Samsung's Galaxy Core Advance Features Physical Buttons, Low-End Specs

Not to be confused with the 4.3-inch phone named Galaxy Core from May, the new Android device sports a dual-core, 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage memory (expandable to 64GB via microSD memory cards), a 5-megapixel camera and a 2,000 mAh battery.

Physical keys for the more-or-less standard Android functions — menu, home and back — are a detail that makes it different from most phones in the Galaxy family.

The Galaxy Core Advance is running Android 4.2 and supports Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, BT 4.0 and HSPA connectivity.

The device will come in two colors — Deep Blue and Pearl White — and it will become available early next year at a yet-undisclosed price.

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Li-Fi Revolution - Comparison Between Wi-Fi and LiFi

Li-Fi, an alternative to Wi-Fi that transmits data using the spectrum of visible light, has achieved a new breakthrough, with UK scientists reporting transmission speeds of 10Gbit/s – more than 250 times faster than ‘superfast’ broadband.

The fastest speed previously reported was 3Gbit/s, achieved earlier this year by the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Germany. Chinese researchers also claimed this month to have produced a 150Mbp/s connection, but some experts were doubtful without seeing further proof.

The term Li-Fi was coined by Edinburgh University's Prof Harald Haas during a TED talk in 2011 (see below for video) though the technology is also known as visible light communications (VLC).

Many experts claim that Li-Fi represents the future of mobile internet thanks to its reduced costs and greater efficiency compared to traditional Wi-Fi.

Comparison Between Wi-Fi and Li-Fi

Both Wi-Fi and Li-Fi transmit data over the electromagnetic spectrum, but whereas Wi-Fi utilises radio waves, Li-Fi uses visible light. This is a distinct advantage in that the visible light is far more plentiful than the radio spectrum (10,000 times more in fact) and can achieve far greater data density.

Li-Fi signals work by switching bulbs on and off incredibly quickly – too quickly to be noticed by the human eye. This most recent breakthrough builds upon this by using tiny micro-LED bulbs to stream several lines of data in parallel.

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How to Digitize Cassette Tapes - Cassette to Digital Media

by Sheeda Tali

What You’ll Need

The media 

You’ll obviously need a cassette or some variation (micro cassette, etc).  There are definitely some albums in circulation that were only ever released on cassettes, but, when possible, ripping a CD is going to produce far better results.  If you need to rip an old cassette from an answering machine or handheld recorder, this is the ideal guide for you.  Keep in mind that the more you play a tape, the more its signal is degraded.  Tapes are especially susceptible to heat, dirt, and magnetism, so get them converted while you can.

A decent playback device

Ideally, you’ll want to use a high-quality tape deck.  Those things are hard to come by nowadays, so you may have to settle for just about any cassette player you can get your hands on.  Since they’re rarely produced now, you may find an old one that has seen better days.  Just make sure that it doesn’t have any playback problems before you begin.  To test, make sure that there is no media currently in the player, plug in some head phones, and press play.  Listen for static or other strange sounds – every sound that the player makes in this process will be recorded into your digital file.  As long as you hear minimal noise (the less, the better), it should work fine.

An appropriate sound card You don’t need anything fancy, you just need to have a microphone jack on your computer.

Anything produced within the last few years should support stereo input at the same quality level as CDs. To check, navigate in Windows to:

Control Panel > Sound > Recording > Right click Microphone > Properties > Advanced:

An environment free from electrical noise – Recording cassettes is an analog process, so any interference from nearby electronics is picked up and recorded as audio.  Popping sounds and static are common in recordings that were done with their audio cable near power or RF sources.  To test the amount of noise your environment is producing, make sure there is no tape in your player, plug it into your computer, and start recording.  Listen for sounds other than the normal humming that playing a tape always produces to assess whether or not your other electronics are causing interference.

How to Start Recording

Now that you’ve got everything you need to get started, pop your cassette into the player and plug it into your computer.  Lower quality devices will require you to use the headphone jack, but better devices will be equipped with a line out jack, which is what you’ll want to use if you have it.

For line out, use a cable with two RCA jacks on one end and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the other.

If you’re using a device that only has a 3.5mm headphone jack, use a cable with the 3.5mm plug on both ends.

With your cassette player plugged into your computer, open the program you plan to use for the recording.  In this guide, we’ll be working with Audacity.  Click that link to head over to their website and download the program.  Once Audacity has been installed, open it up and adjust the following settings:

Also, turn the input volume all the way up:

With those settings configured, you can go ahead and press record.

Right after that, hit the play button on your tape player.

Now, you must wait for the duration of your tape.  If you accidentally go a bit over without pressing stop, it’s no big deal because we can cut out the excess later.  After your tape is done playing, hit the stop button and we’ll begin to process the recording.                                                                                                                                                           

You will undoubtedly have at least a couple seconds of excess noise at the beginning and end of your recording, so highlight that section (just drag your cursor across that area) and hit delete.

In the screenshot above, you can see we have a little more than a second of unnecessary noise (the time it took for us to hit play on the tape deck after we hit record in Audacity). The darker gray area is what we’ve highlighted and plan to delete.  Repeat this process for the end of your recording until you’ve gotten rid of all the excess noise.

After you’ve trimmed the excess and ensured that you got a quality recording (just hit play to hear what you’ve got), you can save the data into an audio file, such as MP3.  Just go to File > Export to be presented with all the formats that you can save your data in.

To compress your file into a reasonable size but still retain the maximum quality, select FLAC.  For maximum compatibility and more compression, while still retaining a very reasonable amount of quality, select MP3.

Once your data is exported, you can play back your file any time you want in your favourite media player (or on your phone, etc).       

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How to protect your phone in cold weather

by Sheeda Tali

Smartphones are not built for the extreme cold. But since that snowball fight didn't really happen unless you Instagrammed and tweeted it, here are some tips for using your device during the cold of this winter.

Cold Weather Touch Screen Tips

Freezing temperatures can also make a phone's glass surfaces more sensitive to cracks and breaks, especially if there's already a flaw or nick in any of the glass. There have been reports of the glass on the back of the iPhone shattering in extreme cold temperatures. In Finland, where the average high temperature in the winter is 1°C, the government Consumer Agency has warned citizens that the phones might suffer performance issues in the cold weather.

Prevent phone freeze

To keep phones from getting too chilly, don't leave them alone in the elements, like in a parked car. Stashing them inside pockets closest to your person, where they can absorb some of your body heat, is best. If you do need to leave it behind, turn the phone off instead of just putting it to sleep. Cases also help to keep phones warm. There are even cases especially built to regulate a phone's temperature in extreme situations.

Still a Kickstarter project, the dapper-looking Salt Case claims it refracts the heat given off by the device back to the phone to keep it warm in winter weather. It also adds on some additional layers of insulation. The makers say they based the technology on the thermally protective materials NASA developed for its space craft.

If you're depending on the phone to make outgoing calls in case of an emergency, say while driving on icy roads, keep a back-up power source with you.

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How to Build Your First Database With Microsoft Access

by Sheeda Tali

Create a Table to Contain Item Information

First, launch Access and choose File, New. Since you’ll be building this database from scratch, choose 

Blank database.

Table1 will appear on the screen. Click on Click to Add, and enter details for the first two fictional 

employees: Type James, press Enter to move to the next column, and

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Using VBA To Automate Internet Explorer Sessions From An Excel Spreadsheet

VBA Automation of Browser From MS Excel

Its integration with Windows allows control of Internet Explorer in a number of surprising ways using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) script from any application that supports it, such as Word, Outlook or Excel.
VBA automation – especially directly automating a browser like IE as you’ll see in this article – is exactly the sort of thing that elevates VBA from a convenient programming script into a powerful automation language. What makes it so awesome is the fact that many applications with controls or objects are created simply for the purpose of allowing you to integrate into it using the VBA programming language.
Through the years, we’ve showed you how to do some really cool stuff with VBA. For example, you can use it to send emails directly from inside Excel, you can automatically export Outlook tasks to an Excel spreadsheet, and you can even design your own Internet browser! It isn’t just Microsoft products either. There are 3rd-party applications from all sorts of vendors that have integrated VBA and compatible objects into their software – from Adobe Acrobat SDK to the ObjectARX SDK for AutoCAD – there are ways to “plug into” more applications than you probably realize.

The Idea

In this case, you’re going to connect

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Your next USB connector will be reversible

USB Connectors Will Be Thinner, Reversible

As mobile devices get increasingly slimmer, so too will their corresponding USB connectors. Even better, you won't have to flip the cable when you try to slip it in upside down. Finally.

Development for the next-generation USB connector, called the Type-C, is underway and will be thinner and sleeker than current USB 3.0 cables (pictured above), according to the USB 3.1 Promoter Group, which is made up of industry heavy hitters including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Intel.

To pack the powerful punch of the USB 3.1 standard, which can move data at 10 gigabits per second, into a smaller cable, it will closely resemble the USB 2.0 Micro-B. But it has a few advantages over existing models:

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NASA shares image of massive 'Hexagon' on Saturn

Massive Hexagon Image Shared By NASA

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided your multicolored space distraction of the day: images of a swirling, six-sided weather feature on the surface of Saturn.Scientists say 

the "Hexagon," the formation's working title at NASA, is unlike anything they've seen elsewhere. They say the feature is "turbulent and unstable," packing 200-mph winds

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Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week

Top Trending Topics on Twitter

It was an interesting week in the Twitter verse, with top topics spread out over a wide gamut of news, cultures and countries. The protests in Egypt took the top slot, of course, with each day yielding new developments about the country's political unrest. Social media's role in the protests also fueled the Twitter discussion.

A few developments in the world of soccer kept the sport in its usual location, hovering near the top of the trends chart. This week it comes in at number two.

And word of Britney Spears' new album and music video brought her name back into the Twitter zeitgeist. The buzz landed the pop singer at number three.

For the full list of top trends, check out the chart below, compiled by our friends at What the Trend. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart.

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