Article

Guestroom TVs invite new content streaming options for guests | HotelManagement.net

My Comments

In-room AV connection panel at Rydges Hotel Melbourne – HDMI connection

The hotel industry is having to face a strong reality with guests “bringing their own content” on their own devices when they use their room as a “home away from home”. This is not just due to content stored on a smartphone, tablet or laptop but access to audio-on-demand and video-on-demand streaming services like Spotify or Netflix.

Some further action is taking place to bridge the guests’ own content to the hotel-room TV. Initially this was achieved through us connecting our smartphones, tablets or laptop computers to these TVs via an AV connection panel or box or, in some cases, directly to the TV. This has been because these connections have been seen as more “surefire” and likely to work.

But another firm have implemented a smartphone dock that links the TV to the mobile device and its content collection.through the use of a Bluetooth signal, but may be implementing MHL as its device connection for the phone. There is an increased likelihood that this would work with the “open-frame” mobile devices that operate on Android or Windows Phone 8. As well, they are trying to push the smart TV concept beyond the home TV towards the hotel room which I would see as a logical extension for this class of product.

Personally, I would like to see the hotel industry court technologies that are based on established wireless-link standards like Bluetooth A2DP for audio content or Miracast / Wi-Fi Direct for audio-video content. Even ideas like using AirPlay and DLNA with a room-specific Wi-Fi local network could be implemented in a similar vein to what has worked for a lot of the wireless speakers.

I would like to see companies involved in hotel guestroom AV technology look at what is going on at the Consumer Electronics Show or Internationaler Funkaustellung to see the trends that are affecting consumer audio-visual technology so they know how they can make the hotel room or serviced apartment that “home away from home”.

Introduction

I am reviewing the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro convertible notebook which is Lenovo’s latest in its lineup of Yoga 360-degree convertible notebooks. This convertible notebook is a 13” portable-typewriter-size unit in a similar vein to the Sony VAIO Fit 13a convertible, with the idea of a screen and keyboard that is comfortably large for creating a significant amount of written content but also appeals as a large-screen tablet.

There is a baseline package which comes with the Intel i5 processor, 4Gb RAM, and 128Gb solid-state drive which is packaged in a 1960s-era orange housing (feelin’ groovy), along with a premium package that has an Intel i7 processor, 8Gb RAM and 256Gb solid-state drive which is packaged in a silver-grey housing. These product variants are available through the retail sector. But you purchase a package which has the Intel i7 processor, 8Gb RAM and 256Gb solid-state drive but fashioned in the orange housing directly from Lenovo’s online storefront.

The computer itself

Aesthetics and Build Quality

As a tablet

The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is a 360-degree convertible notebook that has the keyboard swing behind the screen to become a tablet. This also allows for setups like a “viewer” setup with the screen at a convenient angle but the keyboard not jutting out or even as a “tent” setup with the hinge at the top of the screen like a table tent-card. This mechanism has been able to operate smoothly with the display changing quickly and responsively.

As a viewer

It has the rubberised feel on the outside and on the palm rest with a distinct non-rubber feel for the actual keys and trackpad area. This make the computer so much easier to operate by touch.

As a tent card

The base-model Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro comes in that bright orange colour that was a well-favoured colour for cars, appliances, furniture upholstery or interior design through the 1960s “Flower Power” era. The premium model with the higher specifications comes in a silver-grey colour. But people can order a higher-specified model with that bright-orange colour when they buy the computer directly from Lenovo’s online store.

The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro does keep its cool properly due to a ventilation grille installed between the hinges. This can be uncomfortable to use when you are operating it as a tablet and holding it like a book.

User Interface

Like most computers that have the 13.3” screen size, the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro has a keyboard that is comfortably large for fast touch-typing and creating of large amounts of written content. It does feel shallow but you can still have the proper tactile feedback to adequately touch-type.

The trackpad is still very responsive but could have hardware override especially if you are touch-typing quickly and use the touchscreen and / or an external mouse to navigate the user interface.

All the supplementary controls are located on the right edge of the computer with buttons for just the volume control and to turn the computer on and off as required. Personally, I would like the on-off button to be easier to identify by feel and this could be preferably a larger button.

Audio and Video

The Lenovo Yogo 2 Pro’s display was very responsive and true to colour when watching online videos but the desktop experience on the high resolution display is stymied by the way most current-generation desktop operating systems like Windows handle high-pixel-density displays. This is where they make the text smaller and, in some cases, harder to read.

The sound does come through clearly for most voice based content when you are listening close to the computer but if you want to get more out of the music or good game effects, I would suggest that you use headphones or external speakers.

Connectivity, Storage and Expansion

Right-hand side – Power switch, Volume buttons, 3.5mm audio jack, USB 2.0 port

There is a USB port on each side of the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro with one of each type allow for a common reality where one could be using a wired mouse and something like a USB external hard disk to offload extra data while travelling.

The model I am reviewing came with 256Gb of solid-state storage which was quick and responsive. The cheapest model has a 128Gb solid-state drive which would work well just for documents that you create but you may have toe eventually need a USB external hard disk. This is augmented by an SD card reader which comes in handy with your digital camera when you want to quickly download your pictures to take them further.

Battery run-time

Left-hand side – power connection, USB 3.0 port, microHDMI socket, SDXC card reader

For a highly-portable computer, I am able to complete most regular computing tasks like text editing and Web browsing on the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro without finding I am out of “juice”. Some tasks like continual gaming or video watching may place a bit more strain on the batteries here.

Other usage notes

From my observation with different people, the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro has yielded different levels of interest. This ranged from a perception of it being too heavy to something that appeals as a flexible large secondary computer.

For example, it has been seen to be heavier than other devices that some people are used to using as secondary or companion computer devices like the Apple iPad. Conversely, a friend of mine whom I stay with liked the idea of the 13” convertible form-factor with it able to be a large easy-to-see tablet or something to type copy on.

But the Yoga 360-degree convertible design has piqued some curiosity because of the way it operates causing the system to be a tablet or a laptop computer.

Limitations and Points Of Improvement

There is always the problem with the 13” ultraportable laptops being a bit too pricey compared to other computers of smaller or larger screen sizes. This is although they are likely to be considered as secondary computers for those of us who use desktops or larger laptops. The Lenovo still doesn’t change the fact here when it comes to the price of these computers.

Lenovo could offer a step-up model with the Intel i5 processor, 4Gb RAM and a 256Gb solid-state drive and / or offer an entry-level model of the Yoga 2 Pro with the Intel i3 processor for those of us who see it more as the secondary portable computer. It could also be the beginning of a run of colourful convertible notebooks that appeal to the idea of a highly personal computing experience.

Conclusion

Rear view – feelin’ groovy orange

The Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro computer would still come in to its own as a valid option for a secondary computer to create content on even though you have a larger “at-home” desktop or laptop computer, or as a large-screen tablet. Even the entry-level model is worth considering for those of us who value them in this way but want to save money.

The 360-degree convertible mechanism would be of value for those of us who value a convertible or detachable computer that is simple and hassle-free to switch between operation modes. This is especially important for those of us with limited dexterity  or are easily confused.

Attention: Look at this article to know how to remove the Superfish Visual Discovery adware from your Yoga 2 Pro.

Article

Replace Your Outdated Windows XP File Server With Network Attached Storage | Lifehacker

My Comments

ASUSTor AS-204TE 4-bay NAS – “Data central” for a small business

Some of you who run small businesses may be trying to get that last bit of mileage out of that beige-coloured “white-box” computer that is running as a file server. Typically the old computer may be running Windows XP Professional as its operating system which is approaching end-of-life and you may find that many components, especially the mechanical ones, are starting to wear down.

Today’s small-business desktop NAS units are about the size of half a loaf of bread for small units or the size of a large toaster or a toaster-oven for the larger units, and are built from the ground up to work as data servers for a small workload. They are even engineered to be able to run reliably for a long time without issues concerning overheating or vibration. As well, most of today’s small-business NAS units are even optimised to run the fans and hard disks on an as-needed basis to allow for quiet operation and reduced energy needs.

Although the news article focuses on Synology equipment, it can hold true of similar devices offered by QNAP, WD, Seagate, NETGEAR ReadyNAS, ASUSTor and the like. Most of these are increasingly running multipurpose operating environments that the manufacturers build on Linux or, in some cases, licensing Windows Server 2012 Essentials Edition from Microsoft. As well, they have a lot of the essential server applications like database servers, Web servers and the like that you can install from the vendor along with the essential file servers and can even work with Microsoft ActiveDirectory setups. This can make for some small-business NAS systems that can be truly multifunctional like some properly set-up file servers.

Western Digital Sentinel DS-5100 Windows Server NAS

The advice about considering a NAS as an upgrade path for your small-business’s old “white-box” file-server computer may not apply to those of you who have a lot invested in this style of “regular-computer-based” server system, especially where an application server is concerned, and have kept it up to date with new hardware and software. But it can be of use for those of us who are heading towards a more efficient computer setup for the small office..

Article

The Forgotten Importance of Broadband Internet Upload Speeds | ISPReview.co.uk

My Comments

Skype, Viber and Dropbox which require the ability to upload as important as YouTube.

Increasingly, Internet service providers focused on the download aspect of their customer’s bandwidth because most customers use this for downloading or browsing the Web. Typically, they provided a smaller capacity for uploads because of smaller data requirements used for interacting with the Web.

But they are realising that the upload bandwidth is as important especially as we enter the age of cloud computing, IP telecommunications and the Social Web and are highlighting the requirement to give upload speeds as important a footing as download speeds. This is of importance when ISPs are highlighting their offerings’ headline transfer speeds which typically emphasise the download speed only.

Key applications

IP telecommunications

A key requirement for decent upload speeds is IP-based telecommunications. These range from households implementing Skype or Apple Facetime to have long-distance free videocalls with relatives and friends through businesses using VoIP setups to save on telephony costs, The videocall is not just confined to being an element of 60s-70s science fiction anymore.

The upload speed is being considered important as technologies come on to the scene to enable high-quality voice and video telephone with AM-radio-grade voice calls or high-resolution videocalls.

Online storage services and cloud computing

Good upload speeds give the remote access abilities on these NAS units a lot of mileage

An application that is drawing attention to the need to consider upload speeds is the prevalence of online-storage and cloud-computing services. These also include “remote-access / personal-cloud” functionality that is a part of many home and small-business network-attached storage devices.

In a similar vein, the Social Web is encouraging us to tender photo and video content to one or more social-network services or image/video-sharing services.

Here, the ability to use these services without frustration can only be achieved when you have a high-throughput upload bandwidth. This is more so as we transfer files with increasingly-large file sizes like “master-quality” image, audio and video content that is to be shared, stored offsite or “taken further”.

The Web-based cottage industry

Increasingly there are people who are running their own Web site or blog. This cottage industry has become increasingly cost-effective for most with Web hosts that provide an always-alive hosting service either for free in some cases or you renting the space that you need for a modest sum of money.

The content-creation and publishing effort has been simplified thanks to the many content-management systems like Drupal, WordPress, MediaWiki and vBulletin that is hosted on these Web hosts. It also has been simplified through the use of word-processing software that implements XML-RPC functionality

Telecommuting and working from home

An increasing workplace trend is to work from home. This can manifest in the form of a person who works for an employer by doing some or all of the work from home, through a professional who has their home office as their sole workplace to small-organisation operators who have a shopfront or similar public point of contact but use their home as their office.

These users are expected to upload large work files, especially if they are in the creative industries. As well, the concept of cloud computing, including “thin-client” cloud-computing setups, has encouraged small businesses to be able to “think big”.

Communications is also being considered of importance for the professional or small business to maintain a competitive edge. This is more so as business catches on to video conferencing and unified communications technologies which are more data intensive.

How is this being factored in

Some “last-mile” technologies do support symmetrical download-upload speeds such as “fibre-to-the-premises”, Ethernet-based setups and symmetrical DSL setups. But asymmetrical “last-mile” setups can support increased upload capacity when they are adjusted for this, typically with these services being provided for larger businesses.

What can be done

The ISPs can use upload speeds as another way of differentiating their services and expose the services that offer the higher upload speeds to residential and small-business users. One example of someone stepping in the right direction is Gigaclear who are promoting symmetrical bandwidth for their fibre-to-the-premises installations in some Home Counties villages which are attracting the “work-from-home” crowd.

As well, the ISPs who promote decent upload speeds could be ending up courting a lot of usage cases like professionals working from home and expatriates who maintain a strong loop with overseas contacts.

Conclusion

Making sure that the upload speed is highlighted as a feature for an Internet-service package may allow the telecommunications carrier or Internet service provider to maintain a competitive edge and satisfy new Internet usage realities. After all, it’s not just about downloading YouTube videos anymore.

Article

Microsoft Purges 1500 Fake Apps From The Windows Store | Gizmodo

My Comments

As I have previously covered concerning software quality in app stores, the issue of app stores filling up with poor-quality software is being addressed. This time Microsoft has taken decisive action to remove the fake apps that were littering the Windows Store and reshaping the developers’ agreement to stop the creation of paid clone apps of established software.

But this kind of problem can beset any platform that creates a download site or electronic storefront for software and there needs to be an upper hand on the quality of the software that appear in these markets. Personally, I would still encourage people to rely on “word of mouth” or spotlighted apps as a way to gain value out of the app store. As well, people using feedback and reporting mechanisms can help with rebuilding quality in to an app store or download site.

Anyone who is building up an app-store for a product, whether it be a regular-computer or mobile-computer operating system or a “smart device” like a printer, NAS or smart TV should work out how to manage the app stores and download sites that they intend to run. They would need to:

• provide a human-driven software curating arrangement especially to draw out well-written software that does the job properly
• define policies concerning the software that exists such as intellectual property, software behaviour, taste and decency, end-user privacy and security, amongst similar issue
• establish a feedback and reporting mechanism to allow customers to highlight good and bad software
• define and maintain consumer-protection policies according to what is expected by any decent person to avoid end-users being ripped off. 

Once this is done, it could engender more respect in platform app stores and the ability for users to shape their experience as they see fit.

Article

Report: Apple to Launch Huge 12.9-Inch iPad Next Year | Mashable

My Comments

As people see competing manufacturers offer larger mobile devices, Apple is finding it difficult to keep their fanbois loyal to their brand and wanting to flock to their stores at midnight on the day that an iOS product is launched.

They are doing this by showing intent to launch iPhones with larger screens but now they have to achieve this same goal with the iPad. Here, the rumour mills are starting to come alive with talk of a 12.9” iPad which would be close to the size of a small laptop. Part of the game is to court the enterprise market by working with IBM to provide line-of-business apps on devices that are delivered in to large organisations as corporate-owned fleet devices.

Personally, I could see this behaviour replicating what had happened in the early 90s when Apple deprecated the Apple II platform and focused on the Macintosh platform. Here, they could put more energy in to the iOS mobile platform by courting the enterprise market with the “sealed-secure-device” angle that this platform stands for.

It is difficult to determine what role Apple will have for the Macintosh desktop platform as they add larger screens, and improved processing to the iPad to give it some “desktop” abilities and users pair up their iPads with Bluetooth keyboards. This also is true and is symptomatic of a trend where IT device manufacturers “blend” regular-computing and mobile computing abilities in their current and future computing-device designs such as through dual-boot laptops and tablets that run Android or Windows or the race to provide highly-strung processors and graphics chipsets on mobile devices.

Article

Skype Just Fixed the Single Most Annoying Thing About Notifications | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

Skype

Blog Post

My Comments

If you work with Skype on your Windows tablet, your Android smartphone doesn’t beep when your Skype correspondent replies

A common annoyance with instant messaging or social-networking usage is all your devices beeping and lighting up when your correspondent replies to you while you are chatting with them. This is typically because most of us want to install native client-side applications for our favourite instant-messaging services and social networks on each of our devices and have them logged in to the services at the same time.

Skype are tackling this in an application-wide manner by determine which actual Skype client you are actually interacting with at a particular time during a conversation. This then allows the service to mute all other Skype apps that are currently logged in to reduce this problem when it comes to your text messages.

The behaviour will return to normal when you aren’t interacting with Skype or when a call notification comes in so you don’t miss conversation opportunities. A question that can be raised with this functionality is what if you want to “jump” from one device to another such as to instigate your text conversation on your laptop but want to continue it on your tablet which you use while lying on the couch. Here, if you are starting a reply on the second device such as the tablet in the above situation, the app  on the second device should detect the activity and enable its audio prompts.

It may be easy to think of having platform-wide methods of detecting actual interaction so as to, for example, squelch other devices’ alert sounds when you are chatting. But this would have to be achieved on an application level with the application’s server or host knowing which device you are interacting with when you operating that device due to the requirement to work in a cross-platform environment.

At least Skype have answered a situation that ICQ and other instant-messaging systems haven’t anticipated – one owning many different devices for surfing the Internet and having them monitor instant-messaging services.