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Monday, December 9, 2013

Google's Great Online Shopping Festival 2013 !!!

Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF ) was started by Google India in collaboration with hundreds of most popular online shopping portals in India.Deals will start on 11th, 12th and 13th December 2013 for three days of incredible online shopping deals from some of India’s most–loved retailers.

It tied up with a number of ecommerce sites such as Ebay, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong, Koovs, Infibeam, Groupon, Zovi, Freecultr, LensKart, WatchKart, Jewelsouk, BagsKart and Fashionara etc who would participate in GOSF. The ecommerce sites created dedicated landing pages for GOSF.

The concept of one day online sale with huge discount has its origin in US. In the U.S. online shopping sites promote sales with huge discounts on first Monday after Black Friday that follows Thanksgiving. This is called Cyber Monday.Afterwards it has spread to several countries such as Canada, Japan, Australia, Colombia, U.K., where online shopping has become a trend.In India, GOSF started on 12 December 2012.

Participating partners are

Supporting partners for the Great Online Shopping Festival 2013 are Airtel, Intel and PayTM.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Bluetooth 4.1 - 5 Features You Must Know

Of all the supportive wireless technologies on a Mobile Phone such as Wi-Fi, NFC & Bluetooth, The one that made it first and from the initial days is Bluetooth. No wonder, Bluetooth has come a long way both in terms of advancement and device compatibility. Nowadays you can see bluetooth everywhere, be it he iPad, your laptop, keyboards, mice, tablets and what not.

In this article we will talk about the 5 hottest features of next-generation and all new Bluetooth 4.1. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has made its plans publ

ic about what we might be able to see in Bluetooth 4.1. So, if you are a developer or a general tech-enthusiast, this article may be of your interest.

1. Bluetooth 4.1 Co-existence

This new feature allows Bluetooth and LTE radios to communicate with each other smoothly thereby decreasing the possibilities of near-band interference. This ensures you can have LTE and bluetooth both turned on and not expect any performance degrades.

2. Better Connectivity

You might be aware that Bluetooth does not have a great range for connected devices and the moment you go out of range it takes some time before the two-paired devices can get connected again automatically. Bluetooth 4.1 aims to reduce this reconnection time by a good amount.

3. Improved data transfer

This is about making data transfer more efficient among paired bluetooth devices and thereby ensuring lesser dropped packets.

4. Peripherals and hubs

This one is for the developers out there. Bluetooth 4.1 would allow for paired devices to act as both peripherals and hubs at the same time.

5. Bluetooth 4.0 and IPV6

Bluetooth 4.0 would also have a new standard for using IPV6 allowing the possibility of interfacing to the internet-connected devices of the future!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Glowing Plant !!!

Glowing plants

In the last week, over 3,000 people on Kickstarter ignored the fact it's next to impossible to keep a houseplant alive and backed the now fully-funded "Glowing Plants: Natural Lighting with no Electricity" campaign. The funds will be used to build upon existing technology and create a transgenic plant that has a soft blue-green glow to act as an electricity-free nightlight. Backer rewards, each glowing, include an arabidopsis plant, a rose plant, and arabidopsis seeds. We check in as the Glowing Plants team heads towards their first stretch goal and look at how this project is part of a bigger trend in DIY biology. But be warned: this is not your grandma's seed catalog.

Arabidopsis thaliana is a small unassuming plant, but is as famous in science circles as any plant has a hope of achieving. But the final glowing plant won't be 100 percent arabidopsis. Spliced into its genes will be the bacterial biochemical pathway to create bioluminescence. Luciferin and luciferase (“lucifer” meaning “light-bringer”) will give the plants a constant but gentle blue-green glow, probably only visible in the dark.

The process is like building a custom hot rod. The Glowing Plants team can increase the amount of light produced by changing the genetic “language” from bacterial to plant and experimentally find bottlenecks in the chemical pathway. The team even has the option of changing exactly what color of light is produced and when and where. Promoters, or the sequences of DNA that control proteins actually being produced, could be chained with the luciferin pathway to only produce light when desired, such as when the plant is cut, touched, or at day or night. These sequences will be strung together in a computer program and sent elsewhere for printing into strands of DNA. The Glowing Plant team came together out of a bioluminescence meetup group at a local bio hackerspace, which is reflected in their methods and goals. The project manager, Antony Evans, reflects, “One of the big motivations for the project was to do science in a different, more open way...” They plan on live-blogging their process and have already had some data peer-reviewed. The resulting DNA sequence will be released with an open source noncommercial license, starting talk among the project's backers of which transgenic plants they might create at home (Evans' dream glowing plant would be a willow tree).
Some of the backer rewards also encourage this DIY biology ethic. Among the offerings are a complete maker kit to transform your own plant from the ground up, a hands-on plant transformation workshop for you and 30 of your nerdiest friends, and having a message of your choice written directly into the very DNA of the plant.
The team's goal after the project is completed involves moving on to bigger plants and maybe someday trees, which could potentially replace streetlights. Meanwhile, there's still time to get your own glow on. A Kickstarter pledge of US$40 will score you the arabidopsis seeds, while $150 is required for an actual plant and the seeds, and the possibility of a rose plant if the the stretch goals are met.
Source: Glowing Plant,

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

WaterProof Mobile from Sony

Sony's dives in with smaller, more waterproof Xperia ZR

In the unpleasantness stakes, dropping your smartphone in a bucket or water is right up there with bread landing butter-side down – only much more expensive. Sony has unveiled its Xperia ZR that, if it lives up to expectations, will mean you’ll not only be able to drop it in the pond, but take high-definition videos while doing so.
The Xperia ZR follows on from the Xperia Z, and boasts a slightly smaller display (4.6-inches to the Z's 5-inches) that features improved contrast and anti-glare properties. The Xperia ZR is IP55 and IP58 compliant, making it both dust and water resistant, with Sony claiming it can withstand being submerged in 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. It also has a dedicated camera key that allows you to take pictures or video underwater or if the screen is locked.
The Xerpia ZR’s 13-megapixel camera has a 16x digital zoom and takes high definition images and videos using Sony’s “Exmor RS for mobile” image sensor with HDR (High Dynamic Range), which takes images at different exposure levels and then it combines them into one optimized image. There’s also noise reduction and a burst mode that takes 15 images at a time.

Measuring 10.5 mm thick and weighing 138 grams (4.8 oz), the Xperia ZR runs on Android 4.1 and is powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon chipset (APQ8064 + MDM9215M) with Adreno 320 graphics. The 4.6-inch HD Reality Display powered by the Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and uses the OptiContrast panel, which reduces reflections and creates a seamlessly black surface when the phone is turned off.
The phone comes with 8 GB of internal storage – 4.6 GB of which is user accessible – and a micro SD memory card slot, while a STAMINA mode improves battery standby time by shutting down apps when the screen is off and starting them up again when the screen is switched back on. There's also a one-touch function that uses Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to pair the phone to other NFC-enabled devices, such as speakers, headphones and televisions, by simply touching the phone to the device.
The Xperia ZR will be available worldwide in coming months. Pricing is yet to be announced.
The video below introduces the Xperia ZR.
Source: Sony

Monday, May 13, 2013

Goggles From Google

What is Google Goggles?

A number of anonymous Google employees are reporting that the company is currently developing Android-powered glasses that can provide a heads-up display to the wearer and connect over wireless data services. The glasses will purportedly work like a wearable version of the Google Goggles app, providing real time information on a user's location via GPS and motion sensors. Even more surprising, the same sources are saying these "Google glasses" could be available to the public by the end of this year.
The Google glasses have apparently been in production for quite some time at Google's secretive Project X lab, where the company designs its more outlandish projects, such as robots, space elevators, and the like. Anonymous employees have indicated that this is strictly an experimental program from Google, though it may look into future business applications depending on how successful the product is.
Aside from a few buttons on the side, the glasses are said to resemble a regular pair of eyeglasses with a design similar to the Oakley Thumps (pictured below). The glasses will feature a low-resolution camera on the front for gathering information to relay to a small screen built into one side of the lenses. The screen will not be transparent, but will be located to the side of the frame, so as not to obscure a person's view but still give an augmented reality feel. The camera will also be able to take pictures, and have a built-in flash.

Using either WiFi or a 3G/4G connections, the device will tap into Google's cloud and relay information to the user on their environment, including locations or friends nearby and objects that they look at. The glasses will also work as a smartphone, allowing users to make calls, use certain apps, and connect with friends.
Actually controlling the glasses will be a bit unique, as reading through information on the display will require a user to tilt their head to scroll and click. Sources at Google have noted that this function is actually a lot easier to use than it sounds, and will not be noticeable to others.
Unnamed employees told the New York Times that the new Google glasses are expected to be priced much like a current smartphone (in the US$250 to $600 range) and are aimed for a 2012 release date.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Talking Robot Now Assist you

Siri, the artificial personal assistant for iOS devices, may have some competition from a new Japanese robot developed by Okamura Corporation. At least, that's what we might be saying if not for the tech toy's sticker-shocking price of ¥472,500 (US$5,087). Robotalk is billed as a "friend with functionality" that responds to your voice.
Okamura is known primarily for its furniture, but it also has divisions dedicated to telecommunications and factory automation, so perhaps a robot shouldn't be that surprising. However, you'd be forgiven for thinking Robotalk was developed by a different company altogether, as it bears more than a passing resemblance to Fujisoft's desktop robot Palro. It features almost identical specifications, and even uses Fujisoft's proprietary "Sapie" artificial intelligence platform.
The main difference is that, unlike the Palro (which has 20 degrees of freedom, allowing it to walk and dance) Robotalk is a stationary object. The head (which contains the camera and mic) can tilt up and down and swivel left and right thanks to a couple of servo motors, but it doesn't have any limbs. It's the latest in a line of robots, such as Autom and the AiSoy 1, that are essentially dressed up smartphone apps.

Robotalk has much in common with Fujisoft's Palro, seen here

So what's inside? Robotalk comes equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, a microphone, speaker, 60-LED array (like the one in Palro's head), and has proximity and lift sensors. It runs Ubuntu on a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor with 8 GB memory, 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM, USB slot, and has LAN and Wi-Fi functionality.

Does any of this sound useful to you?

Greeting: Robotalk greets you if its camera or proximity sensors detect movement (the greeting can be anything you want, just set it up in advance).
Online search: answers questions such as "what's new?" and "what time is it now?" by querying the internet.
Scheduled alerts: mark important dates and times using Google Calendar, and Robotalk will dutifully remind you of them.
News: Robotalk will read the news for you (you can set your favorite RSS feeds, regional weather, etc.), and if you specify a topic it will focus on that (e.g. sports).
Photo and voice messaging: you can email photos taken with Robotalk's camera, and record 15-second personal messages or reminders.
Chat: cures boredom with thousands of anecdotes, bits of trivia, news, and quizzes.
Survey: set up to 10 questions and possible answers (or allow free-form answers that are recorded). The data is saved to an external USB drive and/or sent to an email address. Okamura suggests this feature could be used to conduct market research.
Presentation: Robotalk gives a verbal presentation in your place (useful for marketing or product demonstrations).
Music player: play MP3s and other audio formats from an external USB drive. It has the usual playback features including repeat, skip, and shuffle.
Games: play Shiritori (a Japanese word game), get your daily horoscope, guessing game, Genius Quiz (based on a popular TV show with a variety of topics).

Robotalk helps out during office meetings by checking the internet when necessary and by keeping track of time

Okamura is positioning Robotalk for use in conference rooms, as part of in-store displays, for hospitals and nursing homes, as well as offices and reception areas. The company thinks it can charge two grand more for Robotalk than Fujisoft charges for the Palro, so unless the reported price is a typo with an extra zero on the end, it probably won't fly off the shelves.

Technology

Life & Style

Monday, December 9, 2013

Google's Great Online Shopping Festival 2013 !!!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Bluetooth 4.1 - 5 Features You Must Know

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Glowing Plant !!!

Glowing plants

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

WaterProof Mobile from Sony

Sony's dives in with smaller, more waterproof Xperia ZR

Monday, May 13, 2013

Goggles From Google

What is Google Goggles?

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Talking Robot Now Assist you

Does any of this sound useful to you?