Google wants to kill the space bar

New Delhi: With everyday innovations aimed at reducing size of the gadgets and making them portable, our definition of the good ol' things seem to change, like the longest key on a traditional keyboard- the space bar- that Google wants to put to rest.

After Apple's aim at reducing the space between keys in its latest MacBook, Google's new patent could let the search giant get rid of the space bar altogether.




A set of sensors beneath the trackpad would determine whether you want a space bar or a mouse. A single tap while typing will insert a space while a tap using the trackpad as a mouse will result in a click.
The patent suggests that Google's idea for a virtual keyboard would be to create a smaller laptop computer that saves space. Lenovo's current laptops already have trackpads that are pushed a little closer to the keyboard.
Given the possibility that all keys could be turned into virtual keys, Google's patent is questionable. However, the search giant's representative said t hat some patents it holds turn into products and some don't and patents shouldn't be an indication of prospective products.
Interestingly, Google's space bar patent was actually rejected twice over the last four years before being approved as per the Patent Office's digital paper trail system.
Will Google bring in 'space-free' Chrome laptops? Watch this 'space' for more.

Tibet's glaciers retreat, even as protection advances

Since the 1950s, China's glaciers have retreated by about 7,600 square kilometers; around 18 percent. An average of 247 square kilometers of glacial ice has disappeared every year.
Even mountaineers on Mount Qomolangma seem surprised. "Qomolangma base camp, 5,200 meters above sea level, had been covered by thick ice, but now there is nothing but stones," Zhang Mingxing, director of Tibet's mountaineering administration center, told Xinhua.
His view was echoed by Kang Shichang of the institute of Tibetan Plateau research, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He calculates that glaciers around the mountain have shrunk by 10 percent since 1974, evidenced in the fact that a glacial lake downstream of the mountain is now 13 times bigger.
China has more than 46,000 glaciers, mainly on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, about 14.5 percent of the world's total. Glaciers are not only a major reservoir of fresh water but an important part of the climate system. "They are sources of life for China's western arid regions," said Kang.
The melting glaciers will inevitably lead to ecological and environmental change. Liu Shiyin, who led a survey of China's glaciers, told Xinhua that, in the short term, retreating glaciers will release meltwater and create lakes, leading to disaster. Glacial lakes in Tibet were breached 15 times between the 1930s and 1990s, causing floods and mudslides.
Glacial melt is closely related to climate change, and the regional government of Tibet is doing all it can to cut emissions. Enterprises which invest in green energy including solar, wind and methane can enjoy tax privileges for up to eight years.
In addition to cutting emissions, Tibet has spent heavily to protect its environment.
Jiang Bai from the regional environmental protection department believes local governments are committed to ensuring clean water and blue sky in Tibet. Back in 2009, the State Council invested 15.5 billion yuan (about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars) in protecting Tibet's environment, Jiang said.
Although the money helps, it is not enough to stop glaciers from retreating, said Kang Shichang.
Kang wants more research on glaciers and climate change, and better use of the meltwater. A warning system on glacier lakes is needed to protect local people.
"If glaciers do not have ice and mountains do not have snow, what will our lives become? Humans must make every effort to protect nature and co-exist with it," said monk Ngawang Doa from a monastery on the foot of Mount Qomolangma.

Hopes of life on planet 'premature'

Hopes of finding a life-sustaining planet in a star system beloved by sci-fi buffs may be premature, experts believe.

The Tau Ceti system, popularised in many science fiction stories and featured in the TV series Star Trek, is known to host as many as five planets.
Two of them, Tau Ceti e and f, may lie in the "habitable" or "Goldilocks" orbital zone where temperatures are "just right" to permit surface liquid water and possibly life.
But a new study has poured cold water on the prospect of complex life flourishing around the star, one of the Sun's closest neighbours at a distance of just 12 light years.
Scientists used the chemical composition of Tau Ceti to model the star's evolution and calculate the location of its habitable zone.
Astrophysicist Dr Michael Pagano, from Arizona State University in the US, said: "Planet e is in the habitable zone only if we make very generous assumptions. Planet f initially looks more promising, but modelling the evolution of the star makes it seem probable that it has only moved into the habitable zone recently as Tau Ceti has gotten more luminous over the course of its life."
The findings suggest that planet f has probably existed in the star's habitable zone for less than a billion years.
Though this sounds like a long time, it took several hundred million years for life to emerge on Earth and more than three billion years for it to progress from simple single cells to multicellular organisms.
It took around two billion years for Earth's biosphere to produce potentially detectable changes in the planet's atmosphere.
Tau Ceti's unusual ratio of magnesium to silicon also meant that hot rock might flow more easily on its planets than it does on Earth, said the scientists. This could have "profound effects" on volcanism and tectonics, with significant implications for the survival chances of life.
Dr Pagano added: "Tau Ceti has been a popular destination for science fiction writers and everyone's imagination as somewhere there could possibly be life, but even though life around Tau Ceti may be unlikely, it should not be seen as a let-down, but should invigorate our minds to consider what exotic planets likely orbit the star, and the new and unusual planets that may exist in this vast universe."

Twitter upgrades 'Direct Messages' feature

Twitter has launched an update to it's Direct Messages feature that allows users to talk in private without having to follow each other.
According to the Verge, now users can reply to anyone who sends them a Direct Message, regardless of whether or not that person follows them back.
Users can also choose to receive direct messages from anyone using Twitter.
The ability to Direct Message followers can also help in taking public disputes to a more private sphere.

New lizard species – Gecko spotted; named ‘Cnemaspis adii’ after a herpetologist

 

 Researchers from the Osmania University in Hyderabad have spotted a new species Gecko, a type of lizard usually found in warm climates, at the ruins of the World Heritage Site of Hampi in Karnataka.
The Gecko species has been named “Cnemaspis adii,” after Aditya Srinivasulu – a young herpetology researcher from Hyderabad.
The discovery was published in the current issue of Zootaxa journal by researchers Chelmala Srinivasulu, G. Chethan Kumar and Bhargavi Srinivasulu from the zoology wing of the University.
 The lizard belongs to the family of day geckos characterised by round pupils unlike regular geckos which have vertical pupils. The zoologists say Hampi and surrounding areas are potentially rich in biodiversity and not much research has been done to identify new species of smaller vertebrate and invertebrates.

“The discovery is significant because other species of day geckos have been, so far, reported only from the Western Ghats and southern Eastern Ghats in peninsular India. This is the first time that day geckos have been found in the central regions of peninsular India between Eastern and Western Ghats,” lead author Dr. Srinivasulu said.
The trio felt that presence of day geckos between Western and Eastern Ghats is interesting, indicating the need for more efforts to document the biological diversity, understanding habitat conditions, threats and diversity of local species.
The discovery and subsequent validation in Zootaxa did not happen overnight. The new day gecko species was first discovered by Dr. Bhargavi Srinivasulu in 2012 while they were doing research on bats in the Hampi complex.
 Later, the zoologists studied the photographs of live animals and researched on known species of day geckos reported from other parts of India, which ultimately confirmed that the specimens belonged to a hitherto undescribed type. They managed to collect three specimens of the lizard that formed the basis of the scientific description of the lizard.

Hyderabad's Hussain Sagar Lake gets free public Wi-Fi

In efforts to make Hyderabad the first Wi-Fi enabled city in the country, the Telangana government rolled out Wi-Fi service on trial basis around Hussain Sagar Lake in the heart of the city

State-owned Internet service provider BSNL and Wi-Fi infrastructure provider Quadgen Wireless Solutions have collaborated to roll out the service under the Hyderabad Wi-Fi project.

Under this service, citizens around the lake will have access to Internet with a speed of 10Mbps.

The service was launched by Information Technology Minister K. Tarakarama Rao with a live video call with union IT and Telecommunications Minister Ravishankar Prasad.

Rao said that Hyderabad Wi-Fi project was exclusively situated to create the fastest Wi-Fi Hot Spot by using the readily available optic fibre cable network of around 4,000km.

Under Hyderabad Wi-Fi project, citizens can access free internet for first half an hour and then on a chargeable basis.

In the first phase of the project, the state government has planned to provide Wi-Fi services at over 2,000 locations in Hyderabad and about 50 Villages in the state.

All major district headquarters in the state will be connected with Wi- Fi.

Microsoft and Cyanogen confirm tie-up to take down Android

After rumours filling the airwaves for months, that Microsoft would either be buying or investing in Cyanogen, the companies have now confirmed that they have entered into a strategic partnership, in a joint press release on Thursday.
Cyanogen is known for one of the most popular Android-based operating systems and, later, for it's resounding critique of Google's iron-fisted rule over smaller contributing developers . Microsoft, on the other hand, has been making waves recently for attempting to capture Google's app market, by opening out its own apps to other platforms, as well as developing a Windows 10 build that can be installed on Android phones.
Under the partnership, Cyanogen OS phones will integrate and distribute Microsoft apps, including Bing, OneDrive, OneNote, Skype, Outlook and Microsoft Office. In turn, Microsoft will, as the press release states "create native integrations on Cyanogen OS, enabling a powerful new class of experiences." What exactly that could mean encompasses a wide range of possibilities.
What's most important though, is that this is an outright act of war by Microsoft and Cyanogen to take away Android from Google, something the brains behind Cyanogen have expressly said they're aiming to do. While there's no definitive timeline yet, we will likely soon see Cyanogen phones shipping with Microsoft's apps, rather than Google's. As for whether Microsoft might start adopting the Cyanogen OS, that's a bit iffy, considering the company'ss constantly expanding Windows-based Lumia series, but perhaps they will introduce a second line of smartphones soon?