UK mobile operators to hike prices?

This doesn't sound good for consumers: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2015/09/24/uk-telecom-spectrum-prices-have-tripled-and-youll-likely-end-up-paying-for-it/

Basically Ofcom are increasing the cost of spectrum to the mobile operators. EE in particular seems to be badly hit as they have the most spectrum at present.

Amazon debuts 4k FireTV

Playing second fiddle to Netflix must always be a bit annoying when your as big as Amazon but they seem to be making all the right sounds at the moment. I don't think a week has gone by recently without some new news regarding the Prime instant video service.  The latest bit is the release of a new portfolio of hardware products to push the service. 

The main interest for me is the Amazon Fire TV. Voice control and 4k output. This is starting to sound like something i'd want under my TV! 

To top it off they actually made a games controller for the device which gives developers a lot more direction and consumers less confusion which we like. I am a bit confused as to why they wouldn't bundle one games controller with the device. Amazon are all about pushing the sales of products through their devices and it would have seemed like a natural fit to encourage games buying. 

Worth noting also is it only comes with 8GB of storage but on the plus side, you can buy MicroSD cards to expand this which constantly get cheapest instead of paying a price premium for the storage like you would with the Apple TV. 

After a poor showing from Apple, Amazon has really upped their game to make the OTT sector more exciting from a hardware standpoint. 

With the recent purchase of Elemental, the Top Gear deal and a firm investment in new programming, the future is certainly looking bright for the service. 

Samsung’s 950 Pro M.2 SSD pairs NVMe with V-NAND

Article over at Ars, makes my 1000MB/s+ reads speeds on my crucial SDD's in RAID0 look slow by comparison! 

http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2015/09/samsungs-950-pro-m-2-ssd-pairs-nvme-with-v-nand-for-eye-popping-performance/

Opinion: The new Apple TV.

Given the rumours have been going on a long while around Apple reinventing the TV space, it would seem that their recent efforts seem lacklustre. 

The new Apple TV has the following hardware specifications:

• 64-bit A8 processor
• 32GB or 64GB of storage
• 2GB of RAM
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet
• WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
• 1080p resolution
• HDMI (1.4)
• New Siri Remote / Apple TV Remote

So the HDMI spec will be 1.4 (not 2.0) which means no vastly improved audio which could have aloud for features such as Dolby Atmos. 1.4 can support 4k video but that brings me to my next point. The marketing so far states 1080p and and they used their A8 processor instead of the A9 so it's technically a generation behind from the offset. 

One thing that people have also noticed is the lack of optical out this time around. Some customers who were using this (particularly with Amp setups) will not be pleased there. 

My last point is on gaming, I haven't seen a reference design for a controller or set layout for buttons which would add consistency for game devs. I think they are going to struggle to make real gains here without that. 

Samsung unveils world’s first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc player

Ars reports on Samsungs first 4k Blu-ray player... but will the consumers be fussed if OTT quality is OK enough for their tastes? Check out the link and decide.

http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2015/09/samsung-unveils-worlds-first-4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray-disc-player/

Customer IPv6 Beta trials are here:

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Fibre-broadband/New-IPv6-Beta-Trial/td-p/2363348

Hive Home analytics

Summer, what summer? It's been raining all week! We're nearly in august as it's feeling cold! still it's cool that I can track the change with my new Hive system. They have a slightly upgraded and prettier version out now but apart from adding a boost function, I see little reason to upgrade so soon. 

Transmission rates ever increasing.

UC San Diego research is pushing the limits of optical throughput over long distances. good to hear! Details in the link! 

http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/29/limits-of-fiber-optics-broken/

Looks like AMD has a fighting chance in the high end this generation

Ars sums it up best here:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/06/amd-fury-x-reviews-show-strong-4k-performance-but-doesnt-beat-980-ti-overall/

As much as I love the top end I've kinda given up on it as it's usually let down by poorly supported drivers and price premiums which don't reflect the experience expected of them. I usually end up going for a midstream card with a good few months on the shelf and release drivers that have been a little more fine-tuned.  I'm running AMD in my main Windows machine at the moment and am pleasantly surprised as I didn't think i'd go back.

Logitech G903 replacement earpads and headband.

So like many others, i've had my G930 a long while and the earpads and headband had started to disintegrate. I found a fair bit of info on replacement earpads but not on the headband. Regardless I opted for some cheap blue replacements including a headband on eBay and waited.

Once they came I swapped out the earpads no problem but the headband was difficult to say the least. Basically it comes out via force. Start at one side of the headband and pull it back and twist and it will eventually give out. Luckily putting in the new band was rather easy.

Finished change over:

Cycling gadgets

Trying out some CO2 tyre inflators for the first time. Very impressed, so quick and effortless. Make sure to put the sleeve on the bottle as they get super cold!

OneWeb’s constellation of 700 low-altitude satellites will be built by Airbus

To be used for broadband that rivals fibre connections....

I would say their already fighting a bandwidth and latency war they've already lost but this will be great for isolated regions! 50ms is high for a some fixed like connection out onto a server in the same country (maybe even continent) in my opinion. Also at 12Gbps for a satellite thats  a bit limited, even with 700 of them.

A normal telephone exchange (Services roughly the area of a large town) in the UK would have a backhaul of 10/20Gbps, probably more with fibre demand increasing. combine that with core networks that have 200 - 400 Gbps rings and the satellite network is looking a little bandwidth choked.

http://arstechnica.co.uk/science/2015/06/onewebs-constellation-of-700-low-altitude-satellites-will-be-built-by-airbus/

BT Claims Future G.fast Broadband Delivers 300Mbps Speeds at 350 Metres

Article at ISPreview:

"The CTO of BT’s Wholesale division, Colin Bannon, has revealed that their future G.fast (ITU G.9701) broadband technology has also been tested on longer copper lines of 350 metres and the operator found that at this distance it was still able to deliver Internet speeds of 300Mbps."
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/06/bt-claims-future-g-fast-broadband-delivers-300mbps-speeds-at-350-metres.html

New USB hub for bitcoin mining.

Got my new powered hub (Plugable® USB 2.0 7-Port Charging Hub) for my Raspberry Pi Bitcoin mining. Works perfectly!

ThePiHut's HUB hub simply didn't have enough Amperage to give each ASIC miner plugged the power it wanted.

I'm running a mix of miners that I found cheap on eBay which I thought might be an issue but cgminer seems to be handling them fine.

Hopefully when I have some more funds I can start looking at renewable energy sources as currently the power draw, even on a Raspberry Pi doesn't seem economical for the gains. For the moment i'm not in it for that, just for the fun of experimenting!

Ubuntu 15.04 Released, This Is What’s New (OMG Ubuntu)

Main features:

• Change to systemd
• Unity 7.3
• Compiz 0.9.12
• Linux kernel 3.19 (4.0 didn't make the cut)

Application updates:

• LibreOffice 4.3.2.2
• Firefox 37
• Thunderbird 31.6
• Shotwell 0.20.2
• Nautilus 3.14.2
• Evince 3.14.2
• Rhythmbox 3.1
• Totem 3.14.1
• GNOME Terminal 3.14

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2015/04/ubuntu-15-04-download-new-features

If you do fancy shoving kernel 4.0 into it: http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Install-Linux-Kernel-4-0-on-Ubuntu-15-04-478288.shtml