Like his buddy Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist who wrote the Afterward to his book, physicist Lawrence Krauss does not have a ton of patience for theology. Or American schools. Or God. Krauss seems totally unimpressed by deities in general.

In 2009, Krauss gave a lecture entitled "A Universe from Nothing" for the Atheist Alliance International Conference. It became a YouTube sensation, with over a million hits. His book is essentially a transcript of the talk; it has the same quotes, the same jokes, the same disparaging remarks about religion. 
But the talk loses something in translation. Online, the figures are in color, whereas in the book they are in black and white, and Krauss has a speaking style that many find compelling. If you like seeing things in print, or want to underline them and review them over and over, read the book; if you are more of an oral learner, or only have an hour to devote to the subject, watch the video. But be warned that Dr. Krauss is wearing a shirt that is the exact same color as the wall behind him, which is kind of disconcerting—like his torso is transparent or something.






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Acer has entered its version of an ultrabook, the Aspire S3, into Intel's race to the top. While the computer doesn't have much merit in the way of design and makes some compromises, it's a solid performer with a good keyboard and trackpad, and great battery life—a combination that's been a rare find so far.

The Aspire S3 is on the heavier side among the models we've tested (the Asus Zenbook UX21 and Toshiba Portege Z835) coming in at 2.93 pounds, about the same as the 13-inch MacBook Air's 2.96 pounds, but more than the Toshiba's 2.5 pounds. The weight doesn't do much to offset the cheap feeling of the mostly plastic body, with plastic palmrests, keyboard keys, and casing covered by a metal top case. The computer's hinge is very stiff, and if you don't pin down the bottom half when trying to open it, it will follow the top half wherever it goes.







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When I first heard about podcasting, I didn't get it. Why would I want to download MP3 files of people talking? But then former Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated the usefulness of podcasts when he introduced podcast support for iTunes and the iPod at WWDC 2005, and I was sold. (Watch the video if you're unfamiliar with podcasting.) 
I now listen to podcasts when walking to and from work, cooking, doing the dishes, etc. This lets me keep up with developments in philosophy, economics, science, and technology, not to mention entertainment with things like the stories from flight attendant Betty and relationship advice from Dan Savage. Podcasting combines two somewhat revolutionary elements: podcasts can be produced by anyone, and you can listen to them on the go without taking away time from other activities.







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Google's Android 4, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), debuts later this month on the much-anticipated Galaxy Nexus smartphone. This major new version of Android includes a redesigned user interface that promises a uniform experience across tablet and smartphone form factors, and it delivers new features and a wide range of improvements across the core application stack.

We already gave you a look at the Galaxy Nexus earlier this month in a hands-on review of the hardware. Now it's time to take a close look at the operating system and the ICS user experience.






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Sometimes there are more obvious tell-tale signs of fake online reviews, but product manufacturers are getting more creative. As the New York Times points out, you sometimes need to dig a little deeper into the actual language to detect an impostor. More »

Penultimate, by Cocoa Box Design, aims to bring the analog act of note taking to the purely digital iPad. In recent days, the application has enjoyed the number one sales slot on the App Store, as well as a short time in the top 10 grossing apps. However, as we all know by now, not all that glitters is gold. Does Penultimate stack up to its lofty App Store success?

As long as you don’t look too closely, Penultimate is beautiful. The application takes its styling inspiration from a leather-bound notebook filled with your choice of white lined paper, graph paper, or blank white paper. The power of the app lies in allowing users to create as many separate notebooks as they desire, making the task of organizing notes somewhat trivial.





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Bento is the consumer version of popular database software FileMaker Pro. The new iPad version of the software joins the Mac version, currently at version 3, as well as the iPhone version in the growing stable of Bento implementations. At $4.99, the iPad application is 10 percent of the price of its desktop sibling, but the desktop software isn't necessary in order to make use of it.

Creating a database from scratch in Bento for iPad is simple thanks to the 25 different templates included with the software. These templates are made for people who are looking to track things like recipes, expenses, customers, and inventory. Each template can be edited to meet the needs of a specific user and can be helpful starting points. For those who want to start from scratch, there is also an option to start from a blank slate.





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The iPad isn't a big iPod touch—an iPod touch is a miniature iPad that restricts the full multitouch experience in exchange for offering greater portability. With the iPad, in contrast, you get multitouch the way it was meant to be done.

That's one of our many take-aways after having submerged ourselves in iPad land since launch. The larger screen doesn't just offer more space to work with—it opens up a different and more immersive user experience. Because of this different experience, though, the closed nature of the platform can get under some users' skin in ways the iPhone and iPod touch do not.

Still, the iPad is likely to just be a starting point for Apple and for multitouch computing in general. There are obvious downsides to the device—we'll tell you what those are—but it's clear that it does sit in its own category that floats somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop, and it serves different purposes than either its smaller or bigger siblings. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

A large chunk of the Ars staff contributed to this review, either in the form of writing full sections or by offering feedback and insights based on their own experiences. Because the 3G + WiFi version is not yet on the market, we all tested a WiFi-only iPad. We think it's worth noting up front that the WiFi-only version is probably best if you only plan to use it at home or at Starbucks—you'll definitely miss not having an Internet connection while out and about, and the (non-contract) 3G data plans are not bad at all, so long as you can stomach the extra $130 you'll have to fork over for the privilege.

It's also the case that there are some parts of the iPad "experience" that we didn't get to cover here, but we think the next several pages will convey more about what using the iPad is like than you ever thought you wanted to know. So let's get on with it!





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