The Pancreatic Cancer That Killed Steve Jobs (1955 -2011)

In their announcement of founder Steve Jobs' death, at age 56, Apple officials did not mention a specific cause of death. But the visionary digital leader had been battling pancreatic cancer since 2004.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the faster spreading cancers; only about 4% of patients can expect to survive five years after their diagnosis. Each year, about 44,000 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S., and 37,000 people die of the disease.
The pancreas contains two types of glands: exocrine glands that produce enzymes that break down fats and proteins, and endocrine glands that make hormones like insulin that regulate sugar in the blood. Jobs died of tumors originating in the endocrine glands, which are among the rarer forms of pancreatic cancer.
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In 2004, Jobs underwent surgery to remove the cancer from his pancreas. In 2009, after taking another leave of absence from Apple, Jobs had a liver transplant in an effort to retain as much of his organ function as possible after his cancer had spread beyond the pancreas. In January, he took a third leave from the company before resigning as CEO in August.
"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," Jobs wrote in a letter to the Apple board of directors on August 24. "Unfortunately, that day has come."
According to experts, Jobs' was an uphill medical battle. "He not only had cancer, he was battling the immune suppression after the liver transplant," Dr. Timothy Donahue of the UCLA Center for Pancreatic Disease in Los Angeles, who had not treated Jobs, told MSNBC.com. He noted that most patients who receive liver transplants survive about two years after the surgery.
Standard treatments for pancreatic cancer include the common tumor-fighting strategies — surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and, most recently, targeted anticancer drugs that may slightly extend patients' lives. In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration approved erlotinib, a drug that specifically targets growth factors found on cancer cells, for the treatment of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who are receiving chemotherapy. The drug has been shown in trials to improve overall survival by 23% after a year when added to routine chemotherapy. The tumors in patients being treated with erlotinib and chemo also develop more slowly than those in patients receiving chemotherapy alone.
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Because of the poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer, however, many patients elect to try alternative therapies, including a popular therapy known as the Gonzalez regimen, which involves fighting pancreatic tumors with pancreatic enzymes. Patients on the Gonzalez regimen also take a large number of nutritional supplements, including vitamins and minerals such as magnesium citrate, along with coffee enemas performed twice a day.
The treatment's developer, Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez of New York, has claimed that the use of pancreatic enzymes is a powerful way to suppress the growth of advanced pancreatic cancer cells. But a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2009, which compared groups of patients on the Gonzalez regiment to patients on standard chemotherapy treatment, found that those on chemo survived for a median of 14 months while those on the alternative therapy survived for a median of only 4.3 months.
Jobs is not reported to have tried the Gonzalez regimen, but he is known to have suscribed to alternative therapy. In a 2008 story, Fortune reported that Jobs initially tried to treat his tumor with diet instead of surgery, soon after he was diagnosed in 2004. In January, Fortune reported that he had also made a hush-hush trip to Switzerland in 2009 for a radiation-based hormone treatment. The exact details aren't clear, but the University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland is known for its special form of treatment for neuroendocrine cancer, which is not available in the U.S.
Whether these treatments helped to extend Jobs' life or improve the quality of his last days isn't clear. But cancer experts expressed surprise that Jobs survived as long as he did, continuing to fight his disease. Other pancreatic cancer patients typically aren't as fortunate. Another high-profile patient, actor Patrick Swayze, managed to live for 20 months after his diagnosis, taking advantage of chemotherapy treatments. But, overall, patients' median survival is generally only five months.
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Jobs lost his battle with cancer at a time when researchers are constantly pushing the boundaries of treatments, particularly with antitumor agents that can home in on abnormally growing cells with increasing precision. In the end, his cancer proved too advanced to rein in with even the most innovative technologies.
"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," Tim Cook, Jobs' successor at Apple, wrote to employees on Wednesday. "Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

Source: timehealthland

Facebook to Launch iPad App at Apple’s iPhone 5 Event [EXCLUSIVE]

Facebook will launch its long-awaited iPad app at Apple’s iPhone 5 launch event on Oct. 4, Mashable has learned. In addition to the iPad app, Facebook is also expected to release a revamped version of its iPhone app and may unveil an HTML5-based mobile app marketplace.
The Facebook iPad app, which leaked earlier this year, has been in limbo at Facebook for the past few months. That much was made clear in a blog post Monday by former Facebook engineer Jeff Verkoeyen. In that post, he revealed that he left the company (for Google) partially because Facebook has been sitting on the completed app since May.
The problem, according to two sources familiar with the situation, has been a combination of timing and a strained relationship with Apple. It’s no secret that the two companies have been at odds over various issues during the past two years. For example, the social network pulled the plug on Facebook Connect in Ping because Apple didn’t give Facebook any warning about the feature, which would have eaten a great deal of bandwidth on Facebook’s side.
We’ve also heard rumors that Facebook was supposed to be integrated into iOS. This was meant to happen years ago, but disagreements on both sides eventually led to Apple integrating Twitter into iOS 5.
The relationship between the two technology giants is warming up, however, thanks to the shared goal of beating Google — and the simple fact that Facebook and Apple may need each other. The former doesn’t have a mobile platform while Apple doesn’t have a social platform. The culmination of this renewed friendship: the launch of Facebook for iPad at Apple’s iPhone 5 media event.
At this event, our sources also expect Facebook to unveil a new version of Facebook for the iPhone, with design and speed improvements that mimic the iPad app.
Facebook has also been working on a project to bring the Facebook Platform to mobile devices. The project, labeled “Project Spartan” by some (a name not used internally at Facebook, according to one of our sources), is designed to be a platform where developers can bring their Facebook apps to mobile devices via an HTML5 platform.
What we’re hearing is that Apple is actually working with Facebook on perfecting the HTML5 platform. This could also launch at Apple’s upcoming iPhone event, though our sources wouldn’t commit to a specific launch date for the platform. Facebook decided not to launch it at f8, as it didn’t want to water down the announcement of the new Facebook Open Graph and Timeline.
When we said last week that Facebook would be profoundly changed, we weren’t just referring to the new Facebook Open Graph and the “frictionless sharing” touted by Mark Zuckerberg. We were also talking about its secretive effort to become a mobile platform for the social web. And thanks to Apple, it looks like that effort is about to come to fruition.

Source: mashable

Apple iCloud: What it is, and What it Costs

With Apple revealing iCloud price details along with the beta version of iCloud.com, now seems like a good time to explain what the service is to anyone who missed Apple's announcement in June.

iCloud basics

iCloud does not replace local storage on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. What it does is keep your data in sync between any Apple device or PC that you own. For example, if you're writing a document in Pages on an iPad, that document will automatically be available for editing on your iPhone or a PC, with no need to transfer files by e-mail or USB.

iCloud also remembers your device's settings, apps, home screen layouts, ring tones and text messages, so all of that information is available if you upgrade or replace your iPhone or iPad. Think of it like the backup function in iTunes, but through the Internet instead.

Which apps use iCloud?

Apple's iWork productivity software -- Pages, Numbers and Keynote -- can sync documents through iCloud. Contacts, Calendar and Mail will also be updated automatically across multiple devices. A new service called Photo Stream allows you to download your 1,000 most recent photos to a computer or other iOS device for 30 days. You can also store a device's entire camera roll in iCloud for longer.

Third-party apps will be able to use iCloud as well. Rovio, for instance, could make Angry Birds data available across devices so your iPhone and iPad will show the same progress through the game. It's up to developers to implement these kinds of features.

What's included for free, and what costs extra?

Apple will provide 5 GB of iCloud storage for free, but iTunes music, apps, books and Photo Stream don't count against that total. iCloud storage is consumed by documents, mail, app data, your full camera roll, settings and other device information. Additional storage costs $20 per year for 10 GB, $40 per year for 20 GB and $100 per year for 50 GB.

Apple suggests that 5 GB of storage should suffice, but that depends largely on whether you're storing lots of photos and videos on your Camera Roll, and how much app data you're backing up. The former should be easy to determine -- you can already see in iTunes how much data is used by photos and video -- but the latter will be harder to pin down until we see how many developers adopt the service.

Who is this for?

People who own multiple iOS devices will get the most out of iCloud, because it saves the hassle of manually transferring data between iPhones, iPads and so on. Owners of a single Apple device may still appreciate iCloud's automatic backup function, which makes replacing hardware easier.

iTunes is separate

One possible point of confusion with iCloud is how iTunes purchases factor into the service. When you buy music from iTunes, it can be automatically synced to all of your iOS devices, and it won't count against your free storage. A paid service called iTunes Match is completely separate from iCloud, and syncs any music you haven't purchased from iTunes for $25 per year.

When will this be available?

iCloud arrives this fall, alongside iOS 5.

Source: PCWorld 

Apple’s 'Jaw-Dropper' Final Cut Pro X unveiled at Mac Apple Store [PICTURES]

Apple has introduced an updated version of its Pro video editing software with a magnetic timeline that enables editing on a flexible trackless canvas.
The Final Cut Pro X is now available for $299.99 at Mac Apple Store and is complemented by two companion apps, Motion 5 for professional motion graphics and Compressor 4 for advanced media encoding, each for $49.99.
The updated device also features a Content Auto-Analysis that categorizes your content upon import by shot type, media and people.
"Final Cut Pro X is the biggest advance in Pro video editing since the original Final Cut Pro," stated Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
The Clip Connections installed in the device helps to link primary story clips to other elements like titles and sound effects. This way, they remain in perfect sync even when they are moved. Furthermore, it is also possible to combine related story elements into a compound clip that can be edited as a single clip.
Completely rebuilt from the ground up, Final Cut Pro X is a 64-bit app that takes full advantage of the latest Mac hardware and software so as to avoid any kind of wait for the next edit, even while working with 4K video. It uses multi-threaded processing and the GPU on a graphics card for blazing fast background rendering and superb real-time playback performance. Additionally, a ColorSync-managed color pipeline ensures color consistency from import to output.






Source : ibtimes