Article

4,7 millions de foyers français sont abonnés à une offre quadruple play | 01Net.com (France – French language)

My Comments

What is”quadruple-play”? This term describes a communications service contract where a single service provider or their business partner is providing a customer four services, typically, a fixed telephone service, “hot and cold running” broadband Internet, pay TV and a mobile telecommunications service.

According to the artilcle, at the third quarter of 2013, there was a strong likelihood of one in six French households acquiring one of these “quadruple-play” services which would simply be an “n-box” single-pipe triple-play service with the pay-TV, unlimited telephone use and unlimited broadband along with a mobile telecommunications deal. It was described as being commensurate with the number of display screens in use in that household and has been made possible with attractive deals being offered in that market.

The penetration of the “quadruple-play” service in France as described in this French-language may be reflected in some of the developed world where real competition does exist in the telecommunications and pay-TV sectors. This is although the US, Britain and Norway had the similar mix of services in most of their households.

A question that I often think of the argument that some people put forward about running a mobile-only telephony and broadband setup in their homes or not running a fixed telephony service or fixed broadband service in the face of the mobile telecommunications services.

These services would be engaged or retained by their customers if it is found that the price is right when it come to retaining them especially if they are part of a “many eggs in one basket” solution.  For example, a fixed broadband service used alongside a wireless router may offer better value for money when it comes to Internet service at home while a fixed telephony service may offer improved prices for outgoing calls, a reliable telephone service, alongside a “catch-all” phone number to contact the household at.

Personally, I encourage people to investigate the multiple-play telecommunications services when they are assessing their communications-service plans so they can look ay ways to “bundle” the services they use together with their favourite carriers.

Hi everyone!

This year and every year, after Thanksgiving has passed and those of you in the US have had that big turkey and apple-pie dinner, the shopping frenzy will be underway. In some cases, the ClickFrenzy heat will become intense around this time while those of you who aren’t in North America will probably see the heat come alive around the beginning of December. This won’t even die after Christmas Day with the hectic Boxing Day sales and specials.

But how do you know what to get when you are thinking of computing and related technology gifts to give your family and friends.

Sony VAIO Tap 20 – an example of an “adaptive all-in-one” computer

If you are considering a family computer, you could consider the Sony VAIO Tap 20 which I reviewed and its peers like the HP Envy Rove as an alternative to a desktop-replacement laptop or a small “all-in-one” desktop. This is more so for something that may end up being used on the coffee table or kitchen table so that two people can brows over the one Web pave for example.

Sony VAIO Duo 11

A “convertible” laptop-tablet computer like the HP x2 series or the Sony VAIO Duo 11 may have an appeal as a tablet or as a small content-creation notebook computer but the size can pre-determine the appeal in either of the roles. For example 13” variants may not appeal as a personal-tablet yet they appeal more as the “portable-typewriter” notebook computer whereas the 11” variants appeal more as the personal-tablet types.

For that matter, we are also seeing an increasing number of laptops and all-in-one computers that have the integrated touchscreen function. This is capitalsing on Windows 8 with its Modern user interface and some of us may see it as taking the touchscreen interface of the smartphone or tablet to the regular computer.

Increasingly other companies like HTC and Sony are offering the 5”-6” “phablet-class” large screen smartphones which can be described as a bridge between a smartphone and a tablet. These are comfortable for those of us who use or have used a “many-function” pocket calculator such as the scientific, statistical or financial calculators.

Denon UrbanRaver AH-D320 headphones

On this same theme of covering the mobile lifestyle, I have reviewed  more headphones like the Denon UrbanRaver AH-D320 headset. This is  alongside Bluetooth speakers like the Sony SRS-BTM8 and the Pure Jongo T6 speakers which can serve most mobile devices adequately wherever you are and they, like other Bluetooth speakers, can work with your laptop computer as a sound-output device.

Pure Jongo T6 Bluetooth / Wi-Fi wireless speaker

I have refreshed most of the DLNA Home Media Network articles and have created some articles about linking Dropbox albums to your DLNA Home Media Network using your network-attached storage device. This is based around a Windows, Mac or Linux regular computer and uses basic file-system techniques alongside the use of Dropbox’s native client application. Similarly, I had drawn attention to FreeFileSync as a tool to allow you to use your regular computer’ media-management applications to organise your media and upload it to a NAS for sharing via DLNA.

This is alongside reviewing a few sets of wireless speakers that can connect to your home network and play from an AirPlay or DLNA audio setup as well as being an Internet radio in some cases. As far as buying these wireless speakers are concerned, I would look at what whether you need battery power so they can be used away from AC outlets or whether you need more sound power output say to cover a large listening area.

The multi-function smart TV may make for itself a plausible gift idea so you can have the ability to gain access to most of the online video services. But, on the other hand, a Blu-Ray player, home theatre system or network media player with integrated access to online video services can earn its keep by adding this functionality to an existing TV. This also includes the “big two” games consoles whether they come with the functionality out of the box or available through a software update. For that matter, upgrading to the PS4 or XBox One shouldn’t mean that you get rid of your existing PS3 or XBox 360 because these can also serve as secondary multimedia players for other locations.

A network-attached storage device can become a viable Cbristmas gift for anyone with a home network because these can end up not just as file backup or network-wide “file drop-off” destinations but can evolve to become a media library. As well, if you do upgrade to a higher-capacity NAS, you can spread the network storage load between both devices like purposing one specifically as a media library..

Of course, this article about what to set the “family house” up with may help with choosing the right technology for that location for this location where the whole family visits regularly. This includes even the computer equipment that is to be resident in that location. This is best read alongside my article about whether to run with full broadband at this location.

There are ways to assure that your recipients do get the gifts that are worth it and will see them through the ywars. One way would be for a group to pool resources towards the decent gift, but on the other hand, you could purchase a gift voucher or gift coupon which entitles them to buy goods to the value of that card. In some cases, if the recipient receives many of these cards for the same merchant, they could easily end up purchasing something bigger and better. To the same extent, prepaid payment cards that work with the VISA or MasterCard platform can also serve this same need and also allow them to choose their favourite merchants including the online merchants. These options can make sure that you are buying something that these recipients really want.

I wish you a very merry Christmas and a very happy New Year in 2014,

With regards,

Simon Mackay

Article

CSIRO app to help older people live at home safely | Aged And Community Services Australia

My Comments

Increasingly, the home network is becoming a key feature to support the “ageing at home” concept where an older person can live in their home yet is monitored for signs of ill-health or is assisted as they complete regular tasks using the technology supported by these networks.

One of the main goals is to support the concept of deinstitutionalisation in aged care and allied health care, which is becoming more relevant as we see an increasingly-ageing population accelerated by the baby boomers reaching the old age. This concept also reduces the need to build many aged-care facilities which also reduces the costs associated with building them.

There have been efforts in the UK to provide for dignified independent living for older people including the use of projected text to remind Alzheimer’s patients of stages in a cooking procedure and a GPS system to help with shopping. Similarly, IRIS who is a company in the US is distributing through an American chain of  hardware stores products and services that also are about keeping tabs on one’s elderly relatives. This is being augmented by Fujitsu refining technology that makes a digital-camera image sensor measure one’s pulse which comes in handy with in-home aged care.

In the latest effort, the CSIRO have established a system to help with this concept. This is based around a mobile-platform tablet that works along with a system of sensors to observe the health and well-being of the senior citizen.

Energy sensors aren’t just to “be green” in this case, but to monitor use of appliances as part of a healthy daily lifestyle. For example, knowing if they have used the kettle to make a cup of coffee or tea at all or the use of a “cooking device” such as the stove, the microwave oven or toaster oven indicates if the person is well and looking after themselves. Similarly, knowing if they have left the oven or stove hob on for too long can indicate a dangerous situation.

Similarly, those motion detectors that are part of a security system can also identify whether the person has entered particular rooms like the kitchen as part of their regular activities. These work alongside various health sensors like blood glucose monitors or pulse monitors to observe the health of the older person.

This information is presented on a mobile-platform tablet to allow the person to see how they are keeping with life and a carer or the person’s loved ones can know what is going on if there are abnormalities. There are options in this system to help with assuring data privacy so that people only have access to this data only if they need it as part of the health-care plan for the elderly person.

Some other devices can work as part of this same equation such as the new breed of residential “smart locks” that effectively work as a business-grade access-control system for our homes. Here, they could be able to identify whether the door was locked or not and, preferably, identify whether it was locked or unlocked from inside or outside. This could, for example identify whether they got up and went outside to get the paper or mail for example thus knowing if they are well.

There can be questions raised about the use of technology as part of “ageing at home” in the context of over-monitoring the elderly population or stripping out the personal aspect of the care that is to be provided to this population. What needs to happen is that relatives and friends, along with professional carers need to engage with the older person for their health and welfare and not just have these systems monitor them for abnormalities.

Through this Website, I will cite and highlight Dropbox when I am talking about cloud-based file-share services and how they can be used.

One feature that I like about Dropbox is that it is not tied to a particular vendor like Microsoft or Apple. Here, you can benefit from the fact that you can share or exchange files with other users no matter their desktop or mobile computing platform. This includes the provision of first-party and third-party software that strengthens the link between the operating platforms and Dropbox.

This is extended to some NAS vendors providing software support for the Dropbox platform through desktop software or software that is part of the NAS’s operating system. Increasingly, Dropbox integration is becoming a function for many network-enabled multifunction printers where you could print from or scan to a Dropbox folder.  To the same extent, there are people who are building server-side software that integrates their server to the Dropbox platform, making it become an “on-ramp” or “shadow store” for Dropbox.

Like similar file-storage services, Dropbox is not a social network although it can work with Facebook and Twitter. For example, it can work as a file store for Facebook Groups as well as supporting single sign-on with these services.

There is a free entry-level allowance but you can buy more capacity or do things to increase capacity like inviting others to the Dropbox ecosystem so they integrate it with their regular computer. Some vendors like Samsung also provide free extra capacity to users who integrate it with their devices.

Dropbox has answered business’s needs by offering a business package that has secure encrypted storage, the ability to remotely unlink devices and other manageability expectations. This has even extended to having on one login a Dropbox personal account for personal data and a Dropbox For Business account for work data.

The main use I see for DropBox is to exchange a large number of files or large files like videos between two or more different people rather than serving simply as personal or business offsite storage.

For example, I would upload a large collection of photos or videos to a folder on Dropbox and share this folder with other people that I choose. Or it could be to pass a large document between two or more people as part of the revision process for that document. or want to work the one document across two different computers such as a desktop and an Ultrabook. Similarly, I may use Dropbox to create a reference library of documents such as reference manuals for business or for that shared property that you are responsible for.

What I see Dropbox as is simply a agile cross-platform invitation-only file exchange for individuals and small businesses.

Article

Linksys Gets Back Into SMB Networking  | SmallNetBuilder

From the horse’s mouth

Linksys

Press Release

Product Pages

SMB switches

LRT-214 VPN endpoint router

LRT-224 Dual-WAN VPN endpoint router

My Comments

Linksys are returning to the small-business field with a range of unmanaged switches and two VPN-endpoint broadband routers that are pitched at this user class.

All of the equipment works with Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and some of the switches provide 802.3at Power-Over-Ethernet power to half of their ports. For that matter, the cheapest switch in the bunch which is a 5-port Gigabit Ethernet switch calls for US$50. Here, they would also appeal as another quality option to contractors who are wiring a house for Ethernet.when they want a highly-reliable Ethernet switch as the central switch.

As for the routers, these support VPN endpoint along with 802.1q VLAN functionality and are IPv6 ready. As for this functionality, they would support PPTP and IPSec protocols for box-to-box and client-to-box VPN work along with OpenVPN protocols for client-to-box work. They are also future-proof in the context that they implement Gigabit Ethernet LAN and WAN ports thus making them work with next-generation broadband setups and the more-expensive model offers dual-WAN operation for failover operation or load-balancing.

But who knows how Linksys will return to this market further especially when there are companies like Netgear, Draytek and D-Link keeping this market in their grip as far as small-business network technology is concerned.

The typical media-sharing situations with cloud-based file sharing

Dropbox folder to DLNA-capable TV availability concept

You attended your friend’s wedding and took a lot of choice pictures during the celebrations on that day. Now you import your pictures to your computer, use a media-management program to curate them all and manage them in to a folder tree representing that wedding and sync them to your DLNA-capable NAS for backup and availability on your fantastic smart TV.

But you want to share the images with the lucky couple without supplying a disc, or USB stick or dealing with unwieldy email attachments. You may want to post them on your Facebook or other Social Web presence or photo-share service. Here, you could use a cloud-based file-share service like Box.com or Dropbox to share these pictures so they have access to “original resolution” images to view, print out or take further.

Why “original resolution” images? Some of us want to be able to print out the pictures to put on the mantelpiece. As well, one of these pictures such as the one of the couple having the “obligatory kiss” as part of the wedding may be worth printing as a larger feature picture that is to be on the wall. Today’s cameras can yield image resolutions that are to a standard fit for printing but you need the high resolution available at the print shop.

Similarly, you may be pushing out visual-merchandising content to your two shops that you own and you want to use Dropbox as a reference point for this material. Then you want this material appearing on the TV screen attached to the DLNA-capable Sony BDP-S390 set up at each of these locations.

Using a cloud-based storage service like Dropbox as a file exchange

Typical this involves you having an account on one of these services, such as Dropbox. The reason I exemplify Dropbox in this article and others on cloud-based file-storage services is because of it being available across all regular-computer and mobile platforms as a native application along with it being available through a Web user interface thus making it suitable as a file exchange.

Dropbox native client view for Windows 8 Desktop

But if you use another cloud-based storage service, make sure that there is an application for your regular-computer platform that integrates this cloud-based storage service with the operating system’s file system as a folder tree. It also must be able to mirror the contents of your storage service’s account on your computer’s main secondary storage such as the hard disk as a way to gain quick access to the contents. As well, the storage service must have a native front-end program for at least the popular desktop and mobile computing platforms.

Then you upload a folder-tree full of the choicest images to your Dropbox and sharing that with the couple and others you want to share it with. Here, you have to know each recipient’s email address so you can send an invite to view the folder full of photos. Of course Dropbox identifies through the email those who already have Dropbox accounts and lets them know that the photos are available in their Dropbox view. But if a person doesn’t have a Dropbox account, they get an email invite to set up an account for free as part of the invitation to view the pictures.

Media contents in Dropbox folder available on DLNA-capable Samsung smart TV

Here, they may want these pictures up on their Smart TV so they can show their family group the pictures that you took. Similarly, you have a Dropbox account and someone shared some of their choices pictures and videos with you. But you want them to be visible on your Smart TV for group viewing whenever you want.

The goal is not to share the entire contents of your Dropbox account to everyone because you may be simply using Dropbox as a data drop-off point for most of your personal and business data such as works-in-progress along with exchanging the media with your friends. Here, most Dropbox front-ends that are implemented by NAS untis typically operate on an “all-or-nothing” approach and don’t readily integrate the DLNA abilities that the typical NAS unit has nowadays.

Creating a DLNA-sharable folder for your Dropbox folder

Here, you could copy the Dropbox tree over to the NAS’s media folder. Some NAS units may allow you to add extra folders to the publicly-sharable mount point that you can share using DLNA. Here, you use the NAS’s Web control panel to add these extra root folders to the DLNA server’s folder list. In this case, you could create and share with your network a “Dropbox-Incoming” folder for this purpose.

In all cases, you need to have SMB/CIFS access to your NAS’s DLNA media directories. This would be achieved if you are already “dumping” media to your NAS and it is a good idea to create a shortcut to this on your operating system’s desktop.

You will need to perform these tasks using a competent file manager which is part of most regular-computer operating systems such as Windows, Apple Macintosh or Linux. Examples of this include Windows Explorer for the Windows environment or Finder for the Apple Macintosh environment. Things may become awkward if you are using a mobile operating environment like iOS or Android.

Manual sync methods

Using the Dropbox native front-end

Dropbox folder copied to DLNA Media folder on NAS

Make sure that you have the shell-integrated Dropbox front-end that you download from Dropbox installed on your regular (desktop or laptop) computer. This effectively integrates your Dropbox folder tree with your operating system’s folder tree and presents itself as though it is a member of Windows Explorer or Macintosh Finder. This includes making a file-by-file “mirror” of you Dropbox account’s directory layout and contents as part of your operating system’s directory tree.

Here, you use Windows Explorer or Macintosh Finder to copy the folders containing the media from Dropbox to your NAS’s DLNA media directory. You are not altering the contents of this folder in the Dropbox account but are copying it out to your NAS.

Do not move the files from the Dropbox folder because if you move them, you effectively delete them from everyone else’s Dropbox view.

In some cases, you may want to selectively copy images and videos from the Dropbox folder to your NAS for viewing on your DLNA media device. This may be important with a large media pool or a directory that contains office documents along with media files.

Using the Dropbox Web page

If you use the Dropbox Webpage to work your files, you download the folder that you want on your NAS as a ZIP file. Here, you right-click the folder (Ctrl-click with an Apple Macintosh that has a single button mouse) and select “Download” to cause the folder to be downloaded to your local hard disk as a ZIP file.

Then you use a file-decompression utility to expand the contents of this ZIP file to your NAS’s DLNA folder and make sure this is under a subfolder of its own in the DLNA folder.

Both these methods may allow you to “boil down” the folders so that you only have on your NAS the media files in that folder. This may involve a bit of hard work by you manually deleting the non-media files like executable programs, documents, PowerPoint presentations and PDF files.

Automatic sync method

Using FreeFileSync, Dropbox’s native front-end and your NAS to take advantage of a media pool

FreeFileSync sync job to automatically synchronise media from Dropbox folder to DLNA folder on NAS

Some of you may set up on Dropbox an improved “media pool” where each of you can contribute photos and videos of a special event, something the lucky couple could do after a wedding for example. Or the proud parents may create a media pool of their best images and videos of their children for the doting relatives and friends to see. This could be something where relatives and friends can have “contribute” rights to so they can pool what the baby had done while in their care.

This could be set up instead of or alongside Facebook’s new photo-pooling feature so as to provide “best-quality” images, to support videos as well as not disenfranchising people who aren’t Facebook Friends of yours.

To do this, you install FreeFileSync on your regular computer which should also have the Dropbox front-end installed. As well, you create a subfolder in your NAS’s media folder accessible by its DLNA media server that represents this media pool. Then you set up up a manual or timed sync job in FreeFileSync which links to the Dropbox folder and the aforementioned subfolder on your NAS’s DLNA media folder.

Ideas to make Dropbox work this way

Your children’s life

As you have children, you will be taking photos of them and want to share some of these photos with your relatives and friends. As well, your relatives and friends take pictures of your children at events they attend or when they have your children in their care. Similarly, when you have their children in your care or attend their events, you end up taking pictures and videos of them.

Here, you could create a shared folder in Dropbox which has all the pictures that you and your relatives or friends copy pictures and videos to concerning your children during these times. Both you and these doting relatives and friends can then see the moments that are important.

That special celebration

One person that I know of used to create a “photo board” for their parties with their guests supplying pictures that they took to appear on this photo board. A Dropbox folder which you share with each of your guests can serve as the digital equivalent of this “photo board”.

For events like weddings where there is the likelihood of many celebrations along the way like the engagement party, bucks’ night and hens’ night, you could create a “master folder” with subfolders for each of the celebrations. This is so you can maintain a master theme for the group of celebrations while you have particular folders representing, for example, the wedding day.

They are in town

Your relatives or friends have come in to town to enjoy your town’s assets and catch up with you. Most likely you establish a Facebook album for the visit, knowing they are on Facebook. But you want them to have access to the higher-grade pictures, perhaps allow them to “pool” their pictures that they took and do more. Similarly, you want them to have these pictures end up on their NAS so they can view them on their DLNA-capable TV or print them out on their printer.

Here, you could create and share a Dropbox folder tree that represents this visit alongside the Facebook or Google+ albums that you set up with them. Then they take their pictures and videos and add them to this folder tree while you shoot your pictures and videos and contribute them to that tree. This could be done for each “phase” of the trip such as specific outings.

In memorium

You can use Dropbox and your DLNA-capable NAS to memorialise a relative or friend who has passed away. Here, you raid your physical photo albums and scan all of the best pictures or go through your digital photo collection and copy pictures of them in to a folder that is shared with contribute rights amongst the family and friends via Dropbox.

The pictures then are shared across Dropbox as a way of creating a group-based memorium of the deceased person

Business promotions

Having your DLNA-capable Smart TVs or Blu-Ray players play media off a DLNA-shared visual merchandising directory on your NAS can become a powerful business tool. Then you use a business-capable cloud service to keep your visual-merchandising material with it being synchronised to the DLNA-shared visual-merchandising directory can permit you to create the content from home or have others like PR teams and commercial artists contribute this content off-site with the goal of this material appearing on your displays.

Here, the sync routine could be set up on a daily or twice-daily basis for your on-site server or office computer so you always have fresh material available and on the screens regularly. This could be performed as a manual task or you could use FreeFileSync to synchronise the promotions folder on Dropbox to your NAS.

Conclusion

The new consumer and business cloud-based file sharing propagated by the likes of Dropbox, SkyDrive and Box.com can be easily integrated in to the DLNA Home Media Network once you use a NAS as your media server and can use a regular computer as part of the equation.

Article – From the horse’s mouth

Solwise

Product Page (PL-600AV-SMT-PIGGY AC Passthrough HomePlug AV2 adaptor)

My Comments

Linksys and Zyxel had offered two HomePlug AV2 devices to the North American market that are based on the first generation of this technology. Here, these units don’t implement the multiple-input multiple-output functionality that allows for higher throughput but the current implementations allow for robust HomePlug-based powerline network segments.

Regular readers will know that the HomePlug AV2 technology provides an improvement over the HomePlug AV and AV500 by integrating various abilities that allow for robustness, such as the ability for a HomePlug AV2 node to become its own repeater. This is in addition to it being able to use the safety earth wire along with the power wires to provide for increased signal reliability in the most difficult of operating environments such as commercial or industrial environments or inter-building links.

Solwise have become the first to roll out a HomePlug AV2 setup with the same first-generation implementation for the UK market and the first to show up this product with the UK mains plug. This time it is in the form of a GBP£29.59 “homeplug” with a Gigabit Ethernet socket and a filtered AC passthrough outlet to plug your other appliances into. This means that you don’t forfeit an AC outlet just to run your HomePlug AV2 segment.

What I see of this is that Solwise are validating the HomePlug technology by selling equipment that isn’t ordinary but can do a lot more. They even place their cards on the table by exposing what chipsets these units use so that people can know what runs best for their small network.