Moodle 2.1.2 - Produce/manage educational sites.. (Free)

Moodle 2.1.2 - Produce/manage educational sites.. (Free):

Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities.

You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student University. This site itself is created using Moodle, so check out the Moodle Demonstration Courses or read the latest Moodle Buzz.

Version 2.1.2: Release notes were unavailable when this listing was updated.

Mac OS X 10.4 or later

Download Now

SPINOFF REVIEW: "Puss in Boots"

SPINOFF REVIEW: "Puss in Boots": Wielding its charming hero's wit like a blade, "Puss in Boots" sets out in a welcome direction, giving the feline a proper (and highly entertaining) origin with a stellar supporting cast.

Import camera videos directly into iMovie '11 | Macworld

Import camera videos directly into iMovie '11 | Macworld: Admittedly, that's a lot of steps, made slightly frustrating by the fact that Image Capture doesn't remember other folder locations the next time you open the application. So, to streamline the process for the next time, create a simple Automator workflow specifically for Image Capture.

Apogee Lets You to Plug Into iOS and Jam | GeekDad | Wired.com

Apogee Lets You to Plug Into iOS and Jam | GeekDad | Wired.com: I connected the Apogee Jam to my iPad 2 and launched GarageBand. The status light on Jam turned green, indicating that the app I launched connected to the device. I adjusted the control knob to bring up the level of my guitar. I selected a clean amp and a 2 x 12″ cabinet to emulate a Fender Twin reverb, added some reverb and tremolo and strummed out a few chords. Gorgeous sound exploded out of my headphones. Full of clarity, detail and nuance that I haven’t heard in an iOS app, the combination of Jam with Garageband’s amp simulation and effects technology created an unparalleled mobile experience. So true was the sound I was creating that it was easy to forget about the interface and begin exploring the music and all that Garageband for the iPad had to offer.

Dwarf Planet Eris Is Icy Double of Pluto

Dwarf Planet Eris Is Icy Double of Pluto: Astronomers from France have made the first accurate measurements of the distant dwarf planet Eris, and found that it's an almost exact doppelganger of the declassified ninth planet, Pluto.

Cataloging Cosmic Train Wrecks

Cataloging Cosmic Train Wrecks: By spying on galactic smash-ups, we're learning how the massive Milky Way-Andromeda collision might play out in 5 billion years.

PBS to air Steve Jobs documentary Nov. 2

PBS to air Steve Jobs documentary Nov. 2: PBS will air a documentary about late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on November 2, that includes interviews with numerous early Apple employees and those who knew him, as well as part of an un-aired interview Jobs did with PBS in 1994.

Steve Jobs - One Last Thing will premiere next Wednesday, November 2nd, at 10:00 PM on PBS stations around the United States.

Discover What's New in CSS 4

Discover What's New in CSS 4: CSS 3 we hardly knew you. The World Wide Web Consortium is already making plans for CSS 4, an update that will give web developers even more powerful ways to wrangle their code into a faster, better looking web.

Steve Jobs’ biography: The first great digital book event – MacDailyNews - Welcome Home

Steve Jobs’ biography: The first great digital book event – MacDailyNews - Welcome Home: Carmody reports, “Jobs’ biography may be the first great digital book event, a last hurrah for the universally appealing hardcover, a collective reading experience of Potteresque proportions.”

Everywhere Man - Magazine - The Atlantic

Everywhere Man - Magazine - The Atlantic: Count Harry Kessler dined with Diaghilev, fought for Germany, and penned one of the greatest diaries ever published.

HE WAS COSMOPOLITAN, and a member of a new aristocracy. He grew up in Paris, in England, in Germany, and on Staten Island. Though his mother was Anglo-Irish, Count Harry Kessler was, or became, intensely German, as if by a sort of tragic choice; and he also became, through his experiences and through the anguished searching of his spirit, something close to a representative man.

The diary he wrote, starting in 1880 when he was 12 and continuing until his death in 1937, is said by the editor and translator of the volume, Laird M. Easton, to be one of the greatest ever written, “comparable in its stature to those of Samuel Pepys, André Gide, Henri Frédéric Amiel, Beatrice Webb, or Virginia Woolf.” Kessler moves between countries and is intimate with high society in England, France, and Germany. He seeks out great artists and gives us memorable portraits of Verlaine in old age, of Degas and Renoir, of Rodin and Maillol, of Rilke and Hofmannsthal, of Cosima Wagner, of Richard Strauss, of Diaghilev and Nijinsky, and of other great dancers and theatrical figures of the age. He tells us of the intrigues of the German Imperial Court. We see him helping Hofmannsthal to work out the plot of Der Rosenkavalier. We accompany his party to the premiere of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and to the dinner afterward with Nijinsky, Cocteau, Misia Sert (as she later became), Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Bakst, Ravel, Hofmannsthal, and—a late arrival, covered in gems from the Persian Ball—the Aga Khan, who, “sitting next to Nijinsky with his jaw and vulgar face, was like a fat sack of real money next to a fantastic dream of wealth.” The cast list alone makes this an amazing diary.

...

Here, at Edward Gordon Craig’s production of Ibsen’s Vikings, we witness the invention of modern theatrical production style:

The chief reforms: he completely abolishes the ramp lights, and the stage decorations almost completely. He uses only overhead lights and props. The stage is surrounded as if by cloths that remain almost invisible behind the changing lighting effects and the colored veil of lights. You feel as if you were looking into a kind of infinite space. Your entire attention is concentrated, however, on the action that takes place, lit up brightly and variably, according to the mood in this sidereal, so to speak, infinity. These basic ideas seem to me of great value, and the impression is in any case much stronger than with the usual papier-mâché decoration because the imagination has more room and the attention is concentrated.

Elgan: Getting serious about Siri - Computerworld

Elgan: Getting serious about Siri - Computerworld: One thing Siri can do is send text messages. And text messages can do powerful things, with the right help.

I told you recently about a new service called "If This Then That," which is abbreviated and lowercased by the company as: ifttt, for some reason.

The service lets you connect together all kinds of Internet-based services. One of these services is SMS. And that's the key to empowering Siri.

Here's how it works: You use Siri to send a text to ifttt, and that service can turn your text into a Facebook or Twitter post, Tumblr, Posterous or Wordpress blog post, an Evernote entry or any number of other actions.

The New York Times reviews ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Isaacson: Replete with passion and excitement – MacDailyNews - Welcome Home

The New York Times reviews ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Isaacson: Replete with passion and excitement – MacDailyNews - Welcome Home: “Skeptic after skeptic made the mistake of underrating Steve Jobs, and Mr. Isaacson records the howlers who misjudged an unrivaled career,” Maslin reports. “‘Sorry Steve, Here’s Why Apple Stores Won’t Work,’ Business Week wrote in a 2001 headline. ‘The iPod will likely become a niche product,’ a Harvard Business School professor said. ‘High tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product,’ Mr. Sculley said in 1987.”

“Mr. Jobs got the last laugh every time,” Maslin reports. “‘Steve Jobs’ makes it all the sadder that his last laugh is over.”

Hints of New Physics Crop Up at LHC

Hints of New Physics Crop Up at LHC: Preliminary findings from CERN's Large Hadron Collider may have uncovered experimental evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. Data from the CMS experiment is showing significant excesses of particles known as leptons being created in triplets, a result that could be interpreted as evidence for a theory called supersymmetry.

Al Gore: Steve Jobs' greatest work was Apple itself

Al Gore: Steve Jobs' greatest work was Apple itself: The Apple board member says Jobs leaves behind a world-class executive team that is "hitting on all cylinders" and committed to taking risks.

Lytro Light Field Camera offers simplicity with futuristic features | Macworld

Lytro Light Field Camera offers simplicity with futuristic features | Macworld: Ng claims that the "light-field engine" needed for viewing, refocusing, and interacting with the images is embedded in each image file, making it possible to embed the images in interactive, refocusable form on sites such as Facebook.

At Popcorn Hackathon, Coders Team With Filmmakers to Supercharge Web Video | Underwire | Wired.com

At Popcorn Hackathon, Coders Team With Filmmakers to Supercharge Web Video | Underwire | Wired.com: Popcorn.js, which few outside the web-development world have ever heard of, could be the next big thing in internet video. It’s a simple — for coders, at least — framework that allows filmmakers to supplement their movies with news feeds, Twitter posts, informational windows or even other videos, which show up picture-in-picture style. For example, if a subject in a film mentions a place, a link can pop up within the video or alongside it, directing the viewer to a Google Map of the location.

Popcorn-powered videos work in any HTML5-compatible browser and are easy to navigate for anyone who has ever used the internet. The tools the Popcorn coders are creating could lead to far more interactive online experiences, not just for movies and documentaries but for all videos...

“Popcorn is the most developer-friendliest library for making it super-simple to make a read-only experience, which is what HTML5 video really is,” said Waldron, one of Popcorn.js’s lead developers, while ferociously typing out The Interrupters code. “The library is very small and very capable of making it super-easy to add an interactive level [to video]...”

Troy Hunt: Secret iOS business; what you don’t know about your apps

Troy Hunt: Secret iOS business; what you don’t know about your apps: Not so in the mobile app world of today. These days, there’s this great big fat abstraction layer on top of everything that keeps you pretty well disconnected from what’s actually going on. Thing is, it’s a trivial task to see what’s going on underneath, you just fire up an HTTP proxy like Fiddler, sit back and watch the show.

Let me introduce you to the seedy underbelly of the iPhone, a world where not all is as it seems and certainly not all is as it should be.

Lytro unveils radical new camera design | Deep Tech - CNET News

Lytro unveils radical new camera design | Deep Tech - CNET News: Conventional digital cameras uses lenses to focus a subject so it's sharp on the image sensor. That means that for an in-focus part of the image, light from only one direction reaches the sensor.

For light-field photography, though, light from multiple directions hits each patch of the sensor; the camera records this directional information, and after-the-shot computing converts it into something a human eye can understand.


The result that a Lytro camera image is a 3D map of whatever was photographed, and that means people can literally decide what to focus on after they've taken the photo.

"It's got an instant shutter. You press the button--bang! It takes the picture right away," Ng said. "We have that unique feature--shoot first, focus later. The camera doesn't have to physically focus while you take the shot."

How Apple screwed up the iPad music app with iOS 5 | Apple - CNET News

How Apple screwed up the iPad music app with iOS 5 | Apple - CNET News: The changes to the Music app may be minor amidst the other new features in iOS 5. But as someone who regularly listens to music, podcasts, and iTunes U content on my iPad, I think Apple dropped the ball here. Let's hope we see some fixes to this new and improved Music app in the next iOS update.

I might add that, while listening to the MacBreak Weekly podcast, I discovered that you can no longer adjust the speed to 2X - a huge feature loss. :(

NetNewsWire 3.3 - RSS/Atom newsreader.. (Free)

NetNewsWire 3.3 - RSS/Atom newsreader.. (Free):

NetNewsWire is an easy-to-use RSS and Atom newsreader for Mac OS X. Its familiar three-paned interface -- similar to Apple Mail -- can fetch and display news from thousands of different websites and weblogs, making it quick and easy to keep up with the latest news. Features include:

• A tabbed browser lets you read web pages with the convenience of staying in the same window.
• Search your news items with a standard Apple search widget -- as in Mail and other applications.
• Downloads podcasts and enclosures, and sends podcasts to iTunes with with your choice of genre and playlist.
• The flagged items feature lets you mark items that you want to keep -- they stay forever or until you mark them as unflagged.
• Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) compatible, and includes Automator actions to control functions in NetNewsWire.
• Other features include syncing, smart lists, search subscriptions, built-in styles, and AppleScript support.
• Includes a built-in categorized list of feeds that can be easily subscribed to.
• If NetNewsWire Lite is already running, quit it before running NetNewsWire.

Version 3.3:

• Adds Full Screen mode support on both Lion and Snow Leopard.
• Provides fixes for problems affecting concurrency, stability, and Google Reader sync.
• NetNewsWire 3.3 require Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later. If you need a version that runs on 10.5.8, you should continue to use NetNewsWire 3.2.15.

Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later.

Download Now

In a Single Month, the Occupation Became a Force

In a Single Month, the Occupation Became a Force: The Occupy movement turned a month old Monday, and it's grown up quickly from a protest that NPR dismissed to a movement that has the world watching.

NetNewsWire upgrade provides key missing link to David Handy - Blogger workflow

I am very pleased.

The workflow for this blog, on my Mac, is NetNewsWire.app-to-MarsEdit.app-to-Blogger website.

On my new iPad 2, the workflow became FeedlerRSS.app-toBlogger.app-to-Blogger website.

This morning I upgraded NetNewsWire to its latest free (albeit ad-supported) version. Its support for syncing with Google Reader provides the last missing link in giving me the same kind of workflow on my iPad as I do on my Mac.

I've benn using FeedlerRSS on my iPad and syncing with Google Reader. Or, rather I've stopped using it because until now NetNewsWire didn't sync with Google Reader.

Now my workflow will be much more efficient. I can read on my iPad in FeedlerRSS and go to my desktop and
NetNewsWire to post to MarsEdit.

Or, in a pinch, do what I'm doing now: composing a post in the iPhone Blogger app. ;)

How Yahoo Spawned Hadoop, the Future of Big Data

How Yahoo Spawned Hadoop, the Future of Big Data: If you listen to the pundits, Yahoo isn't a technology company. And yet it spawned one of the most important software technologies of the last five years: Hadoop, an open source platform designed to crunch epic amounts of data using an army of dirt-cheap servers.

HP TouchPad gets major webOS update despite device's end

HP TouchPad gets major webOS update despite device's end: WebOS chief Ari Jaaksi said on his blog that an update is available for the HP Touchpad. Among the new features and improvements in version 3.0.4 of webOS are better camera support, connectivity for non-HP phones, improved messaging, and a tweaked UI. The over-the-air update is being applied automatically....

Dark Matter: Now More Mysterious Than Ever

Dark Matter: Now More Mysterious Than Ever: Astronomers have one more reason to scratch their heads over the unseen material known as dark matter. Observations of two dwarf galaxies, Fornax and Sculptor, show the dark matter within them is spread out smoothly rather than heaped into a central bulge, contradicting cosmological models.

Adobe brings Reader to iPhone, iPad

Adobe brings Reader to iPhone, iPad: Adobe has released the first iOS version of Reader, its dedicated PDF viewer. While iOS can already open PDF files, Reader supports some additional features, such as the ability to load portfolios, packages, annotations and drawing markups. Users can open documents protected by passwords or Adobe LiveCycle, and launch files in other apps using an "Open In" command. Likewise, Reader becomes an option in any other iOS title that supports Open In....

Google Voice drops from App Store after iOS 5 crash bug

Google Voice drops from App Store after iOS 5 crash bug: Google has temporarily but voluntarily pulled Google Voice for iOS devices (App Store, cached) following a major bug with iOS 5. At least some users are reporting the app crashing when they try to sign in.

Apple stock closes at all-time $422 high on iPhone 4S launch

Apple stock closes at all-time $422 high on iPhone 4S launch: Apple capped off a successful iPhone 4S launch by reaching an all-time high in share price. Its shares closed at exactly $422 after seeing a rapid $13.57 climb. The value was over $52 above the drop to $369.80 recorded just a week earlier....

Marvel's "The Avengers" Trailer Downloaded Over 10 Million Times on iTunes in First 24 Hours

Marvel's "The Avengers" Trailer Downloaded Over 10 Million Times on iTunes in First 24 Hours:

Commerce Weekly: PayPal wants to "one click" across the web

Commerce Weekly: PayPal wants to "one click" across the web: At its Innovate developer conference in San Francisco this week, eBay announced PayPal Access, a single sign-on technology that functions like OpenID, Facebook Connect, and other proxy identity mechanisms. But it comes with a twist: PayPal Access enables transactions.

Review: Flying Free as a Bat Through Arkham City | GameLife | Wired.com

Review: Flying Free as a Bat Through Arkham City | GameLife | Wired.com: Arkham City is what every lesser open-world videogame wishes it could be, a few important pieces of core gameplay that have been polished to perfection, set in a wide-open city filled to the brim with things to do. And it does all this with narrative panache, spinning a story worthy of one of the world’s most famous superheroes.

Five annoying things about iOS 5 | iPhone Atlas - CNET Reviews

Five annoying things about iOS 5 | iPhone Atlas - CNET Reviews: I'm really perturbed by some of the new operating system's quirks and limitations. Here's my list of the five most annoying things about iOS 5.

USGS: 5.9 magnitude quake off OR coast, no tsunami

USGS: 5.9 magnitude quake off OR coast, no tsunami:

Officials say there is no danger of a tsunami. The quake was felt by residents in southern Oregon and as far north as Portland, as well as by some residents in northern California.

Apple publishes guide on how to set up iCloud

Apple publishes guide on how to set up iCloud: The company has published its official online step-by-step guide on how to configure iCloud on a mobile device, Mac, and Windows PC.

Apple iOS 5.0 - iPhone operating system; download with iTunes.. (Updater)

Apple iOS 5.0 - iPhone operating system; download with iTunes.. (Updater):

Apple iOS can be downloaded from iTunes by connecting your iPhone and clicking the Update button.

Version 5.0:

Notifications

• Swipe from the top of any screen to view notifications in one place with Notification Center
• New notifications appear briefly at the top of the screen
• View notifications from lock screen
• Slide the notification app icon to the right on the lock screen to go directly to the app

iMessage

• Send and receive unlimited text, photo, and video messages with other iOS 5 users
• Track messages with delivery and read receipts
• Group messaging and secure encryption
• Works over cellular network and Wi-Fi

Newsstand

• Automatically organizes magazine and newspaper subscriptions on Home Screen
• Displays the cover of the latest issue
• Background downloads of new issues

Reminders for managing to do lists

• Syncs with iCloud, iCal and Outlook
• Location-based reminders when you leave or arrive at a location for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4

Built-in support for Twitter

• Sign-in once in Settings and tweet directly from Camera, Photos, Maps, Safari and YouTube
• Add location to any tweet
• View twitter profile pictures and usernames in Contacts

Camera improvements for devices with cameras

• Double click the home button when device is asleep to bring up a camera shortcut on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
• Volume Up button to take a picture
• Optional grid lines to line up shots
• Pinch to zoom in the preview screen
• Swipe to camera roll from preview screen
• Tap and hold to lock focus anxd exposure, iPad 2 and iPod touch (4th generation) only support exposure lock

Photo improvements for devices with cameras

• Crop and rotate
• Red eye removal
• One tap enhance
• Organize photos into albums

Mail improvements

• Format text using bold, italic, or underlined fonts
• Indentation control
• Drag to rearrange names in address fields
• Flag messages
• Mass mark messages as flagged, read or unread
• Customize mail alert sounds
• S/MIME

Calendar improvements

• Year view on iPad and new Week view for iPhone and iPod touch
• Tap to create an event
• View and add event attachments

Game Center improvements

• Use personal photos for your Game Center account
• Compare your overall achievement scores with your friends
• Find new Game Center friends with friend recommendations and friends of friends
• Discover new games with custom game recommendations

AirPlay Mirroring for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S
Multitasking Gestures for iPad

• Use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen
• Swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar
• Swipe left or right to switch between apps

On-device setup, activation and configuration with Setup Assistant
Software updates available over the air without tethering
iCloud support

• iTunes in the Cloud
• Photo Stream
• Documents in the Cloud
• Apps and Books automatic download and purchase history
• Backup
• Contacts, Calendar, and Mail
• Find My iPhone

Redesigned Music app for iPad
Hourly weather forecast
Real-time stock quotes
Wireless sync to iTunes
Keyboard improvements

• Split keyboard for iPad
• Improved autocorrection accuracy
• Improved Chinese and Japanese input
• New Emoji keyboard
• Personal dictionary for autocorrection
• Optionally create keyboard short cuts for frequently used words

Accessibility improvements

• Option to light LED flash on incoming calls and alerts for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4
• Custom vibration patterns for incoming calls on iPhone
• New interface for using iOS with mobility-impairment input devices
• Option to speak a selection of text
• Custom element labeling for VoiceOver

Exchange ActiveSync improvements

• Wirelessly sync tasks
• Mark messages as flagged, read or unread
• Improved offline support
• Save a new contact from a GAL service

More than 1,500 new developer APIs
Bug fixes

Supports:

• iPhone 3GS / 4 / 4S
• iPad / iPad 2
• iPod Touch 3rd Gen / 4th Gen

Download Now

Apple Releases iOS 5 with Notification Center, iMessage, Twitter, and More

Apple Releases iOS 5 with Notification Center, iMessage, Twitter, and More: In line with Apple's announced schedule calling for a release today, iOS 5 is now available to download for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch users. Users can obtain the update by connecting their devices to iTunes and clicking the "Check for Update" button. It may take a few minutes for the update to propagate to all users, however.

BerryMover Version: 1.0 Business App | Macworld

BerryMover Version: 1.0 Business App | Macworld: Reclaim all the data stuck on your old BlackBerry and move it quickly and easily over to your iPhone with BerryMover. BerryMover moves all your data with just a few clicks.

Here's how it works...

...simply upload your most current and complete BlackBerry backup file to your iPhone. Then run BerryMover. It will grab every contact, calendar, task, note, text message and anything else you need on your iPhone.

Without BerryMover, there would be no way to pull the data from your BlackBerry and your valuable info would be stuck there forever.

Apple iOS 5 Mobile Review | Macworld

Apple iOS 5 Mobile Review | Macworld: It seems like every time a major software revision comes along, it’s described as the “biggest ever.” In the case of iOS 5, though, that might not be hyperbole—there’s hardly a part of Apple’s mobile operating system that isn’t altered in some way by the latest update.

Don’t think that this is just change for change’s sake, however. By and large, iOS 5’s changes are for the better, spackling a number of shortcomings and gaps in functionality that have existed since day one.

Opinion: iPhone 3GS is Apple's secret weapon

Opinion: iPhone 3GS is Apple's secret weapon: The iPhone 4S is pretty awesome. The iPhone 4 is nice as well. But PCWorld's Tony Bradley thinks the free iPhone 3GS is a game changer for Apple.

Apple posts iTunes 10.5 ahead of iOS 5 and iCloud

Apple posts iTunes 10.5 ahead of iOS 5 and iCloud: Apple has quietly posted iTunes 10.5 as prep for iOS 5 and iCloud. The new music jukebox app is needed for full cloud services like iTunes Match and for local syncing with the iPhone 4S. iOS 5 devices can also sync over Wi-Fi when on the same local network....

Marvel's The Avengers - Trailer

Marvel's The Avengers - Trailer:

Marvel's The Avengers - Trailer Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures "Marvel's The Avengers"--the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, "Marvel's The Avengers" is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series "The Avengers," first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when "Marvel's The Avengers" assemble in summer 2012. In "Marvel's The Avengers," superheroes team up to pull the world back from the brink of disaster when an unexpected enemy threatens global security. Directed by: Joss Whedon Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård , Samuel L. Jackson

Apple’s next big thing is already here; revolutionary Siri will stymie rivals Google and Microsoft

Apple’s next big thing is already here; revolutionary Siri will stymie rivals Google and Microsoft: The iPhone 4S’s virtual assistant, Siri, will soon appear on Macs, TVs, and iPads and ‘stymie’ rivals...

iOS 5: Five overlooked app enhancements

iOS 5: Five overlooked app enhancements: Apple has put a spotlight the apps receiving the biggest changes in iOS 5, like Safari, Messages, and Mail. But there are still many improvements in the iOS's other built-in apps. Here are some of goodies awaiting you in iOS 5’s versions of Maps, Weather, FaceTime, Contacts, Music, and Video.

Nuance buys Swype for over $100 million [U]

Nuance buys Swype for over $100 million [U]: (Update: confirmed) Nuance has reportedly bought Swype in a deal worth over $100 million based on new tips late Thursday. The deal would support its existing ownership of the T9 keyboard system with an advanced, full QWERTY layout. Uncrunched in getting word of the deal didn't get Nuance's intentions....

The Magician

The Magician: Max von Sydow stars as Dr. Vogler, a nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test in Stockholm by the cruel, eminently rational royal medical adviser Dr. Vergérus.

Stephen Wolfram on 25 Years of Steve Jobs' Influence

Stephen Wolfram on 25 Years of Steve Jobs' Influence: To me, Steve Jobs stands out most for his clarity of thought. Over and over again he took complex situations, understood their essence, and used that understanding to make a bold definitive move, often in a completely unexpected direction.

Five new things your device will be able to do in iOS 5 | Mobile | Macworld

Five new things your device will be able to do in iOS 5 | Mobile | Macworld: As iOS 5’s October 12 release date draws close, you’ll hear plenty about the update’s big features. For now, let’s take a look at some new features that may have escaped your attention.

Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011: We discussed the sad news. "Someone will come along to replace him," she offered. "No," I replied. "No, you may as well say 'someone will replace Shakespeare.'" No one ever will.

Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011: Steven Paul Jobs, co-founder, chairman and former chief executive of Apple Inc., has passed away. A visionary inventor and entrepreneur, it would be impossible to overstate Steve Jobs? impact on technology and how we use it. Apple?s mercurial, mysterious leader did more than reshape his entire industry: he completely changed how we interact with technology.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passes away at 56

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passes away at 56: Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple and a driving force behind the creation of the Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod, died Wednesday after a long bout with cancer. He was 56.

iOS 5: What you need to know | Mobile | Macworld

iOS 5: What you need to know | Mobile | Macworld: But Forstall’s time was limited, and obviously he didn’t have a chance to run down everything that’s changed in the next major release of iOS. There are still plenty of questions to answer before iOS 5 arrives next week, and while not every detail is available just yet, we’ve gathered up what Apple has revealed to answer your burning questions about this iOS update.

Microsoft to bring cable programming to Xbox

Microsoft to bring cable programming to Xbox: The software giant announces long-rumored deals with 40 television content providers to bring cable content to Xbox Live.

The Plan to Bring an Asteroid to Earth

The Plan to Bring an Asteroid to Earth: Scientists and engineers met last week at Caltech to discuss the possibility of capturing an asteroid and placing it in orbit near Earth to use as a base for manned space missions further into the solar system.

Apple: Sprint getting the iPhone

Apple: Sprint getting the iPhone: Apple confirms Sprint will get the iPhone, joining AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

iPhone 4 drops to $99 while Apple makes iPhone 3GS free with contract

iPhone 4 drops to $99 while Apple makes iPhone 3GS free with contract: As was rumored, Apple has opted to keep the iPhone 3GS alive as a free phone with a new service contract, while the 2010 iPhone 4 is now $99 with a carrier subsidy.

Apple reveals Find My Friends, iOS 5 coming on October 12th

Apple reveals Find My Friends, iOS 5 coming on October 12th: Presenting at its special iPhone event, Apple has announced that iOS 5 will go public on October 12th. All of Apple's recent iOS devices will be supported, including first- and second-generation iPads, the iPhone 4 and 3GS, and third- and fourth-generation iPod touches. The firmware introduces a host of features, such as Twitter integration, the BBM-like iMessage, Newsstand, and an overhauled notification system....

Apple unveils iPhone 4S with A5 CPU and 4G-like data speeds

Apple unveils iPhone 4S with A5 CPU and 4G-like data speeds: Apple's newest smartphone, the iPhone 4S, is a world phone powered by the company's speedy A5 processor, and features a new antenna design that can allow file transfers up to twice as fast as its predecessor.

Apple updates iPod nano with improved interface, expanded fitness features

Apple updates iPod nano with improved interface, expanded fitness features: Apple's new iPod nano features an even easier to navigate user interface with larger icons, as well as an improved fitness experience that can track runs without any extra sensors.

Family and Friends allows location sharing with other iPhone users

Family and Friends allows location sharing with other iPhone users: A new iOS application was unveiled by Apple on Tuesday dubbed "Family and Friends," allowing users of iPhones to quickly and safely share their location with one another.

iOS 5 will be available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch on Oct. 12

iOS 5 will be available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch on Oct. 12: iOS 5, the next major update to Apple's mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, will publicly be available for download next Wednesday, Oct. 12.

Apple's Cards app for iOS allows users to mail custom greeting cards

Apple's Cards app for iOS allows users to mail custom greeting cards: Apple on Tuesday announced Cards, a new free application for iOS devices that will allow users to order and mail custom-printed greeting cards for any occasion.

Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve: Did Lucretius’s Poem Really Bring Us Modernity? - Slate Magazine

Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve: Did Lucretius’s Poem Really Bring Us Modernity? - Slate Magazine: his real subject is the intellectual revolution of Epicureanism, the Greek philosophical school to which Lucretius belonged. Epicurus, its fourth-century founder, taught that the universe was completely material, made up of nothing but atoms and space. The power that drove life to multiply and evolve was irresistible but blind, the result of purely physical forces. It followed that there was no afterlife, no divine punishment, and no purpose to human existence except the cultivation of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

New cloth self-cleans by killing bacteria

New cloth self-cleans by killing bacteria: Chemists at UC Davis are reporting on a new self-cleaning cotton fabric that breaks down toxic chemicals and bacteria when exposed to light.

Why Assistant Needs an A5 and How it Was 'Many Iterations' Ahead of its Competitors

Why Assistant Needs an A5 and How it Was 'Many Iterations' Ahead of its Competitors: Make no mistake: Apple’s ‘mainstreaming’ Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Virtual Personal Assistant is a groundbreaking event. I’d go so far as to say it is a World-Changing event. Right now a few people dabble in partial AI enabled apps like Google Voice Actions, Vlingo or Nuance Go. Siri was many iterations ahead of these technologies, or at least it was two years ago. This is REAL AI with REAL market use. If the rumors are true, Apple will enable millions upon millions of people to interact with machines with natural language. The PAL will get things done and this is only the tip of the iceberg. We’re talking another technology revolution. A new computing paradigm shift.

New pursuit of Schrödinger’s cat | Prospect Magazine

New pursuit of Schrödinger’s cat | Prospect Magazine: Quantum mechanics is more than a hundred years old, but we still don’t understand it. In recent years, however, physicists have found a fresh enthusiasm for exploring the questions about quantum theory that were swept under the rug by its founders. Advances in experimental methods make it possible to test ideas about why objects on the scale of atoms follow different rules from those that govern objects on the everyday scale. In effect, this becomes an enquiry into the sense in which things exist at all.

In 1900 the German physicist Max Planck suggested that light—a form of electromagnetic waves—consists of tiny, indivisible packets of energy. These particles, called photons, are the “quanta” of light. Five years later Albert Einstein showed how this quantum hypothesis explained the way light kicks electrons out of metals—the photoelectric effect. It was for this, not the theory of relativity, that he won his Nobel prize.

The reinvention of the night | TLS

The reinvention of the night | TLS: In 1710, Richard Steele wrote in Tatler that recently he had been to visit an old friend just come up to town from the country. But the latter had already gone to bed when Steele called at 8 pm. He returned at 11 o’clock the following morning, only to be told that his friend had just sat down to dinner. “In short”, Steele commented, “I found that my old-fashioned friend religiously adhered to the example of his forefathers, and observed the same hours that had been kept in his family ever since the Conquest”. During the previous generation or so, elites across Europe had moved their clocks forward by several hours. No longer a time reserved for sleep, the night time was now the right time for all manner of recreational and representational purposes. This is what Craig Koslofsky calls “nocturnalisation”, defined as “the ongoing expansion of the legitimate social and symbolic uses of the night”, a development to which he awards the status of “a revolution in early modern Europe”.