This is far more advanced than simply absorbing the sweat and waiting for it to evaporate, because the fibers in this fabric are threaded with tiny channels that actually send the sweat in a particular direction: from the inside of your shirt to the outside. Then, the sweat can bead up into droplets and simply drain away. This capillary action is really what makes this discovery and invention so unique.

The fabric, developed by Tingrui Pan and his UC Davis Micro-Nano Innovations Laboratory graduate students Siyuan Xing and Jia Jiang, can even continue its effectiveness when the threads reach saturation, because there is the sustained pressure gradient by way of the surface tension of the droplets. And it stays dry and comfortable too.

The microfabrication techniques used are supposed to be simple enough that they can be easily scaled to suit current textile manufacturing processes. Now we just have to wait for Under Armor to come up with a catchy trademarked name for it.

[Source]

The post UC Davis Researchers Develop Magical Sweat-Channeling Fabric (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Google Wallet has already been available on a few smartphones and tablets, and now the search giant has announced more phones onto the list. From now on, users of Sprint’s HTC One, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S4 and US Cellular’s Note II will be able to use Google Wallet to purchase in store via NFC-based contactless payments.

You can download the app for free by heading to Google Play here.

Meanwhile, Google has also announced a way to make sending payments simple, which will be as easy as sending an email. They are integrating Google Wallet with Gmail, and sometime in the coming months US users over 18 years old will be able to send money through Gmail via a $ icon in the attachment options. “It’s free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet Balance”, but you will be charged a flat fee of 2.9% per transaction for payments using your linked credit or debit card. Receiving money will always be free.

Check out the video below to know more about the upcoming service.

[Source]

The post Google Wallet Available On More Smartphones (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Many of the customers who were trying to get their hands on the T-Mobile Lumia 521 via HSN and Walmart were disappointed. The device is still out of stock. But maybe you are destined to play with the newly announced Nokia Lumia 925 which is headed to Big Magenta sometime in the near future.

Similar to the Verizon-exclusive 928 and the 920, the Lumia 925 features a 4.5-inch display (1280×768 resolution), a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, an 8.7MP cam, and 4G LTE. It also has 1 GB of RAM and a 2,000 mAh battery. All these might appear as ancient, but are more than enough to smoothly run Windows which is lighter than Android.

The Lumia 925 will be available in black, gray and white, and is coming with a “metal design”. Its edges are surrounded by a silver-colored frame that will work as an antenna, and on the back there’s a polycarbonate cover. And the 925 is also thinner at 129 x 70.6 x 8.5 mm and lighter at 139 grams when compared to the 920 which measures in at 130.3 x 70.8 x 10.7 and weighs 185 grams.

Although lighter and thinner, the device is coming with only 16 GB of non-expandable storage, unlike the 920 and the 928 which ship with larger storage. And to enjoy wireless charging with the 925, you will have to buy back covers which are sold separately.

So are you going for one of the best budget handsets out there, the Lumia 521, or the higher end 925 which is expected to cost upwards of $600? Or how about the 920? Or the 928?

Check out the video below which shows Nokia’s Kristina Bjorknas explaining a few things about the 925.

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The post Nokia Lumia 925 For T-Mobile appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Sony’s latest addition to the Xperia line of smartphones is the Android 4.1 running Xperia ZR, the main feature of which is that it has better water resistance when compared to the Xperia Z. You can keep the ZR in 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes and while you are at it you can also take photos and full HD videos. But that’s about it.

The Xperia ZR is almost identical to the Xperia Z when it comes to the specs, with the ZR having a smaller screen and a 4.6-inch 720p HD Reality display (the Z also offers full 1080p HD). The ZR’s 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 13MP cam, 2GB RAM, pre-loaded Walkman, Album and Movies apps and NFC have all been there with the Xperia Z, which is also pretty rugged.

The ZR is also fatter measuring in at 10.4mm thick compared to Z’s 7.9mm, though you won’t feel that much of a difference. The ZR’s front cam is VGA (likely 0.3MP), but the Z offers a 2MP one. And 8GB of internal memory with the ZR, while the Xperia Z gives 16GB, but both support microSD.

So the Z seems to be better in a few areas than the ZR, although the latter is the one for you if you are fond of diving with your phone once in a while.

Meanwhile, the success of the Xperia Z seems to have affected the sales of other Xperia handsets. We will have to wait and see how the sales go after the ZR is rolled out sometime in Q2. The new device will be available in black, white, pink and mint.

What are your thoughts about the arrival of the Xperia ZR? Will the sales of the Xperia Z be affected by the ZR? Or will people just go for the Z? Or will they forget both the ZR and the Z and go for an upcoming powerhouse?

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The post Why Do We Need A Sony Xperia ZR? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Those who have been waiting for the Verizon 928 will surely be able to play with the good looking handset soon. But maybe you should wait a bit more time to check out what Nokia is coming out with tomorrow. They have released a teaser video of their upcoming Lumia device, the one that will be announced in London on May 14^th.

Not many details are being shown in the video. The main thing to note is that the device has a massive camera lens with dual LED flash, and seems to have a smooth white body. The device certainly looks a lot like the leaked aluminum “Catwalk” device which has been rumored earlier to be named the Lumia 925. The 925 is said to be coming equipped with specs similar to that of the Lumia 920. But there have also been reports about an upcoming 41-megapixel “EOS” Windows Phone which is similar in design to the Catwalk.

“More than your eyes can see” is what the teaser is saying which suggests that the device will probably have stunning camera capabilities. But whichever device is coming, we will surely be there to bring the latest info about all things Lumia. So stay tuned.

Check out the video and you can leave your thoughts below.

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The post Is This The Nokia Lumia 925? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

What you see above is a laser beam striking and tracking a point at the front of a rocket to destroy it mid-flight. The beam is from Lockheed Martin’s newly developed ADAM high energy laser (HEL) system which is taking out that rocket from a range of 1.5 km, as you will see in the video below.

The rocket is completely destroyed as you can see in the image:

ADAM or Area Defense Anti-Munitions is a system capable of nullifying attacks from unmanned aerial vehicles or rocket attacks from the ground. It can track short-range target from a distance of 5 km to destroy it when it’s in a range of up to 2 km. It could be very useful for protecting assets like military bases near the battlefield.

The video shows an ADAM prototype destroying a “Qassam-like” rocket. You will be able to clearly see the laser striking and tracking the rocket to eventually take it out.

It’s, of course, being developed to protect humans and military stuff from missiles, but why should they fire a rocket in the first place. It’s sad to remember that this will deal mostly with war. Why don’t they develop and keep this tech for some good use in the future, like helping NASA and Harry Stamper to take care of an extra-terrestrial threat.

[Source]

The post Lockheed Martin’s ADAM High Energy Laser Destroying A Rocket (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Google Now recently launched on iOS devices giving iDevice users a taste of the personal assistant service and predictive search, although it does not run in the background. Those using Android 4.1 and above can simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get to Now, but it’s different on the Galaxy S4.

The Galaxy S4 has its own S-Voice assistant. The good news is that using Google Now is not only still possible, but actually pretty easy to do.

You can try the following ways on the S4:

• Just long-press the home key to bring up the task switcher and press the “g” icon at the very bottom of the screen.
• You can add an app shortcut or widget on your home screen. The app can be accessed with a single tap and the Now widget will allow you to view predictive cards without opening the app.
• You can also long-press the menu key when on the home screen to go straight into the Google Search bar and view the Now cards below recent search results.

What do you think of S-Voice versus Google Now, which do you prefer?

[Source]

[Video Source]

The post Using Google Now On The Galaxy S4 (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

T-Mobile Q1 2013 results are out and the numbers are showing both good and bad news. According to the UNcarrier, the first quarter has brought the “first positive branded customer growth in four years”. The carrier’s postpaid customer base grew by 3,000, which is the first growth since 2009.

T-Mobile also saw 199,000 branded postpaid net losses, an improvement of 61 percent year-over-year. They added 579,000 customers, but those are mostly from MVNOs on their network (376,000) and pre-paid additions (202,000). The postpaid churn at 1.9 percent is apparently the lowest since Q2 2008. Furthermore, the carrier is saying that they have sold about 500,000 iPhone 5s since the device’s launch on April 12. T-Mobile is also highlighting their 4G LTE launches.

But revenue is down 7.5% year over year, although it’s up 12.4% compared to Q4 2012. And net income dropped from $200 million (Q1 2012) to $107 million.

Of course these numbers do not reflect the MetroPCS merger, about which John Legere, President and CEO of T-Mobile, is saying that “things only get more exciting from here”.

The new ad posted below is a T-Mobile punch at AT&T. Check it out and leave your thoughts on the UNcarrier in the comments below.

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The post T-Mobile US Q1 Results Show Good And Bad News appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Samsung’s latest and greatest smartphone, the Galaxy S4, is currently available in two versions, one with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and another with the South Korean company’s own Exynos 5 Octa with 4 Cortex-A15 cores and 4 Cortex-A7 cores. With the Exynos 5 Octa, Samsung promises energy efficiency by switching between battery-saving Cortex-A7 and the high-performance Cortex-A15 cores. But it appears like the S4 is not using the best possible way to do the shifting.

You can see how things work with the Octa below.

The image that you see below shows how the cores should be working.

According to Developer AndreiLux, the Galaxy S4 currently switches all 4 cores between the two processors like a cluster rather than using core-pair shifting. The device appears to have arrived with lower level firmware.

AndreiLux says:

“Basically there are three modes of operation of big.LITTLE:

Cluster migration: When load rises, just like when a phone increases its frequency per DVFS, all the cores will jump from the LITTLE processor to the big one. You either have 4 A7 cores or 4 A15 cores online.

Core migration: When load rises, it will only jump those cores from the LITTLE processor whose load exceeds the capacity of the A7 cores: You can have a single A15 online with 3 A7′s on. Or any other combination of a total of 4 processors.

HMP (Heterogeneous Multi-Processing): This is a vastly more complex working mechanism, and its implementation is also an order of magnitude more sophisticated. It requires the kernel scheduler to actually be aware of the differentiation of between the A7 and A15 cores. Currently, the Linux kernel is not capable of doing this and treats all CPUs as equals. This is a problem since we do not want to use the A15 cores when a task can simply be processed on an A7 core with a much lower power cost”.

So when the A15 cores are activated, the battery will be killed faster. This might explain why some people are experiencing heating and battery drain problems with their S4s. But hopefully Samsung will release a software fix soon that could make the S4 more power efficient.

Head here if you are interested in reading more details about this find.

What are your thoughts about all this? Do you have plans to buy the S4? If you are using the device now, are you having power issues?

[Source]

The post Exynos-based Samsung Galaxy S4 Not Fully Power Efficient, Says Developer appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

DARPA’s Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program, which was announced back in 2010, aims to build a robot that can do a variety of manipulation tasks with minimum operator input. One of the toughest tasks for the hardware team is developing a reliable and low-cost hand for the robot. iRobot and researchers at Harvard and Yale appear to have come up with a solution.

Their hand that you see above has fingers capable of surviving hits from a baseball bat and that can lift 50 pounds as you will see in the video. From a basketball to a pin, its three fingers can pick up a variety of objects. And it costs just $3,000. In comparison, the average cost of a military-grade robot hand in 2010 was around US$50,000.

But a lot of research and development is still left in the ARM program. While the hardware team will focus on building a complete robot, many others will be working on AI software which will require some serious work.

The software system must enable the GFE (Government Furnished Equipment; i.e. the robot) to perform the Challenge Tasks following a high-level script with no operator intervention. For example, the operator would issue a command such as “Throw Ball.” That command would in turn decompose into a sequence of lower-level tasks, such as “find ball,” “grasp ball,” “re-grasp ball, cock arm, and throw”.

Check out the video below to see the hand in action. It’s not creepy like an earlier DARPA product.

[Source]

The post iRobot Hand For The DARPA ARM Program (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.