Technology

Study says no country views internet as ‘positive influence’ on morality

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A new study has shown that people across most countries in the world believe that the internet has influenced morality in a negative way.

According to Pew Research’s study, only 29 percent people thought that the internet had a good influence on morality as opposed to 42 percent who thought that it had impacted the moral framework negatively, reported TechCrunch.

The study, which examined technology use in 32 emerging and developing nations, noted that there was no country where internet was viewed as positively influencing morality.

‘Hind-leg walking’ croc ancestors ruled North America before dinosaurs

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Before dinosaurs took control, it were the crocodilian ancestors who ruled as North America’s top predators, suggests new findings.

Paleontologists from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences discovered a crocodile-like ancestor, Carnufex carolinensis, or the “Carolina Butcher,” which was a 9-foot long, land-dwelling crocodylomorph that walked on its hind legs and likely preyed upon smaller inhabitants of North Carolina ecosystems such as armored reptiles and early mammal relatives.

Tesla to add ‘self-driving autopilot’ mode to Model S in 3 months

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Tesla is reportedly working on software that will bring “powerful auto-steering functionality” to its Model S.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has revealed that the company would ship the software, which would turn on auto-steering, in about three months, The Verge reported.

Musk said that the software will make it possible to go between San Francisco and Seattle without the driver doing anything, though he has advised drivers to restrict using the ‘autopilot’ on private property only, since this feature remained illegal on most of the U.S. roads.

40 percent of adult iPhone users in US interested in buying new Apple Watch: Survey

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A new survey has revealed that about 40 percent of adult Apple iPhone users in the United States are interested in purchasing the company’s new Apple Watch.

The consumer demand for the high-tech smart watch, which would range in price from 350 dollars to 17,000 dollars for an 18-karat gold model, is being closely watched by competitors and investors. It is Apple’s first major new product in five years.

Intel, Google join hands with TAG Heuer to make ‘luxurious’ Android wear watch

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Intel and Google have teamed up with the iconic watch brand, TAG Heuer, to bring out a TAG-branded Swiss watch powered by Android Wear.

The partnership would result in a TAG-branded Swiss watch, powered by Android Wear, whose details are not yet available, Techcrunch.com reported.

Intel has clearly known that it would need help from top consumer brands in order to enter the market with wearable products, while TAG, part of the LVMH Group, has viewed the Apple Watch as a “threat.”

Facebook mulling changing ‘Messenger’ into platform

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Facebook is set to announce ways for third parties to offer experiences through its Messenger app at the F8 developer conference next week.

The social media giant is looking to make Messenger more useful after seeing Asia’s chat apps WeChat and Line succeed as platforms that go beyond just texting with friends, reported TechCrunch.

Initially, Facebook is expected to focus on how third parties can build ways for content and information to flow through Messenger. Depending on the success of the early experiments, Facebook may then bring more utilities to its messaging app.

Astronomers set to scour sky with infrared detector to search aliens

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Astronomers will scour the sky with infrared detector to search extraterrestrial intelligence from other worlds.

The NIROSETI team has created an infrared detector inside the dome at Lick Observatory that would scan the sky for pulses of infrared light.

Pulses from a powerful infrared laser could outshine a star, if only for a billionth of a second. Interstellar gas and dust is almost transparent to near infrared, so these signals can be seen from greater distances. It also takes less energy to send the same amount of information using infrared signals than it would with visible light.

Microsoft’s Lumia 430 ‘most affordable Lumia to-date’ at 70 dollars

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In a bid to push into the low-end smartphone market, Microsoft has reportedly tagged its Lumia 430 as the “most affordable Lumia to-date.”

At just 70 dollars excluding taxes, the specifications offered by the phone helps to achieve the impressive price point. The smartphone comes with a 4-inch WVGA display, 8GB of storage (with a microSD slot), and 1GB of RAM, reported The Verge.

The phone is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and a relatively small 1500 mAh battery.

Millions of young stars in nearby galaxy found

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An international team of astronomers has discovered over a million young stars that are forming in a hot, dusty cloud of molecular gases in a tiny galaxy near our own Milky Way.

The star cluster is buried within a supernebula in a dwarf galaxy known as NGC 5253, in the constellation Centaurus.

The cluster has one billion times the luminosity of our sun, but is invisible in ordinary light, hidden by its own hot gases.

Send money via Facebook Messenger soon

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Social networking site Facebook is soon going to add a new feature in its Messenger app that will help people send money directly to friends or members of the family.

The new payment feature will initially be made available for users in the US, the firm announced in a blog post. To avail this feature, users will need to register debit cards to send or receive payments through Messenger.

Yahoo shuts China operations

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Internet giant Yahoo Inc. is withdrawing its remaining operations in China, laying off over 200 employees and shutting down its Beijing research centre, a media report said.

The company said it informed employees of the job cuts on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Beijing office, Yahoo’s only physical presence in mainland China, was mostly made up of engineers and functioned as a research and development centre.

“We will be consolidating certain functions into fewer offices, including to our headquarters in Sunnyvale, California,” Yahoo said.

NASA’s MAVEN observes mysterious dust cloud, aurora around Mars

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NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has spotted a mysterious dust cloud and aurora around the “Red planet.”

The presence of the dust at orbital altitudes from about 93 miles (150 kilometers) to 190 miles (300 kilometers) above the surface was not predicted. Although the source and composition of the dust are unknown, there is no hazard to MAVEN and other spacecraft orbiting Mars.

Hundreds of Android, iOS apps vulnerable to ‘FREAK attack’

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Hundreds of both Android and iOS applications are vulnerable to FREAK attacks that were revealed two weeks ago, a security vendor said.

The vendor said that the dangerous attack is capable of compromising encrypted data, PC World reported.

The apps have not yet been patched against the FREAK attack, short for Factoring attack, on RSA-EXPORT Keys, which was revealed on March 3.

FireEye, a computer security company, said in its blog that the unpatched apps, which were not identified, fell under the categories of finance, communication, shopping, business and medicine.

Former employee sues Facebook for gender discrimination

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A former Facebook employee, who was sacked in 2013, is suing the social media giant for sex discrimination, sex harassment, race discrimination, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other allegations.

Chia Hong claimed that the U.S.-based company had a “hostile work environment” where she was belittled, ordered to organize parties and serve drinks to male colleagues, and asked why she didn’t just take care of her child, reported The Verge.

Green tea can even make MRI`s sharper

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Green tea has been deemed good for health, skin, brain function etc, and now it is even good for improving the image quality of MRIs.

Sanjay Mathur and colleagues note that recent research has revealed the potential usefulness of nanoparticles, iron oxide in particular, to make biomedical imaging better, but they had have their disadvantages as they tend to cluster together easily and need help getting to their destinations in the body. To address these issues, researchers have recently tried attaching natural nutrients to the nanoparticles.

Lenovo to launch Windows phone this year

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Lenovo has announced its decision to launch a Windows smartphone this year.

The news came after Microsoft announced its decision to team up with the Chinese giant at the WinHEC conference in Shenzhen, China, reported The Verge.

However, it’s unclear if the Lenovo phones will run Windows Phone, Microsoft’s current mobile operating system, or Windows 10, which will launch this summer and can be scaled across PCs, tablets, and smartphones . (ANI)

Million young stars shaping up in mysterious hot, dusty gas cloud in nearby galaxy

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Astronomers have observed that millions of young stars are shaping up in mysterious hot and dusty gas cloud in the nearby galaxy known as NGC 5253, in the constellation Centaurus.

The star cluster is buried within a supernebula in a dwarf galaxy known as NGC 5253, in the constellation Centaurus. The cluster has one billion times the luminosity of our sun, but was invisible in ordinary light, hidden by its own hot gases.

The amount of dust surrounding the stars was extraordinary, approximately 15,000 times the mass of our sun in elements such as carbon and oxygen.

Z machine confirms collision fueled iron rain fell on early Earth

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Iron vapor in Z-machine reveals clues about the formation of earth and the moon, it has been reported.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have helped untangle a long-standing mystery of astrophysics: why iron was found spattered throughout Earth’s mantle, the roughly 2,000-mile thick region between Earth’s core and its crust.

NASA’s MAVEN observes mysterious dust cloud, aurora around `Red planet`

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NASA ‘s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has spotted a mysterious dust cloud and aurora around the “Red planet.”

The presence of the dust at orbital altitudes from about 93 miles (150 kilometers) to 190 miles (300 kilometers) above the surface was not predicted. Although the source and composition of the dust are unknown, there is no hazard to MAVEN and other spacecraft orbiting Mars.

New drug shows hope for Hodgkin lymphoma patients

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Scientists tested a new drug for adults with hard-to-treat Hodgkin lymphoma, and found that if it was given immediately after a stem cell transplant, it makes the patients survive without the disease progressing for twice as long as those given placebo helped them.

The findings of a phase 3 trial of brentuximab vedotin (BV), the first new drug for Hodgkin lymphoma in over 30 years, are potentially practice changing for this young cancer population who have exhausted other treatment options and for whom prognosis is poor.