Why Apple's era of secrecy is over

London, England (CNN) -- Apple, long known for its culture of secrecy, is suddenly springing leaks. Big ones.
Photos and a video clip of the next generation iPhone, not expected to launch until next month, appeared this week on a Vietnamese Web site. It's the second time an iPhone 4G has fallen into the wrong hands following gadget blog Gizmodo's purchase of a lost prototype in April.
Is Apple's long era of secrecy finally coming to an end? Yes -- and we're to blame.
The $5000 iPhone
Two major leaks in two months is a situation virtually unheard of at the buttoned-up tech firm. We're not talking about grainy snapshots either: Both Gizmodo and Vietnamese tech forum Taoviet acquired complete handsets, photographing them, recording video clips and even dismantling them to expose every last inch. Our nerd voyeurism, it seems, knows no bounds.

Happy 50th birthday to the laser

(CNN) -- It was dismissed by some scientists as "a solution looking for a problem."
But when the first working laser was rolled out 50 years ago this week -- developed at California's Hughes Research Laboratory -- it didn't take long for the hyperfocused beams of light to find work.
Having fascinated science-fiction fans since the origins of ray guns in the late 1800s, lasers (literally "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation") have become common in modern life.
From talking on the telephone to listening to a CD, laser technology makes a lot of what we do happen.

Review: This ain't Errol Flynn's 'Robin Hood'

(CNN) -- The second Australian to play England's most famous outlaw, Russell Crowe might seem unlikely casting. But when you consider that in the 1930s Warner Bros. tapped James Cagney for the part -- until the star walked out in search of an improved deal -- Crowe doesn't seem like such a stretch. He's an improvement on Kevin Costner, surely?
With his graying beard and an accent that sometimes ranges a little too far towards Tyneside, Crowe is beginning to resemble his director, Ridley Scott. This is their fifth film together. With its mixture of manly adventure, populist rhetoric and a digitally enhanced historical canvas, it is evidently meant to capitalize on their biggest success, "Gladiator," (though Cate Blanchett's Marian seems to think she's doing "Thelma and Louise").

Europe enters era of belt-tightening

(FT) -- Amid cries of outrage and expressions of disbelief, a new age of austerity has arrived in Europe.
As governments across the eurozone impose cuts on a scale unseen in decades, Greece -- widely seen as the centre of the crisis -- has already seen violent demonstrations and general strikes. Now there is growing concern that such displays of public anger will become more widespread.
Spanish trade unions were on Thursday threatening nationwide walkouts and protests. The shock is palpable in countries which have moved from poverty to prosperity during the decades of almost uninterrupted growth since the second world war and have always enjoyed the material benefits of European Union membership.