Kingston, the independent world leader in memory products, has finally announced the release of DataTraveler 310, the first 256GB USB Flash drive in domestic market.

The latest gadget will replace the 256GB DataTraveler 300, released in July 2009 to the Asia/Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.

The company introduced the latest USB flash driver for those persons, who wants to access to their full media library, because Kingston DataTraveler 310 has capability to store up to 365 CDs, 54 DVDs or 51,000 images.

Apart from this, Kingston DataTraveler 310 features Password Traveler software, which facilitates the consumer to create and access a password-protected privacy zone. Furthermore, the secure area of the USB flash drive can account for up to 90% of its capacity and does not require administrator rights.

Kingston DataTraveler 310, which has dimensions of 2.90-inch x 0.87-inch x 0.63-inch, comes with a protective cap that snaps onto the back for the drive for convenient storage, when USB driver not in use.

Kingston DataTraveler 310 is available at price of Rs 48,380, and is backed by a five-year warranty and 24/7 tech support.

PayPal, which is widely known to be an easy way to collect money from affiliate and advertising programs and payment for freelance services, has announced the resumption of its operations on Thursday (March 3, 2010).

Sometime during early February, PayPal had officially announced that the RBI (Reserve Bank Of India) had intimated them that they required specific approvals to allow personal inward remittances to India, which PayPal did not have. So till the time PayPal obtained these approvals; all personal payments into India remained suspended. But now, it appears that PayPal is resuming their services, but with some new features.

According to the new rules specified by RBI (Reserve Bank of India), the PayPal management has included a new field called the “Purpose Code”. Basically, this code allows the banks to identify the nature of the cross border bank transaction. It is also to be noted that this is clearly different from earlier announced IEC (Importer Exporter Code). The new withdrawals will require users to use a Purpose Code while withdrawing money to their bank accounts. So, if you received payments for your website or blog, you need to use Freelance Journalism as your purpose code.

Besides, you don’t have to make any real efforts to get a Purpose Code. PayPal has provided a table in their post to confirm your Purpose Code. You can either choose your code according to your business category or confirm your code from PayPal’s customer support team.

After logging into your PayPal Account and selecting the ‘Withdraw Funds’ option, you would be then asked to fill out a new field titled the Purpose Code.  Select the code most appropriate for your nature of business and proceed.  More details on purpose codes can be found by clicking here. More details on purpose codes are available here.

The users are advised to choose their purpose code accordingly, so that you do not get into any trouble later. PayPal has also not explicitly stated how much the upper limit would be before the Indian user would require additional documents. However, it is believed that this would more likely be not more than Indian Rupees 50,000, as bank deposits above this limit require users to produce their PAN cards.

In addition, it should be noted that based on the value of withdrawal and the purpose code in your declaration, your bank may require you to provide documentary proofs such as invoices / goods receipt forms as applicable to reconcile with your withdrawal.

In a latest development, Paypal has informed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed them to continue local bank withdrawals for settlements for exports of goods and services.

Paypal is presently making alteration to comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of goods and services, and the company expects that from March 3rd (Wednesday), the customers will be able to re-use its bank withdrawal service.

However under the revised terms, customer has to fill out a new field entitled ‘Export Code’ when they request a withdrawal from their Paypal Account. The information collected from latest move will help RBI to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.

Reports suggest that, On March 1st (Monday), Paypal will be back in touch with its customers along with specific instructions on how they can move their money into their bank account.

Apart from this, RBI has told Paypal that it needs specific approvals to allow personal remittances to India, which the company currently does not have. So, until the Paypal get these approvals, personal payments into India will remain suspended. However, if you are an exporter, then, there is good new for you, because you will continue to be able to use the PayPal service for payments of goods and services.

It should be noted that Paypal is presently working with India’s central bank (RBI) and its business partners to resume Indian bank withdrawals for the thousands of Indian businesses (e.g. freelancer), who depends on PayPal to sell their goods or services in the global marketplace.

For more detailed information you can visit here.

In a latest development, LG Electronics has finally launched watch phone `GD910′ in the domestic market, the coolest gadget, which look similar to a normal watch but works like as a mobile phone.

LG watch phone is water resistant and its front panel is covered with a scratch-proof tempered glass. The company claims that LG GD910 is the first touch watch phone in the world to feature a built-in camera for video phone calls. The watch phone weighs 85 gms only.

Beside this, LG watch phone also feature MP3 player, Speech recognition, Organizer, Bluetooth with A2DP and 7.2Mbps 3G HSDPA for high-speed internet access.

The watch phone is powered with standard Li-ion battery, which offers talk time of upto 2 hour and standby time of upto 247 hours.

LG GD910 comes in two colors viz. White and Black, and available at a price tag of INR 49,900, across the country.

A website called PleaseRobMe has been launched to underscore the risk posed by posting personal details on the Internet.

The site claims to reveal the location of empty homes based on what people post online.

The Dutch developers said that the site was created to prove a point about the risks of sharing precise location information online.

The site scrutinises players of online game Foursquare, which is based on a person’’s location in the real world.

PleaseRobMe extracts information from players who have chosen to post their whereabouts automatically onto Twitter.

“It started with me and a friend looking at our Twitter feeds and seeing more and more Foursquare posts,” the BBC quoted Boy Van Amstel, one of PleaseRobMe’’s developers, as saying.

“People were checking in at their house, or their girlfriend’’s or friend’’s house, and sharing the address – I don”t think they were aware of how much they were sharing,” Van Amstel added.

The website took just four hours to create and Van Amstel stressed it was not meant to encourage crime.

“The website is not a tool for burglary. The point we”re getting at is that not long ago it was questionable to share your full name on the Internet. We”ve gone past that point by 1000 miles,” he said. (ANI)

Princeton University engineers have developed power-generating rubber films that could be used to harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking to power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices.

The material, composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded onto silicone rubber sheets, generates electricity when flexed and is highly efficient at converting mechanical energy to electrical energy.

Shoes made of the material may one day harvest the pounding of walking and running to power mobile electrical devices.

Placed against the lungs, sheets of the material could use breathing motions to power pacemakers, obviating the current need for surgical replacement of the batteries which power the devices.

The Princeton team is the first to successfully combine silicone and nanoribbons of lead zirconate titanate (PZT), a ceramic material that is piezoelectric, meaning it generates an electrical voltage when pressure is applied to it.

Of all piezoelectric materials, PZT is the most efficient, able to convert 80 percent of the mechanical energy applied to it into electrical energy.

“PZT is 100 times more efficient than quartz, another piezoelectric material. You don”t generate that much power from walking or breathing, so you want to harness it as efficiently as possible,” said Michael McAlpine, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, at Princeton, who led the project.

The researchers first fabricated PZT nanoribbons – strips so narrow that 100 fit side-by-side in a space of a millimeter. In a separate process, they embedded these ribbons into clear sheets of silicone rubber, creating what they call “piezo-rubber chips.” Because the silicone is biocompatible, it is already used for cosmetic implants and medical devices.

“The new electricity-harvesting devices could be implanted in the body to perpetually power medical devices, and the body wouldn”t reject them,” McAlpine said.

In addition to generating electricity when it is flexed, the opposite is true: the material flexes when electrical current is applied to it. This opens the door to other kinds of applications, such as use for microsurgical devices, McAlpine said.

The study was published online Jan. 26, in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society. (ANI)

Parents-to-be can take a breather: It may soon be possible to translate infant cries, all thanks to Japanese scientists who have come up with a statistical computer program that can analyze a baby’’s crying.

The details of the breakthrough have been made in the International Journal of Biometrics.

Engineers in Japan have turned to an approach to product design, known as kansei engineering, invented in the 1970s by Professor Mitsuo Nagamachi, Dean of Hiroshima International University, which aims to “measure” feelings and emotions.

Tomomasa Nagashima of the Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, at Muroran Institute of Technology, in Hokkaido and colleagues explain that the fundamental problem in building an emotion detector for baby’’s crying is that the baby cannot confirm verbally what its cries mean. Various researchers have tried to classify infant emotions based on an analysis of the crying pattern but with little success so far.

The team has employed sound pattern recognition approach that uses a statistical analysis of the frequency of cries and the power function of the audio spectrum to classify different types of crying. They were then able to correlate the different recorded audio spectra with a baby’’s emotional state as confirmed by the child’’s parents. In their tests recordings of crying babies with a painful genetic disorder, were used to make differentiating between the babies” pained cries and other types of crying more obvious.

They achieved 100 percent success rate in a validation to classify pained cries and “normal” cries.

The research has developed a sound theoretical method for classification of infant emotions, although limited to a specific emotion, based on analysis of the audio spectra of the baby’’s cries.

The technique might one day be incorporated into a portable electronic device, or app, to help parents or carers decide on a course of action when their child is crying. (ANI)

Scientists have said that satellite-navigation signals is under increasing threat from `jammers’.

According to BBC News, while “jamming” sat-nav equipment with noise signals is on the rise, more sophisticated methods allow hackers to program what receivers display.

At risk are not only sat-nav users, but also critical national infrastructure.

“GPS gives us transportation, distribution industry, `just-in-time’ manufacturing, emergency services operations – even mining, road building and farming, all these and a zillion more,” said David Last, a consultant engineer and former president of the Royal Institute of Navigation.

“But what few people outside this community recognize is the high-precision timing that GPS provides to keep our telephone networks, the internet, banking transactions and even our power grid online,” he added.

“Satellite failures, though dramatic, are not the main problem. The Achilles heel of GPS is the extremely weak signals that reach the receiver,” he said.

Each satellite in a sat-nav constellation is putting out less power than a car headlight, illuminating more than a third of the Earth’’s surface at a distance of about 25,000 km.

What that means, and what has brought this group of policy-makers, academics and industry figures together, is that the signals can be easily swamped by equipment back on Earth.

This can be done unintentionally by, for example, pirate television stations, or with a purpose in mind.

Military systems have been doing this “jamming” – flooding an area with a signal at the GPS frequency – for years in a bid to frustrate enemy navigation systems.

But small jamming devices are increasingly available on the Internet.

Low-power, hand-held versions can run for hours on a battery and confuse sat-nav receivers tens of kilometres away.

Higher-power versions can do far worse, and at both GPS and mobile phone frequencies.

What is more, receivers can be “spoofed” – not simply blinded by a strong, noisy signal, but fooled into thinking their location or the time is different because of fraudulent broadcast GPS signals.

“You can now buy a low-cost simulator and link it to Google Earth, put on a route and it will simulate that route to the timing that you specify,” said Professor Last.

“A GPS receiver overcome by it will behave as if you”re travelling along that route,” he said.

The approach still costs in the thousands and is the preserve of what Professor Last calls the “real techies”, but he guessed that the tools could be in the hands of criminals within a year or two. (ANI)

A US researcher has determined that nanowires could be used to give “racetrack memory” to computers, namely, significantly boosting conventional RAM, resulting in computers that are ready the minute you turn them on, and don’t lose data when the power fails.

According to a report in ABC Science, the US researcher in question is Dr Stuart Parkin, an IBM research fellow based in San Jose.

Current computers use solid state RAM to process data, but store data as magnetised regions on a hard disk drive.

“The problem is while hard disks are relatively economical, they are slow and unreliable,” said Parkin.

It takes time for the disk to rotate to a point where data can be read or written.

This is one of the reasons why it can be slow for a computer to boot up, as it loads the software from the hard disk into the RAM.

The reading and writing gadget can also crash the disk causing catastrophic damage, and if the power fails, information in the RAM that has not been saved to the hard disk is lost.

Parkin said that racetrack memory would combine the low cost of a hard drive with the reliability and speed of RAM in a single solid-state device.

The result is RAM that is 100 times larger than currently available.

“All data would be stored instantaneously so it is not lost when power is removed from the computer,” said Parkin.

“We’re going to replace both the storage and the memory, if we’re successful, with this one technology,” he said.

“You will then have a homogeneous technology where you can store the data but you can also perform computations on the data because it’s so fast and doesn’t wear out like the cheap memories today, like flash (memory used in USB sticks),” he added.

According to Parkin, racetrack memory would make computers, simpler, smaller, more reliable, and more energy efficient as well as giving them much faster access to stored data.

“While conventional RAM uses a single layer of silicon, racetrack memory will use a three-dimensional system to store more information,” he said.

Parkin is now involved in building a prototype racetrack memory device and hopes that it will be available in consumer products in 5 to 10 years. (ANI)

Google, the search giant, has finally rolls out  ‘Nexus One’, the cell phone which combines the latest in hardware from HTC Corporation with the newest Android software, in the US market.

At only 11.5mm thick and weighing less than 130 grams, the Google Nexus One fits comfortably in a pocket or purse. The cell phone is powered with Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz, and Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Éclair) Operating System.

Google Nexus one, feature a 3.7 inch (diagonal) WVGA AMOLED touchscreen, which supports resolution of 800 x 400 pixels. The screen has 100,000:1 typical contrast ratio, and 1ms typical response rate.

Google Nexus one is equipped with 5 megapixels Autofocus camera, along with LED Flash. The cell phone capture video at 720 x 480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, which entirely depends on surrounding lighting conditions.

Apart from this, Google Nexus One is loaded with 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, Dock pin connectors, and Micro USB port. However, its additional features include, Haptic feedback, Teflon coated back, Second microphone for active noise cancellation, Proximity sensor and Light sensor.

When we talk about connectivity features, Google Nexus One offer supports for HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps, GSM/EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and A2DP stereo Bluetooth.

On memory front, Google Nexus One comes loaded with 512 MB Flash, 512 MB RAM, and 4 GB Micro SD Card, which is expandable upto to 32 GB.

Google Nexus One is loaded with lots of location-based application, which includes Assisted Global positioning system (AGPS) Receiver, Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning, Digital compass and Accelerometer.

On Graphics and Entertainment front, Google Nexus One supports various formats. The cell phone offer compatibility with JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, H.263, MPEG-4 SP, H.264 AVC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB9, AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC +), MP3, MIDI SMF, Ogg Vorbis, and WAVE (8-bit and 16-bit PCM).

It should be noted that Google Nexus One offer various Langauage support. On Keyboard front, it offer support for English (U.S), French (France), German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil). While on Display front, it offer support for English (U.S), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean, Japanese, and Russian.

Google Nexus One is powered with removable 1400 mAH battery, which supports talktime of upto 10 hours on 2G network and upto 7 hours on 3G network. The company claims that, the cell phone offer standby time upto 290 hours on 2G and upto 250 hours on 3G network.

Nexus One is initially available from the Google web store in the US without service for $529 or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA. However, in the near future, Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe will offer services to consumers in their respective geographies.

Toyota, the world’s largest car maker, has finally previewed its long-awaited  Etios, a low-cost small sedan, at Auto Expo 2010 in New Delhi.

With the introduction of five-seater family car Etios in the domestic market, Toyota has finally entered the mass volume segment. The company is looking to sale about 70,000 cars in the first year. The company plans to launch both hatchback and sedan under the Etios series with 1.2 litres and 1.5 litres petrol engines respectively.

Commenting on latest development, Kazuo Okamoto, Vice Chairman, Toyota Motor Corp. said, “We are very excited to finally showcase the concept of Etios, which has been newly developed specifically for customers in India … Our tagline represents the choice of India for the global premiere of Etios concept, following which, export to other countries will be evaluated.”

It should be noted that more than 2000 engineers from India and Japan, had worked altogether for past four years to produce Toyota Etios.

Reports suggest that Toyota Etios will be launched in the country, before the end of this year, while the hatchback sedan will hit Indian market by January 2011. However, the company did not disclosed the price range of Etios, but it is expected to priced under 5 lakh INR.

Apart from revealing Etios, Toyota has also previewed its hybrid ‘Prius’ at the Auto Expo 2010. The car is expected to launch in the country by March this year.

Tata Motors, India’s largest vehicle maker, has finally previewed the much-awaited Tata Aria, a 7-seater passenger car at Auto Expo 2010.

Tata Aria’s specification includes, 2.2 Litre direct Injection Common Rail (DICOR) diesel engine, 140 ps power, 320 nm torque, all wheel drive, ABS, Automatic climate control, 6 airbags and GPS.

Beside Aria, Tata motors has also previewed ‘Tata Venture’, a multi-purpose vehicle called, and passenger carrier ‘Magic Iris’ at Auto Expo 2010. Presently, Tata Motors’ SUVs and MUVs range include Safari and Sumo Grande.

Apart from latest development, Tata motors also plans to introduce Jaguar XJ, series of buses, new alternate fuel vehicles and electric vehicles at auto expo 2010 in New Delhi.

(image credits- autocarindia.com)

Maruti Suzuki, India’s leading car manufacturer has finally revealed its compact multi-purpose vehicle ‘Concept R3’ at Auto Expo 2010, in New Delhi.

Concept R3 is an all-new compact vehicle completely different from any of the existing cars from the Maruti Suzuki family. The multi purpose vehicle is based on a stretched SX4 platform, and considered as a smaller rival for Toyota Innova.

Maruti Suzuki Concept R3, the 6-seater MPV, has been designed and developed by a team of experienced and talented Indian designers of Maruti Suzuki within a span merely 9 months. The vehicle features concealed rear tail lamps, a glass roof, aluminium accents on the side, and a chrome grille.

Commenting on latest development, Maruti Suzuki India officials said, we are confident that concept R3 will addresses the need of evolving domestic customer for individual style as well as his requirement for family togetherness. However, the company officials have not divulged any information, that when the Maruti R3 MPV will be available to general public and at what price.

Apart from latest launch, Maruti Suzuki has also plans to reveal 16 other vehicles at the Auto Expo 2010, including the Kizashi sedan.

(image credits- autocarindia.com)

Lenovo, the world’s fourth-largest PC maker, has finally revealed ”Skylight’, a new netbook and smartphone combo device that runs on Qualcomm Inc’s Snapdragon chip.

However, Lenovo’s Skylight OS will not be Windows or even Ubuntu based, its will be Linux-based custom OS.

Lenovo’s new Skylight is designed for customers who want Internet on the go without PC functionality, and feature a 10.6-inch screen, a 1.3 Mega pixel camera, compact keyboard, built-in WiFi and 3G connectivity, and more than 10 hours of active battery life.

The gadget uses a combination of 14 GB of embedded flash and 2 GB of online storage in-lieu of hard disk drive. Lenova Skylight weighs less than 2 pounds and measures 10-by-7.9-by- 0.7 inches.

Lenova Skylight is mainly considered as a web surfing device, which will give direct access to live web gadgets such as Google’s Gmail, Facebook, YouTube, Amazon’s MP3 portal etc.

Reports suggest that, Lenovo Skylight will be available at a price of $499 or for a subsidized price with a 3G data plan through AT&T.