Connectivity & Cloud - Page 6

It looks like Starlink internet connections are pretty kick ass even in some crazy environments like being covered in ice and 8 inches of snow around it -- whatever, says SpaceX -- it'll throw 300Mbps to your dish from lower Earth orbit.

A user in Colorado, USA has teased her Starlink internet connection with a speed test showing a huge 303Mbps down and 23.7Mbps up -- all while the dish was completely covered in snow. SpaceX said back in November 2021 that their Starlink terminals can operate in temperatures as low as -30C.

Not only that but SpaceX includes pre-built heaters inside of them, which when required will melt snow and ice off of them. The Starlink dish itself is flat, so it will not gather snow or water in its center -- a design tweak by SpaceX which works in extreme environments where snow/ice is an issue.

SpaceX is making some great strides with its satellite-based internet service Starlink, with one user in Sonoma County, California showing that he was rocking up to a pretty insane 200Mbps of bandwidth from his Starlink internet service.

You're not going to get 200Mbps out of the box and 24/7 with Starlink, but it is more of a case of what the service is capable of. The lowest of the 6 results the user shared with Wccftech has him pegged at 44Mbps, but this got a little higher as the tests continued.

SpaceX told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) back in October 2020 that the average download speed for its Starlink internet service would be at around 80Mbps -- up from the 43Mbps average speed the company talked about in September. But there are other users around the US where in Montana someone hit 190Mbps while Starlink users in Seattle and New York were seeing 230-240Mbps. Not too damn bad at all.

PCIe 6.0 is getting finalized right now, but Synopsys is ahead of the curve announcing the industry's first complete PCIe 6.0 IP solution.

The final PCIe 6.0 specification is still a few months away so what Synopsys is first with is its complete PCIe 6.0 IP solution that it can provide companies with to integrated into their designs. The new PCIe 6.0 IP solution is on the smaller and new 5nm node, too. What Synopsys is doing here with the DesignWare IP package for PCIe 6.0 is provide a new controller, the physical interface (PHY) and verification IP.

We have data transfer rates of up to 64 GT/s per pin, which is up from 8 GT/s on PCIe 3.0, 16 GT/s on PCIe 4.0 and 32 GT/s on the PCIe 5.0 standard. Not only are there major boosts in data transfer rates, but there's also power reductions of up to 20% chip-to-chip, riser card, and backplane interfaces.

I'm sure you've heard of the raging winter storms across many states in the US, with Texas hit very hard with a historic winter cold front -- which has seen millions of Americans without power, cell phone and internet services.

T-Mobile president of technology Neville Ray tweeted: "We're experiencing network issues following severe weather in several areas of the country and especially across Texas. Our teams are working hard to restore service. Stay tuned, stay safe and thank you for your patience".

Jason Furtado, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma explained the storm: "We're living through a really historic event going on right now". The storm has plunged millions of Americans into darkness in more ways than one, with state officials saying that the demand for power mixed with the freezing conditions has knocked down power stations as Texas' systems are overloaded.

If you are stuck in an area without great internet, Elon Musk is here to save the day with SpaceX and its satellite internet service Starlink, which you can now pre-order for $99.

Starlink will be offering satellite internet to many, but not all people -- where you can enter your home address into their website to see if you'll be able to access the Starlink satellite internet service. Depending on the area, Starlink's website will let you pre-order for $99 with SpaceX saying it is "targeting coverage in your area in mid to late 2021".

At first, Starlink will offer satellite internet coverage for users in the US, Canada, and the UK but countries like Australia will also be enjoying SpaceX's gift of high-speed internet later on in the year. SpaceX notes on its website that pre-orders are "fully refundable" but does note that "placing a deposit does not guarantee service" and that it "orders may take 6 months or more to fulfill" depending on where you live.

If you're in the market for a new super-awesome 4K 120Hz gaming TV or monster 8K 60Hz TV then you're going to need a good quality HDMI 2.1 cable -- and now, that's something that'll be easier to buy moving forward.

Rob Tobias, CEO and president of HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. (HDMI LA) explains: "It's exciting to see so many new products available with these new features. And with the launch of the latest gaming consoles, consumers can now enjoy a thrilling HDMI 2.1 end-to-end experience with consoles, AVR's, cables, TVs and monitors. With shipments of HDMI products reaching almost 10 billion since it launched in 2002, HDMI technology continues to be the universal interface for consumer electronics products".

HDMI 2.1 houses many technologies that make it the new enthusiast standard, offering not just 4K120 and 8K60 support but features including Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Quick Frame Transport (QFT).

Aeon Matrix has recently launched its new Yardian Pro, the latest in its smart sprinkler range that lets you take full control of your backyard. Aeon Matrix is continuing to deliver on its mission of bringing smart technology to improve the quality of life and world sustainability with its new Yardian Pro.

The new Yardian Pro has improved Wi-Fi that will provide much-improved signal coverage, and if the newly-boosted Wi-Fi coverage isn't up to your standards, Aeon Matrix have added an RJ45 ethernet port to the new Yardian Pro smart sprinkler system.

The company has added in some control buttons that let you control your Yardian Pro smart sprinkler system, providing users with the choice of up to 12 minutes watering duration.

SpaceX has some big claims about its revolutionary satellite internet deployment, with Starlink satellites packing "super low latency and download speeds greater than 100 mbps".

Starlink consists of around 12,000 satellites orbiting in low orbit around the Earth, blasting super-fast internet down to the ground. A bunch of personal antennas on the ground are what you'd be connecting to, which is being touted a "UFO on a stick".

Kate Tice, the senior program reliability engineer at SpaceX, explains: "The Starlink team has been collecting latency statistics and performing standard speed tests of the system. This means that we're checking how fast data travels from the satellites to our customers, and then back to the rest of the internet. Initial results have been good".

We could have 6G technology being deployed by 2028 says Samsung, with the company saying 6G would make it possible to "replicate people, devices, objects, systems, and even places in a virtual world".

Samsung explains it all in a new research paper, with the company saying that 6G will deliver in a few different services. First, we have immersive extended reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile holograms, and digital replicas.

The paper teases: "With the help of advanced sensors, AI, and communication technologies, it will be possible to replicate physical entities, including people, devices, objects, systems, and even places, in a virtual world".

Intel has just announced the new generation of Thunderbolt, with the new Thunderbolt 4 standard being virtually identical to Thunderbolt 3 -- but Intel being Intel, we have Thunderbolt 4. Check it out:

What does Thunderbolt 4 do exactly? What is Intel's aim with Thunderbolt 4 is to boost up the minimum performance requirements, provide a couple of improvements, and USB4 specifications. The new Thunderbolt 4 standard supports dual 4K displays (versus just one 4K display on TB3) but now you can also connect a single 8K display over a single Thunderbolt 4 connection. Impressive.

Jason Ziller, Intel general manager of the Client Connectivity Division explains: "Thunderbolt provides consumers with a leading connectivity standard across a range of devices, helping to advance computing experiences and delivering on the promise of USB-C with simplicity, performance, and reliability. The arrival of Thunderbolt 4 underscores how Intel is advancing the PC ecosystem toward truly universal connectivity solutions".

If you are scared of 5G radiation then you really need to look at buying this $416 product called 5GBioShield, from a UK-based company that says when the 5GBioShield is plugged in, it'll emit a protective shield with a 40-meter diameter that cancels out 5G radiation.

The company explains its 5GBioShield: "It harmonizes all harmful frequencies into life affirming frequencies". The drive itself is pwoered by "quantum nano-layer technology" that 5GBioShield says will "balance the imbalanced electric oscillations arising from all electric fog induced by all devices such as: laptops, cordless phones, wlan, tablets, etc".

But that's when IT security company Pen Test Partners steps in, as they purchased and tested the 5GBioShield. The firm said that the USB drive was "virtually identical" to a normal USB flash drive that you can buy wholesale form China for just $6. Yeah, there's nothing special going on -- it's like the Alex Jones of USB sticks.

No matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter how much money you've got -- you do not have an internet connection anywhere near this good.

Australian researchers have developed a new internet connection that is capable of driving up to a truly mind-boggling 44.2 Tbps, or 44 terabits per second. This is around 1 million times faster than the average American's internet speed, which is around 50Mbps. 1 million times faster, just let that sink in.

How is it done? Through using an optical device known as as "microcomb" that replaces the traditional 80 lasers or so found inside of modern telecom equipment. Phys.org explains a microcomb as it: "generates very sharp and equidistant frequency lines in a tiny microphotonic chip".

We know governments of the world are wanting to use as much power at their disposal to track, and hopefully stem the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus -- but how far is too far? We last heard the talks were happening to use mobile data to track users' location, but it seems this is now in full effect.

Google is now using Google Maps location data from people who have previously agreed to share their history, to see who is staying and working at home. In Google's new COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports, the search giant is using anonymized data from people in 131 countries, in order to see their movement trends.

Google adds that "No personally identifiable information will be made available at any point". Because we haven't heard that before.

It was just over 24 hours ago that we wrote the story that 21 million phones in China vanishing over coronavirus, but it seems the Associated Press noticed my story and 'fact checked' it.

The Associated Press has the "claim" of questioning the "Drop in cellphone users in China is proof that the coronavirus has killed 21 million in the country, far more than the official count". AP has their own "assessment" on this, where Arijeta Lajka writes: "False. The decline in cellphone users is not linked to the number of people who died after being infected with coronavirus. Major cellphone carriers in China attributed the drop to people with multiple phone numbers canceling some service during the outbreak".

AP talked with a representative of China Mobile, who said that the situation is indeed related to the COVID-19 outbreak, it was "not related to deaths, but changes in lifestyle". A China Mobile spokesperson said: "It was mainly due to reduced business and social activities resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak. Many customers in China have multiple SIM cards and it is common that they use their non-primary SIM cards to do these activities".

Microsoft has experienced a gigantic increase in demand for its various cloud services in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, and all of its social distancing and work-from-home and stay-at-home policies by worldwide governments.

Microsoft took to an Azure blog post, where they explained: "We have seen a 775 percent increase of our cloud services in regions that have enforced social distancing or shelter in place orders". The services that are going through the surging demand include Microsoft Teams, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live, and Mixer -- while Windows Virtual Desktop usage has exploded by over 300%.

In order to handle the additional 775% load, Microsoft has tweaked its cloud services. The company explains in an Xbox support note: "To streamline moderation and ensure the best experience for our community, we're making small adjustments. We've temporarily turned off the ability to upload custom gamerpics, club pics, and club backgrounds".

Beijing authorities have said that as of March 19, there have been over 21 million cell phone accounts cancelled -- while over the last 3 months they've have 840,000 landlines closed in China. Where did all these people go? What happened?

There are some eerie reports that deaths of COVID-19 in China might have "contributed to the high number of account closings", according to The Epoch Times. But, if you didn't already know -- the Chinese government require all Chinese citizens to use their smartpone to generate a health code.

US-based China affairs commentator, Tang Jingyuan, told The Epoch Times: "The digitization level is very high in China. People can't survive without a cellphone. Dealing with the government for pensions and social security, buying train tickets, shopping... no matter what people want to do, they are required to use cellphones".

It appears the havoc that COVID-19 coronavirus is causing on the world is not limited to just forcing us all inside in a global lockdown, but it is wrecking havoc on the internet, too.

Major internet services like Netflix and YouTube are having to reduce the quality of their streaming resolutions to keep up with the massive uptick in demand, with hundreds of millions of people stuck inside their homes. But now, experts in European countries are predicting we'll see large-scale "internet rationing" that would prioritize things like health and emergency services, as well as online education over everything else.

Matthew Howett, principal analyst at Assembly, told The Telegraph: "If we end up in a situation where worldwide, 850m children start to receive lessons virtually for an extended period of time, then networks might want to start prioritizing video traffic over gaming traffic".

Nokia has been chosen to deploy a 5G radio network for Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, where it will deploy 5G technology in the Central and Southern Region of Taiwan.

Chunghwa Telecom has its eyes on becoming the 5G leader in Taiwan, and will be using Nokia's range of 5G radio technology to make it happen. Chunghwa Telecom will be the first in Taiwan with 5G connectivity, with the continued relationship between the companies extending back to 1973 -- right up to the next generation of 5G technology.

The rollout of 5G technology is already happening in Taiwan, and will be live for users to use in July -- aiming at high-end 4K video streaming and VR technology. Nokia will tap the huge array of Chunghwa Telecom's existing LTE install base with huge spectrum resources at its disposal, to launch a 5G non-standalone (NSA) using multiple bands -- where in the future it will expand on that with 5G standalone (SA).

It looks like China is in the spotlight once again with 5G communications, with the US military now weighing in underlining that Huawei and China are a big global threat.

The recently formed US Space Force requires 5G technology to move forward, with the US military saying "Space-based communications will play a key role in connecting 5G devices". Air Force acquisition officer Will Roper adds: "We need to up our game in 5G. As more autonomy moves to the edge of the internet of things, it's going to have to be supported by more bandwidth. It would be a shame if something that is going to control most of the data moving from machine to machine commercializes first overseas".

The US military officials seemed to be concerned with Huawei and China's overall presence in communications could undermine military operations -- especially with the rise in 5G technology. If the US military relies on 5G connectivity more and more, they can't have a foreign power and possible enemy in China building its infrastructure using Chinese-made tech from the likes of Huawei.

Japanese ISPs are now offering super-fast 10Gbps internet connections, with NTT East and NTT West (Nippon Telegraph And Telephone) providing people with 10Gbps internet for just $55 per month.

10Gbps is pretty damn insane as it'll offer users over 1GB/sec download speeds, but you probably won't get those speeds for a variety of reasons. You'll need a SSD that can drive over 1GB/sec read/writes, with SATA III maxing out at 600MB/sec you're going to need an NVMe-based SSD capable of multiple gigabytes per second of speeds... for your internet connection.

The super-fast FLET's Hikari Cross compatible router is there for your 10Gbps internet service needs, costing around $4.48 per month on top of your $55 internet connection. You will have 10Gbps support as well as Wi-Fi 6 support, so you're looked after in both wired, and wireless connectivity at high speeds.