BBC’s new Doctor Who game teaches computing skills to kids

BBC has announced a new online game “The Doctor and the Dalek” for its CBBC audiences. In this game, kids will have to help the popular time-travelling Doctor Who in his new adventure. The game will inspire kids to learn programming skills as they help Doctor Who in his quest to destroy his enemies and save the universe.

The Doctor and the Dalek features the voice narration of Peter Capaldi, who is the current doctor. The story has been written by Phil Ford, the writer of TV shows Doctor Who and Wizard vs Aliens.. The game is a part of BBC’s “Make it Digital” initiative and aims to encourage kids to learn coding and programming while having fun.

The game has a variety of puzzles where the player has to program Dalek to power him up so that he can perform various tasks. The challenges become difficult as the game progresses. The puzzles are based on the new computing curriculum in UK and children can learn computer programming as they play the game. Children will have to combine instructions to reach a goal, changing variables for behavior, using repetition and loops as well as logical reasoning.

“We’re really excited about the launch of The Doctor and the Dalek as not only is it a really entertaining platform game for kids to play but it’s also a great introduction to some key principles of computer programming,” said Sinéad Rocks, Head of BBC Learning. “Every puzzle has a strong link to the KS2 or KS3 computer science curriculum. So we think it’s going to be a really valuable tool for students, parents and teachers.”

Let us see if The Doctor and the Dalek succeeds in entertaining kids as well as inducing them to learn some basic programming skills as it is meant to do. The game is available for free at www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc.

BBC’s new Doctor Who game teaches computing skills to kids

This Raspberry Pi Cassette Player Mixed the Old and New Technology to Play Music

Raspberry Pi is a low-cost computing system that allows you to mess around with all kinds of bespoke gadgets from basic components and teaching novices how to code and create things based on your imagination. A British developer and creator Matt Brailsford has used the DIY system to come out with a media server that streams different playlists when cassette tapes are inserted. He combines Raspberry Pi, Spotify and NFC tags to do this.

How does this work?

Inside the cassette player, all standard components have been removed and replaced by Raspberry Pi and several other helper modules such as NFC tag reader (placed in the metal frame top left), the red printed circuit board (PCB), amplifier (the blue PCB below the red PCB), the original volume potentiometer to control the volume and a custom circuit board to connect the buttons of the cassette player to the Raspberry Pi’s General-purpose input/output (GPIO) via micro switches glued beneath the buttons.

The Raspberry Pi itself is running MusicBox version which already has all the Spotify streaming features built in it. A custom module then was developed to handle the button pressed and read the NFC tags that embedded inside the cassettes to select the playlist to play.

When the device was turned on, MusicBox starts up and load the custom module. It will wait for Spotify to connect and loads a list of Spotify playlists into memory. It beeps while waiting.

After the cassette has loaded into the player, the custom module reads the tag’s ID and look for that playlist associated with the ID.  It supports basic functionalities that a recorder should have like Play, Pause, Stop, Next and Previous. Its just come with a beep noise every time a command has been issued.

Based on this information, it seems quite interesting and we cannot wait to try it for ourselves in case if the product is released in the market.

This Raspberry Pi Cassette Player Mixed the Old and New Technology to Play Music

Umbrella Replacement: A Stick that Shoots Air at the Rain?

The creator of Kickstarter campaign claims that they have developed an umbrella that pushes air against rain and it manages to prevent the owner from getting wet. The device passed by a funding of $10,000 and they decided to call it Air Umbrella.

There are still a lot of questions and doubts for this new product.  Is it for real? Is it a complicated solution to a simple problem? Is it can be easily solved by using a normal umbrella? What is the difference between this product with the normal umbrella? And is the Air umbrella looks a little bit weird?

The creators of Air Umbrella have not responded to our questions.  However, if we take a look on the Kickstarter’s FAQ section for some answer, it is stated there that it has been tested with rain coming from any angle.

Luckily, there might be a possibility whereby the product might be change significantly before it goes to market.  Well, we are excited for the release of this product, are we?

Umbrella Replacement: A Stick that Shoots Air at the Rain?

Smartphone Battery Goes from Dead to 70 Percent Charged in 2 Minutes? Is It Even Possible?

Apparently it is possible. A group of scientists from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore has figured out a way to supercharge the battery made from lithium-ion simply by adding a readily available substance that is normally found in sunscreen.

It is supposedly to be able to charge a smartphone from completely dead to 70 percent charged in two minutes. Moreover, the scientists say that it can last nearly 20 years before it can be replaced.

According to the scientists, the graphite that is normally used in the battery’s anode (negative pole) is replaced with a gel made from titanium dioxide which is an ingredient found in sunscreen. The substance will then stretch into nanotubes 1000 times thinner than human hair hence it speeds up the chemical reaction in the battery.

A typical lithium ion battery only last around 500 recharging cycles. However, with the new gel, the new battery can be recharged for 10,000 times. If the battery is as powerful as it is then it might solve the battery life issue that is faced for most of the smartphones nowadays. The scientists not only hope that it can improve the battery life for the smartphones, but it will also revolutionize the electric car industry which also relies on the lithium-ion batteries to charge cars.

The researchers claim that the gel is easy and cheap to manufactured and have patented the technology applied for a grant to build a large-scale battery prototype for electric car tests. If nothing goes wrong, the battery could reach the market within two years.

Smartphone Battery Goes from Dead to 70 Percent Charged in 2 Minutes? Is It Even Possible?

Some Tech Products loved by Teens

Today’s youth is very tech-savvy, especially the teens. They are very eager to try out and use new technological products. No wonder they are called the iGeneration or the Net Generation.

Product Hunt has compiled a list of apps and websites that are most used by teens. This list of 22 products loved by teens has been compiled by teens. They are: Spotify, Quora, Timehop, Instagram, Yik Yak, Khan Academy, Mvsic.co, Represent, Clear, Frontback, Fantastical, Shots, Downtyme, Songza, Quizlet, Afterlight, Toggl, Stoodle, Detour, StudyUp, Kitestring and Fleaflicker.

Here are some of them:

Shots

Shots is a selfie-photo sharing and social networking app and a “Fun place to meet people”. It allows users to post and share their selfies. Shots has been endorsed by Justin Bieber who is an angel investor in the company. The app had over 1 million members in April 2014, 75% of which were females below the age of 24. By October 2014, the number of users reached 3 million of which 45% used it daily.

Spotify

Spotify is a popular digital music app providing streaming music from major record labels such as Sony, Warner Music, Universal, EMI and many more. It has millions of songs in its database and you can search for your favorite music by record label, album, artist, genre etc. The service is free but if you pay a “Premium” subscription, you can listen to ad-free music and even download it and listen offline. Spotify had 40 million users in May 2014, 10 million of which were subscribers.

Quora

Quora is a very popular question-answer website that gets you the “Best answer to any question”. Here, users ask questions which are answered by some of the other users. The company was founded in 2009 by two former employees of Facebook.

Instagram

Instagram is a very popular photo-sharing app. You can capture and share photos and videos on your mobile and share them online on various social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr. Its photos are square and not rectangular as they usually are. Instagram was launched in 2010 and was acquired by Facebook in 2012. It has more than 200 million users.

Timehop

Timehop is an app that keeps you in touch with your past. Every day, it shows you a photo you took on your phone or an update you posted on the social media (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram, Flickr) exactly one, two or more years ago on the same day. This way it helps you to refresh your memories.

Yik Yak

Yil Yak is anonymous social media app that allows users to anonymously post on the site and it can be viewed by other users nearby within a radius of 1.5 mile. This app gives a live feed about what people around you are saying. It also allows users to upvote or downvote the posts.

Downtyme

Downtyme will make it easier for you to spend your free time with your friends. It is an Android and iOS app that allows you to check your friends’ availability and schedule your free time accordingly. It syncs with your calendar and sends Downtyme requests as soon as you are free. You can hang out with your friend if he is free and nearby, go for lunch or you can plan your study time together. Beta version of Downtyme is available for download but it will be officially launched in 2015.

Detour

Detour is an app that will tell you stories based on your location. It acts as a guide and tell you stories about places you are visiting. The app is going to launch first in San Francisco Bay Area and then in other places in 2015.

Frontback

Frontback is a camera app that allows you take a photo by using both rear and front cameras at once. You can also explore others’ photos and leave a very short video response to a friend’s photo too.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a non-profit organization where you can learn anything for free. There are more than 100,000 exercises and over 4,200 articles and videos covering a large number of subjects such as art, history, biology, chemistry, finance, computer science and many more.

Some Tech Products loved by Teens

Robot Cars is Safer than Us. Is It Even Possible?

Tesla recently announced an autopilot feature which will enable us to have a self driving car. Yes, of course there are some challenges in the technical and logistical and some academics expected that it will take decades for it to learn to navigate the complexities of urban jungle.

By designing self-driving cards, we do hope that it will eliminate some traffic issues that we currently have. After all humans are prone to road rage since we tend to rush headlong into traffic jams, break rules, get distracted and crash into each other.

Tesla is not the only one who developing this technology. Most car manufacturers now offer option in their high-end vehicles to keep them within their lane, adjust speed, warn of pedestrians and stop in the event of impending accident. This system has been tested by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The company has done the testing on automating braking systems of 24 vehicles and thus gives 21 a ranking of “superior” or “advanced”.

The new Tesla will have improvements on sensors for image recognition, 360-degree sonar system that can analyze the surroundings and long range radar to recognize signs and pedestrians. It is designed to be able to change lanes on its own, obey speed limit signs, and avoid accidents and even park itself. On top of that, it should be able to pick us up at our front door after driving itself out of the garage.

Well, we are looking forward to try this technology!

Robot Cars is Safer than Us. Is It Even Possible?

13 Apps to Transform your Phone to Ultimate Toolkit

A good apps is designed to make the users’ life easier and maybe more enjoyable. In this entry, we are going to recommend a few apps which fulfill this purpose.

1. Dark Sky – $3.99 on iOS

The apps is useful because it will tell you exactly when it is going to rain or snow.  It also gives you minute by minute predictions when to expect rain so that you can be prepared for it.

2. Level Money – Free on iOS and Android

The apps links your smartphone to your bank account to keep track on your spending which means you did not have to manually input your purchases anymore.  it will consider your income, monthly spending habits, how much you are trying to save and if you spend more on a particular day, the apps will adjust and tell you to spend less the following day.

3. FlyCleaners – Free on iOS and Android

This apps is unique in such that it will allow you to choose when you have to pick up your laundry.

4. Sky Guide – $1.99 on iOS and Android

This apps is also unique in such that if you just aim your phone or tablet at the sky the apps will highlight constellations, stars and planets on the sky and even display details about each.

5. Venmo – Free on iOS and Android

The apps allows you pay your friends using your smartphone. It is useful if you need to split a check or you want to pay your debt. It will connect to your bank account and it is using 256-encryption and Verisign certification and thus it is very secure.

6. 1Password and LastPass – $7.99(iOS), Free(Android), $49.99(Windows) (1Password), Free for iOS/Android, Windows Phone (LastPass)

These two apps will remember all your passwords across all your computing devices so you just need to remember one master password and the app will do the rest.

7. Timeful – Free (iOS)

This apps is an intelligent calendar app and a to-do list. This app has a learning capability to learn how you get your stuff done and suggest ways to build new habits and get things done in your own term

8. Yahoo Weather – Free (iOS/Android)

This apps is an award-winning weather app that packed with gestures or displays photos that match your location, time of day and current weather conditions.

9. Square – Free (iOS/Android)

This apps accept credit card payment on the go through your smartphone or tablet. It is an alternative for small businesses that do not want to work directly with credit card companies since the service charges you 2.75% for processing transactions for Visa, American Express, MasterCrd and Discover. The best thing is that you can sign up for free and you will get the credit card readers for free too.

1. Hyperlapse – Free (iOS)    

The apps is develop by instagram. It uses an image-stabilization techniques to even out shaky footage and the quality of the result is awesome.

1. Skype – Free (iOS/Android)

Skype is still the best way to video-message people, voice calls and video call other Skype users. All the services offered are free too! It works on multiple platforms so you do not need to worry what device everyone is using.

12 – Google Chrome – Free (iOS/Android)

This apps is great because it is fast, easy to use and syncs with your laptop’s Chrome web browser. If you open with tabs, it can reduce your data usage by 50%.

13 – Humin – Free (iOS)

This apps will remember the tiny details on how and where you met someone so that you can focus on the moment. All you need is the person’s number and the apps will able to search your contact using familiar phases like “met last week” or “lives in Brooklyn”.

13 Apps to Transform your Phone to Ultimate Toolkit

A Secret US Spy Program revealed: Uses planes to steal data from people’s cell phones

The US Justice Department has been using airplanes to steal data from the mobile phones of thousands of innocent Americans while hunting for criminal suspects, says a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The spy program called ”The US Marshals Service Program” is carried out by the Technical Operations Group of the U.S. Marshals Service and has been operational since 2007. They use Cessna Aircraft to collect data from cellphones. The aircraft carry “dirtboxes” which mimic the cell towers of big telecom companies. These dirtboxes identify themselves as being the strongest and closest cell towers and trick cell phones to switch over to them and report their unique registration and location information. Even phones having encryption such as the iPhone 6 are not spared.

The Cessna surveillance aircraft operate from at least five big metro airports of the US and cover most of the country’s population. This way, the investigators collect sensitive user data from cell phones of a huge number of people while flying overhead, without their knowledge. The dirtbox sifts through all the information gathered, retains the information of suspects and “lets go” of the info of others.

This information about the US spy program has neither been confirmed nor denied by a DOJ official and those in the know about the program have not divulged info about the duration or frequency of such surveillance flights but confirmed that they took place “on a regular basis”. Once the cell phone of a suspect is identified, his location can be pinpointed within 10 feet, down to the room they are present in. Now apart from stealing information, the new technology enables jamming the signals and extracting photos and texts from the suspect’s cell phone.

The process of getting cell tower information from a cellular network company for locating a suspect such as fugitives and drug dealers is slow and not very accurate. So the government has devised this program so that it can directly get this information. A person familiar with this surveillance program said,” What is done on U.S. soil is completely legal, whether it should be done is a separate question.”

 

A Secret US Spy Program revealed: Uses planes to steal data from people’s cell phones

Apple"s New Design Genius And Some New Things He"s Done

Apple recently hired a new designer for its team called Marc Newson. Marc is a friend of Jony Ive, who is the head of Apple’s design team and apparently also a Knight. Anyways, Newson is a prolific designer who is designing Apple products for the future. So we thought we should share some of them with you here on our blog. Here are some things that Newson has on his portfolio.

Newson And Ive Also Worked On This Special-Edition Leica Camera. It Has A Very Minimalistic Design With Very Few Buttons

Getty Images/John Moore

This Is An Example Of A Camera He Designed For Pentax Before Joining Apple

Flickr/jaimelondonboy

The Carbon-Fiber Bicycle Pictured Below Was Part Of The “Marc Newson: Transport.” Exhibit. Apple Could Make Limited Edition Versions Of Their Products With New Materials

Flickr/davepinter

Here’s A Wearable Jetpack That Newson Designed. It Looks Surprisingly Innocuous For A Jetpack

Flickr/davepinter

This Chair Called The “Lockheed Lounge” Is One Of His Most Famous Designs

Flickr/damongarrett

Newson’s “Embryo” Chair Is One Of His Designs From The 1980s. In Apple’s Move Into The Internet of Things, We Might See Some Of These Designs In The Future

Flickr/malbooth

Newson’s Design Of A Luxury Champagne Bottle Case For Dom Perignon May Be A Hint Of How Apple Product Packaging Might Look In The Near Future

Dezeen

A Ford Concept Car Displayed At The 1999 Tokyo Motor Show And Designed By Newson

Flickr/davepinter

The Sixth Floor Of Hotel Puerta America in Madrid Was Also Designed By Newson

Flickr/marcp_dmoz

This Is What His Room Looks Like. The Minimalist Design Reminds Us Of Most Apple Products!

Hoteles Silken

Apple"s New Design Genius And Some New Things He"s Done

iPad Air 2 with Awesome Functionality

Apple has always surprised us with its innovation. Their entire product range since the first product that they released never failed to awe us.  In this entry, we are going to talk about iPad Air 2 which is awesome too!

When the original iPad was released, it was all good except for the casing. Not only it was terribly designed but the material appallingly rigid therefore, it is more uncomfortable to use it. The latest product in Apple iPad range is the iPad Air 2. The best thing about this device is that it is thin, incredibly thin. The display of iPad Air 2 is less glossy, laminated and comes with 9.7-inch of Retina display. It feels like you are holding a digital magazine for the first time ever. You could comfortably use it on the sofa watching TV, while reading a book in bed, for sending emails while travelling and everywhere else.

Despite of its thin feature, it is much more powerful and capable than any of other iOS device ever released. It is also much faster than an older version of MacBook released from two or three years ago. The Safari tabs do not reload even with 10 of them open. You also can switch apps while doing something else and pick up right where you left off without the OS dumping whatever app was in the background.

However, actually we expected more capability on the software side but I think it will be fulfilled in the next release. When Apple introduces a larger iPad, the multitasking feature whereby more than two screens able to display side by side, we are hoping to see such a feature in the iPad Air range too.

iPad Air 2 with Awesome Functionality

The Future UI of iOS to Adapt Apple Watch Design?

September this year, Apple has released a new user interface design in the form of Apple Watch. The UI design in Apple Watch is entirely a new home screen. It is very much different from the basic concept of the home screen of iPhone OS which was first released in January 2007.

History

When the first generation of iPhone was introduced back in 2007, it has a smaller screen therefore the number of rows is lesser than the current generation of iPhone. However, the look and the feel of it is almost the same. Therefore, there are plenty of arguments to change the home screen design for the next generation of iPhone.

One Fluid System

If the design of Apple Watch home screens to be adapted to the Iphone home screen, it will look like one large fluid grid of apps. The app grid will be looking more modern with its round icons and it will be scaled perfectly to any screen size, from the smallest Apple Watch to the 9.7-inch iPad.

Navigation

In the center of the iPhone’s new home screen is the spotlight, a central search repository for quick access of applications, web searches, music, contacts and more. With the new screen layout, all the apps are always close by therefore you might not need the spotlight anymore. Pinch out to see the bird’s eye view of all your apps and zoom in to make the icons look bigger.

The new Apple iPhone screen design will be more intuitive, flexible and adaptive. Well, we are looking forward to it.

The Future UI of iOS to Adapt Apple Watch Design?

Mind-Blowing Facts About The Massive Apple Co.

In terms of market capitalization (or share value), Apple is the largest company in the United States. You can try to imagine just how massive the company is. Apple’s shares are currently valued at $626 billion. That is absolutely massive, because the runner-up (Microsoft) is valued at almost half of that. But exactly how big is Apple, here are some comparisons to put things into perspective.

Apple’s Last quarter Revenue ($42.1 Billion) Is More Than The Economy Of Turkmenistan

Apple’s Cash Reserve Are $155 billion, Enough To Split Among 316 Million (US population) With Everyone Getting $490

Enough Money To Buy 2,384 Gulfstream G650 Airplanes

Apple Sold Enough Macs In The Last Three Months To Give One To The Entire Population Of Minnesota

Apple Sold Enough iPhones In The Last Three Months To Give One To Every Canadian And Still Have Some Left

Flickr

If Apple Were A Country, It Would Be The World’s 27th Largest Economy

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Apple Sold Enough iDevices In The Last 12 Months To Give 10 Devices To Everyone In North Korea

Apple Could Sell 30 million Apple Watches In Two Years According To One Estimate. That Would Generate Enough Revenue To Match Nicaragua’s Current Economy

Thats Enough Money To Buy The Roman Abramovich’s “Eclipse” Yacht 433 times

REUTERS/Christian Charisius

Without a doubt, Apple is a huge company with many great products in its portfolio. What new innovations will Apple introduce to the world in the future? Only time will tell.

 

Mind-Blowing Facts About The Massive Apple Co.