In Depth: Code Masters: 10 toys that are teaching kids how to code
10 toys that are teaching kids how to code
You are never too early to learn how to code. With so many courses now available and coding taught in schools the world over, children of all ages are understanding what the building blocks of computing are, while learning how to use them to their advantage.
And you don't have to wait until your child is old enough to go to school to teach them a little about coding. There's now a variety of toys available that are not only fun to use but educational, too.
From literal building blocks that come to life when your program them correctly to robots that will obey your every command if coded properly, these are TechRadar's pick of the cool toys that will help children learn programming, even if they still think Python is just a type of snake.
1. Sphero SPRK+
Sphero may be best known for teaming up with the folks at Star Wars and creating the fantastic remote-controlled BB-8, but it also does a brilliant range of educational toys. Our pick of the bunch is the Sphero SPRK+. Using the connected app and an innovative block-based coding system, there's a tonne of things you can do with the Sphero SPRK+ - including navigating it through a maze, swim across water (it's waterproof), or even mimic the solar system.
Find out more: Sphero.com
2. LEGO Mindstorms EV3
Just when you thought LEGO couldn't get more awesome, the building blocks company has added programming and robots into the mix. The Mindstorms EV3 is a robot you build, like any LEGO creation but it also allows for programming. This is thanks to the EV3 programmable brick that comes with Mindstorms. Using the programming tool, you can connect different 'blocks' of commands together, feed them to your robot and make it do a number of weird and wonderful things. It's a little more advanced than some of the toys in this list, but LEGO has a great suite of video tutorials to get you started.
Find out more about LEGO Mindstorm EV3
3. Lightbot
Lightbot isn't a toy as such, but a really fun app you can download to your smartphone or tablet. The whole point of Lightbot is that it teaches you how to solve problems using programming. Its learning curve is slight, so even if you have no coding knowledge it will help you understand that putting certain commands together will help your 'Lightbot' progress through the levels of the game. The app comes in two flavors: Junior Coding Puzzles, for those aged 4-8 and Programming Puzzles for those who are 9+. The best thing about the app is how it offers up a simple way to understand the basics of what can be complex computer programming.
Find out more at Lightbot.com
4. mBot Robot Kit
Make Block have created a number of robot kits to teach kids how to code and have some fun doing it. These kits range from the small mBot to an ultimate 10-in-1 robot kit. Each kit, according to Make Block, "help you learn the knowledge of mechanical structures, electronic modules and programming skill with ease". These kits are definitely for those kids who already understand a little about coding and want to have a bit of fun learning more about Arduino programming and Python programming.
Find out more at MakeBlock.com
5. Cubelets
We're not quite sure why but, as you will see from this list, when it comes to programming cubes are used a lot to educate children about the way of the code. Cubelets is a great little idea that involves 'robotic' cubes that can be linked together and programmed to do a number of things. You can buy a variety of cube packs and all you have to do is connect them together and they will create a 'smart' robot system. You can also add them to things like LEGO to make bigger and better robotic creations.
Find out more at ModRobotics.com
6. Project Bloks
Project Bloks is still in its beta stage at the moment but you need to know about it because backing it is one of the biggest companies on the planet - Google. The idea of Project Bloks is that Google wants to make the teaching of coding both tangible and open source. So it has created a platform where developers can create puzzles and tasks that use electronic boards and programmable pucks. Children then connect these 'bloks' together and do with them what they will. The project is still in the 'active research' phase but if it sounds like something that would appeal to you, then you can register your interest and Google will keep you posted about where Project Bloks is going.
Find out more at ProjectBloks.com
7. Dash and Dot
As names go for robots that help you code, you can't get much better than Dash and Dot. On its website Make Wonder, the makers of Dash and Dot, explain that "coding is the modern day superpower". And we couldn't agree more. To gain this superpower, all you have to do it choose either Dash (a fully fledged robot) or Dot (a robot brain) and then download an app and get coding. There's a number of apps you can choose from and each one - through a little bit of coding - will control the robots in a different way.
Find out more at MakeWonder.com
8. Think And Learn Code-A-Pillar
Fisher Price has decided that you are never too young to learn a bit of coding and have created a caterpillar toy that helps 3-6 year olds understand the basics of programming. The way it works is that the child arranges (and rearranges) the caterpillar segments, and depending on how they are arranged the caterpillar will move in different ways.
Find out more at FisherPrice.com
9. Puzzlets
Puzzlets is one of the most innovative coding toys on this list. It uses both a tablet and a physical play tray, combining them both to offer up an interactive play experience. The people behind Puzzlets know that children understand how to use a tablet better than most adults, so instead of pretending this isn't the case it makes the tablet as central part of Puzzlets. Half of the game is played out on a tablet, then the rest is physical - arranging and rearranging the Puzzlets tiles on the play tray. While the coding in the game is slight, it will teach children cause and effect, which is essential in programming.
Find out more at DigitalDreamsLab.com
10. Cubetto
Cubetto, according to its makers, is a playful programming language you can touch. It consists of a movable Cubetto cube, a board, 16 blocks and a story book. Kids can put the blocks into the board and, depending on the arrangement, they will be able to control the movements of the Cubetto cube. Like many of the toys on this list, Cubetto takes the idea of coding and programming and makes it tangible and fun.
Find out more at KickStarter.com
from Techradar - All the latest technology news
Windows 10 Week: Why you shouldn't write off Windows 10 Mobile just yet
Introduction and Continuum advantage
Microsoft has never had much success with its mobile phone business, and buying Nokia for $7.2 billion (around £5.5 billion, AU$9.7 billion) back in 2013 didn't help Redmond claw its way to relevancy, either.
Revenues from its phone business, which includes Lumia-branded handsets, dropped over 70% in the three months leading up to July, on top of a 50% decline in the quarter before that, and a similar drop in the previous quarter.
Research firms, such as Gartner and IDC, peg the market share of Windows 10 Mobile at somewhere between zero and 1%, a figure that could also be described as a rounding error equivalent to BlackBerry's share of the market.
Billion blunder
The company hasn't been releasing many new handsets of late and recently revised its stated goal of getting Windows 10 onto one billion devices by 2018 because of "the focusing of our phone hardware business."
The "focusing" in question is, by and large, a mystery. Microsoft declined to show off any new Windows 10 Mobile details earlier this year at its Build conference, and after this was picked up on by the media, Redmond was subsequently forced to release a statement clarifying its commitment.
The platform the company built with Windows 10 has been growing and now has 350 million active users across a range of devices, including Xbox, PCs, tablets, and (some) smartphones. But the downward revision of the big billion goal – and its reasoning – is embarrassing for Microsoft and signals just how far its mobile ambitions have fallen.
There is, however, a way to turn this around.
Deep and meaningful relationships
Microsoft has always had the best, by which we mean the deepest, relationships with big enterprise customers who run Windows, use Office, and most likely have some kind of Azure setup humming in the background.
While Amazon has snapped up growing startups with its Amazon Web Services platform, Microsoft has retained many big clients, which are defined as companies with over 100,000 employees, $10 billion (around £7.5 billion, AU$13.5 billion) in revenue per year, or both.
According to Gartner, Microsoft software and services are used in these kinds of companies the majority of the time, and the dominance only starts to fade as the organisations become smaller than 250 employees or generate less than $50 million (around £38 million, AU$67 million) in revenue.
As you'd expect, the bigger the company the more money Microsoft generates from it. Office 365, the cloud version of its productivity software, is used by over 23 million people, many of which are employees of big firms.
These relationships – which are likely years old – could be used to sell Windows-based smartphones.
Advantage Microsoft
"In the enterprise segment, Microsoft has a chance," said Francisco Jeronimo, a senior researcher at IDC, in an interview earlier this year. "They are looking at selling a bundle of products and services, rather than just the operating system, and when they go to a client and offer a device that comes with Continuum, the docking station, and Windows 10, it can be quite interesting."
The features that Microsoft has developed for its mobile operating system are some of the best-in-class. Continuum, for example, uses a $99 (around £75, AU$133) dock – called the Display Dock – which attaches to a mouse and keyboard to turn a Lumia smartphone into a fully-fledged computer running Windows 10.
Demos of a smartphone turning – literally – into a computer are really impressive and, more importantly, represent something only Microsoft is doing currently. Apple, which makes the iPhone, chooses to keep its desktop and smartphone operating systems separate, and Google, which develops Android, has chosen never to merge Chrome OS and Android in any meaningful way.
So, either by design or by accident, Microsoft has a huge, marketable advantage that would be uniquely beneficial to enterprise customers.
Avoiding phone pain
Android agony
The other advantage that Microsoft has is a realisation by big businesses that letting every employee carry their own smartphone is a pain. iPhones are okay because there are a finite number of versions, but Android is open to anyone who wants to make a handset which means there are a host of different screen sizes, features, OS versions, and so on.
"Companies have realised it costs a lot more to manage very different versions of phone OSes, hardware, etc, and it's easier just to roll out corporate phones on one platform," said Jeronimo. "Many companies are going back and giving employees the phone they want, or allowing them to choose between a set."
This change, which is happening over time and will likely continue in the future, is of huge benefit to Microsoft. The relationships it has so carefully nurtured with companies who will feel the pain of BYOD can be leveraged to sell handsets of a specific type, design, and software version.
Microsoft can go to a company which is frustrated by the process of supporting 30 different types of Android phone, or five types of iPhone, and say: "We have two handset types across the low- and high-ends which run Windows 10."
That, Microsoft should be hoping, is a compelling proposition, especially as company computers will soon be upgraded to Windows 10 and are running Office.
Universal solution
There is, of course, a lack of native apps on Windows 10 Mobile – including ones like Snapchat – but the Universal Windows Platform alleviates many of these problems.
Essentially, Microsoft managed to get Windows 10 fully unified across devices which means that apps developed for a PC, running Windows 10, work on a smartphone, tablet, or Xbox. Basically, any device that runs Windows 10.
This has meant that some big developers, like Uber, have produced a single Windows 10 app that is then available across multiple platforms, and Microsoft hopes others will do the same.
For enterprise, however, the number of popular apps is irrelevant (and fewer is most likely a good thing). What is relevant is that the company's software team can use one version of its software – and that's it. From here, it will run on a smartphone, PC, tablet, and so on.
Winning enterprise
Apple has also been pushing the iPhone into the workplace by partnering with IBM, Box, and others but its solution – beautifully designed enterprise apps – still requires hard work on the part of each individual company to bring its app onto iOS, not to mention that similar versions also have to be made for Android.
It's unlikely that 'winning' enterprise will yield the same kind of profits that selling phones to consumers does – as Apple discovered – but it will be some repayment for the time, money, and energy that Microsoft has consistently dedicated to Windows on smartphones over the years.
Selling the complete package – an operating system, productivity software, hardware (including the Surface), and infrastructure – is a very compelling offering, and Microsoft is uniquely positioned to do just that. The company best take full advantage of this fact.
- Also check out how Satya Nadella just fixed a massive problem at Microsoft
from Techradar - All the latest technology news
Windows 10 Week: The next 5 updates Windows 10 needs
Windows 10 feature wishlist
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update is here at long last and while it brings improvements to digital pen usage and Cortana with a slew of new features, we still want more Microsoft! Call us greedy, but Windows 10 isn't perfect yet and we think there's still room to improve with even more features and UI tweaks.
So here's a quick wishlist of the future upgrades and updates that are just begging to come to Windows 10 and don't forget to hit the comments with your thoughts on what's still missing.
This article is part of TechRadar's Windows 10 week. Microsoft's latest operating system turns from a free to a paid upgrade on July 29, and we're looking to answer the question of whether it's good for you.
Streaming PC games to Xbox One
Right now you can stream your Xbox One games to a PC, but what we want to really do is the reverse. Microsoft is already investigating the idea, but it hasn't set a timeline of when the feature might possibly come out.
The biggest hurdle in the process is finding some way of translating games you can only play with a mouse and keyboard. However, Phil Spencer has also said such peripheral support is already in the works with Xbox One's developer kit. For now though, it seems mouse support isn't quite there yet and won't likely be there until months away.
Given that Razer, Valve and Nvidia have figured out technical part PC game streaming, we can't imagine this would be impossible with the Xbox One.
Windows 8.1's Start Screen
I know what you're thinking but hear me out before you call me crazy. There's actually still some design elements that were better on Windows 8.1 than Windows 10. The biggest one namely is the way Windows 8.1 rendered all your applications on Start Screen.
Live Tiles on Windows 10 are great and all, but if you want to scroll through every application you have loaded on your system, you're relegated to a small list on the side. Windows 8.1 on the other hand gave you a full-screen slate of apps with larger icons to tap on. It's great that Microsoft focused on improving the desktop experience of its OS, but it could still use a few touch-friendly tweaks.
Better display scaling please
High-resolution displays are quickly becoming the norm on Windows machines, but some applications still have yet to scale properly. For the most part, if you want to display your desktop at 4K that's no problem. Just set your scaling higher to increase the size of text, apps, and other items to 200% – which also happens to be the default scaling set on Microsoft's self-made Surface Book and Surface Pro 4.
The problem is everything outside of Microsoft's software portfolio doesn't follow the same model. Everyday applications from Photoshop to Hipchat have comically small and unusable interfaces at higher resolutions. It's high time that Microsoft made a plugin or worked directly with software developers to make display scaling universal across both first- and third-party applications.
Account management within Windows 10
Our use case with Windows 10 is a bit extreme, having to review a ton of laptop and desktop, but we're tired of having to go through Microsoft's websites to (de)authorize devices connected Office 365 and the Windows Store. We could easily see the same settings being slipped into the account options in settings and it would also be a fairly easy tweak.
Tabbed file browser
Tabs have around for over a decade since they hit the street in Opera and Firefox, but in 2016 we still don't see a single tab in the Windows 10 file explorer. Just like browser tabs, they would make opening more than one folder and switching back and forth between them so much easier.
Apple adopted a tabbed version of Finder back in 2014 with OS X Yosemite, but Microsoft hasn't even hinted at the thought of introducing the helpful feature. What gives Microsoft!?
from Techradar - All the latest technology news
In depth: Why it's still worth investing in wireless charging for your phone
A wireless future
A few years ago it seemed that wireless charging was the next big thing. The idea was simple: you'd put your phone on the bedside cabinet and it would recharge, no searching for and fumbling around with cables required.
But for some reason it hasn't become mainstream yet – once again, the predicted uptake in a new technology has stalled, despite Samsung's top-end S6 and S7 models allowing you to charge off any wireless base station.
However, wireless charging is still only just getting started – and rather than writing it off as a passing fad, it's actually time to start getting excited about wireless all over again.
Wireless charging's big problem
Many people have used wireless chargers in the past, but they've tended to head back to using a good old cable pretty quickly, because of one rather fundamental issue: wireless isn't fast enough.
Ultra-fast wired charging for Android phones is now very common, enabling you to almost fully replenish the battery in half an hour or so. We've started to expect speed. By contrast, most of today's wireless chargers will take hours to refill a phone, particularly one with a large battery like the 3600mAh Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
However, from a technical perspective at least, this problem has already been solved.
The most common wireless charging standard in phones is Qi (pronounced "Chee"), and version 2.0 of it allows for up to 15W power transferral, three times the 'standard' amount of 5W, which is what Samsung's Fast Charge wireless charger offers at the moment.
If you own a top-end Samsung from the last year or so, there's a good chance it'll already support faster wireless charging – the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S7 family do.
If you have your eye on a Samsung wireless charge pad, though, make sure you buy the one labelled Fast Charge (£40, $41.99, AU$99.99), rather than the normal pad. It outputs at up to 9 volts 1 amp, for 9W of power rather than the usual 5W. Samsung says it'll charge your phone from flat in 120 minutes.
To get the full potential out of the Qi abilities of the top Samsung phones, though, you need a third-party Qi pad. There are a few 10-15W charge pads available, such as those from Choetech and Tenergy; that's right, they mostly come from Chinese brands no one has heard of.
However, in March 2015 LG Innotek announced a full-fat 15W wireless Qi charger, which LG says will charge a phone from 0% to 50% in 30 minutes, not far off what a fast wired charger can achieve.
This is what we need, and what we want. It's just a shame that, as the company that continues to pack wireless charging into many of its top phones, Samsung didn't get there first.
LG's own LG G5 doesn't even offer wireless charging, after all.
Wireless wars
At this point, we need to step back a bit. We've given you a very simple view of how some elements of wireless charging lag behind others, but Qi is just one of several current charging standards.
There's a war going on, and it's a bit VHS vs Betamax. Qi, the bookie's favourite, was devised by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), but coming up on the rails is the AirFuel Alliance, which also wants to offer the de facto wireless standard.
This alternative alliance is the ward of a couple of wireless charging technologies, not just one: PMA and Rezence, which you might also see referred to as A4WP, the original body that devised it.
Before we drown in acronyms, the important thing to note here is that while Qi uses inductive charging, the combo of PMA and Rezence means that AirFuel comprises both inductive and magnetic resonance charging respectively.
At a very basic level, inductive and magnetic resonance charging involve comparable concepts. There's a wire coil in the charge base that creates an electromagnetic field, stimulating current in a second coil in the phone/device, which is used to charge the battery.
However, while inductive wireless charging is picky about the position of the coils/phone, resonance charging is less so. Its 'throw' is wider, and a single pad can even be used to charge two phones at once.
Inductive charging's effective range is around 5mm, maxing out at around 40mm in the latest iteration. The coils have to match up closely.
With greater range, and claimed theoretical power transferral of up to 50W, resonance-based Rezence sounds like a dream technology, but right now it's problematic.
You can't buy a resonance pad yet, and while there are claims it can be more efficient than Qi, as the WPC notes in a late 2015 document "no real-world, public data exist for resonant charging efficiency".
The tech has some major backers, though. WiPower is a third, resonance-based wireless charging standard, owned by Qualcomm. I didn't mention this in the same breath as AirFuel and WPC because it simply conforms to the Rezence standard.
WiPower is already baked into several very popular Qualcomm chipsets too. It debuted in the Snapdragon 808, and was subsequently used in the Snapdragon 810 and 820. We may not be able to use it yet, but millions of phones theoretically support magnetic resonance charging.
Qualcomm's big claim for WiPower (and hence Rezence) is that it's the first wireless charging solution in production that will work with metal-bodied devices – at the moment full-metal phones have to use a charging case, rather than an inbuilt coil, in order to make use of Qi charging.
Wireless charging, then, is a glorious mess right now. And to throw in another complicating factor, Qi designer WPC claims receivers (the parts in phones) are ready for resonance charging, and have been for three years:
"All Qi receivers (phones, sleeves, backdoors, and charging cards) that have shipped in the last 3 years and continue to ship, can be charged in inductive mode as well as resonant mode," says the WPC website. They just need a compatible resonance charge pad, none of which are available yet.
The takeaway: we aren't even necessarily going to need new phones when wireless charging clicks into a higher gear, just a new charge pad.
Wireless charging in the home
Wireless charging is still 'in progress', but that hasn't stopped some companies from trying to add a friendly lifestyle angle to a technology that threatens to become an off-putting torrent of trademarks.
IKEA started making wireless charging furniture and lamps in 2015, and now offers a surprisingly wide range of products that includes plain pads, bedside tables and lights of various shapes and sizes.
The glaring issue with such a bold attempt to make wireless charging mainstream is that no iPhones natively support wireless charging. Much like NFC-based wireless payments pre-Apple Pay, this is a bandwagon begging for Apple to jump onboard. With faster charging now possible, maybe it's time.
To address this lack of support, IKEA makes a range of Qi-enabling phone covers for iPhones and popular Android handsets. However, all of IKEA's charging hardware uses the older 5W max output version of Qi that's a lot slower than a wired charger.
You could argue, though, that it doesn't matter so much if you just want a bedside table you can rest your phone on as you go to sleep.
FoneSalesman's FurniQi range has followed IKEA's lead by building 5W Qi into a small bamboo table, proving that it's more than just a fad for a single brand.
Wireless charging on the high street
Qi dominates the reality of wireless charging in the home at present, but you can actually find some rival PMA points on the high street. PMA is, as mentioned above, similar to Qi in that it's an induction-based technology.
Starbucks sided with the PMA standard rather than Qi for its experiment with in-cafe wireless charging, perhaps because it afforded the coffee giant an extra up-sell angle: there's a PowerMat PMA dongle that just slots into the charge sockets of iPhones and Androids.
There are 10 Starbucks sites in London listed as having PMA sockets in the Powermat app, which lets you find your nearest wireless charge socket. It's a free download if you want to check it out yourself.
An app called Aircharge Qi shows charge locations for Qi pads out on the street and, no great surprise, there are far more of them. And they are spread far more widely.
McDonalds 'restaurants', Ibis hotels and EE shops are just a few of the many places you'll find Qi points in the UK. There are probably far more than you'd imagine, and you can use many of them for free.
Qi charging needs to get up to speed in several respects, but it's no longer a 'future' technology, given how many outlets are offering it to bring free charging to phones.
Frankenstein radio waves
There are several promising futuristic alternatives in this field, though, and a top contender is RF charging. As with induction charging, there's a transmitter and a receiver, but instead of using an electromagnetic field to transfer energy, a radio frequency signal is the power 'source'.
RF charging's lead benefit is that it can supply energy to a whole area, for greater range than resonance or inductive charging. You might have a bowl or drawer in which your device(s) would be placed, for example.
At present this technology is geared towards low-power devices, as the power transferral is, relatively, so low. However, it could make an interesting solution for wearables with small batteries.
Look into ambitious start-ups and the research undertaken at universities across the world and you'll find a handful of comparable longer-distance wireless charging projects that appear to border on fantasy at first glance. Energous's WattUp claims to offer a charge radius of 15ft using its application of RF charging, for example.
Granted, it'll only supply 1W at 10-15ft, and 4W within 5ft, but it's a world apart from the range Qi offers, even if it is ultimately wasteful in its current form, as much of the RF signal that's transmitted is effectively lost.
- Want to know more about long-distance wireless charging? Then check out: No strings attached – why our smartphones will soon be charging by themselves.
The conundrum, regardless of the standard used, is how to focus longer-distance wireless charging. Recent research by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona into doing just that was published in the June edition of Advanced Materials, and referred to experiments with magnetic resonance charging.
"Enveloping the two circuits with metamaterial shells has the same effect as bringing them close together; it's as if the space between them literally disappears," writes the author in the article's abstract.
To explain that a bit better: the wireless power transmitter and receiver can use 'antennas' of a sort to boost efficiency and range, and that can only mean good things for wireless charging using existing methods.
The future of wireless charging is something of an amorphous cloud right now, but it's still an exciting future. We'll get there – it just might take a while longer that we thought.
from Techradar - All the latest technology news
In depth: The tech to watch this Olympics – and how we'll be watching in 2020
The road to Tokyo, via Rio
With the Olympics rivalled only by the World Cup when it comes to viewing figures, it's hardly surprising that the Games are no stranger to new broadcast tech. Back in 1964, host city Tokyo was the first to broadcast live TV images via satellite to a gobsmacked world, and local company Toshiba even filmed the sumo wrestling and judo events using its new colour transmission system.
Right now Brazil is gearing up for the smartest sporting event yet, with the Rio 2016 Olympics set to have us all frantically checking apps, streams and stats as we two-screen our way through the XXXI Olympiad. But you ain't seen nothing yet…
In 2020 it'll be Tokyo's turn to host the Games again – and once again the host city will be showing off some serious advances in broadcasting tech. Anyone who said Japan was falling off its perch when it comes to TV tech might want to get ready to eat those words, with 8K, VR, AR and smart stadiums all set to be on the starting blocks four years from now.
Rio: the second-screen Games
London 2012 might have been the first social media Olympics, but Rio 2016 will be all about a multi-platform games. Rather than going to a bar or a friend's home to watch hour after hour of track and field, we'll all mostly be at home, dipping in and out of the on-screen action on whatever device is most convenient.
In fact, as many as 64% of viewers in the UK will use a second-screen device during the games, according to RadiumOne. The TV might be the focus – the BBC in the UK, NBC in the US and Channel 7 in Australia – but there'll be plenty more happening on smartphones and tablets from August 5-21.
Live TV & catch-up apps
In the UK it's all about the BBC and its iPlayer, which is available on every platform going. The Beeb will show a whopping 3,000 hours of live, free-to-air TV from Rio spread over its four TV channels and multiple apps. Just as at London 2012, the BBC will deliver 24 live HD video streams, broadcasting eight of them live on its Red Button interactive service.
In the US, head for the NBC Olympics Live Extra app. In Australia, Channel 7 will broadcast 1,000 hours free-to-air, and provide online live broadcasts and catch-up. However, if you want access to 36 live streams from Rio, that means getting the PLUS7 app, which is reported to be charging for access during the games.
From 8K to holographic TVs
The BBC trialled 8K broadcasts at the London 2012 Games, and the Olympics Broadcasting Services will film some 130 hours of 8K video in Rio, complete with 22.2-channel audio surround sound and including the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as some coverage of judo, football, swimming and basketball. However, these sizzling 7,680 x 4,320 resolution images are being shot as a test, and will be downscaled to 4K, then to Full HD for broadcast.
By 2020, though, 8K will be a thing. 8K or Super Hi-Vision is already emerging in Japan, with Sharp selling 85-inch 8K displays, and Japan's state broadcaster, NHK, wants to broadcast the 2020 Tokyo Olympics live on a new 8K TV channel. Test broadcasts will begin in 2018, ahead of that year's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
In readiness to display these 32-megapixel images come Tokyo 2020, all major TV makers are preparing 8K TVs. Panasonic has started a 'Beautiful Japan 2020' campaign, which is aimed at fuelling national loyalty in the run-up to Tokyo 2020.
And by then a new kind of video could also be on offer if Mitsubishi Electric has its way: holographic 'aerial' displays that create the illusion of floating objects projected into mid-air, probably in public spaces in Tokyo – and that means above Shibuya Crossing.
VR, immersive video and 'technosports'
Some 85 hours of VR programming is being produced in Rio, but it appears that this will only be available to users of the NBC Sports app in the US who also have a Samsung Galaxy smartphone and a Samsung Gear VR.
So, while these Olympics will be available to watch in VR, only those people who have the right phone, the right headset and the right subscription will be able to view it, meaning it'll be far from widely available.
Getting the 360-degree treatment will be the opening and closing ceremonies, men's basketball, gymnastics, track and field, beach volleyball, diving, boxing and fencing, all available on a one-day delay.
Strictly speaking, of course, 360-degree video isn't true VR, but rather immersive video. Still, with VR headsets likely to be everywhere by 2020, Tokyo 2020 is destined for the all-over wraparound treatment.
Meanwhile, Japanese company MeLeap wants to host an AR sports event during Tokyo 2020 to promote its Technosports platform. It's an intriguing concept – why watch your heroes battle for medals when you can be the hero yourself?
HDR
Although sports broadcasters are now filming in HDR, no one is actually watching it, as there are so few platforms that are actually transmitting using the technology, as well as a dearth of TVs that can properly show the images.
That's a shame, because outdoor sports really benefit from HDR, with the latest cameras able to make good use of natural light to deliver best-ever colour, exposure and detail that instantly adds startling realism.
Professional TV cameras capture HDR as two streams at different exposures and combine them, so what the viewer sees looks incredibly lifelike, and the abundance of natural light in stadiums and sports venues makes them ideal for HDR filming techniques.
"The problem sports coverage has is in terms of shadow and bright tropical light – it's a very difficult thing to shoot in the Olympic Stadium – but that's going to be really improved by HDR," says Paul Gray, a technology analyst at IHS Markit.
There are a few challenges still to overcome before HDR can be considered ready for prime time – for instance, there's a question over which standard is best, meaning that some HDR-ready TVs can't show all HDR signals. But HDR filming is being experimented with at Rio, and should be default by 2020.
Smart stadiums, smart taxis and 5G networks
Come Tokyo 2020, second-screening won't just be for the home. "More and more fans expect content on devices while in a venue, and venues look to provide unique experiences in every space within and around the venue," says Sébastien Verlaine, marketing manager EMEA at EVS, which produces 4K live action replays. "A 'connected stadium' is one in which the infrastructure and the content strategy is built to provide a totally new way for the fan to engage and immerse themselves."
By the time we get to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium, fans should be able to watch replays and close-ups on a tablet. Qualcomm's LTE Broadcast tech could also make possible mobile TV in areas where bandwidth is congested, such as stadiums, although more likely is the launch of cutting-edge 5G mobile networks in Tokyo by Japanese telecom provider NTT DoCoMo.
from Techradar - All the latest technology news
Interview: This is how to go dark, by an ex-MI5 agent who's done it
How to go dark, by an ex-MI5 agent who's done it
We live in a time when it's never been easier for people to get detailed information about us. We don't think twice about adding endless nuggets of facts about our lives to social networks, signing up to endless newsletters and allowing websites to track our moves over the web, so they can serve us up the same targeted ad time and time again.
No wonder there's been a wave of tech of late that's cashing in on making sure we stay as private as possible. From the recently announced BlackBerry DTEK50 to the BlackPhone range.
But it's not just on the web that we are being tracked. Step out your front door and into any city and your every move is being monitored by CCTV. All of this makes 'going dark' extremely hard to do but it is possible, according to ex MI5 agent Annie Machon.
On the run
TechRadar recently met up with Machon for the launch of Blacklist: Season 3 on Blu-ray. In the show, Raymond 'Red' Reddington (James Spader) and Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) are on the run, so who better to speak to about this than someone who absconded from the MI5 and went on the run herself?
Back in the '90s, this is exactly what Machon and her partner at the time, David Shayler, did. They ran because Shayler turned whistleblower, releasing myriad MI5 secrets to a journalist, because he felt there was inherent wrong-doing in the agency.
Once they were given the call that the secrets were to be published in the Sunday newspapers, Machon and Shayler fled the country to Amsterdam and went dark.
"We had a month on the run, moving hotel to hotel every night, paying in cash and if we needed to get more cash, we would make sure we withdrew it from a city then got the hell out of there within the next hour, as they could easily trace you that way," explained Machon.
Having been at the heart of the MI5 and been in constant contact with other European agencies, Machon used the skills she had required during her time at the MI5 to her advantage.
She had investigated targets before and knew the tricks that were used. Both her and Shaylor were gamekeepers turned poachers and it meant they knew how to evade capture.
"We thought 'okay, if I was sitting behind a desk investigating me, what would I do? What would be the tricks of the trade?'
"There was one time in Amsterdam early on, when David did his first TV interview and we just didn't trust the journalist. And, it turned out, the journalist went off and immediately contacted the MI5 about our whereabouts.
"At this point, I said we had to go right now and we did. They arrived at the hotel soon afterwards. We knew this would happen as we knew how quickly the MI5 can react to these things."
Endemic surveillance
Machon and Shayler managed a full month 'dark' by going the remotest parts of France, never paying for anything other than with cash, only using trains to get around and changing the way they looked. At any point they felt they had been rumbled, they just kept moving.
But this was 20 years ago. The world, and the world of technology, has changed significantly since then, so much that it's hard to ever stay completely anonymous.
"There are ways to go dark now but it's difficult because we are now in an endemic surveillance state - a global surveillance panoptic is probably the best way to put it," says Machon, who now spends some of her time in the Berlin hacker scene.
"Back in the '90s the MI5 could do everything that's done now but it was very labour intensive so you could only do it against one target. Now, with the internet and this huge 'flick a switch' surveillance that goes on, they can track you easily. But if you know the tech then you can protect yourself a little bit."
This is the technology that Machon recommends:
Don't use proprietary software
"Get off Apple, get off Microsoft and use Linux open source software, because you can at least check the code to see if there is anything bug-wise built into it."
But if you are, then get this program...
"If you are using a proprietary software then there are a suite of tools you can use. One is called Tails and this is a secure operating system. You can just put it on a flash drive and it means that your computer is empty of anything until you put this flash drive in and then that is what your computer runs off. That is fairly safe and fairly new."
When browsing the web and texting, go REALLY private
"To web browse securely then always use the onion router (TOR) and if you want secure instant messaging then there is something called OTR, which is 'off the record' messaging. I always think it means 'on the run' as that's what OTR stands for in MI5 terminology.
"If you want to hide where you are connected to the internet, then always use a VPN and always use email encryption. The best one to use is PGP - Pretty Good Privacy - which you can just download from the internet and install. Then you should install a Bitcoin wallet so you can make transactions anonymously."
Use computer hardware that's pre 2008...
"According to Edward Snowden's revelations, all hardware post 2008 has backdoors built into it. That means computers, telephones, even USB cables post 2008 can have bugs in them.
"There's is a raging hot market across Europe at the moment for pre-2008 ThinkPads. If you have an old computer and an old burner phones, then they should be safe and secure as well.
"That is the tech stuff that, if I was going on the run now, would give me a fighting chance to not be traced by technology."
The Blacklist: Season 3 is out on Blu-ray & DVD now
from Techradar - All the latest technology news
Buying Guide: Top 10 best monitors and displays for business users
Introduction
You may well be sitting in front of your monitor all day, regardless of whether you've jumped on the laptop bandwagon or not, so making sure that you have the right one is essential for the benefit of your eyes and physical health.
Choosing the right monitor doesn't only mean getting one that doesn't flicker, or that looks nice. There's also the productivity aspect as well as the total cost of ownership to account for.
Below is the list of monitors that we have shortlisted for business users (and others), each of them with their own specific strengths which may make them more useful for some audiences than others.
1. Viewsonic VA2055Sa
Looking for something affordable and compact?
Screen size: 19.5-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Brightness: 250 cd/m2 | Response time: 16ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 3000:1 | Colour support: n/a | Weight: 6.8 pounds
Affordable
3-year warranty
VGA only
Fairly large bezel
When it comes to monitors, full HD (otherwise known as 1920 x 1080 pixels) is the minimum we'd advise our readers to buy. Anything below that is, in our opinion, not worth it. In a day and age where a £100 smartphone can be used as a full HD display, there's no reason why the same shouldn't be true for a main monitor. Which brings us to the Viewsonic Value VA2055SA, the cheapest full HD monitor on the market. Not only does it offer a market leading three-year warranty, it is also one of the smallest displays capable of showing full HD content.
2. Asus MB169B Plus
Portable and versatile
Screen size: 15.6-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Brightness: 200 cd/m2 | Response time: n/a | Viewing angle: 160/160 | Contrast ratio: 700:1 | Colour support: n/a | Weight: 2.1 pounds
Light
Nifty protective sleeve
Needs a USB 3.0 port
Poor brightness
When you think about a monitor, you don't just consider the screen, but also the cables and stand. In terms of the latter, the MB169B Plus is different – it is a portable USB-powered monitor which means that you can power it using a single USB 3.0 cable. It stands out thanks to a smart case that is an adjustable stand and a protective sleeve at the same time. With a full HD resolution and a 15.6-inch screen size, it will prove to be an invaluable accessory for those looking for extra real estate to work when away from their desks, or a presentation monitor for a small team. Bear in mind that you should be able to add a few to your PC should you wish.
3. BenQ GW2270H
A good all-rounder with a modern look
Screen size: 21.5-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Brightness: 250 cd/m2 | Response time: 5ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 20mM:1 (DFC) | Colour support: SRGB 91% | Weight: 7.5 pounds
Two HDMI ports
Affordable
No speakers
No USB hub
BenQ offers the most affordable full HD monitor with an HDMI connector and it doesn't look that bad. The company embraced the Bauhaus "less is more" philosophy to deliver "a celebration of minimalist" lifestyle. Those are their words, not ours. It has some standout features though; one that reduces flicker (PWM technology) and a low blue light mode which may help with headaches and sleeping disorders. The stand design gives it a more expensive feel and its three ports (including two HDMI ones) are worthy of a mention, as is the two-year warranty and the VESA wall mounting option.
4. Acer V276HL
Good value and immense
Screen size: 27-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Brightness: 300 cd/m2 | Response time: 6ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 100M:1 (DFC) | Colour support: N/A | Weight: 13 pounds
Tempting price
Screen size
No speakers
Some design niggles
To tackle spreadsheets without having to squint, a large screen is recommended and this Acer monitor will give you acres of space (nearly twice that of the ViewSonic monitor) for not a lot of money. It has a low response time, a VESA bracket, three ports including a DVI one and a three-year warranty. As expected it comes with a number of Acer features like the glare-reducing ComfyView and the Adaptive Contrast Management which modifies contrast in real-time. The stand and the bezel could do with some improvement but overall, it is a keenly priced monitor that will provide businesses with plenty of display area without an enormous outlay.
5. Seiki SE39UA01UK
A massive screen with a huge range of inputs
Screen size: 38.5-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Brightness: 250 cd/m2 | Response time: 6.5ms | Viewing angle: 176/176 | Contrast ratio: 5000:1 | Colour support: N/A | Weight: 16.8 pounds
Good value for money
Impressive array of inputs
Power consumption
Limited availability
This Seiki product is actually a television rather than a pure monitor. And nothing comes close to it in this size bracket – it's a massive 38.5-inch display that is capable of 4K resolutions but is best suited for full HD. Because of its target audience and its size, you would need to have a rather large desk in order to make the most out of it. As expected it has far more features than most monitors. Three HDMI ports, a USB one, VGA, plus the whole set of video connectors and a Freeview tuner. Sound-wise, there's two 6W speakers plus four audio connectors. And you get all this for a temptingly cheap price.
6. LG 25UM58-P
A whole host of pixels for a low asking price
Screen size: 25-inch | Aspect ratio: 21:9 | Resolution: 2,560 x 1,080 | Brightness: 300 cd/m2 | Response time: 5ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1M:1 (DFC) | Colour support: SRGB 99% | Weight: 11.9 pounds
Colour accuracy
Picture-in-Picture
No speakers
Only HDMI 2.0 ports
Widescreen monitors have become mainstream, thanks to a gradual decrease in their prices, allowing businesses to fully embrace the concept of having a monitor that is far wider than it is high. The common perception is that gamers are the only ones to benefit from this. In truth even creative professionals and spreadsheet crunchers will appreciate the form factor. With a 21:9 aspect ratio, this affordable LG monitor can display 2560 x 1080 pixels on its 25-inch display. It offers splendid colour reproduction – thanks to the AH-IPS panel – and some cool features like Picture-in-Picture. Uniquely at this price, it offers two HDMI 2.0 ports but no other legacy ports.
7. AOC U2879VF
4K or nothing…
Screen size: 27-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 3,860 x 2,160 | Brightness: 300 cd/m2 | Response time: 1ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 80M:1 (DFC) | Colour support: SRGB 99% | Weight: 13.2 pounds
Four inputs
Picture-in-Picture
No VESA mount
No height adjustment
This 4K monitor from AOC can display more than 8 million pixels at 60Hz, and is proof that ultra-high resolution displays are coming down in price while gaining some very useful features. This one for example comes with AMD's Freesync technology which reduces tearing. It also has a 1ms response time, 60Hz refresh rate and can even do Picture-in-Picture thanks to its four ports (including a DisplayPort and an HDMI 2.0 one). Sadly, it doesn't come with any VESA mount but at least its design and factory certified calibration make up for this.
8. Dell UltraSharp UP2715K
There are 15 million reasons to love this display
Screen size: 27-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 5,120 x 2,880 | Brightness: 350 cd/m2 | Response time: 8ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 8M:1 (DFC) | Colour support: SRGB 100% | Weight: 16.2 pounds
15 million pixels!
Decent speakers
Requires a powerful video card
No HDMI 2.0
With almost twice the number of pixels on a 4K monitor, this Dell monitor actually looks like a real bargain for professionals, especially those who work in the creative and financial sectors. It has a versatile stand that can pivot into a spectacular portrait mode and Dell also took care of the sound by including two 16W Harman Kardon speakers – probably the loudest on any monitor on the market. Dell's PremierColour technology also promises 99% AdobeRGB and 100% sRGB coverage with a colour calibration factory report certifying that colours are true-to-life and accurate with an extremely small deltaE of less than 2. Last but not least, it comes with five USB ports as well as two DisplayPorts and one Mini DisplayPort.
9. Acer XR341CK
Curved and immersive
Screen size: 34-inch | Aspect ratio: 21:9 | Resolution: 3,440 x 1,440 | Brightness: 300 cd/m2 | Response time: 4ms | Viewing angle: n/a | Contrast ratio: 100M:1 (DFC) | Colour support: SRGB 100% | Weight: 10 pounds
Curved display
Slender frame
Expensive
Relatively low pixel count
This monitor is almost as expensive as the Dell 5K model but can only display a third of the pixels. Why would anyone buy it? Gamers, or professionals looking for an immersive experience (e.g. when developing VR solutions) might well consider doing so because they'll appreciate the curvature of this Acer monitor as well as its aspect ratio. Get a pair of them and you will cover a jaw-dropping panoramic 160-degree arc. There's plenty of connection options as well (HDMI, MHL and DisplayPort) as well as Freesync, a very thin frame, a USB hub, VESA mount and a pair of speakers.
10. Hannspree HT225HPB
Adding touch capabilities to your workflow
Screen size: 21.5-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Brightness: 250 cd/m2 | Response time: 7ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1000:1 (DFC) | Colour support: N/A | Weight: N/A
Nice design
Touch capabilities
It's not cheap
No option for a traditional stand
The ability to touch a screen to do things now feels more natural than typing on a keyboard. So it is logical for businesses to integrate this ability in their workflows. However, good all-rounders are rare but this Hannspree monitor provides an extremely interesting option for interactive digital signage. It offers a full 10-finger touch capability coupled with a hardened, scratch-resistant screen to survive extensive usage, and a stand that makes touch feel more intuitive. It has a multitude of ports including a DisplayPort, a rarity at this price. Add in a pair of speakers and three-year warranty and you get a pretty compelling touch display for most business needs.
from Techradar - All the latest technology news
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)