Articles

Is Verizon readying a family data plan? | Signal Strength – CNET News

Verizon shared data plans show up in employee training materials, still on track? | Engadget

Previous Coverage

Multiple wireless-broadband devices – could a MiFi, tethered smartphone or similar device be the answer?

Should mobile carriers charge a premium for tethering your mobile phone to your computer

My Comments

Verizon have started work on heading towards making shared / family data plans available to consumers and small-business owners who buy wireless-broadband service in their markets in the USA. They would appeal to people who run multiple devices that benefit from wireless-broadband service, such as the typical user who runs a smartphone and a tablet like an iPad. They will typically have a larger data allowance which is shared amongst the multiple devices in a similar way that voice-call minutes or text-message units are shared amongst mobile phones that are part of a family plan.

This may be offered as an alternative to tethering a laptop or tablet to a smartphone and may place their business model centred around the “tethering premiums” in jeopardy. But this can still lead to the goal of increased revenue per customer by them offering larger data allowances for the shared plans, especially as most of us buy data allowances in a way to provide some sort of “buffer” for usage peaks. But, for these plans to work well, they need to support sufficiently large allowances and allow a user to connect a maximum of between five to ten devices to the service; or 15-20 for a family / household plan. This can cater for different usage patterns including newer device classes such as cameras or vehicle infotainment systems with integrated wireless-broadband modems; as well as families that are very “switched-on” when it comes to technology.

The same “shared data plan” can be implemented by fixed-broadband Internet providers that implement data allowances in their business models like most of the ISPs serving the Australian market. Here, they could cater for users who maintain two or more Internet services like a service set up at their holiday house, city apartment or business premises as well as the service that is used at their main home. The service providers could then allow for a larger data allowance to be used between the locations with minimal allowance wastage due to underused locations. In some ways, it could allow those service providers who sell fixed and mobile Internet service, like most telcos to run service plans with larger aggregate data allowances that cover fixed and mobile use.

Any telecommunications carrier or Internet service provider who runs or intends to run a data-allowance model should then keep an eye on Verizon’s shared-data-plan model and assess whether to run it with their current business model. Similarly, the carriers could examine ways of taking this further with “virtual LANs” that exist across the devices on the same plan and consistent security / “clean-feed” parental-control parameters across all devices associated with an account.

Article

North Carolina Officially Launches the First Commercial TV White Spaces Network

My Comments

There was an official launch of a commercial-service-ready Internet-service backbone based on “TV White space” in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA. The network was to use vacant frequencies in the VHF (most likely Band III) and UHF bands that were used by TV broadcasters before they went to digital technology and shut off their analogue signals. It is primarily a fixed-wireless setup but there is the ability to use transportable modems at the customer’s end of the link. One major benefit was the ability for improved “non-line-of-sight” performance which means that forests or built-up areas cannot easily interfere with the signal.

The idea behind the “white-space” network was to make Wilmington a “smart city”, a proving ground and commercial-rollout showcase for the technology. But there were some gaps concerning the rollout and delivery of this technology to customers. For example, could customers use an existing rooftop VHF or UHF TV aerial (antenna) that is still in good working order as the aerial for the “white-space” service’s link; or would they need to install a new aerial on the mast. 

As well, the main deployment was to cover Wilmington’s parks and gardens but I would rather that we see a full-scale “TV White Space” rollout that encompasses one or more country towns with associated hamlets or villages. Here, this can be used to assess coverage of sparse living areas like farmland or mountainous area and to assess how a network operator can go about covering particular areas where there is low coverage.

Similarly, I would like to find out whether the service is really costly to provide to the customers and what the real-world bandwidth and service reliability is like in a “White Space” Internet-delivery setup.

Article

HP Blogs – 6 steps for SMBs to become IPv6-ready – The HP Blog Hub

My Comments

There is all the talk of us running out of IPv4 public IP addresses for the Internet, and an increased awareness of IPv6 Internet technology. One major driver for the IPv6 technology is the rolling out of next-generation broadband services; where this feature will be seen as being part of the “next generation” mould.

In the near time, the typical IPv6 network will operate as a “dual-stack” setup where there is an IPv6 network and an IPv4 network operating over the same network space. A device such as an IPv6-ready router will typically bridge the gap between the dual-stack devices and the IPv4-only devices by assisting in the discovery of the devices and transferring data between the two different network stacks.

Outside IT contractors

If you do regularly engage outside contractors for your IT needs such as your POS / property-management technology, it would pay to ask whether the technical staff know about IPv6 and how to deploy it. Most of these contractors may think that small business doesn’t need IPv6 but as the Internet moves to this technology, it pays to be future-proof.

ISPs and Webhosts

It is worth making sure that your business’s ISP and Internet hosted services such as your Webhost are ready for IPv6 or have intentions to roll out a customer-facing IPv6 service.

Most ISPs and Webhosts are likely to have the backend of their services working on IPv6 technology but their customer-facing services like the Web services or Internet service may not be ready. This may be due to the presumption that most customer setups will fail when confronted with IPv6. The exception may be the ISPs that serve a “switched-on” audience that knows their way around the Internet technology; or ISPs and Webhosts that offer customer-facing IPv6 service as a limited-user beta test and they may offer a “dual-stack” setup.

It also pays to check that your domain host supports domain records that are compatible with IPv6 setups. This includes having AAAAA-form DNS records that can resolve your domain name to IPv6 addresses.

Hardware

Computers that run Windows Vista or 7, MacOS X Lion or recent Linux distributions will be ready for IPv6; with Windows XP having support through a downloadable module from Microsoft’s Web site. Relatively-recent computer equipment can be upgraded from prior operating systems to the newer IPv6-compliant operating systems. For the mobile platforms, the IOS (iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch), Android, Symbian and Windows Phone 7 platforms do support IPv6. They will typically operate on a “dual-stack” arrangement by being able to service an IPv4 network and an IPv6 network at the same time through the same network interface,

Similarly, most network printers pitched at the business end of the market that were released over the last few years would have support for IPv6 in a dual-stack setup.

As for routers, managed switches, access points and other network hardware, I would suggest that you check for firmware that supports IPv6 for your existing equipment. Keep an eye on the manufacturer’s Website for newer firmware updates that support IPv6.  If you are purchasing or specifying newer network equipment, make sure that it does support IPv6 or has future support for this in a planned firmware update. Most unmanaged switches, HomePlug-Ethernet bridges and devices that don’t use a Web or SMNP user interface would not need to be compliant with IPv6. This is because these devices work at levels below the IP stacks.

In the case of routers, the device should work as a “dual-stack” unit with support for routing between the two different IP network types. It should also be able to cope with working with a dual-stack Internet service especially as the business Internet services that provide IPv6 will do so in a dual-stack manner.

When I review any network hardware including printers, I will identify those pieces of equipment that are IPv6-ready so as to help you know whether the equipment will be future-proof.

Software

As for software on these computers, any desktop firewall software or other network-utility software that you run would need to support IPv6 operation. This is something that recent versions of this software would cater for, but you should make sure of this when you specify new software. It also holds true for any other network-management programs that need to work on an IP level.

The application software that serves office functionality or line-of-business needs wouldn’t be of concern in relation to IPv6 because the operating system would be handling the network-resource requests for these programs.

Conclusion

The key issue with assuring IPv6 compatibility for your small business network is to make sure that your computer equipment works on dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 software and / or there is a router that works as n IPv4/IPv6 bridge on both sides of the network-Internet “edge”. As well, the IT contractors and services that you engage would need to be knowledgeable about IPv6 and the impending rollout for your business.

Introduction

I am reviewing Hewlett-Packard’s latest business inkjet multifunction printer which is the OfficeJet Pro 8600a Plus. This unit is to supersede the previously-reviewed HP OfficeJet Pro 8500a Plus and, as you will see later through the review, will have some improvements over that model, especially the ability to print on both sides of the paper “to the edge”.

Prices

Printer

Recommended retail price: AUD$499

Inks and Toners

The printer itself

Distinctly-shaped automatic document feeder

Of course, the feature that makes the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600a Plus identifiable is the single-piece automatic document feeder design. Unlike most multifunction printers which use a removable or fold-over document input tray, this printer implements an integrated input tray, which creates a stylish design and reduces the need to do any further setup.

Setup

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8600a Plus was very easy to set up and add to the network and can connect to a Wi-Fi wireless or a wired Ethernet network. Like most business printers, it is future-proof with dual-stack IPv6 support, which would certainly benefit businesses who are heading down this next-generation network setup or are considering next-generation broadband.

When I wanted to enable the OfficeJet’s ePrint functionality, the printer failed to download the whole file completely and properly. Typically this was caused by server timeout problems and the printer would take the necessary “anti-brick” procedures too readily. This could be improved through the use of background downloading for the necessary software, especially if the update was part-finished.

Once loaded, the ePrint functionality had worked as expected with the email-to-print functionality and access to the HP ePrint app library. It also worked properly with my Android copy of the HP ePrint Home & Biz app, which allows for greater control over the print output from mobile devices; as well as being able to scan to the mobile device.

Walk-up functions

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8600a Plus can work as a copier with the ability to copy both sides of a document very quickly, a speed slightly shorter than its predecessor. There is also an ID copy function which is supported by assistance animations on the unit’s LCD.

Of course, the OfficeJet can print from and scan to memory cards or USB memory keys, thus working as a standalone printing appliance. In addition, the printer can scan documents either to an email address or a network folder, but these require the use of desktop software to configure these services for your network. As far as scan-to-folder is concerned, the printer can work with any network-storage setup that uses the standard protocols like SMB, which means that it can scan to a NAS device as well as a server or regular computer.

The unit has an integrated colour fax machine for use with regular telephony services with the ability to forward faxes to email or store them on a network storage. The main limitation with using this function for remote “scan-via-fax” operations is that you are typically limited to 300dpi black-and-white images due to the limitations of the Group 3 fax technology.

Computer functions

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8600a Plus’s computer software loaded very smoothly and worked as expected for a printer that is to be part of the Windows 7 ecosystem. This included support for the Device Stage functionality and integration with applications that have distinct control over the printer.

The software is still very useable and works well with the operating system in an unobtrusive way. There is the ability to set the printer to scan to the computer or to storage on the network like a NAS. This latter situation requires the use of utility software that is supplied as part of the printer for setting up the scan destination. The same software can be used for setting up scan-to-email destinations. But if you set up a scan-to-computer arrangement, the software’s scan monitor works very unobtrusively.

Useability

Illuminated print-mechanism bay

This printer has its ink cartridges loaded from the front in a similar manner to its predecessor and the Brother inkjet printers. But the similarity stops here. When you drop down the access door to gain access to the cartridges, the print bay is illuminated so you can easily identify paper jams. This makes the printer much more easily serviceable compared to the typical laser printer.

A feature that makes the printer identifiable is the single-piece automatic document feeder design. Unlike most multifunction printers which use a removable or fold-over document input tray, this printer implements an integrated input tray, which creates a stylish design and reduces the need to do any further setup.

Similarly there is a pull-out paper drawer which is easy to load and has a high capacity. There is the option to buy an extra paper drawer for use if you want to keep different media on hand.

Print speed and quality

The OfficeJet Pro 8600a’s automatic duplex printing was a major improvement over the previous HP inkjet printers with this feature in that it could effectively print on both sides of the sheet without requiring a large top and bottom margin. This previous requirement has been a personal annoyance of mine with other auto-duplex HP inkjet printers especially when turning out double-sided “tear-off” flyers to promote this site, and this model was effectively a sigh of relief for this function.

This would be especially of benefit for those of us who place importance on auto-duplex printing for desktop-publishing needs like turning out short-order flyers or previews of documents intended for long-run printing. It can even benefit print runs of custom-shaped documents like door hangers, luggage labels, bookmarks and the like.

There has been an improvement in the duplex print speed with a reduced waiting period while the ink dries, but this could be worked on further. One way this could be looked at is to identify whether the page can be retracted slowly during the estimated ink-drying time.

This HP OfficeJet Pro 8600a was able to complete a large duplex print run without failing and the reduced dwell-time for ink drying had become a bonus in reducing the time it took to turn out the pages.

The document output is very sharp for an inkjet printer, very close to what is achieved for a laser or LED printer. But this printer shone with the photo reproduction, something that a lot of business colour printers that are pitched at regular office use may find hard to do. Here, the photo reproduction has been an improvement over the previous model, the OfficeJet Pro 8500a Plus.

Here, the printer turned out a more saturated and brighter image and when it reproduced the group photo, it yielded proper skin tones for the people. I checked the sample pictures turned out by this machine against the same sample pictures turned out by the Photosmart 7510 which I previously reviewed and the photos were on a par with that printer.

Improvement over previous model

I have noticed that the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600a Plus is a real and distinct improvement on the OfficeJet Pro 8500a Plus predecessor in quite a few ways. It was able to reproduce photographs in an improved manner, which would make it please real estate agents, marketing agencies and similar businesses that depend on proper colour photo output for proofs, short-run colour flyers and similar documents. The auto-duplex printing function was an improvement on the previous model in that the pages were reproduced “to the edge” without a large enforced margin, similar to competing printers.

It also has a slightly-increased theoretical ink yield compared to the previous model, thus effectively making it cheaper to run and less time between restocking the ink cartridges.

Limitations and Points of Improvement

The HP OfficeJet Pro 8600a printer could benefit from increased paper handling options like an extra low-capacity tray for use with ad-hoc media like letterhead, labels or plastic film when used for short runs. Similarly, it could benefit from being integrated with single-pass duplex scanning as an advanced feature, thus allowing for quick-throughput reliable double-sided scanning.

The ePrint functionality could be delivered out-of-the-box rather than having the user run a firmware upgrade. While on the same topic, firmware updates could then be implemented in a “block-by-block” fashion so that the OfficeJet doesn’t need to download good firmware when completing an aborted firmware update.

It could also implement T.37 and T.38 IP-based fax endpoint functionality and UPnP printing as extra functions to make for a highly-capable small-business printer. These are functions that could be enabled and managed on the printer’s Web dashboard.

Conclusion and Placement Notes

I would recommend the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600a Plus multifunction inkjet printer as a colour inkjet workhorse for the office. This is more so if you do intend to print photo-based documents like photo proofs and short-order brochures.

Similarly. I would also recommend it for people who also value printer capacity and media flexibility, thus placing it as a more credible small-office-based alternative to an entry-level colour laser multifunction printer.

Network Technology

There are a few major trends that I have noticed for the home and small-business network at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. But the big names like D-Link and NETGEAR had chosen to run private showings of their products in the many hotels around Las Vegas rather than use the Convention Center.

Wireless networking

The 802.11ac Gigabit wireless network standard has been ratified and a lot of the manufacturers are showing prototype chipsets and endpoint devices for networks based on this standard. TRENDNet had shown a router and a client bridge as a proof of concept for a wireless link on this standard and D-Link had registered interest in developing their 802.11ac implementation.

On the other hand, Belkin, D-Link and Engenius ran with premium “N900” routers as their top-shelf models. These are simultaneous dual-band routers that run three data streams on each of the two Wi-Fi bands with a total theoretical throughput of 450Mbps per band. 

As well, TRENDNet had tried their effort at another of those “universal Wi-Fi range extenders” which is a device class that could cause some mistakes.

Coaxial and Powerline Networking

MoCA have brought their TV coaxial-cable network specification up to 2.0 which allowed for a headline speed of 400Mbps with Broadcom showing a system-on-chip that works with this standard. They were pitching it at the set-top-box market, especially for multi-room cable-TV deployments.

On the other hand, HomePlug PowerLine Alliance have made the HomePlug AV2 specification official. This standard, which is interoperable with HomePlug AV powerline network segments can support MIMO / repeater operation for a robust powerline segment as well as allowing for a Gigabit physical-layer bandwidth for this segment. The former MIMO advantage makes it that each HomePlug AV2 node acts as a repeater and can take data from two or more nodes for higher throughput even with ropey mains circuits.

But there have been more of the HomePlug AV 500 devices being exhibited on the floor; including D-Link’s DIR-1565 “three-way” router which supports a network of 802.11g/n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet and HomePlug AV 500.

Also, the IEEE 1905.1 standard has been officialised thus simplifying the setup and management requirements for small networks that use Wi-Fi, Ethernet, HomePlug or MoCA network media or a combination thereof. It also provides a consistent quality-of-service arrangement for data that passes through the different network media.

Routers

Some of the manufacturers were pitching at the idea of “cloud-enabling” their routers. This was to allow for remote management of these devices or to allow the router to become an Internet-enabled file server. There was also some talk about setting up app platforms for routers, but what could this lead to for the evolution of these devices.

D-Link have launched the DIR-505 which is a 802.11g/n Wi-Fi plug-in travel router which also had the ability to work as an access point and file-server.

Network-Attached Storage

TP-Link had used this show to launch their first NAS unit which was a DLNA-capable 2-bay SATA unit with Gigablt Ethernet connectivity as well as 3 USB ports. It even had the ability to copy from USB to NAS at the touch of a button.

Iomega had refreshed their StorCenter NAS lineup by adding a surveillance-camera NVR functionality and making them easy to setup. This also included improving their cloud-storage functionality. They also introduced the EZ Media & Backup Center which was their entry-level home-user NAS which supported easy-setup operation and backup, iTunes / DLNA media serving and support for Iomega’s Personal Cloud and Iomega Link technology.

Broadband Internet

ViaSat, who provide the satellite backhaul for JetBlue’s inflight Internet service, were intending to launch a satellite broadband service for rural America this year. They wanted to use this show to exhibit their proposed service. This service is intended to be speed-competitive with the fastest terrestrial broadband services in the cities and is to be known as Exede.

The throughput is at a headline speed of 12Mbps download / 3Mbps upload and they are offering packages with monthly rates US$49.99 for 7.5Gb data allowance, US$79.99 for 15Gb data allowance and US$129.99 for 25Gb data allowance.

Conclusion

This year, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was about estalishing a connected home lifestyle across all of the main activity centres ranging from the home office to the lounge area and that the TV is now a legitimate part of the connected lifestye.

Audio and VIdeo

Smart TV

There is still intense interest in the smart-TV platforms where your TV is effectively a computer connected to the Internet. This is more so with the idea of integrating multiple viewing screens ie the large TV screen, one or more computer screens, and the screens on tablets and smartphones.

Sony have been dabbling with the Google TV platform, mainly in the form of network video peripherals rather than a TV, which I will mention below. Of course, they are still maintaining their Bravia platform. They were also to promote this concept in a Las Vegas wedding at the Bellagio Wedding Chapel between “Bravia” (Sony’s Internet TV platform) and “Sony Entertainment Network” (Sony’s online content entity).

As far as the interactive-TV lineup goes, Sony have focused this function across their HX and EX “lounge-room” models with the HX series being ready for Skype once the user purchases an optional camera.

Samsung have devoted most of their press event to the TV being the “smart hub” of the connected home. This is with the use of a connected TV chassis that has a dual-core CPU, as well as building up the “Smart TV” platform around an app store and a video-content-distribution platform. They even are using an Android app as the TV’s remote rather than supplying the remote with the TV set. They even ran a competition for the development of a multi-screen app which makes best use of the TV screen alongside a smartphone or tablet screen.

As well, Samsung put forward an “open-frame” design for TV sets with a user-upgradable computer processor. This is in a similar way to how the desktop computer has been designed and is underscoring the fact that these smart TVs are really large-screen computers in their own right and are expected to last for in the order of ten or more years.

Even Lenovo had come to the fore with a 55” LCD set that is driven by the Android “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system. This would link to their own app store and cloud services and have the usual “smart-TV” features like Wi-Fi connectivity and ability to use an SD card as storage.

Similarly, a “fork” of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, which was targeted at the Internet-enabled TV set, had been launched at this show.

Ultra-high-definition TV

Another main trend surfacing this year at the Consumer Electronics Show is ultra-high-definition TV, also known as UDTV or 4DTV. This is where images have a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels and is pitched at the very large screens of 103” and bigger.

LG is intending to demonstrate an 84” prototype set which works at this resolution while Sony even had the idea of having some of their Blu-Ray players upscale the 1080p video to the higher resolution offered by this newer technology.

3D TV

The main trends affecting this technology are glasses-free 3D screens where you don’t need to wear glasses to watch the 3D effect; use of cheaper cinema-style passive 3D glasses which don’t need to link to the set or require batteries; as well as standards-based active glasses systems.

Toshiba is launching a glasses-free QFHD 3D TV 

OLED as a TV display technology

LG and Samsung have made efforts to bring the OLED display technology to the living-room TV size. Here, they have proven it by demonstrating 55” TV sets that use this technology rather than the LCD or plasma technologies for their screens.

There were rumours that Sony was to dump OLED technology for TV displays but they wanted to refine it to a cost-effective point for professional and consumer users. They have also shown a “Crystal LED” screen prototype which works in a similar vein to LED screens used in public places but implemented on 55” displays.

Other TV news

Some classic names of respect are using this fair to strengthen themselves in the American market. Westinghouse have launched a 3D TV but none of their sets came with Internet-enabled TV functionality. This was to keep their sets at an affordable price point.

RCA had rebuilt their name on a large run of TVs for the North American market as well as fielding a 55” Internet-enabled TV for the Latin-American market. They were using this show to launch some Android-powered mobile TV sets for the up-and-coming “Dyle” mobile / handheld terrestrial TV platform in North America.

Speaking of Dyle, Belkin and MCV were launching an array of equipment and accessories so that people can benefit from this mobile TV platform.

Home-theatre and Hi-Fi

Samsung had used this show to launch two soundbars with iPod / Galaxy S / Allshare (DLNA) integration with one being based on hybrid valve / digital amplification technology. They also ran with two Blu-Ray-based home-theatre-in-box setups with “Disc-Digital” which is Samsung’s implementation of the UltraViolet “digital video locker” service as well as the 7.1 channel unit being based on the above-mentioned valve-digital hybrid amplification technology. The other 5.1 channel version implements a wireless link for the back speakers and both systems use Wi-Fi to link to the home network.

Samsung even launched a home-theatre soundbar which can become two speakers and could link to sources via HDMI ARC (audio return path from HDMI 1.4-compliant TVs) or Bluetooth A2DP. RCA also launched a similar soundbar that connected to the home network and worked as a network media player for Netflix and similar services.

They are also implementing the “DIsc-Digital” UltraViolet implementation across the Blu-Ray player lineup at this year’s CES. One of the players is a similar size to a Discman and accepts discs through a slot while another of the players is a slimline form factor with HDMI inputs for TVs that don’t have enough HDMI sockets.

Sony have shown two Google-TV-based network video peripherals, the NSZ-GS7 which is a network media adaptor and the NSZ-GP9 which is a Blu-Ray player. As well, they have released two DLNA-capable Blu-Ray home theatre systems with full access to the Bravia Internet TV platform as well as a home-theatre receiver. Sony also released a few “HomeShare” DLNA speakers that connect to the Wi-Fi home network and have audio content pushed to them.

Panasonic have run with a large lineup of Blu-Ray players and Blu-Ray home-theatre systems. All of these connect to the home network and support DLNA functionality but the 3D-capable models and the home-theatre systems provide full access to Panasonic’s Viera Connect smart-TV platform including Skype and the Social Web for your existing TV.

These latest releases by Sony and Panasonic mean that you can use the cheaper and older TVs and have full access to the Internet-provisioned “smart TV” content and applications out there. In the case of the Panasonic 3D Blu-Ray players and home-theatres, add the Skype camera and you have just enabled a Skype-based video-conference setup,

Pioneer also used this show to launch the N-30 and N-50 audio-focused network media adaptors which work with DLNA 1.5 and Airplay network-media setups and the vTuner Internet-radio directory. They can handle 24-bit 192-kHz WAV or FLAC high-grade audio files and are Wi-Fi / Bluetooth ready with optional modules. The N-50 can also work as a high-grade digital-analogue converter for a CD player or MiniDisc deck.

Cameras

Samsung, Sony and Toshiba had launched cameras that were capable of uploading images to cloud-based photo-sharing services without the need for a computer. In the case of Sony, their Bloggie Live and Bloggie Sports cameras were being pitched as an alternative to the smartphone’s camera for Internet work.

Toshiba also exhibited a 3D camcorder with a built-in glasses-free 3D LCD screen so you can preview your 3D images properly. As well, Polaroid demonstrated a smartphone-style digital camera with a “proper” optical zoom lens – something that could be considered a bridge between a smartphone or digital camera.

Personal Lifestyle

Appliances

This show still hasn’t become a North-American showground for domestic appliances in a similar vein to the Internationaler Funkaustellung in Berlin. But LG was using this show to promote their “SmarThing” range of network-connected “white goods” which could be monitored from a computer.

Of course, Samsung also demonstrated a washing machine and clothes dryer that used a colour LCD touchscreen but was able to be controlled via an app on a smartphone. This means that you could track your washing from your phone’s screen.

Home Automation and Security

There has been some activity on this front mainly in the form of network-hardware vendors offering IP-enabled surveillance cameras, with TRENDNet offering a lineup of 12 units with varying features.

Other than that, the “Next Learning Thermostat” which learns your heating / cooling settings through the day was premiered at this show. Belkin also premiered the WeeMo home-automation system which is effectively an appliance-control module that responds to your smartphone.

Personal Health Care

There has been some more effort in developing online personal-health-care equipment which interacts with your smartphone or home network.

Withings, previously known for their Wi-Fi-connected bathroom scales, have released a baby scales which also links with the same network enablement and online health-monitoring setup as these bathroom scales. Similarly iHealth have released a wireless body-fat scales along with a wireless blood-pressure monitor and a “Smart GlucoMeter” glucose sensor for your iOS device. As well, FitBits released the Aria Wi-Fi Scale which is bathroom scales that link to your home network and measure weight, body-mass index and body-fat percentage.

IP Telephony

There has been some activity concerning voice and video Internet-based telephony. This is primarily with Skype being part of most of the “big-name” smart TVs and able to be added on to existing TVs through the use of this year’s Panasonic 3D Blu-Ray players and home-theatre systems. But Samsung also launched a Skype HD videophone unit for TVs and Biscotti launched a similar device for their own service.

RCA had demonstrated their voice-based IP telephony systems for business use while Ooma launched a cordless VoIP phone which has a colour LCD screen and can sync to Facebook for “picture caller-ID” images. $10 a month with the Ooma service provides for conferencing, second-line service and advanced call forwarding.

Tomorrow, in the last of the series, I will be talking about the network technologies that are to link these devices to the home network and the Internet.

This year, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has achieved a record of 3100 exhibitors and has made an opening for newer technology companies. This is through the establishment of the “Eureka Park TrendZone” which had space for 94 of these startups.

For Microsoft, this year was their last appearance as an exhibitor and Paul Allen had given the last keynote speech for that company at the CES. They will simply work alongside their hardware and other software partners at further events.

Trends

The major trends have been taking place with the portable and mobile computing aspect of our lives. This is mainly in the form of more powerful smartphones and tablets as well as an increased number of Ultrabooks – small slim ultraportable computers that snap at the heels of the MacBook Air.

Technologies

Energy-efficient powerful processors

This show is being used to premiere NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 ARM processor, which is an improved processor for mobile devices. This is intended to allow for increased power and longer runtime for these devices. This processor isn’t just intended for the tablets but also for use in the car dashboard as has been demonstrated with the latest Tesla electric supercar.

As well, Intel were premiering their Ivy Bridge “classic” processors which are optimised for improved graphics while being energy efficient. These processors are intended for the upcoming generation of laptops including the Ultrabooks.

New operating environments for the regular computer

Microsoft were also demonstrating the Kinect gesture-driven user interface on the PC and this wasn’t just for gaming like its initial XBox 360 application was. They used this show to promote Windows 8 as being the next computer operating system for tablets and regular computers.

Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready

It was also the year that Bluetoot 4.0 a.k.a. Bluetooth Smart was being promoted. This was a very low-power Bluetooth specification which made the technology work properly with sensor applications due to allowing these devices to run on a pair of AA batteries or a watch battery for many months.

Bluetooth Smart Ready devices could work with these Bluetooth Smart devices and permit them to work in an energy-conserving way. This has legitimised the Bluetooth technology in personal health and wellbeing applications, with this application class being premiered at this show.

Mobile Computing

One technology that is affecting this class of devices is the launch of LTE-based 4G wireless broadband in to most of the USA by many of the US mobile carriers. This is expected to allow for higher data throughput and bandwidth for the data-based services.

Smartphones and Multifunction Internet Devices

One major brand change that occurred over this show was Sony’s handheld-communications identity. This was previously known as Sony Ericsson but is now known simply as Sony Mobile Communications.

Here, Sony had launched the Xperia S Android phone and their first LTE-enabled phone inthe form of the Xperia Ion. These are also to be “PlayStation capable” which allows them to run Sony’s PlayStation games in the manner they are meant to be played. They also released the Walkman Z series which is Sony’s answer to the Apple iPod Touch and the Samsung Galaxy Player multifunction Internet devices.

Samsung had released their Galaxy S Blaze 4G which is their LTE-enabled iteration of their Galaxy S Android phones. LG also released some more of the Spectrum Android smartphones to the US market. Lenovo had launched the first Intel-powered Android smartphone in the form of the K800.

But, for the Windows Phone platform, the big announcement was Nokia’s Lumina 900 which was a Windows Phone equipped with a 4.3” AMOLED touchscreen. Was this a way for Nokia to claw back in to the multifunction smartphone category again?

Tablets

Here, this device class has become more powerful and capable, especially with the spectre of Windows 8 coming around the corner and a strong effort by all to unseat the iPad from its dominant position.

Toshiba had shown a 13” and a 7.7” prototype tablet but were exhibiting their 10.1” Android tablet/ As well, Coby were launching 5 ranges of 7” and 10” Android Ice-Cream-Sandwich-powered tablets with the maximum having 1Gb RAM and 32Gb expandable flash memory.

Acer had launched the Iconia A700 series 10” tablets with Tegra quad-core horsepower, 5Mp rear camera and HD front camera, and driven by Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Asus had launched the Transformer Prime Mini 7” Android 4.0 comverrtible Android tablet which coudl be similar to the EeePad Memo. This Android Wi-Fi tablet was a 7.1” 3D-screen-equipped unit with 5Mp rear camera / 1.2Mp front camera, stylus and 64Gb flash storage.

Samsung had used this show to premiere the Galaxy Note to the US market and premiere the Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE which was enabled for the 4G wireless broadband networks.

Sony had launched their S1 Android Homeycomb powered tablet. This one had a 9.4” screen and could work as an electronic picture frame or alarm clock; and was able to work with 4G LTE wireless broadband as well as Wi-Fi. Of course it would work with the DLNA Home Media Network and implemented an “off-centre-of-gravity” position for stability. They also showed the Tablet P clamshell tablet to the US market even though it was available in other markets. They weren’t sure if it would be launched in the carrier-controlled US market.

Regular computers

Ultrabooks and other “traveller” notebooks

This year had been a changing year for the lightweight “traveller” notebook computer. This class of computer had seen the tablet computer appear as a serious competitor and Intel had defined the “Ultrabook” as a new lightweight slimline class of portable hotspot-surfing computer.

ASUS and Lenovo had exhibited convertible Ultrabook computers which could become tablets, with Lenovo’s example known as the Ideapad Yoga which was powered with the Intel Ivy Bridge chipset.

Acer’s next Ultrabook is the Aspire S5. This was claimed to be the thinnest Ultrabook and had an 8 hour battery runtime. It also had a USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt peripheral connect for use with higher-capacity hard disks for example. LG also launched the XNote Z330 Ultrabook as did Toshiba with the Portege Z835 and HP with the 14” Envy Spectre Ultrabook.

Lenovo were exhibiting their IdeaPad U310 (13”) and U410 (14”) Ultrabooks with a choice of processors but with 4Gb RAM and a choice of 64Gb SSD or 500Gb regular hard disk. The 14” U410 variant was also available with 1Gb NVIDIA graphics.

Dell has jumped in to the Ultrabook bandwagon with the XPS 13. This had the standard spec set with an Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge processor, 4G on the RAM and a choice of 128Gb or 256Gb solid-state storage. The display is typically the 1366×768 resolution with Gorilla Glass screen as well as Bluetooth 3.0. Like the HP Folio 13 Ultrabook, this could be available in a “big-business package” with the business-security and customisation needs or as a regular consumer/small-business package.

Samsung launched their redesigned Series 9 ultrabooks with 13” amd 14” models. These were powered by a Core i5 processor and were equipped with 4Gb RAM and 500Gb hard disk as standard. The 13” variant had a 128Gb SSD as an alternative option.

Of course, the Ultrabook and the tablet had placed doubt on the viability of the 10”-11” netbook. But Lenovo was one of the few who had pushed on with a netbook in the form of the S200 and S206 series. These 11.6” units are available with an AMD or an Intel Atom chipset and  have 2Gb RAM and a choice of 32Gb SSD or 500Gb hard-disk secondary storage.

Laptops

Of course, the regular 15”-17” laptop has not been forgotten about with the calibre of these computers approaching “multimedia” specifications. Most of the 17” units had 1080p resolution and were equipped with Blu-Ray as a standard or option for their optical disks. The hard disks came in the order of 1Tb or, in some cases, 2Tb and system RAM was in the order of 8Gb.

For graphics, most of the laptops on the show floor had NVIDIA graphics chipsets with display memory of 1Gb to 2Gb and able to operate in dual-chipset “overdrive” mode. Samsung even exhibited the Series 7 “Gamer” which was pitched as a thoroughbred clamshell gaming rig.

In-car technology

This year was a chance for new upstarts to integrate the car with the Internet. MOG and Aha by HARMAN have increased their “Web-to-radio” footprint by integrating CBS Radio into their Web content aggregation lineup and partnering with Honda, Subaru, JVC and Kenwood to increase their equipment availability. This is in addition to improving the Aha iOS app and porting this same app to the Android platform this year.

Similarly, Parrot have extended their “Asteroid” Android-driven in-vehicle infotainment platform to three different devices – the Asteroid CK which yields telephony and audio content;, the Asteroid NAV which also provides GPS navigation and Internet access via Wi-Fi; and the Asteroid 2DIN whcih is effectively a car-radio replacement by having integrated AM/FM/RDS tuners.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the next instalment of the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 series which will cover the networked lifestyle at home.