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Science and Information / Flic: The Wireless Smart Button

« on: December 16, 2014, 07:10:05 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/11/flic-the-wireless-smart-button.html

Flic is a straightforward and smart remote catch that gives you a chance to make an alternate way to your most loved activities so you don’t need to touch your mobile phone. Truly no compelling reason to touch your cellphone, Flic makes an alternate way to your most loved activities. With one Flic, you can make an alternate way to call a taxi, message your friends and family of your area in case you’re in trouble, or simply turn the lights on. Flic can accomplish such a great deal all the more as well…

Peculiarities of flic:

With Flic in your auto you can keep your concentrate out and about, where it ought to be. With simply a click Flic could dispatch route to your next arrangement, message your life partner and say that you’re headed home or distinguish the tune you’re listening to on the radio. Continually searching for your telephone when you’re headed out? With Flic you can make your telephone sound the caution, making it simpler to discover.

Having a savvy home set up ought to be, well, shrewd! Rather we need to burrow through our telephones to turn on a light? With Flic you can undoubtedly control all your shrewd home units the way it ought to be, with a brilliant, basic and effectively open catch spotted where you require it. As should be obvious in the picture above you can likewise make situations for when you’re going out or when you’re having a film night to control various units immediately. In any case not everybody has a cell phone. For some it can really be startling.


Flic brings the astounding potential outcomes of the cell phone and makes it available to everybody. Put your mobile phone on the rack and let everybody be in the picture. Let Flic be your photographic artist and take a picture for you without must be close to your telephone. Flic coordinates with your telephone’s cam shade work so you can have everybody in your portrait. With simply a click, Flic can begin offering your cellphone, GPS area to your family and companions so they can tail you on your way home. In the occasion of a bothered circumstance, you can without much of a stretch sound the alert and send a pain message.

Specialized Details-

Flic uses Bluetooth Low Energy to speak with your gadget and is good with iPhone 4s & later, iPad third era & later and select Android gadgets with 4.3 and later with Bluetooth 4.0. Experts worked truly hard to make Flic as battery productive as could be allowed while even now keeping it different for numerous kinds of uses. This is the reason they have arranged Flic to work in three separate modes. In most utilize cases Flic will basically be turned off until it’s pressed. In this mode the battery will last up to 60 000 clicks which is all that could possibly be needed for anybody. There is something else entirely to Flic than you may might suspect. To provide for you a finer feeling here is a blasted perspective of the distinctive parts.

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Science and Information / SPIN Remote: A Device to Control Multiple Devices & Lights

« on: December 16, 2014, 07:04:36 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/12/spin-remote-a-device-to-control-multiple-devices-lights.html

Today, everybody need that their work ought to be carried out without any exertion. Mechanization of each work has been carried out by cutting edge engineering contraptions and gadgets. There are numerous gadgets which can simple our day by day routine work. Home automation framework incorporates smart locks, Smart wake up alarm, Digital entryway lockers, video door phones and so on are broadly utilized. Simply due to these devices and gadgets or blend of these gadgets a colossal measure of work is can be done effortlessly and automatically. Presently the present day innovation devices are controlled by cellphones.

Furthermore technicians are taking a shot at numerous tasks to fabricate all the more home computerization gadgets and devices. The Technicians have concocted another gadget named as SPIN. It is a remote controlled gadget. SPIN Remote Lets You Control Multiple Devices and Lights from One Remote. Remote controls can easily begin mounting up in the event that you have various gadgets inside your home, evidently the normal family unit has 3 remote controls lying around in the lounge room.

SPIN remote does not supplant all catches of the majority of your remotes, it simply unites the ones that you truly utilization. SPIN remote contains 6 high-power infrared LED’s, making it conceivable to gain from your old remotes and impact out charges to your gadgets with 360-degree scope. It is furnished with a low vitality Bluetooth (LE) module, so that SPIN remote can associate with other shrewd gadgets and speak with the versatile App. SPIN remote is stuffed with sensors, permitting it to locate movement, pivot, introduction, touch and even closeness.”

Specifications:

High intensity infrared LED lights
360 degree coverage
Bluetooth (LE) module
Sensors to detect motion, rotation, orientation, touch & proximity

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Science and Information / Pinto Bluetooth Storage Wristband

« on: December 16, 2014, 07:02:22 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/12/pinto-bluetooth-storage-wristband.html

Today’s World is brimming with advancements. Advancements which incorporates electronic devices and gadgets. Gadgets including cellphones, Tablets, Laptop and so on are regularly utilized nowadays. These gadgets are utilized to keep information, which is paramount for us. There’s no lack of alternatives for sparing around your information: Pen drives, micro SD cards, convenient hard drives, and varieties of these. Frequently these alternatives aren’t the most advantageous, in any case, thus the people behind Pinto have thrown an alternate alternative into the mix. Another storage device has been made called Pinto that gives a remarkable Bluetooth storage region encased in a helpful wristband with no compelling reason to utilize a USB association with access your documents.

It is the world’s first Bluetooth Storage Wristband with no USB Plug! The Safe stand Most Convenient way to store your files, period. It Offers Portable Personal File Storage. Pinto is a Bluetooth storing wearable that will be offered in two separate limits, permitting clients to convey their records on their wrist and remotely get to them at whatever point required. The creator Bean Beam offers Pinto as “having your own particular individual cloud” on your wrist.

Pinto is a wristband with a wellbeing fasten and one-size-fits all configuration. Plastic lodging and elastic straps are utilized, and the gadget is waterproof so clients won’t need to stress when out in the downpour. Operation is performed from a solitary catch, and there are three LED’s in succession down the face to give battery status (both remote charging and an attractive charging top are backed).

The Pinto Bluetooth capacity wristband is accessible in either 32 or 64 GB limits and is furnished with remote charging and no Internet association is obliged to get to the records that are put away inside it. All documents put away on the Pinto are open by means of Bluetooth straightforwardly from your cell phone, tablet or machine and are watchword ensured at all times giving a protected and versatile individual stockpiling gadget.

Pinto Wristband Features:

No USB Plug
No flash drives or cables – it all happens wirelessly
Connect Wirelessly
Store and Access your files via Bluetooth from your Computer, Tablet or Smartphone
Iron-Clad Protection
Your files are password protected at all times
No Internet Required
Access your files anywhere, even without an internet connection

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Science and Information / Few important innovations for Laptop

« on: December 16, 2014, 06:58:09 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/03/five-important-laptop-innovations-you.html

Innovation and technology go hand-in-hand, but what makes the headlines isn’t always what’s important. New processors, video cards and displays are great to geek out about, but there are other, less well-known advancements that have made, or are making, a big impact. What they are, and how they’re changing laptops might surprise you.

PCI Express (PCIe) solid state drives

The solid state drive is arguably the component that has the most impact on whether are modern PC “feels” quick. Even the fastest processor must on data sent from the hard drive, and if the drive is slow, the processor just sits idle. The near-instant access times offered by an SSD eliminate the need to wait.

Early drives were packaged in the common 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch form factors, but a few PC manufacturers have transited to PCIe drives that are about the size of a stick of RAM. These small, slim SSDs decrease the footprint of a laptop’s storage and provide room for a larger battery or better cooling.

Apple’s MacBook Pro 13 with Retina is a great example. Though it’s as thin as most ultrabooks, it offers above-average battery life and a very powerful processor. The use of a PCIe drive deserves some of the credit. The drive is so slim it fits under the MacBook’s trackpad, freeing up volume that older models had to devote to a hard drive bay.

802.11 ac WiFi

Wireless Internet is one of the most transformative technologies to emerge since the turn of the century. Yet for all its convenience, Wi-Fi has been plagued by reliability and bandwidth issues over the years. Even 802.11n, while fine for browsing, sometimes fails to offer the rock-solid stability and fast download speeds of an Ethernet connection.

802.11ac, however, may finally make the cord obsolete – for most home users, at least. An 802.11ac laptop, paired with a strong 802.11ac router, can deliver around 200 Mbps of bandwidth in real-world use. That translates to about 25 Mbps per second, which exceeds the bandwidth most service providers offer to residential customers. In other words, a residential customer with an average broadband connection will see 802.11ac deliver transfer speeds that are roughly equivalent to Ethernet.

That means consumers will no longer need Ethernet. And if there’s no need for Ethernet, there’s no need for the port, or the adapter. And if neither of those is required, a computer can be made thinner, smaller, and cheaper. Some systems have already dropped Ethernet in favor of 802.11ac, and we expect more laptops to drop the port in pursuit of an ever-thinner profile.

Powerful BGA Processors

BGA stands for ball grid array, a type of surface mount used to attach a processor to a motherboard. Unlike a socketed processor, BGA models are soldered on and can’t be removed afterwards.

While this eliminates the possibility of upgrading the processor, going the BGA route allows for tighter packaging and improves heat dissipation. These two traits are obviously a boon for a laptop, as they enable a thinner, more compact design. Ditching the socket also provides manufacturers with more mounting options when engineering a new notebook.

The production of high-end BGA processors is a relatively new development, however, which began with Intel’s first generation of Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors. Today, Intel’s i3 and i5 lines are dominated by BGA parts and the BGA mix includes Core i7 processors like the i7-4500U and quad-core i7-4700HQ.

Most people will never see their BGA processor, or even know that their laptop even has one to begin with. Without it though, laptops simply could not be as thin as they are today. Constant demand for light, thin, powerful computers will no doubt make BGA a dominant force even among quad-core processors.

Thin Bezel dispalys

We’ve seen a huge leap in laptop display quality over the last two years. For instance, a modern Ultrabook now packs almost 200 pixels per inch, offers excellent contrast and can render most of the sRGB gamut. However, better quality isn’t the only improvement we’ve seen.

Display bezels have shrunk dramatically, too, and some are now down to a half-inch or less. A slimmer bezel lets engineers down-size the chassis, shaving millimeters off width and depth. This results in a lighter, smaller laptop without sacrificing the size of the display.

Here’s what we mean. The ASUS U30JC, a 13.3 inch laptop that won our Editor’s Choice award in 2010, was 328mm long, 238mm deep and 30mm thick. Meanwhile Dell’s new XPS 13, though its display is the same size, measures 316mm long, 205mm deep and 18mm thick. Shaving millimeters off on all sides cuts weight dramatically, from 4.5 pounds to just under three. We expect that displays will eventually boast bezels no more than an eighth of an inch thick, at which point a 13.3 inch system could be nearly as small as a 12 inch notebook currently is.

Miniaturised Power Adaptors

One overlooked extra many travelers forget to pack is the power adapter. While battery life has shot upward in leaps and bounds in just the past few years, anyone away from home for more than a day is still going need to pack the adapter.

Laptop power adapters were once heavy bricks that could weigh as much as a pound. Today, they usually weigh half that (or less) and are often the size of a flip-phone. This has a lot to do with the power requirements of those older systems, which needed more juice and, thus, larger adapters. But there have also been advancements in miniaturization that has made smaller adapters possible.

And there’s more to come. An up-start called Finsix showed off a new type of adapter at CES 2014 that’s nearly as small as a cell phone charger, yet can provide up to 65 watts of juice, making it pocketable. Finsix also showcased a version of its adapter with a USB charger spliced in, which means you’d have to carry just one adapter for your laptop, smartphone and tablet.

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Science and Information / 10 tips to Increase runtime of your laptop and batteries

« on: December 16, 2014, 06:01:58 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/05/10-tips-to-increase-runtime-of-your.html

Oftentimes for laptops, prospective buyers can be more interested in the battery life of the product than the actual specifications and hardware that lie under the hood. After all, what good is a portable computer if it cannot run on batteries for as long as the user requires? here is some novice tips and buying guides that any current or future laptop owner can take advantage of.
1. Use Windows Power Manager
If a laptop will be running on batteries often, then the settings on the software end should be configured to reflect that kind of usage. Thus, the built-in Power Management utility for Windows 7 is a useful and user-friendly tool for optimizing battery life by manipulating laptop performance and behavior. The tool can be reached under Power Options in the Control Panel or just by typing in ‘powercfg.cpl’ in the Run Command window.

With the power manager tool, users are given direct access to a variety of power options. Windows includes a couple of pre-built battery plans such as power over performance, performance over power, and balanced. Of course, if you want more control over a power plan, you’d have to customize one yourself.

The Advanced settings window will let users do just that by allowing direct access to set behavioral commands for different computer components. For example,USB ports can be disabled and CPUs can be underclocked to conserve battery life. These are powerful and easily adaptable options that should be adjusted to fit the needs of the user.

2. Block Flash Ads and Close Unnecessary Processes

One of the easiest ways to increase runtime is to simply close and shut down unwanted programs and background activities. This will reduce hard drive access, free up RAM, and decrease CPU activity, all of which will directly benefit battery life.

A good example is the number of active windows and icons on the Windows task bar. Programs that automatically run on startup can be disabled if they are never actively used in order to reduce clutter, while excess browser tabs and graphic-heavy websites can be closed if no longer needed to save RAM and CPU cycles.

Additionally, many Flash-based ads around the web are notorious not just for their impracticality, but also for occupying more CPU power and are thus needless battery drains. To save battery power, users should install Flash-blocking programs or extensions for their browsers. The most popular free extension for this purpose is Adblock, which is currently available for Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. For Internet Explorer, users can disable Flash under the Tools and Manage Add-Ons menu, where the Shockwave Flash Object can be found. While incremental, these steps can make a difference in battery runtime during long sessions.

3. Disable Wireless/Bluetooth

Occasionally, wireless settings such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are enabled by default. This is sometimes unwanted especially since some users will rarely use the Bluetooth functionality on the laptop. We suggest disabling Bluetooth when not in use.

If the laptop is not going to connect to a network for any reason (such as working outdoors or on a train), then the wireless connection should be turned off. Otherwise, the laptop will continuously search for available local networks and drain valuable battery life in the process.

4.Reduce the Brightness of the Display

Adjusting the display brightness is one of the quickest methods to conserving battery life. Usually, the brightness settings are directly on the laptop keyboard and are often associated with the fn (function) key. A lower brightness level will mean that more time can be squeezed out of the battery.

If short on battery life, we suggest toning down the brightness to a level that will still allow for optimal working conditions. Brightness levels that are too low or high, however, can cause eyestrain and make reading text a chore. To prevent this, a higher brightness setting is suggested for working outdoors under sunny conditions while lower settings can be used for working indoors or in classrooms. In general, good modern displays can produce a brightness of over 200cd/m2, but such levels are not necessary for everyday office use. Play around with the brightness settings to optimize battery life and to see which levels are most comfortable for the eyes.

On a similar note, most new laptops are equipped with LED backlighting instead of the traditional fluorescent tubes. LED has the potential to produce a more even light throughout the screen while maintaining superior power efficiency compared to fluorescent lighting. Therefore, LED backlit screens are preferable if purchasing a new laptop with battery life in mind.

5. Use a Virtual Drive

Use of a DVD drive can be quite taxing on battery life because of the mechanical spinning motor required to read discs. Consequently, avoid constant use of the DVD drive when running on batteries. Instead, files on a disc should be copied and accessed through the hard drive or a USB flash drive if possible.

More often than not, however, many users could be using the DVD drive for playing clips or movies during long flights or car rides. If this is the situation, it is recommended to avoid playing the movie directly off of the DVD and to instead use a virtual drive. A virtual drive acts as an ordinary DVD drive, but will play disc images off of the hard drive or flash drive instead of physical DVDs. The disc image will be an exact copy of the DVD and can be created with some help from freeware programs, but retail DVD movies cannot be copied for legal reasons.

Common virtual drive programs include Alcohol 52% and Daemon Tools, both of which have free versions for personal use. Virtual drives should take away the hassle of carrying around DVDs, all the while improving battery life.

Among other benefits, solid-state drives like this OCZ model can offer lower power consumption, but will come at a moderate to high price.

6. Consider a Solid-state Drive Upgrade

A solid-state drive (SSD) has many advantages over traditional hard drive discs (HDD), but in terms of battery life, the biggest advantage is the absence of moving parts. This, in combination with its different architecture, allows for generally more efficient power consumption.

Most SATA-enabled notebooks can have the original HDD easily replaced with a SSD. The process is no different from swapping hard drives or upgrading to larger capacities.

The largest disadvantage when upgrading to a SSD is the associated cost. If you’ve ever wondered why some laptops are $700 and others are $2500, one likely reason is because the latter is fitted with a high capacity SSD. The NAND flash chips currently used in many SSDs can run for as much as $1.00 to $2.00 per gigabyte as of 2011, so it can cost more than a few hundred dollars just to match the capacity of a HDD. While the upgrade is simple, the price required is off-putting for many.

7. Choose Integrated over Discrete Graphics Solutions
 
For those in the market for a new laptop and battery life optimization is of utmost concern, consider looking for a notebook with an integrated graphics controller instead of one with discrete graphics. Discrete graphics can be more powerful, but can also acutely reduce the battery life of any notebook even if graphic intensive processes are not running. This is largely due to the raw speeds and die sizes of discrete graphics chips, thus these chips demand more power from the battery just to keep them running idle.

Additionally, most portable users do not necessarily need the high-performance capabilities of a discrete graphics chip. If web browsing, email, music, word processing, Farmville, and streaming video are on top of the to-do list, then the advanced, often more expensive dedicated graphics option is simply overkill for the user. A laptop with Intel GMA HD or AMD Radeon 4200 would suffice.

That is not to say integrated graphics are inadequate, however. Newer integrated graphics especially are much more powerful than the previous generations while remaining power efficient. This allows for smoother video and streaming performance and even support for full HD (1920×1080) resolution playback through an HDMI-out port. A prime example is the Intel GMA HD 3000 or the new AMD Fusion APU. These new chips are powerful enough for light gaming and high-definition video playback on-the-go without the need for battery-draining discrete graphics solutions.

First shown at CES 2011, the AMD Fusion APU combines a general-purpose processor with functions of a modern mainstream GPU into a single chip for greatly reduced power usage.

8. Consider Switchable Graphics
 
Some users may need more graphical power than that provided by integrated graphics chips, however. Heavier graphics work such as moderate video editing or Adobe Photoshop usage will benefit greatly from a laptop with better graphics capabilities. For these users, laptops with switchable graphics preferences can provide the extra video-processing power needed while still saving on battery life.

A laptop with switchable graphics will contain both an integrated graphics chip and a discrete graphics chip, but will generally have only one active at a time. Depending on preference, the user can have the notebook run on the integrated graphics solution to preserve battery life or on discrete graphics during times where the additional processing power is needed. Switchable graphics thus allows for greater flexibility and utility out of a laptop, but expect to pay a little more for such capabilities.

A popular option is to look for laptops with support for Nvidia Optimus technology. Nvidia Optimus enables on-the-fly automatic switching between the dedicated GPU and the integrated graphics chip depending on user configuration or current running programs. This eliminates the need for any rebooting and can save plenty of time for uninterrupted work or multitasking. Unfortunately, Nvidia Optimus is currently only available for Windows 7-based notebooks as of this writing, so Macbooks and Linux-based machines are excluded. Newer MacBook Pros, however, run on Apple’s own proprietary graphics switching technology that is fully automated by the MacOS X operating system. While this system functions differently from Optimus, it can still provide a degree of energy management for Apple owners.

9. Purchase a New/Larger Battery
If buying a laptop online, especially from a brand name company like Dell, HP, Sony, or Lenovo, the buyer will usually be given the option to choose between a 6-cell, 8-cell, or 12-cell Lithium-ion battery module. A cell refers to one of the many independent, often cylindrical, lithium ion-based batteries that make up the entire laptop battery module itself.

Generally, a battery with more cells will last longer than a battery with less. This also scales quite nicely, as a 12-cell battery will last roughly twice as long as a 6-cell battery, assuming all else equal. Therefore, it might be worth considering a battery with more cells right from the get-go when purchasing a new laptop.

Be aware, however, that the larger the number of cells, the larger and heavier the battery module will be in general. Many laptops and notbooks nowadays dedicate almost the entire backside just for the battery. A module with a lower number of cells may fit snugly on the back, but a larger module will have some volume protruding outwards behind the laptop due to the increased cell count. Additionally, larger battery modules will demand more from your wallet, so make sure the extra weight and size will be worth the investment.

If the current laptop is more than a few years old, it is advisable to purchase a new battery if a new laptop is not yet worth the investment. All Li-ion batteries degrade overtime, so a battery that once provided 4 hours of use two years ago may only provide 1 to 2 hours today and will ultimately continue to provide less overtime. At this point, a new battery will aid laptop runtime much more significantly than many of the suggestions on this list.

While on the subject of batteries, certain new laptops allow for up to 2 batteries to be attached simultaneously for up to double the runtime. Thus, these laptops can be favorable options for future battery-conscious laptop owners. Examples include the Sony Vaio S Series and Lenovo’s updated ThinkPad series for 2011. With dual batteries, reaching double-digit hours when off the power grid should be easily reachable.

10. Consider External Battery Packs
 
The external battery above is recharging both a smartphone and laptop simultaneously. This particular Digipower model provides 4400mAh and is available for about $99.

An alternative but similar option is to utilize an external battery pack instead of the specialized batteries that were designed to fit into specific laptops. These rechargeable external batteries connect directly to a laptop’s DC-in port and often include a number of different connection cords to ensure compatibility with a wide range of laptop models. The biggest advantage here is the immense versatility of an external battery pack; it can power and recharge not only existing and future laptops, but also potentially other electronics such as phones, cameras, iPads, and other similar devices. Thus, its usefulness extends through multiple gadgets as each can take advantage of the portable power source.

A typical external battery designed for laptops can range from $50 to $200, depending on the size, features, and output power. Keep in mind, however, that the battery will be an additional burden for those constantly on the move. Most promise at least several hours of usage, but be sure to check the milliamps/hr (mAh) rating to be convinced. Estimated runtime can be calculated from the product of its amps/hr rating and the voltage output, divided by the laptop power use in watts (Ah x Volts)/(watts). Of course, this conversion is a very rough approximation, and as such should not be the sole determinate for selecting external batteries.

6

Science and Information / Facebook introduces HACK, a programming Language for Future

« on: December 16, 2014, 04:11:06 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/03/facebook-introduces-hack-programming.html

Do you know the ‘Codebase’ that is capable of running the largest social networking website Facebook? It is ‘Hack‘.
The codebase is ‘Hack’ but it has nothing related to hacking. Hack is a new programming language designed by Facebook that will lets programmers build complex websites and other software quickly and most important without Flaws.

“We can say with complete assurance that this has been as battle-tested as it can possibly be”, said Bryan O’Sullivan, the Facebook engineer behind the language, in a statement.

According to the experts, Hack is a new version of PHP, Mark started building this when he started Facebook.

Hack too runs on the Hip Hop Virtual Machine but it lets coders use both dynamic typing and static typing.

Facebook Explanation about Hack:

“Our principal addition is static typing. We have developed a system to annotate function signatures and class members with type information; our type checking algorithm (the type checker) infers the rest. Type checking is incremental, such that even in the same file, some code can be converted to Hack while the rest remains PHP. Technically speaking, Hack is a gradually typed language: dynamically typed code interoperates seamlessly with statically typed code.”
“The Hack adds additional features beyond static type checking, including collections, lambda expressions, and run time enforcement of return and additional parameter types….We are delighted to open-source both Hack and the tools that we used to convert our codebase hacklang.org.”

7

Science and Information / RIP Flash: Why HTML5 will finally take over video and the Web this year?

« on: December 16, 2014, 04:08:54 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/04/rip-flash-why-html5-will-finally-take.html

Casette tapes, 8-tracks, and … Flash.

All three of these mediums need a player to work, and all three mediums are either dead or dying. Just as CDs replaced tapes as a more efficient means of playing music, and digital files replaced CDs to do the same, HTML5 is making Flash obsolete.

The HTML5 versus Flash debate has been a hot topic among Web developers for years – and even more so since Steve Jobs published his now infamous 2010 letter touting HTML5 as the future and Flash as “no longer necessary.” But whether you side with Flash or HTML5, there’s no denying that the implications of HTML5 on video and the Web are real.

For online video, HTML5 offers two things Flash does not: mobile capabilities and semantic markup. The growth of mobile engagement; the rise of Interactive Video for entertainment, advertising and shopping; and HTML5’s open structure all combine to create the future of an HTML5-based Web, leaving Flash to eventually shuffle into its place in the Retired Tech Hall of Fame (make some room Windows XP, Palm Treo).
Mobile killed the Flash star.

Since HTML5’s introduction, mobile has been touted as one of the publishing language’s largest advantages. And since iOS and many Android devices don’t support Flash, Flash is bound to PCs – a market which, according to Gartner, saw a 10 percent decline in shipments in 2013 from 2012.
According to IAB.net, nearly half of the U.S. population has a mobile phone with Internet access, and one in five page views on the Web happen on a mobile device.
Those numbers will continue to grow each month, and companies making Flash-based Interactive Videos are missing out on a huge audience by not enabling their videos to run on mobile devices.
Let’s take Bob Dylan’s fantastically entertaining “Like a Rolling Stone” Interactive Video that launched in November. Millions of PC viewers clicked with joy within the video’s TV-like interface.

However, users trying to open the video on their phone or tablet had a less enjoyable experience: Android users got a video teaser and a message to experience the full video on their desktop computer, and the site directed iOS users to download an app – neither option allowing for playback on their phone or tablet’s Web browser.
If one in five page views are happening on mobile, that’s one out of five people having to deal with a broken user experience when they go to the video site on a mobile device.
Those in the advertising, shopping, and enterprise industries are also beginning to focus their attention on mobile’s importance, as well as on Flash’s limitations with online video.

A recent open letter to advertisers by the Interactive Advertising Bureau – and signed by several major publishers and ad firms, including AOL, Conde Nast, Forbes, Google, The New York Times, Time Inc. and the Wall Street Journal – urges marketers to implement the HTML5 standard for their mobile ads so that they can run on different platforms. The letter states that to guarantee the paid ads “actually appear and look great on all screens,” ads should be developed in a mobile-compatible format.
“And the one open, industry-standard, universal format for building mobile-ready creative is HTML5,” the letter says.

In Sizmek’s annual Global Benchmark Report, “Breaking Boundaries: Engagement Gone Global,” the shift towards more mobile friendly formats using HTML5 is emphasized as one of the most important changes in digital advertising during 2013.

The report, which reveals key trends in digital advertising from more than 913 billion ad impressions worldwide for 2013, says to “expect engagement rates for HTML5 to increase in 2014 as the industry adopts rigorous creative and publishing standards that ensure seamless multiscreen delivery.”
Not only is the ability to play ads on all platforms crucial for major publishers, it’s also imperative that once the viewer clicks on the ad, they’re able to actually buy the product without any issue. This isn’t always the case, however, because Flash-based sites limit what can be done on mobile devices.

In a recent frustrating online shopping experience, our VP of Marketing attempted to find a vacuum cleaner on Amazon using his iPad. Ready to spend upwards of $400, the product video he tried playing stopped him in his tracks when it wouldn’t open due to missing Flash plugins. This is a huge missed opportunity for Amazon.

So why aren’t all of Amazon’s videos using HTML5?

Sure, it might be that developers are still catching up to the new standard. There’s also no denying that it has historically been much easier for developers to build in Flash than in HTML5.
A digital shift:
A recent Forrester report entitled “Improving Enterprise Mobility: Meeting Next-Generation Demands of Development, Delivery, and Engagement,” says building apps in HTML5 takes more time than planned 59 percent of the time. That’s largely due to testing and fixing issues in non-native responsive frameworks.
HTML5 isn’t perfect; it’s still in its early years. Fortunately, talented companies are focusing on solving those problems for you – doing the work with a SaaS platform so you can just concentrate on the creative.

However, that’s not stopping enterprise and game developers. In a recent report from Sencha, a provider of open-source Web application frameworks, more than 60 percent of business application developers have converted to HTML5 and hybrid development of their key projects, and more than 70 percent of HTML5/hybrid developers are using HTML5 more this year than last.
Mobile video isn’t the only culprit
In the gaming industry, HTML5-based games are on the rise. Holland-based Spil Games is just one publisher taking the HTML5 path. The company plans to publish more than 1,000 HTML5 games by the end of the year.

Spil Games already has 5,000 Flash games published on the Web, but that’s 5,000 games in its library that won’t work on tablets or phones.
According to Digital Buzz Blog, 32 percent of time spent on iOS and Android devices is spent playing games. With HTML5, developers can create games that can work on all devices. Just look at some of the awesome stuff Google created with its Google Chrome Experiments (all built in HTML5 and JavaScript using open Web technologies such as Canvas, WebGL and WebRTC).
And the nail in the Flash coffin award goes to… SEO.
While mobile is the most obvious advantage of HTML5 over Flash, there’s a feature that lies in semantic structure that’s just as important and especially powerful for Interactive Videos based on HTML5. Web crawlers and search engines can’t see inside of Flash, which is a completely closed container, and they’ll never be able to.

Why does that matter? With the semantic structure of Interactive Video, you can build projects using HTML5 that have multiple interrelated pieces that Web crawlers know how to understand. But with Flash, you’re getting a black box that, when crawled, shows up as just a Flash video without any extra information.
Let’s take a look at another recent interactive music video, the 24-hour-long, HTML5-based project for Pharrell Williams’ “Happy.” The video, which allows viewers to interact and jump between 24 hours worth of footage of happy dancers lip-synching to Pharrell’s song, is a beautiful example of the powerful and immersive projects you can create with HTML5.

There’s a new dancer or group of dancers every four minutes, totaling 360 clips – 24 of which include Pharrell himself. In addition to Pharrell’s appearances, there are also cameos by the likes of Steve Carell, Jamie Foxx, Magic Johnson, Kelly Osborne and more.

The video is really impressive, but it missed an opportunity by not building on a semantic structure. Had it been built correctly, each of the 360 videos would refer to that single Web page, making it possible for viewers to do things like search on Google for the clip of Jamie Foxx and his family. Without watching the entire video, you might not find these “Easter eggs” without knowing their exact time stamps.
Building the video on a semantic structure would’ve allowed Web bots to crawl each distinctive video clip as its own page. The video could have title tags and all the information you’d expect from a standard Web page (H1 tags, meta info, etc.), which would allow bots to read the single video as 360 individual Web pages with discrete content, resulting in higher-ranking search results.

Content creators who aren’t building HTML5 videos are already behind, and they’ll soon be left completely in the dust if they don’t implement the HTML5 Web publishing language soon. However, the good news for brands and content creators is that there are companies focused on delivering all the benefits of HTML5 without any of the technical challenge or complication.
Those who still think Flash is the way to go for online video will likely be changing their tune in the near future as mobile usage continues to skyrocket and HTML5 gets closer to becoming the universal format for creating mobile-ready creative projects.

8

Science and Information / ASUS Waveface Concept

« on: December 16, 2014, 03:57:58 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/09/asus-waveface-concept.html

The trend is already set for the werable technology in the market. One by one the top companies are putting forward there newly conceived models and prototypes to prove their worth and grasp in the field of technology. After the recent introduction of Apple iWatch, Moto 360 and LG G Watch we can formulate the fact that this trend is going to bring more candidates into the arena. ASUS has also stepped up on the platform with its Waveface Concept and produced the concept of its bracelet watchphone. Though the prototype is ready but it will not hit the market soon as it is very expensive and not so profitable at the current stage.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. and trading under that name, is a Taiwanese multinational computer hardware and electronics company based in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan. ASUS is the world’s fifth-largest PC vendor by 2013 unit sales after Lenovo, HP, Dell and Acer. ASUS appears in BusinessWeek’s “InfoTech 100″ and “Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies” rankings, and it ranked first in the IT Hardware category of the 2008 Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands survey with a total brand value of $1.3 billion.  Asus has lived up to the expectation of its name with its WaveFace concept.  Waveface is in fact a series of concept devices, created by ASUS and including the Waveface Casa TV, the Waveface Light, a touch tablet and the Waveface Ultra watchphone. ASUS Waveface Ultra is a wearable cellphone concept that can be worn around the wrist, just like a bracelet. This device is a pretty trendy accessory and it uses a flexible OLED display, being also based on gesture control and touch interface. There’s also a cloud system supposed to work both with the watchphone and the tablet pictured below, that also features a flexible display. All of these devices, even the Casa TV, are able to access documents and all sorts of content via the platform setup by ASUS. A brilliant idea that we’ll hopefully see turned into reality, soon!

The Waveface Casa is a large widescreen display that acts as both entertainment center and internet portal. When not in use, a flexible, decorative cover obscures most of the screen, only exposing small areas that display contextually-relevant information. Equipped with a touch-sensitive screen and backed by a soft, flexible material, the Waveface Light is an interface to the cloud that can be used in a conventional screen-keyboard configuration or as a flat, single-screen tablet. The Waveface Casa is a TV-like home computer machine, serving as an information terminal. Design-wise it is similar to Waveface LIght except for the fact that when it is opened, you can use it to watch video or handle more complex data. When closed, it would show only simple information like time and weather.

The Waveface Ultra is the most portable of the lot. It has an iPhone like design, and can be used as a hybrid phone and a portable computing device. Interesting thing about this device is that thanks to its flexible OLED design you can wrap it around your wrist but still have a single surface when handheld.

9

Science and Information / Vibrating Notifications Ring by MOTA

« on: December 16, 2014, 03:10:25 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/09/vibrating-notifications-ring-by-mota.html

We have all witnessed the various smart watches or remote notification systems hitting the market because they provide the wearablity factor. Recetly Ringly was launched which was just another step in this direction. And now we have MOTA’s vibrating ring.
Following up on its sleek smart bracelet released in 2013, MOTA has unveiled a smart ring that takes up less space on your body, but still promises the same kind of smartphone-notification interactivity. Officially announced at Berlin’s IFA consumer-electronics show, the MOTA SmartRing is designed as a notifications hub for your finger, delivering updates when you have new text messages, email, calendar events and incoming calls. Do you remember Ringly? The idea behind it was that people would use a vibrating ring to alert you about incoming calls, emails or text messages. If you can imagine that same concept, albeit in a smaller and less gendered package, then you have the starting point for the MOTA Smart Ring. Silicon Valley design outfit MOTA believes that in order to stop people checking their phone during conversations, notifications need to be buried somewhere even less obtrusive (and visible) than on a smart watch, and hey, it’s pretty easy to look at your hands, right?

ptimized for use with both Android and iOS devices, the smart ring can also deliver Twitter and Facebook notifications, as shown on MOTA’s website. Offered in “midnight black” and “pearl white,” the ring also has a silent vibration mode that can be tailored to deliver different vibration patterns for your smartphone contacts. The idea, very simply, is that the screen of the device would face in toward your palm, and whenever you received a call, it would vibrate to let you know. When you got an email or text message, the text would be scrolled across a small OLED touch display that you could read simply by looking at your hands. Once you’ve digested the contents, you can dismiss it with a swipe and continue to go about your day, and most importantly, not stopping to check your smartphone. Early consumer reviews of MOTA’s first smart watch were mixed, so it may be too early to get excited about the smart ring’s capabilities.

10

Science and Information / Verizon Launches Droid Turbo With Monstrous Battery Backup

« on: December 16, 2014, 02:35:44 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/10/verizon-launches-droid-turbo-with-monstrous-battery-backup.html


Smartphone is a gadget that everyone requires these days. Not only can they provide the basic functionality of a cellphone but they provide many more features in a single unit, like, calendar, planner, camera, social networking capabilities, internet browsing etc. And as a result the demand of these smartphones is increasing. Now the consumers not only want the functionality but also aim to buy a smartphone that is most robust. So latest technology is used to make these smartphones more durable. To improve the processing power quad core processors are being used and to increase the display AMOLED screen have been introduced. And to provide the entombment of all these qualities Verizon has released its Droid Turbo.

The Droid family stands as an outlier in a business where it’s the smartphone brand that matters, and companies such as Apple and Samsung distribute their products across all carriers, eschewing exclusivity agreements. While Motorola is the exclusive vendor for Droid smartphones, it’s a franchise conceived and owned by Verizon, which licensed the Droid name from Lucasfilm.

 As a Motorola device, the DROID Turbo also features a collection of Motorola-specific apps. The Droid Turbo is designed for extended battery life, and Motorola says the phone can last 48 hours that is two full days of normal use. The monster size battery has a huge 3,900 milliamp-hours of power by comparison with the iPhone 6 Plus which is rated at 2,915mAh, and the life is extended even further via software that optimizes ever watt, according to the company.

The battery charges fast, too. Borrowing a feature first seen on the company’s Moto X, the Droid Turbo includes Turbo Charge, which turns a 15-minute charge into an additional 8 hours of battery life. In addition to a 3,900 mAh battery that allows for such long-lasting battery life, the Motorola DROID Turbo features a 2.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and 21-megapixel rear-facing camera with dual-LED flash, 4K video recording and wrist flick launching. The handset also has a quad-HD display — likely 5.2-inches — and is available in metallic black, metallic red and ballistic nylon.

11

Science and Information / OPPO R5, the thinnest phone in the world

« on: December 16, 2014, 02:27:16 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/12/oppo-r5-thinnest-phone-in-world.html

Oppo has declared that it will be going to launch R5 smartphone in India for a price range of around Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000.

The Oppo R5 is very slim. Oppo R5 is the slimmest ever smartphone released by Oppo, with just 4.85 mm in thickness. This makes it the thinnest smartphone to be released in India so far. Oppo R5 is winning the attention away from the Gionee Elife S5.1. It is a hand-polished micro-Arc frame, which gives it a beautiful look and feel. The USP of the Oppo R5 is absolutely its design. The hand polished aluminum solid body and stylish finish, attached with a sleek body is all over the best feature of the device.

The Oppo R5 comes with a 5.2-inch 1080p Full HD AMOLED display. The pixel density of R5 is to as high as 423ppi. The R5 runs Color OS 2.0 that is based on Android 4.4 (KitKat). Same like most Chinese brands out there, Oppo is a customized version of Android with lots of themes. On the specs front, it is in a 64-bit, octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor. R5 is of 2GB of RAM.

12

Science and Information / Lamborghini smartphone, The most luxurious phone in the world

« on: December 16, 2014, 02:24:40 PM »

Reference: http://www.technotification.com/2014/12/most-luxurious-phone-in-the-world.html

The most luxurious phone in the world for $6,000

Lamborghini smartphone, a perfect smartphone match if you have a luxury lifestyle without any second thought, you can’t stick for the routine old iPhone as everybody does. Lamborghini smartphone is amazingly unique to show off just how special you are. Only 1,947 of these 88 Tonino Lamborghini Android smartphones from 88 Tauri will be made. Lamborghini Tauri 88 costs $6,000, but it ups your manliness amount by at least 50 % thanks to all of those leather ending and angular piece of steel. You can without doubt name it “The most luxurious phone in the world,”.

Tonino Lamborghini is not the similar as the supercar company. This fashion brand is given name after the son of Ferruccio Lamborghini, the founder of the famous car brand.  The most luxurious phone specifications matter, the 88 Tauri has a 5-inch, 1920 x 1080 display, a 2.3GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Don’t agree to external appearances fool you — there’s nothing unique on the inside. Sales don’t start until late December. Lamborghini Tauri 88 is available in real leather i.e., in black, blue, orange, red or brown and steel i.e., in black, gold or silver.

Quick look on Lamborghini Tauri 88 Specs:

Display: 5-in., 1,920 x 1,080 px. (FULL HD A.K.A 1080p)

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801

CPU: 4x Krait 400 cores @ 2.3 GHz

GPU: Adreno 330 GPU @ 578 Mhz

Storage: 64 GB internal

Memory: 3 GB LPDDR3

Camera:

Rear: 20 MP with dual-LED flash

Front: 8 MP

Battery: 3,400 mAh

Modem: LTE w/ dual-SIM support

13

Science and Information / History Of DataBase System

« on: December 16, 2014, 02:08:19 PM »

Reference: http://www.techworm.net/2013/05/history-of-database-system.html

Several factors accelerated Database System growth. Globalization and competitive pressure made industries realize that only accurate and quick business information are only key to their success and survival. They realized manual file and record management system could never meet this growing need.

And in 1960’s with the advent of computer system brought a ray of hope when manual file systems were replaced with computer file system. This marked a significant leap in the way data was stored and retrieved for business operations.

From 1970’s onward it witnessed explosive growth in two areas. First demand of information in every organization had escalated to another higher level and by the time computing technology improved so much that it could handle large amount of data in terms of storage capacity and speed, and proved its reliability.  The escalating demand for information and the explosive growth in information technology have worked hand in hand to bring about the evolution to database systems. Processors became faster, cheaper, and smaller. Operating systems became powerful and robust. Data storage media expanded tremendously in capacity; data storage prices have tumbled. Network and communication technology can now connect any remote site without difficulty. Application programming and people-machine interface  improved dramatically.
However basic file system met the organizational objective but still lacked on some major fronts. Data redundancy and inconsistency was major drawbacks of earlier file-based database systems. Applications based on file based system could not adapt to changing business requirements and became inflexible. Data sharing and data integration between applications was still a headache for developers and users.

With these limitations, companies could not meet the requirements of increased demand for information. They needed a different approach to storing, retrieving, and managing data. They could not afford the productivity losses. They could not waste time and space because of data duplication in file-oriented systems. Specialists at Rockwell and General Electric began to work on better methods for managing data. And it was Mr. Charles W. Bachman working in General Electric Low Voltage Switch Gear Department in Philadelphia built the first functioning prototype of a database management system named Integrated Data Store (IDS). He won the ACM’s Turing Award for the accomplishment. He was the first Turing Award winner without a Ph.D., the first with a background in engineering rather than science, and the first to spend his entire career in industry rather than academia.

Where navigational database system like IDS kept foundation stone of improved database system in mid sixties , it is the relational database (RDBMS) in seventies, which brought revolution to database technology and IBM proved pioneer in this with Edgar F. Codd .
Along with rise in Object Oriented programming in eighties concept of Object Oriented Database evolved which translates well between programmed object and database table. Now a day’s emphasize is on NoSQL databases like MongoDB, memcached, Redis, CouchDB, Hazelcast, Apache Cassandra and HBase to name a few.

14

Science and Information / URL Shortening service “bit.ly” flagged as Malicious by Google and Firefox

« on: December 16, 2014, 01:33:15 PM »

Reference: http://www.techworm.net/2014/10/oops-url-shortening-service-bit-ly-flagged-malicious-google.html


One of the world’s most popular URL Shortening service bit.ly was flagged as malicious by Google. Every shortened links when visited using Google chrome or Mozilla Firefox warns the visitor of Malware. Even the homepage of Bit.ly is marked as malicious by both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

URL Shortening services like bit.ly are commonly used by cyber criminals and spammers to spread malwares and spams. however this is not new but unfortunately for bit.ly, Google has gone on taken this harsh step which will deter users from visiting bit.ly sites.

Most of the times the malware warning like these are removed after few hours when someone from the team of webmasters takes proper action to remove the links which caused the website to be flagged as malicious. but this seems difficult way for bit.ly webmasters, because bit.ly is really full of “malicious links.” 

However if it is very important for you to visit the link, you can still open the link, follow the steps:

On Google chrome, Open the link—> on the warning page —> click on “details” —> click “visit this unsafe site”.

On Mozilla Firefox, Open the link —> On the warning page —> Click on “Ignore this warning”

15

Science and Information / 50 percent of USB devices world wide susceptible to BadUSB

« on: December 16, 2014, 01:15:59 PM »

Reference: http://www.techworm.net/2014/11/half-the-usb-devices-world-over-have-badusb-flaw.html

USB device can be affected by this unpatchable flaw, but exactly which USB devices are affected, we didnt know. Researchers have analyzed every USB controller chip sold by the industry’s eight biggest vendors to see if they are affected by the BadUSB flaw.

The results: Roughly half of the chips were immune to the attack. But predicting which chip a device uses is practically impossible for the average consumer. So now it is clear that of all the USB devices available in the market approximately 50 % of those are affected by this unpatchable flaw.

What is BadUSB

If you have read the BadUSB article you did already know it. But if you havent read it, the malware which is dubbed BadUSB, reprograms embedded firmware to give USB devices new, covert and most powerful capabilities. In a demo at Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, a USB drive was infected and showed its ability to act as a keyboard that surreptitiously types malicious commands into attached computers.

Another USB was similarly be reprogrammed to act as a network card that causes connected computers to connect to malicious sites impersonating Google, Facebook or other trusted destinations. The demo showed that similar hacks could work against Android phones when attached to targeted computers. The malware is so huge that it can work on almost any USB linked devices like Webcams, keyboards, smart phones etc.

Another couple of researchers who managed to reverse engineer the flaw,  put up the PoC on Github so that other security researchers and white hat hackers can find a way to patch the flaw.

Why cant it be detected

Given the scale in which the USB devices are manufactured around the world makes it impractical to detect each and every USB device affected by BadUSB.

“It’s not like you plug [a thumbdrive]into your computer and it tells you this is a Cypress chip, and this one is a Phison chip,” says Nohl, naming two of the top USB chip manufacturers. “You really can’t check other than by opening the device and doing the analysis yourself…The scarier story is that we can’t give you a list of safe devices.”

Testing

Nohl said that his research team had made a mass test of USB controller chips sold by the industry’s biggest vendors: Phison, Alcor, Renesas, ASmedia, Genesys Logic, FTDI, Cypress and Microchip. They checked versions of each chip both by looking up its published specs and by plugging a device using it into a computer and attempting to rewrite the chip’s firmware.

The result were very unpredictable for Nohl and his associates to make a conclusive report.  During testing, Nohl and his research team found that all of the USB storage controllers from Taiwanese firm Phison were vulnerable to reprogramming, while chips manufactured by ASmedia were not affected by BadUSB.

Similarly the controller chips from another major Taiwanese manufacturer Genesys were much more complex.  The Genesys manufactured chips with USB 2.0 standard were immune to the attack, but new ones using the USB 3.0 standard were vulnerable.

In other categories of device like USB hubs, keyboards, webcams and mice, the results produced an even messier Excel spreadsheet of “vulnerable,” “secure,” and “inconclusive.”

Nohl said that these finding made his research go beyond the purview because Nohl had focussed on Phison manufactured USB devices as Phison had largest market share.

You can read the entire Wiki Stub made by Nohl and his associates for the vulnerable devices here.

The problem

Unlike computers where branding is considered necessary and PC manufacturers label the makers name on the configuration, USB manufactures dont. They generally use the chipset from the lowest market price supplier. This causes a brand mixing even in the same category.  For instance different Kingston USB devices may use different chips from different makers at any point of time.

The cure

Nohl result also made one thing clear.  The BadUSB is not effecting only the Phison make devices but almost all devices brands available in the market.

In the meantime another major USB manufacturer Imation is taking some precautions against the BadUSB.  From now on, Imation-owned USB maker Ironkey requires that any new updates to its thumbdrives’ firmware be signed with an unforgeable cryptographic signature that prevents malicious reprogramming. Nohl said that if other USB makers could follow that model the vulnerability could disappear over time.