Wireless Charging | Qi Charging

Many of the latest smartphones and tablets come with support for Qi wireless charging, but what exactly is that. Qi wireless charging is a global standard to which many smartphones adhere. It allows you to wirelessly charge a compatible device's battery using induction transfer, simply by placing it on top of a wireless pad - and with no need for cables or adaptors (other than to the wireless charger itself).  As we've seen with Wi-Fi hotspots, eventually Qi will become a common feature in hotels, airports, train stations and more, allowing you to top up your device wherever you go. You can also buy your own Qi wireless charger for home use. 

If a smartphone supports Qi wireless charging then any Qi wireless charger will be compatible with it - not just that which is sold as an official accessory for the phone. This means you can often save some money on a third-party brand charger. The low-power Qi wireless charging specification is able to deliver up to 5W of power; medium-power Qi will offer up to 120W. Wireless charging is typically slower than traditional charging. This EC Technology Qi charger delivers a 1A current. That's pretty standard, and fine for a smartphone, but you'll notice the difference with tablets such as the Nexus 7 - these will charge much faster using a 2A charger. 

 

Qi Charging: is my phone compatible?

There are a growing number of phones that come with the Qi charging feature, the issue is that many users aren't aware of its presence. Phones that support Qi charging include:

·         Samsung Galaxy S5

·         Samsung Galaxy S6

·         Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

·         Samsung Galaxy Note 4

·         Google Nexus 4-7

·         Motorola Droid Maxx

·         Nokia Lumia 920

·         Nokia Lumia 928

·         Nokia Lumia 929

·         Nokia Lumia 930

·         Nokia Lumia 1020

·         Nokia Lumia 1520

MEERKAT

Meerkat is an app that lets you stream video live on the Internet right from your smartphone instantly. Hit the button and you're available for anyone to watch, just like that. You sign up through Twitter, and it notifies your followers whenever you start streaming. And when you're done, there's no recording or archived version of the video — it's just gone. It's so easy that people are just streaming everything.

All those automatic tweets from friends, touting videos you can't watch unless you download an app, drove Meerkat toward the top of the charts. And when you installed it, Meerkat connected to Twitter's "social graph," a detailed data set of all the people you're connected to on the service, to automatically build a network of fellow Meerkat users. Easy streaming, automatic friend network, and of course a huge tech conference going on (SXSW in Austin, Texas) all contributed to its rapid growth. 

Well, Twitter didn't take too kindly to Meerkat scrapping all those details and using them for its own purposes. So Meerkat's access to Twitter's social graph was revoked. Though users could still sign up using Twitter and tweet livestreams, the automatic connection with a group of other Meerkat-ers was no more. Considering Twitter just bought Periscope, which does much the same thing as Meerkat, this limitation isn't too surprising: Twitter aims to do live video on its own. Finding friends isn't as easy as it was, but the developers added a search function to help up for it.

Internet of Things - 101

The Internet as we know it is going to change. Today it is a global network which connects people. We use desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones to communicate with each other. Often the information we send around goes via servers which run web sites, email software, etc. Broadly speaking this means that the Internet is made up of people, client devices, and servers. A whole new category of actors is being added to the Internet. These new participants aren't people and have been unglamorous named as “things,” hence the term “Internet of Things.”

A “thing” can be almost any object with at least one sensor and a way to transmit data.  It won't be long, and it may have already happened, but there will be more things on the Internet sending data around than actual people using Internet enabled devices. The cell phone, the Internet, email, social media, and smartphones have all changed the way we do things, both at a personal level and at a business level. Clearly the Internet of Things will also affect our personal and professional lives, how exactly hasn’t yet been fully understood, but affect us it will.

CHALLENGES

There are several big challenges ahead for the embryonic Internet of Things. There are technological challenges in terms of the actual devices that collect and send data, these challenges include both hardware and software issues like battery life, maintenance, interoperability, and compatibility. There are big data issues around building systems that can process all of this data and use it to achieve meaningful tasks. There are also security and privacy problems.

In his speech the co-CEO also highlighted that the IoT experience needs to be seamless for the consumer. “We have to create an open IoT ecosystem,” said Yoon. “The IoT experience needs to be seamless.” To that end Yoon promised that all of Samsung’s products would be built on open platforms. “Our IoT components and devices will be open. We will ensure that others can easily connect to our devices,” Yoon said during his keynote. “Without this kind of openness, there won't be an Internet-of-Things.”

ARM

Towards the end of 2014, ARM announced a new operating system to boost the development of IoT devices. Called ‘mbed OS’, it is a free operating system for ARM’s Cortex-M range of microcontrollers. One of the key points about mbed OS is that it supports the important IoT protocols, and allows anyone from a hobbyist developer to a multiple-million dollar corporation to prototype and develop IoT devices. mbed OS will include all the functionality needed to create an IoT device and to transmit that data to the cloud. It supports lots of different communication stacks including IPv4, IPv6, 6LoWPAN, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 2G GSM, and 3G.

STRUCTURE

So what does the Internet of Things look like in terms of its structure? It is quite simple. At the “Thing” end you have small devices which monitor something. These devices transmit that data to another, more complex device. It could be a smartphone; it could be a control unit of some kind or it could be to a dedicated device that acts as a gateway to the Internet. This last category of device is known as an IoT Gateway. They are important because the sensors often don’t have a direct Internet connection. They probably only have Bluetooth or some other low power connectivity like ZigBee. Once the IoT gateway has received the data from the sensor it can be sent into the cloud.

SECURITY

With all these devices sending data and receiving commands it won’t be long before the hackers are drawn in. A recent security report from Intel’s McAfee Labs singled-out IoT as a potential area for security problems. The report says that IoT related attacks will increase rapidly due to the predicted fast growth in the number of connected objects, many of which will have poor levels of security.

CONCLUSION

All this technology sounds great for the consumer, but probably the big money is to be made on larger scale projects. Smart buildings, smart cities, and IoT enabled businesses are where the large contracts will be. The IoT revolution is really only just beginning and there will be lots of advancements over the next few years. How we arrive at the seamless IoT experience will be interesting to watch, and on the way I am sure we are going to see some great innovation from some surprising sources.

GOOGLE's NEARLINE STORAGE

Google has launched a new cloud storage service today that has the potential to change how many companies, ranging from startups to enterprises, view online storage. With Google Cloud Storage Nearline, businesses can store the data they or their customers don't frequently need to access (think backups, log files or older photos), for $0.01 per gigabyte at rest. Unlike other cold storage services like Amazon’s Glacier, where it can take hours before your data is available again once it has been put on ice, Google promises to make your data in Nearline available again in about 3 seconds.

With Nearline, Google wants to blur the line between standard online storage and cold storage so businesses don't have to delete their data anymore or move their files to cold storage.

Google is able to offer this competitive price, which is on par with Amazon’s Glacier, because it is able to host all of its data on a single system, no matter whether it’s online or “nearline.” This commonality of systems is pretty unusual.  Historically, storage companies built two different systems, but the hardest and most costly thing about offline storage is actually moving the data between these two systems.  On the backend then, Nearline uses the same system as the rest of Google’s storage products, with exactly the same encryption and other security features. It also shares its APIs with Google’s standard online storage service.

Google expects that many of its early customers will use the service primarily to store photos, videos and documents. Many companies pay a lot to keep these online, just in case a user ever needs them. To reach an even wider market, Google has partnered with a number of storage companies, including Veritas/Symantec, NetApp, Geminare and Iron Mountain. While all of these will get Google’s new service in front of a lot of enterprise customers, the Iron Mountain relationship is interesting because that company will allow users to send in their hard drives and have them securely uploaded to Nearline.

APPLE'S New MACBOOK

Apple has unveiled a brand new MacBook during its Apple Watch event. The new MacBook — available in silver, gold or space gray — has an all-metal enclosure and weighs less than 2 lbs. Just 13.1mm thick, it offers a brand new keyboard, with keys that are 40% thinner than the traditional kind.

What's Inside ?

There's a 12-inch Retina display with edge-to-edge cover glass and 2304 by 1440 pixels. Apple says it is the thinnest display ever built into a Mac, and that it consumes 30% less energy.

The new MacBook also features a new "Force Touch" trackpad with a glass multi-touch surface and a tap tic engine. It's unhinged, and its feedback mechanism can be controlled via software.

The Force Touch trackpad will includ

e new gestures which allow users to perform actions based on the context and pressure of a tap or click. The new MacBook uses Apple's latest uni-body architecture. It's the first fan less MacBook ever, and uses Intel's Core M processor running up to 1.3GHz. All of that power only consumes 5 watts of power.

Apple saved a lot of space on the inside of the new MacBook with its new logic board design — using the remaining space for custom-fit batteries. The company says its new contoured cells allow it to have 35% more battery life in the same space. Apple says it can do 9 hours of wireless web browsing and 10 hours of iTunes movie playback. The new MacBook has 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 built in. The vision of the notebook, according to Phil Schiller, is to be "without wires." The new MacBook will still have one cord on it — a brand new one. It uses USB-C which offers USB 3.0, DisplayPort and power.

Price

Available in silver, space gray and gold, the new MacBook will start at $1299 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It will start shipping on April 10, and will join the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro line. Apple also updated its MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina notebooks with faster processors. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina will also get the Force Touch trackpad and longer battery life.

Wireless Mobile Charging

You'll soon be able to charge your mobile device directly on various pieces of furniture, from nightstands and desks to even the base of a lamp. The leading furniture giants announced at Mobile World Congress on Sunday that they are incorporating Qi technology into some of its product offerings. That means you'll soon be able to place mobile devices on the surface of furniture to replenish your mobile device's batteries, eliminating charging stations and cable clutter.

Qi is a popular wireless power standard from the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) that is available in many hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, airports and other public locations. Many smartphones support Qi charging — 81, in fact; including the newly-announced Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone — as well as 15 car models and too-many-to-count mobile accessories. Qi transfers charge into your mobile device via induction transfer, the device being charged has to follow Qi standard. The following standard is already being used to charge electric vehicles.

Once Qi is embedded in furniture, you'll be able to place a smartphone on certain charging pads that are built into the furniture. It'll be the first time built-in wireless chargers will be available to consumers from a mass-market furniture retailer. While this will get rid of device wires and any need to remember where you put your charger, the furniture itself will require a power source to facilitate the energy transfer to your smartphone or tablet. There are also plans to sell wireless charging modules so that they can be fit into already present furniture and household items.

How To Buy a HARD DRIVE ?

Whether you're running out of drive space on your desktop or laptop, or you just need to backup your stuff, here's what to look for before you settle on the perfect external storage solution. External hard drives promise almost unlimited storage: For a mere 3000-4000 Rs, you can add a terabyte of data to your PC or Mac, laptop or desktop. That's enough for over 750,000 MP3s or photos, or over 230 DVD-sized movies. Every computer out there, from mega-huge towers to budget-priced Windows tablets, can connect to at least one hard drive. If you're lucky enough to have multiple input/output ports, you can hook up many more. Auxiliary storage allows you to backup your system files, in case your primary system goes kaput.

Hard Drive Types

There are two types of external drives. Desktop-style drives, with 3.5-inch mechanisms inside, require a power adapter. Desktop drives are designed to stay in one place, usually on your work surface at home or at the office. If you're buying a desktop-style drive for active use (video or lots of file transfers), look for one with a built-in fan, as the extra cooling will extend the drive's life expectancy. Notebook-class (a.k.a. pocket) hard drives, like the Seagate Backup Plus, are usually 2.5-inch mechanisms powered through the connector cable without the need for a power adapter. A 2.5-inch pocket drive can fit in a coat pocket and some pants pockets. Desktop-style drives currently top out at six Terabytes (TB) per mechanism, but some drive makers put two to four mechanisms into a drive chassis for more storage (i.e., two 4TB drives equal 8TB of storage). Notebook-class drives come in capacities up to 2TB, but capacities from 500GB to 1TB are more common.

A word about multiple drives: You can increase capacity, speed or data protection by buying an external RAID array, but multiple drives add expense and (some) complexity. Once you connect a simple (single volume) external RAID array to your PC or Mac, it will show up and act as any other external drive. After that, it can become more complex. You should consider a drive with support for RAID levels 1, 5, or 10 if you're storing really important data that you can't afford to lose. There are other RAID levels for speed, capacity, and other factors like software vs. hardware RAID.

Connectivity:

External solid-state drives (SSDs) are found mostly in the notebook-class form factor. We recommend that you buy SSDs for use as internal rather than external drives. External drives connect to PCs and Macs via their external connectors. USB 2.0/3.0 ports are almost always present; others can include FireWire (400 and 800), eSATA, or more esoteric connectors like Wireless USB or iSCSI. Note that while iSCSI uses Ethernet cables, it differs from SAN or NAS technologies, since those connect multiple hard drives to multiple computers. Wireless USB and iSCSI are still very rare on drives. Wireless USB drives are still mostly a curiosity since NAS drives are easier to manage, and iSCSI is mainly used on professional-grade drives like theDroboPro. USB 3.0, becoming the port of choice, provides faster transfer speeds and a minimum of fuss, since almost all desktop and laptop PCs come with USB ports.

Is Drive Speed Important?

Some drive manufacturers will crow about the speed of their drive mechanisms. While a 7,200rpm drive is inherently faster than a 5,400rpm drive, the true answer would be "it depends." If you are transferring lots of files over a speedy interface like eSATA (fast),USB 3.0 (faster), or Thunderbolt (fastest), then by all means go for the 7,200rpm drive. However, if you're limited to USB 2.0 or FireWire 400/800, then I would trade speed for capacity and get the largest 5,400rpm drive that your budget allows. USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 are more common than USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, and those older interfaces work fine with a 5,400rpm drive. If all out speed is your goal, multiple drives (7,200rpm, 10,000rpm, or SSD) over Thunderbolt 2 is the fastest (and most costly), with a single SSD connected via Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 as next fastest, and so on.

After you've slogged through the above criteria, you may have to look for other differentiators to find the drive you want. Color and design are usually a concern: A drive you're embarrassed to use won't be used at all, defeating its purpose. Included software is a concern if you don't already have a backup plan. If you're simply using the drive as an extra storage container or if you're using the backup software built into Windows or Mac OS, packed in software isn't as important. Warranty is also an important factor in our ratings: Drives can and will fail on you. That cheap drive you found on dealnews.com may only have a one-year warranty. Look for a three- or five-year warranty if you're hard on your drives.