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R27 000 to spare?

Friday, August 22nd, 2014

google-glassIf you see someone wandering around campus, occasionally blurting out “Ok Glass!” , don’t be too worried. He’s probably one of the lucky ones who recently acquired a pair of Google Glass.

And so can you, on Takealot,  if you have R27 000 to spare. This nifty piece of technology has been, as the name indicates, developed by information giant Google and has been available in the USA since April this year. Initially it was only made available to a select few, but in May the American public could strart buying Google Glass.

According to Google, Glass isn’t expensive to manufacture. The hefty price tag is due to engineering costs and expensive software and platform development.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, says Glass was developed in order for people to meet the word heads-up, instead of hunched in front of a screen or watching a phone screen all the time.

“Because we ultimately questioned whether this is the ultimate future of how you want to connect to other people in your life, how you want to connect to information. Should it be by just walking around looking down? But that was the vision behind Glass,and that’s why we’ve created this form factor. ” (Sergey Brin, TEDtalks)

Google Glass is a wearable computer, disguised as a pair of standard glasses. The only difference is an extra mounted screen on the frame, manufactured out of liquid crystal on silicon, using LED. It’s as light as your sunglasses and available in various shapes and colours.

Unfortunately Google Glass doesn’t replace your phone, even if it is in fact practically a smart phone. You need a compatible phone as well to use Glass.

As with Street View, Google once again finds themselves on the controversial side of things – also due to security an privacy issues. Using Glass in public evokes a few ethical questions. Are you allowed to take photos and make recordings of people without their knowledge? In the light of these questions Google even published a few guidelines for users. (read them here)

We’ve established that these pair of smart glasses react when being talked to, but you first have to activate it by saying “OK Glass”, otherwise it won’t listen. Then you can fire off almost any command at it, for example “Take photo”, “Give directions”, etc. For now it seems to be English speaking, but maybe one day it might react to Afrikaans and other languages as well.

You also have the option to tap a touch pad at the side of the screen to activate functions. Depending on which way you scroll it will display either weather, news, photos or phone calls.

The list of functions you can perform with Google Glass looks very impressive – too many to list here. But have a look on it’s website to see what it can do.

More Google Glass YouTube-videos.

[SOURCES: www.wikipedia.org, www.mashable.com, www.techradar.com, www.pcmag.com]

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Snap and shop!

Friday, August 8th, 2014

snapscan3Have you ever wondered what the cryptic image (see right) at some restaurants, coffee shops and markets is? Here’s a hint – it’s not some secret code of a society you don’t belong to. On the contrary, it’s something useful guaranteed to make your life somewhat easier.

SnapScan is a smartphone payment app developed right here in Stellenbosch by technology start-up company FireID, located in Tegnopark – Stellenbosch’s own Silicon Valley. The guys from FireID realised that a cashless society, where payments were easier and faster to make, is became a necessity.

In 2013 SnapScan won the South African App of the year and it has been featured on Business Insider’s Top 12 African Start-ups list. In May of this year it joined in partnership with Standard Bank.

SnapScan benefits both the customer and the merchant. For the customer it provides an alternative for cash and credit cards, it’s faster and is meant to be more secure.

You no longer have to wait to have a payment processed at a terminal or risk carrying a credit card with you. You simply take a picture of the merchant’s unique QR code (the cryptic image) with your phone, enter your pin and the amount you want to pay. After the transaction is completed the customer and merchant receives an SMS notification to confirm.

The merchant never handles your credit card or details. Your card details are stored securely on your phone, encrypted and protected by a pin you select yourself.

It doesn’t cost you anything, no sign-up fee, setup, installation or monthly fee. All you need to do is download the app from the Apple or Google Play store, fill in your card details and you’re good to go. The app is available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.

For merchants the application is easy and fast. All they need is a cell phone and they can process payments, whether it’s a coffee shop or an informal trader at a market. The Big Issue, the non-profit magazine sold at intersections, vendors have recently been enabled to use SnapScan.

Not too bad for something starting out only in a number of stores around in Stellenbosch – from 600 merchants at the end of 2013 to 12 000 at present. So what are you waiting for? Start snapping!

More info on SnapScan: 

https://www.facebook.com/SnapScanApp
http://www.getsnapscan.com/

[SOURCES: http://mybroadband.co.za, http://www.techcentral.co.za, http://www.2oceansvibe.com, http://ventureburn.com]

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ADSL – what are the options?

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

Asymmetric digital subscriber line – bet you didn’t know that’s what ADSL actually stands for, did you? I also bet you don’t know how many available ADSL data options we have available in South Africa and how their pricing compare?

Mygaming recently made a comparison of internet service providers to make the decision more painless for ADSL subscribers. But before you jump in and start shopping, make sure you know the basics.

This is what you’ll need:

1. A Telkom analogue (voice) line at  R157 per month.

2. Telkom ADSL line access. This comes at various speeds, from 2Mbps (R165 per month) to 40 Mbps (R952 per month). (For more detail see the mygaming article.)

3. An ADSL data account from an ISP to access the Internet.  This is the only option you have a wider choice and don’t need Telkom for. (For more detail see the mygaming article.)>

Read mygaming’s comparison here.

 

 

 

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Skype group video calls now free

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

If you have friends and family overseas, you’ll know that Skype is a pretty convenient tool to communicate with them for free or at a relatively low cost. You’re also one of already 663 million registered Skype users.

Skype celebrates it’s eleventh birthday this year and was developed as a voice-over IP and instant messaging service by Janus Friis  from Denmark and Niklas Zennström from Sweden. Friis and Zennström came up with Skype by combining the two words – sky and peer.

Microsoft became the owners of Skype in 2011 at the significant cost of $8.5 billion. However,  the head offices aren’t located in America as one would expect, but in Luxembourg and the largest part of Skype’s development team and 44 % of it’s staff os located in Tallinn and Tartu in Estonia.

Skype enables you to communicate with anyone through earphones, via video with a webcam or by typing instant messsages. Calls to other Skype users are free, while land line and cellphone calls are debited from your account.

Other than these usual functions, it can also be used for file transfers and group video calling. Until recently group video calling has only been available at a cost  to premium users, but luckily this has changed and the service is now free to all Skype users.

Skype video calling gives you the opportunity to make group calls to a maximum of 9 people at the same time with a webcam. If you want to use this new, free function, you can read more about it on the Skype website.

 

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Plugged or unplugged?

Friday, April 11th, 2014

Until recently our area of work was determined by the length of the cable connecting our computer to the network point. This was before Wi-fi  became the norm in our lives.

Wi-Fi services provide staff and students with wireless connection to the US network. Unfortunately, with wi-fi, the expectation is created that it will always work perfectly and be accessible. Expectation and reality don’t necessarily correspond and this leads to frustration amongst users.

Realistically speaking Wi-fi  is a best effort and various factors such as your physical distance from the wireless access point (WAP), WAPs influencing each other and structures in the way of the signal, play a large role.

Let’s look at the technical details –

Wi-fi networks have a limited range. The standard WAP uses 802.11b or 802.11g and with a standard antenna it will cover a range of 35 metres indoors and 100 metres outside. Reception can be improved by installing a higher gain antenna and adapting the antenna’s direction.

Due to the complex nature of radio propagation at typical wi-fi frequencies, especially the effect of signals bouncing off trees and buildings, algorithms can only approximately predict Wi-Fi signal strength for any given area in relation to a transmitter.

Wi-fi connections can also be interrupted or slowed down due to other devices in the environment. Wi-fi pollution or too many access points can prevent access and interfere with other devices’ use of other access points. This is caused by overlapping channels on the 802.11g/b spectrum and can lead to a problem in densely populated areas or office buildings with many Wi-fi access points.

On our campuses the maximum connections to a hotspot (or WAP) are limited to 25 to 35 and the rest are denied access. The devices connected to a hotspot at a given moment have to share the output and the higher the number of devices, the less efficient the communications.

Other devices such as microwave ovens, ISM band devices, security cameras, cordless phones, baby monitors and amateur radios also use the 2.4 GHz band and this can cause significant interference.

Given all these factors, it is clear that Wi-fi  isn’t always the best option for a stable, dependable network connection. If you are working from your office, rather plug your computer in at the network point and use Wi-fi  only for emergencies or when you move around on campus.

 

If you want to register for use of Wi-fi on campus, contact the IT Service desk at +27 21 808 4367 or send an e-mail to help@sun.ac.za with the following information: 

  • Building
  • Room number
  • US number
  • Username
  • Asset number of device or description of the device
  • Network card address (also known as the MAC address)

Access to Wi-fi services on campus take place via the Secure or MatiesWifi SSIDs. Devices with asset numbers are generally registered on Secure, where they have access to all network services. Other devices are registered on MatiesWifi with limited access to services. Both these SSIDs provide a speed of up to 54 Mbps.

For more information, contact the IT Service Desk or telecom@sun.ac.za

[SOURCE: www.wikipedia.org]

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