Technology

Apple’s iPad Mini with an improved display which was set to release by the end of this year is now speculated to hit stores no early than 2014.

The iPad Mini consists of a high-resolution ‘Retina’ display screen and will be shipped in 2014 while a cheaper iPad Mini with the standard display priced around 250 dollars; will still be shipped end of this year, Fox News reports.

A thinner, standard size iPad 5 is also expected to be launched at the same time as the Mini model later this year. (ANI)

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Search giant Google’s highly anticipated wearable computing device Google Glass is unlikely to be launched by the end of this year as speculated earlier.

Sources within the company said that the device might be pushed to a 2014 mid-year release.

According to Fox News, Google spokesperson had earlier said that the company is always adjusting and readjusting its timeline for product release as they focus on building a great product on consumers whenever it might be launched.

Finnish mobile phone company, Nokia is reportedly going to unveil large-screen mobile handsets, popularly called as ‘phablets’ as part of its Lumia smartphone lineup.

Sources said that in a bid to challenge the current dominance of Apple and Samsung in the phablet market, Nokia has come up with this new addition to revamp the latest smartphone lineup.

According to Stuff.co.nz, sources said that the new models to be unveiled at an event in New York late September will include the phablet device as well.

Scientists have claimed that certain types of video games can help boost strategic thinking.

Scientists from Queen Mary University of London and University College London (UCL) recruited 72 volunteers and measured their ‘cognitive flexibility’ – described as a person’s ability to adapt and switch between tasks, and think about multiple ideas at a given time to solve problems.

Two groups of volunteers were trained to play different versions of a real-time strategy game called StarCraft, a fast-paced game where players have to construct and organise armies to battle an enemy.

A researcher has claimed that to develop better treatments for anxiety disorders, a more specific understanding of brain circuits producing the anxiety is necessary.

Kay Tye, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences and member of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, said that the targets that current antianxiety drugs are acting on are very nonspecific.

Tye said that they don’t actually know what the targets are for modulating anxiety-related behaviour.

Researchers have discovered a series of RNA biomarkers in blood that may help identify people who are at risk for committing suicide.

The researchers said the biomarkers were found at significantly higher levels in the blood of both bipolar disorder patients with thoughts of suicide as well in a group of people who had committed suicide.

Sony’s improved next generation gaming console, PlayStation 4 is reportedly going to hit stores in on November 15 and 29 in North America and Europe respectively, potentially clashing with the launch of rival Microsoft’s Xbox One console.

The PS4 priced from 400 dollars is an improved version of the current PS3 which is almost seven years old now.

According to ABC News, the PS4 consists of an eight-core x86 processor and its 8 GB of RAM helps provide an extreme level of detail in games like ‘Killzone: Fall’ and ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’.

According to a leaked draft of an upcoming UN report, scientists are now more convinced that the increase in global temperatures since the 1950s has been led by human activity.

The report further asserts that it is likely that human influence on climate caused more than 50 percent of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951 to 2010.

ESA’s space probe Rosetta, which is supposed to rendezvous, next spring, with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is set to reveal many mysteries about comets.

On its way toward the Sun comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, next year’s destination of ESA’s spacecraft Rosetta, will start emitting gas and dust earlier than previously expected.

The comet’s activity should be measurable from Earth by March 2014. This is one of the results of a new study performed by a group of researchers under the lead of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany.

Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor Tuesday launched a new social networking site – Flatparty.com – which can be used to send bulk as well as private messages.

The messages can be sent in the form of posts on the websites, via e-mails and SMS to the registered users on the website.

Showcause notices have been issued to 3,585 defaulting health care facilities (HCsF) and common bio-medical waste treatment facilities (CBMWTFs) across the country for violating norms related to handling of bio-medical waste, Environment Ministry said Tuesday.

Also 17 hospitals out of the 33 inspected were found to be violating the Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 1998 which was blamed on financial crunch.

A white-dwarf star has erupted in the constellation Delphinus and has produced a nova that is the brightest since 2007.

Currently shining at magnitude 4.9, the nova can be viewed from dark locations far from city lights, and might remain so for weeks to come.

Tony Flanders, associate editor of Sky and Telescope and host of Sky and Telescope’s PBS TV show SkyWeek, said that the nova is easy to locate north of the lovely star pattern of Delphinus. And the constellation Sagitta, the Arrow, points right toward it.

Researchers have apparently developed a new way to study the world’s marine life with the help of the 360 degree panoramas from Google’s underwater street-view format.

Scientists will be presenting the results from the pioneering project that will allow ecologists to harness people power to discover how coral reefs are responding to climate change, at INTECOL, the world’s largest international ecology meeting, the Courier-Mail reported.

A meteor that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk left behind a huge plume of dust, with hundreds of tons of material in it, in the atmosphere that still lingered three months after the February 15 explosion, according to a new study.

Software giant Apple has reportedly asked its Taiwan-based supplier to start shipping the two new versions of its flagship iPhone for the upcoming launch in September.

Sources said that Apple has asked Hon Hai Precision, the parent company of Foxconn to ready both the standard version and a cheaper version of the iPhone with new upgrades and a less expensive model with fewer features, News.com.au reports.

Comet ISON, which was discovered in September 2012, has been held in high hoped by astronomers who believe that it will turn out to be a glorious spectacle, and may perhaps even be ‘the comet of the century.’

However, the latest images of Comet ISON suggest otherwise. After the comet spent 2.5 months hidden behind the Sun’s glare, Arizona amateur astronomer Bruce Gary successfully imaged ISON on the morning of August 12th. His images, and those of other astronomers since then, show that ISON has not brightened as much as expected.

A new research has found that small prey fish are capable of growing a bigger ‘eye’ on their rear fins to distract their predators and thereby dramatically boosting their chances of survival.

Researchers from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) found that when constantly threatened with being eaten, small damsel fish not only grow a larger false ‘eye spot’ near their tail – but also reduce the size of their real eyes.

A recent study has revealed that rapid climatic changes, combined with increasing population, economic growth and land subsidence, could cause global flood losses worth 52 billion dollars by 2050.

‘Future Flood Losses in Major Coastal Cities’ is part of an ongoing project by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to explore the policy implications of flood risks due to climate change and economic development.

Amateur astronomers and scientists plan to launch a nationwide campaign to track the comet ISON, which will appear in the inner solar system for over a month from Nov 28.

“Though the comet has entered the solar system in July and is visible through telescope presently, it can been viewed through naked eye from Nov 28 till December-end as it gets closer to the sun at a distance of 150 million km from the earth,” Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi official H.S. Jayakumar said.

NASA is on a lookout for a asteroid in space, which is circling the Sun and is passing close to Earth.

The US space agency has proposed that the rock should neither be too big nor too small and should be about 7-10 metres in diameter.

They also said that the rock can’t be spinning too rapidly, asserting that neither should it be the speed demon nor can it be a heap of loose material, like a rubble pile.

The rock, if the space agency can find it, is going to become the target for what the agency calls the Asteroid Redirect Mission.

Scientists have developed an interactive life-sized robot that acts as a stand-up comic and has already garnered many laughs from the audience during its unique performance here.

RoboThespian, a robot designed by Engineered Arts of Cornwall in the UK, told jokes that were well received in a recent performance at the Barbican Center in London.

The performance was the idea of Pat Healey, professor of human interaction and head of the school’s Cognitive Science Group, and Kleomenis Katevas, doctoral candidate, both at Queen Mary University of London.

With a forest cover 47.3 percent of its total geographical area — more than double the national average of 21 percent — Sikkim is India’s greenest state, official data shows.

“The forest cover in the state, based on the interpretation of satellite data, is 3,359 sq km, which is 47.3 percent of state’s geographical area,” a statement released here Sunday by the Sikkim government said.

In terms of the density of forest canopy, the state has 500 sq km area under very dense forests, 2,161 sq km area under moderately dense, and 698 sq km under open forests.

NASA is on a lookout for a asteroid in space, which is circling the Sun and is passing close to Earth.

The US space agency has proposed that the rock should neither be too big nor too small and should be about 7-10 metres in diameter.

They also said that the rock can’t be spinning too rapidly, asserting that neither should it be the speed demon nor can it be a heap of loose material, like a rubble pile.

The rock, if the space agency can find it, is going to become the target for what the agency calls the Asteroid Redirect Mission.

The countdown has begun for the crucial launch of India’s GSLV-D5 on Monday. The launch will take place at 4:50 pm from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. The GSLV will carry a communications satellite GSAT-14 and is powered by indigenous cryogenic engines which is being tested after a failed attempt over three years ago.

The rocket carrying the 1,982-kg satellite would be launched from the second launchpad at Indian Space Research Organisation’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

A new study suggests that an iPhone uses more energy than a refrigerator.

According to the Breakthrough Institute, the new research claims that a fridge uses just 322 kWh per year, compared with the 361 kWh for an iPhone, if you include its wireless connections, data usage, and battery charges, Newser.com reported.

But that’s nothing compared to information and communications technology worldwide, which uses 10 percent of global electricity—and that’s a low estimate.

New trends like wireless broadband could make the figure even higher.