Is this the first tablet you can really type on? Researchers say new 'split' layout could make typing 30% faster

• 19th century QWERTY keyboard ill suited to today's smartphones
• New KALQ has 16 keys on the left and 12 keys on the right
• Designers claim users can type 34 per cent faster with their product 

   Since it was introduced in the late 19th century the QWERTY keyboard has certainly stood the test of time, despite numerous challengers.
But the 1870s technology is ill-suited for today's tablets and other touch-screen devices when typing with the thumbs, expert say.
Experts at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Informatics think they have found the answer. Called KALQ, this split-screen layout promises to make typing with the thumbs 34 per cent faster. 

 

Experts believe they have found the answer to the problem of typing with thumbs on tablet devices. Called KALQ, this split-screen layout is the latest challenger to the Qwerty keyboard

A research team led by Antto Oulasvirt used computational optimisation techniques along with a model of thumb movement to search through millions of potential layouts.
They decided upon a split layout with 16 keys on the left and 12 keys on the right. All vowels, with the exception of the Y -  sometimes considered a vowel - are located on the right along with G, K, L, Q and J.

Karma chameleon: Smart clothes that change their shape and colour as you move... and can even charge your phone

 

 The 'Karma Chameleon' project, launched by Concordia University in Montreal, weaves electronic fabric into clothes allowing the storage of energy from the body. The new lines by the team behind the innovation include a dress which can change shape and colour and a shirt which can charge a mobile phone

Soon Your Bird Can Sing: Twitter to Release Music App

It sounds cool, but only a select few such as Ryan Seacrest get to play with Twitter’s music app for now. 

 

 

It’s not yet available to everyone, but Twitter’s giving a few hints about its forthcoming music app, which the social site is surely hoping will challenge music listening and sharing service Spotify.
Twitter’s music offering is likely to focus on social music recommendations–a move that would make sense considering its position as the second largest social network, popularity with musicians and music lovers, and the company’s purchase this week of a company that has been doing just that.
There is a hint of what’s coming here, where, as of Friday afternoon, Twitter’s iconic blue bird and the hashtag “music” dominated the page, along with the words “coming soon” and a log-in button. Pressing the button brought up a page asking you if you’d like to authorize “Twitter #music web” to use your Twitter account, giving it permission to read your timeline tweets, tweet on your behalf, view the list of people you follow, add followers, and update your profile. The description of the app promised “The best new music in the world right now”, but the service was not working.
It makes sense for Twitter to jump on the music, er, bandwagon: According to a Pew Research Center report, 67 percent of those who use social networking sites around the world share their opinions about music and movies on these sites. And Spotify, which offers a free and a paid version of its service, has been tapping into this by allowing users to share the songs they’re listening to with friends on sites like Facebook and Twitter, and to follow friends and artists within Spotify itself.
A few people are apparently already using it, including (apparently) American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, who has been tweeting about it. Various reports have suggested it will be available to all those with Twitter accounts soon.

What Bitcoin Is, and Why It Matters

 

 

Unlike other currencies, Bitcoin is underwritten not by a government, but by a clever cryptographic scheme.
For now, little can be bought with bitcoins, and the new currency is still a long way from competing with the dollar. But this explainer lays out what Bitcoin is, why it matters, and what needs to happen for it to succeed. Go over these...

A Smarter Algorithm Could Cut Energy Use in Data Centers by 35 Percent

New research suggests that data centers could significantly cut their electricity usage simply by storing fewer copies of files, especially videos.
For now the work is theoretical, but over the next year, researchers at Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs and MIT plan to test the idea, with an eye to eventually commercializing the technology. It could be implemented as software within existing facilities. “This approach is a very promising way to improve the efficiency of data centers,” says Emina Soljanin, a researcher at Bell Labs who participated in the work. “It is not a panacea, but it is significant, and there is no particular reason that it couldn’t be commercialized fairly quickly.”

With the new technology, any individual data center could be expected to save 35 percent in capacity and electricity costs—about $2.8 million a year or $18 million over the lifetime of the center, says Muriel Médard, a professor at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, who led the work and recently conducted the cost analysis.

Moore’s Law and the Origin of Life

As life has evolved, its complexity has increased exponentially, just like Moore’s law. Now geneticists have extrapolated this trend backwards and found that by this measure, life is older than the Earth itself.

  Here’s an interesting idea. Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years or so. That has produced an exponential increase in the number of transistors on microchips and continues to do so. Continue reading...

Interview with BRAIN Project Pioneer: Miyoung Chun

The trickiest thing about the brain mapping project might be that we don’t even know what we’re trying to learn.
Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) project, which President Obama announced in his State of the Union address in February, will be a decade-long effort to understand the nature of thought (See “Why Obama’s Brain-Mapping Project Matters.”) The project, which inevitably evokes the Human Genome Project, will demand billions in research funding and require the coöperation of many government agencies, universities, and foundations. Miyoung Chun, a molecular geneticist and vice president for science programs at the Kavli Foundation, has been coördinating communication among those involved since planning began 18 months ago. Continue...

First Solar Shines as the Solar Industry Falters

First Solar’s strong finances are helping fund innovation and drive down the cost of solar power.

Innovation in solar cell technology has slowed as startups struggle to get a foothold in a tough market and solar panel manufacturers delay purchasing the equipment they need to manufacture more efficient cells. But First Solar, one of the world’s largest solar companies, continues to invest in boosting the efficiency of its solar cells.
The company, which is based in Tempe, Arizona, announced this week that it had set a new world record in efficiency for thin-film cadmium telluride solar panels. The equipment it uses to produce the record-setting panels will eventually be installed on all its production lines. It also announced the acquisition of Tetrasun, a startup with high-efficiency silicon technology that First Solar hopes to bring to market next year. First Solar’s stock jumped from $29 to over $40 on Tuesday and is still above $35 a share.

Iranian Inventor Claims To Have Created A Time Machine

An Iranian scientist has claimed to have created a working time machine, one that allows users to travel as far as eight years into the future.

Ali Razeghi, a scientist from Tehran, has registered “The Aryayek Time Traveling Machine” with the state-run Center for Strategic Inventions.
According to Razeghi, 27, the device can predict the future and print out the results after taking a reading from the touch of a user.
Razaeghi says the device can “predict five to eight years of the future life of any individual, with 98 percent accuracy” thanks to a set of complex algorithms it runs on.

One App’s iOS Debacle Shows Dangers of Betting It All on Apple

        A popular app gets yanked from Apple’s App Store, illustrating the danger of betting it all on one mobile OS. 

 

 AppGratis, an iOS app that offers users a free app each day that they’d normally have to pay for, is having a rough week. On Friday, Apple removed AppGratis from its app store, saying it ran afoul of two store guidlines: one banning apps that promote other apps, and another banning use of push notifications to send ads or direct marketing.