Download iOS 5 and iCloud Right Now [Ios 5]

By Casey Chan Oct 12, 2011 1:08 PM 60,303 290

It's here. iOS 5—with iCloud, a revamped notifications system, iMessage, Newsstand and 200 more features—is finally available for download. It works with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad and iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation). Here's how to get it.

To update your iOS device to iOS 5, you'll need the latest version of iTunes 10.5 which can be found here (be sure to run a backup of your iPhone after you've installed the latest iTunes too) and a wee bit of patience. Just hook up your iDevice to your iTunes, check for updates, and let the iOS 5 goodness flow. Apple servers are probably going to get slammed so it's going to take you well past your lunch break to enjoy the sweet nectar of the software update.

After you're done installing, check out the best new features of iOS 5 and our video walkthrough here. And don't forget, the iPad has some slick iOS 5 features too! Enjoy life out of the dark ages of notifications and into the cloud! Kiss goodbye to SMS with iMessage!

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 is also available for download (in Software Update). The 10.7.2 update is a big one because it finally brings all that iCloud goodness we've been waiting for, like Photostream and iCal syncing and so much more.

Tell us what your favorite iOS 5 features (or worst bugs) are in the comments, and happy update day![Apple]

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Download the New iTunes 10.5 Right Now [ITunes]

By Sam Biddle Oct 11, 2011 1:28 PM 19,028 55

Tomorrow's going to be a big day for Apple software—iOS 5, iCloud, an update to OS X Lion—and a version of iTunes to go along with all of that. Luckily, you can download iCloud-connected iTunes today.

This is smart on Apple's part, as releasing all these downloads at the same time would probably cause a hole to open in the space-time continuum. And make things slow for everyone on the planet. So go ahead and get ready for tomorrow—iCloud and iTunes Match are alllllmost here. Bonus: as PC World's Tony Bradley points out, iTunes is no longer shackled to QuickTime. [iTunes]

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Why California Is Right to Ban Tanning Beds for Teens [Video]

By Kristen Philipkoski Oct 10, 2011 3:20 PM 16,604 117

No more gym, tan, laundry for you, teenage California guidette!

Guidos and guidettes might be more common in Jersey, but every state has clueless teenagers who fear not death via melanoma. That's why California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law on Sunday that forbids teenagers between 14 and 18 from using tanning beds in the Golden State (kids under 14 were already banned).

Maybe it's more evidence that CA deserves the moniker "nanny state." And yes, teenagers can still lay in the real sun all they want.

But a study published last week in the Journal of Dermatology found that the risk of cancer from the UVA1 rays, the type most commonly used in tanning beds, is higher than previously thought. Experts before had worried most about UVB and UVA2 rays, but the new study found that UVA1 rays can also make cells cancerous.

Tanning beds are like cigarettes for your skin. They cause cancer, and there's science backing that up. Studies show that teens who regularly use tanning beds are eight times more likely to get melanoma than folks who have never fake-baked. And it's well known teenagers don't really grasp the death thing. They feel immortal. That's why we don't let them buy cigarettes. And it makes sense not to let teenagers use tanning beds.

California's law will be the strictest tanning bed law when it's enacted on January 1, 2012. Most other states also restrict tanning bed use, and Brazil has outlawed the beds altogether.

Get your spray tan on instead! Even Snookie has traded in tanning beds for mist-style self-tanner. Shouldn't our teenagers be at least as smart as Snookie?

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These Lucky School Kids Get to Learn In a Building Right Out of a Pixar Movie [Design]

By Jack Loftus Oct 8, 2011 6:00 PM 28,339 19

The Mouriz School is too cool for school. By day, its students frolcik and play outside its random lines and dark wood veneer. By night, however, the entire scene becomes one from a Pixar short. Fascinating stuff.

Back in the mid- to late-90s, I went to school in a boring, gray concrete block. The education was fine but the aesthetics were pure uninspirational 70s. This school, in Mouriz, Portugal, is none of those things:

This is a two-story school center, including a kindergarten and an elementary school located in Mouriz, Paredes, Portugal. It was conceived to comply with a functional program based on the needs of a fifteen classroom school center: managing flows and creating different levels of use due to different levels of autonomy within the school center – kindergarten and elementary school; common areas and sports area; linking the dynamics of each space; ranking uses and users; sharing pathways and functions.

Oh how jealous I am of today's students. Learning actively by book (or iPad?) and passively by design, subconsciously. [Arch Daily]

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Watch Congress Ream Google Right Here, Right Now [Watch This]

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt—and his company's many detractors—are about to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as to whether its search practices violate antitrust law. And you can watch the whole parade right here.

There will be grandstanding! Lawyer speak! An angry Yelp CEO! And probably a whole lot of old politicians killing time until their next nap. It's all here, helpfully annotated by the Sunlight Foundation, starting at 2pm EST (read: nowish):

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Samsung Galaxy Player 4 and 5 Hands On: Of Course It's the Right Time for an Android iPod Touch [Android]

We've been hearing about Android's answer to the iPod Touch since the days when men were men and HP made computers, but the rebranded-wait-no-back-to-the-original Galaxy Player 4 and 5 are finally here.

The prosaically named Player 4 and 5 have 4- and 5-inch screens, and weigh 4.2 and 6.4 ounces respectively. They run Gingerbread 2.3.5, come with 8GB onboard storage (expandable to 32GB microSD), and the 5 has a 2,500mAh battery, to the 4's 1,200mAh. The Players also have 800x480 screens (yes, both of them), front and rear facing cameras, and record video in 720p. Previous reports put the processor at 1GHz.

The jump from the four inches to five is pretty jarring, especially considering that it's 0.3 inches (which matters!) larger than the already-behemoth HTC Titan. The upshot is that it's a much better option for viewing media than its smaller-screened little brother, and unlike a phone, you might not be compelled to lug it around in your pocket all day. Both models are made of the by-now typical cheapy Samsung plastic, though, and feel noticeably less sturdy than the metal-clad Tab 8.9.

Both Players have access to Samsung's Media, Music, Social, and Reader hubs. Media, music, and social let you buy or rent movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, and newspapers. So basically most of the things you can do in other, more mature, marketplaces. But hey, if it has to be Android, your ship's finally come in. [Samsung]

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Watch the Future of Windows, Live, Right Now [Watch This]

In case you were wondering when and where all was to be revealed about Windows 8, the answers "now" and "here," respectively. You can—and should—tune in live to Microsoft's Build conference keynote here: [Build]

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The Wildfires Burning Texas Right Now Can Be Seen from Space [Fire]

Texas is burning right now. More than a thousand homes have already been lost, 5,000 people have been evacuated and more fires are popping up. Some of the fires are so big that you can see them from space.

It's a really scary situation, a lot of people don't even know what's going to happen—there are an estimated 85 fires burning with more than 7,500 acres already destroyed by the fires. According to people in the Lone Star State, the entire state smells like fire and the clouds are filled with smoke (most of the fires are in Central Texas).

Something as small as a Labor Day BBQ could start a fire because it's hot, it's dry and it's windy in Texas. Absolutely destructive weather and with no rain in sight, the fires are raging and spreading. The Texas Forest Service said, "this is unprecedented fire behavior. No one on the face of this Earth has ever fought fires in these extreme conditions." The space shots of the fires come from NASA and though they don't show the damage up close (like these photos do), it does show the sheer size and power behind it. Hopefully, everyone fighting these fires can stay safe. [LA Times via @MattHardigree, Image Credit: NASA] You can keep up with Casey Chan, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.

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Nokia Needs to Stop Making Symbian Phones RIGHT NOW [Nokia]

Hey look! There are three new Symbian phones out today. What? Where? Why, they're over there, next to the pennyfarthings and the ham radios: the obsolete section. What the crap is going on here, Nokia?

Look, we all get it: Symbian used to be boss and blah blah first to blah blah N-Series blah groundbreaking blah blah. SHUT IT. Nobody knows this more than me: In 2005, I started using a Euro-market Nokia N95. It was dope. It had a GPS and a 5 megapixel camera—Zeiss optics!—and Wi-Fi and stereo speakers and Bluetooth. It was a world phone. Nobody had ever seen anything like it.

Sure, it was a little difficult to use, but that was like a badge of honor at that point. I carried that thing until 2006, when I got an American-market version. It had 3G. Most people were still toting around edge, if they had smartphones at all. And if someone did have a mobile device that did more than make calls, send texts, and snap VGA photos, it was usually an office-issue electronic leash like a Blackberry or a Windows mobile brick. The lucky ones had Treos running ancient Palm software. (Bejeweled 2 holla!) Nobody had a smartphone because it was fun. Except me.

I had a decent music player (hey, it got the job done) on my cell while everyone else's pants were bulging with multiple gadgets. I was taking almost all of my photos with my 5-megapixel phone, and surfing the Web without a computer. I had apps. I could get driving directions from my cellphone. (As long as I wasn't in a city.) Remember 5 years ago when this stuff was a rarity? It's worth thinking about for a second, just to appreciate what an amazing trip the last few dozen months have been.

So yeah, back to me loving my mobile life: Yes the operating system—Symbian S60—was for shit, but it seemed a necessary price for living in the future: the tithe of the early adopter. Yes, the apps were hidden in an obscure menu within an obscure menu within an obscure menu, but I had apps; and yes, every app would run in the background, sucking the life out of your battery until you manually quit it, a procedure that required you to hit a button, scroll down to the end of an incredibly long list of functions, and hit exit. But *you could install programs on your phone.* You could copy and paste. In 2005. You could multitask. In 2005. Nokia was way ahead of anybody else in terms of what its customers were doing with their phones. And then what the hell happened? Nothing. Symbian received some much-needed "updates," but they didn't fundamentally alter the user experience.

By 2008, I felt like I was driving a Stanley Steamer while everyone partied at the gas stations. I joined the throng and got an iPhone. I was tired of playing Snake, even the fancy Tron-like "3D" version.

It's a bit of an old saw at this point, but Symbian got lapped. The UI is a bit whizzier these days, but it has still barely advanced on a fundamental level. Even the latest build I've used (and to be fair, I have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing Belle) feels devoted to a legacy platform. Functions are too complicated; simple tasks take too many button-clicks or movements to accomplish. The app store feels dangerous, filled with half-baked indy joints from devs who may or may not be looking to install a botnet on your phone.

And yet there's this bright light in the distance: That soon Nokia phone will run Mango. That the company which has been consistently cranking out the best mobile hardware for the past decade will get a software dance partner worthy of its shiny shoes.

Then Nokia up and comes out with three new Symbian phones today. QUIT IT. Seriously. Finland. Do you read me? Stop making Symbian handsets. Repeat: kssshhhh Stop making Symbian handsets. Save your money for the Mango models. Do you copy? Wow us in October with something unexpected: competition for the iPhone. I'll switch in a hummingbird's heartbeat. And I won't be alone.

Getting some really awesome comments already. Some worth noting:

mconheady:
Don't ignore that those phones are cheap and hugely popular in china because they support QQ and Weibo. In asia they sell millions upon millions.

Sean Harrington:
We buy shit like Symbian phones because, for our kids and technophobic elders, it's the only cost-effective way to get them connected with us.

Thinger
The Ham radio is very much in use and very much needed. It's likely what emergency crews used yesterday when the earthquake knocked out cell coverage.

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