Windows 8 ARM support: A blow for Intel and a boon for NVIDIA

Now it is confirmed that Windows 8 will be supported by ARM processors. ARM processor, which is widely used in smartphones and tablets, is going to get a huge boost by this. With Microsoft announcing ARM based Windows 8; it is more or less guaranteed that it won’t go well with Intel. Microsoft’s move is clearly an indication of what is happening in the tablet PC market. Yes, Microsoft wants a share of the tablet PC market which is now dominated by ARM based devices.

 

Intel may be the topper in PC market, but ARM is the king of embedded devices. So, to have a stronghold in the embedded devices market, Microsoft needs the help of ARM. Intel is certainly reeling under the growth of tablet PCs and to add in salt to injury, here comes the move by Microsoft. It has to be said that, one of the major beneficiaries of this move will be NVIDIA. With their ARM-based Project Denver Chip which focuses on the production of CPUs based on ARM, NVIDIA CPUs are ready to hit the market this year itself. NVIDIA and Texas Instruments have already planned to put ARM-based chips in laptops to reduce the market share of Intel.

But Intel seems to be untouched by the event (or pretends to be). Intel CEO, Paul Otellini said, “We have always had to have the best chip to run on Microsoft software, when you have the best chip you win. It is not just the architecture that is important though as there is a vast library of legacy applications out there, supporting the x86 platform. In PCs the value of legacy in compatibility of the 6 million applications to billions of users is pretty substantial. I don’t think the users will easily walk away from that”.

What makes ARM different? Certainly, ARM provides more flexibility for tablet manufactures. Arm saves more power, which is ideal for portable devices. The pricing is more generous as compared to Intel. The x86 market is dominated by Intel only, so we are forced to buy what Intel offers and pays the price Intel asks for. On the other hand ARM processors are available from multiple suppliers, with new ones appearing all the time, fully able to compete.

I think Intel is having a hard time but will the reputation built over all these years go in vain? No, not really. With some improvement in their technology, Intel can make a strong comeback. The news is that Intel’s research team is now focusing on decreasing the power consumption. ARM is more than useful for iOS style applications but it is not suitable for running multiple apps at the same time, playing high resolution video games and last but not the least, high performance computing. ARM is not good for high end laptops which require high performance. That is where Intel scores, Intel chips are fully capable of operating under the above said conditions. ARM in PCs is now facing a similar challenge to x86 in handsets. The road to glory won’t be that easy.

You may also read: Windows 8 release date 
Microsoft Touch mouse versus Apple Magic mouse

Nokia Windows Phone 7 will be out in February

Nokia and Microsoft have already struck a deal early this year. The main motto behind this deal is to fight the ever increasing competition form Android and Apple. I feel it is a move more out of desperation than out of conviction. Nokia has already lost its command over US and Europe regions. The news coming out of emerging markets like India and China is not great as well. Reports from India say that Nokia has lost about 14% of the market share since 2008. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has already confessed to his employees saying ‘the company has been defeated by the smartphone technology from Apple and Android’. In a memo leaked to Engadget, Mr.Elop said, “It was unbelievable, that Nokia still doesn’t have a device to rival the iPhone, which first went on sale in 2007”. That says it all.

Amidst the rising demand to adopt Android, Nokia stood away from it saying that Android was not what they were looking for. Nokia is looking for long-term success than turning to Android for a short-term solution, which is why Nokia chose Microsoft. It is like building your own house other than just having a rented one. But will it be effective? It remains to be seen. As of now Nokia is looking for nothing less than a huge success because, if this one goes out of the hand, you might not see Nokia in the market 5 years from now. Another question is, what will they do with Symbian OS? It seems Nokia is facing a challenge of killing its own child for survival. Nokia has already outsourced the development of Symbian OS to Accenture in view of the Microsoft deal. Will there be more phones on Symbian? Well Nokia has not said anything about it.

The key features of the Nokia Microsoft deal are

1. Windows Phone 7 will be the OS for Nokia’s next generation smartphones. Nokia and Microsoft will jointly develop and market mobile applications.

2. With assistance in hardware design, language support and marketing strategies, Nokia will drive the market of Windows Phone 7 (I know Windows Phone 6.5 and earlier versions are terrible but Windows Phone 7 is better, I will be posting on it soon).

3. Nokia’s search engines will be powered by Bing and Nokia Maps will power Microsoft’s mapping services.

4. Windows applications like Office, Xbox Live will be available on Nokia smartphones.

5. Nokia stores will be integrated with Microsoft market place.

It seems to be more of a give and take policy between Nokia and Microsoft. I don't know how this will turn out.Personally, it is very disappointing to see the fall of Nokia. It was the best phone I have ever had. I owned 5 different handsets before and all of them had problems with battery backup but not Nokia. There is no substitute for Nokia’s quality and I really hope that Nokia will come out of this in flying colors. Nokia should release its new smartphones soon, before it is too late. News is that we won’t see a Nokia Windows Phone 7 before February next year. That is playing into the hands of Android and Apple.

Here is the video of the press conference

You may also read: Apple to release its iPhone 5 on Oct 4
                            Samsung Google Nexus Prime on Oct 27

Google Wallet arrives

Google has officially launched its mobile payment application, Google Wallet on Monday 19^th September. Even though, it was introduced in May, it really went live on Monday. With Google Wallet, you can say goodbye to jam-packed wallets. You will never have to carry your credit cards; you just need your smartphone for all your payments.

Google Wallet is a mobile payment application which is based on Near FieldCommunication (NFC) technology. All you need is to connect your credit card/prepaid card to Google Wallet and make payments using your cell phone. Use your phones other than swiping your credit cards; it is as simple as that. It works with any kind of Pay Pass merchants. Imagine you are in a taxi and you have to make your payment, all you need is to tap your phone and the payment is made.

See how it works

Google Wallet is currently available in New York and San Francisco. The only compatible handset is Samsung Nexus S 4G. All cards are not compatible with Google Wallet; right now it supports only Citi-MasterCards and the Google Prepaid Card. American Express, Visa and Discover has announced their agreement with Google, so more cards will be available soon. Google has also announced more handset support and the expansion of service to other cities as well.

 

The main issues that pop up related to Google Wallet will be about security and privacy. NFC is a proven technology and Google has added an additional security layer to it. So security is more or less guaranteed and Google is working more on it. In case if your phone is with someone else, he/she won’t be able to access Google Wallet without your secret code. Next is the privacy issue, Will Google track what you are buying? Not really, Google will only have a list of amount you have spent and also the location, both of which will be accessible to you only.

All in all it is a good idea to not having to carry around your wallet and credit cards. But is Google alone in this field? Not at all, NFC is a highly competitive market; Visa has been working on its own mobile Wallet apps for some time now. American Express and PayPal will join soon. But the real question is, Will it wipe out wallets from our pockets? No, not by any means, it may have some effect on how credit cards are used but not on wallets. For example, imagine you are at a restaurant with your friends; you want to buy a particular dish on equal shares. Then what will you do? Another instance, What if your phone is lost? No phone, no money; you are doomed.

You may also read: Facebook Versus Google plus: The pluses and minuses 
Controversial comment by Google engineer

Apple to release its iPhone 5 in late 2012

Any idea about the release of Apple iPhone 5? Latest news is that it will be about an year from now. When Apple called a press conference on 2011 Oct 4, everyone thought that it would be iPhone 5, but it turned out to be iPhone 4S. Very  disappointing indeed. To be honest I don't expect the release before November this year. Okay, enough of the rumors and speculations, let us now focus on the bigger deal, what can iPhone 5 offer its customers? I think the answer is a lot, a lot indeed. Now let us scroll through some of the expected features of iPhone 5.

Screen and Camera: The Apple iPhone 4 had a 3.5” screen but iPhone 5 will have a screen size of 4” or more, which is pretty much expected because of the competition from the smartphone market, especially from the Samsung Galaxy S III. It comes with a retina display similar to that of iPhone 4. Major facelift is for the camera, the 8MP camera from the iPhone 4S will give way for a 12MP camera with 1080p HD recording. Omnivision, the provider of Apple’s image sensors, recently got a bulk order for 12MP image sensors, which is a clear indication of what we can expect from iPhone 5. Moreover Apple has already filed several patent applications including the innovative 3D image capturing technology. So it would be fair to expect a 3D camera for iPhone 5. Its camera is capable of taking panorama pictures also.

Processor: iPhone 5 will be coming with quad core Apple A6 processor with amazing graphics. iPhone 5 will be supported by iOS 6 which comes with 200 additional features including the new notification bar. Another application is the iMessage, which will allow iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad users to communicate each other. iCloud service of Apple will allow the users to store photos, apps, calendars and documents online, which literally extends the memory storing capacity your iPhone. iPhone 5 is all set to have several other features such as Near Field Communication, Biometric Security etc.

So it concludes that, Apple will release its iPhone 5 on or before October 2012,with two available colors, black and white and with 3 memory variants 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Not sure about the pricing though, but it will be somewhere around US $900.

UPDATE 
Apple is going to release iPhone 5 on Spetember 12. Why iPhone 5 isn't great

You may also read:
Samsung Galaxy S4 To Be Released In June 2013
iPad 4 and iPad Mini Release Date
  Is Windows 8 better than iOS and Android?
UMSkinCheck The iPhone App For Self Skin Cancer Detection
Nokia Windows Phone 7 will be out in February 
Samsung Google Nexus Prime release on October 27th 
Microsoft Touch Mouse Versus Apple Magic Mouse 
No more Sony Ericsson, only Sony 
iPhone 4S Battery Drain Issue

Windows 8 to be released in late 2012

Microsoft has always tried to keep their product release dates top secret. But driven by extreme curiosity, some tech guys have somehow figured out the release date of Windows 8, the next mega release from Microsoft. With Windows 7 Service Pack 2 release yet to be announced, experts have difference of opinion about the exact release date. After the huge success of Windows 7 (selling more than 450 million copies worldwide and overtaking XP sales in US) it would be fair to expect the release of Service Pack 2 within the next six to eight months.

Microsoft normally follows a specific pattern for their product releases, rolling out new versions every two to three years and service packs every eighteen to twenty months. The inside news from Microsoft is that Windows 8 will be released somewhere in the last quarter of 2012. Windows 7 Service Pack 2 is expected to be released four to six months prior to the release of Windows 8. Now comes the big question, what can we expect from Windows 8? 

Windows 8 Developer Preview

 

The system requirements for Windows 8 will be more or less the same as that of Windows 7. It is quite obvious that Windows 8 will be faster and also consume lesser power. News is that, the boot time will be reduced considerably, as low as eight seconds and that is pretty cool for an Operating System.

One major difference from the other versions of Windows is that, it will be a hybrid Operating System. Windows 8 will be a tablet operating system and a desktop operating system at the same time or you can say that, it is an attempt on the part of Microsoft to keep up with the pace of the ever expanding tablet pc market. But there is nothing to worry for desktop users, as it comes with two separate desktop views for tablet users and desktop users. It comes with a touch screen UI along with conventional mouse and keyboard input. So the transition from traditional keyboard and mouse to touch screen will be easier. Windows 8 is supported by ARM processor widely used in smartphones and tablets.Windows 8 will have a variety of cloud applications on board and you can have cloud versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Word etc. The desktop icons will be replaced by tiles, which will provide a good preview of the apps.


It seems that Apple is setting the standards and Microsoft is following it. The reason I am saying this is that, Windows 8 is going to have an app store, much like Apple. In the app store you can find compatible softwares for Windows 8 other than searching individual sites for each and every software. In addition to that, Windows 8 will be having a data back up program similar to Apple’s ‘Time Machine’.

You may also read: Windows 8 ARM support: A blow for Intel 
Microsoft Touch Mouse Versus Apple Magic Mouse

Why the automobile world is sticking to fossil fuels?

Why the automobile world is sticking to fossil fuels? With all the pollution and rising price, you might be wondering why the world is reluctant to adopt alternative energy sources. There is no shortage for technology here; the shortage is only for practical ones. There are a variety of alternative energy sources like solar energy, electricity, hydrogen etc. Solar cars have been here since 1985, the first electric car was developed in 1974. Then why? Why is it taking this long for green cars to dominate our streets? The answer is simple; they are too good to be practical. Here I would like to discuss the cons of solar, electric and hydrogen cars.

Disadvantages of Solar cars

In Solar cars, the solar energy is converted to electricity by photovoltaic cells. It is good that you don’t have to stop at the gasoline station for refilling. But does it work that easily? Not really, it is only as long as the sun is out and for night riding, you need a battery back up. You can say that it has zero emission, but it lacks power. It will be long, before you can start dreaming of a 150 miles per hour solar car. The photovoltaic cells are very expensive and can heat up quickly, there by increasing the temperature inside the car.

Disadvantages of Electric cars

Electric cars have zero emission, but where does the electricity come from. It is a well known fact that most of the electricity comes from burning fossil fuels. Long trips on electric cars are practically impossible, because of the frequent charging required. Even if we can combat it with charging stations, it will take hours to recharge the battery. These batteries are quite heavy and are a real handicap as most of the power is used up for carrying the heavy battery. You can’t go beyond 80 miles per hour speed and quick acceleration or climbing is almost impossible. Each Li-ion battery costs around US $10,000 and has to be changed every 4 years.

Disadvantages of Hydrogen cars

Here is a video on how hydrogen cars work

Hydrogen cars work with the help of a fuel cell which converts hydrogen into electricity and giving off water and heat as byproducts. There is another kind of hydrogen car in which liquid hydrogen is filled in a tank just as we fill gasoline. Even though hydrogen has all the prospects of a future fuel, it has some hurdles to pass. First of all, it is very expensive to liquidize hydrogen. Hydrogen production cost is four times more than that of gasoline. Larger fuel tanks are required as hydrogen takes up more space than gasoline. So with a full hydrogen tank you can travel only half the distance as that of a full gasoline tank. Hydrogen is ten times more flammable than gasoline so high safety tanks should be used. This takes the cost even higher. More over, hydrogen filling stations are not common.

After going through all these technologies, I feel that Hybrid cars are our best bet right now. Hybrid cars come with gasoline and electric powered engines. The batteries get charged while breaking and coasting. It saves fuel by running on electric motor at very slow speeds and switches to gasoline engine while accelerating or climbing. It is basically a gasoline+electric car. Combining the advantages of both technologies make it perfect. But nothing comes without a price and price is what we all are worried about. Even though there are tax credits, the initial cost is almost double.

Here is a video on how Mercedez-Benz BlueTEC Hybrid car works

Why the world is sticking to fossil fuels? The answer is quite clear. Every technology has its own merits and demerits. A technology is accepted only when it comes with a higher number of merits and lesser number of demerits than the existing ones. Just like the digital cameras which replaced the old photographic films and cameras. Why gasoline became a success? Because it is a high energy source, efficient, affordable (not anymore) and is a direct fuel (it doesn’t require to be converted to another form of energy to be used as a fuel). I still believe that there is no better fuel than gasoline. Even though these cars cause pollution, there is no other option. I strongly believe that none of the above technologies will be the future fuel; they are just intermediate technologies, more like a bridge from one technology to another which come and disappear quickly like pagers. There is something big coming just like the cell phones.

IBM's cognitive chips: To emulate Human Brain

For the notice of all the people who thought technology and nature are like South Pole and North Pole, the tide is changing big time. The technology has grown to its ‘artificial limit’ now and is now searching for new areas to conquer. Technology is now clearly turning to nature for inspiration. I mean, we all know that there is no better camera than our eyes and there is no better supercomputer than our brains and that is what technology loves about nature. Nature always had the perfect equipment for a perfect job and that is exactly what technology is looking for.

Now here is one invention that is purely and clearly inspired by nature. IBM has developed innovative cognitive chips that can emulate human brains. Inspired by neurobiology, these chips can learn from mistakes and experiences, find correlations, create hypothesis and remember the outcomes or you can say, it can function like human brain. It is capable of finding the right answer, other than providing a list of possible answers. These neurosynaptic cognitive computing chips follow the same communication pattern as in between neurons and synapses in our body. This invention will surely see a change in the way how the chips are programmed. This will be the first small step in the evolution of computers from mere calculators to learning systems.

But still, we are a long way away from the ‘Human Like Robots’. Cognitive chips can work 'like' human brain not 'exactly like' human brain. Scientists say that it will take 20 more years to develop a robot that has a complete brain development of a 6 year old child. It took billions and billions of years for nature to make us the way we are now, so 20 years is not much. It is worth waiting.

Here is a video that explains cognitive computing

How Wikileaks work?

You might have read news articles published by wikileaks and you would have wondered how these guys get into these kinds of secret files. Yes, Wikileaks is beyond any doubt the ultimate news maker for years now. Even the Governments are helpless in this situation and all they could do is just watch and deny. Wikileaks is a unique success story and we all have the curiosity to know, how wikileaks works, who gives information to wikileaks and on whose money does wikileaks run?

What is Wikileaks?

Wikileaks is an organization which works primarily on publishing secret files and exposing unethical behaviors on the part of governments. Wikileaks was launched on October 4^th 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian internet activist. Julian Assange himself claims that he is not the owner of the site; instead he is just a member of the board of governors. Wikileaks describe themselves as an organization whose primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East, but also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.

Even though it started as a ‘wiki’ site (where the users can edit the information in the website), now it is not working that way. Wikileaks published their first document on December 2006, within a year they had 1.2 million documents on board and from there on, they never looked back.

How Wikileaks work?

Wikileaks is basically run by volunteers, hackers to be more precise. These ethical hackers crawl into government websites and gather confidential information. They are very good at bypassing security and can easily access secret information from secret cables. Communications are done by secret codes, so that others won’t get any idea about what they are dealing with.

If you have any confidential file and you want it to be public and at the same time you want to protect your personal identity, then wikileaks is your best bet. Wikileaks will never disclose their sources and that is why it is so popular. Ethical hackers are the blood and muscle of this organization. Wikileaks never take the information for granted. They will surely check for its credibility and will publish it only if they are sure about the information. Anyone can submit their secret files via post, electronic media or in person and wait for approval. Then wikileaks will send a team to verify the information and finally will approve or reject it.

Wikileaks operates from their servers situated in Sweden. Digital rights laws and privacy protection rights in Sweden are favorable for its operation. Wikileaks office in Sweden is an amazing art of construction, literally built inside a mountain. If you see it from outside, you will never believe that it is the office of an organization which has consistently produced secret information about governments all over the world.

                         Entrance of Wikileaks office, Sweden

                               Wikileaks office- Inside view

Who funds Wikileaks?

Wikileaks runs on the money from donations, mainly from foundations, newsgroups and private donors. In 2010 Pay Pal, the online money transfer giant froze wikileaks account, leading to a financial crisis in the organization.

You can find Wikileaks documents at http://wikileaks.org/

You may also read: Wikileaks shuts down

Facebook Versus Google: The pluses and minuses

Facebook versus Google Plus competition is the biggest talk of the internet world right now and very rightly so. Facebook and Google+ are desperately trying to attract users. Google launched its second social networking site after Orkut to counter the Facebook mania. Now it is all about LIKE Vs PLUS war.

Why is it such a big issue for Google?

The answer is very simple, the popularity of Facebook. Since its launch in 2004, Facebook had a solid and steady growth and now it has close to 600 million users world wide. Last year Facebook surpassed Google and became the most visited website in the world.

The success of a social networking site depends on how much time visitors spend on it and also on the entertainment options in it. That is exactly what Facebook is offering. The introduction of Facebook ads affected Google ads, which is the main income source of Google. You can’t blame businesses turning to Facebook ads, because it is a reasonable marketing technique to advertise in a place where people gather and Facebook has loads of it. All these things combined, prompted Google to launch Google Plus.

Now comes the real question, Is Google Plus better than Facebook or is it the other way around?

For that you will have to take into account a few things, some of them are;

1. Facebook is an established website. It has earned the trust of 600 million users and has been providing quality service. They have looked to improve their services by updating platforms. On the other hand, Google+ is a beta site and only invited members are allowed. Even though the site is limited to invitees only, it has created interest among the existing Facebook users. Google+ has already bagged 20 million users.

2. Standards: Facebook has already set high standards and others are playing the catching up game. Because Facebook is the benchmark, Google+ looks very similar to Facebook. Some even call it a ‘Facebook Clone’. But Google+ is a good catch for people who want the features of Twitter and Facebook combined, and that is where Google+ gets that extra point.

3. Privacy: It is definitely an issue with Facebook or you can say, that is the way it works. Your posts go public in Facebook. Google+ offers better privacy but Facebook lately has upgraded its privacy settings and now it is almost at par with Google+.

4. Chat: Facebook chat is useful and has now introduced video chat in association with Skype. But Google+ offers Google chat which is far superior and its video chat feature is supreme. But Google+ lacks a private messaging option and Facebook scores there.

5. Facebook is available for business groups and companies but Google+ is not available for non-individuals. What more to say, Google+ even denied access to IBNLive.com, Mashable and Ford.

6. Facebook friends lists seem a little unorganized, but Google+ circles are much better to organize your friends lists and it is much easier to understand.

7. Google+ allows direct access to Google, Gmail and other Google accounts and Facebook lacks this option. Moreover a lot of mobile applications will be available for

Google+ as it owns Android.

Conclusion: Facebook and Google+ have their own merits and demerits. Google is the internet giant but nobody knows social networking better that Facebook, so that makes the comparison trickier. Now the question is who will win this battle? Right now, it is hard to tell because you want a fight between equally strong people. You don’t want to see a fight between 7 year old kid and an infant, so let us just wait for some time. One thing is sure, Google+ is going to challenge Facebook big time, but Facebook won’t go down without a fight.

You may also read: Google wallet arrives 
Controversial comment by Google engineer 
Beware!! Facebook Is Spying You