Monday 24 November 2014
Wednesday 19 November 2014
Toyota Mirai – Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle
Toyota has been teasing its upcoming hydrogen fuel cell car for the better part of the year, but at the Los Angeles auto show it has announced that consumers will be able to buy the Mirai sedan for $57,500 when it goes on sale in 2015. However, Toyota claims the final price for the four-door vehicle should be significantly lower when factoring in state and federal incentives that could push the price "under $45,000" when all is said and done.
As for the technology behind this car, Toyota claims that its fuel cell stack will be refillable in about five minutes and provide a driving range of 300 miles. It's no performance beast, but that range should make the driving experience much more like a standard gas-powered vehicle rather than most current electric vehicles, which still aren't quite feasible for most long-distance drives.
Of course, there are even less places to refuel a hydrogen-powered car than there are standard electric chargers — that five-minute refuel time won't be very useful if you can't find a place to fill up your car. To that end, the Mirai will first be only available in California, where a hydrogen refueling infrastructure is currently being built out. By the end of 2015, Toyota says some 20 stations will be online, with another 28 launching in 2016. Toyota also says that 2016 will see the first construction of stations on the east coast, with 12 stations spread across five states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) expected that year.
Until more stations become commonplace, hydrogen-powered cars will remain a niche curiosity — but it's easy to see the attraction to such a vehicle. The Mirai (and other similar vehicles) use no gasoline and emit only water vapor in the process. That complete lack of emissions coupled with a more extensive range than current electrical cars makes hydrogen-powered cars sound like a pretty huge step forward in automotive technology.
Friday 14 November 2014
Less Known Wonders of World....Part 1
1. Valley of Love, Ireland
This ancient valley is one of the lost wonders of the earth. Valley of love is a mile wide and high. Many controversies revolves revolve around it. It is believed that the valley remained hidden from the eyes of world for many centuries and was built by a mysterious race that now lives in a remote area of Ireland. This valley is more than 3000 years older than the pyramids of Egypt. The only intact structure in this valley referred as ‘Memorial of joy’ is awe inspiring. This fantastic stone structure has an equally flabbergasting interior which is fully functional to this day.
2. The Giant Buddha
Lies to the east of the city of Leshan in Sichuan Province at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers. The statue faces the sacred Mount Emei with the rivers flowing below its feet.
Courtesy: Google+
Tuesday 11 November 2014
Wednesday 5 November 2014
Google Launches Hindi Voice Search, to Add More Regional Languages Soon
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| Amit Singhal, Prakash Javadekar and Rajan Anandan at the launch of the Indian Langauge Internet Alliance in New Delhi. |
Aiming to bring 300 million people online, search firm Google has partnered content providers such as ABP News and Amar Ujala, along with government agency, CDAC to make regional content available on Internet.
Google, which currently offers voice search in English, has also added Hindi language service and plans to other languages like Tamil, Marathi and Bengali to the list in coming months.
"India has about 200 million Internet users with about 5 million new users being added every month with 100 per cent coming through mobile devices. At this pace, India will overtake the US in terms of number of users in the next 12 months," Google India Vice President and Managing Director Rajan Anandan said in New Delhi.
However, only 198 million people in the country are estimated to be proficient in English with most of them already on the Internet, he added.
With that in mind, the Indian Language Internet Alliance (ILIA) has been formed, he said.
"The group is committed to promoting the growth of Indic- language content online. ILIA hopes to enable 300 million Indian language speakers to become highly engaged Internet users by 2017," he said.
The Alliance will work together to accelerate building Indian language content for Indians who will come online for the very first time, mostly via smartphones and mobile devices.
"If Internet is available in Indian languages, then the Internet usage will go up to 50 crore and it is possible. This will help in realisation of digital India initiative of the government. It is an important initiative," Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said.
As a part of its efforts, Google showcased demos of voice search in Hindi and launched a website 'www.hindiweb.com' to help Hindi-speaking Internet users discover Hindi content across websites, apps, videos and blogs.
"India is a significant market for us and is growing at a strong pace. Internet is empowering and that is why we want to take Internet to the next billion," Google Senior Vice President Search Amit Singhal told PTI.
He added the alliance will help content creators build relevant content for these new Indian language mobile users.
"Its a catch 22 situation. There is not enough regional content and current user base is also small. Through ILIA, we want to address both the issues," he said.
Source: BusinessToday
Tuesday 4 November 2014
Yahoo Planning to Launch Its Own YouTube Service
Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) is reportedly working to enter into YouTube’s territory with its own video sharing service and even though the firm is officially remaining tightlipped, it has been rumored that the website will be ready for a launch in the next few months.
It has been said that Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Meyer had contacted YouTube’s content providers, star talents and network channels with the promise of more money to switch from Google to the Yahoo fold. YouTube is under the banner of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), which had paid $1.65 billion for the popular video sharing website in late 2006.
In its move to launch its own YouTube service, Yahoo is supposedly also offering better deals to the rival’s video makers by offering better advertising revenues, guaranteed ad rates and promotional space on Yahoo’s heavily trafficked home page on a non-exclusive basis, among other inducements.
The move comes at the right time for Yahoo as over the recent months, YouTube’s content providers have complained of difficulty in making profits from the video sharing website’s services. There have also been complaints from the talent stars that they are not being paid enough.
Not much has been learnt about the website that Yahoo is coming up with, but it has been reported that a content management system is being prepared by the firm so that video stars would be able to manage their clips. Yahoo, reportedly, does not want anyone to be uploading content to its service. The firm is more interested in popular, professionally made content and therefore, is seeking mostly already established stars and professionals.
On the flip side, financial analysts are focusing on how Yahoo will fare in competition against the massively popular YouTube. In a long shot, once China’s Alibaba becomes public, Yahoo can sell its entire stake and gain $37 billion cash, which it can use to invest against YouTube. However, YouTube’s resources is far more massive as Google sits on cash and short-term investments worth $50 billion, which it will likely use to counteract any of Yahoo’s moves.
According to Paul Ausick of 24/7 Wall Street, Yahoo will need a massive investment in popular talents to dislodge YouTube. Ausick said this is not likely to come cheap. He said that even though Katie Couric’s addition to Yahoo’s stable was a start — four months earlier, Couric announced she was becoming the first-ever global anchor at Yahoo — the company would need bigger stars like American radio personality, television show host, author, actor, and photographer, Howard Stern at an enormous contract rate.
Moreover, Yahoo would also have to compete against YouTube in the music streaming sector. Popular services like Spotify, Pandora Media Inc. and Rdio, pale in comparison to the business YouTube has. Yahoo will have to invest significantly in this sector to compete not only against YouTube but also popular music streaming services like Spotify.
Meanwhile, as reports are making rounds of Yahoo looking to launch its own YouTube service, claims are also being made the firm is in attempts to buy existing video sites such as Vimeo. It may be recalled that last year, Yahoo was eyeing a potential takeover of Dailymotion, but the bid was quashed by the French government.
Source: Guardianlv
