Some time ago in 2007, a certain CEO did really get annoyed that the screen of his prototype phone got scratched up in his pocket. So, a few weeks before unveiling it, he decided to swap the plastic cover of the screen for chemically-strengthened glass.

Plastic was the standard back in the day, it had indeed done a good job for years. But that was not sufficient for Steve Jobs. His decision changed the mobile landscape and made Gorilla Glass the standard.

Counterclockwise: The rise of Gorilla Glass

It is produced by Corning, which no doubt has a long history in specialty glass. It has been the maker of the Pyrex cookware. It also made the glass for the Hubble telescope’s main mirror. It made the windows of the space shuttle. Corning even, in fact, produced the glass for Thomas Edison’s light bulb.

Yet this legendary company was rather struggling – by 2007 it had in fact been losing money for five years straight. Thanks to Steve Jobs and the massive success of the iPhone, the company has (mostly) returned to profitability.

This quickly did catch on. In 2008, the iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1, the first-ever Android phone, brought Gorilla Glass in to focus as more people came to know about it.

The following year some Symbian (e.g. Samsung i8910 Omnia HD and the Nokia X6) did adopt Gorilla Glass as did various feature phones, such as the extra long LG BL40 New Chocolate and even the small, affordable Samsung S3650 Corby. In 2010, Gorilla Glass could indeed be found on roughly 200 million smartphones, according to data from Corning.

And for a long time, Gorilla Glass was sufficient. However, the upgrade treadmill, as well as the drive for thinner phones, does lead to the introduction of Gorilla Glass 2 in 2012 – 20% thinner than GG1, but just as strong (says, Corning).

After that, there was a new version almost every year – GG3 in 2013 did reduce reflections and fingerprint smudges, GG4 in 2014 improved impact resistance, GG6 improved it further (it was advertised as being able to survive drops from “selfie height”).

One is currently on Gorilla Glass 6, which has indeed reworked chemistry to achieve better resistance to damage after GG5 faced criticism.

Gorilla Glass does happen to be not only strengthened glass on the market, of course. Apple, the company that did push GG into the stratosphere, did discard it and switched to “ion-strengthened” glass starting with the iPhone 6. Apple originally did want to make use of sapphire, but the company that was preparing to produce the panels did go bankrupt.

There is an occasional alternative such as Dragontrail, which was used on the Pixel 3a most recently and some Xperia phones prior to that. Till now Gorilla Glass is the standard. And life without it can indeed be tough, just look at what happened to the top screen layer of the Galaxy Fold. Corning is indeed working on foldable Gorilla Glass, and there is a special version for wearables, even some TVs use Gorilla Glass. It is a material that is highly important for modern tech (the modern world has screens everywhere) and it does deserve recognition.

Technology up-gradation has indeed made much progress and newer forms of it have been emerging. McMaster researcher Fariha Mahmood does make use of new computing technology by shining patterned bands of light via a polymer cube.

McMaster researchers have indeed developed a simple as well as a highly novel form of computing by shining patterned bands of light and shadow through different facets of a polymer cube and also reading the combined results that do tend to emerge.

Nature inspires a novel new form of computing, using light

The material in the cube does read and react intuitively to the light in much the same way a plant would turn to the sun, or a cuttlefish would change the color of its respective skin.

The researchers are rather graduate students in chemistry who have supervised by Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology whose lab focuses on ideas inspired by natural biological systems.

The researchers were indeed able to use their new process to perform simple addition and also subtraction questions.  These are autonomous materials that do respond to stimuli and do intelligent operations. One is indeed very excited to be able to do addition and subtraction in such a manner and one is also thinking of ways to do other computational functions.

The researchers have published in the journal Nature Communications, represents a completely new form of computing, one they do say holds the promise of the complex as well as useful functions yet to be imagined, possibly organized along with the structures of neural networks.

The form of computing is indeed highly localized, needs no power source and does operate completely within the visible spectrum. The technology is part of a branch of chemistry that is referred to as nonlinear dynamics and does make use of materials designed and manufactured to produce specific reactions to light.

A researcher does indeed shine layered stripes of light through the top and sides of a tiny, glass case thus holding the amber-colored polymer, itself roughly the size of a die used in a board game. The polymer does start as a liquid and transforms into a gel in reaction to the given light.

A neutral carrier beam passes through the cube from the back, toward a camera that does read the results, as refracted by the material in the cube, whose components do form spontaneously into thousands of filaments that tend to react to the patterns of light in order to produce a new three-dimensional pattern that does express the outcome.

One does not want to compete with existing computing technologies as one is trying to build materials with more intelligent, sophisticated responses.

Conclusion

Technological progress has indeed made great strides and newer forms of computing have emerged thus making it much easier to use light. Science has progressed well and has facilitated the lives of mankind. Every innovation is meant to make life more easy and comfortable. Nature has been cultivated in order to ensure that lifestyles are convenient and also more modernized.

Home Science News UNSW Team Reports Breakthrough in Quantum Computing has indeed proved quite its worth.

UNSW Team Reports Breakthrough in Quantum Computing does make qubits superior to conventional bits as it is in addition to just occupying a 0 or 1 position and they can occupy both at the same time.

UNSW Team Reports Breakthrough in Quantum Computing

A team of scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia has indeed measured for the first time accuracy of two-qubit operations in silicon – a feat that would indeed enable companies to build a full-scale quantum processor.

Computers today do process information in binary bits that take either a 0 or 1 value while quantum computers tend to depend on the related but superior concept of the qubit.

What does make qubits superior to conventional bits is that in addition to just occupying a 0 or 1 position, as they can occupy both at the same time, what is known in quantum mechanics as the superposition.

All quantum computations can indeed be made up of one-qubit operations and also two-qubit operations. They are the central building blocks of quantum computing.

The research which was published in the prestigious journal Nature, promises quantum computers that would no doubt enable a vastly more powerful and faster way of making calculations than the computing power one has had till date.

In 2015, Dzurak along with fellow researchers built the world’s first quantum logic gate in silicon, so that two qubits could communicate with one another.

A number of groups all across the world have since demonstrated two-qubit gates in silicon but the true accuracy of such a two-qubit gate was unknown.

Fidelity is a critical parameter which does determine how viable a qubit technology is. One can only tap into the tremendous power of quantum computing if the qubit operations are near perfect, with only tiny errors being allowed.

In a study, the team implemented as well as performed Clifford-based fidelity benchmarking which happens to be a technique that can assess qubit accuracy across all technology platforms demonstrating average two-qubit gate fidelity of 98 percent.

Quantum computers will indeed have a wide range of important applications in the future thus appreciating to their ability to perform far more complex calculations at much greater speeds, including solving problems that are indeed simply beyond the ability of today’s computers.

But for most of those important applications, millions of qubits will rather be needed, and one is going to have to correct quantum errors, even when they are small.

The researchers said that silicon as a technology platform is ideal for scaling up to the large numbers of qubits that are needed for universal quantum computing.

In another paper published in the Nature Electronics journal, it was recorded for the world’s most accurate 1-qubit gate in a silicon quantum dot, with a remarkable fidelity of 99.96 percent.

Both Redmi K20 Pro vs Redmi K20 has a lot of similarities, and the Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro sport a triple rear camera setup as well as a mechanized pop-up selfie camera setup.

There have been indeed some big launches and announcements ranging from phones to laptops to DSLR cameras. ET Wealth does round up the most interesting ones that are no doubt worth knowing about. These do include the foldable laptop from Lenovo, Canon mid-range DSLR, OnePlus 7 Pro, Realme X, and iFFalcon QLED AI-enabled TV.

Top gadgets this week: Best technology you can buy

Individuals have become techno-savvy now and would like to experiment with several gadgets in order to facilitate their daily life activities.

Some of them are reasonably priced whereas some are expensive, nevertheless one would like to purchase them. Sophisticated technology has been used to build them up and naturally they are worth the price.

1. The foldable laptop from Lenovo

While one is yet to have an actual working foldable smartphone available for end consumers, Lenovo has indeed gone ahead and announced its foldable laptop. This laptop will indeed feature a 13.3-inch OLED display with 2k resolution in a 4:3 aspect ratio. It will fold inwards to minimize damage when carried around.

A few other confirmed details are true that it will be powered by an Intel processor, that will come with a pressure sensitive stylus and a separate hardware keyboard.

2. Canon mid-range DSLR

After weeks of leaks combined with rumors, OnePlus has indeed finally launched its much-awaited flagship smartphone— OnePlus 7 Pro. It is the company’s first smartphone with a motorized pop-up camera and a triple rear camera setup. It has a 6.67-inch fluid AMOLED display without a notch, 2k screen resolution; 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support.

Hardware does include top of the line Snapdragon 855 processor, 12GB RAM, 256GB storage and a 4,000mAh battery. The phone has an on-screen fingerprint scanner.

3. Realme X becomes official

Realme celebrated its first anniversary with the launch of their 10th smartphone, Realme X. With this phone, the company did want to bring innovative features at an aggressive price point. Realme X is company’s first device with a no-notch 6.53-inch AMOLED display with an on-screen fingerprint scanner and a pop-up selfie camera. The phone is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 710 processor, 4/6/8GB RAM, 64/128GB storage and a 3,765mAh battery.

It does feature a dual rear camera—48MP f1.7 primary one.

4. iFFalcon QLED enabled TV

iFFalcon has no doubt launched a new 65-inch TV with QLED technology in India. The TV has a splendid 10-bit panel with HDR Pro support and 4k resolution and boasts of an 8.9mm slim design. QLED will no doubt deliver enhanced picture quality and for an immersive sound experience, it does feature a built-in Onkyo sound bar. The TV is also a Google certified Android TV powered by quad core CPU and dual core GPU.

Innovations are indeed manifold and they are meant to make life easy and comfortable for mankind. Technology now has much to offer and there are ample gadgets to choose from which are really remarkable. Their usage is very valuable in our daily lives.

Entry level DS2151 which happens to one of the predecessors of the modern-day DS218i. Also, tests have been conducted on the enterprise-focused DS716+1i which have since been succeeded by the DS718+. Synology happens to be one of the leading manufacturers of NAS devices, thus providing a versatile box that will indeed find the required favor with those who go in for such devices and are popular with small as well as medium sized business set-ups.

What does DS218+ comprise of?

• It is 2-bay NAS
• Powered by Celeron j3355 dual-core processor which seeds up to 2.5 GHz.
• It has 2GB of DDR3L RAM.
• Can be expanded by 4GButilizing the second available memory slot.
• One can place 3.5 inch or 2.5 inches SATA drives into each bay.

What does it look like?

• It looks like the DS716+/DS718+ at a given glance.
• It has a front cover that has the tendency to come out rather loose easily.
• It is rather unobtrusive. Measures about 165mmx108mmx232.2mm
• Weighs 1.3kg without drives

What are the other specific features of DS218+?

• It consists of AES-Ni hardware encryption.
• A virtual manager
• MailPlus Server license that allows one to run a hosted email solution.
• It does support more concurrent users Synology’s Office, Drive, and Chat collaboration apps when compared to consumer NAS units.
• The DS218+ supports 4K 30 fps hardware transcoding which means one can stream those with H.265 files.

The basic concept behind Synology’s Movement app is indeed to offer the basic functionality of Google Photos on a private cloud whereby one host as well as controls all of one’s data. No doubt the app is definitely in progress and does lack some elements which some of the more mature Synology offerings such as DS video has.

These features are available via Moments Web-based interface on one’s desktop and also on the moment’s app for i05 and Android.

Synology’s EZ internet package does make it easy the contents of one’s Synology unit to be available via the internet which it will obviously be required in order to have features such as remote upload to be able to work. This can be possible by opening the required ports on one’s router.

Another app that does aim to replicate a Google product is Synology’s Drive which is indeed functionally equivalent to cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox as well as Google’s app by the same name. No doubt the app does not offer any additional functionality that makes one ant use if over the other given options.

The drive is useful for those who feel data is important n the organization they are working for and the data need to be under one’s control end to end. Also, it is useful in case one values one’s privacy and one is responsible for all of one’s own backups as well as physical security. It is easy to use Drive and it also does a good job of maintaining version histories of all the required documents.

As digital adoption grows, safeguards are indeed required so that the internet is not switched on and off on a whim.

Digital technologies have no doubt impacted the Indian economy. With 560 million internet subscribers, India has, in fact, more digital consumers than any other country in the world, except China. India is rather digitizing faster than every country in the world with the exception of Indonesia, and in fact, about nearly 40% of its population has internet connectivity and has tremendous potential to grow.

Why shutting down the internet is no longer an option?

As far as most countries, the tipping point in digital adoption came when the cost of data dropped below 1% of average household income and smartphone penetration crossed 20%. For example at a given point of time, once Brazil and China passed 20% penetration in 2012, it took them just four years to cross 52% and 71% penetration, respectively.

As rapidly as the use of digital technologies has been growing so far, it seems clear that India is poised to witness greater acceleration. Over the past five years, the gross merchandise value of e-commerce doubled, and along the way, it has indeed completely changed the way one shops. Over the past four years, utilization of ride-hailing applications increased three-fold and, in the process, fundamentally inverted notions of vehicle ownership as well as usage.

Adoption is not limited to urban areas. Over the past decade, various digital platforms rolled out by the government have indeed penetrated deep into the rural hinterland, because of the increased telecom penetration and the coming together of key elements of digital infrastructures, such as identity and payment technologies.

Digital technology at a given point of time was a luxury meant for privileged people. Today, it is ubiquitous. In urban areas, digital platforms have so insinuated themselves into one’s way of life that they are often a reliable substitute for existing infrastructure. In rural areas that until recently had little to no access to basic infrastructure, they do have become the lifeline that does connect people and places which the system made use of to previously ignore. One has indeed reached a point where these technologies are not so much a nice-to-have, but an essential part of the infrastructure on which our national growth much depends.

The government in India has long operated on the belief that in a national security emergency, in case the internet gets shut down, it will prevent perpetrators of dangerous and illegal acts from communicating with each other.

Based on this assumption, Indian authorities have rather freely and frequently ordered internet service providers to switch off their internet access in various parts of the country.

According to internet shutdown.in, since 2012, there have in fact been a total of 315 internet shutdowns in India and that too, with the number of shutdowns having doubled every year since 2014.

Adoption is not limited to only to urban areas. Over the past decade, various digital platforms rolled out by the government have indeed penetrated deep into the rural hinterland, because of the increased telecom penetration and the coming together of key elements of digital infrastructures, such as identity as well as payment technologies