Month: February 2022

Posted on

Sonos acquires company focused on Bluetooth LE Audio tech for headphones

A white speaker sits on a wooden coffeetable.

Enlarge / The Sonos One. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

Sonos has acquired Bluetooth audio startup T2 Software, according to a new report in Protocol.

The acquisition signals that Sonos is preparing to introduce new technologies and new products in the wireless audio space, potentially including its first pair of wireless headphones. Prior reports in Bloomberg and elsewhere say that Sonos is working on an entirely new product category, which is likely a reference to headphones.

In a comment to Protocol, a Sonos spokesperson simply said, “Occasionally, we will acquire teams, talent, and/or technology that augment our existing and future product roadmap.”

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Posted on

Senate Republicans: Don’t let states choose where to spend broadband money

A US map with lines representing communications networks.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | metamorworks)

Senate Republicans are crying foul over a Biden administration plan to fund broadband deployment in regions that are already served with 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload speeds.

The US Treasury Department’s recently issued final rule for distributing American Rescue Plan money eliminated an interim requirement that blocked broadband funds in areas that already have wired networks with speeds of at least 25Mbps/3Mbps. That speed threshold would leave out any area that’s already served by at least one cable provider, even if there’s no competition and no fiber-to-the-home availability.

The Treasury Department’s reversal was praised by community broadband advocates who said that keeping the original 25Mbps/3Mbps threshold could prevent deployment to large portions of the US containing more than 90 percent of Americans. The nation’s current broadband maps are also unreliable, raising the possibility that even homes without 25Mbps/3Mbps broadband access could be excluded.

Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Posted on

Long Distance, Low-Power WAN Drives IoT Connections

The Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) spectrum does not require providers to have a telecommunications license. Being able to operate without a license significantly lowers the financial and logistical barrier to entry. It also opens the door to different approaches to provide Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity.

In their report, “Gigaom Radar for Global LPWAN Network Providers,” Logan Andrew Green and Chris Grundemann identify four types of IoT connectivity providers operating within the realm of unlicensed LPWAN network providers:

  • Network Operators: These operate much like the classic mobile network operators. A Verizon or an AT&T installs, manages, and owns the core infrastructure and provides new gateways to expand coverage.
  • Satellite-Based Connectivity: More providers are offering ubiquitous connectivity through satellite relays. These connect devices with satellites either directly or indirectly through lightweight, portable gateways. You can expect more of these types of providers in the future.
  • Open, Community-Based Network: In this model, a central provider manages the network servers and third parties run the gateways providing the coverage. Building IoT solutions on these community-based networks are low or no cost and highly flexible.
  • Decentralized, Blockchain-Based Network: Much like the Open Network model, a central provider maintains the infrastructure while third parties operate the gateways. By operating on a blockchain network, there are tamper-resistant shared transaction records, so enterprises can share and access IoT data without any centralized regulation.

One of the report’s authors Chris Grundemann says this type of low-power spectrum IoT communications technology is well-suited for small data transfers over long distances with minimal power consumption. It can connect organizations with numerous geographically diverse locations but only with low data capacity.

He further states that since LPWAN data transfers are somewhat limited in capacity, these types of communications work well for applications such as sensors and trackers. It would not be suitable for high bandwidth requirements like streaming video or guiding autonomous vehicles.

Table 1: Impact of Features on Metrics

 Flexibility and Use Cases Pricing & TCO Partner Ecosystem Ease of Use Reliability
Network Management 2 5 3 5 5
Reporting Portal and Device Visbility 3 3 3 5 3
Device Subscription, Provisioning and Onboarding 5 4 4 5 2
Device Management 5 4 4 5 2
App Connectivity 4 3 5 5 3
Hybrid IoT 5 4 4 4 1
Security 2 4 3 3 5
Source: GigaOm 2022

For now, Grundemann and his co-author Logan Andrew Green recommend evaluating these providers through the following lens for the following deployment scenarios:

  • For a simple proof-of-concept, take one of the community-based networks for a test drive. While somewhat limited in capacity, this would be a low-cost, low-risk way to validate the technology.
  • If your organization has the in-house expertise to do so, try blockchain-based networks. These networks work best for non-critical operations with low data transfers.
  • If you need full enterprise-grade connectivity, you should stick with the standard network operators that can ensure connectivity and technical support.
  • If you only need to connect a few devices, you could try the IoT satellite providers for coverage virtually anywhere.

In the future, Grundemann says we can look for LPWAN to support edge computing and infrastructure sharing. But for now, it’s best suited for long-distance, low-capacity applications.

Read more here: Key Criteria for Evaluating Global LPWAN Network Providers, and the Gigaom Radar for Global LPWAN Network Providers

The post Long Distance, Low-Power WAN Drives IoT Connections appeared first on Gigaom.

Posted on

British Lender Increases Efficiency with RPA

When the Skipton Building Society, headquartered in northern England, needed to expand its capacity without adding headcount, it conducted an analysis of where it might automate certain operations. As one of the largest building societies in the UK, it provides a range of financial services, such as savings, mortgages, and insurance.

Daryl Foster, leader of Process Improvement, Support & Automation at Skipton Building Society, spearheaded the operational analysis. He was looking for areas where he could increase efficiency and relieve as many as 2,000 staff members to focus more on customers and higher-value tasks, which would help the organization expand.

In his case study outlining Skipton Building Society’s journey into automation (entitled “Alfred Housing Bot”), GigaOm analyst Mark Chillingworth describes how Foster and his organization arrived at robotic process automation (RPA) as the answer to Skipton’s quest for increased efficiency. Chillingworth portrays how Skipton used RPA to keep staffing levels the same while relieving team members of the repetitive procedural work. RPA also greatly improved internal communications.

Foster and his team at Skipton examined several methods to improve operational efficiency, including RPA. He understood the first RPA deployment would not return a direct profit, so he looked at how RPA could improve the organization, the service it provides, and staff operations. “We asked our subject matter experts in the organization if they could do much more important work,” says Foster, as he tried to discover ways to make the organization more efficient.

“RPA allows us to grow. There were a lot of processes that were very repeatable and mundane. We are very much a human touch organization, so our colleagues can focus on that,” says Foster. He and his team at Skipton Building Society opted for Kofax RPA to automate and accelerate home price evaluation, one of the many repetitive financial tasks at the organization.

The statistics and benefits are impressive when looking at the numbers following Skipton’s RPA deployment:

  • 1,300 hours per year saved on a single process (Skipton expects to increase by a factor of 10 as it automates more processes.)
  • 89 percent data processing accuracy
  • Faster customer response times
  • Shorter mortgage lead times
  • Existing subject matter experts (SMEs) can now support more complex work and increase their own skills.

The post British Lender Increases Efficiency with RPA appeared first on Gigaom.

Posted on

Study: Few places will struggle to balance renewables and conservation

Solar power and habitat preservation are likely to conflict, but only in some areas.

Enlarge / Solar power and habitat preservation are likely to conflict, but only in some areas. (credit: Zhi Hao)

Compared to fossil fuel plants, renewable power facilities cover a lot of ground. That ground can be put to additional uses; many wind farms are also farms, and even solar plants can work well with agriculture. But these sorts of developments are definitely not compatible with conserving sensitive habitats for wildlife or plants. Even wind farms, which have a relatively small on-ground footprint, require access roads and regular servicing.

Early studies on the matter suggest this might be a serious problem, as they found that a number of renewable power facilities had been built on land that had been identified as a sensitive habitat. But new work from researchers at the University of Southampton indicates that the problem isn’t as severe as it seems. The actual footprint of existing wind and solar farms on sensitive habitats is small and should be able to be kept small in most countries.

Carbon-free footprints

To understand present problems, you must have an idea of what land has been developed and what needs to be conserved. The researchers used two different sources to identify the footprints of current renewable power facilities. For sensitive habitats, the team started with a database of all existing protected areas. It supplemented that with maps of the ranges of all land vertebrates listed as threatened on the “Red List,” as well as the World Wildlife Fund’s list of ecoregions. The protected areas were considered a starting point, and areas for potential expansion were identified based on their ability to protect the most threatened species.

Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Posted on

Hiding Windows 11’s Teams icon doesn’t just save taskbar space—it also saves RAM

Hiding Windows 11’s Teams icon doesn’t just save taskbar space—it also saves RAM

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

Plenty of apps that you install on your computer have a setting that tells them to launch when you initially log in to save you the trouble of launching your most commonly used apps yourself. Leaving this setting on can also allow apps to check for updates or launch more quickly when you start them for the first time. The difference for some of the preinstalled Microsoft apps in Windows 10 and 11 is that they use some of these resources by default, whether you actually use the apps or not.

Developer and IT admin Michael Niehaus drew attention to some of these apps in recent blog posts examining the resource usage of Windows 11’s widgets, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Edge in a fresh install of Windows 11 (the Edge observations apply to Windows 10, too).

Both Widgets and Teams spawn a number of Microsoft Edge WebView2 processes in order to work—WebView2 is a way to use Edge and its rendering engine without launching Edge or using its user interface. Collectively, these processes use a few hundred megabytes of memory to work.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Posted on

Mysterious port-less laptop is 7 mm thin

Craob X.

Enlarge / Craob X. (credit: Craob)

As laptops have become thinner and lighter, there have been sacrifices along the way. Often, those sacrifices come in the area of port selection, as ultra-portable laptops keep getting bolder about omitting things like USB-A ports, 3.5 mm jacks, and SD card readers for the sake of portability and style. Whether you think that’s inconvenient or incredible, take a look at the Craob X laptop. It takes minimalism to a new level—it has zero integrated ports.

Spotted by My Laptop Guide on Monday, the Craob X claims to be the “world’s first port-less ultrabook.” Craob’s website provides limited information about the Craob X laptop and nothing about the company itself. There’s no release date beyond a vague “coming soon” advertisement. Overall, there’s very little detail about the Craob X, making us skeptical about if or when it will be available. In fact, we can’t even find mention of the company existing beyond this website.

Still, the Craob X presents an interesting idea for the future of ultraportable laptops. While even the trimmest ultraportable will typically offer at least a USB-C port, the Craob X’s deck is empty. And we can see why—there’s barely room to fit anything there.

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Find the soul