Technology

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Solar powered plane

The solar-powered plane Solar Impulse took off from California on May 2013 on a flight across America that is expected to last approximately two months. From Mountain View the plane will fly to New York without using a drop of fuel, making stops along the way in Phoenix, Dallas, St. Louis, AND Washington, D.C.

The plane sports 12,000 solar cells built into the wings and smaller tail fins. The cells charge four lithium batteries, attached to the bottom of the wings, that power the plane during the nighttime. The longest nonstop trip the plane has made thus far is 26 hours. The plane could theoretically fly continuously but stops are necessary for the health of the pilot—the plane’s extreme sensitivity to turbulence means piloting it requires intense mental concentration. Swiss co-founders of the project Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg will alternate turns in the cockpit.

Solar cells account for most of the plane’s slight weight, which is equivalent to that of a small car, while its wingspan matches that of a jumbo jet. Unlike a jet, however, Solar Impulse flies relatively slowly at an average pace of just 43 miles per hour.

The speed is not the point of the flight, rather, it’s meant to bring attention to clean-energy technologies, according to the Solar Impulse company.
And though a feat in its own right, the cross-country flight is primarily a test run for a future flying machine the company plans to build to circumnavigate the world in 2015.

Scary new android malware spies on you

The guys at the MIT are calling it, "The Malware that will steal your life," .

The Technology Review reports that scientists at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., have designed an Android Operating System malware that secretly takes images (muted, so no shutter sound) and logs the orientation of the phone at the time each image is taken. Then, through reverse construction, and image enhancement, the malware recreates whatever room in which you may be standing, including the objects in that room.
The Review stipulates that the technology could even be used to gleen credit card numbers, or serve to provide intelligence for thieves looking to steal certain items, or case living areas from the inside—Or, more likely, to steal secret documents from other governments.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

15-year-old invents body heat powered flashlight

At the age of 15, Ann Makosinski of Victoria, British Columbia is one of the 15 finalists for this year’s Google Science Fair competition. Her project is modded flashlight powered by the heat produced within the holder’s palms. Since the sixth grade, Makosinski says she has been interested in alternative energy and wanted to figure out a way to generate power from a source that’ll last as long as humans live. Her research brought her to the concept of Peltier tiles, which produces energy when one side of the tile is heated and the other side is cooled. To get the tiles to create more voltage, Makosinski spent years reworking the circuit until it provided enough power to light an LED.

“This took quite awhile ’cause I had to do it during the school year as well and I had homework, plays, whatever that I was also doing,” she told CBC News. Her speech still hints of adolescence. ”You just kind of have to keep going.” Despite her parents’ lack of post-secondary science education, they’ve always encouraged Ann to pursue her passion for the subject. In fact, her father helped her order various Peltier tiles off eBay so she could continue her experiments.

In the end, the working prototype is an aluminum tube and PVC tube, both working together so that the hollows would allow air to cool one side of the Peltier tile while the user’s hand transfers heat to the other. In her tests, Makosinski found that the flashlight worked better at 5 degrees Celcius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) because it allowed the cooler air to circulate, generating more power. But even at 10 degrees Celcius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), the light maintained a steady glow for more than 20 minutes.
Makosinski will be traveling to Mountain View, CA to present her project to Google this September. If she wins the grand prize, she’ll walk away with $50,000 and a trip to the Galapagos Islands. With the production cost per flashlight at approximately $26, Makosinski will be able to make lots of devices if she wins – and one would imagine economy of scale should make mass production even cheaper for customers.

Samsung launches curved OLED TVs

Samsung Electronics slapped a $13,000 price tag on its first curved, super-thin OLED television to go on sale, the same price as rival LG Electronics and one that underscores the high costs of the technology.

Samsung is hoping that its success with OLED screens in smartphones such as its Galaxy S4 will also pay off in TVs, but consumers interested its 55-inch screen television must be willing to pay some five times more than popular flat-screen equivalents.

At the moment, OLED televisions are still very much a niche market and Samsung warned that industry forecasts for sales growth were a bit too optimistic.

"We have just introduced our first OLED TV and have to see consumer response to gauge overall market demand," Kim Hyunsuk, a Samsung executive vice president, told reporters.

Research firm DisplaySearch has forecast global industry-wide sales of OLED televisions at 50,000 this year, at 600,000 next year and rapid growth thereafter to reach 7 million in 2016.

LG, which currently offers both curved and non-curved 55-inch screens, is estimated to have only sold a few hundred screens so far after starting sales earlier this year.

Samsung said it will begin selling its curved OLED television outside South Korea from July but did not specify which countries. It has no plans to offer a non-curved one this year.

Organic light-emitting diode technology has long been touted as the future of consumer electronics displays, offering crisper picture resolution, a faster response time and high contrast images. It also allows for curved televisions, which manufacturers say offer a more immersive TV experience.

Both Samsung and rival LG Display, a unit of LG Electronics, have invested heavily in OLED, seeking to emulate the success they had with LCDs, which helped them squash Japanese rivals such as Sony and allowed them to capture coveted roles as suppliers for Apple.

Samsung is now the world's biggest TV manufacturer, and the South Korean duo now sell almost half of all TVs worldwide.

Not one to put all its eggs in one basket, Samsung also unveiled on 55-inch and 65-inch ultra-high definition (UHD) TV sets, which offer crisper LCD picture resolution.

Ultra HD TV sales are likely to grow 930,100 this year from 9,600 last year and may jump to 3.9 million sets next year, according to DisplaySearch.

Apple Applies for 'iWatch' Trademark in Japan

Apple applied for a trademark for "iWatch" in Japan.The trademark application, submitted on June 3 and released on the Japan Patent Office website on June 27, would cover computers, computer peripherals and wristwatches.

Speculation has mounted that Apple is preparing to launch an iWatch and CEO Tim Cook told a gathering of tech and media executives a month ago that wearable products were ripe for exploration, but added he was skeptical, including about Google Inc's recently unveiled Glass which combines a mobile computer and eyeglasses.

Wearable devices are considered a potential area for hit products as smartphones such as the iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co's Galaxy series are losing their ability to impress consumers and investors.

Samsung, which has leapfrogged Apple as the world's leading smartphone maker, is also developing a wearable device similar to a wristwatch, a source with knowledge of the matter has said.

The New York Times reported in February that Apple was experimenting with the design of a device similar to a wristwatch that would operate on the same iOS platform as its iPhone and iPad and would be made with curved glass.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

India :the third largest smartphone market in the world

The growing demand for smartphones in India has lead the country to surpass Japan to reach the podium as world’s third largest Smartphone market, following U.S., placed at first and China at second position, according to a new report by Strategy Analytics.

The Smartphone makers like Samsung, Apple and the indigenous mobile manufacturers like Micromax are driving the higher volumes in the country, reports Tech Crunch.

Intel's powerful fourth-generation processors reaches India

Intel officially launched its fourth-generation processor, code-named ‘Haswell’ in India. The processor gets its prominence over its predecessors in terms of prolonged battery life, faster CPU and enhanced graphics experience, reports Times Of India.

The world’s largest chip maker said that Haswell delivers up to 50 per cent increase in battery life in active workloads over the previous generation, "The 4th Generation Intel Core processors offer the most significant gain in battery life ever achieved by Intel, up to double the graphics and significant CPU performance improvements that will deliver an exciting user experience," Intel South Asia managing director Debjani Ghosh said.

Leighton Phillips, director of product management & pricing at Intel Asia-Pacific, added, "today's announcement accelerates a new category of 2-in-1 computing devices delivering the best of a notebook and a tablet in amazing new form factors."