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    The 4 best smart home hubs of 2022

    Looking for a smart home hub needs to be done thoughtfully seeing as a hub can become your right-hand-man for the foreseeable future. If used to its potential, it can be your go-to for anything from setting routines and automations to maintaining your calendar, getting you an Uber, and giving you recipes. So we chose these smart hubs by testing for best reliability, fast response times and load times when you open the app or make a command, user interface, how easy setup and adding devices is, among other things. Compatibility across brandsWhether you’re a fan of Apple or Alexa, compatibility across brands is certain to be something you’re looking for in a hub. When you make a run to the hardware store and decide to buy a smart bulb, you don’t want to worry about the fact that there’s only two overpriced models compatible with your home automation system and wonder what the quality is like. This is why the best hubs are the ones that have the widest range of compatibility across brands on the market. User application and speedWhichever hub you choose to buy will determine what application you’ll download and use on your smartphone to control your home. So while we chose the best smart home hub, which is the device itself that you use to set up your smart home and kept it separate from a home automation system, which is the platform itself where you control your smart home, the user interface is a pretty big part in our decision.The speed with which your smart devices respond to the app on your smartphone is a big part of everyday use. There’s no use having motion alerts on your security camera just to have it take a whole minute or two just to load the video feed on the app. We chose the home hubs with the best user experience on the market.CostWhen choosing these smart home hubs, cost was also a determining factor, both in the short and long term. Startup cost is obviously important, and most home hubs available retail for less than $150 nowadays, but you also want to consider what devices are compatible with it and what the cost of those devices are. This is why Echos are a pretty affordable option, since Amazon has low cost smart home devices like Blink, for example, with the option for higher-end ones like Ring. Built to last, figuratively speakingIn doing home automation, we’ve seen the birth of smart home hubs and the death of them as well. So we decided on the smart home hubs that are still relevant, meaning many users are still active and compatible devices are still being actively manufactured for them. No one wants to invest hundreds of dollars in a technology that will be obsolete in a year’s time. More

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    Most students in Brazil lack Internet connectivity and PCs at home

    Getty Images/iStockphoto The vast majority of Brazilian students at public schools lack broadband access or personal computers at home. This is one of the findings of a new study published by the research arm of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, Cetic.br, on the use of technology in education in 2021. Conducted since 2010, the TIC […] More

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    Netgear Orbi 5G WiFi 6 Mesh System (NBK752) review: Fast Wi-Fi 6 mesh networking with 5G mobile broadband

    Pros Wi-Fi 6 and 5G mobile broadband Easy-to-use iOS/Android app Fast, far-reaching wi-fi performance Cons Expensive Security features and parental controls require additional subscriptions Lacks advanced features for IT managers Netgear has an extensive range of premium priced Orbi mesh networking systems that are well designed, easy to use and deliver good performance, making them a good – if pricey — option for both offices and homes.   That’s particularly true of the latest addition to the range, the Orbi 5G WiFi 6 Mesh System (NBK752), which combines high-speed Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) connectivity with 5G mobile broadband to provide a ‘failsafe’ backup in case you lose your main internet connection at a critical moment.  More

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    Singtel gives Optus more 'autonomy' to run enterprise unit

    Optus soon will have more autonomy to run its enterprise business, giving the Australian telco direct accountability of how it wants to navigate the unit’s growth path. Its enterprise division would be transferred from Optus’ parent company Singtel, so it would have “more operational autonomy” with the unit under its direct management, Singtel said in a statement Wednesday. Optus’ enterprise revenue clocked at AU$1.21 billion ($843.69 million) in its financial year, ended March 2022.Effective from July 1, the move is part of Singtel’s reorganisation efforts that began last year to “decentralise” the Singapore telco’s organisational structure and “empower” its businesses to tap commercial synergies and capabilities for growth. Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon said this was essential in the current volatile macro-economic environment where business units needed greater independence and agility to better navigate the market.Yuen said: “Optus has been part of the Singtel stable for two decades and a leading player in the Australian consumer market. Given the hyper digitalisation that enterprises are currently experiencing, this is also timely as Optus can focus on advancing its growth as a B2B (business-to-business) player.”Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin noted that a “more unified and collaborative” model would allow the Australian telco to support its enterprise customers’ localised needs and push products and services more quickly to the local market.  She added that the company not only would have the autonomy to make decisions quickly, but also still be able to tap Singtel’s global reach and knowledge.Singtel last year kickstarted a business transformation it dubbed a “strategic reset”, which also saw its ICT business unit NCS spun off from its enterprise business and positioned as a pan-Asia B2B digital services provider. NCS’ growth strategy was focused on Australia and Greater China, as well as on diversifying beyond its stronghold in Singapore’s public sector into the enterprise space.According to Singtel, these efforts had pushed its digital revenue to account for almost half of overall revenue in the last fiscal year. In its announcement Wednesday, the telco also announced that Bill Chang would assume a new role as CEO of the group’s data centre business, effective July 1. Chang would retain his current role as CEO of Singtel’s enterprise unit. Both its data centre unit and NCS had been earmarked as growth engines for Singtel’s digital businesses. NCS last October acquired a majority stake in Australian cloud consultancy, Eighty20 Solutions, as part of efforts to expand its footprint in the country. The move followed the purchase of another Australia-based cloud services vendor, Riley, which service offerings were specialised on Google platforms and comprised cloud-native transformation, data supply chain, and cloud operations. Singtel in February unveiled plans to spend at least SG$2 billion ($1.49 billion) to redevelop its global headquarters, pitching the new site as a smart building that would showcase sustainable workspaces for employees and future tenants. Called Comcentre, the building has sat on its current plot since 1979 and occupies an area of 19,252 square metres. RELATED COVERAGE More

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    Why you can't trust Instagram

    NurPhoto / Getty About once a day I get a message from someone asking for my help with restoring their Instagram account. Like me, they did all the right security things. They used two-factor authentication (2FA). They jumped through the hoops to restore their hacked Instagram account. None of it worked, so they ask me […] More

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    Bluetooth-based Auracast tech can power 'unlimited' headphones in public spaces

    The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG), which manages the technology behind the wireless connection protocol, announced the founding of a new brand focused on wide-area audio broadcasts. Dubbed Auracast, the new initiative will take the assets of the technology previously known as Audio Sharing and develop them as a way to output sound to an unlimited number of devices, using only one transmitter. 
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    Most Bluetooth connections feature a single transmitter and a single receiver. This is typically something like a laptop feeding sound to a pair of headphones or a smartphone outputting audio via an external speaker. However, Auracast promises to power massive numbers of headphones and other devices using only a single transmitter. The transmitter could be something as complex as a public address system or something as simple as a smartphone, a laptop, or a TV. Mark Powell, CEO of the Bluetooth SIG, claims the launch of Auracast will “reshape personal audio and enable public venues and spaces to deliver audio experiences that will improve visitor satisfaction and increase accessibility.” The Bluetooth SIG proposed multiple applications for the technology in its initial announcement, including sharing your home audio playback among a group of friends, listening in to audio output tied to displays in public spaces, and improving audio quality for the fully abled and hard-of-hearing by providing both with a direct channel to broadcasted audio in a public space like a “transit center, cinema, conference center, or house of worship.” The organization believes this final use case also could see Auracast becoming the basis of next-generation assistive listening systems (ALS) for the hearing-impaired. More: Best Bluetooth speakersAlthough Auracast’s specifications are considered part of the Bluetooth LE Audio specification suite, the new technology still will require specific Auracast-enabled devices to function. The initial Auracast specifications are expected to be released “within the next few months.” No time frame was given for when the first Auracast-enabled products might reach the public. Developers and others interested in the technology can learn more by visiting the official Auracast web page.
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    Google Fi: The best phone service for international travel

    MR.Cole_Photographer/ Getty Most years, I rack up about 100,000 miles of business travel on airlines. Well, not the last two. I went from tens of thousands of miles to, at most, hundreds. But, now that COVID-19 is slowly retreating, business travel is coming back, so I’m on the road again. That means I once more […] More