Since the 1950s, silicon has been the basis for our integrated circuits. The changes in component density since then have been staggering, with your smartphone now more powerful than the early supercomputers. Current chips can cram over 10 million transistors into a square millimetre, and these can be scaled in 3D, giving us the storage solutions we have today. The problem for some applications is that silicon is quite rigid, and while it is not going away anytime soon, some applications want processors to be bendy.
Enter engineers from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria, who have announced their molybdenum disulphide semiconductor, a 2D construction that can be printed on plastic and placed in, say, a clothing item. The technology is not a replacement for silicon but complementary. There are also some potential issues to resolve like how to make them with minimal impact to current fabrication processes that cost billions of dollars to set up.
We have all been there -- well, some of us, at least -- away from home with no computer and in need of something from our computer at home. If you have your smartphone or tablet at hand, there are solutions, and some of them work no matter what kind of phone you have. Chrome remote Desktop is an extension to the popular Chrome browser, and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS. You will need to be a Chrome user, of course, and install the extension. You can search for a complete how to guide on setting this up and operating using your browser. The other popular option is TeamViewer, which also supports most platforms, and unlike the Chrome option allows file transfers. You will need a Google Drive or to email yourself the files when using the Chrome.
In the past, I have written about crazy patent claims, in particular patent trolls, that exist to make money from anyone apparently using a technology they have bought the patent for. There is an organisation called the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org), that issues a Stupid Patent of the Month award. One recent recipient was Global Equity Management (SA) (Gemsa), located in Australia, which tried to sue the EFF, an American non-profit. Gemsa is now facing a countersuit in the US, where freedom of speech rights do exist, unlike in Australia. Gemsa has also painted a sign on itself that may as well read "Patent Troll", and may also have finally awakened the US court system to what some call runaway patent litigation.
The verdict is in: Samsung S8's personal assistant Bixby is terrible. The advertised voice elements are not yet present but presumably will ship later in the year, perhaps. The dedicated button is too easy to hit by mistake, and the ability to customise what pops up when you press the Bixby was removed at the last minute. This makes it Apple-like, as what you get is what Samsung decides it should be. All in all, existing apps do a lot better job of what Bixby is supposed to be doing for you as the user, and it has earned the unofficial nickname Shixby.
The Russian antitrust case against Google has been settled, and the result is that the Android OS will be fully open in Russia. Google forces most handset makers to put its own search engine as the primary one on any Android device, but in Russia they will no longer be able to do that, including on the default home screen. There is a similar case in progress in Europe.
If you are a Microsoft phone user, then you may well be wondering why the new authentication method for logging into its online accounts, recently introduced by Microsoft, does not work for Windows Phone. For others, it is an improvement over the older approach, because it will block many hacking methods to get into your accounts. Apparently, there are too few people using the Windows Phone operating system for Redmond to implement it for them.
It's official, according to a UK government survey: phishing and ransomware remain the most pressing security threats for UK businesses. Post readers of course will already know that.
Researchers from Princeton and Stanford University claim that their ad blocker, seen in concept form for Chrome users as the Perceptual Ad Highlighter, is the last word in ad-blocking, or to use the current favourite phrase Moab, mother of all ad-blockers. They also claim their approach is future proof. This last claim is akin to claims that antivirus software is future proof, something the past has shown to be incorrect. I suspect the clever people in marketing will come up with a variety of workarounds.
Finally for this week: is there nothing scientists can't do? Researchers collaborating from a few universities have demonstrated negative mass. But don't expect to be able to put it in your pockets to become lighter, as it's a quantum thing.
A note to readers. Yes, there was no article last week, as this column has been changed by the newspaper to bi-weekly.
James Hein is an IT professional of over 30 years' standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.