Apple Shares Hit $300

Shares of Apple hit a new all-time high on Wednesday morning, eclipsing $300.

At that price, Apple is now valued at $274 billion, more than Intel, Hewlett Packard and Google, and within striking distance of the world’s largest company, Exxon Mobil, which is valued at $329 billion. Apple passed archnemesis Microsoft in valuation earlier this year.

While Apple’s stock has been on a tear this year on the strength of iPad and iPhone sales, you only have to go back about a year and a half to when the global economic crisis and concerns about the health of Steve Jobs had the company trading at less than $80 per share.

Smartphones abroad: What to know before you go

I am looking to study abroad in the near future and found this article very interesting on how phone companies work once you've left U.S. boarders.

(CNN) -- Sarah Evans was in Canada for just 18 hours in May but incurred a $700 phone bill in her limited time there.

"I sent four text messages, was on the phone for 20 minutes and used the wireless aircard," the Elgin, Illinois, resident said. "I opened my bill and all the blood drained from my face."

Her experience is not unusual. Though Evans eventually got that money credited back to her account, stories about outrageous phone bills are common enough to make roving mobile customers think twice. Experts say the most important thing travelers can do to prevent this from happening is take precautions before the trip.
If you don't, companies can take advantage of you, said Christopher Elliott, a consumer travel advocate...

Read it all here: CNN

Beats by Dre - PowerBeats

Powerbeats by Dr. Dre is a new series of headphones geared towards the athletic crowd who want premium sound while they exercise. Providing UV protection, sweat resistance, and ear hooks to secure the headphones in, the Powerbeats line is specifically manufactured to accommodate the rigorous workload associated with training sessions. In addition, Dr. Dre and LeBron James have joined forces to promote the line, shooting an entertaining commercial spot featuring comedian Affion Crockett. Further information on the headphones is available through the Beats by Dr. Dre website.

Beats by Dr. Dre

iPhone 4 Cases - The Cool, Crazy, and Different

Over the past couple weeks since getting the new iPhone I have been in search of a case that no one else has, something that will set me apart. Right now I'm settling for the standard, matte black Incase. It gets the job done, strong, light, not too over the top, but since purchasing it I have been looking for a new one, here's some I have found.

Japanese company Abee has released their first 100% aluminium case, designed to house the iPhone 4. As such the case has been dubbed “Type 01” and is an ultra thin case, measuring in at just 3mm. Equipped with a seat cushion that has a moderate repulsion soft texture, the case is shock absorbent and is anti-slip. The type 01 is now available in 6 different colors including: black, purple, gold, silver, blue and red.

Abee

  Leather specialists ROBERU will update their range of products and accessories with an all new iPhone 4 case. The design ensures that you have full access to all the ports such as the camera lenses, USB port, headset jack and of course the touchscreen. The back of the case is lined with a woven back. Four colors will release in black, brown, red and green starting in September.

ROBERU

Case-Mate has released several neat cases including this one that also holds a couple of credit cards. Very handy when not wanting to carry a wallet. They also have cases that look like a tire, treads and all, carbon-fiber, and leather. They make hip pouches as well as a number of other iPhone 4 products and cases that are sure to come in handy.

Case-Mate

The Trek Support Backpack

Sure, you can just toss an external battery in your backpack to keep your gadgets powered on the go, but why stop there? Some of the "influencers" over at Quirky didn't, and have come up with this so-called Trek Support backpack as an alternative. As you can see, it packs a removable "gadget dock," which can itself be charged up and then in turn charge up to three different USB gadgets simultaneously. You'll also naturally get a dedicated laptop sleeve, plenty of pockets, and a TSA-friendly design. Of course, this is a Quirky project, which means it'll just remain a concept unless it raises the necessary funding through pre-sales. Ready to do your part to make it happen? It'll cost you $130 at the source link below.

Quirky - Trek Support

Via Engadget

BMW brings Apple's iPad to the back seat in X3

I think we are going to start seeing this more and more in cars as ideas start arising about how to implement the iPad in to vehicles. BMW is showing that it can be relatively easy it do.

Here's a simple development that could pretty much eliminate demand for backseat video screens.

BMW is going to install optional brackets on the rears of the front seats of the next X3 crossover that will allow backseat passengers to read, watch movies or just about anything else on their Apple iPads.

The bracket is adjustable so the iPad can be viewed horizontally in movie mode or vertically in book, magazine and or newspaper mode.

The idea may sound simple, but it's revolutionary: It means that buyers won't have to order expensive backseat video units to keep their kids occupied on long trips. They can simply bring along their own, or their parents', iPad loaded up with their favorite entertainment.

BMW plans to show off the system at the Paris Motor Show next month.

USA Today

University Bans Social Media for a Week

I think this is one of the coolest things I've seen a school do. The president already has said that he isn't some Nazi-esque ruler trying to control the students and remove this guilty pleasures from their lives, he simply wants to show students how much they take for granted things like Facebook, AIM, and Twitter. You can read the article below on Mashable.com.

University President to Outlaw Facebook, Twitter, AIM, etc. for One Week

Red Bull Stratos: Can a Human Break the Sound Barrier?

A person freefalling from 120,000 feet would theoretically reach a supersonic speed of over 700mph. Two daredevils of the skies are racing to break the sound barrier – and face unknown hazards in their attempt.

We know this. At around 120,000 feet, on the fringes of space, the air is so thin that a falling human body would travel fast enough to exceed the speed of sound. A skydiver, properly equipped with pressurised suit and a supply of oxygen to protect against the hostile elements, could feasibly jump from that height and, about 30 seconds later, punch through the sound barrier – becoming the first person ever to go "supersonic" without the aid of an aircraft or space shuttle.

Here our knowledge ends. Experts admit cluelessness. Our skydiver could render a mighty "krakoom!" across the high skies or history could be made in utter silence. Immense forces could knock the intrepid skydiver out cold, could peel the skin back from his body or simply cause a little wobble in the midriff, like a playful hug. Nobody is quite sure – but one of two men will soon find out.

They are Felix Baumgartner and Michel Fournier, rival daredevils who have long been formulating plans to travel up to 120,000 feet, far higher than any skydiver has yet been, from there to plunge back to Earth. Their plans share similar elements – helium balloons attached to mansize cradles, space-faring equipment, lots of complicated parachutes – but this pair could not be more different....

Continue Reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/felix-baumgartner-michel-fournier-supersonic

Flash apps blessed by Jobs for iPhone, other Apple mobile devices

No more talking Flash trash: the program that Steve Jobs so seems to revile appears to be good-to-go for apps, or programs, on the iPhone and Apple's other mobile devices, including the iPod Touch and iPad.
The announcement from Apple doesn't means that those annoying messages mobile users see time after time when they click on many websites, videos and animations, saying essentially, "Sorry, can't show you this because you need Adobe's Flash Player," will go away. It means that apps made specifically for Apple's mobile devices — and downloaded from the App Store — can use Flash.

While Flash wasn't named by Apple specifically on Thursday, it did say that it is "relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need."

Some of those developers are game developers, and with Apple's newly launched Game Center, Flash is all the more important. Games are one of the biggest "app," or program, categories for iPod Touch and iPhone users. And perhaps more importantly, Apple's has launched its own software for mobile advertisers on its iOS mobile device operating system, and and those advertisers want to be able to use Flash.

And, there's the Federal Trade Commission. No, they don't want to use Flash on an iPhone app. But they have been interested in the effect of Apple's Flash ban in terms of how it could squelch competition.

Jobs has been outspoken in his loathing for Flash, saying he believes it has too many bugs, drains device batteries too quickly and is better-suited to computers than mobile devices. He prefers the competing HTML 5, which is newer but not as widely used so far.

Some had hoped when the iPad came out last April it would be able to run Flash. But at that time, Jobs issued a 1,600-word treatise about what he considered Flash's issues — "reliability, security and performance."

Most importantly, he wrote, Flash puts a third party between Apple and software developers. Besides, he said, "Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of Web content ... And the 200,000 apps on Apple's App Store proves that Flash isn't necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games."

At that time, John Warnock, a founder of Adobe told The New York Times: “To ignore a major component of the Internet like Flash seems a little silly."

That was then, almost six months ago — virtual eons in the tech world. In the months since, Google's Android-based operating system has shot up in popularity on phones— in the United States, Android-based smart phones were the top sellers among consumers in the second quarter, according to NPD. Android will also soon will be a mainstay for many tablet products that will compete with the iPad.

Android may continue to win the bigger Flash war: Android devices using the latest 2.2 version of the operating system will have Adobe Flash, not just for apps, but for Web viewing.

From msnbc.com

iOS 4.1 is Live

Recently iOS 4.1 has gone live for all Apple products, there are a couple need features included in it:

- Game Center: Experience social gaming on your iPhone. Find friends or use auto-match to play multiplayer games against new opponents. Track achievements and compare high scores.

- iTunes TV Show Rentals: Rent TV shows commercial-free right from your iPhone for just 99¢ an episode and start watching them in minutes.

- iTunes Ping: Take advantage of new social discovery features in iTunes. Keep up with your friends’ music and follow your favorite artists.

- HDR Photography: Take great photos that capture a wider range of light intensity using the new high dynamic range (HDR) setting on iPhone 4, which automatically combines multiple exposures into a single HDR image.

- HD Video Uploads: Upload HD video to YouTube and MobileMe from your iPhone 4.

Would have been great if I would have known about this a couple of days ago when I uploaded all my videos from the Jay-Z & Eminem concert, might have to upload better versions.

Courtesy of Apple Inc.

11 True Stories Behind Tech

The below article shows how some of the biggest names in social media, electronics and other media came up with their names.

11 True Stories Behind Techs Top Names

Google Instant

SAN FRANCISCO — Internet powerhouse Google is giving Web searchers the thrill of speed with a turbocharged engine that displays suggested Web links as fast as a person can type.

After two days of teasingly tinkering with the Google logo, or "doodle," atop its home page, the California company ended the mystery by unveiling "Google Instant" -- a zippier route to Web search results.

As users type in a query, the Google search box suggests terms and shows results for the top suggestion.

"Google Instant actually gets queries and gives you search results as you type and streams those results to your computer," Google vice president of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer said.

"We are actually predicting what query you are likely to do and giving you results for that. There is actually a psychic element to it," Mayer said at a press event in the San Francisco Museum of Art.

Instant began rolling out Wednesday in the United States and would expand to Britain, France, Germany, Russia and three other countries during the course of the coming week, according to Mayer.

"We are really excited about what Google Instant could mean in terms of the evolution of search," Mayer said. "We think Google Instant is a quantum leap forward in search."

Google is putting finishing touches on a version of Instant for smartphones and other mobile devices and should release it in the next several months, according to Mayer.

"I think this is a piece of an ever-changing landscape of computing," said Google co-founder Sergey Brin. "Things coming out in the next decade from Google and other companies will really change the way we do computing."

Brin joked that he has started toying with saying "Google wants to be the third half of your brain."
As queries are typed in black letters, "auto-complete" software developed by Google engineers tries to predict the subjects of searches.

"You have to truly use Google and see for yourself to understand the power," Google Instant director of product management Johanna Wright said.

"Instant results plus predictions -- when you start typing results display on the screen instantly; there is no need to hit the enter key or the search button," she said.

Brin credited software innovations in-house and faster, cheaper computer chips with making it possible for Google data centers to manage the leap in the amount of data handled by turning each query into an ever evolving query.

"We did have to spend a lot more computer power on it, and it is really thanks to all of those advances in semiconductors and multi-core processors that we can do this," Brin said.

The new tool shaves seconds off searches at Google, which prides itself on the speed with which it finds what people seek on the Internet.

More than a billion people use Google search monthly, meaning that aggregate time saved quickly rockets into thousands of hours daily, according to Mayer.

Search Engine Land website editor Danny Sullivan said Instant promised to add an "Oh wow!" effect to using the world's most popular Internet search engine.

"But it might also be annoying when it doesn't get things right," Sullivan said. "I also think it wouldn't be that hard for competitors to copy."

The Instant launch came shortly after Microsoft's rival search engine Bing began handling online queries at Yahoo! Web pages in an alliance aimed at taking on Google.

"We think it is a great differentiator; search is going to be easier and more fun on Google," Mayer told AFP."

"We are really happy with how well this sets us apart from the competition."

Matt Rosoff of private analyst firm Directions On Microsoft doubted that Instant would make much difference in the battle for Internet search market share.

"It's a nice improvement, but I can't see it really changing the search game a lot," Rosoff said.

"It is sort of the same problem Bing has been facing: many people are really happy with their Google results and it is hard to improve on that."

Ripple effects of Instant are expected to be felt by websites that tailor designs or content to rank high in Google query results in a tactic called "search engine optimization."

"With Instant, people might not be as prone to finish a query and change search patterns," Rosoff said.

"It is a big change for companies trying to get listed in search results. Lots of companies make or lose millions of dollars based on search engine optimization and their Google strategy."