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TUAW TV Live: Networking hints and tips
The network -- it's what makes our Macs, our iPads, and even our iPhones so powerful. Whether it's your Wi-Fi network connected to a speedy cable modem, fiber to your home and a Gigabit Ethernet link to your Mac Pro, a slow and spotty cellular data connection, or using Bluetooth to "talk" to accessories in your vicinity, networking gives us the connectivity that truly powers our Apple devices. Today on TUAW TV Live, co-host Mike Wehner and I will do a mental dump of all of the hints and tips about wireless and wired networking that we've accumulated over the years -- and trust me, those are a lot of years. We'd love for you to join us for an hour of mindless banter surrounding priceless nuggets of useful information, and you can even pop into the chat room to give us your thoughts. To watch the show and take part in the chat, just scroll down a tiny bit, log into the chat room, and be sure to press the "play" button on the video window around 5 PM to watch the stream. If you don't have time to watch the complete show today, come back to this post later or first thing tomorrow when we'll have the recording available for your viewing pleasure. Contact the podcast Follow the hosts on Twitter: @stevensande, @docrock, @TUAW Send your questions to @stevensande E-mail us: tvlive at tuaw [dot] com
GREE tweaks US operations, invests in MunkyFun
GREE is a very large Japanese social network similar to Facebook or Twitter that has been trying to secure some mindspace in the West by acquiring game developers and their large audiences. The company is making a heavy investment in MunkyFun, makers of My Horse and Bounty Bots, for $3 million. It's also switching up its US business to focus on its own titles. That includes "some redundancies," and GREE says its platform business will start transitioning back to Tokyo in the future. Probably the most high-profile acquisition GREE made on iOS was in the OpenFeint social network, and that system is being shut down this month, so it's not too surprising that the company is making some cutbacks. But this is the first sign we've seen that GREE might be changing its mind about trying to take over the West. These social networks have bought a lot of access to users, but haven't seen much growth, so they might have to come up with another tactic to connect up with the big audience of Westerners using iOS devices. Update: This post previously stated that GREE was acquiring MunkyFun, but the $3 million put in is just a minority investment, not a full acquistion. Show full PR text GREE Expands its U.S. Games Business With New Mobile Games Fund and Announcement of $3 million Investment in Hit Developer, MunkyFun San Francisco, CA December 06, 2012- GREE is today announcing that it's expanding its focus on 2nd party mobile game development with a new mobile investment fund managed by a new publishing and partnerships group. The fund's first venture is in mobile game developer, MunkyFun, maker of games such as My Horse and Bounty Bots. MunkyFun received a minority investment of $3 million from GREE. GREE, which recently announced the closure of mobile social gaming platform, OpenFeint, is focusing its US business primarily on its own titles and developer partner titles. As part of the company's internal US reorganization, a majority of the GREE games platform team will be transitioned to new departments with redundancies in some areas. The overall GREE Platform business will begin transitioning to its operations in Tokyo as a part of this change The US operation continues to build a strong portfolio of mobile games- including recently launched titles Monster Quest and MLB: Full Deck. The mobile investment fund is the latest in a series of commitments to first party and second party titles including full-out acquisitions of mobile game developers App Ant in September 2012 and Investment in IUGO Entertainment earlier this year.
Sprint Nextel takes control of Clearwire after increasing stake to 50.8 percent
A securities filing has just revealed that Sprint Nextel has acquired 50.8 percent of Clearwire Corp giving it control of the firm. The deal comes after buying out Eagle River Holdings' stake in the telco. This comes just days after Sprint was subject to a sale of its own, to Japanese operator Softbank. The news is the latest twist in the up and down relationship between the two firms, and hints at a more assertive LTE strategy -- given that it now has more say over Clearwire's spectrum. Although it remains unclear how this will affect deals with other operators. If you really want to get in to the nitty-gritty, head on down to the Securities and Exchange Commission doc in the source link below. [Thanks, James K]
Apple's Ping no longer pinging back, leaves memories of white noise in its wake
"I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride Something touched me deep inside... the day the music died." R.I.P. Ping (09.01.2010 - 09.30.2012)
ABI Research: LTE subscriptions surpassed WiMAX usage in Q2 2012
WiMAX isn't exactly a fading technology, but LTE is more and more the name of the mobile connectivity game -- at least in Japan, South Korea and the US. That's what ABI Research gleaned from its "4G Subscribers, Devices and Networks" market data: according to the study the number of LTE subscribers in Japan, South Korea and the US shot past that of WiMAX users in the last quarter of 2011 through to quarter two of 2012. The firm says 77 percent of LTE devices were smartphones in 2011, and it projects that LTE handsets will make up more than 80 percent of device shipments in 2016. ABI says LTE's advantage will grow in the next few years, as more mobile operators roll out TD-LTE networks, and as we begin to see more LTE chipsets hit the market. Head past the break for the press release.
The iPhone 5's confusing international LTE support
One of the iPhone 5's most exciting new features is LTE support -- cell phone junkies have been waiting for an iPhone that supports high-speed LTE networks for a while now, and the latest iPhone, coming this Friday, will do exactly that. But unfortunately for international users, the LTE support may end up being a little spotty, according to The Mac Observer. There are actually three different models of the iPhone 5 being sold, and each of them, due to various technological limitations and bandwidth separations, will only support some of the networks around the world. Verizon and Sprint customers of the iPhone 5 will likely get a phone with the A1429 chip inside, which will allow access to LTE networks in the US and Japan, but not anywhere else. AT&T customers will get the A1428, which only supports two LTE bands, and so won't be extremely useful around the world. And international customers will get a third model, which will be able to access high-speed networks internationally, but might have a problem here in the US. It is confusing for sure, and the honest truth is that there is no internationally usable LTE iPhone -- you'll have to make compromises no matter which phone you buy. But that's the reality of modern cell phone networks as they exist today.
LTE iPhone 5 coming to EE and Three in UK, but not O2 and Vodafone
Brits ready to stake their preorder claim this Friday might have a harder time deciding between the myriad of networks offering the device. While all of the major UK carriers will be ready to offer you the iPhone 5, that LTE radio will only be working on the newly-christened EE from the start, with Three likely to use that purchased spectrum (after getting the okay from Ofcom) to similar effect in the near-future. Unfortunately for Vodafone and O2, the forthcoming Ofcom spectrum auction is gearing up to sell off the 800MHz (Band 20) and 2.6GHz (Band 7) frequencies -- neither of which are found on Apple's multiple iPhone 5 models, and the latter being a bigger problem in Europe and Asia, where LTE networks already make use of the 2.6GHz frequency. However, Apple have followed up an initial phone launch with additional network-specific models before -- so there's a slim chance we could see another model at a later date. All the UK carriers are keeping their contract prices a tightly-guarded secret at the moment, but we'll update as soon as we hear more. Meanwhile, those on that little European isle can expect to pay £529 for the entry-level iPhone 5 from the source when pre-orders start this Friday. Update: Pocket-lint's been told that those looking to grab the EE iteration will need to initially register with either Orange or T-Mobile, with your service bizarrely migrating across on a later, as-yet unconfirmed, date. This is because its new 4G network won't be ready when the iPhone 5 first hits shops on September 21st. Before that, you'll have to make do with HSPA+ speeds.
Sprint confirms its HD Voice is incompatible with the iPhone 5
The new, lighter iPhone 5 has a bigger screen, punchier processor, LTE and dual-band WiFi, but if you plan to pick one up for Sprint's network, you can't have it all. Carrier spokesperson Michelle Leff Mermelstein told Phone Scoop that its version of HD Voice will not work on Apple's new wünderphone. While most carriers use WCDMA networks to achieve the greater definition, Sprint uses CDMA 1X Advanced, which unfortunately isn't compatible with the handset. Knowing the feature will be missing prior to launch isn't ideal, but when you're calling your friends to boast about that day-one purchase, a slight drop in clarity isn't likely to kill your geek buzz.
Ping going dark on September 30th, no longer accepting new members
Ping, Apple's foray into music-centric social networking, hasn't seen much in the way of updates since it was announced two years ago, and now the folks in Cupertino are set to shut it down on September 30th. Struck with the sudden urge to sign-up for the service and take it for a spin before it goes offline? You're out of luck. Visiting the network's home in iTunes reveals that Cook and Co. are no longer accepting new members. From here on out, you'll just have to find other avenues to keep tabs on what tunes are playing within your social circles.
Apple announces worldwide carriers for iPhone 5: Sprint, AT&T and Verizon will support LTE in the US (update: No AWS HSPA+ for T-Mobile)
If you've got Apple's new LTE-capable iPhone 5, you're going to need some LTE markets. Fortunately, Apple had a huge, global list of carriers that are going to work with Apple's latest. In the US, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will all support true 4G connectivity, while Canada's Rogers, Telus and Bell will also get the hook-up. In Europe, the newly established EE and Deutsch Telekom will gain LTE, while in Asia, KDDI, Softbank, KT, SK Telecom and SmartTone will all be provided for. Update: Apple's detailed all the technical specs of its new radio in the US, but we're looking at what's arguably the first LTE world phone -- unless there's a second model to do the rounds in Asia and Europe. It's the first device to run on the LTE networks of all the major carriers, although unfortunately there no AWS (1700MHz) HSPA+ for T-Mobile customers. Take a look at the more coverage link to get knee-deep in frequencies -- there's plenty of HSPA to go around. %Gallery-165074% Check out all the coverage at our iPhone 2012 event hub!
Time Warner Cable expanding fiber broadband coverage in NYC, only businesses to benefit
Google, we're not in Kansas anymore, we're in New York, where Time Warner Cable is planning to drop $25 million on expanding its (up to) 1Gbps fiber broadband infrastructure. Specifically, the additional network is hitting neglected areas in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but it's not for general consumption -- it's strictly for businesses. Don't feel too disheartened though -- you might not be getting a slice of this particular fiber pie, but it's all you can eat, all the time at the free WiFi buffet.
IEEE pushes for Ethernet standard between 400Gbps and 1Tbps, hopes to head off big data crunch
Ethernet might seem passé to those of us toting Ultrabooks, but it's important enough to provoke a crisis for internet providers and many of those who depend on high-speed computing networks for a living: based on the rises of streaming video and social networking, the IEEE is worried that many of those large-scale networks will need 10Tbps of total bandwidth just to avoid a logjam in 2020. To that end, the standards body has formed a Higher-Speed Ethernet Consensus group that's mulling a new, breakneck-speed format reaching either 400Gbps or 1Tbps, depending on whose approach you'd favor. Fight the urge to pick the 1Tbps option on instinct, however. Both options would depend on bonding multiple connections together, and the faster of the two formats could lead to some expensive and very ungainly cables if it's not handled well. A meeting is scheduled for late September in Geneva to at least begin hashing out the details. Although we won't be wiring our homes with terabit Ethernet anytime soon, the standard should come quickly enough that the Googles and Netflixes of the world can satisfy our data addictions for a good while longer. [Image credit: Justin Marty, Flickr]
Mountain Lion 101: Sharing and Twitter (but not Facebook yet)
Mountain Lion adds direct Twitter support in the OS, just as iOS users have had for a while. If you haven't set up your Twitter account yet, you'll want to go into System Preferences, and then choose Mail, Contacts & Calendars to set up your various accounts. Just like on the iPhone and the iPad, you can now set up certain cloud services in OS X. Your iCloud and mail accounts are in there (for Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo!, and AOL), but there's also now logins for Twitter, Vimeo and Flickr as well. Logging into those is as easy as logging into the main sites, and especially if you share information and links often on social networks, it could make things a lot easier for you. The one big drawback is that Facebook integration is not yet included in the OS. It was tested during the beta, but it won't be available to the public until a software update this fall. Until then, you can still log in and set up your other various accounts. Also, as has been pointed out on Twitter itself, the Mountain Lion tweeting option via the Share button opens the Twitter website only -- it doesn't (yet) work with native clients like TweetDeck, Twitter for Mac or YoruFukurou.
Netgear's R6300 router is first to use Broadcom 802.11ac chipset, will ship next month for $200
That 802.11n router not keeping up with the gigabit pipe to your homestead? Netgear's latest may just give you a much-anticipated boost. The R6300 Dual-Band Gigabit WiFi Router is the first to utilize Broadcom's 5G WiFi IEEE 802.11ac chips, making it roughly three times faster than aging 802.11n. This means the R6300 could be an excellent fit for folks lucky enough to take part in Google's Kansas City fiber experiment, assuming of course that they that also adopt yet-to-be-announced 802.11ac-compatible gadgets. For its part, the Netgear base ships with the usual suite of features, including Netgear Genie for configuring the network from a computer or smartphone, MyMedia with DLNA support, AirPrint (there's two USB ports built-in) and pre-configured wireless security, keeping your hotspot off the neighbors' radar right out of the box. The Netgear R6300 will ship next month, letting you future-proof your home for a mere $199.99.
New research brings better wireless to remote locations, 80 percent faster GoT downloads
Not getting the bandwidth you need, Heidi? Then maybe the folks at North Carolina State University can help. They've figured out a way to boost multi-hop networks, where data is forwarded across two or more nodes (hops) in order to reach far-flung users. Networks like this can often get bogged down by interference between neighboring nodes. But by using algorithms to automatically modulate the power of each link, the NC State scientists have managed to jump efficiency by up to 80 percent. This has the effect of not only increasing speed, but also saving juice if the systems are battery powered -- like those used by the US Army, which sponsored the research. After all, just because you're away from the throne doesn't mean you have to be out of the game.
Nokia Siemens HSPA+ Multiflow lets one device connect to two cell sites simultaneously
If you've ever used a cell phone while moving, then you've probably experienced the depressed network connectivity that becomes more of an issue as you move further away from any given tower. Some of us are even unfortunate enough to reside or work right at the edge of a cell, forced to live with poor connectivity for much of every day. A new feature called HSPA+ Multiflow may offer some relief, "delivering double the data speed and up to 50 percent faster response compared to existing HSPA+ networks," according to Nokia Siemens, which will be demonstrating the technology at Mobile World Congress later this month. Essentially, Multiflow allows compatible devices on the edge of a cell to connect to two sites simultaneously, letting your device send and receive data between two base stations at once. Multiflow will be available as a software update for Single RAN systems, so it could make its way to a cell site near you just after Nokia Siemens flips the switch during the second half of 2013. Full PR is just past the break.
Nokia Siemens promises better TD-LTE and CDMA coverage, no alarms or surprises
So, Nokia Siemens Networks wasn't fibbing when it said it would re-focus its efforts on mobile broadband. It's just announced a 'six pipe' radio head upgrade for time division LTE (TD-LTE) base stations that can boost capacity by 80 percent and coverage by 40 percent compared to a traditional three-sector site. Alternatively, the same replacement can be used to reduce a station's running costs, by allowing it to cover three sectors using a single radio head. As far as we're concerned, anything that recalls OK Computer is a good thing, but if it speeds up carriers' shift to LTE then it's even better. Meanwhile, for those who still want to invest in CDMA, Nokia Siemens is pushing it's 1X Advanced technology, which also promises big improvements in voice and data capacity as well as energy efficiency. Read on for more technical details in a PR double-shot.
AT&T 4G LTE now working in parts of New York City
We got a taste of AT&T's 4G LTE action last night in the Big Apple with the introduction of its LG Nitro HD, and today, the company has apparently flipped the 4G "on" switch in the City That Never Sleeps -- confirming its promise from November. According to tipster reports, some speed tests are showing downloads as fast as 27 Mbps and uploads of 15 Mbps, confirming that the LTE network has indeed gone live in parts of New York City. Update: To be clear, this is not an official deployment of LTE in NYC by AT&T. So, if you can't get signal, or if your signal stinks, don't take it out on them. It's still in testing! [Thanks, @SamSavitt]
The cost of switching to LTE: Sprint to spend $10 billion over the next two years
Wonder just how much it costs to phase out iDEN and WiMAX networks and put all your eggs in one, CDMA / LTE-flavored basket? Well, Joe Euteneuer, Sprint's CFO, just offered up a frank answer here at its "Strategy Update" event: $10 billion over the next two years. That's a heckuva lot more than the $4 billion to $5 billion Wall Street was expecting, but Euteneuer assured all the suited-up financial analysts in the room that the company should save $10 billion to $11 billion through 2017 (a figure widely reported before today), with $4 billion of that resulting from not having to maintain the 'ol ball and chain iDEN network anymore. Now it's true, we're a minority in this meeting of industry analysts, but you don't need to be a banker to understand that's one telling figure: clearly, the company's betting its future not just on the (CDMA!) iPhone, but LTE's brand of 4G.
Google planning opt-out option for WiFi data gathering
Privacy concerns have caused Google to back down a bit on its information collection amongst residential wireless networks. Beginning in the fall, the company will allow owners of the WiFi networks to opt-out of the data gathering. Google has assured concerned parties that it doesn't collect personal details when nabbing the information for its databases, but such comments haven't done much to calm the nerves of privacy advocates.
