During CommunicAsia2012, I had the chance to speak with Nigel V. Wright and Gene Zhang of Spirent Communications about the face of things to come as countries in Asia begin rolling out 4G LTE networks.
Spirent is a multinational telecommunications and network testing company headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Wright is the Vice President for Wireless Product Marketing & Corporate Marketing at Spirent, while Zhang is the VP & General Manager for Asia Pacific at the company.
With LTE rollouts in Asia-Pacific now progressing at an aggressive pace, and the region set to surpass 120 million LTE connections by 2015, operators are competing to become the first to offer 4G services in this high-growth subscriber market.
Singaporean adventurer and motivational speaker Khoo Swee Chiow will attempt to scale the summit of K2, the world’s second highest mountain, with the support of title sponsor Seagate Technology.
Khoo Swee Chiow will climb K2, one of the most notorious mountains in the world. Photo by Kevin Mayea.
The Seagate K2 2012 expedition, from 20 June to 20 August, will see Khoo Swee Chiow join an international team of 13 climbers from China, South Korea, USA, Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia, Spain, Nepal and Singapore.
“Swee Chiow has shown incredible tenacity and determination in realizing his dreams. His expeditions have made it possible for him to instill confidence, leadership and excellence in thousands of people through motivational talks,” said BanSeng Teh, senior vice president and managing director for Asia Pacific & Japan, Seagate Technology.Khoo Swee Chiow and his team will be climbing the mountain along the Abruzzi Ridge, otherwise known as the Southeast Ridge, from the Pakistani border.
On this climb, Khoo Swee Chiow is taking Seagate Backup Plus hard drives to store and backup his photos, videos and journal files for him to share his story when he returns.
Seagate’s newly designed external storage – Backup Plus hard drives – deliver easy setup, one-click backup and the ability to save and share content on Facebook and Flickr.
In addition to Seagate Technology, they will be supported by other sponsors including Microsoft, Canon, Millet, Adventure21, Iridium, Energizer, Oakley, Touch&Print, Banana Boat, Powertraveller, GoPro and Meteorological Service Singapore.
“K2 will be the hardest climb of my life, much harder than Everest. After more than 20 years of climbing, I feel the time has come for me to give it a go,” said Khoo Swee Chiow, who first climbed Everest in 1998.Standing at an elevation of 8,611 metres above sea level, K2 is known for its high level of difficulty and notoriously high casualty rate.
It has a daunting death rate of 26 percent per ascent, six times higher than that of the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest.
To date, only 302 climbers have successfully reached K2’s peak, a number that pales in comparison to Everest’s 3,500.
Here are some CommunicAsia2012 highlights of TomTom’s latest map products for the Asia Pacific region, which includes new coverage and features for automotive, enterprise and government customers.
TomTom expands mapping footprint in Asia Pacific region with map updates
But TomTom is gearing up for something big come July. And I mean BIG – literally! Check in on 5 July to find out more.
In the meantime, here are more details of TomTom’s latest map update release.
The introduction of Voice Maps in Thai and Bahasa Indonesian; the first Voice Maps product supporting tonal languages where different tones distinguish different meanings of a word.
Visualization enhanced with additional 3D Landmarks for important buildings, 2D building footprints and Junction Views for complex intersections throughout the region.
The debut of lane and signpost information added in inner-city areas of central Bangkok, enabling easier, more efficient and safer routing.
The street network in over 100 cities in India and nearly 83,000 km in China upgraded to full attribution, supporting the most demanding navigation applications.
Continuous coverage and content expansion and improvements in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Viet Nam.
The addition of nearly 1 million Address Points throughout the region to support accurate geocoding and navigation.
SingTel has launched the Open Category of the “Home Without Walls” photo contest. The contest is open to all Singaporeans from today to 5 August, 2012; and has a top prize of S$2,500.
This contest is part of a series of activities under the “Home Without Walls” campaign.
Singaporeans are encouraged to submit up to 12 photo entries under the following four themes relating to precious family moments with various members that make up the family:
Father Figures (Fathers)
Grand for a Reason (Grandparents)
Mum’s the Word (Mothers)
Just Kidding (Children)
Participants are encouraged to share the story behind their photos by a caption of not more than 140 characters on what the photo represents.
The campaign aims to inspire Singaporeans to connect with their families and forge stronger bonds with their loved ones.
The Grand Prize winner for the Open Category contest will walk away with S$2,500, and the individual winners for each of the four category themes will enjoy S$500 in cash prize.
This photo contest is open to all Singaporeans and submission is done through the SingTel FaceBook page.
Photographs can be taken with any camera, including mobile devices. Selected entries will be collated into a set of limited edition postcards which will be distributed at a later stage.
Winning photographs from each category will be published by SingTel.
Judging panel
Mr Lim Soon Hock
– Chairman of National Family Council and the Centre for Fathering
Ms Daphne Ling
– Winner of the ‘Best Parenting Blog’ at the Singapore Blog Awards 2011
Windows Phone 8 will get a Start screen facelift; share technology core with Windows 8; support for NFC, in-app purchases and eWallet; more developer tools; and better security for enterprise use.
But existing Windows Phone 7.5 users will only get the revamped Start screen through an upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8.
Microsoft gave a preview of what Windows Phone 8 will be at the Windows Phone Summit in San Francisco.
The immediate cosmetic change to the user-interface is the Start screen.
In addition to the current square tiles and rectangular (twice the width of the square tiles) tiles, there is now a third size for tiles.
This is what I call the “mini-square” tile. Each of these is a square tile a quarter the size of the original square tile.
Whereas Windows Phone 7.5 does not allow users to specify which tile to use for an app – Windows Phone 8 will let users specify which tile size to use for each app.
Bigger tile for more frequently used apps (or to display more live information), and smaller tiles for less used apps.
The smaller tiles also allows more tiles/apps to be displayed on each screen to minimise scrolling.
Existing Windows Phone 7.5 users will get this revamped Start screen through an upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8 (no date given), but that’s pretty much all they’ll get – they will NOT be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 when it becomes available end of the year.
Yes, some who have just bought spanking new Windows 7.5 phones are complaining that they’re now landed with “obsolete” handsets.
Microsoft says that Windows Phone 8 is a generation shift in technology so it will not run on existing hardware.
Read more details about Windows Phone 8 on the official Windows Phone Blog.
During CommunicAsia2012, I took a look at the telepresence solutions provided by Vidyo.
They offer at affordable prices full telepresence solutions with 9 screens to soft-client applications that allow individuals to join a video conference session via their personal smartphone, tablet, notebook or desktop computer.
VidyoPanorama set up with six screens, two of which are used to share data/slides. The thin console at the bottom is the VidyoRouter.
Vidyo is a US-based company that offers personal and mobile telepresence solutions for individuals and telepresence solutions for enterprises.
Marty Hollander, Senior Vice President, Market Development at Vidyo. Here he's showing VidyoMobile on an iPad endpoint.
Many systems on the market today require an initial cost of $150k for a 3-screen dedicated room with an ongoing monthly fee of $10k per month.
Using these systems, a 3-hour video conferencing call from three sites could cost $3,600,
Vidyo claims its solutions would cost only a fraction – in most cases only a tenth.
It does this by controlling access and delivery with innovative components that turn ordinary IP networks into sophisticated yet affordable video communication systems.
The infrastructure that enables this comprise the VidyoRouter, VidyoPortal, VidyoGateway and VidyoReplay.
The conferencing endpoints, on the other hand, consists of VidyoMobile, VidyoDesktop, Vidyo Executive Desktop, VidyoRoom and VidyoPanorama.
A maximum 9-screen VidyoPanorama room setup, together with VidyoMobile clients (Android and iOS smartphones and tablets), and VidyoDesktop on a 1440p Mac monitor.
You can find details of each of the above components in the brochure that I’ve attached at the end of this post.
Vidyo had the VidyoPanorama (with 6 monitors) system and VidyoMobile/VidyoDesktop clients set up to show how it works and the performance and latency (or lack of) involved.
They had temps manning some of the endpoints so that visitors like myself could video-conference with them.
The performance was pretty good. Resolution was good and there wasn’t any noticeable latency.
I like the patented Adaptive Video Layering technology underpinning the solutions.
Intelligent and adaptive
So if you have a large monitor and fast network, you receive fast framerate HD video.
If you only have a small screen and slow network, the VidyoRouter sends you a lower quality video stream.
You can, of course, choose to limit the quality of the video stream (even if you have a large monitor) in order to control data usage and cost.
Essentially, the VidyoRouters dynamically optimises the video stream for each endpoint based on its capabilities and its local network conditions and bandwidth.
H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC)-based compression technology and Vidyo’s Adaptive Video Layering removes the need for transcoding by the Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) in traditional systems, offering high error resilience and low latency rates over the Internet, LTE and 4G networks.
This allows VidyoPanorama to connect over low-cost broadband networks with participants from any location.
The optional VidyoGateway extends the solution to existing H.323 and SIP endpoints; and clients using other videoconferencing systems – such as those from Cisco or Polycom.
Sony Mobile has unveiled another two new Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphones. The Xperia ion takes over the flagship role from the Xperia S, while the Xperia neo L is a follow-up to the Xperia neo V.
Both smartphones will be available in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in calendar Q3 2012.
New flagship from Sony Mobile: Xperia ion; and the Xperia neo L.
The Xperia ion and Xperia neo L were launched today as part of Sony Mobile’s South East Asia debut of a slew of six new Xperia smartphones.
The Xperia ion and Xperia neo L are part of a slew of six that debuted in SE Asia today. From left: Sony Xperia ion, go, acro S, neo L, miro, and tipo.
They had been unveiled progressively over the past two weeks.
New flagship Xperia
The 4.6-inch screen of the Xperia ion is bigger than the 4.3-inch display of the Xperia S.
The Xperia ion also has a microSD card expansion slot for up to 32GB – which the former flagship model lacked.
The Xperia ion has a massive 4.6-inch display (1280 x 720 pixels on a 16-million colour TFT), and a high-capacity embedded 1,900mAH battery.
Both the rear (1080p) and front (720p) cameras are HD capable.
The 12-megapixel rear camera boasts a quick sleep-to-snap speed of just over a second via a single key press.
The Xperia ion will be available in black in Singapore; and in black and red in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Sony Xperia neo L
The Xperia neo L has a 4-inch display (480 x 854 pixels on a 16-million colour TFT), a 5.1-megapixel (720p) rear-camera, VGA front camera, and a 1,500mAH battery.
It has a sleek curved back design and glossy finish; and incorporates Sony’s xLoud technology for crisp and loud sound.
The Xperia neo L is available in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in both black and white.
The tech specs for the Xperia ion and Xperia neo L can be viewed/downloaded below.
Sony Mobile’s debut of new Xperia phones in SE Asia
The six new models are: Xperia go, acro S, miro, tipo, ion, and neo L. The first four models were announced over the last two weeks, while the Xperia ion and neo L were unveiled today.
All six phone models will be available in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in calendar Q3 2012.
Mathew Lang, Corporate Vice President and Head of SEA & Oceania Customer Unit, Sony Mobile at the event at Art Palates Café, Istana Park, Singapore.
The Xperia ion is the new flagship smartphone for Sony Mobile.
Its 4.6-inch display is bigger than that of the 4.3-inch in the previous flagship Xperia S.
Water resistant Sony Xperia acro S. Don’t try this at home. Photo taken with Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF5.
The Xperia ion also includes a microSD card expansion slot for up to 32GB – which was absent in the Xperia S.
They are supposedly water-proof up to a depth of 1m.
The Xperia miro offers deep Facebook integration and features Sony’s xLOUD audio technology together with the Xperia neo L.
The Xperia tipo comes in both single and dual SIM versions.
The latter allows one-touch switching between two numbers through a dedicated network switch button on the phone.
All six models either ship with Android 4.0 installed or can be upgraded over-the-air to Android 4.0.
The six new Android smartphones debuting in SE Asia in Q3 2012: Sony Xperia ion, go, acro S, neo L, miro, and tipo. Photo taken with Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF5.
With such a range of smartphones catered to different tastes and needs, Xperia fans willl be spoilt for choice when shopping for their next smartphone.
Microsoft has unveiled two 10.6-inch Windows tablets and accessories.
One model will run on Windows RT and will be released with the general availability of Windows 8. The other tablet will be available about 90 days after and feature Windows 8 Pro.
Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky has just announced at its annual sales meeting that customers will be able to get Windows 8 on 26 October, 2012. This will be available both as an upgrade or on a new PC.
Microsoft finally joins the fray by unveiling its 10.6-inch Surface tablets.
The Windows RT Surface tablet will run on an ARM processor, while the Windows 8 Pro version will have a third-generation Intel Core processor.
The Touch Cover and Type Cover double up as keyboards.
Each Surface tablet will have a full-sized USB port, a microSD slot, and a 16:9 aspect ratio; with edges angled at 22 degrees.
The casing of Surface is created using VaporMg (pronounced Vapor-Mag), where metal and deposit particles are molded to create a finish akin to luxury watches.
Starting with magnesium, parts can be molded as thin as .65 mm, thinner than the typical credit card, to create a product that is thin, light and rigid/strong.
The VaporMg materials and processes has enabled the thin and sleek design of the Surface tablets.
This also enables an extremely thin built-in kickstand to prop the tablet up when watching movies or video conferencing with the HD front- or rear-facing video cameras.
The integrated, built-in kickstand removes the need for a separate accessory.
I like the idea and design of this integrated kickstand.
To transform the tablet into a “notebook”, a 3 mm Touch Cover uses pressure-sensitive technology to sense keystrokes as gestures, allowing users to touch type significantly faster than on an on-screen keyboard.
The Touch Cover will be available in a selection of vibrant colors. It clicks into the Surface tablet via a built-in magnetic connector, forming a natural spine like you find on a book, and doubles up as a protective cover.
The Touch Cover and Type Cover comes in many vibrant colours.
Alternatively, users can click in a 5 mm-thin Type Cover that adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.
Retail pricing will be announced closer to availability but is expected to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PC.
OEMs will have cost and feature parity on Windows 8 and Windows RT.
Oh and if you’re interested in a 40-inch tablet, check out the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface. (I haven’t heard anyone else calling THAT a tablet yet).
The main technical specifications of the two Surface tablets are tabulated below.
With LTE rollouts in Asia-Pacific now progressing at an aggressive pace, and the region set to surpass 120 million LTE connections by 2015, operators are competing to become the first to offer 4G services in this high-growth subscriber market.
