In my previous post I was talking about a possible solution for Traffic controlling problems. In their concept was walking toward a centralized system with a one single control point. But we notice that there can be some serious problems. To solve those I came up with a different idea which is a decentralized system.

The problem in the previous system were

• Direct changeover
• Consequences in system failure
• No Driving fun

Let see if we will decentralize controlling, how it will solve all these problems. In this concept all the vehicles will be intelligent agents. Like every other human who are driving a vehicle sitting behind the wheel. In addition to that the cars can communicate with each other. In previous system all the decisions would be taken by the central controlling point. In here they will be taken by the cars themselves.

Ex: Car B is following car A. Car A going to turn left after 1 KM. Previous centralized system, that information will be uploaded to central server and it will make the car B aware. In this decentralized system car A will directly talk to car B and say “Hey dude! I’m going to turn left after 1KM” so based on that information car B can take steps.

Sounds cool ah! But still there can be a central server to update cars about general conditions of the roads including traffic and maintenance. And just assume, only your car is having this system. No problem, it can use its camera, radar etc and drive alone thinking all the other cars are driven by humans. With the increasing number of this kind of intelligent cars, system will come to live step by step. No need of direct change over. In the case of central server failure it won’t affect the system badly. Still cars can drive communicating each others.

That’s how this decentralized system is going to solve the problem of changeover and how it will react to a system failure. But how this is going to solve the problem of “Driving fun”?

There is a simple solution. “Manual override!”. If driver want to drive by himself, he would be able to override the system manually and continue driving. In that case all the other cars around will be notified that this car is manually overridden. So other cars can take appropriate security steps, because a human is behind the wheel. To make this even better, there can be some busy city areas where manual overriding is prohibited. In permitted areas drivers can have fun.

This sounds like an awesome system, but when it comes to implementation, there are many technical challenges. Still there is no good enough intelligent system to drive a car on a real road. Communication between cars wouldn’t be much harder. It’s just matter of introducing common protocol. Once we come up with a good intelligent system to drive a car, we are almost done.

(Special Thank : Shyam Mehraaj Reyal)

References

Tags: #Traffic

Firebug is a very popular browser plug-in among web developers. Not only for a web developers. It’s a head start for anyone to learn more about web designing. It’s letting you dig deep in to HTML code of any website and analyze it right from your browser.

Past was the time of Mozilla Firefox. It had millions of plug-ins and Firebug was one of them. But with time Google Chrome started to dominate the territory of Firefox in battle of web browsers. With this trend lots of people moved to Chrome and today it has surpassed Firefox and even Intent Explorer.

Lots of extensions were introduced to Chrome and today they have a massive Chrome Web store.  However for a longer period of time one of the most favorite Firefox plug-in, Firebug was not there for Chrome. It was the only reason for most of the people to not use Chrome as well. True that Chrome came up with its own developer tools, but people were so used to Firebug by then.

I was looking for a solution for this problem for a long time. I tried Firebug Lite bookmarklet, but it was not so stable and didn’t have the right click menu to inspect elements. Finally I found a decent solution, a chrome extension for Firebug Lite. Let’s take a closer look.

Getting started with Firebug Lite for Chrome

• Go to Chrome Web Store and add Firebug Lite for Google Chrome.
• It will add new icon to Chrome address bar.
• The icon indicates the working status of Firebug as usual.
• You can simply right click on any element in a webpage and click “Inspect with firebug Lite” to analyze it.
• It will open firebug windows at the bottom of the screen and show you the HTML code for selected item as usual.

• Hardware: Intel Core i5 2nd Gen // 4GB DDR2
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium // 64 Bit
• Browser: Google Chrome Version 23.0.1271.91 m

If you were never happy with Chrome Developer tools and missing Firebug so badly, here is your solution. But remember this doesn’t have JAVAScript debugger and Net Analyzer which also are very important tools.

Tags: #Browser #Chrome #Tools #Web

Google Trends is an online service provided by Google Inc which giving the history record of the search queries in Google search engine. When a user enters a key word to this tool and some other required parameters, it will display the search volume variation for the given keyword over a period of time. To make it easy for general users it presents data in a very user friendly way including charts.

To access Google Trends you can use the main navigation bar in the Google home page. There click the more link and then click even more. It will open a page with many other Google services. There you can find a link to Google Trends. If not, simply you can Google for Google trends. Once you open Google trends, there will be a Search box almost same as Google search engine. You can enter your keyword and hit the Search trends button.

We will use the keyword “Barak Obama“.

Once you hit the button, in the browser screen it will display a chart at the top. And in the special points of the chart will be labeled and explanation will be there in the right side. Look at the peak labeled as C. The explanation for that is “CME Group Congratulates President-elect Barak Obama”. At the bottom of the page it display search volume index for regions and for different languages. Finally you can save all the above data in your local computer as a CSV file from the link at the bottom of the page. In addition to this you can narrow down your research for a given regions or time frame.

In addition to that there is a separate section for web traffic monitoring which you can access in top navigation bar. In there you can see a chart of unique visitors for a given web site. By the way Alexa.com is giving better service if you need to monitor web sites traffic.

In the main page of Google trends, there is a space for Hot Trends. It shows current hot trends in Google which can be really important. By clicking more trends you can access the full list of hot trends. Furthermore you can subscribe to RSS feeds about hot trends or add it as an iGoogle gadget. So you can be updated about them real time. This is really an important tool for internet marketers to identify Google search trends which is a large part of the whole internet searches. According to that they can take strategic decisions and plan their future business promotion procedure.

Tags: #Google

We are just few week away from WWDC 2013 and no doubt that there are tons of rumors spreading about iPhone 5S. The competition from Android market is getting tighter, so this could be the last chance for Apple to play the best trump and come regain market.

In iPhone 5 Apple made a radical move by increasing display size. But that was not enough to compete with muscle Android phones that were recently released. Let’s go and take a look at the things Apple may do to regain their glory.

What’s on Rumor Radar about iPhone 5S?

Design

We can’t expect huge changes to design, so it will look pretty similar to iPhone 5. It could be even thinner and lighter. Most importantly it will have much thinner bezels around the display.

There are some rumors about low priced plastic version of iPhone as well. It’s not Apple’s usual style. But they might decide to go there in order to serve market competition.

Display

iPhone 5 still doesn’t even have a 720p display while many Android phones have 1080p displays. However chances for us to see a 1080p display in iPhone 5S is lesser. It might have same sized 720p display which will further increase pixel density.

There is a chance for next iPhone to come with different screen sizes. It could be a good idea to give more flexibility to consumer. But it will be a nightmare for app developers.

Processor and Storage

Usually iPhone “S” are getting slight spec bump, so we can expect the same here. Apple may increase the CPU clock speed and include better GPU, but chances for it to come with bigger RAM or storage are lesser.

Sensors

This is the most interesting part. Word is out there that iPhone 5S will come out with finger print scanner and proximity based volume controller. Apple already has patent for proximity based volume controller for mobile devices, so there is a high chance for this to become a reality.

Probably within few weeks you will get to know the exact details of iPhone 5S and iOS 7 (This is another post) in WWDC. I’ll meet you again with latest stuff.

Tags: #Apple #iOS #iPhone

If you go back to 1990s, almost all the web designs were based on rectangular shapes. Even after the trend of web 2.0 things remained the same. The reason is that HTML is not giving pixel level control over the design.

By then if you needed a circular shape or an effect like drop shadow you had to use an image. When it comes to performance as well as control, this is not the best way. Then CSS came in to picture and turned things upside down.

Still you are not getting pixel level control with CSS. But you can generate circular shapes and effects like drop shadow without using images.

The major challenge a developer has to face there is, you have to code and then see the result in browser. If you can do it the other way round, convert the design in to HTML and CSS code, it could have been nicer. The good news is YOU CAN! Let’s go and take a look.

Getting Started with Layer Styles

• Go to LayerStyles.org and click on the main image there to go to builder.
• There you can see a HTML div styled with CSS.
• You can manipulate CSS code with Adobe Photoshop like graphical style editor.
• There you can set Drop shadow, Inner Shadow, Background, Border and Border Radius.
• You can change the behavior of effects just with few check boxes, sliders and values.
• Finally in the bottom of the window you can find auto generated CSS code.
• All you have to do is copy it, put it in your CSS file and link to element with an ID or Class.

The auto generated CSS is carefully designed to work with all common browsers such as Google Chrome and Firefox.

The problem solved! Now you can get the look and feel first and convert it to CSS code when you are designing web.

Tags: #CSS #Design #Web

In past few years mobile processors improved from single core 400 MHz to quad core 1.9 GHz and even to Octa core. In parallel to that GPU and RAM were also getting more and more power.

Last week I came across with several news items about Cortex-A12 CPU. While handset manufactures are in continuous missions to give devices more power, this is a step back, a downgrade.

Shape of Cortex-A12

Cortex-A12 CPU core will sit between A9 and latest A15. It expected to be 40% faster than A9 core. Since A12 is fabricated at 28nm it will be energy efficient than 40 nm A9. When manufacturing SoC this could go with mid range GPU. Importantly Cortex-A12 supports big.LITTLE architecture and could work with A7 core to save power.

Reason for Releasing Mid Range Processors

Device Cost

Every year hundreds of millions of mobile handsets are sold all over the world. If you take a closer look at statistics you will figure out that most of them are sitting over $400 price point, in other words “Expensive”. But those “Expansive” devices are catering only small proportion of total demand. Large part of the global market is asking for mid and entry level devices.

Many of the major component and handset manufactures are missing this huge market. To tap that market, they need mid-level devices that cost less than $400. That is a major reason for Cortex-A12 series CPUs by ARM.

Power Consumption

No matter what sort of advance handset you have, it can live only one day with its battery. This will get even worse with mid-range devices since manufactures can’t spend too much money on a good quality battery. So they need less power consuming internals specially CPU, GPU and display.

Cortex-A12 CPU would consume much lesser energy than A9 with its 22mm fabrication, yet give 40% better performance. In addition it supports big.LITTLE architecture to make it even more efficient. It would be a solid solution for battery life problem in mid-range handsets.

Mobile OS Upgrades

When developing modern mobile OS, engineers are paying extra attention to make them highly performance tuned. Due to that they can perform better even with average hardware. I noticed this difference with Android JB update. After that my Galaxy Nexus felt like a totally new device. The story is same with Windows mobile 8 as well.

So, latest mobile operating systems are not asking for more processing power unless you are playing games. Therefore Cortex-A12 would be a great choice for mid-range low priced mobile devices.

Finally

All the high end mobile handset manufactures were in a cold war for past few years. They were too busy upgrading specs rather than thinking whether users really need them. As a result today we have 1080p display and Octa core CPU. The sad story is they are idling most of the time.

True that, the major demand in the mobile handset market is for low priced mid-range devices. But going back to Cortex-A9 is not really a good idea when it comes to power consumption though its power is more than enough for many of average work. Cortex-A12 CPU cores will be fast enough, efficient enough to power up future mid-range mobile handsets for much lesser cost.

Tags: #Mobile #Smartphone #Tablet

WWDC 2013 is just around the corner and we are hearing tons of things about next iPhone as well as iOS 7. Back in 2010, in the time Apple introduced iPad, the original one, they were pretty good at keeping secrets. But for the past few years they proved again and again that they are very bad at that.

So by now we know lots of things about iOS. It seems with Johnny Ivey’s touch, next iOS is heading to a total different direction. Let’s go and take a look.

Expected New Feature in iOS 7

Flat Clean Design

In every Apple OS we could notice curved embossed glossy designs. But it seems like things are going to change in iOS 7. It will have flat design, colors and less curved edges. The designs will take extra effort to make UI clutter free.

This kinda reminds me of the change Microsoft did in Windows 8. Some users love it and some hate it. Apple also might have to face the same.

Widgets

Android OS had widgets for several years and iOS is also going to get the same. One critical requirement to have widget is a big screen and with iPhone 5 they solved that problem.

However there is a very lesser chance for you to get highly customizable widgets in iOS like in Android. They might let you have selected few widgets. Down the time selection will expand in a very controller manner.

Application Management

One of the major problems in iOS is setting application defaults. Apple might give you that customizability with iOS 7. So you will be able to open Google Map link, right in Google Map, not in Safari Browser.

You might get the option to hide applications from home screen to make it less cluttered. However this could be an extra complexity. Will see how Apple will face it.

Competition with Android

Few years ago iOS was THE mobile OS. But today the picture is different and it’s losing territory day by day to Android. Google, Samsung, LG, Sony and many other market giants have made an alliance to take Smartphone and tablet market away from Apple.

Apple is fighting alone in this war and they are doing not-so-bad.  Apple device hardware is tightly coupled with software and perfectly compatible. So they can perform more with less hardware muscle while Android alliance is too busy upgrading devices to reduce Android Lag.

Many tech savvy users complain iOS about its limited customizability. But if you consider an average user, they easily get scared by complex options. That’s why iPhone is still THE Smartphone in non-tech community while Android is nowhere near.

Smooth UI and simplicity is the magic in iOS and the best competitive advantage over Android. If Apple developers and designers decide to strengthen those points, they will stand a pretty good chance in competition rather than trying to be LIKE Android.

Tags: #Apple #iOS

If you are an Android user, YouTube must be one of your favorite applications. YouTube experience in Tablet or a Smartphone is way better than in computer. But YouTube is a bandwidth intensive application. If you want to stream a video with no interruption you need high speed as well as reliable broadband service.

When you are at home, you may have high speed, highly reliable fiber optic and Wi-fi router. But when you are on the move it’s not the case. Mobile broadband services are fast but not really reliable. If you try to stream YouTube video on the move most of the time you won’t be able to enjoy uninterrupted video streaming.

Best thing you can do for this is download YouTube videos when you are home and store them in your phone. This is not allowed and even if you come up with a workaround still it’s illegal. But Android YouTube app has come up with similar and smarter solution for this problem.

How Preload Video Feature Works?

After you enable preload video feature in YouTube android app, it will automatically cache videos if you are in a Wi-fi zone and charging. This could be your home or may be public hot spot, everything happens in background. When you are away from a Wi-fi zone you can watch preloaded videos. YouTube app is not preloading videos using mobile data connection. It’s only using Wi-fi.

How to Enable Preloading Videos?

• Make sure you have latest YouTube app in your Android device.
• Open the YouTube app and then go to Settings -> Preloading

• There you can select what are the videos to be preloaded.
• Given options are Subscriptions and Watch later list. Check them as appropriate.
• Preloaded videos will be indicated with down arrow in a circle.

• Now whenever you are in a Wi-fi zone and charging your phone, YouTube app will preload above selected videos. So you can enjoy them later with no interruption.

The best configuration you can come up with is preload watch later list. Then all you have to do is add videos to watch later list and they will be preloaded. If you select subscriptions to be preloaded make sure you have only few subscriptions or it will consume massive amount of bandwidth.

Always remember, preloading video is not a solution for you to watch video when you have no data connection at all. In that case YouTube app won’t even start properly.

It’s a great idea to preload videos in home wi-fi and watch them on the move without wasting mobile data cap. I have tested this on Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. It worked just fine. You may try this, may be in a different device with another version of Android and share your experience as a comment below.

Tags: #Android #YouTube

The original iPad came in to market back in 2010 and within no time it created and dominated a whole new market of tablet computers. Then it was developed with better processor, GPU, high resolution retina display and even with scaled down iPad Mini.

In past few days we were hearing an interesting rumor about a different kind of iPad. Word is out there is it’s going to be called as iPad Maxi, a weird name. Anyway let’s go and take a look.

Buzz about iPad Maxi

According to many sources iPad Maxi is about scaled up iPad that could be use for educational purposes and presentations. This might be accompanied with keyboard dock or cover. The basic design would be almost same as usual iPad, only bigger.

The display is expected to be 12.9 inches IPS panel. There is no word about resolution and I have pretty strong feeling that if apple actually going to built this, it will be 1536×2048 px same as iPad. So it perfectly fit in to existing iPad apps.

The processor, camera, connectivity and other hardware sensors would be same as current iPad.

What I Think?

The original iPad created a whole new market as same as most other Apple products. It’s a very carefully crafted product and still THE tablet in the market. I believe its uniqueness should not be diluted with different sized devices such as iPad Mini or even Maxi.

The chance for this device to become a reality is much lesser. Even if Apple decides to go with this, I don’t think It will be a wise idea. What they really should do pay attention to finest details of current iPad and polish it with quality software, powerful CPU, GPU, connectivity in an incremental manner.

Tags: #Apple #iOS #iPad

Google calendar is not a strange application to Android users. It comes as a system application and provide interface to Google Calendar right in your Smartphone or Tablet. Yes, if you have a Samsung phone, you must be using ‘S Calendar’, but believe me, it’s nowhere nearly polished as original Google Calendar.

Couple of days ago Google released update for Google Calendar Android app. It actually solved many major problems it had for several years and it’s something worth taking a closer look at.

New Features

These updates are mainly in UI and letting you to access options which are already there in web Google Calendar.

Event Colors and Default Calendar

When you are creating events and editing them with Android app now you can change the color. This is the most awaited feature and it’s kinda too late to come for the Android app. When you go to edit mode, tap the color pallet icon to change the color.

Time and Date Picker

The UI’s date and time picker is changed and now it’s cleaner and snappy. Previously if you want to delay an event by a week, it was pretty difficult. With the new interface, you just need one tap.

New time picker looks like an analog clock, same as the date picker clean and snappy. You can move hands to set hours and minutes. There are two buttons to change AM and PM.

For every selection you are getting a hepatic feedback confirming it.

Recurring Event Options

When you go to reciting event options, it’s giving you better control. Especially you can specify when to stop repeating. At the top there is a master switch to ON and OFF everything.

Good job Google! You gave us many of the most awaited features. Now Google calendar is almost perfect.

I’d like to point out one other thing you can include in next updates. In Android app there is no way for me to change the calendar assigned to an event after creating it. But this options is there in the web app. It’s cool if you can bring it right in to Android app too.

Tags: #Android #Google