The internet is a large place with plenty for people to see
and do. The progress in electronic
design from the birth of the internet by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 till now
has seen the technology advance over the years dramatically and has allowed the
growth of many social media sites and the internet being a place where everyone
can share their thoughts, pictures, videos and anything else they want. Here
are some interesting stats and information about what happens in every 60 seconds
of the internet.
168 million emails sent
694,445 Google searches
695,000 Facebook status updates
370,000 Skype calls are made
98,000 tweets on Twitter
20,000 new posts on Tumblr
13,000 iPhone apps downloaded
6,600 new pictures on Flickr
1,500 new blog entries posted
600+ videos posted totalling over 25 hours duration on
YouTube
Another month has passed as we head into August. July has been and gone but what were the good viewers of YouTube watching and sharing? Here’s a list of the 10 most shared ads on YouTube.
1. DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Five: Ultimate Urban Playground; San Francisco
DC Shoes created an impressive video featuring driver Ken Block as he teared around San Francisco in a video entitled ‘Ultimate Urban Playground’. How they got the permission to close off huge areas of the city is crazy and driving shown is amazing. The promotional video is exactly the kind of thing that absolutely anyone will share as the talent on display is clear to see and is reminiscent of a top class Hollywood action film. Have a look at the top shared ad video on YouTube below. How 5,171 people have disliked it, I’ll never know!
2. Sesame Street: Share It Maybe
There are many parodies of Carley Rae Jepson’s hit summer song “Call Me Maybe” around on the Internet with everyone from Olympians and the teenage lad from down the street getting involved. This has to be by far the best though as the Cookie Monster sings about wanting people to share their cookies with him. Great song, great video and great fun.
3. Abercrombie Models Sing "Call Me Maybe" While Shirtless
Another parody, this time from a group of muscley topless men. It’s nowhere near as good as the Cookie Monster video though so I’m not even going to share it with you.
4. Som Sabadell Flash Mob
Flashmobs are a great marketing tool and a great way to get people to share content. For anyone who isn’t aware, a flashmob is when a group of people gather in one place to take part in a group activity. In this case it was an orchestra that gathered in front of a shocked crowd as they came together to play some classical music.
5. Obama Campaign Ad: "Firms"
6. Romney Campaign Ad: "These Hands"
The fifth and sixth videos relate to the presidential electoral campaign, one for Obama and one for Romney and are a bit to political for this list.
7. Mister Rogers Remixed
The American TV network PBS put together this nostalgic clip of one of its shows host, Mister Rogers, remixed by Symphony of Science's John D. Boswell. Using things from people’s childhood memories is a great way to evoke feelings within someone and this is probably why this ad was shared so much.
8. Romney Campaign Ad: "What Happened?"
Another American political video. See 5 and 6.
9. P&G London 2012 Olympic Games Film: "Best Job"
You can probably expect to see more Olympics videos featured on this list next month but this advert is already making the sharing rounds due to the feelings it can muster. The video charters the selfless deeds a mum partakes in to help youngsters train hard with the dream of going to the Olympics. It tells how Olympic stars wouldn’t be where they are without the help of family members.
10. A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square
Along with the number 1 and 2 videos, this is my favourite. I don’t watch to ruin to much of the surprise of what’s happening so just watch and be amazed.
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The iPhone is the most popular smartphone on the market and
for good reason. With the first iPhone, Apple essentially reinvented the mobile
phone market and has led to many imitators. The touch screen, sliding lock, app
store and more are all features that have been replicated by other phone
manufacturers. So far there have been five different models of the iPhone:
iPhone
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3GS
iPhone 4
iPhone 4S
Rumours are building for the release of the fifth generation
of iPhone, even though it hasn't even been confirmed, although it is very
obvious that the device is incoming. There are several ‘apparently real’ leaks
of what it could look like but I doubt any of them would be real. One of the
leaks is a transparent screen which would actually be impossible, unless Apple
have managed to create invisible thin microchips and processors. It would make using
and answering the phone quite difficult too.
So what do you want from the iPhone 5? Discuss what you want
the device to look like below. Have a look at this link for some great prototype mockups for various Apple products.
We’re going to be starting a new feature on this blog called ‘app spotlight’. Each post will look at a different app available on any platform and talk about what it has to offer the user and finally give it an overall rating out of ten. The first app we are going to look at is ‘Photo Booth’ for iOS and Mac OSX.
Aesthetics
The first thing we notice with any app is what it looks like. Since this is a native Apple app you can be sure that it’s going to it’s going to follow their skeuomorphic design theme meaning it will be styled like a real world item. In this case it of course it is designed to look like a classic, real world photo booth. Both the icon for the application and the app design itself follow this theme and present a very simple and easy to use interface. Features We all want our apps to look good but it’s definitely more important that they work well. Photo booth is a fairly simple app but does what it does really well. There are really only two buttons. One takes you to a screen where you can choose between a selection of fun photo filters and the other is the camera button. Once you have selected the filter you want to use and taken your photo it is stored in a film reel at the bottom of the screen and also in your pictures folder or photos app. ConclusionYou definitely won’t be getting any work done with this app, quite the opposite in fact. It is just a bit of fun and you will be surprised how long it takes for it to get boring. It’s well designed and easy to use and will provide hours of fun.The only downfall really is that it’s not available on the iPhone at the moment. It seems like an obvious addition since it’s already available on the iPad and although there are some 3rd party alternatives, none of them are quite as good. 7/10
In the industrialised world, few areas of science are as wonderful and
awe inspiring as space and the study of what lies within it. For years,
scientists have been launching satellites, space ships, and rockets out
to the final frontier, always ready to advance the technology and
research we possess using the information and data they received from
these probes and automated space explorers.
In the recent decades of this illustrious industry, however, there have
been technological advances that have been very useful to the space
industry. One of the advances that has been very useful has been surface mount technology: since rockets, satellites, and probes make every
kilogram count, the small sizes that the program can achieve with a
surface mount circuit is quite impressive: using printed circuits and a
bit of cutting edge technique, components as small as fractions of a
millimetre can be embedded in space faring systems, considerably
reducing the weight as well as allowing the engineers of the vehicle in
question to create more versatile and useful functions that would
otherwise not be possible with traditional through hole boards.
Printed circuitry does not only allow technology to progress space side,
however: on the ground, when testing and designing new components, the
tiny size of surface mounts and printed circuits means that engineers
are aided by augmented reality technology during the build process.
Though still a new technology that needs to be explored further,
augmented reality has already helped the aerospace industry tremendously
by allowing engineers and scientists to see, at a glance, certain
calculations, angles, planes, and other physical properties that would
otherwise need to be painstakingly measured manually. This allows for
faster and more precise component construction as well as calculating
more efficient vectors for final launches.
In short, printed circuits and surface mounts have expanded the range
and capability of the UK space industry by measures that would have been
inconceivable even twenty years ago. Through the use of augmented
reality technology and surface mounts, our engineers continue to push
the bounds of what can be done to explore the vast space we find
ourselves living in every day!
Surface Mount Technology is something that has many advantages over the traditional through-hole technology that it has largely replaced. We have included a few of these below as the process is used within circuit boards and printed circuit boards that are used in video game technology.
Few holes need to be drilled onto the circuit board
Costs and budgets are reduced as the parts often cost less than their equivalent through-hole parts
Components can be placed on either side of the circuit boards, which is beneficial
The components of SMT are smaller
However, there are some disadvantages of Surface Mount Technology which are listed below:
The manufacturing process for SMT however, requires positioning of parts of un-perforated boards instead of accurate drilling of many holes.
Large, high-power or high-voltage parts are unsuitable for SMT. This requires the process of combining SMT and through hole construction.
Manual prototype or component level repair is more difficult as it requires the use of skilled operators and expensive tools as the parts are much smaller.
The components on surface mount technology are often smaller than their counterparts and also designed to be handled by machines rather than humans.
This sporting event brings a wide range of competitive sports and sports persons together for the summer to compete and win medals for their country. This is a proud moment for London we 2012 sees the third time London has hosted the Games. The technology and logistics have dramatically improved and changed since 1948.
Imagine the construction and planning work that goes into building the venues and accommodation. There has been a need to plan building deliveries and pallet delivery of goods to get buildings completed on time.
There are also several venues outside of London that are hosting events and we take a look at some of those. The logistics and transport is needed to get equipment and athletes to the locations. Imagine all the equipment that is needed to host the football matches in the City of Coventry stadium.
The mountain bike track at Hadleigh Farm is a temporary track that will host the mountain bike events. The course at Brands Hatch is suitable to host the Paralympics Road Cycling events. Both these venues are out of London so will require transport links and Europe Delivery for those competing from Europe and will be based at the events.
Short Circuit - A great film where technology and electronics combined to create a fantastic robot, who ended up being called "Johnny 5". The electronics and pcb design can actually be seen in this guy (sorry robot) when he needs to be fixed up.
Star Wars – Technology is in abundance with these films as you would expect when you take on Darth Vader. Even the modern CGI and technology cannot take away the electronics and almost human characteristics of R2-D2 and C3PO.
Science fiction film, 'Minority Report' sees an interesting mix of electronics, pcb design and access systems. Retina scanners are used by the tiny robot that checks a person’s identity. Interestingly this form of technology is potentially being installed into banks and US Air Force bases.
After all, eyes are unique and cannot be replicated. Unless you use the persons eyes like in Angels and Demons to gain access to the lab. This is one of the eye watering parts of the film though.
Voice recognition features in ‘Richie Rich’. Wealthy parents set up the access code to their vault by using voice recognition, based on frequency. This seems like a great way of using electronics and pcb design to create secure access.
One aspect of technology that we know about but often overlook is technology in the movies. How many films have you watched that had you thinking wow when you left the cinema?
It could be the graphics and CGI which made everything look amazing, a character that was completed animated but you forgot that by the time the film ended or even the plot of the futuristic film which made you wonder if the future really could be like that.
Some of the best characters that we grown to know and love and either animation based or contain electronics and resonate with interest in science and robots. How many of the following films has captured your interest at the cinema?
The pick and pack process is important if you are are a logistics business. Imagine all the orders that need processing and distributing, there needs to a process to follow to make sure all the items are picked correctly and delivered to the right address.
This is also called a fulfillment process and the steps of any major distribution process are the same although the technology may differ slightly. The technology element starts from the beginning of the order, from receipt of goods and storage.
The technology can be complicated but the process of picking and packing is vital. Alot of companies do not store stock on their own premises, so therefore it is important that the information is correct. This allows for instant stock control and mailing solutions.
Communication in the business world is important and vital. This article concerning the US Government is taking steps towards making it easier for airlines to allow passengers to use tablets, music players and e-readers during takeoffs and landings.
Electronic design has improved as technology has advanced and this will also need to be taken into consideration as the older iPads and readers will have different technology and power requirements than newer ones. This has made testing complicated in the past.
There is also the social aspect to look at, one person using an iPad on a plane is slightly different environment to 100+ people using iPads and one person not.
Today sees the release of the PlayStation Vita in the UK and its reported to be a very impressive piece of technology. New handheld video game consoles always have new features and the PS Vita has them in abundance with 3G connectivity, touch screens, motion control, rear touch pad and PS3 console hook up.
I'll try and give you my verdict of these new features in a post once I've got to grips with the new console.
Just over six years after the launch of the Xbox 360 we are starting to hear some solid rumours about its possible successor. The new console, tentatively named the Xbox 720 is expected to launch as soon as the end of 2013. Kotaku has some sources that are fairly confident on some of the details of the new console.
As expected the new Xbox will feature a Blu-Ray disc drive like that of the PS3. This will allow for the playback of Blu-Ray movies and storage of much larger games on single disc. Blu-Ray discs can hold either 25 or 50GB of data in comparison to 8GB on DVDs.
Something that would come as great news to game publishers but would likely cause a great lot of anger amongst gamers is the rumour that the next Xbox could include some sort of system to prevent the use of pre-owned games. This would make life very difficult for people who rely on cheap pre-owned games and borrow games from friends and family.
IGN have reported that the console could be as much as six times more powerful than it's predecessor. It is also reported that the new console would come with the second generation of Microsoft's very successful motion gaming controller, the kinect.
Microsoft has refused to comment on any of the rumours.
Welcome to The Science of Tech on blogger. We are going to be posting regularly about all things in the world of technology. Not only will we cover the latest news, rumours and releases in consumer electronics but we will also look at the science and technology behind these devices.
Follow us on twitter @thescienceoftech for regular updates and links to all sorts of interesting stuff.
