Engineering – Page 177 – Take off with Natarajan

Steve Jobs On His First Day at Apple !!!!

March 28, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Source: news.com.au

STEVE Jobs didn’t always wear his signature black skivvy. In fact, newly found photos showed he wore purple on his first day at work. Well kind of.

A former Apple employee recently discovered a set of photos of Steve Jobs taken on the first day of his return to the company.

Jobs had been fired from Apple in 1985 after allegedly organising a “Coup d’état” of the Apple board. He was invited back to the company more than a decade later in 1996.

Former Mac OS Evangelist Tim Holmes had been working late that night, and was invited by his boss to attend a “Town Hall” meeting which was usually for things like company announcements.

However, “it was clearly not a company meeting,” Holmes wrote on his Flickr account.

STEVE JOBS

Source: news.com.au

Holmes said he called his wife and told her to meet him there. “We had no idea what was about to happen.”

You can guess what happened next. Apple was about to introduce Jobs as the de-facto chief. (Then CEO, Gil Amelio would be ousted within a year).

The photos were taken with one of Apple’s first cameras, the Apple QuickTake. It was a camera Jobs himself would kill within the year, and probably for good reason. The colours were all wrong.

Holmes emphasized that Jobs was wearing a black jacket “in real life”, as opposed to the bright purple it appears to be in the photo.

“The colours are way off due to the poor quality of digital cameras in 1996,” Holmes explained.

STEVE JOBS

source::::news.com.au

Indian startup aims for the moon – and $30 million Prize Money!!!!

March 23, 2013March 23, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE | MOON | SPACE | TEAM INDUS

Rahul Narayan, who describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, is the founder of Team Indus. It is the only Indian team in a race to the moon by privately funded groups competing for the largest international incentive prize of all time – the Google Lunar X Prize.

Google is offering $30 million in prizes to the first privately funded teams to safely land a robot on the Moon, including a grand prize and other bonus prizes.

With a purse of $30 million, the competition will reward the first privately funded team to softland on the moon, travel 500 metres and transmit back to earth, at a distance of nearly 4 lakh km.!!!!!!

In a conversation with Reuters, Narayan talks about Team Indus’ prospects, timing, his struggle to be taken seriously by investors and why he would not be too disappointed if someone else wins.

Q: What is the biggest challenge in this mission?

A: Everything is a challenge – money, finding advisers, being taken seriously, reaching out to people.

Almost all of it is uncharted territory. Nobody’s done a (privately funded) mission before, definitely not from India.

Q: How was Team Indus formed?

A: I had gotten in touch with them (organizers) saying, if there was an Indian team, please let me know, I’d like to work with them. They got back to me saying there was no Indian team, and if you want to set up a team, we can give you a bit of expert help. That’s when I got out of whatever startups I was doing.

Q: How did you recruit people for this project?

A: Almost our entire team right now is people who came to our website and said they wanted to work.

Q: When is your planned launch date?

A: We plan to launch sometime in 2015.

Q: How much have you spent so far? What is the projected total cost?

A: We’ve spent about one crore rupees (10 million rupees, or about $185,200), including for registration, a little bit of prototype being done, operational expenses and salaries. It’s a design effort and we are not doing any hardware yet. Total spend, we expect it to be $15 million.

Q: Where do you see yourself among the 23 active teams?

A: We believe we are in the top five. We believe the moment we sign up with ISRO, we will be in the top two. Signing up with ISRO is the one big event that changes a lot of things for us. It has not happened yet, but we’ve started talking to them. (The Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, is the primary space agency of the Indian government. Team Indus plans to use ISRO’s PSLV satellite launch vehicle for its moon mission)

Q: The competition rules state that the project must be 90 percent privately funded. So how are you managing?

A: Right now it is founder-funded. We’ve divided the cost into three different parts. One is cost of design, second is the cost of building it and the third is the cost of launching it. We have separate strategies for each one of them. For designing, we will be looking for investments. Building it is where we are looking at partnerships (aerospace companies, IITs or government agencies). We are looking at these people to partner with us and potentially contribute, if not money, then equipment. The last part, we are going to do crowdfunding.

Q: Why would investors be interested?

A: I started by saying we are an aerospace company. So we see this as a company which is doing a project, and it will continue doing other aerospace projects or derived technologies or IPR, or licensing rights from what we’re going to do here (moon mission).

We are a for-profit company. It’s not just this mission, we will continue building beyond it.

Q: What if somebody else beats you to the prizes?

A: We’re definitely aiming for the first prize. We’ve got one bonus prize built into it. But, if all the prizes go away in 2014 and I’ve booked my launch with ISRO, that doesn’t mean I stop. I have to go because I’ve already done my engineering, I’ve already spent the money and probably just a residual amount is left. So you’d see that differently as then maybe it converts from a Google Lunar X Prize mission to simply a India’s mission. It’s a people mission, people have contributed to it, people have worked in it, and people have a part in it.

Q: What would losing mean for your team?

A: Even if we lose, we’ll still accomplish a fantastic engineering feat. Prize money is just one component of it, so I’m talking about a company which is going to continue after the prize money….

source:::: David Lalmalsawma in Reuters US

Natarajan

You can follow the David on Twitter @confusedat30

A Private Jet Maker Is Thriving By Making Old Planes New Again !!!!!

March 21, 2013March 21, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Designing a new airplane is an incredibly expensive, complicated, and long process, one that can prove wasteful if not executed properly — as Boeing‘s troubled Dreamliner jet has proven in recent months.

nextant 400XT on Production Floor

In 2007, looking to avoid the costs and pitfalls that come with new aircraft, aviation entrepreneur Kenn Ricci created a business that would sell small jets for half of what they usually cost, thanks to a simple change.

Instead of building new jets, Nextant Aerospace would take old jets, refurbish them, and sell them for 50 cents on the dollar.

The result, President Sean McGeough says, gives you “everything a new aircraft gives you.” Unless a buyer is dead set on having a 100 percent new plane, he seems right. That’s because Nextant retains the hull of the plane, then replaces just about everything else.

So far, Nextant has produced one model, the 400XT, based on the Hawker 400. The huge cost of designing a plane from scratch does not have to be recouped, so the price of the planes stays low.

In refurbishing a jet, the airframe is kept, while the avionics and any life-limited components, along with the interior, are replaced. From start to finish it takes about 6,000 man hours of work, around 16 weeks.

Before re-entering service, the jets go through the same certification process and flight testing as any new plane. The end result, McGeough says, is a “virtually new” airplane.

Nextant

In fact, he says, the updated planes are often improvements of their original selves, because they are outfitted with systems developed since the planes were first designed. Once a Hawker 400 becomes a Nextant 400 XT, its operating costs drop 30 percent, and its range improves by 50 percent, says McGeough.

McGeough joined Nextant as President after leading Hawker Beechcraft’s international operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. Selling old planes instead of new ones was “very new territory,” he says, but he was drawn to Nextant by its value proposition and track record of high deliveries: 25 planes in 13 months.

Matt Doyle is the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Flight Options, a fractional jet ownership company that has purchased 12 aircraft from Nextant (its chairman is Kenn Ricci, Nextant’s founder). Asked if he hesitated before buying refurbished aircraft, Doyle said no.

If Flight Options can offer essentially new planes to its customers for half the cost, and saves everyone money, it’s a good deal, Doyle told Business Insider.

Nextant

That’s especially important in a private jet industry that has been lagging in the United States in the wake of the recession. Nextant has sold aircraft to corporate clients, commercial fleet operators, and wealthy individuals.

Its business model has proved popular abroad as well: Despite expectations that its clients would be mostly domestic for the first few years, McGeough now predicts 60 percent of its products over the next three to five years will go to foreign buyers.

So far, Nextant has not gone beyond its first product, the refurbished 400XT. To build on its early success, the company is getting ready to announce its next model, a few months from now.

And while selling old planes may seem questionable, the saga of Boeing’s Dreamliner — the commercial passenger jet full of new technology that was designed to change the industry — proves its wisdom.

The Dreamliner debacle is an example of why remanufacturing works, McGeough argues: “You don’t go through the teething problems you would on a cleansheet design,” and you work only with proven technology.

source::::businessinsider.com

Natarajan

Beluga….Super Transporter Plane from AIR BUS !!!!….A Jumbo Giant in Sky!!!!

March 21, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Business is booming at Airbus: The European planemaker just closed a huge deal to sell $24 billion worth of A320 jets to Indonesia’s Lion Air, and it’s busy building the A350 XWB, the plane it created to compete with Boeing‘s 787 Dreamliner.

Airbus is based in Toulouse, France, but produces planes in the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, and China.

To transport the wings and fuselages of half-built planes from one factory to another, it needed a plane bigger than any standard cargo jet.

So it built the Beluga.

Developed in the 1990s and based on the A300 (the wings, engines, landing gear, and lower portion of the fuselage are the same), the Beluga has one of the biggest cargo holds in the world.

It’s the best way to get the body of a jumbo jet, a fleet of helicopters, or even a priceless painting across the planet.

It’s also one of the strangest looking planes in the skies.. Airbus Created This Bizarre Plane To Fly Jumbo Jet Parts Around The World

airbus beluga transport plane

With its main compartment open, the Beluga looks like a whale swallowing its prey…thus the name .It is built to fit entire aircraft fuselages..On a typical flight, Beluga carries more than 100,000 pounds of cargo. It is 56 Feet tall !..And the diameter of the fuselage is 24 Feet…

The Beluga is available for charter. In 1999, it was used to fly Eugene Delacroix’s huge painting, ‘Liberty Leading the People,’ from Paris to Tokyo for an exhibition.
Seeing it on the ground, it’s hard to believe the huge plane can get airborne. But it’s actually made with a maximum takeoff weight of 341,713 pounds.

At the 2012 ILA Berlin Airshow in September, one was used to attract potential employees. It’s official name is the A300-600ST Super Transporter.

The Beluga is available for charter. In 1999, it was used to fly Eugene Delacroix's huge painting, 'Liberty Leading the People,' from Paris to Tokyo for an exhibition.

From the ground, it seems almost like a normal jumbo jet — but not quite. Its wingspan measures more than 147 feet.

source::::businessinsider.com

Natarajan

A King In Waiting !!!…Race For The Crown is Still Wide Open !!!…Apple or Samsung!!!!

March 18, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Illustration: Deepak Harichandan

The race for SMART Phone crown, in which Samsung has gained pace, is for Apple to lose

The anointment of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the new Pope was overshadowed by a coronation of a different kind last week. Amidst hype, some warranted and a lot not so, Korean chaebol Samsung was anointed as King of the Smartphone by all and sundry after it unveiled the Galaxy S4 last Thursday night in New York. The S4 is the chaebol’s latest shot at dethroning the King from Cupertino.

“The King is dead; long live the King”, the cry went out—a narrative whose truth is directly proportional only to the number of times it is repeated, and not based on any solid foundation.

Ironically, this new coronation story is far more apt from the perspective of the Indian market. But more on that a little later.

From 2009 – 2011, Apple, which invented the modern smartphone, enjoyed being the lone player in the market. This period also saw Apple’s stock zoom, in pace with its profits. The last two years however, which has seen the death of Steve Jobs and a management reshuffle, have given observers and investors alike a number of wrong assumptions.

Myth number one: Apple at any point had an overwhelming market share advantage for the iPhone. And myth number two: Now that Apple has a serious and successful competitor, it won’t be able to compete as its forte has always been staying ahead of the market rather than fighting it out.

Be the smartphone market or the mobile phones market, the fact is that Apple has always been behind in terms of sheer units sold. In the wholly smartphone market, the iPhone has a 20 per cent market share, and in all phone handsets, it has never crossed the double-digit mark. Nokia, BlackBerry and Samsung have always beaten Apple in this.

Criticising Apple for not winning the market-share game and letting Samsung sell a huge number of S3s is similar to criticizing BMW for selling fewer cars than Maruti Suzuki.

The second myth comes with the assumption that because Apple finally has a serious competitor in Samsung, it has already lost the race. Au contraire, the race has only begun! Last quarter, Apple took 72 per cent of the industry’s profits, while Samsung got 29 per cent. These numbers total more than 100 per cent because all other handset makers, combined, are losing money.

And this is where the true race is – in profits, not market share— a lesson that Nokia and Microsoft are learning now. It is because over the next four or five years, the smartphone bubble is going to burst, very similar to the way the personal computer (PC) bubble burst a couple of years ago. The PC market didn’t solely slow down because of the explosion of tablets and smartphones. It went down mainly because technology had reached a point where PCs went right past being “good enough” and straight into “insanely overpowered” for the normal user.

The average mom-and-pop user suddenly became satisfied with buying a new PC once in four or five years, when ten years ago it used to be once in two years. The market for PCs, consequently, took a big hit.

The same thing is destined to happen with smartphones, once the technology for durability is set in place. And indeed, one can see evidence of it already with the eight core processor in the Galaxy S4.

Nevertheless, no matter how many times Samsung executives click their heels together and say “There’s no place like Cupertino, there’s no place like Cupertino,” – they will not be able to win the profit race. Unless, of course, they discover some way to cash in on downstream revenue the way Apple does with its golden egg laying hen- the App Store.

While the momentum lead might be with Samsung, there is no evidence in what is happening in the Western markets that suggests that Apple has been dethroned in any way. If anything, a glimpse at what is happening in the Indian market is a far better indicator of Samsung’s ascension.

It is no secret that Apple prefers Chinese noodles over Indian curry – its focus over the last two years on China at the expense of India has allowed Samsung to entrench itself here quite deeply. Samsung sold nearly 45 per cent of the 5.2 million smartphones sold in India in the last quarter. However, numbers don’t wholly matter as evidenced above.

What does matter is that Samsung has taken a leaf out of Apple’s book and, over the last three years, has started the process of cleverly positioning itself as a premium/luxury brand. It started simple – the company set up posh, aesthetically-pleasing Samsung ‘experience centres’. Contrast this to where iPhones are sold in India – lined up with other phones in normal mobile stores like a street cart vendor who sells vegetables.

A huge marketing and advertising budget, and a focus on a plethora of features, has seen the last two premium launches of Samsung, the Galaxy Grand and the Note, greeted as a sort of status symbol.

Whether or not Samsung can replicate this success in international markets depends on how intensely Apple is willing to fight back, even as the ghost of its late founder still weighs heavily on the company.

The race for the crown, which is still wide open, is very much for Apple’s to lose. A coronation at this stage would be extremely premature.

The market-share narrative is glaringly wrong, with Steve Jobs it was always about ‘advancing the human race.’ But if he visited Apple now, he would say something like “I’ve been dead for two years, and we’re still arguing over who makes higher resolution screens? That’s boring now. Let’s invent something new. And by the way, fire whoever thought it was okay to have 21 icons on the iPhone 5.”

anuj.s@thehindu.co.in

SOURCE::::THE HINDU

Natarajan

Keywords: Samsung Galaxy S4, smartphones, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S3

Highest and Largest Infinity Pool in the World …at Singapore !!!

March 15, 2013March 15, 2013Natarajan1 Comment

The Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore opened its doors in 2010, to the tune of a whopping $5.7 billion.That amount paid for the massive 2,561-room hotel, a museum, casino, restaurants, bars, a swanky shopping mall, and the pièce de résistance: the SkyPark, an insane rooftop pleasure dome with a 150-meter (492 ft.) infinity pool.Click here to see photos >

Located on the 57th floor, this pool offers stunning views of Singapore’s financial district, Marina Bay, and beyond. It’s the largest and highest infinity pool in the world, according to the hotel, and if you swim up to the pool’s edge, it feels like you’re about to fall off the top of the world !!!!!

source::::: businessinsider.com

Natarajan

Here’s what Marina Bay Sands looks like from the outside. The SkyPark, which connects the hotel’s three towers, looks a bit like a cruise ship perched in the air.

For context, here's what Marina Bay Sands looks like from the outside. The SkyPark, which connects the hotel's three towers, looks a bit like a cruise ship perched in the air.

The pool is just as stunning as you might think.
It really does look like you're about to fall off the edge of the pool.

There are incredible views of Singapore's financial district.

Biggest Name in Android Rolls Out its 2013 Flagship…Samsung Galaxy S4 !!!

March 15, 2013March 15, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Dsc_2369-hero

Samsung’s Unpacked events are nothing if not spectacles, and tonight at Radio City Music Hall in New York City the company used the time to introduce its latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4. The S4 succeeds the wildly popular Galaxy S III, and brings with it a litany of new features and tweaks — though at first glance, you might not even notice it’s different.

The GS4 looks a lot like the Galaxy S III or the Galaxy Note 8. A lot. The phone’s nearly the same size as its predecessor, despite having a larger 5-inch, 1080p Super AMOLED screen that is the first of its kind in a smartphone. The GS4 is taller but thinner (just 7.9mm) than the GSIII, and is lighter as well. Samsung’s basic design ID hasn’t changed, which is unfortunate: the GS4 is plasticky and feels much cheaper than a device like theHTC One, though Samsung at least squared the edges slightly and added just enough texture that it doesn’t feel slick or slimy like the GS3 does. But from the colors – “white frost” and “black mist,” or just white and black if you’re a human — to the ports and buttons to the way it feels in your hand, Samsung hasn’t changed the way it thinks a phone should look.

Samsung’s consistently on the bleeding edge of smartphone horsepower, and that continues here: the Galaxy S4 is built to fly. It’ll be sold with either a Samsung Exynos 5 or Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, depending on region, and every model will come with 2GB of RAM, a big 2,600mAh battery, and 16, 32, or 64GB of storage (plus a microSD slot if you want to add more). The 5-inch display is the belle of the ball, of course, and it looks great — we don’t love the PenTile subpixel arrangement, but on such a high-res display it didn’t seem to cause any problems. Viewing angles are great, colors pop on the Super AMOLED display, and the bezels on the device have been slimmed to the point where the screen feels even larger and more immersive.

These are mostly small improvements, though, and in some ways the Galaxy S4 feels like an upgrade designed less for people who own the previous generation and more for those looking for a first smartphone, or upgrading from a two-year-old device. (Call it the Galaxy S IIIS.) One aspect did get a significant upgrade, though: the GS4’s new 13-megapixel rear-facing camera comes with both upgraded hardware and some new software flourishes. For starters, Samsung adopted some of the menus and options from the Galaxy Camera, like the on-screen mode dial and a few of the scene modes. The Eraser mode is one of our favorites: it takes a series of quick pictures, then automatically detects motion in the background and lets you seamlessly remove it. Goodbye, photo bombers.

In classic Samsung form, there are countless different ways to take a picture. DualShot lets you take a picture with both front and rear cameras at once, using pre-made templates that embed one within the other. Drama Shot takes a burst of shots and overlaps them — Samsung’s demo showed a guy jumping off a rock, and it had automatically layered every stage of his jump into one shot. Cinema Photo is probably the most fun, allowing you to take a series of shots, and pick one part of the photo to move while the others stay still; it’s basically Cinemagram for your GS4, and lets you make goofy GIFs in the time it takes to shoot five photos. The camera is fast and usable even while doing such complex things — it’s clear there’s processing power to spare on the GS 4.

Software

The Galaxy S4 runs Android 4.2.2, for now the most current version of Google’s operating system, but Samsung spent most of its time touting what it’s added on top of the OS. These features vary wildly, from the simple utility — S Translator, which translates messages and emails to and from any language — to what amounts to a complete re-imagining of how we use a smartphone. “Air Gestures” let you scroll through pictures or scroll a webpage by literally swiping with your hand, without touching the screen — you just sweep from left to right over top of the phone, and it responds. It looksridiculous, but it works. “Air View” gives your finger the power to hover over an email or date and see the information hidden behind, which previously only the Note and S Pen combination could handle. Those both work surprisingly well, though they’re certainly as much gimmick as game-changer. From our limited testing, “Smart Pause” and “Smart Scroll” skew more toward gimmick — they’re supposed to detect your eyes, and either pause your movie when you look away or scroll when you reach the bottom of a page, but neither worked much at all in our time with the GS4.

The most ambitious of Samsung’s new features is S Health, which Samsung has made vastly more powerful — it now amounts to Samsung putting a Fitbit or Jawbone Up into your phone. The GS4 has a pedometer built in, plus temperature and humidity sensors, which can automatically detect your surroundings and your exercise levels. You can input how much you eat and sleep, too, and get all the data you’d expect from an external device right on your phone. There’s even a companion wristband, the S Band, that syncs via Bluetooth to your phone for those moments you’re walking around without your phone in your pocket.

Somehow packed into the small phone along with all those sensors is an IR blaster, which pairs with Samsung’s WatchOn app to serve as a combination universal remote and visual TV Guide — just point your phone at your TV. It’s the same Peel-based system we’ve seen on a handful of Samsung tablets, and it makes perfect sense on a phone as well.

Samsung loves to talk about how its devices work together, and the newest feature for GS4 owners is Group Play — it lets you cue up a song or a picture, and quickly share it in sync with any other GS4 owner nearby. You can even use it to play local multiplayer games, so long as the app supports it; Asphalt 7 and Gun Bros 2 are the two launch partners, but other games should support the feature soon. NFC remains the key connection point, and unless all your friends buy GS4’s we’re betting Group Play is a better demo than it is a practical feature.

Befitting its global spectacle of a launch event, the Galaxy S4 is going to be available around the world, and Samsung’s continuing the scorched-earth strategy that worked so well with the GSIII. The device will be available on all four major US carriers, plus Cricket and US Cellular. It’ll be out in the second quarter of this year, and Samsung wouldn’t comment on price except to say it will have a “premium Samsung smartphone price.”

At first blush, the Galaxy S4 doesn’t feel revolutionary, but given the continued success of its predecessor maybe a revolution wasn’t called for. It’s a faster phone with a better screen, a better camera, and some cool new software features, and for the company that’s nearly synonymous with the word “Android,” that may be enough to ensure another huge success.

source:::: The Verge

Natarajan

Famous Indians In Silicon Valley…Part 2… Sundar Pichai….An Indian To Head Google”s Android Division !!!

March 15, 2013March 15, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

In continuation of my earlier blog post on the ” Famous Indians In Silicon valley ” published on Dec 12 2012 wherein Mr. Sundar Pichai “s profile appeared, i am delighted to publish Part 2 of that Blog covering Mr. Sundar Pichai”s yet another successful milestone in his career . We are all very proud of you Mr. Sundar Pichai…

Natarajan

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Andy Rubin, the architect of Android, the world’s top-selling mobile operating system, has decided to step down as Google Inc combines mobile software divisions under one roof, the company said on Wednesday.

Sundar Pichai speaks during Google I/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Google Chrome, speaks during Google I/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

Google appointed Sundar Pichai, the executive overseeing its Chrome web browser and applications like Google Drive and Gmail, to take over Rubin’s responsibilities, hinting at how the company with the dominant Internet search engine intends to address the rise of mobile devices.

In a blog post, Larry Page, Google’s chief executive and co-founder, credited Rubin for evangelizing Android several years ago and building it into a free, open-source platform that runs on nearly three-quarters of the world’s smartphones and is used by the world’s largest handset manufacturers, from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to HTC Corp .

“Having exceeded even the crazy ambitious goals we dreamed of for Android – and with a really strong leadership team in place – Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google,” Page wrote. “Andy, more moonshots please!

The merger of the Chrome and Android divisions helps resolve a longstanding tension in the Mountain View, California-based company’s corporate strategy, and reflects a convergence of mobile and desktop software.

When Google poured resources into launching the Chrome web browser five years ago, the company laid out a vision of the Internet and an ecosystem of Google apps based on the Web. But the Android operating system, acquired by Google in 2005, has also been a runaway success, enabling third-party handset makers like Samsung to overtake Apple Inc while also spawning a massive economy of third-party apps that are only loosely affiliated with Google.

Under Pichai’s direction, Google has released several netbook computers using the Chrome operating system. Last month, when Pichai unveiled the Chromebook Pixel, the first Chrome-based laptop with a touch-screen interface, analysts noted that Chrome and Android appeared to be on converging paths.

“You had this Chrome OS and this Android Group that were building in many overlapping products,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner.

Gartenberg argued that despite Android’s overwhelming popularity, it is Chrome that remains at the core of Google’s strategy.

“For Google, it’s not about the platform, but the ecosystem,” Gartenberg said. “They’re more concerned long-term about Google Docs, Google Voice, Google Books, and less about helping Samsung sell more phones.”

Chrome, Gartenberg added, “is the purest expression of Google’s philosophy.”

“Sundar has a talent for creating products that are technically excellent yet easy to use – and he loves a big bet,” Page wrote. “So while Andy’s a really hard act to follow, I know Sundar will do a tremendous job doubling down on Android as we work to push the ecosystem forward.”

Android is now installed on roughly two-thirds of the world’s smartphones, supplanting Apple Inc at the pinnacle of the fast-moving mobile arena.

Android tablets are also expected to overtake Apple’s iPad in terms of shipments in 2013, IT research house IDC predicted on Tuesday.

But Android’s explosive growth – and the companies it has boosted – have also concerned Google’s leadership. Rubin himself has warned other Google executives that Samsung could use its heft to renegotiate its ad revenue-sharing deals with Google, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

LEADING VOICE

The re-shuffle reinforces Pichai, a senior vice president, as one of the leading voices within Google.

Trained as an engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, before moving to the United States, Pichai holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He joined Google in 2004.

In 2008, Pichai aggressively pushed Google’s Chrome browser, when Microsoft Corp’s Explorer lorded over the market. Chrome now commands a roughly 35 percent market share according to Web traffic analyzers StatCounter.

He is also credited with the development of some of the company’s most successful cloud-based apps, such as Calendar and Gmail, and has also steered Google Drive.

“Today we’re living in a new computing environment,” Page wrote. “People are really excited about technology and spending a lot of money on devices.”

source:::: yahoo news

With Samsung Galaxy S4 launching, it wouldnt have been a better time for Sundar Pichai to take the reins of Android.

Natarajan

Two Indian Americans among ‘Intel Science Talent Search’ Finalists…

March 14, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

The recent high school research competition that was conducted by the Intel Science Talent Search has proved the capability of the young in the field of innovation these days. Indians too have a reason to celebrate here with the ninth and tenth place among the finalists being bagged by two Indians namely Akshay Padmanambha and Sahana Vasudevan. Let’s proceed to know more about them here.

Akshay Padmanambha, the son of Poombady Padmanambha and Asha Padmanambha was one of the finalists at the Intel Science Search this year. Originally from Karnataka, the young talent of sixteen years resides in Collierville.

His project mainly addressed the topic of bioengineering. A Vagus Nerve stimulator ( VNS ) can now be used in the treatment of those patients with seizure disorders, especially those with a resistance for surgery or drugs. The treatment helps in delivering to the brain, a signal which is constant and of low voltage.

However, this is not free from its side effects namely a risk of heart disease and sleep apnea. However this can be avoided by the activation of the VNS with the use of an algorithm at the onset of the seizures. This has been developed by Akshay through the analysis of epileptic EEGs. The algorithm can get the oncoming seizures detected. The use of this algorithm has thus been simulated by Akshay into the triggering system of the VNS.

Akshay’s other hobbies involve playing the jazz and electric bassoon. He also served in Germantown’s Houston High School Band where he was the principle bassoonist. A player of the Ultimate Frisbee, he serves as the captain and founder of the Math Bowl team. He also leads the Horizon where the interactions between students with general needs and those with special needs are promoted.

Having entered the mathematics project at the Intel Science Talent Search the sixteen year old Sahana Vasudevan from Palo Alto is another among the finalists at the event. The “carry” is an important aspect in arithmetic. It is usually handled by a carry bit in computing. She has here contributed a good result to “groups”, some mathematical structures. In this way she has proved a certain necessary condition

Originally from Tamil Nadu, Sahana now resides in Palo Alto in the U.S. She is also a violinist and a classical vocalist having won an award for her performance. Her singing began at the age of four and the playing of the violin at the age of seven. The daughter of Jayaraman Vasudevan and Vanaja Narayanaswamy, she was homeschooled at the Gnynam Academy.

source:::::siliconindia net

Natarajan

Diary With a Difference… Standing out as A Guide To Value System !!!

March 13, 2013March 14, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

” We learn from the Best” is the theme of Diary 2013 brought out by VNC Group of industries , Tamilnadu .

IN The foreword, the Management Team of VNC …leading manufacturers of welding electrodes …..state ” At VNC, our lives are driven
by values. Values that we have risen with. Values that are the Best guide and also the Best measure of Success… Values which are best learnt from the stalwarts of Humanity, who inspire us Everyday !!!”

What an wonderful message conveyed thro their Annual Diary!!!

Team at VNC has zeroed in on the following great personalities and highlighted the respective individual ‘s core personal attribute in the Diary.

1. Charlie Chaplin…..What made Charlie Chaplin the greatest comedian ever was the HONESTY with which he essayed his roles.

2.Guru Gobind Singh …. Even today Guru Gobind Singh is reveredfor having provided PURPOSE to his followers by creating the” KHALSA”.

3.Thomas Edison…. The world thanks Thomas Edison for the lesson in PERSEVERENCE that he taught by failing and trying again and again several times before inventing the Light Bulb.

4.Adi Shankaracharya…. India is indebted to ADI SHANKARACHARYA for bringing about UNITY among the various schools of thought

and the revival of Hindusim..

5.Martin Luther King Jr…..Respect follows Martin Luther King Jr. in USA and the world because of his relentless fight for the

EQUALITY OF Human beings…

6. Saint Joan of Arc…. The warrior Saint Joan Of Arc won freedom for French people against all odds only because of the

CONVICTION..she had in her duty towards GOD..

To sumup, TEAM VNC has conveyed and reconfirmed their core values as under…

1. HONESTY

2. PURPOSE OR GOAL

3.PERSEVERENCE

4. UNITY and Uniformity

5. EQUALITY

6. CONVICTION towards ACCOMPLISHMENT OF SET GOAL

Next comes Iceing on the top of the Cake !!!! TEAM VNC has posed a question … ” What possibly can be common between a certain thin

HALF naked gentleman { MAHATMA GANDHI } who woke up a Great Nation India and “Best Wire” ? ”

Best Wire is one of the products of VNC…. The answer to the question is …INNER STRENGTH !!!

I must say that VNC diary is not a mere diary reflecting routine features ….It is a perfect guide for those who wish to follow the value system in whichever profession or business they pursue .

Last but not least, the Diary is a good Hand Book for the younger generation of today to understand and appreciate the value system in their life.

Source::: VNC Company Diary received from my Friend Shri.Vijayakumar of VNC

Natarajan

Ref…www.vncgroup.com email to …info@vncgroup.com