Albert Einstein, the genius physicist whose theories changed our ideas of how the universe works, died 55 years ago, on April 18, 1955, of heart failure. He was 76. His funeral and cremation were intensely private affairs, and only one photographer managed to capture the events of that extraordinary day: LIFE magazine's Ralph Morse. Armed with his camera and a case of scotch -- to open doors and loosen tongues -- Morse compiled a quietly intense record of an icon's passing. But aside from one now-famous image (above), the pictures Morse took that day were never published. At the request of Einstein's son, who asked that the family's privacy be respected while they mourned, LIFE decided not to run the full story, and for 55 years Morse's photographs lay unseen and forgotten. Pictured: Ralph Morse's photograph of Einstein's office in Princeton, taken hours after Einstein's death and captured exactly as the Nobel Prize-winner had left it.

It's from a slideshow of photos taken at the time of Einstein's death but never published before last week. I'm telling you it is if you can convince yourself that the notes on the blackboard hold the key to time travel.

Touch Gesture Reference Guide is a unique set of resources for software designers and developers working on touch-based user interfaces. contains:

1. an overview of the core gestures used for most touch commands.
2. how to utilize these gestures to support major user actions.
3. visual representations of each gesture to use in design documentation and deliverables.
4. an outline of how popular software platforms support core touch gestures.

The guide was conceived of, researched, illustrated, and designed by: Craig Villamor, Dan Willis, Luke Wroblewski and Jennifer Rhim (document design).

Download the full PDF here.

As ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano continued to keep European airspace shut down over the weekend, affecting millions of travelers around the world, some government agencies and airlines clashed over the flight bans. Some restricted airspace is now beginning to open up and some limited flights are being allowed now as airlines are pushing for the ability to judge safety conditions for themselves. The volcano continues to rumble and hurl ash skyward, if at a slightly diminished rate now, as the dispersing ash plume has dropped closer to the ground, and the World Health Organization has issued a health warning to Europeans with respiratory conditions. Collected here are some images from Iceland over the past few days.

PHOTO: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Boston.com has an amazing collection of photos of Iceland's erupting volcano.

Update: More incredible iceland volcano pictures on NatGeo and NASA.

Today Apple announced details about the upcoming release of iPhone OS 4.0. We’ve heard a lot of rumors about just what it will include. Now it's coming and here are all the things you need to know about iPhone OS 4.0 (organized via techcocktail)

Multitasking - Finally! the new iPhone OS 4.0 will the ability for 7 multitasking services (APIs) on the iPhone. Some of these include:

• Background audio
• VoIP
• Background location
• Push notifications
• Local notifications
• Task completion

Folders - Users will be able to add folders to your home screen. Just drag two apps together and an folder is created with intelligent naming. Users will also be able to change their wallpaper background with ease.

Enhanced Email - The new mail offering will create a unified inbox pulling together all your account into one account. You can also now have multiple exchange accounts. Messages will be organized by thread which sounds very similar to Gmail.

iBooks - Just like the iPad the new iPhone OS will offer iBook with a bookstore where if you buy once you can read the book anywhere. Sync pages and bookmarks between devices. Users also get a free copy of Winnie the Pooh.

Enterprise features - The new OS will offer improved data protection, including data protection within third party apps as well as mobile device management which means that up until now companies would have to plug into iTunes to distribute apps but with the new OS they will be able to do it wireleslly from their own servers.

Game Center - Allows games players to challenge each other interactively and offers a leaderboard to track game play.

iAd - Apple announces the launch of a mobile advertising platform! The platform could serve 1 Billion ad impressions a day. Apple wants to offer amazing advertising experiences leveraging HTML 5. Apple will host and sell the ads and give 60% of the revenue to developers. This could be huge for Apple Developers of free applications. Ads will have access to many of the same Apple APIs as apps (i.e. like location and some level of accelerometer access, etc).

These “tentpoles” as Jobs called them, are going to be released to developers today and to iPhone users later this summer. and they will run completely on iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd generation models, won’t run completely on 3G and iPod Touch 2nd gen models. More than 100 user features are being added and developers will have access to more than 1500 new APIs. As for the iPad, iPhone 4.0 OS is coming to the iPad this Fall.