Techonomix

An 18-year-old Indian-American girl has invented a super-capacitor device that could potentially charge your cellphone in less than 20 seconds.

Eesha Khare, from Saratoga, California, was awarded the Young Scientist Award by the Intel Foundation after developing the tiny device that fits inside mobile phone batteries, that could allow them to charge within 20-30 seconds.

The so-called super-capacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time, NBC News reported.

Khare has been awarded USD 50,000 for developing the tiny device. She has also attracted the attention of tech giant Google for her potentially revolutionary invention.

According to Khare, her device can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared with 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries.

"My cellphone battery always dies," she said when asked about what inspired her to work on the energy-storage technology.

Super-capacitors allowed her to focus on her interest in nanochemistry "really working at the nanoscale to make significant advances in many different fields."

The gadget has so far only been tested on an LED light, but the good news is that it has a good chance of working successfully in other devices, like mobile phones, the report said.

Khare sees it fitting inside cellphones and the other portable electronic devices proliferating in today's world.

"It is also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric. It has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that sense," Khare added.

With Apple having announced the date earlier on today for WWDC 2013, we’re bracing ourselves for a marked rise in the number of Apple-related news, rumors and reports. With iOS 6 having failed, in the opinion of many, to bring any dramatic improvements on iOS 5, the concepts and ideas for iOS 7 have been arriving thick and fast. The one you’re about to see below, as well as having been presented in a very professional manner, is one of the best iOS 7 concepts yet, and features a radically redesigned interface including a new Notification Center, widget support, and lock screen toggles. Catch the full demonstration video after the break!

What I like about this particular concept, which comes courtesy of designer Rafael Justino, is that not only has the problem of widgets, or specifically, the lack thereof, been addressed, but the whole look has been altered to give a fresher, contemporary appearance.


My favorite aspect is the ease in which many elements can be customized. If you want to change the aesthetics of any part of the UI aside from the wallpaper in iOS, it’s a closed door at stock level, and anybody looking to theme must facilitate a trip to the dark side by means of a jailbreak. Here, though, elements can be changed with ease, and the ability to flit between black and white depending on your particular device color / wallpaper is a very nice touch.

Having seen the clip a couple of times, I really do wish this were a real iOS 7 showcasing video. It addresses many of the ecosystem’s shortcomings while also offering a visual refresh, and if Apple were to unveil something along these lines in June, I suspect many Apple fans would be pleased.


Will Apple go the whole hog with customization, toggles and widgets? Perhaps not; but with Jony Ive, Apple’s lead industrial designer, now having a greater say on how the software looks and behaves, we are likely to see quite a few key alterations when iOS 7 finally makes it out of obscurity.

With that WWDC announcement now done and dusted, it probably won’t be long before we see an iOS 7 beta, and although it mightn’t necessarily represent the final release, it will give us a strong indication as to the direction Apple is headed.

I don't know weather  its a rumor or what but when I came across this News I said : "time for the next Techonomix Post"

So, here are the following Details:-


Rumour mills have for long speculating on the launch of the alleged iPhone 5S. Now, a news report also claims to have got the launch date of the much-awaited smartphone, the follow up to Apple's current flagship iPhone 5.

French website Nowhereelse.fr, which has a decent record of leaks surrounding Apple products, h
as released the image of an internal document of Japanese telecom operator KDDI. This document states that iPhone 5S will be announced on June 20 and hit the stores in July. The document also calls the device iPhone 5S, giving credence to speculation saying that the phone will not be named iPhone 6.

This internal document states that the device will get an upgraded 13MP camera, as compared to the 8MP unit used in its predecessor. The phone will run on iOS 7, it states.It was also Said that the Smartphone will costs aroun $99.

Previously, a Chinese website leaked the first photos of iPhone 5S under production. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, citing supply chain sources, said the upcoming smartphone will feature a 13MP camera, snappier processor, fingerprint recognition sensor and more powerful LED flash. Various analysts, including Kuo, Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster and Peter Misek of Jeffries, expect Apple to launch the device in the third quarter of 2013.

Sunil Lalvani

Struggling smartphone-maker BlackBerry has appointed Sunil Lalvani as the new managing director for India.

Lalvani, who used to head BlackBerry's enterprise business in the country, will replace Sunil Dutt, who left the company in March.

The top-management overhaul comes just months after Canada based BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion, unveiled it's latest touch-based smartphon
e - BlackBerry Z10.

Once the most popular device among corporates, BlackBerry has been losing market share to rival mobile phone vendors such as Samsung and Nokia over the past two years. Its market share in India fell from about 15% in 2011 to less than 8% in 2012, according to analyst estimates.

Lalvani's appointment is latest in a series of top-management changes at the beleaguered phone maker. In 2011, Dutt took over after BlackBerry's managing director Frenny Bawa stepped down from her position. Over the past two months, Rick Costanzo, the company's executive vice-president for global sales, was leading the team in India.

In an email statement, Lalvani said the company's focus will be on driving the latest mobile solutions to consumers and enterprises in India. He has about 20 years of industry experience and has worked at companies such as Nokia and Cisco.

Everyone loves a sequel - well,
Hollywood, the game industry and all
their test audiences and money men do,
anyway. So, perhaps it should be of little
surprise that today’s App of the Day on
Techonomix is another in a wave of hit
app second comings. You played the
original, you powered up until you could
power up no more, now you can
download the part deux. Sneakers at the
ready, it’s...
Temple Run 2
Yes, Temple Run 2. Like the first version,
it’s a never-ending chase game. Just as
before you have a large nasty chasing
you (except this time, it’s one giant
gorilla instead of a gang of three crow
people), you’ve got an ancient treasure in
your hand and you’re going to die
eventually. The only question, of course,
is how many coins can you collect, how
far can you run and, ultimately, will you
get a higher score than anyone else you
know? You won’t.
What’s been added this time around are
quite a few things, actually. On the
obvious side, the graphics are much
better and - unfortunately, and perhaps
unnecessarily - much harder going on
your device. Yes, it’s interesting to have
more atmosphere, rocky undulations and
better rendered character behinds but if
you’re not running the game on the
latest iThing, it can be a bit jerky from
time to time and you will curse it when
your game ends because of that.
The coin system is still there but the
concept of gems has been added and
gems can buy you little extras like the
ability to continue your game from
where you left off after you’ve gone
splat. You can collect both but, if you’re
going to be really serious about Temple
Run 2, you might want to willingly throw
yourself into the freemium trap and buy
them for real world pennies and pounds.
The power-ups are pretty much the same
as before except that each of the four
playable characters has a native one
which you can activate by double tapping
at any point in the game. There are also a
couple of gameplay differences too.
Along with the more obvious additions
of rope slides and mine cart sequences,
your path now has a couple of new
obstacles - rivers, spikey rollers et al -
and it undulates, which adds a lot more
difficulty to the game than you might
think.
At the heart of Temple Run 2, though,
it’s really Temple Run in new clothing.
We wouldn’t say don’t download it - it’s
free, after all - but, as good as the first
one was, we tired of it, and, despite the
added bells and whistles, it’s not really a
concept that thrills us any more.
Available in iTunes(free)

How Famous Companies Got Their Names?
Nike: Named for the greek goddess of
victory. The swoosh symbolises her flight.
Skype: The original concept was ‘Sky-
Peer-to-Peer’, which morphed into
Skyper, then Skype.
Mercedes: This was actually financier's
daughter's name.
Adidas: The company name was taken from
its founder Adolf (ADI) Dassler whose first
name was shortened to the nickname Adi.
Together with first three letters of his
surname it formed ADIDAS.
Adobe: This came from the name of the river
Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of
founder John Warnock.
Apple Computers: It was the favourite fruit
of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months
late for filing a name for the business, and
he threatened to call his company Apple
Computers if the other colleagues didn't
suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.
CISCO: It is not an acronym as popularly
believed. It's short for San Francisco.
Compaq: This name was formed by using
COMP, for computer and PAQ to denote a
small integral object.
Corel: The name was derived from the
founder's name Dr. Michael Cowpland. It
stands for COwpland Research Laboratory.
Google: The name started as a joke boasting
about the amount of information the search-
engine would be able to search. It was
originally named 'Googol', a word for the
number represented by 1 followed by 100
zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate
students Sergey Brin and Larry Page
presented their project to an angel investor;
they received a cheque made out to
'Google'. So, instead of returning the cheque
for correction, they decided to change the
name to Google.
Hotmail: Founder Jack Smith got the idea of
accessing e-mail via the web from a
computer anywhere in the world. When
Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business
plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of
names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for
hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the
programming language used to write web
pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL
with selective uppercasing.
Hewlett Packard: Bill Hewlett and Dave
Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the
company they founded would be called
Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
Intel: Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted
to name their new company 'Moore Noyce'
but that was already trademarked by a hotel
chain so they had to settle for an acronym
of INTegrated ELectronics.
Lotus (Notes): Mitch Kapor got the name for
his company from 'The Lotus Position' or
'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of
transcendental Meditation of Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi.
Microsoft: Coined by Bill Gates to represent
the company that was devoted to
MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally
christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed
later on.
Motorola: Founder Paul Galvin came up with
this name when his company started
manufacturing radios for cars. The popular
radio company at the time was called
Victrola.
Sony: It originated from the Latin word
'sonus' meaning sound and 'sonny' as lang
used by Americans to refer to a bright
youngster.
SUN: Founded by 4 Stanford University
buddies, SUN is the acronym for Stanford
University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim
built a microcomputer; Vinod Khosla
recruited him and Scott McNealy to
manufacture computers based on it, and Bill
Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the
computer.
Apache: It got its name because its founders
got started by applying patches to code
written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result
was 'A PAtCHy' server - thus, the name
Apache Jakarta (project from Apache): A
project constituted by SUN and Apache to
create a web server handling servlets and
JSPs. Jakarta was name of the conference
room at SUN where most of the meetings
between SUN and Apache took place.
Tomcat: The servlet part of the Jakarta
project. Tomcat was the code name for the
JSDK 2.1 project inside SUN.
C: Dennis Ritchie improved on the B
programming language and called it 'New B'.
He later called it C. Earlier B was created by
Ken Thompson as a revision of the Bon
programming language (named after his wife
Bonnie).
C++: Bjarne Stroustrup called his new
language 'C with Classes' and then 'newC'.
Because of which the original C began to be
called 'old C' which was considered insulting
to the C community. At this time Rick Mascitti
suggested the name C++ as a successor to C.
GNU: A species of African antelope. Founder
of the GNU project Richard Stallman liked
the name because of the humour associated
with its pronunciation and was also
influenced by the children's song 'The Gnu
Song' which is a song sung by a gnu. Also it
fitted into the recursive acronym culture
with 'GNU's Not Unix'.
Java: Originally called Oak by creator James
Gosling, from the tree that stood outside his
window, the programming team had to look
for a substitute as there was no other
language with the same name. Java was
selected from a list of suggestions. It came
from the name of the coffee that the
programmers drank.
LG: Combination of two popular Korean
brands Lucky and Goldstar.
Linux: Linus Torvalds originally used the
Minix OS on his system which here placed
by his OS. Hence the working name was
Linux (Linus' Minix). He thought the name to
be too egotistical and planned to name it
Freax (free+freak+x). His friend Ari Lemmke
encouraged Linus to upload it to a network
so it could be easily downloaded. Ari gave
Linus a directory called 'Linux' on his FTP
server, as he did not like the name Freax.
(Linus parents named him after two-time
Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling).
Mozilla: When Marc Andreessen, founder of
Netscape, created a browser to replace
Mosaic (also developed by him), it was
named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla). The
marketing guys didn't like the name however
and it was re-christened Netscape Navigator.
Red Hat: Company founder Marc Ewing was
given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red
and white stripes) while at college by his
grandfather. He lost it and had to search for
it desperately. The manual of the beta
version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to
readers to return his Red Hat if found by
anyone!
SAP: "Systems, Applications, Products in
Data Processing", formed by 4 ex-IBM
employees who used to work in the
'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of
IBM.
UNIX: When Bell Labs pulled out of MULTICS
(MULTiplexed Information and Computing
System), which was originally a joint Bell/GE/
MIT project, Ken Thompson and Dennis
Ritchie of Bell Labs wrote a simpler version
of the OS. They needed the OS to run the
game 'Space War' which was compiled under
MULTICS. It was called UNICS - UNIplexed
operating and Computing System by Brian
Kernighan. It was later shortened to UNIX.
SCO (UNIX): From Santa Cruz Operation. The
company's office was in Santa Cruz.
Xerox: The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named
his product trying to say 'dry' (as it was dry
copying, markedly different from the then
prevailing wet copying). The Greek root 'xer'
means dry.
Yahoo: The word was invented by Jonathan
Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's
Travels'. It represents a person who is
repulsive in appearance and action and is
barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang
and David Filo selected the name because
they considered themselves yahoos.
3M: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
Company started off by mining the material
corundum used to make sandpaper. It was
changed to 3M when the company changed
its focus to Innovative Products.

The much-awaited Apple iPhone 5 will hit
Indian retail shelves on November 2,
according to sources close to Apple. So far,
pricing has not yet been revealed. In the
meanwhile, Apple has introduced local
Rupee currency pricing for the iTunes App
Store.
Redington India and Ingram Micro have
been appointed as the master distributors
of the iPhone 5, and will be responsible for
providing the device to the two Apple
carriers (Aircel and Airtel). Other resellers
will also be able to procure the iPhone 5
from the two distributors, and sell it with
their own markup.
Hence, users can expect pricing to differ
across resellers and carriers – however,
Apple may end up controlling the pricing.
Expected pricing of the iPhone 5 ranges
from Rs. 45,000 for the 16GB model, to Rs.
65,000 for the 64GB model. Apple could
however, price the 16GB model lower, if it
decides on a more aggressive model. U.S
pricing for the unlocked 16GB iPhone 5 is
$649, translating to roughly Rs. 35,000,
excluding duties.
With the new FDI rules, Apple's plans of
opening its own retail store in India have
been thwarted , with the company required
to source 30 percent of its product sales
from local companies.
Apple’s introduction of Rupee pricing in its
App Store is a boon for both users and
developers, with more transparency for
both parties when buying and pricing apps.
Google has had local currency support on
the Google Play store for a while now, but
only recently introduced seller support in
the country – after a long wait.
According to a TOI report, most of the
Indian telecom operators are ready with
the Nano SIM cards required by the iPhone
5, so users can expect to start using the
device from launch date itself.
Already, almost all Indian carriers are ready
with nano SIM cards to support iPhone 5.
The demand for the iPhone 5 in India has
already been vast, with the device selling
well at a massive premium via online
retailers who are importing the device, and
the grey market. The top-end versions of
the device have been famously selling in
India for more than Rs. 1 lakh, a staggering
investment for a mobile phone.
Currently, the iPhone 5 is available for pre-
order on online retail sites such as
Infibeam, who are charging a Rs. 5,000
booking amount – and promise to reveal
the price only after launch.
Source: TOI

Tech giant Apple has launched a bid to
overturn a court ruling that orders it to run
an embarrassing national newspaper
advertisement admitting that Samsung did
not unlawfully copy its iPad design.
LONDON: Tech giant Apple has launched a
bid to overturn a court ruling that orders it
to run an embarrassing national newspaper
advertisement admitting that Samsung did
not unlawfully copy its iPad design.
A British High Court judge had ordered
Apple "to put advertisements in the
relevant newspapers and to put a
statement on their United Kingdom
website", admitting its Korean rival had not
infringed the iPad design.
Apple, however, argued that, in finding
Samsung had not infringed its design, the
trial judge had place too much emphasis
on differences between the design of the
back of Galaxy Tab range and the back of
the iPad, the Telegraph reports.
Michael Silverleaf, representing Apple, said
that the differences highlighted in the
ruling amounted only to "decoration" that
should not carry significant weight in
judging whether Samsung copied.
Whereas the back of the iPad is almost
featureless, Galaxy Tabs have a separate,
different coloured section along one edge
that contains the camera and flash. T
"I say he was wrong to take these aspects
[of colour] into account at all. This [the
iPad] is a design about shape. You don't
make a non-infringing design by making
the same shape and decorating it," the
paper quoted Silverleaf, as saying.
He said that more weight should have been
given to the similarities between the front
of the iPad and the front of Galaxy Tabs.
Silverleaf pointed out that both designs
have a thick black border around their
rectangular touch screens.
"Too much weight was given to the features
of the back and far too little weight to the
features of the front," Silverleaf said.

Although it's not flawless or as good as
Google's maps app on Android phones,
Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me
where I needed to go - for the most part.
FREMONT: Apple's new maps app came out
the day I started a 2,243-mile road trip
through four states. As complaints about it
trickled in and Apple's CEO apologized, I
was left wondering whether people were
using the same app I was.
Although it's not flawless or as good as
Google's maps app on Android phones,
Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me
where I needed to go - for the most part. I
know many people will disagree with me,
but I even find it an improvement over the
old app on iPhones because I now get voice
navigation and automatic re-routing.
I've used Google's Android app since it was
released three years ago. I don't own a car,
but I travel a lot. The app has proven
crucial in getting me to unfamiliar
territories in New England and various
Southern states from Arizona to South
Carolina.
Google brought to the phone the spoken-
aloud, turn-by-turn directions once limited
to GPS navigational devices from Garmin,
TomTom and others. Make a wrong turn,
and the app automatically updates with
new directions. Best of all, it's always been
free.
Until last month, Google was also behind
the free, main maps app on iPhones.
But that one didn't have voice navigation or
automatic re-routing. Driving with it meant
swiping through pages of on-screen
directions. A friend missed a train in May
as we overlooked a step and went the
wrong way on a highway, ending up back
where we came from. A drive from Ann
Arbor to Lansing, Mich., took 17 steps, each
with its own page. After Step 9, I had to
pull into a rest stop to memorize
subsequent steps and avoid an accident.
Apple wanted voice directions, too, and
figured the only way to get it was to build
its own maps app and bump Google from
its perch as the default offering. It
partnered with TomTom and shipped the
iPhone 5 with the new app. A software
update out September 19 made it available
on the iPhone 4S and the cellular versions
of the latest two iPad models.
I updated an iPhone 4S in a hotel room in
Grand Rapids, Mich., that night and was
immediately impressed. It was a nice touch
to have turn-by-turn directions narrated by
Siri, the familiar female voice from Apple's
virtual-assistant feature.
Then I started hearing the complaints.
I agree with many of them. The Apple app
didn't show as many businesses and
landmarks as Google's. Some appeared in
the wrong location or were mislabeled. The
Apple app didn't offer public transit
directions, something crucial for New
Yorkers like me. A friend I was visiting
toward the end of the two-week trip
immediately complained that the app
looked different as she pulled it out for the
first time.
Head to head, the Google app for Android,
which I used on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus
and a Galaxy S III, outperformed Apple's
version in many respects:
- Google's app typically told me about turns
a second or two quicker. Sometimes, I
didn't hear from Siri until I got to the
intersection, two lanes away from where I
needed to be to make a right turn.
- I got better navigation on private roads
with Google. At a shopping mall, Google
guided me along the right driveways to get
to JC Penney, while Apple got me to the
general vicinity. Google also got me to the
front door of my hotel in Ann Arbor, while
Apple got me to the entrance of a complex
that included other hotels, a gas station
and retail stores.
- In Akron, Ohio, Siri had me turn left to get
on a highway, while Google's app properly
instructed me to take a ramp on the left. In
Indianapolis, Google knew about a service
road alongside Michigan Road, while Siri
assumed I was on the main road and would
have had me crash into a Chinese
restaurant. In Charleston, W.Va., Siri told
me to head northeast, as if I had a
compass, while Google just told me to turn
left.
- Besides public transit directions, Google
offered options for avoiding tolls or
highways while driving. It allowed me to
choose continuous satellite images instead
of animated maps, while Apple's app
offered them only for route overviews, not
for live navigation.
- While Siri's voice sounds much more
human than the one Google used in its
early mapping apps, Google now has a
voice that makes Siri sound robotic by
comparison. Google also was more sparing
with words, which was good as long as I
didn't get lost for lack of detail.
That said, Apple's map offers 3-D views.
That may sound like a gimmick, but it
presents the map in a way that mirrors
what you're seeing through the windshield.
On Apple's map, the direction you're going
is on top in the regular view or toward the
back in 3-D. Outside of big cities, Google
often has north on top, which can be
confusing when driving east or south.
Apple's maps are also more pleasant to
view. Instructions such as "turn right onto
Pearl St." are in white against a green
background, similar to the signs you see on
highways. Street names at intersections are
in a green rectangle, similar to actual street
signs at corners. Unlike Google's, Apple's
app showed me the distance and time
remaining and an estimated time of arrival
all at once, though I would have
appreciated larger text.
Apple's app was mostly dead-on in getting
me to my destination. The one big miss was
when it had a winery I was looking for
about a half-mile east of its actual location.
I went to another instead.
But Google has made mistakes, too. It told
me to turn left to get to a lighthouse along
the Straits of Mackinac connecting two
Great Lakes, even as the road sign in front
of me pointed to the right. Then again,
Apple's app didn't even find that
lighthouse in a search.
Both apps gave me other questionable
directions, even though they got me there,
which was what mattered most. At one
point, Google had me on a curvy one-lane
residential street with little visibility, even
though a faster, safer road ran parallel to
it. Apple's directions to a roadside tourist
trap had me take an exit four miles to the
south, only to return four miles north on
smaller roads.
Bottom line is no app is perfect. After all
the complaints about Apple's app, I
downloaded a 99-cent iPhone app called
MotionX GPS Drive. It got good reviews and
offered more features than either Apple or
Google. But it tried to lead me off the
wrong exit in Ohio. Plus, all the extra
features diverted my eyes to the settings
menu when I should've been paying
attention to trucks and, ahem, police cars
around me.
One of my favorite scenes from "The
Office" television show is when clueless
boss Michael Scott drives into Lake
Scranton because he was blindly following
GPS directions.
There will be mistakes, but it beats driving
in a new place with nothing. You just need
to use your common sense.
Apple's app is far better than the one
Google had when it first came out in late
2009. In apologizing for an app he says
"fell short" of Apple's own expectations,
CEO Tim Cook says the company will keep
working to improve it.
It's true Apple's app falls short of what
Google now offers for Android, but if all
you have is an iPhone or an iPad, Apple's
new app will get you there just fine.
Clinging to the old, voiceless app is like
hanging on to your cassette tapes while the
world has moved on to CDs and digital
downloads. I can't imagine driving without
hearing voices.
(Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology and
media editor for The Associated Press)