
Monday, November 29, 2010
The school of tomorrow

Sony launches world's first tilting TV

Electronics giant Sony has launched what is being billed as the world''s first television with a screen which can be tilted backwards, which the company says is optimum for comfortable viewing.
Apparently, a slight backwards lean of six degrees is now the best position for a TV set as many of us mount modern flat-screens on furniture a foot or two above the ground.
The new range can be slotted into the tilting position to achieve what its makers say is the optimum picture, as we slump down on our plush, comfortable sofas.
It comes as design experts say we are increasingly choosing glossy, shiny TV screens which complement our homes' style even when they are switched off, reports the Daily Mail.
The 'Monolithic' TV screens, priced at 1,300 pounds for a 40-inch screen, are available in state-of-the art 3D models, and can either be set up vertically or slotted to a six-degree backwards lean.
"Most people don't put their televisions at waist height any more, they set them up a foot or two off the ground, said Tim Page, Sony Europe's senior manager of technology marketing.
Sharp to launch 3D phones in India, China and U.S. in 2011

The world is taken over by 3D and its touching our lives through movies, TVs and now mobile phones. While 3D renders more life to everything its in, the glasses required to view a 3D image not only affects the fashion conscious, it also affects your comfort level. Now there is a solution to wearing the 3D glass woes as well.
Sharp, the Japanese electronic product manufacturer is launching a mobile phone with a 3D display screen. The catch here is that you won't require glasses to view the mobile screen. Sharp had released two such phones in the Japanese market in the recent past. And as per reports, Sharp will bring the handsets to India, U.S. and China markets in 2011.
The device runs on Android operating system (Froyo) with the screen used is the same as that used in Nintendo 3DS, displaying 3D content sans glasses. With a display screen size of 3.8 inch, the phones are powered by 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Sharp has named the models the Galapagos 003SH and 005SH. While the former has a 9.6MP camera, the latter has a QWERTY keyboard and an 8MP camera.
Motorola making available free Indian maps for Android- powered handsets

The owners of handsets like Milestone, Milestone XT720 and the Backflip can access any Indian map for acquiring information about cities, towns and villages spread across the country entirely because they function on Google’s mobile operating system. The Android powered Motorola handsets have been designed as the perfect travel companion.
Not just the cities, towns and villages but this feature also offers voice- guided street-level navigable MapmyIndia maps for users who require information about numerous lanes and major national and state highways of the country.
“We believe in offering the latest to our consumers in India. The new maps are more detailed and include information such as business districts, offices and market locations. Navigate on Motorola’s Android-powered handsets across 620 cities in India for a truly enjoyable experience,” remarked Faisal Siddiqui, Country Head, Motorola Mobility India.
The most attractive part of these Android powered handsets is that they can provide this navigation service without installation or data charges. The users just need to open Motorola’s MotoNav application for launching the maps on their systems. Any mobile network can be used and there is no requirement of a SIM card.
Notion Ink's, Adam tablet shows off its app on its blog

We've been waiting for the Notion Ink logo to debut, but it seems like it's run into a little problem. Apparently, some other company's registration page bears a very similar logo, and where the creator of the winning Notion Ink logo could not have seen this, the similarities are enough to give it a second thought.
Other details have been revealed about some of the Android-powered applications that will ship with the Adam, including GPS navigation software, email application, and file manager.
Little was said about the GPS navigation software. We know it will differ from the GPS navigation features baked into Android, but we're told little else. What we do know is that the GPS software has recently entered beta status and already speaks in 43 languages. Pretty impressive for beta, no? We can expect to see more languages added later on, hopefully.
The email application, Mail'd, will come with many features you're already used to seeing, and more. Some of these features include missing attachments, offline mode, and unsend an email. It's said that even more features will hit Mail'd come January, and you can expect to see things like how big an attachment within an email can be, email expiration times, and fixing the time of delivery of an email while in offline mode.
Another highlighted application is Sniffer, which is said to be an, "extremely fast and handy File Browser". This isn't the final version of the application, but the preview definitely showcases the panel feature that the Adam will boast, and it's looking pretty good.
The blog also gives some details concerning the Adam's screen, and some of the issues they've come across with the particular matte finish of the screen. These matte screens show degradation and displacement of green pixels, and the Notion Ink team have put forth major efforts to overcome this issue. We're told that we won't be disappointed. We hope not, especially since we've been waiting for some time now.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
India to develop electronic warfare system soon

India is developing its own radar-based electronic warfare system (EWS) with two test ranges in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to equip its armed forces for modern wars, a senior defence official said Wednesday.
"An indigenously developed radar-based EWS will be ready by 2013, with test ranges at Chitradurga in Karnataka and at Tandur near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh," state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief controller Prahlada said here.Cost of each test range is estimated to be about 200 crore.
Noting that modern day wars cannot be fought and won without EWS, Prahlada said the radar-based sophisticated communication system would use electromagnetic spectrum for attack, protection and warfare support to destroy the combat capabilities of an enemy.
"The prowess of electronic warfare system was amply demonstrated by the U.S. armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. A prototype EWS has been integrated with MiG-27 fighter for test flights," Prahlada said at the first India National Electronic Warfare workshop, organised by the India chapter of Association of Old Crows (AOC), based at Virginia in the U.S.The Chitradurga aeronautical test range, which will come up by 2012 at the DRDO's 4,000-acre campus in the state, about 200 km from Bangalore, will be used for communication-based EWS and the Tandur range will be used for non-communication EWS.
"The testing centres will be operational by 2012. As per the plan, EWS will be integrated with MiG-29, Jaguar, Sukhoi-MKI-30 of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas by 2011," Prahlada told about 300 delegates.
"Our goal is to develop the fourth-generation EWS by 2012 because without electronic warfare, you cannot win a war. Once you have it (EW capability), you have to test it, you can't wait for a war to test it," Prahlada added.The fourth-generation EWS is being developed by the state-run Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) and Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DERL).Once the air version of EWS is integrated and operational, the naval and army versions will be developed simultaneously.Currently, EW systems are being tested in the IAF range at Gwalior in central India.Stressing on greater self-reliance in production and procurement, the defence scientist said the country's defence research and development (R&D) establishments have been able meet about 50 percent of defence requirements indigenously and the target was to scale it up to 70 percent by 2020.
Army test-fires Agni-I as part of user trial

India on Thursday test-fired its Agni-I strategic ballistic missile, with a range of 700 km, as part of the Army’s user trial from the Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island off Orissa coast.The indigenously developed surface-to-surface single-stage missile, powered by solid propellants, was test-fired from a rail mobile launcher at 10.10 a.m. from launch pad-4 of the ITR, 100 km off the Orissa coast, defence sources said.User of the missile — the Strategic Force Command (SFC) of the Indian Army — as part of their training exercise, executed the entire launch operation with the logistic support provided by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) at the ITR, said a DRDO official.The missile has a highly specialised navigation system which ensures it reaches the target with a high degree of accuracy, he said.
The entire trajectory of the missile, which has an operational striking range of 700 km, was tracked by sophisticated radars and electro-optic telemetry stations located along the sea coast and two ships positioned near the impact point in the downrange area.Weighing 12 tonnes, the 15-metre-long Agni-1, which can carry payloads up to 1000 kg, has already been inducted into the Indian Army.Agni-1 was developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), the premier missile development laboratory of the DRDO in collaboration with the Defence Research Development Laboratory (DRDL) and Research Centre Imarat (RCI) and integrated by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad.The last trial of Agni-1 missile was successfully carried out on March 28, 2010 from the Wheeler Island.Since the missile has already been inducted into the Army, it is important to conduct user trials for training of defence personnel and improvement of their skills, sources said.