Apple has begun allowing non-developers to log into iCloud.com just ahead of today’s scheduled iOS 5 launch.

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Earlier this year, a startup called BlueStacks announced that it was developing a native x86 Android runtime for the Windows operating system. The company finally released the product for public alpha testing this morning. As BlueStacks promised, the software allows users to run Android mobile applications on a Windows computer without compromising performance.

Although the software still has the kind of rough edges that one would expect from an alpha release, it represents an impressive technical feat and could offer value in a number of different contexts. We tried out the BlueStacks Android Player ourselves and tested it with several different Android applications.

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iTunes 10.5 is officially available to the public ahead of Wednesday’s launch of iCloud and iOS 5. The release is required for users who want to make use of iOS 5 features like iTunes in the Cloud and wireless syncing via WiFi, and is available via Software Update for both Windows and Mac users.

According to Apple’s release notes, there are only a few major features that come with iTunes 10.5. The first is iTunes in the Cloud support, which not only allows you to re-download previous music, TV, movie, and book purchases on your iOS devices, but also allows your other devices to automatically download that media when you buy it. 

This, plus the wireless WiFi syncing for iOS devices, makes up the bulk of the 10.5 update (Update: As noted by MacRumors, Apple has seeded a new developer version of iTunes that continues to test iTunes Match), though users who don’t plan to make use of those features will still want to upgrade if they want to update their devices to iOS 5 when it becomes available. It’s also worth noting that the iTunes 10.5 update for Windows 7, Vista, and XP SP2 also comes with a handful of security updates, so it’s likely worth upgrading if only for improved security protections, too.

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Google is targeting its App Engine platform-as-a-service cloud to business customers with a new $500-per-month plan that includes “premier support” and a 99.95 percent uptime service-level agreement. But customers may only contact Google after attempting to fix errors themselves, and “downtime” only counts against the SLA if there is more than a ten percent error rate and five consecutive minutes of degraded service.

“When choosing a platform for your most critical business applications or standardizing on one across your organization, we recognize that uptime guarantees, easy management and support are just as important as product features,” Group Product Manager Jessie Jiang announced in the Google Enterprise Blog. “So today, we are launching Google App Engine Premier Accounts. For $500 per month, you’ll receive premier support, a 99.95% uptime service level agreement and the ability to create unlimited number of apps on your premier account domain.”

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Apple is launching the iPhone 4S this week with the recently unveiled integration of Siri, a voice activated “assistant.” Siri accepts voice input and can perform a range of actions on your iPhone, including looking up information, adding calendar events, and even composing short texts and e-mails.

Siri shows a lot of promise in realizing human computer interaction using natural language. Right now, however, Apple seems to be wisely keeping the feature firmly in the “beta” stage even as it seeks to popularize talking to your cell phone to get things done. As iPhone 4S users start using Siri en masse, it’s worth considering where Apple might integrate the technology in the future. Will talking to computers and devices transcend conventional keyboard or touch input, la Star Trek?

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Apple is launching the iPhone 4S this week with the recently unveiled integration of Siri, a voice activated “assistant.” Siri accepts voice input and can perform a range of actions on your iPhone, including looking up information, adding calendar events, and even composing short texts and e-mails.

Siri shows a lot of promise in realizing human computer interaction using natural language. Right now, however, Apple seems to be wisely keeping the feature firmly in the “beta” stage even as it seeks to popularize talking to your cell phone to get things done. As iPhone 4S users start using Siri en masse, it’s worth considering where Apple might integrate the technology in the future. Will talking to computers and devices transcend conventional keyboard or touch input, la Star Trek?

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Apple took more than one million preorders for the iPhone 4S during the first 24 hours the device was available online, the company announced on Monday. This tops the company’s previous single-day preorder record of 600,000, a title held by the current iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S itself is still not in consumer hands, though—preorders will go out to customers on Friday, October 14, the same day the iPhone 4S will be available in retail stores.

It hasn’t even been a week since Apple announced the existence of the iPhone 4S after months of speculation over whether the company would release a radically redesigned “iPhone 5″ or not. As such, the intro of the iPhone 4S—which looks the same as an iPhone 4 but has a faster processor, better camera, and the “intelligent assistant” Siri—was a disappointment for some who were expecting some new eye candy along with updated specs.

That disappointment seemed to translate into pessimistic expectations for the iPhone 4S, but as is often the case, the real world’s reaction seems to have diverged from that of the geek world. As noted by Macworld, Apple, AT&T, and Verizon all exhausted their supplies of preorder iPhone 4Ss near the end of Friday, with AT&T boasting that it sold 200,000 devices within the first 12 hours of availability. (Sprint also reported that it sold out of the 16GB version of the iPhone 4S.)

If you’re interested in obtaining an iPhone 4S on launch day, it now looks like your best bet is to do the old waiting in line schtick at an Apple retail store. Just keep your fingers crossed for nice weather (there sure won’t be any in Chicago that day) and a minimal instance of homeless people asking you for cigarettes while you wait.

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In the 1980s, even before connectivity to the Internet became commonplace, people realized that connecting a group of computers together in a local area network (LAN) made those computers much more useful. Any user could then print to shared printers, store files on file servers, send electronic mail, and more. A decade later, the Internet revolution swept the world and LANs became the on-ramp to the information superhighway. The LAN technology of choice was almost universally Ethernet, which is terrific apart from one big downside: those pesky wires.

In the late 1990s, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) solved that problem with their 802.11 standard, which specified a protocol for creating wireless LANs. If ever the expression “easier said than done” applied, it was here. Huge challenges have been overcome in the past 15 years to get us to the point where reasonably reliable, fast, and secure wireless LAN equipment can today be deployed by anyone, and where every laptop comes with built-in Wi-Fi. But overcome they were—and here’s how.

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A third-generation Apple TV is on its way, according to evidence found within iOS 5.

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9to5Mac

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It has been a tumultuous week in Apple news, to say the least. As you likely know, Apple cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs passed away, with Tim Cook addressing employees about it in a new company-wide e-mail. The Ars staff looked back on our first Macs, and John Siracusa posted his own remembrance of Steve Jobs.

But in case you’re looking for more upbeat news, we have plenty of that too. Apple’s fall iPhone event happened earlier this week, and the Apple-using world now has the new iPhone 4S, iOS 5, and Sprint compatibility to look forward to! Read on for our roundup of our top Apple posts from the last week:

Steve Jobs: February 24, 1955 - October 5, 2011: Apple cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs has passed away at the age of 56.

iPhone 4s out October 14, beefier specs, same body: The iPhone 4S is the iPhone 4’s twin, but with beefier specs and a virtual assistant sidekick, available for pre-order October 7 starting at $199.

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