Category: Current and Future Trends

Article

Kanopy works with your local library to offer independent video content to stream

The Totally Free Streaming Service You Didn’t Know You Have | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

Kanopy

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My Comments

I am keeping an eye out for video-on-demand services that are offering niche content like foreign-language content. This is in response to recent market consolidation in the video-on-demand market and is able to easily survive that kind of activity in the mainstream sector.

A part of the home-video era was the fact that your local library stocked video movies and made them available for loan to its members. In most cases, this was from a government-funded or private film repository that primarily offered educational content along with some locally-produced classic and historic film content. Subsequently, these libraries offered some family-friendly and niche content from the main video distributors whom they had a lending agreement with.

This has fallen away thanks to the rise of video-on-demand services that work via the Internet. But an Australian startup began to partner with various film studios, especially those out of the current mainstream, to offer a video-on-demand service that works in tandem with the local libraries and universities. Examples of this include some classic films as well as a plethora of indie material released over the years, typically material that would have been offered by some of the video distributors during home video’s early years or syndicated by TV stations when they had the ability to choose what they could ran with.

The Gizmodo article called this service out due to the loss of the Filmstruck video-on-demand service which focused on classic cinema, typically material from the Criterion collection. They were lamenting the reduced availability of evergreen video content available to see on cable TV or stream via a video-on-demand service.

You have to be a student or faculty at one of the participant universities or be a member of one of the participating local libraries. As well, in the case of library memberships, you have to make sure your membership is current and correct before you create your account or add them to your account. That includes things like overdue fines and other obligations and you may have to check if that dusty library card has expired or not, including whether it needs to be “brought forward” to their current IT setup. It does support multiple library memberships such as students at a university using a local library card or people living on the border of two different municipalities.

Kanopy works on regular computers with your Web browser but has native clients for the iOS and Android platforms. As far as smart-TV and set-top applications are concerned, they also have native clients for the Android TV, Apple TV (tvOS) and Roku platforms including the Telstra TV repackaged Roku client.  This can be improved upon through the support for Netflix-style “download to view” to allow offline viewing of content during the loan period. Here, it would come in handy with long roadtrips or flights where you don’t have reliable access to the Internet for streaming.

At the moment, Kanopy works on the same principle as the “public lending rights” that libraries pay to authors and publishers for the right to lend out the content. Typically a participating library will pay Kanopy to allow its members to view a certain number of titles per month and this will be paid to the film studios to “lend out” the content.

Kanopy could go further by approaching the public-service broadcasters around the world like the ABC, BBC and SBS to offer their homegrown content catalogues to library members through this platform.  Typically these broadcasters have built up a large amount of content that they have commissioned through the years and most of this content would fit in with Kanopy’s remit. It is already happening with the ABC and some of their shows but can easily go further. Companies and other organisations who create their own educational and training content could offer this to the Kanopy platform for public viewership.

Similarly, Kanopy could approach other organisations to expose their service to their membership. One group would be the primary and secondary schools who would use some of this material as part of their curriculum. Similarly, they could “knock on the door” of more independent studios and quality film distributors to make your local library a viable alternative to what Hollywood puts out. As well, the travel industry could benefit from having access to the Kanopy platform for in-flight or in-room entertainment that is enriching and thought-provoking.

What at least is happening is that Kanopy is bringing the concept of the videos or DVDs made available for loan through the public library systems into the 21st century thanks to online streaming via your home network.

Article

Freebox Delta as an example of a European voice-driven home assistant

Orange adds smart speaker to control TV | Advanced Television

My Comments

Some European companies are working on their own voice-driven assistant platforms. At the moment, Movistar and Free have platforms that are part of their triple-play set-top-box services while the BMW Group are working towards one for the automotive context.

But Orange who have a foothold in France and Spain as far as multiple-play telecoms services are concerned are intending to release a voice-driven smart speaker known as Djingo. It is an alliance between themselves and Deutsche Telekom but will integrate Amazon Alexa technology. The French will benefit from Djingo in the European Spring of 2019 while the Spanish will benefit later in the year.

On this site, I have called out for the European tech firms to work towards one or more highly-capable voice-driven assistant platform that can effectively compete with Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant and Siri.

It is also about having the European voice-driven assistant platforms work towards European values such as a competitive market, end-user privacy and service transparency, including having the data kept on European soil.

But the problem with Orange’s and Free’s deployment is that they are implementing Amazon’s technology rather than creating their own technology. This may be to avoid the so-called “Video 2000” problem where Philips and Grundig developed a highly-capable videocassette platform. But this platform, only adopted by some European names, didn’t succeed due to the popularity of the affordable VHS platform. In this case, most of the videocassette recorders based on the Video 2000 platform were sold in to the European markets and most of that platform’s marketing was focused within Europe.

This is compared to a large number of commercial passenger airlines maintaining the European-built Airbus aircraft in their fleet alongside American-built Boeing aircraft.

If a European voice-driven assistant platform is to succeed, it has to be offered around the work as a viable competitor to what Silicon Valley offers but with the values Europeans cherish. This is because there are consumers, service providers and enterprises who also underscore these values and want to benefit from AI-driven voice assistant software.

As I have said before, the European Commission could encourage the development of European-based IT that honours the European values and market it around the world. This is rather than always engaging in court battles and antitrust investigations to deal with Silicon Valley’s market dominance.

Article

Ultraportables soon to serve the same role as smartphones

Cellular voice could be the next step in merging phones and PCs | Windows Central

My Comments

An increasing trend we are seeing with regular desktop and laptop computers is that they are being used for voice and video telephony. Thu is being driven by messaging apps of the Skype, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Viber kind being ported to desktop operating systems; along with softphone applications that provide telephony functionality being made available for these operating systems. The softphone applications, along with Skype are even legitimising this usage case with laptops in the business environment turning them in to secondary or replacement phone extensions.

Headsets like the JBL E45BT Bluetooth headset are used with laptops to make voice calls with messaging apps and soon this will happen for mobile telephony

With these setups, you can talk with the caller using the computer’s integrated or attached microphone and speakers. Or, should you want the same level of privacy associated with holding a handset up to your ear, you can talk to the caller using a wired or Bluetooth headset, of which I have reviewed many on HomeNetworking01.info.

Microsoft and others in the “open-frame” computing world are pushing along with the Always Connected PC which runs ARM RISC microarchitecture rather than the traditional Intel-based CISC kind. These ultraportable computers will also be equipped with a wireless broadband modem that is authenticated using eSIM technology.

The idea is to eventually have these computers become like a smartphone with them linked to the cellular mobile network. It is also alongside the fact that today’s smartphones are effectively pocket computers running a mobile operating system.

It could be easy to say that the Always Connected PC concept is irrelevant because one can “tether” a computer to a smartphone to have access to the mobile broadband service, whether through a USB connection or a Wi-Fi-based “hotspot” function that mobile operating systems support. Or we can simply connect our computers and phones to Wi-Fi networks including publicly-accessible networks like hotspots. For that matter, computers can also be connected to other network types like Ethernet or HomePlug AV networks.

Smartphones now are pocket computers

Let’s not forget that the GSM Association and the Wi-Fi Alliance are looking at Wi-Fi networks as a way of providing data-offload functionality. This is through mobile carriers like BT and Telstra offering FON-style community Wi-Fi networks and the Wi-Fi Alliance using Passpoint / Hotspot 2.0 as a way to provide hands-off login to public-access networks.

The Wi-Fi functionality is also being taken further in the context of smartphone-based voice telephony with the use of VoWLAN as another call-transport option for these devices. Some mobile telcos like Telstra even use this as a way to provide voice telephony continuity to their customers if they can’t reach the cellular network but can use Wi-Fi-based Internet.

The focus now is towards the concept of always-connected portable computing with a secure and consistent connectivity experience. This is being brought on through the use of 5G mobile-broadband technology and the interest in edge computing which provides support for localised data processing and storage in a cloud environment.

The eSIM is being pitched as a way to provision mobile service in an online manner, especially to vary the service to suit one’s needs or switch to a competing mobile telco. It also is placing pressure upon mobile telcos to adopt a “service-focused” approach with the idea of having multiple devices on the same mobile account and plan, ringing to the same mobile number and using the same data allowance. The goal with mobile telephony will then be to make or take a voice or video call or send and receive messages on the device that you currently are using rather than changing to a different device for that task.

Connected cars even to be another logical device for one’s mobile service account.

This concept has been driven by the Apple Watch and will be pushed on with smartwatches that have built-in mobile broadband modems. But it will be extended through other devices like smartphones, Always Connected PCs and connected vehicles. There is also the idea of implement the equivalent of a local area network across devices tied to the same service and this will be driven by the trend towards ubiquitous ambient computing.

A question that will come about is the ability to maintain multiple different services on the same physical device whether from the same telco or different telcos. This will be about maintaining separate services for business and private use. Or it could be about travellers who want to maintain a local service while at their destination along with their “home” service. This is a feature that is of relevance in countries where cross-border commuting is the norm thanks to land borders or short affordable ferry rides.

This could be addressed through support for multiple services including the ability to provision a cluster of multiple devices with the one service simultaneously. This same issue can also address the ability for us to use the conventional Internet service based around a hardwired broadband service with a Wi-Fi and / or Ethernet local network in the premises.

What I see out of this new trend is that if your computing device has mobile broadband or connection to the Internet via a local-area network, along with a speaker and microphone, it will become the one-stop computing and communications device. It doesn’t matter what shape or size it is in, being a smartphone, laptop or whatever. As well, the right-sized computing device will serve your computing and communications needs as you see fit.

Article

Your Amazon Echo will soon be expected to work with a wide range of toys and novelties

The latest Big Mouth Billy Bass is made to be a rockstar with built-in Alexa support | Windows Central

From the horse’s mouth

Amazon

Big Mouth Billy Bass – Compatible With Alexa (Product Page)

Alexa Gadgets Toolkit page

My Comments

Amazon had just polished their Gadgets Toolkit which is an application programming interface for interlinking devices of various kinds with the Alexa voice-driven home assistant platform. This has opened up a path for doing things like interlinking novelties that can show off when you ask Alexa for them to do so.

The first of these is the latest take on the Big Mouth Billy Bass phenomenon of the late 90s and early 2000s.

This novelty is a toy fish that is mounted on a board and starts singing songs like “Don’t Worry Be Happy” or “Take Me To The River” at the touch of a button. This is with the fish’s face swinging around to face the audience and its mouth moving in sync to the lyrics. It brought about other singing-and-dancing novelties that performed to pre-recorded songs in a funny manner.

But this latest iteration of the Big Mouth Billy Bass fish interlinks with any Amazon Echo device via Bluetooth and acts as a speaker for that Echo device. It is programmed to move the mouth in response to speech that comes through the Echo device, be it Alexa, a singer or a podcast author. The fact that it is designed to work tightly with the Alexa ecosystem will mean that if Amazon issues updates, this peripheral will gain these updates.

It will become the first of many toys and novelties that work in conjunction with the Alexa ecosystem. This includes short-form electronics modules that will be pitched to artisans who make giftware such as cuckoo clocks or Christmas decorations for them to include in their projects. Let’s not forget that Google, Apple and others will look towards extending their “smart-home” or similar platforms to work with this class of device.

An issue that will be raised regarding this product class is the fact that connected novelties and toys are being designed with very little thought for household privacy and data security. Infact a lot of IT security experts even suggest that people don’t use or give these devices at all. But this device is designed to work as if it is a peripheral for an Amazon Echo device and only connects to it via Bluetooth.

There will still be issues regarding the design of connected novelties and toys including data security and ease of connectivity. This is more so if they are to be sold through the toy and giftware retail sector where most staff are not likely to have a clue regarding the technicalities associated with these devices.

One way is that if the gadgets are to work alongside a voice-driven home assistant platform or regular computer / mobile operating system, they have to work using a “gadget API” associated with that platform or operating system and developed by the platform’s or operating-system’s developer. This is without the need to write a hefty app to gain the most out of the device. The use of APIs rather than a custom app or skill can also limit the kind of data that is collected via the novelty or toy and provide the end-user with greater control over what the device does.

As well, the “gadget API” has to also support a simple but secure setup process including permissions for various activities like use of microphones, cameras or speakers. This may be a similar process to installing or using an app on your smartphone or mobile-platform tablet where the operating system will ask whether to use the camera, microphone or sensors.  Other issues that will also come about include a “secure by design” approach for the gadget’s firmware including regular update cycles to rectify software vulnerabilities.

Let’s not forget that the “gadget APIs” would also need to support the use of the connected device as a “master clock” if the gadget is to display or react to the current time or date. This is to avoid the need to reset the clock on these devices whenever Daylight Saving Time starts or ends or worry about that clock losing time.

What I see coming about is a relentless push to offer toys, novelties and giftware that are intended to work with the home network and the Internet. But there needs to be a secure simple approach to how these gadgets are designed.

Article – From the horse’s mouth

This could become the way to distribute cable and terrestrial TV around the home in Europe

AVM

SAT>IP — what is it? (Blog Post relating to DVB-C broadcast-LAN abilities in some AVM FritzBox cable modem routers)

My Comments

In Europe, SAT-IP, properly spelt SAT>IP, has been established as a broadcast-LAN standard for satellite-TV setups. This implements a satellite broadcast-LAN tuner that connects between the satellite dish and your home network, whereupon a a compatible TV or set-top box or a computing device running compatible software “tunes in” and picks up the satellite broadcast.

A mobile-platform tablet running a SAT-IP client could end up serving as a portable TV for a cable or terrestrial TV setup

At the moment, Panasonic smart TVs pitched to the European market can work with a SAT-IP setup, with Loewe rolling this feature in to their models, but there is a wide range of software including VLC that can work with this setup along with a significant number of set-top boxes.

But this technology is being taken further by extending it to terrestrial and cable TV setups, especially in Germany which has a infrastructure-agnostic policy regarding the distribution of free-to-air and pay TV. That is you could watch Tatort on Das Erste in that country no matter whether you are using the traditional TV antenna, a cable-TV infrastructure or a satellite dish. Some online resources in that country even use the name TV-IP or TV>IP to describe this all-encompassing approach.

.. as could one of these Windows-based 2-in-1 convertibles

There is still the issue with rented properties and most multi-family developments where there is only one point of entry for the cable-TV service and it becomes more of a hassle to add extra cable-TV outlets around the premises for extra sets. There is also the fact that most of us are using laptops, tablets and smartphones in lieu of the portable TV for doing things like watching “guilty-pleasure” TV around the home.

AVM are releasing Fritz!OS 7 firmware for their Fritz!Box 6490 Cable and Fritz!Box 6590 Cable modem routers that provides a SAT-IP server functionality to extend these devices’ broadcast-LAN abilities, initially facilitated using DLNA. They also are rolling this function to the Fritz!WLAN Repeater DVB-C which is another broadcast-LAN device for cable TV in addition to a Wi-FI repeater.

Once updated, these Fritz!Box cable modem routers and the Fritz!WLAN Repeater DVB-C will present the DVB-C cable-TV and radio signals to any SAT-IP client device or software as if you are using a SAT-IP satellite broadcast-LAN device. I also see this working with those SMATV (shared satellite dish) setups for larger building that repackage satellite TV and terrestrial TV channels as DVB-C-compatible cable-TV channels.

I wouldn’t put it past other broadcast-LAN vendors courting the European market to have their non-satellite devices become SAT-IP servers. But also what needs to happen is that more TV manufacturers to implement SAT-IP-based technologies “out of the box” across their product ranges.

It could appeal to a hassle-free approach to TV-location approach where you have a single entry point for your TV aerial, cable-TV service or satellite dish but you use your home network, be it Wi-Fi 5/6 (802.11ac/ax), HomePlug AV2 or Ethernet, and a SAT-IP compatible broadcast-LAN box to permit you to relocate your TV or add more sets as you please. This is without having to call in a TV-aerial technician to install extra sockets or get the landlord to assent to their installation.

Another factor that would drive SAT-IP or TV-IP further would be to build support for it in to games consoles and similar devices that are expected to be single-box multimedia terminals. Think of devices like the XBox One, PS4, Apple TV and the like, or regular computers running their native operating systems.

But it may be seen as a big ask unless this technology is implemented beyond continental Europe. This is due to the common tech attitude that if a technology isn’t implemented beyond a particular geographic area or isn’t implemented in the USA, it will miss the boat for native operating-system support.

Article

You can use Amazon Alexa on any Windows 10 computer thanks to a generally-available Microsoft Store app

Control Alexa from your Windows 10 PC | CNet

My Comments

Amazon are releasing a Windows 10 native app that serves as a gateway to their Alexa voice-driven home-assistant ecosystem. Initially this was a very limited release that was preinstalled on certain computer ranges like Lenovo’s Yoga laptop range, but they are making it generally available through the Microsoft Store in the USA. This means you could install it on any Windows 10 desktop, laptop or 2-in-1 rather than having to buy one of the certain computers that come with this function if you want to speak to Alexa through that computer.

It will be targeted for any regular computer that is running Windows 10 as long as it has a microphone and the usual keyboard. There will be the ability to invoke Alexa through a keyboard shortcut or to click / tap the Alexa button within the app. The “Wake On Voice” functionality where you can speak the “Alexa” keyword to invoke Alexa will be available on some supported computers.

At the moment, the Amazon Alexa native app for Windows 10 doesn’t provide the kind of management that its iOS or Android mobile-platform brethren provide. This means that you will have to use the Alexa management Web page to manage the Skills available to your Echo devices or the smart-home ecosystem that they are part of.

This will make your Windows laptop work a bit like the Amazon Echo

The other question that may be raised by Amazon as part of developing the Alexa app further is whether the Alexa app will provide a visual interface of the “Echo Show” kind for those skills that have visual abilities. It may be seen as a further direction for third-party Alexa-platform devices to answer the Google Assistant (Home) platform.

I would expect that these features will come through in newer versions of this app. Similarly I would expect that this app would be rolled out in to all of the markets that Amazon has established the Alexa / Echo ecosystem in to over time.

The Alexa app is part of a strong effort by the two Seattle-based IT giants to provide a strong partnership between their efforts i.e. the Windows desktop operating system for Microsoft and the Alexa voice-assistant / smart-home ecosystem for Amazon.

This effort was initially represented through the availability of “pathway” skills between Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa assistants. It is with the ability also to provide the necessary abilities to users to interlink their user accounts on each of these services for transparent operation.

It could be seen to be about Microsoft dumping the Cortana assistant’s home-automation roles. Or it could be about Amazon and Microsoft to fuse together their voice-driven assistants in a manner to build a highly-strung Seattle-based voice-driven assistant platform to take on what is being offered by Silicon Valley.

Article

New UK Regulatory Regime Begins for Legally Separate Openreach | ISP Review

My Comments

Australia, the UK and New Zealand have approached the idea of encouraging telecommunications competition in the fixed-line space by detaching the fixed-line infrastructure from the incumbent telco. In Australia, this was with NBN as effectively a public entity buying this infrastructure from Telstra and Optus, or New Zealand who had Telecom NZ split in to Spark as a telecommunications reseller and Chorus as an infrastructure entity.

The Australian and New Zealand effort had an emphasis on creating greater distance between the incumbent telecoms service reseller and the infrastructure entity with a stronger clear-cut emphasis on the infrastructure entity not favouring the incumbent telecoms reseller.  This was through effective legal separation of these companies in a manner that they couldn’t control each other.

But the UK implemented a similar plan for splitting British Telecom by having the fixed-line infrastructure managed by Openreach and BT being a telecoms reseller. But there wasn’t a strict legal delineation between these two companies and this closeness allowed Openreach to continue to operate in the same manner as BT did when it was the UK’s incumbent telco monopoly. This led to poor-quality service and poorly-maintained infrastructure, with BT Openreach ending up with an Internet-wide nickname of “Openwretch”.

The underinvestment in the infrastructure by Openreach was to satisfy BT’s ends rather than providing a high-quality service that would benefit competing telcos or ISPs using that infrastructure. This also rubbed off on the competitors’ customer base with the reduced service reliability and often happened when new technology was being delivered by Openreach. Let’s not forget issues like “cherry-picking” areas that get fibre-to-the-premises broadband or whether rural areas get decent broadband.

New Ofcom regulations were implemented in the UK with the requirement for Openreach to be a company that is legally separate from BT. This meant that they had their own legal identity (Openreach Limited) with its own board of directors and with its staff working for that company. This is meant to effectively permit its own corporate governance that is independent from BT.

There will be the issue of logically moving the employee base to this new identity including rearranging the pensions arrangement for the staff. Let’s not forget that there will be a strong marketing and PR effort directed towards the stakeholders to “refresh” the Openreach image, perhaps with a new brand.

What is meant to happen is that competing telcos and ISPs will he required to have access to the same technology on the same footing as BT. This will also be underscored by newer tougher minimum quality standards including more fibre-to-the-premises broadband deployment across the UK.

There are newer market dynamics affecting the availability of infrastructure for residential and small/medium-business telecommunications and Internet service in the UK. Here, an increasing number of infrastructure providers like Cityfibre, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear and B4RN are providing infrastructure-level competition in various urban and rural areas. This is along with an increasing number of full-fibre installations taking place.

The issues that will crop up include Openreach outbuilding the infrastructure-level competitors in urban areas, especially if they can effectively “possess” a building, street or neighbourhood by having exclusive infrastructure rights to that area. Here, the risk that is being highlighted is the possible market consolidation due to competitors being driven out of business or taken over. I also see this risk affecting ISPs or telcos, especially small-time or boutique operators, who prefer to deal with particular infrastructure providers not being able to operate or being forced to use one of a few providers.

Then there will become the issue of what level of competition is sustainable for the UK’s telecommunications and Internet-service market. It is also a question that can affect any market heads towards or already has infrastructure-level competition for their Internet and telecommunications.

This question can affect ISPs / telcos, end-users, local government and premises owners. A core factor that will come in to play here is what kind of access is granted by an infrastructure provider to retail-level telecommunications / Internet providers on business terms that facilitate competitive operation.

-The factors that come in to play include whether there is an innovation culture where the operators can differentiate themselves on more than just price; and what service price level the market can go below before companies can’t operate profitably. Then there is the issue of whether the UK market really expects a pure-play Internet-only operation from these providers; or a multiple-play operation with fixed-line or mobile telephony, pay-TV or other online services. That also includes the existence of franchised IP-based telephony, pay-TV and other services that will be pitched towards retail-level telcos and ISPs who don’t offer these services.

What I see of the recent activity in making Openreach a company legally-independent from BT is that it is a sign of enabling proper competition for the UK’s telecommunications and Internet services for households and small businesses.