Technical Terms

Bangalore: IISc had a special group of visitors this week - representatives from the German Research Foundation (DFG). The objective? Research in collaboration with IISC's materials science department. The Foundation's representatives visited the campus as part of a visit to Bangalore. President of the Foundation, Professor Ing Matthias Kleiner and Dr Torsten Fischer of DFG India announced at a press conference on Monday that The German House for Research and Innovation (DWIH) would be inaugurated at New Delhi in 2012. "It will be a one-stop shop for all Indians who want to do research in Germany. DWIH will be housing German universities , research institutions and funding organisations," said professor Kleiner. "Scientists and the institution in the state helped strengthen the collaboration. As many as 35 scientists from Karnataka and 16 scientists from IISc have visited various research institutes in Germany apart from the 11 young scientists from Ban...

Smartphone maker Apple has singled out India for raising the price of iPhone 4 while reducing its storage capacity, soon after launching the new model iPhone 4S in the domestic market at the highest price in the world. The company has raised the price of iPhone 4 by 10% to Rs 37,900. Yet, Indian customers are now getting an 8GB handset, instead of the 16 GB handset they could buy until last week for Rs 34,500. This is a departure from Apple's practice worldwide. In Singapore , for instance, it reduced the price of its earlier model by S$100 to S$788 when it launched the iPhone 4S. Often, it also gives freebies to customers who buy earlier models when it launches the new product at similar price points. The new prices make it cheaper for Indian customers to buy the iPhone 4 from abroad. The unlocked version of this handset is 33% cheaper in the US and Hong Kong at Rs 28,500, while it costs Rs 31,500 in Singapore. Experts say the disparity in pricing is resulting in a...

Samsung Electronics plans to invest a record 38 trillion won ($33.9 billion) in facilities and R&D next year, a 27 per cent jump from an estimated 30 trillion won this year, local media reported, citing Samsung and industry officials. Edaily reported that the company plans to sharply boost spending on its "system LSI business," which includes microprocessor chips used in Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S, and OLED displays mainly used in Samsung's mobile devices. Strong sales of mobile chips and displays, propelled by robust demand for smartphones and tablets, helped Samsung better cope with weakness in its traditional memory chips and displays used in PCs and TVs . The world's top memory chip maker plans to spend around 15 trillion won in its chip business next year, out of which about 8 trillion won will be used in the system LSI business, the report said. The report also said Samsung, a leading flat-screen maker, plan...

Social networking giant Facebook has removed several controversial pages that have been heavily criticized for making jokes about rape . The group pages, tilted, "You know she's playing hard to get when you're chasing her down an alleyway" had 194,370 likes on Facebook, and was widely criticised by victim support groups. Facebook said there is no place on the social networking site for content that is "hateful, threatening, or incites violence." However, controversial postings may remain if administrators add a tag stating they are humorous or satire, the BBC reports.   Facebook said it took the action because the pages broke its terms and conditions. "We take reports of questionable and offensive content very seriously," Facebook said. "Groups or pages that express an opinion on a state, institution, or set of beliefs - even if that opinion is outrageous or offensive to some - do not by themselves violate our policies,...