Japan v. Japan - Artificial Belligerence v. Artificial Intelligence

In a Trumpian move, Shinzo ABE started a trade war with Korea, so far not reciprocated, except by South Korean netizens threatening to boycott Japanese products. Japan is not raising tariffs for Korean imports, but making Japanese exports to Korea more difficult for key tech components, particularly essential to chipmakers and display manufacturers*. 

Pressed by national media to explain such a masochistic move, the PM ended up saying that there was a risk these valuable technologies could end up in North Korea. Of course that's a ludicrous statement, since such trade between both Koreas would not only contravene international sanctions, but also defy logic considering the North's situation and priorities. 

The actual motive was officially to punish Seoul for insisting on reparations for Imperial Japan abuses, particularly regarding sexual slavery and forced labor**, abuses denied by ABE, his government, and the revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi he was instrumental in founding during the nineties. This lobby that has all but taken control of Japan politics, while keeping the population in the dark regarding its highly controversial agenda (restoring State Shinto, the Imperial rule, denouncing peace treaties and human right laws, denying war crimes, rejecting postwar's peaceful constitution, returning to militarism, rewriting history textbooks...).

Today, MOON hosts LG's KOO Kwang-mo, Hyundai's CHUNG Eui-sun, and SK's CHEY Tae-won, to prepare a response that likely will pass by the WTO. Samsung's LEE Jae-yong and Lotte's SHIN Dong-bin couldn't attend since they are in Japan. A few days earlier, LEE invited his friend Masayoshi SON (Softbank) to meet President MOON Jae-in and major chaebol leaders. Even before ABE's bomb hit the ground, Samsung was expecting to lose half its profits in the second half of the year.

Korea Inc. and Japan Inc. united swiftly for good reasons. Playing a Huawei-style blame card against South Korea could backfire for Japan, and China could actually become the biggest winner. Giant tech companies on both sides of the... East Sea agree on one thing: this is the worst moment to fuel divisions between them. Regardless on how the trade war between China and the US ends, the fact is Korea and Japan are lagging behind in key technologies, particularly A.I., where scale matters.

So why would ABE take such risks? Is he still blinded by his obsession with revisionism, worried he could lose support from his base ahead of elections? Nationalism could be a welcome diversion when Japan pensioners panic about their financial future, but is it the right time to expose Nippon Kaigi's agenda, and what they are desperately trying to hide from the public?

mot-bile 2019

* fluorinated polyimides and resists (Japan produces 90% of the World's total), and hydrogen fluoride etching gas (70%). 
** South Korea's Supreme Court recently ruled that Japanese companies should compensate survivors.


5G Korea, Huawei inside

According to Pulse and other media*, Huawei will open next month its first 5G Open Lab in the world in Seoul.

Of course, earlier this month, Korea became the first country in the world to launch 5G commercially (even if for enterprise customers only at the beginning). Korea Inc precipitated the launch just to achieve that premiere, SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+ literally beating Verizon on the eleventh hour.

If local MNOs don't communicate much on their 5G network suppliers, Huawei already holds significant positions in Korea, as a recent Asan Institute focus** noticed:
- LG U+'s 4G network in Seoul, Northern Gyeonggi-do, Incheon, and Gangwon-do, in other words its most strategic areas (capital region, and all borders with North Korea)
- parts of Naver's new Internet Data Center
- KT's network upgrade for NonHyeop Bank, a big 4 player

Korea Inc does communicate on a key 5G supplier, Samsung, who clearly won the first round at the smartphone level with its Galaxy S10 5G.

Another of their groundbreaking handsets, the Galaxy Fold, received mixed reviews from the few journalists who were granted one ahead of the official launch, but the manufacturer did warn them that they shouldn't have pulled out the plastic protection away from the delicate screen.

Interesting to see what happens when the veil is lifted about Huawei's presence in the country.

mot-bile 2019

* "Huawei to open its world’s first 5G open lab in Seoul in May" (Pulse 20190422)
** "Opportunities and Challenges for South Korea in the New Era of 5G" (J. James KIM, HONG Sanghwa - Asan Institute 20190321)


Triple Play, Triple Aggregation

SK Telecom confirmed April 5 as the date of its 5G launch - as soon as Samsung Galaxy S10 5G handsets are delivered (monthly plans expected around KRW55,000 / $49 per month). 

As expected, promoting a 'Social VR' experience well ahead of 5G ("Ready Player oksusu Social VR?") turned out to be a smart move to detect the levels of bandwidth required for an optimal user experience (e.g. 4G LTE too slow for rapid eye / head movements): Korea's leading MNO intends to leverage 5G compression technologies to speed up VR sessions by 30%, and to combine 5G with 4G and wifi where available to allow the download of a 2 Gb movie in only 4 seconds, dubbing the concept 'Triple Aggregation'.

While operators work hard to make the most of their costly pipes, other players parade with seemingly effortless solutions, but will Google Stadia fulfill its category killer potential? Announced at the Game Developers Conference by Sundar Pichai himself, the cloud-based platform and its Stadia Controler would love to piggyback the kind of boosters SKT has in store, but regardless, YouTube and Google Home integration will definitely help.

Apple had to react, but could only display an Apple Arcade that smells like 1980s spirit. Yeah! exclusive games! only on iOS, Mac, Apple TV! to download from your Apple Store! 

Even if that's in a different field, Apple TV+ is also about defending the Apple creative ecosystem. Maybe they will eventually netflixize their game the Alphabet way.

Anyway, Cupertino pulled a much more interesting card with their Apple Card, which should quickly allow them to show us some money.

mot-bile 2019

* see "SKT says 5G network is tested, ready to go"


CES 2019 Who'll Pay For The Wall? And Y-brush?

At last, The Wall is up, but a bit too far from the border with Mexico: Samsung is exhibiting in Vegas the most titanic version of its monster, a whopping 219-inch, 4K microLED TV. At that level, you should measure your screens in feet (18), or yards (6), or simply dump these obsolete standards altogether (5.5 m). This wall will cost you much less than $5.6bn, and will much more easily fit your living room once it's curved. Like LG's rollable screen, which returned to CES but this time for sale, under the group's premium brand for home appliances, as LG Signature OLED TV R.

In the weird vehicles section, BMW proposes a driverless motorbike, Hyundai a walking car (Elevate), and Bell a flying car (Nexus Air Taxi) so huge, that it takes as much space as 4 cars, and probably burns more fuel than 10 - prepare to be Uber-charged for a ride on that one.

Otherwise, IBM is back to mainframe computers: it takes a 2.7 m x 2.7 m frame to host its IBM Q System One quantum computer. It only takes two of these to climb The Wall, if not to reduce it to quantum bits.

Meanwhile, the French decided not to punch below the belt, like last year (see "CES 2019 - Driverlessly nuts"), but straight at the jaw: Lyon-based FasTeesh claims its Y-brush can clean your teeth in 10 seconds.

You just have to keep a low profile for two times 5 seconds, as you chew on the thing:.

That said, this concept is also smartly proposed in a BtoB version targeting medical or retirement institutions. That's a real game changer for caretakers.

What else? Ah, yes, after all, there seem to be still some latency with 5G.

mot-bile 2019


Interview with the data vampire

mot-bile: 'Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, for accepting this exclusive fake interview at our Agence Fausse Presse'

Mark Zuckerberg: 'Actually, I thought that was yet another subpoena, but now that I'm here, I might as well answer'.

mb: 'Well so far, you didn't provide many answers to European or American judges and committees. Apologies, yes, solutions, not really. Seriously, after all the scandals and bad press surrounding you and Facebook, do you still believe you can become President some day?'

MZ: 'Facebook helped a very despicable man get the job once, why not twice? I'm only 34, and by Clinton standards, probably 'likable enough'. Plus, if I'm using Definers Public Affairs to get at George Soros' throat, I don't need Cambridge Analytica to get into your head. By the way, you're a very troubled person.'

mb: 'Takes one to know one, thank you. You're not as publicly weird as say Elon Musk, but there's at least some cold aspergersian nerdness in you. And obviously, you don't seem to mind playing, like Bill Gates in the 80s, the role of the supreme techno-villain with pervasive reach.'

MZ: 'I learned everything from him, including the pseudo philanthropic narrative involving our best halves. While the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation helps Monsanto infiltrate Africa, our Chan Zuckerberg Initiative basically serves as a vehicle to remote control Facebook, and the human population that comes with it, while Sheryl Sandberg takes most bullets.'

mb: 'So you control Facebook, even when you say it's impossible to control it.'

MZ: 'We're working on it, and A.I. helps a lot. All humans have to do is to give up all control, so that we can ultimately get the most holistic systems to monitor them.'

mb: 'The thing is you're also giving up all moral standards. I mean, how far lower can it go now, after your latest underage bride auction?'

MZ: 'Never underestimate human lowness. You don't want to know what happens every day on Facebook.'

mb: 'But you do. And even when you don't, you monetize it. I wonder which ads ran for the bidders during that sick auction.'

MZ: 'There are bad guys out there, but we're not totally evil. If China blocks us, that's because we herald Western freedom.'

mb: 'If China blocks you, that's because they envy your alienating system, and want to develop their own blend of behavioral control.'

MZ: 'China's Social Credit system will never be as popular as Facebook. They can become even more pervasive and amoral than us if they want, it's fundamentally bad for business to let your users know how much it costs them actually.'

mot-bile 2018


Ready Player oksusu Social VR?

Introduced at the 2018 Mobile World Congress, and launched two weeks ago, oksusu Social VR provides, as the name suggests, social interactions in virtual environments by leveraging SK Telecom's 10M-subscriber-strong OTT platform oksusu. The service works with Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream headsets, and video quality is equivalent to 80-inch full HD, with potential upgrades to 8K (7,680 x 4,320) and 360-degree IMAX screens on 5G.

Of course, Social VR has a role to play to promote 5G, which SKT is expected to launch this December. From day one, the experience ticks all the boxes to fill bigger pipes: higher definition, enhanced interactivity for key verticals (music, movies, sports, games...), new mass entertainment, (social) network effect,...

Catch me if you can
What's interesting is the angle SKT used to market the new service in their PR release "From virtual reality to cinema dating reality" ("가상현실에서 영화관 데이트 현실로" - 20181011): almost a dating or date-enhancing app, for young Koreans to escape a distressing everyday life, and to become successful avatars in exciting virtual worlds.

'Second Life', meet Spielberg's 'Ready Player One'.

Granted, there are technical constraints, you'll have to wait for that sensitive suit, and for the moment, 'interactions' are basically what audiences are allowed to do IRL: discuss with their neighbors, change seats, throw popcorn at the screen. And to avoid inaudibility, only up to eight people can chat together while watching the same video contents in one of the 5 kinds of virtual spaces already available: living room, movie theater, performance hall, sports venue, and e-sports room. 

So couch potato goes VR, but that's the only the beginning. You can already watch NBA games on VR, and judging how GAFA joined the sports rights battle, more platforms will emerge. Including for amateur virtual space designers - think MySpace in the age of Google Sketchup and Google Tilt. I'm pretty sure Korea will soon have its fair share of the VR addicts I envisioned in my 1980s short story 'Lautriv'.

A couple of years ago, I was dragged to a hologram K-pop musical in Seoul, and most fans came in pairs or small groups of friends, enjoying the show almost as if it were the same thing. But you wouldn't have Beatlemania-level screams, which I think may happen in a soundproof environment many are used to: the noraebang or karaoke room they book for a couple of hours to let it go full throttle. I bet many of these facilities will add the VR experience, to spice up the karaoke (on stage with your idol), or simply for sessions of oksusu Social VR (or their likes) between friends. PC-bang may evolve differently, with smaller cells, and a focus on VR games and e-sports.

Anyway, you won't know what hits you until it's too late.

mot-bile 2018


IoT as in the 'Internet of Turds'?

If LG U+ got, as expected, the smaller chunk of 5G spectrum in this week's auctions, they sure made a splash with their connected bidet-toilets. 
Let's start with these 5G auctions, where Korea raised 3.6183 trillion won from the 3 bidders, not even 10% more than the starting point of KRW 3.3 tn; just enough to show an illusion of fight. All 3 MNOs claimed 800MHz in the 2.8GHz spectrum, and in the 3.5GHz spectrum, #3 LG U+ got 80MHz compared to 100 for #1 SK Telecom and #2 Korea Telecom
Note that SKT just announced successful tests with Nokia on 3GPP-approved 5G SA (StandAlone), a national first following last December's world first on 5G NSA (Non-StandAlone). You can expect SKT and KT to launch on December 1st (the date the regulator set to allow service) to continue their battle over 5G leadership. They'll probably start on 3.5GHz, at least in the capital Seoul, and key entry points such as Incheon. 
Now about that bidet-toilet thing. 
You first have to understand that many people in East Asia already enjoy electronic systems, complete with water noozles and seat warmers. Here, LG U+ teams up with Inus Bath to add connectivity to the Novita model:

This most essential innovation brings IoT to new territories (the 'Internet of Turds'?). From your smartphone, you can pre-warm your seats, or post-flush in case you forgot to do it. Each member of the family can instantly enjoy their preferred water temperature, pressure, or nozzle position, and you will receive alerts if you stay too long, because no one should be above the loo eternally. 
Mercifully, no cameras are connected so far, but in this over-connected country where last week, 20,000 victims of peeping toms demonstrated on the street, there were already cases of perverts installing spycams in public rest rooms...
In any case, paranoids should worry: LG U+ announced that A.I. will john later. Not Amazon's Echo (who wants more echo in this room, or Alexa sending your personal records by email?), but Naver's Clova: when it's (paper) rolled out, you can voice control this new sentient environment.
The good thing with not being the highest bidder in an auction is that you're flush with enough money to become the highest bidet. 
Will LG U+ rivals enter this fascinating Game of Thrones? 

mot-bile 2018


Once GPON a time in the East

SK Telecom announced their 2.5 Gbps service over GPON (Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network), 5 Gbps and 10 Gbps packages by EOY 2018.

SK Broadband already covers 40% of Korea, and targets 80% by 2020. Showcased in Pyeongchang* and at the recent Inter Korean Summit by KT, 5G shall be launched partly in March 2019 (3.5GHz and 28GHz auctioned), and nationwide in 2022. 

Don't worry about filling the pipes in a country that demands everyday faster services. The traditional mecca of extreme online gaming (MMORPG and esports) is getting addicted to blockchain and bandwidth-hungry services (MelOn HD, Amazon Prime...). If IPTV remains less popular than in France, subscriber bases keep catching up. SKT's broadband and mobile units now claim respectively 4.46M and 8.88M 'Monthly Active Users' (a 25.5% gain YOY for the latter, branded Oksusu).

SKT maintains its leadership over KT for another demanding service, A.I. assistants**: NUGU reached 3M users Q1 2018 (+9.6% YOY - 5M expected EOY), GiGa Genie 'only' 710k. And they are bound to leverage this key entry point in Korean households after the acquisitions of quantum sensing leader ID Quantique ('quantum-safe cryptography' from Switzerland), and the nation's second security service provider ADT Caps.

3M subs for NUGU, SK Telecom's A.I. assistant (presented here by plastic surgery - enhanced artificial assistants)

Anyway, SKT and KT are compelled to boost new streams of revenues: both posted small decreases in revenues following the switch to new accounting norms, and the sword of Damocles that has been threatening to strike them for 7 years might just do that: the Supreme Court confirmed that MNOs can't postpone anymore the slashing of their outrageously expensive plans.

mot-bile 2018

* see "South Cow-rea already cow-nected to 5G". Note that 77.9% of KT subscribers are already on LTE.
** according to them, people using simultaneously smartphones, fixed internet, and A.I. assistants at home will still enjoy more than 800 Mbps over GPON.


Moonshots and Wineyardshots - MWC meets Salon de l'Agriculture

Mobile World Congress 2018 was more about improvements than game-changing innovations.

As announced, LG abandoned the arms race to focus on software upgrades instead of new hardware. Now you can record their ultra-slomo evolution with your Samsung Galaxy S9 (+).

While Sony joins the headjack-free craze (Sony Xperia XZ2), Nokia slides back to Matrix, reviving its iconic banana (8110 via HMD Global).

And by the time Nok-Nok rolls-out a ultra-light 4G network across the Moon with Google and Vodafone, 5G will be all the rage at home.

Anyway, why wait for Audi Quattro rovers  to crisscross Earth's spinoff? VitiRover smart lawnmowers already roam French wineyards. This Saint-Emilion-based startup provides autonomous, solar-powered, A.I.-loaded marvels that clean the place without breaking a sweat. Bonus: they can survive - and even reduce - DNA-altering levels of pesticides.

Note that VitiRover's team also includes a human Robot Shepherd. A refreshing retro touch our scary A.I. era.

mot-bile 2018


CES 2019 - Driverlessly nuts

A power outage at the CES? In the heart of Neon City? 35 miles away from Hoover Dam? And, of all reasons, because of excessive rain? In the Mojave Desert? This is nuts.

Like LG's 65-inch roll-up OLED TV... totally nuts:

And how about ForwardX's CX-1, a driverless luggage that follows you wherever you go? Now if that one doesn't drive airport security people nuts... imagine the mayhem when hundreds of these suitcases roam their halls, and no one can tell who's 'carrying' what...

Can't get nutsier, you think? Consider this: Spartan underwear, radiation-blocking boxers from France, to 'protect your nuts' from harmful waves...

You've been briefed.

So what to expect for next year? The Crotch It, an ankle monitor that punishes convicted sex offenders as soon as they get within range of former victims? A Wonder e-Bra, to fend off potential Harvey Weinsteins, and keep them away from the Internet of Tits? The Locker Room Banner, a semi-A.I.-based app to automatically delete your account each time you post something offensive on social media*?

We'll see. So far, if CES 2018 didn't bring any of the 3 gizmos I expected last year (see"CES 2018: tighten your 2.5 ppm helmets"), we've already been graced with a lighter version of one of them: smart masks from R-PUR ('pure air' in French - yes, we frogs are not just into smarty pants)

mot-bile 2018

* by the way, Samsung built The Wall. A 146-inch modular TV. With Micro LED. Now who will pay for it?


South Cow-rea already cow-nected to 5G

Lazy MNOs usually settle for milking the cow, but SK Telecom is neither lazy, not your usual MNO. And in its latest presentation, the Korean leader suggested to IoT-ize the cow in order to generate new applications and revenues:

LiveCare: "oral implant of bio capsule in cow, extract real-time information through LoRa, provide analysis through Web/app, alert and message to farmer" - that was Korea's version of the classic 'you have two cows' parable.
Of course, LiveCare was only a niche app illustrating the way the MNO intends to leverage its core techno and infra (network, A.I., cloud, data) to boost new business (e.g. IoT, commerce, media).  

A couple of days ago, BT CEO Gavin Patterson called all players to 'build a strong business case for 5G', and measuring bovine farts doesn't exactly sound like the next killer app... unless you replace cows with humans, and alerts with A.I.-picked medical or culinary recommandations customized for your microbiome (expect more A.I. news from SKT, already present with NUGU or Aibril - the latter with IBM Watson -, and recently joined by Hyundai Motor Company, Hanwha Asset Management, and the Canadian Element AI in a USD 45M fund to invest in A.I. and smart mobility).

SK Telecom is already 'building a strong case for 5G', particularly with its rival KT about to showcase its own flavor during the Pyeongchang 2018 olympics. And SKT are not just into testing earlier than others (e.g. recently 4G LTE-5G internetworking, or VR 360 over 5G with Samsung tablet-size device), or even into going commercial earlier than others, but also into building a stronger 5G standard (e.g. recently pushed for 200 Gbps packet swiching), and a stronger technological environment around 5G (e.g. recently 4.8 Gbps WiFi with 802.11ax in Bundang, or 5G-PON / Passive Optical Network distribution).

'Building a strong business case for 5G' will be more fun for marketers. Even if it starts, as usual, like with 3G or 4G, with existing services that will saturate the previous generation anyway, like HD video these days, a booming category if we ever saw one. 

'Building a strong business case for 5G' will also demand a touch of emotion, so I'll finish this focus on SK with their latest ad for 5G. It features an endangered species, Jeju-do's haenyeo (female diver):

mot-bile 2017


Click and mortar v. Click and mortar

Where you live, where you work, and where things happen are not necessarily the same places. Yet, even as technology abolishes distances, major trends tend to emerge from creative ecosystems that are not too stretched.

The model becomes more challenging where real estate and technology bubbles coexist. Will San Francisco ever recover its soul? How long will Berlin or Montreal remain affordable? Artists can hop from Brooklyn to Queens or New Jersey, but can they still feel the vibes when they return to Manhattan?

All majors are building artificial ecosystems around new headquarters, following more or less open patterns (See "Google's Gtown wins over ZeeTown and the Large Apple Collider" after "Zee Talk of Zee Town").

Somehow, these utopian projects celebrate urban failures, a mutual transplant rejection.

If startup ecosystems often play crucial roles in urban regeneration, it's more complex for big players to play god beyond a simple hotspot, such as a Google Campus for instance.

Xavier Niel's Station F is truly monumental, but neither open, nor really connected to its direct neighborhood - how many smaller fishes will fray near this titanic aquarium? how far can it stretch and transform eastern Paris?

Talking about massive concrete platforms... I'm also curious to see how my beloved Seun Sangga will evolve. The city of Seoul wants to turn this whale of a building into a startup hub, leveraging its unique DNA. But can you force it down its throat? Can the fragile ecosystem survive storytelling, even well intended?

One thing seems clear: if good and sound urbanism can foster and nurture innovation, you shouldn't overplan, and you should make space not just for the insiders and outsiders, but also for the fifty shades inbetween.

mot-bile 2017


Comfort zones

Whiffs of déjà vu from Barcelona's Mobile World Congress: a Nokia 3310, a BlackBerry keyboard (KeyOne), and soon a Motorola DynaTAC Vintage Edition?

After sending millions on Pokemon Go quests, Nintendo Switch-es back to hardware.

Google plays its classic from-service-to-device branding gimmick, positioning Google Home + Google Assistant against Amazon Echo + Amazon Alexa.

Google Home had to extend its footprint before Samsung Assistant hits the shelves, and will reach beyond Android to tickle Apple Siri. Rumor (and Android Police) has it Google will be the first multi-user device on the market.

At this stage, it doesn't matter much if the platform remains Google-centric, with at least 9 in-house brands among the fist 30 partners:

out of 30 partners to date, at least 9 belong to google
Nevermind this gizmo: the A.I. behemoth is less venturing into new territories than trying to defend its comfort zone.

mot-bile 2017

* "Pitching Google Pixel in 3 strikes"


CES 2018: tighten your 2.5 ppm helmets

So you came back from Vegas with your LG bendable OLED screen (needed to wrap those smart gimbap rolls), your Hushme mask (needed to give Hannibal Lecter a call), and your Plume Labs Flow (needed a cheese grater that doubled as a air quality monitor).

Hushme mask (gethushme.com) allows you to mask your voice using various sounds (Minions, R2D2, rain, wind...).

Plume Labs Flow (plumelabs.com)

And you wonder what CES 2018 will bring you next year. Here's an exclusive preview of the 3 gadgets that will define the event:

  • Xiaomi 2.5PPM Helmet: after purchasing Plume Labs and Hushme, the Chinese manufacturer created an air filtering mask with an airbag that inflates around your head as soon as nanoparticle levels hit the roof. In this safe bubble, the air is pure, your eyes don't hurt, and no one can hear you scream. 
  • Alphago D-Bunk: this cloud-based A.I. service boosts your messaging and SNS apps, and sorts fake news from verified stories. Or at least it used to until Russia hacked it.
  • Samsung Gear Fit Cuffs: clip the smartwatch on your left wrist, the other end of the handcuff on your right wrist. It beeps and flashes LED rainbows as soon as LEE Jae-yong moves 200 ft away from his cell.

mot-bile 2017


Quick, Draw! Help Google crowd-accelerate Singularity!

ICYMI, Google gamified its A.I. experiments with Quick, Draw!, a game where you have 20 seconds to sketch a subject recognizeable by their system.



Of course, the more people play, the smarter the A.I., and the stronger Big G. A bit like they use Captcha to decypher ancient texts scanned by Google Books, only with countless more applications.

Help Google crowd-accelerate singularity and build A.I. dystopia by playing with its QuickDraw (twitter.com/stephanemot/status/799484363305992192)

Similar games can be imagined in 3D, VR environments (not just for Big G's Tilt Brush), your every stroke or move tracked by eyefluence, and so many completely different kind of games...

Now, playing kid stuff in a sandbox can help grow singularity monsters. 

Yesterday, a philosopher friend wondered if A.I. could create philosophical concepts, but Jorge-Luis Borges already answered the question decades ago. 

Simply by mapping and applying patterns from different panes, you can easily come up with strikingly beautiful concepts and conjectures that could keep experts awake for eternities. 

If you run out of A.I. systems or monkeys, even elephants will do:

Just don't forget to invite once in a while a Magritte to your Quick, Draw! games, or a Woody Allen to your Quick, Think! sessions.

mot-bile 2016


Pitching Google Pixel in 3 strikes

Google unveiled its Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL handsets.

What strikes first is the convergence of communication codes between Google, Apple, and Samsung, confirming the difficulties of differenciating in commoditization times. That said, Samsung has beefed up its human side, Google its pedagogy dimensions, and Apple... well Apple remained Apple.

What strikes next is the focus on image, from the name (Pixel), to the pitch ("highest rated smartphone camera", "Unlimited storage for all your photos and videos"). This is not only a Google Phone, but also a Google Camera, and a boost for Google Photos. The Pixel is marketed almost like a featurephone, with a message more... focused than its competitors, even if Apple did stress iPhone 7's "advanced new camera systems", and even if Samsung's ill-fated but polyvalent Galaxy Note 7 offered new arguments ranging from sensors and lenses to Samsung Cloud.

The third strike comes from Google Assistant. We knew it existed, we knew it had in its DNA the capacity to help you defeat LEE Sedol*, but its namelessness makes it an even scarier A.I. monster, plugged to both your personal environment (controled by Big G), and to Big G's phenomenal reach in queries about anything, anytime, on any platform. Yes, Siri has a name, but its brains have just been purchased by Samsung, who snatched Viv Labs, the startup created by Siri founders.

But if one player has been struck out here, it seems to be - for the moment at least - Andromeda: the OS of Google Pixel is Android 7.1 Nougat, not Google's hybrid Android-Chrome OS. And Pixel was the perfect alibi, since the brand was introduced on Chromebook...

For Google, launching a competitive smartphone was probably more urgent than rolling out its new convergent OS.

mot-bile 2016

* see "Man v. Machine, Garry v. Gary"


The Special G Diet Plan

Mercury News reported that Google paused the roll out of its Google Fiber network across the Silicon Valley, and considered wireless (mmWave) instead of fixed (FTTP) for building connections. Big G purchased last June* Webpass, an ISP operating in 5 markets including the Bay area, and proposing both fiber and point-to-point wireless broadband solutions.

Google can use unlicensed spectrum and get a significant base to test broadband services, particularly for companies. These small, captive cells could become interesting entry points for 5G, without waiting for WAN technos to emerge. 

Will Google Fiber have to rebrand itself? Well you always need some for the backbone. And since Alphabet is also into medical fields, they already know that one fibers can't be digested, and two fibers can facilitate digestion.

Webpass won't be the last one to be wolfed down.

mot-bile 2016

* " Google Fiber agrees to acquire Webpass" (Webpass - June 22nd, 2016)


Now MAP me: Facebook testing OpenCellular

A promising start-up is "Introducing OpenCellular: An open source wireless access platform", "an open source and cost-effective, software-defined wireless access platform aimed to improve connectivity in remote areas of the world", "supporting everything from 2G to LTE".

This Mobile Access Platform prolongs the equally open Telecom Infra Project, and sports the same green-white-blue colors.

Green white blue? Is this humanitarian NGO from Sierra Leone?

Well that's tree hugger green, open source white, and Facebook blue. Spot the oddball. 

Facebook, the control freak of your personal data, wants to be a driving force in next gen wireless through the whole value chain, and Zuck doesn't want to miss a beat (see "Networks: the TIP of Facebook's iceberg"). If Facebook failed at the handset level, they want to be in the loop for future standards.

So their PR provided another picture, less appealing to the great( outdoor)er audience, but more relevant for the core target of developers, who must hop in, chime in, and make this platform the winning proposition for MNOs across the world...

... particularly the ones in developping nations with booming consumer bases and huge coverage issues.

mot-bile 2016


DeepMind Your Language

In Wired's special on "The End of Code", Jason Tanz heralds the end of human programmers ("Soon We Won’t Program Computers. We’ll Train Them Like Dogs").

It's not just that artificial intelligence will be better at coding than humans (what could you expect from the control of the most basic - pun half intended - of all languages?): machines have already started to create their own languages, and Tanz mentions the very 'black box' I feared we should never allow to blossom in my focus on singularity "I'm with stupid".

We're not talking generational gaps, like these teenage codes and languages parents can't decrypt.

We have already surrendered as a species, given up the most elementary level of monitoring. And even if we started training sniffing dogs to spot rogue dogs, we would end up chasing a tail only us would believe to be our own.

mot-bile 2016


Networks: the TIP of Facebook's iceberg

Earlier this year, Facebook gave us a TIP (Telecom Infra Project*) about what could come next for them at the infrastructure level. Most members of the project, starting with Intel, Nokia, SK Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, are also on board of Facebook's much wider Open Compute Project, which also claims top coopetitor Google.

Naturally, Menlo Park wants a front seat for next gen network premieres - typically, early bird SKT is expected to be the first on 5G. But recent announcements*** at the F8 days confirm that the company intends to reach deeper into the value chain to secure and strenghten its leadership, particularly where innovation in network performance can prevent bottlenecks in these pervasive big data / heavy content times.

Terragraph (WiGig WiFi on 60 GHz) proposes ultra efficient W-LAN coverage for dense urban areas. You only need a station every 200 to 250 m. Of course it doesn't provide seamless handover, but a 200 m radius allows you more mobility than your typical hotspot.

Project ARIES (Antenna Radio Integration for Efficiency in Spectrum - MIMO) is more into W-WAN for rural areas. It combines 96 antennas to manage 24 simultaneous data streams, and aims at over 100 bps / Hz compared to 71 in early trials.

Here too, for a fraction of the price of a standard infra...
Could Facebook become a non-2-to-5G MNO, or a player in the game of standards? Not so fast. But an even more competitive value aggregator, certainly.

mot-bile 2016

* telecominfraproject.com
** opencompute.org 
*** "Introducing Facebook's new terrestrial connectivity systems — Terragraph and Project ARIES" (Facebook 20160414) 
