Apple rumor watch- i OS timepiece on drawing board
After creating the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, is Apple now working on an iWatch?
A report cited by Business Insider claims that Apple has partnered with
Intel to develop an iOS watch. Supply chain sources reportedly told
Chinese blog site Tech163.com that the watch would be Bluetooth-enabled
and sport a 1.5-inch OLED screen.
The so-called smart watch would debut sometime in the first half of next year.
Other sources have chimed in on the general concept, with Piper Jaffray
analyst Gene Munster, for one, saying he thinks wearable computing is a
line that Apple might eventually get into. And as noted by The Next
Web, the Kickstarter campaign by Pebble raised more than $10 million
from people convinced of the demand for a smart watch running iOS or
Android.
Based on just the one report from Tech163.com, this bit of
"news" is decidedly in the rumor stage. So I wouldn't hold my breath
waiting for the iWatch just yet. Still, a smart watch represents another
area where Apple could see heavy interest and demand.
Earlier this
year, Crave readers shared with CNET their dream Apple products. The
winner described his as a souped-up iPod Nano watch with futuristic
features like wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and/or NFC) and
support for Siri and FaceTime. And it's not exactly unfamiliar territory
for Apple.
With their small and square design, previous versions of
the iPod Nano have done double-duty as watches. Different manufacturers
sell watchbands that you can attach to the Nano to wear it on your
wrist.
Aside from displaying the time, the Nano can play music,
display photos, and keep track of your fitness history. I have a Nano
with a watchband and often wear it when I go jogging or walking.
Apple bumped up the size of the 2012 Nano. so it can no longer serve as a
watch. So perhaps the company could have a true smart watch in its
sights as the next technology frontier to conquer
We’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about Samsung‘s next flagship
smartphone, the Galaxy S IV, and we don’t expect it die down anytime
soon. The latest rumor fresh out of South Korea is that Samsung is
preparing the Galaxy S IV for an April 2013 launch, and it’s said that
the new handset will come with S Pen functionality right out
of the box. Multiple Korean sources are saying that the new phone will
land in April, and the accompanying S Pen feature hints that Samsung is
allegedly looking to bring some of the best features of their Note
series to the flagship Galaxy S IV, which wouldn’t be too terribly
surprising, even considering how different the two devices are just from
the screen size alone.
The alleged April 2013 release windows
is right on the money with a previous rumor that we heard at the
beginning of the month, saying that Samsung was working on “Project J”
that is set for an April 2013 announcement. However, an announcement and
an actual release are completely different, so we’re not really sure
what to believe at this point.
It’s rumored that the Galaxy S
IV will come with a 5-inch 1080p AMOLED display, a quad-core Exynos 5440
chip, a 13-megapixel rear auto-focus camera, and will feature a
slightly thicker 9.2mm body, a change that would make the S IV very
Note-like this time around, and would explain the S Pen functionality.
From 1990 to 2010, the global average age of death rose from 59 to 70, with women outliving men by about five years
Scandinavia and Australia have the longest life expectancy, while Africa and Russia are among the lowest
But living longer means we are suffering health problems that cause us years of pain,
disability and mental distress, says landmark study. Life expectancy
around the world has soared, but we are now living with health problems
that cause us years of pain, disability and mental distress.
This
'devastating irony', as researchers describe it, is one of the key
findings of a landmark study assessing the global health in the history
of medicine.
From 1990 to 2010, life expectancy continued to
increase in most parts of the world. The average age of death rose from
59 to 70, with women outliving men by about five years.
The map
below highlights the average life expectancy by area, with Scandinavia
and Australia having the oldest populations. However, as the population
has aged, the number of years that people live with chronic diseases
and disabilities, such as back pain, diabetes, arthritis and depression,
has also risen.
Today's major health problems now are diseases and
conditions that don't kill, but make us ill. We now live longer with
more health problems that cause pain, impair mobility, and prevent us
seeing, hearing and thinking clearly. These consequences of an ageing
population were compiled by researchers from more than 300 institutions
from 50 countries around the world. They took data from surveys,
censuses and hospital records and used computer models to estimate how
long people live and how healthy they are. The Global Burden of Disease
study, led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at
Washington University, found that countries face a wave of financial and
social costs from rising numbers of people living with disease and
injury.
Among other findings are that while malnutrition has dropped
down the rankings as a cause of death and illness, the effects of
excessive eating are taking its place.
Smoking and alcohol use have also overtaken child hunger to become the second and third
leading health risks, behind high blood pressure.
Over three million deaths globally were attributable in 2010 to excess
body weight, more than three times as many as malnutrition.
'We've
gone from a world 20 years ago where people weren't getting enough to
eat to a world now where too much food and unhealthy food - even in
developing countries - is making us sick,' said Majid Ezzati of Imperial
College London, one of the lead researchers.
The research also found that of 52.8 million deaths globally in 2010, chronic diseases took the highest tolls.
About 12.9 million deaths were due to stroke and heart disease -
conditions exacerbated by eating and drinking too much, smoking and
taking too little exercise - and eight million were from cancer.
HIV/AIDS killed 1.5 million people in 2010, and tuberculosis, another infectious disease, killed 1.2 million.
While child mortality has decreased, there has also been a startling 44
percent increase in the number of deaths among adults aged 15 to 49
between 1970 and 2010. This is partly because of increases in violence
such as homicide and traffic accidents and the AIDS epidemic, the
researchers said.
'Very few people are walking around with perfect
health, and as people age, they accumulate health conditions,' said
Christopher Murray, the IHME's director. 'This means we should
recalibrate what life will be like for us in our 70s and 80s. It also
has profound implications for health systems as they set priorities.'
The study, was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published as seven papers in The Lancet medical journal.
The private US space engineering firm SpaceX released a video over the
weekend showing its Grasshopper rocket making a short but important
journey that could take space exploration to new heights: reusable
rockets that can lift off and land back on Earth vertically, to reduce
the cost of commercial space travel.
"The Grasshopper program is a critical step toward achieving SpaceX's goal of developing fully and rapidly reusable rockets," the company said on its website.
"With Grasshopper, SpaceX engineers are testing the technology that
would allow a launched rocket to land intact, rather than burning up
upon reentry to Earth's atmosphere."
The video shows what happened during the December 17 test flight from the SpaceX launch facility in Mc Gregor, Texas.
As the engines fired up, the 10-story tall Grasshopper rocket lifted 12
stories - 131 feet (40 meters) - in the air, hovered in place, and then
gently returned to earth, settling safely on the landing pad.
It was the third test launch for the Grasshopper, each one higher than the one before.
The first fight in September lifted six feet (1.8 meters) in the air. The second one in November rose 17.7 feet (5.4 meters).
The company's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, tweeted like a proud dad
on Sunday, sending out photos and the video, and making it clear that
this wasn't exactly an unmanned flight, there was a dummy cowboy riding
along, standing on the deck, complete with a tall, black cowboy hat.
SpaceX has successfully sent its Dragon capsules to resupply the
International Space Station and is working on a version of the Dragon to
carry astronauts into orbit.
One of the Largest Astronomical Images Ever Made!!
The northern portion of the Cygnus Loop, as seen in an enormous new
panorama from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and WIYN
partners
Looking for a stunning new desktop image to wrap up the
year? Try this: it’s an amazing panorama of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova
remnant located 1,500 light-years away in the constellation (you guessed
it) Cygnus. The full-size image, acquired with the wide-field Mosaic
camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona, is a
staggering 600 million pixels in size — over 1.68 gigabytes — making it
one of the largest astronomical images ever made!
Scientists
have developed a battery powered artificial heart! The device can
temporarily replace the ventricles and valves, allowing patients on
heart transplant waiting lists to leave the hospital. The artificial
heart is powered by a small battery that fits in a backpack and can be
carried around.
Analysis: Amazon, Google on collision course in 2013!!
When Amazon.com Inc CEO Jeff Bezos got word of a project at Google Inc
to scan and digitize product catalogs a decade ago, the seeds of a
burgeoning rivalry were planted.
The news was a "wake-up" call
to Bezos, an early investor in Google. He saw it as a warning that the
Web search engine could encroach upon his online retail empire, according to a former Amazon executive.
"He realized that scanning catalogs was interesting for Google, but the
real win for Google would be to get all the books scanned and
digitized" and then sell electronic editions, the former executive said.
Thus began a rivalry that will escalate in 2013 as the two companies'
areas of rivalry grow, spanning online advertising and retail to mobile
gadgets and cloud computing.
It could upend the last remaining
areas of cooperation between the two companies. For instance, Amazon's
decision to use a stripped down version of Google's Android system in
its new Kindle Fire tablet, coupled with Google's ambitious plans for
its Motorola mobile devices unit, will only add to tensions.
The confrontation marks the latest front in a tech industry war in which
many combatants are crowding onto each others' turf. Lurking in the
shadows for both Google and Amazon is Facebook with its own search and
advertising ambitions.
"Amazon wants to be the one place where
you buy everything. Google wants to be the one place where you find
everything, of which buying things is a subset," said Chi-Hua Chien, a
partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
"So when you marry those facts I think you're going to see a natural
collision."
Both companies have a lot at stake. Google's market
capitalization of 177.91€ billion is about double Amazon's, largely
because Google makes massive net earnings, expected by analysts to be
9.99€ billion this year, based on a huge 32 percent net profit margin,
according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. By contrast, Amazon is seen
reporting a small loss this year.
Amazon shareholders have been
patient as the company has invested for growth but it will have to
start producing strong earnings at some stage - more likely if it grows
in higher margin areas such as advertising. Google's share price, on the
other hand, is vulnerable to signs of slowing margin growth.
AD CLASH
Not long after Bezos learned of Google's catalog plans, Amazon began
scanning books and providing searchable digital excerpts. Its Kindle
e-reader, launched a few years later, owes much of its inspiration to
the catalog news, the executive said.
Now, Amazon is pushing its online ad efforts, threatening to siphon revenue and users from Google's main search website.
Amazon's fledgling ad business is still a fraction of Google's, with
Robert W. Baird & Co. estimating Amazon is on track to generate
about 378.53€ million in annual advertising revenue - tiny, given it
recorded 36.34€ billion of overall revenue in 2011. By contrast, 96
percent of Google's 28.77€ billion in 2011 sales came from advertising.
But Amazon's newly developed "DSP" technology, which taps into the
company's vast store of consumer purchase history to help marketers
target ads at specific groups of people on Amazon.com and on other
websites, could change all that.
"From a client's perspective,
the data that Amazon owns is actually better than what Google has," said
Mark Grether, the chief operating officer of Xaxis, an audience buying
company that works with major advertisers. "They know what you just
bought, and they also know what you are right now trying to buy."
Amazon is discussing a partnership with Xaxis in which the company would help Amazon sell ads for the service, Grether noted.
Amazon did not respond to an email seeking a comment.
STARTING POINT
Amazon can bring in higher-margin revenue by selling advertising than
it can from its retail operations. By showing ads for products that it
may not actually sell on its own website, Amazon establishes itself as a
starting point for consumers looking to buy something on the Web.
Research firm Forrester reported that 30 percent of U.S. online
shoppers in the third quarter began researching their purchase on
Amazon.com, compared with 13 percent who started on a search engine such
as Google - a reversal from two years earlier when search engines were
more popular starting points.
Amazon now sells ads that show up
to the side of product search results on its website. There were 6.7
billion display ad impressions on Amazon.com in the third quarter, more
than triple the number in the same period of 2011, according to
comScore.
That early success is a "huge concern" for Google,
whose business relies heavily on product searches and product search
ads, said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter.
Partly in
response, Google recently revamped its product search service, Google
Shopping, by charging retailers and other online sellers a fee to be
listed in results.
Founded four years apart in the late 1990s,
Bezos has long worried about Amazon's reliance on Google for traffic,
according to people close to the company, while also being dubious about
Google's high market valuation.
"He'd say: ‘This is the first
time in the history of the world where the map maker is worth more than
the territory that it's mapping,'" recalled the former Amazon executive
of Bezos' comments about Google's popular online mapping service.
TENSIONS BUILD
Google's Android system is thriving but still has not cracked the nut
of how to make money from mobile search ads and sales of digital goods
like games, apps, music and video.
"If they can figure out mobile ads, that would truly be Google's second act," said Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.
But Amazon launched a broadside against Google in 2011 with the
creation of its own version of Android for its Kindle Fire tablets that
replaces key Google money-making services, such as a digital music and
application storefront, with its own.
Not unlike Apple, "Amazon
wants to control the experience on their devices," said Oren Etzioni, a
University of Washington computer science professor. "That doesn't make
Google happy."
The two are also clashing in cloud computing software.
Amazon started its cloud business more than six years ago, providing
data storage, computing power and other technology services from remote
locations. Google only launched its cloud computing business this year,
but the market is growing so quickly there is still room to grab share,
Etzioni said.
"I would not write Google off," he added. "Amazon has the early lead but it's very early."
TRANSACT OR DIE?
Still, mobile gadgets and cloud computing are currently tiny businesses
compared with the multibillion-dollar opportunity presented by
advertising and online commerce.
Google recently acquired
BufferBox, a company with a network of lockers that shoppers can use to
receive packages. It is also testing same-day delivery in San Francisco,
hinting at growing interest in a larger role in online retail.
It is not talking about its full plans for retail, but some analysts
think features such as same-day delivery or "pick-up" lockers, are
valuable features it can use to enhance its existing online ad business.
An ad for shoes, for example, might also make the shoes available for
pick-up in a locker nearby, said Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice.
If Google can own the search and the delivery, it will be able to
provide the same experience as Amazon, with no inventory - "a higher
margin, more efficient model," Chien said.
Earlier this year,
Google launched a new certification service highlighting merchants that
ship quickly and reliably and backing it with up to 757.06€ in "purchase
protection."
Google could create a database of products and
send shoppers to a page that has a way to buy quickly through the
company's payments service Google Wallet, Forrester's Mulpuru said.
Google could then send that transaction to the retailer who would ship
the product to the consumer. That ability is critical, according to
Schachter, who said if consumers lack the ability to purchase items
through Google it will lag Amazon and eBay Inc.
Windows 8 brings a lot of snazzy new features to the PC, but there still
aren't many apps -- never mind good apps -- that take advantage of
everything Microsoft's new operating system has to offer.
A handful
of small gems, though, have emerged from Microsoft's Windows Store
store, including one particular standout: Fresh Paint.
On the
surface, Fresh Paint is a straightforward finger-painting app that lets
users "draw" on the screen with four different brushes and a color
palette. Once you start to play around, though, it becomes clear that
this is much more than an updated MS Paint. Fresh Paint actually makes
your "brushstrokes" appear as though you're painting with oil on a
textured canvas.
That level of detail took some serious feats of science and engineering.
Fresh Paint's origins are in Microsoft Research, where five computer
scientists worked several years ago on giving PCs the ability to
simulate complex brushstrokes. Painting involves a significant amount of
physics: just imagine how thousands of bristles, liquid paint and a
rough-surfaced canvas interact. The team needed to create complex
algorithms to match each touch and gesture on the screen to real-life
paint.
The results were stunning, but the research, dubbed "Project
Gustav," was one of the many Microsoft Research ventures that sounds
cool but has no clear real-world use case. By 2010, the project had run
its course. The engineers filed it away in a virtual cabinet and moved
onto the next project.
A camera that lets you check email...
A review...
The Samsung Galaxy Camera, like Nikon's S800c, is powered by Android.
But where the Nikon shooter was only Wi-Fi capable, the Galaxy also
packs 3G SIM support. In effect, this hybrid is not only a mid-level
point-and-shoot, but it's also a portable, internet-capable gizmo on
which you can play casual games, browse the web, and check your email.
What we like
* The Galaxy Camera boasts of sturdy build quality. And its minimalist
design - with just three physical buttons - makes it seem modern.
* Photos in well lit environments have vibrant colours and look sharp.
In particular, macro shots and portraits stand out with their fine
detail and depth.
* Android and 3G support on the camera allows
you to use apps like Instagram to edit and share your photos from the
camera itself. Additionally, you can also upload full resolution images
to online storage or albums should you choose to do so.
* Its
large 4.8-inch screen makes the Galaxy Camera a very handy Android
device. Games like Angry Birds run well; web browsing is fast; various
video formats play well; and photo-editing apps run without hiccups.
What we don't like
* There aren't any Android photo apps that can leverage upon the
advanced lens and optics of smart cameras like the Galaxy Camera and
Nikon S800c. Instagram and Pudding Camera, for instance, downsize
high-res photos to create lighter files for upload - and this completely
beats the purpose of having a 16-megapixel sensor at your disposal.
* Pictures taken in low light lack detail and suffer from strong noise.
Similarly priced mirror less cameras (such as the Sony Nex-5 ) and
entry-level DSLR s perform better in dim lighting.
* Poor battery life. When used with a 3G SIM, the device can shoot only around 100 images on a single charge.
* For a point-and-shoot camera, it is too big and heavy.
In conclusion
Whether this camera works for you depends on your buying motive. If you
want a point-and-shoot, you would be better off with similarly - specced
devices that retail at half the cost. In the same price band, you can
also buy entry-level mirror less or DSLR cameras.
That said, if
you're looking for a shooter to upload images to Facebook as soon as you
click them, use fun photo apps on your pictures, or check emails and
play games between shots, you can't go wrong with this one. And of
course, the smart Galaxy Camera does give you some bragging rights.
The Honda 3R-C is a three wheeled, all weather urban trike concept with
electric, zero emission power. Even if you are tired of relentless
future concepts that never come to fruition, it's hard for Mr Motor
Tweeter to ignore this three wheeled car-bike crossover.
Designed by Honda's Research and Design facility in Milan the 3R-C
incorporates an active wind shield that when parked covers the cockpit
and when in motion provides enveloping protection from the elements. The
driver, positioned low down in the vehicle would be well protected from
London's big puddle filled potholes. Very clever Honda. All it needs
now is the VFR1200 engine and I'm sold.
Bugatti plans to debut what could turn out to be the new fastest car in
the world at the Frankfurt Motor show in 2013. The company’s chief
vehicle engineer, Jens Schulenburg, revealed that the new car would have
1,600 horsepower, a 0-100km/h time of 1.8 seconds and would need to
weigh 250kg less than the existing Veyron Super Sport if the car had any
chance of knocking on the door of 500km/h (300mph).
The numbers are mind-boggling, despite the fact people should expect
nothing less from Bugatti. When the original Bugatti Veyron 16.4 was
launched in 2005 (so called because it had 16 cylinders and four
turbochargers), it rewrote the dictionary definition of a supercar. It
accelerated faster than any production car that had ever come before it,
had a higher top speed than anything that had gone before and, because
its parent company is Volkswagen, it was more comfortable, more reliable
and, dare one say it, more ‘practical’ than any of its predecessors or
competitors.
Boasting 1001 horsepower, a 0-100km/h time of 2.46
seconds and a top speed of 407km/h (253mph) the car led many in the
industry to declare that motoring had reached its pinnacle and that due
to climate change, technological constraints and the tremendous costs
that had gone into its development, there would never be another car as
good, or better, than the original Veyron.
However, when US
company SSC managed to beat the Veyron’s top speed and set a new world
record of 412.15kph (256.1mph) in its SSC Ultimate Aero TT, Bugatti
picked up the gauntlet and built the Veyron Super Sport. Launched
officially in 2010 with a price tag of $2.7 million, its engine boasted
an extra 200 horsepower, it had improved aerodynamics and less weight
and when driven around VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track, recorded an
official top speed of 431 km/h (267.85mph), making it once again the
fastest car in the world. However, in order to protect the car’s tires
and stop them disintegrating, the 30 production models are
electronically limited to a top speed of 415km/h (258mph).
Being an astronaut is no easy job. But the job gets tougher when
insomnia strikes in. Astronauts usually get around six hours of sleep,
but the hectic and demanding schedule due to the unusual environment
increases the factors that contribute to sleep deprivation and
eventually, insomnia. “The station is noisy, carbon dioxide is high, you
don’t have a shower, there’s a lot of
angst because you’ve got to perform. Imagine if you have a camera on you
24 hours a day,” says NASA flight surgeon Smith Johnston.
The
effects of insomnia, such as irritation and depression, not to mention
the tendency to make mistakes, are extremely dangerous in the space
station, due to its closed and pressurized quarters. As a response, NASA
is replacing fluorescent bulbs in the U.S. section of the International
Space Station with high-tech light-emitting diodes that can switch
between blueish, whitish and reddish light, according to the time of
day.
In a particular study in a hospital in Anchorage, Alaska,
the results show that nurses and doctors made more medical errors during
the darkest times of the year. “When you have normal light coming
through the windows of stores, and schools, and hospitals, people do
better. They function better,” Johnston added.
Physical Analytic s Research Manager Hendrik Hamann examines an array of
wireless sensors used to detect environmental conditions such as
temperature, humidity, gases and chemicals at IBM Research headquarters
in Yorktown Heights, NY, Monday, December 17, 2012. In five years,
technology advancements could enable sensors to analyze
odors or the molecules in a person’s breath to help diagnose diseases.
This innovation is part of IBM’s 5 in 5, a set of IBM annual predictions
that have the potential to change the way people work, live and
interact during the next five years. Credit: Jon Simon/Feature Photo
Service for IBM. The IBM 5 in 5 is based on market and societal trends
as well as emerging technologies from IBM's R&D labs around the
world that can make these transformations possible. This year's IBM 5 in
5 explores innovations that will be the underpinnings of the next era
of computing, which IBM describes as the era of cognitive systems. This
new generation of machines will learn, adapt, sense and begin to
experience the world as it really is. This year's predictions focus on
one element of the new era, the ability of computers to mimic the human
senses—in their own way, to see, smell, touch, taste and hear. These
sensing capabilities will help us become more aware, productive and help
us think – but not think for us. Cognitive computing systems will help
us see through complexity, keep up with the speed of information, make
more informed decisions, improve our health and standard of living,
enrich our lives and break down all kinds of barriers—including
geographic distance, language, cost and inaccessibility. "IBM scientists
around the world are collaborating on advances that will help computers
make sense of the world around them," said Bernie Meyerson, IBM Fellow
and VP of Innovation. "Just as the human brain relies on interacting
with the world using multiple senses, by bringing combinations of these
breakthroughs together, cognitive systems will bring even greater value
and insights, helping us solve some of the most complicated challenges."
Here are five predictions that will define the future: Touch: You will
be able to touch through your phone Imagine using your smartphone to
shop for your wedding dress and being able to feel the satin or silk of
the gown, or the lace on the veil, all from the surface of the screen?
Or to feel the beading and weave of a blanket made by a local artisan
half way around the world? In five years, industries such as retail will
be transformed by the ability to "touch" a product through your mobile
device. IBM scientists are developing applications for the retail,
healthcare and other sectors using haptic, infrared and pressure
sensitive technologies to simulate touch, such as the texture and weave
of a fabric—as a shopper brushes her finger over the image of the item
on a device screen. Utilizing the vibration capabilities of the phone,
every object will have a unique set of vibration patterns that
represents the touch experience: short fast patterns, or longer and
stronger strings of vibrations. The vibration pattern will differentiate
silk from linen or cotton, helping simulate the physical sensation of
actually touching the material. Current uses of haptic and graphic
technology in the gaming industry take the end user into a simulated
environment. The opportunity and challenge here is to make the
technology so ubiquitous and inter-woven into everyday experiences that
it brings greater context to our lives by weaving technology in front
and around us. This technology will become ubiquitous in our everyday
lives, turning mobile phones into tools for natural and intuitive
interaction with the world around us. Sight: A pixel will be worth a
thousand words We take 500 billion photos a year[1]. 72 hours of video
is uploaded to YouTube every minute[2]. The global medical diagnostic
imaging market is expected to grow to $26.6 billion by 2016[3].
Computers today only understand pictures by the text we use to tag or
title them; the majority of the information—the actual content of the
image—is a mystery. In the next five years, systems will not only be
able to look at and recognize the contents of images and visual data,
they will turn the pixels into meaning, beginning to make sense out of
it similar to the way a human views and interprets a photograph. In the
future, "brain-like" capabilities will let computers analyze features
such as color, texture patterns or edge information and extract insights
from visual media. This will have a profound impact for industries such
as healthcare, retail and agriculture. Within five years, these
capabilities will be put to work in healthcare by making sense out of
massive volumes of medical information such as MRI s, CT scans, X-Rays
and ultrasound images to capture information tailored to particular
anatomy or pathologies. What is critical in these images can be subtle
or invisible to the human eye and requires careful measurement. By being
trained to discriminate what to look for in images—such as
differentiating healthy from diseased tissue—and correlating that with
patient records and scientific literature, systems that can "see" will
help doctors detect medical problems with far greater speed and
accuracy. Hearing: Computers will hear what matters Ever wish you could
make sense of the sounds all around you and be able to understand what's
not being said? Within five years, a distributed system of clever
sensors will detect elements of sound such as sound pressure, vibrations
and sound waves at different frequencies. It will interpret these
inputs to predict when trees will fall in a forest or when a landslide
is imminent. Such a system will "listen" to our surroundings and measure
movements, or the stress in a material, to warn us if danger lies
ahead. Raw sounds will be detected by sensors, much like the human
brain. A system that receives this data will take into account other
"modalities," such as visual or tactile information, and classify and
interpret the sounds based on what it has learned. When new sounds are
detected, the system will form conclusions based on previous knowledge
and the ability to recognize patterns. For example, "baby talk" will be
understood as a language, telling parents or doctors what infants are
trying to communicate. Sounds can be a trigger for interpreting a baby's
behavior or needs. By being taught what baby sounds mean – whether
fussing indicates a baby is hungry, hot, tired or in pain – a
sophisticated speech recognition system would correlate sounds and
babbles with other sensory or physiological information such as heart
rate, pulse and temperature. In the next five years, by learning about
emotion and being able to sense mood, systems will pinpoint aspects of a
conversation and analyze pitch, tone and hesitancy to help us have more
productive dialogues that could improve customer call center
interactions, or allow us to seamlessly interact with different
cultures. Today, IBM scientists are beginning to capture underwater
noise levels in Galway Bay, Ireland to understand the sounds and
vibrations of wave energy conversion machines, and the impact on sea
life, by using underwater sensors that capture sound waves and transmit
them to a receiving system to be analyzed. Taste: Digital taste buds
will help you to eat smarter What if we could make healthy foods taste
delicious using a different kind of computing system that is built for
creativity? IBM researchers are developing a computing system that
actually experiences flavor, to be used with chefs to create the most
tasty and novel recipes. It will break down ingredients to their
molecular level and blend the chemistry of food compounds with the
psychology behind what flavors and smells humans prefer. By comparing
this with millions of recipes, the system will be able to create new
flavor combinations that pair, for example, roasted chestnuts with other
foods such as cooked beetroot, fresh caviar, and dry-cured ham. A
system like this can also be used to help us eat healthier, creating
novel flavor combinations that will make us crave a vegetable casserole
instead of potato chips. The computer will be able to use algorithms to
determine the precise chemical structure of food and why people like
certain tastes. These algorithms will examine how chemicals interact
with each other, the molecular complexity of flavor compounds and their
bonding structure, and use that information, together with models of
perception to predict the taste appeal of flavors. Not only will it make
healthy foods more palatable—it will also surprise us with unusual
pairings of foods actually designed to maximize our experience of taste
and flavor. In the case of people with special dietary needs such as
individuals with diabetes, it would develop flavors and recipes to keep
their blood sugar regulated, but satisfy their sweet tooth. Smell:
Computers will have a sense of smell During the next five years, tiny
sensors embedded in your computer or cell phone will detect if you're
coming down with a cold or other illness. By analyzing odors, bio markers
and thousands of molecules in someone's breath, doctors will have help
diagnosing and monitoring the onset of ailments such as liver and kidney
disorders, asthma, diabetes and epilepsy by detecting which odors are
normal and which are not. Today IBM scientists are already sensing
environmental conditions and gases to preserve works of art. This
innovation is beginning to be applied to tackle clinical hygiene, one of
the biggest challenges in healthcare today. For example,
antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which in 2005 was associated with almost
19,000 hospital stay-related deaths in the United States, is commonly
found on the skin and can be easily transmitted wherever people are in
close contact. One way of fighting MRSA exposure in healthcare
institutions is by ensuring medical staff follow clinical hygiene
guidelines. In the next five years, IBM technology will "smell" surfaces
for disinfectants to determine whether rooms have been sanitized. Using
novel wireless "mesh" networks, data on various chemicals will be
gathered and measured by sensors, and continuously learn and adapt to
new smells over time. Due to advances in sensor and communication
technologies in combination with deep learning systems, sensors can
measure data in places never thought possible. For example, computer
systems can be used in agriculture to "smell" or analyze the soil
condition of crops. In urban environments, this technology will be used
to monitor issues with refuge, sanitation and pollution – helping city
agencies spot potential problems before they get out of hand.
Archos 97 Titanium HD Android Tablet Unveiled
French consumer electronics company, Archos, has just unveiled its
upcoming tablet that “attempts” to challenge Apple’s iPad. It’s
officially called the Archos 97 Titanium HD, and, similar to the iPad 4,
it also features a 9.7-inch IPS display with a 2,048 x 1,536
resolution. Under the hood is a 1.6GHz dual-core A9 processor and a
Quad-core GPU Mali 400 MP4. All of that power is supported by a 1GB RAM and an 8GB internal memory.
Other notable features of the Archos 97 Titanium HD tablet include a
5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera,
MicroSD card support (up to 64GB), Wi-Fi support, not to mention that it
is running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS. From the looks of it, Archos
didn’t try to customize Android, at least not in an obvious way, which
is good.
Scientists now believe that we were once not alone in our orbit around
the Sun – we had a “twin” planet we call Theia, which was the size of
Mars and was 60 degrees either in front or behind our Big Blue Ball. One
afternoon about 4.533 billion years ago, Theia crashed into the Earth;
most of the planet was absorbed, but a large chunk blew off and combined
with materials from our planet to create the Moon. Why do we think
this? It's because our Moon is unusually large for a planet of our size
and has metallic isotopes similar to those on Earth.
Poke
for mobile: Facebook's new app. The app sends messages, photos, and
videos that expire seconds after they're sent. Perfect for the type of
communication you don't want falling into the wrong hands.
Cue
the inappropriate poke jokes. Facebook just released a Poke for mobile
app that lets people send messages, photos, and videos that expire
seconds after they're sent.
The news confirms a report by All Things earlier this month.
This standalone app, similar to the app Snap chat, is perfect for
sending messages and images you don't want unintended recipients to
stumble across. Facebook calls this sending things in a "lightweight
way." The rest of the world calls it sexting.
"With the Poke app,
you can poke or send a message, photo, or video to Facebook friends to
share what you're up to in a lightweight way. You can poke an individual
friend or several at once," reads a Facebook blog post.
Facebook
isn't that naive. It's built in reporting tools to make sure things
don't get too out of control for recipients. After all, sharing photos
"of a sexual nature," is a violation of Facebook's policies.
"If you ever see something you're uncomfortable with, you can click the gear menu and report it," the post reads.
You set each message to expire at either 1, 3, 5, or 10 seconds. When
time runs out, the message disappears from the app. But remember, that's
not going to stop a friend from taking a screenshot of a message, as
CNET's Casey Newton pointed out.
Facebook introduced the poke
feature in 2004, but the desktop version does only one thing: instantly
notifies friends that they've been "poked."
The poke is a leftover
from Facebook's dorm room days. The new mobile Poke takes the sexual
innuendo to another level and may get Facebook more mobile traffic, if
sexting app Snapchat's performance is any indication. Snap chat said its
users send 20 million "Snaps" per day.
The
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat,
single-engine, fifth generation multi role fighters under development to
perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with
stealth capability. The F-35 has three main models; the F-35A is a
conventional takeoff and landing variant, the F-35B is a short take off and vertical-landing variant, and the F-35C is a carrier-based variant.
The F-35 is descended from the X-35, the product of the Joint Strike
Fighter (JSF) program. JSF development is being principally funded by
the United States, with the United Kingdom and other partner governments
providing additional funding. The partner nations are either NATO
members or close U.S. allies. It is being designed and built by an
aerospace industry team led by Lockheed Martin. The F-35 carried out its
first flight on 15 December 2006.
The United States plans to buy a
total of 2,443 aircraft to provide the bulk of its tactical airpower for
the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy over the coming decades. The
United Kingdom,Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark,
Turkey, Israel and Japan are part of the development program and may
equip their air services with the F-35
