The Ultimate Christmas Gift for the Techie on Your List

The Ultimate Christmas Gift for the Techie on Your List

Each year at Christmas time it seems there are one or two digital “gotta haves.” Over the years gaming systems have taken center stage more than a few times and the iPad and iPhone remain very popular holiday gifts.  And of course drones seem to be taking over the under-the-tree landscape.  While my suggestion for a gift for the techie on your list still has not yet captured the nation’s attention, it soon will.  It is called the Echo.

It is hard to describe Amazon’s Echo since it does so much.  It is a music player, personal assistant, home automation hub, and much more.  It is as close to the computer aboard the Starship Enterprise as you can get for less than 200 bucks.  So far while it can’t make the cup of Earl Gray tea, it does do a great job of understanding your voice commands.

The device measures about 10 inches high or about the size of a large can of juice.  Inside this small package are some amazing electronics and software.  All of the interactions with the Echo are done with voice commands.  A sophisticated microphone array can detect your voice from across the room even if there is music playing or other conversations going on. 

The Echo connects via your home Wi-Fi to the Internet and also to various devices in your home.  It can turn on your lights, adjust your thermostat, keep track of items on your shopping list, remind you to call your mother on her birthday and play your favorite music.  Of course you can ask it to look for information on Google or another search engine.

The audio quality is outstanding for a device with such a small footprint.  Because it is designed to work with many off-the-shelf peripheral devices, anyone interested in automation or voice command technology will have a grand time figuring out new things to do with the Echo.

The Echo is available from Amazon with a listed base price of $179.00.  Various attachments are required to control lights etc., and must be purchased separately. As of this writing I found that you can still have one delivered by Christmas.  If you have a hard core techie on your list you can’t go wrong giving the Echo this year.

Fiat Lux

 New on ramp to Internet 100x faster than Wi-Fi and uses Light Waves

Some very smart engineers in Estonia are developing a new way to wirelessly access the Internet and making that connection about 100x faster than Wi-Fi.   Most of us are very familiar with Wi-Fi.  Many have a Wi-Fi router at home allowing the connection of several devices to the Internet.  Coffee shops, gas stations, fast food joints and even some city parks have Wi-Fi.  

A Wi-Fi router uses radio waves to connect with your iPad or other digital device.  Since the radio transceiver is low power, the signal is only usable over short distances and the speed of the connection is limited by the band width of the radio signal.

The new technology uses light waves instead of radio waves to establish the Internet connection.  At first reading I was confused that this was seen as a “new” technology.  In reality, we have been using light for decades to send data though glass fibers.  Today the lion’s share of Internet traffic passes through fiber optic networks that use light waves.  The light source is usually a high power laser.  A more careful reading of the reports cleared up my confusion.

This new technology, called Li-Fi, does not require a special laser light source, rather it can use lighting already present in the home, office or even a plane or boat.  It does require the light source to be LED based.  

So imagine a large office setting with hundreds of cubicles.  The Internet signal is sent to all the devices in the room using the same LED lighting fixtures that are used to illuminate the room.  Any device that has an unobstructed path to the light source can have access.   The light waves can provide much faster connections than Wi-Fi.  In fact, the engineers have been able to deliver data speeds of 1 gigabyte or more.  That is about 100x faster than most of us have at home.

Since the light waves cannot pass through walls, Li-Fi will not replace radio based Wi-Fi. Also it will not work outside in bright sunlight. But in certain applications it will be revolutionary.  For example, there is a concern that Wi-Fi based connections on an airplane could disrupt some of the flight systems.  Using the cabin lights for the passengers’ Internet connections would remove that concern.

The roll out of this technology is still a few years off.  It will take making devices able to use the light-based connections.  Today’s Wi-Fi connectivity is standard on most every digital device and soon Li-Fi enabled devices might well be as commonplace.