Google is experimenting with physical USB keys, phones, and jewelry to replace passwords for user authentication. India will pursue its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 independently after Russia withdrew. NASA is partnering with the European Space Agency on the Euclid mission to study dark matter and dark energy.

1. Technology related News
21st -27th Jan, 2013
Presented by :
Alka Singh
Ankaj Mahindroo
University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

2. Google may soon replace
passwords with ‘physical keys’
 Search giant Google is set to kill off passwords and is experimenting
with USB keys, mobile phones and even jewellery that can act as a
physical ‘key’ to give users access to their account.
 “One option uses a tiny USB key called a YubiKey. When the user
plugs the key into a latop, they are automatically logged into all of
their Google accounts — without ever having to type in a password”.
 “Another option uses a smartcard-embedded finger ring to authorise a
new computer via a tap on the computer,” they said.

3. Chandrayaan-2: India to go it
alone
India has decided to go it alone in its second lunar
mission, the Chandrayaan-2, which was originally
proposed as an Indo-Russian venture.
According to an agreement signed on November 12,
2007 between ISRO and Roskosmos, the Russian
Federal Space Agency, ISRO had the primary
responsibility to provide both the orbiter and the rover,
while Roskosmos was to design and build the lander for
this combined orbiter-rover-lander mission.

4. NASA joins probe to solve ‘dark
energy’ puzzle
NASA has teamed up with the European Space Agency
to probe one of the most fundamental questions in
modern cosmology — the existence of dark matter.
ESA’s Euclid mission, a space telescope designed to
investigate the cosmological mysteries of dark matter
and dark energy will launch in 2020, NASA said.
Euclid will spend six years mapping the locations and
measuring the shapes of as many as 2 billion galaxies
spread over more than one-third of the sky.

5. Microsoft applies for patent on 3D
electromagnetic stylus
 The principles at work are similar to those found in a 3D mouse,
but Microsoft’s paperwork for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
did not include any examples of specific uses for the 3D data input
stylus.

6. Global leaders issue 2013
predictions at Davos forum
Internet would get more up close and personal in the
years ahead. She said that the "interest graph" would
overtake the "social graph."
-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer
(euro zone crisis) "less worse than it was last summer.”
-Economist and New York University Professor
Nouriel Roubini ("Dr. Doom" )

7. Goat shed that is easy to build
and dismantle
Programme Coordinator : Dr. Abdul Kareem,
Credit for developing the unit: Dr T. Giggin, Assistant
(Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kannur, Kerala Agricultural University)

8. U.R. Rao to join Satellite Hall of
Fame
 Prof U R Rao, former Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of
Space is being honoured by the Society of Satellite Professionals
International (SSPI) by inducting him as a Member of the highly
prestigious “Satellite Hall of Fame”, Washington.
 Since 1987, the SSPI Hall of Fame has been recognising the invaluable
contribution of the visionaries who have transformed life on planet
earth for the better through satellite technology. Members of the Hall
of Fame are recognised pioneers in communications, satellite related
aerospace scientific research or development and delivery of
applications for business, institutions and government via satellite.

9. UN group nods new video format to
save bandwidth
 The UN telecommunications agency says its members have agreed upon
a new compression format that could dramatically cut the amount of
Internet bandwidth currently used by video files.
The International Telecommunication Union says the format, or codec,
known as H.265 would require just half the amount of data needed by
its predecessor, H.264.
The Geneva-based agency says videos encoded using the H.264 format
which is favored by devices such as Apple's iPad currently account for
two-fifths of web traffic.
ITU said in a statement late Friday the new H.265 codec could pave the
way for ``the next wave of innovation,'' such as faster movie downloads
and higher-quality video streaming.

10. The Neptune Pine Smart Watch Has A
Camera, Runs Android, And Wants To
Replace Your Smartphone
 The Pine has a slot for you to insert your micro-SIM card, and once you do you can
leave your phone at home. From there, the Neptune Pine can measure all of your
health information, including heart rate, pace, calories burned, distance, and your
position, meaning that this thing is probably jam-packed full of sensors (we don’t
know because the founders didn’t get back to us.)
 The Pine features quad-band GSM, 3D, 802.11 WiFi, a USB 2.0 connection, GPS
and Bluetooth 4.0. Plus, it has a digital compass and FM radio built in. You can
browse the web, check email, stay up to date with your calendar and even listen to
your music library.
 The Pine comes with a small 3.2-megapixel camera called the Recondite. I can’t
imagine that the image quality is quite as good as the new smartphones on the
market with 8-, 12- and 13- (!) megapixel shooters, but it’ll get the job done in a
pinch.

11. Vine Just Made Twitter A Stronger
Social Network
Vine, in case you missed it, is a standalone iOS app from
Twitter that lets users create short, 6-second videos that run
on a loop.
Users record by holding their thumb against the screen, and
stop by releasing. The short clips can then be threaded
together and shared on Vine itself, Twitter or even
Facebook.

12. Temple Run 2 LAUNCHED
 Temple Run was one of the most popular games of 2012,seeing
2.5 million downloads on Christmas day alone. But like any
good mobile gaming studio, Imangi Studios has released the sequel
to the hit racing/escaping game on both iOS and Android.
 The iOS version of Temple Run 2 was made available on
January 17, and saw over 6 million downloads in the first 24
hours. But Temple Run 2 for Android has just arrived on the
Google Play store.
 The game is awesome, to put it simply. If you enjoyed the original
Temple Run in any capacity, you’ll like Temple Run 2 even more.

13. Intel Makes Mobile Push Into
Africa Via Partner Safaricom,
Releases Android-Powered
Yolo Smartphone

14. Face Wash helps clean up your
Facebook profile
Researchers from Kent State University have developed an
app for Facebook that will help you clean up the potentially
embarrassing “stuff” off your Facebook Profile.
Aptly titled “FaceWash,” the app scans through one’s profile
for any mention of questionable content such as photos,
posts, status updates, ‘liked’ pages etc. The app was
developed by Daniel Gur, Camden Fullmer and David
Steinberg when they realized that people might need a way
to clean up their extensive Facebook activity in order
maintain good chances of future employment.

15. Hackers claim attack on U.S. Justice
Department website
Hackers sympathetic to the late computer prodigy Aaron
Swartz claimed on Saturday to have infiltrated the website of
the U.S. Justice Department's Sentencing Commission, and
said they planned to release government data.
In a video posted online, the hackers criticized the
government's prosecution of Swartz, who had been facing
trial on charges that he used the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology's computer networks to steal more than 4
million articles from JSTOR, an online archive and journal
distribution service.