Astronauts use toothbrush to fix space station

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide were finally able to install a power unit on the International Space Station Wednesday during their second spacewalk. They used tools made out of a toothbrush.The astronauts fulfilled their main task to complete the installation of a new Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) on the station's truss, which had caused problems during an Aug 30 spacewalk, reported RIA Novosti. 

Fixing Space Station with toothbrush..

Williams and Hoshide used tools made out of a toothbrush and some spare parts to conduct the repair. They also installed a camera on the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, during the spacewalk that lasted 6 hours and 28 minutes, according to NASA. Last time NASA Flight Engineer Williams and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Hoshide spent 8 hours and 17 minutes in space, but failed to install a new MBSU on the station's S0 truss as they had difficulties driving a bolt to secure the equipment.

The MBSU is a heavy component that is used to relay power from the station's solar arrays to its systems.Williams and Hoshide's previous spacewalk was the third longest in history. The longest spacewalk, of 8 hours and 56 minutes, was carried out by US astronauts Susan Helms and James Voss in 2001.

Nokia reveals Lumia 820

Nokia took the wraps off its Lumia 820 smartphone and it is now official. The Lumia 820 sports a 4.3-inch screen ClearBlack OLED display and comes with high brightness mode and Sunlight Readability Enhancements. The display features include - polarization filter, Light time-out, Ambient light detector, Brightness control, Orientation sensor, Proximity sensor, High Brightness mode, RGB Stripe, Sunlight readability enhancements, Aspect ratio 15:9, Super sensitive touch and Color boosting. The super sensitive touch functionality allows you to use the handset even with gloves on. Pricing and availablity is yet to be officially announced, so stay tuned.  

Some of the key specs of the Lumia 820 are:-

• 4.3-inch ClearBlack OLED display with a resolution 800x400 pixels
• 3G,EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi and NFC
• Bluetooth, USB 2.0
• GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS support for Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport and other GPS apps
• 8MP AF camera, Dual-LED flash with 1080p HD video recording, secondary VGA front facing camera
• 8GB mass memory with microSD memory card for up to 32GB 

The Nokia Lumia 820 sports the same polycarbonate shell as the 920 and previous Lumia devices. It comes in red, yellow, grey, cyan, purple, white and black colour options. It will feature exchangeable covers and a microSD card slot to expand memory (one bonus we've all been looking forward to). The Lumia 820 is powered by a 1.5GHz Dual Core Snapdragon S4 processor and is powered by a 1650mAh battery with support for Qi wireless charging. It sports an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics. 

The Lumia 820 comes with the Smart Shoot feature. With one click, the camera takes a whole series of photos and merges it into one. Like the Lumia 920, the 820 comes with City Lens, too. The feature reveals to you the shops, restaurants and businesses in your vicinity. Users can then read reviews, book a table and/or find the quickest route. The camera features of the Lumia 820 include - Touch focus, Landscape orientation, Geo-tagging, Auto and manual white balance, Still image editor, Lenses applications and True 16:9 sensor

The Lumia 820 will get all the exclusive apps as the Lumia 920. The wireless charging feature is optional. It also offers users 7GB free SkyDrive storage



Source:- Tech2

Motorola unveils Droid Razr HD, Droid Razr Maxx HD, Droid Razr M

Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unveiled three smartphones to help compete with bigger rivals Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co for the holiday shopping season. Verizon Wireless will sell all three devices - the Droid Razr HD, the Droid Razr Maxx HD and the Droid Razr M - the companies said yesterday.

The smartphones will use Google's Android operating system. Motorola showed off the phones at a press event in New York, its first big media gathering since Google took over in May. Google has said that the handset maker will remain a separate subsidiary and will make fewer phones than before.

The unveiling was part of a flurry of mobile device launches ahead of the holiday season throughout the industry. Earlier yesterday, Nokia Oyj and Microsoft Corp unveiled their flagship phone, the Lumia 920, which uses the latest Windows Phone operating software. Nokia did not announce any wireless operator partners for its device. Amazon.com Inc is expected to unwrap the new Kindle Fire tablet today and Apple is expected to unveil the latest version of its seminal iPhone on September 12. 

Motorola Mobility's Droid Razr HD boasts a 4.7-inch screen with a sharper picture than Motorola's previous phones. Verizon Wireless did not announce pricing but said the device will be available in time for the holidays. The Razr M is a smaller phone for more cost-conscious consumers, with a 4.3-inch display that covers most of the front of the phone. That device will be available for USD 99.99 when it goes on sale at Verizon Wireless stores next week. The Droid Razr Maxx HD will have similar features to the Razr HD but will boast a longer battery life. Motorola promised that the device could run for 21 hours of phone calls or 13 hours of video viewing.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said that consumers are now activating as many as 1.3 million Android phones every day. Motorola rival Samsung is the biggest maker of phones based on Android. It is not known when these smartphones would be available in the rest of the world.

Nokia Lumia 920 now official

Today was clearly a big day for Nokia, for whom this announcement marks its big comeback into the smartphone race dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung, among others. Leading to this day, there have been a range of leaks surrounding the upcoming smartphones to be released by Nokia.

Some of the key specs of the Nokia Lumia 920 are:-

• 4.5 inch PureMotion HD+ LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels
• Windows Phone 8 OS
• 3G, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, NFC
• Bluetooth v 3.1 with A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS and Nokia Maps Suite
• 8.7 megapixel camera with  1080p HD video recording and a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera with 720p video recording
• 32GB internal memory
• Snapdragon S4 and PureView sensor 

Nokia took the wraps off their Lumia 920 at the Nokia World 2012 event in NYC. The Nokia Lumia 920 will pack in a Snapdragon S4 and a PureView sensor. It also comes with the Blink app, which is the smartphone's Burst mode. The smartphone will feature an LCD display, which is a little higher than the HD displays available now. WIth a polycarbonate body the phone will be available in many colours - yellow and red being two of them.

City Lens, an app which is to be one of the exclusive apps for Lumia 920 gives information about restaurants and stores on the phone, while looking at the world through the camera.

Microsoft collaborated with Rovio for Angry Birds Roost, which is a portal for all things Angry Birds, including the latest games, news feeds and ringtones and videos.

New “lenses” feature in the camera allows you to edit the photo as you’re taking it. Photosynth lens allows 360 degree panorama photos. The PureView captures between 5 and 10 times the light compared to other smartphone cameras and the floating lens technology is for night shots to balance the lens and stabalize it for images and video.

The Nokia Lumia 920 comes with Nokia Drive, which offers free turn-by-turn voice navigation out of the box. It also includes indoor maps in train stations and bus terminals. What is also included is City Lens that provides an "intuitive" way to explore a city. Nokia Maps has augmented reality. Once you have set a route on Nokia Maps, you can look at the street through the phone and get directions.

The Lumia 920 packs in a new PureMotion HD+ screen with a fast refresh rate. It comes with ClearBlack screen that automatically adjusts colour tone and brightness of the screen. The phone comes with a 2000 mAh battery - the biggest one that Nokia has ever made. The Lumia 920 will come with 7GB free SkyDrive storage.



Source:- Tech2

Microsoft launches Windows Server 2012

Microsoft officially released Windows Server 2012 today. The new OS shares quite a few things with Windows 8 such as the kernel and the UI. Aside from the GUI, the main focus of Windows Server 2012, just like with its client counterpart Windows 8, is on the cloud. Microsoft, it seems, is jumping on the cloud computing bandwagon to capitalise on the trend. It should suffice to say that the latest version of Microsoft’s server OS takes a giant step forward when it comes to usability and features.

One of the main features of this operating system is the inclusion of PowerShell, which lets you control the server remotely through a command line. Server 2012 is the first version of Windows that lets you do that just like Unix-based servers do. It also enables you to pipe, or forward, the output of one process to the input of another process.

The user interface being introduced with Windows 8 might make unsure of how to go about doing tasks, but there’s no need for administrators to worry as the UI is optional and can be disabled to get a fully-functional server. You can even do away with the GUI completely and run the server through the PowerShell command line. This can be of great use to administrators as they can now perform routine tasks by simply writing a batch script in the command line and running it.

Windows Server 2012 also features a data-centre-friendly installation method called Server Core, which provides a way to install the OS over the network.

Windows Server 2012 is available in four different editions to suit individual user requirements and cater to the wide base of Microsoft's followers. The pricing depends on which edition of Windows Server 2012 you are going for.

We have two main versions: Standard and Datacenter. Unlike its predecessor, Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise, where the different editions all had different feature sets, support for different hardware, etc., Windows Server 2012’s  two versions have the same set of features and the same hardware limits. Functionality is limited only by virtualisation rights. The Standard version lets you run it on up to two virtual machines, while the Datacenter edition lets you run an unlimited number of virtual machines. The Standard and Datacenter licenses will replace all Windows Server 2008 products currently available. 

The Standard and Datacenter versions of Windows Server 2012 both support a larger number of storage, memory and processing power than Windows Server 2008 R2. Server 2012 has support for up to 320 CPU cores and up to 4TB of data storage space. 

In addition to Standard and Datacenter, we have two limited-capability versions – Essentials and Foundation. Essential lets you run it on a machine with two sockets or in a virtual machine. Unlike the Standard or Datacenter versions, you can’t run Essentials on both hardware and virtual machines simultaneously. Foundation will be provided only via OEMs and will run only on single socket machines. Foundation doesn’t support virtualisation at all.


Source:- Tech2

Asus launches S Series ultrabooks, and F Series notebook in India

With 'high price' being a major hurdle for the acceptability of the ultrabooks in India, Asus has announced the launch of S Series ultrabooks, starting below Rs. 50,000. The Asus S Series ultrabooks are based on Intel's third generation Core i (Ivy Bridge) processors. Moreover, Asus has expanded its notebook offering in the country with launch of the F Series.

Asus S Series

Asus has launched two S Series ultrabook models namely Asus S56CA-XX030R and Asus S56CA-XX056R. The Asus S56CA-XX030R features Intel Core i3-3217U(1.6G,3M), Windows 7 Home Basic, 39.6 cms (15.6-inch) HD Glare display (1,366x768 pixels), Intel HD 4000, 4GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM, 500GB 5400RPM plus 24GB SSD, DVD RW 8X SM DL, WLAN 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0 and 0.3MP camera. The ultrabook is priced at Rs. 46,999.

The Asus S56CA-XX056R has similar set of specifications, except that it has Intel Core i5-3317U (1.7G,3M) processor and 750GB 5400RPM plus 24M GB SSD. The S56CA-XX056R is priced at Rs. 52,999.

Asus  F Series

Asus has launched one F Series notebook namely the Asus F501A-XX187R. The notebook features Intel Core i3 processor 2350M, 2.3GHz, with 3MB cache. It is a 15.6-inch HD anti-glare notebook supports an instant on in 2 seconds and has up to 14-day standby. The notebook also features Windows 7, HDD capacity of 500GB 5400rpm, VGA - Intel HD 4000, HDMI, USB 3.0 and 0.3MP camera. The Asus F501A-XX187R notebook comes for Rs. 35,999.



Source:- ThinkDigit

Micromax launches Ninja 4 A87 at Rs 5,990

Micromax has introduced the Ninja 4 A87, an Android Gingerbread smartphone that comes at an affordable price of Rs 5,990.This Ninja 4 A87 is officially available for purchase on the retail website Saholic, and shipping is free. Consumers who choose to purchase this handset will receive it within four days, and they also have the option to pay cash on delivery.

Some of the key specs of the Micromax Ninja 4 A87 are :-

• 4-inch capacitive touchscreen
• ndroid v2.3 (Gingerbread)
• 1GHz Qualcomm processor
• 3G, Edge, GPRS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• 2MP Fixed focus camera with video recording capabilities
• Bluetooth v2.1, USB v2.0
• Memory expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• 1400mAh battery 
• Gravity sensor