Mobile Game Industry Can Hit Seven Figures: What Is In It For Mobile Game Developers?

Every one of us has a little bit of child in us and we all like playing games. Even after becoming adult, we don't have to let go of the child in us and that is why mobile apps are gaining popularity. These mobile apps enable smartphone users to de-stress without having to move around. The idea of entering a whole new world for a few hours through these apps is deeply therapeutic. In the past, games were considered as a thing of young children and teens, but now every smartphone user plays for a few hours every week and this includes adults and elders. It is high time for mobile developers to take advantage of this rapid growth to earn profits using their skills.

Businesses Are In Need Of Mobile Game Developers

The idea of social gaming is now used by businesses to promote their products and establish business branding. Winning levels of games provides a deeper sense of satisfaction for gamers and this positive reinforcement can create brand loyalty for business owners. So, developers of mobile games are now wanted more than ever. Previously, gamers were considered to be hardworking geeks who couldn't earn much, despite the hard work. Now, with mobile games, there are numerous ways to earn money to start your own gaming developing business.

As said earlier, businesses are more interested in successful games and there is a huge potential for in-game marketing. Mobile game developers can simply create games and monetize their games to display business ads. These advertisements will be shown during the beginning, middle or end of the game depending on how you have designed the game. The results are beneficial for business owners and users. However, while monetizing games, you shouldn't go overboard because as you know already, gamers exit games quickly when annoyed.

Some mobile game developers are innovators, than designers and if you are highly innovative, you can certainly get your part in the gaming industry. As businesses are interested in gamefication to use games to promote brand loyalty, they are looking for developers who can come up with innovative ideas to develop games that represent the business. The Audi car game is a classic example of this case. The car racing game is engaging and gamers are well aware that it is a game to promote Audi brand. Businesses concentrate on long term results while developing such mobile games and hence, you can stop worrying about how your game is going to inspire gamers to buy Audi cars.

Mobile game developers should now attempt to gain domain knowledge and try to understand what the marketers want to achieve. Gaining this expertise will quickly help you to secure job with a mobile application and game development company that is dedicated towards helping business owners to establish smartphone presence. As always, the interest of gamers should be the topmost priority because without their interest, there is no point in even developing a game.

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Down to the wire for silicon: Researchers create a wire four atoms wide, one atom tall

ScienceDaily (Jan. 5, 2012) — The smallest wires ever developed in silicon -- just one atom tall and four atoms wide -- have been shown by a team of researchers from the University of New South Wales, Melbourne University and Purdue University to have the same current-carrying capability as copper wires.

Experiments and atom-by-atom supercomputer models of the wires have found that the wires maintain a low capacity for resistance despite being more than 20 times thinner than conventional copper wires in microprocessors.

The discovery, which was published in this week's journal Science, has several implications, including:

For engineers it could provide a roadmap to future nanoscale computational devices where atomic sizes are at the end of Moore's law. The theory shows that a single dense row of phosphorus atoms embedded in silicon will be the ultimate limit of downscaling.For computer scientists, it places donor-atom based silicon quantum computing closer to realization.And for physicists, the results show that Ohm's Law, which demonstrates the relationship between electrical current, resistance and voltage, continues to apply all the way down to an atomic-scale wire.

Bent Weber, the paper's lead author and a graduate student in the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the University of New South Wales, was thrilled with the finding.

"It's extraordinary to show that Ohm's Law, such a basic law, still holds even when constructing a wire from the fundamental building blocks of nature -- atoms," he says.

The innovation of the Australian group was to build the circuits up atom by atom, instead of the current method of building microprocessors, in which material is stripped away, says Gerhard Klimeck, a Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology.

"Typically we chip or etch material away, which can be very expensive, difficult and inaccurate," Klimeck says. "Once you get to 20 atoms wide you have atomic flucuations that make scaling difficult. But this experimental group built devices by placing atomically thin layers of phosphorus in silicon and found that with densely doped phosphorus wires just four atoms wide it acts like a wire that conducts just as well as metal."

The goal of the research is to develop future quantum computers in which single atoms are used for the computation, says Michelle Simmons, director of the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the University of New South Wales and the project's principal investigator.

"We are on the threshold of making transistors out of individual atoms," Simmons says. "But to build a practical quantum computer we have recognized that the interconnecting wiring and circuitry also needs to shrink to the atomic scale."

Hoon Ryu, a Purdue graduate who is now a senior researcher with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology's Supercomputing Center, said the practicality of the research is exciting.

"The metallic wire is in principle quite difficult to be scaled into one- to two-nanometer pitch, but in both experimental and modeling views, the research result is quite remarkable," Ryu says. "For the first time, this demonstrates the possibility that densely doping wire is a viable alternative for the next-gerenation, ultra-scale metallic interconnect in silicon chips."

To assist the Australian researchers, Klimeck's research team ran hundreds of simulations to study the variability of these nanoscale structures.

"Having the throughput capability for a highly scalable code is important for doing that, and we have that capability here at Purdue with http://nanoHUB.org," Klimeck says. "We ran hundreds of cases to understand the potential landscape of these devices, so this was computationally intensive work."

Klimeck says that in addition to the project's scientific and engineering implications, he found the collaboration the most rewarding aspect.

"It is an exciting collaboration," he says. "We were doing simulations of experimental work, which was based on a theoretical model. So we were bringing the three legs of modern science together in one project. Plus, our graduate students are able to stay in contact and work with each other despite working in various locations around the world. It's hard to think of a better example of how science is done today."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Purdue University. The original article was written by Steve Tally.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

B. Weber, S. Mahapatra, H. Ryu, S. Lee, A. Fuhrer, T. C. G. Reusch, D. L. Thompson, W. C. T. Lee, G. Klimeck, L. C. L. Hollenberg, M. Y. Simmons. Ohm's Law Survives to the Atomic Scale. Science, 2012; 335 (6064): 64-67 DOI: 10.1126/science.1214319

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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All About Bluetooth Security

These days, almost all communication technologies and gadgets face threats of identity theft and piracy and Bluetooth is no exception. This is because of the popularity of mobile phones. Almost all cell phones, including the cheap ones, have Bluetooth function these days and hackers and scammers are having a gala time by breaking the Bluetooth and stealing confidential data and information. Needless to say, mobile phones are bearing the maximum brunt from hackers these days. Hackers are always on the prowl to corner their next victim. Even cheap mobile phones and contract phones consist of the Bluetooth technology and the ever-increasing number of cell phone users has surely created abundant joys for the mobile phone hacker.

Cell phone experts are however of the opinion that it's not difficult to maintain Bluetooth security. In fact, they say that the scare of Bluetooth hacking is mostly exaggerated and dramatized. Keeping the Bluetooth of your contract phone or cheap mobile phone secure is no big deal and it's effortless to manage. Several measures have been adopted by authorities in various countries to keep the Bluetooth of cheap cell phones and contract phone out of the reach of scammers and hackers. The experts say that the uncomplicated specifications of Bluetooth use an encryption algorithm which is absolutely safe. At the same point of time, there's no denying of the fact that thousands of mobile phones across the world have fallen prey to miscreants.

So how does a hacker hack into a Bluetooth device? First, he forces a couple of paired devices, such as a contract phone or a cheap cell phone, to break their connection. He then steals the packets that are used for re-sending the pin. Finally, he decodes the pin and tampers with the data. Of course, the hacker has to be within the reach of the device.

The pairing system is one of the most basic levels of security for contract phones and cheap cell phones that have Bluetooth. As a mobile phone user, always make sure that you use a secure pin to connect two Bluetooth devices. This pin would be known only to the persons who are connecting their Bluetooth devices. Moreover, it's always advisable to establish Bluetooth connectivity with a device whose owner you know. Avoid establishing any connectivity with a cheap cell phone or contract phone or any other Bluetooth device.

But we usually tend to ignore little pieces of advice and go on doing the obvious. This often leads to data theft from our gadgets. It is indeed a worry at a time when an increasing number of financial transactions are executed by our cheap mobile phones and contract phones. Besides, as most phones these days are able to connect to the internet, we must be more careful in keeping our mobile handsets out of the reach of hackers. Danger never comes with any prior information and even before we blink, we may fall victim to a hacker. So exercise caution when you use the Bluetooth of your contract phone cheap cell phone and you can have peace of mind.

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Are Android Powered Devices on Pace to Surpass Apple's iOS?

Since the debut of the Apple iPhone in 2007, competition in the smart device market has been dismal at best. That is, until the development and marketing of the Android operating system. Focusing on what Apple did well and aiming to change what the iOS platform is lacking, the Android OS has quickly gained praise from users of its Droid devices. Addressing concerns such as the lack of flash and the proprietary nature of the APP store, the Android operating system has appeared to remove the governor from the iOS platform, and has taken a host of users with it in the process. The following article will address the surge of the Android platform and will compare growth in the top 20 markets worldwide.

A major initial selling point to the Android platform is that unlike iOS, Android powered devices can run flash applications. The lack of flash has proven to be a continual hair-puller for most iPhone and iPad users, with most users anticipating the addition on each software update, only to be fooled. Steve Jobs, made it clear before passing that his intentions were to never allow the software on his devices due to inefficiency. In return he developed HTML5 as a more processor friendly application engine. It remains to be seen if Apple will add Flash to its new ramped iPhone and iPad processor or if they will respect the wishes of their legendary CEO and founder. One thing is clear, sales and demand for the Android platform may be in large driven by this disparity.

With 2011 coming to an end, holiday sales and network usage are an accurate indicator of how each market fared in the smart device war. With the iOS still clearly the worldwide leader in overall usage, it was very interesting to see the percentage gain in market proportion drawn by the Android powered devices. In the nation's top 20 markets, Android powered devices reigned in countries like South Korea (the manufacturing site of the Droid) and Sweden. With a 60% increase in growth vs Apple's 30%, it is clear to see that the Android platform is more than here to stay, it may eventually take the title.

While overall growth numbers are staggeringly high, the more impressive number is the total number of smart phone users worldwide. Increasing 12 times since 2009, the smart phone market is one of the largest growth areas on the planet. Driven largely by Apple and Android, the future of personal portable computing and communication is apparently limitless.

For questions regarding this article or iPhone Screen Repair or iPhone 4S Screen Repair please visit our website.

I have been actively following the development of Apple products since the debut of the iPhone in 2007. Since that time I have expanded my interest to the iPad, iPod and competing devices such. In early 2008 I founded an iPhone repair company that expanded its vision to the eventual repair of all Apple branded devices. Since that time I have continued to actively follow the progression of the smart phone market, while actively writing and blogging about the innovations being made worldwide.

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Quality iPhone 4 Replacement Parts at Cheaper Rate

If you own an iPhone, it is considered as one of your prized possessions. With this phone, you can do just about anything such as communications, etc. There are several applications which can help you to organize your schedule simultaneously being entertained. However, they are seen as sensitive and require a lot of attention and care. As the time progresses, you might need replacement covers for your iPhone. It is not a cause of worry as it is inevitable. For such situations there are many online stores that sell iPhone 4 replacement parts at reasonable rates. Shopping online is easy and can be done upon click of a few mouse buttons.

After the launch of the first iPhone, it has gone through several upgrades and recently iPhone 4S was launched. They have been upgraded in order to ensure the convenience of cell phone users and have even succeeded as these pieces are being sold at a fast rate. Accidents are unforeseeable circumstances which can leave some part of your iPhone 4 damaged. The screen of the phone is sensitive and can easily be a victim of damage. At such times, make sure that you browse the internet to find a reliable source that does iPhone 4 screen replacements at a reasonable rate.

The repairing process can be a bit complicated and is best if left to professionals. Browse the internet where you will find database of companies that sells iPhone 4 replacement parts at reasonable rates. Make sure that you check out the reviews before seeking the services of a particular company. If you are planning a DIY for replacement, you can easily find a company that sells replacement parts. Be patient and surf the internet as eventually you will find an ideal company for services. Read the reviews to know more about the services and compare the prices of different companies to make a wise decision.

One of the advantages of being able to purchase replacement parts for your iPhone 4 online is the savings. Taking your iPhone 4 LCD digitizer to a technician can cost you a lot of money. Though it may seem convenient, you may end up paying more than the actual cost for repairing. When you purchase iPhone parts wholesale, you will be able to assemble it at the convenience of your home in your own time. In a matter of hours, you will successfully be able to put all the parts together and make your phone look new like ever.

The best part is that you will not need the assistance of a technician for service which in turn will save you a considerable amount of money. With all kinds of iPhone 4 replacement parts available, you can easily purchase them off the internet at the click of a few mouse buttons. You can also find instructions over the web on assembling the iPhone 4 replacement parts without going through any hassles. Upon completion, you will have saved a lot of time and money and will be proud in showing off your "new" iPhone 4 to your friends.

Wilson Yu is the author of this article on iphone replacement parts. Find more information, about wholesale iphone parts here.

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Mobile Games Development: The Right Way To Develop Games For Business Marketing

The exploding smartphone world provides a lot of opportunities for business owners to expand their reach and attract audience who couldn't be approached with other methods. Just like the way internet revolutionized the marketing industry, smart phones are also paving a way for a much bigger revolution. Rather than hooking up with a computer terminal or portable laptop, people want to stick to their mobile phones which is not only used to access internet, but also to have loads of fun on the go. Mobile games development process involves developing games for smartphone users and due the prominence of gaming industry, businesses are more interested in gamification aspects that help them to touch the audience at a more deeper level in a fun filled way.

Mobile games development: What Should A Mobile Game Include?

Mobile games are developed not just for fun anymore. While the game developers spend several hours to get recognized and earn profits from gamers, the business world is taking a whole new look at mobile gaming. Mobile marketing strategies now include gaming as well because gamers form a wide group of people and entrepreneurs want to get to those serious gamers. Even though businesses use games for promoting their brand name, it is important to understand that features of a game should never be compromised. After all, gamers expect to get hooked up with a game and they should never be disappointed.

Mobile games development involves a lot of brainstorming because innovative ideas are the key to make a game successful. Most of the games are popularized through word of mouth advertising. It is due to this viral marketing that Rovio's simple game Angry Birds grew up to a much bigger merchandise despite the big whales in the industry who are investing a large amount of money in games. Smart phone users are highly networked and connected and recommendations from friends are highly regarded. So, if the game you have developed for business promotion is good enough to keep a gamer interested for a few hours every day, then it will automatically become a success.

These days, smartphone users prefer to stay connected all the time irrespective of what they do with their phone. Apps like Four Square became an instant hit mainly because they enabled users to connect with their friends at any time and share goodies they receive. Similarly, mobile games development should also include social login and multiplayer game modes in which a smart phone user can compete with his friend who has also logged on to the same game. In-game chatting is a widely preferred feature in mobile games so that players can interact and stay connected.

The mobile games development process should essentially understand what a gamer wants and deliver it perfectly. The importance of graphics can never be ignored and now with more powerful hardware in mobile phones, it is high time to take advantage of the hardware properties to create stunning graphics. At the same time, the game should not be very resource intense because modern smart users are constantly multitasking and you don't want your game to jam the phone.

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What You Need To Understand Before Hiring A Mobile Game Development Company?

Games were played for fun sometime back when PC games were first introduced. The introduction of Sony PlayStation and Nintendo proved to the world that there are serious gamers out there who are willing to buy expensive gadgets to quench their gaming thirst. As a result, more and more software are developed for smartphones and mobile software developers are now more needed by people from several walks of life. Software developers don't create a game just for entertainment anymore. The idea of using mobile software for promoting business has a new name called advergaming and it is catching up now. It is important to hire the right mobile development company to ensure that your money is not wasted.

What To Look For In A Mobile Software Development Company?

Everyone knows that creating a mobile game involves lots of coding. To develop a rather interesting game, coding is just not enough. Intelligent design and visual experience are expected by gamers and if a game doesn't deliver these, gamers will simply ignore irrespective of the intelligent coding. You need to understand what should be expected from a mobile game development company before you go shopping for developers to develop a game for your business.

Understanding Of The Purpose Of The Game

As a business owner, you may not clearly know what sort of game needs to be developed. Not all gaming ideas can be implemented and that is why you need professional consultation to decide on the game that is more appropriate for your business. Advertising through mobile games is used to reinforce customer relationship and you can only hope to develop a strong relationship with your potential audience. Unless the company developing the game understands the purpose, you can't expect it to reflect your business purpose.

Conceptualization And Visualization Skills

Once the purpose is understood, the company should be able to visualize the game. There must be some strong conceptualization that should go with the game because without these skills, there can't be anything interesting with the game. It is for this reason that mobile game development company should have a passion for games and respect gamers.

Technical Skills To Create A Realistic Game

Despite the effort spent on visualizing the game, technical skills are crucial to create a realistic game. The games are generally meant to be addictive and gamers should find it comfortable to play the game at any time of the day. Sloppy coding of the game will only lead to failure and unless you are sure that the mobile game development company has necessary talent, don't pay a penny.

Customer Support And Service

Most individual developers will want to wash their hands off after completing coding of the game saying that their code is bug-free. Irrespective of extensive testing, all codes written by human beings are prone to error and the mobile development company should provide customer support when you need their assistance during the launching and running of the game. This way, you can always turn towards technical support and even find ways to expand the game to emphasize on promoting your business.

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4 Questions To Ask While Choosing Mobile App Development Company

For investors, business owners and entrepreneurs, the idea of tapping into the potential of smartphone users is inviting, but it is rather difficult to understand the technology behind smartphone apps. Even novice smart phone users know their way around a handful of apps. When you provide an app related to your business for mobile phone users, you can establish brand loyalty and expand your reach. You can't develop an app on your own and you need to hire services of mobile app development company.

Applications for smart phones have gained significance in the past couple of years, but there are already hundreds of app developers who claim that they can develop a brilliant app. Some of the freelancing coders may even be ready to create an app for a much lower price. However, as your business prospect depends on this app, you shouldn't hire a mobile app development company without ensuring that you can get the best app for your business. You need to ask at least a few questions to ensure that you are not dealing with scammers.

What is the experience in mobile platforms?

Even though iPhone is the most popular smart phone, there are other types of smart phones like Android phones, blackberry and others. It is better to develop apps on multiple platforms to reach a much wider audience. It is even better if you research about the phones used by your target audience and develop apps targeting just your potential audience. In that case, the mobile app development company should be able to develop apps for different mobile platforms. It is impossible to excel in app development unless there is significant amount of experience in developing business apps.
What skills does the development team possess?

The technical and creative skills possessed by the development team is crucial to design a successful app. The application development for smart phones is actually carried out by individuals or a small group of individuals. When you deal with a mobile app development company, you should ask them about the team involved. In many cases, you may interview one person and the actual work may be done by another person who doesn't share your vision. So, it is better to know about it beforehand.

What is the development process?

It is possible to weed out scammers by asking about the development process. If any company promises to start working on the coding of app straight away, then run in the other direction. Developing a mobile app is not a game and it requires lot of planning. The company you are dealing with should elaborate on different stages of app development and only if the design is right, they can go ahead with coding.

What kind of ongoing support can be expected?

The mobile development company must be dedicated to making the app successful for your business. The company should offer some kind of technical support if you frequently hit bumps when your users start using the business app.

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Exactly How Voice Firewall Helps Secure You From Mobile Hackers

The entire world is evolving along with the technology. Perhaps we can easily say that the planet is beginning to change as a consequence of technologies. Nevertheless, quite a few people make bad utilization of such improving technologies and fulfil their goals. The hackers are typically in news after every alternate week in a few places around the world. All of these hackers hack into your mobile or other system and misuse your data or even rob it. In addition, they make changes in your own system. Thus, a protective system is needed for each and every mobile phone. Voice firewall is among the best choices for mobiles to prevent yourself from hackers.

This modern technology is extremely needed for businesses, that deal with the help of mobiles. Voice firewall makes sure that unauthorized callers tend to be sidestepped from setting up a call from an individual's number. The setup of such firewall is very strong and distinctly created. This permits user to guarantee that the distrustful numbers are stored in by apps. Therefore, it can be easier for the firm to make out the form of call, the phone number as well as the exact place of the person that crafted such call. This can be helpful when you are finding out the person. This stops the loss of thousands, which usually hackers target. Additionally, it picks up premium rate calls that individuals make out of your firm.

It is a user-friendly and very reliable software. This makes the best possible choices for the user to ensure that settings can be altered depending on him/her. User can avoid calls, which are suspicious and will allow calls, which are not. Both these alternatives are present. Aside from that, the settings could be customized so that particular cell phone calls may be taken later. This will likely come to pass once the user is busy in meeting or so. This selection helps you to personalize your call system. It is extremely essential for firms employing many calls each day. It's equally important for a person who needs callers to be minimal. Voice firewall can be a technology which can challenge the state-of-the-art technologies which hackers employ in making things work out on their way.

An additional example of protection is mobile voice recording. There are numerous tracking solutions in mobile phones. Nevertheless, the most popular strategy is by software. There's no need for additional gadgets like a memory card or Bluetooth because the software program is built up inside your mobile. Thus, the mobile has got the actual hardware. An average phone recorder with plug in headphones can also be accessible. This will assist with small delay, since the clips need to be taken on computer first. Then they could be heard. The voice recording works if the conversations are to be revised or re-heard. Mobile voice recording makes the person, grabbed because of some suspicion prove himself right by showing the conversations. This can be great software because it holds a record of every call, that is necessary for finding clues in fraud and criminal cases.

Thus, ultimate options like voice firewall and mobile voice recording work skillfully for the good and avoid any deception before it occurs.

Michael is a sales representative considering voice firewall and mobile voice recording as options against the threat of mobile hackers.

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'Nanowiggles:' Scientists discover graphene nanomaterials with tunable functionality in electronics

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2012) — Electronics are getting smaller and smaller, flirting with new devices at the atomic scale. However, many scientists predict that the shrinking of our technology is reaching an end. Without an alternative to silicon-based technologies, the miniaturization of our electronics will stop. One promising alternative is graphene -- the thinnest material known to man. Pure graphene is not a semiconductor, but it can be altered to display exceptional electrical behavior. Finding the best graphene-based nanomaterials could usher in a new era of nanoelectronics, optics, and spintronics (an emerging technology that uses the spin of electrons to store and process information in exceptionally small electronics).

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have used the capabilities of one of the world's most powerful university-based supercomputers, the Rensselaer Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI), to uncover the properties of a promising form of graphene, known as graphene nanowiggles. What they found was that graphitic nanoribbons can be segmented into several different surface structures called nanowiggles. Each of these structures produces highly different magnetic and conductive properties. The findings provide a blueprint that scientists can use to literally pick and choose a graphene nanostructure that is tuned and customized for a different task or device. The work provides an important base of knowledge on these highly useful nanomaterials.

The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters in a paper titled "Emergence of Atypical Properties in Assembled Graphene Nanoribbons."

"Graphene nanomaterials have plenty of nice properties, but to date it has been very difficult to build defect-free graphene nanostructures. So these hard-to-reproduce nanostructures created a near insurmountable barrier between innovation and the market," said Vincent Meunier, the Gail and Jeffrey L. Kodosky '70 Constellation Professor of Physics, Information Technology, and Entrepreneurship at Rensselaer. "The advantage of graphene nanowiggles is that they can easily and quickly be produced very long and clean."

Nanowiggles were only recently discovered by a group led by scientists at EMPA, Switzerland. These particular nanoribbons are formed using a bottom-up approach, since they are chemically assembled atom by atom. This represents a very different approach to the standard graphene material design process that takes an existing material and attempts to cut it into a new structure. The process often creates a material that is not perfectly straight, but has small zigzags on its edges.

Meunier and his research team saw the potential of this new material. The nanowiggles could be easily manufactured and modified to display exceptional electrical conductive properties. Meunier and his team immediately set to work to dissect the nanowiggles to better understand possible future applications.

"What we found in our analysis of the nanowiggles' properties was even more surprising than previously thought," Meunier said.

The scientists used computational analysis to study several different nanowiggle structures. The structures are named based on the shape of their edges and include armchair, armchair/zigzag, zigzag, and zigzag/armchair. All of the nanoribbon-edge structures have a wiggly appearance like a caterpillar inching across a leaf. Meunier named the four structures nanowiggles and each wiggle produced exceptionally different properties.

They found that the different nanowiggles produced highly varied band gaps. A band gap determines the levels of electrical conductivity of a solid material. They also found that different nanowiggles exhibited up to five highly varied magnetic properties. With this knowledge, scientists will be able to tune the bandgap and magnetic properties of a nanostructure based on their application, according to Meunier.

Meunier would like the research to inform the design of new and better devices. "We have created a roadmap that can allow for nanomaterials to be easily built and customized for applications from photovoltaics to semiconductors and, importantly, spintronics," he said.

By using CCNI, Meunier was able to complete these sophisticated calculations in a few months.

"Without CCNI, these calculations would still be continuing a year later and we would not yet have made this exciting discovery. Clearly this research is an excellent example illustrating the key role of CCNI in predictive fundamental science," he said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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Journal Reference:

Eduardo Costa Gir?o, Liangbo Liang, Eduardo Cruz-Silva, Antônio Filho, Vincent Meunier. Emergence of Atypical Properties in Assembled Graphene Nanoribbons. Physical Review Letters, 2011; 107 (13) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.135501

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Review: Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus This Is What Android Was Meant To Be

After months of waiting for Verizon to launch the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, it finally landed last week (after a few delays). The internet hype for the Galaxy Nexus had basically made this device out to be the unicorn of Android, it would do and be everything that everyone could have ever wanted in a phone. Then when it launched, Verizon had staff that was not prepared, not enough inventory, and a few service hiccups to make things more difficult. But even with all of the challenges the device has made it's way into the hands of eager buyers, and bloggers and the reviews are starting to come in and everyone has their opinion. Some of those opinions are based on what buyers expected the device to be, some are based on what buyers wanted the device to be. After two weeks with the Galaxy Nexus as our daily driver we felt that it was finally time to throw our hat into the ring and let you know definitively what we our impression of the pure Google Galaxy Nexus phone is.

Unboxing:
The Verizon Galaxy Nexus comes in a plain white box (vanilla even). Inside the box itself is simple red lining, and of course the device itself. Accompanying the device is a 1850 batter, standard micro-usb charger, headphones, and of course instruction manual.

Initial Impressions:
Upon opening the box you see what you've been waiting for all these many months. The Verizon version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Just looking at the device your initial impression is WOW that screen is HUGE. You take it out of the box and feel it in your hands and just can't wait to see what's lurking underneath it's curved exterior.

Once you turn the device on you're greeted with a new boot sequence, that takes some of the queues from the Honeycomb boot sequence. The boot sequence itself shows off the capabilities of the Super Amoled Screen. The blacks are black, the colors are bright and vibrant. After the booting is completed you get your first taste of Ice Cream Sandwich and how the Android OS is going to handle your experience from now on.

Hardware:
After you get passed the screen size, and colors, the first thing you notice is just how light the Galaxy Nexus is in your hands. It's not light in a cheap feeling way, but in a I can't believe how light this is in my hands. The phone also fits in your hand better than you would expect, knowing that it has a 4.65" screen I was expecting it to feel large and awkward but, without having to have space for hard keys the phone isn't bigger than it needs to be and the curved design makes it feel just right in the hand.

The screen and weight of the phone are just two aspects of the phone that make up a device that feels like Samsungs designers went above and beyond to deliver a hardware experience that hasn't been seen or felt before.
The Frame:

There are two simple hard buttons on the sides of the device, on the left side the standard volume rocker, and the right has the power / standby button. The bottom of the device has the Micro-USB port and the headphone jack, other than that the device is clean lines all around the lining of the device.
The Back:

The back panel is something of a bit of debate right now. It's not a traditional hard plastic (or kevlar) shield piece, it's a flexible snap in piece that off the device feels almost flimsy. Once the SIM card and battery are in place and you snap the back in place, it feels more solid than you could imagine on its own. Also the back has slight diamond ridges in it that keep it from feeling slippery or week. Against the palm of your hand you know it's there, and in your fingers you know it's not going to slip or slide out like some of the "smooth" backs on phones like the Thunderbolt or the original Droid.

You also have the 5MP rear facing camera with LED flash, we'll do a full camera write up separately but suffice to say that coming from the 8MP shooter in the HTC Thunderbolt I was initially concerned with what my shots were going to look like, after a week with the phone, I have no reason to carry around a point and shoot camera anymore.
The Front:

The front of the Galaxy Nexus is dominated by its 4.65" curved glass screen. At the top of the device is the in call speaker (which is the only break in the smooth surface) the proximity sensor (below the glass) and the front facing camera. At the bottom of the face, hidden below the glass is a notification LED, which takes a bit of getting used to as it is a departure from the standard top right notification indicator. Right now it lights up white when you get any notification (e-mail, text, missed call, etc) but I can see developers tying their notifications to the led and hopefully changing the color, or the blink rate.

Over all the front just looks sleek and stylish and just showing it to people makes them stop and pay attention.
The Guts:

The Galaxy Nexus is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz, with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. It does not feature an SD or Micro-SD card slot so there is no option for expandable memory. Google is betting that users will utilize cloud storage for a lot of their needs, and since the Galaxy Nexus syncs nicely with Google Music, Google Docs and Picasa, most of your high volume needs are covered.

The processor is snappy and performs tasks with seemingly little effort, switching through apps, screens, multitasking all function without any hiccups. Even running games like the newly released Modern Combat 3 doesn't take a toll on the devices performance.

One hardware feature in the device that has been getting a lot of press is the NFC chip. This is only the second phone in the US to have an NFC chip built in (the Sprint Galaxy S being the first). Unfortunately Google Wallet is not enabled on the device and other than Google Beam there isn't anything available to take advantage of this new addition. It is going to be some time before developers start building apps that make use of NFC due to the lack of devices supporting it right now but the possibilities for it are endless.

Software:

This is where the real beauty of the device starts to shine, with the first tast of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). Everything feels like this is what Google intended when the initially launched Android. Gone are the greens that have accompanied Android since launch and in come the new softer blue that just makes it feel more inviting. The responsiveness of the software is unbelievable, some if this is thanks to the dual-core 1.2GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, but the software itself just feels more solid and more worked out than previous versions of Android even Honeycomb.

ICS has made the feel and use of Android more intuitive and cleaner, without taking away any of the abilities or "power" that users have had from the beginning. Switching through screens and apps are done by swiping. Moving and uninstalling apps works the same as on other Android versions, but now you can group apps together into folders by simply dropping them on top of one another. Within folders you can re-arrange apps as you would like and interact with apps, but the folder floats over the homescreen, you still know where you are and you don't feel like you're diving too deep to get to anything.

Individual apps open quickly and you can manage the apps that you have running at any time by clicking on the menu button. This pulls up a side bar that shows all of your recent and running applications similar to the experience on Honeycomb. From this sidebar you can switch between apps easily or close them by simply swiping them. The ability to close apps from within this sidebar is a new and very welcome addition to ICS, I can't tell you how many times on Honeycomb I saw an app and just wanted to close it, but couldn't.

Also knowing that your device is going to be pushed updates from Google so you're going to be on the latest and greatest builds for at least 12 months makes it that much sweeter.

Real World Usage:

What most people want to know is "should I buy the Verizon Galaxy Nexus" and one of the main questions they have is "what about the battery life" well I've been using the device as my daily driver for a week now and felt I could comfortably answer these questions. First and foremost if you're in the market for a new phone or upgrade eligible I recommend that you buy the Galaxy Nexus without even hesitating. This device is everything I was expecting and more, it has made me stop worrying if I was going to run out of battery life, or if I needed to uninstall apps or root my device to make it run smoother and faster.

Day 1:
Day 1 usage was pretty much standard for any new device, initial set up, downloading most used apps (Facebook, Social Scope, Reader etc.), setting up syncing and normal scheduled events. Like all new devices the battery came with a roughly 40% charge to get started, and you can see from the screen shots below how it performed.

Day 2:
Day 2 usage got a little more intense, a lot more app use, web browsing, basically putting the device through the paces to see what it could do. Battery usage was better than Day 1 but it still wasn't phenomenal.

Day 3:
Day 3 was more of standard usage, calls, emails, browsing, app use, downloading apps and more tweaks to settings. Battery use with the device switching automatically between 3G/4G and utilizing WiFi when needed was pretty impressive especially considering the screen and the processor.

Day 4:
Day 4 continued with standard use and no real changes to settings. Again utilizing standard 3G/4G setting with the device automatically detecting the strongest signal and utilizing WiFi when needed.

Day 5:
Day 5 we ran in to a bit of a hiccup with Google Currents, it was constantly running and constantly trying to sync and stay active, it used a lot of battery and put a big drain on the device. Once Currents was un-installed everything turned back to normal and we feel comfortable with the battery life. We're seeing 14 hours of battery life on a regular basis with standar d usage.

Overall Impressions:
My overall impression of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is that this is everything that Google intended Android to be. The hardware is great, light, and responsive. The OS, Ice Cream Sandwich is fluid and smooth it's intuitive and user friendly more consumer facing than any other version of Android to date and definitely takes the fight to Apple in terms of simplicity and "just working."

There are a few bugs to iron out and we'll get in to some of those in other posts but this device is a definite buy if you're in the market for a new smartphone. Even if you weren't on Android before this is a device that you should seriously consider switching for. Besides the bells and whistles of it being a pure Google experience device, you get the benefit of Verizons 4G network (where available) which is faster than anything on the market and makes living mobile an actual reality.

Ryan Carroll is a technology enthusiast interested who shares his opinions and insights of technology through his blog http://www.techstify.com/. He founded his blog after seeing other technology blogs and feeling that they did not provide the insight that he was looking for when it came to technology, video games and phones.

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Latest Mobile Phones for 2012

Just when you think you've got the latest cell phone another one comes on the market! Keeping up with the latest technology means deciding exactly what you want your cell phone to do, although the term "cell phone" is rapidly becoming so yesterday, I guess we should now be calling them mobile devices.

If you're confused then don't be. What do you actually need your cell phone to do? If you rarely text, send emails or access the internet then don't buy something that has too many bells and whistles because whether you use these capabilities or not your cell phone bill may become so high that your all-singing and all-dancing phone becomes totally cost ineffective.

What I like about the latest mobile devices is that they do away with many of the other devices I've been dragging around. I no longer need GPS, I use my cell phone as an alarm clock and a diary and my laptop rarely gets taken out of its case. I have no idea where my MP3 player is either, because all my music is now on my phone and my digital camera rarely gets used.

I also need fast internet access and the phone I chose, the Samsung Galaxy SII is definitely going to be my BFF for the next 12 months. Two years ago I purchased a phone with internet access that was so slow it drove me insane, I have to admit I was wary of buying another but the Galaxy has exceeded my expectations. It and the iPhone are about the most popular phones on the market today and I am sure they will continue to be so during 2012 but your choice should be based around the phone's operating system.

A Windows-based operating system will allow you to use "Pocket Word" and "Pocket Excel" to edit office documents if that's what you need. RIM's Blackberry is probably the best device for sending, creating and receiving emails and it's great for working on Facebook if that's your thing.

Symbian is Nokia's OS and it is now open-sourced. Both Ericsson and Nokia phones with the Symbian operating system are good for fast phone dialing, photography and voice control and with 100,000+ downloadable apps makes a good choice for 2012.

A similar number of apps is available on the iPhone4S and is reported to be the best mobile browser available.

Whichever cell phone you choose, you'll end up with a pile of electronics that you'll no longer need. Please recycle them all responsibly by taking them to an electronics store that offers free recycling - just don't throw them in the trash.

Find out more about mazumba mobile and envirophone.

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Common BlackBerry Faults and Resolutions

This piece covers several common faults with BlackBerry handsets with advice on how to easily resolve them.

Cracked or damaged display

A faulty BlackBerry display can manifest itself in several ways, from the obvious cracked or leaking display to dead pixels, leaking colors or even a very dim back-light. Usually a replacement is the only way to resolve this, however daunting this sounds it is usually very easy due to the mass-production involved in smartphone assembly meaning all parts are created to be modular and easy to replace.

My BlackBerry screen has frozen

This type of fault can be common to most electronic devices and computers. Like your PC, the most common fix is a reboot.

You can reboot your BlackBerry by either holding down ALT+CAP+DEL to perform a soft-reset, or by locating the hard-reset button on the back of your device which can usually be pressed using the end of a paper clip.

Should your BlackBerry not have a hard-reset button, removing the battery for 60 seconds should do the trick.

My recent call logs and text messages have disappeared

A symptom of low memory on your phone. Since smartphones can run multiple applications at the same time (known as multi-tasking) the available memory can be consumed quite easily. Not a problem on older phones, since they would typically run one task at a time.

To remedy this fault try closing any web browsing or multimedia (music players etc) sessions you may have running in the background. In future try to make sure you quit applications when you are finished using them instead of moving onto the next task - all too easy to do without realising.

Your recent calls and messages will not re-appear, but any new messages and calls will should be logged properly. If you are still having trouble try a full cold reboot by removing the battery for 60 seconds.

Track ball no longer clicks when pressed

If your roller ball moves and tracks as expected but the click function no longer works, you will need to replace the trackball contact switch. We will have these in stock soon.

Track ball no longer moves, or sticks

If your roller ball intermittently moves or gives jerky movement you could have some lint or pocket fluff stuck in there.

The first fix you should try is blowing some compressed air into the roller to clear it out. If you find the roller ball is faulty, we stock replacement roller balls and have BlackBerry disassembly instructions available.

Replacement parts including detailed fitting instructions are available from The Mobile Site - http://www.themobilesite.co.uk/

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The Rising Popularity of Smartphones

Mobile phones have long ceased to be objects of luxury. Today, they are more of a necessity, besides being an excellent choice for entertainment and style. No wonder leading mobile phone manufacturers are introducing new handsets almost everyday that are loaded with new applications and technology.

The market, recently, has witnessed a recent flurry of smartphones that are attractively priced and targets the budget customer. Handset manufacturers try to incorporate all the features in their cheap smartphones that are comprised in the more expensive ones.

Customers too mostly have their own choices and requirements when they want to buy a new smartphone handset. While most experts had scorned at handset manufacturers coming out cheap smartphones, claiming that these phones would degrade technology, were left swallowing their own word when mobile companies didn't compromise the quality of cheap smartphones. In fact, the technical features of cheap smartphones have improved with their popularity and an increasing number of companies are designing applications for inexpensive smartphones.

For instance, HTC's latest release, the Wildfire S, is a classic example of latest technology being incorporated in an inexpensive smartphone. If you're on the lookout for a handset that has advanced features like Wi-Fi connectivity, HSDPA, exciting multimedia options and social media access, then the Wildfire S would be a good option for you.

Not only has the inexpensive smartphone segment witnessed phenomenal growth, the cheap mobile segment in general, has also seen huge growth in demand. Manufacturers, thus, are concentrating more on the demands of the customer and designing cheap mobiles and packing the handsets with the latest features and applications.

The needs and demand of mobile phone features vary among every individual. While a businessman would opt for a handset that comprises high-end technology to meet their business needs, the youth and teenagers are attracted to phones that boast of fanciful applications and games. Each person has a different need for features and applications when it comes to cell phones. Customers may not want all the features that expensive mobile phones offer. This is another reason that has given rise to extremely cheap mobile phones that comprise only the basic features. These phones are hardy and are available under warranty from almost all mobile phone manufacturers.

If you're one of those intending to buy a cheap mobile phone or an inexpensive smartphone, you would be amazed to see the variety of phones available with stunning applications. This is a reason behind the popularity of economically priced mobile phones. The rising popularity of inexpensive smartphones has made leading networks in the UK announce free gifts and exclusive deals and offers. Besides, with almost everybody these days having a social networking account, phone manufacturers are equipping their cheap phones with the facility to access social networking sites on the internet. This has made the mid-range phones popular. These phones have GPRS facilities and are affordable to those who can't afford a high-end smartphone.

With the demand for cheap phones increasing by the day, the segment is all slated to grow tremendously in the coming days.

Select from a wide range of contract phones, attractive mobile phone deals, cheap handsets & economical call plans.

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My Journey In Selling My Phone

I just bought another new cell phone and I didn't want to add it to the pile that's accumulating in a box in the garage. My carrier sent a pre-paid slip in the box in which I received my new cell phone, but as I was filling it out I realized that the phone I was giving away for free was probably valuable to somebody else. I got my new phone because I wanted something up to date for my job, but my old one was less than a year old. So could I sell my phone instead of getting nothing for it?

I had never thought about this before, but the longer I left my old cell phones lying around the less they would be worth, so I got on the internet and investigated. I'm actually surprised that the cell phone company doesn't offer a trade in for newer phones, maybe some do but mine carrier certainly doesn't.

I was really surprised at the number of places where I could sell my phone online. Most of these companies offer good money for some of the newer model cell phones. The Blackberry I used to have was worth between $50 and $100 depending on which company I chose to send it to. Mine was in perfect condition because I had kept it in a case and had protective film put on the glass, and an extra $100 would offset the cost of my new phone substantially.

But if I wanted to sell my phone to one of these online companies, could I trust them? Would I just send my phone away and never hear from anyone ever again? I realized I had to choose a company and do some more research. It didn't take long, I simply Googled each company name and checked to see if there were any complaints about them. One had a lot of complaints and those were mainly from people who said they sent in a phone that was in really good condition, but they didn't receive the amount that was quoted.

The company I chose had a lot of great feedback so I went to their site and downloaded a USPS shipping label. A few days later I received an email acknowledgement and a few days later I was notified by PayPal that there was nearly $100 sitting in my account! It was really easy.

Learn more about suggestions on how to sell mobile phone and ways to sell iPhone 3G 8GB.

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Supercomputers take a cue from microwave ovens

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) — As sophisticated as modern climate models are, one critical component continues to elude their precision -- clouds. Simulating these fluffy puffs of water vapor is so computationally complex that even today's most powerful supercomputers, working at quadrillions of calculations per second, cannot accurately model them.

"Clouds modulate the climate. They reflect some sunlight back into space, which cools the Earth; but they can also act as a blanket and trap heat," says Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). "Getting their effect on the climate system correct is critical to increasing confidence in projections of future climate change."

In order to build the breakthrough supercomputers scientists like Wehner need, researchers are looking to the world of consumer electronics like microwave ovens, cameras and cellphones, where everything from chips to batteries to software is optimized to the device's application. This co-design approach brings scientists and computer engineers into the supercomputer design process, so that systems are purpose-built for a scientific application, such as climate modeling, from the bottom up.

"Co-design allows us to design computers to answer specific questions, rather than limit our questions by available machines," says Wehner.

Co-design Test Case: Clouds

In a paper entitled "Hardware/Software Co-design of Global Cloud System Resolving Models," recently published in Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Wehner and coauthors argue that the scientific supercomputing community should take a cue from consumer electronics like smart phones and microwave ovens: Start with an application -- like a climate model -- and use that as a metric for successful hardware and software design.

The paper which uses the climate community's global cloud resolving models (GCRMs) as a case-study argues that an aggressive co-design approach to scientific computing could increase code efficiency and enable chip designers to optimize the trade-offs between energy efficiency, cost and application performance.

According to coauthor David Donofrio, a co-designed system for modeling climate would contain about 20 million cores (today's most powerful scientific cluster, Japan's 'K Computer' contains about 705,000 cores) and be capable of modeling climate 1,000 times faster than what is currently possible.

"Most importantly, the system would remain fully programmable so that scientific codes with similar hardware needs to the GCRMs, like seismic exploration, could also benefit from this machine," says Donofrio, a computer scientist at Berkeley Lab.

"Today when we purchase a general purpose supercomputer, it comes with a lot of operating system functions that science applications don't need. When you are worried about power, these codes can be very costly," says John Shalf, who heads Computer and Data Sciences research at Berkeley Lab. "Instead of repurposing a chip designed for another market, the scientific HPC (high performance computing) community should specify what they want on a chip -- the intellectual property (IP) -- and only buy that.'"

According to Shalf, a co-designed system for modeling climate would use about one quarter to one tenth the energy required for a conventional supercomputer with the same capabilities.

Consumers Pave the Way for Next Generation Supercomputers

Although innovative for scientific supercomputing, the idea of application-driven design is not new. Electronics like cell phones and toaster ovens are built of simpler embedded processor cores optimized for one or a few dedicated functions.

"Because the ultimate goal of the embedded market is to maximize battery life, these technologies have always been driven by maximizing performance-per-watt and minimizing cost. Application-driven design is the key to accomplishing this," says Shalf. "Today we look at the motherboard as a canvas for building a supercomputer, but in the embedded market the canvas is the chip."

He notes that the most expensive part of developing a computer chip is designing and validating all of the IP blocks that are placed on the chip. These IP blocks serve different functions, and in the embedded market vendors profit by licensing them out to various product makers. With an application in mind, manufacturers purchase IP block licenses and then work with a system integrator to assemble the different pieces on a chip.

"You can think of these IP blocks as Legos or components of a home entertainment system," says Donofrio. "Each block has a purpose. You can buy them separately and connect them to achieve a desired result, like surround sound in your living room."

"The expensive part is designing and verifying the IP blocks, not the cost of the chip. These IP blocks are commodities because the development costs are amortized across the many different licenses for different applications," says Shalf. "Just as the consumer electronics chip designers choose a set of processor characteristics appropriate to the device at hand, HPC designers should also be able to chose processor characteristics appropriate to a specific application or set of applications, like the climate community's global cloud resolving model."

He notes that the resulting machine, while remaining fully programmable, would achieve maximum performance on the targeted set of applications, which were used as the benchmarks in the co-design process. In this sense, Shalf notes that the co-designed machine is less general purpose than the typical supercomputer of today, but much of what is included in modern supercomputers is of little use to scientific computing anyway and so it just wastes power.

"Before this work, if someone asked me when the climate community would be able to compute kilometer scale climate simulations, I would have answered 'not in my lifetime,'" says Wehner. "Now, with this roadmap I think we could be resolving cloud systems within the next decade."

Although climate was the focus of this paper, Shalf notes that future co-design studies will explore whether this will also be cost-effective for other compute intensive sciences such as combustion research.

In addition to Shalf, Wehner and Donofrio, other co-authors of the paper include Berkeley Lab's Leonid Oliker, Leroy Drummond, Norman Miller and Woo-Sun Yan; Marghoob Mohiyuddin of the University of California at Berkeley; Celal Konor, Ross Heikes and David Randall of Colorado State University; and Hiroaki Miura of the University of Tokyo.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Michael F. Wehner, Leonid Oliker, John Shalf, David Donofrio, Leroy A. Drummond, Ross Heikes, Shoaib Kamil, Celal Kono, Norman Miller, Hiroaki Miura, Marghoob Mohiyuddin, David Randall, Woo-Sun Yang. Hardware/software co-design of global cloud system resolving models. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 2011; 3 (10) DOI: 10.1029/2011MS000073

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Mobile Carriers Are Not Safe and Here's Why

The smartphone age that helped to skyrocket the earnings of mobile carriers may soon be the tool to destroy it. With smartphones, carriers are now able to get their customers hooked up much more pricier voice and data plans that cost mostly over $60 per month. Also due to the price of smartphones, carriers can get us stuck to long term contracts to subsidize the price of smartphones.

Now I won't dispute if $60 is worth the service or not. Being an owner of a smartphone, I do want data on my phone to use all the apps on it as well as calling and texting. So I won't complain about that, however I would comment that there is one little feature that may disrupt the business of mobile carriers in the future. That little feature is an upcoming trend called video calling.

Today on our smartphones, a few apps allow us to video call our friends for free mostly in great quality video calls. They include skype, tango, fring, Google talk, viber just to name a few. All you have to do is go on the app store and download these apps and add your friends so you can call them whenever they are online. An app like viber doesn't even need you to be online, it runs in the background and with that whenever a viber contacts, you then receive the call that easily. No effort needed. That is really super cool and with more and more apps it won't be too long before these apps should take a toll on mobile carriers' dollars.

The reason why now they really don't have weight against mobile carriers today, comes down to the number of people that have smartphones, the operating systems these phones use and also and mostly importantly the number of people that use these apps and have their friends using it.

It is said that now about 50% of the US population owns a smartphone. That is a great number however with differences in smartphones, they have different operating systems. If you have webOS or Symbian you will probably lack quality apps to allow you video call your friends however it is also true that most smartphones coming out these days is either in Android iOS or BBOS which do have quality video calling apps. As they number of smartphone owners increases it will give much more weight to video calling apps.

The main obstacle these apps are actually facing is the number of people using it and the number of friends they have using it. I personally have a few video chat apps on my phone and I really do lack contacts on them. For that reason I rarely use it. With more and more video calling apps coming out, it will fragment the members using it and thus you will never get enough contacts on one app to substitute your normal phone calls with calls using the app. If there could be 1 or 2 major players that could get enough following that most of your friends where using it, then that could become scarier to carriers. People won't use their airtime minutes anymore and people reducing their plans drastically. Also if apps like viber allowed you to make cheap calls too, instead of only just allowing you to make free calls to your contacts, that would also be interesting. If Google talk free calls could be on smartphones, that would be much more awesome (I have never understood why it's not on the Google talk app on phones)

The fact is that with time, in the next 2-3 years (even before) there will be a video calling app so awesome that most people will be using and most of your friends will be contacts on it so you could call them for free. When that time comes, what will mobile carriers do? Most of these apps also allow you to send free text messages as well to your contacts so people won't need airtime minutes and texting anymore from carriers and we are talking about the short run. So plans that were $60 will turn to around $30 because phone users will only want data on their phones.

Then in the long run when wifi becomes available almost everywhere or video calling apps build their own data networks and allow us to use it, what will mobile carriers become then? Most people will drop the contracts and get phones and just install a video calling app that will allow them call their friends for free. If I were a CEO of a major mobile carrier, then I will start preparing backup plans for the future. The bright side for mobile carriers today, is the fact that one, they are the only one now that allows internet to be reached by most areas since their pass their data across the phone wires. Their second advantage is that there hasn't been the killer video calling app that got a huge sizable member base that will allow most people to have most of their friends on it. However, it won't be too long till these catch up on mobile carriers.

Michael Nana is a college student and the founder of ViDoBounce.

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Business Growth Only a Tablet Away

Tablets are now more then just toys for big girls and boys. For business these devices are allowing us to move to a whole new level of productivity and increased revenue. Dead are the days of invoicing from the office, returning to your desk to check on your sales flow funnel. iPad, and Android Tablets - these are the tools of the new millennium, We are seeing binders disappear from board rooms replaced by the lighter, cleaner, tablet designs that allow board to work together seamlessly together or overseas. These are not million dollar devices and require little to no training to operate so we can all use them to improve our businesses. There are many areas where you will see increased benefit by having a tablet over a laptop:

Weight Tablets weigh a fraction of your current laptop technology, they are slimmer light-weight and can easily fit into a briefcase, backpack or other carrying device.
Power management Average battery life on a 6 cell laptop is 4 hours of constant work. This does not even equal out to be a full work day. The average tablet will last between 8 - 10 hours of work. Also there is no power up on a tablet, no long loading process - you can leave them on in standby mode without killing your overall battery life.
Connectivity WI-FI, 3G, 4G they are all options with Tablets. I currently am sporting the Samsung Galaxy 7" tablet and use it on both 3G and WI-Fi; the benefit here is that your data plan will not need to be expensive, all heavy downloading or media consumption can be done on a WI-Fi connection. 3G capability is always connected and gives you access in a moments notice. There is nothing I like more then being able to show a client something important on the web within a few seconds.
Professional Appearance These devices are slim and very nice to look at. They are not heavy and cumbersome. they are easily handed off to a customer or partner.
Time Savings, Increased Productivity, Increased Revenue Time is a commodity that when spent cannot be returned, we as business professionals need to streamline as much of our day as possible. We will find time savings with the apps, constant power on feature and general design a modern tablet provides. Increased productivity and revenue go hand in hand. When you take tablet technology and apply the ability to invoice from a job site you have successfully reduced your invoice turn around to 0 and removed unneeded expense at head office. This works remarkably well with contracting companies who have workers using a item record sheet and then invoicing from that. Nothing is as easy to remember as something that just happened. No more lost inventory, nothing be missed during invoicing and time being invoiced out correctly.

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Jumping droplets take a lot of heat, as long as it comes in a cool way

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2011) — Microscopic water droplets jumping between surfaces that repel and attract moisture could hold the key to a wide array of more energy efficient products, ranging from large solar panels to compact laptop computers.

Duke University engineers have developed a new way of producing thermal diodes, devices which regulate heat to preferentially flow in a certain direction, effectively creating a thermal conductor in the forward direction and an insulator in the reverse direction. While thermal diodes can be made from solid materials, these solid-state diodes are not nearly as effective as "phase-change" thermal diodes that rely on vaporization and condensation to transport heat.

These phase-change diodes can transfer over a hundred times more heat in the forward direction compared to the reverse, but with major limitations -- they are dependent on gravity or restricted by a tubular configuration. These limitations severely constrain the application of phase-change thermal diodes, for example, in mobile electronics which require orientation independence or solar panels which require a large surface area.

The Duke engineers believe they have figured out a way to solve these limitations to existing thermal diodes by exploiting self-propelled water droplets, which can jump from a superhydrophobic (highly water-repellent) surface to a superhydrophilic (highly absorbent) surface, but not the other way around. The results of the Duke experiments were published online in the journal Applied Physical Letters.

Chuan-Hua Chen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, and his research group was the first to actually videotape the self-propelled jumping motion of water droplets on a superhydrophobic surface. They found that the droplets literally jumped straight up and off the surface. In their current experiments, a superhydrophilic plate was placed opposite to the superhydrophobic one, creating an asymmetry crucial for the directional transport of heat in their thermal diode.

"When the superhydrophobic surface is colder than the superhydrophilic surface, the heat transport is very effective with phase-change processes, much like sweat taking away body heat; when the superhydrophobic surface is hotter, the heat flow is blocked and the diode behaves like a double-paned window," said Chen. "Because the jumping droplets in our system are very small, gravity has negligible effect on them. Therefore, devices based on this approach can be oriented in any direction without the need to worry about gravity."

Furthermore, Chen said, this approach can be easily scalable, which means technology based on this design can be used for thermal management of devices as small as computer chips and as large as building roofs. The jumping-drop approach uniquely combines large-area scalability, orientation independence, and effective thermal rectification into one device. This combination of properties is extremely useful for thermal diodes but has remained elusive until Chen's invention.

Typical phase-change thermal diodes rely on evaporating water to transfer heat from one surface to another, with gravity pulling the subsequent condensate down to restart the cycle again. For example, these so-called thermosyphons are in use in the Alaskan oil pipeline, in order to keep the heat from the pipes from melting the permafrost.

Chen believes that this new approach could make thermal diodes more practical and effective for a variety of applications. These applications range from energy-efficient solar panels to smart "skins" of thermally adaptive buildings. For example, in the summertime a diode panel on a building could let heat escape out but prevent heat from creeping in. In space vehicles, thermal diodes can be used to regulate diurnal thermal fluctuations in the outer space, or even to harvest solar energy for powering satellites.

Chen's research is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Other Duke members of the team are and Yuejun Zhao.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University. The original article was written by Richard Merritt.

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Journal Reference:

Jonathan B. Boreyko, Yuejun Zhao, Chuan-Hua Chen. Planar jumping-drop thermal diodes. Applied Physics Letters, 2011; 99 (23): 234105 DOI: 10.1063/1.3666818

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Green on the Go: How to Be More Eco-Friendly With Your Phone

It's sexy to be sustainable. An entire culture has been constructed around using less paper, biking to work, and eating locally grown food. But in the midst of our hemp shirts and reusable water bottles lies a group of items that are doing little to further the cause: personal electronics.

In this era of globalization, we all want to stay connected to what is happening around us. Phones, computers, and TVs, however, use tremendous amounts of electricity and generate troublesome e-waste; the materials used in their production are not biodegradable by any means. Does this mean we have to give up our luxuries? Not necessarily. Find out how you can be more eco-friendly while still staying connected with these tips for green usage of one the aforementioned devices: your phone.

Use your phone more.

Huh!? How does increasing your phone usage help the environment? Don't get too excited; what I meant is to use your phone more in place of your computer. It is estimated that performing a task (ie updating Facebook status) on the computer takes an average of 100 times more electricity than performing the same task on a mobile device. So sorry to burst your bubble, this only works if you use your computer less in tandem. It is a great solution though for people on the go!

Protect your battery.

The less effective your battery becomes, the more often you will have to charge it. So take care of it to maximize its lifespan! Don't expose it to harsh conditions such as extreme temperatures. Also, try to maintain your battery levels somewhere in the middle, instead of overcharging it or letting it run out before charging, as both behaviors are damaging to the long-term efficiency of your battery.

Buy green accessories.

In the same vein, another way to maximize your battery efficiency, and thus reduce how often you have to charge your phone, is to buy accessories that do so for you. Currently, there are products on the market that use various alternative means of energy production to power your phone. They range from the common solar chargers to a very unique charger I once saw that was powered by the kinetic energy (movement) of a yo-yo!

Don't waste your batteries.

As my last piece of advice regarding power consumption, ask yourself if you really have to be connected 24/7. Turn off your phone (and unplug your charger too as it uses electricity even when not charging anything) at night. Besides, you don't want to be rudely awakened in the middle of the night by a call or text. Even in times you feel like you have to leave it on, if it is a smartphone, you'll be happy to hear that most smartphones come with settings that allow you to customize data usage and the rate at which your phone fetches data. Do you really need to get your emails as soon as they're in your inbox? Or can you wait 15-30 minute intervals as your phone fetches them intermittently for you? Do you really need to be on a 3G network all the time? Or can you turn it off and use the regular network from time to time? Anything that involves more data usage also drains your battery. So yes, using Wi-Fi instead of data will also help.

Reuse and recycle.

This one is a gimme. Recycle or sell your old phone to reduce generation of e-waste. Simple as that.

About the Author
Ivy Newport is the resident "green expert" at Every Little Bit Eco Shop, an online store offering everyday products that are conveniently green. Visit http://www.everylittlebitgreen.com/ for more tips & education on going green, as well as a wide variety of eco-friendly products for greener giving and greener living.

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How to Make the Cheapest International Calls

There are many kinds of people looking to make the cheapest international calls: international students, business travellers and vacationers all benefit from low-cost connections to colleagues and loved ones abroad. If you fall into one of these categories, you'll be keen to learn that calling cards offer some of the top ways to save some bucks while making global calls. Here's how to make sure you get the best deal for your dough:

Research, Research, Research
Some travellers spend hundreds a year or more on international calls. And most people would do quite a bit of research on a product or service before spending that much money; as well you should, too. When it comes to researching calling cards, here is what to look for:

Calling rates to your destination - If you're in the US and want to calls Athens, you obviously want the cheapest international calls from US to Greece. Some providers may specialise in cheap calls to India or Mexico only, which won't help you much.

How call credit is deducted - Some providers will egregiously round up the amount of time of your call to deduct more minutes out of your call credit. Make sure you are only charged when a call is connected and that the call time is charged appropriately. This information - how call time is deducted - should be outlined in the Terms and Conditions on the provider's advert or website. If it's not, they are in violation of regulation and are likely best avoided.

Expiry - Do check that if there is an expiry date for your call credit, that you will be able to "use it before you lose it." Your best bet is to purchase credit that never expires. This too will be outlined in the Terms and Conditions by the provider.

Access Numbers - Once you have credit and are ready to call, many services require you to first dial an access number, which taps into the provider's platform and allows you to connect international by following the prompts. This access number should be a phone number local to you, so that calls made from your landline or mobile are billed to you as a local call.

Aside from your own research, you can always ask friends and family for recommendations for their picks of providers for the cheapest international calls. Ask after reliability, call quality and helpfulness when it comes to sorting out issues with mis-charged calls (it can happen with the most reputable of providers) and registration issues.
More Options

An alternative to calling cards are Pay-As-You-Go SIM cards. A SIM card is a small memory chip that saves data and can be inserted into a SIM-based phone. A Pay-As-You-Go SIM works much the same way a calling card works, in that you pre-pay for calling credit, which is deducted as you use it. Simply insert the chip into your mobile device, and start calling.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you'll quickly find the most effortless way to make calls globally.

Want more information on Cheap International Calls? Whether you need to call India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, or somewhere else, http://simplecall.com/ offers great international calling services with multilingual customer service support.

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Relay race with single atoms: New ways of manipulating matter

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2012) — Thanks to a collaboration between scientists in San Sebastian and Japan, a relay reaction of hydrogen atoms at a single-molecule level has been observed in real-space. This way of manipulating matter could open up new ways to exchange information between novel molecular devices in future electronics. Dr. Thomas Frederiksen, presently working in the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) is one of the scientists that has participated in this research project. The results have been published in the journal Nature Materials.

An athletic relay race is a competition where each member of a team sprints a short distance with the baton before passing it onwards to the next team member. This collective way of transporting something rapidly along a well-defined track is not only a human activity and invention -- a similar relay mechanism, often refered to as structural diffusion, exists at the atomic scale that facilitate transport of hydrogen atoms and protons in hydrogen bonded networks, such as liquid water, biological systems, functional compounds, etc. However, direct visualization of this important transfer process in these situations is extremely difficult because of the highly complex environments.

Scientists in San Sebastian and Japan discovered that the relay reaction also occurs in well-defined molecular chains assembled on a metal surface. This new setup allowed the researchers to gain insight into the relay reactions at the level of single atoms and visualize the process using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By sending a pulse of electrons through a water molecule at one end of the chain, hydrogen atoms propagate one by one along the chain like dominoes in motion.

The result is that a hydrogen atom has been transferred from one end to the other via the relay mechanism.  The demonstrated control of the atom transfer along these molecular chains not only sheds new insight on a fundamental problem. It could also open up new ways to exchange information between novel molecular devices in future electronics by passing around hydrogen atoms.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Elhuyar Fundazioa, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

T. Kumagai, A. Shiotari, H. Okuyama, S. Hatta, T. Aruga, I. Hamada, T. Frederiksen, H. Ueba. H-atom relay reactions in real space. Nature Materials, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/NMAT3176

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Top Benefits of Owning a Cheap Mobile Phone

Any person who can afford to own a mobile phone is sporting one these days. Gone are the days when a cell phone was considered to be the prerogative of only the rich. The availability of cheap cell phones today has enabled even the lower middle class people to buy one.

If you are still wondering whether or not to buy a cheap mobile, consider the following benefits that a cell phone has.

Stay connected anywhere and anytime

This is the most basic benefit of owning a cheap mobile. You can stay connected with any person anywhere in the world. Gone are the days when you used to stand in a long queue in front of a phone booth and had to wait endlessly to speak to your loved ones across the seven seas.

SMS

When the SMS was first introduced, mobile phone companies were apprehensive of whether it would be successful. They thought why a person would send a message to someone when they can call them straightaway. But today, SMS is a widely used service all over the world.

Help in case of emergencies

Imagine that you're stuck in the middle of a traffic jam and getting late for an appointment or that your car has broken down somewhere. A mobile can be of great help in such emergencies. You can call help immediately.

Navigation in your hand

Mobile phone technology is being constantly upgraded. Even cheap cell phones today are being equipped with GPRS systems. You'll never get lost anywhere if your cell phone can connect to the web. The internet will guide you to your destination.

Wholesome entertainment

If you have a mobile phone in your hands, you don't have to depend on the TV or your computer to entertain you. It's all there in your cell phone. Even if you have a cheap cell phone, you would be able to play games, click pictures, and listen to music. Many cheap mobile phones are also capable of recording videos.

Transferring data

Most mobile phones, these days, are equipped with Bluetooth technology which allows the transfer of files, pictures, music etc. between two handsets within seconds. You can perform all these activities even if you own a cheap mobile handset.

A mini computer

Mobile phones almost resemble a computer these days. The latest ones can surf the internet at amazing speeds, thanks to the advent of 3G technology. In fact, these days, you don't have to wait for your newspaper. You can simply log on to the internet and get the latest news, watch recently released movies and do a lot more.

Enhancing your business

A mobile phone is a great help in expanding your business. You can send message to potential clients, advertising your promotion. The mobile thus also acts as a great tool for brand promotion.

So, if you're still contemplating whether or not to buy a mobile, think no further. There are so many things to do with a cell phone.

Select from a wide range of contract phones, attractive mobile phone deals, cheap handsets & economical call plans.

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Cost Of Smartphone Application Development For Business Owners

Business owners are seriously contemplating smartphone application development to crank up a notch with their business, but it is important to realize that it is not cheap to develop an app for any smartphone. As it requires some serious investment, the decision of developing a business app should not be taken lightly. Not all businesses require apps, but every business can potentially find an app theme that it can relate it. If an idea is available to interact with your potential customers through the modern medium of smartphone apps, you should not ignore it completely, fearing the cost involved.

Smartphone application development requires a lot of time and focused effort from developers and quality apps are certainly expensive. Simple apps without any added touch of glamour can set you back $15,000 to $20,000 in the present scenario. Building mobile phone app on a relatively new platform isn't easy and there aren't enough skilled developers to actually meet the demand. It will take several months to conceive the idea of an app and put it into implementation after failing a few times. Branded apps cost even more, but brand name companies are now willing to spend even $150,000 to create a grand and elaborate app or game.

The cost of the app mainly depends on the features involved. A more feature rich app is very expensive as developing the prototype itself is very time-consuming. A simple interface with the app doesn't mean that it is going to be cheap. In fact, too much coding is involved in creating a simple interface with maximum usability in the smartphone application development process. The cost also depends on the number of devices you want to be supported by your app. If you want your app to be available across smartphones running multiple mobile platforms, you have to increase the investment considerably.

If you want to expand the reach of your business and attract more audience, then you should not let the cost of smartphone application development come in the way. Some business apps can be created to generate direct revenue. If your business is selling products, then, you can generate sales using your app by offering rewards for your customers. On the other hand, you can create apps solely for the purpose of business branding by offering something of value consistently to your customers. In that case, you will be able to build customer relationships and gain more loyal customers which are good for the future of your business.

Success of smartphone application development can be measured based on ROI. With apps, ROI may not be in terms of money at all times. Even though business apps are always assumed to be free apps, you can increase ROI by attaching a price tag to your app and making it a paid app. Research of smartphone user behavior indicates that users are willing to buy paid apps as long as the apps provide value to the money they pay. This can be achieved only when you develop a high quality app and take sincere marketing efforts to popularize it.

For any writing assignment please contact me at sans300@gmail.com

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Nanotechnology may speed up drug testing

ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2011) — Testing the effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals may get faster thanks to a new technique incorporating quantum dots developed at the University of Central Florida.

Some drug testing can take a decade or more, but UCF associate professor Swadeshmukul Santra and his team have created an electronic quantum dots (Qdots) probe that "lights up" when a drug it is delivering attaches to cancer cells.

The research appears online in this month's Biomaterials.

A researcher can use a microscope to see where and how much of the drug has been delivered because the probe emits a reddish color under special lighting or via MRI because of its optical and magnetic components.

As the drug testing continues, images can be taken over and over without any loss of optical or MRI signal. Researchers can then measure the size of the tumor and number of cancer cells that "light up" compared with the original untreated tumor.

This provides a way to determine whether the drug is doing what it is supposed to be doing in the targeted areas. The technique is much easier than the current process of removing treated cancer tumors and weighing them at regular intervals to determine the drug's efficiency in an animal.

"Many people in my area have been studying this approach for years," Santra said. "But we have now moved it into a live cell, not just in test tubes."

Sudiptal Seal, the director of UCF's NanoScience Technology Center and nanoscience scientist believes Santra's research is significant.

"This is indeed a major breakthrough in Qdot research," Seal said. "This new diagnostic tool will certainly impact the field of nanomedicine."

Santra and his team used semiconductor Qdots to create the probe. Because of their small size and crystal-like structure, Qdots display unique optical and electronic properties when they get excited. These unique properties make them ideal for sustained and reliable imaging with special lights.

For this research funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, the UCF-led team used a superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle core decorated with satellite CdS:Mn/ZnS Qdots which carried the cancer-fighting agent STAT3 inhibitor. The Qdot optical signal turned on when the probe bonded with the cancer cells.

"The potential applications for drug testing specifically for cancer research are immediate," Santra said.

Collaborators on the research included: Andre J. Gesquiere also of UCF, James Turkson of the University of Hawaii, Glenn A. Water of the University of Florida and Patrick T. Gunning from the University of Toronto.

Santra has his own team of students and scientists at the UCF NanoScience Technology Center, which has been studying nanotechnology, quantum dots and their applications for years. The team focuses on the engineering of nanomaterials for bioimaging and sensing, drug delivery and anti-microbial applications.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Central Florida.

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Journal Reference:

Rajendra N. Mitra, Mona Doshi, Xiaolei Zhang, Jessica C. Tyus, Niclas Bengtsson, Steven Fletcher, Brent D.G. Page, James Turkson, Andre J. Gesquiere, Patrick T. Gunning, Glenn A. Walter, Swadeshmukul Santra. An activatable multimodal/multifunctional nanoprobe for direct imaging of intracellular drug delivery. Biomaterials, 2012; 33 (5): 1500 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.10.068

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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