Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts

Saturday 7 January 2017

Synthetic Diamonds Could One Day Replace GPS and Make Driverless Cars a Reality


Synthetic Diamonds
It is believed by numerous scientists that lab grown diamonds that are red in colour and contain an atomic defect could possibly one day replace the GPS system owing to its exceptional magnetic waves. A tech company that is based out of Oxfordshire has a team at Element Six which is researching on the extraordinary properties of the crystals that come with the ‘nitrogen vacancy defect’ which is a gap in the atomic structure at the centre (heart) of the diamond.

It is at room temperature that these diamonds have portrayed tremendous sensitivity to magnetic waves and at the moment are able to perceive a vehicle that is passing 300 metres away. However there is still hope that these diamonds would one day be accustomed to being able to not only sense other vehicles but also its very own location on the surface of the planet with the aid of the reading of the magnetic waves transmitted by the sun.

In the case of such an occurrence, the result would be revolutionary as this would completely put an end to the need of GPS satellites which serves the sole purpose of sending signals back to planet earth to tell cars and other vehicles their precise location at any given time. However if the diamond technology is successful, driverless cars could also become a reality as with the presence of the diamond, vehicles would be able to move around each other safely even in a case of it being autonomous.

"In the event that you have a gadget that is equipped for detecting the encompassing attractive fields, it additionally knows where it is," clarified important research researcher Richard Bodkin. "So once you can tackle those innovations into a solitary gadget, there is no motivation behind why driverless vehicles can't be figured it out.

" However such an improvement could be decades away, the researchers cautioned, however it would be revolutionary. Their work is centred on enhancing the attractive affectability of engineered precious stones, which could likewise be utilized to supplant MRI sensors. This could bring about a head protector or handheld scanner that would test a patient's body without putting them inside a MRI tube.

Component Six essentially concentrates on creating precious stone edged cutting instruments for use in substantial industry, for example, boring tools for oil and gas organizations. It is lion's share claimed by precious stone mining monster De Beers.

The organization is likewise taking a gander at how to utilize engineered precious stones in quantum figuring, an exceedingly hypothetical field that guarantees computational power far in abundance of today's computerized machines.

Friday 6 January 2017

Mono-Live Gadget Review: Gear S3 Frontier

 
Gear S3 Frontier
After the success of galaxy gear S2, the Samsung Company has again released a smart watch. Yes it is the all new Samsung Galaxy Gear S3. Samsung has offered two designs for the all new Gear S3, especially for their beloved customers. So, the two designs are the outdoor type and classic type. The outdoor type is being tested by the official and the classic type is the luxuries one. There may be difference between both the smart watches but also both runs on Samsung’s own operating system, Tizen. And also the rotating bezel is welcomed among all the users again.

So let’s take a look at its design. As I said before the watch is available in two different designs -- Frontier and the classic. As we are going to talk about Gear S3 doesn’t bother about the Classic one. As we all know that classic means Luxury there is no matter in talking about what we know already.

Well. The watch is quiet bold and has a king sized design. If you are a person who wears dainty, thin strap watches then this watch is not for you. The S3 looks like as if it is built to survive SAS mission with rugged metal design. Therefore, the designing does not satisfy most of the users. Because of its thick strap, no color option and also it does not have many designs as Apple smart watch has.

Then about the rotating bezel. Even though there are many disadvantages about the design. All the users and reviewers are pleased with the comeback of the rotating bezel. Yes this was first come up in S2 and now it is in Gear S3 Frontier . It is an amazing way of accessing data on this small screen. You can check your mail, fitness data, messages and a lot more by just rotating the bezel. It is so easy to access the watch with the help of this bezel.

So, now about the screen. As I said before that the screen is big. With this you can imagine that it is bigger than the Apple Smart watch. But surprisingly Gear S3 Frontier’s the screen is only an inch bigger than the Apple watch. In AOD screen the contents are looking good with crisp, clear and full packed color. You may think, what I will do if there is any annoying scratches on my brand new watch. Don’t worry; the Gear S3 Frontier  is covered with Gorilla Glass which will prevent your watch from those scratches.

Let’s discuss about the new features that is introduced in the all new Gear S3 Frontier . Samsung has introduced many ways for you to interact with your friends and family from anywhere, anytime, with anyone. The most noticeable feature is you can respond the message you receive by your voice or by writing with your finger on the screen. So, the watch has voice recognizer and in built speaker. You can also view all your social media networks like Twitter, Face book, Instagram, Whatsapp, Hike, Messenger, Etc in your watch. You can also use this watch as a music player if you need.

Last but not the least; we shall take a quick look at Gear S3 Frontier ’s battery life. As we all know battery life is the main problem that is faced by all the smart watch users. Usually the battery of any smart watch will run low at the end of an average day. So, Samsung has tried its level best to solve this problem. By adding 380 mAH battery to the watch which makes the last longer than other smart watches.

Taxi Sharing Could End Traffic Jams


Taxi Sharing
It is highly believed and studies are there to support it that the concept of taxi sharing, if applied could result in a reduction of traffic which is a major concern of today’s day and age. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have studies done has that project statistics that taxi sharing could result in a massive 75 percent decline in traffic that is present currently on the roads.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) concentrate found that an armada of 3,000 four-traveler cabs could do an indistinguishable employment from the present armada of 13,000 yellow taxis in New York City. In any case, it would imply that individuals would need to travel with people they are not familiar with, in other words strangers which could not be appreciated by all. This review has been drawn together after gathering information from a massive 3 million taxi rides.

Most scholarly individuals suggest that among the many urban situations faced, congestion is one of major concern and it needs to be taken into control and seem to be in aid on the taxi sharing concept. Studies have proven that universally individuals squander 7 billion hours every year sitting in traffic, which is indeed a lot of time and the impacts on nature are additionally extreme - with cars in movement smoldering an additional 3 billion gallons of fuel.
Taxi Sharing


"Rather than transporting individuals each one in turn, drivers could transport two to four individuals immediately, bringing about less outings, in less time, to make a similar measure of cash," composes Prof Daniela Rus from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT's) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

The group built up a calculation that could reroute cars in light of real time requests. "A framework like this could permit drivers to work shorter shifts, while additionally resulting in lesser of traffic, cleaner air and shorter less unpleasant traveling as there will be much lesser traffic on the roads," said Prof Rus which would clearly be beneficial to all if applied and accepted. Such a framework would be especially suited to autonomous cars, she included.

Legal action

Ride-sharing plans are developing in prevalence, with entrenched firms, for example, Uber and Lyft driving the way. As indicated by Lyft, half of rides taken in San Francisco in 2015 were shared. There are likewise heaps of new choices on the scene, for example, DriveNow, a car sharing administration worked by BMW, which has around 200,000 clients in Berlin, or a pilot from Toyota that was as of late propelled in Dublin.

However it is not necessary that all these ventures are a success, for example, Car2Go as of late declared that it was ceasing administrations in Stockholm, a city quick to advance option methods of transport and cut contamination, because of absence of interest.

Wednesday 4 January 2017

Sony Launching a New Slim PS4 Bundle With Two Call of Duty Games


Call of Duty
Virtual Reality or VR as we know it, is the newest form of reality that Hollywood sci-fi films had promised us and it is finally here. Samsung and Google has taken the leap in the world of mobile VR technology. In the high end tech world HTC Hive and Oculus Rift were the sole representors of the future tech, but not anymore. Sony had revealed the prototype for the ‘Project Morpheus’ as long back as 2014, and now the dream is finally here shaped in the form of Playstation VR headset.

It is designed to be paired easily with Sony PS4 console, which had a seen a whooping demand of 40 million sales worldwide. It requires to be connected with a few wires, switch on the power button on the headset and you are good to step into the virtual world.

The headset is considerably heavy, weighing at 645g but it is designed in a clever way so the weight is distributed proportionately along the head mount. This reduces the claustrophobic feeling along with headache and a neck pain that arises by balancing heavy weight and that too wearing it on your face. Also it is equipped with a re adjustable dial that modifies its dimensions according to your head size and will take approximately 10 seconds to fit you snugly. Hive and Oculus are the heavier counterparts and their clumsy bulk dilate gaming involvement.

Hardcore techies are frowning at the 1080p display that Sony is offering. Playstation-VR is designed to patch up with PS4 as PC and therefore it does not adjust to the screen resolution like Oculus and Hive. Sony engineers explain that low-resolution display is not bound to distract the immersive experience due to the extremely high refresh rate of 120fps and gives a much vibrant and proportionate red,green and blue light emission to the pixels thereby reducing screen door effect. The pixels are much softer and give off an overall vibrant glow which is enough to mask the absence of HD for the time being.Also it comes with a big eye box that doesn’t force the necessity to divert from the game screen to find the sweet focus, reducing performance lag.

Able to support all the games that PS4 console does, gamers are awed at the quality of immersion which had not been experienced before. This however is restricted for children under 12 years.

Playstation VR is selling in the market for a mere $399, the full console and VR costs approximately $700 which is anytime a lot cheaper than counterparts which are quite costly at $1200 tag. A high end VR product coupled with cheap price is making headlines as few shops in Japan and China are running out of their supplies by the end of the day.

Sony CEO sounds hopeful about the future of VR as he plans to expand it’s reach to paradigms of medicine and job training. IT and graphics companies are looking forward to the waves of innovation that will come riding on the success of Playstation VR which has been hailed as the greatest innovation since the advent of television by Time.

The Car Of The Future Will Be Electric, Led By Tesla


Tesla
One of the most predictable outcomes which are sure to happen in the near future is the prevalence of electric cars over petrol and diesel cars. The reasons to that being simple: Electric cars prove to be more efficient than any other cars and also the fact that they are the ultimate multi-fuel cars.

The reasons behind the forthcoming dominance of electric cars


  • The decreased cost: - Let us analyze a small example to emphasize the point we are trying to make. Popular Mechanics in its May, 2006 issue published an article about bio-fuel comparing various technologies in automobile development such as ethanol, methanol, gasoline, Compressed Natural Gas, and even electric cars. Taking a cross-country drive in each of the cars of identical sizes they compared their costs. A drive in a Honda Civic cost them $212, the VolksWagon diesel Golf followed at $230. The cost in an E85 ethanol was $425 and that in a methanol car cost $619. The CNG car looked fascinating at $110 but guess how much the electric car cost, a staggering $60. And remember it wasn’t even an article about electric cars. 
  •  Convertibility: - The best aspect about electricity is that it can be converted from almost any fuel that can be burned. Barring a few inefficient and old power plants, the modern ones have state of the art technologies which enable coal to be gasified and burnt in a very clean and efficient manner. Considering the large amount of coal reserves we have, this is a very helpful thing.
An advanced natural gas generator, known as the H-System Generator has a 60 percent efficiency and can easily burn biogas which is produced from the biomass. An electric car powered in this way has the transportation capacity of four times as much as one which is powered by ethanol made from the same stuff.
People can even put on solar panels on their rooftops which will hence power their electric car and therefore reduce our dependencies on oil to power our cars.

Tesla will be the leader

Tesla, the Silicon Valley disrupter has been successful to show the increased consumer demand for electrically powered cars that are well-designed. A powerful catalyst working in this favor is lithium-ion batteries whose prices are decreasing fast. Mobile computing and its growth has caused immense investment in the area which has further resulted in improving the range of electric cars and decreasing their costs.

Global trends unmistakably hint at the takeoff of electric cars in the international market. In the coming few years, petrol and diesel cars are going to face strong competition from the flurry of electric car launches from Chevy and especially from Tesla. In general, electric motors are much easier to produce and most importantly cheaper. That brings us to the inevitable conclusion that the future of cars will certainly be electric. With Tesla assuring $100 per kWh by the end of 2020, battery costs are sure to decline which means lower prices for electric vehicles.
Vehicle electrification is perhaps the most important change in automobile industry and Tesla the most significant leader.

Wednesday 28 December 2016

Google Confirms Two More Smartwatch Launches, Android Wear 2.0

Smartwatch
Smartwatches have come and gone within just a few years of existence. It might appear to be illogical statement as a number of tech firms are continuously building up their Smartwatch portfolio with each year but on the sales front it has gone down drastically. The last major launch was that of Apple Watch which didn’t much change over the last year’s version. However Google is all set to reimaging the market with launch not one but two different swatches in the first quarter of 2017 and these devices will feature the support for upcoming Android Wear 2.0 OS.

Google to take competitors head-on

Google has confirmed that it will be launching its two new flagship Smartwatches next quarter which will be first of devices to feature next generation Android Wear 2.0 software. At the moment Google is riding at the successful launch and adoption of its Pixel series Smartphones which were loved both by the consumers and critics alike. Pixel devices are giving stiff competition to the Apple iPhone 7 which failed to attract the interest of the consumers due to minor changes in terms of design and features and subsequently failed to get thumbs up from major tech critics and fan forums.

Pixel devices are also reigning supreme in the Android market by bringing challenge right to the Samsung which is reeling from the backlash of its earlier device failure. Moving into the Smartwatch segment is a calculate move by the Google to establish itself as a major player and bring back the public interest the in the wrist based computing devices. Google isn’t developing the Smartwatch on its own rather it has a silent third party at that job.

Bringing consumer attention back to Smartwatch

The launch of Smartwatch was confirmed by none other than Jeff Chang, product manager at Google in an interview with The Verge. Chang has also stated that the new range of Smartwatches from Google is being manufactured by a particular company which has also developed a number of Android Wear devices in the past. This gives a direct wink at the OEMs such as Sony, Motorola and Huawei. Google over the years has been able to forge great relations with a number of hardware partners which has given it insight into the types of consumers and preferences. Jeff further states that Google is stay long in the products category whichever it forays into like a marathon.

Support for Android 2.0 is an added advantage

None of other Android Wear device is set to feature the support for the Android Wear 2.0 when it will be launch next year. Furthermore it is worth noting that Google has not brought any new software iteration for the Android Wear devices since March 2014. Google upcoming ‘Smartwatches’ will feature the latest software, thereby enhancing the features and potential of the devices. The best thing about Android wear 2.0 software is that it will bring support for the new Google Assistant voice controlled service which was first seen in the Pixel and Pixel XL devices.

Monday 26 December 2016

Movable Micro Platform Floats on a Sea of Droplets


The popularity of small consumer electronics and ever growing rise of their shipments has brought the need of bringing ever-evolving advancement in the technologies. The production of electronic chips and other devices rely on the microelectronic mechanical systems or commonly referred as MEMs which are essentially are tiny machines which help in enhancing the abilities of those electronic devices.

A team of researchers at MIT had come up with an innovative way of ensuring that the movable part of the machine doesn’t get in touch with each other. This will ensure the major source of wear, tear and eventually failing of the electronic device. In this new invention a layer of liquid droplets were used to support a tiny yet movable platform which helps floating the droplets at top of it.

The movement of the platform can easily be controlled effectively and it can also be utilized to alter the dimensions of the droplets by raising, lowering as well as tilting the platform. Their finding has been published in Applied Physics Letters and it has been coauthored by MIT team which includes Daniel Preston along with six others.

Micro_Platform


How this new system works? 

In this system the droplets way of interacting with the below them is altered as per the need of the hour and it is governed by a scientific a characteristic which is called contact angle. The contact angle specifically helps in measuring how steep the edge of the droplet when it meets with the surface. The usage of droplets will help in tuning across a whole range of the device by applying variable voltage to the surface.

The research team behind this invention is filled with graduate students from MIT namely Ariel Anders and Yangying Zhu and an undergraduate student by the name DingRan Dai. Their work was extensively supported by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation.

How this droplet platform was created? 

Researchers came with a smart solution to maintain the position of droplets by allowing them to slide around through the treating the underside of the floating platform. Researchers have created the floating surface with small circles of hydrophilic material. But researchers have been able to get the droplets in their place by securely pinning it to the water attracting surface. This ultimately helps in keeping the platform securely.
During the initial testing of this device researchers found that they were able to keep the droplets in the vertical positioning up to the level of 10 microns.

The future application of the droplets

In practical this approach will help in offering simple and cost effective solution to the manufacturers which is great benefit over the existing techniques present in the industry. One of the assistant professors at Centre for Nano Science and Engineering present the Indian Institute of Science named Prosenjit Sen has further elaborated the best thing offered by the droplets is that it offers a degree of vibration isolation which is sorely missed in the solid stages.

Monday 19 December 2016

Deep Spacecraft Will Be Guided by X Ray Pulses from Distant Stars

Spacecraft

China’s First Satellite Guided by X-ray Pulses


China has launched the first satellite in the world which will not be guided from Earth but instead will be guided by the powerful x-ray pulses of distant stars.In order to support the big strategies for deep space exploration, comprising of a manned Lunar mission together with Martian lander, China has launched its first x-ray navigation system in the world.

 The X-ray Pulsar Navigations 1 - XPNAV1 satellite, launched on November 10 aboard a solid-fuelled Long March 11 rocket from the Jiuquan Space Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert, is said to be the first x-ray navigation system in the world that will go in orbit, that will defeat NASA;s Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology –SEXTANT, scheduled to be installed on the ISS somewhere next year.

The navigation system is said to be dependent on x-ray pulsars set up in systems with two stars. Basically a dense neutron star’s strong magnetic field tends to pull in gas from the other star and when the gas influences the neutron star, it generates a strong X-ray hotspot.

Millisecond Pulsars Generate X-ray Pulses at Short Intervals


If the spin axis and the magnetic axis of the neutron star are not aligned, while the neutron star tends to rotate, pulses will be generated as the X-ray hotspots move in and out of the view of the observer. This is a beneficial tool for navigation.

Millisecond pulsars have a tendency to generate x-ray pulses at short intervals which by measuring the time differential from multiple known pulsars, such as GPS utilising pulsars rather than satellites, a spacecraft has the tendency of determining its location in the solar system within 5 km, which is good for deep space. The purpose is to find pulsars which tend to offer pulses at a reliable pace. X-ray pulsars frequently speed up or slow down the regularity of their bursts.

If it goes as intended, the XPNAV1 would accumulate data to build the pulsar x-ray database and would then be capable of using the data to verify its location independently. The 529-pound satellite is said to have two detectors for measuring x-rays generated by pulsars. XPNAV1, over the next five to ten years would build a database of x-rays from 26 pulsars which would measure their frequencies against other electromagnetic action in space.

X-ray Navigation – Superior Precision/Reliability


Moreover it would also measure the accuracy as well as its consistency of pulsar x-rays against the background noise in space without the need to worry about atmospheric interference. It would verify the usability of the data by checking the data to see if the same can predict the location of the satellite without depending on other navigation aids.

The benefit of x-ray navigation comprise of superior precision and reliability and the spacecraft would not need to depend on radio signals which tend to take longer in travelling into deep space and miss signal fidelity. X-ray navigation tends to be much cheaper and the spacecraft would not need large expensive ground based radio antennae for navigations signals.

Besides this the spacecraft would also be more autonomous wherein it would save bandwidth for the transmission of scientific data back to earth. The achievement of XPNAV1 would mean that China has not only been successful in achieving a most important milestone in space technology but has also enabled Chinese talkonauts as well as robotic probes to travel more easily further than orbit.

Friday 16 December 2016

Windows Update Knocks Out Internet Connections


Windows Update
Just a few years back, users used to eagerly wait for the updates which will help them in unlocking the new features on their existing devices or software or programs. However things have changed drastically in the past year because a number of updates and upgrades have resulted in driving people nuts with making some serious affects on the devices as a whole. This has resulted in poor user experience and this ugly trend creeps into Microsoft’s popular operating system called Windows with the latest update.

ISP reports internet connectivity difficulties in European region

A recent update to the Windows OS has brought painful and unwanted internet connectivity issues on a number of devices. This has been widely reported by innumerable internet service providers in European region who has stated that they customers were unable to connect to the internet. This isn’t affecting any particular kind of router box rather its is rampant. On other hand Virgin Media has come with a detailed solution which allows users to connect with the internet and it has been provided to the customers. Microsoft also came into action after this and it issued a guidance to the users in effectively connecting to the internet.

Microsoft comes into action

Microsoft has well noted this development and brought some crucial guidance at dealing with it though it has only affected a certain number of users with Windows 10 OS. At first users are required to restart their system and if it doesn’t help then they can get more detailed alternatives by visiting Microsoft’s website from other device. Microsoft has zeroed out the problem in the system’s inability to connect with the network by automatically picking up addressing system in the broadband routers.

Steps compiled by Virgin Media to get connected with Internet

Here is complete set of guidelines issued by the Virgin Media which will help all the affected users in connecting with the internet in a swift fashion. At first users are requested to restart their system by going to the Start followed by Power and Restart. Once the system is booted up again then try to connect to the internet, if it doesn’t work then you will be required to reset the IP address and here are the necessary steps.

  1.  Click on Start button. 
  2.  Click on Run or press Windows Key along with letter ‘R’ 
  3.  Type ‘CMD’ and press enter 
  4.  A command prompt will appear on the screen. Now type in ‘ipconfig/release’ and press enter. 
  5.  Now users can try to connect with the internet and hopefully this set get them connected.
In case this trick doesn’t work for you then the below mentioned steps which will help in clearing up the DNS settings.

  1.  Click on the Start button 
  2.  Click on the Run or press Windows key along with letter ‘R’ 
  3.  Once again command prompt on the screen. Now type in ‘ipconfig/flushdns’ and press enter. 
  4.  Now hopefully your connection will start working and you will be able to connect with the internet.
Later KB3206632 update was released to fix the fault.

Wednesday 14 December 2016

A Camera without a Lens? Hitachi is on It

Hitachi

Hitachi Camera – Without Lenes


Hitachi has been working on developing cameras which does not seen to have lenses and the company claims that the images taken with the camera would be refocused after they are captured. They have announced the progress of a technology for digital camera which has the potential of capturing images without the use of a lens.

The intention is to make cameras much thinner as well as lighter, suitable for cars and mobile devices which could take minimum space. Another aspect is that of the robots – technology and Hitachi would be providing fewer limitations in placing of the cameras. As to Apple’s claim that eliminating the headphone jack permits bigger batteries as well as other parts to be placed in it. Hitachi states that the camera which utilises lensless tech would be much slimmer and lighter.

The lensless cameras are possible due to a pattern development technique known as `Moiré fringes’. Hitachi intends to utilise these cameras that tend to use this technology by 2018. The company also expects to use lensless photography in automated driving, vehicles as well as robotics.

Fourier Transform


With the help of investigation tech like CCTV, the images of individuals often tend to be blurred owing to low focal ranges. For instance, with Hitachi’s lensless camera tech, the still images would theoretically get adjusted on the fly from a range of depths in identifying individuals clearly.

The sensor has a film placed before it comprising of a pattern of concentric and when an image of the pattern is taken, it tends to cast a shadow due to the light which strikes it, on the sensor. Thereafter the shadow is captured by the sensor and overlaid on another pattern concentric just like the one place before the sensor at the time of the image process.

This tends to develop a moiré effect which is a kind of interference resulted by the two patterns touched. There is a possibility of using these data to reconstruct the concluding image by using the Fourier transform.

Capture Angle/Pattern of Light


Hitachi technology also tends to provide other benefits. In fact when the shutter tends to capture all the information connected to depth, it is capable of changing the point of focus after one has captured an image. The design of the Hitachi camera is unique since it tends to do double duty wherein it not only captures the images without the use of the lens but also captures depth information and focus that image after the fact.

Basically it tends to capture the angle and the pattern of the light which comes in the sensor that enables to change what is in focus after the detail by overlaying a another pattern over the captured shadow during processing.

We already other products which tend to provide the same function, for instance, the Lytro Illum and the difference in this case is the size which is more compact. The small range Xperia tends to have a bigger space. Sony Xperia Z5 Compact on offer from Amazon Marketplace to 369 euro or from Amazon at 419 euro.

Thursday 8 December 2016

AMD Sets Countdown for December Public Hands-On of Zen Processor


AMD
The desktop CPU market is about to be embroiled in a contest between master crafters, Intel and AMD. After almost a decade of ruling the market with dependable reputation, Intel is about to face a challenge from AMD in the form of their latest “Summit Ridge” series that will utilize high performance Zen architecture.

Aimed to tease the public with the potential of its performance, AMD has initiated a countdown that would ultimately reveal some live demos with the Zen architecture by engaging in intensive gaming sessions. This big reveal is supposed to be a web show called “New Horizon”; it will be hosted by George Keeley, a big name in video game journalism and the eminent pro gamer Peter Dager, better known as PPD, of Evil Geniuses fame.

Estimated to be aired on 13th December at 1pm PST or 4pm ET, this reveal is going to be a treat as AMD have themselves confirmed that there will be multiple guests on the show taking their turn to test the Zen extensively and give their take on the newbie. AMD is luring the nerds stating, “If you’re serious about gaming, this is an event you do not want to miss.”

Intel is slated to showcase their latest Kaby Lake desktop processors sometime in January; AMD therefore is preparing their ground to pit their super economical Zen processors against the comparatively higher range of Intel whose last Core i7 6950x processor costs a whopping $1723. “Summit Ridge” is expected to have a highest price of $500 for an ultra fast octa-core processor.

Aside from being economical, it manipulates the use of Simultaneous Multi Threading in the high end octa-cores which is a leap of modification from its previous Bulldozer series which had single threading and low processing capacities. Also there is expected to be a high cache hierarchy. Both these couplings are aimed to correct the drawbacks of older AMD models.

The New Horizon will inaugurate with a modest level quad core to test the gaming potential, which is expected to keep the curiosity burning till the next big reveal on “Summit Ridge” later on in the beginning quarter of 2017, with other technologies hidden up their sleeve.

A lot of curiosity and interest is abuzz about this AMD Zen as this project has been entirely under wraps; the idea had been planted in a small Developer Forum convention event in August. It has been worked on meticulously by AMD to improve the design of Excavator architecture and improve its processing speed by adding more clocks; each clock is supposed to be fed with 40% more instruction than Excavator.

Assuring promises of giveaways, AMD is encouraging viewers to book a spot for the prime show and catch all the action live. An adrenaline fuelled performance on the 13th will probably be a premonition of how the processor industry of the future will turn out, commanding the best from both Intel and AMD.

Mozilla and Tor Release Urgent Update for Firefox 0-Day Under Active Attack


Tor
Mozilla and Tor have introduced browser updates to sum up a Firefox consistence being hampered to identify men who sue the services related to privacy. It is a flaw in terms of security for the immediate release, which is being exploited on Windows. The official of Tor has assured their users that there isn’t any risk currently figured out in their knowledge. They are unable to discover any exploits for Operating System X or Linux as they have implanted several security measures. But still they have insisted the users to go for the update of their Tor Browser as soon as possible.

The Tor browser is said to forged on the Firebox browser which is an open source introduced by the Mozilla foundation. No sooner did the Officials of Mozilla named Daniel Veditz came to know of this problem, he posted on his blog assuring that the issues has been fixed in some currently issued versions of Mozilla Firefox for all the popular users. He further disclosed that the attack code has been discovered who did the exploitation and measures are being taken against it.

The mishap revealed codes when the targets fed malicious JavaScript related to vector graphics. The culprit sent the IP and MAC address of the target to the server, which controlled attacks. The code resembled the technique which investigated network used by law-enforcing agencies, specially that which identified Tor-protected users who seemed to propagate child pornography.

Further similar step was taken in this regard and it was discovered this vulnerability reducing measure was created by FBI or some law-implementing agency. This shows that how restricted government hacking can become a serious threat to the larger web as anyone can use it to attack Firefox users. A different Mozilla security has proved that it can also affect Mozilla’s Thunderbolt e-mail applications and also the extended support version of Firefox used by Tor browsers. It was suggested that this flaw existed in the browser since five years.

The ridiculous load given by the exploit of code-execution is very much similar to that of FBI which it used in 2013 to discover the ones who used trade child pornography via Tor-anonymized website. The source code to the Tor group was absolutely complete, the exploit could be made easily available to lots of people which they manage to use by making slight changes to it.

Other than an update for Firefox an update to NoScript, which is an extension of Firefox in relation to the Top Browser was also released. NoScript is useful, as it does not allow the users to opt for the sites that can and cannot use JavaScript in the browser. Later for privacy reasons the Tor browser installed NoScript in such a manner that permitted all sites to affiliate JavaScript in the browser. Though this point in terms of privacy is still not clear.

It is advisable that the Firefox and Tor users should fix their problems at once. The users are considered to be protected from the attack by keeping the Firefox security to highest level, that may restrict few sights but it is proven safe.

Saturday 3 December 2016

Why Light Bulbs May Be the Next Hacker Target

Smarthome

Smart Light Bulbs – Wireless Fault - Hackers Take Control


Supporters debate that the Internet of Things provides several benefits like energy efficiency, technology convenience that can anticipate what one needs and also reduce congestion on the roads. However, placing a cluster of wirelessly connected devices in one spot could be tempting to hackers and would enable them to spread malicious code via air, just like a flu virus on a plane. Researchers had reported in a recent paper release that they had discovered an error in a wireless technology which is generally included in smart home devices like lights, locks, switches, thermostats and several of the components of the smart home of the future.

According to researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science near Tel Aviv and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, they focused on the Philips Hue smart light bulb and discovered that the wireless fault can permit hackers in taking control of the light bulbs. It may not sound like a great deal. But considering thousands or even hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices in close proximity and the malware that is created by hackers could spread among the devices on compromising with just one of them.

Popular Websites Experience Outages/Interruption


Moreover they would not need to have direct access to the devices to pollute them. The researchers were capable of spreading infection in a network within a building by driving a car 70 metres away. The hackers had briefly denied access to complete chunks of the internet recently, by developing a flood of traffic which had overwhelmed the servers of a US company known as Dynthat assists in handling key components of the internet.

 Pinterest, Twitter, Reddit together with PayPal were down for most part of a day since their domain name provider, Dyn had been compelled to be offline. It had also resulted in popular Australian websites like ANZ, Coles, The Daily telegraph; Ebay, NAB, 9News and many others, to experience outages and interruption. Security experts are of the belief that the hackers discovered the horsepower essential for their attack by gaining control of a range of internet-linked devices.

Password Partially Blamed for Attack


However the hackers did not utilise the system provided in the report that had been released recently. A Chinese wireless camera company had stated that weak passwords on some of its products could be partially blamed for the attack. Although it had not been the first attempt hackers had utilised the Internet of Things to control an attack, the measure of effort against Dyn had been an eye opener to users who had not realized that the impact of internet-linked things joined in daily life would foresee new risks.

A widely respected cryptographer, Adi Shamir who assists pioneer modern encryption methods and is also one of the authors of the report, had commented that `even the best internet defense technologies would not stop such an attack.The new risk is said to come from a little-known radio protocol named ZigBee which had been developed in 1990s.

 ZigBee is a wireless standard which is used extensively in home consumer devices. Though it has been presumed to be secure, it has not been held up for scrutiny of the other safety methods utilised across the internet. The researchers had discovered that the ZigBee standard could be utilised in creating a computer worm to spread the malevolent software in devices which were internet-linked.

Comma.ai Goes Open Source with Self Driving Car Kit


Comma
Self driving car segment is popularly associated with Google and Apple automated car programs. But most of the people doesn’t known that BMW, Tesla and a number of other firms are working on the segment and each are going through a rapid phase of development to come up with their own version of safe and robust self-driving car within the mid next decade. Comma.ai is a lesser known player in the self-driving companies list but it has done a tremendous research and built a very reliable within a few years of its inception.

Comma.ai has announced that it will be coming up with its own software platform and it has future plans of bringing an associated hardware module which will be made available for free download on Github site. The best thing about this startup is that it will release its software platform and hardware module as an open source entity under the MIT license. This will help in development and engineering of self driving more easier and error free than before both for the enthusiasts and manufacturers alike.

Comma.ai is already works on a selected number of cars

Comma.ai’s developed self-driving platform is currently helps in powering the automation utility to just two cars namely the Acura ILX and Honda Civic. In order to bring the automated driving functionality to these cars this particular self-driving platform has to be supported with the LaneWatch package which is placed in the cars. Comma.ai brings a number of self driving capabilities to the vehicle which includes adaptive cruise control and self steering.

Adaptive cruise control backed with Comma.ai self driving platform allows the car to slow down from any given speed to a slower speed as per the traffic movement ahead while the self-steering allows users to leave the car completely on the auto-pilot kind of mode.

The advantage & disadvantage of self driving platform at a glance

As stated earlier a number of car manufactures, equipment supplier and even well established technology companies are trying their hand at developing their own home-grown self driving cars. The potential of the self driving technology is vast as it will not just bring a drastic fall in the car crashes and ultimate deaths but it will also help in reducing the traffic congestion which has become a chronic disease in mega cities. It does have it won a disadvantage which includes a major and detrimental impact on the jobs along with the economy.

Comma.ai is moving swiftly towards bring self-driving all cars alike

At the inception Cooma.ai offered to develop a self-driving car within $1000 but what it actually meant was that it will help in retrofitting the existing cars with self-driving capability through hardware and software support. On the same lines it is making its self-driving platform in open-source which will help hackers, engineers, communities and manufactures to add new capabilities and extend the application of this platform to a more diverse range of cars regardless of the region and location.

Monday 28 November 2016

Japan Plans Supercomputer to Leap into Technology Future


Supercomputer
Japan has made plans for building a supercomputer with a speed of 130 peta flops. The price estimation made by the ministry of economy, trade and industry is 19.5 billion yen ($173 million). This has been made as the Government policy to bring back the country’s lost market back. Japan has lost its technology market to South Korea and china due to heavy competition among them. This supercomputer yet to be made by the country will help its country’s manufactures to develop and to improve their research works. This computer technology might improve Robotics, medical diagnostics and driverless vehicles.

This computer which is being made by the country can calculate 130 quadrillion calculations per secondor 130 peta flops. This computer is made ahead of China’s Sunway Taihulight that is capable of 93 peta flops per second. Japans aim is to create a fast calculating computer to create advancement in computer technology in Artificial Intelligence (AI). This can mimic the human minds neural Pathways to analyze Data and work out calculation. This has been made possible by Google with Google’s DeepMind AI program which has beat South Korean professional Lee Seedol in the ancient board game of Go in the month of March.

This applications in technology includes the developments of various technology by companies and create an fully automatic machinery range. This might create an revolution in the medial industry to track a person’s medical record and analyze their medical health and be used to help them in some critical situations.

This computers made by Japan will be made available first to all Japanese Corporation with fee. This might free many Japanese corporations from depending on other countries super computer. Many leading computer companies have been keen to be involved in the Development of this Super Computer. The Fastest super computer ever built in Japan is the Oakforest –PACS with a speed of 13.6 peta flops and had been developed by Fujistsu. This creates a high expectation for this project among many companies and countries.

The Super computer has been named AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure and has been called ABCI in short form and is expected to be finished in the end of 2017. The bidding for this super computer project has been made and has started and would be closed on December 8. Still it has not been confirmed that who will be making the super computer for government. Japan has the fourth largest number of supercomputers in the world after the United States, Germany and China.



Friday 25 November 2016

iPhone Video Bug Crashes Any Apple Phone


iPhone Video Bug
Ever wondered that playing just a simple .mp4 video file may crash your iPhone? Well, reports say that a malicious video file is being circulated online via Safari in the form of a link. Once the file is opened, a video starts playing but after about 30 seconds, the phones become sluggish until it stops working altogether. First reported by EverythingApplePro, the video is of a person standing beside a bed and the word ‘Honey’ pops up on the screen. Initially the phone works fine but slows down till it crashes. The video file may be corrupted or infected with a virus and produces the same result even if the complete video is not played. Till now, it is unclear about what exactly is causing the iPhones to malfunction.

The Victims

All versions of iOS seem to have been affected. Even older iPhones running on i0S 5 are showing same results when the video is played. On the beta version of the iOS 10.2 it even pops up the spinning wheel which is indicates that the device is being turned off. Apple now has to deal with this issue and hope it gets fixed in the next update. On the other hand, Android and Windows phones are unaffected by this bug.

Protect Your Phone

Do not open any suspicious link until and unless you trust the sender. Clicking on such links may download malware and other unwanted applications on your device. Consider the following tips to secure your iPhone from hackers.


  • Use the fingerprint sensor or a PIN every time you access your device. 
  • Turn off ‘Simple Passcode’ in your phone settings which will allow you to set a strong password comprising of numbers, upper and lowercase letters and symbols. 
  • Self-destruct feature on the iPhone wipes all the data if someone tries to hack your phone and has entered a wrong PIN 10 times. 
  • Turn off unnecessary app permissions to enhance your privacy. 
  • A glance of all the notifications on the home screen comes in handy. However they may sometime contain sensitive information and it’s better to turn them off. 
  • Do not use AutoFill on Safari. It is tempting to save your personal information on your web browser so that you don’t have to enter it over and over again. But if your phone is in the wrong hands, you may end up in trouble.
Are you a victim? Here’s how you can fix your phone

You can fix your iPhone with a Hard Reset if it has stopped working. All data will be lost but it brings your device back to life. You can hard reset your iPhone using the following steps:

  • Press and hold the home button and the power button at the same time for about 10 seconds 
  • Wait for the Apple logo to appear 
  • Release the buttons
Use the decrease volume button and the power button in case of an iPhone 7 and your phone will boot up normally.

Monday 21 November 2016

Microsoft Adds 3D Paint to Latest Windows 10 Creators Update Test Build


Microsoft
We are living in the era of the digital world and there are hardly any products, trades, industries and services, where some sorts of computer aid cannot be seen. The huge development in the science and technology has paved the way for the computer and the internet, which have then changed the entire scenario. With the intense and steady growth of the computer; the massive growth can be seen in the manufacturing and development of the hardware and software, which supports the immense demand, throughout the world.

In this segment, the Microsoft is considered as the front runner, due to their pioneering character and timely software developments, which is necessary to cope with the demands, created in the market by the potential users. The Microsoft 3D Paint is one such application that is considered as the most advanced mode of drawing application, which is a delight for the designers and developers. Some of the most interesting features and information of the Microsoft 3D Paint are as follows:

  • Since the mid – 80s of the last century, the paint application has been there in th
    e Microsoft family of applications, but there were not many changes being made to get it more attractive to the users. But now, Microsoft has changed their approach and now in coming days, the Microsoft insiders can get this application, due to newly developed Build 14971, which allows the users to avail the most appealing 3D Paint facility on a very advanced structure.


  • It is worth mentioning that the Paint 3D is the biggest refresher in the history of applications and this is the reason, the Microsoft has already considered it as the major keystone in their upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update. This decision has been taken to make the 3D content development as an indispensable component of the respective operating system.


  • In the Build 14971; the Command Prompt is being replaced by the de facto command shell in the most important File menu of the File Explorer and also in the Win+ X menu. It can be noted that even after the introduction of the new look 3 D paint; Microsoft will allow potential users, who prefer or want to use Command Prompt to change their settings that can be helpful to keep this on their respective machines, as default.


  • There are some of the most interesting features, very minor in nature, along with, some relevant and quite a number of fixes in Build 14971, such as; translation, edge, notification, inking etc. available in the new version. Generally, there are some known features and issues in this new Build, which are effectively affecting quite a number of applications including; Photos, Stores, People and most interestingly, the Studio games of Microsoft.


  • The notable thing is; this unique change in the application will be helpful for easy discovery and launching of apps and also will be of great support in all the recently created or edited documents in one place. Although there are familiar help links, but the redesigning of the experience made it easier to find the intended document, without any hindrance.

Friday 18 November 2016

Google Announced Winners of Material Design Awards 2016

Material Design Awards

Google Announced Winners = Material Designs 2016


A design system tends to come to make waves when it is utilised in creating meaningful experiences.Google had introduced the Material Design showcasing applications which had embraced and embodied the design principles of Android much better than the others.

At Google I/O 2016, the app Robinhood had won the Google Play Award for the Best Use of Material Design. The winners of the Awards for Material Designs 2016 have been announced by Google last year, which had been dedicated at recognising the `best-in-class’ achievements for utilising material design for apps.Classifications of the award tend to focus specific aspects of Material Design which have been utilised in the creation of the apps that are inclined to satisfy users and express the brand suitably.

The five winners had been honoured on October 27 at the SPAN LA conference which represented the finest application of aspects of Material Design. The awards had been cut down into categories which focus on how developers could create apps that are not only great for use but also tends to express their brand on utilising the application design guidelines offered by Google. Asana had won the Brand Infusion award- Team Tasks & Projects.

Goal Completion Animations


According to Google, Asana makes the teamwork productive as well as collaborative by providing short together with often repeatedly interactions to `make efficiency feel rewarding’. Fabulous – Motivate Me, had won the Charming Engagement award wherein the app tends to feature charming illustration style in creating an impression on the users.

Google has noticed that the state transition with pleasing goal completion animations tends to keep up the motivation. C Channel received the Creative Navigation award and the app is said to organise content in a series of tabs which has the tendency of navigating through swiping. Google informs that the state that the app `neatly balances a blend of studio-created and user-submitted videos related to fashion, food and much more.

But it is only available in Japanese and Thai.The Expressive Layouts award was won by Kitchen Stories app and the app had been distinguished for its capability of creative effective together with scanning of layouts with ease for recipes on various kinds of screens and sizes.

Winning Apps – Taken Up Design Language to Great Heights


Moreover, it also tends to minimise the number of times user tend to have to touch the screen and is beneficial if the user seems to have untidy fingers while cooking. Airbnb was awarded for Focused Efficiency wherein Google informed that the app is `able to sidestep the appearance of complexity, thereby making the overall experience comfortable.

But it also observed that efficiency does not come at the cost of the visual appeal of the app. The award winning apps have taken up the design language to great heights and also deserves the honours and awards they have been provided. The Material Design Contest follows Google-hosted app contest – the Indie Games Festival which had wrapped up in September. This envisaged three game developers awarded tickets to I/O 2017 developer conference of Google, a Tango Development kit together with a Razer Forge TV bundle.

Thursday 17 November 2016

100 Guesses Is Enough To Crack Your Password


1
In the past few years the constant ever growing threat of cyber attacks and rampant attack has brought a new sensibility among the avid internet users towards strengthening their password. So how people make their password stronger is not an enigma. Most of the people include a number of two along with punctuation in order to make it difficult for the bad guys to figure it out. Sometimes people even add the name of a site or their pet or some other tricks to spice the things up. But a recent study has shown that if you do things like these then it is simply not enough.

A team of four researchers from the Peking University along with Jeff Yan from Lancaster University has published a study wherein they were able to crack a number of passwords from lesser than 100 guesses. They had aptly titled their study as ‘targeted Online Password Guessing: An Underestimated Threat.

TarGuess designed to break password effortlessly

Typing in the guessed password for hundred times or less than hundred times will be considered as a time consuming affair. Therefore researchers have created an algorithm named TarGuess which has been able to notch 73% of success in selected test scenarios. This means that the algorithm has been successful in decoding the password of users in 100 guesses at the most. TarGuess works so well on the cracking the password because at first it indulge in getting to know the targets.

TarGuess is designed to make use of the personally identifiable information (PII) in order to guess the passwords. Once the target is identified TarGuess makes use of the available information present on the site such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Then it also makes use of the dozens of the massive breaches which has happened in the past revealing the personal details or account info of the users.

Reuse Password practice should be avoided

Most of the people tend to reuse password for different website and accounts which is a very bad idea when it comes to security. TarGuess can easily spot your email address when you use passwords like biglove123yahoo for yahoo account and a similar password for PayPal account. TarGuess will quickly decide to start guessing with biglove123paypal for the PayPal as the safe bet.

Do not substitute numbers for letters

A number of TV show hackers has popularized the usage of numbers as a substitute for letters. But this practice isn’t a great weapon for creating stronger passwords. Researchers have embedded TarGuess with more than a dozen of transformation rules which can easily help in decoding the numbers for their respective letters. Apart from that it can even do difficult transformation like swapping the word as for @s.

There is a similar kind of tool named Telepathwords created by Microsoft which has the ability to predict the next character within a password as user happens to type it. Therefore substituting habit should be avoided at all cost as it makes your passwords much easier to crack than you can even think of.

Friday 11 November 2016

How to Make a Mirror That Tells You the Weather

mirror
Credit:Imgur

Cool Smart Mirror – Informs About Weather


Much progress has been taken place in the internet of things and with great headway in the field of technology; we tend to live in the future where everything has a tendency to be Wi-Fi compatible. A boring normal mirror can be boosted into a cool smart mirror which could inform you about the weather while one seems to be watching your reflection.

One of the most well-known stop in the making of everything in our lives `smart’, is the mirror.It could be expensive to get a smart mirror and hence creating one could be quite economical. All that one would need is some glass and some support for the mirror, together with a monitor for the display accompanied by a Raspberry Pi for the smarts.

Max Braun, Google engineer for instance had built a smart mirror earlier in the year and presently web developer, designer as well as tinkerer Zach had developed an identical gadget which tends to add voice commands together with verbal responses which seem to sound like a very simple J.A.R.V.I.S.

The manufacturers had developed their own mirror from a sheet of glass together with support. The option lies with the user intending to develop one by following the instruction or by purchasing a custom mirror which has been developed for this purpose.

One Way Mirror/Monitor/Computer


Thereafter one could build a frame for the mirror keeping in mind that the frame too needs to hold a monitor. This could be huge; hence one would require a thick frame to hide it. Moreover you would also require building a section in the frame to grip the mirror.

Eventually you need to install everything and plug it in and then you could have your own smart mirror. A magic mirror is essentially a frame, a one-way mirror, a monitor together with a computer – Raspberry Pi. All that is needed is a-

  •  Computer screen which can be taken apart 
  •  An observation mirror or a glass together with a mirror film 
  •  A Raspberry Pi having a casing and micro USB power cord 
  •  A SD card – 8GB 
  •  Network adaptor, for Wi-Fi 
  •  Wood frame – boards, screw, glue, paint, drill 
  •  HDMI-to-VGA adaptor based on if the screen tends to have HDMI or not 
  •  A mouse together with a keyboard with USB 
  •  An alternate computer to fix OS and stuff

Enhancement of Self-Confidence


One ought to know not to take the measurements for the mirror till you have opened the screen which would tend to be smaller when the plastic is removed. Moreover when you have the screen, ensure that the contacts tend to be on one area on the sides and not straight back. Should they be straight back, one could envisage an issue if the need to hang it later on the wall arises.

The smart mirror has the tendency of providing plenty of useful data for those getting ready to leave their home in the morning, comprising of the date and time, together with the weather, future events on their calendar as well compliments. What one would need most in the morning more than a reminder of caffeine is an enhancement of self-confidence.