1) I don’t have a Harman JBL Charge unit of to test my concern yet, so this KemptonTestLab - Yellow Flag Caution note is based on my review of FCC filings and understanding from my previous “Review of six Harman/JBL Flips“.
2) Yellow Flag Caution: I did a FCC ID search using Grantee Code: API Product Code: JBLCHARGE to downloaded all 12 of the FCC filings for the JBL Charge (full list) to take a quick look of what kind of Bluetooth antenna it is using. Note: I encourage you to do the FCC ID search yourself and share your findings in the comment.
The fact that the Charge seems to be using the same faulty 1st generation JBL Flip antenna concerns me greatly. I have enough concerns (just to be safe) that I am issuing a Yellow Flag Caution to tell people be careful and make sure they check their units and see if they have any Bluetooth problems. If you ask me, I would much rather see the more robust 2nd generation Flip antenna being implement and used inside the Charge instead!
Harman JBL might be able to get away with using the faulty 1st generation JBL Flip antenna inside the Charge but I won’t know until I put the Charge under the very rigorous testing performed in KemptonTestLab!
Remember: KemptonTestLab: Only best products pass our tough tests!
Harman JBL Flip 1st gen antenna vs 2nd gen antenna
The six Harman JBL Flips in KemptonTestLab
Harman JBL Charge antenna - Yellow Flag Caution
3) As usual, I expect the JBL Charge to make great sound like the JBL Flip if you hardwire them. And the spec for the Harman JBL Charge seems quite awesome on the surface quoting the JBL promo document, ”10-watt portable stereo speaker with a high-capacity 6,000mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery, a built-in bass port and wireless Bluetooth® connection“
4) Let me point out that if the Charge is playing music directly from the device being charged (e.g. a phone), then the Bluetooth problem is not much of a concern because the transmitting devices (the phone) and the receiver (the Charge speaker) are right next to each other!
March 15th update: I read that YouTube user “6FeetDeep4U”‘s JBL Charge’s Bluetooth seems to be performing very well. I would love to see a test video made (and have suggested that). If 6FeetDeep4U does make a test video and embeddable, I would share it here and possibly revise my comments/”watch” temporarily until I’ve got a chance to find and test a JBL Charge myself in my own KemptonTestLab to benchmark against the other JBL Flips I’ve tested!
After all these years, I still remember the thrill in taking my first year UT Comp. Sci class in 1987 with prof. Cook! And it remains an honour (and bragging right) to have taken the famous third year CSC364 Computability and Complexity class with prof. Cook and seeing him proved to us 3-satisfiability and taught us P v. NP, etc. I am truly excited for prof. Cook!
Last week, I asked prof. Kelly Gotlieb “Father of Computing in Canada” for his thoughts about some giants in computer science, here is what Kelly has to say about Steve (video clip).
“What drew you to this field – and to this particular focus? I enrolled as a mathematics graduate student at Harvard in 1961, thinking I’d concentrate in algebra. Computer Science did not yet exist as a discipline. After taking a course in `logic and computation’ from Hao Wang, my future advisor, I switched fields. My PhD thesis was inspired by a question posed by a pioneer in the field named Alan Cobham: Is multiplication (of large numbers) intrinsically harder than addition? Part of the challenge was to formulate this as a precise mathematical question.
Why U of T? I joined the faculty of the computer science department at U of T in 1970. This was one of the world’s first CS departments, and Tom Hull, the department chair, had a powerful vision for its future. He already had recruited some aspiring young faculty, including my close colleague Allan Borodin, who continues to be a pillar of the department. It helped that Toronto is a good sailing venue on Lake Ontario, and sailing was (and is) a major hobby for my wife and me.
What advice would you give to a student just starting out in this field? You’ve made a good choice. The possibilities are boundless.“
Via this UT page, see more media coverage about the 2012 Herzberg Prize at these links below:
This is the second (eps 02) of a series of extensive chats with Professor Emeritus C.C. Kelly Gotlieb, (Wikipedia) “Father of Computing in Canada”, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. In this video episode (as oppose to audio recording only in episode #1), we further discussed Google Driverless Cars and Google Glasses in a bit more details, and a few other topics. (I will try to provide a time code key when I have time later or if someone can help me with providing a time code key to the interview.)
P.S. Incidentally, I am happy to claim credit for suggesting Kelly to setup a Google+ account and then also helped him to setup his computer this morning so that we were able to conduct a successful Live Broadcast using the Google+ Hangout On Air technologies using its YouTube engine! It puts a smile on my face in helping the man who helped bought the second electronic computer (a Ferranti machine for $300,000) in the world in 1951 to use Google’s cutting edge technologies to broadcast live from his and my home!
This is an extensive interview with Professor Emeritus C.C. Kelly Gotlieb, (Wikipedia) “Father of Computing in Canada”, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Feb 2013 interviewed by Independent reporter Kempton Lam KL: Kempton Lam KG: Professor Emeritus C.C. Kelly Gotlieb
Table of content (with time codes):
0:00 KL: Introducing Professor Emeritus C.C. (Kelly) Gotlieb, “Father of Computing in Canada”, University of Toronto
0:29 KL: My question about Google Driverless Cars. Three US states already has law permitting testing of Google Driverless Cars. Talking about California governor signed the bill, “SB-1298 Vehicles: autonomous vehicles: safety and performance requirements” into law.
2:07 KL: Bill SB-1298 allows Google to test the Google Driverless Car provided Google pays a $5 million insurance, and provided there is a driver in the car.
2:21 KG: “That’s what I expected.”
2:35 KL: My concerns were concerns raised by Kelly in an earlier speech of his.
2:47 KG: listing some of the concerns he has with concepts like Google Driverless Cars. “United States is a very litigious society.”
3:12 KG: Google Driverless Car gets into an accident, whose to blame? And who can you sue? The person who wrote the program? Google who authorize the car? Car manufacture? The person who is in the car? Or all of the above? […] Lots of questions to be asked when failure happen. Read the rest of this entry »
KemptonTestLab: Only best products pass our tough tests!
Review Scores for Harman JBL Flip:
Sound alone: 9.5/10 1st generation Flip Bluetooth antenna: ranging from 1/10 to 4.5/10 2nd generation Flip Bluetooth antenna: 7/10
In this article I will focus on the two brand new Harman/JBL Flips with new enhanced antenna design (Flip #5 & #6 in my set of six Flips), freshly made from Harman/JBL factories in China and express couriered to me. I want to thank Andy, Global Product Line Manager of Harman Lifestyle in kindly arranging the new units to be shipped to me for testing. And special help from Chris, Senior Director of Brand Marketing of Harman International in connecting me with Andy. Without their help, I am sure my Harman/JBL Flip experiences would have been even worst!
So I won’t repeat many of the points I made in “Review: 4 JBL Flip #Fail Wireless Speaker (Bluetooth + Sound) using Logitech Mini Boombox as Benchmark“.For example, you can read what I wrote about the original antenna design and the new enhanced antenna designs for the JBL Flips (with pictures). Here are links to the raw FCC filings and a pix of the original and new antenna design in case you are very technical and want to go straight to the sources anyway.
To be direct, I had fully expected the two new Harman/JBL Flips would be (should be) flawless. So I have been extremely disappointed again to see such a wide variation between two Flips! Watch the above review video again to see for yourself. Yes, Harman/JBL Flip #6 performed close to flawlessly, in fact very close to (but not quite as good) as the Bluetooth of the Logitech UE Mobile (see benchmark video). (update: I’ve performed additional tests on the Harman/JBL Flips #5 #6, and have discovered some additional problems. See my update at the end for a video of the test and some brief notes.)
The Flip #5′s performance was weaker in comparison to Flip #6. Why can’t I expect Harman/JBL to delivery better results simply be as good (not even “better than” but just “as good as“) as what others can do effortlessly?
I don’t want to draw conclusion from a sample of two Flips with the new antenna design because that will mean a defective rate of 50% on the production process. Was it workmanship, was it faulty Bluetooth chip, was it bad wiring, was it bad antenna component, did the wire come loose in the shipping process? I don’t know. But what I know is that any of these should not have happened.
Some people who left comments in my articles or YouTube videos attack or insult me personally, I just laughed them off. For one thing, there are some people will little expectations from their Bluetooth speakers. I, on the other hand, have seen how great distance with solid transmission that the magical Bluetooth speakers can perform if the manufacturers have done the right design, assembly, production jobs in their Bluetooth components (e.g. Logitech UE Mobile).
I don’t want to repeat what I said on camera in the concluding last bit of my review video, but I think it is fair to say Flip #5 (plus Flip #1, #2, #3, and #4) fell very very short of what I would expect from a major brand name like Harman/JBL that has a supposed track record built from years of excellent products and services. Since we are talking about brand reputation here, it is ultimately left in the hands of the like of Chris, Senior Director of Brand Marketing of Harman International, and other senior executives to decide how best to resolve these problems.
Serial Number Cutoff (SNC)
Quite a few readers and YouTube commenters have asked me what is the Serial Number cutoff (SNC) for the Flip with new antenna design so they can exchange for a “good” one without being frustrated more by needing to return/exchange/refund? I’ve asked Harman/JBL repeatedly for the SNC without any success. Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Sarbjit Sarkaria (Sarb) is my long time super smart friend and former colleague at MDA where we both worked on the Transport Canada large scale software project CAATS (Canadian Automated Air Traffic System). Here is a long ago tidbit of information that even Sarb may have forgotten but not me. You see, Sarb was also the super forward-looking smart person who introduced me to the then little known research search engine Google years before it becomes popular. I remember at the time DEC’s AltaVista was the popular search engine that I used frequently.
For the record, the follow is how Seagate promotes the Momentus XT Hybrid.
“SSD Performance, HDD Capacity, Affordable Price.
Momentus® XT solid state hybrid drives (SSHD) fuse the blazing speed of SSD with the high capacity of a hard drive. Powered by Seagate Adaptive Memory™ technology, SSHD dramatically improves boot times and application speed, unleashing your system’s performance.
Boots and performs like an SSD1 Up to 3× faster than a traditional HDD1 Installs like a typical hard drive, and works with any standard laptop and major OS Upgrade performance and capacity in an older laptop: Mac Upgrade Bundle or PC Upgrade Bundle“
I have absolute problem with the promotional claim of “Upgrade performance and capacity in an older laptop:” because not all laptop (specifically mine) does not work with the Momentus XT Hybrid as I bought it off the shelf.
I wish I had the opportunity to know you before you left us. In the words of George Bernard Shaw,
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
You were one of the brightest & most unreasonable men we had. With your sad & tragic passing, it is up to us to carry on your work and do our part.
2013 Jan 17 update re: Twitter #PDFTribute to Aaron:
- Washington Post video interview with Eva Vivalt, the woman behind the campaign, tells us why she launched it, “Aaron Swartz honored with #PDFTribute“
Inspired by all the TEDxHongKong chatters I had last nightwithsomeattendees, I’ve finally done my version of top nth TED videos that inspired me. So here is my baker’s dozen (12+1) of TED and TEDx talk videos that I love and enjoy over the years. Some are popular and some are not.
May be we share a few common ones and we can chat about them in the comments. And if you see a few new ones that you haven’t watched, thats cool too and we can chat in the comments. And may be most important of all, please do share some of your fav! I love to check them out and hear why you love them!
In no particular order, the following are my baker’s dozen (12+1) tweets of my favourite TED & TEDx videos (with links added):
My friend Iain recently completed his undergraduate degree in Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology at the University of Calgary. I learned from his Facebook page that he is a member of cool UC iGEM 2012 team. Check out more info on their Wiki page, http://2012.igem.org/Team:Calgary
iGEM: ”A team of undergraduates competing in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition held by MIT. We build microbes to solve complex real world problems.”
Google announced its new Nexus 7tablet this morning at its Google I/O 2012 conference. The Nexus 7 tech spec (for the price of US$199 (C$209)) is very tempting for new and existing tablet users. In the bottom of this article, I’ve included an edited and annotated specification highlighting my views of the machine.
Looking back, when the Waterloo Ontario based Canadian Research In Motion (RIM) first released its PlayBook in April 2011, if it had come out with a price like C$209 (US$199), it would have a chance to shake up the competitive landscape for the tablet market. Unfortunately, RIM‘s “same as iPad” price of $499 and under powered machine was a weak and underwhelming launch from day one.
I think the $25 Google Play in store credit is large enough an amount that many potential buyers will consider it meaningful, relative to the price of the machine, and they may see the machine as $25 cheaper. The $25 credit is a pretty good way to get people to start using the Google Play store! Getting people to enter their credit card information and start using the store is the hardest first step of all.
SCREEN
7” 1280×800 HD display (216 ppi) [K: looks good in the demo]
Back-lit IPS display
Scratch-resistant Corning glass [K: Corning glass is good. The new Corning Gorilla Glass 2 would be better but I am sure that cost more money.]
1.2MP front-facing camera [K: I wish there is a back camera as well but if I must have a front camera for any video conferencing like G+ Hangout or Skype] SIZE: 198.5 x 120 x 10.45mm [K: looks comfortable to hold but have to have one in my hand to see for sure]
WEIGHT: 340g [K: OK, it is about half the weight of an iPad. To be far, its screen size and viewing area are both smaller than an iPad]
WIRELESS: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth [K: Good spec]
MEMORY: 8 GB internal storage, 1 GB RAM [K: Enough for me but since 16GB model is only reasonably $50 more, may just go with the 16GB model]
USB
Micro USB BATTERY: 4325 mAh (Up to 8 hours of active use) OS: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
CPU: Quad-core Tegra 3 processor
FEATURES: Microphone, NFC (Android Beam), Accelerometer, GPS, Magnetometer, Gyroscope [K: all pretty cool]
Rancourt said the discovery of a plentiful and reliable source of stem cells represents a great alternative to embryonic cells, the use of which is hotly debated.
With current methods, it takes one million adult cells to create one stem cell.
“In this new, finely tuned bioreactor, we are able to make 10 million ‘safe’ stem cells from 800,000 adult cells in 12 days,” said professor Rancourt, who is also deputy director of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health.
The researchers create the low risk stem cells by cultivating adult cells without the cancer gene ‘cMyc’, they said in a release.
“We are the first team to prove that we can use the bioreactor to efficiently make stem cells that then become mice without cancer,” said Krawetz.
The next stage will be to use the discovery to put human cells into the new bioreactors to design treatments for arthritis, Rancourt said.“
The full unit is about $20,000 including transmitter. According to DJI’s sales spec, the drone’s takeoff weight: 6kg, load weight: 2kg, ~16 mins max @ 6kg weight & 10Ah 6S battery. The drone is available end of April 2012. The remote control with screen (?) is available in about 3 months.
The 2012 National Association of Broadcasters Show from April 16th – 19th was truly an awesome experience for me. I will write another post to talk about the many new friends I met, I consider them “old” friends because I’ve been hanging out with them over the months, and some since July 2011!
In the mean time, let me get share with you a few of the interesting cool products I saw at NAB Show 2012.
It is refreshing to see the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) innovatively create and launch the MintChip Challenge to solicit ideas, software apps submissions and discussions from the public. At the same time, I find it very troubling to see the core security basis of the MintChip system has not been released for public review and discussion. In fact, here is the official RCM line in this forum discussion thread,
“While we appreciate your interest in the physical chip’s trusted hardware, public-key infrastructure and encryption methods, we are not in a position to release that information at this time.“
Well “… not in a position to release that information …”, really? I can appreciate the “coolness” in seeing interesting apps and use cases, but security has to be the foundation of MintChip and other similar products, without a properly reviewed, fully inspected, time-tested cryptographic system as a solid foundation, the rest of the “cool apps” & interesting use cases will not be of use to anyone.
“The problem with bad security is that it looks just like good security. You can’t tell the difference by looking at the finished product. Both make the same security claims; both have the same functionality. Both might even use the same algorithms: triple-DES, 1024-bit RSA, etc. Both might use the same protocols, implement the same standards, and have been endorsed by the same industry groups. Yet one is secure and the other is insecure.
Many cryptographers have likened this situation to the pharmaceutical industry before regulation. The parallels are many: vendors can make any claims they want, consumers don’t have the expertise to judge the accuracy of those claims, and there’s no real liability on the part of the vendors (read the license you agree to when you buy a software security product).”
“Using innovative technology, for which the Mint has prototypes and five patents pending, MintChip uses a secure chip to hold electronic value and a protocol to transfer it from one chip to another.“
What are in these “prototypes”? How are they tested and verified? How much of the crypto system are kept in these pending patents and how much will remain part of the “trade secrets”? Security through obscurity is a very bad idea.
Of course, in the minds of RCM, they may think the $52,000+ MintChip Challenge prize money is totally worthwhile in exchange of the hundreds of developers’ time and effort. At the same time, if project MintChip fail due to flawed security in the crypto system, the credibility of Royal Canadian Mint will unfortunately be tarnished. So the price is the $52K and the Mint’s reputation!
I urge the Royal Canadian Mint to publish the technical details of the MintChip cryptographic system and invite the security community to properly review and inspect the whole system to ensure it has a solid foundation to avoid wasting people’s time and, more importantly, maintain the Mint‘s hard earned credibility.
““Just arrived at the ocean’s deepest pt,” Mr. Cameron said in a Twitter message earlier on Sunday. “Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can’t wait to share what I’m seeing w/ you.”
Mr. Cameron’s vehicle is unique among submersibles, its vertical axis meant to speed its descent and maximize time on the bottom. His goal is to explore the dark seabed for six hours, taking pictures and extracting samples of the fauna, before returning to sunny realms. Mr. Cameron, 57, practiced yoga to train for what is likely to be about nine hours of keeping his knees bent and body largely immobile.
Five people have died in submersible accidents over the decades, and Mr. Cameron said the risks he faced were acceptable given the testing that his craft’s parts have undergone and its backup gear for such critical systems as electrical power and life support.”
“In a stroke, James Cameron has upended the field — literally and figuratively. A man known for imaginative films (“Titanic,” “Avatar”), he has reinvented the way that people explore the deep ocean. Read the rest of this entry »
Congrats to Rob Malda, founder and former editor-in-chief of Slashdot, for being appointed as Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large of WaPo Labs, a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company. Looking forward to see what amazing things Rob will do at WaPo Labs.
RT @emmgryner: OMG just got off the phone w @Cmdr_Hadfield who signed off saying "see ya when I get back to Earth"...and I got chills 1 week ago
RT @WilliamShatner: I watch @Cmdr_Hadfield 's Space Oddity video last night and I have 2 words for him: "SHOW OFF!" I'd even look good floa… 1 week ago
RT @emmgryner: I am going to bed blown away by all the feedback and love re @Cmdr_Hadfield's Space Oddity. So proud to be a part of it. Wow… 1 week ago
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