Posts Tagged ‘Wi-Fi’

Goodbye Wi-Fi, Hello Li-Fi?

Posted: November 26, 2015 in Popular Culture et al, Science
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Speed-of-Light

Every now and then, a revolutionary technological advance comes along and changes how we live our daily lives.

Li-Fi might just be the next one.

This amazing idea is like Wi-Fi, but much, MUCH, faster.

LI FI

Having just been trialled for the first time in real life, Li-Fi was found to live up to scientists’ claims that it operates up to 100 times faster than Wi-Fi technologies.

And if you picture such genius inventions to have been born of a ‘light-bulb moment’, well this one most certainly was.

Li-Fi is a wireless technology that transmits high-speed data using visible light communication (VLC).

It means, within the next five years, you could be accessing the Internet using the light-bulbs in your home.

This would reportedly be safer from a data security perspective as well, protecting the data being sent, because light cannot pass through walls.

The technology was brought from research labs – where scientists achieved speeds of 224 gigabits per second – to real life by an Estonian start-up company, Velmenni.

Estonia? Yup.

“Currently we have designed a smart lighting solution for an industrial environment where the data communication is done through light,” Deepank Solanki, CEO of Velmenni, told IBTimes UK.

In another project, the company has set up a Li-Fi network in an office space to provide Internet access for a private client.

The man who invented Li-Fi, Professor Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, said that current infrastructure is suitable for integration of Li-Fi.

In a Ted talk broadcast in 2011 he demonstrated how, by flickering the light from a single LED, he could transmit far more data than a cellular tower.

“All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device,” Haas said.

If it does all turn out to be that easy, you really could be downloading that favourite movie or TV series of yours in a flash – a flash of light.

Maslow’s new hierarchy of needs

Posted: August 21, 2013 in Humour
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There are some very funny people hiding out there in the interweb …

20130821-104253.jpg

The rapidity with which “memes” or jokes populate social media sites fascinates me. What makes the world pick up one thing and reproduce it a million times in an hour and ignore others? There is a PhD being written somewhere right now, no doubt. If there isn’t, I might write it myself.

My guess? It’s more than mere humour, or at the other end of the scale, outrage. It’s something to do with empathy – genuine empathy for the human condition, in all it’s multitudinous expressions, that leads us to pick up and send on an idea or a fleeting thought.

What’s the best that you’ve seen recently?

Apple and the Australian consumer regulatory authority’s case rumbles on: ACCC seeks $2.25m bite from Apple

Posted: June 8, 2012 in Business Management
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We have been following this story on Wellthisiswhatithink. As it is still in front of the courts, we make no further comment, but simply reproduce the wider news coverage today of this fascinating case below …

Oooooops.

The Australian competition watchdog is seeking a $2.25 million fine against Apple for selling its new iPad as “wifi + 4G” when the device did not work on any existing Australian 4G networks.

The case was adjourned until next Wednesday to allow Justice Mordecai Bromberg of the Federal Court in Victoria to receive some confidential information about Apple’s operations in Australia.

Apple and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have asked Justice Bromberg to approve the proposed fine for misleading and deceptive conduct.

However, Justice Bromberg told the parties he was unhappy with the lack of information provided to the court about Apple’s financial position, the number of iPads that had been sold using the “Wifi + 4G” name and how many had been returned, and the difference between how the iPads would work on a 3G or 4G network.

“Surely the parties can at least put before the court some meaningful facts that identify a disparity between the products,” he said.

Alan Archibald, QC, acting for Apple, told the court it was irrelevant how many iPads had been sold or returned because Apple had offered to provide full refunds, so there was no loss to customers.

“What conceiveable damage might there be?” he said.

“This is a case of absence of loss – whatever the level of sales, there cannot be loss because anybody concerned about it could reverse the acquisition.”

Smaller bite

Mr Archibald argued that the $2.25 million fine should be reduced because of the absence of any loss to consumers. However, he did assure the Judge that there was “no question at all about [Apple’s] financial capacity to meet the penalty”.

Apple agreed to provide Justice Bromberg with confidential information about its financial position and the number of devices sold to allow him to judge whether the proposed penalty was appropriate.

“The parties face the risk that I might come to a view that I do not have sufficient agreed facts before me to be able to properly assess,” Justice Bromberg warned. He said he would reach a conclusion soon after receiving the new information.

Apple advertised its new iPad as “Wifi + 4G” from 8 March until the ACCC took it to court on March 28. Apple agreed to place notices at the point of sale explaining the devices did not work on any 4G or Wimax networks in Australia. On May 12 it changed the name to “Wifi + Cellular”.

This proposed fine is half of a potential $4.4 million fine which could be imposed on Apple for four contraventions of Australian Consumer Law.

The ACCC and Apple have agreed there were four contraventions when it advertised the product online, in signage, in the promotional material provided to resellers, and in the promotional material provided on Apple’s website.

(With thanks to The Age, and BusinessDay, and others)

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