Google knows a lot about you, but is that a bad thing?

Google’s a company with an interesting history. It rode into prominence in the early part of the previous decade, largely on the back of a search engine — something that in itself was already a highly commoditised entity — that worked more quickly and effectively than the competing search engines of the day. Google isn’t without competition in the modern market — Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo!’s search engines being the most prominent examples — but for many folks, Google is search.

In case you’re wondering, Google doesn’t just offer up search results for the fun of it; the vast bulk of Google’s income comes from advertising that hangs off the search results. Google got to where it is partly because its search results were good, but also because it could offer tailored and unobtrusive advertising that paid out; if you got ads in your search feed that were relevant to your interests, you were more likely to follow them up, and therefore everybody benefits — at least in theory.

Google also isn’t, according to one of its famous early promises, evil. To be precise, one of Google’s early company mottos exclaimed “Don’t be evil”, so that while you were handing over lots of information to Google in return for free search services — and later other offerings ranging from office software to calendars to social networking — you could rest easy that the company wasn’t trying to be evil, and your private data was safe and secure.

At least, that was the theory. Recent online uproar against Google has focused on a couple of Google’s most recent alterations to search and to its privacy polices. Firstly, in the area of search, Google’s started to give more prominence to results given a +1 mark through Google’s own Google+ social network. That’s a policy somewhat rife for abuse, but what’s got a lot more folks concerned are changes to Google’s privacy policies due to hit on the first of March. The full details of the new policy were announced on Google’s official blog here.

Google’s main product might be search, but a single Google account can link to RSS reading, email, calendar, documents, photos, YouTube and a plethora of other sites and services. Previously all the information within the bounds of one Google site stayed where it was, giving your data and preferences a certain quantity of relative anonymity. From March 1st, Google will start collating the data from one service against each other, building up a much more comprehensive profile of who you are and what you do than it did before. Technically speaking, Google already had all this information (or as much as you chose to give it); its new policy makes it explicit that it’ll leverage this information across all services. Google’s spin on this is that it’ll lead to a simpler overall Google experience, but there’s reason to be wary. Google’s sitting on an information goldmine — one perhaps not just relevant to simple advertising — and it’s one that users have largely handed to it for free. Cross-collated data in one single place also represents a tasty vector for attack by cyber criminals, although here at least we can hope that Google’s defences are good. Actually, given that an individual user can’t do much to improve Google’s security, that’s all we can do — hope that it’s up to the task.

Does Streaming Music Sound Right?

The past couple of months has seen an explosion in services that offer streaming and stored music access for a set monthly fee. Sony’s got its Qriocity service, Samsung offers up its Music Hub, JB Hi-Fi offers its NOW service, and the latest service to launch is Rdio, another streaming service that’s been available internationally for some time now.

Despite the (slightly) differing pricing, the core of all these services is basically the same. You pay a set monthly fee, with cheaper subscriptions offering a smaller subset of either features or methods of access, build up playlists of artists and then have your subscription period to listen to “your” music as much as you’d like. Some services are more closely tied to specific technology platforms — so it’s no shock that there’s a Qriocity client for the Playstation 3, or for that matter a Music Hub application for the Galaxy SII and Galaxy Tab — but it’s still music. The hook for all of them is the breadth of the offering; for around ten dollars a month you’re getting much more than the equivalent amount would buy you in cold hard compact discs.

Well, sort of. The big and most obvious difference between buying a CD and these kinds of services is that you never actually own the music you’re paying for. Buy a CD and you own it; you can listen to it endlessly, quite legally transfer it to other devices for your own personal listening pleasure or use it as a shiny coaster if you have a sudden epiphany and decide that, say, Romanian trumpet sonatas aren’t actually all that thrilling after all. Whereas with a subscription, all you’ve got is the time you’ve paid for, and that’s all.

In case you’re concerned about the absolute value of a service, it’s worth noting that most of them offer some kind of limited time trial period for you to peruse their archives and make sure that their musical selection matches yours. Everyone’s tastes are different, and there’s bound to be some obscure tracks that are missed over; most of these services do cater to the mainstream.

In one sense, streaming music isn’t all that different from the way that many people enjoy video entertainment; while many folks own impressive DVD or Blu-Ray collections, there’s plenty more who plunk down a set number of dollars each month for a Foxtel or Austar subscription, and that’s entertainment that’s solidly there while it’s being watched and then gone.

Will Kinect For Windows change the way you use your PC?

One of the more interesting things to come out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was Microsoft’s official announcement of a Windows-compatible version of its Kinect camera. Kinect, if you’re not familiar with it, is a camera array with 3D sensing capabilities that Microsoft first launched for its Xbox 360 games console. The cameras within the Kinect sensor track your body movements in real time, and this allows the Xbox 360 to offer both physical screen selections — swiping your arms around to select things or change pages — as well as more “physical” gaming experiences, including a number of fitness titles.

Kinect might have its roots in gaming, but it didn’t take long for keen hackers to see the potential in hooking up the sensor to a regular PC and use its 3D modelling capabilities for other purposes. To Microsoft’s credit, it didn’t shy away from or try to block the hackers; there was (in effect) unofficial “support” for Kinect hacking; Microsoft didn’t specifically sell the sensor to do anything but gaming, but was happy enough with some of the side efforts that came out of it. If the hackers broke a Kinect sensor or two along the way, Microsoft was more than happy to sell them another.

Kinect for Windows changes that arrangement somewhat. For a start, the “official” Windows Kinect (which will launch in Australia on February 1st) is more expensive than the Xbox version; a sensor and software will cost $299, something Microsoft puts down to the Windows Kinect sensor being a standalone product; it figures that money can be made with Kinect games on the Xbox 360, whereas the PC version may not generate any more income directly.

It’s also somewhat annoying to note that the official CES announcement pegged the price at $US249, but the Australian price is a chunky $50 more; while there are some tax considerations to take in mind, not to mention shipping, that kind of price difference does sting a bit.
The really interesting question for Kinect For Windows is what it’ll be good for. Clearly there’ll be some cross-porting of existing games titles, but that leaves the Kinect as only a rather expensive games controller.

There’s all sorts of potential for a touch-free navigation environment on the PC, albeit one that’d work a lot better for a PC connected like a home media centre than one connected to a notebook that’s sitting right in front of you. Microsoft’s claim for the Windows sensor (and not the cheaper Xbox one) is that it’s optimised for close up work of this kind, but I’m a little lost to work out what’ll make the most sense for that kind of interaction (outside of certain mobility limited scenarios) that couldn’t be done just as well with the tap of a mouse button or click of a keyboard. The new Windows 8 “Metro” user interface is built on Microsoft’s experiences with touch on the Windows Phone platform, and I can see how that could work with Kinect, but at the same time interface designers will have to work around implementing both Kinect and standard interfaces; at a $299 per user price point I’m not totally convinced that many will.

The Next Generation of WiFi is (nearly) here

This time of year is when we typically see a lot of new product announcements emerge from the US-based CES (Consumer Electronics Show). CES is where a lot of deals are made, products are demonstrated and wild claims are made. Not every product sees the light of day, and those that do don’t always live up to the hype.

Just prior to the 2012 CES (as I’m writing this), Broadcom has announced availability of chipsets that support the next generation of wireless networks. Not wireless networks in the sense of wireless (paid) broadband as I’ve discussed previously through companies like Telstra, but wireless as in WiFi; using an existing network connection (or none at all) to share files across computers, tablets, smartphones and anything that can talk basic IP.

The current state of the art (in terms of what you can buy right now) is 802.11n, and that was a product that took a long time to stabilise and get ratified; for a long while many vendors offered “pre” N products with varying speeds and cross-compatibility. We can look forward to that same merry dance with the next generation, variously called 5G or more technically, 802.11ac. Broadcom’s new chips can burst at up to 1.3Gbps — at least that’s what they claim — but the as yet to be ratified standard suggest peaks of up to 3.6Gbps. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll see actual 3.6Gbps throughput in anything at all, but that’s not likely to stop wireless manufacturers touting that the new chips are many multiples faster than the existing 802.11n gear. Bear in mind, though, that 802.11n tops out at a (theorectical) 600Mbps, but nobody gets that either; there’s always network overhead, frequently interference, shared spectrum and the issues of moving away from the wifi source to deal with in any wireless configuration setup.

802.11ac isn’t just about speed. The working theory is that it should be more applicable to devices that are power sensitive, such as smartphones and tablets, partly due to the design of the mooted specification, and partly due to the higher potential speed. At least in theory, if you can send a file (of any type) across a wireless network quickly, the chips responsible can then drop down to a low power state more rapidly as well; the end result should be longer battery life when using WiFi, something that’s typically quite challenging.  Broadcom doesn’t make wireless equipment itself; its chips are likely to show up under the hood of other more well known brands such as Netgear. At some point in 2012 it’s likely that the first 802.11ac products will hit store shelves. 802.11ac is backwards compatible, so it should work well with existing 802.11n gear (not to mention the older 802.11a and 802.11b equipment). At first, though, you can expect to pay high prices for highly hyped equipment, but whether it’ll last through to the ratification of the standard and work seamlessly with later 802.11ac equipment remains to be seen.

2012’s Technology Secrets

As I’m writing this, the last few hours of 2011 are ticking away, taking with them one year while ushering in another. 2011’s been an interesting year in the technology world, with touch interfaces — whether on smartphones, tablets or touchscreen laptops and computers — a most notable feature that defined the consumer technology landscape. But what will 2012 bring us?

Any kind of prediction about the technology landscape is inevitably one that involves a certain amount of guesswork, and that means I could be hopelessly (or even haplessly) wrong with any kind of prediction that I make. With that caveat in mind, let’s jump headfirst into the crystal ball, taking a look at three industry heavyweights and how they might fare in 2012.

Apple gets first place in my tea leaf readings, purely on alphabetical grounds. Apple’s widely tipped to update its iPad, iPhone and Mac lines this year; those things are pretty inevitable simply from a marketing point of view. On the Mac front, new chipset availability will allow newer Mac models (the exact same thing is true on the PC front), and it doesn’t take a degree from the dubious institute-of-psychic-studies-that-I-just-made-up (established eight seconds ago) to suggest that new iPhones and iPads will see money flowing into Apple’s coffers. That kind of repeat business latest-model hype is exactly what Apple does, and based on previous years, that’s clearly what it’ll continue to do.

One rumour doing the rounds here at the moment is that Apple will unveil an “Apple” TV. Not to be confused with the small set top box that the company already sells, this would be an Apple branded TV set, hooked into the iTunes store for video delivery.

I doubt it. I strongly doubt it, although I wouldn’t be shocked to find out that Apple had prototyped such a thing; big IT companies go through lots of prototypes during research and development. The reason why I’m doubtful is that while it sounds good in theory (Apple has a content ecosystem in place, it does good industrial design and as yet nobody’s really “cracked” a good Smart TV), it ignores one of the factors that’s made Apple a whole lot of money in recent years — namely that it likes repeat business. People drop iPhones and iPads all over the place, and new features prompt some buyers to replace every year. Who replaces their TV every year? Almost nobody. A TV is a long-term prospect, and as such Apple would need lots of content to make its model of TV compelling. The existing Apple TV set top box already provides a gateway to its iTunes ecosystem for selling and renting content; I’d be less shocked to see, a say, LG-presents-TV-with-integrated-Apple-TV than a genuine Apple TV.

Next on the reading of the livers of unfortunate animals (and next in the alphabet) would be Google. Google’s likely to continue chipping away at many markets, essentially doing what Microsoft’s done for years; subsidising some products via the massive profits made from just a few. In Google’s case that’s largely search advertising, and it’s funded all sorts of acquisitions (some of which Google shuttered during 2011) and startup projects, most prominently Android-based smartphones and tablets. I suspect 2012 is the year we’ll see a “Google” Android tablet. Previously this could have been one built by another company — in the same way that Google’s own Android phones have been HTC and Samsung models respectively — but with Google having gobbled up Motorola in 2011, it could be an entirely in-house effort. Google’s own moves in the netbook space with its Chromebooks seems to have stalled for the moment, as has Google’ own TV ambitions; I’d be surprised if either made significant headway in Australia, if they ever make it here at all.

Last in my prognosticating list is Microsoft. While it’s not definite, it’s highly likely we’ll see Windows 8 emerge sometime in 2012, although I wouldn’t put a pin anywhere in the calendar before June if I were you. Windows 8 is clearly part of Microsoft’s strategy to more closely align all of its consumer IT properties, from smartphones to consoles to computers under one well understood interface, and it’ll be fascinating to see how well (and how quickly) Microsoft manages this. Its coffers are immense (as are its spending habits when it comes to both R&D and marketing) and it’s got an easy head start in terms of Windows existing place in the market; while big businesses will no doubt take a slow approach to the new operating system and everything it may offer, the push for individual users to bring their own devices (and increasingly laptops) into work may make Windows 8 a very rapidly adopted operating system indeed.

What does iiNet’s buyout of Internode mean?

The local Internet service provider scene has been consolidating for a while, and it’ll be interesting to see whether the emerging national broadband network changes that to any significant degree; in theory an open access network that allows for new entrants could see the kind of explosion in providers that was seen back when dialup access was the best that any consumer could hope for. That’s theory for the future; right now there’s been a number of moves in the ISP world that’ll have an impact on everyone, whether you’re next door to the next NBN rollout spot or if it’s many years in your future.

The most recent shift in the ISP space has seen iiNet buying up a number of smaller players; last month it was Canberra-based TransACT, and just before Christmas it was announced that iiNet had bought out the highly popular ISP Internode. Internode and iiNet have long rated highly amongst the technorati for the quality of their service; both in the value of the plans they offer (and a number of similar freebies, such as free access to ABC’s excellent iView streaming service) and the after-sales support. The official word is that the buyout of Internode won’t result in any changes in the short term; iiNet will continue to run Internode as an iiNet “brand” — in much the same way as it does Westnet. That’s confirmed by Internode’s Simon Hackett, who’s written an excellent explanatory document — http://blog.internode.on.net/2011/12/26/q-and-a-internode-iinet/ — that states that Internode will continue as a brand and as it has done
“Providing that plans are sustainable in economic terms”. That’s quoting directly from Hackett, and it’s the key thing that anything to do with Internode rests on; it’d be unlikely that we’ll see no changes to Internode’s offering in the medium term simply because it’d be economically inefficient to do so, and I’m sure that if it became prudent to so, some of Internode’s offerings will become similar (if not identical) to iiNet’s. That doesn’t mean it will happen, but I’d be surprised if this particular acquisition didn’t lead to a little less variety in the ISP space.

So where does that leave Aussie consumers in terms of ISP choice? The obvious answer is that (at least technically) there’s a few less than there used to be, but that’s to a certain extent all just manoeuvring prior to the NBN becoming a fully fledged entity; once that happens the floodgates open for access, and clearly ISPs are all trying to get as large as possible before that happens. While the NBN does offer the possibility for smaller wholesalers, it’s in the extra capabilities and perks that ISPs can offer customers that they’ll sell well; Telstra for example has a number of contracts with sporting bodies for online rights to the AFL, and that’ll be a key thing to get customers on board both prior to the NBN and after it. Paying for those kinds of rights isn’t a cheap exercise, and it’s only the largest providers that are likely to be able to compete.

Netbooks Caught In The Tablet Trawl

The constant clamour against Tablets has been that they’re fine little content consumption machines — good for entertainment, in other words — but they’re not much cop when it comes to productivity. That hasn’t stopped tablets as a category from selling very well indeed, and it looks like the tablet market has scored its first scalp, albeit one that’s quite predictable; netbook sales are slowing and vendors are reluctant to launch new models, or in the case of some vendors, they’re canning the lines entirely.

The most recent company to leave the netbook market behind is Dell. They’ve dropped the Inspiron Mini line, instead focusing on the thin and light ultrabook-and-above market for its consumer lines. It’s not a confirmed matter, but it’s suspected that Samsung will also pull out of the netbook market in the near future. It’ll be interesting to see whether the ultrabook market has more profit potential for Dell (or anyone, for that matter), but from a consumer end it’s a little sad to see netbooks being left behind, although in reality they’ve been being left behind for quite some time now.

Over time, the number of netbooks available on store shelves has shrunk, and these days they’re not as enticing as they once were. When first launched, netbooks weren’t the most powerful systems out there, but the problem, essentially speaking, is that that’s exactly where they’ve stayed. Most netbooks you’ll find run on only a handful of processors, most markedly a smattering of Intel’s Atom processors, and there hasn’t been a significant speed or performance boost in those for quite some time. What that means is that while tablets have come along in leaps and bounds, whether you sit on the Android or iOS side of the fence, netbooks have mostly stood still. The kind of performance you get out of a netbook today is a little bit better than the original batch of netbooks, but not by any great deal. As such, while they’ve stayed cheap, they’re comparable in price to a tablet, and even an entry level notebook will offer more power and flexibility at a price point that’s not notably higher than the entry level price of a tablet.

That doesn’t mean that a netbook’s always a bad buying option — but it’s certainly one that you’d want to buy quite cheaply right now; while premium netbooks have all but vanished to be replaced by ultrabooks, you’re still largely buying old technology, and the old maxim about technology holds as true as it ever did; if you buy the best thing within your budget at the time of writing (subject to your needs, naturally) it’ll be capable of running the latest software iterations for longer than if you just buy the cheapest unit available.

Samsung’s Tablet Clears Its Court Woes

Tablets have been one of the biggest technology issues of 2011, so it’s perhaps fitting that as the year winds to a close, one of the largest and most acrimonious legal battles surrounding tablets has come to a conclusion. Earlier in the year, Apple had sought to block Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1, a Tablet running the Android 3.0 (“Honeycomb”) operating system. Not because there was anything wrong with Honeycomb, but because Apple felt it infringed on its iPad and specifically some patents relating to it. I’m no lawyer and hardly qualified to comment on the legal proceedings that took place, except to say that they were lengthy, no doubt expensive, and seemed to see-saw back and forth with each given week. At long last, after appeals, Samsung’s been granted the rights to sell the tablet in Australia; it will do so directly through retailers with a 16GB Galaxy Tab 10.1 costing $579 outright or $729 if you want the 3G-enabled version of the tablet. Telcos have also announced plans to sell the 10.1 on contract, although at the time of writing only Vodafone had announced exact pricing; that may well change by the time you read this.

For the truly technology keen, the 10.1’s been available through grey market importers for some time, so it’s not exactly a new product to our shores in one sense. I’ve not had the chance to test out an “official” Galaxy Tab 10.1 through Samsung directly as yet, but I have had some hands on time with a directly imported unit. It’s certainly a nicely designed tablet; I can see why it could have irked Apple as the feel is terribly iPad-esque, but having said that I’d better clarify again; I’m not a lawyer and even with that caveat I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea that this should be enough to have any product banned per se.

Getting them onto retail shelves will be the interesting next step, especially depending on how keen consumers end up being to actually buy them. There’s no shortage of competing tablets; even ignoring Apple you could buy a tablet from vendors such as Acer or Asus already, and whether the Tab 10.1 will grab attention will be interesting to see. I’m writing this at the moment rather remotely from the UK, where the Tab 10.1 has been available for many months, and anecdotally from what I can see — and especially what I can see busy technology shoppers actually stopping to test — the Tab 10.1 is seen as “just another tablet”. Given how long and hard Samsung Australia’s fought to have it appear on Australian shelves, I’m betting that’s not the response they’re hoping for from Aussie consumers. It’s worth noting that the Tab 10.1, like much of the rest of this year’s Android tablet crop, is an Android 3 product; the latest Android iteration, Android 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”, if you want its official product name) is currently only officially available on one phone, although ironically that’s a Samsung product; a phone produced for Google called the Google Galaxy Nexus. Ice Cream Sandwich is meant to bridge the divide between phones and tablets and is expected to be available on a wide variety of tablets, but it’s not yet confirmed at all if it’ll come to the Tab 10.1 or not.

Hard Drive Prices Set To Rise

The recent floods in Thailand have had an immense cost in terms of infrastructure and, sadly, lives. It’s tough to put anything into proper context with that as a result, but it’s worth bringing up first before I write about the effect that the floods will have on the world of technology.

In the technology sphere, there will be serious repercussions in terms of the prices we pay for technology goods, especially those that require mechanical hard drives. Thailand sits (or sat) as the second largest producer of hard drives internationally, and the factories that supplied those drives (most notably those manufactured by Western Digital) were inundated with water; right now there are a few factories back up and producing, but recovery will be slow.

What does this mean at a consumer end level? It’s already being seen with some vendors putting up prices for hard drives significantly in recent weeks. That’s  both internal drives and external enclosures that connect via USB, SATA or Firewire. Some of that in the early stages was nothing more than profiteering, as most places had a certain amount of stock on hand, but now there’s some genuine shortages coming through and prices are starting to rise. The practical upshot of that is that if you’re thinking about buying more storage, whether it’s just to expand capacity or to aid in backup (you do back up your files, right?) then the time to buy is right now, especially if you spot a bargain. The chances are extremely high that the bargain won’t last, as it’ll either be snapped up by others or simply adjusted to reflect the new cost of mechanical data.

There’s also been some evidence to suggest that larger PC vendors may be hit by the hard drive shortages in terms of the speed with which they’ll be able to deliver new PCs and notebooks. It’s all largely anecdotal at this stage; no major vendor has come out to say that they’re expecting mass delays, but it’s somewhat inevitable that machines — especially those where you require a less than off-the-shelf kind of configuration — will be harder to put together if mechanical hard drives are harder to source.

The one IT winner in all this may be solid state drives (SSDs). We’ve covered those before, and it’s anticipated that SSD shipments will continue unabated, and therefore may be easier to source. That may make them a more attractive proposition for PC vendors to start including in all types of machines, but then again there will be a tradeoff. SSDs are still comparatively more expensive and of smaller storage capacity than their mechanical counterparts. As such, you may be able to get a PC or laptop with SSD quite a bit faster — but you’ll pay more for the privilege of doing so.

How Much eHealth Should You Manage Yourself?

Philips recently launched an interesting application for the Apple iPad. Called VitalSigns, it’s a 99c app that uses the iPad’s camera to  record your heart and breathing rate. Unlike when you might do so at a general practitioner’s office or in a hospital, there’s no cuff to wear or sensor of any type to deal with; instead the camera measures the colour differences in your face, as well as the movements of your chest to approximate the rate at which you’re breathing. Give it a minute or two, and it’ll return a reasonable approximation of both.  Curiously, you can then update Twitter or Facebook with your vital statistics, although (while I engage with Social Networking on an incredibly regular basis), I’m befuddled why you’d want to.

I gave the app a quick spin, and it’s quite surprising what it can actually track; within a very short space of time the graph to measure breathing was going up and down in an eerie representation of the way I was breathing at the time. Very cool technology without a shadow of a doubt.

But I won’t be deleting my GP’s phone number from my phone any time soon, just because I’ve got a measuring tool of my own. For a start, the app is plastered with all kinds of legal disclaimers, as it’s not a dedicated and gently calibrated piece of medical technology; it’s a mass market tablet computer running some software. Equally, I’m not fully qualified to interpret the results it gives, except in the most broad ways. As a test, I took a measurement while sitting, then did a five minute jog on the spot and measured again. Not surprisingly, my heart rate was remarkably high for the second reading, but it didn’t mean I needed to rush to call for an ambulance.

The same is true of a lot of online medical information. There’s definitely something to be said for being well read, and if you’re so inclined, many of the world’s greatest medical texts and minds are but a simple Google search away. That doesn’t immediately turn you into a qualified doctor, just the same as reading the instructions for a low water usage shower doesn’t turn you into a plumber, or reading this article turn you into a journalist. Knowledge can be power, but knowing exactly how to apply that knowledge in the correct context is what gives that knowledge power. As such, the Vital Signs app is a nice party trick to pull out, and could conceivably be of use to those who need to take regular readings with a capacity for a margin of error, but I wouldn’t rely on it to save my life.

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