Showing 11 - 20 of 22
Drones target US shoppers
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/12/2013
» Duck, because that buzzing sound you hear might be the new delivery drones from Amazon. OK, here in Thailand they are unlikely to ever be seen, but in the US Amazon has plans to deliver packages up to 2.4kg within a 10km range of their distribution centres. Dubbed "Prime Air", this is still in the concept stage with all kinds of hurdles to pass before implementation. First off they need a reliable, cost-effective delivery drone. Another group is doing a similar thing in Haiti but in this case they are delivering medicine. This trial has had problems with mechanical failures due to humidity, dust and temperature. The next hurdle is the requirement for navigation ground stations, licenses to fly drones in a metro area, power line avoidance systems and crazy bird attacks. Yes, I did make that last one up. Given the current restrictions in all likelihood any realised solution will be deployed in a non-US country first.
Battle of the boxes heats up
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/11/2013
» The console wars are heating up again with the PS4 up against the Xbox One. As you might expect, both units have come with hardware upgrades and Microsoft has dropped the silly requirement to be always connected to the internet after it received a huge amount of negative feedback guaranteeing poor sales.
Smartphone makers throw a curve
Life, James Hein, Published on 16/10/2013
» The internet is an amazing resource. Boasting around 40 billion pages and with exabytes of data, it contains a huge amount of information provided by a multitude of sources. One problem is that a lot of this information is unverified or consists of personal observations and opinions. Despite this, there appears to be a growing trend that the first result received when performing a Web search is the one used to find the answer to a question.
Connecting becomes hard work in China
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/09/2013
» I was recently on a trip in China and while I was there I bought myself a SIMM with a data plan to use Skype and to play the game Ingress. As a technologically advanced and well-developed nation I expected that the communications system and technology in general would be advanced, stable and ubiquitous. I was wrong.
Growth slows in IT sector
Life, James Hein, Published on 14/08/2013
» As predicted, and has now been confirmed by the IDC, the IT market is tightening up. China has slowed its spending and the knock-on effects will impact everywhere. There will still be growth, but not as much as there was in 2012. The figures look likely to come in below earlier projections but, given that a tenth of a percent equates to tens of billions of dollars, even a small change can mean large sums of money not appearing in the market.
Old Apples prove tasty
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/07/2013
» An Apple 1 recently sold for more than 15 million baht, so hang on to that old computer as one day it may be worth something again. I admit to using an Apple 2 computer while teaching in the Maldives many, many moons ago. There were better available at the time, but that was all they had. All it had was green writing on a black screen, a simple operating system and some very simple applications, but still a very useful device back then.
Curb your enthusiasm
Life, James Hein, Published on 22/05/2013
» If reactions are any indication, the most exciting news of the week was Samsung sending a 1 gigabit signal across 2km. This was apparently based on what 5G technology may look like. If the pundits are anything to go by, Asia has essentially bypassed 4G and is eagerly awaiting 5G to hit the streets. It will have to wait a while as the Samsung exercise was just a demo of proof of concept. As of today, there are no ratified standards for 5G and Samsung appears to be trying to get out a head of the pack.
It's time for an overhaul
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/04/2013
» So the question of the next big thing seems to be, why would you need to have a watch and a phone? I have noticed that most of the younger generation, the ones with a smartphone, don't have a watch because the time is prominently displayed on the phone. One simple answer might be that a watch is still useful for when your hands are full, or swimming underwater, or when you are doing something that doesn't include pockets.
There's no time for a chill pill
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/04/2013
» The primary goal of any IT department is to make stuff available to its users and provide access to company data. This is usually achieved by providing standard desktop configurations tested against known technologies. Adding additional availability to an existing solution is risky and can be costly. Also, in the past, consumer-based IT had little relation to business-based IT, but in the modern world user demands on the IT solution staff is increasing.
World mobile expo focuses on tablets
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/03/2013
» For those lucky enough to attend, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) was recently held in Barcelona. Thailand was represented with John Nuvo seen wandering the halls collecting information. Ironically there were not as many new phones announced this year compared to previous ones. The focus was more on tablets and operating systems. MWC was larger in area this year and showcased plenty of devices; the problem was that not many of them were brand new. The existing phone range this year was, of course, quite broad _ from low-priced versions right up to large, fully functional fast-connectivity units like the Huawei Ascend P2 and everything in between.