'Thinnest ever' Apple's iPhone 7

Apple's next iPhone will be cased in curved glass made from liquid metal, according to insiders. Analysts claim the next iPhone will feature casing made from cutting edge metallic glass, creating a smooth, flexible and scratch resistant device. It is also likely to be the thinnest iPhone ever at just 6mm thick, and may have improved battery life.

Ming-Chi Kuo has made a living from predicting upcoming Apple releases, and believes the tech giant's next flagship device will use Bulk Amorphous Alloys, pioneered by Liquid-metal Technologies.

The mix of titanium, nickel, copper and zirconium is classed as a glass because of its unusual composition. Metallic glasses can be extremely strong and flexible, like rubber, and also have an extremely smooth surface like glass.

Apple has been interested in the technology since 2013, when it filed a patent application to use the technology in a device with curved edges.

Website Apple Insider obtained notes written by Kuo, who advises investors on new Apple products for financial services company KGI Securities. He claims the three year-old-design, made more feasible by 3D printing developments, will feature a glass coating. He also reckons the next iPhone will be the thinnest to date, thanks to Apple's investment in super-thin OLED screens.

Organic light-emitting diodes are thinner, do not require a back-light, and produce better picture quality. The Electronic Times reported that LG and Samsung Display, who are planning to invest $12.8 billion in developing production capacity for OLED, are close an agreement with Apple to deliver the screens. And the firm has opened its own laboratory to develop the technology further.

These new developments might also bring Apple a step closer to the rumored iRing, a circular device employing a flexible touchscreen. Kuo also expects the addition of the 3D touch system in the iPhone 6s to spell the end of the homescreen button.

"As many have speculated, the addition of 3D Touch may provide Apple with a way to eliminate the home button on the phone and use the additional space to make the screen bigger or make the device smaller," he told Barrons.

Better battery life and faster processors are also rumored to be in the iPhone 7 pipeline.

The revelations come days after Apple unveiled a £359 budget iPhone, a mini iPad Pro, a new Apple iWatch, and free TV upgrades.

The iPhone SE will look similar to the iPhone 5, but will contain many of the features contained in the 6s.

Courtesy: thesun.co.uk

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Apple announces iPhone SE

Apple has bucked the bigger-is-better phone trend and released a re-formed version of its 4in iPhone 5S, the new iPhone SE. It will be the smallest smartphone in Apple’s current lineup and the first smartphone to be released with a screen smaller than 4.7in since the iPhone 6 was released in September 2014.

Greg Joswiak, VP of product marketing for Apple, said: “Some people simply love smaller phones. And the 4in phone is often their first iPhone. Some people asked and pleaded with us. So we’re calling it the iPhone SE. Our most powerful 4in phone ever.”

The iPhone SE – possibly harking back in name to the Macintosh SE computer, which was released in 1987 – has a similar form-factor to 2013’s iPhone 5S. It has a metal body, 4in screen, Touch ID fingerprint scanner and a flush camera lens, unlike Apple’s most recent iPhone's.

The outside of the device resembles an iPhone 5S but the inside will be similar to the iPhone 6S, using Apple’s A9 processor, an NFC chip with support for Apple Pay and a better 12-megapixel camera, in line with Apple’s 2015 iPhone's.

The iPhone SE has double the processing power and four times the graphics performance of the iPhone 5S, as well as longer battery life.

Apple hopes that the smaller smartphone will convince those still using an iPhone 5, 5S or 5C, but who do not want a larger phone of the size of the 4.7in iPhone 6S or 5.5in 6S Plus, to upgrade. Cook estimates that 60% of those using Apple’s smaller iPhone's have not yet upgraded to an iPhone 6 or newer, meaning there is a large potential market waiting to be tapped.

Larger smartphone screens have proved popular and have allowed manufacturers to add more features supported by larger batteries, Apple’s iPhone with its 4.7in screen is remained one of the smallest.

As a smaller, premium smartphone, the new iPhone SE has little in the way of competition. Only Sony produces a widely available flagship smartphone with a smaller screen, with the 4.6in Xperia Z5 Compact. Other smaller phones made by Motorola, HTC and Samsung are cut-down, cheaper versions with poorer components that target a more budget-conscious section of the market.

Whether there is still demand for a smaller premium-priced smartphone remains to be seen. The downward pressure on price has meant decent smartphones now cost as little as £130, with features similar to top-end models costing four times their price.

For Apple, the iPhone SE represents a way to target a more cost-sensitive market without stooping to budget levels. In the past the company has used older models of the iPhone, maintaining the 2012 iPhone 4S for sale until the release of the iPhone 6 in 2014, and previous models before that. But selling older smartphones concurrently with new models has added to the company’s burden to maintain smartphone updates for longer, which it typically does for at least three years after release.

The iPhone SE, with internals similar to an iPhone 6S but at a lower price, is easier to cater for with software updates because it reduces the number of hardware variants Apple has to support.

The iPhone SE will be released on 31 March, will be available in black, white, gold and rose gold, with per-orders starting 24 March, costing from $399 in the US, or £359 in the UK, for 16GB of storage; $499 in the US, or £439 in the UK, with 64GB of storage.

Courtesy: dailymail.co.uk

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New Nuclear Engine Takes 6 Weeks to Get To Mars

Russia has announced that it will test a nuclear engine in 2018 that could help cosmonauts reach Mars in just six weeks. This compares to the 18 months spacecraft currently need to get to Mars, and could make Russia the first nation to land humans on the red planet. The country is betting on nuclear propulsion because it weighs almost half as much as a chemical rocket without reducing thrust.

This means larger payloads of cargo can be carried on the spacecraft and they can also be made to travel far faster. And unlike existing technology which uses defined trajectories, a nuclear engine also allows a spacecraft to manoeuvre throughout the flight.

The $274 million project, which was originally overseen by the space agency RosCosmos in 2010, has now become the responsibility of nuclear group, Rosatom. 'A nuclear power unit makes it possible to reach Mars in a matter of one to one and a half months, providing capability for manoeuvring and acceleration,' Sergey Kirienko, head of Rosatom told RT .

'Today's engines can only reach Mars in a year and a half, without the possibility of return.' Russia currently has used over 30 fission reactors in space, the US has flown only one - the SNAP-10A (System for Nuclear Auxiliary Power) in 1965.

Engineers at NASA have also been drawing up plans to use nuclear thermal propulsion in a mission to Mars in 2033. According to the space agency's design, uranium-235 nuclear reactions are used to heat liquid hydrogen inside a reactor, turning it into ionized hydrogen gas, or plasma. This plasma is then channeled through a rocket nozzle to generate thrust.

Dr Stanely Borowski, an engineer at NASA's John Glenn Research Centre, last year outlined how this could then be used to propel a space with its crew through space in a official NASA paper. He said the spacecraft, called Copernicus, would consist of separate cargo and crewed transfer vehicles, each powered by a nuclear thermal propulsion stage.

These would be constructed from a 'core' that use three engines each capable of producing thrust of around 25,000 lbs of force. He estimates that these vehicles could make the 40 million mile trip to Mars within 100 days.

It took the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying NASA's Curiosity Rover to Mars 253 days to reach the red planet. Writing in his paper, Dr Borowski said: 'The analysis presented here indicates transit time reductions as much as 50 per cent are possible.'

Nasa first began researching nuclear thermal rockets as part of its Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) programme in 1959. However, the project, which was a collaboration between Nasa and the US Atomic Energy Comission, was officially ended in 1973.

Courtesy: dailymail.co.uk

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"HIGH VOLTAGE" Match today

India and Pakistan meet in the World Twenty20 on Saturday in what promises to be one of most fiercely contested and most-watched matches in cricket. India was undone by New Zealand at Nagpur while Pakistan registered a comprehensive win over Bangladesh in their opener at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. India will be looking for his first win and Pakistan hoping for second win on the trot.

An estimated one billion viewers tuned in to watch India and Pakistan's match at the World Cup in Australia in 2015 - which India won by 76 runs. Their rivalry is one of the fiercest in cricket. For India's Ravichandran Ashwin, it is even bigger than that between England and Australia. "This rivalry is huge, it's very hard to put a finger and tell you how huge. It's probably bigger than the Ashes," said the off-spinner.

"As far as the Indians and Pakistanis go, I don't think they watch this game as a game of cricket. It's more of a border rivalry. They want to get one up on each other. "People put their emotions into the game. For the players, it's all about keeping their emotions aside and trying to play the best way we can."

"It's the most-watched game so we should all cherish that and feel proud of it. The way we have played cricket in the past 50 years it's a treat to watch for the world."- said by Pakistan coach Waqar Younis.

India leads the head to head record against Pakistan. The traditional rivals have met each other seven times in the game’s shortest format. India has won five while Pakistan just one. One match, during inaugural World T20 in 2007, ended in a tie. However, India won the bowl-out that time. At Eden Gardens Pakistan has won all four ODIs against India.

Courtesy: bbc.com

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Tamim's maiden T20 100 takes Bangladesh to Super 10

Tamim knew it was coming. So did his coach Chandika Hathurrusingha. And that is why the left-handed opener rolled his fingers over his head as a mark of respect towards the dugout after those celebratory punches in the air moments after becoming the first Bangladesh batsman to score a T20I century. With this he has also become Bangladesh's first batsman to score 1000 runs in the shortest version of the game.

His imperious 103 off 63 balls against Oman in a must-win ICC World T20 qualifier is just an extension of the kind of form he has been showing for the last six months. Yesterday's master-class, that contained 10 fours and five sixes, ensured that Bangladesh, who made 180 for two after being sent in to bat, progress into the tournament proper in some style, beating lightweights Oman by 54 runs in the Duckworth-Lewis method.

At the top of his form, Tamim, who only the other day said that he has now become cooler and wiser, played yet another breathtaking innings in the flagship ICC event after his unbeaten 83 against Holland and an equally impressive 47 in that washed out game against Ireland.

Bangladesh's two in-form batsmen, Tamim Iqbal (L) and Sabbir Rahman, joined forces for a 55-ball 97-run second-wicket partnership to turbo-charge Bangladesh's innings in the ICC World Twenty20 first-round match against Oman at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala yesterday.

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza may have lost his fifth straight toss since the Asia Cup game against Pakistan and was asked to bat. The opening pair of Tamim and an out-of-sorts Soumya Sarkar may have scored just 29 runs in the first six Powerplay overs.

But with Tamim around and Sabbir Rahman playing the perfect supporting actor's role at the other end, Bangladesh flourished till the last Oman over was bowled.Tamim reached his 50 off 35 balls and with him the Tigers total reached the 100-run mark in 12.4 overs. The left-hander then celebrated his fourth fifty with a massive six over long-off.

The mercurial left-hander equalled his previous best T20 score of 88 with a couple and then pulled one for a sweetly-timed six over midwicket to take his score to 94. By the time Tamim raced to the 90s, Sabbir Rahman had left, being bowled around his legs while trying to sweep, but not before he clobbered a 26-ball 44 that contained five fours and a six. Sabbir's innings more than compensated for the slow start and an ugly 22-ball 12 by Soumya.

Tamim then took a couple and a quick single, a refreshing feature of a redefined batsman, to move on to 97. He played three dot balls in the 19th over including a full toss. He can be spared for missing out on those deliveries because he was only three runs from scripting a piece of history. He however did not make any mistake in dispatching the fourth, a trademark Tamim off-drive that beat the extra-cover and mid-off fielders, and Bangladesh presented its first T20I centurion to the world: Tamim Iqbal 101 off 60 balls.

Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim's rival for the race to 1000 runs, batted intelligently in the final over clobbering most of those 15 runs with a four and a six. Oman's innings, disrupted by intermittent rain, never took off once their opener Zeeshan Maqsood was out for a duck in the very first over delivered by Taskin Ahmed. They kept on losing wickets before and after every rain-induced interval in a chase that kept the statisticians on their toes, updating the revised targets. Actually, Bangladesh's 180 was too big a total for the amateurs of Oman, a team comprised mostly of Indian and Pakistani expatriates. After two rain breaks, Oman on 45-4 in 8.2 overs, were finally given a revised target of 120 runs for a win in 12 over. They scored 65-9 with Shakib claiming four for 15, his best bowling figures in the format, beating his previous best of 4 for 21. It was Shakib's fourth four-wicket haul. The Bangladesh all-rounder, who also scored a nine-ball 17, can consider this performance as some sort of a tonic to his rhythm back to the big stage.

The Tigers will now fly back to Kolkata for their opening Super 10 Group A game against Pakistan at the Eden Gardens on March 16.

SCORES IN BRIEF

BANGLADESH: 180 for 2 in 20 overs (Tamim 103 not out, Sabbir 44; Khawar 1-24)
OMAN: 65 for 9 in 12 overs (Singh 25, Ilyas 13; Shakib 4-15, Taskin 1-8, Al-Amin 1-10, Mortaza 1-10, Sabbir 1-5)
Result: Bangladesh won by 54 runs (D/L method).
Player-of-the-match: Tamim Iqbal.

"Groundbreaking invention" for Cancer Treatment

Scientists have made a "game-changing" invention in the fighting against cancer that could lead to personalized therapies replacing toxic treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

In a "comprehensive" finding, a team from University College London has identified biological "flags" carried by all cancer cells, no matter how much they mutate, that can be targeted for the immune system to attack. A bespoke vaccine can then be made for each patient to get their own body to raid the disease.

At present, cancer often evades the effects of drugs because it evolves swiftly, craftily changing its make-up. However, the scientists have invented that "even when it has mutated, cancer still bears signature molecules which never alter".

The auspicious news is that these molecules – the "flag" cells - are antigens, a type of toxin that can be spotted and targeted by the immune system. Treatment will include "fishing out" those immune cells and multiplying them in the lab. The molecules will then be engineered to target the cancer's specific antigen and returned to the patient's system.

Researcher Dr Sergio Quezada told that the discovery was "a game-changer for cancer".

He said: "What we hope for is stronger, more powerful responses with much lower toxicity – or no toxicity, hopefully. The logic of the treatment is that the response should be much more specific than anything tried so far."

However, the BBC reports that experts have warned the idea is good but could be more intricate in reality and this personalized method would also be exorbitant.

The method will need to undergo comprehensive clinical trials before it can lead to any sort of treatment. Researchers hope to test it in patients within two years.

Courtesy: theweek.co.uk

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