communication
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Ubiquiti Networks beefs up outdoor wireless broadband networks with AirFiber
We won't be satisfied until we live on a planet where wireless internet waves travel at all points where oxygen is readily available, and it sounds as if Ubiquiti Networks is right there with us. The outfit has just rolled out a new outdoor wireless backhaul radio platform dubbed AirFiber, which represents its first proprietary in-house radio design effort that was purpose-built for the Wireless ISP Industry. It hums along in the license-free 24GHz band, and provides optical fiber network performance without the significant capital costs associated with fiber cable network deployment. At $2,995 per link, it's hardly meant for consumer consumption, but but we're hoping it'll bring the world wide web to more of the world when enterprise outfits start deploying 'em later this year.[Thanks, Shawn]
Apple secures patent on multiple-arm, multiple-frequency antenna design
If not for Leap Day, Apple would've seen this one granted a year to the day after it was filed; as it stands, 365 days will just have to do. At any rate, Apple has not only managed to secure a patent this fine morning for an ejectable SIM tray, but also one for an antenna isolation apparatus. In simple(ish) terms, the patent details an antenna structure in a portable electronic device that's comprised of "first, second, and third resonating elements aligned along a common axis parallel to a ground plane," with a multiple-arm, multiple-frequency design taking shape. It's also pretty clear that the intention here is to reduce radio-frequency interference between the antennas -- something that'll prove increasingly important as wave support is added in future iPhones. Unfortunately, there's no word on whether this patent will allow AT&T-infused iPhone 5 handsets to display "7G" in the indicator bar.
Bluetooth SIG embraces GNSS Profile 1.0 for GPS data sharing
Hot on the heels of a new Broadcom system that taps into the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in order to reduce first-lock times, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group has quietly adopted GNSS Profile 1.0 for GPS data sharing. According to Phone Scoop, the profile can be used by all devices boasting Bluetooth 2.0 and up, and it'll allow GPS-enabled products to share positioning data with another nearby product over BT. Specifically, "the GNSS profile specification defines the Serial Port Profile (SPP) based transport mechanism and associated service discovery record parameters needed to establish a service level connection between two devices," which should make GPS data sharing as easy as contact sharing of yesteryear. Practical applications? With a plethora of location-based social networking apps already on the market, we're certainly playing the wait-and-see game on this one.
Researchers find fewer words being added to languages, fewer ways to tell you precisely that
What if one of the words in this post means absolutely nothing in the year 2094? It's possible, and more possible than ever before. That's according to recently published research from a group at the Institutions Markets Technologies' Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies in Italy, who have found that fewer new words are being added to languages today than in eras prior. Despite the proliferation of the internet and untold new ways to communicate, more and more words are being eliminated while fewer words replace them. It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason(s) why, but most gurus suggest that reliance on rigid spellcheck tools and the rise of short-form communication have made it less necessary to find new ways to say things. You can read more on the findings there in the source link, where we're sure master wordsmiths will be saddened by the lack of descriptive flair.
Sparrow for iPhone released: just a POP and Push away from email perfection
Sparrow's made a name for itself over on the Mac desktop side, and now it's doing its darnedest to do the same on iOS. The email-client-that-could has launched its long-awaited iPhone edition into the App Store today, with $2.99 netting you a highly polished program that integrates a "pane navigation" concept, a unique threading system and full IMAP support. In other words, Gmail, Google Apps, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL and custom email addresses are fine to use here, but there's no support for POP or Push notifications just yet. The latter is apt to put off the power users, but more casual readers may appreciate the unified inbox, direct-attachment feature and plenty of other details that provide for an overall delightful experience. It's available now in the source link (or the App Store, if you're up for a search), and we're told that localization, landscape mode, a built-in browser and 'Send and Archive' will be coming in future builds.Psst... hit the More Coverage link to read Sparrow's explanation of why Push is being left out. If you couldn't guess, it's about privacy.
Neutrinos can transmit messages through walls, mountains, planets
Neutrinos may not travel as fast as we first hoped, but then they have other special abilities to make up for it. Being almost massless, they can penetrate the thickest barriers, which ought to make them ideal message carriers. To illustrate the point, scientists sent the word "Neutrino" on a beam of particles through 240 meters (800 feet) of solid stone and received it loud and clear on the other side. The same approach could potentially be used to send a message right through the center of a planet, making it possible, according to one of the researchers, to "communicate between any two points on Earth without using satellites or cables." The experiment required the latest particle accelerators at Chicago's Fermilab, which flung the neutrinos over a 2.5 mile track before firing them off at an underground receiver, but it proved the principle: Shrink the accelerator down to the size of a smartphone and neutrino messaging could be huge. Or it could die in a format war with quantum teleportation.
Terahertz bandwidth: the key to 1,000x faster smartphones, laptops and pipe dreams
Much like carbon nanotubes and quantum computing, terahertz technologies have been promising miracles for nearly as long as humans have been able to distinguish water from fire. We exaggerate, but barely. A crafty team assembled at the University of Pittsburgh seems to have no qualms with moving forward, however, recently announcing a new physical basis for terahertz bandwidth. Those involved managed to have success in generating a frequency comb -- "dividing a single color of light into a series of evenly spaced spectral lines for a variety of uses -- that spans a more than 100 terahertz bandwidth by exciting a coherent collective of atomic motions in a semiconductor silicon crystal." For those who managed to make it through the technobabble, we're told that the ability to modulate light with such a bandwidth could "increase the amount of information carried by more than 1,000 times when compared to the volume carried with today's technologies." Smartphones, computers and even airline check-in kiosks that operate 1,000 faster than they do today? Sure, we'll take that. But, how about give us a ring when Wally World deems it ripe for commercialization? We'll be waiting -- pinky promise.
Apple WALT prototype hits eBay, reminds us of a life with landlines
As it turns out, Apple too used to announce products at trade shows... only to never actually ship them. Back in the halcyon days of the early '90s, Apple revealed the WALT (Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone) at Macworld Boston, touting a fairly amazing feature set. Things like a touchscreen, handwriting recognition, fax support, an address book, caller ID, online banking and a speakerphone set it apart from the landline devices of its day, and being that it was co-developed with Bell South, it's pretty clear that your pops had his eye one at some point. Those looking to relive the corporate boom of one-nine-nine-to-the-tres can plunk down $8,000 of 2012's dollars at the eBay link below; just don't expect it to work out of the box, okay?[Thanks, TS]
China claims one billion mobile phone users, India shrugs
China claimed 900 million mobile users last April, but back then it still seemed possible that India might reach the billion user milestone first. China was ahead in absolute terms, while India's user base was growing faster. According to the latest figures from its government, however, China is ready to stake its claim. It had 997 million phone owners by late February, with growth of around three million per week, which means it should have tipped the scales in the last few days. Of course, it's not really about who gets there first: The salient fact is that millions more humans can now ring each other up, just, you know, to chat.
The Puzzlejuice emails document the nitty gritty of iOS development
Puzzlejuice is a really great puzzle game (really, a big mishmash of different puzzle games) that's available on the App Store right now. It was put together by developers Greg Wohlwend and Asher Vollmer, and Wohlwend has just published a post on his personal blog that's pretty spectacular: He calls it "The Puzzlejuice emails," and it's basically all of the email communication between the two developers as they work out the look and feel of this crazy game. It's really long (he really did include everything, from first contact all the way up to release), but it's also a fascinating read, especially if you've been involved in iOS development, or game development of any kind. You can see the two devs hashing out everything as they go, from the look of the graphics to the meaning of the game's name, all the way up to the icon and setting up the website and price for release. Wohlwend originally was just interested in the game as it was being made, but eventually the release turned into a partnership for the two, and there's all sorts of little trivia bits in there about things that did and didn't work during development. The emails are presented as-is, too: The devs had some concern about another word game that came out during development, Spelltower, but eventually decided the games were different enough that it was worth carrying on. I would agree. If you have any interest in seeing behind the scenes on just what small scale iOS development is like, give this one a read. It won't teach you to make code or art, but it will teach you how these games are put together piece by piece.
Tritton's latest Bluetooth headset lands at the FCC, hopes to find refuge with PS3 owners
No, that isn't some robotic fingernail -- it's MadCatz / Tritton's latest Bluetooth headset, which has just made its way through the FCC's underground bunker. Geared for audio chat on the PS3, the "Wireless Headset featuring Bluetooth technology," as it's not-so-creatively dubbed, is the apparent successor to the company's late AX Micro. A quick perusal of its manual confirms that aside from the science fiction-eqsue looks, the unit is essentially an average Bluetooth earpiece. Over the past few months, Tritton's been heavily catering to the Xbox 360 crowd with a smattering of officially licensed gaming headsets, so it's a pleasant surprise to see that Blu-ray spinning gamers are still getting a some love. Is this a taste of what's to come from MadCatz at this year's CES? You can be sure we'll find out once we hit the show floor in the coming days, but for now, check out the gallery below for a better look.
Did you fire off a bunch of texts this Christmas? Welcome to the museum
Finland might be the spiritual home of the SMS, but it also proves that this ancient form of communication is going the way of the rune stone. A mere 8.5 million texts were sent over the country's Sonera network on Christmas Eve, versus 10.9 million on that festive day in 2010. The same trend was spotted on other Finnish networks and also on the other side of the world: Christmas Day texts in Hong Kong were down nearly 14 percent on the year before, and Telstra in Australia experienced a nine percent year-on-year decline over the whole of 2011. Things are different in America, where texting has continued to grow, but that growth seems to be slowing down and some analysts expect "SMS erosion" to hit Verizon and AT&T by 2014. The obvious culprit is mobile internet: social networking apps, BBM, iMessage and a host of other 'free' options, but you won't find carriers complaining -- data contract ARPUs suit them just fine.
Storyboard: Different points of view
There are blanks spots in the lore. This is not news to anyone who has been reading this column for a while. I've talked about dealing with the lore twice, both times pointing out that there are spaces for you to drive your character. Sometimes it's comfortable, and sometimes it's like wedging a needle into your gums and trying to kill a dental nerve at the root. But whether or not it has parallels to my recent dental surgery, there are places in the lore where you sort of have to just fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, this creates major issues when you intend to interact with another player, which is something that will be happening roughly all the time in roleplaying. So you might very well come up with an answer for something that isn't just different from everyone else's answer, but you might wind up with an answer that's outright mutually incompatible with someone else's. And while you sometimes can take comfort in the fact that the lore will eventually steamroll both of you, sometimes it's just the two of you trying to deal with a part of your fictional world that is now being disbelieved by someone else.
Global Chat: November 27-December 3
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! We're all about communication in this week's Global Chat, and whether that's communication to and from developers or communication with NPCs, it's important to gaming fans who love to know what's happening and why. Our readers had plenty to say on the subject last week, so follow along after the jump to see some of the best of what was said!
Darkfall devblog addresses Darkfall 2.0 progress, lack of communication
Darkfall fans, rejoice! More news about Darkfall 2.0 is upon us. Tasos Flambouras stopped by the game's blog today to mention that the team does "notice the anxiety on the forums concerning development progress, timing of Darkfall's re-launch, speculation about a wipe between Darkfall and the re-launch, and our spotty communication as of late." He then set out to make amends for these transgressions by giving fans an update on Darkfall 2.0's development progress. Flambouras noted that "the remaining work is broken down... and supported with a clear timeframe... so at this point we know exactly when we're done with the development." More details on Darkfall 2.0 will be revealed in upcoming updates. But Darkfall 2.0 isn't the only thing on the Aventurine head-honcho's agenda. He also takes some time to talk about whether or not there will be a full wipe when 2.0 launches (the team hasn't decided yet), business deals (the studio is in "final stages of cooperation with several partners"), and the studio's lack of communication (the studio says it's sorry and promises to do better). For the full, unabridged dev blog update, just head on over to the game's official site.
CEO bans email, encourages social networking
Who needs email when you have text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and a menagerie of alternative communication tools? Not Atos, a French IT firm that's planning to give email the boot. Over the course of the next eighteen months, CEO Thierry Breton hopes to ween 80,000 employees off of the old standby, pushing text messages, phone calls and face-to-face chats as alternatives. Breton strives to promote a collaborative social network similar to Facebook or Twitter to fill email's void and suffice as an easily accessible global network. Having himself been email sober at work for three years, Breton claims email is inefficient, and a burden to the workflow. Will this new social environment promote efficiency, or will pet photos and status updates become the new spam? If employees can't keep their social inclinations under wraps, Atos may have to resort to the Medieval carrier pigeon. Delivery estimates for long distance range from five days to never.
Poll: Have you noticed battery improvements after updating to iOS 5.0.1?
Yesterday, Apple pushed out iOS 5.0.1, just about four weeks after releasing iOS 5 to the masses. Among the reported fixes: battery life improvements, following a confirmed bug in the initial release. We're hearing reports that battery life remains an issue for some iPhone 4S owners, however, and that it's been reduced even further for others. We want to hear about your experience, though, so let us know what's up in the poll below, and jump past the break to join other iPhone owners in the comments.%Poll-70860%
Poll: What's broken (or working) for you in iOS 5?
If you haven't updated to iOS 5 by now, let's face it: you never will. It's cool. We get it. Some of us are still using Netscape, too. For the rest of the iOS universe, though, iOS 5 has almost certainly been installed, and now that you've had a few weeks to tinker with it, we're interested in seeing what quirks are being found. We've received a number of reports surrounding call connection issues (on both Verizon Wireless and AT&T), "invalid SIM" warnings, a bug that shows an inbox as being full (when it clearly isn't) and iCloud refusing to load email altogether. Oh, and then there's that pesky Siri pincode bypass -- tsk, tsk! Toss your vote in below, and converse amongst yourselves in comments. Sharing is caring! %Poll-70290%
CCP announces new Customer Relations details
A couple of days ago, CCP announced that an alarming number of team members had been laid off. Many EVE Online players were understandably concerned about what this might mean for the future of the game. CCP aims to put those concerns to rest with a new dev blog entry released today, which announces that CCP's Community Team has been merged with Customer Support in order to form a new Customer Relations department. The community team has also been relocated to CCP's Reykjavik offices "and will be working closely with every development team to ensure that players are kept up to date with what is coming to EVE." CCP is aiming to increase communication with players and in the coming weeks, the company intends to begin by bringing out a series of short videos which will focus on what's currently in development for EVE. For all the nitty-gritty details, head on over to the official post at EVE's site.
CCP Games CEO issues letter of apology to EVE Online players
Just over three months ago, fans of EVE Online looked on in disbelief as the game they loved faced its biggest crisis of confidence since 2007's T20 developer scandal. The long-awaited Incarna expansion was pushed live with no multiplayer environments and only one race of captain's quarters. Players were forced to use the feature every time they docked, and it seemed that its only purpose was as a display case for overpriced cash-shop clothing. While players debated the controversial cash shop prices, a leaked company newsletter titled "Greed is Good" and a leaked memo from CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson threw additional fuel on the flames. In a letter to the EVE Online community today, Hilmar delivered a humble apology for everything that happened. "The estrangement from CCP that many of you have been feeling of late is my fault, and for that I am truly sorry," he began. "In short, my zeal for pushing EVE to her true potential made me lose sight of doing the simple things right. I was impatient when I should have been cautious, defiant when I should have been conciliatory and arrogant when I should have been humble." The letter goes on to tackle everything from the removal of ship spinning and the release of the captain's quarters as a full expansion to CCP's plans for the future. In an accompanying devblog, CCP Zulu provided an impressive list of in-space features aimed for the winter development period. The list includes the long-awaited hybrid weapon balance changes, assault ship bonus reworks, capital ship rebalancing, and even iteration on faction warfare.
