Sony Shows Off Xperia Tablet Z - Thinnest Tablet Yet
In the world of smartphones and tablets, thin is most definitely in. Each company tries to get the thinnest design possible, with new iterations vying for the crown. Earlier today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Sony took the wraps off "the world's thinnest 10.1-inch tablet:" the Xperia Tablet Z. Sony's latest tablet measures in at an impossibly thin 6.9 millimeters, yet it packs a 1920x1200 resolution touchscreen, a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB of RAM, either 16 or 32GB of storage, runs on Android 4.1 (upgradeable to 4.2 "after launch"), and can work in three feet of water for 30 minutes. There's also a microSD slot to add up to an extra 64GB of storage should you desire. The Xperia Tablet Z has an eight megapixel camera on the rear and a two megapixel one on the front, plus there's an IR blaster to function as a TV remote of sorts.
Owners of the tablet can download the TV SideView app, which works in tandem with cable/satellite providers to view the channel guide and currently airing content. If there's a show on, owners can simply swipe up on the Tablet Z to automatically have the cable box switch to the channel. Since the app and tablet work on IR and not WiFi, it's a perfect addition to anyone not using a networked TV or set-top box.
Sony is planning on releasing the Xperia Tablet Z in the spring, though no solid date was announced. The 16GB tablet with WiFi is priced at $499, with the 32GB WiFi version at $599. There are no plans to introduce a 4G model currently.
Source: Ars Technica
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Selectively Welding Nanofibers with Light
Welding has been an important process for centuries as metal-smiths have used it to combine different metals together. Now more than just metals are welded together for different reasons and using different techniques. Researchers at North Carolina State University have recently developed a new means to weld together nanofibers using light and gold nanorods, which may lead to stronger materials.
Gold nanoparticles are useful tools as they have special optical properties, which the researchers have taken advantage of in this research by using gold nanorods. In this case the researcher have made the nanorods to react to either 520 nm light or 800 nm light, depending on the alignment of the nanorods and the polarization of the light. This selective reactivity is the key to the welding method the researchers created because the rods have been aligned with the nanofibers they have been embedded in, so a laser with one frequency will weld the nanofibers going in only one direction, instead of all of the fibers containing the gold nanorods.
This discovery could prove very useful for manufacturing advanced materials as it should allow for a material's physical properties to be changed post-production, which is cheaper and more efficient than doing so during production.
Source: North Carolina State University
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Thermaltake Targets Chaser A41 Case at Gamers
The Chaser A41 is the latest case from Thermaltake that is marketed toward gamers. The mid tower case is available in black with blue accents around the case and a side window. Up to four 5.25" drives and six 3.5" or 2.5" drives can be stuffed into the case. A single 200mm fan and two 120mm fans, with space for a third, are installed with two featuring blue LEDs. The Chaser is compatible with ATX and micro-ATX motherboards and has clearance for CPU coolers up to 175mm in height and GPUs up to 315mm in length.
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Lian Li Reveals PC-9N Mid Tower Case
The newest case from Lian Li is the PC-9N, a mid tower offering made of brushed aluminum. The PC-9N has a railing mount design motherboard tray that fits ATX and micro-ATX boards while increasing thermal performance and cable management. Up to five 3.5" drives and one 2.5" drive will find a place in the tool-less, modular drive cage and three 5.25" drives can also be used. Two 140mm fans can be installed in the front of the case and an additional 120mm can be installed in the rear. The case can accommodate CPU coolers up to 170mm in height and GPUs up to 430mm in length. The PC-9N will be available at the end of this month in silver or black at the price of $109.99.
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Effects of Cyber-Bullying as Real as In-Person Bullying
The stereotypical bully is the big kid on the playground who pushes the smaller kids around, but recently that image has been changing. Thanks to the omnipresence of the Internet, people are being bullied anywhere they have a computer or cellphone, which can make it harder to fight compared to schoolyard bullying. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently done a study of over 3000 students in Singapore, coming to the conclusion that cyber bullying is as important to fight as traditional bullying as it has just as great an impact on people.
The researchers collected data on how often the bullied students skipped school or thought about skipping school and found that the number reached to 22% of physically bullied students. Compare that to 27% of students who were bullied online and 28% who were bullied by text message. Similar numbers were found when counting how many bullied students had suicidal thoughts, and all of this echoes research down with US and Canadian students.
The point of this research is that anti-bullying plans need to target both physical and electronic bullying as they are both hurting students. Also such plans need to reach beyond school and into the home so parents also can identify and respond to the warning signs of a bullied child.
Source: Michigan State University
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Samsung Devices Will Not Run Firefox OS
A high-level Samsung executive has said that the company is not interested in adopting the upcoming Firefox OS for its smartphones and tablets. This follows Mozilla's debut of Firefox OS earlier this week during this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, where a number of Mozilla's partners showcased their own devices running the new OS.
Mozilla does have number of powerful allies such as LG, Huawei, ZTE and Alcatel who are planning on producing devices running Firefox OS. Mozilla has also received support from chip-manufacturer Qualcomm who is interested in making chips for Firefox OS devices. The loss of Samsung, however, is likely to heavily affect initial sales of devices running the new OS, especially considering that it is now considered the dominant smartphone manufacturer, alongside Apple.
Source: CNET.com
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Better Material for Non-Silicon-Based Electronics Discovered
If it were not for the properties of silicon, modern computers would be nothing like they are or may not even exist in households. Despite that though, researchers are looking to replace it with other materials in computers, because some of these other materials have their own special properties. Now researchers at Penn State have discovered a new material that could greatly impact the future of non-silicon-based electronic devices.
Researchers across the world are working on non-silicon materials to replace the ubiquitous semiconductor that will also bring special properties such act as memory and perform logic operations. The Penn researchers have recently discovered a material that can enhance the binary-states of these non-silicon materials by as much as 10,000%. This dramatic increase in polarization between a 0 and 1 state could greatly improve the performance of non-silicon electronics as it will reduce memory errors, which in turn allows the device to operate faster.
The researchers are also looking to develop this further to create devices with more than two states. Potentially a quaternary-state device could be made that would switch between 1, 2, 3, and 4 instead of just 0 and 1.
Source: Penn State
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