Google TV Finds its First Champion

Google TV now has at least one real retail product firmed up: the Logitech Revue, scheduled to ship this fall. This is a set-top box that’s supposed to bring the Google TV experience to your existing home entertainment center.

So far so good. But I’d like to understand how this is going to happen. Oh, I get how one box would be able to search both TV listings and the internet for content. I’m more confused by how the ‘control’ aspect will work.

You’re supposed to be able to use your smartphone (iPhone or an Android phone, more specifically) to control your home entertainment center. In a video provided by Engadget HD, you can see that it uses Logitech’s Harmony technology to turn on components, set inputs and so on. I understand how an actual Harmony remote is going to do this; it has an IR emitter after all.

But how is the Logitech Revue going to accomplish this? I have this nightmare vision of a web of IR Blasters running from the Revue box to each component of my home theater. That was problematic enough when I did it to allow my Tivo to control my cable box. Granted newer cable boxes can now be controled via cable cards, but that doesn’t help with my receiver, TV, sub-woofer, etc, etc.

Aside from how it’ll control things, the other big question is price. Taylor Wimberly over at Android and Me hopes it’ll be under $500 and would love to see it be under $299. I’d be astonished if it was more than $299 and I think they need to aim closer to $200. Google is trying to introduce a product that no one really knows they want; the price needs to be kept low. Besides, at the end of the day Google TV isn’t doing anything we can’t already do (assuming you have some kind of box connected to the TV that has a web browser, such as a Sony PS3 or a Nintendo Wii); it’s just gathering functions into one place.

Android and Me does have a few specs for the Revue: it’ll run Android 2.1, support Flash 10.1 and comes with Chrome installed (naturally).

How much would you pay? Don’t forget we have the Boxee Box still in-bound and predicted to sell for about $200, though it’s been delayed until November. It ought to deliver most of the web content you’d want on your TV. Granted you’d have to switch between cable and Boxee inputs, but that’s not such a huge chore.

So are you interested in Google TV, or are you not yet sold on it?

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Fifa Is The Hottest Thing On THe Internet Right Now

As it turns out, the FIFA world cup 2010 has become the most popular web event in the history of the Internet. This event has turned the table in its favor and claimed this title beating president Obama’s Election Day victory. The official FIFA world cup website is now serving as many pageviews as Facebook . And when I say that these both share the same page views now that is saying something.

Though, that is just one source of the FIFA buzz. It is all over Twitter, Facebook and other social networks as well. This makes FIFA world cup the hottest and the most happening thing on the Internet. Univision, which is managing live streaming of the matches claims that at least a quarter million people are watching matches online in U.S. and Puerto Rico. This includes desktop and mobile viewers.

Twitter users who are football fans at the same time, bring down a river of tweets updating regularly on the match proceedings. Twitter is having a hard time managing rates of 3000 tweets per second and has surrendered announcing that users should be ready for occasional downtimes.

Amazing isn’t it what are your thoughts on it ?

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Twitter’s First Trending Topics Appears As Advertisement For Toy Story 3

Twitter‘s new ad platform has been a little slow to roll out. Promoted Tweets are already in the system, but those popular trending topics have only today been penetrated by ads.

On Twitter’s homepage, the right-hand column that houses the trending topics now includes an eleventh in the list: Toy Story 3, branded with a prominent yellow button. Clicking the link brings up a search for “Toy Story 3,” and the top result is always a Promoted Tweet from Disney/Pixar.

There’s not much more to it. TechCrunch notes that the ad is not location-specific, though that could (and probably will) be implemented in the future. It’s a nice idea that the purchased trending topic falls at the bottom of the list, below the organic trends, and that big honking yellow button makes sure nobody is confused about the nature of that topic.

Of course, we’re left to wonder why Disney/Pixar chose Toy Story 3 to be first. It’s freaking Toy Story 3–it was going to be a trending topic anyway, right?

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WordPress 3.0 Is Finally Available

This is one of the major releases, and as a consequence many new features were introduced. For example, the default theme has been changed, there are developer APIs now, the admin interface was updated and so on. You can watch the video below to get an idea of what is new.

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FaceBook Earned 800$ Million In 2009 Says A Report

Facebook’s revenue in 2009 was nearly $800 million, and the company turned a part of it into a solid net profit, according to Reuters.

The number is significantly higher than earlier estimates of $500 million revenue in 2009, and even the projected $710 million revenue in 2010. Facebook, as usual, declines to comment on any of these numbers, but we know that somewhere in 2009. Facebook became cash-flow positive.

“They are downplaying their performance. There’s no upside in getting people’s expectations high, it’s always better to go low,” said one of Reuters’ sources. It could be true: if Facebook is heading towards an IPO, it’s definitely better to be able to show big growth than to boast high numbers now, and end up unable to beat them after.

If these new estimates are true, this is great news for Facebook, which has been on the ugly side of a privacy-related scandal that ended up reaching the cover of Time Magazine and had Mark Zuckerberg, the site’s founder and CEO, apologizing for the company’s misdeeds. As long as the earnings and growth is strong – and according to the latest numbers from Compete, Facebook is still growing quite fast – Facebook will have time to tinker and experiment with privacy to find out how far it can go before causing a backlash.

Well the above report was obtained and gained by Mashable ,well if I tell you in simple and little words Facebook just made 800$ Million dollars last year and they are still growing quite quickly.In my personal opinion if Facebook gets that much huge traffic and if still they don’t earn that much well then that is something to think about isn’t it ?

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Getting the Best Prices on Cheap Flights: Book In Advance to Save Money Says Southall Travel

Most people nowadays plan and book their entire vacation online. It is a much easier process that does not involve a middleman like a travel agent and the whole procedure is within your control. You can actually book a vacation even a year in advance and get good deals on the same. Most of the online travel websites even offer a combination package that has both airfare deals as well as cheap hotel deals. You have an option of booking a vacation with your desired time, location, and even budget with the help of Internet.

However you must also do a little bit of research to understand how you can actually grab a good deal. Recently Southall Travel reported how most UK travelers are missing out on cheap flights due to poor booking habits. This is happening since people are booking flights at a shorter notice while you can actually save a lot of money if you book tickets in advance. This is true in case of all flight tickets and also for all destinations. So if you keep this in mind when booking tickets online, you can automatically save a lot of money. Airlines also offer a wide range of offers to their regular customers and usually have loyalty programs for them. If you are a corporate flier, even then you are liable to get a wide range of benefits and discounts. When looking for good deals you can visit the travel websites which will show you the offers from all major airlines and this will make it easier for you to take a decision and buy tickets. ........

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New Materials for Making "Spintronic" Devices

L to R: Alexei Tsvelik, Dmitri Kharzeev, Igor Zaliznyak

An interdisciplinary group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory has devised methods to make a new class of electronic devices based on a property of electrons known as "spin," rather than merely their electric charge. This approach, dubbed spintronics, could open the way to increasing dramatically the productivity of electronic devices operating at the nanoscale - on the order of billionths of a meter. The Brookhaven researchers have filed a U.S. provisional patent application for their invention, which is now available for licensing.

"This development can open the way for the use of spintronics in practical room temperature devices, an exciting prospect," said DOE Under Secretary for Science Raymond L. Orbach. "The interplay between outstanding facilities and laboratory scientists is a root cause for this achievement, and a direct consequence of the collaborative transformational research that takes place in our DOE laboratories."

In the field of electronics, devices based on manipulating electronic charges have been rapidly shrinking and, therefore, getting more efficient, ever since they were first developed in the middle of the last century. "But progress in miniaturization and increasing efficiency is approaching a fundamental technological limit imposed by the atomic structure of matter," said physicist Igor Zaliznyak, lead author on the Brookhaven Lab patent application. Once you've made circuits that approach the size of a few atoms or a single atom, you simply cannot make them any smaller.........

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Fuel from fiber

"Put a tree in your tank." Fuel companies aren't touting that slogan. At least not yet.

But thanks to research done in part by Bruce Dale, Michigan State University professor of chemical engineering and materials science, making fuels from poplar trees and corn stalks is becoming more efficient and cost-effective.

Dale is internationally known for his 30 years of research on making ethanol from plant biomass the stems, leaves, stalks and trunks of plants and trees commonly discarded as waste after a crop is harvested. He's developed a patented pretreatment process for biomass, ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX), which makes the breakdown of cellulose the most difficult part of making ethanol from plant biomass more efficient.

Dale and other members of the Biomass Refining Consortium for Applied Fundamentals and Innovation will discuss AFEX and other biomass pretreatment technologies during a presentation today at BIO2007, the annual international convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. The consortium is a group of researchers studying biomass refining.

"In time, we can expect to completely replace gasoline and diesel with cellulose-derived biofuels that are cheaper, better for the environment and much better for national security than petroleum-derived fuels," Dale said.........

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New Technology Stores Solar Energy

With the hunt for alternative energy sources coupled with technological innovations, wood no longer remains just a structural component, or a decorative trim or paneling. It can now be transformed into energy storage.

This is exactl2007 Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge awathe Enertia Building System has done. Its technology has turned a piece of wood into a thermal battery!

The wood house becomes a solar energy storing device, and once properly configured and sited it can heat and cool itnew technology is especially applicable to solid wood homes, so, more wood means more effective heating and cooling system of the house.

The solid GluelaEnertia Building Systems maximize the energy-storing potential of the wood homes.

These energy efficient homes are environment-friendly as well, as they sequester carbon in their massive wood walls. To add to reducing carbon emissions the key source of greenhouse gas — these new automated, natural heating and cooling system reduces carbon pollution from the burning of fossil fuels.

With the world up with arms to battle global warming, this breakthrough invention surely has a global potential.

To read more on the tvisit here....

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Aluminum Alloy to Extract Fuel Cell-powering Hydrogen from Water

The increasing need to curb global warming at the earliest is broadening the horizon of fuel cell usages each day, as an alternative to the carbon dioxide-emitting energy sources the key element lading to climate change.

Cuing with the need to replace gasoline and cap greenhouse gas emissions, an engineer has coa new method of extracting hydrogen from water for running fuel cells.

The Purdue University engineer has used an aluminum alloy to do the extraction job. This innovative technique can efficiently extract hydrogen from water to run not just fuel cells but also internal combustion engines.

Thus, it is an easy and effective alternative solution to gasoline use. With water added to the aluminum and a metal called gallium-based alloys pellets, hydrogen is generated spontaneously. Interestingly, this produced hydrogen can directly be fed to an engine.

Once successfully commercialized, the new technology can be a potential replacement of gasoline use. Ah! With it, you can go eco-friendly mowing your lawn using it in the mowerImage

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Antenna Calibrations Extended to 60-110 GHz

NIST engineer Katherine MacReynolds prepares a new NIST "tabletop" range for characterizing high-performance antennas, such as horn antennas (small gold pyramids) operating at 94 Gigahertz. The surrounding blue foam cones absorb electromagnetic fields to reduce scattering from nearby objects, thereby improving measurement accuracy.
Credit: © 2006 Geoffrey Wheeler

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a new "tabletop" sized facility to improve characterization of antennas operating in the 60 to 110 gigahertz (GHz) frequency range. This extended frequency capability serves needs for advanced civilian and military communication and radar systems.

A number of electronic systems are moving to higher frequencies to attain higher channel capacity, better spatial resolution and other advantages. The new measurement facility will help accelerate development of technologies such as automobile collision-prevention radars, which operate at 94 GHz and require antennas small enough to be integrated into car bumpers. Improved NIST antenna calibration capability also helps to assure the accuracy of a number of systems. "NIST is the start of the measurement traceability chain," says Perry Wilson, leader of the Radio Frequency Fields Group. "For instance, we calibrate the probes used by aerospace companies to calibrate instruments launched on satellites and other critical systems. Weather satellites are an example; improvements in antenna accuracy mean better data for weather models, resulting in better weather predictions".

The new facility continues NIST's history of innovation in antenna measurements, building on the "extrapolated gain" technique developed several decades ago. The original extrapolation range and techniques made it practical for scientists to accurately compute an antenna's far-field characteristics based on near-field measurements. By making the range compact, costs are significantly reduced. In addition, the extrapolation technique uses over-sampling and averaging techniques to minimize the effects of scattering and range imperfections.........

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New tool for spectroscopy

Image courtesy of gmp.ch

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed two new calibration tools to help correct and validate the performance of analytic instruments that identify substances based on fluorescence.

Recent years have seen a significant increase in the development and use of fluorescence-based analytic techniques. Scientists can detect, measure and identify unknown substancespotentially including chemical and biological weaponsusing spectroscopic techniques. In fluorescence spectroscopy, researchers send a beam of light at a certain wavelength into a sample, exciting electrons in particular analytes or fluorescent labels, which then emit light at longer wavelengths with measurable energy levels. This resulting spectral signature, recorded by a fluorescence spectrometer, is distinct for different fluorescent compounds. A number of of these assays are being used in areasincluding clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and drug developmentwhere regulatory requirements are strict and may require standards for instrument qualification and method validation.

To meet these needs, NIST has developed two ready-to-use, fluorescent glass Standard Reference Materials (SRMs), about the size of a pack of a gum, whose certified values can be used to correct fluorescence emission spectra for relative intensity. SRM 2940 (Orange emission) has certified values for emission wavelengths from 500 to 800 nanometers when excited with light at 412 nm; SRM 2941 (Green emission) has certified values for emission wavelengths from 450 to 650 nm when excited with light at 427 nm.........

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Nanoscale Details of Photolithography Process

Schematic of the photolithography process shows the formation of a gradient extending from the photoresist material to be removed (center) into the unexposed portions of the resist on the sides. NIST measurements document the residual swelling fraction caused by the developer that can contribute to roughness in the final developed image.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made the first direct measurements of the infinitesimal expansion and collapse of thin polymer films used in the manufacture of advanced semiconductor devices. It's a matter of only a couple of nanometers, but it can be enough to affect the performance of next-generation chip manufacturing. The NIST measurements, detailed in a new paper,* offer a new insight into the complex chemistry that enables the mass production of powerful new integrated circuits.

The smallest critical features in memory or processor chips include transistor "gates." In today's most advanced chips, gate length is about 45 nanometers, and the industry is aiming for 32-nanometer gates. To build the nearly one billion transistors in modern microprocessors, manufacturers use photolithography, the high-tech, nanoscale version of printing technology. The semiconductor wafer is coated with a thin film of photoresist, a polymer-based formulation, and exposed with a desired pattern using masks and short wavelength light (193 nm). The light changes the solubility of the exposed portions of the resist, and a developer fluid is used to wash the resist away, leaving the pattern which is used for further processing.

Exactly what happens at the interface between the exposed and unexposed photoresist has become an important issue for the design of 32-nanometer processes. Most of the exposed areas of the photoresist swell slightly and dissolve away when washed with the developer. However this swelling can induce the polymer formulation to separate (like oil and water) and alter the unexposed portions of the resist at the edges of the pattern, roughening the edge. For a 32-nanometer feature, manufacturers want to hold this roughness to at most about two or three nanometers.........

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Groundbreaking Technology in Spam Prevention

As per Ferris Research, spam can cost over $500 per user a year. Even with spam filters in place, they claim it still costs $140 per user a year. It also results in lost productivity and higher IT costs. InformationWeek is offering an interesting white paper detailing a groundbreaking new anti-spam technology used in the Abaca Email Protection Gateway. The new approach involves analyzing the relationship between sender and receiver and claims it can block 99 percent of incoming spam. Check it out for yourself here and leave a comment letting us know what you think.

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Fake Diamonds Help Jet Engines Take The Heat

Ohio State University engineers are in the process of developing a technology to coat jet engine turbine blades with zirconium dioxide -- usually called zirconia, the stuff of synthetic diamonds -- to combat high-temperature corrosion.

The zirconia chemically converts sand and other corrosive particles that build up on the blade into a new, protective outer coating. In effect, the surface of the engine blade constantly renews itself.

Ultimately, the technology could enable manufacturers to use new kinds of heat-resistant materials in engine blades, so that engines will be able to run hotter and more efficiently.

Nitin Padture, professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State, said that he had military aircraft in mind when he began the project. He was then a professor at the University of Connecticut.

"In the desert, sand is sucked into the engines during takeoffs and landings, and then you have dust storms," he said. "But even commercial aircraft and power turbines encounter small bits of sand or other particles, and those particles damage turbine blades".

Jet engines operate at thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, and blades in the most advanced engines are coated with a thin layer of temperature-resistant, thermally-insulating ceramic to protect the metal blades. The coating -- referred to as a thermal-barrier coating -- is designed like an accordion to expand and contract with the metal.........

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Waterman Award to UCLA's 'Mozart of Math'

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is proud to announce that 32-year-old Terence Tao, a professor of mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles, will receive its 2008 Alan T. Waterman Award. Called a "supreme problem-solver," and named one of "the Brilliant 10" researchers by Popular Science (October 2006), Tao's extraordinary work, much of which has been funded by NSF through the years, has had a tremendous impact across several mathematical areas. He will receive the award at a black tie dinner program at the U.S. Department of State on May 6.

The annual Waterman award recognizes an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by NSF. Candidates may not be more than 35 years old, or seven years beyond receiving a doctorate, and must stand out for their individual achievements. In addition to a medal, the awardee receives a grant of $500,000 over a 3-year period for scientific research or advanced study in their field.

Terence Tao was born in Adelaide, Australia, in 1975. His genius at mathematics began early in life. He started to learn calculus when he was 7 years old, at which age he began high school; by the age of 9 he was already very good at university-level calculus. By the age of 11, he was thriving in international mathematics competitions. Tao was 20 when he earned his doctorate from Princeton University, and he joined UCLA's faculty that year. UCLA promoted him to full professor at age 24. Tao now holds UCLA's James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Science. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Sciences (corresponding member).........

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Oncology Diagnostics By AviaraDx

Innovations on cancer diagnostics are what AviaraDx, Inc. brought to the market.


© AviaraDx, Inc.


Two new oncology tests have been launched for the classification of metastatic cancer and identification of patients with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer who are at high risk of recurrence and also those unlikely to respond favorably to standard adjuvant endocrine therapy.

The said tests are the following:

AviaraDx, Inc.

Assists physicians in diagnosing metastatic cancer types based on a 92-gene expression assay that is capable of classifying 39 tumor types as well as 64 cancer subtypes. The results help clinicians quickly identify the primary tumor site and avoid unnecessary repetitive imaging and immunohistological procedures in attempting to establish the cancer origin. Successful cancer classification is critical for physicians to select the appropriate treatment regimen.

AviaraDx, Inc.

Assists physicians in determining the optimal treatment for patients with ER positive, node-negative breast cancer by using two newly developed gene-based biomarkers to evaluate the risk of recurrence and probable response to endocrine therapy. The test is the first tool designed to identify the 10 to 20% of ER positive breast cancers that will relapse within five to 10 years when treated with standard endocrine therapy, enabling oncologists to recommend more aggressive regimens to help improve clinical outcomes.

Here's the good news though: The tests (based on proprietary AviaraDx molecular technologies) are New York state-approved and available through the company's CAP-certified CLIA laboratory. [Both can utilize small formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples easily available from imaging-guided needle biopsies.]

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Control Your Seasonal Lighting with a Remote

Tired of climbing behind the Christmas Tree, or walking from outlet to outlet to turn on your seasonal lighting. Don't climb around any more, you need the INSTEON Wireless Remote.


The remote comes in a kit with several controllers each of which fit into an outlet. To turn lighting on simply use the remote to control all outlets from one location. The remote can still control an outlet from 150' away.

Or if you want, you can use the remote to automate lights to turn on and off as required. Use the remote to review the power patterns and see a panel indicating when certain outlets are to be powered off or on.

The INSTEON Wireless Remote starter kit is available from Amazon for $129 which provides a saving of up to $75 should you have purchased these items separately.

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China's Dangerous Web Domains

A recent report by antivirus software vendor McAfee Inc. has found that some of the most dangerous domains on the Internet are in China. That may not be good for companies setting up Internet-based business there.

In an article on the report, Associated Press Technology Writer Jordan Robertson this:McAfee found the most dangerous domains to navigate to are ".hk" (Hong Kong), ".cn" (China) and ".info" (information).

Of all ".hk" sites McAfee tested, it flagged 19.2 percent as dangerous or potentially dangerous to visitors; it flagged 11.8 percent of ".cn" sites and 11.7 percent of ".info" sites that way.While the "cn" and "hk" domains get registered in China, the servers using them can be anywhere.

The "ro" (Romania) and "ru" (Russia) domains were also rated as high risk.

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