The BBC's Jim Muir speaks to an American who has come to fight Islamic State militants on the front line in north-east Syria.

Today Apple released iOS 8.1, the first major update to iOS 8 which launched in September alongside the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Prior to 8.1 we got a small bug fixing update in the form of iOS 8.0.1, which was quickly followed by iOS 8.0.2 due to a major bug that broke Touch ID and cellular connectivity on the newly released iPhones. Since then, Apple has been working on implementing some features that were not finished in time for the original launch, as well as making changes based on user feedback.

The first such change is the re-addition of the camera roll. The camera roll was part of iOS since its early releases, and with iOS 8 it was removed in favor of a recently added photos album. This solution was more accurately named than the camera roll which was really an album that held every photo on the device, but it was not as familiar to users and did not display every single photo. Users have been very vocal about their dislike of this change and with iOS 8.1 the camera roll returns with the same behaviour as previous versions.

The update also brings features that were shown early this year at WWDC but not included with the initial iOS 8 release. iCloud Photo Library is finally available for all users, albeit as a public beta. SMS Relay is finally enabled, which allows users with supported Macs and iPads to send and receive SMS messages using the phone number associated with their iPhone. 

The last major feature included with 8.1 is Apple Pay on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Apple's new payment solution makes use of NFC and Touch ID for making and authorizing credit card purchases using their iPhone. While Apple Pay with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can be used to make purchases in stores, on the recently launched iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 it is limited to online purchases due to the omission of NFC.

In addition to new features, iOS 8.1 includes fixes issues with connections to Bluetooth hands-free devices, poor WiFi performance with certain routers, and various other bug fixes, security fixes, and small changes. A list of security patches in the update can be found here on Apple's support website. The update is rolling out now to the iPad 2 and later, iPhone 4s and later, and the iPod Touch 5. The size of the OTA update will vary based on your device but on an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.0.2 it weighs in at 126MB.

 

Andrew Cunningham

As it promised at its iPad event last week, Apple has just released the iOS 8.1 update to the public. The update isn't as far-reaching as iOS 7.1, but it enables a number of previously announced features.

Chief among these is Apple Pay, Apple's new contactless payments system. For the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Pay enables wireless NFC payments using credit cards scanned into Passbook. For those phones plus the new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3, Apple Pay also enables in-app purchases using those stored credit cards—but without using the actual credit card information. The card data is instead stored locally on your device in a "Secure Element" and is never sent directly to Apple or to any vendors; randomly generated numbers are used instead to confirm each transaction.

Version 8.1 also completes the Continuity features Apple first announced at WWDC. Passthrough of SMS messages and the Personal Hotspot feature join Handoff, AirDrop, and phone call support to link iDevices and Macs running OS X Yosemite more closely to one another.

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camknows

A 39-year-old UK man has been convicted of possessing illegal cartoon drawings of young girls exposing themselves in school uniforms and engaging in sex acts. The case is believed to be the UK's first prosecution of illegal manga and anime images.

Local media said that Robul Hoque was sentenced last week to nine months' imprisonment, though the sentence is suspended so long as the defendant does not break the law again.

Police seized Hoque's computer in 2012 and said they found nearly 400 such images on it, none of which depicted real people but were illegal nonetheless because of their similarity to child pornography. Hoque was initially charged with 20 counts of illegal possession but eventually pled guilty to just 10 counts.

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The on/off switch from an IBM 26. Marcin Wichary

IBM announced today that GlobalFoundries will acquire its chip manufacturing business in a deal expected to close in 2015. IBM will pay GlobalFoundries $1.5 billion over the next three years to complete the transfer but will presumably save more than that over the long haul by offloading a costly chipmaking operation.

IBM designs the chips for its Power servers and mainframe computers and will continue to invest in chip research even after outsourcing manufacturing to GlobalFoundries. IBM is continuing a previously announced $3 billion investment over five years in semiconductor technology research, and the company said that "GlobalFoundries will have primary access to the research that results from this investment through joint collaboration at the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), SUNY Polytechnic Institute, in Albany, NY." Additionally, GlobalFoundries will become "IBM's exclusive server processor semiconductor technology provider for 22 nanometer (nm), 14nm and 10nm semiconductors for the next 10 years."

GlobalFoundries will take over IBM manufacturing facilities in New York and Vermont, and the company "plans to provide employment opportunities for substantially all IBM employees at the two facilities who are part of the transferred businesses, except for a team of semiconductor server group employees who will remain with IBM." GlobalFoundries will also acquire thousands of patents and IBM's commercial microelectronics business.

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Sandia National Lab

Reducing our emissions of carbon dioxide quickly enough to minimize the effects of climate change may require more than just phasing out the use of fossil fuels. During the phase-out, we may need to keep the CO2 we're emitting from reaching the atmosphere—a process called carbon capture and sequestration. The biggest obstacle preventing us from using CCS is the lack of economic motivation to do it. But that doesn't mean it's free from technological constraints and scientific unknowns.

One unknown relates to exactly what will happen to the CO2 we pump deep underground. As a free gas, CO2 would obviously be buoyant, fueling concerns about leakage. But CO2 dissolves into the briny water found in saline aquifers at these depths. Once the gas dissolves, the result is actually more dense than the brine, meaning it will settle downward. With time, much of that dissolved CO2 may precipitate as carbonate minerals.

But how quickly does any of this happen? Having answers will be key to understanding how well we really sequester the carbon.

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FIFA has said that Russia's preparations for hosting the World Cup in 2018 are "on track" so far.

The Kindle Voyage is an excellent (but expensive) e-reader. Andrew Cunningham

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:[], collapse: true});Most of the time, I’m not sorry that all my dedicated, single-use devices are dead and gone. If you’re carrying a modern smartphone around, why would you miss your Discman, or your portable DVD player, or your dumbphone, or your tape recorder, or your point-and-shoot camera, or your PalmPilot? Not only can one device replace all of them, but that one device is usually better at all of that stuff than most dedicated devices ever were.

Yet there’s something pure about hardware that’s only designed to do one thing, at least when it’s designed well. A gadget that only wants to do a couple of things can tailor itself better to those specific uses while ignoring everything else. Maybe you could get better battery life out of your camera if it didn’t need to be a portable game console and full-featured computer all wrapped up into one.

Specs at a glance: Amazon Kindle Voyage Screen 1448×1072 6" (300 PPI) E-Ink Carta OS Kindle OS 5.5.0 Storage 4GB (non-upgradeable) Networking 802.11b/g/n, optional 3G Ports Micro-USB Size 6.4" x 4.5" x 0.30" (162 x 115 x 7.6 mm) Weight 6.3 oz (180 g) Wi-Fi, 6.6 oz (188 g) 3G Battery Unknown capacity; Amazon claims 6 weeks of life if used for 30 minutes a day with wireless disabled and brightness set to 10 Starting price $199 with Special Offers, $219 without; $269 for 3G with Special Offers, $289 for 3G without Price as reviewed $289

That’s the strongest argument there is for the Kindle line of e-readers, which continue to soldier on even though Amazon has branched out into full-on Android tablets, phones, and set-top boxes. The company's e-reader lineup changes only occasionally and very gradually; the biggest change was probably back in 2011 when Amazon switched out the physical keyboard for a software keyboard with navigation buttons and rudimentary touchscreens. The Kindle Paperwhite’s front-lit screen is a close second.

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Elvert Barnes

In a rare decision, the Florida Supreme Court ruled last Friday that law enforcement must get a warrant in order to track a suspect’s location via his or her mobile phone.

Many legal experts applauded the decision as a step in the right direction for privacy.

"[The] opinion is a resounding defense of our right to privacy in the digital age," Nate Freed Wessler, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "Following people’s movements by secretly turning their cell phones into tracking devices can reveal extremely sensitive details of our lives, like where we go to the doctor or psychiatrist, where we spend the night, and who our friends are. Police are now on notice that they need to get a warrant from a judge before tracking cell phones, whether using information from the service provider or their own ‘stingray’ cell phone tracking equipment."

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Blood from survivors of the Ebola virus is being used to treat patients suffering from the disease.

The record for the largest all-female skydive formation has been broken by 117 women in California.

Cliff

Newly released documents definitively show that local law enforcement in Washington, DC, possessed a cellular surveillance system—commonly known as a "stingray"—since 2003. However, these stingrays literally sat unused in a police vault for six years until officers were trained on the devices in early 2009.

"It's life imitating The Wire," Chris Soghoian, a staff technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Ars. "There's an episode in Season 3 where [Detective Jimmy] McNulty finds a [stingray] that has been sitting on the shelf for a while."

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request sent to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPDC), Ars received dozens of documents pertaining to the acquisition and training of stingrays and related upgrades. Vice News received the same documents, reporting on them last Friday.

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Prof Brian Cox muses on whether life here on Earth is unique within the Milky Way and what this might mean.

An annual pumpkin festival in Keene, New Hampshire, turned violent as the event descended into a night of rioting.

A high profile campaign against corruption and bribery by the Chinese ruling Communist Party has gained huge public support.

A recently discovered comet has flown past Mars, giving scientists a unique chance to study an object from the farthest reaches of the Solar System.

Joko Widodo is sworn in as the new president of Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy.

UK police sergeant Paul Sherridan was in the Himalayas for Nepal's worst ever trekking disaster and helped many trekkers to safety.

Tens of thousands of fans turn out to watch competitors play each other at the League of Legends World Championship in Seoul, South Korea.

The US carries out airdrops of weapons and supplies to Kurdish fighters, despite a lack of support from Turkey.