Recently in Gadgets Category

After giving some thought about the recent announcements from AT&T and Verizon about their restructured pricing for 3G data plans, I wondered: "will ending the all-you-can-eat data plan pricing make things better or worse?"

As a heavy user of the data features of my Motorola Droid, I know I'm in the small group that uses the majority of the data bandwidth available on the Verizon network.  You'll frequently find me using the Google turn-by-turn directions, Pandora Radio and Weatherbug all at the same time while driving down the highway - surely pushing the limits of the cell towers along the way.  Trust me when I say that it's pretty easy to tell when a cell site is congested - everything slows down to a crawl.

During a conference a couple weeks ago, I spend some time with Michael Finneran, a Principal Consultant at dBrn Associates that specializes in wireless carriers and their networks, discussing the issues of wireless data congestion and the root causes.  I had always assumed it was a spectrum issue, meaning that all the radio channels (the last-mile) were saturated on your nearby cell site, causing the data throughput limitations.  Michael noted that while this may be the case sometimes, the carriers frequently find that their network that passes data between the cell sites and their hop-off-point (the middle-mile) was the real problem.  Unfortunately, the middle-mile improvements require new facilities to the troubled cell sites, many times over expensive microwave links or difficult long-distance cable pulls.

But how will the carriers pay for these improvements?  It looks like the carrier's plans are to get more subscribers to pay for data plans, creating revenue to pay for the infrastructure improvements.  But wait - won't more subscribers create more congestion?  In the sort term - yes.

So it seems that for the near-term, the congestion is only going to get worse before it gets better.

What's the solution? 4G and LTE  (more on this later) Continue Reading...

This last month, my wife, son,  sister-in-law and her husband joined me to visit my older college-age son in Spain during his "semester abroad".  While in Spain we took the opportunity to sight see in Madrid, Valencia and Cuenca on a break-neck pace.

Before heading off to Spain, I gave my wife an early Mother's day gift of an Apple iPad, allowing her to download books for reading on the plane and down time in the hotel. 

Needless to say, anytime we pulled the iPad out in public, someone would invariably stop to take a look and start to ask questions.  It almost became comical in a Starbucks in Madrid, with half a dozen people surrounding my wife.

What we didn't realize is how useful the iPad and Skype would be while in Spain.

It seems that my brother-in-law's bank didn't understand that when he notified them that he was going to travel to Spain, he actually would be traveling to Spain.  Once we arrived, his credit cards and ATM cards were denied putting him in a real bind.  Time to call the bank.

In the past you would have to expect a whopper of a phone bill to call the bank back in the US, but with my wife's iPad, WiFi in the hotel and Skype with Skype-out service, he was able to make the hour-long call to work through their layers of agents and IVR menus to attempt to get his problem solved.  Total cost for the calls?  Less than $1.

Being able to pass along messages with our travel updates via Facebook also helped us provide status updates to our older son in Valencia, making sure we didn't have any troubles finding our hotel and each other.

Meanwhile, an overly expensive pre-paid GSM phone sat in my pocket collecting dust.

I will say, I now understand the portable tablet revolution and next time you travel abroad, skip the GSM phone and the iPad is going in my briefcase.  

Sorry honey, I think your Mother's day gift may get "borrowed".


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Here at CES to witness the launch of the Google Nexus One smartphone device.  Heralded as the "iPhone Killer", with a big color touch screen, Google-powered applications galore, outstanding mapping and media capabilities.  While the phone is very capable and will give the iPhone a run for it's money as a smartphone, I suspect there is a subtle hidden story here that many have missed.

The real story here is that Google is making the phone available "unlocked", which means it can be easily moved from one GSM carrier to another.  Unlocked GSM phones can change carriers by simply swapping out the SIM card which you can usually find hidden under the battery or in a small slot in the side of the phone. 

Buying an unlocked phone doesn't come free. Google has set the retail price of the unlocked version at $529, while a version of the phone tied to T-mobile is set at $179.

However, I applaud this bold move and believe it will start a trend that will eventually shift control and choice back to the consumer, allowing for choice in carriers and options to have multiple carriers (especially for those that travel internationally).

Watch for Apple to follow soon with a similar program.

For those that are tired of the issues and congestion on your current wirelesss network, you now have a viable choice. Continue Reading...

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It's been a while since my last post on my Verizon FiOS and Tivo experience and a few things have changed, so I thought it would be time for an update.

Tivo Upgrade - first and most importantly, sometime over the last couple months, the folks at Tivo have finally figured out a software solution to the picture "pixelation" that was occurring with Verizon FiOS.  Sometime ago, my Tivo automatically updated to the latest 11.d version software and to test the upgrade, pulled all the attenuators out of the line.  Results: it works!

With the picture quality issue now behind me, it was time to finally buy that second Tivo for the TV in our master bedroom.  It arrived a couple weeks ago and installation was much easier (now that I know the drill).  

By the way - one very important installation detail:  Tivo HD is shipped from the factory with an old version of software (really old), so you need to give it a day after you complete the initial configuration to perform the automatic software upgrade before worrying about the picture quality with Verizon FiOS.  Once the upgrade is completed, the picture quality should be corrected.  

I really love having two Tivos in the house now - the networking feature allows you to record on one Tivo and play back on the other.  Sounds silly, but it has already cured a couple domestic disputes in my household.  The choice between watching "Dancing with the Stars" or "How It's Made" had required moving to different rooms/TVs.  Now it doesn't matter which Tivo records the show, you can watch it on either one!

Closing Thoughts:
After all the original installation headaches, it seems to me that Tivo HD and Verizon FiOS are now working perfectly together.  Great user interface, built-in NetFlix client, fantastic picture quality - I finally have my peanut butter and chocolate!
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Two weeks ago, I spent four days at CableLabs - talking about and seeing the new developments in the cable television business.  Truly fascinating stuff with new DVRs, on-demand programming and even a 3D TV demonstration.  However, based on what I seeing at home, I suspect someone is about to "move their cheese".

If you have been following my now year-long adoption of Verizon FiOS, you know that we've been using a TiVo-HD with FiOS to record and watch television. We subscribe to the FiOS triple-play bundle with HDTV, 20Mbps Internet and two work telephone lines.  As in most households, my teen-age kids have been the primary users of the television all summer and I've been watching their behavior on how they use the television, what they watch and how much time they spend watching.

They spend hours in front of the TV, but they don't watch "TV".  No, they don't play video games - it's NetFlix over the Internet that has become their primary source of visual entertainment.  You see, the TiVo-HD includes an optional NetFlix on-demand client that allows the kids to choose programs from the vast NetFlix library and then watch them instantly on our TiVo via the Internet.  It really is amazing - no waiting for the DVD anymore - just click and watch.  The kids have even put the NetFlix mobile client on their iPod Touches, allowing them to browse the NetFlix library from the couch.  

So what does this mean to the Cable Industry?  Think about it - here is a generation that who's world is a broadband connected and able to access virtually any/all information almost instantly.  And most of that information comes from other sources, not the cable operator.  Based on their usage, the cable operator is just a supplier of broadband Internet.

This really means that when the millennials grow up and start controlling household spending, things will change dramatically.  Our generation values the TV programming, Telephone, then Internet in that order.  I suspect they will reverse it, with their highest value being the Internet and then TV and Telephone being almost irrelevant.

Where does this take both the cable companies and legacy wireline operators?   Their focus will soon need to shift to reliable and very high-speed Internet access being the "high value and primary product", because the rest is quickly going the way of the Dodo bird.
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If you have been following my blog entries on Verizon FiOS TV installation, you know how unhappy I was with the Motorola 7216 DVR that they supplied with the service.  I've been a huge fan of TiVo's user interface, ease of use and features - so I wanted to see the fantastic pictures provided by Verizon FiOS TV and Tivo HD work together - I envisioned mixing two great products (like Peanut Butter and Chocolate) to the ultimate home entertainment experience.  So after doing some research, checking the varous forums on-line, I took the bold leap and ordered a TiVo HD from TiVo and two CableCards from Verizon.  

While I waited for the TiVo to arrive, it was time to run Cat5 from the router in the basement to the A/V cabinet.  After some bumps on the head and cursing the builder of my house, the network run was in and ready for installation day.

Once the TiVo HD arrived, I had a technician from Verizon come in to do the CableCard installation and activation.  You know when the first words out of the technician's mouth are "Hi, I'm from Verizon and I've never done this before" that you are for an interesting experience.  So off to the family room and after working together for a couple hours, downloading instructions from the web and calling supervisors a couple times, we were able to get a picture on TiVo.  Success (or so I thought).

After a couple days of watching TV via the TiVo, I started to have problems with some programs "pixelating" - where the picture would break up into large colored blocks and the sound would get interrupted.  Not all the time on all the channels, just some of the time on some of the channels.  (Yea - you engineers out there love those kind of intermittent problems, don't you)  Time to get working on identifying a pattern and start reading the forums on this issue.  After weeks of watching the problem, experimenting and reading any and everything I could find, I determined two things:

1. There clearly is an issue with the tuner in the TiVo HD that causes it to loose synchronization with the signal that come from the FiOS ONT.
2. People that post frequently on forums know just enough to be dangerous and generally don't know the subject matter very well.  I read more stupid posts from someone purporting to be an "expert" that didn't know what a dB of attenuation was if it hit them on the head!

If you want to do some interesting reading on the issue, check out the TiVo Support Forum, the Verizon Support Forum and the TiVo Community Forum.

So I started following all the various suggestions by changing cables, inserting a Di-plexer, attenuators, low-pass filters and everything just short of holding a TiVo exorcism.  At one point, I had Verizon send a technician to help with his hand-held signal analyzer (and big surprise, everything was perfect according to his readings).  After a couple weeks of trial and error, I was able to get close to resolving the issue, but I still get the occasional burp of distortion.  What was the solution?  In my case, adding a 860 MHz low-pass filter and a total of 14 dB of attenuators, both of which I got from the Verizon technician. 

It's really too bad getting TiVo working on FiOS was so complicated and frustrating. I originally planned on getting two TiVo HD units for the house, but with all the troubles I had getting one to work, I've decided to hold off until TiVo fixes their tuner issues.

So, is TiVo HD and Verizon HD like Peanut Butter and Chocolate?   I'd give it a "almost", but make sure you get the low pass filter and attenuators in hand before trying to even start the installation, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches.        [UPDATE!!!! See: http://blog.tmcnet.com/sip-invite/gadgets/verizon-fios-and-tivo---finally-a-fix.html]

Oh, and make sure the Peanut Butter is from a reputable source!

 
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This week here at AudioCodes has been very busy.  You may have seen the post on Monday, announcing our HD VoIP strategy  which will dramatically improve the clarity and quality of voice communications.

Yesterday, we announced our new line of IP Phones, all of which will support HD VoIP.  As far as I can tell, we will be the only manufacturer that will have a 100% HD VoIP capable phones (even the low-cost entry model).

The market analysts seem to agree:

• The 310HD IP Phone is positioned as an entry level IP-Phone and includes a basic display and user interface. 
• The 320HD Premium model includes a large Monochrome LCD screen. 
• The 350HD Executive model has a large Color LCD.

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Okay, it has been a few weeks since the last post on my FiOS installation and I promised you a review of the newly activated television capabilities.

Installation
FiOS TV is installed pretty much like any other cable TV with one big exception - Fiberoptics cable from the central office to the Optical Network Terminator (ONT) in my basement.  From there, it is standard RJ-6 cable-TV coax cable to each of the Motorola Set Top Boxes (STBs).  The data traffic from the STBs goes over the same coax, avoiding a separate Ethernet and/or phone line run to each box (which was required for DirecTV). The installer was able to re-use the existing wiring in my house, which dramatically simplified installation.   Score: A+

Channel Selection
The channel selection on FiOS TV is actually pretty good, with a wide array of the normal cable channels and all our local channels.  The SD and HD versions of the channels are both available, but at different channel numbers (add 500 for the HD version, which is a little annoying)  Score: A

Picture Quality
The picture so far has been good (HD channels are awesome), but not perfect - we occasionally get drop-outs and pixelization. It won't be affected by rain/snow, so that's better than the DirecTV, but the picture quality is about the same. It's way better than my neighbor's Time Warner cable.  Score: B+

Set Top Box (non-DVR)
I have two Standard Definition TVs in the house that have the basic non-DVR STB.  Seems to work as you would expect, and there are a few cool "widgets" like real-time weather and some games that can be played on the TV.  Score: A

Remote Control
First the good - it comes with a remote.  Otherwise, whoever designed this remote, must have never actually used it.  There are some real bone-head button positioning and/or missing buttons.  Example: want to go to a specific channel to a one-digit channel? You punch in the number, then look around for an enter or okay button - oh there it is, in the middle of the four way direction buttons.    Dumb.  Watching a movie and start fast forward past the commercials, then hit play, oops the DVR button is right next to Play and guess what happens?  It kicks you out of the movie and to the DVR menu!  It does have one power button that can control both the STB, receiver and TV, but it has only one button for both on and off.  If one of the devices missed the IR command, everything gets messed up and you have to either get out of your chair and push the power button on the device that missed the command or go through a series of selecting that device and hitting the power button again to get it back in sync.  Try explaining that to your wife!  It seems like the remote was designed for the SD STB without a DVR, then they added some buttons for the DVR, but didn't really think it through very well.  Someone at Motorola needs to toss this design in the trash and start over.  Score: F

Pay-per-View / On Demand View
We've watched a number of either PPV or OD programs and the selection is a nice addition to the stuff that we normally would record on the DVR.  The nicest part of the OD programming is when you want to go back to an old episode of a show or forget to record it.  Some of the PPV and OD is HD too, but only a small sub-set.  The menus to find programs and search is are pretty confusing - so much that my wife has not yet figured it out.  Score: B+


DVR
This is where the wheels come off Verizon FiOS TV.  (I had really high hopes too)  Let's just put it this way: it's a good thing the DVR service is free the first year, otherwise this would be back in a box back on the way to Verizon.  The Motorola HD DVR QIP 7216 is so full of bugs and other odd issues that is borders on fraud by asking someone to pay for this.  I noted in the last posting about how the optical audio output doesn't come on until you go to a menu to activate it (after every power-on), but the bugs continue and they are far worse.  It records programs that it can't playback.  It gets confused about the live TV feed and DVR playback.  It gets stuck and requires a power cycle to regain control.   It Crashes.  You name it and it does it (or doesn't do it).  It's not just me either - after talking to some neighbors, they are all suffering the same issues. Score: F-

Value
Ignoring the above just for a second - I can see how Verizon FiOS Triple Bundle could be a reasonable value.  Internet, phone and TV at one reasonable price.  But the DVR issues kill it.  Also - FiOS suffers from what I call "bundle shock" - when you combine all three things on one bill, the total cost really shocks you.  "I pay that much for communications?!?"  (By the way, It's still cheaper to use Vonage for your phone.)  Score: B

What's Next
I've heard that you can use an HD Tivo with FiOS and I'm researching what I need to order to give that a try.  Initial searching found that I can order CableCards from Verizon and plug them into the back of a HD TiVo.  I just need to figure out how to order both parts (and get permission from my wife to buy the Tivos.)

Final Thoughts on FiOS Triple Bundle
The Internet is awesome - really fast and a good value.  The phone service is still kind of pricey, but it sounds and works great - I just wish it had the on-line control that our Vonage service has (and comparable pricing).  The TV service is okay if you don't want a DVR - otherwise it's a let-down.  
Final Score: C

Once I get the TiVo installed and working, I'll post another report.  Until then, I have an adapation of a Dire Straights song stuck in my head:  "I want my, I want my DirecTV" Continue Reading...

Okay, time to update you on how my migration over to Verizon Fios has gone so far.

Just a little background on the situation here: I work primarily from my home office in Orchard Park, NY in a neighborhood that was built in the mid-70's (pre cable and definitely pre- fiber-to-the-home aka FTTH).  When moving in seven years ago, I had then-Adelphia cable broadband, Verizon wireline phone and DirecTV for television.  A bit of a mish-mash of disconnected parts, but it worked (most of the time).  

• Here in snow country, we regularly lost DirecTV due to ice and snow on the dish.
• The long cable run between my house and the nearest telephone pole causes problems with the broadband internet incurring day-long outages that seemed to stymie Adelphia.  
• The aging analog phone lines I used for both my wife's and my home office were noisy, which interfered with our frequent long conference calls and webinars.
• To save money on the infrequently-used home phone I switched it over to Vonage about a year ago, which I must say has worked out really well.
   

So, when the Verizon trucks rolled through town this winter and installed the conduit and fiber infrastructure for Fios, I was literally first on the block to sign-up.

Installation started with broadband internet and two phone lines.  This went pretty smooth with mounting the Optical Network Termination (ONT) in the basement and a WiFi-enabled router.  Cut-over to the new 20Mbps broadband was literally as easy as moving an RJ-45 plug from one router to the other.  Frankly the hardest part was untangling all the old wires and moving them to the new router!  After a reboot of the computers in the house and the Vonage gateway, everything was back up and running.

Getting the phone lines configured correctly took a couple calls to Verizon.  I have my office line forward to my cell phone after three rings or if I'm on the phone and it took a couple support reps to understand how to configure the new switch correctly.  End result after one day - faster internet, no more noise on the phone lines and everything is working perfect. 

It took a couple calls to get the guys to come back and bury the fiber-optic cable that laid across my lawn.   Frankly, it was a race between my 13 year-old son that mows our lawn and the Verizon crew.  Was my son going to mow over the cable and cut it to shreds or was Verizon going to bury it first?  Fortunately, Verizon won.

Remember that I was on DirecTV?  I loved the service and the new HD DVR, but we were averaging $85/month and still suffering from weather-related outages.  So when I caught wind that the town of Orchard Park finally signed the franchise agreement with Verizon to allow them to offer FiosTV, guess who called Verizon the same day to order Fios TV service?  Me.

Installation day for the TV started with a really nice technician surveying the coax TV cabling that already ran through my house and making a few quick additions for Fios.  He was able to add a splitter next to the entry point where the four DirecTV cables came from the dish outside and headed out to the three different rooms where we had TVs.  All the old DirecTV set top boxes were pulled out and set aside with new Motorola devices going in their place.  Lots of cables for our HD TV and audio system in the family room - component video, optical audio (5.1) connects between the DVR and my audio receiver. One surprising connection was between the TV cable and a coax jack on the back of the router - I later found out that the STBs use this to access the program guide information and relay purchases back to Verizon.  End of this day - and the TVs all worked and I was ready to figure out the new Motorola set top boxes and DVR features.

Now things get interesting.....

Later that same evening, I turn on the TV, DVR and audio system to find a great picture, but no sound.  Okay, what changed?  Cables are all okay and my receiver is showing the optical input is active, but still no sound!?!  Go to the DVR and start digging through menus - settings - sound - all of a sudden the sound comes back.  But I didn't change anything!?!  Weird.  Next time the DVR gets turned on, same result.  Okay this is screwy.  After doing some trial and error, I find out that upon power-up, the DVR doesn't activate the optical output for sound, you need to go to the menu each time to activate it.  Bug!  Unplug the optical cable on the audio system and live with just stereo sound for now.

Next day - the STB in the basement shows all dashes on the screen and no picture.  Now what?  Unplug, reboot, call Verizon and they send out a technician.  Remember that splitter in the basement?  One of the ports died.  It took him most of an hour to find a .99 broken splitter.

So at this point, I've had three separate visits from Verizon techs and finally have almost everything working, but still learning the ins and outs of the new DVR and STBs.  More on this in the next posting.....


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