Laptop Magazine has awarded Apple the top prize in its Best Brands feature for the fourth year in a row, placing first in five of the eight categories it measures. In addition, the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display took honors as the magazine’s top notebook of 2012, with editors praising the screen, performance, battery life, and design. Software and tech support were also highlighted. “Apple continues to epitomize the best of the best,” say the magazine’s editors. Apple announced that iTunes U has reached a new milestone — over one billion content downloads. iTunes U features the world’s largest online catalog of free educational content from top schools and prominent libraries, museums, and organizations. Educators are using this content to create courses that include lectures, assignments, books, quizzes, and more for iOS users around the world. “It’s inspiring to see what educators and students of all types are doing with iTunes U,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “With the incredible content offered on iTunes U, students can learn like never before ― there are now iTunes U courses with more than 250,000 students enrolled in them, which is a phenomenal shift in the way we teach and learn.” In its annual rankings, Fortune magazine has named Apple the world’s most admired company for the sixth year in a row. Fortune calls Apple “a financial juggernaut,” citing Apple’s $13 billion in net income last quarter — earnings that made it the most profitable company in the world during that period. The magazine also applauds Apple’s “fanatical customer base” and the unprecedented success of the iPhone and iPad product lines. The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, made the blunt comments at a meeting with a personal envoy of President Kim Jong-un of North Korea.     The cover of the January 28 issue of The New Yorker features work by Jorge Colombo, an artist who creates his pieces exclusively on the iPad. He started out in 2009 working on the iPhone, but now enjoys the larger format of the iPad. “I became more proficient on the tablet and started using more lines and more detail,” he says. His illustration for The New Yorker, titled “Newsstand,” is the first piece Colombo created on the iPad. In a sign of Wall Street’s resurgent influence in Washington, bank lobbyists are aiding lawmakers in preparing legislation that softens financial regulations.     WASHINGTON—Standing before members of the White House Press Corps Wednesday afternoon as aides lowered a bunch of grapes into his mouth, President Obama encouraged everyone gathered in the West Wing briefing room to abandon their inhibitions and rev... The Boy Scouts of America voted to allow openly gay youths as members, while continuing its policy of excluding openly gay adult leaders.     Stocks regained ground in New York after global investors were rattled by signs of a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing and a potential easing of central bank support for the economy.     Apple is making the MacBook Pro with Retina display faster and more affordable with updated processors and lower starting prices. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now starts at $1,499 for 128GB of flash, and $1,699 for a new 2.6GHz processor and 256GB of flash. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now features a faster 2.4GHz quad-core processor, and the top-of-the-line 15-inch notebook comes with a new 2.7GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory. Apple also announced that the 13-inch MacBook Air with 256GB of flash has a new lower price of $1,399. The new models are available starting today through the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Resellers. MIAMI—During Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, players on the Miami Heat confirmed Wednesday that they were wholly unprepared for the aggressive brand of basketball played by the chainsaw-wielding members of the Indiana Pacers squad. In the town where George Orwell wrote his first novel, “Burmese Days,” a group of locals are encouraging the authorities to restore his house and its unkempt garden.     President Obama urged them to follow an “inner compass” and to “do what’s right, even when it’s unpopular.”     SEATTLE—Citing “subtle notes of ethambutol and clindamycin,” longtime McDonald’s customer Chris Hingle reported Thursday that he could discern from the taste of his McChicken sandwich a definite change in the antibiotics the fast f... The Heat’s Chris Andersen is no attention seeker, but his shooting in Game 1 against the Pacers was impossible to miss.     In the breeding ground of Oklahoma tornadoes, people prepare for the season with the care that the defensive coordinator for their Sooners prepares for the inevitable autumn.     The Boy Scouts of America voted during their annual meeting yesterday to allow the admittance of openly gay youths into the scouting program, while maintaining the organization’s ban on homosexual adults as scout leaders. Across the United States, teachers are using iPad and other tablets to reinvent the presentation and management of educational material. According to a report in Wired magazine, “tablets’ simplicity, ease of use and the massive range of academically minded applications available are drawing teachers and educational technologists to the platform in droves.” iPad is leading this charge, as “the most popular tablet among educators,” and “Apple’s iTunes U is one tool making iPad-based course integration easier by helping teachers create and curate a wholly digital curriculum.” DES MOINES, IA—With complaints about everything from “raggedy prayer mats” to “the grimiest ablution fountain ever,” local Muslims have slammed the al-Wali Mosque on 14th Street as “the worst of the worst,” giving... 9 Photos Of Jennifer Lawrence That Will Make You Reassess The Scope Of The 1986 Vienna Convention On The Law Of Treaties Between States And International Organizations Three people were injured after the failure of an Interstate 5 bridge north of Seattle dumped vehicles into the Skagit River, the authorities said.