Apple Said Developing Curved IPhone Screens, New Sensors

Apple Inc. is developing new iPhone designs including bigger screens with curved glass and enhanced sensors that can detect different levels of pressure, said a person familiar with the plans.

Two models planned for release in the second half of next year would feature larger displays with glass that curves downward at the edges, said the person, declining to be identified because the details aren’t public. Sensors that can distinguish heavy or light touches on the screen may be incorporated into subsequent models, the person said.

With screens of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, the two new models would be Apple’s largest iPhones, the person said, and would approach in size the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3 that Samsung Electronics Co. debuted in September. The South Korean maker last month released its curved-screen Galaxy Round, the latest phone in an array of sizes and price points that’s helping keep Samsung ahead of Apple in global market share.

The new Apple handsets are still in development and plans haven’t been completed, the person said, adding that the company probably would release them in the third quarter of next year.

Screen Size

Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment.

“Screen size is one of the things where Apple has to catch up to the Android camp,” Dennis Chan, an analyst at Yuanta Financial Holding Co. in Taipei, said, referring to phones using Google Inc.’s operating software. “Innovation in components has been a key for Apple since the first iPhone came out.”

Apple broke with past practice in September when it unveiled two versions of the iPhone at the same time, the iPhone 5s with more advanced features and the iPhone 5c at lower prices, as part of a strategy to appeal to broader markets.

Demand for the iPhone 5s is much higher, and iPhone 5c production has been reduced, the person said.

Revenue growth for the current quarter, Apple’s traditional holiday sales period, may be the slowest since 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on the company’s financial forecast published last month. Samsung said last month it expects this quarter’s shipment growth rate from the prior quarter to fall to a “low single digit” percentage from the “mid-10 percent range” the prior period.

Testing continues on the pressure-sensitive technology, which is unlikely to be ready for the next iPhone release and is instead planned for a later model, the person said.

Apple’s testing and development of new materials follows its history of working with suppliers to produce new technologies that can enhance device functions. The original iPhone, released in 2007, offered touchscreen technology developed with Taipei-based TPK Holding Co. that was more responsive than available at the time.

Apple said last week it will open a new plant in Arizona to make components for its devices. Merrimack, New Hampshire-based GT Advanced Technologies said Apple will prepay $578 million for furnaces to make sapphire materials used in smartphones, with the iPhone maker getting some exclusive rights.

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Get drunk without the hangover on Professor Nutt’s pill

A drug that mimics the effect of alcohol without creating a hangover is being developed by a former government adviser

A drug that mimics the effect of alcohol without creating a hangover is being developed by a former government adviser.

Prof David Nutt said the discovery would lead to a revolution in health. But he needed funding to continue his research.

He claimed the drug would do for alcohol what the e-cigarette had done for smoking.

He called on the Government to give an “explicit recommendation” in support of the drug to encourage investment. His innovation could save the NHS millions.

The drug targets the brain to give the taker feelings of pleasure similar to the effects of drinking. However, an antidote can block the sensations immediately, leaving the user free to drive or return to work.

Prof Nutt resigned from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in 2009 after a clash over policy.

He said alcohol killed 1.5 million people a year and 10 per cent of drinkers became addicts. He predicted that side effects from drinking such as memory loss could be circumvented by the new drug.

However, he warned that investors remained wary due to the uncertainty of the Government’s position. He told the Dragon’s Den presenter Evan Davis on Radio 4’s Today programme today that he was not surprised that no one in the drinks industry wanted to fund his research.

Prof Nutt said the drug could be taken in a range of cocktails. “I’ve done the prototype experiments myself,” he said. “I’ve been inebriated and then it’s been reversed by the antagonist.

“That’s what really gave us the idea. There’s no question that you can produce a whole range of effects like alcohol by manipulating the brain.”

Emily Robinson, the deputy chief executive of the charity Alcohol Concern, questioned Prof Nutt’s call for the Coalition to support his research.

“We would urge caution on this,” she said. “We agree that alcohol is a serious burden to the country. But we would urge the Government to invest in policies that we know work, such as minimum unit pricing and advertising restrictions.

“We should focus on what is going wrong in our drinking culture rather than swapping potentially one addictive substance for another.”

Claire Fox, the director of the Institute of Ideas, an organisation that promotes discussion on public policy including drug legislation, criticised the BBC’s decision to give a platform to the professor. “It was outrageous,” she said. “Nobody else would get away with it would they?

“If someone else went on and just said: 'I am here to get investment in my company’ the BBC wouldn’t let that [happen].”

She said the broadcast was “a kind of lobbying disguised as a science item” given that Prof Nutt could benefit from the policy change.

A BBC spokesman said the subject was of interest to its audience.

“Prof David Nutt was interviewed about a drug which he claimed could mimic the sensation of alcohol without the health risks,” he said.

“He was questioned about the potential complications involved and it was made clear to listeners that his research was at the early stages because he had not yet obtained funding for the project.”

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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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Speaking more than one language may delay dementia

Speaking more than one language "stimulates your brain all the time," researcher says.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Dementia developed an average of five years later in people who spoke more than one language
• The effect was seen even in illiterate people, meaning education was not the explanation
• It's unclear whether learning a second language late in life would help

The latest evidence that speaking more than one language is a very good thing for our brains comes from a study finding dementia develops years later in bilingual people than in people who speak just one language.

The study, conducted in India and published Wednesday in the journal Neurology, is not the first to reach this conclusion. But it is the largest and comes with an intriguing new detail: The finding held up even in illiterate people — meaning that the possible effect is not explained by formal education.

Instead, the researchers say, there's something special about switching from one language to another in the course of routine communication — something that helps explain why bilingual people in the study developed dementia five years later than other people did. When illiterate people were compared with other illiterate people, those who could speak more than one language developed dementia six years later.

"We know from other studies that mental activity has a certain protective effect," says co-author Thomas Bak, a neurologist at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. "Bilingualism combines a lot of different mental activities. You have to switch sounds, concepts, grammatical structures, cultural concepts. It stimulates your brain all the time."

For the study, Bak and colleagues in India reviewed medical records of 648 people with dementia who were seen in a clinic in the city of Hyderabad.

The location was key, because residents of the city, like many people in India, often speak two or three languages — typically some combination of the official language, Telugu, the Urdu dialect Dakkhini and the English increasingly used in schools, workplaces and the media, the authors write. People may speak in one language or combination at home and in neighborhoods and another at work or school, all in the course of a normal day, says co-author Suvarna Alladi, a neurologist at Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad.

"Since bilingualism is more of a norm in India, bilingualism is not a characteristic of any particular socioeconomic, geographic or religious group," she says.

More than half of the people diagnosed with dementia at the clinic were bilingual or multilingual. But the researchers found those people had developed their first symptoms, such as memory loss and confusion, at an average age of 65.6 — five years later than the average of 61.1 for people who spoke just one language. The differences were seen in several types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia (associated with poor blood flow to the brain) and frontotemporal dementia (caused by degeneration of the brain's frontal or temporal lobes).

Two previous smaller studies, conducted in Ontario, Canada, found a later onset of Alzheimer's disease in bilingual people.

But in those studies, bilingual people were largely immigrants, raising questions about whether they differed in other ways from the general population, says Brian Gold, a neuroscientist at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. The new study is more convincing, he says, "because it is studying bilingual people raised in the same country and culture."

Gold's own lab studies have found that bilingual seniors excel at certain skills, such as quickly sorting colors and shapes, and that their frontal lobes work more efficiently as they perform such tasks.

All the research taken together is more good reason, he says, to expose children to language-learning as they grow — and for bilingual families to keep using more than one language in their homes. It's still unclear, he says, whether people can boost their brains by taking up a second language later in life.

"It may never be too late," Bak says, but he agrees more research is needed. It's also unclear, Bak says, whether bilingual people fare any better than others once symptoms of dementia develop.

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Facebook 'likes': The thumb is gone

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The thumbs-up "Like" button on Facebook is no more
• Websites using the old button will be automatically updated
• Facebook says new design already giving more results

(CNN) -- Pop quiz: What buttons are seen more than 22 billion times every day, embedded on 7.5 million websites?

Answer: the Facebook Like and Share buttons, according to new numbers released by the social network. And now these most widespread of online icons are both getting their first ever redesign.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Being Sued Over Like Button

The biggest difference you'll notice straight away: the thumb is gone from the Like button. Instead, it will appear in the dialogue box above the button that shows you how many Likes your post or page has.

Facebook's new "Like" button does away with its iconic thumbs-up.

The new button features the Facebook "f" logo instead. It is white on blue, rather than blue on white, as is the new share button. The Share button will replace Facebook's Send button — deemed too confusing.

The reason for the redesign? The new version is optimized for high-resolution screens, according to Peter Yang, a product manager at Facebook, in the comments section of the Facebook blog postannouncing the change.

Users should start to see the change on those 7.5 million websites as it rolls out over the coming weeks.

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Apple to offer in-store iPhone repairs, says report

Apple Store employees will be able to replace the screen, camera, speakers, and other parts while you wait, says 9to5Mac.

Apple may soon offer in-store repairs for the newest iPhones.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CBS Interactive)

Break the touch screen on your iPhone and your local Apple Store may soon be able to replace just the screen rather than charge you for a whole new phone.

Apple is prepping its stores to repair and replace parts for the iPhone 5S and 5C, "sources with knowledge of the upcoming initiative" told 9to5Mac. This means that damaged iPhones won't necessarily need to be turned in for an entirely new unit.

The initiative will cover several components, according to the sources, including the screen, the rear camera, the volume buttons, the motor, the speaker system, and the 5C's conventional (non-Touch ID) home button. Special calibration equipment will be provided to the stores to allow employees to replace the touch screen.

Users covered by an AppleCare warranty can get the parts replaced or repaired for free. Other owners will have to shell out some cash. Replacing the touch screen will cost $149. A new battery will run $79. And a new home button for the iPhone 5C will cost $29.

But those expenses are minimal compared with the cost of buying a brand new phone to replace a damaged unit. Replacing a single component also means that users can keep the same phone, eliminating the need to back up and restore their data. And since the repairs are done on site, people can simply wait for their phone to be revived back to working condition.

CNET contacted Apple for comment and will update the story with any further information.

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Twitter rises by 92% on first day.

SAN FRANCISCO — There's no other way to put it gracefully . Twitter's first day of trading so far has been a monster.

Monster, as in mind-boggling — not scary, like Facebook's IPO flop 18 months ago.

The 6-year-old micro-blogging service, fresh off a road show that drove up its stock price two times, stormed out of the IPO gates like a wild-eyed wolverine Thursday. The stock opened at $45.10 a share, after it was priced at $26 late Wednesday.Within minutes, it briefly touched $50.

With an initial market valuation of about $35 billion, Twitter is worth more — on paper — than LinkedIn and Netflix.

"What's not to like? There is incredible potential and investors are more open to social media companies now," says Tim Loughran, a University of Notre Dame finance professor who is an expert on tech IPOs. "There is a change in mindset on Internet IPOs."

If the big day proved anything, it is investors' unquenchable appetite for a hot IPO.

Twitter is the centerpiece of one of the most ravenous IPO markets in years. New offerings are at their highest level since 2007, propelled by a record-setting Dow Jones industrial average that is up 20% since Jan. 1. The easy-money policies of the Federal Reserve have fueled the resurgence.

So, how long does this rampaging beast continue to rumble markets, and frighten its social-media rivals?

For a few days, at least, based on the early feeding frenzy. Some are even whispering the B word, as in bubble.

Twitter provided that froth today.

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iPad Air vs. Retina iPad Mini: Which tablet is right for you?

The iPad Air is here. The new iPad Mini will follow later this month. But how can you choose between two tablets with nearly identical specs?

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Apple's newest iPad, the iPad Air, is finally here -- it's available online and in stores in 42 countries and territories starting today. But before you rush out and order one, remember: this isn't the only iPad. In late November, the second updated Apple tablet of 2013, the iPad Mini with Retina Display, will be released as well.

So, which iPad should you get?

Let's assume you're already reading this article because you want to buy a new iPad versus another tablet. The decision becomes this: iPad Air or Retina Mini? Based on what we've seen so far, the decision's never been harder to make. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

First off: don't get the iPad 2
I can make this real easy for you: don't get the iPad 2. It's $399 for 16GB of storage. It first came out in March 2011. And, you can buy a far faster, Retina-enabled new iPad Mini for the same price. Last year's iPad Mini, now at $299, is a more attractive proposition; it also has newer cameras. Keep in mind, though, that the extra $100 should buy you much better performance to go with that improved screen.

iPad Mini, iPad Air, fourth-gen iPad: a gradual progression.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET )

Retina Mini and Air: two different-sized peas in the same pod
Both the iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display have, from what we can see, entirely identical specs. Both have A7 processors. Both have the same-resolution Retina Display. Both start with 16GB of storage. Both have 5MP rear cameras and improved front-facing cameras. Both have, according to Apple, up to 10 hours of promised battery life. Neither has Touch ID. They even have the same colors.

These are the same iPad, in two slightly different sizes: 9.7-inch, and 7.9-inch. Both have 2,048x1,536-pixel resolutions, at 264 vs. 326 pixels per inch. For comparison, either one tops the pixel density of last year's Mini (163). Can you tell the difference between those pixel densities? My guess is no. It will mean some in-app text is inevitably smaller on the Mini.

The key differences: Price and size
The iPad Air weighs a pound, and has a 9.7-inch screen. It starts at $499. The iPad Mini with Retina Display weighs 0.73 pound and has a 7.9-inch screen. It's also a hundred dollars less, starting at $399.

Those are, really, the only hardware differences that we can see. The iPad Mini should perform the same, although we haven't tested one at CNET (Apple says the Retina Mini will be available in late November): there's always a chance that the Mini doesn't have quite as good a battery life as the Air, which topped 12 hours on our tests. But assuming it matches Apple's claims, you're really saving $100 by getting a physically smaller display with higher pixel density.

Is your eyesight bad? Get the iPad Air. I've used an iPad Mini for a year, however, and its screen is plenty large for reading books or magazines.

Productivity? Lean to Air
I've been able to get a lot of work done on an iPad Mini. It's not as ideal for every task, but it works. If you're a hard-core write-on-an-iPad person, the Air's physically larger size and virtual keyboard might make more sense. But you can do everything else fine on a Mini. It's just more compact. For me, that e-reader-plus-extra feel of the Mini made it a perfect companion.

Mini: seem right to you?

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Saving $100: does that sound good to you? Go Mini
The Retina Mini offers a very similar product, for $100 less at the same storage configurations. Saving $100 on a Mini means you essentially can get a 32GB Retina Mini for $499, or get the 16GB LTE version for $30 more than a Wi-Fi Air. Or, that savings can go toward a keyboard case or other accessory. Or, you just save $100.

iPad Mini and fourth-gen iPad keyboard cases: big difference in size. It'll be similar with Mini and Air.

(Credit: Scott Stein/CNET)

Do you use a keyboard case? Go Air
The iPad Mini keyboard accessories I've used just don't feel comfortable: they compress keys and remove keys to fit the dimensions of the Mini. Older, "large" iPads have excellent keyboard accessories, wide and normally spaced with a very comfortable feel. I haven't used any iPad Air keyboards yet, but they're bound to be more generous than Mini keyboards. You could always prop a Mini up and use a full-size Bluetooth keyboard, but it'll feel a little more clunky.

If you're a big keyboard typer, get the Air.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Is bigger better?
My advice is, get thee to an Apple Store and just look at the size of the Mini and 9.7-inch iPad screens. See if that 7.9-inch screen works for you. You don't need to see the Retina version to understand if the display feels too small for your everyday needs.

I like smaller travel tech: I gravitate toward the Mini, especially since it seems to have no compromises. Some people prefer the 11-inch MacBook Air to the 13-inch. I think it's a similar analogy here: it depends on how small you want your bag to be.

Is there a wrong decision? 
Here's the best news: you can't really go wrong. They should both be fast, have up-to-date displays, and are closer in size and weight to each other than ever before. So, you save a hundred dollars and get a physically smaller screen, or you don't. If you can't get a Retina Mini or don't want to wait, I don't think you'll regret getting the iPad Air much. Ask a 13-inch MacBook Air owner how they feel about not owning an 11-inch. It's a fine difference, and perhaps too fine to obsess over.

These two products are closer than ever: the gap between last year's 1.4-pound fourth-gen Retina iPad and 0.68-pound non-Retina Mini was immense. This year, there's barely a gap at all.

But just remember, the Retina Mini is on the way, and isn't here yet. Don't forget about it. I'd get the Retina Mini if I had a choice. You, though, may not agree.

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Alien/Ghost/Super human saves life of rickshaw wala

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