Google Strengthens Its India Story - Launches India Labs, Local Search and Local Business Centre

Bangalore (August 20, 2007) - Google India today announced the launch of an India serving innovation platform, Google India Labs, and two new India facing products- Google Local Search and Google Local Business Centre. The announcement is further evidence of the global search giant's commitment to providing locally relevant information and opportunities for its Indian users.

Google Local Search promises to be a useful tool for Indian users who are looking for locally relevant information on the web. With the launch of this product users will now be able to search for information on local businesses like restaurants, shops, and hotels by simply doing a search on http://local.google.co.in.

Google Local Business Centre is available at www.google.co.in/local/add and will allow any business to add its information to Google Local for free. When users search on Google Local Search, the listed business information will be displayed. Local Business Centre already exists in other geographies and has provided owners with means to provide visibility to their businesses.

"Local Search and Local Business Centre will provide our users with better local business results by increasing the corpus and depth of business listings, and benefit local businesses by ensuring visibility on the Internet for free," said Vinay Goel, Head of Products, Google India.

Google Labs™ is a technology playground for products that are in the process of development and require market feedback to improve. Launched under the sub domain labs.google.co.in. This launch makes India one of the few countries to have a country-focused labs program. Globally, Google has 7 labs across US, China, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.

India labs will serve as a platform to showcase innovations that are particularly relevant to the Indian market and will also allow users to take a peek into Google's future offerings. These products will come from Google offices across the globe, including the India R&D centre in Bangalore, but will specifically cater to the needs of Indian users. It will also give users a platform to provide valuable feedback to further improve the products. India Labs would initially showcase two India-centric products -

• The Indic On-Screen Keyboard iGoogle Gadget™ will offer users the ability to type search queries in 14 Indic languages. These iGoogle™ gadgets will enable users to type in Indic languages by choosing letters from an on-screen keyboard using a mouse. Users would be able to add the gadget of their chosen language to their personalized iGoogle home page and use it to search for content in their language.
• Google Indic Transliteration allows the user to type in Hindi using phonetically equivalent English text entered through an English keyboard. For instance, typing "Bharat" would give "भारत" on the screen. Hindi transliteration was launched on the Blogger™ service earlier this year, and this labs service (http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/) is a standalone offering of the same technology. Users can create Hindi content and use it in applications of their choice, such as mails, documents and so on. The product uses a machine learning based approach that can learn from corrections made by the users.

Speaking on the launch of Google India Labs, Dr. Prasad Ram, Head of Google R&D, India said, "Our vision for India's 60th year of independence is to empower our Indian users by providing organized, easily accessible information and products which encourage the creation and consumption of locally relevant content. India Labs is one such effort that will enable users to test and provide valuable feedback on products that are most relevant to them."

Source: google.com

Mahindra & Mahindra to make 2 wheelers in India!

Yup, you heard that right! SUV major M&M is now thinking of entering the 2 wheeler market in India. It is supposed to be in talks with Chinese auto major "Lifan". The rural market is what seems to be drawing M&M towards the two wheeler segment which has not been as exciting in the recent past. 2 wheeler majors have faced a down trend in sales as customers are either buying cars or the high prevailing interest rates are keeping them from buying a two wheeler. However, M&M might price their products very competitively to beat the other players. Since the products are for the rural market, this could well be a stint at capturing the profits at the base of the pyramid. Lets see how this brews up! Here is a glimpse of what could be riding into India.

Supercomputers the size of atoms? - IBM makes it possible

IBM Unveils Two Major Nanotechnology Breakthroughs as Building Blocks for Atomic Structures and Devices

Magnetic Atom Milestone Brings Single-Atom Data Storage Closer to Reality; Single-Molecule Switching Could Lead to Molecular Computers

IBM today announced two major scientific achievements in the field of nanotechnology that could one day lead to new kinds of devices and structures built from a few atoms or molecules.

Although still far from making their way into products, these breakthroughs will enable scientists at IBM and elsewhere to continue driving the field of nanotechnology, the exploration of building structures and devices out of ultra-tiny, atomic-scale components. Such devices might be used as future computer chips, storage devices, sensors and for applications nobody has imagined yet. The work will be unveiled in two reports being published by the journal Science.

In the first report, IBM scientists describe major progress in probing a property called magnetic anisotropy in individual atoms. This fundamental measurement has important technological consequences because it determines an atom’s ability to store information. Previously, nobody had been able to measure the magnetic anisotropy of a single atom.

With further work it may be possible to build structures consisting of small clusters of atoms, or even individual atoms, that could reliably store magnetic information. Such a storage capability would enable nearly 30,000 feature length movies or the entire contents of YouTube – millions of videos estimated to be more than 1,000 trillion bits of data – to fit in a device the size of an iPod. Perhaps more importantly, the breakthrough could lead to new kinds of structures and devices that are so small they could be applied to entire new fields and disciplines beyond traditional computing.

In the second report, IBM researchers unveiled the first single-molecule switch that can operate flawlessly without disrupting the molecule's outer frame -- a significant step toward building computing elements at the molecular scale that are vastly smaller, faster and use less energy than today's computer chips and memory devices.

In addition to switching within a single molecule, the researchers also demonstrated that atoms inside one molecule can be used to switch atoms in an adjacent molecule, representing a rudimentary logic element. This is made possible partly because the molecular framework is not disturbed.

The Science of The Small: Understanding the Magnetic Properties of Atoms

In the paper titled “Large Magnetic Anisotropy of a Single Atomic Spin Embedded in a Surface Molecular Network,” the researchers used IBM’s special scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to manipulate individual iron atoms and arranged them with atomic precision on a specially prepared copper surface. They then determined the orientation and strength of the magnetic anisotropy of the individual iron atoms.

Anisotropy is an important property for data storage because it determines whether or not a magnet can maintain a specific orientation. This in turn allows the magnet to represent either a “1” or “0,” which is the basis for storing data in computers.

“One of the major challenges for the IT industry today is shrinking the bit size used for data storage to the smallest possible features, while increasing the capacity,” said Gian-Luca Bona, manager of science and technology at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. “We are working at the ultimate edge of what is possible – and we are now one step closer to figuring out how to store data at the atomic level. Understanding the specific magnetic properties of atoms is the cornerstone of progressing toward new, more efficient ways to store data.”

Lilliputian Scale Devices: Single Molecule Logic Switching

In the paper titled “Current-Induced Hydrogen Tautomerization and Conductance Switching of Naphthalocyanine Molecules,” IBM researchers describe the ability to switch a single molecule “on” and “off,” a basic element of computer logic, using two hydrogen atoms within a naphthalocyanine organic molecule. Previously, researchers at IBM and elsewhere have demonstrated switching within single molecules, but the molecules would change their shape when switching, making them unsuitable for building logic gates for computer chips or memory elements.

Switches inside computer chips act like a light switch to turn the flow of electrons on and off and, when put together, make up the logic gates, which in turn make up electrical circuits. Having ever smaller switches allows the circuits to be shrunk to ever smaller sizes, making it possible to pack more circuits into a processor and boosting speed and performance.

These molecular switches could one day lead to computer chips with speeds as fast as today's fastest supercomputers, but much smaller in size; with some speculating even building computer chips so small they could be the size of a speck of dust or fit on the tip of a needle.

Development of conventional silicon-based CMOS chips is approaching its physical limits, and the IT industry is exploring new, truly disruptive technologies to achieve further increases in computer performance. Modular molecular logic is a possible candidate, though still several years from reality. The next step for the Research team is to build a series of these molecules into a circuit, then figure out how to network those together into a molecular chip.

The concept of using molecules as electronic components is still in its infancy. Only a few examples of individual molecules serving as switches or memory elements have been demonstrated to date. Most of these molecules are complex, three-dimensional structures and change their shape when switching. Placing them on a surface while maintaining their function is extremely difficult, making them unsuitable as building blocks for computer logic.

The switching within the molecule used by the IBM researchers is well-defined, highly-localized, reversible, intrinsic to the molecule, and does not involve changes in the molecular frame. Therefore, this molecule could be used as a building block for more complex molecular devices that serve as logic elements. As the shape of the molecule does not change during switching, single switches can be coupled in a controlled way. The switching process should also work with molecules embedded in more complex structures.

Aviation industry uses NASA Wind Tunnels to design new airplanes

NASA-developed wind tunnel technology is being used by the aviation industry to perfect new airplane designs throughout the entire development process.

The Boeing Company, Seattle, is one manufacturer purchasing wind tunnel time in the U.S. National Transonic Facility at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., to test new aviation concepts, before applying them in flight.

Boeing is evaluating high-lift system designs for its new 787 jet aircraft. High-lift systems include the flaps and slats used to increase the lift performance of the wing, allowing the airplane to take off and land safely and efficiently.

"Unlike conventional wind tunnels, the National Transonic Facility can duplicate the aerodynamics of the flight environment, even with small scale models," said facility chief aerodynamicist Rich Wahls. "That allows the aircraft manufacturers to produce better performing airplanes with less risk."

To test its new high-lift concepts, Boeing developers designed new 787-style trailing edge flaps and fit them to an existing 5.2 percent scale 777 semi-span model. The stainless steel model, which looks like one-half of an airplane cut down the middle from nose to tail, is mounted on the sidewall of the wind tunnel.

Even small improvements in performance of a high-lift system can significantly improve the take-off field length, weight carrying capability, and range of a transport aircraft. The improvements can also help reduce aircraft noise. But making improvements is not easy, because of the complex airflow issues encountered when flaps and slats are extended from a wing.

The National Transonic Facility is a unique wind tunnel developed by NASA that uses super cold nitrogen gas at high pressure to duplicate true flight aerodynamics. It can accommodate models as small as one-fiftieth the size of the actual aircraft. Unlike conventional wind tunnels, this facility can adjust the characteristics of the airflow to match the size of the model. Results help engineers determine how new designs will work on real planes in flight.

"In the past, engineers have come to the National Transonic Facility to further understand and solve problems with systems that have already been developed," Wahls said. "Now we're also seeing this test capability being used during the aircraft design phase."

Boeing has purchased additional time in the facility during February to evaluate the final 787 high-lift configuration.

Source: nasa.gov

Wii System 3 Update Available Now

Update your Wii console today!

Nintendo just launched the Wii System 3 update to Wii consoles around the globe. To update your Wii System from version 1 or 2 to version 3, simply connect your Wii console to the internet and manually select "Wii System Update" from the Wii System Settings. The new update has contains a variety of enhancements to the Wii Menu, Wii Message Board and Wii Shop channel. For a complete list of enhancements, visit Wii.Nintendo.com.

Source: nintendo.com