Apple reveals new iPhone features (Friday, 9 April 2010)

Apple has shown off some of the 100 new features to be included in the iPhone operating system later this year.

The update includes a mobile advertising platform called iAd that will be used to place adverts in applications made by third parties.

Apple founder Steve Jobs also showcased a long-awaited multi-tasking feature, which will allow users to run more than one program at a time.

The feature is already included in many other smartphones.

iAd marks Apple's first foray into a potentially lucrative new market, and pits it directly against Google's search engine advertising model.

Apple will allow external developers to pocket 60% of ad revenue from iAd.

The Apple boss said the iPhone OS 4.0 update will be released first for the iPhone and iPod touch, and then the iPad, later this year.

'Ad-sense'

Mr Jobs gave a demonstration of the multi-tasking feature showed the online radio station Pandora running in the background playing music while a user could either read news online or deal with e-mail.

"We weren't the first to this party but we're going to be the best," he said.

Some of the other features unveiled at the presentation at Apple's headquarters in California include being able to create specific folders to store third party applications downloaded from iTunes, enhanced mail, which will gather e-mail from multiple accounts into one "unified" inbox and iBooks, which is already on the iPad.

Mr Jobs said mobile users spend more time inside applications than searching the internet.

Therefore it made sense to have adverts within the applications - or apps as they are commonly known.

"It's very clear that [Mr] Jobs believes that ads in the context of apps makes more sense than generic mobile search," said Tim Bajarin at consulting company Creative Strategies.

Mobile sales

Apple's move into mobile advertising was widely expected after it bought Quattro Wireless mobile advertising network for almost $300m (£196m) in January.

Analysts say revenue from mobile advertising will jump dramatically this year.

"It has huge potential to really change mobile commerce," said Van Baker, Vice president of research at Gartner.

"The evidence so far is that very few transactions really happen in this space. Mobile is used to compare prices, find restaurants, movie times and the like but very little in the way of commerce."

Apple bought mobile ad company Quattro after failing to buy the market leader AdMob, which was purchased by Google.

In a slight to the search giant, Mr Jobs said "Google came in and snatched them (AdMob) because they didn't want us to have them".

Google's deal is currently being investigated by US regulators.

iPad demand

During the packed press event, Mr Jobs revealed that to date Apple has sold 50m iPhones. That number rises to 85m when the iPod touch is included.

Mr Jobs also gave an update on the iPad, which went on sale in the US only at the weekend. It is expected in stores in the UK and part of Europe, as well as Canada and Australia at the end of the month.

Apple said it had sold 450,000 iPads as of 8 April. Mr Jobs added that 600,000 electronic books and 3.5m applications had been downloaded for the iPad in the previous five days.

"We're making them as fast as we can," Mr Jobs said. "Evidently we can't make enough of them yet so we are going to have to try harder."

The Sacred Cow

The term sacred cow is a firm representation of the several factors of human history where cows were used as symbols of the most spiritual aspects of eastern philosophy.  And there was a firm presence of sacred animals of bovine nature in the west as well.  The importance of the cow has been seen in everything from the Egyptian Kemetic tradition as well as being sacred to the Celts.  Where did this shift from the cow as a sacred animal to fast food consumerism take place?  And can it be an indicator of our own spirituality?

In several belief systems the cow is sacred because it is a system of fertility and growth.  It represents the Mehet-Weret or primordial force that eventually gave birth to Ra.  In the Hindu belief system the cow is equally sacred due to its relationship to the fertility of crops, but also of all forms of life.  Perhaps it is not the cow itself that seems to have a strong relationship with spirituality, but that which the cow seems to represent.  Even the name of our galaxy is called, perhaps not coincidentally, the Milky Way.  If these primordial forces are not held in the same esteem as they once were, then how did the sacred cow become a sacrificial animal, and to what force of man was it put to slaughter?

Today the cow is seen as a source of food to many, not just for its ability to enrich barren lands with its nutrients, and its life giving milk, but also using its very flesh as a source of sustenance. In fact, many would argue this is the primary purpose the cow serves these days.  So if the cow has changed from being an animal which produces sustenance which is reusable to an animal which must first be slaughtered in order to be consumed, is this an indication of something more?  Just as Buddhists are encouraged to think on the relationship of the sacred animal in order to draw conclusions about the human experience and their relationship with spiritual forces, perhaps it would be worthwhile to explore the evolution and ultimate conclusion that has brought us to present day.  Buddha's famous metaphor drew parallels between the human experience and the products produced by the cow, "For just as milk comes from the cow and from the milk cream, and from the cream butter, and from the butter ghee, so that is reckoned the best of all, and he who has striven both for himself and for others is the highest and most supreme.

Is there an aspect of human spirituality that would celebrate the death of fertility in the universe?  In looking at the sprawling metropolises devoid of all life except that which is man, serves man, or is man's enemy, is it possible that there is no place for the sacred cow?  And can a world that does not value the sacred nature of creation truly sustain itself and create the new if it removes itself from the cycle of creation?

Russia's oil exploration threatens gray whales

Oil exploration plans in eastern Russia are a serious threat to gray whales in the area, say scientists with the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The Rosneft company is due to begin a seismic survey around Sakhalin island within the next few weeks.

The IWC's Scientific Committee is "extremely concerned" about the plans and is calling for a postponement.

The gray whale population is critically endangered, with only about 130 animals left and only 20 breeding females.

Russia says it is aware of the problem, but the company's capacity to shift is limited for financial reasons.

Western Pacific gray whales (also known as grey whales) come to Sakhalin each summer to feed, and seismic survey work - which involves producing high-intensity sound pulses and studying reflections from rock strata under the sea floor - can seriously disrupt their feeding.

The small area where the whales congregate has shallow water, and scientists suspect this is where mothers teach their calves how to feed at the sea floor.

The IWC's head of science, Greg Donovan, said the survey work was planned for the period "when there's probably the highest density of gray whales and particularly mother-calf pairs.

"The Scientific Committee is requesting them to postpone the survey until next year, and to do it as early in the season as possible when there are as few whales there as possible," he told BBC News.

"We actually made a similar recommendation to another company, Sakhalin Energy; they have followed that recommendation and this year, they are carrying out the survey with a very detailed mitigation plan as early in the season as possible."

The mitigation plan includes a provision that testing must stop if mother-and-calf pairs appear in the area.

Energy balance

Russia's IWC commissioner, Valentin Ilyashenko, said he accepted the scientists' conclusions, but there might be a problem in following through on its recommendations.

"Our government and minister of natural resources know this problem... and this question was discussed maybe one month ago," he said.

"From my information, it's very difficult to start this work next year, because the work was planned last year and the money was in the budget for this year, and all equipment and the mothership is rented.

"It's very difficult to change that work but in any case, I know that our scientists and the staff of our ministers is working with this problem with this company."

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been working with companies including Sakhalin Energy to minimise the impact on gray whales.

But Rosneft, reportedly, has appeared less interested in the issue.

Justin Cooke, a member of the IUCN panel, said that if the planned tests go ahead, there was a risk that mothers with calves could be driven out of their feeding grounds.

"This could have a crucial impact on this critically endangered population," he said.

"We have some evidence of a slow recovery, but that would be jeopardised by serious disruption in their feeding grounds."

The population has to recover and expand, he said, if its survival is to be assured.

Going south

The western grays spend the winters in breeding grounds further south, where another issue threatening their survival is entrapment in fishing nets.

Japan is trying to reduce this bycatch in its fleet through an education programme.

Fishermen are not now allowed to sell gray whale meat, and are asked to report entanglements so that authorities can release the whales.

Since the programme's introduction in 2008, there have been no reports of gray whales deaths through this mechanism.

This is one component of a comprehensive conservation plan drawn up by scientists from a number of countries and endorsed here by the IWC.

A key priority is to locate the breeding grounds, which are thought to be close to the Chinese coast - perhaps in a military zone.