The popularity of LCDs might soon be a thing of the past as researchers are working on developing a new technology based on quantum dots which will greatly reduce the thickness of the new TVs. The new crystals are said to be 100,000 times smaller than human hair and help provide better colors in addition to thinner display.

What’s more, these tiny crystals are compatible with the flexible screen technology, being a highly promising technology with a great market potential. While the quantum dots technology is expected to hit the stores next year, a flexible version can only be expected to hit at least three years after.

Michael Edelman, chief executive of Nanoco, a company in charge of the new technology reveals important details about this exciting project: “We are working with some major Asian electronics companies. The first products we are expecting to come to market using quantum dots will be the next generation of flat-screen televisions. The real advantage provided by quantum dots, however, is that they can be printed on to a plastic sheet that can rolled up. It is likely these will be small personal devices to begin with.”

Despite the high initial costs, the new technology can prove to be a cost saver as quantum dots are made of cheaper semi-conductors compared to LED crystals. Furthermore, solar energy use is also a viable possibility in the development of this technology.

Google unveiled a ‘Find My Tool’ for its Google+ social network. The new technology that scans photos from users and their friends in order to find recognizable faces works pretty much exactly as Facebook’s Photo Tag Suggest.

“Around the holidays, many of us get together with friends and family, and if you’re like me, you take lots of photos,” wrote Matt Steiner, leader of Google’s Photos group, in a Google+ post. “By turning on Find My Face, Google+ can prompt people you know to tag your face when it appears in photos. Of course, you have control over which tags you accept or reject, and you can turn the feature on or off in Google+ settings.”

However, it seems that Google’s new technology features a few key differences from Facebook’s facial recognition tool in terms of users’ privacy. For example, a Google+ user must opt into ‘Find My Face’ before it starts automatically suggesting to their friends that they be tagged in photos. Moreover, the tool requires the subject of a suggested tag to approve it before it goes public.

“Privacy has been baked right into this feature,” said Benjamin Petrosky, product counsel for Google+, at a facial recognition policy summit held by the Federal Trade Commission in Washington. “The goal is to only suggest tags for people that you know or we think you know. It doesn’t have to be bi-directional,” he added.

Pessimistic predictions begin to seem more and more plausible as the Citigroup announces the lay offs of 4,500 employees over the next few quarters. The news was delivered by CEO Vikram Pandit on Tuesday who highlighted the difficult economic times along with Wall Street troubles.

Jon Diat, spokesman for Citi also stated in an e-mail that: “As part of our ongoing efforts to control expenses, we are making targeted headcount reductions in certain businesses and functions across Citi.” The new figure of 4,500 employees is much higher than the one speculated in November, which estimate the cut of only 3,000 employees. The latest number of 4,500 employees represents little over 2% of the workforce.

The unfortunate trend seems to be consistent in the financial industry with the Bank of America announcing similar intentions of laying off 30,000 in the next few years. Across the financial industry 200,000 jobs were lost this year alone, while year-end bonuses are expected to see an approximate 20% to 30% drop .

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the social network has made “a bunch of mistakes” regarding user’s privacy. “I’m the first to admit that we’ve made a bunch of mistakes,” Zuckerberg said in a blog. He then added that, “In particular, I think that a small number of high profile mistakes, like Beacon four years ago and poor execution as we transitioned our privacy model two years ago, have often overshadowed much of the good work we’ve done.”

Zuckerberg’s statement came after the US Federal Trades Commission (FTC) made an investigation and accused Facebook of deceiving “consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.”

According to the new agreement with FTC, Facebook will now have to get approval from members “before it changes the way it shares their data.” Moreover, the social network also has to prevent anyone from accessing content from a former member more than 30 days after the account has been deactivated. Furthermore, Facebook has to submit to a privacy audit every two years over the next 20 years and make a clearer presentation when it comes to privacy or security of user data.

Zuckerberg said that “we can also always do better. I’m committed to making Facebook the leader in transparency and control around privacy.” He continued saying that the settlement with the FTC “means we’re making a clear and formal long-term commitment to do the things we’ve always tried to do and planned to keep doing – giving you tools to control who can see your information and then making sure only those people you intend can see it.”

Korea’s largest bookseller, Kyobo, and U.S. mobile chip maker Qualcomm Inc teamed up in order to create a new e-reader with an advanced display. The Kyobo eReader was unveiled this week in Seoul and it will first reach consumers in South Korea.

“Having been with the mirasol technology nearly from day one, I revel with the many QMT engineers and employees who have dedicated themselves to the development of mirasol display technology,” said Clarence Chui, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc.

The new Kyobo eReader features Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz “Snapdragon” processor, a custom Kyobo application based on Android and a 5.7 inch “XGA” mirasol display and is thought to increase competition on the tablet market. Mriasol displays are made up by small mirrors and use the ambient light instead of its own to create colors. The principle is similar to the phenomena that enables a peacock’s feathers to shift between colors in different light.

The eReader featuring the mirasol display will be priced at 349,000 won, or $302, said Seoul-based Kyobo, South Korea’s largest bookseller.

For the first time in history, China surpassed U.S in terms of sale volumes for smartphones, now becoming the largest market in the world for this segment. Strategy Analytics disclosed the fact that Chinese both a staggering  24 million smartphones in the third quarter of the year, surpassing Americans by 23 million smartphones for the same period.

“China is now at the forefront of the worldwide mobile- computing boom. China has become a large and growing smartphone market that no hardware vendor, component maker or content developer can afford to ignore,” concludes Neil Mawston an analyst within the firm.

Given the fact that sales have had a 58% growth for the period studied while American market saw a 7% decrease, it is easy to understand the surprising results. Although Nokia has lost market share in the United States, it has the biggest market share in China where it holds 28% from total shares. With 10% less,  at 18%   Samsung Electronics comes second.

While other children are still playing, eight-year-old Harli Jordean is already a successful businessman. The kid managed to start a profitable marble business and due to his busy schedule he had to employ his mother and two older brothers in order to help him. Harli is from London and is running marbleking.co.uk website for two years.

His adventure began after losing his marbles to an older boy. When Harli and his mom went online to order more and saw they couldn’t find them so easily in the UK, the boy decided to start his own website selling marbles. “My friends love that I have my own business. At first some of them didn’t believe me – but they do now. They are some of my best customers. I love marbles and I love having my own marbles company,” Harli said.

Speaking about his plans for the future, Harli told DailyMail that, “My dream is to have a chain of stores like Hamleys – it will be one of the biggest toy stores in the world but selling all sorts of marbles.” His mom also added that, “Sometimes his ideas are so grand we have to scale them back a bit. But his dream is still to own Britain’s biggest marble shop and open stores around the world.”

In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that is not Facebook the one violating people’s privacy as this only collects the information a user chooses to share with the social network. Still, Zuckerberg said that the real threat comes from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

“If you look at companies, whether it’s Google or Yahoo! or Microsoft, right, that have search engines and ad networks, they also have a huge amount of information about you. It’s just that they’re collecting that about you behind your back, really. And it’s like you’re going – you’re going around the web, and they have cookies, and they’re collecting this huge amount of information about who you are. But you never know that,” Zuckerberg said.

Mark Zuckerberg also revealed that, “people have little or no control over the information that a company like Google or Yahoo! or Microsoft has about you. I think that these companies with those big ad networks are basically getting away with collecting huge amounts of information, likely way more information than people are sharing on Facebook about themselves… In reality, you have control over every single thing that you’ve shared on Facebook.”

Speaking about his relationship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Zuckerberg said that, “I think we connected a lot on this level of, okay, Facebook has this mission that’s really more than just trying to build a company, right, that has a market cap or a value.”

Google might be expanding its area of influence and might enter the paid cable services. Wall Street Journal reports that Google has discussed with major companies like Walt Disney Co., Time Warner and Discovery Communication about the potential of such of delivering video services but it seems that the first round of talks on the matter did not lead to any definite decisions.

If the talks begin to materialize it seems that Kansas City will be the first region to enjoy the new services provided by the internet giant, since Google hired a former cable TV executive, Jeremy Stern. On the other hand, Google’s representatives chose not to comment the rumors and speculations that have emerged so far.

The new potential project will greatly intensify the on-going competition between traditional companies offering cable services along with subscription based satellite TV service. It remains to be seen whether entertainment companies will be willing to license their programs, however historically speaking, these companies were more than willing to embark in such projects, provided that profit opportunities were attractive enough.

It was named iSAVE-SC1 and it is said to be the world’s safest car. The thing that makes this vehicle so unique is the fact that its airbags are on the outside. Developed by a Japanese company called Humanix in collaboration with researchers at Hiroshima University, the car can only reach a top speed of 50km/h and it can be charged at home using conventional 100V power supply.

iSAVE-SC1 is an electric vehicle that features three wheels and is fitted with shock-absorbing airbags that are wrapped all over its body. The three-wheel prototype is covered with tent cloth and has inflated airbags at the front and rear. In case of a collision, air is released from the bags and therefore cushioning the impact.

“Think of the car as wearing clothes, which is something found nowhere else in the world. I used to wonder why the surface of a car is made of metal. Through my study of biology, I noticed that living creatures are naturally soft. I began developing the car based on this idea,” said Tsutomu Masujima, Humanix president, who is also professor at the university’s graduate school. ”

Currently, iSAVE-SC1 is just a prototype yet it will go on sale in Japan for US$10,400. The mass production will begin in April or later next year and until then the vehicles will be used for monitoring purposes.