IBM's Carbon Nanotube Breakthrough Takes Processors beyond Silicon

IBM Research – Created New System of Creating Contacts for Carbon Nanotube

IBM Research has created a new system of creating contacts for carbon nanotube which seems to open a `pathway to smaller, faster and a much powerful computer chips beyond the skills of traditional semiconductors’. It involves rolling nanoscale tubes from sheets of graphene that measures about one atom thick and gives new life to Moore’s Law.

The results were published in the journal Science which describes a new system of creating contacts for carbon nanotubes which are different to the prevailing system for carbon as well as silicon transistors and does not suffer from the issue of increased electrical resistance.

This is due to the contact which seems to be reduced in size. The increase in electrical resistance in a transistor would lead to performance reductions which till now resulted in smaller contacts of slow processors. In order to overcome this issue, IBM created a completely new metallurgical procedure which chemically binds metal atoms to the carbon atoms towards the end of the nanotubes.

IBM had stated that the `end-bonded contact scheme’ enabled the contacts to be contracted to below 10 nanometres devoid of deteriorating performance of the carbon nanotube devices. This would mean that we could be seeing carbon nanotube processors within the period.

Method - Carbon Nanotubes to Self-Assemble & Bind to Dedicated Molecules

In a Q&A which had been posted on the IBM Research blog, Nanoscale device as well as technology manager Shu-Jen Han had clarified what is needed to be done to utilise carbon nanotube transistors in a practical processor stating that they had developed a method for carbon nanotubes to self-assemble and bind to dedicated molecules on a wafer.

Then it is pushed to the density of the placed nanotubes, to around 10 nm apart and the reproducibility through the complete wafer’. The issue with the prevailing silicon based transistors is the tiny switches which tend to carry information on present computer chips and the material properties of silicone limits the degree to which transistors could be condensed in size.

BM tends to have built functional silicon germanium transistors at 7 nanometres. However it states that this pushed the limits of what could be done with the material. Intel on the other hand stated that it would not be utilising silicon beyond the 10 nm scale. The present CPUs of Intel are at 14nm while the next generation would be 10nm.

Assets of Carbon Nanotubes – Appropriate for Computing

The assets of carbon nanotubes tend to make them appropriate for use in computing, wherein they conduct electricity much faster than silicon, utilise less power and evaluating just one nanometre thick, seems to be much thinner than the prevailing silicon that makes them less liable to unsolicited electrostatic discharge. IBM had been investing profoundly in carbon nanotube study which has shown that carbon nanotube transistors could be utilised as outstanding switches at channel dimensions less than 10nm.

The company has clarified that it is equivalent to 10,000 times thinner than a strand of hair and less than half the size of present leading silicon technology’. Vice president of science and technology, Dario Gil, had written on IBM’s `A Smarter Planet blog, mentioning that the new technology could extend the life of Moore’s Law.

Created in the 1960s, Gordon Moore’s fundamental saying of modern technological development assumed that the number of transistors which could be put onto a computer chip would double every two years and with silicon reaching it limits, physically, the achievement of carbon nanotube research would be essential if the development seems to continue.

Apple Pay is coming to Starbucks

Apple’s Mobile Payment Service Coming to Starbucks

Vice President of Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey, during the Code Mobile conference, had revealed that Apple Pay, Apple’s mobile payment service would be coming to Starbucks next year. Starbucks would be starting to pilot the service in some of the stores towards the end of 2015 and would be rolling it out to Starbucks company owned stores, around 7,500 by next year.

Bailey has informed that working on Apple Pay, she has seen great changes in momentum around acceptance at the merchant level, adding that about 80% of Apple Watch owners very actively tend to use Apple Pay. She said that Apple Pay would be hitting KFC restaurants in spring and Chili’s restaurants in 2016 as a pay at the table model.

The potential of turning smartphones into digital wallets with the ability of paying at the register had been advertised for years. Apple had kick-started consumer interest in the technology when it had launched its first project into contactless mobile payment last year. Less than 72 hours after the debut of Apple Pay, around 1 million credit cards had been utilised on the service.

Pay Through Near Field Communication - NFC

People can pay for products on the go at supported retailer through near field communication - NFC, technology with a new iPhone or Apple Watch. Besides this, other Touch ID enabled devices like the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 can also be used to pay for in-app transactions.

The iOS 9 update since last month enables users consolidated loyalty as well as rewards cards. The service tends to utilise a tokenization method which sends an encrypted digital token to stores rather than a credit or debit card number whenever a transaction has been made, which means merchants as well as retailers never get to view customer data.

 Mobile payments service of Samsung also works in the same manner. With around 500 financial institution partners together with 220,000 US merchant locations which tend to make mobile payment through NFC’s short range, secure wireless capabilities, Apple Pay had gone live in 2014. Towards mid-2015,over 2,500 banks had signed on to render support to Apple Pay with more than 1 million locations accepting Apple Pay.

Apple Pay – Two Thirds Contactless Payment – Radio Frequency

Apple Pay seems to be on track to be accepted at over 1.5 million US locations towards the end of this year. Apple had said that in January, Apple Pay made more than two-thirds of all contactless payments comprising of any device or smart card which makes payments utilising a radio frequency.

However, Apple has faced a lot of competition from Google which has been bulking up its Android Pay offering, together with Samsung which had introduced its Samsung Pay service in the US last month. The services of Samsung enables consumers to pay for products with their Galaxy phone and the impending Gear S2 smart-watch, tends to work at older retail depots that do not accept Apple Pay but thanks to the achievement of LoopPay in February.

Bailey had commented recently that she had been treated well as one of the few female executive at Apple. Bailey had been one of the two female executive highlighted on the stage in June at the time of Apple’s developer conference

Apple Patents Smart Ring With Microphone

Apple’s Patel for Smart Ring – Touchscreen

Apple has recently attained a patent for smart ring with a touch screen which can control other devices wirelessly. Apple’s patent application which had been published recently describes an interactive ring which tends to work in combination with other devices like the phone.

The patent application which was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is titled `Devices and Methods for a Ring Computing Device’. Apple has informed that it features a touchpad or touchscreen and can be worn on the index finger which can be controlled by the thumb.

The company has informed that it would include a microphone in order to dictate commands and a built-in vibration that would make the wearer aware that something has occurred. The filing has recommended that the ring would be capable of determining what is written by following the motion of the hand.

The rings is described as `a wearable ring device including an annular member defining an opening which is sized for receipt of a first finger of the user, a computer processor housed in the annular member, a touchscreen electrically connected to the computer processor and disposed partially at an outer peripheral surface of the annular member, where the touchscreen is organized to receive inputs form a second finger of the wearer.

Wireless Transceiver Electrically Linked to Computer Processor

Besides this, it would have a wireless transceiver electrically linked to the computer processor and arranged to communicate with at least one external electronic device’.

Apple has informed that `the present generation touchscreen devices could be burdensome, inefficient or inconvenient for some applications and tasks’. It is said that the ring could also be used as a personal safety tool.

The patent filing states that `the light emitted by a touchscreen could be inappropriate in some social environment or dangerous if it tends to give away the position of a threatened user.

It is therefore essential for a more discreet, safer, efficient or more ergonomic way of interacting with touch pads or touch screens. Several of apple’s patents, like most of the companies, never make to the production line. However, it is interesting to know that Apple is keen in exploring in those quarters.

Haptic Feedback like Apple Watch

The smart ring would also be having haptic feedback that would be working like the Apple Watch, notifying the user each time they tend to receive a call, email or message. It has not yet confirmed if Apple would really be manufacturing the wearable, however some patents do not really get materialized into functional consumer products.

 The hands of the user could be preoccupied with some other task, or the arms could be tired after holding the device in a viewing position for a long period of time. For some versions of the ring that is shown in the patent, Apple recommends a built-in microphone for Siri voice commands and a two force feedback motors for the purpose of conveying several notifications and direction information like GPS.

The ring can also be utilised in controlling external devices like a computer’s mouse cursor, an entertainment and climate control system as well as a camera’s shutter.

A Look at Apple’s New Spaceship Building

Apple’s Spaceship Campus

It is reported that the new Sunnyvale campus known as Central & Wolfe for the streets bordering it, seems to be the latest in Apple’s big land grab and building trend. The campus is located five miles from Apple’s new main campus in Cupertino where it is being developed.

 The new Apple campus has been referred by many as the `Spaceship Campus’ due to its flying saucer type design. It is being constructed by the British firm Foster + Partners who have been appointed as the architects for this massivebuilding.

Earlier project comprise of Wembley Stadium, Canary Wharf Underground Station, Stansted Airport, London’s Millenium Bridge, the Maclaren Technology Centre, HSBC HQ at Canary Wharf and the Hearst Tower in New York.

Based on the plan, Apple is transforming nine buildings from an old `70s era office park to a single curving building which seeks like a three-loaf cover. The six storeys, 770,000 square foot building will have none of the straight line in sight except for the outline of the main courtyard which one could look out from Apple store esque curved glass windows.

Placed Between New Spaceship Campus & Present Infinite Loop Campus

The sections of the clover leaf tends to open onto individual courtyards with a hope to bring some 4,000 computer obsessed employee who would be working in this building nearer to nature. Overall, the plan calls for 90,000 square feet of green space which would be accessible.

The new campus of Apple will be set in a 2.8 million square foot area, a 176-acre site plot and would housing more than 13,000 Apple employees in a single building.

The building seems to be more than a mile around. Besides this, there will be about 300,000 square feet of research facilities with underground parking. Apple had leased 290,000 square feet of new office space in Sunnyvale known as Sunnyvale Crossing, in May 2014 and it is presumed that this extra space includes seven buildings, which would be providing room for around 1,450 workers.

It is placed near the new `Spaceship’ campus and the present Infinite Loop campus. The 4 storey circular structure would be having enormous walls of glass which would enable the employees to view from both sides of the ring.

Important Segment – Restaurant – Giving Way to Landscape

According to an architect Peter Arbour, for Seele, the company which makes the glass staircases for Apple Stores across the world, informed Bloomberg that it is something like six kilometres of glass’. Forster +Partners founder and chairman, Norman Foster, in an interview with Architectural Record, explained that he was motivated by the idea of a London square where houses tend to surround a park and this ultimately gave rise to the present design – a circular structure surrounding a large outdoor park.

Forster also revealed in the video which was developed to promote the Campus 2 project to the City of Cupertino’s plan of commission that in the original plans, no circular `spaceship’ structure was included. He informed that `it did not start as a circular building but grew into that and the idea of one building with a great park was borne out of very intensive process’.

Due to the large size of the building, the sections have been divided into cafés, entrances and lobbies. The most important segment of the building is the restaurant which gives way to the landscape and the car park is below the landscape and there are no rows of parked car to interfere with the view.

iPhone Tips & Tricks You Probably didn’t Know About

Nowadays no one goes through life without his or her phone. Actually, your whole life is in it. There are lots of awesome things about iPhones. You can always contact someone if you need to and you have access to all necessary information. But, there are even more features on your phone you probably didn’t know about. We have summed up a few tricks and tips. You can easily learn these tricks and may even find yourself using them a lot to enhance your overall iPhone experience.

1. Save battery life

When your battery is running low, there a many ways to let it last longer. In the settings, you can turn of a few things. You can turn off the following functions: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location services, 3G and auto-brightness. Don’t worry. With these switched off, you can still receive calls, SMS and even go online with EDGE communication.

2. Extra options of your headphone

There are some options on your headphone (from iPhone), you probably didn’t know about. First of all, you can go to the next or previous track while listening to music or podcasts. How does it work? Press once to play/pause, press twice to go to the next track and press three times to go to the previous track. In addition to that, you can take a photo with the volume + button. If you want to do this, you have to put your Camera mode on.

3. Time your music

If you like to play music before you fall asleep, you can set a timer. With this timer you don’t have to wake up and turn off your music, because it will stop. How do you do that? Go to Timer and set the time. Then select ‘When Timer Ends’ and choose the option ‘Stop Playing’.

4. Charge your phone faster

When your battery is low and you don’t have much time to charge it, then use the Airplane mode on your iPhone. If you use this mode, your battery will charge faster.

5. Delete last digit in calculator app

Who doesn’t recognize it? You’re typing an number in the Calculator and during a long calculation you type one digit wrong. Instead of tapping the ‘C’ button, you can just swipe your finger to the left or right of the numbers and clear the last digit. Each swipe will delete a number.

6. Shake the undo

If you’ve just typed a long sentence and you’ve accidentally deleted it, you can shake your iPhone to bring up the redo/undo button. Though a little awkward at times, this feature can also be a lifesaver.

7. Recognize music

Have you ever heard a song and wished you knew the title? Instead of using Shazam, you can ask Siri. Ask her which song it is and she will give you the answer. Siri uses the built-in Shazam to identify the title and artist. Would you like to enhance your iPhone experience even more with EasilyDo, Evernote or another app? Visit iTunescard.com and purchase an iTunes Gift Card to easily top up your credit.