Forget about iPhone 5, for the time being at least. What was expected to be the iPhone 5 unveiling became just an iPhone 4S announcement.

Despite the speculations and the hopes, there would be only few minor changes an the next iPhone that is rightly though called iPhone 4S.

To majority of technology and apple admirers, this is probably the disappointment of the year.  Which by the way, we have a recommendation of new spelling to the word disappointment: Di(4s)sappointment.

Our major question, despite the obvious is: how Apple being aware of the high expectations, has let that happen.

While people politely cheered in the audience, Apple’s share price plunged 3 per cent.

That official iPhone 4s release probably looked great when they did it, but now, facing the disappointment, it looks much less appealing. However, here it is anyway.

The iPhone 4s features are:

Processor: Apple A5 (Vs. A4 at iPhone 4)

Camera: 8 megapixel (upgraded from 5 megapixel in iPhone 4)

Screen: 3.5in

Storage: 16GB-64GB

Operating system: iOS

3G talk time: 8 hours (one hour improvement)

Handset looks just the same as iPhone 4

Voice control lets you ‘talk’ to iPhone ‘like a person’

Apple operating system IOS 5 is expected on October 12 and older models now much cheaper.

The following youtube video that present a new iphone 5 concept gained more than 20 million views in less than three weeks.

Iphone 5 features

The iphone 5 features presented in this video are a bit too early for their time, but maybe something to aspire to in the next version. Iphone 5 features, whatever they may come up may not be that surprising, I am afraid. It may be slimmer than its predecessors and have one or two new gadgets or features, but no breakthrough is expected.

The new iPhone 5 is speculated  to be loaded with new features like video chat on 3g and 4g face recognition and extreme downloading

This iPhone 5 may be equipped with a speedy dual core A5 chip processor and a faster graphic chips that can deliver higher video resolutions (5-9 times better) and amazing “still” images when taking pictures, it will make multi-tasking a lot faster.

We, however, have some minor basic requests, although clearly aware this is too late for iphone5:

A much stronger battery, a bigger screen and solve the damn Flash problem… is that too much to ask?

Endeavour blasted off on the next-to-last shuttle flight Monday morning under the command of Mark Kelly, the husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The wounded congresswoman watched the launch in private from Kennedy Space Center. As many as 45,000 guests jammed NASA’s launch site. The crowd outside the gates was estimated to be in the tens of thousands, if not more. It was the second launch attempt. Late last month, an electrical problem halted the countdown. Endeavour and its six astronauts will arrive at the International Space Station on Wednesday. They are delivering a $2 billion particle physics experiment. The mission will last 16 days. Only one other shuttle trip remains.

The STS-134 crew led by Commander Mark Kelly are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 8:56 a.m. EDT Monday, May 16. The crew of Kelly, pilot Greg Johnson, mission specialists Mike Fincke, Drew Feustel, Greg Chamitoff and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS) and critical supplies to the space station. The supplies include two communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank and additional parts for the Dextre robot. The AMS is a particle physics detector designed to search for various types of unusual cosmic matter. The crew also will transfer Endeavour’s orbiter boom sensor system, where it could assist spacewalkers as an extension for the station’s robotic arm.

We are all down here following Endeavour’s last voyage and wish it safe and successful completion of its mission.

I believe most of us clearly remember the moments depicted in the movie and clearly remember where they were and what they did at the time. Most of us were covering their mouth in shock, looking at the horrific site of the collapsing towers, refusing to believe it.

Jobs appearance was a surprise, but he did in fact make the event. He shared some stats about the iBookstore, which has 2,500 publishers. He also announced that Random House is bringing over 17,000 books to the store.  

Then came the announcement. The iPad 2 is faster with the A5 chip and a dual core processor. Apple says it’s up to 2 times faster,a nd up to 9 times faster on graphics. It’s 33% thinner (thinner than the iPhone 4) and only 1.3 pounds compared to 1.5 on the old one. This should make it a little better for reading publications like The Daily – as far as general comfort.

It comes in both black and white. There is a rear and front-facing camera. Battery life is the same as old iPad – 10 hours, over a month of standby.

 ”We have the same legendary 10 hour battery life… with all this extra stuff in it and dramatically thinner.” And the pricing remains unchanged, starting at $499 for a 16 gigabyte model.

The iPad 2 ships March 11 in the U.S., in “at least 26 more countries” on March 25.

Jobs lists some upcoming accessories. A $39 HDMI output cable (so you can plug an iPad into an HDTV without buying a dock).

A “smart cover” case that magnetically grasps the iPad 2 to protect the screen, sends it to sleep when covered and wakes the iPad when you open it. It comes in a choice of colors and with either a polyurethane (Jobs notes that they make spacesuits out of polyurethane) or leather exterior, with a microfiber lining on the inside the clean the screen. The former costs $39, the latter $69.

New iPad 2 features in short:

•Dual-core A5 processor, up to 2x faster than old iPad

•Front and rear cameras

•Built-in gyroscope

•8.8 mm thick (1/3 thinner than old iPad which was 13.4 mm thick)

•Weighs 1.3 lbs (down from 1.5 lbs)

•10 hour battery life

•Supports wireless data connections with AT&T and Verizon carriers

•Will be available in black and white

•Price: (WiFi) 16GB $499, 32GB $599, 64GB $699 (WiFi + 3G) 16GB $629, 32GB $729, 64GB $829

•Available in the U.S. starting March 11

“Almost no country in the world, Israel included, is just a national state any more. All countries are affected in all fields by global events. Our fate is not just historical, but also global. In the past, the world’s 192 countries were like ships on the sea, and the biggest problem was to prevent collisions. Today, the world is more like one great ship with 192 cabins. The cabins are the nations, and on the global ship, and the fate of every cabin on board depends on the fate of the ship, and what happens in the cabins affects the fate of the ship.”

Peres said, “When there are dangerous cabins, and they exist, then a broad coalition of other cabins will press the dangerous cabins to surrender for the good of the ship. The problem is ship-wide, and not a problem of collisions between ships. No matter where you look, we see the huge effect of the ship on the cabin, including the Israeli cabin. This begins with the economy: there is no national economy. There might be national poverty, but anyone wanting national growth must turn to the global economy.”

At the age of 87, Mr. Peres is still sharp, focused and has many visions concerning Israel in the coming era. Listening to him makes you understand why he is an asset to Israel and Israeli view.

Ms. Elaine Rossall and Mr. Neil Gorman have conducted a thorough report illuminating key factors in relocating firms’ perceptions towards European location. They main findings are:

With a slow recovery from recession and with companies continuing to focus on being located in cities that can provide them with a cost effective yet efficient base, cities continue to be in competition with each other to attract inward investment. The European Cities Monitor examines a number of key issues that corporate consider when considering new locations and indicates how effectively each European city is perceived to perform and where improvements are seen to have been made over the last year.

Best cities to locate a business today:

London is still the leading city in which to do business, with a similar score to 2009. Paris remains in second place and Frankfurt in third, with the gap between second and third place closing slightly.

Brussels regains fourth place from Barcelona, while Amsterdam moves back up the ranking to sixth place.

This year the most impressive rise in the rankings is seen by Vienna, increasing six places to 22nd.

Düsseldorf moves up from 15th to 10th over the year, while Manchester also advances four places from 16th to 12th.

This year both Edinburgh and Bratislava are new cities to the ranking, and they are ranked 27th and 32nd respectively.

Top 10 EU cities to locate a business today are:

1.            London

2.            Paris

3.            Frankfurt

4.            Brussels

5.            Barcelona

6.            Amsterdam

7.            Berlin 

8.            Madrid 

9.            Munich 

10.          Düsseldorf 

 The above data is extracted from the original report.  The full report can be downloaded from Cushman & Wakefield’s site: http://www.europeancitiesmonitor.eu

A continental airspace closure took precedent in September 11, 2001 when the US had to close its airspace in order to neutralize potential further attacks.

The eruption of Icelandic Mount Eyjafjallajokull and the resulting volcanic ash cloud over Europe have caused severe flight disruptions since last week, grounded millions of people, tones of cargo and disrupted international air traffic over Europe and the Atlantic.

The above had enormous affect on trade, business and insurance. Not to mention convenience. The ecological effect is too soon to evaluate, however has a destructive potential on climate in case of severe eruption.

Europe is operating several airports and KLM has started today a gradual procedure in order to restore its flight schedule.

The continental boycotting due to the volcanic ash over Europe is gradually removed today in order to allow the millions of passengers and tones of cargo to start flying again.

It is amazing how such a simple incident could have grounded Europe traffic for few days and cause such damage.

KLM has announced today that:

Flights to and from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

We have resumed operations in a phased manner. 

This means that we have started to operate European flights into and out of Amsterdam. In the coming days we expect to gradually go back to our normal schedules.

European flights

On Wednesday 21 April, as of 14.00 hours ( Amsterdam time), we will start to operate some flights to the United Kingdom. As of 22 April, we will try to get back to our normal schedules to and from the UK.

We also expect that later today, 21 April, we will be able to resume some flights to Norway, Sweden, Finland and Germany.

Intercontinental flights

All intercontinental flights to Amsterdam are expected to arrive on Wednesday 21 April.

All intercontinental flights from Amsterdam are expected to depart on Wednesday 21 April.

KLM together with Schiphol airport urging passengers not go to the airport if their flight is cancelled. It will take some time before all flights will be back on schedule.

It might be the right place to acknowledge the dedication of some European airports that made many efforts to assist passengers in providing them place to sleep, water and food. This was an extraordinary action on behalf of airports.

Final frontier, as James T. Kirk used to call it.

Today, Endeavour space scuttle took off again in one of its last missions as the whole shuttles project will be terminated by the end of this year. The space shuttle Endeavour has set off for the International Space Station (ISS) on a repair mission and the video can be seen below.

The story of the NASA project is both unique and tragic. It has began some 40 years ago based on even earlier concepts of reusable space shuttles. Six Space Shuttle orbiters were built; the first, Enterprise, was used only for testing purposes. Five space-worthy orbiters were:

 Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour.

• On January 28, 1986, orbiter Challenger (OV-099) disintegrated 73 seconds after launch in a dreadful explosion well remembered by anyone who have ever seen it.
• On February 1st, 2003 Columbia was lost during reentry.

In both cases, NASA lost all astronauts and mission specialists onboard and went through a process that risked the entire project.

Endeavour was built as a replacement to Challenger. Columbia was never replaced.

Believe it or not but we are witnessing history in the making as the Shuttles project will be terminated by the end of the year. Further NASA projects will imitate the old way of taking off on a top of a missile and landing with parachutes into the sea, just like in the old Apollo program.

So space shuttles as we used to see them are terminating an era in space exploration and will not be replaced by reusable shuttles. It is impossible to evaluate how many people worldwide were touched by the ambitious NASA shuttles project. It started by a mass correspondence to the white house, by Star Trek series fans to change the first shuttle’s name from Constitution to Enterprise and became part of all of us with its victories and failures. The tragedies affected our life.

I clearly remember myself as 18 years old teenager watching the documentary movie Hail Columbia at the Air & Space museum in Washington on a giant screen. It was an amazing movie and one of the only few I witnessed people cheering to a movie at the end of it.

 Therefore, every time they take off, we hold our breath, together with all NASA employees and pray to see it landing safely.

This post is dedicated to the brave men and women who lost their life in this project and to their families. They made us so proud.

President Reagan said in the memorial service of Challenger:

” Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain”.

Challenger: STS-51-L crew: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ron McNair. Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik.

Columbia STS-107 crew:  Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark and Ilan Ramon (Col. IAF) . (Pic by NASA).

However, as from last night, there is an unusual additive to the building: the Dutch brewery started brewing browsers… Google Chrome to be exact. Slides of the browsers logo are projected on the outside wall of the Heineken building to be seen by nearly frozen by passers.

We are witnessing Google efforts to promote their almost two years old browser. One can see Chrome advertisements everywhere on newspapers, magazines and of course online.

In terms of popularity and according to Net Applications, Google Chrome web browser has just passed Apple’s safari and is occupying the third place in popularity after Internet Explorer various versions and Firefox. This popularity is expected to grow once Google will release it Chrome OS.

In case you are wondering which browser will be the most popular in two three years from now, the answer is somewhat surprising: whatever they will be named, they will be installed on mobile devices, namely, mobile phones.

According to Gartner, somewhere at 2013 browser-equipped phones will exceed 1.83 billion, compared with 1.78 billion PCs worldwide.

Get ready.