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On June 25, astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquetsuccessfully completedan almost seven-hour EVA (extravehicular activity, or spacewalk) to install solar panels on the International Space Station. What does it take to don a spacesuit and venture out on such a technical and dangerous mission? Surprisingly, one of the main criteria (besides the years of astronaut training) is body size. EVA capabilities blossomed during the era of NASA’s space shuttle. Astronauts rode robotic arms, floated tetherless through the void using jetpacks to steer, corralled satellites by hand, and built the International Space Station (ISS)....

Thenewsthat Steve Jobs is taking his second period of medical leave from Apple in two years is sure to have an effect on the firm he founded and has maintained an iron grip upon since he returned as CEO in 1997. While we don’t know how long he’ll be away (and indeed, it appears he doesn’t either), how might his absence impact on the company? The iPad 2 and iPhone 5 Okay, we don’t know what these devices will be called, but we know that they’re on their way....

Tesla’s relationship with cryptocurrencies has been a stop-start rollercoaster. In February, the electric vehicle manufacturerannounced it had purchasedUS$1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) ofBitcoinand planned to accept the cryptocurrency in future as a means of payment from its customers.The priceof the largest cryptocurrency surged that day from just over US$39,000 to US$46,000, on its way to an all-time high of almost US$65,000 in April – and a paper profit of well over US$1 billion for Tesla....

With theannouncementof a computer-free iOS experience, application sandboxing, saved application states and a refined launchpad that looks incredibly similar to the home screen of the iPad or iPhone, Apple has made a statement about where OS X is heading. It’s clearly the beginning of a series of changes that will codify the OS X experience as something much more iOS-like than it has ever been. But does that mean that the features coming from the iOS platform to OS X are an attempt to merge the two operating systems?...

What does tomorrow’s car look like? That depends on the future of cities Automated car sharing Our company history has it that the founder Uwe Latsch, now CTO, started the company so that he could visit his girlfriend’s parents in the countryside. He used his bike to get around town and couldn’t see the logic of buying a car just for the odd trip to the country. As one of the pioneers of carsharing, Uwe dedicated himself to building the technology that would automate vehicle sharing....