What We Know About Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL

All there is to Know about Google Pixel 3!

As the year reaches its close, all the big smart phone manufacturers are set to launch their latest mobile offering and while many of them have already dons so, Google is still left. With the latest Galaxy and the latest iPhones from Samsung and Apple respectively, Google’s Pixel 3 is the next highly anticipated phone. But what can we expect from Google’s to- be- released- offering?

While there are facts in the world there are also rumours and the tech world is filled to the brim with them. So, without further ado let’s see what new rumours Google Pixel 3 has brought out.

Design of the new Google Pixel 3:

Continuing with the Pixel name tag, This year around, Google plans on releasing its new Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL. The main design upgrades that both phones have in store is that both the Pixel 3 and 3 XL will feature front facing cameras. This is besides the rear one, of course.

Talking about Google Pixel 3, the phone will be the same as last year’s Pixel 2’s design except now with smaller bezels and a 5.4inch display.

Google Pixel 3 XL on the other hand will be bigger at 6.7inches display rather than the 6inches last year. The Google Pixel 3 XL will also bear the same notch design that major manufacturers have adopted in this past year.

Cameras on the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL:

The bar is set at a high level this year as was last year. Google’s camera has been one of the best on the market and this year expectations are higher than ever before.

The rear camera on the Google pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL will be the as that of last year standing at 12.2MP. What further improvements Google has in store for its camera layout is anyone’s guess.

The only improvement heard so far through rumour mills is that Google plans on updating its Pixel Visual Core Image Chip.

The front facing cameras will each be 8.1MP.

What more can you Expect from the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL?

Both of the phones are said to come with a USB-C port instead of a headphone jack and a finger print scanner which is the same as last year’s models.

The only thing different this year around is that both phones will come with wireless charging that is a welcome addition form last year’s models.

As for the processor on both Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL- both will come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor.

Apart from this, the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL will both come with Android 9 Pie and also have an “active edge grip” that summons Google Assistant with a squeeze at the sides of the phone.

Colour Choice on the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL: 

Black and white will be the common options for the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones with unexpected pink and mint green options also being lined up.

With the Facebook Hacked Your security is compromised

The Facebook Hacked was discovered on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 25th. The security of about 50 million account holders have been compromised. This discovery was made by the engineering team of Product Management. The VP of Product Management wants all the account holders to know that after the Facebook Hacked came to light, they are taking the issue very seriously. They want the users to be aware of the Facebook Hacked and that they will be taking prompt action to safeguard the user’s accounts and details.

Though the investigation regarding the Facebook Hacked is in its initial stage, it is quite clear that the hackers have found a way to access the user’s accounts. It is thought to be a vulnerability in the Facebook’s code which impacted the ‘View As’ feature. This feature of Facebook allows the users to see what their personal profile looks to others. The hackers could steal Facebook access tokens which enabled them to take over and operate the Facebook user’s accounts. The access tokens are actually the digital keys wherein a Facebook user can remain logged in without any need to re-enter their password every time they need to use the app.

Action taken towards Facebook Hacked

The primary action towards the Facebook Hacked was that the law enforcement agencies have been informed and the vulnerability has been fixed.

The access tokens of the affected 50 million accounts have been reset in order to protect the user’s security. As a precautionary measure, the access tokens of about 40 million accounts which have been subject to ‘View As’ in the past 1 year have been reset.

Due to the Facebook Hacked, at least 90 million users will now have to log in to Facebook or any other apps that use Facebook Login again. After this is done, the users will receive a notification at the top of their News feed explaining about the Facebook Hacked.

The ‘View As’ feature is temporarily turned off so that they can conduct a thorough investigation to figure out where the breach occurred. They have yet to see if any of the user’s accounts were misused or any personal information accessed. It is also not clear who is behind these attacks and where the hackers are based. If they find that there are more accounts that have been affected, then the access tokens willbe reset immediately.

Further Details regarding the Facebook Hacked

Only last week some additional details came to light. The vulnerability of the system was exploited and the Facebook access tokens for the user’s accounts in HTML were exposed. This happened as a result of three bugs.

The ‘View As’ feature which is a privacy feature allows people to see what their profile looks like to others. ‘View As’ is a view only interface. The box that allows you to wish your friends on their birthdays, with the ‘View As’ feature incorrectly enabled it to post a video.

In the second instant, the new version of the video uploader, (which appears due to the first bug) that was introduced in July 2017, gave an access token that had the accessibility of the Facebook mobile app.

Thirdly, when the video uploader appeared, it provided the access token not to you as the viewer, but for the user you were looking up.

All these three bugs combined became a vulnerability when the ‘View As’ feature was used to see your profile as a friend, the code did not remove the person that allows people to wish you; the access token was generated with the video uploader and the access token was not for you but for the person being looked up.

The access token was present in the HTML which the hackers extracted and could log in as another user. They could then access other accounts and get more access tokens.

Google Project Stream will be Huge for PC Gaming

Project stream to REACH New Heights!

Streaming has been the greatest invention since the internet or at least in my view. There is no hassle of downloading just the need for an internet connection. You can then watch your favorite shows, movies or listen to your favorite songs all without any problems. But that is not all streaming can do. Google plans on pushing the limits of streaming even further with its project stream operations. To make streaming even more capable than what it can currently do, Google’s project stream will be much more demanding than just streaming your average day video.

Project stream is Google’s way of pushing the limits when it comes to streaming in a good way. It is a test of sorts to see how far streaming can actually go. Our current day streaming has come a long way since only a few years back. But now for the ultimate test in project stream Google plans on streaming a blockbuster game.

Streaming a Blockbuster video game through Project Stream:

To really push the boundaries in project stream, Google has come up with a way to stream a blockbuster game and this is no ordinary game either. The game chosen for project stream is one of the best known and highly played games- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. The game may not be released just as yet but it is well on its way to becoming one of the most played games in the world.

The game to- be- released by one of the best gaming publication houses out there- Ubisoft, is all set to feature as Google’s test on streaming with project stream.

Who gets to be a part of Project Stream?

The game is all set to reach Google’s project stream platform on October the 5th. For the duration of the project stream test, Google will select a certain number of participants to play the game for the duration of the project stream test. This will take place at no extra cost to the players.

To play the game you have to be a US resident and aged above 17 years, plus (this goes without saying) you also have to have a working internet connection like say 25 megabits per second to play. This is besides there being other criteria which you can check out on Google’s help center.

The Difficulties of Streaming a Game on Project Stream:

Streaming comes with its own set of problems like buffering and the annoying wait for that to happen. But this is when you watch something like a video. But when it comes to gaming it’s a whole different ball game.

You have graphically rich content to stream and not only that, there can be no lagging and buffering, there has to be instant interaction between the player and what happens on screen.

The only latency that is acceptable is a few milliseconds and no more. Plus if you take in graphics, that makes it a really complex process that Google hopes to overcome with project stream.

Switching Silicon in Solar Cells Drops Production Costs

Cutting the Costs of Solar Panels through a Change of Silicon

In the summer when it gets really hot, the first thing we think of is the air cooler but after a while, after we have properly cooled down, we think of the exorbitant bill that is going to come our way on account of the A/C. In such times getting a solar panel is the best solution. Although they do cost a lot to install, the subsequent costs are brought down. But who can shell out all that cash at the beginning? Here’s where scientists plan on bringing down per unit costs by changing out the silicon used.

Scientists at Michigan University have found that by switching out the silicon in solar cells, the costs drop by about 10% per unit manufactured. Solar energy has been in use for a while, as concerns for green- house gas emissions started to increase, solar energy became the new “in thing”. In some places the costs of using a solar panel instead of conventional forms of electricity is almost the same. But this 10% drop in costs will give solar panels another boost in the industry.

The Use of Silicon in Solar Panels: 

Silicon is the norm raw material that is used in solar panels or photovoltaic cells. They come in two forms- perfect crystals that cost more but will give you more efficiency and multicrystalline silicon that costs less but gives you less efficiency.

In both cases of silicon, the cells have to be etched to reduce sunlight reflection. This reduces efficiency as some part of the sunlight is lost. This loss of light through etching on the cells, gives the cells their bluish color.

The Alternative to such Silicon Treatments: 

The alternative is to use nano- texturing silicon with a dry etching technique. This gives you a blackish silicon surface that is much more efficient at capturing sun rays than the norm blue one.

The reason this type of silicon surface is black is that the entire surface of the cell is covered in etchings which resemble a forest of tiny needles. This is done so that what sunlight falls on the surface gets captured and does not get reflected back.

Another challenge to using this form of Silicon: 

With surface defects on the surface of the cell, normally you would have problems in conducting electricity. But scientists have discovered a method known as Atomic Layer Deposition or ALD for short. This coating minimizes the surface defects problem of conducting electricity.

The dilemma in using black Silicon: 

Using black silicon instead of the bluish ones in solar panels and then its subsequent treatment of ALD all adds to the cost of the solar panels. This is at least what scientists thought. Scientists thought that by using black solar panels instead, the cost would go up by 15 to 25%.

But on further notice, scientists seen that they could, in this case, use the lesser efficient and lesser costing multi crystalline silicon and get the same efficiency or even more than the normal silicon solar panels cutting costs altogether by 10%.

New Molecular Wires to help Shrink Your Devices

Since gadgets and the like first came out, scientists all over the world are in a race to shrink their sizes. It is not enough that you hold the device in your hand or fit it into your bag, they just have to get smaller. But smaller is not the only criterian, theses gadgets or gizmos have to perform better and with better battery life. To achieve this aim, scientists have tried making each and every component in the gizmo smaller and one such part is molecular wires.

Scientists at Tokyo institute have developed a new form of wire that not is smaller than their predecessor but is also better at conducting electricity. These new form of molecular wires are filled with organometallic ruthenium which gives it better conducting. The current forms of molecular wires are much different to the ones invented by the scientists up at Tokyo. In the sense, that these new molecular wires get their high conducting power from a different source.

Molecular Wires in Tiny Devices: 

As devices get smaller, their component parts also get smaller, that’s a no brainer. But molecular wires are just the building blocks in such devices and maybe one of the most important yet fundamental of all parts.

By carefully designing these molecules, scientists have tried to make beeter contraptions for us to use.

The New form of Molecular Wires: 

These new form of molecular wires are in the form of a metal- electrode- molecular- metal- electrode junction. This includes a polyene molecule which is an organic chain like molecule.
These new form of molecular wires are based on the engineering of the energy levels of the conducting orbitals in the wire.

Is the new form of Molecular Wires better? 

 

Scientists used scanning tunneling microscopy to understand the level of conductance in these new form of molecular wires. What they found was that these new molecular wires are better than the standard or other fully organic molecular wires.

This brought scientists to explore the origins of the superior conductivity in molecular wires. They found that the properties that gave these molecular wires their high conducting properties came from orbital splitting in the molecular wires.

This orbital splitting brings about changes in original electron orbitals in the atoms of the molecular wires to make a new hybrid orbital. This new form of orbital facilitates electron transfer between mental electrodes and molecular wires.

This finding is rare to see in current MMM junctions.

What gives these Molecular wires their Higher conductance: 

The most important factor that gives these molecular wires their higher conductivity is the narrow gap between the highest and lowest molecular orbitals. The new technique formulated by scientists in making these molecular wires exploits this knowledge in enhancing the molecular wires conductivity.

Using the same MMM junction in these molecular wires along with the extremely narrow gap between the highest and lowest orbitals, scientist have come up with a new form of molecular wires that has unprecedented levels of conductance.