Aiming to undercut Apple's latest hit service, Google is teaming up with three major US wireless carriers to prod more people into using its mobile wallet.

The counterattack announced on Monday is just the latest example of how the competition between Google Inc. and Apple Inc. is extending beyond the technology industry's traditional boundaries. Besides payments, Silicon Valley's two richest companies are expanding into fields such as home appliances and cars to increase their power and profits.

Google's latest volley calls for its payment service to be built into Android smartphones sold by AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA later this year. Smartphone owners currently have to download the service, called Google Wallet, and install the app on their phone if they want to use it to buy something instead of pulling out cash or a credit card.

Apple's ricval service, Apple Pay, already comes embedded in the latest versions of the company's mobile software.

Besides trying to make it more convenient to use Wallet, Google also is hoping to improve the nearly 4-year-old service. Toward that end, Google Inc. is buying some mobile payment technology and patents from Softcard, a 5-year-old venture owned by the wireless carriers. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Although Google and the wireless carriers got a head start with their digital wallets, the concept hadn't gained much traction until Apple Pay debuted last fall.

The service has become more popular than Apple expected, according to a recent presentation by CEO Tim Cook.

Just three months after Apple Pay's November debut, Cook said the service accounted for two out of every three dollars spent across the three major US card networks, when no card was used. About 2,000 banks and credit unions have agreed to offer Apple Pay to its customers. Apple hasn't said how many merchants are set up to handle its mobile payment services.

If Apple builds on that early momentum, the Cupertino, California, company could become the leader in what is expected to be a booming market. Nearly 16 million US consumers spent about $3.5 billion on tap-and-pay services last year, according to the research firm eMarketer. By 2018, eMarketer predicts those figures will rise to 57 million US consumers spending about $118 billion.

Companies that provide mobile wallets make money by collecting processing fees from merchants and banks.

Samsung Electronics, another major smartphone maker, may be ready to join the fray after buying a mobile payment startup called LoopPay. That deal, announced last week, fueled speculation that Samsung will include a digital wallet on its next phone.

Apple Pay's popularity probably helped forge the unlikely alliance between Google and the wireless carriers. Google traditionally has had a prickly relationship with the carriers, largely because it doesn't believe enough has been done to upgrade wireless networks and make them cheaper so more people can spend more time online. Media reports say Google is considering selling its own wireless plans to consumers.

The pre-installation of the Wallet app is similar to what Google already does with its search engine, Gmail and YouTube on millions of other phones running on Android -- an operating system that Google has been giving away for years to ensure people keep using its products on mobile devices. Google profits from the traffic by showing ads.

A shape-changing, snake-like robot is ready for probing the molten radioactive fuel containers in the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan. Three nuclear reactors in the stricken plant suffered catastrophic fuel meltdowns in March 2011 after getting hammered by an earthquake and tsunami.

The highly radioactive fuel melted and broke through the containment vessel in at least one of the reactors. Radioactivity is immensely high in the reactors and it is impossible for humans to enter even with protective gear.

The clean-up and decommissioning of the nuclear plant is likely to take 40 years and cost over $15 billion.

The 60-centimeter (2-foot) long robot has been developed by the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, an organization made up of electric power companies and nuclear power plant manufacturers, with a government subsidy. It was demonstrated this week at a facility northeast of Tokyo. It is expected to enter the Unit 1 reactor this spring.

The robot is tubular and it is designed to go through a 10 centimeter wide electrical wiring pipe in order to enter the containment chamber. Emerging from the pipe, it will dangle down and reach a platform near the reactor core's bottom layer.

Changing shape to become U-shaped, the robot will take pictures and measure radioactivity and temperature for transmitting to the control station outside.

"Depending on how much data we can collect from this area, I believe (the probe) will give us a clearer vision for future decommissioning," Hitachi-GE engineer Yoshitomo Takahashi said, according to Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun. Through computer simulations scientists think that the fuel rods in Unit 1 reactor "probably melted and fell to the bottom of the containment chamber" Asahi Shimbun said.

In 2012, technicians tried to insert a fiberscope to find out the situation but images were of no use. Several other attempts to send in robots have been made in the past four years but with very limited success. The first to be tried were were the US-made PackBot and Warrior robots. Then, in the summer of 2011, the Japanese made Quince bots surveyed the reactor buildings. One was sent inside Unit 2 but it got entangled in its own cable and is still sitting there.

In order to assess debris on the bottom and submerged underwater, an amphibious robot is being developed for deployment next year.

Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia Networks said that it will showcase the possibilities of mobile connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT) with 5G at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2015.

The live demonstrations will include 5G radio equipment on new millimeter and centimeter wave bands for utmost capacity as well as new frame structures to achieve single-digit millisecond latency.

"Within the next ten years, we will see 50 billion things connected, enabling industries to become more efficient and helping people to improve their daily lives. At Nokia Networks, we are already demonstrating key technologies like 5G that will make mobile networks the natural choice for bringing these possibilities to reality," Kathrin Buvac, vice president, Strategy, Nokia Networks, said in a statement.

Mars rovers: Shortlist of 100 applicants for the one-way trip to the Red Planet to be announced

Some have said it’s a pie-in-the-sky idea, but it’s not: it’s a pie-on-Mars idea. And, for the moment at least, it is beyond Nasa’s reach.

First there were 200,000 people who wanted to give up life on Earth and travel to Mars – and not return. They included doctors, lawyers, students and, of course, scientists. Yesterday, they were being whittled down to a shortlist of 100, to be announced on Monday. Just 24 of them will get to leave Earth.

The name of the organisation that could be the first to put humans on the Red Planet is Mars One – as in “one-way”. It will launch people into space, land them on Mars and attempt to keep them alive for the length of their natural lives – but it won’t be bringing them back.

The critics of Mars One number almost as many as those willing to die on the red planet. “There are so many unknowns with this mission, and so many possible ways the whole endeavour could fall apart,” wrote Amy Shira Teitel in Physics Focus when the mission was announced.

“It will be an interesting mission to follow, but I suspect it will be another in the growing list of old and abandoned Mars plans that have been forgotten by everyone save a handful of historians.”

The project was dreamt up by Bas Lansdorp, a Dutch entrepreneur, who says he has “never been one to let bold ventures intimidate him”. Arno Wielders, the project’s chief technical officer, has been involved in space telescopes and ozone-monitoring projects since gaining an MSc in physics at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1997. But the prospect of sending crews to Mars has defeated the brightest minds in the world. It has also defeated governments with the deepest pockets on Earth.

Explaining how the seemingly unachievable could be achieved, Mars One says: “Much of what was learned from Skylab, Mir and the International Space Station has resulted in vital data, experiences with systems and related know-how – all of which are applicable to living on Mars.”

True, perhaps, but there is still the matter of transporting crews of four to Mars – a journey of at least 33 million miles (the planet’s maximum separation from Earth is 249 million miles). Then they will have to be landed safely, and resources found to keep them alive.

First, though, the two dozen candidates, broken into six teams of four people, will spend nine years training and preparing, while competing against each other to determine which group will leave for Mars first. To help fund the estimated £4bn trip (so far only £500,000 has been raised), their experiences will be broadcast in a new reality television show.

Sixty-three of the remaining hopefuls have PhDs, and 12 are doctors. They include lawyers, pilots, veterans and businessmen. They come from all over the world. The youngest is 18, the oldest 71.

Among the 36 Britons is Ryan MacDonald, 20, a physics student at Oxford University. “By going to Mars I suspect I could accomplish much more for science than I could as one of seven billion people on Earth,” he told ITV last month.

Maggie Lieu, 24, from Coventry, told BBC’s Newsbeat yesterday that she was unconcerned about leaving her friends and family for good. “It’s true I’ll never be able to see [them] ever again in person, but I’ll be able to see their pictures, I’ll still have access to the internet.”

She added: “I’m very open to having a baby on Mars. I think it would be really exciting to be the mother of the first ever baby born there. My baby could be the first ever Martian: we’d be the Adam and Eve of Mars.”

Nasa has no public plans to attempt a human landing on Mars until the 2030s, and it will only be sending experienced astronauts. Mars One, by contrast, is happy to train non-astronauts.

By 2018 a communication satellite will have been launched into Mars’ orbit, Mars One says. Two years later a rover will be launched, and in 2022 cargo will the sent to Mars for the crew to live in. The first crew will land in 2025 and a second a year later. Who the members of that crew will be will become clearer next week.

FACEBOOK BUG THAT EARNED 12500 DOLLARS

© Provided by The Verge

This week, a researcher named Laxman Muthiyah discovered up a bug that let him delete any photo album on Facebook, and walked away with $12,500 for his trouble. The bug targeted Facebook's Graph API, which lets users delete their own photo albums with a single command, corresponding to the "delete album" button. Because of a mistake on Facebook's part, that request could potentially target any album on the network, as long as the user was logged in through the mobile version of the API. After some troubleshooting, Muthiyah settled on the following request as the silver bullet for deleting any album off the network:

Request :-
DELETE /518171421550249 HTTP/1.1
Host : graph.facebook.com 
Content-Length: 245
access_token= facebook_for_android_access_token

Muthiyah reported the vulnerability to Facebook and the company wrote back in just two hours, saying the bug was fixed and offering him $12,500 through Facebook's bug bounty program. Presumably, the fix was simple — altering the mobile app permissions was likely enough — but it's a reminder of how much damage even a small bug can do. Sophos has already speculated that the bug could have been used to delete every photo on Facebook, provided the attackers used a botnet to get around any rate-limiting provisions. Luckily, Muthiyah did the right thing and reported the bug, walking away with a sizable reward.

5 reasons why Android Wear has not been a success.

When Google announced Android Wear, it was highly expected that Google will be able to replicate Android's mobile success and take it forward with the wearables. But it seems like the plans have not gone according to their expectations. 

Recent report on wearable market via Canalys has deemed Motorola Moto 360 as the best-selling Android Wear (AW) in the market. Which hardly comes as surprise, considering Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony and Asus are the only brands to announce their respective wearable watch last year? 

Overall, wearable business has done well with 4.6 million units sold but the fact that only 720,000 of those were running on AW is a sight of concern for Google and its wearable team. So, when AW has the most competent product in the form of Moto 360, why hasn't the supporting wearable platform been accepted by consumers across the globe? The fact that 4.6 million wearables sold is an exciting reading to gauge but how many of those actually constitute under the smartwatch segment? And that is exactly the reason behind AW holding less than one-fifth of total wearables sold last year. 

Here are some cases to consider for Android Wear's poor showing: 

Too early into the space
Last year was seen as the birth of a new form factor and how technology was getting closer to us, day-by-day. Android Wear was supposed to enable wearables to become unified under one platform (like how mobile has become) but that hasn't proven to be the case. Taking Google's heed, Apple smartly decided to weather the initial storm and bring out Apple Watch for the public, after reading the market's traction. 



Wearables need to evolve
As you can see with the numbers, fitness band seems to have been the primary benefactors of this segment. The likes of FitBit, Jawbone etc. have rallied as they are more affordable than smartwatch (running AW). Watches right now are, not functionally worthy of its value, or too similar to fitness bands in lot of aspects. 

It's not the hardware but software
While Android isn't the reason behind many manufacturer's hardware fall but same cannot be said for its wearable cousin. Lot of issues crept up with the first version of AW and similar pattern has been observed with the newer version as well. Google has to find the right formula between software and hardware to get the platform up and running, otherwise Apple might have a bigger say in 2015 with its much delayed Apple Watch (running on iOS). Brands have gotten tired with AW and they've started (or already made) software for wearables on their own. 

Too much happening
Wearables were introduced purely to ease the use of your phone and offer you convenience of communicating without having to hold your device in your hand. But by adding apps, virtual keyboard, fitness and music among others, Google has somewhat lost the true essence of having a unified wearable platform. AW needs clarity, simplicity and effective functionality, all principles that the search giant preaches wholeheartedly. 

And yes, the battery
Talking about AW doesn't end without referring to its maligned battery life support. Yes, with Lollipop version, things have marginally improved but wearables are meant to last (at least) for couple of days if not more but with AW (as seen on Moto 360), its case of charging once (or twice) in a day. And for its worth, you won't really bother paying anywhere close to Rs 10,000 for such a product, let along Rs 18,000 (price of Moto 360 in India). 

In the end all we'd like to say is, 'dear Google we need the AW to become with wearable, just like how Android teams up with mobile seamlessly'. And before Apple manages to steal your thunder, we fully expect you to find the right balance with Android Wear (hopefully at Google I/O 2015).

12 Lesser-Known Google Projects That Are Absolutely Amazing

Explore some of the lesser-known creative projects from Google that are also excellent educational tools.

Google revolutionized the Internet by making the global brain easily searchable by anyone. In addition to search, Google has created all kinds of different tools like Google Maps, Gmail, Analytics, Android and Apps that many of us use everyday.

One of the reasons why Google has consistently released new innovative project is because of their 20% time policy, which gives many of their employees one day a week to experiment with new concepts and ideas. This has resulted in many lesser-known creative projects that have emerged from within Googleplex.

In this post, I want to show you some of most fascinating websites that Google employees have created and how you can use them as educational tools.

1. Google Trends Visualizer

Tap into the visual intelligence of the global brain by visualizing search trends as they are happening right now in every country in the world. I recommend downloading the free Google Trends Visualizer screensaver so you can observe real-time trends anytime.

2. World Wonders Project

Explore the ancient and modern wonders of the world like Angor Wat, the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge and the Great Barrier Reef in high-res photos and 3D Street View style imagery. It will surely inspire you to learn more about these mysterious and beautiful places.

3. Solve For X

Solve For A is a platform for discussing radical technology ideas for solving global problems. Inspired by Google X, this website will challenge you to think bigger and to speculate about technological “moonshots” that could change the world for the better.

4. Google Public Data Explorer

Search through databases from around the world, including the World Bank, OECD, Eurostat and the U.S. Census Bureau. After you find what you want, filter through categories to make graphs with the axes you want.

5. The Evolution of the Web

Explore the evolution of the technologies that power the World Wide Web. You can even look at how webpages and technologies like web browsers used to look like, if you want to be reminded of how far we have come in such a short time.

6. Ingress

Google’s intriguing augmented reality mobile game for iPhone and Android. Discover interesting places where you live in this urban exploration game.

7. Google Sky

I’m sure you’ve explored Google Earth, but did you know that you can fly through space with Google Sky? In addition to exploring our solar system and distant constellations, you can also check out the awe-inspiring topography of Google Moon and Google Mars.

8. Build LEGO With Chrome

Now you can build with LEGO bricks using Google Maps as your baseplate in Chrome. Google and LEGO have built an excellent creative academy that shows you how to build your own LEGO cities and LEGO-fied versions of popular landmarks.

9. Google Art Project

Browse super his-res photos of artwork from over 400 of the world’s greatest art museums. You can take virtual gallery tours with audio and video guidance, zoom in on individual artwork masterpieces and even create your own virtual collections.

10. Creative Sandbox Guide

Google’s Creative Sandbox is a guide to ideas that blend creativity with technology. It shows you how to use new technology to solve problems for businesses and organizations and ties together with their excellent educational resources Think With Google and Our Mobile Planet.

11. Google Earth Flight Simulator

I’m sure you’ve probably already heard of Google Earth but if you haven’t used it in the last year, you’ll be amazed at the 3D detail in the latest version. Zoom in on the 3D ridgelines of mountaintops and between skyscrapers in major cities. To activate the awesome flight simulator download Google Earth and and press CTRL + Option + A.

12. SmartyPins

Google has recently released a new Maps game called SmartyPins for geographic trivia. It’s a fun way to explore and learn about your community.