America's mad science division wants to build a flying drone base
DARPA's mission is to look at insane concepts from science fiction and ask if they'd work in real life, and it's clear that the agency's staffers have recently gone back to playingStarCraft. Drones, you see, are small and don't require a pilot, but can't quickly cover long distances like a manned fighter jet. Imagine then, a flying airbase that could drop a legion of drones close to their target and swoop them up in a manner similar to the Protoss Carrier from the aforementioned video game. That's the project that DARPA is hoping you'll all help out on, and has put out a request for information from anyone with the technical, security and business brains to help bring the concept into reality. For now, the request envisages using a large bomber plane as the carrier, like a B-52 or C-130, but it's entirely plausible that as technology marches on, floating platforms could become involved. Oh, and before you ask, we have already sent the agency the footage of both Flite Test's homemade helicarrier and a copy of The Avengers on DVD.
AT&T plans to expand into Mexico by snapping up local carrier for $2.5 billion
AT&T has just revealed a new expansion plan -- one that involves crossing the border into Mexico. Apparently, the company's in the process of acquiring Mexican carrier Iusacell for $2.5 billion, which includes the amount needed to pay off the latter's debts. By snapping up this carrier, AT&T's gaining its network infrastructure, licenses, retail stores, 8.6 million subscribers and its potential to grow further. Iusacell's network covers 70 percent of the country's 120 million residents, and Ma Bell hopes it can take advantage of that fact by getting more people to sign up for smartphone plans, now that more and more affordable models are hitting the market. Subscribers will have to make do with 3G connections, though... at least until AT&T decides to expand its LTE service, as well.
Star Wars: Episode VII will be called 'The Force Awakens'
Lucasfilm has revealed that Star Wars: Episode VII will be released with the subtitle The Force Awakens when it premieres next December. The long-awaited name was revealed on Twitter alongside the news that principal photography has all been wrapped up. The film is still more than a year away, but the title artwork maintains the classic Star Wars aesthetic and suggests director J.J Abrams is trying to capture the original trilogy's spirit and tone. The name itself has, almost inevitably, been polarising for fans of the force and sparked the hilarious hashtag #BetterStarWarsTitles on Twitter. Go check it out.
Walmart's got a Chromecast-like dongle for its Vudu video service
Walmart looks set to launch a new streaming HDMI dongle resembling Google'sChromecast or Amazon's Fire TV Stick, but possibly lacking some of the features of those devices. Called the Vudu Spark, it leaked from the FCC's website, replete with multi-angle photos and a user manual. The document shows how to set up the Spark with your WiFi network, and that it'll basically do one thing: give you Vudu on your TV. That app is Walmart's answer to Netflix, serving up streaming movies and TV shows on demand.
Top 10 dog breeds in the U.S. and why we love them
There are approximately 83.3 million beloved pet dogs in the U.S. That's 83.3 million wagging tails and slobbering tongues making lives happier for the people lucky enough to own a pet.
Of the millions and millions of dogs in America, it's the hard-working labrador retriever that's number one in our hearts. Back to Basics explores which other breeds top the list in America, and asks dog owners to share which qualities they most love in their pets.
Check the infographic below to see if your furry friend made the list.
Energica Eva is a 'naked' electric superbike for the street
If you liked the basic concept behind CRP Racing's Energica electric superbike (now the Energica Ego) but wanted something that was more stripped down, you've just met your dream machine. The company has unveiled the Energica Eva, a "naked" streetfighter counterpart to the Ego. You'll still find a high-powered 136HP motor (good for 149MPH) and a 95-mile battery (with a 3.5-hour full recharge), but much of the design has been pared down and shortened for urban riding. You'll see more of that electric powerplant, while the handlebars, pegs and wheels should be more city-friendly. As for a launch date and price? CRP isn't ready to hand those out yet, but it was previously aiming for a price between $25,000 to $28,000 -- you'll have to really want a fast, environmentally conscious two-wheeler for the Eva to make sense....Read More
Bharti Airtel slips over 3% as it scraps Rs 700 crore deal with Loop Mobile
Telecom major Bharti Airtel has called off its plans to acquire business and assets of Mumbai based Loop Mobile, for about Rs 700 crore, as the Department of Telecom is yet to clear the deal.
Loop Mobile and Bharti applied to Department of Telecom(DoT) for approval of the business transfer in March 2014. The approval for the transaction is still awaited from the relevant authorities as a result of which Bharti Airtel has withdrawn from the proposed transaction causing huge loss to the company, Loop Mobile spokesperson told PTI......Read More
Amazon Prime Members’ Newest Benefit Is Free, Unlimited Photo Storage
Amazon Prime members are getting another benefit today, the company announced this morning: free, unlimited photo storage. In a new service called Prime Photos, paying subscribers of Amazon’s membership program will now be about to store photos in their original resolutions to Amazon Cloud Drive from any device, including iOS, Android, and Fire phones and tablets, as well as Mac and… Read More
Why Samaritans' app to spot depressed tweets does more harm than good
Last week, counselling charity Samaritans launched Radar, a new social media service that remotely listens in on Twitter conversations and warns you when someone you follow might need emotional support. Radar is already tracking over a million Twitter accounts, and while the idea is a virtuous one, the service has sparked a huge online backlash, with many calling for it to be shut down. But why?.........Read More
Acer's 12-inch Switch tablet is five devices in one
Thought Acer's Aspire Switch 10 tablet was a true jack-of-all-trades? It's already outclassed. The PC maker has officially revealed the Aspire Switch 12, a 12.5-inch sibling that's a little more flexible. On top of the tablet, laptop, display (screen facing out) and tent (upside-down) modes from before, the new Windows slate adds a fifth desktop mode where the keyboard is detached. Yes, if you don't mind the small screen and keyboard, this latest Switch can do its best impression of an all-in-one............................Read More
Fitbit Unveils Fitness 'Superwatch' and Continuous Heart-Rate Tracking Devices
Fitbit unveiled a series of new wristband fitness trackers on Monday, marking its first major launch since the recall of its ill-fated Fitbit Force.
In line with rumors, the company has added three devices to its lineup: the Fitbit Charge (a reboot of the Fitbit Force), the Fitbit Charge HR (which comes with heart-rate monitoring) and the Fitbit Surge, a device specialized for runners (with some smartwatch capabilities). The products and the corresponding apps work with iOS, Android and Windows phones and come in small, large and x-large sizes.
Fitbit — which maintains 69% of wearables marketshare, according to NPD Group — will launch the Fitbit Charge in time for the holiday shopping season, but the Fitbit Charge HR and Fitbit Surge won't be available until early next year. It's unclear if the latter two were subject to any delays related to the supply chain or production, but CEO James Park told Mashable he isn't concerned with the timeline.
"Everything might not be ready for the holiday shopping season, but we are focused on delivering the best products and won't ship any before it's ready," Park said.
Fitbit Charge
The Fitbit Charge ($129.95, launching in mid-November) is the replacement to the Fitbit Force that was recalled six months ago after users reported allergic reactions to the wristband. Park said the company "took the Force issue very seriously" and "learned a lot from what happened."
"It"It
While the reboot is strikingly similar in design to the Force, there are some differences: to start, the wristband itself is more texturized, with small ridges that form a subtle pattern. It's also a bit lighter and the clasp has been tweaked too to avoid it from falling off the wrist, another complaint some users have had in the past.
From a tracking standpoint, it still monitors steps taken, calories burned and displays the time, but it also added a feature to track sleeping without needing to put it in sleep mode — it knows when you're sleeping automatically know by keeping tabs on your movement.Other additions include smartwatch-like alerts, such as showing you in real-time who is calling or texting. This will likely come in handy when you don't want to reach from your smartphone and can see the notifications directly on your wrist instead. Although Fitbit said this feature was going to be available as an update to the Fitbit Force, it never launched due to the recall.
It's also possible to call out workouts now and monitor how many calories were burned during a specific period. Software updates to the app include a feature called Challenges, which lets you go head to head with friends throughout the week, weekend or daily to see how you stack up against one another. Considering those who have at least one friend hooked up to an account tend to be 27% more active, it's no surprise Fitbit wants to make the app more engaging so users spend more time with it.
The Fitbit Charge will launch in two colors (black and slate) and will be available in burgundy and blue starting in 2015.
Fitbit Charge HR
IMAGE: FITBIT
The Fitbit Charge HR is nearly the same as standard Fitbit Charge but it comes with one differentiator: a continuous heart rate tracker, which is where the "HR" gets its name. Fitbit is calling its heart-rate tracking technology PulseRate and lets users get a read on their heart rate at all hours of the day, not only during workouts but even when resting or sleeping.
This is definitely an attractive feature — while some fitness trackers monitor heart rate while you're going for a run, it's less common for a device to track it at all times. This creates a huge pool of information that can reveal a lot about your health — sometimes you're resting heart rate is more telling than it during high intensity times.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, LUKE LEONARD
While the Fitbit Charge ($149.95) lasts about seven days on one charge, this version will get you about five. But overall, the $20 added to the price for continuous heart rate monitoring is a good deal for those really looking to monitor their health.
It will come in black and plum when it debuts in 2015, with other colors like blue and tangerine coming later on.
Fitbit Surge
IMAGE: MASHABLE, LUKE LEONARD
The Fitbit Surge, which the company calls a "superwatch," is the closest to a fitness smartwatch that we've seen from Fitbit yet. While it might look like a smartwatch, with its rectangular-shaped OLED display, and act like one too — it lets you see incoming calls and text alerts — it's still a fitness device at the core.
Fitbit's demographic is typically people who want to track steps and calories, but athletes who are training for marathons would likely go for running-centric devices instead like the $130 Garmin vivofit. The Surge, which promises up to 7 days of battery life on a charge, may give runners more of a reason to consider the Fitbit brand for rigorous workouts and includes a sleeker design than other models on the market.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, LUKE LEONARD
Like the Fitbit Charge HR, it comes with continuous heart-rate monitoring, as well as built-in GPS, sleep analysis and activity tracking. Under the hood, there are also eight sensors, a gyroscope, compass, ambient light sensor, GPS and an LCD backlit touch screen display. Users can also change their watch faces (of the display) and control their music via the device.
As for whether or not Fitbit will ever launch a true smartwatch (not focused on fitness) of its own, it seems unlikely for now.
"There will always be an element of fitness to our products; that's what we were founded as a company," the spokesperson said. "We can't say inevitably where things will go and we'll continue to learn about the market and make products relevant, but in the near future, this is the plan."
Good news for Apple fans : Here Comes the New I pad
" Its not Ipad 3 , not even Ipad Hd It is The new IPad " Event Summary :
Apple inc. today launched brand new tablet at an event organized at San Francisco, US. The event started by Apple CEO Tim Cook who highlighted the achievements of apple over the past year. Well i was not able to watch the live stream :( of the event , but thanks to Gdgt.com who gave live event coverage using the commentary and screenshots of the event. Tim said that Ipad ,Ipod and Iphone are the revolutionary devices created by them and all of them defined a new category.Also Apple is earning 76 % of total revenue by these 3 devices : Ipad ,Iphones and Ipods.Then tim talked about the number of apple retail stores opened by them where apple lovers can learn more and discover these devices.Also he talked about the great Japanese technology "Siri" that was implemented in Iphone 4S for the first time and it has been also added to the new Ipad. Then he talked about one of the Important event happened : that is - "25 billions downloads from the Apple store ". He said "We couldn't have imagined such a huge number of Downloads."
25th billion downloaded app from Apple store was from China.
(Image credit Gdgt.com)
Next he announced the Apple Tv 3rd gen, all new Hdtv that supports 1080P resolution.Apple Tv is worth exploring and it is priced at low cost of $99 and it will be available from next week.
Next came the wonder for which i was waiting eagerly : The grand I pad 3
Phil came to present the new ipad 3.Apple has taken the new Ipad to a whole new level. The new Ipad is completely amazing.
First feature he talked was Retina display , which was very much expected. Phil said �Until you see it you can�t understand how amazing it is.�
Apple has focused a lot on the display resolution and the device is made to give the highest possible resolution available in the tablets.
We have already posted about the expected features in new Ipad and the new ipad have most of them. The features of new IPad is continued in next post.
Nokia N8 , Your time is over : Now its time for 808 Pureview
Well , if you loves to watch things in full HD , there is a Good news for you. Nokia today announced their brand new mobile Nokia 808 Pureview at Mobile world congress 2012 held in Barcelona (Spain). Well i was a bit surprised and Shocked when i came to know that Nokia 808 contains 41 Megapixel sensor that is capable of capturing images and record videos upto 38 megapixel.
The camera is made using Carl Zeiss optics with Xenon flash and Uses Led flash . This is really an awesome gadget for camera enthusiast and those who loves to capture their moments in HD.
Well striking feature of this gadget is its camera only ,Other configuration is similar to other smartphones.
The sensor is capable to capture from 3 MP to 38 MP with an aspect ratio of 16 :9
Pureview Technology used to create Hd image:
According to nokia : "This phone has "OVER SAMPLING" technology in it that integrates seven pixels to one super pixel and thus creates full Hd image."
Operating system :
Symbian Belle OS : Well I am a bit surprised over Symbian Os. Nokia could have used Windows Os in it like Lumia smartphones.
Features and specifications :
1. Single core 1.3 Ghz Cpu
2. 512 Mb Ram
3. 4 inch Display
4. 16 Gb internal memory expandable using micro Sd
5. 5.1 Dolby digital sound technology.
6. 3.5mm Headphone jack , micro Usb and micro Hdmi ports at the top.
7. 360 X 640 Pixel screen. 8. Comes with various Symbian applications like Nokia maps , Youtube , Email and many more and ofcourse nokia store from where you can get endless list of apps.
Pricing : Don't know the exact cost,But this gadget will cost around 450 Euros and it is expected to start shipping from May , 2012
Conclusion : Well conclusion is that this Symbian powered phone is a awesome gadget and it has given a new birth to Symbian mobile phones and probably a good competition to android and windows smartphones too.Well now you don't need a separate camera for recording videos. Nokia 808 can record 1080 p HD video recording for you.
Microsoft has made a big change of removing start button at the left bottom from the upcoming Windows 8. The start button that you must have used in your previous Windows versions up to Windows 7 is been Ditched by the Microsoft windows 8 developers , really a big and bold decision. However they have provided an alternate to start button by providing a Hot corner. Hovering your mouse over that spot will open thumbnail preview of Metro-Style Start Screen , thus removing the pop-up opened in previous versions of windows. Swipe option will be provided the same functionality for touchscreen users.The start button was introduced in Windows 95 version and it has been killed in windows 8.
The users of traditional start button may not be happy by this bold step by Microsoft .The users might not like this new change as they are using Start button from a decade and suddenly a new change might sound a bit confusing to them. However the new Super Bar will retain its functionality of pinning shortcuts as in the Windows 7.We will review you about the new Hot corner in the Windows 8 soon .
Facebook has become a part and parcel of our life . Most of us login at least once a day to Fb to update Status and see the news feeds from your buddies. Well you need a Gadget like Mobile , Pc , laptop to use Facebook and most importantly you need an Internet connection like broadband , 3G, Wifi connection ,Gprs or Edge (For mobiles ) etc. Now suppose If you go to a remote place (like a village ), where there is no connectivity of Internet , then you will surely gonna miss Facebook access. Well there is a Good news for Facebook Fans, From now onwards , you no more need a Data plan (Gprs or Edge) on your mobile phones to access facebook , Fonetwish , a Singapore firm has partnered with Facebook India to enable every Indian user to access Facebook on Mobile phones without data plans . Well this is an awesome feature if you are having a old age mobile phone like Nokia 1100 , 2310 , 3310 or old Motorola , this brand new service will help you to access Facebook anytime and anywhere.
Technology upon which Facebook via Fonetwish works :
Fonetwish is a USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) based service which brings the power of Internet on Ordinary Mobile phones. USSD is GSM based service that enables sending text messages between a Mobile phone and an Application program in the network. You can do may things by this service like Updating your status , wall post , notifications , Friend requests. Beside this they also have push notification feature that automatically sends you notifications on your mobile sets.
How it works :
1. Firstly you need a Mobile phone. As I have told you that this service works on every mobile phones ,No matter how much old technology it is based upon.
2. Go to your mobile screen and Dial *325# or *fbk# and Press the dial button and get started.
3. Next you will receive instructions like entering your username and password ,press ok or send button and You will see a message "Welcome to facebook- along with various options like news feeds, Update status , Online friends ,Notifications ,Settings etc.) Numbers 1,2,3... is provided before every option , choose the option you want accordingly "
Watch this video that gives a Demo of accessing Facebook by Fonetwish
Service Charges and availability :
This service is available on most of the leading Mobile network operators in India like Airtel , Tata Docomo , Aircel , Idea , Videocon etc. Charges of this service is Rs 1.00 for unlimited usage.
Google has come out with a bunch of Changes past few months Now GOOGLE has added one more feature . Now we don't need to plot graph manually or use a Software or Calculator for the same. Recently Google launched its brand new Service that helps you to plot Graph easily. Just go to the Google search bar and type the mathematical functions and Google will come out with a Graph with in seconds. Also this feature helps to plot the Graph of any of the complex functions available whether it is logarithmic, exponential, any polynomial. Just type that in the search bar and Get your plot instantly.
The Graph looks awesome and the value at any instant can be found very easily, just drag your mouse or Touch-pad over that area and know that particular value . Also you can find Graph for multiple functions at one time. You need to separate multiple functions by commas (,) and GOOGLE will plot it for you. This is an awesome feature added by Google and I will be definitely making full use of this service. So overall it is a Graph Calculator.
NOTE:- 1) Raise to power is denoted by (^) . x^3 means x raise to power three. 2) Use brackets ( and ) for starting and ending a function.
Google which does not need any sort of introduction has come out with a brand new change to the looks of Google Home page. The Earlier topmost bar which contains various links such as Google images, Gmail, web, Maps, News etc. has now been modified to new looks. It is arranged as a vertical bar as shown in the image below, Also a sign-in option has been provided on the top-right corner. Also the older black bar at the top was in controversy. So google came out with these fresh looks. In the fresh looks upon clicking on Google at google homepage will open a new pop-up that contains various links that were present in the top black bar. This new feature has already been added to various countries' google already but it has been added to Google India yesterday.
Take a look at the snapshot of it. (Click on image to see enlarged view)
However if you are using Google chrome, you might not notice this brand new change. Check the video below that show the brand new Google looks.
Why this kolaveri di....I heard this songs 2 weeks ago and found it great. and different.. but never thought that this song would have crossed all limits of popularity and would turn out globally. Also kolaveri di is the most searched video last couple of weeks and it has more than 20,341,650 views till now and167,212 likes. and increasing every minute. The song is just 3 weeks old and its popularity has increased so much that after a week there came "The female version of it" , then came the Kid version that is sung by India's famous singer Sonu Nigam's son Neewan that is a very cute version of it. The popularity of the song is also witnessed by other versions of it that are Punjabi version of it and also today I heard the English R&B version of it. Beside this there are lots of other versions of this song. I guess the main credit for the huge popularity of this song goes to Facebook. Lots of people on my Fb account shared this video. only at the day of its release.
Also Meaning of "Why this kolaveri di" was searched a lot on google as it was lying in hot keywords... If you are also not aware of the meaning of "Why this kolaveri di".
The meaning of "WHY THIS KOLAVERI DI."
Various versions of "Why this kolaveri di." 1) The original one sung by Dhanush.
2)Why this kolaveri di.. Female version.
3 ) Kolaveri di by neewan nigam (Kid version.)
4) Kolaveri ft Pinky Moge wali ( Punjabi Version )
5) English R&B VERSION
6) Why this blackberry di-By happy singh (Funny punjabi version)
Enjoy these versions of kolaveri di and dont forget to share and comment on this post if you like it.
