Telstra taking 4G to the skies with Skinet
Telstra may have Australia's most extensive 4G network, but now the telco is looking to conquer the heavens with 4G trials for in-flight use in aircrafts.
While in-flight internet access is currently available using 3G or satellite technology on airlines across the world on both domestic and international routes, Telstra is working to bring in-flight internet up to speed with what it is calling its Skinet network.
According to Telstra Executive Director Mike Wright, the telco has already had successes during test flights between Sydney and Melbourne.
"We used a number of different aircraft fitted out with special terminals to pick up the signal and we were able to successfully establish and maintain data connections, achieving a maximum data throughput of 15Mbps, with an average throughput around 10Mbps," he said.
Ski high
According to Telstra, the trials were run after it borrowed some spectrum to test the Skinet 4G network on, though the company didn't reveal what spectrum it used.The telco built four dedicated mobile sites which cover most of the commercial route between Melbourne and Sydney
The mobile sites were equipped with upward facing antennas that link up with antennas that are attached to the underside of an aircraft.
The 4G future
While Telstra's trials were successful, the technology isn't going to be available to commuters any time soon."These test flights are encouraging and are a significant step in the development of a potential Skinet network that might one day deliver high speed broadband connectivity to a range of aircraft-based applications that could extend from commuter use to a range of remote monitoring and control applications," Wright said.
It is set to continue testing this year, but beyond that, Telstra was also quick to point out that it will need the spectrum to run Skinet on.
The technology would also need to go through the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority before airlines jump on to have their aircrafts outfitted with Telstra's antennas.
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Google's drastic Gmail redesign could come to browsers too
The new features that Google was caught testing in its mobile Gmail client at the beginning of April could wind up in the browser version too.
Google is reportedly testing adding the same features, which add up to a pretty drastic redesign, to its web-based Gmail client, according to Geek.com.
The site was able to take some screenshots of the redesign, comparing it to the new mobile features that were spotted last month.
This redesign could unify the Gmail experience across multiple devices, something it would likely benefit from.
Desperate measures
The collapsible left-side interface previously used has been replaced by a drop-down that disappears when it's not in use. That takes away a lot of the clutter and gives the whole interface more breathing room everywhere on the screen.Stars have been replaced by pins, which can be filtered to the top of your inbox or left in chronological order at the press of a button.
And on the right side, in addition to the collapsible Hangouts interface, is what Geek calls a to-do list that can hold message drafts, reminders and more.
And these examples just scratch the surface of all the changes that could be coming to Gmail.
As the site says, there's no guarantee that this redesign with roll out exactly as it's being tested, or that it will roll out at all. Google is not oblivious to the internet's hatred of change, after all.
But if Google did redesign Gmail so drastically, would it really be a bad thing?
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Samsung to unpack first Tizen phone in India, Russia soon, says report
Samsung will unveil its first commercial Tizen smartphone at a Samsung Unpacked event in Moscow "in the coming weeks," according to a new report.
The phone will launch in India and Russia, said The Wall Street Journal, which spoke with "people familiar with the matter."
Apparently the announcement event is taking place around the same time as a Tizen developers conference taking place in San Francisco.
Samsung and the Tizen Association both reportedly declined to comment.
Taking its time
Some said Samsung would unveil its first Tizen phone way back in January, but for whatever reason that didn't pan out (it's not like it was the OS's first delay). The Journal said it was thanks to "cold feet" among Samsung's carrier partners in Japan, France and Spain.Maybe the Korean company needed an extra few months to work out any remaining kinks, too.
Samsung hopes that Tizen will be able to take some market back from Apple's iOS and Google's Android, but not by running on high-end smartphones; instead Samsung is hoping to carve out a niche in which Tizen links multiple kinds of devices, including phones, wearables, appliances, and even vehicles.
The Journal speculates that Samsung will launch Tizen phones first in India and Russia to avoid direct competition with its two big rivals and to take advantage of emerging markets there.
Watch out for Samsung to announce an event in Moscow soon; meanwhile we'll be watching for more info on Tizen's Aussie debut.
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Analysis: Apple and Beats: it ain't about the headphones
When I first read about the Apple/Beats Audio rumour, I was as flabbergasted as everybody else: such a deal is very un-Apple, and acquiring Beats seems to make as much sense as, say, putting a guy from JB Hi-Fi in charge of Apple retail.
The case for the prosecution is pretty damning. The deal can't be about the existing headphones, because as many audiophiles will tell you (often loudly and at great length), Beats headphones aren't very good.
It can't be to get Beats' design smarts, because its designs are outsourced.
It can't be about the streaming service, because with around 200,000 subscribers, Beats Music is hardly doing big numbers.
And it can't be about the licensing deals, because they'll have clauses that force termination or renegotiation in the event of Beats coming under new management.
A few weeks ago, the idea of Apple buying Beats was an April Fool in a music business newsletter. Now it's apparently a multi-billion dollar reality.
Has Apple gone mad?
The internet certainly thinks Apple - and in particular Tim Cook - has lost the plot. Steve Jobs would never have considered such a thing, they say, forgetting that Jobs met with Beats founder Jimmy Iovine to discuss a streaming music service "in 2002, 2003".Iovine met with Apple's Cook and Eddy Cue again last year, so whatever's going on here is hardly an impulse buy.
What it looks like is a talent acquisition. iTunes Radio has been rather underwhelming, both as a service and in terms of its ability to get contracts signed (which is why it's still only available in the US and Australia, for example).
Getting Beats' Jimmy Iovine, a music industry legend, into the Apple camp boosts its negotiating position considerably; getting Beats' engineers and experts to give iTunes and iTunes Radio a well-deserved kicking makes sense too. It wouldn't be the first time that Apple had bought in iTunes expertise: the iTunes app we know and occasionally love started life as SoundJam MP, a third-party app Apple bought back in 2000.
In a 2013 interview, Iovine expressed his shock at "how culturally inept most consumer electronics companies are" and claimed that they can't do subscription services. "Tech guys can't do that," he said. "They don't even know who to hire."
Iovine reckons he can do a better job than Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and the rest - and Tim Cook apparently thinks that's worth betting a couple of billion on.
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In depth: Out of control: why iOS games controllers aren't console killers...yet
Why iOS games controllers aren't ready yet
When Apple announced official games controller support as part of iOS 7, it was thought that the world would be overrun with manufacturers looking take advantage of this gaming opportunity.So far, though, there is just a handful of controllers on the market: the Logitech PowerShell, which is the simplified case controller; the MOGA Ace Power, an extended control case; and the SteelSeries Stratus is a wireless controller.
The reception for this first batch of controllers has been somewhat rocky. When you consider that these controllers are certified as part of the Made For iPhone (MFi) program – meaning that Apple has officially approved their quality – it's perhaps surprising to see such a difficult launch for what could be a key new area for Apple. So what's going on?
"The speed with which we had put [the Ace Power] together was a very accelerated product development cycle," explained James Szubski, director of marketing at BDA, which makes the MOGA Ace Power controller.
The problem for developing these early controllers is that being an innovator often means overcoming unforeseen hurdles.
"Being the first one is great, but it also means that along the way, we may come across challenges that none of us expected," explains Craig Olsen, president of SteelSeries Mobile.
"We were the first wireless controller, so obviously for us getting Stratus through was different and in some ways a lot more work than future wireless controllers. But a lot of the great value of the process is that things that consumers would never see are dealt with in the typically thoughtful and incredibly thorough Apple fashion. Things way under the surface are being very carefully measured and considered. It's a challenging process, but one that's incredibly important."
Feel better
One thing that came up consistently in early reviews were questions over the feel of the buttons, with early reports suggesting that Apple was forcing manufacturers to use a particular supplier for the switches. Though the companies are limited in what they can say about their licensing deals, it appears this isn't entirely true.Apple does require manufacturers to use a particular type of switch (ones that are pressure-sensitive rather than digital), but Mark Prince, director of Signal, a new hardware company that's creating an iOS controller of its own, says that Apple's restrictions on the switch supply are based on reliability more than anything: "There is a quality standard that's set by Apple, and it's a very high standard. For example, switches need to be tested to one million cycles. I can tell you, based on having been in the business a long time, there are a lot of third-party controllers for other platforms that don't meet that spec."
Apple's certification procedures stretch into other areas, as well. For the Stratus controller, SteelSeries had to ensure that its Bluetooth system paired with the iOS fast enough for Apple's approval. "It's really down to the hundredths of seconds," says Olsen. "That kind of detail is considered."
So while Apple may not be restricting manufacturers to use particular suppliers, it does require them to meet quality standards (which might include much more testing and additional components), and even to include features that they might have forgone otherwise, such as LEDs that indicate battery life and user status in multiplayer games, as well as the pressure-sensitive switches. "That's something new for the mobile space that I think is really revolutionary," enthuses Olsen.
Insert coin
The addition of features such as multiplayer support in wireless controllers, battery indicators and universal analogue buttons – and the high level of testing and components that come with these needs – don't come cheap."On a normal controller, there's a blend of analogue and digital. Apple's spec has pressure-sensitive buttons for every button on the controller. There are some exciting things that developers can do with that, but that really starts to push the price up," says Szubski.
The use of high-quality, high-cost components is something that Apple purchasers will be familiar with, but the prices of the early games controllers still came under major criticism at their launch. All costing nearly $100, many reviews and commenters said they simply didn't seem worth the money.
But Prince isn't convinced that the price was wrong in the first place. "I think gamers think about things a little bit differently than say, parents who are buying toys for their kids. When it's a self-purchase made by a gamer, I think those gamers think, 'How am I going to spend the next $100 on gaming?' One thing that the current controller vendors haven't really done is help the gaming community see the value that comes from their controller. We think that value will be more clear with our controller."
"I think the statement that '$100 is not an unreasonable price' is accurate because there is unprecedented value with these controllers with iOS 7 support, but whether we like it or not, consumers have this idea that controllers that are available on a mass basis should be priced between $40 and $70," says Olsen.
Despite the price drops, Prince maintains the need to be realistic about what is possible for controller manufacturers, which comes heavily down to economies of scale, where the more you make of something, the cheaper you can make it for.
"Sony sold a million units in their first week, and they undoubtedly produced two or three million controllers in their initial production run of the PS4 controller," he adds. "The comparison to the Sony controller from a consumer point of view is very fair, but from a business point of view, it's very, very different."
Harder than it looks
The biggest way for these controllers to seem more valuable is surely to have a huge range of games available to play. The good news is that they're off to a strong start.
"Between the time the first controller shipped in November and today, 120 controller-compatible titles have appeared in the store. The new generation consoles hope to have 100 titles in the first year. Apple got 100 titles within 90 days of launch," Prince enthuses.
However, while Apple has made it easy for developers to implement basic support for iOS 7 games controllers, the whole package is actually a little more complicated than it seems. For example, there are different levels on which a game might support these controllers.
The most basic level – offering game controls mapped to the buttons on the hardware – is relatively simple. Apple's guide means it can be done in a matter of minutes for many developers – especially those that already supported earlier unofficial controller initiatives. Game engine provider Unity, which powers many of the platform's most popular titles, has even included iOS 7 controllers in its general controller interface for developers, meaning that if a Unity game supports almost any other kind of controller, it can almost definitely support iOS 7 ones with little effort – this alone could guarantee a strong level of support.
The future of gaming?
Interestingly, while the current crop of games controllers is focused on the 'mobile' element, most manufacturers we spoke to said that they're working on full-size (meaning comparable in size to an Xbox 360 or PlayStation pad) wireless controllers for the future. Signal's RP1 is due within a few months; MOGA has announced the REBEL, a wireless controller with an arm for holding your phone; and Mad Catz's C.T.R.L.i is based on its well-regarded MLG Pro Circuit Xbox and PlayStation controller.It's clear to these companies that there's something worth pursuing here. As part of its sponsorship of the game Field of Battle, MOGA has been looking into players' response to controllers, too. "What they're seeing is that players who have a controller play twice as long, the retention rate is double – they stick with the game. What that tells us, which isn't a big surprise, is that when you're playing a mobile game with a controller, it's a much more engaging activity," enthuses Szubski.
Intriguingly, when talking about the future possibilities of the market, every single manufacturer we spoke to brought up Apple TV (completely unprompted) usually in the same breath as talking about the larger controllers. All seemed to believe that it represents a major future possibility for these controllers. It's very possible that the iOS 7 controller initiative is a cunning ploy by Apple to have developers adapt their games for an Apple TV console before one is even announced – but that's just speculation.
Regardless, despite the difficult birth of iOS games controllers, the possibilities are just starting to open up. The hope is that more console games will be encouraged to come to iOS, so the controllers start to seem worth their prices. "We've seen what's coming 12, 18 months from now, and we're talking about fully fledged, console-like gaming experiences. What we're trying to do with products like C.T.R.L.i is stick a flag in the ground," says Verrey, global PR and communications director at Mad Catz.
"When I tell you that in three years, more people will be playing with a mobile controller than a console controller, that's not a fantasy," says Szubski. "What's coming to mobile is going to revolutionise gaming."
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Inflame: Tomodachi strife: Nintendo comes first for controversy and last for sales
Nintendo revealed its latest set of financial figures last week, with the Wii U once again revealing itself to be as the rocks in Nintendo's pockets that are dragging it to the bottom of the sea.
Incredibly, Nintendo managed to sell fewer Wii U consoles last quarter than in the same period of 2013, shifting just 310,000 of the bizarre tablet machines around the world, despite the hype surrounding the imminent release of traditional Nintendo hardware-resurrector Mario Kart on the format.
Elsewhere, Nintendo made a big mess of handling the modern world, after it casually swept aside a campaign to include same-sex relationships within its life-management sim Tomodachi Life.
The game's set to launch here in June, and is based around little people living in an alternative world -- one in which same-sex character flirting and marriage isn't allowed, much to the annoyance of the many gay communities who just so happen to also enjoy playing video games.
In its defence, Nintendo claimed Tomodachi Life was meant to represent a "playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation" and that it "never intended to make any form of social commentary" with the game.
Unfortunately, the people of the internet weren't prepared to let it get away with that fluffy surrender. Even Nintendo's biggest and oldest fans were baffled by its complete failure to get and respond to the opinions of the modern world.
Full steam reverse
Some swift analysis of the Nintendo Wii U sales problem was provided by readers over at The Register, with P Lee coming up with this easy one-step turnaround plan: "Wii Fit? That's nice, but those who were going to buy, already have. Another version of Mario Kart? I don't see how that will sell again.It's a dying platform. Port the games to SteamOS and hope to sell a few more controllers and USB-to-sensor-bar gadgets, er, connectors. Valve would probably throw in some marketing funds."
Anonymous Coward came out with this explanation for the Wii U's disastrous arrival, saying: "Fool me once… That's Nintendo's problem. They sold the Wii is the best thing ever and it was shite, now it's time to sell the Wii-U consumers aren't interested, no matter how many shoddy Mario remakes they throw at it."
Over on VG247, Nintendo's forward-looking ideas weren't greeted with much enthusiasm either. Reader MisterMogul said: "They must be deluded to think that re-released DS games and a few NFC features are gonna save the Wii U. I really hope they have a lot more than that in store otherwise the ship will continue sinking."
Luigi's ivory tower
On the Guardian, where the Tomodachi outrage was strong, reader Declawed explained of the fury: "It's one of those lose/lose scenarios for Nintendo. Whichever choice is made, an equally large number of people who previously didn't know or care what you did, now hate you and want you boycotted."Sidestepping the politics of the same-sex relationship issue, DoesNotComputer pointed out one of Nintendo's earlier, more liberal, sexual choices, with: "C'mon, Nintendo. You introduced a cross-dressing transvestite character named Birdo into a main series Super Mario game over two decades ago. Don't get all square on us now."
A more serious comment was left by Tonkatsu, who took offence with the commonly held idea that removing same-sex relationships equated to Nintendo not taking sides in the debate. "They are not on the fence -- they have actively come down on the other side of the fence," Tonk explained, adding: "How is deliberately preventing gay characters, when they exist in real life, 'remaining on the fence'?"
The love bug
A rampaging, 4000-comment strong thread on IGN covered the full range of opinions, albeit with a majority of childish idiotic ones. One of the few arguments in favour of Nintendo's stance came from Stealthmaster96, who offered: "Having your sexuality represented in a video game is not in any way a 'basic human right'. If you believe that constitutes what a 'basic human right' is, you disrespect the people in the UN and other (actually helpful) organisations that fix problems MUCH much worse than being represented in a f***ing game."
Reader ThePinkerton was responsible for many of the 4000 comments, seemingly believing Nintendo's argument that it "fixed a bug" instead of ripped out an option, saying: "I get that the feature wasn't meant to be in the game. I also get that Nintendo didn't take it out on purpose. I understand that. They fixed an unrelated bug. I just think it would be a wiser choice to fix it again and allow the feature back in the game. It's not unprecedented that some bugs eventually become game mechanics. The first ever street fighter combo was actually a bug, and now it's the main mechanic of the franchise."
Pokeroi probably got closer to the truth than most with his response to the above, suggesting: "Nintendo has a family oriented image, and lots of parents who buy video games for their children are homophobic."
Computer love
Andrew over on the Huffington Post doesn't believe Nintendo's "bug" explanations at all. It's an agenda thing, he thinks, commenting: "Nintendo will have video games that include violence, murder, and sexism. But in a fantasy world of make believe allowing the substantial proportion of the users who are gay play as such is a problem? Nintendo is doing what many wish they could do in real life, just eliminating the option in their world. This is not just a video game, this is a message to our culture that we aren't even worth a few lines of code."Josh Lehman took the mouthy option, though, blurting out: "Good thing I play games for entertainment value and not social commentary. Sorry, but couldn't care less about the non-inclusion of gay relationships between fictional pixels. If you want to boycott and never buy Nintendo, go for it. Or, you could do actually volunteer work to support the agenda you want instead of hitting like, repost, or any other form of internet 'activism.'"
He got five likes for that bit of Jeremy Clarkson-like analysis.
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Interview: Post-Heartbleed, is it time to consider an alternative to OpenSSL?
The Heartbleed Bug (and it's definitely a bug - not a virus) has ignited a debate around the security and reliability of open source software in recent months.
Discovered by researchers at Google and Codenomicon, the vulnerability was found in the open source OpenSSL cryptographic software library that provides Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TSL) protection for anything from emails and web browsing to internet banking.
The programming mistake that led to Heartbleed - which was accidentally introduced by German programmer Dr. Robin Seggelmann, a frequent contributor of OpenSSL code - allows attackers to download 64k chunks of data stored in the supposedly secure main memory of servers.
It was an honest mistake, but one with far-reaching consequences. According to Errata Security, around 320,000 of 600,000 detected vulnerable servers are still vulnerable to Heartbleed. Post-Heartbleed, every private key on servers running OpenSSL are now suspect and could be potentially used by attackers to impersonate secure websites so long as those servers remain unpatched.
Is it time to switch from OpenSSL to a commercial solution (or another alternative) when it comes to web security? We spoke to industry experts at Infosec 2014 to find out more.
Keep open source - it still has lots to offer...
James Sherlow, SE Manager WEUR at Palo Alto Networks, thinks that ditching OpenSSL in the wake of Heartbleed would be something of a knee-jerk reaction:"OpenSSL is still highly relevant and has scalability. It has a community of highly skilled developers, which is extremely valuable and still valid. Every software at a certain point in time will have some sort of vulnerability associated with it, but it doesn't mean we switch it off; it means we learn from our lessons."
…but Heartbleed was a wake up call
"I think that the open source community needs to start putting mechanisms in different areas that could cross-check others. That's better than finger pointing and blame which doesn't get anyone anywhere. It would mitigate the risk, reduce the chance of attack and raise the bar. To get to zero errors is difficult, but let's aim for it. That's the bar."You couldn't just scrap it anyway...
The question of whether we should get rid of OpenSSL isn't so black-and-white, according to JD Sherry, VP of Technology & Solutions for Trend Micro. He believes that instead of turning down the services of dedicated and talented open source contributors, rewards should be offered to others who seek out errors in their work:"Open source is always going to be an innate part of what we do, primarily because there's lots of great engineering involved with it - a lot of people pour their passion into these projects and a lot of excellent work comes out of them."
…so let's introduce more Bug Bounties
"Companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook have got together to dump $100,000 each to get to the heart of Heartbleed, which isn't enough to stop a potentially similar scenario. Bug bounties, on the other hand, are supposed to self-regulate on the bug issue, and they can be extremely important."The cost of implementing and paying out for them can be well worth the outcome that comes with a major flaw in your software that was missed during the quality control process. Whether open source or not, they're going to be critical in making sure we don't have a tremendous amount of Heartbleed or other OpenSSL cases."
OpenSSL was broken from the start...
Not everybody has been so forgiving when it comes to OpenSSL. FreeBSD and security developer Poul-Henning Kamp called for its head in a blog post titled Open SSL must die, for it will never get any better:"And that brings me back to OpenSSL — which sucks. The code is a mess, the documentation is misleading, and the defaults are deceptive. Plus it is 300,000 lines of code that suffer from just about every software engineering ailment you can imagine."
" ... it's nobody's fault. No one was ever truly in charge of OpenSSL, it just sort of became the default landfill for prototypes of cryptographic inventions, and since it had everything cryptographic under the sun (somewhere, if you could find out how to use it), it also became the default source of cryptographic functionality."
...and nobody's ever going to get fired for making mistakes
"I'm sure more than one person has thought 'Nobody ever got fired for using OpenSSL'. And that is why everybody is panicking on the Internet as I write this. This bug was pretty bad, even as bugs in OpenSSL go, but my co-columnist at ACM Queue, Kode Vicious, managed to find a silver lining."Because they used a 'short' integer, only 64 kilobytes worth of secrets are exposed. And that is not the first nor will it be the last serious bug in OpenSSL, and, therefore, OpenSSL must die, for it will never get any better.
"We need a well-designed API, as simple as possible to make it hard for people to use it incorrectly. And we need multiple independent quality implementations of that API, so that if one turns out to be crap, people can switch to a better one in a matter of hours."
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Motorola's rumored budget Moto E looks colorful next to the Moto G
It wasn't so long ago that we first caught a glimmer of Motorola's first post-Google smartphone, the rumored Moto E, but already the handset has sprung more leaks than the Titanic.
Recently a number of official-looking photos of the Moto E appeared in a listing on the Brazilian retailer website Fast Shop, though they were promptly taken down.
And slightly before that a photo that allegedly shows the Moto E side-by-side with the Moto G was posted on Motorola's Mexican Facebook page, also taken down since, obviously.
These leaks and others come together to form a picture of a low-end, affordable and colorful smartphone that takes its cues mainly from the Moto G.
Moto me
The Moto E is expected to be officially unveiled at a May 13 event Motorola is throwing in London.The specs aren't official yet, but the retailer page that leaked these images pegged it with a 4.3-inch display, dual SIM slots, 3G instead of 4G, a 5-megapixel rear camera and no front camera, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon chip, 1Gb of memory, just 4GB of storage (with room for a 32GB microSD), a 1,980 mAh battery, and Android: 4.4 KitKat.
The resolution likely won't be full HD and thus is expected to reach no higher than 1280 x 720.
The official photos also display a variety of colorful shells. As far as the comparison shot goes, all it really shows is that the Moto E (on the left) is slightly smaller than the Moto G.
Watch out for more Moto E info very soon.
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