Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Apple apologizes for slowing iPhone, drops battery prices

Friday, December 29th, 2017

Apple has apologized to customers for how it rolled out an update that can slow down older iPhones. It is offering cheaper battery replacements to make up for it.

In a lengthy message posted on its site Thursday, the company gave an in-depth explanation for the controversial update. To make amends, Apple will temporarily drop the price of replacement batteries to $29 starting in late January. The price will go back up to the usual $79 in 2019.

Customers are upset with the company over a software update that deliberately slowed down older phones in some situations to extend battery life. Some thought it was a ploy to get people to upgrade to new devices. A number of people have filed lawsuits over the feature and are seeking class action status.

The feature will stay on phones, but Apple says an upcoming iOS update will “?give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery.” It did not say if it will give them the ability to turn the feature off or on. (more…)

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7 Top Science and Tech Stories of 2017

Wednesday, December 27th, 2017

An artist’s illustration depicts Cassini as it begins to burn up in Saturn’s atmosphere.

Keeping up with new developments in science, tech, and innovation during 2017 was a bit like trying to tread water during a tsunami.

From a dramatic solar eclipse and breathtaking advances in gene-editing technology to the detection of ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein more than a century ago, the stories just kept coming. Here’s a recap of seven we deem especially noteworthy.

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Distant, ancient galaxy that helped form universe discovered

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

A hunt for galaxies that brought the toddler universe out of its dark ages has bagged what may be the most distant specimen yet discovered, a galaxy seen as it was more than 13 billion years ago when it was just 200 million years old.

The galaxy, which was found using data from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, is seen when the universe was only 500 million years old.

A munchkin by today’s standards, the galaxy’s mass was 200 million times the mass of the sun, compared with 700 billion solar masses for the Milky Way or 10 billion solar masses for the Milky Way’s smaller companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

But the newly discovered galaxy’s age – and the preponderance of hot, massive stars it hosted – place it among a category of objects that researchers say helped convert a fog of neutral hydrogen gas permeating the ancient universe into the transparent cosmos we see today.

The process, known as re-ionization, is thought to have started around 400 million years after the Big Bang, a sudden release of an enormous amount of energy that cosmologists have tagged as the birth of the universe.

Over the next 600 million years, stars and galaxies formed and the universe continued to expand. Radiation from the first generations of stars – and particularly from emissions stemming from the actions of super-massive black holes at the hearts of the rising number of growing galaxies – ionized the intergalactic hydrogen, in effect lifting the fog.

Relics of this period, 13-billion-year-old stars, populate the halo of the Milky Way, notes Wei Zheng, an astronomer at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the lead author of a formal report of the discovery, which is being published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. (more…)

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Facebook summons Wall Street for pre-IPO briefing

Friday, March 16th, 2012

Facebook Inc is taking the next step on its IPO journey and has summoned research analysts from Wall Street banks to its Menlo Park headquarters early next week for a pre-roadshow briefing to discuss the finer points of its business and books.

The world’s largest social network, which is racing toward what would be Silicon Valley’s largest ever initial public offering, will not disclose new information during the meeting with analysts.

Instead, it will outline its strategy and answer questions on how to analyze its operations and help analysts build models on its financials, two sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the meeting is not public.

Called a “due diligence meeting”, such pre-roadshow pow-wows are standard fare for future debutantes.

It is not clear how many analysts have been invited. One source said analysts from five to 10 of the largest banks underwriting Facebook’s IPO will likely attend the meeting.

A second source said analysts from most banks helping underwrite the offering have been invited to the meeting, scheduled for Monday. Both sources would not elaborate because of the conditions of the presentation. (more…)

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South Korean Schools To Be Digital By 2015

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Even in a country that has some of the fastest broadband services in the world and has established a global reputation for embracing technology, the national drive to replace all printed primary (elementary) education material with digital content is truly ambitious.

By 2015, the entire school-age curriculum will be delivered on an array of computers, smart phones and tablets, and the government is going to spend $2.4 billion buying them.

And given the choice of Apple’s iPad and the local Samsung tablets, it isn’t hard to see who is favorite to land the deal.

Some schools on the peninsula are already using textbooks displayed on notebook computers, but when it comes to choice of tablets, how likely is it that the government will choose the iPad or any other tablet other than those manufactured by South Korean electronics giant Samsung, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab or some larger variant of it?

It is a fascinating experiment, and hugely audacious. But Korea regularly ranks highly in international education comparison. Just last month, Korea came top in an OECD survey testing how 15-year olds use computers and the Internet to learn. (more…)

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NASA to Announce Shuttle Retirement Homes Today

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

NASA’s chief Charlie Bolden will be at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday to announce where the space shuttles will spend their retirements.

The 30-year-old shuttle program is ending this summer after two final flights to deliver a Hubble-class science instrument, known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, and a year’s worth of supplies to the International Space Station. Though budget uncertainties have kept NASA from moving forward with a follow-on program, the shutdown of the shuttles remains on track.

Competition to house a retired spaceship has been keen. I’m not a gambler, but the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center is an obvious pick. Why else would Bolden make his announcement here?

The fleet leader, Discovery, which completed its final spaceflight last month, is promised to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, which plans to showcase the ship at its Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. In exchange, the Smithsonian will give up its shuttle prototype, called Enterprise.

So the only real question is who gets the third shuttle and who gets the consolation prize, Enterprise? NASA says 21 institutions submitted proposals. They include the visitor center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA’s human space flight hub; New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum; the Museum of Flight in Seattle; and the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, located outside of Dayton, Ohio. (more…)

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Intel Takes on ARM with New ‘Oak Trail’ Atom Platform

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Intel’s roll out of its “Oak Trail” Atom platform is the first move in an aggressive strategy to take on ARM-based chips in the highly lucrative smartphone and tablet markets.

After more than a year of saber-rattling, Intel officials have taken a significant step in their push into the mobile device space and in ramping up the competition with ARM Holdings, whose chip designs are found in most smartphones and tablets.

At the Intel Developer Forum in China April 11, Intel officials unveiled its “Oak Trail” Atom platform, including the new Atom Z670. They also gave attendees a peak at the next Atom platform, dubbed “Cedar Trail,” a 32-nanometer platform that will extend Intel’s reach into a market that the giant chip maker has little if any presence.

The officials said the Oak Trail chips will begin appearing in tablets in May, and that in all, more than 35 designs will start appearing from OEMs like Lenovo, Fujitsu, Evolve III, Motion Computing and Razer, running a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Android and MeeGo.

Executives from Intel, the world’s largest chip maker and the long-time dominant vendor in the server and PC markets, hopes that Oak Trail and later Cedar Trail will help the company fulfill the promise of President and CEO Paul Otellini, who said during the IDF in September 2010 that Intel would become a major player in the burgeoning tablet space. (more…)

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Microsoft, Google tussle over government contract

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Microsoft fired a broadside at Google in a battle over a US government contract, accusing its rival of issuing misleading claims.

Google rejected the charges by the Seattle-based software giant in the legal tussle over a nearly $60 million contract with the US Department of Interior.

Microsoft said documents unsealed in the court case showed that “Google Apps for Government,” Google’s Internet-based suite of office tools, had not been certified under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

“Given the number of times that Google has touted this claim, this was no small development,” Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard said in a blog post. “It’s time for Google to stop telling governments something that is not true.”

FISMA lays out the security standards for information management systems such as email.

Google and Onix Networking Corp., a reseller of Google products, filed suit against the US government last year claiming the terms for the Department of Interior contract favored Microsoft. (more…)

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Top 5 Laptops and Notebooks

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Netbooks could be seen all over, into schools offices as well as people’s properties. Their smaller, energy weight and also may achieve only as much a warm or hot environment a average machine. The shapely small size as well as neat little form factor make them okay as carrying them in the bus, cabs and bikes, build them get it over for individuals who likes how to get alternate routes. here should be five top sellers who go about making noticeable distinction and wow it big by netbook fans.

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the first one in The great five is The Toshiba NB 205-310. it without doubt has excellent worth for its monetary value tag; this has a huge grope pad and an extra long power duration, ideal for people making use of their netbooks at The go. Toshiba is brand new To the netbook department but has rapidly made it how to The great seller list. (more…)

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