iPhone and Other Smartphones to Measure Radiation

Svetlana Gladkova


iPhone and Other Smartphones to Measure Radiation Russian scientists from Intersoft Eurasia have reported plans to manufacture a device that will enable iOS, Android and Windows 7 mobile devices to measure radiation and inform the user of normal or elevated levels.

Basically the dosimeter is nothing but a sensor based on graphene, the material awarded with Nobel prize in 2010. It will be manufactured as a standalone device that can be connected to a smartphone with a dedicated application installed that enables use of such a device.

The price of the dosimeter will be in the range from $30 to $50 in retail but of course if it could be integrated in the device body by manufacturers, the price could drop (down to $10 as the inventor claims) and every user could have the functionality by default. The company has already negotiated the idea of sensor integration with manufacturers such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Fujitsu but the results have not been disclosed yet...Russian scientists from Intersoft Eurasia have reported plans to manufacture a device that will enable iOS, Android and Windows 7 mobile devices to measure radiation and inform the user of normal or elevated levels.

Basically the dosimeter is nothing but a sensor based on graphene, the material awarded with Nobel prize in 2010. It will be manufactured as a standalone device that can be connected to a smartphone with a dedicated application installed that enables use of such a device.

The price of the dosimeter will be in the range from $30 to $50 in retail but of course if it could be integrated in the device body by manufacturers, the price could drop (down to $10 as the inventor claims) and every user could have the functionality by default. The company has already negotiated the idea of sensor integration with manufacturers such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Fujitsu but the results have not been disclosed yet.

The project wi[...]

Deals Website Takes Preorders for iPhone 4S in Russia before Anyone Knows Availability Date and Prices

Svetlana Gladkova


Deals Website Takes Preorders for iPhone 4S in Russia before Anyone Knows Availability Date and Prices I have almost made a very spontaneous purchase today. I have stopped moments before buying an iPhone 4S that claims to be officially intended for the Russian market for an unbelievably low price of less than $700 for a 16GB model. But since I hate to make purchases on spur of a moment and will be able to make the same purchase of an unlocked device in the US officially from Apple, the voice of reason stopped me. But it has not stopped thousands of other people today...

First Public Blogging School Opens in Russia

Svetlana Gladkova


First Public Blogging School Opens in Russia Personally I have never met a certified blogger with a diploma proving their blogging skills and abilities. Not even at geeky parties in the Silicon Valley or meetups in NYC. Probably I have just never asked for a diploma but I suspect that most of my fellow bloggers are self-educated in addition to frequently being self-employed.

Now it looks like I’m in for a chance of actually meeting a properly educated blogger on another side of the ocean as the Russian city of Chelyabinsk (which is way closer to my home Novosibirsk than San Francisco or New York) announces opening of the first blogging school in Russia...

PayPal’s Epic Fail in Russia and Ukraine

Svetlana Gladkova


PayPal’s Epic Fail in Russia and Ukraine I have discussed here quite a few times how limited PayPal is for users in the country I happen to live in, Russia. For those of you who are not aware of the problem, Russia for PayPal is on the list of countries with limitations where users are allowed to send money using their credit cards but they are unable to receive payments or even upload money to their PayPal balance. Obviously, it makes PayPal extremely one-sided and rather impossible to use. This has been a reason for many complaints from users but has never resulted in a change of PayPal’s policy...

Thousands of Private Text Messages Leak to Web Search Results in Russia

Svetlana Gladkova


Thousands of Private Text Messages Leak to Web Search Results in Russia One of the largest Russian mobile carriers Megafon and the leading Russian search engine Yandex need to explain quite a lot of things to their users today due to an unspeakable data leak as thousands of SMS messages sent via Megafon website got publicly available in Yandex search results...

Large Russian Retailer Starts Selling Smuggled iPad 2 Officially and Even Advertises

Svetlana Gladkova


Large Russian Retailer Starts Selling Smuggled iPad 2 Officially and Even Advertises I know that it’s not the 1st of April today and we are much closer to May now but I could not help but check the calendar when I’ve read a title in the local news today: a well-known retailer announces availability of iPad 2 in the city where I live.

But the huge (I mean HUUUUGE) irony is that Apple does NOT sell iPad 2 in Russia officially. Only yesterday Russian news agencies reported that official sales of the gadget are further postponed and we should not expect to have them in the country before at least mid-summer...

iPad 2 Smuggling in Full Blossom in Russia

Svetlana Gladkova


iPad 2 Smuggling in Full Blossom in Russia

It is no secret for people living in Russia that waiting for official sales of Apple products to begin in Russia can take too long and really leave you with an outdated version of a gadget once you finally manage to buy it officially – only to realize a few weeks later that a new version is already announced (or shipped) in the US. So you can now either live with what you already have or start longing for a new version right away.

So many people choose a totally different approach: they buy their gadgets abroad when they are still fresh – and far from officially available in Russian stores...

Russian Celebrity Has Her Twitter Account Stolen, Threatens Court Trial

Svetlana Gladkova


Russian Celebrity Has Her Twitter Account Stolen, Threatens Court Trial Russian celebrities are not really that different from every other celebrity in the world in their hunt for PR. Logically, many of them quickly jumped on the Twitter bandwagon when they realized the PR power of it. Tina Kandelaki, a TV personality, is one of the most active Twitter users among Russian celebrities as she reports quite a number of her daily events to more than 50 thousand of followers. And today she has had her account hacked.

The irony of the entire story is that the account has not even been stolen by some clever hacker (and we are supposed to have plenty of them in Russia) – it was just a journalist...

Google Openly Discriminates Men in Russia

Svetlana Gladkova


Google Openly Discriminates Men in Russia We in Russia are pretty much different from the rest of the world when it comes to our holidays. For example, we celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January and New Year is way more respected here than Christmas. And I don’t even want to mention the Old New Year that we still celebrate based on the Julian calendar!

In late winter and early spring we have two holidays that have grown into our tradition of congratulating all men and all women – without celebrating the Mother’s and Father’s Day as everyone else seems to be doing...

1 Year since iPad Announcement. Now How Is the Tablet World Doing?

Svetlana Gladkova


1 Year since iPad Announcement. Now How Is the Tablet World Doing? Exactly one year ago, on January 27 last year Steve Jobs announced iPad at a press conference held for the device. The planned tablet was rumoured for years before that as people realized it should have been a logical step after success Apple had with iPhone. A year later and numerous gadget of the year awards, I thought it would be fun to discuss our initial expectations compared to actual user experience with the device...