecosystems. Some could yet yield medicines or other products useful to mankind. 201

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“These are species on Earth that deserve to live as much as we do,” Brumback said. He added: “If you lost one plant species is the world going to stop? No it’s not. But if you lose enough plant species and enough biological diversity, we don’t know what the effects are going to be.”

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Image: Jason Lee

ASIAN BUSINESSES MULL TECH SOLUTIONS TO FIGHT MODERN SLAVERY

Asia Pacific business leaders are working on recommendations to protect migrant workers from modern day slavery and to ensure companiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; supply sources are free from such unethical employment, according to Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking. One idea might be to create a regional website that rates employment recruiters - something already being done in Vietnam, Andrew Goledzinowski said. Another idea could be to designate a common telephone number as a regional hotline, similar to what the sportswear company Adidas provides to its factory workers in China and elsewhere. Goledzinowski suggested the ideas at a forum of officials and business leaders from 45 Indo-Pacific countries and territories known as the Bali Process that also aims at ensuring Image: Xxxxx

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companies’ supply of materials are not tainted by unethical employment. Participants agreed at the meeting in Perth, Australia, to submit specific recommendations to governments next year. “We are hoping they will come up with the recommendations for how to better manage the recruitment of migrant workers and the protection of migrant workers” he said in an interview Wednesday. He said the measures also aim “to manage supply chain transparency so that businesses are not just responsible for what happens in their business, but also who they buy from.” Migrant workers often end up dealing with recruiters they do not know, being charged high fees and having their passports taken when they reach their destination, Goledzinowski said. “And very quickly you are trafficked, in fact, you are in debt bondage,” he said, expressing hope that business leaders agree that “migrant workers should not have to pay for their own recruitment.” The recommendations will cover employment ethics, transparency standards and safeguards for victims and whistle-blowers. Some will be classed as minimum standards, and some as more ambitious targets. “There’s a lot that can be done which actually is quite easy but it only works if everyone does it,” Goledzinowski said. The Bali Process started in 2002 and includes representatives from the U.S., China, India, Japan, Afghanistan, North Korea and countries in Southeast Asia. 206

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CHINA’S EVERTIGHTER WEB CONTROLS JOLT COMPANIES, SCIENTISTS

Frank Chen’s e-commerce business has nothing to do with politics but he worries it might be sunk by the Communist Party’s latest effort to control what the Chinese public sees online. Chen’s 25-employee company sells clothes and appliances to Americans and Europeans through platforms including Facebook, one of thousands of websites blocked by China’s web filters. Chen reaches it using a virtual private network, but that window might be closing after Beijing launched a campaign in January to stamp out use of VPNs to evade its “Great Firewall.” “Our entire business might be paralyzed,” said Chen by phone from the western city of Chengdu. Still, he added later in a text message, “national policy deserves a positive response and we fully support it.” 209

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The crackdown threatens to disrupt work and study for millions of Chinese entrepreneurs, scientists and students who rely on websites they can see only with a VPN. The technology, developed to create secure, encrypted links between computers, allows Chinese web users to see a blocked site by hiding the address from government filters. Astronomers and physicists use services such as Google Scholar and Dropbox, accessible only via VPN, to share research and stay in touch with foreign colleagues. Merchants use Facebook and other blocked social media to find customers. Students look for material in subjects from history to film editing on YouTube and other blocked sites. Control over information is especially sensitive ahead of Octoberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s twice-a-decade ruling party congress at which President Xi Jinping is due to be named to a second five-year term as leader. The VPN crackdown is part of a campaign to tighten political control that activists say is the most severe since the 1989 suppression of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement. Dozens of activists and lawyers have been detained. A cybersecurity law that took effect in June tightens control on online data. Regulators have stepped up censorship of social media and video websites. How many people might be affected is unclear, but consumer research firm GlobalWebIndex said a survey of Chinese web surfers this year found 14 percent use a VPN daily. If that percentage holds for Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total online population of 731 million, it suggests the country might have as many as 100 million regular users. 211

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Some 8.8 percent of people in the survey use VPNs to look at “restricted sites,” according to GlobalWebIndex. That would be equivalent to 65 million people, or the population of Britain. Communist leaders encourage web use for business and education. They want online commerce to help transform China from a lowwage factory into a high-tech consumer society. But they reject the notion of a borderless internet and free flow of information. Chinese web users without VPNs cannot see the most popular global websites including Google and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as news outlets and human rights groups. In the latest crackdown, regulators say only government-authorized VPNs will be allowed. The operator of a popular service, Green VPN, told customers in June it had been ordered to close. Others shut down without warning. “You have to leave a window for people, for those who need it,” said Wen Jian, a securities trader in Beijing. Wen said he needs to find financial information and Google, accessible only with a VPN, is more effective than Chinese search engines. But his VPN quit working two months ago. “As far as I know, some government people use VPNs too,” said Wen, 27. “They read things abroad. Why can they have it and we cannot?” The crackdown reflects Xi’s notion of “internet sovereignty,” or Beijing’s absolute right to control what people can do and see online. Unauthorized VPNs already were banned but authorities appeared to ignore them, possibly to 213

avoid disrupting business or to defuse resistance among professionals and academics. Government spokespeople refuse to acknowledge any site is blocked, though researchers say they can see attempts to reach sites such as Google stopped within servers operated by state-owned China Telecom Ltd., which controls China’s links to the global internet. Regulators have yet to say who will be allowed to use government-licensed VPNs or what they can see. But a letter sent by China Telecom to some corporate customers this year offers a hint: It says VPNs can link only to a company’s headquarters abroad and no other sites. It warns violators will lose access. Until now, web controls have acted like a tax, allowing users to see blocked sites by paying for a VPN, according to Margaret E. Roberts, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego. “As VPNs become more difficult to access, it’s like the government is raising the tax,” said Roberts in an email. “If VPNs were illegal, we would expect a different calculation for those seeking access.” In a sign of a more severe official stance, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who sold VPN service in Dongguan, near Hong Kong, was sentenced in March to nine months in prison. The agency in charge of the crackdown, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Cabinet press office didn’t respond to questions sent by fax and email about what, if anything, the public will be allowed to do with authorized VPNs. 214

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Chen, the online merchant, said he heard private companies might be permitted but he has yet to apply. The economic impact is unclear, but other Chinese data controls already are a drag on business. The European Center for International Political Economy estimated in 2014 curbs in effect or planned could cut economic growth by up to 1.1 percentage points. That would be equal to as much as $130 billion of lost activity in China’s $12 trillion-a-year economy. “I asked some friends, and if a large number of VPNs are banned, then everyone’s response is there will be a big impact on their business,” Chen said. Chinese leaders faced similar complaints after the “Great Firewall” was activated in 2002. It blocked access to Google, prompting an outcry from scientists and businesspeople who needed to find research papers and commercial information. Public complaints have been muted in part because Chinese companies have developed alternatives to popular global services. Instead of Facebook and Twitter, Chinese social media users have WeChat and Sina Weibo. Baidu Inc. provides Google-style search that complies with official censorship. “I am pretty lazy,” said Hao Kailin, a landscape designer in Beijing who finds images online for work. “If it is too much trouble to look for pictures from prohibited websites, then I give up.”

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Image: Scott Olson

AUSTRIA DOMAIN REGISTRY REJECTS US NEO-NAZI WEBSITE

An Austrian company has revoked the domain name of an American neo-Nazi website that previously was rejected by internet hosts in the United States. Monika Pink-Rank, a spokeswoman for Austrian domain registry nic.at, said The Daily Stormerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s domain was removed on Monday after Austrian politicians reported the white supremacist platformâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence. The website has been looking for a home since its publisher mocked the counter-protester who was killed during the Confederate monument protests in Charlottesville, Virginia last month. Publisher Andrew Anglin said four domain registration companies refused to service the site. Pink-Rank says the Austrian domain was set up at the end of August, after the Charlottesville violence. 219

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CONFUSION HITS CONSUMER MARKET OVER US BAN OF KASPERSKY

Worries rippled through the consumer market for antivirus software after the U.S. government banned federal agencies from using Kaspersky Labs software on Wednesday. Best Buy and Office Depot said they will no longer sell software made by the Russian company, although one security researcher said most consumers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to be alarmed. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security cited concerns about possible ties between unnamed Kaspersky officials and the Kremlin and Russian intelligence services. The department also noted that Russian law might compel Kaspersky to assist the government in espionage. Kaspersky has denied any unethical ties with Russia or any government. It said Wednesday that its products have been sold at Best Buy for a decade. Kaspersky software is widely used 221

by consumers in both free and paid versions, raising the question of whether those users should follow the U.S. government’s lead. Nicholas Weaver, a computer security researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, called the U.S. government decision “prudent;” he had argued for such a step in July . But he added by email that “for most everybody else, the software is fine.”

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The biggest risk to U.S. government computers is if Moscow-based Kaspersky is subject to “government-mandated malicious update,” Weaver wrote this summer. Kaspersky products accounted for about 5.5 percent of anti-malware software products worldwide, according to research firm Statista. Another expert, though, suggested that consumers should also uninstall Kaspersky software to avoid any potential risks. Michael Sulmeyer, director of a cybersecurity program at Harvard, noted that antivirus software has deep access to one’s computer and network. “Voluntarily introducing this kind of Russian software in a geopolitical landscape where the U.S.-Russia relationship is not good at all, I think would be assuming too much risk,” he said. “There are plenty of alternatives out there.” Sulmeyer also said retailers should follow Best Buy Co.’s lead and stop selling the software. Office Depot Inc. announced Thursday that it will stop selling the software. Amazon, which also sells Kaspersky software, declined to comment. Staples, another seller of the software, didn’t return a message seeking comment. Various U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies and several congressional committees are investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Kaspersky said it is not subject to the Russian laws cited in the directive and said information received by the company is protected in accordance with legal requirements and stringent industry standards, including encryption.

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ROGUE KOREAN CHILDMONITORING APP IS BACK, RESEARCHERS SAY

A South Korean child-monitoring smartphone app that was removed from the market in 2015 after it was found to be riddled with security flaws has been reissued under a new name and still puts children at risk, researchers said Monday. The app “Cyber Security Zone” is part of government efforts to curb what authorities consider excessive cellphone use by young people. Parents are required by law to install monitoring software on smartphones for all children 18 and under. The app is almost identical to a previous system, “Smart Sheriff,” which left children’s private information vulnerable to hackers, according to Internet watchdog Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Both were developed under the auspices of MOIBA, the industry association for South Korean cellphone service providers. “The flaws in the apps open the door to possible breaches of sensitive information including passwords, phone numbers, and other user data,” Citizen Lab said in a statement. 227

“Smart Sheriff” was intended to send alerts to parents if children swore or talked about sex, bullying or feeling depressed. But experts were scathing about its lack of security. Cure53, a German auditing firm, called the program “fundamentally broken.” Citizen Lab and Cure53 say the app appears to have been rebranded as “Cyber Security Zone” the equivalent of putting a fresh coat of paint on a dangerous old clunker. “Users are being misled,” said the Citizen Lab report. MOIBA denied the two systems were the same and an official of the group said a review by the government’s Korean Internet & Security Agency found security for “Cyber Security Zone” satisfactory. “We cannot agree to the opinion that the application was not developed with security in mind,” said the official, Noh Yong-lae. Noh said MOIBA cut ties with the developer of “Smart Sheriff” and hired another company to update and develop apps. KISA officials who looked at the Citizen Lab report said their agency’s audit failed to catch at least one security lapse: the app’s developer had not encrypted a key to the password. That stemmed from the app’s design. “They should not have built the app this way,” said Kim Chan-il, a KISA manager. He said the government and MOIBA should make sure to hire developers who pay attention to security and have enough time to build an app. An audit by KISA “does not guarantee security against all weaknesses,” Kim said.

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Image: Ahn Young-joon

Rates of smartphone and internet use in South Korea are among the world’s highest. The government operates filters to block access to pro-North Korean websites and material deemed pornographic. South Korean authorities believe monitoring and censoring children’s smartphone use is part of the state’s duty to protect teenagers against harmful content such as pornography. There is broad public support for the government to stop online behavior that is deemed to be an addiction. The government spends public money to help users break habits of excessive computer gaming and internet use. The backlash to “Smart Sheriff” prompted the government to ease enforcement by proposing a bill in parliament that would allow parents to opt out of installing a monitoring device. The proposal “shows the government acknowledges its original position was wrong, but it’s not enough,” said Kelly Kim, general counsel at OpenNet Korea, a civic group, who co-authored the Citizen Lab report. “The mandate is unconstitutional and should be abolished.” The child surveillance apps are part of a “clean internet” campaign launched by the government with MOIBA since 2013. MOIBA received nearly 963 million won ($853,000) this year for the campaign. The South Korean telecom regulator, Korea Communications Commission, has promoted the two apps developed by MOIBA among teachers, parents and students. 231

Despite that, the app has received many negative reviews. The childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s version has been downloaded about 6,000 times and the parent version about 30,000 times. A commission official, Kwon Man-sub, said if new security risks are found, the government is willing to review them. â&#x20AC;&#x153;By law, we have a duty to protect juveniles,â&#x20AC;? Kwon said. 232

Image: Lee Jin-man

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REPORTS: CHINA ORDERS BITCOIN EXCHANGES TO SHUT DOWN

Regulators have ordered Chinese bitcoin exchanges to close, two business newspapers reported Thursday, after uncertainty about the digital currency’s future in China caused its price to plunge. Regulators in Shanghai, the country’s financial center, gave verbal instructions to exchange operators to shut down, China Business News and 21st Century Economic Report said on their websites. They gave no other details. The central bank has yet to respond to questions about bitcoin’s future in China but earlier warned it was traded without regulatory oversight and might be linked to fraud. The bank banned initial offerings of new digital currencies last week. 235

Bitcoin is created and exchanged without the involvement of banks or governments. Transactions allow anonymity, which has made bitcoin popular with people who want to conceal their activity. Bitcoin can be converted to cash when deposited into accounts at prices set in online trading. Rumors that China planned to ban bitcoin has caused its market price to tumble 20 percent since Sept. 8. Interest in China in bitcoin surged last year after the price rose. A Chinese business news magazine, Caixin, said at one point up to 90 percent of global trading took place in China. Trading volume has fallen as regulators tightened controls. 236

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UK UNIVERSITIES FACE EU STUDENT EXODUS DUE TO BREXIT

Growing up in a small Italian farming town, Andrea Guerini Rocco dreamed of pursuing a career in economics in a big, bustling city. Three years ago, he thought that city would be London. He did his undergraduate studies at the London School of Economics, earning good grades and working at analyst internships he was passionate about. He was able to afford the lower tuition for European Union students - half what other international students pay - and he didn’t need a visa to work and live in Britain. Yet Britain’s vote to leave the European Union changed all that. When the country leaves the bloc in 2019, there’s no promise that the financial and immigration perks for incoming European students and workers will remain. So after the Brexit vote, when Rocco was preparing to enroll in a master’s degree, he decided to move to Columbia University in New York instead. Tuition is pricy in the United States 239

and he’ll need more paperwork - but at least there’s clarity. He knows what he’s signing up for and can plan ahead. “If Brexit was not happening I would have stayed in London,” the 22-year-old said. “The university is great. I love LSE.” He isn’t alone in having to reassess his plans. More than 60,000 EU students attend British universities, bringing in brain power and diversity for employers and more than 400 million pounds ($518 million) of tuition money with them each year. That’s on top of the 500 million pounds these British universities receive in EU funding annually. This year, EU applications to U.K. schools dropped for the first time in at least five years, by 5 percent. More than 2,500 young, bright Europeans took their talents elsewhere, rather than face the uncertainties of Brexit. The British government has promised that EU students who started before Brexit will pay reduced tuition prices and that they’ll stay visa-free until 2019 and that’s about all they’ve promised. If the British government doesn’t provide clarity for EU citizens on visas and education funding, U.K. universities could lose over 1 billion pounds a year and some of their top students. That’s fewer bright minds staying and contributing to the British economy after graduation, innovating and producing - and paying taxes - in Britain. Until the government tells young EU nationals what they can expect post-Brexit, Britain’s education, financial and other crucial sectors may find themselves struggling to attract and retain the talent needed to stay competitive.

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The Russell Group, which represents 24 U.K. universities, including LSE, Cambridge and Oxford, has repeatedly asked the British government to provide clarity for EU students, including assurances that they will be able to stay and work in Britain after graduation. Some of the damage to Britain’s image as a welcoming environment seems to have already been done. Adrian Thomas, the director of communications at LSE, says some of the applicants he’s spoken to were spooked by the focus on immigration in the Brexit debate. Felix Heilmann, who is starting his second year at Oxford, was at home in Germany last year as he watched the Brexit referendum votes rolling in. He was prepping for his first year and had been excited to start studying at one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world. But that excitement turned to anxiety about how the referendum would affect his tuition, immigration status and social experience. “There was a very big feeling of ‘Am I still welcome?’” Heilmann said. While he hasn’t noticed any blatant discrimination at Oxford, he says EU students on campus are weighed down by the insecurity of their future options. He’s not sure if he’ll stay in the U.K. for graduate school, something he once took as certain. If EU students no longer get discounted tuition rates after Brexit, Heilmann and others like him will likely further their education at schools outside the U.K. Stefano Caselli, Dean for International Affairs at Bocconi, one of Italy’s top business schools, says 243

their applicant numbers have been on the rise since last year. He says Italian students who once flocked to the U.K. for a good education are now looking to earn a high quality degree at home. That trend could rise faster if the prices of a school like LSE nearly doubles from 9,250 pounds ($12,062) to 18,408 pounds ($24,005) for EU students. That jump is a huge difference for Europeans, who grew up in a culture where higher education is relatively inexpensive and families don’t save up to pay for it. “Today, many schools in Europe are offering programs in English. The faculty is diversified, with an incredible placement rate,” Caselli said. “And when you have all these parameters, you start saying ‘Why would I move to the U.K.?’” If Europe’s best and brightest choose continental schools like Bocconi, it’s not just British universities that suffer but also companies in Britain that will find it more difficult to recruit new talent. The finance industry, London’s economic backbone, is particularly vulnerable. Reza Moghadam, vice chairman for capital markets at investment bank Morgan Stanley, notes that around 80 percent of the finance industry’s recruits came from U.K. universities, but only 20 percent are British-born. “We do need global talent,” he told a conference this summer. “The global diversity is important in terms of delivering global services.” Financial recruiters will have two options if European students head elsewhere for university - accept lower talent from a smaller pool of applicants or build pipelines that extend beyond British schools.

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But their tendency to rely on British-educated recruits is partially what makes finance-focused schools like LSE and London Business School so popular. If top talent goes elsewhere, and recruiters follow them, it erodes the schools’ brand name power. Thomas says LSE’s reputation is strong enough to combat the Brexit uncertainty that is working against it. Unlike many other U.K. schools, he says, LSE’s applicant numbers didn’t decrease post-referendum “because LSE on your CV is a read-through to a great job at the end of the day.” David Kurten, the education spokesman for the U.K. Independence Party, which campaigned in favor of Brexit, also believes the appeal of schools like LSE and Oxford will endure. He noted that applications from international students outside of Europe, particularly East Asia, are on the rise, despite the fact those students pay higher tuition fees than EU students. “For every one EU student that doesn’t want to come, there’s two or three from China and the Far East who do,” Kurten said. Such optimism is cold comfort for Rocco, who can’t risk his financial future and his resident status on a brand. “If you need to pay the international student fees, you’re basically forced to go elsewhere,” Rocco said. “Most (Italian) students at LSE are middle class, so that tuition change is quite relevant. If this changes in the future, we expect Italian students at LSE to basically disappear.”

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