Tag: Android

Article – From the horse’s mouth

Pioneer Europe

Press Release

My Comments

Pioneer AVIC-F77DAB car stereo that supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay

I have raised the reality that in a car’s life, there will be the need to support smartphone interlink technology in a vendor-neutral manner because people change phones and cars very frequently with some changing to different phone platforms.

Pioneer has answered this reality with aftermarket car infotainment systems that work with both the Apple CarPlay platform and the Android Auto platform. They even support the Mirrorlink baseline requirement for having the car stereo be a terminal for your mobile device. Some of these units are also supporting the DAB reality as more countries in Europe and Oceania implement the Eureka-based DAB and DAB+ standards.

They will be a 2-DIN form factor with a touch screen and will fit well with most vehicles on the market since the 1980s. Here, the touchscreen will be the main control surface for your phone if you tether it to the infotainment system using the USB cable. But what I like about these systems is that a person can use an iPhone or an Android phone and get the full benefit from these systems.

As well, it is also symptomatic of the trend to use the touchscreen as a preferred control and display surface for newer gadgets.

Article

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

Android Wear Can Now Control Netflix | Tom’s Guide

My Comments

Just lately, Netflix issued an update to their Android client software. This has functionality that was provided as part of the iOS variant like the ability to have your smartphone work as a remote control for the TV or set-top-box client software, along with the ability to share a recommendation on Facebook. But this implements a feature that may be seen as giving that platform the “edge”.

This smartwatch to be part of your TV viewing courtesy of Netflix

This smartwatch to be part of your TV viewing courtesy of Netflix

Here, they have baked Android Wear functionality in to this software to make your Android Wear smartwatch work as a control surface for the program. You may think that the smartwatch may be irrelevant when you are wanting to watch “House Of Cards” or “Lilyhammer” but it isn’t as far as they are concerned.

When you watch “Lilyhammer” for example, you can use the smartwatch as a remote control to stop the movie when you need to visit the kitchen or bathroom and start from where you left off when you are comfortable. This avoids the need to “dig out” your smartphone at these occasions. There is the ability also to share what you are watching on Facebook at that moment if you wish to do so, along with the fact that your smartwatch would show the artwork associated with what you are watching.like Frank Tagliano’s face.

This concept could allow platform-based smartwatches to serve as part of the “second screen”. For example, it could mean that during a TV reality show, you could cast votes for the talent on that show or find out a bit more about the talent. It would also be about having the smartwatch serve as part of a sports scoreboard app by showing the current scores for the match you are following.

A bit more effort and the smartwatch could play a role in the concept of multi-screen TV viewing.

Windows 8 – open-frame as can be

I make references to computer systems or mobile devices based on platforms like Windows, Linux or Android as being “open-frame”.

This is compared to Apple’s computer systems and mobile devices which are focused around hardware and software interfaces are peculiar to that manufacturer’s devices. As well, it takes a long time for Apple to integrate a common hardware or software standard in to a platform although other platforms are already implementing the standard; or an accessory or peripheral vendor has to go through hoops to have a device considered “fit” to work with Apple’s products.

Android – also open-frame

Computer systems that are based on an “open-frame” environment has the ability for one to connect peripheral devices easily to it no matter who the hardware or software vendor is. An example of this includes smartphones and tablets implementing a microUSB Type-AB socket for charging or transferring data.

Open-frame computer systems can attach themselves to a network or quickly discover and benefit from or share network resources using commonly-available standards that aren’t particular to one particular vendor. As well, the companies behind the platforms are quick to meld support for most. if not all. of these common standards and specifications in to the next major version of their software platforms and will nurture these standards through their platform’s lifecycle.

Naim UnitiServe – provides music va UPnP AV / DLNA to equipment independent of vendor

There are many examples here that I could mention.

One example is a Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer or an Android smartphone can quickly associate with a WPS-capable Wi-Fi wireless network segment at the click of a button on the wireless router as what happened when I stayed with some friends up in Sydney and when I stayed with another friend up in Ballarat. In both instances, I brought in my Samsung Android smartphone and a Windows-based review-sample laptop  to these locations and brought them on to the hosts’ networks to benefit from their Internet access.

DLNA content collections listed as sources on a Samsung Smart TV

Another example is to have the ability to discover multimedia content held on a network-attached storage device or media-server software using UPnP AV / DLNA standards which many manufacturers and software developers offer. I have seen this demonstrated many times with setups based around different manufacturers and software developers and, one time, this provided a simple on-ramp for a couple to show travel pictures to the mother-in-law.

Touch your NFC-capable phone on the clip to pair it with the headphone adaptor

Yet another example is my Sony SBH-52 Bluetooth headphone adaptor that quickly pairs with my Samsung Android phone when I touched them together in a same vein as a Braven Bluetooth wireless speaker that I reviewed. In some cases, this even applies to the ability for Android users to exchange contact details with each other or Windows 7/8 computers via Bluetooth or NFC.

How I see the personal-computing scene for both regular (desktop) and mobile applications is that there will be balkanisation taking place between Apple and the rest of the field and this has been underscored in the computer press as simply “the cult of Apple”.

Article

So What Ever Happened To Post-PC? | Gizmodo

My Comments

What was the “Post-PC” vision?

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 – an up-and-coming Android smartphone

The 2000s era saw the use of larger computers for regular Windows-based or Macintosh-based computing. Steve Jobs who was Apple’s visionary leader talked of the “Post-PC” era with computing centred around mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone and “cloud+app” services which benefited from data held at one or more data centres and accessed using a lean client-side app running on the mobile device.

Current trends

Mobile-platform tablets

But current trends are leading towards mobile-platform devices like the recent iPads and Android tablets having the increased capability, and running more of the native apps with increased local functionality. Some of these apps can even run under their own steam without the need to regularly gain access to data.

Regular-platform computers being more compact, powerful and portable

9mm fanless tablet concept with regular computing power

The regular-computer scene is heading towards equipment that is more compact, powerful and portable such as an increased variety of portable form-factors like the Ultraboooks and the convertibles or detachables. Even the desktop computers are becoming more compact with baseline equipment that is the size of a large book or an increasing number of “all-in-one” computers where the computing power is located in the monitor like the iMac.

Gaming laptops and mobile workstations

Some manufacturers have released laptop computers that are best described as either “gaming laptops” or “mobile workstations”. These have been highly optimised for performance and highly-responsive graphics that is required of highly-advanced graphics software or “full-on” games. Previously, this class of performance was only relegated to desktop computers but is showing up in the portable class of computers.

Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro convertible as a tablet

It is augmented with steps being taken to improve quality control when it comes to writing games for regular-computing platforms. This was because of issues relating to games studios turning out inefficiently-coded games that needed more to run or Apple and Microsoft not becoming proper gatekeepers for quality-control logos that affect game software.

A return to the late-1980s multiple-platform computing era

What was the late-1980s multiple-platform computing era?

The late 1980s microcomputing era saw the presence of multiple computer platforms in wide circulation: DOS/Windows/OS2 (IBM Compatible), Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, Apple II and Atari ST. Different people preferred the different platforms for particular applications like having DOS/Windows for business-information-handling, the Apple Macintosh for desktop-publishing and the Commodore Amiga for gaming, desktop-video or interactive-user-interface design.

The multiple platforms that exist nowadays

Dell Precision M2800 – an example of a mobile workstation

Now, we are starting to see the same number of regular and mobile computing platforms in circulation: Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux, Google Chrome OS, Apple iOS, and Google Android. The mobile platforms, especially Google Android, are being implemented in a desktop-style user environment with, for example, Philips releasing monitors that can run as standalone Android computers. Similarly, the Apple iOS and Android tablet platforms are appealing as platforms for baseline secondary computing tasks through people equipping tablets with USB or Bluetooth keyboards.

As for the hardware, we are seeing equipment that is based on the Intel x86/x64 microarchitecture or the ARM RISC microarchitecture with some specimens of both microarchitectures moving towards 64-bit variants of that microarchitecture. Some of these platforms are even showing up with hardware that has impressive graphics and gaming prowess such as the NVIDIA Tegra processors and the newer Apple processors for the mobile platforms along with Intel and AMD integrated-graphics systems that can stomach intense graphics work for the regular computing platforms.

Philips Android-driven monitor

It is becoming increasingly common for households to become less “pure-play” when it comes to choosing the platform they use for their computing devices. For example, I have seen an increasing number of households use a Windows-based desktop or laptop along with an iPad and either an iPhone and/or an Android smartphone.

Business computing is facing this reality with having to implement “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device) information-technology solutions and utilise “mobile-device-management” solutions and “corporate app stores” to assure that these devices are working to spec for secure computing in the workplace. It is also a challenge that is facing schools, airlines, hotels and others who are providing computer resources for the general public.

I do see it as a pity that Apple doesn’t seem to play properly and smoothly with other platforms, rather users either load up their Apple devices with apps that “bridge the gap” by offering DLNA functionality for example, or work around the various incompatibilities by using cloud services for example. Similarly, peripheral designers have to make sure their devices do pair properly with the Apple devices along with the Windows or Android devices that may support advanced paring techniques like NFC.

Conclusion

It is so easy for one computer visionary to determine what is to be the “status quo” but as the industry evolves with different computer devices and platforms and makes these devices and platforms more capable, it is hard to really determine what is to happen for consumer and business IT.

The Internationaler Funkaustellung trade fair that happens in Berlin is seen as a launch point for consumer electronics and home appliances being sold primarily in to the European market but also covering to some extent the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Ocieania markets. Typically what is launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during January may be premiered in Europe during this show.

Personal and home computing

Laptops, notebooks and tablets

ASUS Eeebook X205TA – an example of the new cheap Windows notebooks that are appearing

There are two main trends affecting the laptop computer and tablet computer here that you couldn’t really have them as separate product classes. One is an increased proliferation of the detachable and convertible classes of products that become either tablets or laptop computers at any one moment. The other is the available of 11” Windows notebook computers at really low prices to compete with the Chromebook products that run the Google ChromeOS operating system.

As far as the cheap-end laptop is concerned, ASUS, HP and others have been pushing products in this class with ASUS drawing on the EeePC “netbook” heritage with their specimen that has an 11.6” screen, an Intel Bay Trail Atom processor, 2Gb RAM and 32Gb solid-state storage.

Toshiba Satellite Click 2 Pro detachable notebook

The convertibles and detachables are coming strongly in the 13” screen size with Toshiba fielding the Satellite Click 2 Pro P30W detachable Ultrabook and the Dell Latitude 13 7000 for the detachable form factor. Acer have shown up with a 13” “flip-down” convertible in the form of the Aspire R13. The 13” screen size is still perceived as a size to keep with this product class because of a larger screen that can be good as a large “sharable” tablet and the keyboard comfortably large enough for typing up large chunks of copy while you deal with a compact portable computer.

Other trends affecting this space include laptops having 4K UHDTV resolution screens which have been brought on by the concept of the Apple Retina display in the MacBook lineup. This is making the concept of high-dot-per-inch displays become the norm in this class of computer which will put pressure on software developers and Webmasters to cater to these screens.

An example of this is the Toshiba Kira 102 13.3” Ultrabook which sports an Intel i7 processor and 256Gb SSD along with a touchscreen resolution of 2560×1440. Let’s not forget that Toshiba were refreshing the popular Satellite L Series of 15” and 17” laptops with them having either Intel or AMD processors.

The tablets are becoming available either as Windows 8.1 units or as Android 4.4 KitKat units. Here, I have had to class tablets with the laptops because they are being positioned as a competitor to the small laptop as a personal computing device although some people could position them more as media-consumption devices. This has been made easier with Microsoft licensing Windows 8.1 at no cost for the small tablet devices.

As well, it was a time when Microsoft was premiering the Surface Pro 3 as a tablet but, really a detachable notebook. Samsung has used this show to promote the Galaxy Tab S which is the first tablet to implement an OLED screen, causing it to be more lightweight as well as show pictures with increased contrast and brilliance.

Sony used this show to premiere the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact which is their “coat-pocket” tablet. As well, they have premiered their PocketBook Android-driven e-ink readers which also includes a 13” model that is pitched at CAD and architectural use. This one also is able to connect to a computer to serve as a Wacom-compliant graphics tablet.  Thomson fielded the THBK-1-1- which is capable of booting between Android or Windows 8.1. Acer was also running a Windows-based 8” tablet in the form of the Atom-powered Iconia Tab 8W.

Peripherals

As for desktop monitors, the 4K resolution is appearing in the premium end of this product class. LG fielded a curved ultrawide 4K unit with a 34” 21:9  screen, along with the 31” Digital Cinema 4K monitor and a 24” gamer-grade monitor.

Smartphones

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge – a new trend for smartphone displays with the wraparound display

The key trends for the smartphones include moving towards the 5”-6” 16:9 screen size with the display size hitting the golden maximum for the product class. This is where the product is similar in size to a larger highly-functional pocket calculator where it has a large screen yet it is comfortable to hold in one hand and operate with the other. It has been underscored by the so-called “phablet” class of smartphone with the large 6” displays and having that “golden maximum”.

We are also seeing more stylish designs for the premium models along with upscaling of the devices’ processor, camera and similar abilities.

Samsung were pushing their premium Galaxy line at this show. The headline products were the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini and Galaxy Note Edge with screen edges that wrap over side of phone and exposes software-determined options,

Alcatel were exhibiting their One Touch smartphone which uses e-ink as a battery-saving display technology. HTC also exhibited the Desire 820 which was the first Android smartphone to implement a 64-bit ARM processor. This may impact software development for the Android platform because of a requirement to compile 64-bit packages of the apps to take full advantage of this processor’s abilities.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 – the latest iteration of the phone that started the phablet phenomenon

Companies that are normally dormant when it comes to handheld devices are surfacing with smartphone products of their own. Examples of these include Acer launching their “Leap” smartphone range along with Lenovo launching their Vibe smartphones with some of the products being pitched at the “selfie” culture.

The phablets are emerging in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, which is the latest iteration of the Galaxy Note lineup that opened up this product class. Sony answered with the Z3 product range while LG fielded the G3 Stylus 5.5” Android phablet.

As for the emerging markets, Technisat were promoting a dual-SIM Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean smartphone with Wi-Fi N, Bluetooth and FM radio. This runs on a 1500mAH battery with 512Mb RAM and 4Gb main storage at EUR€115.99. LG were running the L Fino and L Bello 3G smartphones for these markets.

The home network

Two main trends that are affecting connectivity on the home network are 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless connectivity and HomePlug AV2 MIMO powerline connectivity.

More of the current-issue broadband routers are being equipped with 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity with more concurrent wireless streams this allowing for increa

Devolo dLAN 1200+ HomePlug AV2 MIMO adaptor (Continental Schuko plug)

sed Wi-Fi throughput. For that matter, we are seeing such equipment in the order of the AC1900 specification with three radio streams.

Examples of this include TP-Link’s Archer C9 performance broadband router and the NETGEAR NightHawk X4 with the four-stream AC2350 802.11ac Wi-Fi.  As well, TP-Link also fielded the RE200 AC750 dual-band wireless range extender.

As for HomePlug AV2 with its MIMO abilities, Devolo have released their kit for this specification as the dLAN 1200+ which requires the power outlets to be compliant to the Continental “Schuko” plugs at each end of the connection. These have a filtered Continental “Schuko” mains socket in them so you don’t forfeit the AC socket you used for your HomePlug AV2 connection, along with a Gigabit Ethernet socket for your network connection. There are even plans for Devolo to release local-specific variants of this kit for other European countries like UK and France. TP-Link are fielding the PA8030 HomePlug AV2 SISO (two-wire) adaptor which has a Gigabit 3-port Ethernet switch.

There have been a few “Mi-Fi” routers with 4G LTE WAN technology at the IFA 2014. One of these is the NETGEAR Aircard 785 Hotspot which also has a dual-band Wi-Fi LAN connection. TP-Link has fielded a the M7350 Mi-Fi which also works as an SD-card file server.

In the next part of the series, I will be covering the consumer AV technology, the wearables and home appliances technologies.

Article

Microsoft’s Universal Keyboard has an Android home button, no Windows logo in sight  | Android Authority

From the horse’s mouth

Microsoft Hardware

Universal Mobile Keyboard Product Page

Press Release

Video clip

My Comments

Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard

Microsoft have designed a Bluetooth keyboard that is intended for use with smartphones and tablets that run on the three main mobile platforms: Android, iOS and Windows 8. This is to cater for a reality where people may operate different computer devices on different platforms.

Microsoft have achieved a universal layout with platform-specific keys for Android and iOS, like the Command (snowflake) key that the Apple platforms need. The Windows or Android modes could work with devices like games consoles or Smart TVs that implement Bluetooth Human Interface Device Profile in the context of a full keyboard for text entry. What could this mean for using your smart TV’s social-network or content-search functionality without “hunt-and-peck” operation.

But you can select between the different operating systems and keyboard layouts using a three-position hardware switch. As well, the keyboard remembers Bluetooth pairings with 3 devices of the different platforms.There is even a rest for your tablet or smartphone so you can see what you are typing and this works as a lid for the keyboard.

Of course, it can run from its own battery for 6 months but can allow you to quickly charge the keyboard to gain 8 hours extra runtime.

But most of us who use keyboards with tablets typically head for those keyboards that are integrated in a case for the tablet and Microsoft could do better to offer this as a case for most 10” tablets.

The trusted-environment concept for mobile devices

At Google I/O 2014, it was a chance for Google to premiere the next version of Android for the smartphones and tablets; along with officially releasing Android Wear for wearables and Android variants for the car and the TV.

One feature that Google was promoting was the concept of a “trusted environment” for your Android smartphone where you don’t have to unlock the phone with your PIN or “pattern” routine to use it in that environment. Similarly, Apple just lately put forward a patent to implement this same “trusted-environment” concept in their iOS devices. Applications that were highlighted included you home, car or work and this was determined by one or more conditions being true.

For example, using a “voice unlock” routine can equate your voice as being a trusted user. Similarly, being connected to a particular Bluetooth watch or headset which is on and alive, or being in a particular location by virtue of association with a known Wi-Fi network segment or within range of a GPS “bearing” could also relate to a “trusted” environment.  Apple’s implementation also is about about context-based behaviour such as bringing forward or disabling apps that relate to a particular environment, such as showing up a video-on-demand app when at home or disabling apps not safe for use when driving. It could extend to bringing forward a business-specific app like a “handheld electronic menu” for your favourite restaurant or an “online concierge” for your favourite hotel.

A good question is whether this concept of the “trusted environment” could be integrated with the Internet Of Everything? For example, the concept of having your mobile device near a computer or building-security device could be considered trusted as long as you authenticated with that device within a certain timeframe and/or with a particular key such as your own keycard or code.

This concept may not be considered appropriate in locations where there is a risk of your smartphones or similar device being stolen or accessed without your knowledge or permission. Examples of this may be a workplace where public and staff-only areas aren’t clearly delineated or a party or gathering that is happening at home.  Personally, these setups also have to be about user privacy and about working totally to a user’s needs and habits.