You've seen our useful Mobile Tips for the holiday season... now how about some fun Tricks? Mobile Tricks, our YouTube channel celebrating all things cellular, has dressed up for the holidays with some new themed videos. How do you use your phone to get through the season? Show us in a video, and submit it on our channel. We'll post some of our favorites in this blog each week. Here are a few videos to start spreading the holiday cheer. It appears Santa is pretty handy with his phone!
And as before, we got together to give some tricks of our own, from looking up store hours without needing to type, to tracking packages. We're sure you do even more interesting, fun things though, so show us!
This news arrived today, Monday December 8th. Zensys (http://www.zen-sys.com/) and Nokia today announced the availability of the Z-Wave-enabled Nokia Home Control Center. Powered by Z-Wave technology, the device is compatible with the entire Z-Wave ecosystem of more than 300 home control products. Nokia is making a major step into the home automation and control market, which is expected to grow to $10 billion in the next two years.
Z-wave background
Z-Wave is a low-power wireless technology designed specifically for remote control applications. Z-Wave transforms any stand-alone device into an intelligent network node that can be controlled and monitored wirelessly. Unlike high-bandwidth standards such as IEEE 802.11-based systems that are designed for high-speed data, the Z-Wave RF system is optimized for low-overhead commands such as on-off and raise-lower (as in volume control). Applications for Z-Wave intelligence include home entertainment systems, lighting and appliance control, HVAC systems, security and access control, meter reading and digital home health care.
Z-Wave is a mesh networking technology where each node or device on the network is capable of sending and receiving control commands through walls or floors and around household obstacles or radio dead spots that might occur in the home. Z-Wave devices can work singly or in groups, and can be programmed into scenes or events that trigger multiple devices, either automatically or via remote control.
Because Z-Wave operates apart from the 2.4 GHz frequency of 802.11 based wireless systems, it is largely impervious to interference from common household wireless electronics, such as Wi-Fi routers, cordless telephones and Bluetooth devices that work in the same frequency range. This freedom from household interference allows for a standardized low-bandwidth control medium that can be reliable alongside common wireless devices.
As a result of its low power consumption and low cost of manufacture, Z-Wave is easily embedded in consumer electronics products, including battery operated devices such as remote controls, smoke alarms and security sensors. Z-Wave is currently supported by over 200 manufacturers worldwide and appears in a broad range of consumer products in the U.S. and Europe.
Zensys
Zensys offers the Z-Wave� protocol , a wireless RF-based communications technology designed for control and status reading applications in residential and light commercial environments. Z-Wave delivers reliable wireless networking at a fraction of the cost of other similar technologies, by focusing on narrow bandwidth applications and substituting costly hardware with innovative software solutions.
One clear benefit of electronic consumer devices that can be made to network together cheaply is that they can avoid the cost of building device to device networking into the house or business infrastructure itself. Given the housing slump, it is advantageous to offer a technology that is not to tied into that economy.
Z-wave background
Z-Wave is a low-power wireless technology designed specifically for remote control applications. Z-Wave transforms any stand-alone device into an intelligent network node that can be controlled and monitored wirelessly. Unlike high-bandwidth standards such as IEEE 802.11-based systems that are designed for high-speed data, the Z-Wave RF system is optimized for low-overhead commands such as on-off and raise-lower (as in volume control). Applications for Z-Wave intelligence include home entertainment systems, lighting and appliance control, HVAC systems, security and access control, meter reading and digital home health care.
Z-Wave is a mesh networking technology where each node or device on the network is capable of sending and receiving control commands through walls or floors and around household obstacles or radio dead spots that might occur in the home. Z-Wave devices can work singly or in groups, and can be programmed into scenes or events that trigger multiple devices, either automatically or via remote control.
Because Z-Wave operates apart from the 2.4 GHz frequency of 802.11 based wireless systems, it is largely impervious to interference from common household wireless electronics, such as Wi-Fi routers, cordless telephones and Bluetooth devices that work in the same frequency range. This freedom from household interference allows for a standardized low-bandwidth control medium that can be reliable alongside common wireless devices.
As a result of its low power consumption and low cost of manufacture, Z-Wave is easily embedded in consumer electronics products, including battery operated devices such as remote controls, smoke alarms and security sensors. Z-Wave is currently supported by over 200 manufacturers worldwide and appears in a broad range of consumer products in the U.S. and Europe.
Zensys
Zensys offers the Z-Wave� protocol , a wireless RF-based communications technology designed for control and status reading applications in residential and light commercial environments. Z-Wave delivers reliable wireless networking at a fraction of the cost of other similar technologies, by focusing on narrow bandwidth applications and substituting costly hardware with innovative software solutions.
One clear benefit of electronic consumer devices that can be made to network together cheaply is that they can avoid the cost of building device to device networking into the house or business infrastructure itself. Given the housing slump, it is advantageous to offer a technology that is not to tied into that economy.
Defected Ground Structures
We receive several technical articles each month about circuits that utilize Defected Ground Structures (DGS) to improve performance. A DGS is where the ground plane metal is purposely modified with a certain geometry (and positioning of that geometry) to enhance performance. They can be used in various circuits with antennas, filters, delay lines, phase shifters, etc. to improve performance such as modifying the band pass/reject characteristics for filters or modifying the slow wave effect for delay lines or phase shifters.
While DGS may improve performance, these circuits are highly susceptible to the effects of the packaging since they radiate. Any physical structure near the DGS (within the EM field) will probably affect their performance. Therefore publishing results which show improved performance but do not include the adverse (and real-world) effects introduced by packaging would mislead our readers, so we have made it a policy not to publish papers on DGS without measured results which include these effects.
Because we stress the importance of practical applications, we want to make sure the circuit performance presented in an article reflects how it would perform if packaged and used in an application. I believe this is now the policy of the IEEE also for technical publications and we have adopted it too. So I wanted to state this policy here and get any feedback we can from design engineers and others. Let us know what you think by posting a comment.
While DGS may improve performance, these circuits are highly susceptible to the effects of the packaging since they radiate. Any physical structure near the DGS (within the EM field) will probably affect their performance. Therefore publishing results which show improved performance but do not include the adverse (and real-world) effects introduced by packaging would mislead our readers, so we have made it a policy not to publish papers on DGS without measured results which include these effects.
Because we stress the importance of practical applications, we want to make sure the circuit performance presented in an article reflects how it would perform if packaged and used in an application. I believe this is now the policy of the IEEE also for technical publications and we have adopted it too. So I wanted to state this policy here and get any feedback we can from design engineers and others. Let us know what you think by posting a comment.
Salesforce.com announces Force.com for App Engine
This morning, Salesforce.com announced Force.com for Google App Engine, a Python library and test suite for apps running on App Engine that enables developers to easily access the Force.com Web services API. This means that developers can now build apps that manipulate and display data stored on Force.com.
We're excited about the breadth of new applications enabled by this integration. To name just a few examples:
- browser-based enterprise apps that help members of your organization manage contacts and orders
- large-scale consumer apps that offer personalized experiences to your customers
- online marketing campaigns that generate leads directly
It's fantastic to see App Engine gaining traction in the world of enterprise software--whether you want to deploy a browser-based tool to members of your organization or a personalized, customer-focused app that scales to millions of users, App Engine's ease of use and scaling power make it an ideal choice for enterprise development. With Force.com for App Engine you can now connect apps with the CRM and custom data you already store on the Force.com platform.
To learn more about Force.com for App Engine, you can peruse the Force.com documentation or simply download the library directly from Google Code. Don't forget to tell us what you think on our Google Group!
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