D-I-Y electric bike for you!

Electric cars and bikes have become mainstream technology today. No one blinks an eyelid when you see “just another electric bike” making rounds of your city. For extremely eco-conscious bikers, even these so-called eco friendly bikes leave a slight dent in their minds. Why?! You may ask. The reason is simple. You have to charge these bikes after all! The power for charging these come from that plug point in your garage, which in turn uses powered generated by burning fossil fuels (mostly!). Ok, that might have sounded a tad far fetched but well.. It’s the truth.

Enter the ubiquitous little solar panel. This might be the ultimate tree hugging technology ever. Generate your own electricity using the power of the ever shining Sun! The following is what you get if you cram a geeky, eco conscious guy with access to solar panels and give him a bike to toy around with.

I am talking about Prometheus LLC’s first attempt at a solar powered bike. While it may look a tad gaudy, it does its job pretty well. Based on a Kawasaki Ninja 250, this unnamed model packs in a unknown number of lithium -ion phosphate batteries rated at 4.6 kWh mated to a 10 HP Perm PMG 132 motor. The result is a 70mph top speed with a range of about 50 miles. If you’re still looking for solar panels on the bike, I’m sorry, you won’t find any. The panels come separately -- so that you can generate electricity of your own for your bike. Oh and did I say that this bike is not for sale? If you want one, make one. All instructions in D-I-Y format at the Prometheus website. Before you decide to plunge in, make sure you have a nice bank balance, and in case you finally manage to build it, get a full face helmet as well so that people don’t recognize you as the guy with the ugliest bike in town.

Via: Engadget

Techtree Link

TiLR: Your new Robotic boss.

Remember the days when you heaved a sigh of relief when you heard someone say “boss aint comin in today!”? The good ol’ days when you had your boss out on a business trip and getting to see his monotonous face on that tiny laptop whenever you had those boring teleconferencing sessions? Yes? Remember mimicking your boss behind the laptop that’s showing his pompous face? 

Well, relish all those moments because a company called Robo Dynamics has created this uglier (depending on which side of the divide you stand) version of your boss complete with eyes- and wheels for boots so that the boss can take a look at what exactly is going on at “work” when he’s not around. TiLR (pronounced Tie Ler) will be able to move about the office, interact with the favorite secretary and hear in stereo, all of your anti boss tirades – thanks to bi-directional video and audio. To make things worse, you will also be able to see his face in full glory on that 8” screen. Telepresence they call it. 

For those who are already lookin’ for a loophole, this thing runs WinXP Pro. If you manage to find the hard drive and crash it…well you have a clue! 

Full specs here  

Techtree link

Microsoft: No plans for manufacturing handsets

Microsoft has been questioned repeatedly whether they would eventually jump into the handset manufacturers bandwagon. While there were no "clear" answers to this so far.. we seem to have seen a confirmation coming from the company. According to pocketpcthoughts, Microsoft's Scott Rockfeld, a senior figure in the company has confirmed that Microsoft has no such plans -- at least for the time being.

Microsoft says it is concentrating more on the OS part while leaving the hardware manufacturing part to its trusted partners. This is a similar to the stance taken by Google who is busy with Android while its partners take care about the handsets bit. However, Apple seems to belong to the "build your OS for your machine" school of thought.. a strategy which has worked for them!

Hands On: Cray CX1 Supercomputer

Close on the heels of the announcement of Cray Inc’s first ever Windows based Supercomputer -- the CX1, my colleague at Techtree had reported its launch. Fellow geeks at Gizmodo recently had an opportunity to “check out” the Cray. Although they would have loved to play Crysis on it at 6000FPS, the lackluster availability of software for this mammoth of a computing machine prevented them from doing so!

The only benchmark that was available for the device was its speed (measured in Gigaflops). The specimen they tested easily attained 768 Gigaflops – which could well pass the 800 Gigaflop mark post some fine-tuning.

The CX -1 runs Windows HPC Server 2008 OS. Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, is based on Windows Server 2008 and is designed to "Improve productivity of systems administration and cluster interoperability” in a high performance computing environment. With Intel Xeon processors doing the number crunching, this is the first time that the deadly duo makes their foray into the “supercomputer” segment. For specs, cost and details, that Techtree article should suffice..

To spice up things, we actually tried to configure a CX1 online and got our very on “hands on” to check what buying a supercomputer actually feels like. Here is a screen shot – and yes, the cost is in Indian Rupees. Our say? We would rather buy a house.

IBM set to reach 22nm milestone faster

IBM seems to be well poised in its quest to win the processor nanometer race with the company already setting its eyes on the 22nm manufacturing process. With peers Intel and AMD still toying with 45nm chips, the next pit stop based on the 32nm manufacturing process too seems a distant outcome. Even the official Intel roadmap sees the 32nm process to be the mainstream by 2011 only. Intel has only started shipping 45nm-based processors.
The sudden shift to 22nm by IBM can be attributed to its recent partnership with Mentor Graphics who would be helping IBM to master the “Computational Scaling” process, which is instrumental in making the shift to 22nm process a comparatively easy procedure. In simple words, what they did was to overcome current limitations of lithography methods and etching processes by using mathematical techniques and software based manipulation methods. With IBM not having to resort to the classical “re-inventing the wheel” type of research on designing the processor ground up, the end result could be a faster than expected adoption of the 22nm process. And who knows, Intel and AMD might just have to revise their respective roadmaps!

These processors from IBM, apart from doing their duty with servers, could also find its way into PDAs and power-efficient cell phones of the future. Not long ago, in August IBM and partners had designed and created a method to develop SRAM (Static RAM) memory cells on a 22nm platform, which is considered a major step forward for ensuring a fully functional 22nm platform. As of now, there is no confirmation on the probable “launch” of the platform. What we do know is that IBM’s 32nm platform is set to make its debut in 2009.

The T-Mobile G1 : First look

It's finally out! Google's G1, the first Android based phone was officially unveiled at about 8:20 pm IST on 23rd September at New York.

Here's our first look on the device which sure does have the oomph to take on the likes of the iPhone.Those who are still unaware about what the G1 and the fuss surrounding it is all about, here's a refresher course. The G1 is the first phone to be based on the brand new Android platform. The Android platfom is nothing but an open source Operating System based on the webkit rendering engine. HTC, T-Mobile and Google have been working on the G1 for close to three years. The culmination is what we now know as the G1.



Finally, an iPhone Killer?
Well.. not yet. The iPhone was a revolutionary device - no doubt. But a few really basic ommisions on the feature front ensures that the iPhone does not take the crown for that elusive "ultimate smartphone" title. True, there are revolutionary features crammed in to that slim frame but its the UI that really stands out in the iPhone -- to the extent that users tend to forgive some of its basic flaws. There have been quite a few contenders for the iPhone killer title, all the while. These include the likes of the HTC Touch Diamond, Samsung Omnia and more recently, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. None of them however have been able to knock the iPhone off its perch -- so far.

Will the G1 be any different? Considering the significant contribution of Google with this phone,and previous history of Google being capable of turning anything it touches into gold, will the G1 turn out to be the iPhones nemesis?


Design

This is where the iPhone towers over the rest. The minimalistic, underwhelmining looks of the iPhone simply grows on you. The G1 however seem to come from a different school of thought. Not only is the G1 physically bigger and heavier, it sports a slightly smaller screen as well. The saving grace is a full QWERTY keyboard that is certainly welcome. For navigation, there is also a
blackberryesqe trackball which supplements the excellent touch screen navigation. Overall, this is no beauty contest winner. But heck, looks ain't everything!


User Interface
The UI is great, atleast the by the initial impression of what we have seen. However final impressions can only be had once we get a real hands on. For now, this youtube video should keep you happy!Note how slide-up menu works. I like it!



Features

Amost everything you need is in. And if you happen to be Google freak by any chance, the integrated Google services will keep you engrossed for the better part of the remaining quarter. But the fun ends once you decide to migrate to other services. Thats correct, no Microsoft Exchange server support nor can be the phone synched to outlook or any PC based contacts program. That may put you off for now. But future upgrades might add whats missing now.

The web browser is excellent and compares well with that of the iPhones except for the zoom function where you might miss the "pinching" to zoom option. Nevertheless, the G1 does a good job of presenting webpages as they are intended to be seen. Gmail, as expected is integrated along with the option to add another service.

Footnotes

Unlike the iPhone this one CAN copy-paste stuff, supports MMS and has a higher megapixel camera. But then the similarity starts. No video recording here! And all you get is 1GB of memory as standard. This is expandable "only" upto 8 GB. And yes, no sign of a 3.5 mm jack.

The device will be available starting 22nd October in the US and subsequently in the UK by November. The rest of Europe will see the phone only by early 2009. No official word for an India specific launch as of now.

Techtree link

T-Mobile G1 to be launched on October 22

The very first Android based handset has been launched in the USA at a glittering function. Prima facie, the interface looks awesome and is very iPhone like. The phone will be out for sale starting October 22nd.

Here are the final specs which definitely would give the likes of the iPhone a run for its money. Though not as glamorous looking as the iPhone, the G1 matches if not exceeds the capabilities offered by the iPhone.Priced at $179 under contract in the US, the G1 would be out in the Europe launch in November starting with the UK and all over Europe by early 2009.

Specs

Processor - Qualcomm® MSM7201A™, 528 MHz 

Operating System - Android 

Memory

ROM: 256 MB 

RAM: 192 MB 

Dimensions - (LxWxT)117.7 mm x 55.7 mm x 17.1 mm 

(4.60 in x 2.16 in x 0.62 in) 

Weight - 158 grams (5.57 ounces) with battery 

Display - 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 (HVGA) resolution 

Network- HSDPA/WCDMA: 

Europe - 2100 MHz 

US:1700/2100 MHz 

Up to 7.2 Mbps down-link (HSDPA) and 2 Mbps up-link (HSUPA) speeds 

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 

850/900/1800/1900 MHz 

(Band frequency, HSUPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.) 

Device Control - Trackball with Enter button 

Keyboard - Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard 

GPS - GPS navigation capability with built-in GPS receiver and map software 

Connectivity - Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate 

Wi-Fi® - IEEE 802.11b/g 

HTC ExtUSB - (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one) 

Camera - 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus 

Audio - Built-in microphone and speaker 

Ring tone formats - AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MIDI, MP3, WMA, WMV 

40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI 

Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery 

Capacity: 1150 mAh 

Talk time: 

Up to 350 minutes for WCDMA 

Up to 406 minutes for GSM 

Standby time: 

Up to 402 hours for WCDMA 

Up to 319 hours for GSM 

(The above are subject to network and phone usage.) 

Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible) 

AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz 

DC output: 5V and 1A 

Special Features Digital Compass, Motion Sensor

Hack-proof your Network!

Wireless communication is truly getting vulnerable to network hackers. If recent incidents are to go by, terrorists have (mis)used this common vulnerability to safely send their message across -- thanks to an unsecured network waiting to be hacked into. Some tips to keep your network safe from "prying eyes"!


Wireless communication is getting quite vulnerable to network snoopers who capture user IDs, passwords, and other data transmitted across the network. Wi-Fi networks needs to be properly secured to avoid illegal piggybacking of internet services.

An average PC user needs nothing too complicated, no extra features but a real solution that is effective and simple to operate. And it really is simple to "secure" your wireless network. All you need to do is to properly secure your Wi-Fi network through encryption, which encodes the data transmitted between your PC and your wireless router.

It’s a fact that almost all of us may have jumped onto someone else's unsecured Wi-Fi network consciously or inadvertently. It does not make any difference if you're just an scrupulous soul looking out for an Internet connection.However, if you're the owner of an unsecured network, you should be aware that the world's not made up of ethical souls and it's easy for the devious ones to find out what you're doing on your network. Does sound scary, doesnt it? So here's how to fix the problem.

Encryption

The first line of defense for your Wi-Fi network is encryption, which encodes the data transmitted between your PC and your wireless router. Sadly, most routers ship with encryption turned off, and many users don't turn it on, leaving themselves completely exposed. If you haven't already, enable your router's encryption, and use the strongest form supported by your network. The Wireless Protected Access (WPA) protocol and more recent WPA2 have supplanted the older and less-secure Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP).

Go with WPA or WPA2 if at all possible, since WEP is relatively easy to crack. (You have to use the same form on all devices on your network; you can't mix WEP and WPA.) The keys used by WPA and WPA2 change dynamically, which make them nearly impossible to hack. Use a strong password for your encryption key, such as a combination of letters and numbers of 14 characters or more.

If you have an older router that supports WEP only, you'll be safest if you use 128-bit WEP keys--but also check the manufacturer's Web site for a firmware update that will add WPA support. If it doesn't look like an update is likely, consider replacing old adapters and routers with newer models that support WPA. Look for a router that supports the hybrid WPA + WPA2 mode, which lets you use the stronger WPA2 encryption with adapters that support it, while still maintaining compatibility with WPA adapters.

Make sure you change the default network name and password on your router. Doing so will make it much more difficult for hackers to break into your router and commandeer its settings.

The firewall built into your router prevents hackers on the Internet from getting access to your PC. But it does nothing to stop people in range of your Wi-Fi signal from getting onto your network--and with the latest high-performance equipment, your Wi-Fi signal could reach clear down the block. Without encryption and other protective measures, anyone can use readily available tools to see all your Wi-Fi traffic.

For extra protection, run software firewalls on the individual PCs on your network. Examples include software like Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm, available as a free download..

Since public hotspots generally don't use encryption, you should assume that anyone can see your Internet traffic unless you take precautions. Make sure it's a legitimate hotspot. There are several nefarious types who have set up pirate routers with familiar SSID names like "wayport" or "t-mobile," and then use them to capture unsuspecting users' log-on information and other private data.
Verify that your PC's software firewall is turned on, and that Windows' file-sharing feature is off; it's off by default in Windows XP with Service Pack 2. To check this setting, open Control Panel and choose Windows Firewall (you may have to click Security Center first in XP or Security in Vista). In XP, select the Exceptions tab, and look in the Programs and Services to make sure file and printer sharing is unchecked. In Vista, click Change settings, then select the Exceptions tab and follow the instructions for XP.

The Basics

Never send bank passwords, credit card numbers, confidential e-mail, or other sensitive data unless you're sure you're on a secure site: Look for the padlock icon in the bottom-right corner of your browser, as well as a URL in the address bar that begins with https. Such sites build in their own encryption.

Always turn your Wi-Fi radio off when you're not at a hotspot: Hackers can use it to create peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connections with your computer and access it directly. That should keep your network safe for the time being.

EDIT: Source

Vaio TT specifications emerge!

Well its not the best but heck, its a Sony! and a Vaio at that. So what does the TT have thats making the folks at Sony Insider go insane? And no, these are small but not small enough to be a Netbook.


Last week, members at Notebook-Review did start speculating on the successor of the Vaio TZ series. Most members claimed the successors would be labeled the TT series. And looking by the current scheme of things, they do seem to be on the correct path. A recent leaked spec list does show details of four models from the TT line-up. These include the VGN-TT190EIN (gold), VGN-TT190EIR (red), VGN-TT190NIB (black), and VGN-TT190UBX (premium carbon fiber black).

And for once, don't go by the size of these beauties. The top of the line TT190UBX is more than capable of giving many mid end desktops a slight inferiority complex. The specs you may ask? Here we go.

• 11.1 inch LED screen with XBRITE-DuraView™ (1366×768)
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor SU9400 at 1.4ghz
• 4GB of DDR3 RAM
• 2.87 pounds
• (2x) Blu-Ray writer, reader / DVD writer, reader / CD writer, reader
• 250gb (128GBx2 RAID) solid state hard drive
• HDMI output, 2 USB ports
• Built-in camera
• Memory stick Pro, SD slot
• Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n, ethernet
• Windows Vista Ultimate

Phew! No pictures so far but at the rate things are moving, we might be able to see the first pictures real soon! 

Palin hacker Cornered!

Last week, I did blog about Ms .Palins account hack and how easy it turned out to be. Today we have news coming in that the "hacker" turned out to be the one David Kernell who well, happens to be the son of a Tenessee State representative, Mike Kernell.
So thats it. If this is proved, the chaps career, and not to mention, his fathers political career could come to an abrupt halt! Luckily for David, no criminal charges have been filed as yet. The FBI did search Davids room and have questioned his room mates as well. Now you know why you don't want to be a hackers friend! To be frank, I do feel pity for the poor chap.. the dude just chose the wrong ID to hack. Sigh!

Is that a CPU or a Missile Launcher Portable Case!!

Aptly named the Antec Skeleton Quarter 4000 is a behemoth of an open air CPU case. Though it may look menacing it only has a 250mm fan up top along with a 92mm one up front [Not so threatening after all;)]. To top it there is NO in-built Power Supply (Huhh?)
No word on pricing or when you could terrorize your neighbor with it.




"With a unique design that allows for unprecedented airflow, a front 92mm fan, and a top three speed 250mm fan with multicolor LED customization, the Skeleton goes utterly unmatched in stylish cooling. Factor in the layered component trays for top-notch convenience, as well as the rackmount quality side rails, and you have a case truly without equal."
Head over the link to get an indepth view on the same
via [boingboing]

Security ramblings: Sarah Palin's ID hacked

If you have been following the 2008 US Presidential campaign, you sure might have heard of Sarah Palin, the beauty queen turned Vice -Presidential candidate for the Republicans. Right? No?

Before I proceed, no -- this has nothing to do with Ms. Palins chances against Mr.Biden (The Democrat VP candidate!). And we do intend to remain a tech oriented blog for the foreseeable future.



The reason for the sudden interest in Ms. Palin is due to the recent "shocking invasion of privacy" that she and her family were subjected to -- In simple terms, two of her e-mail IDs were "hacked" by some miscreant(s). So, even the potential Vice President remains at the mercy of a bunch of wayward hackers. The group behind this security breach was said to be the somewhat famous "Anonymous" group which seems to have lost their interest for anti-Scientology activities and are looking for innovative ways such as this for grabbing attention. However, recent claims from a Forum member based in Tennessee might throw some light on how the ID was actually hacked.

That said, the e-mail account that were hacked into were Yahoo! accounts with no special features and according to the recent confession, the hacker did not have much of a trouble getting into both of Ms Palin's IDs (Yes! Two of them were hacked!). All he needed was some basic biographical information regarding her and it was as easy as using her Birthday, Zip Code and answering the security question which in this case was " Where did you meet your spouse". Palin being a public figure, all these information was freely available in public and all the hacker needed to do was to reset the password!


Here's the actual forum post which is now offline for obvious reasons...

"Hello, as many of you might already know, last night sarah palin’s yahoo was “hacked” and caps were posted on ----, i am the lurker who did it, and i would like to tell the story.
In the past couple days news had come to light about palin using a yahoo mail account, it was in news stories and such, a thread was started full of newfags trying to do something that would not get this off the ground, for the next 2 hours the acct was locked from password recovery presumably from all this bullshit spamming.
after the password recovery was reenabled, it took seriously 45 mins on wikipedia and google to find the info, Birthday? 15 seconds on wikipedia, zip code? well she had always been from wasilla, and it only has 2 zip codes (thanks online postal service!)
the second was somewhat harder, the question was “where did you meet your spouse?” did some research, and apparently she had eloped with mister palin after college, if youll look on some of the screenshits that I took and other fellow anon have so graciously put on photobucket you will see the google search for “palin eloped” or some such in one of the tabs.
I found out later though more research that they met at high school, so I did variations of that, high, high school, eventually hit on “Wasilla high” I promptly changed the password to popcorn and took a cold shower…"

...........And that brings me to my main concern here. I am sure nobody has life threatening data stored in their e-mail accounts but yes, it is always a good idea to be just extra cautious. In these days of online banking and NEFT money transfers, you better be. As much as possible, avoid monetary transactions on a Public PC. As for e-mail accounts, there are people who do use their unofficial accounts for office work (Palin too!) and this could be potentially dangerous if your ID indeed gets hacked (say by a competitor?). Apart from the competitor getting to know what happened behind closed doors at the last meeting, you also face the risk of being unemployed all of a sudden! So... yes, as much as possible, avoid official e-mails through unofficial channels and please do not make your IDs easily crackable. Trust me, it's very easy to do that. I am sure you do not want me to go into details. Do you?

Have a hack free extended weekend!

Chat excerpt from:WIRED

And the tiniest PC Award goes to.......

I was going to award the the World's smallest PC award to Fit-PC Slim which measures 4.3 x 3.9 x 1.2 inch. But the real awardee is something called: Space Cube. It’s only 2×2x2.2 inch!!

Head to the respective links for the Technical Specs/Details

Below are the images of the two Contenders for the award:

Comments are Welcome!

Nvidia to stick to problem causing solder bumps

It was earlier thought that Nvidia would switch to eutectic solder bumps instead of the problem causing high-lead ones, to reduce the failure rate in its GPUs. However, according to a TG Daily report, “industry sources” have tipped that Nvidia will continue to use the older solder bumps even for GPUs due in early 2009.

This comes at a time when Nvidia there were reports about the shift to eutectic underfill in the G84, G86 and G92 GPUs. It is still not clear which future Nvidia GPUs will continue to get the high-lead solder bump treatment. As of now, what we do know is that Nvidia has the GT212 (thought to be a chipset) and GT206, a 55 nm GTX260 replacement under wraps.

While Nvidia too seems to be tight-lipped and have restrained from commenting on why it chose to stick to lead solder bumps, it is thought that the company might have found a fix to the issues plaguing it – and thus, lending a new lease of life to the old underfill.

With two lawsuits looming large – thanks to complications caused by the GPU failures, Nvidia might face increasing pressure to switch to eutectic underfills very soon. However, doubt still remains on how smooth a transition this could turn out to be.


Source: TGDaily

Tips Galore! For Google Chrome

Some cool Tips for the newly released Google Chrome!

1. Right click the forward or back button to check the list of sites you recently visited.
2. Chrome has a built in basic converter for basic conversions. Just type in “7 feet in cms” and look what you get!

3. Press Ctrl+shift+T to open the last closed tab. (Works for Firefox as well)
4. Click and drag the bottom right corner of a text box to increase the text area.

5. Right click, select Inspect Element to get details on resources used by elements in the web page. These include images and scripts loaded.
6. You can drag and drop an open tab to get a new window.

7. To search within a web site that supports Open Search, simply visit that site and enter the domain name again – which becomes a keyword in itself. Once you do that, you will see an option to press tab. Press tab and then enter your search query to execute your search!
8. Right click the address bar and delect “Edit search engines” to change the default search engine. Depending on your location, Chrome also lists local search engines. Like Guruji in our case! Cool!

9. You can drag and drop a downloaded file directly from the browser to any folder or location of your choice.

10. Another interesting tip is to run a web page as an application. Let’s assume you wish to run Gmail as a standalone application, separate from the browser. All you need to do is the following. Open Gmail in Chrome -> Go to “New” -> Select “Create application shortcuts”. You will get the option to create a shortcut for Gmail directly. You can save the shortcut to your desktop and directly access Google by clicking the “Gmail” icon from the desktop. This can happen for any web page. Twitter, Orkut or Facebook!

Look ma, they pimped our home phone!

Just when you thought the landline was dying a slow, predictable death, here’s something that could help delay or even stop the inevitable!

Enter Open Peak’s Home Media phone with guess what? An Intel Atom processor inside! What has a home phone got to do with an Intel Atom processor? Precisely our thoughts when we first heard of this. So here we go.

OpenPeak’s latest gizmo can be termed a basic VoIP handset and a base station – but the package offers a whole lot more than any standard home phone on sale today. To start with, this looks nothing like a home-phone, until you see the virtual keypad. The computer-like, touch screen interface uses its own flash-based Operating System. Then there is the option to connect this with home automation software to control household electronics. The UI and the icons although iPhone like -- is said to be a breeze to use and folks at Gizmodo has come out with rave reviews. And yes, the base unit has a speakerphone as well!


The device has an RSS reader but strangely, no web browser. This anomaly could be easily fixed considering that the API is available with developers who will come out with a large set of applications.

Open Peak revealed that this could be on sale as early as January 2009. No details regarding the price – as of now.

New MacBooks coming soon?

If Citigroup analyst Richard Garner is to be believed, we’d be seeing a fresh line up of Apple MacBooks very soon. While Techtree had reported in July about Apples plans for a revamped Macbook lineup, we were quite unsure how soon this would be coming through and what would the products end up like.

Garner claims “field checks” have confirmed that new Macbooks have begun shipping already. If that’s not enough, there are some bits on the features as well that seemed to have been leaked. These include a “thin aluminium casing” and an “LED backlit display” amongst others. That’s hardly something a Mac freak would be happy to learn about – but yes, at least it’s better than nothing.

As for the launch date, there have been reports of a probable October 14 release. This report is just one of the many.

It was hoped that the September 9 “Let’s Rock” event would throw some light on Apple’s roadmap for the Macbook. However, not many know that Apple usually does not mix iPod announcements with its other line-up of products.

With the revamped Macbook lineup, Apple looks forward to boost their fourth quarter revenues.

Image Based search-engines (Now search for that elusive watch!)

How many of you have tried to search for that particular "shape", "Design of Watch", "Bridal Embroidery", "Jewelery Design" "Custom Paint-Job" on the net? Like me, all of you have been searching the net based on only one thing: WORDS.
The "Traditional" searches on the net have always relied on "Words" to throw "Likely" results. Search-Engines ultimately look at just words in the form of Tags, met-tags, titles, names, etc to "guess" your results.

In this entry I am referring only to searches for creative & "visual" aspects where you have hit a wall/dead-End. A Google image search for “Tiger” yields many tiger photos – but also returns images of a tiger pear cactus stuck in a tire, a racecar, Tiger Woods, the boxer Dick Tiger, Antarctica, and many others. Why? Today’s large Internet search engines look for images using captions or other text linked to images rather than looking at what is actually in the picture.

Welcome to the new age of Visual-Based / Image-based search engines. This is an entirely different concept from "Image Search Engines". These new-age search engines, will not rely on "mere words" to throw search results.
So, how does this work? Well,the Engine uses Supervised Multiclass Labeling.

Supervised refers to the fact that the users initially train the image labeling system to identify classes of objects, such as “tigers,” “mountains” and “blossoms,” by exposing the system to many different pictures of tigers, grass and blossoms, fruits. The supervised approach allows the system to differentiate between similar visual concepts – such as polar bears, grizzly bears, koala bears. “Multiclass” means that the training process can be repeated for many visual concepts. “Labeling” refers to the process of linking specific features within images directly to words that describe these features.

Schematically, it can be explained as below:

There has been quite a flurry in this field:

Vizseek was initially created to use a photograph, a 2D image, or a 3D model and transform it into a 3D shape & search for relevant matches. Picollator is another example. Even Vodafone has jumped the bandwagon with their Otello. There's alsoTineye

The latest offering in this flooded market is Gazopa from Hitachi. Wonder why an electronics giant would want to launch an image-based search engine. But, I personally, thought it to be the simplest so far.

My verdict is though the initial searches will not give the most relevant results, a few years down the line, when people have "good-heartedly" tagged the images correctly, then your search for "That particular watch I saw at Macy's / Indraprastha (Borivli) / Heera-Panna & clicked its photo" will give you some decent results & leads to the Actual Brands or Knock-offs (whichever you might be interested).

Till then, you are left with simple "words" to "describe" what you search. All the Best.

Do give us a comment after using the mentioned Search-Engines.

A low-down on Web-Browsers (Spoilt for Choice, Really?)

*I am writing about browsers meant only for Windows Operating System (OS) i.e: Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows VISTA

The browser war has definitely heated up. What with IE, Opera, Firefox, & now Google's very own Chrome (Shiny name for a browser isn't it!). But, given all the players vying for your Desktop space & fighting to become the "Ultimate Fighter Champion" who do you choose?
Are we really spoilt for Choice or is there only a single browser worthy of giving enough attention
to master its tricks & get the best of Internet Delivered to your Screen via the most efficient & highly productive Browser.

My theory is no one's perfect. You have to use the best the "work" with the rest to get what you want. head over after the break to the Juice.

We all remember the old days where there were only two choices for browsing the net: Internet Explorer (IE) & Netscape. Not many people remember Netscape. During the incubation of Internet, Netscape was set to be huge. It had EVERYTHING. Browser, Mail client (able to handle all Mail protocols). POP was extremely popular. Whereas you needed an additional MS Outlook /Outlook Express if you wanted Mails on your Desktop.

But then, it failed in India miserably. Reason: India had Dial-up back then & Netscape tried to access Internet, the moment it was started, the dial-up window showed just once. Plainly it was just too much for the newly discovering Indians, who preferred the simple IE. But, more so, IE muscled out Netscape. AOL formally stopped development of Netscape Navigator on 28 December 2007

All the while Firefox was working quietly. It was generally believed that Firefox was a browser for the Geeks only. Not meant for "Normal" people. They were about to be proved wrong. On November 29, 2005, Firefox 1.0 was released. It was not immediately adopted. People were shy/wary or plain lethargic to try something new.

Meanwhile Opera was trying to rear its head. But could not gain popularity simply because it was "Buy To Use" Software & was add-hogged otherwise. Why would anybody prefer it was doubtful. But it always held promise, no matter what. Finally on September 20, 2005 Opera realized it's mistakes & launched Version 8.5 completely Add-Free as a Freeware. Instantly, it's popularity started to increase. By this time people were starting to experiment with new browsers anyways. Opera has not looked back since & am certain will never regret the release of add-free version.

Broadband was slowly penetrating in India & surfing was gaining importance. People were slowly getting hooked onto the net for reasons as varied as: Data mining, videos, news, shopping, banking, unmentionables, E-mail, etc.

Switch to Current Scenario: IE 7 has failed the high expectations people had from it & MS is trying hard to release IE8. Opera, released it dubious 9.51 which caused havoc with Gmail. It immediately released v9.52, but it was a bit late. Fence-sitters, immediately switched to Firefox & it's fans rejoiced the surge in FifreFox Fanbase.

Google has recently launched Chrome. At the face of it, it really looks a Minimalistic browser, but the improvements are "Under-The-Hood". We will have to wait & see, what are the "seen" upgrades which raise/raze it's popularity.

The browser war seems to have come to the cold-war stage wherein the winner will be decided on the basis of who has the highest number of useful & practical plugins which can extract the last bit of Internet Juice & make surfing, not only efficient but fun & productivity.

DOWNLOAD Links to all browsers is given below:

Internet Explorer (You have to be owner of a legitimate copy Windows OS (to even download!!)
Netscape
Opera
Firefox
Google Chrome

Giantest Freezer (Feel Like Going to the Loo Immediately!)

Just couldn't help myself from posting this.

This is apparently the world's BIGGEST Freezer capable of freezing Fighter Planes with strike capabilities to test their abilities at 40,000 Feet. The freezer can simulate snow & freezing rain


Developed with the help of Boeing this is located at the aerospace test center in Seosan, South Korea,
Now you know where to head when Global Warming gets unbearable.

New iPods announced at Apple's event

The much talked about Apple event turned out to be an all iPod affair with a slew of new, cheaper versions of the worlds most popular portable music player.


Important announcements include the the curtailing of the iPod classic line up. There would now only be a 120GB version of the iPod classic available. That's sad news for us storage freaks who might now want to get hold of the 160 GB version available now. As for the Nano, (not our Singur wala) the fourth iteration of the device seems to be a step in the right direction. An 8 GB and 16 GB version has been announced with a larger screen, accelerometer and is on sale now-- and yes, its the thinnest iPod ever. With the accelerometer addition, the Nano now supports “shake” control and screen orientation change.

The iPod Shuffle line up too has seen a new lease of life with mere cosmetic additions. The capacity remains the same – 1 and 2GB respectively. The only change being the possible addition of new, vibrant colors this holiday season.

Apart from that, there has been minor updates to the iPod touch and the launch of iTunes 8

Nothing groundbreaking here – not that i'm disappointed. But hell.

Google to index newspaper archives

In an attempt to bring printed history online, Google is all set to digitize the vast resource of currently “offline” news articles which were printed much before the advent of online journalism. The initiative will make available old newspapers and publications online. The millions of pages of old news archives will be soon searchable via the Google news archive.

This effort started off two years ago with a tie-up with the New York times and the Washington Post to digitize existing archives. With the current “expansion” Google eventually aims to make available almost every possible printed newspaper online – including the 244 year old Quebec Chronicle Telegraph, which is said to be the oldest newspaper in North America.

Google is currently working with more publishers and eventually aims to offer billions of pages of newsprint from around the globe. As of now, the company has not confirmed how many publishers have joined the project. Additionally, this is definitely going to cost Google a nice amount of money as Google will pay the cost for scanning the archives as well as the copyright bits involved. Additionally, publishers will also get a share of the revenue generated by the content based ads that will be displayed alongside the archives.

Another Salvo from Google! These guys never run out of ideas!


Techtree link

My Basic Intro: Alap Naik Desai

I will always prefer to write generally about tech stuff for the common man & his everyday use.

Few people will be very keen on "Large Hadron Collider" OR "Touch-Screen Laptops" which exists as prototypes.

However, a lot of enthusiastic & young technocrats will be keen to explore simple optimization techniques to improve their workspace, efficiency, i.e. make life a bit more easy, productive & fun.

To jot down a few topics which I would be writing about:

A low-down on Web-Browsers.(Believe me, I have tried them all!)
Ultra-useful plug ins, scripts, add-ons for Mozilla FireFox.(Now you know what I prefer ;))
The best Video-Playback software for the common-man.
A simple but super-efficient office productivity enhancer (& some fun too.)
The best virus-scanner & Spy-ware scanner

More to come!

*Please note that the views expressed in my blogs are mine alone. They do not reflect any hidden propaganda or marketing gimmick to push products. I do not write a blog/review about Technology until I have personally tried/tested it. It is at the sole discretion of the reader to lay faith on my views & use/purchase/subscribe to it. I will not be responsible for any direct/indirect loss arising after reading my entries.

That said, I have spent my ENTIRE free time pursuing technology. I am a B.Tech Plastics from UDCT with a passion for new/upcoming/cutting-edge & productivity enhancing technology.

Google Chrome Download

As I write this, a press conference announcing the launch of Google's latest baby is underway. Thanks to a CNET live feed, I am being updated with all the latest information by the minute!

What an amazing day this has turned out to be!. Rushed in as usual to office this morning and looked at the feeds. Nothing suspicious in there! All of a sudden, I receive an e-mail from the editor to cover "Googles latest browser!" I was like WTF?? Thats when I rechecked the feeds and realized that what I was shrugging off as a retro colored google themed momento attempt -- turned out to be the Google browser! All of the names they could think of, why did they end up with Chrome??

That said, I can already sense -- this is gonna be BIG!

The download site is live!!

http://www.google.com/chrome