Meganet

The University of Southern California (USC) hosts the Shoah Foundation and it's video testimonial archive (set-up by Steven Spielberg).

The archive has video testimonials of 52,000 survivors (including my father's testimonial which was so long it was in two parts which can be seen here and here), unfortunately around 5% of these had degraded audio and/or video due to errors in the recording equipment in use at the time (Betamax SP video cameras which is 20 year old technology).

Ryan Fenton-Strauss, video archive and post-production manager at ITS was takes with the restoration project. He worked out that the videos could be broken down into sequences of individual frames and used Google's Picasso which could do facial recognition and then duplicate previous good frames into where a frame was corrupt.

The system now uses Nation Instruments Vision Builder to automate the process which now requires almost no manual intervention and Ryan hopes to go into production with this system early next year.

Lots of top job shake ups this week. In a surprising turn over at Volkswagen of America, President and CEO Jonathan Browning has announced that he is leaving the company and will be replaced by Michael Horn. Horn will assume the President and CEO position effective January 1st.

Browning came to Volkswagen in 2010 after a distinguished career at both Ford and General Motors. During his time at VW, he oversaw 23 percent gain in 2011 and an additional 30 percent rise for 2012. This year,  sales of Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi and Bentley models are up 1 percent in a market that’s risen 8 percent. Sales at VW  have been falling for the last 8 months.

Michael Horn who will replace Browning, has been with Volkswagen since 1990. And is currently head of Volkswagen Global After Sales. A position he has been in since 2009.

Browning says that he is leaving the company for personal reasons and is planning to return to England.


Source: Automotive News.

General Motors has announced that chairman and CEO Dan Akerson will step down from his post effective January 15th, 2014.

Akerson joined General Motors in 2009 as a member of the Board of Directors and was named Chairman and CEO in 2010. He successfully led General Motors through it's difficult bankruptcy and restructuring.

Mary T. Barra, Executive Vice President, Global Product Development & Global Purchasing & Supply Chain will replace Dan Akerson as CEO of GM. She has been responsible for the design, engineering, program management and quality of General Motors vehicles around the world. She has 33 years of experience with GM and began her career in 1980 as an intern at Pontiac.She becomes not only the first female CEO of GM, but also the first female CEO of a global
car company.

The Board also named Theodore (Tim) Solso to succeed Akerson as Chairman.  Solso, was formerly chairman and CEO of Cummins, Inc., and has been a member of the GM Board since June 2012.


Source: General Motors

Ofcom, the Super regulator, has produced and Easy Reading guide to mobile phones for people with learning difficulties. The guide uses the Easy Read system which uses pictures as well as text to explain things. The guide can also be used by people with limited English skills.

The guide offers advice on mobile phone use and costs as well as information: -

• the different types of mobile phone handsets available
• the costs of mobile phone calls and ways to pay
• free services available for disabled customers
• how to complain when things go wrong.

Ofcom has printed 5,000 copies of the guide which is being made available to every social services Director in the UK. It can also be made available in braille and ordered in large quantities on request.

The guide is also available on-line.

As promised, here's the all new 2015 Ford Mustang. The first completely new Mustang with inspiration from 50 years of production (yes even the Mustang II years). What can I say about the 2015 Mustang? Well for one, it looks fantastic. While overall the car is just a tad larger than the current Mustang. The new car actually looks smaller than it is. Which I really like. It gives the look of a sporty European sports car. The design is fresh and crisp, and when you get in to GT trim, it's very aggressive. The styling was critical when it came to the new Mustang as this is the first Mustang to be designed for global distribution. Believe it or not, all previous Mustangs were not made for global sales. And because of this new focus for the Mustang. Ford is pulling out all the stops to make a truly world class product. The new car is lower and wider with a wider rear track. And for the first time in a number of years, a true fastback body that leads to three dimensional LED, sequential tail lamps. You may notice the lack of the faux gas cap that had become a staple of the previous Mustang is absent in the photos. We have been reassured by a source that there will be a faux cap offered on some trim levels of the new car, however not all of them. Up front, we find LED running lamps, and a design treatment heavy on Ford Design DNA that still captures the Mustang's grille and shark bite design we have come to love on the GT 500.

The big news for the new Mustang lie in the performance and suspension. The traditional V6 and 5.0 liter V8 engines remain. But they are now joined by an optional 2.3 liter Ecoboost 4 cylinder. A first for the Mustang for nearly 30 years. And don't think this will just be a fuel sipping Focus in a new body. The Ecoboost Mustang is expected to pony out 305 Hp with 300 lb.-ft of torque. So you'll still get all the performance while saving some gas. The Ecoboost features a cast aluminum cylinder block with forged steel crankshafts and connecting rods. It also includes a newly designed high flow cylinder head with integrated exhaust manifold and a new twin scroll turbo charger that will make its debut on the Mustang.






The 5.0 liter will have in the neighborhood of 420 hp on tap while the standard 3.7 liter V6 will be at 300 hp. The V8 features larger valves, revised and re-balanced camshafts, and forged connecting rods and valve springs, for optimum high RPM performance. The engines will be backed by an updated 6 speed manual trans or a new select shift 6 sped automatic that will offer for the first time in a Mustang, paddle shifters. Very European no? The Getrag manual trans has had the shifter location moved closer to the drive and away from the cupholders (a complaint in the outgoing car). The new output shaft has been designed with a new ball bearing that will allow the GT to have a top speed of 155 miles per hour.

Flipping the shiny side over is where the Mustang is going to get really exciting. The Mustang is setting new benchmarks in terms of handling. The suspension has been redesigned from the ground up. The outgoing Boss 302 was the benchmark which has now been exceeded. A new perimeter subframe reduces the overall mass of the car while also making it stiffer. Thus allowing for more predictable wheel control to allow for better ride quality, handling, and steering. This new front suspension also allows for larger brakes to be utilized. And for 2015, there will be three different brake packages available. One will likely be Brembos.

In back where the rubber meets the road, a new integral-link independent rear suspension, again designed for the ultimate in ride quality and handling. This marks the first time the Mustang has ever had an independent rear end. Though I'm sure many diehards will miss the old live real axle, we're sure they'll take to this one.

Like all new Fords, the 2015 Mustang will feature the SYNC system and the new My Key system. The drive will also have different drive modes available (not sure if available on every model) allowing the driver to adjust engine, suspension, and steering settings at the touch of a button. A new advanced stability control system and the GT's standard launch control round out a powerful performance punch.

Looking at the interior pictures, I'm seeing a lot of new, and more upscale additions. First, a source at Ford confirmed that the material quality will definitely be far better than what we have seen on the previous Mustang. Better quality materials and leathers for a more quality feel. For instance, a leather covered dash top and center console, memory power seats, and it looks like the GT will have two additional gauges in the center of the dash. All 2015 Mustangs will also wear a special badge on the dashboard saying "Since 1964" In honor of the Mustang's 50th anniversary April 17th, 1964. An interesting fact, even though the Mustang's launch considered the car a 1964 1/2. Most states did not recognize a half year for title and registration purposes, thus making all 64 1/2s really 1965 Mustangs.

Pricing hasn't been released yet, though I wouldn't expect it to be far off from the current Mustang's base price. Ford is expecting the 2015 Mustang to hit showrooms in late 2014.


Source & Photos: Ford Motor Co.

It was bound to happen. Ford's plan was to reveal the 2015 Ford Mustang on Thursday. But as usual, things don't always go to plan. An adept reader of AutoWeek magazine received their December 9th issue and smack on the cover is the completely new Mustang.

It's a very tasteful mix of American Muscle meets European Tuning. I was worried that the car would be too much Ford Design DNA (i.e. Fusion, Taurus, etc). But this car isn't. You look at it, and instantly think Mustang. I won't go in to too much detail now, that is until I get my hands on the official photos and specs from Ford on Thursday, so stay tuned.






Source: Mustang6g.com

Blackberry moving into the consumer space was a bad idea on many accounts and rushing out BB10 with many features that were standard with BBOS while adding bells and whistles was also maybe not so clever.

However, now with all the fuss about the US's NSA and UK's GCHQ snooping everybody, businesses and Governments may now seriously be thinking about returning to the venerable Blackberry platform as it's the only phone with an encrypted end-to-end email service.

The German Government has already ordered 40,000 secure Blackberry Z10 phones (who knows why they didn't go for Q10's - maybe a bargain basement sale?). This trend could continue as other governments must also be worried about email snooping.

Blackberry seem to be moving back away from the consumer market and concentrating on what they're good at, encrypted secure communication devices which can meet regulatory approval for organisations such as banks and governments, maybe they'll survive after all, but in smaller markets where people are prepared to pay for the secure services they need.

After ten years and 14,022 cars, the Lamborghini Gallardo has come to the end of the road. The Gallardo was the first Lamborghini to really break the mold so to speak. Prior to the car's production, the company would average around 250 or so cars a year, The Gallardo brought a whole new way of thinking at the company in terms of volume by jumping to 2000+ per year. Since Lamborghini was founded in 1963, nearly half of all the cars produced are Gallardos.

Like all Lamborghini's, the Gallardo name was derived from bullfighting. The Gallardo bloodline was known for its exceptional courage and undaunted nature. ans was bred during the 18th century. When the Gallardo was introduced in 2003, it also brought many new advancements for Lamborghini. Including an all new aluminum space frame, the first ever Lamborghini to have full time all wheel drive, and a robotized electronic shifting system (e-gear). The Gallardo also set records with 32 different variants of the car over it's 10 year run. My particular favorite was the Superleggera. It was also the first Lamborghini to have a special service record with 2 cars built for the Italian State Police.

The 2013 Gallardo LP 570-4 Squadra Corse boasts a dry weight of 1340 kilograms, 70 less than the already lean Gallardo LP 560-4. With a stunning power-toweight ratio of 2.35 kilograms per hp it delivers breathtaking performance: from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds, from 0 to 200 km/h in just 10.4 seconds.

Now, the final car produced? It is a Gallardo LP 570-4 Spyder Performante in Rosso
Mars (red) and it is destined for a private collector.

Source: Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.

Ofcom, the Super regulator, is holding a consultation on its mobile data strategy, potentially looking as far forward as 2030.

Ofcom has recently sold off spectrum in the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands and is looking to award spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz in the near future as well as opening up the use of TV whitespace and even the 700MHz band (which is currently used for DTT) which would mean moving the DTT band to 600MHz (and using MPEG-4 and DVB-T2 technologies).

This can be summarised in a table: -

 

Relative priority for potential release	Bands for consideration
Current priorities	700 MHz, 2.3, 3.4 GHz, UHF white space
High	1452-1492 MHz, 1980-2010 / 2170-2200 MHz (2 GHz MSS), 3.6-3.8 GHz, 5350-5470 MHz, 5725-5925 MHz
Medium-High	2.7-2.9 GHz, 3.8-4.2 GHz
Medium	450-470 MHz4, 470-694 MHz, 1350-1518 MHz

Some of these bands are in use and therefore current users will have to migrate off them or shared use is being considered.

Newer WiFi technologies make more use of the 5GHz band (Ofcom have noted the 2.4GHz band is already congested in many areas), however the 5GHz band would have to be extended (currently the bands are either licensed or lightly licensed as some of it is used for things like military radar).

Other parts of the spectrum would be expected to be used to extend mobile usages for 4G and 5G services.

The full statement (PDF) can be found here (it's 113 pages long).

Stakeholders can respond on-line.

Veterans Day is a special day, created to honor and pay respect to our country’s heroes. These heroes never ask for our recognition or gratitude, yet they deserve our appreciation every day. Thank you to those brave men and women who have sacrificed, along with their families, to serve our nation and protect our freedom.

Back again from hiatus. Well, we really never left. We've just been posting lots over at our official Facebook page. But hopefully we'll have finished two all new test drive reviews to tell you about. First we drove a new 2014 Volkswagen Beetle GSR, and we followed that up with a recent drive in a 2014 Tesla Model S 85. Both were very exciting. So look for those reviews later this week along with a few other stories.

This one just came across my desk and I felt this one was worth of posting here as I, and many others in our office are Cannonball Run, Gumball Rally, Bull Run, etc fans. Ed Bolian, a Lamborghini dealer from Atlanta, Georgia. is such a fan of the infamous Cannonball Run events, that he once told Brock Yates that he planned to break the record. This was before Alex Roy setting the previous record of 31 hours and 4 minutes in his ultra modified BMW M5.

I guess we should say what the new record is. Would you believe, 28 hours and 50 minutes? Shattering the previous record by about 3 hours. Very impressive, but also extremely dangerous. Bolian's choice of equipment was a 2004 Mercedes Benz CL55 which like Roy's BMW was equipped with several navigation units, and a host of radar detectors and monitoring equipment. And the run was made with co-driver Dave Black and support passenger Dan Huang. So, a pretty comfortable ride for 3. During the run, their top speed was 158 miles per hour with an average of 98 miles per hour from the Red Ball Garage in New York City and finishing at the Portofino Inn, in Redondo Beach, California. The original start and finish of the Cannonball Runs. The only thing that I personally didn't agree with was releasing the details about the run this soon. Alex Roy waited nearly a year before releasing the details of his run so that the statute of limitations would expire. Bolian's run was just made on October 19th. And he only waited about 10 days to release the news. But either way, the record has been broken. I wonder who will break it next, and more importantly, with what car? Congrats go out to the team. But we do caution our readers. If you have the need for speed. Please, take it to the track.

Source & Photos: http://edbolian.com/

Thinfilm based out of Oslo, Norway, has developed a method of using specialised inks to print smart electronics onto labels, the first of which is a temperature sensing label for monitoring the temperature of perishable goods.

The labels are thin and flexible, contain the sensors, batteries, display and memory, connected by printable ink. This also means they can be both manufactured on continuous roller production lines and then placed on goods using roller systems to remove the labels and place them.

It is expected that the market for thermo sensor labels will be over $3.2 billion USD by 2020.

The technology uses full addressing logic for multi-bit read-write of printed memory, memory write based on detection of temperature thresholds and low-voltage display driver based on complementary organic logic. The memory should remain readable for at least 10 years.

Products based on the combination of these technologies is expected to be market ready by the end of 2014.

Printable electronics can significantly reduce costs and will permeate many areas that currently use discrete electronic systems that are more expensive and not suitable for rolling production.

There are also many other uses that can be used for the Internet of Things.

Last week LinkedIn introduced a new iOS app called Intro. It seems a really good idea by scanning your email and showing how the person sending the email is connected to you, their LinkedIn details etc.

Unfortunately it does this by modifying the iOS mail connection profiles and pointing them all at a LinkedIn's IMAP proxy, thus intercepting ALL your email. This means that LinkedIn suddenly have access to all your email accounts and also every email that your iOS device has access too and of course they'd never do anything sinister with all this data (forget the NSA and GCHQ tapping emails, this is LinkedIn doing it with your permission).

Of course LinkedIn strenuously deny that they're doing anything dubious and their IMAP proxy is heavily secured (including connections to and from it using SSL/TLS), however it must suddenly be a great target for hackers as within the proxy itself all emails will be at some point held in clear-text.

Various mail providers are already looking at blocking LinkedIn's IP blocks to their mail services (listed below).

199.101.161.0/24

199.101.162.0/24

199.101.163.0/24

216.52.242.0/24

69.28.147.0/24

8.22.120.0/24

2620:0109:C00D::/48

2620:109:C00D::/48

And for the geeks, their AS number is AS20049.

Nice try, just be scared.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to invited to test ride a SMART e-bike. There are some things I should point out: -

• I'm not really a bike rider
• I haven't properly ridden a bike for many years
• Riding through London terrifies me

However saying that, the e-bike is pretty, we used the white and green version (it also comes in grey with orange trim - which I thought looked prettier).

The bike is quite heavy (though having an aluminium frame, and the metal drive chain replaced by a carbon-fibre drive pulley), it weighs 26.1Kg. It comes with hydraulic disc brakes front and rear (and mud flaps). The seat is quite comfortable as it contains a gel liner to pad your sensitive bits. There's also an air shock absorber on the front section (which is adjustable) to smooth out those bumps.

In the rear wheel there's a 250W brushless DC motor that can move the bicycle up to 15Mph.There's also an 'automatic' gear system (from 1 to 3 where 1 is the easiest and 3 is the least gearing).

The rechargeable battery (mounted in bit that the seat fits on to) is lithium-ion 48V with a capacity of 423Wh which can be removed. It comes with a normal mains charger (that can charge the battery in situ) and a full charge takes around 5 hours. The battery is guaranteed for 500 charging cycles and will retain 80% residual charge for 2 years. The management unit also has a USB port (for diagnostics/software upgrades/etc) and can also change a device like a smartphone, useful with the optional smartphone holder that mounts in-front of the unit allowing a user to use GPS/maps/etc.

There's also a display mounted between the handle bars that is the 'brains' of the e-bike. It has a trip counter, shows the battery charge remaining, speed and also the amount of power applied to the motor (from zero to 4 units at max power). The unit can also put the motor into charge mode (from -1 to -4) where the the motor will then act as a brake.

When riding from stationary, the motor won't actually kick in until the pedals have completed around 2 revolutions, this is to stop the bike say lurching forward when traffic lights go green, straight in to the back of a vehicle in front.

Riding isn't effortless - a rider still has to pedal, though when the motor kicks in it;s certainly easier riding. Also when climbing a steep hill, putting the e-bike into low gear and turning on full motor assist does make a life a lot easier.

If then going down a hill, put the motor into charge mode and as well as the motor acting as a smooth brake, it also charges the battery. The battery is also charged when the front-brakes are applied (i.e. the motor assists with breaking).

I managed a ride of 13.9 miles in about 4 hours (with a break) and wasn't particularly sore afterwards (apart form soft fleshy bits, but that's just not being used to bike parts rubbing me). It really did make riding easier. The bike has a range of 60 miles (I'd assume normal road riding conditions), though this will vary depending on how much the motor is used and how much the motor is used as a brake (which will charge the battery).

There was one major flaw with the bike, the controls for the management unit are on the unit itself, when they should have put them near the handles of the bike (maybe an extension system). Changing the controls meant taking your hand off the grip and fiddling with the control unit, which isn't the safest thing in the world.

The bike is also heavy, so manoeuvring at slow speed (like going through cycle gates) was hard as it meant moving a heavy bike and trying to navigate odd turns etc. and at low speeds 9without pedalling) you're on your own.

The e-bike isn't cheap, it costs £2,600 without any of the accessories - coming from Mercedes, they're not cheap either.

NOTE since writing this SMART have updated the e-bike and put the controls for the management unit into the handlebars, they've obviously listened to feedback fro early users. Maybe the next version will be made out of carbon-fibre and thus reduce the weight too.

TomTom Business Solutions is launching a new device the TomTom Link 100. This connects to the engine management unit (EMU) via the standard CAN-bus and has a built in 3D accelerometer. This then can connect to a smartphone device via Bluetooth allowing easy diagnostics in the event of a crash or even the vehicle breaking down.

All modern cars use the standard bus interface so it should work will most cars on the road.

The device can also be used by insurance companies to track driving habits etc (though no GPS information is available), drivers could also use the device to improve their driving.

TomTom have not said what data is exposed (apart from RPM, load and temperature), though the EMU provide a lot more information and with the right application many minor faults can be reset by such a device making trips to the garage less frequent (and also allowing drivers to check what faults garages etc are charging them for and whether it is a major or minor fault).

If the all the data is exposed and TomTom allow read and write information it could allow app vendors to make interesting solutions to make the driving experience better, though of course insurance companies will want these devices to ensure drivers drive better.

Ofcom, the Super regulator that has responsibility for spectrum allocation, is consulting on the planned release of MoD spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz bands.

The bands being made available are 2350 to 2390 MHz (40MHz) and 3410 to 3600 MHz (150MHz). It is expected that these bands will be licensed for use by mobile network operators for 4G/LTE services, though other broadband services could also be offered.

Unfortunately these bands are also used by amateur radio and it is likely that severe interference can be expected. Therefore Ofcom has proposed three recommendations to minimise interference.

• i) Remove access to the adjacent bands
• ii) Retain access to the adjacent bands on the current terms but with clarification of the notice period required for future amateur use to cease if amateurs cause interference to other users in the release band or the adjacent band
• iii) Restrict amateur access to a smaller part of one or more adjacent bands.

Of these 3 Ofcom's preferred option is ii) whereby Ofcom will require amateurs to stop using these bands if there is interference to licensed users (with a notification period).

Ofcom wants to make changes to amateur licenses such that if the proposals are accepted would

• i) remove the frequencies of the release bands from the licence.
We have set out three options for the adjacent bands and are recommending option two which if implemented would:
• ii) introduce a procedure to enable removal of additional frequencies (i.e. the adjacent bands) to quickly if harmful interference arises in the future.

Though this will adversely potentially affect amateur radio users, the benefit to the overall population will be increased with access to more spectrum for LTE or other services.

The consultation has now closed.

Ofcom, the Super regulator that handles radio spectrum as part of its remit, is holding a consultation on the coexistence of whitespace devices.

Whitespace is the spectrum that is unused in certain areas due to geographic transmission systems that can not overlap and in this case relates to the UHF TV channels (470 MHz to 790 MHz). As there are multiple transmitters across the UK, adjacent transmitters can not operate in the same frequency bands (especially for digital TV) or the transmitters would interfere with each other.

This leads to large chunks of the UHF spectrum not being used in a particular geographic zone, which could be used for other purposes (as long as it was low power and didn't reach neighbouring areas).

Current plans are that whitespace devices will monitor what bands are in use (by listening to those frequencies) and thus not use them, in the UK they must also contact a central database, report their location and the database will specify what frequencies are available and what power they can transmit at.

There are other services that can also be interfered with such as program making and special events (PMSE) - things like outside broadcast units which can use some of the spectrum for remote TV cameras and such like, which also have to be catered for.

Ofcom have already said they will allow whitespace use on a license exempt basis, but they also must ensure that there will be no harmful interference to digital terrestrial television (DTT) and PMSE.

Whitespace technology is new and thus there is some uncertainty on how whitespace devices may interfere with DTT or PMSE services. However Ofcom doesn't want to overly constrain whitespace use such that large amounts of spectrum go unused, or that power levels/etc are so restrictive that reaching any sizeable population is unrealistic.

Ofcom will currently err on the side of caution and setting parameters that can be relaxed in future. Later this year there will be a set of pilot trials across the UK with a number of service providers where the increased power levels can be used for limited periods of time to ensure interference doesn't occur. The trials (and stakeholder consultations) will continue until Summer 2014 and will help Ofcom set the parameters for future national whitespace roll-outs starting in Q3 2014.

Ofcom has set the parameters and algorithms for use in trials to minimise the effects on

• Digital Terrestrial Television services
• licensed users of equipment for Programme Making and Special Events
• services above and below the UHF TV band.

Ofcom have also noted that whitespace availability will vary in areas across the UK i.e. London has relatively low DTT issues with whitespace use while Glasgow has much less spectrum available, however Glasgow has very little PMSE use while in central London (and areas like Wembley Stadium) there is a large amount of use.

Though it is yet early days, whitespace spectrum should allow high bandwidth services with good propagation characteristics (coverage) which could be used to provide mobile network operator capacity off-loading, broadband and machine-to-machine (M2M) services.

Companies such as Neul (a CSR - now Samsung spin-off) are betting their futures on whitespace.

The consultation closes on 15 November 2013 and stakeholders can respond on-line.

Ofcom, the Super regulator that looks after spectrum management is holding a consultation on proposals to change the management and authorisation approach used to manage the bands 71 - 76 GHz and 81 - 86 GHz (70 / 80GHz). These offer 2 x 4.75 GHz of bandwidth allowing very high capacity links (over 1Gb/s) which are not supported in lower frequency bands. These bands have been available for use since 2007.

Currently the spectrum is not managed at is up to the users of these bands to co-ordinate amongst themselves on use (self coordinated spectrum), though currently use of the spectrum is minimal compared to lower frequency bands. However with the rapid adoption of 4G services and the bandwidth that will be required to remote cell-sites, usage can be expected to rapidly increase and operators are now worried that self-coordinated management will not suffice as links in these bands will have to provide 99.99% to 99.999% availability, so any interference could be disastrous for mobile networks.

Ofcom is proposing to manage the spectrum in a mixed manner offering partial self-coordinated use and partial managed use.

Ofcom coordinated approach: 2 x 2 GHz

Guard band: 2 x 250 MHz

Self coordinated approach: 2 x 2.5 GHz

NOTE Image (C) Ofcom.

This will allow non-critical links to be operated as now in the higher part of the bands while more critical services will be in the lower part of the bands managed by Ofcom (using the same regulatory environment as for fixed links in lower bands).

This should be good news for users and backhaul links get very expensive very quickly and can limit the growth of a mobile network (in terms of coverage), so being able to use protected spectrum to maintain high bandwidth links to cell-sites and allowing the networks to provision more 4G cells.

The full consultation is available on-line and stakeholders may respond here, the by 5th October 2013.

Qualcomm the company that makes chips such the Snapdragon and Powerline electronics (after acquiring Atheros) has sold it's mobile tracking unit Omnitracs to Vista Equity Partners for $800m. Omnitracs makes vehicle tracking systems that are used for fleet tracking and other automotive solutions like for consumer insurance systems (i.e. the insurance company can track the user's driving behaviour).

Orb Networks offered the free media streaming service MyCast as well as Orb Live along with the Orb TV and Music MP-1 devices. These will all be discontinued. It's assumed Orb services will be integrated into the Atheros media and home automations lines (such as Powerline and other devices).

Ofcom, the Super regulator, is holding a consultation on how local numbers must be dialled in 5 areas which are running out of local numbers.

The areas affected are Aberdeen (01224), Bradford (01274), Brighton (01273), Middlesbrough (01642) and Milton Keynes (01908). In these areas, the full number (including the area code) will have to be dialled - which will allow around 200,000 new numbers to be made available in these areas, which should satisfy demand for at least 10 years.

The change means the affected areas will use closing local dialling and will allow numbers starting with 0 to be issued i.e. for Aberdeen numbers will be able to be allocated like 01224 0XXXXX and 01224 1XXXXX. If the area code 01224 was not included there could be clashes with numbers starting with 0 or 1 such as 100 for operator assistance or 118xxx directory enquiry services.

The consultation closes on September 13th 2013 and the change is expected to come into force in October 2014.

Ofcom's statement is available here and stakeholders may respond on-line.

Ofcom, the Super regulator that looks after radio spectrum management and broadcasting amongst other things has reported on a trial that used open source software to run a digital audio broadcast (DAB) transmission.

The trial was based in Brighton and used Linux software and an software defined radio (SDR) to broadcast DAB signals in the Brighton area, though the trial was only low power (the output of the SDR was set to 5mW) a signal could be received over 7Km away. There was also no detectable interference to the BBC local DAB multiplex which was around 3Km away from the trial transmitter.

The trial was carried out privately under Non-Operational Test and Development licence issued by Ofcom.

The full report is here, Ofcom doesn't endorse any software or hardware used, but the report contains references to all the hardware and software used.

Initially the trial was conducted using 2 laptops, but the software was integrated on to a single (rack mount) PC running xubuntu. It would also be possible to run at least some of the software (multiplexor etc) on a RaspberryPi.

Maybe this will lead the way for other Ofcom 'approved' trials such as running lower power GSM networks also using open source software.

Ofcom has issued a statement with respect to the 28GHz Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) licences of Cable and Wireless (now Vodafone) and Urban Wimax.

The licenses were due to expire on 31st December 2015 and now they will be made indefinite.

The licensees can use the bands for equipment that complies with Interface Requirement 2048 (IR 2048) in-line with other licensees.

From January 2016, there will be new pricing set which incentivises the licenses to utilise the spectrum. Pricing has not be set yet.

28GHz allows high bandwidth point-to-point links which can be used for backhaul and with Vodafone's purchase of C&W it makes sense to use their own spectrum for mobile backhaul.

Ofcom, the super regulator has issued a statement on the award of the 600MHz band (550 to 606 MHz). This has been awarded to Arqiva for the provision of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) multiplexes. Arqiva will utilise MPEG4 video encoding and DVB-T2 transmission services (as used by Freeview HD).

This is a temporary license, though it will run through until 2026, unless Ofcom give Arqiva 24 months notices in which case it can be revoked in 2018.

The ability to terminate the license is to allow migration of DTT services from the 700MHz band to the 600MHz band in line with EU harmonised spectrum regulation and will allow the 700MHz band to be used for wireless broadband services.

While breaking, this story really comes as now surprise to me that the City of Detroit has filed for chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

In a surprise move today, the city's state appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr asked for permission to put the city under Chapter 9 protection this afternoon in court. Currently, Detroit is $18.5 billion dollars in dept. Currently, the Governor of Michigan has to sign off on the bankruptcy since it is the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Details are still forthcoming so we will be posting updates as we find them.

Source: Detroit News.

Ofcom, the Super Regulator that oversees radio spectrum (amongst its many duties) has published a statement allowing mobile network operators (MNOs) to utilise their 2G and 3G bands for 4G use, without applying for a license variation.

This affects the 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz bands. Ofcom has also allowed an increase in power of 3dB in the 900MHz band to align it with power levels in the 800MHz band.

This is in-line with Ofcom's policy to liberalise licenses and make them technology neutral and will allow the MNOs to roll-out 4G (LTE) services on any of their spectrum without regulatory hinderance.

Michael Birch originally founded Bebo and sold it to AOL for $850m on May 19, 2008 making him one of the most successful UK entrepreneurs with his wife. AOL then sold the ailing company to Criterion Capital Partners in June 2010 for around $10m.

Birch then rejoined company as a strategic advisor on December 9, 2010.

Birch today announced on twitter that he has re-purchased the social media site for $1m.

Though the site has been left behind other social media sites like Facebook, Birch can maybe bring it into the forefront again and do something clever with it.

Graphene is the new wonder substance that could replace silicon for a new generation of integrated circuits and other devices. It is also much more conductive than steel and stronger.

Plastic Logic are leaders in the field of flexible e-ink displays (both colour and monochrome) which use their organic thin-film transistor technologies.

Cambridge Graphene Centre investigates the science and technology of graphene, carbon allotropes, layered crystals and hybrid nanomaterials.

With this collaboration, Plastic Logic have donated large scale deposition equipment to support the acceleration of manufacturing scale-up of developments on graphene which will then: -

• To develop graphene as a transparent, highly conductive layer for plastic backplanes, used to drive unbreakable Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) and flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays; a market forecast to be worth $40bn by 2020 (IHS 2013).
• To develop novel transistor structures with graphene-like materials as the active layer, delivering a step change over the device performance currently possible on plastic, while retaining the ultimate flexibility of the devices.
• Leverage Plastic Logic’s expertise in the industrialization and volume manufacture of electronics on plastic, exploiting the commercialisation of graphene for flexible electronics. This will include key high value segments in the developing new market for flexible plastic sensors, forecast to be worth $2.2bn overall in 2020 (IDTechEx 2011).

The UK is a world leader in graphene research and this could push the UK into the forefront of usable technologies actually using it.

Ofcom, the Super regulator that looks after (amongst other things) radio spectrum allocation has made the bands 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz available for use by short range devices (SRDs) and radio frequency identification (RFID) use. This is in-line with European (CEPT) policy. The bands are commonly used for RFID tags in the US.

Ofcom will hold a further consultation in Q4 2013 after CEPT publish their work on interference in these bands and will then publish the draft technical requirements and the full license exemption statement by early 2014.

Ofcom is also making the 24 GHz (21.65 to 26.65 GHz) license exempt for Short Range Radars (SRRs) for automotive use, in line with EU policy. Devices have been allowed to use this part of this band (24.25 to 26.65 GHz) on a temporary basis (since 2005), which was extended to the full 21.65 to 26.65 GHz in 2011. The regulations came into force in June 30th 2013.

The Innergie mMini DC10 is a car 'cigarette' charger. What makes this different to other chargers is that is has 2 USB sockets that allow charging of 2 devices simultaneously.There's also a nice blue LED between the USB slots showing that there's power.

It can output 5V at 2.1A making it suitable for charging tablets and other devices.

It comes with a cable that has a clever connector, if snapped together it will power an iPhone/iPad through the Apple dock connection, however if the connector is pulled apart, there's also a micro-USB connection suitable for charging non-Apple products. It's also powerful enough to charge a Blackberry device (which lots of other chargers fail to do).

This really is a useful device and has saved the day on many occasions and it actually does manage to produce a full 10W output.

Online prices vary widely, but it can be had for as low as £12 + shipping.

Definitely 10/10

Ofcom, the Super regulator that looks after radio spectrum amongst other things, has made more spectrum license exempt.

In the UK there is no such thing as unlicensed spectrum and all devices (whether they broadcast or receive radio transmissions) must be covered by a license as per the Wireless Telegraphy Act. Ofcom can issue a Standard Instrument (really an Act of Parliament) to cover certain frequency bands and uses making that spectrum license exempt, which means if the equipment is used as per the SI, it doesn't need a specific license.

Ofcom has made new spectrum available for SRDs (short range devices) such as range finding equipment for cars. There is now 5MHz of spectrum available between 10.575 to 10.6 GHz which will add to the existing range of 10.577 to 10.597 GHz and this came into force on 26th June 2013.

The existing band 10.675 to 10.699 GHz can continue to be used by existing systems, but it will be closed for new systems on 30 December 2014 giving manufacturers 18 months to switch to the new band.

Mobile terminal handsets using WiMAX or LTE in the 800MHz, 2011MHz and 2.6GHz bands will be license exempt (when connected to a licensed mobile network i.e. BT, EE, 3UK, O2 or Vodafone).

Various satellite terminals will also be license exempt in the 1518 to 1525 MHz, 1525 MHz to 1559 MHz, 1626.5 MHz to 1660.5 MHz and 1670 to 1675 MHz bands.

There's a really nice little iOS app (currently iPhone only) called Vizz that visualises your LinkedIn network.

You can see what industries your connections are in, where they're located, what companies they work for and who's changed roles recently.

Quite a useful little app, all for the princely sum of £0.69 (69p).

Admittedly I do know the author @hakimmobile, but that doesn't change the usefulness of the app.

A few weeks ago I received a Blackberry Q10 that I had won in an EE competition. It was sent directly to me from Blackberry in the UK. Unfortunately it was locked to EE and I am an O2 customer, but with help from Blackberry an unlock code arrived in Email the same day.

The Q10 was sent out with various bits configured for EE, which I queried and was told "once the new SIM works, the device gets the settings from the network", so again all well and good.

Next install Blackberry Link which is the new desktop software from Blackberry, again all well and good, except though it can now sync photos/music/documents/etc with the desktop (a Mac user) it no longer (compared to Blackberry Desktop Software for Mac) syncs Calendars and Contacts. The new BB10 devices (Z10 and Q10) are completely device centric and all email/calendar and contacts synchronisation is done by the mobile device itself.

I plugged in the old Blackberry Bold 9900 (which Blackberry Link recognised as a OS7 device) and it asked if it would like to transfer the databases, to which I confirmed.

All seemed well, except you have to set-up all the old email accounts/etc on the new device before it actually works and it seems not all of them were working (GMail specifically, luckily the set-up of a BB10 device can be done using WiFi so it doesn't need a SIM in the device to actually set it up).

The email accounts were all working, try the transfer again and all went well.
Then (after reducing the SIM from a normal size to a uSIM using a SIM cutting tool) put the old (u)SIM into the Q10 and bang, everything works (well at that point the phone needed unlocking, but that was very simple and just required entering the unlock code - though not in the way Blackberry had stated, go into settings, then security, SIM and then you are asked to unlock).

On the Mac iCloud is the default system for contacts and calendar, so on the Q10 just add a new Email account (i.e. iCloud account). That's where problems started. There is a known problem using iCloud for newer versions of BB10. The Email account is set-up fine as is contact sync, however it fails to set-up the calendar sync (with a credential issue).

It's also possibly to directly add a Caldav account in the advanced Email set-up, again the forums were awash with suggestions but it should be possible to just add caldav.icloud.com as the calendaring service, but again this failed with a credential issue and would not complete.

Search the forums and lo and behold there's a Blackberry knowledge base entry which states "there's a known issue with Apple's caldav services" (Apple uses CALdav for calendar synchronisation, it also used to work on older versions of BB10, the phone upgraded itself to v10.1.0.273 via the WiFi, some earlier version of 10.0 used to work). The forums also stated that after speaking to Blackberry users had been told to report the fault to their carrier who could then escalate to Blackberry, the more users/carriers reporting the fault would increase the escalation.

So decide to phone O2 and report the fault and managed to get through to the Blackberry specialist team, explaining that I had upgraded from a Blackberry Bold 9900 and was now using a Q10 and wasn't able to sync calendars. They explained they would look at the problem and get back to me, which they did. Unfortunately they wouldn't escalate the problem as it was a known issue by Blackberry and thus couldn't escalate. I tried to explain that even Blackberry themselves were telling users to go through their carriers to report the fault, but they were adamant that they wouldn't be able to report the fault as it was already "on the system".

So no calendar synchronisation, but the phone seemed to be working well apart from that, email coming through, twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn all seemed to be doing the right thing.

There are some immediate quirks though: -

• On the old Blackberry you can delete an Email on the device or delete it on the device and the Email server. this is no longer possible and deleting an email deletes it completely. This isn't disastrous it just means you get a lot of emails on the device, the Email icon turns grey if read, but it's still there. After 90 days it is possible to to set a shorter time) older emails will disappear.
• The old twitter client used to support multiple accounts, the new one in BB10 only supports a single twitter account, this is a real pain. Direct Messages (DMs) and mentions (@) appear in the hub, which is fine, but the actual twitter client only supports a single twitter account itself. Would be happy if the Hub just supported DMs and mentions from the active twitter account, but the actual twitter client should support multiple accounts and the user can select which twitter account to be active.

So only a single twitter account, no way to delete emails off the device without deleting them on the server, and no calendar synchronisation, but all is work.

Now the fun really starts

On the 30th of May I get an email/text from O2 saying my bill is £470 more than it is usually.

I contacted customer services and ask about the problem and am told that it's data charges, so I tell them my settings (Blackberry Unlimited tariff and APN set to mobile.o2.co.uk) and it's confirmed those are the correct settings, but the customer services agent has started a "Network Investigation" and I wont get anymore data charges.

I am not convinced, but hope that all will be good.

On the Saturday I get another email/text now saying that my bill is £580 over my normal bill.

Unfortunately it wasn't until Sunday that I managed to contact customer services again. This time I'm told that I should move to a normal data tariff and that the old Blackberry Unlimited tariff is very old and not available to new customers and I should move immediately (the tariff has a 750MB data limit, which I've exceeded in the first week). I refrain saying I will wait for the network investigation.

I then decide to do some of my own investigations and find that the new BB10 devices don't work how the old pre-BB10 devices work (the old BES and BIS connections went through a "hardwired" blackberry.net "private" APN that was embedded in the Blackberry software itself). The new devices (at least for a BIS - which is the Blackberry Internet Service) now do use the actual Internet data connection and don't have the cludgery that was the old style BIS connection. The devices have become completely device centric ...

However on some forum it's stated that setting the APN to wap.o2.co.uk works and as it's with the Blackberry Unlimited service, it's free. So I plug that into the Blackberry and lo and behold no more data charges.

I also phoned O2 support to check and they agree that setting will work.

I still have a massive data bill and there is an on-going network investigation.

Twitter to the rescue

I have had a few conversations with @O2 on twitter, who are very responsive to tweets and good for sorting technical and other issues and get into a discussion with the "web team" who DM me and ask for details of the problem, which I duly sent them. It seems they have a massive influence and today (Tuesday 4th of June) I get a call from O2.

Unfortunately I do have to move to a standard new tariff (that only comes with 750MB of data), but they are going to wipe the data charges (eventually £600+ +VAT).

As soon as the tariff is changed (should come into play tomorrow), it looks like I'll have to ask for a PAC code and move to a new network, one that does unlimited data.

I've been a loyal customer with O2 on this number since 2005 (and on another number - moved to GiffGaff a year ago, since 1984). It will be a shame to move, but unlimited Internet is unlimited Internet.

So long and thanks for all the fish as they say.

ARM the company that designs microprocessors and micro-controllers that are used in high-end smartphones down to dishwashers has announced a new range of graphics co-coprocessor with digital rights management (DRM) built-in.

ARM has been forging relationships with bodies to support its TrustedZone security implementations in its ARM cores, now it is extending this with DRM backed into its video processing hardware (Mali) and it has just announced the Mali-V500 which supports 1080p/60 encoding and can decode up to 120 frames per second with a resolution of 4K. This should make the chips appealing to video companies like Netflix who want modern hardware, but also want to appease Hollywood with native DRM support.

ARM have also released new CPU cores, the Cortex-A12 (mid-range smartphone, faster than current Cortex-A9 technology). ARM also boast the performance of the Cortex-A15 supersedes Intel's low power core technology, even though it's based on their new 3D transistor at 22nm.

Newer ARM chips will migrate to 20nm technologies and even 16/14nm designs and they say that will keep them ahead of Intel for the foreseeable future.

NVidia has upgraded it's all-in-one system-on-chip the Tegra4i to support Category 4 LTE before it's even been commercialised.

Category 4 LTE supports 150Mb/s download speeds and is already being implemented by other vendors.

This should give NVidia a better chance against its main competitors (in the Smartphone markets) Qualcomm, Broadcom and LTE-only specialist Altair.

NVidia gained LTE experience by acquiring UK company Icera which uses a software defined architecture and though this technology has been used alongside Tegra4 CPU devices as a separate package, the Tegra4i integrates the technology on to the system as the Tegra4. As Icera's technology is software defined, no actual hardware modifications were required to implement the enhancements.

Currently no mobile networks actually support Category-4 LTE (or LTE Advanced), though Japan's NTT Docomo has said they'll be announcing services by the end of the year.

Qualcomm last year said it was not pursuing direct sales of it's colour e-ink solution Mirasol and would license the technology to partners.

Mirasol uses MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) technology and is very low power, works in direct sunlight and low light conditions though it has been criticised for washed out colours.

At the SID Display Week event in Canada last week, Qualcomm seems to have reversed its decision and was very publicly displaying the latest version of the Mirasol technology and said it could appear in devices with small screens later this year (less than 1.5 inches - speculation is on some form of smart watch).

There was also a demonstration of a 5.1 inch screen with a resolution of 2560x1440 which equates to a pixels per inch (ppi) value of 577, while Samsung's Galaxy S4 has a resolution of 1920x1080 with a ppi of 440.

The Mirasol technology is really nice and it would be a shame if Qualcomm didn't maximise its market position and push the technology out soon.

Both EE and 3UK won 2 x 5MHz chunks of 800MHz spectrum in the recent UK spectrum auction for deploying LTE/4G mobile services. O2/Telefonica and Vodafone both won 2 x 10MHz chunks (with O2 having a coverage obligation).

EE currently has deployed LTE in their 1800MHz spectrum and they will relinquish some of this (2 x 15MHz) to 3UK by the end of 2013 when 3UK can deploy their own LTE services.

Generally the minimum requirement to deploy LTE is a requirement of at least 2 x 10MHz, so the two lots of 2 x 5MHz may cause EE and 3UK issues, so they are considering joining their efforts and sharing their joint spectrum, giving them access to a joint amount of 2 x 10MHz.

Currently this is just in the planning stage and it may not be technically feasible, though there is no reason why it shouldn't be.

Perhaps best known for much of his work that was claimed by George Barris, Dean Jeffries was one of the most legendary men in automotive culture. He was the complete package. He was a metal worker, a painter, a designer, a car builder, stuntman. He did it all. I mean, where do you begin?

Jeffries was born in Lynwood, California in February 1933. He had dreamed of attending the Art Center in Pasadena, but instead of doing well in school he gravitated toward cars like most teens do, learning from his  father who was a mechanic. While stationed in Germany during his stint in the Army, he learned the art of pinstriping from a furniture and piano striper, and upon returning home to California, he continued to learn from Kenneth “Von Dutch” Howard. This landed him a  job as the in-house pinstriper for George Barris. Along the way, he learned how to shape metal, as well, and began to take the customization of his clients’ cars further; during that time, he not only striped James Dean’s infamous Porsche 550 Spyder with the nickname “Li’l Bastard,” but also built Chili Catallo’s 1932 Ford three-window coupe, the one that the Beach Boys used on the cover of their Little Deuce Coupe album.



Jeffries also did work for Caroll Shelby. He painted the first Cobra as a favor to Shelby. He sympathized with Shelby’s effort to get the car done on a budget. “The body was a disaster, all heliarced and torched up. I had only three days from start to finish. I asked Shelby what color he wanted, and he said, ‘Any color you want.’ So, not knowing if it was right or wrong, I painted it pearl yellow because I had heard on TV that yellow stood out the best.” Shelby would later provide Jeffries with a Weber-topped 289-cu.in. Ford V-8 and four-speed transmission for Jeffries’s Mantaray, an asymmetrical single-seater based on a 1939 Maserati 8CTF Grand Prix chassis.

After leaving Barris' shop. Jeffries set up shop in Hollywood. This attracted plenty of celebrity clientele and made way for jobs creating and customizing cars for the movies and for the stars, including the Monkeemobile, the Chrysler Imperial based Black Beauty from The Green Hornet television series, and the Landmaster from Damnation Alley. He didn’t restrict himself to Hollywood cars, however: He also designed and manufactured the Kyote Volkswagen based dune buggies and built a number of custom and concept cars for Ford Motor Company, including a gullwing-door show car called the Cougar, the Falcon Python show car, and the Ford GT40. He also did some construction and painting for several Indy Car teams. 

Jeffries also worked for a while as a stuntman. During the production of Honky Tonk Freeway in 1980, Jeffries performed a jump stunt with a truck in which he broke his back. He also performed stunts in The Blues Brothers and Fletch. What he will mostly rememberh him for if not through his cars then through his feud with George Barris, brought on by Barris’s habit of taking credit for Jeffries’s work throughout the years. “He couldn’t put a dent into something, never mind taking one out, but he’s a hell of a promoter, believe me,” Jeffries said. Barris retorted that he couldn’t “control what magazines write and who they list as the designer and builder.”

Jeffries remained very active in the industry until about five years ago and still maintained a shop in Hollywood. 

Source & Photos: Hemmings Motor News & The Jalopy Journal

Google announced on Monday 13/05/2013 that it was increasing the storage for GMail and GDrive customers to 15GB (this is shared if both are being used) and the upgrade will be rolled out over the next couple of weeks. Google App users also get an increase to 30GB as standard.

This should suit users who have say small mailboxes, but large image files or vice versa.

Customers can still upgrade and 100GB is $4.99 per month, or 200GB is $9.99 per month.

This will surely put pressure on other cloud storage providers such as Dropbox - who only offer 2GB as standard (though this can be increased by referring people and other methods to around 25GB).

Camden Council in partner ship with Arqiva will offer WiFi throughout the borough, with roll-out starting in June/July 2013.

The roll-out will take place in 3 phases, with the 1st phase covering South Camden (highest footfall), with phase 2 covering Camden Town and Kentish Town and phase 3 moving to Kilburn, Finchley, Hampstead and Belsize Park. The service is expected to be fully finished by the end of 2014.

The WiFi access points will be attached to lamp posts in streets and public places and Camden is aiming to make the borough "one of the most connected place in the country".

The first 30 minutes of access are free and following that users can elect to pay for more time, though access to Camden's own services can be accessed at any time.

Users will have to register their devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones) in order to use the WiFi, which must be in order to limit abuse which can occur through open WiFi networks.

Arqiva have a 10 year contract with Camden to provide enhanced digital services and the WiFi access points may well be enhanced int he future with 3G/4G small cells etc to offload traffic from the mobile network operators (assuming Arqiva gain access to licensed spectrum).

Camden are leading this effort which will eventually encompass 17 other Councils.

In some news out of left field. The folks from Consumer Reports have come out an announced that the Tesla Model S is bar none, the BEST car they have ever tested. Interesting because of the fact that it is a full electric car. But that's also one of the biggest reasons why CR says it's the best. Styling is uniquely Tesla, and looks like nothing else on the road. Inside, a 17 inch touch screen panel controls just about everything in the car. Now how it is better than say a VW Jetta TDI?

Well, I'm not sure other than you can take the Jetta on long road trips. The Model S can handle say Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Longer trips are possible thanks to a network of supercharged charging stations that can charge the battery from empty to half full in about a half hour. However, expect a full charge to take 12 hours using normal 240 volt home electric. That can be cut down with an optional charger from Tesla that takes about 5 hours to recharge.

Sticker price for the Model S comes in at a hefty $90,000 give or take a couple hundred bucks. And lets face it. Frankly, it's not a Prius, and that's why we like it. Even though we still prefer our cars to suck gas, not electricity.

So, while it may not fit the need for everyone, it's pretty darn close for some. Unfortunately, for those of us here in Pittsburgh, and the rest of Pennsylvania for that matter. There are no Tesla dealers. There is a service center in Philadelphia, but the closest dealer is in Tysons Corner, Virginia which is just outside of Washington D.C. That is partially due to Tesla's troubles with their store style of dealer system that has the national and state dealer associations up in arms. And that's not to mention the other financial troubles that have hounded Tesla.

Here's hoping that Tesla sticks around for a while. 

Source: Consumer Reports, Tesla Motors.

The 2.4GHz band (2400MHz through 2483.5MHz) is used by license exempt devices as it's an international ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) harmonised band. Common uses for this band in the UK are WiFi and Bluetooth devices.

The Government is hoping to free 500MHz of spectrum by 2020, mainly by re-allocating spectrum currently held by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The first part of freed up spectrum is in the 2300MHz band (2350MHz to 2390 MHz) which should be released in 2014.

Though Ofcom will issue a technology neutral license, it's expected that the spectrum will be acquired for Long Term Evolution (LTE) services.

Ofcom is requesting that stakeholders in the 2.4GHz band let Ofcom know how releasing the 2300MHz band might affect them.

The statement is on-line here and stakeholders may respond using an on-line form.

The consultation closes at 5pm on the 19th June 2013.

Ofcom , the Super regulator is holding a consultation on the future of the 700MHz band (694 - 790 MHz). This band is being used for Wireless Broadband in several countries and the EU is proposing to harmonise this band across the EU for the same purpose.

The band falls within spectrum used for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) also know as the UHF band IV and V which spans 470MHz through 862MHz. After the digital switchover the 800MHz band was cleared (channels 61 through 69) and this was recently auctioned off for use by mobile network for 4G/LTE services.

The lower end of the band (channels 21 through 30) starting at 470MHz is used for interleaved spectrum, local TV broadcasts (from 2013), Program making and special events (PMSE) and whitespace services (from 2014).

The band between channels 31 to 37 - the 600MHz band was cleared as part of the digital switchover.

Channel 38 is used for PMSE exclusively and now allows high power devices in the lower end of the spectrum.

The current 700MHz DTT band extends from channel 39 through channel 60 and will also be used for whitespace services from 2014.

If this spectrum is made available for mobile broadband use, it will have very good propagation characteristics and be good for rural broadband and other uses.

Though Ofcom is consulting now, the 700MHz band won't be available until 2018 at the earliest as use of the band must be in-line with International policy.

Ofcom have produced a nice picture describing the changes.

Ofcom has a duty under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 to have regard to: -

• the extent to which the electromagnetic spectrum is available for use, or further use, for wireless telegraphy
• the demand for use of the spectrum for wireless telegraphy
• the demand that is likely to arise in future for the use of spectrum for wireless telegraphy.

and using the 700MHz band falls into these duties.

Unfortunately it does mean all DTT transmissions will have to move into the cleared 600MHz (channels 31 through 37) band and the lower end of the current 700MHz band (channels 39 through 48) so in 2018 there is likely to be a second TV switchover. It's also likely that set top boxes will have to use DVB-T2 and MPEG4 (rather than the less efficient DVB-T and MPEG2 that is currently used by standard definition broadcasts today, though DTT in High Definition or HD already uses DBV-T2 and MPEG4).

The full statement is on-line here and stakeholders may respond through an on-line form.

Ofcom the super regulator is planning to hold a Whitespace trial later in the year. Whitespace is just spectrum that is not used in certain areas as it may interfere with other services in neighbouring areas (such as TV station broadcasts, the country is divided into areas such that neighbouring TV broadcasting transmitters don't use the same frequencies as their neighbours).

The unused spectrum is therefore 'wasted', but with careful management, can be used for localised services such as wireless broadband.

Neul is a technology leader based out of Cambridge (spun out of Cambridge Silicon Radio or CSR, now owned by Samsung) and already have systems available to use whitespace frequencies. Neul even have a chipset available for end-user devices.

There are (and have been) several whitespace trials, but these have been limited to localised technology trials.

One of the features that is required for whitespace to work is a centralised database of locations, frequencies and power levels. Generally there will be a central base station which will have to contact the database and report its position and it can then use that information to select the frequencies and power levels to use. End-user devices will just scan the whitespace bands and look for a carrier and can just use that as a base, from which it can then retrieve information about what other frequencies to use.

A quirk of the system is that Ofcom has mandated a kill switch so that if interference with commercial TV or other is found, all devices using whitespace can be shut-off in an area.

Ofcom has not specified how the database should be implemented, just the queries and responses that should be supported, it will be up to the market to decide how to implement. Database operators will be able to charge for running the service (again not specified, but it may be based on queries of the database).

This trial will again test the technology but also database implementations etc.

Ofcom's statement is on-line and any interested party wishing to take place in the trial can email TV.WhiteSpaces@ofcom.org.uk

Ofcom is holding a consultation as it is proposing changing the Wireless Telegraphy Act for Automotive Short Range Devices (SRDs) that currently operate in the 24GHz band in line with EU harmonised spectrum policy.

Current SRDs operate in 24 GHz (21.65 to 26.65 GHz) and existing devices in vehicles can continue to use these frequencies until 2018, however new equipment will now have to support the range 24.25 to 26.65 GHz.

The current license exemption for 21.65 to 26.65 GHz SRDs will be revoked on 30 June 2013, except for devices that were installed in cars between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2013 in which case they can continue to use this band.

After 30 June 2013, SRDs will need to operate in 24.25 to 26.65 GHz and this band will be made license exempt.

The full statement is available here and the on-line consultation for interested stakeholders here.

Google has updated its terms and conditions so that all apps on the Play store must use Google's update mechanisms and are not allowed to directly update themselves.

This will directly affect Facebook's Android app, which had a persistent message displayed to users that a new version was available and took the user to a download link directly from Facebook.

Forcing users to only update through Google Play is a good move as it also allows Google to ensure apps can be removed from the store and thus users will no longer be able to access updates, which is especially useful if they are found to have malicious code or break other T&Cs. It also allows Google to track downloads etc.

Duedil, the site that is becoming the site to visit for company information has started offering premium payment options for access to some of it's services. It has been possible to download company reports on a pay-as-you go basis, but now it's possible to download company credit reports, official company documents, CSV financial table downloads and more using pre=paid credits. Members who subscribe are also given an ad free experience.

It's possible to subscribe on a monthly or annual basis which give the following options: -

Feature	Monthly £24.99 pm	Annual £249.99 pa
Document downloads	500 pm	unlimited
Credit Reports	15 pm	180 pa
CSV account downloads	5- pm	600 pa

All of Duedil's basic services will remain free and users can still access a wealth of information without paying for anything, however the new paid for services will now give the company a nice revenue stream which should see them well into the future.

Artrage has released version 4 of its painting program, available for both Apple's MacOS X and Microsoft's Windows 8.

If it's run on on a Surface Pro tablet it makes full use of the touch capabilities and of course it fully uses pen systems on non-touch systems.

The package is easy to use (even for a non artist) and it doesn't take much time to get used to the various controls and painting techniques such as smearing and blending of oil paints and watercolours that flow into each other.

There's also nice features such as stencils (which can be painted on, but the paint only applies to the empty spaces on the stencil) and stickers that are just stuck onto a painting.

A nice feature is tracing where an image is loaded as the background - but not as part of the image being painted - and then it can be traced. When it's saved, it's only the tracing and not the original image, though the same process could be achieved using layers.

Artrage also fully supports Wacom features available with some of their stylus' such as Pressure, Tilt, Barrel Rotation, and the Airbrush Wheel.

It's available for $49.90 from the Artrage Store. There is also a version available for Apple's iPhone/iPad.

Opensignal the company behind Opensignal Coverage Maps has released an iPhone app available on the iTunes store.

The Android app (available in Google Play) has been around for some time and the iPhone app is unfortunately a poor cousin in terms of functionality due to the limitations of Apple's restrictions in iOS.

The iPhone app is more of a WiFi locator app, though it does have access to Opensignal's coverage data as a map overlay. This is pulled from Opensignal rather than being able to read any information (apart from signal strength and connected network) from iOS itself.

In order to better coverage data, users will still have to download the Android app and use that to map WiFi and cellular signals which are directly exposed in the underlying operating system.

Opensignal could release a Blackberry app as much of the underlying network is also exposed, though whether they will do this is as yet unknown.

HP has collaborated with Leap Motion to being Leap's 3D motion control to HP workstations.

Initially HP will bundle Leap Motion's Controller with their workstations and in future embed the controller hardware and software within the workstations.

Leap Motion have just announced the availability of their Software Development Kit (SDK) which will allow 3rd parties to add motion control to their applications.

Initially motion control will used to control the operating system itself, though apps will be available through Leap Motion's Airspace app store.

The stand-alone Leap Motion controller (which is attached to a PC/Mac through USB) is available for pre-order from Leap Motion for $79.99 (plus shipping).