Li-Fi = 100 x Wi-Fi


Li-Fi, a super-fast alternative to Wi-Fi, is finally moving from research labs to the real world after an Estonian startup implemented the technology within a commercial context.It has begun trialing the technology within offices and industrial environments.

The Li-Fi technology is able to send data at up to 1GBps - more than 100-times faster than current Wi-Fi technologies. At these speeds, a high-definition film could be downloaded in just a few seconds.

While Li-Fi may not completely replace Wi-Fi, the technologies could be used in parallel to create more efficient networks. The success of the pilot projects could see Li-Fi technology rolled out for consumers within the next three to four years, allowing people to access the internet using the light bulbs in their home.

Before mass adoption of Li-Fi can be realised, techniques need to be developed to retrofit current devices with the technology.

The inventor of Li-Fi, Professor Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, has previously claimed that in the future every LED lightbulb could be used as an ultra-fast alternative to Wi-Fi. In a TED talk describing the technology, Haas said that current infrastructure was suitable for the integration of Li-Fi.

"All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission," Haas said. "In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we may have 14 billion Li-Fis deployed worldwide for a cleaner, greener and even brighter future."

What is Li-Fi?

Li-Fi is a wireless technology similar to Wi-Fi that allows data to be sent at high speeds using visible light communication (VLC). Invented by Professor Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, Li-Fi has several advantages over Wi-Fi.

Li-Fi allows for greater security on local networks as light cannot pass through walls, which also means there is less interference between devices. Perhaps the most significant advantage is the speed that the technology offers. Researchers have achieved speeds of 224 gigabits per second in lab conditions.

Source: IBTimes Co., Ltd. 

It's never too late to start

Self doubt has killed more dreams than failure.


Forbes looked at the life of the top 100 founders on it's most successful founders list. It shows that 35 is the most common age to start one of the top companies in the world. They excluded the companies that were inherited, and where governments were heavily involved. So does success come with a deadline? What's the best age to achieve success? BI India looks at some of the crisis periods one goes through in their life in their quest for success with some help from the guys at Funders and Founders.

'The Critical Period' - Do it Early
Musical talent is usually discovered in the first ten years of one's life. New languages cannot be learned without an accent after the critical age of 16. Most successful computer programmers started coding as children, and gifted athletes commonly celebrate their twentieth birthday as a celebrity. That can make you feel like a loser if you're 30 and can only boast of a College degree. However, that's a false impression.

The Mid-Life Crisis
In life, most people succeed mid-life. That's about 35 for the current generation. In our minds we expect major life achievements to happen around the middle age, otherwise - the mid-life crisis.

The Quarter-Life Crisis
With teenage CEOs making news headlines, one can feel like a late bloomer even at 25. Since today we expect to live longer than today's average life span of 78 years, at 25 you can reasonable think you are through a quarter of your life. This is a newer term than the good old mid-life crisis.

Late Bloomers are Not Losers
Is it better to be an early achiever or a late bloomer? For the world it does not matter. Is it too late for you at 60 to start a new company? Never.


Source: Business Insider

Google employee in San Francisco saves 90% of salary by living in a truck



A Google employee in San Francisco has decided to forgot the luxuries that come with renting a property -  such as heating, air conditioning and a bathroom - to live in a truck in the company’s car park, a move that saves him nearly 90 per cent of his income by not paying rent.

The employee, known only as Brandon, has been blogging about his experience, describing how he eats all of his meals at Google, showers every day at the company's gym, and charges up a battery in the office that helps to power his laptop and other items when he uses them inside the truck.

Brandon has been living in the 16ft truck for around five months and details in his blog how he came up with the idea. During an internship at Google last summer, Brandon spent nearly $100 (£65) a night in corporate housing, which he barely spent any time in.

“The summer starts, and I'm having an amazing time, but as I start to settle into a routine, I notice something fairly tragic: for all the money I'm spending on this apartment, I'm hardly ever there! I wake up, catch the first GBus to Google, work out, eat breakfast, work, eat lunch, work, eat dinner, hang out at Google, and eventually take a bus home, pack my gym bag for the next day, and go to sleep,” he writes.

After graduating with nearly $22,500 (£14,560) in student debt and knowing he would return to the company as a software engineer, he discovered the average cost of rent where he had wanted to live – the Mountain View area – was around $2,100. He instead decided to pay $10,000 for the truck instead.



Speaking to Business Insider, Brandon said he has already paid off a large chunk of his student loans with the money he saved on rent, and expects to be debt free within six months.

“I’m going for a target of saving about 90 per cent of my after-tax income, and throwing that in student loans and investments,” he said.

Brandon’s only financial responsibility is his monthly insurance payments for the truck, costing around $121 (£78), but he barely has any possessions – the sparsely decorated truck contains a bed, a dresser, and a self-fashioned clothes rack.

He has had one run in with the security outfit on the company’s property after parking up late one night on his return home from the cinema. But when the guards discovered Brandon was an employee, they let him go back to bed and complimented him on his “sweet set-up,” he said.

India-Pakistan border pictures shared by NASA



NASA on Sunday, 4th October 2015 shared some stunning pictures of the international border of India and Pakistan as seen from the outer space.

An astronaut from the International Space Station took photographs of the night time panorama of the border facing north across Pakistan's Indus River valley. The image is of one of the few international borders in the world which can be seen so clearly at night, especially due to the high security and several security lights across the border which have a distinct orange tint for it to stand out. 

The picture which was shared on NASA's Facebook page also shows the port city of Karachi which appears to be a bright cluster of lights in stark contrast with the black Arabian Sea.

There is another picture of the border zone between India and Pakistan as seen in daytime which was shared by NASA in 2011, The image shows the border zone looking south east from the Himalayas. 



Gi FlyBike: Electric bike that tries to include any feature bike commuters might want





As more people start to commute by bike, designers are trying to tackle the various pain points involved with riding in the city—whether that’s finding ways to help cyclists squeeze bikes on public transit, adding electric motors so riders sweat less, or preventing theft. A typical design might focus on a couple of features at a time, but the Gi Bike, a new design that just launched on Kickstarter, attempts to include every possible detail a commuter could want.

"There are no full-featured bikes on the market," says Agustín Augustinoy, the chief technology officer for Gi Bike. "If a bike folds, it has 20-inch, circus-like wheels. Electric kits look like DIY projects. No electric bike comes with lights, motor, and everything else integrated and working on the same battery with only one charging point."

The Gi Bike can fold up, so it easily goes on subway cars or elevators, and can be stored in a small closet. But when it’s in use, it looks like an ordinary full-size bicycle. Flip a lever, and in three seconds, it fully transforms into a compact folded shape that can be wheeled around like rolling luggage.

"The rest of the bike is basically made around the folding mechanism," Agustinoy explains. "For us it's the proper way to fold a bike. It's the only way you don't need to lift the bike from the ground."

For riders who live in hilly cities or have a long commute, the bike comes in an electric version that can carry someone 40 miles without pedaling. It’s also smartphone-integrated, so it can give directions and send alerts if there's construction or heavy traffic on your route. It hooks up with social media accounts in case you have the urge to auto-tweet your bike rides. The bike can even charge your phone.

Once you get wherever you're going, the bike can lock itself—both wheels and the folding mechanism lock automatically when you walk 10 feet away. Eventually, the designers hope to connect it with tracking technology as well.

To help keep riders safe, the designers added built-in front and back lights. Since their research showed that most cyclists are hit from the side, the designers also added LED lights to the sides of the front wheel. The lights automatically brighten at night.

It's a long list of features, but Agustinoy says the team thinks that each is necessary, despite the steep price (The electric version will eventually retail for $3,590 but is available on Kickstarter for slightly less). "We believe it's the perfect bike to commute to work," he says.

Source: giflybike.com

Sources say Apple car on the way in 2020




Apple is continuing its efforts to create a car, though some of the big questions around the project remain undecided.

The company is still working out whether it will make a self-driving car, an electric vehicle or a combination of the two, according to a person with knowledge of the product, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as Apple is known for its intense secretiveness. It is not unusual for Apple to work on several prototypes of a product at the same time, as it did with the iPhone and the iPad.

Other details of the car project are falling into place. Apple is committing hundreds of people to the effort, and meeting with officials of the California Department of Motor Vehicles and of a testing ground for self-driving cars, said the person with knowledge of the work. The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian previously reported on those developments. Apple is aiming to introduce some sort of car product around 2020, several people with knowledge of the project said.

Since reports that Apple, the world’s most valuable company, was working on a car surfaced in February, the auto and tech industries have closely watched any progress, because Apple could transform the car industry the same way it did the mobile phone industry. Vehicles, which are essentially turning into moving computers, could be a huge new platform for technology companies. Google and Uber are both working on self-driving vehicles.

At the Frankfurt International Motor Show this month, carmakers were obsessed with what the nonauto companies like Apple and Google might be developing. Detroit has come a long way since the financial crisis, and advanced sensor-based safety features are available on many models of cars from Ford and General Motors. But none of them have the software expertise of a company like Apple, and they do not want to be stuck manufacturing the bodies of the vehicles while another company controls the more lucrative software.

“We do not plan to become the Foxconn of Apple,” Dieter Zetsche, the chief executive of Daimler, told reporters at the auto show in Frankfurt.
Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Fiat Chrysler, has sought a relationship with Apple. This year, he met with Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, during a three-day trip to California. In an interview this spring, he called companies like Apple and Google “disrupters.” After a speech this spring, he said of the technologies they were inventing: “It’s not science fiction. They’re coming.”
Mr. Cook has sidestepped questions about a car.

Apple has about 600 employees working on the undertaking, called Project Titan, according to a person with knowledge of the project. Apple is deploying more internal resources to Titan, pulling people from other projects, like the Apple Watch, to work on it, said two people with knowledge of the plans.

Apple executives recently met with the California D.M.V., which in 2012 was tasked with promulgating self-driving car regulations. In a statement, the department said the “D.M.V. often meets with various companies regarding D.M.V. operations. The Apple meeting was to review D.M.V.’s autonomous vehicle regulations.”

Apple engineers have also met with officials from GoMentum Station in Concord, Calif., which is known as a testing ground for self-driving cars, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. The Guardian earlier obtained documents about the meeting.
Source: The New York Times Company