Tech Article for You

As the Consumer Electronics Show is kicking off 2005 in Las Vegas, one of the stars promises to be the emerging technology of Ultra-Wideband (UWB). UWB is wireless networking that is used for a multitude of electronic components and devices ranging from high definition TV, portable digital devices, to your traditional computer. UWB promises to blow away the current home wireless connections we are used to.

How will we use UWB? UWB could replace all of the wires and cables used in a home entertainment system. Your portable MP3 player could stream the audio to high-quality speakers placed anywhere in the room. A digital camcorder or still camera can play back the pictures on your TV without a wire connection. Your large LCD or plasma TV screen can be hung on any wall with no wires to attach. The wired USB connected peripherals could become obsolete as wireless UWB effectively makes the connections. That means you could set your mobile computer on a desk and be instantly connected to your printer, scanner and VoIP headset. In a word, wires may become a thing of the past.

UWB is seeking to make the “unwired” home a reality. To make this possible, UWB provides the vehicle to connect television programs, movies, games, output from hand-held devices, etc. without interference from other wireless transmissions. Current technologies have not been fast enough to route high bandwidth applications around the home without the use of wires or cables. Now the means exist with low cost, low power, high speed UWB.

The effective operating range for UWB is approximately ten meters or thirty feet. In this range, ultra-wideband operates across a wide range of frequency spectrum through the transmission of a series of very narrow and low power pulses. This provides much less interference than the narrowband radio designs. By incorporating UWB with the 802.15.3 PAN standard, it will provide a home wireless multimedia network that supports multiple devices without interference with other UWB networks of the neighbors.

There are other apparent advantages to the UWB technology. Since the UWB transceivers operate with low power, short burst radio waves, they are very easy and cheap to build compared to the traditional transceivers. The UWB systems consume around 1/10,000th of the power that a cell phone consumes. This makes UWB easily usable in small devices like cell phones and PDAs where small power consumption is a big advantage. Because of this low power operation, there will be little interference with other systems. In a recent test, an ultra-wideband transceiver yielded fantastic performance while operating in close proximity to an 802.11b network, a cordless phone, a microwave oven and a cellular/PCS phone.

The Federal Trade Commission (FCC) recently granted certification to Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. for commercial use of the UWB technology. Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. and Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. Are collaborating on a UWB-enabled 1394 module and are the first to harness the benefits of ultra-wideband and the 1394 standard. They expect to sell the module to leading consumer electronic manufacturers for use in wireless LCD televisions and a variety of home media devices. Other companies, such as Intel, are working on different versions of the ultra-wideband module.

What had been speculation is now moving into the production stage in 2005. The way we use wireless will be rapidly changing when the standardization for ultra-wideband technology becomes set and all the devices are able to take advantage of a universal playing field. The winner will be the consumer as an exciting new world opens up for UWB wireless applications.

Share This

There has been a big trend these days on watching TV on Pc. This is a convergence between computers, internet (broadband) and the television universe.

Most of the people are using PC-TV to watch their favorite: sports, movies and many other programs not always shown on the local TV channels. With the emergence of Broadband, the quality has improved enormously, bringing high-resolution and crystal clear sound. We are talking here about PC TV-via-the-Internet and not TV Tuner card.

IPTV - Internet Protocol Television - is around the corner: BT and Microsoft having recently announced a partnership to deliver a range of services covering sports, entertainment and news direct to your home via the internet.

But you do not need to wait for this IPTV or Venice Project (by Skype creators).

Today there are many sites, proclaiming to provide you the necessary software and know how for enabling you to watch shows that otherwise wouldn’t be available.

We have checked several of them. The first question is that real? Yes it is. In addition the cost is very low.

There are many sites offering you such a service, not all of them are good, but few are worth your money.

The one we consider to be one of the best is called satliveonpc.com. They are offering you a subscription of one year at a very low price and they offer you all the needed software and instructions.

They have also a lot of updates. Weakness, they are not always Apple compatible.

http://www.satliveonpc.com/

Share This

Effective print design is laconic: no wasted ink; less is always more. A good designer can communicate a stunning amount of information with surprisingly few tools. Design is pervasive in our media-centric culture, and subsequently we are constantly absorbing information via color, line, shape and symbol. Likewise is technology pervasive. From cell phones, to handhelds, to PCstechnology has become a permanent and essential tool in our society.

But the way in which we interact with technology has yet to fully evolve; the connection often remains sterile and detached. The potential to improve this relationship lies with designers.

For starters, we need to acknowledge the lingering disconnect between print and tech design. The same minimalist ethos that drives effective print media seems lost amid a sea of bad websites and unwieldy technology.

First, the bad websites:

Affordable publishing software has enabled a host of amateur web designers to enter the fray. The benefits of empowering individuals to express themselves on the web are undeniableindeed this is the living, breathing heart of the information revolution. What these recreational desktop publishers do to advance design, however, is questionable. With so many untrained hands at the helm, proper design is at risk of being run aground.

Now, the unwieldy technology:

Technology, by definition, is an enabler: it makes our lives easier, better, or both. Without thoughtful design, however, technology only partly lives up to its definition. An example: Multi-purpose cell phones. In theory, they enable you to talk, calculate an 18% tip, take pictures and videos, and surf the web. But what these phones gain in potential functionality, they lose in actual utility: you can’t use the calculator while you’re talking; the pictures are low-res; the videos are sub-par; and the web access is slow and requires very small, nimble fingers. Why not design a phone that, instead of all the bells and whistles, gets crystal-clear reception everywhere?

The desire to pack a lot of functionality into a little package is tempting primarily because we can: technology gets continually smaller and faster. The exponential growth in circuitry described by Moore’s Law (which celebrated its 40th anniversary in April), has outpaced a concomitant understanding of how to humanistically design these extra circuits into our lives. The drive to harness technology’s full potential should be tempered with restraint and good design.

Consider the iPod. Its success has little to do with Apple’s unique or cutting-edge technologyit’s a hard drive with earphones. iPod is successful because it conveys a big idea with what are essentially Kindergarten shapes: a rectangle and two concentric circles. By limiting functionality, the designers create a sleeker user experience and clearly articulate the product’s identity and purpose.

This approach is the type that will humanize our relationship with technology. But how do we get there?

Ironically, the same advances that spawned an onslaught of poorly designed webpages also create the opportunity for systemic change. Technology has crossed a critical threshold. Just as you don’t need to know HTML to create a website, you no longer need assembly code or binary math to approach tech development. The pieces are out there, we just need to put them together. Instead of viewing technology as something to design around, we should design with it, engaging technology not as a mechanic uses tools, but as an artist uses paint.

Interacting with technology shouldn’t be taxing for the userit should be fluid and intuitive. Good print design communicates ideas this way; doing the same in technology design requires but one courageous tweak in the way we embrace the medium. The time is ripe for a shift in paradigm.

Share This