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.

Understanding 4G Networks

Telstra’s made a big splash recently with the launch of its first ‘4G’ product — although depending on whose definition you adopt, it might not be 4G at all. Fourth generation wireless networks, and 4G specifically as a term have been used in varying ways by different groups overseas, so much so that some of what passes for overseas ‘4G’ — especially in the US — is currently sold in Australia as 3G!

That having been said, I’ve been testing Telstra’s 4G USB modem for a number of weeks now. Telstra’s currently using an 1800Mhz LTE broadcast network for its 4G product, which promises download speeds of between 2-40Mbps. That’s an immense range, but then if you’ve used any kind of mobile broadband product ever, you’d be well aware that variability is the name of the game.

At the moment, Telstra’s 4G footprint isn’t that massive, focused around capital city centres — within 5km of the post office typically speaking — and selected regional centres, where the footprint shrinks down to a smaller 3km radius. Step outside those areas and the USB 4G modem flicks over to Next-G coverage, where the bandwidth is smaller, but the footprint much larger.

Telstra won’t be alone in the 4G game for all that long, however. Vodafone’s been testing 4G services for some time now. Its last pronouncement on this was that we’d see 4G products by year’s end, although they’re running out of time to fulfil that promise. Optus meanwhile is testing 700Mhz 4G in Albury; depending on whose definition you adopt that’s more like “true” 4G, but requires the 700Mhz spectrum to operate, and that’s only available in areas where the analogue tv signal has been switched off. Optus’ timeframe for commercial availability of 4G products starts in limited rollout in April next year.

So what’s it like to use? Telstra’s only currently got one 4G product; a USB modem that comes with its own drivers installed on the modem. They’ll tell you how to connect, and whether you’re currently within the 4G network or Next-G coverage instead. In my own tests in Sydney’s CBD I’ve averaged anywhere from 4-50Mbps, but there have equally been times where it’s stubbornly sat on Next-G rather than 4G, even though I should have been under Telstra’s 4G cloud at the time. Telstra’s not charging for 4G any differently than it does regular data, however; it’ll be interesting to see what happens with data prices — considering 4G is essentially a pure data network, and the telcos will continue to use existing 2/3G infrastructure to service our call and texting needs — once Vodafone and Optus are also offering 4G services.

Music To Your Ears?

Fifteen years ago, if you wanted music for your computer, it was a pretty simple affair. You went out, and you bought a CD from a shop — or  perhaps via mail order if you were a serious distance from the nearest CD store.

CDs are all but dead in the market today; while it’s still possible to find music stores, they’re a dying breed, and the range they offer pales in comparison to the offerings that can be found online. Apple’s iTunes still dominates the local scene in terms of outright sales,  and while we’re stuck paying slightly higher rates for individual tracks than, say, American consumers  –an unfortunate legacy of the kinds of deals that Apple struck with the major name labels, although Apple clearly isn’t suffering for charging a little extra anyway.

But you’re not limited to iTunes, especially if you’re not fussed about music ownership anyway. No, I’m not advocating music piracy — far  from it. Recent months have seen a number of online music subscription services emerge in the local market, offering access to potentially millions of tracks for a single set fee. You don’t keep the tracks you’re listening to, but then you’re not charged by volume; instead simply a monthly fee for access, rather like PayTV. Sony has a service labelled as Qriocity, Microsoft has Zune Music Pass and Blackberry has the not terribly inventively named Blackberry Music locally; it’s expected that online service provider Rdio will launch in Australia sometime in the new year.

It might seem counterintuitive to pay for music on your computer (or smartphone, or tablet — most of these services will work across multiple devices, because you’re typically signing into a service rather than downloading a file) that you don’t get to keep, but the subscription model has some definite upsides. There’s the obvious appeal of having access to millions of tracks; while there may be thousands you don’t care for, that kind of wide spread virtually assures you of being able to find something you’ll like. Many of them will offer initial short trial periods, so you can ensure that you’re happy with what’s on offer. Access to lots of music is also a great way to widen your musical horizon, and most services will suggest similar artists to those you’re already listening to. That can have social aspects as well; the recently launched Blackberry Music does limit the number of tracks you can access on your smartphone, but cleverly allows you to “share” your collection with other Blackberry Music listeners. If you’ve got lots of friends, in other words, your collection could be massive — and you’ll also get an insight into their tastes along the way.

Talking about voice control

I’ve spent the last week talking to my phone. Not that revolutionary you might think; it is after all a phone, and voice has been part of the feature set right from the get-go. But in this case I’ve been testing out Siri, one of Apple’s key selling points for the iPhone 4S. Siri allows you to ‘talk’ to the phone in order to make calls, appointments, send messages and search for information.

In one sense this is nothing new; older smartphones, including those from other platforms have had voice control features for many years now. Where Siri makes it interesting is in its ability to handle natural language. Where most of the other systems rely on very simple phrases, Siri can handle longer contextual strings and a variety of voice inputs. So you could say, for example, “What’s the weather like in Melbourne”, and it’ll find a five day forecast; ask it then “what’s the time there?” and it’ll remember the context and give you AEDST time for Melbourne. It’s all rather reminiscent of Star Trek, frankly, speaking to a small computer in your pocket, although it does rely on having a net connection of some sort as some of the voice processing is done at Apple’s servers rather than in the device itself. It learns as it goes, according to Apple, so rather like products such as Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking, the more you use it the better it’ll get. It’s also got a specific setting for English (Australian), and it’s highly advised that you use it; the difference in its understanding of a strine accent and a yankee one is remarkable. There’s obvious scope here for use by those with physical ability limitations where typing is difficult or impossible, but even just as a cool gimmick.

Siri does have its limitations, especially locally. Ask it for any kind of directions, and it’ll sadly inform you it can only give directions when it’s in the US. That’s not reticence on its part; the directions part of Siri’s logic relies on a couple of US-specific services that Apple’s signed up to. There are words and phrases it’ll stumble on repeatedly, and because it learns its owner’s voice, it’s markedly less effective for other users if they borrow your phone. To be fair to Apple, it does mark Siri as a “beta” (that is, still in development) product, so there’s plenty of room for improvement.

There’s arguably a bigger strike against Siri to consider, however, and it’s true for any voice controlled product. Within the context of your own home or office, talking to a computer may feel a little odd at first, but generally you’ll have access to a keyboard anyway, which adds a layer of instant precision. Out and about, and you’re going to have to talk over the general chatter and noise of the world, which means relatively loud. All of a sudden, you’re getting Siri to calculate the interest on your home loan, or noting the times of your medical appointments in public. Most of us would rather keep that stuff private. There’s no easy way around that — it’s decidedly a public perception problem rather than a technology one.

Can Amazon’s Tablet Fire Up Apple?

To date, nobody’s been able to make a real dent in Apple’s near dominance of the tablet market, although plenty have tried. Apple and Samsung are, at the time of writing, locked in a fairly brutal court battle regarding Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, but it’s a unit that’s most likely going to be priced near identically to the iPad 2. At that price point, it’s a tough sell to the average consumer.

Amazon’s recently announced Kindle Fire, however, takes things in an interesting new direction. It’s a 7” Android Tablet with much the same hardware as Blackberry’s Playbook, which means that while it’s not absolutely cutting edge in terms of specifications, it’s still pretty handy in terms of basic processing. Amazon’s made two key decisions with the Fire that make it stand out from the somewhat bland Android pack.

For a start, you won’t automatically realise that it’s running Android, because unlike every other Android 3 (“Honeycomb”) tablet, the Fire isn’t running Honeycomb at all. Instead, it’s based off the older smartphone 2.1 version of Android, but completely reskinned such that it doesn’t look like anybody else’s Android at all. Amazon’s including tight integration with its online ventures including books, video and app stores, which sadly means that when the Fire launches in mid-November, it’ll be US-only for now. Having said that, Amazon’s only just launched the Kindle into the local Australian market at a retail level; the model that’s now known as the “Kindle Keyboard” is being sold on store shelves in Woolworths, Dick Smith and Big W, so there’s hope that we’ll see the Fire locally sooner rather than later.

The real hook with the Fire isn’t the specifications or the integration with Amazon’s web services, although they’re a great point of differentiation in their own right. Instead, it’s the asking price, which is $US199. The Australian dollar has only just slipped under parity with the US dollar, and there’s always GST to tack on to any purchase, so that could well become, say, $250 by the time it does hit our stores. Still, $250 for a tablet with these specifications is an absolute steal. The closest we’ve come to that kind of pricing on a brand-name tablet to date has been HP’s TouchPad, but that was a case of the company selling off the remaining stock in a (pun not intended) fire sale. The Fire’s low entry price makes it a compelling option for content consumption, which is still the single best reason to buy a tablet of any stripe, and if Amazon can get it to Aussie consumers sooner rather than later it could well have a real iPad competitor on its hands.

The future of flight looks noisy

One of the standards of modern air travel is that you’ll be asked — sometimes in multiple languages, depending on your choice of airline — to switch off all your electronic devices when taking off and landing as an added safety precaution. It’s OK to use electronics while in flight on most larger aircraft, but nothing with a radio, on the grounds that they may interfere with the in-flight electronics. There’s plenty of debate about how true that actually is, but for my money, I’m willing to forego a little inconvenience of switching to airplane mode in return for the plane not heading straight into a mountain. Call me fussy, if you must, but I think that’s a decent deal, even if the odds are slim that my device will interfere anyway.

Switching things off has only been a problem for me recently when it came time to switch off my (or any) e-Ink reader, as you’ll in fact use more power and signal fully switching the screen off rather than just leaving it on the standard screen image. Air travel has never been the most comfortable of pursuits — even if you’re wealthy enough to afford business class or better seating — but what it has typically involved has been cutting yourself off from the outside world for as long as your flight took place. Sure, in-flight telephones have been a stock standard on most planes for some time, but at the kinds of rates that more or less ensure that nobody uses them — or at least nobody I’ve ever noticed, and I’ve done more than my fair share of plane travel.

That’s something that’s changing very rapidly; many overseas flights are utilising in-flight Internet, and it’s something that’s being actively tested by the major carriers locally; both Qantas and Virgin are trialing in-flight Wi-Fi access. It’s initially only touted as a way to deliver entertainment from an on-board server, but both airlines appear to be investigating the possibilities for onboard net access as well. Qantas is also trialing iPads as delivery devices for entertainment services, although those will be rather heavily locked down units for entertainment only.

In-flight Internet’s a tricky thing to manage; not only do you have the grim spectre of folks accessing content of a dubious nature, but opening up the wider Internet also means potentially opening up conversation channels via applications such as Skype or Facetime. Suddenly, the normally relatively quiet plane interior could become a maelstrom of chatter. Given that longer haul flights often cross several time zones and Internet access means you’d be able to speak to anyone in any time zone, it even means that the airline-imposed ‘sleep times’ — typically when the lights are dimmed in order to encourage folks to sleep — might become interrupted on a rather regular basis.

I’m a little torn as to the utility in this case. I’ve no doubt that on longer flights — essentially anything longer than standard Australian domestic flights, so above five hours or so — I’d welcome Internet access as a basic way to divert myself by idly browsing the Web, keeping up with email and maybe doing a little light work. At the same time, I don’t welcome the idea of a plane that I’m stuck in for the next nine to nineteen hours being full of folks talking extra loud because they’ve already got headphones on and can’t hear themselves properly in the first place. What do you think?

The Future Of Printing

The concept of the paperless office has been with us for a very long time indeed. While it’d be tempting to think that the concept coincided with the growth of personal computing in the 1980s, it dates back even further than that, being used in the mid-70s to describe a vision of the offices of the future in Business Week.

Given that was the mid-1970s, this is pretty much the future, and yet paper and printing are still with us to a very large extent. It seems we still adore having printed sheets of paper, even as the growth of smartphones and tablets would seem to make them largely redundant.

I recently travelled to Shanghai to view a number of new printing innovations from HP (disclaimer: HP paid for my airfare and accommodation to attend the event). There were some products, such as the white and attractive Envy 110 that are aimed squarely at the home office market; there’s not a great deal of actual physical innovation there, although it is an attractive unit. Moving slightly up the scale were models such as the HP LaserJet Pro M275, AKA the HP “TopShot”. In most respects it’s a standard laser colour multifunction device, but with an additional quirk. The top of the unit houses an arm that hangs over the scanner plate, giving the TopShot the capability to capture three dimensional looking images. HP was a little coy when it came to answering specific technical questions about the Topshot, which won’t be available until sometime next year, but it’s an interesting glimpse into printing’s future.

While you can shift somewhat paperless with a Tablet or Smartphone, HP’s got that angle covered. It announced tweaks to its existing ePrint system, which lets you print to any printer from any device capable of sending files via email, adding a social element to it by allowing you to name your printer. Not a great innovation you might think, but it’s got to be easier to remember “myprinter@hpeprint.com” (or whatever you choose; it’ll be first come first served for all names) than it would be, say “hpe101010101015732~4@hpeprint.com”.

The other area HP was at pains to demonstrate fits more neatly into slightly larger offices, and that’s document security. If you’ve worked in any office at all, you’ve probably noticed plenty of times where an office printer sits with a stack of printed documents on it. Not only can it be a waste of paper, but there’s the risk of folks seeing documents that they shouldn’t be privy to. HP demonstrated systems that send documents fully encrypted, whether via a cabled or wireless network, and that then can only be printed via a passcode punched into the printer itself; the idea is that you’ll send a print job, but not forget it as you’ve got to approach the printer and enter the passphrase to print it, at which time you’ll walk away with it rather than remotely printing and then forgetting it.

The Perils Of Being An Early Adopter

HP recently managed a couple of firsts in the Australian marketplace. It launched the TouchPad, a tablet competitor to the many Android tablets and Apple’s overachieving iPad 2, and in doing so launched the first device running WebOS onto the Australian marketplace. WebOS was an operating system originally developed by Palm — you may recall the PalmPilot, precursor to today’s wave of smartphones — and snapped up by HP last year for what was going to be a variety of phones and tablet devices. The phones never officially made it to Australian shores, but the $499/$599 (16/32GB) TouchPad would have been the first taste of WebOS for many consumers. It was officially launched through Harvey Norman with a blitz of advertising, and apparently within four days around 1200 TouchPads were sold; not a bad result for a new entrant in the competitive tablet space.

Then on the fourth day after its Australian launch, HP — a US based firm — announced it was ceasing all development in WebOS hardware worldwide, effectively killing off the Touchpad line. In the US this led to the remaining stock, which hadn’t been selling, shifting out of stores at US$99/$149 respectively, which was something of a bargain. Locally, Harvey Norman announced it’d offer refunds to any TouchPad customer who wanted one.

I’ve seen products fail to succeed locally, but never one die quite that fast. While there’s a happy enough ending for those purchasers in that they were offered refunds if they wanted one, it it does point to one of the perils of early adoption of technology. There’s a certain cool factor in having new technology first, especially if you can take advantage of its features first. I attended the launch of the Apple iPhone 4 where hundreds and hundreds of customers lined up outside Telstra, Optus and Vodafone/Three stores for the privilege of being early adopters. That’s as much a fashion statement as a desire to have new features first, but it’s still true that there can be benefits — as long as you avoid the pitfalls.

Early adopters have to deal with all the things that go wrong first, whether that’s a software error that makes things work unpredictably, or a stray or poorly built bit of hardware that overheats, undercharges or just outright explodes — although thankfully that latter case is remarkably rare.

You’re also stung with the financial cost of being an early adopter; in the case of the TouchPad in Australia that led to refunds, but while at $499/$599 HP was having trouble selling the TouchPad in the US, at $99/$149 they sold out almost immediately. Prices on technology drops in a relatively regular pattern, and often the best value you can get from technology is simply to have a little patience.

Understanding SSDs

The chances are high that the next time you go to buy a laptop, you’ll have the option of either a standard mechanical hard drive or an SSD. On the surface, the numbers would appear to favour mechanical drives; even the cheapest notebooks tend to pack in at least 320GB into a drive, whereas the SSD option is typically under 256GB, and often very small. That’s what you’ll see on the in-store sticker, but understanding what an SSD is, and why they’re becoming more prevalent in the consumer notebook market can help you make an informed buying decision, rather than just looking at the straight storage numbers.

SSD stands for Solid State Drive, and unlike traditional mechanical hard disk drives, they’re not a bunch of spinning platters and an LP-style read head, instead reducing all that moving clutter into a what is essentially a bunch of microchips. Why would that be a good thing? Well, for a start, because that makes them substantially more resistant to shock and bumps. Drop or bump a working laptop while the read head is spinning and you may lose data or crash the machine; with no moving parts this is no real issue for an SSD. The lack of moving parts also makes most modern SSD drives notably fast, leading to quicker startup times in particular, but also improved application performance in cases where the application can benefit from the SSDs write structure; not every application can.

No moving parts also means no whirring noises and a reduced heat footprint, which leads to fewer spinning fans and even less working noise in operation. An SSD-based notebook at the time of writing still won’t be silent, but it’ll often be a lot quieter than a mechanical hard drive based notebook. All that can also make SSDs more energy efficient, which for a notebook should equate to longer battery life. Finally, the lack of moving parts and reliance on chips rather than platters makes it possible to design SSDs that are smaller than traditional hard drives, although to date most manufacturers of installable SSDs have opted for traditional hard drive sizes in order to make them easier to fit. So what’s the downside? As mentioned, the price per gigabyte for an SSD is still a lot higher than for mechanical drives, which is why SSD options usually either invite a price bump or storage drop, and typically both. There’s some concern about the life cycles of SSD drives compared to their mechanical counterparts, although you’d be wise to be backing up all of your data in any case; any drive can fail, and it’s really just a matter of when.

There’s been a huge drop in the prices of SSDs in the past couple of years, just as the storage capacities of those same drives has gone up, and that’s pretty much exactly why they’re becoming a more commonplace option within notebooks. It’s worth considering the SSD option if the notebook you’re after needs to be thin, light and quick, but for the moment those who need large media libraries or primarily use a notebook as a desktop replacement are probably still a little better served with the traditional mechanical type.

Next Page »