Take a look at Apple’s new design book without spending $300

Apple last week impressed and shocked the world when it released a brand new product just weeks after unveiling the iPhone 7. For just $300, Apple fans can now get their hands on a new coffee table book that highlights a select history of Apple products dating back to 1997, beginning of course with the iconic Bondi Blue iMac.
Okay, so maybe nobody was impressed. And sure, maybe no one was shocked either, aside of course from the deluge of snarky Internet commenters who
were quick to blast Apple for having the gall to release a book for $300.
Dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs, Apple design guru Jony Ive explained the impetus behind the book’s creation as follows.
“Honestly, it felt more of an obligation than something that we felt really compelled to do,” Ive said during an interview last week. “The reason for
that, and I guess it’s a fairly obvious one, is that as designers, we are far more interested in and consumed by the future; in what doesn’t exist yet.
But we’ve been working together for 20, 25 years, and it felt like the right and appropriate thing to do.
You get a sense of what we’ve learned as a team and of how technology is evolving.”
The book is appropriately titled “Designed by Apple in California” and is available in two sizes, a 10.2 x 12.8 inch version that retails for $199 and a 13 x
16.3 inch version that retails for $299.
If you’re at all curious about what a few hundred bucks will get you, Michael Kukielka over the weekend put together a walk through of the book where we can take a gander at the vibrant photos
that fill the pages of Apple’s curious new product.
And in case you missed it the first time around, Stephen Colbert last week covered Apple’s new book by spoofing one of the company’s famed product introduction videos.

Murray rules the world after humbling of Djokovic

His season had already
provided several unforgettable chapters but Andy Murray saved the best to last as he eclipsed Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-4 to claim his first ATP World Tour Finals title and rubberstamp the year-end top
ranking on Sunday.
Against a man who has so often been his nemesis, Britain's golden boy Murray produced a relentless display to claim a ninth title of a year which included a second Wimbledon crown and Olympic
gold in Rio.
Murray's play in the winner-takes-all season climax was all the more remarkable as a day earlier he looked on the point of mental and physical
exhaustion after taking almost four hours to subdue Milos Raonic in the semi-final.
It would have been blow to Murray's solar plexus if, two weeks after dislodging Djokovic from the top ranking, the Serb had ripped it back with a fifth consecutive Tour Finals title.
But his powers of recovery appear limitless as he handed an error-prone Djokovic a bitter defeat that will leave a sour taste in the 12-times major
champion's mouth as a new season swings into action in a few weeks.
On this evidence the Scot may enjoy his new status for some time.
Murray double-faulted twice in the first game and there was a wobble near the end as Djokovic mounted some late resistance, but with the majority of the 17,000 fans in the O2 Arena willing him on, Murray completed the job.
"It's very special playing against Novak in a match like this, we've played grand slam finals and at the Olympics before, but I am very happy to win and to
be world number one is very special. It is something I never expected," Murray said.
Murray's win came two days after older brother Jamie was crowned number one doubles pair with Brazil's Bruno Soares and a year since Dunblane's
finest led Britain to the Davis Cup title.
Djokovic had won 22 of his past 23 matches at the Thames-side venue, but the cracks that have appeared in his game since completing a career slam by beating Murray in the French Open final
returned after a trouble-free route to the final.
He made 30 unforced errors and some of his mistakes would have embellished a video nasty.
Despite his year tailing off, however, and losing a 9,000-point ranking lead over Murray, Djokovic still won seven titles and finally ruled at Roland Garros.
He was gracious in defeat.
"Definitely he is the number one in the world. He is the best player and deserved to win. He played the better tennis in the decisive moments. Credit to Andy for being mentally tough."
Best of British, Mate.

Kanye West Rants Against Beyoncé and Jay Z, Abruptly Ends Concert

Concertgoers on Twitter claimed the singer showed up late and only performed two to three songs -- amid his signature rants -- before exiting the stage as the audience loudly booed.
Things started on a positive note when West brought out rapper Kid Cudi, with whom he'd had an online feud earlier this year. Before performing together, the pair hugged on stage as the crowd
cheered.
But the uplifting energy quickly shifted when West began to rant about other artists.
"Beyoncé, I was hurt. 'Cause I heard that you said you wouldn't perform unless you won Video of the Year over me and over 'Hotline Bling,'" West said,
referencing this year's MTV Video Music Awards .
"Now don't go trying to diss Beyoncé. She is great.
Taylor Swift is great. We are all great people. We are all people. But sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forgetting who we are just to win. F**k winning. F**k looking cool. F**k being cool."
The "Famous" rapper went on to take a jab at Beyoncé's husband and his longtime pal, Jay Z, saying, "Jay Z, call me, bruh. You still ain't called me. Jay Z, I know you got killers, please don't send
them at my head. Just call me. Talk to me like a man."

Drake, Bieber win big, Selena Gomez gets emotional at AMAs

The 2016 American Music Awards featured a number of pop stars strumming their guitars, Drake making a rare awards show appearance, an
emotional speech from Selena Gomez and political moments about President-elect Donald Trump.
Drake, who has skipped his fair share of awards shows in recent years, was the big winner with four awards and debuted a new commercial for Apple Music.
"For our genre, I just like to keep things excited and keep making music. Shout out to everybody that's trying to do the same thing," said Drake, who broke
Michael Jackson's record for most AMA
nominations after scoring 13 nominations.
Bieber, who performed from his tour in Zurich, Switzerland, also won four awards.
Gomez, who lost artist of the year to Ariana Grande but won favorite female artist — pop/rock, gave a heartfelt speech onstage that earned a loud
applause from the audience at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
"I think it's safe to say that most of you know a lot of my life whether I liked it or not, and I had to stop, 'cause I had everything, and I was absolutely
broken inside. And I kept it all together to where I never let you down. But I kept it too much together where I let myself down," said 24-year-old Gomez, who recently took time off to treat depression and anxiety.
"I don't want to see your bodies on Instagram. I want to see what's in here," she added, pointing to her heart. "And I have to say thank you so much to my fans because you guys are so damn loyal, and I don't know what I did to deserve you. If you are broken, you don't have to stay broken."
Grande was shaking onstage as she collected artist of the year at the fan-voted show that aired live on ABC, beating Adele, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood and Bieber. "With or without this, I love you from the bottom of my heart," she said to her fans.
Green Day was one of many big-named acts promoting new albums at the AMAs, including Bruno Mars, the Weekend, Lady Gaga, Sting, John
Legend and The Chainsmokers. But Green Day got political during their performance of "Bang Bang" as band leader Billie Joe Armstrong sang "No KKK, no fascist USA, no Trump" during the show.
The show's hosts — former "Saturday Night Live" comic Jay Pharaoh and model Gigi Hadid — also mentioned the Trump family when telling jokes:
After Pharaoh impersonated Jay Z, Hadid acted like Melania Trump.
"I love my husband, President Barack Obama, and our children, Sasha and Malia," she said, scrunching up her face.
Strumming guitars while singing was one of the night's themes: One Direction's Niall Horan slowed
things down for his acoustic-folk solo single, "This Town": James Bay sang his smoky single, "Let It Go"; and Shawn Mendes performed his hit "Treat You Better" and switched to piano for the aching "Mercy."
But the best singer-guitarist was Gaga, who beautifully belted the lyrics to her latest single, "Million Reasons." She earned a rousing applause from the audience.
Sting also impressed, who performed "Message In a Bottle," ''Every Breathe You Take" and his new single, "I Can't Stop Thinking About You." He received the American Music Award of Merit, which was presented to him by Robert Downey Jr.
"American music lit the musical spark in my young mind," the English singer said after his performance. "My musical soul is all American!"
Other highlights included double winners twenty one pilots and Mars, who kicked off the AMAs with his groovy hit, "24K Magic," backed by his band
who matched his slick, upbeat dance moves.
Grande and Nicki Minaj got steamy during their performance of the reggae-tinged "Side to Side":
Grande's background dancers danced closely on her, and one male dancer even pulled up her skirt, while Minaj, who rapped from a chair, spread her
legs widely.
Other performers included Maroon 5 with Kendrick Lamar; DJ Khaled with Minaj, Future, Rick Ross and August Alsina; and Fifth Harmony, who won
collaboration of the year for "Work from Home" with Ty Dolla $ign.
Prince's 1984 "Purple Rain" album, which gained new attention after his death in April, won top soundtrack. His sister, Tyka Nelson, collected his
trophy onstage and cried as she spoke to the audience.
"We'll keep this for you at Paisley Park until we see you again," she said weeping and naming her siblings. "This is for you."
Other winners included Tim McGraw, the
Chainsmokers and Florida Georgia Line. Rihanna, who didn't attend, won three awards. Adele and Beyonce were also absent but both won an award.
Zayn, who has won a handful of AMAs with his One Direction bandmates, took home new artist of the year.
"Wow. This one just has my name on it, right?" he said. "This has been a crazy year ... I didn't expect anyone to vote for me, so thank you for voting for me."

Disney to open ‘Avatar’ park in the summer of 2017

Seven years is an eternity in the entertainment business, and that’s just how long it’s been since James Cameron’s Avatar arrived on the scene and did some rather boffo box office (as in biggest box office in movie history). But a lot has changed since then, movies come and go, and the public
consciousness is fleeting. Still, Cameron is pressing on with four planned sequels, and now we have more news of Disney involvement. Pandora — The
World of Avatar is opening next summer at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. No specific date has been announced yet.
According to io9.com , Pandora has been in the works for over five years, and it took three years just to ramp up construction. When your project
concerns a Disney theme park, it’s understood that you are getting into a massive undertaking.
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek spilled the news at D23’s Destination D, also sharing concept artwork and park details. For example, the main restaurant will be called “Satu’li
Canteen, with a focus on Na’vi art and cultural items,” and there’s also something called Pongu Pongu, which is a “special drink location.” Just roll
with it for now; it’s Disney.
“Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ll still get it,” Chapek said in the Los Angeles Times. We would expect nothing less from the people behind the Magic Kingdom. The bridge that will
connect Animal Kingdom to the Avatar area:

Trump was 'awed' when Obama told him what he would have to handle as president

The Wall Street Journal previously cited sources saying that during Trump's private meeting with Obama last week, the president-elect was surprised
by the wide range of the president's job.
New Yorker editor David Remnick described some of the topics the two covered, as explained to him by
some of Obama's staff members:
"Obama told staff members that he had talked Trump through the rudiments of forming a cabinet and policies, including the Iran nuclear deal, counter-terrorism policy, health care — and that the
President-elect's grasp of such matters was, as the debates had made plain, modest at best. Trump, despite his habitual bluster, seemed awed by what
he was being told and about to encounter."
Despite Trump's apparent "loose grasp of policy," Remnick wrote, Obama and his team made sure to respect the traditional etiquette displayed during a
presidential transition — in part to preserve a shot at influencing Trump in the future, Remnick said.
Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, also painted a less-than-rosy picture of the Trump transition effort. On the day after Election Day, he
reportedly chatted with the person Trump sent to learn how to staff and run the White House — Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"Everything's great!" McDonough told The New Yorker, evidently with a struggle.

Trump settles Trump University lawsuits for $25 million

President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to pay $25 million to former students of his for-profit Trump University as part of a settlement that
resolves three outstanding lawsuits against him, including one in which he was set to testify in a trial that was due to begin in San Diego later this month.
As part of the agreement, Trump will pay $1 million in penalties to the state of New York for violating state education laws by labeling his nonaccredited
school a “university” without registering as an educational institution with New York state officials, according to New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, who announced the
settlement Friday afternoon. The deal includes no admission of wrongdoing.
“In 2013, my office sued Donald Trump for swindling thousands of innocent Americans out of millions of dollars through a scheme known as Trump University,” Schneiderman said in a
statement. “Donald Trump fought us every step of the way, filing baseless charges and fruitless appeals and refusing to settle for even modest
amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university. Today, that all changes. Today’s $25 million settlement agreement is a stunning
reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”
The announcement came after days of frantic negotiations among the parties that began last week, after Trump was elected president and U.S. Judge Gonzalo Curiel — the U.S.-born judge whom Trump repeatedly attacked during the campaign as biased due to his “Mexican” heritage — began prodding the parties to resolve the cases. The first
of three lawsuits was scheduled to start in Curiel’s courtroom Nov. 28. Trump’s lawyers had filed motions urging that the trial date be postponed, arguing that their client was too busy assembling
his new administration to testify in a civil trial.
Trump attorney Daniel Petrocelli said Friday that Trump was determined to resolve the controversy.
“There’s an old saying that we lawyers have that nobody is happy in a settlement. But I don’t think this is true, this is a settlement we can all be happy
about and look forward to putting this behind us and moving forward. President-elect Trump is keenly interested in tackling the problems of our country and moving forward.”
The negotiations were a three-sided affair, involving Trump’s lawyers in Los Angeles, plaintiff’s lawyers in San Diego and Schneiderman’s office in New York, according to a source familiar with the talks. During the negotiations, Trump — who vowed during the campaign to never settle the cases — balked at the
wording of the proposed agreement and refused to accept that he was paying “penalties” for violating state laws, according to the source. Friday’s
announcement by Schneiderman used the word “penalties” for Trump’s alleged violation of state education laws. The final terms of the agreement, however, were presented to Curiel on Friday
afternoon. Curiel must still approve the settlement for it to take effect. Preliminary approval could
come in as few as 30 days, though final approval may take 30 to 60 days beyond that.