Now it's possible to lift fingerprints off fabrics

Lifting fingerprints off fabrics may now be possible for crime investigators -- thanks to a path-breaking research.

A technique known as vacuum metal deposition (VMD) relying on gold and zinc to recover fingerprints from fabrics, is being examined by researchers from Scotland's University of Abertay, Dundee, and the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA).

VMD is a highly sensitive technique already used in detecting fingerprint marks on smooth surfaces such as carrier bags, plastics and glass, according to an Abertay statement.

Joanna Fraser, forensic researcher at Abertay, said: "The research uses fine layers of metals to display fingerprints people may have left on fabrics, something which is far harder to do with soft surfaces."

Paul Deacon, fingerprint unit manager at the SPSA and a project expert, said: "Such an impression could help the police piece together a timeline of events and could be used to provide evidence in cases where someone was pushed, or grabbed..."

"For example, an impression of a palm print on the back of someone's shirt might indicate he was pushed off a balcony, rather than jumping," Deacon said.

"Fingerprints left on fabrics and other surfaces can leave DNA traces, so it can also help forensic scientists to visualise the best area to target on an item of clothing to recover DNA evidence."

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Software to give 3D image of looks post-plastic surgery

A new software, based on real clinical data, will give patients a more accurate 3D before-and-after picture, before the scalpel comes down in a cosmetic surgery.

Alex Bronstein of Tel Aviv University's department of electrical engineering and his partners have built a tool that can generate an anatomically accurate after-surgery image.

With the help of experienced plastic surgeons, the tool can work like an engine to retrieve geometric objects in the same manner Google retrieves web pages, according to a Tel Aviv statement.

It helps patients avoid unexpected results in the plastic surgeon's office, and can also help a surgeon determine the most favourable outcome for the patient.

"Our program is more like a virtual mirror. It gives surgeons and their patients a way to see a 3D before-and-after image as though the patient has really undergone the operation," says Bronstein.

Apple to Tighten Control on Content

Apple Inc. is working to funnel more electronic sales of magazines, newspapers and other content through its iTunes store, an effort that is making some publishers uneasy.

The effort is aimed largely at spurring more subscription sales of digital content for Apple's hit iPad, which the company hopes to accelerate with the aid of a coming new delivery and billing system that it discussed at an event Wednesday. At the same time, Apple is tightening enforcement of a rule governing how some apps for the iPad must handle sales, a shift that affects online books as well as other electronic publications.

Apple's moves are a hot topic, in part because they could require publishers to share revenue from some content with the Silicon Valley company for the first time. The hardware maker also could require that publishers forgo collecting valuable subscriber data they rely on to market their products, an issue that has emerged as a sticking point in discussions with publishers, people familiar with the matter say.

So far, Apple has announced only one customer for the forthcoming content delivery and billing system: News Corp., which is using it for The Daily, a long-anticipated digital publication for tablets that made its debut Wednesday.

Smartphone squint causes premature wrinkles

Wrinkles may be a sign of approaching middle age but younger women now have a reason to worry - the smartphone squint.

Many of them are developing premature wrinkles from staring at their smartphones, says London-based anti-ageing expert Jean-Louis Sebagh.

He said peering at a small screen causes facial strain, around and between the brows.

Sebagh, who treats celebrities like Cindy Crawford, said the phenomenon "can be seen on anyone who has and regularly checks a BlackBerry or iPhone".

"It's easily rectified with the light use of Botox by an experienced doctor," said an Evening Standard report quoting the expert, according to the Daily Mail.

London beauty therapist Nichola Joss has also noticed the phenomenon among her customers.

Joss said: "I've noticed a huge difference over the past 18 months in my clients' faces - it's the constant peering intently down at that mini screen. It's the same with an iPhone."

Smartphone-related wrinkles are the latest condition that doctors attribute to overuse of technology. Others include 'BlackBerry thumb' - a form of repetitive strain injury caused by excessive texting.

Another is 'computer vision syndrome' - dry eyes caused by computer users failing to blink enough when staring at a screen for long periods.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Sony Q3 profit drops as TVs erase gaming gains

Japan's Sony Corp posted a 5.9 percent fall in third-quarter profit on Thursday as a price war hit its TV unit and a stronger yen weighed, and lowered its revenue forecast on slower-than-expected TV sales.

The consumer electronics giant, which competes with Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics in televisions and Canon Inc and Nikon in digital cameras, has been struggling to keep pace with rivals in terms of profits and products.

Since CEO Howard Stringer took the helm in 2005, the company's share price has fallen by a quarter and Sony has failed to replicate its early successes with iconic products such as the Walkman and PlayStation game console.

Sony reported an operating profit of 137.52 billion yen ($1.68 billion) versus 146.1 billion yen in the same period a year earlier, beating an average quarterly estimate of 127 billion yen in a poll of eight analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"In this strong-yen environment we see this as a pretty healthy result," Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato told reporters.

"We are getting stronger, but we feel we are still only partway there," he added.

The maker of Vaio PCs and Bravia TVs left its full-year operating profit forecast unchanged at 200 billion yen, compared with a consensus estimate of 217 billion yen in a poll of 23 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Smartphones to run operators into the red in 3 years

Rocketing smartphone use could drive mobile operators into losses in three years unless they rapidly adopt technology to capture more revenue from data services, a US network company said Thursday.

Rising investment costs to handle exploding data traffic combined with lower revenue per unit of data could begin to drive some operators into the red in as soon as two years, Tellabs said it calculated based on independent analyst data.

"Carriers can spend themselves bankrupt well before users run out of hunger for capacity," said Tellabs chief executive Rob Pullen.

"Our study shows that simply adding dumb capacity is unsustainable. To avoid the 'end of profit', carriers must bring intelligence to their networks -- it is critical to carrier survival," he was quoted as saying in a statement.

A number of industry players expect mobile data traffic, driven mostly by smartphones , to nearly double each year for the next several years.

While operators are investing heavily to add capacity and roll out fourth-generation networks, they are having difficulty earning money from data transfer and forecasts see falling revenue per unit of data transferred if current trends continue.

Dozens of companies such as Tellabs are offering mobile operators solutions to manage network traffic, reducing needed investments and opening possibilities to capture more revenue through priority services.

Aegis to hire 11,000 people globally in FY12

Aegis, the BPO arm of USD 15-billion Essar Group , today said it plans to add about 11,000 people globally, including India , during the financial year 2011-12.

Aegis has more than 50,000 employees across 11 countries. "Globally, we should add 11,000 people by March 2012," Aegis MD and Global CEO Aparup Sengupta said here.

He, however, declined to comment on country-specific details.

The company serves verticals such as BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), telecom, retail, healthcare, travel and hospitality, consumer goods and technology.

Aegis has recently bagged a contract worth USD 2 billion from Saudi Telecom for managing the customer care operations of the telecom firm.

As part of the deal, Aegis and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) will form an equal stake joint venture 'Contact Centre Company (CCC)' to provide customer care services to over 28 million STC customers in Saudi Arabia .

In the first phase, STC would transfer about 550 agents across two centres in Riyadh and Jeddah and the remaining 4,500 STC customer care agents would become part of the Aegis family over the next 18-24 months.

Sengupta had said the company will ramp up the CCC team to 10,000 in next two years.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Strong IP regime will benefit Indian economy: Microsoft

Expressing hope the software piracy rate in India will come down in coming years, a top Microsoft official has said a strong intellectual property rights regime will be critical and beneficial to growth of the country's economy.

"Developing a strong IP regime is critical (for India's growth). It is fundamental to the Indian government and economic growth. IP protection ends up being good for the country's own economic development, for tax revenues, for driving a culture of innovation, of invention and of creativity...," Microsoft Associate General Counsel (Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting) David Finn told PTI here.

Estimates show that software piracy rate in India is around 65 per cent. Globally, counterfeiting and piracy activities cause billions of dollars worth of economic losses and affect millions of jobs.

"I am very optimistic and am encouraged by what I have seen in India... The piracy rate will reduce and I am optimistic that the piracy rate will continue to come down in India, both because of some of the positive signs I have seen and also because ultimately strong IPR protection helps the Indian government and the Indian economy," he said.

Describing the menace of software piracy as a "challenging and complex problem", Finn noted that there are many kinds of piracy in India, including hard disc loading and underlicensing.

Google unveils Android software to run on tablets

Google Inc has fixed some shortcomings in its tablet computer strategy, as the Internet search giant steps up efforts to break into a nascent market dominated by Apple.

Google showcased on Wednesday the first version of its Android software designed to run on tablets with larger screens and greater computing horsepower, allowing for a sleeker and theoretically faster interface with built-in video conferencing.

The company also introduced a new way for developers to make money by building applications that run on Android.

The changes ratchet up the competition in the fast-growing tablet PC market, for which Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft are also developing rival software.

Analysts said "Honeycomb", while addressing a couple perceived flaws in the operating system when used for tablets as opposed to smartphones, was unlikely to immediately shift the balance of power.

"It closed the gap quite a bit," said BGC analyst Colin Gillis. But, he said "there was nothing there that was going to make me wait in line overnight," referring to the lines of customers who waited outside retail stores when Apple introduced the iPad in April.

Unreleased Apple iPad spotted at News Corp event

Spotted at Rupert Murdoch's splashy digital newspaper launch on Wednesday: a prototype of Apple's newest iPad.

A Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the debut of News Corp's Daily online paper in New York on Wednesday.

A source with knowledge of the device confirmed its existence, adding that the final release model could have other features. News Corp and Apple declined to comment.

The next version of Apple's popular tablet computer is expected to be announced in the next few months.

Manufacturing sources have said it will sport two cameras -- one in the front and one in the back -- enabling users to make video calls.

News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch along with Apple executive Eddy Cue unveiled the Daily, a digital newspaper created from scratch for the iPad at a press conference in New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim museum.

First iPad newspaper debuts at 14 cents/day

A daily newspaper designed by News Corp. exclusively for Apple's iPad is available for $40 annually, comparable to what some big-city publishers charge monthly to deliver their print editions.

The digital newspaper, called The Daily, debuted Wednesday in Apple Inc.'s App Store. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch unveiled it in New York after weeks of anticipation.

The Daily is the latest example of how media companies are trying to mine the iPad's popularity for new streams of revenue. Last month, a company backed by The New York Times Co., The Washington Post Co. and USA Today publisher Gannett Co. launched Ongo, a website that, for $7 a month, pulls together stories from various outlets in one place and lays them out in a clean, ad-free format.

Newspaper publishers are especially desperate because the print advertising revenue they have traditionally relied upon has been falling for the past four years.

News Corp. hasn't been as hard hit as many publishers, mostly because it can fall back on revenue coming from its ownership of the Fox television network and the 20th Century Fox movie studio. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal, one of the few newspapers able to sell a large number of digital subscriptions.

HP to offer refund for PCs with flawed Intel chip

Hewlett-Packard Co will offer a refund to customers who bought personal computers that use Intel Corp's flawed chips, though the company said only a "small fraction" of its PCs were affected.

HP, the world's largest PC vendor, said customers can return their PC and either "choose a comparable product" or receive a refund.

Intel said Monday it had found a defect in chips used with its new Sandy Bridge line of processors. The company said the defect was discovered after it shipped more than 100,000 of the chips to computer makers.

In a statement on Wednesday, HP said the chip flaw affects only a small fraction of PCs sold or ordered since Jan. 9, when the Intel technology became available commercially.

HP said certain consumer desktops and laptops were affected, along with one commercial desktop PC model sold to small-business customers in the Europe-Middle East-Africa market.

Apple to start Verizon iPhone sales Feb 9

Apple Inc said on Wednesday that it would kick off online sales of the Verizon Wireless iPhone on Feb 9, a day before the device hits its store shelves.

Electronics retailer Best Buy Co Inc also said on Wednesday that it, too, would distribute the new version of iPhone 4 in its stores starting on Feb. 10, the device's official launch day. It already sells earlier iPhone models.

Verizon Wireless will start online sales of a limited number of iPhones to its existing mobile customers starting at 3 a.m. ET Feb. 3 for delivery on or before Feb 10.

Apple said people ordering the phone on Feb. 9 can have it delivered or reserve it for an in-store pickup Feb. 10, when both companies plan to start offering the phone in their stores a 7 am local time.

Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, will be the second U.S. operator to offer iPhone after AT&T Inc's more than three years of exclusive rights to the popular device.

Best Buy shares were up 0.8 percent at $34.69 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where Verizon was down 0.7 percent at $36.01 and AT&T fell 0.6 percent to $27.70. Apple was down 0.3 percent at $344.10 on Nasdaq.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Internet runs out of IP addresses as devices grow

The spread of Internet use in Asia and the proliferation of Internet-connected phones world-wide are causing the Internet to run out of numerical addresses, which act as “phone numbers” to ensure that surfers reach websites and e-mails find their destination.

The top-level authority that governs such addresses will distribute the last batches on Thursday, two people with knowledge of the situation said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement wasn’t planned until Thursday.

That doesn’t mean consumers will suddenly find websites unreachable, though. And if everything goes according to plan, Internet users won’t even notice.

“It will just be ‘business as usual’ if everyone gets their job done,” said John Curran, CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, or ARIN, one of five regional groups that dole out such addresses. ARIN covers the US, Canada and the Caribbean.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the top-level administrator of the system, has called a press conference in Miami on Thursday. One person said its last five “blocks” of Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses will be distributed then. These blocks, each with 16.8 million addresses, will be distributed to the regional registries.

WikiLeaks among nominees for Nobel Peace Prize

Anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks has been nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian politician behind the proposal said on Wednesday, a day after the deadline for nominations expired.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee accepts nominations for what many consider as the world's top accolade until February 1, although the five panel members have until the end of the month to make their own proposals.

Norwegian parliamentarian Snorre Valen said WikiLeaks was "one of the most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency" in the 21st century.

"By disclosing information about corruption, human rights abuses and war crimes, WikiLeaks is a natural contender for the Nobel Peace Prize," Valen said.

Members of all national parliaments, professors of law or political science and previous winners are among those allowed to make nominations. The committee declined to comment on the WikiLeaks proposal or any other nominations.

Programmeable logic devices propel technology research

It’s not just the BMWs and Audis which flaunt hi-tech display panels that get upgraded every season to cater to their high-heeled clientele. Very soon, bullock-cart drivers can have a sensor panel attached to the yoke of their bullocks that can track the load the cart is carrying.

This Rs 50 basic device beeps if the animal goes off the road and a small display panel gives back-up information on how much load the cart has been carrying over the last few trips. This device is not ready yet but will hit the market shortly, says Neeraj Paliwal, vice-president and country manager of NXP India, a semiconductor major.

With tech firms stepping up their research pitch to accommodate innovative features, the semiconductor industry is seeing a rush in demand, specially for chips crucial for research – the PLDs.

PLDs or programmeable logic devices are building blocks on which researchers designing 3D TVs, mobile phones and satellites mount innovative features. What differentiates this from conventional chips is that it can be customised. “These chips are used in infrastructure upgrades and new applications. We have been seeing an increase in demand in emerging markets,” says Neeraj Varma, country manager (sales), Xilinx India.

Analysts tracking this sector say that an increase in demand for PLD chips is a sign of growing research activity in the technology sector. $2.4-billion Xilinx, which commands more than 50% of the global market share for PLDs, has seen chip sales revenue grow from $415 million in Q2FY10 to $620 million in Q2FY11 — a 50% spurt.