optical media – Page 3

Cartridges Mean Nintendo Switch Games Will Always Cost More

If you’re old enough to remember the original PlayStation launching, then you’ll know how big of a deal switching to optical media was. Rather than shipping an expensive cartridge full of chips, games were burnt on to less expensive compact discs. It didn’t take long for other home consoles to follow and discs have been the preferred media for home consoles ever since.

With the launch of the new Switch console, Nintendo is reverting back to cartridge media for a home console. Nintendo handhelds have stuck with cartridges ever since the Game Boy launched, but there wasn’t really any alternative. For a home console, though, it poses a big problem in the form of pricing.

Inevitably, cross platform games will be released targeting the Xbox One, PS4, and Switch. You only have to look at listings for several popular cross-platform games to see the challenge Switch developers (and Nintendo) face. If the price for some titles is $29.99 for PS4, on Switch it’s $39.99 (33% higher).

The reason is the manufacturing cost. Optical media products are relatively cheap to mass produce, and regardless of whether you burn 5GB or 40GB to a disc the media costs the same. Cartridges, however, are relatively-speaking much more expensive and Switch cartridges can escalate in price depending on whether you need 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of storage. They also get more expensive per cartridge the smaller the batch ordered.

If you only own a Switch, then the price difference doesn’t really matter as you are stuck paying $39.99. However, many gamers will own, or plan to own, a PS4 and a Switch, much like many have owned a home console and a 3DS. In that case, Nintendo will lose out on cross-platform game sales to the PS4 or Xbox One due to the price differential. The PS4 / Xbox One are significantly more powerful than Switch meaning the same game will inevitably look better and run faster while also being cheaper.

The pricing issue is compounded by the fact Nintendo insists that digital versions of a game offered through the eShop must be priced the same as physical versions. So opting to invest in a large SD card and only downloading games won’t save you any cash.

With time and the continued success of the Switch, economies of scale should see manufacturing costs fall. But for the foreseeable future, Switch games are going to be more expensive than the same game on another platform. In fact, manufacturing costs will mean they are always more expensive to produce than the optical disc equivalent.

Will this impact a publisher’s decision to release games on Switch. Potentially, yes. But Switch sales will be key. If Nintendo continues to sell millions of units then the market exists to make releasing on the platform viable. And the more Switch sells, the bigger the cartridge orders can be, and therefore the cheaper they become.

FTI’s Falcon Media Dupli Line is designed to meet the professional media duplicators needs and a suitable product for the gaming industry. Benchmark and quality control tests prove that Dupli Line products have one of the lowest variability rates throughout the industry, which makes them a perfect solution for media duplication.

SOURCE: PCMag

Stop Worrying And Love The Compact Disc, the format that refuses to lie down…

When the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) released its final figures for 2016, commentators immediately seized upon certain tropes, a few recurring patterns. Vinyl was back, they said – accounting for some 3.2 million album sales. Downloading was over, it followed, with streaming becoming the de facto means of listening to music in the digital environment.

Yet despite 47 million album sales the compact disc was rarely – if ever – mentioned. Sure, the humble CD may have recorded an 11% year on year drop, but let’s put it this way: despite virtually no media attention, despite technology overtaking it, despite record shops remaining out-of-the-way places, the compact disc ratcheted up 47 million sales. That’s almost one per person across the whole of England. That’s a lot of music that nobody talks about.

Of course, there are very good reasons for both sides of this. Firstly, the compact disc itself is an inherently great format.

Launched in 1982, it became the warhorse of the music industry as labels reached their commercial zenith. Vinyl was phased out, cassette never really became the format it promised it would, and the era of the compact disc heralded undreamed of profits – in 1998 the label system reached its titanic bulk, its absolute zenith. It scaled an absolute mountaintop of compact discs.

This flood of money also enabled artists to try new things with the format. Pearl Jam’s 1994 release ‘Vitalogy’ echoed a medical textbook from 1899, fusing imagery and text with outmoded treatises on the nature of life. Eddie Vedder, in fact, was so committed to the idea that an extra 50 cents from the album deal was removed from the band’s end to make it happen.

On the other side of the Atlantic, too, great minds were at work. Spiritualized’s behemoth work of space-rock gospel ‘Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space’ – 20 years old this year – was presented in lavish packaging that echoed the addictions that plagued creative force J Spaceman. Featuring 12 blistered discs, one for each song, the presentation even included faux medicinal advice on their use, and proscribed dosage.

But that’s not all. The CD could be used to ‘hide’ certain tracks, creating wonderful hidden treats for fans. Nirvana smuggled ‘Endless, Nameless’ onto ‘Nevermind’, while even The Stone Roses vastly overblown and absurdly over-hyped ‘Second Coming’ found room for a hidden cut (as if that album needed even more ballast to weigh it down…)

It couldn’t last. With profits flooding in, the music industry channelled its attention to ratcheting up those figures, with the price of CDs going through the roof – searching through charity shop racks now almost feels like peering into an alien world, with long-vanished retailers such as Our Price demanding £14.99 or more for Kula Shaker albums. No wonder the roof fell in.

Napster launched in 1999, ending the music industry’s easy-living 90s in one fell swoop. Profits dropped, panic set in, and a whole series of entertainment companies struggled, and often failed entirely, to adapt. The CD, though, sat through it all – before streaming became viable, before iTunes became the norm, it was sometimes the only thing that kept the music industry afloat, like water wings on a particularly nervous toddler that has somehow made its way to the deep end of the pool.

Perhaps that’s why the compact disc is so unloved. A totemic item of music industry manipulation, it’s also had the misfortune to stand firm, to hold its ground. Vinyl almost disappeared entirely, becoming the occupation of hoarders and record nerds before its resurgence took hold in 2007. The cassette, too, has fallen drastically, with Sony halting production of its iconic Walkman player back in 2010.

The compact disc, though, is still there, still bringing in results. Sold everywhere from niche record shops to Sainsbury’s, it’s ringing in cash registers across the land – even with an 11% drop, 47 million units in 12 months is an imposing figure.

And it’s also a key element of the underground. CD-Rs are easy to smash out, meaning that certain facets of the electronic, noise, and DIY indie scenes are based around the compact disc. It doesn’t take much to make the presentation special, and it’s almost always worth your while – just check out this foldable cardboard sleeve from Scottish group PAWS:

So maybe it’s time to stop worrying and love the compact disc. The CD is the old friend who’s always been there, but you never get around to calling. It’s the solid 7/10 player who never quite gets the match ball. It’s small, it makes pretty rainbow shapes in the sunshine, and if you press pause and then rewind for 30 seconds it might spew out a previously hidden cut.

Of course, they won’t play if you smear jam on them… but then, why would you want to? Compact discs are perfect the way they are.

Source: Clash Music

How to Let Your Media Speak for Itself?

Even though we live in the era of flash-memory, hard disc drives and cloud storage solutions, optical disc still remains number one choice for the offline data distribution and long-term information storage and archiving.

Optical disc - still leading archival tool — Optical disc – still leading archival tool

Just like a good old book, an optical media disc also has a cover that contains the summary of what is recorded on it – otherwise it would be impossible to distinguish two absolutely identical glowing circular pieces of pressurized polycarbonate from each other. A disc printable layer (sometimes called simply “label”) is something that gives a disc personality, lets it speak for itself and identifies what is recorded on it. It is important for this label to be vibrant and colorful to replicate the design that was initially tailored by the publisher, so that the end consumer will be able to understand what type of content is on the disc from the very first glance.

Vibrant and colourful disc label - good way to boost the sales potential of the media — Vibrant and colourful disc label – good way to boost the sales potential of the media

There were plenty ways to create the labels for the media: the most common method was to print the design on circular pieces of paper and glue it to the surface, but times have changed and not it is impossible to glue discs that spin at over 5000 RPM instead of 33 RPM back in the days of vinyl. Some manufacturers even tried to implement a technology of “in-drive label burning”, but the labels made with this technology were typically black and white and very faded.

For over a decade, Falcon Technologies International LLC prioritized its Research and Development efforts on printable surfaces and managed to implement high-tech solutions into its production process. FTI’s wide range of printable layers are designed to meet any professional media duplication industry requirements according to highest standards.

FTI is proud to introduce its brand new SMART GLOSSY printable layer – a surface that is able to illustrate your personalized graphics and labels brighter and shinier than ever before. FalconMEDIA Smart Glossy printable discs are perfect to create customized, long-lasting, ultra-vivid design disc labels. Our Research and Development team have invested significant resources to tailor this brand new technology to allows you to have superior image definition, color saturation and vivid quality of printed graphics.

Key Features of the Product:

Superior ink absorption and faster ink drying printable surface (best in class)
Better glossiness surface delivering full color, glossy photo quality printing
Excellent color whiteness
Consistent printing across the full surface giving excellent uniformity
Long lasting print surface
Excellent water resisitant quality makes the printable surface free from scratches, smudging and smearing in wet conditions
High yield on inkjet printer (economic ink consumption)
Excellent Black/White Contrast with economical ink saturation setting
Wider compatibility on all standard professional inkjet printers
Good handling characteristics to ensure smooth operation with leading robotic duplication and publishing systems

To conclude it would be fair to note here that in media duplication and distribution business it is very important to select the right supplier, that is able to ensure high quality of the optical media and compatibility with a wide range of mass-printing equipment.

Critical Role of Data Archiving for the Financial Institutions

Finance is an excessively regulated industry, with many moving parts and data that must be monitored and reported in order to stay protected and compliant with all regulations. One of the most important aspects of regulatory compliance for banks and financial organisations is record keeping and archiving electronic communication data. With the right tools and plans in place, archiving compliance does not have to be a daunting task.

Financial institutions generate a lot of data, which has to be archived by law.

Brokers, dealers, investment advisors, lending agents, futures and transfer agents, and businesses like mortgage companies, credit unions, banks, hedge funds, private equity firms, exchanges, commercial and retail banks, lenders and insurers, payday lenders, foreclosure relief services and debt collectors are all required to capture, monitor and archive business related communication data for review, audits, eDiscovery, litigation, and compliance.

But how do you become compliant? Let’s just jump right into the What, Why, and How of archiving compliance for banking and financial organisations.

Compliance with data archiving regulations is vital prevention of cyber crimes.

In short, a financial institution of any kind should be archiving all business related electronic communication data.

Email has been around long enough that just about everyone realizes the need to have a complete and easily accessible email archive. But you should really be archiving every bit of electronic communication data created by your organization. This includes social media, instant messaging, and content created on mobile devices.

The most obvious reason to archive emails and other business communication data is that your business is regulated and thus, mandated to do so.

Another thing that has to be archived - corporate e-mails — Another thing that has to be archived – corporate e-mails

Another reason why you should archive, that isn’t obvious at first, is data leakage. If you have proprietary data, customer account, transactional or confidential information, you are obligated to make sure that it isn’t shared, either purposefully or accidentally. The use of email, social media, instant messaging, and mobile devices increases the ease at which your employees could share this type of data. Couple that with the fact that the line between personal and business communication is blurred on corporate mobile devices. In addition to data leakage, you need to guard against insider trading, inappropriate financial advice, and stating personal beliefs about a financial investment or trade as fact. Having an archiving solution provides you with protection against these threats by giving you oversight. This oversight on employee communication data, coupled with an effective communication policy, will not only discourage bad behavior, but will encourage proper behavior according to established policy. Your employees will know that, according to your policy, everything they communicate is being stored and can be accessed for review.

As you can see, almost every commercial entity produces and accumulates large amounts of various data on a daily basis, so the “archival question” is becoming more actual nowadays and will become even more critical in the future. Data storage and archival solutions in the age of “informational revolution” we live in are required to provide not only the big data storage and rendering capacities, but also ensure the integrity and accessibility of data for years, decades and centuries.

art4 Falcon Technologies International LLC’s Research and Development team have created a solution that complies with the archival needs and requirements of the financial institutions and government entities. Our FalconMEDIA Century Archival CDs and DVDs with golden and platinum reflective layers showed outstanding results during the internal and third-party benchmarking tests: data stored on these professional archival discs stays accessible and integer for more than 500 years – timeframe that is enough to archive data for almost 7 future generations of the humanity.
Source: GWAVA

Falcon Technologies International LLC Celebrates 11th Anniversary

Falcon Technologies International LLC have celebrated its 11th anniversary on November 13th, 2016. Since the company launch in 2005, we have managed to build a great team of specialists to develop and manufacture the highest quality of optical media products available in the market today. Marking the beginning of second decade on the global market, FTI is looking forward to further development and growth of its worldwide presence and remaining at the cutting edge of product development and quality assurance in the field of optical media.

On behalf of the FTI Management Team we would like to thank all of our clients and partners worldwide for being with us all these years!

GITEX Technology Week in Dubai

In search for future technologies that can enable companies to achieve efficiency and cost effectiveness for business? Well, the 36th Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (Gitex) provided just that.

This 5 day event opened its doors from Sunday 16th October, 2016. It was the largest ICT exhibition in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, that took place at Dubai world trade centre. The event was inaugurated by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council.

So, what was the Gitex technology exhibition all about? This event showed live demonstrations of future generation technology solutions from various government and international companies that can transform Middle East businesses. Key industry verticals of marketing, healthcare, finance, intelligent cities, retail, education and energy were discussed by industry leaders.

Over 200 investors and influential tech investment companies from Silicon Valley, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including SoftBank Group International, 500 Startups, and many other venture partners arrived in Dubai to explore, evaluate and potentially fund start up businesses with talent. These ventures also included globally giant investors like Facebook, Dropbox and Spotify.

Key highlights included a large indoor VR activation powered by Samsung logo, Game-changing tech from 4,000 solution providers including AR, VR, AI, Wearables, Drones and more. GITEX Startup Movement examined the global startup movement featuring 350+ breakthrough startups from 52 countries. Customized networking programmes were also on offer for startups to discover how global contemporaries have been there, done that and created an impact.

In today’s era of technology, there is an ever increasing need for entrepreneurs to harness technologies that can enable companies to achieve efficiency and cost effectiveness. FTI has always believed that a strong culture of innovation, in all areas of the company, is an essential contributor to business success. FTI prioritize R&D and technology over cost, as we firmly believe that these functions are critical to ensure our products represent the best quality within the optical media industry.

In line with new innovation for business and services Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) showcased a smart streetlight system at GITEX 2016. According to Eng Maitha bin Adai, CEO of RTA’s traffic and roads agency, there are three systems showcased at Gitex this year and this combination of systems will help sustain green economy requirements by reducing carbon emissions. These systems include the Central Wireless Road Lighting Control System that sets multiple synchronized timetables for dimming streetlights. “A new feature in the smart lighting system is a tentative WiFi service installed in Dubai Water Canal at Sheikh Zayed Road.

RTA also displayed high-definition pedestrian detection camera systems with a twist. These new generation cameras produce pedestrian statistics in terms of number, sex, and age group.

Dubai Customs‘ Smart Virtual Agent initiative was also showcased at GITEX 2016. This venture represents a smart channel for communication with customers, which allows their queries about customs services, procedures and regulations to be answered more efficiently. Without the need for any physical employee the Smart Virtual Agent is an intelligent tool which operates 24/7. This cost effective measure helps efficiently redirect resources to other duties by reducing support cost. The self-improving platform utilizes Dubai Customs’ database and memory of similar cases to answer customer inquiries.

Many GITEX visitors had the opportunity to try out the Smart Inspection Glasses on display at the Dubai Customs stand. These tech heavy glasses facilitate containers’ field inspection, as customs inspectors can browse the customs declaration and x-ray images of the shipment simultaneously as well as its risk level. Inspectors can submit inspection reports using either the virtual keyboard or voice input feature.

Furthermore Dubai Customs showcased 8 happiness-led initiatives and innovations under the umbrella of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation pavilion. Other innovations included the Authorized Economic Operator, Smart Inspection Lab, Smart Customs Route, Bags Smart Customs Inspection System and the Endangered Species Exhibition.

Five seminal trends have caught the eye at this Gitex event namely; Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), Biometrics, 3-D Printing, Mixed reality and drones. With artificial intelligence on the rise and the need for huge amounts of data to be stored, the progression and development of cloud storage is on the horizon. Cloud storage is a cloud computing model in which data is stored remotely on servers accessed from the World Wide Web, or “cloud.” Storage servers are built on virtualization techniques all maintained, managed, and backed-up online.

The technology world is increasingly realizing that Optical Digital Media is a safer way to store data compared to cloud technology solutions – this is evidenced by multiple data breaches where personal photographs and other information has been hacked and distributed to the public, and by the fact that Facebook has publicly stated that they have chosen to store their data with Optical Digital Media rather than cloud.

Falcon Technologies International (FTI) leads the way with regard to Optical Digital Media security and memory technology, and is conducting potentially ground-breaking research in this field with academic partners.

Cloud Storage Leaks – A Serious Issue Affecting Personal Data Security.

Smart cloud-based storage technologies such as Apple’s iCloud, Google’s Drive, Dropbox and many others available out there have become part of our daily activities, both in our personal and professional lives. It is certainly very convenient to have all your files stored somewhere “in the cloud” and accessible from al the devices connected to the Internet (well, literally any device – everything is hooked up to the web nowadays – right?) It is certainly a great technology that makes our life so easier, but in the euphoria of excitement we maybe forgot about one of the major issues with “clouds” – their security. The area where most of the consumer-oriented cloud-based storages is still very vulnerable.

Cloud-based storage is usually an array of hard discs connected to a high-speed Internet channel

On August 31, 2014, a collection of almost 500 private pictures of various celebrities, mostly women, were posted on the 4chan image board, and later disseminated by other users on websites and social networks. The images were believed to have been obtained via a breach of Apple’s cloud services suite iCloud, but it later turned out that the hackers could have taken advantage of a security issue in the iCloud API which allowed them to make unlimited attempts at guessing victims’ passwords. On September 20, 2014, a second batch of similar private photos of additional celebrities was leaked by hackers. Less than a week later, on September 26, a third batch was also leaked.

The leak prompted increased concern from analysts surrounding the privacy and security of cloud-based services such as iCloud—with a particular emphasis on their suitability to store sensitive, private information.

Due to a targeted attack, tens of celebrities became victims of hackers.

Apple reported that the leaked images were the result of compromised accounts, using “a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet”.

In October 2014, the FBI searched a house in Chicago and seized several computers, cell phones and storage drives after tracking the source of a hacking attack to an IP address linked to an individual named Emilio Herrera. A related search warrant application mentioned eight victims with initials A.S., C.H., H.S., J.M., O.W., A.K., E.B., and A.H., which supposedly points to stolen photos of Abigail Spencer, Christina Hendricks, Hope Solo, Janette McCurdy, Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Emily Browning and Amber Heard. According to law enforcement officials, Herrera is just one of several people under investigation and the FBI has carried out various searches across the US.

A more recent incident happened in the UK, where one of the major tabloids reported that it was offered private images featuring the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister Pippa Middleton. It was said that the images also feature Duchess’s children, Prince George (the future King of England) and Princess Charlotte.

The Police are investigating the case, their main lead being iCloud account hack. It is also said that the leak includes approximately 3000 private photographs that were stored on Pippa Middleton’s iCloud account.

Keeping your sensitive data safe - the only way to prevent being hacked. — Keeping your sensitive data safe – the only way to prevent being hacked.

As you can see from the facts and the events described above, cloud-based storage solutions are certainly not the most reliable data storage solutions. They are very flexible and accessible from any device, but it is important to keep in mind that sometimes they may be accessed by unauthorised parties, that may use sensitive and private information against its holders.

One of the reasons why offline data storage is still used today is that some information sources are containing data that should be stored offline due to security reasons. Private images, spreadsheets with secret data, classified investigation files and many other kinds of sensitive information will never be accessed by any hacker in the world if it is stored on optical disc that is locked down in the safe. There is no way it could be accessed, unless the disc is in physical possession of the person that wants to access the data. And physical access to the information is easier to control.

Data Archiving Architecture: Finding a Perfect Balance of Storage Mediums.

Data archiving has always been a challenge both for the enterprises and manufacturers of data storage solutions. The basic laws of thermodynamics tend to have the effect of deteriorating data storage capacity in the long run, so it is important to understand the needs of each individual data archiving project to be able to choose the right storage system based on the appropriate technology under the proper environmental conditions. That should be also combined with relevant migration and replication practices to improve the safety and accessibility for the extended periods of time.

The most common means of data archiving today are flash memory, hard disk drives, magnetic tape and optical discs. Data storage architects usually use one of these technologies, or their combinations, when designing their systems.

Let’s try and take a closer look at these technologies.

Flash memory got really popular in last 10 years.

First consider flash memory in archiving. At the 2013 Flash Memory Summit Jason Taylor from Facebook, in a keynote speech, presented the idea of using really low endurance flash memory for a cold storage archive. According to Marty Czekalski of Seagate at the MSST conference, flash writing is best done at elevated temperatures while data retention and data disturb favor storage at lower temperatures. The JEDEC JESD218A endurance specification states that if flash power-off temperature is at 25 degrees C then retention is 101 weeks—that isn’t quite 2 years. So it appears conventional flash memory may not have good media archive life and should only be used for storing transitory data.

HDD-based storage systems are good for so-called "hot" archives, where data needs to be easily accessible. — HDD-based storage systems are good for so-called “hot” archives, where data needs to be easily accessible.

Hard disk drives are often used in active archives because the various hard disk drive arrays can be continually connected to the storage network, allowing relatively rapid access to content. Hard disk drive active archives can also be combined with flash memory to provide better overall system performance. However hard disk drives do not last forever – they can wear out with continued use and even if the power is turned off the data in the hard disk drive will eventually decay due to thermal erasure (again we run into the enemy of data retention, thermodynamics).

In practice, hard disk drive arrays have built in redundancy and data scrubbing to help retain data for a long period. It is probably good advice to assume that HDDs in an active archive will last only 3-5 years and will need to be replaced over time.

Less active archives where data is stored for longer periods of time will be interested in storage media that can retain the information stored on them for an extended period of time. There are two common digital storage media that are used for long term cold storage applications – magnetic tape and optical discs.

Let’s look at these two storage technologies and compare them for long term cold storage applications.

Magnetic tape cartridge developed by IBM

Magnetic tapes used for archiving come in half-inch tape cartridges. The popular formats used to day are the LTO format supported by the Ultrium LTO Program, the T10000 series tapes from Oracle/ StorageTek and the TS series enterprise tapes from IBM. Modern magnetic tapes have a storage life under low temperature/humidity storage conditions and low usage of several decades and currently native storage capacities per cartridges as high as 8.5 TB.

When not actively being written or read, magnetic tape cartridges can sit in a library system consuming no power. Digital magnetic tape is thus a good candidate for long-term data retention and has a long history of use in many industries for this application.

Gold layer on Archival CDs/DVDs allows to store media for centuries

Optical storage has also been used for long-term data retention and environmental stress tests indicate that the latest generation of optical media should have an expected life-time of at least several decades. FalconMedia Century Archival discs are actually able to store data for hundreds of years, thanks to special gold and platinum reflective layers, that are used in their construction. At the Open Compute Project Summit in January 2014 Facebook, presented a 1 PB optical disc storage system prototype with 10,000 discs. When Facebook started the actual exploitation of the system it actually reduced company’s storage costs by 50% and the energy consumption by 80% compared to their previous HDD-based cold storage system.

Ken Wood from Hitachi Data Systems at the MSST Conference presented research results that proved hypothesis that the migration/remastering costs for 5 PB of content over 75 years is much less for an optical system with the media replaced every 50 years rather than more frequent tape and HDD replacement.

A lot of digital data has persistent value and so long term retention of that data is very important. In an Oracle talk at MSST they estimated that storage for archiving and retention is currently a $3B market, growing to over $7B by 2017. Several storage technologies can play a role in an archive system depending upon the level of activity expected in the archive. Flash memory can provide caching of frequently used or anticipated content to speed retrieval times while HDDs are often used for data that is relatively frequently accessed.

Magnetic tape and optical disks provide low cost, long-term inactive storage with additional latency for data access vs. HDDs due to the time to mount the media in a drive. Thus depending upon the access requirements for an archive it may be most effective to combine two or even three technologies to get the right balance of performance and storage costs. As the total content that we keep increases, these considerations will become more important to drive new generations of storage technologies geared toward protecting valuable content and bringing it to the future.

The Importance of Quality Control: Observations from Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Case

One of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers recently got themselves in a tricky situation that is very hard to manage at the moment, both logistically and PR-wise.

Two weeks ago, Samsung had no other choice but to create one of the biggest global handset recalls in the world. This was caused by 35 registered cases of exploding phones, or phones catching fire during charging. Galaxy Note 7 was launched on August 19th, and as of today, nearly 2.5 million phones are to be returned to the manufacturer – a major drawback for the Korean technological giant, that severely undermines its effort to push its phone up the value chain.

35 cases of battery self-explosion - definitely unexpected and unpleasant surprise for Korean giant — 35 cases of battery self-explosion – definitely unexpected and unpleasant surprise for Korean giant

It wouldn’t be such a big deal, but we all know about the so-called “dominoes effect”.

Other Samsung products, such as recently released Galaxy S7 Edge, and soon to be presented Galaxy Tab S3, are facing problems as well. Since all of them are assembled on the same factories as Note 7, consumers will no longer associate them with terms “trendy” or “reliable” (most likely, these terms will be substituted with “exploding batteries” and “poor quality” deep inside the consumers’ minds).

The US Federal Aviation Administration has already started discussions on the topic of whether to prohibit the in-flight usage of mobile devices. Samsung gets questioned every single day on whether the Note 8 model will be safe, there is always the chance that the Note 7 case will push FAA to prohibit the usage of mobile devices during flights.

A good lesson to learn: one should never ever underestimate QC and QC

It is truly regrettable what happened to Samsung; in the long run this failure can result in a major brand image decline with a further global sales drop, a mistake that will cost Korean giant a lot. This case brings us back to the production stage, one of the purposes of which is to avoid such negative outcomes via quality control and quality assurance.

Quality control emphasizes testing of products to uncover defects and reporting to management who make the decision to allow or deny a product release, whereas quality assurance attempts to improve and stabilize production (and associated processes) to avoid, or at least minimize, issues which may potentially lead to the defects in future.

FTI factory worker visually inspects randomly selected disc

Falcon Technologies International emphasizes the quality of its products and therefore allocates a large portion of its resources in quality control and quality assurance. For over a decade the company strives to deliver reliable and long lasting optical media to the market and so far the quality of its products is beyond doubt.

When it comes to data storage, it is important to keep in mind that a data carrier’s reliability is crucial for its integrity and longevity and this is why FTI ensures that every single disc produced by the factory is a storage device tailored to protect and store data with a 100% error-free rate.

Samsung’s battery failure is a good lesson to learn for everyone in the technology and consumer electronics market – it always better to spend more time and focus on quality control, rather then lose the track of things driven by the blind efforts to catch up with your competitors.

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DISCLAIMER: The above article is about Samsung case study which is used as an example of the importance of QC/QA procedures. It was published to stress out the importance of these processes. One of the core values of FTI is Quality and Reliability and we have used the Samsung Case to emphasize once again that FTI learns lessons from the other’s mistakes and it is one more argument in favour of proper QC and QA procedures which should be always on the top of any production company’s priority list.

Headphone Jack: Reliable Technology or a “Wired” Alien in the World of Wireless Technology?

People who are used to hooking headphones up to their smartphones could soon find themselves searching for a non-existent connector. Rumour had it for more than 6 months now, and finally it was confirmed to be true: Apple presented an all-new iPhone 7 last week, and guess what? Engineers from Apple’s home in Cupertino said “Fare thee well!” to the 3.5 mm audio jack connector.

"We believe in wireless future" - Apple says — “We believe in wireless future” – Apple says

Now, since Apple is undoubtedly the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer, all the other market players will follow this example and soon the era of wired headphones may be over (just like recent end of VHS tapes era).

However, the sad thing is, the headphone jack – is a very good connector. It’s a universal interface that can be still plugged into your smartphone, your tablet and computer, your TV, hi-fi, radio, Game Boy or console. And it has been used widely for decades, more or less replacing the larger 1/4-inch jacks (which dated from the 1870s, originally used for manual telephone exchange) since the 1960s for all but specialist applications, such as electric guitars and some more powerful amps.

Originally jack was developed for manual telephone exchange systems back in 1870s

As smartphones have become the primary music device for a whole generation and more, most headphones spend the majority of their time plugged into these pocket computers. But now the jack’s dominance is being contested.

Several smartphone manufacturers have started shipping handsets without 3.5 mm sockets even before Apple’s move with iPhone 7 last Wednesday. For example, Lenovo’s new modular Moto Z shrinks the headphone socket for a dongle that’s plugged into the relatively new USB-type C socket in the bottom. China’s LeEco also dumped the socket, while chip giant Intel is actively encouraging others to kill off the analogue 3.5mm socket in favour of USB-type C.

Most of the smartphone manufacturers are likely to follow Apple's move — Most of the smartphone manufacturers are likely to follow Apple’s move

According to Android Authority Blog, moving from analogue to digital connector may be both positive and negative in certain aspects. Moreover, the article published on the news portal states that it is expected that both options will sit side by side in the market for the foreseeable future and it is still too early to say that 3.5 mm jack will be fully dumped as a technology.

Why would Apple and other smartphone manufacturers dump the handy, helpful, user-friendly headphone jack? There are several reasons. The Lightning port in the bottom of an iPhone is already capable of outputting audio, and is needed for power, so if one of the two has to go to save a little bit of space, the 3.5mm jack gets the boot.

Chief marketing officer of Jaybird (wireless headphones manufacturer), Rene Oehlerking is sure that the days of the analog headphone jack are over. He believes that this technology has always been like a ghost from the analogue past in the world of digital technology and it is exactly the same interface that used to be plugged into with famous Walkman players, that were first introduced back in 1979.

Walkman changed the way we listen music long before iPod took the stage.

Even though there are different, sometimes even opposite opinions on the future of 3.5 mm audio jack interface, it is obvious that this technology will eventually reduce its presence on the mass market over the next 5 years. But there is absolutely no doubt, that it’s authority will stay untouched in music-recording and movie-production industries, where quality of sound monitoring and mastering is essential.

Very similar situation is with optical media. Realistically speaking, CDs and DVDs are gradually moving from mass-market to niche-industries, such as data archiving, sound and video production, etc. These industries still preserve commonly-considered “outdated” formats, since their reliability is under no question.

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For example, video-production and music recording studios still tend to use high-end optical media, such as FalconMedia Premium Line, to store big volumes of sound and video materials. It is cheaper and safe, since optical media does not require any constant electricity supply and has a way more extended lifespan.

As a conclusion, it is not necessary to run after latest inventions and get the new technologies implemented immediately after their introduction. Sometimes old, but tried-and-true things happen to be way more reliable and safe.