Category: Mobile Computing

Multiple connected-infotainment platforms

Newer vehicles are becoming part of the connected environment

Apple, Microsoft and Google have now provided their own connected-infotainment platforms such as the CarPlay and Microsoft’s Cortana. At the moment, they are placing efforts on vehicle builders or afttermarket-infotainment manufacturers to run with their own platform on an exclusive basis, whether for a particular vehicle or unit model, a range of (usually premium) models or across the range.

Typically, you would have the infotainment system able to work on its own native look or a user might press a button to bring up the platform’s user interface on the dashboard when a mobile phone that works to the partner operating system is connected.

Applications that we are seeing are always-updated maps for navigation, access to online multimedia services like Spotify or Internet radio, reporting of various statistics for diagnostics and related purposes, along with general communications and entertainment needs. It could even include a Shazam setup that works with the regular car radio to identify a song you just heard.

Catering to multiple platforms

It may be easy for premium marques like Land Rover or Ferrari and top-shelf car audio names like Alpine to work exclusively with the Apple CarPlay platform because their market base would be preferring an all-Apple computing environment as what “young rich cool kids” value.

But there is a reality where Google and Microsoft can front up with appealing yet cool in-vehicle computing platforms that work well with the Android and Windows Phone platforms which have yielded smartphones with the same street chic as the iPhone. As well, the same vehicle could be sold to and driven by a person who may own an iPhone, an Android phone or a Windows Phone 8.1 device.

What I see easily happening is that when a person orders a new vehicle, they may be required to specify what automotive-computing platform they want to run with. If you upgrade your phone to a different mobile platform, you may have to take your vehicle to the dealership to have the infotainment platform switched over to the one you are currently using on your phone.

In some cases, the driver may have to press a button similar to the “CarPlay” button on CarPlay-equipped infotainment setups to cause the system to detect which phone is connected and load the appropriate infotainment platform.

Aftermarket support

An issue that is worth raising is whether the names associated with the aftermarket car-infotainment scene will join in the party and a few like Alpine and Pioneer have. This is to satisfy situations where one may want to improve the infotainment offering that their older car has and is something that some markets like Australia will face as they have very old market-wide car fleets.

These solutions would appear in the form of a 2-DIN head unit with an integrated screen, or a single-DIN-size head unit that uses a fold-out touchscreen or communicates with an outboard touchscreen not dissimilar to a portable navigation device.

Advertising in the connected car

Another key issue that will face the connected car is in-car advertising. This is often raised as a distraction or, at worst, allowing for capitalism and consumerism to invade our lives everywhere we go.

But this has been accepted all along with radio advertising, display advertisements placed on maps and in street directories along with outdoor advertising like billboards. As well, most mobile-map platforms implement a “search for nearest” function so you can locate the nearest petrol station, take-out food outlet or restaurant.

The controversies that will come about will concern use of collecting aggregated vehicle-location data or implementation of gamification strategies for the advertisers’ benefits. Here, it could lead to advertisers implementing targeted campaigns or, in the case of controversial business types like fast-food outlets, the targeting of prospective business-premises locations.

Personally, I would see this manifest more as display ads on an app’s user interface or interactive business logos appearing on the on-screen maps relevant to where the businesses are located. These would also support “touch-to-book” or “touch-to-find-out-more” functionality. Similarly, companies could implement in-vehicle apps that work in a similar vein to the mobile apps – providing “loyal-customer” functionality, nearest venue location, menu display / selection functionality amongst other functions.

Conclusion

What I see as coming about is that the connected car is being a setup driven by mobile-computing platforms with their third-party apps and functions. It would require the implementation of multiple platforms for the one vehicle or aftermarket device to cater for multiple smartphone platforms and would face the controversial issue of advertising.

Article

Apple: New ‘Metal’ Platform to Improve iOS Gaming | Mashable

My Comments

Android has come a long way ahead with mobile games performance courtesy of the NVIDIA Tegra chipsets and similar high-performance chipsets being implemented in the top-end tablets. This has also be brought up with variants of that operating system being compiled and shoehorned to exploit these chipsets leading to tablets showing up with the kind of performance expected of by hard-core gamers.

Now Apple’s not leaving itself behind with their iOS platform. They have written in to iOS 8 some code that takes advantage of their latest A7 chipsets by implementing the “Metal API”. This allows the operating system to have the games work directly with the iPhone’s or iPad’s processor to yield smooth performance rather than using OpenGL for this purpose, which could allow game developers to target the latest iPads as a games platform for the “full-on” titles. There was even a “demo” of this being shown today at the WWDC Apple-platform developers’ conference based on the Unreal Engine 4 gaming engine to prove what this was about.

There are questions that have to be raised about the “Metal” API regarding battery runtime because some of the games may ask more of the iOS device when in full flight. Similarly, games for the mobile platforms may only be seen to work well for “short-play” casual or strategy titles where continual interaction may not be seen as important.

Could this mean that all of the main mobile platforms could come up with the kind of gaming expected of console and regular-computer platforms, where there is the high level of responsiveness being expected?

Article

Samsung Premiere 2014 set for June 12, here come the AMOLED tablets! | Android Authority

My Comments

Those of you who use recent Samsung, HTC or Sony premium smartphones will notice that they implement AMOLED display technology. Here, the display has that high contrast ratio along with vibrant colours and a wide viewing angle, courtesy of the fact that each pixel lights itself rather than a light source illuminating the display.

There have been a few attempts to bring the technology to large TV screens but Samsung are now implementing it in two new Galaxy Tab S tablet models. These will have either an 8.4” display or 10” display depending on the model  This will be augmented with the “Tab Into Color” tagline to augment the vibrant colour and high contrast features that they have. As well, it becomes feasible for Samsung to design them as highly-slim units due to the display technology not needing a backlight.

Personally, I would also like to see people who manufacture consumer and small-business electronics devices like printers and hi-fi components implement the AMOLED display technology on these devices, especially as a tool to differentiate the premium models from the rest of the range. This is because they work well as a low-power just-as-bright substitute for the vacuum-fluorescent display that has been commonly used on consumer electronics devices. Some devices like the recently-reviewed Brother MFC-J6720DW A3 multifunction printer or the Cyrus Lyric CD receiver implement a touchscreen as the operating interface and they could use the same display technology as the Samsung Galaxy S or Sony XPeria smartphones,

Who knows whether the OLED family of displays will displace the LCD displays in most common applications or not.

Articles

Acer announces new devices including new 2-in-1 laptop and 23-inch All-in-Ones | Windows Experience Blog

From the horse’s mouth

Acer

Press Release

Previous Coverage

Convertible Or Detachable – Where To Go?

My Comments

A detachable of the ilk of HP’s x2 Series or ASUS Transformer Prime series is either a conventional laptop when clipped with its keyboard base or a tablet that lies flat on the table or cradled in your hands.

But Acer has changed this view with the Switch 10 detachable tablet. This is one which can be positioned in a manner not dissimilar to most convertibles like the Lenovo Yoga series or the Sony VAIO Fit 13a where you can arrange the screen to be positioned at an angle for convenient touchscreen operation or viewing of pictures and video.

This is implemented with Acer’s Snap Hinge which is a special hinge that clips the keyboard base and tablet together like normal or can simply allow the tablet to be swiveled with the screen facing out. This means that the tablet be in a “tent” mode or an angled display mode as well as the laptop or tablet modes. As well, this 10” detachable runs on an Intel Bay Trail chipset with 2Gb RAM and 64Gb SSD storage and uses Windows 8.1 as its operating system.

But what I see of this is that it could be come a way to present a computer that offers the advantages of a detachable tablet in the form of lightweight operation and a convertible laptop which can be swiveled around for viewing or creating content. It is another way of making sure that the portable computer idea doesn’t forget that the keyboard has relevance for creating content.

Article

WiFi Alliance adds support for NFC | NFC World

My Comments

Two “quick-setup” features that I have liked are coming together very shortly for wireless routers and network-enabled devices. These features are being exploited by device manufacturers who want to be part of the level playing field and desire to see innovation.

One of these features is the WPS-PBC “push-to-connect” functionality where you invoke a WPS setup option on a client device you want to enrol then press the WPS button on your wireless router to “enrol” your client device in to your home network’s Wi-Fi segment. This feature has made it easier to bring new Windows  7/8 computers, Android mobile devices amongst most other Wi-Fi-capable devices in to a home network without having to transcribe in long WPA-PSK passphrases. I even set up one multiple-access-point network to allow this to happen on both access-point devices when I was fixing up network-connectivity issues. Similarly, I was pleased with a TP-Link TL-WPA4220 HomePlug wireless access point that used “Wi-Fi Clone” to learn network parameters from an existing Wi-Fi network segment at the push of a WPS button so it can be quickly set up as an extension access point.

Another feature that I am pleased about is NFC-based Bluetooth pairing. This is primarily used on most Sony Bluetooth-capable devices but other manufacturers are increasingly enabling it. It allows you to touch your phone or computer to the Bluetooth-capable device to instantly pair and connect both these devices. When I bought the Sony SBH-52 Bluetooth headset adaptor with FM radio, it didn’t take me long to “get going” with this device because I simply touched my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Android phone to it to achieve this goal.

Now the Wi-Fi Alliance have merged both technologies and defined NFC “touch-and-go” setup as part of WPS-based wireless network setup standards. This functionality was seen as part of a “long-tail” vision for the WPS secure-network-setup standards with routers having to support the PIN-based and “push-to-go” methods. They defined a framework based around certain access-point and client chipsets including the Google Nexus 10 Android tablet. For that matter, Android, Linux and Windows 7/8 users could find this functionality either as a small app or “baked in” to an operating-system update.

This is another innovative step that will assure quick setup for Windows and Android devices with small-network Wi-Fi segments especially as most of the recent crop of these devices are equipped with NFC “touch-and-go” functionality and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Article

3play is a Bluetooth audio dongle that begs to be misused | Engadget

My Comments

A common problem that affects any Bluetooth audio and mobile-phone setup is the way that most Bluetooth devices handle multiple source devices. I have covered this issue in a previous article concerning managing multiple Bluetooth source devices with one Bluetooth destination device (headset, speaker, etc). Here, I even highlighted how desktop and mobile operating systems don’t even handle connecting and disconnecting of these devices very well save for Android and Windows 8 and it requires you to pair up your wireless speakers with your iPhone every time you want to use them again.

3Play have come up with a Bluetooth audio adaptor that allows 3 source devices (smartphones, tablets, MP3 players) to this adaptor at the one time. In this implementation, if a device is paused, another device could be playing out the music, thus being based on a “priority” method.

What I would like to see of this is that 3Play could license the software out to other manufacturers who sell wireless speakers, Bluetooth audio adaptors and the like to allow for priority-driven multiple-device handling. Another way to solve the problem could be to enumerate each connected device as a logical source or sub-source which would work properly for home and car stereo systems. Here, a user operates a control on the system like a “Source” or “Band” button to select the Bluetooth device to listen to.

At least 3Play are answering the common problem associated with people showing up with Bluetooth-capable smartphones and tablets full of music and pairing them up to the same wireless speaker or music system.

Article – French language / Langue Française

Freebox Révolution : Free intègre les boîtiers Femtocell – DegroupNews.com

My Comments

Freebox Révolution now to come with a femtocell

The French have taken another step of advantage with their competitive Internet-service market. This time it’s Free who have provided a minimal-cost femtocell to their Freebox Révolution subscribers.

What is a femtocell? This is effectively a cellular-telephony base station in a small box that can provide cellular-telephony and data coverage in a premises. These boxes typically use a broadband connection as their backhaul to the service provider and are typically used to “fill in gaps” for mobile coverage in a subscriber’s home. The devices typically sold to a residential user typically provide “selected-device” coverage, namely for the devices owned by the customer’s household.

Most of the other French operators like Bouygues Télécom  have offered femtocells but at a significant extra cost. On the other hand, Free are offering the femtocell to existing Freebox Révolution subscribers for a delivery charge of EUR€10 but will be offering it as part of the equipment bundle for newer subscriptions. This is something that I see as pushing the price very low for a service like this and, like what Free had done with Internet services and mobile telephony in France, could lead to others pushing the price down for a femtocell service or including it as part of an “n-box” triple-play deal.

These will support up to 4 phones but I do see a limitation also with any femtocell product that is integrated in a modem-router. This is where you can’t relocate the femtocell device to wherever the better coverage is really needed such as to work around a “radio shadow” affecting mobile telephony.

This may be part of a trend to make cellular phones work effectively like cordless phones and work on “fixed-line” tariff charts at home but use mobile tariff charts when “out and about”. This is more important with all of the “n-box” triple-play services where the telephony component is described as being with “appels illimité” where calls from the fixed telephone to France and a lot of other destinations come part of the deal.

It is another example of what the highly-competitive French telecommunications market is all about.