Technology Spot

If the nine Poor Clare Sisters living in an insular York, England, monastery ever feel cut off from the outside world, they need only turn to their Prayer Companion.

The photopolymer resin dot-matrix display sits on a table in a frequently trafficked monastery hallway subtly scrolling a news ticker. This way, the sisters--who have only limited access to newspapers, phones, and computers--can not only keep up with current events, but stay alert to the issues and people they wish to pray for.

In addition to displaying the news, "Goldie," as the nuns call the Prayer Companion, broadcasts the thoughts and feelings of anonymous strangers whose blog entries are aggregated by the Web site We Feel Fine.

While design these days considers utility and aesthetics, increasingly, as Goldie demonstrates, objects are also designed to communicate with people or help them communicate with one another, nature, the city, and more.

A new exhibit at MoMA in New York, "Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects," explores that complex conversation through almost 200 projects that include Web sites, video games, interfaces, robots, and wearable technology. Some of the displays are conceptual, while others, like Goldie, are already in use.

It's an eclectic array of projects, from suits that let children experience the world from the perspective of an ant or giraffe to little robots that roam the museum asking visitors for help and an interface that enables a paralyzed graffiti artist to tag buildings with his eyes using a remote-control laser.

For more on MoMA's exploration of the human-object dialogue, see our gallery.

Editors' note: This roundup was originally published on June 24.

In a big change from the previous three events, Apple's 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference didn't reveal new iPhone hardware. Sure, attendees got details of iOS 5 at the June 6 keynote address, but true iPhone fans also left the session without any hint of what a new handset might offer or when it would arrive.

With Apple devices in particular, the rumor mill tends to kick into high gear in the absence of any official announcement. And that's certainly been the case with the iPhone 5. The first gossip started to trickle in even as the iPhone 4 went on sale last year, but as summer has droned on that trickle has become a flood. Some of the rumors contradict each other--one camp suggests a minor update with an iPhone 4S, while another predicts a big update with an iPhone 5--but disagreement, after all, often is what the rumor mill is all about. And since conflicting information can be hard to track, we offer this handy timeline of iPhone 5 rumors so far in 2011. We'll add to it as we go along, and please let us know if we've left any juicy tidbits out.

July 28
A white iPhone 4S
In a rather convoluted tale, Macrumors highlighted a forum post from Vietnamese site Tinhten that claims to have a new version of the iPhone 4. Differences between the current handset are few, but Tinhten says it's a bit faster, it weighs less, and it has a plastic shell instead of glass.

4 million iPhones in September
China Times reports that Apple will produce 4 million new iPhones for release in the second week of September.

July 27
A new case for a new design
U.K. blog Mobile Fun receives new iPhone case designs from two manufacturers. They point to a major redesign that includes a larger screen and home button, and a curved back.

July 26
AT&T and Apple get to work
MacRumors reports that Apple is bringing back former employees to work part-time between August 15 and September 15. Though that time period coincides with the back-to-school season, it also falls within the long-rumored early September iPhone release window. Also, according to Boy Genius Report, AT&T is preparing its employees for more foot traffic at its stores in September. A source told the blog that the carrier has asked its managers and employees to finish any current training as soon as possible.

July 13
Now hiring for an August iPhone
After some clever detective work, CNET UK finds a job posting repeated throughout the United Kingdom that asks for "Apple iPhone Sales Specialists" to work in Apple retail stores. The temporary positions would last from mid-August through the end of October and would be for what the recruiter describes as "an exciting project."

July 6
Suppliers get their orders
Anonymous sources tell The Wall Street Journal that Apple has asked suppliers to build 25 million units of its next iPhone by August for a third-quarter launch.

July 5
15 million in September
Taiwian's DigiTimes reports that Apple has placed an order for 15 million iPhone 5s for a September release.

July 1
Both an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3
DigiTimes says that suppliers are gearing up to help Apple produce millions of units of both an iPhone 5 and an iPad 3 for an October release.

June 29
A modest update
BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman claims in a note to investors that Apple will introduce just an iPhone 4S model in September. The iPhone 4S would include only modest feature upgrades and the design would be unchanged.

June 27
Two new iPhones to come
Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore predicts that Apple will introduce two iPhones later this year. The first will be a full next-generation handset (most likely an iPhone 5), while the second will be a revamped iPhone 4 (probably called an iPhone 4S) that Apple will target to customers on prepaid cell phone plans.

A third-quarter release
Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said that Apple will start "aggressively" making the next iPhone in August and launch the handset late in the third quarter of this year. Huberty made the remarks after a trip to Taiwan where she presumably met with Apple suppliers.

June 24
A brighter flash
DigiTimes says the iPhone 5 will have a dual-LED flash.

June 22
Again, in September
Bloomberg reports that the new iPhone will have a faster A5 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and support for iOS 5. The new handset will sport a design similar to the iPhone 4's and will be released in September to coincide with iOS 5's debut. On a related note, Bloomberg's source also repeats a rumor that Apple is developing a cheaper iPhone for developing countries.

June 21
An iPhone 5 in full September
The Boy Genius Report predicts that Apple will announce the fully revamped iPhone 5 in early August with a release date later in the month. If true, that timing would bend from tradition, given that Apple usually holds an iPod-themed event in September.

A 'tear drop' design
Photos of a brand-new tapered or "tear drop" design also resurface that day.

May 23
A curved display
DigiTimes suggests that the iPhone 5 will have a curved glass screen like the Samsung Nexus S' "Contour" design. DigiTimes also says that Apple has bought 200 or 300 glass-cutting machines to be used by glassmakers.

May 19
A global iPhone for Verizon
While speaking at the Reuters Global Technology Summit, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo says that Big Red will carry the next iPhone and that it will "operate in as many countries as AT&T's global iPhone." Shammo's comments also suggest that the device won't have LTE.

May 18
An iPhone 4S
DigiTimes chimes in on the iPhone 4S side with a report that Apple will release an upgraded, but not redesigned, handset in September.

May 13
Small changes, but on all carriers
Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek says the next iPhone will show only incremental changes and will lack support for 4G LTE networks. Besides a few cosmetic tweaks, he predicts better cameras, an A5 dual-core processor, and support for HSPA+ networks. Though he says the new device could land at all four major U.S. carriers beginning in September, Misek likens the upgrade to what we saw from the iPhone 3G to the 3GS.

April 19
A5 processor and a bigger camera
Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that the device will get an A5 processor and a much-improved 8-megapixel rear camera and that it will be released in October or November.

A September release
Reuters follows a different track with a report that Apple will begin production of the phone in July for a September release.

April 13
Suppliers still in the dark
DigiTimes writes that part suppliers in Taiwan still don't know Apple's needs for the handset. What's more, the outlet also says that production of iPhone 4 displays is still going strong.

April 11
Trouble with suppliers
AppleInsider quotes an Avian Securities note to investors, which suggests that production will start in September. According to the note, the latest information is "consistent with other findings the organization has heard in recent months." What's more, another rumor mentions that Apple is taking its time finding enough parts suppliers.

April 7
A bigger display, part four
A new Apple patent application depicts a screen that's built into the area surrounding the traditional touch screen. This could free up space on the main display, and open up new directions for developers.

March 28
An October release
A Japanese blog reports that because Apple is behind schedule on securing parts, the iPhone 5 launch could be pushed to October. The blog also says the company is deciding whether to change the back of the iPhone from glass to metal.

March 22
NFC, larger display, and a new antenna
China Times claims the iPhone 5 will have a slightly larger screen, a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip, an A5 processor, and a tweaked antenna design to address attenuation. The release date is only set as "later this year."

NFC confirmed
The same day, The New York Times confirms that future iPhones will have an NFC chip.

March 14
No NFC
The Independent says that NFC won't make it into the new phone. Instead, the newspaper says, Apple plans to introduce its own mobile payment system next year.

March 11
A bigger display, part three
Reseller iDealsChina posts a "mold engineering" drawing that vendors use to develop iPhone accessories. The drawing shows a handset with an iPhone 4-like design but with a larger display.

March 9
A5 processor, part two
In a deep dive of the new iOS 4.3 code, Apple developers found signs that Apple may add an A5 dual-core processor in the next iPhone version. That would put the handset on par with the iPad 2's processing power.

March 7
Looking like the iPad
Design is the focus of this rumor, which suggests that Apple will ditch the glass backing on the iPhone 4 for a metal backing, revamp the antenna, and add tapered ends. The end result will be something like the iPad.

February 28
A bigger display, part two
iDealsChina posts a photo of an iPhone 5 front bezel that shows a larger display.

February 15
A5 processor
The A5 chip rumor is raised again when DigiTimes reports that Apple is outsourcing the production of the processor, which will be based on the ARM Cortex A9 design.

February 14
A bigger display
Speculation builds that the new handset will offer a 4-inch, "edge-to-edge" display. The reports suggest that the move would be a direct response to the display design of many Android devices.

Slide-out keyboard
We also hear that the iPhone 5 could offer a slide-out keyboard or that it could just offer longer battery life and a better camera.

January 14
No home button
An anonymous Apple source told the Boy Genius Report that both the iPad 2 and the next-generation iPhone would lose their home buttons in favor of gesture-based commands that would be part of iOS 4.3.