Category: Top Around the Web

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SpaceX F9R Rocket Fails, Blows Up Mid-Air

Ever since its inception, SpaceX has taken space travel to great heights. It’s the only private company responsible for taking cargo to and fro from the International Space Station. Its rockets have been appreciated for their safety features; something that came handy yesterday.

A test rocket which was launched yesterday has a snag that would have made it veer off course. Fortunately, the emergency systems on board automatically stepped in and destructed the rocket mid-air. This is the first major failure in SpaceX’s history. There were no injuries. Well, apart from the injury to SpaceX’s finances; they just lost a really expensive rocket. A second F9R rocket is in its building stage.

SpaceX’s rocket, the F9R, is a reusable rocket and a successor to the Grasshopper rocket. It is capable of launching and landing back on the launch pad, thereby increasing efficiency and bringing down costs. The rocket has just one stage, and it has three engines to propel it to the skies.

The company’s founder Elon Musk says he plans for human colonization of Mars and other planets, and that it is an important step in human evolution. Reusable rockets will surely help in organizing resources ensuring faster and efficient delivery of cargo to a future Mars Colony. Musk’s response to the incident was a tweet that said, “Rockets are tricky.”

SpaceX says that the rocket has been tested previously, but this time they wanted to push its limits harder, and that led to the technical snag.

It is important to understand that rocket science is hard, ergo the saying, it’s as tough as rocket science. Considering the fact that rocket technology is still in its basic stages, re-usability will surely take it forward. There have been malfunctions that have led to the loss of valuable human life. Space travel is the next frontier, and reaching new frontiers involves sacrifices, sometimes monetary and unfortunately sometimes, human life. Setbacks do happen but it’s necessary to learn from them and move on. Hopefully SpaceX team learns from its mistake and gives us our ride to Mars as soon as possible.

August 23, 2014
Microsoft to Unveil Windows 9 in September

Windows enthusiasts are eagerly waiting for the next Windows offering after being disappointed by the Windows 8. Microsoft has currently named the upcoming operating system (OS), Windows Threshold, which is widely expected to change to Windows 9. The leaks about this new OS make us anticipate a better user experience in comparison to the previous generation OS.

The Verge reports that the company is planning to set a press event on the tentative date of 30th September. This event is supposedly an unveiling of beta version of Windows 9. This report is in line with the earlier ZDNet report which stated that the company was planning on unveiling a preview version in late September or early October.

The Windows 9 preview is expected to showcase the new updated Start Menu that will make a return after its departure in Windows 8. The release is also expected to do away with the charms bar and will bring in many interface changes. Windows was also planning to bring a Cortana like voice assistant into its desktop operating system, but it is unclear whether that will be presented at the event.

Windows 9 is expected to come with various UI updates.

It seems like Microsoft is taking a page out of Apple’s book. Apple had done a beta release of its upcoming Mac OSX Yosemite for the developers. It is also planning to bring Siri like personal assistant to the desktop systems. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft has learnt the lessons from its previous OS adventure and how it corrects them in this version. The company plans to bring in an update for the Windows Phone version too.

It seems like the time for a unified operating systems for phones and computers is nearing. These interlinking of phone and desktop OS will definitely make our interactions with computers faster as we won’t have through multiple operating systems. Microsoft, which has seen a lot of criticism for destroying Nokia, as well as the recent jobs cuts, can really use some positive news right about now.

August 22, 2014
The QBracelet that Charges the phone, is a Bracelet you need

Making a smartphone last an entire day is a pain, a real pain. Going about your day you are always checking out the percentage point of precious juice that is left inside the phone. Lugging around a battery-pack everywhere is not convenient, well not until now…

A Start-up company named Q Designs is trying to take away your battery worries in style. The company has come out with a bracelet, called the Qbracelet, that charges your phone on the move, while looking good. The device is capable of charging the phone upto 60% which will definitely ease your mind for the course of the day.

Just Pull it off your hands and plug it in.

From the looks of it the Qbracelet appears thick as thinning the design would have affected the charging potential. But even with their size limitation, the hefty band looks appealing and has been crafted well.

The Qbracelet wraps around your wrists and when you need to juice up your phone just take it off and plug it into your phone. Using it is as easy as blowing into a whistle.

A Stylish Accessory that can be worn everyday

Qbracelet makes a Power statement too

The bracelet shaped device is available for iOS as well as Android devices. The makers took special care to get the look just right so that it was functional but would be flauntworthy too. It comes in Black, Gold and Silver color options. It also comes in multiple size options for Men and Women. Now this is one must have accessory for the technology age.

August 22, 2014
Google Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary of its IPO Debut

Google has come a long way in a short period of time. From a simple search engine to a global multinational conglomerate, it is now a brand that the entire world recognizes. Google’s IPO marks its ten year anniversary today.

The company’s humble beginnings and meteoric rise has been written about in countless media spaces. Their initial product was the internet service which archived the webpages and made their discovery super easy. It helped Google to become the cornerstone of the internet. It wouldn’t be wrong, neither would it be an exaggeration, to say that Google is now the gateway to the internet. But surprisingly this tech giant’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) back in 2004 saw pretty much the same response from the financial market that the Facebook IPO would face a few years later.

Folks at Google and investors must be pleased with their career graph

The folks at Google had originally estimated price range of $108-$135 per share but ultimately ended up with $85 per share price for their 19.6 million shares offering. Many industry watchers believed that Google was a fad and just the way Google replaced Yahoo, someone else would come replace Google too. Google apparently had better ideas for its future prospects than the market experts.

Since that time, Google’s graph has gone nowhere but up apart from, of course, the financial meltdown of 2008. Its stock has grown by 1293% in the ten years of its existence. Though it is a huge leap for the company, its courtroom and market adversary Apple has grown 4274% in the same period, thanks to the little devices called iPod and iPhone along with its other products.

Google now has its arms in almost all fields of technology. From Email services, to Operating systems and of course being the industry leaders in the smartphone business. Along with these, the company also is actively interested in and invests in real world infrastructural innovation. From robots to self-driving cars, Google intends to create the technology-aided future of tomorrow.

The company now has an audacious plan of bringing in High speed internet connectivity to the burgeoning markets of Asia. This will further create a bigger market that consumes Google products, thereby a sure-shot profitable investment. So if you are buying a Google IPO now, that is if you can afford one, you can be sure that your money is efficiently working for you.

August 21, 2014
A Transparent Glass That Generates Solar Energy

We have lots of avenues from where we can generate energy without having to touch the biochemical fuel made of prehistoric organisms. There is tremendous potential in the Sun and Wind to generate electricity. But the roof mounted solar cells are passé, its time to let the modern glass based architecture, pay for themselves and their maintenance costs by covering them with transparent solar concentrators.

Researchers at the Michigan State University have developed transparent solar energy concentrators that can someday be used as window glass. Not just that, it can be used to make display panels for mobile phones or devices with flat surfaces. So you can easily imagine a future where phones will be able to charge themselves. Talk about a revolutionary idea. The study was featured in the journal Advanced Optical Materials.

The technology can be used to make windows that can generate energy for the office

There have been previous efforts into the technology, but most of the time the material in the end was either too inefficient or was colored. A solar concentrator glass needs to be transparent to have some practical value. Most of the glass around us is transparent and colored glass can only be used for decorative purposes and not on office windows.

The new glass material has been developed by Richard Lunt, assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science, and his team. The material used in this transparent concentrator uses small organic molecules to absorb specific non-visible wavelengths of sunlight. These materials do not absorb light from the visible spectrum and hence appear transparent.

These panels can be tuned to pick up light from ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths that then glow at another wavelength of infrared. This glowing infrared light is then directed towards the edge of the panel where it is used to generate electricity using photovoltaic cells.

The ultimate intention of the research team is to make unobtrusive and almost invisible. This will also ease out the process of creating an off grid system where buildings can generate the electricity they need on their own.

As the project is still in the first steps, the efficiency of these concentrators is at roughly 1 percent. The panel is expected to achieve 5 per cent efficiency when fully optimized. For some perspective, it’s important to know that even the most capable colored concentrator has an efficiency of about 7 per cent. This just tells us that we still have to make huge strides in unlocking the full potential of the sun.

August 21, 2014
Smart Cap : A DIY Google Glass Replica Made For Only Rs.4500

We love to get ‘inspired.’ Our Bollywood movies are predominantly ‘inspired’ by previous works by other filmmakers who in-turn get their inspiration from others. But sometimes these inspirations lead to some cool new inventions like a Google Glass replica that costs a meager Rs. 4500 in comparison to the hefty price tag of Google’s Augmented glasses.

Though the Smart Cap looks rudimentary, it is quite functional

Now Cochin-based Arvind Sanjeev has invented the “Smart Cap” which is basically a nerdier version of the sleek Google Glass. Now we, of course, need to cut him some slack as he didn’t have huge monetary resources backing those researchers at Google X.

Arvind’s design though rudimentary is pretty functional. The raw materials that went into making the smart cap are easily available. The Smart cap uses a USB Webcam, an LCD panel, aspheric lens, headphones, a Raspberry Pi Board, a sun board sheet and glue which is a DIY guy’s favorite tool.

Now since creating an operating system would have been a long task, Arvind went with open Android as the OS for Smart cap. The front of the cap has the camera, the Raspberry Pi board, and 2.5 inch LCD display mounted on it. To make the LCD display legible at such close distance, he used an aspheric lens.

The Smart cap works by taking commands using the microphone on the headset. The device can help you with navigation, Google search, YouTube, webcam recording and first person viewing of other cameras, etc.

Smart Cap can be used to access maps, send emails, take photos and more.

What is really appreciable is that he put the entire project in DIY and posted it for anyone to create their own smart cap. He has been doing this for a while and has uploaded several DIY tutorials. He also owns a start-up called A.R.S devices which make devices for automation, connected devices and safety purposes. He has in line for a hardware patent which will let you control your car using a smartphone app. Now that’s an app we’d all love to have.

Even though the Smart Cap is inspired by Google Glass, Arvind’s audacity and patience in creating this device is commendable. The value of DIY has always been to bring replicated expensive technology and attaining similar levels of functionality using cheaper alternatives. The Smart cap stands up to the value, and though it looks rudimentary, it is pretty dope, almost like a prop from a sci-fi movie about robots. So if you have the talent of DIY, then go ahead, get in the game and teach the world how to make some awesome stuff inexpensively.

August 20, 2014
Activision to Pull a Marvel: May Start its Own Movie Studio

You have played those Activision games a million times, they have intricate storylines and some amazing characters. Activision understands the tremendous motion picture potential that they have that is waiting to add multiple zeros to their bank statements.

Activision is famous for its gaming titles such as Call of Duty and Skylanders. The company is inspired by the phenomenal success that Marvel has had since the comic book company unleashed its characters on the big screen. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was one tough nut to crack and Marvel executive managed to achieve it and now are reaping the glory. Activision wants to follow suit and bring out films on which it has complete control.

Usually the producers who are interested in a title ask for rights of characters from comic characters and games. After buying the rights the producers can decide on the script and treatment of the story. But in the case of Marvel, the company wanted to have control over the decisions of the films and so established their own movie studio.

Activision intends to have such control when it establishes the movie studio. There is a huge market full of gamers who would simply love to watch their favorite character played by Hollywood stars. They can easily come back to their games and create a personalized version of the story in their home consoles. As of now Activision isn’t opening its cards and is not commenting on the issue but they realize the prospects of a movie business are huge. They should move fast before the other studios get ahead of them. We are waiting and getting our popcorns ready. Activision, show us what you got.

August 19, 2014
Next Generation Reversible Type-C USB Ports Ready to Hit the Market

Universal Serial Buses (USB’s) have changed the way we interact with our computing devices. Before their massive use, computer peripherals had different sockets for each kind. With the advent of the USB, it all changed, and we had the luxury of multiple devices following similar connection protocols. The USB was capable of taking care of almost all the gizmos we wanted to connect to our computers and gave birth to a whole new market of USB devices.

Fast forward to the mobile revolution. The mobile ecosystem got a major boost, first from the mini USB and then from micro USB, which virtually replaced all other propriety connectors. The standard micro USB gave immense convenience to folks who could just juice up their devices using their friends chargers instead of finding the adapter made for their phone.

The reversible Type-C will be a lot more convenient than the present USB

The new Type-C USB intends to take convenience to the next level. Its makers say that they’ve completed work on this innovation and this USB can be incorporated in mobiles as well as bigger devices. The shining glory of Type-C is its reversibility. Which means that you don’t have to keep turning the USB around till the planets align in the exact positions for it to go into the slot.

The only issue with this next generation USB is that it can’t directly function with the older design. But the problem can be easily fixed using adapters. And the folks who now grumble that it’ll take long to integrate this new USB into devices, just remember the times when every company had their own propriety connector. When the market demanded a standard cable, all these companies had to oblige and then the micro USB became a standard across almost all devices. The connectors are also capable of 10 Gbps of bandwidth so they’ll definitely be welcomed by the users. The technical details of the Type-C USB will be unveiled soon.

August 14, 2014
Buy a Xiaomi Mi3 In The Next Sale Using These Tips to Better Your Chances

The Xiaomi Mi3 has been a drop of evil for a lot of people, some have waited through the three sales patiently trying to get one of these chinese “wonder phones”. On August 12th 2014, at 2:00 pm the Xiaomi Mi3 will go on sale yet again, this time with a proported 20,000 handsets, says online shopping website Flipkart.

If you really want to buy a Xiaomi Mi3 this time around, here are a few tips to better your chances of scoring one of these budget bad boys.

1. Pre Register

Possibly the most obvious tip, you need to pre register to buy the phone, so go ahead and do it by : Clicking Here

2. Know the Time

The Xiaomi Mi3 will go on sale at precisely 2:00 pm IST on the 12th of August, so try and reach the buying page at least an hour earlier, even though it seems like overkill.

3. Multiple device logins

Try being online from multiple devices, preferably on different internet connections; in order to have different I.P. addresses accessing the site, this will improve your chances and bring to one step closer to buying a Xiaomi Mi3.

4. Flipkart App

The Flipkart app uses a separate server and has a higher chance of “not failing” at the time of sale. If you want to buy a Xiaomi Mi3 the app might prove to be easier, “might being the key word.

5. Super Refresh times 40,000

When the sale starts, most people are struggling to open the webpage, ctrl+R / f5 (refresh) is your best friend, hit it till you get a page to buy a Xiaomi Mi3. (cmd+R on a mac). Other people have reported opening several tabs being helpful.

6. Cart it!

If you do get a page loaded, add that phone to the cart like there is no tomorrow, once you have the handset in your cart, your chances have just gone up from 1 in a million to 50:50 in order to buy a Xiaomi Mi3.

7. Patience

Once you have it in your cart, attempt payment by refreshing several times, in most cases you won’t be able to make payments due to overloads on the server so keep trying.Here the app helps too.

Also, if the website fails completely, there is a very high chance that the phone is in your cart when Flipkart comes back online, thats the perfect moment for you to buy a Xiaomi Mi3.

Once you do get through to the payment section and make your payments in whatever the mode you select, pat yourself on the back sir, you my friend are a lucky owner of the coveted Xiaomi Mi3.

Yay!

Now watch our Review Here:

August 11, 2014
Microsoft’s Next Lumia 720 Offering Might be a Selfie Friendly Phone

Microsoft is seriously getting into the mobile game, which it really needs to compete against its arch rival Apple. The company will try to appeal to the youth demographic by introducing a Selfie centered phone.

Wpcentral reports that a successor of the Nokia Lumia 720 is being planned by the company. The phone currently codenamed Superman would probably be called the Nokia Lumia 730. The Phone comes with a 4.7 inch screen which is bigger than its predecessors 4.3 inch screen.

The Images of Lumia 720 Successor were featured by Wpcentral

To power up the selfies, Microsoft will pack the phone with a 5-megapixel camera into the phone. Though additional information about the specs of the phone are not yet leaked but it’s said to be running on a new firmware called Debian Red. It is said to be a Lumia specific firmware and will coincide with Windows phone 8.1 update 1 and Update 2 releases. This will be Microsoft’s way of separating its phones from other Windows manufacturers. The details of this firmware aren’t certain as of yet.

Microsoft is late to the smartphones party and apart from HTC, no major handset manufacturer has shown the intention to manufacture the Windows Phone OS based products. With a selfie-centric phone, Microsoft may be able to impress some Windows phone enthusiasts, but to have a bigger market it really has to give the consumers something different.

August 8, 2014
Google Buys Emu Messaging Service to Boost its Messaging Might

Google has bought an intelligent, personal assistant based messaging app called EMU. The app is created by an ex-Google and an ex-Apple employee who worked on Siri. The basic premise of the app is close to what Google Now offers. It goes through your conversations and picks up leads to provide the users with recommendations related to their interest.

Emu began as an Android app, and its superior assistance feature must have prompted Google to loosen its purse strings. The app is capable of scheduling appointments to the calendar, set reminders and setting restaurant reservations with convenience like never before.

This is how the website looked soon after the acquisition announcement.

Messaging is where a lot of big companies have been investing. With Facebook buying Whatsapp, it was evident that messaging apps have grown in prominence and have overtaken the good old SMS. Now there is a race to perfect a messaging app. Apple, at WWDC this year has already presented a unique messaging feature which intertwines all its ecosystem’s messaging features. Apple’s messaging features were appreciated even though they seemed “inspired” by the features of various apps like Whatsapp, Snapchat, etc.

It is said that Google’s acquired Emu to strengthen its Hangout app, thereby giving an alternative to what Apple has to offer. Emu founders have announced that the app will cease to exist as an independent app and will be shut down by August 25. It will be interesting to see if Google plays the messaging game. Will it repeat its email success with Gmail or we’ll end up with another Google Plus fiasco?

Emu is impressive the way it was introduced and Google might have learnt its lessons by now and may be ready to go head-to-head with Apple.

Check out what the app can do in this video. Caution: They have a catchy background score that will be stuck in your head all day long.

August 7, 2014
Microsoft Might Give Out Windows 9 for Free for Previous OS Users

Now this is surprising coming from Microsoft. The company will try to consolidate all the systems currently running on previous versions of Windows by offering an incredible deal. The next operating system release, Windows 9 might come as a free upgrade for Windows XP, Vista and 7 users.

The thought must have dawned on Windows executives when they saw the WWDC this year when Tim Cook incorrectly stated a low Windows 8 adoption rate (about 14% in comparison to Maverick’s 51%). It did get called out on the internet by Windows enthusiasts who found the figures to be wrong (Windows 8 to Mavericks ratio is about 5 to 1), but the Windows guys must have seen an opportunity here.

Windows 9 leaks present a refreshing new look while keeping the classic Windows appeal.

There is a huge number of corporates and personal systems users who still work on and prefer Windows XP, one of Microsoft’s most profitable products. The biggest hindrance in upgrading to a new Windows system has always been the cost of buying the softwares. But by offering their software as a free upgrade, apart from making it appealing, functional and hence upgrade worthy, Windows can easily win a lot of hearts. Also Windows 9 needs to be compatible with the previous generation machines.

A large number of people are used to the Windows ecosystem and are quite comfortable. Lately folks have started looking for alternatives such as Ubuntu and Google Chrome. By offering a free update, Microsoft might not only be able to keep the old faithful but might also win some folks over from the Google and Linux ecosystems.

Microsoft is releasing a small update for the present OS called the Windows 8.1 update 2 on the 12th of August. They have set the ball rolling for the next major release, currently codenamed Windows Threshold. The new Windows version might release around Spring next year. The new version has been rumored to have an updated start menu that, if the leaked versions are to be trusted, is quite functional.

It is joked that every alternative release of Windows is better than its predecessor. So people who were impressed by Windows 7 and disappointed by Windows 8 are keeping their hopes up for the next one. Come on Microsoft, show us what you got!

August 5, 2014
WhatsApp Brings a New Update for Android Wear Devices

Messaging app WhatsApp has brought their fresh new update and this one has support for your Android Wear devices. With WhatsApp becoming a staple communication tool having almost replaced text messaging, it’s the right move from them.

The New version (Version 2.11.318) lets you access the app on your phone using voice controls and checking on the notifications. The update gives you options to view you entire message on the watch itself instead of just being short notifications.

You can also see all notifications individually without having to take out your phones and reply to them using the voice feature.

This new enhancement provided by Whatsapp is keeping up with the times and the app is ready for the age of the wearables. We can’t wait to see what the other app industry leaders have in store for this new world.

August 5, 2014
Internet’s Most Prominent Leakster, Evleaks Calls it Quits

Evan Blass from the Evleaks fame who has been reporting on major gadget leaks over the last two years has finally decided to retire from the game. This can be a major disappointment to many tech blogs who depended on him for what has become a new news genre, the leak beat.

Yesterday Evan made his retirement public with a tweet. Evan had leaked information on many potential products from major manufacturers like Samsung, LG, and Microsoft along with others. He had a high success rate in his reporting and so became the go to guy for information on upcoming products.

All good things must come to an end. Thank you for an amazing two years. [RETIREMENT]

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 3, 2014

In an interview with The Next Web Evan explained his retirement. He says that taking cues from him, there has been an explosion of leaksters on twitter and that doesn’t help in a sustainable living. He also said that this is a final goodbye to the leaking world and he will be looking for a career change.

Before becoming a professional leakster, Evan had worked at the editorial department of Engadget and PocketNow. He also has a website, but he doesn’t seem sure about the future of the website post his retirement.

He also, in a way named his successor to the leakster throne. He says TK O’Connor, of TK Tech News can easily take his spot as a menace to the manufacturers. Overall Evan through his @evleaks twitter handle has given a lot of important information on upcoming smartphones. This has not just helped customers but also assisted the companies in creating a hype before their devices came to the market.

August 4, 2014
NASA Tested a No-Fuel Microwave Based Thruster, and it Worked!

NASA scientists tested a new theoretical thruster model and too their surprise, the model works. Nasa has been working on a lot of propulsion and thruster models to make space flight cheaper, faster and more convenient. Currently reaching space is still a high-investment-high-risk affair. The new model shows hopes that we may have the answers to our woes closer than we thought.

The paper submitted earlier this week at a conference in Cleveland, scientists from NASA’s Eagleworks Laboratories in Houston, Texas, presented a paper which indicated that they had achieved small levels of thrust from a container which contained no traditional fuels. So what generated the trust? The answer is Microwaves bouncing all about the container. Now this is interesting development. Apparently NASA didn’t have a lot of trust in these thrusters and this is more of an accidental find.

The model is called Cannae Drive. The thought behind the model is to allow multiple microwaves free to bounce end to end in a specially designed container. The container is shaped in an uneven pattern which aids in the dispersion of the microwaves.

The Cannae Drive might also make satellites more efficient.

The Cannae Drive experiment is just at the beginning stage and there is no knowledge yet if it can be scaled up to power spaceships. Though it is estimated that if it becomes fully functional, the distance between Earth and Mars can be covered in terms of a few weeks instead of the several months it takes now. It will also make satellites more efficient and easier to manage.

But by now you might be asking that this sounds too good to be true. Well there are a couple of issues with the technique. NASA’s team had built two Cannae Drives, one of which was designed to fail, and instead it worked. The scientists indicated their surprise find by writing in their paper abstract: “Thrust was observed on both test articles, even though one of the test articles was designed with the expectation that it would not produce thrust.” That suggests the drive is “producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon.” They are assuming that the interaction is occurring in the quantum vacuum, which is the lowest energetic state. The scientists don’t have much evidence to support their idea yet.

The Cannae drive is a close enough idea to a technique called ‘Emdrive’ which has been tested by Argentine and Chinese scientists. The Emdrive trials have proved successful in small scale models.

Space travel needs a constant heavy intellectual interest and innovative ideas that have never been tried before. Experiments like this show how ignorant we still are to the massive potential nature can offer us to further our sciences. Sometimes the greatest inventions are made when we least expect them.

August 2, 2014