Technology

The mysterious Martian rock resembling a jelly doughnut, which appeared in front of NASA’s Opportunity rover in early January, is a piece of a larger rock broken and moved by one of the rover’s wheels, the US space agency said Friday.

Only about 4 cm, the white-rimmed, red-centered rock dubbed Pinnacle Island caused a stir last month when it appeared in an image the rover took Jan 8 at a location where it was not present four days earlier, Xinhua reported.

The United States may be the birthplace of Facebook but Americans are far from the most social network obsessed people on the planet.

Egypt, Russia, Philippines and 14 other developing countries outpace the US in the proportion of internet users who log on to social sites, said a latest Pew Research Centre report.

The report finds that a majority of internet users in the 24 countries surveyed use social media, but smart phone users are still a minority.

Chinese PC maker Lenovo has recently posted its third-quarter profit and sales report, which has been higher-than-expected.

Lenovo said that it saw higher sales of laptops and mobile devices in emerging markets and its earnings rose 30 percent to 265 million dollars from a year earlier, while the analysts had expected 247 million dollars.

According to the BBC, the firm revealed that its revenues jumped by 15 percent to a record 10.8billion, led by sales in China.

Snapchat users have been reportedly hit with a smoothie picture, containing a spam URL, directing them to weight-loss supplements.

The hack attack, luring users to click on snapfroot.com, has affected a lot of users’ accounts on the auto-destruct picture sharing service.

According to Tech Crunch, Snapchat said that a small number of its users experience the spam incident where unwanted photos were sent from their accounts, adding that their security team was putting in additional measures to secure accounts.

Scientists have shown how new satellite technology can be used to count whales, and ultimately estimate their population size.

Using Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery, alongside image processing software, they were able to automatically detect and count whales breeding in part of the Golfo Nuevo, Peninsula Valdes in Argentina.

The new method could revolutionise how whale population size is estimated.

Marine mammals are extremely difficult to count on a large scale and traditional methods, such as counting from platforms or land, can be costly and inefficient.

Twitter is reportedly working on a major redesign of its web page that is said to make the social network site look like Facebook.

The all new profile page of Twitter has the avatar photo and biography placed well to the left side of the page, giving a lot of space to the header photo.

However, Twitter’s magazine-style web layout will only affect the desktop version of Twitter, making the tweets larger,

Nokia is reportedly set to introduce a new low-end handset with Google”s Android mobile operating system, at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona on February 24 this month.

For months, rumours were rife about Nokia working on a device that used the open source Android operating system. Meanwhile, it is reported that the device will not be able to access the Google Play application store, however, it will run services created by Nokia and Microsoft, including Here maps and Mix Radio, Cnet reported.

Researchers are reportedly working on magnetic refrigeration technology that could make the need for compressors obsolete.

The age-old compressor system has been the standard cooling force for almost around a century, however, new tech could swap them with magnetocaloric effect from magnets.

According to Cnet, researchers at GE labs have developed a prototype machine that runs a water-based fluid through a series of magnets, based on the magnetocaloric effect, which describes what happens when certain kinds of metal alloys get hot when near magnets, and cool when pulled away.

Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, in his latest web interaction with netizens, reportedly elaborated bit about his new role at the company and how new chief Satya Nadella”s “mobile first, cloud first” strategy would make data and programs roam around devices.

During Reddit”s “Ask Me Anything” session, Gates said that he was excited when Nadella asked him to pitch in at Microsoft and his job is to make sure innovation is rolling at the company and to encourage good work.

How you represent yourself in the virtual world of video games may affect how you behave with your near and dear ones in the real world, claims new research.

“Our results indicate that just five minutes of role-play in virtual environments as either a hero or villain can easily cause people to reward or punish anonymous strangers,” said lead researcher Gunwoo Yoon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Virtual environments give people an opportunity to take on identities and experience circumstances that they can’t in real life, added Yoon.

Junglee.Com, a comparison-shopping website, today announced a strategic partnership with Quikr.Com, India’s leading classifieds website.

With the partnership, Junglee.Com users can compare prices of new products across hundreds of online shopping sites and also find locally available pre-owned products listed on Quikr.Com, on Junglee.Com, a company release said.

Recent rumours pointed to Apple working on a large iPad-like device, however, many analysts have pointed that the speculations could possibly mean either a hybrid device or a more conventional product.

Market researchers have been trying to figure out what exactly the 13-inch ”iPad Pro” would appear like.

According to Cnet, a source with connections in the Asian supply chain said that there is an ”internal debate” as to whether the new product is ”targeted for the notebook line, rather than the iPad line.”

: Networking experts have reportedly warned that mobile devices will soon crowd the internet. Last week, Cisco had said that by 2018, mobile data could grow 11 times in the next four years, reaching 18 exabytes(1 exabyte is equal to 1 billion gigabytes) per month.

A new wearable technology has been reportedly launched that helps teenagers stay connected based on the social media channels they use.

Startup Ringblingz has come up with a smart ring that sends teenagers alerts from their favourite social media channels so that they don”t have to constantly check their phones. According to Tech Crunch, the wearable device looks like a signet ring and has an O-shaped diffused light on top that flashes different colours and is customizable, allowing fashion-freaked teenagers to match with their outfits.

Food and Drug Administration has approved a artificial heart valve device that does not require major open surgery.

The heart valve is called the Medtronic CoreValve System. It is deployed with a catheter, which is inserted in an artery in the groin and guided up to the heart. Once in place, the artificial valve takes over the function of a diseased valve.

Loyola patient Martin Rogus said that before receiving the new valve, he could not walk a single block without having to stop and catch his breath. Now he can walk a mile slowly, without stopping.