Browse content similar to 07/04/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
industrial action as the annual conference this week. | :00:04. | :00:14. | |
:00:14. | :00:29. | ||
Hello? Hello? Just how far are you prepared to go | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
to get a signal? This week, we find out why your mobile cannot always | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
connect, no matter what position you adopt. And should phone | :00:38. | :00:44. | |
companies be let off the hook? And Bordeaux purifies in geekiness. | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
The report from its second digital week. | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
All of that plus the latest Tech News, the data store which is so | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
secure, it self-destructs if you lose it. And more moon then you can | :00:56. | :01:06. | |
:01:06. | :01:08. | ||
Welcome to Click. This week, our mobile-phone expert has been a bit | :01:08. | :01:14. | |
secretive regarding the contents of his report. I know it is about | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
phones but he said he would call me with more detail. In fact, that is | :01:19. | :01:29. | |
:01:29. | :01:31. | ||
him. Hello. Hello? Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? | :01:31. | :01:39. | |
Hello? This is useless! Don't you just hate it when that | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
happens? This handset has more advanced processes than rockets | :01:42. | :01:48. | |
that sent the first men to the moon. It can hold my personal diary, my | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
video player, it can even monitor my blood pressure. But I cannot | :01:53. | :02:01. | |
make a decent call. Not that he ever makes sense anyway. | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
The user experience of phone calls, while it has become more ubiquitous, | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
you can make a call anywhere, has not fundamentally changed in 100 | :02:07. | :02:14. | |
years. It sounds the same as it did when telephones were first invented. | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
Phone technology has radically changed since 1876 but the basic | :02:17. | :02:23. | |
desire in making a call is still the same. To hear and be heard | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
clearly. So why do we still suffer from bad connections and dropped | :02:27. | :02:37. | |
:02:37. | :02:39. | ||
calls? The smartphones of today have nothing to do with the phones | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
of yesterday. They are purely focused on noise, managing voice | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
signals and grabbing onto that antenna to get the perfect signal. | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
We have to deal with data, mobile broadband and applications. What | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
happens is the operators are having to start applying this new | :02:53. | :02:59. | |
technology in their networks. a real-estate issue. There are two | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
aspects. One is room for electronics that can help voice. | :03:02. | :03:09. | |
The other is space for microphones and speakers. What little space | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
there is for electronics seems to be earmarked for glassy extras. The | :03:13. | :03:19. | |
kind of stuff in advertising campaigns. People's priorities have | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
changed. Most people are interested in cameras, what apps they can get, | :03:23. | :03:29. | |
things like that. And then there are efficiency measures as we | :03:29. | :03:35. | |
demand better performance. They are designed with a view to saving | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
battery life. So they connect and disconnect multiple times. This | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
puts a lot of strain on the signalling network which is not | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
designed to cope with all of that signalling traffic. As a result, | :03:48. | :03:58. | |
Mobile sales can only carry a certain number of calls. So if your | :03:58. | :04:01. | |
call disconnects from the network and there are no free spots when | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
you want to call, you may have to wait, even if your handset is | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
showing several bars of signal. But arguably one of the biggest hurdles | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
facing the mobile industry today is the distribution of the spectrum | :04:14. | :04:20. | |
available for their traffic. Imagine I am a mobile operator and | :04:20. | :04:25. | |
this tomato is my available bandwidth. When we want to provide | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
a few different services, we can slice it nice and thick. We make | :04:30. | :04:38. | |
sure everybody gets a sizable, reliable chunk. But in today's | :04:38. | :04:40. | |
world, where operators need to slice their available bandwidth | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
ever more thinly to feed the hunger for things like video, apps and | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
research projects, it does not take a master chef to realise there will | :04:48. | :04:55. | |
be a trade off. In data terms, voice does not need | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
much bandwidth. Typically, one- third of streaming music or one- | :04:59. | :05:05. | |
tenth of video. But it needs to be a consistent connection. Where as | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
data for a webpage can be sent in fits and starts, slowly building up | :05:09. | :05:16. | |
the image, we tend to notice if our caller's voice breaks up or drops. | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
But dropped calls may not be solely down to the network. | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
Have you ever had a phone that was particularly good at making for | :05:23. | :05:31. | |
taking calls? Not all handsets are made the same. Where you put your | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
antenna, for example, is important. Apple's revolutionary idea to wrap | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
it around the outside of the handset seemed like a step forward. | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
Until users quickly found the signal dropped nothing if you held | :05:44. | :05:51. | |
the iPhone 4 a certain away. Red- faced Apple offered free covers. | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
And there are different frequencies so the number of chips can also | :05:55. | :06:05. | |
:06:05. | :06:07. | ||
interfere with call quality. It is a real challenge for the equipment | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
manufacturers to get it all packed into the same device and have it | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
work in different countries and across various spectrum's that a | :06:13. | :06:22. | |
given operator may have within any single country. Sometimes, your | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
handset struggles to lock onto a signal, even though you know there | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
is one there because you made calls from that location before. But zero | :06:30. | :06:37. | |
bars does not necessarily mean you cannot make a call. If your display | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
shows no signal, do not fear. It may actually have stopped hunting | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
around for one. It does that to save battery but you can force your | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
phone to check for a signal by simply turning the airplane mode on | :06:50. | :06:58. | |
and then back off again. And then it should go hunting. And as 4G | :06:58. | :07:05. | |
networks move out, more calls can be made over internet protocol. | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
That solved some of the issues. Other recent advances could help | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
with the call experience as well. Noise reduction technologies in | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
phones have been around for a few years. But they are evolving as | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
well by isolating your voice and eliminating background noise, even | :07:21. | :07:28. | |
if you are in an incredibly busy environment. With the technology | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
available, you can transmit a full audible bandwidth which only humans | :07:31. | :07:41. | |
:07:41. | :07:44. | ||
can hear. You can transmit a few audible bandwidth. So some | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
operators have already added the new Kodak to their networks | :07:48. | :07:55. | |
delivering what is being marketed as her HTC voice. But does it work? | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
I can hear the voice coming through clearly, even over the microphones | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
and craziness in the background. is very clear. There was no static. | :08:02. | :08:12. | |
There did not seem to be any blanks. good. Our chips are very small and | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
we have taken full advantage of the miniaturisation that is possible. | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
That is actually the size of our chip. I am sure Alexander Graham | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
Bell would not even recognise the device we call a telephone today. | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
But he may find it a little easier to recognise the voice of the | :08:30. | :08:40. | |
:08:40. | :08:43. | ||
person calling. OK, next is a look at this week's | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
Tech News. A government plan to monitor emails | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
and web surfing in the UK has sparked a row with civil liberties | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
groups and some MPs who say the proposed laws would be an invasion | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
of privacy. Downing Street has not finalised the proposals but say any | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
new legislation would focus on who was communicating with who, when | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
and where, rather than the content of any exchanges which would still | :09:04. | :09:10. | |
require a warrant. It says the changes are needed as more people | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
use online communications. Users of the TomTom sat nav have | :09:15. | :09:23. | |
been driven around the bend by what they say is interference. Some of | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
the devices have stopped working. Drivers in Switzerland, the UK and | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
Denmark say the screen went grey and the machine said it had no | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
signal. The firm said it was working on a fix and promised | :09:33. | :09:35. | |
further updates. Imagine seeing all of the | :09:35. | :09:41. | |
information you need by looking at the world around you. This is | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
Google's vision of how augmented reality may work in a few years. It | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
revealed what it calls Project Glass - a display that offers | :09:49. | :09:56. | |
information triggered by voice or location. Keep your eye on Click | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
for a closer look at this. These villagers in Lancashire have | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
gotten bored with waiting for a super-fast broadband connection. So | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
they have started laying their own network. Many volunteers with | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
spades took part in digging an 83 kilometre long trench. When | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
finished, it will connect to several villagers and provide fibre | :10:17. | :10:24. | |
optic cables. They hope to be switched on by July. | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
Finally, we may be one step closer to the flying cars we were promised | :10:28. | :10:30. | |
as two companies say they have successfully concluded the first | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
test flight. The transition vehicle from a US company has two seats, | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
four wheels and wings that fold so it can be driven like an old | :10:40. | :10:46. | |
fashion car. Meanwhile in Europe, the Dutch made personal air and | :10:46. | :10:56. | |
land vehicle folds down to a three- wheel car. Lovely! | :10:56. | :11:01. | |
Now, how many of these have you lost in your life? It is too easy | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
to leave one plugged into somebody else's machine or let it slip out | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
of your pocket. But we are increasingly storing more valuable | :11:09. | :11:18. | |
things on these. This could help. It is like a simple USB flash drive. | :11:18. | :11:27. | |
But it is not a simple USB flash drive. This is armed to the teeth. | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
Used by the secret service, inside it has a GPS receiver, a battery | :11:31. | :11:38. | |
and a mobile SIM card. That means you can track its location if it | :11:38. | :11:45. | |
goes walkabout. The battery recharges every time it is plugged | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
into the PC, which means you can track it to the nearest mobile cell | :11:49. | :11:57. | |
or, if it can see the GPS satellite, right down to a volcanic lair. If | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
your documents are for your eyes only, you can block access to them | :12:00. | :12:09. | |
remotely through the online console or by sending a coded text message. | :12:09. | :12:15. | |
And if locking it is not enough, it has one final trick. With one fatal | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
click, you can shoot a high-voltage charge into its core, melting the | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
chip, destroying the evidence and saving the world. But it comes with | :12:23. | :12:33. | |
:12:33. | :12:42. | ||
The French city of Bordeaux, famous for wonderful wines and fabulous | :12:42. | :12:50. | |
food. It is on a drive to promote its geeky side. It is hosting its | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
second Digital Week, getting those who have turned cold by technology | :12:52. | :12:59. | |
a little more involved. Skateboarders are not normally | :12:59. | :13:09. | |
found in Bordeaux city centre, but this is Digital Week. Town Hall is | :13:09. | :13:17. | |
giving skaters some licence. Skateboarders are getting radio | :13:17. | :13:20. | |
frequency ID bracelets so that photographers can fire off snaps of | :13:20. | :13:30. | |
:13:30. | :13:34. | ||
them to their Facebook pages and post them on the website. Radio | :13:34. | :13:44. | |
:13:44. | :13:45. | ||
frequency ID is like the key. We check the bracelet, that is the key. | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
The smartphone sends the picture on the service. We can send it on | :13:48. | :13:58. | |
:13:58. | :13:59. | ||
Facebook. When we think of Bordeaux we think of wine and food. This | :13:59. | :14:02. | |
local technical company has knocked together a recipe finder called the | :14:02. | :14:12. | |
:14:12. | :14:23. | ||
Saveur Digital. You can find cooking tips on the website. The | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
idea is to build a bridge between the traditional products of this | :14:26. | :14:31. | |
region and new technology. Particularly useful when it comes | :14:31. | :14:40. | |
to ingredients that could be difficult to swallow. Like tripe. | :14:40. | :14:50. | |
:14:50. | :14:52. | ||
If it is not cooked properly it can be dangerous. If you have the right | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
instructions it can be easy to understand and nice. Bordeaux's | :14:56. | :15:02. | |
town hall wants to promote local IT companies. They are running a | :15:02. | :15:08. | |
ground-breaking design course. It includes data visualisation, data | :15:08. | :15:10. | |
collected by governments or companies is illustrated so that | :15:10. | :15:15. | |
people can physically manipulate and understand it. It is where data | :15:15. | :15:25. | |
:15:25. | :15:31. | ||
design and democracy meet. We live in a society where information is | :15:31. | :15:41. | |
:15:41. | :15:46. | ||
omnipresent. It is a way to understand them better. It is a way | :15:46. | :15:56. | |
:15:56. | :15:58. | ||
of summing up data in a clear presentation. When Bordeaux's | :15:58. | :16:04. | |
design students graduate they will need a place to work. | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
Town hall is giving over one of its unused buildings as a nursery for | :16:08. | :16:16. | |
IT start-ups. The idea is to get people with ideas and drive | :16:16. | :16:24. | |
together under the one roof. It is not just exploring what is possible | :16:24. | :16:32. | |
with technology, but what is not. They do not buy into the widely | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
held belief that it is easy to work on Skype with someone in India as | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
it is to work with someone in the same room. They believe if you want | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
to get something started from the ground up, you need to have all | :16:42. | :16:51. | |
your expertise in one place. Giving people a hand up early on is what | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
allez less e-filles is about. Girls like technology, not just as | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
consumers, but they are put off by the stereotype of the anti-social | :16:57. | :17:07. | |
:17:07. | :17:11. | ||
geek. TRANSLATION: Boys are often stronger in technology. As soon as | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
a girl sits down at the computer they say, leave it to me because I | :17:15. | :17:24. | |
am better. Companies are looking for women in website positions. | :17:25. | :17:33. | |
Mostly because they are more perfectionist in their tasks. This | :17:33. | :17:42. | |
is an added value for a company to meet a woman. When you look at the | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
make-up of classes and technical schools there are an enormous | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
number of boys but very few girls. That is what we are trying to | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
succeed with his operation, attracting girls to this profession, | :17:51. | :17:59. | |
which is the profession of the future. Bordeaux's Digital Week has | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
outlined some audacious plans for the future. Plans that could turn a | :18:04. | :18:06. | |
beautiful French city renowned for its culinary expertise into a | :18:06. | :18:16. | |
:18:16. | :18:18. | ||
Now, as we reported a few weeks ago, next year you'll be able to take a | :18:18. | :18:26. | |
trip into space for $200,000. If you do not have that kind of spare | :18:26. | :18:28. | |
cash lying around, do not worry because NASA is offering a | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
different trip with a down-to-earth price tag where you can put space | :18:31. | :18:41. | |
:18:41. | :18:45. | ||
40 years after we put the first man on the Moon, now you can hold of | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
the Moon in your hands with NASA's free smartphone app for Android and | :18:49. | :18:59. | |
:18:59. | :19:09. | ||
iPhone. There is enough video to satisfy any armchair astronaut. If | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
you want to find something random to read, the features section is | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
where you should head. All of the articles are accompanied with high | :19:17. | :19:24. | |
quality imagery that we have come to expect from NASA. You can have | :19:24. | :19:33. | |
the app set your wallpaper with NASA's image of the day. Who needs | :19:33. | :19:43. | |
:19:43. | :19:45. | ||
a $200,000 ticket to the Earth's outer atmosphere anyway? When you | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
are starting out in business getting the right advice can be | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
vital. When it comes to technology that advice can be expensive. | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
Hackerbuddy.com is a great social concept that works to put together | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
start up coders and designers so they can help each other out with | :19:58. | :20:07. | |
free advice through e-mail. You think hacker, you think bad guy, | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
right? He wants to break into your bank account or bring down a blue- | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
chip website. In computer programming circles the word hacker | :20:15. | :20:17. | |
can describe anyone who knows how to code useful and interesting | :20:17. | :20:26. | |
websites. Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team are examples of non | :20:26. | :20:33. | |
malicious hackers. The website is young but it is already home to | :20:33. | :20:41. | |
5,000 members. If they accept your plea for help you are given e-mail | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
addresses. You can progress the project without the website's | :20:44. | :20:53. | |
involvement. When it comes to school sports day | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
you need to be there in person. For top-flight sport supporters | :20:57. | :21:03. | |
catching it live on TV is the next best thing. Livesport.co.uk bills | :21:03. | :21:13. | |
:21:13. | :21:19. | ||
itself as the definitive UK Sport TV Guide. You'll never miss a match. | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
The navigation bar on the left let's you search for a sport from | :21:23. | :21:25. | |
American football to wrestling. There are listings for 3D TV | :21:25. | :21:35. | |
:21:35. | :21:41. | ||
broadcasts. It is a free app for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. You | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
can save it in Google Calendar. As the saying goes, in the back of the | :21:44. | :21:54. | |
:21:54. | :21:56. | ||
net my son. If you are stuck for something | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
creative to do with your cover image, this post on design and | :21:59. | :22:06. | |
photography, MachoArts, showcases some brilliant ideas. After racking | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
up 30 million iPhone users, Instagram finally released their | :22:09. | :22:19. | |
:22:19. | :22:30. | ||
free app on Android this week. Only if you have 2.0 and up. | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
Finally, the story of the disposable camera. Camera Obscura | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
Project is the home of the snap happy project where a throwaway | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
camera was left with instructions for whoever found it to take a | :22:40. | :22:47. | |
photo and leave it somewhere else to be found again. The experiment | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
was such a success they are sending out a batch of cameras around the | :22:50. | :22:56. | |
UK, in London, Brighton and Manchester. What will they catch on | :22:56. | :23:01. | |
their travels this time? Will any of them make it home to be | :23:01. | :23:11. | |
published on this blog? Watch this space to find out. | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
That was Kate Russell with Webscape. If you missed any of the links, you | :23:16. | :23:26. | |
:23:26. | :23:28. |