Apple iTV: Rarely heard name

Apple TV was launched at the end of year 2006 and second generation was launched in end of 2010. Seeing to the name of Apple TV it seems why Apple has jumped into selling Televisions. But it not the television which Apple is selling but it is just a set top box. Again don’t do mistake by seeing this set top box as a satellite STB. This doesn’t capture the satellite signals and acts as other STBs.  Then what Apple TV is?

You can simply say Apple TV is like a connecting media between your actual television and media sources like your computer, Netflix, YouTube, iTunes store or any computers which have Mac OS X or windows having iTunes configured. Taking about its specification or the features, Apple’s product performance is always undisputable. It has A-4 chip processor. Wi-Fi enabled device which can connect to your Mac Computer or other media and you can enjoy movies and music. It can get sync with any devices having iTunes and works like an iPod of 160GBs. You store mostly 210 hours of HD movies or 36000 songs or 45000 photos. Of course it huge amount of data comparatively. It connects to the media, buffers and stores the data in its memory and gets disconnected from respective media.  Moreover in 2^nd generation Apple TV you can connect to application like Netflix or Rotten Tomato for renting movie.

If you see the below image, you will hum in yourself that this is real beauty that device is so small and its performance is so great. Now, talking about its price, Apple TV will cost you in two digits only that is $99. List of application to which will serve you are as follows:

-          Netflix - Movies

-          YouTube - Videos

-          NBA - Sports

-          MLB - Gaming

-          WSJ - News

-          Rotten Tomato - Movies

-          Air play - Gaming

I think that makes worth purchasing Apple TV for this much bucks. What say?

Siri, I love you…! You are beauty

This is what you will say if you meet Siri. Yeah, she is smart-intelligent Siri, which you are thinking about after listening name. You get her free with your iPhone 4S. Siri was born in 2007. Apple is not the creator of Siri but Apple has adopted her from SRI International’s venture group. Seeing to the revenue earned in year 2008 and 2009 which have crossed millions, Apple found good prospect to integrate with iPhone and today Siri is a big player behind successful marketing and selling of iPhone. For information, 4 million iPhones were sold out in the week’s period of its launch. Being Siri was mastered by Apple, it was then not reachable to Androids and other OS. But that was the idea of a creator when Siri born, to make it available for all the platforms.

What Siri can do?                                     

This question can be described in very long list. Siri is like your virtual personal secretary. Siri can set alarms, reminders, play songs, make a call, take down dictations, mailing, go to Internet and search mostly all things you can do it manually. It takes help of Wolfram-Alpha, Yelp, Rotten-tomato and Google too. Siri has been too much accurate in herself that, experts sees a threat for a Google dominance prevailing round the globe.

What made Siri so much successful as an application on technical perspective?

Siri’s working seems very simple but it that complex in actual inside. She works on vocal inputs by the users. She primarily stores the vocal input in the form of digital media. Siri work locally as well as on the network. That means say for example if you request her to play a songs and this can be done locally from the phone where as when you order her to find some restaurant or movieplex she need to connect internet. So after taking input it first of all try to connect to cloud server, with the help of wireless internet or via mobile service provider. Now meanwhile it analyzes the necessity of going to cloud server. If the request of user can be fulfilled locally, it says to cloud, “Thanks Sir! I will take care myself. Don’t bother master.” But this analysis is not as easy as I easily conveyed. It has complex algorithms to decide this thing. There are some statistical models loaded locally in her as well as in her master that is Cloud server. For the execution of user’s request, Siri gets many responses from its algorithms and statistical models but comes with the best of all by prioritizing the bulk of results. If we see the smartness, let take an example. If user requests her, “Call Dimple”, it will go to contact list and see all the probable contacts to be called. Like if contact directory has Dimple Fadia and Dimple Shah, it will ask you, whom to call in case of ambiguity. If you believe me this is just a basic example, she is capable of much much more.

The other side of Siri!

Besides this, Apple engineers have also made Siri character bit funny. If you ask her, “Will you marry me?” then you will get first response, like “Don’t try to flatter me” or “Come on that was not in our contract when you got me”. You will get funny responses for the naughty questions. So, it seems like creator and Apple engineer have poured a life in the application which may even heal a loneliness of user to some extent in a funny way. So get in the Love with Siri, she is open for all. J

iPhone 4S issue: Battery drained, Siri gone dumb

Users has been reporting of battery life in iPhone 4S. They are expecting some more life from the battery when iPhone with iOS 5 was not able to keep itself alive more than 12 hours for some users after full battery charge. Apple confirmed some bugs still in the phone which are responsible for additional battery usage and informed to expect a software update or say patch for the same in short time, they added. If you are facing same problem with iPhone 4S battery life problem tips are, you can stop the location inspection service which is generally constantly working in even standby mode. In addition to that you can turn off your Wireless when not necessary, which may save some charge and you can use talking to your girlfriend or boyfriend late nightJ. 

Center of attraction for iPhone 4S, has gone dumb. “Siri”, which has been talk of the technology round the globe, because of its intelligence and Technical beauty, has gone silent for many users. Siri is a personal assisting application come with all new iPhone 4S and has attracted too many users and considered to be an important reason of iPhone 4S success. Company has acknowledged the users reporting, regarding the problems persists with Siri. Some says that, this was not surprising because Siri was like just beta version in the phone on which Apple have counted a lot in the advertisements and also added that any smartphone you can take in the world nothing comes without the Bug. Some users have also reported like their Siri was back to the action after sometime automatically.

Facebook comes with new tools to tighten security

Facebook has become so addictive to the user that day by day its popularity and usage is achieving new heights. There are 800 million active user of on single social networking according to company. Saying with this they also showed concerned over the security issue faced by these active users.

As a Security Enhancement, facebook has come up two new security features.

First is “App password”. This will be an additional layer in the facebook password security. At time of login a text message will be sent to your mobile and by providing unique code one will be able to complete the login procedure. This is two-factor authentication. This can stop hackers who have stolen the passwords but if someone opt for this facility this would be an additional overhead always.

Second is “Trusted Friends”. In case of recovering the password, if user is not able retrieve the password via Email then facebook will keep some preselected group of people from the friend list who can pass on the codes to you.

This is security statistics populated by the facebook. Facebook report says that 4% of shared links are spam. Adding to this they say that only one in two hundred user face the spam in a day. They convey that facebook is too much secured social networking and they are too smartly handling facebook security.

Aakash, “I-Pad” (Indian Pad) tablet at INR 1750, India’s changing

India had set an example in front of world by launching INR 1 lakh car, Nano by Tata, in 2009 of being most competitive manufacturing in automobiles. This times its Computer Hardware industry for setting up a benchmark of launching world’s Cheapest Tablet computer. This is better answer to the countries who thought India was lacking the innovation sense and lags behind for producing cheap and quality product compared to other Asian leading manufacturers. 

Aakash name is coined for this tablet which means “Sky” in English. A Canadian company DataWind got the bid for the manufacturing of this device which was developed by IIT-Rajasthan, India. This is seen as a revolutionary change in the Information and communication being the government of India have plan to float 10 million devices for the student, who will be able to access their online study material and other necessary data. For students, it will be just INR 1750 a unit. Now you might be eager to know about the configuration and utility of this product and believe me you will have thought to purchase one after reading the following.

These are the features available in the device available in the market at price of INR 2999 as UBI-Slate.

• 7 Inch tablet with weight of 350 grams only which is very handy in nature.
• Android 2.2 Froyo OS, a very light OS used for smart phones.
• 366 MHz processor, with high definition video co-processor and graphic accelerator.
• 256 MB of RAM which is good enough to do necessary operation on the device.
• Wi-Fi support for the connectivity and ability to connect to 3G and GPRS services.
• Dual USB port and 2GB inbuilt Micro SD memory card. Extendable up to 32 GB.
• USB port which can connect to Web camera.
• UBI surfer, a light browser which is ten times faster than other mobile browser.
• Support to document like .doc, .docx, .ppt .pptx, .pdf with 3.5 mm Headphone Jack.
• Normal Battery backup of up to 3 hours and leather cover.
• SIM slot and Access to Android marketplace for downloading Android apps.

Don’t you think to buy one? If yes then also you can wait for much more in near future. Suneet, CEO of DataWind added in the speech about the future enhancements in the same. We can expect 600 MHz and may be 1.2 GHz processor in near future. Company is trying to tie-up with 2 Mobile service provider for providing GPRS service as cheap as like INR 99/month. Suneet said, “We don’t want to compare this product with the tablets by Apple and Samsung because Aakash is designed for each and every Indian who wishes to use tablet at affordable price without compromising quality.” Except this, company is coming with new 5 inches touch screen Android smart mobile phone and 9 and 10 inches tablet at price of around INR 5000 only, Suneet added in conversation. 

ADS: Weapon Evolution: Pain like fire, Injury is zero

As you know always technology is very invasive in itself. It is Unstoppable always. As far as War Weapons are concerned, researches and inventions have been imaginable. Think of a weapon which hit you with the heat and that much heat which is unbearable, it may result in to severe skin burn. You won’t be able to bear for more than 2 seconds and no injury. Researchers are really incredible in this sense. I am talking about ADS (Active Denial System). Now lets us understand what basic fundamentals are, which makes this weapon so effective.

If we try to understand in Lehman language, then this is nothing but electromagnetic or we can say laser rays which generated massive heat on the things it is applied. If we go in to the specification of this system, it generates electromagnetic radiations with the frequency of 95 GHz. Simply think that you are being in to Microwave for two seconds and how will you feel. Let us understand what happen when that laser rays touch to your skin. This ray goes dip to say 1/64 inches and pokes in the skin. Biologically "ye hota hai ki" fat molecule and water gets excited which is painful for nervous system. Except this it has very good range of around 500 metres to 600 metres minimum to make a strong effect. As far as eyes are concerned, then blinking of eyes is the solution which doesn’t harm the eyes much. It has even very less effect to result in to the cancer or other skin problems. You might be thinking that how this could be a very useful weapon?

Seeing to the feasibility and usability, this is very much useful to disburse the crowd, to stop group attack and most important thing is it’s so powerful that it difficult for normally dress body to resist from this rays. This technology becomes useful for torturing "high profile" prisoners. US army have deployed this in the Afghanistan but it was not so fruitful application of this technology. In the Image you can see that this is generally mounted on the Humvee (US army hummer type vehicle). This can be an alternate to control mass opposition where CRPF and Para-military force need to take offensive action of tear gas and water-shot to control crowd. This could be effective and safe alternative. Technology is ever Unstoppable.

Robots that learns from the Human activities

Pieter Abbel, Professor of University of California have designed a robert which have sort   of intelligence to learn the activities from the human. Briefing about the Pieter, He has been selected in the top 35 innovators round the globe for exceptional innovation. Pieter thinks that the robotics is the very prime area of innovations seeing to the scientific world after 15 to 20 years.  

Robot learns seeing human to performs the task. Other robots needs to programmed to perform some task which limits the robustness of the robots. Where as this robot is very robust in itself. I can make a laundry for his master or it can fly model plane by itself. Usually robots are used in the Manufacturing areas to do task repeatedly and accurately as for that they are programmed stereotype. This is an extension to usability of robot in the near future for day today work because advancement in Artificial Intelligence.

It was illustrated by the robot how it can fold the towels seeing and learning from humans. This robot has been programmed to program itself on the observance of activity by the perception mechanism to figure out what to perform for accomplishment of task. It identifies the crumbled tovel on the table and by the camera sensors oh its so called head helps instructing its arms to fold perfectly like our moms. This type of robots will be a revolution in the day to day life of people but one thing to think is that is it feasible even after 20 years to have robots to complete house hold work. 

Video Stabilization Processing on YouTube

As a result of IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, Google researchers have designed algorithm to stabilize the recording of video. Many a times when amateur records a video, it seems very unsteady recording because of lack in steadiness of hand. So, now Google has answer to this problem after good research. YouTube the largest video streaming site by Google is jewelled with this functionality in the video editor it have recently.

Algorithm which is developed for this is working quite efficiently and still enhancement are expected regularly on this. Algorithm set a Key element in the video and it checks for the fluctuations in the frames. It crops the additional area which is recorded and focus on the key element which reduces the fluctuation visibility as shown in image. It designs some path to modify the video and choose the best where video is crop least and can get the best output. Still it is a challenging task to handle the shakiness because of the unstable base of say recording while walking. Researchers are still trying to optimize so that user interference get decreased and results get enhanced. The processing of video is done server side obviously, and it is done by distributed computing that means by using multiple machines to process one video at real time. This increases the speed of processing and gives a user delightful experience. Google is always unstoppable on its part. 

Do we need android-powered Refrigerators?

Samsung is making the refrigerators having a tablet embedded in it. It seems that Samsung is focusing more on utilizing as much as technology innovation and put it into their products. With this they end up launching high valued product. 

It would be a feel good factor for the consumer if they design refrigerator connected with internet and able to exploit the advantages. Refrigerator may tweet about the current temperature and give updates to the user. This must be more useful then the tablet.

Samsung RF4298HARS is tablet and Wi-Fi enabled refrigerators, which cost $3500 to end user. If Samsung have embedded Wi-Fi system rather than a tablet, it may have cost less to End users. But being Samsung is already into embedding the tablets in to appliances we can expect the same in Washing machines and Microwaves. The limitations that can bother the manufacturer are the IPV6 range which will be quickly be over flooded by the Internet enabled appliances.  But yes, researchers and companies will be keep on surprising the user and market with the innovation like this.

Let your phone and technology guard your Sedans

Now you can immediately rush to your car, when anyone struck it hard even when you are apart from it. For Lortz, a senior researcher at Intel lab, get updates in his smart-phone if someone try to get into car or struck the car. He is currently working for the same. Intention is to have some spy in the car in form of electronics. It can be anything like Tablet or a Net book which can connect to internet and send an update to the user’s phone.

Researchers from Intel have apps for iPhone and Android which can communicate with the electronic setup at the car. This can be extensively useful like for locking-unlocking door, Starting up engine and much more. Lortz says, “Getting notified about your car is very appealing”. Idea is that even the car performance should be logged and sent to the owners, manufacturers and like insurer. Some fast mover car manufacturers like BMW, Ford, Toyota, and Audi have configure the cars in a way that it can use Internet connectivity of smart-phone for Web radios and all.

Survey says, Car users are more crucial on the safety and security but equally it is expected that car user gives good response on the entertainment areas via this technology. But for now Lortz and team was successful to setup a computer interface in the car which give many new innovation in the same. He and colleagues say it can work on barcode for authentication and wireless technology for the data transfer on the tapping the car.