Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, His envisioned fifth-mode of transportation

Elon Musk who is more often compared as the real life Tony Stark, first started his business life by co-founding PayPal the gone on by starting major companies like Tesla Motors and Space-X. He is one of the few successful billionaires who has the zeal to change the world into a better place.

Musk recently announced his interest towards a transit system called Hyperloop in an interview to Pando Daily (Video below), He said this is a faster system than traditional methods.

“This system I have in mind,  how would you like something that can never crash, is immune to weather, it goes 3 or 4 times faster than the bullet train , it goes about an average speed of twice what an aircraft would do. You would go from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. And it would cost you much less than an air ticket or car, much less than any other mode of transport, because the fundamental energy cost is so much lower. And I think we could actually make it self-powering if you put solar panels on it,  you generate more power than you would consume in the system. There's a way to store the power so it would run 24/7 without using batteries.  Yes, [this is possible,] absolutely”.
—Elon Musk to Pando Daily, July 12, 2012

"What you want is something that never crashes, that's at least twice as fast as a plane, that's solar powered and that leaves right when you arrive, so there is no waiting for a specific departure time",  --Musk to Bloomberg

Musk through his Twitter account said he will publish the Hyperloop alpha design by Aug 12

Will publish Hyperloop alpha design by Aug 12. Critical feedback for improvements would be much appreciated.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2013

New York is the first city to have a top-level domain [.nyc].

World Wide Web is a great place for communication,commerce and many more and is evolving at an unimaginable pace. To stride this ever increasing virtual world adequate resources have to be provided by the responsible bodies. To this, couple of years back Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it will be adding approximately 1,400 new top-level domains.

As a result we have seen .xxx a TLD pornographic websites, .art for artists and other.

Today New York Mayor Bloomberg and speaker Quinn announced a new unique .nyc web address for new yorkers and businesses.

“Having our own unique, top-level domain – .nyc – puts New York City at the forefront of the digital landscape and creates new opportunities for our small businesses,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “They’ll now be able to identify themselves as connected to New York City, one of the world’s strongest and most prestigious brands.”

Though registrations are not yet open you can pre-register with some domain name vendors like uniteddomains where they have 30K preregistered and other.

Source: NYC.gov

Google joins Airtel to offer free internet (Free Zone) in India

Google and Bharti Airtel collectively announced a new program called Free Zone aka free internet in India.

As being the 2nd largest Telecom market in the world and recently in India mobile internet traffic has surpassed desktop, With all this Google is eyeing to engage more users in its services. This program was launched in Philippines last year.

How Free Zone works:

Airtel mobile customers can access the service by visiting g.co/freezone or airtel.in/freezone. People can access Google services like Gmail,Google+ and Google search for free of cost. Only the first page of a website linked from search results is provided at no data cost. While surfing a green bar will be displayed at the top of the browser indicating free zone is applied at that moment.

Downloading an attachment from Gmail and accessing web pages other than listed in the search result will cost you. A warning will be displayed  if you are accessing a page that cost.

Digg Reader beta to launch next week, Can import feeds from late Google Reader.

Many people have hard time when Google shutdown its feed aggregator service Google Reader. Though many services have terminated Google Reader got a huge disappointment from users.
Digg, social news website responded to Google reader cut off by saying that it is going to build a feed reader through a blog post.
Recently, today Digg wrote a update on developing its alternate to Google Reader. In that the company say

Over 18,000 people signed up to provide feedback on the product.
and people mainly request three things…

1. Make it fast.
2. Keep it simple.
3. Let me import my feeds and folders from Google Reader

Beta focus on core elements like

1. Easy migration and onboarding from Google Reader.
2. A clean reading experience that gets out of the way and puts the focus squarely on the articles, posts, images, and videos themselves.
3. Useful mobile apps that sync with the web experience.
4. Support for key actions like subscribing, sharing, saving and organizing.

The company also mention 60 days after beta launch we can expect an

1. Android app
2. third party integration like Evernote
3. Search.
4. Notifications.

Digg Reader will ultimately be a ‘freemium’ product.

All New iOS 7: Revamped Gizmos and features WWDC 2013

Firstly I should say, Apple is one of the superlative companies that never compromise when design is concerned. During the first day (yesterday) of the developer conference WWDC 2013 the company unveiled new version of its mobile os, iOS7, and is reportedly said to be to the most substantial update since the original iPhone.

Apple provided the developers with iOS 7 beta software and SDK at developer.apple.com.

What's New in iOS 7 ?

Apple completely revamped the iOS 7 with whole bunch of new features and simple yet stunning user interface.

From simple things like typography to complex new features, every detail got attention from the designers resulting in a stunning look of the new mobile os.

Control Center | Notification Center | improved Multitasking | AirDrop | enhanced Photos | New Siri | iTunes Radio

Along with these new feature Apple released a Find My iPhone Activation Lock feature

The "activation lock" feature is designed to render a phone inoperable when a thief attempts to turn off another program that locates missing devices without first supplying an account password, according to Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering.

iOS 7 Compatibility

iOS 7 will be available as a free software update for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation) this fall. Some features may not be available on all products.

Control Center

---

iOS 7 brings in one of the handy additions allowing quick access to most used apps.

Control Center gives you quick access to the controls and apps you always seem to need right this second. Just swipe up from any screen — including the Lock screen — to do things like switch to Airplane mode, turn Wi-Fi on or off, or adjust the brightness of your display. You can even shine a light on things with a new flashlight. Never has one swipe given you so much control.

Swiping up from the bottom of the device on any screen brings you the following screen which include switches to lock the screen, airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and you can also adjust volume and brightness levels and also can control media player.

Control center is similar to android quick settings which is swiped from the top of the screen, which also includes the notifications.

Notification Center

---

iOS 7 got a new tabbed Notification center. Unlike iOS 6, where notifications can only be seen on lock screen – users cannot interact on lock screen. This is hold off this time.

The notification area includes 3 tabs Today, All and Missed. Today tab gives a view of notifications that shows your calendar events and other notifications that you’ll need. This tab also give weather information. “All” tab will give you a list of all the notifications that you have. Missed will show you notifications that you have not given attention for a while.

Multitasking

---

With the responsibility of Jonathan Ive iOS 7 offers up a smarter way to multitask. When users tap the home button twice, it will display preview screens of apps that are open. Unlike before, the screens are previews of actual apps rather than just a small app icon. iOS 7 incorporates a learning algorithm that takes note of when users utilize certain apps and keeps those up to date with new content before they are launched. So, for example, if someone wakes up and checks Facebook, iOS 7 will learn that behaviour and have Facebook updates ready to go in the background before the app is opened. The new mobile OS also uses intelligently scheduled updates and will update during power efficient times. For example, when the device is connected to Wi-Fi. It's also able to respond to push notifications, updating apps that send out notifications.

With improved Multitasking in iOS 7, developers have the ability to enable any app to multitask in the background with a new API. Users have the ability to switch between their apps in a more visual and intuitive way, and iOS 7 pays attention to which apps you use most and automatically keeps your content up to date in the background.

AirDrop

---

Simple Fast Secure sharing.

AirDrop is an entirely new way to quickly and easily share content with people nearby. When you’ve got something you want to share, AirDrop shows you your contacts close by. Just select who you want to share with and AirDrop does the rest. AirDrop transfers are peer-to-peer so you can use it anywhere, without any network or set up required, and transfers are fully encrypted so your content is protected and private.

Photos

---

iOS 7 includes a redesigned Photos app that introduces Moments, a new way to automatically organize your photos and videos based on time and location. You can zoom out to see all your photos organized by Moments, Collections of Moments and Years. iOS 7 includes iCloud Photo Sharing, the easiest way to share just the photos you want with just the people you want. With iCloud® Photo Sharing, family and friends can contribute their own photos and videos to your shared photo streams, and the new Activity view displays updates from your shared streams all in one place.

Siri

---

Siri sounds better than ever with new male and female voices and includes Twitter search integration, so you can ask Siri what people are saying on Twitter*. Siri also now has Wikipedia integration, providing access to the world’s most popular Internet reference site. Siri offers Bing web search within the app and the ability to change device settings and play back voicemail.

iTunes Radio

---

The Music app has a beautiful new design and includes the new iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service featuring over 200 stations and an incredible catalog of music from the iTunes Store®, combined with features only iTunes can deliver.

iTunes Radio is the best way to discover new music. When you tune into iTunes Radio on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac®, PC or Apple TV®, you’ll have access to stations inspired by the music you already listen to, Featured Stations curated by Apple and genre-focused stations that are personalized just for you. iTunes Radio evolves based on the music you play and download. The more you use iTunes Radio and iTunes, the more it knows what you like to listen to and the more personalized your experience becomes. iTunes Radio also gives you access to exclusive “first listen” premieres from top selling artists, Siri integration plus the ability to buy anything you hear with just one tap.

For more News on WWDC stay tuned to TGH.

Could you stare at a Galaxy S4 for one hour to win it ?

Swiss telecom company Swisscom set up a challenge for people at Zurich to stare at the Galaxy S4 for an hour.

As the new Galaxy S4 has eye tracking capability the company used this feature for advertising in a public place.

Many may think this is a piece of cake for them, but the hardest part is they are using epic distractions to get your eyes off the phone, like barking dogs, motor cycle crash, arguing couple and other.

All eyes on the S4 from iGAMIFY on Vimeo.

Google forbids Glass apps with facial recognition for now

Google on its ProjectGlass Google+ page made it clear that the company wont accept Glass apps with facial recognition technology.

“we won’t add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place. With that in mind, we won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.”

Apart from a huge hit as a consumer product, there are no strong privacy principles towards the usage if it.

One of the possible scenario of privacy is, Consider you’re at a restaurant or a mall, attending a visit to unknown place and your photo is captured, identified and matched against the facial database. All this is being done with out your knowledge.

So, Google not taking risk without a strong privacy protection system.

Here is the Google+ post of Project glass..

Glass and Facial Recognition
When we started the Explorer Program nearly a year ago our goal was simple: we wanted to make people active participants in shaping the future of this technology ahead of a broader consumer launch.  We've been listening closely to you, and many have expressed both interest and concern around the possibilities of facial recognition in Glass. As Google has said for several years, we won’t add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place. With that in mind, we won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.
We’ve learned a lot from you in just a few weeks and we’ll continue to learn more as we update the software and evolve our policies in the weeks and months ahead.

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wearables. "Glass is difficult, Wrist is interesting" [Video]

Speaking at the All things Digital D11 conference, Apple chief Tim Cook spoke his interests on wearable gadgets. He said "Glass form-factor may be difficult". And when Walt mossberg asked about other form-factors like wrist and other, he spontaneously said "Wrist is interesting".

By this way he talked we can understand the speculation on iWatch may be true.

Here is the footage of Mr.Cook on wearables.

August smart lock system uses iPhone to unlock your door

From intelligent personal assistant navigator (Siri) to self-driving cars, Internet of Things are getting huge traction and no doubt in recent years we will be surrounded with different devices sharing information to assist us in our daily life.

At the D11 Conference today a company called August unveiled a smart digital lock systems for home doors. The designer of this locking system, Yves Behar is well known for his work with One Laptop Per Child, OUYA and Jawbone products. Yves Behar along with Jason Johnson founder of InterQuest Communications announced this product.

For now this system works with an iPhone app which allows sharing the virtual keys with other users having the app. You may give access to your friends for a specific period of time.

The system keeps logs of people who access the door and also sends info like photos and status to your phone.

New tabbed Gmail inbox gives you relief from flooded mail

Google today introduced a new way to manage your Gmail inbox with different customization options. This change will occur in both desktop and mobile platforms.
Generally, How organised you may be but your inbox may contain lot of clutter, flooded with different kinds of stuff. Even though you may label your mails, new subscriptions and mails have a chance to clutter.
Today Google released new inbox which helps you organise your inbox with simple customization.

Desktop
The new inbox groups your mail into categories which appear as different tabs on top of your Gmail’s inbox column. You see Primary tab on opening Gmail then you can simply choose which categories you want and your inbox is organized in a way that lets you see what’s new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read when.

Google automatically organises mails into tabs. You can also customize by dragging and dropping messages among the tabs, set certain senders to always appear in a particular tab and star messages so that they also appear in the Primary tab.

Mobile
Android 4.0 and above and iPhone and iPad users can enjoy this feature. Users can also switch off this feature if they dont like and switch to other styles.

This feature will be rolled out to every one within few weeks. If you'd like to try out the new inbox on Desktop sooner, keep an eye on the gear menu and select Configure inbox when it appears in the Settings options.

Americans spend roughly an hour a day on their smartphones :Study says

Experian Marketing Services’ Simmons Connect mobile and digital panel uncovered some facts on how people in US spend time on their smartphones.
This study exposed some info .. An average adult expend 58 minutes daily on their device.
And they also discovered that 'on what activity people are using their smartphone for most of the time'.

On average, smartphone owners devote 26% of the time they spend on their phone talking and another 20% texting. Social networking eats up 16% of smartphone time while browsing the mobile web accounts for 14% of time spent. Emailing and playing games account for roughly 9% and 8% of daily smartphone time, respectively, while use of the phone’s camera and GPS each take up another 2% of our smartphone day.

This study also disclosed a very important statement that iPone users spend more time than Android users

ReadMore at Experian.com

YouTube adds slow-motion Enhancement tool to video editor

Slomo (Slow motion) videos are always interesting because we can enjoy every detail of the frame. Like in fight scene of Sherlock Holmes movie. Creating a slomo video would require a high-speed camera and some good editing software which allows us to control how fast or slow playback should be.

Google on Tuesday announced a new slow motion enhancement tool to the YouTube video editor. Now users can use this feature to their new and existing videos.

To create a slomo video, users have to open video manager, select a video, then click the Enhancement tools tab and now you can see a tortoise icon top right. From there you can set the intensity of your slow motion.

This video footage was reduced to 1/8th of its actuall playback speed using youtube slow motion tool.

Google play gets a new design

Google play so called Google store for android apps, books, music, videos and games got published with a new cool design. This design is now available to smartphone and tablet users.
The motive for this new design is to help users finding content quick and easy.

Today we’ve started rolling out a redesigned Google Play store on Android phones and tablets that is simple, clean and — most importantly — helps you find great entertainment, fast. – android blog

Via Official Android Blog

The Pirate Bay switched to .GL ccTLD

Today The Pirate Bay, Worlds largest p2p file-sharing site (torrent provider) switched its country code TLD to .gl (refers to Greenland ).
Until today it thepiratebay.org was redirected to .se (Sweden) ccTLD. May be the site is expecting that the Swedish authorities might seize the .se domain.

So without further due, we hereby announce that we have moved our servers from the evil North Korea to the greatest fuckin nation in the entire world. --TPB

via TorrentFreak

Facebook Home preview on HTC First. The Verge review [Video]

Long rumoured ‘Facebook phone’ is not actually a phone, but it is an overlay of apps over android platform called Facebook Home because it replaces boring android Home screen with cover feed containing status with background cover image of the person whom you are viewing status.
The new user interface is very cool, you can watch it below

Global Design Trends 2013

Shutterstock is one of the worlds leading Photo Stock Image lisense provider has created this impressively detailed Infographic which provides a look into the various design trends in photography and more.


Source: Shutterstock's Global Design Trends Infographic 2013

Twitter got its Windows 8 app

Twitter officially released its Windows 8 app. As Microsoft is making its moves to increase its recent operating system market, Twitter released its first native Windows 8 app.
With this app, the micro-blogging site introduces Windows 8 functionality into its experience. Features like Snap view, Large Photos, Live Tiles and notifications are included.

Via blog.twitter.com

BitTorrent Live is now open Beta: A new P2P Live streaming protocol

Live streaming by the people, for the people

BitTorrent is one of the largest file-sharing protocols existing on the internet. Even though it faced opposition from big ISP providers like Comcast, its traffic got increased enormously. This is because of its primary goal to distribute or share large files on the internet.

BitTorrent Inc founded by Bram Cohen in 2004 have some active products like utorrent and bittorrent clients and has announced some products of which most of them are in testing .

BitTorrent Live is a new web-based live streaming technology. With this, BitTorent is going to give hard time for live streaming products like Ustream, Livestream, and Twitch.TV.

BitTorrent Live has a strong side when compared to current live streaming sites, because the more people use these sites, the most costly it gets and the harder it is to guarantee smooth playback for all viewers. With BitTorrent Live streaming which uses p2p technology in its core protocol as it gets more reliable when more people tune in.

The Company describes the product as

BitTorrent Live is a peer-to-peer live streaming protocol. It’s based on the principles of the BitTorrent protocol. And it’s designed to make real-time reporting, and open expression accessible to all. BitTorrent Live eliminates bandwidth, cost, and infrastructure as broadcast barriers. The more people that tune in, the more resilient your stream.

BitTorrent Live is being developed and tested in a closed environment for years now, today at SXSW event it is opened to public as a beta product.

“We’ve demonstrated scaling and improved stability during our invite-only period, and are excited to open our service up to anyone who wants it. Thanks to all our early users for their support.”           -- Bram Cohen

In order to view live streaming from BitTorrent live, you need to download and install a 5MB program.

Tablets outsurfed Smartphone in global web traffic

According to Adobe's Digital Index, Tablet are being used more than smartphones for surfing the web. They concluded this by analysing 100B visits to more than 1000 websites around the world.
Of all the web traffic, 8% alone is getting from tablets while for smartphones it is 7%. This is for the first time tablets surpassed smartphones.
[Via: Adobe blog]

Google+ redesigns Profile & Pages: Local reviews, Larger Cover, new About tab

Today Google made some updates to its social network Google+. Now you will see profile pages with different look and easier to manage.
Sara McKinley, an employee of Google has announced these improvements.
In those she mentioned three main improvements.

A new tab for your Local reviews. In addition to your photos, +1's and YouTube videos, there's now a place for all your Local reviews. Highlight your favorite restaurants, or hide the tab completely via settings -- it's completely up to you.

- An easier way to edit your info. The 'About' tab now consists of separate cards (like Story, Places, and Links) -- each with its own prominent edit link. As always: you can share specific fields with specific circles, or keep them just for you.

- Bigger cover photos, with a better aspect ratio. Cover photos are much larger than before (up to 2120px by 1192px), and they display in 16x9 when fully expanded. This way more images can be used as cover photos, and there’s more room for your selection to shine.

 These changes will be made gradually .. So be patient.

Microsoft Vision of future: Wall-sized touchscreens around home and work

Microsoft recently announced a new Envisioning Center, which is all about imagining how technology could be used to make life easier and more enjoyable.
In the near future we all going to see wall-sized touch-screens around our home and work places. Virtual chefs can help us in making recipes. and smoother communication with our family members faraway.



Microsoft Vision of Future from Narendra Kumar on Vimeo.

Google exhibits 'How Search Works': Interactive Infographics

Google recently explained how its search works using an interactive infographics.

It shows off how Crawling and indexing works which are responsible for forming the giant web, Algorithms and programs that better match the interested content and how the spam is being removed.

GoHere

Wikipedia Zero: Free access to Wikipedia over mobile

In all the ages information (knowledge) is one of the most valuable assets of human being. Throughout our lives we have many sources of knowledge. Wikipedia will be one of those information source mutual for majority of the people.

Wikipedia zero is an initiative by Wikimedia foundation provides free access to Wikipedia on mobile devices (without data charges) in developing countries.

Objective:  "to reduce barriers to accessing free knowledge"

WP Zero is already active since 2012 in many developing countries and has provided free access to almost 230 million mobile users around the world.

Google ProjectGlass Update: UI, Ok Glass and #ifihadglass. [Video]

Google just now showed off  its work progress in its prestigious 'Project Glass' in a video.
In this video we can observe bunch of updates since the last official video.

1. The UserInterface.
2. 'Ok Google' Voice search command.
3. Set of Glass designs.
4. #ifihadglass Campaign

Yet Another Smartwatch : Samsung GALAXY Altius

Recently smartwatches have been gaining some traction and this has increased by the unveil of the $10M funded Kickstarter project 'Pebble' in CES 2013, Google patented its own Smartwatchh concept, and recent rumors on Apples' iWatch.

Facebook Messenger For Mobile Updated With Voice Messages, Voice Calls Are In Testing

Are You a Facebook user having a smartphone running iOS or Android then you have an update to your fb messenger app.
Facebook begin this year with two major upgrades to its Messenger app for Android and iOS.
One is, now you can send voice messages to your friends.

Users can tap the “+” button then hold the “record” button to record a message. Releasing the button immediately sends the message. Sliding your finger off the button cancels the message.
 
The second feature is VoIP (Voice over IP) calls.
VoIP calls feature is not available to all users at the moment as the company is still testing its functionality, It is available only to Canadian users with iOS devices.
 
As promised by Mark Zuckerberg (Killer Stuff in Mobile on the way), the company is focusing on mobile communications.
Recently Facebook opened up its messenger app to non-users using their name and phone number. This is all to stand the competition from other messaging services like WhatsApp.
 
Facebook also recently launched Poke, a SnapChat competitor that lets users send photos, videos or text messages that disappear after several seconds.
 
With this new VoIP calls feature Fb is going to challenge the mobile networks because calling is default action done through phones.Even Though internet data plans are largely dependent on Mobile Networks, This is going to have an affect in some part.

For a company like Facebook where communication is something that has to be worked on seriously, strategies have to be made to make interaction better.

Andriod Gingerbread Dominates

Boasting a mere 47.6% near that of a 50% Androids Gingerbread Still Dominates Android Distribution based a data from a 14 day period ending on December 3, 2012. Ice Cream Sandwich holds  a 29.1 mark putting it second place.

Unfortunately for developers who have to keep all these versions in mind, even the ancient Android 2.2. or Froyo is still very alive and present on 9% of devices, while Android 2.1 Eclair powers 2.4% of all Android devices.
What make of these Stats?

Check Out More at Android Developers.

Canonical announces Ubuntu OS for Smartphones

Ending a long time rumor Canonical announced that it is going to release smartphone version of its OS Ubuntu.

This OS is currently the number three desktop operating system with 20M users, and about 30,000 downloads per day. 2012 was a great year for this popular Debian-based Linux distribution with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS as the most popular release in the history of Ubuntu.

2012 Most Viewed Articles On Wikipedia

Wikipedia The worlds largest community-written encyclopedia is no doubt a great source of information with more than 4M articles in English only and an overall 5.7+ B visits a year.
The most interesting thing is Wikipedia is a Non-profit organisation under WikiMedia which survives purely on donations.This online encyclopedia collected $20M in 2011 with Google as its biggest contributor of $2M. In 2012 it raised tp $25M.
Do you want to know what are the most viewed articles in 2012 ?
Here are the top 10 viewed articles
Page name                              View count
1. Facebook                             32,647,942
2. Wiki                                    29,613,759
3. Deaths in 2012                     25,418,587
4. One Direction                       22,351,637
5. The Avengers (2012film)      22,268,644
6. Fifty Shades of Grey             21,779,423
7. 2012 phenomenon                20,619,920
8. The Dark Knight Rises          18,882,885
9. Google                                 18,508,719
10. The Hunger Games             18,431,626
Here is a list of 100 articles Toolserver