Friday 25 July 2014

Science and Tech: Li-fi protocol allows use of the internet at the speed of light

Li-fi protocol allows use of the internet at the speed of light




Sisoft Company in Mexico has developed a technology that can illuminate a large work space, an auditorium or an office, while providing full mobile internet to every device that comes into the range of the light spectrum.
The Mexican group managed to transmit audio, video and Internet across the spectrum of light emitted by LED lamps. This new technology, called Li-Fi or light fidelity, is presented as an alternative to Wi-Fi because it will maximize the original provided speed of the internet to offer safer data transfer and a transfer rate of up to 10 gigabytes per second.
The Li-Fi device circulates data via LEDs that emit an intermittent flicker at a speed imperceptible to the human eye. "As Wi-Fi uses cables to spread our connections, wireless transmission Li-Fi uses LED lamps that emit high brightness light", said Arturo Campos Fentanes, CEO of Sisoft in Mexico.

read more at http://phys.org/news/2014-07-li-fi-protocol-internet.html#ajTabs

Wednesday 9 July 2014

How to increase iPhone or Android's battery life

To increase  iPhone or Android's battery life:

 

 
battery symbol 

  • Turn the screen brightness down

    On iOS 7, use the dimming slider on the Control Centre (swipe up from the bottom of the screen), or in any version of iOS go to Settings -> Wallpaper & Brightness -> Brightness. It’s often a good idea to turn off auto-brightness, which makes the screen brighter when you’re in bright surroundings. 

    On Android, use the screen brightness toggle in Quick Settings (swipe down from the top to bring down the Notification Shade and tap the top right had quick settings toggle if needed) the brightness slider under display settings. Some Android phones, including Samsung devices, let you increase or decrease the screen brightness while still maintaining automatic adjustment.

  • When you can, switch to Airplane mode

    On iOS 7, swipe up for Control Centre and press the “Airplane” icon on the top left.
    On Android, swipe down for the Notifications Shade, switch to Quick Settings and tap the “Airplane” icon.
  • Turn off Wi-Fi and Blutooth

    On iOS, swipe up for Control Centre: if the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth icons are showing white, press them so they’re showing as grey.
    On Android, swipe down for the Notifications Shade, switch to Quick Settings and tap the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth icons so that they are greyed out.
  • Turn on Airplane mode but enable Wi-Fi

    On iOS, swipe up for Control Centre, touch the Airplane icon so it goes white: the Wi-Fi icon will go grey. Then touch the Wi-Fi icon, which will go white.
    On Android, swipe down for the Notifications Shade, switch to Quick Settings and tap the “Airplane” icon, then tap on the Wi-Fi icon which will light up.
  • Turn it into a phone without internet

    On iOS, to turn off mobile data go to Settings -> Mobile (or Cellular in the US) -> Mobile data: turn this off.
    On Android, turn off mobile data by going into Settings –> Data usage –> untick Mobile data to turn it off.
  • Manually check email, Twitter or Facebook

    On iOS, the best way is to deactivate those apps in the Notification Centre - though you might not remember to reinstate them. But if you really need to, go to the Notification Centre and choose “none” for the activation style.
    On Android, turn off “Sync” by going into Settings –> Accounts and then tap each account you want to turn Sync off for. Once in each account, uncheck Sync. Google, Exchange, Twitter, Facebook, Evernote and many other accounts have Sync options. Users can still check their email manually by using the Gmail or applicable app and manually refreshing their email.
    Some Android phones also have a Sync toggle in Quick Settings, which disables Sync for all accounts on the device.
  • Turn off the screen faster

    On iOS, go to Settings -> General -> Auto-Lock and reduce this (the lowest possible setting is 1 minute). Alternatively, any time you’ve done looking at the screen, press the power button on top of the device to turn off (and lock) the screen. It’s also a good idea to have a passcode set - as most people already do - just in case you lose your device. (Do that in Settings -> Passcode; on the iPhone 5S it is “Touch ID & Passcode”.)
    On Android, reduce the Screen timeout within Settings –> Display –> Screen timeout.
  • Turn off location detection

    On iOS, go to Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services and turn it “Off”. This will prevent you getting maps and a lot of location-based information (and means your phone won’t be able to reset its time zone when you arrive at your destination).
    On Android, go to Settings –> Location and switch it to “Off”. This will disable location services for all apps. Alternatively you can change accuracy of location information (and reduce power consumption) by tapping “Mode” under Location and changing to Battery or Power saving, which uses Wi-Fi and mobile phone signal to estimate the phone’s location, rather than GPS.
  • Don’t listen to music, watch video or play games

    Decoding MP3s or MP4s, and doing the calculations for a game all make demands on the phone’s processor.

  • Minimise the photos you share. 

    Using the camera can be a significant drain on the battery, especially video recording. When you need the battery to last, stop taking photos.
    While dimming the screen and turning off radios will give you the greatest benefit in terms of battery saving, there are still some platform-specific ways to save battery life if you just want to simplify things.