Single strand of fibre optic to carry net data?

A new type of fibre optic cable developed by researchers in the US and Netherlands has smashed data transfer records, managing to squeeze 255 terabits of information per second down a single strand of glass fibre.

This means that a single fibre optical cable made using this technology could carry as much data as the entire internet at peak times.

To achieve this feat engineers from Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Central Florida created a multi-core strand of glass fibre; a development that they say is tantamount to letting "three cars [...] drive on top of each other in the same lane". Normal fibre optic cables mostly contain thousands of strands of glass fibre, each strand a little thicker than human hair.

These transfer information by bouncing beams of light through the glass - imagine sending a message using morse code by flashing a torch on and off. By managing to scale down these glass fibres, cramming seven cores into a single glass strand, this new technology has achieved transfer speeds of 32 terabytes a second (a byte is eight times as big as a bit) or enough to shift 1,000 gigabytes in 31 milliseconds. This is faster than the total capacity of all the fibre optic cables currently buried under the Atlantic Ocean.

Apple Watch has to be charged everyday : Tim Cook

The much-awaited Apple timepiece will not hit the market till next year, but CEO Tim Cook has revealed that users may only get a day's use before needing to recharge it.

While trying to evade a discussion on Apple Watch's battery life, Cook said that tech enthusiasts will use it so much that they will end up charging it daily. However, his statement has fuelled speculations about the gadget's battery life as it has been a key concern for the company ever since the watch was unveiled on September 9, The Daily Star reported.

Although Apple is confident that their watch will be received well by users yet uncertainties about its battery life persist. Many other smartwatches in the market have similar issues with their battery life.

The device will bring alerts and notifications directly to the user's wrist and will also act as a health tracker and a walkie talkie.

Google Glass may enter emergency room at Reliance Foundation Hospital

Mumbai's Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre will soon be bringing Google Glass to its emergency room, that will allow its doctors to use the cutting-edge technology to access past medical records for quick response.

Google Glass is a tiny computer mounted on eye glasses created by search engine giant Google.

The renovated hospital, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, will be the first in the country to use the search giant Google's smart-eyewear in its everyday operations. The project is still in its pilot phase and will be deployed across the hospital within a month's time, according to Mukesh Jain, CIO at the 345bed, multi-specialty hospital.

Doctors wearing Google Glass can access lab reports of a patient by just tapping on the device, and instead of scribbling notes; they can just talk to the Glass, which in turn will type in all the notes for them. The data can then be transferred to the hospital's information system via 'We Care', an app provided by SAP.

"This remarkable app has the potential to bring patient care to new heights," said Jain. "SAP has blended perfectly with We Care solution — smooth clinical workflow and the smartphone hands-free format of smart glasses — for the potential use of any physician anywhere."

To start with, Reliance is looking at applying Google Glass in emergency care. When a patient is brought into the ER, doctors wearing Google Glass would be able to look up the patients' past records, including x-rays, and collaborate with other departments.

"Usually, in the healthcare environment, it is only the patient who is stationary — everything else is mobile," said Andy David, healthcare director, SAP APJ. "With the help of Google Glass, doctors can attend to multiple patients, engage with them and see almost twice as many patients during the rounds. Doctors can take accurate notes on Google Glass itself. The data is stored automatically and can be accessed when required."

The 'We Care' application, designed by SAP India Labs, could soon turn into a product that will be available to hospitals worldwide. Google Glass costs $1,500 a piece. With increase in usage, its price is expected to drop.

In June this year, Dr Pavan Kumar, head of cardiac surgery at Mumbai's Nanavati Hospital used Google Glass to record a surgery. Nanavati Hospital is also working on an application that will let it use Google Glass for telemedicine.

Why Apple killed iPod Classic

Tim Cook has finally spoken up about killing the iconic iPod Classic media player after the iPhone launch event in September this year.

In an interview at the WSJ.D conference in California, Cook said that iPod Classic met its demise because Apple was unable to procure parts for the music player.

He said, "It wasn't a matter of me swinging the ax, saying 'what can I kill today'. The engineering work was massive, and the number of people who wanted it very small. I felt there were reasonable alternatives."

iPod Classic, which featured a click wheel, last got an update five years ago as iPod touch gained popularity. It was removed from Apple Store website in September this year, marking its official discontinuation.

With storage capacity of 160GB, iPod Classic could store as many as 40,000 songs. iPod touch has maximum storage capacity of 64GB; other iPods in Apple's portfolio are iPod nano and iPod shufle.

A cracker of a Diwali for e-tailers

This Diwali, Indian online retail industry joined the mainstream with the top three players Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal hogging the limelight throughout the festive month of October, helped by massive sales and high-octane marketing.

However, the heavy-duty sales with discounts of over 75% also exposed the industry's weakest link — last mile delivery. Logistics infrastructure of online retailers struggled to deal with the sudden rise in the flow of shipments, leading to pile-ups at airports and packages failing to reach customers on time.

"Online retailing has become mainstream this festival season," said Mukesh Bansal, board member at Flipkart. "A large number of customers have come online. This has been a record month for us with the highest sales ever," said Mukesh Bansal of Flipkart. He declined to reveal the exact number of orders the Bangalore-based company received.

Bansal, who heads fashion at the company, admitted that there were problems too.

"We all found out that the capacity of the logistics network is not enough for the industry," he said.

However, with top companies exceeding their targets, experts said the positives far outweighed all the negatives.

"The online retail industry is the winner this season with all companies beating their own internal targets," said Saurabh Srivastava, director at advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India.

Flipkart, for example, was targeting $3 billion (over Rs 18,300 crore) in overall value of goods sold by end of the fiscal and $4 billion (over Rs 24,500 crore) by mid-2015.

"They are now targeting to reach $4 billion by end of this fiscal itself," said a person with knowledge of the company's sales.

Another person in the know said: "Flipkart has already seen over 80 lakh orders this month and is targeting to do about double next month." In June last year, Flipkart's peak sale was 1.3 lakh orders in one day. During the Big Billion Day, Flipkart's biggest sales event on October 6, the company sold 20 lakh products worth about $100 million (over Rs 600 crore).

Rivals Snapdeal and Amazon have been equally impressive.

"We received daily orders of about 3 lakh," said Sandeep Komaravelly, senior vice president of marketing at Snapdeal.

He said sales in October have more than doubled from September, and the company saw 250% growth month-on-month.

"There was massive adoption of online shopping by the country's consumers, which in turn, saw e-commerce in India growing by almost 200-300% over the past few months, with Snapdeal growing at about 600%," Komaravelly said.

Industry insiders expect Snapdeal to touch gross merchandise sales of over Rs 700 crore in October, significantly higher than its sales of Rs 450-500 crore over the preceding three months. The company has crossed $1 billion (over Rs 6,000 crore) in sales this fiscal.

Amazon India has seen over four-fold jump in transactions, according to a person with knowledge of the company's sales. The company saw a jump in traffic of up to 300% on various days during its 30-day festive season sales. "The response has been beyond our wildest expectations," said Amit Agarwal, country manager and vice president at Amazon India.

Arvind Singhal, chairman of retail advisory Technopak, said: "I don't see a single clear winner among the top three. The growth overall has been spectacular. The aggression shown by them has ensured accelerated growth." The aggression was in the form of highly visible advertisements and brand promotions.

E-commerce companies are estimated to have spent about Rs 200 crore on advertising just this festive season.

Snapdeal alone got on board 28 celebrities and created 50 advertisement films.

The company had blocked up to 2,000 ad spots a day across television channels.

A senior executive at a logistics firm said: "Average shipments per day were at about 1 million before the festive season for the industry and that has almost doubled." The online retail boom was not a big city phenomenon.

"The small locations have seen big volumes. We are fulfilling about 200 orders a day in a small centre like Theni," said TA Krishnan, chief executive of ecommerce focused logistics firm Ecom Express.

Flipkart said it now reaches about 1,000 cities and towns in India through its inhouse logistics team and third-party partners, compared with under 900 before October. Amazon, which did not share the exact amount of sales during the month, said over half of all orders were from non-metros.

But the problems in the industry were also brought into sharp focus this season.

Delay in delivery, chocked airports and increased focus by tax authorities were just some of the troubles that may continue to hobble the rapidly growing sector for some time.

After Flipkart's sales event, traders body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has demanded a probe into pricing models used by e-commerce companies.

While commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman clarified there is no investigation into Flipkart's October 6 sale, state tax authorities have taken notice. "The tax authorities in almost all states are saying if they have so much money to spend on advertisements why not pay tax in their state," said a senior ecommerce executive, who declined to be named. "In Bihar, authorities are already cracking the whip against logistics players who are making deliveries by telling them to pay value added tax." The biggest problem by far is delay in deliveries.

On online consumer complaints platform Akosha, online retail-related complaints have shot up from 700 a day to 3,000. "A number of customers were shopping for Diwali and their orders have not reached in time for Diwali," said Ankur Singla, chief executive officer at Akosha.

About 30% of complaints are about delayed delivery.

Typical delivery period has increased from under five days to over 10, according to logistics executives.

"The biggest letdown has been the aviation capacity. Packages were not picked up by airlines for 2-3 days, resulting in backlogs," said a senior executive at a logistics firm. "We were stopped from entering top airports like Delhi for a few days due to excess packages and have had to use trains and road to move goods." The last-mile hurdles could have a positive impact, said experts. "This has made it clear that e-commerce is dependent on logistics for growth and there is an opportunity for scaling up. We can expect more investments in this space," said Singhal of Technopak.

The logistics executive said his company doubled its revenue to over Rs 17 crore in October compared with September.

Apple iPad Air 2

If I've seen you taking photos with a tablet computer, I've probably made fun of you (though maybe not to your face, depending on how big you are). I'm old school: I much prefer looking through the viewfinder of my full-bodied, single-lens reflex camera, even though it has a large LCD screen.

But as I tested out Apple's new iPad Air 2, I see why people like to shoot pictures with a tablet. Images look great on the large screen, and there's less guesswork about whether or not small details, such as lettering on a sign, will be in focus.

And what you see — and get — with the iPad Air 2 is a better camera. The rear one now matches the iPhone's 8 megapixels, up from 5 megapixels, and incorporates features such as slow-motion video. Packed with a faster processor, the 9.7-inch tablet is also 18 percent thinner and 7 percent lighter than the previous model, at about a quarter of an inch and just under a pound.

Apple is also updating its 7.9-inch iPad Mini, though the cameras, processor and dimensions haven't changed.

The tablets go on sale this week, starting at $499 for the iPad Air 2 and $399 for the iPad Mini 3. Both now have fingerprint ID technology to expedite online purchases through Apple Pay. Gold joins silver and grey as color choices, and pricier models have twice as much storage as before.

Improved camera
The iPad Air 2 takes sharper images. I can tell even before snapping the shot because I see all that detail on the screen. I'm able to read the small name tag on a baby bottle. Lettering on a van across the street looks clearer.

Last month's iOS 8 software update brought panorama and time-lapse features to the iPad. With the iPad Air 2, you can snap 10 shots per second in a burst mode — great for restless kids, as you can choose the best shots later. You also get slow-motion video, though only at 120 frames per second. The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer 240 frames per second as well, so motion looks even slower.

The new Air's front camera gets a burst mode, too, and the front sensor is better than before at capturing light for indoor and night selfies.

Unfortunately, the iPad still doesn't have a flash. Although I prefer taking shots with natural light anyway, a lot of people like the flash. My advice is to light subjects with the iPhone's flashlight.

Better viewing and sound
An anti-reflective coating reduces glare on the iPad Air 2. It's a first for Apple and possibly a first for any consumer mobile device. I was dubious until I watched video with light shining in through my window. The coating didn't eliminate glare completely, but made video viewable. The glare was too distracting on last year's Air.

The coating also promises to improve contrast. However, I had to look hard to notice differences in some dull-color scenes in Showtime's "Homeland." In many cases, the quality of the video stream makes a bigger difference.

To me, the iPad Air 2 also has better speakers. With the volume cranked all the way up, sound is louder on the new model. Apple says there shouldn't be a difference, though I'm not complaining. (My neighbors might, though.)

Other changes
I'm glad to see the fingerprint ID sensor for unlocking both new tablets. Passcodes seem so last century, not to mention inconvenient.

That fingerprint can now be used to authorize Apple Pay purchases in apps. Unlike the new iPhones, the iPad doesn't have a wireless chip needed for in-store transactions. Then again, I'd probably mock anyone who tried to wave a giant device over a cashier's payment terminal. But I can see myself choosing a tablet over a phone for online shopping, and the fingerprint with Apple Pay will work nicely for that.

For the iPad Air 2 only, there's a faster Wi-Fi technology called 802.11ac, though you need new home-networking equipment to take advantage of it. The Air also gets a barometer sensor to track elevation in fitness apps.

The bargain
Last year's iPad Air was a huge improvement over the 2012 iPad, so this year's update seems small by comparison. The improvements might not be enough for existing iPad Air owners to upgrade, but there's enough there for those who have older models or are getting their first tablets.

The update in the iPad Mini is less pronounced. That makes it less tempting to save $100 by going for the Mini. For the same price as an iPad Mini 3, you can get last year's full-size iPad with similar technical specifications. Bargain hunters should consider previous versions of the Mini, including the original model for $249, the cheapest iPad yet.

If you can afford it, though, spend more for added storage. For $599, you get an iPad Air 2 with 64 gigabytes, compared with 16GB in the $499 base model. For $699, you get 128GB. You'll be surprised how quickly your iPad fills up with photos and video — especially now that I won't mock you.

Microsoft officially replaces Nokia name with Lumia

It's almost official! Microsoft is in the process of replacing the Nokia brandname with Microsoft Lumia.

The rebranding exercise will start with France with the company's regional social network accounts set to being renamed from Nokia to Microsoft Lumia. It communicated the same via a Facebook post. Nokia France's Twitter account also posted a link to the post. Following the post, the Redmond giant confirmed the move to The Verge it would start the rebranding exercise in other countries in the coming weeks.

The move comes shortly after Microsoft rebranding Nokia's native apps to Lumia and launched new Microsoft Mobile Devices site redirecting users from the Nokia.com mobile website.

Although Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's handsets division was completed in April for $7.2 billion, we've still seen devices released under the Finnish brand over the past several months. The company's recently launched Lumia 730 and 830 phones sport Nokia branding but it's believed the two devices are the last ones to carry that name.
It's also expected that Microsoft will soon do away with the 'Phone' in the name of its mobile operating system Windows Phone. During the unveiling of Windows 10, Microsoft had announced that it will merge all platforms under a single Windows product.

It's worth pointing out that Nokia still exists as a brand and a separate company based in Finland that focuses on location based services including Here maps, and network equipment. Nokia had agreed to not make a smartphone or phone carrying the Nokia brand till the end of 2015.