In a now-classic commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs dispensed this advice about life and death:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.And yet death is the destination we all share.No one has ever escaped it.And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.

Stanford has posted the whole speech and a video of the remarks. Watch the full speech below.

Related stories:

More technology coverage from The Post

Steve Jobs and the idea of letting go

Apple facing challenges without its lead visionary

Whether you were bitten by the Apple bug decades ago, or are a recent convert, we want to know: What was your first Apple product? Don’t see it in the poll below? Tell us in the comments.

Related stories:

More technology coverage from The Post

Steve Jobs dies; Apple co-founder was 56

Steve Jobs’s death leaves Apple facing challenges without its lead visionary

Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller stands before a photo of the iPhone 4S at Tuesday’s announcement in Cupertino, Calif. (Kevork Djansezian - GETTY IMAGES) Apple chief executive Tim Cook just unveiled a new version of the company’s popular smartphone that he said includes faster downloads, longer battery life and an improved antenna. The iPhone 4S also features a new voice-activated personal assistant called SIRI and an 8 megapixel camera.

Prices are $199-$399 in 16, 32 and 64 GB.

Are the upgrades and new features enough to make you shell out for the updated smartphone? Tell us in the comments section, and take the poll below.

Related stories:

Apple unveils iPhone 4S

First major event in years without Jobs presiding

Twitter users give their takes

It was less than a week ago that Apple finally got a serious challenge in the tablet computing industry from Amazon when it announced the release of the Kindle Fire.

Now, Apple is releasing the next iteration of its popular smartphone, a device that is surely aimed at keeping the Cupertino, Calif.,-based company a major player in the smartphone arena, despite recent reports that it is losing market share to devices running on Google’s Android software.

Dale Courville uses the RIM PlayBook in Toronto. (Mark Blinch - Reuters) Research in Motion has stood by its tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, denying an analyst report that the company is halting production of the seven-inch slate.

Best Buy, Staples and Office Depot have all slashed the price of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook, taking the tablet’s price as low as $299.99 for the 16 GB version.

Barron’s reported that chip analyst John Vinh of Collins Stewart wrote in an analyst note that the company had “stopped production of its PlayBook” and was seriously considering following HP out of the tablet market.

In a statement, a company spokeswoman said, “RIM doesn’t typically comment on rumors, but any suggestion that the BlackBerry PlayBook is being discontinued is pure fiction. RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market.”

RIM shipped only 200,000 of the devices last quarter. The PlayBook has been mentioned as one of the devices that will be hardest hit by Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which was made by the same hardware company — Quanta — as the PlayBook, looks almost exactly like the RIM tablet and is still $100 cheaper than PlayBook’s lowest the discounted price.

Related stories:

More technology coverage from The Post

BlackBerry PlayBook shipped 200,000 units last quarter

Ideas@Innovations: Amazon, Facebook and the evolution of privacy

Google Inc. signage is displayed at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., on Monday, April 4, 2011. Photographer: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg (Tony Avelar - BLOOMBERG) How many people are on your site at this very second? Google has launched a new tool that will make that easy to figure out on the fly.

Google has launched a real-time analytics tool for the Web, the company announced in a Thursday blog post. The new tool will make it easy for Web site owners to see what content their audience is clicking on and use the data accordingly.

Web site administrators have been clamoring for the company to add in this functionality; Google’s old toolset delivered traffic results with a few hours’ delay. Now, for example, they’ll be able to see how their traffic behaves when they promote content on social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook immediately, and adjust their Web strategies accordingly.

The company has also launched a new, premium tier of its analytics toolkit for those who want more power and more data. The company did not reveal what the price of the new service is, but said it will be available for users in the U.S., Canada and Britain.

Related stories:

More technology coverage from The Post

Happy 13th birthday, Google!

Google Plus, now for everyone

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the Kindle Touch, the company's next generation e-reader, at an event in New York. Staples and Best Buy will carry Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet in stores in time for the holiday season, the retailers announced close on the heels of Amazon’s main event.

The Fire and the new Kindle Touch will hit Staples sometime in November, according to a Staples release.A spokeswoman said that the retail outlet hasn’t set a date for when the tablet will be on store shelves. Pre-ordered Kindle Fires will ship from Amazon.com on Nov. 15.

As for the rest of the Kindle family, Staples will offer the $79 Kindle on Oct. 8, and the current Kindle for $99.99 starting Thursday.

Best Buy is taking pre-orders for all the new Kindles starting Thursday, Sept. 29, and they will be in stores for the holidays, the company said.

The Kindle Fire, Amazon’s new 7-inch tablet, will eventually be sold everywhere that the Kindle e-reader is sold, Amazon execs said Wednesday.

Related stories:

More technology from The Post

Kindle Fire a hit with analysts

Amazon Kindle Fire tablet: First impressions

The Fire will have access to all Amazon content. (Getty Images)Amazon made a huge announcement Wednesday — four new devices including the Kindle Fire, an Android tablet and a new Web browser that takes a whole different approach to the mobile Web.

The big shocker of the day was Amazon’s pricing: the cheapest Kindle now starts at $79, and the new Kindle Touch (as long as you tolerate ads) costs $99 for a WiFi version and $149 for a Kindle that will hook into the 3G network.

Pre-orders for the new Kindles are already live; they will ship on Nov. 21.

And then there’s the Fire. Before Amazon’s event, people had been hoping against hope that the Fire would come in under $300, maybe to $250. When Bezos announced that the Fire would be $199, there was an audible gasp from the crowd. Compared to the $499 (and up) iPad or even the $249 Nook Color from Barnes and Noble, the Fire’s unbelievably cheap.

And, so far, it seems like a great value. No, it’s not going to kill the iPad, but it will set up a rivalry between Apple and Amazon, since the Fire gives users a fairly good and cheap device through which they can access all of Amazon’s content.

The tablet is also great for Web browsing, thanks to Amazon Silk, a new, Fire-only browser that will tackle slow Web browsing speeds for mobile computing by using the cloud to take over some of the workload. Amazon Silk "will seem like a traditional browser, just a lot faster," according to a company video.

Early consumer reactions to the announcement were favorable, with most saying that the low price point had them at least considering the Fire. Several Twitter users said that the low prices would encourage them to buy more than one device for themselves or family members.

The bottom line, however, is that the Fire offers a lot for very little money. Or, as Jeff Bezos said a few times at the event, “premium products at non-premium prices.”

You can already pre-order the Kindle Fire; it will ship on Nov. 15.

Related coverage:

More technology coverage from The Post

Amazon blazes into computing with new Fire tablet

How does Amazon Kindle Fire stack up against competition?

The Toshiba Thrive.Toshiba has tried to carve a niche for itself in the tablet market with its 10-inch Thrive. The slate, while not the sleekest or most attractive on the market, can’t be beat when it comes to ports, offering a full-sized USB port, HDMI port and SD card slot, as well as a mini-USB port.

Now the company has released a smaller version of the Thrive, running Android 3.2, which has sacrificed some of that versatility for mobility. But in a hands-on with the smaller tablet, it was clear that Toshiba has taken pains not to skimp on the overall experience.

It still has more ports than the competition, with mini versions of the USB port and micro versions of the HDMI port and SD card slot. The 7-inch screen also packs in a 1280x800 display, making videos bright and images crisp. The tablet was fast, too, thanks to its Tegra 2 processor.

The Thrive 7-inch is also packing two cameras, with a 2MP front-facing camera and a 5MP rear-facing camera with an LED flash. Like the 10-inch version, the tablet comes in 16GB or 32GB models, but unlike its predecessor doesn’t offer an 8GB model or the ability to change the battery or the backplate. Target battery life for the device is six hours.

I’m generally a fan of the smaller tablet. It’s easy to slip into a purse or large pocket and is more comfortable to hold for long periods of time. The Thrive is no different, weighing in at just under a pound.

Its gyroscope also gives it the potential to be a fairly decent portable gaming device — at least, based on by the few minutes I spent playing a racing game on it.

The tablet will be available in December, but Toshiba hasn’t decided the all-important price point for its latest device. Right now, it looks to be a slick little tablet, but with Amazon’s new Kindle Fire announced Wednesday and Samsung’s smaller Galaxy Tab on the way, Toshiba will have to price its tablet aggressively to stay competitive.

Related stories:

More technology coverage from The Post

Toshiba Thrive set for Best Buy launch

Toshiba Thrive has a sleeping bug

Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos shows off Amazon’s new tablet computer. (AP Photo) The tech world is abuzz over the latest entry to the increasingly crowded tablet market: Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

Below, we’ve rounded up some of the conversation on Twitter about the device and whether it can offer a legitimate challenge to Apple’s popular iPad.

Will you buy Amazon’s new gadget? Which features do you find most appealing or unappealing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter using the hashtag #Fire.

Related content:

Is the Kindle Fire a threat to the iPad?

In a streaming world, at-home gadgets multiply

Photos: Tablet wars intensify