For the First Time, Predator Drones Participate in Civilian Arrests on U.S. Soil

A Customs and Border Protection Predator B (or MQ-9 Reaper)

A somewhat strange story emerged yesterday involving an extremist antigovernment group, a North Dakota sheriff’s office, and six missing cows, but there’s a much larger story behind this brief legal tangle between local law enforcement and the Brossart family of Nelson Country. When Alex, Thomas and Jacob Brossart were arrested on their farm back in June after allegedly chasing the local Sheriff off their property with rifles, they became the first known U.S. citizens to be arrested on American soil with the help of a Predator drone, Stars and Stripes reports.

They will not, however, be the last. Most U.S. citizens are aware that US. Customs and Border Protection owns and operates a handful of aerial drones along the nation’s northern and southern borders (eight Predators to be exact), but when Congress authorized the use of drones along the borders in 2005 it was thought that they would be used strictly to curb illegal immigration and to detect smuggling routes.


But a provision allowing for “interior law enforcement support” is being given fairly liberal interpretation by both the Customs and Border Protection crews that operate the drones and local law enforcement that sometimes wants to borrow CBP’s aerial assets. Local police in North Dakota say they’ve called upon the two Predators operating out of Grand Forks Air Force Base at least two dozen times since June.

These drones are unarmed Predator B drones (known as MQ-9 Reapers elsewhere in the operational lingo), the same “hunter/killer” model employed across the globe in the War on Terror (but without the Hellfire missiles). They are being used for surveillance and situational awareness only, law enforcement officials say. But the fact that they’re being used at all--and especially without anyone higher up the chain of command acknowledging that local police have access to and are using Predator drones routinely--stirs up all kinds of privacy issues. As Stripes notes, it also skirts the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the U.S. military from taking on a police role within the United States.

In the case of the Brossart boys, apparently the sheriff showed up on their place with search warrant in hand seeking access to the family’s land to search for six missing cows thought to be on the premises. The Brossarts--who reportedly are not huge fans of the federal government in general and belong to an antigovernment group that the FBI considers extremist--brandished rifles and allegedly ordered the sheriff off the property. The sheriff complied, but then asked for support from the nearby drone unit, which happened to have a Predator in the air returning from a routine recon of the U.S.-Canada border.

Local law used the drone to keep an eye on the Brossart place overnight and the next day were able to determine via the drone footage that the three Brossarts in question were out on the property and unarmed (there’s a more thorough account of this if you click through to the Stripes piece). All said, the local police were able to sweep in and arrest the Brossarts without firing a shot or ending up in some kind of armed standoff.

To local law enforcement, it’s a good story about technology working to avoid violent confrontations and assist cops in their day-to-day serving and protecting. But it’s also troubling. From a privacy standpoint, the use of military surveillance drones over American cities is fraught with issues. Then there’s the fact that--up until now--very few people seem to have any idea this is going on. The government peering into your backyard, Big Brother is watching, etc. etc.--it’s the kind of thing that’s going to have to be talked about as technologies like drone aircraft become more ubiquitous, both abroad and at home.

Oh, and the six cows were located by police. No word on whether the Predators were scrambled for that part of the operation.


Source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-12/first-us-citizens-have-been-arrested-help-predator-drone

Intel and LG deal brings WiDi streaming to HDTVs without the dongle

Intel's Wireless Display tech has promised to pull together properly equipped laptops and nearby HDTV screens since its debut last year, but until now always required an extra add-on for the TV side of the equation. That will change next year, thanks to an agreement by the chipmaker with LG promising its Cinema 3D Smart TV line will be the first ones with WiDi built right in. Just like it does with existing dongles, compatible devices can stream content (including HDCP protected video like DVDs and Blu-rays, as of Sandy Bridge) to the display while displaying something different on their own screen, and don't require an active WiFi or internet setup to make it all happen. The press release (included after the break) promises demonstrations next month at CES, while some manufacturers like Philips have included similar technology, we'll see if this becomes a standard feature.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/15/intel-and-lg-deal-brings-widi-streaming-to-hdtvs-without-the-don/

WordPress Plugin Releases for 12/13

New plugins

Admin Bar Backend Search provides various search forms in the Dashboard.

WP-ImageZoom enables you to view details of large images.

Updated plugins

Fast Secure Contact Form lets your visitors send you a quick e-mail message and blocks all common spammer tactics. Additionally, the plugin has a multi-form feature, optional extra fields, and an option to redirect visitors to any URL after the message is sent.

FoxyPress is a custom plugin made to integrate FoxyCart e-commerce functionality into your WordPress website.

Scripts n Styles allows Admin users the ability to add custom CSS (at the bottom of the head tag) and JavaScript (at the bottom of the body tag) directly into individual Post, Pages or any other registered custom post types.

WordPress SEO is an all in one solution to search engine optimize your WordPress blog: SEO titles, meta descriptions, XML sitemaps and much more.

Source: http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2011/12/13/wordpress-plugin-releases-for-1213-2/

Method predicts size of fracking earthquakes

Small earthquakes are a recognized risk of hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking', a procedure in which companies unlock energy reserves by pumping millions of litres of water underground to fracture shale rock and release the natural gas trapped inside. Researchers now say that they can calculate the highest magnitude earthquake that such an operation could induce — though it won't determine the likelihood of a quake occurring.

The model is crude, but it should be “good enough” to use in the field, says Arthur McGarr, a geologist at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, who presented the work yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California. “The method could help engineers trying to plan for future earthquakes know what to plan for,” he adds.

McGarr's team says that the quantitative method is applicable to any operation that involves injecting fluid deep underground. Apart from fracking, such activities include the disposal of fracking fluids — in which companies get rid of their drilling water by pumping it into disposal wells — as well as geothermal-power generation and carbon dioxide sequestration.

It is rare, but not unheard of, for fluid-injection operations to cause detectable earthquakes. The number of such tremors has increased over the past decade as the amount of deep fluid injection has risen, says McGarr. Fracking itself is thought this year to have spurred quakes in Lancashire, UK — of magnitude 2.3 and 1.5 — and Gavin County, Oklahoma, of up to magnitude 2.8 (see 'Fracking caused British quakes').

Straightforward relationship

McGarr and his team studied seven cases of quakes induced by fluid injection. They included the Oklahoma fracking site where 8,900 cubic metres were injected; a scientific bore hole in Germany, where an injection of 200 cubic metres of salt water caused a magnitude 1.4 earthquake; a geothermal-energy project on the outskirts of Basel, Switzerland, that was terminated after an injection of 11,600 cubic metres of water triggered a series of quakes of magnitude up to 3.4; another in Cooper Basin, Australia, where a 20,000-cubic-metre injection resulted in a magnitude 3.7 quake; and a liquid-waste-disposal project in Colorado in the 1960s, where an injection of 631,000 cubic metres triggered earthquakes of magnitude up to 5, the largest yet seen as a result of fluid injection.

The researchers found a proportional relationship between the volume of fluid injected and the magnitude of the earthquake.

“If you inject about 10,000 cubic metres, then the maximum sized earthquake would be about a magnitude 3.3,” says McGarr. Every time the volume of water doubles, the maximum magnitude of any quake rises by roughly 0.4. “The earthquakes may end up being much smaller, but you want to be prepared for the worst-case scenario,” says McGarr. The relationship is straightforward, but it is the first time that anyone has quantified it, he adds.

McGarr has also developed a similar method — now in standard industrial use — to work out the maximum size of earthquake that can be triggered as ore is extracted in underground mining¹. This work “builds on the same concept”, he says.

He notes that the latest work doesn't give the probability of an earthquake actually occurring: that depends on other factors, such as the strength and permeability of the rock.

Max Wyss, director of the World Agency for Planetary Monitoring and Earthquake Risk Reduction in Geneva, Switzerland, said that the study was a “good review” of the situation but did not achieve what is really needed — working out the maximum induced earthquake that can be tolerated at any given location. “We need to do better at estimating the risk for society from the earthquakes,” he says.

McGarr’s team hopes to submit the work for publication soon, with further case studies.


Source: http://www.nature.com/news/method-predicts-size-of-fracking-earthquakes-1.9608

Samsung Galaxy Note vs. Dell Streak 5... fight!

Sure, some may have had a good ole laugh at the Streak 5, arriving with enough display real estate to border on tablet territory -- in fact that's what Dell sold it as. Fast forward a year, and it looks like that weighty slab of phone -- or tiny tablet, depending on your interpretation --was simply ahead of its time. Most phone manufacturers are now skating around the five-inch mark, and Samsung even went a little further. With the Galaxy Note recently paying a visit to the FCC, we thought it was time to see how these two barely-phones stacked up against each other. We're leaving the technical specs aside at this point -- you can check the reviews for those -- but we can still line them up and take plenty of photos of the resulting face-off. The full gallery awaits below.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/09/samsung-galaxy-note-vs-dell-streak-5-fight/

Samsung introduce Galaxy S2 LTE White HD Super-Amoled

This website is one of the leading portals for information on future Organic Light Emitting Diode display and lighting technology.Since 2004, the platform has provided information on new products, technologies and trends.


Samsung has launched the Galaxy S2 in white HD onwhich the color of ceramic white is applied to the front and back side, delivering clean, simple and elegant looks and feels. For a few weeks Samsung introduced the Galaxy S2 with LTE and Super-Amoled-HD in black. The HD Super AMOLED display has a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, 180 degree wide viewing angle, a 16:9 screen, guaranteeing to deliver a revolutionary mobile multimedia experience. This display features also PenTile technology and not true RGB pixels.


Source: http://www.oled-display.net/samsung-introduce-galaxy-s2-lte-white-hd-super-amoled/

O2 launches London 4G high-speed broadband trial

Telefonica-owned mobile network O2 is switching on the UK’s first commercial 4G mobile network in London today, with users able to experience speeds of up to 100Mbps.

Twenty five 4G sites will blanket-cover London, from Hyde Park to Greenwich, to the financial capital of Canary Wharf, as well as the political heart of Westminster, Kings Cross and the South Bank areas of the city.

While only connecting around 1,000 people at first, including citizens and business owners, it is hoped that this trial will be a foot in the door to faster and more reliable speeds in the British capital.

O2 has over 22 million users, making it the UK’s second largest mobile network behind Everything Everywhere, the company behind the joint venture merging Orange and T-Mobile.

Moving on from from an initial trial in Slough, west of the capital, London’s trial will run until mid-2012. It will enable the mobile network to gauge exactly how users’ access 4G technology, whether it is beneficial, but also fill a major gap between ‘not-spots’ in the capital.

Some parts of England have also undergone 4G trials, such as in the dark-depths of Cornwall, where mobile reception is in some cases non-existent. The trial will begin early next year.

While 4G technology has already been in force for the last few years in the United States, the UK has fallen behind not only against its American cousins, but around Europe and the rest of the world.

But the upcoming spectrum auction is causing headaches for the four major mobile networks, including Vodafone, and O2 — the network behind the trial.

The UK’s communications regulator Ofcom is hoping to hold the 4G spectrum auction towards the end of 2012. But because the spectrum will not be available to use until the year after, a steady roll-out of 4G services will be delayed until an expected mid-2013.

Earlier this month, a UK parliamentary committee told UK mobile networks to “stop fighting” over the spectrum auction, which has caused the delay of the sale.

O2 and Vodafone continue to threaten legal action should Ofcom allow fourth-place network Three to purchase some of the spectrum for its minimum price, with other networks claiming the move amounts to “state aid”, and would give the network an unfair advantage over the larger networks.

4G LTE network access is expected to go live across the UK from 2014.



Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/o2-launches-london-4g-high-speed-broadband-trial/885?tag=content;search-results-river

Pat Cummins: Teenager in contention for must-win Test

Australia are considering a baptism of fire for 18-year-old fast bowler Pat Cummins in the second Test against South Africa, starting on Thursday in Johannesburg.

Cummins, who can bowl at over 90mph and has already made five limited-overs appearances for Australia, will become his country's second youngest Test cricketer after Ian Craig if he is selected in a match the tourists must win to claim a share of the two-game series.

Australia were bowled out for 47 in their second innings en route to an eight-wicket defeat in the series opener at Newlands and are certain to make at least one change to their starting XI as top-order batsman Shaun Marsh is ruled out by a back injury.

Usman Khawaja will be recalled in Marsh's place at number three, while there is also a case for David Warner, who joined the squad this week, to make his debut at opener Phil Hughes' expense.

For several of Australia's senior players this match is probably their final chance to turn around a run of poor form, most notably this applies to former captain Ricky Ponting, wicketkeeper Brad Haddin and left-arm paceman Mitchell Johnson.

"There's one definite change and the possibility of a couple of others. We have no choice, we have to pick a team to take 20 wickets and also to be positive and confident with the bat as well... we've got to take the game forward," said Australia skipper Michael Clarke.

"There are also some guys who have not trained yet this week. Ryan Harris is a bit stiff and sore, so we're waiting to see how he goes and how he pulls up in the morning. But nobody's got any great concerns and we'll probably be able to pick our best XI."
Scars

On events at Newlands, Clarke added: "We got rid of the scars once we left Cape Town, we had a good session in the changing room and made a pact that we would leave what happened there and look only to this one. We need to have a red-hot crack at this one."

Clarke's opposite number Graeme Smith expects Australia to have moved on quickly from their Cape Town humiliation.

"Australia have got enough players of experience who would have dealt with what happened in Cape Town before and they'll know it's a fresh start," said the South Africa captain.

"If we can get them under pressure early, then maybe the memories of that 47 all out will come back. But we have to start well and earn the right to put them under pressure; we must have a good first day."

South Africa are set to name an unchanged team.

South Africa squad: Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher (wkt), AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Paul Harris, Imran Tahir, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, Ashwell Prince, Jacques Rudolph, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Australia squad: Michael Clarke (capt), Shane Watson, Michael Beer, Trent Copeland, Pat Cummins, Brad Haddin (wkt), Ryan Harris, Phil Hughes, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Ricky Ponting, Peter Siddle, David Warner, Shane Watson

Source: http://www1.skysports.com/cricket/news/12341/7311757/Australia-mull-Cummins-debut

These May Be The Droids Farmers Are Looking For

When it comes to farm robots, fruit gets all the attention. But it looks like trees and shrubs could win the prize for first significant agricultural market for small mobile robots.

Massachusetts startup Harvest Automation is beta testing a small mobile robot that it’s pitching to nurseries as the solution to their most pressing problem: a volatile labor market.

The multi-billion-dollar industry that supplies ornamental plants to building contractors, big-box retailers and landscaping firms — $11.7 billion according to the most recent USDA figures — has been eagerly awaiting automation for decades. The down economy and harsh state laws targeting undocumented workers have turned up the pressure.

The horticulture industry has caught the attention of several robotics industry veterans, including Joe Jones, a co-inventor of iRobot’s Roomba vacuum cleaning robot. What they see is an opportunity to develop a small, relatively inexpensive, mobile material handling robot. Their venture-backed company has been field testing the robots at 11 nurseries around the country, and plans to release its first product at the end of the first quarter or beginning of the second quarter next year.

Harvest Automation bootstrapped the development of prototype robots and received its seed funding from its customers, said CEO Charles Grinnell. The company landed $5 million in venture capital funding from Life Sciences Partners, the Midpoint Food & Ag Fund, and the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation.

In today’s human-tended nurseries, immature potted trees and shrubs arrive at nurseries by truck and are offloaded onto the ground. Teams of migrant workers — undocumented for the most part — spread the plants out one by one following markers outlining a grid. When the plants are ready to be shipped out later in the season, workers reverse the process to group the plants for loading onto trucks. “We’ve recognized the need for robotics in the nursery industry for moving pots because it’s one of our highest concentrations of labor use,” said Tom Demaline, president of Willoway Nurseries, Inc. in Avon, Ohio.

Ten years ago the Horticulture Research Institute took a crack at automating nurseries, said Demaline. “The whole concept there was building a bigger machine to do the process, but it just never worked that well,” he said. When Harvest Automation showed Demaline it’s small mobile robots, the lightbulb went on, he said. “It was stark simplicity,” he said. “The robots were more adaptable to a wider range of growing areas.”

Small mobile robots that tend crops are just emerging, and most of the action is in produce. Row crops provide a semi-structured environment, and several companies are marketing four-wheeled robots with computer vision systems that monitor and in some cases tend to crops. The most advanced are medium-sized strawberry-picking robots, notably a machine from Spanish firm AgroBot. One player in the nursery automation market is British firm CMW Horticulture Ltd., which sells a medium-sized pesticide-spraying robot for greenhouses and nurseries.

Farmer’s little friend

The Harvest Automation robots are knee-high, wheeled machines. Each robot has a gripper for grasping pots, a deck for carrying pots, and an array of sensors to keep track of where it is and what’s around it. Teams of robots zip around nursery fields, single-mindedly spacing and grouping plants. Think Wall-E without the doe eyes and cuddly personality, or the little forest-tending ‘bots in the 1972 sci-fi classic Silent Running.

Source: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/11/mobile-farm-robots/

Mobile Apps to Keep Your Mind on Your Money

Managing personal finances once involved lots of paper. Then computer programs came along that helped simplify the process. Now a multitude of mobile apps are available to help people attend to money matters on the go.

"It's very convenient to have it in your pocket on your phone," Garth Scrivner, senior investment counselor with StanCorp Investment Advisers, told TechNewsWorld. "It's just a convenience factor."

Company-Specific Apps

Many personal finance apps are provided by banks and investment firms to help their customers manage their accounts. Vanguard, for instance, has an app that lets its customers view balances and holdings, move money between banks and Vanguard accounts, buy and sell exchange-traded funds, look at transaction histories, research performance and prices, and view market news.

"Vanguard is a virtual service company," Julie MacArthur, senior manager in retail services, told TechNewsWorld. "We need to be where our investors are."

Vanguard launched its first mobile website back in 2007, before apps were all the rage. In 2009, it launched its first iPhone app, and in 2011, it launched apps for Android devices and the iPad.

Increasingly, customers expect their financial institutions to have apps that let them access and manage their money, MacArthur said. "Consumers have gotten comfortable interacting with banks through mobile devices. Investment management is a natural extension of that."

Vanguard's phone app focuses on numbers and text, but the iPad has opened up a whole new dimension for the app.

"The iPad app has more interactive content and charting, taking advantage of the larger screen," said MacArthur.

Aggregating Apps

Apps that collect financial information from a variety of institutions are also becoming increasingly popular. One of the most well-known of these comes from Mint.com. Mint, which is owned by Intuit, sees the role of its website and mobile app as helping people better manage their money by seeing it all in one place.

"One of its key advantages is that it aggregates all your information," Ken Sun, a group product manager with Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) Personal Finance Group, told TechNewsWorld. "It provides additional features, such as budgets and goals."

Users can sync the app with various accounts so they can see real-time balances. They can also set up budgets, track spending, get bill reminders, and generate reports to analyze the health of their finances.

The app also lets users enter cash transactions. An interaction between the mobile device's GPS and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Places allows the app to suggest the specific location for the transaction, which the customer can confirm.

Users can see their balances, but they can't actually move any money around.

They can sign up for the service either through Mint's website or through the app itself, which is available for iPhones, Android devices, and the iPad. Because it's a cloud-based app, any information entered on a mobile device is instantly available through the user's account on the Mint.com website, and vice versa.

"People just really want to keep on top of their finances," said Sun. "The Internet generation likes to use technology to do that. You can think of Mint as a real-time dashboard into your personal finances."

Mint monetizes its service by analyzing its users' data and spending habits and suggesting certain strategies, including financial products and services, that might be appealing or useful.

For instance, if a customer spends a lot on groceries using a credit card, the app might suggest a specific card that offers cash back on grocery purchases. If the user follows through and signs up for that card, then Mint receives a referral bonus for the transaction.

Only the most pertinent, customer-specific advice is given, Sun emphasized. "We like to make the advice really targeted and relevant to the user."

Mint's smartphone app, like Vanguard's, has relatively simple lists of numbers, data and information. The iPad, however, has given Mint's app a platform to replicate the colorful spreadsheets, graphs and pie charts of its website, with the added capabilities of the touchscreen.

Promoting Financial Literacy

Mint's app has many loyal users, including Scrivner, who has been using the iPhone app for several years to manage all of his own personal finances and recently got the iPad app.

"It's really nice because I can look at all of my apps in one spot," said Scrivner. "It's a great app for budgeting."

Mint's commitment to providing users with information, and even a kind of financial education, are particularly appealing, he said.

"They do a great job of sending alerts," noted Scrivner. "They give you tips and notices. They try to do some educating along the way."

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/73637.html

Droid RAZR vs Galaxy S2 – Motorola exceeds expectations on every front

The Samsung Galaxy S2 was released just a few months ago and has instantly become the flagship Android smartphone, even though its main competitor, the HTC Sensation had almost the same specs and a better build quality. But time doesn’t stay in one place, and we already have several potential competitors ready to take the flag from the S2. One is the Galaxy Nexus, of course – a phone that everyone was expecting, but the other one, which is actually even better, is the Motorola Droid RAZR.

The Droid RAZR came to be pretty unexpectedly, and it is interesting to see what it can do compared to the previous generation flagship, The Galaxy S2, which is no slouch and can easily compete with anything that will be released in the next several months. So, can the new RAZR outdo the current leader?


Source: http://gadgetmania.com/2011/11/droid-razr-vs-galaxy-s2-motorola-exceeds-expectations-on-every-front/

Oracle Wrangles Cloud Customer Service Outfit RightNow

Oracle has agreed to acquire RightNow Technologies for roughly $1.5 billion, or $43 per share — which would see the IT giant pay a 20 percent premium over RightNow’s closing price on Friday. The Bozeman, Montana-based RightNow offers an online service for powering instant messaging, social networks, and other communication tools among call centers, sales staff, and consumer-facing websites.

While many analysts have said that the purchase fits into Oracle’s recent shift into online service, not every piece of the puzzle lines up as neatly as some would lead you to believe. “Oracle’s bare-knuckle approach to sales and how it treats customers is 180 degrees the opposite to RightNow’s ethos of client-centricity and flexibility,” William Band, a vice president at research outfit Forrester Research, told Wired.com.

“[RightNow's employees] act and feel like they’re from Montana. Oracle feels like they can run you over. Some RightNow customers that purposefully avoid going with giants like Microsoft or Oracle may be unhappy now.”

Should RightNow shareholders approve the company’s sale and Oracle properly integrate the company’s service, the deal will go a long way towards providing the plumbing needed to compete in the cloud computing space — a market Oracle boss Larry Ellison mocked a year ago, but lauded at Oracle OpenWorld earlier this month.

During the expansive expo, Ellison and company announced a number of new products designed to compete on the net, including the Oracle Public Cloud and Oracle Social Network. Both announcements were largely seen as games of catch up. But with its largest acquisition since Sun Microsystems in January of 2010, Oracle is putting its money where its mouth is.

“RightNow’s leading customer service cloud is a very important addition to Oracle’s Public Cloud,” Thomas Kurian, executive vice president of Oracle’s development, said in a canned statement. Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Kurian’s statement also noted that the Oracle Public Cloud will handle everything from sales force automation, human resources and talent management, social networking, databases, and Java development.

SalesForce.com — whose CEO, Marc Benioff, enjoys publicly bickering with Oracle boss Larry Ellison — offers many of these tools through products like its Chatter social networking service and its Service Cloud, a way of managing customer service tasks. Though Band questions how well RightNow will integrate with Oracle’s operation, Peter Goldmacher of financial analysis outfit Cowen Group believes the RightNow-Oracle deal will put a crimp in SalesForce’s efforts to push Service Cloud. RightNow will benefit, he said, from Oracle’s phalanx of salespeople and myriad existing customers.

“Customer-service management solutions are primarily purchased by larger enterprises, where Oracle has dominant distribution,” he said in an email to Wired.com. “As Oracle becomes more competitive in this market segment, we expect it will slow down sales cycles and reduce win rates for SalesForce.”

Source: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/oracle-wrangles-rightnow/

How E-Books Are Coming Full Circle, Thanks to Tablets

As tablet sales, led primarily by Apple's (AAPL) iPad, gain momentum, it seems everyone wants in on the market. Not only are traditional computing and smartphone companies launching or announcing new slates, but makers of e-readers look ready to do the same. The Barnes & Noble (BKS) Nook Color, built to run on Google's (GOOG) Android platform, will reportedly gain an app store next month, while Amazon (AMZN) just launched its own app store for Android devices earlier this week, possibly in advance of launching its own tablet. Standalone e-book readers have their benefits, but the shift to reading on multipurpose tablets is on.


Ironically, this situation has come full circle, although I suspect few realize it. I bought my first e-book in October 2003, more than seven years ago. Back then, there were no e-book reading devices. Instead I was reading my digital books on a PDA, or personal digital assistant. At the time, my Toshiba e805 was perfect for reading on the go, with its built-in Wi-Fi and 4-inch VGA color touchscreen. The handheld ran Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile 2003 operating system, so I had the ability to browse the Web and even install apps (yes, before there was an "app store"). In short, I had a great e-book reader that did a lot more besides.


Then the Kindle arrived in the fall of 2007, and with its arrival, the standalone e-book reader went mainstream. Sure, there were earlier attempts at bringing an e-ink device to the masses—Sony's (SNE) PRS-500 Reader made its debut more than a year before the Kindle—but Amazon's strength of brand and ability to negotiate with publishers, plus the inclusion of mobile broadband book delivery for no additional charge, turned the Kindle into Amazon's best-selling product. A number of other standalone e-ink readers have since followed, creating a whole new market. But the trend began to revert back to multipurpose devices with the launch of Apple's first iPad last April. I ended up selling my beloved Kindle because the iPad did so much more, plus it offered a Kindle app.


Slates With Many Functions

There's still a market for e-book readers that do nothing more than show e-book content. Some people will prefer e-ink displays that cause less eye strain and use power only during page turns, which allows the Kindle to last weeks on a single charge. But the growing tablet market, expected by some to sell 24.1 million or more units this year, indicates people are looking for a mobile device that can browse the Web, run various apps, and even be a portable television and movie theater, in addition to providing a solid e-book reading experience.


But why would Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or others even be interested in tablets when they already make a cut of the digital book content purchases? Two answers come to mind: losing control over that revenue stream on other devices and leaving money on the table.


Source: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2011/tc20110325_523054.htm

Beats by Dre to open UK store following headphone success

Beats by Dre UK Store to follow the company's first retail outlet in New York with the high-end headphones firm to touch down on British soil with a shop in London's Shoreditch area

Chart-topping luxury headphones brand Beats by Dre is planning to launch a UK store for avid fans of the cans that have become as iconic as the Apple white ear buds, T3 can reveal.

Speaking at the launch of the new Beats Wireless Solo Bluetooth headphones, Omar Johnson, the company’s US Head of Marketing exclusively leaked to T3 that he and the Beats team are "actively seeking" a UK location for a Beats store.

"We've been looking at the Shoreditch area of London," he said. "We're very excited about how much the UK has embraced Beats."

Meanwhile in the states, Dr Dre's team (not NWA, the new speaker flogging lot) have announced that Beats By Dre will be opening its first ever store, which will be on Mercer Street in lower Manhattan, New York over the Christmas period.

"It's going to be about experiencing Beats the way you should experience it," Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine told us. "We're going to make sure there's the right demonstrations. We want people to feel it right."

Would a Beats branded store further tempt you into splashing out on the high-end headsets? Let us know via the comments box below.
 

Source: http://www.t3.com/news/beats-by-dre-to-open-uk-store-following-headphone-success

The World's Most Failsafe Wireless Bicycle Brake Could Seed a Variety of Super-Safe Technologies

As the world goes increasingly wireless, we’ve learned to tolerate a certain degree of failure in our wireless systems--like when your computer just won’t sync up with the wireless internet at the cafe, or when our phones drop a call. But what about situations when wireless systems simply cannot fail? A failure rate of zero is tough to achieve in any system, but computer scientists at Saarland University in Germany have demonstrated a wireless bicycle brake that works 99.999999999997 percent of the time.

That means in a trillion braking attempts, it fails three times on average. It’s not perfect, mathematically speaking, but for practical purposes it’s pretty close.

The brake isn’t the usual handlebar brake lever customary on most bikes, and because it is wireless it naturally dispenses with the usual brake cable snaking down the frame of the bicycle to the front or rear wheel. To brake with the wireless system, the rider simply squeezes the rubber grip on the handlebar, which is fitted with pressure sensors. The harder the rider grips, the more pressure is applied to the front wheel brake. The signal sender is about the size of a cigarette pack and fixed to the handlebar. The receiver sits at the end of the bicycles fork and turns wireless radio signals from the grip into mechanical pressure on the front wheel.

That all sounds simple enough for a wireless bicycle brake, but the idea is to create a testbed for wireless technologies that absolutely cannot fail, like those envisioned for future train systems or for commercial jetliners. Starting with a simple handbrake, the Saarland team hopes to build the complex technologies necessary to ensure safety in wireless systems.

After all, brake failure on a bicycle is dangerous. But brake failure on a train could be catastrophic. Three failures in a trillion is a pretty good mark to start improving upon.

Source:http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-10/worlds-most-failsafe-wireless-bicycle-brake-could-seed-variety-super-safe-technologies

'iPad Mini' to take on Kindle Fire?

An industry source who speaks with the Asia-based tablet supply chain told CNET that chatter is picking up for a 7-inch Apple tablet. Maybe not coincidentally, that's the same size of Amazon's $199 tablet that's will ship on November 15.


Other reports, however, say that "Mini" doesn't necessarily refer to the size but simply the lower price point, possibly the mid-$200 range.


The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs summarily dismissed the notion of a 7-inch tablet during an earnings conference call in October of last year.


"Apple has done extensive user testing and we really understand this stuff...There are clear limits on how close you can place things on a touch screen, which is why we think 10 inch is the minimum screen size to create great tablet apps," Jobs said at the time.


"It's meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size," he added.


Jobs' protests notwithstanding, at the time more than a few analysts said Apple was close to bringing out a product.


And the tablet market is changing. Apple may have to change along with it. Smaller 7-inch and 8.9-inch tablets from Samsung, HTC, RIM and others are prevalent now. And if the Kindle Fire approaches the iPad in sales--which analysts say is possible--that would make smaller, cheaper tablets a category that rivals the 10-inch iPad in popularity.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20119630-64/ipad-mini-to-take-on-kindle-fire/?tag=hotTopicsBody.1

Apple: New iPhone Good

CUPERTINO, CA—During a highly anticipated media event held today at the Apple corporation’s world headquarters, CEO Tim Cook announced the new iPhone 4S is good and people should buy it. “It’s a good phone,” said Cook, walking out onto a stage and gesturing at a picture of the device projected on a large screen behind him. "It's got e-mail, the Internet, and you can get apps on it. Everybody should get one. It's good." After standing in place for another four seconds without speaking, Cook walked off stage, at which point the houselights came up and all in attendance were asked to please file out of the auditorium.

Source: http://www.theonion.com/articles/apple-new-iphone-good,26257/

10 Best Math and Science High Schools in America

At a time when America has made it a priority list to build students' science, technology, engineering and math skills, which schools are doing best in these areas? U.S. News & World Report for the first time released a list ranking math- and science-specific high schools.



It looked at nearly 600 schools that qualified for the Gold, Silver, and Honorable Mention lists of the U.S. News Best High Schools. Then the schools' students' participation rates and performances on AP exams in math and science were evaluated. Here are the top 10, according to the list.



1. High Technology High School, Lincroft, N.J.: This school was founded in 1991 and has a pre-engineering academy and science classes with college-level labs. Almost 99 percent of its seniors take AP exams and they all score a 3 out of 5 or higher. 



2. BASIS Tucson, Tucson, Arizona: This school was founded in 1998. Students take a minimum of eight AP courses and about six AP exams between ninth and 12th grades.


3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va.:  At this school students can learn organic chemistry, marine biology and DNA science and must take an introductory computer science class. One hundred percent of seniors take AP exams and 100 percent pass with a 3 or higher.


4. Oxford Academy, Cypress, Calif.: This public school opened in 1998. Its students must take an entrance exam to walk through its doors and maintain a set GPA. It has honors and AP classes as well computer education, digital animation and industrial technology courses. One hundred percent of its seniors take AP exams and 100 percent pass with a 3 or higher.


5. The School of Science and Engineering Magnet, Dallas, Texas: This school was founded in 1982 and is often called the best in the nation. It is the most diverse school in the top 10. It offers AP math and science classes as well as college-level science labs and computer science courses. All its seniors take AP exams and 100 percent score a 3 or higher.



6. The School for the Talented and Gifted, Dallas, Texas.: Also founded in 1982, this school educates about 209 students with more than half its student comprising minority races. About a quarter of its students are from low-income families. Its students are required to take 11 AP courses and enroll in advanced research and technology classes. It always makes it as a top-ranked high school in the U.S.


7. Pacific Collegiate School, Santa Cruz, Calif.: Founded in 1999, this school regularly makes it to the top national "best high school" lists. Students are admitted by a lottery and are required to take a six-year sequence of math and science. They must also pass AP physics, chemistry and biology to graduate. One hundred percent of its seniors take AP exams, and 100 percent earn a 3 or higher.



8. International Community School, Kirkland, Wa.: It was founded in 1997 and educates 381 students admitted on lottery basis. Nearly 94 percent of its seniors take AP exams, and 87.8 percent earn a 3 or higher.




9. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora, Ill.: This school opened in 1986 and educates 637 10th- through 12th-graders. All the courses at this school are taught at the honors level. It is best known math curriculum. Eighty-two percent of its students take AP exams, and 75.2 percent earn a 3 or higher.


10. Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, Calif.: It is the only open enrollment school in the top 10. Mission San Jose was founded in 1963 and educates nearly 2,000 students. The school offers studies in biotechnology and forensic science. Some 92.1 percent of seniors take AP exams with 82.7 earning a 3 or higher.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/223527/20111002/10-best-math-and-science-high-schools-in-america-stem.htm

'Smart' window switches to dark mode to save energy

A new type of "smart" window that switches from summer to winter mode has been made by South Korean scientists.

The window darkens when the outside air temperatures soar, and becomes transparent when it gets cold in order to capture free heat from the sun.

Similar windows already exist, but the researchers say their method allows for an almost instantaneous switch from opaque to transparent.

This may help save more energy, the team writes in the journal ACS Nano.

"This type of light control system may provide a new option for saving on heating, cooling and lighting costs through managing the light transmitted into the interior of a house," said the scientists.

"Smart windows can prevent the inside of a building from becoming overheated by reflecting away a large fraction of the incident sunlight in summer.

"Alternatively, they can help keep a room warm by absorbing the sun's heat in winter."

New approach

The existing technology uses charged particles called ions sandwiched between panes of glass.

Electric current is then applied to switch the window from opaque to clear and back.

But Ho Sun Lim from Korea Electronics Technology Institute, Jeong Ho Cho and Jooyong Kim from Soongsil University decided on a different approach.

They used a special polymer, a different sort of charged particles known as counterions and solvents such as methanol.

The report states that the result was a glass that was a lot cheaper to manufacture and much less toxic than those currently available on the market.

The window is able to switch from 100% opaque to almost completely clear in a matter of seconds, said the authors.

'Instantaneous' switch

Although "dimming" windows already exist, it is often necessary to switch them from winter to summer mode and back manually, using additional equipment such as home-automation panels.

"Until now, the numerous technologies developed not only have been chemically unstable, prohibiting their use in long-term switching applications but have been accompanied by the use of expensive special equipment and complicated harsh processing conditions," stated the report.

Dr Stephen Morris from Materials Knowledge Transfer Network that is funded by the UK's Technology Strategy Board said that if the new method allows the window to switch from opaque to transparent and back pretty much instantaneously, then it is going to be a real benefit in terms of energy savings.

"That would mean that you're allowing light in much quicker - and this can reduce the amount of heat loss out of houses or increase the cooling in summer," he said.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15076773

Twelve new frog species found in Western Ghats

The Western Ghats region in the country, a global biodiversity hotspot, has opened up more of its secrets — this time a dozen species of night frogs hitherto unknown to science.

S.D. Biju of the University of Delhi and researchers from Bombay Natural History Society, Zoological Survey of India and Vrije University in Brussels, published the new finds in the latest issue of the international journal of zoological taxonomy ‘Zootaxa’.

Their paper also announces the rediscovery of three night frogs thought to be extinct for the last several decades.

In a press release on Thursday, the University of Delhi said the rediscovered Coorg Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus sanctipalustris) had not been seen by researchers since it was reported 91 years ago. The Kempholey Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus kempholeyensis) and Forest Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus sylvaticus), the other two rediscoveries, had eluded sighting since they were reported 75 years ago.

The 12 new species were identified following a revision of the night frog genus Nyctibatrachus from specimens collected from the Western Ghats forests spread along the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra during fieldwork over the last 20 years, the press release said.

The researchers have named the new species as Nyctibatrachus acanthodermis, Nyctibatrachus danieli, Nyctibatrachus devein, Nyctibatrachus gavi, Nyctibatrachus grandis, Nyctibatrachus indraneili, Nyctibatrachus jog, Nyctibatrachus periyar, Nyctibatrachus pillaii, Nyctibatrachus poocha, Nyctibatrachus shiradi and Nyctibatrachus vrijeuni. (The name Nyctibatrachus is composed of two words — ‘nycti’ derived from the Greek ‘nux’ meaning night and ‘batrachus’ meaning frog).

These new discoveries take the number of new species described by herpetologist Dr. Biju and his colleagues over the last eight years from specimens collected from the Western Ghats during two decades of field work to 45. One of the earlier discoveries of the team led by him, a purple burrowing frog given the name Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis belonging to an entirely new family of frogs, was celebrated by the scientific world as a “once in a century find”.

Six of the 12 new species are from unprotected, highly degraded habitats. The night frogs require unique habitats — either fast flowing streams or moist forest floor for breeding and survival. They fertilise and reproduce without physical contact. The paper reporting these finds also describes the reproductive strategy and parental care habits of six of the new species.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article2456205.ece

Five Super Foods for Keeping your Bones Healthy

A strong skeletal frame is vital not only to provide structure to the body but also protect the internal organs and anchor the muscles.

Apart from this, a healthy set of bones is crucial for good posture, balance and strength. Now the two key nutrients responsible for developing healthy strong bones are calcium and phosphorus. Smaller amounts of other nutrients like vitamins, proteins and minerals are also important for healthy bones.

The process of developing healthy bones begins at birth. However, it is important that a healthy, bone-friendly diet programme is maintained all throughout the life. This becomes particularly important after about 30 years of age.

You of course have the option of going for calcium supplements (but do consult a doctor before you do that), you can also try some calcium-rich foods to make up for the deficiency of calcium and keeping the bones healthy. Below, we discuss five super foods which can help you boost your bone density at any age:

Milk

Without a shadow of doubt, milk is the best (and readily available) source of calcium required for proper bone growth. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), low fat or fat-free milk is the best choice as it has high calcium content without the added fat and this facilitates easy absorption of calcium by the body. And it's not just calcium. Milk is also rich in nutrients like potassium, magnesium, riboflavin, phosphorus and Vitamins D, A and B12, all of which are important for healthy bones.

Orange Juice

Oranges are packed with essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals and calcium. They are a must-have for healthy bone growth. They can be especially used by individuals who have intolerance to lactose and cannot obtain their daily calcium requirements from dairy products. So next time you help yourself with a serving of fruits, make sure you have enough oranges in that.

Dairy Products

Many experts have designated dairy products like cheese and yogurt as preferred source of calcium due to their high calcium levels. In case you are lactose intolerant, you can also opt for other dairy products that are either lactose-free or have low levels of lactose. Yogurt is contains a chemical called lactoferrin which an iron-binding protein which promotes the growth and activity of osteoblasts (the cells that build bones).

Nuts and Seeds

Besides being rich in calcium, nuts like walnuts, flaxseeds, almonds, pistachios etc are also very good sources of minerals and omega 3 fatty acids. Peanuts and calcium contain potassium which prevents loss of calcium in urine.

Greens

Dark green leafy veggies like brocolli and spinach are great sources of calcium and vitamin D and it's the latter which helps in absorption of Calcium and Phosphorus, thereby ensuring growth of healthy bones and teeth. Collards and turnip greens can also be helpful in providing you with your daily dose of calcium. The alkaline effect of eating a diet rich in these vegetables will help you to strengthen your bones and promote bone growth by preventing calcium loss. Besides, plant sterols (steroid hormones) are converted to a hormone called calciferol and that aids calcium absorption.

Source: http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/super-foods-keeping-bones-healthy-135837228.html

Spotify revolutionizes music listening

Attention, Carnegie Mellon students: A revolutionary new service has become available to music listeners across the nation. The name of this innovation is Spotify.

Spotify is a music streaming service that allows listeners to search and play songs from an impressively large variety of record labels. This selection of music includes about 15 million tracks, which means users can find almost any song from any album, by any artist. One exciting aspect of Spotify is that users are allowed to listen nearly instantly not to just a sample of the song, but to the entire, full-length song for free. The other incredible part is that all of it is legal. According to Wired, “Those who have tried Spotify know it’s like a magical version of iTunes in which you’ve already bought every song in the world.”

Spotify is easy to navigate, and searching for and playing songs is simple. There is no waiting for songs to download; it is as easy as one click. Listeners can hear almost any song they want whenever they want, make playlists of their own music files from their hard drive or iTunes library, and share music through social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. Spotify’s music library is a compilation of both the user’s music and its own extensive music collection. With all music libraries collected in one place and the ability to connect to a social networking site, it is easy to share music with friends.

On the side bar of the homepage, there is a “What’s New” tab so users can be up to date on the latest music. The “Top Lists” tab shows the most popular music, and the “Feed” tab shows music shared among friends and Spotify news. There is also the music library and all playlists, including the “Starred” playlist, to which any song can be added in order to create a massive collection of every song that the user wants. It is also possible to rewind or fast forward to any part of a song, and of course to replay it as many times as the user wants. One other helpful feature is the filter tool, which allows the user to type in criteria to filter music from any playlist or search results.

Although there are many benefits of the free service, there are also some limitations that are a bit disappointing. Listeners can only listen to the same song five times per month, with a maximum of 10 hours of music per month after a certain time period. However, paid subscribers enjoy more enticing features. Users of Unlimited or Premium Service enjoy an advertisement-free version of the service, an unlimited number of playbacks, and an unlimited number of hours of music streaming. Premium users also have a mobile service, by which subscribers are able to sync all their favorite playlists from Spotify to their mobile devices. Premium users also have an offline mode, which allows them to listen to music without internet access.

This creative music service is certain to change the way we share and listen to music. The service is an accessible — and legal — alternative to pirating music. Many music listeners are willing to search through files of mediocre quality, risk downloading viruses, and wait for a long duration of time to download songs illegally as long as the music is free and accessible. Spotify presents everyone with plenty of music at their disposal instantly, with no painfully slow downloads, no viruses, and no guilty conscience.

It is an ingenious concept, and it has already received significant acclaim. Billboard.biz praised Spotify, saying, “Spotify makes music fun again, just like the iPod did nearly 10 years ago.” Recorded music has come from vinyl records to tapes, to CDs to music files, and now it has reached music streaming so that music is easier to access than ever before. Thanks to Spotify, listening to music will never be the same.

Source: http://thetartan.org/2011/9/12/pillbox/spotify

Google-powered bulbs, dishwashers

Google-powered bulbs, dishwashers

After the Internet, Google is now set to foray into the domain of household appliances -- it will produce bulbs, thermostats and dishwashers, and integrate them with wireless technology, the search engine giant has said.

According to Google, the new range of "almost anything electrical" household devices would be launched by the end of this year, and wireless technology will help these devices to communicate with tablets, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Announcing the new initiative, codenamed Project Tungsten, at a software developers' conference in San Francisco, Google said its aim was to let a range of devices "discover, connect and communicate" with each other.

In a series of demonstrations using its Android operating system 'Android@home', Google showed a tablet that could turn lights on and off and even a "near-field communications" chip that simply had to be touched on speakers to start them playing an album.

Although entering the crowded "home automation" market is brave move by Google, the US-based firm highlighted 400,000 Android devices are now being activated every day.

It said that apps integrated into the home environment, such as an alarm clock application that gradually raised the lights and turned on a user's radio, were the next logical extension.

The company already offers 200,000 different apps and they have been downloaded 4.5 billion times on 100 million different devices, mostly mobile phones.

Google also announced a service allowing users to rent movies online as well as to store music they already own on the Internet.

Read More :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/personal-tech/computing/Coming-soon-Google-powered-bulbs-dishwashers/articleshow/8240894.cms

Social media: The new battleground in Singapore elections

Social media

The odds are always stacked against opposition candidates in Singapore elections and for Nicole Seah, a political novice contesting in the backyard of a popular former prime minister, they should be overwhelming.

But are they? The winsome 24-year-old is already the city-state's second-most "liked" politician on Facebook and she enjoys a higher profile than many seasoned campaigners. She has clips on YouTube and is avidly discussed in blogs.

As Singapore gears up for elections on May 7, no one is sure how social media like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter will affect the outcome. What is clear is these outlets are sharply different to the pro-government local newspapers and TV.

"What used to be mere coffee shop talk can now enter the public discourse, for better or worse," says Cherian George, associate journalism professor at Nanyang Technological University.

"Whether it will have any impact and to whose benefit is anyone's guess."

The People's Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore with an iron grip since independence in 1965, usually wins elections by a huge margin. But at the last election in 2006, when it won 82 of 84 seats, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter either did not exist or were in their infancy and confined to the West.

According to the government's Info-communications Development Authority, 81 percent of Singapore households had access to the Internet at the end of 2009.

Top source

Facebook is particularly popular in the wealthy Southeast Asian city-state where there are an estimated 2.5 to 3 million users in a population of 5.1 million, according to industry estimates.

In a recent survey by the Straits Times newspaper, 36.3 percent of people between the ages of 21 and 34 cited the Internet as their top source of local political news compared with 35.3 percent who preferred newspapers.

According to local media, "Generation Y" citizens, or those born after 1975, make up one in four voters. And opposition parties have been quick to take note.

"There is this explosion of new media tools and we have been able to use them effectively to reach out and tell the truth about our party and what we stand for," Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), told Reuters.

But despite the Internet's growing reach, Singapore's newspapers and TV stations continue to command a much wider audience. The Straits Times, for example, has an average daily circulation of 350,000 while the Online Citizen, a popular Singapore news and commentary site, gets around 25,000 hits a day.

Singapore Press Holdings, which has a near-monopoly on newspapers in the city-state, follows a strongly pro-government line. MediaCorp, which runs the TV stations, is a unit of state investor Temasek.

Seah, who set up her Facebook page just a week ago, had already received 22,372 "likes" as at 4 pm on April 26, far more than any Singapore politician other than the country's senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew.

Still, that may not be enough for her and her alliance from the National Solidarity Party to unseat the team from the PAP led by former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in a five-seat, winner-takes-all constituency.

"Social media has been more useful in forging connections between parties and sympathizers, for example, by helping party members identify people they could engage with in party activities," said Giorgos Cheliotis, who teaches communications and new media at the National University of Singapore.

"But I do not think that it has much power in swaying public opinion."

Read More :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social-media/Social-media-The-new-battleground-in-Singapore-elections/articleshow/8092826.cms

New format for CAT 2011!

The Common Admission Test (CAT) to be conducted on 20 testing days within the 28 day window between October 22 and November 18 will be in a yet new avatar. According to the latest news, the number of sections has been reduced to two from the erstwhile three. These are as follows: o Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation, and o Verbal ability and Logical Reasoning. Each section will have 30 questions and 70 minutes will be given making the total test time as 140 minutes, 5 minutes more than CAT 2010. More significantly, both sections will follow a sequence with on-screen countdown timers for each. Students will not be allowed to go back to the first section once its time has elapsed. The check-in procedure this year will start one-and-a-half hours before the scheduled test time instead of two hours in CAT 2010 and the candidates will be given a 15-minute tutorial before the commencement of the main examination. Three new cities - Bhilai, Jammu and Dehradun - have been added to the existing 33 test locations. CAT brochures can now be purchased from any one of the 201 branches of Axis Bank. Further details are to be made available on the CAT site by August 8th.

Source: http://campus.yahoo.com/news/yeducareers360/new-format-cat-2011-20110801   

Honda to Recall 962,000 Cars

TOKYO—Honda Motor Co. said it would voluntarily recall 962,000 cars world-wide to repair problems with power windows and computer equipment.

The car maker said no serious injuries or fatal accidents have been reported as a result of the problems. The company estimated it would spend ¥1.29 billion ($16.8 million) in Japan for the recall. Honda declined to elaborate on the costs for overseas recalls.

The announcement came hard on the heels of another large recall and adds to Honda's headaches as it seeks to join Japanese rivals in bouncing back from production disruption in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Japan's auto makers must also cope with the yen riding near record highs against the dollar and other major currencies, making their exports more expensive and less competitive.

Honda, Japan's third-biggest car maker by volume, recalled more than 2.3 million vehicles in early August, citing problems with automatic transmissions.

Honda on Monday said it will recall 936,000 Fit compacts, CR-V and City models in Japan, China, the U.S., Europe and elsewhere because of defective power-window switches.

A Honda spokeswoman said there were nine reported cases of vehicles catching on fire in Japan and China because of the power-window problem. She also said two people reported light burns after touching overheated switches.

The car maker also will recall 26,000 CR-Z hybrid models in Japan, the U.S., Canada and other markets because of defective programming of electronic-control units.

Honda shares closed 4.7% lower on Monday.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904537404576551890942734716.html