Planet discovered which orbits around two stars

There has been controversies since long about the existence of circumbinary planets, one which orbits two stars. Ending all such controversies, NASA has found Kepler-16b (named as it is searched by Kepler space telescope). Kepler-16b is around 200 light-years from Earth and it is orbiting two stars.

According to NASA, previous research did hint at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation remained mysterious until the Kepler mission’s latest discovery. The newly found circumbinary planet is likened to the fictional inhabited planet called Tatooine, which was portrayed as having two sunsets in the "Star Wars" series.

The newly discovered planet is not thought to harbor life. It is an an inhospitable, cold world about the size of Saturn and thought to be made up of about half rock and half gas. Kepler-16b is comparable to Saturn in both mass and size and orbits around both the stars in 229 days. The two stars which Kepler-16b orbits are said to be smaller and cooler than our sun and 20 and 69 percent as massive as the sun.

Kepler Telescope is used to search for earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface.

Thermal imaging technology to detect liars

After the earlier lie detectors, this time a research lab in UK has come up with a device running on thermal imaging technology to catch liars. The technology is developed by the University of Bradford in the north of England and it is still at an early stage but have, so far, yielded some promising results.

It uses a thermal imaging camera which captures variations in facial temperature in response to questioning. Whenever someone answers a lie the brain activity changes and this rises the facial temperature. Most sensitive areas are areas around the eye - the periorbital, and the cheeks where temperature rise can be easily detected. The thermal imaging camera tracks facial gestures frame-by-frame which are analyzed using Facial Action Units, a system for categorizing facial expression.

While testing the device, total 30-40 subjects were tested and the success rate was 2 out of 3. Surely its in a very early stage and mush of the work is yet to be done but researchers are sure that the device can find real world applications

This technology after optimization and successful trial runs can be implemented in various day to day operation for examples in airports and railway stations for security reasons, in interrogation units and various other such places.

Google to help out Intel in smartphones

Intel, which has always been dominating the computer market, has struggled consistently on its another sector - smartphone. In order to break into the smartphone market, Intel has taken another move with getting helping hands from Google and now Google will be designing Android for Intel chips now.

Android is already established as a number one smartphone operation system worldwide. As per Google Executives, The next version of Android for phones and tablets, called Ice-Cream Sandwich, will debut next month or in November this year.

The partnership will aid Intel in delivering on its promise to finally release smartphones with its technologies by the middle of 2012. On the other hand, Google may benefit from accommodating a company that has significant influence in computers, which is the market Google is struggling to break into with its Chromebook project. The two companies already collaborate on that laptop operating system.

There is no such declaration as which chip will power upcoming Android phones or which manufacturers have agreed to make devices for it. For now, as we know, most smartphones and tablets use chips designed by ARM Holdings, which are popular for their efficiency. But one thing is clear that this collaboration is going to boost both the companies in their future in two different dimensions.

Google launched new flight search service this tuesday

The search giant Google has covered another major sector in the search world with its new launch this Tuesday - Flight Search. This new launch has put Google into direct competition with other popular travel sites like Orbitz and Kayak..

For the timing, this service is restricted to only round-trip economy-class flights between certain U.S. cities, but it will be expanded very soon covering various countries and all classes. So if you are a US citizen, you can try Google Flights by just searching for "flights from New York to Chicago". This will get you a "Flights" link on the left side of Google's search page. Google Flights can also be accessed directly on http://www.google.com/flights/.

It displays a shortlist of flights based on cost and total travel time, including various departure times and airlines. Filters are set for "reasonable" price and duration, but users can manipulate them to show more flights. Taking care of the existing competition in the market and leaving all rivals behind, Google has embedded an innovative feature called open-ended destination: Users can click the Flight Search map and use filters to see where they can go within certain time and cash boundaries. For example, a San Francisco flyer can check where he can visit within 3 hours for less than $300. Moreover, the selection of flights shown is not influenced by any paid relationships with the airlines.

Google's mission for the flight search started  a year back in July 2010 when Google intend to purchase ITA, the world's largest airline search software company. for $700 million. It was a controversial purchase as right after Google announced its intent to buy ITA, travel search players raised concerns about search behemoth Google having unfettered access to valuable flight data. Consequently, Kayak, with backing from Expedia.com, offered to buy ITA to prevent Google from purchasing it. Finally, in April this year, the Department of Justice said Google could buy ITA only if the search giant accepts certain restrictions to avoid a monopoly. But even with these conditions, Google's entry into the travel search space is a blow to rivals.

New gesture based browser for iPad

The creator of popular browser Dolphin for both Android and iPhone, MoboTap, has recently come out with a new innovative browser for iPad.

The browser application unleashed by MoboTap is Dolphin Browser HD. It has all gesture control features that have made it a hit on the Android platform. For example, drawing a "<" will take you back a page, and drawing a ">" will take you forward. Apart from these gestures, users can also create their own gestures and shortcuts to access their favorite websites or launch browser commands. For example G for Google and F for Facebook and so on.

In addition to these exciting features, the iPad app also includes Webzine, the browser's Flip-board-style system for reading web content, tabbing browsing, a URL bar that predicts what website you're going to type, and a speed dial for accessing favorite websites with a quick tap. Users can access their bookmarks by swiping from left-to-right or their open tabs by swiping right-to-left.

Talking about technology, just like its iPhone counterpart, Dolphin Browser for the iPad is also built on top of Safari. It is fast and the gesture commands are intuitive for the touchscreen browser. We could see a lot of people removing the Safari App from their App Trays and replacing it with Dolphin.