I have now switched to a new blog site, Digital Frog. I have been unhappy about the way the blogger platform has developed since it was taken over by Google a few years ago. This is not to say that Google is in any way "nasty", it just stems from what Google does for its living: it links all the different things we do together into a virtual matrix -a bit like the film of the same name. Charles Arthur explained it very clearly recently in this article in The Guardian. My various blogs became linked with my gmail address. Not only the ones written under a pseudonym, but also ones that I had set up for other people! Then my blog photo turned up on my gmail account, all got linked to Google+ and even the Android apps I have installed on my assorted half dozen phones and tablets - and I like to have several different identities for Android to get round geographical restrictions. Even being as careful as possible when signing in to the various sites and avoiding obvious pitfalls, the link is eventually made. I daresay the only way of being absolutely certain is to have a different computer for each function - rather OTT.
Another problem is that Google doesn't really handle multi-lingual usage very well, which is a problem for someone who regularly uses more than one language.
The last straw came when Google 'lost' my domain name. The last time it came up for renewal was after my bank card had been updated. So, the renewal did not go through. anyone would expect a professional service to inform the customer that there was a problem with the payment. In the case of Google, it simply cancelled the site! Driving home the adage that it is not the bloggers and emailers that are the customers, they are the product! The real customers are the advertisers. Attempts to contact Google's customer relations department in an attempt to recover the domain name provide further confirmation for this viewpoint. In the meantime, the domain name turned up on a site selling domain names by auction, for a very much higher price than I had paid originally. Perhaps that was the real reason the domain got 'lost'.
05 July, 2013
22 June, 2013
Fibre set to take off, at last
Fibre has been "about to take off" on the telecoms scene in France and elsewhere for many years. It was so when I first wrote about it in the French popular science magazine "Science et Vie" in 1979. This week the French company Acome invited me to their seventh annual event celebrating VERY broad band: "Fête du très haut débit" near their headquarters in Mortain in Normandie. For those of you who haven't heard of Acome (I hadn't), it's an industrial group organised as a workers' cooperative that manufactures telecoms cable equipment, with a staff of around 1400 and annual sales of over €400 million and factories in eight countries. It is the only remaining French manufacturer of optical cable and the second largest in Europe.
Acome CEO Jacques de Heere kicked off by pointing out that France is labouriously coming up to a total of 200,000 fibre subscribers, whereas China brings in 30 million new subscribers a year. Orange's fibre man Yves Parfait rolled off his company's upbeat figures: Orange fibres are available in 300 towns in France, 100 more than last year and it now passes 2 million homes. This means 2 million homes could sign up if they want to, but take-up is much lower - only about 200,000 actually subscribe, although 4,000 more subscribe each week. That's a penetration of only 10%. SFR, the other telco present, had similar figures, scaled down a little: 1.2 million homes passed, 120,000 subscribers. Penetration still hovers around 10%. Stephane Lelux, from the consulting firm Tactis, outlined how fibre distribution is still very patchy: in two departements (Paris and the nearby Haut de Seine) fibre is available to 30% of the population, but it falls off steeply after that and residents of 54 departments (mainland France has 95) have no access to fibre at all.
Acome CEO Jacques de Heere kicked off by pointing out that France is labouriously coming up to a total of 200,000 fibre subscribers, whereas China brings in 30 million new subscribers a year. Orange's fibre man Yves Parfait rolled off his company's upbeat figures: Orange fibres are available in 300 towns in France, 100 more than last year and it now passes 2 million homes. This means 2 million homes could sign up if they want to, but take-up is much lower - only about 200,000 actually subscribe, although 4,000 more subscribe each week. That's a penetration of only 10%. SFR, the other telco present, had similar figures, scaled down a little: 1.2 million homes passed, 120,000 subscribers. Penetration still hovers around 10%. Stephane Lelux, from the consulting firm Tactis, outlined how fibre distribution is still very patchy: in two departements (Paris and the nearby Haut de Seine) fibre is available to 30% of the population, but it falls off steeply after that and residents of 54 departments (mainland France has 95) have no access to fibre at all.
27 March, 2013
42, Free's new school
Xavier Niel, the massively present head of French ISP company Free, has just set up a new school for computer geeks. There is a clear need for one, as France (and much of the rest of the world too!) is suffering from a shortage of highly capable programmers. So, the solution is: start your own school While he was at it, Xavier made a few digs at the French education system (an easy target, but worth attacking nevertheless) and the French government, some of whose members have recently attacked him for supposedly devastating the telecoms sector - a separate discussion largeley covered in the French press.
Xavier's school will be free and open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 who is very keen on computing. The selection process is not based on any qualifications of any kind, nor getting favourable reports from teachers. It is aimed at picking up young people whom the educational system has failed. Candidates will have to take an online test. Then around 4,000 candidates will be selected to take part in one of four month long hothouses this summer, where they will be in an environment conducive to group working on projects, expecting to work up to 15 hours a day in true geek fashion. The best 1000 will then go on to take a three year stint at the new school, beginning in November.
Xavier has invested €70 million of his own money in this venture: €20 million start up costs and €50 million to cover ten years of running. He is no doubt hoping that other investers wil also chip in.
This is not Niel's first forray into the realm of education. Last year he was one of the founders of an institute for training webmasters. But that is much smaller, fee-paying and slanted to web content.
Xavier's school will be free and open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 who is very keen on computing. The selection process is not based on any qualifications of any kind, nor getting favourable reports from teachers. It is aimed at picking up young people whom the educational system has failed. Candidates will have to take an online test. Then around 4,000 candidates will be selected to take part in one of four month long hothouses this summer, where they will be in an environment conducive to group working on projects, expecting to work up to 15 hours a day in true geek fashion. The best 1000 will then go on to take a three year stint at the new school, beginning in November.
Xavier has invested €70 million of his own money in this venture: €20 million start up costs and €50 million to cover ten years of running. He is no doubt hoping that other investers wil also chip in.
This is not Niel's first forray into the realm of education. Last year he was one of the founders of an institute for training webmasters. But that is much smaller, fee-paying and slanted to web content.
11 March, 2013
A useful little device for regular travellers, taking up very little space in your suitcase and using a widely available mini-USB charger. I took it with me on my recent tour of Vietnam. Every single hotel I stayed in, as well as some of the homestay places, had free (Western hotel chains please take note) wifi access. Where it came in useful was in a couple of the hotels where the wifi coverage was a bit on the weak side in my particular room. All was not lost, the hotel room had an ethernet point. So all I had to do was to connect the DIR 506L, and hey presto, my own wifi access point.
However, at the beginning I couldn't see the purpose of the unit's second function - a pocket cloud
It came to me when I wanted to use my tablet to view some videos I had on a USB stick. Like many of the modern tablets, mine (an ageing Danew D-Slide 701R now given a new lease of life since I installed Android 4) is a bit low on connectivity. In particular, it has no USB port. All I had to do was plug the USB stick into the DIR and hey presto, I watch the videos. At least that's the idea. However, I had to try a couple of times before I actually got it to work. This operation wasn't helped by the fact that the quick guide only gave the verbal url (dlinkrouter.local) which my tablet insisted on running through google. Firing up the CD to find the host's numeric address (192.168.0.1) solved that particular problem.However, using it in this mode was a little bit fiddly. No comparison with having a real USB port on the tablet.
Another useful feature: it can act as a wifi repeater/range extender. You connect to its admin page and log onto a suitable wifi network. It then re-radiates the wifi signal with the new SSID. I prefer this to the wifi repeaters that use the same SSID, because then you can select which ssid you actually lock onto. But the unit also offers a repeater mode.
Other features include URL filtering, MAC address filtering, application rules, outbound filtering, inbound filtering, You can even decide on the wifi transmitting power level.
The unit is self-contained, with a removable Li-Ion battery that can be recharged using a mini-USB phone charger. I didn't get to test how long the battery lasts on one charge. It seemed to be a few hours.
Now I must go and check the sensitivity of the wifi for use in repeater and extender mode. This kind of information is very rarely seen in manuals. The only way of gettting it is to try it on weak signals.
28 January, 2013
Youtube suspends copyright holder
Youtube has just suspended a friend's account for copyright violation.
The problem is: the person whose account was suspended actually owns the copyrght, being the exclusive producer of the DVDs in question.
What is particularly interesting is Youtube's procedure to correct the problem.
In this instance, Youtube sent a warning notice some months ago. The subscriber responding, filling in the appropriate online forms and got an automated response.
There the matter should have ended. Not so. A couple of days ago, his account was simply removed. Since the account is now closed, he no longer has access to the complaints resolution forms.
Impossible situations like this are becoming increasingly common with the growth of e-business. I had a couple of run-ins myself with Ebay a few years back, with a variety of issues like items removed, accounts and billing problems. What became clear was that it was impossible to deal with a single person. In the case of billing problems, although it was possible to send emails, each one went to a different person who had no knowledge of the previous correspondence. In the case of items removed, there was simply no way of informing anyone. that the items were entirely legitimate. I even tried resorting to including a statement in very large letters on the object description, stating that this was a legitimate item. But all to no avail.
All this is only symptomatic, a bit like the endless voice menus in automated calling systems. But there are already signs of public backlash. Companies may then respond and improve the situation. Of course this would be on purely business grounds. But I suspect the wait will be long indeed.
Update 10 March:
Youtube reinstated the account in mid February with no explanation other than to say it had reconsidered the matter. But the traffic counter was down to zero and the channel had lost all of its subscribers.
Then in early March Youtube suspended another of the same person's channels.
What is clearly missing is some way for the user to communicate with Youtube. Ironic in this particular sector.
The problem is: the person whose account was suspended actually owns the copyrght, being the exclusive producer of the DVDs in question.
What is particularly interesting is Youtube's procedure to correct the problem.
In this instance, Youtube sent a warning notice some months ago. The subscriber responding, filling in the appropriate online forms and got an automated response.
There the matter should have ended. Not so. A couple of days ago, his account was simply removed. Since the account is now closed, he no longer has access to the complaints resolution forms.
Impossible situations like this are becoming increasingly common with the growth of e-business. I had a couple of run-ins myself with Ebay a few years back, with a variety of issues like items removed, accounts and billing problems. What became clear was that it was impossible to deal with a single person. In the case of billing problems, although it was possible to send emails, each one went to a different person who had no knowledge of the previous correspondence. In the case of items removed, there was simply no way of informing anyone. that the items were entirely legitimate. I even tried resorting to including a statement in very large letters on the object description, stating that this was a legitimate item. But all to no avail.
All this is only symptomatic, a bit like the endless voice menus in automated calling systems. But there are already signs of public backlash. Companies may then respond and improve the situation. Of course this would be on purely business grounds. But I suspect the wait will be long indeed.
Update 10 March:
Youtube reinstated the account in mid February with no explanation other than to say it had reconsidered the matter. But the traffic counter was down to zero and the channel had lost all of its subscribers.
Then in early March Youtube suspended another of the same person's channels.
What is clearly missing is some way for the user to communicate with Youtube. Ironic in this particular sector.
06 December, 2012
Coursera hits 2 million users
The MOOC site Coursera has just hit the two million mark, so I guess it's time to say something about it.
There's loads written on the MOOC phenomenon, so I won't go into any detailed explanations.
I'll just add my two cents-worth in a couple of points.
I've tried three different Coursera courses so far, all from renouned American universities (Princeton, Duke and Caltech). They are all very different in the ways they use technology. Obiously some teething problems to sort out. In one case the video of the lecture shows the whiteboard being written. The text appears on the screen in real time as if by magic (or at any rate, technology) while we are actually watching it. You can hear the marker moving over the board. I think it would have been nice to see the lecturer, but this is the world of high tech.
In another case, you see the lecturer on one corner, while the presentation slides accompanying the lecture as well as the web sites and other images are on the rest of the screen. Every now and again the video stops and an interactive multiple-choice questionnaire appears. A big improvement on the first one, although that too had embedded multiple choice questionnaires.
In the third case, the professor's video image moves all around the screen, to complement the logic propositions the students are examining.
All this is very nifty. But for some reason it needs fairly up-to-date equipment to view the videos. Ironically, the lectures are also available on Youtube, where they can be viewed with much more mundane equipment. There even screen shots of the embedded questionnaires.
I asked about these technical quirks. The response was that the videos had been tested on a wide range of platforms. Ipads and workstations were mentioned, among others. Nothing like starting at the top!
Second point: textbooks.
Third point: certificates
Finally, I' ve just enrolled for a music improvisation course, to start next April. Can't wait to see how they do that on Coursera.
There's loads written on the MOOC phenomenon, so I won't go into any detailed explanations.
I'll just add my two cents-worth in a couple of points.
I've tried three different Coursera courses so far, all from renouned American universities (Princeton, Duke and Caltech). They are all very different in the ways they use technology. Obiously some teething problems to sort out. In one case the video of the lecture shows the whiteboard being written. The text appears on the screen in real time as if by magic (or at any rate, technology) while we are actually watching it. You can hear the marker moving over the board. I think it would have been nice to see the lecturer, but this is the world of high tech.
In another case, you see the lecturer on one corner, while the presentation slides accompanying the lecture as well as the web sites and other images are on the rest of the screen. Every now and again the video stops and an interactive multiple-choice questionnaire appears. A big improvement on the first one, although that too had embedded multiple choice questionnaires.
In the third case, the professor's video image moves all around the screen, to complement the logic propositions the students are examining.
All this is very nifty. But for some reason it needs fairly up-to-date equipment to view the videos. Ironically, the lectures are also available on Youtube, where they can be viewed with much more mundane equipment. There even screen shots of the embedded questionnaires.
I asked about these technical quirks. The response was that the videos had been tested on a wide range of platforms. Ipads and workstations were mentioned, among others. Nothing like starting at the top!
Second point: textbooks.
Third point: certificates
Finally, I' ve just enrolled for a music improvisation course, to start next April. Can't wait to see how they do that on Coursera.
07 November, 2012
Kobo, shame about the web site
The early Kobo reader was a heap of junk. I picked one up during a trip to the UK and came across a branch of WH Smiths selling them off cheap. I didn't get round to writing a review of it at the time, but briefly my gripes are that it takes for ever to turn a page and the procedure to carry out a purchase is rather cumbersome. Added to that, it discharges in a couple of weeks, even if it's not used. Oh, and the fonts do not make for easy reading.
The new Kobo readers are much better from a hardware point of view, with a touch screen and pages that turn instantly. But my gripe is the system for buying ebooks. You can't buy a book directly on the reader, you must first install software on your computer (PC or Mac, no Linux version although you can copy files manually in Linux), create an account, shop on your computer and then transfer your purchase to the reader. A far cry from the Amazon Kindle method.
There's more. The localisation is badly done. Or rather, it's done in a way that leaves you no choice. I set up my purchase in London, created an account and downloaded a couple of books. Then when I got home to Paris and installed the client software on a PC there, I couldn't log onto my account. It turns out the software was trying to log onto the FNAC website, which is Kobo's French agent. I had to route via a UK VPN just so that I could log into my account and retrieve my books.
The poorly done localisation approach also shows if you just type kobo.com or kobobooks.com while in France. Although you can switch the site into English, it keeps reverting to French. More to the point - it tries to sell you books in French! Again, a far cry from other sites which let you browse between different language books. Or event that of its how power rival which has separate .uk, .fr, .de and .com sites. Better separate sites than one which is badly integrated.
The new Kobo readers are much better from a hardware point of view, with a touch screen and pages that turn instantly. But my gripe is the system for buying ebooks. You can't buy a book directly on the reader, you must first install software on your computer (PC or Mac, no Linux version although you can copy files manually in Linux), create an account, shop on your computer and then transfer your purchase to the reader. A far cry from the Amazon Kindle method.
There's more. The localisation is badly done. Or rather, it's done in a way that leaves you no choice. I set up my purchase in London, created an account and downloaded a couple of books. Then when I got home to Paris and installed the client software on a PC there, I couldn't log onto my account. It turns out the software was trying to log onto the FNAC website, which is Kobo's French agent. I had to route via a UK VPN just so that I could log into my account and retrieve my books.
The poorly done localisation approach also shows if you just type kobo.com or kobobooks.com while in France. Although you can switch the site into English, it keeps reverting to French. More to the point - it tries to sell you books in French! Again, a far cry from other sites which let you browse between different language books. Or event that of its how power rival which has separate .uk, .fr, .de and .com sites. Better separate sites than one which is badly integrated.
26 October, 2012
Alt Minds, living the game
Alt Minds is a new kind of total immersion game. A joint venture between French game developer Lexis Numerique and Orange Valley, the innovation investment arm of the telecoms operator.
The starting point is video footage of five physicists being kidnapped from the university in Belgrade. Then the player has to investigate, or at least help the ongoing investigation. Linked to the game via all possible connected media, she follows the course of the game over an eight week period. For example, an investigator breaks into a suspect's appartment, which the gamer can watch online in real time. But the investigator needs to crack the password on the suspect's laptop; this is where the gamer can step in. And so on. Social networks, web streaming, android and i-phone apps, tablets, and laptops, all are called into play. The first session of Alt-Minds will start on 12 November, in various languages. It will be replayed early next year. The first "chapter" (week) will be free, the subsequent chapters €3 each or €15 for the whole game.
A massive amount of effort is involved. About 100 people working for four years and video shot in five countries. Let's hope it pays off.
The starting point is video footage of five physicists being kidnapped from the university in Belgrade. Then the player has to investigate, or at least help the ongoing investigation. Linked to the game via all possible connected media, she follows the course of the game over an eight week period. For example, an investigator breaks into a suspect's appartment, which the gamer can watch online in real time. But the investigator needs to crack the password on the suspect's laptop; this is where the gamer can step in. And so on. Social networks, web streaming, android and i-phone apps, tablets, and laptops, all are called into play. The first session of Alt-Minds will start on 12 November, in various languages. It will be replayed early next year. The first "chapter" (week) will be free, the subsequent chapters €3 each or €15 for the whole game.
A massive amount of effort is involved. About 100 people working for four years and video shot in five countries. Let's hope it pays off.
24 October, 2012
Yasound, is this the future of web radio?
Yasound launched its French "platform to create your own web radio station" web site last night at a painful press conference - for one thing, we were all kept standing for three hours. The i-phone app should follow in a few days as soon as Apple has approved it. A preliminary version has been up since March. UK and US versions of the service are in the pipeline. The different country versions are all kept separate for rights reasons. As the system is closely tied with i-Tunes, I don't think there's much chance of seeing an Android version in the near future.
So, what is Yasound? How does it let you "create your own web radio station" in just a few clicks. Entirely legally and at no cost.
Basically, you upload the titles of your personal play-list to Yasound. Their server checks whether it already these songs on its database. If so, it just plays it out in sync with what you are listening to on your i-Phone. There is, naturally, a social networking aspect.
What the whole thing boils down to is that you can now chat with other people who are listening to the same piece of music as you at the same time.
But this is not radio as we know it, with interviews, phone-ins, reports, panel discussions and maybe even advertising.
So, what is Yasound? How does it let you "create your own web radio station" in just a few clicks. Entirely legally and at no cost.
Basically, you upload the titles of your personal play-list to Yasound. Their server checks whether it already these songs on its database. If so, it just plays it out in sync with what you are listening to on your i-Phone. There is, naturally, a social networking aspect.
What the whole thing boils down to is that you can now chat with other people who are listening to the same piece of music as you at the same time.
But this is not radio as we know it, with interviews, phone-ins, reports, panel discussions and maybe even advertising.
14 January, 2012
Built-in laptop batteries: buyer beware
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.
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.
16 December, 2011
Skype Android upgrade sucks
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!
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!
30 November, 2011
D-Link DCS-930L wifi surveillance camera
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.
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.
26 November, 2011
ZTE Skate android phone
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..
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..
14 September, 2011
Samsung quietly drops its e-book reader
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.
24 May, 2011
Sarko's Internet show - e-G8 Paris Summit
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
The programme for the rest of the event looks very interesting. It's played out in video on www.eg8forum.com
22 January, 2011
Samsung E-65 and Amazon Kindle 3 e-readers compared
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.
18 December, 2010
Western Digital WD TV Live Hub Media Centre
"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.
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.
05 December, 2010
Slingbox Pro-HD
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)?
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.
I didn't try Slingmedia on an elderly I-paq running Windows CE. For one thing, I couldn't find the download link.
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
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.
02 November, 2010
Logitech Alert 750i
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.
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.
25 October, 2010
Bewan Powerline S200Maxx adapters
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.
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.
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