Mobile Internet: the Orange flows are the best

The thirteenth edition of the surveyon the quality of mobile networks is available. Let's take ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The authority of telecom us some figures on the quality of mobile networks in order to ensure that the consumer can use his mobile phone under good conditions. Various tests were carried out on the field with a new feature this year, adding measures of Web browsing.

As in previous years, the GSM network used for voice is always good, whether inside or outside a building or traveling in a vehicle. For cons, the quality degrades compared to last year when communication in TGV or on motorways in France, with significant differences between operators. Good for calls in the suburban trains and trams for their benefiting from a better result with an increase in the quality and maintains the communication of 2 to 4%.

A large disparity in average rates was observed between operators

The following figures were established via the 3G dongles for different operators, where the fastest downloads reach more than 9.2 Mbit / s and 3 Mbit / s when sending files. For the average flow is the order of 3 Mbit / s (40% better than the previous survey) and 1.3 Mbit / s for sending (1.2 Mbit / s above) . However, a large disparity in median flow is observed between the operators, with 4.8 Mbit / s for Orange France, 2.8 Mbit / s for SFR and 1.2 Mbit / s for Bouygues Telecom. What about joining the point made by DegroupTest few weeks ago.

With the new test for Web browsing, ARCEP using smartphones for measures giving amazing results, the average throughput for download is 2.4 Mbit / s against 3 Mbit / s on USB 3G, and 1.4 Mbit / s against 1.3 Mbit / s on USB 3G upload.

The full report of the survey, containing the description of the test protocol and the detailed results of each operator - which is also very well written - is available on the website of the ARCEP. In addition, work should soon extend this survey to departments and territories overseas.

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Android royalties: Huawei could say “not” at Microsoft

Microsoft does succeed to reach an agreement with China's Huawei to receive royalties on sales of its Android devices?

Micosoft believes that Android devices infringe its patents and does not hesitate to put pressure on manufacturers of these to get royalties on each model delivered. A strategy that works, big brands have already signed agreements with the U.S. software giant, which allows Microsoft to generate more revenue now than its own Windows Phone. Recently, Samsung was concerned, joining HTC, Onkyo, Velocity Micro, General Dynamics Itronix, Acer and Viewsonic.

New target for Microsoft, China's Huawei, which - after having long made ??white label terminals for operators - markets recently Android smartphones under its own brand. Huawei has told the Guardian he was approached by Microsoft as part of an agreement to license a patent against royalties. Victor Xu, marketing director, confirmed that negotiations are under way with Microsoft, but it is clearly not ready to abdicate at the moment, challenging the legitimacy of the process.

Huawei U8230, the first Android smartphone sold in the Chinese own name

"We are part of those who respect intellectual property. But we also hold 65,000 patents worldwide. We can protect ourselves," says he, also waiting to see if the purchase of Motorola Mobility enough Google will enrich the portfolio patent editor for Android change the situation vis-à-vis Microsoft royalties. We do not yet know Huawei is able to sign with Microsoft or it will go to trial, as have Motorola decided to do it or Barnes & Noble.

A subject on which it is desirable that justice looks anyway, because if one side believes Microsoft still have not seen a single terminal that Android does not infringe its patents, Google accuses the firm of Redmond to extort money by threatening to manufacturers of trial. What had led to heated exchanges in the public, via Twitter.

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Shortage of HDD: Nidec starts again its production partly

The revival of the production of hard drives could start earlier than expected thanks to the recovery of one of the leading suppliers in the industry.

The company produces motors Nidec hard drives allowing rotation of the plates. Usually, it represents nearly 75% of the total production of all engines built in HDD sold worldwide. But the floods, production capacity has been reduced without its engines, the hard drive manufacturers can consider resuming their normal activities.

Good news, Nidec announced that production gradually resumed on the platform of Thailand in Ayutthaya plant thereby cushion the shortage was announced yesterday for the fourth quarter of 2011.

Nidec has ten manufacturing plants in Thailand, eight of which were affected by flooding. For example, the production unit Rangsit was arrested Oct. 13, taking over from the October 25, unlike the site of Ayutthaya who took over on November 4. In the Philippines, the monthly capacity from 15 million units usually produced 25 million, as in China where they have gone from 10 to 15 million units per day.

However, there is still a production loss of nearly 30%, about 140 million small engine in the third quarter. In the future, Nidec will review plans to charge its plants from 62% to 43% of the total production of the company in Thailand, and from 23% to 36% in the Philippines and 15% to 21 % in China, in order to rectify this production and to protect themselves from potential future problems in some areas.

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Windows Phon: material requirements with the fall

Microsoft gives a little more flexibility to manufacturers of Windows Phone.

"All Windows Phone look alike." It's a phrase you've heard a lot in order to characterize the first generation of smartphones operating the mobile OS from Microsoft. I must say that the hardware specifications required by Microsoft to manufacturers did not leave them much room to differentiate their devices. A situation that is about to change, Microsoft has realized that it would make concessions to let manufacturers innovate in the design and functionality of their phones, to enable supply to expand, a sine qua the adoption of Windows Phone by many.

Thus, manufacturers of Windows Phone can now use two Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the MSM8x55 and MSM7x30. The first can be clocked from 1 to 1.5 GHz and terminals are for medium and high end. The second 800 MHz will allow manufacturers to offer Windows smartphones more accessible, entry-level. Nokia, which enjoys certain privileges through its agreement with Microsoft to use its share of ST-Ericsson platforms in the future (but not on the 800 and 710 Lumia recently announced). Architectures that Microsoft could confirm that all manufacturers can use Windows Phone.

Other developments, if the screen should always display a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, 256 MB of RAM that should always be installed and the built-in storage must be 8 GB, the list goes on optional equipment with digital compass the gyroscope and the second photo sensor no longer required. What extend the range down, and allow Windows Phone to finally take off? Remember, it now accounts for less than 5% of the smartphone market, but growth should accelerate in the coming years according to analysts who see Windows Phone and Android truly compete iOS by 2015.

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Asus EeePC X101H: Windows 7,950 grams, 229€

The new generation of EeePC presented this summer arrives in stores with the X101 version of Windows 7 ...

Unveiled in the last Computex but quickly overshadowed by the announcement of the UX21 and UX31 Ultrabooks, the new netbook from Asus nevertheless quite interesting. The EeePC X101 refined chassis (17.6 mm) weighs only 950 g and, if available MeeGo, he moved to France with Windows 7 Starter Edition at a price of € 229. Available in three colors (black, white and brown), it is designed around a backlit LED 10.1 "to the definition of 1024 x 600 pixels. It features a Intel Atom N570 (Pineview) running at 1.66 GHz and 1 GB of DDR3 and a 320 GB hard drive at 5400 rev / min. The graphics controller is an Intel GMA X3150 integrated into the processor.

 

Otherwise, it is equipped with a 0.3 MP webcam, WiFi module n, an RJ45 port, a card reader, two USB 2.0 ports and offers a VGA output. Its Li-ion battery cells offers him 3 to 5 hours. Note that the Super Hybrid Engine technology allows him to get out quickly before. Its main advantages are its chassis design, weight and price, which is never trivial, even for a few euros more you can find netbooks a little better equipped and with greater autonomy, but not as thin and light.

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Energy produced starting from the heat of the components

The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt demonstrates the feasibility of using heat from components to supply other ...

In Germany, a research program has discovered a surprising physical effect. The heat produced by the processor or the RAM may soon no longer be necessary. Instead, it could be used to improve the performance of calculations and storage more efficiently. And these are just two of many potential applications made ??possible by the discovery made ??at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB).

Today, magnetic tunnel structures are already present in the various fields of information technology. They are used, for example, in magnetic storage cells non-volatile memory chips (called "MRAM" - magnetic random access memories), or in highly sensitive magnetic sensors to read data stored on hard drives.

The effect of this new discovery in the PTB in the context of a research collaboration with the University of Bielefeld and the company Singulus could in the future, add a new application to the existing ones: the monitoring and control of thermoelectric voltages and currents in highly integrated electronic circuits. In the future, this new effect could be applied, for example, using the energy and converting waste heat occurring in integrated circuits in a targeted manner.

Currently promoted by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of a priority program for six years, this technology will benefit from a large-scale development which should lead to future industrialization of this principle. For more information, physical demonstration is available on this page. That, at least, is very interesting since this discovery may eventually offer new solutions to computer manufacturers to use the heat from the components ...

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Adobe gives up Flash for mobiles!

A wave of panic he blows at Adobe? The publisher that it refocuses its efforts on the applications and for mobile HTML5, leaving the Flash ...

A first information coming straight from Adobe announced an internal restructuring plan with a wave of departures for 750 full-time positions. This plan also indicated that the company will continue developing its Creative software suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.)., Major pillar of society, and will offer better support for HTML5 in Dreamweaver. In addition, Adobe announced two new applications (Edge and PhoneGap), acquired by the acquisition of the company Nitobe, already available in beta version in the colors from Adobe. All this in order to realign its markets and set up two units, one dedicated to the media and the other digital marketing.


The abandonment of mobile Flash is a necessity "

But the most interesting information is probably the announcement of a detachment of mobile Flash. Sources close to the publisher of San Jose, the abandonment of Flash mobile is a need to focus on improving the porting of applications from Adobe AIR platforms to online gaming. To reassure trading partners (and scholarship), Adobe announced that the companies with the source code for Flash Mobile will continue to develop and implement their own solutions. Knowing that Adobe will also continue to support Android system (as well as RIM BlackBerry PlayBook for the tablet) to provide bug fixes or critical updates security if necessary.

The new mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), and the new mobile operating systems, should not receive the benefit of the Flash application development with Adobe AIR Native and HTML5. The reasons for this decision are quite fuzzy, as it is remembered that Adobe had come into conflict with Apple that would not support the Flash iOS moving its products, or Microsoft, which had also turned back. We can therefore analyze it as an admission of failure on the part of Adobe, which makes it clearly so that the performance of Flash on mobile devices are criticized and the fragmentation of the park Android condemns most improvements and portages.

Even so, HTML5 is still far from being standardized Web as may be the Flash for multimedia applications or sites enriched. But if the terminals are all moving towards a system made of native applications and Web Apps in HTML5, there is no doubt that developers will follow the trend to quickly adapt their sites and services to market. Android developers who are already starting to turn to alternative solutions ...

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