Article

A competitive Internet service market coming to more US cities

Google Fiber Eyes Louisville, Irvine and San Diego Expansions | Broadband News & DSL Reports

From the horse’s mouth

Google Fiber

Press Release

My Comments

I have been covering Google Fiber’s rollout of competing fibre-optic Internet service to various communities in the US and how this is bringing about real competition to the communities’ Internet-service markets. Examples of this include an impending Google Fiber deployment in Raleigh, North Carolina putting the existing ISPs on notice with them offering a similar-speed Internet service to their customers.

Some more communities are now to be touched by this competitive spirit, this time in California where there is a strong start-up and IT-driven business culture. The Californian communities are Irvine, which was where Linksys started from, along with San Diego; while Louisville in Kentucky which has the “Code Louisville” software-development effort is also to benefit. IAt the moment, Google is “checking the boxes” by getting things worked out and approved with the various local governments, “chalking out” where utility lines are and the like so they can start working.

I wouldn’t put it past AT&T, the Big Red or Comcast to get their act together once they know this is going on and “sweeten the deal” for their subscriber bases to avoid the inevitable churn to Google Fiber before the soil is turned. Definitely, things are looking up for competitive Internet service in the USA.

Article

How to enable “Save As” in Mac OS X Yosemite | AppleWorld.Today

My Comments

Those of you Mac users who worked with a previous version of Mac OS X may have been able to use the “Save As” command to save that document under a different name or in a different Folder. But this feature is missing on Lion and newer versions of Mac OS X and may confuse those of you who “climbed the operating-system ladder” by installing subsequent versions of MacOS X on your Macintosh.

But you can bring back this function through a procedure that is very simple. Here, you bring up the File menu as normal then press the Option key on your keyboard where the option that was previously “Duplicate File” becomes “Save As”. Click on this or subsequently press Command–Shift–S together to bring up the Save As dialog box so you can save it under a different name.

This function is important if you have to create a new different version of that document or wish to save it in a particular location like a removable drive or a special folder and you realise you needed to do this after the fact.

Legal download-based video ecosystems could yield frustration-free viewing of video files

Most video-on-demand services, whether transaction-based like iTunes or subscription-based like Netflix, are based on the concept of streaming. This is where the content is delivered in real-time from a remote server to your smart TV or set-top box via the Internet.

But streaming has a key disadvantage. It is totally dependent on the quality of the Internet connection and your equipment and can cause a poor viewing experience if there is reduced bandwidth due to situations like a poor DSL connection or a highly-busy network; and is a situation I have seen for myself with Apple TV and the iTunes video-on-demand service.

Similarly, streaming can be at a disadvantage when you are using mobile devices and are viewing the content in a mobile context like entertaining your kids with some videos on a long road trip or whiling away the train commute with episodes from your favourite TV shows. Here, the Internet connection may not always be reliable because you may be moving out of your mobile-broadband service’s reliable reception area frequently during the trip, something that would happen as you enter a tunnel or drive further out in the country.

USB hard disks – could be part of a download-based video ecosystem

A download-based video-content service would work in the similar way to iTunes or Amazon music services where you can buy and download songs or albums. This is where, as part of the transaction, you download the movie or TV show to local storage and play the content from the local storage.

The local storage could be a USB hard disk which you download the content to using a regular computer, then connect to a TV or video peripheral for playback. On the other hand, it could be a network-attached storage device which streams the content out to a smart TV or video peripheral over the home network. As well, it could be storage integrated with a viewing device like a tablet, laptop or smartphone which you use to view the content when you are “on the road”.

Key issues

Content protection

This ReadyNAS could serve as a household movie library

There is a big genuine fear shown by Hollywood with download-based services where the high-value video content could be replicated in an out-of-control way. This is being examined by the Secure Content Storage Association who are looking towards secure authenticated storage for these files. They are pitching it at digital download, “physical+digital” delivery, retail kiosks amongst other digital-delivery business models along with access to newer remasters of the same content for those of us who already have an existing copy.

Business models

Any content-protection system like SCSA would have to support a range of business models, primarily transaction-driven models, such as the two outlined below:

Download-to-own

Typically, the main business model that would be associated with a download-based service would be a “download-to-own” model where you download the title and watch it for ever, similar to buying the content on a VHS videocassette or a DVD or Blu-Ray disc. This would be more or less associated with the “collectable” model where you buy favourite movies or TV serials that you want to come back to.

This can be provided by a “digital-only” service where you just download the content from an online store or as part of the supply of the content on a physical medium like a DVD. It can also extend to the supply of USB memory keys or USB-connected hard drives that are full of a collection of video titles, a practice that has been done with Bob Dylan’s album collection which was dumped to a USB memory key shaped like his quintessential harmonica and sold as a collectable. An example of this could be a collectable USB hard drive loaded with remastered copies of all of the episodes of a classic British or American TV sitcom and this hard drive is styled to reflect the tone of that sitcom.

As well, this could support the gifting of content where you can effectively give your relative or friend a licensed copy of the content whether you own it or not. This would have to work in a similar manner to how you can use iTunes or Google Play to give someone a copy of a game or other app and the recipient gets alerted to this content that is available for them.

Time-based rental

A question that may crop up with some of us who lived with the video-rental concept is whether the SCSA technology will support the ability to “rent” the titles for a short period like 24 hours, a weekend or even a month. This business model was appreciated as a way to get an evening’s, weekend’s or week’s worth of entertainment in a cost-effective manner and assess whether that movie could be worth collecting.

Here this model would allow you to download the title and view the title within a certain time period, including a requirement to commence viewing within another time period like a month.

A variant of this concept could be a view-based model where the time you rent the movie commences from when you start viewing the actual content or you are charged per complete viewing. It would earn its keep if you are “piling up” on content by having it download overnight then commence watching it over a time period like a vacation break. It would also play well with households whose content-viewing sessions are likely to be interrupted frequently or for a long time. The concept can even allow for “rent now, purchase later” models where you may rent a movie to see how you like it but then choose to buy it if you consider it of enduring value.

A file-based rental model has an advantage over renting that VHS tape or DVD where you can extend the rental period or choose to rent the same title again without dealing with the packaged medium. Similarly, this model could allow one to convert a movie rental to a purchase which can come in handy for titles that one considers “enduring” such as a live concert or a movie that has stood the test of time.

Subscription-driven options

A “download-to-own’ or “time-based rental” business model can be tied in with a content-subscription option where you have content delivered at regular intervals.

Such setups could encompass a business model similar to the book, music and video clubs popular in the USA where you had a random choice of content delivered on a regular basis. This was typically driven by a requirement to purchase the delivered content or other content.

Or it could be based on subscribing to episodic content or a similar collection whereupon the new content is downloaded as it becomes available. An example of this could be to have episodes of a TV show available for download as they become available with the user choosing to “buy” or “rent” the current season or a particular season. Similarly, Disney or Warner Brothers could offer their collection of those unforgettable cartoon “shorts” that during times past constituted Saturday morning TV or the start of a cinema session in varying rental or purchase packages with each “short” being downloaded as they become available.

Such a setup could allow for automatic download as new material becomes available or users instantiate the download themselves from the electronic shopfront or an email-based update.

Simplified content management

Acquisition and downloading

Another question yet to raise is what procedures are necessary to have a title ready to view on a download-based video service. This includes the use of an electronic shopfront for browsing the titles available to buy or rent, completing the transaction and downloading the titles. It also includes the ability to support network-based installation where you could have the titles downloaded to a NAS.

Here, this may be about being able to remotely determine installation or deployment folders on a USB hard disk or NAS from the electronic shopfront application, along with having such applications work across smart TV, mobile, desktop and games-console platforms. The native apps for desktop or mobile platforms can also support “checking out” of user-selected content to mobile devices or removeable media.

The UPnP AV / DLNA specifications could be amended to support transfer of content to network storage devices by allowing shopfront applications hosted on smart TVs or video peripherals to discover where to put the content. This would also require the ability to commence a transfer session between the content service and the NAS independent of the application being constantly run.

There needs to be an ability to handle larger orders like content collections or multiple purchases / rentals so as to download the content in a bandwidth-optimum way. This could involve a download-priority mechanism where some content is sequenced while other content is downloaded concurrently.

I have also raised before the issue of simplifying the process of adding file-based content held on physical media to network storage. This would apply to so-called “disc-to-digital” services where you can have a movie that’s on a DVD or Blu-Ray available as a file as well as content collections delivered via a USB memory key or hard disk.

Exporting content for portable use

Another process that will also surface is where you export content to another format such as a lightweight format for use with portable devices like tablets and smartphones. This would involve converting the video content to a format suitable for these devices then copying it out to the player or storage device.

It would also include synchronising content to an in-vehicle infotainment system so it can be shown to the kids in the back seat of the SUV or minivan through the long road trip.

Yet another issue that has to be sorted with rights holders is the concept of what is your home realm. This would be encompassing secondary properties or properties that you use on a temporary basis like holiday homes or, in some parts of Europe, summer houses as well as your main home and portable devices that the household uses. Once this is sorted out, it could mean that content is available across this logical realm with it being downloaded to NAS units kept at these remote properties.

Conclusion

The entertainment industry has to look at download-based distribution as another way to distribute video content rather than just streaming out the content. This could make electronic sell-through, disc-to-digital and related business models built upon videocassettes, DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs viable for file-based video content.

Previously, in Part 1 of my series about the Internationaler Funkaustellung 2015 in Berlin, I had covered the trends affecting regular computers, tablets and smartphones especially with Intel just releasing the Skylake processor silicon which yields better performance for the same amount of power used. This has caused manufacturers to effectively refresh their desktop and portable computer lineups. As well, nearly every computer manufacturer is offering a lineup of desktop or portable computers that shine on gaming-grade performance to appeal to the core gamer and e-sports communities.

Wearables

ASUS ZenWatch 2

The smartwatch scene is slowly maturing with manufacturers offering more of these watches in their product lineups. The key trends here are about smartwatches that are designed to “look right” for the user and occasion. Here, we are seeing premium smartwatches that would look the part if you are to “dress to impress” on that date or in the corporate boardroom, but there are a few sports smartwatches with the rugged look along with a few “ladies’ watches” that look the part on her wrist.

Samsung had just launched the latest Tizen-based Gear S2 which has a traditional-looking round face and they have co-opted Alessandro Mendini, a well known Italian designer, to design accessory bands and watch faces for this watch.

ASUS has come along with the Zenwatch 2 Android Wear which uses an OLED display and Gorilla Glass protection and comes in 2 different sizes. It even has an add-on battery pack for if you want to get that more runtime out of the watch. Fossil has come up with another Android Wear watch as part of their range.

Motorola 360 smartwatches for her

Motorola have built out their Moto 360 range of Android Wear smartwatches with the Moto 360 Sport which is their smartwatch equivalent of the sports watch along with a slender “ladies’ watch” variant that will look good on her wrist. There are different finishes available such as a rose-gold look, a gold look, a silver look and a black-metal look with these watches up for preorder. This is also accompanied with a 1” TV commercial which they used to promote this watch.

LG Watch Urbane Luxe – fit for the boardroom

LG have also brought out the LG Watch Urbane Luxe which is a more premium variant of the LG Watch Urbane. This comes with an OLEP flexible display that works like the OLED displays and has a 24-carat gold finish. Huawei’s Android Wear watch can be had gold plated for US$800, gold with a leather band for US$649, black metal for US$449 and a stainless steel look for US$349.

The home network

The main trend affecting the home network is the availability of 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless-network technology which implements the MU-MIMO multi-path technology. This has led to some very powerful routers hitting the European market lately which have four MIMO streams and support the “multi-user” feature that effectively creates a Wi-Fi “switch” out of the access point.

ASUS RT-AC5300 router

ASUS has launched the RT-AC5300  which is considered the world’s fastest Wi-Fi router. This router, which uses spike-shaped antennas can run 1Gbps over the 2.4GHz band and 2.167Gbps over the 5GHz bands.

NETGEAR also fielded the 7800 Nighthawk X4S which is the first modem router to offer this kind of performance. This modem router has a DSL modem on the WAN (Internet) side that can work with ADSL2 or VDSL2 (fibre-copper) networks alongside a Gigabit Ethernet connection for fibre-to-the-premises, fibre-coaxial or Ethernet-based fibre-copper networks; and has on the LAN side, Wi-Fi capable to AC2600 4×4 MU-MIMO dual-band standards along with 4 Gigabit Ethernet connections. It is available in Europe and Australia for a recommended price of AUD$529, EUR€299 or GBP£269. The American press were moaning that they didn’t get this modem router first but they work on a service provisioning method very different to Europe and Australasia where self-install or BYO-modem provisioning of DSL based services is the norm.

D-Link have fielded some home-network hardware in the form of the DIR-885L router which supports 4×4 MU-MIMO AC3150 for its Wi-Fi functionality. They even fielded a USB Wi-Fi network adaptor which can allow any computer to work with an 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless network. This device’s best-case abilities is to work with Wi-Fi network segments up to 3×3 MIMO AC1900 standards.

AVM Fritz!Box 6820 LTE “Mi-Fi”

AVM has been very productive with its home-network hardware although this has been very much “in the comfort zone” with existing technology. They have launched the Fritz!Box 4020 which is a small Internet gateway with an N300 dual-stream single-band Wi-Fi access point along with the Fritz!Box 7430 VDSL Internet gateway that has an N450 three-stream single-band Wi-Fi access point. They also launched the Fritz!Box 6820 which is a “Mi-Fi” that can work with LTE mobile-broadband services and implements 802.11n Wi-Fi and a Gigabit Ethernet connection on the LAN side.

AVM Fritz!Powerline 1220 – AVM enters the HomePlug AV2 fray

They have bought in to the HomePlug AV2 MIMO arena by offering the Fritz!Powerline 1240E HomePlug wireless access point along with the Fritz!Powerline 1220E HomePlug adaptor with pass-through AC outlet. This is in conjunction with the Fritz!WLANRepeater 1160 which is a dual-band Wi-Fi repeater.

Devolo haven’t been quiet lately. Here, they are pitching custoem HomePlug-based powerline solutions including HomePlug access points to ISPs and telcos so they can provision these devices to customers for optimum Wi-Fi coverage. They intend to sell these solutions more likely on an OEM basis. As well, they have launched the dLAN 550 WiFi which is a HomePlug AV500 wireless access point that can establish a single-band N300 Wi-Fi segment. They also used this show to exhibit their existing dLAN 1200 HomePlug AV2 hardware including the dLAN 1200+ WiFi AC which is a wireless access point that answers to the HomePlug AV2 MIMO and 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi.

Next I will be talking about the home-entertainment trends that are expected to cover Europe and Australasia such as the ultra-high-resolution TV and networked audio. Stay tuned!

Part 1 – Personal Computing Trends

Part 2 – Wearables and the Home Network

Part 3 – Home Entertainment

Part 4 – Home Automation and the Internet Of Things

Make hay while the sun shines when you purchase your next laptop now

Intel has just premiered their new Skylake desktop and mobile CPU range which is leading to increased performance even for battery-operated devices. It also has led to newer connectivity options like USB 3.1 Type-C and Intel Thunderbolt connections to improve how you connect these computers to external devices. As well, most of these computers will come pre-delivered with Windows 10 as their operating system.

This is leading to computer manufacturers refreshing their computer lineups with equipment based on these new technologies and their will be an impetus on the manufacturers, distributors and retailers to clear out just-superseded equipment based on prior technologies. For example in Australia, JB Hi-FI is offering 15% off the ticketed price for most of the laptops on sale at most of their stores

If you are considering a computer purchase whether to upgrade existing equipment, or as an additional unit like a travel laptop or a secondary computer used in the kitchen, it may be a good time to check the specials out. For some of you, it may be a chance to move off the iPad as your only computing device and move towards a “grown up” computer system.

But here are some points worth considering:

• If you are buying Windows-based equipment, the computer may come pre-delivered with Windows 8.1 but you can upgrade this operating system to Windows 10 for free. This is another saving for you when you want to be sure you are running the latest operating system for your Windows-based computer.
• If you are upgrading your main computer, make sure you buy the system with as much RAM and storage as you can afford. As well, look for discrete graphics and powerful processors if you are using it frequently for graphics, games and multimedia.
• You may get by with the Intel Atom, Celeron or Pentium processors and 2Gb RAM for your secondary laptop that is primarily for Web browsing, email and word-processing. These will probably limit you to up to 2 or 3 windows or browser tabs open at at time. The Core M, i3 and i5 processors and 4Gb RAM may allow you to be a bit more productive with these machines.
• Solid-state may be the way to go for your ultraportable but you could eek out more storage through the use of a USB 3.0 external hard disk which you could bargain in to the purchase. This drive can earn its keep with large photo or video collections that you may be downloading from your camera or camcorder.
• You may also be in a position to use the savings to purchase a newer printer or home-network equipment which you could also bargain in to the deal.

If you express doubts about a purchase, please don’t hesitate to contact me using the Contact Form on this site.

Nomad RoadTrip

Article

The First USB-C Car Charger Also Throws In A Backup Battery | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

Nomad

RoadTrip Car Charger (Product Page)

MOS ReachGo Battery Bank

Article

The First USB-C Battery That Can Charge A Laptop At Full Speed | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

MOS

Reach Go (Product Page)

My Comments

Two companies have put forward power supply accessories which implement the new USB Type-C connector along with the USB Type-A connector.This is to capitalise on the newer phones, tablets and laptops that will be equipped with this new USB connector and provide a future-proof setup

The MOS ReachGo which is the first external battery pack to implement USB Type-C connectivity is similar to most USB battery packs although it is a slimline device. It has two USB Type-C and 2 USB Type-A connections with the ability for it to work as a USB 3.0 hub. It capitalises on the USB Type-C standard by being able to charge up a MacBook Air at full speed courtesy of its 15000mAh battery.

The Nomad RoadTrip is the first USB car charger of the kind that plugs in to your vehicle’s 12-volt accessory socket or cigar-lighter socket to implement USB Type-C connectivity. This unit provides 2.1A each to both the USB Type-C and USB Type-A sockets and has an integrated 3000mAh battery pack so it doubles as an external battery pack for your thirsty smartphone. It would most likely be able to work well with most mobile devices but may not provide the power to charge up a laptop like the MacBook Air.

It is worth knowing that you can use the Type-C connectivity on these chargers with your existing USB device if you use a USB Type-C adaptor cable. Out of the two, I would find that the MOS ReachGo battery pack as being one that shows promise for the Type-C capabilities.

Previous coverage

It is now simple to port iOS and Android apps to Windows 10

My Comments

Candy Crush Saga on Android

I have played the Android version of Candy Crush Saga and this has performed very smoothly on a variety of Android phone devices that I owned.

But Microsoft and King, the developer of this popular casual game, have worked together and used this game to approach the idea of porting an app from a mobile platform like iOS and Android to a regular-computing platform like Windows 10 along with the XBox One games console. The goal is to make an app or game take advantage of what the subequent platform has to offer without destroying the usage experience that the software is know for.

In the previous article, I cited the computing scene in the 1980s where there was a requirement for games developers to have a game on as many platforms as possible with the best examples being Atarisoft, Sierra and Broderbund. Atarisoft made a strong effort to port the legendary Atari games like PacMan, Asteroids and Centipede to a larger number of popular 1980s home computers while Sierra and Broderbund had games like the Kings Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and Carmen Sandiego franchises on platforms like the IBM PC, Apple II and Macintosh platforms and Commodore’s legendary games machines of all time. It is also very similar to how Minecraft has been ported between Windows, Macintosh, the mobile platforms and XBox One yet is still very playable.

This same game as ported to Windows 10

After installing Windows 10 on my computer, I downloaded the Windows 10 port of Candy Crush Saga to assess how this port was to turn out, especially for mouse-based play. After playing a few rounds, the experience was very much similar to what it was like on the Android version. It had reminded me of the late 80s with Boulder Dash where I had played that game on the Commodore 64 and the Apple IIe where the game yielded the same “boulder-shifting” user experience with the same graphics, sound and gameplay on both those platforms.

But the game’s interface didn’t depend on whether you used a touchscreen or a mouse, Nor did it depend on whether you had the game in a window or in a full-screen mode. Candy Crush Saga was still as playable on the Windows 10 platform as it was on the Android platform.

Microsoft is on a winner with their Project Islandwood and Project Astoria software-development kits in that someone could get a casual game across the mobile platforms and Windows to the same expectations as the late ‘80s home-computing era. This is where each platform’s assets can be taken advantage of very easily yet the user experience is kept consistent.

If Microsoft, Google, Apple and others use their software-development knowhow properly, they could encourage app developers, especially games studios, to have apps and games that maintain a consistent high-quality user interface no matter the computing platform they run on.