Apple News: An iPad Running OS X Could Be Apple’s Next “Big Idea”
Prior to the 30th anniversary of the original Macintosh on January 24, I wrote about the possibility that Apple might soon merge iOS and OS X, creating a single hybrid operating system for both Macs and mobile devices. Apple had no direct response to my request for comment, but three company executives—marketing VP Phil Schiller, software engineering VP Craig Federighi, and software technology VP Bud Tribble—indirectly answered some of my questions when they invited Macworld to Apple headquarters to set the record straight, insisting that OS X and iOS will always be separate entities.
Read full story => ReadWrite
Technology News: Will Technology Make Work Better for Everyone?
Two major publications hit bookstore shelves last week with the same overarching theme: The Second Machine Age, an important and (deservedly) much hyped new book on the future of technology and work from Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, and the Jan. 18 issue of the Economist, whose cover story paints a similar picture of the rapidly evolving nature of work. Yet each of these focuses primarily on one half of the story—how technology will affect the quantity of work, rather than the quality. If, as these authors argue, the key to future economic growth and prosperity is “racing with the machines,” with humans and ever-smarter computers doing what they’re best at side-by-side, is this a future you should be looking forward to, if you’re lucky enough to have a job in the future at all?
Read full story => Slate
Programming News: How They Did It: The Foundation Framework
These days, there are two approaches to developing a website front-end; start from scratch, or build upon a tried and tested framework. Today, we’ll take a little tour into the origin and the still rising success of ZURB’s Foundation. We had the opportunity to sit down with Founder and Chief Instigator Bryan Zmijewski, and Partner and Design Lead Jonathan Smiley about their framework. We talked about how Foundation started, why it’s open source, which significant milestones and challenges the team crossed and continue to face.
Read full story => WebDesignTuts+
Photography News: How does sensor size impact depth of field and diffraction for macro photography?
Macro photographers often stop down to very small apertures to maximize the razor thin depth of field when operating at such close focus distances. Smaller sensors have greater depth of field than larger sensors at the same f-stop with similar framing and subject distance, but smaller sensors have higher pixel pitch for a given pixel count and are thus impacted by diffraction sooner when stopping down. Assuming a macro photographer wanted to fill the frame with a 36mm insect and enlarge the result to the same final size, which setup would have a greater depth of field in the final image if each picture was taken at the diffraction limited aperture: Nikon D4 (16MP) with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens, or an Olympus OM-D E-M5 with a Panasonic 45mm f/2.8 macro lens?
Read full story => StackExchange
