Technology & Research •

Russian “ghost” spaceship could be satellite-killer – not a cold warrior

Object 2014-28E is being closely observed by Western powers as it manoeuvres close to the other Russian-made crafts, leading to theories that it is a Cold-War style space killer. It can harm the country.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visits a space launch pad in Plesetsk, north-western Russia on Wednesday to have a look at the situation.

Did Russia launch a satellite killer?

Amateur astronomers and Western military observers have been tracking Object 2014-28E, and declared it as “ghost” spaceship that blasted into orbit in May as part of a cluster of military services.

Unlike a December 2013 launch, where Russians alerted the United Nations of four new satellites, just three spacecraft were declared in the payload. On the other hand, U.S. radar picked up a fourth object, according to Russian Space Web.

The U.S. military has begun tracking the Russian spaceship as Norad designation 39765, but it’s unbelievable task is still far from clear and exact points to a vehicle that repairs or refuels existing satellites to one that sucks up space junk, according to the report of Financial Times.

Whatever it is, looks very experimental, and said by space security expert Patricia Lewis of think tank Chatham House told FT. He further added, “It could have a number of functions, some related to military and civilians. One possibility is for some kind of grabber bar. Another would be kinetic pellets which shoot out at another satellite, or possibly there could a different match of a satellite-to-satellite attack.

The Russian ministry of defence has kept quiet, but its space forces reportedly resumed its anti-satellite weapons program in 2010 after the former superpower reportedly shuttered it with the fail of the mission of the Soviet Union.

Mozilla – Yahoo replaces Google as the default search engine in United States

A five-year deal signed includes early access to new search UIMozilla has ended its ten-year relationship with Google and decided to join hands with Yahoo. Therefore, Yahoo is going to be the default search engine for the open source Firefox browser in the US, both for the mobiles devices and desktop.

Terms of the deal have not disclosed yet, but according to experts, the arrangement will last for the next five years before Firefox’s built-in search box comes up with its bids again, Mozilla and Yahoo! said in a joint statement issued by them on Wednesday.

However, Firefox users have always been able to choose their own search provider, as Google has been the global default since 2004, thanks to an arrangement that saw the online giant pay royalties to Mozilla for searches originating from its browser.

In the past years, these royalties have made all the Mozilla’s funding possible, the not-so-profit has yet to publish their 2013 annual report, but in the year 2012, it received $311 million in total revenues, of which 90 percent came from its tied partnership with Google.

Mozilla has been silent and certainly not in a mood to discuss its wrangling with Google, but it is possible that the talks broke down over the Firefox-maker’s stance towards the Do Not Track browser privacy standard.

Mozilla has always been a strong supporter of the tech, which browsers use to instruct website not to follow them with tracking cookies, but Google – works on the module of tracking as it is the world’s largest online advertising company.

Yahoo! meanwhile, has ignored the Do Not Track signal on its own websites since May. As per the deal signed between Mozilla and Yahoo!, nonetheless, it says it will now recognize Do Not Track again – but only for the Firefox users, curiously enough.

Twitter Made an “All” tab for Users to Experience the Historical Awesomeness

On this Tuesday, Twitter has announced that it has compiled a searchable list of every tweet ever published by you, since the beginning of the site, i.e. in 2006.

This amazing change has been named as “Tweet Index“, as it being referred to, is available on both the platform users, like web and mobile. This change is being offered to Twitter users via an “All” tab given near the search bar.

Twitter wrote in their company blog post that while all tweets have already been available in some or other form of the website, this is the first time ever in the history of Twitter that the users will be able to search the entire Twitter site for results.

Earlier, the users could only search a list of tweets, dating back a few weeks. While, this smaller body of work contains all the majority of tweets that users have tweeted or have been looking for, this larger body of work will provide fuller and richer searcher results of all the tweets. When you decide to select all the tweets, you need to go the search under the “all” tab and you will be easily able to see a collection of nearly 500 billion tweets from all across the globe.

Twitter is very proud to make the entire collection of tweets available to the public. The company’s blog describes the accomplishment as making available “eight years”…..worth of every day that consists of human experiences and major historical events. Now, Twitter is making available a search engine that excels at uncovering hundreds of billions of tweets as historical documents.

All of this has been accompanied in way that is efficient and time-saving. This is not going to be bothersome to users. The entire search is conducted within the parameter of 100 milliseconds.

Comet Lander: Philae sends data from surface, just before low battery power dropped

The Philae Lander on the distance comet 67P has re-established radio contact with the scientists on Earth on this Friday night, sending yet another stream of science data from the space. The robot is shadowed b a cliff and is not able to get enough light, so that it can charge its solar panels to let its systems work again.

Engineers said there is a constant fear of losing contact with the Comet Lander, and this contact will remain only for a while.

On Wednesday, Philae descended itself to the surface of 67P – this is the first in the history that a space mission has made such a soft landing on a comet.

The scientists claimed that the next opportunity to talk to Philae would come around 1100 GMT on Saturday, when the revolving Rosetta satellite – which delivered it to the 4 km-wide “ice mountain” – will come over the horizon.

However, with only 1.5 hours left for the sunshine falling on the robot during the comet’s 12-hour days, it is still very doubtful that battery will be able to perform as expected by scientists to complete the radio link.

Engineers told newspapers that they have tried to manage to maximise the possibility of completing the radio link, though, there is still a need to send commands to re-establish the Lander.

All this process involved raising Philae by 4cm and rotating its main housing by at least 35 percent. All this process will ensure that the largest solar panel catches the most of the light to help recharge the system.

Nokia N1 Android tablet Shocks the Android Users

Nokia has decided to launch an Android-powered tablet, marking the Finnish company’s return to consumer electronics. This surprise launch pits the firm against Microsoft, which has completed its takeover of Nokia’s previous mobile-devices business in April 2014.

The N1 tablet is due to go on sale in China in the starting of the year 2015, and then other countries.

Nokia also said that it was not making the device itself, but has given its license to the brand, design, and software to the third-party. The Taiwanese manufacture Foxconn is the new license.

Sebastian Nystrom, head of products at Nokia Technologies told reporters that, “This is a great product for Nokia fans and everyone who has not found the right Android tablet yet.” He announced this at the Slush technology conference in Helsinki.

One of the company watchers was startled by this move. He further added that, “I am shocked how quickly Nokia has decided to do this. However, if Nokia was going to do anything with its brand, it was going to have to do it quickly.

About the Android Skin

The new N1 tablet is a 7.9 inches aluminium-framed tablet, whose design resembles that of iPad Mini.

Unlike Apple’s device, however, it is powered by Google’s Android 5.0 operating system, features a strong Intel Atom processor and has a Micro-USB slot. The planned retail price of N1 tablet is $249.

This tablet is going to turn the Nokia’s image and market because it supports an amazing interface with Android in it.

Intel’s MICA Smart Bracelet Has Come for All Fashion-Obsessed Women

The forthcoming news from Intel Corp that has taken all women on roll is its bracelets with technology. In an opening ceremony, Intel Corp and design cues from fashion brand will be able to connect the wearer with Facebook, Yelp, and Google via an AT&T data plan without having a need to carry a smart phone.

Popularly known as Called My Intelligent Communication Accessory, or MICA, the snakeskin bracelets are made for fashion-conscious women. It is an attempt by the two companies to stand amongst the crowd of often-swanky smart watches and fitness watches that are still behind to catch on, with the needs of the customers.

According to Humberto Leon, creative director at Opening Ceremony, told in a phone interview that, “We really approached the first and foremost about why would a woman want to wear this every day, and how can it be incorporated into her wardrobe for daily use”.

The device includes a sapphire curved screen on the inside of the wrist with 18l gold coating that displays text messages, events from Google and Facebook, calendar items, and recommendations of nearby stores and restaurants from Yelp.

Brian Krzanich, the Chief Executive of Intel Corp said that Intel got late to make tablets and smart phones in recent years, so they made sure that the chipmaker is at the forefront of future trends in mobile computing.

He also said that he gave a green light for the chipmaker for developing the bracelet further to Opening Ceremony after his type wore a prototype for some days and liked it.

Incoming alerts discreetly vibrate the bracelet instead of making a noise about any disturbance. The price decided for MICA is roughly about $495, which includes a two-year data plan with AT&T, which means does not have to rely on smart phone for connectivity, as other smart watches do.

iPad Air 2 Review: Now Apple Owns Everything Again

Giving a review on Apple’s iPad Air 2 would be rather an easy task. In easy words, it is a giant device with a giant set of specifications. I read many negative reviews of sites pointing on its hardware and taking down Apple’s every device to test what other devices can’t do. Sure, it is a good thing but certainly, it opposes our thoughts in which Apple was a king of tablets before and it is still the king of tablets. iPad Air 2 is somewhat they call a piece of perfection. Let us see how it is.

The jump it has taken from its predecessor is impressive. First came A5 and then A5x CPUs in iPad tabs but Air 2 crossed the streak to A8x while the RAM also from 512MB came straight up to 2GB. You will find double screen resolution, the storage capacity up to 128 GB and videos of 1080p. The Air 2 is also a battery saver and promises a much more battery life than previous editions.

However, you might find the basic experience of using an iPad same in Air 2 too but still iOS 8 will be providing enough changes to look for. With some new apps and an exhilarating hardware functioning, this device will be a sure success for Apple.

How to Place a Call on Apple OS X 10.10 Yosemite

Apple Inc. had the lots of criticism for WWDC 2014 when they had the first view of iOS 8, which again fell short to impress people globally. However, company’s new Mac operating system X Yosemite was rather successful in making an impact on everyone. In its several features, one was that enabled users to make and receive the calls of your iPhone on the MacBook.

Placing a call

There are two ways available to perform this action. Number one is that you can simply launch faceTime app on your Mac and once started, you can search for contact or directly dial a number. If you want the calling to be done through the iPhone, then right-click on the contact and select “Call using iPhone”; this will route your call to your iPhone.

Second method includes use of multiple apps comprising Safari, Calendar and Contacts. Highlight a phone number in Safari, and then just tap on a small arrow visible on right of the number. Further, in contacts, tap on the icon listed following the contact and choose call with iPhone. The calendar app comes now when you have to confirm the call by clicking on the phone number there. A notification on the top right corner will appear with all controls and status, once your call begins.

Remember, whenever you puzzle, right click on highlighted number.

Placing a call

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