In Sunday’s segment on Sky News Australia (Weekend Edition with Jaynie Seal) we looked at Elon Musk’s offer to help restore internet services to tsunami ravaged Tonga.
Musk said on Twitter: “This is a hard thing for us to do right now, as we don’t have enough satellites with laser links and there are already geo sats that serve the Tonga region. That is why I’m asking for clear confirmation.”
But Musk is right about the difficulties in getting Starlink to provide internet coverage over Tonga at this point. We discuss the reasons.
UNDERSEA CABLES V SATELLITES
Satellite is a great backup and for some it is the only option for internet access and communications. But undersea cables are faster, carry more data and are more reliable. Satellite still needs base stations connected to a network. Satellites are also susceptible to atmospheric interference. The difference between Tonga and larger population hubs is redundancy. If a cable breaks coming into Australia the data flows on another cable. Tonga has one cable connected to Fiji.
Tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Facebook/Meta are investing billions in undersea cables linking major hubs. We discuss the benefits of both technologies.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL FOR PARENTS
As we head into a third year of pandemic uncertainty – we look at some tech bargains for home office setups for parents ahead of school starting. The LASER 5-in-1 combination pack comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, wired headset, webcam 1080p|30fps and a mouse pad. Although it has a RRP of $99 AUD I found it going for $49AUD at Officeworks.
Tablets are big for education and TCL’s TAB 10S is good value at $399 AUD RRP. It features a solid chipset for great performance, 64GB of internal memory that can be expanded, intelligent eye protection and TCL’s outstanding NXTVISION Display. The 10-inch TCL TAB 10S offers a portable learning and entertainment experience for kids and adults/ Standard inclusions of a Stylus Pen and Flip Protective Case.
FUTURISTIC BMW CE 04 ELECTRIC SCOOTER
Any day now we’re expecting BMW’s futuristic electric scooter to hit the streets.
Officially unveiled last year (been talking about for 5 years) the BMW CE 04 has an estimated range of 131km. A full charge is approximately four hours – 20 minutes .. quick charge option is one hour – 40 minutes. It has an SOS button, USB ports and phone connectivity. A 10.25-inch colour screen with integrated map navigation and it can reverse.