Author: Eva Glass

Eva Glass first rose to prominence in The INQUIRER. She continues to work behind the scenes to dig out the best stories.

Euro semi sales shoot up

Posted on October 6, 2014 by - News

12-inch silicon wafer - Wikimedia CommonsThings are on the turn in the chip business, and it’s a turn for the better.

The European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA) said today that sales hit $3.231 billion in August, that’s up 10.9 percent compared to August last year.

Its figures represent a three month rolling average.

ESIA said the logic market was pretty strong – that continues a trend that emerged early this year.  MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) based microprocessors grew strongly compared to July. And flash and NAND memory also showed good performance compared to July.

The chip market is, of course, affected by exchange rates with trading in Euro and in dollars affecting the mix.  But, nevertheless, in August this year semi sales were 2.393 billion Euro – which represents a 0.4 percent decrease over July, said ESIA.

ESIA is bullish. It said worldwide sales for August 2014 amounted to a not insignificant $28.435 billion – up 9.4 percent compared to August 2013, and up 1.3 percent compared to July 2014.

Smartgun inspires smart mouse

Posted on October 6, 2014 by - News

Mighty_Mouse_Sig_by_PanaCA security contractor working for defence outfit Raytheon has solved a problem relating to computer authentication after reading about an effort to use pressure sensitive gun grips to authenticate a gun owner.

According to Computer World  Glenn Kaufman wondered if something similar might work for a computer mouse and after four years has been awarded a patent for a biometric pressure grip that describes how a mouse can be used to authenticate someone.

One of the difficulties in high security defences is that serious attackers can by-pass them without anyone being aware of it. Smartcards can be stolen, fingerprints lifted off surfaces, passwords cracked and photographic substitutes used to defeat facial recognition and retina scans.

But a pressure sensitive mouse “is a lot harder to defeat” because it works from a neurological pattern versus a physical pattern, such as a facial scan. The way people hold a mouse, along with the amount of pressure they apply, is unique.

Kaufman built a mouse with pressure sensors and tested it on 10 people. He extrapolated the results to indicate a failure rate of one in 10,000, which is similar to what the pressure gun grip researchers had discovered.

It means that if someone wants to hack into your computer they need to have you sitting next to them with your hand on your mouse. They cannot cut your hand off because a dead hand will not hold the mouse in the same way.

Google downs celebrity pics

Posted on October 3, 2014 by - News

Hollywood, Wikimedia CommonsAfter receiving legal threats from a top notch Hollywood lawyer, Google has downed tens of thousands of pictures of celebrities.

Celebrities who had their accounts hacked include Rihanna, Kate Upton and Kim Kardashian.

Google denied that it had failed to act speedily enough. As we reported yesterday, a letter from lawyer Marty Singer threatened Google with legal action.

But a statement from Google said it had deleted many photographs within hours of being notified and had also shut down the accounts of people who had posted the pictures.

Google said it responded to requests to down material within hours and relied on people telling them or filing Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requests.

Google has taken down material on both YouTube, Blogger and Google+.

Hong Kong protestors use smartphone app

Posted on October 3, 2014 by - News

Open Garden's FirechatStudent protestors in Hong Kong are communicating with each other by using a smartphone app called FireChat.

FireChat by Open Garden is an app that lets people communicate with each other without needing a cell network.

It is able to do that because it can make use of Bluetooth, which has a range of about 200 feet of anyone else using the map.  It also works with phone networks and wi-fi.

There are versions for Android, Apple and Windows smartphones and tablets.

According to the Taipei Times, over 100,000 people in Hong Kong downloaded the app in 24 hours, last Sunday. One person said people are downloading the app because they were worried the authorities might shut down the networks.

FireChat is apparently popular in India because of poor connectivity.

Some analysts are speculating that the company could be the subject of acquisition because big players like Google and Facebook have the ability to scale such apps globally.

Tesco introduces Hudl 2

Posted on October 3, 2014 by - News

Tesco's Hudl2Major supermarket chain Tesco said it will release its second generation Hudl tablet on the 9th of October.

It comes in eight different colours, has a larger 8.3-inch HD screen at 1920 x 1200 pixels, and uses an Intel Atom 1.84GHz quad core chip. It comes with 16GB of memory – that can be expanded to 48GB.

The unit will cost £129 although Clubcard customers may be able to buy it for as little as £65.

The unit runs the Android Kitkat 4.4.2 operating system. The Hudl 2 can also be customised with various accessories.

The device has a five megapixel rear facing camera and a front facing 1.2 megapixel camera. It claims eight hours of video batter life for the unit.

The unit comes with a built in parental filter.

Scientists claim quantum computing first

Posted on October 3, 2014 by - News

Quantum computingA team of researchers based in Canada says that it has a new method to generate photon pair sources that will fit into a computer chip.

Professor Roberto Morandotti of INRS-EMT  said mixed up photon pairs from devices smaller than a square millimetre, could well form the basis of quantum optical communication and computing technology.

One of the team said the process to generate polarised photons only creates particles with the same polarisation, and are then “entangled” by mixing the states. But the team said it has found a way to direcly generate cross polarised photon pairs.

The technique involves using two separate laser beams at different wavelengths and use a micro ring resonator to amplify quantum effects.

The fabrication method for the chips is compatible with electronic chips and will allow its devices to co-exist with standard integrated circuits.

The illustration above shows how cross polarised red and blue pump photons are spun into a microring resonator to generate cross polarised correlated photons, illustrated in green and yellow.

Personal storage devices rose in Europe

Posted on October 3, 2014 by - News, Products

seagate-hddMarket analysis firm IDC said that 6.3 million personal and entry level storage devices shipped in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) during the second quarter of this year.

The market includes storage hardware products made for end users, small offices and small businesses.

Companies selling these products include Toshiba, Western Digital, Seagate, Buffalo, D-Link, Netgear and Lenovo/EMC.

The market for sales in western Europe grew 3.5 percent in the quarter compared to the same quarter last year.  Western Europe also represented the largest market for units shipped, amounting to 4.7 million units.  Those revenues largely came for personal level storage.

The central eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa (CEMA) showed a drop of 13 percent year on year.  The drop was because of sanctions against Russia and the Ukrainian crisis, as well as less bandwidth capabilities and the fact not many people work remotely in the region.

The Middle East and Africa showed a drop of 17 percent year on year, caused by political turmoil and civil unrest.

Google legalled over nude photos

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

OgleGoogle has been accused of “blatantly unethical behaviour”  for failing to remove nude or private images of celebrities hacked and distributed online.

Stars whose images were hacked include Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna and Selena Gomez.

Marty Singer, a senior lawyer who represents Hollywood celebs, wrote a sharp letter to Larry Page, Serge Brin, Eric Schmidt and Google lawyers and threatened to sue the firm for $100 million.

The New York Post reports that the letter accused Google of victimising women and failed to remove the images fast enough.

Google was asked to remove the images a month ago and lawyers have repeated the request several times.

The letter claimed that because the victims of the hack were celebrities, Google had done nothing apart from collect money from advertising.  Google had turned a blind eye to the scandal and repeatedly exploit these women, Singer continued.

Tablet market is all shook up

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

ipad3Apple and Samsung are going to have to fight hard to keep their place as leaders of the tablet pack.

Because, according to market intelligence firm ABI Research, other vendors including Asus, Lenovo and Amazon are fighting hard for third place and creeping up on the leaders.

These emerging vendors are set to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8 percent between 2014 and 2019.  Lenovo, for example will ship 21 million tablets by 2019.

Samsung saw a 35 percent decline in growth between Q1 2014 and the second quarter, while Apple saw a 19 percent decline.

In the first quarter, Apple and Samsung had a hefty 72 percent of the marketplace but their combined market share dropped to 66 percent and that’s the way things are headed.

In fact, ABI Research thinks that advanced and mature markets are experiencing a stall in growth, partly because tablets don’t need replacing every few years like notebook PCs.

Smartwatches to steal the day

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

fobwatchThe jury is still out on whether smartwatches will storm the market but if one research outfit is to be believed, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

IHS, a market research company based in the USA, says revenues for smartwatches will be worth around $300 million this year and predicts a rise of 80 percent annually for “at least” four more years to come.

IHS claims the market will be worth around $23 billion by 2023, with shipments of 800 million units – compared to 54 million this year. Those optimistic figures are fuelled by the belief that we’ll see better resolution and colour displays in years to come.

Sweta Dash, who analyses displays at IHS, believes that fashion will drive sales.  “Wearables are best viewed as functional fashion accessories rather than as electronic goods.  Because the fashion accesory market is determined by design rather than by simple function, wearable products such as smartwatches must be adapable to various forms including squares, circles, or even ovals.”

Battery power is important too.

But Dash sounds a word of caution in what otherwise is a very upbeat report.  “Smartwatches and smart glasses from Google and others are not completely ready for mainstream consumer adoption.” They’re all expensive and won’t make them mass market until prices drop.

Chip sales to hit $338 billion

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

nand-chipsSales of semiconductors in 2013 are likely to reach as much as $338 billion during 2014.

That’s according to market research company Gartner, which says that’s a 7.2 percent hike compared to 2013.

DRAM showed a revenue growth of 26.3 percent in 2014 and will generate as much as $44.1 billion for the entire year.  But memory sales are subject to wildly fluctuating cycles, and Gartner believes there will be oversupply in 2016 meaning revenues then will drop by over a quarter.

Jon Erensen, research director at Gartner, said semiconductor revenues reached an all time record in Q3 2014.

He said that there will be a flood of new product introductions as we head into the holiday season.

He also predcts that sales of smartphones and ultramobiles will increase by 27 percent and 18.9 percent respectively.

But semiconductor growth in 2015 is only likely to hit 5.8 percent, because there will be oversupply from chip fabrication plants.

Glare from Windows 10 to affect sales

Posted on October 2, 2014 by - News

framedwindowsIf you’re thinking of buying a notebook now, complete with Windows 8.1 and current Intel chips, it may be time to postpone your buying decision.

That’s what Digitimes says is likely to be the effect of Microsoft’s move to release Windows 10 – formerly known as Windows 9 – next year.

According to the Taiwanese wire, suppliers to notebook manufacturers now expect to see fewer sales in this quarter than they’d expected.

In addition to the introduction of Windows 10, Intel is expected to introduce 14 nanometre Y series Broadwell chips at the end of December.

As Windows 8.x has been greeted with apathy and in some cases contempt, few people will be rushing to spend their hard earned cash on what’s going to become out of date technology any month now.

Boffins design rat brain for robots

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Rat - Wikimedia CommonsScientists at the QUT say that modelling a human eye, a rat’s brain and combining them with robots could well lead to new technology.

Dr Michael Milford, lead researcher,  said: “This is a very Frankenstein type of project.”  The study uses newly designed computer algorithms to let robots navigate intelligence.

Why a rat brain and a human eye? Milford said: “A rodent’s spatial memory is strong but has very poor vision while humans can easily recognise where they are because of eyesight.”

He said QUT already has software algorithms to model human eye’s and rat brains.

”We’ll plug in the two pieces of software together on a robot moving around in an environment and see what happens,” he said.

The research could also have implications for neuroscience because disease like Alzheimer’s rapidly degrade spatial navigation abilities in human brains, he said.

But it could all be a long way off. Milford said: “We’ve got all the ground work there but plugging them altogether is the massive challenge we have.  I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work and that’s why it’s research.”

If the research comes to anything, we may well have a stainless steel rat scurrying round out cities.

DVLA website crashes

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

Wikimedia CommonsWorried UK motorists have bombarded the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) website causing it to crush as they rushed to pay their car tax online..

From this Wednesday, drivers don’t have to display the paper discs familiar to all in the windscreen.

But that means that motorists trying to renew their car tax by Wednesday have been frustrated because the DVLA technology can’t cope with the demand.

According to the BBC, the DVLA said 30,000 people visited its web site compared to the same day in 2013.  It said that if motorists can’t get online, they should renew their car tax at UK Post Offices.

The RAC has claimed that the digital system will mean tax dodging costing £167 million a year, a claim that the DVLA rebuts.

So how is the DVLA spot the tax dodgers?  It is relying on cameras that use number plate recognition cameras.

Lenovo, IBM deal sealed

Posted on October 1, 2014 by - News

ibm-officeBig Blue and Lenovo confirmed they have completed the sales of IBM’s X86 server business, as expected.

Under the terms of the deal, Lenovo will buy System x, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, X86 based Flex integrated systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers as well as software, blade networking and maintenance operations.

IBM will keep its System z mainframes, its Power Systems, Storage Systems, Power based Flex servers and PureApplication and PureData appliances.

The two companies will collaborate in a deal where Lenovo will act as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for IBM, and will also resell some products from Big Blue’s storage and software portfolio.

The change starts today in most major markets. IBM said the deal will also be completed in most other territories in the next month or two.

Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s Intel based servers means that it’s now able to offer the entire range of X86 based systems, from humble notebooks up to high end  servers.