Technology

Solar plane pilot plays down criticism by colleague

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One of the pilots of the solar powered plane, which is trying to set a world record by flying across the world, today sought to play down the the criticism by his colleague who had held the “administration” responsible for the delay in departure from Ahmedabad for want of clearances.

CEO and co-pilot of Solar Impulse, Andre Borschberg said there are different sets of rules in different countries and they were unable to understand the “complex” process here.

E-commerce market growing rapidly in India: Report

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The technology driven e-commerce market in India has come of age and is growing rapidly to cross Rs.1 lakh crore by the year-end, an industry report said on Wednesday.

“Growing at 33 percent, the digital commerce market is set to cross Rs.1 lakh crore by December 2015 from Rs.81,525 crore in December 2014, with 53 percent growth,” the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said in the report.

The decade-old IAMAI represents digital businesses across the country and address challenges facing the industry, including mobile content and services.

DataWind launches PocketSurfer smartphones

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Akash tablet maker DataWind has launched the most affordable smartphone starting at just Rs 1,999 in collaboration with Reliance Communications .

The new range of PocketSurfer smartphones is powered with free unlimited internet browsing for one year on Reliance.

The new PocketSurfer smartphones allow the consumers to join the digital age at an affordable cost.

The PocketSurfer 2G4 has a 3.5 inch screen, Dual SIM, EDGE network while PocketSurfer 3G4 is a four inch, Dual SIM, Dual camera, 3G network compatible smartphone.

Windows 10 ‘Hello’ feature to allow log into devices using face scan or fingerprints

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Microsoft has unveiled a new feature that will enable users to sign into a machine with just their face or finger.

Users will get to use the new feature, called Windows Hello, on Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 operating system. It works by scanning your face, iris, or fingerprint to unlock devices, replacing a PIN or password to gain access to your own machine, reported The Verge.

Key brain cells that drive circadian rhythm identified

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A team of researchers has identified key cells within the brain that are critical for determining circadian rhythms, the 24-hour processes that control sleep and wake cycles, as well as other important body functions such as hormone production, metabolism, and blood pressure.

Circadian rhythms are generated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) located within the hypothalamus of the brain, but researchers had previously been unable to pinpoint which of the many thousands of neurons in the region were involved in controlling the body’s timekeeping mechanisms.

Google to fly 84-feet ‘plane-like’ wind turbine

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Google has planned to fly an 84-foot ‘plane-like’ wind turbine next month, a report said.

According to Google X head Astro Teller, the turbine that are more like “planes,” would fly next month and rise to 450 meters in the air after being released, the Verge reported.

At that altitude, the plane starts flying in large circles in the sky, which turns the plane’s propellers. The drag turns each of the eight propellers into individual turbines which deliver 600 kilowatts back down to Earth.

Microsoft’s new Windows Hello will allow users to log into Windows 10 devices using face or finger

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Microsoft has unveiled a new feature that will enable users to sign into a machine with just their face or finger.

Users will get to use the new feature, called Windows Hello, on Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 operating system. It works by scanning your face, iris, or fingerprint to unlock devices, replacing a PIN or password to gain access to your own machine, reported The Verge.

Google’s top boss blames Google Glass’ failure on ‘bad marketing’

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Google X’s moonshots captain, Astro Teller, has gone on record to say that he believed that Google Glass failed because the firm “allowed and sometimes even encouraged too much attention for the program.”

According to Teller, the problem was that people thought Google Glass, a Google X Project, was the tech giant’s final product when it was just a “prototype” that was being tested, reported AdWeek.

‘Chicken-and-egg’ dilemma for life’s origin on Earth may have been solved

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A team of researchers may have solved origin-of-life conundrum.

The origin of life on Earth is a set of paradoxes. In order for life to have gotten started, there must have been a genetic molecule, something like DNA or RNA, capable of passing along blueprints for making proteins, the workhorse molecules of life, but modern cells can’t copy DNA and RNA without the help of proteins themselves.

9th century Viking era ring with ‘For Allah’ engraved unearthed in Sweden

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Scientists have discovered an ancient 9th century Viking era ring in Sweden, which has the words ‘For Allah’ engraved upon it.

The pink-violet colored stone silver jewel was found during the 1872-1895 excavations of grave fields at the Viking age trading center of Birka, some 15.5 miles west of Stockholm.

It was amongst the jewelry, brooches and remains of clothes in a rectangular wooden coffin of woman, who’s skeleton was completely decomposed and might have been buried arout 850 A.D, Discovery News reported.

New compound prevents onset of type 1 diabetes in animal models

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A team of scientists has tested a potent synthetic compound that prevents type 1 diabetes in animal models of the disease.

Lead author Laura Solt from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) said that the animals in the study never developed high blood sugar indicative of diabetes and beta cell damage was significantly reduced compared to animals that hadn’t been treated with the compound.

Free breakfast yields better performance in students from poor families

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Free breakfasts can make students from low-income families perform better, leading to good grades, claims a new study.

The research conducted at University of Iowa found that students who participated in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s School Breakfast Program (SBP) had higher achievement scores in maths, science, and reading as compared to students who did not participate.

Microsoft ‘not killing’ Internet Explorer just yet

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Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has although slipped lower and lower on the popularity meter in the past few years, however, several Windows users, including celebrities like Zooey Deschanel, came to its rescue after Microsoft hinted that it might squash the ageing browser.

The confusion started when Microsoft’s Chris Capossela said at the Microsoft Convergence event on Monday that the company was working on a new browser name and brand that will feature in Windows 10, reported Mashable.

Capossela added that the project was codenamed “Project Spartan.”

Tado to upgrade thermostats capabilities

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German technology company, Tado announced an API and IFTTT integration, which will drastically upgrade the Tado’s thermostats capabilities.

According to San Francisco-based techcrunch.com web site, Christian Deilmann, Tado founder and CEO was quoted in a released statement, as saying, a device’s user experience is paramount. “The key differentiator between a good product and a great product will be the digital user experience – how good is the user interface, how seamless will it integrate into our lifestyles and how well do different devices and applications communicate with each other.”

Nintendo in alliance with mobile gaming firm DeNA

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Japanese multinational consumer electronics company, Nintendo is finally bringing its games and characters to mobile after an alliance with a Japanese mobile gaming firm DeNA.

The duo announced a collaboration that will see them jointly develop games for smart devices and a service that lets users play games across a variety of devices, including mobile devices, PCs and Nintendo’s own consoles like the 3DS and Wii U is slated to launch in the fall of 2015.

JandM steel solutions to expand plant equipment

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JandM steel solutions in a joint venture with the Ministry of Construction, Myanmar, have announced the expansion of its steel structure fabrication plant in Thaketa Township, Yangon.

JandM Steel Solutions Co. Ltd. is established by JFE Engineering Corporation.

JandM produces steel bridges and steel structures which started operating in Myanmar since April 2014 in order to improve infrastructure as the country requires highway bridges and railway bridges.

In addition, in Myanmar the JFE Engineering undertakes contracts for other countries to build bridge blocks.

New update lets you control Chromecast with your TV remote

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American conglomerate, Google’s Chromecast new update lets us pause and un-pause videos with your TV’s infrared remote.

Chromecast is the cheapest way to get Netflix onto your TV with minimum hassle, but one of the tradeoffs is that we have to control everything from your smartphone or laptop.

According to gizmodo.com, Chromecast uses the HDMI-CEC standard that allows the Chromecast to control your to automatically turn your Smart TV on when it’s video time and the latest update just extends that functionality to your TV remote, letting it play and pause apps on Chromecast.

Microsoft releases Office 2016 and Skype for Business previews

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Microsoft has reportedly launched a preview of its Office 2016 which is meant to target IT professionals and developers.

However, Microsoft’s Kirk Koenigsbauer said that the preview only offered a close look at what’s coming alongside monthly updates, adding that the build does not yet contain all the features that the company is planning to ship in the final product later this year, reported The Verge.

Facebook’s new guidelines ban images of ‘fully-exposed buttocks, breasts’

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Facebook has categorized “fully exposed buttocks” and “images of female breasts if they include the nipple” under a list of banned posts in their revamped community standards section.

Facebook said that the new guidelines were aimed at bringing “clarity” over what can and cannot be posted on the website, reported The Verge.

The social media platform however, added that some nudity was permissible “for artistic purposes.”

Mercury is planet whose surface is still evolving

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NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission, now nearing the end of its fourth and final year of orbital operations at Mercury, is well into a low-altitude campaign that is returning images and measurements of the planet’s surface and interior that are unprecedented in their resolution.

Early in its primary orbital mission, MESSENGER discovered thousands of peculiar depressions at a variety of longitudes and latitudes, ranging in size from tens of meters to several kilometers across and tens of meters deep.

YouTube’s ‘pesky annotations’ will now be replaced by ‘less obtrusive cards system’

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YouTube has said that it is doing away with annotations and replacing them with a new “cards” system that would across both desktop and mobile.

Uploaders will now be able to insert “overlaying text and images in a Google Now-like format” that YouTube said was “as beautiful as your videos,” reported Tech Crunch.

Content creators will be able to insert cards for merchandise sales, fundraising efforts, other videos, YouTube playlists, web links, and so on at any point in a video clip.

Minor planet in solar system may be 6th body to possess Saturn-like rings

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In an interesting finding, a team of researchers has detected features around minor planet Chiron that may signal rings, jets or a shell of dust.

So far there were only five bodies in our solar system that are known to bear rings. After planet Saturn, to a lesser extent, rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

The fifth member of this haloed group is Chariklo, one of a class of minor planets called centaurs: small, rocky bodies that possess qualities of both asteroids and comets.

Windows 10 to offer more storage space to users

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Apart from bringing back the “Start” menu and introducing friendlier desktop options, Windows 10 will also offer more storage space, a report said.

Microsoft revealed in a blog post describing Windows 10’s storage requirements that the current preview builds of the new operating system will have some “impressive” space-saving techniques, reported The Verge.

Using file compression, the tech company has managed to squeeze around 1.5GB of storage for 32-bit systems and 2.6GB on 64-bit machines. The same savings and compression will also apply to phones running Windows 10 in future.