Paralysed Woman Controls Robotic Arm With Mind-Control

A breakthrough has been reported in the quality of mind-controlled artificial limbs.

According to a study in the Lancet medical journal, a paralysed woman has been able to pick up objects, move them and place them in precise locations using only a robotic hand - and her mind.

The woman, Jan Scheuermann, was 52 at the time of the study, and has been paralysed for years after being diagnosed with spinocerebellar degeneration.

Her robotic arm works by implanting two sensors - each about 4mm square - in the part of the brain that deals with movement, known as the motor cortex.

Each of the sensors holds about 100 needles, which are able to pick up information from 200 brain cells each.

The electrical pulses are translated into movements for the robotic arm to follow, and after training it appears that the woman could "routinely" use the arm to deftly use and manipulate objects.

"There is no limit now to decoding human motion," Michael Boninger, who worked on the study, told Reuters.

"It gets more complex when you work on parts like the hand, but I think that, once you can tap into desired motion in the brain, then how that motion is effected has a wide range of possibilities."

Bionic arms controlled by the mind have been available in varying forms since at least 2006, but the precision of the movements allowed have often been called into question.

The report said:

"The participant was able to move the prosthetic limb freely in the three-dimensional workspace on the second day of training. After 13 weeks, robust seven-dimensional movements were performed routinely. Mean success rate on target-based reaching tasks was 91.6%"
"The participant was also able to use the prosthetic limb to do skilful and coordinated reach and grasp movements that resulted in clinically significant gains in tests of upper limb function. No adverse events were reported."

Scientists Measure the Spin Rates of Supermassive Black Holes

Using the NuSTAR and XMM-Newton telescopes, researchers traced matter as it swirled into a black hole, resolving a long-standing debate about black holes and gaining a better understanding of how black holes and galaxies evolve.

Pasadena, California — Two X-ray space observatories, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton, have teamed up to measure definitively, for the first time, the spin rate of a black hole with a mass 2 million times that of our sun.

The supermassive black hole lies at the dust- and gas-filled heart of a galaxy called NGC 1365, and it is spinning almost as fast as Einstein’s theory of gravity will allow. The findings, which appear in a new study in the journal Nature, resolve a long-standing debate about similar measurements in other black holes and will lead to a better understanding of how black holes and galaxies evolve.

“This is hugely important to the field of black hole science,” said Lou Kaluzienski, a NuSTAR program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The observations also are a powerful test of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which says gravity can bend space-time, the fabric that shapes our universe, and the light that travels through it.

“We can trace matter as it swirls into a black hole using X-rays emitted from regions very close to the black hole,” said the coauthor of a new study, NuSTAR principal investigator Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “The radiation we see is warped and distorted by the motions of particles and the black hole’s incredibly strong gravity.”

NuSTAR, an Explorer-class mission launched in June 2012, is designed to detect the highest-energy X-ray light in great detail. It complements telescopes that observe lower-energy X-ray light, such as XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Scientists use these and other telescopes to estimate the rates at which black holes spin.

Until now, these measurements were not certain because clouds of gas could have been obscuring the black holes and confusing the results. With help from XMM-Newton, NuSTAR was able to see a broader range of X-ray energies and penetrate deeper into the region around the black hole. The new data demonstrate that X-rays are not being warped by the clouds, but by the tremendous gravity of the black hole. This proves that spin rates of supermassive black holes can be determined conclusively.

Yale Researchers Identify Cells That Morph Into Body Fat

While working with mice, Yale researchers used a process known as differentiation to successfully identified cells with certain types of receptors that could eventually morph into white adipocytes, the cells most people recognize as fat.

Yale School of Medicine researchers have answered a question millions regularly and plaintively ask themselves: Where did all that fat come from?

The research paper, published online February 24 in the journal Nature Cell Biology, identifies specific cell types that eventually morph into white adipocytes — the cells most people recognize as fat.

“Now we can go back into the lab and ask how these cells are activated to actually make the fat,’ said co-author Matthew Rodeheffer, assistant professor of comparative medicine and molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, and a researcher at the Yale Stem Cell Center.

The increase of fat cells in obesity is particularly problematic because once established the cells are difficult to eliminate. However, surprisingly little is known about how fat cells first form. Rodeheffer and co-author Ryan Berry of Yale attacked the problem by isolating cells from fat and studying which cells could turn into fat cells, via a process known as differentiation. They successfully identified cells with certain types of receptors that could in fact become fat cells. The new study in mice confirmed that cells with these specific receptors on their surface are the precursors that create fat cells in the body.

Rodeheffer said it is now possible to study how these cells behave under different conditions, such as exercise, dieting, or overeating. The researchers hope to discover what causes the precursors to make new fat cells in obesity — and one day potentially block their creation.

“And that will keep us busy for the next 20 years,” he said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The Mysterious Structure of a Black Hole Edge

Like an immense donut (or toroid) that expands daily. That’s how Jesús Corral-Santana, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), describes the odd – hitherto unknown – structure of the binary system Swift J1357.2-0933, consisting of a ‘normal’ star and a stellar-mass black hole (which feeds off its companion star). The research, which Corral is first author and is published in the latest issue of Science, follows the stages of the outburst of the system, an event that occurs only once in decades or centuries.

The team observed strange eclipses in the system that lasted and were repeated every few minutes. This finding led them to two conclusions: they had to be viewing the black hole edge on (it had an inclination of at least 75 degrees) and it presented an odd vertical structure within the accretion disc of the system. In other words, the matter being drawn from the companion star formed an outflow in the shape of a whirlpool, rather like water flowing down a plughole.

WWDC 2012 Wrap Up

Every year, Apple brings us something new during their World Wide Developer Confrance. This year a lot has changed with the new Mac Book Pro’s, New OS X Mountain Lion, and of course, IOS 6! With over 200 new features being added to IOS 6 alone, and a new line of Mac Book Pro’s being released completely re-done with brand new hardware and a new look, Apple is sure not to disappoint even though there is still no word on the iPhone 5.

IOS 6 Upcoming Features (Not all listed) http://gizmodo.com/5917359/ios-6-new-features-coming-soon-to-your-iphone-and-…

Mac OS X Mountain Lion: http://macbookpro.macrumors.com/

Register your UDID to get IOS 6 Devoloper Preview:http://www.getudidactivated.com/

IOS 6 Posible Preview Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDK7ut4pc_U

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The Xbox 720 What It May Have

Hello people this is my first post hear on Best Technology but i do hope you will like it. A few days ago news of what the xbox 720 might have on it was leeked to the public so i am hear to give you a short overveiw of some of the things it is aparently going to have acording to this leek. First of all it might atualy be called the xbox 720 as on this leek it was called that. This should not come as shocking news as it does seem like the most likely thing for it to be called, i mean how much cooler does 720 sound than just 3. The next thing might seem odd but it might come with its own PVR. This would be great for some people and not for others, if it can record in HD quality then this would make HDPVR’s and other video capture cards useless if there was then a way to easily get then onto a pc or laptop. This would please people who want to do youtube recordings but cant because they dont have £100+ to spend on a PVR, but on the other hand it will make the people who have bought a PVR feel unhappy as they have just wasted £100+. Now to the atual spec. The CPU is aparently going to have six to eight cores in it wich does sound good and it is also going to have 4gb of RAM.It will also have a second CPU that came from the xbox 360 so it would support backwards compatibility. this is all well and good but you have to remember that this is only a suposid leek and could contain fake information. So far i am not sure what the GPU will be but i can tell you it will not be any of the newest GPU’s as they are far to costly for an xbox or a playstation. From the sound of this leek it should be good and is aparantly going to cost around $300 and is going to be about four to six time more powerful then the xbox 360 this is all i have found out so far. I have left out any services that could come to it after relese and also some things that dont look like they are atualy going to be on this next gen console. I hope you like this and if there are any questions you want to ask please do i will try to answer all of them i can.

This is the coolest consept for a console i have ever seen.

FIREFOX HACK FOR SUPER SPEED BROWSING!

There are many people out there complaining about the Firefox RAM Memory Bug. Lets get it straight. It’s not a bug. It’s part of the cache feature. This ‘feature’ is how the pages are cached in a tabbed environment.

To improve performance when navigating (studies show that 39% of all page navigations are renavigations to pages visited less than 10 pages ago, usually using the back button), Firefox implements a Back-Forward cache that retains the rendered document for the last five session history entries for each tab.

This is a lot of data. If you have a lot of tabs, Firefox’s RAM memory usage can climb dramatically. It’s a trade-off. What you get out of it is faster performance as you navigate the web.

Now a lot of us have found the ’secrets’ on how to manipulate settings in “about:config” to drop the memory usage as long as possible and to increase the speed at which Firefox loads sites. Read on to find out how to do this.

Remember: Firefox (download it here) is the best internet browser available (in my opinion), and these tweaks below will make it even greater and faster. So enjoy!

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for it’s cache feature

Here’s how to do it:
1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the adress bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed in Which Firefox loads pages

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipeliningit will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.

This means it will make 10 requests at once.

3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String

network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false” 
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10mb when Firefox is minimized:

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

These simple tweaks will make your web browsing with Mozilla Firefox 2-3 times faster and easier. And I think they are fairly easy to apply. Enjoy!

Facebook to unveil new News Feed design next week

Get ready for some changes to your Facebook profile.

The social network is unveiling a new design for its News Feed on Thursday, according to an invite sent to journalists today.

The bare-bones invite tells journalists to "Come see a new look for News Feed," at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters next week.

Coincidentally, a new look for Timeline was spotted today in New Zealand, a country where Facebook typically tries out new features. The layout had a single-column for all the posts and updates on your Timeline, instead of two columns.

Optimus G listed on LG India's website for Rs. 35,500

LG's flagship smartphone, the Optimus G has appeared on the official website for Rs. 35,500, without an actual launch event or official announement. The device boasts of a 4.7-inch IPS display and runs on Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

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Yesterday we reported that the LG Optimus G was available online on Saholic for Rs. 30,990. Today the smartphone has appeared on LG India’s official website ahead of its launch. The device is priced at Rs. 35,500 on the official LG page.

The Optimus G is an Android Jelly Bean smartphone with a 4.7-inch IPS display that boasts of a 1280×768 pixel resolution. The Optimus G is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait processor, 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 320 GPU. The Optimus G comes with 32GB of built-in storage but doesn't support external memory cards. With respect to connectivity, the Optimus G supports 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and Bluetooth 4.0. Imaging is taken care of by a 13MP camera that's complemented by an LED flash, and capable of recording 1080p@30 fps videos. The entire package is powered by a 2100mAh battery.

At a street price of Rs. 30,000, the Optimus G will currently take on the big guns – Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One X+ and even the Galaxy Note II. The LG Optimus 4X HD was the device, which was launched to compete with the S III and the One X, but the device didn’t get the attention it deserved.

Comparison: Asus MeMO Pad 7 vs. other budget Android tablets

The Asus MeMO Pad ME172V was launched in India today. We take a quick look at how this budget Jelly Bean tablet stacks up against competing budget devices.

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In the past few months, we have seen the launch of quite a few budget tablets in India boasting of impressive hardware and an attractive price point.

We have seen Acer bring the Iconia B1 for Rs. 7,999 and we have the impressive iberry Auxus CoreX2 3G tablet priced at Rs. 10,000.

Just by looking at the specifications on paper, it is clear that the Asus MeMO Pad ME172V is the most underpowered device from the three.

The MeMO Pad ME172V's VIA WM8950 chipset is quite old and how it performs in benchmarks is something we will tell you when we get our hands on it.

So, here’s a quick comparison look at the specifications and the features of the three tablets, in the table below.
 

Model	Asus MeMO Pad ME172V	Acer Iconia Tab B1	iberry Auxus CoreX2 3G
Processor	VIA WM8950	Mediatek MTK 8317T	Rockchip RK3066
Cores	1	2	2
Clock Speed (GHz)	1	1.2	1.6
RAM (MB)	1024	512	1024
Display Size (inches)	7	7	7
Display type	LED LCD	TFT LCD	IPS
Resolution (pixels)	1024 x 600	1024 x 600	1280x800
Built-in storage (GB)	8	8 / 16	8
Expandable Memory (Yes/No)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Battery Capacity (mAh)	4270	2710	4100
Operating system	Android 4.1	Android 4.1	Android 4.1
Price (MRP)	Rs. 9,999	Rs. 7,999	Rs. 10,990

Sony’s new PlayStation 4 controller has touchpad, motion sensor

New York: Sony is sharing the PlayStation 4 with the world.

The Japanese electronics giant unveiled the new gaming system Wednesday, hyping the machine as a “supercharged PC” with the ability to effortlessly share interactive experiences, by instantly broadcasting video of gaming action or virtually handing out health potions to friends online.

“Today marks a moment of truth and a bold step forward for PlayStation,” said Andrew House, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.

Sony said the system will feature an eight-core processor that can juggle more tasks than the PlayStation 3 and be part of a new digital ecosystem that’s “the fastest, most powerful gaming network.”

“Our long-term vision is to reduce download times of digital titles to zero,” said Mark Cerny, Sony’s lead system architect on the PS4.

SKYPE BETA ADDS GROUP VIDEO CHAT

Windows: The latest Skype beta—released today—adds support for group video calling, allowing you to video conference with up to five people simultaneously.
Currently the group video chat feature is only available on the Windows version, and while it's currently free with the beta, there is a catch:

Group video calling is just one in a set of new premium features you'll see us roll out during 2010. We haven't set prices for these premium features yet, but rest assured that we're still absolutely committed to bringing you free voice and two-way video calling.

It's too bad that the group video chat probably won't be available for free in the long term, especially since, for example, iChat's had group video chat for a while now, and for free. Either way, it's good to see Skype move in this direction, and we're assuming that a lot of people will be excited to try it out.
If you give it a go, share how you like the new group video chat in the comments.

Skype Beta for Windows [via Skype Blog] lifehacker

MOZILLA TO DEVELOP OS BASED ON ANDROID

Mozilla, who are renowned for their successful internet browser, are entering the mobile race, developing a new web-centric OS that will directly compete with Google, Apple and Microsoft.

If the name Mozilla rings any bells it's because they're the tech boffins who put together Internet Explorer, the browser that Windows defaults to. Mozilla took the leviathan computing company on with its Firefox browser, and today it stands as the second most popular browser worldwide.

Now the company who was underdog to Microsoft looks to be playing the same role, but this time against internet mogul Google.

Announced on the Mozilla discussion forum, Mozilla have begun coding for phones and tablets. The BBC revealed the mobile operating system will draw on Android code, with Mozilla writing as much fresh code as possible. The hybrid-like operating system will be named Boot To Gecko. 

It is an unusual name for an OS, until you remember Gecko is the rendering engine employed by the Firefox browser that interprets web page coding and displays it in a screen-friendly format, a homage to its origins.

Even though Android coding will form the operating system's foundations, Mozilla hope to add a much more open wrapper around it than Google currently do, making it more versatile as an operating system.

Its shared foundations will also make Boot To Gecko compatible with the same phones as Android, competing as a direct alternative to Google.

Often, when you select a link from an application native to the Android or iOS market, the operating system will have to open a new webpage in the browser. Boot To Gecko aims to limit this by making applications much more web-centric.

If the venture proves successful, Mozilla will be waging war against industry giants, with Google, Apple and Microsoft dominating many facets of the technological world. 

Mozilla have acknowledged the project is in infancy and have chosen to make the development public in hope it will attract talented enthusiast coders who will contribute to the Boot To Gecko's cause.

According to their project team, all of the code development will be completed and shared with the public as soon as it is written.

Researcher Andreas Gal, who announced the development, admits the company has set a high target, but wants to do it "the way we think open source should be done.

Gal says his ultimate goal is to break "the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile device world," implicitly referring to the practices of Apple, Windows Phone and Google.

Microsoft's Digit allow computer interaction with Hand Gestures

Microsoft’s research lab in Cambridge, UK has developed a new way to interact with the digital world using intuitive hand gestures. “Digits” uses 3 different IR cameras to track the positions of fingers with respect to each other.

One of the applications for this technology includes 3-D spacial interaction with a mobile device. By assigning gestures to certain functions, the user could conceivably control any aspect of a device. This also allows for vision free control of the device. In example used in Microsoft’s video, they assigned the the “thumb’s up” to answer an incoming call.

Other applications include sign language interpretation and endless possibilities for gaming. Could this be the new controller for XBox 720? Guess we will have to wait to find out.

Microsoft Digits – 3D Hand Gesture Computer Interaction

Exciting features of the android smartphone

Google revealed Android operating system 2007 based on Linux primarily reflected for tablets and smart phone initially developed by Android Inc and Google purchased it in 2005. This OS also allows to be used in other electronic devices such as eBook Reader, Smart TV, Smart Books, Net books etc

Google also founded an Open Handset Alliance which is a consortium of 86 telecommunications,
hardware and software companies dedicated to enhance open standard for mobile devices under
Apache License. Companies such as HTC and Samsung, wireless carriers like Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and chipset maker such Qualcomm and Texas Instruments are associated with Android.

Android Applications:
All applications are coded in java using Android Software Development Kit and are available for
download with Google Play, Amazon Appstore and other web site as you search with any search engine.
In the first quarter of 2012, Android had smart phone market share of 68% worldwide. Android offers more than 600000 applications and it exceeds total download from just Google Play is around 20 billion installed on more than 400 million devices around the world.

Android Security:

Android is total Linux based and consists of kernel. Kernel is a software component bridged between
application layer and hardware layer. As it is developed in java it uses just in time compilation which
translates java codes into byte code. Android hardware platform is ARM architecture.

Android has a Sandbox concept, applications runs in Sandbox and restrict access to rest of the system resources. Access to the system resources depend on what permission user provide while installing a particular app. You don’t need an antivirus in such case as Sandbox will be ineffective and it will not allow an antivirus for deeper scan.

User Interface:

Tapping and swiping is really easy with the latest version of Android, the respond to the user input is
immediate and quick. Additional user action performance improved with the internal hardware such as accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor. The home screen of an Android phone can be found very similar to the desktop including widgets and app. App are app icons and widgets point to live or auto update content such as weather forecast, emails notification, news and many such stuff.
Status bar is important as displays the device information and its connectivity. Status bat can be moved across the screen and fit anywhere. Calling back is very easy to the missed calls by following missed call notification. All notifications are persistent until you read or dismiss them.

Intel Chips In With Its Own Web TV Service

Intel is getting inside Internet TV.

What's been grist for rumor mills for weeks was finally confirmed Tuesday. Intel's TV offering -- which won't be branded with the Intel name -- will be a combination hardware, software and content package designed to "delight" consumers, said Erik Huggers, general manager for Intel Media, during the All Things D Dive Into Media Conference.

Planned for release later this year, Intel's TV package will include hardware that will have a "beautiful" industrial design, said Hugger. It will support live and on-demand TV, as well as apps.

It will also have a camera, which privacy-conscious consumers may want to turn off. The camera could be used for video chats and observing the habits of TV watchers in order to serve up their favorite content when they appear in camera range, and for targeting ads at them.

All those factors could make the camera a controversial element of the package. "People are freaking out about the camera," NPD industry analyst Ben Arnold told TechNewsWorld.

Intel did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Microsoft Lets Skypers Leave Face Mail

Microsoft announced on Friday that Skype users will now be able to leave video messages via the Voice over IP service. This new messaging service, which is now undergoing a beta test, will allow users to send video recordings to contacts even if they're offline or on another call.

What's different about this announcement is that it seems aimed more at mobile users than the traditional desktop users of Skype. Users on Windows who receive the video messages will receive a link rather than a video clip, while Android, iOS and even Mac users will receive a video message in their mailbox.

All Skype users will need the most recent software update to utilize the service.

Microsoft is pitching this as an alternative to traditional text or voice messages.

"Skype Video Messaging lets you stay connected with your friends via Skype even when they aren't available," said Microsoft spokesperson Tara Gremillion. "You can now communicate with family and friends, even when they are busy."

Where's the Demand?

While text messaging is widely used for quick exchanges that don't warrant a phone call and voice mail still has its place, the question needs to be asked -- who exactly could benefit from a video message?

"It is like video phone mail, but I can't picture anyone who would want to use it," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

"The business use isn't there, but it could be something for kids who want to leave messages for parents or a modification of a grandma camera," he suggested.

"It is so much easier to leave a voice mail message or send an instant message," Enderle told TechNewsWorld. "The exception would be if you wanted to send multiple people a clip from your vacation. That sort of thing might be worth it."

Video messaging seems to be a solution without a need -- circumstances that would make a video message worth a thousand words.

"There is a culture change that has to take place," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Research. "There hasn't been a reason to use video messaging so far, but it is possible it will become popular. Once you see other people do it, it won't be so strange."

This chicken-and-egg scenario could be solved by the next generation.

1-2 Celestial Punch Raises Questions About Space Object Defenses

A blazing meteor streaked across the skies of Russia on Thursday, leaving a large smoke trail in its wake before blowing up over the remote town of Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountains. More than 1,000 people reported injuries, and windows across the region were shattered by a deafening sonic boom.

A meteor seen flying over Russia on Feb. 15 at 3:20:26 UTC impacted Chelyabinsk. Preliminary information is that this object was unrelated to asteroid 2012 DA14, which made a safe pass by Earth today. (Image credit: Google Earth, NASA/JPL-Caltech)

On Friday, a 150-foot-wide asteroid named 2012 DA14 whizzed by the Earth with just over 17,000 miles of separation to spare. That makes it the closest approach ever to the planet for a space rock of that size.

The two celestial events were not connected, NASA said; they approached the Earth from different trajectories. Yet they are just two of several meteors and asteroids that have come close to the Earth in the past few years.

There are between 3,200 and 4,700 potentially hazardous asteroids in our solar system, NASA estimated. This week's sky shows, while fascinating to watch, have spurred discussions about whether the system for detecting potentially dangerous meteors and asteroids is adequate -- and if not, what is being done about it.

Android and Apple extend smartphone dominance

Google's Android system was used on 70.1 percent of smartphones shipped in the quarter, while Apple held 21 percent, according to research firm IDC. "The dominance of Android and Apple reached a new watermark in the fourth quarter," said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. Over the full year, this gave the two platforms 87.6 percent of the world smartphone market, and underlined the challenge facing smaller players in trying to break their dominance. Llamas said Android benefitted from "a broad selection of smartphones, and an equally deep list of smartphone vendor partners" while Apple got traction from its new iPhone 5 and lower prices on its older models. IDC said the global market for smartphones grew 46 percent last year with 722 million units shipped—some 227 million of them in the fourth quarter alone. The report highlighted the tough task for other smartphone vendors, including BlackBerry and those using the Microsoft Windows Phone platform. BlackBerry remained the number three platform but its market share slid to just 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter, and 4.5 percent for the year. That compared with 10.3 percent for 2011. The Windows Phone platform grew some 150 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, helped by the introduction of the Windows Phone 8 platform and new models from Nokia and HTC. But the platform accounted for just 2.6 percent of the market in the fourth quarter. "With the recent introductions of two new smartphone platforms we expect some ground to be made by the new entrants over the coming years," said Ryan Reith, another IDC analyst. "There is no question the road ahead is uphill for both Microsoft and BlackBerry, but history shows us consumers are open to change.

NASA designs new space telescope optics

Research scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., are developing new space telescope optics that won't just detect planets similar to Earth, but actually take photos of them. To take photos, called "direct imaging," a new technology will be used called phase-induced amplitude apodization (PIAA). In development since 2003, it is a proof-of-concept and technology tested prototype that is a strong candidate for NASA's upcoming direct imaging exoplanet missions expected to launch in the 2020 decade and beyond. "By blocking the glare and diffraction from the star, we can start seeing planets that would otherwise be obscured. With this technology, direct imaging confirmation of a habitable zone exoplanet would happen for the first time," said Ruslan Belikov, a NASA astrophycist and technical lead of the coronagraph technical experiment at Ames. Today, scientists use primarily indirect methods, such as the "transit method," to detect extra-solar planets. This method measures the dimming of a star as the planet passes between it and the telescope's line of sight. By observing the changes in starlight, scientists can determine a planet's size, its distance from the host star, and the orbital period. This method is currently used by NASA's Kepler mission, which was launched in 2009 to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone. In the future, however, a different approach in design and concept may be used to detect common biomarkers of life, such as oxygen and liquid water, on planets similar to Earth orbiting sun-like stars. PIAA is a "direct imaging" technique, which means it takes actual photos of exoplanets. The difficulty in taking such photographs is that the star's brilliance causes diffraction and glare to overwhelm dim planets in orbit around it. To solve this problem, a telescope needs to suppress the diffraction of the starlight.