Author: simonmackay

First Australian NBN site – a success

News article

NBN rollout in Tasmania a success, Conroy says – Yahoo!7

My comments

From this article that I had read, I was pleased that Australia had moved on to its first “next-generation broadband” deployment successfully. Most people may scoff at this success being due to a small town where there isn’t many subscribers or the town being in a politically-sensitive neighbourhood in Tasmania.

But I always find that the real test is what happens over the coming years as more people take up the next-generation broadband service and as the service gets used. Issues that will be observed will be whether the use will outgrow the available bandwidth and wither the service is likely to fail over the long term.

In most of the situations were a new technology becomes available, the people who are “first off the block” to take it on are the “early-adopters” who are well-educated, have a good income and have a strong interest in new technologies. They tend to make more use of the Internet and at this time, their heavy use will move off the main broadband infrastructure and most people who use the regular ADSL or cable services in that area will then start to notice better quality-of-service.

It will also be interesting to notice what will happen when the next towns get lit up for the National Broadband Network and also whether the householders in the towns will prepare their home networks for this next-generation service. I have written a good article on this site about preparing for next-generation broadband.

Similarly, it will be interesting to know whether subscribers in these towns will have their landline telephony moved to IP technology and will watch regular TV via the National Broadband Network. As well, it would be interesting to know whether the arrival of the National Broadband Network at these small towns will increase economic growth in these towns, whether through creating a business hub or “Silicon Valley” in these areas.

HomeNetworking01.info – 1 year young

A summary post of the year in review for home and small-business Information Technology

Technological Changes and Events

Arrival of Windows 7 and MacOS X “Snow Leopard”

Windows 7 and Macintosh “Snow Leopard” have been primarily “under-the-hood” reworks of the operating systems in order to make them perform in an optimum manner on today’s hardware. This has led to both of them being fine-tuned to work properly with the latest Intel-architecture processors, both the 32-bit versions and the 64-bit versions.

The main benefit is that Windows has been brought up to the same performance expectation as the Macintosh platform especially when it come to graphics and multimedia tasks. This also has affected the industrial design of Windows-based computer hardware where the computer systems, especially portable computers (laptops, notebooks and netbooks) and “all-in-one” computers which have the computing power integrated with the LCD screen, are aesthetically on a par with or overtaking the Apple Macintosh computers, especially the MacBook portable computers and the iMac all-in-one units.

There will still be the Macintosh users who crave the glowing Apple logo on the back of the computer but an increasing number of these users are still considering the Windows 7 platform.

The rise of the netbook

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook

This year has seen the netbook become a significant computing option. These compact portable computers run on a processor like the Intel Atom platform, use a screen of up to 11” and have as their secondary storage a hard disk of up to 160Gb and a memory card reader but no optical-disk drive. As far as networking is concerned, they will usually have Wi-Fi wireless networking at least and may also have wireless broadband connectivity built in to them. These grew out of the “One Laptop Per Child” project where the goal was to provide portable computers to children in underdeveloped communities, especially the Third World, to assist with their education.

They are now being seen as being of value to computer users who have a desktop, larger laptop or “all-in-one” as a secondary computer for use when travelling or for computer users who consider that their only needs are word-processing, email and Web surfing. They also have become of value to “hotspot surfers” who make regular visits to cafes, bars and similar locations where a wireless hotspot exists.

Apple iPad and the arrival of the consumer tablet computer

Another significant technological event that had happened this year was Apple launching the iPad. This is a touch-sensitive portable computing device about the size of an average magazine and is supported by an electronic book and periodical library provided by Apple’s iTunes infrastructure.

It has attracted a lot of curiosity and interest from consumers, publishers and competitors alike and there has been interest in it being a platform for delivering books, newspapers, magazines and other printed material. It has been taken further with the concept of rich media and video as part of illustrations in the electronic publications.

Of course, competitors have answered the device in different ways. One was to provide low-cost touch-enabled convertible notebooks including “netvertibles” which are touch-enabled convertible netbooks. These units would run the Windows 7 Home Premium operating system or another “tablet-form” operating system. Another was to provide touch-enabled “tablet” computers that run Android or another competing consumer-electronics operating system. They would also run “front-ends” for various electronic-publishing platforms like Amazon and / or provide PDF reading functionality.

The ultra-cool Apple iPhone faces serious competition

Google had officially released the Android embedded-device operating system and this led to the arrival of touch-enabled smartphones from HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson which were able to effectively compete with the Apple iPhone. This operating system was backed by an application development environment and on-phone “app store” that gave developers more freedom to do what they want with their applications.

Similarly, Samsung had developed Bada, which was their own touchscreen smartphone platform and supplied a number of smartphones that ran on this platform. Other smartphone platform designers like RIM, Symbian and Microsoft had prepared touchscreen smartphone platforms and app-store environments that were able to compete with Android and the Apple iPhone platform.

The arrival of the competing platforms had occurred concurrently with an increased developer dissatisfaction with the way Apple handled iPhone apps for sale through through the iPhone App Store. This dissatisfaction has also been intensified by the “found iPhone 4 prototype” saga which engulfed the Gizmodo blog circa May and June, where Apple wanted to haul that blog and one of its reporters “over the coals” because they were perceived to be spying on their trade secrets.

Next generation broadband

Another major technological change that has happened over this year was the arrival of next-generation broadband in an increasing number of countries with the most progressive rollouts being in UK, France and Germany.

This is a category of broadband service that gives network bandwidths of at least 10Mbps to the customer’s door. Most such services use a backhaul that is primarily fibre-optic cable but there are some that use fibre-optic cable to the customer’s door whereas others use copper-based technology, usually VDSL2 which is a fast version of ADSL2 optimised for short runs.

Major promises that have been offered with this technology include the delivery of IP-based TV services that provide many streamed or on-demand channels of high-definition video as well as IP-based voice and video telephony with the voice service at the sound-quality equivalent of FM radio.

TV content delivered over the Internet

This leads me to an increased interest being shown by broadcasters, Internet service providers and the consumer-electronics industry in delivering TV content via the Internet. This encompasses content streamed in real-time to the end-user in the traditional broadcast context and video-on-demand content able to be drawn down by the end-user for immediate viewing or storage on a hard disk local to the end-user’s home.

Some European countries are using this technique to provide free-to-air TV and pay TV through “triple-play” Internet services. But the technology is being considered in the USA and Australia as an alternative to pay TV. This is being considered more so in the US especially during the Financial Crisis because of a desire to save money by “cutting the cord” – disconnecting from cable TV and is augmented by the fact that a lot of Americans are becoming disenfranchised by their cable-TV providers.

TV over Internet has been augmented by the development of the Google TV platform and consumer-electronics manufacturers developing their “online-TV” platforms that are part of their TVs and Blu-Ray players. These platforms include a front-end to various video-on-demand or IPTV services as well as social-Web services like Facebook and Twitter. Even Panasonic, LG and Samsung have integrated Skype in to their TV platforms and provided support for a Webcam so that their TVs become a large-screen communal videophone of the kind only dreamed of in science fiction.

As well, companies like TiVo and Sony are proposing that the FCC (the communications regulator in the USA) implement a standards-driven “broadcast-IP” way of delivering premium TV services, both broadcast and on-demand, to the networked home. This is to be considered as a preferred alternative to the status quo of delivering pay-TV where the signal is delivered from the cable-TV infrastructure or satellite dish to set-top boxes that are leased from the pay-TV provider at each viewing location. The DLNA-driven setup would provide for viewing and recording of regular broadcasts, viewing of on-demand content as well as use of interactive TV using equipment purchased by the consumer and supporting the ability to have the user experience branded by the equipment’s designer for example.

On this site

Naming change from cumbersome name to simple HomeNetworking01.info name

This site used to be known as the “Home Networking Information And Discussion Blog” but has been rebranded to an easily-remembered “HomeNetworking01.info” brand. This reflects the actual URL address for this site rather than the URL referring to a cumbersomely-worded site name.

As well, the site isn’t just pitched as a blog. With all the many feature articles and product reviews, this site is positioned as an information portal for home and small-business information technology.

Plenty of reviews

Over the past year, I had built up strong relationships with various names in the consumer and small-business IT scene in order to review network-enabled equipment for this class of user. I have focused on equipment that can be managed by the user themselves, especially that the householder or small-business owner is likely to be the one who manages all of the equipment rather than relying on dedicated staff or outside contractors.

I have reviewed network-based media players that support UPnP AV media playback as a standard. This encompasses the Internet radios that I have reviewed here because they are able to fulfil the role of a network media player as well as an Internet radio.

It has been dominated by a lot of table radios, mostly made by Revo; plus one Pure Evoke Flow portable radio and a Sony home-theatre receiver that was primarily a network media player.

I have also reviewed plenty of network-enabled printers, primarily multi-function printers with or without integrated fax functionality that are targeted at either home users including home-office users, or small-business users. This was to work with the theme of how you can take advantage of your small network but also to show people that there are printers out there that are capable of being there “for the long haul” rather than those el-cheapo specials that cost as much to replenish with ink or toner as they do to by and have a very short service life.

Most of these were Hewlett-Packard printers that covered most of the “good-quality” home and small-business market but I had reviewed two of the Canon “home-office” PIXMA fax-enabled multifunction printers. I had also reviewed a Brother network-capable all-in-one printer with fax functionality that could scan from or print on A3 or US-Ledger paper.

I have not forgotten about the laptop, notebook or netbook computer being a centrepiece of the “new computing environment”. Here, I have reviewed a range of machines that suit different usage types like users who have the laptop as their sole computing device as well as users who have a desktop or larger portable computer and want to have a portable computer primarily for use while they travel.

I have reviewed a number of Dell and HP notebooks but am diversifying to other brands, especially as I am starting to review Sony’s VAIO lineup of portable computers.

More feature articles

As the 802.11n wireless-network standard was declared “final”, I had written an article about understanding this new standard and selecting the right equipment for the home or small-business network. This includes catering for older equipment that operates on the 802.11g standard.

I had also written an article on understanding and optimising a HomePlug powerline network in order to gain best value out of the technology. This also includes using HomePlug to extend network coverage out to outbuildings in larger properties, especially where a remote building like a cabin may be wired from another outbuilding like a garage that is closer to and wired from the main house. It also encompassed deploying a HomePlug AV network in to a premises which has a legacy HomePlug 1.0 Turbo network already in place.

Not forgetting the shops and other small businesses

The HomeNetworking01,info site is also targeted at shops and other small businesses who have the business owner being the business’s IT staff. In a lot of cases, these businesses can easily end up making mistakes by not understanding IT trends that come about to them or by buying cheaper poor-quality computing equipment that doesn’t suit their needs exactly.

I had written a buyer’s guide article about understanding IP-based video-surveillance systems because most businesses who actually run or are contemplating installing a closed-circuit TV setup may be talked in to buying one of these systems. As well, I had written an article about using UPnP AV / DLNA technology in the small business whether to play music or use one of the recent Samsung or Sony DLNA-enabled LCD TVs as part of a digital-signage effort.

Similarly, I have reviewed a number of fax-equipped multifunction printers that would be considered fit for small businesses like the Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 6500 and LaserJet M1210 Series as well as the Brother MFC-6490CW A3-capable unit as well as two single-function printers from the Hewlett-Packard stable – the OfficeJet 7000 A3-capable inkjet network printer and a direct-connect LaserJet  P1560 monochrome laser unit suitable for doctors’ offices, motels and the like. Of course, there are businesses who may need to make short-run promotional material that is to be printed on A3 paper or who need to print material like ledgers and charts on to A3 paper for easier reading or mounting on a wall or noticeboard. I have reviewed a couple of network-connected printers that can do this job at a cost-effective price, one being the previously-mentioned Brother all-in-one and the other being an HP OfficeJet 7000 single-function wide-carriage printer.

As for laptop computers, I have reviewed an HP ProBook 4520 business-grade unit that is best used by business owners who take the computer between their business’s shopfront and their home office. I have also reviewed netbook and subnotebook computers for people to use as “traveller” computers that are secondary to a desktop or larger notebook computer.

Expect a lot more

As the new technologies are introduced through the coming year, especially as countries increase the deployment of “next-generation” single-pipe triple-play wireline broadband and more people take up wireless broadband, there will be a lot more coverage in this site.

As well, as each year yields a new technology for release to the home, SOHO or small-business market, I will be covering these technologies by explaining what is involved when buying equipment based on them. There will of course be more articles concerning the online life and other plans that are afoot concerning this technology.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY

HOMENETWORKING01.INFO

Processor Chipsets with built-in Graphics

 

BBC News – Intel to launch chipsets with built-in graphics

My comments

With Intel now showing interest in supplying a processor chip with an integrated graphics processor, this will raise the stakes when it comes to supplying single-chip CPU / GPU solutions.

Why supply a single-chip CPU/GPU solution

There is the obvious benefit in design size that it would yield. This would of course allow for more compact applications and, of course, the bill-of-materials costs would be reduced thus allowing for cheaper devices. Another key benefit would be that the single-chip solution would have reduced power needs, which is important for battery-operated devices like laptops, tablet computers and, especially, smartphones.

There is also the reality that most consumer electronics devices like electronic picture frames, digital cameras, TVs / video peripherals and hi-fi equipment are being designed like the general-purpose computers and most of them will also benefit from these CPU/GPU chips. This has become evident with most of these devices offering network and Internet connectivity in a way to augment their primary function or beyond that primary function.  They will also yield the reduced “bill-of-materials” costs and the reduced power demands for this class of device which will become a market requirement.

Similarly, an increasing number of office equipment / computer peripherals, home appliances and “backbone” devices (HVAC / domestic-hot-water, building safety / security, etc) are becoming increasingly sophisticated and offering a huge plethora of functions. I had noticed this more so with the multifunction printers that I have reviewed on this site where most of them use a colour bitmap LCD display and a D-toggle control as part of their user interfaces.

Therefore manufacturers who design these devices can benefit from these single-chip CPU/graphics solutions in order to support these requirements through reduced supporting-power requirements or design costs. In the case of “backbone” devices which typically require the uses to operate them from remotely-located user-interface panels i.e. programmable thermostats or codepads, there isn’t the need to require too much power from the host device to support one or more of these panels even if the panel is to provide access to extended functions.

The market situation

The Intel Sandy Bridge which is just about to be launched at the time of publication, would provide improved graphics. This is in a market which AMD has just entered with their Zacate CPU / graphics chip and been dominated by ARM who have been involved in the smartphone scene. This firm’s design was infact used as part of the Apple A4 chip used in the iPhone 4 and iPad.

With three companies in the market, this could yield a highly-competitive environment with a run for high-quality quickly-drawn graphics, quick CPU response, power conservation / long battery runtime and small circuit size / reduced bill-of-materials. This may also yield a “run for the best” which also yields desirable functionality being available at prices that most people can afford.

The only limitation with this concept is that the single-chip design may make the market for discrete graphics chipsets and cards only for people who value extreme-performance graphics.

Conclusion

The reduced size of these new single-chip CPU/GPU setups could replicate the success of what has happened with the arrival of the 80486 processor with its integrated floating-point coprocessor. It could then make for a longer battery runtime for portable applications and lead to smaller cooler-running computers for most applications.

IFA Internationaler Funkaustellung 2010 Comments

IFA LogoI have previously published a separate article about the Internationaler Funkaustellung, celebrating the 50th edition of this show and “positioning” it as a pillar when it comes to consumer-electronics technology in Europe. In that article, I have also positioned it alongside the Consumer Electronics Show hosted in Las Vegas every January as a key consumer-technology event, especially whenever new technologies are being launched or commercialised. 

From the various press reports that I have read, it appears that the industry sees the European consumer-electronics and domestic appliance market as being very stable even through the Financial Crisis. 

Appliances

Since 2008, the IFA have been exhibiting domestic appliances and there is still the desire for energy efficient appliances that are easy to use and make less noise during use. 

Again, there hasn’t been any innovations concerning home-automation or security equipment shown at this exhibition. Nor has there been any activity concerning “backbone” heating or domestic-hot-water equipment. This may also be due to such equipment being provided by building owners rather than by householders. 

White-goods

There have been a few innovations concerning large appliances. This is mainly in the form of an automatic “as-needed” detergent dispensing mechanism for washing machines. 

But the main technology that this site is looking forward to is for Miele and Liebherr to release appliances that work tightly with the “smart grid”. The “smart grid” uses automatic meter reading and “time-of-use” pricing to encourage optimum use of electricity. It also integrates “demand-side load management” so that certain loads can be run with less power drain during peak power-usage times as well as support for “reverse metering” for client-managed power-generation installations like solar panels. 

In Miele’s case, their washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers can be set to commence their cycle during the time that the electricity rates are lowest. In Liebherr’s case, their refrigerator can run the freezer at a colder temperature during the time that the electricity rates are lowest so that the freezer becomes an “ice-block” thus avoiding the need to run as much during the day. 

Small-goods

This class of appliance has been mainly focused on lifestyle but there haven’t been any major innovations here. Still, the coffee machine is considered integral to most people’s lifestyle and there is still two different platforms (Nespresso and Senseo) existing for capsule-based espresso machines. 

Now this is where the real activity starts. 

Real competition to the Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and iTunes

This year, IFA 2010 has taken the shine off Apple’s face with the arrival of effective competition to the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and iTunes. This has mainly come in the form of Android-powered smartphones and tablet-style computers being supplied by different manufacturers. 

The event organisers even created a special show area for companies involved in the tablet-computing market to show their wares, whether through hardware, software or accessories. 

Samsung used this year’s IFA to launch the Galaxy Tab device which has an AMOLED display, Wi-Fi networking capability, 3G wireless broadband and has integrated memory capacity of 16Gb. They are also putting more effort behind the Android platform even though they have their hands in other smartphone platforms like Bada and Windows Phone 7. This is while other manufacturers like Lenovo and Toshiba presented devices for launch at a later time. Hanspree also fielded an LED-backlit LCD tablet computer which, like most of iPad’s competitors, is Android-powered. As well, ViewSonic had offered the ViewPad 100 which the first dual-boot tablet computer to run Android or Windows 7. 

As far as smartphones go, there is an increase in the number of Android-powered touchscreen smartphones even though Microsoft took Windows Phone 7 to the final “gold” stage where manufacturers can roll with phones based on that platform. But on September 5, LG had exhibited the Optimus 7 smartphone prototype which was powered by Windows Phone 7 and was demoing it working as a DLNA media control point application that was used to differentiate the phone from other handsets running the same platform. 

At the same time, the Apple iPod Touch has found a legitimate competitor in the form of the Philips GoGear Connect. This is a touchscreen-operated multifunction Internet device that runs on the Android platform. Similarly, Samsung have provided an iPod Touch competitor with their Galaxy Player 50. This device is styled similarly to their Galaxy-series Android smartphones in a similar vein to how the iPod Touch and the iPhone were styled. 

Sony has also answered iTunes as a content store by offering Qriocity as an online-content-retail platform. 

Apple tried to answer this competitive environment by staging their own product-launch event that was ran concurrent with the IFA. This is where they launched iTunes 10 which was a major revision featuring their own social network and extending the AirTunes concept which worked with AirPort Express to select AV-device manufacturers like Denon and rebranding it AirPlay. They also launched a revised iPod Touch which has many of the traits of the iPhone 4 and rolled out a major refresh of iOS 4. 

There has been a fair bit of activity in the “dedicated” e-reader market mainly from Acer, who were fielding their Lumiread e-reader and Sony who were fielding three readers. 

3D and network action in the TV market

2010 is the year of TV innovations 

2010 ist Jahr der Fernsehinnovationen 

 

Der Standard (Austria) described this year’s IFA 2010 as “2010 is the year of TV innovations” (“2010 ist Jahr der Fernsehinnovationen” – original German language). 

This year is also a major technological-improvement year for the main-lounge-area TV. Here, there has been a major effort in commercialising 3D TV and Internet-enabled TV. Most manufacturers are running at least one 3DTV range and running two or three TV ranges with network and Internet functionality. This is because the market is demanding 3D playback and / or online video functionality out of main-lounge-area TV sets or video peripherals. 

There is even the possibility of MSI introducing a 3D-capable laptop computer. As well,Viewsonic is to use the show to launch a 3D photo frame, camera, camcorder and portable TV as part of cashing in on the 3D craze. As well, Sony had launched a 3D home-cinema projector but would this unit need a special screen and Panasonic has also fielded a high-end camcorders capable of 3D when used with an optional attachment lens. 

At the moment, most 3D TVs and active-shutter glasses only work together if they are from the same manufacturer, but what needs to happen is for a standard communications protocol to be established so that it becomes feasible for 3D screens from one manufacturer to work with active-shutter glasses from another manufacturer. This can allow for concepts like glasses that “look the part” for the wearer or the ability to make active-shutter glasses to an optical prescription so you don’t have to wear them over your prescription glasses. 

The Internet-TV function is based upon the TVs having an Ethernet socket and, dependent on the set, 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless network functionality whether integrated or as a plug-in dongle. They will work on a manufacturer-driven platform to provide streamed or on-demand local content via the Internet infrastructure, although some manufacturers, namely Sony, are implementing Google as an Internet-TV platform. Of course, most of these sets will support DLNA media streaming from the home network if you use your home network’s NAS device to store TV shows. 

This has been augmented by the HbbTV “broadcast-broadband” hybrid TV standard being set in stone by the European standards bodies. This will also lead to Internet content and broadcast TV content being delivered to the same screen at the same time and can cater for highly-interactive viewing setups. It has also been encouraged by most of the European ISPs and telecoms carriers offering IPTV services as part of their triple-play Internet services. 

Philips have released a DLNA-capable 3D-Blu-Ray “home-theatre-in-box” system that has 5 satellite speakers and 1 subwoofer but is able reproduce a sound-field of 9.1 channels. This has been achieved through the satellite speakers being equipped with diffuse drivers to make the sound envelope the listeners.  They hava also made sure that this year’s range of 3D Blu-Ray players are DLNA capable with the BDP9600 being equipped with integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi. 

Other AV technology

Acer have achieved the slimmest desktop monitors around with their 13mm thick LED-backlit LCD units. As well, South Korea’s LG had shown the EL9500 which is a 31” OLED TV and are releasing a DLNA-ready 3DTV which uses nano-LED backlighting. 

Samsung have also continued to push out another compact digital camera which can submit photos to DLNA home networks. 

For Denon, this show marks their 100th anniversary and they were using it to launch a set of limited-edition hi-fi components. 

Telefunken have come back to the hi-fi scene with a handful of component-style systems. One of these systems, designed like the legendary Telefunken units of the 1970s, is designed to be part of the home network and also picks up Internet radio. They are also offering an Android-powered set-top box for the German market. 

Fraunhofer IIS had previewed their TA2 (Together Anywhere Together Anytime) technology. This technology allows for  HD-grade pictures and CD-grade sound for videoconferencing with H.264 video codec and AAC-ELD (Enhanced Low Delay AAC) audio codec. It could be supportive of large-screen TVs with integrated camera and microphone for videoconferencing like the recent Skype-enabled TVs that Panasonic, LG and Samsung had released. 

Conclusion

At least this year has become one of those big years that has concerned consumer technology and yielded many innovations. It has encouraged real competition against Apple when it comes to handheld computing devices and has provided a standard level playing field when it comes to Internet-assisted interactive TV.

Preparing for next-generation broadband

In most countries, there is interest in setting up most of the densely-populated areas for a form of next-generation broadband Internet service. This will typically provide at least 10Mbps, if not 30Mbps or 100Mbps which will be more than double what your typical ADSL or cable broadband service will provide.

Key features that are being promoted alongside these services include the reliable streaming or downloading of high-definition TV content to many TV sets in the house as well as VoIP telephony, which will include FM-grade telephone conversations or reliable videophone conversations that are beyond the realm of science fiction. The VoIP telephony features will also work alongside remote-terminal setups and other telepresence setups to allow knowledge workers and management workers to work from home, thus eliminating the need to travel in order to commute to work.

One main issue that may affect your home network is making sure it is ready for the next-generation broadband service. This is by preparing the infrastructure for high-bandwidth data throughput and setting up a router that can work with the next-generation broadband technologies like VDSL2 or fibre-to-the-premises.

Upgrading your router to next-generation broadband

The next-generation broadband service will use different connection methods to what you are using now. This will either be fibre-to-the-home or VDSL2 via phone lines and will require a different kind of modem. In some cases, this modem may be provided by your “next-generation” Internet service provider as part of the deal or at extra cost. Some of these service providers may sell a broadhand router that has an integrated modem for the broadband connection as well as router functionality. There is also an increased likelihood for these devices to support VoIP analogue-telephony-adaptor functionality because these services will also be about VoIP telephony.

If you have an ADSL modem router, its ADSL functions will become redundant under this environment unless it has an Ethernet WAN (broadband) connection option. This function may be available in a few recently-issued high-end units either as an Ethernet socket that can be configured to be a LAN socket or WAN (Internet) socket; or as a dedicated Ethernet WAN socket.

When you buy your next Internet router for this technology, the WAN (Internet) side of the router should offer a Gigabit Ethernet connection so you can use it with fibre-to-the-premises setups where you have an “optical-network terminal” modem; fibre-to-the-curb or fibre-to-the-building setups that use Ethernet-to-the-customer copper-cable runs or other connection methods that use a Gigabit Ethernet socket. It may be worth keeping your eyes peeled for “dual-mode” DSL modem routers that work with ADSL setups or VDSL2 “next-generation” setups when you upgrade your ADSL router.

It also may be worth looking towards upgrading to a router which has 802.11n wireless and Gigabit Ethernet for LAN connectivity.  Preferably, the 802.11n wireless network should be a dual-band setup but it doesn’t have to be a dual-radio (simultaneous dual-band) setup, as I will explain later. This will allow for higher bandwidth that the next-generation broadband Internet applications will need.

As well, you may have to pay attention to how the router handles “quality-of-service” with VoIP and multimedia traffic. It is because this kind of traffic will become more prevalent on these high-bandwidth networks and other Internet use like checking on email, viewing Web sites or “download-to-disk” applications doesn’t impair the experience you have during a phone call or when you watch streamed Internet TV.

Your home network

Here, I am talking about upgrading your home or small-business local network to cope with the increased bandwidth that next-generation broadband will provide. This setup is based around the use of a Cat5 wired Ethernet segment that you may have implemented or may want to implement as part of a renovation job; a Wi-Fi wireless segment used primarily for laptops, smartphones and similar portable devices and a HomePlug powerline segment that you may use as a temporary or semi-permanent “no-new-wires” network segment.

The Cat5 Ethernet segment

If you have wired your home for Ethernet and used a regular Ethernet switch as the network’s “central” switch, now is the time to upgrade it to a Gigabit Ethernet switch. This will provide a high-speed path to devices that have Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and can provide “next-generation” speeds in to the home network. The old 10/100 switch can work well as a “spur” switch for a cluster of devices that don’t have Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

Again, it may be worth looking for a switch that also supports “quality-of’-service” when you upgrade the existing unit. This is even though most of the Ethernet switches that support this are more expensive and require you to visit a Web interface to “fiddle with knobs” to achieve this goal because they are targeted at business users who have their network and Internet managed by dedicated staff or contractors. This may be rectified over the coming years with the implementation of “logo-mandatory” specifications and standards for seamless QoS management.

If you are working on building new premises, considering renovations on your existing premises or are even just planning to rewire your existing premises to current safety expectations, now is the time to consider wiring it for Ethernet. I have written a good article on this topic in the context of new renovations, extensions or rewiring projects. At least make sure you place an Ethernet socket near every TV-antenna (aerial) socket in the house so you can cater for IPTV which will be part of the next-generation broadband environment.

The Wi—Fi wireless segment

As part of the upgrade, a wise step would be to implement 802.11n Wi-Fi in your wireless-network segment. As I have explained in the article “Understanding 802.11n High-Bandwidth Wireless Networking”, there are different varieties of access points and routers for this technology.

One way to go about this while maintaining your regular 802.11g equipment would be to set up another extended-service set with a 5.4GHz single-band access point or a dual-band router set up on 5.4GHz. The existing 802.11g router could be put in to service as an access point running the existing extended-service set. You then focus computer equipment that is equipped with dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi interfaces to the 5.4GHz 802.11n segment while equipment like smartphones, netbooks and Internet radios work on the 2.4GHz 802.11g network. The WPA security key can be the same for both Wi-Fi segments and you could have one SSID being described as <PRIMARY-SSID-54g> for the 5.4GHz segment and <PRIMARY-SSID> for the 2.4GHz 802.11g segment.

As well, the Wi-Fi equipment should support or implement WMM (Wireless Multimedia) quality-of-service “out-of-the-box” but most current equipment doesn’t support it. This is again due to uncoordinated quality-of-service signalling and quality-of-service not becoming a “logo-mandatory” requirement.

The HomePlug powerline segment

This network segment may need to be reviewed if it is going to be the primary wired carrier for all of the multimedia data that next-generation broadband Internet will deliver. This is more so if you are using a HomePlug link to provide content to a DLNA-compliant network-enabled TV set or IPTV set-top box.

Here, you would need to use a HomePlug AV segment for any multimedia applications, a temporary building-building link or as a “no-new-wires” wired backbone between access points in a multi-access-point 802.11n wireless network. This can coexist with your existing HomePlug 1.0 Turbo segment which can be used for applications like connecting Ethernet-enabled network printers to the network or maintaining a backbone for a multi-access-point 802.11g wireless network. As far as any HomePlug AV-Ethernet bridges go, you should prefer those units that have Gigabit Ethernet so as to provide proper throughput to the equipment.

The up-and-coming HomePlug AV2 standard, which allows for higher throughput, MIMO-based operation and each HomePlug AV2 device being a repeater, can allow HomePlug AV devices to become part of that segment.

Purchasing subsequent computer equipment

Any desktop or all-in-one computers or network-attached-storage equipment that you subsequently buy should support a Gigabit Ethernet connection. This issue may not be of concern if you buy relatively-new equipment but can be of concern with older secondhand desktop computers. These can be upgraded through the installation of a Gigabit Ethernet PCI or PCI-Express card in these computers, which requires at the most a small Phillips-head screwdriver to complete.

When you buy Wi-Fi-enabled equipment like laptop computers, you may need to look for equipment that has 802.11n technology. This may be a limitation if you intend to buy a secondary-use laptop or netbook which may not have this functionality or buy smartphones, Internet radios or similar devices that have integrated Wi-Fi functionality because most such devices stick to 802.11g technology to keep costs down or allow longer run-times when run on batteries. This could be worked around through the creation of a “compatibility-mode” 802.11n extended-service-set on the 2.4GHz band or establishment of an 802.11g extended-service-set with its own SSID for these devices to use.

The situation will be likely to change from this year onwards because of work being undertaken to build small-footprint low-power-requirement 802.11g/n chipsets that are optimised for battery-operated devices and manufacturers being interested in implementing the technology in their devices.

Conclusion

Once you know how to have your network ready for next-generation broadband by replacing devices that may slow down the data throughput, you are then able to take advantage of what this new technology offers.

Special Report – A Celebration of the 50th Internationaler Funkaustellung

This year is a very special year as far as one of the two annual “pillar” trade shows for consumer electronics is concerned. It is going to mark the 50th time the Internationaler Funkaustellung, the premier trade show for consumer-electronics in Europe, has been hosted. Miss IFA 2010 with 50th IFA logo

What is the Internationaler Funkaustellung?

The Internationaler Funkaustellung, also known as the IFA, is a German trade show which was primarily centred on consumer entertainment electronics but is now also focusing on major and small appliances intended for personal or domestic use. It was initially a way for Germany to show its radio technology prowess when the medium was just to become a commercial reality.

This used to be an event held between August and September of every second year but is now held annually between the same months. It had existed since 1924 but was suspended through World War II as Germany focused its efforts on the war. It was initially hosted in Berlin but was hosted in different larger cities around Germany including West Berlin even when the nation and that city was divided.

Initially, this was used by German consumer-electronics manufacturers to promote their wares and Loewe, one of the German names associated with luxurious TV sets, has been with this show ever since it started.  As the consumer-electronics scene became more international, this trade fair became more international and also became larger.

An important step in the presentation of new technology

I have seen this show in the same league as the Consumer Electronics Show in the USA as being one to watch when it came to consumer electronics. Typically, this show would be where consumer-entertainment technologies that were relevant to Europe, Australia or New Zealand were premiered or commercialised.

Micro Hi-Fi component systems at IFA 1981

Micro Hi-Fi component systems

Radio – TV – Tape Recording – Hi-Fi – Stereo Sound – FM stereo – Microgroove (LP / 45) records – Cassettes – Colour TV – Dolby NR – Teletext – Enhanced Radio Technologies (ARI traffic information priority, RDS with textual display of station metadata) Home Video – Compact Discs –Stereo TV, Hi-Fi Video and Home Theatre –  MiniDisc –  DVD – Digital Radio – Digital TV – Satellite Navigation – HDTV – 3DTV

You name it, it was either premiered or had its European commercial launch here

Teletext display at IFA 1979

Teletext - a predecessor to interactive TV

Of course, this show gave other countries like the USA a look-see in to the consumer-electronics and broadcasting technologies that were in “full swing” in Germany but weren’t being launched or given a commercial chance in the home country. One example was Teletext which allowed TV stations to transmit textual information alongside their video signal, with the end-user being able to call up the information on to the screen of a suitably-equipped TV set using its remote control. Another example was the ARI traffic-information-priority technology where a suitably-equipped car radio could be set to play traffic announcements at a louder volume than the rest of the programme material or tune for only those stations that run the announcements regularly.

Now including domestic appliances and personal care

Since 2008, the organisers had decided to make the IFA show encompass domestic appliances as well as consumer electronics. It was initially a small area of the show but this class of goods increased in its share of the show’s floor space. This even led towards the effective amalgamation of a European home-appliance trade fair with this one in 2009 with this fair become the European universe of all consumer electronic and electrical devices. This trend hasn’t been reflected in the Consumer Electronics Show in the USA, mainly because of a trade-specific fair that covers this class of goods sold in that market or other market-specific reasons.

This was symbolic of a new trend with such appliances being not just a functional element in one’s life but a stronger part of one’s lifestyle. It also included the desire for consumers to buy the major appliances that are more resource efficient, especially as governments are using tax breaks, “scrappage” / “cash-for-clunkers” schemes and similar programs like to assist in this goal.

As well, the last financial crisis has encouraged an increase in “at-home” time and the industry is taking advantage of the fact by integrating small appliances like espresso machines as a way of mimicking the environment of being “out-and-about”.

Relevance to the home and small-business IT world

Over the last ten years, the home network has become an integral part of the consumer lifestyle, especially as “always-on” broadband Internet has become commonplace and the number of multiple-computer households increases. The IFA show has then become a showground for manufacturers to exhibit devices like broadband routers and network-infrastructure equipment as well as desktop and laptop home computers.

Infact, the Wi-Fi-equipped laptop computer and the Wi-Fi wireless home network has become more important over these years thanks in part to the Intel Centrino campaign which emphasised the laptop computer being part of one’s lifestyle. Similarly, mobile phones have become Internet-enabled multi-function devices that can work either with the cellular telephony infrastructure or with a Wi-Fi network. This concept has been spurred on by the recent crop of Nokia phones and the Apple iPhone.

As well, the arrival of file-based media playback, spurred on my MP3 digital audio players, has integrated the computer and the home network as an integral part of the home entertainment system. This functionality was initially in the form of separate devices but has ended up becoming another function of regular audio and video playback hardware and has been enhanced by the use of standards-based technologies like DLNA. Therefore most consumer-electronics firms are using this show to launch or exhibit product models or ranges that feature this ability. Similarly most computer companies are exhibiting network-attached-storage devices that can hold multimedia files and share them around the house.

This concept has extended in to the realm of Internet-based broadcasting where radio or TV content can be obtained live or on-demand from a content-provider’s Website. This has made consumer electronics companies and others work out ways to bring this content forward to TV sets and hi-fi systems without an intimidating and unwieldy device or user interface.

An interesting comparison

  Exhibitors Floor Space (square metres) Visitors
1924 242 3,300 180,000
2010 1.423 134,400 230,000

 

Conclusion

IFA Logo

This is a way of celebrating how this show has become a “pillar” trade fair as far as consumer electronics and technology in the European market is concerned.

All press photos and logos are copyright of Messe Berlin GmBH.

Windows Phone 7 code now “set” – another change to the smartphone landscape

Articles

Microsoft locks down Windows Phone 7 code • The Register

Windows Phone 7 – Released To Manufacturing | Windows Team Blog (Microsoft)

My comments

The touchscreen-smartphone establishment is now feeling threatened due to Microsoft going “gold” on the Windows Phone 7 operating system. This will mean that the code is ready to roll out to the likes of HP and HTC in order to provide another competing platform for this class of device. In some ways, this platform may also work as a platform that competes with the Blackberry for business-use smartphones. This would be primarily because of the Microsoft name being of high value when it comes to traditional-business computing which is based around a fleet of information-technology devices that belong to the business and managed by IT-management staff.

It reminds me of 1984-1985 when the home computing scene matured with at least six computing platforms became established in the marketplace and this opened a path for a mature home / educational computing market. Similarly, the late 1980s saw the establishment of at least three mature mouse-driven GUI-based desktop computing platforms on the computing market. During these time periods, software developers had to know how to pitch the same application or game at different platforms. In a lot of cases, the developers had to know what the different platforms were capable of and what their programming limitations were. With some platforms like the IBM PC, they also had to know of different display, sound and input-device combinations that were available for the platform at the time.

In the case of the smartphones, the developers may run in to issues with different models on the one platform being equipped with different screen sizes and functionality levels like availability of input or output devices. Similarly they may have to make their software please the companies in charge of some platforms before they can sell the software through the platform’s software marketplace. This may affect utility applications like Wi-Fi site-survey tools or remote-control applications that may implement functionality that may be “out-of-scope” for the platform.

These next years may show which platforms will mature and stabilise to become the preferred ones for consumer, advanced-consumer and business smartphone classes.

An Android-based portable media player takes challenge at the iPod Touch

Engadget Articles

Philips GoGear Connect is a legitimate Android-based iPod touch competitor (updated) – Engadget

Philips GoGear Connect Hands-on – Engadget

My Comments

Over the last year, devices that are based on the Android operating system have challenged the Apple iPhone and iPad. Now, Philips has launched an Android-based touchscreen portable media player that can effectively compete with the Apple iPod Touch.

This unit can connect to a Wi-Fi network and download apps from the Android Market or gain access to the Web and email through the Internet. Of course, if you add Andromote on board, you can play music files from your DLNA Media Server through the GoGear or use it as a controller for your UPnP AV / DLNA Home Media Network. Similarly, you could install TwonkyServer Mobile for Android on this device and the media on there is available to the DLNA Home Media Network.

Like most Android devices, this unit supports most media codecs in use and also has other points of flexibility like a microSD card slot for extra memory or “cassette-style” media management.

The unit does have a GPS, compass and accelerometer as well as the touchscreen and trackball, which could make it become an Android-powered games machine in the same way Apple pitched the iPod Touch as an iOS-based games machine with that famous TV commercial. It does depend on what games are available at the Android Marketplace like what happens with the iPod Touch and its iTunes App Store.

If it was offered a bit more like integrated storage capacities being above that of a similarly-priced iPod Touch, this could set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Graphics chipsets: ATI is no more, AMD is now the brand

 AMD jettisons ATI brand name, makes Radeon its own – The Tech Report

My comments

Some of us who have observed what has happened with the ATI graphics chipset name was taken over by AMD and were wondering what would happen with this name and the graphics-chipset scene.

Now that AMD has changed the brand for the ATI chipsets to their own brand, who knows what could happen next especially when it comes to computer display solutions, especially integrated-display setups like in laptops, all-in-one PCs and low-profile desktop computers.

One way that the situation could evolve would be for AMD to end up making motherboard or chipset solutions centred around an AMD CPU and GPU setup. This may be in a similar vein to the Intel Centrino solutions which include an Intel Wi-Fi chipset as well as the Intel CPU.

The worst thing that could affect high-end graphics and gaming users is for AMD to pull out of the plug-in display-card scene thus reducing a competitive aftermarket when it comes to performance graphics. This is because the ATI brand has been put up as an alternative to NVIDIA when it came to aftermarket and OEM plug-in display cards pitched at the gaming, multimedia and performance graphics scene.

Once we see disappearance of brands that are part of a competitive market, there has to be others who well provide competing products or a nasty monopoly or cartel can start to exist.

Broadband pricing in US and Europe falls • The Register

 Broadband pricing in US and Europe falls • The Register

My comments

This article talks of a highly-competitive broadband Internet-service that exists in the US and Europe, with this aided and abetted by the provision of lower-cost prepaid mobile broadband services with generous usage caps and the provision of multiple-play services by the ISPs. In some countries like the UK and France, this would be augmented by telecommunications competition regulations that “have teeth” and the willingness for telecommunications regulators like OFCOM (UK) and ARCEP (France) to enforce these regulations.

In the case of multiple-play (triple-play) services, the ISPs can make up for the low-cost Internet through highly-differentiated telephone and pay-TV packages as well as selling or leasing-out hardware for these services.

But there are some other factors worth considering here. One would be that the cost of a regular cable or ADSL fixed-line service would be going downhill because most of the countries are rolling out fibre-optic-based “next-generation broadband”. Here, users who are technologically “switched on” would head to these services and the ADSL services would then be freed up and sold to most people who have regular broadband needs at a “dime-a-dozen”. It would then make the “modest-bandwidth” services become less valuable to the ISPs and these would be sold as “entry-level” services while existing customers would be shifted up to the higher-bandwidth services.

In Australia, we are missing out on this because we have a series of problems:

  • The role of the universal telephony service provider is on Telstra’s hands with people who buy Telstra’s discretionary services like Internet or mobile-telephony service bearing the cost of them furnishing this basic requirement through high costs or reduced download quotas.
  • Reduced infrastructure-based competition between mainstream telcos for Internet and mobile-telephony service with some operators charging others a premium to use their infrastructure.
  • Higher costs and reduced international-link competition that also keep the Internet costs high.

At least the broadband issue has been one of the main playing cards in the last Federal election. This could put everyone “on notice” about the providing of cost-effective Internet service across the country.