Tag: tablet computer

Introduction

I am reviewing the Acer Iconia Tab A500 Series 10” Android tablet computer. It, like most other Android-based 10” tablets, is faced off as a competitor to the Apple iPad tablet which is of the same size.

It is infact the first Android-based consumer/small-business tablet computer that I have reviewed for HomeNetworking01.info

The unit itself

Aesthetics and build quality

The Acer Iconia has a metal-feel about it which makes you think of a durable tablet computer. It is light in your hands but some people may find the smooth finish very slippery when they handle it.

Display

The Iconia’s display is as readable as most tablet computers go especially when you are using it for reading content. When you use the Android-provided touchscreen keyboard, you may not find the text entry procedure comfortable for long periods of content creation. As far as the display’s brightness is concerned, the Iconia Tab A500 is still bright enough for most users even if it runs on the energy-saving “dim mode”.

Of course, for video, the display had worked smoothly when handling YouTube and similar video playback applications

Audio

Left Hand Side - Power switch, headphone jack, miniHDMI jack

Like most tablet computers, the Acer Iconia’s sound doesn’t have much in the way of volume output if you use the integrated speakers. Here, they would be good enough for audio prompts and the like.It was still clear for the basic local listening and you have the distinct stereo separation but I would recommend use of headphones or external speakers like Bluetooth A2DB audio setups.

Connectivity and Expandability

Right hand side - Power input, microUSB port and USB host port

All the units of the Iconia A500 Series have 2 regular USB device ports as well as a micro USB port for connection to a host computer. They all support Bluetooth connectivity for standard profiles as covered by Android. This includes the ability to do Bluetooth object-push file transfer as well as audio streaming with Bluetooth headsets and audio setups.

You can connect these devices to an HDTV using an miniHDMI-to-HDMI cable if you need the large TV screen.

Another USB port on this device - at the bottom of the unit, under the screen.

These Acer tablets have a feature that is common with most Android smartphones and tablets in that they have a microSDHC card slot. This means that you can expand on the storage that you initially bought or swap media collections around on different microSD cards as if you were working with cassettes or MiniDiscs.

The power connection is a 12 volt connection, which may make it easier to use the Iconia Tab in a car through the use of a cigar-lighter cord. This comes in handy when you load devices like the Iconia with movies or ebooks to be viewed by passengers on a long journey.

Performance

The Acer Iconia is very spritely when it comes to performance. For example, it was able to play sound from a DLNA network media server while I did some Web browsing without the sound deteriorating. It could also perform properly with YouTube even if you put the videos on full screen.

The battery can run for a few days of adhoc but regular mixed-activity use without charging. I haven’t yet worked out an activity plan to “stress-test” these devices for battery runtime.

Other factors

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 Series is equipped with two cameras, one of them being a front-facing one for videoconferencing. This would work well if Skype provided full videophone functionality across entire line of Android HoneyComb tablets.

Limitations and Points Of Improvement

One point of improvement that could come in handy would be to deliver Skype as part of the standard software mix for all of the models. As well, the Acre iconia, like most tablets could benefit from a detachable kickstand that comes as part fo the package. This could appeal to users who use a USB keyboard for typing up notes or those of us who push these units in to service as an Internet terminal / digital picture frame for the kitchen.

Conclusion

I would consider this Android tablet as a “floater” tablet computer as a multifunction general-purpose tablet computer where you value the large screen size and snappy performance. This is more so if you want a tablet computer that isn’t confined to Apple’s dream and you know what you are after for software.

The Wi-Fi-only units can be useful if you want to manage just one mobile broadband package by using your smartphone’s Wi-Fi tethering options to connect to broadband service on the go. You may go for the wireless-broadband-equipped units if you don’t mind running a separate wireless-broadband account and allowance for these devices.

There have been debates about whether Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn should develop official client-side applications for their applications when used on regular computers (desktops and laptops) or tablets like the iPad.

When I talk of a client-side application, I am thinking of an application that is written for and runs on the client device’s operating system and interacts with the Web-based social network service through known application-programming interfaces. This is in contrast to the Web-based interface that requires interaction through the client Web browser.

Of course, other people have developed client-side applications for these social networks either as an improvement for existing software projects or as their own projects themselves. These are usually considered third-party applications by the social-network provider and may not support all functions that are being baked in to the social network as it evolves.

The issue here

It may be easy to think that you don’t have to provide these client-side applications for desktop operating systems (Windows, MacOS and Linux) and tablet computers. This is because these devices can typically allow the user to competently navigate the Web-based user interface for the typical social-network service. It is compared to the smartphone having different user-interface needs that are drawn about by the use of a physically smaller screen on these devices.

Drawcards and Benefits

A major drawcard behind the social-network client application for larger-screen devices would be high integration with the device’s operating system and other applications. The benefits of this would be obvious, such as linking the “friends / followers / connections” databases held by the social-network services to local contacts databases maintained by your personal-information-management software or exhibiting of photos and videos from these services full-screen without the chrome associated with Web browser interaction.

Other benefits would include use of the operating system’s notification abilities to “pop up” messages related to these services such as direct messages or friend requests. Even the chat functionality that is part of services like Facebook would benefit from an “instant-messaging” user experience of the likes of Windows Live Messenger and Skype. This is an always-available presence list and application-created chat windows for each conversation. There is also the benefit of direct access to connected devices like printers or cameras.

Of course, there would be the computer-performance benefit of not needing to maintain a Web-browser session for each social-networking session. This is because the applications can be pared down to what is needed for the operating system; and can also be of benefit to those of us who use battery-operated devices like tablets or notebook computers.

For tablets, the user interface could be highly optimised for touch-based navigation and could make best use of the screen area of these devices. This is more so with this class of device being available in two major sizes – a 7” size for something that can stuff in your coat pocket or the larger 10” size. As well, it could include “right-sizing” the interface for the on-screen keyboard when the user needs to enter information to the service, such as through the log-on experience.

Drawbacks

The drawbacks to this will typically include another client application to develop and maintain for the service, which may cost further money for the service provider. It also includes evolving the application to newer versions of the operating system and incorporating the new features that are available through the operating system’s lifecycle.

As well, there will be the factor that the ad-supported Web interface may become more irrelevant and these applications may them limit access to the cash-cow that these services have to make money – users viewing those ads that are on that interface. This is because most users would be reluctant to load ad-supported software on their desktop computers due to system-performance and privacy issues that have been brought about by highly-intrusive adware.

Conclusion

It may therefore be worth the social networks considering the idea of developing client-side applications for desktop and tablet operating environments. This is in order to provide the user-experience improvements that such applications can provide for this class of usage.

Article

Seagate GoFlex Satellite : Father’s Day Gift Guide: Geeky Patriarch Edition

From the horse’s mouth

Seagate’s Web site for this device

My Comments

The Seagate GoFlex Satellite network-attached storage is representing a new breed of network device design that is becoming more prominent with Wi-Fi devices. Here, the device has an integrated access point and DHCP server and works with dedicated client apps or integrated Web server to share files.

There are limitations with this class of device in that they cannot connect to an existing Wi-Fi network. Here, the user has to point their client device to the network-attached storage device’s SSID in order to benefit from the device. In the case of the GoFlex Satellite, the user would have to visit a Web page hosted by the device and / or use dedicated client software to gain access to the files.

Of course, with this GoFlex Satellite, it is intended for the user to connect the unit directly to a computer as an external hard disk using a USB 3.0 connection when loading content on to it or using it as a backup device.

This is compared to some newer “MiFi” wireless-broadband routers that have SD card readers and treat the mounted SD cards as network drives. Here, they use standard network-drive protocols for sharing the storage space and share media-file directories using UPnP AV / DLNA standards.

I find that it would be easier to have these kind of drives work with client devices through standardised protocols. If the device is to work with an Apple iOS client, the manufacturer could license or develop CIFS and DLNA client apps for integration with these devices’ file systems.

As for network connectivity, these devices could support the ability to join an existing Wi-Fi small-network segment, whether through “push-to-join” WPS, Windows Connect Now-USB or manual setup. Then they could serve content to that Wi-Fi segment. Of course, they could still work as their own network if they have to, such as serving content to devices that have no Internet; have Internet served via a wireless-broadband setup with integrated modem or computers in the throes of being commissioned.

The main issue with this design is that it is very much designed around the Apple iOS ecosystem and is not likely to work well beyond that.

Articles

Windows 8 And Its Incredibly Cool New Touch Interface | Gizmodo.com

Windows 8 Gets A Radical Facelift And Touch Functionality (Videos) | eHomeUpgrade

Windows 8, iOS 6 set for tablet face-off in 2012 | CNET

My Comments

Basic comments about Windows 8’s touch screen user-interface

A key user-interface concept in the next version of Windows will be a “Start Screen” that looks like a cross between Windows Phone 7’s home screen and the Windows Media Center interface. Here, this dashboard will have “Live Tiles” which present always-updated information in the window panes.

The applications represented on the “Live Tiles” can be a fully-fledged Windows application or a HTML5/JavaScript “mobile-like” app that links to a Web resource. This is taken further with Internet Explorer 10 implementing this functionality.

There will be the full integrated support for tablet computers and similar devices with an interface that works best with these devices as well as a regular keyboard / mouse interface. One issue that may affect software developers is that they may have to work the software so it can behave properly with a “no-keyboard” interface as well as a “keyboard” interface. Of course, the touchscreen keyboard interface will support a split layout so that the user can work the keys with their thumbs.

For some programs that primarily use mouse interaction like strategy or puzzle games, there won’t need to be much work done on having the programs work between a keyboard interface or a touch interface. But on the other hand, programs that rely on text entry such as email, the program may have to work with remapping the user interface to permit use of the virtual keyboard interfaces.

But where could this all lead to when it comes to the design of Windows-based computers?

Ever since Windows allowed for “tablet-style” computing with the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, where the computer is operated using a stylus rather than by touch, there have been two form factors put forward to the market. One was the “slate” form factor which is like the tablet computers such as the iPad, where there isn’t a keyboard but the computer could work with a USB-connected keyboard; and the other was a “convertible” notebook computer with a screen that swivelled 180 degrees and folded flat to become a stylus-operated PC. There have been a few touchscreen variants of these form factors released subsequently once Windows Vista provided the touchscreen interface option.

The “slate” or “tablet” form factor could exist as an alternative to the iPad and Android-based tablet computers; and they could allow for operation with small keyboards for word-processing and emailing. But the computer press have forgotten about the “convertible” notebook form factor which has seen some resurgence with some manufacturers running with “netvertibles” – netbooks that have a touchscreen which can swivel between a traditional layout and a tablet layout.

Windows 8 vs the Apple platforms.

Another article had raised issues about Windows 8 becoming a competitor for a subsequent version of Apple’s iOS platform, especially the iPad implementation.

But they also raised the spectre of it competing with the next version of MacOS X, known as “Lion”. The main factor about this is that Apple were viewing the MacOS platform as a “horizontal” platform and the iOS platform as a “vertical” platform; with scant mention of any touch-enabled Macintosh computers coming on the scene.

The possibility of a granular touch-based computer marketplace

What I would see with these touch-based operating systems is the ability for hardware manufacturers to provide a granular marketplace for touch-based computing devices. This means that there could be a touch-based computing device that could suit particular users’ needs and budgets.

It would range from the 7” coat-pocket tablets serving as an alternative to a dedicated ebook reader through 10” tablets like the iPad fulfilling most general-purpose “dedicated-tablet” needs to 13”-14” convertible notebooks appealing to those of us who do plenty of emailing, word-processing or similar work on the road.

Of course, the operating environments for units that are 10” or above will differ across the marketplace in a similar way to what is happening with the smartphones. Here, users may place emphasis on factors like software availability, operating-system flexibility, battery runtime and system performance as they choose the operating environment.

Conclusion

The proposed Windows 8 environment could then become a game change when it comes to the touch-based computing environment.

The CEBit trade fairs are becoming a bit of a quandery when it comes to being a European launch platform for IT products targeted at the home and small-business user.This is because most of these products appeal as a crossover product between something destined for the householder and something destined for a business owner or manager.

It also cements the fact that products destined for household use like most wireless routers, smartphones and consumer laptop computers will typically end up being used in the shop or small office even though these places will use equipment targeted at business use.

Here, some of these IT product ranges could be launched in Europe at this show whereas others could be launched at the Internationaler Funkaustellung in August.

Main trends

Tablet computers

The core trends that I have observed concerning CEBit 2011 have been the tablet computers. This fair has become another launch platform for manufacturers to promote their new tablet computers which are primarily based on the Android operating platform.

Key improvements for this class have been the use of dual-core processor technology which yields faster performance.

For this class of device, this show has come at the same time Steve Jobs was premiering the Apple iPad 2 and it shows how competitive the market for tablet computers will be.

CPU/GPU combo processors

The general-purpose computing market has been thrown in to a state of flux with Intel and AMD launching processor platforms based around CPU/GPU combo processors in the form of Sandy Bridge for Intel and APU for AMD. This has changed the ballpark when it comes to integrated graphics solutions with this class of graphics solution yielding graphics performance that is above what is expected.

Similarly, NVIDIA have put forward an ARM-based CPU/GPU combination which would require a different software architecture. This has caused Microsoft to consider releasing the Windows Platform for the ARM architecture as well as for the Intel Architecture.

These processor designs have opened up a new class of computer with “superslim” notebook / laptop computers as well as more of the low-profile ultracompact desktop computers and all-in-ones. The recent work on “dual-mode” graphics where there is a discrete graphics chipset as well as integrated graphics in a computer design has become of benefit when it comes to balancing power economy and performance by allowing the discrete graphics to be seen as an “overdrive”.

Network Devices

The main trends here concern LTE wireless broadband as a WAN option for routers as well as speed increases for the popular no-new-wires network technologies. The 802.11n Wi-Fi network had been brought to 450Mbps in the form of a three-stream variant known as N450. The HomePlug powerline network had been brought up to 500Mbps but this is not yet a defined standard until HomePlug AV2 is “set in stone”. Still, this show has become a European premiere for these networking technologies.

It is more so as more European countries have deployed or are deploying next-generation broadband service to homes and businesses across the continent. What with VDSL2 projects occurring in the Germanic countries (Germany and Austria) and parts of the UK as well as various FTTH fibre-optic projects in the UK and France.

Computing Devices

Tablets

Google have released the 3.0 “Honeycomb” version of the Android operating system but have pitched it at the tablet computers rather than at smartphones and tablets. This has come at a time when more manufacturers were releasing tablet computers to the general market.

There are two main screen sizes being released – a 7” size that can be put in a coat pocket as well as a 10” size that is similar to the iPad and most netbook computers.

ASUS had launched their eeePad range of tablets with three notable devices. One is the eeePad Memo which is a 7” screen unit that is driven by a SnapDragon processor and can be operated with a stylus rather than the finger. Another unit of note has been the eeePad Slider which looks like a smartphone and has the expected functionality but can run on its batteries for 8 hours at a time. As well, ASUS premiered the eeePad Transformer which has a detachable keyboard for those who prefer to type.

There have been a few “budget” tablets that are driven by Android 2.1 rather than 3.0 and are pitched as entry-level e-reader tablets. One 8” model was pitched by AOC and had no integrated wireless-broadband modem and had 4Gb of onboard memory; while there was another 7” unit pitched by Archos in the form of the 70b E-Reader.

Of course, a few “iPad slayers” had been launched at this show. These units which are close to 10” for screen size have features, options and performance statistics that could offer more value than an equivalent iPad.

Fujitsu had released a “Slate” tablet with two cameras and could work with an optional desk docking station so that one could use standard computer peripherals like a keyboard or printer. They also fielded a Windows 7-powered “business-class” tablet PC for the corporate end of the equation.

Now, no tablet computer launch would be without the “Second Japan” (South Korea) putting their weight in with their high-value equipment. LG had launched the G-Slate which is an 8.9” Android 3.0 tablet powered by a dual-core processor, NVIDIA Tegra 2 graphics. This unit has 32Gb on-board, as well 2 cameras that are capable of 5 Megapixels each. Samsung has used this show to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is a 10” Android 3.0 tablet that uses a dual core CPU and NVIDIA Tegra 2 graphics.

Smartphones

This has also become the time when Google had set the Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” version in stone. As well, there had been talk of Nokia wanting to shift from Symbian to Windows Phone 7 for their smartphone platform.

Dell had put their foot in the market with the Venue Pro which is a Nokia-style smartphone with a slide-down keyboard.

Nokia have premiered two keyboard-enabled touchscreen smartphones in the form of the Nokia N7 and N9, with the latter one being at least Meego driven. They are also wanting to move towards Windows Phone 7 and away from Symbian as the smartphone operating system of choice for their smartphones.

Samsung have taken the chance to premiere the Galaxy S2, which is the successor to their highly-popular Galaxy S. This smartphone is equipped with a Super AMOLED display and runs Android 2.3.

Desktop and Laptop Computers

The Windows-7 computers become more powerful in their beauty and function. As well, the new combined processors in the form of the Intel Sandy Bridge and the AMD APU systems have opened up new paths when it come to designing desktop and laptop computers. Here, portable computers have been able to perform better than expected for most graphics tasks and are able to do this without a penalty on battery runtime. As well, manufacturers have been able to consider designing desktop computers that are small neat and elegant units yet able to perform remarkably well.

ASUS have released three notebooks that are of note here. One is the eeeSlate EP121 convertible notebook which has a touchscreen and a supplied Bluetooth keyboard. The screen size is 12” and it is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor. Its secondary storage comes in the form of a 64Gb solid-state drive.

They have also released the VX7 15” laptop which may impress regular “Top Gear” viewers. It has sports-car styling and uses dual-mode graphics in the form of NVIDIA GEForce GTX460M for discrete-mode and Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7 processor for integrated mode. As well, they have released a notebook computer which is 19mm thick. Here, I don’t have information about its full specifications.

Dell have run with a convertible laptop in the form of the Inspiron Duo. Here, this machine’s screen swings in a frame to “filp” from a regular laptop to a tablet computer.

Acer have premiered the iconia which is a dual-display laptop which uses two touchscreens with one as a keyboard. They have also shown the Revo multimedia desktop PC which I would describe as very similar to the slim version of the popular Sony PlayStation 2 games console. As well, Shuttle, a manufacturer of small-form-factor PCs have released a computer that is based H67 “Sandy Bridge” chipset.

Peripherals

The computer display scene has been centred around large-screen HD monitors. One of these is in the form of the ASUS P246Q 24” LCD screen for graphics artists. This one could work in landscape or portrait mode, has an A4 aspect ratio, and a resolution of 1920×1080. For connectivity, this 499-Euro display has the DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI and “VGA” connectors as well as an integrated USB hub.

BenQ have offered a 24” Full-HD LED-backlit LCD display This 300-Euro display has for connectivity 2 HDMI sockets, and a 4 USB hub as well as the usual DVI and VGA connectors but could offer a DisplayPort connector. They also released an “interactive projector” that needs no stylus and allows the user to touch the projected image to interact with it.

Creative have released a few HD-resolution webcams in the form of the Socialize HD which is equipped with auto-focus and available as a “full-HD” (1080) model and an “HD” (720p) model/ They have also released the “Cam Chat HD” which doesn’t have auto-focus but works at HD (720p).

Every technology trade show will come up with the usual line of peripherals and gadgets that may not appeal to the serious computer buyer but appeal to the computing press as sidelines. One is that Fujitsu had released a regular computer mouse that was to “appeal” to the green thought by having it made out of renewable materials. In my opinion, this wasn’t anything special as far as pointing devices go.

SAGEM had released a cordless phone which reminded me of one that was released in the late 1970s by a mail-order firm in America. Here, the battery-powered cordless phone was designed like a standard corded desk telephone yet it transmitted via radio to a “black-box” base station that was connected to the telephone service. It was initially modelled on the standard-issue dial telephone of the day but was revised to look like the standard-issue pushbutton phone of that same era. The cordless phone offered by SAGEM and known as the “Grundig Sixty” was styled like a dial-equipped desk telephone that was standard-issue in Germany in the late 1960s except that this DECT-connected phone uses pushbutton dialling and is finished in that orange colour reminiscent of the era.

The network

For the network, this has become a European launch pad for N450 (three-stream 802.11n that runs at 450Mbps maximum) Wi-Fi equipment as well as 500Mbps HomePlug AV equipment.

AVM, the German network-hardware name have become an example of this with their FritzBox routers have been conservative with their N-based WiFi speeds by offering N300 for their Wi-Fi networks rather than running for the N450 three-stream technology. One of these is the FritzBox 6840 which has LTE wireless-broadband on the WAN side and one Ethernet as well as Wi-Fi N-300 on the LAN side. Like most of the other FritzBox routers, it has VoIP telephony interfaces through 1 telephone socket and a base station for 6 DECT handsets. As well, it has a USB socket for sharing peripherals as well as being a DLNA media server.

They also premiered the Fritzbox Fon WLAN 7330 which has ADSL2 on the WAN side and Gigabit Ethernet as well as Wi-Fi N300 on the LAN side. This would have the USB port and DLNA media server function as well as a VoIP endpoint for 1 regular handset and 6 DECT handsets.

They also released a companion DECT cordless handset for these routers which looks as though it is a low-tier camera-equipped mobile phone. Here, this would use a colour LCD display and a graphic user interface for its management and use; and is pitched as an Internet audio endpoint.

Of course, they have released a HomePlug AV 500Mbps set with two HomePlug-AV – Gigabit-Ethernet bridges for the European market.

TP-Link have started to push in to the European market as far as their HomePlug products are concerned, This is with them premiering an energy-saving HomePlug AV network bridge with power connector so you don’t lose your power outlet when you plug in the HomePlug.

Conclusion

The CEBit 2011 trade fair is the first such fair for an interesting year in information technology, what with combo CPU/GPU chips, higher network speeds and increased interest in the touch-driven user interface.

Article

Mobile Users More Susceptible to Phishing Scams – www.enterprisemobiletoday.com

My comments

Why are mobile (smartphone and tablet-computer) users more susceptible to phishing scams?

The main reason is that the operating interface on the mobile computing devices is totally different to the operating environment on a desktop or laptop computer.

One main reason is that most of these devices don’t have a large display area in their Web browsers or email clients due to them having smaller display screens. This leads to the software designers designing a “clean and simple” user-interface for software pitched at these devices with minimal controls on the interface; which eliminates such concepts as fully-qualified email addresses and URLs. A lot of these devices even conceal the address bar where the user enters the URL of the page to be visited unless the user directly enters a URL that they intend to visit. Similarly, the email client only shows the display name for the incoming email, especially in the commonly-used “list-view”.

It is also augmented by the lack of a “B-option” interface in a mobile operating system. This is compared to what is accepted in a desktop operating environment with functions like right-clicking with a multi-button mouse or using Ctrl-Click on a single-button-mouse-equipped Macintosh to gain access to a context-sensitive secondary menu. Similarly, all scientific calculators used an [F] key and / or an [INV] key to modify the function of formula buttons either to gain access to the inverse of a formula or obtain another formula.

Such an option would allow the user to select a “function” button before selecting the option or displayed item in order to open a context-sensitive secondary-function menu or select a secondary function.

This discourages users from checking the URL they intend to click on in an email or the fully-qualified email address for an incoming email.

What could be done?

The Web browser and email client could support “phish detection” which could provide a highly-visible warning that one is heading to a “phishy” Web site or receiving a suspicious email. This function is just about provided in every desktop email client that most of us use but could be implemented in a mobile email client. Similarly, an email service could integrate filtering for phishy emails as part of its value-added spam-filter service.

There could even be the ability to have a “magnifying glass” touch button on the browser or email-client user interface which, when selected before you select an email address or URL, would show the fully-qualified email address or URL as a “pop-up”. This would have the domain name emphasised or written in a distinct colour so you know where you are going. This same interface could also be in place if one enters a URL directly in to their Web browser.

The mobile browsers could also support the Enhanced Validation SSL functionality through the use of a distinct graphic for the fully-validated sites. As well, a wireless-broadband provider or Wi-Fi hotspot could offer a “phish-verify” proxy service so that users can see a “red flag” if they attempt to visit a phishy Website similar to what happens in Internet Explorer when a user visits a suspicious Website.  This is similar to how some mobile providers warn that you are heading to a website that isn’t part of their “free-use” Website list and they could integrate this logic in to these proxy servers.

Conclusion

In general, the industry needs to look at the various user scenarios that are or are likely to be in place to improve secure Web browsing and email. Then they have to enable user-experience measure that can allow the user to verify the authenticity of Websites and emails.

This is more so as the small screens end handheld devices end up as the principal Web user interface for people who are on the move. It will also become more so as the “10-foot” TV interface, with its large screen with large text and graphics, D-pad navigation technique and use by relaxed and mostly-tired viewers relaxing on comfortable furniture becomes a mainstream “lounge-room” interface for the Web.

 Is the MiFi Model the Future of Mobile Broadband?: Tech News «

My comments

The common situation is that most customers will end up buying many wireless-broadband-enabled devices over the years. First they will buy a smartphone, then they will buy a wireless broadband modem for their laptop or upgrade their laptop to a model with an integrated wireless-broadband modem. They will also end up buying an Internet tablet like the Apple iPad which has integrated wireless broadhand. This will become more serious as vehicle builders integrate wireless broadband in order to provide Internet-enabled services like Internet radio or always-live mapping.

Multiple service plans – one service plan for each gadget

Whenever this happens, the user signs up to one service plan per device, typically as part of a subsidised-device contract. Here, they end up with many different plans to take care of, which come with many SIM cards and different included-data allowances to take care of.

The carriers like the idea of signing up a customer to multiple plans no matter whether this yields one account or multiple accounts per user. As well device manufacturers like to integrate wireless-broadband technology in to their devices as a way of differentiating particular models in a device series.

But this can become unwieldy for most users because they have to keep track of their plan allowances and contract-available plans. As well, customers may end up using one device more and “burning up” its plan allowance then are on metered use or reduced bandwidth for that device. This may be OK for fixed locations where different usage patterns may occur. As well, there isn’t an incentive in the industry to allow customers to consolidate data plans for multiple devices into one “super plan” with one large allowance and this can  penalise customers who are loyal to one carrier or want to have “all their eggs in one basket”.

Use of “MiFi” routers or tetherable smartphones across multiple devices

A MiFi (wireless router with integrated wireless-broadband modem), a regular wireless router that has support for a USB wireless-broadhand modem “stick” or a 3G/4G smartphone which supports tethering via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB could allow a user to share one plan across multiple devices that you own. The user could then be given the option to bind these devices to a high-capacity service plan so they could use the wireless-broadband service across many other Internet-enabled devices. Another advantage of these abovementioned devices is that they can provide Internet connection to devices like Internet radios that don’t have their own wireless-broadband technology.

For example, a battery-operated Internet radio like the Pure Evoke Flow that I reviewed previously or the Roberts Stream 202 can he linked up to a battery-operated “MiFi” device that is on a generous plan in order to bring the fun of overseas Internet radio in the same manner as a classic portable radio or boom-box. Similarly, a “MiFi” device can provide Internet connectivity a group of laptop computers used on a remote site.

Moving a SIM card between multiple devices

Another way of achieving this could be to buy wireless-broadband gadgets without being bound to a particular service, so you could move a SIM card between the different devices. This includes buying a prepaid USB modem or similar device on a deal where you can pay to unlock it later, perhaps by paying a modest fee. Then you use the service and unlock the device so you can move a SIM card amongst the different devices.

This practice can limit use of smartphones because the SIM cards in these phones are primarily to “present” the phone to the mobile network and connect it to its number.

Conclusion

This issue of users buying devices like notebook / netbook computers and iPad / tablet computers that are equipped with integrated wireless broadband connectivity will lead to user confusion when it comes to managing data plans and accounts. It will become an issue with wireless-broadband carriers and service providers as users want to consolidate their services in to one plan that they can think of without carrying extra devices or fiddling with tiny SIM cards.