Hi-Tech Arena

Get this. You know Google Glass, the futuristic headset that sells for $1,500? According to a new report from TechInsight's Teardown.com, the high-tech headpiece only costs around $80 to produce. The site secured a pair of the pricey specs and then ripped them apart, piece by piece, to determine the estimated price of each component. The surprising finding? Their preliminary analysis revealed that the bill of materials for all the parts and pieces used to make Google Glass adds up to a measly $79.78. The most expensive component used in Glass is the Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 applications processor, which comes in at around $13.96. The display, touch screen, and glass cost just $3, while the battery comes in at $1.14, and the camera is worth $5.66. Non-electrical material used in the device costs $13.63, while the 16GB of NAND flash memory from Toshiba totals $8.18, and assembly and testing comes in at $2.15. Google, meanwhile, says Teardown.com's assessment is n...

For a more detailed analysis of this catastrophic bug, see  this update , which went live about 18 hours after Ars published this initial post. Researchers have discovered an extremely critical defect in the cryptographic software library an estimated two-thirds of Web servers use to identify themselves to end users and prevent the eavesdropping of passwords, banking credentials, and other sensitive data. The warning about the bug in OpenSSL coincided with the  release of version 1.0.1g of the open-source program , which is the default cryptographic library used in the Apache and nginx Web server applications, as well as a wide variety of operating systems and e-mail and instant-messaging clients. The bug, which has resided in production versions of OpenSSL for more than two years, could make it possible for people to recover the private encryption key at the heart of the digital certificates used to authenticate Internet servers and to encrypt data traveling between ...

A medical device, once its job is done, could harmlessly melt away inside a person's body. Or, a military device could collect and send its data and then dissolve away, leaving no trace of an intelligence mission. Or, an environmental sensor could collect climate information, then wash away in the rain. It's a new way of looking at electronics: "You don't expect your cell phone to dissolve someday, right?" said Reza Montazami, an Iowa State University assistant professor of mechanical engineering. "The resistors, capacitors and electronics, you don't expect everything to dissolve in such a manner that there's no trace of it." But Montazami thinks it can happen and is developing the necessary materials. He calls the technology "transient materials" or "transient electronics." The materials are special polymers designed to quickly and completely melt away when a trigger is activated. It's a fairly new field of study...

Newcastle University is trialling new technology to help patients suffering from Parkinson's disease live more independently by reminding them to swallow, speak up and take their medication Google Glass is being used by people suffering from Parkinson’s disease in a groundbreaking experiment to see if the technology can help improve their day-to-day lives. The technology, which is not yet available in Britain, reminds the patients to take their medication, contacts relatives in an emergency and can even prevent debilitating episodes of paralysis – known as ‘freezing.’ The system works like a hands-free smartphone, displaying information on the lens of the Glass. It is voice-operated and linked to the internet. Doctors at Newcastle University have created a programme that helps control behaviour associated with Parkinson's, such as reminding the individual to speak up or to swallow to prevent drooling. “The beauty of this research project is we are desi...

Snoopy  is a distributed tracking and profiling framework to perform some pretty interesting tracking and profiling of mobile users through the use of WiFi. The talk was well received (going on what people said afterwards) by those attending the conference and it was great to see so many others as excited about this as we have been. In addition to the research, we both took a different approach to the presentation itself. A 'no bullet points' approach was decided upon, so the slides themselves won't be that revealing. Using Steve Jobs as our inspiration, we wanted to bring back the fun to technical conferences, and our presentation hopefully represented that. As I type this, I have been reliably informed that the DVD, and subsequent videos of the talk, is being mastered and will be ready shortly. Once we have it, we will update this blog post. In the meantime, below is a description of the project. Background There have been recent initiatives from numerous gover...

Today we will create a small script that will allow us to run one or more commands on multiply Unix/Linux servers .. List of Commands / Tools : SSH :     (SSH client) is a program for logging into a remote machine and for executing commands on a remote machine.  It is intended to replac rlogin and rsh, and provide secure encrypted communications between two untrusted hosts over an insecure network.  X11 connections and   arbitrary TCP ports can also be forwarded over the secure channel.   CAT :    cat reads each file in sequence and writes it on the standard output. FOR :     for will allow us to run in loop until the end of input . ECHO :  echo writes its arguments separated by blanks and terminated by a new-line on the standard output VI :   it's just a text editor CHMOD :  The chmod command changes the permissions of one or more files according to the value of symbolic_mode_list or numeric_m...

Hi ALL it's Been  long time since last unix/linux tips , so today we will learn to use ps / grep / awk / xargs / kill in one long command .. . ps  :    prints information about selected processes. Use options to specify which processes to select and what information to print about them . grep :  The grep command searches the input text files (standard input default) for lines matching a pattern.  Normally, each line found is copied to the standard output.  grep supports the Basic Regular Expression syntax (see regexp(5)).  The -E option (egrep) supports Extended Regular Expression (ERE) syntax (see regexp(5)).  The -F option (fgrep) searches for fixed strings using the fast Boyer-Moore string searching algorithm.  The -E and -F options treat newlines embedded in the pattern as alternation characters.  A null expression or string matches every line. awk :    awk scans each input file for lines that match an...

The EU successfully pushed for voluntary adoption of a  cellphone charging standard  a few years ago, and it's now close to making that standard mandatory. The European Parliament has  voted in favor  of a draft law requiring that cellphones work with a common charger. Provided the Council of Ministers green lights the regulation, EU countries will have until 2016 to put it into their local laws; phone makers will have until 2017 to change their hardware. The charger requirement is a formality when  many phone designers  already support the concept, but it could force some companies to shape up -- and spare more Europeans from tossing out power adapters when they switch handsets.

Samsung's Galaxy S5 may be getting lots of smart new accessories, but the Korean smartphone maker is also making sure its lower-powered phones get some love too. After including various software usability functions in the Galaxy Core Advance at the end of last year, the company today introduced three new accessories that have been designed specifically to help disabled or visually impaired users do more with their Android device. First up is the Optical Scan Stand, a raised bracket that automatically triggers the phone's OCR features to recognize and read aloud text placed in front of the phone. There's also Voice Labels, which are similar to Samsung's NFC-equipped TechTile stickers, but let visually impaired users make voice notes or record short explanations on how to use various devices around the home. Perhaps the most impressive accessory of the three is Samsung's Ultrasonic Cover: a specialized case that uses sound waves to detect people or objects (in...

When UK Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech at CeBIT this year, what examples did he use to highlight tech innovation in Britain? Yes, ARM and Imagination were on his list, but he also referred to the tiny, Linux-based computer called Raspberry Pi, which has now sold over 2.5 million units. In a timely fashion, the Pi's makers, element 14, have just announced a new $33,Wolfson-powered audio card that should give the device a broader range of functions. The add-on board fits right onto the Pi's P5 pins and carries a Wolfson audio processor that supports high-res audio up to 24-bit / 192KHz, which can be played via a direct connection to an amp over 3.5mm line-out or alternatively via a digital S/PDIF output. Audio recording, meanwhile, comes courtesy of two onboard MEMS mics (useful for things like voice control), a 3.5mm mic jack and a digital S/PDIF input. It's true that some of these audio capabilities have already bee...

Amal Graafstra snaps on a pair of black rubber gloves. “Do you want to talk about pain management techniques?” he asks. The bearded systems administrator across the table, who requested I call him “Andrew,” has paid Grafstra $30 to have a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip injected into the space between his thumb and pointer finger, and as Graafstra describes Lamaze-type breathing methods, Andrew looks remarkably untroubled, in spite of the intimidatingly high-gauge syringe sitting on the table between them. Graafstra finishes his pain talk, fishes a tiny cylindrical two-millimeter diameter EM4012 RFID chip out of a tin of isopropyl alcohol, and drops it into the syringe’s end, replacing the RFID tag intended for pets that came with the injection kit. He swabs Andrew’s hand with iodine, carefully pinches and pulls up a fold of skin on the top of his hand to create a tent of flesh, and with the other hand slides the syringe into the subcutaneous layer known as the fascia...

By:CNN.com The  Samsung Galaxy S5  probably isn't the reinvention of the smartphone. But unlike last year's  Galaxy S4 , there's a good chance some of the new features announced could be of actual use to normal human beings. Of course, a few minutes with the Galaxy S5 wasn't enough time to reach a full verdict on the phone, but it was enough to get a basic feel for what  Samsung's   ( SSNLF )  latest offering can and can't do. Display The 5.1 inch display has the same 1080p resolution as last year's 5-inch screen, but due to some new technology, it's definitely brighter, which at the very least, makes everything look nicer. And according to Samsung, the special technology which makes that screen brighter also improves performance in direct sunlight. At the expense of your battery, of course. Fingerprint Scanner Like the iPhone 5S, the fingerprint scanner is probably the most eye-catching of the new features, which adds an extra level of ...