Neil'z Tech zone

mypctechnicians

2011-02-19T16:15:00.001-08:00

Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing

2010-04-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

2009-2010 has been the year for new computing technology i.e Cloud Computing, as was the year 2007-2008 for SaaS-(Software as a Service). Cloud & grid Computing maybe considered opposites in terms of Functioning.Cloud Computing Assimilates everything into one place whereas GridComputing Divides everything.
So for those who wanna know here's a brief overview:
Cloud computing is based on the principle of letting others do the work for you, technically it means running all your Apps, documents & data from a third party server.
Now, the question that people may ask is that, this have been done from long time & is nothing new, we have been using Apps from the net & storing our data online, So whats NEW?
Well the ans is, that cloud computing not only stores our data online & provides us with Apps, but it also does the processing for us. The online apps that we used before, used local processing upto some extend, But a cloud provides its own processing.
Now, from individual point of view this may not be of much significance, But for Large Organizations, which have huge data networks, Cloud is a boon, in a way that it saves them with the hassles of maintainence, s/w & h/w update & other hardware costs(as it doesnt rely on Host h/w or s/w), plus it saves time of the IT folks & helps them to deal with WHAT then to think about HOW.
Many may have concerns with security related issues that cloud computing may pose, coz for Corporations it amasses to huge amount of confidential & important data & it can be said that a Cloud is as safe as your email or any online account.
Many companies Like IBM, MICROSOFT & GOOGLE provide cloud based services.There have been a lot of buzz of different possibilities & different experiments with cloud platform, for example European Union is carrying out research studies on the possibility of providing Cloud based Gaming & other ON-DEMAND services.

GridComputing on the other hand is something exact opposite, cloud does the processing for you, Grid needs processing from you. Grid computing has mostly used by scientific & research based Organizations & Universities round the world.
Its based on the CLIENT-SERVER model. In a Grid there are several thousand (may be more) computers connected as nodes to a central server(maybe more than one server). The processing of data such as scientific analysis or Disease based research, is divided & distributed over the nodes. The node provides the processing power, while the server just distributes, assimilates & administers the process.
A single Grid can provide computing power Equivalent to a SUPER Computer, For example THE WORLD COMMUNITY GRID, which researches on cures for Diseases such as Cancer, Aids etc has 475,000 registered user & Computing power equal to approx 3.3 teraflops.
Concept of Grid Computing has also been used in the underground world for stealing data & spreading malware, The Zeus Botnet, The Torpig Botnet are similar to concepts of grid computing, though not entirely similar.

NanoBots.......They are the Future

2010-02-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

Imagine these scenarios:
NANOMEDICINE:
A person suffering from dreaded disease like Cancer or AIDS, where chances of survival are very less & present day medicines cannot do much to help.Now imagine a army of minature robots (consumed as a capsule or taken as an injection) fighting these diseases acting as tiny surgeons curing wounds working from the Inside.
NANOROBOTS:
Similar kind of NanoBots cleaning up our environmental pollution by eating up the non degradable pollutants such as Plastic,
Used in manufacturing & repairing of Machines/Structures
NANOWEAPONS:
carrying out surviellance for the military, used for assasinations, used to eat-up & destroy enemy armour(as show in SCifi movies).

The above scenarios are not entirely fictious,some primitive molecular machines have been tested.

An example is a sensor having a switch approximately 1.5 nanometers across, capable of counting specific molecules in a chemical sample. The first useful applications of nanomachines, if such are ever built, might be in medical technology, where they might be used to identify cancer cells and destroy them.
Another potential application is the detection of toxic chemicals, and the measurement of their concentrations, in the environment. Recently, Rice University has demonstrated a single-molecule car which is developed by a chemical process and includes buckyballs for wheels. It is actuated by controlling the environmental temperature and by positioning a scanning tunneling microscope tip.
A team of New York University researchers has taken a major step in building a more robust, controllable machine from DNA, the genetic material of all living organisms. Constructed from synthetic DNA molecules, the device improves upon previously developed nano-scale DNA devices because it allows for better-controlled movement within larger DNA constructs.
The researchers say that the new device may help build the foundation for the development of sophisticated machines at a molecular scale, ultimately evolving to the development of nano-robots that might some day build new molecules, computercircuits or fight infectious diseases.
The research team was led by NYU chemistry professor Nadrian C. Seeman. Their findings are reported in the January 3, 2002 issue of Nature. Professor Seeman said, "DNA devices can provide models for the development of nanorobotic applications -- provided the individual devices can be manipulated separately. Our findings have taken the first definitive step in localizing movement within molecular scale DNA machines, introducing independence of movement within a wider structure."
Professor Seeman has led research teams to previous breakthroughs in the construction of structures and devices from DNA molecules. All of these structures use base pairing, which allows strands of DNA to be programmed to self-assemble in well-defined ways.
In January 1999, Professor Seeman's lab announced the development of a machine constructed from DNA molecules, which had two rigid arms that could be rotated from fixed positions by adding a chemical to the solution. However, the chemical affected all molecules within a structure uniformly.
The research team's most recent findings demonstrate how movement can be manipulated within molecule pairs without affecting others within a larger structure. This is done by inserting DNA "set" and "fuel" strands into individual molecule pairs.
Scientists used paranemic crossover (PX) molecule pairs and produced a half-turn rotation by converting them into JX2 molecule pairs by removing the set strands with fuel strands and replacing them with new set strands that reconfigure the structure of the device. The data presented include both bulk measurements shown by gel electrophoresis and detection of individual structure changes by atomic force microscopy.

Imagine Flexible paper-iike Computer Screens.....its a reality now

2010-02-17T12:55:00.000-08:00

Just imagine reading your morning newspaper on a flexible digital screen instead of paper!

well the Korean consumer electronics giant LG.Phillips has made it possible with "ePaper". At the consumer electronic show LG.Phillips unveiled a 14.3 inch Electronic display paper.The display, which is about the same size as an A4-sheet of paper, has a resolution of 1,280 pixels by 800 pixels and can display 16.7-million colors, LG.Philips LCD said Thursday. That makes it the highest resolution screen of its type yet developed, the company said, and is an advance on a display unveiled in May last year that offered just 4,096 colors.
Electronic paper is being pursued by many companies as a future replacement for paper. The screens are often produced on a flexible substrate so they can bend, unlike conventional LCD (liquid crystal display) panels that are made on glass. But the amount by which they can be bent without causing damage to the screen widely varies between prototypes, and there are still no displays that can be folded like a sheet of paper.
The new LG.Philips LCD panel borrows some of the TFT (thin-film transistor) technology used by the company to make LCD panels and marries it with metal foil and a plastic substrate. The result is a flexible screen that is less than 300 micrometers thick, which is a few times thicker than standard copier paper. In addition to being flexible the screen can be viewed through 180 degrees even when bent, the company said.
At CES the company also plans to show a mono e-paper screen equivalent in size to a B5 sheet of paper (176 mm by 250 mm). While not as impressive as the larger, color display, it is easier to manufacture and Philips LCD said it plans to launch this latter display later in the year.
In addition to the physical specifications of the displays one of the keys to success will be how fast the image can be refreshed on the screen. A conventional LCD is capable of redrawing the image many times per second but e-paper prototypes shown until now typically take a few seconds for the on-screen image to completely change. For example, a Fujitsu prototype unveiled in May last year took 2 seconds to refresh an 8-color image and 10 seconds to refresh a 4,096-color image.
Here's what the official Phillips website has to say:

lthough all modern newspapers are available on-line, the paper copy that can be tucked under the arm and read virtually anywhere still holds a lot of attractions. Recognizing this fact, Philips Applied Technologies took a completely new look at the newspaper medium and how we use it. This led to the development of the E-reader for iRex Technologies. The E-reader is a true digital replacement for the paper newspaper offering all the convenience of this classical news medium and a lot else besides.

The E-reader was developed to demonstrate a first business case for a digital newspaper service. The project comprised two parts. Development of a ‘distribution service’ – essentially a server capable of feeding newspaper content aggregated from various news agencies in digital form from a central point simultaneously to multiple users. For receiving the newspaper content, a ‘client’ unit has also been developed. This features wireless connectivity and an ePaper (electronic paper) screen capable of displaying the content in a form that closely emulates the classical newspaper format. The display is light, thin, has a black and white ink look and, being reflective, is easily read in sunlight and at any angle, just like paper. It also consumes power only when content is being updated, which can be done whenever the reader desires in order to get regular news updates – something that is not possible with classical newspapers. A new spin-off enterprise: Irex has been created to manufacture and market the client unit and the distribution service (the latter under the commercial name iDS), and a pilot evaluation program involving several hundred readers of the Belgian newspaper 'de Tijd' has been started.

Home lighting systems........L.E.D is the future......

2010-02-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

In the foreseeable future our home would be lit with L.E.D lighting systems, can't believe it??
Leading appliances manufacturer & leader in Lighting System Phillips has already developed wide range High Intensity LED based LAMPS also called as Phillips LumiLEDS which can be used for ambiant lighting.
is a solid-state lamp that uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as the source oflight. Since the light output of individual light-emitting diodes is small compared to incandescent and compact fluorescent lamps, multiple diodes are used together. LED lamps can be made interchangeable with other types. Most LED lamps must also include internal circuits to operate from standard AC voltage. LED lamps offer long life and high efficiency, but initial costs are higher than that of fluorescent lamps.
An LED light bulb can be expected to last 25–30 years under normal use. LED bulbs will not dim over time and they are mercury free, unlike the compact fluorescent bulbs. Recent research has made bulbs available with a variety of color characteristics, much like the incandescent bulb. With the savings in energy and maintenance costs, these bulbs can be attractive. It is expected that with additional development and growing popularity, the cost of these bulbs will eventually decline.The only disadvantage at present is the cost of manufacturing(& which is necessary for mass commercialization) which is higher than the current technology.
But it is expected that the cost of manufacturing would go down with better advancement in LED technology & with growing competition.We may have LED's lighting up our homes sooner than expected.

Google acquires Aardvark

2010-02-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

Google acquires a small search based startup firm AARDVARK that specialises into knowlede base in realtime, here's what Official Google Blog has to say:
When you need an answer to a very specific question, sometimes the information just isn't online in one simple place. For example, let's say you want to know if there's snow on Skyline Boulevard on a given day or the best time of year to plant beans in the Bay Area. You might find weather reports and planting guides on many different sites, but for these kinds of questions, a person with the right expertise can be a lot more useful than a webpage.

That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Aardvark, a unique technology company that lets you quickly and easily tap into the knowledge and experience of your friends and extended network of contacts. Aardvark analyzes questions to determine what they're about and then matches each question to people with relevant knowledge and interests to give you an answer quickly.

We're very impressed with the Aardvark team and the technology they've worked hard to build, and we're looking forward to collaborating to see where we can take it. You can learn more about Aardvark's underlying technology and premise by reading this paper recently co-authored by founder Damon Horowitz.

In the meantime, Aardvark is available today in Google Labs, so give it try!
Posted by Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management, Search

Indian UAV's are seriously Flawed.........

2010-02-13T11:56:00.000-08:00

The Indian army uses over 100 UAV drones (Unmanned Aeriel Vehicals) for gathering enemy locations & SIGINT purposes, most of the UAV's are the Israeily HERON & SEARCHER UAV'S which were purchased by India from I.A.I(Israeily Aircraft Industries) in 2006.
These UAV's are extensively used to carry out image mapping & gathering intelligence data by the army, But these UAV's have a seriously flaw, that whatever data that is sent by these UAV's to the base station is unencrypted data & can be easily tapped by the enemy.
Though the army has recognized the flaw & is working on it, it may still take a very long time to be rectified as the UAV's would again have to be sent to I.A.I Israel.
Recently it was reported that a group of Iraqi insurgents were able to crack the encryption used by the Predator UAV's used by the US in iraq using a simple software called SKYGRABBER which is easily available on the WEB.The question arises that when encryption of US Predator drones can be cracked easily, then its highly possible that the same situation can be repeated with the UAV's used by the Indian Army!

Symbian3 OS now open source

2010-02-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Nokia recenlty announced that it will be launching symbian3 OS as an comminity based Open Source software.
The Symbian operating system was purchased in 2008 by Nokia. The system is used by most of its phones, is now open and freely available. The goal behind this is to increase the terminal running this OS and offer the possibility for developers to modify and evolve.

Nokia has acquired all of the rights to the Symbian operating system (OS) and open sourced it under the Eclipse license. In one fell swoop, the need for mobile Linux just became far less obvious.
With 60 percent of the mobile market, Symbian has long been the dominant mobile OS. While Nokia has recently been dabbling with Linux, this move presumably will shift its efforts back to Symbian.
Indeed, Nokia's move may actually completely refactor the mobile industry's rising affection for Linux. As Glyn Moody suggests, developers already know Symbian and are likely to redouble their efforts there instead of moving to rival platforms like Google's Android and other mobile Linux platforms.
Is this a bad thing? I don't think so. It's not Linux, per se, that is important to mobile. It's open source. Whether through an open-source Symbian or open-source Linux, the benefits to developers is the same: Transparency, flexibility, and community.
Having said that, I would assume that we'll still see a fair amount of activity around mobile Linux, if for no other reason than that there are huge benefits that accrue to using the same OS for one's mobile development as for servers and desktops. Mobile Linux may be easier for enterprises to digest as they roll out Linux on the desktop and Linux on servers. Symbian is only used in the mobile market and so offers less advantage in this way.
Even so, Nokia's bold move should bring considerable competition to the mobile market, leaving one major market left for open source to conquer: The desktop.

Google is Reported of developing sophisticated translation s/w for cell phones

2010-02-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

Google is reportedly developing a mobile phone software that can translate to any foreign language INSTANTLY-ON-THE-FLY,
i.e on your side you may be talking in English & on the other side a person may be listening to you in French.

If this software is successful, people around the world could instantly converse in upto 6000 languages & can instantly and directly speak with one another without another human’s intervention.
Google has already developed successful translation rechnology for the Web.
Such sofware would be available for Android based cell phones using leverage information from voice recognition tchnology & translation systems.
What do you have to say about it?Do you think it would be useful/successful??

Check out the HTC Incredible Android based cellphone

2010-02-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

The HTC-Incredible is yet to be launched, but some of its images were leaked on the web,

check it out:

It is said to have following configurations:

A Snapdragon processor, Android 2.1 (with HTC’s Sense UI), 256MB of memory, an optical mouse pointer and a camera with a dual-LED flash.

will keep you updated as more developments takes place..................

Win 7 Reliability Patch causes instability problems

2010-02-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

A patch issued by MS to patch reliability issues in win7 are actually known to cause stability issues,
The patch KB977074, made available for download in the end of january are said to have caused Blue screen & hangs, some users reported Shutdown-lags etc.
Though, at present the exact cause is not known & there is no direct evidence to show that the patch causes such problems,But MS is working on the issue to solve the patch related problems.Keep you posted as developments take place.............

Intel's new Itanium 9300 processor

2010-02-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

Intel today along with it server partner HP, introduced the new Itanium 9300 processor.

Intel showcased following points for the processor:

Twice as many cores as its predecessor - four versus two
Eight threads per processor (through enhanced Intel Hyper-Threading Technology)
More cache
Up to 800 percent the interconnect bandwidth
Up to 500 percent the memory bandwidth
Up to 700 percent the memory capacity using-industry standard DDR3 components

The company, in it announcement, also highlighted “common platform ingredients” to spur innovation and add value. In its news release, the company wrote:

The Itanium® 9300 processor series and the future Intel Xeon processor, codenamed “Nehalem EX,” share several platform ingredients, including the Intel QuickPath Interconnect, the Intel Scalable Memory Interconnect, the Intel 7500 Scalable Memory Buffer (to take advantage of industry standard DDR3 memory), and I/O hub (Intel 7500 chipset). The common elements foster shared innovation, design synergy, and manufacturing efficiency across Intel Xeon® and Itanium processor families, and flexibility for customers.

Intel also addressed what it called intelligent energy efficiency using an enhanced form of Demand-Based Switching to lower power consumption when utilization is low. The Turbo Boost technology kicks-in to deliver a performance boost when it’s needed but then scales down to conserve power when it’s not required, thus conserving power.

BenQ introduces world's slimmest 21.5 in monitor

2010-02-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

BenQ on Monday announced the V2220, what it claims is the world’s slimmest 21.5-inch LCD monitor.

The flV2220 model — is just 15 mm thick.

Models with an “H” designation also offer HDMI and headphone connection options.

BenQ says these displays sport a 10,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 1920 by 1080 resolution (1366 by 768 on the V920), 250 nits of brightness, 5ms response time and a 1,000:1 real contrast ratio.

Otherwise, you’ll find such features as:

Senseye Human Vision Technology: amplifies image richness, clarity, and depth
Six presets: Game, Movie, sRGB, Standard, Photo, and Eco (up to 65.6% energy saved)
Independent color management
LED technology
DVI and D-Sub on all models, HDMI 1.3 and headphone jack on “H” models.
Displays having a “P” in the model name are glare panel.

The monitors will be available around the world starting in June.

What is Google WAVE?

2010-02-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

Imagine combining all forms of modern communication technology such as emails,Social Networking, Instant Messaging all into one product.That one product would be Google WAVE.
It is described as a personal real-time communication & collabration tool.A wave can be both a conversation

and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps,etc

It is a web based service, i.e it can be embedded into webpages & other web based platforms,its a communication protocol for a new way of communication designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking.

Here's what the official Google Blog has to say about it:

Google Wave is designed as a new Internet communications platform. It is written inJava using OpenJDK and its web interface uses the Google Web Toolkit. Google Wave works like previous messaging systems such as email and Usenet, but instead of sending a message along with its entire thread of previous messages, or requiring all responses to be stored in each user's inbox for context, message documents (referred to as waves) that contain complete threads of multimedia messages (blips) are perpetually stored on a central server. Waves are shared with collaborators who can be added or removed from the wave at any point during a wave's existence.Waves, described by Google as "equal parts conversation and document", are hostedXML documents that allow seamless and low latency concurrent modifications. Any participant of a wave can reply anywhere within the message, edit any part of the wave, and add participants at any point in the process. Each edit/reply is a blip and users can reply to individual blips within waves. Recipients are notified of changes/replies in all waves in which they are active and, upon opening a wave, may review those changes in chronological order. In addition, waves are live. All replies/edits are visible in real-time, letter by letter, as they are typed by the other collaborators. Multiple participants may edit a single wave simultaneously in Google Wave. Thus, waves can function not only as e-mails and threaded conversations but also as aninstant messaging service when many participants are online at the same time. A wave may repeatedly shift roles between e-mail and instant messaging depending on the number of users editing it concurrently. The ability to show messages as they are typed can be disabled, similar to conventional instant messaging.^{[3]The ability to modify a wave at any location lets users create collaborative documents, edited in a manner akin to wikis. Waves can easily link to other waves. It is in many respects a more advanced forum. A wave can be read and known to exist by only one person, or by two or more. It can also be public, available for reading and writing to everyone on Wave.}

The history of each wave is stored within it. Collaborators may use a playback feature in Google Wave to observe the order in which a wave was edited, blips that were added, and who was responsible for what in the wave.The history may also be searched by a user to view and/or modify specific changes, such as specific kinds of changes or messages from a single user.

Firefox Hit with Trojan Infested ADD-ONs

2010-02-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

Mozilla reported that a trojan disguised as an ADD-ON for the firefox browser had been able to fool the verification process & had infected upto 5000 PC's since Oct 2009.The ADD-ON contained two potentially harmful trojans which are installed into the victim's PC the moment the browser is started after installing the ADD-ons,the trojens are not removed even after removing the ADD-ONS & only a good antivirus can remove it.Here's what offical Mozilla Blog has to say:

Issue

Two experimental add-ons, Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader and all versions of Master Filer were found to contain Trojan code aimed at Windows users. Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader contained Win32.LdPinch.gen, and Master Filer contained Win32.Bifrose.32.Bifrose Trojan. Both add-ons have been disabled on AMO.

Impact to users

If a user installs one of these infected add-ons, the trojan would be executed when Firefox starts and the host computer would be infected by the trojan. Uninstalling these add-ons does not remove the trojan from a user’s system. Users with either of these add-ons should uninstall them immediately. Since uninstalling these extensions does not remove the trojan from a user’s system, an antivirus program should be used to scan and remove any infections.

Status

This vulnerability is known to affect Firefox on Windows only, if either Master Filer or Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader are installed. Versions of Sothink Web Video Downloader greater than 4.0 are not infected. Master Filer was downloaded approximately 600 times between September 2009 and January 2010. Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader was downloaded approximately 4,000 times between February 2008 and May 2008. Master Filer was removed from AMO on January 25, 2010 and Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader was removed from AMO on February 2, 2010. AMO performs a malware check on all add-ons uploaded to the site, and blocks add-ons that are detected as such. This scanning tool failed to detect the Trojan in Master Filer. Two additional malware detection tools have been added to the validation chain and all add-ons were rescanned, which revealed the additional Trojan in Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader. No other instances of malware have been discovered.

Credit

This issue was originally reported by CatThief.

The trojan affects windows based PC's only whereas linux based machines running Firefox are immune to it.

The Intel core i7

2010-02-02T11:42:00.000-08:00

The core i7 is Intels x64 64 bit desktop processor based on Intel's Nehalem microarchitecture consisting upto 2-6 HyperThreaded processing cores.These are High-end Desktop processors based on Intel's 45nm technology, having core speed upto 1.6Ghz to 3.64 ghz & processing speeds upto 4.8 to 6.4 GT/s(GigaTransfers/Second),12 MB of cache, Turbo-Boost and Intel QuickPath connection bus. The first release will be the Core i7 980X in Q1 2010
The specifications of the core i7 proceesors as given by intel are shown below:-

Get detailed specifications

Compare desktop processors
Processor Spec Finder
Get the detailed technical specifications of each Intel® Core™ i7 processor.
The core i7 supports LGA 1366 LGA 1156 mPGA-98 sockets & a moblie version is also available, called as core i7 Mobile

Use Multiple HardDrives as R.A.I.D.......

2010-02-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

If you have an old hardrive would it not be wonderful to use it to add more capacity to your existing storage space? Well it is possible with R.A.I.D, R.A.I.D stands for redundant array of inexpensive disks/ redundant array of independent disks.

If you have multiple hardrives & want to combine the storage capcity of all the Harddrives together, this is where RAID is useful, When multiple physical disks are set up to use RAID technology, they are said to be in a RAID array. This array distributes data across multiple disks, but the array is seen by the computer user and operating system as one single disk. RAID can be set up to serve several different purposes.RAID combines two or more physical hard disks into a single logical unit using special hardware or software. Hardware solutions are often designed to present themselves to the attached system as a single hard drive. RAID technology is primarily used in SERVERS to logically combine several physical storage drives into one Logical drives.It is possible to use RAID technology on a PC/laptop having muliple harddrives, some OSes Such as Linux have PLug N Play support for RAID devices, while some Like Windows require special Device drivers(except for windows server editions).

The Dell Mini 5.........check it out!

2010-01-30T11:08:00.000-08:00

Dell computers launched their own version of Tablet PC The Dell mini 5 to compete with the Apple iPAD.
The Dell mini 5 runs on the Android OS,1.6 Ghz SnapDragon CPU, has a 5-in-1. 800 by 480-pixel touchscreen,Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G mobile broadband, a 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, another front-facing camera, and a 1530mAh battery.Whats more, it has a SIM-card slot so that you can use it as a cellphone too.

Now run Moziila Firefox on your cellphone

2010-01-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Mozilla launched the Firefox web browsers for cell phones, thus enabling the users to have the similar experience of the web that they have on their PC's now on the cellphone.The official Mozilla blog has follow details:-

The overall goals for Mobile Firefox are:

provide Mozilla’s standards-based open-source browser engine, optimized for mobile, that can be embedded by device manufacturers and others;
a full-featured mobile browser including support for XUL-based add-ons, delivering on Firefox’s key principles of ease-of-use, security and accessibility;
grow the Mozilla community in the mobile space;
provide tools and documentation to help developers develop, debug and deploy web applications;
do all of this work in the shared Mozilla source repositories so all platforms, desktop and mobile, benefit each other

For more background on our goals please see these blog posts.

Apple launches iPAD tablet PC

2010-01-29T01:15:00.000-08:00

Apple on Wednesday announced the iPad, a 9.7-inch tablet computer that fits in between the iPhone smartphone and the MacBook computer.
The 0.5-inch thick device, which weighs 1.5 lbs., is intended to be used for web browsing, e-mail, photos, video, music, games and e-books -- pretty much everything that its pint-sized cousin the iPod touch can do, only bigger.
It consists of a 1GHz Apple A4 chip as well as flash memory ranging in capacity from 16GB to 64GB. Jobs claims its battery will last 10 hours with use and "more than a month" in standby mode.

The device is arsenic-free, BFR-free, mercury-free, PVC-free and "highly recyclable," Jobs said.

The iPad can also support documents, spreadsheets and presentations with a new, modified version of the company's iWork suite.

All iPad 3G models are unlocked devices and use GSM microSIM cards. International deals are expected to be announced sometime in June or July, Jobs said.

The iPad will start at $499 and scale to $829, depending on version:

16GB Wi-Fi only: $499
16GB Wi-Fi + 3G: $629
32GB Wi-Fi only: $599
32GB Wi-Fi + 3G: $729
64GB Wi-Fi only: $699
64GB Wi-Fi + 3G: $829

No date was set for availability.

Accessories are also available: a dock that functions like a picture frame, an external keyboard (effectively turning the iPad into a MacBook, sans Mac OS X) and a case.

Microsoft's Project Pink....Is it a rumour??

2010-01-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

Microsoft is rumored to launch its own brand of cell phones this spring, which would be specifically targeted to age group in 20's & would be based on windows 7 mobile.The project is rumored to be called as Project Pink.
Though despite a lot of hush-hush on this, there has been no official word from Microsoft itself.
will keep you posted on latest developments.

Bluetooth 3.0.....awesome speed

2010-01-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

The latest specification for Bluetooth was announced at the all hands meet in Tokyo japan on April 22 2009,the Bluetooth SIG formally adopted BluetoothCore Specification Version 3.0 High Speed (HS), or Bluetooth 3.0. This latest iteration of the popular short-range wireless technology fulfills the consumers’ need for speed while providing the same wireless Bluetooth experience – faster. Manufacturers of consumer electronics and home entertainment devices can now build their products to send large amounts of video, music and photos between devices wirelessly at speeds consumers expect.

Bluetooth 3.0 gets its speed from the 802.11 radio protocol. The inclusion of the 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) provides increased throughput of data transfers at the approximate rate of 24 Mbps. In addition, mobile devices including Bluetooth 3.0 will realize increased power savings due to enhanced power control built in.

This newest version of Bluetooth technology builds on the inherent qualities of the current 2.1 EDR version, including Simple Secure Pairing and built-in, automatic security. And as with all versions of the Bluetooth specification, Bluetooth 3.0 HS provides developers, manufacturers and consumers with the benefit of backwards compatibility, enabling both the expansion and enhancement of this technology with every new specification release. Once products reach the market, the easiest way for consumers to learn which devices are compatible with other Bluetooth enabled devices is to visit the Bluetooth Gadget Guide.

Applications

With the availability of Bluetooth version 3.0 HS, consumers can expect to move large data files of videos, music and photos between their own devices and the trusted devices of others, without the need for cables and wires. Some applications consumers will experience include:

Wirelessly bulk synchronize music libraries between PC and music player or phone

Bulk download photos to a printer or PC

Send video files from camera or phone to computer or television.

most probably you may expect this technology into devices built in the next quater of 2010(Q2)

Shift from Internet Explorer for Safe Browsing

2010-01-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

The recent attacks carried out by Chinese hackers were possible due to a flaw in the Internet Explorer.

Though Microsoft has released a patch to fix the flaw, But many technology consultants argue that surfing the web is unsafe with IE.
Browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla, Opera provide better security such as protection against Phishing, process SandBoxing,anti Spamming & data theft protection etc.
It is also worth noting the Chrome & Mozilla & other browsers provide better & faster browsing speeds as compared to IE.

So is shifting from IE a better option for you? tell me what do you think??

UHarc Super file compression

2010-01-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

UHarc created byUwe Herklotz is a high compression DOS & windows based compression software.

What makes UHarc different from other file compression softwares such as Winrar & Winzip, is its ability to efficiently compress even multimedia data efficiently, which is not possible with other file compression softwares.
UHarc is termed as super high file compression archiver because of its ability to compress large files into a very small file without much loss of data & efficiently.
It is estimated on an average UHarc can compress approx 1Gb data into 200Mb compressed file.
The latest version of UHarc is 0.6c(19th sept 2009) & can be downloaded here

USB 3.0........Coming soon!

2010-01-21T11:22:00.000-08:00

In September 2007 at the Intel's developer forum the concept of USB 3.0 was demonstrated.
USB 3.0 is the newer specification which is to replace the older USB 2.0 h/w specification.
USB 3.0 offers much faster speeds than USB 2.0. It provides Data rates upto 3.2 to 4.8 Gbits/s, which is more than double of the older usb 2.0 specification.
The following details on USB 3.0 are provided by Intel:-

A new major feature is the SuperSpeed bus, which provides a fourth transfer mode at 4.8 Gbit/s. The raw throughput is 4 Gbit/s, and the specification considers it reasonable to achieve 3.2 Gbit/s (0.4 GByte/s or 400 MByte/s) or more after protocol overhead.^[49]
When operating in SuperSpeed mode, full-duplex signaling occurs over 2 differential pairs separate from the non-SuperSpeed differential pair. This results in USB 3.0 cables containing 2 wires for power and ground, 2 wires for non-SuperSpeed data, and 4 wires for SuperSpeed data, and a shield (not required in previous specifications).^[50]
To accommodate the additional pins for SuperSpeed mode, the physical form factors for USB 3.0 plugs and receptacles have been modified from those used in previous versions. Standard-A cables have extended heads where the SuperSpeed connectors extend beyond and slightly above the legacy connectors. Similarly, the Standard-A receptacle is deeper to accept these new connectors. On the other end, the SuperSpeed Standard-B connectors are placed on top of the existing form factor. A legacy standard A-to-B cable will work as designed and will never contact any of the SuperSpeed connectors, ensuring backward compatibility. However, SuperSpeed USB cables, with their extended plugs, will not fit into legacy receptacles.
SuperSpeed establishes a communications pipe between the host and each device, in a host-directed protocol. In contrast, USB 2.0 broadcasts packet traffic to all devices.
USB 3.0 extends the bulk transfer type in SuperSpeed with Streams. This extension allows a host and device to create and transfer multiple streams of data through a single bulk pipe.
New power management features include support of idle, sleep and suspend states, as well as Link-, Device-, and Function-level power management.
The bus power spec has been increased so that a unit load is 150 mA (+50% over minimum using USB 2.0). An unconfigured device can still draw only 1 unit load, but a configured device can draw up to 6 unit loads (900 mA, an 80% increase over USB 2.0 at a registered maximum of 500 mA). Minimum device operating voltage is dropped from 4.4 V to 4 V.
USB 3.0 does not define cable assembly lengths, except that it can be of any length as long as it meets all the requirements defined in the specification. However, electronicdesign.com estimates cables will be limited to 3 m at SuperSpeed.^[28]
Technology is similar to a single channel (1x) of PCI Express 2.0 (5-Gbit/s). It uses 8B/10B encoding, linear feedback shift register (LFSR) scrambling for data and spread spectrum. It forces receivers to use low frequency periodic signaling (LFPS), dynamic equalization, and training sequences to ensure fast signal locking.

USB 3.0 is expected to be implemented in PC's by the end of 2010.