According to a recent article by the New York Times, over-consumption of Internet bandwidth, mainly by tablet users, is hogging up all the Wi-Fi in hotels, putting pressure on the lodging industry to upgrade to bigger and faster connectivity. What might this mean for gadget-loving travelers? No more free Wi-Fi.
From the company that brought you MSO-104, a mixed signal oscilloscope capable of interfacing using the built-in 30-pin dock connector on your iPad, iPhone or iPod device, Oscium is pleased to have been able to create and release an innovative and ground-breaking line-up of new products available for the iOS Test industry.
Oscium describes the functionality of their new devices by stating that “the WiPry-Spectrum leverages the colorful potential of the OpenGL interface on the iOS platform for stunning real-time views of RF activity in the 2.4GHz ISM band” while the “WiPry-Power crosses the chasm of this new platform by not only graphically displaying RF data from 100-2.7GHz but also adding the ability to capture, trigger and record the actual power output of RF amplitude.”
In 2011, according to a new semiconductor spend analysis report from IHS iSuppli, the wireless segment is poised to overtake computers, becoming the leading market for semiconductor purchasing by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
This shift away from PCs and towards mobile communications is largely due to the overwhelming success of Apple’s iPad and iPhone, as well as the success of Android based smartphones.
With Nortel putting 6000 patents and patent applications up for sale as part of their liquidation, companies were gathering round and salivating for the chance to get their hands on them. Google’s opening bid of $900 million dollars seemed like a reasonable shot at taking home the prize –until Apple pulled together a team of wallets to outbid them.
This team, consisting of Apple, RIM, Microsoft, Sony, Ericsson and EMC agreed to pay a cumulative $4.5 billion dollars, a full half billion above what Google’s top offer could have been. Looking at the cast of characters, it certainly does appear like the professional equivalent of ‘us against them’ with the competition all taking aim against Android. Their official public relations argument is that this consortium puts the patents in the hands of the companies best able to utilize them for the good of the industry.
An interesting FCC filing has revealed Seagate’s plans to build a hard drive that would bring us built-in WiFi capability and will also feature its own battery to operate cable-free for several hours.
The Seagate GoFlex Satellite is a portable hard drive that will allow you to stream music, videos and other content directly to your iOS devices by leveraging a companion app called GoFlex Media.
Apple has just released a statement, detailing how the company is using location data. This is an issue that we’ve covered extensively since researchers revealed last week that the iPhone contained a hidden file storing latitude, longitude, and timestamps.
In the statement, the company says, “Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.” Apple claims that the iPhone is not logging location, instead, it’s keeping a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location (up to a hundred miles away). This is to help your iPhone quickly calculate its location when requested, for example, by an app. The iPhone uses a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi and cell tower data generated by tens of millions of iPhones uploading their geo-tagged locations, which Apple says is all anonymous and encrypted.
If you happen to use an Apple Wireless Keyboard to write emails and notes on your iPad, and always run out of battery, Mobee just came up with an elegant solution for you, called the Magic Bar.
The Magic Bar is an inductive charger that comes in two parts: a battery pack, meant to replace the pair of AA batteries in the keyboard, as well as a charging station.
To recharge your keyboard, simply slide it on the charging station for a couple of hours, and your keyboard will be ready for another 10 hours of use. Best of all, you can still use the keyboard while it is charging.
Given the large number of complaints coming from Verizon iPad 2 users who experience 3G connection issues with their device, Apple came out of its silence and acknowledged the problem yesterday, and stated that the iOS team was working on a fix.
The issue mostly arises when Verizon iPad 2 users turn off the 3G connection of their device via the Settings app, while on a plane, for instance. Once the 3G connection of the tablet is turned back on, the iPad 2 seems to be unable to log back into Verizon’s network.
iPad 2 Wireless Data Plan Options
Comparison of AT&T and Verizon Wireless Monthly 3G Data Plans
Apple’s new iPad 2 will be available this Friday and many new and existing iPad owners are trying to figure out which 3G wireless data plan they should pick. Unlike the choices available when the first generation iPad launched last April, US customers will have several different data plans from AT&T and Verizon Wireless to choose from this time around. With these new choices comes the question, “Which one is best for me?” We’ve broken down all the important information to help you make an informed decision.
Earlier today, Google launched a new mobile Gmail feature that allows users to connect their email account to Google’s Cloud Print service.
Google Cloud Print is a service that shares similar concepts to Apple’s AirPrint, as it allows you to print wirelessly, directly from your computer or device, including the iPad. The main difference between the two lies in the fact that Google’s service is remotely triggered by Google’s web-based apps such as Gmail, instead of being locally triggered by the device itself. In other words, unlike AirPlay, you do not need to be on the same network as your printer to be able to print wirelessly, but the service only works with Google-branded services for now.
Our Asian readers have a new reason to celebrate this holiday season. Apple will add another Asian country where the iPad will officially be available for sale. South Korean mobile operator KT plans to introduce the Apple iPad on Tuesday, November 30 according to a report by AFP.
KT plans to subsidize the price of the iPad and will offer the tablet bundled with a wireless data plan. The data plans available range from one to three years and effectively reduce the price by around $100 to $400 depending on the length of the data contract and data plan options.
If you heavily rely on your iPad to listen to music or watch movies/shows, you must have noticed that the embedded speaker is good, but not great. An alternative is to use headphones, but wearing headphones constantly can quickly get annoying.
If you happen to have $99.99 to spare, a great alternative is the new Z515 wireless speaker from Logitech. The set works with any device offering connectivity via A2DP Bluetooth, just like the iPad and the iPhone, and also works with desktops/laptops via a USB adaptor (supplied with the speaker).
The Z515 uses the 2.4GHz band to wirelessly connect to your iPad: simply make your iPad discoverable, and the speaker will find it in a matter of seconds.
Logitech advertises a range of up to 50 feet, more than enough to let you move around your house without losing connectivity. The speaker features a pair of two-inch drivers, and can work up to ten hours with a single charge. The Z515 will be released later this month.
Intel announced yesterday evening that it will acquire Infineon Technologies’ wireless division for a whopping $1.4 billion. If you never heard about Infineon, the German company is the exclusive providers of the 3G wireless chips and baseband processors inside the iPad and the iPhone.
Despite several attempts at convincing wireless devices makers to look at its options, especially the Atom product line, Intel never really managed to gain any significant market share in the wireless space. Given its specific needs (ultra low power processors, smaller screens…), the wireless market almost exclusively relies on ARM technology, an architecture radically different from Intel’s x86 architecture.
But Intel was not ready to give up, as the smartphone market is growing exponentially, and the acquisition of Infineon’s wireless division will offer Intel a wide – yet expensive – “back door” into the wireless world. In the process, the acquisition will also allow the firm to claim millions of devices as “Intel Inside” devices.
More Americans are using mobile devices to access the Internet than ever before according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center. 59% of Americans now use a wireless tablet, laptop or cell phone to access the Internet. This represents a nearly 18% increase in wireless Internet usage compared to the previous year.
The results are part of Pew’s Internet & American Life Project yearly survey which asks 2,252 Americans over the age of 18 about their Internet usage.
Other interesting statistics from the report:
This is the first year Pew asked respondents if they owned a tablet device like the iPad and a surprising 3% said they did. According to Pew’s survey, six in ten tablet owners used their device to access the Internet.
From our own informal iPad owner survey, we’ve seen almost a 100% Internet usage. We expect next year’s Pew survey to show a dramatic increase in tablet ownership and Internet usage based on the huge success of the iPad.
WiFi syncing, a feature most iPod/iPhone/iPad users would love to use, seems to be on Apple’s roadmap: according to an email sent by Steve Jobs to an iOS developer, wireless syncing is coming “someday”.
According to Mashable, Rick Proctor, a developer who actually built his own iOS wireless syncing app, simply asked Jobs “Do you think you will ever allow syncing iPhone to Mac over wifi?”. As usual, Jobs’ response was short and straight to the point, “Yep, someday”.
Given that all iOS-powered devices support WiFi, most of us still wonder why Apple never built a wireless syncing feature, as using a cable to sync a wireless device seems totally unnatural. In the past, Apple mentioned security and performance issues as the main reasons why the feature has never been implemented.
As for when the feature will be available, nobody can really tell, as even if Jobs’ response is encouraging, it remains utterly vague.
Photo courtesy of mashable
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