India is developing a long-range nuclear-capable Agni-VI ballistic missile that would carry multiple warheads allowing one weapon system to take out several targets at a time. 

"Agni-V is major strategic defence weapon. Now we want to make Agni-VI which would be a force multiplier," DRDO chief V K Saraswat said here on Friday. 

Refusing to divulge the range of the new under-development missile, he said the force multiplier capability of the missile would be because of its multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) capability. 

The Agni-5 ballistic missile, which was test-fired in April last year, has a range of upto 5,500 kms and it is believed that the Agni-6 would have a range longer than its predecessor. 

"It will have force multiplier capability by the MIRV approach which would enable us to deliver many payloads at the same time using only one missile. 

"Work is on in this area and designs have been completed. We are now in the hardware realisation phase," he said. 

DRDO officials said once the Agni-6 is developed, it would propel India into the elite club of nations with such a capability including the US and Russia. 

The DRDO chief said his organisation was also working towards developing a cruise missile defence programme which would enable the armed forces to defend against low-flying cruise missiles and enemy aircraft.

BANGALORE: India is setting up a nationalcyber security architecture to protect critical information infrastructure and other networks, National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon said. 

"The National Security Council has approved the architecture in principle and we are working out the implementation details with the ministries and agencies concerned, which we hope to take to cabinet for approval soon," said Menon, delivering the eighth Raja Ramanna Memorial Lecture at the state-run National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) here. 

The proposed architecture will involve monitoring, certification and assurance of networks by designated agencies and bodies in accordance with the law. It will also involve capacity and authority for operations in cyber space. 

"The goal is to prevent sabotage, espionage and other forms of cyber attacks, which could hurt us. A national cyber security coordinator in the National Security Council secretariat will bring this work together," Menon said. 

In this context, Menon said the ministry of communications and information technology is in the process of setting a dedicated silicon wafer fabrication (fab) facility to produce advanced version of chips for use in high-tech, sensitive and vital installations such satellites, nuclear power stations, defence establishments involved in the production of weapons, missiles and electronic warfare. 

"The fab facility will produce semiconductor chips used in the making of national assets spanning diverse areas such as space, nuclear, military, information networks, security networks and data centres," he said. 

The architecture will also protect critical information infrastructure and public networks with security status and ability to respond to events and threats. 

"We are fortunate in having the people with skills, hard and software tools and knowledge to take up the ambitious project," Menon added. 

Ramanna was a distinguished nuclear scientist and is considered as father of the Indian nuclear programme of over four decades and architect of the country's first nuclear test in May 1974. He passed away in 2004.

LONDON: Search giant Google is set to kill off passwords and is experimenting withUSB keys, mobile phones and even jewelry that can act as a physical 'key' to give users access to their account. 

The firm's security experts including an Indian are set to publish their findings next month, the 'Daily Mail' reported. 

In the upcoming issue of IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine, Google Vice President of Security Eric Grosse and engineer Mayank Upadhyay will detail what is basically a physical key with a 'smart chip' embedded inside it. 

"Along with many in the industry, we feel passwords and simple bearer tokens such as cookies are no longer sufficient to keep users safe," the pair write in their paper, according to Wired. 

To log, users simply place the tiny Universal Serial Bus (USB) drive into their computer. 

The firm is also believed to be experimenting with wireless chips that are already built into some mobile phones, and can even be built in jewelry. 

"We'd like your smartphone or smartcard-embedded finger ring to authorise a new computer via a tap on the computer, even in situations in which your phone might be without cellular connectivity," the team writes. 

"One option uses a tiny USB key called a YubiKey. When the user plugs the key into a latop, they are automatically logged into all of their Google accounts - without ever having to type in a password," they explain. 

"Another option uses a 'smartcard-embedded finger ring to authorise a new computer via a tap on the computer," they said. 

The firm is also believed to be addressing the obvious problem with the system users losing their 'key' and is thought to be developing a simple system to replace them. 

However, the pair admit that they will have to rely on websites to support the scheme. 

"Others have tried similar approaches but achieved little success in the consumer world," they write. 

"Although we recognise that our initiative will likewise remain speculative until we've proven large scale acceptance, we're eager to test it with other websites," they say.

Washington: Computers will gain the five senses such as touch, see, hear, taste and smell within the next five years, computer giant IBM claims.

By 2018, vibrators within computers will be precise enough that they could be designed to mimic the vibrations experienced when your fingers touch a particular surface. IBM's researchers claim to be creating applications for the retail and healthcare sectors that use haptic, infrared or pressure-sensitive technologies to simulate touch, 'CNN Money' reported. "We're not talking about fuzzy screens. You're not going to have to dry clean your Samsung," said Bernie Meyerson, IBM's (IBM, Fortune 500) vice president of innovation.

Computers, in some ways, are already simulating touch - in a crude form. When you're driving a car in a video game, the controller vibrates when the car starts to veer off the road. It may not feel precisely like a steering wheel's vibrations when you hit gravel, but within five years, that technology is expected to become even more lifelike.

Researchers claim within the next five years, a computer will help you make the perfect recipe. By breaking down foods to the molecular level, computers will be able to use complex algorithms to determine what flavour combinations are the most appealing. They could then develop recipes that provide the ideal flavour and texture of food.

Computers will also be able to interpret images better than we can, analysing colours, textures and gaining insights from other visual media. They will even surpass doctors' abilities to read medical imagery, including MRIs, CT scans, X-Rays and ultrasounds.

These smart computers will be able to detect elements of sounds that humans can hear but aren't able to understand, the report said.IBM researchers are developing technology to analyse odours in people's breath that identify ailments, including liver and kidney disorders, asthma, diabetes and epilepsy. By determining which odours and molecules in a person's breath are associated with each disease, computers of the future will be able to make an instant analysis for problems that today could be misdiagnosed or go undetected by a doctor.

Computers will also be able to detect harmful bacteria that cause infections in hospitals just by smelling the surroundings.

Apple Inc. is working on a lower-end iPhone, according to people briefed on the matter, a big shift in corporate strategy as its supremacy in smartphones has slipped.

A new, less expensive iPhone could help Apple recoup smartphone market share it has lost in the past year to phones using the Android operating system. WSJ's Matt Lynley has details on the News Hub. Apple Inc. is working on a less-expensive iPhone as an alternative to the existing model, according to people briefed on the matter. The lower-end iPhone could launch as soon as later this year. WSJ's Jessica Lessin reports. 

While Apple has explored such a device for years, the plan is progressing and a less expensive version of its flagship device could launch later this year, one of the people said. The cheaper phone could resemble the standard iPhone, with a different, less-expensive body, one of the people said. One possibility under consideration is lowering the cost of the device by using a different shell made of polycarbonate plastic; in contrast, the iPhone 5 currently has an aluminum housing.

Many other parts could remain the same or be recycled from older iPhone models. Apple could still decide to scrap the plan. A spokeswoman for the Cupertino, Calif., company declined to comment. Apple now faces greater pressure to make the iPhone more affordable. An onslaught of lower cost rivals powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating system are gaining market share.

In the 2012 third quarter, Apple held only 14.6% of worldwide smartphone shipments, down from a peak of 23% in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, according to IDC.

Samsung Electronics Co.'s share, meanwhile, rose from 8.8% to 31.3% from the third quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2012. The Korean electronics maker on Tuesday said it capped its best year ever with another record quarterly profit, adding that it expects operating profit of $8.1 billion to $8.5 billion for the three months that ended in December.

Selling multiple new iPhone models would be something new for Apple. Under former Chief Executive Steve Jobs, Apple prided itself on prioritizing profits over scale and offered a relatively small number of products mostly targeted at the high end.

In more recent years—and especially since Tim Cook took the reins as CEO in August 2011—that has started to change. In October, Apple unveiled a smaller iPad, dubbed the iPad Mini, to go alongside its bigger iPad tablets.

Still, the company has sold only one main new iPhone model, with different storage capacities, at a time since launching the smartphone in 2007.

Today the iPhone is Apple's chief revenue driver, with sales of iPhones and related products and services accounting for 48% of revenue in the quarter ended in September. Apple has been considering a less-expensive iPhone since at least 2009, viewing it as a way to grab market share and introduce people to the brand, said people familiar with the efforts.

Before the launch of the iPhone 4 in mid-2010, the company developed designs for cheaper phones that were very similar to the iPhone at the time but had a less expensive back and sides, one of the people said. Apple tabled the idea as some executives worried a second iPhone would complicate its manufacturing processes. The company decided to keep older iPhone models on sale for less, a strategy that didn't require designing new products.

While the iPhone remains the top-selling smartphone in the U.S., Apple's share of the high-end cellphone market has taken a hit in China and remains low in other emerging markets.

The iPhone 5 without a wireless contract starts at $649 in the U.S. on Apple.com, and can cost even more overseas. That's out of reach for many customers in countries where carriers don't help cover the cost of the phone and where Android phones with similar capabilities can cost less.

In the U.S., the iPhone 5 starts at $199 with a two-year wireless contract, while older models are available for $99 or for free with a two-year contract. Apple's stock has fallen 25% since it reached an all-time closing high of $702.10 in September as investors worry competitors are gaining ground. On Tuesday, Apple's shares closed 4 p.m. trading slightly up at $525.31.

A less-expensive iPhone risks crimping the company's profit margins, which executives have been loath to sacrifice. Even small changes in margins often sway investors.

Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, said that a less expensive iPhone won't necessarily hurt Apple's overall profit margin if it attracts buyers who haven't bought iPhones before and not those who would have been willing to purchase the higher-end device. BY - JESSICA E LESSIN

          Researchers have developed new technology that will allow information, like text messages from a mobile phone, to be projected onto a contact lens worn in the human eye.

            Ghent University’s centre of microsystems technology has developed a spherical curved LCD display that can be embedded in contact lenses and handle projected images using wireless technology.

                “Now that we have established the basic technology, we can start working towards real applications, possibly available in only a few years,” the Telegraph quoted Professor Herbert De Smet as saying.

           Unlike previous contact lens displays, which are limited to a few small pixels to make up an image, the new technology allows the whole curved surface of the lens to be used.

          One application suggested by the researchers is a “one pixel, fully covered contact lens acting as adaptable sunglasses.”

          “This is not science fiction,” Jelle De Smet, the chief researcher on the project, said.

           “This will never replace the cinema screen for films. But for specific applications it may be interesting to show images such as road directions or projecting text messages from our smart phones straight to our eye,” De Smet added.

Eyes in the back of your head! French scientists claim to have developed a headset that gives you a 360-degree field of vision.

The headset captures images from every direction around the user, then transforms them into something the human vision system can comprehend.

The system called FlyVIZ was designed by Jerome Ardouin and colleagues at the Grande Ecole d'Ingenieurs Paris-Laval in France, the New Scientist reported.

The headset is at prototype stage: at 1.6 kilogrammes, it's a bit heavy to walk around with, and remains connected to a laptop for image-processing while it runs.

It uses a video camera, mounted atop a helmet, along with specially shaped mirrors to capture the environment on all sides of the user, then displays it in real time on a modified 3D Viewer headset.

The system takes about 15 minutes to get used to, its creators claim in a paper they presented at the Virtual Reality Software and Technology conference in Toronto, Canada.

Once acclimatised, the user is able to move around and interact fluidly with their environment.

In a series of trials, users grabbed sticks that would have been outside their normal field of view, dodged balls thrown from behind them, and even drove a car.

Despite the strange new perspective on the world, the device does not cause any nausea, motion sickness or visual fatigue, the team claimed.

Even though FlyVIZ acquires and displays images in 2D, users still had serviceable depth perception, which the researchers attribute to wearers intuitively tracking object motion and parallax in the image to compensate for a lack of normal binocular vision.

             On this science lesson let's focus on some interesting facts that are fun to know.

             Following is a list of some great bits of knowledge that can be useful in day to day life, or just to learn something new.

             If you already know some of these, but just forgot, this will be a good chance to brush up on that science!

 Gold in oceans

It is estimated by scientists that the oceans on Earth contain about 20 tons of gold. This gold, however, exists in small non-extractable amounts.

 Lots of saliva

The average human can make about 10,000 gallons of saliva in their lifetime. During the day, a person produces between one and three pints of it. Even just thinking about food can make us salivate!

 The amazing human body

When babies are born they have 350 bones in their bodies, but there are only 206 in an adult body. This is because some bones fuse together as the body grows.

Did you know that a baby's weight is increased about five million times on the 238 days before it is born? It also triples within the baby's first year as she gains about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds a month.

 Weird rain falling

There are parts in the Chilean Atacama Desert where rain has never, ever fallen, making it one of the driest places on Earth. Yet, in the Amazon rainforest, where 30,000 different plants and 2,500 types of trees thrive, 10 feet of rain falls every year. One third of the world's vegetation grown in the Amazon.

 Pink dolphins

There is a dolphin that lives in the Amazon river, also knows as a boto, that is pink in color. It is the only fresh water dolphin in South America, where they see it as a mythical creature revered for its ability to change into human form.

 Inca brain surgery

Using basic tools the Incas successfully performed brain surgery about 1,000 years ago. They operated without anesthesia by drilling holes in the skull of the patient. Apparently, by the amount of skulls that have been found with these trepanation holes, it was very common.

 The big Universe

It is not known how big the Universe is, but it is so vast that astronomers measure it in light years. A light year is how fast light travels in a year, and light is the fastest thing in the Universe. Light travels at 299,742,458 meters per second, or 186,000 miles per second.

 A team of 25 students of the Global Public School at Thiruvaniyur in Kochi would leave for the US in April for a 10-day visit to Florida-based Kennedy Space Centre, a unit of NASA. The trip titled ‘NASA Trek’ is the first of its kind.

The students are from Classes 7 to 10; 13 of them boys and 12 girls. They will be accompanied by two teachers. The school officials are tightlipped about NASA Trek and declined to provide details of the selected students or about their programmes. They said the details would be finalised by January.

Students are scheduled to visit the Kennedy Space Centre’ s shuttle landing facility to study the vehicle assembly building system and view the Space Shuttle launch pads at NASA.

Students will be exposed to the astronaut training experience programme, wherein they can hear first-hand from a veteran NASA astronaut and experience a space shuttle mission simulation. They can also perform hands-on space exploration activities.

Students will also get a chance to have lunch with astronauts, interact with scientists and visit the ‘Hall of Fame’, where they will experience the human side of Space, complete with the sights, sounds and experiences of famous astronauts who first ventured into the frontiers of Space.

After the programme at the Kennedy Space Centre, students will also have the opportunity to visit Universal Studios, the White House,Lincoln Memorial, Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the Space Museum, Union Station, and the World War II Memorial Building, all in Washington.

              After receiving flak for the very low-cost Aakash tablet, Datawind went ahead and won the bid for Aakash 2 as well. Surrounded by controversies and delays, the improved iteration of the original Aakash tablet has finally hit store shelves. Last month, President Pranab Mukherjee and Human Resources and Development (HRD) minister MM Pallam Raju launched the Aakash 2 tablet for students at a subsidised price of Rs. 1,130. In August, Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli had told Tech2 that the company would meet the contractual obligation of supplying 1 lakh tablets for MHRD. He had further divulged that the product is meant for the students and teachers’ training purpose only. However, as expected, the commercial version of the Aakash 2, dubbed Ubislate 7Ci, is also available at Rs. 4,499. Here's all you need to know about the Aakash 2. 
 
Specifications
Processor
The biggest thorn in the flesh for initial Aakash users was its 366MHz processor. Though Datawind later provided improved Aakash units with 700MHz processors, the user complaints did not seem to fade. The Aakash 2 shows a huge improvement here with its 1GHz Cortex A8 processor. The RAM is also double at 512MB.

Display
The touchscreen display was yet another unbelievably annoying component of the original Aakash. The resistive touchscreen was almost unresponsive and just didn't let users navigate across the device. This time around, Datawind has taken care that the display, which forms the vital factor of touchscreen tablets, is smooth enough. You will find a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen display, but the resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, same as the previous Aakash, has been maintained.

OS
The original Aakash ran on Android 2.2 Froyo and the next, slightly improved batch ran on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform. The Aakash 2 has improved on this front too; it now runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and we can only hope that Jelly Bean update will be made available.

Storage
The storage has also been spruced up for the Aakash 2 with 4GB memory. This is now twice the internal memory found in the original Aakash. The storage can be expanded further up to 32GB using the microSD card slot.

Connectivity and Camera
On the connectivity front, one will find Wi-Fi, support for VoIP calls and mini USB port. The Aakash 2 also sports a front-facing VGA camera.  

Battery
The new Aakash also addresses the low battery life issues and promises 4 hours of battery life.


Availability
Datawind will be supplying 1 lakh Aakash 2 tablets for MHRD. Apparently, these Aakash 2 tablets will be made available to engineering college students and universities for starters, and will be subsequently distributed to others. Over the past many months, IIT Bombay has developed unique and compelling applications for engineering students on the Aakash 2 platform, which include 3D-modelling, C++ programming, remote and collaborative training applications, robotic control and live assessment tools. IIT Bombay has also partnered with the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to assist with the hardware testing and logistics.

The commercial version of the Aakash 2, the Ubislate 7Ci, is now available for order and Datawind claims that the device will reach the buyer in 48 hours after the payment. The Wi-Fi plus GPRS models, namely, 7C+ and 7CZ are also available for pre-order and will begin shipping within 6-8 weeks.

Pricing
The Aakash 2 tablet for students will be made available at a subsidised price of just Rs. 1,130 while the commercial version of the Aakash 2 is priced at Rs. 4,499.