Networking

Amazon Web Services has had its CCaaS (contact center as a service) offering, Amazon Connect, in general availability for a few years, but it doesn’t get a lot of visibility. Contact center-as-a-service is a software deployment model that enables companies to purchase only the IT they need for call centers and is operated by a vendor to reduce IT, integration, and support costs.Despite its time in the market, I still get questions from contact center professionals as to whether Connect is ready for prime time and whether AWS has any kind of competitive edge versus a field filled with traditional vendors. Recently, I moderated a customer panel of three Amazon Connect customers at the Customer Contact Week show highlighting the unique attributes of Connect that helped them navigate their businesses through the pandemic. Below is a summary of each of the case studies.Hilton Hotels There was perhaps no industry that the pandemic hit harder than the travel industry, and that was certainly no exception for Hilton. Becky Ploeger, Global Head of Reservations and Customer Care at Hilton, said that in the hotel chain’s 100 years of business, it had never seen anything like what they experienced during the pandemic, adding to the narrative that we were in uncharted territory. To help its customers, Hilton became the first hotel chain to offer free cancellations within 24 hours of check-in time, and this created an initial massive spike in calls because people were canceling reservations due to stay-at-home orders. Then, just as quickly, the call volume went almost to zero for an extended period. This created some interesting challenges for Hilton. The first is cost. With a traditional seat-based model–where the business pays per seat, per month, for an extended period of time–Hilton would have been forced to buy for the spike, that is, peak utilization and then significantly overpay during the stay-at-home period. AWS is the only vendor with a utilization-based model in which customers can provision as many users as they like and only pay per call; this saved Hilton a significant amount of money. Ploeger didn’t calculate exactly what the savings were, but she did say call volume dropped 90% from peak to the bottom of the valley. From her perspective, one of the best aspects of this is that the pricing is fully automated. She did mention that, with the other SaaS vendors Hilton uses, she had to go through lengthy negotiation periods to get them to help with pricing. With AWS, it’s fully automated and simple. Traeger Pellet Grills The challenge for Traeger Pellet Grills was getting better control over customer experience, which meant a change in contact center strategy. Prior to deploying Amazon Connect, Traeger outsourced 100% of contact center operations to a third party. The result was “zero control over customer experience” as described by Bryan Teggart, head of CX Operations and Analytics for Traeger. The company does about a million contacts with customers annually and was looking for a solution that was simple and enabled the organization to scale. Teggart said he didn’t have to deal with the “archaic user base licensing” that he had experienced with other vendors. After evaluating several solutions, Teggart said that Amazon Connect “ticked all of their boxes.” Another requirement was to integrate with the other AWS services the company uses–such as Kenesis, S3 and Redshift–and Connect already had those integrations. The fact that it played nicely with all of the other AWS services made it a “no-brainer” for the company, Teggart said. 

Since deployment, Traeger has started using Amazon Connect Wisdom, a machine learning-powered search capability to provide agents timely info based on call dialogue. “The ability for us to surface this knowledge content in real time, without the agents having to worry about what to search for, has been absolutely fantastic,” Teggart said. “Also, the AWS team has been nothing short of amazing in helping tune the algorithms from a suggestion perspective. Wisdom is saving our agents a significant amount of time from a call-handling perspective and getting the right answers quickly, which has improved our C-sat (customer satisfaction) scores.” One of the questions I’m always being asked by businesses is how accurate AI is in the contact center today, so I asked Teggert that question; he said after a short learning and tuning phase, Wisdom is about 90% to 95% accurate. State of Maryland During the pandemic, the state of Maryland–like most states–was facing the daunting task of slowing the spread of COVID-19, and the best way to do this was through contact tracing. However, none of the states were equipped with a contact center staffed to handle the massive number of inbound and outbound calls involved in contact tracing. This meant that Maryland had to create a virtual call center, staffed with 1,000 or more agents in just a few weeks. At the outset of the project, no one knew what peak call volumes would look like, so the ability of Amazon Connect to quickly scale both in number of seats and pricing was important. Lance Schine, Deputy Secretary for IT for the state of Maryland, described how in the first month alone the Amazon Connect-based contact center reached 20,000 people with thousands of them testing positive for COVID-19. The ability to stand up the contact center quickly enabled the state to reach these people faster, which ultimately helped slow the spread and save lives. Looking back over the past year, Schine told the audience the state of Maryland made millions of calls, reached more than 1 million people and, in his opinion, “was only doable because Amazon Connect could scale up so quickly.” He added that the state relied heavily on automation tools, reducing the need to have humans making every call. Another consideration, given the state of the pandemic, was the distributed nature of the call center. Schine said that “Connect allowed is to have a virtual call center where we had more than 1,000 people in over 1,000 different locations–including homes and apartments–scattered all over the country, acting as a single call center.”On a personal note, I can attest to this. One of my children, fresh out of college and with no contact center experience, was hired as a contact tracing agent in the state of Massachusetts, which also used Amazon Connect. With very little training, he was able to ramp up quickly and spent months handling inbound and outbound calls helping people navigate COVID-19.In summary …These are three very different types of call centers, but they do have a few things in common. The first is that, because of the ebbs and flows of contact center interactions, the legacy per user/per month pricing no longer worked. Also, the ability to scale up and down quickly was paramount to success, because no one knew what the landscape would look like month by month. Also, automation now plays a key role in contact center operations as businesses look to reduce call handling times and improve customer experience. Amazon Connect certainly isn’t a traditional contact center product, but the era of customer service we knew just a couple of years ago is gone and isn’t likely to come back any time soon. Because of the non-traditional approach, Hilton Hotels, Traeger Grills, and the state of Maryland are in an excellent position to adapt to the point pandemic future. They now have the capability of adapting to changing situations and to add new AI/ML capabilities to address the growth in digital channels while managing costs. More

South Korean telco KT on Thursday launched its 5G standalone (SA) service, becoming the first carrier in the country to offer mobile services wholly on 5G networks.Local carriers, which commercialised 5G back in 2019, had previously only offered 5G non-standalone (NSA) services so far, where 4G LTE and 5G networks are used together.KT claimed the use of 5G SA over 5G NSA would reduce latency and power consumption for smartphone users.The telco will offer a software update for its subscribers that will allow them to switch network settings from NSA to SA. KT’s 5G SA service will first be available on the Galaxy S20 series of smartphones, before it expands to the Galaxy S21 series later this year. The telco added it will continue to widen device support going forward.According to KT, the launch of 5G SA will also help with the development of multi-access edge computing, which will allow enterprises to offer more autonomous driving and smart factory services for other businesses.Compatriot telcos SK Telecom and LG Uplus, meanwhile, have said they are in no rush to roll out 5G SA services. They said it was still early days and more infrastructure around the service would need to be built for a clear advantage over 5G NSA.

SK Telecom said it trialled 5G SA at a factory run by chip-making affiliate SK Hynix in January, but it concluded the advantage provided over 5G NSA was minimal for the time being.South Korea is also yet to commercialise mmWave 5G services. Local telcos had previously said they planned to roll out mmWave in 2020, but that was before the pandemic. The South Korean government announced last month that it would allocate 28GHz and sub-6GHz spectrum in November to promote 5G-related services.  As KT prepares to roll out a 5G SA service, local telcos are currently in the midst of various class action lawsuits from consumers who have claimed they exaggerated the performances of their 5G services. A trial from one of these lawsuits against SK Telecom, lodged by 237 consumers, started earlier this month. The other lawsuit filed against all three carriers by over 500 consumers was filed last month.According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, as of April this year, there were 15.14 million 5G subscribers in South Korea.    Related coverage More

There are plenty of good reasons to build your own personal website. Perhaps you’d like to share archival photos and documents with friends and family members, exhibit your prized baseball card collection, publish a novel, or simply blog about your life and travels. These are all good motivators to sign up for a reliable and reasonably priced web content-management toolset.Beyond the free “personal” web pages offered by Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and other social networks — in which your personal information becomes part of the network’s lingua franca — there are several excellent yet free or inexpensive web services that offer alternative ways to establish your own internet stake in the ground. These website-building products enable users to design, provision, and maintain a personal website in minutes or hours, depending upon how much time and effort one chooses to spend on the project.Working with a website builder is relatively easy because they offer a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editing interface — meaning what you see. At the same time, you edit your site is what you will actually see if your website was live and viewed in a browser. The best website builders are rich in features that include professionally designed website templates, easy-to-use, drag-and-drop editors, and onboard hosting services.Chief criteria used for this list include Intuitive usability (easy-to-follow instructions and performance)Ease of design (drag and drop controls, wizards, pre-built templates)A domain name includedProfessional emailMobile device-readinessSecurity optionsSpecial features (is it commerce-ready?)Optimization for search enginesSome of these listed services will have all of the above; some will miss one or more of these but may offer other features.See more: ZDNet’s list of best e-commerce site builders

Best of the free options

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One thing that comes out clearly in research here is that Wix is a head-and-shoulders No. 1 by acclamation of the resources we used. Wix is an intuitive-to-use site builder with hundreds of page templates — most of which are attractively designed — drag-and-drop elements, easy-to-follow wizards, and a menu of helpful widgets.For people looking to get a website online with minimal effort and maximum creative freedom, Wix should be one of your test choices. No coding or FTP knowledge is required. All a user needs is an email address to get started with Wix’s web hosting. If you don’t mind ads, you can publish a site free of charge for as long as you like. It’s that way with all the free sites.Wix offers total creative control in that you can drag anything, anywhere. It also offers online storage for site assets, e-commerce tools, useful video backgrounds, and title animations. Wix’s new Editor X interface is intuitive to use and respected in the highly competitive field of website-building services. In summary, Wix is a simple-to-use, multi-faceted tool that is well worth a test drive–whether for its free or paid versions. Wix’s most important features:Intuitive Editor X interface.Many optional widgets.Hundreds of templates for specific businesses and other uses.Good mobile-site-building tools.Rich web-store features.Excellent uptime and customer service support.Many commerce options, including the ability to sell digital downloads.Free version option.Wix pricing plans: Basic: no cost, ad-supported; Combo account (3GB of storage and 2GB of monthly data transfers), $14 per month; VIP plan (35GB of storage, a domain name, unlimited monthly data transfers, a professional logo, and priority support), $39 per month. Business sites with shopping carts and other features go for between $23 and $49 per month.Enterprise-level plans require consultation with Wix and start at $500 per month. For details, go here.

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Established high quality based on open source

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WordPress is by far the most utilized internet content management system in the world, powering 37 million sites — about 40% of all websites in 2021, according to market analyst Kinsta and researcher Netcraft. WordPress also owns a commanding 60.8% share of the CMS market; Digital.com reports that it powers 30% of the world’s top 1000 websites.Since its founding in 2003, the open source-based WordPress provides hosting for more than 500 sites built each day somewhere in the world. WordPress’s Plugin Directory features 54 000+ free plugins; its WooCommerce version powers 22% of the world’s top 1 million e-commerce sites. The main reasons why so many people put WordPress to work are simplicity in usability, its free option and generally low cost, and numerous features, mostly from the open-source community. The term “WordPress” is often used interchangeably when referring to two software variations. There are significant differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org that you’ll want to know before picking the platform for your project. WordPress.org is an open-source content management system, while WordPress.com is a popular blogging platform with basic functionality that can be accessed free of charge.WordPress is available in 196 languages, far more than other competitors.WordPress’s most important features:Simple-to-use editing interface.A forgiving design system that preemptively identifies and notifies users of mistakes.A large number of optional widgets.Online storage for web assets.Hundreds of templates for specific businesses and other uses.Free version option and other modestly priced versions.*Be advised that some coding is required for the upper-level editions.WordPress pricing and monthly plans: Basic: no cost; all others go for between $5 and $100 per month, depending upon features and hosting options.

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An alternative to consider for making a fast and clean-looking site.

Site 123

Site 123 is a rising developer-created website builder with about 5 million users that wants to be the easiest-to-use platform now available for do-it-yourselfers. Of course, lots of services make the same claim, but Site123 deigns to prove their point with an easy-to-use interface and templates. Site 123 is best for building a small, quick website on a premade template, and it has a generous free plan along with straightforward onboarding and web design options. Instead of operating like a traditional drag-and-drop website builder, Site123 has users pick their preferences and customize a curated template based on that niche, which appeals to beginners with no design or development experience.Site 123 does have limited design and technical features and doesn’t offer a lot of customer support. Again, if you’re keeping it simple, these caveats aren’t a problem. Site 123’s most important features:Provides all the basics someone needs to get started.No-frills design and layout promote fast development.An adequate number of easy-to-use templates.Free of charge based on ads.Instead of operating like a traditional drag-and-drop website builder, Site123 has you pick your niche and then customize a curated template based on that niche, which appeals to beginners who have no design or development experience (think DIY-ers who need to create a website ASAP without having any website experience).*Be advised that a basic Site 123 account isn’t optimal for equipping and maintaining a commercial website.Site 123 pricing and monthly plans: Basic service is free of charge; paid plans start at $12.80/month, which includes a free domain for a year, the ability to connect your custom domain, 10GB of storage, 5GB of bandwidth, and the ability to send 100 email messages to your mailing list per month — It also removes the Site123 branding that comes with the free plan.

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Good for beginners, but the free version might be too restrictive for most users.

SimpleSite

SimpleSite certainly lives up to its name, giving its users an easy, straightforward path to building basic websites. SimpleSite emphasizes speed over perfection, which is evident in its simple page editor. If you want creative freedom to try new things and experiment with others, a free SimpleSite won’t be the builder for you. It’s not particularly intuitive; straying from the chosen template can cause problems. If you want to stay on the straight and narrow, you’re fine with SimpleSite.SimpleSite’s most important features:Free version: no-frills design and layout promote fast development.Software guides users through the building process; simply choose a color scheme, add images, title, and domain name, then create a login. This final step automatically publishes your site, which you can then go back and finish editing.SimpleSite is beginner-friendly. It wasn’t always the most intuitive; at times, its simplicity becomes restrictive, making it difficult to do some basic design functions.*Be advised that SimpleSite isn’t optimal for equipping and maintaining a commercial website.SimpleSite pricing and monthly plans: Basic: no cost (includes SimpleSite ads, 15 pages, limited design options, five online store products, mobile-optimized); other options range from $15.49 to $30.49 per month for e-commerce and full-featured personal sites.

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Highly recommended for starting a business site.

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Weebly offers step-by-step guidance on building a new website and maybe the best on this list for e-commerce business owners. Weebly can handle entire payment processes, email marketing, multiple domains, and a long list of other features — though not all of them are available in the free version.As part of the Square product suite, Weebly’s payments are handled by the Square point-of-sale system, so it’s in effect an automated payment process — whether for a pop-up shop or an online store. Not having to worry about the financial underpinnings of a site can be a load lifted off the owner’s shoulders.Weebly’s most important features:Easy customization.Integration with other apps and add-ons.Intuitive and easy to use.Constantly improving and adding new features.Meets standards for security and cookies.It has an auto-save function, so work doesn’t get lost.Many template options to use as a starting point.   Dynamic video background.Built-in image editor.Weebly pricing and monthly plans: Basic: no cost; other options range from $8 to $38 per month for e-commerce and full-featured personal sites.

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Good option for European website makers

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Jimdo has a good set of tools for a person needing a website builder that is super-simple and straightforward — and extra credit if the user is based in Europe (it handles most European languages). Jimdo is not optimal if a user needs any kind of advanced technical features or wants flexibility over specific design changes.With Jimdo, there are two ways of creating your website: Jimdo Creator and Jimdo Dolphin. Jimdo Creator is Jimdo’s main platform, a full-fledged editing interface. Users can add in their own content, resize items, and drag elements into different positions. Jimdo Dolphin is an ADI (artificial design intelligence) package. Answer a few questions about what you want on the site, and Jimdo will create it for you. Both are excellent ways to build a website but focus on very different requirements.Jimdo’s most important attributes:Inexpensive to publish an advertisement-free website.Unlimited storage space on the business plan or higher.Help and support are concise and to the point.Middle of the road in terms of ease of use; some people found it straightforward, while others were left frustrated by Jimdo’s restrictive template design.Jimdo pricing and monthly plans: Basic: no cost; other options range from $9 to $15 per month for e-commerce and full-featured personal sites.

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Visual CMS design is a plus.

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Webflow is another contender for grabbing market share that some of the larger, more well-known web-building tools don’t have. Users have marveled at the ease of creating sites on Webflow, and since everything is linked to CSS-style classes, the designs stay fairly clean compared to other drag ‘n drop / WYSIWYG editors. Some users are sold on the Visual CMS design functionality, which helps design custom-tailed CMSes. The CSS Grid and Flexbox layout options are also a nice aid in designing and aligning elements.Reviewers have noted that the client editor isn’t the most intuitive and makes it hard to edit certain aspects, such as background images.Webflow’s most important attributes:Strong tools for crafting phone and tablet sites.Good web store tools.It offers a customized database.Enables use of custom CSS and HTML code.Strong e-commerce options, with support for digital downloads.Unlimited storage and monthly data transfers with all plans.Webflow pricing and monthly plans: Basic: no cost; other options range from $12 to $36 per month for e-commerce and full-featured personal sites. 

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What are the advantages of using DIY website builders?

Especially for smaller companies and self-employed people, website builders offer great value because you can create your own website within a short time and without great cost. The interface is very intuitive, and programming skills are not necessary. The creation of a blog or online store is also easily possible with many providers.

How long does it take to create a homepage with a website builder?

Thanks to ready-to-use templates (usually sorted by industry), you can quickly create the first draft. Afterwards, modules for texts, image galleries, videos, contact forms, and other elements can be placed on the page and filled with content. In most cases, they can be easily placed in the right position by simply dragging and dropping. How much time you need varies greatly depending on the project, preparation, and maintenance. Some websites go online within five minutes; others take one to two days of work.

How much does it cost to create your own online presence?

Many providers offer their users a permanently free version of their website builder. Compared to the paid ones, however, the free plans come with some restrictions. This means that there may be tools and functions that you cannot use as a free user. In addition, websites created for free have advertising references to the provider both on the homepage and in the domain. If you don’t want this, you should consider upgrading your plan for a monthly fee of about $5 to $40.

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Huawei said on Wednesday it has signed a patent licensing deal with an unnamed supplier of parts to Volkswagen, although reports said it was Luxembourg-based Rolling Wireless. The deal covers 4G connectivity in the vehicles, with Huawei adding it expects 30 million vehicles will end up falling under its patent licences. The Chinese giant said it was its biggest deal with the automotive industry. “As an innovative company, we own a leading patent portfolio for wireless technologies, which creates great value for the automotive industry,” Huawei chief legal officer Song Liuping said. “We are pleased that key players from the automotive industry recognise that value. We believe this license will benefit worldwide consumers with our advanced technology.” Following a clampdown on Huawei from the US, the company has said it would need to diversify in order to reverse a revenue decline. In April, the company reported first quarter sales were down 16.5%, but the result was expected due to Huawei selling off its Honor brand last year. While revenue was down, margins were up thanks to a $600 million patent royalty, and “ongoing efforts to improve quality of operations and management efficiency”, the company said at the time.

“2021 will be another challenging year for us, but it’s also the year that our future development strategy will begin to take shape,” Huawei rotating chair Eric Xu said. “No matter what challenges come our way, we will continue to maintain our business resilience. Not just to survive, but do so sustainably.” Related Coverage More

Samsung on Wednesday said in its earnings guidance it recorded 63 trillion won in sales and 12.5 trillion won in operating profit during the second quarter of 2021.It is an increase of 19% and 53.4%, respectively, from the same time period a year prior. It is also Samsung’s highest operating profit in nearly three years.South Korean analysts said high demand for semiconductors is what propelled the growth. Samsung’s chip business is thought to have contributed over half of the company’s operating income for the quarter.Memory semiconductor prices jumped in the second quarter and demand for them remained solid in PC and servers due to the pandemic, analysts said. Samsung will announce its full earnings report near the end of the month.Meanwhile, Samsung also announced it will be trialling 5G virtualised RAN (vRAN) on 26GHz spectrum in Australia with local telco TPG Telecom.The South Korean tech giant’s vRAN solution will be tested at the telco’s new Innovation Lab in Glebe. The company’s 5G mmWave base stations will also be deployed throughout the suburb.

TPG said the lab would contain an onsite data centre and rooftop mobile site, which would allow its partners to test vRAN, mobile edge computing, private mobile networks, and Open RAN.”We are talking about utilising augmented reality and virtual reality for smart training, low latency remote control for mining and transportation, and smart city applications in collaboration with artificial intelligence and machine learning,” TPG executive general manager for mobile and fixed networks Barry Kezik said.”Having the ability to partner and trial different radio technology with different vendors within the Innovation Lab allows for greater ease in benchmarking performance.”Samsung touted that its 5G vRAN on mmWave has already been deployed in South Korea, Japan and the US. According to Samsung, TPG Telecom’s abundance of mmWave spectrum, thanks to its recent announcement to invest AU$108 million to acquire spectrum in the 26GHz band, and extensive fibre assets and small cells will enable the deployment of the vRAN architecture.Samsung’s network business launched in Australia in April, which will primarily focus on mmWave for 5G.RELATED COVERAGE More

Google Cloud and AT&T on Tuesday are announcing a new set of services that will help businesses build new 5G-powered applications and run them either on-premises or at the network edge. The announcement comes more than a year after Google and AT&T first said they were working together on a portfolio of 5G edge computing solutions for industries like retail, manufacturing and transportation.

With the first service, business customers will be able to build and run applications using Google Cloud capabilities, such as AI, Kubernetes and data analytics. The applications are deployed on-premise using AT&T’s 5G and Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) services. The second service will allow enterprises to deploy applications at Google edge points of presence (POPs), which will be connected to AT&T’s 5G and fiber networks. “We have an opportunity to improve the economics of 5G and edge to help enterprises, via AT&T, to create faster, more compelling experiences at scale,” George Nazi, VP of Google’s telco business, said to ZDNet. “Our goal is to meet these enterprises wherever they are, depending on the applications that they have.”The expanded partnership is the latest example of how wireless carriers and public cloud providers are all jostling for dominance in the new markets opened up by 5G and edge computing. With low-latency connectivity, industries will be able to process more data and develop new, potentially transformative applications. Manufacturers, for example, will be able to deploy AI-powered quality control applications, while healthcare providers could use VR for remote care. Entertainment venues could build smart parking and ticketless entry programs, and retailers could implement video analytics services to help with crowd control or theft prevention.  AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all have their own strategies for winning the market. AT&T is appealing to businesses with a hybrid approach that includes both 5G and fiber. They’re also working with a number of partners besides Google, including IBM, Microsoft, Accenture and Deloitte. Meanwhile, Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure have been busy inking deals with CSPs and other players in the 5G ecosystem. Earlier this year, for instance, Google announced a partnership with Intel to develop reference architectures and technologies that will accelerate the deployment of 5G and edge network solutions. Last year, Google published its Global Mobile Edge Cloud strategy for accelerating 5G monetization. Google and AT&T’s new on-premise service amounts to “the 5G network with a fully-managed, multi-access edge compute offering that has all of the Google cloud capabilities,” explained Rasesh Patel, chief product and platform officer for AT&T business. “Enterprises can build and run their applications closer to their end-users, and they have the flexibility of having the data and the compute on-prem, in the customer’s data center, or in the cloud. And it gives them more control over the data security, lower latency and higher bandwidth.”

The service also gives customers access to the full Google ecosystem, including access to more than 200 solutions from more than 35 ISV partners. That also means customers will be able to leverage products from Google and its parent company Alphabet, including Google Maps, the Pixel phone and AR/VR services. The second service essentially brings customers on AT&T’s edge and fiber networks right to Google POPs for lower latency and more seamless customer experiences. It’s launching this year in the Chicago metro area. The two companies have plans to expand the service to at least 15 more zones across major cities, including Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and San Francisco.AT&T and Google are also exploring how to use network APIs to leverage near real-time network information at the Google Cloud edge to optimize applications. The two companies have a joint go-to-market effort and will be tapping their solutions teams to assist different industry verticals. “This is providing the building blocks to deliver the next level of innovation, and it’s not going to be a single purpose thing. It’s innovation that can really fit different industries and in different environments,” Patel said. More

Judging from my inbox, people have a love/hate relationship with Google Chrome, and most can’t even say why they love it. They can remember loving it once.

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The best browsers for privacy

If you’re like most people, you’re probably using Google Chrome as your default browser. It’s hard to fault Google’s record on security and patching but privacy is another matter for the online ad giant.

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But they can rattle off a huge list of reasons why they hate it.And yet they keep using it.While I still think that running the stock browser that comes with your operating system is probably the best option, what I’ve been hearing from users is that they want one browser that works across all platforms. And that’s one of Google Chrome’s strong points.So, what do you do?Must read: Windows 11 chaos, and how copying Apple could have helped Microsoft avoid it

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing a browser that you might not have heard of: Brave. Brave is a free and open-source web browser based on the Chromium web browser. So if you’re coming over from Chrome, things are going to seem very familiar. Why should you try Brave? Brave is fast, secure, packed with privacy features, has a built-in ad-blocker, supports most of the Google Chrome extensions available, and there’s even an optional (paid-for premium) VPN. It’s a fully functional browser with everything you’d expect from a modern browser. And let me tell you, it’s good. Really good. Performance is outstanding, and the browser is capable of handling more tabs than we probably should be throwing at a browser, no matter the platform. Page loading speeds must be seen to be believed. It’s the fastest browser that I can remember running, no matter the platform I’m running it on.The privacy features just work straight out of the box, with no need to go futzing about in the settings. While power users love to delve into the settings, the average user wants to do no more than click on the icon and start browsing. If the privacy settings in the browser you are using are default set to off, and they are buried out of sight, there’s a reason for that. With Brave, everything is upfront and easy to use.Battery life on mobile devices is also good, with my laptop getting a good hour of extra runtime. That’s an extra hour I’m getting for free.Battery life on mobile devices is also noticeably better compared to Google Chrome. I also like having one browser for all my different platforms and devices, thanks to Brave Sync. This feature, which is currently in beta, can be enabled to encrypt and synchronize your preferred settings and bookmarks across different devices. And the best part of this is that everything is encrypted, and only you have the power to decrypt it — not even Brave has the keys to decrypt your data!Transitioning from another browser to Brave is also a snap, just as it is with any modern browser. For a while now, I’ve been questioning if there’s a real need for an independent browser, and Brave has removed all my doubts. At a time when users’ personal information has become a currency, it’s good to see a platform take user privacy seriously.At the end of the day, it’s a browser, but it’s a good browser, and after using it extensively for a few weeks now, I recommend it. Highly. More

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Telstra and TPG have announced that users in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Darwin, and Hobart should expect a 4G speed increase of around 10 to 20% thanks to a spectrum restack. The telcos said they defragmented the 1800MHz and 2100MHz bands following different spectrum allocations over the past decade. Telstra said it had pulled a pair of 10MHz allocations into a 20MHz block in six cities. “Larger spectrum blocks are more efficient and mean we can deliver faster mobile network speeds to our customers. Thanks to this project, we have seen average 4G speeds improve in every city where the restack was done by at least 10% and in Canberra and Darwin by 20%,” Telstra group executive of networks and IT Nikos Katinakis said. “We can also carry more traffic on larger spectrum blocks. For example, in Canberra our re-stacked 1800MHz spectrum is carrying approximately 14% more traffic.” Telstra said it was first time a restack had occured without a direction from ACMA. “Ultimately, this is an example of two major telecommunications operators constructively working together to give customers improved services,” TPG Telecom executive general manager for mobile and fixed networks Barry Kezik said. “This process also highlights how industry and the regulator can work together to achieve the most effective use of this valuable spectrum resource for the benefit of customers, and we acknowledge the valuable support of the ACMA throughout the process.”

TPG added the refarming of sprectrum from 4G to 5G would bring further benefits. Separately, Optus announced on Monday it was making its coverage of the Euro 2020 semis and final free to all Australians on Optus Sport.”We recognise that a lot of the country is currently restricted when it comes to going round to friends’ houses or to a venue to watch games together, and we are therefore pleased to provide as many Australians as we can with the opportunity to enjoy the last three tournament games in the comfort of every home,” Optus TV and content head Corin Dimopoulos said.Related Coverage More