Category: Current and Future Trends

Article

UK consumer rights laws now cover digital downloads | Engadget

Consumer Rights Act 2015 Could Aid Clarity on Broadband Prices | ISPReview.co.uk

From the horse’s mouth

UK Government – Department of Business, Innovation & Skills

Press Release

Consumer Rights Act 2015 (UK)

– Chapter 3 (covers digital content)

My Comments

Software delivered via app stores now under the same consumer-protection remit as physical goods

A consumer-affairs issue that often crops up when it comes to goods and services that are digitally-delivered is how customers are protected if things go awry with these goods. This is because software, books and other content are increasingly being delivered “over the wire” from the supplier to the user such as through app stores rather than as a physical package. As well, an increasing amount of computer software including games that are sold through “bricks and mortar” retail stores are being delivered as a “physical+digital” form. This is typically a box containing a CD or USB stick with a download client or a software-entitlement card with a product key number but the full installation requires you to download the software on to your computer.

.. as movies and games delivered to games consoles and set-top devices via the Internet

But a lot of jurisdictions tend to place different standards of consumer protection on the digitally-delivered goods and services compared to physically-delivered goods and services like refrigerators, computer and home-network hardware, books or Blu-Ray Discs.They seem to allow for balky downloads or for a digital-content supplier to implement digital-rights-management technologies to protect their content. Typically this has shown up as electronically-supplied goods being covered under a separate statute with lesser “teeth” while other goods are covered under the main consumer-protection statutes. This also applied to services like broadband Internet, landline and mobile telephony, and Webhosting-type services.

The UK have tackled this issue by amalgamating digitally-delivered goods and services under the same consumer-protection law as regular goods and services when they enacted the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Here, there are legal rights of remediation if the digital items came through faulty like a bug-ridden game, including situations where a feature in that program and was part of the description doesn’t work. This even encompasses situations that may come about if the host device crashed due to a buggy program; as well as assurance of access continuity if the service provider’s equipment went AWOL.

There needs to be a similar level of protection for small businesses and community organisations when it comes to the supply of technology so that these users have the same level of protection as the ordinary consumer. This is because these kind of users will purchase goods in the same manner as the ordinary consumer, including purchasing “residential-rated” goods due to the limited know-how of their staff / volunteers and their budget. As well, they don’t have continual access to legal resources in the same manner that a big business would have, so they wouldn’t be in a position to have supply contracts properly assessed. This also applies to people who are running “micro-businesses” from their home for such activities like blogging / small-time journalism, Web-site development, cleaning services and the like.

Another issue that has to be raised is supply of these goods and services across national borders, which is something that is very common with digitally-supplied goods and services. What would happen if a piece of downloaded software that was bought from an American supplier by a Briton failed or if a British software developer supplied a balky WordPress theme to an Australian blogger?

What I see of this law is for a major jurisdiction to bring the spirit of proper consumer protection normally enjoyed with physical goods to digitally-supplied goods and encompass it under one statute. Jurisdictions that work to the Westminster style of government, like most of the British Commonwealth countries, may find this legislation easier to implement with very few changes.

Article

There is an effort to see these in-room phones earn their keep further

How guestroom phones have become multipurpose tools | Hotel Management

My Comments

This article has highlighted how the phone in a hotel room has earnt its keep. Primarily, this was seen by a hotel or motel as a revenue-generating device because of the local, long-distance and international calls placed by guests. It is even though guests who wanted to save money used services that allowed calls to be charged against prepaid cards, one’s own telephone account or credit cards; or made a brief call and asked the respondent to call them at the hotel.

This was taken further with guests carrying their own smartphones where they (or their employer / business) picked up the tab for the calls, along with VoIP services of the Skype or Viber ilk that offered voice or video calls for free.

But these phones still earn their place in the hotel room. Commonly they are used to contact hotel services like Housekeeping, the Front Desk or the restaurant to facilitate dinner bookings or in-room dining. For some older people or those at risk of strokes, diabetic comas or seizures, the phone can be used as part of an “are-you-OK” arrangement, something that has been of benefit for me. This also leads to these phones serving as a “preferred emergency contact point” because of it relating to the room you are calling from.

Increasingly hotels are deploying smartphone apps to allow you to facilitate these services in a more “express” manner and these work alongside the apps that run on the in-room iPads. Young people do use these apps but the in-room phone still serves as a fallback if you need to ask further questions or convey further details. this fallback applies if your smartphone’s battery dies or you want to use it for another activity.

But the phone suppliers are realising now that these phones can do more than just be a telephone extension. Traditionally, they offered a phone that has a built-in AM/FM clock radio but they are taking it further by integrating USB charging ports for your gadgets and / or Bluetooth speakers for music playback and speakerphone functionality.

What can be done to improve on these phones?

One way to improve on them in the hotel context is to have a site-configured Bluetooth device identity that reflects the hotel name and your room number. This would make it easier to identify what you are pairing your smartphone to.

Similarly, there will be an expectation for increased synergy amongst all of the technology within a hotel room including the devices a guest brings along with them and this synergy will be primarily room-focused. For example, it could be desired to pair your smartphone to the hotel room’s phone then have your music that you have on your phone play through the TV’s speakers for better and louder sound.

To some extent, USB connectivity can also be about adding functionality to these phones such as serving as an audio device or USB hub for computing devices.

Conclusion

What really is happening is that although it becomes so easy to write off certain technology due to other technology supplanting it, such technology can still serve a complementary role. This is important if we look at the devices beyond what they current do and look at what they can do.

Article

Samsung launches IoT Access Point to target the B2B market | SamMobile

My Comments

A device trend that is surfacing is for wireless access points or routers to also be network bridges for Zigbee, Z-Wave and/or Bluetooth wireless device networks.

A good example of this is the latest iteration of the Almond Securifi routers which work as network hubs and bridges for Zigbee and/or Z-Wave home-automation wireless networks. But Samsung has joined the party by offering an 802.11ac wireless access point targeted at large business networks, that is also a network bridge for the Zigbee and Bluetooth wireless network technologies.

The Samsung access point, along with the Almond Securifi routers are answering a new design call to work with the Internet Of Things which is primarily driven by the concept of so-called sensor networks. This is where you have sensors scattered around a location to measure factors like temperature, light level, presence and movement of personnel amongst other things and this will be used for aggregate data measurement or to actuate various control devices.

At the moment, Zigbee, Z-Wave and Bluetooth especially Bluetooth LE (Bluetooth Smart) will still exist as wireless network platforms used for these applications because these platforms are very thrifty when it comes to battery runtime. This is considered important for the Internet Of Things because these devices will be expected to run on a couple of AA or AAA Duracells or a coin battery for six months at least.thus not requiring much in the way of maintenance.

Personally, I would see wireless network infrastructure devices acquire this feature as a product differentiator but would rather that they work with all Zigbee, Z-Wave and Bluetooth devices including network hubs in a vendor-independent manner. This includes being able to work either as a network bridge or, in the case of consumer and small-business routers, work as IoT network hubs.

Nomad RoadTrip

Article

The First USB-C Car Charger Also Throws In A Backup Battery | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

Nomad

RoadTrip Car Charger (Product Page)

MOS ReachGo Battery Bank

Article

The First USB-C Battery That Can Charge A Laptop At Full Speed | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

MOS

Reach Go (Product Page)

My Comments

Two companies have put forward power supply accessories which implement the new USB Type-C connector along with the USB Type-A connector.This is to capitalise on the newer phones, tablets and laptops that will be equipped with this new USB connector and provide a future-proof setup

The MOS ReachGo which is the first external battery pack to implement USB Type-C connectivity is similar to most USB battery packs although it is a slimline device. It has two USB Type-C and 2 USB Type-A connections with the ability for it to work as a USB 3.0 hub. It capitalises on the USB Type-C standard by being able to charge up a MacBook Air at full speed courtesy of its 15000mAh battery.

The Nomad RoadTrip is the first USB car charger of the kind that plugs in to your vehicle’s 12-volt accessory socket or cigar-lighter socket to implement USB Type-C connectivity. This unit provides 2.1A each to both the USB Type-C and USB Type-A sockets and has an integrated 3000mAh battery pack so it doubles as an external battery pack for your thirsty smartphone. It would most likely be able to work well with most mobile devices but may not provide the power to charge up a laptop like the MacBook Air.

It is worth knowing that you can use the Type-C connectivity on these chargers with your existing USB device if you use a USB Type-C adaptor cable. Out of the two, I would find that the MOS ReachGo battery pack as being one that shows promise for the Type-C capabilities.

Hi Siri! Siri – the first of the mobile personal-assistant software

First there was Apple with Siri, then Google with Google Now, then Microsoft with Cortana (not that Ford car of the 1970s). Now Facebook has jumped in on the act with M. What is this about?

We are talking of “personal-assistant” software that uses artificial intelligence and natural-language processing along with access to locally-stored and Web-hosted resources to answer questions.They also implement machine learning to fine-tune themselves to how you operate in life. Depending on the software, you may pose these questions by talking to the device or typing in the question. They will reply either by text or, if they implement speech technology, by voice. In some cases, you could ask the “personal-assistant” software to get the ball rolling for a hotel, restaurant or journey booking or product purchase.

Some of these programs provide API hooks to other programs and Web services either to learn from or pass commands to them so you could, for example, ask Google Now or Cortana to get Shazam to identify a particular song playing on the radio. These APIs may be passed to select programs as determined by the personal-assistant software vendor or may be widely available to every third-party app developer.

OK Google – Google Now as an Android widget

Initially this class of software was bound to a particular operating system but it is less becoming the case especially with Google Now, Cortana and Facebook M. Rather you can use these assistants at least on the major mobile platforms. Let’s not forget that these assistants are showing up on regular desktop and laptop computers with Microsoft rolling out Cortana for Windows 10 desktop use and Apple working on having Siri in an upcoming version of MacOS X.

Hey Cortana – Cortana which is the first of these intelligent personal assistants for regular-computer use

What do I see of this competition? Personally, the proliferation may be focused on tying a natural-language personal-assistant experience to be centric to particular platforms and aps even if your computing life is multi-platform. But it could then lead to different personal-assistant programs that are focused on particular experiences, beliefs and ideals so that the experience is more in tune with who you are, what you believe and what you like. For example, a media company could create a personal-assistant program based on their media properties like ESPN creating a personal-assistant program centered around their sports channels but learning who your favourite leagues, teams and competitors are.

But I would rather that these platforms focus on a level of modularity where you can interlink them with particular information sources and apps and give them the kind of functionality that you desire yet keeping your data private. As well, this will assure that users can use a single interface point rather than switching between interface points according to what they are after.

Article

The future of the tablet is the PC | CNET

My Comments

The 10″ tablet faces stiff competition nowadays

The 8”-10” tablet like the Apple iPad and its peers is facing competition from many different angles.

Firstly, it is considered a venerable portable computing device class that suits most reading tasks including Web browsing, social-network interaction, email management and the like along with casual gaming, video viewing and the like. In a lot of situations, there isn’t much need to upgrade to newer models, except if the idea is to purchase a newer model so someone else can use the existing tablet. This is very similar to the colour television set that was based on solid-state electronics where this device was brought to a point where it can serve most people’s needs effectively and reliably for a long time and manufacturers worked on ways to improve the higher end of the market.

The phablet-style smartphone becomes the norm – fits in your hand easily

This device is facing competition from the 5”-6” smartphone or “phablet” phone with these phones becoming the norm for a highly-portable reading device. They are displacing highly-compact smartphones like the original iPhones along with the 7” “coat-pocket” tablets like the iPad Mini. This is because their size is very similar to a pocket calculator of the high-end scientific or financial type which had a large surface area with plenty of buttons for direct access to the formulae and functions that mattered.

The 2-in-one like this Lenovo Yoga Pro family offers competition to the tablet

Another device that is causing competition to these tablets is the so-called “2-in-1” which becomes either a laptop computer or a tablet depending on how you fold over the keyboard or whether you attach a detachable keyboard. The 11” variants like the Microsoft Surface family offer a size that suits tablet use but may be too small for intense document-creation activity whereas the 13” variants may be too large to work as a personal tablet but earn their keep for creating documents. This is although some tablet users are using Bluetooth or USB keyboards including the tablet cases that come with integral keyboards with their tablets to speed up text entry.

There have been the doubters who thought these devices would flounder during the early years of mobile computing. One of these was Apple’s Tim Cook who described the 2-in-1s as crossbreeding a fridge and toaster in 2012 and another was the Dell Streak which was one of the first 5” phablets that was panned by consumers and critics in 2010. These were made at the time when the market wasn’t really ready for these classes of devices and was grappling with the platform smartphones and tablets.

The AMOLED-equipped Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablets fit for previewing digital images

Apple and Samsung are looking at exploring other market niches for their mobile-platform tablets while keeping venerable product categories alive. One area they are working on is to launch mobile-platform tablets that have a screen size of 13” or above. This may be seen as a way to snap at the heels of the 13” 2-in-1 of the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro ilk or the regular laptop computer where these computers are based on Windows or MacOS X which are “regular-computer” operating systems rather than mobile operating systems.

Other market niches worth exploring would include use in the business context including high-durability tablets for those doing construction / outdoors work. Similarly,tablets can be purposed to particular user groups like those of us who work in the graphics arts or those who enjoy advanced gaming. An example of this could be the Samsung Galaxy Tab S family with the AMOLED displays that excel on contrast making them fit for previewing photographs.

Article

Wow, Samsung’s New 16 Terabyte SSD Is the World’s Largest Hard Drive | Gizmodo

My Comments

Samsung has released a solid-state storage device with the world’s largest capacity for a fixed-storage device.

This is in the form of a 2.5” 16Tb solid-state drive that is based around 256Gb NAND flash-memory dies rather than the usual 128Gb dies. At the moment, this drive, which has an asking price of approximately US$5000 to US$7000 will end up in enterprise and datacenter applications.

But it shows what a high-capacity solid-state drive in the order of 16Tb could be about. For example, it could be feasible for manufacturers to offer desktop and laptop computers with a solid-state drive that excels on performance, power consumption / battery runtime and storage capacity. It would also appeal to a situation where we will end up keeping a lot of data such as a 4K UHDTV movie collection or RAW “digital-negative” image files.

Other application classes I see this benefiting include digital cameras, camcorders and audio recorders where the goal is to see a compact device that can be used to acquire a lot of material for a long time without running out of battery power.