T-Mobile finally offers the iPhone 5 to its subscribers

APPLE'S IPHONE 5

For the first time ever, T-Mobile USA is offering Apple's iPhone in its stores. About a dozen people stood in the cold rain in front of the T-Mobile Manhattan store with minutes to go before the doors opened yesterday.

Chris Garron made her way from Queens to the store an hour before it opened to buy her 30-year-old daughter and 25-year-old son each an iPhone 5.

Garron walked in amid the usual applause of an Apple launch. But instead of the blue-shirted Apple employees, a T-Mobile staff adorned in pink Apple-approved T-shirts greeted her. On the front of each shirt: "The iPhone. It's here."

For T-Mobile, the iPhone 5 isn't just another flagship phone-- it's a gateway to the carrier's new way of thinking when it comes to its service plans. The iPhone launch builds upon its "Uncarrier" initiative, which involves abolishing service contracts and subsidies.

Executives concede that the change -- which notably requires consumers to pay full price for their smartphones -- will take time for customers to accept. But they're hoping that the iPhone and less expensive plans are enough to draw more people into stores and start a conversation about why it's a good deal.

"We've encountered some confusion," said Larry Petrone, district manager for T-Mobile's midtown Manhattan stores. "When they get past the idea that it's too good to be true, they really like it."

T-Mobile hopes the appeal of the no-contract plans will move its subscriber numbers in the right direction. The carrier released preliminary first-quarter figures earlier this month, having slowed the bleeding of so-called post-paid customers, or someone that T-Mobile defines as a person who pays for service at the end of the month.

SAMSUNG TARGETTED BY POLICE

Samsung was the ultimate target of a police raid in South Korea earlier this week over the alleged theft of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display panel technology.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency investigated Samsung's headquarters in Asan, South Korea, in an attempt to find documents related to OLED technology.

Police are still trying to determine whether Samsung is tangled up in an alleged leak of technology documents by some parSAMSUNG TARGETTEDtners of LG Display, a Samsung spokesman said. No details were revealed as to who called the police, but LG said it didn't contact them.

"The latest investigation is related to large-sized OLED TV panel technology, but the police have made the allegation themselves," an LG Display spokesman added.

"We have no reason to steal other companies' technology, as we have the world's best OLED technology," the Samsung spokeswoman said.

However, Samsung and LG, which are two of the world's leading OLED display makers, have a history of fighting among them and legal skirmishes going back a few years.

In 2012, no less than eleven current and former Samsung Mobile employees were arrested on charges that they stole and leaked details to LG about a Samsung AMOLED TV.

Six of LG's own workers also allegedly were involved in the theft of Samsung's OLED technology in 2010 and 2011.

Last September, LG filed a patent lawsuit against Samsung over OLED technology. In November, Samsung responded by countersuing its archrival. But the two companies appeared to shake hands in February, promising to settle their patent dispute out of court.

Facebook Home

Facebook has unveiled their Home today – a home screen replacement for Android phones. Tablet version will be out some time this year. Instead of seeing apps on your lock screen, you will see Cover Feed and prioritizes updates from people. It features the pop up reply, so you can reply text messages with exiting the app you are running on. (Chat Heads appear as round icons on the right hand side and you can drag them anywhere you like.) When you hit the home buttons it will bring you to the social updates and you can swipe left for messenger, swipe up for apps and swipe right to open up your latest app. Unfortunately, the Facebook Home will only available in good android phones they are the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III, Note II, and the new HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, and HTC First. It will be available on those phones starting April 12th in the US, followed by other countries. Check out the videos after the break.

Gartner: PC sales are in permanent decline thanks to tablets

Overall, personal computer sales were in permanent decline in the first quarter, thanks to the continued popularity of tablets, and the trend is expected to intensify going forward.

And there’s nothing an anticipated surge in ultramobiles can do to stop it, according to market research firm Gartner. The firm says that the outcome will be anemic growth rates for Microsoft’s Windows’ market share in 2013 as Google’s Android continue to grow in popularity.

Gartner has estimated that for 2013 we will see about 2.4 billion devices shipped-– that’s PCs, tablets and mobile phones combined, growing 9 percent over last year's comparable numbers.

The firm said that for 2017, we should see about 2.9 billion units moved but what people will be buying between now and then will change substantially.

However, beginning with the 2nd quarter, the news will be bad for desktop PCs and notebook OEMs, but good for tablet and smartphone makers-- at least according to Gartner.

The overall number of PCs sold this year will fall 7.6 percent compared to last year to 315 million units, with the only bright spot being ultramobiles, which will most likely increase 140 percent to about 23.2 million units.

Overall shipments will surge 69 percent to 197 million units, Gartner suggests, while smartphones will make up an ever-increasing slice of the the mobile phone segment.

Of the 1.875 billion mobile phones Gartner predicts will be sold this year, a whopping 1 billion units are predicted to be smartphones, compared with 675 million units in 2012, out of 1.746 billion.

Gartner also accredited this new trend to a proliferation of lower-priced tablets and smartphones, and their overall growing capability, which means that consumers spend more time fondling screens than punching keys and moving mice.

The analyst firm added that tablets are also becoming the consumer's main computing device, and that Apple's iPad gets the lion's share of tablets sold in 2012.

Gartner called this a permanent shift rather than a temporary trend induced by a "more austere economic environment".

Research vice president Carolina Milanesi said in a statement-- "As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis."

The shift also means that Windows will struggle to grow. Gartner expects just a mere 2.1 percent growth in market share to 354 million units in 2013, compared to a 73 percent increase for Android, to 861 million units, and to 37 percent for Mac and iOS to 293 million.

Going forward, there is a bit of hope for the world’s largest software maker. By 2017, Gartner estimates a second-place fight between Windows and Apple’s iOS-Mac, with 570 million and 504 million units to be sold by the Redmond and Cupertino camps respectively.

Android will continue to dominate the number-one spot, with 1.46 billion units sold. Gartner doesn’t break out by device type. Instead, it simply combines iOS and Mac from Apple and throws in Windows for Intel and ARM tablets and Windows Phone into the same report, even though the platforms are all different.

The suggestion from Gartner is that Microsoft’s phone 8 or tablet 8 strategies will have gained some traction and that its devices will be selling in larger numbers four years from now, but not before.

A NEW DIGITAL CURRENCY: BITCOIN

If you think you've seen and heard everything, well you probably haven't. In fact the writing was on the wall for all of us to see. There's now a new currency available but it's not exactly physical. It's not paper, and it's not gold or silver either. But it's not exactly new since it was launched four years ago.

What we're referring to is Bitcoin, a new 'digital' currency launched in 2009. Similar to PayPal but different. Unlike PayPal, Bitcoin trades like a real currency since it's value can go up and down considerably in just one day.

Bitcoin's value has surged 50 percent in recent days, but a currency exchange service outage and an unrelated hacker attack knocked its value down quite a bit in just a few days.

The 'peer-to-peer currency' which was languishing in the midteens in January surged past $100 on Monday and was trading as high as $147 today before an hour-long service outage at Mt. Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, pushed its value back down to $115.

The currency rebounded a bit yesterday to close at $123, a 500 percent increase in the past two months. Mt. Gox initially blamed the outage on a surge in trading volume that created a lag in trading and order cancellations.

But the exchange said it was experiencing a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Meanwhile, Bitcoin wallet company Instawallet announced today that it has suspended its service indefinitely after being hacked. Bitcoin has been so popular in fact that it's now attracting such problems as DDoS attacks and other security threaths.

"Our database was fraudulently accessed, due to the very nature of Instawallet it is impossible to reopen the service as-is," Instawallet said in a statement posted to its Web site. "In the next few days we are going to open the claim process for Instawallet balance holders to claim the funds they had stored before the service interruption."

The service detailed its plans for handling claims submissions as thus: "For the first 90 days we will accept claims for individual Instawallets. Your wallet's URL and key will be used to pre-populate a form to file the claim."

After 90 days, if no other claim has been received for the same url, your Instawallet balance under 50 BTC will be refunded. If several claims have been filed for the same URL, we will process those claims on a case by case basis, under the presumption that the claim we received first belongs to the legitimate account holder.

While Instawallet did not indicate whether any funds were lost in the hacker attack, the Bitcoin platform has been a frequent target for criminal activity including thefts, hacks, and scams. Nearly a quarter of a million dollars was stolen in one such virtual heist last year.

Launched four years ago to intentionally avoid the prying eyes of law enforcement officials, the virtual currency has been gaining traction with investors in recent months as its acceptance has grown.

WordPress announced last November that it would begin accepting Bitcoin as payment for upgrades on the popular blogging platform. The currency platform gained more backing last month when Mt. Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, reached an agreement with CoinLab to manage the exchange's operations in the United States and Canada.

Some analysts also believe that Bitcoin's growing popularity in recent weeks is also due to the recent banking crisis in Europe, specifically in Cypress that resulted in several banks being closed for nearly two weeks in mid-March.

Overall demand for the currency has been especially great in countries like Greece and Spain, where investors are worried that they will be next to feel the threat of deposit taxes, said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at financial technology company ConvergEx Group.

PGP is already 22 years old, and now it might be revitalized

It was 1991 when Phil Zimmerman, Jon Callas and the rest of their security team brought about encryption technology to the masses, and for free. Now the same people, with some backing from a few former Navy SEALs will make the technology even more secure in the coming weeks.
Know as PGP (pretty good privacy), the technology has proven itself as reliable and with a level of security that is satisfactory for most applications.
Users download the software and all traffic is handled by the company's web hosting company. Encryption keys are set up on each device using the application and are then discarded once the message has been completed, so that they cannot be compromised.
The encryption system is based on decades of encryption experience and the desire for private communications. Based on the team's background, there's good reason to believe it will be successful.
PGP was investigated by the U.S. government for "munitions export without a license" after use of the code spread, although no charges were ever brought against Zimmerman, Callas and the rest of the team.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, security wasn't really an issue when email was designed, and PGP addressed a key need for internet users when it came out as PGP.
Thankfully, governments around the world recognized that the benefits of encryption have far outweighed the threat, and now similar systems are built into almost every online transaction, but it's still not enough some observers say.
"Email is fundamentally broken," said Jon Callas, pointing out that security was not a serious factor in the original protocols. Wrapping messages in the best possible encryption will give a measure of security, and the team have spent nearly two years improving their technology.
"We believe we've got it as good as we can get it," he said. "Nothing is perfect, and anything we find there's a problem with, we'll fix it."
To further test the system, Callas and his team put its source code up on Github for analysis by the security community. So far, Callas said, three possible issues have been found. None of them were serious, and all have since been fixed.
Two of PGP's original backers, including CEO Mike Janke, are former U.S. Navy SEALs who saw a need for this kind of secure communication. Janke was operating a security detail in Baghdad and became increasingly frustrated with the inability to run a simple, secure communications setup.
It was an issue he'd seen around the world, where the presumption of monitoring by outsiders is the norm. You might think that technology like this would have the U.S. government worried, but according to Callas the response so far has been very positive.
"We've checked with a bunch of people on it and talked to people inside the government. We hired on contract a private attorney who used to be a terrorism prosecutor. She advises us and has been our envoy to Congress and other places. We know they need to hear about us first," Callas said.
Such issues are much on the mind of legislators of late. Intelligence agencies are pushing for an extension of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to require an automatic backdoor into communications software of this type. A legislative push in the area is expected later this year.
There's increasing concern about doing business abroad, now that some states seem to have built industrial espionage into their economic policy.

Top 10 Best Adsense Ready WordPress Themes

Every blogger is looking to make good money online though i also think Google adsense is one of the best money making methods for blog owners of earn money online, I think all people will believe the fact. There are many other ways to optimize blog but the most important and much needed way is to get Adsense Ready WordPress themes, it will surely Increase your monetize power

There are many premium and free adsense ready wp themes but still i have collect the list of best Adsense Ready WordPress themes that you can easily use to profit your blog , here is  best 10 adsense ready wordpress Themes.

Before Heading to Adsense Ready Themes you will need good web hosting and someblogging tips to rank well in google.

Download Best Adsense Ready WordPress Themes :

10. Blueiz

Free wp google adsense theme with 2-3 column layout, Personalized and Adsense ready! you are able to easly add your ads code using widgets, you don’t need to edit template files.

Live demo | Download

9. Ads-Minded

It is Pretty good adsense ready theme for high CTR rate Adsense layout.

Live demo | Download

8. Boqpod

Live demo | Download

7. Merah Putih

 

Download

6. Connections with Adsense

Download

5.  SEOadMax

Live Demo | Download

4. SEO Blix with AdSense

Download

3. HeatMap

Live Demo

2. Blue Sense

Download

1. ProSense

Download

Updated :

Golod Adsense Ready Theme

Download Now

Monetizing the Web Adsense Ready Theme

Download Now

SEOMaxAds Adsense Ready Theme

Download Now

Why you should use Adsense Ready WordPress Themes?

As i have shared best Adsense ready WordPress themes that  I found and use for all my niche sites. There is a big controversy about what kind of website is better, a WordPress website or a easy HTML kind of website.  I have no idea what others are saying and I do not really care about that I do not see any simpler or quicker way to develop these kind of sites than to use WordPress. Though it is obvious reason why you should use an Adsense ready theme on WordPress where you can increase your adsense earning and monetize website in well mannered. Hope you like my words share your comments and other best Adsense Ready wordpress themes if you are using to monetize your website.

Make More Money using Adsense Ready Themes

Making money using Adsense is common aspect between every blogger but if you really want to make real money from Adsense you should consider some of the factors like Quality content, SEO etc. If you are using these strategies then you can quickly make money from Adsense. After getting approved by Adsense you will need a clean website which perfectly satisfies all ranking factors though making money online is purpose of every webmaster then you should useAdsense ready themes to start a website with all rounder money making tactics.

Why to Use Adsense Ready Themes?

Higher Click-Through Rate - Main aim of Adsense ready themes is to increase CTR rate which will automatically push your earnings, it places ads in systematic manner.

More Earnings -  It is obvious that earning will be higher if you have a such a perfect user compelling website but still there are many other factors that considered to look after instead of wandering around.

Factors :

* SEO- Organic traffic will think about driving more then enough traffic to your website.

* Quality of Content- If you using genuine content for readers then only Google search engines will give more preference to your site and when your will receive organic traffic.

* Relevancy of Ads – It is important factor to look after about adsense that you website should have content related to ads like if someone search for WordPress themes then ads displaying on your site should come up with same search keyword i.e WordPress themes.

I hope you got answer about using Adsense Ready themes if you want to make more money from it, If you still have something else to share with us leave your comments below.

Polish biomedical research center chooses IBM's Blue Gene/Q

The Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical Modeling at the University of Warsaw has selected IBM's Blue Gene/Q supercomputer to support Poland's largest biomedical and biotechnological research initiative. About 510 life sciences physicians and students will use the supercomputer to gain more information into chronic diseases.

“CePT, a EUR 100 million project, aims to support Poland's transition towards more preventive and patient-centric healthcare,” said Dr. Robert Sot, Director of CePT at Warsaw's University.

“The project will allow the medical community to provide a more holistic approach and more open collaboration for the development of innovative treatments and drugs that will improve patients’ quality of life over the long term," he added.

Estimates reveal that about 27.4 percent of Poland’s aging population has developed at least one or, very often, more chronic diseases such as-- cancer, diabetes, heart disease, respiratory conditions, stroke, and neurological disorders.

Early detection and timely diagnosis of these diseases translate into well-targeted and optimized healthcare, as well as improved quality of a patient's life. Similar demands could stimulate the need to carry out clinical and pre-clinical tests covering three to five million Polish citizens, and generate massive volumes of valuable health data which can, in turn, be used by laboratories.

ICM's new BlueGene/Q, code named Nostromo, will help scientists process up to 16 terabytes of Big Data per one sequence by running computer-intensive simulations at the speed of 209.7 trillion operations per second.

The supercomputer will then use algorithms moving beyond the "routine" sequencing of human or animal genomes, to tackle more complex processes that will reveal the rare variants in human genetics that cause predispositions to Alzheimers, cancer, diabetes, downs syndrome, etc.

By understanding what prevents protein molecules, which build and maintain human bodies, from folding up properly and triggering a disease, scientists will be able to develop a new drug or treatment, and then build their own molecules or block the action of undesirable enzymes.

"The process of developing and generating a new drug or treatment normally takes up to three years, and costs have nearly quadrupled in the past fifteen years," said Prof. Marek Niezgodka, Director of ICM.

"With Nostromo, we expect to increase the simulation speed which will bring us much closer to the era of personalized medicine, when preventative approaches can be tailored to a specific condition," he added.

Blue Gene/Q has already been installed by IBM-Poland and Qumak SA, IBM's Business Partner. "IBM delivered the most powerful single architecture supercomputer for the ICM of Poland.

Nostromo is able to process up to 16 TB of Big Data per one sequence by running simulations at the speed of 210 TFLOPS,” said Alex Bartunek, Country General Manager, IBM Poland.

"We are confident that the POWER based Blue Gene/Q has the potential to save years of research and help scientists take healthcare in Poland to the next level," he added.

A POSITIVE SIDE OF EARTHQUAKE

Earthquakes can bring out Gold?

Earthquakes are disastrous. They bring destruction, take lives and destroy properties.

But some studies bring to light a different positive side of the earthquakes.

Gold (Flickr user Ryan Somma via CC)

What is gold?

Gold is a dense, soft, shiny and flexible metal. It can be sold at a high price and is often used in jewellery.

Believe it or not, gold can be obtained during earthquakes!

Earthquakes may be harsh, deadly and not something anybody should experience. But some studies have shown a positive side of earthquakes.

During an earthquake, solid gold can rise to the surface of the earth almost immediately!

How is gold formed?

Gold is formed when the shaking from Earthquakes split open a hole filled with fluid.

Gold particles are transformed from a fluid to a solid almost immediately.

With Earthquakes happening over and over again, there will be a build-up of gold deposits.

Research shows that most gold comes from “quarts veins”, which were formed during as long as three billion years ago! “Quarts veins” are formed during earthquakes and contain gold in them.

The gold deposits are built up one thin layer at a time.

Forming 100,000kg (100tonne) of gold, would take less than 100,000 years!

BRAIN PAINTING:NO NEED TO HAND IT ONLY CREATIVITY RUNS

Brain painting: Make a painting just by thinking!

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could just ‘think’ and create an artwork?

Nopes- it is not something out of the imagination of a movie director. Actually, an Australian firm ‘G-tec’, might have created a solution for this situation.

And it is not just ‘cool’- it is also very useful. Just think about patients of paralysis- who can’t move their hands or parts of body. What a beautiful difference this technology could make to their lives!

Paralysed patients can now create artworks just by using the power of their brains!

Paralysis is a condition when the patient suffering from it cannot control the movements of some body parts. Some paralysed patients cannot even move any part of their bodies. Horrible!

This scientific invention brings some hope for them, using which they can add some colour into their lives. Quite literally!

How does this work?
The user would wear a cap that measures brain activity. By focusing hard on a flashing icon on a screen, the cap can allow the user to “choose” what he or she wants the computer to do.

The artist can select various shapes and colours and straight lines using brainpower and build up a basic picture on the screen.

The idea came from an artist who had a friend paralysed in an accident, and who loved painting. The artist wanted to find a way to let the friend draw again.

The brain painting system costs $15,600, including the brainwave-reading cap, the computer software and the technology to understand the brain activity.

TELL YOUR DAD:3D PHONES AND TABLETS ARE COMING...

Look Man! No 3D Glasses!

Everybody loves watching 3D movies, having characters come to life right in front of you. But don’t you find the glasses a little uncomfortable at times? With this new technology, you can  see 3D on your mobile without needing those glasses! Yes Sir, we are talking about 3D phones and tablets.

US researchers claim to have made a display, which allows three-dimensional (3D) image to be viewed without special glasses. The display is made especially for cellphones, tablets and watches.

Now you can even see figures leaping out from the your screen in 3D!

This exciting creation uses a technology called Diffractive Optics.

Diffractive Optics allows 3D images to be seen from many different points of view and even if the device was tilted.

Large solar-powered plane to start test flight in the U.S.

After a lot of anticipation and excitement, the photovoltaics-powered Solar Impulse HB-SIA airplane has finally arrived at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley's Moffett Field to prepare for a test flight across the United States beginning in May.
After being offloaded in several pieces from its Boeing 747-100 transporter, the Swiss-made HB-SIA will be reassembled in a Moffett Field hanger, than it will embark on a series of test flights around the San Francisco Bay Area before its cross-country flight to its New York destination. That flight is scheduled to begin on May 1st, weather permitting, and to include several stops in Phoenix and Dallas, plus Atlanta, Nashville, and St. Louis, depending upon weather conditions.
The delicate airplane will then fly on to Washington D.C. and finally settle down at New York City's Kennedy Airport in early July.
As to when each of those seven to ten-day stopovers will occur, it's hard to tell for now. "The exact dates are of course undefined as every leg is dependent on local meteorological conditions," the Solar Impulse team says on its website.
"For those of you who don't live in the United States or near the cities on our itinerary, don't despair," they add, "because as usual, all the legs – from San Francisco to New York City – will be filmed and streamed LIVE on our website with the hottest news posted on Twitter."

Weather conditions are critical to the flight's success in large part because of the HB-SIA's extreme fragility. Despite its enormous size, it weighs a mere 1,600 kilograms (less than 3,500 pounds), just a bit more than an all-electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf for example.
And when we say enormous size, we're referring to its wingspan of 208 feet. In comparison, a Boeing 747-100 has a wingspan of 196 feet and a 747-400 has a wingspan of 211.4 feet.
The smaller of those two jumbos, by the way, has a maximum takeoff weight of 735,000 pounds – that'd be equal to over 200 HB-SIAs.
Another rather notable contrast between those two jumbo jets and the HB-SIA is their carrying capacity. When set up for two levels of service, the 747-100 can carry 496 passengers and the 747-400, 524. The hopefully transcontinental Solar Impulse aircraft carries but one: pilot and Solar Impulse cofounder Andre Borschberg.
That solo operation, in fact, is one of the main reasons that the longest flight that the HB-SIA has achieved lasted 26 hours and 10 minutes. "What is most incredible is that this revolutionary aircraft could practically fly perpetually into infinity if it weren't for the human side of the pilots," the team writes.
"So how do we make humankind perpetual? Well, I think that's another story." The ability to fly "perpetually into infinity" and beyond is due to both the HB-SIA's propulsion system and its style of flight. Its electrical power comes from 11,628 exceptionally thin (135-145 microns) SunPower Maxeon solar cells, 10,748 on top of the wing and 880 on the rear horizontal stabilizer.
Those cells feed power into 400 kilograms (less than 880 pounds) of lithium polymer batteries – about one-fourth of the HB-SIA's total weight.
Battery performance being a function of temperature, those batteries are heavily insulated to allow them to function at the -40°C temperatures at the craft's maximum cruising altitude of 27,900 feet.
Before takeoff, the batteries are charged by the solar cells to a minimum of 50 percent capacity "for pilot safety." The HB-SIA then fires up its four 10-horsepower brushless and sensorless electric motors, which each spin a twin-bladed, 11.5-foot propeller up to 400 RPMs for takeoff – which occurs when the HB-SIA reaches a leisurely 27 mph.

Once airborne, the HB-SIA cruises at an average speed of just 43 mph as the pilot gently guides it upward to around 26,250 feet, above clouds into thinner air, and where its solar cells will do their electricity-producing and battery-recharging business with more efficiency.
When the sun goes down, the pilot throttles back the motors and starts a slow descent down to a nighttime altitude of around 3,280 to 4,920 feet. And when we say slow, we mean slow: the descent is at about 0.4 meters per second, meaning that the craft can glide for around four to five hours using almost no battery power.
When it reaches that low altitude – what the Solar Impulse team calls its "loitering point" – the engines are switched back on using battery power, and the craft creeps along at a steady 29 mph until the sun has risen far enough to get the solar cells sufficiently awake to begin the up-down cycle again.
At these blinding speeds, you can better imagine why the HB-SIA's cross-country flight, if it begins on schedule, won't be completed until early July.
As mentioned above, those up-down cycles could continue indefinitely – and that's one of the design goals of Solar Impulse's next craft, the not terribly imaginatively named HB-SIB.
That solar aircraft is being designed to achieve Solar Impulse's long-term goal-- a flight around the world powered by sunlight alone. The HB-SIB is still under development, with test flights scheduled for 2014 and an attempt at a global circumnavigation hoped for between April and July 2015, with individual legs lasting between four and six days each.
The HB-SIB will have more-efficient solar cells and batteries, its electronics will be rainproofed, and its construction will include, Solar Impulse promises, "carbon fibers that are lighter in weight than any previously seen."
Also importantly, that tired pilot will be looked after as well: the cockpit will include a reclining seat that will presumably offer a chance to relax while the HB-SIB takes over cruising duties.

NOW PROTECT YOUR TECHNOLOGY WITH TECH 21 AND D30

When you purchase a new smartphone you look forward to having that device around for a long time.  There are plenty of ways to protect your device from scratch shields to help keep your screen looking nice to getting a great case for your phone to keep the phone intact.  I am sure everyone has a story of a phone dropping out of your hands and watching it slowly tumble end over end until it hits the floor and you watch it shatter.

So deciding which case you want to choose to protect your latest investment is a serious choice.  There are plenty to choose from each with its own unique personality.  You can go for zero protection but have a pretty case or you can get a solid case that adds a ton of bulk to your pocket.  So where do you find a good common ground.  Protection and simplicity.  Maybe you look towards advancement in sciences to help figure out this long debated question of what is the best way to protect your phone.

With the advancement of technology comes advancement in protection.  From Gorilla Glass from Corning helping to protect your screen from scratches and strengthening your screen to help keep it crack free if it were to fall.  To now finding the right material to protect against the rest of the phone without causing major internal damage from rapid acceleration and deceleration.  That is where the most damage comes from is the sudden stop from a fall and all the internal electronics can get jostled around.  So we turn to science to help us stop that problem.

Doing some research I found a company that is using something very unique in helping with the problem of phone droppage.  Tech21 is a UK based company using a very cool innovative product called D30 that is a liquid based gel but upon impact becomes solid and disperses the energy away from the device protecting your phone from major impacts.  They call it Impactology.  What is Impactology you might ask and how does it work?

Impactology™ combines advanced science and pioneering innovation to deliver a unique, new level of protection for mobile devices, tablets and laptops. However, you don't need to be a mad scientist with a PhD to see exactly how effective it can be.

It's all about the molecules inside the revolutionary D3O® Impact Material. In everyday use, the molecules flow freely, but upon shock or impact they lock together - absorbing the impact force and spreading the shock evenly across the surface of the material. That means your device stays in one piece, no matter how hard the impact!

What makes Impactology™ unique is the secret ingredient D3O® Impact Material used within our designs. It's composed of a non-Newtonian polymer with an intelligent molecular structure. So clever in fact, that it has been adopted worldwide by the military for its power in impact protection on the battlefield.

so with the constant evolution of technology and the smartphone becoming more of an integral part of society it becomes more apparent with phone companies and even accessory makers will be looking to new technology to protect your valuables.  Who knows maybe something that is developed for your electronic devices makes it way onto the battlefield to protect our soldiers.  For now let's just worry about not cracking our smartphone.

AT&T plans to begin deploying HD Voice later this year

AT&T said earlier this morning that it plans to start deploying HD Voice's improved voice calling to its wireless subscribers later in 2013. Promoted by almost all the wireless carriers in the U.S, the new feature uses hardware and software components on both the smartphone and on the network to significantly enhance voice clarity while reducing background noise. The feature devotes more frequency to handle the amount of audio coming in and automatically kicks in when both mobile handsets support it.

Speaking at the Venture Beat Mobile Summit in Sausalito, senior vice president Kris Rinne said that AT&T's support for the technology would begin later this year as it begins routing voice calls over its LTE network.

"HD Voice is part of our audio over LTE strategy," she said. The revelation confirmed a PC Mag report in January that AT&T was aiming for a potential launch sometime in 2013.

Widely available in Europe for many years already, wireless carriers in the U.S. have lagged badly behind, but now AT&T wants to change that.

The wireless carrier's announcement comes almost four months after T-Mobile USA unveiled its iPhone 5, which it touted as supporting HD Voice.

For its part, Verizon Wireless revealed earlier this year that its subscribers might have to wait until 2014 for HD Voice. The company plans to deploy the technology when it moves its voice services to its LTE network, which it plans to do by the end of the year or early 2014.

IBM releases its own branded version of Notes

IBM said today that it has released its own branded version of Notes, that one that replaces Lotus Notes.

Big Blue pointed out that Notes' social media features and its ability to create embedded experiences in a new email package that aims to let you spend more time each day doing email.

Of course, there are some in the business community that will tell you spending more time each day doing more emails may not be your best way to achieve more productivity, but IBM's goal to have you spend more time using an email client is not an act of sadism.

Instead, the company believes that many knowledge workers already spend up to 80 percent of their working day in their inbox. Pumping apps into inboxes (the essence of embedded experiences) therefore makes sense to Big Blue, as it means less time wasted moving between various applications and more time being productive inside email communications.

It's possible to create embedded experiences in IBM Notes and Domino 9.0 Social Edition, thanks to the use of Open Social APIs to view applications' screens calling for user interaction into email or calendar items.

This arrangement seemingly offers the chance to build various workflows that rely on email correspondance as their carrier but don't require the application to be deeply integrated with the email/collaboration services server.

IBM Australia's messaging and collaboration executive Chris Haylock said that this could even mean the likes of SAP making an 'appearance' inside email. IBM's using the term “social business” with an alarming frequency these days, insisting that sharing data is the new key to productivity.

Notes 9.0 therefore offers a Twitter-like internal social network, integrated into the email client itself, so the social-style interaction is never more than a click or two away.

In fact, IBM says that bringing in other social media networks should be possible if they're wired for OpenSocial.

Haylock is optimistic that these new features are just what business wants. He added that 2012 was an exceptional year for Notes/Domino inasmuch as the platform secured over 1600 reinstatements from users who had previously abandoned it for other email client solutions. Haylock said that's the most such reversals IBM has ever seen.

The company has other social and collaborative solutions coming soon, with Haylock saying an on-premises version of personal productivity suite IBM Docs is already under development. That suite will be using the Cloud.

Windows 8 still has a long way to go to become mainstream

It appears that Windows 8 could be slowly carving out a slightly larger slice of the operating system market for today's personal computers.

However, at the pace that it's moving, it could take more time before some analysts call it 'mainstream'.

Microsoft's Windows 8 OS managed to capture about 3.17 percent of all desktop operating systems tracked by Net Applications in March. This was a small but respectable gain from the 2.67 percent share seen in the previous month.

Since its official debut in October 2012, Windows 8 has gradually risen up in the ranks, at least in Net Applications' Web traffic analyzis.

Starting with a 1.09 percent share gain in November, the OS carved out a 1.72 percent share in December. It then grabbed a 2.26 percent share in January, pushing it past Mac OS X 10.8 to take the fourth spot among operating systems.

Windows 7 remained ahead of Windows XP as the top operating system for March, though the respective shares of both barely nudged from their February numbers.

Windows 7 wrestled the top spot from XP last August, according to Net Applications. The unpopular Windows Vista stayed in third place with a small 5 percent share, a drop from the previous month.

Assuming Windows 8 keeps growing and Vista keeps falling, both at a consistent pace, Microsoft's new OS should steal third place sometime this summer.

On average, Windows' share of Net Applications' desktop OS traffic was a bit more than 91 percent, a number virtually unchanged over the past several months.

The share held by Mac OS X dipped slightly to 6.94 percent, while Linux came in third with about 1.27 percent.