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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 18 Issue 25
Volume 18, Issue 25 Atari Online News, Etc. June 24, 2016
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2016
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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A-ONE #1825 06/24/16
~ RZA and Atari Team Up! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Internet of Things?
~ Edge Good for Battery? ~ Win Anniversary Update! ~ Mighty No. 9!
~ Super Mario 64 Retro! ~ Apple Killing Passwords ~ 5G Is A Reality?
~ ~ USAF Records Are Lost! ~
-* "Hack the Pentagon" Finds Bugs *-
-* Halo 5 Guardians Warzone Firefight! *-
-* Judge Says FBI Can Hack Without A Warrant! *-
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->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
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Summer is finally here, officially - let the outdoor activities
begin with earnest! I still have to purchase a new barbecue grill
to really get things going, however - nothing like cooking outside
on the grill!
I haven't really been keeping up with the UK's issues with the
European Union, although I really should with their vote last night
to get out of it. As expected, the U.S. stock markets took a major
hit because of the news. Time will tell what other major impacts
this decision will have. Stay tuned!
Nothing much to say about the upcoming election. Hillary and Donald
continue to go after one another, as expected. Just more "reality
TV" from the both of them - quite entertaining at times!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Halo 5: Guardians Warzone Firefight!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 'Super Mario 64' Ad of the 90's!
RZA & Atari Team Up for Album!
And more!
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->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
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Halo 5: Guardians Warzone Firefight Arrives June 29
Microsoft has announced that the next expansion for Halo 5:
Guardians called Warzone Firefight will arrive on June 29 and
gamers will be able to play it for free until July 5.
Halo 5: Guardians is a first-person shooter video game developed
by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Studios. The game
was released in October 2015 for Microsoft Xbox One.
The game developer released the first DLC called Battle of Shadow
and Light in November 2015 and Warzone Firefight is the eighth
expansion pack for the game.
The first expansion for Halo 5 was Battle of Shadow and Light,
which was released in November 2015. A month later Cartographer's
Gift, and in January 2016 Infinity's Armory was released. It was
followed by Hammer Storm in February and Ghosts of Meridian in
March. Memories of Reach and Hog Wild both rolled out in May.
Warzone Firefight is by far the biggest post-release content for
Halo 5 and on June 23, Microsoft announced that the expansion will
be available on June 29.
"To celebrate the release of Warzone Firefight next week, the full
game of Halo 5: Guardians will be available to download and play
FOR FREE to all Xbox Live Gold members from June 29 to July 5 as
part of Xbox Live's 'Free Play Days' program. Additionally, Halo 5:
Guardians will be on sale for 50 percent off during this same time.
There's no better time to join the Spartan ranks!" says an Xbox
blog post.
The game developer released the beta version of Warzone Firefight
in April. Microsoft suggests that 343 Industries has taken feedback
from players to improve various aspects of the expansion before the
official launch.
Gamers will have to fight a new boss called Grunt Goblin in the
upcoming expansion. The DLC will also bring three new multiplayer
maps, including two for Warzone (Prospect and Attack on Sanctum)
and one for Arena (Molten).
The expansion also includes REQ items such as new armor sets,
weapons and vehicle variants. The game developer is also bringing
a Score Attack mode to Campaign.
"We're big fans of scoring in past Halo games, and we wanted to
bring it back to Halo 5: Guardians, but with a few new twists. We
call it: Score Attack," says Gabe Deyerle, campaign engineer at
343 Industries, in an interview with Halo Waypoint. "With over 50
medals to earn in Score Attack, you'll earn the most points for
defeating your foes as stylishly as possible."
343 Industries will announce more surprises about the upcoming
expansion during the pre-release live stream on June 28, which
will start at 2 p.m. PDT on the game's Twitch channel.
Mighty No. 9 Review
Keiji Inafune has long been one of the most well known and respected
names in the video game industry, often being called the ìFather of
Mega Man.î After departing Capcom in 2010, he started his own
development company with Comcept and held a very successful
Kickstarter campaign for a spiritual successor to the Mega Man
franchise, which after a very arduous development process that saw
many delays has finally arrived with Mighty No. 9.
Set sometime in the indeterminate future, in which there are 52
states, Mighty No. 9 follows a very similar premise where a robotics
designer named Dr. White has created a roster of androids known as
Mighty Numbers, of which the protagonist Beck is the ninth. The
other eight have gone rogue due to being assimilated by outside
forces and Beckís missions is to free them all, which is a nice
little change from most of the Mega Man franchise, though most of
the story cues feel all too familiar.
The actual gameplay itself is pretty standard from what you expect
from an Inafune title. You will face an intro stage, followed by
eight Mighty Number stages and then a few final stages. Each of
these levels features side-scrolling platforming, which does a
solid job at providing players a style of game that has been
missing the last few years. The levels all feature different
elemental themes and obstacles, though some can get a little
overused between multiple stages. The designs themselves are
somewhat hit and miss, though stages like Highway and Capitol
Building are standouts in their setup.
Beck himself has an arsenal of weapons at his disposal by the end
of the game, but at the start he has but a few. He comes equipped
with an arm cannon that you can continuously fire by tapping the
attack button, though you cannot charge it at all. Dashing is part
of his moveset from the outset as well, which has use beyond just
being used to jump across gaps.
One aspect of the game that is completely original is that all of
the robots in the game are made up of what are known as Xels, which
are absolutely vital to the gameplay. Rather than just straight up
shooting every enemy with your weapons and it dying rather quickly,
it takes much longer to outright kill them. Instead, after a few
hits, they will start to glow a certain color, which means you can
dash with R1 and absorb the Xels from these enemies, which helps
to restore your weapon meter depending on how quickly you do so.
The Xel system sounds quite intriguing on the surface, but the
manner in which it is executed in the game is far from perfect.
Just how close you have to be to a glowing robot seems to
different throughout the game, with the preciseness being a
problem. The fact you have to dash into the creature is fine as it
wipes them out, but when youíre fighting more than one and donít
have the ability to shoot through the first one, you will find
yourself getting damaged through dashing, as the dashing leaves you
vulnerable. The Xel system definitely has a good bit of potential,
but it can wear out its welcome pretty quickly in just how much it
is used.
This is not to mean that the gameplay isnít fun, as it really can
be, especially when you get to the boss battles. At the end of each
of the main stages, you will face one of the Mighty Numbers, each
with a completely different style boss fight. The first one you
choose will have to be defeated with just your arm cannon, but in
exactly the same way as its spiritual predecessor, Beck will
absorb the abilities of his defeated and now saved friends. These
can then be used throughout the stages themselves, being
replenished by absorbing Xels, and are more useful against
specific bosses, including some of the end bosses.
After collecting these new weapons, the game will actually advise
you on which level to tackle next by adding an ìAdviceî option
below that level, which does take away some of the mystery that
players had with trying to guess elemental weaknesses in the
past. However, now it is spelled out completely. The levels
themselves can be kind of tricky difficulty wise, but the non-boss
enemies should be a cake walk throughout. Luckily, for those
looking for more of a challenge, the game does offer a higher
difficulty level option.
After completing the eight Mighty Numbers, the end is near as you
open up a few new stages, of which one is based on Beckís female
counterpart Call that was previously found only in the cutscenes.
She plays a little differently from Beck, as she cannot absorb
Xel, but rather can hover in air and create an energy bubble that
protects her. The Call stage one of the stretch goals in the
Kickstarter campaign, so itís great to see it included, but it
feels totally misplaced by making it a requirement to unlock the
final stage with these changes in the gameplay mechanics that are
more stealth based, to then go right back to Beck.
Rather than going with 8-bit graphics, such as with the more
recent Shovel Knight, Comcept and Inti Creates forgoes this for a
more modern style that combines 2D and 3D animation. You has been
done well in countless games over the years, but in Mighty No. 9
is is just downright plain looking. The backgrounds are mostly
uninspired throughout, with many repetitive locations within each
stage that really do not stand out at all, though Highway does
stand out above the rest. Other side-scrollers in recent years
like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze offer astounding
backgrounds, while the ones here just feel dull and completely
unforgettable. The characters models are also merely okay, though
some of the actual designs themselves are definitely vintage
Inafune.
Having a rocking score can often help offset lackluster visuals,
but the background music found in Mighty No. 9 is far from
memorable as well. The stage tracks all blur together for the most
part, with none of them really leaving any sort of lasting
impressions. The voice acting isnít really any better either,
though it does somewhat capture a little of that campy vibe that
it appears they were going for.
One of the issues that caused a few different delays for Mighty
No. 9 was said to be the online play and as of this time, it has
still be near impossible to find a match. These challenge races
match you up with someone else, but the problem is that to even
unlock this game mode, you have to have defeated all eight of the
Mighty Numbers. This is something that not many have done just
after release, severely limiting the pool of players that can
participate and making matchmaking a big problem.
Mighty No. 9 takes the spiritual successor title to heart by
offering a near copy of many elements of the Mega Man franchise
and injecting it with a few unique ideas. Even with dull visuals
and a little too much reliance on the past, in a world where
Capcom has seemingly forgotten that the Blue Bomber exists,
Mighty No. 9ís enthralling boss battles make it an okay
substitute to fill that void for the time being.
This TV Commercial For 'Super Mario 64' Is Super '90s
Video games, and video game advertising, have come a long way in
20 years. When Nintendo's N64 console launched 20 years ago in
Japan, it marked the beginning of a revolution.
Nintendo's 1996 machine would see countless classics released for
it, with one of the most notable being the 3D platforming
perfection of Super Mario 64. It was one of the first of its kind
and gaming would never be the same.
The N64 was released in Japan in June 1996, but it wouldn't be
until September that the console would arrive in the United
States. When it did, it was accompanied by some of the most '90s
TV advertisements the industry has ever seen.
It lets the product speak for itself. Sure, there's nothing
particularly flashy about it, but it lets the game and the
console do the talking.
And here's what the commercial American audiences received, which
is mostly focused on being as "cool" as possible. Why is it
necessary to insert a random kid into the action of Super
Mario 64? To show how real it is maybe? The world may never know.
The world may also never know who is responsible for writing the
commercial's laughably bad script.
"What am I, a monkey?" exclaims the kid at one point while climbing
monkey bars behind Mario. While it may have worked at the time
(maybe?), going back and watching the ad today is a serious blast
from the past, and not in a good way.
Advertisements for the 1996 holiday season didn't fare much better.
Instead of putting an emphasis on the new hardware or all the cool
new games, the commercial invents a cheesy Christmas jingle about
kids bummed out about their non-Nintendo 64-related gifts.
Of course, this is far from the only two examples of Nintendo's
strange U.S. advertisements over the years. The 1998 release of
PokÈmon Red and Blue in the United States also saw a number of
bizarre ads, most notably this one that sees a bus full of cute
and innocent PokÈmon smashed by a trash compactor. Nintendo's
ads have truly come a long way.
See more at: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/166911/20160624/
this-tv-commercial-for-super-mario-64-is-super-90s.htm#sthash.O5Xz2D8N.dpuf
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->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
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RZA and Atari Team Up for Classic Video Game Inspired New Album
Classic video game brand Atari and hip-hop star RZA are teaming up
for a new video game inspired album.
"Atari, one of the world's most recognized publishers and producers
of interactive entertainment, today announced a co-production
agreement with award-winning, hip-hop legend RZA," the company
noted in a press release Friday.
"The partnership will serve as a platform to create new music based
and inspired by the sounds and music in Atari's vast collection of
games."
"I'm so excited to work on these iconic games to deliver what I
believe will be one of my best albums," said the Wu-Tang Clan
member and noted gamer. "I am going to invite some of my friends
to join me and it will be Game On with the first beat!"
"RZA is a multi-talented artist and soundtrack virtuoso and we
cannot wait to hear the new tracks he creates based on Atari's
iconic video game sounds and music," added Atari chief executive
office Fred Chesnais.
Atari, a pioneer in creating arcade games and home consoles, is
most known for helping to define the video game industry in the
1970s and 1980s with iconic releases such as Pong, Asteroids,
Centipede and many more.
RZA and his legendary hip-hop group the Wu-Tang clan last made
headlines in November of 2015 when they auctioned off a
one-of-a-kind, secret 31-track album entitled Once Upon A Time In
Shaolin for millions.
Fans of the rap collective became enraged after it was discovered
that former controversial Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin
Shkreli was revealed as the buyer. Known as one of the most
despised men in America for raising the price of Daraprim, a drug
used to treat AIDS and cancer patients from $13.50 to $750 a pill,
Shkreli teased fans about playing songs from the album online but
never did.
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A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Judge Says The FBI Can Hack Your Computer Without A Warrant
The FBI did not need a warrant to hack a US citizen's computer,
according to a ruling handed down on Tuesday by Senior US
District Court Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. If the decision is
upheld, it may have ripple effects that essentially allow
government agencies to remotely search and seize information from
any computer in the US without a warrant, probable cause or
suspicion, the EFF argues.
The ruling relates to a worldwide FBI sting dubbed Operation
Pacifier that targeted child pornography sites on anonymity
networks such as Tor. The FBI deployed hacking tools across
computers in the US, Chile, Denmark and Greece, and caught 1,500
pedophiles on the Dark Web. As part of Operation Pacifier,
authorities briefly seized and continued running a server that
hosted the child pornography site Playpen, meanwhile deploying a
hacking tool known internally as a network investigative technique.
The NIT collected roughly 1,500 IP addresses of visitors to the
site.
Judge Morgan, Jr. wrote on Tuesday that the FBI's actions did not
violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects US citizens from
unreasonable search and seizure. "The Court finds that no Fourth
Amendment violation occurred here because the government did not
need a warrant to capture Defendant's IP address" and other
information from the suspect's computer, he wrote.
"Generally, one has no reasonable expectation of privacy in an IP
address when using the internet," Morgan, Jr. said. "Even an
internet user who employs the Tor network in an attempt to mask
his or her IP address lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy
in his or her IP address."
Basically, the judge argued, computers are hacked every day and
no one should expect privacy while operating online.
"The rise of computer hacking via the internet has changed the
public's reasonable expectations of privacy," he wrote. "Now, it
seems unreasonable to think that a computer connected to the web
is immune from invasion. Indeed, the opposite holds true: In
today's digital world, it appears to be a virtual certainty that
computers accessing the internet can - and eventually will - be
hacked."
A Massachusetts court previously threw out evidence gathered by
the FBI in one Playpen case, ruling that the operation relied on
an invalid warrant. The bureau has moved to keep its NIT
software classified, citing national security concerns if it
were made public.
In April, the Supreme Court upheld the FBI's proposed changes to
Rule 41, allowing judges to approve remote access to suspects'
computers that fall outside their jurisdiction. Under the new
rules, a judge in New York can authorize hacking a computer in
Alaska, for example. A bipartisan Senate bill called the Stop Mass
Hacking Act aims to block these expanded powers. There's a similar
bill making its way through the House of Representatives, as well,
according to Reuters. Congress has until December 1st to reject or
amend the Supreme Court's ruling - if it doesn't, the changes to
Rule 41 will take effect as planned.
Hackers Find Over 100 Bugs in U.S. Defense Systems
The "Hack the Pentagon" bug bounty program by the United States
Department of Defense (DoD) has been successful with more than
100 vulnerabilities uncovered by white hat hackers in Pentagon
infrastructure.
In March, the Defense Department launched what it calls "the first
cyber Bug Bounty Program in the history of the federal
government," inviting hackers to take up the challenge of finding
bugs in its networks and public faced websites that are registered
under DoD.
Around 1,400 whitehat (ethical) hackers participated in the Hack
the Pentagon program and were awarded up to $15,000 for
disclosures of the most destructive vulnerabilities in DoDs
networks, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at a technology
forum on Friday.
"They are helping us to be more secure at a fraction of the
cost," Carter said. "And in a way that enlists the brilliance of
the white hatters, rather than waits to learn the lessons of the
black hatters."
The Hack the Pentagon program, hosted on bug bounty platform
HackerOne, was opened between April 18 and May 12, 2016. All
participants were required to qualify a background check.
Although hackers and bug hunters were permitted to hack the
agency's web properties, critical and highly sensitive systems of
the Pentagon were out of bounds for the bounty program.
When the Hack the Pentagon was initially announced in March,
Carter said he believed this effort would "strengthen our digital
defenses and ultimately enhance our national security." And yes,
it did.
Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation Records
Fraud and abuse investigations dating back to 2004 vanished when a
database became corrupted, service officials said.
The U.S. Air Force has lost records concerning 100,000
investigations into everything from workplace disputes to fraud.
A database that hosts files from the Air Forceís inspector general
and legislative liaison divisions became corrupted last month,
destroying data created between 2004 and now, service officials
said. Neither the Air Force nor Lockheed Martin, the defense firm
that runs the database, could say why it became corrupted or
whether theyíll be able to recover the information.
Lockheed tried to recover the information for two weeks before
notifying the Air Force, according to a service statement.
The Air Force has begun asking for assistance from cybersecurity
professionals at the Pentagon as well as from private contractors.
ìWeíve kind of exhausted everything we can to recover within [the
Air Force] and now weíre going to outside experts to see if they
can help,î said Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman at the
Pentagon.
For now, Air Force officials donít believe the crash was caused
intentionally.
ì[W]eíre doing our due diligence and checking out all avenues
within the investigation to find out if thereís anything that
weíre not aware of,î Stefanek said. ìRight now, we donít have any
indication of that.î
Lockheed declined to answer specific questions about the
incident.
ìWe are aware of the data corruption issue in the Air Forceís
Automated Case Tracking System (ACTS) and are working with the
Air Force to identify the cause, and restore the lost data,î
Maureen Schumann, a company spokeswoman, said in an email.
The Air Force inspector general is an independent organization
that reports directly to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James
and Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff. The office
investigates claims of waste, fraud, and abuse within the
service.
Stefanek said the ACTS system contains all sorts of personal
information, such as complaints, the findings of an
investigation, and any actions taken. The database also contains
records of congressional and constituent inquiries.
The data lost dates back to 2004.
ì[W]hen the system crashed, all those historical records were
lost,î she said.
Data about current investigations has also been lost, which is
delaying them.
ìThe Air Force is assessing the immediate impact of the data loss,
but at this time we are experiencing significant delays in the
processing of inspector general and congressional constituency
inquiries,î the service said in a statement.
Itís possible that some data is backed up at local bases where
investigations originated.
ìWeíve opened an investigation to try to find out whatís going
on, but right now, we just donít know,î Stefanek said.
In a letter to Secretary James on Monday, Sen. Mark Warner,
D-Va., said the lost database ìwas intended to help the Air Force
efficiently process and make decisions about serious issues like
violations of law and policy, allegations or reprisal against
whistleblowers, Freedom of Information Act requests, and
Congressional inquiries.î
ìMy personal interest in the [Inspector Generalís] ability to
make good decisions about the outcomes of cases, and to do so in
a timely manner, stems from a case involving a Virginia
constituent that took more than two years to be completed,
flagrantly violating the 180-day statutory requirement for case
disposition,î Warner wrote.
The case Warner was referring to was conducted by the Defense
Departmentís inspector general, but the senator said he is
worried the Air Forceís data loss could further delay
investigations.
ìI am very concerned by any problems that could negatively
impact case outcomes or that could exacerbate the already
lengthy process for [inspector general] investigations to be
concluded,î he wrote.
He also criticized the Air Force for notifying Congress on
Friday afternoon, five days after senior service leaders was
told about the problem.
ìThe five-sentence notification to Congress did not contain
information that appeared to have the benefit of five days of
working the issue,î Warner wrote.
Air Force officials originally said information on sexual
assaults might had been lost in the crash. After the article was
published, they said that while sexual assault and harassment
claims might have been part of the files lost, those types of
investigations are backed up elsewhere. The inspector general
does not investigate cases solely involving sexual assault.
However, sexual assault or harassment might be tangentially part
of an inspector general investigation, a service spokeswoman
said.
Apple Is Laying The Groundwork To Kill Passwords
One of the small, overlooked Mac features Apple announced at WWDC
last week also happens to be one of its most impressive.
With macOS Sierra, the new operating system coming to Mac in the
fall, you can automatically log into your computer without typing
your password as long as youíre wearing your Apple Watch.
Itís a great feature, but it also hints at a future when you
wonít have to worry about passwords for anything, not just
logging into your Mac.
Hereís how it works:
When youíre logged into your iCloud account on both your Mac and
Apple Watch, your Watch shares its location with Appleís
servers. When youíre within three meters or so of your Mac,
iCloud tells your computer that itís safe to unlock without a
password. Just open your MacBook or wiggle the mouse to wake it
up and youíre good to go.
Why is that safe? Itís because you have to unlock your Apple
Watch with a passcode when you put it on. The Apple Watch has
sensors on the bottom that can tell when itís on your wrist, so
youíll remain authenticated as long as you keep wearing it. Thatís
why you donít have to type in your passcode every time you want to
use Apple Pay or check a notification on the Apple Watch, for
example.
Thereís another hint that Apple is thinking about this with Apple
Pay on the web. Soon, websites can add Apple Pay as an option at
checkout. When you click to pay, you can authenticate the payment
with your Apple Watch or fingerprint on your iPhone.
You can see this as a first step towards a future where we never
have to worry about passwords again. Imagine extending Appleís
login system to other apps and websites you visit on your Mac or
iPhone. As long as youíre wearing your Apple Watch, you can
theoretically log into anything, assuming the developer supports
it.
Other companies are already experimenting with similar login
methods to eliminate passwords. Google is working on something
called Project Abacus thatíll let you authenticate logins with
the fingerprint sensor on your Android phone. And a startup
called Nymi is working on a wristband that authenticates your
logins using your unique heartbeat.
Apple already makes one of the most popular wearable gadgets in
the world, so itís in a better position than most to unlock the
Watchís potential as a way to eliminate manually-entered
passwords.
What Is The Internet of Things?
ìThe Internet of Thingsî is a pretty annoying term, as buzzwords
go. There is no new Internet made up of objects. Thereís no
little Twitter for thermostats, or Facebook for waffle irons.
ìInternet of Thingsî refers everyday appliances that are now
networkable: Lights. Thermostats. Coffee makers. Security
cameras. Door locks. Sprinklers. Robot vacuums. Usually it just
means you can control them from your phone.
(Thereís also an explosion of IoT interest in industrial and
commercial buildings, and thatís a totally different ball game.
Those uses allow alarm systems, heating/cooling, lighting, and
all kinds of sensors to communicate intelligently, both with each
other and with building managers, for a huge boost in
convenience, savings, and environmental payoff. But in this
article and video, weíre talking about the consumer Internet of
Things things ó stuff in your home.)
Some of these consumer things make sense. The thermostat is
handy; the Nest thermostat programs itself by observing what
time you come and go, and the Honeywell Lyric uses your phoneís
GPS to know when youíre approaching the house, and get it heated
or cooled in advance. OK.
But most of the IoT is just like a gold rush to sell stuff.
Thereís an IoT water bottle, an IoT doggie-treat dispenser, and
IoT toilet-paper holder (lets your phone know when the roll
needs replacing). Thereís an IoT umbrella, an IoT fork, an IoT
toothbrush, an IoT trash can, and ó I am not making this up ó an
IoT tampon.
And donít forget the Egg Minder. I kid you not: now, from
anywhere in the world, you can see HOW MANY EGGS YOU HAVE LEFT.
This is a real, shipping product.
So far, the Internet of Things is more like the Internet of
Things that Arenít Selling Well. Thatís partly because theyíre
complicated to set up, partly because theyíre just not that
necessary, and partly because you need a different app for every
single product! One app for the lights, a different one for the
thermostat, a third for the coffee maker.
Every big company is trying to create a unified standardóApple,
Microsoft, Google, Intelóbut that just means that there are now
40 ìunified standards!î
So ó clearly, this is like the Commodore 64 era of the Internet
of Things: a lot of heat, very little light.
The security cameras and thermostats make sense; most of the rest
of it, you can safely ignore. But thatís the way it always is
with new tech developments, right? Everybody throws everything at
the wall, and a few things might stick. A few years from now,
weíll have figured out which consumer items actually need to be
networked.
You know how we now understand ìphoneî to mean ìcellphone,î ìTVî
to mean ìHDTV,î and ìrefrigeratorî to mean
ìrefrigerator/freezerî? In the same way, the term ìInternet of
Thingsî will eventually fade away. It will be unnecessary; weíll
just assume that anything that deserves to be networkable is
networkable.
The FCC Will Start To Make 5G A Reality This Week
For years we've been hearing that super-fast 5G wireless is on
the way. This week, the Federal Communications Commission will
start to make that happen.
On Thursday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will circulate a proposal
to kick off 5G wireless proceedings. If passed, the commission
will begin to identify and open up swaths of high-band spectrum,
which is capable of delivering data at much higher speeds than
what's currently used for 4G and LTE.
"The US could be "the first country in the world to open up
high-band spectrum for 5G""
"If the Commission approves my proposal next month, the United
States will be the first country in the world to open up high-band
spectrum for 5G networks and applications," Wheeler intends to say
in a speech this afternoon. "And thatís damn important because it
means US companies will be first out of the gate."
Wheeler wants to be very clear that the FCC is not defining 5G.
In fact, there's still no 5G standard. As Wheeler puts it, "If
anyone tells you they know the details of what 5G will deliver,
walk the other way."
So what exactly is the FCC's plan? Wheeler basically wants to
leave it up to the market, as the commission did for 4G before it.
The commission will open up a bunch of new wireless spectrum ó
which is what companies like AT&T and Verizon use to beam data
from their towers to your cellphones ó and then leave phone
companies and other competitors to do what they'd like with it.
The commission is pretty sure it'll all work out.
"Unlike some countries, we do not believe we should spend the
next couple of years studying what 5G should be, how it should
operate, and how to allocate spectrum, based on those
assumptions," Wheeler's prepared remarks say. "...Instead, we
will make ample spectrum available and then rely on a private
sector-led process for producing technical standards best suited
for those frequencies and use cases."
"Wheeler envisions speeds of 10 to 100 times current wireless"
Even though the FCC won't formally define 5G, Wheeler is putting
out his own ideas for what it should be able to offer. Broadly
speaking: far faster speeds. He says 5G should be "like mobile
fiber," offering speeds 10 to 100 times faster than what mobile
offers today.
Wheeler also calls for increased responsiveness, so that
commands can be issued in less than one millisecond. That's
critical, he says, for applications like remote surgery: "The
surgeonís scalpel needs to be immediately responsive, not a
blink later."
The proposal would also open up a large amount of high-speed
unlicensed spectrum. Whereas most of the new 5G spectrum will be
leased out to wealthy companies, this unlicensed area will be
open to use by anyone. That's essentially what Wi-Fi is ó so you
can imagine this proposal also leading to much faster Wi-Fi
speeds than what we get today.
"There are major hurdles that 5G will have to overcome"
As exciting as 5G is, it comes with some major technical
hurdles. Signals for 5G won't be able to travel very far and
won't be great at penetrating buildings. That means they'll
require extensive cell tower deployment ó which will be time
consuming and expensive. New technologies will also be needed to
let mobile devices keep track of 5G signals, which may need to
be steered and aimed, rather than blanketing an area the way
traditional wireless technologies have.
Some work has already started on all of this. Verizon recently
began 5G tests, and AT&T intends to begin outdoor 5G tests over
the summer. We've also seen 5G work from Google, Samsung, and a
startup called Starry. This is all necessary to make 5G actually
happen. They're the ones that'll have to overcome 5G's
limitations and ó hopefully ó eventually land on a standard
that'll make devices interoperable.
That's all still a few years out, at the earliest. But this
week's actions by the FCC signal that it's moving toward reality.
The commission will vote on Wheeler's proposal at a meeting next
month. If it passes ó and it likely will ó the commission will
then move toward opening up spectrum. That process, which will be
called the Spectrum Frontiers proceeding, could also take several
years. But Wheeler notes that the first 5G deployments are
expected to be ready for 2020. And he doesn't seem to want the
FCC to be the one holding that up.
Using Edge Instead of Chrome Will Add Hours of Extra Battery Life
It's no big secret that Google's Chrome browser is a bit of a
battery hog. The native browsers on both Windows and macOS (Edge
and Safari) are widely reported to outlast Google's offering. In
its latest campaign, Microsoft is quantifying this difference: in
a test that cycles through some common sites including Facebook,
YouTube, Wikipedia, and Amazon, Microsoft's latest browser lasted
7 hours and 22 minutes on a Surface Book system. Chrome lasted
just 4 hours and 19 minutes.
Between these extremes were Firefox, at 5 hours and 9 minutes,
and Opera in battery-saving mode, at 6 hours and 18 minutes.
Microsoft has gone a step beyond just measuring how long each
system runs by measuring the power draw of the Wi-Fi, CPU, and
GPU during its test workload. A task that drew 2.1W in Edge pulled
2.8W in Chrome, 3.1W in Opera, and 3.2W in Firefox. This lower
draw translates to the longer battery life.
The Windows 10 Anniversary update is making further changes to
improve Edge's power efficiency. Some of these tweaks are
surprisingly smallófor example, changing how certain animations
are performed in the toolbar to allow greater offloading to the
GPUówhereas others are larger.
Flash content that is not deemed to be central to a page's content
will become click-to-play, which is something that other browsers
also do. Background tabs will also use fewer resources by making
their JavaScript timers fire less frequently and by using
coalescing to ensure that they all fire together and hence reduce
the number of times that the processor must be woken up. This
shouldn't interfere with listening to music or, say, checking for
mail in a background tab, but it should reduce the overhead due to
spurious animations and so on.
Microsoft is also making some networking changes in Edge and the
Anniversary update to speed up the initial connection to a server
and to allow larger data packets to be used sooner. Edge will
also more aggressively re-request data that appears to be timing
out. These changes mean that the Wi-Fi connection can be put into
low power mode more aggressively.
Edge's rendering engine does a good job of showing pages, and
aspects like the power consumption are certainly desirable for
mobile users. But in spite of these changes, many of us will
continue to use Chrome. Edge is currently deeply feature-deficient
when compared to Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. The Anniversary
update takes some important steps toward rectifying the problem,
with pinned tabs and support for extensions. These types of steps
help Edge move toward being a practical day-to-day browser.
For mobile users, at least, Edge will be well worth checking out.
If Microsoft's figures are representative of normal Web usageóand
they certainly reflect our own experiencesóthen there are
enormous gains to be had from using Edge instead of Chrome or
Firefox. With Edge going some way toward filling the feature gap
and having a substantial lead in power efficiency, it's going to
keep you browsing for much longer than the alternatives.
Microsoft Tweaks Activation Rules
for The Windows 10 Anniversary Update
Microsoft this week announced a seemingly minor change to its
activation rules for Windows 10, effective with the Anniversary
Update coming this summer.
The announcement was buried in the release notes for build 14371
of Windows 10, released a few days ago. Those notes were
published in the Feedback Hub, which is available only to
registered members of the Windows Insider Program running a
Windows 10 preview edition.
As with all things that are related to licensing, the details are
confusing and it's easy for even longtime Windows watchers to
draw the wrong conclusions or to dream up conspiracy theories.
Here's the short version: Beginning with the Anniversary Update,
version 1607, you'll be able to link a Windows 10 digital license
with a Microsoft account. This linkage occurs automatically if
you're signed in with a Microsoft account when you upgrade to
version 1607.
For anyone else, including those with local or domain accounts,
this step is optional. In any case, it applies only to those who
have a Windows 10 digital license. That group consists primarily
of those who took advantage of the year-long free upgrade offer
that ends on July 29, 2016.
This new feature doesn't change the fundamental way that
Microsoft's activation servers work. The process of activating
Windows relies on a unique installation ID, which is based on a
hash of information taken from the hardware on which Windows is
installed. That hash is reportedly not reversible and is not tied
to any other Microsoft services. It identifies a specific device,
not a person.
When you use a product key to activate Windows for the first
time, that installation ID is recorded in the activation
database alongside the product key you entered with the
installation. Later, if you need to reinstall the same edition
of Windows on the same hardware, with the same product key,
activation happens automatically. (Conversely, if you try to use
that product key on a different machine with a different hardware
ID, you'll probably be denied activation.)
But those free Windows 10 upgrades don't use a product key, so
they require a different way to store the details of each upgrade
license on the activation servers.
During an upgrade, the Windows 10 setup program confirms that the
underlying copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 is properly activated.
During the free upgrade period, the Windows activation servers
used that confirmation to generate a Windows 10 digital license
(during the upgrade period, Microsoft referred to this as a
"digital entitlement"). That digital license is stored in the
activation database with your hardware-based installation ID and
details about the version you just activated (Home or Pro).
If you wipe that hard disk completely, boot from Windows 10
installation media, and install a clean copy, Windows tries to
activate automatically, using an installation ID that it sends to
the Windows activation servers. Because the underlying hardware
hasn't changed, the installation ID is identical to one stored in
the activation database, and the digital license is activated
automatically.
For most PCs, most of the time, that process just works.
But there are two situations in which reactivation can stumble.
First, if you make major hardware changes. The algorithm that
generates the installation ID is a closely guarded secret, but I
can confirm from years of testing that it is extremely tolerant of
minor changes. If you add a hard drive, upgrade a video card, or
increase memory, you almost certainly won't trigger a change in
the installation ID.
Changing the motherboard, however, generates a new installation
ID. Under Microsoft's sometimes Byzantine licensing rules, your
license is valid if you replace a motherboard because of hardware
failure. You need a new license if you chose to upgrade the
motherboard, because you're essentially building a new PC.
Under the existing rules, there's no way to prove that you have a
digital license for that PC. You have to call the telephone
activation line and plead your case with a support representative.
That's where linking the digital license to a Microsoft account
comes in. After a motherboard replacement, you can use the new
Activation Troubleshooter to view digital licenses associated with
your Microsoft account and identify the device that has the
replacement motherboard. That action transfers the digital license
to the new installation ID.
The second situation where the link to a Microsoft account might
help is on a PC that has more than one license attached to it.
That situation might apply if you purchased a PC with Windows 10
Home installed by the OEM and then upgraded to Windows 10 Pro
during the free upgrade period using a product key from a retail
copy of Windows 7 Professional, for example.
In that situation, a clean reinstall of Windows 10 from the
manufacturer's recovery media might result in the Home version
being installed and activated. The procedure for upgrading to
Windows 10 Pro is far from obvious, involving generic product
keys that aren't officially published. Here, too, being able to
link that Windows 10 Pro license to a Microsoft account makes it
possible to identify the correct digital license.
Microsoft says the new feature to link a digital license to a
Microsoft account is in Windows 10 build 14371 or later. I have
one PC that performed this connection automatically. I have not
yet been able to test the manual linking process.
One concern that some will have is that linking installation IDs
to a Microsoft account fundamentally changes the anonymity of
activation. That's not likely to go over well with the contingent
that believes Windows 10 telemetry is actually a secret spying
program.
I am sure there will be additional conspiracy theories as well.
In fact, I expect to read a few of them in the comments to this
post.
=~=~=~=
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