Apple Reportedly Developing Large Curved Screen iPhones For Late 2014, Better Touchscreen Sensors

Apple is said to be working on two curved display iPhone models for the “second half of next year,” according to a source speaking to Bloomberg, with a likely release planned for the third quarter, as well as better touchscreen sensors that introduce fine pressure sensitivity for later devices to be introduced after that.

These new iPhones for 2014 would come in 4.7 and 5.5-inch flavors, according to the report, meaning that Apple would be introducing not one, but two different models at the same time, in theory. We’ve seen reports of Apple working on different models of large-screen devices in the past, including one from the Wall Street Journal that suggests it’s been working on different tests of devices with screen sizes between 4.8 and 6 inches. This is the first time we’ve really heard firm information about a possible release date for said devices, from a source as generally reliable as Bloomberg. A Japanese iOS rumor site claimed a September launch for a large-screen iPhone late in October, however, and two reliable analyst sources predict a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 bound for stores in late 2014.

Apple also introduced precedent for doing two models of new iPhone at once this year with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, so the idea that it could do so again in the future makes some sense. But two new larger-screened devices at once does seem like a stretch – though if Apple retained an iPhone 5c as its third, budget device and added two more to the mid-tier and high-end range, that might allow it to do so without adding crazy complexity to its product lineup.

The sensor developments are potentially more interesting to those who find the current screen size of the iPhone adequate; true pressure sensitivity (currently, some crude extent of that is possible via the iPhone’s accelerometer) would make drawing and handwriting applications on the iPhone and iPad much, much better. Apple could sell the devices as professional-level artistic devices if it introduces those kinds of features, in addition to just making things better for everyday users who want to jot notes and doodle, for example, or perform minor photo touch-ups.

It’s very early days to make any kind of judgement about the likely accuracy of these claims, but the source gives it some weight. Apple’s iPhone joining the ranks of bigger-screened devices definitely makes sense as a next move for the lineup, but curved glass manufacturing also seems quite expensive at this point for Apple to be considering launching two new devices with that feature at once.

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Check out these new images of Apple Campus 2

Exterior shots of Apple's new Cupertino campus have made the rounds since the project was made public in late 2011. The most popular image shows the circular building, which has been dubbed the "spaceship" campus thanks to its UFO-like shape. A set of newly discovered renderings were spotted in Cupertino's public archives and republished by Wired.

The new drawings show off different parts of the campus including the entrance to the building, the parking garage, an outdoor lounging area for employees and more. There's also plan details for an underground auditorium, which will feature a glass pavilion as its entrance.

New plan details reveal the transformation the site will take under the stewardship of Apple. The mostly built-up location will be transformed into a parcel that is part building, part nature preserve. Lining the perimeter of the campus will be a dense stand of trees, while the interior shown below will include stands of cherry (pink), apricot (orange), olive (brown) and, of course, apple trees (yellow).

You can view additional renderings of Apple's Campus 2 on Wired's website.

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Tailor-made Moto X phones coming to all major US carriers

Motorola will let shoppers on all four big US carriers mint personalized Moto X smartphones, and for just $100.

Ending AT&T's exclusivity on custom Moto Xmodels, Motorola will offer personalized versions of its flagship smartphone soon on Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile as well. Better yet, not only does Motorola plan to bring Android 4.4 KitKatto the device in the near future, the Moto X has also dropped to $99.99 with a two-year service contract.

Sure the Moto X isn't the most powerful Androidhandset money can buy. Neither is it a big-screen mobile monster like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Nor is the Moto X equipped with a ridiculously high-capacity battery like its big brother (and only on Verizon) the Droid Maxx.

What the Moto X has going for it, however, is an extremely well-crafted physical design, plenty of innovative software abilities thanks to Motorola's parent company Google, and countless ways to create distinctive phones through the Moto Maker Web site.

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SCIENCE and RELIGION AGREE! LIFE and Man ARE from CLAY

Topflight boffins say they have discovered that life - or anyway the necessary complex precursor chemicals without which life cannot appear - probably originated in ancient "clay hydrogels".

"We propose that in early geological history clay hydrogel provided a confinement function for biomolecules and biochemical reactions," says Dan Luo of Cornell uni in the States. Luo and his colleagues believe that the ancient clay's confinement permitted early amino acids and suchlike to come together and form life, which went on in the end to evolve into highly developed organisms such as Register readers.

That won't be a huge surprise to adherents of many major world religions past and present. The Bible, for instance, has this to say on the typical mechanism for the appearance of life:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ... [Genesis 2:7]

The Hebrew word translated here as "dust" can also mean "clay", however. The Quran concurs, and of course any fule will kno from ancient Greek mythology that the titan Prometheus also created man out of clay. Similar stories are to be found in ancient Chinese and Egyptian belief structures, too.

Meanwhile the scientific community has also endorsed Luo and his colleagues' general gist, as the boffins' paper (pdf) outlining the role of clay in the appearance of life is published tomorrow in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports.

Interestingly, it appears that Luo and his fellow boffins weren't actually trying to probe the origins of life at all. A press release from Cornell explains that they were actually trying to find better and cheaper ways of producing complex proteins for drug manufacturing.

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Microsoft ships IE11 for Windows 7

Computerworld - Microsoft today released Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) for Windows 7, and announced it would soon start pushing it to customers as an automatic update.

Three weeks ago, Microsoft signaled that the debut of the final of IE11 was imminent when it shipped a blocking toolkit for enterprise IT departments who wanted to ban the browser from their desktops.

"We will begin automatically updating Windows 7 customers to IE11 in the weeks ahead, starting today with customers running the IE11 Developer and Release Previews," said Rob Mauceri and Sandeep Singhal, a pair of IE group program managers.

Microsoft launched IE11 on Windows 8.1 on Oct. 17.

The automatic upgrades on Windows 7 from IE10 -- which didn't reach the widely-used operating system until February -- will quickly drive up IE11's user share. From February through September, for instance, IE10's share of all copies of Internet Explorer soared from next to nothing to nearly 34% due to the forced upgrade from IE9, as well as some traction from Windows 8, before slipping for the first time last month as IE11 appeared in Windows 8.1.

That automatic upgrade may be welcomed by consumers, but analysts see it as a significant pain point in the enterprise, where change is often met with skepticism, even hostility.

"The faster pace is absolutely the biggest pain point," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver in an interview last month, talking about Microsoft's accelerated development and release tempo for Windows. "The problem with faster release cycles is that [enterprises] don't know if their apps will work with each new version. [And] IE is the biggest inhibitor to continuous upgrades"

Today, Mauceri and Singhal touted IE11's better JavaScript benchmark scores, claiming it's 29% faster than the current Chrome 30, 32% faster than Firefox 25 and 26% faster than Opera Software's Opera 17, citing the SunSpider test suite.

Ironically, Microsoft once dismissed JavaScript benchmark results as bogus. Three years ago, Dean Hachamovitch, the executive who still heads the IE team, said speed trials like SunSpider were "at best, not very useful, and at worst, misleading."

Not surprisingly, as IE's scores have improved, Microsoft's tune on the topic has changed.

IE11 for Windows 7 can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. The installer file is approximately 28MB in size.

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