The car costs 40 times more than the phone, but the iPhone integration is the big selling point on Volkswagen AG’s new iBeetle, launched at the Shanghai Motor Show.
Apple Inc. and Volkswagen have done a deal to pair their iconic products: the Beetle car and the iPhone. It’s the car that is hoping to get a publicity lift from the smartphone.
The iBeetle integration with the iPhone comprises merely an iPhone 5 cradle built into the dashboard.
THE tangled web of wires beneath computer desks could soon be a thing of the past. The same goes for the jumble of cables that feeds audio equipment and TV sets. The boxes of electronics around the home and office will still need to be plugged into power sockets. But the means for delivering signals to and from them are about to go wireless in a big way. And not just any old wireless: the new-fangled radio connections operate in the unlicensed 60-gigahertz band, where bandwidth is abundant and capable of providing data rates that rival those of fibre-optics.
It is not just an obsession with neatness and convenience that is causing cables to give way to radio waves. When it comes to shoveling truly humungous quantities of data from one device to another, hard-wired connections, surprisingly, can run out of capacity long before airwaves.
The switch is being driven by the sheer size of today’s high-resolution multimedia files, as users seek to upload them from smartphones, tablets and laptops to television screens, computer monitors and docking stations. Given the trend to ever richer media, equipment makers have decided cables can no longer cope.
Though introduced a mere decade ago, the HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) cable used for feeding pictures and sound from cable boxes, digital recorders, video-game consoles and Blu-ray players to television sets and computer monitors looks like being the first to go. The long-serving RCA cables that festoon the backs of audio components will no doubt vanish in the process.
Already Wi-Fi connections working at frequencies in the 2.4-gigahertz or 5-gigahertz bands have begun to replace USB (universal serial bus) cables for connecting computers to printers, keyboards and mice where data rates are modest. But the new 60-gigahertz connections look like being more than a match for even the “SuperSpeed” version of USB 3.0.
What about that old network fixture, the Ethernet cable? Though typically used for transferring files around local-area networks at a humble one gigabit a second, Ethernet has the potential to go 100 times faster than that. As such, it is probably safe from 60-gigahertz streaming for the time being. Though once 60-gigahertz radio chips start being incorporated in smartphones, tablets and laptops, hard-wired connections of all sorts will be threatened with extinction.
The 60-gigahertz band resides in the EHF (extremely high frequency) part of the spectrum, which spans frequencies from 30 gigahertz to 300 gigahertz. Beyond these reside the far infra-red and visible-light regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
With bandwidth normally considered a precious commodity, how come the 60-gigahertz band—from 57 gigahertz to 64 gigahertz in North America (59-66 gigahertz in Europe and Japan)—has gone largely unexploited? If truth be told, they were left free for unlicensed public use largely because governments considered them worthless.
There is good reason why they did. Oxygen molecules in the atmosphere resonate at 60 gigahertz, absorbing energy from radio waves at this frequency and attenuating them severely. Rain also causes such signals to fade. Even the normal humidity of the atmosphere takes its toll on the distance these so-called millimetre waves can travel. (At 60 gigahertz, the wavelength is 5mm.) They are also blocked by foliage and walls, and antennas need to be within line-of-sight of one another.
But for some applications, such restrictions can be a definite advantage—as in device-to-device communication over distances of up to ten metres (33 feet) or so. Such radio waves are ideal for beaming high-definition video from a computer to a television set across a living room, or for connecting a tablet to a docking station a few centimetres away.
Portable devices fitted with 60-gigahertz radio chips can swap vast amounts of data almost instantly when brought within range of one another. Their antennas need be only a couple of millimetres in size—making them small enough to be embedded in the radio chip itself.
Over the years a number of wireless connections have emerged with names such as Wireless Home Digital Interface, Wireless USB, WiDi, Airplay and Miracast. Most operate in the unlicensed 5-megahertz band used also by Wi-Fi. As such, they have limited scope for streaming the really heavy volumes of data expected in the future.
Two wireless technologies, though, stand out. One, an industry-led initiative known as WirelessHD, has been around since 2008. The other, a standard backed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) known as WiGig, published its specification in 2010. In IEEE terminology, WiGig is known as 802.11ad.
WirelessHD and WiGig do broadly the same thing. In their present incarnations, both are capable of transmitting data at around seven gigabits a second—ten times faster than the slickest form of Wi-Fi networking today—and have peak data rates of around 30 gigabits a second. Future versions of both are expected to raise peak rates much higher. For comparison, transferring uncompressed high-definition video—from, say, a Blu-ray player to an HDTV set—requires a throughput of around 3.5 gigabits a second.
Both technologies address the range problem with a technique known as adaptive beamforming. This uses an algorithm on the transmitter side to determine where the receiver is located. It then focuses the signal between the two devices into a pencil-thin beam.
Apart from allowing even faster data transmission over longer distances, pencil beams provide extremely secure connections. With conventional Wi-Fi, which broadcasts in all directions, eavesdroppers can be outside in the carpark. To intercept a pencil beam they have to be in the same room—in the beam’s actual path—to have any chance of success.
Having started earlier, the WirelessHD group has had products in the marketplace for a year or so. For $399, the DVDO Air can send high-definition video, along with 7.1 channels of sound, from a cable box, Blu-ray player, computer or video-game console to a television receiver on the far side of the room. The Aries Prime from Nyrius does much the same for $299. Meanwhile, the first WiGig application is a Dell laptop that sports a 60-gigahertz chipset as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios.
Which 60-gigahertz technology will prevail? For consumers, it does not really matter. Suffice it to say that the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (promoter of the WiGig specification) recently merged with the Wi-Fi Alliance, the body responsible for certifying the IEEE’s 802.11 family of wireless standards (“a”, “b”, “g”, “n” and, coming soon, “ac”). In due course, the Wi-Fi Alliance is expected to incorporate WiGig technology in its own “ad” offering. Anticipating such a move, two specialist chipmakers, Marvell and Wilocity, joined forces last year to bring tri-band Wi-Fi devices operating in the 2.4-gigahertz, 5-gigahertz and 60-gigahertz bands to market sometime in 2014.
The promise is that, once the wrinkles have been ironed out, 60 gigahertz Wi-Fi could be an even bigger driver of innovation in the years ahead than the original 2.4-gigahertz Wi-Fi was in its day. If uncluttered spectrum is what developers hunger for, then the unlicensed 60-gigahertz band is the last great frequency domain awaiting to be gobbled up. After all, it is home to a whole seven gigahertz of virgin frequencies. Traditional Wi-Fi had no more than half a gigahertz at its disposal, which it had to share with microwave ovens, cordless phones, garage openers and the like. Yet it still managed to launch one of the biggest revolutions in wireless history. With luck, history could be about to repeat itself.
Via The Economist
In industries the world over, many employees remain closeted for fear their homosexuality, bisexuality or gender transitions will cause peers and co-workers to think differently of their work. It’s an issue in the tech space, too, where females and minorities are also underrepresented and often stereotyped.
Despite the overarching problem, many work environments have created cultures of acceptance when it comes to sexual orientation. Google covers the health insurance taxes of LGBT employees and their partners — a tax that currently doesn’t factor in heterosexual marriages. Twitter has similar domestic partner benefits, as well as strict anti-discrimination policies.
Aside from major companies going to bat for LGBT equality, individual executives, entrepreneurs and innovators are stepping out and proving they have the ability to reach the top. We’ve gathered nine examples of individuals who are not only accomplishing great things in tech; they’re also active voices in the LGBT movement.
Who would you add to the list? Do you believe the tech industry is improving its culture of acceptance? Tell us where you stand in the comments below.
Homepage image courtesy of Facebook, Chris Hughes
Here’s an innovation the ailing U.S. Post Office may want to consider: Tasty postage stamps.
Belgium, known for its confectionery treats, is planning to release postage stamps that smell and taste like chocolate on March 25. The Belgian Post Office has issued chocolate-scented stamps before in 1999 and 2006. But, as Creativity Online points out, this is the first time flavor has been added to the mix. How do they taste? Even if you don’t live in Belgium, you can sample them by emailing philately@bpost.be.
The chocolate stamps (see images below) aren’t the only innovation that the country’s post office is planning this year. According to The Telegraph, the Belgian post office is planning to introduce stamps that glow in the dark to highlight road safety. Another five stamps will be printed with heat-sensitive ink to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Belgium’s Royal Meteorological Institute.
When you think of someone who codes, you might picture a person hunched over a laptop in a dark garage. But that was the stereotype of yesteryear. Today, STEM careers have taken on a wildly different perception, and some of the coolest jobs around require a background in science, technology, engineering and math. After all, someone had to build and program all of the apps and gadgets you can’t live without, right?
Liv Buli is the resident data journalist with upstart music analytics company Next Big Sound, where she creates a narrative around music and artist data. She helps to educate music industry professionals on the value of data, and she’s helping these professionals understand how to apply technology in what has traditionally been “a strictly creative industry,” explains Buli.
Part of her job is to write content for the Next Big Sound (NBS) blog, some of which is syndicated to Hypebot, MTV’s O music awards blog, Billboard.biz and Sidewinder. She trolls through data to search for general trends in the industry, writes about buzzworthy events, festivals and appearances from the data perspective or she’ll feature artists whose numbers are on the rise.
NBS syndicates the two charts to Billboard Magazine — the Social 50 chart, which ranks the biggest artists across the Internet, and the Next Big Sound chart, which tracks the fastest accelerating artists online. Buli curates the NBS chart to ensure the data is accurate. As a music fan, she finds this task exciting, since big name artists likes Alabama Shakes, Gary Clark Jr and the The Lumineers have all appeared on this chart long before their big break, and Buli is then privy to great new music before it goes mainstream.
Buli spends a lot of time in Excel and is learning to use mySQL and to query in R. In addition to the technical software, a music data journalist needs to have a basic understanding of the do’s and don’t's of chart and graph design, in addition to being very familiar with current events in the music industry. “My background is in journalism, so I often feel like writing is the easy part,” says Buli.
“BYE-BYE banks,” taunts the home page of TransferWise, a London-based startup. “You’ve had your fun.” Taavet Hinrikus, one of the firm’s co-founders, dubs it “the Skype of money transfers”. He should know. He was one of Skype’s first employees and is using the same principle of peer-to-peer networking to slash the rates that people pay to send money abroad.
At Skype, Mr Hinrikus was paid in euros but he would spend his earnings in London where he lived in a rented apartment. A friend, Kristo Käärmann, was paid in pounds but had a mortgage to settle in Estonia. The two worked out an arrangement: Mr Käärmann would cover Mr Hinrikus’s rent and get equivalent euros in return in his Belgian bank account. Instead of turning to banks, which charge a hefty commission of 3-6% for such transfers, the soon-to-be business partners would log on to Reuters and use the mid-market exchange rates to determine how much money should be swapped into their bank accounts.
The pair turned this homespun deal into a proprietary algorithm to connect people wanting to wire money to their home countries. If someone in Britain, say, wants to transfer money to his relative in Spain, he will put the cash in Transferwise’s British account. The algorithm then spots someone in Spain who wants to make a transfer in the other direction, and who deposits funds in the firm’s Spanish account. Rather than crossing borders to reach its destination, money can simply be paid out of the relevant national account.
In 2011, its first year of operation, Transferwise transferred £10m ($16m); it breached the £50m mark in December. It charges a miserly fee of £1 for making transfers up to £300, and a variable charge for transferring larger amounts. Its 10,000-odd customers are spread across Britain, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden and Denmark. They are mostly young working professionals who either have a mortgage to pay or a family to support back home. Retirees with a second home abroad and startups with foreign subsidiaries also use the site.
Critics point to the risk of money-laundering. TransferWise retorts that it is subject to the same “know your customer” rules as any commercial bank. A bigger problem is scaling up in countries that have fewer immigrants than émigrés. The demand for converting Indian rupees, say, into pounds may be less than the demand the other way. That means you still need a bank to stand in the middle of a transaction. Not “bye-bye”, then, but a possible black eye.
If technology and social media is your thing, you’ve come to the right place.
The reporters and editors at Mashable spent the week buzzing around the Internet like digital bees, checking out all the best new apps and gadgets. To help you get up to speed in a hurry, we gathered all our most usable stories into this one post.
In addition to the topics we normally cover — social media, business, tech and lifestyles — this week’s features roundup contains a couple of comedy posts. The Internet is nothing if not funny, right?
I was about to post this article when I saw the cover of Forbes Magazine (picture below). It appears that we’ve picked the same topic! :
Online education is going strong! Sure, it has been around for a few years, but a few indicators seems to be pointing towards an acceleration of the model for 2013. “The Tech”, MIT’s oldest/largest newspaper, wrote a nice article that sums up what’s happening. Here’s a “digest” of online education key players:
- Khan Academy, funded by Bill Gates and Google, started in September 2008. They offer over 400 million interactive problems to an andience of 6 millions unique monthly users. Students gain badges through achievments and connect on forums. Here’s Sal Khan, on the cover of Forbes’ Magazine (Nov. 2012).
- Udacity started in 2011, and currently has 112,000 “active” students and instructors from 190 countries. Courses can be completed at your own pace, students can pay a fee to take a proctored exam. Udacity also aims to connecting its students with technology companies, as potential employees.
- Coursera originated at Stanford, gathering over 680,000 students enrolled in over 100 courses. Premium services are offered, such as personalized tuition.
- EdX is a university-funded project, kicked-off by MITx, joined by HarvardX (committing $30 million each) Over 150,000 users signed up for MIT’s first online class, and slightly over 7,000 passed the course and earned a certificate: “Courses and certifications are currently free, but edX has plans to begin charging for more robust types of certification in the future.”
Computer programming and fashion-forward sensibilities don’t always go hand in hand. But KickstarterBright Eyes hopes to change that with a pair of glasses that take cool to a digital level.
Though these LED glasses might look like something rapper Lil Wayne would wear, they’re meant to encourage people to get involved in the process of coding — something that has become an important language in today’s ultra-tech society.
The glasses come with a DIY kit that help you program the 174 LED lights, and a micro SD card that allow the glasses to play graphics and videos. The creators are already working on accompanying tutorials that will guide you through the steps to building a successful unit. And if the glasses spark a true interest in you, there are options to code graphics, animations, sensors that respond to music, or you can connect the glasses with a Twitter account that will share tweets.
“We hope that this kit will inspire more people to learn how to program — and then begin making amazing things with technology,” project creator Daniel Hirschmann says on his Kickstarter page.
But the Kickstarter project still needs to raise more than $17,000 to reach its goal.
Check out the video above to see how the glasses work.
Do you think this fashion statement would get you more interested in coding? Tell us in the comments below.
In tech industry, it’s traditional to observe massive disruptive change. Before the rise of internet, the tech cycle time was often lasting decades. Change cycle times are happening more and more often. The last one was the web 2.0, also called the social web. You also hear web 3.0 for some years. It’s not a well-defined concept, but it is mostly referring to internet of things or semantic web. The revolution is now happening on mobile. Mobile web or applications are transforming the life of people and represent many untapped opportunities. Until last year (in my opinion), most people thought before launching a product: web first, mobile second. And there are plenty of poor adaptation of the web pages on mobile. But mobile is different, you have to rework completely the User Experience of your product. And for a growing number of business cases, just start with mobile! The growth is there… Last week at Dublin Web Summit, charming US VC investor Megan McQuinn (from Kleiner Perkins, one of the biggest and most renown firm of the startup financing industry) confirmed this in an interview. Switzerland is waking up. Finally. After the mobicamp initiative started by Martin Coul (I’ve written about it here andhere), the Swiss Private Equity and Corporate Finance Association (SECA) is also organizing a presentation on the “mobile media” topic. The first half of the event will display a short analysis of what is happening in mobile media and how do traditional media companies react to that (2 years after and with their own projects;-)?). The second part will be a panel discussion with startup founders like Matthias (Gbanga), Amir (DeinDeal), etc.. And people from Google and Tamedia!
