ICHAPURAM/BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Rain and wind lashed India's east coast and nearly 400,000 people fled to storm shelters after authorities issued a red alert and warned of major damage when one of the largest cyclones the country has ever seen hits land later on Saturday.
Filling most of the Bay of Bengal, Cyclone Phailin was about 300 km (187 miles) offshore on Saturday morning, satellite images showed, and was expected to reach land by nightfall.
The storm verged on becoming a "super cyclone" and was expected to affect 12 million people, officials said.
Muslims and Hindus gathered at mosques and temples in Odisha state, praying Phailin would not be as devastating as a similar storm that killed 10,000 people 14 years ago. Heavy rain pounded coastal villages in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
Phailin was packing winds of at least 220 kph (137 mph) and was expected to cause a 3.4-m (11-foot) surge in sea levels when it hit the coast, the India Meteorological Department said in a statement.
"The storm has high damage potential, considering windspeed," Lakshman Singh Rathore, head of the weather department, said on Friday.
Families trekked through the rain to shelters, television images showed, as gusts of wind snapped branches from trees. Tourists left Puri, a popular beach resort. Officials broadcast cyclone warnings through loudspeakers, radio and television.
"The wind speed is picking up," said Odisha's Special Relief Commissioner, Pradeep Kumar Mohapatra. "Some people were earlier reluctant to move. They are willing now."
In nearby Andhra Pradesh, heavy rain and strong winds pummelled a coastal highway, and left lush green fields sodden with water.
"We are ready to evacuate," said wiry-haired Jagdesh Dasari, 35, chief of the fishing village of Mogadhalupadu, which has 2,500 residents, as the rain poured down.
"If the waves come higher, the whole place will vanish."
London-based Tropical Storm Risk said the storm was already in that category, and classed it as a Category 5 storm - the strongest. The U.S. Navy's weather service said wind at sea was gusting at 314 kph.
Some forecasters likened its size and intensity to hurricane Katrina, which tore through the U.S. Gulf coast and New Orleans in 2005.
It also evoked memories of an Indian storm in 1999, when winds reaching speeds of 300 kph battered Odisha for 30 hours.
This time, however, the Odisha government said it was better prepared. Half a million people are expected to shelter in schools and other strong buildings when the storm hits, officials said. At least 60,000 people left their homes in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh on Friday.
Authorities warned of extensive damage to crops, village dwellings and old buildings, as well as disruption of power, water and rail services. Shelters were being stocked with rations, and leave for government employees was cancelled.
A police official said a rescue effort was launched for 18 fishermen stranded four nautical miles at sea from Paradip, a major port in Odisha, after their trawler ran out of fuel.
Paradip halted cargo operations on Friday. All vessels were ordered to leave the port, which handles coal, crude oil and iron ore. An oil tanker holding about 2 million barrels of oil, worth $220 million, was also moved, an oil company source said.
But the storm was not expected to hit India's largest gas field, the D6 natural gas block in the Cauvery Basin further down the east coast, field operator Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) said.
Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf coast on August 29, 2005, killing about 1,800 people, including many in New Orleans where levees failed to hold back storm surges.
It was one of the six biggest hurricanes - also known as cyclones and typhoons - ever recorded and caused damage of around $75 billion.
(Additional reporting by Sruthi Gottipati and Nita Bhalla; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Earlier this year at CES, Sharp announced a swank monitor with multitouch support and a resolution of 3840 x 2160, or enough pixels to make a 1920 x 1080 Mac Retina.
Even more intriguingly, the display used an IGZO LCD panel. IGZO technology is the screen tech Apple has been rumored forever to start making use of. It could theoretically double battery life on the iPhone and iPad by letting more light through the pixels of the display.
Up until now, Sharp said this monitor would be PC only, but now Sharp is promising OS X support, at some nebulous future date to be determined. We’ll try to keep you posted.
More than a year and a half passed between the introduction of Apple's 2011-model iMacs and the refresh that replaced them late last year, but the changes you got for waiting were reasonably substantial. The computer got much thinner, lost a few pounds, and ran much cooler and quieter than previous models, and it also got a decent internal upgrade courtesy of new Ivy Bridge CPUs from Intel and dedicated Nvidia GPUs.
Less than a year passed between the introduction of the 2012 iMacs and this year's quiet refresh, and the changes are accordingly much smaller. The 2013 iMac's new changes are all internal—slightly upgraded CPUs and GPUs, a new 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter, and a switch from SATA to PCI Express solid-state drives round out a refresh that makes absolutely no external changes to last year's chassis. If you were waiting for a Retina iMac to be released this year, your best bet is to keep on hoping.
Still, we've got the $1,299 base model in for testing. And if you didn't buy a 2012 model, is there any one upgrade that will encourage you to buy a 2013 model instead, or should you be waiting for a more drastic upgrade?
Body and build quality
The 2013 iMac is externally identical to the 2012 model right down to its odd trapezoidal box and its wireless mouse (or trackpad) and keyboard, but we'll recap for those of you with older models. Like last year's iMac, the new model is extremely thin around the edges and bulgy in the back. All of the back-mounted ports remain as annoying as ever to reach around and find, but you get the same number of them as you did last year: one gigabit Ethernet port, two Thunderbolt ports (notThunderbolt 2, mind) four USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and a headphone jack that can also accept input from headsets. FireWire has been dumped entirely from these newer Macs, but an adapter exists if you still need that particular interface. The optical drive is also out.
Enlarge/ The computer is thin around the edges but thick in the back.
Andrew Cunningham
Enlarge/ From left to right: headphone jack, SD card slot, four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, and a gigabit Ethernet port.
The presence of two Thunderbolt ports (and the capabilities of Intel's and Nvidia's GPUs) mean that it's easy to connect up to two external displays to the smaller iMac, something that was difficult-to-impossible back when the computers only featured a single mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt jack. The 12.5 pound weight—about eight pounds lighter than the 2009-through-2011-era bodies—also makes the computer much easier to carry and to tilt on its stand. This stand is stable and reasonably elegant looking, but it's also still limited—you can tilt the display up and down but you can't raise it, lower it, swivel it, or pivot it.
The computer's 1920×1080 display (and the 2560×1440 display in the larger model) looks like the same panel that Apple has been using in the iMacs since they switched to the 16:9 aspect ratio. It's a bright, clear IPS panel that at 102PPI is far from Retina-class, but it still looks decent from what most people would consider to be a normal desktop viewing distance (somewhere around two or three feet away from your face). Colors are bright, contrast is good, viewing angles are excellent, and the glass is much less reflective than in the pre-2012 models. The 2012 and 2013 models fuse the LCD panel with the glass layer that covers it, which is something of a double-edged sword—on the one hand, it enables a thinner display assembly that puts the panel closer to the surface of the glass. On the other, cracking that glass means you're looking at replacing the entire screen, and that's an expensive repair.
Enlarge/ Dual microphone pinholes: one on top, one on the back.
Andrew Cunningham
Like the 2013 MacBook Airs, these late-model iMacs also include two built-in microphones that help with noise reduction. Last year we found them to be a modest improvement over the 2011-and-older models' single-mic setups when chatting or using OS X's dictation feature, and this year's iMac performs similarly. Finally, just like last year, the 27-inch iMac is the only model that retains user-accessible RAM slots (it has four, which support up to 32GB of RAM when fully populated). The 21.5-inch has two RAM slots on the inside (capable of supporting up to 16GB of RAM) that can't be accessed without tearing the machine apart, so if you think you'll want the memory eventually you'll probably want to cough up $200 for the upgrade when you buy the computer.
The 2013 iMac's innovations are entirely interior, and there are four upgrades of consequence: the Ivy Bridge CPUs have been swapped for newer Haswell versions; the 6-series Nvidia GPUs have been switched for an Intel integrated GPU on the lowest-end iMac and 7-series Nvidia GPUs everywhere else; the SATA solid-state drives in the SSD- and Fusion Drive-equipped models has been switched for a PCI Express version; and the dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi has been upgraded to the better-performing 802.11ac.
The CPU
Intel's Haswell architecture increases performance relative to Ivy Bridge running at the same clock speed, but Intel's latest architecture is much more focused on battery life improvements than performance improvements. The huge battery life boost was the most impressive thing about the 2013 MacBook Air and we're hoping for similar gains in the MacBook Pros, but the benefits of Haswell for desktop users are less readily evident (aside from a perhaps slightly lowered electricity bill).
This is the third year in a row in which all the iMacs that Apple offers have come with quad-core Intel processors. Our base 21.5-inch model comes with a Core i5-4570R, which runs at 2.7GHz but can Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz. The R in the model number indicates both that this CPU includes Intel's Iris Pro 5200 integrated GPU (more on that soon), and that it's not a socketed CPU—R-series chips are all soldered to the motherboards and can't be replaced or upgraded by the end-user. We suspect that theVenn diagram of "people buying iMacs" and "people who upgrade their CPUs" looks like two circles that aren't touching anywhere, but it's worth noting. The higher-end Macs include dedicated graphics and use more conventional socketed CPUs.
Comparing this year's base model to the base models from the last two years, the story is very much the same as last year's: Haswell is a performance upgrade over an Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge CPU running at a similar clock speed, but not really so much that you'll notice for most tasks.
The GPU
The graphics processors in most of the iMacs are Nvidia GeForce 700M-series chips like the ones you'd find in laptops. These parts share the same underlying GPU architecture as last year's 600M-series chips, but as we've discussed here, they boost clock speeds enough that they'll generally give you 15-25 percent better performance than comparable last-generation chips.
This isn't true of the low-end iMac that we're reviewing, which is actually a bit more interesting than its more powerful cousins: it uses Intel's integrated Iris Pro 5200 GPU, which makes it the first iMac to use integrated graphics since the low-end 2009 iMac and the first iMac ever to use one of Intel's integrated graphics.
If you read "Intel integrated graphics" and then blacked out from a rage-stroke, stop flipping that table and listen: not all of Intel's GPUs are created equal any more. The Iris Pro 5200 shares its underlying architecture with the HD 5000 that you'd find in a computer like the MacBook Air, but it comes with 128MB of eDRAM integrated into the CPU package that alleviates the memory bandwidth problems that have historically constrained integrated GPUs.
The eDRAM essentially serves as a large cache for both the CPU and GPU—while the GPU still uses the main system memory when it needs to, the cache makes those performance-sucking trips from the GPU to the system memory and back again less frequent. Microsoft and AMD have taken a similar route with the Xbox One, integrating 32MB of eDRAM into the console to help compensate for its slower (but cheaper) DDR3 memory.
The point is, the Iris Pro 5200 is technically an integrated GPU, but it nevertheless offers performance slightly above the dedicated GeForce GT 640M in last year's low-end iMac under both OS X and Windows 8. We've also provided numbers for the 2011 iMac from last year's review for context, as well as the Intel HD 5000 GPU in the 2013 MacBook Air to show how the Iris stacks up against a more "traditional" integrated GPU.
In the Cinebench test running in OS X, the Iris Pro 5200 does much better than the GPUs in its predecessors.
Switching to Windows 8, the Bioshock Infinite benchmark shows that, on average, the Iris Pro 5200 can be as much as twice as fast as the HD 5000. The increased CPU power may also be contributing to this increase, however.
We keep the HD 5000 in the mix and add last year's scores from the 2012 iMac. In Portal 2, performance stays just about level between generations. The HD 5000 is much slower.
Arkham City (which, like Bioshock Infinite, runs the popular Unreal Engine 3) shows us another game where Intel edges out Nvidia.
Like Cinebench under OS X, 3DMark 11 in Windows shows the 2013 iMac outshining its forebears.
Intel's biggest and baddest integrated GPU is usually just barely faster than a midrange dedicated GPU from last year, but that's actually kind of a big deal for Intel. Five years ago Apple was ejecting Intel's integrated graphics from its laptops in favor of better-performing integrated graphics from Nvidia; now the features and performance of Intel's integrated GPUs are good enough that it's starting to replace Nvidia's dedicated chips in desktops. Intel's HD 4000 and 5000 series GPUs (as well as AMD's more recent APUs) have all but eliminated the market for low-end dedicated graphics cards in laptops especially, and while the Iris Pro 5200 has been relatively rare so far, it shows that integrated graphics are only going to continue encroaching on the highest-volume segments of the graphics market.
The Iris Pro 5200's performance also has interesting implications for Apple's Retina MacBook Pros, which are due for a refresh any day now. This integrated GPU's performance is good enough that, in the 15-inch model at least, Apple could potentially get away with marketing the new laptop as having roughly the same graphics performance with much better battery life (both because the Iris would consume less power than the GeForce GT 650M, and because it would free up space on the inside of the laptop that could be used for a larger battery). The graphics performance might actually drop slightly, but the Iris is still enough to drive that Retina display and the benefits might outweigh the downsides from Apple's perspective—something similar happened in the transition between the 2010 and 2011 MacBook Airs, where Apple gave up a little bit of graphics performance in order to give the Airs a huge boost in CPU performance.
At any rate, the lesson for iMac buyers is that despite the move from Nvidia to Intel, the low-end iMac will still give you good 3D performance relative to last year's.
The SSD (and, sigh, the HDD)
We'll begin with the good news first: for iMacs that come with Fusion Drives and with SSDs, Apple has switched from using a SATA storage interface to using a faster PCI Express interface. Apple already made this jump in the 2013 MacBook Air, and since the company tends to use the same components in all of its products when it can, the performance of SSD-equipped iMacs should be about the same. The standard mechanical HDDs in the iMacs still use a SATA interface—our base model has a SATA II drive attached to a SATA III interface.
The bad news is that all four base iMac configurations, which start at $1,299 and run all the way up to $1,999, ship with standard mechanical hard drives by default. The 21.5-inch models come with 5400RPM drives, while the 27-inch models use slightly faster 7200RPM drives. Prices for solid-state upgrades have come down a bit even if they're still well above market prices (adding a 128GB SSD to the 1TB HDD to make a 1TB Fusion Drive only costs $200 now instead of $250 as before, and a new 1TB SSD option has been added at the high end for a whopping $1,000), but none of these iMacs include solid-state by default, and base models are all that you can walk out of an Apple Store with unless you order through the online store first.
Especially in the 21.5-inch iMac, this decision has a much larger impact on general system performance than the slight CPU and GPU upgrades. You can feel it in everything from boot time to app launch time to file copy time—that spinning hard drive is definitely the performance bottleneck here, just as it was last year. We'll use boot time and the QuickBench performance test to compare the iMac and a 2013 MacBook Air with a PCI Express SSD just to give you some idea of the performance gap we're looking at.
That nice, quad-core iMac is going to be faster for CPU-intensive tasks like video exporting and heavy multitasking, but the MacBook Air almost always manages to feel snappier by virtue of having an SSD.
Why Apple can ship a $999 laptop with 128GB of solid-state storage but can't do the same for a $1,999 desktop is puzzling. Since the introduction of the 2010 MacBook Airs the company has been a big booster of solid-state storage, and yet none of its flagship desktops include it as a default option. It's possible that Apple thinks a large drive is more appropriate for a big, stationary desktop than a small SSD would be, but Fusion Drive is a technology purpose-built to offer customers SSD-class performance with HDD-like capacity. The iMac on my desk has a 1TB Fusion Drive in it that's worked flawlessly for almost a year now, and it rarely feels any slower than my SSD-equipped Air.
It goes without saying that you shouldn't buy any iMac without a Fusion Drive configured, at least. Those upgrades start at $200 for all computers, which raises the base price by a not insignificant amount, but the performance benefits are more than worth it.
1.3Gbps of 802.11ac goodness
The 2013 iMac is Apple's second product to get the bump to 802.11ac after the 2013 MacBook Air, but we aren't quite looking at the same configuration here. The MacBook Air uses a two-stream (2x2:2) antenna configuration—since a single two-way 802.11ac stream can net you speeds of up to 433Mbps, the MacBook Air can connect to 802.11ac routers at speeds of up to 867Mbps. The iMac uses a three-stream (3x3:3) configuration, adding another antenna for a theoretical maximum transfer speed of 1.3Gbps (the Haswell MacBook Pros, when they're released, should use this same configuration). This is even higher than is possible with wired gigabit Ethernet, though the normal interference and overhead associated with wireless networking means that a wired connection is going to remain the faster and more stable option the majority of the time.
The worst of OS X's 802.11ac issues were resolved in the 10.8.5 update earlier this month, so buyers with capable routers should get a nice wireless speed bump over the 802.11n iMacs of years past.
We ran two performance tests connected to our AirPort Extreme Base Station, which is capable of 1.3Gbps connections. The first is iPerf, a network testing which measures raw performance without the overhead associated with a file transfer protocol like AFP or SMB. The second is an AFP file transfer test, in which we transfer one 6GB file using the AFP protocol to give you an idea of best-case file transfer performance. For all tests, the computers are positioned about ten feet away from an 802.11ac AirPort Extreme Base Station with nothing obstructing the signal between the two. In all tests, the computers are connecting to a Mac mini server connected to the AirPort via gigabit Ethernet.
Surprisingly, while the 2013 iMac handily beats the 802.11n adapter in our 2012 iMac, it doesn't really exceed the MacBook Air's performance by much despite the presence of the extra antenna. It could be the case that OS X is still having some 802.11ac-related networking issues, but this seems unlikely—even when the file transfer speeds were being held back, iPerf still performed normally.
As it turns out, the third antenna in the 2013 iMac is less useful for its maximum possible performance and more for its range. We moved both the Air and the new iMac about thirty feet from the router and put a wall in between them and ran iPerf again.
Here, the iMac's 802.11ac adapter nearly doubles the performance of the Air's. The third antenna is at least a part of the reason, but we'd also bet that the iMac has more room inside it for a larger, stronger antenna than the Air does.
The iMac isn't a system that you upgrade every year, and its refresh cycle reflects that fact. Every three-or-so years we get a big exterior overhaul, and the rest of the time Apple is content to keep the insides modern without making a big fuss about it. If you liked the 2012 iMac, this year's version is a better take on the same idea. If you hated the 2012 iMac (or certain things about the 2012 iMac, like its reduced upgradeability), Apple has done nothing to assuage your concerns.
Particularly perplexing is the lack of a standard SSD option in an age where most of Apple's laptops include them by default. You can get cheaper and larger SSDs than you could last year and Fusion Drive has proven itself to be a good, reliable way to mix SSD performance with HDD capacity, but even if you're buying the top-end iMac you still have to pay an extra $200 to eliminate the performance bottleneck that the mechanical hard drive has become. Solid-state storage is cheaper than it's ever been, and if there's one upgrade we're hoping for in the 2014 iMacs, that's the one.
The good
Still a nice-looking, well-built computer
Fast quad-core processors and nice IPS panels across the line
Increased graphics performance, even in the Intel-equipped model
802.11ac is a nice addition if you've got a compatible router
Fan noise, heat, and screen reflectivity are all down from pre-2012 models
The bad
21.5-inch model doesn't offer user-accessible RAM slots
No huge performance leaps from last year, which is perhaps to be expected given the maturity of the desktop market
The ugly
SSDs and Fusion Drives are still add-ons rather than standard options, making these iMacs feel slower than they have any right to feel unless you pay for the upgrade
In New York City today, Microsoft announced a pair of new tablets in its Surface range.
Microsoft is sticking to the same basic form factors and concepts that it first demonstrated last summer. Both tablets are iterations of the design we've already seen with the first-generation Surface products. They both retain the trademark kickstand, angular design, and metallic finish. The kickstand has been updated, however, and now supports two positions.
As before, there are two variants: a lower-priced ARM machine running Windows RT 8.1 and a higher-priced x86 machine running full Windows Pro 8.1. The ARM version has lost its RT moniker, now being named simply "Surface 2."
The new tablet replaces the first generation's Nvidia Tegra 3 processor with a Tegra 4 and upgrades the 1366×768 screen to 1920×1080 with better color accuracy. These two changes should address some of the biggest complaints about the first-generation hardware—its weak performance and low screen resolution. The Surface 2 is also thinner and lighter than the Surface RT, with 25% more battery life and a USB 3 port.
Distinguishing the ARM tablet from its more powerful sibling, it will only be available in a "bare metal color." The front surface will still retain its black bezel, but the rest of the case is white/silver.
Surface Pro 2 improves the internals, picking up a Haswell processor, which replaces the Ivy Bridge in the older unit. Microsoft is touting a 75% improvement in battery life. The Surface Pro 2 comes with 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage. The smaller two options come with 4GB of RAM, while the larger two options have 8GB. Beyond that, it looks essentially identical to its predecessor.
Microsoft also announced some new accessories to go with the new tablets. Joining the existing Touch Cover 2 and Type Cover 2 are the Power Cover—a cover containing a battery to help extend the runtime. Microsoft says this will add 2.5× the battery life of the original product. There is also a docking station that adds three USB 2 ports, one USB 3 port, another mini-DisplayPort output, and a gigabit Ethernet port.
The original Type Cover has been replaced by the Type Cover 2. The new version is backlit and comes in pink, blue, purple, and black—it looks like red is gone. The Touch Cover 2 has been improved with significantly higher sensitivity, which Microsoft says should lead to fewer dropped keys. It also supports gestures.
Another cover that's totally out of left field is the "Surface Music Kit," a Touch Cover with a mixing deck instead of a keyboard. All the new Touch Covers are pressure sensitive, so for the Music kit, the harder you hit the Touch Cover, the louder the sound plays.
Microsoft is launching the Surface with promotions for some of its Web services. There's a "Best of Skype" promotion, which gives you one year of free international calls and one year of free Skype/Boingo Wi-Fi cacess, and 200GB of Skydrive cloud storage for two years.
Microsoft will continue selling the Surface RT for $349. The Surface 2 will retail for $449, and the Surface Pro 2 will cost $899. Both launch on October 22nd, with pre orders starting on September 24th.
Are you struggling to play Netflix on a 2Mbps Internet connection? A new cloud-connected router using the same type of multipath technology that Apple put in the iPhone might solve your problem.
Launched this week on Indiegogo, the $199-$289 system from Multipath Networks in Ireland combines connections such as DSL, cable, 3G, and 4G into one pipe. Up to four connections can be used at once.
The idea of aggregating mobile and wired signals in the home is an old one. But it certainly hasn't become commonplace, and Multipath Networks takes advantage of the new Multipath TCP protocol that's used in the iPhone to let Siri switch between Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE quickly and seamlessly.
"Apple claims to be the first to deploy this, but actually we were; we've been doing this for over a year now," Multipath Networks CEO Justin Collery told Ars today.
The company's debut product worked only with mobile networks and was intended for providing more reliable connectivity to emergency responders, Collery said. The latest system is its first intended for home and office use.
One caveat: The router requires a $5-per-month cloud service, potentially introducing latency or privacy and security concerns.
"Under the hood it works in exactly the same way as a regular router, but with multiple Internet connections," Multipath's Indiegogo page says. "The router sends traffic down each interface to our array of aggregating servers. These then put the packets back in the right order and send them on their way. The net result is that data, even a single stream, is sent across all your links. The combined links appear to connected devices as a single, fast, reliable Internet connection, with the speed of all links combined."
Multipath intends to spread out its servers so they're close to most customers. The system still adds one to 10 milliseconds of latency, Collery noted. The servers are needed because "as the traffic is being sent across different operators, it has to be brought back together again into a single stream before going on to the Internet—think of downloading a Netflix movie over two ISPs; the traffic has to be split across them and then recombined," Collery said.
And security? "There is no more or less security than your normal ISP. It's not a VPN. It can be, but that's not what we are selling here," Collery said.
Users will be able to run their own servers on Amazon Web Services if they wish, as Multipath plans to package the necessary software as a free, downloadable Amazon AWS image.
Another limitation of the router is that it only goes up to 100Mbps due to its 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports. A future version could upgrade that with a gigabit port, but since the primary use case is for people with slow Internet connections, 100Mbps is probably enough.
Who’s it good for?
Devoting one's mobile connectivity to normal home Internet use isn't going to appeal to a lot of people worried about data caps. If anything, people like to do the opposite, connecting their phones to Wi-Fi at home to save on data.
However, it could still be useful for people with awful home connections but relatively strong cellular ones. "In the UK and Germany, 33 percent of DSL subscribers can only get 6Mbps or less," Collery said. "In my mind that's not even broadband."
Adding the two together can improve both speed and reliability, helping any Internet application but especially things like streaming video and VoIP calls. The router can be configured to use up your home bandwidth first, thereby limiting usage of cellular data to only those times when you need more than DSL or cable offers.
The router and cloud service operates at between 85 and 95 percent efficient, meaning an aggregated bandwidth of 100Mbps would turn into 85 to 95Mbps in real-world usage, Collery said.
Skype testing.
Phone or Mi-Fi connections can be added to the router wirelessly or with a USB cable. A phone must have tethering enabled to add its bandwidth to the router.
Multiple DSL and cable connections can be added together as well. For example, if you and your neighbor each have a Multipath Networks router, linking them would give you access to each other's bandwidth. Speeds would then improve at times when only one of you is heavily using the Internet.
Collery said he doesn't think this setup would violate most ISPs' terms of service since "You're not selling the bandwidth to each other."
Multipath is trying to raise $30,000. It's got about $7,000 pledged with 30 days to go (although $5,000 of that comes from one very generous donor). Estimated delivery of the technology is January 2014.
While $199 is the cheapest price for Multipath Networks hardware, Indiegogo contributors can also get just the Linux-based router software for $15. The software can be installed on a PC Engines ALIX 2D13, the same technology used in Multipath hardware.
The $199 product is a basic one with three Ethernet ports and two USB ports. For $249, one wireless card is added. A second wireless card is present in the $289 device. This is important since it lets you "use 1 wireless interface to access the router while using the second wireless interface to wirelessly tether your iOS/Android/Mi-Fi device," the Indiegogo page says.
All the hardware purchases come with six months of free access to the network of aggregating servers, which costs $5 per month thereafter.
The router's Wi-Fi connectivity is single-band 802.11n, Collery said. Users can upgrade to dual-band themselves by replacing one of the wireless cards.
Lingeries Fashion Show @ MK & ICC 20th Anniversary
Here is the video of the glorious Lingeries fashion show which was presented at the 20th Anniversary of MK & ICC which was held at Sedona Hotel, in Yangon, on November 19, 2012.
Myanmar: What Future? As Myanmar undergoes democratic reform and economic liberalization, what are the opportunities and challenges ahead? - Furthering political reforms to transition to full democracy - Supporting the rights of minorities and culture of dissent - Building sustainable markets and financial systems
• Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD); Member of Parliament from Kawhmu Constituency, Myanmar • U Soe Thane, Union Minister, Office of the President of Myanmar • Zin Mar Aung, Activist and Co-Founder, Rainfall, Myanmar
Moderated by • Nik Gowing, Main Presenter, BBC World News, United Kingdom
Burma has begun the process of floating its currency, in what's been the strongest economic reform yet since the civilian government took over from the military last year.
The move should bring an end to a divided system of foreign exchange rates in Burma - an official rate and a widespread black market rate.
It comes as supporters of Burma's opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi said she won a parliamentary seat in a landmark election on Sunday, which would allow her to take public office for the first time.
But will the currency float help the Burmese economy? The BBC's Sharanjit Leyl asked Sean Turnell from Macqurie University in Sydney.
In this photo released by Singapore Summit 2013, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivers her keynote speech during the Singapore Summit in Singapore on Saturday Sept 21, 2013. -- PHOTO: AP
SINGAPORE—Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi sketched out her vision for reform and economic growth during a visit to Singapore, saying the transition to civilian rule has been too slow and setting out her priorities for general elections in two years.
"I think we have to question how far along the way this transition process is, or whether it is genuine enough, whether it is stable enough, whether it is strong enough," Ms. Suu Kyi said in a speech Sunday at Singapore Management University. Myanmar's leaders need to be focused "on doing what is right for the country.''
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged the international community to show greater understanding towards the ongoing sectarian clashes in the country’s western Rakhine state, stressing that it is a not a “black-and-white problem”.
“What we would like Asean and the world to do for us is to be more aware of the nuances of the problem, and not just see it as Muslims against Buddhists. It is not that. It is a matter of fear,” she told the Singapore Summit, a two-day gathering of top global business and financial leaders.
“You can help us overcome the fear by giving us your understanding, by trying to go deeper into the reasons why this communal conflict has taken place.”
Sectarian clashes in Myanmar have killed over 200 people in the past year, with the deadliest clashes taking place in Rakhine.
“I think [foreign investors] should wait and see a little, for their own good as well as the country. I think it's not just a matter of potential investments but also a matter of the potential of the country to cope with the investments. […] It's no good having good investment laws if you don't have a good judicial system to make sure the laws are applied.”
Brisbane Times (10 Feb 12) Suu Kyi cites graft in urging business caution
“Economic progress is dependent on more than the fiscal and monetary measures that have been advocated for Burma by international financial Institutions. Such measures will need to be up held by judicial and legislative reforms, which will guarantee that sound regulations and laws will be administrated justly and effectively. We wish to create a political, social and economic environment that will bring ethical, new and innovative investments to our country.”
WEF (26 Jan 12) Aung San Suu Kyi - Annual Meeting 2012
“There are no [prisoners of conscience] in a country that has rule of law. It is also needed if we genuinely want investment in our economy. Investors decide to invest in a country [after] examining whether the country has rule of law. Whether we have a free and fair judicial pillar of the country, we can know the answer just by looking at how politicians are kept in prison.”
Myanmar Times (21 Nov 11) Daw Aung San Suu Kyi calls on govt to ensure of law rule
"I would like to request those who have invested or who are thinking of investing in Burma to put a premium on respect for the law, on environmental and social factors, on the rights of workers, on job creation, and on the promotion of technological skills."
CNN (29 Jan 11) Suu Kyi to Davos: Myanmar must reconnect with world; Irrawaddy (29 Jan 11) Suu Kyi Asks Investors at Davos to Help Burma
"I look forward to the day when there will be a political and social environment that is favorable to a wide range of investments in Burma."
AFP (28 Jan 11) Suu Kyi: Myanmar 'yearns' to join global community
“Some say that the Burmese people have not benefited from foreign investment. To avoid this, the main responsibility remains with the government. If there is transparency, people will know what the advantages and disadvantages are, and they can make a decision. In some cases, we didn’t know how things happened, how agreements were made between countries, what major things were included in the agreements. I think people should be informed about those things. It is not only because of our belief in democracy; there would also be fewer mistakes if people knew things.”
IPS (07 Jan 11) The Lady speaks – Mon Mon Myat with Aung San Suu Kyi
“No, we’ve never said that there should be moratorium or a halt [to economic deals with foreign investors]. What we’ve always said is that there should be transparency and accountability to make sure that, whatever deals there are, that they are to be to the profit, the benefit of the people.”
Mizzima News (01 Dec 10) Aung San Suu Kyi talks to Mizzima
“That has more to do with accountability and transparency than with the actual brokered deals. This is why we say that good governance requires transparency and accountability. It is because the public do not know what is happening to the revenues that we can’t do anything about using them more effectively, for the country in general.”
Mizzima News (01 Dec 10) Aung San Suu Kyi talks to Mizzima
“Of course we'd like economic progress but I think that has to be balanced by what I would think of as accountability. Progress has to go hand in hand with accountability.”
CNN (19 Nov 10) Myanmar's Suu Kyi unveils her vision for her homeland
"Very few people are benefiting out of this situation [...] the companies that are working in Burma have not brought about any sort of transparency."
Reuters (19 Nov 10) Interview - Suu Kyi sees army role in democratic Myanmar
“I think [foreign investors] should wait and see a little, for their own good as well as the country. I think it's not just a matter of potential investments but also a matter of the potential of the country to cope with the investments. […] It's no good having good investment laws if you don't have a good judicial system to make sure the laws are applied.”
Brisbane Times (10 Feb 12) Suu Kyi cites graft in urging business caution
“Economic progress is dependent on more than the fiscal and monetary measures that have been advocated for Burma by international financial Institutions. Such measures will need to be up held by judicial and legislative reforms, which will guarantee that sound regulations and laws will be administrated justly and effectively. We wish to create a political, social and economic environment that will bring ethical, new and innovative investments to our country.”
WEF (26 Jan 12) Aung San Suu Kyi - Annual Meeting 2012
“There are no [prisoners of conscience] in a country that has rule of law. It is also needed if we genuinely want investment in our economy. Investors decide to invest in a country [after] examining whether the country has rule of law. Whether we have a free and fair judicial pillar of the country, we can know the answer just by looking at how politicians are kept in prison.”
Myanmar Times (21 Nov 11) Daw Aung San Suu Kyi calls on govt to ensure of law rule
"I would like to request those who have invested or who are thinking of investing in Burma to put a premium on respect for the law, on environmental and social factors, on the rights of workers, on job creation, and on the promotion of technological skills."
CNN (29 Jan 11) Suu Kyi to Davos: Myanmar must reconnect with world; Irrawaddy (29 Jan 11) Suu Kyi Asks Investors at Davos to Help Burma
"I look forward to the day when there will be a political and social environment that is favorable to a wide range of investments in Burma."
AFP (28 Jan 11) Suu Kyi: Myanmar 'yearns' to join global community
“Some say that the Burmese people have not benefited from foreign investment. To avoid this, the main responsibility remains with the government. If there is transparency, people will know what the advantages and disadvantages are, and they can make a decision. In some cases, we didn’t know how things happened, how agreements were made between countries, what major things were included in the agreements. I think people should be informed about those things. It is not only because of our belief in democracy; there would also be fewer mistakes if people knew things.”
IPS (07 Jan 11) The Lady speaks – Mon Mon Myat with Aung San Suu Kyi
“No, we’ve never said that there should be moratorium or a halt [to economic deals with foreign investors]. What we’ve always said is that there should be transparency and accountability to make sure that, whatever deals there are, that they are to be to the profit, the benefit of the people.”
Mizzima News (01 Dec 10) Aung San Suu Kyi talks to Mizzima
“That has more to do with accountability and transparency than with the actual brokered deals. This is why we say that good governance requires transparency and accountability. It is because the public do not know what is happening to the revenues that we can’t do anything about using them more effectively, for the country in general.”
Mizzima News (01 Dec 10) Aung San Suu Kyi talks to Mizzima
“Of course we'd like economic progress but I think that has to be balanced by what I would think of as accountability. Progress has to go hand in hand with accountability.”
CNN (19 Nov 10) Myanmar's Suu Kyi unveils her vision for her homeland
"Very few people are benefiting out of this situation [...] the companies that are working in Burma have not brought about any sort of transparency."
Reuters (19 Nov 10) Interview - Suu Kyi sees army role in democratic Myanmar
"I would like to appeal to all those present [...] to promote national reconciliation, genuine democratization, human development and economic growth in Burma."
Reuters (28 Jan 11) Aung San Suu Kyi seeks support for democracy in Myanmar; BBC (28 Jan 11) Davos 2011: Aung San Suu Kyi calls for investment
