Technology News

India launches world’s cheapest tablet PC

The world’s cheapest tablet PC, priced at around Rs. 1,200, will now be available to students in the country as part of the government’s programme to expand education through information technology.

The tablet PC, named Aakash, will cost the government Rs. 2,276. It will be given to students after subsidising the price by up to 50 per cent, Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said on Wednesday while unveiling the device in New Delhi.

“The tablet is for Rs. 2,276 which includes taxes and cost of transportation. The government will provide subsidy of 50 per cent to institutes buying it. It will cost around Rs. 1,100-Rs 1,200 to institutes,” Mr. Sibal said.

An initial order of 1 lakh devices has been placed with device maker Datawind, Mr. Sibal said. The procurement order will be scaled up later with an aim to bringing down prices further, he added.

“If 10 lakh pieces are ordered, then it will be priced at Rs. 1,750 (cost to the government) which will include transportation cost and vendor’s profit as well. So, I have fulfilled my promise of USD 35 tablet,” Mr. Sibal said.

Mr. Sibal said he will ask telecom vendor ITI to manufacture it and will seek support of other industry players to scale up the production and reduce costs. 

Features

• Unbeatable Price:
  • Only Rs.2,999 for the UbiSlate
  • Monthly internet charges: Rs.98 / 2GB
• High Quality Web Anytime & Anywhere:
  • Connect via GPRS or WiFi
  • GPRS: Embedded modem eliminates the need for external dongles and allows Internet access everywhere
  • WiFi: Allows fast Youtube videos at hotspots
  • Fast web access even on GPRS networks, across the country using DataWind’s patented acceleration technology
  • Web, Email, Facebook, Twitter and much much more!
• Multimedia Powerhouse:
  • HD Quality Video
• Watching movies in the palm of your hand on a 7” screen
  • Audio library software helps manage your full collection of songs
• Applications Galore with Android 2.2:
  • Games
  • Productivity software: Office suite
  • Educational software
  • Over 150,000 apps!
• Full sized-USB port & Micro-SD slot:
  • Expand memory to 32GB
  • Use any ordinary pen-drive
  • Even plug-in a 3G dongle

Sports +ve

It'll be the biggest day of my racing career: Narain  

Rating racing before a home crowd over other milestones, Narain Karthikeyan says getting to drive an F-1 car in the Indian GP would be “the biggest day in my racing career”. The HRT driver, who has been confirmed to race for his team in place of Daniel Ricciardo at Noida later this month, was speaking at ‘Vista', a business festival organised by IIM, Bangalore.

“Driving in the Indian Grand Prix will be great,” he said. “I will be driving in front of my home crowd and there will be a lot of support. I can say that it will be the biggest day in my racing career. Those three days will be special.”

HRT is yet to win a point this season and Narain remained pragmatic about the team's chances in India. “Expectations will be high but HRT is a small team and it is hard for us to get a point,” he said. “So we can't really set a target but we will fight it out and we need to get to the finishing line. Other than that, I will enjoy the race.”

The 34-year-old said he felt the Indian GP would heighten Formula One's popularity in the country. “There are enough fans in India and it is well-followed,” he said. “I hope this will give motorsport a boost and also exposure and publicity. It will help us and the next generation because a lot of corporates are involved.”

Narain had returned behind the wheel of his HRT car for Friday practice at Singapore, having not driven since the German GP in July. He will get another similar run-out at the Japanese GP this weekend.

“The session at Singapore went well,” he said. “It has been about two and a half months since Nürburgring. It is a matter of getting the rhythm back for me. I can then be well-prepared for the race in India. The maximum one can get during a practice session is about 25 laps.

“The idea is to get as much track time and as many miles as possible. Driving in Singapore was great because it is a unique track with few corners but the one at Japan is different.”

Technology News

NASA Space Telescope Finds Fewer Asteroids Near Earth   New observations by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, show there are significantly fewer near-Earth asteroids in the mid-size range than previously thought. The findings also indicate NASA has found more than 90 percent of the largest near-Earth asteroids, meeting a goal agreed to with Congress in 1998.Astronomers now estimate there are roughly 19,500 -- not 35,000 -- mid-size near-Earth asteroids. Scientists say this improved understanding of the population may indicate the hazard to Earth could be somewhat less than previously thought. However, the majority of these mid-size asteroids remain to be discovered. More research also is needed to determine if fewer mid-size objects (between 330 and 3,300-feet wide) also mean fewer potentially hazardous asteroids, those that come closest to Earth. The results come from the most accurate census to date of near-Earth asteroids, the space rocks that orbit within 120 million miles (195 million kilometers) of the sun into Earth's orbital vicinity. WISE observed infrared light from those in the middle to large-size category. The survey project, called NEOWISE, is the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission. Study results appear in the Astrophysical Journal. "NEOWISE allowed us to take a look at a more representative slice of the near-Earth asteroid numbers and make better estimates about the whole population," said Amy Mainzer, lead author of the new study and principal investigator for the NEOWISE project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's like a population census, where you poll a small group of people to draw conclusions about the entire country." WISE scanned the entire celestial sky twice in infrared light between January 2010 and February 2011, continuously snapping pictures of everything from distant galaxies to near-Earth asteroids and comets. NEOWISE observed more than 100 thousand asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, in addition to at least 585 near Earth. WISE captured a more accurate sample of the asteroid population than previous visible-light surveys because its infrared detectors could see both dark and light objects. It is difficult for visible-light telescopes to see the dim amounts of visible-light reflected by dark asteroids. Infrared-sensing telescopes detect an object's heat, which is dependent on size and not reflective properties. Though the WISE data reveal only a small decline in the estimated numbers for the largest near-Earth asteroids, which are 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) and larger, they show 93 percent of the estimated population have been found. This fulfills the initial "Spaceguard" goal agreed to with Congress. These large asteroids are about the size of a small mountain and would have global consequences if they were to strike Earth. The new data revise their total numbers from about 1,000 down to 981, of which 911 already have been found. None of them represents a threat to Earth in the next few centuries. It is believed that all near-Earth asteroids approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers) across, as big as the one thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs, have been found."The risk of a really large asteroid impacting the Earth before we could find and warn of it has been substantially reduced," said Tim Spahr, the director of the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. The situation is different for the mid-size asteroids, which could destroy a metropolitan area if they were to impact in the wrong place. The NEOWISE results find a larger decline in the estimated population for these bodies than what was observed for the largest asteroids. So far, the Spaceguard effort has found and is tracking more than 5,200 near-Earth asteroids 330 feet or larger, leaving more than an estimated 15,000 still to discover. In addition, scientists estimate there are more than a million unknown smaller near-Earth asteroids that could cause damage if they were to impact Earth. "NEOWISE was just the latest asset NASA has used to find Earth's nearest neighbors," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near Earth Object Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The results complement ground-based observer efforts over the past 12 years. These observers continue to track these objects and find even more." WISE is managed and operated by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at the University of California, Los Angeles. The WISE science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing occur at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology.

Technology News

Apps to Survive TRAI's SMS Cap

Bangalore: Should we really feel disappointed with TRAI's limitation on SMS? The answer is "NO". There is always a solution for everything. Similarly, to avoid this restriction of 100 SMSes per day for each SIM card, listed below are a few practical and handy apps for your phone, that help you be connected for ever and a day. WhatsAppLacking qualm, it's the best available IM App for any policy! The mobile number is your login ID and a nickname to keep your friends closer. Friends from your address book that are using WhatsApp are positioned in the Favorites category. You can have simple and clean text chats, share pictures, videos, voice recordings, and your location on a map. Although paid on iOS, it is liberated on platforms like Blackberry, Android, Symbian, and Windows Phone 7 Mango. Fring-The great way to stay connected to your buddies is through Fring. It's available for iOS, Symbain and Android for free. You can have an access to video chats or group video chats, live chats and voice chats. All you need to do is just register for an account and link your GTalk, AIM, ICQ or MSN accounts to it and get started. It can be downloaded from your phone App Store, or head on to m.fring.com! Kik Messenger-Available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7, Kik Messenger has over 4 million users. It has features like real-time chatting which informs you whe n a message has been sent, read, and even when the opposite person is typing. You can also share pictures, and even have group chats. You have to create a username and login, and then add those of your friends that are using Kik Messenger, and get going. eBuddyeBuddy is an awesome messenger that allows chat on Facebook, AIM, Yahoo!, GTalk, MSN and ICQ. It can be downloaded for free from the iOS App Store, Android Market, and Nokia Ovi Store. For other phones like Blackberry, you can check out get.ebuddy.com for the download. One more fact about eBuddy is that it also has a web messanger that allows you to chat directly from your phone's web browser Meebo-Meebo, available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry, comes free of cost. Alike eBuddy, it also has a web chat feature. The platforms that do not have the app av ailable can log on to meebo.com/mobile and chat. Meebo allows you to chat on Facebook, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo!, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. It can be easily downloaded from the respective App Stores. NimbuzzNimbuzz is software that links you to friends via the internet. The finest part is, even a low-end phone can run the service. You need to just Log in and you will be flooded with multiple options. Chat using text messages, make phone calls or send pictures and multimedia files, all this for free. All you need to pay is the internet usage charged by your telecom provider. Cnectd-Cnectd works on BlackBerry, Symbian, iPhone and Android phones. It can be downloaded from cnectd.getjar.com. The software uses very little of your phone's me mory yet the user interface are very refined, almost like BlackBerry Messenger. http://www.siliconind