HP Leaps ahead

HP has collaborated with Leap Motion to being Leap's 3D motion control to HP workstations.

Initially HP will bundle Leap Motion's Controller with their workstations and in future embed the controller hardware and software within the workstations.

Leap Motion have just announced the availability of their Software Development Kit (SDK) which will allow 3rd parties to add motion control to their applications.

Initially motion control will used to control the operating system itself, though apps will be available through Leap Motion's Airspace app store.

The stand-alone Leap Motion controller (which is attached to a PC/Mac through USB) is available for pre-order from Leap Motion for $79.99 (plus shipping).

RFEL announces HALO for video processing applications

RFEL Ltd a UK company has announced it's HALO video processing system based on FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) designed for military and counter terrorism use.

The HALO system is offered in a ruggedised enclosure, board only OEM unit and system on module unit for value add systems integrators. As the system uses FPGAs, new functionality can be added to the module at anytime. HALO supports the following video features: -

• Intelligent fusion of multi-modal imagery, such as from a visible and IR sensor.
• Image stabilisation, even when the platform is subject to severe vibration, and when imagery is sparse in features or of low contrast.
• Contrast enhancement to maintain high performance operation in marginal lighting conditions -- visible and IR.
• Noise reduction for optimising operation in low ambient light and for ensuring robust image fusion.
• Digital zoom, lens distortion correction, image overlay and support for compression standards.

It supports voltages from 4V to 27V DC.

Netflix dumps Silverlight

Netflix the video on demand service has dropped Microsoft's Silverlight in favour of using HTML5 vide extensions.

Though Microsoft have said they will support Silverlight until 2021, Netflix have been ready to migrate for a while and users can be unhappy with the browser extension that can be troublesome to install.

The video extensions Netflix will use are Media Source, Encrypted Media and Web Cryptography API which will be implemented in Google's Chrome browser and ARM based Chromebook and are likely to be native to other browsers soon. As the extensions are part of the W3C HTML5 specifications, users wont have to install any browser plug-ins to support them.

Redbull Amplifier an accelerator for music start-ups

Redbull Amplifier is a new type of accelerator that will plug music start-ups that might just change the face of music into Redbull's global channels.

Applications close on April 22nd 2013 and then will be screened by a panel of experts including Mercury-nominated Ghostpoet; former hip-hop mag editor and Red Bull Music Academy’s own Davide Bortot, Venturebeat’s Ciara Byrne, and SoundCloud’s Dave Haynes.

Anyone can apply (with as many ideas as they want) as long as their product is innovative, and enhances the music experience for fan or artist (or both).

Applications should entered on-line at Redbull Amplifier.

Zigbee targets Internet of Things

The Zigbee Alliance has published its latest spec allowing huge numbers of Zigbee devices to directly connect which is seen necessary for future Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Zigbee (the path a bee flies) is an IEEE standard (IEEE 802.15.4) and the new IP Direct Internet Connection addition adds support for network and security layers and an application framework that is scalable with IPv6 connected devices. The Zigbee Alliance state it is the first IPv6 open wireless mesh standard.

The main advantages of Zigbee against other systems is that it's very low power, automatically meshes new nodes and supports a wide range of standards such as 6LoWPAN, IPv6, PANA, RPL, TCP, TLS and UDP as well as supporting end-to-end encryption. It operates in the licence exempt 2.4GHz band as well as other bands in other regions.

NVidia delays Tegra4 and revenues will be "flat"

NVidia the chipmaker famed for its high performance graphics cards and now low power Tegra smartphone chips has delayed the introduction of the Tegra4 for about 3 months so it can ensure the integrated LTE is fully ready (in the Tegra4i version). The Tegra3 is used is tablets like Google's Nexus 7.

LTE is seen as a must have for next generation tablets and integrated on to the CPU rather than a separate radio chip.

The delay will give Qualcomm who are already market leaders in the integrated CPU market with their Snapdragon series of cores - and they already have a 4 core chip on the market which will be used in high-end devices like Samsung's Galaxy S4 (in Europe at least).

Though NVidia has been reasonably successful with its Tegra3 chip, it's been a difficult journey with them having to make significant re-designs along the way to fix design issues with the chip. Getting the Tegra4i right will mean long term cost savings.

Range Networks may offer commercial GSM services

Range Networks are mostly known for developing the open source GSM networking stack based on the OpenBTS platform (initially a GNU product as a software defined radio), it has famously been known for creating a working GSM (DCS1800) network at Burning Man.

Though currently supporting GSM (2G) and 2.5G networks, Range Networks are working on both 3G WCDMA and LTE networks.

Systems have been deployed in a research station Antarctica and a cattle ranching cooperative in Patagonia as well as a couple of hundred other rural environments.

The company has been self funded by the owners, but attracted funding in December 2010 and more recently a series A round which should help Range commercialise their systems and offer them to Tier 1 type operators for rural use. A core GSM network can be built for less than $100,000 while a base-station costs between $30,000 - $40,000 (both are around 1/3 the cost of current commercial offerings). The development will include SS7 connectivity and IMS functionality to connect to existing networks, though GSM endpoints appear as SIP endpoints.

Range are also competing with the advantage that all their systems are developed in the US (while competitors like ZTE are Chinese) which might appease the US Government who don't want US operators to rely on Chinese equipment which may have security issues and back-doors available to the Chinese Government.

Blackberry Balance arrives on Android and iOS

One of the best new features of Blackberry's new BB10 operating system is Blackberry Balance. This allows a corporate user of Blackberry to maintain two profiles, one completely secured and tied-down by the office using Blackberry's Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES) and the other for personal use. The user can switch between the two, but cant, say, install their own apps in the secure environment.

Since BES 10 now supports non Blackberry devices such as Apple's iOS and Google's Android, the Secure Work Space service has been made available to them and includes protected client applications for email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, secure browsing and document editing. Unfortunately due to operating system differences the service won't be as secure on non Blackberry 10 devices (though there are now 3rd party enhancements to Android to do similar things).

If Blackberry can regain their enterprise customers while allowing users to have access to other features they may actually be able to hold on to the market which they've been losing over the last few years.

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi (review)

O'Reilly (via Make:Magazine.com) have published Getting Started with Raspberry Pi the $35 ARM power Linux computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

The book is 10 chapters with 3 appendices.

• Chapter 1 - Getting Up and Running
• Chapter 2 - Getting Around Linux on the Raspberry Pi
• Chapter 3 - Python On The Pi
• Chapter 4 - Animation and Multimedia in Python
• Chapter 5 - Scratch on the Pi
• Chapter 6 - Arduino and the Pi
• Chapter 7 - Basic Input and Output
• Chapter 8 - Programming Inputs and Outputs with Python
• Chapter 9 - Working with Webcams
• Chapter 10 - Python and the Internet
• Appendix A - Writing an SD Card Image
• Appendix B - Astral Trespassers Complete
• Appendix C - Analog Input

Though it's a "Getting Started" book, it quickly gets difficult for non-technical users and very quickly loses them. The first few chapters are helpful and allow people to get a Raspberry Pi up and get started with it, though some essential information (like getting the operating system on to an SD card) is in the appendices which would have probably better been placed in the first chapter.

Someone who has programming knowledge will find the book useful as they should be able to get to grips with the environment reasonably quickly (it is Linux), but it should maybe have been split into 2 books or a just into 2 major sections, one really for beginners and then an advanced user section.

The book is available in paper or via O'Reilly's Safari store, it's also available on Valobox.

Nominet ditches direct.uk plans

Nominet is the registry for the .uk country domain. They had wanted to offer domains directly under .uk rather than the existing .co.uk, .org.uk subdomains.

As well as proposing some sensible policies (like only supporting DNSSEC the secure version of the domain name protocols) others didn't go down so well, so Nominet is re-thinking the their policies and will offer ;-

• A revised phased release mechanism based lrgely on the prior registrations of domains in existing third levels within .uk and in which contention between different applicants for the same domain name should be reduced or eliminated.
• Measures to improve security across the whole of the .uk namespace. This would include increased focus on encouraging the adoption of DNSSEC.
• A firm focus on registrant verification and some form of UK presence.
• Further investigations into the impact on the SME sector.
• An appropriate pricing model.

Which will be reviewed at the June board meeting.

If the new direct.uk system is implemented, Nominet have still committed to supporting the existing .co.uk space.

Digia announces enhanced BB10 support for Qt

Digia, the company that acquired Qt from Nokia has announced enhanced support the Blackberry's new Blackberry 10 operating system.

Qt is a framework that works across many platforms (both desktop and mobile) and allows developers to use the same front-end code which will work across all the supported platforms and Qt is used in Blackberry's Cascade framework which is used to develop native Blackberry applications.

Digia maintains the commercial version of Qt and also the open source version that is available from the Qt Project which is where any Blackberry enhancements are upstreamed to.

Ofcom consults on Short Range Devices

Ofcom has decided that short range devices (SRDs) should move from the band 10.675 to 10.699 GHz to 10.575 to 10.6 GHz in line the frequency allocation policy.

This new band will be made license exempt, but that requires a change to the Wireless Telegraphy Act which Ofcom is progressing.

The band was extended after the 2nd consultation (the 10.5GHz band consultation) as respondents complained there was not enough bandwidth in the proposed 10.577 to 10.597 GHz band and Ofcom has now extended this band.

No new SRDs will be allowed to operate in the existing band.

Ofcom will issue a consultation on the proposed regulations shortly.

The full statement can be found here as a PDF.

Euro Tech News goes live on Blackberry World

This blog can now be read in an app on Blackberry devices (on OS7 or BB10), it works both on smartphones and the Playbook and it's available on Blackberry World.

Developing an app for Blackberrys is notably hard, but Blackberry have come to the rescue with Blackberry App Generator (actually developed by Mippin) which does all the hard work for you. No code required, but there is a bit of work getting logos and icons in the right size. In the app generator just specify the feeds (it works with ATOM and RSS) and the app is built for you.

There are a few hoops to go through, initially a Blackberry Vendor ID is required (free sign-up, but company documents are needed as proof) from Blackberry Vendor Portal and that takes a while. Once the app is built, it needs to be approved, which can take a few weeks. Once approval is gained, the app must be published through the vendor portal and it's put into the app stores which can take up to 24h.

Though it's a nice feature and easily allows a website with news feeds to easily convert them into an app, could it be that Blackberry is just using this to swell the number of apps in Blackberry World?

It's really a 'no brainer' for anyone with a website that has regular updates presented as a feed and wants their own app.

Ofcom announces 4G frequencies awards

Ofcom, the super regulator today announced the awards (and subsequent prices) for the 4G spectrum awards. Everything Everywhere Ltd, Hutchison 3G UK Ltd and Telefónica UK Ltd (O2) did not have to pay anything following the original auction and awarding of their spectrum.

Niche Spectrum Ventures Limited (a subsidiary of BT Group plc) paid £15,061,179 to be allocated the spectrum bands 2,520 to 2,535 MHz and 2,640 to 2,655 MHz.

Vodafone Limited has paid £8,060,020 to be allocated the spectrum bands 801 to 811 MHz and 842 to 852 MHz, and an additional £4,039,123 to be allocated the spectrum bands 2,500 to 2,520 MHz and 2,620 to 2,640 MHz.

O2 was awarded 811 to 821 MHz and 852 to 862 MHz in the 4G spectrum award and has an obligation to cover 98% of the UK population by 2017.

The original auction raised £2,341,113,000 for the UK Treasury, this additional bidding has raised an extra £27,160,322 bringing the total raised to £2,368,273,322 for the UK coffers.

The licenses are now free to deploy 4G (LTE) services on these bands.

Last week Ofcom announced the winning bidders for 4G spectrum and amounts bid for it.

Everything Everywhere Ltd	2 x 5 MHz of 800 MHz and 2 x 35 MHz of 2.6 GHz	£588,876,000
Hutchison 3G UK Ltd	2 x 5 MHz of 800 MHz	£225,000,000
Niche Spectrum Ventures	2 x 15 MHz of 2.6 GHz and 1 x 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz (unpaired)	£186,476,000
Telefónica UK Ltd	2 x 10 MHz of 800 MHz (coverage obligation lot)	£550,000,000
Vodafone Ltd	2 x 10 MHz of 800 MHz, 2 x 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz and 1 x 25 MHz of 2.6 GHz (unpaired)	£790,761,000

CADScan launches affordable 3D scanner

CADScan has launched a project on Kickstarter to produce an affordable 3D scanner, which can scan 3D objects into an electronic format suitable for 3D printing.

The aim is to produce the scanner for £650 ($1,000) which puts it into the realm of companies and serious home users allowing objects sized up to 25cm x 25cm x 25cm (10" x 10" x 10") to be scanned.

With the combination of affordable 3D printers, it will now be possible to duplicate objects for under $2,000 which also brings interesting thoughts on affordable piracy of objects.

CADScan is based in Chester in the UK.

Sky buys O2 Broadband

BSkyB the media giant has agreed to acquire O2/Telefonica's O2 broadband service (this also includes the Be broadband service that O2 originally acquired to launch their broadband services). Sky will initially pay Telefonica £180m followed by another £20m following the successful migration of the customer base.

O2/Be have 560,100 broadband customers which added to Sky's 4,235,000 customers gives them 4,795,100 customers and pushes Sky into 2nd place in the UK broadband market following BT Retail with 6,569,000 and putting VirginMedia into 3rd place with 4,465,000.

The acquisition also covers O2's fixed line telephony unit and will increase Sky's consumer offering.

Though there is overlap in terms of infrastructure, O2's network will be migrated on to Sky's existing network - though it's likely there will be some exchanges that O2 have unbundled that Sky haven't - which means Sky's LLU (local loop unbundled) network will grow slightly as they move into those exchanges.

Sky will maintain O2's LLU offering (i.e. wholesale broadband service offered to other operators), but O2's LLU business will be migrated on to Sky's network. This should be a 'good thing' as O2's network reach will increase as they get access to Sky's unbundled exchanges, however some operators are worried that the quality of the underlying network will decrease and thus the customer experience may deteriorate.

The deal still has to get regulatory approval, but assuming there are no objections it should complete by April.

The added cash (which cant hurt as Telefonica/O2 has just spend a chunk on buying 800MHz spectrum in the recent 4G spectrum auctions) will be used to accelerate the rollout of 4G services.

Neul introduce witespace single chip solution

Neul, the spin off from Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR), today announced a single chip solution for whitespace use based on their weightless standard.

The ASIC known as Iceni works across the whole UHF band (470 – 790MHz) and is easy to interface to micro-controllers and CPUs such as the ARM M3 making it ideal for M2M solutions. The chip is also small, low power and low temperature.

It can operate using both 6 or 8 MHz channels and uses daptive digital modulation schemes and error correction methods can be selected according to the trade-off between data rate and range required for a given application as well as supporting over-the-air encryption. The chip also supports programmable IO allowing it to control external parts of the solution including the RF stage and thus the transmit power (which is essential to meet any local regulations).

Neul currently dominate the whitespace arena and the technology is well suited to M2M applications - probably more sure than cellular based systems using 2G or 3G. The Neul solution can support thousands (if not more) end points and support large distances between devices (the greater the distance, the lower the bandwidth, but this generally isn't an issue for M2M installations).

Neul are conducting trials in the UK as well as other countries, however although Ofcom has made whitespace devices license exempt, it mandates a central database that contains geo-information about locations, frequencies supported and power levels. Unfortunately Ofcom have not yet implemented the central database solution.

Ofcom allows high power PMSE devices

Ofcom, the Super Regulator that deals with radio and broadcasting (amongst other things) has published a statement on the use of high power devices for Program making and special events (PMSE).

Before the digital switchover devices such as radio mikes and other PMSE devices could use channel 69 (which lies in 800MHz) and their licenses expired at the end of 2012. However Ofcom is continuing to allow their use until this spectrum is awarded to a new licensee after the current 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum auctions end (the award is expect by March 2013).

Ofcom allocated channel 38 for PMSE devices (606 - 614 MHz), but only for low power devices (under 50mW EIRP), now Ofcom is also allowing higher power devices (up 10 10W EIRP) to operate in the lower 2 channels (within channel 38), i.e. 606.7 MHz and 607 MHz.

Most PMSE is low power use (such as radio mikes), however outdoor events such as golf or other sporting activities can use higher power. Ofcom has performed a risk analysis and found that the possibility of interference with other low power devices (which can use another channel) or neighbouring services is minimal.

The statement is available here and stakeholders can respond on-line.

Ofcom proposes new DTT multiplex in 600MHz

Ofcom the super regulator that covers many operations including broadcasting and spectrum allocations is proposing to open up the 600MHz band for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcasts. The 600MHz band is actually made up of frequencies from 550-606 MHz in 8MHz channels (known as channels 31 to 37). This band was cleared when the analogue transmission services were switched off.

The new DTT service will utilise DVB-T2 and MPEG4 which allows more spectral efficiencies than older DVB-T technology and MPEG4 compresses video more efficiently than MPEG2 which current non-DS DTT services use. Program making and special events (PMSE) services will still be allowed to reside in the band as will whitespace technology (this uses localised unused spectrum to offer wireless broadband/communication services).

Ofcom is acting in accordance with EU spectrum policy, whereby the current DTT services which operate in 700MHz should move to the 600MHz band and 700MHz will be used for wireless broadband services, though migration will not happen before 2018.

Thopugh this is a proactive mode for Ofcom, many set-top boxes built for DTT will not operate in 600MHz and new systems will have to be purchased.

Ofcom is proposing to make the license available immediately at a cost of £180,000 with a minimum period until 2018 but with a 12 month notice period so Ofcom can migrate current services into this band.

The consultation is available here and interested stakeholders may respond on-line.

Ofcom proposes to allow 4G on all 2G and 3G bands

Ofcom, the Super regulator, has opened a consultation to allow the liberalisation of all existing 2G and 3G bands so they can also be used for 4G (LTE) services.

This would mean O2 and Vodafone can refarm both their 900MHz 2G spectrum and their 2.1GHz 3G spectrum, EE (the combined entity of Orange and T-Mobile) have already started refarming of their 1800MHz spectrum, but they will be allowed to also refarm their 2.1GHz 3G spectrum. 3UK only have (currently) 2.1GHz 3G spectrum but will be able to refarm this and when EE transfer around 25% of their 1800MHz spectrum to 3UK they will also be allowed to use this for 4G (though this is not expected to happen until September 2013).

This is separate from any spectrum that is currently being auctioned (800MHz and 2.6GHz) though Ofcom has not yet announced who is bidding for what spectrum.

3UK have announced that when they launch 4G services, they will not differentiate on price between 4G and 3G services. The consultation is available here and interested stakeholders can respond on-line.