The Reg is reporting that Google Glass is on the way http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/17/google_project_glass_api_developers/ but it looks like its going to be like the early androd protypes first, the tech specks are listed here http://support.google.com/glass/answer/3064128?hl=en&ref_topic=3063354, and if you want to go programming it and see how it works have a look here https://developers.google.com/glass/about
Archive for the ‘Google’ Category
Google Glass
Thursday, April 18th, 2013Googles Data Centers
Monday, October 22nd, 2012So if your wondering what is inside Google’s Data centers, please see below. There’s a bit of PR and “saving the world” but it dose give an insite in to a data center.
We got to make the tubes bigger
Friday, September 14th, 2012Ireland’s great broadband project, to empower the poor misfortunates out in the “sticks” that’s country to you or me, Is happening again, with another minister for communications present.It provides a great photo op for some nice people in the leafy suburbs of Dublin to give their country cousins cake, in this case let them eat 30Mbs.
So how are we going to eat 30Mbs? Or more to the point how are we going to make the 30Mbs cake:
we we could use:
LTE (telecommunication)
LTE Advanced – the successor to LTE
WiMAX – a competitor to LTE
HSPA+ -an enhancement of the 3GPP HSPA standard
and that’s just the wireless options
Or we could just learn from the South Koreans http://gigaom.com/broadband/south-korea-europe-rule-planet-broadband/ where they have a rate of over 17Mbs and have been at the top of the broadband charts for years, you should think about that when you connection fails or that movie that your are trying to download slows to a snails pace. So what do the Koreans use to make there broadband fast? well they use VDSL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDSL), it runs over standard copper lines.
On the wireless side we should be also looking to Korea cause they have 100% wireless broadband in the country also (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57477593-94/south-korea-hits-100-mark-in-wireless-broadband/)
So why bother,well it seems to be a case of get with it or get out of it, looking at how Korea uses its technology in education, could be a simple justification for using broadband getting us to these high levels of Internet speeds, for example south Korea are moving away from paper based exams to electronic based exams, Sick children do not miss out on class, cause they can watch their teacher from their bed using IP TV (http://www.advancedtechnologykorea.com/8000).
But back to Ireland, so how are we going to do it, well if you look at table 2 on the national broadband plan (http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Communications/Communications+Policy/Next+Generation+Broadband/), you can see DSL flat lining after 2010, so it looks like nothing has happend there, and mobile has grown in a big way up to about 600k on a par with DSL at about 800k, so it looks like we’re going to have to go 50% wireless 50% fixed line…..but we want speed, and the only way to get speed is with Fibre, accross the pond Google are showing us the way with their Fibre role out in Kansas http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.ie/2012/09/building-180-fiberhoodsconstruction.html I think there may be a lesson here, Google haven’t used wireless, they are using Fiber, and the simple reason is that it’s faster, less complicated, and standardised, after all is been with us since 1966, so maybe it might be time to replace the phone cables throught out the country with optical cables!
Clouds and when they go bust or etc.!
Monday, February 6th, 2012So Megaupload users face data deletion according to the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16787486) so we are now in to the “fun” of the start of cloud services going bust, or being stopped operating by litigation. so it looks like you have to keep a copy of your data, before you go on to the cloud, but it also looks like you are going to have to synchronize your data with the clouds copy, that is assuming that you have a interface to that data. The example used could be GMail where users have all there data on google servers but if something happens to google, then your email data maybe gone, you can always set up a client to back up your data, see http://support.google.com/mail/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=ts.cs&ts=1668960&rd=1 and connect up evolution or thunderbird to copy your data out of the GMail cloud. It gets more interesting when you can’t get ftp access or no common standard is used for getting data out of the cloud. So there could be fun times ahead for people and companies that have gone too fast to cloud services, the may have to start looking in to how they synchronise there data with the cloud to maintain a local copy of there data.
Kindle fire a users tale
Thursday, December 1st, 2011Before you rush out and buy a kindle this xmas have a read of this http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/19/kindle_fire_google_apps/ it tells of a user discovering how locked in to the amazon ecosystem he was after buying a kindle fire. you have been warned!
Maps and freedom
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011With google now charging for maps (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2056128/Google-Maps-start-charging–thousands-sites-apps-hit-fees.html), it might be prime time for an opensource alternative to exist and openstreet map should now fill the void for the bigger sites, OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people like us. It allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth. Its seems to be a lot cheaper then €4 per 1000 thousand views once you go past 25000 map views on your site!
Gmail and your privacy
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011Allegedly Google has handed over one user’s private data to the U.S. government, who requested it without a search warrant.
The contacts list and IP address data of Jacob Appelbaum, a WikiLeaks volunteer and developer for Tor was given to the U.S. government after they requested it using a secret court order enabled by a controversial 1986 law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to the Wall Street Journal. The law allows the government to demand information from ISPs not only without a warrant, but without ever notifying the user.
more on the link below
Amazon Kindle Fire tablet
Monday, October 3rd, 2011Amazon are getting in to the tablet game with the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, and it looks like it will be a disruptive product, that will disrupt the market at under $200 or in under €150 Euros aprox. I hope that they will have a strong UI over android. its going to have a 7-inch screen with a Gorilla Glass coating, a 1GHz TI OMAP dual-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and will weigh 14.6 ounces. So the Speck is ok, its not going to set the world on fire, but for the person that wants a tablet, it should do the job. The worry will be how android or Amazon will it be, I dont see any mention of a USB connector, or sound out, I am prsuming that this will be as standard. It also will default to the Amazon market place, so that your app experience will be limited, This means that you can get access to the Android market. So it looks like we are seen a product with a open OS, but it will have a closed data portal. The 8GB of data will be tight if your watching video, but amazon have Amazon Cloud Storage, where the product could kill the market, is in the realm of video, where with whispernet, you can walk from watching the movie on the subway, and have it pick up where you stopped the movie on the subway to your TV in your front room, with out having to fast forward again to the point. IF it works, then it should be very cool. This could be the IPad killer!
My First Android Phone
Friday, August 26th, 2011I’m after getting my first android phone, its the vodafone smart or its a huawei 858 in real money. So why did I buy it, well it’s €60 so it’s cheap as chips. So I wouldn’t be an issue if I decided to drop it on a sink or worse. So far it works it dose a job, I’m even using it to write this post. So is android able to run on this phone, well it can stall the odd time so it isn’t the greatest. but it works and the applications work. The GPS works, I’ve had issues with the blue-tooth. (more…)
Phone wars
Thursday, June 30th, 2011So whats going to be the phone that is going to win the phone wars, well there is 500,000 android activations every day now according to Andy Rubin, so while the love affair with the IPhone may be still going strong, the market is pushing for open and its looking like android is the way it is going, at 500,000 activations, its hard to see apple coming back, unless it brings out a cut price IPhone, By the way who is Andy Rubin he is one of the founders of android