DashBoard Dialogue And New Batteries

DashBoard Dialogue

 To improve today’s voice-recognition systems, carmakers are collaborating with smartphone makers to literally reach for the clouds. The connected car of tomorrow will exploit cloud computing, plus the vast menu of  IT tools, apps, and updates raining down on the mobile-communication world to stream your home music collection into your car or remind you to grab a quart of milk. One of  the handiest cockpit advancements connects an Escort radar and laser detector to an iPhone by means of a SmartCord Live cable. Thus paired, your smartphone is capable of displaying not only traffic, speed-limit, and speed-trap-location information but also any live alert reported by another Escort user in the area running the EscortLive app. This networking could be the most effective police countermeasure since the CB radio.

New Batteries

Imagine a $30,000 Chevy Volt with a roomy back seat or a Nissan Leaf with a 250-mile range. Success of the electric-car movement hinges on the arrival of  better batteries. Two enterprises racing to commercialize advanced solid-state battery technology—Sakti3 and Planar Energy—hope to multiply lithium-ion energy density by a factor of  two to three while halving cost. Their plans are to replace today’s liquid electrolytes with lithium superionic conductors called thio-LISICONs (solid ceramic material containing lithium, sulfur, germanium, and phosphorous) to save bulk and weight.  Automated manufacturing processes will trim cost, while the likelihood of a chemical meltdown caused by improper charging or collision damage should be reduced significantly. GM, a Sakti3 stakeholder, hopes solid-state batteries will be ready  for road-testing within five years.

Hong Kong, South Korea lag in IPv6 adoption

Asia's emerging markets are leading mature markets such as Hong Kong and South Korea in IPv6 adoption as these countries have faster growing mobile broadband populations and a smaller pool of IPv4 resources. The mature markets' slow uptake could hamper competitiveness in the long run, according to the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC). According to a recent study by APNIC, the estimated IPv6 users in Hong Kong and South Korea as a percentage of the overall Internet population are 0.02 percent and 0.01 percent, respectively. Comparatively, the study showed Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia had higher IPv6 penetration than the two developed markets. Thailand had 0.16 percent of IPv6 users, Malaysia and Sri Lanka both had 0.13 percent, while Indonesia had 0.10 percent, the study revealed. 

The top 5 Asian markets in IPv6 adoption were Japan, which came in tops at 2.4 percent, followed by China at 0.67 percent. Australia had 0.42 percent, while Taiwan had 0.19 percent and Singapore 0.17 percent. In a phone interview with ZDNet Asia Wednesday, Paul Wilson, the director general of APNIC, explained the number of Internet users is growing faster in emerging markets than mature ones such as Hong Kong and South Korea.

This growth, driven by rising mobile broadband subscribers, means more new IP addresses are needed and increases the adoption of IPv6 address, Wilson said, adding this need to adopt IPv6 is not so pronounced in established markets. However, since Asia has ran out of IPv4 addresses, the executive noted even mature markets that still have available IPv4 resources need to prepare for the inevitable migration to the newer Web protocol for competitive reasons.

With most companies more dependent on the Internet these days, businesses that do not plan ahead for IPv6 migration could risk losing existing customers who are already using the newer IP (Internet Protocol). Being prepared includes looking to procure IPv6-compatible software, hardware and networking gear, or companies may risk paying more to cross over in the future, Wilson warned.

Enterprises lack IPv6 experts
 

Asked if IPv6 still has security issues to iron out, Wilson said the protocol provides more security capabilities than its predecessor. However, like other new technologies, mistakes caused by human error are likely when deploying IPv6 and this may lead to security concerns, he said.

This challenge is not helped by the general lack of IPv6-skilled professionals in the market, which is a major challenge for organizations looking to migrate. Those that do also have to put in more effort to retain and train their staff in this competitive recruitment climate, he added.

Apple to fix iOS Wi-Fi problems

Apple's dirty little secret, which was kept out of October 23rd's iPad 4 and iPad mini's limelight, is that iOS 6, the new and popular operating system for iPhones and iPads, still has serious Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networking problems. Now, though, it appears that a new version of iOS 6, iOS 6.01, will be fixing these problems in the next few weeks.

According to BGR, Apple sources confirm that they're testing iOS 6.01. I've also been told by sources at one of the major telephone carriers that testing has indeed begun. This update will fix numerous problems. These include the horizontal lines bug, a problem with the camera’s flash not going off, and other minor problems. The real news as far as I'm concenred is that it will will fix iOS 6's spotty Wi-Fi and fix the truly costly problem of iOS 6 using expensive 3G or 4G instead of free Wi-Fi when both are available.

Apple quickly fixed one self-inflicted Wi-Fi problem. This initial annoyance had iDevices phoning home to Apple only to end up locking devices off the Internet. That was the easy one. A host of other problems remain. These include iOS 6 users not being able to trouble connect with APs (Access Points) using WPA2 AES (Wi-Fi Protected Access II/ Advanced Encryption Standard) and some devices simply not being able to use Wi-Fi at all. We can hope that this forthcoming minor update will fix all these problems.

One problem that won't be solved though is Apple Maps. For that, you'll need to wait for, at least iOS 6.1 and it's all too likely that Apple Maps will still get you lost for long after that. Forturnately, there are many, better map alternatives for iDevices.

Up to speed: Small towns quick to download

You'd imagine that life in the city would provide the best chance of a decent internet connection, but small, regional towns with their own phone exchanges are a much better bet. There are only 500 people living in Manildra, for example. It's a small NSW town midway between Orange and Parkes, but it has its own ADSL2+-enabled phone exchange, and the small number of tests taken on the ZDNet Broadband Speed Test between February and September this year averaged 17.7Mbps. It's a similar story in Wallaroo, the little port town on the western edge of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. There's an ADSL2+-enabled exchange serving just a few thousand people, most of whom are only a stone's throw away, with no distance to build up resistance and compromise speed, and not many people sharing the backhaul connection to Adelaide.

The area around Crowley Vale in Queensland's Lockyer Valley has a population of just 1,600. It's so small that it doesn't even have its own Wikipedia entry, but it does have an ADSL2+ phone exchange, and it averaged 15.2Mbps from the 24 ZDNet broadband speed tests we tracked. It's the same across all of our top speed locations; small populations with their own DSL2+ exchange:

• Marian, home to 1,000 people, 24km inland from Mackay
  
• Riverton, just 700 people in the heart of South Australia's Clare Valley
  
• Monto in Queensland, birthplace of Mal Meninga, home to 1,500 people
  
• Moorooduc on Victoria's Mornington Peninsular, a small town of 1,000
  
• Tarwin Lower, 175 km south-east of Melbourne, with just 115 people
  
• Dunolly, heart of Victoria's goldfields, home to just 1,000.
  

In each case, the exchange serves far beyond the towns themselves, but most of the population is situated just a block or two away. It's a different story, of course, for country folk who are forced to make do with the exchanges located in neighbouring towns. Our bottom 10 postcodes comprise nearly 100 tests barely reaching 1Mbps. The only positive take-out for these people is that they'll never exceed their download limit — and, if they do, they probably wouldn't even notice that their speed had been throttled.

Big-city folk sit somewhere between the two extremes. No suburban location made it into our top 10, and there would be hell to pay if they made it to the bottom of the list. In Double Bay, home to Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, users get an average of 8.3Mbps. That's well above the country's average of 5.6Mbps (averaged from all of our DSL speed tests), and far above the result from Whittlesea, the heart of the prime minister's electorate, where speeds average 4.7Mbps.

The answer for Julia Gillard is simple. If the speed isn't to your liking, go bush! Find a small town with its own DSL2+ exchange, and enjoy the ride.

iPad Mini and new iPad look headed to EE's 4G network

Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller named EE as a 4G partner for the new iPads. Image: James Martin/CNET

Apple's new iPad Mini 7-inch tablet and fourth-generation iPad, introduced on Tuesday, look likely to plug into EE's 4G network in the UK. At a launch event in San Jose, Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller presented the new iPad and the much-anticipated iPad Mini, which will go up against Google's popular Nexus device. Among their many features, both tablets will have built-in support for LTE networks, Schiller said, but did not specify which spectrum this covers.

However, British operator EE appeared in a presentation slide showing carrier partners for the new iPad - a sign that the new Apple tablets will follow the iPhone 5's lead in being able to tap into the T-Mobile and Orange operator's soon-to-launch 1800MHz-based 4G services. "New features include a FaceTime HD camera, twice the Wi-Fi performance when compared to previous iPad models and support for additional LTE carriers worldwide," Apple said in its launch announcement.

After the launch of its previous tablet, the 'new' iPad, Apple had to field complaints over restricted LTE reach and paid an AUS $2.25m fine for marketing it as 4G, even though it didn't work on Australia's LTE networks. With the recently released iPhone 5, the company broadened its partners out, but still worked with only two 4G carriers in the whole of Europe - one of which was EE. Perhaps due to the 4G tweaks, the Wi-Fi-only models of the fourth-generation iPad and iPad Mini will arrive first. They are set to go on sale on 2 November via Apple's online and high street stores, as well as at retail partners such as Carphone Warehouse. The 4G-capable versions will start shipping a "couple of weeks after the Wi-Fi models", Apple said.

Neither EE nor Apple had responded to a request for comment at the time of writing. The new iPad Mini is about one-quarter thinner and half as light as the last generation of full-size iPad, according to Apple. It has a multitouch display measuring almost 8 inches, though this is not a Retina display, as some fans had hoped. Built on an A5 chip, it runs iOS 6 and promises 10 hours of battery life. With Wi-Fi only, the iPad Mini will cost £269 with 16GB of storage, rising to £349 with 32GB and £429 with 64GB. The same tablet with added 4G and other cellular capability is priced at £369, £449 and £529 correspondingly.

The fourth-generation iPad is built on a new chip, the A6X, that Apple says has "twice the CPU performance and up to twice the graphics performance" of its A5X predecessor. The tablet, which has a 9.7-inch Retina display, also runs on iOS 6. The new iPad with Wi-Fi only comes in at £399 (16GB), £479 (32GB) and £559 (64GB). Add in cellular, and the prices are £499, £579 and £659. Pre-orders for all models open at Apple's online store on Friday for buyers in the UK, the US and 24 other countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.