Another 'in-the-know' says Microsoft's wearable will be a wristband, not a watch
Speculation continues to mount that Microsoft will launch a fitness tracking wristband, rather than a smartwatch before the year is out.
Corroborating reports from last weekend, the well-connected Paul Thurrott of the Winsupersite has 'confirmed' Redmond will serve up a Samsung Gear Fit-style device, with a similar price point, in Q4.
Thurrott suggested the difference will merely be in the form factor, with notifications from smartphones and live date from the device appearing on a longer, slimmer display rather than a more traditional watch face.
The blogger goes along rumours claiming the device will include a multitude of health-oriented sensors, tracking variables like steps, heart-rate and the like.
Equal opportunities
Thurrott's sources also back up perhaps the most significant rumour; that Microsoft's offering will be compatible with Windows Phone, Android and iOS.This inclusive approach would differ from Google's Android Wear platform, which only runs on a around a quarter of Android devices - those with Android 4.3 and above.
It's also likely to differentiate from the forthcoming Apple iWatch or iBand tracker, which is only expected to pair with iOS devices.
Would a platform agnostic Microsoft smartwatch tempt you away from your smartphone OS loyalties? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below
Read More ...
Amazon prepares for a legal tussle with the FTC over in-app purchases
Amazon isn't backing down in a fight against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The world e-tailer submitted a letter to the FTC warning the commission it would take it's case to court regarding a legal spat that stems from a lack of parental controls over in-app purchases (IAPs) preventing kids from ringing up tens to hundreds of dollars in faulty charges.
To reimburse outraged parents the commission has demanded Amazon pay significant fines. However, the company insists it has already implemented plenty of safeguards to prevent tikes from accidentally unlocking every level in Plants vs. Zombies 2 and other virtual purchases.
The web warehouse claims it clearly highlights apps and games that contain IAPs in its Kindle store. What's more, Amazon says it also sends out real-time notifications and allows users to set parental controls to prevent small hands from inadvertently making purchases.
Sticking to its guns
Earlier this year Apple decided to settle in a very similar case with the FTC over circumstantial in-app purchases.Rather than taking the case to court as Amazon plans to, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company forked over $32.5 million (about £18.9 million, AU$34.4 million) to 37,000 customers demanding money back for faulty charges. The iPhone maker also implemented an additional step in the iOS app store to prevent children from buying digital items without explicit parental consent.
In Amazon's letter, the company's lawyer Andrew DeVore wrote, "The commission's unwillingness to depart from the precedent it set with Apple despite our very different facts leaves us no choice but to defend our approach in court."
The FTC is adamant that Amazon still needs to pay significant fines to repay the "thousands" of consumers saddled with charges they never agreed to.
- Amazon stands its ground just as it unveils a new Fire Phone
Read More ...
Facebook acquires online advertising platform LiveRail
No one likes advertising intruding on their online experience, but Facebook is looking for ways to deliver more relevant ads to users of its social network by acquiring one of the companies responsible for feeding such content to big media brands.
Facebook today announced an agreement to acquire LiveRail, an advertising technology company best known for wedging themselves between content providers and users with online video ads.
Founded in 2007, LiveRail currently powers the advertising pushed to websites and apps owned by Major League Baseball, ABC, A&E Networks, Gannett and Dailymotion, specializing in the delivery of only the most relevant ad content.
With hundreds of millions of digital video viewers watching LiveRail-powered advertising each and every month, Facebook aims to satisfy publishers and marketers alike with more "interesting and engaging" online ads.
Joining forces
Facebook Vice President of Ads Product Marketing and Atlas Brian Boland describes LiveRail as "a complete advertising solution for video publishers," although the announcement Wednesday doesn't offer details on how the acquisition might improve the experience for social network users already fatigued by online ads.At least for now, Facebook plans to keep LiveRail and its staff of 170 people operating independently of the House That Zuckerberg Built, although Boland hopes to use the combined expertise to "make video advertising much better for everyone."
Although Facebook has primarily focused advertising on the web thus far, the clock is ticking on that front after announcing a mobile ad network initiative called Facebook Audience Network at the F8 conference back in May.
The acquisition of LiveRail is likely to dovetail nicely with Facebook's own burgeoning advertising network, which the social network hopes to expand beyond the walls of its own branded mobile apps.
- Get your tablet on with our Microsoft Surface Pro 3 review!
Read More ...
BBC appoints new CTO
Matthew Postgate, the current BBC controller of R&D, will take over as the corporation's CTO (Chief Technology Officer), from 28th July.
He will replace the interim CTO, Peter Coles, who in turn, stepped in when John Linwood was sacked earlier this year following the Beeb's failed Digital Media Initiative.
The project, which came in at just under £100 million, was branded "a total failure" by the Public Accout Committee after being launched in 2008.
It was meant to offer a unified platform for managing BBC's archived and current multimedia material for its staff but ended up being shut down in May 2013.
Postgate oversaw a number of firsts including the first 4K broadcasts over the web. The BBC will also show off the Commonwealth games in 4K
His team also helped record a news bulletin for virtual reality headsets.
Read More ...
NVIDIA Shield Tablet breaks cover certified for LTE
NVIDIA may want to brush up on how to plug internet leaks following the release of yet another online document providing new confirmation the graphics chip maker has a gaming tablet on the way.
Android Community reported that a certification registered last week with the Global Certification Forum (GCF) provides the most compelling evidence yet that NVIDIA is about to bring its A game to the tablet market.
Dubbed the "Shield Tablet," the 3G and LTE-capable hardware was registered with the GCF on June 27, suggesting NVIDIA could be prepping the device for a summer release, with rumors pointing at a July 22 launch.
Although this isn't NVIDIA's first foray into the tablet world, the forthcoming hardware is noteworthy due to the very specific Shield branding, implying its next device might be a tabletized version of the company's popular handheld gaming console.
Tegra tablet
While there's no official confirmation of hardware specs beyond the cellular connectivity options and "Notebook/Tablet" classification outed by the GCF, earlier rumors have pointed to a 7.9-inch tablet powered by the company's Tegra K1 processor and Android 4.4 KitKat.The screen resolution apparently won't quite hit the lofty heights of QHD, but the report notes it will come pretty close at 2048 x 1536, with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage rounding out the package.
The mere concept of a gaming-centric tablet is certainly enough to raise a few eyebrows, although the report posits the Shield Tablet could be a "combination of gamepad and tablet" instead.
It remains to be seen if the world is ready to get their game on with a tablet form factor or not, but we may only have three weeks or so to embrace the concept.
- Speaking of console gaming, check out our review of Xbox One!
Read More ...
Plasma TVs ascend to silicon heaven as Samsung bows out of production
Samsung has announced plans to exit production of plasma televisions, a sure sign that the end is near for the display technology.
The Korean firm will build its last set on November 30 this year in order to switch focus to 4K and cuved television sets, it said in a statement.
The decision, it says, comes due to changes in the market.
A statement provided to CNET read: "We plan to continue our PDP TV business until the end of this year, due to changes in market demands. We remain committed to providing consumers with products that meet their needs, and will increase our focus on growth opportunities in UHD TV's and Curved TV's."
Expense
Samsung's plans to shut down plasma production follows Panasonic's October 2013 decision to do likewise.Panasonic bowed out after deciding production of 4K plasma panels was too expensive compared with LED LCD technology.
Reports in Korea claim it won't be long before LG follows suit.
Read More ...
Samsung Galaxy S5 Google Play Edition leaks may placate the TouchWiz haters
A Google Play Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S5 always seemed inevitable. Now, following a couple of new leaks and peaks, it appears to be imminent.
Evleaks has posted a couple of purported press renders showing the S5 in its TouchWiz-free, raw Android form. Interestingly, one shot appeared with on-screen buttons and another without.
Alongside that, an image posted by Google on the Android website shows a Galaxy S5 running the Nexus-like version of Android.
In that assumed slip from Google, the S5 appears in a group shot alongside a host of Android devices like the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and what appears to be the Google Play version of the HTC One M8.
No clutter
Google Play Editions of popular Android devices are a preferred option for those smartphone fans who want the hardware, without the extra UI clutter served up by Android manufacturers.Google Play Editions are also popular among users and developers alike because of the faster transition to new versions of Android that don't require OEM and carrier tweaks.
It looks like the S5 will be joining those ranks sooner rather than later.
Read More ...
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg apologizes for playing with our newsfeeds
After getting caught red-handed experimenting with newsfeeds in order to affect users' emotions, Facebook has come out with an official apology.
During a visit to New Delhi, India, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg apologized, saying that the company had communicated poorly on the experiment, the USA Today reports.
This latest statement from Sandberg is a reaction to the recent news uncovering a Facebook experiment from 2012, which artificially tweaked the newsfeeds of 689,003 users. The social network ran an experiment for one week to see how showing more depressing or more positive stories would affect the user's own status updates as well as posts.
"This was part of ongoing research companies do to test different products, and that was what it was; it was poorly communicated," said Sandberg.
'Sowie'
Facebook isn't just feeling the backlash from its community of users. Authorities from around the world – including the British data protection authorities, Ireland, and France - are currently investigating the legality of the experiment.In response to the investigation, Times of India reports Sandberg also explained Facebook is working closely with regulators around the world.
"[W]e are fully in compliance [with regulations]," the Facebook COO expounded. "We know this because we have these dialogues and we have felt very confident there."
"We take privacy very seriously. It is the hallmark of our service, it is the underpinning of our service," she added.
Sure it is.
Read More ...
Review: Huawei Ascend G6
Introduction
Huawei made a lot of noise last year launching its then-flagship Huawei Ascend P6, boasting that at 6.2mm thick it was the thinnest phone available at the time.A year later, the Chinese company is back with a scaled-down version called the Ascend G6, which it hopes will appeal to budget conscious customers.
Going up against other budget Android handsets like the Motorola Moto G or the Samsung Galaxy 4 Mini is a big ask these days, but the Ascend G6 is not without a few headline features of its own.
First up: Connectivity. Specifically, I'm talking about 4G. Huawei has built the Ascend G6 with 4G compatibility, something which is just beginning to arrive on handsets under £250.
Motorola added 4G for the Moto G 4G handset that comes in at £150 and the EE Kestrel (coincidentally manufactured by Huawei itself) offers 4G, albeit locked to EE, at only £100. Likewise, the 4G-capable Sony Xperia M2 will set you back around £230 SIM-free. The Ascend G6 though, boasts CAT 4 version of the technology, which is the fastest connection available so far.
Secondly, Huawei is looking to tap into the selfie crowd by equipping the Ascend G6 with a front-facing 5MP camera. Which is the same spec as the Moto G's main rear-facing camera. So, if you're fond of snapping yourself and need the fastest data connection possible – this should be the phone for you, right?
The good news is that the Ascend G6 is, design-wise, about as inoffensive as a smartphone can get. Like its big brother, the Ascend P6, there's more than a whiff of Apple's iPhone 4S about it – thanks largely to the faux-metal strip running along the outside of the chassis.
The 4.5-inch, 960 x 540 LCD display is bordered by a fairly sizable bezel that is most noticeable at the bottom where a plastic lip protrudes beneath the Android soft-touch navigation keys. The lip is where you'll find the small fingernail slot that lets you prise away the removable plastic back plate.
Beneath this there's space for the microSIM and microSD card, as well as the non-removable 2000mAh battery. When the phone is in one piece it tips the scales at only 115g and measures 130 x 65 x 7.5mm.
In real-world terms, this means it's a good size for one-handed operation and neither too heavy nor too light thanks to the plastic casing.
On the right hand side are the physical volume rocker keys and the on/off power switch. Unlike most other handsets, the microUSB port can be found on the top of the device, while the 3.5mm headphone jack is located at the bottom on the left hand side of the chassis.
I did find this beneficial when using headphones as the natural movement is to put the phone head-first into your pocket which, in this case, means less tangled headphone wires.
A small speaker grill is built into the bottom left of the rear of the phone while the camera lens and flash are above it, tucked into the top left.
Unfortunately, these particular placements can cause a bit of a problem when holding the phone in landscape mode as I found on occasion my fingers would cover the speaker when watching a video or slightly obscure the lens when taking a picture.
A more sensible design would be that of the HTC One M8 with front-facing speakers and a camera lens placed more centrally.
Huawei has done a better job of placement on the front of the phone with the camera lens again tucked up in the left hand corner, which makes it easy to quickly snap a one handed selfie. A small green light also appears on the right of the Huawei logo to let you know if you have an email, text message or notification that needs addressing.
Powering the Ascend G6 is a reasonable ARM 1.2GHz quad-core processor backed with 1GB of RAM. While the operating system is Google's Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (no KitKat here), Huawei has overlaid it with the same Emotion UI that featured on last year's Ascend P6 and again on the newly released Ascend P7.
The result is a rather more cutesy tone with some extra homegrown features thrown in that I'll address in more detail later.
The aforementioned microSD card is an absolute necessity as Huawei has only loaded the Ascend G6 with 4GB of native storage space. Space that will, as expected, fill up fast when you start loading on media and downloading apps.
In terms of first impressions, the Huawei Ascend G6 doesn't cut a bad figure. But I would say that the rather mature outward design of the handset jars slightly with the childish Emotion UI. Considering the price and the bracket in which the Ascend G6 falls though, it's difficult to find fault with the way the phone looks and the level of hardware that Huawei has built into it.
But how does it hold up once it's out of the box and working in the real world? It's a mixed bag, read on and I'll tell you why.
Key Features and Performance
Although Huawei is bringing the Ascend G6 to market as a cut-down version of its Ascend P6 and Ascend P7 flagship models, it still plans on enticing you with 4G at a low price.This certainly is the case when it works. I found that mobile browsing speed and load times were excellent when I was out and about and needed to check a site or load up Google Maps.
However, on a few occasions during the time I spent with the Huawei Ascend G6, it lost signal altogether. This was in areas where I knew there couldn't possibly be a lack of signal and yet making calls and using my data connection became unavailable. In most cases, it righted itself after a minute or so but on one occasion lasted around 10 minutes and didn't correct itself even after I rebooted the handset.
Thankfully, there were no such problems with the camera – which is Huawei's other big selling point. The rear-facing 8MP camera is competent, and images came out crisp and well detailed.
But Huawei's real focus point is the front–facing 5MP camera which includes a 'beauty level' slider, letting you make yourself more attractive.
Now, I'll admit that in real life I'm not much of a selfie taker. But the Ascend G6 doesn't half make it easy to capture those kind of shots.
The beauty level lets you pick on a scale from 1 to 10 the amount of input you want the phone to have. Leave it at 1 and you get yourself warts and all, but whack it up to ten and the handset will blur skin imperfections and add some colour in an attempt to make you even better looking.
Worryingly though, all it appears to do is give you comically larger eyes and slightly pinker skin as you can see from my sample pictures. It did, however, give me slightly thicker and darker hair so I suppose I should be grateful for that.
Once you've selected your beauty level – or turned it off via the camera settings – and hit the shutter, you'll get a quick two-second countdown before the phone snaps you. During this time a small box appears in the top left hand corner letting you frame yourself perfectly.
Casual data blackouts aside the Ascend P6 handles itself quite well during day-to-day usage. The Emotion user interface makes a few subtle changes to the Android experience (for example, there's no app drawer – app shortcuts will load straight to the homepages) but anyone with a bit of smartphone familiarity will quickly adjust.
Each homescreen can be loaded with apps and widgets while a long press on the Home soft-key will bring up Google Now.
The slide-down notification bar gives you access to quick-fire settings while apps themselves can be laid out as you please or dropped into folders together for convenience.
As I mentioned before, the cutesy themes of the UI as a whole are a little off-putting – but each part, from the look of the lock screen to the sound of notifications, can be customised to your liking.
Huawei has loaded a fairly useful widget to the main homescreen that gives you weather, two slots for your most-used contacts and shortcuts to the music player and a selected gallery.
Despite adding its own UI, Huawei hasn't felt the need to stuff the Ascend G6 with loads of its own bloatware. Pre-installed apps are kept to a minimum of a few tools and the usual Google big-hitters like Gmail, Chrome and Play.
However one Huawei app, Phone Manager, is a useful bit of kit. It lets you scan your phone to determine the performance level and then optimise it through closing unnecessary apps or cleaning up temporary files to free memory. A second Huawei app, Bitcasa, lets you sign up for additional cloud storage space.
Watching media on the phone isn't a problem in terms of performance. Although the screen only boasts a 960 x 540 resolution with a 245ppi density, the colour reproduction is good and there's no problem with detail.
It can't match the eye-popping display of the Samsung Galaxy S5, but then this is a mid-level handset and therefore can be cut some slack. The one cause of concern is that the Motorola Moto G is cheaper than the Ascend G6 and still offers a 1,280 x 720 display.
Moving through the phone itself is swift and fairly easy, with the 1GB of RAM coping fine. I ran TechRadar's preferred GeekBench 3 benchmarking app through the phone and it returned a score of 344 for the single core and 1158 for the multi core. For comparison, that puts it faster than the similarly specced Sony Xperia M2.
Battery life and the essentials
Battery life
Battery life on the Huawei Ascend G6 wasn't a problem at all. The fact that you can't remove the 2000mAh battery means you won't be able to slip a spare in if the phone dies, but overall I got plenty of time from a single charge.
The mid-range specs and relatively low resolution on the screen means the juice isn't drained too quickly. I was easily able to get a full day's use from the device, making calls and taking regular pictures with all the push notifications turned on.
Subjecting the Huawei Ascend G6 to a 90-minute video with full brightness and all settings on drained the battery from 100% to 78%.
Should you run into trouble though, there is a power saving option that you can select to eke out a bit more usage.
You can choose from smart, endurance or normal modes that each adjust the CPU performance and network usage for the best possible balance between battery life and performance.
It's a small option, but one that can prove extremely useful if you're suddenly caught short without a charger.
The essentials
During my time with the Ascend G6, I was actually able to get past the look of the UI fairly quickly but I did have problems with Huawei's keyboard.The 4.5-inch screen size isn't much of a problem when it comes to space, but often I found typing difficult because the Ascend G6 wasn't good at picking up which key I had tapped. Often instead of registering the space bar, the keyboard would think I had tapped the full stop, which sits right next to it.
This issue cropped up both when writing emails or crafting text messages and quickly became an annoyance. Exasperated sighs and much re-writing became the norm, especially when I was in unsteady environments like a moving train carriage.
Because I spend so much time typing on my phone, I found this to be a real problem. Predictive texting was pretty much spot-on which helped to alleviate some of the problem, as did switching to the standard Android keyboard. But ultimately typing on the Ascend G6 just isn't good enough.
There's full Google certification, which means you can download any apps from the Google Play store, although Facebook and Twitter already come pre-installed.
As Chrome is pre-installed, you don't need to bother with the standard Android browser (although both are similar).
Bluetooth and NFC are both supported which means you can pair up wireless headphones, activity trackers or other accessories with a quick tap if they support NFC and standard Bluetooth pairing if not.
In short, while performance isn't a problem with the Ascend G6 – its specs and design are well up to scratch – usability falls a little short. Typing and calling, two of the basic principles of any smartphone were both difficult on this handset. Which is a shame because I felt Huawei largely got most of the other things right
Camera
While the front-facing selfie camera might get most of the attention, the rear-facing 8MP snapper isn't bad either and Huawei has given you the standard Android settings to play with, plus a few others.The beauty scale slider is still here, so you can theoretically make your friends as attractive as you are. There's also HDR shooting and the choice of a few different filters like sepia or negative.
The Huawei Ascend G6 will shoot at up to 3,264 x 2,448 pixels with the rear-facing camera and also boasts autofocus and LED flash for dark environments.
You can geo-tag each picture as well as employ face detection of panorama mode for those sweeping vistas. It'll also shoot video as high as 720p HD.
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Verdict
Huawei is now a lot more visible as a mobile phone manufacturer than it was a year ago and, arguably, its ascension really started with last year's Ascend P6.If the Chinese firm wants to challenge companies like Samsung on an international level then it will need to hit customers at various different levels of cost and performance demands.
That then, is the reason why we have the stripped-down Ascend G6 that offers a solid benchmark of specs and then a couple of extra features like CAT 4 4G and a decent selfie camera to turn our heads when looking for our next mobile.
Unfortunately, it's a real mixed bag as the Ascend G6 has some great qualities like design and performance let down by usability niggles. Even falling back on mid-level credentials is dealt a blow by the presence of the excellent Motorola Moto G in the same price bracket.
We Liked
A clean, unspectacular design helps, rather than hinders in this case. Huawei has clearly taken a lead from Apple and the Ascend G6 benefits as a result. The minimalist chassis is a little Xperia-like and as well as looking good, is also easy to use and comfortable in the hand. It's available in black, white, gold, pink and blue as well, just to add a little choice to the mix.Likewise, the specifications hold up under pressure and battery life is pretty good for a phone of this price. There isn't the usual boatload of pre-installed apps and the few that Huawei does package up are actually quite useful.
Lastly, it's hard to ignore the current selfie craze and if you're looking for a phone up to the task then this is it. Although I'm not sure there are many of us out there that would buy a mobile phone for the sole reason of taking selfies.
We Disliked
Where design and performance excelled, usability suffered. On more than one occasion I was confronted with a complete signal loss that meant no calling or browsing of any kind. This seemed to go away after a couple of days, but it's still a cause for concern.Secondly, typing on the Huawei Ascend G6 wasn't a pleasant experience. I don't have particularly large fingers and have spent a lot of time typing on 4.5-inch and 4.7-inch screens, yet this caused me some serious problems. Constant retyping of words because the Ascend G6 hadn't registered the correct key began to get very tiring after a while.
I also feel that the custom UI is a love-it-or-hate-it affair. Some will enjoy the simplicity and friendly look of it, while others will long for the native Android experience.
Final Verdict
Huawei is attacking a crowded marketplace already represented very well by the Motorola Moto G and while the Ascend G6 has got a lot to recommend it, I feel it falls at the last hurdle. Whilst specifications and design are both well represented considering the price, the usability isn't as good here as it is elsewhere.There are definitely good features to take advantage of and as 4G becomes the standard, the Huawei Ascend G6 is a well-priced entry point. The difficulty is that either side of it are better handsets. If you don't want to spend as much, buy the Motorola Moto G 4G variant instead and, if you can afford a little more, pick up the Google Nexus 5, which offers better value for money.
But this particular handset shouldn't dissuade you from keeping an eye on Huawei in the months to come. The company's flagship models are impressive smartphones and my expectation is that Huawei will raise its game in the future to bring us some truly competitive handsets.
Read More ...
Vodafone to bring Gigabit broadband to Ireland
Vodafone has been selected by ESB (Electricity Supply Board), one of Ireland's biggest utility companies, to work on a joint venture that will build a 100% fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband network in Ireland.
Once the scheme is completed by the end of 2018, up to 500,000 homes and businesses spread over 26 counties and 50 towns will be able to access the web at speeds of up to 1Gbps, putting it on par with countries like South Korea and well ahead of the rest of Europe.
Equal share
The joint venture, which is to be equally owned by Vodafone and ESB, will invest €450 million.FTTP is seen by Vodafone as a major area of growth with major investments in Portugal, Spain and Italy already reaching an estimated 14 million European households.
The scheme, which is similar in intent to BT's Openreach, will be offered to all telecoms operators in Ireland on a wholesale basis.
The fibre broadband network will leverage ESB's existing electricity infrastructure. In the UK, Hyperoptic and CityFibre offer limited FTTP services.
Read More ...
Interview: AMD's Richard Huddy on the state of PC graphics, Mantle 2 and APUs
State of PC affairs
Richard Huddy is just over one month into the job, and already he's making waves.AMD's new Gaming Scientist didn't mince words when talking about Nvidia GameWorks and accusations that it not only harms AMD but the quality of the experience for gamers. The first part of our interview, published July 1, had Huddy naming names and pulling no punches.
But aside from poking the hornet's nest, Huddy's job has him talking directly to game developers and relaying their needs to AMD's graphics decision makers. He's in the office of the CTO, giving him powerful ears to bend.
As you can imagine, Huddy has plenty to say on topics like the state of PC graphics and 4K gaming. Of course, there was more on AMD's low-level API Mantle, but this time Huddy got to talking about Mantle 2 and beyond.
TechRadar: AMD has been placing an emphasis on gaming for awhile now. It even has the tagline, 'Radeon is gaming.' But with you back in the brass, you're saying the emphasis is more formalized than before?
Richard Huddy: This representation in the office of the CTO is something that I described as a formalization of the process. It is. When I was previously at AMD, I ran the engineering group that supports games developers throughout the world. And that's a pretty great position to be in if, like me, you like gaming, but in a rather informal, ad hoc kind of way I used to gather up the information that we got from our conversations with ISVs and then funnel it into the architecture group. Now it's highly formalized and very clear.
TR: Will your role cover only PC, or will it include consoles, namely the Xbox One and PS4?
RH: It will expand to all gaming as soon as I have a better understanding of what's required for future consoles, future platforms and so on. But in the first six months or so, I expect to get my teeth into PC gaming and primarily discrete graphics. Sort of high-end graphics rather than the APUs that we also sell, which have very respectable gaming engines inside them these days. But if we're looking at the future, then we're typically thinking about more high-power solutions.
TR: What's your take on the current PC graphics landscape?
RH: It's in a pretty healthy state of affairs, and actually much more healthy than one might have predicted a handful of years ago. Tim Sweeney back in 1998 or 1999 actually predicted the death of 3D graphics within five years. He was out by a couple of years at least, wasn't he?
PC gaming is in a tremendously healthy state. It's a growing business. The turbulence in the PC business as a whole is more about commercial and enterprise PCs rather than gaming. Particularly the discrete business is in a very healthy state. We have presently the fastest graphics card on the planet. You can buy a [Radeon R9] 295X2 from us and we sell that for about $1,500 [about £877, AU$1,591] dollars. That's a lot of money to ask for a graphics card, and I don't remember us ever having a graphics card over $1,000 [about £584, AU$1,060] before.
In the consumer space I don't remember us going in this kind of price range, and we have been very aggressive with what we've been able to do with this card to make it so super fast. It's water cooled for example, which is a bit of surprise. It's a staggering commitment to delivering to the very best.
I look at couple of other metrics for PC gaming. The PC market probably peaked four years ago, five years ago at 330 million units per year. Now it's 270 million, 280 million, so you may think things are in trouble. [But] the gaming business on PC is growing by about a billion dollars a year. It's still very healthy. Probably my favorite number in all of this, the most popular PC game, League of Legends, has 130 million subscriptions. One hundred and thirty million! That's almost the total number of PS3s and Xbox 360s added together.
On top of that, if you're looking forwards, you have a couple of things which are coming up. One of the big ones is 4K gaming, the monitors which we've managed to persuade people to move to because they give a richer experience. People are typically running in 1920 x 1080 resolutions there. A 4K monitor doubles that in X and in Y.
From a GPU manufacturers point of view, that's great, that gives us 4 times as many pixels to work on, but from a gaming point of view ... you just need to wait for a little bit of time to pass so we can build chips which are 50 times more powerful every year. From a gaming perspective, it's a considerable enrichment. So there is no problem with the health of PC gaming. We know we've got a good few years of the current technology still lapping up the horsepower that we give it.
TR: It doesn't seem like the 'mobile gaming is killing PC gaming' doom-and-gloom talk is as heavy as it was a year or so ago.
RH: We've learned that these things co-exist. We tend to think that when a new technology comes along it must be displacing something else and ruining the market for that. The PC has been disrupted. It's probably more that the PC, the replacement cycle has gone a little bit longer rather than people don't own PCs or don't want PCs. I have a smartphone, I have a console, I have a PC and I upgrade each of them when the time comes.
TR: So is 4K gaming on the rise?
RH: Sales are quite small at the moment, but they absolutely will grow I think pretty quickly. In two and a half years, I would guess that it will be pretty thoroughly mainstream. At the moment, I think you'll pay a minimum $600 - $650 [about £350, AU$636 - £379, AU$689] for a 4K monitor, which is a really huge improvement from what you saw a year ago. If you saw the same kind of price decay in two years' time, the price premium over a 1080p monitor might be a hundred bucks or something like that.
The quality improvement is quite substantial. We sometimes say well it's four times as much quality because it's four times as much pixels, isn't it? Life isn't quite as linear at that but it is at least fair to say that you got a substantial improvement in quality and spending the extra money on that makes perfectly good sense.
Mantle 1.0 and beyond
TR: AMD has been talking about Mantle for what seems like forever now, and yes games are coming out with it, but it's been a jolty launch. Where do things stand with Mantle now? And what's the long-term plan for it?RH: We've got a release candidate driver at the moment, and we'll wrap that up at some point this year. Then we start to look at things like Mantle 2 and the future, and that's a very interesting space.
Mantle 2 - if it takes us about a year to get through a Mantle iteration - then Mantle 2 will come around the same kind of timeframe as DirectX 12. DX 12 brings a lot of the goodness that Mantle brought. We had a lot of conversations with Microsoft about what we were doing with Mantle, and in those conversations, they said, 'OK, if you really can solve this problem of building a better throughput system that runs on Windows, then we'd like to take that to Windows as well and we'll make that the extra software functionality that comes in DX 12.' So that's how DX 12 has come about.
We'll take the leanings from DX 12 and take it to Mantle. I'm sure they can help us do a better job than we've done. We will also take the extra hardware features with DX 12, and there are at least a couple of key features which are coming there.
They are pixel synchronization, which let you do some cool transparency effects and lighting transparent substances which is very, very hard on the current API. There's something called bindless resources which is a major efficiency improvement again in how the GPU is running, making sure it's not stalling waiting for the CPU to tell it about some of the changes that are needed. At that stage we'll have Mantle 2.0 wrapped up which covers the same kind of functionality as full DX 12 and gives all the performance benefits that Mantle currently gives plus anything else we learn.
Then we look to the future because DX 12 is not the end of graphics. Mantle 3, Mantle 4, etcetera give us the opportunity to expose any of the new features that we develop in our hardware. There are some that have speculated that Mantle will die when DX 12 arrives, that we'll just put it down and walk away it. Heck, why would you need it?
Well, the answer is it's perfect for portability. AMD does graphics in a variety of places, and [Senior Vice President and Global Manager, Global Business Units] Lisa Su mentioned that about half our business by the end of next year will be on the traditional PC platform and the rest will be elsewhere. Elsewhere, there will be AMD graphics.
DirectX is a generic APi. It covers Intel hardware, it covers Nvidia hardware and it covers ours. Being generic means that it will never be perfectly optimized for a particular piece of hardware, where with Mantle we think we can do a better job. The difference will dwindle as DX 12 arrives. I'm sure they'll do a very good job of getting the CPU out of the way, but we'll still have at least corner cases where we can deliver better performance, measurably better performance. We think we have a good future with Mantle, and games developers can tell you they don't want us to drop it afterwards.
TR: If I'm consumer looking at AMD with a Gaming Scientist now, what can I expect from you in six months, a year, two years?
RH: Six months you shouldn't really expect a huge change. The transition points that are coming are for things like 4K gaming, which is a gentle transition. You see DX 12 coming end of 2015 and you will see Mantle 1.0 released at some point this year. That will happen in the next six months we're committed to doing that within the year.
I think the long-term benefits that I hope to bring through my work at AMD will show much more in the 2-5 year timeframe.
TR: Just curious, what do you think of AMD's APUs, like Kaveri?
RH: I like the balance that is in there. When you build an APU you have to decide how much of the chip you dedicate to graphics and how much to CPU. I think with our APUs we've put a good deal of the emphasis on the GPU because for many consumer uses, the CPU is naturally fast enough anyway - going to the internet, running your document viewer or something like that.
When it comes to a game all the heavy weight lifting that needs to be done by the game is actually done on the GPU. On an APU that means that something like 70% of your silicon should actually be dedicated to the graphics part of it. It should actually be different from Intel's balance; Intel put more emphasis on the CPU, and you pay your money and you take your choice. If you want heavy emphasis on one side, then you can choose where you go. The balance that we have is definitely focused on giving the best gaming experience that we possibly can for a given amount of silicon.
TR: All about gaming, again.
RH: Yeah. It's a really big deal. It's a really big deal because most of the other uses of PC don't push it that hard.
To read the first part of this interview, click here.
Read More ...
TechRadar Deals: Buy a Fuji Finepix X10 for just £199.99 - plus pre-order Minecraft for PS4 for £14
The Fuji Finepix X10 is a fine choice of compact camera camera with "image quality... as good as any high-end compact camera can deliver at the moment."
Making it even more attractive is its current price of just £199.99 at Amazon. The stated RRP might be a bit dubious but the real saving on what you'd usually expect to pay for this camera is still around £40.
Next up, Minecraft has hit the world by storm and if you're looking to get your hands on the PS4 edition you can pre-order it right now at Tesco for just £14.
Read More ...
New Oculus Rift VR headsets will arrive starting July 14
Oculus VR is preparing to ship the first batch of its Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 headsets.
In an update posted to the company's forums, Oculus VR announced it expects to ship out 10,000 units from its factory in July. Half of these headsets will first pass through distribution centers and make their way to those who preordered before the end of the month.
Developers expecting units, meanwhile, should have them by the week of July 14th.
Plans to set new records
These are the first new set of VR headsets to be shipped out since March, when the Facebook-owned company cutoff outgoing orders on its first edition Oculus Rifts.With a total of 45,000 preorders of the Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2, the virtual reality company has almost matched the 60,000 original run of Oculus VR headsets the company had sold since December 2012.
What's in the box
Like the Crystal Cove headset Oculus VR prototype shown at CES 2014, the DK2 edition Rift headset features the same motion blur fixes and added motion-tracking functionality.The display itself utilizes a "low persistence OLED" display that refreshes at 1000Hz. Each eye looking through the headset will see a 960 x 1080 resolution picture and together the two screens produce a 100-degree field-of-view.
Although it will be a while before the VR company ships out the first 45,000 preorders already made, users interested in picking up a headset of their own can do so on Oculus VR's website for $350 (about £210, AU$383).
- It's not virtual reality but Google Glass is like wearing a head-mounted computer
Read More ...
Review: LG G2 Mini
Introduction
There has never been a better time to be shopping in the middle or low end of the smartphone market. Whereas a few years ago any device at this level would be very slow, have a tiny screen, a very poor camera and weak battery life, LG is once again proving with the G2 Mini that times have changed.None of this is to say that the G2 Mini is an especially cheap smartphone, although at just over the £200 mark off contract it is hardly expensive. Motorola is doing amazing things with its Moto G and Nokia has the Lumia 630 both of which undercut the G2 Mini by a fair chunk.
Given LG's standing as potentially the most innovative and improved manufacturer of 2013, the G2 Mini deserves a fair look despite its relatively high price compared to its peers.
LG has carried over the most unusual and unique aspects of the G2 into its lower end offering, most notably the buttons on the back. It is an unusual placement but does make sense given that they sit just where your fingers often are when holding the phone normally.
It takes a little time to get used to the buttons being on the back, but after a few days I found it quite natural to use them. I don't particularly find they offer an improved experience over well-placed buttons on the side of a phone, but they are not a hindrance either.
The main benefit of this unusual button layout is that the bezels to the sides of the screen can be extremely small. LG showed everyone just how small bezels can be on the G2 and has largely carried off the same trick with the G2 Mini.
It is not quite as impressive this time, but it makes the phone noticeably smaller than others with similar screen sizes.
Other than the buttons, the design of the G2 Mini is fairly standard with its headphone jack up top and the microUSB charging port at the bottom flanked by two speaker grilles although there is only one speaker actually in the device.
While the bezels around the screen are small, the display itself is a very comfortable 4.7 inches in size and is an IPS display meaning that viewing angles are largely superb.
LG has skimped on the resolution though. While phones like the Moto G have a 720p display sporting 1280 x 720 pixels, the G2 Mini only has a qHD resolution, which is 960 x 540 pixels.
The low resolution is not quite as bad as it may sound on paper, but it is noticeable and fine text can be tough to read. The screen quality is good it just needs more pixels.
Unlike some devices at a similar price, LG has kept the G2 Mini's waistline in check and it is just 9.8mm thick.
Another attribute of the G2 that LG has carried over to the G2 Mini is the unusually large battery for size of device with a 2440mAh power cell sitting behind that removable back cover.
Inside, LG has fitted the G2 Mini with everything you would expect at this price point. It has a quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC and 1GB of RAM. 8GB of internal storage is supplied and there is a microSD card slot too.
There is one major omission from the specs, which I find very irritating. The G2 Mini has no light sensor, there is just a front facing camera above the screen, and therefore no auto-brightness control for the screen.
Unlike most handsets at this end of the smartphone market, the G2 Mini has a decent camera on board. It is an 8MP sensor with an LED flash to help in dark conditions that is able to produce some very nice photos. A 1.3MP front facing camera is there for those all-important selfies too.
The icing on the cake is that the G2 Mini supports LTE as well delivering the usual high speed internet that any experienced user of 4G would recognise.
On paper then the G2 Mini stacks up well, but given that Motorola has got the LTE model of its superb Moto G on sale at £159 off contract, the LG does look a little expensive, despite some extra capabilities on the imaging side.
Key features
The LG G2 Mini is not being sold as an out and out cheap phone but rather a cheaper yet fully featured version of LG's flagship G2. As such, the G2 Mini has many of the same key features and attributes as the G2.
Putting the buttons on the back, slimming down the bezels and supplying an unusually large battery are all key parts of what LG is offering on its G range of phones and the G2 Mini is no different.
These choices do inform the experience of using the phone, especially the position of the buttons, which takes some time to get used to.
LG has recognised that it is asking people to use its phone differently from others and provide a couple of important software features to help.
The G2 included 'KnockOn', which allows you to double tap the screen to wake. This is also present on the G2 Mini along with the enhanced version that LG calls 'KnockCode'.
KnockCode is an extremely innovative way of providing some level of security whilst also making it easier to switch your phone on in the first place. You register a code as a series of screen taps in four quadrants, which you can then replicate on the screen of the G2 Mini in any position on the screen to wake the phone and unlock it.
For example, you might tap twice in the top left, once in the bottom right and once in the top right quadrants. Tapping that sequence (with your taps properly positioned relative to each other on the screen) will unlock the phone.
The spacing between the touch points is also unimportant. This combination of a precise code that can be entered in a relatively imprecise manner makes the G2 Mini very easy to unlock and is in my view the best unlock mechanisms this side of an iPhone 5S and its fingerprint sensor.
The only downside to Knock Code is that the performance of the G2 Mini, with its mid-range hardware, means there is a small delay while the phone recognises your code and lights up the screen.
In terms of accuracy of recognition, I have never had a false positive where the phone will unlock despite an incorrect code being tapped out, and I have had around a 95% success rate when the G2 Mini has recognised the correct code entry.
As well as tapping the screen to switch the G2 Mini on, you can also double-tap any empty area on the home screen or the status bar to switch the screen off. In theory you never need use the power button on the back of the phone.
LG has been successful in making the G2 Mini have a similar experience to the G2 in other ways as well. All the expected connectivity is on-board including NFC and the G2 Mini also supports Q Pair, which allows you to receive phone calls and manage text messages from an LG tablet such as the G Pad 8.3.
Battery life has been a key aspect of LG's offering with the G2 and the G2 Mini again does not disappoint. Its 2440mAh battery is large for the size of the phone and it has superb endurance. The removable back and swappable battery just add to the convenience factor here.
LG's Optimus UI is fully featured on the G2 Mini and while it is a fairly heavy skin on top of stock Android, it does have some very useful features.
When you plug headphone in, a little overlay appears containing apps that play music and video. This list is also customisable. LG calls this Plug and Pop.
Just like its big brother, the G2 Mini even has an IR port and associated QuickRemote app for controlling your TV and other entertainment devices. It is fairly easy to setup and use and is just another useful enhancement from LG.
The notification drawer is a mix of good and bad with quick access to the screen brightness control – essential given the lack of auto brightness – and a volume slider. The quick toggles at the top are a scrolling and customisable list.
Less positive here is that nearly half the space is given over to permanent controls that may not be useful to you. Even more irritatingly is the presence of two settings buttons, which look almost identical, but do totally different things.
Easily the least palatable part of the Optimus UI though is the front touch buttons. While they are configurable, it is impossible to remove the menu key and with Google trying to make the menu button obsolete and most apps having adopted this strategy, the use of the menu key is frustrating.
Offering largely the same experience as its flagship but on a cheaper device is definitely a good strategy for LG and I have to applaud how well optimised its software is as it manages to still run smoothly despite the relative lack of processing power on the G2 Mini.
Interface and Performance
The LG G2 Mini runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box, which is commendable although to be expected. It is skinned with LG's Optimus UI, which adds an LG flavour to most elements. The skin is not unpleasant and is less overbearing than Samsung's TouchWiz but it is still fairly intrusive.
The home screen is fairly typical for an Android device with multiple pages that you can add and remove up to a maximum of seven. These can be filled with the usual widgets and app icons.
Folders are created by dragging one application shortcut onto another and as a measure of how deep the Optimus UI goes, folders look slightly different and can have one of up to ten different colours.
LG has managed to avoid the temptation to bring every feature across from its flagship G2 and the G2 Mini is all the better for it. What is there works well.
The number of duplicate apps – that is to say an app that both Google and LG provide and is pre-installed on the device – is kept in check.
There are two web browsers installed, the LG skinned Android browser and Chrome as well as two music apps, but it is a largely clean set of applications which should be welcomed.
There are lots of customisation opportunities with the G2 Mini and you can even change the effect that is shown when the screen is switched off. I never found these to be intrusive and the defaults LG provides seem sensible.
The performance of the G2 Mini is very much inline with its specifications and matches its peers such, as the Moto G and the HTC One Mini 2, which share a similar set of specs.
In the Geekbench 3 test, it scored an average of 1160 after three consecutive runs. This is exactly the sort of number I would expect the G2 Mini to come out of this test with and merely shows that there is nothing exceptional about what LG is doing with the hardware available.
In day-to-day use, there are almost no slowdowns with apps running reasonably well. Animations seemed fluid and in general there is little to give away the modest internals.
Look a little closer and a few issues do crop up. Showing the keyboard for the first time is slow and multi-tasking can be sluggish to respond. Rendering complex web pages can be an exercise in patience.
None of the performance problems are different to the G2 Mini's competition, but the simpler software Motorola provide on the Moto G help to give it more of a cutting edge.
Overall, it ran everything I wanted it to run and did not especially frustrate or disappoint. Obviously the G2 Mini cannot compare to the latest flagship devices but it is perfectly acceptable to use and miles ahead of similarly priced phones from previous years.
Battery life and the essentials
Battery life
Inside the G2 Mini there is a surprisingly large 2440mAh power cell that does a simply stunning job.
Most of the new Android flagships such as the Sony Xperia Z2 and Samsung Galaxy S5 are capable of lasting a day and a half of use. The G2 Mini can go two days with similar usage.
The one major caveat here is that without automatic screen brightness, it is necessary to adjust the screen to a sensible level in order to achieve good battery life. Leaving it stuck at very high brightness will have a significant impact on the ultimate battery life.
In my testing, I found that for my general usage including listening to music, a fair bit of web browsing, social media use and some light gaming, leaving the screen brightness at 100% would reduce ultimate battery life by a quarter compared to if I managed the screen brightness properly.
I used a 4G network most of the time I was testing the G2 Mini and this seemed to have no impact on battery life, if anything the faster internet speeds helped improve the overall endurance slightly. It appears LG has done a great job with the overall efficiency of this phone.
I ran the standard TechRadar battery test, which involves looping a video for 90 minutes at standard screen brightness (in this case 300 lux).
Out of interest, that level of brightness was achieved with the screen brightness slider set to 76%. After 90 minutes, the battery had only drained to 85%.
I conducted the test whilst connected to a very strong Wi-Fi signal and with my usual array of email accounts and other notifications fully active. The result is super for the G2 Mini and just highlights how good a job LG has done here.
Normally a larger battery will take longer to charge and that is the case with the G2 Mini as well.
The strangely low output charger LG supplies in the box exacerbates this and charge times were tediously slow. Using a higher output charger I had resulted in much improved charge times.
The essentials
Using the G2 Mini as a phone – making phone calls and sending texts – is a gratifying experience. It operates flawlessly with great call quality on both ends.
The LG customised phone dialler is very good and responsive and the contacts app works well. The messaging app LG provides is not the easiest to get along with being a little slow at times and generally not that intuitive but it is easy to use an alternative should you so wish.
LG has managed to optimise the aerials in the phone such that it always seems to have better than expected cellular reception especially on 4G.
Wi-Fi performance is not as impressive, as the G2 Mini seems to drop the signal earlier than any other phone I have tried recently. Though once connected speeds are fine.
Over 3G and 4G networks, the G2 Mini performs exactly as you would expect, loading web pages quickly.
The Google Play store is of course installed and gives you access to the millions of apps, songs and films as well as books and TV shows that Google offers. Everything works perfectly well.
The LG Music app is fairly basic but does allow you to browse your music by songs, album and artists as well playlists and just a raw folder view. Music playback is of good quality through headphones and there is a simple but effective graphic equaliser available too.
Watching videos on the device is a little frustrating as the screen is too low resolution to natively play back HD content. The external speaker, while loud enough, is not particularly good either.
The G2 Mini can handle most casual games you would throw at it, but anything demanding high-end performance with high quality 3D graphics is beyond it.
With a relatively compact body housing a good size screen, the G2 Mini is very easy to use and very nice to hold. It is light enough to hold for long periods, for instance when watching a film or TV episode.
Camera
Unusually for a smartphone in the mid-range, LG has equipped the G2 Mini with a decent rear facing camera. It is an 8MP camera with a decently fast F/2.4 lens that can generate a very nice bokeh effects.Despite this, the camera is still not going to challenge those found on more expensive devices. In good light it is capable of capturing lots of detail but it can struggle with dynamic range ending up with slightly over saturated images.
The camera app offers some measure of manual control with the ability to change the ISO and white balance of your images as well as being able to apply a few basic filters such as a sepia effect.
LG has included one fairly cheesy addition. You can set the camera to take a picture when one of the people in the shot says the word 'cheese'. Like most of LG's software, this does work but I do have to question why you would want this feature.
The camera has various modes including a fairly weak HDR mode that seems to do almost nothing to improve the end results. The panorama mode is quick and easy to use but the results are not much to look at.
There is a basic burst mode for taking six shots at a time and a beauty shot mode that lightens skin tones whilst making faces look unnaturally smooth. Generally though, normal mode is all you will ever need.
The reasonably weak LED flash can help to brighten some scenes but the G2 Mini is far too quick to use the flash when in auto flash mode.
One of the consequences of the relatively meagre hardware in the G2 Mini is that the camera is not the fastest to capture. It never seems ready to go when you are and shot to shot times are only average. In low light, it is slow to respond which can be very frustrating.
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Click here for the full res image
Verdict
The LG G2 Mini is a fine example of a mid or low-end smartphone and shows just how far we have come in the last year. All manufacturers have benefited from having much better components available to them this year but LG has done a fine job packaging them up into the G2 Mini.The size and shape of the phone, along with LG's generally helpful software enhancements make the G2 Mini a genuinely pleasant phone to use. Only the lack of auto brightness really detracts from the experience.
Superb battery life and a usable camera are welcome additions as is the excellent build quality, but the price you pay for these is a relatively higher purchase cost than some competitors.
We liked
Amazing battery life gives the G2 Mini unusually long endurance and allows you to go for two days fairly easily between charges.The camera is surprisingly usable for a phone at this price point and in reasonable lighting conditions it won't let you down.
The performance of the G2 Mini in day-to-day usage is excellent. This is a smartphone that won't disappoint someone coming from a last year's high-end devices.
We disliked
The screen resolution is not high enough and that low pixel density becomes a problem too often.Some of the software enhancements seem to add very little other than to bloat the device. The design of LG's Optimus UI is not as good as stock Android. The lack of auto brightness for the screen is an annoying omission, which seems like a mistake from LG.
LG has priced the G2 Mini a little higher than some competitors and too close to the G2, making the value proposition tough to swallow.
Final verdict
Ultimately it is hard to recommend the G2 Mini over something like the Motorola Moto G, which has a superior screen, similar performance and very good battery life. Only the camera on the LG device is clearly better.This doesn't tell the whole story though, as the G2 Mini is a very nice device to use and has a compelling overall proposition. It just lacks a few key refinements and could do with either packing a higher resolution screen or a lower price to really be a standout device.
First reviewed: June 2014
Read More ...
In depth: Stick or twist: will the tech industry thrive in an independent Scotland?
Introduction
Should Scotland be an independent country? That's the question 8 million Scottish people will be asked in the independence referendum come September 18.It seems like, with such a highly emotional issue, the thoughts and needs of Scotland's tech industry don't really matter when considering the future of the country's sovereignty. But as technology and innovation are increasingly driving economies around the world, a future union or independent Scotland will have to embrace technology to keep up.
There are two potential paths for the Scottish tech scene. Does Scotland roll the dice, go independent, start from scratch and let the tech industry flourish with competitive tax rates like in Ireland? Or does it stick with the union and enjoy the collective benefit of an already powerful countrywide tech industry?
Most Scottish tech companies I spoke to flat out refused to comment on the question of independence; I suspect because they're aware of the strong emotions this issue can evoke in people. I've seen BBC reports on the subject with small business owners happily talking about their fear of the vote going one way or the other, but I haven't seen a voice from the Scottish tech industry speak so candidly, or even at all.
It's just not the tech industry's style to be that involved in politics, and Scottish tech companies are no different. But they should be, because not only is Scotland a magnet for games companies and programmers, but also because the world economy is rapidly moving towards technological innovation.
Illustrious history
From manufacturing the Sinclair C5 to Rockstar North employing over 200 people and producing Grand Theft Auto, one of the highest grossing games of all time, Scotland has a long and illustrious history when it comes to tech. The tech scene is quickly growing too, with the creative industry in Scotland currently worth £2.8 billion.IT and IT-related jobs are on the rise too. Scottish jobs site, S1 jobs, explained to me that it saw an increase in IT job listings of 31.3 per cent year-on-year (YOY). A total of 9,397 positions were advertised online across Scotland in May 2014 compared to 7,156 in May 2013.
Interestingly there has also been a sharp spike in listings for security-related jobs. The number of security-related IT jobs has increased by 265 per cent, although Gavin Mochan from S1 jobs admitted that it was coming from a low base. The rise in interest in IT security bodes well for Scotland as in global terms, security is grabbing news headlines and has rapidly risen to the top of company agendas.
The demand for developers, however, remains highest of all, which is understandable since Scotland is famed for its gaming industry. Listings for senior Java developers are up 191 per cent YOY, application specialists are up 153 per cent and senior developers are up 190 per cent. In May 2014 alone, 342 Java developer jobs were advertised on S1 jobs.
Huge growth
Clearly, the Scottish IT and creative industries are experiencing huge growth. It's a good time to be a startup in Scotland. But is this recent success due to steely Scottish determination, or because the country has been given a leg-up from Westminster?A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills seemed to answer with an emphatic yes, stating: "The UK Government argues strongly that Scotland's reputation for excellence in manufacturing and research is strengthened through its membership of the UK."
The spokesperson continued: "Scottish technology firms and research institutions benefit from access to secure and stable funding, a shared world-class research infrastructure and skills base, strong intellectual property protection and unfettered access to domestic and international markets. Scottish researchers benefit from a higher than average share of the national funding via the UK Research Councils, underpinned by a UK-wide tax base.
"Scottish companies gain from joint large-scale UK investments including from the Technology Strategy Board's Catapult Centres in Glasgow, and over £100 million being spent in Scotland to deliver high-speed broadband to rural areas.
"Maintaining the Union will also help provide certainty across the UK's large domestic market, encouraging business investment and supporting growth and jobs in Scotland."
Taking credit?
Essentially, the UK government is not only taking credit for Scotland's tech success but also positing that the industry will struggle without it. On the face of it, withdrawing research funding and infrastructure could leave Scotland vulnerable. But Scottish independence isn't about what the country has achieved, but what it could achieve.I contacted the Scottish government for a rebuttal and it didn't mention anything about the benefits of Westminster funds, but rather the benefits of the future: "With the full powers of independence we can achieve higher levels of growth and job opportunities through a strong external focus on competing in the global economy, promoting areas of comparative advantage to develop a distinctive economy emphasising innovation, technology and manufacturing."
It continued: "We are already taking steps to improve industry and academic links by establishing Innovation Scotland as well as a network of Innovation Centres, where partners from across Scotland are coming together to provide targeted support for business and academic engagement, and to develop solutions to demand-led industry problems."
Clearly, the Scottish government is looking at Ireland and its booming tech industry that has flourished in an environment which is built around small businesses and technology. It's rolling the dice.
This optimism and the prospect of what could potentially be is what seems to excite the companies that did want to go on record. Colin Hewitt, CEO and founder of Scottish startup CodeBase, explained how mimicking Ireland's success is an intelligent thing to do.
Hewitt said: "Personally, I'm comfortable with risks, I don't think an independent Scotland would necessarily hurt the tech scene. It could potentially really help it. I think a lot about Ireland, and how the tech scene is thriving there. I wonder if we'd be able to make things more attractive in terms of working visas for developers, and lower corporation tax.
"Ultimately though, what we need are the universities to continue to raise their game, to create a great environment for startups and encourage a culture of mentoring and knowledge sharing which is starting to happen with initiatives like CodeBase.
"I really believe that Scotland is currently on course for a great startup culture regardless of the vote. We live in a London-centric island when it comes to a lot of things, and it would be great to see more hubs that are holding their own, not just in Scotland, but across the rest of the UK. One thing that I'm sure of is that whatever happens, we need to build strong links with the rest of the UK."
Starting again
Hewitt's last point about London basking in most of the UK government's praise seems particularly poignant, and a view that is shared with just about every tech cluster and company outside of the capital that I've spoken to.Scotland has a chance to distance itself from the London-centric policies and start from scratch with its own funding schemes, tax rules and regulatory framework. It can create an environment for the tech scene that's based around its current needs, rather than trying to make existing legislation work in its favour.
On the other hand an independent Scotland could see a brain drain, or even stop young British entrepreneurs from moving to another country to start up their business. At this stage all we have is "what ifs" and uncertainty, so Scots will have to look towards their hearts rather than their heads for an answer.
How successful will an independent Scottish tech industry be? It all comes down to how much the Scots like to roll the dice.
Read More ...
Leaked Intel roadmaps show Skylake and Broadwell details
Two separate leaks have shed more light on Intel's Broadwell and Skylake product range.
Other than the fact they are expected to be launched in the second half of 2015 (just in time for Computex 2015), they will also be introduced at the lower end of the market (mainstream and premium in Intel lingo) rather than at the "Extreme" end.
Both Broadwell - Haswell's tick - and Skylake - a new micro architecture or Intel's tock - will be built using a 14nm process.
Unlocked potential
The former is likely to be unlocked, slot into socket-1150 motherboards with a 9-series chipset while Skylake, at least in its desktop version - is said to be locked with a socket-1151 motherboard based on a 100-series chipset.A second leak claims that Intel will have four versions of Skylake with some of them sporting eDRAM (up to 128MB), support for DDR4 (but not DDR4L) and TDP ranging from 4W to a massive 95W.
Skylake will initially be available in two and four-core configurations and will not sport an IVR (Internal Voltage Regulator) as it was the case on previous generations.
Via VR-Zone and WCCFTech
Read More ...
IBM upgrades Connections to include hybrid environment deployments
IBM has released an upgrade to its Connections cloud and on-premise software designed to aid organizations in internal and external collaboration. Connections 5 offers IBM clients an improved set of document sharing, analytics and content management tools.
The upgraded platform can be deployed on premises, via cloud or in a combination of the two. New features include file sync, document sharing and the ability to deploy connections in any environment across mobile, Web and desktop devices.
Connections 5 features an open architecture and APIs designed for developers to create business applications. By offering a hybrid environment, IBM will be able to offer tools to all organizations, regardless of their preferred method of deployment.
Collaboration on the brain
This isn’t IBM’s first foray into enhancing on-premise and cloud-based business partnerships. In May, it released the "Multi-Enterprise Relationship Management" (MRM) platform feature to enable organizations to manage shared processes across business communities.It also released the "Sterling B2B Services Reporting and Analytics" feature, which at the time IBM said would build "a unified foundation to connect and collaborate across its partner ecosystem as well as reduce the time it takes to onboard new partners by 85%.”
IBM lists Superior Group and HootSuite as Connections clients.
Read More ...
Amazon introduces cheaper EC2 instances
Amazon has added three new instances to its range of cloud-based compute EC2 services. These cater primarily for "modest demands" of continued compute power with random, occasional bursts in performance.
The cheapest instance (T2.micro) comes with one vCPUs with a a baseline performance of 10% of a single core of an Intel Xeon processor running at 2.5 GHz (up to 3.3 GHz in Turbo mode) and 1GB RAM, amounting for 6 CPU credits per hour.
Prices start from $9.50 (about £6, AU$11) per month or $0.013 (about £0.008, AU$ 0.018) per hour, doubles for the next tier (T2.small) and quadruples for the last one (T2.medium). Performance and system memory allocations follow the same trend for those latter tiers as well.
24 hours
CPU credits have a lifespan of up to one day and can be accumulated and used to expedite workloads towards the end of the 24 hour period.Jeff Barr, Chief Evangelist for the Amazon Web Services, said that the new instances provide with better performance at half the cost making it a no-brainer swap.
The new T2 instances are likely to be a hit for companies offering cloud-based Office-like productivity applications or other lightweight 2D workloads.
Read More ...
In Depth: 10 best Spotify Connect systems
10 best Spotify Connect systems
Spotify is gradually supplanting digital downloads as the dominant way that we listen to music, with 10 million subscribers and 40 million active users across 56 countries listening to its 30 million tracks.With Spotify adding more than 20,000 new songs daily, it's definitely time for Spotify Connect, a new badge for hi-fi gear that enables effortless control of music across a phone, tablet and speakers.
Allowing music to be sent direct from the Spotify app to any of these systems, Spotify Connect is a streamer's dream.
1. Bluesound Node
£399 (US$449, AU$722)Node is part of a family of dedicated, multi-room wireless streaming digital music players called Bluesound, which takes Spotify Connect and puts it in every room. Working through a home network – either via Wi-Fi or Ethernet LAN – and with simple control via the Bluesound app for any iOS or Android device, Bluesound's Node can also fetch tunes from a computer, a NAS drive, a USB drive, via Bluetooth and straight from the cloud. The app also has Rdio, WiMP, Qobuz, HIGHRESAUDIO, Slacker and Deezer built-in.
Bluesound is all about creating a 24-bit native, pure-digital, multi-room wireless music streaming ecosystem. As well as Node, it's comprised of the Powernode one-box powered speakers, the Vault HDD and CD-ripper, the Pulse portable speaker and the Duo 2.1 system. For Spotify Connect, users will need to upgrade their Bluesound Players to software version 1.10.0 or higher.
2. Libratone Loop
£399 (US$499, about AU$528)Wrapped in an Italian woollen coat of many colours, the Loop comes with a wall mount and a duo stand for putting on a shelf or table, and also a free app to optimise sound. Go for FullRoom audio, where the Loop's 120W tweeters and midrange drivers fire 2.1 audio off the walls to create a 360° sound.
Streaming is possible via both Spotify Connect and Apple Airplay, with DLNA streaming from a PC or laptop also possible. It also features PlayDirect, creating its own Wi-Fi network for instant streaming from any device that can get online, as well as a USB slot and a 3.5 mm audio minijack.
3. Philips Fidelio SoundSphere DS9830W
£700 (US$1,192, AU$1,265)Those who like their speakers to look a bit special should look no further than the white, high gloss, lacquered wood of these Fidelio SoundSpheres from Philips. Handcrafted from wood to achieve a natural sound, the DS9830W's designers have sought to curve the wood in such a way that vibration is avoided and sound not distorted.
Featuring free-floating tweeters that deliver a 360° sound, these speakers are supposed to mimic a live performance, though it's how they get their tunes that really excites. As well as Spotify Connect, the Fidelio SoundSphere DS9830W also allows streaming using Airplay from Apple devices.
4. Samsung WAM750 Shape M7
£330 (US$328, AU$487)Known colloquially as the M7, this speaker is part of Samsung's quest to move beyond TVs and phones and into the audio sphere. The Shape concept now comes with Spotify Connect, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (though no Apple AirPlay), and links to other speakers in the Shape ecosystem, such as the smaller, more compact M5.
Multi-room music control is via the free Shape app, while all Samsung Shape speakers can talk to its latest TVs and Blu-ray players, such as the Samsung UE65HU8500 and Samsung BD-H8900.
5. Pioneer SC-LX87
£1,399 (US$1,799, AU$2,799)Those with posh home cinemas using top speakers will baulk at some of the puny all-in-one systems featured here, so here's something to grab their attention: one of the world's finest home cinema-grade AV receivers, complete with Spotify Connect.
Pioneer's flagship nine-channel SC-LX87 has 4K video pass-through, nine HDMI inputs and three outputs, and the quartet of DLNA networking, Apple AirPlay, HTC Connect and Spotify Connect. Add a USB port that's able to play Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV and FLAC formats from a thumbdrive, and the SC-LX87 is perhaps the most versatile – as well as powerful – AV receiver yet.
6. B&O BeoPlay A9
£1,699 (US$2,699, AU$2,999)Danish luxury brand Bang & Olufsen just had to embrace the latest streaming tech, but it's got way more to boast about than just Spotify Connect. Designed to look like a piece of furniture (in who's house we're not sure – perhaps a hipster's East Side warehouse conversion), the 480W BeoPlay A9 doesn't have volume controls; just swipe a hand across its top.
Fetching tunes via DLNA networking from Windows computers, Apple AirPlay or Spotify Connect, the 28-inch diameter BeoPlay A9 is available in white, black, silver, red, green, brown, blue and Nordic Sky, the latter inspired by the intensity of Scandinavian summer nights. Yes, the BeoPlay A9 is THAT kind of speaker.
7. Libratone Zipp
£370 (US$399, AU$534)Portable at a mere 1.8kg (4lbs), the Libratone Zipp links to a smartphone via Bluetooth for easy one-touch streaming of music, and as of now includes Spotify Connect as well as both Apple Airplay and a Wi-Fi Direct-powered PlayDirect function, which turns each speaker into its own hotspot. Owners of HTC phones get a look-in, too, with HTC Connect allowing a three-finger swipe up the screen of the phone to send music instantly to the Zipp.
Capable of producing some of the best wireless music we've heard from a portable speaker, the Zipp has a nifty grab handle for carrying from room to room. It's about the size of a flask and, thanks to its interchangeable wool covers, it's disguised as one, too.
8. Rocki Play
£29 (US$49, AU$53)Fresh from a barnstorming performance on Kickstarter is Rocki Play, which upgrades all of your current speakers to Wi-Fi. Not only does it then allow multiple smartphone users to send songs to any speaker with a Rocki Play attached, but it's a modular system. Stick a tiny Rocki Play in each room in your house and you can sync a track to all of them, creating instant multi-room audio.
The Rocki app for iOS and Android currently plays local music on a phone as well as from NAS drives and other sources on a network. Spotify, Deezer and a whole long list of streaming services – including radio stations – are about to be added to its app.
9. Sony SRS-X9
£599 (US$698, AU$799)Small but super-expensive, Sony's SRS-X9 wireless speaker is loaded with audio prowess. It's got Wi-Fi, DLNA and Airplay compatibility on top of Spotify Connect, and can also access Sony's own (and increasingly impressive) Music Unlimited service, along with TuneIn Radio and Pandora (in the USA).
A 154W one-box system housing seven speakers, each with a dedicated digital amplifier, the SRS-X9 is all about precise and hi-res sound reproduction. The S-Master HX digital amp technology is accompanied by Sony's DSEE HX tech for boosting compressed files to a higher resolution. There's also a SongPal app that takes care of both music playback and the SRS-X9's settings. Sony has other wireless speakers, the smaller SRS-X5 and SRS-X7, which also play nice with Spotify Connect.
10. Pioneer A1
£199 (US$149, about AU$158)The diminutive 320x180x145 mm (12-5/8 x 7-1/8 x 5-3/4 inches) Pioneer A1, weighing just 3.5kg (7 lbs. 4 oz) has got connectivity completely sorted. Spotify Connect is under the bonnet with Apple AirPlay and DLNA networking, and the A1 adds HTC Connect, too. Better still, the A1's Wi-Fi Direct signal means no home Wi-Fi network is required.
Complete with a USB slot, 3.5mm mini-jack and a Ethernet LAN for optional wired networking, the A1's stereo speakers have separate tweeter and woofer units for more detailed response, while bass is boosted by a bass reflex design that helps low volume music impress.
- Thinking of signing up to Spotify but can't decide? Check out our Spotify review and let us help you make your mind up...
Read More ...
Early view: Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini vs Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini: what's new?
Samsung's Galaxy S4 Mini was a popular little smartphone and one we were rather fond of too, but it's had its time to shine and soon it will be taking a back seat to the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini (although we all know it'll be on the shop shelves for the next 7,000 years still).
The question is, just what has changed in the new handset? And is it really much better than its predecessor? Well strap in, and prepare your brain for answers to both of those questions... plus, there will also be some pictures too. Keep your hands and arms inside the carriage.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini is basically just a shrunken-down Samsung Galaxy S5, so the name is rather fitting. It has a perforated plastic back cover and a shiny metallic edge, but don't be fooled, it's plastic through and through. At 131.1 x 64.8 x 9.1mm and 120g it's obviously smaller and lighter than the Galaxy S5, but it's not exactly tiny.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini takes the same approach (funnily enough), being as it is a smaller version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, at least on the surface, with a plastic back and faux-metallic edge.
In fact it looks a lot like the Galaxy S5 Mini too, except slightly more rounded and less industrial looking. At 124.6 x 61.3 x 8.9mm and 107g it's also smaller, lighter and ever so slightly slimmer than its successor.
However the Galaxy S5 Mini is definitely the more durable of the two, as it's IP67 certified dust and water resistant, which the Galaxy S4 Mini isn't.
Screen
The Galaxy S4 Mini has a 4.3 inch 540 x 960 Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 256 pixels per inch. It's a decent, bright screen but the resolution is a little on the low end.
Not so in the Galaxy S5 Mini with its 4.5 inch 720 x 1280 Super AMOLED display. OK, so that's still not Full HD, but it's a substantial improvement over the S4 Mini, and gives it a much sharper 326 pixels per inch, despite the increased size.
Power
Samsung's tucked a fair bit of power away behind the Galaxy S5 Mini's diminutive shell. It has an own-brand 1.4GHz quad-core processor and 1.5GB of RAM, which puts it close to high-end, although without all the power and efficiency of the Snapdragon 801 that resides in the full-fat Galaxy S5.
Assuming Samsung's in-house processor is any good that's quite an upgrade over the Galaxy S4 Mini which is lumbered with a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor, though it manages the same amount of RAM at 1.5GB.
Operating system
These are both Android handsets and both use Samsung's TouchWiz interface. However while the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini is launching with Android 4.4, the Galaxy S4 Mini is currently still on Android 4.3.
We wouldn't be surprised if the S4 Mini gets an upgrade, but the S5 Mini is likely to be supported with software updates for longer, and will be earlier to get a taste of Android L when it launches later in the year.
Camera
There's very little different on the camera front. Both phones have an 8 megapixel rear snapper complete with an LED flash, but selfie fans can rejoice as the Galaxy S5 Mini fares slightly better with a 2.1 megapixel front-facing camera, compared to the Galaxy S4 Mini's 1.9 megapixel offering.
We were quite impressed by the Galaxy S4 Mini's camera both for its photo quality and variety of modes and options and we expect the same will be true of the Galaxy S5 Mini.
It's a shame that the megapixel count hasn't been upped, but if Samsung has improved the sensor and software then the amount of pixels is irrelevant, as 8MP is more than enough to get a good picture.
Battery
The Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini has a 2100mAh battery, which is a reasonable size for a mid-range phone. We haven't had a chance to put it through its paces yet but we're cautiously optimistic that it will fare well, particularly with the help of Samsung's Ultra Power Saving mode.
The Galaxy S4 Mini has a smaller 1900 mAh power pack, but then it has a smaller screen to power, fewer pixels and just a dual-core processor. In practice we found that it easily lasted a day or more, so it's got a decent amount of life, but for the time being it's hard to say just how well the Galaxy S5 Mini will compare.
Connectivity
Both the Galaxy S5 Mini and the Galaxy S4 Mini support Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC and they're even both equipped with IR blasters so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they're fully loaded with connectivity options.
On the storage front the Galaxy S5 Mini has 16GB built in, while the Galaxy S4 Mini has just 8GB. However both phones also have a microSD card slot with support for cards of up to 64GB.
Extra features
These are exactly what they sound like, and will presumably be every bit as useful/gimmicky as they were on the Galaxy S5.
Whether they're a significant selling point is debatable, but the S5 Mini has them, while the S4 Mini doesn't, and it shows that Samsung sees the S5 Mini as a real brother to the S5, where the Galaxy S3 Mini from a couple of years ago was just a re-badged budget phone - hats off, Samsung.
Price
Samsung hasn't yet confirmed how much the Galaxy S5 Mini will sell for but we're wagering that it will be around £350-£400 SIM free.
That's a whole lot more than the Galaxy S4 Mini which can currently be picked up for around £250 without a contract. But then the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini is a newer, and almost certainly better, phone, so it might just be worth the extra outlay.
Early verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini looks to be a marked improvement on the Galaxy S4 Mini in a number of ways, from its larger, higher resolution screen, to its dust and water resistant build, its quad-core processor, its extra storage and its fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor.
Of course it's also likely to be a lot more expensive and not everything's been upgraded compared to the S4 Mini. Both phones are plastic, they both have similar cameras and the same selection of connectivity options.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini is certainly the better phone but whether it's £100-£150 better could be debatable - but you know what we're all about here, so the best review and versus verdicts will be appearing here on TechRadar in the next month or so - stay tuned!
- Samsung's been making mini's since the Galaxy S3 Mini.
Read More ...
Microsoft joins LG, Qualcomm and co. in connected home club
Microsoft has joined the AllSeen Alliance, a group of over 50 companies committed to establishing the Internet of Things.
The AllSeen Alliance, spearheaded by Qualcomm, is working on a range of standards for all manufacturers to adopt, allowing their devices to communicate with others using the same standards.
The software giant will rub shoulders with Qualcomm, LG, Panasonic, Sharp and more in the Alliance.
With the inclusion of Microsoft into the mix we could see future Surface tablets and Lumia handsets adopting the standards and thus potentially allowing you to use these devices to control things such as burglar alarms, TVs, heating and lighting in your home.
Which way?
The AllSeen Alliance doesn't have it all its own way though, with some companies believing in different solutions.Apple for example is creating its own offering with the recent announcement of HomeKit, while rival chip manufacturers are also said to be readying their own set of standards. Game, on.
Read More ...
Microsoft wants you to beta test upcoming versions of Office
If you've ever wanted a chance to dip your toes into the next versions of Microsoft's Office products and services before they hit the shelves, you're in luck.
The company is on the hunt for beta testers as part of a newly launched Pre-Release Program. In exchange for providing feedback on your experience, you'll snag pre-release versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Vision, Access, Publisher and Outlook in all their naked, non-tested glory.
Additionally, business types will get the keys to early versions of the company's Exchange, SharePoint and Project Server products and cloud services.
To join, you'll have to sign up as a Home or Business user and fill out a questionnaire to provide Microsoft with a few details on why you want to take part, meaning participants are likely to be hand picked on their suitability to provide constructive criticism on incoming updates.
Gem in waiting
Microsoft's rumoured touch-friendly version of Office, called 'Gemini', is slated for a summer release and as such could feature in the company's Pre-Release Program plans, meaning you'd be one of the first to try out one of the most highly anticipated Office releases in recent times.Microsoft recently launched a similar early access program for Office 365 called First Release, which allows business customers to get a peek at several months' worth of features and improvements heading to the cloud.
Read More ...
What's the right cloud service for your business?
We're constantly told about the evolving cloud market and the benefits it can bring, but with so many different storage services available it can be a challenge nailing down what's right for your business.
What's more, does the proliferation of cloud solutions mean the in-house server is all but dead?
To get some answers, we spoke to Danny Major, managing architect at industry specialist Adapt.
TechRadar Pro: Is cloud still a trend or has it become the new normal?
Danny Major: Working in the service provider industry, cloud has become best practice for our customers - we work with them to find the right-fit cloud for specific tasks and workloads enabling seamless migration between platforms as and when required.
At the other end of the cloud scale we have 'Joe Public' with a collection of apps on his smart phone – this is abstracted away from the cloud yet is very much the leading consumer.
In a recent Cloud Industry Forum Survey, it was revealed that 75% of UK businesses are now officially in the cloud. Cloud has definitely become the new normal, but businesses are still only part way through their journey.
TRP: How does working with the cloud differ to working with an in-house server?
DM: When an organisation evaluates their IT strategy, I urge them to focus on the required business outcomes rather than technology.
With this in mind, the differences of cloud compared to in-house are around enhancements in flexibility, scale and peace of mind – all whilst performing seamlessly to maintain a 'business as usual' environment.
TRP: Is there still a role for the on-premise server?
DM: The idea of the on-premise server is not only eroded by the concept of cloud but also by the mindset of the modern worker, where a 'work from anywhere' approach has been adopted.
With recent developments in Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solutions, users can gain a consistent experience whether they work on a mobile device or home desktop. Couple this with enhanced bandwidth speeds and the need for localised file shares and applications become redundant.
Where an organisation has invested in on-premise infrastructure (to assist and stage the journey to the cloud whilst making use of their capital investments), I have seen on-premise equipment being used as a disaster recovery (DR) facility as part of a hybrid or distributed cloud.
This is a short-term fix and as the equipment ages, the business would need to decide where their resources are best placed to meet their security, DR and business continuity needs.
TRP: What's happened recently to signal this change?
DM: The access anywhere approach of today's workforce has been a significant driving force in the uptake of cloud services.
I would say the ease of the adoption of this new technology is a key factor of this change, benefiting both the system administrators who manage the environments and the business lines that the platform underpins.
Whenever there is this level of alignment between technology and business outcomes, a fast rate of change is inevitable.
TRP: What are the main advantages of cloud computing, from a business point of view?
DM: For me the main advantages of cloud are its flexibility, its transparency and its ability to enable business change. A great example is speed to delivery - the request process, business case and sign-off, and then the management, physical delivery and deployment of the server.
Today, in a cloud-based world, the approval and deployment can be streamlined, and most importantly, the value can be delivered back to the business in a far shorter time frame.
As businesses also look to leverage their data through warehousing and analysis, solutions can be deployed to the scale needed, when needed and then throttled back to balance the cost vs. benefit achieved.
More specifically, for the first time organisations no longer need to make investments based on predictions - with the right-fit platform they can make ongoing scale decisions based directly on results and facts.
TRP: How much more work is there left to be done with developing good cloud services?
DM: The building blocks are definitely in place, but what's outstanding is how the cloud is packaged and made more accessible to existing organisations, not just start-ups.
The uptake rate of cloud computing seen with the general public can be attributed to the lack of legacy components and the simplicity of the task - the migration extends solely to transferring contacts, photos and maybe a handful of electronic documents.
For businesses, an analysis of risk must be clearly outlined and the journey mapped - it is here where the work needs to be done. Service providers maintain an arsenal of expertise and this is where organisations should look for support - engage and build a partnership with providers that lasts not only during the initial cloud migration but through its evolution.
TRP: What's the future of cloud computing?
DM: As virtualisation (the essence of cloud computing) extends further down the stack to storage, networking and the data centre as a whole, the reach of cloud computing will continue to extend up to end-user computing.
Already we've seen the cloud ray-gun pointed at desktops through the success of DaaS, however some apps are still tied to a specific technology platform.
The growing maturity of cloud standards and protocols will blur the lines between platforms and we'll see accelerated growth of cloud integrator, allowing all clouds to be delivered on a commodity basis. With this predicted uptake I would expect to see less of a reliance on the capabilities of end-user hardware and instead devices becoming visual conduits to centralised applications.
TRP: What are the advantages of multi-sourcing?
DM: Multi-sourcing in any industry favours the consumer and therefore drives competition, forces suppliers to rethink their strategy and ultimately breathes innovation. This led us from the mainframe to client/ server to the cloud – so it's definitely a good thing.
From a customer perspective the difficulty is in comparing service providers that claim to offer the same services – like comparing apples with apples! The overhead exists in ensuring the left hand integrates with the right – do organisations manage the multiple sources themselves or partner with an integrator who can act as the trusted advisor on their behalf?
In addition, it is likely that cloud integrators will drive more competitive rewards both around services and cost.
Irrespective of ownership through a third party integrator or in-house, in order for a business to leverage the full benefits, they must source a service which meets the needs of the specific task. One cloud, be it public, private or hybrid does not fit one business, so it's about taking advantage of the choices available and combining them to work for your business.
Read More ...
Got a Nexus 4 or original Nexus 7? Good news: Android L confirmed!
We can now safely say that Android L will be rolled out to the Nexus 7 (2013), the original Nexus 7 (2012), Nexus 5, Nexus 4 and Nexus 10.
That's because Google has released source code for more Nexus devices to developers, allowing them to install the early version of Android L on more handsets.
During Google I/O the search giant announced source code for the Nexus 7 (2013) and Nexus 5, which left many wondering if older devices would see Android L at all.
The new code releases also support the Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + cellular Nexus 7 tablets - both new and old - ensuring every base is covered.
Drawing the line
There's no word on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus or the Nexus S, and we suspect that Google may well have drawn the line here and won't be supporting the handsets which launched with Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread respectively.While the code may be available to developers, Android L isn't due to launch on consumer devices until September or October this year - so you'll have to wait patiently for a few more months.
Read More ...
Available Tags:Amazon , Facebook , BBC , NVIDIA , Tablet , Samsung , Galaxy , Google , TechRadar , PS4 , LG , Intel , IBM , Microsoft , Android ,
1 comment:
kd 12 shoes
lebron shoes
jordan shoes
supreme
lebron shoes
off white hoodie
kd shoes
jordan shoes
kyrie 6 shoes
kd shoes
Post a Comment