AT&T releases 5G roadmap on way to next generation of wireless service
Late last week it was discovered that AT&T had filed a request with the FCC to test 5G wireless service in Austin, Texas. Today AT&T announced their roadmap for development of their 5G network that explains some of the steps that will take place to get them to the point where they are conducting field tests in Austin and what they see happening beyond that.
According to their plans, AT&T plans to start working with Intel and Ericsson in the lab starting in the second quarter of this year on implementing the technologies that have been under development for several years. The carrier will quickly move to outdoor testing and trials during the summer months. Assuming all goes smoothly, AT&T expects the 5G testing in Austin will commence before the end of 2016.
One of the key targets for AT&T is being ready for 5G standards being established in 2018. With development and testing starting now though, AT&T has to factor in how to be prepared to modify their own implementation to comply with the new standards. To do that, AT&T says they are employing software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) to separate the software components from the hardware components of the network. They expect this to make it easier to deploy changes to the network if necessary while keeping their hardware investment safe. AT&T Chief Strategy Officer John Donovan noted,
“5G will reach its full potential because we will built it on a software-centric architecture that can adapt quickly to new demands and give customers more control of their network services.”
AT&T says they expect the new 5G network to deliver speeds that are 10 to 100 times faster than today’s typical 4G LTE networks with speeds measured in gigabits per second instead of megabits per second. Another key factor for new networks will be the increasing number of devices expected to tap into the wireless network. This will include traditional user devices like smartphones and tablets. However, carriers are also looking at Internet of Things, wearables, sensing equipment, self-driving cars and other devices wanting their own connection.
AT&T noted that from 2007 to 2015 they saw data traffic on their network grow by over 150,000%. The majority of this growth was in video with that type of traffic now accounting for 60% of usage in 2015. This trend is expected to continue as 4K video is more widely adopted along with technologies like virtual reality. So besides the explosive growth in the number of devices connecting, carriers like AT&T also have to plan for some of the usage to bandwidth hungry.
source: AT&T
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Honor 5X now available exclusively at Three UK
The Honor 5X is now available in the UK through telecommunications provider Three UK.
Three UK interestingly has exclusivity on the handset, so you won’t be able to pick it up anywhere else in the UK. However, folks can still purchase the handset straight from Honor’s own online vMall store.
As a quick rundown on specifications, the Honor 5X is loaded with:
- 5.5-inch Full HD display
- Snapdragon 616 processor
- 2GB of RAM
- 16GB ROM, microSD support
- 13-megapixel rear camera
- 8-megapixel front camera
- 3,000mAh battery
- Android 5.1 Lollipop with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 skin
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
It’s overall a very nice smartphone that isn’t worth passing up. Plans at Three UK start out at £13 per month with no upfront cost to qualifying customers. £13 will get you 500MB of data to use per month, as well as 100 minutes of talk time and unlimited texts. For another £5 (a total £19/month), you can up that to 1GB of data and 300 minutes per month.
Anyone plan on picking one up?
source: Three UK
Come comment on this article: Honor 5X now available exclusively at Three UK
Honor 5X now available exclusively at Three UK
The Honor 5X is now available in the UK through telecommunications provider Three UK.
Three UK interestingly has exclusivity on the handset, so you won’t be able to pick it up anywhere else in the UK. However, folks can still purchase the handset straight from Honor’s own online vMall store.
As a quick rundown on specifications, the Honor 5X is loaded with:
- 5.5-inch Full HD display
- Snapdragon 616 processor
- 2GB of RAM
- 16GB ROM, microSD support
- 13-megapixel rear camera
- 8-megapixel front camera
- 3,000mAh battery
- Android 5.1 Lollipop with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 skin
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
It’s overall a very nice smartphone that isn’t worth passing up. Plans at Three UK start out at £13 per month with no upfront cost to qualifying customers. £13 will get you 500MB of data to use per month, as well as 100 minutes of talk time and unlimited texts. For another £5 (a total £19/month), you can up that to 1GB of data and 300 minutes per month.
Anyone plan on picking one up?
source: Three UK
Come comment on this article: Honor 5X now available exclusively at Three UK
Skype has Valentine’s Day video cards for you to send your loved one
Animated emoji with music composed by Paul McCartney is’t the only way Skype wants you to connect for Valentine’s Day this year. Today, the company is announcing a new series of video message Valentine’s Day cards that you can send to anyone you want. Just as it did over the holiday season last year, these video message cards let you record a quick message and add a variety of themed video filters over the top. While you’ll make the recording in Skype itself, you can send these any way you want. You can save the video to your phone and share with any of the services you have installed as well as just send it as a standard Skype message.
Microsoft said it was surprised at how popular the cards it made for Christmas were, so it decided to tackle the next big holiday on the calendar. If Valentine’s day cards do as well as the holiday season cards did, wouldn’t surprise us to see more themed cards roll out as the year goes on. You can go and create your own card and share it starting today using Skype on your mobile or on your computer.
Source: Skype
Visa buys a stake in rival Square
Visa has purchased a 10 percent piece of Square, according to documents seen by the WSJ. Square is best known for its smartphone-attached readers that make it easy for merchants (and even panhandlers) to accept credit cards. The company was started and is still headed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. It’s a surprise that Visa bought a piece of Square now, because it recently launched Visa Developer, software that will help merchants accept Visa payments more easily. At that point, it seemed like Visa wanted to take on rivals like Square and PayPal, not buy pieces of them.
Ironically, Visa SVP Mark Jamison recently decried efforts by Google, Apple and other tech giants to enter the payment market. “No other company in this space has yet to deliver the customer density, global reach and scale that will be available through Visa’s open platform,” he affirmed. However, those companies have clearly invaded Visa’s turf, so it seems to be hedging its bets by acquiring part of Square.
Source: WSJ
American Airlines teams up with Uber for door to door travel
American Airlines has jumped into bed with Uber in order to create a service that’s as “door to door” as the pair can make. The idea is that fliers who can afford not to take the airport shuttle will get a “seamless travel experience.” For instance, if you’re flying with AA, you can set a reminder for an Uber pickup the moment you buy your ticket. Then, when you land, the app will guide you through the terminal and point you to your nearest Uber pickup location. That is, assuming that you’re landing at one of 11 locations in the US that AA has added maps to its app, which include Chicago O’Hare, Dallas Fort Worth or LAX. So, uh, good work on that one.
Source: American Airlines
All your Netflix streams now come straight from Amazon
The closure of Netflix’s last data center might not be news, but who’s picking up the slack on the outside might be. The firm has revealed that it’s now moved its entire online business to Amazon Web Services, the retailer’s cloud computing division. In a blog post, Netflix VP Yury Izrailevsky reveals that Netflix began closing its homegrown data centers back in 2008 after a server issue brought the (then) DVD-rental business to its knees for three days. Since then, it’s been slowly moving over to Amazon’s world-renowned servers which offer far more power, scale and reliability. It should go without saying that the fees Amazon charge per-stream are significantly smaller than what Netflix was shelling out when it was going solo.
By this point, you’re probably shouting at your screen wondering when we’re going to mention the elephant in the room. Amazon, of course, owns AWS, but also has its own competing video streaming service that’s trying to beat Netflix into the dust. First up, Netflix’s success is Amazon’s as well, with the former encouraging people to ditch cable, which Amazon can piggy-back onto into people’s homes. Secondly, the company must be making some serious bank from Netflix’s vast user base, so it’s win-win for Jeff Bezos.
It’s not as if we haven’t seen co-operation like this from other tech companies, either, with Samsung both a rival to Apple and also one of its key supply partners. Same goes for Samsung’s relationship with Qualcomm, since both are competing chip manufacturers, but the former also helps the latter build its hardware. Then there’s Sony, which sells its smartphone image sensors to plenty of other businesses in the smartphone pantheon. Yeah, folks, co-operation and loving thy neighbor is all the rage, and long may peace and love reign throughout the world.
Via: Fortune
Source: Netflix
UK police arrest teenager over recent US government hacks
UK authorities believe they’ve caught a teenage hacker who was part of the recent wave of attacks on US government officials. A 15-year-old boy who goes by the name “cracka” was arrested earlier this week for his part in a number of security breaches. He’s part of the group “Crackas with Attitude” who made news back in October for breaking into the personal email of CIA head John Brennan. The group went on to access several accounts owned by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper last month.
What’s more, “cracka’s” associates told The Daily Dot that he was also responsible for leaking personal info of nearly 30,000 Homeland Security employees and FBI personnel this week. The group “Crackas with Attitude” typically posts news of breaches with a Pro-Paletinian message. They’ve said the hacks won’t stop until the US government breaks ties with Israel. “cracka” was arrested on suspicion of three cyber crimes related to the hacks on Tuesday, but he was reportedly released on “unconditional bail.”
Source: The Daily Dot
UK police arrest teenager over recent US government hacks
UK authorities believe they’ve caught a teenage hacker who was part of the recent wave of attacks on US government officials. A 15-year-old boy who goes by the name “cracka” was arrested earlier this week for his part in a number of security breaches. He’s part of the group “Crackas with Attitude” who made news back in October for breaking into the personal email of CIA head John Brennan. The group went on to access several accounts owned by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper last month.
What’s more, “cracka’s” associates told The Daily Dot that he was also responsible for leaking personal info of nearly 30,000 Homeland Security employees and FBI personnel this week. The group “Crackas with Attitude” typically posts news of breaches with a Pro-Paletinian message. They’ve said the hacks won’t stop until the US government breaks ties with Israel. “cracka” was arrested on suspicion of three cyber crimes related to the hacks on Tuesday, but he was reportedly released on “unconditional bail.”
Source: The Daily Dot
Clocks is a dead-simple yet attractive game (review)
Overview
The mobile game market tends to have emphasis placed on opposing ends of the spectrum. On one end you have the very (and sometimes extremely!) grand, detailed, and complex works of artistic and scientific wonder. These games are constantly out developing each other with their intricate world designs, control schemes, and processor-eating technical requirements.
On the opposite end you have a very different expectation. These are games where simplicity rules, and both ease-of-play and addictiveness by design can quickly decide the success of a title. There are plenty of options at both ends.
One such option on the simpler end of things is the title “Clocks”, by the Saskatchewan, Canada-based studio Noodlecake Games. They first hit the mobile game market with their possibly familiar “Stickman Golf” and “Super Stickman Golf” games.
Setup
You can grab the game for free from the Play Store, and startup is as easy as pressing the app icon on your device.
The game does connect with your Google Play Games account, though I’ve never personally used that so I cannot speak to it’s worth here.
Gameplay
The idea of “Clocks” is simple enough. There are two modes, ‘Quest’ and ‘Survival’, though you are forced to start with ‘Quest’. In this mode, in each level you are presented with a different arrangement of clock faces, each with a single hand spinning either clockwise or…you guessed it.
Each clock’s hand is also spinning at a different speed. The only control is a large ‘shoot’ button taking up the bottom of the display; about the size of the Android screen dock on a typical home screen. At the beginning of each level, one clock is highlighted as the one you are in control of.
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The idea is to press the ‘shoot’ button as the spinning hand lines up with another clock of your choice. This action shoots a small dot, or BB, at the clock you’re aiming at. If you hit it, the previous clock disappears and you are now in control of the clock you just hit; ready to shoot the next one of your choosing. You repeat this until you have cleared all of the clocks off the screen, when you are congratulated on-screen and taken to the next level. If you miss, a quick “oh darn”-type message pops up; you’re given the option to try again and again until you complete it.
There are two levels of victory in each stage: you receive a *star* if you complete the stage before the stage’s countdown timer gets to zero, or simply a ‘passable’ score, with the option to move to the next stage or retry for the star.
Once you clear the 10th level, a message displays that you have unlocked access to the ‘Survival’ option of the game. This is an untimed version of the game. You begin with a similar screen of randomly placed spinning clocks, one highlighted as the one in your control, ready to stop and shoot upon your button press.
The difference here is when you accurately shoot a clock and take it over, the old one disappears and a new one randomly appears guaranteeing you never run out of clocks to shoot. The object here is not to clear the screen, but to see how many clocks you can accurately hit before finally missing, which becomes your high score. Successive attempts at this game option are solely to break your record and get a new personal high score.
Summary
Overall I do enjoy this game; the design is simple, but colorful and with good visual contrast, so it’s easy on the eyes when staring at a 5” screen. The gameplay is a matter of simple timing, which makes personal investment a minimum. You can pick it up and put it back down equally easily, which is nice in a typical hectic day. Sometimes you just want to challenge yourself, or while away the minutes in the doctor’s waiting room on something not called Facebook.
Download from the Play Store.
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