Paris High Tech

Built-in laptop batteries: buyer beware

2012-01-14T00:24:00.000+01:00

A worrying trend has hit recent ranges of laptops: the battery is built in, necessitating a return to the fatory in the event of a change being necessary. There are several culpits. The one that sticks to mind is Sony. The new laptops are sleek, thin and nicely streamlined. The use of ultra thin polymer batteries helps, as it enables the battery to be spread over the whole surface of the base. Great, until the time comes to replace the battery.
In my expeirence, typical battery lifetime is around three years. So, this effectively means that the ultra sleek, and expensive, laptops can now be expected to last just three years.

Skype Android upgrade sucks

2011-12-16T15:37:00.003+01:00

A while ago I accidently installed a new version of Skype for Windows. Its main disadvantage was that it did not provide an option to not automatically download future updates - a definite problem when you are using a download quota such as most 3G subscriptions. Fortunately, I had stored a copy of the previous version. Particularly as the update did not introduce anything much in the way of improvements but completely rearranged the onscreen presentation. A learning curve for no clear reason.

Now Skype have done it again, this time with the Android version. This time the download was voluntary, after all, it promised video which has been lacking.
BUT, the new version has discarded the online contacts list. Instead it wants to go through all the contacts on the phone, much like Viber does. In Skype's case, the reason is most probably to make it as easy as possible to dial phone numbers using Skype and so encourage users to buy Skype credit.
Anyway, I finally decided to let Skype snoop into my address book to find my contacts. The scan took over four hours and then it didn't find any contacts at all. It's just as well I didn't need to place any urgent Skype calls this afternoon!

D-Link DCS-930L wifi surveillance camera

2011-11-30T23:29:00.002+01:00

My dealings with surveillance cameras go back to the days when an anologue camera on the end of a long thin coaxial cable connected to the sitting SCART socket on the family TV in the sitting room.
Many years later I picked up a second-hand D-link DCS-5300G. A motorised wifi device enabling surveillance over the Internet, its features included the possibility of controlling it remotely. The downside was: it was a headache to set up and I eventually gave up.

Now this new machine, the D-Link DCS-930L, is a doddle to set up. No need to know or care anything about routing ports, DHCP or whatever. The price has come down a lot too, at just €99. It can be used with the MyDLink system. Basically you just log into the MyDlink web site and you can watch (provided you have Java Runtime installed) what's going on back home.
There are MyDlink apps for both Android and IOS.
This camera is not motorised though. Nor does it have the snazzy features of the other machine I reviewed here a year ago, the Logitech Alert 750i, which had motion detection, could initiate email alerts in the event of intrusion and store images on a memory card.
In other words, it is a distant surveillance camera, full stop.

The Down side

It's not compatible with my netbook which is Linux based. I contacted DLink support about this. They told me to use a different computer!

The Android app installed without any difficulty on my ZTE Skate and worked straight away. But I still haven't managed to install it on a non-Google approved Android slate.

Finally, this device is really a monitoring camera rather than a surveillance camera. It doesn't work in low light levels, so it can't be used to monitor an appartement with the curtains or shutters closed while you are away - unless you leave the lights on the whole time. It is fine for monitoring a baby's bedroom, but for burglary surveillance, the other camera I reviewed earlier is a far better bet, with motion detection, recording images and email alerts, but it then it costs three times as much.

ZTE Skate android phone

2011-11-26T21:48:00.001+01:00

I've just been given one of the new ZTE Skate phones to play with.
There are plenty of reviews on the net so I won't harp on about the basic specs. Suffice it to say that it has a large 4.3 inch screen, and sports Android 2.3.1. Rather, I will talk about some of the aspects that don't generally get into the reviews. Small, features that are not particularly expensive to implement, but which make a difference.

I really liked the possibility of disactivating data via mobile: seems really obvious. But I've come across many phones, including the earlier ZTE Blade, that don't allow you to to this. I suppose the manufacturer's thinking is that the user wants to be always connected - even if it means paying exorbitant mobile data rates.Obvious, but I couldn't believe ít when I come accross phones I've tested on.

Built -in SIP that links seamlessly to the phone: I was delighted when it registered in a jiffy after entering the ID, password and SIP host. But then when I tried to actually use it, the phone rebooted as soon as the person I called picked up the phone! I'll download another SIP app later on. Meanwhile, there's always Viber - when it works..

Samsung quietly drops its e-book reader

2011-09-14T18:36:00.000+02:00

Samsung held its press show for this season's new products in Paris yesterday. Smartphones, wireless screen docks, fridges, notebook computers. And even tablets - something they're not doing in Germany right now! But one notable absent was their e-reader. The E-65 is still on sale at the full price of €299 in Paris stores (e.g. Surcouf). I spoke to the person at Samsung who had been in charge of e-Readers in France. He confirmed that Samsung had indeed pulled out of that particular market, giving the reason that Samsung do not control the e-ink technology and have to buy it in. Plus the fact that the bottom has gone out with the rise and rise of tablets - even though they are very different products addressing different sectors.

Sarko's Internet show - e-G8 Paris Summit

2011-05-24T12:01:00.002+02:00

At least Sarko (French President Nicolas Sarkozy, just in case you don't know) learnt his lesson after his earlier foray into international Internet events. His presence at Web 3 in December 2006, when he was a presidential candidate, did not go down at all well. Most of the audience just didn't know what he was there for! This time, he staged his own event, paid for by industrialists - with whom he has good relations. It does rather remind one of the wealthy amateur singer who hired a concert hall to show off her talents. This time, Sarko's speech was at least relevant. And he even took a small handful of questions - admittedly rather tame ones which gave him the opportunity to expound some more. Perhaps that was why press accreditation did not allow entry into the inaugural speech. But as has been widely pointed out, Sarko's actions related to the Internet since he came to power have not been uncontroversial.

The programme for the rest of the event looks very interesting. It's played out in video on www.eg8forum.com

Samsung E-65 and Amazon Kindle 3 e-readers compared

2011-01-22T14:30:00.003+01:00

My partner was delighted with the Amazon Kindle 3 she had for her birthday a couple of months back, but then she reads a lot. So it was exactly what she wanted. Light, easy on the eyes etc. An excellent reader and not at all a "sub I-pad". You know the arguments.

At the end of the year, I took advantage of the sales to buy a competing Samsung E-65 for myself. At 100 pounds it was less than half the original price, making it just a tad cheaper than the Kindle. There have been reports that Samsung is pulling out of the e-reader market. I'll try and find out. In the meantime, they've brought out a French version with AZERTY keyboard, for €299. It'll be interesting to see how well it does.Amazon only sell Kindle in France via their US web site, along with a hefty shipping fee. Travellers to the UK can now pick up a Kindle for £111 (reflecting the recent increase in value added tax) over the counter at PC World, Curry's, John Lewis, etc.

Quick comparison

Screen: same size and resolution. The Kindle has better contrast.
Weight: much the same. 251 g for the Samsung and 225 g for the Kindle.
Power: the Kindle claims 1 month and seems to live up to it. The Samsung power gauge shows low after a few days. But at least you can replace the Samsung battery yourself if it dies. It's the same battery used in the Samsung B7620 phone so is fairly cheap and easy to come by. Replacing the Kindle battery is officially a workshop job, although there are some web sites that offer to sell replacement batteries and show how to dismantle the Kindle to install them.
Wifi Connectivity: Both devices sport wifi. But the Samsung wifi can apparently only be used to shop from the Adobe store - which I couldn't get to actually work. The Kindle sports a rudimentary web browser. The Kindle was the version without 3G and the Samsung doesn't have 3G.
Document transfer: I liked the fact that you can move documents to the Kindle by wifi. The Samsung needs to be connected to a computer by USB. The Samsung also comes with printer simulation software - you can "print" a document on your PC for transferring it to the reader. Unfortunately, it's Windows only, so I haven't go round to trying it yet.
Memory: The Kindle has 4GB, with no possibility of expansion. The Samsung has 2GB but can be take micro SD cards up to 16 GB.
Ergonomics: Both readers are easy to hold and great for reading on an overcrowded underground train. The Kindle page-turn button is easier for one-handed operation. I liked the Samsung touch screen for quick navigation. I haven't tried it for note-taking yet.
Other features: The Samsung sports agenda and planner functions.
Oh, and in case it matters to you, the Kindle handles Greek characters without any problem, while the Samsung displayed some of them as question marks. I haven't tried any other alphabets though.

Update: the Samsung a big no-no

After a couple of months, I finally decided the Samsung was too infuriating and put it on Ebay.
My main gripes:
1) The web browser can ONLY be used for shopping at WH Smith. Just imagine the frustration of having a built-in web browser and wifi access and not being able to do any basic surfing. Not even read the day's paper or look something up on Wikipedia.
2) DRM locked to WH Smith. According to the manual, you can buy ebooks from any online store with Adobe DRM, but I couldn't get it to work on this device. Reflashing the firmware could possibly solve this.
3) The really biggest gripe is Samsung's very fine font. The Kindle really is a lot easier to read.A pity, as it would cost almost nothing to fix. But I won't hold my breath for a firmware update.

Western Digital WD TV Live Hub Media Centre

2010-12-18T21:01:00.002+01:00

"All your favourite personal and Internet media on your HDTV" it says on the box.

In fact it's a 1TB Internet enabled NAS (network attached storage) box. It connects to the TV via HDMI for HD and component or composite cable for SD and to the home Ethernet network. Then you can transfer your content (photos, video, music or whatever) from the various computers round the house and view them on the TV or from other computers connected to the home network.

Minor gripes
The system is localised - you can set your local language, time and place, daylight saving etc. But there is no way of changing the onscreen temperature to Centigrade from Farenheit.
The installation in Windows XP involves downloading a piece of softwre just so you can see the box on your computer. While the manual (online only, not in the box) states that this is possible, you are asked for a password. The default password is on page 74 of the 168 page online manual, which of course I only looked at afterwards.
My Linux (Ubuntu) computer found the box with no problem. I couldn't figure out how to see it with an Android phone connected to the home wifi network.

Major gripes
While the Internet service could be a useful feature, it's by no means a fully fledged access. In fact, you can only connect to a handful of selected sites, like Facebook and Flikr.
Quite a few video formats I tried to use were incompatible.

Positive features
I was pleasantly surprised by the viewing quality of streaming video on Youtube. Much better than on my computer.

OverallI don't expect it to sell well here in France, where the internet connected homes are based on high powered boxes that combine modem, router, PVR and other functions. The forthcoming Freebox V6 is a much better solution, with full Internet access and a much better user interface. The only advantage of the WD is the 1 TB of storage capacity, compared to 250 GB on the Freebox. But then, you can always hang extra hard drives onto it.
The WD box makes a good complement to the Slingbox I've recently had on test, although some functions overlap (streaming round the home). Merging the two would be good.

Slingbox Pro-HD

2010-12-05T17:48:00.007+01:00

The Pro-HD version just launched in France, price €299.
The Solo is still availible for €199.

Compatibility issues.
The Slingbox web site claims the box is compatible Mac and PC.
Too bad if you relied on that information and bought one, only to find out that it's only compatible with certain versions of Mac. Not an I-Book G4, apparently. It won't work on Linux, which doesn't even get a mention on the whole web site, not even to say it won't work. The current release of the Slingplayer doesn't even work with Wine.
The irony is that the Slingbox itself uses embedded Linux.It looks like Slingmedia are perfectly happy to take advantage of community developed resources, but not willing to give anything back.

Pricing
The accessories are priced way above comparable products from other manufacturers. €22 for a replacement power supply, €15 for a Scart to phono adapter, €30 for an HD cable. And at €24 for the I-phone and Android versions and €26.50 for Windows phones, must be among the highest price for any apps.

One annoying if trivial aspect: if you want your account to be in English, you can only be in various countries. You can't have an English language account if your based in France, Germany, Italy etc.

How HD is it?
Although it's called the Slingbox Pro HD, it's not quite as HD as all that.While it does have a component HD input, there is no HDMI. That is fair enough, as they're not allowed to by the HDMI specification. It's a point worth bearing in mind. Secondly, the HD can be streamed round the house, but not over the Internet. Thirdly, the built-in digital TV tuner does not receive HD.

Power consumption
I got a reading of between 11 and 12 Watts when I connected an in-line power consumption meter. There was only a barely noticeable difference when the box was actually doing some streaming.
This works out to 93 KWH of electricity consumed (taking 11 W as the base), which costs €9 a year on my home tariff.

No Subtitles, Pay DTT or Radio
I tuned the Slingbox HD Pro to my cable outlet, which carries the local TV channels plus a handful of radio stations in DVB-T format, i.e. the same standard as used by digital terrestrial TV ("Freeview" in the UK). The Slingbox features an HD DTT tuner, so I was able to watch all the DTT channels in the other rooms (but only on Windows PCs - not my on my Linux netbook) without having to lay antenna extension cables. Usefull. But there was no way of switching to radio. No big deal, as the radio stations are also available in streaming. More importantly, subtitles were no longer available. Nor was there any provision on the Slingbox tuner for viewing the pay TV channels - not that I subscribe to any.

Slingmedia replies
Here is the reply I had from Sling, via their French PR office to my questions.

Q What is the situation for Linux based machines, such as netbooks and some phones (as well as PCs of course)?

A SlingPlayer pour Flash résoudra à terme les problèmes de ce type pour les autres plates-formes que celles actuellement supportées. Au fur et à mesure que nous continuerons à déployer cette technologie, il nous est facile de porter notre technologie sur les équipements tels ceux qui tournent sur Linux et disposant de navigateurs flash.

Translation Sling Player for Flash will solve this kind of problem for platforms other than those currently supported. As we continue to deply this technology, it will be easy to port our technology to equipment running on Linux and with Flash browsers.

Q What is the average bandwidth used over the internet, and over the home network? Does it use a lower bandwidth when streaming to a phone?

A La bande passante minimum montante à partir de la Slingbox locale, pour un accès depuis l’extérieur est de 256kps. Cela permet un visionnage en plein écran sur un ordinateur de bureau ou un Pc portable. Notre SlingPlayer pour PC, Mac ou Navigateur utilise toute la bande passante disponible à chaque « bout » (à la fois du côté de la Slingbox en updload et du côté du SlingPlayer distant en download).

Les équipements mobiles tels que les appareils Apple, imposent un streaming video d’environ 256kbps. Donc, oui les bandes passantes pour ces équipements sont limitées et cela varie d’une plateforme à l’autre. Evidemment, avec un écran plus petit, nous sommes en mesure d’opérer avec une bande passante en upload plus restreinte.

Translation/summary The up bandwidth from a local Slingbox to the outside is 256 kb/s, which is fine for viewing full screen on a PC. Slingplayer for PC, Mac or browser uses all the bandwidth available at each end.

Mobile equipment such as Apple phones uses video streaming at 256 kb/s Therefore the bandwidth for this kind of equipment is indeed limited and varies from one device to another.

Q Why are the i-phone, android and windows mobile apps so expensive? They must be among the most expensive apps in the market

A Nos logiciels dédiés au PC au Mac et aux navigateurs restent gratuit. Afin de fournir une expérience de qualité sur les équipements mobiles, nous devons effectuer beaucoup d’engineering au niveau du développement des produits SlingPlayer Mobile. Nous nous efforçons d’offrir et de fournir une expérience d’excellente qualité et nous consacrons beaucoup de temps et d’ efforts en R&D pour le SlingPlayer Mobile. Nous sommes en mesure d’héberger le SlingPlayer Mobile sur notre propre site internet et nous offrons une période d’essai de 30 jours. En ce qui concerne les modèles de type App Store tels que L’Androïd Market Place ou iTunes App Store, ils ne permettent pas l’accès à des périodes d’essai. Pour cette raison nous n’avons pas d’autre choix que de vendre à un prix listé sans période d’essai.

Translation/summary Our software for PC and Mac will stay free. SlingPlayer mobile involves a considerable amount of R & D to ensure a good viewing experience. We host SlingPlayer Mobile on our own web site and offer a 30 day trial period. The market places, like Android Store and iTunes App store does not allow trial periods. So we have no choice but to sell at the listed price, without a trial period.

This last point is at odds with the Slingmedia web site, which states in small print after an asterisk

" *Free trial is not available for SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows Phone. "

I didn't try Slingmedia on an elderly I-paq running Windows CE. For one thing, I couldn't find the download link.

Logitech Alert 750i

2010-11-02T14:32:00.000+01:00

First of all, the blurb.

See the following address for the publicity stuff

http://tinyurl.com/2b3p4mn

This is part of Logitech's range for the current boom in the video security business. Available in indoor and outdoor versions. Among its features are that it can store photos and videos locally, on a micro SD memory card. The 2 GB card supplied is enough for a week of storage.The software detects motion in your appartment and can send an alert to your email or mobile phone as well as triggering a recording.
The camera can be installed anywhere and comes with a range of mounting accessories, such as a suction cap and a wall fixation. It connects to the internet via a powerline link to your broadband box. The camera power supply unit acts as an ethernet transmitter over the house's power wiring. Only a single cable - like a long thin black string of liquorice - links the power supply to the camera. It carries both the power and the data, so you mustn't use a regular ethernet lead in its place. Too bad if you break the plastic clip that I have always thought was the weak point of ethernet leads. The box contains a second brick, which looks just like the camera power supply unit except for a colour coding. This is the ethernet powerline receiver and simply connects to your broadband box.

Once it's set up, all you need to view your appartment is a web browser. No problem about which operating system you use. But you do need a Windows computer to set it up. You will have to borrow a laptop from a friendly neighbour if you only have Linux, but at least the setting up procedure only takes a couple of minutes.

While the printed instruction sheet is multilingual, the software installs in the language of the main computer operating system. Too bad if you are an English speaker working on a French computer. Or a French user with a borrowed operating system in English! There wasn't an easy way of overiding this aspect.

I measured the power consumption with an in-line meter. It read 4.5 W for the camera PS and 2.5 W for the powerline reciever.
Power consumption: Camera psu, 4.5 W, CPL receiver, 2.5 W. As my power meter has a resolution of 0.5 W, I measured the power taken by the two units together, which hovered between 7 and 8 W. This doesn't sound like much, but it works out to an annual consumption of 61 KWH. So the amount it adds to my annual electricity bill comes to about €6 - not a lot in the security business. My DSL box takes about double that, and I have to leave it on all the time to supply bandwidth to the FON adapter.

To begin with, I found the powerline transmission rather unreliable. The reason turned out to be interference with the home's existing powerline system. Once I had identified the problem, the solution was easy: just use the Logitech powerline unit as the home's main powerline transmitter. The whole system then worked perfectly and I even found the performance of the home system had improved.

The CPL boxes update themselves online.

The camera has a rather bright red LED on the front.I didn't find it very useful for low light vision. Worse, it brings the camera to the attention of any visiting burglars.

Setting up was incredibly easy. Nothing like the very complex procedure to set up a D-Link DCS 5300G IP camera a few years ago. Just install the set-up software, give the camera (or cameras) names and set up an account. That's it. No DHCP configuration, or any of that. In fact, I never did get the D-Link to work in all the ways it should.

One major security problem: after you have set your password, you can change it from wherever you have logged in. So, no anyone else you give the login details to, so they can monitor your flat while you are sailing in the Carribean out of reach of any network, can change your password. It would be easy to imagine two levels of access, one that can only view and one with full administrator privileges. A James Bond scenario maybe, but then we are dealing in a security system after all.

Bewan Powerline S200Maxx adapters

2010-10-25T15:41:00.001+02:00

I've had a pair of Bewan adapters on test for the past few weeks.

On the face of it, they look like common or garden powerline adapters. But they do have a couple of advantages over the more basic models.
For one thing, the units have a "pass through" electric plug. That means you can plug the adapter directly into the wall socket and then plug a multi-plug power strip into the adapter's outlet. So the powerline adapter is connected closer to your home's power wiring.

The units worked straight out of the box. Just plug and play.
I tried to install the Windows software utility, but got an error message because a different version of the Microsoft Net software was already installed. No option of up/downgrading, it just refused to install.
So I grabbed the equivalent software from rival manufacturer LEA's web site. That worked fine and detected my whole home powerline network (DSL box, two routers, three computers, IPTV box, network printer, Fonera, Pogoplug). It also gives the option of renaming each gadget with a label that is easier to understand than a MAC address.Then I noticed that the Bewan software had in fact been installed, so I opened that too. It came up with all the network adapters

Readings and compatibility
200 MB Bewan and Netgear CPL units mixed together with no problem. There was a slight loss in overall performance but the speeds between pairs of the same make were better.
Power consumption was very low, under 2W in use or around 1.5 W disconnected (my power meter reads to the nearest 0.5 W). This is much better than the Netgear, which comes in at 3 W disconnected or 3.5 W in use.

HTC Magic Android Google phone

2010-02-04T19:49:00.000+01:00

A great deal has already been written about the HTC Magic Android Google phone. So I'll just add a couple of comments.

GPS
The inbuilt GPS receiver links to Google Maps, not to a fully fledged navigation system. Personally I prefer to see a map rather than a voice telling me where it thinks I should go, but that is another matter. Nor is there a route planner or all the other trappings of a GPS navigator. But I can live without.
More to the point, the map data is accessed online, either over the G3 network, or by wifi. There is no way (or no easy way) of adding your own data from a Navigon or other CD, or even downloading portions of google maps for offline use. So, when you are in the middle of the countryside with no network - no maps!

Wifi sensitivity
Wifi senisitivity was good, but not outstanding. It was better than Free's two wifi phones, but not as good as the Twin Tact or the wifi in my Acer Aspire One netbook. Not a problem when you are using it in a small flat, but vital if you are on a high floor in a hotel with the access point at ground level.

Skype Lite
There is (at present on SFR's android portal) no Skype app, only Skype Lite, which involves calling a landline phone number, since voice part of the call is carried over the cell network. So, expect to pay massive roaming costs if you use it abroad.

Proxy
Android, in its wisdom, does not allow users to change the proxy settings. Fortunately there are web forwarding sites. But they are limited.

Ergonomics
A life-size test: see plane departure times while sitting in an airport lounge. Turned out to be almost impossible.

Headset
My review model came without a headset. Very awkward for use in public places, such as airport lounge.
It transpired not to be compatible with any of the other headsets and hands-free sets I had, including models with the same type of mini-USB plug and a high range Parrot bluetooth handsfree headset.

SFR TV on Google phone

2010-01-11T14:57:00.005+01:00

SFR lent me a Google Phone (an HTC Magic which came out last spring, not the new one that hit the headlines in January and is still being waited for in France) to test their TV application.

Verdict: it works, but...
The idea is good. Choice of 3G or wifi to view streamed TV in pretty good quality. Anyone sceptical about watching TV on a tiny mobile screen will be pleasantly surprised. It can be viewed either horizontally or vertically (the accelerometer automatically switches to the right setting). The angle subtended by the 3 inch screen at handheld distance is in fact considerably bigger than watching a 29 inch TV at the other end of the sitting room, which the crystal clear picture suits well. Some 20 channels provided (TF1, France2, France3, M6, Direct8, W9, TMC, NT1, NRJ, France4, BFM-TV, Gong, Manga, RTL9, and 5 versions of MTV unless I missed some. No France5 though). Of course you can also watch videos from Youtube and other web sites.SFR have coupled this with a package providing unlimited access that really does mean unlimited - unlike their rival Orange, some of whose subscribers have had nasty surprises when the bills arrived. However, being a free trial, I was unable to check this for myself.

International use
I also tried to use the service while in the UK. Roaming had not been activated on the demo account - but you would have to be really keen not to miss an episode of your favourite series to pay the kind of charges that would incur. Unless someone else is paying of course. The TV didn't work via wifi either. This may have been through checking the location of the IP address, or some other reason, as the same error message appears. For some reason Android forbids apps from changing the system proxy directly. While there are Android web browser apps (e.g. ProxySurf) that support it, they won't work with the TV app.

would have been a very expensive way of watching TV
The big but is the patchy nature of 3G coverage. Wifi coverage is even worse. So you can be antisocial and watch the TV while sitting in a cafe with wifi or 3G. But our attempts to watch on the French side of the Eurostar were a resounding failure. Completely impossible to watch Plus belle la vie. A couple of scenes flitted in, only to be cut off again with the message that there was no signal. Presumable the device is just as useless to try to amuse the kids on a long car journey. I didn't try it in the metro (the Paris transit authority has conveniently installed GSM antennas in the tunnels) because I didn't want to risk having it snatched.
Even static reception wasn't all that could be desired. A plane delay at Charles de Gaulle Airport should have provided an ideal use for it, but no. Probably to the releif of my fellow passengers, as SFR had not supplied an earpiece for personal reception and it was incompatible with any that I had, including recent bluetooth models.

So, finally, the only use I could find for it was as a second TV at home, to watch in the kitchen and the toilet.

Neuf GW3 hybrid wifi phone

2010-01-04T10:56:00.003+01:00

I recently fished out my Neuf GW3 hybrid wifi phone because a friend needed a phone while visiting Paris.

When I tried to set up the VOIP, it turns out the files were no longer available on the SFR web site - a victim of Neuf''s acquisition by SFR no doubt. Fortunately I had a copy on an old computer.

Briefly, it would be a nice phone if it wasn't locked into the Neuf firmware. Camera, IPTV support, slot for micro SD card. And of course, SIP.
The only way of installing new SIP accounts seems to be via the configuration file.
I was able to install a non-Neuf SIP - an old Wengo and a Webcalldirect (Betamax) - account via the configuration software, but the phone can only handle one SIP account at a time.

IPTV. According to a report in a user forum, an active Wengo account can be used to reactivate the TV rights. This is quite probable, as Wengo had been acquired by Neuf and Neuf uses the Wengo address for its activation, as can be seen in looking at Neuf's configuration software.
In any case, it doesn't work now.
.But SFR are streaming TV for the Android and iPhone. Pity they don't take care of their existing customers!

Here are a couple of links:
Pervasive network
Open Twin
Configuration software

Windows 7, first impressions

2009-10-24T10:40:00.001+02:00

There will be no shortage of comments on Microsoft's new OS.
I hadn't planned to install it, as I hadn't been too impressed with Vista on my review machines.
But Microsoft kindly gave me a French "edition intégrale" and told me how much better it is than Vista, so I took the plunge. Here are my first impressions.

First of all. It's supposed to be easy to install and not involve too much time wasting. This is not the case when migrating (I don't like to say "upgrade") from XP, because you have to back up all your files first.

Secondly, the question of drivers. In my case I needed a display driver for my Toshiba laptop. According to the Tosh web site, they don't have Win 7 drivers for this machine! Ensued a frustrating half hour on the Micrsoft web site - although most of the time was spent trying to fill in their feedback form, which the system refused, insisting that I hadn't completed an obligatory question. Added that the site kept switching to French, even though I had clicked on English as my language.
In the end I used Toshiba's screen driver for Vista, which worked. But it doesn't give the impression that they have readied their web site for Win 7, in spite of the splashes boldly claiming that they are Ready for 7 !

Next install the printer. I liked the way it installed (on the second attempt) without having to download a huge driver file. It beats me why you have to install a 54 MB file just to print on my Lexmark T640 from XP, whereas Linux works straight from the box. Anyway, Win 7 worked too.

Now I've got to install my assorted applications: Skype, Acrobat, Word, Digiguide, Final Notepad (this particular one is a nuisance, because the current free version has fewer features than the earlier ones), Network Stumbler, Hachette Dictionary (along with Alcohol, which is the only way I've found to run it without carrying the CD around with me all the time), Firefox, VLC, Thunderbird, Network Stumbler. That's just for starters. The most painful one is Locklizard, which involves ringing up the supplier everytime you change hard drive (or OS). But there will be all the assorted plugins and 'upgrades'.

The thing that gets me about the whole show is having to stay on a permanent learning curve. Not only for the new Windows, but also the new versions of the software that I have had to re-install.
I am getting a strong feeling of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Philips Digital Voice Tracer LFH0882

2009-09-21T12:31:00.000+02:00

The idea is nice - a digital voice recorder in a mobile phone form factor. Might as well build it into a mobile phone, do I hear you say. Possibly, but this is a high end pro model, with facilities that most most mobile phone users don't need. And many mobile phones do have voice recorders anyway. But pro users will appreciate a stand-alone unit.
One feature I liked was that it uses two AAA batteries, rather than a Lion pack. So, if you do get caught short, you can buy spare batteries anywhere. The rechargeables can be recharged via the USB connector.

The main features are: zoom micro with two zoom settings. The idea is to make the microphone electronically more directive. Great when you're sitting at the back of the hall in a conference. It records in MP3 format and is supposed to work seamlessly with Dragon Naturally Speaking. I wasn't able to test that, as my PC which has Naturally Speaking on it was out of action during the week I had the LFH on test.
The built in 4 GB memory is plenty for long lectures and conferences. Apparently, some people have used it for college lectures, using Dragon to produce their notes. Not a publishable transcript, to be sure, but certainly adequate for course notes.
Stereo and mono recording is possible, so it can be used for music as well as conferences. You can also record from the built-in stereo radio. Recordings can be organised into folders.
The box states that it is compatible with PC and Mac. I found it worked with Linux too.

On the downside, I didn' t find the menu system very intuitive, having to refer frequently to the instruction manual. Also there is no way of naming files and folders, so ironically you would have to keep notes of where your notes are.

Lottery coincidence ?

2009-09-17T07:23:00.002+02:00

This week exactly the same lottery numbers came up two weeks running. Click here for the story. Just how unlikely an event is that? One in 14 million (assuming it is the standard 6 out of 49 type of lottery) most people would answer. And very considerably higher if the balls had been retrieved in the same order. In fact, this figure applies to what would be the probablity of this lottery on this particular occasion coming up with the same numbers two weeks running. In fact, there are lotteries in many countries round the world and some countries have several draws a week. So there are several hundred lotteries somewhere in the world each week.Multiplied by 52 weeks a year, this comes out to several tens of thousands of lotteries each year. Then over the period that lotteries have existed, the probability that such an event could happen becomes far more realistic. I should add that the lottery that hit the headlines was in Bulgaria. Coincidences do happen and the probability of this particular one is nowhere near as slim as a first look would have us believe. But it would have been more credible if there had already been cases of five of the six numbers comming up in consecutive weeks. Maybe they have, has anyone collected any statistics on this?

Another explanation of course is that someone had tampered with the lottery balls, perhaps by adding weights to certain balls. Why do that, if it will mean the same numbers coming up week after week and sharing the winnings with people who play lottery numbers by "form". More likely is that anyone who had doctored the balls had simply left the doctored balls in the machine. So a good place to start looking would be the person or persons who won the previous week.An idea to look into if the same numbers come up again next week.

Strategy
While I am on the subject of lotteries, just a few words on strategy.Mathematics tells us that there is no point in poring over tables of previous winning lottery numbers. I am also reminded of an Andy Capp cartoon strip, in which Flo (Andy's long-suffering wife) pointed out that the bookmaker always went on more expensive holidays than Andy and Flo ever did. So, in the long term, the organiser is the winner in any lottery. Mathematically, the expectation (figure obtained by multiplying potential winnings by probability) must be lower than the stake, since the lottery organiser takes a cut before distributing the winnings. But that is not always the case. From time to time there is a "rollover", when there has been no jackpot winner for several weeks and the stakes are combined. In that case, the expectation suddenly becomes much higher. Someone else has also pointed out that many people tend to play similar numbers (dates, or by studying "form"), so if you avoid such numbers you would share with few people if you ever did win.
Finally, as the advert says, 100% of winners have played. The lottery enables people to play an imperceptible proportion of their income in the hope that they may one day win. So in fact, the transaction is simply to buy a dream. If you ever win, that is a bonus.

MSI Slim X340

2009-08-29T19:53:00.014+02:00

A nice computer
My first comment: the MSI Slim X340 is a nice computer, apart from the fact that it runs on Vista. At 1.3 kg, it weighs in like a netbook, but it is a real computer. It's got a real screen - a 13 inch LCD with 1366 x 768 resolution - so there is no need for sideways scrolling when viewing certain websites. Plus a 500 gigabyte hard drive, although there is a model with 320 GB.
The keyboard is a real one with a good feel to it, unlike my Tosh Satellite 100 whose keys feel "plasticy" and work loose. Very good for anyone who touch types.

This is one "laptop" that can really be used on one's lap rather than really being a portable desktop. It is light in weight and runs cool. It is ideal for my favourite position for working - on a couch with the computer wedged between my tummy and my knees. It is also good in bed. The webcam, inbuilt mike and speakers work just fine with Skype.
Being an ultralight, there is no optical disc drive. I find that the only time I need one is for installing software. That is not something you need to do on the move, so a separate stand-alone USB optical drive fills the bill. I also used a 16 GB SDHC card obtained on ebay for 10 euros as removable storage.

Electricity consumption
Energy consumption is reasonable and the machine runs cool. I got a reading that varied between 14 and 24.5 watts, depending on what the machine was actually doing (wifi, bluetooth, using the hard disc, brightness, percentage of processor power used etc), using an in-line power meter and the computer battery removed. The reading dropped down to 9.5W when the screen switched off to save power.

The battery is a 14.8v Li-ion unit, with a capacity of 2150 mAh (which works out to 32 WH), which gives about 3 hours of normal usage with the wifi switched on. I understand a higher capacity model is also available. MSI has not gone down the path taken by the Mac Airbook, whose battery is built-in. It's useful to carry a spare recharged battery when travelling. Also the life of Li-ion batteries in general tends to be around two years - hopefully the computer will last much longer than that.
Unfortunately there is no restore CD - a recently imposed Microsoft requirement I believe.
But, it will not stay on its own for long. I've just seen the super-slim notebook Sony are bringing out soon, weighing in at just 700 grams because it uses aluminium and carbon fibre. I dread to think what the price will be. Pity Sony didn't put in a full size keyboard, even though there is room.

Techo stuff
Screen: 13.4 inch WXGA
Processor: Intel SU3500 1.4 GHz
Ram: 2 GB
Built-in webcam: 1.3 M
Connectors: 2 x USB, HDMI, mic inb, headphones out, VGA, ethernet, memory card
Pity there is no analog TV connector

Price: can be found for under 700€ if you look around on the Internet.

E28, one month later

2009-08-28T17:07:00.007+02:00

One thing that amazed me about this dual mode phone was the senisitivity of its wifi receiver. I was able to make SIP calls from my a hotel room three floors up, where my other wifi phones could pick up no signal at all. On the downside, the phone occasionally refuses to place a call, neither SIP nor GSM. A reboot cures this, but rather inconvenient, especially if you want to make a call in a hurry. The battery life is not very good if the wifi mode is switched on, but it is easy to switch on or off. Another downside is that even with the keyboard locked, the phone can switch on in your pocket and so run the battery down even more quickly. However, this phone's main drawback is that in spite of its sensitivity it has trouble locking into certain wifi networks. This is not a matter of signal level, as it occurs even with the access point in the same room. It is particularly unhappy with the wifi signal from Freeboxes. Pity.
As for web browsing, there is no way of changing the size of the tiny characters, far too small for my ageing eyesight, so I have not made much use of this feature.

Carton Rouge pour France Telecom

2009-08-20T16:05:00.004+02:00

The first of this year's red cards goes to France Telecom for its tactics during the summer period. The incumbant has had to face pressure from the alternative operators in its historical area of land line telephone services. This summer, it sent out its bi-monthly bills to customers in early August as usual. But what has changed this year is the length of time it gave its customers to cough up. It was shortened to just ten days, running from the date at the top of the invoice. Taking postal delays into account, this is barely more than a week. Significantly, the final date falls just before the 15 August holiday week-end. So, as well as hitting the French who take the month of August for their annual vacation, it also hits the significant number that takes the month from the 14 July national holiday to 15 August. This year August 15 fell on a Saturday, so many people came back at the end of the week-end.
For many years France Telecom has been issuing its bills in early August, reasoning officially that the way the dates fall is a matter of luck and people should take that into account when going away. But the way the company has shortened the deadline for paying the bill this year is really suspicious. Anyone would think they are deliberately trying to catch people out. Surely not!

Twin Tact / E2831

2009-07-23T17:25:00.026+02:00

The E2831 is a neat little touch screen dual mode (GSM/Wifi) Linux-based smart phone made by the Shanghai based manufacturer E28 Ltd. Features include Opera web browser, IPTV and SIP support, as well as bluetooth and a 1.3 MB camera. Importantly, can now be had for little more than a handful of peanuts.

A customised version was marketed in France by the Internet provider Neuf (or N9uf) Telecom as part of a quad play package that coupled mobile phone with VOIP. The Neuf software was designed to be easy to configure via the "Neufbox", Neuf's combined ADSL hub/modem/IPTV box. The VOIP identity was the same as the subscriber's GSM number. The handset can be used to watch TV via the Neuf portal. Since the Wifi connection is used to browse the net and connect to the portal (GPRS is also supported, but is expensive and slow), watching TV on the mobile is free via free hotspots. Interestingly, it also worked abroad, which means that the IP address is not used to restrict viewing geographically. TV viewing is, however, restricted to subscribers to the N9uf twin mobile service, who have to generate an ID code using their subscriber details.
Neuf has now merged with the mobile operator SFR. Or more accurately, SFR has completely swallowed N9uf. SFR was not too keen on the VOIP service. No doubt it was concerned that people would spend time and effort to hunt out free hotspots before placing their calls - something not borne out by observation! Be that as it may, SFR has stopped marketing the service and trying to "persuade" subscribers to migrate to new packages with a different price structure. They are now marketing various HTC handsets, though. The HTC handsets will have access to the forthcoming "Everyworld" portal including streamed TV. SFR has removed the web page that enables configuration files to be generated. many SFR-sponsored support forums have also disappeared.
Twin Tact's can now be picked up on Ebay.fr for around 30 to 40 euros. They may or may not be sim-locked in to the SFR operator. A real bargain for what is tantamount to a PDA with TV playing facilities as well as a cell-phone.
Finally, the so called software CD that Neuf supplies with the phone is a joke. All it does is point the user's browser to Neuf's download site, supposedly to "check for the latest version of the software". The CD itself contains no software or drivers at all. So Neuf/SFR can keep their hand on where the software goes.

Flashing the firmware
Doing anything at all outside the SFR box is really awkward on the Twin Tact firmware. SIP settings cannot be modified by the keyboard; the only way to change them is to change the update file and upload it to the phone. Either that or connect to the phone by telnet over the wifi link. I couldn't do the latter because the phone refused to work with my Freebox wifi. As for the former - finding the right drivers is a nightmare. Especially after all the files had been removed from one of the support sites.
The original E28 firmware, called Smarcore, enables multiple SIP accounts. It also leaves the IPTV module intact, but I haven't found how to enter the account to enable TV.

The procedure for flashing the firmware is set out here. However, the links to the files are not (at present) valid. The files to download and install the firmware are currently available here. Briefly, for those whose French is not up to it or in case the site disappears, the procedure is as follows:
Download the files: OMAP73x.inf, usbio.inf and E2831_080131_STUN_REL.tar.gz. Decompress the files into one directory and double click on flasher.exe. Switch off the Twin Tact, remove and replace the battery. Then (while it is still switched off) connect it to the PC with a USB cable. The software will then automatically install the new firmware. If necessary, use the Windows wizard to install the drivers first.

Links

Open Twin This is the best overall site for hackers. It includes a wiki, forum and files section. In French

Neuf's Twin portal, exactly as it appears on the screen

Download files Includes software to unlock the Twin Tact via Telnet, the Smarcore firmware, N9uf's firmware and software for organising your media.

Videos to download for Twin - no longer operating.

Forums

Neufmobile
Twin News
N9ws
Neuftalk

Blogs
Journal du Geek

Wifi phones galore

2009-07-22T12:31:00.007+02:00

Over the past couple of years I've tested quite a handful of PDAs and phone handsets for making calls from wifi hotspots.

Why use a wifi phone?
Some wifi handsets have been marketed for use as a cordless home phone. Personally, I can't see a great deal of point in this, other than eliminating the phone base unit. On the other hand, when out and about, it can make a sizeable cut in the amount you pay to the mobile company. However, many recent mobile packages take away the need for a wifi phone and the hassle of finding a free hotspot. In short, wifi phones are useful for people using pay as you go packages or international travellers who want to avoid exorbitant roaming fees.

Compaq iPaq PDA
My experiments started some years ago with an elderly Compaq (now HP) PDA running Windows Mobile 2 (?). I eventually managed to shoe-horn X-Lite (or was it SJ-Phone?) onto it and made satisfactory calls using a Wengo VOIP account. Unfortunately, when I upgraded the Windows Mobile to a version marginally more recent, I found that HP no longer provided support for the Wifi cards. I downgraded the Windows Mobile, but new projects to play with and the demise of the battery meant that the retirement of this decidedly chunky gadget, made even clunkier with the external battery pack.

Asus EEE-PC
Neither a phone, nor strictly speaking a PDA, this gadget is in fact a "travelling computer". Its relation to a real laptop computer is much the same as that of a magnetic or peg chess-board to the full-blown thing. Moreover, it also makes a very good PDA. Skype is pre-installed (except for the cut-down SFR badged version, but it is easy to install) so you can video chat from a bar or by the side of a swimming pool. You can also buy Skype-out credit to call phones for a reasonable price. But you might feel a bit silly talking into a computer in a pub. I took a 7 inch linux version with me on trips to Brazil, Turkey and London and it came in very useful indeed, for surfing as well as calling. The wifi antenna is very sensitive.
But in particular, it doesn't look like a phone. So it will really bring attention to you in the street. I also installed a couple of SIP clients, including Wengophone, but none of them worked as well as Skype. Lack of Linux support seems to be the problem.

More
The next few posts will give more detailed accounts of my encounters with other units: the Pirelli DP-L10, known in France as the "Free Black"; the Free White, the E2831, Benq and another badged N9uf.

Nokia N800 Internet tablet

2007-02-11T19:43:00.001+01:00

Yet another gadget to play with, if only for a couple of days.
It's a very nice tablet, in a PDA form factor but with a VGA resolution touch sensitive screen.

As time is very limited, here are a couple of jottings as they occur to me.

- The built-in wifi antenna is much more sensitive than any other I have come accross. I can pick up a lot more signals than with my laptop. I can also pick up my home wifi much further away than I can with my laptop. It's also much more stable than with XP.
Definitely a plus point.

- The navigation decidedly takes a bit of getting used to. I'm still trying to get used to it.

- It has a built-in multimedia player. But some web content plays on it, some doesn't. Probably needs some plug in or other, but no message comes up to tell you so. In the meantime, I couldn't even watch some of the TV content streamed over the net, like CNN or Direct8, although a few web sites with streaming video did work. No BBC Radio 4 either.

- I will try it out with Skype, Sip-telephone, ORB and others before I have to give it back. It does come with a multimedia streaming system of its own - but there was no manual or CD in the box. So it's not just a case of plug and play. There is also a proprietary internet video chat system (I particularly liked the webcam on a stalk that looks more like an old mobile antenna). No doubt it's very good, but it will be a hard job getting my contacts to install yet another chat system.

- Some e-mail messages get blocked when using the installed mailreader. I have to use the webmail to get them. And then it won't read attached files in Word format. You can display them in HTML, but it makes the task of modifying or working on the document something difficult if not impossible.

- It can cater very well for multiple connection profiles and passwords. But for some reason it won't connect to an open FON network. Must go and try it with an Orange or SFR access point.

Orange Liveradio

2007-01-26T23:27:00.001+01:00

Orange have very nicely lent me a Liveradio to play with for a couple of weeks. I think the idea is great. But at a tad under 200 euros, the price is a bit on the steep side. I suppose it will eventully come down, it usually does. I know at least one other manufacturer (Sagem) has one in the pipeline and there are probably more.

It looks like an ordinary radio that you would have in your kitchen or on the bedside table. The difference is that instead of picking up FM (we don't have DAB in France) it links in to your wifi network and then picks up a huge number (I haven't counted them yet) of radios streamed over the Internet. It also has a USB connector (awkwardly placed on the back) so you can plug in a pen drive or MP3 widget and play your own files. I've opened a guest account on the Orange web site so that I can configure it, but am still working on the finer points. Will update this blog when I get round to testing them.

Now for some minus points.

First of all, you can only configure a single Wi-Fi account. So, when you move to a different access point, you have to rekey your encryption key. That's quite a big drawback as far as I'm concerned, because the walls in this flat are prety impervious to wifi and I've had to install a separate access point in the bedroom. Consequently, when I carry the liveradio from the bedroom to the sitting room, I have to reset the wi-fi key. Also, it can't work with FON access points. These use unencrypted wi-fi but need authorisation to surf the web. I presume the same would go for Orange and other access points. So there's not much point in taking this radio with you on holiday, as most hotels use this kind of technology.

Secondly, the list of radio stations has been selected by Orange. I haven't figured out how to add other stations, or even whether it is possible - the manual says nothing about this. Will report back. I suspect that in some cases (such as the BBC stations) it may not be possible at all to reconfigure. Nor does it apppear to be possible to configure it to take podcasts other than those selected by Orange. Certainly a very big minus. Nor streaming the audio content of my PC hard disc to listen in the bedroom, or wherever.

Finally: there is no on-off switch. It is true that on-off switches have all but disappeared these days, but at least there is a standby mode worthy of the name. In the case of the Liveradio, it continues consuming power at a hefty rate. According to the manual, the battery can last around 24 hours in this mode before it needs a recharge. So if you take it with you on a trip, the chances are it'll be prety well run down by the time you arrive anywhere. It is definitely designed as a radio for the bedside table (it does include an effective alarm feature), to be left plugged in for most of the time, occasionally taking it with you to the kitchen or the loo. In fact I wouldn't be too sure about using it in the kitchen or while having a bath, as the speakers seem rather exposed.

There are lots of other features to play with over the next few days - podcasts, live books etc, so I will have plenty to keep me busy in the next few days instead of getting on with my guide on smartphones.

Web 3

2006-12-18T07:02:00.000+01:00

I went to the second day of the Web3 event in Paris last week and here are my comments after the discussions that have been going on all week. My take on this meeting is that it was worth holding, even if it was too business-oriented for the likings of some. It was stimulating and interesting and a great place to meet people. A pity I hadn't been able to be there the first day too.

I was wary about finding wifi access after reports of the previous day. The only wifi connection in the lobby area and press room was a fee-paying one from Orange. A journalist filing a story told me she was using the Orange ticket she had bought at her hotel. The press relations people couldn't help. Then, surprise surprise, Orange had a stand where they were distributing free tickets for the wifi. A rock-solid connection at the far end of the lobby area, including the press room. Someone should tell the event's press-relations people.
Only after I had filed a story (on a completely unconnected matter) for my day job did I actually go into the conference area. And lo and behold, wifi all over the place, with laptops on knees throughout the hall. Someone should definitely tell the press relations people!

Much has been written about the hijacking of the conference by French politicians. I found that Bayrou came over quite well if somewhat on the long side. Sarko's however was a complete waste of time. He started out by saying that he didn't know much about the Internet. In that case, why had he bothered to come? We know the answer of course, speaking at meetings is what politicians do. The rest of the speech (if you're curious, it's here, in French of course) was about how France should catch up in helping innovative Internet companies, downloading and digital rights. Nothing to do with the subject of the panel debate he had interrupted like an adverising break, which was how blogs affect the democratic process. He left the hall as soon as he had finished reading his prepared speech. I shouted out for "questions",as did a few other people, but to no avail. Nothing interactive about Sarko's approach to democracy. He had obviously been badly briefed about the subject of the day, but it shows how much he doesn't actually care. Confirmation for my anti-Sarko position.

The fibres are coming: 2 cable

2006-12-04T06:34:00.000+01:00

Here is the second fibre story to hit the headlines:

As expected, the new combined French cable operator announced that it was about to launch an optical fibre service at the first press conference since the grand merger. The new cablo still trades under the names of its component operators (Noos, UPC, NC Numericable, France Telecom Cable, Est Videocom, TDF Cable as well as Coditel in Belgium), so as not to confuse existing subscribers, all under the umbrella of Ypso France. It accounts for 99.6% of French cable networks, generating E1 bn of sales a year from 4.5 million clients, including 300,000 cable telephone subscribers and 700,000 broadband.
Patrick Drahi, Chairman of Altice (which owns 30% of Ypso) explained that harmonizing the very large number of combinations of services, prices, packages and conditions from its component cablos is a mammoth task.
The network is being upgraded to optical fibre, using FTTB technology using coaxial cable within the building. The cost “fiberising” subscribers was not disclosed but Drahi did say it was less than the E700 mentioned by its rival Erenis a few days previously. The figure of E100 per subscriber was bandied about by observers.
The high speed service, 100 megabit/s will be available from 4 December, for E30 a month, as well as various double and triple play packages. It will be rolled out initially in 10 towns and rapidly extended to all the service area. E100 million a year is being invested in the project. A basic offer, costing just E4 a month, will be offered to collective dwellings, consisting of telephone, 48 channels and 256 k of bandwidth, on condition that the whole building is cabled. “This will breach the digital divide” said Drahi. Residents will then already be connected if they want to take up a premium option.
Other announcements at the press conference included increasing the number of channels, to eventually reach 500 and the launch of HD and VOD at the beginning of 2007

The fibres are coming, number 1, Erenis

2006-12-04T06:19:00.000+01:00

Fibre is finally getting prety close to the home. Two new stories have broken in the last few days, after the announcements earlier this year from France Telecom and Free.

Here is the first one, about Erenis, a small company that has been quietly cabling Paris with fibre for the last two years:

The optical fibre broadband provider Erenis is to launch a commercial service with a download speed of 100 Mb/s and download speed of 50 Mb/s in January, coupled with triple play, 100 GB of user storage, unlimited telephone calls to landlines in 100 countries and a bouquet of 54 TV channels (soon to be increased to 100). Much higher than its current 50 Mb/s download and 6 Mb/s upload service and enough to include two simultaneous HDTV channels. Pitched at the same price level as basic ADSL (E30 a month for the first year and E35 a month after that), with no hidden extras (modem rental, entry or termination fee) other than a E60 deposit for the modem, this makes it “the best offer in the market” according to its CEO Daniel Caclin.
Erenis is currently cabling Paris with optical fibre. The technology used is FTTB (fibre to the building), with VDSL within the building. This is particularly suited to the nature of Paris architecture, consisting of many small apartment blocks. The average length of copper from the fibre terminal equipment to the home is 30 metres, said Caclin. To date, 1,500 buildings in Paris, reaching 50,000 apartments, have been connected to the Erenis network. It has 9,000 subscribers, expecting to reach 10,000 by the end of the year. It plans to start installing fibre in the close suburbs next year and in the provinces from 2008, with the aim of having 300,000 clients by 2011.
Erenis raised E26.5 million earlier this year to pay for the cabling costs, which average E700 per subscriber. The short payback time (to recover the cabling costs from a subscriber) which Caclin estimates at between two and a half and 4 years, will enable Erenis to continue installing fibre until its next raising of funds. Erenis now has a permanent staff of 150, compared to just 30 as of February this year.
Competition is beginning to appear in the sector. France Telecom is operating only a pilot fibre project. Free (Iliad group) has announced a massive fibre investment plan over ten years. Cable operator UPC-Noos-Numericable is to announce a similar offer in the next few days.

Translation quality

2006-02-14T11:47:00.000+01:00

The quality of the translation of instruction manuals has been the brunt of jokes for years, particularly for items from South East Asia. The companies concerned appear to hand the work to any office junior who has a smattering of the target language to economise on the services of a professional translator. These same firms generally put much more effort into their publicity brochures. Obvious really.
Machine translation has also had jokes. You just feed some text into one of the many machine translation systems available on the web, and then use the same website to translate it back again. The result is often laughable.
That said, machine translation systems do have their uses.

Why all this intro? I've just come across a really badly translated website while researching a piece about surveillance techniques. The site in question provides a pay e-mail tracking service. The opening page automatically switches to a local language, or rather a semblance of it, presumably using the IP address or browser settings. So, in my case, it opens in French, with no button to override. Only the opening page is in French. But the French is so bad as to be barely understandable. We are invited to "Signe en haut pour votre Compte de Procès Gratuit". Word for word replacement of "Sign up for a your free trial account" - effectively inviting me to sign at the top of the page to go to court free of charge. Similarly, the "about ReadNotfity" button is labeled "environ ReadNotify" - the suburbs of ReadNotify? The rest of the translation is no better. Less than a hundred words and almost as many mistakes!

But this is not an instruction mannual. It's a web site vying for customers. And a reasonably carefully and professinally designed web site. The extra cost of translating the handful of sentences on the start-up page would be peanuts.
I for one would be wary about handing over money to such a company.

The fact that there is no physical address or info on the company on the web site does nothing to inspire confidence either.

The pitfalls of triple play

2006-01-24T13:48:00.000+01:00

For several years now "triple play" has been heralded as a goal to be achieved by the telecoms companies.
The term "triple play" has different meanings for different players.
In France it is generally used to signify a combination of broadband Internet, digital TV and fixed telephony. The cable operators had clamoured for years to be allowed to provide a telephony service as the only way they would be able to make a living and continue in existence. Now that they have both the technical and the regulatory ability to do so, it has come too late. There has been a (long expected) complete shake-out of the French cable industry, and the arrival of VOIP telephony has eroded the telephone tariffs.
In the UK, where IPTV is a little slower in coming, I have seen the term "triple play" refer sometimes to a combination of broadband/telephony/wireless (note that Wireless means Wi-Fi access to the Internet and is not the 40s-50s ternm for broadcast radio), and sometimes refer to a combination of broadband/fixed telephony/mobile telephony. I suppose when IPTV becomes more widespread in the UK we will start to see operators talk of "quadruple play".
The advantage of triple play for the telcos is to enable synergy in the activities. They are able to put together attractively priced bundles.
The benefit for the consumer is hence lower prices.

Now, as subscribers to the French ISP "Free" ((Iliad group) are begining to find out, there is also a downside. At the beginning of this month, Free introduced a policy of charging for calls to some of the other telcos. The problem is compounded by the fact that the user does not always know in advance which network is used by the person he is calling, particularly if the number has been "ported".
Whatismore, Free charges more than France Telecom does for calling the same numbers. Too bad for those subscribers who opted for full unbundling (degroupage totale) - they have no option but to use Free to call these nunmbers.

Triple play ties the subscriber into one supplier. All eggs in the same basket. There is frequently a heavy financial or administrative penalty for cancelling.

France Telecom to test fibre optic to the home

2006-01-20T08:54:00.000+01:00

France Telecom has just announced that it is going to test a very high speed broadband service to about 1000 homes in selected neighbourhoods and western suburbs of Paris using fibre optics. The areas have been selected as being "more receptive to new technologies", meaning richer, said Didier Lombard, France Telecom CEO at a press conference on Tuesday. [I wonder whether FT is making a mistake here - after all, when Canal Plus started in 1984, it concentrated its marketing efforts in the richer neighbourhoods, but soon found that it sold many times more subscriptions to the Eastern arrondissements of Paris and Seine St Denis than it did in the 16th]

France Telecom has decided to go directly to optical fibre technology (FTTH – fibre to the home), skipping the intermediate VDSL stage, as it will be more long-lasting; while VDSL could provide 50 Mb/s broadband, it is expected to be supplanted by optical fibre in the medium term. The aim of the trial is to gain experience in the technology and gauge user reaction– it is not intended as the first stage of a roll out of a massive investment plan in optical fibre.
The cost of cabling each home in the trial is of the order of €1000, so the cost of the trial is of the order of €1 million. "There is no question of cabling the whole country with optical fibre at this price" said Lombard, which is bound to fall.
The homes taking part will get a triple play offer, comprising broadband at 100 Mbit/s in both upload and download directions, unlimited telephone calls to landlines, two HDTV channels via IPTV and a range of other services such as video conferencing, for a price likely to be about €80 a month. Lombard explained that this price comprises a means of selecting people who are really interested in the technology, current triple play ADSL services (at a much lower speed, which in the best cases can attain up to 20 Mb/s in the download direction) charge from around E30 a month. The trial is to begin before the summer of this year. In 2007 France Telecom could begin more pilot trials in other regions.

TPS, Bouygues and Orange start DVB-H test

2005-10-19T15:05:00.000+02:00

On Monday, satellite and ADSL platform TPS, mobile operators Bouygues Telecom and Orange, began their DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) experimentation. The trial, on channel 37 in Paris, is to last for 9 months, to a panel of 400 subscribers, 200 from each of the two participating mobile operators. Some of them are also TPS subscribers.
Manufacturer Sagem has developed the terminal for this operation. Called "Sagem My MobileTV, it is an adapted version of an existing Sagem telephone. It has a larger than usual screen and also provides access to Bouygues' i-mode service and the Orange World portal.
The testers have access to a bouquet of nine channels, to be extended later on. Interactive services and a programme guide are also to be added later on.
The test uses MPEG-4 H264 compression, believed to be a world first for DVB-H.
TPS is supplying the channels in the form of the compressed multiplex, which is then sent on to TDF transmitters at the Eiffel Tower and four other transmitters in the Paris region.
I never cease to be amazed of the use made by such high tech.
While some people are moving to bigger screens with better definition, others (or are they the same?) are watching TV on a titchy screen on the move.
I wonder whether some people will be using their phone to watch a different channel while in the same room as the rest of their family. And paying through the nose for the priviledge.

Ozone

2005-04-10T10:09:00.000+02:00

At first glance, the Ozone project looks like an associative alternative to the telecoms boys. In fact, it is an attempt by a small company, working as a normal business, to take on the telecoms boys.
It is quite clever. It provides unlimited broadband Wi-Fi access on the move in Paris for 18 euros a month, using a network of linked antennas. The alternatives are either to look for free hotspots (in MacDonalds and some cafes, or unsecured access points) or to pay through the nose to the likes of Orange.
Ozone are offering free access to people who let Ozone set up a wi-fi antenna on their roof, with a connecting into their appartment. You get free broadband and the feeling of belonging to a community to boot.
But when you think about it, this comes to renting out access to your rooftop for just 18 euros a month.
The next stage will come soon. Ozone are planning to launch a mobile phone using VOIP via Wi-Fi. But Orange/SFR/Bouygues are hardly shaking in their boots. The success of Ozone depends on getting enough people to sign up, both for access and to lend their roofs.