Currents 2013-01-30
I got my hands on Office 2013 a.k.a. Office 15 or even Office 365. The last one is the online subscription model being the ideal version for Microsoft because you are essentially hooked forever. This comes in two versions with access to different features you can look up and starts at $100 per month and the advantage is you get access to the latest version at all times and you can access it from anywhere.
Office 2013 or Office 15? These are the two different names for the same product, just like Office 2010 is also called Office 14. Thank you Microsoft, because sorting through all the options isn’t confusing enough. In this article, I'll focus mainly on the desktop Office 2013 applications. The new versions only runs under Windows 7 and 8, not even Vista is supported let alone XP. There are differences between Win 7 and 8 but mostly how they start off. As far as I can see most of the changes are cosmetic and layout changes with a few bits of additional functionality. There is for example a new formatting panel on the right of PowerPoint.
The ribbon is still there but now there is an option to shrink it to a mini ribbon as well as removing it from the screen. You'll find additional tabs on the Ribbon, including the new Design tab, and the Developer tab is now enabled by default. Word has some new layout options to make it easier to work with images. Most will want to stick with the Office 2007/2010 docx format but Strict Open XML and Open Document Format (ODF) 1.2 are also available.
One nice feature is that the Start screen for many apps now shows recent documents on the left that some may want to pin there. I prefer a cleaner look and feel. You can now also reference online images in your documents. Overall there has been some good work on image handling. Microsoft has added to the recommendations it makes, I’m not a fan but many seem to like it. The live, recommended chart variations for the selected data set in Excel is cool. Saves by default are to your Microsoft Sky Drive, many will want to turn this off, particularly the business users. Touch screen users are supported with a number of new touch based functions.
One excellent change is the ability to open and edit PDF files. The result can be saved as a PDF or a docx with tables and other items maintaining their structure in either document type. Overall this Office release is more of an incremental update than an upgrade and is focused on supporting the Windows 8 paradigm. The changes are subtle rather than overt and I suspect that many older users on Windows 7 will not want to pay for the upgrade.
Using a computer as much as I do I occasionally get caught by some adware, typically in the form of toolbars that slip by and are added to Firefox. I can usually get rid of them via the Add/Install Programs facility under the Control Panel or removing them as an add-in. Occasionally more drastic options are required like with the Claro start screen I recently had trouble removing.
If you find yourself in a similar situation or just want to see if there is something there then try AdwCleaner. Search for it, grab the latest version and run it. Use Search to see what may be there and Delete to get rid of it. You will need to do a reboot but it cleaned up my Claro problem without any fuss. You can even donate via PayPal if you feel so inclined.
According to the industry analyst IDC PC shipments are down, Ultrabooks and Windows 8 have not made much difference and tablet sales have taken up the slack. My prediction is that tablet sales will flatten this year as the allure fades.
iPhone sales managed to hang on in Japan and the US but everywhere else the favourite was Android based devices including a sales figure of over 70 percent in China. My prediction here is that Apple sales will continue to fall against Android and the iPhone 5S will have no positive impact to the current slide in 2013.
A good idea, just a lot late. Nokia has posted the templates for 3D printer users to be able to make their own shell or case for the Lumia 820 smartphone. This includes some of its plastic parts, with the rear plate available as inert plastic or one of Nokia's inductive charging devices. While cool China figured this one out a number of years back and started mass producing different colours, styles and replacements for most phones. You can find these by the thousands in places like MBK in Bangkok or any department store around the world.
Currents – 2013-02-06
So which companies do you trust? Every year for the past seven the independent research group Ponemon Institute has published a report on the Most Trusted Companies for Privacy. This US based survey asks 100,000 adults to rate the larger organisations. This year AmEx, HP, Amazon and IBM made the top four. Microsoft and eBay also made the top 20 but Apple and Google didn’t even thought they were in the top 20 the last couple of years. The problem is that people these days no longer trust IT organisations to have their personal privacy in mind. Instead the belief is that private info is collected to either use internally for profit or sell to others.
Case in point Facebook. Facebook is another that has dropped out of the top 20 as has Yahoo!, Dell and AOL over the past few years. Not so long ago a search with Google would return results on public Facebook events. Try it, go onto Facebook and find an upcoming event. Now log out of Facebook and try searching for that event in Google. Facebook recently unveiled a beta search facility called Graph Search that has been forwarded to the approximately one billion Facebook users. If you actually do get a hit on the search the link takes you straight to a Facebook login page. Or put another way Facebook has made its once public pages private. Like Google Bing has also missed out.
These are very recent changes and highlights the concept of “it’s ours and we’ll be the ones making any money on it thank you very much” approach now starting to pervade all forms of social media. The problem of the new Facebook search is it allows linking of information that was not previously available by reducing privacy. If you go here http://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com/ you will find some example of the kinds of searches Graph Search allows like Family Members of people who live in China and like Falun Gong or Married People who like Prostitutes. This was previously information not as easy to work out but now you can get it from Facebook with a couple of clicks.
Representatives of Facebook have tried to justify the new system by using terms like “you can control who can see your friend lists” but the defaults are always fully open and not the more privacy friendly options. The result here is essentially a Web within a Web that allows Facebook to control their users and so make more money. It allows for more targeted advertising to be fair just like Google does. This is just one of the reasons sites like Facebook have fallen down the we trust you lists.
Bow down before the might of the tablet. If you were unsure who the master is now, look no further than numbers from the UK wing of GfK, a market watcher that tracks over-the-counter sales. There were more tablets sold in the UK in December than notebooks sold in the last quarter of 2012. Tablets were also about 23 percent less expensive in 2012 than in 2012 mostly due to all the seven inch models that appeared. There are more brand names and a lot more models coming. I expect this trend to continue through at least a few more months as even more models and brands appear but after that I’m not so sure.
Someone forgot to tell Hitachi that the hard drive is dying. They just announced a 1.2TB drive running at 10,000rpm. They did this by adding a new platter to their Ultrastar range. This makes it the largest disk with that speed rating. The platters are glass not aluminium and this means thinner so four platters can fit into the old space of three. There are competitors in this space but not at that storage size.
I admit to being excited about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 probably out in mid-April. A 5-inch screen, with 440ppi resolution or 1920 x 1080p and it may even be a flexible one. A four core CPU or even an eight-core Exynos 5 processor looks possible running at 1.8 GHz and Android 4.2.1 or a newer version with wireless charging. There will also be a 13mp camera.
So what do you do if you have a new operating system and are having problems getting it out to more people or you have a product you want to have greater exposure? You start doing deals and that is what Microsoft has been doing for some time now. Bing not being adopted? Simple have Yahoo! use it for ten years instead of their search engine. Convince Nokia to drop their OS and use Windows Phone then buy Skype. When more Windows 8 is needed invest in Dell. Sorry but I’m not buying that last one and neither it seems are PC users as Windows 8 sales are still very lethargic. Microsoft is blaming OEMs and computer makers for not making enough touch based screens. Manufacturers point out that if they had built all those Ultrabooks they’d be broke.
Currents – 2013-02-13
It wasn’t that long ago that you would ask a young teenager about computer stuff, these days it’s even younger. According to NSPCC a charity organisation in the UK children as young as five should be taught about safety online. As I can attest my six year old niece is happy using a tablet, smartphone and computer to play games and browse sites. To put it another way the very young are now getting connected and while their focus is typically on childlike sites this opens them up to the wider and darker parts in the Internet.
There is a nasty element out there that will for example coerce this age group to make their own explicit photos or films. In the older age groups sexting is becoming more common and it is easy for all age groups to suddenly find themselves looking at porn. Years ago sneaking into an R-rated movie was a badge of honour for seventeen year olds, these days watching porn is so passé that the self-made images are perceived as the only way to earn “respect.” The predators are happy to pray on such misplaced ideas and in a busy world parents either don’t have the time or are simply unaware of the issues.
Kind of related to the above Google and the Mozilla foundation have joined to demonstrate the WebRTC standard in their browsers to show live video chatting from within the browser. The new standard uses an RTCPeerConnection to allow video chat without the need for any plug-ins. It does include a permission exchange to activate cameras and microphones and is targeted at the click to chat features in web pages.
The demo appears to be in response to CURTC or the Customizable, Ubiquitous Real Time Communication system that Microsoft is pushing as a new standard. This one will also work on VoIP phones and mobiles. It is probably targeted for Skype now owned by Microsoft. Both protocols are in standards review and as usual it will be interesting to see who comes out on top here.
It took a bit longer this time but every device that uses iOS 6 has been jailbroken. This means that the iPhone 5, the iPad mini and the latest iPad Touch are now free. Credit goes to Evad3rs and you can find the tools here http://evasi0n.com/. The tool is available for use from multiple operating systems. The break is known as an “untethered method” that doesn’t require the need to be connected to a computer when rebooting. The biggest reason for jailbreaking is to free the user from the draconian control imposed by the iTunes store i.e. freedom to load whatever you want onto your device. The good news is that according to the DCIM Act it is legal to do so, at least in the US.
In the “people have way too much time on their hands” department for this week the guy who write Wine, the Windows emulator for Linux demonstrated Wine running on a Mac that was running an Android emulator. This could mean that you may be able to run a Windows App on your Smartphone sometime in the future. According to sources the demo was very slow but worked. I for one am having a hard time working out why you would want to run Windows apps on Android at all.
Isaac Asimov predicted it. The European Commission has decided to find the Human Brain Project (HBP) and will provide over 1 billion Euros over the next ten years to see if HBP can build a supercomputer in Switzerland capable of simulating the human brain. One of the aims of the project is to build a robot that will be controlled by the so called neuromorphic brain. I only have one response to that, Skynet.
By the time you read this the Microsoft Surface Pro will be out. Instead of the tablet Surface RT this is a fully functional ultrabook equivalent with a touch screen. The targets are those company CEOs that have dallied with an Apple iPad that Microsoft wants to bring back to the fold under Windows 8.
There are two basic version one with 64 and 128GB solid state memory with 42GB taken up by the operating system. Using an i5 1.7GHz CPU with 3MB of cache and 4GB of dual channel RAM. The unit can get hot and includes twin fans and a cooling vent. The screen is a 10.6 inch 1900 by 1080 ten point touch display with 9.2 inch viewing area. It weighs 2 pounds so it may be too heavy for some. It does have a USB 3 port and a microSD card slot which is nice and provides the extra memory. According to SanDisk this will be available up to 2TB in the not so distant future. Battery life is a bit over three hours. You also need to buy the keyboard separately of which there are currently two versions, if you get one get a keyboard. The stylus placement is poorly designed.
I don’t see myself getting one and at $1000 plus the keyboard it is probably out of the range of the average tablet buyer.
Currents – 2013-02-20
Microsoft, or at least someone there, is stupid. Let me explain why I think that. Windows 8 is their latest and greatest operating system. It is provided on just about every new PC sold, including on the ultrabook my parents recently purchased. They were going away on an archaeological training dig in Cambodia and about an hour before they left tried out a new 2TB Western Digital Passport external drive to be used as one of two for backing up data they were going to collect.
When the ultrabook was fired up it went through the normal process, asking a few location questions and the name of the main account to be used etc. This account was of course a member of the Administrator’s Group, all standard stuff. When the drive was plugged in the panel came up “Access Denied.” Of course in the limited time available I tried the usual searches and blogs, tried some suggestions including a registry change but still the same message.
Finally I activated the Administrator account, something that requires the use of the command line Net User command and found that when plugged the drive in under this account there were no problems at all accessing the drive. So some brilliant mind working on Windows 8 decided that in this case external USB 3 hard drives would be by default not accessible to the thousands of home PC buyers lumbered with Windows 8 even from the standard account everyone would create being part of the Administration Group. I’m sure in a couple of months when they get back and I have more time I’ll eventually find out how to do it but come on Microsoft, really?
According to Tim Cook the COO of Apple after Steve Jobs passed on to that great tablet in the sky, it was Job’s idea to wage "thermonuclear war" on Google’s Android and by extension Samsung. Apparently Cook didn’t want to go after the supplier of their CPUs and last year they spent over $8b on parts from the Korean manufacturer. Perhaps sometime soon this suing from the grave can stop and everyone can just go back to resting in peace?
According to the recent Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) report two thirds of all mobile phone traffic will be video by 2017. That is over 11 Exabytes per month or in more understandable terms a lot. Given that the figure is close to fifty percent today that may be an underestimation.
I’ve been saying and writing about it for years. US software and application manufacturers have been charging countries outside of the US outrageous prices and mark-ups for the same products when compared to local US prices. Apparently the Australian Parliament has finally noticed and has called for Apple, Microsoft and Adobe to front up and explain why. That part is easy, additional money for their bottom line, the hard part may be getting to stop doing it. They have been doing it in Thailand for as long as I can remember as well. The day after I wrote the above Adobe dropped the prices for their Creative Cloud but not their other products.
Another app I just found was for US only is the Amazon Cloud MP3 player that gives you access to music albums you buy from Amazon, but only in the US. That is over 350 songs I can’t play because I’m not there. If any readers are still wondering what there is music piracy, this kind of restriction is a flashing neon sign of a clue.
How do you feel about a SIM less phone? Apple loves the idea being worked on by Gemalto and Ericsson. The latter are thinking about machinery but Apple is thinking about people. In Europe the GSM standard is required and this means a removable SIM. Theoretically an embedded SIM could allow the switching of networks but would you really trust Apple to allow this to be free an open? Then there is security. Every new SIM has an embedded key that is quite hard to access and is the basis of the ‘secret’ GSM sessions used when making a phone call. For the embedded SIM to work well network operators will need to share some restricted data with each other or via some third party. Again I don’t see that happening easily as well unless Gemalto is the party used.
You know you’re a success when your product name is indistinguishable from the underlying technology. In a recent survey carried out by Gartner many people did not distinguish between the Samsung Galaxy smartphone range and the Android operating system. So the Samsung brand is now synonymous with Android and to many they are the same thing. I don’t expect that Google or Samsung are bothered by this in the slightest given that Android made up for about 70 percent of mobile phone OS sales in the last quarter.
When did tolerance for a bit of political spin change to not challenging outright lies from our politicians? Some claim that there has been warming over the past sixteen years but there is no data available to back that up. Some claim that storms, hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather events are increasing and will continue to do so. If anything all the available evidence shows the opposite over the past few years. Other claims like no more rain to fill the dams and that children will never see snow again have been shown to be just plain wrong. The most recent example of extreme weather being wrong is the storm in a teacup over allegations that our sportspeople across different codes are all drug takers. The truth ended up being something like maybe one guy at one club did something a few years back. This alarmist trend in everything from the media and politics is disturbing.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Jan Blog Posts
Hi All,
Since I started writing agin for the Bangkok Post I have not been updating the blog (which was started because I wasn;t writing for the Post). Apparently thrre are those who read this bog that are not reading the Post so here is the last month's worth. I'll try to keep a bit more up to date in future.
Best Regards, James
Currents – End of Year 2012
For those that remember I like to use this issue to summarise what happened in 2012. This year was finally the year of the tablet PC, and at the same time the smartphone wars. Coming into the year Apple was the dominant player in both the smartphone and the tablet arena with the iPad and the iPhone. It looked like Apple was unstoppable and at the end of the year they were still the biggest computer company beating out Microsoft in total sales. Apple also took a bit hit with the loss of Steve Jobs the main driving force of the company and the individual responsible for putting the company in the strong position it was.
Lurking in the wings however was Samsung and the Android platform that was evolving out of its infancy into a strong market contender. Nokia continued to fall as did RIM and the Blackberry line and then the Galaxy S3 came out. Apple recognised the threat and started a series of court cases aimed at crippling Samsung’s sales mostly based on issues of generic shapes like square versus rounded corners. They won some battles but lost a few as well. A recent loss in Mexico for example meant they could not use the term iPhone or any version of it if they wanted to sell their products there. What Apple could not hide however was the technological superiority of the Samsung product and the customers started to move. Panicking and with the loss of Mr. Jobs they rushed the iPhone 5 to market and the result was a new Apple product that for the first time had no “wow factor,” and exhibited problems in both hardware and software. The result was a lukewarm reception that saw even more people adopt the S3 and saw Samsung top the smartphone most units sold chart. It also started a noticeable slide in Apple sales towards the end of the year that carried into places like China where Apple is sixth in smartphone standings.
There has been very little progress this year in the regular world of printers. Ink still remains more expensive than Champagne or Chanel No 5 perfume. There should be no reason for this kind of pricing except customer gouging for profit. The big news in printing this year was in the 3D arena where some of these printers dropped below the $1000 mark bringing them into the reach of average buyers. While there still needs to be some work done on image capture technology in a decent price range you can print some interesting bits and pieces. The real market is in the repair space where plastic replacement parts no longer available can simply be printed up for the most part. More on where this technology is heading in next week’s article.
CPUs continued to get more cores without moving upwards much in individual core speed, mostly to keep the power requirements down. There remains a focus on lower power CPUs to power smartphones and tablets where power is in shorter supply. Despite the push from Intel the ultra-notebook didn’t do as well as expected probably due to the focus on the handheld market.
This year saw the advent of the intermediate portable camera, a point and shoot format with a replaceable lens. This is aimed at those who want the SLR experience but don’t want the weight. Personally I don’t see the attraction because the point and shoot now has 25 times zoom, higher megapixel count and full HD movie capture. With the point and shoot market somewhat saturated this new category is the manufacturer’s answer.
Another big release this year was Windows 8, the latest version of the Windows operating system. Originally aimed at the tablet ARM based market it was also released for the PC but was not received very well by organisations and many existing users. The interface is very tablet like, the Start button is gone and it will be quite a shift for traditional Windows OS users to move to the new interface that is a combination of simple and confusing.
The other big mover this year was the Cloud or Internet based storage, remote from your computer. The positive side of such a system is you get an automatic backup, when it works properly and you don’t have to buy new hard drives to store your data. On the negative side your data could be held anywhere, in any country, on any server all protected by someone else’s security. My golden rule here is that anything held in public space in a digital form is never truly safe. So it becomes a risk versus reward scenario and one that banks and other financial institutions would not use. If you don’t care if others get to see your data then it is a perfect storage solution. I suspect that the broader medical industry is not keeping their data in the Cloud either. The Microsoft’s and the Google’s want you to keep your data in their clouds for a number of reasons.
There were no real advances in alternative data entry systems this year. We are still bound by the mouse and the keyboard for the most part. Voice input is progressively getting better and is now found on most smartphones but the idea of talking to my phone when I’m not using at as a phone seems a bit counter intuitive and also annoying on public transport.
Media players didn’t really improve much this year either. A few codecs were added but the interfaces still remain clumsy. I have yet to understand why none of the major players have such a device. Where are Samsung, Panasonic and Pioneer? This is a market ripe for the taking but with no suppliers.
Amazon proved itself to be a purely US company this year and by the end there were no Kindles of any kind available for international purchase. I have never understood the American’s there is only us in the world attitude on this kind of thing. While this remains the case I cannot recommend the Kindle for purchase, no matter how much I like them.
So nothing really Earth shattering for 2012 and if you are reading this then the world didn’t end on the 21st.
Currents – Beginning of 2013
This year will be an interesting one and a little like 1998 because the world marketplace will be struggling, there will be little disposable income to go around, sales figures will be down and there will not be a strong push to move computer technology very far as a consequence.
In the smart phone arena I predict that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will eclipse the iPhone 5S for two reasons. The 5S will be a catch up model to the S3 with nothing special about it and at the same time the S4 will be well ahead of the 5S in functionality. Up until the iPhone 4 Apple dominated the market. With the release of the 4S and the passing of Steve Jobs things started to go downhill as Apple started to become reactive to the marketplace instead of a market driver. It moved to litigation and protectionism over inventiveness and innovation. So the downward slide of Apple will continue through 2013.
With the hard disk manufacturing back on track we will finally see some larger hard drives this year. 4TB drives will become common but I’m not convinced we will see anything much bigger than that thought we are due for something around the 6TB capacity. Thumb drives will definitely get bigger and the 1TB model should be available this year. SD cards will also increase in size to double what we had in 2012 pushed by the larger megapixel cameras that seem to be getting a less expensive.
On digital cameras I’m not sure where they will go this year but expect to see more models with smart phone like capability built in, perhaps without an actual phone but rather with Android based touch screen functionality. There is really no need to go much higher in resolution since 16 megapixels and 20x zoom in a point and shoot is more than anyone really needs. Instead expect incremental improvements in low light processing and an attempt to bring in a better starting point at the wide angle range e.g. 18mm equivalent.
Colour eInk will appear this year but probably towards the end of the year and this will start to signal the end of the LCD screen in smaller devices like phones and tablets but not full realised in this area until 2014 due to the higher video speed requirements versus the standard eBook’s static need. Books will continue to move into the digital world and regular paper based book sellers will reduce in number in any countries and if we see colour eInk this will impact the magazine and newsprint publishers as well.
The higher end tablet market will slow down with the flood of cheaper Chinese knockoffs entering the marketplace that will gradually catch up in terms of capabilities. At the same time there will be a general slowdown in the manufacturing output from China so the implementation speed of this prediction is uncertain. China will also be filling any gaps in the lower end of the smart phone market and will start to produce better models of their own to continue to take space from Apple, Samsung and others.
The fascination with the Cloud will diminish this year as people realise that it is safer to keep their precious information close at hand instead of somewhere out there in the Internet world. Wireless connectivity will continue to be adopted over fixed line connectivity as the emerging younger generation finds it easier than being tied to a static connection. Wireless technology itself will be very competitive in that area as development continues to improve in connection speed, load balancing and multiplexing capabilities.
In the PC world I expect a lot of angst over Windows 8. It is quite different from previous operating systems so that the older population who upgrade will find them lost and spending a lot of time calling their children to help. I expect Windows 8 to be the new Vista with most people and all organisations staying on Windows 7 until Windows 9 comes out. The OS may be more popular in the tablet and smart phone markets but that remains to be seen.
3D printers will become more popular and more common this year. Different printing materials will be developed to allow more flexible printing. While we won’t see body parts being printed this year the devices will become more common in the home and perhaps used to print up presents for Christmas 2013. Apart from better connectivity I don’t see the normal printer market make much progress or any radical changes in 2013.
Multi core or dual CPU devices will become more common especially in mobile devices. This will involve a lower speed and so lower power multi core for low demand requirements and a higher speed multi core when the demand ramps up. This will lower energy requirements while providing the power when needed. The trend to more cores over individual core speed increases will continue this year.
Games will continue get more realistic and push graphics card manufacturers to have faster GPUs in their products. For most of us the mid-range devices will still be fine for our game playing needs. Devices like the Kinect will continue to improve and there will be more hands free applications made available this year, even in the home PC space. As far as monitors go the new higher resolution standard, over 2000 lines, will start to move in but slower than expected and it will depend on the purchase figures for the larger TVs.
My wish list for 2013 is for a new battery technology to be developed that will give much longer life for all devices, that printer inks will finally start to become less expensive than Champagne, a new input technology to be developed, a major manufacturer will release a media player and that Blu-ray region codes are abolished. It is also that all the readers will have a happy, safe and prosperous New Year.
Currents – 2013-01-09
My parents bought a new ultrabook and it was my job to set it up for them. Since all new home computers now come with Windows 8 it was a chance to take the PC version of the operating system for a test drive. So far I am not impressed. One of the first things I did was install an aftermarket Start button to keep it closer to their previous Windows experience. There are a number of these available, most of them are free and not only return the Start button but some of the original Windows 7 functionality you may like. Take a look at a few of them and decide what things you want or need to have.
They wanted Skype and the only way to get it is through the Windows Store. The only way to get into the Windows store is via a Windows Account e.g. something@live.com. So not only do you need a Windows account to install some software anything installed this way is only available from the new Start screen with all those squares. This is of course decidedly user unfriendly and restricts you to the Store for some programs, e.g. Skype. Yahoo Messenger installed as usual and is under the Start Menu where you would expect to find it. Sorry Redmond but I’m just not feeling it.
One thing I did learn from the Christmas break was the general reliability or unreliability of eBay orders from suppliers. Local ones are the best but may be more expensive due to local taxes and postage charges. Postage charges from China and Hong Kong are the best but delivery can vary from acceptable to glacial. I ordered one product 60 days before Christmas and it has yet to arrive. I have also received the wrong product twice where it was difficult to get anything back. In general however my online ordering experiences have been excellent and any problems they were resolved to my satisfaction. If you are living in the US and reading this you still have the best options for variety and price. For smaller things China has the cheapest prices.
Blu-rays have not been all that successful so far for a number of reasons. The new release prices are still high, the players are slow, it takes a while to get to where you want to be, i.e. watching the movie, and many players lack the ability to start from where you finished. You need constant firmware updates to make sure that you can play the latest movies and blanks for any kind of recording are still way too expensive. For many it is easier to just grab a 1080p rip from somewhere and watch it via a media player. That being said I have my collection of favourite movies that look good in HD and a few 3D one’s as well. The best 3D movies to date are Prometheus, John Carter of Mars and The Avengers, mostly because you forget it is in 3D. Many other 3D movies are too obviously 3D and spoil the viewing experience.
Apple has not been doing so well in the legal stakes recently. The latest small but socially stinging fine comes from China where it had to pay about $150,000 in compensation to the China Written Works Copyright Society after a court determined that Apple was responsible for applications which appeared on its App Store containing unlicensed content. This is not the only time Apple has been slow in taking copyrighted materials out of their store and there are other cases pending.
On the subject of Apple there are already some rumours of what will appear this year to wow their followers. The most active one is for a watch based smartphone. This might be a 1.5 inch OLED screen watch with Bluetooth, a SIM card, Intel CPU, Siri as an interface and a few applications. Linked to your iPhone you will be the envy of your friends. Or you could view this as an iPod Nano with a SIM card and a watch strap. The idea of a wrist phone has been around since Dick Tracy so I’m not seeing the wow factor here. It is possible that Apple may not even feature on the iWow list for 2013.
A brief RIP notice for Netbooks. These were supposed to be the future of mobile computing but will vanish from shelves this year, sooner rather than later. Acer and Asus are the only two hardware makers still producing them and mostly to sell to emerging markets like those in South America and Southeast Asia. Both manufactures have announced they will stop making them. These failed mostly because they failed to perform and because other alternatives entered their pricing space.
As a final note for the week, the humble light emitting diode or LED has been around for 50 years and has replaced the old Christmas bulbs on trees, saving energy and all that time required to find the faulty globe. They are now used in car headlights, diving torches, home globes of all types and just about any electronic device you own including your TV.
Currents – 2013-01-16
This is definitely the age of the digital camera. What many people don’t understand when they take a digital snap is the result can be a lot better with a bit of processing. In the old days the best way to do that was with Apple software and there are those who will maintain this view until they die. The PC started to come into its own about 20 years ago when Adobe released its first Windows version of Photoshop and about 10 years ago support started for RAW camera images. Then in 2007 Lightroom came out, a product designed exclusively for the digital camera user.
There are a lot of other photo processing applications out there but I still have vivid memories of some early underwater shots I took with an older digital camera and the magic that occurred when I hit the Auto levels button on Photoshop and added a bit of red to the image. More recently I have been playing around with Lightroom 4 and this is a very nice product for the digital camera shot taker. At around $100 is a lot more affordable than Adobe’s Photoshop. Every digital shot requires some balancing and sharpening to bring out the best so I recommend you give it a try, you can get a 30 days trial before you buy. You can even use it to easily publish your photos and videos to online sites like Facebook. If you don’t like it then try some other products but unprocessed digital images are not what they are supposed to be.
Sick of being limited to Redmond approved software for the Windows RT tablets? Don’t despair, C. L. Rokr has found that s simple tweak to the Windows kernel, all of one byte, will disable the so called protection system and allow any code to run. All of the details are found here http://surfsec.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/circumventing-windows-rts-code-integrity-mechanism/ but as always any changes you make are at your own risk. Typically after a few thousand have done it there is little left to be a problem however. There are currently only a few approved apps which may explain the general lack of interest in Windows RT at the moment. Locking stuff down as Apple found out a few decades back will lead to your general downfall in terms of mass adoption.
Intel tried Winbooks, that failed. Then they tried Ultrabooks that did a little better but the uptake has been poor. This year it will be the touch-enabled convertible ultrabook, the Tecu perhaps? Intel is betting once again that everyone wants what Intel is selling and that the plain old notebook is now passé.
CES 2013 was just in session and the usual droolworthy range of devices and announcements were demonstrated and shown. USB 3.0 for example has been upgraded to a 10Gbs specification. It has also been updated to provide a more efficient data independent transfer technology as well. These changes will effectively double the data rate for USB 3. It will probably also require a cable change or upgrade to get full speed improvements. The biggest problem will be the new name, with 2.0 labelled High speed USB and 3.0 labelled SuperSpeed USB what will they call it?
A couple of articles back I mentioned the threat to smartphone manufacturers from the Chinese. Enter the world’s thinnest smartphone with a 5 inch screen the Grand S from ZTE. This a quad core phone has a 1920 x 1080 screen and a 13 megapixel camera. Huawei has a new 6.1 inch “phablet” or a cross between a phone and a tablet called the Ascend Mate. The target here is of course the Galaxy Note 2. There are more models coming. I warned you.
When I think of tablet computers the biggest they go in my mind is about ten inches. With the announcement of the 18.4 inch model at the recent CES 2013 Panasonic has other ideas. It is a Windows 8 slate with 9.8 million pixels arranged in a 3840 x 2560 grid. That is almost an A3 page sized device. It isn’t any sissy ARM based device either but contains a 1.8GHz Intel i5 core with up to 16Gb of RAM and a 128GB SSD. This power also means the device will drain the battery in mere 2 hours and weights about 2.4kg so the real question for me is why Panasonic built such a device did and who will be using it? It’s not a hand held unit and apart from a few specialised fields I don’t see a place for it in the marketplace. I’m not convinced that it will ever be released or if it does that it will seel many units. Points for being different but how about Panasonic release a media player instead and be the first in that area as a name brand.
Finally for this week the main technology force behind E-Ink screens says that magazine quality colour e-Ink screens are still a long way off. The problem is the physics of getting enough light involved to make the image pop. I hope they are wrong.
Currents – 2013-01-23
Some businesses still think they can dominate their customers. A good case in point is the recent Instagram initiative to change the terms of use on the Facebook-owned social network so it could use member’s photos and sell them for profit, without any compensation. The result was an instant member’s response and not a very nice one. Facebook made a fairly quick about face on the issue but they never should have tried it in the first place.
According to the tracking group AppStats, Instagram has lost half of its active users since the story first came out and this is still sliding in a non-business friendly direction. Contrary to what online service providers think users are interested in copyright and don’t want someone to unilaterally decide that pictures or videos they take suddenly belong to them. For those in the UK there may not be any choice as the current Coalition want to grab your stuff off the net and use it for their own commercial purposes without the citizens having any say. This will amount to government sponsored intellectual property theft.
Justification is made by claiming that photos without any ID assigned is an “orphan work” and by removing any international protection for this kind of image they can be commercially exploited. In essence photos from anywhere will be open to the voracious UK government and photography groups in the US are already preparing to bring cases against the UK if the laws are enacted. Many photo editing products e.g. Lightroom allow you to put in an owners tag. The scheme will also have some kind of opt out for each photo which is of course counter intuitive and like needing to put a please do not steal label on all of your stuff.
According to some security researchers in China there is a million unit botnet currently active on Android devices there. The Android.Troj.mdk Trojan may be lurking in as many as 7000 apps. When installing an app look for strange permission requests like wanting to access SMS. You will also want to keep an eye on you data traffic and call history looking for anything out of the ordinary. The Trojan allows a remote user to grab info, use you phone to make false advertising clicks, and download extra apps to your smartphone. In response I installed the free Vipre mobile product to protect my phone.
After a decade of research at Rice University an international team has successfully created a thread that is a quarter of the thickness of human hair by spinning tens of millions of carbon nanotubes into a flexible conductive thread. It is ten times stronger than steel, can be wound on a spool and is as conductive as copper. This will mean thinner, lighter cables for our computer peripherals, smart clothing, and a myriad of other uses for manufacturers in many industries.
HP is still king of the PC pile, just. Dell sales have fallen, Apple doesn’t make the top five and overall shipments are down by about five percent. On the plus side it is the higher end PCs that are more in demand since the lower end is now covered by tablets and smartphones. According to Gartner Windows 8 apparently had no impact on PC sales either. Lenovo is number two.
Apple has cut orders for iPhone 5 screens by fifty percent after poor sales, even with sales expanded to over 100 countries this time around.
South Korean scientists have found a way to make flexible lithium ion batteries that could led to bendable smartphones. The discovery has come from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology by developing flexible solid materials that are fluid like rather than a liquid. The result is a stable battery that performs better than the rigid ones we have today and are a lot safer than the liquid varieties reducing the likelihood of a fire or an explosion. I consider that a good advancement. The manufacturing process will also be a lot faster than for conventional batteries. It will still be a while before the technology is ready for the commercial marketplace however but this is one step closer.
I don’t know about you but I find those plastic figure based games lame. You need to buy different figures for different abilities called power ups, when in a traditional computer game you just restart with a new character type. It might be a great way for companies like Disney to make a lot of money at a parent’s expense but that is about all it brings to the computing game genre.
Finally for this week Google has been blamed for a knocking down a donkey on Botswana during their street view sessions there. Unlike the infamous Bambi incident of 2009 at in Five Points Rd, Rush, New York they appear to be clear in this case. According to a Google spokesperson "Our Street View teams take the safety of people and donkeys very seriously."
Since I started writing agin for the Bangkok Post I have not been updating the blog (which was started because I wasn;t writing for the Post). Apparently thrre are those who read this bog that are not reading the Post so here is the last month's worth. I'll try to keep a bit more up to date in future.
Best Regards, James
Currents – End of Year 2012
For those that remember I like to use this issue to summarise what happened in 2012. This year was finally the year of the tablet PC, and at the same time the smartphone wars. Coming into the year Apple was the dominant player in both the smartphone and the tablet arena with the iPad and the iPhone. It looked like Apple was unstoppable and at the end of the year they were still the biggest computer company beating out Microsoft in total sales. Apple also took a bit hit with the loss of Steve Jobs the main driving force of the company and the individual responsible for putting the company in the strong position it was.
Lurking in the wings however was Samsung and the Android platform that was evolving out of its infancy into a strong market contender. Nokia continued to fall as did RIM and the Blackberry line and then the Galaxy S3 came out. Apple recognised the threat and started a series of court cases aimed at crippling Samsung’s sales mostly based on issues of generic shapes like square versus rounded corners. They won some battles but lost a few as well. A recent loss in Mexico for example meant they could not use the term iPhone or any version of it if they wanted to sell their products there. What Apple could not hide however was the technological superiority of the Samsung product and the customers started to move. Panicking and with the loss of Mr. Jobs they rushed the iPhone 5 to market and the result was a new Apple product that for the first time had no “wow factor,” and exhibited problems in both hardware and software. The result was a lukewarm reception that saw even more people adopt the S3 and saw Samsung top the smartphone most units sold chart. It also started a noticeable slide in Apple sales towards the end of the year that carried into places like China where Apple is sixth in smartphone standings.
There has been very little progress this year in the regular world of printers. Ink still remains more expensive than Champagne or Chanel No 5 perfume. There should be no reason for this kind of pricing except customer gouging for profit. The big news in printing this year was in the 3D arena where some of these printers dropped below the $1000 mark bringing them into the reach of average buyers. While there still needs to be some work done on image capture technology in a decent price range you can print some interesting bits and pieces. The real market is in the repair space where plastic replacement parts no longer available can simply be printed up for the most part. More on where this technology is heading in next week’s article.
CPUs continued to get more cores without moving upwards much in individual core speed, mostly to keep the power requirements down. There remains a focus on lower power CPUs to power smartphones and tablets where power is in shorter supply. Despite the push from Intel the ultra-notebook didn’t do as well as expected probably due to the focus on the handheld market.
This year saw the advent of the intermediate portable camera, a point and shoot format with a replaceable lens. This is aimed at those who want the SLR experience but don’t want the weight. Personally I don’t see the attraction because the point and shoot now has 25 times zoom, higher megapixel count and full HD movie capture. With the point and shoot market somewhat saturated this new category is the manufacturer’s answer.
Another big release this year was Windows 8, the latest version of the Windows operating system. Originally aimed at the tablet ARM based market it was also released for the PC but was not received very well by organisations and many existing users. The interface is very tablet like, the Start button is gone and it will be quite a shift for traditional Windows OS users to move to the new interface that is a combination of simple and confusing.
The other big mover this year was the Cloud or Internet based storage, remote from your computer. The positive side of such a system is you get an automatic backup, when it works properly and you don’t have to buy new hard drives to store your data. On the negative side your data could be held anywhere, in any country, on any server all protected by someone else’s security. My golden rule here is that anything held in public space in a digital form is never truly safe. So it becomes a risk versus reward scenario and one that banks and other financial institutions would not use. If you don’t care if others get to see your data then it is a perfect storage solution. I suspect that the broader medical industry is not keeping their data in the Cloud either. The Microsoft’s and the Google’s want you to keep your data in their clouds for a number of reasons.
There were no real advances in alternative data entry systems this year. We are still bound by the mouse and the keyboard for the most part. Voice input is progressively getting better and is now found on most smartphones but the idea of talking to my phone when I’m not using at as a phone seems a bit counter intuitive and also annoying on public transport.
Media players didn’t really improve much this year either. A few codecs were added but the interfaces still remain clumsy. I have yet to understand why none of the major players have such a device. Where are Samsung, Panasonic and Pioneer? This is a market ripe for the taking but with no suppliers.
Amazon proved itself to be a purely US company this year and by the end there were no Kindles of any kind available for international purchase. I have never understood the American’s there is only us in the world attitude on this kind of thing. While this remains the case I cannot recommend the Kindle for purchase, no matter how much I like them.
So nothing really Earth shattering for 2012 and if you are reading this then the world didn’t end on the 21st.
Currents – Beginning of 2013
This year will be an interesting one and a little like 1998 because the world marketplace will be struggling, there will be little disposable income to go around, sales figures will be down and there will not be a strong push to move computer technology very far as a consequence.
In the smart phone arena I predict that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will eclipse the iPhone 5S for two reasons. The 5S will be a catch up model to the S3 with nothing special about it and at the same time the S4 will be well ahead of the 5S in functionality. Up until the iPhone 4 Apple dominated the market. With the release of the 4S and the passing of Steve Jobs things started to go downhill as Apple started to become reactive to the marketplace instead of a market driver. It moved to litigation and protectionism over inventiveness and innovation. So the downward slide of Apple will continue through 2013.
With the hard disk manufacturing back on track we will finally see some larger hard drives this year. 4TB drives will become common but I’m not convinced we will see anything much bigger than that thought we are due for something around the 6TB capacity. Thumb drives will definitely get bigger and the 1TB model should be available this year. SD cards will also increase in size to double what we had in 2012 pushed by the larger megapixel cameras that seem to be getting a less expensive.
On digital cameras I’m not sure where they will go this year but expect to see more models with smart phone like capability built in, perhaps without an actual phone but rather with Android based touch screen functionality. There is really no need to go much higher in resolution since 16 megapixels and 20x zoom in a point and shoot is more than anyone really needs. Instead expect incremental improvements in low light processing and an attempt to bring in a better starting point at the wide angle range e.g. 18mm equivalent.
Colour eInk will appear this year but probably towards the end of the year and this will start to signal the end of the LCD screen in smaller devices like phones and tablets but not full realised in this area until 2014 due to the higher video speed requirements versus the standard eBook’s static need. Books will continue to move into the digital world and regular paper based book sellers will reduce in number in any countries and if we see colour eInk this will impact the magazine and newsprint publishers as well.
The higher end tablet market will slow down with the flood of cheaper Chinese knockoffs entering the marketplace that will gradually catch up in terms of capabilities. At the same time there will be a general slowdown in the manufacturing output from China so the implementation speed of this prediction is uncertain. China will also be filling any gaps in the lower end of the smart phone market and will start to produce better models of their own to continue to take space from Apple, Samsung and others.
The fascination with the Cloud will diminish this year as people realise that it is safer to keep their precious information close at hand instead of somewhere out there in the Internet world. Wireless connectivity will continue to be adopted over fixed line connectivity as the emerging younger generation finds it easier than being tied to a static connection. Wireless technology itself will be very competitive in that area as development continues to improve in connection speed, load balancing and multiplexing capabilities.
In the PC world I expect a lot of angst over Windows 8. It is quite different from previous operating systems so that the older population who upgrade will find them lost and spending a lot of time calling their children to help. I expect Windows 8 to be the new Vista with most people and all organisations staying on Windows 7 until Windows 9 comes out. The OS may be more popular in the tablet and smart phone markets but that remains to be seen.
3D printers will become more popular and more common this year. Different printing materials will be developed to allow more flexible printing. While we won’t see body parts being printed this year the devices will become more common in the home and perhaps used to print up presents for Christmas 2013. Apart from better connectivity I don’t see the normal printer market make much progress or any radical changes in 2013.
Multi core or dual CPU devices will become more common especially in mobile devices. This will involve a lower speed and so lower power multi core for low demand requirements and a higher speed multi core when the demand ramps up. This will lower energy requirements while providing the power when needed. The trend to more cores over individual core speed increases will continue this year.
Games will continue get more realistic and push graphics card manufacturers to have faster GPUs in their products. For most of us the mid-range devices will still be fine for our game playing needs. Devices like the Kinect will continue to improve and there will be more hands free applications made available this year, even in the home PC space. As far as monitors go the new higher resolution standard, over 2000 lines, will start to move in but slower than expected and it will depend on the purchase figures for the larger TVs.
My wish list for 2013 is for a new battery technology to be developed that will give much longer life for all devices, that printer inks will finally start to become less expensive than Champagne, a new input technology to be developed, a major manufacturer will release a media player and that Blu-ray region codes are abolished. It is also that all the readers will have a happy, safe and prosperous New Year.
Currents – 2013-01-09
My parents bought a new ultrabook and it was my job to set it up for them. Since all new home computers now come with Windows 8 it was a chance to take the PC version of the operating system for a test drive. So far I am not impressed. One of the first things I did was install an aftermarket Start button to keep it closer to their previous Windows experience. There are a number of these available, most of them are free and not only return the Start button but some of the original Windows 7 functionality you may like. Take a look at a few of them and decide what things you want or need to have.
They wanted Skype and the only way to get it is through the Windows Store. The only way to get into the Windows store is via a Windows Account e.g. something@live.com. So not only do you need a Windows account to install some software anything installed this way is only available from the new Start screen with all those squares. This is of course decidedly user unfriendly and restricts you to the Store for some programs, e.g. Skype. Yahoo Messenger installed as usual and is under the Start Menu where you would expect to find it. Sorry Redmond but I’m just not feeling it.
One thing I did learn from the Christmas break was the general reliability or unreliability of eBay orders from suppliers. Local ones are the best but may be more expensive due to local taxes and postage charges. Postage charges from China and Hong Kong are the best but delivery can vary from acceptable to glacial. I ordered one product 60 days before Christmas and it has yet to arrive. I have also received the wrong product twice where it was difficult to get anything back. In general however my online ordering experiences have been excellent and any problems they were resolved to my satisfaction. If you are living in the US and reading this you still have the best options for variety and price. For smaller things China has the cheapest prices.
Blu-rays have not been all that successful so far for a number of reasons. The new release prices are still high, the players are slow, it takes a while to get to where you want to be, i.e. watching the movie, and many players lack the ability to start from where you finished. You need constant firmware updates to make sure that you can play the latest movies and blanks for any kind of recording are still way too expensive. For many it is easier to just grab a 1080p rip from somewhere and watch it via a media player. That being said I have my collection of favourite movies that look good in HD and a few 3D one’s as well. The best 3D movies to date are Prometheus, John Carter of Mars and The Avengers, mostly because you forget it is in 3D. Many other 3D movies are too obviously 3D and spoil the viewing experience.
Apple has not been doing so well in the legal stakes recently. The latest small but socially stinging fine comes from China where it had to pay about $150,000 in compensation to the China Written Works Copyright Society after a court determined that Apple was responsible for applications which appeared on its App Store containing unlicensed content. This is not the only time Apple has been slow in taking copyrighted materials out of their store and there are other cases pending.
On the subject of Apple there are already some rumours of what will appear this year to wow their followers. The most active one is for a watch based smartphone. This might be a 1.5 inch OLED screen watch with Bluetooth, a SIM card, Intel CPU, Siri as an interface and a few applications. Linked to your iPhone you will be the envy of your friends. Or you could view this as an iPod Nano with a SIM card and a watch strap. The idea of a wrist phone has been around since Dick Tracy so I’m not seeing the wow factor here. It is possible that Apple may not even feature on the iWow list for 2013.
A brief RIP notice for Netbooks. These were supposed to be the future of mobile computing but will vanish from shelves this year, sooner rather than later. Acer and Asus are the only two hardware makers still producing them and mostly to sell to emerging markets like those in South America and Southeast Asia. Both manufactures have announced they will stop making them. These failed mostly because they failed to perform and because other alternatives entered their pricing space.
As a final note for the week, the humble light emitting diode or LED has been around for 50 years and has replaced the old Christmas bulbs on trees, saving energy and all that time required to find the faulty globe. They are now used in car headlights, diving torches, home globes of all types and just about any electronic device you own including your TV.
Currents – 2013-01-16
This is definitely the age of the digital camera. What many people don’t understand when they take a digital snap is the result can be a lot better with a bit of processing. In the old days the best way to do that was with Apple software and there are those who will maintain this view until they die. The PC started to come into its own about 20 years ago when Adobe released its first Windows version of Photoshop and about 10 years ago support started for RAW camera images. Then in 2007 Lightroom came out, a product designed exclusively for the digital camera user.
There are a lot of other photo processing applications out there but I still have vivid memories of some early underwater shots I took with an older digital camera and the magic that occurred when I hit the Auto levels button on Photoshop and added a bit of red to the image. More recently I have been playing around with Lightroom 4 and this is a very nice product for the digital camera shot taker. At around $100 is a lot more affordable than Adobe’s Photoshop. Every digital shot requires some balancing and sharpening to bring out the best so I recommend you give it a try, you can get a 30 days trial before you buy. You can even use it to easily publish your photos and videos to online sites like Facebook. If you don’t like it then try some other products but unprocessed digital images are not what they are supposed to be.
Sick of being limited to Redmond approved software for the Windows RT tablets? Don’t despair, C. L. Rokr has found that s simple tweak to the Windows kernel, all of one byte, will disable the so called protection system and allow any code to run. All of the details are found here http://surfsec.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/circumventing-windows-rts-code-integrity-mechanism/ but as always any changes you make are at your own risk. Typically after a few thousand have done it there is little left to be a problem however. There are currently only a few approved apps which may explain the general lack of interest in Windows RT at the moment. Locking stuff down as Apple found out a few decades back will lead to your general downfall in terms of mass adoption.
Intel tried Winbooks, that failed. Then they tried Ultrabooks that did a little better but the uptake has been poor. This year it will be the touch-enabled convertible ultrabook, the Tecu perhaps? Intel is betting once again that everyone wants what Intel is selling and that the plain old notebook is now passé.
CES 2013 was just in session and the usual droolworthy range of devices and announcements were demonstrated and shown. USB 3.0 for example has been upgraded to a 10Gbs specification. It has also been updated to provide a more efficient data independent transfer technology as well. These changes will effectively double the data rate for USB 3. It will probably also require a cable change or upgrade to get full speed improvements. The biggest problem will be the new name, with 2.0 labelled High speed USB and 3.0 labelled SuperSpeed USB what will they call it?
A couple of articles back I mentioned the threat to smartphone manufacturers from the Chinese. Enter the world’s thinnest smartphone with a 5 inch screen the Grand S from ZTE. This a quad core phone has a 1920 x 1080 screen and a 13 megapixel camera. Huawei has a new 6.1 inch “phablet” or a cross between a phone and a tablet called the Ascend Mate. The target here is of course the Galaxy Note 2. There are more models coming. I warned you.
When I think of tablet computers the biggest they go in my mind is about ten inches. With the announcement of the 18.4 inch model at the recent CES 2013 Panasonic has other ideas. It is a Windows 8 slate with 9.8 million pixels arranged in a 3840 x 2560 grid. That is almost an A3 page sized device. It isn’t any sissy ARM based device either but contains a 1.8GHz Intel i5 core with up to 16Gb of RAM and a 128GB SSD. This power also means the device will drain the battery in mere 2 hours and weights about 2.4kg so the real question for me is why Panasonic built such a device did and who will be using it? It’s not a hand held unit and apart from a few specialised fields I don’t see a place for it in the marketplace. I’m not convinced that it will ever be released or if it does that it will seel many units. Points for being different but how about Panasonic release a media player instead and be the first in that area as a name brand.
Finally for this week the main technology force behind E-Ink screens says that magazine quality colour e-Ink screens are still a long way off. The problem is the physics of getting enough light involved to make the image pop. I hope they are wrong.
Currents – 2013-01-23
Some businesses still think they can dominate their customers. A good case in point is the recent Instagram initiative to change the terms of use on the Facebook-owned social network so it could use member’s photos and sell them for profit, without any compensation. The result was an instant member’s response and not a very nice one. Facebook made a fairly quick about face on the issue but they never should have tried it in the first place.
According to the tracking group AppStats, Instagram has lost half of its active users since the story first came out and this is still sliding in a non-business friendly direction. Contrary to what online service providers think users are interested in copyright and don’t want someone to unilaterally decide that pictures or videos they take suddenly belong to them. For those in the UK there may not be any choice as the current Coalition want to grab your stuff off the net and use it for their own commercial purposes without the citizens having any say. This will amount to government sponsored intellectual property theft.
Justification is made by claiming that photos without any ID assigned is an “orphan work” and by removing any international protection for this kind of image they can be commercially exploited. In essence photos from anywhere will be open to the voracious UK government and photography groups in the US are already preparing to bring cases against the UK if the laws are enacted. Many photo editing products e.g. Lightroom allow you to put in an owners tag. The scheme will also have some kind of opt out for each photo which is of course counter intuitive and like needing to put a please do not steal label on all of your stuff.
According to some security researchers in China there is a million unit botnet currently active on Android devices there. The Android.Troj.mdk Trojan may be lurking in as many as 7000 apps. When installing an app look for strange permission requests like wanting to access SMS. You will also want to keep an eye on you data traffic and call history looking for anything out of the ordinary. The Trojan allows a remote user to grab info, use you phone to make false advertising clicks, and download extra apps to your smartphone. In response I installed the free Vipre mobile product to protect my phone.
After a decade of research at Rice University an international team has successfully created a thread that is a quarter of the thickness of human hair by spinning tens of millions of carbon nanotubes into a flexible conductive thread. It is ten times stronger than steel, can be wound on a spool and is as conductive as copper. This will mean thinner, lighter cables for our computer peripherals, smart clothing, and a myriad of other uses for manufacturers in many industries.
HP is still king of the PC pile, just. Dell sales have fallen, Apple doesn’t make the top five and overall shipments are down by about five percent. On the plus side it is the higher end PCs that are more in demand since the lower end is now covered by tablets and smartphones. According to Gartner Windows 8 apparently had no impact on PC sales either. Lenovo is number two.
Apple has cut orders for iPhone 5 screens by fifty percent after poor sales, even with sales expanded to over 100 countries this time around.
South Korean scientists have found a way to make flexible lithium ion batteries that could led to bendable smartphones. The discovery has come from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology by developing flexible solid materials that are fluid like rather than a liquid. The result is a stable battery that performs better than the rigid ones we have today and are a lot safer than the liquid varieties reducing the likelihood of a fire or an explosion. I consider that a good advancement. The manufacturing process will also be a lot faster than for conventional batteries. It will still be a while before the technology is ready for the commercial marketplace however but this is one step closer.
I don’t know about you but I find those plastic figure based games lame. You need to buy different figures for different abilities called power ups, when in a traditional computer game you just restart with a new character type. It might be a great way for companies like Disney to make a lot of money at a parent’s expense but that is about all it brings to the computing game genre.
Finally for this week Google has been blamed for a knocking down a donkey on Botswana during their street view sessions there. Unlike the infamous Bambi incident of 2009 at in Five Points Rd, Rush, New York they appear to be clear in this case. According to a Google spokesperson "Our Street View teams take the safety of people and donkeys very seriously."
Monday, September 17, 2012
Blog Currents 17-09-2012
Yes still a bit behind with a regular posting here. Here are two previous Post Currrents of you missed them:
The big news in the mobile phone and tablet marketplace
is the US centric Apple win against Samsung in the United States. Many people think
that this decision is ridiculous and highlights how mercenary and capitalist
Apple has become. It also demonstrates how far the US legal and patent system
has fallen and failed over the past few years. The mixed decision in South
Korea is more balanced but also demonstrates how far this confusion has spread.
There are many now watching and waiting to see how hard Google now hits Apple
over this decision since it will directly impact the distribution Google’s
Android products. One person I spoke to was hoping that Google would “crush”
Apple which I guess would result in Apple sauce?
As far as Samsung in the US goes the next step will be
which models are to be removed from the shelves? While 28 phones and tablets
were listed in the suit not all were found to have infringed as greatly as
others. Apple has demanded that of the Galaxy range the S 4G, SII (many models),
S Showcase, Prevail and the Droid Charge are to be removed immediately. Even
though the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was not listed in the suit Apple is also actively blocking
Samsung’s request to have it back on the shelves. Note that the S3 is not in
the list, yet. Judge Lucy Koh will have hearing on Sept 20 to decide exactly
what happens next. Given her predisposition towards Apple some cynics have
suggested that she is an avid iPhone and iPad user. Further to this story,
based on some of the issues with the jury, this case will definitely go to
appeal.
In semi-related news Google has been granted a patent on
gloves as a user interface. The patent “methods and systems for gathering and
conveying information, for example, such as with a hand of a user” and “the
method may include using a detector to record a series of images of an
environment and detecting a predetermined motion by comparing two or more
images in a series.” The side benefit for Google is this also covers any
embedded processors in gloves. On the plus side for the rest of us the patent
does not cover keeping your fingers warm so current glove makers should be
safe.
When Microsoft tells us that they are not snooping this usually
means be wary. Case in point Windows 8. The SmartScreen application by default
collects information on all applications on the client computer. When
installing a new application a check is made against a database of known bad
apps and a warning is issued. The problem is that the application is configured
to notify MS of every app that you install. These install logs are sent by the
SSLv2 protocol. This means that a third party can easily snoop and crack
gathering info on what you are doing. Sure, if you know about it you can turn
SmartScreen off. This is not that easy however and you are then subjected to
the incessant reminders to turn it back on again. Remember that MS assures us
this is all benign and that none of the information collected will be used by anything
other than the automated system. It also maintains the process is secure, there
are no teams of people sifting through the data or examining IP addresses and
that FOI requests from law enforcement will be ignored. OK I made up that last
part. Don’t you feel all warm and fuzzy, safe and secure now?
Lexmark the printer arm of IBM is shutting down. Don’t
panic just yet as it will continue to support and supply existing hardware for
a while longer and it is also keeping the laser printer division active. With
the ink based printer market coalescing into mostly multi-function printers,
and people sick of Lexmark’s chip protection on refills, 1700 people will be
losing their jobs saving Lexmark about $85 million this year. They will also
make some money off the 1000 or so inkjet patents they hold. IBM plans to shut
down the main manufacturing plant in the Philippines by 2015 so either stock up
or start looking for a new printer by then.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is out and if Apple doesn’t
get it killed off in the near future this tablet looks like a good one. The
touch screen is still there but like the smaller brother it comes with a
stylus. The design is stylish but doesn’t look like the iPad for obvious
reasons. It looks similar to the Galaxy Tab 2 in design including stereo sound,
fast quad core processor, 16GB of RAM, 5 MP camera, about 33 hours of usage
time, and weighs in at a bit over half a kilogram. It is not a full tablet but
for the note taker and media watcher it is excellent. Actually it does a bit
more than that so check out the rest of the specs if this is the kind of thing
you are interested in.
Currents – 12 Sep 2012
Has anyone noticed how phone-centric we seem to have
become? For the most part I still use my phone as a phone and to occasionally
send an SMS. Since I upgraded to a Galaxy S3 I have yet to reinstall many of
the apps I put on my S2 and even though I get regular notifications of incoming
e-mails I never check them with my phone and no I do not use Twitter. My
favourite Android apps are Magnify, Google Sky Map and Open GPS Tracker. Others
I notice around me seem to be buried in their phones far more often. Facebook,
e-mails, Tweets, SMS and a plethora of other apps are on the go, while driving,
walking, cycling and running, eating and working. My nieces sit on the couch
and play games on their parent’s phones when I see them and more and more I see
fewer children outside playing. The smart phone has replaced the diary and for
some the notebook.
By comparison I don’t see that many tablet machines and
regardless of what some pundits like to believe I don’t see them replacing the
PC and the notebook anytime soon, unless there is a whole new interface
technology developed and if that happens the smartphone could come out on top
anyway. As far as sales go Samsung has
taken a solid lead over Apple in the second quarter with sales in Europe
jumping by double in that market. Nokia and RIM continue to lose ground overall
and Android sales continue to grow. When you read this Apple should be
announcing the release of the iPhone 5, something the Apple lovers have been
salivating over for some time now and two months ahead of schedule due to sales
losses rising against Samsung. The iPhone 5 itself won’t on sale until a week
or two after the announcement. No YouTube app but a new mapping app and a few
other bits and pieces will make this version of what some call the “Jesus
Phone” a belated catch up device in comparison with the Samsung S3. This will
not stop the faithful from upgrading.
With the battle lines drawn Apple has added the S3 range
and the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 to the list of those devices it wants taken off the
shelves because they can’t take the competition, or to paraphrase “because in
our squinting eyes they all copy what we ourselves copied from others.” Sadly
the patent and legal system in the US is no longer designed to protect
copyright but benefits selected organisations at the expense of the rest of the
world. This cannot end well for the consumers.
In some good news for Samsung the decision to permanently
ban sales of Samsung's mobiles in the US has been moved to December 6th.
I guess the judge wanted to see how iPhone 5 sales compared against the S3 for
a couple of months? There will be other hearings in the meantime on things like
lifting the ban on the Galaxy Tab 2. People in the US have however been dumping
their old Samsung phones in wake of the latest decisions. If some models are
banned they should be a lot cheaper and may take on an underground popularity status.
Firefox Home is being taken out of the iTunes store by
Mozilla. For some strange reason they feel that the iOS platform was not that
welcoming, joining Adobe and others who have felt the same way. It doesn’t help
that anti-competitive Apple has banned all fully functioning browsers other
than their own Safari one. Yes Google has a version of Chrome for iOS but it
must be skinned to look like Safari or at least uses the Safari rendering
engine. This seems somewhat ironic given Apple’s rabid attack on anything that
looks remotely like their stuff. Given Google were already using WebKit that
made it a lot easier. Firefox home is a tool that allowed the syncing of
bookmarks, moving of browser history and includes Safari access to the Firefox
“Awesome Bar” functionality. Mozilla has also announced Firefox OS, a new open
source mobile operating system that intends to be low cost and web standards
based.
Some good news for those approaching their twilight
years. According to a recent study by the University of Western Australia men
over the age of 69 who use computers have a higher chance of avoiding dementia,
40% better. The study was only carried out on men but I’m guessing that the
same holds true for women who use a computer.
Finally for this week the new series of Doctor Who has
started in the UK. Demonstrating that media producers do not understand the
Internet the ABC in Australia will stream the show immediately after it has
finished airing in the UK to “stop avid fans downloading the show.” Of course
this will not stop fans from downloading it because not everyone in Australia
uses iView and it is just easier to download the HD version and watch it later.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Blog Currents - 29-08-2012
Post Article for 29-Aug-2012
This week it is time to look at the phone wars. Nokia and RIM the makers of the Blackberry are essentially out of the market leaving Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and a number of Asian providers. The biggest battle is currently between Apple and Samsung in both the phone and tablet spaces. Apple claims that Samsung has violated copyright by using rounded corners and copied their icon designs. Samsung has pointed out that others used rounded corners and similar icons before Apple did and in the greater scheme of things who really cares? That a rounded corner, something used since people bumped into a table with square ones, is even subject to copyright is absurd to start with. So far the battle lines have shifted back and forward between the two companies with different winners in different places. Now a new player has entered the fight, Google. They make the Android operating system that is so popular on Samsung devices. They also own all of the Motorola patents one of which is essentially the one that allows a SIMM to connect to a communications network. Guess which company whose products all start with a small i also connects to the communications network with a SIMM? An attack on Samsung is an attack on Android and by extension an attack on Google. Google has started the process of having all the 4s and iPad2 devices taken off the market because they are violating the Motorola patent. Note that they are not asking Apple to pay for the license just to get rid of their devices.
This would effectively halve Apple’s profits overnight and it is really Apple’s fault for starting this battle with Samsung in the first place simple because they were Apple’s biggest competitor and Apple has devolved into a rather anti-competitive company as Europe and other have pointed out recently. I’m not sure where this will all end up but I suspect that if Apple drops their suits and returns to an open competitive marketplace that Google will also back off. This is of course the best situation for the users and for common sense.
To help you find out if your new invention may be violating any “prior art” Google has developed a new tool their Prior Art Finder that looks at a variety of locations to see if someone else has done it before you. To get a patent your idea must be new, add something to the existing options and also be useful to industry. It works by taking key phrases in your submission and comparing it to what is already out there.
Some malware lingo for you. A “Black Hat” is a background hacker usually up to no good and typically for personal gain. In contrast the “White Hat” is usually a security tester or someone who works for a security organization and are sometimes called ethical hackers. A “Grey Hat” is somewhere in between and often break in just for fun. The term “Blue Hat” is used to indicate someone used to bug test a system but not part of a White Hat group. Now you know.
If like me you are a fan of future technology take a look at the web site http://leapmotion.com/ and run the demo. Then look at the price below. If your jaw didn’t unconsciously drop you are made of sterner stuff than I. This little box could revolutionize the future of input peripherals and bring us yet another step closer to the technology we say in the movie Minority Report.
With Windows 8 due out in October I suspect there are a few who will want to try it out. By all means do so. To my eye it looks a bit like Windows 1 as far as the design is concerned but there are some who will like and adopt it. According to Dell enterprises, not so much. Dell is expecting a continuation of the transition to Windows 7 for the next year or so and any new moves to other platforms will be at the server end with Windows Server 2012, with the possible exception of tablet users.
There are three things that do not tend to work well with each other phones, computers and cameras. The latest devices like the Samsung S3 combine a computer and a phone quite well and while the camera is nice it is nothing like the real thing. Enter the new Android powered Nikon Coolpix S800c. It is basically a nice 16MP point and shoot camera with a 25-250mm equivalent lens, built in GPS, 125-3000 ISO and HD 1080p video. Now add an Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system with access to all the usual Android functionality and apps with WiFi. This is the first camera with everything but the phone, probably the easiest thing to add in the next version. Still only two thirds the way there but getting closer.
---> Extra Material <---
The Chinese underground is large and worth about $800 million. A recent analysis from the California University’s Institute on Global Conflict and Co-operation is probably way off as most Western analysis of Asian countries is typically poor. They claim a group of 90,000 people that have targeted an estimated 110 million internet users. They target banking information, online currency, spreading botnets and training others in black hat techniques mostly involving Trojans and a variety of phishing attacks designed to do ID fraud and identity theft.
They participants work using a loosely organized trading system. Web forums, chat clients, special slang based language and other tricks are used to mask activity from those who are watching. Baidu PostBar for example has over 5 million discussion areas. The administrators claim to be thankful for others pointing out how their services could be misused. Asians are polite like that. Tencent QQ is another service being used but not quite so helpful when it comes to shutting down the trouble makers.
Those familiar with Asia will not be surprised if the police in China are involved in some way either by working slowly or more actively involved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)