The First Four-Seater, #Solar-Powered Vehicle Hits The #U.S. Road

 
Stella, the first ever family sized road vehicle that runs on the sun has made its U.S. debut. The car took first place in the World Solar Challenge and won the Michelin Cruiser Class for completing a 3,000 kilometer journey from Darwin to Adelaide in Australia last fall.
While other solar-powered vehicles have been made for racing, the solar-powered Stella is the first vehicle made for road travel. A large solar panel sits atop the roof to power the car up to 500 miles on a single charge. Compare that to a Tesla Roadster, which can run on an electric charge for 245-300 miles.

The Netherlands team that designed the vehicle took Stella for a U.S. tour to help kick off National Drive Electric Week. They recently traveled up Highway 1 from L.A. to San Francisco, and I met up with them in SF to check out Stella.

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Mars Orbiter Mission: 10 facts you should know

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan, is India’s first interplanetary mission to the planet Mars.

• India becomes the first country in the world to insert a spacecraft into the Martian orbit in its very first attempt, if went successful.
• Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, India's first interplanetary probe, was launched by PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
• The spacecraft left the earth’s orbit on November 5, 2013 to get attached to the Martian transfer trajectory on December 1, 2013.
• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) becomes the fourth space agency to reach Mars after Roscosmos, NASA and ESA.
• The project was approved by the government of India on 3 August 2012 and costs Rs. 450 crores.
• MOM is the cheapest and lowest-cost inter-planetary mission ever to be undertaken in the world. It cost us all a mere Rs 4 per person. PM Narendra Modi applauding Indian scientists had said,"Hollywood movie Gravity costs more than our space mission."
• The mission successfully completed its 100 days in space on February 12, 2014.
• The satellite has carried a compact science experiment instruments, totaling a mass of 15kg to study the Martian surface, atmosphere and mineralogy.
• The Methane Sensor For Mars (MSM) – will confirm the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Methane is considered a key chemical to determine life process.MSM is among the five solar-powered instruments aboard Mangalyaan that will gather information on how the Martian weather systems work.
• According to NASA, Out of the 51 missions to the red planet by different countries, only 21 went successful till now.
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Top 10 Futuristic Concept #Hotels

Here, below is a list of  top 10 futuristic concept hotels from around the world. These beautiful hotels are fully equipped with hi-technology, based on the science, novels, and fiction stories, will hopefully providing the luxurious environment to their customers.

Top 10 futuristic concept hotels in the #world, which are a living proof of the remarkable change we are witnessing.

1. The Inflatable Space Hotel, Russia

Designed by Bigelow Aerospace, #Las Vegas, The Inflatable Space Hotel is expected to be completed by 2015. It would be a Commercial Space Station Skywalker and inflatable hotel that will be located – else where – In space! It will be full fully equipped for other future technology such as moon cruisers, space yachts and an estimated $1 million a night price tag. The preliminary phase launched in 2007, with a few cockroaches and several Mexican jumping beans, the first guests to skitter around a 4-metre-wide watermelon-shaped hostelry, 550 kilometres above Earth.

2. Aeroscraft: The flying luxury hotel of tomorrow

Designed by Worldwide Aeros Corporation, it is a flying hotel, hangs in air with 14 million cubic feet of helium which equal to two football fields. It would be able to accommodate 250 passengers. It will be travelling at a speed of 174 miles per hour. The airship would provide tourists with a host of amenities including a casino, restaurants, and staterooms. It simply means that, this hotel would be similar to a cruise liner in the air.

3. The Apeiron Island Hotel Dubai

The Apeiron Island Hotel is a concept hotel of 7 stars in Dubai. If the plans ever get funding, The Apeiron Hotel would be the second self awarded 7 star hotel to be built in Dubai. The futuristic hotel includes a private lagoon, beaches, restaurants, cinemas, shopping, an art gallery, spas, and conference facilities with a jungle theme in the 350 luxury apartment suites.

4. The Lunatic Hotel Moon

The Lunatic Hotel Moon is actually futuristic because it is expected to be completed in 2050. Water and steel will have to be launched to the moon for this exercise. The designer, Hans-Jurgen Rombaut from Rotterdam, says that, the existing minerals and ore can comfortably supply most of the building materials. In specially designed towers, guests will experience low gravity.

5. Hydropolis Dubai

The Hydropolis Underwater Hotel and Resort is a proposed to be the world’s first underwater luxury resort in Dubai. The hotel design was created by Joachim Hauser and Professor Roland Dieterle, and is planned to be composed of three segments: a land station, a connecting train, and the underwater hotel. A self acclaimed 10 star hotel will be located 66 feet below sea level inthe Persian Gulf. It will cost an estimated $300 million.

6. Hotel Pods

Hotel Pods – A Holiday Odyssey – Fully foldable and transportable hotel. The idea of the pod hotels is that it will contain foldable pods built on stilts offering all of the luxurious amenities of a traditional hotel. In addition, guests can actually design their own rooms.

7. The Diamond Ring Hotel

Also known as Voyager V1, the Diamond Ring Hotel located in Abu Dhabi. There is very little information available about hotel, but in the shape 185 metre ferris wheel, it is a hotel of the future.

8. Waterworld Hotel

Waterworld hotel is located in lagoon in Songjiang, China. It was designed by Atkin’s Architecture Group, which won the first prize award of last year’s in an international design competition. The 400 bed resort hotel is uniquely constructed within the natural elements of the quarry. Underwater public areas and guest rooms add to the uniqueness, but the resort also boasts cafes, restaurants and sporting facilities. It also includes bungee jumping and rock climbing

9. The Poseidon Undersea Resort

A ground breaking submarine designer, for the rich and the famous by the name Bruce Jones, applied his skills for the construction of lucrative hotel on an island in Fiji. The resort features twenty-two 550 sq ft luxury under water guest rooms, an underwater restaurant and bar, a library, conference room, wedding chapel, spa and a 1,200 sq ft luxury suite.

10. Full Moon and Crescent Hotel

The Full Moon Hotel is an under construction building in Baku, Azerbaijan at Absheron Peninsula on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. It look more like the Death Star from Star Wars than ultra-chic and modern hotels. It is essentially a disc with rounded edges and a hole in one of the top corners that appears radically different from the view depending on the angle it is seen from. The hotels are claimed top be inspired by moon. It expected that the hotels will be in Full Moon Bay and joined by a 43 floor office and residential buildings, which will be tall. The Full Moon and Crescent Hotels brings out more Dubaized style to Azerbaijan Hotels History.

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Top 10 Apps to Evaluate Android Phones

When new android devices and CPUs are released, benchmarking apps get a lot of attention, just as they also get the attention when a new phone is bought by users. Some are better than others, and numerical scores on a universal scale represent the real world performance one should expect from their device. Benchmarking apps are the best tools to compare the performance of Android devices for testing the overclocks or kernel changes on a device or testing the graphics rendering, to decide upon which product to purchase. These apps can test network performance, boot speed, gaming, processor, I/O, web browsing and graphics appeal for a multitude of devices and configurations. So, here is the list of Top 10 Apps to Evaluate Android Phones .

1. AnTuTu  4.5

AnTuTu Benchmark is one the most popular benchmarking apps in the android world, used as an industry standard by leading technology companies and hardware review sites. This benchmarking app has already been used by more than 100,000,000 users and also during Google I/O 2014. With this Click and Go test suite, Antutu tests all aspects of an android device which are mainly focused on the performance of UX, GPU, RAM, CPU, and Input/Output. User Experience or UX calculates the overall device performance while in the CPU Tests Measures the power of the CPU. RAM and GPU test measures the performance of RAM and graphic processing respectively. But the score may vary slightly every time as Antutu can be influenced by the device temperature, running apps and more.

2. NenaMark 2

NenaMark2 is an OpenGL benchmarking app for high-end mobile devices with higher resolution graphics and advanced graphical effects. NenaMark measures performance using realistic scenes, and provides the performance score in frames per second, which can be used for realistic comparisons between different devices. It tests with the effects of Skeletal Animation for matrix animation, Morph Target Animation for blend vertex sets, Water for reflections and Fresnel effect, the Cloud and Smoke System for advanced particle system and Dynamic lighting for diffuse lighting per vertex. It also uses Map Reflections without dynamic cube map generation for checking the performance of rendering.

3. Quadrant 2.1.1

Quadrant is a CPU and graphics benchmark which requires an Internet connection to compute benchmark results, and it is supported by ads. Quadrant tests the performance of CPU and its arithmetic operations, XML parsing and multimedia decoding while the I/O performance test rely on file system access and database operations. Performance of 2D graphics and 3D graphics can also be calculated with OpenGL single-pass and multi-pass rendering with stencil buffers. This application does not work on devices without a GPU like Spica, Tattoo, etc. The makers already declared that this benchmarking application may not be used for commercial purposes.

4. Vellamo

Vellamo is an easy-to-use suite designed of system-level benchmarks for devices based on Android 4.0 or higher. This app includes three primary chapters. The HTML5 Browser Chapter evaluates the performance of mobile web browser; the Multicore chapter measures the synergy of multiple CPU cores, and the Metal Chapter measures the CPU subsystem performance of mobile processors. It is designed to test the performance of UX, 3D graphics, memory read/write and peak bandwidth performance. The HTML5 Chapter is a set of system-level web browsing tests including graphics rendering and JavaScript to pixel blending and network stack performance. The Metal Chapter is a set of discrete lower-level benchmarks around the CPU, which includes CPU performance on integer and floating point operations.

5. Basemark X

Basemark X by Rightware is a benchmarking app for objective cross-platform comparisons between Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8 devices for hardcore gaming. It features heavy graphics content which pushes tested devices to the limit. It built on top of a real-world game engine Unity 4.2.2 which reflects the real-world graphics performance of smartphones and tablets when rendering future 3D games. Options are there to choose either medium or high quality to run the benchmark according to the specification of the device. In the end of the tests, Basemark X produces a high quality and objective score which can be compared against the scores of other devices on Rightware’s official database called Power Board.

6. GFXBench 3.0

GFXBench, with a single, easy-to-use application, is a cross-platform and cross-API 3D graphics benchmark that measures graphics performance, long-term performance stability, render quality and power consumption. It adds advanced OpenGL ES 3-features and new special tests to the popular GFXBench 3D graphics benchmark. In the app, Manhattan test is a GPU-intensive OpenGL ES 3 test using advanced API-features and Battery and Stability test which measures the device’s battery life, performance stability by logging frames-per-second, and expected battery running while running sustained game-like animations with its T-Rex scene. It also contains Render quality test for measuring the visual fidelity provided by the device in the high-end gaming.

7. Smartbench

Smartbench is a multi-core friendly benchmark application that measures the overall performance of android devices. It reports both Productivity and Gaming Index to suit both productive users and 3D gaming users. This app puts heavier load on each test to accurately evaluate the performance of the device, as it is all prepared for the quad-core smartphone world, and unfortunately, it runs slower on older devices. The new version also comes with high polygon objects count and 3D rendering test. It also detects high-resolution screens, and uses them appropriately for the purpose of evaluating. For new and existing Smartbench Donate users, it gives some additional features like no ads, entire results history, and also features result chart without running the test first.

8. 3DMark 1.3

3DMark 1.3 is a cross-platform benchmarking apps which compares the performance of the android device with phones and tablets running iOS, Windows or Windows RT. It comes absolutely free with no in-app purchase or restriction option. 3dMark is built on Ice Storm, an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark that evaluates using fixed off-screen rendering at 720p then scales the output to fit the native display resolution of android. Ice Storm platform includes two graphics tests, designed to stress the GPU performance and a physics test to stress CPU performance. Ice Storm Extreme raises the off-screen rendering resolution to 1080p and uses higher quality textures and post-processing effects in the graphics tests to create a more demanding load for the latest smartphones and tablets.

9. GeekBench 3.1

GeekBench 3.1 is a popular cross-platform benchmarking app which includes several new tests designed to simulate real-world scenarios to measure android mobile processor performance quickly and accurately. Every test in Geekbench 3 is multi-core aware which allows Geekbench 3 to measure the full potential of device’s processor and also reports performance as separate single-core and multi-core scores that figure out how the device will handle apps. It is very easy to use app mainly to evaluate machine’s processor and memory stacks up. Its web-based Result Browser makes it easy to keep and access benchmark results from anywhere. But the Result Browser can get a bit clogged after intensive use.

10. SpeedTest

This benchmarking app designed by Ookla is attached with Speedtest.net, a widely known and one of the most used networking test engine for desktop and laptops of millions of user. It is a very easy to use app for evaluating the hardcore network performance of android devices. It provides accurate one-tap connection testing in less than 30 seconds because of its global network. It evaluates and gives accurate result of Download, Upload and Ping on the device. This app also comes with Real-time graphs which show the connection consistency of the device, as it also troubleshoot and verify the promised network speed. Tracking past tests with detailed reporting and sharing the results are two of the best feature of this app.

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10 Most Expensive Bikes in The World

Guys are crazy for motorcycles and heavy bikes. Well, keeping this in mind some of the most luxurious companies in the world have manufactured bikes, whose looks are enough to make people always wonder how they were created. These wheels are sure to be a symbol of your personality and a part of your identity.

These bikes are expensive due to their structure, design, speed and outlook. They have been designed by keeping in view the luxury and a thrill that a driver has in his mind. Obviously, these bikes are not for the commoners. They are only for millionaires and billionaires. Here we present you the 10 most expensive bikes in the world.

10. Neiman Marcus Limited Edition Fighter

Cost: $ 110,000

This bike was designed by Confederate Motor Co. They have used steel for the bike that gives it a unique look . The bike has a beautiful appearance. The bike offers an exciting experience on the road and is certainly not meant for people with weak hearts.

9. Coventry Eagle

Cost: $ 120,000

Flying Eagle is a very old bike of Royal Eagle Company. Although it is a little less than a hundred years old, the bike is still good to go on the road. Designed for the classy riders and believers of the phrase ‘Old is Gold’. Well, the price certainly makes it gold.

8. Harley Davidson Rocker

Cost: $ 130,000

Another Harley Davidson, Harley Davidson Rocker is in the race. The bike was was adapted from a well-known German company called House of Thunder. Every detail of the bike is out of this world. It’s a great catch with 37 degrees inclined front and rear, which is very close to the tire. The looks are pretty jaw-dropping.

7. Hildebrand Wolfmüller

Cost: $ 150,000

The world’s first production motorcycle, Hildebrand and Wolf Müller is one of the most exclusive motorcycles. Currently bike is a part of the private collection. This bike is so much expensive due to its history as being the first motorcycle. It is a rare bike indeed. The bike has a two-cylinder four-stroke engine.

6. Hub less Harley Davidson

Cost: $ 155,000

Hub less Harley is another addition to the list of top ten most expensive bikes in the world. It has a basic Harley Davidson style. Howard murderer has adjusted the bike and it’s a big deal. The look of this chopper is unlike any other. Harley Davidson motorcycles are known for their impressive look.

5. Ecosse FE Ti XX

Cost: $ 300,000

This beautiful bike will cost you a lot, but the beauty is worth. It has 225 horsepower from its aluminum engine. Eccose engine plants have made a great addition to the Titanium series. The shiny look of the bike are more impressive than you could ever wish for. Previously motorcycles from Titanium series are selected as the Best Bike of the Year. This bike is one of the fastest bikes in the world and can accommodate up to 250 MPH.

4. The legendary British classic black

Cost: $ 400,000

Legendary Black Vintage is a unique bike and finds no match in the world. The bike has two cylinders to provide the 250 cc performance. Bike was produced in the United Kingdom. This bike may not provide you with the fastest speed, but it will certainly accelerate people to see your house on this exclusive antique bike. This is the 4th most expensive bike.

3. Gold Plated Custom Chopper

Cost: $ 500,000

This bike is so beautiful that you would never take it out on the road. Gold plated custom chopper has the metallic body, which is all shiny and gold plated. This bike is more of a show piece on a brilliant ramp rather than on the street.This golden light beauty was presented at Motorcycle Show in Seattle.

2. Ultra Rare Porcupine

Cost: $ 750,000

As the name suggests, Ultra Rare porcupine is very rare, making it extremely expensive. This bike was developed in World War II, that’s why it is unique. Previously it was part of the museum. But apparently now the museum is also a place for shopping. This bike is for sale from the National Motorcycle Museum. The bike is for those who are in bulk and want to recall its history to venture.

1. $ 1 million Harley-Davidson

Cost: $ 1 million

If you are a crazy billionaire and you love bike riding more than anything else in the world, then this is the perfect bike for you. Designed by Jack Armstrong is this exclusive and most expensive Harley-Davidson bike. It goes to a whooping one million U.S. dollars that can shake your pocket.

Well, with this price, it is very obvious that it has a lot to offer. The powerful six-cylinder engine will give you a lightning fast speed. The best thing about this bike is its design and style. The bike has a color on the body that gives it a unique look.

So if you have this bike, then do not be shocked if people start to recognize you as a “guy with $ 1 million Harley-Davidson”. $ 1 million Harley-Davidson is known as the most expensive bike in the world .

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A Complete List Of Most Useful Free Softwares For Photographers

Here’s I am covering all the useful softwares for photographers that are completely free and make your lives easier. If you are photographer too and seriously want to make your photos much striking, appealing so that it will get the best price it deserve. Have a look on complete list of useful free softwares for photographers.

Do share your favorite tools and software with us that you use in your photography profession. Alternatively, you can check out our previous article on best sites to sell your photos online andfree photo sharing websites for photographers.

1. UFRaw : The Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw) is a utility to read and manipulate raw images from digital cameras. It can be used on its own or as a Gimp plug-in. It reads raw images using Dave Coffin’s raw conversion utility – DCRaw. UFRaw supports color management workflow based on Little CMS, allowing the user to apply ICC color profiles. For Nikon users UFRaw has the advantage that it can read the camera’s tone curves. Even if you don’t own a Nikon, you can still apply a Nikon curve to your images.

2. Google Picasa : Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great. You can done basic editing like cropping, cutting, re-toning of the images easily. Even sharing your best photos with friends and family is as easy as pressing a button!

3. Raw Photo Processor : A Raw converter for Mac OS X (10.4,10.5 and 10.6 only), supporting almost all available digital Raw formats made for photographers by a photographer-software engineer.

4. Microsoft Photo Story 3 : Create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions. Small file sizes make it easy to send your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a computer, or a Windows Mobile–based portable device.

5. GIMP : GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

6. Helicon Filter : Helicon Filter is a complete photo editing solution for the digital photographer. Its easy and intuitive interface, live preview feature, and contextual help ensure an easy start in photo editing for beginners. The program is built as step by step workflow guiding you through all post processing stages of photo editing.

7. PhotoTools 2.5 Free : A photoshop based plugin that works with Photoshop CS2, CS3,Cs4 and CS5. It includes more than 20 high-quality photographic effects and also HDR effects. With the PhotoTools 2.5 Free plugin for Adobe Photoshop, you can add a professional look to your photos with just a few clicks.

8. Photoscape : Photoscape is a fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos with key features like slideshow creation, default viewer, photo editor, batch editor, page frame option, animated GIF, splitter, screen capture, color picker, raw converter and many more.

9. Pictomio : Pictomio is a software application intended for managing, categorizing, searching, and archiving photos as well as geotagging photos and videos that also allows you to generate animated 2D and 3D slideshows. Pictomio now includes the pictoGEO plug-In (for free).

10. Paint.net : Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

11. Photos Pos Pro : Photo Pos Pro Photo Editor is a free photo editor offers users a wide variety of possibilities in the fields of Image Enhancing and Image Editing and in the field of Computer Graphics Design. Using the editor you can perform various tasks, from simple basic tasks to complex tasks; you can edit existing images, create new works based on existing images, create new works from scratch and more.

12. Evan’s Image Editor : Evan’s Image Editor (EIE) is a free image editor that allows for the editing and creation of animated or still images. It contains several GPU-powered image modifiers that take advantage of modern graphics hardware, giving you an instant preview of the effect while you adjust parameters. It also has a non-binary selection system, allowing you to “partially select” pixels and apply drawing tool and modification actions that perform weighted averages based on the selection value.

13. Luminance HDR : Luminance HDR is an open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.

14. CleanSkin FX : CleanSkinFX is the most powerful automatic retouch for portraits. It smooths the skin of the object while preserving all the details and crispness of hair, eyes or background. This procedure was exclusively developed by mediachance.com.

15. Light Artist : Light Artist is a program that allows you to add realistic lighting effects to your photos. With this program you can easily make your ordinary and undistinguished photos sunnier, romantic or even gloomy if you want. You can modify the light color, add multiple light sources, change the surface qualities of the image and add various ambient illumination effects. Using one of the image channels as the texture channel you can add 3D relief to your images.

16. Photomeister : Using PhotoMeister you can Import the photos from most digital cameras directly into your PC, Sort, arrange, filter and crop your photos and even remove red eyes, Convert your photos into web pages, emails or screensavers, Create Photo Albums to print or export as PDF files, Create VCDs for your DVD player to show your photos on your TV.

17. Photo Editor : Photo! Editor is powerful multifunctional software offering a complete set of image editing tools. It contains anything a digital camera owner might need to correct or enhance their photos. You will enjoy the ultimate convenience and professional approach provided by each of the tools. The Denoise tool is one of the world’s best to effectively remove luminance and color noise from digital images made under poor lighting conditions. You will also appreciate the Make Up tool that offers a complete set of retouching filters to make the best of your portrait photos.

18. Phantasmagoria : Phantasmagoria is a fun, light-weight image editing application. The main focus is to apply effects to images, along with the basic editing that might be required after a sub-par shoot. In other words, what most of us actually need.

19. Visions : Visions lets you easily view and search photos, fix flaws, apply effects, create albums and calendars, share your favorites through e-mail, prints and online sharing websites and much more, all in a cool & fun 3D interface.

20. Image Analyzer : Advanced image editing, enhancement and analysis software. The program contains both most image enhancement features found in conventional image editors plus a number of advanced features not even available in professional photo suites.

21. Hugin – Panorama Photo Stitcher : An easy to use cross-platform panoramic imaging toolchain based on Panorama Tools. With Hugin you can assemble a mosaic of photographs into a complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more.

21. ImageMagick : ImageMagick® is a software suite to create, edit, compose, or convert bitmap images. It can read and write images in a variety of formats (over 100) including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF. Use ImageMagick to resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.

22. Image Tricks : Image Tricks is a freeware application for editing your photos and images using Mac OS X Core Image filters and Quartz Compositions that unimaginably transform your photos. This program also contains a powerful random image generator for creating unique backgrounds and abstract images for business cards, web design, print materials and more.

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