Friday, August 26, 2011

Android Eats other Smartphone Shares


When it comes to smartphones in the U.S., Android and Apple keep growing at the expense of other mobile platforms like RIM, Windows Phone, and Nokia’s Symbian. The latest mobile subscriber numbers are out from comScore. Android leads the pack with 40 percent market share of U.S. smartphone subscribers as of June, 2011, up 5.4 percent from March, 2011.

Android is also widening the gap compared to Apple, which ended the period with 26.6 percent share. But Apple did grow 1.1 percent from March, whereas RIM (23.4 percent), Microsoft (5.8 percent), and Symbian (2.0 percent) all lost share.

Apple’s share did not budge compared to May, 2011, but Android gained 2 points in share in just one month. It definitely is showing momentum, according to this set of data. Expect to see this trend continue until a new iPhone comes out, perhaps in September. Raise your hands if you are waiting for it to come out before you buy your next phone.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Add Fancy "Share This" Social Bookmarking Widget to blogger

Here’s a cool new social bookmarking widget for your blog, with on-hover animation effect. By adding social networking icons to your blog you will definitely boost your blog’s traffic.
To see live demo : Demo 1
Step 1: Firstly, Log in to Blogger. Now go to “Design” and then click on “Edit HTML” tab.Then download the present template as a backup.
Then Click on “Expand Widget Templates” checkbox. ____________________________________________

STEP 2: Now find [CTRL+F] this code:
     ]]></b:skin>
 ___________________________________________ 
JUST ABOVE/BEFORE THIS CODE, paste the following code:

/* Fancy SocialBookmark*/
 
#sharebox{
height:48px;
width:400px;
margin:0;
padding:5px 0;
}
 
ul.sharebox { margin:0px; padding:0px; list-style:none; position:relative; display:block;}
ul.sharebox li { float:left; margin:0 0 0 0px; padding:0px; position:absolute;}
ul.sharebox li a { margin:0 0 0 -24px; display:block;}
ul.sharebox li a:hover { margin:0 0 0 -8px; }
ul.sharebox li img { border:none;}
_____________________________________________________

Step 3: Now find (CTRL+F) this in the template;

</head>
______________________________________________________
 
And immediately ABOVE/BEFORE that paste this code

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
 
<script type='text/javascript'>
(function($){
$.fn.sharebox = function(){
var element = this;
 
$(element).find(&quot;li&quot;).each(function(i){
$(this).css(&quot;z-index&quot;, 12- i);
if (i&gt;0)
$(this).css(&quot;left&quot;, i * 24 + 100);
});
 
}
})(jQuery);
</script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(document).ready(function(){
$(&quot;#sharebox&quot;).sharebox();
});
</script>
 __________________________________________________________
 
Step 4: Now find (CTRL+F) this in the template

   <data:post.body/>
___________________________________________________________
 
And BELOW/AFTER that, paste this code:

<ul class='sharebox' id='sharebox'>
<li><img alt='Share this' src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TAN-IItrhcI/AAAAAAAAAKg/6Ofb7QQmW5E/s400/sharethis.png'/></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot; http://digg.com/submit?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Digg' src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TANwPDNFTqI/AAAAAAAAAJA/_iTBPexiQUc/s400/digg_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot; http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to StumbleUpon' src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TANwXH99KHI/AAAAAAAAAJY/1MhNYohLgKw/s400/sumbleupon_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://del.icio.us/post?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Delicious' src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TANwLsiJKaI/AAAAAAAAAI4/W-8Giiq1jdo/s400/delicious_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot; http://technorati.com/faves?add=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Technorati' src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TANwaKO3III/AAAAAAAAAJg/1GGHLlMnMVI/s400/technorati_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot; http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Reddit' src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TANwUrLlzcI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/4IumvWuAy3k/s400/reddit_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot; http://www.mixx.com/submit?page_url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Mixx' src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TANwRvsfp4I/AAAAAAAAAJI/GnhXzIG0Yus/s400/mixx_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://twitter.com/home/?status=Chk Out-&quot; + data:post.title + &quot; &quot; + data:post.url' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Twitter' src='http://lh4.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TAN0zpbiOBI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/ZrUXz3uWKIU/s400/twitter_boxed_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot; http://www.furl.net/storeIt.jsp?u=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Furl' src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TAN0r1U2u1I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/sROtJssSojA/s400/furl_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.designfloat.com/submit.php?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Design Float' src='http://lh4.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TAN0owol6GI/AAAAAAAAAJw/BkW7TAqnDcQ/s400/designfloat_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.blinklist.com/index.php?Action=Blink/addblink.php&amp;Description=&amp;Url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Blinklist' src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TAN0mEMPlOI/AAAAAAAAAJo/-8XBeBFn-B0/s400/blinklist_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/&quot; + data:post.url' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Yahoo Buzz' src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TAN02Tt0lCI/AAAAAAAAAKY/DJQhWo-EVQI/s400/yahoo_48.png'/></a></li>
<li><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&amp;output=popup&amp;bkmk=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt='Sumbit to Google Bookmarks' src='http://lh6.ggpht.com/_gQTW6AzEt50/TAN0uapFtxI/AAAAAAAAAKA/XSceCbQg5gU/s400/google_48.png'/></a></li>
</ul>
______________________________________________
 
 
Step 5: Now save the template.

Courtesy: themeblogger-noi

16 Must to Know LCD/LED TV Related Terminologies


Old CRT TVs are out of date box in this world. It has been found that more than 60% of the world population is using LCD/LED TVs these days and remaining are opting to upgrade their Old TV boxes. Recently one of my friend went to purchase LCD/LED TV and boggled up with some of the technical words. So before buying LCD/LED TV we should be aware of  couple of terms. One of the critical thing is LCD and LED categorizing.

Many of the people still thinks LED TV is far better than LCD TV. So let us start from this point. An LED TV is nothing but an LCD which uses LED back-lighting. TV manufactures has hyped this topic and advertise this sort of display as LED display. This not true LED display but is often called so. The basic difference between the two is that an LED TV uses light emitting diodes for the backlighting, where as an LCD uses fluorescent lamps as backlights. There are two types of LED TV backlighting Edge lit and full array.

LED TV-

 

1. Screen Size

Length of TV diagonally measured.

LCD-screen-size

 



2. Aspect Ratio

Ratio of the TV width compared to height. e.g. 16:9



aspectRatio



3. Resolution

More number of pixels = the greater the picture quality. e.g. 1920(H) x 1080(V)


The primary difference between Full HD and HD Ready TVs is resolution. Resolution of a Full HD TV is double of that of a HD Ready TV.

Resolution of Standard Definition (Conventional) TVs is 720 H x 480 V = less than 1 million pixels.

Resolution of HD Ready TVs is 1366 H x 768 V = 1 million pixels

Resolution of Full HD TVs is 1920 H x 1080 V = 2 million pixels.


* H = number of Horizontal pixels, V = number of vertical pixels

This animation demonstrates the interline twitter effect. On the left are two progressive scan images. Center are two interlaced images. Right are two images with line doublers. Top are original resolution, bottom are with anti-aliasing. The two interlaced images use half the bandwidth of the progressive one. The interlaced scan (right) precisely duplicates the pixels of the progressive image (left), but interlace causes details to twitter. A line doubler operating in "bob" (interpolation) mode would produce the images at far right. Real interlaced video blurs such details to prevent twitter, as seen in the bottom row, but such softening (or anti-aliasing) comes at the cost of resolution. But even the best line doubler could never restore the bottom center image to the full resolution of the progressive image. Note – Because the frame rate has been slowed down by a factor of 3, you will notice additional flicker in simulated interlaced portions of this image.



4. Dynamic Contrast Ratio

The difference between the brightest whites and darkest blacks a TV can show. e.g. 1,000,000:1



DynamicContrast_img01



5. Viewing Angle

The max viewable angle when viewing left to right. LCD/LED TV which offers closer to 180* are better.



ViewingAngle

6. Edge lit LED

Refers to the placements of LEDs along the edges of an LCD display. Due to such arrangements the edges might appear to be brighter than the rest of the picture. Edge lit panels are slimmer in dimensions but can also cause bleeding of light around the edges.



edge lit

7. Full Array

Refers to arrangement of LEDs which are placed in a full matrix or array, this gives constant and flat back-lighting.



Full array

8. Bleeding

LCDs block out redundant light coming from their backlit source, bleeding happens when the back-light behind the LCD surface is not 100% blocked. This results some areas to appear lighter than the rest especially on a dark or black background. Fact is that, almost all LCDs suffer some amount of bleeding.



bleeding

9. Response Time

Latency or response rate means how quickly the screen can refresh a video image. It basically means the rate at which the LCD can display moving images. It is generally measured in milli seconds (ms) and you should look for TVs with faster response time.

10. Refresh Rate

The number of times your LCD screen refreshes itself per second is known as refresh rate giving you clear, uninterrupted image. Generally the refresh rate is measured in Hertz(Hz). A refresh rate of 120 or 240 Hz refers to the number of times a frame is drawn each second.

11. Ambilight

Philips is an Inventor of Ambilight, refers to the ambient light which is generated corresponding to the video content currently being played on the screen. This effect gives you a feel of a much larger and immersive TV screen.



philips_aurea_ambilight_sur

12. Ghosting

Appearance of a false image on the screen refers to ghosting. This generally happens when a previous image displayed on the screen can still be seen.



Ghosting

13. Bezel

A bezel refers to the outside edges of a Liquid crystal display screen or any screen for that matter.



aspire 5610z LCD Bezel Ap008002300

 

14. 1080i and 1080p displays

Video mode displaying 1080 lines of vertical resolution is written in shorthand as 1080p, the ‘p’ stands for progressive scan where as on the other hand a 1080i display is shown in 16:9 aspect ratio which gives a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Here the i stands for interlaced.



Full-HD-logo_8220104822

15. Progressive scan

Also known as non-interlaced scanning is a method of displaying or transmitting a video images in which all the lines of each frames are drawn in a sequence.

16. Interlaced video

This form of transmitting or storing moving images scans only the odd lines, then the even lines of each frame are drawn alternately.



interlaced

So, these are the common LCD/LED terms used by the manufacturers. The Ghosting, bleeding are problems that commonly seen in displays. I hope this article will be helpful for the next visit to a TV shop. Have a Happy Weekend.




 



 



Friday, August 5, 2011

Now Facebook will reveal your real identity


Facebook's online privacy woes are well-known. But here's an offline one: its large database of profile photos can be victimised to determine you as you're travel walking the street.

A Carnegie Mellon University researcher today described how he built a database of nearly 25,000 photographs expropriated from students' Facebook profiles. Then he set up a desk in one of the campus buildings and asked few volunteers to peep into Webcams.

The results: face recognition software put a name to the face of 31 percent of the students after, on come, lower than trey seconds of rapid-fire comparisons.

In a few years, "facial visual searches may be as popular as today's text-based searches," says Alessandro Acquisti, who presented his development in cooperation with Ralph Receipts and Fred Stutzman at the Black Hat computer conference.

As a check of idea, the Carnegie Mellon researchers also formed an iPhone app that can position a exposure of someone, piping it through facial recognition software, and then exhibit on-screen that person's canvas and essential statistics.

Few of the professor from Carnegie Mellon University belive that this could be an ominous risks for privacy of any individual.

In another test researchers compared 277,978 Facebook profiles against nearly 6,000 profiles extracted from an unnamed dating Web site. Here also the success rate of software was 40 percent match. Funniest part in this tests are, almost 1 in 10 of the dating site's members--nearly all of whom used pseudonyms--turned out to be identifiable name. Now, this can be a risk for guys dating multiple girls.


Facial recognition technology, which has been developing in labs for decades, is finally going mainstream. Face.com opened its doors to developers last year; the technology is built into Apple's Aperture software and Flickr. Google bought a face-recognition technology in the last few weeks, and Facebook's automated photo-tagging has drawn privacy scrutiny.

Acquisti is the first to admit that the technology isn't perfect. It works best with frontal face photos, not ones taken at an angle. The larger the database becomes, the more time comparisons take, and the more false-positive errors arise.


On the other hand, face recognition technology is advancing quickly, especially for nonfrontal photos. "What we did on the street with mobile devices today will be accomplished in less intrusive ways tomorrow," he says. "A stranger could know your last tweet just by looking at you."

Read more here

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

BMW interesting facts

Originally, BMW was an airplane engine manufacturer!!! Surprised to hear this? Yes, thats true. Top class car manufacturer BMW is a business entity of Rapp Motorenwerke. The company which was creating aircraft engines in 1917. BMW was forced to stop aircraft engine production by the terms of Versailles Armistice Treaty. The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties created at the end of World War I to finish the state of war between Germany and the Allied of Powers.

After stopping engine manufacturing, BMW switched to Motorcycle production in 1923 once the restrictions of the treaty started to be lifted. And finally BMW jumped into automobile business in 1928-29.

Do you know BMW's Logo is derived by company's first business, Rapp Aircraft Engine Manufacturing?

BMW logo is registered in the named of "Roundel".

The BMW emblem represents the colors of Bavaria and is an adpatation of the original RAPP trademark when BMW acquired all assets of RAPP MOTORENWERKE the engine manufacturing company. Here is a "Line-Art" render of the BMW LOGO STYLE GUIDE.

Here we have the original RAPP Logo; a dark horse or a Knights Chess Piece Bust, represents Horse Power which is the accepted European unit of power for rating engine frequency and rate of piston generated energy throughput. During the first world war, this very profound symbol represented gallantry, masculine power and of course speed and agility.

The Blue and White color in the logo represent the colours of the Free State of Bavaria.

There is a myth that BMW logo represents Engine Propeller. This myth devloped when BMW in 1929 twelve years after the Roundel was created released following picture. The picture represents the circular blue and white BMW logo (roundel) as the movement of an aircraft propeller, to signify the white blades cutting through the blue sky.


Following Video is released by BMW which demonstrates evolution of BMW Logo (Roundel):



Some of the interesting use of BMW Engines:

"Rail Zeppelin" by Frank Kruchenberg, driven by a BMW aircraft engine that brought the train speed to a record-breaking 145 MPH in 1931.

Now a days, BMW engines are used in Small Aircrafts:

BMWJet Engine used in Brutus 545:

Monday, August 1, 2011

Phones which knows how you walk


Researchers in Oulu (Finland) are now a day busy in defying thieves. How? Lets explore by visiting Oulu which is located in Finland. Travelers can enjoy summer in Oulu but in Winter when sea will be frozen only a mad guy would dare to visit this place. But when we came to know that researchers in Oulu are busy in inventing a device which will almost stop Mobile theft even when you are drunk, we could not resist visiting this place and exploring the whole story. Related to this we met one Professor (name could not be disclosed) in Oulu who is Identification expert but he never uses old methods like finger prints or iron scan to identify thief. Instead, he relies on his new invention which will identify thief by the way he walks.


Professor believes that mobile phone theft is a big problem. For example 5% of the burglary in UK is related to Mobile phone. And professor is busy in searching a way how to handle this problem. His biometrics devices are equipped with advanced technology which can sense the way you walk. Your phone could be in your pocket or bag monitoring your day to day activities. Phone will sense the way you walk and if someone will lift it from you then phone will come to know that it is in wrong hands and immediately locks itself. Professor and his team have done lots of experiments to know whether such ideas will really work in real life or not.

A small motion sensor will be installed in your smartphone which will recognize the way you walk by using 3 directions. For Left and Right Yellow line, For Up and Down Red Line and For Forward and Backward Green line. This device is invented in such a way that when you are walking, your way of walking will be recorded into this device.

Similar to our voice, every person has different way of walking. Suppose I am a thief and I steal someone’s mobile phone then mobile phone will immediately recognize that I am not the owner of the phone. How does this idea work? Every human being have different walking style and this depends upon various factors like shape and size of our skeleton, what is my sex and what are my muscles shape and size. Even our mind also plays very important role in the way we walk. It’s been believed that a happy man will have different walking style then others. This invention is still in its premature stage, but experiments so far divert this on positive note.


There are few challenges to implement this invention. Like when we walk on Ice our walking style will be different. This technology would be a trouble for people staying in such regions. Also, when you are drunken you not only forgot yourself but you forgot the way you walk. But researchers have a very simple solution for this. In case the phone gets locked, you can simply enter the pin code to unlock it. But what if you are tired and going through a depressive stage? In this case chances are there that you forgot your pin. And probably this is the biggest problem with this design.

What do you think about this technology? Our future smartphones should be equipped with this? Write in your comments.

Our Inspirations:
Nokia Blog
Technology Review

 
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