Lenovo takeover Motorola after Google sales

Lenovo said the deal made it the world's third bestselling smartphone firm .

Lenovo stated that a total of 100 million mobile devices were on course to be shipped from its existing mobile phone business combined with that of Motorola's over the current fiscal year, which ends in March.

Little overlap

Motorola has found recent success with its "budget" Moto G models. The original version, released last year was the bestselling phone in the business's history.

The Moto G smartphone has helped reinvigorate Motorola's 86-year-old brand

More recently it has also entered the wearables sector with the Moto 360 smartwatch, and announced its first Nexus device - a 6in (15.2cm) "phablet" marketed by Google, which will be one of the first phones to offer the Android 5.0 operating system.

Lenovo 

Nexus 6

Motorola announced the Nexus 6 shortly before the takeover was completed

"But right now what we intend to do is leverage the stronger brand in each particular market.

"For the most part, think of the developed mature world - that's going to be Motorola-driven. Emerging markets will be Lenovo-driven.

" markets will overlap and over time nothing says that in any given market we couldn't have a dual brand strategy. But, let's put it this way, it's probably smarter for us right now to walk before we run."

Its smartphones are already big sellers in Asia and the Middle East, but they have not been sold in North America and Western Europe.

"We're now planning to introduce Motorola-branded products back into China," Aymar de Lencquesaing, Lenovo's president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told the BBC.

'Quality' phones

Lenovo had  stated that one of the reasons it bought the division for $2.9bn  was to take advantage of Motorola's existing relationships with network operators in North America and Europe.

One analyst said that this could offer a way to launch Lenovo-branded handsets in those regions if the company later decided to make the move.

"Lenovo has proven it can manufacture quality phones and it is already well known as a PC brand in Europe and the US," said Ronan de Renesse from the telecoms consultancy Ovum.

"So, it doesn't have the cheap aspect to its brand that some of the other Chinese manufacturers have to deal with."

Driverless subway line to be extended in Paris

With an automatic radio-based train control and protection system, permission to proceed and control commands are transmitted between rail vehicle and lineside equipment via data communication. The CBTC-solution Trainguard MT is the most

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The Paris public transportation company Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) is extending its network of driverless subways by six kilometers. Siemens will equip the new section of Line 14 with signaling and operation control technology. The route's four new stations are scheduled to go into operation in 2019. The contract is worth around €45 million.

Driverless subways have been used in Paris for the past 25 years. In 1998 Siemens installed this technology in the original stretch of Line 14, creating the first fully automatic subway route in the French capital.

Driverless operation increases a subway line's capacity by up to 50 percent, because the trains can travel at shorter intervals. In Paris, the fully automatic operation enables the trains to run every 85 seconds. Additional trains can be deployed whenever larger numbers of passengers are expected - during major events, for example. The trains, which automatically go into operation at the push of a button, can also be inserted into gaps in the schedule at short notice.

Moreover, the subway's automatic energy-saving operation enables Line 14 to consume up to 15 percent less energy. The system's intelligent anticipatory driving style ensures that travel times are always optimally scheduled. As a result, trains don't arrive ahead of schedule, because they automatically adjust their speed to avoid unnecessary energy consumption.

Automatic operation reduces energy consumption by 15 percent

Siemens is the market leader for driverless subway signaling systems, which it has installed on around 250 kilometers of routes all over the world. For the extension of Line 14 in Paris, Siemens is using the automatic train control system Trainguard MT, which was developed by Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) in cooperation with other partners. This communication system uses WLAN to register the position of each train with a precision of a few centimeters and automatically adjusts the distance between a train and the vehicle behind it. A critical factor for increasing capacity is the distance between two trains, which is based on the maximum braking distance that must be maintained. This used to be a fixed distance. But because Trainguard MT knows the precise location of each train, it can adjust the spaces between vehicles to the actually required braking distances, enabling the subway to run more often.

In addition to installing Trainguard MT in the existing Line 14, Siemens also fitted the system into Line 1 in 2011 to equip it for driverless operation. Metro Line 1 is the most heavily used subway line in the French capital. The approximately 17-kilometer-long route connects the eastern and western parts of the city and transports up to 725,000 passengers each day. This was the first time that a subway line of this importance was automated without interrupting train service.

How to leak sensitive data from an isolated computer (air-gap) to a near by mobile phone

Tomorrow at MALCON 2014, security researcher Mordechai Guri with guidance of Prof. Yuval Elovici from the cyber security labs at Ben Gurion University in Israel will present a breakthrough method ("AirHopper) for leaking data from an isolated computer to a mobile phone without the presence of a network.

In highly secure facilities the assumption today is that data can not leak outside of an isolated internal network. It is called air-gap security. The common policy in such secure organizations is to leave your mobile phone in some locker when you enter the facility and then pick it up when you go out. We at the cyber security labs challenged this assumption and found a way to leak data from a computer inside the organization to a remote a mobile phone without using Wifi or Bluetooth.

"Such technique can be used potentially by people and organizations with malicious intentions and we want to start a discussion on how to mitigate this newly presented risk." said Dudu Mimran CTO of the cyber security labs.

The main idea behind the research is to use radio frequencies in order to transmit the secret data from the computer to the mobile phone. Mobile phones usually come equipped with FM radio receivers and it is already known that software can intentionally create radio emissions from a video display unit. Yes, from the computer screen. Still, this is the first time that a mobile phone is considered in an attack model as the intended receiver of maliciously crafted radio signals emitted from the screen of the isolated computer. AirHopper demonstrates how textual and binary data can be exfiltrated from physically a isolated computer to mobile phones at a distance of 1-7 meters, with effective bandwidth of 13-60 Bps (Bytes per second). Enough to steal a secret password.

Tiny carbon nanotube pores make big impact

A team led by the Lawrence Livermore scientists has created a new kind of ion channel based on short carbon nanotubes, which can be inserted into synthetic bilayers and live cell membranes to form tiny pores that transport water, protons, small ions and DNA.

These carbon nano tube "porins" have significant implications for future health care and bio engineering applications. Nano tube porins eventually could be used to deliver drugs to the body, serve as a foundation of novel bio sensors and DNA sequencing applications, and be used as components of synthetic cells.

Researchers have long been interested in developing synthetic analogs of biological membrane channels that could replicate high efficiency and extreme selectivity for transporting ions and molecules that are typically found in natural systems. However, these efforts always involved problems working with synthetics and they never matched the capabilities of biological proteins.

Unlike taking a pill which is absorbed slowly and is delivered to the entire body, carbon nano tubes can pinpoint an exact area to treat without harming the other organs around.

"Many good and efficient drugs that treat diseases of one organ are quite toxic to another," said Aleksandr Noy, an LLNL biophysicist who led the study and is the senior author on the paper appearing in the Oct. 30 issue of the journal, Nature. "This is why delivery to a particular part of the body and only releasing it there is much better."

The Lawrence Livermore team, together with colleagues at the Molecular Foundry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Merced and Berkeley campuses, and University of Basque Country in Spain created a new type of a much more efficient, biocompatible membrane pore channel out of a carbon nanotube (CNT)—a straw-like molecule that consists of a rolled up graphene sheet.

This research showed that despite their structural simplicity, CNT porins display many characteristic behaviors of natural ion channels: they spontaneously insert into the membranes, switch between metastable conductance states, and display characteristic macromolecule-induced blockades. The team also found that, just like in the biological channels, local channel and membrane charges could control the ionic conductance and ion selectivity of the CNT porins.

"We found that these nanopores are a promising biomimetic platform for developing cell interfaces, studying transport in biological channels, and creating biosensors," Noy said. "We are thinking about CNT porins as a first truly versatile synthetic nanopore that can create a range of applications in biology and materials science."

"Taken together, our findings establish CNT porins as a promising prototype of a synthetic membrane channel with inherent robustness toward biological and chemical challenges and exceptional biocompatibility that should prove valuable for bionanofluidic and cellular interface applications," said Jia Geng, a postdoc who is the first co-author of the paper.

Kyunghoon Kim, a postdoc and another co-author, added: "We also expect that our CNT porins could be modified with synthetic 'gates' to dramatically alter their selectivity, opening up exciting possibilities for their use in synthetic cells, drug delivery and biosensing."

Through 3D-printed prosthetic, Illinois students lending a hand in Ecuador

For most amputees, the road to a more fun recreactional prosthetic device is slow and costly. However, thanks to a student-led research group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, that might be changing, which is especially good news for those who are most in need, residents of the developing world.

The students have created one of the first 3D-printed prosthetic hands with pattern recognition capability. A machine-learning algorithm allows it to do more than just open and close. It learns other positions of the hand for more functionality. Just as importantly, it can be created for a mere $270 compared to the average myoelectric prosthetic, which retails for between $30,000-$40,000. Even taking in consideration mark-up, it still represents a significant cost decrease to the patient.

"Using the machine-learning algorithm based off the signals it picks up from the muscles, it can figure out which of these grips he is actually doing," explained team leader Aadeel Akhtar, an MD/PhD candidate in neuroscience from the College of Medicine at Illinois. "The microcontroller with the machine-learning algorithm will then replicate the grip he's trying to make. Based on those signals, it sends commands to motor drivers, which churn the motor and make the hand move."

Although the EMG board that is being used for the current prototype is the size of a standard audio mixing board, it will eventually shrink to a size that can fit into the socket of a residual limb. Akhtar's team has created a mathematical model of five actions – a hand at-rest, open-faced, closed (tool grip), a three-finger grasp, and a fine pinch. The initial training takes about one to two minutes and involves a patient going through each one of the gestures.

In August 2014, Akhtar and Mary Nguyen, a master's student in aerospace engineering, traveled to South America. They put their latest creation, an open-source dexterous artificial hand, to the test on an Ecuadorian man.

"The goal of the trip was to get it to work with a patient," Akhtar said. "Although it took some debugging, we were successful."

Akhtar, Nguyen, and six other engineering undergraduate students operate out of the research group advised by Tim Bretl, an associate professor in aerospace engineering who specializes in robotics and neuroscience. The group has been conducting research on electromyographic (EMG) control of prosthetics and sensory feedback for the past three years, but it was the use of 3D-printing to create the model moved things along at a faster rate.

A connection last spring with David Krupa, an Illinois alumnus, accelerated the project even more. Krupa co-founded the Range of Motion Project, a non-profit organization in Guatemala and Ecuador that provides prosthetic and orthotics to those without access to rehabilitative care. After hearing about its work, Krupa approached the U.S. embassy in Ecuador about sponsoring team members in travel to Ecuador to test the device on a patient.

The hand itself takes about 30 hours to print, then another two hours to assemble. All the electronics that are necessary to convert the neural signals into movements are located within the hand. This semester the team is working on the third iteration of their design in which the palm will be thinner and the fingers stronger. They plan to return to Ecuador in early January to leave it for a patient, and the group has even bigger plans for future iterations of the device.

"No commercial prosthetic device has any sort of feedback," Akhtar said. "We're going to put sensors in the fingers. Based on the amount of force that the fingertips are detecting, we are going to send a proportional amount of electrical current across your skin to stimulate your sensory nerves. By stimulating your sensory nerves in different ways with different amounts of current, we can make it feel like vibration, tingling, pain, or pressure." Through a mechanical connection from one of the artificial fingers directly to the skin, the patient will also be able to better feel the position of their hand without looking at it.

"We did some initial experiments in the lab and found that with only six minutes of training, users could distinguish between six different grips with 88 percent accuracy without looking. With that kind of result, image how well someone could operate it in even a week's time."

"It's really awesome to be able to help people," Nguyen aid. "I didn't imagine doing something that has this direct impact on the world while still in college."

Top 5 IT risk management resolutions for 2014

Priorities for improving risk management practices for better security in the coming year

As IT risk management and security professionals steel themselves for another year of high-profile breaches, increasingly sophisticated attacks and continued regulatory scrutiny on their controls, now may be the perfect time to re-examine risk management priorities. While every organization is unique, risk management pundits believe there are certain common initiatives that could stand more attention among many enterprises. The following five resolutions—listed in no particular order--are among the top ways that risk managers can take their practices to the next level in 2014. 

Resolution #1: Improving Third-Party Risk Management 

As news of more breaches and security incidents caused by third-parties make the news, enterprises and regulatory bodies alike are sharpening their focus on risks posed by vendors and partners entrusted with their data. According Andrew Wild, CSO of Qualys, he expects third-party risk management to be a key area of focus for IT risk professionals this year. "The growing reliance upon third parties requires a mature third party risk management program to ensure risks are properly identified, assessed and managed," Wild says, pointing to new regulatory requirements such as the guidance issued for banking institutions by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency . "However, even organizations with no regulatory or compliance program requirements for third party risk management face increased scrutiny from customers about third party risk management."

Resolution #2: Tune Risk Management For Greater Flexibility And Response 

Targeted and stealthy attacks will continue to press security practitioners to change their methods to deal with them. "The damage generated by those targeted attacks will be significant enough to drive further migration from static border protection and access control-based security programs, to dynamic programs that analyze new threats and risks on a daily basis and drive upgrades, updates and system changes," says Rich Dakin, chief security strategist for Coalfire,. This, of course, means that risk analysis needs to advance way beyond simple yearly risk assessments if risk managers are to make meaningful calculations that can drive decisions about IT infrastructure and processes. Not only should organizations be seeking better ways to feed real-time information into risk assessments, but they also should be seeking ways to more quickly adjust existing technology according to those assessments rather than simply trying to buy their way out of newly identified risks. "Businesses often assume they need new controls to address subsequent risks, but often times they can adjust existing controls to address new risks," says Gerrit Lansing, director of consulting services for CyberArk Software.

Resolution #3: Use More Data To Assess Risks 

Part of that push to a more evolved risk assessment involves better incorporation of data into the process. As important as questionnaires and the like may be to understanding processes and practices, data mined from security technologies and IT infrastructure are equally important to validate that the assumptions made when answering questions are truly valid. "Many organizations do not utilize the facts and data that are present in their 

environment," says Amad Fida, CEO of Brinqa. "They miss the opportunity to analyze and correlate those responses with security data from their systems and controls they have in place."

Resolution #4: Collaborate With Business Users For More Pervasive Risk Management 

The security elite have long preached the need for better alignment between IT security practices and the business. That starts first with increased collaboration in the risk-management process between risk managers and business users both inside and outside the organization, says Yo Delmar, vice president for MetricStream. "Essentially risk, compliance, and security functions will have inputs from the first line of defense business users, suppliers, franchisees, and so on," Delmar says, explaining that means providing a risk management platform that supports widespread useage for these users. "Risk management will increasingly be tied with performance management and will be available at the ‘point’ of action for business users. For example, if a company is working with high risk vendors, it will not be enough to just do an assessment of the vendor regularly, but rather systematically tie performance indicators and negotiations for renewals to that vendor risk assessment directly."

Resolution #5: Balance Preventative Controls 

With Detective Controls More organizations should resolve themselves to improve the balance between preventative and detective controls, Wild says. "In the past, many companies almost exclusively relied on preventative controls, which is not 100% effective," he explains. "Because of this, the use of detective controls to ensure security incidents that aren’t prevented can be discovered, contained and remediated." At the end of the day, this balance should be driven by a solid risk management-based security framework. 

Can intelligent transportation systems solve India’s traffic congestion problems?

A pilot project running in Ahmedabad could pave the way for decongesting traffic conditions in other cities

In 2012, an IIM-Transport Corporation of India study revealed that India loses Rs 60,000 crore a year due to congestion. For most citizens, traffic congestion and unpredictable travel-time delays are problems that is already factored in their daily lives.  Can technology help in clearing traffic congestion? In India, a first step for testing whether technology can help in clearing congestion is being tried out in the city of Ahmedabad by a company called Zero-Sum ITS.  Once implemented, this solution will be showcased as a mechanism of using technology to aid in decongesting traffic conditions in other cities. Understanding that the high cost of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) undermines its importance, the firm has customized the solution to best suit Indian conditions. The ITS solution uses a hybrid model of gathering vehicle information on the roads from camera based traffic sensors and GPS information from vehicles.  

The collected traffic information is sent to a cloud based control center which then analyses the gathered traffic information to understand the traffic flow and congested areas in the target area. The ITS solution then displays the processed information onto huge electronic information boards that are placed approximately 200 meters before every traffic light. This information will aid motorists in making a decision on which roads to avoid and taking up alternate routes to reach their destination. A cloud-based control center negates the need for having to setup up a physical control center with manned personnel and manual intervention through a tablet computing device. This enables the police to control the solution in case of an emergency from any location within the city.   “The key goal of the ITS solution being implemented by Zero-Sum is to ensure better traffic management by providing more information to road users and enabling them to plan their trips optimally thereby reducing travel time, saving fuel and decongesting busy roads,” says Chikara Kikuji, Managing Director, Zero Sum ITS.  Key components of the traffic management solution Based on a traffic study undertaken by Zero-Sum in cooperation with the Ahmedabad Traffic Police and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Zero-Sum will install ten camera based traffic sensors across various locations on 132 Feet Ring Road of Ahmedabad. These sensors will gather information on the traffic flow including speed, density, vehicle classification and send the information to a cloud based traffic control center. This center will receive the information from the traffic sensors and the traffic police will process the information that needs to be shared with the public regarding the traffic jams in the city. This center will not require any physical space to be setup thereby eliminating the need of having to allocate space inside the Ahmedabad police station for the hosting of the ITS solution. The solution will be hosted through a cloud data center and therefore no physical set-up is required in Ahmedabad. The ITS setup will include setting up of four electronic information boards across key road junctions in Ahmedabad. These information boards will receive what information is to be displayed from the traffic control center and will display to the public which roads are congested and the de-tour route to take so as to avoid entering into the traffic jam or congested areas. For the dual purpose of providing real time traffic updates and gathering traffic information, mobile phone users in Ahmedabad city will be provided mobile applications that can be downloaded free of cost. This application will also have useful information such as city map, important POI (Point of Interest) locations such as gas stations, shopping malls and restaurants. As part of the ITS trial solution, five tablet computing devices will be made available to key personnel of Ahmedabad Traffic Police allowing them to control what information needs to be shown on each of the Electronic Information boards. Therefore, in an emergency, the traffic personnel can operate the solution from anywhere across the city. 

The entire cost of the ITS solution, its implementation, training and maintenance will be borne by Zero-Sum with no cost being charged to the local Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation or Traffic police. Zero-Sum will monetize the solution by using 50 percent screen space of the Electronic Information Board to display commercial advertisements. These advertisements will not be shown during any emergency and the advertisements shown will only be static advertisements without any video content so that motorists are not distracted. The system can easily expanded for implementation across an entire city and can integrate with other traffic management/ enforcement systems including parking systems, disaster management and climate systems. Beyond traffic management If used intelligently, the system can greatly help in detecting incidents - by pinpointing locations of accidents or vehicle breakdowns. This is extremely important in handling emergency situations.  The ITS solution can also help in classifying vehicles, which in turn helps in planning the road width and the space of the pavement.The same solution can be effectively used for monitoring pollution and road quality. 

Once the foundation for intelligent transportation systems is laid, the same can be extended for further benefits such as traveler information, road management, public transport management and incident and hazard response.

LATEST MECHANICAL ENGINEERING INVENTION 

A six-metre-tall 3D printer has been developed that can build cheap, sustainable houses using a clay-like paste.

Created by Italian 3D printer company WASP, the giant, three-armed printer was demonstrated at Maker Faire Rome last week. While there are already 3D printers out there that can rapidly build houses, this model is unique as it can be assembled on site within two hours, and then filled with mud and fibre to construct extremely cheap dwellings in some of the most remote places on Earth.

The mud that goes inside the printer first needs to be mixed with another natural fibre, such as wool, to help bind it together, creating a grainy paste that can then be squeezed out into the desired shape, sort of as though you were icing a cake.

Office for iPad: 10 tips

Whether you're a paying subscriber or just sampling the free version, here's how to get the most out of Microsoft Office on your iPad

In its brief, six-month existence, Office for iPad has quickly become one of the most popular downloads in Apple's App Store. As of July, the touch-oriented version of Microsoft's ubiquitous productivity software had already registered more than 35 million downloads. It's unclear exactly what impact all of that downloading is having on Microsoft's bottom line, of course. The reason? Those download numbers include the "free" versions of Office for iPad apps -- Word, Excel, and PowerPoint -- that users can download without paying for an Office 365 subscription. The free apps are file viewers, essentially, with a few added perks. In order to get a fully functioning Office for iPad, one that lets you create and edit documents as well, you have to pay an Office 365 subscription starting at $7 a month. Enterprises running Microsoft Office might have the most to gain from the iPad version, particularly if they have growing numbers of iPad-toting workers. But given its relatively high price, the suite's appeal to consumers and small business is less clear. The App Store has many worthy alternatives to Office, including Google's Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps, which might lack Office for iPad's power and elegance, but are free to use. And Apple's Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps -- which together make up the iWork suite -- come free with new iOS devices, or cost just $10 apiece in the App Store. As a component of Microsoft's Office 365 strategy, Office for iPad is targeted mostly at business users, including small and mid-size shops. On Oct. 2, Microsoft announced the availability of new Office 365 subscription plans, including one that allows full access to the desktop, tablet (iPad and Windows), smartphone, and online versions of Office, all for $8.25 per user a month.   By enabling business users to create and collaboratively edit documents across a variety of mobile and desktop devices, Office might yet stay relevant in a world where bloated and pricey productivity suites are growing less significant.   Reviewers have praised Office for iPad for its usability and touch-friendly design, while acknowledging that the iPad version is a scaled-down edition of the Windows and Mac versions. Microsoft has been issuing regular Office for iPad updates, adding printing capabilities and other key features that were missing at launch. Click through our slideshow for tips on how to make the most of these new features.

Open Office files from Dropbox

Office for iPad is designed to work with Microsoft's cloud services, including OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint. (Of course, it saves files locally on your iPad, too.) Unfortunately, its integration with Dropbox and other third-party cloud storage providers is pretty much nil, although Microsoft says that might change. There's a way to open Office files from Dropbox, although it's far from ideal. In the Dropbox app, tap the Office doc you want to open, then use the "Open in …" command to open the file in an Office app (e.g., Excel). Now the bad news: Office for iPad won't let you save the file back to Dropbox.

Try a new keyboard

One of iOS 8's most welcome new features is the ability to swap out Apple's stock keyboard with a third-party option -- a boon for Office for iPad users seeking alternative ways to enter data. One exotic choice is the free MyScript Stack, which uses handwritten input rather than a keyboard. Swype ($0.99), a popular import from the Android world, lets you form words by dragging a finger across the keyboard. Because Swype's predictive engine learns as you type -- and lets you add or remove words from your personal dictionary -- its accuracy improves over time.

Free presentations in PowerPoint

Here's one for the cheapskates. Say you've downloaded PowerPoint for iPad but haven't paid for an Office 365 subscription. You still can use PowerPoint to play presentations directly from a cloud service such as Dropbox or OneDrive. Here's how to do it using Dropbox: Open the Dropbox app on your iPad and tap the PowerPoint presentation you want to open. Tap the Share icon, followed by "Open in …" and "Open in PowerPoint." Once the file is loaded in PowerPoint, tap "Slideshow" to view the presentation in full-screen mode. (Note: You can't edit or create presentations.)

Scan with OneNote and Office Lens

OneNote, Office's free note-taking app, lets you use the iPad as a portable scanner. Other apps offer this feature, including popular choices such as The Grizzly Labs'Genius Scan and Readdle's Scanner Pro. But for Office for iPad users, OneNote's Office Lens scanning tool is probably the easiest way to snap a quick photo of a document or whiteboard, crop the image, and add it to a notebook. To get started, tap the page in your OneNote notebook to activate the cursor. Tap the "INSERT" tab, then "Camera," and snap the desired image. Office Lens automatically crops the picture, or you can drag the circles bordering the image to do it yourself. Finally, tap the check mark icon to add the image to your note.

Export Office documents as PDFs

Office for iPad lets you export documents as PDF files, a much-requested featured added in July with the release of version 1.1. (The process might not be ideal, but it's better than nothing.) To send a PDF, tap the Share icon in the upper right corner, and then select "Email as attachment" and "Send PDF." Here's hoping future versions of Office for iPad will offer more PDF-export options, such as the ability to save the file directly on the tablet rather than having to email it to yourself.

Ink and laser slideshows

The iPad is quite handy for PowerPoint slideshows. You can navigate between slides with a single screen swipe. And when mirroring an iPad screen to a projector or large monitor, PowerPoint's laser pointer and ink pen are great tools for drawing the audience's attention to specific things on the slide. To access the laser pointer, simply tap and hold the screen. To use the ink pen to mark up or annotate a slideshow, tap the pen icon (top-right corner) and use your finger to draw on the slide.

Use voice dictation in Word

Hate using a screen keyboard? Don't have a physical keyboard? Voice dictation is an effective, hands-free alternative to typing in Word. It works when Siri is off, too, although you will need an active WiFi or cellular connection. To get started, tap the microphone icon at the bottom of the screen keyboard. Speak clearly and enunciate, but don't overdo it. (A little trial and error helps.) Voice dictation on the iPad is generally quite accurate, although you will need to proof your document to catch the occasional error, such as when "an inaccuracy" is transcribed as "and in accuracy." That sort of thing.

Microsoft smartphones drop Nokia name

Microsoft is finally ready to sell smartphones under its own brand -- but where are the flagship models?

Six months after closing its acquisition of Nokia's device business, Microsoft is finally ready to start selling smartphones under its own banner. Sometime soon, the first Microsoft Lumia will hit the market. What that means in practical terms remains to be seen. Microsoft has been selling smartphones since the $7 billion Nokia deal closed in April. In the most recent quarter, it sold 9.3 million Lumias -- 500,000 units more than Nokia managed to sell during the same quarter in 2013. But Microsoft hasn't yet put a signature stamp on its new smartphone manufacturing business. The name change is first and foremost about bringing continuity to Microsoft's brand, but to establish that brand, the company will need new devices. In a post on Nokia's Conversations blog, which will soon become a Microsoft website, Microsoft senior VP of marketing Tuula Rytilä said the first Microsoft Lumia smartphone is on its way. She did not offer additional details, but given that most recent Windows Phones were low- and mid-range models, Microsoft fans might like to see a higher-end offering. In August, Windows Phone director Greg Sullivan told InformationWeek that "flagship devices help define a platform, create awareness and desire." He said a Microsoft-made smartphone flagship would arrive sooner rather than later. Rytilä referred to the branding switch, which first appeared in a Nokia France Facebook posting earlier this week, as a "natural progression." She said the new name doesn't mean Microsoft is abandoning old Nokia customers. Microsoft continues to sell and support current Lumia devices, such as the recently introduced Nokia Lumia 830, Rytilä noted. She said Nokia-branded apps are being renamed to reflect that they now come from Microsoft. Microsoft is dropping Nokia branding from all future smartphones, but the company has licensed the Nokia name, which is well regarded in many international territories, for other types of devices. Rytilä did not discuss what types of Nokia-labeled devices Microsoft might produce, other than to reference the recently introduced Nokia 130, an entry-level phone that cannot connect to the Internet. A year ago, Nokia was the only vendor that appeared committed to Windows Phone 8, a dynamic that likely compelled former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to initiate the acquisition. The company has more support these days. After announcing earlier this year that Windows Phone licenses would be free to OEMs, the company has assembled a variety of manufacturing partners, many of which have focused on producing budget-friendly Windows Phones for emerging markets. Also, Windows 8.1 relaxed the OS's hardware requirements, which enabled HTC essentially to take its One (M8) Android flagship and re-release it as a premium Windows model. But Windows Phone still has only a fraction of its competitors' market share -- less than 3% of the overall market, according to research firm IDC. Yes, Microsoft's most recent quarterly results were somewhat encouraging, given that the company improved on Nokia's Lumia sales benchmark from the year before. But it's a qualified victory. When the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launched, Apple sold more units in three days than Microsoft sold in its entire fiscal quarter. In July, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said device efforts would "light up" the company's digital experiences, such as OneDrive and Cortana. The company hasn't yet revealed what Windows 10 will mean for its long-term smartphone efforts, but to start grabbing iOS and Android market share, Microsoft will need devices that make good on Nadella's promise.

Micro VehicAirles

Definition

 air vehicles are either fixed-wing aircraft , rotary-wing aircraft ( helicopter ), or flapping-wing (of which the ornithopter is a subset) designs; with each being used for different purposes. Fixed-winMicrog craft require higher, forward flight speeds to stay airborne, and are therefore able to cover longer distances; however they are unable to effectively manoeuvre inside structures such as buildings. Rotary-wing designs allow the craft to hover and move in any direction, at the cost of requiring closer proximity for launch and recovery. Flapping-wing-powered flight has yet to reach the same level of maturity as fixed-wing and rotary-wing designs. However, flapping-wing designs, if fully realized, would boast a manoeuvrability that is superior to both fixed- and rotary-wing designs due to the extremely high wing loadings achieved via unsteady aerodynamics.

Usages

The Black Widow is the current state-of-the-art MAV and is an important benchmark. It is the product of 4 years of research by Aerovironment and DARPA. The Black Widow has a 6-inch wingspan and weighs roughly 56 grams. The plane has a flight range of 1.8 kilometres, a flight endurance time of 30 minutes, and a max altitude of 769 feet. The plane carries a surveillance camera. In addition it utilizes computer controlled systems to ease control.

The Black Widow is made out of form; individual pieces were cut using a hot wire mechanism with a CNC machine allowing for greater accuracy.

The University of Florida has been very successful over the past five years in the MAV competitions. In 2001 they won in both the heavy lift and surveillance categories. Their plane was constructed of a resilient plastic attached to a carbon fibre web structure. This resulted in a crash resistant airfoil.

Working Principle

Newton's first law states a body at rest will remain at rest or a body in motion will continue in straight-line motion unless subjected to an external applied force . That means, if one sees a bend in the flow of air, or if air originally at rest is accelerated into motion, there is force acting on it. Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction . As an example, an object sitting on a table exerts a force on the table (its weight) and the table puts an equal and opposite force on the object to hold it up. In order to generate lift a wing must do something to the air. What the wing does to the air is the action while lift is the reaction.

Let's compare two figures used to show streams of air (streamlines) over a wing. The air comes straight at the wing, bends around it, and then leaves straight behind the wing. We have all seen similar pictures, even in flight manuals. But, the air leaves the wing exactly as it appeared ahead of the wing. There is no net action on the air so there can be no lift. Figure 3.7 shows the streamlines, as they should be drawn. The air passes over the wing and is bent down. The bending of the air is the action. The reaction is the lift on the wing.

HUMMINGBIRDS VS. HELICOPTERS: STANFORD ENGINEERS COMPARE FLIGHT DYNAMICS

Auantitative ana qlysis of hummingbird wings shows that they generate lift more efficiently than the best microhelicopter blades. The findings could lead to more powerful, bird-inspired robotic vehicles.

More than 42 million years of natural selection have turned hummingbirds into some of the world's most energetically efficient flyers, particularly when it comes to hovering in place.

Humans, however, are gaining ground quickly. A new study led by David Lentink, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford, reveals that the spinning blades of microhelicopters are about as efficient at hovering as the average hummingbird.

The experiment involved spinning hummingbird wings – sourced from a pre-existing museum collection – of 12 different species on an apparatus designed to test the aerodynamics of helicopter blades. The researchers used cameras to visualize airflow around the wings, and sensitive load cells to measure the drag and the lift force they exerted at different speeds and angles.

Lentink and his colleagues then replicated the experiment using the blades from a ProxDynamics Black Hornet autonomous microhelicopter. The Black Hornet is the most sophisticated microcopter available – the United Kingdom's army uses it in Afghanistan – and is about the size of a hummingbird.

Even spinning like a helicopter, rather than flapping, the hummingbird wings excelled: If hummingbirds were able to spin their wings to hover, it would cost them roughly half as much energy as flapping. The microcopter's wings kept pace with the middle-of-the-pack hummingbird wings, but the topflight wings – those of Anna's hummingbird, a species common throughout the West Coast – were still about 27 percent more efficient than engineered blades.

Hummingbirds acing the test didn't particularly surprise Lentink – previous studies had indicated that hummingbirds were incredibly efficient – but he was impressed with the helicopter.

"The technology is at the level of an average Joe hummingbird," Lentink said. "A helicopter is really the most efficient hovering device that we can build. The best hummingbirds are still better, but I think it's amazing that we're getting closer. It's not easy to match their performance, but if we build better wings with better shapes, we might approximate hummingbirds."

Based on the measurements of Anna's hummingbirds, Lentink said there is potential to improve microcopter rotor power by up to 27 percent.

The study is published in the current issue of Journal of the Royal Society: Interface.

The high-fidelity experiment also provided an opportunity to refine previous rough estimates of muscle power. Lentink's team learned that hummingbirds' muscles produce a surprising 130 watts of energy per kilogram; the average for other birds, and across most vertebrates, is roughly 100 watts per kilogram.

Although the current study revealed several details of how a hummingbird hovers in one place, the birds still hold many secrets. For instance, Lentink said, we don't know how hummingbirds maintain their flight in a strong gust, how they navigate through branches and other clutter or how they change direction so quickly during aerial "dogfights."

He also thinks great strides could be made by studying wing aspect ratios, the ratio of wing length to wing width. The aspect ratios of all the hummingbirds' wings remarkably converged at about 3.9. The aspect ratios of most wings used in aviation measure much higher; the Black Hornet's aspect ratio was 4.7.

"I want to understand if aspect ratio is special and whether the amount of variation has an effect on performance," Lentink said. Understanding and replicating these abilities and characteristics could be a boon for robotics and will be the focus of future experiments.

"Those are the things we don't know right now, and they could be incredibly useful. But I don't mind it, actually," Lentink said. "I think it's nice that there are still a few things about hummingbirds that we don't know."

AIR HUMIDIFIER

Dyson Launches Its First Air Humidifier That Also Kills Bacteria In Air

We are all familiar with the brand name ‘Dyson’ as the British company that makes bag-less vacuum cleaners and blade-less fans. Now it has launched its first humidifier, which is said to help battle chapped lips, blocked sinuses, and dehydrated skin.

Dyson claims that existing humidifiers can be unhygienic because they can harbour nasty bacteria, which they then circulate around the home when the machines are turned on. The Dyson humidifier is said to use ultraviolet light to kill 99.9 percent of the bacteria in the water before it is blown around the room. It also protects the clean, hydrated air around the room evenly and quietly. A piezoelectric transducer in the base of the machine, vibrating up to 1.7 million times a second, breaks the water down into microscopic particles, which are drawn up through the loop amplifier and projected into the air.  

The Dyson humidifier has a technology that doesn’t allow over humidification. It measures the temperature and humidity of the room and adjusts accordingly to create a comfortable, hygienic environment. An efficient water management system ensures up to 18 hours of continuous use on one tank of water. It holds 3 litres or water and also has an automatic shut off system.

There are a number of ailments which can be prevented with this humidifier, such as sore throats, sinus problems, asthma, psoriasis or eczema. The humidifier has recently launched in Japan and will be on sale in Britain within months. It is expected to cost between 400 and 500 pounds. Below is a video you can watch for more information:

Moon blotted out some of the sun during Thursday's partial solar eclipse

It wasn't safe either, NASA said, for those who looked at Thursday's partial solar eclipse.

"Don't stare," NASA said. "Even at maximum eclipse, a sliver of sun peeking out from behind the Moon can still cause pain and eye damage. Direct viewing should only be attempted with the aid of a safe solar filter."

The show in the sky reached its height at 5:45 p.m. ET, NASA said, meaning the eastern half of the country should have gotten a view before the backdrop of golden twilight hues.

 Time-lapse shows solar eclipse

The moon clipped the sun and should have made it look like a fingernail as it set in the west for most of the country and Canada.

People living in the Central Time Zone had the best view, NASA said. New England and Hawaii will miss out on this one. The eclipse was expected to last for over two hours.

Protect your eyes NASA urged people viewing the eclipse to protect their eyes.

NASA suggested some old tricks for viewing indirectly, like punching a hole in cardboard and projecting the light seeping through it onto a surface away from the sun. Or letting a tree do the work for you:

 "Overlapping leaves create a myriad of natural little pinhole cameras, each one casting an image of the crescent-sun onto the ground beneath the canopy," NASA said.

If you missed this one, the next solar eclipse over North America will occur in about three years -- and it will be a more dramatic and rare total eclipse.