Category Archives: Technology

Technology

Laptops to be powered by Key presses

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http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/keyboardshot-istockphoto.jpgAustralian researchers have figured out a way to harness the energy we use while typing to power a laptop. Using piezoelectricity, this method works in a similar way to cigarette lighters that create a spark by striking a piezoelectric crystal.

To power a laptop, though, a much thinner film of the piezoelectric material would have to be developed using nanotechnology. It’s so thin, it can be coated onto various electronic parts and integrated into a variety of gadgetry.

The idea of an everlasting battery is mind boggling. Scientists are also looking into ways to power touchscreen devices with piezoelectric film, putting all that energetic finger-swiping to good use.

Could this be a way around that perennial battery power conundrum?

Internet

Internet Buttons for ease of access

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Internet Buttons is a webtool that makes the Internet super easy.

You can set up a page of personalised Buttons that click through to your favourite sites or services.

Your personalised page of Buttons is saved on its own personalised URL that you can access from any computer.

There are also loads of helper bars, tips and advice to explain how to use it and how to get more out the web.

It removes all the complicated bits of the internet and makes it easy to keep going back to the places you want to go to.

It’s the perfect thing for anyone new to the net or is just a bit web-rubbish. So if you know any one flummoxed by tweets, links and pokes or who’d appreciate learning how to email, Skype, or shop online, why not set them up with a page of Internet Buttons today?

Gadgets, Mobile

iPad 2 has the best display

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The first thing you notice about a tablet is its display. Even when a tablet is powered down, its display is what jumps out first, since the screen is the most dominant part. The quality of the display is a critical component of a tablet, just as image quality is essential to any screen, be it for a laptop, a monitor, a smartphone, or even an HDTV.

I’ve had dozens of tablets cross my desk, and their display quality has varied dramatically. When I look at a tablet’s display quality, I judge it on a number of criteria: brightness, color accuracy, contrast, and image clarity. The last point is a tricky one, as it covers image sharpness and detail as well as text sharpness, areas that can be influenced by how well a mobile operating system renders those elements in software.

Rewind to the debut of the first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets–those early models running Android 3.0 all suffered from a bug that caused digital images to render improperly in Google’s Gallery app, the default program for viewing pictures. Images looked fuzzy, with little detail. Google quietly fixed the bug later, in Android 3.1; nevertheless, image reproduction could be better, and the Gallery still natively displays images in just 16-bit color.

So where does that leave the discerning buyer hoping to get the best tablet display possible? To find out, the PCWorld Labs lined up eight tablets and compared their image quality side by side.

Head over to the website to see the comparison

Gadgets

Jailbreak me to introduce iPad2 Unlock

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There is good news for iPad 2 owners who are desperately waiting to jailbreak their iPad 2, as it will be soon unveiled in Indian Market.

Apple launched its second generation iPad in March 2011, its iPad 2 jailbreak has failed to attract people but the company has announced to launch an unlock update for iPad 2 soon. According to recent reports, Comex, the famous hacker who developed the PDF-based iOS JailbreakMe 2.0, is working on an iPad 2 update. Experts have predicted that there could be a JailbreakMe 3.0.

Apple has planned to edit the iPad and iPhone’s upgrade release cycle period from one year to six months. Experts say if it happens, the current iOS jailbreakers will have less time to work on the development of various devices.

Meanwhile, Comex has tweeted that Jailbreak is almost ready for iPad 2. It has also urged the people to join the new Jailbreak on Facebook follow or twitter. Another rumor in the tech world is about Apple’s next-gen iPad 3’s release. It has been predicted that Apple will be soon lunching its iPad 3, to attract more customers.

Google

Bangalore orders Google to stop Street View

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Google Inc has been ordered by city police to suspend its “Street View” service in the Indian IT hub of Bangalore, the company said on Tuesday, in the latest setback to its global mapping project that has been hit by privacy fears.

The technology giant has sent a fleet of cars around the globe to capture millions of images used with maps as part of its panoramic Street View service, but faces regulatory challenges from authorities across the world on data protection concerns.

“We received a letter from the commissioner of police regarding Street View. We are currently reviewing it and have stopped our cars until we have a chance to answer any questions or concerns the police have,” Google said in a statement.

The commissioner of police declined to elaborate on the reasons for the letter when contacted by Reuters.

Bangalore is the leading IT hub in Asia’s third-largest economy, where Google employs thousands nationwide and where global technology giants such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Intel also have offices.

Google began collecting images three weeks ago in Bangalore, the first Indian city targeted by Street View.

Internet

ICANN sets January date for accepting new domains applications

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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said it will start accepting applications for new domain names from January 12 to April 12 next year, a move that will give organisations more options for branding themselves.

ICANN said internet domain names can consist of any word or words, in any language and any script, including Chinese or Japanese, giving unlimited options to internet users. Presently, it allows 22 suffixes such as .net, .com and .org.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) had approved the New gTLD Program during a special session held on Monday, 20 June 2011

Technology

Apple iTunes 10.3 with the flavor of iCloud

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http://multimedia.heraldinteractive.com/images/20110606/e83ce5_ltpjobs20110607.jpgApple has released a new version of iTunes that ties into a beta incarnation of the company’s just announced iCloud web services.

iCloud doesn’t officially launch until the fall and many of its services won’t be available until then, but the new iTunes – version 10.3 – provides access some of the tools announced yesterday under the iCloud name.

With iTunes 10.3, all items you purchase from the iTunes store to be automatically downloaded to your other Mac and iOS devices running the app. And you can download past iTunes store purchases to your devices at no extra charge (if your past purchase is no longer available in the iTunes store, however, you’re out of luck).

ITunes 10.3 also adds book purchases to the iTunes store, letting you download titles to Apple’s iBooks application on iOS devices.

You can download iTunes 10.3 for Mac here. And there’s a version for 64-bit Windows here. If you’re on 32-bit Windows, you should be able to download a version here.

iCloud is designed to automatically store all sorts of data on Apple’s servers and automatically push it to multiple devices. It will offer new versions of some Apple MobileMe services, including Contacts, Calendar and Mail, and it will let you download App Store and iBookstore purchases to multiple devices.

Apple will also offers backup and photo storage services and a tool, known as iTunes Match, that will let you replace your non-iTunes with iTunes tunes that can then be shared across devices. iTunes Match will be available in the fall for a $24.99 annual fee.

Internet

Box Office on Youtube

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All netizens in India have more reasons to rejoice as YouTube is introducing a new destination for all the movie buffs titled ‘YouTube Box Office’. This exclusive channel will feature a premium block buster movie every month absolutely free of cost. Kick-starting the initiative will be the latest hit ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’, starring Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma.

The YouTube Box Office channel will also feature other popular movies which users can watch for free from the YouTube catalogue of movies which includes over 1,500 titles including regional language films. The channel will be available to all users in India and will be IP blocked for users in other countries. Intel will be the exclusive presenting sponsor for the channel in India.

Sandeep Aurora, Director-Marketing, Intel South Asia said, “The YouTube Box Office channel provides the consumers an opportunity to view premium, high quality movies on their PCs. Consumers can also enjoy these movies on their big screen HDTV with Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi) feature on the 2nd Generation Intel Core Processor based PCs and bring YouTube to life in HD format on their TVs.”

YouTube will collaborate with its partners in India on a revenue share basis to bring more of such premium content on YouTube Box Office every month.

Computers, Technology

Apple’s iCloud service announced

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs today announced an online cloud storage service called iCloud, designed to make it simple to wirelessly share music, e-mail, photos, calendars, and other data between handheld gadgets and desktop computers.

The new Apple service, which has been the subject of intense speculation for more than a year, attempts to harness the power and flexibility of cloud computing for home users. It uses techniques that have already proved popular with businesses to make it easier to move data back and forth between multiple devices and applications.

Jobs introduced iCloud this morning at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco as part of a broader announcement that also highlighted the forthcoming version of Mac OS X Lion, available in July for $29.99, and new features for iOS including a newsstand and tabbed browsing on the iPad.

iCloud represents a direct response to Google’s cloud-based offerings, which already use services like Gmail, Calendar, Picasa, and Google Docs to show users the same document across multiple devices. In addition, Google recently announced Google Music and Amazon.com unveiled Amazon Cloud Drive.

About 10 years ago, Jobs said, Apple had one of its most important insights: The PC would become the digital hub for your digital life and store photos, video, and music, which would in turn be synchronized with mobile devices plugged in to it. Now, he said, we’re at a similar turning point, where iCloud can store data and wirelessly push it to every device you own.

iCloud will be supported by new versions of applications including Calendar, Mail, and Contacts, so if information is changed for one contact, it goes to the cloud and then is pushed to the other devices. Cloud backup is another part of the service, including daily wireless backup of an iOS device. Third-party apps can also store documents in the cloud through new interfaces that will be made available to developers.

Read more: @ Cnet

Technology

Intel’s Meuseum of Me with Facebook

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Ever wonder what a museum in your honor would look like if it used your Facebook profile as the basis for all the exhibits?

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You may not have dreamed up such a wild idea, but Intel surely did. The Museum of Me compiles all your Facebook information and creates a three-minute long expose about you. Yes, it’s a shameless promotion for Intel’s Core i5 processors, but seeing your information online as a museum is unnerving, yet fascinating. If you are a Facebook user, you must check it out. [Intel]