iOS 7’s jailbreak team has been compensated by a Chinese app store

Taig, a Chinese app store written in Chinese, is rumored to sponsor $1 million to "evad3rs" - jailbreak development team - to jailbreak for Apple’s iOS 7.

The jailbreak team has noted in an open letter on its website that they have received compensation from Taig,

“Yes, we have benefitted financially from our work, just as many others in the jailbreak community have, including tweak developers, repo owners, etc. Any jailbreak from us will always be free to the users but we believe we have a right to be compensated in an ethical way, just as any other developer.” And the compensation is rumored to be about $1 million.

Source:

Rumor: Chinese company pays $1 million to sponsor jailbreak for Apple's iOS 7 - AppleInsider (http://goo.gl/2qdJu7)

iPhone 6 and iPad would come in bigger sizes in 2014

iPhone 6 concept design by ADR studio

Apple Inc. would launch iPhone 6 and next generation iPad with bigger screen in May, i.e. sooner than expected, and October 2014, respectively. These changes in sizes and timings are possible as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has recently planned big changes for the company as noted in a holiday email to employees.

According to the reports of Digitimes, Apple would launch a 5-inch iPhone 6 “phablet”. Moreover, it would have 20nm processor manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The “sources from the upstream supply chain” have also noted that Apple would “release a 12.9-inch tablet in October 2014, targeting North America's educational market”.

Tim Cook noted, "We have a lot to look forward to in 2014, including some big plans that we think customers are going to love. I am extremely proud to stand alongside you as we put innovation to work serving humankind's deepest values and highest aspirations. I consider myself the luckiest person in the world for the opportunity to work at this amazing company with all of you."

Source:

Apple large-size tablet rumored for launch in October 2014 - Digitimes (http://goo.gl/KVGMcu)

Apple CEO Teases Product Shakeup In 2014 - InformationWeek (http://goo.gl/EsKhWk)

Life sized Lego car - "Super Awesome Micro Project"

Credit: superawesomemicroproject.com

You probably used to play with Lego but you would not have seen such as life sized Lego car. This car also called the Super Awesome Micro Project has about 500,000 Lego pieces. Raul Oaida, a 20-year-old from Romania, made this car.

Its engine is also made of Legos and its 256 toy-block pistons run on air. However, the wheels and some load bearing elements are not from the Legos.

This Lego car recently came on the road with the maximum speed of 12-18 miles per hour.

Raul Oaida (@rauloaida) met Steve Sammartino (@sammartino), an Australian entrepreneur, online, and Sammartino crowd-funded the project on Twitter.

Apple and China Mobile have finally joined hands in iPhone deal

A worker cleans glass in front of an iPhone 5C advertisement at an apple store in Kunming, Yunnan province, in this October 27, 2013 file picture.

CREDIT: REUTERS/WONG CAMPION

Apple Inc and China Mobile Ltd. have finally signed a multiyear iPhone deal. Now, China Mobile - the world’s largest mobile network - will sell iPhone 5s and 5C models in its retail stores starting the mid of next month, i.e. January 17, 2014. The phones for China Mobile’s network will also be available in Apple’s retail stores in China.

This deal came after about 6 years of meetings between the CEOs of both companies giving Apple access to China’s 1.22 billion wireless subscribers. The terms of the deal have not been announced and the details of pricing and availability for its iPhone 5S and 5C lines would be available at a later date.

“iPhone still matters a lot for high-end customers,” Tucker Grinnan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at HSBC Holdings Plc, said by phone before the announcement. “One of the main reasons China Mobile is in the position that it is today, in terms of growing revenue at a much slower pace than its competitors, is because they have been waiting for an iPhone deal.”

China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. started offering iPhone in November 2009. It is the nation’s second largest carrier. China Telecom Corp. started offering iPhone in March 2012. It is the nation’s third largest carrier.

Sources:

Apple Signs China Mobile IPhone Deal as Both Seek Market Share - BusinessWeek (http://goo.gl/1SsmFG)

Jailbreak for Apple devices with iOS 7 has been launched

Evasi0n team known as Evad3rs has finally launched jailbreak for iOS 7 to hack the Apple’s latest version of iPhone and iPad software that can give access to a third-party app store called Cydia having many of the unauthorized apps and software. Previously, the same team launched the jailbreak for iOS 6.

Jailbreaking is a very simple process in which the users have to install some software on the computer and then sync it with his/her iPhone or iPad by plugging it in with a USB cable. You can get further information and the software from the Evasi0n website; http://evasi0n.com/.

However, jailbreaking would result in denial of your warranty, so that in case of any problem, Apple has the right to refuse to fix the device for you.

"It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of iOS is a violation of the iOS end-user software license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software," Apple writes.

Improve Apple devices’ battery life by using “first party Apple programs”

MacBook Air (Credit: Mark/Flickr)

If you want to improve your battery life use Safari browser instead of Google Chrome on MacBooks as posted by a redditor ben174.

“Just realized how fast Chrome was KILLING my battery. Looked at activity monitor and it's energy consumption is easily 20 times any other applications I use. I normally use Chrome when I'm plugged in, but when I'm strapped for power, I'm going to resort to Safari.”

“Firefox may be better with battery and Vimperator is supposedly better than Vimium,” as posted by Dan_The_MAN_1.

“Stick with first party Apple programs in general if you care about battery life. They know their own APIs and hardware specs better than anyone else,” panhumanist posted.

If you are considering about using Chrome on iOS devices, they would be slightly affected as posted by Coldmode, another redditor. However, Chrome doesn’t work as smoothly on iOS devices.

“On iOS, unfortunately, chrome is gimped just because it lacks access to apples proprietary rendering engine,” pandapanda730 posted. On the other hand, Baryn posted,

“That isn't true. Actually, the opposite is true - Chrome ONLY has access to Apple's rendering engine, and can't use its own. Also contrary, Chrome is an upgrade in some respects, as it uses its own network stack, which supports SPDY.”

vaskemaskine posted,

“You're both partially right. Chrome on iOS is forced to use Apple's rendering engine via webviews, however it's not allowed to use the V8 part that greatly accelerates JS performance, among other things.”

What is your opinion about all these things?

An initiative of California to make smartphones less attractive for theives

Theft ((Luis Gomez Photos))

California is going to introduce first “smartphone killswitch” bill after the lawmakers in San Francisco and New York has asked to install this technology of making the stolen devices useless making it less attractive for thieves.

This plan has been announced by California State Sen. Mark Leno on his website on Thursday. Leno is working with San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón.

Initially this year, Apple Inc. has added an "Activation Lock" anti-theft feature and Gascón said at the "Secure Our Smartphones" kickoff meeting in June that it was only "a step in the right direction."

Smartphone theft is one of the most important problems and nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco involved a mobile device last year, and in Los Angeles cell phone thefts had increased almost 12% this year, according to Leno's announcement.

Source:

California to introduce first 'smartphone killswitch' bill - CNN Money (http://goo.gl/LdbD1P)

Nintendo working on smartphone apps

This is unlikely to happen, ever.
(Credit: Apple/Nintendo/CBSi)

Main Point:

Nintendo is working on smartphone apps as revealed by Nintendo of America president/chief operating officer Reginald "Reggie" Fils-Aime but is not probably launching its games on mobile platforms.

Study Further:

“It’s a topic that comes up all the time. It’s a debate that’s constantly had,” Reggie told in an interview with KING 5 News. “We recognize that there are a lot of smartphones and tablets out there, and so what we’re doing is we’re being very smart in how we use these devices as marketing tools for our content.”

 “We’re also doing a lot of experimentation of what I would call the little experiences you can have on your smartphone and tablet that will drive you back to your Nintendo hardware,” Fils-Aime said. “It’s largely going to be much more marketing activity-oriented, but we’ve done little things where there’s some element of gameplay – a movement, a shaking, something like that.”

Although the company would give a trial of games on smartphones but it would cause the users to come to the device at last.

"We believe our games are best played and best enjoyed on our devices, and so the full gameplay will only be on Nintendo devices," he said.

Source:

Nintendo’s Fils-Aime: We’ll 'experiment' with smartphones, tablets - King5 (http://goo.gl/md5yoc)

Samsung and LG are going to present dinosaurs of TV

Samsung’s 105-inch ultra-HD TV (Credit: 

Samsung)

Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. are going to present 105-inch curved Ultra HDTVs to the consumer market next year. Both of the TVs will come with ultra-high definition liquid-crystal displays (LCD). Although, organic-light-emitting-diode screens gave more vivid colors and an extremely thin body but due to its expensive nature, at this time, companies have utilized LCDs. LG has also announced a 77-inch curved TV.

Both of the South Korean tech giants will unveil the televisions at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month, i.e. January 5. However, the companies have not revealed the time, when the TVs will be available in the market.

Samsung said that the curved TV will give an IMAX-like cinema experience to the users. On the other hand, LG said that the TV will give even the “minutest detail in breathtaking clarity.” Both of the LCD displays has 11 million pixels, compared to 2 million in current HDTVs. The rectangular 21:9 aspect ratio, a shape similar to that of CinemaScope theater screens, is wider than current 16:9 widescreen HDTVs.

LG Electronics' 21:9 aspect ratio Curved Ultra HD TV 105-inch display.(Credit: LG Electronics)

LG's new TV "makes a dramatic statement about what the possibilities are for home entertainment," says Tim Alessi, LG Electronics USA's director of new product development. "Its ... picture resolution and sheer size will deliver a truly cinematic experience."

“For TVs that are over 70 inches in screen size, curves are believed to offer a more absorbing view than flat screens,” said Jerry Kang, a display analyst with IHS Korea.

Source:

Samsung, LG to Show 105-Inch Curved TVs - WSJ (http://goo.gl/gPEXvt)

Bill Gates became a “Secret Santa”

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, has surprisingly taken the role of Secret Santa this year and surprises a Reddit user, NY1227, with secret Santa gifts.

Gates donated a cuddly cow and a travel book to the family via Heifer International.

The post is a joy to read. For example: "My santa had not messaged me, but I knew I was super thorough and have a pretty good posting history so I wasn't too worried that my santa would stiff me. Finally, I received a shipped notification to my email on Monday- I was SO SO SO excited but even more excited when I realized A) my gift was being OVERNIGHTED and B) it was 7 pounds- OMG!"

Let us reiterate, it is a joy. "Thank you so much Bill for a fantastic and thoughtful gift. I'd really love to send a thank you card to you, but if not, I hope this post and message suffices. Thank you so much!!!!!! I will think of you every time I read my book, which will find a nice home on my coffee table once I'm done reading it. 10/10, I would receive a gift from Bill Gates again. "

Source:

Spoiler alert: Bill Gates did not get you, because he got me. Redditgifts (http://goo.gl/Jup0z7)

Facebook “Dislike” (sort of) button for its messenger

Facebook has finally launched a sort of “dislike” button for its messenger app for the desktop and mobile versions in the form of a blue “thumbs down” sticker in a set of stickers, which are available for free in Facebook's Sticker Store.

To get the stickers:

1. Go to the chat feature while browsing Facebook on the web or mobile.
2. Click the smiley logo in the bottom right of a chat window.
3. Click the shopping cart to open the "Sticker Store".
4. In the "Sticker Store," download the "Likes" pack of stickers.

Apple Inc has finally announced its heavy-duty Mac Pro

Apple Inc. has announced the sales of its all-new long-awaited, cylindrical Mac Pro, on Wednesday, keeping the promise that the company made in late October at its last product event.

Apple’s Mac Pro is a professional workstation (a heavy-duty, super-high-end computer) and the base model will start at $2,999, giving you a 3.7GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2. It will also be available with 6-core, 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, having up to 64GB of ECC DDR3 RAM, dual AMD FirePro graphics chips with up to 6GB of dedicated memory, up to 1TB of PCIe-based solid state storage, six Thunderbolt 2 ports,and support for 4K displays.

From Apple’s website;

In creating a pro computer for the future, we wanted to provide an enormous amount of expansion — without being limited to the space inside the enclosure. Designed with built-in Thunderbolt 2, USB 3, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI 1.4 ports, Mac Pro sets a new standard in flexible, high-performance expansion. It’s our most expandable Mac yet. And it has everything you need to build a workstation completely customized to what you need and how you work.

It will be available to order from Thursday, December 19, through the Apple's online store, Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Sources:

Apple - http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

Facebook knows whatever you type on the website

Facebook knows what you write on your status updates, comments or biographical info whether you publish it or not. Facebook has said that it is within its terms of service to know the status or comment even if the user has deleted that, i.e. “self-censorship”.

"We receive data about you whenever you use or are running Facebook, such as when you look at another person's timeline, send or receive a message, search for a friend or a Page, click on, view or otherwise interact with things .... ," the Data Use Policy says in the section titled "Information we receive and how it is used."

This report came from the study that checked the habits of about four million people in the U.S. and U.K. over 17 days in the summer of 2012. Study shows that nearly 71% of Facebook users cut their own status updates with 51% deleting at least one post and choosing to leave 4.52 unpublished on average over the period. Another 44% censored comments, with an average of 3.2 going unpublished.

Study shows that males remove their comments or posts more often than women and older users remove their contents more often than younger users.

You can turn off Javascript - software that allows the developers to know about the typing of some words etc on the website - to stop giving your information to Facebook.

Source:

Facebook can see what users type even if status is not posted - Los Angeles Times (http://goo.gl/fvNHkg)

New “Donate Now” button on Facebook

While planning to launch different things such as video advertising and “Sympathize” button, Facebook Inc. has also launched “Donate Now” button on Monday giving the users a chance to show more respect to a cause or charitable organization instead of just “like” or “recommend” them.

This new button would appear on charities' pages and besides their posts, and would collect credit card numbers and other billing information. Facebook has started working with 18 non-profit organizations or charities as part of the launch. World Wildlife Fund, the Red Cross and UNICEF are among the first users of the new "Donate Now" button.

From Facebook blog,

Donate also gives nonprofits an easier way to reach out and ask for help, both to support their everyday mission and in the wake of major disasters. And, with a community of over one billion people on Facebook, every local cause can become a global one — and every global cause can become a personal movement.
Facebook has launched the button in the time of holiday season, when many people would like to donate.

Related article on SayPeople.com: Facebook is planning to attract annual $66.35 billion TV advertising market in U.S. (http://goo.gl/hJLxqX)

Further Reading:

Donate to Nonprofits Through Facebook - Facebook (http://goo.gl/sKmknk)

Tragic death of a Chinese women using iPhone 5 while charging

An Apple employee looks over a new iPhone 5 at a Verizon Communications Inc. store in Orem, Utah, Sept. 20, 2012. (George Frey/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

A 23-years old woman, namely Ma Ailun, was electrocuted to death by iPhone 5 while attending the call during its charging last Thursday as reported by Chinese news outlet Xinhaunet.

According to the reports, Ma Ailun, bought iPhone in December last year and was charging the phone with the original charger. She was planning her wedding on August 8.

According to experts, mobile phones have a low voltage output of only 3 to 5 volts, which is not enough to harm the human body. Therefore, several other factors could also be involved in the electrocution.

"I want to warn everyone else not to make phone calls when your mobile phone is recharging," Ma's sister tweeted.

Apple is looking into the report. "We are deeply saddened to learn of this tragic incident and offer our condolences to the Ma family. We will fully investigate and cooperate with authorities in this matter," Apple's Beijing-based spokesperson Carolyn Wu said.

S/2004 N 1 - the smallest and newly discovered moon of Neptune

(This article has been cross-posted from SayPeople.com)

Main Point:

Astronomers discovered a tiny new moon, dubbed S/2004 N 1, around Neptune with the help of Hubble Space Telescope on July 1 and announced it on July 15.

Study Further:

Astronomers have reported that the new moon is the Neptune’s smallest moon of 14 of the known moons. It is just 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. This moon is so small that it is about 100 million times fainter than the dimmest star.

"The moons and arcs [segments of rings around the planet] orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system," SETI Institute scientist Mark Showalter, the moon's discoverer, said in a statement. "It's the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete — the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs."

Scientists studied the photos taken by Hubble from the year 2004 to 2009 and found the moon in about 150 of those photos. They determined that the tiny moon orbits the Neptune about every 23 hours.

Source:

Space

First image of Pluto’s largest moon by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft

(This article has been cross-posted from SayPeople.com)

This New Horizons LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) composite image shows the detection of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, cleanly separated from Pluto itself. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

Main Point:

NASA’s Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft took the first image of Charon, i.e. largest moon of the Pluto, with the help of highest-resolution telescopic camera.

Study Further:

Charon, discovered in 1978, is the largest moon of the Pluto’s five known moons. It is almost the size of Texas State of U.S. and is covered by ice. Charon is orbiting about 12,000 miles (more than 19,000 kilometers) away from Pluto.

The spacecraft was 550 million miles (885 million km) from Pluto, when its LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) snapped a total of six images: three July 1 and three more July 3.

“The image itself might not look very impressive to the untrained eye, but compared to the discovery images of Charon from Earth, these ‘discovery’ images from New Horizons look great!” said New Horizons Project Scientist Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “We’re very excited to see Pluto and Charon as separate objects for the first time from New Horizons.”

“We’re excited to have our first pixel on Charon,” New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute said, “but two years from now, near closest approach, we’ll have almost a million pixels on Charon — and I expect we’ll be about a million times happier too!”

Source:

NewHorizons via Astronomy

Electronic skin will help amputees to sense environment

(Cross-posted from Jeeget.blogspot.com)

Scientists from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a sort of electronic skin having flexible sensors operating on low voltage that would help amputees to sense touch, humidity and temperature.

This e-skin could be attached to prosthetic limbs and would help them to sense the environment. It is a major breakthrough as the current devices detect only touch.

In this research, scientists utilized gold particles and a kind of resin that is about 10 times more sensitive to touch than the traditional e-skin devices.

Source:

Mashable

Over 60 billion habitable planets probably present in our Milky Way

(This article has been cross-posted from SayPeople.com)

Over 60 billion habitable planets probably present in our Milky Way (Credit: mickare/deviantart)

Main Points:

Scientists have estimated that there could be over 60 billion habitable planets in our Milky Way alone. This estimate is about twice the previous estimates of at least one Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of each red dwarf star.

Publishing in:

Astrophysical Journal Letters

Study Further:

Previous estimate was made by the researchers from Harvard University and this new thinking has been reported by the researchers from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.

This new estimate has been made by considering “cloud cover”. Cloud cover is the concept given to the dayside of the exoplanets that are tidally locked i.e. one hemisphere of the planet continually faces the star (dayside), while the other faces away (darkside). It was thought that dayside would have high level of stellar flux but recent computer simulations showed otherwise due to the presence of clouds.

Cloud cover could be the reason that “tidally locked planets have low enough surface temperatures to be habitable,” explained Jang in his recently published paper.

Red dwarfs “represent about ¾ of the stars in the galaxy, so it applies to a huge number of planets,” Dr. Abbot, co-author on the paper, told Universe Today.

Future observations will approve or disprove this finding by measuring the cloud temperatures and James Webb Space Telescope would be one of the better options to study.

Source:

Universe Today

Reference:

Jun Yang, Nicolas B. Cowan, & Dorian S. Abbot (2013). Stabilizing Cloud Feedback Dramatically Expands the Habitable Zone of Tidally Locked Planets ApJ Letters, 771, L 45, 2013 arXiv: 1307.0515v

Headphone utilizing solar power to charge mobile devices

(This article first published on jeeget.blogspot.com)

You would soon get, probably by the start of next year, solar headphones that will come with the power of charging your mobile devices through solar power.

This OnBeat headphone has been launched by Andrew Anderson on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Anderson is expecting to raise £200,000 to start the mass production of headphones.

This headphone is fitted with a flexible solar cell with a charge capacity of 0.55 watts and the generated energy will be stored in two small lithium batteries.

"We are still working on the design and prototype," he told the BBC.

"We need to improve the headphones - people want to know about noise cancellation."

Green energy is gaining huge popularity among the users and this headphone would be a good thing.

Source:

BBC