Author Archives: Simon Fletcher

About Simon Fletcher

Simon Fletcher is the owner of the local Spark Business Hub and has over 20 years’ experience in the Utilities and communications industries. Email Simon at simon.fletcher@hubhawkesbay.co.nz

Strong Wifi is critical to business success

Posted on by
Reply

In business we are using more technology than ever and the internet is now an essential service for our business. With an increase demand on online applications and services having good practical secure Wifi is critical.

Business demands technology to be mobile, flexible and not hardwired when possible.

Sometimes we forget that we are still using the standard modem that was provided to us when we signed up for broadband services. This can be enough, but we are seeing a lot that isn’t.

There are several issues to consider when looking to address the WiFi need of the businesses.

  • How many devices are going to be connected?
  • What type of data will be transferred, Streaming, Skype, etc
  • SecurityConsider the number of devices connecting and take into account not only laptops and PCs but also mobile devices and other connected devices like sensors, alarms and any thing that may be IoT.If you only use the internet for online banking and general work-related activities that don’t need large amounts of bandwidth then you only need think about the location of the modem to ensure strong signal. But if you have a greater need then its time to look at upgrading to commercial grade access points modem and security.

A common question often centres on the need for a business-grade access point over the many less-expensive alternatives with similar specifications. It is worth noting that an important premise for a business- grade access point is reliability under sustained, heavy usage, which is unlikely to be the case from an access point picked from the bargain bin

The cost of the hardware has come down significantly, making the choice to replace your standard modem at the same time as installing a business grade access point very cost effective.

Not only has the cost of the access point come down but the functionality as become more user friendly. A number of Access Points can be managed via a cloud base portal.

The tools are available to enhance your existing network and can be easily installed. But what shouldn’t be forgotten is how you ensure the security of you data and importantly customer data.

As more Internet of Things (IoT) smart devices are introduced into company networks, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to assure the security of those devices and the network where the company’s most precious information is sited.

For example, a rather unusual and recent case involved a casino whose database was hacked via a smart thermometer monitoring water in an aquarium located in the casino’s lobby. Once the system had been breached, the hackers were able to pull the database back through the thermometer and into the cloud.

It’s important when storing customer data that you have the tools in place to protect it. In all cases an IT professional should be consulted when upgrading to ensure you are protecting the data and are meeting compliance requirements.

Consider the nature of the work your employees do and how much of that is dependent on the internet. If you work in a highly internet-dependent field, then having a strong, business-grade internet connection that can handle all of the traffic that is using it each day will be vital to your employees being able to remain productive throughout their workday.

A slow internet service can frustrate employees who are trying to be productive with their workday. Keeping employees happy with the tools they need to complete their job in a timely manner (such as business- grade internet) makes the investment worthwhile.

Getting the right solution for your business and needs will mean you are well place to take advantage of new technologies that will be relevant to you. Staff will be more productive, and customers will be confident you protect their data.

If you want to know more then please feel free to contact me.

Outstanding performance for region’s economy

Posted on by
Reply

I’m no expert in economics, but I can see the numbers and it looks good, but what about the future? As much as an economist can look at all economic indicators, I look at it from my frame of reference, how will technology contribute to the Regions growth from 2020 and beyond?

The World Economic Forum has identified five areas technology can help economic growth, they are

  • Direct job creation
  • Contribution to GDP Growth
  • Emergence of new services and Industry
  • Workforce Transformation
  • Business Innovation

Let’s explore those further

Technology can play a direct part in job creation by employing and attracting good talent from outside the region. With the initiative like Tech-Collective in Ahuriri, which houses Xero, Re-Leased, Now and others, Hawkes Bay can leverage this success because of strong infrastructure and lifestyle to attract further investment.

Technology can and does contribute to GDP growth through innovation and efficiency gain.

Ultra-Fast Broadband for example will continue to drive growth. And as the governments UFB program comes to an end in 2022 (87% of NZ homes with fibre to the door) the region is well place to increase productivity through further up take of high-speed internet.

Chorus (the Governments major partner for UFB) have claimed a 10 percent increase

in productivity for small and medium businesses through internet usage further, small and medium companies that use web technologies grow and export twice as much as their peers.

Research from Sapere Research Group also “estimate that an additional 10% of employees gaining access to UFB in the workplace would result in a gain of 1.62% of gross domestic product (GDP)”.

That number is not insignificant and if we add in the possibility of a 5G network we can assume a positive outcome for growth to the region.

With good infrastructure comes the emergence of new services and industries. Cloud computing will continue to drive efficiency for small business and as mentioned before Hawkes Bay is well placed to accommodate new businesses.

For my mind, Internet of Things (IoT) is likely to create new services in our region. For example the management and ongoing analytics of data captured will create new services, particularly in our horticultural base, although not in any way limited to that.

Using data analytics for Ag and Hort companies by collaboration are likely to be at the forefront of these new entities. The ability to measure data all the way along the chain, from plant selection and orchard management through to harvesting, sorting, transporting and point-of-sale will be the key driver for any new business.

Workforce Transformation is one of the most exciting for our region. Shortages of pickers continues to be a serious issue for the growth of the pip fruit industry, and this inevitably will drive technology into the field. Although still in infancy prototypes of picking machines are hitting the orchards but aren’t likely to have too much impact in the short term as they require orchards that are designed for robotic pickers.

Although we are seeing automation in packhouses and this will continue as industry replaces existing plant. The advantages will be in efficiency, reduced wastage and technology that will compliment existing workforces. For example, stacking or loading pallets is a physical and tiresome job but a robot can easily do this thereby redirecting labour to more value add positions.

Business Innovation is something I think we do quite well in this region, sometimes out of necessity. Sometime it doesn’t have to be a huge innovations. As the roll out of fibre extends to the more regional parts of the region, simply moving to an online presence can mean growth for the region.

Towns like Wairoa, Takapau to name just two will benefit from faster broadband and unrestricted plans.

Having a tight labour market encourages innovation and uptake of technology. The challenge is being able to fund the transition to some of this technology, like robotic pickers. They are extremely expensive to build and deploy and also require orchards to be redesigned to enable access for the robot.

Clearly embracing technology in our business has real tangible benefit and the challenge is to make sure you have the right technology partner that understands your business. As I mention the completion of the Governments UFB roll out will continue to have a positive impact of our economic growth.

Also, I can’t overstate the power of collaboration of data sets, particularly in the Ag and Hort sectors. This will have a significant impact on the sectors performance, yield and workforce cost. The challenge like always is what do I need to do to prepare my business for this.

How much smarter are smartphones set to become?

Posted on by
Reply

Smartphones, love them or hate them they are now a critical business tool that enables a huge amount of work to be done almost anywhere anytime and we have come.

A long way since the humble smartphone hit the shelves. The first successful smartphone arguable was the blackberry, (or due to its addictiveness nicknamed “Crackberry”). Excellent device for keeping on top of those emails, but it was Apple that really stepped things up in 2007 when they launched the first iPhone. This became the benchmark.

Fast forward and what we have today really doesn’t compare to those early devices. With mobile data growing exponentially the smartphone today is truly a very powerful tool. We stream content to it, we consume media through them and of course we connect with each other through social media. These devices mean we are more productive while working remotely than was ever imagined.

So what’s in store for the smartphone this year?

Often new innovations in smartphones will be launched at events like CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and while not all of them hit the market it does give a measure of where the market is and what we are likely to see. Smartphone launches can be a bit like the automobile show where concept cars are displayed each year. The difference is, innovation in smartphone do tend to hit the market and quickly due to the still competitive global market

In the coming year new innovations by all account will centre around a couple of new designs. Firstly foldable devices are all the talk at the moment and Samsung seem to have given its greatest signal yet with the Galaxy X. The device will fold out to 7.3 inch (larger than the + devices but smaller than a tablet). Its folded size will be around 4.6 inch.

The challenge for manufacturers with foldable phones as well as flexible screens is the components need to be flexible- including the battery. Purportedly Samsung are looking at two batteries, one for the inner and then the other for the outer screen. This means the outer battery only needs to be used when the device is fully open.

The other big move in devices will be 5G capable devices. As some countries have moved or started to move to 5G devices will need to be capable of these new speeds. At the moment there are no devices, so it would appear the industry still sees this as an emerging market and this year will give us an indication of when manufacturers think the shift will come.

5G will enable faster downloads and more content to be streamed which may in its own way sprout new innovation around it, much in the same way fibre was able to develop streaming services like Netflix.

Augmented Reality functionality hasn’t taken off yet but many of the leading manufacturers have embedded the functionality into their software. Apple launched the iPhone X and later the XS with much fanfare around the AR function. The tape measure app that comes preloaded in iPhone is an example of AR practical use. Working with major companies Apple are trying to lead the market (and hence own it) with collaboration with businesses like Ikea.

The feeling is AR is not destined to stay within smartphone hardware. True AR will require additional equipment like headsets and glasses. But in the meantime, smartphones are developing this within their current designs and as mentioned some are collaborating heavily with industry players, particularly retailers.

Further evolution of biometrics with an improved fingerprint scanner. Developing fast is the on-glass fingerprint scanner. Real estate on a Smartphone is highly competitive (think why Apple remove Headphone Jack) and why everything is getting smaller. Personally, I think this will be one development that is likely to be the standard moving forward. If a manufacturer can re-proposition the space currently taken up with a scanner then they are surely going to do it. Why would they do that when there is reliable face ID recognition?

Because no one likes to have put their password into a phone and that’s what is inevitable you have to do if the face ID failures.

It will be interesting to see what the two main players Apple and Samsung launch this year. Samsung usually launch their flagship Galaxy device around March and Apple launches in September. CES is currently on again in Las Vegas, and it will be interesting to see what the other players in this market release there.

The Smartphone is one of the most useful business tools, it gives flexibility in work, it gives answers on the road and over the coming decade I’m keen to see what this will morph into and how this will enhance our lives. Perhaps it will become redundant by wearable or implanted devices, perhaps it won’t, but as we wrap up holidays with family and friends, one of its most useful functions at this time of year is the do not disturb function.

5G – the need for speed

Posted on by
Reply

There has been quite a bit of discussion and some excitement around 5G coming and what that might mean for us here in New Zealand.

Firstly, what is 5G. Simply 5G is the fifth- generation mobile network. In 1987 1st generation was deployed in New Zealand and this was all about voice, 2nd generation in the 90s was digital enabling text, 3rd and 4th generations were all about data. 5G is all about the data as well but has some unique characteristics that really do take it to the next level.

The real excitement around 5G is the increase in speed and capacity as well as low latency. Downloading a HD movie in about 10 seconds compared to around 10 minutes using 4G. Initial trials in New Zealand have indicated speeds of 9 Gbps outdoor to 19 Gbps indoor and latency of around 10ms to potentially 1ms against current latency of around 50ms.

Those impressive numbers mean applications that currently require low latency and which are data heavy will now be able to be carried out remotely enabling a new generation of remote applications.

This is where the benefits of 5G will be realised, its ability to enable remote working where it couldn’t be done before due to the nature of the business. This could translate into the ability to access data in the field through Augmented Reality (AR) which at the moment may be too data hungry or low latency dependant. More on this later.

Globally 5G is being developed and deployed in many countries, as I write this Verizon in the US (Indianapolis) has deployed a 5G network (although not on international 5G standards) this week and have released it to the consumer market through consumer wireless broadband plans.

South Korea is poised to be the first country to deploy 5G completely. South Korea’s three main operators are banding together to deploy 5G services by March 2019, making it the first country if they meet that date.

The Europeans have set up a 5G Action Plan aimed at aligning roadmaps for a coordinated deployment across member unions.

New Zealand is set to deploy by 2020 through Spark. There are some challenges to meeting this timeframe, notably no spectrum has been allocated for 5G and while Spark as a temporary licence they would want that to be permanent to commercially deploy in New Zealand.

In order to have New Zealand completely 5G there will need to be, as in other countries, cooperation between operators in order to gain coverage. One of the advantages of 5G is the ability to build out from the cell site with micro sites (like commercial Wi-Fi sites). This could mean faster deployment in urban areas. Then they would push out to regions similar to what happen when 4G was deployed.

The benefits of 5G that we know of today is its ability to support far more connected devices and this is done quite smartly from a network operators’ perspective. With the world connecting more devices than before the 5G network provides many benefits to enabling and supporting those devices.

From the new network we will see proliferation of smart devices, from street lighting to smart power meters and new smart home services, real time fright tracking and logistics to supporting near instantaneous communications across all industry. It will provide end user businesses the environment to develop beyond the office to provide better customer experiences. We could see the real prospect of remote surgery being commonplace, as an example.

I mentioned before AR. 5G should enable field workers to, in real time access complex detailed content that enable tasks to be completed with the assistance of AR technology, 5g enables much larger amounts of data to be carried and lower latency meaning AR can be a practical tool rather than a novelty.

From a consumer perspective, it’s likely we will move away from mobile or home wireless plans that cap data. That will mean 4k rich content on any device (note no 5G capable mobiles have been manufactured yet) and opening the opportunity for 8K content down the line.

From previous experience the true benefits of the network are generally not known at the initial stage of deployment. When 4G was launched, wireless broadband and unlimited mobile plans were not considered but both have since become significant products driven by the adoption of media entertainment like Netflix and Spotify.

It’s natural that entrepreneurs and businesses will develop new applications that leverage the new network and its exciting to be a participant in that process. From a local perspective I would certainly like to see the new network provide some economic benefits for the Hawke’s Bay and given the entrepreneurial of businesses in the Hawke’s Bay I’m sure we will be keen to see deployment here as soon as possible.

One brain for all

Posted on by
Reply

Never have we travelled so quickly. New discoveries seem to be endless, networks give us roads to transport data faster and further and smarter than ever before. Where will it end.

A concept or Ideology that has been discussed and studied for some time is the concept of a Global Brain. With the exponential increase in connected devices, IoT, the Global Brain hypothesis is becoming more relevant. So in this article I wanted to touch on the concept of a Global Brain and discuss benefits and the pitfalls.

To explain what the Global Brain is or refers to is complex and beyond the word limit of this article, but for the purpose of explaining at a very high level what the Global brain refers to I will keep it simple and my apologies if it seems a little too simplistic to some.

The Global Brain then is the emerging intelligent network formed by all people on this planet, together with the computers and communication links that connect them together. Like a real brain, this network is an immensely complex, self organising system, that processes information, makes decisions, solves problems, learns new connections and discovers new ideas. It plays the role of a collective nervous system for the whole of humanity. No person, orgainsation or computer is in control of this system: Its “thought” processes are distributed over all its components.

We in essence have an entity that goes beyond the collection of data, or the storage of data and starts to act and behave in a way that provides outputs in decisions and actions that are relevant. Very much like our own brain but can access all data and results from all of history and then use this to enhance all humanity.

Assuming this can be achieved, one benefit talked about is the concept of “mind uploading”. The ability to have your brain copied to the cloud enabling superhuman ability to process information by using the world wide data stored in the centralised cloud brain. The concept is further explained as being entwined with our consciousness meaning we could rely on the cloud brain to make decisions for us based on the input from our consciousness.

If this complex Global Brain could somehow collate all data points from everything that was collected (IoT) and apply logic then we have an entity that could solve many of humanities biggest problems. It doesn’t take much to imagine what could be achieved, a world where everyone had enough food, a planet that could collectively address climate change, just two examples.

Combining everything that is known to humanity about growing food would expediate the eradication of some plant diseases, would enable food to be grown in hostile environments and generally improve efficiency of food production.

Likewise the collection of data globally could managed CO2 emissions by switching on and off main sources when emissions are too high, coordinating the worlds emissions

to operate within the parameters of the planets requirements (currently 65% of global emissions are from industry and fossil fuel)

The benefits of a system are clearly huge and will impact absolutely everything we do, possibly even extend human life.

But just because we can doesn’t mean we should and therein lies the greatest challenge to the Global Brain. What will it be used for and who will use it and for what purpose.

It would be unimaginable if a government was able to use this power for evil,

but then some would argue if we have a global brain this its utopia so that wouldn’t happen. However as I said at the start we are at the cusp of this and so these questions need to be answered. Technology is like money, not good, not bad, it merely exists.

There needs a fundamental shift in the world’s governments and organisation’s approach to collaborate in order for this concept to materialise. Getting all universities, governments and individuals to collaborate will be the greatest challenge humanity face but yet the greatest goal.

So the disadvantages of this system could well be in its developmental evolution. Setting the ethics, dealing with privacy, dealing with surveillance are very important.

Its exciting times, the reality is there is momentum and as we connect more and more devices to the internet its almost a natural evolution to have a Global Brain…. in my lifetime? Maybe.

I’m looking forward to the ride, I’m already impressed with things like adaptive cruise control in my car, Augmented Reality, blockchain, the Internet of Things, so my suggestion is make yourself a cup of tea and watch this space!

It’s Planning Time

Posted on by
Reply

What would happen to your business if you lost a server, had a hard drive failure or lost/broke a laptop, tablet or mobile phone?

Would your business be able to pick things up and continue to operate the business?

For those with a Disaster Recovery Plan, probably yes, and for those without one, possibly but with more difficulty than those businesses that do have a plan.

So what is Disaster Recovery (DR)? It is the process of planning and implementation to ensure the business systems operate in the event of some form of disruption to those systems. As opposed to Business Continuity, DR focusses on systems, rather than people and processes

Disaster Recovery (DR) is the process of planning to ensure the business can operate with minimal disruption should a significant event occurs that affects systems.

The importance of planning around DR is as important as any other planning the business undertakes and the advantage of capturing this plan is the process itself to ensure all aspects of the business are captured

So in order to prepare and plan one of the first things to do is to work out what your RPO (recovery point objective) and RTO (recovery time objective) are. RPO is the point in time when you recover your data. For example, are you ok with losing all data created in the last month? The last week? The last 24 hours?

RTO is the maximum time you will tolerate an IT system, network or application to be unavailable. For example, can your organisation function without email for an hour? A day? A week?

Once you have decided the RPOs and RTOs for critical IT services and applications you should then check that your backup regime reflects that. If not then this is the weakness you will need to address through appropriate planning and shortfall management.

Incorporate telephony in as well, both mobile and fixed as this can be forgotten because we assume its not important or critical. Simply identifying what data is kept on devices may lead to a policy around employees back ups on devices, (think photos and contacts).

With the proliferation of smartphones Im surprised at how often I see business owners with smartphones that are not backed up. Unfortunately I have also seen the reaction when they realise all their data is lost because the phone is either lost or unable to be restored.

I heard an instance where a sales manager held all the companies customer and prospect information on his iPhone, when he lost his phone he and the business lost all of that information simply because he didn’t back up the device.

Consideration for the type of event and different scenarios may also be worth while. In New Zealand we are fortunate to have a really robust electrical and telecommunication system with well over 99% reliability. This enables some confidence in the event of a major disaster like Christchurch that you can pick up business as long as you have access to the internet and power.

Some key learning from the Christchurch earthquake were the ability to get back up and running quickly. Consider normally about 11.4 % of businesses in Christchurch annually went out of business for one reason or another prior to the earthquakes. Since the earthquake, it’s been around 11.6%.

This demonstrates two things, firstly how resilient the business community was and secondly that the technology was available to continue business. Remarkable when you consider the main CBD was closed down and guarded by the military, with only authorised people allowed in immediately following the quake.

The individual success of businesses differed in part to how capable they were of picking the business up and operating somewhere else. For those with DR plans this was quicker than those without. But even today without a detailed DR plan it can be reasonably quick to at least get operational depending on how mission critical the data you don’t have is to the business.

Even though natural disasters tend to get the most attention, the three most common reason for data loss is

1. Human Error
2. Unexpected updates
3. Server Room/Hardware Environmental Issues

One of the key trends in Disaster Recovery is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

DRaaS is a cloud computing and backup service model that uses cloud resources to protect applications and data from disruption caused by disaster. It gives an organization a total system backup that allows for business continuity in the event of system failure.

There are some obvious advantages moving to a DRaaS model, you don’t need to worry going forward as the service provides the failure safe and testing functions that often don’t get done in businesses. And like most cloud based solutions you get the benefit of scale and cost efficiency not normally available to small and medium sized businesses.

It might be that your plan encompasses a number of solutions, from DRaaS, Cloud Back up, Virtualisation of servers or just employee policies. The key would be to ensure your plan is tested and tested regularly. Also consider whether a plan you did two years ago is still relevant.

Only you will know what the best fit for the business is. But the simple act of incorporating DR plan into your business planning is likely to save you time and revenue should you have to implement your plan due to a significant event.

Brewing success on their own patch of God’s Own

Posted on by
Reply

In the heart of wine country on SH50 west of Hastings, Godfrey Quemeneur and Rachel Downes have established GodsOwn Brewery – a rural haven where craft beer enthusiasts can sample product brewed on-site.

The couple bought their 6.5ha property at Maraekakaho in 2010, embarking on a project to establish an environmentally sustainable brewing and hospitality business complete with a hops farm.

Rachel, a kiwi, and Godfrey, who grew up in South Africa, met in England where they discovered they shared a dream of developing some land that “brought people together”.

Godfrey, whose work as a chemical engineer has taken him to several countries, first dabbled in home brew while he and Rachel were living in Nigeria. He and a mate later built a small brewing system he designed in the carport of the couple’s home in Perth.

It was while in Western Australia that the couple observed the concept of breweries establishing themselves as visitor destinations within a wine region, a business idea they pursued when they resettled in New Zealand.

The search that led them to their Maraekakaho property involved a tour of the country in a 1973 caravan.

“We had a few boxes that we needed to tick. We wanted land because we wanted to be more of a destination [business] and we wanted to grow hops and we wanted to have a lifestyle for ourselves as well – we’d always planned to live on the site,” Rachel explains.

“We also wanted to be on a highway. We needed a good water supply, we needed a liveable house and some flat land. This property just ticked a lot of boxes for us. We knew it as soon as we walked in.”

The GodsOwn brand became a reality after a brewery was installed in a shed on the property in 2014 and the couple opened their cellar door (based out of the same 1973 caravan that brought them to the Bay) the following year.

They were fully licensed and operational by January last year and say they have been pleasantly surprised with how the business has grown over the past year.

“A lot of people said to us, you’re too far out of town, it’s not going to work,” Rachel admits, “but we thought, we’ve seen this work before so we were pretty optimistic from the beginning.”

GodsOwn Brewery is not bottling its beers and while it sells kegs to a few pubs – including Havelock North’s Rose & Shamrock – Godfrey says drawing visitors to the site to enjoy a brew and the food menu is the key focus.

“Our plan was to try and keep everything on-site as much as possible, we’re not looking too much at the distribution side,” says Rachel.

“It’s something we’ll look at in the future but at the moment we’re just trying to create a destination here and make it something you have to come and find.”

Lightbulb Moment – An alternative to Wifi, that’s worth considering?

Posted on by
Reply

The summer holiday season is here! It’s been good to have a few days off over Christmas and enjoy this little piece of paradise with friends and family.

It’s been great to keep in touch and there haven’t been many places I haven’t been able to get access to Wifi to check emails and generally carry on with business. Wifi is such a flexible and useful technology and I struggle to remember what it was like without it (although its less than 20 years old).

There are a lot of options for Wifi connectivity throughout the country including free Wifi hotspots. This means the holiday can have almost seamless connectivity. But what is the future of our internet connectivity, is Wifi still the best technology and what about LiFi?

Lifi was coined by Professor Haas in 2011 and stands for Light Fidelity. Essentially Lifi is delivered via a common household LED light that transmits data by a very fast flickering light (undetectable by the human eye). Every LED lamp is powered through an LED driver and this LED driver gets information from an Internet server that encodes the data. It is then picked up by a Photo Detector on the other end which is able to read all the flickering. It then decodes the data after Amplification and Processing (see diagram)

And as light travels faster than radio frequencies (WiFi), then the obvious advantage of this technology is the increase in speed that LiFi can transmit data at, about ten thousand times faster than radio waves. Indeed speeds are indicated to be up to 28 Gigabytes per second versus 7 Gigabytes for optimal Wifi speeds.

Practically however there are some disadvantages to Lifi, the most obvious is the bulb must be on to transmit data. This won’t please anyone who enjoys checking social media or news in bed at night. Also the range is limited; it is around 10 metres vs 30 metres for Wifi. And each light handles multiple connections so the more connected the slower the speed will become.

On the positive side it does mean it can have commercial appeal for industries where RF waves aren’t suitable. Think power stations and hospitals for example. And as light can travel through water this can be beneficial for underwater industries too.

Regardless of the limitations, the technology is certainly worth developing. What we have seen since its initial discovery is others looking at how to enhance it.

So, enter the introduction of infrared light LiFI. Still not commercialised but already we are seeing some examples at this year’s CES in Las Vegas which indicates it may not be far away.

The difference between LED LiFi and IR LiFI is a passive antenna located in the centre of the bulb/light that allocates a single beam to a connected device and then using optical light to transmit the data. One of the key advantages over the early Lifi is each light beam is allocated to individual devices (multiple connected devices slow down the speed).

It’s still early days but at the moment Lifi is still limited from a practical perspective, both Infrared and LED LiFi can’t transmit through walls, so while this could be an advantage from a security perspective, it’s a hard ask for your average user.

The mouth-watering speeds are exciting and further development is bound to push through the existing barriers.

The prototype of Infrared Lifi on show at CES has a lamp and a dongle that attaches to the PC (as our devices aren’t set up for this technology yet). The lamp is connected via an Ethernet cable and the dongle allows the PC to pick up the light.

The initial reports are it seems clunky, a bit of a hassle and costly. But plans are in place to allow this to be expanded to a room sized area.

The speeds though were very encouraging (currently beyond standard PC capability)

I think the take out from this, is a real push to commercialise this technology and already we are seeing some products hit the market and a number of new companies started around LiFi.

So it’s probably going to be some time before we have these awesome speeds where we need them and anywhere comparable to what Wifi offers us at the moment.

Our businesses perhaps will see the benefits first and I can certainly see some advantages to any light based data transfer technology, particularly when it comes to the Internet of Things and I suspect that is where the technology may be commercialised first.

So at this stage I think Wifi is still going to be the technology of choice and as it is flexible and very useful, so when working remotely while on holiday during the year, I hope your Wifi will do just enough to keep you in touch.

Mixing surfing and software development at Haumoana

Posted on by
Reply

A lifestyle property near Haumoana is the unexpected global headquarters of developer David Frampton’s Majic Jungle Software.

Through Majic Jungle, David built The Blockheads simulation app that has been downloaded and played by millions of mobile gamers around the world.

A game developer since 2003, David moved from Wellington to Hawke’s Bay in 2012 after a search for the perfect place to relocate his home-based business. It needed to be somewhere he could spend time with his young family and indulge his other passion: surfing.

“Because I work from home, I could be based anywhere, so we drove around the country and checked out a bunch of possible spots before deciding to settle here,” he says.

“Surfing definitely influenced things. I had to find somewhere with some decent surf. It’s surpassed all expectations, I’ve found it really good.”

The location also allows him to indulge another hobby: building and flying quadcopters.

David’s broadband link to the rest of the world is a standard ADSL copper line connection that he says meets his working needs.

“The only downside to living in Hawke’s Bay is there aren’t the numbers of people here who are doing game development. There were more in Wellington whom I could network with, so I’m missing that a little,” he says.

One way he keeps connected is through attending industry conferences.

“It’s just as easy to jump on a plane from Hawke’s Bay and get over to San Francisco or wherever for a conference as it was from Wellington.”

As well as maintaining The Blockheads, David is currently ramping up work on a new PC game with a virtual reality component, which he’s given the working title of ‘Ambience’. He hopes to have it out for testing by late this year.

Another major development is brewing at Majic Jungle HQ. After several years of having three young kids at home, David is building an office on the property so he can “get out of the house”.

At least the commute to work won’t take too long. David’s broadband link to the rest of the world is a standard ADSL copper line

 

 

Android or Apple?

Posted on by
Reply

For the un-initiated Android and Apple are both operating systems that are leaders in mobile phone, tablet and PC operating Systems.

Android is now owned by Google and has been the market leader in the mobile phone space for a long time and continues to rise. Its market leadership is larger due to range and price of devices rather than being better or worse than Apple.

Apple is well known and its founder Steve Jobs has been called revolutionary. He has brought to market some outstanding innovations, none more revolutionary than the Ipod. But Apple has struggled to push the envelope since his death and some have seen this as the end of Apple… I’m not so sure.

From an individual user’s perspective does it really matter what OS you use?

I must confess at this point I am un-ashamedly an Android user with Apple always following behind the flagship Samsung models. But things have changed, the phones really can’t do much more than they do now. The iPhone 8 does look like its caught up to the Samsung 8 (excluding face recognition) in feature and design.

Looking at the best option, Apple has always touted its security and application development as a serious point of difference. Android has always had the freedom to push the envelope in phone features and design particularly with its open source environment. I think we are at the point, certainly in mobile phone features, of being at the peak and only incremental changes are likely going forward.

What is really the best OS?

For me this means considering true mobility. Mobility is ultimately the freedom to do what we want to do anywhere we want without the constraints of traditional desktop.

If we take a step back, Android was created to be open source and that meant it grew faster than any other OS, it meant it could be rolled out and deployed on multiple device manufacturers free of charge. This is where Android for some was a free spirit and a symbol of all that was right and true about the internet. Many manufacturers jumped on board and offered options across all mobility devices.

Apple on the other hand was slow to keep pace and that was due to the control Apple put in place to be part of the Apple eco-system. But this meant that as a rule, things sort of worked first time with Apple as opposed to Android. One example might be Apple TV.

I have Chromecast on a couple of devices and if used frequently it works really well. It is wireless, discreet (hide in a USB port behind the TV) and I see this as a big advantage over Apple. But I have found that the less it is used the more I have to reset and reconfigure. My experience with Apple TV though has been seamless. Plug it in and away you go, also it works really well when doing presentations. Android does run on a number of plug and play devices but you need to know what your doing. Don’t get me wrong, Android can do what Apple can do except it just isn’t as easy for your average user.

So I think Apple win, this in part because they do everything for you. It is easier for them because they don’t have the multiple devices and systems that Android have so they can deploy so much easier than Android. They have a good robust Device Management System for deploying devices throughout a workforce and updates can be pushed out across the workforce.

They also invest significantly in partner programs upskilling their partners on the key benefits of Apple. This isn’t something Android hasn’t done and probably never will due to its open source architecture.

So the advantage is a much better informed partner channel and support networks. This is very important to business as it directly reduces downtime and associated costs. It also means the applications recommended do tend to work well and are relevant to your industry.

A final point to consider is Google and Android probably know more about you than anyone through the data they collect. They use this to further enhance customer experience and while I don’t get concerned with this for some it really is an issue. Apple on the other hand don’t share your information and they don’t capture the same amount of data like Google because they use their own browser and maps.

The main advantage though for Android is its cost to deploy because you have a huge range of devices to choose from at all price points and this can be hard to beat. If you have a larger workforce it becomes difficult to argue for Apple particularly if your deployment is in a harsh working environment (due to the frequent replacement of devices).

So my call at the moment as I sit here with an iPad and Samsung S8 is that Apple appears better.

Of course, this is only my view and yours may differ but I’m going to try and go completely mobile with Apple over the next little while to test this hypothesis, see if I can really drive my business from the Apple ecosystem through mobility devices and applications.

I will keep you posted.