Author: simonmackay

Game On with a Gaming Tablet PC

Article

Project Fiona Now the Razer Edge: A Full-on Gaming Tablet

My Comments

Previously, “full-on” gaming has been focused at highly-strung “gaming-rig” desktop PCs running the latest version of Windows. Lately there have been a few performance laptops like what Alienware releases that would please the Starcraft fanatic and a few all-in-one computers with performance credentials that would suit gamers like the HP Z1 have come on to the market.

Similarly, NVIDIA have run a special games app store for their Tegra ARM processors where “full-on” games are made available for some of the Tegra-powered Android tablets such as the ASUS Transformer Prime. But now Razer have set up a Windows 8 tablet PC that isn’t any weakling when it comes to games performance.

This is a highly-customisable touchscreen computer that is driven by the current-generation Intel Core processors. As for graphics, this would have the discrete NVIDIA chipsets and its secondary storage is SSD rather than the hard disk. Personally, I would go for the “Pro” version which has up to 256Gb storage and could cater for a few games that have all the extra downloadable content or mods such as extra characters, civilizations or maps.

There are options to control the tablet PC such as a game-controller dock as well as a keyboard dock. One limitation I would suspect that this unit would have is that it chews through the batteries very quickly due to the performance components needed to keep those characters moving.

This is another example of how the new integrated touchscreen computers are being shoehorned to suit diehard “World-Of-Warcraft” gaming enthusiasts or multimedia enthusiasts rather than still being considered “toys”.

IRIS now integrates home automation to the ageing population

Article

Iris Care Lets You Know When Your Parents Have Fallen and Can’t Get Up | Gizmodo

My Comments

As part of a new trend for the home automation and security industries, there is strong interest in technology to facilitate “independent ageing”. Here this allows older people or those of us with chronic illnesses to be able to live independently yet there is the gentle eye for illnesses or accidents.

Iris, which is sold through the US Lowes hardware-store chain, have set up an option for their home-automation and security offering which does this. Here, you have the standard medical-alert fob that hangs around the person’s neck but there is the ability to notify if certain things are out of order as you determine. For example, you could know if there is continual normal movement or, for example, know if the front door had been left open or the stove was left on at an odd time.

What I see of this is that the industry is answering to the ageing baby-boomer population which is becoming older; and a desire for “ageing with dignity” where an older person can live independently yet their relatives and friends are safe in the knowledge that they are OK.

Assistance Journal–Getting the hang of Skype before your overseas-travelling child flies out

Just last night, I received a Facebook message from a close friend of mine regarding practising with Skype. Here daughter was about to fly out to the UK as part of an exchange-student programme that she enrolled in and she knew that I was able to provide her with computer assistance as required.

Here, I recommended that this close friend and her daughter set up for Skype so they can communicate with each other for free using this tool while she was in the UK. This included using the video-telephony feature so that they can see each other and see the overseas environment that they are in from afar.

This friend had completed Skype sessions with other relatives after setting up this program. Then I exchanged the contact details and integrated her details in my Skype contact list. After a long chat session, I was able to get her familiar with the user interface and have her practise the basic tasks. One of the test runs that was done was for the mother to have her laptop connected to the home network and the daughter’s laptop connected to a 3G modem so as to simulate the arrangement that would be used in the UK.

It is infact a good idea to do a “dry-run” with Skype if someone is heading overseas for a significant amount of time. This is more important if you are not confident with this program or with computers at all or you have set up a new computer or home network.

Similarly if you purchase a Smart TV or video peripheral that has Skype integrated and you then buy the camera accessory, you could use these “dry runs” to get yourself familiar with the Skype implementation in the equipment.

DirecTV Genie whole-home DVR review–an example of what a pay-TV gateway device could offer

Article

DirecTV Genie whole-home DVR review | Engadget

From the horse’s mouth

DirecTV

Product Page

My Comments

Those of you who follow HomeNetworking01.info from the USA most likely would have heard of the DirecTV satellite-TV service and this pay-TV operator has designed a whole-home DVR which shows what could be yielded for this class of equipemnt.

\Here, a whole-home DVR, known as the DirecTV Genie, has a high-capacity hard disk of at least one terabyte and has at least four RF front-end tuners to receive and record the broadcast TV signals. It will have the ability to stream live or recorded TV content to two or more other suitably-equipped TVs using the home network or other means.

This whole-home DVR that DirecTV has a one-terabyte hard disk and five broadcast front-ends so it can comfortable handle three or four TV sets as well as recording the shows to the hard disk in a reduced-conflict manner. It can also work with a optional regular-TV front-end kit to catch locally-broadcast TV shows. According to the review, this device connects to the main TV and can work with it very easily including having it as a client for the DLNA Home Media Network. 

What impressed me about this box was that it implemented the RVU specification for distributing content to the extra TV sets. At the moment, most of the Samsung Smart TVs made in the last two years support this functionality and the standard has been called as part of the DLNA specification for TV and video setups. Over the next few model-years, more of the manufacturers could implement this in to their Smart TVs and Internet-capable video peripherals. This may also include some existing models having this function delivered as part of a firmware update.

On the other hand, you may have to use a DirecTV "Genie Client” box with existing TVs or can stream the content to certain DirecTV set-tops if you have these in place serving the extra TVs. Oh yeah, there are the mobile-client apps for setting up recording jobs, controlling the Genie and using the TV Everywhere functionality on iOS and Android devices.

The unit can be provided for free for new DirecTV customers who sign up to certain (mostly high-end) plans for a prescribed contract period like 24 months or US$300 for those who have this service. Personally, I would like to see equipment like this offered for free to existing customers who have finished their contract period and want to continue with the service further on a similar or better plan. This is a practice that some mobile-phone providers offer to their existing customers who have completed a contract period and want to upgrade their phone to something newer.

The DirecTV Genie could become a benchmark for whole-home pay-TV gateway device with DVR capabilities and I would hope that companies in the pay-TV space keep an eye on this review so they can look at what they can offer to their customers.

First it was Hambleton, now it’s Uppingham to have fibre-optic broadband in Rutland

Article

thinkbroadband :: Gigaclear bringing its full fibre solution to Uppingham, Rutland

From the horse’s mouth

Gigaclear

Press Release

Uppingham First

Home Page

My Comments

There has been some previous broadband enablement taking place in Rutland in the UK. Here, a next-generation fibre-to-the-premises network was established in Hambleton which was the subject of a Skype interview with Matthew Hare from Gigaclear that I posted up on this site.

Now Uppingham is now the target of a next-generation fibre-to-the-premises network. This market town, which is 5 miles (8.05 km) as the crow flies or 5 minutes by car from Hambleton, has had its effort boosted through the assistance of the Uppingham First community partnership.

The effort is concentrated on the North East Quarter which encompasses The Beeches and the Uppingham Gate business park and is part of a 12-month rollout by Gigaclear and Rutland Telecom.

There is also a fixed-wireless service which will cover more of the Uppingham neighbourhood within its 25-mile radius, but I would also like to see the fibre service cover more of this town. This could be achieved as part of a gradual service-expansion effort as the initial rollout proves itself economically.

As those of you who follow HomeNetworking01.info know, this deployment, like other Gigaclear FTTP deployments, will offer the symmetrical bandwidth which will please a lot of Internet users in this town, including the small businesses.

As far as I am concerned, this could cause ripples through Rutland’s small towns and rural areas as the neighbourhoods ask for the real bandwidth in a similar way to what is happening in Oxfordshire.

BMW’s Car Hotspot LTE means Bavarian Motor WiFi

Article

BMW’s Car Hotspot LTE means Bavarian Motor WiFi

BMW promeut une mini borne Wi-Fi connectée en 4G dans ses voitures | 01net.com (France – French language)

My Comments

The concept of the in-vehicle Wi-Fi network has been examined as an infotainment option by both the vehicle manufacturers and the aftermarket infotainment scene, with system like Chrysler’s AutoNET being used as examples of this application.

But BMW have put up an LTE 4G MiFi router as an accessory for their newer vehicles that are sold in Europe. Here, this unit docks in to the centre console of the vehicle and uses direct connection to the vehicle’s power supply and aerial. The aerial is used for the LTE signals so as to provide that improved performance.

As I have always said, this could yield a lot for the connected vehicle. For example, the fact that devices like the Chrysler AutoNET and the BMW router integrating with the vehicle could allow for access to Internet resources by the infotainment system. This could lead to always-updated maps or business directories accessible through the navigation function or access to podcasts and Internet radio from the car audio system.

A question that still needs to be raised as far as in-vehicle Internet is concerned is interlinking with the home network when the vehicle is at home or in the scope of a trusted network like a friend’s or workplace’s network. This could lead to thinks like syncing or sharing of media between the vehicle (equipped with a hard drive) and these networks or large-scale map or feature updates occurring overnight at a cheaper service cost via the home network.

Another example of public money towards real broadband Internet–this time in Germany

Article

Broadband for rural areas: financed by the EIB and WIBank | European Union Press Releases

My Comments

Some more public money has been put up in the European Union towards facilitating next-generation Internet in rural Europe. This time, it is taking place in the middle of Germany.

Here, the European Investment Bank had put €80m towards Hessen government’s promotional bank (WIBank) to lend to companies to develop next-generation broadband in that state. They want to have this service pass pass 75% of households by 2014 with a desirable throughput of 50Mb/s.

It is seen to be part of “Digital Agenda For Europe” which is needed to satisfy increased data volumes that are now occurring in Europe. Hessen’s main urban centres like Wiesbaden and Frankfurt have the high-throughput infrastructure but there is a desire to get the high-speed broadband out to peri-urban areas, small towns and rural areas.

This may require building out of VDSL2 infrastructure in more of the towns and establishing the FTTP fibre-optic infrastructure in the dense areas like most of Frankfurt. Personally, I would also like to see the VDSL2 infrastructure moved towards FTTC (fibre-to-the-curb) where there are the shorter runs so as to increase the bandwidth available.

The Hessen broadband development is being set up to permit competitive business but is also to be seen by the European Union as an example of a next-generation urban-rural broadband deployment.

It is another of the European publicly-funded broadband-improvement developments that needs to be observed by countries considering the implementation of broadband improvements using public money.

The EU stands behind the creation of a “semiconductor Airbus”

Article – French language

L’UE appelle à la création d’un « Airbus des puces » | Le Monde Informatique (France)

My Comments

The European Union does play host to some electro-technical activity, whether in the form of research or design and manufacture of finished product. Think of names like Philips, Pace (set-top box applications), Loewe, B&O, Nokia and Siemens amongst many others when it comes to finished applications. Or you may think of Acorn who has built up the ARM microarchitecture used in most smartphones and tablets or B&O who have built up the ICEPower reference design for high-quality Class-D switching power amplifiers. As far as semiconductors and microelectronics are concerned, STMicroelectronics is the only European representative in the 10 main semiconductor companies.

But there has been a call for the European Union to strengthen a European-grown microelectronics industry. They effectively want to see a “digital Airbus” or “Airbus for semiconductors”. This is where Airbus, the France-based European aerospace name, has become associated with building the impressive airliners like the A380 superjumbo and been in a position to challenge established players like he US-based Boeing.

Here, the European Commission wants to launch an industrial plan to seed the European semiconductor industry by making Europe financially attractive to invest in for this industry. This encompasses the research and development aspect; as well as production of the components; and they want the European Union and its constituent Member States to work together on this.

What I see of this is that the European “finished-products” names could move towards the local “Airbus for semiconductors” once they see that the products can work well with their finished-product designs. Similarly, if this company can answer established firms like Intel, AMD and NVIDIA for CPU or graphics-processor designs, this could be a chance for Europe to facilitate a lively competitive microprocessor market.

A tabletop Internet radio that doubles as an Internet TV

Articles – German language

19. Dezember – Albrecht DR870 HD-TV,7′ Internet Radio-TV Media Player zu gewinnen | GIZMODO DEGIZMODO DE

Product Page

Albrecht DR870

My Comments

Here is another Internet radio, pitched for use in the kitchen, that has the typical features of a set of its class. This set, known as the Albrecht DR870 and available in Germany, has the FM, Internet radio, local media playback via SD card and access to the DLNA Home Media Network. It would mean that it can play whatever is on the NAS or a Windows computer running Windows Media Player.

But it is also pitched as an auxiliary TV which can pull in DVB-T digital TV as well as various Internet TV services and show these on a 7” LCD screen. This class of compact AV product could earn its keep a fair bit more for “glancing” at news, sports or other events in the kitchen or similar location while you do other activities.

What I see of this is that it could raise the bar as far as a compact radio that is destined for the kitchen, office or small shop. Here, this can integrate TV reception as well as radio reception and media playback in that class of unit and shows what the direction is for a tabletop radio or similar device.

Guest Post: Basic Security for Your Home Wireless Network

Netgear DG834G ADSL2 wireless router

Netgear DG834G ADSL2 wireless router

So, you’re ready to set up that nice and convenient home wireless network.  You’ve got the router out of the box and you’re ready to plug everything in, but there’s just one problem.  You’re concerned, or maybe you’re even a little bit paranoid.  You’re wondering who out there might be able to pick up the signal.  Setting up a wireless network in your home can be very simple, but it can also pose a few risks if you get lazy or you’re using older wireless router technology.  Once you’ve set up the router, yes, other people with wireless devices may be able to detect the signal you’re broadcasting, but depending on the precautions you’ve taken, you can determine what happens when they see that signal.

 Whether you live in an apartment complex, a tightly-packed subdivision, or on some rural street, there will always be opportunity for someone to detect your wireless signal.  All they have to do is look for it.  Does it mean they’ll try to connect to it?  No.  There isn’t any reason to panic about who might be able to see it.  It doesn’t matter.  What matters are your security and the preventative measures you’ve put in place to block unwanted access when that stray individual does decide to try to connect to your network and attempts to access your internet or your computer.

 Securing your internet connection and your personal network is a relatively simple thing to do.  Many newer routers or modem/ router combos will take you through a setup wizard that should walk you through activating security protocols, such as WEP or WPA and changing the SSID (network name).  Setup wizards aren’t necessarily the best option when setting up your wireless network’s security, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can work.  Just remember to change the SSID and avoid using WEP security.

 Why?  Not changing you router’s default SSID can be a sign to outsiders that the user who set up the network has no idea what they’re doing.  It can make that wireless signal a potential target.  You can change it to whatever you want.  As for WEP, it’s useless and simple to break through.  A tech savvy 8-year-old could break through WEP security in minutes.  If you’re in the market for a wireless router (or already purchased one) and one of the device’s selling points is WEP security, stay far away.  Instead, look for devices offering WPA security, or better yet, WPA2 security.

Then set an encryption key password that isn’t your dog’s name, your street address, the town where you grew up, or something equally lame and easy to crack.  Make it tough.  Make it long.   Don’t make it what you think is tough, make it genuinely tough.  Try a password creation exercise.  Write out strings of numbers and letters or a piece of paper.  Or write out a series of words that have no apparent or logical connection to one another.  Or make up words that aren’t in any dictionary.  Be creative and don’t worry if you can’t remember it or not.

Since we’re talking about a home network, it isn’t a big deal if you write down your insane password and store it somewhere, preferably in a place you will remember.  That way, when you have additional devices you want to grant internet access to, whip it out, you’re ready to go, and no paranoia.

Editor’s note:

Most recently-issued ISP-supplied or retail wireless routers are implementing a “secure by default” strategy which makes the process of creating a secure wireless network simple for most of us.

This includes strategies like WPS easy-setup routines with a random passphrase, and an increasing number of routers provided by the ISPs or telcos as customer-premises equipment use SSIDs that typically have a service marketing name followed by three or four random digits such as “BIGPOND1223 or OPTUS4345. These strategies relate the experience of a secure home network to that of installing or using a typical door lock, something most of us identify with regularly.

Guest post by Jack Pike Television lover and guru of all things Cable, spends his time blogging with Time Warner Cable when not enjoying the tube.