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”.