On the Wire | Tech titans face off in court over iPhone, iPad

Source: AP Photo/Sascha Schuermann

By Paul Elias | Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Two tech titans will square off in federal court Monday in a closely watched trial over control of the U.S. smartphone and computer tablet markets.

Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. last year alleging the world's largest technology company's smartphones and computer tablets are illegal knockoffs of its popular iPhone and iPad products. The Cupertino-based company is demanding $2.5 billion in damages, an award that would dwarf the largest patent-related verdict to date.

WATCH | What Appears to Be the iPhone 5 Being Assembled from Parts

CHOO CHOO! Hype train a-comin'.

No more than a couple days after we get "factory-leaked" iPhone 5 candids that support rumors of a redesign, this video surfaces on Verge — is this the iPhone we know and love?

Meeting our cultural overlords at Comic-Con

SAN DIEGO — I understand the allure of comic books. Stunning artwork. Twisting plots. Serial cliffhangery.

What I've never been clear on is why this visual and narrative approach is so pressed into the service of stories about people who wear capes and fly through the air. How did it come to be that comic books -- and comic-book-inspired movies, and the fans who adore those movies, and the culture at large -- are all deeply obsessed with the notion of the superhero?

Thursday afternoon at Comic-Con, I attended a panel that I hoped might shed some light on the matter. A group of academics had convened in a medium-size conference room to explore the past and the future of superhero studies. What flavor of seminar was this? Let us note that when the projector clicked on, the first slide was a photo of Carl Jung.

Syfy Channel Gives Windber's Grand Midway Hotel the Scooby-Doo Treatment

WINDBER – Big-time paranormal detectives have investigated a hotel in Windber, and television viewers can look over their shoulders tonight.

The Syfy channel show “Haunted Collector” came to examine The Grand Midway Hotel in Windber in January, and the program will air at 9 tonight.

[WATCH] The "God Particle" Explained in Layman's Terms

Above the din of patriotism - in the form of M-80s and Steve Miller Band - European scientists from the CERN research center in Switzerland announced something even more remarkable than your aunt's potato salad: The "God Particle" has been found.