tech4u

Google restricts Facebook to Gmail contacts

2010-11-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

Google has restricted social networking site Facebook from grabbing information about its users' contacts in Gmail

Apple iOS, Android operating systems to dominate

2010-11-08T10:11:00.000-08:00

The number of annual shipments for tablet devices will reach 81 million by 2015 as an increasing number of consumer electronics players and handset manufacturers enter the market.

The Android Operating system is allowing both new players and existing device manufacturers to join the market and product launches have taken place already from companies such as Dell with the ‘Streak’ and Samsung with the Galaxy Tab

Skyfire Brings (Some) Flash Video to iPhone

2010-11-07T10:21:00.001-08:00

The Skyfire mobile browser can play some Flash-based video that's not otherwise available on iOS devices.

Links for IT Quiz

2010-11-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/the-infoworld-news-quiz-nov-5-2010-254
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/the-infoworld-mobile-tech-iq-test-003-0?source=rs
http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/open-source-iq-test-766?source=rs

US Visa: Indian IT sector under threat blanket

2010-11-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

It is being reported that US consulates are discarding business visas from Indians (B1, L1, H1) and visa interviews are nearing interrogations. In fact, US personnel are deporting many Indians, too.

The situation is highly grave as reported and Indian IT industry body has been asked to interfere. It is being suggested that a letter has been sent by NASSCOM to US ambassador in India. Not many details have been leaked as of now. It is still to be understood whether it will be appoint of concern and discussion over awaited Barrack Obama’s planned Indian visit.

The IT sector is majorly influenced by this behaviour of US personnel and almost every company is experiencing this problem; nevertheless the steps taken up by NASSCOM are appreciated across the industry. The Indian IT sector and others are surely expecting a resolution for the problem on the table and expect the same to be a pivotal point in discussions when he lands to India.

For RIM the year turns gloomier with Dell dumping it for Windows 7 Phone

2010-11-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

The year seems to be quite tough for RIM and arrival of bad news are not nearing end. The latest updates indicate that Dell has plans to dump RIM BlackBerry for Windows 7 Powered Phone Dell Venue Pro.

The move casts shadow on the future for RIM since the year has been quite tough for it. It has lost market share to Apple iPhone and shipments has lowered for the year.

Google, Facebook to face tougher EU privacy rules

2010-11-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

The European Union (EU) wants stronger privacy rules to give Internet users more control over how social-networking sites such as Facebook, or search engines such as Google use their personal information.

Trend Micro calls foul over Microsoft offering free AV software via Windows Update

2010-11-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

Microsoft this week began offering U.S. customers its free antivirus program via Windows' built-in update service, a move one major security firm said may be anticompetitive.

Microsoft releases F# under open source license

2010-11-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has released into full open source the code of its functional programming language, called F#.

The company has made version 2.0 of F# compiler and core library available under an Apache 2.0 open source license.
F# is a functional programming language. Programs written in functional languages are different from most procedural languages, such as Java, in that they are written as a series of mathematical functions.

ITC staff backs Nokia in Apple case

2010-11-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

The staff at the U.S. International Trade Commission has found that Nokia Corp did not violate Apple Inc's patents, in an opinion submitted as part of the companies' legal battle over smartphone technology.

Nokia filed suit against Apple in a U.S. district court in October 2009, saying Apple's iPhone had infringed 10 patents. Apple countersued, and both companies later filed complaints with the ITC.

Apple is asking the ITC to ban imports of infringing devices from Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker. After the administrative law judge rules, which is expected in February, the full ITC will vote on whether to follow the judge's ruling.

Urbee Hybrid: World's First 3D Printed Car

2010-11-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Stratasys and Winnipeg engineering group, Kor Ecologic are working on one of the world's most fuel-efficient and eco-friendly vehicles. Code-named, Urbee, it is the first car ever to have its entire body 3D printed by additive manufacturing processes.

Pankaj Jain To Head ESS India

2010-11-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

ESS Software Distribution and Consulting Private Limited, announced the appointment of Pankaj Jain as the Director...
He had been responsible for successfully introducing & establishing brands like Kaspersky and BitDefender to Indian AV market in the past.

Apple hits fourth slot, pushed RIM behind

2010-10-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

Apple is yet to make more records with its Smartphone, iPhone apparently. The mobile maker has outpassed long time biggies RIM and Sony Ericsson to grab the number four position globally in terms of shipments.

Sources cited that for the current quarter, Apple has made it to fourth slot with 4.3% market share. The company in all shipped 14.1 million handsets and signifies almost double of the shipments made last year.

Apple planning to make it tough for mobile carriers with specially crafted SIM?

2010-10-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Apple, the tech honcho is here again to change the mobile game; this time it is not the new device but its attempts to sideline the mobile carriers.

With its App store, the iPhone gave a run to mobile operators for the revenues and latest on the chart is a special “SIM” card that makes mobile carriers; a complete obsolete from the scene. The vendor is reportedly working with SIM card manufacturer Gemalto over a special SIM card that will kick off the dependency of users on the mobile carriers.

Google’s Developing Self-Driving Cars

2010-10-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

There’s a Toyota Prius in California, and a VW Passat halfway around the globe both equipped with bucket-shaped contraptions that let the cars drive themselves. Following their research on autonomous autos in the DARPA Urban Challenge, a team at Germany’s TU Braunschweig let the above GPS, laser and sensor-guided Volkswagen wander down the streets of Brunswick unassisted late last week, and today Google revealed that it’s secretly tested seven similar vehicles by the folks who won that same competition. CMU and Stanford engineers have designed a programmable package that can drive at the speed limit on regular streets and merge into highway traffic, stop at red lights and stop signs and automatically react to hazards. Google says its seven autos have already gone 1,000 unassisted miles. Google estimates self-driving vehicles are at least eight years down the road.

Our own desi e-book reader launched

2010-08-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

Mumbai, Aug. 21 -- As readers around the world are going electronic, a Bangalore-based technology company has launched an e-book reader for Indians. Wink XTS, the eReader developed by EC Media International, is a multi-functional e-book reader with which users can read texts in up to 15 Indian languages. The eReader was launched in Mumbai on Thursday and will be available at retail Croma stores around the country from September 1. The company also launched an online store www.winkstore.com, where readers can subscribe to over 200,000 e-books, newspapers, journals and magazines in English as well as regional languages. "The number of e-readers has almost doubled in the last year, and we thought an e-reader will be successful among the upwardly mobile sections of people in India," said Pradeep Palazhi, chief operating officer of EC Media. Last year, surveys reported around 2.9 million e-readers around the world, while the figure for the first half of 2010 is already around 2.6 million. It the first in a series of models that the company plans to make and will be available for a retail price of Rs 11,490. "We will also come up with lower priced models," said Palazhi.

Besides reading books, users will also be able to use the 2GB device to play music and check their e-mail. "We have already started receiving orders from the public for the eReader," said Palazhi.

Now, mobiles to sniff out deadly chemicals

2010-04-11T04:16:00.000-07:00

Scientists have developed a smartphone, a sensor-fitted mobile, which they claim cam also protect people from toxic chemicals.
A team at the US Homeland Security's science and technology directorate has designed the "Cell-All" which aims to equip cellphones with a censor capable of detecting deadly chemicals.

How does it work?
Just as antivirus software bides its time in the background and springs to life when it spies suspicious activity, so Cell-All would regularly sniffs the surrounding air for certain volatile chemical compounds.

'Tech addicts' asked to give up gadgets for 24 hours for charity

2010-03-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

London, Mar 26 (ANI): A charity has posed a challenge to technology addicts to go without their beloved gadgets for 24 hours.

Charity Practical Action has laid down the challenge to raise awareness of the technology-poor developing world.

They are asking for techno addicts to switch off their phone, unplug their games console and shut down their laptop for one day on March 27.

And if people are able to do it, the charity wants them to report their experiences in blogs, videos, photo diaries or cartoon strips but not until March 28.om Wiggins, news editor of Stuff Magazine, found his bash at the blackout "liberating" but admitted it was tough.

"Asking a tech journo to go without gadgets for a day is like getting a hairdresser to give up scissors," Sky News quoted him as saying.

Writer and broadcaster Adam Hart-Davis described a "wonderful" day mucking out chickens and planting trees.

"I also read the newspaper, which I decided was intermediate rather than high-tech," he said.

Describing the day's serious side, David Grimshaw from Practical Action said: "No Tech Day will help people reflect on the role of technology in their lives, not just today but tomorrow.

"In Nepal or Zimbabwe tomorrow...people will not have a choice about the technologies they use.

"They will not have internet access, mobile phones, electricity and clean water unless we address the multi-faceted problems of poverty," he added.

Practical Action provides developing countries with simple technology in a bid to improve their lives. (ANI)

Typing tracker could spot paedophiles

2010-03-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

London, March 26 (ANI): Paedophiles trying to lure children through the web may be tracked down in future by the way they type on a keyboard.

Professor Roy Maxion from the Newcastle University has developed a technique to identify typists' age, sex and culture in just ten keystrokes.

Former Northumbria Police Detective chief inspector Phil Butler, who is the head of the universities CyberCrime and Computer Security department, explained how the system functions.

"Professor Maxion takes 50 people at a time and hooks their fingers up to electronic sensors, then videos, monitors and records their typing patterns, speeds and rhythms with a very accurate clock," the Sun quoted him as saying.

He added: "He can now identify anyone using a keyboard within a 95 per cent accuracy within ten keystrokes.

"As soon as you type ten numbers or letters he can work out your sex, your culture, your age and whether you have any hand injuries.

"In general women's typing tends to flow more and is a little quicker. You'd expect men's typing to be a little more heavy-handed and apparently that's the case.

"We're looking at the application of the research, particularly in relation to internet grooming. If children are talking to each other on Windows Live or MSN messenger, Microsoft might be able to see if there's an adult on there."

The CyberCrime and Computer Security department, which was formed last summer, believes the new technology could also be used to prevent fraud at devices such as cash machines. (ANI)

'Skinput' can turn your arm into a touchscreen!

2010-03-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Washington, Mar 27(ANI): Annoyed with the tiny touchscreens on today's mobile devices? Well, your forearm can now solve that problem by becoming a part of a skin-based interface that effectively turns your body into a touchscreen, say scientists.

An international team has come up with a system, called Skinput, which has the ability to detect the ultralow-frequency sound produced by tapping the skin with a finger, and the microchip-sized "pico" projectors now found in some cellphones, reports New Scientist.

According to the scientists, the system beams a keyboard or menu onto the user's forearm and hand from a projector housed in an armband. An acoustic detector, also in the armband, then calculates which part of the display is to be activated.

Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, working with Dan Morris and Desney Tan at Microsoft's research lab in Redmond, Washington, exploits the way our skin, musculature and skeleton combine to make distinctive sounds when we tap on different parts of the arm, palm, fingers and thumb.

They have identified various locations on the forearm and hand that produce characteristic acoustic patterns when tapped.

The acoustic detector in the armband contains five piezoelectric cantilevers, each weighted to respond to certain bands of sound frequencies.

Different combinations of the sensors are activated to differing degrees depending on where the arm is tapped.

Twenty volunteers tested the system and most found it easy to navigate through icons on the forearm and tap fingers to actuate commands.

The system could use wireless technology like Bluetooth to transmit commands to many types of device - including phones, iPods and even PCs.

The researchers will present their work in April at the Computer-Human Interaction meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. (ANI)

Hacker-proof Internet

2010-03-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Experts have come up with a new security system for Internet using a special laser that may help keep hackers' prying eyes off for good.

Scientists at Tel Aviv University have developed a digital security tool with existing fiber optic and computer technology that transmits binary lock-and-key information in the form of light pulses.

The device, invented by Dr. Jacob Scheuer, TAU's School of Electrical Engineering, allegedly ensures that a shared key code can be unlocked by the sender and receiver, and absolutely nobody else.

Dr. Scheuer explained: "Rather than developing the lock or the key, we''ve developed a system which acts as a type of key bearer."

The researchers continued: "The trick is for those at either end of the fiber optic link to send different laser signals they can distinguish between, but which look identical to an eavesdropper."

Dr. Scheuer added: "We''ve already published the theoretical idea and now have developed a preliminary demonstration in my lab. Once both parties have the key they need, they could send information without any chance of detection. We were able to demonstrate that, if it''s done right, the system could be absolutely secure. Even with a quantum computer of the future, a hacker couldn''t decipher the key."

The findings were due to be presented at the next laser and electro-optics conference at the Conference for Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in San Jose, California.

PC maker Hewlett Packard (HP) unveiled a new line of notebook computers, including netbooks, starting around Rs 16,000.

2010-03-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

PC maker Hewlett Packard (HP) on Thursday unveiled a new line of notebook computers, including netbooks, starting around Rs 16,000.

"The new line of notebooks have been designed keeping in mind performance and styling needs of today's youth," HP India President (Personal Systems Group) Sunil Dutt told reporters here.

It also announced that it will offer 100 GB free space with the HP Mini for two months through cloud computing.

"Cloud computing is an area we are really looking forward to. Though the 100 GB free space is for two months, consumers would continue to get 2 GB free space after the two months or they can opt for a paid model," HP Director (Mobility Business Unit - PSG) Rajiev Grover said.

"We are also very interested in forging partnerships with local firms in India," he added.

Asked about losing marketshare in the notebook category, Dutt said, "I don't think it would be fair to make comments on the market based on the performance of just a quarter."

HP, which was for long the leader in the Indian PC market, was dislodged by Dell to the No. 2 spot in the notebook segment in the fourth quarter of calender year 2009.

The new range launched today includes Compaq Presario CQ42 and CQ62 priced at Rs 25,990 onwards, HP Pavilion dm4 and dm6 at Rs 36,990 onwards, HP Minis at Rs 16,000 onwards and HP TouchSmart tm2 at Rs 64,990.

Soon, spy in the sky to 'follow a car'

2010-03-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

An American defence research agency is developing a radar system, which will monitor vehicular movement across a city using a few uncrewed aircraft.

Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is creating the experimental vehicle tracking system, called Multipath Exploitation Radar (MER), reports New Scientist.

With the use of the new radar system, DARPA is hoping to track vehicles across an entire city using just a few uncrewed aircraft as it could see around corners and down into "urban canyons".

Unlike traditional radar that relies on direct line of sight and fails to track a vehicle that keeps nipping behind buildings, the MER, by using buildings as mirrors, will identify a target vehicle from radar reflections.

The agency has been exploring how MER might work by driving vehicles around a simulated urban area and collecting returns from an overhead radar. Its researchers are aiming to combine the radar data with a three-dimensional map of the test environment to calculate how the radar reflects off and between vehicles and buildings. This process should highlight which signals in the returning radar data can be used to plot the target vehicle's path.

A DARPA spokesman said that MER is expected to be compatible with the radar systems currently used to track vehicles.

The team anticipates that using reflected radar would cover more ground than a line-of-sight system, making it possible to monitor a city of about 1000 square kilometres, such as Baghdad, with just three airborne radars.

The three-dimensional model of a city needed to make sense of the reflection pattern could be created using LIDAR, the optical surveying technology which is routinely carried on aircraft.

MER makes use of Ku-band radar - frequencies of between 12 and 18 gigahertz. It is sensitive enough to produce distinct signatures for apparently similar vehicles, by detecting slight differences, such as the angle of an aerial or a wing mirror.

The agency is also planning to develop an algorithm, which would enable the system to track multiple vehicles.

A 'Sudoku grid' to foil web fraud

2010-03-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

It looks like a crossword grid or a Sudoku puzzle printed on a transparent sheet of plastic. It can also pass off as a fancy Tambola card. But it is neither.

Actually, it is a new tool designed to prevent theft of transaction passwords by fraudsters and make online banking safer.

The grid helps customers generate a new passwod for every online banking transaction.

The novel technology, called 'intellect privacy dynamic grid', works like a physical key that lets you unlock your banking account in the virtual world, every time with a new key.

Brainchild of K. Balaraju, a postgraduate entrepreneurship student at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), the idea has been commercialised by a Chennai firm, Laser Soft Infosystems, a subsidiary of Polaris Software Lab. The IITM has filed four patents on the technology.

Within a fortnight of its release, the technology has evoked interest in banking circles in several countries. IndusInd Bank has become its first user in India.

A dynamic grid is a matrix of numeric characters printed on a transparent card with cells randomly assigned to numbers and black colour, while some are left blank. Each grid generated is unique and a bunch of these cards is issued to a customer at the time of registration.

When a user logs into his online account with his access ID and password, another grid of the same size appears on the screen.

All that the user has to do is place the plastic grid exactly aligning it with the grid seen on the screen.

When superimposed, the two grids mutually mask most of the numbers and only a subset of numeric characters from the grid will be visible on the screen. The numbers left on the screen - from left to right or top to bottom - will form the one-time password.

"The numbers generated from the combination of screen grid and transparent card grid vary each time the user logs in. This means that for each transaction, a new grid will be generated by the server so that a unique password props up every time," explained B. Suresh Kamath, Laser Soft Infosystems managing director, who too is an IITM alumni.

The technology works on the principle of "Challenge Response Authentication" which is a method for proving one's identity over an insecure medium without giving out any information.

This is designed to tackle the growing menace of phishing attacks on banking accounts, in which cheats trick you into giving your online passwords through deceptive e- mails and malicious software that can supply all keystroke information to hackers.

"The security strength of the new system lies in the randomness of position and the random text in that position," said Kamath.

"The system is easy to use, cost effective - one card may cost less than a rupee - and ideal for mass banking applications in India.

The technology can be used for transactions through mobiles and ATM screens too. And instead of numbers, we can have letters from any Indian language." Options such as virtual keyboard and e-valets have been found prone to frauds, officials said.

Teachers and Technology

2010-01-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

Why do we still keep on debating a way of world? Why do we need to think so much on embracing a necessary change? And when we do need to get on to a change, we all know, Sooner the Better. So where else to start on the bandwagon than classrooms! With responsibility to guide young children and enabling them, it becomes all the more imperative that teachers embrace technology and bring them to classroom. Education is all about learning and enabling to be able to make best use of what is available today and improve upon it or find new knowledge for a better tomorrow. So better knowledge management, better access to information, innovative means to seeing things work in simulated environments, access to all sort of books on kindle, continuous access to search engines on your cell phones, all need to be absorbed into our day.

Imagine how fast and efficient our research gets when we do not need to wait for weeks to get that elusive research paper from a distant library. Think how fast our experiments become when computers can perform hundred million iterations for analyzing and fitting an equation on your data. But we can use all this if we are on top of technology not grappling with it. Or just think how effective teaching becomes when we are able to use 3-D teaching aids, models, presentations in class. We can just bring in a Harvard Professor right into any classroom with his ideas and style. We can just have any of the best statesmen in world right amongst our students. Or we can see how Newton could not see Apple Flying upwards or what trajectory a missile will take right in classroom and not use up any funds on physical models.

Opportunities are vast, potential is huge but then responsibility is enormous. We cannot teach what we ourselves struggle with. So it is very important for teachers to be tech savvy, IT Savvy, Computer Savvy. Call it by any name but it is just saying, “Teachers, you need to be updated with times!”

New Software To Stop Viruses Before They Strike

2010-01-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

Virus is one of the biggest problems in the area of computer operations. When a new virus hits the Internet, there is little that an anti-virus software can do to stop the malware on that very day. Now, a team of British engineers has come up with a solution to that pestering problem.
A defence technology company, based in Worcestershire, has invented a way to stop viruses in their tracks by intercepting every file that could possibly hide a virus and adding a string of computer codes to it that will disable any virus it contains. The new technique mainly targets e-mailed attachments and adds the extra code to them as they pass through a mail server. A key feature of the scheme is that no knowledge of the virus itself is needed. Hence, it can successfully deal with new, unrecognized viruses as well as older and known ones.
Virus writers disguise harmful files as innocuous documents to fool unsuspecting users into unknowingly converting them into executable program files. The scientists aim to prevent this by inserting a line of machine codes-the raw code that the microprocessor chips understand -into the header area of incoming files. This is the part of the file that holds the formatting data that defines such aspects as a document's layout and fonts. If the file is simply opened by another programme, the code is ignored. But if someone attempts to run it as an independent programme, the new code will run first and stop the rest of the programme in its tracks, either by exiting or by sending it into an infinite loop.

Paper Batteries to Power Laptops, Drive Cars

2010-01-11T09:10:00.000-08:00

Scientists at the Standford University, USA, have reported that they have successfully turned a specific type of paper(coated with ink made of silver and carbon nanomaterials) into a "paper battery". This recent development holds a new kind of lightweight, high-performance energy storage.
There is a specific feature which helps ink stick to the surface of a paper. The same feature also allows it to hold on to the single-walled carbon nanotubes and silver nanowire films. Earlier research had found that silicon nanowires could be used to make batteries 10 times as powerful as lithium-ion batteries, which are currently used to power devices such as laptops.'
Taking advantage of the mature paper technology, low-cost and high-performance energy storage are realised by using conductive paper as current collectors and electrodes. This type of battery could be useful in powering electric or hybrid vehicles. It may be mentioned here that battery weight and life have been an obstacle to commercial viability of electric-powered cars and trucks.

Roxxxy, the new Robot

2010-01-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas: Billed as a world first, Roxxxy the sex robot made her debut at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.

Inventor - Douglas Hines, Artificial Intelligence Engineer at Bell Labs

The life-size robot has artificial intelligence and flesh-like synthetic skin. "She's a companion. She has a personality. She hears you. She listens to you. She speaks. She feels your touch. She goes to sleep. We are trying to replicate a personality of a person." Roxxxy stands five feet, seven inches tall, weighs 120 pounds.

The anatomically- correct robot has an articulated skeleton that can move like a person but can't walk or independently move its limbs.

Robotic movement is built into "the three inputs" and a mechanical heart that powers a liquid cooling system. Roxxxy comes in 5 personalities.

Soon, a breath controlled mobile

2010-01-11T08:25:00.000-08:00

London: Imagine answering a call by blowing on your handset without touching button. Soon such mobile phones will be there with the revolutionary breath-controlled technology.
The technology called Sensawaft, still in its infancy, has been developed by a US firm, Zyxio. Sensawaft is powered by micro-electromechanical systems, tiny chips that can be embedded in other devices, such as video games or handsfree mobile phone headset.