Apple, Facebook and Google ban Rifle emoji from Olympics Update

Technology Giants Ban Rifle Emoji from List of Images

Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have all come together to stop a rifle emoji from being added to the list of images made available to the users on their smartphones. In the latest update this month, the emoji is likely to join the keyboard listing, though members of the Unicode Consortium, responsible in regulating emoji have voted unanimously to eliminate it in an attempt which the body has described as `bizarre and unusual’.

According to BuzzFeed, Apple had led the decision and had been supported by all the 12 technology giants who are voting members of Unicode, inclusive of Facebook, Google and Microsoft. The pistol emoji would still be available though Apple has mentioned that it would not add the rifle to its services. The resolution of blocking the rifle from being included in the update is not an inconsequential problem.

A man in France, earlier this year, had been sentenced to three months in prison for sending his ex-girlfriend a `death threat in the form of an image’ which was known as the pistol emoji. Though the pistol emoji tends to have no sporting link, the rifle emoji was projected to `represent shooting as a sport’ including hunting and marksmanship as per a submission to Unicode, which is the cause new icons are added.

Rifle – Part of Olympic Themed Group of Icons

This is not the first occasion that Silicon Valley companies have obstructed new emoji from their keyboards. On its macOS keyboard, Apple does not contain the knife and gun emoji while Microsoft had earlier included a middle finger while other companies did not include the same. The rifle had been set to be added to the list of emojis as a part of an Olympic themed group of icons that had included fencing, gymnastics, karate and swimming.

 In the Unicode 9.0 featuring 72 new emoji which will be added along with new animals and foods are fingers crossed, face palm, shrug and hand shake emoji. Unicode has added a cheese emoji, unicorn and burrito in its last round of add-ons. If one wishes to use emoji to actual words, you can now read classic works such as Moby Dick, the Bible as well as plays of Shakespeare, adaptations comprising of YOLO Juliet in pictograms which is due to the enterprising translators and an increasing palette of the little cartoons.

Unicode Approved Emoji – Universal

One will be unable to transcribe accurately The Patriot or American Sniper into emoji since the rifle emoji does not seem to exist. In the firearms collection of emoji, it is handguns all the way down. One of the few weapons in an emoji vocabulary that comprise of some 1800 characters is the revolver and an update is scheduled to be released soon. Unicode 9.0 would be bringing in 72 new emoji with it. A rifle emoji had been decided though it did not come up.

According to unnamed source who had spoken with Buzzfeed News, in a move led by Apple and supported by Microsoft, members of the Unicode Consortium had planned to nullity the rifle at the last moment. The Unicode Consortium silently decides which emoji tends to make it to the big tech platforms. Unlike personalized emoji which tend to need third party applications to view such as Kim Kardashian’s Kimoji, once they are introduced, the emoji approved by the Unicode group tend to become, basically, universal.

OnePlus 3 Review

OnePlus 3 Termed – Apple Killer

OnePlus has gradually grown to become a most wanted in spite of it being considered a loser to Samsung and Apple. The introduction of its OnePlus 3 would bestrengthening this reputation. OnePlus has been termed as an Apple killer and though it is doubtful of toppling the Californian behemoth, its new handset could take away a huge fraction of its loyal supporters. The OnePlus 3not only looks to be a good device but feels much more expensive than the price tag of £309. Similar like the HTC One Series together with several other modern smartphones, the OnePlus 3 is designed from a single piece of aluminium with attractive anodised finish having its back somewhat curved.

The metal edges are slightly rounded with slim diamond-cut chamfers which tend to catch the light just suitable giving our a reflective glimmer now and then. Due to its heavy aluminium alloy body, it tends to feel sturdy from the plastic casing of similar valued Android phones like the LG G4. The OnePlus 3 will be delivered with a pre-installed screen protector for additional shield. With a thickness of 7.3mm it is significantly thinner than the 9.9mm OnePlus 2 and its 5.5-inch 1080p Optic Amoled display tends to have `one of the thinnest bezels in the world’.

Bezel – Fine/Slim

This exceptionally thin bezel means that the phone does not feel big than the iPhone 6S and does not tend to feel as large as the 6S Plus, in spite of the nearly similar measurements. However, on the shortcoming, the thin bezel means that holding the phone could be problematic. The user would frequently select menus as well as app on the edges of the screen by mistake and having to hold it as it is delicate weakens away from the sturdy first impression.

While indoors, with the brightness set at around 50%, the screen tends to look quite bright. Its bezel seems fine and slim and hence the content on the screen seems to control the front panel. The screen is covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 which is so thoroughly laminated that the contents seem to practically float on the surface of the glass. The OnePlus 3 tends to run OxygenOS which is this years’ version 3, built above Android Marshmallow.

Dash Charge Technology

A noticeable thing regarding OnePlus’ software is that it tends to look and feel just like the regular stock Android though with some few twists. Within the OnePlus 3 is a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 820 process and it is quad-core. It has been paired with a huge 6GB RAM to make sure that one may never feel that the phone is lethargic. As the 6GB RAM tends to be yet new in the Android section, OnePlus has merely improved some of its built-in module to make use of it, in order that most of the time the complete memory will not be utilised.

Like several other Marshmallow phones, Google’s Doze mode means one could leave the OnePlus 3, overnight in standby mode and would only lose around a few percent from the battery level. Moreover, if the OnePlus 3 tends to run out of juice, it has the Dash Charge technology which seems to work the way VOOC flash charging does, which is used by the OPPO F1 Plus.

You could get around 60% charge from a 30 minute of charging on plugged in the wall while using the phone simultaneously. Charging from zero to full, in some cases, takes about 75 minutes and can be done without the phone heating too much, which is due to the thick USB cable that dispels heat as it tends to pump 20W of power to the phone.

Motorola’s Newest Phone Moto Z Force Is Rugged and Super Thin

Motorola’s Flagship Handset –Moto Z/Moto Z Force

Struggling smartphone maker Motorola will be releasing two flagship handsets, the Moto Z together with the luxurious Moto Z Force. The two designs portrays the parent company of Moto, Lenovo embracing the modular smartphone trend.Ashton Kutcher, Lenovo product engineer, while pacing the stage at a press event in San Francisco, had called the Moto Z` a redesign of the phone from the ground up’ associating it to ground-breaking Motorola handsets such as the StarTac and Razr.

The handsets did not look as innovative as those market-upending devices. The latest Moto Z is made from military aircraft-grade aluminium and stainless less and is durable yet razor thin. It provides high-end specs, 5.5-inch Quad HD display, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM and 32 GB or 64 GB of storage inside together with lightning fast charging. It also has a 13-megapixel camera towards the back as well as a 5-migapixel sensor in front and is simple 5.2mm thick. One can also get more space for pictures, videos and apps by adding a microSD card up to 2 TB. After the first Droid Razr, this is the next phone in that line.

Has ShatterShield Technology

The front facing 5MP camera comprises of a wide-angle lens which seems great in accommodating friends in an image and with an additional flash on the front, the image looks it’s best even in insufficient light. The Z Force is said to have the ShatterShield technology of Motorola which means that even if the phone is dropped on a marble floor or thrown across, it does not seem to break.

The Z Force tends to represent all the best Droid ideas, unbreakable screen, super-thin body as well as the customization of the Moto X. The Moto Moda seems to be the real selling point and on attaching an accessory the 16-pin port towards the back of the phone, the Z tends to become something novel.

A projector known as InstaShare tends to make the phone large though adds a big battery and kickstand, turning the phone into a wall-sized screen. A speaker has mentioned that it is another built with JBL. It is essential to note that Google’s modular smartphone initiative, Project Ara, had begun as a Motorola project. The spirit has not left even if Ara did.


However, the Moto Z phones does not seem to be quite modular the way Project Ara tends to be where Ara phones enables you to swap screens, cameras as well as batteries. The approach of Motorola is somewhat like what LG did with its latest G5, wherein one tends to plug extra modules in an already complete phone.

Moreover, Motorola tends to have an easier switching mechanism and Moto Mods seems to be a better name for the modules than the LG’s `Friends’.The Moto Z will be arriving this summer for Verizon customers, while the others would be getting it later in the year. Motorola has been working with the developers in building mods and envisages everything from huge battery to a laptop dock to a virtual keyboard. The arena is the same as the other modular phone.

Metamaterial Lens is Thinner than the Light It Bends and Focuses

Light-Warping Metamaterials Lens

A lens has been developed which seems to be thinner than the waves of light it tends to focus which has been made from light-warping metamaterials. It is expected that these lenses may one day replace the heavier glass lensed being utilised in everything from microscopes to phone cameras. A curved glass surface in normal lenses of a few millimetres or even centimetres thick tends to redirect the light rays to a common focal point.

To enhance the image, for instance to remove distortion or ensure different wavelengths of light, all seem to get focused appropriately and one will have to keep adding glass layers.This results in the cameras, telescopes and microscopes being limited in part by the size and weight of the lenses they may need. Reza Khorasaninejad, who has designed the new lens with team led by Federico Capasso of Harvard University, had commented that `virtual reality has the same problem and that they want to have high purpose imaging system but what they will end up having is heavy helmets’.

Metamaterials Bend Light – Common Point

In comparison, metamaterials tends to bend light towards a common point utilising structures which seems to be small or smaller than the wavelengths of the light waves itself. Khorasaninejad states that `the lens is flat though it is called virtual curvature. Utilising a beam of electrons, `nanofins’ had been carved by the team, 600 nanometre-tall blocks which together tend to resemble the worlds’ smallest Stonehenge, from a block of titanium dioxide.

They fixed that lens on a thin piece of glass which tends to provide a stiff backing depriving the focus of any light. Through the titanium oxide lens, the nanofins tend to rotate at various angles in order to capture the polarised light that enables them to pull light rays together. The three lenses were examined, tuned to red, green and violet light and each could focus light more harshly than a 55-millimetre thick Nikon microscope lens having same optical properties although the 600-nanometre-thick metamaterial lens has been 100,000 times thinner than the Nikon.

This design, unlike the earlier metamaterial lenses which seemed to handle visible wavelengths, did not lose much light in the procedure.

Entirely Novel Way of Constructing Lens

John Pendry of Imperial College, London had commented that `this is an entirely novel way of constructing a lens and still cannot compete with a glass lens in handling various colours at once, but several application could work with monochromatic light.

The team has plans in expansion of lens’s colour range. Khorasaninejad has mentioned that `the first step was to make a lens which at least could do a good job in the visible and the next step is to do colour correction’.

According to him the most exciting potential applications is in wearable optics like virtual reality and augmented reality. He further added that `any good imaging system present is heavy since the thick lenses need to be stacked on top of each other and no one desires to wear a heavy helmet for a couple of hours.

This technique could reduce weight and volume and shrink lenses thinner than a sheet of paper and imagine the possibilities of wearable optics, flexible contact lenses or telescopes in space’.

Prisoners’ Code Word Caught by Software That Eavesdrops on Calls

Reuters

Machine Learning System – Listen Hours of Recording

Recently a jail in the Midwest had utilised a machine learning system created by a London firm, Intelligent Voice, to listen on the thousands of hours of recording that had been generated each month. Search engines have been moving beyond the web and in the disordered real world and are finding odd things going on. Every call in or out of US prison tends to get recorded since it is important to know what has been said because some of the inmates tend to use phones for the purpose of illegal business with the outside world.

However the recordings tend to generate large amount of audio which seems to be prohibitively expensive to monitor with the human ears.None at the prison were aware of the code word till the software began stirring through the calls. The software saw phrase three-way coming up again and again in the calls and was one of the most common non-trivial words or phrases which had been used. The prison officials, at first were astonished by the devastating popularity of what they presumed seemed to be a sexual reference.

None Aware of Code

They then worked out that it was a code. The prisoners are only permitted to call a few earlier agreed contacts. Hence if a convict needed to speak to a person on a number that was not on their list, they would call their contacts or close relative asking for a `three-way’ with the person they intend to talk to, code for dialling a third party into the call. No one running the surveillance of the phone at the prison had been aware of the code till the software gave indication through the recordings.

 This explains the speed and scale of analysis which machine-learning processes tend to bring to the world. Initially, Intelligent Voice had developed the software to be used by UK banks which could record their call in complying with industry regulations. In the case of prisons, this seemed to generate a large amount of audio data which is hard to search through.

Nigel Cannings, the CEO of the company has stated that the breakthrough came when he decided to see what could have happened if he pointed a machine-learning system at the waveform of the voice data, its pattern of spikes as well as troughs instead of the direct audio recording.

Harness Powerful Prevailing Techniques

This system seemed to work amazingly. Preparing his system on this visual demonstration enabled him to harness powerful prevailing techniques created for image classification. He commented that he built this dialect classification system centred on pictures of the human voice. The trick enabled his system to develop its own models in recognizing speech patterns as well as accents which seemed as good as the best hand-coded one prevailing, models that were built by dialect and computer experts.

 Neil Glackin, developer of Intelligent Voice had stated that `in their first run they were getting something like 88% accuracy. The software thereafter trains itself to transcribe speech utilising recordings of US congressional hearings, corresponding to the audio with the transcripts.

The power of machine which tends to listen and watch is not what they can perform better than human eyes or ears but tend to perform still worse when challenged with data from the real world. Similar to all applications of computation, their power tends to lie in scale, speed and relative cheapness of processing.

New Graphene Based Transistor Will Increase the Clock Speed of Processors

New Kind of Graphene Based Transistor – Ultralow Power Consumption

A new kind of Graphene based transistor has been developed by scientists and utilising modelling has demonstrated that it has extremelylow power consumption when compared to the other related transistor devices. The most essential effect in reducing power consumption is that it permits the speed of the processors of the clock to increase. As per calculations, the upsurge could be as high as two orders of magnitude. The results had been published in a paper in the journal Scientific Reports. The fact is not much on saving electricity, we tend to have plenty of electrical energy.

According to the corresponding author of the study, the head of MIPT’s Laboratory of Optoelectronics and Two-Dimensional Materials, Dmitry Svintsov, electronic components tend to heat less at a lower power, which means that they are capable of operating at higher clock speed and not one gigahertz, though ten for instance, or also one hundred. Building transistors which tend to be capable of switching at low voltages could be one of the highest challenges of modern electronics. The most promising candidate in solving this problem is tunnel transistors.

Electrons Filters through Barrier – Effect of Quantum Tunnelling

Contrasting from the conventional transistors, where the electrons seems to jump through the barrier of energy, in the case of tunnel transistors, the electrons filters through the barrier owing to the effect of quantum tunnelling. But in the case of most of the semiconductors, the tunnelling current seems to be very minor which tends to stop transistors which are based on these materials from being utilised in real circuits.

The scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology – MIPT, the Institute of Physics and Technology RAS and Tohoku University – Japan, the authors of the article had proposed a new design for a tunnel transistor centred on bilayer graphene and on utilising modelling, had proved that this material seemed to be an appropriate platform for low-voltage electronics. Graphene, created by MIPT graduates Sir Andre Geim and Sir Konstantin Novoselov, is said to be a sheet of carbon which is one iota thick.

Bilayer Graphene – Two Sheets of Graphene

Since it has two dimensions, the properties of graphene inclusive of its electronic properties tend to be radically different to three –dimensional carbon-graphite.Svintsov has stated that `bilayer graphene is said to be two sheets of graphene which are connected to one another with ordinary covalent bonds. However, owing to unique structure of electronic bands, it tends to be extremely favourable material for low voltage tunnelling switches’.

Bands of bilayer graphene, for instance, the permissible energy levels of an electron at a particular significance of momentum tends to be in the shape of a Mexican hat, It seems that the density of electrons which can occupy spaces close to the edges of the Mexican hat seems to infinity which is known as van Hove singularity. On the application of a only a very small voltage to the gate of a transistor, a large number of electrons begin to tunnel at the same time at the edges of the Mexican hat which causes a sharp change in current from the application of small voltage. This is the reason of low voltage for the record low power consumption.

Gadget That Can Fold Your Laundry Perfectly with Robot Arms and Even Steam out Creases

A Robo-Helper – Automatically Folds Laundry

A San Francisco start-up has revealed a robo-helper which tends to automatically fold the laundry. Known as `Your laundry folding friend’ FoldiMate tends to use a conveyor belt, many robotic arms together with an adjustable tray that tends to push our skilfully folded clothing in less than a minute. FoldiMate had mentioned on its website that `FoldiMate is a robotic clothes and laundry folding machine and the only way it knows to fold, is like an expert’

It is 32 inches tall and 28 inches wide, weighing only 65 pounds and fits in most laundry rooms and can be moved about easily in different rooms FoldiMate Family, the home targeted robotic laundry folder, will quickly become `a must have’ in every household around the world.

The device is said to be designed to be placed on top of the washer, dryer or a strong table. The firm provides a wheeled table which can be moved where you can fold normally. One can just clip the laundered garment to the integrated rack placed on the outside of FoldiMate and using the available buttons, you can select what type of clothing it is, like a pair of pants or shirt.

FoldiMate Senses Fabric, Once Pulled in the Machine

FoldiMate tends to sense the fabric, size, thickness and if it is a long-sleeved or short sleeved and adjust according to those characteristics, once it is pulled inside the machine. Sensing the kind of garment and with a series of robot arms, it folds the garment into place. Besides taking over folding duties, the device also diminishes wrinkles with a built-in steamer.

It de-wrinkles the clothing by steaming them as they tend to exit the machine. It takes about 10 seconds to fold most of the items and an extra 20 to 30 to steam out the wrinkles from the garment. Towards the end of the process, the garments are released from the machine in a well-ordered pile. The rack tends to hold around 15 to 20 pieces at a time.

But there are some items which cannot be folded with the machine and it is unable to handle everything in the laundry basket such as undergarments, socks and towels. Though the concept is easy, FoldiMate has been developing the machine for years with the help of a team of experienced roboticists.

Developed Patented Robotic System to Fold Clothes

Since 2014, the machine had been available commercially though the firm has been working on a family friendly style that is likely to hit the market in 2017. Presently, on the site, FoldiMate is accepting pre-orders which are predicted to run around $700 to $850. Over 11,000 people have already registered on the company’s website.

However, the company is providing a 10% discount to those who tend to make a down payment of $10 or more for the unit. FoldiMate has explained that they had developed a patented robotic system to fold clothes which could decrease the size of the machine by one third or less while at the same time keep the target price which would be affordable to the consumers as well as business – less than one fifth of their direct competitors’ price.

FoldiMate seems to have competitorsin the laundry folding field and a group of Japanese companies had unveiled in October last year `The Laundroid’ that tends to wash, dry as well as fold clothes.

The Sticker That Can Free You from Power Cables and Give Any Gadget Wireless Charging

Energysquare – Wireless charging Sticker

Though some of the gadgets tend to provide wireless charging, several of the products of Apple do not do so. However, there is a new smart sticker known as energysquare which tends to use wireless charging sticker that sticks towards the back of a smartphone, charging numerous devices on a single charging pad. The device, developed by a French company tends to charge various phone of any make simultaneously and at the same speed like a traditional wall charger.

The adhesive and thin stickers have been designed with two conductive dots which tend to directly connect to the battery carrying two conductive electrodes together with a connector that can be plugged in the charging socket of the devices needed to be charged. The charging pad comprise of conductive square which are controlled independently by the unique embedded system of the company.

When the users place their smartphone on the pad, the conductive dots of the stickers connect with two different conductive squares on the pad and the charging tends to start once the physical contact is sensed.The complete charging system is said to be water resistant and does not emit electromagnetic waves, which is compatible with most of the smartphones, inclusive of tablets. It is designed to resist the daily use by being smash proof.

Two Sizes – Square One/Square Two

The charging pads are made available in two sizes, namely Square One and Square Two, featuring `smart sleep mode’ in order to overcome any power waste when not in use. The company on its Kickstarter campaign had stated that `energysquare is a new generation of wireless chargers which will enable you to charge various devices at the same speed as classic chargers by just placing it on an ultra-tin pad.

No induction, or electromagnetic waves, we are using our own patented conductive charging technology’. Energysquare is on the lookout for $33,630 through the online campaign where $73,539 has been raised from 758 backers with 20 days remaining for the campaign. Consumers would be receiving one charging pad together with five stickers with a $44 pledge and the retails price is said to be $91 to $106.

No Loss of Energy

It is said the energysquare can charge any type of smartphone having a micro-USB, USB kind C or lightning connector. The energysquare team have stated that unlike the induction charging, there is no loss of energy and several of the devices can be charged on wide surfaces at the same time’. If one prefers to keep utilising a classic charger, you could just unplug the sticker temporally and then plug it back when done with. The energysquare has stated that the charging smartphones as well as the tablets is said to be only the beginning, and the more compatible objects tend to exist, the more value for you.

It adds that as their objective was to enable any connected device be energysquare compatible, they had created an open source standard which permitted any device manufacturer or technology enthusiastic to make energysquare compatible products. The project is said to be in its pre-industrialization stage where many working beta prototypes have been dispersed to real people, offices and families.

US Navy Reveals Latest Hi-Tech 'Iron Man' Diving Helmet for Elite Soldiers

An Improved Reality Display – Divers’ Helmet

The U.S. Navy together with the scientists have been working in developing an improved reality display for divers’ helmet which tends to permit them to see photos, sonar reading as well as texts while operating under water. The Iron Man helmet known as DAVD – Divers Augmented Vision Display has been described as a `high resolution, see through head-up display – HUD that is embedded directly in a diving helmet. The futuristic-looking helmet providing a kind of Iron Man-meet Aquaman is what the Naval Surface Warfare Centre has named the `next generation’ technology.

Dennis Gallagher, the Navy’s Underwater Systems Development Project Engineer, had mentioned in a statement that `by building this, directly in the dive helmet, instead of attaching a display on the outside, it could provide a capability identical to something from an Ironman movie and you have everything you visually need directly here in the helmet’. The smart helmet had been demonstrated to around 20 military divers. Divers would be in a position of having real-time visual display of everything according to the news release of the Navy. The Navy considers in conducting in-water simulation testing in October with extended field testing set for 2017. It has not been specified by the military as to when the helmets could be in actual use.

Works with Sensors – Video Systems/Sonar

The new helmet, according to the Navy is said to be used by military divers for under water construction, searches as well as salvage operations and could be utilised by first responders and commercial divers. The technology is said to be designed to assist divers by providing them visuals of precisely what they would be looking for, recording information and messages from the surface.

The military also observed that it works with sensors, especially video systems and sonar, which the individual diver would use in murky conditions with the data that is fed directly in the smart helmets. Gallagher stated that they have been constantly engaged with the operators and if there is a vision they have, they can make it happen. By having this kind of positive on-the-spot feedback, you know that you are going down the right road’.

 This diving technology is said to be the latest which tends to help the elite forces of the Navy in underwater combats. Besides this, it has real time link enabling operators on the surface to chat as well as to send video. But there seems to be a problem wherein it tends to make soldiers seems uncannily like a follower.

Prototype Utilised for Diving Missions

Rather than relying on pre-dive updates in determining what they are looking for, or how specific items need to appear and where they may be isolated, the system tends to provide the information right before the eyes of the diver with a look and a feel similar to a point of view video game display.

Researchers state that the device which seems to be a prototype presently could be utilised for diving missions such as ship husbandry, besides underwater construction and salvage operations. Ultimately the purpose is to have it utilized by first responders together with the commercial diving community. In the next stage two, involves designing components to comprise helmet systems as well as full face masks.

How to Find Wireless Networks With Windows 10?

Microsoft Adding Expansions/Features in Windows 10

Microsoft will be adding a vast number of expansions as well as features in Windows 10 and one of the changes is adding of the Settings app that tends to replace `PC settings’ from Windows 8, which will ultimately also replace the Control Panel. In the Settings, individuals would find the latest `Network & Internet’ section and unlike Windows 8, the latest settings would be enhanced in Windows 10. For instance, Microsoft would be dividing wireless and wired connections in various sections – Wi-Fi and Ethernet, in Windows 10.

Users could also share and connect to wireless network with their contacts utilising Wi-Fi Sense and can perform all the wireless networking functions right from the Settings.If one only uses Ethernet, the connection to a network seems very forthright and on plugging the Ethernet cable in the network adapter in your computer, you can get started. While on the other hand connecting to a wireless network tends to have additional steps where there are various types of features. Windows 10 tends to have its own version of the wireless networks list which can be opened from the Notification section of the taskbar.

View List – Network Icon in Notifications Section

One option of viewing the list can be done by clicking the Network icon in the Notifications section towards the right area of the Windows 10 taskbar, where the wireless version tends to look like radio waves fanning outwards.If this icon is not seen there, it could be in the Hidden Icons space.

On clicking the small upward pointing arrow on the taskbar, you can locate the Network icon and you can drag it back out to the Notifications area. Once the Network icon is clicked, you will see a list of wireless networks that are in the vicinity and rather than the green bars which Windows 7 seemed to use, signal strength is specified by the number of radio waves in the icon near each name of the network. You could also see if the network seems to be secured with a password or if it is open for any user to join in. As a means of precaution, users need to be careful on joining open wireless networks since they could put your data security in danger.

Various Shortcuts to Common Settings

Another way of seeing a list of accessible wireless network is to open the Windows 10 Action Centre which tends to have a collection of various shortcuts to the common settings, notifications as well as apps. The user can go to the Action Centre in various ways namely by clicking its icon, that is near to the time and date towards the right area of the taskbar by pressing the Windows and A key on the keyboards, or swiping in from the right edge of the screen. On arriving in the Action Centre, you could click or press the Network icon and tap the Go to Settings button which tends to show up in order to see the network list in the Wi-Fi settings box.

Chinese Funeral Home 3D Prints Body Parts For Damaged Corpses

3D Printing Body Parts – To Repair Disfigured/Damaged Bodies

According to Chinese state-owned broadcaster China Radio International, a 3D printing body parts has been started by a funeral home in Shanghai in an effort to repair disfigured or damaged bodies. Chinese state-funded news site The Paper noted that the Funeral Parlor, the 3D printing repair service in Longhua comprises of building various layers of material over each other in order to construct a three-dimensional product. The outlet has informed that with the combination of 3D printing, makeup and hair implants it would be capable of reconstructing faces similar at least by 95%.

The Paper noted that destroyed bone structure and damaged body parts could be the consequences of deaths from natural disasters, industrial and traffic accidents. The director of Shanghai’s funeral services centre, Liu Gengming, informed Shanghai Daily that `it would be difficult for relatives to see incomplete faces or bodies of their loved ones when they attend memorial services and makeup does not always repair them adequately. He added that people could utilise the technique in making the corpses of their dear one seem younger or better in looks.

Mend Damaged Bodies with Wax & Sludge

The Paper mentioned that Chinese funeral homes, usually mend disfigured or damaged bodies with materials like wax and sludge. Liu states that while these materials helped in reconstructing the shape of the faces of the bodies, they seem to fail in recreating accurately, the texture of their skin and hair. According to China Radio International, a facial reconstruction would be costing $620 to $776. Hundreds of people in China, in recent years, had died resulting in industrial accidents, several of which were the outcome of negligent enforcement and regulations.

An artificial landslide of accumulated construction waste had collapsed in Shenzhen, southern China, in December, killing around 60 people. Longhua’s venture, assumed to be the first time that a Chinese funeral home has provided 3D printing services as part of Shanghai’s implementation of the 13th Five-Year Plan, of China according to The Paper. The plan, which had been approved last October calls for more improvement in science and technology. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the country had also issued a plan demarcating goals to develop the 3D printing industry of the country, in February 2015.

Opening Avenues in Solving Issues of Disabilities/Shortage of Donor Organ

The new service of Longhua adds to a developing list of methods which scientists seem to be using 3D technology on the human body. A group of scientists and researchers, last month had announced that they achieved a 3D print an organ which could work on humans for the first time, thus opening avenues in solving the issue of disabilities or shortages of donor organ.

 Today, 3D printers have been transforming medicine by constructing replacement of bones, fingers, skin and ears for patients and accident affected victims. 3D printed human tissue, on the cutting edge of this area is known as `bio-printing and is created by utilising modified printer cartridges and extracted cells which have been obtained from the biopsies of the patient. They are grown by using standard techniques which are cultured in a growth medium in dishes, enabling them to increase. The cells can then be loaded in cartridges and printed into layers that tend to fuse together, maturing into tissues.

Microsoft’s ‘Smart Mirror’ Can Read Your Emotions

Microsoft’s Magic Mirror – Hidden Facial Recognition Camera

The message from the Magic Mirror of Microsoft, `You can be smart and good-looking, a so-called smart mirror which tends to distinguish and welcome users, read their emotions as well display the weather, time, together with other information. The mirror seems to look like a regular mirror. Izzat Khair, a member of developer experience team of Microsoft Singapore explained - `imagine when you wake up in the morning, you are able to use the mirror to style your hair, do your make up and while at the same time, you can also view the weather’.

The Magic Mirror tends to have hidden facial-recognition camera which has the capability of sensing eight human emotions, comprising of anger, happiness and surprise. Microsoft intends to extend the features of the mirror enabling it to show app-fed news together with Facebook and Twitter feed in a display section.

 Khair has mentioned that the mirror is yet in its demo stage though has real business prospective and pointed out that the advertising as well as marketing industries for instance, could make use of the technology. He added saying `imagine on the monitor of the mirror you are able to play an advertisement. You have a camera which can snap a photo of the users, viewing the advertisement.

Real-Time Information to Advertisers

He also added that the facial recognition features of the mirror can provide real-time information to advertisers regarding the reaction of the viewers to the advertisement. Among the various tech products, the cutting-edge technology, the Magic Mirror had been on display at InnovFest UnBound 2016, a digital technology conference, in Singapore, showing the changing ways; users were cooperating with the technology.

 Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vivian Balakrishnan, in an address at InnovFest recently stated that he wanted the country to build an operating system database for 100 million smart objects for the next five years, when the Internet of Things trends took off. Microsoft is said to be working with the government agencies of Singapore on enhancing the city-state’s IoT ecosystem and on talent development, cyber security, research and public sector partnership as part of the country’s Smart Nation enterprise.

Data Stored on Private Cloud

Keeping the focus on cyber security, Khair has mentioned that the data administered by the mirror had been stored on a private cloud which the programmers of Microsoft could not access and the data is said to be deleted after a period of seven days. It is said to be a one-way mirror which is made smart with a 23.6-inch LCD lit screen sitting behind it that tends to show white UI components on a black background.

 Users can see their reflection as well as the white component in the mirror, when the display is powered on. The Magic Mirror tends to use Windows Hello technology for the purpose of facial recognition and Raspberry Pi seems to power the device. Microsoft had mentioned in a blog post that `to power the mirror, they have chosen a Raspberry Pi due to its popularity, support, price point together with the specifications of hardware.

Lost your iPhone? New Google Feature is here to Help

Google’s Latest Feature – Search Misplaced Lost Phones

There is some good news for iPhone or Android users where Google has introduced a latest feature which enables them to search misplaced or lost phones. The user could just go to Google search engine and type in `I lost my phone’ wherein they will be given various options on how to discover misplaced device. In the search results, the user will find a list of selections on how to find their device on a map or even make it ring. The tech giant had announced in a blog post recently that the new features rolling out on the search engine would help in locating or secure a misplaced device, even if it’s an iPhone.

Once updated, users would be able to Google `I lost my phone’ and opt from a number of helpful choices. Besides making the phone ring, you could also display a message on the screen for whoever locates it, lock the device or delete all its data. While Googling `I lost my phone’ or `find my phone’ would display a map indicating an approximate location of where the gadget could be though it would not work unless the GPS of the phone is on. Moreover, this service had been earlier available through the Android Device Manager only.

Phone-Finder Feature works with Android/iOS Devices

The new phone-finder feature now tends to work with Android as well as iOS devices. Besides this, Google has also announced new methods of accessing private settings wherein you will be capable of using voice command to toy with your controls or search for name to visit your account page.

You should know that these features seem to work because you are allowing Google to access your personal data including your location if you tend to use the `lost my phone’ feature. The user has the option of deciding if it is worth trading a bit of your privacy, for convenience. The process of locating is simple. The user can go to Google’s `My Account’ and on scrolling down can click `Find Your Phone’. Choose the device one intends to locate, sign into your Google account and you will get the options such as:

• Find and lock your iPhone 
• Try calling your phone 
• Sign out on your phone 
• Reach out to your carrier 
• Reach out for local help

Feature Prevents Others from Accessing Your Account

But the phone location feature of Google is not yet accomplished of locking the iPhone or remotely deleting it. However, there are other options to assist you in locating misplaced devices or if the user needs to figure out where their gadget could be. With this feature, other individuals would be preventing from accessing your Google account since you have the capability of signing out remotely which makes it impossible for thieves from accessing your private information.

This service could be considered as a public on the part of Google because it permits the user to locate for missing or lost devices with much trouble or it could be a scheme to induce iPhone users in using the services and features of Google and ultimately shift to Android in the long run.

Did You Know You Can Add More Fingerprints to Your Phone?

Fingerprint Scanner – Essential Feature

Nowadays several of the sophisticated smartphones as well as the low-end models tend to come with a fingerprint scanner. The fingerprint sensor stopped being a device, last year and started being one of the most essential parts of a contemporary smartphone. Fingerprint scanners had been an option on some of the laptop models for a long time till the concept prevailed, though they seemed to be forgotten. Apple then came on the scene and perfected it as well as made it a must-have feature.


In 2013, Apple introduced the Touch ID with the iPhone 5S and it has now become an essential feature Besides keeping the phone secure from authenticating payments, the one-touch fingerprint sensor seems to have various benefits over a pin code, though only when it seems to work. However, what several of the users are not aware of is that the fingerprint scanners on most of the smartphones and tablets tend to recognise up to five fingers.

 In the early system of the phone, it tends to run through registering a digit and then you can register more now or skip. Most of them hit `skip’ trying to run through the setup routine quickly.

Register More than one Finger

However, registering more than one finger could make utilising the scanner a lot easier and much more convenient. You can register fingers on different hand in order to unlock the phone, if one finger tends to be wet or sticky; you have the option of using the other hand.

You could use a thumb to unlock it in your hand though an index finger could be used in unlocking it on your desk. You also have the option of registering on the fingerprint of someone else, for instance a partner though the terms and conditions for some submissions including Android Pay, specially tends to prohibit digits from others registered on your device for apparent reasons.

In order to register an additional finger or four, one could find the security settings for the fingerprint scanner and then run the setup routine for new finger which tends to take a few minutes. With Android device running Lollipop, Marshmallow or N, one can go to Settings> Security > Fingerprint and begin the routine of adding another fingerprint. Before registering a new fingerprint, one may be asked for your pin or passcode.

Registering Same Finger More than Once – Increases Accuracy

In case of iPhone or iPad, users could go to the Settings app > Touch ID & Passcode > Edit the pin or passcode > Add a Fingerprint which could start the Touch ID registration for another finger. Several of the devices, tapping the fingerprint sensor with a pre-registered finger while viewing the list of fingerprints that have been registered, would identify which fingerprint tends to correspond to a particular entry.

For older devices having early fingerprint scanners, like the Samsung Galaxy S5 or Galaxy Note 4, registering the same fingerprint more than once utilising various parts of the finger every time could help in increasing accuracy as well as reduce the number of times when the finger is not recognized. From 2015 onwards, this is not essential with the majority of the fingerprint scanners on smartphones, though it could be helpful in making the fingerprint scanners on older models less frustrating.

Google Voice Search Records and Keeps Conversations People have around Their Phones

Google Voice Search – Records Conversation of User

Google voice search tends to record all that the user has said around it for years and they can also listen to it. The company tends to unobtrusively record several of the conversations which people seem to have around it products. The feature seems to work as a means of enabling people search with their voice and storing these recordings could probably help Google to improve its language recognition tools and the outcomes it provides to the people.

However it also seems to come with a simple way of listening and deleting all the information it tends to collect that is done via a special page which tends to bring the information together which Google has regarding the activity of the user. This is found by going to Google’s history page and viewing the list of recordings.

A specific audio page has been provided by the company and another for activity on the web that tends to portray the records that Google has recording your activity on the internet. The new portal had been introduced in June 2015 and has been active for the last one year which means that now it is possibly full of the things said that the user would be under the impression of it being private.

Recordings – Form of a Diary with Reminders

These recordings could work as a form of a diary, with reminders of the many places as well as the situations which the user and the phone had been engaged in. Moreover it could also be a reminder of how much information has been gathered by the user and how intimate the said information could be. An Android phone would get to see more on activating by just saying `OK Google’.

The recordings will be available on whatever device the user may have interacted with Google. One can listen through all the recordings on the pay and can also see information regarding how the sound had been recorded, if it was through the Google app or any other app. Moreover one can have any transcription of what could have been said if Google had turned it into text successfully.

To Stop Google from Recording – Turn Off Virtual Assistant

But probably the most valid reason for visiting the page would be to delete all that is there, if one desires it, which can be done by selecting specific recordings or delete all in one go. In order to delete certain files, one could click the check box towards the left and move back to the top of the page selecting `delete’.

To delete all that is recorded, one can press the `More’ button and select `Delete options’ and then `Advanced’ and click through. The simplest means of stopping Google from recording everything is to turn off the virtual assistant and on no occasion use voice search.

 However that solution also tends to get at the vital problem of ample privacy as well as date use, presently. In doing so, it tends to cut off one of the most useful thing regarding the use of Android phone or using Google search

Samsung Pay Arrives in Europe, Spain is Numero Uno

Samsung Pay Service Arrives in Spain

Samsung Pay, marking the service’s European debut has ultimately arrived in Spain. Samsung Pay tends to see customers adding credit or debit cards to their phone, similar to rival services like Apple Pay and Android Pay, where the latter had recently arrived in the UK, which can then be tapped on checkouts in making contactless payment. Samsung Pay is launched in Spain which gives the mobile payment service a lead over the other competitors. In Contrast to those services, it could be utilised with the older magnetic strip systems. Samsung had mentioned that in Europe, the first bank to get on board were CaixaBank and imaginBank, followed shortly with Abanca and Banco Sabadell. Celestino Garcia, corporate vice president of Samsung Spain, had stated that the opportunity for Samsung Pay in Spain was important owing to the high smartphone penetration rate as well as the digitalisation of the banking sector. He mentioned results of a company commissioned research which showed 60% of the people in Spain preferred using services like Samsung Pay that enabled them to make contactless payment. A Visa report of 2015 indicated that Spain seems to be a country where most of the contactless payments terminals in Europe are made.

Turning Point in Payment Behaviour

Garcia had said that they are proud that Spain seems to be the first European market in introducing Samsung Pay, which is an advanced new service, believed to mark a turning point in Spaniard’s payment behaviour as well as the evolution of the payment market as a whole. Samsung Pay was launched in September 2015, in the US and in February the company had stated that it had 5 million registered customers of Samsung Pay, claiming a `strong’ adoption rate in the US as well as South Korea.A company spokesman had mentioned in a statement that `Samsung Pay would launch later in the year in the UK. Samsung Pay is available on the flagship smartphones of Samsung, the Galaxy S7 and S6 series, in Spain as in other markets. Samsung has mentioned that it had chosen Spain as its first European market due to high rates of smartphones together with credit card access. As per research commissioned by the South Korean tech giant, 64% of Spanish customers tend to utilise cards for paying most or several of their purchases.

Samsung Pay, Advantage Over Apple Pay/Android Pay

However, Samsung Pay could be missing a main feature in Spain and as Android Authority summaries, the announcement of Samsung had not made any mention of magnetic secure transmission- MST terminals only that it functioned with near-field communication – NFC enabled contactless payment terminals. In January, CaixaBank said that it would not support Samsung Pay’s MST since contactless point-of-sale systems were already well-known in Spain. Samsung Pay tends to have an advantage over Apple Pay and Android Pay in the United States, on utilising MST, since the stores do not have to install new NFC-enabled terminals in the stores to accept it. On the contrary, Samsung Pay tends to work by sending a signal that imitates the magnetic strips on credit cards to a MST terminal which most of the stores accepting cards tends to have it already. TechCrunch had asked Samsung Pay if the mobile payment service had been incompatible with MST in Spain

Cadillac’s Wide Angle, LCD Rear View Mirror

Cadillac’s XT5 Rear View Mirror – LCD Portraying View of Traffic Behind

On flipping the day-night lever towards the bottom of a Cadillac XT5’s rear view mirror it tends to change to a LCD portraying a wide-angle view of the traffic behind you. It is said to be the first of what could be a flood of inside as well as side rear mirror utilising small cameras providing wider viewing angles as well as less wind resistance than the traditional outside mirrors. The likelihood prevails for several cameras edging together a seamless view of 180 degree.

Cadillac has partnered with Gentex Corpn in order to develop the Rear Camera Mirror, as called by Cadillac, after its announcement on the concept as a `streaming video mirror’, a year ago. Initially, it is available on the XT5, a crossover compact replacing the Cadillac SRX together with the high-end Cadillac CT6 sport sedan. On test trading the XT5, it was found that it worked well though it also needs to getting used to it. As Gentex seems to call it – the Full Display Mirror tends to pull an image from a moderately high-definition camera mounted on the rear of the car just over the license plate.

Lens – Hydrophobic/Water-Shedding Coating

The lens tends to have a hydrophobic or water-shedding coating in order to decrease the effects of the rainy weather. The image is said to be fed to the 1280-by-240 pixel LCD display implanted in the rear view mirror. The driver can switch between views utilising the lever towards the bottom which on modest mirrors tend to switch between daytime and night viewing modes. In reflective mirror mode, the electro-chromic component tends to dim automatically, the view whenever bright headlamps tend to shine on the mirror. Moreover the other exceptional feature is a high-dynamic range camera which tends to reduce the glare at night.

Gentex had informed that each pixel arrays its own exposure and the headlamps seem as bright objects, though darker objects like the outline of the car or a pedestrian at the side of the road can also be noticeable. It is said that Gentex seems to be having 10 patents on the mirror system inclusive of the streaming video mirror concept as well as for wide-angle-view calibration, de-warping, glare reduction together with the camera’s hardware design.

Wide View Beneficial in City Traffic

The first and the last impression is how extensive is the field of vision, which is around four times as wide as a traditional mirror. Since it is on the exterior of the car, the view is not blocked by back seat headrest, roof pillars or passenger. One needs to be aware that the view is 8 – 10 feet beyond a traditional mirror view. The wide view could be beneficial in city traffic as well as for looking around before reversing into a parking space.

When one is properly certain that there is no crossing traffic in one’s blindspot, you can switch on to the camera view on the main LCD of the car. What Cadillac has been doing with Gentex is just the beginning. Other automakers, including Tesla have been toying with small cameras as replacement for side mirror. They tend to lessen wind resistance, making the car contracted and easier to fit into a snug garage.

An LED Light Bulb with a Warm, Retro Glow

Tala’s New LED Similar to Edison-Style Lightbulbs

In 1879, Thomas Edison had filed a patent for his electric lightbulb and somehow we are still toying with it. The latest upgrade is the Tala’s new LED similar to Edison-style lightbulbs ever present in farm-to-stable restaurants which tends to be energy efficient with a warm, natural look. Tala, created by four students at the University of Edinburg generates vintage-style lightbulbs in a variety of old-school shapes some of which are subtly tinted mouth blown glass. A string of superthin LED chips in these bulbs tends to simulate the glowing filament on incandescent though what actually set them apart are the less concrete qualities.

For instance dimming,is among the most appealing features of incandescent bulbs, one which eco-friendly CFL and LED lights seem to have issue. Though several LED bulbs tend to falter as their intensity is adjusted, Tala’s incline up and down smoothly which is due to a great presentation driver at the base of every bulb, as per the co-founder of the company, Josh Ward. Besides this, there is the quality of the light which tends to skew warmer scoring 95+ out of 100 on the colour-rendering index (CRI), a measure of how precisely a light source tends to render colours.

Each Filament Packed Dense with LEDs

Though one would come across other vintage-style LED bulbs with approximately the same score, Tala’s have been designed to surpass the red spectrum which in part is the reason for the bulb flattered skin tones. Moreover, each filament is said to be packed dense with LEDs in order that the bulb tends to cast a broad, even glow.

Since the LED-based lightbulbs manufacturers have learnt the art of imitating the warm, power-guzzling glow of incandescent, new energy efficient models have been quickly replacing their predecessors. But there are yet some areas, where these forward-thinking bulbs may not fit, for instance, in lighting fixture that calls for exposed bulbs.

It is here that the futuristic looks of several LED choices do not match up to the old-fashioned Edison bulbs. Manufacturers fortunately have been in the race of creating convincing traditional-style LED bulbs that reproduce the romance of early incandescent models.

Roxy – Down-to-Earth Bulb – Linear LED Strips

A company - Lighting Science, known best for working with NASA in developing lighting for International Space Station, responding to astronauts’ day-to-day rhythms, has introduced the Roxy, which is a down-to-earth bulb for housing customers including linear LED strips which tend to look like incandescent filaments beneath clear glass.

Fred Maxik, the firm’s chief technology officer comments that `as the technology joined with our abilities, we thought it was important to start improving the visual of light. People have been putting glowing bulbs in fixtures for years and love the way they look and we thought it was important to respect that’. The Roxy would be made available with steady incandescent-like light colour of 2700K, or an even warmer, candle like 2200K.

Top maker of specialty bulbs, Bulbrite has also introduced a latest collection of old-looking bulbs, called Nostalgic LED Filaments. The range features various styles and sizes comprising of simple round globe and tall avocado form together with smaller candelabra bulbs having colour temperature of 2700K, 2400L or 2200K and with the same shapes and somewhat tinted glass as the incandescent offering of the company. Product manager for specialty lighting, Eric Choi states that the line provides an energy efficient option with the look and feel of vintage bulbs.

BMW Revamps 'i' Electric Car Division to Focus on Self-Driving Tech

BMW `i’ Division Transformed into Development Centre

A board member has informed Reuters, that the `i’ division of BMW has been transformed into a development centre for self-driving cars, a main considered shift for the unit had earlier aimed on making a family of lightweight electric vehicles. Though Model 3 of Tesla would hit showrooms in 2017 and as Porsche and Audi rivals would be working on all electric cars to be released by 2019, the German car manufacturer seems to have put these kinds of cars at the back and its next fully-electric car would not be due till 2021.

The company’s approach has been changed after it’s fully battery powered car, and the i3, was not successful in gaining traction with the public with only 25,000 sales done last year. Tesla in comparison has already received over 370,000 orders for its Model 3. Instead of looking to match Tesla and Porsche with new zero-emissions sports limousine for release in the next two years, its focus lies in manufacturing an electric car with the next generation of technology, the autonomous driving.

Project `i’ Next

BMW board member Klaus Froehlich, in charge of development, in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Munich had mentioned that in April he had re-launched the `i’ division, as a unit dedicated in producing cars which tend to drive themselves and it is now in ramp-up stage which is called `Project i Next’. The renovation also tends to follow four great profile staff defections, this year from the division. Manager of BMW’s `i’ powertrain group Dirk Abendroth, vice president product management BMW `i’ Henrik Wenders, and vice president engineering, head of the i8 vehicle programme, Carsten Breitfeld, had been robbed by a Chinese electric vehicle start-up.

As a measure of its autonomous driving push, BMW has been hiring experts in machine learning as well as artificial intelligence. It is also assimilating the tasks of prevailing computer driven support systems such as emergency braking, cruise control, lane-keeping assistance and automatic parking. Froehlich stated that `with a fully autonomous vehicle, BMW could launch a ride hailing business without the need to pay drivers, thus giving car manufacturers a competitive edge over new ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft that seem toeat away car sales by making part utilisation convenient as ownership.

BMW to Partner with Ride-Hailing Firm

Toyota Motor Corp had mentioned earlier in the month that it would invest in Uber and Volkswagen had announced a $300 million investment in Gett which was a smaller ride-sharing company. It is said that BMW may partner with a ride-hailing firm especially in markets such as China though the car manufacturer’ policy on probable partnerships with companies is yet being worked out in this space according to Froehlich. He further added that China which is the world’s largest car market would probablybe the market, where autonomous cars would first appear on a big scale.

He also mentioned that China is implementing technology extremely fast. Last year more electric cars were sold in China than in all the other global markets put together. BMW has also been considering in expanding the area of reserving parking areas as well as electric car charging stations over mobile phone, a market that is still uneven within countries. Car manufacturers have already invested in ParkNow as well as Parkmobile the two digital parking as well as payment services.

Twitter to Soon Roll Out Night Mode Interface

Twitter to Roll out Automatic Night Mode Interface

Twitter, the micro-blogging site would shortly roll out an automatic `Night Mode’ user interface UI to its Android app which would replace it with a darker appearance and switch out the white background.The technology website DroidLife lately recounted that the test of the latest feature is occurring among a small number of alpha testers and presently, the usual white background UI with black text is the only choice that is available to the users. 9to5Google had reported that the Night Mode UI stands on top of a Material Design overhaul of app that has been in the process of testing since last month.

 The report added that `not only is Twitter testing a `Night Mode’ but also diverse button placements. Twitter is also investigating with hamburger slide-out menus, overflow buttons, as well as floating action buttons – FAB, for the composing of new tweets’. Once implemented, the Night Mode UI would automatically substitute the white background with a dark blue user interface paired with white text making it easy for the eyes during night time. For latest updates on technology, reviews etc. one could follow Express Techie on Facebook or could tweet out to @expresstechie for latest tech news and tips.

Twitter Rolled Out New Connect Tab

Twitter had rolled out a new Connect tab on its mobile apps, earlier this month, in order to make it simple for users to find accounts which could be followed. The feature is made available in the latest app of Twitter on iPhone and Android.

Product manager, Ricardo Castro has mentioned in a blog post, that the tag proposes a list of accounts based on those who had already followed together with the popular ones in the region. Castro stated that `to give you the best recommendations, which will be continued to refine over time, we look at who you have already followed, tweets you like, popular accounts in your local zone, what is happening in the world presently and much more. We would also let you know precisely why we are showing you each recommendation’.

Easy on Eyes during Longer Session of Reading

It is the extra choice that tends to change much of the screen as possible with dark colours thus making it less bright while attempting to read at night or where the brightness of the display tends to be distracting. It could also be easy on the eyes during a longer session of reading like in the case of e-book reader. The choice to changeover between day and night modes is comfortable though seldom provided by main apps.

One could get the effect of it through third party screen dimmer, to some extent, though that could compromise the experience of viewing. Hence it is great news to know that Twitter could be working on a reasonable night mode for mobile apps.

It is said that a darker theme had popped up in the latest Alpha release of the app and the presence of that theme does not mean that we would be definitely getting the option of switching back and forth between various looks for the app though it could be a step in the right course

Why DARPA is Pursuing the Reusable Military XS-1 Spaceplane

SpaceX to Inspect Rockets – Plans to Re-Fly

Elon Musk, the optimistic and according to some a visionary, the founder of SpaceX has plans of colonizing Mars. Heading the considered technology office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Brad Tousley, had stated on May 15 that Elon wants to go beyond that. Musk, after landing three first stage rockets, had said that SpaceX would inspect the rockets with plans to re-fly most of them later. Tousley supervises DARPA’s space programs that tend to handle the Defense Department’s most complex expansion challenges.

He defined the landing of first stage rockets by SpaceX as well as Blue Origin as `a very impressive accomplishments’. The agency had added that DARPA had pointed out that the satellite launches on rockets need to be scheduled well in advance and tends to cost a lot of money. `DARPA developed its Experimental Spaceplane – XS-1 program in order to overcome challenges, creating a new model for more routine, responsive as well as affordable space operations. However, Tousley, during a speech at the GEOINT 2016 conference said that the XS-1 which was the experimental spaceplane of the agency, also had ambitious plans and he wants to launch again in 24 hours.

Launch 10 Times in Ten Days

DARPA’s XS-1 spaceplane preferably would launch 10 times in 10 days, carrying payloads that tend to weight as much as 1,369 kilograms in low earth orbit for $5 million. DARPA has been confirming a request for proposals for the second phase of the XS-1 progress program. That acquisition document could be released by the agency as early as this month, according to DARPA officials. As part of a public-private partnership, a contract award may come as early as 2017 with the first flight tests in 2020.

 Tousley has mentioned that DARPA would be contributing `a healthy fraction’ towards the growth of the spaceplane. The agency’s top funded space program has been XS-1, the last two years. White House had asked for $50 million for the program for fiscal year 2016, in its budget request. Three industry teams seemed to have worked on the first phase of the program, namely Boeing and Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems and XCOR Aerospace and Northrop Grumman and Virgin Galactic.

XS-1 – As Warning for Defense Department

During his speech, Tousley had emphasized on the importance of the quick turnaround for the spaceplane. He had stated that `one of the critical parameters coming out of the solicitation of the Phase 2, for XS-1, is the need that before the launch of this asset for the first time, vendors would be proving to DARPA through ground test of the propulsion system 10 times in 10 days and that they were going to burn a lot of risk down’. Tousley had also mentioned that XS-1 could also act as a warning for the Defense Department as threats to national security satellites have occurred in recent years.

He added that `if you have the ability to launch an asset in 24 hours, essentially on a moment’s notice, then it could cause an adversary to think twice about justwhat is it they want to do from a threatening standpoint. We think just having that competence as being of a preventive value’.

Brightest Laser Blows Up Water in Cinematic and Scientific First

Microscopic Movies of Water Vaporized by World’s Brightest X-ray Laser

The first tiny movies of water being vaporized by the world’s brightest X-ray laser have been recorded by the scientists who have captured dramatic video footage of what tends to take place when liquid droplets are hit with the beam of an X-ray laser. It is said that besides creating a sequence of enthralling videos, the data which has been gathered at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, in Menlo Park, California could provide some insight on X-ray lasers and how these tremendously bright, fast flashes of light tend to take atomic level snapshots of some of nature’s fastest progressions.

Claudiu Stan of Stanford PULSE Institute, which is a joint institute of Stanford University and SLAC, has commented in a statement, that `it could help in finding new ways of utilising explosions caused by X-rays to generate changes in samples and study matter under extreme conditions. These studies could be helpful in understanding better, an extensive range of phenomena in X-ray science as well as the other applications’. The team had inserted water in the path of the laser as successions of individual drops together with a continuous jet.

Explosive Interactions Unfolds/Delivers Clues

As each individual X-ray pulse hit the water, a single image had been recorded, timed from five billionths of a second to one ten-thousandth of a second after the pulse. Thereafter, these images were laced together creating the movies. Liquids have been usually utilised in putting scientific samples in the path of an X-ray beam for the purpose of analysis. The experiment provides in detail how the explosive interaction tends to unfold and delivers clues on how it could affect X-ray laser experiments.

 The study had been published recently in the journal Nature Physics. The video portrays the X-ray pulse ripping a drop of liquid apart that tends to create a cloud of smaller particles and vapour. When the X-ray pulse tends to hit a jet of liquid, it primarily tends to create a hole in the stream and as the gap seems to grow, the ends of the jet become like an umbrella-like shape, ultimately folding back to combine with the jet.

Mathematical Models to Describe Liquid Explosions

The researchers had developed mathematical models to describe the liquid explosions, from the data that had been collected during the experiments together with their resulting movies. These models could be helpful to researchers in tuning the lasers more accurately and would ultimately be utilised in experiments engaging very high powered X-ray lasers which could comprise the European XFEL. This laser is presently under manufacture in Germany which will fire thousands of time quicker than that of SLAC.

 Stan states that `the jets in the study took up to many millionths of a second to recover from each explosion, so if X-ray pulses come in faster than that, they may not be able to make use of every single pulse for an experiment. Fortunately, the data shows that they can tune the most commonly used jets in a way that they recover quickly and there are ways of making them recover even faster.

Bendable Smartphones are Going to be a Reality Soon

Moxi’s Bendable Phone – Style Statement – Rolled into a Bracelet

A Chinese start-up company, Moxi Group intends to roll out 100,000 of the devices to its home country at $1064 a pop. The bendable phone would serve as a style statement since they are intended to be rolled into a bracelet to be worn on the wrist, but their touchscreens would feature only a black and white display at the moment. The device tends to look like a long thin smartphone when it is unfolded, with a narrow screen and large battery towards the bottom.

Chongsheng Yu, Moxi executive vice president had informed Bloomberg that `black and white phone seems much easier to make and the colour model power usage seems much higher than the black and white unit. It would be sold in China and if there is demand overseas, the same would be looked into’.

The springy screens are based on `graphene’ technology wherein the carbon atom seems to be lined in a definite pattern, making them quite conductive as well as strong. The Chongqing-based company has overcrowded the battery, processor together with the other parts in one end of the gadget allowing the display to bend almost to a full circle.

The Only Flexible Technology

Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University in Canada, that had used the technology to produce a prototype five year ago, stated that `if they are using flexible e-ink then it is a real loser. He further added that it was the only flexible technology, they could get though the colours seems to be poor, the contrasts are poor and one can’t play videos on it.Mr Yu informed that the bendable phone was based on e-ink, which Amazon tends to use in its Kindle devices though is a progress since it utilises an improved touchscreen system.

The corporate name Moxi is Chongqing Graphene Tech Co,which hopes that there will be a demand for the devices to help increase sales as the market tends to take a downturn. According to Strategy Analytics, in the $423 billion industry smartphone sales fell for the first time in the first three months of the year. Moxi aims to surpass Samsung Electronics, the hi-tech behemoth which has started toying with flexible-screen technology. It is not known if the phones would be made available in the United States.

Low Resolution Black & White – Not Reliable

A graphene researcher at Manchester University, Aravind Vijayaraghavan, stated that `if one makes a working, bendable phone then it is a massive market. If they are going to release it commercially this year, he would be impressed. If one has a low resolution black and white screen which is not reliable, then that is not a commercial prospect’.

If the Moxi phone is not that impressive, its launch will still tend to be the first. For years Samsung had apparently been working on flexible screens, though the technology had not appeared in a consumer product. Moxi could be heading in the right direction, when the sales of the smartphone seems to be dropping with every tech company attempting to make a smartphone that is not just a glass-and-metal rectangle