title: Thallium

text: Thallium is malleable and sectile enough to be cut with a knife at room temperature. It has a metallic luster that, when exposed to air, quickly tarnishes to a bluish-gray tinge, resembling lead. It may be preserved by immersion in oil. A heavy layer of oxide builds up on thallium if left in air. In the presence of water, thallium hydroxide is formed. Sulfuric and nitric acids dissolve thallium rapidly to make the sulfate and nitrate salts, while hydrochloric acid forms an insoluble thallium(I) chloride layer.


title: Thallium

text: Thallium has 41 isotopes which have atomic masses that range from 176 to 216. Tl and Tl are the only stable isotopes and make up nearly all of natural thallium. Tl is the most stable radioisotope, with a half-life of 3.78 years. It is made by the neutron activation of stable thallium in a nuclear reactor. The most useful radioisotope, Tl (half-life 73 hours), decays by electron capture, emitting X-rays (~70–80 keV), and photons of 135 and 167 keV in 10% total abundance; therefore, it has good imaging characteristics without an excessive patient-radiation dose. It is the most popular isotope used for thallium nuclear cardiac stress tests.


title: Thallium

text: Thallium(III) compounds resemble the corresponding aluminium(III) compounds. They are moderately strong oxidizing agents and are usually unstable, as illustrated by the positive reduction potential for the Tl/Tl couple. Some mixed-valence compounds are also known, such as TlO and TlCl, which contain both thallium(I) and thallium(III). Thallium(III) oxide, TlO, is a black solid which decomposes above 800 °C, forming the thallium(I) oxide and oxygen.


title: Thallium

text: The simplest possible thallium compound, thallane (TlH), is too unstable to exist in bulk, both due to the instability of the +3 oxidation state as well as poor overlap of the valence 6s and 6p orbitals of thallium with the 1s orbital of hydrogen. The trihalides are more stable, although they are chemically distinct from those of the lighter group 13 elements and are still the least stable in the whole group. For instance, thallium(III) fluoride, TlF, has the β-BiF structure rather than that of the lighter group 13 trifluorides, and does not form the complex anion in aqueous solution. The trichloride and tribromide disproportionate just above room temperature to give the monohalides, and thallium triiodide contains the linear triiodide anion () and is actually a thallium(I) compound. Thallium(III) sesquichalcogenides do not exist.


title: Thallium

text: The thallium(I) halides are stable. In keeping with the large size of the Tl cation, the chloride and bromide have the caesium chloride structure, while the fluoride and iodide have distorted sodium chloride structures. Like the analogous silver compounds, TlCl, TlBr, and TlI are photosensitive and display poor solubility in water. The stability of thallium(I) compounds demonstrates its differences from the rest of the group: a stable oxide, hydroxide, and carbonate are known, as are many chalcogenides.


title: Thallium

text: The double salt has been shown to have hydroxyl-centred triangles of thallium, , as a recurring motif throughout its solid structure.


title: Thallium

text: The metalorganic compound thallium ethoxide (TlOEt, TlOCH) is a heavy liquid (ρ , m.p. −3 °C), often used as a basic and soluble thallium source in organic and organometallic chemistry.


title: Thallium

text: Organothallium compounds tend to be thermally unstable, in concordance with the trend of decreasing thermal stability down group 13. The chemical reactivity of the Tl–C bond is also the lowest in the group, especially for ionic compounds of the type RTlX. Thallium forms the stable [Tl(CH)] ion in aqueous solution; like the isoelectronic Hg(CH) and [Pb(CH)], it is linear. Trimethylthallium and triethylthallium are, like the corresponding gallium and indium compounds, flammable liquids with low melting points. Like indium, thallium cyclopentadienyl compounds contain thallium(I), in contrast to gallium(III).


title: Thallium

text: Thallium (Greek , , meaning "a green shoot or twig") was discovered by William Crookes and Claude Auguste Lamy, working independently, both using flame spectroscopy (Crookes was first to publish his findings, on March 30, 1861). The name comes from thallium's bright green spectral emission lines.


title: Thallium

text: After the publication of the improved method of flame spectroscopy by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff and the discovery of caesium and rubidium in the years 1859 to 1860, flame spectroscopy became an approved method to determine the composition of minerals and chemical products. Crookes and Lamy both started to use the new method. Crookes used it to make spectroscopic determinations for tellurium on selenium compounds deposited in the lead chamber of a sulfuric acid production plant near Tilkerode in the Harz mountains. He had obtained the samples for his research on selenium cyanide from August Hofmann years earlier. By 1862, Crookes was able to isolate small quantities of the new element and determine the properties of a few compounds. Claude-Auguste Lamy used a spectrometer that was similar to Crookes' to determine the composition of a selenium-containing substance which was deposited during the production of sulfuric acid from pyrite. He also noticed the new green line in the spectra and concluded that a new element was present. Lamy had received this material from the sulfuric acid plant of his friend Frédéric Kuhlmann and this by-product was available in large quantities. Lamy started to isolate the new element from that source. The fact that Lamy was able to work ample quantities of thallium enabled him to determine the properties of several compounds and in addition he prepared a small ingot of metallic thallium which he prepared by remelting thallium he had obtained by electrolysis of thallium salts.


title: Thallium

text: As both scientists discovered thallium independently and a large part of the work, especially the isolation of the metallic thallium was done by Lamy, Crookes tried to secure his own priority on the work. Lamy was awarded a medal at the International Exhibition in London 1862: "For the discovery of a new and abundant source of thallium" and after heavy protest Crookes also received a medal: "thallium, for the discovery of the new element." The controversy between both scientists continued through 1862 and 1863. Most of the discussion ended after Crookes was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1863.


title: Thallium

text: The dominant use of thallium was the use as poison for rodents. After several accidents the use as poison was banned in the United States by Presidential Executive Order 11643 in February 1972. In subsequent years several other countries also banned its use.


title: Thallium

text: Although thallium is a modestly abundant element in the Earth's crust, with a concentration estimated to be 0.7 mg/kg, mostly in association with potassium-based minerals in clays, soils, and granites, thallium is not generally economically recoverable from these sources. The major source of thallium for practical purposes is the trace amount that is found in copper, lead, zinc, and other heavy-metal-sulfide ores.


title: Thallium

text: Thallium is found in the minerals crookesite TlCuSe, hutchinsonite TlPbAsS, and lorándite TlAsS. Thallium also occurs as a trace element in iron pyrite, and thallium is extracted as a by-product of roasting this mineral for the production of sulfuric acid.


title: Thallium

text: Thallium can also be obtained from the smelting of lead and zinc ores. Manganese nodules found on the ocean floor contain some thallium, but the collection of these nodules has been prohibitively expensive. There is also the potential for damaging the oceanic environment. In addition, several other thallium minerals, containing 16% to 60% thallium, occur in nature as complexes of sulfides or selenides that primarily contain antimony, arsenic, copper, lead, and silver. These minerals are rare, and have had no commercial importance as sources of thallium. The Allchar deposit in southern North Macedonia was the only area where thallium was actively mined. This deposit still contains an estimated 500 tonnes of thallium, and it is a source for several rare thallium minerals, for example lorándite.


title: Thallium

text: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the annual worldwide production of thallium is 10 metric tonnes as a by-product from the smelting of copper, zinc, and lead ores. Thallium is either extracted from the dusts from the smelter flues or from residues such as slag that are collected at the end of the smelting process. The raw materials used for thallium production contain large amounts of other materials and therefore a purification is the first step. The thallium is leached either by the use of a base or sulfuric acid from the material. The thallium is precipitated several times from the solution to remove impurities. At the end it is converted to thallium sulfate and the thallium is extracted by electrolysis on platinum or stainless steel plates. The production of thallium decreased by about 33% in the period from 1995 to 2009 – from about 15 metric tonnes to about 10 tonnes. Since there are several small deposits or ores with relatively high thallium content, it would be possible to increase the production if a new application, such as a thallium-containing high-temperature superconductor, becomes practical for widespread use outside of the laboratory.


title: Thallium

text: The odorless and tasteless thallium sulfate was once widely used as rat poison and ant killer. Since 1972 this use has been prohibited in the United States due to safety concerns. Many other countries followed this example. Thallium salts were used in the treatment of ringworm, other skin infections and to reduce the night sweating of tuberculosis patients. This use has been limited due to their narrow therapeutic index, and the development of improved medicines for these conditions.


title: Thallium

text: Thallium(I) bromide and thallium(I) iodide crystals have been used as infrared optical materials, because they are harder than other common infrared optics, and because they have transmission at significantly longer wavelengths. The trade name KRS-5 refers to this material. Thallium(I) oxide has been used to manufacture glasses that have a high index of refraction. Combined with sulfur or selenium and arsenic, thallium has been used in the production of high-density glasses that have low melting points in the range of 125 and 150 Celsius|°. These glasses have room-temperature properties that are similar to ordinary glasses and are durable, insoluble in water and have unique refractive indices.


title: Thallium

text: Thallium(I) sulfide's electrical conductivity changes with exposure to infrared light, making this compound useful in photoresistors. Thallium selenide has been used in bolometers for infrared detection. Doping selenium semiconductors with thallium improves their performance, thus it is used in trace amounts in selenium rectifiers. Another application of thallium doping is the sodium iodide crystals in gamma radiation detection devices. In these, the sodium iodide crystals are doped with a small amount of thallium to improve their efficiency as scintillation generators. Some of the electrodes in dissolved oxygen analyzers contain thallium.


title: Thallium

text: Research activity with thallium is ongoing to develop high-temperature superconducting materials for such applications as magnetic resonance imaging, storage of magnetic energy, magnetic propulsion, and electric power generation and transmission. The research in applications started after the discovery of the first thallium barium calcium copper oxide superconductor in 1988. Thallium cuprate superconductors have been discovered that have transition temperatures above 120 K. Some mercury-doped thallium-cuprate superconductors have transition temperatures above 130 K at ambient pressure, nearly as high as the world-record-holding mercury cuprates.


title: Thallium

text: Before the widespread application of technetium-99m in nuclear medicine, the radioactive isotope thallium-201, with a half-life of 73 hours, was the main substance for nuclear cardiography. The nuclide is still used for stress tests for risk stratification in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). This isotope of thallium can be generated using a transportable generator, which is similar to the technetium-99m generator. The generator contains lead-201 (half-life 9.33 hours), which decays by electron capture to thallium-201. The lead-201 can be produced in a cyclotron by the bombardment of thallium with protons or deuterons by the (p,3n) and (d,4n) reactions.


title: Thallium

text: A thallium stress test is a form of scintigraphy in which the amount of thallium in tissues correlates with tissue blood supply. Viable cardiac cells have normal Na/K ion-exchange pumps. The Tl cation binds the K pumps and is transported into the cells. Exercise or dipyridamole induces widening (vasodilation) of arteries in the body. This produces coronary steal by areas where arteries are maximally dilated. Areas of infarct or ischemic tissue will remain "cold". Pre- and post-stress thallium may indicate areas that will benefit from myocardial revascularization. Redistribution indicates the existence of coronary steal and the presence of ischemic coronary artery disease.


title: Thallium

text: A mercury–thallium alloy, which forms a eutectic at 8.5% thallium, is reported to freeze at −60 °C, some 20 °C below the freezing point of mercury. This alloy is used in thermometers and low-temperature switches. In organic synthesis, thallium(III) salts, as thallium trinitrate or triacetate, are useful reagents for performing different transformations in aromatics, ketones and olefins, among others. Thallium is a constituent of the alloy in the anode plates of magnesium seawater batteries. Soluble thallium salts are added to gold plating baths to increase the speed of plating and to reduce grain size within the gold layer.


title: Thallium

text: A saturated solution of equal parts of thallium(I) formate (Tl(CHO)) and thallium(I) malonate (Tl(CHO)) in water is known as Clerici solution. It is a mobile, odorless liquid which changes from yellowish to colorless upon reducing the concentration of the thallium salts. With a density of 4.25 g/cm at 20 °C, Clerici solution is one of the heaviest aqueous solutions known. It was used in the 20th century for measuring the density of minerals by the flotation method, but its use has discontinued due to the high toxicity and corrosiveness of the solution.


title: Thallium

text: Thallium iodide is frequently used as an additive in metal-halide lamps, often together with one or two halides of other metals. It allows optimization of the lamp temperature and color rendering, and shifts the spectral output to the green region, which is useful for underwater lighting.


title: Thallium

text: Thallium and its compounds are extremely toxic, with numerous recorded cases of fatal thallium poisoning. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set the legal limit (permissible exposure limit) for thallium exposure in the workplace as 0.1 mg/m skin exposure over an eight-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) also set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 0.1 mg/m skin exposure over an eight-hour workday. At levels of 15 mg/m, thallium is immediately dangerous to life and health.


title: Thallium

text: Contact with skin is dangerous, and adequate ventilation is necessary when melting this metal. Thallium(I) compounds have a high aqueous solubility and are readily absorbed through the skin, and care should be taken to avoid this route of exposure, as cutaneous absorption can exceed the absorbed dose received by inhalation at the permissible exposure limit (PEL). Exposure by inhalation cannot safely exceed 0.1 mg/m in an eight-hour time-weighted average (40-hour work week). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, "Thallium is not classifiable as a carcinogen, and it is not suspected to be a carcinogen. It is unknown whether chronic or repeated exposure to thallium increases the risk of reproductive toxicity or developmental toxicity. Chronic high level exposure to thallium through inhalation has been reported to cause nervous system effects, such as numbness of fingers and toes." For a long time thallium compounds were readily available as rat poison. This fact and that it is water-soluble and nearly tasteless led to frequent intoxication caused by accident or criminal intent.


title: Thallium

text: One of the main methods of removing thallium (both radioactive and stable) from humans is to use Prussian blue, a material which absorbs thallium. Up to 20 grams per day of Prussian blue is fed by mouth to the patient, and it passes through their digestive system and comes out in their stool. Hemodialysis and hemoperfusion are also used to remove thallium from the blood serum. At later stages of the treatment, additional potassium is used to mobilize thallium from the tissues.


title: Thallium

text: According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), artificially-made sources of thallium pollution include gaseous emission of cement factories, coal-burning power plants, and metal sewers. The main source of elevated thallium concentrations in water is the leaching of thallium from ore processing operations.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The iPhone 4S (originally styled as iPhone 4 S, retroactively stylized with a lowercase 's' as iPhone 4s as of September 2013) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the fifth generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4 and preceding the iPhone 5. It was announced on October 4, 2011, at Apple's Cupertino campus, and was the final Apple product announced in the lifetime of former Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs, who died the following day.


title: IPhone 4S

text: Orders could be placed on October 7, 2011, and mainstream availability in retail stores began on October 14, 2011 in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan. Sales peaked over its predecessor with more than a million sales in the first twenty-four hours of order availability and more than four million sales in the first four days of retail availability. Further worldwide rollout, including 22 additional countries on October 28, came during the next several months.


title: IPhone 4S

text: This iPhone was named "4S" where the "S" stood for Siri, an intelligent personal assistant that was initially exclusive to the 4S and later included in future Apple products. Retaining most of the external design of the iPhone 4, the 4S hosted major internal upgrades, including an upgrade to the Apple A5 chipset, and an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording. It debuted with iOS 5, the fifth major version of iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, that introduced features including iCloud, iMessage, Notification Center, Reminders, and Twitter integration.


title: IPhone 4S

text: Reception to the was favorable. Reviewers noted Siri, the new camera, and processing speeds as significant advantages over the prior model. It was succeeded by the iPhone 5 as Apple's flagship smartphone on September 12, 2012. The 16 GB iPhone 4S remained on sale at a reduced price point, with the 32 and 64 GB models discontinued. The 16 GB 4S was also subsequently discontinued in September 2013 with the release of the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S and replaced with the 8 GB model which was offered free on contract in the United States.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The 4S was officially discontinued on September 9, 2014 following the announcement of the iPhone 6, although production did continue for developing markets until February 17, 2016. During the course of its lifetime, the iPhone 4S was one of the best-selling iPhones ever produced and it is the first iPhone to support five major versions of iOS: iOS 5, iOS 6, iOS 7, iOS 8, and iOS 9 (the iPad 2 was supported from iOS 4 to iOS 9).


title: IPhone 4S

text: The 4S is the last iPhone to have the original 30 pin connector as the succeeding iPhone 5 replaced it with the all digital Lightning connector.


title: IPhone 4S

text: As early as May 2011, some leaks had a fairly accurate description of the iPhone 4S including the name "", the Apple A5 chip, HSDPA, new camera, and Sprint carrying.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The was unveiled at Apple's "Let's Talk iPhone" event on October 4, 2011, on the Apple Campus in Cupertino, California. The keynote was the first which Tim Cook gave since the Verizon keynote earlier in the year. It was also Cook's first launch without Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, whose health was deteriorating, and he died the day after the announcement of the . Tim Carmody of "Wired" praised Cook for focusing on company achievements, calling him a "global business thinker" and a "taskmaster".


title: IPhone 4S

text: At the "Let's Talk iPhone" event held by Apple on October 4, 2011, Mike Capps demonstrated Epic Games' "Infinity Blade II", the sequel to "Infinity Blade", on an . Capps boasted that the game uses Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 and features the same graphic techniques used in the Xbox 360 game "Gears of War 3".


title: IPhone 4S

text: Speculation about Apple's next generation smartphone, including various specifications and a predicted name "iPhone 5", had been widespread in the time preceding its debut. After the was announced, it was considered by some media to be a disappointment, due to the expected release of an iPhone 5.


title: IPhone 4S

text: There were no external differences between the iPhone 4 CDMA model and the , with the exception of a SIM card slot on the . All changes were internal (slight external differences between the iPhone 4 GSM model and the exist, as said differences existed between the CDMA and GSM models of the iPhone 4).


title: IPhone 4S

text: On September 10, 2013, the iPhone 4S name was re-stylised as iPhone 4s, using a lower case 's' to reflect the names of the newly announced iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. This was unusual for Apple as an upper case 'S' had been used since the introduction of the iPhone 3GS in 2009.


title: IPhone 4S

text: On September 9, 2014, the iPhone 4S was officially discontinued following the reveal of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. However, 4S production did continue for developing markets until February 17, 2016.


title: IPhone 4S

text: On September 13, 2016, following the release of iOS 10, Apple dropped support for the iPhone 4S, making iOS 9 the last major iOS version available for the device.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The , like other iPhones, runs iOS, Apple's mobile operating system. The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. The response to user input is immediate and provides a fluid interface. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as "swipe", "tap", "pinch", and "reverse pinch", all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system and its multi-touch interface.


title: IPhone 4S

text: Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or rotating it in three dimensions (one common result is switching from portrait to landscape mode).


title: IPhone 4S

text: The iPhone 4S was first shipped with iOS 5, which was released on October 12, 2011, two days before the release of the device. The 4S uses iOS 5.1.1, which was released on May 7, 2012. As of April 2021, the device can be updated to iOS 9.


title: IPhone 4S

text: It can act as a hotspot, sharing its internet connection over WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB, and also accesses the App Store, a digital application distribution platform for iOS developed and maintained by Apple. The service allows users to browse and download applications from the iTunes Store that were developed with Xcode and the iOS SDK and were published through Apple.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The iPhone 4S can play music, movies, television shows, ebooks, audiobooks, and podcasts and can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. Options are always presented alphabetically, except in playlists, which retain their order from iTunes. The iPhone 4S uses a large font that allows users plenty of room to touch their selection. Users can rotate their device horizontally to landscape mode to access Cover Flow. Like on iTunes, this feature shows the different album covers in a scroll-through its photograph library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen. Alternatively, headset controls can be used to pause, play, skip, and repeat tracks. On the 4S, the volume can be changed with the included Apple Earphones, and the Voice Control feature can be used to identify a track, play songs in a playlist or by a specific artist, or create a Genius playlist.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The introduced a new automated voice control system called Siri, that allows the user to give the iPhone commands, which it can execute and respond to. For example, iPhone commands such as "What is the weather going to be like?" will generate a response such as "The weather is to be cloudy and rainy and drop to 54 degrees today." These commands can vary greatly and control almost every application of the smartphone. The commands given do not have to be specific and can be used with natural language. Siri can be accessed by holding down the home button for a short amount of time (compared to using the regular function). An impact of Siri, as shown by Apple video messages, is that it is much easier for people to use device functions while driving, exercising, or when they have their hands full. It also means people with trouble reading, seeing, or typing can access the smartphone more easily.


title: IPhone 4S

text: On the , texting can be aided by the voice assistant, which allows speech-to-text. In addition to regular texting, messaging on the is supported by iMessage, a specialized instant messaging program and service that allows unlimited texting to other Apple iOS 5 products. This supports the inclusion of media in text messages, integration with the device's voice-controlled software assistant, and read receipts for sent messages. Input to the computer comes from a keyboard displayed on the multi-touch screen or by voice-to-text by speaking into the microphone. Entered text is supported by predictive and suggestion software as well as a spell-checker, that includes many regional dialects such as Swiss spoken French.


title: IPhone 4S

text: At the announcement, plans were in place for the to support many languages. Different features have different language requirements, such as keyboards compared to the word predictor and spell-checker, which needs a large dictionary of words. Language support is related to the iOS 5 operating system that the device launched with, although not always. The Siri digital assistant supported French, English, and German at launch. Since it uses a software-based keyboard supported by the multi-touch display, it can support many different keyboard layouts without having to change physically. The can display different languages and scripts at the same time.


title: IPhone 4S

text: On September 19, 2012, iOS 6 was released to the iPhone 4S among other compatible iOS devices as an over the air (OTA) upgrade package. According to Apple the update contained 200 new features and tweaks, which included a new maps app, dubbed Apple Maps, Facebook integration and Passbook, an application that allows users to store their coupons, boarding passes, and tickets digitally. On September 18, 2013, Apple released iOS 7 and the iPhone 4S is among other compatible iOS devices that also received the update without any lagging issues compared to the iPhone 4. Although the device improved performance over iOS 7, some newer features that were released to newer models such as AirDrop and CarPlay were not supported. The iPhone 4S can also run iOS 8, which was released on September 17, 2014. Given that the device was supported for more than three years, some newer features of the software such as Apple Pay were not supported. It is also unable to work with Apple Watch, due to the relatively aged hardware. In fact, some users often reported that performance on the 4S is very slow, similar to how iOS 7 ran on the iPhone 4, and suggesting that they should not upgrade due to battery draining issues and hanging up on calls. Meanwhile, Apple released iOS 8.1.1, which brought slight improvements to the phone and the iPad 2, but it still did not run so fast as newer models.


title: IPhone 4S

text: On June 8, 2015, Apple announced at the WWDC that the iPhone 4S would support iOS 9. This makes it the first iPhone to support five major versions of iOS, and the second iOS device to support five major versions (iOS 9 will support the iPad 2 as well, bringing its total up to six major versions of iOS supported). On December 22, 2015, Apple faced a class action lawsuit for crippling the iPhone 4S with the iOS 9 update with slow and buggy software to force users to buy a new iPhone.


title: IPhone 4S

text: On June 13, 2016, Apple announced that the iPhone 4S would not support iOS 10 due to hardware limitations.


title: IPhone 4S

text: It was briefly possible to downgrade the iPhone 4S from iOS 9 to iOS 6.1.3 following a signing window, which opened in January 2018 and closed in November 2019. The option to downgrade to iOS 6.1.3 also allowed an over-the-air update to iOS 8.4.1 due to technical limitations preventing a direct update from iOS 6 to iOS 9.


title: IPhone 4S

text: On July 22, 2019, Apple released iOS 9.3.6 for the iPhone 4S to fix issues caused by the GPS week number rollover. The issues would impact the accuracy of GPS location and set the device's date and time to an incorrect value, preventing connection to HTTPS servers and, consequently, Apple's servers for activation, iCloud and the iTunes and App stores.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The uses the Apple A5 system-on-chip (SoC), also found in the iPad Mini (1st generation), that incorporates an Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX543 graphics processing unit (GPU). This GPU features pixel, vertex, and geometry shader hardware supporting OpenGL ES 2.0. The SGX543 is an improved version of the GPU used in the predecessor, the iPhone 4. The uses a dual-core model that is integrated with the Apple A5 SoC in the same way as the iPad 2. Apple claims that the has up to seven times faster graphics than the iPhone 4; this was corroborated by Epic Games president Mike Capps.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The has 512 MB of DDR2 RAM. Maximum available storage size increased to 64 GB while the 32 GB and 16 GB model options were retained. In September 2013 Apple released an iPhone 4S for free with a two-year contract and but with only 8 GB of storage. The screen is the same as the prior generation iPhones; , 640×960 resolution (Apple's "retina" design). There was an improvement in interactive multimedia applications compared to its predecessor.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The has an improved cellular (GSM) antenna design over the iPhone 4. The new antenna is divided up into two pieces within the stainless steel band that wraps around the sides of the smartphone. Therefore, if the is gripped in such a way as to attenuate one piece of the cellular antenna, the radio will switch to the other piece that isn't being gripped. The can support a maximum theoretical download speed of up to 14.4 Mbps with HSDPA+. As a result of an upgraded radio chip inside it, in addition to being a world phone, both GSM and CDMA customers can roam internationally on GSM networks. It also supports Bluetooth 4.0.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The camera on the , also known as an iSight camera, can take 8-megapixel photographs (3,264 by 2,448 pixels) and record 1080p videos at up to 30 frames per second with upgraded quality (30% better clarity, 26% better white balance, color accuracy) due to an additional lens, IR filter, a wider f/2.4 aperture, and "Image signal processor" (built-in A5).


title: IPhone 4S

text: The built-in gyroscope allows for some image stabilization for the camera while recording video, although it still has room for improvement, since state-of-the-art image stabilization algorithms do not need to use a gyroscope, but use image processing. Other features of the camera are macro (for close up pictures) and faster capture including being able to take its first image in 1.1 seconds and the next half a second later.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The features a 960 by 640 pixel multitouch Retina display. It has two volume buttons and a ring-silent switch on the left side. On the top left there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a microphone that is used for both noise cancellation during calls and when in speakerphone/FaceTime (video calling) mode. The lock-power button is situated on the top right edge of the device. The right side of the device has a Micro-SIM card slot. The bottom of the device features a speaker output on the right and a microphone input on the left with the Apple proprietary 30-pin dock connector in the center. The supports video out via AirPlay and various Apple A/V cables. Supported video formats include H.264 (1080p 30 frames per second maximum), MPEG-4 video, and motion JPEG (M-JPEG).


title: IPhone 4S

text: In addition to user inputs, the device also has several sensors that give the smartphone information about its orientation and external conditions. These include a three-axis gyroscope, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, and an ambient light sensor. The claimed to have 200 hours standby time, 8 hours talk time on 3G, 14 hours talk time on 2G, 6 hours 3G browsing, and 9 hours Wi-Fi browsing. Additionally, it can sustain up to 10 hours of video playback or 40 hours of audio playback.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The has a stainless steel, dual cellular antenna design, identical to iPhone 4 CDMA. Apple redesigned the antenna in the CDMA after some original iPhone 4 users reported cellular signal attenuation problems as a result of holding it in certain positions. The improved cellular radio in the smartphone can switch between two antennas, depending on which is sending/receiving the best signal. These two antennas are incorporated into the distinctive stainless steel band that wraps around the sides of the . The bands on the iPhone 4S are divided into two antennas: cellular and Global Positioning System GPS, with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi reliant on an internal antenna.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The iPhone 4 and 4S were designed by Jonathan Ive. The '4' generation iPhones differ from earlier Apple designs; the bulges of the back panel as well as the band between the front and back are gone and have been replaced with flattened surfaces. The redesign reflects the utilitarianism and uniformity of existing Apple products, such as the iPad and the iMac. The overall dimensions of the are lower than that of the 3GS.


title: IPhone 4S

text: It is high, wide, and deep, compared to the iPhone 3GS, which is high, wide, and deep; making the iPhone 4 and 4S 21.5% thinner than the 3GS. The internal components are situated between two panels of aluminosilicate glass, described by Apple as being "chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic," theoretically allowing it to be more scratch-resistant and durable than the prior models.


title: IPhone 4S

text: Reception to the was favorable. Reviewers noted Siri, the new camera, and processing speeds as significant advantages over the prior model. Tim Stevens of Engadget said that the " does everything better than the iPhone 4, but it simply doesn't do anything substantially different." Joshua Topolsky of The Verge stated that "if this were to be a car, it would be a Mercedes" and that Siri is "probably one of the most novel applications Apple has ever produced." Most reviewers thought that Siri was the most important feature on the . Brian Chen of "Wired" said that "the fifth-generation iPhone's superb camera and speedy dual-core processor are classy additions. But Siri is the reason people should buy this phone."


title: IPhone 4S

text: Retrevo surveyed more than 1,300 U.S. consumers and reported that 71 percent of all smartphone owners were not disappointed by the new , but 47 percent or almost a half of current iPhone 4 owners were; 12 percent were hoping for a bigger display, 21 percent wanted a refreshed design, and 29 percent desired 4G. Echoing technology pundits, Reuters suggested that the lack of a more radical departure from the iPhone 4 could open new market opportunities for rivals. Analyst C. K. Lu of Gartner believed that Apple no longer had the leading edge and that the 4S would only sell due to brand loyalty, as fans had been expecting an iPhone 5 with a thinner profile, edge-to-edge screen, and stronger features. These same fans had also wanted a cheaper, stripped-down iPhone 4.


title: IPhone 4S

text: Gaming on the has been likened to the PlayStation Vita, that features the same SGX GPU only in a quad-core configuration, and the Nintendo 3DS handheld game consoles. Further, the ' ability to process 80 million polygons per second has been compared to the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 home video game consoles that can process 275 million and 500 million polygons per second respectively.


title: IPhone 4S

text: Computer and Video Games's (CVG) deputy editor Andy Robinson told TechRadar that the "4S is certainly laying down some serious credibility for the iPhone as a core gaming device. Not only is it now pushing out games that simply eclipse the 3DS visually, but features like cloud saving and TV streaming support are really exciting for gamers." The senior gaming analyst at Jon Peddie Research, Ted Pollak, believes the biggest improvement to gaming on the is the voice control features, noting that "one of the features that Nintendogs players loved was the ability to talk to it. There's no reason why a game like that couldn't be done on the , and much more sophisticated given the voice control shown."


title: IPhone 4S

text: In 2012, the iPhone 4S won the T3 "Work Gadget of the Year" award, beating RIM's Blackberry Bold 9900, rival Samsung's Galaxy Note amongst others.


title: IPhone 4S

text: Since the introduction of the iPhone 4S, there have been several issues reported by users on internet forums that have been noted by media organizations such as CNN, Boy Genius Report, The Guardian, and PC World.


title: IPhone 4S

text: The iPhone 4S had an issue where the Wi-Fi toggles would appear greyed out in both Settings and the Control Center, which was mainly caused by thermal shock of the Wi-Fi antenna.


title: IPhone 4S

text: Unlike prior iPhone models, the number of sales of the iPhone 4 had not yet climaxed before the introduction of the 4S. Previous iPhone models were released during or after declining sales figures. In addition, iPhone 4 users had high marks for being satisfied with their smartphones. Upon the announcement of the , shares of Samsung Electronics, HTC and Nokia gained on Wednesday after the 4S was announced, while Apple stock fell. However, later in the day, Apple shares rebounded ending with a 1% gain.


title: IPhone 4S

text: With the launch of orders, AT&T said that the demand for the was "extraordinary". More than 200,000 orders were placed within 12 hours of release through AT&T. The German telephone company Deutsche Telekom said they were "satisfied" with consumer interest. In addition, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint sold-out initial stock by October 8, 2011, and by October 9 there was a 1–2 week estimate on new orders to be filled. On October 20, 2011, AT&T surpassed one million activations. On October 10, Apple announced that more than one million orders for the had been received within the first 24 hours of it being on sale, beating the 600,000 device record set by the iPhone 4. The 16-month wait between the iPhone 4 and 4S may have contributed to overwhelming sales as well.


title: IPhone 4S

text: On October 17, 2011, Apple had announced that four million units of the were sold in the first three days of release, and 25 million iOS users had upgraded to the then latest version of iOS, iOS 5, which was released upon the introduction of the iPhone 4S. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, stated that the " is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend—the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days." The used smartphone market saw unprecedented rates of trade-ins in the weeks leading up to the 4S announcement, and after it, there was a drop in prices offered. Previous generation iPhones are recirculated through the markets via various methods and third-party buyers may purchase older generation iPhones. Apple also buys back previous generation iPhones under a special program. On April 24, 2012, AT&T announced that 7.6 million iPhone units were activated in Q4 2011, and 4.3 million in Q1 2012. In total, AT&T sold 5.5 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2012, out of which 78% were iPhones.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical and humorous character. Lem's books have been translated into more than 50 languages and have sold more than 45 million copies. Worldwide, he is best known as the author of the 1961 novel "Solaris". In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem is the author of the fundamental philosophical work "Summa Technologiae", in which he anticipated the creation of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and also developed the ideas of human autoevolution, the creation of artificial worlds, and many others. Lem's science fiction works explore philosophical themes through speculations on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of communication with and understanding of alien intelligence, despair about human limitations, and humanity's place in the universe. His essays and philosophical books cover these and many other topics.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Translating his works is difficult due to Lem's elaborate neologisms and idiomatic wordplay. The Polish Parliament declared 2021 Stanisław Lem Year.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem was born in 1921 in Lwów, interwar Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) to a Jewish family. According to his own account, he was actually born on 13 September, but the date was changed to the 12th on his birth certificate because of superstition. He was the son of Sabina née Woller (1892–1979) and Samuel Lem (1879–1954), a wealthy laryngologist and former physician in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and first cousin to Polish poet Marian Hemar (Lem's father's sister's son). In later years Lem sometimes claimed to have been raised Roman Catholic, but he went to Jewish religious lessons during his school years. He later became an atheist "for moral reasons ... the world appears to me to be put together in such a painful way that I prefer to believe that it was not created ... intentionally". In later years he would call himself both an agnostic and an atheist.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: After the 1939 Soviet occupation of western Ukraine and Belarus, he was not allowed to study at Lwow Polytechnic as he wished because of his "bourgeois origin", and only due to his father's connections he was accepted to study medicine at Lwów University in 1940. During the subsequent Nazi occupation (1941–1944), Lem's Jewish family avoided placement in the Nazi Lwów Ghetto, surviving with false papers. He would later recall:


title: Stanisław Lem

text: During that time, Lem earned a living as a car mechanic and welder, and occasionally stole munitions from storehouses (to which he had access as an employee of a German company) to pass them on to the Polish resistance.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: In 1945, Lwow was annexed into the Soviet Ukraine, and the family, along with many other Polish citizens, was resettled to Kraków, where Lem, at his father's insistence, took up medical studies at the Jagiellonian University. He did not take his final examinations on purpose, to avoid the career of military doctor, which he suspected could have become lifelong. After receiving "absolutorium" (Polish term for the evidence of completion of the studies without diploma), he did an obligatory monthly work at a hospital, at a maternity ward, where he assisted at a number of childbirths and a caesarean section. Lem said that the sight of blood was one of the reasons he decided to drop medicine.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem started his literary work in 1946 with a number of publications in different genres, including poetry, as well as his first science fiction novel, "The Man from Mars" ("Człowiek z Marsa"), serialized in "" ("New World of Adventures"). Between 1948 and 1950 Lem was working as a scientific research assistant at the Jagiellonian University, and published a number of short stories, poems, reviews, etc., particularly at "Tygodnik Powszechny". In 1951, he published his first book, "The Astronauts" ("Astronauci"). In 1953 he met and married (civil marriage) Barbara Leśniak, a medical student.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Their church marriage ceremony was performed in February 1954. In 1954, he published a short story anthology, "" ["Sesame and Other Stories"] . The following year, 1955, saw the publication of another science fiction novel, "The Magellanic Cloud" ("Obłok Magellana").


title: Stanisław Lem

text: During the era of Stalinism in Poland, which had begun in the late 1940s, all published works had to be directly approved by the communist state. Thus "The Astronauts" was not, in fact, the first novel Lem finished, just the first that made it past the state censors. Going by the date of the finished manuscript, Lem's first book was a partly autobiographical novel "Hospital of the Transfiguration" ("Szpital Przemienienia"), finished in 1948. It would be published seven years later, in 1955, as a part of the trilogy "Czas nieutracony" ("Time Not Lost"). The experience of trying to push "Czas nieutracony" through the censors was one of the major reasons Lem decided to focus on the less-censored genre of science fiction. Nonetheless, most of Lem's works published in the 1950s also contain—forced upon him by the censors and editors—various elements of socialist realism as well as of the "glorious future of communism". Lem later criticized several of his early pieces as compromised by the ideological pressure.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the de-Stalinization period in the Soviet Union led to the "Polish October", when Poland experienced an increase in freedom of speech. Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored seventeen books. His writing over the next three decades or so was split between science fiction and essays about science and culture.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: In 1957, he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, "Dialogues", as well as a science fiction anthology, "The Star Diaries" ("Dzienniki gwiazdowe"), collecting short stories about one of his most popular characters, Ijon Tichy. 1959 saw the publication of three books: "Eden", "The Investigation" ("Śledztwo") and the short story anthology "An Invasion from Aldebaran" ("Inwazja z Aldebarana"). 1961 saw the novels: "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub" ("Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie"), "Solaris", and "Return from the Stars" ("Powrót z gwiazd"), with "Solaris" being among his top works. This was followed by a collection of his essays and non-fiction prose, "Wejście na orbitę" (1962), and a short story anthology "Noc księżycowa" (1963). In 1964, Lem published a large work on the border of philosophy and sociology of science and futurology, "Summa Technologiae", as well as a novel, "The Invincible" ("Niezwyciężony").


title: Stanisław Lem

text: 1965 saw the publication of "The Cyberiad" ("Cyberiada") and of a short story anthology, "The Hunt" (). 1966 is the year of "Highcastle" (Polish title: "Wysoki Zamek"), followed in 1968 by "His Master's Voice" ("Głos Pana") and "Tales of Pirx the Pilot" ("Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie"). "Highcastle" was another of Lem's autobiographical works, and touched upon a theme that usually was not favored by the censors: Lem's youth in the pre-war, then-Polish, Lviv. 1968 and 1970 saw two more non-fiction treatises, "The Philosophy of Chance" ("Filozofia przypadku") and "Science Fiction and Futurology" ("Fantastyka i futurologia"). Ijon Tichy returned in 1971's "The Futurological Congress" "Kongres futurologiczny"; in the same year Lem released a genre-mixing experiment, "Doskonała próżnia", a collection of reviews of non-existent books. In 1973 a similar work, "Imaginary Magnitude" ("Wielkość urojona"), was published. In 1976, Lem published two novels: "Maska" ("The Mask") and "Katar" (translated as "The Chain of Chance"). In 1980, he published another set of reviews of non-existent works, "Prowokacja". The following year sees another Tichy novel, "Wizja lokalna", and "Golem XIV". Later in that decade, Lem published "Pokój na Ziemi" (1984) and "Fiasco" (1986), his last science fiction novel.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lem cautiously supported the Polish dissident movement, and started publishing essays in Paris-based "Kultura". In 1982, with martial law in Poland declared, Lem moved to West Berlin, where he became a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin ("Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin"). After that, he settled in Vienna. He returned to Poland in 1988.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: From the late 1980s onwards, he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays, published in Polish magazines ("Tygodnik Powszechny", "Odra", "Przegląd", and others). They were later collected in a number of anthologies.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: In early 1980s literary critic and historian Stanisław Bereś conducted a lengthy interview with Lem, which was published in book format in 1987 as "Rozmowy ze Stanisławem Lemem" ("Conversations with Stanisław Lem)". That edition was subject to censorship. A revised, complete edition was published in 2002 as "Tako rzecze… Lem" ("Thus spoke... Lem").


title: Stanisław Lem

text: In the early 1990s, Lem met with the literary critic and scholar Peter Swirski for a series of extensive interviews, published together with other critical materials and translations as "A Stanislaw Lem Reader" (1997). In these interviews Lem speaks about a range of issues he rarely discussed previously. The book also includes Swirski's translation of Lem's retrospective essay "Thirty Years Later", devoted to Lem's nonfictional treatise "Summa Technologiae". During later interviews in 2005, Lem expressed his disappointment with the genre of science fiction, and his general pessimism regarding technical progress. He viewed the human body as unsuitable for space travel, held that information technology drowns people in a glut of low-quality information, and considered truly intelligent robots as both undesirable and impossible to construct.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: One of Lem's major recurring themes, beginning from his very first novel, "The Man from Mars", was the impossibility of communication between profoundly alien beings, which may have no common ground with human intelligence, and humans. The best known example is the living planetary ocean in Lem's novel "Solaris". Other examples include intelligent swarms of mechanical insect-like micromachines (in "The Invincible"), and strangely ordered societies of more human-like beings in "Fiasco" and "Eden", describing the failure of the first contact.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Another key recurring theme is the shortcomings of humans. In "His Master's Voice", Lem describes the failure of humanity's intelligence to decipher and truly comprehend an apparent message from space. Two overlapping arcs of short stories, "Fables for Robots" ("Bajki Robotów", translated in the collection "Mortal Engines"), and "The Cyberiad" ("Cyberiada") provide a commentary on humanity in the form of a series of grotesque, humorous, fairytale-like short stories about a mechanical universe inhabited by robots (who have occasional contact with biological "slimies" and human "palefaces"). Lem also underlines the uncertainties of evolution, including that it might not progress upwards in intelligence.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: "Śledztwo" and "Katar" are crime novels (the latter without a murderer); "Pamiętnik..." is a psychological drama inspired by Kafka. "Doskonała próżnia" and "Wielkość urojona" are collections of reviews of and introductions to non-existent books. Similarly, "Prowokacja" purports to review a (non-existing) Holocaust-themed work.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: "Dialogs" and "Summa Technologiae" (1964) are Lem's two most famous philosophical texts. The "Summa" is notable for being a unique analysis of prospective social, cybernetic, and biological advances; in this work, Lem discusses philosophical implications of technologies that were completely in the realm of science fiction at the time, but are gaining importance today—for instance, virtual reality and nanotechnology.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem's criticism of most science fiction surfaced in literary and philosophical essays "Science Fiction and Futurology" and interviews. In the 1990s, Lem forswore science fiction and returned to futurological prognostications, most notably those expressed in "" ["Blink of an Eye"] .


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem said that since the success of Solidarność, and the collapse of the Soviet empire, he felt his wild dreams about the future could no longer compare with reality.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: He became increasingly critical of modern technology in his later life, criticizing inventions such as the Internet, which he said "makes it easier to hurt our neighbors."


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem was awarded an honorary membership in the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in 1973. SFWA honorary membership is given to people who do not meet the publishing criteria for joining the regular membership, but who would be welcomed as members had their work appeared in the qualifying English-language publications. Lem never had a high opinion of American science fiction, describing it as ill-thought-out, poorly written, and interested more in making money than in ideas or new literary forms. After his eventual American publication, when he became eligible for regular membership, his honorary membership was rescinded. This formal action was interpreted by some of the SFWA members as a rebuke for his stance, and it seems that Lem interpreted it as such. Lem was invited to stay on with the organization with a regular membership, but he declined. After many members (including Ursula K. Le Guin, who quit her membership and then refused the Nebula Award for Best Novelette for "The Diary of the Rose") protested against Lem's treatment by the SFWA, a member offered to pay his dues. Lem never accepted the offer.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem singled out only one American science fiction writer for praise, Philip K. Dick, in a 1984 English-language anthology of his critical essays, "". Lem had initially held a low opinion of Philip K. Dick (as he did for the bulk of American science fiction) and would later say that this was due to a limited familiarity with Dick's work, since Western literature was hard to come by in Communist Poland.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Dick alleged that Stanisław Lem was probably a false name used by a composite committee operating on orders of the Communist party to gain control over public opinion, and wrote a letter to the FBI to that effect. There were several attempts to explain Dick's act. Lem was responsible for the Polish translation of Dick's work "Ubik" in 1972, and when Dick felt monetarily short-changed by the publisher, he held Lem personally responsible (see ""). Also it was suggested that Dick was under the influence of strong medications, including opioids, and may have experienced a "slight disconnect from reality" some time before writing the letter. A "defensive patriotism" of Dick against Lem's attacks on American science fiction may have played some role as well. Lem would later mention Philip Dick in his monograph "Science Fiction and Futurology".


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem is one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction writers, hailed by critics as equal to such classic authors as H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world. In Poland, in the 1960s and 1970s, Lem remained under the radar of mainstream critics, who dismissed him as a "mass market", low-brow, youth-oriented writer; such dismissal might have given him a form of invisibility from censorship. His works were widely translated abroad, appearing in over 40 languages. and have sold over 45 million copies. , about 1.5 million copies were sold in Poland after his death, with the annual numbers of 100,000 matching the new bestsellers.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Franz Rottensteiner, Lem's former agent abroad, had this to say about Lem's reception on international markets:


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Will Wright's popular city-planning game "SimCity" was partly inspired by Lem's short story "The Seventh Sally".


title: Stanisław Lem

text: The video game Stellaris is highly inspired by his works, as its creators said at the start of 2021 (Year of Lem)


title: Stanisław Lem

text: A major character in the film "Planet 51", an alien Lem, was named by screenwriter Joe Stillman after Stanisław Lem. Since the film was intended to be a parody of American pulp science fiction shot in Eastern Europe, Stillman thought that it would be hilarious to hint at the writer whose works have nothing to do with little green men.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Film critics have noted the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky's cinematic adaptation of "Solaris" on later science fiction films such as "Event Horizon" (1997) and Christopher Nolan's "Inception" (2010).


title: Stanisław Lem

text: "Solaris" was made into a film in 1968 by Russian director Boris Nirenburg, a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky—which won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972—and an American film in 2002 by Steven Soderbergh.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: A number of other dramatic and musical adaptations of his work exist, such as adaptations of "The Astronauts" ("First Spaceship on Venus", 1960) and "The Magellan Nebula" ("Ikarie XB-1", 1963). Lem himself was, however, critical of most of the screen adaptations, with the sole exception of "Przekładaniec" in 1968 by Andrzej Wajda. In 2013, the Israeli–Polish co-production "The Congress" was released, inspired by Lem's novel "The Futurological Congress".


title: Stanisław Lem

text: In 2018 with the directing of György Pálfi a film adaptation of His Master's Voice was made with the same title.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem's early works were socialist realist, possibly to satisfy state censorship, and in his later years he was critical of this aspect of them. In 1982, with the onset of the martial law in Poland Lem moved to Berlin for studies and next year he moved for several years (1983–1988) to Vienna. However he never showed any wish to relocate permanently in the West. By the standards of the Eastern Bloc, Lem was financially well off for most of his life.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem believed there were no absolutes; "I should wish, as do most men, that immutable truths existed, that not all would be eroded by the impact of historical time, that there were some essential propositions, be it only in the field of human values, the basic values, etc. In brief, I long for the absolute. But at the same time I am firmly convinced that there are no absolutes, that everything is historical, and that you cannot get away from history."


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem was concerned that if the human race attained prosperity and comfort this would lead it to passiveness and degeneration.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem was a polyglot: he knew Polish, Latin (from medical school), German, French, English, Russian and Ukrainian. Lem claimed that his IQ was tested at high school as 180.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem was married to Barbara (née Leśniak) Lem until his death. She died on 27 April 2016. Their only son, , was born in 1968. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Vienna, and graduated with a degree in physics from Princeton University. Tomasz wrote a memoir about his father, "Awantury na tle powszechnego ciążenia" ("Tantrums on the Background of the Universal Gravitation"), which contain numerous personal details about Stanisław Lem. The book jacket says Tomasz works as a translator and has a daughter, Anna.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: As of 1984, Lem's writing pattern was to get up a short time before five in the morning and start writing soon after, for 5 or 6 hours before taking a break.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem was an aggressive driver. He loved sweets (especially halva and chocolate-covered marzipan), and did not give them up even when, toward the end of his life, he fell ill with diabetes. In the mid-80s due to health problems he stopped smoking. Coffee often featured in Lem's writing and interviews.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Stanisław Lem died from a heart failure in the hospital of the Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków on 27 March 2006 at the age of 84. He was buried at Salwator Cemetery, Sector W, Row 4, grave 17 ().


title: Stanisław Lem

text: In November 2021, Agnieszka Gajewska's biography of Lem, "Holocaust and the Stars", was translated into English by Katarzyna Gucio and published by Routledge. It discussed aspects of Lem's life, such as being forced to wear the six-pointed badge and being struck for not removing his hat in the presence of Germans, as required of Jews at the time.


title: Stanisław Lem

text: Lem loved movies and greatly enjoyed artistic cinema (especially the movies of Luis Buñuel. He also liked the King Kong, James Bond, Star Wars and Star Trek movies but he remained mostly displeased by movies which were based upon his own stories. The only notable exceptions are "Voyage to the End of the Universe" (1963) (which didn't credit Lem as writer of the original book "The Magellanic Cloud") and Layer Cake (1968) (which was based upon his short story "Do You Exist, Mr Jones?").


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Boston Dynamics is an American engineering and robotics design company founded in 1992 as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Boston Dynamics has been owned by the Hyundai Motor Group since December 2020, but having only completed the acquisition in June 2021.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Boston Dynamics is best known for the development of a series of dynamic highly-mobile robots, including BigDog, Spot, Atlas, and Handle. Since 2019, Spot has been made commercially available, making it the first commercially available robot from Boston Dynamics, while the company has stated its intent to commercialize other robots as well, including Handle.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: The company was founded by Marc Raibert, whom which spun the company off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. The company was an outgrowth of the Leg Laboratory, Raibert's research lab at MIT and Carnegie Mellon University. The Leg Laboratory helped establish the scientific basis for highly dynamic robots. These robots were inspired by the remarkable ability of animals to move with agility, dexterity, perception and intelligence, and the work there set the stage for the robots developed at Boston Dynamics. Nancy Cornelius was a co-founder of Boston Dynamics, having joined the company as its first employee. During her time there she served as an officer of the company, did engineering on many contracts, was CFO for 10 years, and later was VP in charge of engineering on several contracts. She retired after 21 years of service in 2013, when the company was acquired by Google. Robert Playter was also a co-founder of the company, joining a few months later, as soon as he completed his PhD thesis at MIT working with Raibert in the Leg Laboratory. Playter was COO at the company for many years and has been CEO since 2019.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Early in the company's history, it worked with the American Systems Corporation under a contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) to replace naval training videos for aircraft launch operations with interactive 3D computer simulations featuring characters made with DI-Guy, software for realistic human simulation. Eventually the company started making physical robots—for example, BigDog was a quadruped robot designed for the U.S. military with funding from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On December 13, 2013, the company was acquired by Google X (later X, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.) for an unknown price, where it was managed by Andy Rubin until his departure from Google in 2014. Immediately before the acquisition, Boston Dynamics transferred their DI-Guy software product line to VT MÄK, a simulation software vendor based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On June 8, 2017, Alphabet Inc. announced the sale of the company to Japan's SoftBank Group for an undisclosed sum. On April 2, 2019, Boston Dynamics acquired the Silicon Valley startup Kinema Systems.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: In December 2020, Hyundai Motor Group acquired an 80% stake in the company from SoftBank for approximately $880 million dollars. SoftBank Group retains about 20% through an affiliate. In June 2021, it was announced that Hyundai officially took a controlling stake in the company from SoftBank.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: In October 2022, the company signed a pledge saying it would not support any weaponization of its robotic creations. Boston Dynamics offered other robotics companies to join the pledge with 5 other firms signing as well.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: BigDog was a quadrupedal robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics, in conjunction with Foster-Miller, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. It was funded by DARPA in the hopes that it would be able to serve as a robotic pack mule to accompany soldiers in terrain too rough for vehicles, but the project was shelved after BigDog was deemed too loud to be used in combat. Instead of wheels, BigDog used four legs for movement, allowing it to move across surfaces that would defeat wheels. Called "the world's most ambitious legged robot", it was designed to carry alongside a soldier at , traversing rough terrain at inclines up to 35 degrees.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: The Cheetah is a four-footed robot that gallops at , which as of August 2012 is a land speed record for legged robots.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: A similar but independently developed robot also known as Cheetah is made by MIT's Biomimetic Robotics Lab, which, by 2014, could jump over obstacles while running. By 2018 the robot was able to climb stairs.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Released around 2010, LittleDog is a small quadruped robot developed for DARPA by Boston Dynamics for research. Unlike BigDog, which is run by Boston Dynamics, LittleDog is intended as a testbed for other institutions. Boston Dynamics maintains the robots for DARPA as a standard platform.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: LittleDog has four legs, each powered by three electric motors. The legs have a large range of motion. The robot is strong enough for climbing and dynamic locomotion gaits. The onboard PC-level computer does sensing, actuator control and communications. LittleDog's sensors measure joint angles, motor currents, body orientation and foot/ground contact. Control programs access the robot through the Boston Dynamics Robot API. Onboard lithium polymer batteries allow for 30 minutes of continuous operation without recharging. Wireless communications and data logging support remote operation and data analysis. LittleDog development is funded by the DARPA Information Processing Technology Office.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: PETMAN (Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin) is a bipedal device constructed for testing chemical protection suits. It is the first anthropomorphic robot that moves dynamically like a person.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Legged Squad Support System (LS3), also known as AlphaDog, is a militarized version of BigDog. It is ruggedized for military use, with the ability to operate in hot, cold, wet, and dirty environments.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: According to Lt. Col. Joe Hitt and the US Marine Corps's program manager "The vision for LS3 is to combine the capabilities of a pack mule with the intelligence of a trained animal". LS3 is capable of reacting to visual or oral commands and uses an on board GPS system, along with computer vision (LIDAR and IR), to guide itself through terrain. Due to its ability to track oral commands, soldiers within the field found it difficult to hold a conversation with this bot in a vicinity because it would unknowingly follow commands not given to itself. Unlike its living counterparts, LS3 can march for 19.88 miles (32 km) before running out of fuel. The robot also doesn't suffer from the shortcomings of bleeding and falling over, a problem with many pack mules.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: The Agile Anthropomorphic Robot "Atlas" is a 5-foot (152.4 cm) bipedal humanoid robot, based on Boston Dynamics' earlier PETMAN humanoid robot, and designed for a variety of search and rescue tasks.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: In February 2016 Boston Dynamics published a YouTube video entitled "Atlas, The Next Generation" showing a new humanoid robot about 5' tall (152.4 cm). In the video, the robot is shown performing a number of tasks that would have been difficult or impossible for the previous generation of humanoid robots.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: A video posted to the Boston Dynamics channel of YouTube dated October 11, 2018, titled "Parkour Atlas", shows the robot easily running up 2' high steps onto a platform. Atlas is shown in a September 2019 YouTube video doing "More Parkour".


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On June 23, 2016, Boston Dynamics revealed the four-legged canine-inspired Spot which only weighs 25 kg (55 pounds) and is lighter than their other products.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: In November 2017, a promotional video of the Spot using its forward claw to open a door for another robot reached #1 on YouTube, with over 2 million views. A later video the same month showed Spot persisting in attempting to open the door in the face of human interference. Viewers perceived the robot as "creepy" and "reminiscent of all kinds of sci-fi robots that wouldn't give up in their missions to seek and destroy".


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On May 11, 2018, CEO of Boston Dynamics Marc Raibert on TechCrunch Robotics Session 2018 announced that the Spot robot was in pre-production and preparing for commercial availability in 2019. On its website, Boston Dynamics highlights that Spot is the "quietest robot [they] have built." The company says it has plans with contract manufacturers to build the first 100 Spots later that year for commercial purposes, with them starting to scale production with the goal of selling Spot in 2019. However, in September 2019, journalists were informed that the robots will not be sold, but they will be given on lease to selected business partners. In November 2019 Massachusetts State Police became the first law enforcement agency to use Spot as a robot cop, as well as in the unit's bomb squad.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Since January 23, 2020, Spot's SDK is available for anyone via GitHub. It will allow programmers to develop custom applications for Spot to do various actions that could be used across different industries. On June 16, 2020 Boston Dynamics made Spot available for the general public to purchase at a price of .


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On June 23, 2020, a lone Spot named 'Zeus' was used by SpaceX at their Boca Chica Starship Test Site to help contain sub-cooled liquid nitrogen and to inspect 'Potentially Dangerous' sites at and around the Launchpad.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On July 9, 2020, a team of Spot robots performed as cheerleaders in the stands at a baseball match between the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the Rakuten Eagles, backed by a team of SoftBank Pepper Robots.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Spot performed inspection tasks on the Skarv floating production storage and offloading vessel in November 2020.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On April 9, 2021 Michael Reeves made a Youtube video where he attached a pressurized beer canister and phallic nozzle in order to detect red plastic cups and dispense beer into them.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On March 18, 2022, artist Agnieszka Pilat sold a painting created by Spot for $40,000 at the home of Brian Boitano to benefit Ukrainian refugees. The painting, titled "Sunrise March," was created by applying paint on Spot's feet and having the robot rotate in circles.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Handle is a research robot with two flexible legs on wheels and two "hands" for manipulating or carrying objects. It can stand tall, travel at and jump vertically. It uses electric power to operate various electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about on one battery charge. Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in the other robots by Boston Dynamics but, with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: On March 29, 2021, Boston Dynamics announced via a video on their YouTube channel the Stretch robot that was designed for warehouse automation. The machine was able to lift up to 50 pound objects using a suction cup array.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: Pick is a robot just like Stretch but fixed in a particular place. It is designed to carry boxes. It can identify a box in less than a second. It automatically disposes of the sheet of cardboard.


title: Boston Dynamics

text: The Factory Safety Service Robot was unveiled on September 17, 2021. It was the first joint venture with Hyundai Motor Group. The robot is based on the existing Boston Dynamics robot Spot. Its integrated thermal camera and 3D LiDAR system help detect nearby people, monitor fire hazards, and recognize open and closed doors.


title: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

text: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is an American historical dark fantasy television series created by John Logan that premiered on Showtime on April 26, 2020. The series stars Natalie Dormer, Daniel Zovatto, Kerry Bishé, Adriana Barraza, Jessica Garza, Michael Gladis, Johnathan Nieves, Rory Kinnear, and Nathan Lane. The series follows two detectives (Zovatto and Lane) as they investigate a murder in Los Angeles. A spin-off of the series "Penny Dreadful", "City of Angels" was ordered in November 2018 and is set in Los Angeles, California, in 1938.


title: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

text: The first season concluded on June 28, 2020; the series was canceled in August 2020. Dormer was nominated for Best Actress in a Horror Series at the 1st Critics' Choice Super Awards for her performance.


title: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

text: "Penny Dreadful: City of Angels" is set nearly 50 years after the original series, during the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s. It takes place in 1938 Los Angeles, a time and place "deeply infused with Mexican-American folklore and social tension". The characters are connected in a conflict between the Mexican folklore deity, Santa Muerte, the caretaker of the dead and guide to the great beyond, and her spiritual sister, the demoness Magda, who believes mankind is inherently evil and aims to prove her point. Detective Tiago Vega and his partner, veteran Detective Lewis Michener, are tasked with a gruesome murder case and soon become embroiled in Los Angeles's history as well as its present, while racial tensions, the looming threat of war, and Nazi conspiracies threaten to derail them at every turn.


title: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

text: Filming began in August 2019 in Los Angeles. Paco Cabezas directed the first and second episodes after previously directing four episodes, including the series finale, of "Penny Dreadful". On January 13, 2020, it was announced that the series would premiere on April 26, 2020. On August 21, 2020, Showtime canceled the series after one season.


title: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 75% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.84/10. The website's critical consensus is, "Though "City of Angels" host of interesting characters would be better served if there were fewer of them, twisty plotting and superb performances are bound to satisfy "Penny Dreadful" devotees." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

text: Danette Chavez of "The A.V. Club" gave the season a mixed review, writing that the show was ineffective across the genres it tried to portray. "Specificity," wrote Chavez, "along with cohesion, was missing all season. The maps that inspired "City of Angels" offered [producer John Logan] a way in, but not a clear path through this hodgepodge of genres and topics."


title: Joe Pera

text: Joseph Pera (born July 24, 1988) is an American comedian, writer and actor. He is best known as the creator and star of Adult Swim's "Joe Pera Talks with You", which entered development following the success of the 2016 specials "Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep", and ran for three seasons.


title: Joe Pera

text: Joe Pera was born in Buffalo, New York. He studied film at Ithaca College, where he competed in and won the college's stand-up competition three times. Pera graduated from Ithaca College in 2010. He moved to New York City to pursue comedy and would attend open mic nights as often as possible. Pera is a fan of his hometown Buffalo Bills.


title: Joe Pera

text: Known for his slow, "grandfatherly" delivery and his penchant for wearing sweaters, Pera created the Adult Swim Infomercial "Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep". This was followed by an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers", and another stand-alone Adult Swim special titled "Joe Pera Helps You Find the Perfect Christmas Tree". Thanks to the success of those programs (all produced by Chestnut Walnut, founded by him and Conner O'Malley), Pera developed a television series for Adult Swim, which premiered on May 20, 2018, titled "Joe Pera Talks with You". He appeared on the talk show "Conan" on March 28, 2017, and on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on December 4, 2019. In 2021, Joe Pera released a book named "A Bathroom Book for People Not Pooping or Peeing but Using the Bathroom as an Escape" which was illustrated by Joe Bennett.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: American McGee's Alice is a 2000 third-person action-adventure video game developed by Rogue Entertainment under the direction of designer American McGee and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Games banner. The game was originally released for personal computers running Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Although a planned PlayStation 2 port was cancelled, the game was later released digitally for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, via downloadable content for .


title: American McGee's Alice

text: The game's premise is based on the Lewis Carroll novels "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865) and "Through the Looking-Glass" (1871), but presents a gloomy, cruel and violent version of the setting. The game centers on the novels' protagonist Alice, whose family is killed in a house fire years before the story of the game takes place. After several years of treatment in a psychiatric clinic, the emotionally traumatized Alice makes a mental retreat to Wonderland, which has been disfigured by her injured psyche.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: "American McGee's Alice" uses the id Tech 3 game engine, which was previously used in "Quake III Arena" and redesigned for this game by Ritual Entertainment. The game was met with positive critical reception, with reviewers commending the high artistic and technical quality of the level design, while criticizing the excessive linearity of the gameplay. As of September 2017, "American McGee's Alice" has sold over 1.5 million copies. A sequel, "", was released on June 14, 2011.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: "American McGee's Alice" is a third-person action game in which the player controls the titular character Alice along a linear route. Alice can communicate with non-player characters, fight off enemies and bosses, and solve puzzles. Along with the basic actions of walking and jogging, Alice can jump, cling to ledges, climb and swing on ropes, swim in water, and glide over columns of steam by using her inflated dress as a makeshift parachute. The game can be played at four difficulty levels: "Easy", Medium", "Hard" and "Nightmare". The game's levels feature many platforms and other obstacles not based on artificial intelligence, as well as puzzles that require solving for further passage through the game.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: Throughout the game, Alice can obtain up to ten different weapons, known as "toys", for use against enemies. Most toys have two modes of use, which differ in the method and strength of the attack. The first toy acquired by Alice is the Vorpal Blade, which, along with the Croquet Mallet, can be used for basic melee attacks. Toys with longer range include the Ice Wand and an explosive jack-in-the-box. One particular toy, the Jabberwock's Eye Staff, is essential to the narrative and is assembled from pieces scattered throughout the setting. The game's combat system implements automatic target designation: if an enemy character is nearby, the player's weapon sight is automatically fixed upon that enemy. Outside of combat, the sight plays the role of a jump indicator by taking on the shape of two footprints that appear on the surface of any place that Alice would land if she made a jump.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: Because the game takes place within Alice's imagination, the health mechanic is represented as "sanity", which is displayed as a red bar on the left-hand side of the screen. The sanity meter decreases when Alice sustains damage from enemy attacks or an environmental hazard. When the sanity meter is depleted, the game prematurely ends, after which it can be continued from where the game was last saved. A magic mechanic is represented as "willpower", and it is displayed as a blue bar on the right-hand side of the screen. Willpower is consumed when almost any toy is used, and a toy will not serve its function when Alice's willpower is too low. Certain amounts of sanity or willpower can be restored by collecting crystals of "meta-essence", the life force of Wonderland. Crystals of "meta-substance", representing the power of imagination, restore sanity and willpower simultaneously. All crystal types can be found scattered across levels and some respawn within certain places. Meta-substance can be obtained after defeating an enemy; the volume of the meta-substance is dependent on the strength of the defeated enemy.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: Certain uncommon items can be found throughout the game that enhance Alice's abilities: "Ragebox Elixir" increases the damage dealt by Alice with the Vorpal Blade, the "Darkened Looking Glass" makes Alice invisible to enemies, and "Grasshopper Tea" augments Alice's speed and jumping height. These items change Alice's appearance and their effects are limited to a short period of time, after which Alice returns to her original state.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: In 1863, Alice Liddell is awoken from a dream of Wonderland by a house fire. Although she is able to save herself, her parents are killed and she is left with serious burns and psychological damage. Alice is brought to Rutledge Asylum in a state of catatonia, where several years of treatment fail to rouse her from her coma. When Alice's toy rabbit seems to call to her for help, she mentally retreats to Wonderland, which appears to have been disfigured by her broken mind. Alice meets the Cheshire Cat, who invites her to follow the White Rabbit. She learns from nearby village inhabitants that the Queen of Hearts has put Wonderland in decline and despondency, and that the White Rabbit has promised a champion in Alice. Alice is directed to an old gnome who can aid her pursuit of the White Rabbit by reducing her size. The gnome and Alice infiltrate the Fortress of Doors and enter the school inside, where they create an elixir that shrinks Alice and allows her passage to the Vale of Tears.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: After aiding the Mock Turtle in retrieving his stolen shell from the Duchess, Alice catches up to the White Rabbit, who takes her in the direction of the Caterpillar before he is crushed by the normal-sized Hatter's foot. Alice meets with the Caterpillar, who explains to her that Wonderland's current form is the result of Alice's survivor guilt and advises her to slay the Queen of Hearts to restore Wonderland's integrity. Alice returns to normal size after nibbling from a mushroom guarded by the Voracious Centipede. In the center of a plateau, Alice discovers a piece of the Jabberwock's Eye Staff. The voice of an unseen oracle tells Alice that before the Queen of Hearts can be slain, Alice must first eliminate the Queen's sentinel – the Jabberwock, who can only be killed with the completed Eye Staff. In her search for the remaining pieces of the Eye Staff, Alice defeats the Red King in the chess-themed Looking-Glass Land, as well as the Hatter's minions Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Alice later finds that the Hatter is conducting cruel experiments on the March Hare and Dormouse, and he is keeping the Gryphon captive. After killing the Hatter, Alice frees the Gryphon, who offers to rally forces against the Queen of Hearts and takes Alice to the Land of Fire and Brimstone, the abode of the Jabberwock. Within the remains of Alice's old home, the Jabberwock wracks Alice with guilt over her parents' deaths and overpowers her in a fight until the Gryphon returns and rescues Alice by depriving the Jabberwock of one of his eyes.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: With the Jabberwock's Eye Staff fully assembled, the Gryphon directs Alice to Queensland and takes off with the intention of stopping the Jabberwock himself. On her way to the Queen of Hearts's castle, Alice sees the Gryphon and the Jabberwock engaged in an aerial battle, which ends with the Gryphon mortally wounded. Following Alice's victory against the Jabberwock, the dying Gryphon entrusts Alice with the final battle against the Queen of Hearts. At the entrance to the Queen's Hall, the Cheshire Cat attempts to confess to Alice about the nature of the Queen of Hearts, but he is suddenly executed as he states that "You are two parts of the same..." Alice engages in a fight with a figure puppeteered by the real Queen of Hearts, a giant fleshy tentacled creature who warns Alice that destroying her will destroy them both. Upon Alice's final victory over the Queen of Hearts, Wonderland is restored, and many of the characters who had died in the journey are revived. Her mind repaired, Alice leaves Rutledge Asylum.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: After leaving id Software in 1997, creative director American McGee was inspired to design a game that did not involve space marines, guns, aliens and outer space, which were the common themes in the "Doom" and "Quake" series. McGee's dark and lustrous image of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was primarily inspired by the Crystal Method track "Trip Like I Do", in which he heard the word "wonder". Following this inspiration, McGee and his creative partner R.J. Berg began sketching a narrative and preliminary designs. McGee's goal was to present what he considered to be a natural extension of the setting and characters of the original "Alice" novels. Many of the early experiments with evolving the material of the novel – which included manga, futuristic, cartoon and sexual interpretations – strayed from McGee's intended direction. Sketches of Alice, the Cheshire Cat and the Hatter by Terry Smith and Norm Felchle played a decisive role in establishing the game's visual style and served as a foundation for subsequent concept art. McGee sought to omit shortcomings in products that he had previously designed, such as recreating reality instead of creating a fantastic world, reusing traditional weapons, and unremarkable characters. The game had a budget of $4.5 million.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: While working on the game's plot, McGee considered several approaches to Alice's return to Wonderland, one of which involved a modern-day Alice murdering her abusive stepfather in reality while journeying through Wonderland, which was rejected by EA. Another approach involved the projection of Alice's parents and acquaintances onto the characters of Wonderland and Alice investigating the cause of her father's death. After discarding this concept as too complicated, McGee ultimately aimed for "the simplest story that told the most". Aside from the reappearance of characters and locations mentioned in the novels, no references to the novels' plots are made in the game, as McGee did not intend for the game to be a continuation or competing version of Carroll's work. The development team solely used the original novels as reference material, ignoring film adaptations and other derivative works.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: The game's title, which includes McGee's name, was chosen at EA's insistence, primarily for the ease of registering and protecting a new trademark. McGee admitted that he did not support the title, as he opined that it put the rest of the development team in the background. "American McGee's Alice" is McGee's debut work as a lead game designer.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: EA licensed Ritual Entertainment's "" engine, which is in turn a modified "Quake III Arena" engine. The most notable changes in the engine include the use of the Tiki model system, which enables the engine to use skeletal animation among other things, the Babble dialog system which enables lip synching of audio with character animations, dynamic music system, scriptable camera, particle system and extended shader support. The changes implemented to the engine for "Alice" remained minimal however. The game's .bsp files even retain "F.A.K.K.²"s headers, albeit sporting a different version number.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: An early version of the game featured the ability to summon the Cheshire Cat to aid the player in battle. Though this feature was removed from the final product, beta screenshots of this version do exist online. In the final product, the player can press a button to summon the Cheshire Cat at any time, though he merely provides cryptic advice on the current situation and does nothing to aid Alice if she is being attacked. An "Alice" port for the then-unreleased PlayStation 2 was also in development but was later cancelled, which caused Rogue Entertainment to shut down, another decision which angered American McGee and resulted him leaving EA in frustration.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: The game's box art was altered after release to show Alice holding the Ice Wand instead of the Vorpal Blade and to reduce the skeletal character of the Cheshire Cat's anatomy. EA cited complaints from various consumer groups as its reason for altering the original art, though McGee stated the alteration was made due to internal concerns at EA.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: "Alice" was EA's first M-rated game, a rating which McGee fought to obtain, because he did not want an "Alice" product to be sold at Christmas time, since parents could be confused, thinking that the game was intended to be a gift for children. However, in a 2009 interview, McGee expressed regret for his decision and said that the violence in the game did not warrant an M-rating; he felt that consumers should buy products responsibly after referring to the recommendations of the ESRB.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: All of the music created for the official "American McGee's Alice" soundtrack was written and performed by Chris Vrenna with the help of guitarist Mark Blasquez and singer Jessicka. Most of the sounds he used were created using toy instruments and percussion, music boxes (in a short documentary about the making of the game that appeared on TechTV, the music box used appears to be an antique Fisher-Price music box pocket radio), clocks, doors, and sampled female voices were manipulated into nightmarish soundscapes, including instances of them laughing maniacally, screaming, crying, and singing in an eerie, childlike way.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: The music lends an eerie and horrifying feeling to the world Alice is in. The Pale Realm theme, as well as the track "I'm Not Edible", features the melody of the chorus of a popular children's song, "My Grandfather's Clock". In addition, there are many instances of the ticking and chiming of clocks being used as a musical accompaniment.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: Marilyn Manson was originally involved scoring the music for the game. His composition has been described by American McGee as "very cool" and having "a very beautiful Beatles-in-their-harpsichord-and-Hookah-pipe-days-sound to it." Manson's contributions persisted into the final product, notably the influence of alchemy and the character of the Mad Hatter whose adaptation was somewhat influenced by him; for a time Manson was considered for the voice of the Hatter. Manson has indicated that the same music may be used in his forthcoming film "".


title: American McGee's Alice

text: American McGee's Alice Original Music Score was released on October 16, 2001 by Six Degrees Records. It features all twenty original compositions by former Nine Inch Nails live drummer and studio collaborator Chris Vrenna with vocals done by Jessicka Addams of Jack Off Jill and Scarling. It includes a previously unreleased theme as well as a remix of "Flying on the Wings of Steam".


title: American McGee's Alice

text: In the United States, "American McGee's Alice" sold 360,000 units by August 2006. As of September 2017, the game has sold 1.5 million copies. At the time, this led "Edge" to declare it the country's 47th-best-selling computer game released since January 2000.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: The game was ultimately released on December 5, 2000, receiving praise for its visuals; the graphics were very elaborate for their time. Many levels depict a world of chaos and wonder, some reminiscent of the inside of an asylum or a madhouse, visually linking Wonderland to Alice's reality. The exterior views of Wonderland show the Queen of Hearts' tentacles dipping out of buildings and mountain sides, especially in Queensland. "Alice" received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. GameSpot said, "While you'll undoubtedly enjoy the imaginative artwork, you might end up disappointed with just how straightforward the underlying game really is."


title: American McGee's Alice

text: In her article "Wonderland's become quite strange: From Lewis Carroll's "Alice" to "American McGee's Alice"", literary critic Cathlena Martin argues that the game "provides a reinterpreted version of Alice and the whole of wonderland that may have some players questioning which aspects are from Carroll and which are from McGee, thus potentially leading to a rereading of Carroll through the darker lens of McGee's Alice. This reinterpretation of Alice shows the versatility and mutability of the story across time and discourse." Martin also notes that the game is successful largely in part to the narrative structure of Carroll's tales, which are built around games - cards and chess - themselves.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: Blake Fischer reviewed the PC version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it four stars out of five, and stated that ""Alice" is an incredibly beautiful and well-designed shooter. If you're looking for more, you may pass, but otherwise it's a game you won't want to miss."


title: American McGee's Alice

text: A film adaptation of "American McGee's Alice" was planned prior to the game's release. Scott Faye, a spokesman for Dimension Films and an old acquaintance of McGee, visited EA to negotiate an adaptation of an EA product. Faye and other Dimension Films representatives were shown gameplay footage of "Alice" and were impressed by its visuals. Later, Miramax head Bob Weinstein was shown the game's trailer, after which he immediately (and without waiting for the opinion of the board of directors) supported the production of a film adaptation. On July 5, 2000, FGN Online published an exclusive piece claiming that EA had signed an agreement with Miramax to create a film based on the game. According to the publisher's source, American McGee would be involved in the film's production, potentially as a creative director or co-producer.


title: American McGee's Alice

text: On December 7, 2000, McGee formally announced the film adaptation, which had been entrusted with Collision Entertainment, a subsidiary of Dimension Films, after ten months of negotiations. Wes Craven and John August were attached as director and screenwriter, with McGee co-producing the film alongside Collision Entertainment, and Abandon Entertainment acting as international distributor. No actors had yet been signed on, but Natalie Portman was rumored to have expressed interest. Milla Jovovich and Christina Ricci were also rumored to be attached. In September 2001, August explained that he had turned in a script treatment for "Alice" and was not attached to develop fuller drafts for the film adaptation.