Sodium- ion Batteries Could Make Your Smartphone Cheaper and Cleaner

New Sodium- ion Batteries Could Make Your Smartphone Cheaper and  could be the next to Power up Your Phone!

Researchers have recently found an alternative to powering up a phone or any other mobile device for that matter and it has something to so with the salt we use in our food. Yes you read right! Salt! Sodium which is a found in salt can be used in making the next generation battery. This Sodium- ion Batteries are much cheaper as sodium is abundantly found, and much cleaner than lithium-ion batteries that contribute to a lot of pollution.

So the next mobile you buy could be a lot cheaper than you imagine.  This sodium- ion battery was discovered by Chongwu Zhou, a professor at USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Salt or sodium which is found in abundance, could mean that scientists could literally walk up to the ocean and get the next best thing or maybe the first best thing to juice up our phones.

Current practice and where does Sodium- ion Batteries Could Make Your Smartphone Cheaper and Cleaner figure in:

Currently, our phones or other devices are being powered up by lithium ion batteries. Lithium causes a lot of pollution and has to be mined from the earth to be got, this makes it a very expensive component in a battery.

Sodium on the other hand is much cleaner than lithium and can be got easily as compared to lithium which makes it a much more viable option than current practice.

As for charging speeds, sodium- ion can charge up to 50% in just two minutes. But scientists are not satisfied yet, they are planning on boosting up charging efficiency and the life of these sodium ion batteries, before bring out sodium- ion batteries to the world.

Problems of using sodium- ion batteries:

In our current batteries lithium ions are stored in graphite- a soft mineral of carbon, but this causes problems for sodium- ions. Sodium – ions cannot be stored in graphite as they are too big.

The Solution to using Sodium- ion Batteries:

Instead of storing sodium- ions in graphite, researchers thought of another method that would be equally feasible. They decided to arrange red phosphorous on sheets of graphene- which is a layer of honeycombed carbon atoms which is the strongest material ever discovered.

The result, Wavy sheets of something known as “nanodots”. These nanodots can store and also release sodium- ions thus helping scientists bring sodium- ion batteries closer to reality.

Red Phosphorus as an anode in sodium- ion batteries:

Using red phosphorus as an anode in sodium- ion batteries means that it has a high capacity which is theoretically 2596 mAh/g. But using red phosphorus as an anode in a sodium- ion battery means that sodiation and desodiation in a sodium-ion battery causes large volume expansion and also another factor is that it has low electronic conductance.

So to solve the challenges of using red phosphorous as an anode, researchers have used red phosphorus with reduced graphene oxide sheets to make an anode for sodium- ion batteries.

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What is the Best Laptop in 2018

Best Laptop of 2018 So Far!

Looking out for a laptop in today’s market is no easy task. There’s a lot to choose from whether it be hybrid models, touchscreens and more. Knowing what is the best for you can be very difficult but here’s our list of best laptop for 2018 to get you going. Whether you’re a gamer or a professional or you simply would like to use your laptop for something else, we have a variety of best laptop to meet your every need.Today’s laptop has to do it all. There are a lot of good laptops in the market and very few features to tell them apart. So focusing on those features and what will be good for you here’s our list of best laptops for 2018 so far!

Starting of the list with Best Laptop: Numero one Dell XPS 13—

Combine fast processing with a cool exterior and you have Dell XPS 13. The Dell XPS 13 features 8^th generation processors along with solid state drives and up to 16 GB of RAM. As for the look of the laptop, it has a metallic finish with a white fiberglass interior.

The design looks premium and feels premium. Another feature of this sleek design is the InfinityEdge Bezel. This laptop has a bezel of only a quarter of an inch surrounding its screen. The keyboard is easy to use and the touch pad is as large as any of the competitors so there’s really nothing to complain about. Apart from all these niceties, this laptop has its web cam below rather than above the screen due to the quarter inch bezels. This laptop on the best laptop list will cost you above $1000.

Another best Laptop on the List- Macbook Pro 13 inch:

So what do you get for paying Apple’s premium on a laptop- well you get MacOS of course and Apple’s great quality to go with it.

To add to this you get 7^th generation core processors with not only this laptop but with all macbook pros. So if you’re wondering why to pay a premium for Apple products when there are just as best laptop out there? The answer is simple if you’re not really that taken up with Apple and its OS then their customer service will definitely make the decision of choosing a laptop for you.

Their service includes hardware others might refuse to guarantee and you can go to any Apple store to get your laptop looked at. While all this may still not appeal to you, Apple’s reputation and the quality of their goods will definitely ensure you a longer lasting laptop. So in a way it may be worth the extra price tag. This laptop will set you back around $1300.

Only the Best Laptop for this List- Samsung Chromebook Pro:

This one is for those looking for basic functionality, this laptop on the best laptop list combines a budget buy with Google’s reliable Chrome OS.

The Samsung Chromebook Pro has 2,560 by 1,600 display and an intel core M processor to power it up and to add to that its got tons of memory to go along with it.

Google’s Chrome OS is simple and fast to understand. Before Chrome OS was used to run only web apps and extensions but it now includes everything you can find in the Google Play Store. So now you get all that is there on your phone on your laptop as well. You can get this budget friendly laptop anywhere above $600.

Another on the best budget buy laptop list- ASUS Zenbook UX33OUA:

This ultrabook is a powerful laptop that may not be a Dell XPS 13 but is still a really good buy. The base model comes with an 8^th generation intel core i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM with 256 GB worth of solid state drive. This budget friendly laptop also comes with great battery life to go along with it.

This laptop will cost you $750 to get your hands on it.

A 2 in 1 Laptop for this list- Surface Pro:

Not so sure about a laptop cum tablet kind of thing then the surface pro is the one to bring you over to the hybrid side. It’ got all you look out for in a laptop fast processing, its light weight, stylish and functions as a tablet as well.

You can tote this thing around without the extra weight of the keyboard too. It has windows 10 and does everything a best laptop is supposed to do. Clocking in at just 1.73 pounds and only .33 inches thick this laptop is the one for anyone. It comes in a student version too. But no matter what version you pick you get the 7^th generation Kaby lake processor to go with this laptop. This laptop on the best laptop list will cost you above $800.

This one is for the gamers out there- Alienware 17 R5:

Alienware is known as the laptop makers for gamers and this one is no different too. Being one of the first laptops to come with a 6 core intel core i9 processor and also a Nividia GTX 1080 graphics card with 32 GB worth of RAM this laptop screams power and more.

With this amount of power you can run anything at any resolution without having any problems whatsoever. The display has 1440p with a refresh rate of 120Hz so gaming on this laptop is smooth sailing. As for design, Alienware never gets it wrong. This laptop may come in at the pricier side of things starting at $1500.

Hopefully this list of best laptop has given you clue or maybe more on what laptop to get whether it is for gaming or for a normal days work at the office or maybe simply for lying down watching YouTube videos all day. Coming in at a variety of price ranges these were our top picks for the year 2018.

 

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Can Keep Data Fresh for Wireless Networks With New Algorithm

Keeping Data Fresh with new form of Wireless Networks

Today’s day and age requires information to be transferred not only fast but also that the data should be the most current or the most freshest that is out there and often this does not happen. In order to avoid overloading wireless networks every bit of data does not get transferred on time and that means what you end up viewing may not be the most- freshest or most updated data that is out there.

It is not the question of how fast data can be transmitted in the wireless networks but that the data being transmitted over wireless networks do not get transmitted as often meaning that you are not seeing the most current version of data that is there. Take for example a car and it’s sensors, now it does not take much time for the sensors within the car to transmit data to a central processor but the age of that data will not only depend on the speed at which that data is being transmitted across channels but also on the frequency with which that data is being sent by the sensors.

How to keep information fresh on a wireless networks?

The question then arises as to how to increase the frequency of data being transferred to a central processing unit without completely overwhelming the network?

Engineers at MIT seem to have come up with an answer to this question. At present researchers at MIT say that they can apply their system to a simple wireless networks but hope that in the future they will be able to apply their findings to a much complex wireless network.

The process of keeping data fresh in a wireless networks:

In the course of their research, engineers at MIT made a simple network consisting of a central control station that would receive information from multiple nodes or in their case drones.

Using the assumption that only one node or drone could transmit data at any given time, researchers then began to decide which drone should send data at which time.

This question was answered by the team coming up with an algorithm, which calculated an index for each node, which in turn took into account factors such as the age of data, the reliability of the channel relaying information and the overall importance of that node in the wireless networks.

Nodes that are more reliable and faster are given a higher index as compared to nodes of lesser reliability and which are slower. But the index assigned to each node is not a fixed factor, this index keeps on changing and at any given time the node with the highest index relays data first.

The research team calculated a bound rate- the average age of information in a wireless network, which is the least time that has ever been achieved by any of the wireless networks elsewhere.

The researchers found that their data came very close to this bound rate and gave the freshest data possible as compared to any wireless networks that is out there.

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Oculus Go is the first VR gadget you might actually buy

Give serious thought to VR and buy first true VR gadget from Facebook called Oculus Go

The age of virtual reality has finally arrived. The virtual reality platform has grown by leaps and bounds in less than a decade and we had seen almost every other tech firm or consumers electronic manufacturer coming up with its own version of virtual reality headset. So far the most advanced and dominant offering in this field has the Hololens from Microsoft but Facebook has taken the crown from by unveiling the Oculus Go.

How VR goggles has evolved?

VR tech for the home use has made it to the consumer market quite early. Just two years we had $600 worth of goggles being placed on the face with a cable running down right to a computer to enjoy the newfound VR environs. Then came the cardboard box based VR goggles which simply required your premium smartphone to be placed in the holder to enjoy the VR like output.

And finally it came to the consoles with the launch of the PlayStation 4 VR which simply changed the game for better.All of these invention or unique products have helped in making the VR gadgets better and creating niche segment for it in the overcrowded consumer electronics market. Facebook’s latest VR headset Oculus Go is primed take a good shot at this market as well.

Oculus Go is affordable, trendy and desirable

Facebook has spent a quality to develop its every own VR headset even when the competitors were aggressively churning out their own versions with each passing year. But the headset designed by Facebook is simply way above the competition and it offers such cool features and functionality for the price that other will find it difficult to provide.

The best thing about the Oculus Go is that it doesn’t have any kind of cables. It’s cable free and extremely easy to use. It is compatible with iPhone, Android, Mac or any other PC. And it comes at a price of just $200 which acts as an icing on the cake. Oculus Go is designed for everything extraordinary.

You can play games or watch TV shows or movies with friends living continents apart with ease. It can also act a cosy private theatre on the long flights. Facebook has been kind enough to make it so immersive that you don’t need to bother about the fellow passengers and just enjoy your visual treat in air.

Oculus Go is for everyone

Oculus Go allows you the opportunity to teleport to new exciting places and explores things unimaginable. However in order to bring an affordable VR headset in the market Facebook did have to cut some corners and this can be felt in the VR experience which happens to be less sophisticated that it earlier counterparts. But the good thing about Oculus Go is that being affordable makes it better accessible to millions of prospective customer who aren’t super rich or being into this kind of thing.

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