Team Rev's Tech Review: July 2012

Friday, July 27, 2012

Augmented Reality or Fantasy?

Good Afternoon All,

Welcome back to Team Rev’s Tech Review. Today we are going to talk about one of my favorite emerging technologies, which has already started to creep into our lives, Augmented Reality.

Augmented Reality or AR is slowly becoming a staple add-on or full feature software/hardware component of some of our favorite new toys, like the PlayStation Vita or Google Glass, even though it pops up in places that you wouldn’t expect like the line of scrimmage in football and other sports.

The term “AR” was coined in 1990 by Thomas Caudell, it revolves around using a physical viewing device, like a PlayStation Vita, and projecting virtual items onto it at the same time. Imagine for a second the camera on your device, is pointed at an restaurant that you have heard a lot about but are wary of visiting for whatever reason. Then while looking on the screen, a virtual display list reviews for the restaurant, their menu and an inside view of the establishment that you could see without actually going inside. This is just one of the many test scenarios that are being field not just by Google with the Google Glass prototypes but in Apple’s own AppStore with apps like Spyglass, a compass, GPS and digital rangefinder. Android isn’t far behind in this respect either, one of the soon to be release apps is an Ikea app that brings Ikea’s annual catalogue to life.

Time to talk about some of the actual new hardware a little more in-depth and first we are going to start with Google’s Project Glass. Project Glass is using AR to make you lives more interconnected. It allows you to do cool things, like the previously mention test scenario, where you see an establishment and get all of the pertinent details about it or get real-time street view directions. One of my favorite parodies of this is the Battlefield 5 Google Glass Parody (link), but it does bring up a great question about the capabilities of AR in gaming in the future. After watching this video, it gets you revved up for what this technology can do if it gets integrated into our daily lives and Project Glass can accomplish that.

Nintendo’s DS Series has had AR since the original DS and still utilizes it on the 3DS. Sony is a little late to the party with the PlayStation Vita, but this doesn’t mean it’s not a fully developed feature. They both have a AR Games Suite which ships with the systems that use a card system as well. AR is a big staple of the popular futuristic pen-and-paper RPG game, ShadowRun, where the “Matrix” is an interconnected mobile mesh of personal area networks and the main way the interface with this mostly worldwide wireless mesh network are AR goggles and gloves, sounds like Project Glass to me.

Hopefully I haven't kept you to long and you've enjoyed the snippet that I have provided you. Please come back and join us again for more talk on tech. For more info on Team Revolution Technology, please visit is at the following social media sites:
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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Pulling the Pin on Fragmentation

Good Afternoon All,

Today we are going to talk about something that’s been talked about before, but Microsoft and Google are trying (with some success http://bit.ly/NMI6M7) to remedy with their previously mentioned (original blog post http://bit.ly/OurEra) hardware that's dropping this year and next year, Fragmentation.

Fragmentation, at least in this sense, is when a company releases its software, in this instance Windows and Android, on multiple hardware platforms for which they have less control over the overall quality of the product. Good examples of this are the entire line of PC's and Laptops that run Windows and every instance of Android that is in place on the open market, HTC is a big offender here. What happens is that the software developers, Google and Microsoft, release a hardware requirements list that the software will run on, like the Dell Inspiron that I am using now. Google has a much larger issue with Android being open sourced, we'll talk about this shortly. The key to this article is hardware, as it dictates what can actual be done.

Apple has done something very well for a while now. It not only dictates the software requirements, but it builds the hardware requirements. The reason Apple is relevant is that they set a precedent for both Microsoft and Google to follow. The iPhone and iPad series are some of the most simple and beautiful pieces of hardware around, but it’s all them. They don't physically make the parts but they are the architects.

Microsoft has decide to begin the process by making the own tablet, the Surface, to showcase their new operating system (OS) Windows 8. The "Metro-Styled" interface is perfect for this medium, but the coolness factor doesn't stop there, they’re scaling hardware producers back and their own functionality up, by incorporating this interface with their other technology, like their upcoming game system code-named "XBOX 720" and the mobile OS, Windows Phone 8. This intercommunication system will allow them to publish not only their on movie and music steaming services but allow you to take your Microsoft games and application anywhere. The hardware industry is especially nervous as the Surface is Microsoft’s jump into Arm-Type processors for their mobile platforms. If this showing from Microsoft goes well, then they have effectively gotten the jump on all hardware developers and cornered the market, at least for a spell.

The same bodes well for Google with their officially sanctioned and in-house developed Nexus line. This line spans across the spectrum and introduces new elements to the home and mobile sharing platform with the Nexus Q, which is being billed as a "Social Media Player", which allows you to bring your own video and music playlist into someone else's Nexus Q. In Google pulling back and developing their own hardware, the possibilities are endless. However, the real deal is when it comes to Android itself. Every phone and tablet manufacturer adds their personal little spin to the base Android interface, which is where a bunch of bloatware like HTC Sense comes from. It has been proven for the most part, at least in my opinion, that the Google version vanilla unadulterated Android look and feel is what we are looking for. With 4.1 Jelly Bean, this is exactly what we get. Because Android is open sourced, it never really be free of fragmentation, but by developing its own line of products, they can assure loyal followers that they will be getting the authentic Google Experience which we have all come to know and love.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Bring the Net to the Masses

Good Afternoon All,

Today we are going to talk about something that everyone uses but not to many of us know how it gets to us, the Internet. I am not referring to how it gets from your ISP to you, but more along the lines of how true the term "World Wide Web" really is and how you can play Call of Duty or Battlefield with your friends across the pond. This is accomplished by using fiber optic cables that travel under the oceans and satellite transmissions that travel through space.

Fiber optic cables in their current iteration are "relatively new" technology, even though they have been around for a while now. They encode communication signals/transmissions in the form of light and are decoded on the other end back into there original format. The individual channels are made of a flexible glass or plastic optical fibers (glass passes better signal but plastic is more durable) that transmit at the speed of light in glass, which is slower that the ACTUAL speed of light in a vacuum. The underwater fiber cables are specially call Submarine Communication Cables (SCCs) and are made in an 8 layer design to protect the optical fibers at the center, which weigh about 7 lbs per foot. These cables, as of this year, carry 99% of all the data traffic around the world. There are major junction points all around the world, with SCCs (sometimes) terminating at small island chains like American Samoa and French Polynesia and other times bouncing up and down the coast of the continents.

Interactive Map of Fiber Cables

There are a number of SCCs that are planned to create more junction points and will allow even faster internet traffic around the world. Unfortunately these aren't without peril. With these being physical lines that travel the ocean floor they are vulnerable to attack during wartime and terrorist actions. Back in 2008 this is exactly what happened. It is theorized that this was done to cut off the internet to the Middle East, even though it was largely unsuccessful as the cable system uses the aforementioned junction points to reroute it. This caused a sluggish internet response time, but the rest of the world went unaffected for the most part.

Cable Cuttings in 2008

Another way for internet to travel to us is satellites. Two major carriers for satellite internet are Globalstar and Iridium and they have pretty much cornered the market. Satellite communications are traditionally much slower than any other method due to high latency as the signal is bounced 4 times, once to the satellite in question, the to the ISP, then back to the satellite and finally back to your computing device. Satellite does have one advantage that no other method has, it can be broadcasted virtually anywhere in the world including the Antarctic research facilities. This allows for sluggish but reliable internet to be sent to rural and remote areas. Another good thing is that this same technology allows the passing of telephone signals anywhere in the world as well, remember that next time you decide to go hiking in Patagonia or Himalayas, it could save your life.

Reasons Satellite Internet is Slow

Even this isn't without its pitfalls. Satellite has a much more ominous enemy than human beings, it has space. In the "not really so empty" vacuum of space, satellites have to contend with debris and collisions from rogue satellites, this does happen by the way, but the Sun (Sol) is its real enemy. Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can wreck havoc with the internal mechanics or the sensitive external satellite relays. This can also have a effect on power systems on the ground, which guidance systems control the satellites and the ISP's systems in general.

Coronal Mass Ejections and Satellites

Monday, July 9, 2012

Razer is the "Cutting" Edge of Portable Gaming

Welcome Back All,

So today were going to discuss some hardware from one of my favorite companies, Razer. Razer has created a much hyped (with good reason) gaming PC, that they say is the "World's First Gaming Laptop", The Razerblade. They have also created two concept pieces of hardware that are more finished than concept, The Switchblade and Project Fiona, which were both Best of CES winners, the Switchblade in 2011 and Project Fiona this year. Both embody what a real portable gaming machine should be.

The Razerblade is a beautifully crafted machine. Its comes equipped with 8 GB of Ram with a i7 processor, a 2 GB GeForce GT video card, with all the graphics presented on a 17.3" full-HD screen, it's also extremely light for a gaming laptop, weighing at just under 7 lbs, but by far one of the coolest features is the Razerblade UI (user interface) using what they call adaptive key technology. On the right side of the keyboard is the trackpad that doubles as a second screen that displays game info when you use a mouse. Above that are 10 programmable buttons that can be used to with specific games, like World of Warcraft, or with any other game. You can even program different skills and macros on all 10 buttons! This allows for a highly customized user experience that can be different for every end user. This powerful machine will have no troubles running even the most resource taxing PC games.

Razerblade Youtube Video

The Switchblade takes the Razerblade UI and turns it on its head, in a good way! The Switchblade uses the same adaptive key technology and transfers gaming buttons and commands directly to the entire keyboard. This changes things immensely, but the really cool thing about it is that the PC does this intelligently on its own. Of course you can change the UI to better reflect your play style (My wife would benefit from this greatly, can you say left handed controls by default!), but the UI is kind of like an AI in this respect. Another interesting feature is the lack of a trackpad, but this seems to be negated by the hyper-sensitive 7" touchscreen HD display. This might take some getting used to, but I have no doubt that this will make the Switchblade the next huge evolutionary step in ultra-portable gaming machines. The Ram and the graphics card haven't been specified yet, but it's shipping with an Intel Atom Z690 Oaktrail processor that only supports up to 2 GB of Ram maximum, even though this might change in the future.

Switchblade Youtube Video

Finally, we come to Project Fiona. Fiona is a gaming tablet that brings some console and PC like elements to a 10" tablet. Well documented info is hard to come by with this tablet, but a few things we know it are that it has two controllers, one on each side, both with force feedback. It has an integrated gyroscope, magnetometer, and accelerometer to allow motion based gaming. Amazingly, it also allows gaming with a traditional keyboard and mouse that use a special attachment or are used via Bluetooth. Concerning other pieces hardware, we now know that it is running an i7 Ivy Bridge processor and has Dolby 7.1 surround sound built into it. Another addition is the custom UI that was built from the ground up for this tablet.

Project Fiona Youtube Video

Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Beginning of OUR Era

Welcome All!!

This is the first in a series of Blogs concerning Tech in today's digital age revolution. Future post will be made concerning PCs and Macs, Tablets and Phones and other cutting edge tech as a whole. Today we are going to start with what the country's been discussing in length for the last few weeks, The Battle of the Tech Giants, i.e. Apple, Google and Microsoft, all with new hardware hitting our shores sometime this year. Apple with the upgrades to the Macbook Air and Pro Series, Google with the Nexus Line and Microsoft with the Surface.

Apple is out in force with the new Macbook Air and Pro laptops. This new sleek Retina display looks like it might help keep Apple ahead of the pack, at least for a little while longer. They've updated the Pro with an i7 Ivy Bridge Processor, SSD and 8 GB of RAM as a standard, guaranteeing a blazing fast beast of a machine. The Air is not only slightly lighter but much more nimble with a 1.8 GHZ i5 processor with the standard sizes for the SSD, that seems to be standard for Apple at this point.

http://bit.ly/macline

Google dropped some serious hardware on us at the I/O this passing June. The Nexus 7, the Nexus Q and the Galaxy Nexus Smartphone, with the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus both running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and the Nexus Q running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Nexus 7 is shaping up to be a tablet contender against the Generation 3 iPad and I have to admit, it’s a beautiful looking device to say the least. With 1 GB of RAM and a Quad Core Tegra 3 processor , borrowing a line from D2 The Mighty Ducks, this thing can really fly. The Nexus Q, is shaping up to be an interesting sounding device in theory, albeit a little expensive. It is billed as a social streaming media player that is sure to cause many a fight when it arrives at my house. With the easy ways to share and play music this is going to be interesting at least for constant entertainers. Last but certainly not least, the Galaxy Nexus is a smartphone on a mission. With 4.1 Jelly Bean at the helm, it looks to remove and reverse some of the problems that have plagued Android users since the beginning, like lag in opening apps and transitioning between them (a big pet peeve of mines is fluidity, so this cuts me deep) and the huge speed increase will make this smartphone something to watch out for.

http://bit.ly/nexusline

Microsoft's new tablet, the Surface, is making waves throughout the Tech World, some good, some bad and worse. From a personal prospect I think its gold, but it seems not everyone is in line with my train of thought.

The Surface ships in two formats with each with a different operating system, the "light" tablet version of Windows 8 called Windows 8 RT and one with a full install of Windows 8 Pro Edition. The "light" version hits shelves around the same time Windows 8 does and the Pro Edition following sometime Quarter 1 next year. The RT version comes in 32 and 64 GB varieties and the Pro Edition with a 64 and 128 GB and with the blazing fast Tegra 3+ ARM Type Processor. Just with those alone (and with having the Windows 8 Developer Preview) I think this is going to be the start of a new wave of tablets.

http://bit.ly/mstabletsurface