Chromecast or Apple TV within a public-access Wi-Fi network

Chromecast and similar devices are being used as an alternative to smart TVs

How you can use a Chromecast or Apple TV in that hotel room

There are situations where you may want to use a device like a Chromecast, Apple TV box or a network printer in a place like a hotel that has that headline public-access Wi-Fi network facility. Or you may want to make use of a portable Internet radio to listen to that Internet-hosted radio station at the worksite you are working at which has a public-access Wi-Fi network.

But you will find it difficult to use these kinds of devices on these networks for many reasons.

One of these is that if a public-access Wi-Fi network is properly setup, each device that is on the network is to be logically isolated so that other devices on that network can’t discover your devices. This is more to assure user privacy and data security for all network users.

But this will interfere with arrangements where you need to discover another device that you own that is on the network in order to use it, such as to “cast” media to a Chromecast or Apple TV. It can also interfere with file sharing between two computers or the use of portable NAS devices.

Sony CMT-MX750Ni Internet-enabled micro music system

Sony CMT-MX750Ni 3-piece music system – this has been used to try Internet-radio functionality via a public-access Wi-Fi network

As well, some of these networks are set up with a Web-based captive portal or implement Wi-Fi PassPoint / Hotspot 2.0 or other authentication approaches. This is even if it is about assenting to the terms and conditions of service for use of the public-access Wi-Fi network. Here, these kinds of login experiences don’t work at all with devices that have a limited user interface like a small display or a user interface based around a D-pad. In a lot of cases, you will deal with devices that don’t even have a Web browser at all to work with these captive portals.

I previously covered Wi-Fi mobile networks and how they work. This included the use of travel routers or Mi-Fi devices, or NAS and similar devices that support “Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi routing”.

Travel Routers and portable NAS devices

Mobile NAS as bridge setup

Wireless NAS as a bridge between mobile client devices and another Internet-providing network. This is a similar setup for travel routers that support “Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi” operation.

One approach is to use a travel router or Wi-Fi-capable portable NAS that supports “Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi routing”. This means that the device connects to the public access network while creating its own Wi-Fi network, acting as a router. With Wi-Fi-capable portable NAS devices, you have to enable this function through something like enabling “Share Wi-Fi Connection”. You have to set the NAS so that the data that it has is not shared to the Wi-Fi network it is connected to, something you do when you set up “secure” or “private” operation.

Newer multimedia-ready hotel-room networks

Be also aware that there is an increasing number of network solutions being pitched to hotels and similar lodging establishments that create small home-network-grade Wi-Fi networks unique to each room or apartment. Some companies are even pitching this as part of their public-access Wi-Fi solution or building-wide network / Internet solution for residential or accommodation places like hotels or build-to-rent apartment buildings.

This is achieved through a distinct room-specific network served by a router installed in the room or a VLAN specific to a room or account and operates for the user’s tenure that works like a small home network.

These setups may also be to support a TV or audio setup enabled for Google Chromecast, Apple AirPlay, DLNA, Spotify Connect or other common home-network media protocols. The TV or audio setup is something that a hotelier would like to provide as an amenity to their “switched-on” guests who make use of online services and smartphones for their multimedia consumption. Such networks will typically have a “small-network-standard” Wi-Fi network covering your room or suite and will have an SSID network name and password peculiar to that network.

Most likely, if you do bring along your equipment and have it work with the room-specific multimedia network, you will be able to discover it as long as your computer or mobile devices are linked to that particular network. This could mean that your Spotify-Connect-capable wireless speaker could work with Spotify on your smartphone like it does at home if all these devices are connected to the room-specific network.

You may find that the hotel you are staying in may be set up this way and there could be printed material in your room about this kind of network existing and how to “get on board”. Typically this requires you to connect your smartphone and your devices to the room-specific network once you have activated that network connection.

Your regular laptop computer as a travel router

Logitech MX Anywhere 3 mouse on glass table near laptop

Your laptop that runs Windows 10 or MacOS 13 Ventura or newer operating systems also offers this same functionality

Laptops that run Windows 10 or MacOS 13 Ventura onwards can offer this same functionality natively. This is infact an approach that I used to run my Chromecast with Google Play as an audio-video output device for my Samsung Galaxy A52s smartphone at the Elsinor Motor Lodge in order to play my music through the motel room’s TV speakers.

Windows 10 onwards

Windows 11 Settings - Network And Internet - Mobile Hotspot option highlighted

Enable the Mobile Hotspot option in Windows 10 or 11 so your laptop becomes a travel router or mobile hotspot

  1. Select “Settings” which is the gear-shaped icon to open the Settings menu
  2. Select “Network and Internet” on the left of the Settings screen to open the Network and Internet window.
  3. Enable Mobile Hotspot whereupon you will see the setup for sharing your computer’s Wi-Fi connection.
  4. To see your hotspot properties, click the “ > “ next to the “Enable Mobile Hotspot” toggle. Note down the Network Properties on this screen which correspond to the SSID (Network Name) and Password for the Wi-Fi hotspot created by your Windows computer.

    Windows 11 - Network And Internet - Mobile Hotspot Settings

    These are the settings you need to go over to make sure your mobile hotspot works. The network details refer to what your devices need to be connected to.

MacOS 13 Ventura onwards

  1. Click the Apple icon at the top left of the screen and select “System Settings
  2. Select “General” then select “Sharing
  3. Look for “Internet Sharing” and click the i nearby that option
  4. Select the network connection that has the Internet service – this could be Wi-Fi or Thunderbolt Bridge.
  5. Select the network connection the other devices will connect to using the “To Computers Using”, which will be Wi-Fi
  6. You then have the option to create a Network Name (SSID) and Password for the hotspot network. Note down the SSID and Password you created for the hotspot,
  7. Once everything looks OK, click Done and toggle Internet Sharing on.
  8. Click Start in the pop-up message to confirm Internet Sharing.

Setting up your devices

Then, set up your devices like your network media player or network printer to link to the hotspot network you created in the above steps. Most network media devices will require you to go through the “manual Wi-Fi setup” process with some devices, especially speakers, requiring you to link to a “setup” Wi-Fi access point integrated in the device and running a setup Website hosted by that device.

That also means that your smartphone or tablet has to connect to the hotspot network if it is to benefit from the devices that you connected to that network. This would be important for media-sharing protocols like Chromecast or DLNA, or network-printing protocols like AirPrint or Mopria.

When you are finished

If you are using Windows or MacOS as a travel router, turn off the “Mobile Hotspot” or “Internet Sharing” functionality before you pack up your equipment. This is to assure secure operation and also saves on battery power for your laptop computer. With a travel router or portable NAS, you just simply disable the network-sharing functionality when you pack the equipment up.

Remember that the settings will stay the same for your Mobile Hotspot or Internet Sharing functionality so you don’t need to connect to a new Wi-Fi network if you use the same method again. This also holds true for travel routers or portable NAS units that implement network sharing.

In the case of that multimedia-ready hotel room network, you will still have to connect your equipment including your computer or mobile devices to these networks when you set yourself up in your room. This is because the guest credentials are likely to change as a means of protecting guests’ own equipment and experience.

Apple TV to become a group videophone with your iPhone

Article

Apple TV FaceTime conversation image courtesy of Apple

Facetime and other videoconferencing apps now feasible for Apple TV with your iPhone as a camera and microphone

You can now FaceTime from your Apple TV | ZDNET

Apple’s TVOS 17 Brings FaceTime to Apple TV, Find My Remote Functionality to Siri Remote – CNET

FaceTime is coming to Apple TV | Engadget

From the horse’s mouth

Apple

tvOS 17 brings FaceTime and video conferencing to Apple TV 4K (Press Release)

My Comments

A device class I always have wanted to see when it comes to videocalling and videoconferencing is a group videophone that connects to an ordinary large-screen TV set or monitor for its display and audio output. The idea behind this display concept for this use case is so that a group of people at one location can participate in a videocall. Example situations include a group of family members at the “family house” making a videocall to distant relatives during Christmas Day; or someone intent on buying a business, meeting with their lawyer at the lawyer’s office and talking with the vendor who is at another location.

A few companies are working on having their platform-based set-top boxes or streaming sticks serve this function by adding group videocall functionality to their set-top platform and it is something I was wanting to see Apple do with their Apple TV set-top box. This function works on Apple TV devices that run the next major version of tvOS i.e. tvOS 17.

As well, an iPhone or iPad running iOS/iPadOS 16 works as the camera and microphone for the Apple TV, thanks to Apple’s “Continuity Camera” functionality that was introduced to MacOS and now being “haked in” to tvOS. This is to be facilitated with a stand that Apple will supply as a first-party accessory so you can have the rear cameras facing you during the video call. The iOS device will link to the Apple TV via a Bluetooth link or the fact it is on the same logical small network thanks to Wi-Fi.

This functionality is to support Apple’s native FaceTime videoconferencing platform but Apple is to provide developer support for software developers who want to build or port desktop videoconferencing software to tvOS. Zoom and Webex will be the first two third-party videoconferencing platforms to have this tvOS support.

There is the ability to use the Apple TV’s Siri Remote to initiate a FaceTime call or you can transfer a FaceTime call you are engaging in to the Apple TV so that the other parties appear on the TV screen and you can hear them on your TV’s sound setup. Most likely third party applications will support a similar process.

In this setup, you will have to use the Apple TV’s Siri Remote to control the videocall such as to mute the iPhone’s camera or microphone, hand the call back to the iPhone to continue it privately or to end the call. If messages come in to the iPhone during the call, a simple notification not attributed to the message’s source will pop up so as to keep the message effectively private.

The SharePlay functionality, which allows you to share what you are currently watching from a video source hosted on your Apple TV will still operate so you can use Apple FaceTime to tantalise another person about that show.

There are still questions to answer regarding how the FaceTime facility will authenticate users who set it up to make or take calls using only the Apple TV Siri Remote, rather than using an iPhone and transferring where necessary. As well, would the ability to transfer a FaceTime call from your iPhone to the Apple TV be only limited to the Apple ID accounts that the Apple TV device is associated with? This can be an issue where the Apple TV device is bound to one Apple ID account to represent the whole household rather than each adult individual registering their Apple ID with the same Apple TV device.

At the moment, this functionality is part of a developer-only beta software package but is expected to be fully established as part of tvOS between September to November 2023.

Maintaining a competitive Internet-service landscape

D-Link DIR-X5460 Wi-Fi 6 router press picture courtesy of D-Link USAAn issue that will have to be kept in governments’ minds is the assurance of a high-quality value-for-money Internet service that is affordable for all people in all areas of the country.

A requirement to maintain a competitive Internet-service landscape may not be needed if the incumbent infrastructure provider is providing an Internet service that represents proper value-for-money for everyone. This may hold true for a country like New Zealand with its Chorus FTTP infrastructure network which was one of those infrastructure networks that was split away from the incumbent telecommunications service.

This includes a high-throughput service of current expectations, access to a decent-standard Internet service by people who live in rural areas as well as access at an affordable price for low-income and marginalised communities and the non-profit or start-up / small-business sector. Such services may be assisted through programs like “solidarity tariffs” for low-income people or a universal-service obligation fund that is used to subsidise rural setups.

The competitive market

There are different approaches to assuring a competitive Internet-service landscape especially at the infrastructure level.

France implements a requirement to have a minimum number of infrastructure-level providers in larger towns and cities. In addition, they assess all last-mile Internet-provision technologies for provision of Internet service in a competitive manner at the infrastructure level.

Or countries like the UK and Germany encourage and give blessing to independent operators that provide their own fibre-to-the-premises or fibre-to-the-building Internet-service infrastructure. In a lot of cases, such services are offered before the dominant infrastructure provider or ISP offers infrastructure or retail Internet service in the area. Or these networks are offered to an established area in competition to the area’s dominant provider. Here, such operators cover a particular village, town or city; or part thereof and offer retail Internet service that is above average for its class. They are also encouraged to set up presence in multiple areas in order to give more settlements decent Internet service or increase competition in other settlements.

In some cases like with some towns and cities within the USA, the local or regional government provides infrastructure-level or retail Internet service to the area’s citizens. This is typically as an extension to the local government entity establishing its own Internet infrastructure for its own needs and making further value out of it. But this approach has caused friction with the dominant ISPs in those areas due to the provision of competing Internet service in an area where they control the Internet-service market.

These independent infrastructure providers could be required by some jurisdictions to offer wholesale Internet access if they become large enough to do so. This can be deemed by their appearance in a minimum number of cities, them passing a minimum number of premises or acquiring a minimum number of subscribing customers.

There can also be a requirement for an infrastructure operator to accept being “built over” by a competitor i.e. having a competing operator build their infrastructure in that operator’s territory, able to serve that operator’s customers. Such a requirement can be brought about typically by metrics similar to required wholesale-service provision like number of premises passed or subscribing customers.  Or if the population centre has a minimum population size, minimum area or minimum number of homes and businesses, the infrastructure provider has to accept being built over,

In the same context, there will be a question about whether a retail ISP would be able to use multiple wholesale providers especially within the same population centre. This may come in to its own where different wholesale providers offer different wholesale-service standards like higher throughput, symmetrical throughput or business-grade guaranteed service quality. Similarly it could be about extending reach to communities not served by the wholesale provider they are primarily contracted with.

Social tariffs and plans

Another issue that is cropping up is the provision of affordable use plans for certain user classes. This was a practice often done in social democracies where the incumbent telephony-service provider, typically a government entity that was part of the post office, provided affordable basic residential telephony service for poorer communities or provided affordable business telephony service for community organisations.

One user class this would be for are people who are living below the poverty line. Here, disadvantaged communities not having access to Internet service they can afford makes it hard for them to participate in education, employment / entrepreneurship or society, or complete everyday transactions. It is also seen as a factor that exacerbates the “digital divide” between those who can use online services and those who can’t.

This user class would be identified by having access to income-based welfare benefits including concession or subsidised-healthcare cards. Some jurisdictions may even provide particular income-independent concession programs for at-risk people groups like senior citizens or Indigenous and refugee communities. In addition, social tariffs could be offered to people who live in social or affordable / rent-controlled housing typically offered to people who are on limited means.

Some ISPs even use social tariffs as part of their efforts to remove the digital divide, along with subsidised computer equipment for the home or facilitating / sponsoring computer-literacy education programs.

Another user class would be the charitable and non-profit sector who would need Internet service to fulfil their functions. Such organisations may be identified through registration in business registers as being “non-profit” or “charity”, including registration in “charity-commission” registers. As well, some service providers may also factor in organisational revenue or profits. Similarly, start-ups and small businesses could be provided these tariffs such as through business-assistance / incubator programs or rent-controlled business premises that are offered to these businesses.

But there would be the issue of providing an Internet service that satisfies current expectations for standard services when providing social tariffs to these customer groups. That means something that you can run your life or business with reasonably.good Internet service without paying too much for that service.

The existence of social tariffs and plans and the kind of services offered under these plans could be an indication of how competitive the Internet service sector is and whether it is working in a customer-centric manner. But these social tariffs could be supported through approaches like a universal-service-obligation fund, public-sector funding or voluntary-sector funding.

Assuring lively competition

But how can a lively competitive Internet service market be assured? This question is more so where there is that dominant risk of market concentration for wholesale or retail Internet service.

Such concentration can lead towards monopolistic or cartel-like behaviour that is hostile to customers or suppliers such as price-gouging or onerous terms and conditions for the provision of service. As well, this behaviour can facilitate denial of service to communities not seen as being valuable such as rural communities or neighbourhoods of social disadvantage.

Here, governments would need to take a whole-of-government approach to work against market concentration at the infrastructure or retail level. This would involve action by the telecommunications regulators as well as competition-and-consumer watchdogs and may also involve properly-enforced antitrust legislation and regulation. As well, regional and local governments would have to work in a manner to assure lively competition for Internet services in their area when it comes to things like the capacity to regulate telecommunications infrastructure or planning, access to the highways for infrastructure installation, or planning regulation for new developments.

It should include the ability to reject proposed corporate mergers or force the break-up of larger dominant companies. Or it could be about encouraging competitors to set up shop in markets of a significant size that are dominated by a monopoly or cartel.

Conclusion

To assure common access to Internet service that befits current expectations, there needs to be a lively competitive market for this kind of service if the incumbent ISP or infrastructure provider doesn’t provide this kind of service everywhere at affordable prices.

The first USB-C or Thunderbolt dock with a built-in power supply

Article

OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock Review | TechRadar

From the horse’s mouth

OWC

Thunderbolt Go Dock (Product Page)

Product Video – Click or tap to play in YouTube

MacFixit Australia (Australian distributor)

OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock – Thunderbolt 4 – Macfixit Australia (Click to buy)

My Comments

OWC has come up with an impressive Thunderbolt 4 dock that has features that are out of the ordinary for this class of equipment. This is a unit that is compact enough to fit in one of the pockets of a laptop bag

Here, it can connect to a host computer device that uses a Thunderbolt 3/4/USB4 connection and has plenty of connections for other peripherals. There are two Thunderbolt 4/USB4/USB-C downstream ports, an extra USB-C port, three USB-A ports with two as USB3 ports, a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI port, a 3.5mm stereo line-out jack and an SD card reader.

The use of a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port on one of these devices is astounding because, along with the Thunderbolt connection, it means that the equipment is ready for wired networks that implement the next logical upgrade from Gigabit Ethernet. It can also be of relevance with newer network-attached-storage units that support this kind of Ethernet connection.

OWS Thunderbolt Go Dock product picture courtesy of OWS

This OWS Thunderbolt Go Dock only comes with the Thunderbolt cable and a standard AC cord

A feature that makes this Thunderbolt dock special compared to other Thunderbolt or USB-C docks is that it has a built-in power supply. That means you only need to use the kind of “figure-8” AC cord typically used to power something like a boombox. This is compared to the other docks that are powered by a wall-wart or power-brick AC adaptor. I suspect this has come about due to GaN technology that allows for a very small power-supply footprint in product designs.

This means it is easier to replace the AC cord if you happen to lose it or it becomes damaged. Also you are at an advantage when you travel overseas because you can use a “figure 8” AC cord with the destination country’s AC plug. Here, you may be able to use one of these cords that became spare due to a piece of equipment breaking down or could buy one from an electronics store or supermarket.

The power budget for this device is 90W upstream to the host computer and 15W downstream to the Thunderbolt / USB-C downstream connections. The standard USB-A connections are rated for 1.5A each. As well, the power supply works across the standard mains voltage ranges used in just about all countries, making this device really about travel.

OWC supplies an “ejector” package that safely releases all the secondary-storage devices that are connected to the host computer via the dock. Here, it is more about providing simultaneous ejection of all of the devices rather than requiring the user to go through each device to safely dismount each disk or SD card.

Windows and Linux users would also have to install a Realtek driver package for the Ethernet network functionality because there isn’t device class support in these operating systems for Thunderbolt network interfaces.

This concept could be taken further with increased power output across the USB ports or to support 12-24V DC as an alternative power input. That could then come in to its own with automotive, marine and aviation use cases where you have that kind of power comes out of an accessory-power / cigar-lighter socket or aviation EmPower socket. Such a use case could encompass tradespeople, digital nomads or others who work from the back of a van.

But what I see is the idea of a portable capable Thunderbolt or USB-C dock that doesn’t require you to worry about carrying a particular AC adaptor with it because it has its own power supply built in to it. This practice could become the way to go for newer premium Thunderbolt or USB-C docking stations and similar devices whether they are pitched for desktop use or on-the-road use.

Portable monitors–are they worth it?

HP E14 G4 portable monitor press image courtesy of HP

HP E14 G4 portable monitor

Most of the monitor brands have at least one portable monitor in their range, with a few companies offering them as their only product.

These are monitors that have a screen size of between 11” to 18”, weigh below 2kg and are packaged in a manner so you can take them with you when you are out and about. They come in to their own as a second screen for your laptop, typically due to them matching common laptop screen sizes.

The USB-C connectivity standard, especially as used with display devices, has made these devices possible due to the use of one cable to power the monitor, send the video and audio signals to the monitor and, in some cases, pass data back to the host computer according to common standards. Some of these monitors have their own power supply like a battery which can reduce the power burden on your laptop.

Most of these monitors have a stand that is part of the cover or as a clip-on base that has the connection ports. But there are those that are designed to clip to your laptop, with these monitors typically sold as “screen extenders”.

They are typically a “plug-and-play” accessory that can work with any computer no matter the operating system as long as the computer has the appropriate hardware connections. Some of them will even have a micro-HDMI or DisplayPort connection so they can work with digital or video cameras or with older laptops that don’t have USB-C connections.

There are some monitors that have the built-in audio with their own speakers and/or a headset / line-out jack. These work to the “display audio” driver used by your computer’s graphics processor. Some of the monitors have a touchscreen, a Webcam and/or a USB peripheral hub as product-differentiating features.

The typical resolution for most of these monitors is at Full HD (1920×1080) and they typically have a screen quality that is similar to common consumer or business laptops. A selection of these portable monitors are being pitched at the gaming or creative market with them supporting higher resolutions like 4K UHDTV, which is a screen quality equivalent to a laptop or desktop monitor pitched at the creator / prosumer market, or higher screen refresh rates. These are justifiably sold at a higher price premium.

You may find that some Android mobile devices, especially high-end Samsung devices, and some handheld video game consoles like the Nintendo Switch can work with portable monitors. This may appeal to those of us who do a lot of mobile gaming for instance.

Who are they worth it for

A portable monitor would come in to its own with laptop users who value a second screen while on the road. They may not earn their keep when you use your laptop primarily on public transport like in an aircraft. Rather they would come in to their own when used at the place you are staying at overnight, or a place you use as a secondary workspace like a café.

EspressoFlow portable monitor meeting lifestyle image courtesy of Espresso Displays

Using an EspressoFlow portable monitor to show information to another person when working with someone else

If you are talking with someone at a table and want to show them resources you have on your computer or the Internet, these screens come in handy because you can have the portable monitor face whoever you are talking to while you are able to prepare material on your laptop to show the other person. This is important if you want to sit opposite the other person so you can see the other person’s face. Similarly, they can work well with videoconferences and online classes, giving you the advantage of two screens.

If you have a multi-screen home office, you may think of that portable monitor as something that is redundant. But in could come in bandy for some uses like monitoring particular email, Social Web, news or messaging feeds. Touchscreen-enabled or stylus-enabled portable monitors could end up as a form of digital tablet for your computing workspace.

Some of you will find a touchscreen or stylus-enabled portable monitor suitable for your needs especially where you want to add touch or stylus input to your existing setup. It can also be useful if you are wanting a larger touch-enabled or stylus-enabled input surface for your existing touch-capable or stylus-capable setup.

What to look for

EspressoFlow Portable Monitor drawing with stylus image courtesy of Espresso Displays

An EspressoFlow portable monitor serving as a stylus-driven tablet for artists to use

When you are looking for a portable monitor, you need to be sure you are after a unit that is well built. Most users can get by with any of the models that are pitched towards business users and professionals.

They will typically have a screen design similar to the typical consumer or business laptop computer and would have a Full HD (1920 x 1080) screen resolution, similar to what I would prefer for a laptop computer so you aren’t unnecessarily running out of battery power.

As well, the screen size should approximate your laptop’s screen size if you are using the portable monitor to extend the laptop’s screen area. A good rule of thumb is to have the screen’s height the same as your laptop’s screen, something that could work well if both displays are of different aspect ratios. On the other hand, larger screen sizes can come in to their own for activities where you are see the monitor act as another “desktop” or “work area”.

If your laptop computer has a USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 / 4 port, the portable monitor should have a USB-C port with DisplayPort alt and PowerDelivery functionality. The latter functionality would even come in to its own even if the monitor has its own power supply such as a battery. That means it can effectively “balance” the power requirements for the computer and monitor and “spin out” the battery.

If you have or are likely to use the portable monitor with an older computer that doesn’t have a USB-C port, the portable monitor should have a micro-HDMI or DisplayPort connection and cables to connect it to an HDMI port on the host computer. Or it has to support DisplayLink which sends video information over a USB connection with the monitor being supplied with a USB-C to USB-A cable. As well, it would also have to be self powered and able to he charged from an external charger.

A portable monitor equipped with an HDMI connection and, preferably, HDCP and audio support would come in to its own with all sorts of video peripherals. Think of reviewing photos or video you took with your digital or video camera on a screen larger than the camera’s own screen. Or teaming the monitor with a set-top box to use it as the equivalent of one of those portable TVs.

Higher resolutions or stylus support can be of value for anyone who does a lot of work with graphics and multimedia. Touchscreen monitors would be nice to have for those of us who want the touch-driven “tablet experience” for our regular computers. It is important where software allows for a screen to be purposed as a touch-friendly control surface which is being expected of most software.

Conclusion

Portable monitors are a useful accessory for your laptop computer, especially where you value multiple-screen computing on the road or want to have an ancillary screen for videoconferencing and interviews.

In some ways, they can add extra functionality to your existing computer setup such as a touch-enabled control panel or stylus-enabled drawing tablet. Those units that have HDMI inputs equivalent to an ordinary TV can come in to their own with many different video devices used in a personal manner.

Phishing in the name of government

There is a strong risk of people being “phished” in the name of various local or foreign government departments.

This typically happens whenever a new legal requirement or regulation is coming in to play in your jurisdiction or another jurisdiction that you have a “footprint” within. A key example of this that has been happening frequently in some parts of Europe with “clean-air” certification requirements for motor vehicles operated in various European cities. Or there are the recent energy-efficiency or cost-of-living support programs being offered by many a government that may be relevant to you.

The phenomenon also happens around tax season where there are attempts to phish your government’s tax department in relationship to tax refunds or obligations. This becomes intense when there are significant changes to anything to do with income tax, sales tax / VAT / GST or similar taxes and how they are assessed.

Or it could be to do with an incident or transaction that happened locally or on foreign soil, such as a legal action, motor vehicle accident or a purchase. Here, it would be about having to follow through with any necessary homework to close the incident or, perhaps, facilitate a product recall.

Typically the grifters are after your email addresses and passwords for various online services. They may also be after financial details like your credit-card / bank-account numbers or authority to debit money from your main transaction account. As well they are after personal identifying information like your name, address or date of birth so as to facilitate identity theft.

Check that Web link carefully

One thing you have to do is to check the Web link that is being used to link to a resource they are wanting you to view.

Domain names

Most governments use specially-reserved domain suffixes for their online presence such as email addresses or Website addresses. This is worked out with the powers that be that regulate or offer domain names across the Internet. Examples of these include “.gov”, “.gov.au” or “gouv.fr”,

There is an exception to this rule with government-owned enterprises or outsourced government activity. But most of this kind of activity will exist under a nation’s own top-level domain like “.au, .nz, .uk, .de” that is maintained by a national organisation that manages this domain, selling them only to citizens of or organisations chartered in that nation. It also applies to countries that don’t operate a specific government-level subdomain in their Internet domain hierarchy.

On the other hand, there may be an alternative domain name representing the name of the agency or program that is communicated to the public beforehand. You will see this in advertising or public-relations activity ran by that agency or program. This may be common with government enterprises like public transport or with outsourced government efforts.

Link shorteners

Link-shortening arrangements, whether offered by the communications platform or another platform can be used to obfuscate the hyperlink’s domain name. It also affects QR-codes that are used to link to a Website. But they are used with messages sent by SMS/MMS or messaging platforms or material posted on some social media platforms due to the platform not having enough room for a full Weblink.

Typically, when you click on a shortened link, you would be redirected to the main link. Here, you may have the ability to see the full link or at least the domain name that is associated with that link.

In the case of services like Linktree, you would be shown to an intermediary Webpage that shows a list of Weblinks that point to different resources on the ‘Net. These are used for online presences that only tolerate one Weblink, or with QR codes to lead people to a menu of related resources. Clicking on these resources from a Linktree list would have you see the full link or the domain name associated with them.

Smartphones and similar devices

Similarly, mobile browsers or other browsers written for limited user interfaces don’t have an always-visible address bar that shows the URL of the Website you are visiting. Here, it may be a good idea to bring up that address bar to see the Website’s URL when you open the Website.

But the better mobile browsers like Chrome for Android are answering this problem by showing the domain name of the Website you are visiting. Here you can be sure you are visiting the correct Website for the government department.

E-mail addresses

E-mail addresses tend to have a “display address” that is visible to users and the actual email address that points to an email account on an email service. This is typically to allow a person’s or company’s name to be visible in a manner familiar to everyday users even though they have an obscure-sounding account username.

But an email phishing scam can show a display name that appears legitimate at first sight but relates to an account that is different from the display name. This can be an email account that appears to come from a government domain but actually comes from a “.com” or foreign domain.

Most email clients have the ability to show the email address in addition to the display name. Some like desktop email clients will show the email address alongside the display name whereas others may require you to hover the pointer over the display name or, in the case of a touch-based device, dwell your finger on the display name.

Websites and similar online touchpoints

Use of SSL security

Government Websites and similar online touchpoints will use SSL security, preferably with Extended Validation or Organisation Validation SSL. This will be used as a way to authenticate the Website and secure your communication with it.

You will notice this with a key or padlock symbol in the address bar or even see the address bar or address text turn green when you visit the Website. With Organisation Validation SSL, you may see the name of the government department if you, for example, click on the key icon in your browser’s address bar.

This is more so where you are filling in online forms, making payments or submitting identity numbers as part of your online interaction.

Communications standards

The text for genuine government communications will come across in your nation’s official languages including locally-accepted dialects to a standard consistent with proper business communications. This will be of importance with emails or SMS messaging. It is because the source text for a Website or message could be written in one language but translated using Google Translate or another online machine-translation service.

In some cases, a multilingual government site may show more information on one particular language compared to other languages. This may be due to the public servants being more confident with that language and resisting the want to “pump” the text through machine translation or submit more work to translation services. Similarly, there may be more relevant resources that are native to that language such as the German-speaking part of a Swiss government Web site referring to extra resources available in Germany.

The logos, colours and other trade dress on that site should be current to what the government department is using in their public communications. This is important whenever the department underwent a significant branding change or there was an official restructure that took place.

How are transactions settled

Payments to government departments are to be settled in the jurisdiction’s common legal tender i.e. the local currency used for daily transactions. That means you shouldn’t see a debt being raised in US Dollars or Euro if the country doesn’t use these currencies as local currency. Nor should you see these debts being raised in cryptocurrency units like Bitcoin.

The method of payment is to be a domestically-accepted or regionally-accepted electronic-funds-transfer mechanism where the money is directly transferred out of your bank account. This may include a similar platform like Australia’s Government EasyPay that is set up by the public service to receive government payments. You may find that some governments may implement the common payment cards as a legitimate payment means for some personal transactions.

But you shouldn’t be using payment methods like gift cards; prepaid disposable debit cards; wire transfers like MoneyGram and Western Union Money Transfer; or cryptocurrency to settle these debts. Scammers prefer these means because there is no traceability that can facilitate investigations or ability for customers to have the transactions reversed.

What do you do

Don’t click the link or use the contact details in the message that the phishers have sent you. Instead, contact the government department via their official email address or phone number if you receive a message in the name of that department in order to confirm the veracity of the situation in the message.

Don’t click the link or use the contact details in the message that the phishers have sent you.

Here, you manually enter the department’s URL in to the address bar on your Web browser or use Google or Bing to search for it if you don’t know that URL. The result you should use in the search engine is the first one that isn’t an ad. This is because scammers can buy a search ad to promote their phishing Webpage on popular search engines. You may even find that privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo may yield the proper results with the official page listed at the top.

The “Contact Us” or “About Us” page will list official emails that the government department uses alongside other contact details and, perhaps, a Webform for this purpose. It may also include the phone numbers associated with that government department, typically a “wide-area” number like a toll-free, fixed=price or few-digits number, answered by a receptionist, switchboard operator or auto-attendant setup.

You may find that an e-government app that you have on your phone may come in handy for looking up contact details. Here, you would have ended up with one of these apps on your phone as part of your government’s COVID-safe measures or as part of an effort by your jurisdiction to head to a “switched-on” posture.

The government department’s Website will be likely to yield information about how you can verify the authenticity of a message you received from them or report phishing attempts. You may even see information on the government department’s site about these attacks if they have been subject to a rash of phishing attempts in their name.

If this message emanates from a foreign government, it may be something that requires consular assistance to verify its legitimacy or further the transaction, Here, you may have to check with that nation’s embassy or consulate or your government’s foreign-affairs department about what they are asking for.  They may also put you in touch with official translators when you want to translate official documents or it may be about identity verification or document authentication for international transactions.

That situation may come in to play for those of us who regularly travel between or have business dealings with different countries and leave a “digital footprint” with other countries’ governments. It would be more common where the countries have land borders or are accessible by a short affordable journey.

What can be done?

As we install e-government apps on our phones, these apps could facilitate a verification or authentication mechanism for government correspondence. Here, you could be doing something like clicking on a verification link in an email or message if you receive it on the same device as the app or scan a QR code on the message or Website in order to verify its authenticity.

Similarly, increasing the use of device-based password-free authentication in online government services could come in to its own to prevent citizens’ online accounts being phished.

Conclusion

The goal is to be patient about how you handle that message that comes in from the government and take time to verify its authenticity using the government department’s official contact points that you find from locally-respected information sources.

Super Wide Band Speech to come to Bluetooth hands-free setups

Article

Sony WH-1000XM4 Bluetooth noise-cancelling headset press image courtesy of Sony

The same Bluetooth codec that powers Bluetooth LE Audio will provide enhanced audio quality for your voice and video calls that you make and take with your Bluetooth headset.

Bluetooth calls on Android are about to get better — super wideband better (androidpolice.com)

From the horse’s mouth

Bluetooth SIG

Super Wide Band Speech for Hands Free Profile 1.9

My Comments

Increasingly, online voice and video communications is moving towards speech quality not dissimilar to how you would hear an announcer on your favourite FM, DAB or Internet radio station. This would be facilitated using regular or mobile computing devices that make use of wider bandwidth technologies like the latest Internet connections or 5G mobile telephony.

But the Bluetooth link for our headsets, hearing aids or in-car handsfree setups stands a chance of being able to work with high-bandwidth voice and video communication. Here it is about implementing the LC3 audio codec that is the core of Bluetooth LE Audio to bring speech quality that could be equivalent to FM radio. It will be part of Bluetooth Hands Free Profile version and is intended to work in a “best-case” manner where both the audio device and the smartphone or computer implement Hands Free Profile 1.9 with Super Wide Band Audio.

I see this as being part of audio devices that implement Bluetooth LE Audio due to the reuse of the LC3 Audio codec. It could also be taken further as a means to reduce the Bluetooth bandwidth needed for transmitting speech in a phone call, with a goal to reduce battery requirements for hearing aids, earbuds and “sports” headsets when used as communications devices. The sound latency will also benefit especially if you are using your Bluetooth headset in an area where many people are using Bluetooth devices.

At the moment this improvement for Bluetooth Hands Free Profile is at the point of being built in to mobile operating systems. For example, it is to be added to the Android Open Source Project which represents the software logic for the Android platform and this will look after the Bluetooth communications aspect for that platform.

Most likely, I would see this feature come about with Bluetooth LE Audio headsets, earbuds and hearing aids at least. It could also be a driver to bring what Bluetooth LE Audio is about to in-car infotainment due to the use of the LC3 audio codec. It sounds like a next major step for Bluetooth’s killer use cases i.e. hands free calling and audio listening via a wireless link to your smartphone, tablet or computer.

GaN technology now approaches audio electronics

Articles

Belkin BOOST Charge 68W GaN Dual USB-C Wall Charger (Australasia) product picture courtesy of Belkin

The same kind of GaN technology that powers these powerful USB chargers is entering another class of electronics

GaN Technology in Audio Power Amplification | audioXpress

500W Heatsinkless Audio Amplifier from Axign and GaN Systems Demonstrates a New World of Extraordinary Audio Performance | GaN Systems

Previous coverage on GaN technology

Belkin joins the GaN bus with two highly-compact USB PD wall chargers

My Comments

Gallium Nitride is a relatively new semiconductor material that is being seen as “today’s silicon”. At the moment, it has been used in various optoelectronics applications like blue, white, green or ultraviolet LEDs and blue and green laser diodes.

As well, it has seen a lot of traction within power electronics use cases like power supplies, inverters and battery chargers. This has been leading to some small powerful USB-C battery chargers and multi-output charging bars. As well, this technology is helping with decarbonisation thanks to its use with solar panels, battery storage systems and electric vehicles. What has driven its use in this field is how powerful the GaN semiconductors are and the fact that there aren’t heat issues with these semiconductors, this allowing for small designs for powerful power-supply circuits.

But over the last two years, some work has taken place with implementing GaN technology within the audio amplifier space. This is similar to power-supply design but is to amplify a variable-frequency signal representing sound in order to drive a loudspeaker. Here it’s about assuring that the sound is amplified in a manner to assure its clarity and intelligibility.

GaN Systems has showcased an audio amplifier design that works at 250 watts per channel for a 4-ohm load with a very low total harmonic distortion of below 0.01% across 20 Hz to 20 kHz. This Class D amplifier circuit has been rated to perform close to a Class A amplifier circuit which represents the pinnacle for hi-fi audio amplification using solid-state technology.

What could this mean for audio equipment design?

Auralic Taurus control amplifier connected to Auralic Vega DAC

This time amplifying sound within audio equipment like amplifiers and active speakers

I see this like how silicon technology impacted audio equipment design through the 1970s.

For example, amplifiers started to acquire power output ratings of at least two figures per channel with specifications that represented an increasingly-clean sound, which led to a requirement to re-engineer loudspeakers for stronger signals. These amplifiers were more tolerant of how the speakers were wired to them thus opening the pathway to multiroom audio or advanced speaker wiring approaches. This was infact a driver for the Receiver Wars of the 1970s with the goal to see who could offer the most powerful stereo receiver that yielded the cleanest sound.

There was also the ability to do away with output transformers which was a boon for a clean hi-fi sound and for mobile and portable use cases. It was also easier to design portable equipment for increased power efficiency which allowed for longer battery runtimes with stronger clearer sound. It also led to a strong effort towards highly-compact hi-fi systems be they integrated systems  with many programme sources on the same chassis or small compact component systems.

Gigaset L800HX Alexa DECT smart speaker press picture courtesy of Gigaset AG

Smart speakers and Bluetooth speakers are expected to benefit from GaN audio-amplification technology to assure that clean powerful sound.

Most likely I would see increasingly capable active-speaker designs like smart speakers or Bluetooth speakers appear on the market which are about a clearer stronger sound that what occurred previously. They would also have a neat design even though they have a higher power output due to very little reliance on heatsinks and other thermal-mitigation designs.

As well, manufacturers could get away with designing sophisticated amplifier and speaker setups yet keep the amplifiers in these setups compact. This would benefit multichannel and spatial audio or sophisticated designs with separately-amplified speaker drivers such as “active subwoofer” or “biamplification”.

It would also impact “built-in” audio designs like automotive or marine audio. That also extends to TVs, computer monitors and similar devices  with built-in speakers. This is because there would be powerful high-quality amplifiers that can be integrated in these installations without having to worry about heat buildup.

Like what happened when silicon semiconductors came about, battery-operated devices will gain a performance and efficiency boost. Welcome to longer battery runtimes or significant improvement in sound quality out of those Bluetooth speakers or portable digital radios for example.

GaN semiconductor technology entering the audio-amplification space is demonstrating the fact that this  a significant step towards it becoming the “new silicon” for electronics design.

Pocket-sized NVIDIA external graphics module about to arrive

Article

Pocket AI external graphics module press image courtesy mf Adlink

Pocket AI portable external graphics module

Pocketable RTX 3050 GPU Has Thunderbolt Power | Tom’s Hardware (tomshardware.com)

Adlink readies Pocket AI palm-sized portable Nvidia GPU for AI applications – NotebookCheck.net News

From the horse’s mouth

Adlink

Pocket AI | Portable GPU with NVIDIA RTX GPU (Product Page)

ADLINK launches portable GPU accelerator with NVIDIA RTX A500 in NVIDIA GTC (Press Release)

My Comments

Sonnet put up one of the first Thunderbolt-3-connected portable external graphics modules that you can put in your laptop bag or backpack and allow you to improve your laptop’s graphics performance when you are away from home or work. It doesn’t matter whether you are using an external monitor or the laptop’s own display to see the results. Subsequently a few other manufacturers offered similarly-portable external graphics modules that achieve this same goal in something that can be easily transported.

Dell XPS 13 8th Generation Ultrabook at QT Melbourne rooftop bar

The Dell XPS 13 series of ultraportable computers and other Thunderbolt-3-equipped laptops can benefit from external graphics modules

But a mixture of circumstances ranging from COVID with the associated supply-chain issues and the “Crypto Gold Rush” bubble had impacted on the availability and cost of graphics processors. This meant that it was hard to find a portable external graphics module that was in the price range for even the most serious creator or gamer.

Subsequently the supply chain issues started to ease up and the Crypto Gold Rush bubble had burst which led to more graphics-processor silicon being made available. Some manufacturers even made a point of positioning particular graphics silicon away from crypto mining through means like software crippling or creating auxiliary processor cards dedicated to that task. This has freed up the supply of graphics silicon for high-performance-computing tasks like gaming, creator / prosumer computing, certified workstations and artificial intelligence.

That led to Sonnet refreshing their portable external graphics module with newer AMD graphics silicon and offering it as two different units powered by different GPUs. That allowed for some form of product differentiation in this product class.

Now Adlink are promoting a pocketable external graphics module for use with Thunderbolt-3-equipped laptops and “next-unit-of-computing” computers. This integrated external graphics module which is powered by NVIDIA RTX silicon is being pitched at artificial-intelligence use cases but can come in to play for gamers, creators and the like.

The Pocket AI external graphics module uses a soldered-in NVIDIA RTX A500 mobile graphics processor with 4Gh display memory. The Tom’s Hardware article reckoned that this offered performance akin to an NVIDIA RTX-3050 mobile graphics processor offered for recent entry-level discrete-GPU laptops.

Rather than using a device-specific power supply, the Pocket AI uses a USB Power-Delivery-compliant power supply with at least 45 watts output. This means you could get away with a USB-PD charger that works from household AC mains power or from DC power used in automotive, marine or aircraft setups; or even a suitably-rated powerbank.

It then connects to the host computer using a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 connection, as expected for an external graphics module. But there doesn’t seem to be any external connections for other devices like monitors or other USB devices.

Here, you would benefit from the essential features offered by NVIDIA for its recent GeForce RTX graphics processors including RTX Broadcast which would benefit videocall and online broadcast use cases.

It is a pocketable unit, which you may say is equivalent to something like a pocket radio or early-generation pocket scientific calculator that is run on AA batteries. This leads to something that doesn’t take much room in a messenger style laptop bag, briefcase or backpack.

The Pocket AI external graphics module is being pitched towards artificial-intelligence and machine-learning use cases where a secondary processor is needed to facilitate these tasks.

But it is being pitched towards gamers with the commentary being towards adding a bit of “pep” towards the gaming experience on something like a Dell XPS 13. It is also said to come in to its own for work like graphics and multimedia, statistics or computer programming on those kind of computers.It is also about bringing NVIDIA RTX-specific features to your computer for use cases like video conferencing, video editing and similar uses and would easily court the “creator” or “prosumer” user class.

From what I see of the Adlink Pocket AI external graphics module, it could benefit from further connectivity options like DisplayPort or HDMI ports for external monitors. Or it could be about having a downstream Thunderbolt 3//4 port to allow it to be used with Thunderbolt 3 hubs or docks.

What this device is showing is a slow resurgence of reasonably priced discrete GPUs including external graphics modules that has come about after the crypto-asset bubble had burst. It may even allow computer manufacturers to invest in Thunderbolt 4 and related connection options on laptops, all-in-one computers and low-profile desktop computers for these devices; as well as to see a wide range of external graphics modules on the shelf.

It could be a chance for more manufacturers to offer highly-portable external graphics modules with entry-level or modest graphics silicon to court people who want that bit more out of their thin-and-light notebook computers.

Mutually-verified contacts as a security feature for messaging and social media

Most of us who have used Facebook have found ourselves seeing a friend request for someone who is already our Facebook Friend. This is a form of account compromise where someone creates a doppleganger of our account as a way to impersonate our online personality.

Such “clone” accounts of our online presence can be used as a way to facilitate a “man-in-the-middle” attack especially when dealing with an encrypted communication setup. It is an issue that is becoming more real with state-sponsored cybercrime where authoritarian states are hacking computer and communications equipment belonging to journalists, human-rights activists or a democracy’s government officials and contractors.

Mutually-verified contacts

In most implementations, each contact has a code that is generated by the messaging or social media platform as a human-readable or machine-readable form. The former approach would be a series of letters and numbers while the latter would be a barcode or QR code that you scan with your computing device’s camera.

In a lot of cases, this code changes if the user installs the social-media app on a new device or reinstalls it on the same device. The latter situation can occur if your phone is playing up and you have to reinstall all of your apps from scratch.

Users are encouraged to verify each other using this authentication code either in person or through another, preferably secure, means of communication. In-person verification may take place in the form of one user scanning the other user’s machine-readable code with their phone.

This allows each user of the platform to be sure they are communicating with the user they intend to communicate with and there isn’t anything that is between each party of the conversation. It is similar to a classic contact-authentication approach of asking someone a question that both you and the contact know the answer to mutually like a common fact or simply using a nickname for example.

The feature is part of Signal but is being baked in to Apple iMessage as part of iOS/iPadOS 16.3 and MacOS Ventura 13.1. But I see this as a feature that will become part of various instant-messaging, social media and similar products as the market demands more secure conversation.

Zoom also implements this as part of its end-to-end encryption feature for videoconferences. Here, users can verify that they are in a secure videoconference by comparing a number sequence read out by the meeting host after they click on a “shield” icon that appears during an encrypted videoconference. Here, this feature could come in to play with Signal and similar apps that are used for group conversations.

Relevance

Primarily this feature is being pitched towards users who stand to lose a lot, including their lives because they engage in “high-stakes” activities. Such users are government officials, public servants and military in democratic states, vendors who sell goods and services to government or military in these states, journalists and media workers in states that value a free press along with human-rights activists and NGSs.

Here, these users become highly vulnerable due to them being of interest to authoritarian states and organisations or individuals that aid and abet these states.  It is also being applied to countries that have undergone a significant amount of democratic backsliding or are considered to be socially unstable.

Personally, I see this as being important for everyday use so you can be sure that whom you want as part of your social-media or online messaging circle is whom you actually want. Here, it can avoid you dealing with scams based on others impersonating you or others in your social circle such as the “relative in distress” scam. As well, it can also be seen as a way to be sure you are linking with the right person when you add a new person to your social-media list.

Conclusion

I would see an increasing number of communications, social media and similar platforms acquiring the “mutual contact verification” function as a security feature. This would be more so where the platform supports end-to-end encryption in any way or there is a reliance on some form of personal safety or business confidentiality.