Category: Tech

Latest Technology News, Alternative, Bio-Tech, Medical, R&D and Innovations

Apple patent suggests fuel cell powered MacBooks

Apple has filed for a new Patent that would allow for new MacBooks to go on for days and weeks without requiring a charge. This new technology would also allow for Cupertino’s new laptops to be slimmer and lighter. Apple has filed for a patent indicating that hydrogen fuel cells would be used to send and receive power from a battery to power a laptop computer. Apple also admits in this patent that the company is developing a product which is small enough and cheap enough to be placed in one of their laptops will be a challenge.

December 23, 2011
AMD announces Radeon HD 7970 Available in India January starting 35,999/- (PR)

AMD yesterday announced their first 28nm GPU, the Radeon HD 7970. It is scheduled to arrive in the US on January 9th, priced at $549 (about Rs. 27,000). But looks like AMD is adding the fun to the Indian market in 2012 by planning to release it within another few weeks of the US release. The new Rig boosting GPU has a 925MHz engine clock overclock-able to 1.1GHz, 2,048 stream processors , a 384-bit memory bus with 3GB of GDDR5.

[toggle title_open=”Press Release” title_closed=”Press Release” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]MD Launches World’s Fastest Single-GPU Graphics Card – the AMD RadeonTM HD 7970
– The AMD RadeonTM HD 7970 graphics card is first to market with 28nm process technology and PCI Express 3.0; harnesses AMD GCN Architecture, AMD ZeroCore Power and AMD Eyefinity 2.0 technologies –
SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Dec. 22, 2011 – AMD (NYSE: AMD) today launched the AMD RadeonTM HD 7970 graphics card for desktop PCs, introducing the world’s fastest single GPU graphics card and the only GPU based on 28nm production technology. With the arrival of the AMD Radeon HD 7970, AMD has unleashed its revolutionary new Graphics Core Next Architecture that enables new levels of gaming and compute capabilities – realizing an improvement of over 150% in performance/sq mm over the prior generation. Engineered with support for PCI Express 3.0 and AMD CrossFireTM technology, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics card arrives prepared for the next generation of gaming.

“True to the adage, “never settle,” AMD is once again aggressively advancing the state of the graphics industry – this time with the arrival of the world’s fastest single GPU graphics card, the AMD Radeon HD 7970,? said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. ?This graphics card represents a revolution in the graphics industry. To put it bluntly, at 28 nm the AMD RadeonTM HD 7970 changes everything!”

AMD further extends its GPU leadership with the AMD Radeon HD 7970 through AMD App Acceleration, which enables exquisite high-definition video images and exceptional performance improvements for everyday applications. Ground-breaking advancements with AMD Eyefinity technology enable gamers and desktop enthusiasts to connect up to six displays to one graphics card, delivering immersive stereoscopic 3D experiences and astonishing 16k x 16k display resolutions. It’s also armed with the latest PCI Express 3.0 standard to enable uncompromised image quality, and is additionally equipped with GDDR5 memory, enabling accelerated GPU performance. Through its intelligent AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore Power technologies, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 enables higher performance levels while maximizing power efficiencies.

“The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is an awesome tool in any gamer’s arsenal,? said Johan Andersson, Rendering Architect at DICE. ?We have worked closely with AMD during the development of the Frostbite 2 game engine to take full advantage of AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology and DirectX® 11 for a more realistic, entertaining and visceral gaming experience in Battlefield 3.”

Efficient Architecture for Leading DirectX® 11 Performance
– New architecture for greater performance: AMD has further enhanced its GPU design efficiency through the introduction of the 28nm process technology and Graphics Core Next Architecture, realizing an improvement of over 150% in performance/sq mm over the prior generation.
– Refined AMD PowerTune technology: Designed with the most advanced power management features, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is equipped with the intelligence to convert unused power headroom into extra performance by dynamically controlling clock speeds, allowing gamers advanced performance inside of the power envelope they specify.
– AMD ZeroCore Power Technology: Gamers asked, AMD delivered – the AMD ZeroCore Power technology found in the AMD Radeon HD 7970 ensures that no power is wasted when the graphics card is not in use, enabling lower idle power than any other currently available graphics card. With support for AMD CrossFire technology, AMD ZeroCore Power eliminates wasted power, as well as additional heat and noise from extra cards when you are not using them.
– PCI Express 3.0: The AMD Radeon HD 7970 comes natively equipped with support for PCI Express 3.0. With world-class performance scaling, enthusiasts’ GPU experience is maximized when paired with the latest platforms.
– Discrete Digital Multi-Point (DDM) Audio: DDM Audio provides multiple independent audio streams for audio-capable displays via DisplayPort or HDMI signals. DDM Audio delivers unique experiences in cases where multi-display video conferencing, directional audio or multi-room entertainment hubs are being used.
– Enhanced Multi-GPU Capabilities: AMD CrossFire technology is the ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform. Unlocking game-dominating power, AMD CrossFire technology, coupled with PCI Express 3.0, will allow for unprecedented bandwidth in TriFire and QuadFire configurations.

The Ultimate Immersive Gaming Experience and Innovative AMD Eyefinity 2.0 Technology
– Next Generation AMD Eyefinity technology: AMD Eyefinity 2.0 features all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation, brand new display configurations and an expanded and more immersive field of view. This allows users with 2560×1600 monitors in an AMD Eyefinity 5×1 landscape configuration to achieve a horizontal resolution of 12,800 pixels, driving more than 20 million pixels of screen real estate. More than 70 game titles have been AMD Eyefinity- validated, while many are AMD Eyefinity-ready, and hundreds more are AMD Eyefinity-compatible.
– DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a: With full support for 3GHz HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is set to drive next generation displays at up to 4K resolution.
– 3D entertainment choices with AMD HD3D technology: With the arrival of the latest in stereo 3D technology, AMD continues to deliver an enhanced visual experience on stereo 3D-capable desktops and notebooks powered by AMD Radeon graphics. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is backed by AMD’s open 3D initiative for stereo 3D gaming and Blu-ray 3D movies.
Better Performance through AMD App Acceleration
– AMD App Acceleration lets you do more, faster: Enthusiasts will enjoy improved GPGPU performance and new features in many top media, entertainment and everyday productivity applications with AMD App Acceleration.
– Extensive support of industry standards: AMD Radeon HD 7970 fully supports DirectCompute® and OpenCLTM technologies, enabling broad application support today and tomorrow.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is available January 9, 2012 from retailers worldwide, with select models starting at $549 US SEP.[/toggle]

December 23, 2011
Chrome 15 now the worlds most popular browser, IE 8 bites the dust (Report)

According to a new report from StatCounter,Chrome 15 recently reached a total global market share of 23.6% compared to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 market share of 23.5%. IE is still the most popular browser if all versions of the Browser are added. Chrome 14 and 15 are said to be most popular of chrome version and possibly the reason of this overtake. Microsoft and their IE team is banking hard on the push they want to receive from IE9 and IE10, possibly to remain strong. If that does not hold true, chrome may not be far away from global victory. check out the full report below

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Chrome 15 Becomes World’s Most Popular Browser

Boston, USA; Dublin, Ireland; Thursday, 15th December, 2011: Google’s Chrome 15 has become the most popular web browser version worldwide for the first time on a weekly basis, according to StatCounter, the free website analytics company. The firm’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that in the last full week in November, Chrome 15 took 23.6% of the worldwide market compared to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 at 23.5%. If one aggregates all versions then IE still leads the global market with Chrome in second position, having overtaken Firefox in November.

“Google announced Chrome for business exactly a year ago and IT administrators appear to have embraced it in a remarkably short time,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “Looking at the daily stats, Chrome 14 and 15 have been overtaking IE8 at weekends since the beginning of October. However, Chrome 15 overtook IE8 for the first time during the five day working week, in week commencing 5th December. It looks as if people favour Chrome on weekends at home but office commercial use has now caught up.”

In the US Internet Explorer 8 continues to be the most popular browser version with 27.0% for week commencing 5th December compared to 18.1% for Chrome 15. However, in the UK Chrome 15 overtook IE8 in the week commencing November 7th. Last week (commencing 5th December) Chrome 15 had 24.7% in the UK compared to IE8 on 21.1%.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month (4 billion from the US) from the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

As well as free web research, StatCounter (http://statcounter.com/) provides free web analytics. This allows website owners, developers and bloggers to capture valuable intelligence on their site in real time including number of visitors, visitors by country/region, search terms, popular pages, download stats, exit links and other data.

In September StatCounter announced its new website with added features.

[/box]

December 23, 2011
Samsung Launches Dual Sim Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos (PR)

Samsung has just launched two brand new Galaxy android phones, but here is the interesting part they are both dual sim. Continuing on the Galaxy Y platform the Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y pro Duos will be available in Q1 2012 worldwide starting January with major dual sim consumer countries like India. Both these devices are expected to be under the Rs. 10,000/ price mark and will give serious competition to brands such as Micromax and Spice, with their recently released dual sim Android devices.

The Galaxy Y Duos has the same 832MHz processor, with Gingerbread and Touchwiz, along with the 3.14 inch display a 3 MP camera . For the Y Pro Duos its the same specs with a QWERTY keyboard a smaller 2.6 inch touchscreen and the added front VGA camera.

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Balance work and play with GALAXY Y DUOS and GALAXY Y Pro DUOS

2011.12.22

Samsung adds Dual SIM smartphones into its GALAXY smartphone line-up

SEOUL, Korea – December 22, 2011 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced the latest additions to the GALAXY smartphone series, Samsung GALAXY Y DUOS and Samsung GALAXY Y Pro DUOS. Beginning in January 2012, these new devices will be available in Russia, and GALAXY Y DUOS will be gradually rolled out to Europe, CIS, Latin America, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Middle East, Africa and China. GALAXY Y Pro DUOS will be coming to Europe, CIS, Latin America, Southwest Asia, Middle East and Africa.

GALAXY Y DUOS and GALAXY Y Pro DUOS feature a unique Dual SIM system that maximizes communication flexibility by allowing two separate phone numbers and a simultaneous use of data on the same device. Users who need to balance busy professional and social lives can access and seamlessly switch from one line to the other with GALAXY Y DUOS or GALAXY Y Pro DUOS.

“With the tremendous success of the Dual SIM feature phones, we are now very pleased to be introducing the first Dual SIM smartphones powered by Android™. “We have been actively exploring this market and are well aware of the need for Dual SIM smartphones,” said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. “With the GALAXY Y DUOS and the GALAXY Y Pro DUOS, Samsung will be offering more choices for all consumers.”

Samsung’s First Full Touch Smartphone with Dual SIM, GALAXY Y DUOS
GALAXY Y DUOS is for young and practical consumers who want to manage their professional career and busy social life with affordable price. Beyond the flexibility of its dual SIM card system, GALAXY Y DUOS is a beautifully designed smartphone contained in a 11.98mm polished metallic casing. Its ergonomic design is complemented by a 3.14” full touch display that provides optimal legibility for a smartphone of its size.

Powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread and running on a powerful 832MHz processor, GALAXY Y DUOS offers advanced performance and versatility needed to successfully manage busy professional and social lifestyles.

GALAXY Y DUOS also provides users with multiple options to enrich their social lives. It features ChatON, Samsung’s unique cross-platform communication service that connects all mobile users into a single community. Users can also stay connected through Social Hub, which supports email, social network integration and instant messaging, displaying all of your communication in a single inbox.

Samsung’s First QWERTY Smartphone with Dual SIM, GALAXY Y Pro DUOS
Samsung is also introducing GALAXY Y Pro DUOS, which offers additional benefits for young professionals with the combination of a full QWERTY keyboard with a 2.6” display, giving them more business-friendly experience with better flexibility and usability.

GALAXY Y Pro DUOS offers enhanced productivity with the inclusion of Polaris and Find My Mobile professional tools. Polaris offers easy viewing and editing of a wide range of Office documents, enabling you to work with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and even PDF files while on-the-move. Samsung’s Find My Mobile Service ensures peace-of-mind by letting users remotely lock the phone at anytime, as well as trace the phone or remotely wipe its contents in case of loss or theft.

The users can also enjoy Social Hub Premium, offering support for push email and messaging, and seamless calendar and contact synchronization between the phone and users’ Google, Yahoo and MSN accounts.

For multimedia content and more detailed information, please visit www.samsungmobilepress.com

[/toggle]

December 23, 2011
Dell Streak gets official Gingerbread update

Still holding on to that Streak from the past? Dell has issued a Gingerbread update to most of the streak division and should be hitting up Indian update servers shortly. It has been more than a year since Gingerbread was announced, and we don’t know if Ice Cream Sandwich is supported on this device, or will ever come officially. Although most Streak users, including our very own one was ported to a custom rom a long time ago. Those who still enjoy their device on 2.2 can update it to official 2.3.

You can also download the Rom (use 350 Recovery to install it) from this LINK

December 23, 2011
Nokia bids adieu to the Symbian name, embraces Nokia Belle

Nokia is playing games, in a old school fashion. The overall morale and sales of Symbian devices have dipped since Mr. Elop announced that they would be dropping support for the devices back in June. Nokia has found a very “Delhi” way of dealing with the problem, change the name!. Nokia has rebranded all current and upcoming devices as running on “Nokia Belle”. The Symbian name has been let go and without much fanfare, to much disappointment of Symbian lovers and owners.

[threecol_one]”The all new Nokia Belle (previously Symbian Belle)…”[/threecol_one]

[threecol_two_last]The small little mention in the list of upcoming devices is the only mention of this change that marks the end of an Era. Looks to us Nokia is trying its best to get rid of remaining hardware before it pushes forward all mighty WP7.5[/threecol_two_last]

[Nokia Conversations]

December 22, 2011
Apple awarded patent for in-call App switching, readies the biggest lawsuit yet

Apple has been awarded a patent for a “portable electronic device with graphical user interface supporting application switching.”, this is going to be the company’s biggest win. What this basically means is that Apple has been awarded a patent for a SmartPhone. All brands and all manufacturers will fall under the knife of Apple’s lawyers. This will put and end to all legal battles that the company has with HTC and Samsung.

Of course the patent is worded very vaguely and covers almost all devices that allow you to switch between applications when on a call. This most definitely covers Android and WinPho devices if not Blackberry and Symbian. Apple should be already sharpening its knives to slaughter the entire opposition.

[USPTO]

December 21, 2011
Apple fixes AppStore bug on iOS 3.1.3, upgrades till avoidable

If you are still feeling lazy after yesterday’s news on the download block by Apple on devices on iOS 3.1.3 or prior. Apple has acted swiftly and is prompt to say that it was merely a bug that was preventing download of apps directly to devices. There is no fix or update that needs to be installed and everything should be back to normal.

[Apple Support Communities]

December 21, 2011
Samsung confirms list, Galaxy SII and Note will get ICS easily 2012 (PR)
Samsung has finally confirmed that most of its top end devices will support Google’s next OS “Ice Cream Sandwich”. This confirmation comes after weeks of consumer engagements and let downs. Samsung will be rolling out the Upgrade to ICS sometime in the first quarter of 2012. The upgrade is most likely not an OTA update and will require a full flash of the device using their proprietary desktop software called “Kies” The full List of devices includes

[threecol_one]

Confirmed Devices
- GALAXY S II
- GALAXY S II LTE
- GALAXY Note
- GALAXY R
- GALAXY Tab 10.1
- GALAXY Tab 8.9
- GALAXY Tab 7.7
- GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus
[/threecol_one] [threecol_two_last]

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Samsung Electronics plan to provide the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for GALAXY devices. The platform update for GALAXY S II and GALAXY Note will start in the first quarter 2012, and other GALAXY devices will soon follow.

The ICS-upgradable devices are the GALAXY S II, GALAXY S II LTE, GALAXY Note, GALAXY R, GALAXY Tab 10.1, GALAXY Tab 8.9, GALAXY Tab 7.7, and GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus.

For upgradable models, Samsung will make separate announcements on details of OS updates schedule for each market according to market situation and carriers’ requirements.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Samsung GALAXY Nexus, the first Ice Cream Sandwich powered smartphone, were first unveiled at a Google/Samsung joint news conference in Hong Kong on October 19th.

Ice Cream Sandwich brings an entirely new look and feel to Android. It has a redesigned user interface with improved multi-tasking, notifications, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC support and a full Web browsing experience. Ice Cream Sandwich also features a new People App which lets users browse pictures, messages and social network updates from friends, family and co-workers.

Ice Cream Sandwich also introduces innovations such as Face Unlock, which uses facial recognition to unlock the smartphone. Using NFC technology, Android Beam allows users to quickly share Web pages, apps and YouTube™ videos with friends by simply tapping two phones back-to-back. Users can even use fun effects while shooting video or video chatting with Google Talk™.

* Google, Nexus, Android, Android Market, YouTube, Google Talk, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Calendar are trademarks of Google, Inc.

[/toggle]

[/threecol_two_last]

This is a major let down especially for those who were on other Samsung devices, hoping to get in on the ICS action. Fear not the developer community is still strong, and almost all devices sporting a processor faster than 650MHz will be able to get a custom developed ICS ROM.

[Samsung]
December 21, 2011
Firefox gets updated to 9, faster Javascript and Lion compatibility added. links

Firefox browser has been updated to version 9. This version offers better compatibility on Mac computers running on Mac Lion 10.7, and a faster and juiced up Javascript handling. This is set to improve overall browsing speeds on the browser. Mozilla is claiming a overall 30% boost in performance post the JavaScript optimizations. Firefox 9 also improves theme integration and swipe navigation for Mac OS X users. Want to take it for a test spin ? Download your version below

[Mozilla Windows]

[Mac]

[Linux]

December 20, 2011
Still on iOS 3.1.3? Apple ends AppStore downloads for your iPhone, iPad and iPod

If you are still on an older version of iOS, namely 3.1.3, you will no longer be able to download Apps from the AppStore. For those with first generation devices that no longer support iOS updates beyond 3.1.3, they can download apps to the iTunes on their PC/Mac and transfer from there. A direct download to device is no longer possible. So its time to stop being lazy and get that update going. Seriously, you are missing out on quite a lot on iOS 5, iMessage?

December 20, 2011
Exclusive : Micromax to drop the price of A85 Superfone to Rs. 15290/- in India

Micromax is going to drop the price of its Dual Core Nvidia Tegra 2 powered Superfone to Rs.15290/- all inclusive for a special holiday offer. This is going to be possibly the best device to get in the 15k mark after the price drop which is all set to happen today.

If you have not already seen our videos on the device you can check them out below.

December 20, 2011
Nokia Lumia arrives, boosts Windows Phone sales throughout the board.

Since the massive AD campaign by Nokia for the Lumia series and limited availability, Windows Phone 7.5 based devices have seen a massive boost across the board of HTC and grey market Samsung devices. ConsumerReports states that there has been a 40 % boost in sales of HTC Radar since the announcement of Nokia Lumia devices.

A major cause of this is the high price and almost no stock of the units, Nokia has pushed devices to Nokia priority dealers and are selling the Lumia phones at MRP. With still a few days till stock arrives at major retailers, Samsung is all set to announce the Omnia W today. Lets see if Nokia is actually able to turn around the Windows Phone OS in the Indian market.

December 19, 2011
Adobe updates Flash 11.1 to support ICS

Adobe is following closely in Google’s footsteps, after the announcement early today. Adobe has confirmed that since a large mass of Android owners will be soon shifting to Google’s new OS, they have updated their flash 11.1 client for Android to support Ice Cream Sandwich aka Android 4.0.

There are however known bugs with the release, one that does not prioritize the audio during an incoming call. That means any current Flash clip will play audio before and after the call is received. In addition, the “enter” key does not work in multi-line text input fields.

Why push an update out without removing known bugs? However, Anyone with ICS on their plate should be able to get a add-on of new flash from the marketplace.

[Adobe]

December 17, 2011
Google Begins Updating the Nexus S to Ice Cream Sandwich

Got yourself a curvalicious Nexus S? Then you might fancy yourself a Ice Cream Sandwich. According to a tweet from the GoogleNexus team early last night, Google will now begin pushing ICS updates to lucky Nexus S owners. The information was also available on Goole+

[threecol_one]“We’re rolling out Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to GSM/UMTS Nexus S devices over the coming month, starting today”[/threecol_one]

[threecol_two_last]The Nexus S is among the first phones to officially get the ICS update. Google has also made note that the Nexus One may also get ICS down the line.[/threecol_two_last]

[Read]

December 17, 2011