Category: Current and Future Trends

Articles

Dell announces XPS 18 – an All-in-One desktop that is also a tablet | Microsoft WIndows Experience Blog

Dell unveils massive 18″ Windows 8 tablet – say hello to the hefty XPS 18 | Tweaktown

Dell Reveals Crazy Big 18-inch Windows 8 Tablet/AIO | Tom’s Hardware

From the horse’s mouth

Dell

Product page (coming soon)

Blog post

My Comments

Sony recently released the VAIO Tap 20 (a computer I am hoping to review on this site)  which was effectively a bridge between an all-in-one desktop computer and a tablet computer and had defined this form factor. This was about an alternative to a regular all-in-one computer but was able to lie flat as a tablet computer. Promotional images that existed of this computer had shown family members sharing the large-screen computer by looking at the same screen to browse material.

I even followed this up by commenting on a Microsoft Windows Experience blog post about it being brought around by the post’s author to their parents’ house as part of a family visit. Here, the comments were about the VAIO Tap 20 being used by people of different ages and with different computer-familiarity levels. I cited the Tap 20 as being one of a few computers that would work well in the “family house” – the retired parents’ home that is visited by their children and grandchildren.

Now Dell have answered Sony by releasing a tablet/all-in-one computer that is similar to the VAIO Tap 20. This one uses a smaller screen size – 18 inches but has the same tablet abilities including short-term battery operation. There are plans for it to have a dual-core Intel processor and 320Gb on the hard disk with better configurations having the likes of i7 processors and 512Gb solid-state disks. The battery was rated for 5 hours run time.

What I see of this is that Sony’s and Dell’s effort could see the start of a new form-factor being defined – a desktop tablet computer. Here, this would implement a screen greater than 18” and have a wireless keyboard and mouse, but have full computing credentials like high-capacity hard disks and RAM. There would be a battery but it would be rated for around five hours or less while the computer is equipped with a collapsible kickstand. I am not sure whether these would come with integrated optical drives or not and this may depend on the model.

As I have said before, they would play well with formal and informal computing tasks especially with people who have different computing skill levels.

Article

Will Streaming Music Ever Be A Sustainable Business? | Gizmodo Australia

My Comments

Spotify, one of the most popular online music-streaming services

As people cotton on to the likes of Spotify with its business model of free ad-supported desktop streaming and premium all-device streaming, we end up wondering which direction the trade in recorded music would go.

Some people reckon that use of these music services would displace the concept of buying music whether as CDs or vinyl from a physical store or online; or as “electronic hard-copy” files (MP3s, FLAC files, etc) from an online outlet like iTunes.

For me and most other readers, I get hold of music on a “to-own” basis where we prefer to buy a CD or record, or download music as an “electronic-hard-copy” format like MP3. Personally, I use Spotify as a tool to discover music of interest or give that album that I am thinking of a “test run” before heading to JB Hi-Fi to buy the CD or visiting BigPond Music or iTunes to “pick-up” the files.

The article was placing in to doubt the ad-supported or subscription-driven business models that these places use and whether they are really sustainable as far as the business is concerned. As a music consumer, I would like to see the development of an ad-supported or subscription-driven streaming service that is augmented by the ability for one to buy the tracks or albums as 320kbps MP3s or high-grade FLAC / WMA files on a “download-to-own” basis. This kind of service could be extended by the ability to buy CDs, SACDs or vinyl records through the service and have them shipped out to them.

Such a service could be offered by a pure streaming-content provider like Spotify through a partnership with someone like Amazon, iTunes or Deezer; and they could provide a “points model” or subscription rebate to support those who wish to buy the music as well as stream the new titles.

The streaming services can work alongside the “to-own” model of acquiring music and video material by allowing discovery and test-run opportunities for those of us who are thinking of newer content

Articles

Previous Coverage on HomeNetworking01.info

Sony’s Personal Content Station – a mobile Wi-Fi NAS that you touch on with your Android phone 

From the horse’s mouth

Sony

Latest press release from Sony at Mobile World Congress

Personal Content Station LLS-201

http://youtu.be/eAowGfUeqjY – Link to this video if you can’t see it on this site or want to “throw” it to your DLNA smart TV using Twonky or similar software

Portable Wireless Server WG-C10

http://youtu.be/-C1HAQj0YpQ – Link to this video if you can’t see it on this site or want to “throw” it to your DLNA smart TV using Twonky or similar software

My Comments

Previously, I commented on a news article about Sony releasing a NAS that allows you to upload pictures from your Android device just by touching the device to this NAS. Now, Sony have premiered this device along with another mobile NAS at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year.

But there are two devices rather than the one device. The former device that I touched on previously allows you to upload photos, videos and other content to its 1Tb hard disk using USB file transfer, NFC or SD memory cards so you can effectively “dump” your pictures and videos from your smartphone, camera or camcorder, thus making way for new material.

The Personal Content Station can play the images to a regular “brown-goods” flatscreen TV using an HDMI connector or you can make them available through your home network using the open-frame DLNA standards. I would also like to be sure that you can transfer the images between your PC and this device using standard network file-transfer protocols like CIFS or HTTP. Of course there is the ability to use an accompanying app to “throw” the images to a social network, blog or other Website using your smartphone or tablet.

As well, the Portable Wireless Server can share the content you have on a USB storage device or an SD card to its own wireless network so you can quickly share “just-taken” photos with your smartphone, tablet or Ultrabook. This is becoming important with devices like the Dell XPS 13 which doesn’t come with an SD card slot or the detachable-keyboard hybrids that have a standard SD card slot only on the keyboard module.

The Sony Portable Wireless Server also works as an “external battery pack” for the many battery-thirsty gadgets that are important to our mobile online life. This is so true if you are dealing with the smartphone that serves as your mobile Internet terminal or your Walkman.

At least Sony is fielding devices that work as a team to satisfy the reality that confronts us through our online content-creation lives.

Lately, France and Luxembourg pegged the Value-Added Tax (same as the GST in Australia, New Zealand and Canada and similar to the sales tax levied by US states) for e-books at the lower rate used for printed books.
Just lately the European Commission rapped them over the knuckles for daring to do this because they think that the “electronic hard copy” is a luxury and should be taxed the higher rate compared to the printed hard copy. I support France and Luxembourg for valuing the idea that the electronic hard copy of a book is as of the same value as the printed hard copy.  As well it is considered to be an important distribution channel for the book or magazine. For example, a lot of women like the strong romance novels in this format because others don’t notice they are reading these steamy stories on the train or bus – they just notice the Kindle, iPad or Nexus 7. Similarly this format suits serialised content more than the printed book. As well, the NAS could work as the electronic library on the home network.
Personally, I would like to see a situation where copyright and tax issues for artistic and similar works are treated the same no matter the publishing format or the distribution channel.

Article

This Dynamic E-Ink Keyboard Needs To Become A Real Thing | Gizmodo Australia

My Comments

There have been many attempts and prototypes put forward in relation to a computer keyboard that uses dynamic labelling but a lot of these attempts yielded extremely-expensive implementaions.

Why bring about a keyboard with dynamically-labelled keys? One application would be to allow a user to implement a language-specific keyboard layout without having to rely on confusing labelling. Think of a German-speaking user who wants to implement the “QWERTZ” layout or a French-speaking user who wants the “AZERTY” layout, let alone keyboard layouts for the Hebrew, Japanese or other languages that don’t use Latin scripts.

Similarly, you could see implementations like “function key” grids that have keys labelled according to the program or situation. The obvious applications could include CAD/CAM/computer graphics with one touch access to often used commands and shapes; retail / hospitality POS with one-touch access to products and transaction types; let alone hardcore gamers wanting keyboards where they can “drop” actions to gain an upper-hand on their opponents.

For that matter, there could be one keyboard design for accessory keyboards that can be sold around the world, able to be connected to a Windows / Linux or Macintosh computer and showing the layout for the country that it is used in. Similarly a laptop manufacturer could show up with a keyboard that implements a keyboard layout that is particular to a user’s language.

Here, the proposed keyboards would use the E-ink technology that is used in the Amazon Kindle or other e-book readers. This technology would avoid extra layers and the need to keep refreshing the display area. Instead the E-ink’s weaknesses concerning animation may not be of concern for this application and allow for a cheaply-produced dynamically-labeled keyboard or keypad.

Of course, the USB and Bluetooth “human-interface-device” logical device classes would need to be updated to support dynamic labelling for keyboards and the operating systems would need to implement this as part of their class drivers for this device class. Initially we could see manufacturers implementing this function with device drivers and other manufacturer-specific software but there needs to be the action to implement this concept as a device class.

Most computer and video games are written in USA or Japan, mainly through larger studios like EA, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and others.

This is typically because of the common platforms such as the main console platforms where the barriers of entry to the platform are very significant. The regular-computer (PC / Mac) and mobile platforms aren’t as exacting as the main console platforms and are in a better position to nurture more games developers. This is although Microsoft was running the XNA game-development program for their XBox 360 console which opened up game development for this platform.

The regular-computer and mobile platforms are opening up the “indie” game-development community which is independent of the main US and Japanese studios. A key example of this is Rovio, a Dutch games studio who built up the successful “Angry Birds” game franchise for the mobile platforms.

Europe has had a chance at the development of computer games through the 1980s while computing platforms like the Commodore Amiga which had an open-access software development environment existed. Similarly, when the Philips CD-I format gained a bit of a foothold in the European market in the mid 1990s, a few European games studios developed games like Burn Cycle for that format. But these were systems that had some level of popularity primarily in Europe.

Typically most of these efforts see their results achieve some sort of “domestic” popularity where the game is popular in its home market. But Rovio, a Finnish independent games studio, had cut through this barrier by releasing the popular “Angry Birds” game franchise, initially to the iOS and Android mobile platforms. But this was so popular worldwide that they ported it out to other non-mobile platforms like the PlayStation Portable and the two main regular-computing platforms, Windows and MacOS X.

The Android-driven OUYA games console is in a position to allow the independent games studios to write for the large-screen console market because it has access to the Google Play app store and the Android knowhow. This could open up paths for games studios in the under-represented areas like Europe and Oceania to cut in to the gaming mainstream. Similarly, there were a few other games consoles such as the “Steam Box” being premiered at the Consumer Electronics Show early this year. These console platforms, along with the Android and iOS mobile platforms, could light up the independent gaming scene and encourage the development of games titles in these areas.

As well, governments and local industry associations could establish incubation programs for the computer and video games industry in these areas. This could come in the form of, per se, a culture ministry treating gaming / interactive-entertainment development in a similar manner to other arts and culture endowment programs. On the other hand, an entertainment-content district like India’s “Bollywood” extending their brand and concept to interactive entertainment like what has happened with Hollywood.

Once you have other countries and areas having interactive-entertainment studios and engaged in computer and video games, it can allow a lot more to occur. For example, games can be reflective of different cultures rather than a Hollywood-led “aggressive” culture. Similarly, a game that is set in the modern era like some adventure and strategy games can be set up to reflect a locale other than the suburbia of USA.

Article

Sony’s Personal Content Station uses NFC for mobile backups, aims for April release in Japan

My Comments

I was impressed with the Sony Personal Content Station which is an elegant ceramic-white device that works as a 1Tb mobile NAS for your mobile devices and, perhaps, your home network.

One feature that stands out is to be able to use NFC-based pairing to permit device-to-NAS file transfer between an NFC-equipped Android handset or tablet and this device. Of course, it works as a Wi-Fi NAS for other devices and you can of course upload from a USB-connected device or dump the contents of your SD “digital film” card to this device.

There is the ability to show the content on a TV whether directly-connected via HDMI or via a DLNA network connection. Of course, a good question worth raising is whether the Personal Content Station could interlink with an existing home network as a media server / NAS or simply be one of many devices of this ilk that are their own network. This includes whether a Wi-Fi Direct transfer could occur while the Personal Content Station is connected to the home network.

Another question yet to be raised is whether “other” NFC-initiated Wi-Fi-Direct file transfer software like Samsung’s S-Beam could do the file-transfer job without the need to install Sony’s software. This could avoid the need to “crowd out” an Android phone with many of these apps to suit different devices. Similarly, I would prefer this device to support any DLNA “media-uploader / media-downloader” standards so you can move content between this device and similar devices; and your mobile handset or digital camera via Wi-Fi by using one piece of software.