Technology News and Gadgets Updates: 12/25/10

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Satirical WikiLeaks rap featuring Assange's cameo takes Internet by storm

A footage of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange making a cameo appearance on a satirical rap show has become an Internet hit.

Australian internet hit 'Rap News' features Assange on an edition entitled 'News World Order - the war on journalism', and also makes fun at Donald Rumsfeld and and TV host Bill O'Reilly.

The clip, which was posted on December 17, has already received more than 400,000 hits.

The six-minute skit is the work of university researcher Giordano Nanni , and English teacher Hugo Farrant .

Assange contacted the pair after seeing a previous edition about the Pentagon's reaction to WikiLeaks releasing secret diplomatic cables.

"He really felt that we'd nailed it, so the possibility of going to London and collaborating on a new episode in the lead-up to the Iraq War Diaries was mooted," the Daily Mail quoted the Melbourne-based pair, as saying.

After meeting Assange, the pair said they offered him a role in their parody and despite being hesitant initially; the WikiLeaks boss was 'totally up for it'.

Farrant said, "He was full of creative ideas for how to act and time the entrance, and he really enjoyed lampooning his own image. It was fantastic - we're still pinching ourselves. He's a preternaturally calm person, but with a great sense of humour."

The new clip attacks U.S. reasons for invading Iraq, as well as the detention of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons.

"Our intention with this project was to provide a meaningful contribution to the media discourse around certain issues, so to get access to such an influential figure... was very gratifying indeed," he added.

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GSAT-5P launch fails, satellite explodes mid-air

In a jolt to India's space programme on Saturday, the launch of a communication satellite aboard a homegrown vehicle failed after the rocket exploded midair minutes after the lift-off from the spaceport here.

The mission, aimed at putting India in a club of countries with the technology to put heavy satellites in orbit, failed when the rocket developed a snag soon after lift-off in the first stage itself.

GSAT-5P, carrying 24 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders, was meant for augmenting communication services currently provided by the Indian National Satellite System. Built at Rs.125 crore, the satellite was to replace the INSAT-2E that was sent up more than a decade ago.

The rocket blasted-off at around 4 pm from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at the end of the 29-hour countdown but was hit by a snag in the first stage itself, ISRO sources said.

"The incident occurred in the first stage itself", the sources said, adding, details would be disclosed later.

This is the second failure this year for ISRO after the previous (Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle) GSLV mission with the country's maiden cryogenic engine hit a snag and the rocket plunged into the Bay of Bengal on April 15 this year.

ISRO had postponed the December 20 launch of the Geo-Stationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F06), in its seventh mission, after a minor leak was noticed in the Russian Cryogenic engine during the pre-countdown checks.

The last GSLV mission (GSLV-D3) failed after the malfunctioning of indigenous cryogenic stage, dampening the country's hopes of joining the elite club of five nations with such capability.

The GSLV rocket is 51 metres tall and weighs 418 tonnes.

ISRO has the following communication satellites in service - INSAT 2E, INSAT 3A, INSAT 3B, INSAT 3C, INSAT 3E, INSAT 4A, INSAT 4CR and INSAT 4B working at 50 percent capability.

ISRO launched two major satellites in 2010 - communication satellite GSAT-4 and remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2.

The GSAT-4 launch too had failed after the rocket crashed into the Bay of Bengal while Cartosat-2 was placed successfully in the orbit.

Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.2 Update Available For All Networks In The U.K.

Samsung has been slowly rolling out the Android 2.2 Froyo update for the various Galaxy S variants in different regions of the world. Today, Samsung UK gave a surprise to all Galaxy S owners in the U.K by making the Android 2.2 update available on all networks.

The company made this announcement from their official Twitter account. Here is what the company tweeted:

This piece of news is surely going to please a lot of Galaxy S owners in the U.K. Galaxy S owners need to use Samsung KIES software to update their handset to Android 2.2. Users can download KIES from this link. Samsung had earlier released the Android 2.2 update for Three UK and T-Mobile UK branded Galaxy S variants.

I seriously hope that Samsung will release the Android 2.2 update for the various Galaxy S variants in the United States before the year ends. Otherwise, Samsung sure are going to piss off a lot of Galaxy S owners in the States.

Best Mobile Apps Of the Week for iOS, Android and Symbian

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Best Mobile Apps of the Week For iOS, Symbian and Android. In this edition of BMATW (Best Mobile Apps of the Week), we will be introducing our readers to a very useful ‘Backup’ application for Android, a barcode and a QR code scanner for Symbian and a very popular remote access application for iOS.

Below are the featured mobile apps of the week for iOS, Symbian and Android:

TeamViewer (iOS)
I don’t think I need to introduce our readers to TeamViewer. TeamViewer is a very popular multi-platform Remote Access application. It allows users to remotely control their computer from any part of the world. The best part of TeamViewer is that it’s available for free! TeamViewer is available for iPod Touch/iPhone as well as for the iPad.

The app also makes use of multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom. A Pro version of TeamViewer is also available which provides unlimited access to any remote computers.

The Pro version of TeamViewer for the iPod Touch/iPhone costs a whopping $99.99 while the iPad version will set you back by $139.99. To remotely access their computer, users need to make sure that they have the TeamViewer client installed on their PC as well. iOS device owners can download TeamViewer from here.

UpCode (Symbian)
UpCode is a barcode and a QR code reader for the Symbian platform as well as for Java based Nokia handsets. Barcodes are ‘optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows certain data on certain products’ as defined on Wikipedia. A QR Code is similar to a barcode except that it is basically a matrix code or a two-dimensional bar code.

To scan a barcode or a QR code for data, users need to fire up UpCode on their Symbian handset and point the camera towards the QR code/barcode. The app will then decode the data and present the information on the screen. UpCode also supports some Nokia handsets like the Nokia 6020 which don’t have a camera. In this case, users are presented with a field where they enter the number or the word of the code to get the data.

Users can check here whether their Symbian or Java powered handset is supported or not.

Titanium Backup (Android)
Titanium Backup is a very handy application for Android users who love to flash Custom ROMs on their handset. Usually, flashing a custom ROM on your Android handset means that all the user related data and installed applications will be wiped out.

This is where Titanium Backup comes to the rescue. The app allows users to make a backup of all their installed application as well as their system data.

The application also features other useful options like encrypting your apps backup, scheduling backups, Dalvik cache cleaner and integrating system application updates into the ROM. A free as well as a paid version of the Titanium Backup ($5.30) is available on the Android Market. The application requires root access to your Android handset so make sure that your handset is rooted before purchasing the paid version of Titanium Backup.

Apple drops WikiLeaks app, Google keeps it

Apple Inc has joined a growing number of U.S. companies that have severed ties with WikiLeaks, removing an application from its online store that gave users access to the controversial website's content.

But Google Inc, which operates the second-largest online mobile applications store, has kept more than half a dozen apps available on its Android Marketplace that make it easier to access the confidential U.S. government documents WikiLeaks had released on its site.

The two distinct approaches highlight how it is far tougher for developers to get on the iPhone's platform than Android's. Some of the Android programs provide direct access to the WikiLeaks cables, and one of them even alerts users whenever a new leaked document from the WikiLeaks repository is made public.

In past weeks, a host of companies from Amazon.com Inc to Bank of America has withdrawn services for WikiLeaks, which has outraged U.S. authorities by releasing thousands of confidential State Department cables.

But in a backlash against organizations that have cut off the site, cyberactivists have taken to targeting companies -- such as Visa Inc -- seen as foes of WikiLeaks. The website's founder, Julian Assange, was released on bail last week from a jail in Britain, where he is fighting extradition to Sweden over alleged sexual offenses.

"Is it likely that Apple could become a target? Of course," said John Bumgarner, chief technology officer for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, and an expert in such attacks. "Anyone that distances themselves from WikiLeaks could potentially become a cyber target."

The WikiLeaks App, created by developer Igor Barinov and offered for $1.99, was only available in Apple's App Store for a few days before it was removed.

"We removed the WikiLeaks App from the App Store because it violated our developer guidelines," Apple said in a statement on Wednesday. "Apps must comply with all local laws and may not put an individual or targeted group in harm's way."

It was not clear whether WikiLeaks' vocal supporters might target Apple, though the move clearly angered some of them.

"More Apple censorship," one supporter of Assange's tweeted.

"This is exactly why I would never purchase an iOS device," tweeted another, referring to the iOS operating system that runs the iPhone and popular iPad tablet.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said he is considering using the U.S. Espionage Act, under which it is illegal to obtain national defense information for the purpose of harming the United States, as well as other laws to prosecute the release of sensitive government information by WikiLeaks.

Toshiba overhauls chip ops with Samsung, Sony deals

Toshiba Corp will overhaul its chip operations, outsourcing output of some system chips to Samsung Electronics and selling a production line to Sony Corp, as it reduces its non-memory chip exposure.

Toshiba, the world's No.3 chipmaker behind Intel Corp and South Korea's Samsung, is restructuring its chipmaking operations after the business logged an operating loss of 280 billion yen ($3.4 billion) in fiscal 2008 amid the global financial crisis.

For new orders for the next financial year beginning in April, Toshiba will design cutting-edge system chips but will outsource production to Samsung, and maybe other foundries, to avoid costly capital investment outlays.

The rare deal between rivals Toshiba and Samsung, which is expanding into microprocessors, frees up resources for other projects, which analysts see as positive.

"Thanks to this tie-up Toshiba will gain a stronger position," Yumi Nishimura, a senior market analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets, said after the Nikkei business daily reported the move earlier on Friday.

"In a situation when bigger capacity is required, the burden of capital investment can be too big for one company, so the accord is a positive factor for Toshiba."

System chips, used in digital devices, have seen explosive demand growth this year, due to rising popularity of smartphones, tablet PCs and Web-to-TV devices.

Toshiba said it would sell to Sony its system chip production line in Nagasaki prefecture, a deal which an industry source has estimated at 50 billion yen. The line produces chips for Sony PlayStations and is housed in a factory owned by Sony.

The electronics conglomerate whose businesses also include nuclear plants, also plans to build a new domestic factory to make LCD panels with total investment likely to be over 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion), a prefectural government official said on Friday.

Toshiba, the third most actively traded stock on Tokyo's main board on Friday, rose 0.7 percent to 441 yen outperforming a 0.7 percent decline in the benchmark Nikkei average.

The Nikkei business daily said Samsung, the most aggressive spender in memory chips with an 11 trillion won ($9.6 billion) investment budget for semiconductors alone this year, was chosen as it has advanced technologies and the ability to churn out large numbers of high-performance chips at low cost.

Samsung's system chips division has seen strong growth this year, driven by robust demand for mobile application processors and image sensors.

The division reported 4.8 trillion won revenue in the first nine months of 2010 versus 4.4 trillion won for all of 2009.

But the growing business still represents a small fraction of Samsung's overall semiconductor business, as its mainstay memory chip operation, ranked the world's largest, earned 20 trillion won revenue in the first nine months of 2010.

Revenue from foundry chipmakers, who produce chips on behalf of fabless companies such as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Nvidia, is set to rise by 42 percent this year to $28.9 billion this year and reach $33.7 billion next year, according to research firm iSuppli.

Taiwan's TSMC and UMC are the world's the two biggest foundry makers. Samsung is already in foundry chip production deals with other companies such as U.S.-based Xilinx.

Scientists can now control super-fast quantum computer

Scientists have reported a major achievement in the field of quantum computers – they have succeeded in controlling the building blocks of a future super-fast quantum computer.

Scientists from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology and Eindhoven University of Technology are now able to manipulate these building blocks (qubits) with electrical rather than magnetic fields.

A qubit is the building block of a possible, future quantum computer, which would far outstrip current computers in terms of speed. It can adopt the states ''0'' and ''1'' by using the spin of an electron, which is generated by spinning the electron on its axis.

Until now, the spin of an electron has been controlled by magnetic fields but can now be controlled by a charge or an electric field.

"These spin-orbit qubits combine the best of both worlds. They employ the advantages of both electronic control and information storage in the electron spin,” said Leo Kouwenhoven at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at TU Delft.

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Saturday, December 25, 2010