On Wednesday, Google Chrome netbooks will start shipping. You can currently pre-order a Chrome netbook (Chromebook) at Amazon and Best Buy. The Chromebook concept was first described by Google a couple of years ago - before the iPad explosion. Here's some details on the Chromebooks shipping in the United States on June 15, 2011:
Most have 11-12" screens and weigh a little over 3 pounds.
They boot in 8 seconds and wake instantly from sleep mode.
There is no license fee to the manufacturer for the operating system. In contrast, Microsoft charges $73 to a manufacturer for a Windows license.
The devices have removable storage - Chrome supports USB memory and SD cards.
Most manufactures are spec'ing a battery life of over 8 hours.
Flash is supported (iPads and iPhones do not run flash).
Wi-Fi only devices are selling for approximately $430 while Verizon 3G/Wi-Fi models are selling for $500.
Google has created an online app store for Chrome. The store includes apps for Chromebooks and the Chrome browser (very nice - my default browser now) many of us are running on our regular computers.
Initially, running apps on a Chromebook will require online connectivity. Google says this summer they will be releasing versions of Gmail and Google Calendar that will run on the Chromebook while off-line. They are also offering app developers support to modify apps to run off-line.
The competition is heating up in the cloud space with the Apple's Lion OS X being released for $29 in July. Lion will more tightly integrate Apple PC's, iPads and iPhones using cloud based services.
Microsoft's Windows 8 is also looking interesting. It's scheduled to come out next year (2012) and has a completely new user interface, built around what we're seeing on the Windows phone now.
Thanks ATETV.ORG for allowing me to post over on your blog! Here's my post that went up on Thursday:
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ATETV adviser Gordon Snyder oversees the Telecommunications Technology program at Springfield Technical Community College, which concentrates on the numerous technologies that deliver information — in the form of voice, data, video or a combination of these.
Today, federal deregulation, growing security requirements, and rapidly changing developments in the areas of fiber optics, ATM, DSL, LAN/WAN technology, Cisco networking, and wireless technology, have all helped to make telecommunications and network technicians highly sought after in the marketplace.
In this week’s blog, Gordon brings us up to speed on some of the latest developments in wireless technology.
I’d like to thank the folks at ATE TV this week for the re-airing of episode #34 to coincide with our Winter 2011 ICT Educator Conference and for allowing me to post here on the ATETV blog. The episode covers why internships are important to employers and employees, the future of Information and Communication Technologies, and Biotechnology career options.
These days, most of us are carrying some sort of mobile device with the expectation of continuous connectivity and availability. With all of the advertising we’re seeing lately from providers like Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless and Sprint I thought it would be interesting to write a little bit about 4G wireless technologies.
4G is short for fourth generation and is a successor to third generation (3G) wireless technologies. 4G includes both LTE (Long Term Evolution) and WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), and sets peak mobile download speeds of 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) and 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) for fixed services. An example of a fixed service would be an antenna used for wireless access on top of your house.
You may be wondering – if both are considered 4G technologies and both offer the same bandwidths, what’s the differences between LTE technology used by providers like Verizon and AT&T and WiMAX used by other companies like Sprint? Is one technology better than the other? Why would one company decide on LTE while another decides on WiMAX to deliver next generation services? If they are very similar – what makes them different?
Here’s some quick answers taken from a few of my recent blog posts:
LTE is the 4G technology of choice of the larger mobile carriers like Verizon Wireless (launched LTE last month) and AT&T Wireless (scheduled to start LTE rollout this year). These carriers already have LTE spectrum and the money to buy more spectrum. They will also tell you that LTE more easily supports backward compatibility with earlier cellular technologies. LTE uses Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) spectrum.
WiMAX is the choice of carriers with Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum (launched by Sprint in 2008) and also makes sense for for green-field situations where backward compatibility is not needed.
So, LTE uses FDD spectrum and WiMAX uses TDD spectrum – what’s the difference? Here’s a quick explanation from three-g.net: Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) are the two most prevalent duplexing schemes used in broadband wireless networks. TDD is the more efficient scheme, however, since it does not waste bandwidth. FDD, which historically has been used in voice-only applications, supports two-way radio communication by using two distinct radio channels. Alternatively, TDD uses a single frequency to transmit signals in both the downstream and upstream directions.
Basically, FDD (LTE) uses two channels and TDD (WiMAX) uses one channel for two-way communications.
Which technology will dominate? It looks like LTE in the United States but….. there are already issues with expensive and crowded spectrum. There’s also a lot more TDD spectrum available than FDD spectrum and TDD spectrum is cheaper.
Now, if LTE is preferred by the larger carriers in the United States and spectrum is in short supply, wouldn’t it make sense to try and develop a version of LTE that could use TDD spectrum? That’s what an emerging technology called TD-LTE does – it uses TDD spectrum for LTE transmission. Does it work? It sure looks like it. Last July, Ericsson and China Mobile demonstrated an end-to-end TD-LTE solution that achieved a single user peak downlink rate of 110Mbps and on Friday (December 31, 2010) China Mobile announced it had finally received approval from regulators and will start large-scale testing of domestically developed TD-LTE technology. This is going to be really interesting to watch!
Want to find out more? Watch (and search) places like ATETV.org and Gordon’s Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Blog (my blog!) for more on emerging information and communications technologies like 4G along with the different kinds of great technical career opportunities community colleges can provide.
We had the honor of having Dr Karl Kapp keynote the second day of the Winter 2010 ICT Educator Conference held the first week of January in San Francisco. Karl is a professor of Instructional Technology, author, speaker and expert on the convergence of learning, technology and business. His background teaching e-learning classes, knowledge of adult learning theory and experience training CEOs and front line staff provides him with a unique perspective on organizational learning.
Karl's keynote was delivered at the beautiful San Francisco Microsoft facility (Thanks Microsoft!) and titled Leveraging Virtual Worlds, Web 2.0 and Smart Phones for Educational Excellence. Here's a description of the presentation:
Are your classroom interactions designed to teach the new breed of learner - a learner raised on a steady diet of video games, electronic gadgets, and the Smartphones? Wondering how to integrate new technologies into your classroom? Can't imagine why anyone would want video games and Twitter in the classroom? Learn how the consumer-based gadgets, games and web widgets are changing community college education forever. The influence of games, virtual worlds and Web 2.0 on learning preferences, expectations and collaboration is just now becoming visible and is profoundly impacting community colleges. Learn how to leverage this technology for educational excellence. See examples of virtual worlds teaching science, iPods teaching basic chemistry, simulations teaching aircraft testing, and gadgets increasing student interactions in the classroom.
Click the image below to watch and listen to Karl's presentation - it is excellent. Want to see more of Karl - check out his blog at www.karlkapp.blogspot.com
Here's other ways to watch and listen:
To access show notes and audio of Karl Kapp's 45 minute and 50 second video podcast titled Leveraging Virtual Worlds, Web 2.0 and Smart Phones for Educational Excellence with Karl Kapp click here.
Listen to it directly in your web browser by clicking here.
If you have iTunes installed you can subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.
Martin Sauter has a nice post titled HSPA About to Overtake Wi-Fi 802.11g. He points out 802.11g, with a theoretical data rate of 54 Mega bits per second (Mbps) but a practical throughput of only about 20 Mbps, will soon be obsolete when compared to coming to HSPA+ data rates of between 21 and 28 M bps.
If you are not familiar - HSPA+ is also referred to as Evolved High-Speed Packet Access and is basically an enhanced 3G wireless broadband standard formally known as 3GPP release 7. It's just starting to take off - according to GSM World, there are currently 20 HSPA+ networks running at 21 Mbps and two running at 28 Mbps in the world today.
I think I'm already finding myself making the transition on my iPhone 3GS. When I'm away from my home I usually don't have the WiFi radio turned on, running off the 3G network connection. I do this to save battery and also have some concerns about security on open WiFi networks that I may end up attaching to. I usually don't notice a difference in performance and sometimes find myself checking the top of my screen to see if WiFi is turned on by mistake. What kind of bandwidth am I getting? Here's an iPhone screen shot that seems pretty typical - 1.265 Mbps downstream and 348 Kbps upstream. Not bad for a device I carry around in my shirt pocket (as a comparison a T1 connection runs at 1.544 Mbps) and.... it's going to get a lot better.
Thanks for visiting. I'm Gordon, past National Science Foundation Funded Centers of Excellence Director and Co-Director at Springfield Technical Community College and University of Central Florida, past Visiting Engineering Professor at the University of Hartford, currently an Adjunct Computer Science Professor at Pace University and an Adjunct Engineering Professor at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts. I’ve authored four engineering and engineering technology textbooks and have over 40 years of engineering, technology, communications and IT teaching experience. In addition to my teaching and work with NSF Centers of Excellence, I've served as the Verizon Next Step New England telecommunications curriculum leader and on several business and technology boards around the United States including the Microsoft Community College Advisory Council, the Massachusetts Networking and Communications Council and the National Skill Standards Board.
I am one of the co founders of the Hi-Tec Conference that annually brings 500-600 academic, business and industry representatives to explore the convergence of scientific disciplines, engineering and technologies.
In 2001, I was selected as one of the top 15 STEM faculty in the United States by Microsoft and the American Association of Community Colleges and in 2004 was selected as the Massachusetts Network and Communications Council Workforce Leader of the year.
I am also certified by the International Distance Education Certification Center as a Certified Distance Education Instructor.
