First Graphene-Based Flexible Display

Another breakthrough for the flexible electronic research have been reported, when the Cambridge Graphene Centre and Plastic Logic successfully demonstrated how Graphene or Graphene-like material can be used to produce flexible electronics such as a display, having Graphene in its pixels with a transistor.

This project was sponsored both by internal and external funding bodies, which were engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the EU’s Graphene Flagship.Technology has been advanced to such an extent that today people wear the devices which automates the daily life or helps in every work. Fully wearable and flexible device can bring a new horizon to the tech market. In this context, Graphene research is very significant as according to earlier reports, Graphene can be successfully introduced to produce flexible displays.

It is reported that Plastic Logic has already developed flexible devices, but the incorporation of Cambridge Graphene Centre offered this collaboration something very essential, the expertise on Graphene research. This initiative is a pathfinder for the institutions to understand how academic and industrial collaborative research can bring the science from the laboratory to the factory level.

What is Graphene?

Graphene is a two-planer material made up of carbon atom sheets. Graphene is known to be most lightweight, strongest and flexible material so far. Earlier studies have shown that Graphene can change the paradigm of industries ranging from healthcare to electronics. Some major advantages of this material are-

• It is more flexible than ceramic alternatives, such as indium-tin oxide(ITO),
• It is more transparent than majorly all metal films. 

These properties can enable researchers to go for formulating flexible display engaging graphene.

Detailed report of this research:

Unlike of conventional display sets, this prototype consists of solution processed graphene electrodes in its backplane or pixel electronics. It is basically an active matrix electrophoretic display made up of flexible plastic instead of glass. In this prototype they have replaced the former popped electrode layer within Plastic Logic’s conventional device with graphene based electrode.

This flexible display featured 150 pixels per inch and was made at low temperatures (less than 100 degree Celsius) using Plastic Logic’s infamous Organic Thin Film Transistor technology. The graphene electrode was fitted from the solution directly and continuously mottled to have micron-scale features in order to complete the backplane. To demonstrate the possibility of ultra-low power durable display, an electrophoretic imaging film wan added with the backplane. According to the scientists engaged in this collaboration, future research may engage the advancements in LCD and OLED technology to achieve full colour and video functionality. How healthcare and electronic industry is engaging Graphene to their products can be understood by already developed materials like advanced digital medical imaging and gesture recognitions devices. Next generations sensor can also engage lightweight flexible active matrix backplane to enhance its functionality.

Success story:

This academic-industrial collaboration between Plastic Logic and Cambridge Graphene Centre have been shown to be successful and it earned a recent grant from the UK technology strategy board to realise the possibility of engaging graphene to build flexible electronic imaging devices.

Twitter Starts Testing the “Buy” Button for Purchases

Apart from being the real time emporium for photos, news, videos and 140-character snippet for thought, Twitter, the real time social network, is now moving towards becoming a virtual shopping mall for products.

Twitter at the start of the September did announce that they are planning to work on testing a “buy” button, which only can be embedded within a post, but also will allows user to purchase products with just few clicks.

Currently the site relies virtually on advertising for their income, but with this new feature Twitter can generate a new stream for revenue. Currently this feature is expected to be limited to the mobile version of Twitter and it is aiming at selling out only time sensitive or limited editions items like T-shirts and movie tickets.

Currently the e-commerce based on mobiles is highly competitive and the test is coming at a highly intensified state of the e-commerce world. Apple on the other hand also is expected to unveil their new iPhone which has phone-based payment feature (NFC). Twitter’s arch rival, Facebook, already started working on the buy button concept in their service in July.

Social network which includes Pinterest (visual book) consider e-commerce as a potential moneymaker. Even though none of these companies have been able to successfully introduce any new purchasing technology on wider scale; each of these companies has been working on making purchase an easier option from their respective sites. With many of the company’s marketing their products on Twitter and Facebook through messages, the online sales revenue is expected to be in billions of dollars. These companies not only promote their products but also provide user and external link to visit the respective site to make purchase.

Now these companies have taken shopping a step ahead and trying to offer the customers option wherein they can purchase product by clicking on the advertisement instantly. This will not only allow these sites to charge the user a transaction fee but also ensure that the user stays on their website.
In contrary to the previous attempts made by Twitter with e-commerce companies like Amazon, the users don’t need to send any public message with hash tag to buy anything, instead they can just click on the “buy” button to proceed with the transaction. Once the user clicks on the buy button, the service will prompt them to enter the delivery address and payment detail and ask them to confirm the transaction.

According to Nathan, who leads Twitter’s commerce efforts, they have given a website which help one to connect with the things that you adore. To make is more additive, add the transaction experience for the user. The testing of the buy button is expected to be restricted to small user group in America and will feature only 19 entities including musician etc. Even though the idea of certain types of products for sale was unclear, but they knew that anything that has a sense of urgency will be an attraction. It’s about offering user unique products.

Google Conducting Meetings on Privacy Rights across Europe

Search Engine Google has appointed a panel who are going to host a first of a kind of series of meeting to debate on creating balance between information free flow and privacy. These meetings are being conducted post the May court ruling in which Europeans' "right to be forgotten" was reinforced.

Internet search giant has been struggling with the increasing number of requests every month. These requests include removal of any data pertaining to serious criminal offence, to any embarrassing photos, negative press releases and online harassment situations. The first event is being held in Madrid which is the first from the seven meeting that will be held in various European capitals.

According to Google, which hold more than 90% of the search market in Europe, have been able to remove more than half of the 90000 request that they have received till mid-July pertaining to the court ruling which instructed them to remove all the results from the engine, which are no longer valid, insufficient, irrelevant or are no longer relevant for anyone.

In the meantime, the data protection regulators belonging to the European countries are working on setting rules and regulations and guidelines for various search engines. These engines also include Yahoo search and Microsoft Corp. These guidelines are being set to ensure that request received by these search engines are handled properly. This meet is expected to happen on 15th September.

PR War on a serious issue or just another Business strategy: 

According to the head of France’s privacy watchdog and WP29 group of European national data protection authorities, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, they were very doubtful about this initiative of Google, as they were considering this part of PR war, which is an important part of the business strategy of the company.

As per Isabelle, Google is putting efforts towards setting up their own terms. Google is trying to be open about the issue and be virtuous, but on the other hand they have handpicked the members of the meeting and also ensured that they know about everyone who is expected to be part of this meeting. Google basically is controlling everything from start till the results that is expected out from these meeting.

If Google declines are request, then that part person can approach the national data protection regulator and appeal against it. There are a lot of cases already registered with the agency. Wikipedia has been able to start a web page which aims at updating every link removal request that is received. This is a form of protest shown by the company to emphasis on the information people are trying to remove. According to regulators these notices are against the ruling of the court.

Strategy of Google: 

According to Kauffman, Google has asked for their input and in formulating ideas. They have also asked French regulator Isabelle to take part in their meeting as well. But this has been declined as a regulator can’t be part of such meetings but they can send their staff to observe the meetings.

Spanish regulators are in no mood to attend this meeting. Eight representatives are part of the advisory council which includes former German justice minister, Google’s general counsel, chairman, two academics. Some other member is the Wikipedia founder and United Nations human rights official

Meeting Schedule: 

After the Madrid meeting, the councils will meet in Rome on 9th Sep, then Paris on 25th, Warsaw on 30th, Berlin on 14th Oct and 16th Oct in London. Last meet will be held in Brussels on 4th November.

Sony’s new selfie gadget – Real or Not?

Sony has come up with a perfume bottle shaped camera for selfies. News that has recently surfaced on Weibo. It has been predicted that this new gadget will make the girls to freaking love it but the question that has been running on everyone’s mind is that ‘is it real or not?’.The website shows a girl holding the new Sony gadget and clicking a selfie but it is still to be established as to whether the picture is a real or a fake one. Whatever, the case may be, it has managed to garner a lot of attention in the recent past.

The real deal:
The image on the website Weibo shows a girl holding a makeup mirror similar to a Smartphone look and clicking a selfie with it. Various issues regarding this news are making headlines:-

• The way the analysts see it :-

The analysts have look at the image and have stated that Sony might be going in a different direction this time and the use of this phone for men is to be almost completely ruled out.

• Why is Sony trying such a different way?

Simple, get girls to go over a gadget and before you know it, you are sold out. No means of offending girls here in this article but if you are able to impress a girl with a gadget then you are to know that this gadget will be a trend in the nearby fashion and therefore, are to trend at a rapid pace. This will work to popularise the gadget very fast and therefore, will link the effect to its sale and maximise the product worth.

• Sony trying to the trendsetter again :-

Whether someone admits it or not, it is pretty clear that when it comes to setting an example or brings a trend into the market in the field of electronics and gadgets, Sony has had an upper hand most of the time over its counterparts. With Sony’s brand market value and great manpower, it has become a routine task for Sony to stay on watch for something new. Having done it with televisions, laptops, symbian phones, Sony is now planning to bring up something that very few had thought about.

• Right time to bring it on :-

Just the moment when the world is going gaga over the ‘selfie’ fever, Sony has played a masterstroke to bring in gadget with its main focus and marketing brains on selfie. Hence, the sale is to be on the high and on demand.

What else is there to look for?

§ It is designed very differently with a rotating camera.

§ Has the ability to swivel around 260 degrees and therefore, can rapidly turn from a from facing to a back facing camera

§ Sony has allowed some selected users to use the gadget but it is still to be decided as to whether this will be a traditional Smartphone or a snapper!

§ Well, the news has surfaced through a website and still the whole deal is to be cleared and given to the public.

Firefox OS to Provide Permission Toggle To the Users

Mozilla’s first-ever mobile operating system could not bring justice for the reputation the company holds, when the numbers of users are concerned. Even after Firefox OS brought the ‘old wine in a new bottle’ concept for developing apps with building apps on HTML5, JavaScript format instead of usual file format, still the company could not ensure a considerablenumber of users across the globe. As expected by the market experts, in a competitive market of smartphones with having supreme OS developer contenders like Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android etc., any new and potential OS developer company must offer something magical to have a sizeable audience. In recent times, many start up OS developers failed to gain attention of the crowd. Initially, Mozilla’s Firefox OS followed them only. But with the promise of a future version of the OS with incredible features, the company is hoping to shake the dice of the market.

Currently available devices with Firefox OS: Chiefly, on the first shot, Firefox OS joined the market via low to middle-range-end smartphones. Firefox OS first launched on the market through the reference phone Flame. Several lower mid-range phones, such as ZTE Open and Alcatel OneTouch Fire, featured this OS. Recently, the Indian veteran manufacturer Intex has come up with super low-end smartphone with Firefox OS.

Advanced feature for the future OS version: According to the company spokesperson, the future version of the OS, Firefox 2.1, will have advanced features, customized for tech-savvy people. According to the media reports, one of those features is permission toggle switch for apps. Like the binary switches on the Android platform, it is meant for those users who are always obsessed about their privacy.

While Google’s most prized OS Android is yet to provide this facility to the users, Firefox announced it to hold the market. According to the Security Engineer of the company, this feature will help a user to allow or deny the app’s request to use a particular feature of the device. For example, as on other OS platforms, Facebook app or Whatsapp app can use your GPS location data. But with this new permission toggle, people will only give permission to the apps of their likings. Users will be able to get the list of the apps allowed for using any service of the device on the settings option. Also it will enable the user to review the permission or also to accept or deny any app usage.

When to expect: 

Notably, the company have announced to launch Firefox OS 1.4, followed by Firefox 2.0. Though Mozilla reported about the future version of the OS, Firefox 2.1 with this advanced feature, but no probable date is confirmed officially yet. According to the company spokesperson, not only the Mozilla, but the partners of the company are also responsible to evaluate, certify and to launch a device or an OS to the market.

To secure the existence in this demanding market, Mozilla finally understood the basic of providing exciting and advanced offer with the smartphones. Now we have to wait to examine the new feature till it hits the market.