Networking

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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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

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Image: Shutterstock Broadcom has put forward a $61 billion proposal made up of cash and stock that would see it control 88% of the shares in VMware, with the current shareholders retaining a 12% stake. Michael Dell, who owns 40% of VMware, and private equity firm Silver Lake which controls another 10%, are backing the […] More

Written by

Chris Duckett, APAC Editor

Chris Duckett
APAC Editor

Chris started his journalistic adventure in 2006 as the Editor of Builder AU after originally joining CBS as a programmer. After a Canadian sojourn, he returned in 2011 as the Editor of TechRepublic Australia, and is now the Australian Editor of ZDNet.

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Image: Cole Bennetts/Bloomberg via Getty Images
On Monday afternoon, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released a consultation paper on the proposed variation to the NBN Co Special Access Undertaking, which would codify NBN’s preferred pricing model of removing the loathed connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) capacity charge on plans of 100Mbps and faster. For 12Mbps, 25Mbps, 50Mbps plans, NBN is putting forward the same type of model it currently uses, where each plan has an allocation of CVC included — often around 6% of the marketed speed or lower — and would see excess capacity at AU$8 per 1Mbps per month to retailers. For plans at 100Mbps and above, a flat access fee each month is paid. While the flat price plans are set to increase at a rate of the consumer price index (CPI) plus 3% initially, and the greater of CPI or 3% later, which is higher than the pure CPI increases on the bundles, the ACCC believes excess usage charges will steer retailers towards the 100Mbps plan. “As a result of the retention of CVC charging for the bundled products less than 100Mbps and the CVC cost escalation mechanism built into the SAU proposal (along with allowable CPI+X adjustments), we observe that the costs to retailers of the 50Mbps product are expected to equal those of the 100Mbps product within only a few years and similarly for the 25Mbps product before the end of SAU term [in 2040],” the ACCC said in its consultation paper. “These dynamics indicate that … a narrowing of reasonably priced access products in the market that could be in turn damaging to the level of retail competition and result in the supply of retail products in the market at higher prices and at speeds in excess of end customer needs.” Citing the Bureau of Communications and Arts Research, the paper said it is forecast that median household speed requirement will be a mere 29Mbps in 2028, and only 0.1% of households will need speeds greater than 78Mbps, while retailers currently only promote 100Mbps plans are for “larger households” that make up 10% of the market. NBN is not helping the situation by predicting 13% annual increases in peak data demand while only making CVC increases at half of that level. “The retention of CVC charging may result in access cost escalation over time, as peak data demand continues to grow. It could also expose retailers and customers to cost increases due to demand shocks, such as those observed during COVID-19 lockdowns,” the ACCC said. “The cost escalation could occur because the CVC allowances for the bundles appear to be designed not to grow as fast as peak data demand.” Using NBN’s forecasts, the ACCC said the wholesale cost for an entry level plan would double by 2033 and shoot towards AU$104 per month in nominal terms by 2040. Along with having the technologies introduced by the Coalition government in 2013 brought under the SAU, the proposal seeks to separate NBN’s services into core and non-core — non-core is proposed to cover enterprise ethernet, business satellite, and satellite mobility services and would not be bound by the SAU. In an effort to recover its initial costs to build the network — stated at AU$38 billion in real terms or AU$44.5 billion in nominal terms — NBN is putting forward a revenue cap mechanism where it would not make enough money to recover costs for some years, but would begin to rein it all back in during later years. “The implication of this scenario is that the revenue cap would likely fail to act as a binding constraint on NBN Co or provide any basis for setting prices,” the ACCC said. “Under NBN Co’s proposal there remains no link between underlying costs and the price structure, price levels, or projected price paths. Further, NBN Co’s proposed pricing and proposed price paths do not appear to contain any direct link to current or future demand.” The ACCC is inviting submissions on its paper until July 8. Related Coverage More

Written by

Angelica Mari, Contributing Editor

Angelica Mari
Contributing Editor

Angelica Mari is a Brazil-based technology journalist. She started working at age 15 as a computer instructor and started writing professionally about technology two years later.

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The Brazilian government has announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s company Starlink for the operation of satellites in the Amazon rainforest. The plan was announced on 20th May, during Musk’s visit to Brazil, where he met president Jair Bolsonaro and five ministers, as well as 10 local businessmen at a luxury hotel in the countryside of São Paulo.

At the end of the event, Bolsonaro and Communications minister Fabio Faria spoke briefly to the press, describing how Starlink satellites, which should go live over the Amazon in the coming months, could be helpful in terms of providing broadband to schools and monitoring fires and logging in the rainforest. Musk said on Twitter that Starlink would connect 19,000 schools in rural areas. In a press release, the Ministry of Communications replicated the contents of the tweet, adding that technical and specific investment details around the partnership will be “discussed at a later date, with the public and private sector stakeholders involved,” No contracts have been signed at the occasion. The partnership follows the February announcement from telecommunications agency Anatel that it had granted Starlink, a company owned by spaceflight firm SpaceX, the right to operate in Brazil, with exploitation rights running until 2027. The agency considered granting the rights until 2033 but shortened the time span of the authorization given the venture’s “pioneering nature” and “possible unforeseen impacts.”At the time of the Anatel announcement, the company said it had plans to put 4,408 satellites into orbit as part of its plans to build an interconnected satellite-based internet network. The company will not have the right to protection and cannot cause service interference with other satellite systems. Prior to the latest developments, Musk, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and minister Faria had met in November 2021 during a technical mission to the US to discuss the projects around connectivity and use of next-generation technology in the Amazon.Environmental issuesBolsonaro has been criticized for his administration’s handling of environmental matters in Brazil. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose 64% between January and March 2022 compared to the same period a year ago, according to the national space agency Inpe. The head of state stressed that Musk’s visit to Brazil is a “milestone” for the country and that technology will show the “truth” about how the Amazon is preserved. “Of course, there are niches for fires and irregular deforestation. But the arrival of satellites will help us preserve [the rainforest]”, he said.”Now, we also need to develop that region, which is very rich in biodiversity and mineral wealth,” the president added. Bolsonaro offered the opportunity to exploit niobium reserves in Brazil to the billionaire, and noted studies are underway to add graphene to create a super battery. However, Brazil’s lithium reserve, which is the world’s seventh-largest, is more interesting to Musk since his company Tesla is shifting to lithium iron phosphate batteries for its electric vehicles. Elected through social networks in 2018, Bolsonaro described Musk as a freedom crusader and that the businessman’s intention to buy Twitter for $44 billion announced in April was a “breath of hope”.

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA scientists are trying to make sense of buggy system data the interstellar Voyager spacecraft is transmitting from about 20 light-hours away from Earth, some 45 years after it launched. Voyager 1 launched in September 1977 and is now the farthest spacecraft from Earth, traveling in space at about 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) away. It would take light about 20 hours to travel from the spacecraft. 

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is investigating a glitch in the system data the interstellar explorer is collecting. Readouts from the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) “don’t reflect what’s actually happening onboard”, according to JPL.SEE: NASA’s Mars lander is running out of power. Here’s what happens nextEverything about the AACS suggests it is functioning normally, yet the telemetry data it’s sending back to Earth is “invalid”, producing what appears to be randomly generated data that doesn’t match any possible state the system could be in. The AACS controls the Voyager 1’s orientation and keeps its high-gain antenna trained on Earth for optimal data transmission. The spacecraft would be put into a functionally reduced ‘safe mode’ if Its onboard fault-protection systems had been triggered. Its signal remains strong but the data appears to be malformed, according to NASA JPL.    NASA considers anomalies like this to be normal for a spacecraft of its age. “A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement.  “The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated. We’re also in interstellar space – a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before. So there are some big challenges for the engineering team. But I think if there’s a way to solve this issue with the AACS, our team will find it.”Dodd said the team could just “adapt” to the glitch if they can’t identify the source of it. If the source is found, it could be fixed by a software update or via one of the spacecraft’s redundant hardware systems.SEE: NASA’s Mars helicopter just took these remarkable photos of the rover’s landing gearVoyager 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral after the Voyager 2 took off, but because of its faster route, it overtook its twin to fly by Jupiter in 1979 and then Saturn in 1980, according to NASA. It’s also gone further than Voyager 2, which is currently traveling about 12.1 billion miles from Earth.The Voyager 1 was the first human-made object to reach into interstellar space and in 1998 overtook NASA’s Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object. It reached interstellar space in August 2012 and, among other things, takes measurements of the density of material in interstellar space. It will eventually exit the solar system but not for a long, long time.”If we define our solar system as the Sun and everything that primarily orbits the Sun, Voyager 1 will remain within the confines of the solar system until it emerges from the Oort cloud in another 14,000 to 28,000 years,” NASA notes. Both Voyagers carry a message on a gold-plated copper disc in case extraterrestrials find the spacecraft one day. It also includes a player and instructions describing how to play the content. The disc includes greetings in 55 languages and 90 minutes of mostly Western music. 

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Written by

Jack Wallen, Contributing Writer

Jack Wallen
Contributing Writer

Jack Wallen is what happens when a Gen Xer mind-melds with present-day snark. Jack is a seeker of truth and a writer of words with a quantum mechanical pencil and a disjointed beat of sound and soul.

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on May 17, 2022

| Topic: VPN

Once upon a time, VPNs were pieces of technology that made it possible for you to work remotely and still have access to internal files and directories (as if you were local). VPNs of today serve a much different purpose. What modern VPNs do is mask your IP address and encrypt your data.This is absolutely crucial for some users and use cases. Consider you’re working on a public wireless network and you have to transmit sensitive data over a network and you’re not exactly certain how secure that network is. What do you do? Do you just go ahead and risk transmitting that data as you normally would? 

Not if security and privacy are important. If that’s the case, a VPN will be your best friend. Why you should be using a VPNAs I said earlier, a VPN not only masks your location but also encrypts the data you send from your browser. That’s an important distinction, as the Opera VPN only works within the browser. This isn’t a global VPN that masks and encrypts all data leaving either a computer or mobile device. For that, you would have to make use of another service. But given the majority of users do the majority of their work within a browser, a built-in VPN is a great option. But why should you care about masking your IP address or location? This is simple — privacy. If someone intercepts unencrypted non-anonymized data from your computer or mobile device, they could locate you. When you use a VPN, your location can be masked to look like it’s in a completely different country. Couple that with the data encryption and the big question should be, “Why have you put off using a VPN for this long?”With that said, I want to show you how to use the Opera VPN on both the mobile and desktop versions. I’ll be demonstrating this on the Android and Linux versions of the browser, but the process should be similar, regardless of what platform you use.Using the VPN on Opera mobileLet’s first take a look at how to enable the VPN on Opera mobile. To do this, open Opera on your device. From the Opera main window (Figure 1), tap the profile icon at the bottom right of the display.The Opera mobile main window as seen on Android 12.In the resulting popup, tap the gear icon in the upper left corner. You should then see the listing for the VPN (Figure 2).The VPN is currently disabled.Tap the ON/OFF slider until it’s in the ON position. And now, everything you transmit from within the Opera browser is anonymized and encrypted.Using the VPN on Opera desktopTo enable the VPN on Opera desktop, you need to click the Opera icon in the top left corner and then click Settings. In the left navigation, click Privacy & security, where you’ll see the entry for Enable VPN (Figure 3).Enabling the VPN on Opera desktop running on Pop!_OS Linux.Click the ON/OFF slider until it’s in the ON position, which will place a small VPN icon to the left of the address bar (Figure 4).With the VPN icon showing, you know the VPN is on.Testing the VPN connectionThere’s a simple way to test if the VPN connection is working. First, turn off the VPN and go to whatismyipaddress.com. The results should not only show your current IP address, but also the location of your IP address. Next, turn on the VPN and go back to the same site. You should see both a different IP address and location. With the Opera VPN off, my connection was listed correctly. With the VPN on, my connection was listed in Colima Mexico. Success!And that’s all there is to using the Opera VPN on both the mobile and desktop versions. If you value your security and privacy, you should seriously consider making use of this feature. More