Article – From the horse’s mouth

Panasonic

Blog Post – Flashback Friday (PV-1742 VHS Hi-Fi VCR – US Market)

Previous Coverage

A reasonably-priced add-on solution for integrating Skype with your TV

Product Review – Sony BDP-S390 Blu-Ray Disc Player

Blu-Ray Players – they could give more life to older and cheaper TVs

My Comments

Pioneer BDP-160 DLNA-capable Blu-Ray player

What do I see of video peripherals like Blu-Ray players, Blu-Ray home-theatre systems and network video players with “smart-TV” capability is that they are able to enable an existing TV with the smart-TV functions. Examples of these functions included DLNA network media playback, client-side access to the popular online content services and even the ability to co-opt your TV in to service as a large-screen Skype videophone once you purchased an optional camera kit.

But I see Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and others who do this right following an example that was underscored through the 1980s. In the Panasonic “Flashback” blog post, they highlighted the abilities that their PV-1742 VHS Hi-Fi VCR offered when it comes to reproducing what was considered great sound from video movies in its day. This was to utilise the VHS Hi-Fi system for recording and playback of video content including playback of those videos you rented from the video store with the high-quality stereo sound.

But one feature highlighted here was to allow you to use its inbuilt stereo TV tuner to watch TV broadcasts with stereo sound playing through your hi-fi, describing it as “converting your TV in to a stereo TV”. What was being highlighted here was a TV enablement feature, in a similar way to how most video recorders released through its model year also offered other features like the ability to change channels with its remote control or provide access to extra TV content (UHF or in-the-clear cable broadcasts, more channel spaces, etc) due to what the VCR’s tuner offered or simply the use of a reliable electronic tuner even if your old TV implemented a mechanical tuner.

What I see of Panasonic touching on the capabilities of video recorders like the PV-1742 and its peers was for them to be simply a TV-enablement device like today’s well-bred Blu-Ray players.

Update: A few corrections and use of a featured image.

Article

Guess Who’s Winning The Money Battle In The War On Net Neutrality | Gizmodo

My Comments

This recent article is showing how the US government is capitulating to Big Money, especially from AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, when it comes to Net Neutrality and, to some extent, competing service. Here, it also highlighted how FCC are pandering to big-business interests because the jobs with telcos and cable companies are becoming a popular destination for outgoing FCC Commissioners.

Why do I think of Internet-service competition in relationship to Net Neutrality? This is because when you have fewer Internet-service providers or telecommunications companies serving a particular market or providing a backbone service, you also have a greater risk of these companies selling privileged access to Internet service at very steep costs.

Previously, I had raised the issue of government departments that regulate telecommunications being independent of established telecommunications providers which brought around the idea of competitive Internet service in the UK and France. Here, I mentioned about these countries having cheaper or better-value Internet service because these government departments don’t curry favour with incumbent telecoms operators and there is oversight of the telecoms market by competition regulators and drew this comparison when I touched on Deutsche Telekom being “Drossel-kom” (“Throttle-kom”) in Germany because their telecoms regulator curried favour with this incumbent operator.

What I suspect that is happening now is that the US is effectively heading to a business climate for telecommunications, Internet service and pay-TV similar to the business climate for like services that existed in the 1970s before the Carterfone decision and the anti-trust rulings levelled against AT&T came about. This is where AT&T (Ma Bell) was able to get away with poor customer service and phone services that were of poor value for money because they were the only option for telephony. This is also shown up with repeated customer-satisfaction surveys in the US placing these companies at the worst for customer satisfaction.

Some public-interest foundations like Represent.Us and the Sunlight Foundation are targeting the issue of Big Money controlling American politics and an American could support these efforts if they want to restore real competition with their telecommunications services.

I had come across this Tweet that was shared on to Solwise’s home page concerning how quick it was to extend a small Wi-Fi network using a HomePlug AV wireless access point. As the picture showed that, once in place, this looked discreet and didn’t use any extra cables. You also had the advantage of being able to relocate this access point if you needed to such as focusing more coverage on another area.

Very quick #liveinstall completed in 15 minutes. Client had poor Wi-Fi coverage. Boom! @Solwise wireless access point pic.twitter.com/rzeUm7aSFY

— Kris Gamble (@customised) May 2, 2014

Expect a lot more reliability and proper bandwidth from your Wi-Fi wireless network coverage when using a HomePlug wireless access point to extend that home network.

Articles

IT-focused News

FBI Issues Wanted Posters For Five Chinese Army Officers | Gizmodo

DOJ’s charges against China reframe security, surveillance debate | PC World

US authorities name five Chinese military hackers wanted for espionage | The Register (UK)

General News

US Charges China With Cyber-Spying On American Firms | NBC News

Previous coverage on this topic

Symantec Symposium 2012 – My Observations From This Event

The issue of cybercrime now reaches the national level

My Comments

I have heard and will cite previous coverage about the issue of nation states engaging in cyber espionage against other nation states and businesses within these other nation states. For example, I attended the Symantec Symposium in 2012 and listened to the keynote speech by a guest speaker from the Australian Federal Police and he mentioned about organised crime and nation states engaging in the cyber-espionage or sabotage. He even said that it isn’t just servers or regular computers that were at risk but mobile devices like smartphones, point-of-sale / point-of-payment equipment and other dedicated-purpose computing devices being also at risk.

Subsequently, I watched the ABC Four Corners “Hacked” broadcast which covered the issue of cybercrime reaching a national level. This telecast covered key points including a small business who manufactured electronic equipment for defence purposes that fell victim to a Chinese cyber attack along with the theft of blueprints for ASIO’s new offices,

The recent indictment of Chinese military officers by the US government, along with FBI serving “wanted notices” on these officers has underscored the issue of nation states being involved in cyber espionage. It highlights the theft of intellectual property that private companies or government departments hold close to their heart for economic or strategic advantage.

It was even looked at in the context of the National Security Authority debate regarding cyber surveillance by that government department of Uncle Sam’s especially when there was the leaks that were put out by Edward Snowden, The US President Barack Obama even wanted to establish a global discussion regarding the cyber hacking and surveillance.

It got to the point where Mark Zwillinger, the Department Of Justice lawyer ran this line:The only computers these days that are safe from Chinese government hackers are computers that are turned off, unplugged, and thrown in the back seat of your car. Personally I would take this further by saying that the only computers these days safe from the Chinese government hackers are those that are turned off fully, unplugged and securely locked in the boot (trunk) of a sedan (saloon) or similar car.

As well, it would have us “wake up and smell the bacon” when it comes to nation states, especially those that don’t respect human rights, engaging in cyber warfare.

Introduction

I had decided to upgrade my Bluetooth headphone adaptor which was the Nokia BH-111 to the Sony SBH-52 Bluetooth Headphone adaptor, with a view to head towards some newer capabilities that these devices have. This is also to benefit from various improvements like multipoint operation, aptX audio codec for high-quality music and HD Voice codecs for improved mobile telephony services.

Price

RRP: AUD$159.95

Specifications

The Bluetooth adaptor itself

The Sony SBH-52 Bluetooth headphone adaptor comes with a pair of in-ear earphones but can be used with any headphones that you wish such as your good Bose, B&O, Sennheiser or Skullcandy “cans” or a set of noise-cancelling headphones for that flight or train trip. It also works as a Bluetooth handset or speakerphone which would come in handy with a computer that is running a softphone application.

Touch your NFC-capable phone on the clip to pair it with the headphone adaptor

For setup, you can pair up an Android or Windows device with the Sony headphone adaptor using NFC “touch-and-go” pairing by touching the device to the headphone adaptor’s tie clip. But you would have to hold down the POWER button at the end to make it discoverable if you were to pair it with a device that doesn’t support this kind of pairing like all of the Apple devices.

It presents itself to the host device as a Bluetooth Hands Free Profile device and a Bluetooth A2DP audio device with support for aptX high-quality sound for music and HD Voice codecs for communications. It also works to the AVRCP 1.4 device-control standard with the ability to show the title and artist of the currently-playing song when used with a device that supports this level of functionality.

You can even pair this Bluetooth headphone adaptor with two devices and set them up in “Multipoint” mode so you can run them at once. For example, you could pair with two smartphones such as your work phone and your personal phone and answer calls on either of them using its handset button. Similarly, you could pair it with you desktop or laptop computer running a “virtual-extension” softphone app or a Bluetooth-enabled desk phone alongside a smartphone and manage calls from both these devices.

The SBH-52 as an FM RDS radio

As well, the device serves as an RDS-equipped FM stereo radio but you will need to use it with your headphones because the headphone cable serves as its FM aerial.

But the Sony SBH-52 shows its real capabilities when you use it with your Android smartphone because of a Sony “Smart Connect” app, something I see as Sony’s “love-letter” to the open-frame Android mobile-device platform. This works as a “go-between” for messaging, Facebook, GMail and some other services through the use of downloadable “extensions” that you pick up from Google Play. It also becomes a watch showing the current time when you have it switched on and connected with the Android smartphone running this app.

Operational Experience

The Sony SBH-52 as a digital clock for your Android phone.

I have found that the Sony SBH-52 Bluetooth headphone adaptor clips to your shirt or tie without any issues whereas the older Nokia BH-111 had difficulties with clipping to thicker materials present in winter clothing or premium ties. This is due to the use of a clip that works in a similar manner to the old clothes-peg or the clip on an old-fashioned clipboard.

One issue that I have noticed at times is for the Sony SBH-52 to lose its connection with the phone if there is a period of inactivity. It can also manifest in the form of the on-screen data being out-of-sync with what is playing or whether the music is playing at all. This can be rectified by you powering the Bluetooth adaptor off and on or pairing again with the host device and may be a problem with the particular Android Bluetooth software in the Samsung smartphone.

The call-log function wasn’t all that consistent – it was able to show the caller’s name or number for whoever rang in or whoever I rang, but I couldn’t ring that caller back from the Bluetooth audio adaptor. Here, I would see the option to call back on the screen, with the “Yes” or “No” options, but couldn’t action these options using the Play/Pause key. This may be an issue if you haven’t set a particular call handler to be your default call handler on your Android phone.

A problem that can also happen with this headset and other Bluetooth headsets or hands-free devices is if you run a VoIP client like Viber or Skype on your Android phone, you can’t answer the VoIP client’s calls using the headset’s call-control button. This can be awkward in those situations where hands-free operation is desireable or paramount such as driving, walking or cycling. It is something I had found to my chagrin that I couldn’t answer an incoming Viber call using the SBH-52’s call button and had to use the Viber user interface on my Samsung phone to take that call.

The sound from your phone’s media player comes across as good as what the phone and headphones allow. Of course, you may notice a sense of clarity in the sound that it yields.This occurs with both the Bluetooth music and phone calls along with the radio. Of course, it will exhibit the limitations of the FM band which are similar to what is expected of Walkman-style FM radios, such as inconsistent FM reception in hilly or forest areas or city-centre areas with many tall buildings. But it was able to stay locked on to whatever I tuned it to without drifting.

The SBH-52 headset works properly with my Windows 8 computer, even providing elementary AVRCP-level control of media players using its media-control buttons. As well, when used in the Multipoint mode, each of the two devices is treated as a “source” in context with music and audio-content playback.

As for battery runtime, I was able to obtain one and a half days of music-streaming with a few phone calls out of this device before it needed to be recharged. As well, it was able to come from being empty to a full charge overnight once hooked up to an ordinary USB charger. Here, I could use any old microUSB-USB charge/data cable to connect the SBH-52 to a computer or charger when the time comes to charge it up.

Limitations And Points Of Improvement

The software for the Sony SBH-52 headset adaptor could be worked on better such as to allow the connection between it and a previously-paired Android host device to be properly healed when you switch it on and press the “play/pause” button. It could also make sure that it intercepts all incoming-call events from other Android VoIP apps so you can take calls on the headset.

The FM radio leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to functionality. One important function that is sorely missing is the ability to have preset stations. Similarly, the RDS aspect could be improved on, such as to have the PS station-identifier information shown in lieu of the frequency like what happens with automotive implementations. Even implementing the AF “follow-me” functionality that is used in Europe to automatically tune between different transmitters for a network station could earn its keep with travellers who use this while travelling across a country or region.

Sony could sell a variant of these headphone adaptors which is equipped with a DAB+ radio tuner for Europe, Australia and other countries where DAB or DAB+ digital-radio service is operational. It is more important with those markets like Australia where the AM radio stations which carry information-based radio content also appear on DAB+ digital radio while also underscoring DAB+ digital radio’s robustness for portable use.

Sony could extend their Bluetooth headset adaptors’ functionality by providing native support for the Bluetooth MAP messaging profile so that all text and other messages that come in show up on the adaptor’s display. As well, they could implement the full Bluetooth Handsfree profile with its call-control features in the headset adaptor natively without the need to run extra software. This means support for call-log abilities and access to platform-based “voice-assist” functionality irrespective of the phone’s platform. Some functions like a “call-log” ability could also require implementation of the Phone Book Access Profile.

Conclusion

I see that the Sony SBH-52 Bluetooth headset adaptor can work effectively as a Bluetooth headset adaptor when you have a smartphone that is your music player or run a separate Bluetooth-capable music-player device such as a tablet alongside your smartphone. It is also worth its salt if you also value having access to FM radio as another content source while on the go.

As well, Sony is stepping in the right direction by offering Bluetooth headset adaptors like this one that suit the needs of current smartphones and mobile telephony services.

Introduction

I am reviewing the Brother MFC-6720DW A3 colour inkjet multifunction printer which is the latest in Brother’s A3-capable multifunction inkjet printers

The model I am reviewing is the second-tier model in Brother’s new A3 multifunction range with the Brother MFC-J6520DW economy model having only one paper tray and the top-shelf Brother MFC-J6920DW having single-pass duplex scanning and NFC / Wi-Fi Direct mobile connectivity

Prices

Printer

Brother MFC-J6520DW: AUD$279 (Single paper tray)

Brother MFC-J6720DW: AUD$299 (Two paper trays)

Brother MFC-J6920DW: AUD$429 (Two paper trays, single-pass duplex scan, NFC support)

Inks and Toners

It is also worth noting that the Brother LC-133 series ink cartridges, which are standard-capacity cartridges for these printers are compatible with most of Brother’s newly-released consumer and small-business inkjet printer range whether as standard cartridges for some models or high-capacity for others. This may allow you to buy and run different Brother inkjet printers from that range yet be able to buy the same lot of cartridges to replenish them which can be a bonus if your supplier does sell them in quantity at a cost-effective price.

The printer itself

Setup

Brother MFC-J6720DW loaded with documents

Like most of the recent Brother multifunction printers, the trend is to place the network and USB computer-connectivity sockets within the machine and have the machine open up in a clamshell manner to expose these sockets. But Brother also moved the telephony connections used for regular telephony-based faxing to this same area. This can confuse some users who are installing the printer for the first time or moving the printer to a newer location.

Other than that, this printer worked well when it came to setting it up. But Brother still needs to work on the computer software so it doesn’t time out and throw an error message if it can’t find the printer quickly enough or prefer to use the operating system to discover the hardware.

This printer, like the other Brother A3-capable inkjet multifunction printers uses a paper tray that extends to a large size for A3 or collapses for A4 and smaller paper. As well, you load the ink cartridges in a compartment that is at the front of the machine, moving away from the need to lift heavy lids to replace them. Personally, I would like the printer to identify if multiple new cartridges are being replaced at a time which can come in handy if you were doing a few large printing projects and you needed to replace a lot of cartridges.

Walk-up functions – can be started from printer’s control surface

I have done quite a few copying jobs such as some family trees for someone who lives with me and this has yielded high-quality copies although it doesn’t print to the absolute edge and can clip the original at the edge. As well, it “copies to memory” so that you can remove the original document before the copies are printed which can come in handy with multiple-copy copy jobs. Even the ID copy function worked properly with you having to keep the card in the same corner when you turn it over.

Like with most of the recent Brother printers, there could be an option for the printer to keep the same settings rather than timeout to default settings. This would make things easier if you were doing larger copy, scan or fax jobs where you have to spend some time organising the original documents to be worked with. Luckily there is the ability to “preset” common setups as shortcuts which can make this workflow quicker and easier.

For that matter, when you copy, fax or scan from the glass platen rather than the automatic document feeder, you have to position the original lengthways. This confused me initially due to using the Brother MFC-J4710DW which was the first to use landscape printing and required the original in “portrait” mode.

The fax functionality works both with the regular telephone, offering Super G3 with a best case of colour A3 or T.37 store-and-forward with monochrome A4 faxing. If the standard was extended, it could support JPEG colour faxing. The T.37 store-and-forward faxing function is available with a free firmware update from Brother’s Web site.

Like other recent Brother inkjet printers, these printers implement the Web Connect functionality which allows them to be used with a lot of hosted services like Dropbox and Facebook. This comes in to its own with the “download-to-print” functionality for photos or PDFs that these services can offer.

Computer functions

The software that Brother supplies with this printer and most of the other printers gives up too easily when it is searching for the device. It could use the host operating system’s hardware-discovery methods to find the printer.

As for printing, it can turn out most jobs quickly but you would have to set the print driver to the “best quality” if you want to turn out “presentation-grade” colour work.

The A3 functionality comes a long way for larger graphics work including most signage but use the “Booklet” printing with A3 and you turn out a double-sided four-page A4 booklet which could save you money or give you a desktop-publishing bonus.

For operation speed, it turns out most most business documents very quickly but takes a slightly longer time to turn out “best-quality” work. Even turning out the A4 booklet on A3 paper came out properly and quickly.

I have printed some test photos and noticed that this printer does work heavier on the yellow and turn out a darker image. There is still a bit of a redder flesh-tone in people’s faces and this may have an impact with turning out best-quality brochures. For a small-business inkjet printer, these don’t beat the previously-reviewed HP OfficeJet 8600a as a high-quality photo/brochure printer.

Limitations And Points Of Improvement

One area I would like to see improvement take place is with the software where the onus for discovering the printer is placed on Windows rather than the printer’s software.

These Brother printers like the MFC-J6720Dw could implement a straight-through paper path for their automatic document feeders, especially with machines that have the single-pass duplex scanner. This makes them easier to trust with documents that are on fragile paper. Similarly, they could benefit from increased flash memory or a dedicated SDXC card slot for “fax vault” functionality, caching of print queues and similar functionality.

Also a midrange Brother A3 multifunction printer could still implement A4 duplex scanning with A3 one-side scanning as has been achieved with the prior generation of Brother A3 multifunction printers such as tbe Brother MFC-J6910DW that I previously reviewed. This is while a premium model could still support the full-duplex operation for all paper sizes.

Similarly Brother could work on these printers and the rest of their business inkjet printer range to make them answer HP’s OfficeJet Pro 8600 multifunction printer when it comes to printing brochures, flyers and similar marketing collateral. They could achieve this by making the colours more vibrant in most printing modes especially with coated or gloss / matt paper and being able to handle multiple sheets of special-media paper whether in the manual-bypass tray or the paper drawer.

This is due to inkjet printing being material-flexible due to the absence of heat in the printing process. It would be highly relevant with the Brother A3 inkjet printer range because of that paper size appealing to noticeboard or shop-window use or to creation of A4 booklets when the printer is set up to print in “Booklet” mode on A3 paper.

Another way that Brother could “cut in” with their A3 printers woudl be to provide an A3 single-function printer that can answer a lot of the “wide-carriage” A3 inkjet printers offered by Canon and HP or a DCP-series A3 multifunction printer without fax abilities to come in to its own as a cost-effective A3 multifunction when A3 faxing is not on the agenda.

Conclusion and Placement Notes

Any of us who handle large documents regularly would find this latest range of Brother’s A3-capable multifunction printers earning their keep. For most of use, the Brother MFC-J6720DW would come in handy especially if we are also using it as the main printer. The MFC-J6520DW costs $20 cheaper but I would consider it a false economy due to having to switch paper when you want to print on a different paper size. The MFC-J6920DW, which costs significantly more, is for those of us who copy or scan a lot of double-sided documents or want the ability to work with Android-based mobile devices in a standalone manner.

You could easily partner one of these printers with Brother’s HL-4150CDN or HL-4570CDW colour laser printers or the cheaper HL-3150CDN or HL-3170CDW for a high-performance colour desktop-publishing setup for your small business or other organisation. This is where you can use the laser printer with laser-capable media for high print runs while you use these inkjet printers for smaller print runs, large A3 documents, double-sided single-sheet A5 flyers or A4 multi-page booklets on A3 paper and similar work.

Article

UPnP+ links non-IP devices to wide-area networks | EETasia

My Comments

The recent extension of the UPnP Device Architecture specifications, known as UPnP+ is being worked on at the moment by the UPnP Forum. This is to extend the reach of the UPnP Device Architecture specification sets to satisfy certain new realities.

One key reality is to make UPnP work properly with the “Internet Of Everything” concept. This is where devices are able to interlink with each other and share their information in a manner not dissimilar to the concept associated with the Internet.

It will be achieved with native support for IPv6 across IP networks. This takes advantage of the huge number of addresses this standard offers compared to the legacy IPv4 which most of the Internet works on at the moment.

As well, a SensorBridge Device Class will be defined. This caters for the “bridge” device that links sensors and similar devices that work on non-IP networks with IP-based networks. The article talked of the non-IP wireless-sensor networks as being Zigbee, Z-Wave and ANT which take advantage of low-power low-overhead operation suited for those fields. These devices could be represented by “black-box” devices that stand between an Ethernet or Wi-Fi-based home network and the sensors or controllers such as the Honeywell Evohome Mobile Access Kit, but could also be represented as software integrated in either a router that also has a Zigbee or Z-Wave interface or a smartphone, tablet or laptop with Bluetooth 4.0 Smart interface.

There will also be inherent support for cloud-based “hosted” services to be part of the UPnP ecosystem. Of course, I find that the term “cloud” alludes a lot to services hosted by other parties away from the main home network, typically to provide remote access from smartphones, tablets and other computers connected via the Internet. In the context of “Internet Of Everything”, it could extend to service providers like utilities or monitored-alarm companies using this data to participate in the “Smart home” concept.

I would see this come in to its own with home and other networks that are operating along the line of “Internet Of Everything” and this could be supported with newer devices that have newer UPnP+ firmware in place.