Article – French language / Langue Française

La Poste vend aussi des serrures connectées (The Post Office also sells smart locks) | Le Figaro (France)

From the horse’s mouth

La Poste

PostAccess Product Page

Press Release

Video (Click to play – French language)

My Comments

At the moment, most smart-lock solutions are catering towards the “bore-through” cylindrical deadbolt that is common in the USA and some other countries.

But there is an established “open-frame” cylinder-mortice-lock platform, known as the “Euro-profile” platform, which has a strong presence “across the board” in most of Britain and Europe and has some presence in Oceania. This is based around a single-piece module that houses the key cylinder and / or a thumb-turn which slides in to a mortice lock or multi-bolt locking system already installed in to a door. This platform hasn’t been served by this technology until now.

La Poste, the French post-office, have started marketing a smart-lock kit as part of their foray in to the connected-home scene. This is based around a “swap-in” module that replaces the cylinder module or cylinder / thumbturn module that is part of a European-standard mortice lock or multi-point locking system and, like some of the other smart locks, works with a fob or your Bluetooth-linked smartphone dependent on the package.

Here, the hardware based around a high-security outside cylinder module which “drives” the lock’s bolt and provides access using a traditional key. This interlinks with an inside module that has a thumbturn along with the electronics including the Bluetooth Smart radio subsystem that is part of the PostAccess system. It also has an integrated door-alarm which can be set up to work as a simple “buzzer alarm” that sounds when someone opens the door, or it can simply be set to sound if someone attempts to force the door open.

It also works with an NFC card reader that looks like a wireless doorbell and comes with the PostAccess Sérénité package. This card reader actually links with the lock using Bluetooth Smart technologies so it can read NFC cards, badges or wristbands and use these as keys.

People who buy the PostAccess Services Connectée package also receive a Wi-Fi – Bluetooth bridge that links the lock to your home network, This allows for you to manage your PostAccess lock remotely through a Web portal that is set up by La Poste in France. The standards around the online service encompass a high-security data transfer setup between the PostAccess smart lock and the servers which are located in France.

What I like of this smart lock is that it is the first product of its kind to work with the Euro-profile cylinder-mortice-lock platform purely on a retrofit basis in a manner that suits a “screwdriver expert”. As well, it is the first product of its type to be a hub for two peripheral devices i.e. the NFC card reader and a home-network bridge while working with smartphones for authentication and management purposes.

Like other early entrants in to the network-based connected-home or “Internet Of Things” idea, it will show the problems and bugs associated with these devices. This is where you rely on particular vendor-supplied equipment, smartphone apps and services to get the full benefit from them and they don’t work on an “open-frame” platform. To approach this better, the manufacturers would need to make the PostAccess smart lock software-upgradeable to newer “open-platform” standards

La Poste could be seeing this as a way to get their foot in the door to the connected home rather than trying to run their own “n-box” triple-play Internet service in to a highly-competitive Internet-service market. They could take this further with other products of the connected-home class and / or build out their Services Connectée package for remote home management.

To make the “smart-lock” idea work, there has to be an emphasis on seeing more products of this class appear on all of the commonly-used form-factors that the typical door lock appears in. As well, there has to be the ability to see the connected-home “Internet-Of-Things” concept mature on a level playing field along with encouraging a distinct role for these devices in the connected home.

Articles

BMW cars with ConnectedDrive will benefit from an over-the-air software security patch

Your BMW just downloaded a security patch | Engadget

BMW patches in-car software security flaw | IT News

BMW Group ConnectedDrive increases data security | BMW Blog (BMW enthusiasts’ online magazine)

From the horse’s mouth

BMW Group

Press Release

My Comments

BMW ConnectedDrive user interface – where you can manually draw down that update

An issue that is constantly being raised regarding the Internet Of Everything is data and network security, including making sure the devices work to end-users’ expectations for proper, safe and secure operation. One of the constant mantras associated with this goal is to have a continual software-update cycle for these devices with the ability for customers to place new software in these devices in the field like you can with a regular computer or a smartphone.

BMW had brought about the ConnectedDrive online vehicle management and infotainment system to their newer BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce cars. But they discovered a flaw in the software and wrote a patch to rectify this problem. You would normally think that to have this patch delivered in to the vehicle management system, you would need to bring the car in to the dealership and this would be done as part of its regular preventative-maintenance servicing.

Here, it would typically involve you having to book the car in with the dealership including determining whether you need to use the courtesy car or not, drive it there at the appointed day and time and pick up the courtesy car if you needed it, then make a point of heading back to the dealership before they close to collect your car when it is ready.

But BMW had worked on delivering the software patch to the car via the mobile broadband link that the ConnectedDrive system depends upon for its functionality. Here, you would be advised that the update is taking place and at an appropriate time, the software patch would be applied. If you had garaged the car, you can manually “draw down” the update to your car once you drive it out of your garage.

What I see of this is the proactive way that the BMW Group have been able to use what is taken for granted with most computer operating systems to roll out critical software patches to their vehicles, which is something to be considered of importance when it comes to data security. This has to work not just through the life-cycle of a vehicle but beyond especially in markets where vehicles are likely to benefit from long service lives.

Article

Net Fix: Why FCC’s Wheeler is ‘defying the greatest lobbyists in the world | CNet

My Comments

I had come across this interesting article in CNet about FCC’s current commissioner, Tom Wheeler and the way he is standing up for the consumer, real competition and Net Neutrality. There were people who were saying that he would cave in to the cable and telecommunications industry because of his work with them but he has determined that the end user is his customer.

In 1984, he was involved with the NABU idea which was a special home computer that would be connected to the cable TV infrastructure to deliver games and news information to consumers. This was a closed-loop system that required the use of particular equipment all the way. Compare this with Steve Case who had built up America Online which was centred around commonly-available home computers and modems along with the common telephone network. This was a service that led to and underpinned the dot-com era. The NABU system had to have him get permission from each and every cable operator to set that up in every market. This had given him a first-had experience of what happens to closed-loop telecommunications systems that don’t work on an open framework where you end up with them stifling innovation and them suddenly collapsing.

But Tom Wheeler got his hands wet with the nascent cable-TV industry where he lobbied against the NAB to build the service with programming and make it viable in the minds of consumers. This was where he met his wife Carol who was lobbying for the National Association Broadcasters.

His current reign as FCC Chairman has made him to be the equivalent of Joseph Kennedy Snr. in 1934 when he set up the Securities & Exchange Commision in the first bid to regulate Wall Street. Here, this was about standing up to powerful interests especially that of the US business moguls. It was also about getting things done at the FCC rather than the niceties, like what had happened in the UK at Ofcom when they humiliated British Telecom to provide competitors access to the local loop at reasonable prices.

But what has he done in his position as FCC Chairman?

• He has had the e-rate program which provides tech finding to schools and libraries modernised. This has lead to it benefiting from US$45 billion of revenue from a wireless-spectrum auction that took place in January 2015.
• He eliminated the decades-old sports-blackout rule concerning the broadcast of sports fixtures organised by the popular sports leagues like NFL. This was where TV stations and networks, including cable and satellite TV setups, couldn’t broadcast a sports fixture in the town it was played unless the match was sold out.
• He raised the minimum bandwidth of an Internet service to be classed as a broadband service from 4Mb to 25Mb like what most of Europe calls a broadband service. This was to raise the game when it came to DSL services offered by the incumbent telcos.
• He sided with T-Mobile to make AT&T and Verizon charge reasonable data-roaming rates for 4G LTE services
• He is intending to pre-empt state laws which preclude the establishment of competing fixed-broadband infrastructure by cities, communities and competing operators
• This is part of an effort by the FCC to bring teeth to the concept of Open Internet. Tom Wheeler even caused President Obama to take action to have broadband Internet deemed a Title II Utility in the same concept as fixed telephone service. This is where the service gains various legal protections and requirements

His term at the FCC is about the fact that he represents the US communications-service end user who is watching TV, listening to the radio, making calls on a fixed or mobile phone, or using a regular or mobile computing device  to benefit from the Internet.

Personally I see Chairman Tom Wheeler as someone who could bring the USA in to line with Britain, France and the Nordic countries where they don’t kowtow to established telecoms monopolies or cartels but bring forward real competition. His work could be underscored by the bodies at the Department Of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission as a way to effectively shake up the telecommunications industry and stop it going backwards.

Article

16 Year Old Develops Bluetooth Smart Solution to Keep Alzheimer’s Patients from Wandering | Bluetooth Blog

From the horse’s mouth

SafeWander (SensaRx)

Home Page

Video

Overview (Click / Tap to play in YouTube)

NBC 4 New York News report (Click / Tap to play in YouTube)

My Comments

A 16-year-old had developed a device which alerts someone else if a person like an Alzheimer’s patient wanders out of bed. This boy, Kenneth Shinozuka, was inspired to develop this device because of an incident where he was out with his grandfather at age 4 and Grandpa wandered off and was lost. Here, this brought to his family’s attention that Grandpa had Alzheimer’s disease.

A situation that was very common for him and his family was that his aunt who was his Grandpa’s primary carer wasn’t sleeping properly because she worried that if she slept, he would climb out of bed and wander absent-mindedly.

Here, he designed the device to be attached to the patient’s sock, slipper or foot to sense foot pressure associated when they climb out of bed to start wandering. This device uses a Bluetooth Smart (Bluetooth Low Energy) link to a suitable smartphone that is equipped with an “alarm” app that audibly alerts the carer and shows up a timer to show how long they have been off the bed. There is the ability to set up a threshold and a “hold time” so as to allow for situations like the patient going to the bathroom at night to do what he has to do.

He developed this device through a few science fairs including the Google Science Fair where he got the respect and was given the Google Science Fair Global Finalist prize amongst a few other awards. Scientific American and Popular Mechanics, both respected science and technology magazines even gave him awards for this device. He was able to use the prototype with his Grandpa and his aunt in this situation and she was able to claim a lot more sleep each night because of not worrying if he was about to get the wanders overnight.

Kenneth saw this as being important for the “ageing at home” phenomenon where older people are staying at home in the care of family members and friends rather than going in to care at nursing homes or similar facilities. He is evolving the technology towards other aspects of this phenomenon like a bathroom floor that senses if someone is falling and a medicine box which alerts the older person to take their pills at the right time.

Draytek Vigor 2860N VDSL2 business VPN-endpoint router

Article

Broadband Router Options for UK FTTC VDSL ISPs – 2015 UPDATE – ISPreview UK Page 2

My Comments

When a person signed up to “fibre-to-the-cabinet” next-generation broadband service in the UK, they would have to make an appointment with a BT Openreach technician to install their VDSL2 modem and rewire their telephone service. Here, you then had to make sure you had a broadband router with an Ethernet WAN connection on the “edge” of your home network which is something you would have to do for fibre-to-the-premises (all-fibre) setups.

Now BT and others are offering this service on a “self-install” or “wires-only” basis where they do the work with getting you ready for next-generation broadband at the FTTC cabinet only. You would have to buy your own VDSL2-capable modem router and microfilters to benefit from this service. This is similar to the current practice of providing ADSL in the UK, Australia and most other countries.

There are an increasing number of high-end modem routers available from most of the well-known home-network equipment names like Draytek, Billion, and TP-LINK. But the VDSL2 modem must work to UK standards which means that it would be a good idea to go to local online or bricks-and-mortar outlets to purchase that VDSL2-compliant modem router.

Bear in mind that some high-end ADSL2 modem routers that are advertised as VDSL2-ready may implement a software-programmable modem which can be set up to “do VDSL2”. Here, check on the manufacturer’s Webpage for a firmware update that opens this functionality and make sure this update is “fixed” to UK requirements.

As well, for anyone around the world who is benefiting from VDSL2-based “fibre-copper” services and having it on a “self-install” or wires-only basis, make sure that you are dealing with equipment or firmware that works to the standards supported by your ISP or infrastructure provider.

To start you off, consider the Draytek Vigor 2860N as a flexible VPN endpoint wireless router for your small business or the Billion BiPAC 8800AXL AC1600 wireless router as modem router ideas for your FTTC-driven home or small-business network.

Article

How Continuum will work in Windows 10 | CNet

Windows 10 ‘Continuum’ mode for hybrid devices showed off by Microsoft (video) | PureInfoTech

Video

Click to play

My Comments

Windows 10 will play properly with these computers what way you fold them

A problem that was often echoed with Windows 8 was the Start Screen and the Modern user interface that was optimised just for touch interfaces. This is although there are computing setups that can work between a touch interface and / or a regular mouse / keyboard interface.

These range from the so-called “2-in-1” computers of the Microsoft Surface, HP x2 and Lenovo Yoga i which can be known as convertibles or detachables and change between a regular laptop and a tablet, through people connecting keyboards and mice to tablets, including the “Adaptive All-In-One” computers of the Sony VAIO Tap 20 ilk, to touchscreen-enabled regular laptops or regular desktop computers that are kitted out with touchscreen-capable monitors.

But Windows 8 didn’t perform well for the regular mouse / keyboard interface. Here, you didn’t have the “comfort zone” of the Start Menu or desktop interface elements most of us are used to for over the last 20 years of Windows-platform regular computing. Windows 8.1 performed a few upgrades to try to bridge the gap but Windows 10 has approached this more sincerely.

Here they have a new Start Menu that also has active Tiles for Windows Store apps and this can be “shoehorned” to suit your screen layout. It is also optimised for touch-enabled setups like a “2-in-1” set up as a laptop, a touch-screen-equipped regular laptop or a desktop computing setup equipped with a touch-enabled monitor. This is part of a desktop user experience optimised still for the keyboard and mouse.

But if you detach the keyboard from an HP x2 detachable, fold over a Lenovo Yoga or slide the keyboard under a Sony VAIO Duo, the display adapts to a full-screen-optimised “tablet” mode. The same thing happens if you turn off your Bluetooth keyboard and mouse that you have connected to your Windows tablet. This has a reduced clutter view and program selection is through the Start Screen “dashboard” that was par for the course on Windows 8. There is the ability to bring this on manually if you like to, at times, mouse around an uncluttered workspace or simply have that “dashboard view”.

At least the folks at Redmond have made the effort to cater for multiple-interface computer users, especially the 2-in-1 users or people who have touch-capable laptops. Let’s not forget that a touch-capable monitor for a desktop computer setup or a touch-enabled laptop doesn’t have to be considered an unnecessary luxury.

Articles

Netflix – the sign of on-demand video’s progress

Marriott Has Told Bloomberg That It’s Trialling Streaming Services | Gizmodo

Netflix Weighs Expansion in Hotels With Marriott Testing Service | San Diego Source (Bloomberg)

Marriott plans to bring Netflix to your hotel room TV | Engadget

My Comments

Netflix and similar services will be coming soon to the hotel room’s TV

Marriott are trialling online content services like Netflix, Hulu & co in eight of their US hotels to see how provisioning such services would work in the hotel environment. It is even though guests would use the public Internet access to stream these services to their own computer equipment and connect this equipment to the hotel-room TV to have it on the large screen. But this is more about providing access to these services on the TV screen without dependence on user-supplied equipment.

There have been issues raised regarding US hotels seeing these services as a way to overcharge their guests by offering them as part of premium Internet packages. It is although most of us would be subscribing to these services to enjoy them personally and these questions relate to us paying Netflix directly for our personal service but also paying the hotel via our room accounts which leads to “double-dipping” when we are at these places.

But there is another question regarding the provision of Netflix or Spotify in the hotel environment. These services work best for end-users when they log in to the services with their own credentials. Here, Netflix could give one access to their personal movie queue or recommendation list or Spotify could show up the playlists that one is following. Hotel-based setups should support the ability to gain access to one’s own account with these services so that we gain access to our own customisations.

If there is concern about the “double-dipping” issue, Netflix could take things further by providing a “cut” of the subscription fee to the hotel for each guest who logs in to this service through their equipment. As well, Netflix and co could work on concepts like favourites lists that represent what is liked by guests staying at that hotel or recommended-content lists for that particular location, thus integrating these services with the hotel’s community.