Dogs replaced by Computers

Dogs place in life replaced by Computers


Personal computers are fast taking over the place of human beings' long time best friend, the family dog, a British study has found.

Researchers have found just six per cent of us believe that "most people rely more on their dog than they do on their PC," while 67 per cent think the opposite to be true.

Even 38 per cent of dog owners confessed to relying more on their PC than on their dog, although 36 per cent disagreed. And 71 per cent of 18 to 24-year-old dog owners said they relied more on their computer, Daily Mail reported.

According to Paul Allen, editor of Computeractive magazine, which carried out the poll with the Royal Society For The Protection Of Cruelty to Animals, said: "These days you can even take your PC for a walk, provided you have a laptop or tablet.

"It's only a matter of time until the first PC that fetches your slippers."

Researchers talked to 2,000 British adults to find out about the change modern technology has brought to their home life. They found that male dog owners are almost twice as likely as female owners to rely on their computer than a canine companion.

Allen said: "With broadband bringing them global news and newspaper sales falling, the family dog even misses out on the pleasure of taking the paper to his owner."

But it's not all bad news for obedient dogs.

"The family PC has given dog owners access to a wealth of resources and information that can help with the long-term care that a dog needs," Allen said.

"From finding the best vets to researching great new walks that all the family can enjoy, the web enables the PC to become a dog's best friend."


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foldable smartphone screen

websites can track your IP address

Sensation smartphone in India

Sensation smartphone in: HTC


Mobile handsets manufacturer HTC Corp Thursday launched its smartphone HTC Sensation in the Indian market and said it will launch its HTC Flyer tablets in a couple of weeks.

"HTC Sensation is an exceptional smartphone that will win customers with its unique blend of functionality, usability and style. It will create a paradigm shift in the overall smartphone category with a brilliant experience," said Lennard Hoornik, president for south Asia, HTC. 

The smartphone is priced Rs.32,700.

"HTC Flyer will be launched shortly, in the next couple of weeks," he added. 

The company emphasised that India was a big market for HTC but denied to divulge its sales target here. 

"India is a huge market. We want to be a leading player here and we have high sales target here," added Hoornik. 

Based on Android 2.3 platform, Sensation is HTC's first phone to feature a 1.2 GHz processor supplied by Qualcomm and HTC Sense 3.0 user interface.

The phone is also equipped with an eight megapixel camera with auto-focus and a 4.3 inch touchscreen.

Cloud computing powered by Intel chips

Cloud computing powered by Intel chips

World's largest chip maker Intel Corporation has developed microprocessors to power modular and scalable servers for cloud computing - that enables use of multiple servers as a single platform - by data centres and infrastructure management service providers, a senior official said Friday.

"As part of our second generation multi-core Xeon processors, we have designed and developed chips that can be used for servers by cloud computing providers and builders to offer high performance and energy efficient solutions to end-customers with security, scalable storage capacity," Intel marketing programme manager Nick Knupffer told reporters here.
As the next wave of technology revolution, cloud computing enables use of multiple servers as a single platform through a digital network (website) under secured environment with access to a range of applications and tools for reducing the cost of IT operations.

"Our Xeon processor-based servers can be deployed by data centres and enterprises offering infrastructure management services to end-customers across verticals, especially small and medium businesses (SMBs) which cannot afford to invest in capital intensive IT infrastructure and hire personnel to run it," Intel South Asia director R. Ravichandran said.
According to global market research and analysis firm IDC (International Data Corporation), an estimated 2.5 billion people with over 15 billion devices will access the internet by 2015. The same year, the internet traffic is expected to reach a zettabyte or one million, million billion bytes.

"Under our multi-year vision for cloud computing (Cloud 2015), cloud data centres will be seamlessly and securely connected and fully automated. The centres will also provide secure access and optimal experience across a range of devices from smartphones to powerful notebooks," Knupffer pointed out.

With about 70 per cent of chief information officers (CIOs) concerned about cloud security, Intel is working on providing trusted execution technology (TXT) to enhance security at the processor level by ensuring a server is not tampered with at the hypervisor level.

The $44-billion Intel acquired global security solutions provider McAfee in August 2010 for $7.7 billion to enhance security of its processors by embedding the features in the chips.

Foldable smartphone screen

London: Mobile phone manufacturers have unsuccessfully tried to make smaller devices with bigger screen displays. But the sheer impossibility of creating a seamless screen nixed the idea of a folding phone. Till now.

Researchers at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, South Korea, have built a prototype of a seamless foldable display that opens up to look like that of a regular smartphone.

The display consists of two active matrix organic light-emitting-diode (AMOLED) panels covered by a silicone window that prevents scratches and can serve as a touchscreen, the Daily Mail reports.

When folded down, they are separated by a gap of just one millimetre. But when the screen is opened, one panel lies almost completely on top of the other and appears seamless.

The researchers tested the foldable display's durability by performing 100,000 folding-unfolding cycles. They said the key to success was controlling the optical properties of the materials.

"All the materials in a foldable window unit (glasses and silicone rubber) must have almost the same optical properties and attach to each other strongly without any optical property change," Samsung's HongShik Shim said.

This new type of technology has not so far taken off because of the high manufacturing costs.

However, determined to compete with innovative design such as the iPad, a number of major manufacturers are determined to expand research and develop innovative new products with folding screens.

Samsung hopes that its large-screen devices will soon be available with AMOLED technology.

Websites can track your IP address

London: A new online tracking system will allow websites to pinpoint your location to within a few hundred metres, without your permission.

Internet sites will be able to work out where users are within an average of 690 metres, using information about their internet connection.

At the moment they can only track users' locations to within a radius of about 200 km, but the new technique will narrow this down to as little as 100 metres, the Daily Mail reports.

The development comes as privacy concerns were also raised about iPhone users having their locations and movements secretly tracked and stored.

Researchers discovered that the Apple devices save the user's latitude and longitude along with a time and date stamp that can be easily accessed.

The tracking method will allow online advertisers to target web browsers with tailored messages, but it has raised concerns about privacy.

Similar techniques of mapping the internet protocol (IP) address that every computer has are already in use, but are far less accurate.

The new system, which has been designed by American and Chinese researchers, compares the time it takes to send data to computers to the time it takes to send to computers it knows the location of using Google Maps.

Using a rough estimation of how far away the computer connection is, the system locates nearby landmarks, such as universities and schools, and compares their location to narrow down the computer's whereabouts.

On an average, the method gets to within 690 metres of the target, but it can be as close as 100 metres, good enough to identify the location of the computer to within a few streets.

To locate computers to this accuracy has previously required people to agree to share location, but the new system does not need any particular software on the computer to work or even the user's permission.

Yong Wang, one of the researchers who designed the method, said: "This is a client-independent method. The client does not need to approve anything."

The tracking system will be particularly valuable to advertisers who will be able to target browsers with advertisements for shops and service just down the street.

WHO study on cancer from cell phones outdated: Experts

New Delhi: The World Health Organisation (WHO) study linking mobile phone usage with brain tumour does not reveal something previously unknown and the warning had been spelt out long ago for India, touted to be the world's fastest growing mobile market with 791 million mobile subscriptions, experts said Thursday.

"There have always been 'indicative studies' that said mobile phones can cause cancer, be it in India or at international level. The point is we have never really been able to substantiate it with conclusive facts and end up spreading panic," B.C. Das, director of B.R. Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research at the Delhi University, told IANS.

Das, former director of the institute of preventive oncology in Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), explained: "Mobile phones are closer to the brain, so the electromagnetic radiations emitted by them surely have certain adverse effects on the brain. Now it is not necessary that they result in a multi factorial disease like brain cancer."

A working group of 31 scientists from 14 countries meeting at the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Wednesday said a review of all the available scientific evidence suggested cell phone use should be classified as "possibly carcinogenic".

The study stated: "Using a mobile phone might increase the risk of developing certain types of brain tumours and consumers should consider ways of reducing their exposure."

Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai and the ICMR had earlier conducted studies on the "effects of mobile phones with Indian perspective".

But no study has been able to present conclusive proof, said P.K. Julka, professor of radiotherapy and oncology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Mobile handset manufacturers, meanwhile, echo the health experts and advise waiting for more studies before reaching any final conclusion.

"It is important to note that IARC has not classified radio frequency fields as definitely nor even probably carcinogenic to humans. The researchers have only concluded that based on limited evidence, it may be possible that there could be some increased risk for certain cancer," an official from Nokia told IANS.

Rajan S. Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, said in statement: "It is significant that IARC has concluded that radio frequency electromagnetic fields are neither a definite nor a probable human carcinogen. Additional research is required."

However, experts vouch for the precautions suggested by the WHO to minimise the use of mobile phones.

"One can opt for text messaging, e-mail, landline phone use and reduce the time spent talking on mobile phones. This should be done without panicking," added Julka.

Youngsters, who comprise nearly 60 percent of the over 600 million user base, too say the precautions are viable.

"I think one can surely resort to alternatives such text messaging and e-mails to minimise the use of mobile phones. The study will come as an alarm, though not proven," said 20-year-old Sakshi Mathur.

India to launch 12 foreign satellites in next two years

Bangalore: India has bagged multi-million dollar contracts to launch 12 foreign satellites in the lower orbit from its spaceport over the next two years, a top space agency official said Wednesday.

"Through our commercial arm Antrix Corporation, we have received orders from Canada, Indonesia, Germany and other European countries to launch a dozen satellites in the sun-synchronous orbit during the next two years," state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters here.

Of the 12 satellites, four are from Canada, two each from Indonesia and Germany and one from Luxembourg. The remaining three spacecraft are from universities in Europe.

"We have an order from Germany to launch an 800-kg dedicated satellite (N-Map) for environmental studies. The other satellites, weighing between 80-100 kg will be launched on board our polar satellite launch vehicles (PSLVs) as additional payloads along with Indian communications or remote-sensing satellites," an Antrix official said.

Antrix is also in negotiations with France to launch a remote sensing satellite (EnMAP) in the lower orbit.

India has already launched a total of 26 foreign satellites during the past decade for various countries, including Germany, Italy, Israel, Korea and Singapore.

Indian astronaut to walk on Moon in 2025: Kalam

Bangalore: Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Wednesday hoped an Indian astronaut would walk on the Moon in 2025 and on Mars by 2035.

"I believe an Indian astronaut will walk on the Moon in 2025 and on Mars by 2035. The Indian space agency should attempt to put an Indian on Moon and Mars between 2025 and 2035," Kalam said at a function here.

Releasing a book titled "All About Rockets", authored by advisor to the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) S.K. Das, Kalam said Indian space scientists should innovate cutting-edge technologies to reduce the cost of access to space to $2,000 per kg from the current $20,000 per kg.

"Low cost access to space is the way forward. The challenge for the Indian space scientists is to reduce the launch cost to $2,000 per kg from $20,000 per kg currently by using nanotechnology and reusable single-engine stage launches," Kalam told ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan and directors of the space agency's various space centres who were present on the occasion.

Recalling his long association with the space agency and his involvement in the failures and successful launches of the first satellite launch vehicle (SLV) and the subsequent polar satellite launch vehicles (PSLVs), Kalam said space was another destination for man's quest for renewable energy.
"One of the spin-offs I foresee from space technology is to innovate a low-cost energy solution. We are already using solar energy to power satellites to orbit around the Earth and run its various payloads (instruments). We need to innovate a solution to transfer the solar-generated energy to earth and store it in the form of power cells or batteries that can be used as renewable energy," Kalam pointed out.

Regretting that India has been a laggard in achieving breakthroughs in rocket launches, building satellites or supercomputers, Kalam said the country should overcome the status of being a "fourth or fifth nation syndrome" to becoming the first country in cracking space technology and ICT (information and communication technology) through innovation and research.

"After every successful launch of a rocket or satellite, India is ranked as the fourth or fifth nation in the world to have achieved success or breakthrough in space technology. It is time for us to overcome the fourth or fifth nation syndrome and be the first among equals if we have to become a superpower. We can do it," Kalam added.

Entrepreneurship bug bites young Kerala professionals

Thiruvananthapuram: Fresh out of college and bursting with ideas, young IT professionals in Kerala are walking out on cushy blue collar jobs and taking the plunge to start their own businesses. Over two dozen startups have sprung up in the state over the last two years.

One such newly launched company is Kochi-based Salt Mango Tree. It offers new age tools in the space of social media, mobile applications, digital marketing, viral and content marketing.

Speaking to IANS, Hiran Venugopalan, 23, one of the co-founders of the company, remembers how, fresh from his engineering college, he started freelancing and met three likeminded people and decided to be his own boss.

"We began with an investment of just Rs.7 lakh, and have seven clients by now. Things are definitely shaping much better than what we envisaged and we have drawn up short-term and long-term plans to see that our dreams materialise," said Venugopalan.

S. Vasudevan, a top official at the IT hub of Technopark here, attributes the huge spurt in companies to a low failure rate of startups.

"We at Technopark and at the Infopark in Kochi have set up an incubation centre and it has been a remarkable success. Over the years, we have observed that the failure rate of startups is less than five percent," said Vasudevan.

The incubation facility at the Technopark campus can accommodate close to 45 startups, offering four-seater or eight-seater cubicles. The rent for the four-seater is Rs.7,000 per month and a company can operate from there for a maximum period of 36 months, after which they have to move out.

Japan-based Ylem Infotech Pvt Ltd, a Technopark-TBI incubated company, is the latest to set the ball rolling by commencing its operations from the Technopark campus here.

"Our objective is to have a base here which would enable us to tap the Indian market for software professionals and undertake software development and other services for both domestic and international clients," said Ryo Haishima, director at Ylem which offers software services of flash animations, gaming software and mobile applications.

Another startup that is going great guns is Artin Dynamics that began its operations two years ago and is one of the first few companies in the country to work solely in the artificial intelligence domain.

The success of the firm can be gauged from the fact that it is already valued at $2.3 million.

Then there is two-year-old Big Technologies set up near the Kochi International Airport by four young professionals.

Julious P. Thomson, 27, co-founder of the firm, said he along with his partners started the business with an investment of just Rs.1 million, and now have a client in Dubai.

Then there's 25-year-old Binil Antony, delighted that he opted to start his own mobile development company, Dexetra, a year ago.

"I finished my master's in engineering and I found five others who were working in various IT companies to begin a firm of our own. Surprisingly, all of us got encouragement from our parents who helped us to form this company," said Antony.

Dexetra specializes in iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and Mobility and has already developed and launched 14 pilot applications which have crossed over 80,000 downloads and served over 250,000 impressions.

"This we did with just six of us who are partners and three paid employees. We expect to touch five million downloads in five years' time," said Antony.

Now all eyes seem to be on the new United Democratic Front-led government and its IT policy as many experts in this sector feel a positive policy could see a huge spurt in more startups.

NASA’s Messenger fetches first orbital photo of Mercury

NASA's Messenger spacecraft, the first ever to enter the orbit of Mercury, has fetched its first photo, the project's website said.

The image, the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit around Mercury, was taken as the spacecraft sailed high above the planet's south pole. It features portions of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft.

"The first images from orbit and the first measurements from Messenger's other payload instruments are only the opening trickle of the flood of new information that we can expect over the coming year," the website quoted Messenger Principal Investigator Sean Solomon as saying.

"The orbital exploration of the Solar System's innermost planet has begun."

The image was acquired as engineers checked how the spacecraft's systems are sustaining Mercury's harsh thermal environment after all equipment was turned on March 23. The scientific mission will begin on April 4.

"Instrument checkout has been proceeding according to plan," the scientist said.

It took the spacecraft more than six years to enter the orbit of Mercury, the least explored terrestrial planet of the inner Solar system.

To reach its destination point, the spacecraft, launched in 2004, covered more than 7.8 billion km. It followed a complicated route through the inner solar system, which included one flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and three flybys of Mercury.

Mercury is the smallest and the densest planet among the four terrestrial planets. It also has the oldest surface and the largest daily variations in surface temperature.

Before the Messenger mission, only 45 per cent of the surface of Mercury had been photographed by a spacecraft. The previous mission was Mariner-10, launched in the 1970s.

WWW inventor favours mobiles to widen web access

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW), Thursday called for use of mobile technology to make the web available to a large number of people in countries with low levels of Internet penetration like India.

He underlined the need to teach people to build websites which work well on mobile phones and said the entrepreneurs can build an economy using this technology.

"This will also help in improving education, healthcare and economic status of people," he told reporters during the 20th International World Wide Web Conference here.

Berners-Lee, who is also the director of World Wide Web Foundation, which funds and coordinates efforts to further the potential of the web, said the foundation had also taken up some projects to teach people to build websites which work on mobile phones.

He said while India may have its share of problems, no country was perfect. He pointed out that even in the US and several so-called developed countries, there were many towns with either no Internet connection or no choice of Internet providers.

On the idea of voice-based search for people who are uneducated, he said the foundation was already working on the technology.

"Somebody has to provide a gateway running a programme which uses special web pages to do the dialogue. It is only the start to what could be an important section of web to get people who have no access to the web at the moment become part of the Internet society," he said.

Earlier, delivering the keynote address, Berners-Lee emphasised on the need to consider access to the Internet on par with any other civil right. Finland has already accepted access to the Internet as a human right.

The Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) said it was important to progress towards the idea of the Internet as a neutral media that was not controlled by large corporates or governments.

"Today, Egypt is communicating online with the people. The common man is in a position to give feedback to the government," he said, referring to the recent revolution in the north African country.

Berners-Lee said the issue of Internet governance and a mechanism to control international cyber crime was complicated.

"There is a problem of jurisdiction. There is a problem of coordination among law enforcement services across different countries. Which aspect of Internet should be governed by what sort of international organisation. Currently, there is a lot of discussion going on whether it should be done through countries or independently," he said.

Soviet Union lied about Gagarin space mission: Book

Officials of the erstwhile Soviet Union "lied" about the success of the historic flight into space that carried Yuri Gagarin by covering up the fact that he landed over 300 km away from where he was expected, says a new book.

The Soviet Union portrayed the mission - the first manned flight into space in 1961 - as a "glitch-free triumph".

However, a new book - titled "108 Minutes That Changed the World" - published on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's flight says that scientists twice miscalculated where he would land.

That was why there was nobody there to meet Gagarin when he finally touched down, the Daily Telegraph reported.

"For many years Soviet literature claimed that Yuri Gagarin and his Vostok landing capsule had come down in the area it was supposed to," says the book.

"This information was far from the truth," it said, adding that space experts were expecting him to land almost 250 miles further south.

"So it turned out that nobody was waiting or looking for Yuri Gagarin. Therefore the first thing he had to do after landing was set off to look for people and communications so he could tell the leadership where he was."

The Soviets also lied about the manner of his landing. They said he had touched down inside the capsule itself when in fact he landed separately via parachute.

The reason the experts lied was because of rules that would have prevented them from officially registering the flight as a world record, says the book.

The book by Russian journalist Anton Pervushin published a letter Gagarin wrote to his family before the mission in which he thought about his own mortality, telling his wife not to "die of grief" if he never returned.

Gagarin said he hoped they would never have to read his words.

"But sometimes people slip on even ground and break their neck," he wrote.

"Something could also happen here. If it does I ask you Valyusha (his wife) not to die of grief. After all life is life and there is no guarantee for anybody that tomorrow a car might not end ones life," the letter said.

In 1957, Soviets had sent a dog named Laika into space only to see her die within hours from overheating.

Gagarin's wife finally got to read his letter in 1968 after his tragic death in a plane crash at the age of 34.

Hi-tech camera can make your pics better looking

Every girl wishes she could dab on some makeup to improve her looks before getting her picture clicked. Now, Panasonic's Lumin DMC-FX77 includes a built-in 'Beauty Retouch' mode which aims to whiten teeth, put colour on your cheeks and reduce wrinkles.

The airbrushing software on the camera, which includes a16 megapixel sensor and 3.5in TFT Touch Screen LCD display will even add makeup and smooth skin, the makers say.

Different modes aim to do different things to portraits and pictures of your face. Esthetic for example can clean up skin and teeth, the Daily Mail reports.

Several grades of 'face fixing' can be applied to pictures, the more intense levels can lead to the subject of the photo being more terrifying than attractive. Make-up mode is perhaps the most interesting.

Here, you are presented with a choice of colours and tones to apply foundation, blush and even lipstick.

The selection of colours range from subtle light brown eye shadow to a more shocking pink.

However, without yet fully testing the product, it is hard to say whether the end results can truly be seen as a real improvement.

But from pictures seen, before and after images show people being transformed into either super smooth skinned subjects with incredibly white teeth, or daubed in seemingly thick layers of makeup.

Best results are, apparently, achieved using Esthetic mode, which at between 60 or 80 per cent with 'head to shine removal' applied is said to gently glam up one's face.

The camera is essentially the European version of the Japanese Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP7.

Breakthrough could help hydrogen replace petrol as fuel

Hydrogen fuel could become viable as an eco-friendly alternative to petrol, thanks to a new process that allows it to be stored cheaply and practicably.

The technology utilises materials that soak up hydrogen like a sponge, and then encapsulates them in tiny plastic beads so small they behave like a liquid.

The process, based on a new way of producing nano-fibres from hydrides, is being developed by Cella Energy, a spin-off from UK Rutherford Appleton Lab.

The technique allows hydrogen to be released at a much faster rate and at lower temperatures than before, researchers said, the Daily Mail reports.

"What we've been doing is taking these materials and encasing them in plastic and making them into a very fine powder and that improves their properties," said Stephen Bennington, Cella Energy Chief Scientific Officer.

"It also means you can pump it like a fluid and it's safe. It is not gong to easily burst into flames," he said.

Hydrogen produces only water when it is burned and is considered an ideal solution to cutting carbon emissions from petrol or diesel vehicles, which are estimated to cause 25 per cent of all carbon release.

But until now, attempts to store hydrogen have not been consumer-friendly so this has not been a viable option. Cella Energy Ltd say their technology would allow people to use the carbon-free fuel with their existing car after a few modifications.

Indian defence scientists develop bio-toilets for soldiers

Indian defence scientists have recruited a small army of bacteria and harnessed solar power to build bio-toilets for managing the human waste of soldiers stationed at glaciers and other low temperature areas.

"Human waste disposal in high altitude and low temperature areas is a burning problem," a spokesman for the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) in Gwalior told IANS on phone. "The problem is further aggravated in glaciers where ambient temperature drops to minus 40 degrees Celsius and lower."

When left buried in the ice, the low temperature prevents natural biodegradation of waste, leading to their accumulation for a long time. Due to heating by direct sunlight, the melting ice takes the waste to rivers, polluting them as well, scientists said.

Traditional methods of burying human waste or incineration and chemical treatment are not possible in glaciers. Biological treatment is an attractive approach for solving the problem but micro-organisms that decompose the waste in normal temperatures are inactive at freezing temperatures. Technology developed by DRDE overcomes the problem.

The key to DRDE's bio-toilet technology is a consortium of anaerobic bacteria --organisms which do not require oxygen to live and multiply -- that has been formulated and adopted to work at temperatures as low as five degrees Celsius, the scientists said.

The bacterial consortium acts as inoculum (seed material) to the biodigester converting the organic waste into methane and carbon dioxide. The biodigester buried below the ground serves as a reaction vessel whose temperature is maintained between 5 and 30 degrees Celsius by solar heating. Charging of the biodigester with the bacterial inoculum is done only once during the entire life of bio-toilet.

DRDE scientists say their technology allows the human waste to be disposed of in an eco-friendly manner in places with extremely low temperatures. They claim their process results in treated effluent free from pathogens, and biogas (methane) is generated as a byproduct, which can be used for cooking and room heating.

According to scientists, the biodigester developed by DRDE is suitable for below zero temperatures of the Himalayan region and is maintenance free. Around 90 DRDE bio-toilets have been installed at 24 locations, including several places in Leh, Sikkim and at the Base Camp in Siachen glacier, DRDE said.

The scientists said as a spin-off, the same technology has been used to develop bio-toilets for Indian Railways. These toilets were successfully run on the Gwalior-Barauni Mail for two years and the technology has been transferred to eight firms, scientists said.

World’s first 3D mobile phone from LG

The LG Optimus is the world's first mobile phone capable of capturing and showing 3D images and footage - that too without bulky glasses.

There are two camera lenses on the back of the handset which capture two views of a favourite scene, friends and family.

These are then played back simultaneously on the Optimus 3D screen with one eye seeing the images captured by one lens and the other the images from the second lens.

The technology is commercially confidential. However, it is understood that the screen is covered with a polarising see-through material similar to that used in 3D cinema glasses, the Daily Mail reports.

This material separates the two sets of images on the screen and diverts them to the correct eye. A sweet spot is created about 20 inches from the screen to get the full 3D effect.

The system uses similar technology to the latest Nintendo 3DS games console, which is about to go on sale and also offers 3D images without the need for glasses.

While the technology has a wow factor, there are currently very few 3D films and TV programmes available on a commercial basis to be watched on the Optimus.

To off-set this problem, LG has announced a partnership with YouTube to allow the Optimus 3D footage to be swiftly uploaded to the web and shared.

Similarly, owners of the phone will be able to download 3D footage created by other amateurs to be viewed and enjoyed on the landmark handsets.

Said LG chief executive, Jong-seok Park: "The Optimus 3D is LG's newest flagship smartphone. It is our answer to two major pain points of the current 3D experience - limited mobility and specialised glasses."

The phone is to be available on the Orange network in Britain, however no prices have yet been announced.

New smartphones give instant access to Facebook

Mobile phone giant HTC has launched two handsets - called Salsa and ChaCha - that will provide instant access to Facebook.

By punching in the 'F' logo, users will be able to instantly share photos, music and even their exact location on an inbuilt map from their mobile phone.

At the moment, owners of iPhones and similar products have to use a touchscreen process to access pages on the popular social networking site.

In a clear attempt to target the teenage market, the Taiwanese phonemaker called the two phones Salsa and ChaCha, the Daily Mail reports.

Salsa is a touchscreen-only phone with a 3.4-inch screen. ChaCha has 2.6-inch touchscreen with a separate keyboard, which looks a lot like a Blackberry.

Parents faced with children badgering them for one of the new gadgets may only have weeks to save up the cash as the phones may be on sale in Britain in April.

HTC and Facebook have spent two years developing the two phones. The devices have Facebook built into their contacts system, allowing users to see Facebook friends and message them.

When taking photos, the user simply has to press the F button and the images will appear on their Facebook profile. Similarly, when using Google maps, owners of the phone can press the F button to give friends their exact location.

Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, said: "We wanted to create the ultimate socially connected phones with mass market appeal."

Sixty one CD-ROMS for every man, woman, and child on Earth

Its true Sixty one CD-ROMS for every man, woman, and child on Earth...Massive Information Stockpile Guides Humanity's Course.

That's the amount of global data humankind stored on devices of every kind in 2007 -- 295 exabytes, or 80 times more information per person than exists in the historic Library of Alexandria, Egypt, according to a study published in the journal Science.

"We tracked 60 analog and digital technologies from 1986 to 2007," said study co-author Martin Hilbert, Ph.D., an information researcher at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

"Our computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58 percent, roughly nine times faster than the world economy," Hilbert told TechNewsWorld. "Our information storage capacity has grown four times faster, and telecommunication capacity has grown roughly five times faster than the world's economic power."

"As fundamental as steel was in the industrial age, information technologies which enable us to store information and analyze it efficiently are the most valuable tools in the business world today," said Tom Cook, CEO of Permabit.

The study reflects how "we now monitor and measure almost every activity in our personal and business lives,"

World's Teensiest Battery

Atomic-scale examination of battery life was a scientific pipe dream until the DOE team invented a new type of electrolyte, a molten salt that functions under the high-vacuum conditions of transmission electron microscopy. Use of single nanowires rather than bunched wires or bulk materials was another novel approach, like assessing the strength of a rope by studying its individual threads.

With electron microscopes and tiny wires far thinner than a human hair, U.S. Department of Energy researchers have pinpointed key events in the life of a consumer electronics staple -- the lithium ion battery.

Their findings could lead to smaller, longer-lasting, more powerful batteries ready to rev up next-gen electric vehicles, laptops, cellphones and tablets.

"We think this work will stimulate new thinking for energy storage," said Chongmin Wang, a materials scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). "We hope that with continued work, it will show us how to design a better battery."

World's Smallest Battery

A desire to understand batteries "from the bottom up" motivated Wang, fellow PNNL researcher Wu Xu, DOE Sandia National Laboratories nanotechnology scientist Jianyu Huang, and researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and University of Pennsylvania to create the world's smallest lithium ion battery, a feat they reported in the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Science.

One seven-thousandth the thickness of a human hair, the battery's 100-nanometer-wide anode, through which electric charge flows in, is a single nanowire made of tin oxide, Xu explained. From the single-wire anode, the nanobattery's electric current flows through a liquid electrolyte to a lithium-cobalt oxide cathode.

It's a design that mimics the ubiquitous consumer electronics battery, albeit on a far smaller scale.

In a rechargeable lithium ion battery (LIB), positively charged lithium ions move from a negative electrode (the anode) to a positive electrode (the cathode) during electric discharge, and back again during recharge.

Lithium ions make great battery chargers because they strongly gravitate toward electrons, initially clustering around the cathode. As charging pumps free electrons into the anode, lithium ions make haste across an electrolyte fluid, flowing from the cathode to the anode.

Playing tunes on an iPod or downloading email on a notebook depletes the newly charged battery, causing electrons to flee the anode while leaving lithium ions behind. In time, those ions return to the cathode, back across the electrolyte fluid.

Dual Innovations

Atomic-scale examination of battery life was a scientific pipe dream until the DOE team invented a new type of electrolyte, a molten salt that functions under the high-vacuum conditions of transmission electron microscopy.

Use of single nanowires rather than bunched wires or bulk materials was another novel approach, like assessing the strength of a rope by studying its individual threads. Previous battery researchers have studied bulk materials, a process Huang likened to "looking at a forest and trying to understand the behavior of an individual tree."

These dual innovations provided what he termed "the closest view to what's happening during charging of a battery that researchers have achieved so far," including how so-called "lithiation stresses" -- physical nanowire distortions -- take a toll on battery life.

"Lithiation means squeezing lithium into a material, which happens during battery charging," Huang told TechNewsWorld. "Our observations -- which initially surprised us -- tell battery researchers how lithiation distortions are generated, how they evolve during charging, and offer guidance on how to mitigate them."

Medusa's Hair - and Glare

The distortions and contortions the nanowires sustain during lithiation create a many-headed area of atomic dislocations the researchers christened the "Medusa front."

Medusa was a Greek Gorgon, a mythological female monster with snakes for hair whose countenance could turn a person to stone.

"The dislocations emanating from the Medusa front are just like Medusa's hair snaking out of her head," said Huang.

A high-resolution video of the tin oxide wires shows them behaving like snakes during a meal, writhing and fattening by as much as 250 percent as lithium ions feed them with electricity.

The nanowire's lively behavior is important for several reasons, PNNL's Xu explained. Repeated distortions can introduce tiny defects that accumulate, damaging electrode materials. Indeed, over time lithiation changes the tin oxide from a neatly arranged crystal to an amorphous glass -- not unlike the Medusa's flesh-to-stone changing glare.

"The insertion of lithium ions into tin oxide crystals leads to a phase transformation, from crystalline to amorphous," PNNL's Wang told TechNewsWorld. "Accompanying this phase transformation is the volume expansion."

Along with the volume expansion, the researchers observed that upon recharging the battery, the tin oxide nanowires nearly double in length, a finding that conflicts with the conventional wisdom -- that batteries swell across their diameter.

To help avoid short circuits that shorten battery life, "manufacturers should take account of this elongation in their battery designs," said Sandia's Huang. "The gap between the cathode and anode needs to be more than double the length of the nanowire, so that no short circuit will occur during charging."

Lab to Market

Observing that nanowires "were able to withstand the deformations associated with electrical flow better than bulk tin oxide, which is a brittle ceramic," PNNL's Wang envisions a rudimentary design for a nanoscale battery that works as well in the marketplace as it does in the laboratory.

"It reminds me of making a rope from steel -- you wind together thinner wires rather than making one thick rope," he said.

Presently studying silicon, which works extremely well with lithium ions, the DOE research team's nano-sized rechargeable battery "might look like a human hair," Huang said.

Until they finish such a design, however, "the methodology we developed should stimulate extensive real-time studies of the microscopic processes in batteries," he said, "and lead to a more complete understanding of the mechanisms governing battery performance and reliability."

Browser to free the Web of suffixes

A Dutch technology company has emerged as a front-runner in a project to rid the Internet of limited number of suffixes such as .com, and offer single names which can be countries, company names or fantasy words.

Such a system, which enables countries, individuals and firms to have a Web address which consists of a single name, offers flexibility and is language and character independent.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which operates the root servers of the Internet guiding all Web traffic, has been working for years on a similar plan as it determines which suffixes, known as top-level domains (TLDs), are recognized by those root servers.

A root server is a master list of all top-level domain names, such as .com, .net, .org, and individual country codes, made available to all routers.

Earlier this month ICANN said there was pent-up demand for freeing suffixes, but delayed the plan to approve them into 2011.

To bypass the ICANN system Amsterdam-based UnifiedRoot has created browser SunDial, which enables web users to visit web sites associated with Unifiedroot TLDs, as well as all web sites registered in the ICANN system.

"We expect in short term that other browsers will also adopt our solution," Erik Seeboldt, managing director of UnifiedRoot, said in an interview.

So far free SunDial browser has been downloaded more than 15,000 times directly from UnifiedRoot, but Seeboldt said due to different other firms distributing the browser total downloads were unknown.

Seeboldt said he was convinced leading browser providers - such as Microsoft, Mozilla and Google - would tweak their software to allow access to UnifiedRoot domains.

"When there is traffic other browsers start to come to us," he said.

UnifiedRoot offers practically unlimited numbers of suffixes, unlike the short list of suffixes currently in use.

Seeboldt said first 7-8 new root domains using new suffixes would open in early 2011.

Its offer is different from other "alternative root" providers such as New.net which offers to register names in front of a small range of new suffixes, such as .golf or .law.

Critics argue alternative root companies such as UnifiedRoot introduce ambiguity because they bring a new set of traffic rules to the Web which are, certainly in the beginning, only recognized by a limited number of computers around the world.

To avoid conflicts between top level domains from UnifiedRoot and ICANN, the Dutch company will not register existing ICANN TLDs, and it informs ICANN of any names registered into its system.

Seeboldt said the communication between UnifiedRoot and ICANN has been mostly one-way.

"It seems they are not taking us very seriously," he said.

A spokesman for ICANN said parallel platforms like UnifiedRoot had a limited scope.

"While these systems might indeed function, it's important to note that many are not part of a single root, which to a large extent defines the Internet, its global reach and true value," he said.