Posted in Commentary with tags Ford on October 31, 2016 by itnerd
BlackBerry today announced an agreement has been signed with Ford Motor Company for expanded use of BlackBerry’s QNX and security software. The deal signifies an acceleration in BlackBerry’s pivot from hardware to software in support of the automaker’s goal of providing connected vehicles and mobility to its customers.
As part of this agreement, BlackBerry will dedicate a team to work with Ford on expanding the use of BlackBerry’s QNX Neutrino Operating System, Certicom security technology, QNX hypervisor and QNX audio processing software. The terms of the deal are confidential.
The combination of BlackBerry’s expertise in security and QNX’s mission-critical operating systems and software for automotive applications, allows the company to offer the most secure, trusted and reliable platform that can power every aspect of the connected car.
BlackBerry’s QNX software powers more than 60 million vehicles, including the SYNC 3 Infotainment system in Ford’s current models.
Posted in Products with tags Mazda on October 31, 2016 by itnerd
The Mazda6 is one of my favorite mid-sized cars as it’s great on gas, has lots of power, handles well, and is on the luxurious side. It was a very easy choice for an IT Nerd Award a couple of years ago. This week, I have the 2017 Mazda6 GT which came painted in a brilliant shade of red:
The cool looking Kodo design that makes it look like it is fast even standing still is still there. But it has had the addition of LED headlights for the 2017 model year. Mazda has also changed a bunch of stuff on the inside and mechanically which I will cover in this review. Speaking of this review, here’s what it will cover in five parts:
Engine, transmission, handling, fuel economy, and driving comfort
Interior
Technology in the vehicle
Wrap up
One last note, the photos that are part of this five part review were taken using the ZTE Axon 7 smartphone. Please click here to read the review of that phone.
Tomorrow, I’ll be covering the fact that this mid-sized sedan comes with a 2.5l 4 cylinder engine as opposed to a V6 or a turbo 4 cylinder. How well does that work? Tune in tomorrow to find out.
Posted in Commentary with tags Apple on October 30, 2016 by itnerd
Apple last week came out with a bunch of new MacBook Pros. One of the big changes that was made is that Apple has moved to the use of USB-C, or as Apple calls it “Thunderbolt-3”. Now, here’s the good news. Thunderbolt-3 / USB-C has speeds up to 40 Gbps. Because of that, this is one connector that does it all. Data, video, even charging the MacBook Pro, it works with everything. Plus it allowed Apple to make the MacBook Pro a lot thinner and lighter by going to Thunderbolt-3 / USB-C as well which is something that you’ll appreicate the next time that you travel.
But that’s where the good news ends.
The bad news is that NOTHING that you own will work with the new MacBook Pro. And I truly mean nothing. If you have a USB printer? It won’t work and you’ll need an adapter. Need to plug into a monitor? Sorry, you’ll need an adapter for that. How about Ethernet? You’ll need an adapter for that too. In fact, you’ll need a bunch of adapters just to make this MacBook Pro usable and it will cost you. I’ve taken the liberty of listing the adapters that Apple offers, what you will need it for, and what it will cost you in Canadian Dollars:
USB-C to USB Adapter: Want to plug in a USB printer or a USB drive? You’ll need this. – $25
USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter: This allows you to plug in a USB device, a monitor via HDMI, and a USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 device at the same time. – $89
Now I will give Apple a free pass on the charge cable and power adapter….. Actually, I won’t give them a free pass on that because they killed off the MagSafe adapter which I am certian saved many a MacBook Pro because of the fact that it easly detaches from the notebook if the adapter is put under enough stress. Now by going to USB-C / Thunderbolt 3, I suspect that a fair number of MacBook Pros will have their lifespans cut short by someone who trips over the power cable.
But I digress.
If you’re like me, you’re going to need the Gigabit Ethernet adapter, The USB-C Digital AV Multiport adapter, The USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter to cover the minimum that you would need to use this to do presentations, connect via Ethernet when required, and to use the devices that you have already, here’s what it will you cost you:
$218 Canadian.
Now I know that Apple has a history of force feeding change down the throats of their users. But this really has the smell of nickle and diming their users to death. Never mind the fact that you now have to find room in your laptop bag to carry these adapters. Now I’m not naieve as USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 will eventually become the standard for connecting devices to computers. But over the next couple of years, that’s going to frustrate the hell out of a lot of users in a hurry. It will also slow purchases of these new MacBooks Pros as I really have no incentive to swap my current MacBook Pro for these new models because of this. Maybe if they included a single USB-3 port, or a HDMI port, or perhaps both, I’d feel differently. But as it stands, I’ll hang on to my present MacBook Pro.
Perhaps Apple should have thought this out a bit more as this is really appearing to be a potential #fail.
Posted in Commentary on October 30, 2016 by itnerd
I am a bit of a transit junkie. Streetcars, subways among other things interest me. But I recently discovered a place that houses the history of transit vehicles in the Greater Toronto Area. That place is called the Halton County Radial Railway which is located in Milton, Ontario which is about 45 minutes north west of Toronto. It’s a museum that holds streetcars that are working and in the process of being rebuilt. Plus it has two kilometers of streetcar track which you can take a streetcar ride and stop at a ice cream shop along the way. The reason why this place is important to transit enthusiasts is that cities like London and New York have transit museums. Thus it’s great that someone who has decided to preseve this history. So my wife and I paid a visit and I brought the ZTE Axon 7 to snap some photos and videos. Here’s some highlights starting with some restored streetcars:
They also had a couple of restored subway cars:
They also have some train rolling stock such as this CP Caboose and VIA rail sleeper car:
Here’s a 4K video ofthe rail grinding car in action.Please set it to 4K and full screen:
The only thing that you need to be aware of is that cell service at the musem is poor. I had no cell sevice on my Fido phone from the moment I arrived to the moment that I left. My wife on her Rogers phone had 1 bar at best. Thus if you need to be reachable, that might be a problem. But other than that, this is a great day trip for those with kids and those who hve an interest in transit. The museum is open between the first Saturday in May to the last Sunday in October. It’s very much worth taking a drive out to as it will be a great experience for transit enthusiasts, kids, or those those who are kids at heart.
Posted in Commentary with tags IFIP on October 29, 2016 by itnerd
Professor Valerie Shute, an expert in the use of games to support learning outcomes, will be a keynote speaker at WCCE 2017, the world’s largest conference focused on the use of technology in education.
Professor Shute is the Mack and Effie Campbell Tyner Endowed Professor in Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University, USA. Her latest research involves using games with stealth assessment to support the learning of cognitive and non-cognitive knowledge, skills and dispositions.
At WCCE 2017 in Dublin from 3-6 July next year, Professor Shute will deliver a presentation entitled: Stealth Assessment – What, Why and How? She believes games can be a powerful vehicle to support learning, so long as the assessment process is handled effectively, and has even developed her own game – Physics Playground – to test her hypotheses.
Over the past two years, Professor Shute and her colleagues have designed, developed and evaluated various stealth assessments in games to explore:
whether they provide valid and reliable estimates of developing key 21st century competencies in students,
the degree to which learning actually happens, and
whether students still find the games fun to play.
She will present her findings during her keynote address.
WCCE 2017 is an initiative of IFIP, the global association for people working in the ICT sector. The conference is organised by IFIP’s Technical Committee on Education (TC3), which recently issued a Call for Papers inviting potential speakers to submit papers or workshop topics for consideration.
With the theme of “Tomorrow’s Learning: Involving Everyone”, the conference will bring together hundreds of academics, researchers, ICT professionals, vendors, teachers, students and other stakeholders to explore emerging issues affecting the education sector.
In addition to the four-day conference from 3-6 July, the event will also feature a one-day Doctoral Consortium on 2 July.
Ever wonder what it looks like working behind-the-scenes at a zoo, museum, construction site or TV studio? Would you consider a career as a physiotherapist, a makeup artist, a foreman or a legal adviser?
The Learning Partnership, a charity dedicated to supporting, promoting and advancing publicly funded education in Canada, has launched a series of 360° virtual reality videos to help students explore career opportunities in a variety of fields. The videos take students and teachers on an immersive tour of some of the most fascinating workplaces across the country.
An extension of The Learning Partnership’s Take Our Kids to Work Day, taking place on November 2 this year, the video series is designed to give students a taste of unique and varied work environments as they contemplate future career paths.
Each 360° video can be viewed online via YouTube from any computer with Internet access. Users are also able to experience immersive viewing on their mobile phones using affordable virtual reality headsets such as Google Cardboard.
Take Our Kids to Work Day is the biggest and best known career readiness program in Canada. The use of virtual reality enhances this experiential learning experience and bring unique opportunities to students across the country.
Posted in Products with tags Asus on October 28, 2016 by itnerd
The high performance router wars are heating up because of two things:
The increasing availability of 100 Mbps or faster Internet access.
The need to support high bandwidth devices such as streaming devices, video game consoles, and smart TVs, and high performance gaming PCs.
Because of this, routers like the Asus RT-AC5300 have started to appear. Now, let me deal with the elephant in the room. The RT-AC5300 looks…. Different:
It measures 2.6 by 9.6 by 9.6 inches (HWD) which means RT-AC5300 requires a good deal of real estate. It also has 8 antennas and looks like something from another planet. That may turn off some and be ultra cool to others. It feels solidly built and clearly has enough vents to ensure that it doesn’t overheat. The front contains small LED indicators for Power, 2.4GHz and 5GHz band connectivity, WAN and Internet activity, and WPS activity. On the left side is a USB 2.0 port, as well as buttons for enabling and disabling the LEDs and the Wi-Fi bands and for initializing the WPS security feature. Around back are four Gigabit LAN ports, a WAN port, a USB 3.0 port, and a Power button. You get a 1.4 Ghz dual core processor to drive three radio bands. One 2.4GHz band and two 5GHz bands so that you can segment your wireless traffic so that everything stays speedy. The router supports beamforming for sending signals directly to wireless clients, Smart Connect which automatically chooses the best band for optimal throughput, and MU-MIMO technology for simultaneous rather than sequential streaming for devices that support that standard.
Setting up the router is incredibly trivial for novice users and you can have it running in minutes. Here’s what I did to set it up:
After connecting the router to my Mac, I opened a browser, entered http://router.asus.com in the address bar
I followed the on-screen instructions to configure basic Internet DHCP and wireless security settings.
Done. Declare victory and have beer.
But if you really want to tweak things, this router will give you that ability in spades. You can configure everything from parental controls to threat protection. Plus if you’re a gamer, you’ll appreciate the Game Boost feature, which offers one-click QoS settings that give gaming applications traffic-network priority, and provides you with a free subscription to WTFast, an online game-acceleration service that automatically routes game data to achieve optimal bandwidth which in turn will allow you to pwn your online competition. The level of configuration is above and beyond what is available with most routers out there, and this is one of the key advantages that the RT-AC5300 has over every other high performance router that is on the market. It should also be noted that there are apps for iOS and Android that will allow to keep on top of your router settings. Finally there’s alternate firmware available such as Merlin to really open up the power of this router. And unlike most routers, you can flash back to stock firmware if you want to.
But what you really care about is how fast this router is and what the WiFi coverage is like. For the basis of this comparison, I will show you the numbers from the Linksys Max Stream AC5400 that is connected to Rogers Ignite Gigabit Internet which is the fastest router that I have tested to date. What you see below is the speed of the Linksys router using a computer connected via Ethernet:
Now here’s the RT-AC5300:
It’s not far off the Linksys router which has been tweaked to get the speeds that you see above. I am pretty sure that If I spent some time tweaking the RT-AC5300, it would have been able to do better. But having said that, it is more than competitive. As for WiFi coverage, it covered about the same amount of real estate in my condo as the Linksys router. Keep in mind that I have concrete walls that any router that I test has to deal with. Thus this is a very good result.
The Asus RT-AC5300 goes for $500. It’s the same price as the Linksys router, but the fact that RT-AC5300 can be customized to a greater degree than the Linksys gives it the edge for those who want a high performance router that they can control to the nth degree and get great performance from said router. Plus you get the option to use third party firmware which for the record, the Linksys Max Speed AC5400 doesn’t give you the option. For those reasons, if you are a “control enthusiast” in need of a high performance router, the Asus RT-AC5300 is the one that you need to look at first.
Let me boil all of that down to just the facts. ZTE has a fast phone that has the best audio that I’ve ever heard in a phone, a camera that works in all conditions, and a battery that not only lasts the whole day and then some, but charges quickly as well. It’s a phone that will have Samsung and Apple looking over their shoulder, and you smiling all the way to the bank because it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Now, it’s one thing to get to the top of the mountain. But it’s difficult to stay there. Given how competitive the smartphone market is, that’s doubly true. So ZTE’s latest effort has to be one that keeps them out front. To that end, they have brought the Axon 7 to market and it comes to the table with the following specs:
Android 6 with MiFavor 4.0 skin
2.15 GHz Quad-core processor
4GB of RAM
64GB internal storage
microSD card slot / Dual SIM slot
20MP rear-facing camera
8MP front-facing camera
32-bit HiFi Dolby ATMOS audio with dual front-facing speakers
5.5″ AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass
Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 with MiFavor 4.0 skin
LTE
20 MP rear camera
8 MP front camera
802.11 ac WiFi
Bluetooth 4.2
In terms of the design of the phone, it looks cool. There’s a USB-C connector on the bottom, a slot for the two SIM cards and micro SD card on the left, power and volume on the right, and a fingerprint sensor on the back. It has a very cool looking full-metal unibody with a premium-feeling silky matte finish which felt great in my hand. Though it is on the heavy side. The screen is very sharp and is readable in every lighting condition but bright light. One note is that the screen does NOT attract fingerprints. You’ll really like that. It felt fast during my testing. Nothing I tossed at it made it bog down. Now, I’m not a big fan of skins, but the MiFavor 4.0 skin isn’t bad and doesn’t feel like it gets in your way. But if it does annoy you, you can turn it off easily enough. Though I don’t think you’ll bother to do so.
ZTE did up its game in a number of areas. First is the fact that the Axon 7 is an unlocked dual SIM phone which also has the ability to pop a microSD slot. The former makes this phone a great phone to travel with as you can pop a local SIM card into the phone and save on roaming charges. The latter addresses the lack of expandability in the original Axon. There is a catch though. You can use two SIM cards (a micro SIM and a nano SIM) or you can use a nano SIM and a micro SD card. If you rely on having memory beyond what comes with the phone, that might be a problem for you. Another area they’ve upped their game is the 5.5″ display which is viewable in every condition that I tested it in, including bright sunlight. Sound is another area where things have improved. The Axon 7 comes with 32-bit HiFi mobile audio with Dolby ATMOS and dual front-facing speakers. To be frank, they crush the effort that ZTE made in the original Axon. That’s no small feat as the Axon was exceptional when it came to sound, and I was skeptical going into this review as to if ZTE could actually do better on that front. But it did and If you’re an audiophile, you will love the Axon 7 as the sound quality is absolutely stunning.
The biggest change is the rear camera. Gone is the dual camera setup from the Axon and replacing it is a 20 MP camera on the back and an 8 MP front-facing camera. Video capabilities include 4K recording. I tested it by taking shots of the 2017 Mazda6 that I am reviewing this week and I will be using it next week to take photos of the Mazda3 that I will be reviewing and I will be using it on a short getaway to Kingston Ontario. I did further testing at Pearson Airport in Toronto. Here’s some of the still shots that I got during my testing:
The only issue that I had when taking photos is that sometimes the autofocus would not work properly. But other than that, all the photos were sharp and clear.
Now here’s a couple of videos that I shot in 4K resolution. Please set the videos to full screen and 4K resolution:
While there is wind noise, it did a good job of capturing good quality audio and video.
When it comes to the battery, I got almost two days of charge which is excellent. It also has the ability to deliver a full charge in about 90 minutes via the USB-C port which is handy as well. You can find the Axon 7 for $519.99 CDN which undercuts the competition from Samsung and Apple. One plus is the fact that it comes with a bumper style case and great quality headphones as part of the deal. Excellent! The bottom line? It’s a great second effort at a flagship smartphone from ZTE. The addition of dual SIM capability as well taking what was already good audio and making it better is going to get it a lot of looks. It should be on your shopping list if you’re in the market for a flagship level smartphone at a bargain basement price as it does a lot for the money that you’ll pay for it.
Posted in Commentary with tags Apple on October 27, 2016 by itnerd
Apple today hosted its “Hello Again” Mac event this morning, where it debuted a newly redesigned MacBook Pro with an integrated “Touch Bar” panel that supports multi-touch and a range of gestures to unlock new capabilities in apps. It also killed off a bunch of other models as well. There are two models. A 13″ model and a 15″ model.
The 13-inch model features a 2.9 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage. The 13-inch model has Intel Iris Graphics.
The 15-inch version has a 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5 GHz, 16GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage. The 15-inch MacBook Pro features Radeon Pro discrete graphics.
Both models claim to have “up to 2.3 times the graphics performance” of the previous generation. Plus Apple claims to have the brightest, most colorful notebook display ever with images that are more vivid and lifelike thanks to the screen’s 500 nits of brightness. That means the new screen is now 67 percent brighter than the previous generation MacBook Pro, has 67 percent more contrast, but consuming 30% less power. The MacBook Pro now has four Thunderbolt 3 ports, any of which can be used to charge the laptop, and Apple has officially killed off with MagSafe charging on its MacBook Pro line. We’ll see how well that works as MagSafe is a popular feature for MacBook Pro users. The biggest addition to the MacBook Pro is the new “Touch Bar,” which sits atop the keyboard and officially replaces the function keys on the laptop. Touch Bar is application specific and adapts to what’s on screen, be it scrolling through months in Calendar, choosing an album in Photos, selecting emoji in Messages, and many more, including third-party apps like Microsoft Office. The keyboard is improved, and so are the speakers. Finally, there’s Touch ID that integrated into these new MacBook Pros. It can be used for authentication and Apple Pay.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,799 USD, while the 15-inch starts at $2,399 USD. Both are available for order today.
If you want to see a video for the “Hello Again” event, click here to see it.
Posted in Products with tags NordVPN on October 27, 2016 by itnerd
If you want to secure yourself, what is the number one thing that you think of? I bet it’s having an antivirus application. But these days, more and more people are looking at using a Virtual Private Network or VPN for added security as that ensures that nobody can see what they do on the Internet. Today, I am looking at NordVPN which is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. On top of that, you can also run it on Raspberry Pi and routers that support the DD-WRT open source firmware as well. That covers pretty much any platform that you would want to use.
NordVPN lets users on most platforms choose between encryption methods PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, and OpenVPN. Linux users get PPTP or OpenVPN while the Chrome extension is PPTP-only. If you use NordVPN on the open-source router software DD-WRT or the open hardware platform Raspberry Pi, you will be using OpenVPN. My suggestion is to use OpenVPN to get the best possible security. Another note, because NordVPN supports DD-WRT supported routers, you can protect every device on your network with ease.
When you set up NordVPN, which is really easy to do by non-technical users by the way, it lets you select one of the company’s 80 VPN servers located in 27 countries. The company operates under Panama’s jurisdiction where there are no mandatory data retention laws. Thus the company doesn’t collect logs, so it has no information it can actually hand over because of a subpoena. That’s handy if you are paranoid or have something to hide. Further to that NordVPN includes a feature called the Domain Name System Leak feature to ensure that your operating system does not use a default DNS server (typically belonging to your ISP) instead of the VPN service to look up the actual machine address of the site you are trying to visit. This way, this keeps someone from tracking your surfing activities.
One thing that is an issue with many VPN services is that they tend to be a a drag on speed which you will notice when you pull up a web page or stream content. I have a pretty fast Internet connection, so I was unable to discern any speed impact at home. But at a local Starbucks, it was slower than a “naked” Internet connection. While your mileage may vary on that front, the Internet connection speed was still more than acceptable.Of note, the product does offer support for video streaming. That might be of interest to those who want to access streaming content that is geographically restricted.
Finally, NordVPN also provides a Kill Switch feature. When configured, this monitors applications and processes you select. If your VPN connection is interrupted or dropped for any reason, those processes on the Kill Switch list are automatically closed. This is great as it ensures that no data leaks out.
NordVPN is a free download with a subscription. Pricing is very flexible, with three tiers: $11.95 USD per month, $7 USD a month if you commit to six months, or $5.75 USD a month if you commit to one year. Interestingly enough, they accept Bitcoin. NordVPN is a VPN service that supports a ton of platforms and has a feature set that will satisfy any user. If you’re in the market for a VPN service, you have to take a look at NordVPN.
BlackBerry & Ford Sign Deal To Use BlackBerry Solutions In Cars
Posted in Commentary with tags Ford on October 31, 2016 by itnerdBlackBerry today announced an agreement has been signed with Ford Motor Company for expanded use of BlackBerry’s QNX and security software. The deal signifies an acceleration in BlackBerry’s pivot from hardware to software in support of the automaker’s goal of providing connected vehicles and mobility to its customers.
As part of this agreement, BlackBerry will dedicate a team to work with Ford on expanding the use of BlackBerry’s QNX Neutrino Operating System, Certicom security technology, QNX hypervisor and QNX audio processing software. The terms of the deal are confidential.
The combination of BlackBerry’s expertise in security and QNX’s mission-critical operating systems and software for automotive applications, allows the company to offer the most secure, trusted and reliable platform that can power every aspect of the connected car.
BlackBerry’s QNX software powers more than 60 million vehicles, including the SYNC 3 Infotainment system in Ford’s current models.
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