Stories about: Apollo

The technology behind almost every electronics device in the world, the integrated circuit or IC, celebrated its 50th anniversary on Friday. Its enduring success is thanks in part to two "nice guys" who developed it, and their early efforts to convince an industry that at first reviled their idea.

NASA last week launched a new interactive Web site, jointly developed with the non-profit Internet Archive, which initially combines some 21 separately stored and managed NASA imagery collections into a single online resource featuring enhanced search, visual and metadata capabilities.

Even though it seems to signal a shift from its PC-centric corporate philosophy, I wouldn't call Microsoft's Live Mesh offering a disruptive technology. If anything, it's an accommodating technology.

Adobe Systems plans to extend its AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) software to Linux later this year, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch said during the company's Engage event in San Francisco on Monday.

Bridging the gap between desktop and Web applications, Adobe Systems is set to ship Monday its AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) 1.0 technology for melding applications from both of these realms. Formerly known by its code name Apollo, the free technology already is being used in applications at places such as NASDAQ and AOL.

Let's face it: Life in IT can be thankless. Your work often goes unnoticed, unless you do something wrong. You put in long hours, working evenings and weekends. Expectations are high. Users are seldom happy with results

The familiar CRT monitors or backlit LCD screens on our desks continuously consume power in order to hold an image. Electronic paper (e-paper) is different: power is only needed to change the image. Just like paper, e-paper is able to hold the image permanently without consuming any power. Displays using CRT, backlit LCD, plasma and OLED technologies are all emissive, meaning that they have to produce the photons that reach the eye. This implies that they have to compete in brightness with ambient lighting, which can result in eye strain. E-paper is the opposite: it is reflective, which makes it possible to read the display using ambient light even in the brightness of a hot sunny day.

Mozilla Labs, a research arm of Mozilla, has released software that lets users strip a Web application from its enclosing browser and then work with the app as if it were a traditional desktop program.

We at Computerworld would be the last to say that science and technology aren't creative pursuits. Still, when most people say, "Oh, she's very creative," they're probably not talking about the subject's ability to perform higher math or engineer a network. Such people might be amazed to learn of the remarkable number of actors, directors, musicians and other celebrities who nurture an inner geek.

Apple's new iPod Touch is a revolutionary device, much like its iPhone cousin. It offers in one svelte package a host of cool features, everything from Web browsing over Wi-Fi to VPN access and a host of enterprise-useful apps. Sure, you can listen to music, but there's also a practical side, the side that makes it a perfect tool for business. (I know what a lot of you are thinking: In your dreams. Just stick with me a minute.)

At the Adobe MAX conference in the US this week -- themed 'Connect, Discover, Inspire' -- Adobe Systems announced beta 2.0 of its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) technology, around which the company is hoping the developer community will build applications to promote the platform's capabilities.