Superman crystals could store 360TB of data forever

Researchers have been able to demonstrate the ability to read and write data using a five-dimensional recording process in a synthetic crystal to store massive amounts of data indefinitely.

The researchers, led by Jingyu Zhang from the University of Southampton in the U.K., successfully recorded a 300KB digital copy of a text file onto nanostructured glass in 5D using ultrafast and intense pulse laser. The file was written in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometers (five millionths of a meter).

The scientists used a femtosecond laser, which emits pulses of light in femtoseconds (one quadrillionth, or one millionth of one billionth of a second). The 5D read/write laser can record up to an estimated 360 TB/disc data capacity on nanostructured glass capable of thermal stability up to 1000°C -- and a practically unlimited lifetime.

In a statement this week, the researchers called the glass the "Superman memory crystal," alluding to the "memory crystals" used in Superman films to store the planet Kryptonite's history and its civilization's collective knowledge.

The University of Southampton researchers recorded via self-assembled nanostructures created in fused quartz, which they said is able to store the vast quantities of data for more than a million years.

The information encoding comes in five dimensions that include the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nanostructures.

According to a recently published paper, the self-assembled nanostructures change the way light travels through glass, modifying polarization of light that can then be read by combination of optical microscope and a polarizer, similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.

A graphic depicting a 5D optical storage writing setup: femtosecond laser, spatial light modulator (SLM), Fourier lens (FL), half-wave plates matrix (»/2 M), dichroic mirror, 1.2 NA water immersion objective, silica glass sample, translation stage. (Image: University of Southhampton)

The research was conducted as part of a joint project with Eindhoven University of Technology.

"We are developing a very stable and safe form of portable memory using glass, which could be highly useful for organizations with big archives," Jingyu said in a statement. "At the moment, companies have to back up their archives every five to 10 years because hard-drive memory has a relatively short lifespan."Museums who want to preserve information or places like the national archives where they have huge numbers of documents, would really benefit," he added.

Posted by Admin on 02:06 in news, technology

SMARTPHONE UNLOCKED SCREENS REVIEW : 1080p AND MORE

We have plenty of names to describe the viewing quality on your smartphone screen, but few of them actually make sense. Here's what matters, and why.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 features PureMotion HD+ technology, a ClearBlack display, and supersensitive screen. 

 The smartphone industry tosses around a whole bucket of names and numbers to describe the viewing experience on your smartphone screen: ClearBlack, 1080p, Retina, AMOLED, supersensitive. And the list goes on.
Some designations are marketing monikers cooked up to give one company an edge; others are more scientific. That isn't to say that flashy names like Apple's Retina Display are worthless and empty. Sometimes the trademarked name masks a unique process too technical to quickly explain.
To make things simpler, here are some common terms you might see attached to smartphone screens, and some factors that actually go into making your screen a standout, like the physical screen materials, LCD versus OLED, brightness, color accuracy, and pixel resolution. Got all that? Good. Now let's dive in.

Common smartphone screens
The terms often used to describe smartphone screens aren't always so clear.

• Retina Display: Apple's proprietary name for its LCD screen, which serves up a 1,136x640 pixel resolution.
• HD Super AMOLED: Samsung's name for its high-definition smartphone displays, which use the OLED screen technology.



An AMOLED display comes together.




• 1080p: The highest common high-definition screen resolution, measuring 1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels. Also called "full HD."
• 720p: The lower high-definition designation, 1,280 by 720 pixels.
• Supersensitive or ultrasensitive: A new technology that lets you operate a touch screen with your fingernail or glove.
• PureMotion HD+: Nokia's name for its display with 1,280x768-pixel resolution and various properties.
• ClearBlack: Nokia's name for an antiglare filter applied to the screen. 
• Super LCD: A product name that also describes an LCD screen made in a certain way.
• IPS: A type of LCD screen technology known for producing clearer image quality and wider viewing angles, among other traits. It's used in many smartphones.

The anatomy of a smartphone screen

Before we dive in, it's helpful to understand the layout of a smartphone screen. The oversimplified version is that displays are composed of several layers of material, starting backing material and including a lighting element (like the backlight for LCD screens), which is then topped with a TFT (thin-film transistor) layer, which uses voltage-sipping transistors to keep the display's pixels shining until you refresh or change the image.
There's also the touch-sensitive panel; various films and filters that might reduce glare, for instance; and the cover glass, which is often bonded to the touch layer. Gorilla Glass is one designer brand of cover glass.

LCD versus OLED

There are warring schools of thought between the two types of display technologies: LCDs (which act as valves to allow varying amounts of the backlight through to the viewer) or AMOLED/OLEDs (a different approach that uses "active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes" to directly emit light).

There are complex ins and outs, but in a nutshell, you can think about LCDs and OLEDs as follows:

LCD screens start with an always-on backlight; this technology requires light to create black, white, and colors. High-end LCDs produce the most accurate colors, though their manufacturers sometimes intentionally calibrate LCDs to produce weaker red, blue, and purple shades in order to reduce the device's power consumption.

LCDs generally age slower, with their brightness and color balance holding up fairly well over thousands of hours of use.

OLED, on the other hand, doesn't require any light to produce black, only white and colors. Therefore, it's considered battery-saving (since it requires no energy to create black) and can produce inky blacks. OLEDs are often considered brighter as well, creating punchy hues. As a side effect, OLED screens tend to oversaturate the color green.

OLEDs also age more rapidly than LCDs, according to experts, which means that the red and blue colors deteriorate faster than green, which can further throw the color balance out of whack.

OLEDs can also be expensive to make, and in the past, limited production has caused some manufacturers, like HTC, to switch from AMOLED to LCD screens.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 uses an OLED screen; the HTC One rocks LCD.

What is IPS?
What makes the two differing technologies more confusing is that there are multiple versions of each. For instance, IPS (in-plane switching) is a type of premium LCD technology that's touted for its wide viewing angle and clearer picture. The iPhone 5 is a prime example of a phone using IPS panels.

So what about Super AMOLED?
Samsung makes most of the OLED smartphone screens, naming its line Super AMOLED.

These days we see mainly HD Super AMOLED phones with high-pixel resolutions, but Samsung has also made Super AMOLED and Super AMOLED Plus screens; the shift from Plus to HD Super AMOLED is a controversial one among pixel buffs, and one that quickly becomes technical.

PenTile matrix, RGBG

Each screen pixel is actually composed of red, green, and blue subpixels that can turn on and off in combination to create any supported color combination (turn them all on at full blast to shine white).

There are numerous ways to pattern the subpixels. Super AMOLED (and HD Super AMOLED) uses Samsung's PenTile layout and its pattern of red, green, blue, green (RG-BG) subpixels.

PenTile, in fact, uses fewer red and blue subpixels than it does green. As such, PenTile also has fewer subpixels than the typical RGB layout found in LCDs and in AMOLED screens used by other companies. Examine a PenTile screen closely and you might be able to detect a little more image granularity when you're looking at fine details and text. For the most part, though, your eyes fill in the blanks.

Some people preferred Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus pixel arrangement for creating a technically sharper image with three subpixels per pixel, rather than the two subpixels in the non-Plus version that Samsung's flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4 have today.

Although Samsung didn't comment for this piece, an employee of Samsung America (but not Samsung Display) has said elsewhere that PenTile is more durable. It's also cheaper to make than Super AMOLED Plus, and it has some battery-saving efficiencies, since there are fewer subpixels that the battery has to power.

Pixel density
Generally speaking, though, the more pixels you have per inch (ppi), the better your picture. So smaller screens should look crisper than larger screens when both have the same pixel density.

That said, Apple claims that the human eye can't really distinguish more than 326 pixels per inch. Screens with 1080p HD resolutions typically hover in the 5-inch range, delivering pixel densities in the high 300s to 400s.

                                       HTC One                  Samsung Galaxy S4                    iPhone 5

Screen size                   4.7 in.                                  5 in.                                     4 in.

Resolution               1,920x1,080                      1,920x1,080                       1,136 x 640

Pixel density               468ppi                                 441ppi                               441ppi

While pixel density is an important factor in the smoothness of the overall picture, it's just one facet of many. And when it comes to comparing smartphone pixel density with that of a tablet, you don't necessarily need the same high density. DisplayMate's Soneira explains here how fewer pixels can satisfy your eye when reading from a tablet you hold farther from your face than you would want from a smartphone, which has a smaller form factor and is often held closer.

Brightness and color

It's as true with smartphones as it is with HDTVs: people's eyes are often drawn to the brightest and punchiest of the pack, blue blues and green greens that are rich and saturated, but just not true to life.

Oversaturated color gets tiring, and just looks cheap or fake when you're viewing something so familiar that your eye knows it's being fooled -- a video or photo of something you just know isn't that candied.

Some OLED devices do contain settings to dial down the juice, but you'll have to go hunting in the sub-menus to find more realistic tones.

Reflection, the secret enemy
Ever take your phone outside and squint to read the screen? Phones with high reflectance can be a real setback, but some manufacturers are good at getting on top of it. Nokia applies itsClearBlack filter above the touch layer (but below the glass) on its high-end phones. It works on both AMOLED and LCD screens.

 iStockphoto

The ClearBlack filter uses "circular polarization," which forces light to travel in a clockwise direction, then blocks off all the light that bounces back to the screen in a counterclockwise direction. The end result is reduced reflectance overall, and improved legibility both indoors and outdoors.

Who's doing it best?
Nokia, Apple, Samsung, and HTC all produce high-end phones teeming with pixels, and the LCD versus OLED color reproduction question often comes down to a matter of personal preference.

When it comes to technical proficiency, which you can measure in a lab using calibrated instruments, we

found that the Galaxy S4 screen edges the HTC One overall, but not in every category.

While all smartphones are harder to read in direct sunlight, I give Nokia a lot of credit for working on outdoor legibility. Of these four top phone-makers, I've personally had the most problems with Samsung's screens fighting the sun's rays.

Still, my ultimate buying advice is this: stare at the screen long and hard on automatic mode (the one you'll use most to save battery), and hold it up next to other rival devices in the store. If you can live with it, if you never notice overly dull or artificial colors, or a distracting reflection, and if you feel you can read small text without blurriness or eye strain, then there's no reason to let the specs determine your purchasing path.

Posted by Admin on 00:51 in news, smartphone, technology

Apple envisions touch screen to control your car's key features

Apple is trying to integrate itself even further into your car with a freshly patented dashboard touch screen.

Granted Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent dubbed "Programmable tactile touch screen displays and man-machine interfaces for improved vehicle instrumentation and telematics" (patent number 8,482,535) describes a tactile-feel touch screen that would let you adjust several of the key features and functions in your car.

The patent discusses such options as controlling the temperature, the wipers, and the radio all from one panel. And in a nod toward safety, certain controls would be enabled only when the car is stopped.

For example, a transparent knob on the touch screen could be used to alter the temperature or turn on the wipers when the car is in motion. But that same knob could also activate your e-mail and Web browser when the car stops.

The touch screen's tactile-feel approach is also designed to help drivers push the right buttons without having to take their eyes off the road.

The patent itself touts the invention as "a revolutionary form of dashboard or instrument panel results which is stylistically attractive, lower in cost, customizable by the user, programmable in both the tactile and visual sense, and with the potential of enhancing interior safety and vehicle operation."

The whole concept could complement Apple's upcoming "iOS in the Car," a feature that would let you control your iPhone directly through your auto's onboard receiver.

Posted by Admin on 09:40 in news, tech news

Bluebox Reveals Android Security Hole,which may affect 99% of Devices

Researchers at Bluebox Security have revealed a disturbing flaw in Android's security model, which the group claims may affect up to 99 percent of Android devices in existence. According to Bluebox, this vulnerability has existed since Android 1.6 (Donut), which gives malicious app developers the ability to modify the code of a legitimate APK, all without breaking its cryptographic signature -- thereby allowing the installation to go unnoticed. To pull off the exploit, a rotten app developer would first need to trick an unknowing user into installing the malicious update, but hackers could theoretically gain full control of a user's phone if the "update" posed as a system file from the manufacturer.

Bluebox claims that it notified Google of the exploit in February. According to CIO, Bluebox CTO Jeff Forristal has named the Galaxy S 4 as the only device that's currently immune to the exploit -- which suggests that a security patch may already exist. Forristal further claims that Google is working on an update for its Nexus devices. In response to our inquiry, Google told us that it currently has no comment. We certainly hope that device manufacturers do the responsible thing and distribute timely security patches to resolve this issue. Absent that, you can protect yourself by installing updates through the Play Store and Android's built-in system update utility.

Posted by Admin on 09:25 in news

Yahoo to shutdown a dozen services by September

As the latest of many changes that have been made to Yahoo! under CEO Marissa Mayer’s reign, the company announced via Tumblr that it will be shutting down a dozen services over the new few months, with the last one going down on September 28. This move in part removes services that have received little attention in modern times – some of them perhaps being unknown to most of Internet users – while others are more known. Regardless, the purpose is to do away with the old and draw the company’s users towards a more cohesive, modern Yahoo!.

In every instance, the removed services are replaced with Yahoo!’s current services, leaving users with alternatives that they may or many not be happy with. The first three on the list were slashed today: Yahoo! Axis, Yahoo! Browser Plus, and Citizen Sport. Those who use the Axis plugin will find that it stopped working today, while those using the apps will continue to have access, but they won’t be updated. Citizen Sports users are being directed to Yahoo! Sport, while Browser Plus users are encouraged to check out the company’s developer page for new options.

Yahoo! WebPlayer will go down on June 30, with the player no longer loading. Users are encouraged to remove its code from their websites. The day after that, both FoxyTunes and RSS Alerts will be slashed, with the former being replaced with Yahoo! Music and the latter with Yahoo! Alerts via a Keyword News subscriptions.

Perhaps the most notable service to be taken down is AltaVista, with users being pushed towards Yahoo! Search instead. On the same day – July 8 – Yahoo! Neighbors Beta will also be removed, and users are encouraged to replace it with Yahoo!’s Local Search instead. The last two services to be removed in July are Stars India, replaced with India OMG!, and Downloads Beta, which will switch to only supporting Yahoo! product downloads.

Nothing will be removed in August, oddly enough, with the final two being taken down by the end of September: Yahoo!’s Local API, as well as its online documentation from the developer’s portal, and Term Extraction API, with direct access being replaced with access via YQL. Developers are encouraged to migrate away from this before September 28.

Posted by Admin on 05:51 in news

Most Android threats would be blocked if phones ran latest Android version, report says

Over three quarters of Android threats are malicious apps that send SMS messages to premium rate numbers and could be mitigated by a protection feature present in Android 4.2, according to researchers from networking vendor Juniper Networks.

However, because manufacturers and carriers fail to update Android end user devices in a timely fashion, only 4 percent of devices currently run Android 4.2, even though this version was released more than six months ago.

From March 2012 to March 2013 the number of mobile threats grew by 614 percent to reach a total of 276,259 malicious samples, researchers from Juniper Networks’ Mobile Threat Center (MTC) said in a report released Wednesday. Of those malicious applications, 92 percent target the Android operating system, they said.

The surge of Android malware in the past two years is consistent with the findings of other security vendors that track mobile threats. This growth is primarily driven by Android’s “commanding share” of the global smartphone market, the Juniper researchers said.

The majority of Android malware, 77 percent, are apps that earn money for their creators by either requiring users to send SMS messages to premium rate numbers or by surreptitiously sending such messages on their own. These threats usually masquerade as legitimate applications or come bundled in pirated apps.

The Juniper researchers estimate that every successful attack using such an app can bring an immediate profit of $10 for the attacker on average.

What Android 4.2 provides

Android 4.2 introduced a feature that detects attempts to send SMS messages to special rate numbers, also known as short codes, and prompts users for confirmation. Unfortunately, due to the Android market fragmentation, only 4 percent of Android devices are currently running Android 4.2.x.

This estimation is based on data collected from Google Playover a 14-day period ending on May 1, 2013, the Juniper researchers said. Based on the same data, the most common versions of Android found on devices are Android 2.3.3 to 2.3.7, also known as “Gingerbread,” with a 36.4 percent coverage and Android 4.0.3 and 4.0.4, also known as “Ice Cream Sandwich,” with 25.5 percent.

The lack of regular updates for Android devices contributes to the growth of Android malware, because the latest protections added by Google to the operating systems reach users too late or never, the researchers said.

Spyware

The second most common type of Android threats are spyware applications that capture and transfer sensitive user data to attackers. These account for 19 percent of all malicious samples collected by Juniper’s MTC.

Some information-stealing Android Trojan apps discovered during the past year and distributed through drive-by downloads or phishing emails could also pose a threat to enterprise environments, the Juniper researchers said.

Data collected from enterprise mobile devices running Juniper’s Junos Pulse endpoint collaboration and security software showed at least one infection on 3.1 percent of such devices.

While that figure is not large enough to raise a significant alarm, it is proof that the threat of mobile malware to corporate devices is not only theoretical, the Juniper researchers said. “We expect the presence of mobile malware in the enterprise to grow exponentially in the coming years.”

Posted by Admin on 05:25 in news

Sony Xperia M 'coming soon' in India

Sony's latest mid-range NFC enabled smartphone, Xperia M, has been listed at online retailer Infibeam as 'coming soon'. The listing does not reveal the India pricing of the smartphone as well.

To recall, Sony had announced the Xperia M earlier this month. The smartphone runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Krait processor. Dual-SIM version of the smartphone will also be available.

The smartphone sports a 4-inch FWVGA (854x480 pixel) TFT display, that is powered by Adreno 305 graphics, and features 1GB of RAM. There's 4GB of built-in storage along with a microSD slot for additional storage.

The smartphone also features a 5MP camera that boasts of an Exmor RS sensor, and 720p HD video recording. A front-facing 0.3MP camera is also available. Connectivity options include dual-band Wi-Fi, 3G HSPA, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and FM radio.

Posted by Admin on 05:00 in news

Firefox Gets A New Logo

Firefox is an ever evolving beast, and that includes both its friendly orange fox logo, and its Beta channel browser. Today Mozilla unveiled the fourth Firefox logo, a (slightly) less textured and glossy icon for its favored web browser. Meanwhile, the latest update for for Firefox Beta brings access to the company's Social API and, consequently, Share buttons to the platform -- so Facebook fanatics can have one-click sharing of images, articles, videos and links from the Firefox toolbar. The new Beta is also getting a Mixed Content Blocker that prevents HTTP (read: nonsecure) content from loading on HTTPS websites. Plus, there's a new Network Monitor feature to let devs see how quickly individual page components load and optimizations for OS X 10.7 that enable its scrollbar style and and the scroll bounce behavior Apple fans love.

Oh, and for you mobile fans, the Android Beta was updated today, too. Now, it's got an auto-hide Awesome Bar, a URL auto-complete function and an updated RSS feed reader that allows you to add feeds to with a long press on the aforementioned Awesome Bar. Pretty awesome, gents, now let's get these Beta features into a full release, and it'll be really awesome.

Posted by Admin on 09:41 in news

What is Windows Blue?

Microsoft has sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses. Next up is Windows 8.1, aka 'Windows Blue'. Here we look at what is Windows Blue (Windows 8.1).

The software giant has said that it will change 'key aspects' of its Windows 8 operating system for PCs, laptops and tablets, admitting that the steep learning curve for users is 'definitely real'.

"Not only will Windows 8.1 respond to customer feedback, but it will add new features and functionality that advance the touch experience and mobile computing’s potential. Windows 8.1 will deliver improvements and enhancements in key areas like personalization, search, the built-in apps, Windows Store experience, and cloud connectivity."

Read on to find out exactly what Windows Blue is and how it will affect you.

Windows Blue release date

Windows 8.1 will be officially launched at the Microsoft Build developer conference in San Francisco on June 26. But you won't be able to get hold of it immediately. The final version will be available as a free downloadable Windows 8 update 'late 2013', according to Microsoft. At that point also expect some new Windows Blue hardware in time for Christmas.

What is Windows Blue?

Windows Blue is a new version of the Windows 8 operating system which Microsoft is working on. Instead of releasing service packs, Microsoft will issue new versions of the OS much like Apple does with OS X.
The firm already does a similar thing with Windows Phone, for example, 7.5 'Mango' and 8 'Apollo'.
Tammi Reller, head of marketing and finance for the Windows, said: "It will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem. It will provide more options for businesses, and give consumers more options for work and play."

Windows Blue: Will it be called Windows Blue?

Windows Blue is the codename for the new version of Windows 8 so it will get a different name when it is released. Microsoft has confirmed it will be called Windows 8.1, as expected.

Windows Blue: What features will it bring?

Microsoft has given a 'first look' at Windows 8.1, detailing some of the new features which will arrive with the update.

Posted by Admin on 09:12 in news

HP Announces 21.5-inch All-in-One That Runs on Android, Slate 21 AIO

While Google has long touted its “Chrome OS” as an alternative to Windows – the platform hasn’t exactly taken off outside of a limited yet dedicated group of web-centric users. Does this mean that Microsoft can continue on in the desktop world, uncontested save for Mac OS, Linux, and the limited Chrome OS niche? You’d think so, but apparently Android is more than ready to step up to the plate and steal away some of Microsoft’s marketshare.
We’ve seen several hybrid laptop/tablet devices this year, and now comes a new desktop all-in-one from HP, the HP Slate 21 AIO. This 21.5-inch desktop computer has a touch display, Nvidia Tegra 4 processor and is powered by Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. For those wondering this isn’t a true tablet – meaning that there is no battery on-board and it must be powered by an outlet at all times.
So is Google ready to move on from Chrome OS and position Android as a Windows alternative? Hardly.
It’s important to note that Google is still very much dedicated to its web-focused Chrome OS platform and that any efforts to bring Android over to desktop or laptop devices have been moves by manufacturers and not directly efforts from Google.


Still, it’s hard to deny that there is a growing number of PC-like devices that are utilizing Android over Windows, Linux or Mac OS. And honestly these types of devices could be perfect for folks with limited needs: typing, emailing, checking Facebook and just general browsing of the web.
When is the Slate 21 AIO coming? The device will arrive sometime in July to Asia, with a very friendly price of $359. No word on if and when the unique desktop AIO might make its way over to Europe, North America and the rest of the globe.
What do you you think, could you see yourself replacing a traditional PC desktop with something that runs on the power of Android, or is a mobile OS just too limited for use outside of tablets and smartphones? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Posted by Admin on 09:03 in news