Nokia's timing couldn't have been any better when the revised and enhanced U.S. version of its flagship N95 smartphone (the N95-3) went on sale last week—just days after the iPhone's 1.1.1 firmware update officially shut down third-party apps and rendered useless many iPhones that had been unlocked.

The call comes in from the control room. Stanford University's particle accelerator—one of the largest machines on Earth—has been shut down because of a failed magnet. This is bad news for the scientists I have traveled across the continent to see: Their experiment was designed to run 24 hours a day and the disruption will cost them reams of precious data. But me, I'm thrilled. Normally, the innards of the radiation-spewing accelerator are off-limits. But idle, it poses no danger.