Technology & Innovation — September 2, 2010

Apple Challenges Facebook

“Apple has unveiled a new music social network that could rival Facebook and Twitter, as well as an Apple TV that can stream movies and television shows directly from the Internet.”

bigthinkeditor

“Apple has thrown down the gauntlet to Facebook and Twitter with the launch of a new social-networking service designed specifically for music fans. Ping, a social music discovery service, is built in to Apple’s iTunes software, a programme used by more than 160 million people to download songs and organise their music library. Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, used a special press conference at the Yerba Buena Centre in San Francisco to outline Apple’s new approach to music and entertainment services. ‘One of the biggest things we focus on with iTunes is discovery. There are more than 12 million songs to choose from, so how do you find new stuff?,’ asked Jobs.”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

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Culture & Religion

Saving Proust’s Overcoat

A new book tells the story of how a Parisian perfume magnate persuaded Proust’s family not to destroy his effects, among which were his manuscripts and famous overcoat.