Tag Archives: technology

Intel to unveil new line of products at 2013 Consumer Electronics Show

December 21, 2012   Chelsie Gastright   No comments

 

Photo credit thepointdaily.com

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) will be unveiling a brand new selection of devices at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this coming January. These devices will show consumers “ultra-portable” products that incorporate Intel’s processing chips.

Among the  line-up for Intel is the future of computer processing: Core i-series and Pentium processors. Both of the products have been tested to consume between 7W-13. They are also going to be introducing what is known as the “Ivy Bridge,” which has been rumored to combat the failing laptop and desktop market. The Ivy Bridge processing system will be used to power a variety of tablets, ultrabook and smart phones.

Other than the new line of gadgets, Intel will also be featuring other big-named items from top manufacturers. These items will be incorporating Intel chips and processing systems into their products.

Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of the PC client group at Intel, and Mike Bell, vice president and general manager of the mobile and communications group at Intel, will also be giving those in attendance an update on some of their future products.

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Zynga, Inc. stocks fall 12% after contract revision with Facebook, Inc.

December 05, 2012   Chelsie Gastright   No comments

Photo credit: Kotaku.com

Zynga Inc. suffered a devastating loss when their shares fell 12 percent in after-hours trading on Nov. 29. This drop in shares occurred soon after Zynga and Facebook Inc., revised their agreements, changing their relationship status to “It’s complicated.”

With games that ranged from “FarmVille” to “Words with Friends,” Zynga has created large variety of popular games that have exploded on the Facebook network.  Now, through the newly revised contract, Zynga and Facebook will be almost completely independent of one another, according to The Washington Post.

This will mean that Zynga is no longer required to have Facebook advertisements in their game play and will no longer make Facebook their exclusive social networking site.

Michael Patcher, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Wall Street Journal Market Beat blogger, Steven Russolillo, that, “Zynga now has an incentive to expand the reach of its most popular social games beyond Facebook and Zynga.com and be able to offer additional payment options, likely resulting in additional payers who are not Facebook users.”

The original agreement, which was filed in 2010, also prohibited Facebook from making it’s own games. With the current revisions, by March 2013 Facebook will be able to create and develop their own games. However, according to the Market Beat blog, Facebook has no current intentions of developing their own games.

While the numbers may not be showing the glass half-full for Zynga, both Zynga and the analysts feel that this move will, in the end, be extremely beneficial for the company to grow and expand to other media platforms.

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Windows Phone Coming to China

March 12, 2012   Steve Sitek   No comments

China has the largest population in the world, which coincidentally makes them the largest business market in the world. China’s largest cell phone company, China Mobile, boasts the largest customer base in the country with over 600 million subscribers.  This number is on the rise as the Windows phone is coming to China.

Until now, the Windows phone did not have support in China because China Mobile networks did not support the device. While smaller carriers like Telecom China and China Unicom did, it wasn’t plausible to enter the marketplace until the largest player was ready. Now that China Mobile has the capabilities, Window phones have tapped the worlds biggest cell phone market and won’t even have to compete with the iPhone (they are not supported by China Mobile).  This move is predicted to make China Mobile’s customer base grow by 10%.

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New Folding Car Testing Underway

February 02, 2012   Steve Sitek   No comments

Every year new innovations and inventions make the world appear more futuristic. We don’t have flying cars yet, but now we have the next best thing, a folding car. Yes you heard right, a car that folds like a lawn chair is currently being developed. Engineers at MIT have begun testing the new car called Hiriko.  The design is both practical and aesthetically pleasing. Its odd look is a mix between a golf cart, mini cooper, and the bat mobile.

Photo Credit: automotto.com

Over the past ten years, car designs have become more sustainable, and are moving away from large gas guzzling prototypes. The Hiriko has a range of 60 miles on the battery, “considerably better than the 38-mile (electric only) range of electric cars currently on the market.” Due to the folding ability of the car, engineers were forced to design a different style of doors. Designers eliminated the dashboard, and decided to place the door on the front of the car, which is much different than cars on the market today.

However don’t expect to see this car around your city any time soon. Safety is always an issue with new compact cars, and engineers are currently trying to make sure the Hiriko passes all safety regulations. The car is being developed in collaboration with car sharing companies, Zipcar and Autoshare. These car-borrowing companies are similar to easy ride bicycle-sharing programs that have been implemented in many large cities around the nation. The companies’ goal is to provide easy sustainable cars that will be available for 1-2 hours rent.

You can see the Hiriko in action here: Hiriko

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OnStar Now Available for Most Non-GM Cars

October 21, 2011   Meagan Cahuasqui   No comments

Owners of General Motors vehicles may be familiar with the additional feature to such cars known as OnStar.  Introduced in 1996, OnStar is a service one subscribes to if they desire proficient safety and information.  The move to add this feature has boosted GM sales ever since but now they are expanding.

As of this summer, GM has allowed the feature to be a part of almost any car through a device called OnStar FMV (which stands for For My Vehicle).  The technology of OnStar was hardwired into a rearview mirror that can be attached to most cars through any company.  One of the exceptions is the Jeep Wrangler.

The device does not have all of OnStar’s services installed in it, but it does carry most of them.  One can tell a regular rearview mirror from an OnStar FMV device because the latter is a little thicker than a normal mirror and has buttons along the front for the difference services it provides.

The downside to this nifty addition to your car is its price.  Currently, OnStar FMV sells for almost three hundred dollars, and that’s without subscribing to the OnStar service of the Safe & Sound plan, which is an additional $199 a year.  When it comes down to it though, who can put a price on safety?  The plan offers a motion detector that notices when the car has crashed and put you in contact with the company through a phone on the mirror.  It will also use GPS to locate your car and send an ambulance on the scene right away.  There is also a panic button in case of other emergencies.

The only OnStar feature not included in the FMV’s service plan is the original technology’s ability to slow down the car’s speed in case it is reported stolen and thus not allowing the thief to engage in a high speed car chase.  Hopefully the owner of an OnStar FMV will never have need of said feature.

The OnStar FMV also has a Directions & Connections plan, which is essentially like having a GPS or the Google Maps app on your smart phone.  What this feature offers is a live person on the other end of the line to give you directions with the push of a button.

Overall, it seems GM made a smart business move in expanding their product to other companies, as those who can afford it can’t afford not to have it.

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Next Step for Mankind: Astronauts on an Asteroid

July 26, 2011   Jacob Blanchard   No comments

NASA has little time for nostalgia over the space shuttle program. Under president Obama’s orders, they must send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025.

Asteroids will increase our understanding the universe and provide much-needed raw minerals.

An asteroid is a giant space rock that orbits the sun, like Earth. Some are estimated to contain trillions of dollars in valuable minerals like gold, silver, zinc, nickle and iron. And, like in disaster movies, someday one might threaten the planet.

The countless problems associated with exploring an asteroid thrill the world’s best engineers and scientists. The first problem is actually reaching an asteroid.

Powerful rockets are needed to launch spacecraft and parts out of Earth orbit. NASA promises to announce its design idea for these rockets by the end of the summer and Congress has ordered that they be built by 2016. It will take two or three or maybe even more launches of these unnamed rockets to get all the needed parts into space.

Then comes the problem of propulsion. Most asteroids orbit the sun in the asteroid belt, which is beyond Mars. Using traditional rocket engines would require massive amounts of fuel. NASA is considering ion propulsion, an experimental electric-powered system that can potentially travel at great speeds, but accelerates very slowly. Engineers imagine launching an ion-powered ship early enough to build up speed, and having astronauts make a high-speed rendezvous somewhere in space.

And for the astronauts themselves, NASA is holding onto the basic design for the Orion space capsule and refitting it for deep space travel. But the capsule is too small for extended space travel, which for this mission, could last for up to a year. NASA has called on engineers for functional, inflatable habitat designs that would make a year in space a little more bearable.

Astronauts will probably spent most of their long journeys in a modified Orion space capsule.

Asteroids present unique problems because unlike planets or our moon, they lack the gravity for suitable landing and exploration. Spacecraft would simply bounce off an asteroid, and astronauts would float away. NASA is thinking about jet packs, tethers, bungees, nets and spiderwebs to allow explorers to float just above the surface of it while attached to a smaller mini-spaceship.

In terms of space programs, 2025 is not too far away. There are a lot of things that need to be designed, invented and perfected by then.

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Reinventing the Toilet

July 19, 2011   Jacob Blanchard   1 Comment

You might take the toilet for granted. But the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been thinking about it a lot. The foundation announced $41.5 million worth of grants on Tuesday aimed at inspiring someone to re-engineer the toilet.

Why fix something that doesn’t seem to be broken? The basic design hasn’t changed much in its 200 year history. Why is it suddenly a problem?

“No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by invention of the toilet,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the foundation’s global development program, said in a statement. “But it did not go far enough. It only reached one-third of the world. What we need are new approaches. New ideas. In short, we need to reinvent the toilet.”

When you think about it, a toilet is demanding. It requires lots of running water and a sewer hook up, both of which are hard to come by in developing countries. And for all of its demands, the toilet does nothing to treat waste.

About 2.5 billion people don’t have access to toilets as we’ve currently imagined them, and this lack of toilet access encourages the spread of diarrheal diseases, which are blamed for the deaths of 1.5 million children each year, according to the World Health Organization.

The Gates Foundation has handed out eight grants to universities who dare to dream of a better toilet. Some especially dramatic re-design ideas include:

• Andrew Cotton, from Loughborough University in the UK, is making a toilet that will “recover water and salt from feces and urine.”

• Georgios Stefanidis, from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, is working on a toilet that will generate electricity from waste, which will be “gasified into plasma” using microwaves. That gas can be used to generate electricity, according to the proposal.

• Yu-Ling Chen, from the University of Toronto, is trying to make a toilet that will “sanitize feces within 24 hours” so human waste doesn’t transmit disease through a community. Chen plans to use a process of dehydration, filtration and smoldering to render the waste harmless.

• Michael Hoffmann, from the California Institute of Technology, plans to develop a solar-powered toilet. Solar cells generate enough power to process waste and turn it into fuel for electricity.

These innovations will not just help developing nations. In the American west and many parts of China, for example, a toilet that does not require potable water will alleviate water shortages.

The Gates Foundation hopes their grants will bring about a “cell phone” of sanitation – independent, convenient and beneficial.

Contains information from CNN.
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What Space Shuttles Did for You

July 19, 2011   Jacob Blanchard   No comments

The space shuttle program was not designed to advance science, like the Hubble telescope or Large Hadron Collider.

In roughest terms, shuttles often functioned as orbital trucks, hauling cargo between Earth and satellites and space stations. But in 30 years of hauling, the shuttles created an extremely detailed topographic map of Earth, inspired medical breakthroughs and made many inventions possible. If you need help getting out of a crashed car, or if you’re a soldier maneuvering around an active land mine field, space shuttle-derived technology may have saved your life. And thanks to the space shuttle, we have healthier baby formulas and cooling socks to wear in hot weather.

Yet the space shuttle program often doesn’t get recognized for its science and technology, NASA says. And shuttle-based science will come to a halt when Atlantis — carrying mouse stem cell and vaccine experiments — comes home from its final mission on Thursday.

The space shuttle was crucial in building the International Space Station. In its years of operation, the station has benefited virtually every branch of science, from medical science to biology to astrophysics. Astronauts on the station are currently conducting a groundbreaking antimatter experiment, thanks to materials provided by a May shuttle mission.

People often overlook the health benefits learned from space travel. Astronauts lose bone strength, have balance problems and weakened immune systems that in many ways are similar to aging. Learning how to combat bone loss on shuttle astronauts with exercise and other activity has helped the Earth-bound.

And don’t forget the Hubble Space Telescope, which changed our understanding of the cosmos and even the age of the universe itself. It was launched with the shuttle, fixed with the shuttle and upgraded four other times by shuttle astronauts. Without the efforts of the shuttles and their crews, our view of the universe would still be fuzzy at best.

One of the most promising spinoff technologies from the space shuttle is the bioreactor. It originally was designed to grow cells and tissue in space for experiments in zero gravity, but it’s used on Earth for research. Bioreactors can grow blood and human tissue in a constantly rotating growth medium that simulates the free fall of zero gravity. In this environment, scientists can direct the growth of artificial tissue in any way they want. It’s a developing technology, and biologists are still unsure where it will lead.

Whether it’s something everyday – the socks you wear in Summer or the formula you feed your baby with, or life-changing – being saved from a car accident – space shuttle technology has effected your life. With the last shuttle mission drawing to a close, keep in mind the benefits of space. Space travel is dangerous and expensive. But it can be a laboratory where being forced outside “the box” can make a world of difference.

Contains information from Associated Press.
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Invisibility Cloaks? Scientists Think Bigger

July 16, 2011   Jacob Blanchard   No comments

Harry Potter would not be where he is today without his famous invisibility cloak. Scientists, not about to be outdone by fantasy, are taking steps towards creating similar effects.

Don’t get too excited. In the foreseeable future, you probably won’t be able to just throw some high-tech invisible fabric over your head and disappear. But scientists are working on experimental substances called metamaterials that distort electromagnetic or acoustic waves in unusual ways. Real-life invisibility cloaks, for example, are devices or layers of material designed to divert light around the object that’s concealed.

This prototype invisibility cloak won't save you from the Cerberus, but scientists remain optimistic about metamaterial technology.

These metamaterials can do more than divert light. Scientists believe in the possibility of “superlenses” that could focus enough light to view protein and virus molecules directly. Acoustic cloaks could hide submarines and undersea assets from sonar detection. These metamaterials could even focus and intensify ocean waves to generate power.

If seeing molecules and generating power from ocean waves is in the foreseeable future, why are invisibility cloaks so difficult? One of the limiting factors has to do with wavelength. Visible wavelengths are very short. Shorter wavelengths require smaller structures in order to produce the bending effect. That’s why bending sound waves is easier than bending electromagnetic waves, and why bending microwaves is easier than bending visible light.

A Stanford University research team discovered a way to hide objects in a region about three-quarters of an inch wide, using calcite crystals, but the invisibility effect is produced only with respect to light of a specific polarization.

“While what has been so far achieved in invisibility science has been a tour de force of physics and engineering, our children will probably still have to wait some time for that real Harry Potter cloak,” Stanford University’s Wenshan Cai and Purdue’s Vladimir Shalaev write in Physics World.

 

Contains information from MSNBC.
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A Robot For the Workplace

July 12, 2011   Jacob Blanchard   No comments

Robots have been considered too dangerous to work alongside humans. This is not due to a fear of some robot uprising, but because until recently, robotic senses have not been advanced enough to be safe around humans.

“In manufacturing facilities, robots are basically in cages like wild animals … so you can’t get in there and get hurt,” says David Bourne, a professor at Carnegie Mellon who works on robotic manufacturing. Having “the robot and person work side-by-side is really scary to a lot of people,” he says. “If it swings around and hits you, it could take your head off.”

In the next decade, robots like R2 may find their way into factories worldwide.

But improved technologies for vision processing and gripping are leading to a new wave of robots. Meet Robonaut 2, a robot sent to the International Space Station to aid astronauts with repetitive or dangerous tasks. R2, which has only a torso, arms and fingers, and a head full of sensors, was the result of a joint effort by NASA and General Motors to create a robot that could operate safely alongside humans.

R2 uses elastic actuators, a technology that works like human nerve endings, to sense the amount of force of its own motions.

“The use of series elastic actuators changes the whole approach to manufacturing robots. (It) makes the robot able to safely interact with people,” says Rodney Brooks, a co-founder of iRobot and founder of Heartland Robotics.

In addition to its heightened senses, R2 is humanlike in that its shell is soft in case of accidental collisions, and its head is filled with enough cameras to determine depth perception.

Its excellent performance on the International Space Stations has entrepreneurs excited to try it on Earth. GM uses about 2,500 new robots every year, and has around 20,000 to 25,000 robots in factories worldwide. This new generation of robots would not replace them, but do smaller, more sophisticated tasks, like handling screws, handles, airbag and blind-spot warning sensors that go into the car doors.

Contains information from Technology Review.
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