Science And Technology On Rapid Improvement

Wal-Mart slashes iPhone 5 and iPad prices

Wal-Mart also cut $50 off the price of its 10-inch iPads. The latest iPad with Retina Display now costs $449 and the price of the iPad 2 is $349. The $330 iPad mini did not get a discount.The price cuts come as Apple is widely expected to be unveiling a new iphone  and possibly a new iPad on Sept. 10. Retailers often slash prices to clear out inventory ahead of a new product launch.But Wal-Mart's deal undercuts all of them.The retailer also cut the price of the iPhone 4S to $39, down from $89. Most iPhone 4S smartphones sell for $100 with a new contract.At the same time, Wal-Mart slashed the price of the Samsung Galaxy S4 to $138, a $10 price cut on the Verizon version and a $30 discount on the AT&T edition.

Vodafone nears $130 billion deal with Verizon

Vodafone cautioned that there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached, but said that the deal would consist of a mixture of Verizon common stock and cash.
"A further announcement will be made as soon as practicable," the company said in a statement. Verizon declined to comment.If completed, it will be one of the largest deals in corporate history. Vodafone paid a record $180 billion for Germany's Mannesmann in 2000.

Are computer chips on the verge of a quantum leap

We swipe, we tap, we scroll and click, but rarely do we pause to think about what goes on in the maze of electronics beneath our fingertips.
But next time you are marveling at the computer hardware in your hands spare a thought for the tiny transistors in our computer chips. Without them all our modern gizmos wouldn't work.
"I think transistors really are the unsung heroes of the information age," says Kaizad Mistry, vice president at the world's leading chip maker, Intel. "These tiny little switches ... these are the things that our computers, our servers, our smartphones and laptops (depend on)."Since Intel introduced the first commercial microprocessor in 1971, all chip manufacturers have been striving to increase processor speeds by cramming more and more transistors -- the tiny switches that control electrical signals -- onto surfaces no bigger than the size of a fingernail.