Blink (and the thieves are gone)

There's a new home security security system, it was originally a Kickstarter project and was delayed a long time. But now it's here and it's called Blink.

There's a sync module and then camera units (the system can cope with 10 camera units in total). Currently it all works over WiFi, but as there's an Ethernet port on the sync unit, it's expected that it will be enabled with some future version of the firmware.

Set-up is relatively simple, install the iOS (or Android) app, create an account and then it will look for the sync unit (it initially uses its own WiFi), connect to it and select the WiFi network you want it to work with.

It then asks to set-up the cameras, which is done by adding the number printed inside them (you have to open them to put the batteries in anyway), they then get added (and you can name them) and they also connect to the WiFi network.

The camera install is relatively straight forward too, open the back, put in the batteries, push out the bit of plastic in the hole where the mount goes, put it all back together (snaps), put the mount on, then affix the two sided pad and stick it on a wall (or wherever suits).

Though they're battery powered, they should operate for a year under normal operating conditions (a new software update now takes this to 2 years). The cameras have a motion detection on them (infrared) and also an LED flash (for night time usage) which is VERY bright. If a burglar were to break in, they'd probably be more put off by being blinded rather than a camera being in the room. The cameras can take a photo or video (720p with audio) and the system can be alarmed and when triggered, your phone will notify you and get a video or photo.

People have used the cameras outside, but they're not waterproof so if that's required, mount them somewhere where they'll be protected from direct rain (like under the eaves or similar).

A single sync module and camera costs $99 (available from Amazon.com or directly from Blink), a 2 camera kit is $159, 3 camera kit $219 and 5 camera kit $399. Additional cameras are $70.

Update, all the Blink modules are available from Amazon UK, The sync module with 2 cameras is £189.99 and sync module with 3 cameras is £259.99 and an add-on camera is £89.99.

Watch this space for a new external camera which is coming out in 2017.

Plazmatic X dual beam lighter

There are lighters and then there are lighters, the Plazmatic X dual beam lighter definitely falls into the second category.

The lighter is 7.3cm x 3.6cm x 1.25cm which makes it about twice as high as it is wide (which feels slightly wrong, being used to a Zippo to size), this is probably needed to fit a decent battery and the high voltage electronics.

Amazingly the lighter doesn't use any fuel (no gas or petrol to worry about) as it uses plain old electricity to produce a dual plasma beam. Say lighting a cigarette, you hold it near the beam and suck and the beam bends and quickly ignites the cigarette. Very satisfying experience. It's also mean to be able to light all sorts of other smokables (no judgement here).

The lighter can also be used in all sorts of weather conditions including wind as the plasma beam will still be generated (as long as there's a charge of course).

A full charge will give 50-100 lights (though it's so pretty that it's likely people will just click on the button to see the effect. It charges via a micro USB port (USB cable supplied) and charges to full in about 2 hours.

The lighter comes in various finishes (though they seem to be skins attached to the same base model rather than say anodising the body itself).

The lighter is available directly from the Elementium website for $59.95 (there's free shipping at the moment to the US). This may seem a lot for a lighter, though never having to buy fuel should offset it.

Rate: 9/10 (only because of the case).

Garmin Dashcam 35

The Garmin Dashcam 35 is a little camera that can be mounted on your card dashboard and then as soon as power is applied it will start recording. It's size is 9.43 cm x 4.85 cm x 3.89 cm and it has a 3" TFT LCD display and weighs about 113g.

The supplied mount need to be pushed into the socket on the front of the camera (it takes a fair bit of effort to snap it in) and the mount then attaches to the windscreen with a sticky pad. Unfortunately that means the mount is pretty well permanently attached to the the windscreen as it's pretty strong glue, it's a shame there aren't other types of mount that say attach to a heating grill or some other part of the dashboard that can easily be removed. A bodged mount can work by attaching some sticky tape to the mount and the bottom of the camera and it will just about sit on the dashboard with an unobstructed view ahead.

The system records HD video (1080p or 720p) and will stamp the video with GPS coordinates and the system records in a continuous loop i.e. if it runs out of space it will overwrite older video. The system should come with a 4GB microSD card (though the unit supplied didn't have one) which is enough for about an hour of video. It supports up to 64GB cards.

It also has a microphone which records what's happening in the car!!! There's also an accelerometer which will detect a collision (and start recording if it isn't and log GPS coordinates) which is detected as an "event". However when it's recording an event can be pushing the mount into it or it falling off the dashboard on to the car floor.

There's no software in the box, though Garmin's Dash Cam Player is available for download (for Mac and Windows) through their site. This will show the video and the GPS route next to it (when run it will look for an attached camera or videos on the SD card and import them on to the PC/Mac). The actual video files are MP4 so can be viewed in pretty much any video player. The player shows the route taken, speed and time (there is a pointer on the route that moves as you play the video).

A quite nice feature is that it's possible to select Bing (default)/ Baidu or OpenStreetMaps for the map display. It's also possible to convert any unsaved videos to saved (on the PC/Mac), export GPS positions to a GPX file and take a screen shot.

It's also possible to by a Cyclops subscription from the Garmin store (for various countries including UK/Europe) which will alert the user to speed cameras etc.

Apart from the niggling permanent windscreen mount, it's a nice little unit. It retails for £159 from Garmin, but can be had on-line for at least £20 cheaper.

Misfit Ray, it might actually be the first wearable that actually looks like jewellery

A while back, Misfit released the Ray. Basically a tube with a single LED and straps coming out either side (initially only silicon, which are a bit ugly, but now leather straps are available, which look much nicer - though obviously not made for sports/water). The tube is made from aluminium and comes in Carbon Black or Rose Gold.

Apart from the lack of LED's, the Ray has pretty much the same functionality as the Shine2 and measures steps, activities and sport and works with Misfit Link to trigger actions (and can link to IFTT to trigger pretty much anything).

Progress is tracked by the LED flashing different colours (under 25%, 25%+. 50%+, 75%+ and 100%+ i.e. goal met) and it flashes blue when syncing with the Misfit app over Bluetooth (it supports Bluetooth version 4.1). It will;l also indicate incoming calls, incoming texts and wake-up alarm.

The Shine2 uses a single CR2032 battery while the Ray now uses 3 x 393 button cells (which should also give 6 months usage).

The Ray is also 50m water resistant so can be used for swimming.

Misfit are promising a range of new straps and other accessories so it can be worn, say, as a pendant.

The sport band version retails for £72.87 and the leather for £87.45, not the cheapest units out there, but probably (at least for now) the prettiest.

Speed-up your headless Mac Mini

The Mac Mini is Apple's smallest Mac and though it can be used as a workstation, it's often used as a server for offices/workgroups and even in datacentres. Apple even supplies software to make it function as a server (unsurprisingly called OS X Server - currently v5.0.15 is the release version and the beta variety v5.1 beta 2).

The server software supports various functions including a mail server and even remote Xcode compilations. However sometimes it's useful to remotely access the Mac Mini using Apple's remote desktop so getting a virtual screen on to the unit itself. Unfortunately if it's in headless mode, the on-board GPU is not enabled and all graphics is handled by the main CPU, which can make the system seems extremely slow as the CPU is spending it's time rendering the screen, animations and doing screen refreshes etc.

Now there is a solution to this and Newertechnology have produced an HDMI Headless Video Accelerator (t's about the same size as a small Bluetooth or WiFi adapter) that is plugged into the HDMI port and then the Mac Mini then thinks a screen is attached and thus the GPU is enabled meaning all screen handling is done by the GPU rather than the host CPU and everything runs smoothly again.

The adapter supports a maximum resolution of 1080p (and up to 3840 x 2160 on a late 2014 model). Other models supported are Mid 2010 through to the latest. OS X 10.6.8 is the earliest version of the operating supported (no drivers are required).

It can be found on-line for around £21.99. A really useful little edition if using a Mac Mini in headless mode and accessing it remotely (it's also true for using it for remote animation and anything that uses the GPU).

Techstars London opens applications for next cohort

Techstars has opened applications for their 5th London program which will run from June 20th with the demo day taking place in September.

They will be accepting 10 to 12 teams and interested companies should apply on-line through F6s.

Techstars has some great mentors (there may be some bias here) and some great companies have come out of the program. It's progressed a lot since Springboard days.

The Gadget Show Live show returns to the NEC

The Gadget Show Live once again returns to the NEC in Birmingham on 31st March to the 3rd April 2016.

Channel 5 Gadget Show presenters Jason Bradbury, Jon Bentley, Ortis Deeley and Amy Williams will be on the stage and this year a TV episode will be filmed giving members of the public a chance to appear on the show on TV.

There will be 5 areas (including the main stage): -

• Better Life - Products that can help people or are beautiful in the home
• Power Up - technology to power their lives which is anything from wearables, fitness devices and in-car kit
• The Lab - Future/inspirational tech
• The Arcade - which is all about gaming

Tickets are available on-line and cost

Child (Thurs)	£9.99
Adult (Thurs)	£16.99
Child (Fri, Sat, Sun)	£11.99
Adult (Friday, Sat, Sun)	£18.99

Ofcom publishes regulations for 'TV whitespace' tech

Ofcom, the Super Regulator, (in December) published the new regulations for TV Whitespace technology which came into force on the 31st December 2015 allowing equipment that meets the regulations to operate on a license exempt basis.

In the new digital era of terrestrial TV, there are digital multiplexes across the UK, these multiplexes use different channels, so neighbouring transmitters don't interfere with each other, which means there is a lot of potentially unused spectrum in a particular area. Multiplex sit in the UHF band which covers 470 - 790 MHz.

In order to avoid interference with existing (licensed) spectrum users, devices will need to communicate with databases which apply rules, set by Ofcom, to put limits on the power levels and frequencies at which devices can operate. There is also a 'kill switch' function whereby the database can tell a device to stop operating completely if interference is found to be occurring.

The UHF TV band is currently allocated for use by Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcasting and Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE). Currently, Freeview TV channels are broadcast using up to ten multiplexes. Each multiplex requires an 8 MHz channel. Multiplexes are transmitted at different frequency channels across the country in the frequency range 470 to 790MHz.

Whilst a total of 32 channels each 8 MHz wide are reserved for DTT in the UK, normally only one channel per multiplex is used at any given location. In other words, the majority of channels are unused for DTT transmission at any given location. This is required because high-power TV broadcasts using the same frequency need geographic separation between their coverage areas to avoid interference.

The channels that are not used by DTT at any given location can be used by lower- power devices on an opportunistic basis. This opportunistic access to interleaved spectrum is not new. Programme making and special events (PMSE) equipment such as radio microphones and audio devices have been exploiting the interleaved spectrum for a number of years, and Ofcom issues more than 50,000 assignments annually for this type of use.

Ofcom refer to the spectrum that is left over by DTT (including local TV) and PMSE use as TV White Spaces (TVWS). By this we mean the combination of locations and frequencies in the UHF TV band that can be used by new users, operating in accordance with technical parameters that ensure that there is a low probability of harmful interference to DTT reception, PMSE usage or services above and below the band.

The following organisations have signed contracts and completed qualification to run the white space databases (WSDB): -

• Fairspectrum Oy
• Nominet UK
• Sony Europe Limited
• Spectrum Bridge Incorporated

The 'master' devices that talk to the databases should report their height, if they don't the database will use a use conservative default values for the purpose of calculation of operational parameters i.e. it will use height values that would result in operational parameters that are equal or more restrictive than they would be had the device reported its height.

Though the regulations do not specify an update time (for master devices to communicate to the databases), Ofcom has stated a maximum time of 15 minutes which strikes an appropriate balance between the need to be able to act quickly in the event of interference and limiting the practical burden on databases of maintaining frequent communications with potentially large numbers of devices. This may be revised if found to be unsuitable.

The WSD Regulations apply to the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man. They do not extend to the Channel Islands.

A master device is a device which is capable of communicating with and obtaining operational parameters from a database for the purpose of transmitting within the frequency band 470 MHz to 790 MHz.

A slave device is a device which is capable of transmitting within the frequency band 470 MHz to 790 MHz after receiving slave operational parameters from a master device.

Type A equipment as equipment which has an integral antenna, a dedicated antenna or an external antenna11 and is intended for fixed location use only.

Type B equipment as equipment which has a dedicated antenna or an integral antenna and is not intended for fixed location use.

WSDs must not be used airborne.

WSDs must be configured in such a way that a user is unable to input, reconfigure or alter any technical or operational settings or features of a device in a way which (i) would alter the technical characteristics of the device which are communicated to a database (this includes the master and slave device characteristics), or (ii) would cause the device to operate other than in accordance with master operational parameters or slave operational parameters, as applicable. An example of (ii) would be the antenna gain. If this parameter is set to be smaller than the actual gain of the antenna, then the device could radiate at a higher level than the limit communicated by the WSDB.

A master device:

• must be able to determine its location
• must provide device parameters (defined now as its ‘master device characteristics’) to a database, in order to obtain operational parameters from the database. The device parameters include the location and the technical characteristics of the device listed below. The operational parameters indicate to the device the channels and power levels that it can use, together with other constraints.
• must only transmit in the UHF TV band after requesting and receiving operational parameters from, and in accordance with, operational parameters provided by a database
• must apply the simultaneous operation power restriction (described at paragraph 3.23 above), if it operates on more than one DTT channel simultaneously and the master operational parameters indicate that this restriction applies
• must report back to the database the channels and powers that the WSD intends to use – the channel usage parameters – and operate within those channels and powers.

In addition, where its operational parameters stop being valid, a master device must tell slave devices that are connected to it to stop transmitting and must stop transmitting itself. The operational parameters stop being valid if:

• a database instructs the master device that the parameters are not valid
• a master device cannot verify, according to the update procedure, that the operational parameters are valid.

In order to support more WSDBs Ofcom also intend to publish on our website a machine-readable version of that list on a website hosted by Ofcom so that it can be selected by a WSD through a process known as “database discovery”. Ofcom would expect that list to include those database operators which have informed Ofcom that they are ready to start providing services to white space devices.

It is interesting that Sony is moving into this space, which probably means they will start producing equipment that uses white space technology for short range communication, such as say a PS4 to its peripherals.

Intel Edison, jack of all trades, but maybe master of none

The Intel Edison is a small system-on-chip (SoC) that measures about 35.5 × 25.0 × 3.9 mm (on its carrier PCB) which has a connector on it allowing it to be plugged into other things (it is possible to get the SoC on just the PCB without the edge connector).

The SoC board can then be plugged on to various boards from Intel, one is a breakout board which exposes various pins and has some USB sockets, there's also an Arduino compatible PCB allowing Arduino shields to be used.

The Edison tries to be everything to everyone, but doesn't always succeed. It actually has two processors inside, a dual thread dual core Atom running at 500MHz and a Quark 32 bit micro-controller running at 100MHz. The Atom runs Yocto Linux and the Quark a Real-time Operating System (RTOS).

It has 1GB of RAM and 4GB of Flash, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0

There's a total of 40 I/O pins that can be configured to be: -

• SD card - 1 interface
• UART - 2 controllers, 1 with full flow control
• I2C - 2 controllers
• SPI - 1 controller with 2 chip selects
• I2S - 1 controller
• GPIO - 12 with 4 capable of PWM
• USB 2.0 - 1 OTG controller
• Clock output - 32 kHz, 19.2 MHz

Intel provide multiple ways of programming the system: -

• Arduino IDE (v1.6+, no longer requires an Intel specific build)
• Eclipse supporting: C, C++, and Python
• Intel XDK supporting: Node.JS and HTML5

There are other environments that also support Edison (in Arduino or direct mode) such as the node.js Johnny-Five system. Node-red can also be installed directly on the Edison and accessed through its web server. Google's Brillo is also an option now.

Running Linux does have benefits if you're into Linux environments as there's lots of packages that can be downloaded for it or indeed built as required.

You'll either love or hate Intel's development environment (XDK).

Integrating Edison into your own projects does give you a lot of flexibility, though the power requirements aren't as low as some other Arduino types (but by the time shields have been added to give the same functionality, power requirements increase with them). In theory it is possible to put the Atom to sleep and have the Quark micro controller do background non CPU intensive tasks and then it can wake the Atom up to do some hard processing or data transfers through WiFi say, but it's not meant to be 'easy' to actually implement.

The basic Edison (just the board) is around £42, on the small breakout board it's about £72 and on the Arduino base it's £96 though on-line pricing varies.

Overall the Edison really does tries to be everything to everyone and it's a pretty powerful computer (well 2), but it may be too generic for lots of things and the variety of programming modes etc can be confusing.

Socksy, get new socks every quarter

Socksy held their relaunch party last night at the Groucho club in Soho.

Socksy is a socks as a service company (SaaS), you sign-up and then get 3 pairs of high quality socks (street, neat or chic) delivered to your door every three months. They come in an A4 box so it will fit through your letterbox and the box can then be used to file papers etc.

The socks are all high quality and though the preferred Socksy method is for the subscriptions, it's also possible to buy them individually.

Socksy Mens' socks are generally knee length which takes a bit of getting used to if your used to wearing ankle length socks, but they're meant to be the 'real deal' and they're not socks if not knee length. Who knew?

If anyone wants to use the service there a 25% discount off the normal £60 per month service, by using code "lucky feet" (without quotes) the subscription fee is reduced to £45 every 3 months, so that's 3 pairs of high quality socks i.e. £15 a pair.

Socksy are also on Twitter , Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.

Last chance to control your home with nCube

nCube is a home hub that connects to your home network and then allows you to control devices in your home through the nCube app.

It works with lots of home devices such as Nest thermostat, Philips Hue and LIFX lights, sonos music and Belkin WeMo plug-in & lightbulb products.

Protocols supported are WiFI, Bluetooth and Z-Wave.

The device is secure (the phone app must be set-up on the home network) and the nCube device uses a VPN into the nCube cloud services.

As well as being functional the nCube app is designed to be easy to use and has won several design awards.

The nCube Kickstarter campaign finishes in 3 days so get backing, it's still possible to get one for an early bird price of £99 (it will retail for £139).

Ofcom consults on Walkie Talkies, Level Crossings and DECT phones

Ofcom, the Super Regulator, is holding a consultation on Licence Exemption of Wireless Telegraphy Devices.

Walkie Talkies or as they're officially known as Private Mobile Radio (PMR), are allowed to operate in license exempt status in the band 446.0 - 446.2 MHz. Previously this was split into to bands, 446.0 - 446.1 MHz for Analogue PMR446 equipment and 446.1 - 446.2 MHz for Digital PMR446 equipment.

Ofcom is proposing to make the whole band available for both analogue and digital PMR446 equipment, whereby: -

• the band 446.0-446.2 MHz for the use of analogue PMR 446 with a channel plan based on 12.5 kHz spacing where the lowest carrier frequency is 446.00625 MHz
• the band 446.1-446.2 MHz for the use of digital PMR 446 with a channel plan based on 6.25 kHz and 12.5 kHz spacing where the lowest carrier frequencies are 446,103125 MHz and 446.10625 MHz respectively
• the band 446.0-446.2 MHz for the use of digital PMR 446 with a channel plan based on 6.25 kHz and 12.5 kHz spacing where the lowest carrier frequencies are 446,003125 MHz and 446.00625 MHz respectively as of 1 January 2018
• analogue PMR446 equipment operating in the frequency range 446.1-446.2 MHz should use more robust receivers as specified in ETSI TS 103 236 or equivalent technical specifications

This would allow any device to transmit max 500mW while NO fixed basestations are allowed and the maximum transmit time would be 180s, This would all come into effect in Jan 2018.

Ofcom also wish to change mandated exclusion zones around radio astronomy sites for level crossing radar to that of co-ordinated exclusion zones i.e. level crossing radar in the exclusions zones could be used with the coordination of the Radio Astronomy sites. The methodology, decision and appeal processes to determine whether a device can be deployed in the coordination zone is to be agreed between the rail network operators and the Radio Astronomy service.

The current exclusion zones are

Site	NGR	Exclusion zone
Jodrell Bank	SJ 79650 50950	20 km
Cambridge	TL 39400 54000	20 km
Defford	SO 90200 44700	20 km
Darnhall	SJ 64275 62265	20 km
Knockin	SJ 32855 21880	20 km
Pickmere	SJ 70404 76945	20 km

DECT equipment has been license exempt for a number of years, operating in the band 1880 to 1900 MHz. Currently the document exempting the equipment states that a handset connects to a basestation and it is proposed to just change the to a short range device (SRD) to make it more applicable to handsets that aren't connected to the telephone network.

Stakeholders wishing to respond may do so using Ofcom's on-line form.

Misfit Shine2 - it's not shiny

Misfit have produced the prettiest wearable for a while, the original Shine tracked steps and was one (if not the) first to do automatic sleep tracking. It was a small disk (27.5mm across and 3.3mm high) which contained the electronics and a changeable CR2032 coin cell which lasted for about 6 months. It came with a silicon strap and a silicon magnetic clip so it could be worn on the wrist or clipped on to a t-shirt, bra, shoes, trouser pocket or wherever suited the user. It's also possible to buy socks and t-shirts with a dedicated Shine pocket and a necklace too. It links back to the Misfit app (Android and iOS) using Bluetooth 4.0.

Now the Shine2 is out it's bigger (it's 30.5mm across and 8mm height) and comes in matt black (carbon back as Misfit describe it) and rose gold. It's also 50m water resistant. The original Shine had 12 white LEDs around the edge and the have been upgraded to RGB LEDs, there's also a 'buzzer' inside that can notify you of various things. The battery is still a CR2032 which should last for around 6 months and Bluetooth is now 4.1 which allows for faster data transfers.

The Shine2 can now wake you up by its buzzer (you set the time in the app), the original Shine had the smart alarm feature, but you'd need the phone by your side. It can now also notify you of calls and texts.

The strap and clip unfortunately don't feel as well made as the smaller ones with the original Shine, but then there'll probably be a slew of new accessories for you to spend more money with Misfit.

Having used the Shine2 for a day, sync'ing definitely seems faster, though you definitely notice the size increase.

Still a very pretty wearable compared to most.

It retails for $99.99 from the Misfit Store (they do ship to the UK using DHL so add shipping costs and import duties/VAT).

Ofcom tackles Pirate Radio

Ofcom, the Super regular has published a report on how it has worked with Haringey Council to remove equipment used for Pirate Radio broadcasting from buildings operated by the council. 19 stations were closed in 2014.

Ofcom and Haringey estimate that this has saved the council £90,000 in enforcement and maintenance costs. Ofcom is meeting with other councils on the 3rd of November to report their findings from the Haringey cooperation and if this is rolled out across London could save councils £1m per annum.

Though Pirate radio is illegal it can form a basis for community radio, unfortunately it can cause real issues and NATS has reported 55 incidents of interference from Pirate station. There have also been complaints from emergency services and licensed commercial users.

There are schemes in place for local broadcasters to legally broadcast and Ofcom has even allowed DAB stations to be set-up using off-the-shelf hardware and open source software which means a DAB station can be set-up for around £6,000. These use Linux and efforts from OpenDigitalRadio and commercially available software defined radios.

Pirate radio has been groundbreaking in the past and it will be a shame if all Pirate radio stations disappear, but if Ofcom genuinely allow more open access using local commercial DAB multiplexes maybe it won't matter.

ARM doesn't quite open source M0 processor

ARM, the company that licenses it's CPU technology, is now offering the designs of it's Cortex-M0 for 'free'.

It isn't quite free, but the IP is available to designers to integrate into their own System-on-Chip (SoC) designs pre-commercialisation, along with supporting peripherals. There's then a fast track process to license the IP when the chip goes into production.

The designs will allow prototyping the the CPU and peripherals on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) before committing to actual silicon.

ARM is also supplying access to the ARM Keil MDK (software developer kits) for 90 days so developers can test their designs.

Once a commercial license has been obtained, ARM will provide use of the ARM Cortex-M0 processor IP, SDK, and Keil MDK development tools, along with ARM technical support.

This should allow start-ups who wish to develop specific SoC solutions to utilise the ARM M0 in their designs without having to pay traditional (large) licensing fees upfront.

There's a new smartwatch on the BLOCKs

After a 2 year wait, the BLOCKS smartwatch is now live on Kickstarter. It has a round face and comes in 3 colours (Onyx Black, Marble White, Sunrise Red) with a 360 x 360 colour display with haptic feedback.

Inside it's got quite a lot of technology inside the core itself: -

• Snapdragon 400 CPU
• WiFi supporting 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.1 (Bluetooth Low Energy/Bluetooth SMART)
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB Flash (ePOP
• 1.35" fully round display
• Accelerometer / Gyroscope
• Power button
• Microphone
• Vibration (motor)

It runs a (full) version of Android Lollipop (not Android Wear) which gives the core module much more functionality than standard Android based smartwatches. It doesn't stop there as the watch can be upgraded with modules (blocks) which can be thought of as strap links. A large wrist will support 4 blocks, while a more petite wrist should support 3.

Though designed to support extra modules, the watch core (i.e. the main round watch bit) will function by itself and the lowest cost option is just the core and a strap.

The BLOCKS smartwatch is fully compatible with both iOS (v8+) and Android.

The exciting bit is the additional modules, the following are available via the Kickstarter campaign: -

• Extra battery (the main battery lasts about a day and a half, this extends the period by at least 20%)
• Heart Rate module - uses and optical sensor
• GPS module
• NFC Module - may support contactless payment
• Adventure module - it measures altitude, pressure and temperature

Next year the following modules are planned (Phase 2): -

• GSM module - insert a SIM and leave your phone at home
• Fingerprint module - authenticate things, maybe NFC payments
• LED module - a torch?
• Button module - use for emergency alerts or anything else you can think of using a button for

Then at a later date the following modules might come into being: -

• Air Quality module
• Camera module
• Flash Memory module
• Stress Levels module

The smartphone app allows further modules to be purchased (BLOCKstore), customise watch faces and buy watch apps (BLOCKSware?).

The basic BLOCKS core (and strap) starts at $195. The Super Early Bird (sold out) was at $250, the Early Bird (one left at time of publishing) was $260 and the Late Early Bird is $275 which goes up to $285 when all the early birds have gone. All of the later pricing includes for modules and further modules can be purchased for $30. There are also options to purchase multiple units.

BLOCKS has now been fully funded (the campaign launched at 5pm UK time) and has raised over $300,000 of a $250,000 target, that's $300,000 in under 2 hours!!!

New NFC ring, better with twice the NFC

Last week seems to be the week of NFC (Moo launched it's Business Card+ NFC cards, see previous article) and John McLear has launched the second series of his NFC ring.

The original NFC ring was launched on Kickstarter and though the campaign was a success, rings took far longer to arrive than expected due to production difficulties. Now there's a second NFC ring (also launched on Kickstarter, the campaign is active), which is nicer and better than the first.

The new ring is made from ceramic and looks much smarter than the first series. It has TWO NFC inlays based on the NTAG216 NFC chip made by NCP semiconductors. This allows to the ring to be dual use and store both public and private information. Use one NFC chip to store something like a website address and use the other to store secret info which could be used to unlock a phone (and with the appropriate hardware even a house lock etc). The chips work in the 13.56MHz band and can store up to 888 bytes of information (and that info will be held for up to 10 years). The chips support 100,000 write cycles (unlikely people will change the info stored that often, but in a retail environment that could happen).

The ring is laser engraved with the NFC logo on the inside making it easy to differentiate which is the public and private side of the ring.

The NFC supports 3 modes: -

• open, which allows the user to write the data into chip (and also anybody else who might have an NFC writer in the vicinity)
• closed, whereby once set, the data in the chip can never be changed again
• code lock, this allows setting a code and data on the chip can only be set once the code has been verified by the chip

Currently code lock is not implemented in the Android app that accompanies the ring, but it will be in the future.

The early bird price for the NFC ring was £18 (all gone), but it's still possible to pledge £23 and get one (it's possible to order multiples too). It's also possible to get 2 NFC inlays for £5 and 4 for £10 so users can build their own ring designs (the inlays are 20mm by 6mm by 0.2mm).

Unfortunately NFC is only really usable on Android/Windows and Blackberry users (there's lots of programs available to program the chips including ones by NXP themselves). Since Android 5.0 the smart lock application is included in the base operating system so a phone can be unlocked with an NFC tag.

MacOS X/iOS users are once again out of luck as there's no real native support in the operating systems themselves, though 3rd party NFC add ons are available.

In future it may even be possible to pay for goods with the NFC ring utilising contactless payment technology (though it will require addition security so the crew card tokens/keys can be securely stored in the rings).

The Kickstarter campaign ends on the 21st Oct 2015.

Moo Moovs beyond the traditional business card

Moo, the company founded by Richard Moross MBE, which traditionally focussed on making very pretty business cards and other stationary has now added NFC technology to its portfolio.

It's has branded the technology as BusinessCard+ and users can utilise all the normal Moo tools for designing a regular business card, but sandwiched inside is an NFC chip and antenna. It's possible to have the cards preprogrammed before they leave Moo which is a boon for Apple users as NFC support is lacking.

The Moo NFC service can be set-up in several ways: -

• Embed a URL
• Action Library
• 3rd party Actions
• Maker Channel

The embed a URL just puts in a standard URL (with the length limitation based on the storage of the NFC chip), this could point anywhere such as a website.

The Action Library is really a Moo URL redirector, whereby the URL in the chip points to Moo, which then deliver an action which can be: -

• Website Link i.e. a standard URL
• Digital Business Card i.e. the redirection points to a vCard
• Connect your social network i.e. a social network URL
• Promote your app i.e. a link to an app download

3rd party actions can be: -

• Connect on LinkedIn i.e. points to your LinkedIn URL
• Navigate with CityMapper i.e. a link to a CityMapper location
• Videochat with appear.in i.e. a link to your appear.in user
• Listen with Spotify i.e. a Spotify URL
• Meet with Sunrise i.e. a Sunrise link

The Maker channel supports an IFTTT recipe.

Once a URL has been put into the card, it's difficult to change (well for Mac/iOS users anyway), Android, Blackberry and Windows users are in luck as the OS has native support for NFC and many devices have NFC readers/writers in them and it's easy to get software to support them which means the URL can be changed.

For users that don't have the ability to write to the NFC chips, the Moo Action libraries are really the way to go, as then the actions can be changed on the fly but just logging into Moo and accessing their Paper+ service which allows users to enter what action should be performed from now on for the particular cards selected.

Mac users are really left out in the cold here, though the iPhone 6/6+ and Apple Watch (and newer versions) have NFC bits in them, they're only currently accessible for contactless payment and there's no direct access to the NFC subsystem from the operating system. MacOS X users are also currently out of luck as though there is some support in the operating system, it's drastically changed in recent version of MacOS X and old card reader/writer software no longer works. It is possible to 'hack support', but not really easy for 'normal users', see RFIdiot.org.

Ofcom approves sale of spectrum to Vodafone and Hutchison 3G UK

Ofcom, the Super regulator has approved the sale of the 1452 - 1492 MHz from Qualcomm UK Spectrum Ltd to Vodafone Limited and Hutchison 3G UK Limited.

Vodafone got 1452-1472 MHz and Three got 1472-1492 MHz.

Ofcom didn't consider that these transfers raised sufficient competition concerns to justify further analysis.

As explained in an earlier article, Qualcomm made a tidy little profit.

Qualcomm flogs off its L-Band spectrum

As reported in this blog in 2008, Qualcomm UK Spectrum Ltd won all the lots of the UK L-Band spectrum (lots LA to LQ) which it paid the gainly sum of £8,334,000.

Qualcomm was pushing its MediaFlo wireless broadcast technology at the time and was going to use this spectrum to deliver MediaFlo services to the UK. Unfortunately that required handset vendors to license the tech and install it in their handsets, which didn't happen. It did get some traction in the US, but people rapidly lost interest. Soon after Qualcomm closed it's Media FLO division and Europe had gone the way of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handset) anyway.

Qualcomm looked to be sitting on a bit of a spectrum white-elefant and probably wished they hadn't bothered and the who Media FLO thing and their spectrum would just go away.

Move to the present and it seems Qualcomm have just sold their 1452-1492 MHz (40MHz) spectrum to Vodafone and Three for a rumoured £100m. Nice little profit of £92m (maybe enough to cover all the Media FLO tech they gave up on).

The L-Band spectrum can be used for both supplemental download links and supplemental upload links (SDL and SUL respectively) which are part of 4G and allow operators to add extra capacity to mobile terminals (i.e. phones). Unfortunately very few if any current phones support SDL services let alone the L-Band frequencies. As phones use more and more bandwidth maybe this will change in the future.

Where the operators can use this, is for more bandwidth to basestations and it may be an easy way to boost network capacity.

As this spectrum was offered many years ago, though it was technology neutral, it wasn't covered by spectrum trading agreements and officially the spectrum trade has to be agreed by Ofcom., which may bring a slight spanner into the works. There should be no reason why Ofcom won't allow the transfer, however the annual license fees on this spectrum were calculated on the sell price (i.e. £8m). The mobile networks are charged rather more on their aggregate spectrum, so there's likely to be a hike on the spectrum fees.

Time will tell if it was a sensible purchase or not (though Qualcomm are probably now laughing while they head to the bank).