iCEphone: iPhone Killer

We have had enough 'iPhone killers,' but some just don't give up. Almost every cellphone geek aspires to have the best features in a single phone. Adapting the Swiss army knife concept for the cellphone, a new handset called iCEphone is expected soon.

The iCEphone that stands for In Case of Emergency Phone, also known as the medical phone, has all that you need in its package. Initially designed to meet the requirements of the British military, the iCEphone consists of cross platform medical software and convergence technology level hardware. The creators call it a micro-notebook.
If you are wondering what this phone has to offer, then get ready to be boggled by its features. The phone has three different panels, one with a 3-inch touchscreen display, another having a QWERTY keyboard with a mouse trackpad, and finally the third with special function controls.

The iCEphone offers both desktop and handheld modes, literally trying to rub off the thin line between ultraportables and notebooks.







Specifications of the phone are:

- GSM Quadband 850/900/1800/1900, GPRS/EDGE
- 7.2 Mbps HSDPA UMTS 2100 connectivity
- Freescale iMX31 532 Mhz CPU
- 3 inch 240 400 px 65K color transflective TFT touchscreen
- Windows Mobile 6.0 Pro OS
- 3.1 mpx camera with autofocus and LED flash
- Built-in GPS
- Wi-Fi b/g
- 1250 mAh battery
- Dimensions: 127 60.8 23.3 mm
- Weight: 210 g

New Holographic Technology

Current methods of holographic photography might turn redundant in a few years time if the researchers at a Tokyo institute manage to fine tune their latest holographic image creation technique.

Japan-based National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has managed to develop a color electronic hologram technology that will enable users to take 3D images of moving objects in normal lighting conditions without the use of a laser light or a darkroom in order to reproduce them.
Current technology warrants the use of lasers and darkrooms for the production of holographic images because it is required to shoot the subject separately with red, green and blue laser beams before all the images can be "superimposed" to give that holographic effect.





The new technology is based on integral photography. This procedure in creating the hologram includes taking pictures of the subjects in normal lighting conditions. A video camera is used for this purpose. This camera has a "fly-eye" lens composed of a number of micro lenses. The same fly-eye lens is used to display 3D images.

A computer decodes the images shot by the camera and processes them into a 3D image with separate processing units for RGB colors. Each of these units can be processed separately and then merged together again and synthesized. The result is a real-time live holographic video.

The technique is limited only to small images right now - however, it is expected that the technology will evolve over the next couple of years to display larger holographic images.

Fedora 10 released

Jesse Keating, release engineer for Fedora Core, Red Hat, released free community OS Fedora 10, codenamed Cambridge, a little later than the scheduled date as malicious hackers had infiltrated Fedora Servers at Red Hat.

Fedora 10 uses entirely new Linux kernel version 2.6.27 released in October. The Fedora offers installation option between GNOME 2.24 and KDE 4.1 Linux desktop environments, along with other significant features. GNOME 2.24, which was released in September, brought tabbed browsing and other enhancements to GNOME s Nautilus File Manager.

Fedora 10, built over 2.6.27 Linux kernel, offers compatibility with new webcams and includes new Artheros ath9k wireless driver for better Wi-Fi support. Faster bootup is boasted with new graphical boot system, dubbed as Plymouth. Check out the Plymouth video published by Fedora developers here.

This release also includes a new version of Network Manager - no longer known as the NetMangler - and has built-in support for wireless connection sharing. The wireless connection share feature helps in creating an ad hoc Wi-Fi network and share the connection with other machines wirelessly. The interface also offers advanced features like adding hidden networks.

The RPM package management has gone through a major overhaul such as the maximum file size in packages has been increased to 4GB. However, casual users will have to take the pains of all the patented codecs and plug-ins since Fedora includes only freely distributable software package. PackageKit, package management frontend, is integrated with Gstreamer and will automatically download codecs for media that isn't supported natively.

Yet another significant feature is the new glitch-free PulseAudio tool which was originally included in Fedora 8 as Pulse sound server. The new PulseAudio offers timer-based audio scheduling and will reduce audio drops. This could also cut down the number of interrupts and thus save up battery life for mobile platforms.


On the software front, OpenOffice 3.0 is packed along with optional Empathy IM client installable from repository while Pidgin remains the default IM client. Latest Firefox 3.0.4 with latest bug fixes is also included in this release.

Check the full details of Fedora 10 release in their official release notes.

Fedora 10 is available for download from the Fedora Project page.








Source: Ars Technica

AVG Update Causes False Alarm; Windows Crash

What was intended to be a harmless software update turned out to be a hassle for many AVG users yesterday. Apparently, the virus scanner released yesterday contained an incorrect virus signature. The signature led to a user alert about a Trojan in the critical Windows system file user32.dll. The Trojan, PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN was mistakenly identified as being infecting the system file. The scanner then advised users to delete this file. Doing so caused Windows to crash and go in to a reboot cycle.

Users with the latest and previous versions of AVG were equally affected. However, the issue was noticed only with systems using Windows XP. AVG has since then issued a patch, which corrects this problem. For people who have been affected by this please visit the AVG support forums for help wit the fix. There are separate sections for users with AVG 7.5 and AVG 8.0.
AVG has also issued an announcement apologizing users for the inconvenience caused which says, "Affected users unable to use their PCs should contact their AVG reseller or ask a friend to download the information and fix tool for them. After running the fix tool, users should run the AVG update program to download and install the correct AVG update. AVG sincerely regrets the inconvenience users have experienced. We are working to remedy the problem and ensure that any other potential vulnerabilities are identified and eliminated before they can impact users."

AVG is a popular free antivirus suite and is known for its dedicated user base.


Via: Security And The Net

Lock Your Lenovo Laptop Via SMS

Lenovo has teamed up with Phoenix Technologies to give an additional layer of security against data thefts. They have announced the Constant Secure Remote Disable feature that allows users to send a simple text message to restrict unauthorized access to their machines, especially when the laptop is stolen.

ThinkPad notebooks equipped with this feature will be sold from Q1 2009, and will use WWAN networks to execute the lock down. To activate the Remote Disable feature, a user simply needs to create and send a text message with the keywords "lockdown now PC" or "PC shut off." As soon as the laptop's onboard mobile broadband service receives the message, the computer becomes inoperable. It even sends a confirmatory message back to the user when the Remote Disable technology-enabled lock is successfully applied.
However, one thing to note here is that this feature is ineffective if the user's mobile broadband service is deactivated or if the user is out of coverage area.

Lenovo will not charge anything for this service and will support it worldwide, wherever GSM networks are available.

Check Your Mail Onboard A Spaceship!

Technology pioneered by Vint Cerf, one of the creators of the Internet's basic communication protocols


Future space and interplanetary missions will see the increasing use of a decade-old technology pioneered by Vint Cerf for long-distance communication and data transfer. For the uninitiated, Vint Cerf happens to be one of the creators of the Internet's basic communication protocols.

The technology known as DTN, Disruption Tolerant Networking, is all set to be used for "long-distance communication" such as during interplanetary communication relay, where distances are measured in units comprising a few million miles. As the name suggests, DTN is planned to be a "disruption free" communication protocol, which will use the Internet as a medium.
The reason for its adoption is its inherent design, which is optimized to carry data over exceptionally long distances without compromising on quality or detail. Data conveyed across long distances is usually prone to corruption, and in some cases there is significant loss of detail, especially in conditions similar to those existing in space, where data is prone to corruption due to solar storms and planetary interference.

DTN, however, uses a "store and forward" method, which uses specialized "nodes" to store data, from where it is forwarded to the next node. The best feature of this method is that the data is safe at a node until the node can establish safe contact with the next node. While transfer rates of data may slow down during this type of transfer, it keeps data safe.

NASA has been testing DTN extensively over a period of one month using the Epoxi spacecraft as a data relay device. NASA successfully managed to send and receive data from the spacecraft, currently located almost 20 million miles away from the earth.

Leigh Torgerson, DTN manager at JPL, in a statement said, "In space today, an operations team must manually schedule each link and generate all the commands to specify which data to send, when to send it, and where to send it. With standardised DTN, this can all be done automatically."

Let's hope space tourists and travelers in future will have an option to check mails while onboard spaceships taking them to their preferred planets. The mere thought puts a smile on the faces of Internet freaks!

Flash Drives Surpasses Blu-ray Capacity

Kingston is shipping its all-new USB flash drive DataTraveler 150 in 64GB and 32GB capacities. The massive boost in the USB flash drive under DataTraveler series allows more storage for digital files.

Do you recollect the time when we had 20GB hard disks? The DT150 64GB surpasses the storage capacity of Blu-ray Disc as well. The DT150 is compatible with Windows Vista (no support for Windows ReadyBoost yet), Windows XP, Windows 2000 (SP4), Mac OS X 1.3 or higher, and Linux with Kernel 2.6 and above.
As per recent user reports, the DT150 offers speeds anywhere between 28MB-30MB seconds read speed while the write speed on the NAND was reported to be low by a user. Check more user reviews from New Egg here.

Software That Embeds Photos Within Videos

Embedding photos inside a video is no longer a task of professionals, a software developed by group of researchers -- Ashutosh Saxena and Siddharth Batra and Assistant Professor Andrew Ng -- from Stanford University's artificial intelligence can make it the task easy for you. The software will enable you to mask those troubling details with such precision that it will look like a part of the video. Unlike other software, which according to the researchers are expensive and time consuming, this software can easily put an image almost anywhere in the video. That's not all, you can also insert a video inside a video.
The embedding is done through an algorithm using 3D Surface Tracker Technology. The algorithm first analyzes the video, and with special focus on the scene where the new image/video will be placed. Then it subtly alters the lighting, color and texture for the blending to take place. The embedding is so real that the shadows which appear in the original video also appear in the added image. Some of the innovative uses of this software according to one the researchers includes: "Suppose you're a student living in a dorm and you want to show it to your parents [in a video]. You can put a nice poster there of Albert Einstein but if you want to show it to your friends, you can have a Playboy poster there!" Catch a glimpse of this innovative software in this demo.

Microsoft Dream Spark....Dream Today Create Tommorow

"DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career." is what Microsoft Has to say about its newly launched program exclusively for we students.

Currently, you can get the following Microsoft software from DreamSpark:
Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
Expression Studio 2 (includes Web, Blend, Media and Design)
SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition
Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition
IT Academy Student Pass
Robotics Developers Studio 2008
DreamSpark is available to millions of college/university students around the world. The list of countries can be viewed during the student verification process. If you are not residing in one of the countries listed, keep checking back as we will be adding more countries throughout the year.


Home Page : https://www.dreamspark.com
For More questions : https://www.dreamspark.com/FAQ/Students.aspx#site offer