Step aside Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7 is on the way

Wi-Fi 6 has just started arriving for consumer gadgets, including smartphones and laptops. But engineers are already working towards the next iteration of the Wi-Fi standard. The next version will be called the 802.11be and will support speeds of up to 30 gigabits per second.

The change will come in a series of events, beginning with improvements to Wi-Fi 6, which will pave the way for the arrival of Wi-Fi 7 in 2024.

The first expected improvement will give Wi-Fi 6 more capacity, with new airwaves. The second update to Wi-Fi 6 in 2022 will improve its speeds, especially for uploading data like videos from smartphones or laptops. The third update will bring a collection of Wi-Fi upgrades expected in 2024 and known by its technical name of 802.11be or the Wi-Fi 7.

Today’s Wi-Fi uses two radio frequency bands: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The new Wi-Fi 7 will tap into an altogether new frequency of 6 GHz which would provide a huge bandwidth. It will quadruple the speed offered by the current bands. Moreover, Wi-Fi 7 could use all three frequencies together to increase the range, latency, and throughput.

By 2022, the 802.11ax will support uplink multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (UL MU-MIMO). Finally, in 2024, the name will be changed to 802.11be or the Wifi 7 which will offer one of the most complicated inventions still under works. It is called the coordinated multiuser MIMO, or CMU-MIMO. It will have 8 antennas, but all the antennas may not be connected to the same access point. This arrangement will result in a mesh network with multiple access points providing a much more flexible connection and more speed.

High tech companies join the HAPS Alliance, to connect the world

The leading companies of the world from the telecom, technology, aerospace, and aviation are joining the HAPS (High Altitude Platform Station) Alliance. The Alliance aims to promote the use of high altitude vehicles in the planet’s stratosphere to connect the remotest corners of the world by bringing internet connectivity to more people worldwide.

Among those who are joining the HAPS Alliance include Softbank’s HAPSMobile Inc., Airbus Defence, and Space, Bharti Airtel, Alphabet’s Loon LLC, China Telecom, AeroVironment, Inc., Intelsat US LLC, Nokia, Softbank, Deutsche Telekom AG, Telefonktiebolaget LM Ericsson, and Telefónica S.A.

The HAPS Alliance was launched in 2019 when HAPSMobile and Loon formed a strategic alliance to make use of high altitude vehicles.

With so many leading companies joining the alliance, HAPS Alliance will be able to create value by providing telecommunications network connectivity worldwide through high altitude vehicles.

Junichi Miyakawa, Representative Director & CTO of SoftBank Corp., and also President & CEO of HAPSMobile said in a statement: “We are very encouraged that many leaders from across the communications and aerospace industries are joining us in our mission to bridge the digital divide with high altitude vehicles. Together with our Alliance partners, we will lay the groundwork for an ecosystem that fosters HAPS connectivity solutions around the world.”

China’s 5G operations disrupted due to coronavirus outbreak

The outbreak of coronavirus has severely affected many countries across the world with everything from health to business being impacted. The virus has disrupted the operations and hampered the execution of plans which, as a result, has delayed the release of products in many countries. And similar is the situation with China’s plans about the release of 5G technology.

China’s plans to roll out the 5G telecom networks are being delayed keeping in view the prevailing situation in the country due to the coronavirus.

Since January 31, tenders for six big projects have been postponed which include an industrial internet project in Guangdong province, a hospital-related project in Jiangxi province, and a police-related project in Gansu province.

Also, two leading providers of crucial fiber optic cables have headquarters in Wuhan city which is the epicenter of the outbreak and is presently under lockdown.

Like other companies in China, telecom equipment firms and network providers are facing a tough time as travel restrictions have caused staff shortages and hindered the transportation of goods.

One of the two top fiber optic cable makers, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Ltd Co, based in Wuhan, said that it would rely on its plants located in other parts of China to maintain production.

Google’s unannounced experiment with Chrome causes problems

Google’s experiment has caused massive problems across the globe for businesses as Chrome browsers suddenly went blank last week. The problem did not impact all the Chrome users. But many Chrome browsers running on Windows Server ‘terminal server’ setups were affected.

This server setup is common in enterprise networks. Many IT admins from around the world complained that thousands of employees could not use Chrome browsing software to access the internet as the tabs kept going blank.

Google had to reveal that the widespread problem was caused due to its experiment on the stable versions of Chrome which made changes to the browser’s behavior. The search engine giant did not notify either the admins or the users of the changes. Instead, the change was simply introduced.

The change meant that a new feature WebContents Occlusion was included in the browser. The feature suspended Chrome tabs when other apps were moved on top of them to reduce the resource usage when the browser was not in use. The feature had been under testing in Chrome Canary and Chrome Beta.

Google said that it had included the feature in Chrome to get feedback on the feature. But the feature ended up behaving rather badly. Chrome team released a new configuration to fix the issue for all the users.

No more notification permission prompts: Firefox

Mozilla has been shaping its browser in a way that is far more secure and unique from the rest of the browsers. The company earlier this year had announced that they are tackling the issue of notification permission prompts on websites.

Anyone who has accessed a website knows about notification permission prompts. Some websites have a popup that asks if you’d like to receive notifications from the website in the future. And once accepted the users are likely to receive a number of notifications, right from the site’s ads to important events.

This permission prompts can be annoying because it happens on almost every website you visit. Mozilla in its latest software release ‘Firefox 72’ is making sure that these prompts disappear unless you specifically ask for it using an icon that allows you to interact with the website.

Mozilla made this function backed by research that revealed that notification prompts are indeed unpopular among users. The study revealed that almost 99% of them aren’t accepted and 48% percent of them are rejected at once i.e., out of 1.45 billion prompts that were shown to the users, only a mere 23.66 million accepted the request.

Mozilla, thus, points out this reason for replacing the ‘Not Now’ option with a ‘Never Allow’ option to avoid these prompts from the Firefox 70 version.

Microsoft Introduces New Edge Browser Logo

Microsoft unveiled a stylized logo for its Chromium-based Edge browser. The software giant first introduced the Edge icon about four years ago which looked like an improved version of the Internet Explorer logo.

The latest logo resembles a wave and can be brought under the fluent design style of the company’s new Office icons. The logo also reveals the letter ‘e’, but it looks nothing like the old Internet Explorer logo and therefore has a refined look. The logo depicts the company’s vision to move on from its past and advance with the latest design for its Chromium version of Edge.

The latest Edge icon was revealed by the company through an interesting game called Easter egg hunt. Microsoft employees posted cryptic clues to a series of puzzles and images which then led the players to a secret game (edge://surf). The puzzle solvers could witness the new logo once they completed it.

Microsoft is yet to reveal the release date of the final version of its Edge Chromium browser. The company had released a beta version a few months back and also a stable version recently. More information regarding the release date is likely to be announced by Microsoft in the upcoming Ignite conference in Orlando which is happening next week.

Google Introduces Nest Wi-Fi Mesh router

Google has walked into the networking arena with its latest Wi-Fi mesh router known as Nest Wi-Fi. The device can be regarded as a successor to the previous Google Wi-Fi that was introduced in 2016.

The latest Nest Wi-Fi is also much more capable than its predecessor as it can deliver double the speed and has about 25% more coverage.

The Nest Wi-Fi comprises of a router that plugs into your modem known as the Nest Wi-Fi point, it can supposedly cover an entire house. According to Google, a router and a single point are enough to cover almost 85% of homes in the U.S. In case you already own a Google Wi-Fi, it is possible to connect these Nest devices into your existing network.

Google Home App will carry out network management as usual and the app will also help you in a variety of ways like sharing the Wi-Fi passwords with your guests, set device priority, conduct a speed test, create a guest network and also manage multiple homes and networks through the app.

Google has equipped Nest Wi-Fi points with a speaker and a Google Assistant, just so that they can deliver few functions like the Nest Mini. The Nest Wi-Fi can also act as a hub for various smart home devices.

Creator Verification Gets Tougher On YouTube

YouTube has been knee-deep in controversy for a long time now because of its content issues and the company is now tightening its grip on verification badges to examine the issues in a better way.

YouTube has announced that the new policies will be focusing on verifying prominent channels that have a clear need for proof of authenticity. The former company policy was to verify any channel that has more than 100,000 subscribers. According to the company, the changes will be effective from next month.

There is tremendous make-over happening on YouTube. The company is altering the look of verification badges. While earlier it was just a checkmark but now the site will show a gray background behind a creator’s name.

A blog post said, “Through our research, we found that viewers often associated the checkmark with an endorsement of content, not identity,” Jonathan McPhie, a YouTube product manager. He also added that the latest changes were to “reduce confusion about what being verified means.”

Millions of YouTubers were outraged by this action as many of them lost their verified status. YouTube responded to this by tweeting that “If you received an email that your channel will no longer be verified, this was just an advanced notice & you can appeal.”

The latest policy by YouTube comes as various scandals are thrown at the company for recommending content related to extremism and child exploitation. The IT services giant (Google) owned company is now reforming policies to adhere to the newer demands.

Dark Web Hackers Turn to Internet Connected Gas Pumps

Hackers have been long targeting Internet of Things devices as more of these devices become available. Recently, a smart device caught their attention.

Routers were the most targeted device till now but there’s a change in the trend and the hackers are now focusing on an internet-connected gas pump. The latest target was found by the researchers at Trend Micro who analyzed various dark web marketplaces in more than 5 different languages including Russian, Portuguese, English, Arabic, and Spanish.

Reports suggest that there is active participation from the Russian actors with regards to sharing information on how to hack gas pumps. Also, several tutorials are available online on the workings of commercial pumps including programmable logic controllers that are often found in industrial spaces which help in managing the equipment remotely.

“There are a number of additional threat scenarios that could possibly play out. This includes reconnaissance to find out the delivery schedule, extortion that involves blocking the owner’s access in exchange for a certain sum, and even sabotaging the gas pump by adjusting tank limits so that it overflows,” stated Bharat Mistry, principal security strategist at Trend Micro.

A backup plan should be kept and in a functional condition in case the online systems fail. In addition, patches and security updates should be regularly monitored to ward off these hackers.

Deutsche Telekom 5G goes live in 5 German cities

Deutsche Telekom is availing its 5G network in five German cities – Berlin, Bonn, Cologne, Darmstadt, and Munich. The company has installed as many as 129 antennae across the country to make the 5G network happen.

At a recent auction, the telecom company paid 2.2 billion euros for its share in the 5G spectrum. The company is now gradually expanding its 5G network in clusters. The company intends to provide maximum coverage in these five cities to start its expansion. The users of the 5G network will be able to tap into internet speeds of up to 1Gbps.

“We are bringing 5G to city streets in line with our customers’ needs,” explained Walter Goldenits, Chief Technology Officer at Telekom Deutschland GmbH. “We’re starting off where data usage is high and are establishing continuous coverage areas in these places. After all, it’s not just about having 5G show up on the screen – it’s about experiencing the real strengths of 5G from the very start.”

More cities like Hamburg and Leipzig will also benefit from 5G by the end of 2019 as the company looks to install over 300 antennae in Germany by the end of the year. The company in its press release has said that the 5G network is going to cover as many as 20 cities in Germany by the end of 2020.