Google Home And Google Assistant - The Tools To Customize Your Home And Your Daily Activities

Google Home is a voice activated speaker powered by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) based technology, known asGoogle Assistant. It accepts your voice commands and carries out the instruction as interpreted by the Google Assistant. Google Assistant, itself, is an AI based learning platform that is especially built by Google to provide a personalized service. Let us first introduce ourselves with the all new ‘Google Assistant’ so that we can dig deeper into the functions offered by Google Home.

Google Assistant's Logo​

It all started with the Google search engine. The search engine was created to bring an instant help about anything from around the world to the seeker. But, sometimes, we require help within our own world, with our own smart devices, reservations, bookings, etc. and we need a companion to sort these things out. Google has analysed the need and presented us with ‘Google Assistant’, a platform built to provide a personalized service. It responds to your need, learns your trait, connects with almost all of your smart devices and provides information or carries out instruction as per the user. It offers a personalized Google environment and is completely safe and secure. Whether you want to book a hotel or listen to music, it does it for you. Google made search engine for everyone but they made ‘Google Assistant’ especially for you.

Check out this video and meet your own personal assistant – 

​

Already mesmerized with this AI platform, then think what happens when it is coupled with a voice activated speaker. Google Home is what we are now discussing about. It gets activated by a simple voice request ‘Ok Google’ and it becomes ready to follow your instruction. It can play your favorite music from services like –Google Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora and TuneIn. Further, you can ask anything and it tries its best to answer you back. It uses the Google’s rich history and information available from sites like Wikipedia, etc. to deliver what you need. Coupled with ‘Google Assistant’, it not only handles your schedule, reservations, etc. but also controls your other smart devices. Alarms, Smart home switch control, music, podcast, it offers infinite features customizing your home and your life style.

Google Home In One of Its Avatar ​

It has a very simple design and is easy to get started with. It has a touch sensitive surface at the top provided with indicating LED’S that helps us to configure whether it is on or off. The touch sensor allows to control audio level and instantly turn off notification and services like alarms, etc. It comes with a button which turns the microphone on/off providing user to decide what the Google Home should hear. Not only that but, voice request commands can also turn it on/off providing both security and privacy to its user.

Google Home - Design And Layout



Google Home - Important Notifications​

It also fits well with your home environment. Provided with Hi-Fi speakers and features like far-field voice recognition, it is ideal for your home environment. Also available in multiple replaceable base, it easily finds a place and becomes a part of your home.

Google Home - Features At A Glance​

Take a quick look at this video to know more about Google Home – 

​

Overall, whether you call it a home music system, a smart-voice controller, or anything else, Google Home is a revolutionizing product which is coupled with powerful ‘Google Assistant’ and comes with the trust of Google. Available now for pre-order, this device is a must for those who want to simplify their daily routine and improve their lifestyle with the help of Google. At a price of $129, Google Home is the device you shouldn’t miss out – after all it is your very own Google!

Check out this video to get a grasp of what Google Home can offer – 

​

source:crazyengineers

Rimac's pretty e-bike "Greyp G12H" promises 240km range

Rimac Automobili owned, Croatia based Greyp Bikes has announced its latest bike that can do 240 kilometers on a single charge. Named 'Greyp G12H', the bike was unveiled at INTERMOT show in Germany. The pretty looking G12H draws the same design philosophy as Rimac's 'Concept One' supercar and promises to be an attention grabber on the streets. 

Kresimir Hlede, the chief operating officer at Greyp Bikes is confident of taking over the competition by the end of the year. Hlede informed the media that the actual range and capacity of the battery will be determined by the configuration of the bike you choose. The maximum range being offered is 240 km with a 3 kWh battery. 

The G12H premium model has the rated top speed of 45 km/h. Hlede further said that with the range way over the 'magical 200 km on single charge' limit, the bike can be a perfect commute option for daily office trips. 

 ​

We do not have official information about the price of the G12H, but given the $9400 price tag for Greyp's G12S, the new bike won't certainly be cheaper. It's got almost double the battery size over the G12S. The USP of the G12S continues to be its 70 kmph speed. 
sourse:crazyengineers

Debut Ubuntu phone's first flash sale announced, more to come

The first Ubuntu phone goes on sale in a limited run Wednesday, but don't worry if you miss out: there'll be around three more "flash sales" before the end of the month.

The BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu edition is the first phone that will let phone fans snap up an Ubuntu-running device for themselves. Best known as an open-source operating system for computers, Ubuntu is expanding to phones as part of a plan that will see the software power everything from TVs to drones. And to kick things off, the BQ phone will be up for grabs between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. (CET) on Wednesday 11 February.

Ubuntu is developed by British company Canonical. Canonical is showing off both the BQ phone and the forthcoming Ubuntu version of the Meizu MX4 at the Mobile World Congress 2015 industry trade show, which opens on 2 March. Before that, Canonical is expecting to run three sales, with up to five possible depending on how they go.

The Aquaris E4.5 is not an entirely new device, it's been available for some time booting Android KitKat. The specsheet of the smartphone is nothing to write home about, but it's still a balanced package.

The name reveals the screen size of 4.5 inches, and the qHD resolution of the IPS panel results in a pixel density of 244ppi. Running the show is a Mediatek chipset with its Cortex-A7 CPU clocked at 1.3GHz. A single gig of RAM is onboard as well as 8GB of internal storage, of which 5.5GB are available to the user. A microSD slot offers expansion up to 32GB.

The dual-SIM phone is limited in connectivity options, only packing radios for 850/900/1800/1900MHz GSM bands and 900/2100MHz 3G. Battery capacity is 2150mAh, stuffed in a 137 x 67 x 9 mm body weighing 123g.

Hardware is not the main topic here, though, the new OS is. The Ubuntu for smartphone has long been in the works, and after years of development British company Canonical has managed to bring it to market. The new mobile OS is unique in concept, ditching the common app grid in favor of content-grouped tabs. Dubbed Scopes, the innovative interface learns from previous experience and aggregates user-specific content in easy to navigate panes.

3,200 MP Digital LSST Camera Receives Critical Decision 2 Approval From DOE

Last year in August, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) was given the charge of managing the construction of Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) observatory by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The key component of LSST is the 3,200 MP digital camera, approximately the size of a small car weighing more than 3 tons. The LSST team received construction funding from the NSF in August. But, now it has received the much awaited ‘Critical Decision 2’ approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that will endorse the world's largest camera's fabrication budget.

 ​

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is leading the construction of the LSST camera and its components will be developed by an international collaboration of labs and universities, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, along with multi-program laboratory SLAC. The assembling and testing of the camera will also be carried out by SLAC. It is being expected that the LSST will be ready by 2020 and will begin its science operations in 2022. By capturing digital images of the complete visible southern sky from the top of Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile, LSST will provide the widest, deepest and fastest views of the night sky. In its 10 years life span, the observatory will detect wide range of objects (about tens of billions of objects). About 6 million gigabytes of data per year (equivalent to 800,000 images by a regular 8 MP digital camera every night) will help the researchers to study the formation of galaxies, understand dark matter and dark energy, et al.

 ​

The objective behind developing the LSST is to revolutionize cosmic knowledge and to achieve an unprecedented information about the universe. This will help to address and solve the biggest mysteries of the universe. According to LSST Director, Steven Kahn of Stanford University, LSST survey will enhance the understanding of the dynamic Universe on timescales that will range from its earliest moments after the Big Bang to the motions of asteroids in the present solar system. ‘Critical Decision 3’ review process for the actual fabrication of the camera will take place in next summer.

Source: SLAC

Huge 3D Displays Without The Need Of 3D Glasses Possible - TriLite And TU Vienna

Public display boards, electronic billboards, advertisement hoardings are seen almost everywhere these days. With what TriLite Technologies and Vienna University of Technology are proposing, these displays could become 3D and we could view them without the need of 3D glasses. The Austrian scientists and engineers have developed a sophisticated laser system that sends laser beams into different directions so that from different angles, different pictures are visible. The display resolution is so fine that the right eye see a different picture than the right eye, thus creating a 3D effect. The folks over at TriLite and TU Vienna have created the first prototype.

The first prototype​

Even though the first design has only a 5x3 pixel resolution, the team is content that the design works and are now gearing up for their second prototype which will have a higher color resolution. Every single 3D-Pixel also know as “Trixel” is formed of lasers and a moveable mirror. The laser beams are directed by the mirror across the field of vision, while modulating the laser intensity to send laser flashes in various directions. This system is most suitable for huge billboards as the viewer must be positioned in a certain distance range from the screen to experience the 3D effect. The creator can set the range in which the 3D image can be experienced by viewers. If it's too short or too long, both eyes will receive the same image and hence only a normal 2D picture can be seen.

Billboards of the future​

Instead of showing just two pictures, this advanced laser system can show hundreds of pictures. Therefore, when someone walks by the display, he can get a view of the displayed object from different sides, as if he is passing a real object. To make this work, the research team has created a new video format. Even though the system is capable of using the 3D format converted from the 3D cinema movies we see today, the team wants to use new footage created especially for their displays.

The team has taken care of the fact that the displays should be visible in bright sunlight outdoors so the display is developed to be very vivid. For now, the team is happy about the success of their project in such a short period of time. The second prototype should be completed by mid-2015 and a commercial launch can be expected in 2016.

What are your thoughts on the latest 3D Display technology? Share with us in comments below.

Source: Vienna University of Technology

IBM Z13 Mainframe Server - The Most Powerful and Secure System Ever Built Now In India

After 5 year of continuous development, IBM India is proud to announce the launch of IBM Z13 Mainframe is one of the most sophisticated computer systems ever built in the country. Designed especially for the mobile app economy, this is the first system to make practical real-time encryption of all mobile transactions at any scale. If you take a look at the amazing features of the new IBM system, you will be baffled to find the system is capable of processing 2.5 billion transactions a day, has 2x faster processors, 300% more memory and 100% more bandwidth than its competitors. If you are convinced about the system's processing power, you will know why the system is called the most secure. IBM has integrated about 500 new patents in the mainframe server, which includes cryptographic encryption technologies for enhanced security features targeted at mobile initiated transactions. Moreover, in a series of firsts, the IBM Z13 is also the first one to be providing providing real-time analytics on all transactions. 

We are all aware of the insane speed of growth in mobile application consumers who want mobile transactions to be superfast, seamless and without glitches. Biggest of the big tech companies are trying to cope with this demand by trying to build the IT infrastructure needed to be able to compete with its peers. With IBM Z13, they now have a solution right here in India. 
After 5 year of continuous development, IBM India is proud to announce the launch of IBM Z13 Mainframe is one of the most sophisticated computer systems ever built in the country. Designed especially for the mobile app economy, this is the first system to make practical real-time encryption of all mobile transactions at any scale. If you take a look at the amazing features of the new IBM system, you will be baffled to find the system is capable of processing 2.5 billion transactions a day, has 2x faster processors, 300% more memory and 100% more bandwidth than its competitors. If you are convinced about the system's processing power, you will know why the system is called the most secure. IBM has integrated about 500 new patents in the mainframe server, which includes cryptographic encryption technologies for enhanced security features targeted at mobile initiated transactions. Moreover, in a series of firsts, the IBM Z13 is also the first one to be providing providing real-time analytics on all transactions. 

We are all aware of the insane speed of growth in mobile application consumers who want mobile transactions to be superfast, seamless and without glitches. Biggest of the big tech companies are trying to cope with this demand by trying to build the IT infrastructure needed to be able to compete with its peers. With IBM Z13, they now have a solution right here in India. 
Simple actions on a smartphone such as tapping on the refresh button can trigger a series of events on the back end, that need to be handled by the company's servers. As stated above, IBM Z3 server is designed to handle billions of transactions by bringing the power of super secure data-centers under one roof. The facility to be able to have real-time scoring could reduce fraud detection on 100% of a client's business transactions. 

As far as technologies employed under IBM Z13 are concerned, there's support for Hadoop, addition of DB2 BLU for Linux and compatibility with hybrid cloud architecture. The system is going to be capable of running 8,000 virtual servers with 50+ virtual servers per core. Do take a look at the following video to see how the system was designed -With that we come to the end of the handful yet important important features on IBM Z13 Mainframe servers. What are your thoughts on that? Share with us in comments below.

3Doodler 2.0: Faster, Slimmer & Lighter Successor Of World’s First 3D Printing Pen

Two years ago a team from WobbleWorks LLC had managed to create history by inventing the world’s first 3D printing pen, 3Doodler. 3Doodler went on to become one of the most successful crowdfunded projects by garnering more than 70 times of its funding goal. Two years hence the team is back on Kickstarter to unveil 3Doodler 2.0. The old version which was sold in millions was quite unwieldy, slow and cumbersome to use. The new version looks more like a marker as it is 75% smaller than its predecessor. The reduction of size has also resulted in a lighter 3Doodler that now weighs 50 grams. The team has added an anodized aluminium casing which gives a more premium feel to the 3Doodler.

One of the problems with the previous version was that you had to keep your finger pressed on start button while creating 3D drawings. On the new version you have to double-press the start button for nonstop doodling. As you have read earlier the 3Doodler works in the following manner. First you plug it in and switch it on. Once the 3Doodler heats up to a certain temperature insert the plastic refill and start creating three-dimensional doodles. The new version allows you to make adjustments in nozzle flow and cools the molten plastic faster for quicker drawings. The slimmer pen also consumes less power. Along with the product, the team has launched several accessories for 3Doodler 2.0 such as Doodle Stand, portable power pack, adjustable nozzles and a foot pedal for controlling ink flow.

The project has again proved to be a roaring success as it has received funds more than 5 times its pledged goal within a single day. Early backers managed to grab one for as low $50 but the retail price is expected to be around a hundred dollars.