Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts

Saturday 6 April 2019

Some interesting April Fools' Day 2019 Technology Jokes


This year April Fools' Day wasn't as fun as the last one, even though it was on Monday. Many tech companies that make effort didn't make one this year. In fact Microsoft went even further and banned any public facing April Fools' pranks. Anyway, here are some of the jokes that I found interesting.

Parallel Wireless 7G Vision
This one was important for me as it features me (Yay!) and also enhanced my video editing skills. Grateful to CW (Cambridge Wireless) for being part of it too.

Video is slightly long but funny hopefully



In short, the focus for the next few years will be do design a 7G logo that can explain the vision and connect with people. Did I mention 7GPPPPP?


Google Sssnakes on a map
Google temporarily added a version of the classic game Snakes into its Google Maps app for April Fools’ Day this year.

The company says that the game is rolling out now to iOS and Android users globally today, and that it’ll remain on the app for the rest of the week. It also launched a standalone site to play the game if you don’t have the app.

Jabra Ear bud(dy)


World’s first shared headphone - engineered for shared music moments. The website says:

The headphones come with an ultra-light headband that extends seamlessly to accommodate the perfect fit for every pair of buddies, so you’ll never have to enjoy another music moment alone. The Jabra Earbud(dy)™ comes with a unique Buddy mode that promises a shared music experience that is tailored to suit each person’s preferences. Fans of voice command will be thrilled to know that with just one touch, the Jabra Earbud(dy)™ can connect to dual voice assistant.


T-Mobile Phone BoothE

T-Mobile USA and their CEO John Legere never disappoints. They always come up with something interesting. Here is a video of the prank


From MacRumours:

T-Mobile is again fighting one of the so-called pain points of the wireless industry with the launch of the Phone BoothE, a completely sound-proof and high-tech phone booth that lets T-Mobile customers escape from noisy areas to make their phone calls. Inside the Phone BoothE you can charge your devices, connect to a smart screen called "Magenta Pages" to mirror your smartphone display, and adjust the lighting to take great selfies.

In regards to the name, T-Mobile is taking a shot at AT&T's misleading 5GE label: "The Phone BoothE is an evolution towards the new world of mobility. Like many in the tech and wireless industry today, we decided that by adding an "E" to the name, you would know it's a real technology evolution." 

Although this is an April Fools' Day joke, T-Mobile has actually built the Phone BoothE and deployed them in select locations around New York City, Seattle, and Washington, DC, where anyone will be able to use them. The company on Monday also revealed the T-Mobile Phone BoothE Mobile EditionE, which is more in line with a straightforward April Fools' Day hoax, as it's "literally a magenta cardboard box with a hole in it." 

While the actual site disappeared after April 1, the archived version can be seen here.

X-Ray vision Nokia 9 PureView

The Nokia 9 PureView has plenty of cameras on its back, but did you know that the black sensor isn’t a 3D ToF camera but rather an X-Ray sensor? Can be unlocked with the new Nokia X-Ray app in Play Store


"Digi-U" from Ericsson Digital


Parallel Wireless Adds AMPS (1G) Capabilities to Their Unified ALL G Architecture


From the press release:

Worlds First Fully Virtualized AMPS (vAMPS) to enable Modernization and Cost Savings

Parallel Wireless vAMPS is compatible with: Total Access Communications Systems (TACS) in the U.K.; Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) System in Scandinavia; C450 in Germany; and NTT System in Japan, among others, and will allow global operators to modernize their 1G infrastructure. The 1G vAMPS solution is also software upgradable to vD-AMPS, for operators who wish to follow that path.


Truphone foldable SIM (F-SIM) for Foldable Smartphones

F-SIM – the foldable SIM – designed especially for the new foldable smartphones and tablets demonstrated at this February’s MWC Barcelona, including Huawei’s Mate X and Samsung’s Galaxy Fold.

Widely tipped as the next generation in SIM technology, the foldable SIM works on minute hinges that allow it to fold smaller than any previous SIM form factor. Made specifically for foldable phones and other devices, Truphone’s latest innovation fulfils on its broader brand promise to engineer better connections between things, people and business—anywhere in the world.

The F-SIM comes in ‘steel grey’ and, for only £5 more, ‘hot pink’. Pricing structures vary depending on data, storage, roaming charges and device model.


Google Screen Cleaner in the Files app




Mother of All USB-C Hubs for Apple Macbook - HyperDrive Ultimate Ultimate Hub



Other funny April Fools jokes:

One of the funniest jokes is Qualcomm's HandSolo that was released back in 1998. You may enjoy watching here.

Related posts:

Tuesday 12 March 2019

Can Augmented & Mixed Reality be the Killer App 5G needs?


Last October Deutsche Telekom, Niantic and MobiledgeX announced a partnership to create advanced augmented reality experiences over mobile network technologies. I was lucky to find some time to go and play it at Deutsche Telekom booth. The amount of processing needed for this to work at best also meant that the new Samsung Galaxy S10+ were needed but I felt that it also occasionally struggled with the amount of data being transferred.


The pre-MWC press release said:

Deutsche Telekom, Niantic Inc., MobiledgeX and Samsung Showcase World’s First Mobile Edge Mixed Reality Multi-Gamer Experience

At the Deutsche Telekom booth at MWC 2019 (hall 3, booth 3M31) the results of the previously announced collaboration between Deutsche Telekom, Niantic, Inc., and MobiledgeX are on display and you’re invited to play. Niantic’s “Codename: Neon”, the world’s first edge-enhanced Mixed Reality Multiplayer Experience, delivered by ultra-low latency, Deutsche Telekom edge-enabled network, and Samsung Galaxy S10+ with edge computing enablement, will be playable by the public for the first time. 

“The ultra-low latency that Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) enables, allows us to create more immersive, exciting, and entertaining gameplay experiences. At Niantic, we’ve long celebrated adventures on foot with others, and with the advent of 5G networks and devices, people around the world will be able to experience those adventures faster and better,” said Omar Téllez, Vice-President of Strategic Partnerships at Niantic.

The collaboration is enabled using MobiledgeX’s recently announced MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0 product. Key features include device and platform-independent SDKs, a Distributed Matching Engine (DME) and a fully multi-tenant control plane that supports zero-touch provisioning of edge cloud resources as close as possible to the users. Immediate examples of what this enables include performance boosts for Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality (MR) experiences as well as video and image processing that meets local privacy regulations. 

Samsung has been working together with Deutsche Telekom, MobiledgeX, and Niantic on a natively edge-capable connectivity and authentication in Samsung Galaxy S10+ to interface with MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0 and dynamically access the edge infrastructure it needs so that augmented reality and mixed reality applications can take advantage of edge unmodified. Samsung will continue such collaborations with industry-leading partners not only to embrace a native device functionality of edge discovery and usage for the mobile devices and consumers, but also to seek a way together to create new business models and revenue opportunities leading into 5G era.

Deutsche Telekom’s ultra-low latency network was able to deliver on the bandwidth demands of “Codename: Neon” because it deployed MobiledgeX’s edge software services, built on dynamically managed decentralized cloudlets. “From our initial partnership agreement in October, we are thrilled to showcase the speed at which we can move from idea to experience, with full end-to-end network integration, delivered on Samsung industry leading edge native devices,” said Alex Jinsung Choi, Senior Vice President Strategy and Technology Innovation at Deutsche Telekom.

From the gaming industry to industrial IoT, and computer vision applications, consumer or enterprise, the experience is a great example of interactive AR experiences coming from companies like Niantic in the near future.  As AR/VR/MR immersive experiences continue to shape our expectations, devices, networks and clouds need to seamlessly and dynamically collaborate.

This video from Deutsche Telekom booth shows how the game actually feels like



Niantic CEO John Hanke delivered a keynote at Mobile World Congress 2019 (embedded below). According to Fortune article, "Why the Developer of the New 'Harry Potter' Mobile Game and 'Pokemon Go' Loves 5G":

Hanke showed a video of a prototype game Niantic has developed codenamed Neon that allows multiple people in the same place at the same time to play an augmented reality game. Players can shoot at each other, duck and dodge, and pick up virtual reality items, with each player’s phone showing them the game’s graphics superimposed on the real world. But the game depends on highly responsive wireless connections for all the phones, connections unavailable on today’s 4G LTE networks.

“We’re really pushing the boundaries of what we can do on today’s networks,” Hanke said. “We need 5G to deliver the kinds of experiences that we are imagining.”

Here is the video, it's very interesting and definitely worth a watch. For those who may not know, Niantic spun out of Google in October 2015 soon after Google's announcement of its restructuring as Alphabet Inc. During the spinout, Niantic announced that Google, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company would invest up to $30 million in Series-A funding.



So what do you think, can AR / MR be the killer App 5G needs?

Sunday 21 May 2017

Research on Unvoiced Speech Communications using Smartphones and Mobiles

A startup on kickstarter is touting world's first voice mask for smartphones. Having said that Hushme has been compared to Bane from Batman and Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Good detail of Hushme at Engadget here.

This is an interesting concept and has come back in the news after a long gap. Even though we are well past the point of 'Peak Telephony' because we now use text messages and OTT apps for non-urgent communications. Voice will always be around though for not only urgent communications but for things like audio/video conference calls.


Back in 2003 NTT Docomo generated a lot of news on this topic. Their research paper "Unvoiced speech recognition using EMG - mime speech recognition" was the first step in trying to find a way to speak silently while the other party can hear voice. This is probably the most quoted paper on this topic. (picture source).


NASA was working on this area around the same time. They referred to this approach as 'Subvocal Speech'. While the original intention of this approach was for astronauts suits, the intention was that it could also be available for other commercial use. Also, NASA was effectively working on limited number of words using this approach (picture source).

For both the approaches above, there isn't a lot of recent updated information. While it has been easy to recognize certain characters, it takes a lot of effort to do the whole speech. Its also a challenge to play your voice rather than a robotic voice to the other party.

To give a comparison of how big a challenge this is, look at the Youtube videos where they do an automatic captions generation. Even though you can understand what the person is speaking, its always a challenge for the machine. You can read more about the challenge here.

A lot of research in similar areas has been done is France and is available here.


Motorola has gone a step further and patented an e-Tattoo that can be emblazoned over your vocal cords to intercept subtle voice commands — perhaps even subvocal commands, or even the fully internal whisperings that fail to pluck the vocal cords when not given full cerebral approval. One might even conclude that they are not just patenting device communications from a patch of smartskin, but communications from your soul. Read more here.


Another term used for research has been 'lip reading'. While the initial approaches to lip reading was the same as other approaches of attaching sensors to facial muscles (see here), the newer approaches are looking at exploiting smartphone camera for this.

Many researchers have achieved reasonable success using cameras for lip reading (see here and here) but researchers from Google’s AI division DeepMind and the University of Oxford have used artificial intelligence to create the most accurate lip-reading software ever.
Now the challenge with smartphones for using camera for speech recognition will be high speed data connectivity and ability to see lip movement clearly. While in indoor environment this can be solved with Wi-Fi connectivity and looking at the camera, it may be a bit tricky outdoors or not looking at the camera while driving. Who knows, this may be a killer use-case for 5G.

By the way, this is not complete research in this area. If you have additional info, please help others by adding it in the comments section.

Related links:



Saturday 1 April 2017

Some interesting April Fools' Day 2017 Technology Jokes

Here are the interesting April Fools' Day 2017 Technology Jokes. If I have missed one, please add them in comments. For those who don't know what April Fools' Day means, see here.

Google Windmill from Google Nederland: Interesting use of Wind and Cloud to keep Rain away.




Amazon Petlexa (Alexa for Pets): It allows dogs, cats, and other animals to communicate with Alexa just like you do. The Petlexa feature gives pets the freedom to place orders from Amazon, and to activate smart home enabled toys.




Google Play for Pets: A new category of games, apps and training tools to keep your pet stimulated. Honestly, I cant see why this cannot be real.



Honda Horn Emoji's: Horn Emojis offer a range of horn sounds for a variety of scenarios, from seeing your kids off to school to commiserating with other drivers in rush-hour traffic.


See video here. Honda has also launched In-car dating app to help lonely drivers find love at the wheel. More details here.


T-Mobile ONEsie: T-Mobile CEO John Legere has designed this Onesie and CTO Neville Ray has also participated in testing. Its got a lot of Amazing properties, including creating Human SotSpots.


See videos here and here.


Virgin Atlantic Dreambird 1417: World’s first-ever aircraft using new patented technology – flapology – to create the world’s first aircraft with flappable wings.




Virgin Trains (UK) Tickink: Innovative new contactless ticket system, offering customers the opportunity to have their train ticket permanently tattooed on their body, preventing frequent passengers from ever losing their tickets again. Details here.


Virgin Mobile Australia PhoYo:


Prysm Avatar: I quite like this concept. A work drone that enables you to reap the benefits of working from home, without sacrificing the interpersonal advantages of being in the office. Each drone is equipped with sophisticated sensors and a holographic projector that displays your likeness as a realistic, life-sized avatar.




Telenor prohibits the word ‘Digital’ in all communication: There is a small chance this may be true ;-). See here.


Finally, there was also Google Gnome (like Google home), Google Ms. Pac-ManLexus LC: Lane ValetShake Me - by Trade Me, Huawei Mate 9.2 with 2 headphone jacks


There is also this picture from 1992 circulating, showing how standards body (ETSI) celebrated April Fools' before twitter/youtube :-)


Related Posts:

Saturday 2 April 2016

Some interesting April Fools' Day 2016 Technology Jokes

When I posted April Fools' jokes on the blog last couple of years (see 2014 & 2015) , they seem to be very popular so I thought its worth posting them this year too. If I missed any interesting ones, please add in comments.


The one I really liked best is the Samsung Internet of Trousers (IoT) featuring:

Wi-Fly: Gone are the days of unnoticed, unzipped trouser zippers upon exiting the restroom. Should your fly remain open for more than three minutes, the ZipARTIK module will send a series of notifications to your smartphone to save you from further embarrassment.

Get Up! Alert: Using pressure sensors, Samsung’s intelligent trousers detect prolonged periods of inactivity and send notifications to ‘get up off of that thing’ at least once an hour. Should you remain seated for more than three hours, devices embedded in each of the rear pockets send mild electrical shocks to provide extra motivation.

Keep-Your-Pants-On Mode: Sometimes it’s easy to get carried away with the moment. The Samsung Bio-Processor in your pants checks your bio-data including your heart rate and perspiration level. If these indicators get too high, Samsung’s trousers will send you subtle notifications as a reminder of the importance of keeping your cool.

Fridge Lock: If the tension around your waist gets too high, the embedded ARTIK chip module will send signals to your refrigerator to prevent you from overeating. The fridge door lock can then only be deactivated with consent from a designated person such as your mother or significant other.



Microsoft has an MS-DOS mobile in mind for this day. I wont be surprised if a real product like this does become popular with older generation. I personally wouldn't mind an MS-DOS app on my mobile. Here is a video:





It would have been strange if we didnt have a Robot for a joke. Domino's have introduced the Domimaker. Here's how it works:





T-Mobile USA is not shy pulling punches on its rivals with the Binge On data plan where it lets people view certain video channels without using up their data. Here is the video and more details on mashable.



Samsung ExoKinetic helps your phone self-charge

Google had quite a few pranks as always. I will ignore 'mic drop' which backfired and caused them headache.

Google Express has a new delivery mechanism, just for the April Fool's day. (There has to be one drone idea)





Google Cardboard Plastic is an interesting one too. Here is the video:


Finally, its the Google Fiber Teleportation.



Other interesting ones:

Monday 9 November 2015

5G and Evolution of the Inter-connected Network


While there are many parameters to consider when designing the next generation network, speed is the simplest one to understand and sell to the end user.

Last week, I did a keynote at the International Telecom Sync Forum (ITSF) 2015. As an analyst keynote, I looked at how the networks are evolving and getting more complex, full of interesting options and features available for the operator to decide which ones to select.

There wont just be multiple generations of technologies existing at the same time but there will also be small cells based networks, macro networks, drones and balloons based networks and satellite based networks.

My presentation is embedded below. For any reason, if you want to download it, please fill the form at the bottom of this page and download.



Just after my keynote, I came across this news in Guardian about 'Alphabet and Facebook develop rival secret drone plans'; its an interesting read. As you may be aware Google is actively working with Sri Lanka and Indonesia for providing seamless internet access nationally.


It was nice to hear EE provide the second keynote which focused on 5G. I especially liked this slide which summarised their key 5G research areas. Their presentation is embedded below and available to download from slideshare.




The panel discussion was interesting as well. As the conference focused on timing and synchronisation, the questions were on those topics too. I have some of them below, interested to hear your thoughts:

  • Who cares about syncing the core? - Everything has moved to packets, the only reason for sync is to coordinate access points in wireless for higher level services. We have multiple options to sync the edge, why bother to sync the core at all?
  • We need synchronisation to improve the user’s experience right? - Given the ever improving quality of the time-bases embedded within equipment, what exactly would happen to the user experience if synchronisation collapsed… or is good sync all about operators experience?
  • IoT… and the impact on synchronisation- can we afford it? - M2M divisions of network operators make a very small fraction of the operator’s revenue, is that going to change and will it allow the required investment in sync technology that it might require?

Sunday 16 August 2015

Challenges in the future 'Network of Networks'

Came across this paper from Dec. 2000 recently. Its interesting to see that even back then researchers were thinking about multiple networks that a user can have access to via handovers. Researchers nowadays think about how to access as many networks as possible simultaneously. I call is Multi-stream aggregation (MSA), some others call it Multi-RAT Carrier Aggregation (MCA) and so on.

If we look at the different access technologies, each has its own evolution in the coming years. Some of these are:

  • Fixed/Terrestrial broadband: (A)DSL, Cable, Fiber
  • Mobile Broadband: 3G, 4G and soon 5G
  • Wireless Broadband: WiFi
  • Laser communications
  • LiFi or LED based communications
  • High frequency sound based communications 
Then there could be a combination of multiple technologies working simultaneously. For example:
And the handover has to be seamless between different access technologies. For example:

There has been an interest in moving on to higher frequencies. These bands can be used for access as well as backhaul. The same applies for most of the access technologies listed above which can work as a backhaul to enable other access technologies.

While planned networks would be commonplace, other topologies like mesh network will gain ground too. Device to device and direct communications will help create ad-hoc networks.

While the current networks are mostly stationary, mobile networks will also become common. Opportunity Driven Multiple Access (ODMA) or Multihop Cellular Networks (MCN) would help devices use other devices to reach their destination. Non-standardised proprietary solutions (for example Firechat) will become common too. Security, Privacy and Trust will play an important role here.

Satellite networks, the truly global connectivity providers will play an important role too. While backhauling the small cells on planes, trains and ships will be an important part of satellite networks, they may be used for access too. Oneweb plans to launch 900 micro satellites to provide high speed global connectivity. While communications at such high frequencies mean that small form factor devices like mobile cant receive the signals easily, connected cars could use the satellite connectivity very well.

Samsung has an idea to provide connectivity through 4,600 satellites to be able to transmit 200GB monthly to 5 Billion people worldwide. While this is very ambitious, its not the only innovative and challenging idea. I am sure we all now about the Google loon. Facebook on the other hand wants to use a solar powered drone (UAV) to offer free internet access services to users who cannot get online.

As I mentioned, security and privacy will be a big challenge for devices being able to connect to multiple access networks and other devices. An often overlooked challenge is the timing and sync between different networks. In an ideal world all these networks would be phase and time synchronised to each other so as not to cause interference but in reality this will be a challenging task, especially with ad-hoc and moing networks.



I will be giving a keynote at the ITSF 2015 in November at Edinburgh. This is a different type of conference that looks at Time and Synchronisation aspects in Telecoms. While I will be providing a generic overview on where the technologies are moving (continuing from my presentation in Phase ready conference), I am looking forward to hearing about these challenges and their solutions in this conference.

Andy Sutton (Principal Network Architect) and Martin Kingston (Principal Designer) with EE have shared some of their thought on this topic which is as follows and available to download here.



Saturday 25 April 2015

Mobile Telecoms Technology & Market Disruptions

Sometimes its good to take a step back and look at the new applications and services that are already happening or may be happening sometime soon. Some of these have a possibility to disrupt the existing industries and markets, giving rise to not only new players but a completely new order.

Embedded below is a presentation from Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis. While there are a few things that I look at differently, there are many interesting points that the industry should already be looking at.


A good example of disruption would be the SIM card evolution that Apple introduced in iPadAir2 and iPadMini3. While they had great expectations, it didnt work out exactly as they had hoped due to the operators not letting Apple use the feature they wanted. In fact John Legere, T-Mobile US CEO, took to twitter to explain the problem. See here.

Another example is the new MVNO model by Google (Fi) in the USA. The problem in USA compared to Europe is that the operators have monopoly in many areas (fixed and mobile) and they can also get away with charging far higher amounts.




In addition, the problem that the operators have is that they focus on areas where they don't have issues; crying wolf if required. An example is taking advantage of 'data tsunami' and using it to hoard spectrum, as be seen from the tweet below:

Anyway, here is the presentation. Let me know what you think.



Friday 3 April 2015

Some interesting April Fools' Day 2015 Technology Jokes

Here is a quick roundup of some interesting tech #AprilFools day jokes from the web. Click on the links to learn more

Samsung Galaxy Blade Edge - Chef's edition






Selfie Shoes by Miz Mooz - Shoefie



com.google - You can try it in chrome browser, it was working


Smartbox by Inbox: the mailbox of tomorrow, today - by Google




HTC Re-Sok - the "world's first truly smart sock"






Bing's Palm Search technology




Introducing #MotoSelfieStick - By Motorola



Twitter’s Twelfie Stick




Domino’s Domi-No-Driver Service

Iltasanomat news on April 1st 2015 (source not available): Finnish Police is having their own air forces with 250 seagulls with TETRA radio and camera


And finally, these old style pranks still work :-)

If you like them, you will enjoy the last year ones too. Here.

Sunday 16 November 2014

Is mobile eating the world?

Another interesting and thought provoking presentation by Ben Evans. His earlier presentation which was very popular as well, is here. The video and slides are embedded below.


How Mobile is Enabling Tech to Outgrow the Tech Industry from Andreessen Horowitz on Vimeo.




And a recent interview by Benedict Evans with Bloomberg TV on the same topic as follows:


Saturday 5 April 2014

Some interesting April Fools' Day 2014 Technology Jokes

Its very interesting to see all the companies proposing very interesting concepts on the 1st of April. I was told that not everyone knows what April Fools day means so here is the link to Wikipedia.

Samsung Fly-Fi: Samsung has come up with some interesting ideas, the first being Wi-Fi for everyone powered by Pigeons. They have a website here with Video.

Power of Pigeons


Looks like since we have Pigeons everywhere, so they are always used in one way or the other. The best prank ever in my opinion was the PigeonRank by Google, back in 2002. I spent a few hours that day trying to figure out how they were actually doing it.

Smart Wear was always going to be the big thing. Quite a few smart wearables this year.

Bonobos has done a good job with with TechStyle. See video below:



Samsung has a glove called Samsung Fingers here. The best thing I liked was 'Talk to the Hand'

Samsung Fingers_Talk to the hand

HTC came up with similar concept called Gluuv



Toshiba's DiGiT is as interesting. See the video:


Virgin Mobile, Canada has come up with SmartKicks. See here.



Roku Watch is not too bad:


Virgin America even convinced Sir Richard Branson to appear in the April Fools ad along with Tony Faddell, the CEO of Nest. Funny Youtube video here.

Sony Power Food was just okay, video here.

Toshiba Spehere is a funny Gaming concept, see here.

Nokia reviewed its most popular phone 3310 with modern day features here. Coloured screen with 41Megapixel camera.

Google wants to Emojify the web here.

Google Japan has a magic hand here.

Selfiebot by Orbotix is a cool concept, here.

Twitter Helmet didnt make me laugh though. See here.

Is there some others that I missed? Please feel free to add it in the comments.

Saturday 1 March 2014

Mobile, Context and Discovery - Ben Evans


An Interesting presentation and Video from Benedict Evans, both embedded below:



There is an interesting Q&A at the end of the talk in the video. You can directly jump to 27:30 marker for the Q&A. One of the interesting points highlighted by him, that I always knew but was not able to convey it across is there is no real point comparing Google and Apple. I am too lazy to type down so please jump to 45:10. One of the comment on the Youtube summarises it well:

"Google is a vast machine learning engine... and it spent 10-15 years building that learning engine and feeding it data"

So true. It is not Apple vs Google; it is not about the present. It is about the future (see Google's recent acquisitions for context). As Benedict says, if Google creates beautiful, meaningful and unique experiences for users, why would they do it only for Android, they would also have it on Apple devices. 

In the end, comparing Apple and Google is like comparing Apple(s) and Oranges :)



Saturday 23 February 2013

Google Glasses - take two

Picture source: Guardian

So nearly after a year of my Google Glass post, looks like Google is ready to ship some of these glasses to some competition winners for $1500. Even the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is excited and cant wait to get his hands on it.

There is also this new video showing 'How it Feels' wearing Glass and everytime I go back to youtube, the count increases by 100K. Embedded below:


My two main concerns are that I have to speak loudly to the glass which may not be convenient in public places or in front of others and the other being that when many people will have these devices, my Glass may pickup command from another user.

Sometime back there was a discussion on 'Bone conduction audio'. This will allow the user to hear from the Glass without the need of a headphone or speakers, I guess a similar kind of technology is needed in place of a mic. The Glass can sense that the user who is wearing it is talking instead of someone else. It should also solve the need to speak to speak loudly to the Glass.

Monday 9 July 2012

#FWIC Summary in Tweets with Pics, Presentations and Videos

Here is my summary from The 4th Future of Wireless International Conference (#FWIC). I created a OTT Stats, Facts and Figures presentation for the conference which is available here.


DAY 1

@zahidtg: #FWIC has started



@marekpawlowski: Full house for #fwic, sign of thriving, continually expanding mobile industry in Cambridge





@Qualcomm_UK: "Mobile is the largest technology platform in history" – #Qualcomm’s Joe Barrett at #FWIC keynote

@JawadAbbassi: Globally: 1 million new 3G connections are added on a daily basis. Source: @Qualcomm_IAR

@najeebster: 3.2bn 3G connections by 2016 Joe Barrett from Qualcomm at #FWIC

@geoffmccormick: data traffic to grow over 1000% in the next decade.

@Qualcomm_UK: “Consumers expect the amazing” – Joe Barrett of Qualcomm

@cambwireless: Joe Barrett from @Qualcomm_UK keynote 3.4 billion 3G connections by 2016, 1000 x growth in data by 2020

@Qualcomm_UK: #Snapdragon processors are used by 50+ manufacturers, in 340+ devices with a further 400+ in development – Joe Barrett, Qualcomm

@ndahad: The significance of mobile technologies globally, particularly emerging markets, & more smartphones to the masses http://ow.ly/i/IVvF

@Alliantus: Interesting first session. Powershift. New spectrum. More base stations - smaller & deployed to offload traffic - bring net closer.

@marekpawlowski: Does Qualcomm's Alljoyn hold possibility of internet of things network which meshes to become stronger the more entities which join?

@marekpawlowski: Qualcomm's Halo transferring kw power wirelessly over air gaps to charge cars. A final untethering of humans from power sockets?

@ndahad: Mobile - the digital 6th sense





@Alliantus: very interesting scene setting by #joebarrett #qualcomm one of best conference starts ever - on the button and no sales pitch. FAB.

@dw2: Note to self: learn more about http://www.qualcommhalo.com/ the Qualcomm Halo wireless charging system for cars mentioned by Joe Barrett

@geoffmccormick: biggest challenge for wireless auto charging is not the tech but the system. New behaviours and challenges abound.

@RichardTraherne: Further support for small cells to solve cellular access problems, at Future Wireless International Conference

@zahidtg: Connected car by Qualcomm at #FWIC




@Qualcomm_UK: Hey, @CambWireless #fwic and want to see the video #Qualcomm’s Joe Barrett talked about this morning?:



Joe Baratt's presentation is available here and the video is here.



@bensmithuk: Listening to Olaf Swantee (Everything Everywhere CEO)

@Alliantus: everything everywhere #Olafswantec CEO. Partnering for #4G. Built for data. More speed 4-6 times faster in lab. Latency improved.

@najeebster: Olaf Swantee, CEO, Everything Everywhere reckons this 4G stuff can provide connectivity equal to fixed-line broadband, hmm

@Alliantus: 4G tool for proving connectivity. Part of solution. Data growth rates 250 times in past year - smart phones and smart data.

@roryponeill: CEO Everything Everywhere Olaf Swantee "I'm staggered by the continuing growth of data. We can't cope with 3G...we must go 4G"

@cambwireless: Olaf Swantee, CEO, Everything Everywhere speaks at #fwic "Growth rates of 250% in data on the network every year"

@Alliantus: UK more dependent on services than any other because of service culture. Infrastructure needs to be improved - UK early adopters.

@kumithiru: wonder what percentage of EE's UK customer base using data hungry devices use them at home? 50% 60% 70% ?

@najeebster: 4G carries a stronger signal even cell edge, will help to solve rural broadband issues

@rob_symes: olaf swantee says there would huge job creation by next gen 4G network

@roryponeill: Olaf continues "Britain is reliant on digital service industry - no.1 contributor to GDP - yet 40 other countries have 4G already"

@Alliantus: #fwic reason delay because industry is sweating assets in UK. Big capital expenditure has not come. ROI? Not enough profit? Hard to believe.

@BrianIsATwit: Olaf Swantee #fwic 4G use cases are video, TV and real time gaming. B2B cloud services. M2M also driving new apps.

@BrianIsATwit: Olaf Swantee at #fwic inferring UK economy impacted by poor fixed and mobile broadband. 4G positive investment impact £5bn & 125K new jobs.

@Alliantus: #fwic ironically really poor O2 service here. Blocking tweet on everything everywhere? Or just because it is about #4G?

@Alliantus: role of lawyers in causing delay? Are we destined to be laggards and not leaders because of cyclical nature of Tech adoption?

@Alliantus: can be back on track quickly. Already have a 3G network? Many users think they are on 4G already.

@Alliantus: thought provoking talk. Really believes in focusing on customers. Passion. Making experience better. Good operator perspective.

@marekpawlowski: Refreshing to hear Olaf Swantee prioritising fundamental improvements to network quality over 'tariff gimmicks & loyalty points'

@marekpawlowski: However, concerned by Swantee's faith in 4G to solve rural access. Unlikely economics will be any different than any proceeding 'G'

@marekpawlowski: Challenge for Swantee will be moving from sales culture of pushing 'broadband' & 'smartphone' SKUs, getting closer to customer reality

@cambwireless: Olaf Swantree stresses the economy is dependent on digital infrastructure. 40 countries rolled out 4g already - uk falling behind

@BrianIsATwit: as a rural dweller my fixed and mobile experience terrible. don't doubt 4G capability but do doubt deployment and economics.

No Slides. Video of Olaf Swantee is available here


@Alliantus: #paultaylor #google. Text to speech. Can't tweet because of sensitivity. Confidentiality works both ways Google.

@geoffmccormick: is there an irony in google asking for privacy ??? Txt to voice google insider info coming soon (I hope).

@eurocomms: Interesting... Google engineering manager asks #fwic if his speech can remain confidential ahead of upcoming developer conference

@geoffmccormick: voice input needs visual confirmation. Interesting point made by google.

@eurocomms: Apologies to all those asking re Google at #fwic - WiFi ironically pretty poor... – talk was mainly about developments in speech technology

@Lautarinho: Amusing efforts by Google to keep information at a major conference private it seems.

@Brill_Brum: Muppet!... Google engineering manager asks #fwic if his speech can remain confidential ahead of upcoming developer conference

@rpctelecom: Paul Taylor of Google gave an interesting talk whose title he doesn't want mentioned and said some interesting unreportable things

@rpctelecom: By the way, Paul Taylor of Google needs @connectifyme to solve his hotel Internet multiple-device problems

No Video or Slides for presentation by Paul Taylor, Engineering Manager, Google

ZG: Since the Google I/O 2012 is already over, I dont see why this cannot be shared now. I will add the pictures at the end of this post.

@Alliantus: Interesting panel discussion. Femtocell for capacity? Will we as consumers spend the money themselves?

@cambwireless: Panel session @DavidCleevely pushes femtocell opportunity for new business model

@rupert_baines: @davidcleavely at #fwic on need for #smallcell how femtocells create opportunity & new business model for carriers: economics view not tech

@cambwireless: Panel Session Olaf Swantree says femtocells are part of the equation

@marekpawlowski: Good point about expediting uptake of femto cells by operators recognising & discounting femto use in tariffs. Few currently do.

@JawadAbbassi: 50% of #cellular users in the #UK still do not use a #smartphone

@roryponeill: Olaf "we still have 50% of our customers in the UK who don't have smartphones" <--this game is not over ;)

@marekpawlowski: Swantee: As internet becomes personal, people resist advertising. Digital advertising works only when it helps users complete missions

Video of Panel discussion here




@Alliantus: Chewing on ideas surrounding the evolution of the device. Rory O'Neill RIM.

@najeebster: Future of wireless by speaker from RIM. Vaguely ironic?

@najeebster: RIM - there are still CIOs that think response time to an email in over 48 hrs is OK

@Alliantus: predictive conversations can impact on way we communicate. Conversations will be written across multiple devices. Simplifying life?

@zahidtg: Is this the industry challenge?





@kumithiru: @roryponeill that's a big percentage. Vodafone recently referenced only 27% of European customer base are smartphone users

@geoffmccormick: great talk by @roryponeill of rim. Concise explanation of the role of device innovation and associated experiences. Well done !

@Alliantus: plenty of room for innovation in the market. Incredible growth potential. More of a bb pitch than generic piece about industry.

@najeebster: very decent spiel by @roryponeill that there's room for more than 2 players in a $1.4Tr mkt

@Alliantus: global market is aggregation of lots of local markets. Interesting concept worth noting.

@marekpawlowski: A vision of Blackberry at heart of internet of things, using back end to predict, mediate conversations & transactions by @roryponeill

@marekpawlowski: Not sure I agree with @roryponeill that digital simplifies conversations. Rather allows us to deal with more simultaneous complexity

@JawadAbbassi: According to #Blackberry, globally #smartphones make up 23% of total cellular handsets.

Rory O’Neill, Vice President of Software and Services EMEA, RIM presentation here and video here




@Alliantus: RichardJacklin #anite my god its full of stars. iPhone created new form factor. Much reduced range of models. Is this a trend?

@Alliantus: Model range dip in 2011. Seen across all devices as shift in vendors.

@rob_symes: data prices must rise by 40 percent to make up for loss of voice and messaging

@dw2: Liked the Arthur C Clarke 2001 references in Richard Jacklin's #fwicinnovation talk. I'll have some more in my debate pitch tomorrow :-)

@mattablott: Some interesting studies on operator 'device ranging' by Anite

@dw2: Richard Jacklin's summary of Samsung's recipe for device success: experiment rapidly with multiple approaches + smartly observe market

@marekpawlowski: Hearing how differentiation moved to software. Is it that users don't want differentiated hardware or just it is currently uneconomic?

@sdfriedner: Hot topics at #FWIC How will devices, particularly smartphones evolve in the future and what will be the differentiator?

@marekpawlowski: Asked: is great RF performance a UX differentiator? Yes, but not at point of sale! Becomes relevant once you own, when it's too late!

@marekpawlowski: Revealing reaction to Q about improving sustainability by keeping, upgrading handsets longer. "Our industry is based on consumption."

@zahidtg: Interesting analysis of cost/defect by Richard Jacklin of Anite


Richard Jacklin, Business Development Director, Anite; presentation here, video here



@rpctelecom: Of the around 40 speakers and panelists at #fwic as far as I can see only 3 are women. Hmmm says something about our industry I fear.


Track 1: Four Pathways to International Business Growth - Chaired by John Davies, UKTI

@cambwireless: Finbarr Moynihan at Mediatek says smartphones will have 60-70% of market with 100 dollar smartphone possible

Presentations:



Track 2: Utility or Valued Brand - Chaired by Mark Neild, Nokia Siemens Network


@cambwireless: Track 2 at #fwic Looking at value based pricing - mobile operators need to focus on core bus. Partner with OTT - don't compete

@cambwireless: Mark Neild, Nokia Siemens networks: Up to third of revenue on handset subsidy

@cambwireless: iPhone put more focus on network quality. Customers care more about quality of their networks

@cambwireless: Mark Neild, Nokia Siemens Network says operators need to stick to what they are good at - delivering access

Presentations:



Track 3: Bandwidth Hogs or Experience Innovators - Chaired by Reginald Kipke, Velocix

@marekpawlowski: Terrifyingly prehistoric to be sitting in a session about 'threats and opportunities' of OTT

@marekpawlowski: Myriad's @MWJ encourages operators to do *something* with digital service innovation. Doesn't need to be perfect first time, just try

@marekpawlowski: Good point by @mwj about how forgiving customers can be of experimentation if it meets certain needs. Good UX isn't about perfection.

Presentations:


Track 4: Where Next for Devices - Chaired by Zahid Ghadialy, Explanotech


@zahidtg: Wow! Track 4 at #FWIC is completely packed. Everyone loves to hear about device evolution.

@JawadAbbassi: The Future #Internet of things will need a machine 2 machine gateway to be scaleable


@zahidtg: Lol. Ian Davidsons slide



@zahidtg: Arm did an analysis that even though your phone may be 2GHz and 4 core, most of the time its running on 200MHz

@zahidtg: Science fiction here...transmission of Smell @ track4


@zahidtg: From a presentation by Jenny Tillotson



@zahidtg: Who has tried transmitting smells


@zahidtg: Interesting slide by @BrianIsATwit



Presentations: 






Track 5: The continuing role of Intellectual Property - Chaired by John Haine, Cognovo

Presentations:



Dinner in St. John's college


Day 2

@zahidtg: Cambridge consultants showing their Small cells reference design with Mindspeed tech inside


@zahidtg: Freescale and Arkessa showing M2M for the next 50 billion devices at#FWIC



@cambwireless: Day two of #fwic well under way with Matthew Postgate, Head of R & D, BBC talking “How is mobile broadband changing broadcasting?”

@dw2: Found a jackpot of fascinating videos about the future of wireless tech at http://3g4g.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Videos courtesy of @zahidtg

@ndahad: the opportunities for mhealthcare. Professor Chris Lowe presenting on 2nd day of conference



@ndahad: what physicians typically looking for patients to track or monitor at home. Thousands of apps already available



@marekpawlowski: Perhaps there's no such thing as mHealth, just millions of distinct design challenges which, we hope, have some common tech solutions?

@ndahad: mhealthcare - the mhealth ecosystem




@marekpawlowski: Wealth of healthcare insights from Chris Lowe. Particularly the interest in doctors for using digital to facilitate more collaboration

@marekpawlowski: Also how greater self monitoring by patients could aid resource planning and epidemic response in the health system

@ndahad: big opportunity for mhealthcare solutions is in diabetes monitoring, 400 million affected worldwide, figure set to double in 10 years

@Alliantus: everyone saying what a fantastic job #ChrisLowe from Uni. Cambridge did this morning. Talking about mHealth

Prof. Chris Lowe, Director, University of Cambridge; slides here, video here




@kumithiru: Given voice to text keynote at yesterday's #FWIC fun to see@MatthewPostgate start with a Siri slide today

@Alliantus: How is mobile broadband changing broadcasting. A personal journey. Key enabler to redefine operating context. Industrial revolution.

@Alliantus: Towards a new broadcasting system. Universal. Live & on demand. Creation & curation. Immersive & pervasive. Shared and personal.

@Alliantus: Trend towards immersive and pervasive Tv. People want to be part of the service. Aunties view not the only one.

@Alliantus: Mobile equalised productisation with BBC content. No longer after thought.

@kumithiru: BBC 1-4-10 strategy for online service provision

@zahidtg: The 1 10 4 concept by BBC at #FWIC - 4 stands for 4 screens




@zahidtg: 50% of iPlayer access is now on 3G

@bensmithuk: BBC working on companion apps to play-out live in sync with programming including shows like Frozen Planet.

@Alliantus: is the broadcaster creator or curator? What is its role with user generated news, eg?

@BrianIsATwit: BBC #fwic future tech roadmap for broadcasting. LTE broadcast mode important.




@kumithiru: a lot of talk about e-MBMS in the US LTE networks good to see@MatthewPostgate of BBC deal with issue

@zahidtg: eMBMS is a research area by BBC :-)

@bensmithuk: BBC approaches for syncing 2nd screen: pure time sync, audio watermarking & syncing API interfaces (in order of 'frame accuracy')

@evolaris: Matthew Postgate, BBC: eMBMS interesting technology for broadcasters

@marekpawlowski: Matthew Postgate setting out immersive (3D, HD) & pervasive (new touchpoints) as tenets of BBC strategy

@marekpawlowski: BBC using Web sync, audio tags & home network API to link linear broadcast & companion devices. All must degrade gracefully

@marekpawlowski: Being able to link linear & companion content with frame accuracy is priority for BBC to try more creative multi-touchpoint experience

@marekpawlowski: Since iPlayer made accessible over cellular, has grown to 50/50 mix with Wifi on iPhone, but has not cannibalised Wifi at all

@marekpawlowski: However iPlayer iPad usage remains primarily Wifi, suggesting predominance of home usage

@marekpawlowski: I wonder if BBC will experiment beyond just multi-screen & start to build contextual experiences responsive to sensors & behaviour?

Matthew Postgate, Head of Research & Development, BBC; No Slides but Video is available here.




@zahidtg: Test challenges of connected car by Rohde&Schwarz


@zahidtg: We are also talking of VoLTE testing. The small note at the bottom has always worried me



Anton MessmerDirector of Subdivision, Mobile Radio Teseters, Rohde and Schwarz; slides here.




Innovation Hothouse - Chaired by Kevin Coleman, Project Director, 'Discovering Start-Ups'
Video here.




Policy Panel - Chaired by Stuart Revell, Chairman, ICT KTN Wireless Technology & Spectrum Working Group

@Alliantus: Airwave: spectrum is important to secure channels. Following global trends. Public safety network is minute in comparison to public.

@Alliantus: Small network for emergency response is expensive for small net. What price safety? Spectrum is important.

@Alliantus: Motorola. What do you want you phone 911? Someone who knows we ring 999. Cultural differences are interesting.

@zahidtg: Interesting. Emergency services use 0.9% of all spectrum between UHF and 6Ghz.

@RichardTraherne: Joe Butler, Ofcom, at Future #Wireless Conference #FWIC says radio spectrum access/use strategy must change

@Alliantus: International countries will not wait for Europe to make decisions. Sharing of infrastructure and services. LTE allows opportunity.

@Alliantus: How do we as a society value spectrum.

@Alliantus: voda. 15 year decisions regarding infrastructure. Where is the money? People don't care how they connect. How do we accommodate?

@cambwireless: Andy Hudson, Vodafone, head of spectrum policy, says that the most efficient use of spectrum is overall aim

@Alliantus: LTE not the soln for public safety. USA have made decisions that they will use it on the back of disasters such as Katrina and 911.

@Alliantus: Control will be driver for two networks. Could have sharing but only if emergency had control.

@zahidtg: I absolutely disagree that broadcasting is a complete waste of spectrum. If there were no broadcast ppl would try VOD, overwhelming nw

@cambwireless: Andy Hudson, Head of Spectrum Policy, Vodafone: "Biggest challenge is to make low cost high performance filter for handsets"

@rpctelecom: Jeppe Jepson of Motorola "broadcasting is the most wasteful use of the radio spectrum" - I'm not sure many would agree with him!

@rpctelecom: Ofcom wants a flexible spectrum map but will only "enable" not "regulate" for it. But will incumbents release spectrum if not pushed?

@rpctelecom: Andy Hudson of Vodafone says that Vodafone and O2 will share network infrastructure to give 98% indoor coverage in UK

Video of Policy Panel here.




@Alliantus: Colin Brereton #PwC Mobile enabler of global change. Interesting slide deck. Worth a download. Opportunity in Devoping World.

@bensmithuk: Don’t we need to stop marvelling at how the ‘young people’ are able to multi-screen and discuss / understand what all consumers want?

@bensmithuk: Tired of hearing ‘developed world’ & ‘emerging markets’ as binary distinction in mobile. Don’t we need a more granular description?

@Alliantus: New generation different mobile use. Apps 10Bn user market. See slides for other.

@cambwireless: Pwc - planet needs to be more productive. Mobile can become the primary enabler of social and economic development

@Peter_Whale: Thanks to Colin Bererton #PwC for laying challenge to focus creative energies on application of wireless to massively benefit society

Colin Brereton, Partner, Global Communications Industry Practice, PwC; slides here video here.

The Cambridge Debate

@zahidtg: #FWIC debate:This house believes that the future of Innovation in the wireless industry is within the Virtual rather than the Physical World

Video here.


@Peter_Whale: really stimulating 2 days. Head full of insights. Now the fun of connecting the dots; finding the takeaways; turning ideas into action

@vectafrank: well done@cambwireless - best yet!


Participants:
@cambwireless = Cambridge Wireless official twitter account
@zahidtg = Zahid Ghadialy
@marekpawlowski = Marek Pawlowski
@Qualcomm_UK = Qualcomm UK
@JawadAbbassi = Jawad J. Abbassi
@najeebster = Najeeb Khan
@geoffmccormick = geoff mccormick
@ndahad = Nitin Dahad
@Alliantus = Kevin Coleman
@dw2 = David Wood
@RichardTraherne = Richard Traherne
@bensmithuk = Ben Smith
@roryponeill = Rory O'Neill
@rob_symes = Rob Symes
@BrianIsATwit = Brian Robertson
@eurocomms = eurocomms
@rupert_baines = Rupert Baines
@mattablott = Matt Ablott
@sdfriedner = Saul Friedner
@Brill_Brum = Stu
@rpctelecom = RPC Telecom
@evolaris = evolaris
@RichardTraherne = Richard Traherne
@Peter_Whale = Peter Whale
@vectafrank = Frank Morris

In case you enjoyed my effort in collecting the tweets please let me know by clicking the 'Very Useful' checkbox below.


xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo Additional Information xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo 

As I mentioned in the beginning, Paul Taylor, Engineering Manager, Google, gave us a presentation and requested that we dont share information because of the Google developer conference. As this is over now, I am sharing the pics I took for his presentation. If anyone from Google raises an objection, I will take them down :-)