The iPhone 4S Provides the Powerful A5 Processor

The iPhone 4S provides the powerful A5 processor which delivers a dual core experience up to seven times faster with graphics processing. This allows better speed and faster responsiveness with the newest iPhone which also offers a better camera, newer and improved operating system, and advanced voice commend software.

The handset comes with Siri a new voice command and recognition system which enables you to speak directly to the phone and converts what you are saying to the appropriate app. For example, when you ask "Do I need an umbrella?", it will understand the request as to what the weather is like and answer the question appropriately. You can also input new events and meetings into your calendar using the intuitive and almost futuristic application. Other capabilities include being able to make phone calls, send messages, set reminders and ask for a contact's number. It is a voice commanded personal assistant on your mobile, and one of the new features added to the updated iOS 5 operating system respectively. The new OS boasts over 200 new features on its iOS 4 predecessor. Some of the new features include the internal iOS 5 messaging service iMessage, the Notification Centre which organises notifications for you, and full Twitter integration for social networking and more.

The iPhone 4S still includes the newer sleek design and the impressive Retina display while the 8 megapixel camera is now capable of video recording in High Definition. The camera is still supported by an LED flash, face detection and more, accompanied by a front facing VGA camera capable of 30 frames per second. Other major features of the phone include the ability to store and backup your music and other media as well as files to the new iCloud data service, and more built-in apps which come automatically on the handset such as Newsstand offering easier subscriptions to magazines on your phone. The Find My iPhone tracking is a great security benefit meanwhile, allowing you to trace your handset's location, send a message to it and remotely erase its data if necessary.

The iPhone 4S is a powerful handset which offers some of the most advanced features available for any smartphone on the market. The camera is easy to use yet powerful, and the new operating system allows you to do more, and faster along with the A5 processor. There are more features and apps already installed too, allowing you to get going with the handset faster and do many things.

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Interactive applications for cell phones may be most powerful forms of advertising

ScienceDaily (Dec. 8, 2011) — A new research study co-authored by an Indiana University professor suggests that interactive applications for mobile phones such as Apple's iPhone and Google's Android may be some of the most powerful forms of advertising yet developed.

The study confirms that using branded mobile phone apps increases a consumer's general interest in product categories and improves the attitude they may have toward the sponsoring brand. The researchers also found that mobile apps which are informational in nature or utilitarian were more likely to engage users than those where the app focused on entertainment or gaming.

Apps could be a way for advertisers to reach across traditional product or gender boundaries to appeal to new types of customers. Unlike viewing information through a print ad, media spot or a website, consumers will process a company's messages more deeply if they do so using an app that they've decided to download to their mobile device.

"You have a more personal connection with your mobile device than you will with a website," said Robert F. Potter, director of the Institute for Communication Research at IU Bloomington and an associate professor of telecommunications in the IU College of Arts and Sciences. "One benefit of the mobile app is that you go, you get it and you download the app -- it's now yours. It may be a deeper level of interactivity."

"The very personal nature of mobile phones, including the new smartphones, which are practically extensions of their owners, means that advertisers need to adopt new rules of conversation with mobile phone users," said the research study, co-authored by Potter and four researchers at Murdoch University in Australia.

It is believed to be the first study to test the actual impact of branded apps on consumers and appears in the current issue of the Journal of Interactive Marketing. Previous research has focused on text messaging and Web advertising.

According to the researchers, retailers who develop apps overcome challenges being presented by dramatic shifts in television viewing and barriers to advertising on mobile devices. Using the app, consumers "talk to the brand, not the other way around," and consumers feel comfortable controlling how much information they reveal when they customize the app.

"We found a double benefit," Potter said. "First, the app increases the general interest in the product category that you're trying to sell, and then the app also improves the attitude that you have toward the sponsoring brand ... and the purchase intention that you have towards the product -- your product.

"You have a more favorable attitude toward the brand that's sponsoring the app when you go to think about where you shop," he added.

The researchers used eight branded apps. Half of the brands were in product categories that predominantly target men and the other half, women. The four male-targeted brands were Best Buy, Gillette, BMW and Weber. The four female-targeted brands were Gap, Kraft, Lancôme and Target.

About 225 people between the ages of 18 and 74, from the United States and Australia, took part in the study. They generally were unfamiliar with the apps used. Respondents answered questions, and some had their psychophysiological data recorded, such as heart-rate and skin conductance, while they used the apps.

During a lab session, participants were presented with the apps in random order and were asked to interact with them for however long they chose. While they worked with the apps, researchers collected the participants' heart rate and arousal. Past research has shown that when people are asked to do something that requires introspection -- such as answering a question -- their heart rate goes up. Conversely, when doing something external, like playing a game, their heart rate goes down.

"We found through the physiology measures that when you have an app that provides people with information that it is something they internalize and personalize more than the external-based focus of the game-based app," Potter said. "You've invited the brand into your life and onto your phone. If it's an informational app, you're inviting that brand even deeper in, because now you're thinking about what's in your life and apply it to the things that the apps are presenting you with. With the experiential app, things are still kept at a distance -- you're still experiencing it on your phone and not in your life."

Apps that used an informational style were more effective at shifting purchase intention, compared to apps that used an experiential style, the paper added.

Examples of informational apps were the Kraft app, which provided useful tips about cooking and entertaining guests with their food products, and Target's app, which allowed shoppers to see the week's deals and clearance items and access product reviews by scanning bar codes. They were less affected by the Gap app, which enabled users to dress a virtual model, and BMW, which allowed users to configure a 3-D replica of one of its cars and take it for a virtual test drive.

Respondents were unaware of the differences in how they reacted to various apps. When asked, people told researchers there was no qualitative difference between the various apps.

"This study also suggests that the most successful type of app is the one that is the most intensive to produce," Potter and his co-authors wrote. "Designing an informational app that consumers find useful in their daily lives is a lot more difficult than building an experiential app by creating or adapting an interactive game: It requires developing a whole suite of tools instead of just one."

As mentioned earlier, the experiment included apps that seemingly would appeal primarily to men or women. But the researchers found that involvement and interaction with the applications led people in the study to see new benefits of products targeted for those of the other gender.

Potter thinks that an important new strategy for many retailers will be to market their app as well as their product in order to reach new potential customers.

"Marketing their apps to consumers that aren't a natural target can be a way of broadening the tent," he said. "If you market apps to people who may have never heard of your product or who aren't familiar with the product category, then our research shows that if you can get them to download the app then you may be able to introduce a whole new audience to your product."

A challenge for many marketers is the success of Apple's App Store, which offers more than 100,000 such applications. Getting a widespread interest in an app will require a major, persuasive ad campaign.

Other authors of the study were Steven Bellman, Shiree Treleaven-Hassard, Jennifer Robinson and Duane Varan of Murdoch University.

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More powerful supercomputers? New device could bring optical information processing

Researchers have created a new type of optical device small enough to fit millions on a computer chip that could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers.

The "passive optical diode" is made from two tiny silicon rings measuring 10 microns in diameter, or about one-tenth the width of a human hair. Unlike other optical diodes, it does not require external assistance to transmit signals and can be readily integrated into computer chips.

The diode is capable of "nonreciprocal transmission," meaning it transmits signals in only one direction, making it capable of information processing, said Minghao Qi (pronounced Chee), an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.

"This one-way transmission is the most fundamental part of a logic circuit, so our diodes open the door to optical information processing," said Qi, working with a team also led by Andrew Weiner, Purdue's Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The diodes are described in a paper to be published online Dec. 22 in the journal Science. The paper was written by graduate students Li Fan, Jian Wang, Leo Varghese, Hao Shen and Ben Niu, research associate Yi Xuan, and Weiner and Qi.

Although fiberoptic cables are instrumental in transmitting large quantities of data across oceans and continents, information processing is slowed and the data are susceptible to cyberattack when optical signals must be translated into electronic signals for use in computers, and vice versa.

"This translation requires expensive equipment," Wang said. "What you'd rather be able to do is plug the fiber directly into computers with no translation needed, and then you get a lot of bandwidth and security."

Electronic diodes constitute critical junctions in transistors and help enable integrated circuits to switch on and off and to process information. The new optical diodes are compatible with industry manufacturing processes for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors, or CMOS, used to produce computer chips, Fan said.

"These diodes are very compact, and they have other attributes that make them attractive as a potential component for future photonic information processing chips," she said.

The new optical diodes could make for faster and more secure information processing by eliminating the need for this translation. The devices, which are nearly ready for commercialization, also could lead to faster, more powerful supercomputers by using them to connect numerous processors together.

"The major factor limiting supercomputers today is the speed and bandwidth of communication between the individual superchips in the system," Varghese said. "Our optical diode may be a component in optical interconnect systems that could eliminate such a bottleneck."

Infrared light from a laser at telecommunication wavelength goes through an optical fiber and is guided by a microstructure called a waveguide. It then passes sequentially through two silicon rings and undergoes "nonlinear interaction" while inside the tiny rings. Depending on which ring the light enters first, it will either pass in the forward direction or be dissipated in the backward direction, making for one-way transmission. The rings can be tuned by heating them using a "microheater," which changes the wavelengths at which they transmit, making it possible to handle a broad frequency range.

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

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Journal Reference:

Li Fan, Jian Wang, Leo T. Varghese, Hao Shen, Ben Niu, Yi Xuan, Andrew M. Weiner, and Minghao Qi. An All-Silicon Passive Optical Diode. Science, December 22, 2011 DOI: 10.1126/science.1214383

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A Slew of Extra Powerful Apps Baked Into Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Android is not just an operating system that runs underneath a user interface. It is also a suite of well-integrated apps that make it possible for users to use the various hardware capabilities of their Android smartphones and Android tablets.

In the latest version recently released--Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich--Google has further fortified not just the operating system but also the apps that come along with it. In this post, you will get an overview of some of the most important apps that Google drastically revamped in Android 4.0.

Better Web Browsing

For faster browsing, Android 4.0 includes a tabbed browser, which offers you quick previews of Web pages and allows you to swiftly switch from one open tab to another.

The browser can save up to 16 tabs and you can remove unused tabs with a simple flick gesture. Plus, it can also automatically sync Chrome bookmarks on your desktop with your Android phone. No need to install additional apps to sync your bookmarks on your device.

By default, the new browser in Android 4.0 opens mobile versions of Web pages. But, it also gives you the option to switch to the full desktop versions of the same Web pages.

The browser also now includes the option for saving Web pages for offline reading, as well as accessibility features, a history of most visited pages, and an incognito mode for private browsing.

Next-level Gmail

The new Gmail in Android 4.0 displays two-line previews of each email--so you'll get a quick preview of what each email contains.

The new Gmail app also includes an action bar below each message. The action bar provides quick access to the most common actions that you perform on your messages. The app allows you to swiftly browse through your emails by swiping from left to right.

Another interesting feature is Gmail's offline search. The new Gmail app allows you to search within emails within the last 30 days without your having to go online.

Easier Calendar App

The new Calendar app features a simpler and more readable design, which makes it easy for you to follow your everyday schedules.

It also features pinch-to-zoom functions, which allows you to display more details or just the overview of each day just by pinching the screen with your thumb and forefinger.

Photo Snapping and Editing Made Better

Android 4.0 features a drastically revamped Camera app that has zero shutter lag, which allows you to capture precious moments faster.

Users can also now enjoy panoramic photo shooting. Such camera mode allows you to sweep the camera in one smooth motion to capture a subject in panorama mode.

The new Photos app in Android 4.0 also makes photo sharing much easier. Just click on a photo and choose where to share it--either on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter.

The Camera app now includes built-in photo editing tools never before seen in any previous build of Android. So, with Android 4.0, you can now directly edit, crop, or filter your photos right on your Android phone or Android tablet.

The Gallery app has also been given a total makeover. It has been redesigned to display big pictures, with labels rendered in the Roboto font. The layout this time is more magazine-like. Photos are also automatically sorted not just by album but also by geo-location or by custom tags.

Other cool new features in the Camera app are Continuous Focus, Zoom While Recording, Time Lapse, and Video Snapshots--all of which make your Android phone's camera more powerful than ever.

People App Centered on People

The heavily redesigned People app now, more than ever, places stronger emphasis on improved communication, interaction, and faster sharing of information.

The People app goes beyond a mere list of contacts. The People app now shows a wider range of information about your contacts--phone numbers, addresses, social networking sites that they hang out in, and much more

Just like the photos in the Gallery, your contacts are now shown in the People app in a magazine-style layout. Each contact's page displays a high-quality photo of the contact and the contact's most recent social networking updates.

The People app also supports voice mail retrieval much better, and also provides a non-offensive way to reject incoming calls from your contacts.

With this new and heavily improved suite of apps in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, one can be sure that using an Android smartphone or an Android tablet with Android 4.0 will be nothing less than pleasurable and convenient.

Eager to know more about Android smartphones and Android tablets? Or, perhaps, you already own one and want to know what else that intelligent device can do to make your life just a little bit short of paradise? Get some TidBits of Android reviews and news at AndroidTidBits.com

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Nano bundles pack a powerful punch: Solid-state energy storage takes a leap forward

ScienceDaily (Aug. 23, 2011) — Rice University researchers have created a solid-state, nanotube-based supercapacitor that promises to combine the best qualities of high-energy batteries and fast-charging capacitors in a device suitable for extreme environments.

A paper from the Rice lab of chemist Robert Hauge, to be published in the journal Carbon, reported the creation of robust, versatile energy storage that can be deeply integrated into the manufacture of devices. Potential uses span on-chip nanocircuitry to entire power plants.

Standard capacitors that regulate flow or supply quick bursts of power can be discharged and recharged hundreds of thousands of times. Electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), generally known as supercapacitors, are hybrids that hold hundreds of times more energy than a standard capacitor, like a battery, while retaining their fast charge/discharge capabilities.

But traditional EDLCs rely on liquid or gel-like electrolytes that can break down in very hot or cold conditions. In Rice's supercapacitor, a solid, nanoscale coat of oxide dielectric material replaces electrolytes entirely.

The researchers also took advantage of scale. The key to high capacitance is giving electrons more surface area to inhabit, and nothing on Earth has more potential for packing a lot of surface area into a small space than carbon nanotubes.

When grown, nanotubes self-assemble into dense, aligned structures that resemble microscopic shag carpets. Even after they're turned into self-contained supercapacitors, each bundle of nanotubes is 500 times longer than it is wide. A tiny chip may contain hundreds of thousands of bundles.

For the new device, the Rice team grew an array of 15-20 nanometer bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes up to 50 microns long. Hauge, a distinguished faculty fellow in chemistry, led the effort with former Rice graduate students Cary Pint, first author of the paper and now a researcher at Intel, and Nolan Nicholas, now a researcher at Matric.

The array was then transferred to a copper electrode with thin layers of gold and titanium to aid adhesion and electrical stability. The nanotube bundles (the primary electrodes) were doped with sulfuric acid to enhance their conductive properties; then they were covered with thin coats of aluminum oxide (the dielectric layer) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (the counterelectrode) through a process called atomic layer deposition (ALD). A top electrode of silver paint completed the circuit.

"Essentially, you get this metal/insulator/metal structure," said Pint. "No one's ever done this with such a high-aspect-ratio material and utilizing a process like ALD."

Hauge said the new supercapacitor is stable and scaleable. "All solid-state solutions to energy storage will be intimately integrated into many future devices, including flexible displays, bio-implants, many types of sensors and all electronic applications that benefit from fast charge and discharge rates," he said.

Pint said the supercapacitor holds a charge under high-frequency cycling and can be naturally integrated into materials. He envisioned an electric car body that is a battery, or a microrobot with an onboard, nontoxic power supply that can be injected for therapeutic purposes into a patient's bloodstream.

Pint said it would be ideal for use under the kind of extreme conditions experienced by desert-based solar cells or in satellites, where weight is also a critical factor. "The challenge for the future of energy systems is to integrate things more efficiently. This solid-state architecture is at the cutting edge," he said.

Co-authors of the paper include graduate student Zhengzong Sun; James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science, and Howard Schmidt, adjunct assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, all of Rice; Sheng Xu, a former graduate student at Harvard; and Roy Gordon, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University, who developed ALD.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Rice University.

Journal Reference:

Cary L. Pint, Nolan W. Nicholas, Sheng Xu, Zhengzong Sun, James M. Tour, Howard K. Schmidt, Roy G. Gordon, Robert H. Hauge. Three dimensional solid-state supercapacitors from aligned single-walled carbon nanotube array templates. Carbon, 2011; 49 (14): 4890 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2011.07.011

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