Touch Press, the digital publishing company founded by Stephen Wolfram, Theodore Gray, and Max Whitby, continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in the world of ebooks. A big part of the company's success is due to its use of Mathematica. Touch Press developers have used Mathematica in the production of nearly all of its highly popular titles, including The Elements, Solar System, and its latest title, March of the Dinosaurs. At the Wolfram Technology Conference 2011, Gray gave an inside look at the Mathematica tools used in the company's current and future ebooks and described why Mathematica makes Touch Press perfectly positioned to redefine the future of publishing.

The Mathematica One-Liner Competition at last year's Wolfram Technology Conference was such a popular success that we did it again this year. As readers of this blog may recall, last year's winning entry, submitted by Stephan Leibbrandt, was a complete, animated simulation of particles coalescing under gravitational and repulsive forces. This year's winner takes advantage of the integration of Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha that debuted in Version 8. The rules were the same this year as last: produce the most stunning output you can with 140 or fewer input characters, typeset 2D expressions are allowed, and white space doesn't count. The entries were once again all over the place, from anagrams and fractals to abstract graphics and astronomical charts. Eighteen participants submitted 33 one-liner entries. Five of those merited Honorable Mentions. One got a Dishonorable Mention. And of course, prizes went to Third, Second, First-and-a-Half, and First Places.

At the recent Wolfram Technology Conference 2011, Stephen Wolfram presented the first annual Wolfram Innovator Awards to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to their fields through the innovative use of Wolfram technologies. This year's winners were nominated by Wolfram employees and selected by a panel of Wolfram technology experts.

The very first Wolfram Mathematica Virtual Conference was a great success! Held in two sessions at different times to accommodate global attendees, this free event included 25 talks with Q&A and access to virtual networking. The conference started with Stephen Wolfram's keynote speech, which provided insights into the background and vision of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the new Computable Document Format (CDF).

Only four weeks to go until the Wolfram Technology Conference 2011 in Champaign, Illinois, and in order to help you prepare, the full conference schedule is now available online—fully interactive and customizable. As of this year, you can create your schedule, network with fellow attendees, arrange meetings with Wolfram staff and other participants, and rate talks and share comments throughout the conference.

Only 10 more weeks to go until the Wolfram Technology Conference 2011, and we have just added details for nearly 50 talks and interactive sessions to the conference website. We will cover a broad array of topics across mathematics and statistics; finance, business, and social sciences; education; software development; science and engineering; electronic publishing; visualization; and more! Presentation titles and abstracts are being added every day! See our current list of talks and workshops here.

Things are really moving fast at Wolfram these days. Mathematica 8 introduced 500 new functions and 7 new or extended application areas, including the revolutionary free-form input, Wolfram|Alpha integration, and a direct way to create our groundbreaking Computable Document Format (CDF), which was officially released to the public in late July. To help keep current users and those who are interested in Wolfram technology up to date, we will be hosting a free half-day Wolfram Mathematica Virtual Conference. With our global audience in mind, we are offering this event on two separate days in two different time zones: Monday, September 26, 2011:Noon–4:15pm Eastern Daylight Time Tuesday, September 27, 2011:Noon–4:15pm Central European Summer Time This virtual event is packed with tips, tricks, and techniques from Wolfram developers and Mathematica experts and will help you get the most out of Mathematica—regardless of your discipline or familiarity with Wolfram technologies.