Connected World

Will these be the quickest movie downloads ever? South Korea to slash film download times to one second

Having to wait for films and games to download could be a thing of the past, at least for those living in South Korea. The government has announced plans to introduce superfast mobile internet that will allow users to download and start watching a film instantly.

The South Korean government announced this week that it is going to invest $1.5bn in the development of mobile technology that’s 1,000 times faster than the best services available at the moment.

The proposed 5G technology, which will improve upon current 4G technology, will allow users to download full-length films in one second.

For customers this will mark an almost total elimination of waiting times when wanting to download a movie. While it should also be possible to use the greater internet capacity for running multiple applications and background updates while

South Korea is the latest interested party to begin researching the next generation of mobile internet. Samsung is currently at the forefront of development and announced a breakthrough in technology last year.

However those eager for a more connected world will have to wait for a few years yet as the South Korean government have said if all goes to plan a trial 5G service should be in place by 2017. A full commercial service is intended to be in place three years later.

Sceptics of the faster speeds will question the time it will take to upgrade systems, with 4G in the UK taking a long time to be implemented by mobile networks.

EE was the first company to start providing a live 4G network in the UK, which was switched on and launched at the end of October.  The network is available in 160 towns and cities across the country but coverage still remains patchy in areas – with approximately 70% of the country covered by the end of 2013.

Other competitors started rolling out their coverage in the months after EE but some lagged behind. Judging by the time it has taken for the 4G network to be adopted in the UK, including the lengthy bidding processes for a share of the network, it could be a long time after 2020 before 5G is introduced.

Image courtesy of Ariel da Silva Parreira.
Connected World

Why has Google spent $2bn on a smoke alarm company?

Google is expanding its tech empire with the £2bn ($3.2bn) purchase of Nest – a home technology company.

The staggeringly expensive purchase is bound to cause a stir in the race to use gadgets to enhance and make our lives easier.

Nest is currently leading the way in developing products to automate the home. It has two products on the market and hundreds of filed patents for future development.

The company claims its flagship thermostat is intuitive and will learn your habits after you set it manually a few times – it could intelligently warm the house before you get home from work.

Google’s buy is the latest in the ever-lucrative ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) movement, which is seeing automation of everyday tasks in an attempt to make our lives easier.

In the run up to acquisition the search giant will have looked at its competitors and realised it was falling behind in the automation stakes.

LG is already ahead of the curve having released its smart fridge, which will send a text message if you are out of milk. Meanwhile Microsoft has been working on a project since 2010 that aims to simplify connections between the management of electronic gadgets in the home.

For Google it is important to be seen as at the forefront of home technology and innovation. The willingness to stump up £2bn for a company not many people will have heard of shows how much value it places on automating our lives.

Products such as Google Glass, the wearable headset, give an indication of its ambition to embed technology into everyday life.

But the latest innovation isn’t the only consideration for customers when they’re deciding on what level of responsibility to give computers. Privacy issues continue to be raised about the amount of data we are giving companies about our lives.

Telling Google and Nest what time the heating is turned on (and off) lets them know about our routines, tells them how much time we are spending out of the house and indicates how much energy we are using. The more data about our lives the companies have the easier it is for them to target us with advertising.

While we are all for technology making our lives easier it’s reassuring that Nest co-founder Matt Rodgers quickly jumped to address privacy concerns writing on the company’s blog: “Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services. We’ve always taken privacy seriously and this will not change.”

Image courtesy of Nest.