Apple gain 'iGlass' patent to rival 'Google Glass'

The device would be similar to Google's Glass project in many ways - it would allow the user to view apps, content, videos, photos, and more, all in real time while wearing the device.

The technology in both projects involves LCD projectors, and is widely expected to become a serious reality within the next 5 years. The patent Apple gained involves a 'method in which the image travels through a special glass to land directly into the user's pupils'.

Just like both companies have been competing with their mobile operating systems Android and iOS, the two companies could soon be going head-to-head with these futuristic products.

Apple finally lose a lawsuit - 'swipe to unlock' feature

Taiwanese mobile giant HTC have beaten apple in England's courts in a case where they challenged the European patents held by Apple protecting the pervasive iOS 'swipe to unlock' feature.

This feature is on every iPhone, while companies like HTC, who predominantly create Android and Windows phone based devices, can have a similar unlock feature to unlock their handsets. Having had a HTC before, their 'Arc' unlock is the challenge in question. It is a lot like the iOS swipe to unlock, only it is vertical.

It was decided in the courts this week that HTC would have infringed on the Apple patents, but did not due to one factor, a device released 8 years ago called the 'Neonode N1' which, amazingly, had a 'right sweep to unlock feature'.

It's not often you see Apple lose in the courtroom, but I have to say I am happy for HTC, they have been such an innovative company lately, with their One X being a beautiful phone and miles ahead of the competition. They issued a brilliant statement, highlighting what the smartphone industry is like right now: "HTC is pleased with the ruling, which provides further confirmation that Apple's claims against HTC are without merit. We remain disappointed that Apple continues to favour competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace."

Charge your smart-phone with your t-shirt?

Engineers in the University of North Carolina have been conducting, excuse the pun, research on a modified piece of clothing, i.e. a t-shirt, changing it into highly conductive and flexible activated carbon textiles (ACTs) for energy-storage applications.

They bought a random cotton t-shirt, added some chemicals and stuck it in the oven (yes, seriously!). Using their chemical wizadry, they created a stable, high-performing supercapacitor, storing an electric charge and capable of charging and discharging a lot of times, with enough power to easily charge a smart phone device numerous times.

Here is a link to the official abstract of their research. I love hearing about research like this, it's the technology of the future, in the making...

Jelly Bean: An unlikely named Siri-killer!

So android Jelly Bean is out, the latest version of Google's Android mobile OS. From initial reports, this version is faster, slicker and probably better than any other mobile OS out there, including iOS and Siri voice control.

I am not an android user, but some of my friends are and I have to admit, it looks impressive, having seen it in action, specifically the Google Voice vs Siri comparisons, here is one below, check it out for yourself!

Why Windows 8 OS will have no 'Start' button

Microsoft program manager Chaitanya Sareen explains:

"We'd seen the trend in Windows 7. When we evolved the taskbar we saw awesome adoption of pinning [applications] on the taskbar. We are seeing people pin like crazy. And so we saw the Start menu usage dramatically dropping, and that gave us an option...

"So I'm a desktop user, I pin the browser, Explorer, whatever my apps are. I don't go the Start menu as often. If you're going to the Start screen now, we're going to unlock a whole new set of scenarios, or you can choose not to go there, stay in the desktop, and it's still fast. You can't beat the taskbar."

Having been a mac-head, I used to keep my OS updated with the latest beta and developer releases of OSX and iOS, so when I heard about the Windows 8 consumer preview I installed it straight away.

Having been running it for a few months now, I have to admit, it is very smart, and just like the Windows phone OS, it is very stylish but a little more complicated to get used to, but there is definitely a good reason to leave the start button out and once you get adjusted to that fact.

As you can see from the photos, there are so many new options that more than make up for the start button and that also make every app and system command more accessible.
Windows 8 is a very nice and intuitive operating system. The full version, coming this July, should be very popular.

Ex-Facebook developers create faster rival to MySQL

Eric Frenkiel and Nikita Shamgunov have created MemSQL, a database which they claim is the fastest in the world.

They performed a test which shows that MemSQL can facilitate circa 80,000 queries per second while MySQL can facilitate only 3,500 queries per second. The video of the test can be seen here.

The reason it is so fast is in the name, MemSQL keeps all data in the memory, allowing for it to perform much faster than other databases.

Here is the official website: http://memsql.com/, "The world's fastest database", "30 times faster than MySQL". Very interesting stuff as I am currently learning MySQL in college, and I wonder will MemSQL be the tool that students are learning next year...

JavaScript: what is it?

Javascript (also known as the abbreviated JS) is a dynamic scripting language used on the web for things such as validating email address/forms and adding functionality to web pages.

I use Chrome mostly, but there is a nifty little app called Firebug (download at http://getfirebug.com/) which allows you to edit javascript and run it, through the Firefox browser. You can also view and edit html, css, etc.

Below is a helpful video tutorial on how to get to grips with using Firebug and Javascript:




Here is the most simple of all 'programs' you can create using JS, just like with Ruby:

alert("Hello world!");

When you type that into Firebug and hit 'Run' you will get the following: