Cellphone-related car crashes were up for the third straight year in the United States and now account for more than one in four crashes, according to the National Safety Council.The nonprofit council created by Congress in 1913, a few years before cellphones came onto the scene, has based its latest report on crash stats from 2013. Its numbers involve crashes involving drivers who are texting or talking on either handheld or hands-free phones. The Council estimates texting-related crashes rose from 5% to 6% while those involving talking on phones stayed at 21%, for a total of 27% of the 5.7 million crashes in 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Maybe I don't get out enough, but I haven't seen too many Apple Watches in the wild yet. The first 2 I saw belonged to fellow IDG Enterprise editors, who were wielding them at our recent offsite editorial meeting. Both gave "so far, so good" reviews to the devices. The third one I spotted in the wild was at a big concert in Boston this past weekend and the wearer made quite an impression on those in the vicinity. Aside from sunglasses, the only apparel he wore above his waist was the Apple Watch with blue wristband. He was the only shirtless guyI remember seeing at the event, which attracted a mainly college/20-something demographic that I sense this gent was not a member of.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
How could Apple resist buying a company with technology dubbed iGPS? It fits right in along with the iPod, iPhone and iPad, no?
While Apple doesn’t feel compelled to announce small acquisitions that the SEC doesn’t force it to disclose, news outlets this past week revealed that Apple has indeed snapped up a Bay-area GPS-focused company called Coherent Navigation that launched in 2008. Ironically, that company has fallen off the map, ditching its web presence, and revealing on its LinkedIn page that it has ceased operations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
University of Utah researchers are touting an engineering breakthrough that they say could have supercomputers working at the speed of light within three years and other computers including mobile devices doing the same sometime after that.The University's Menon Research Group, led by Associate Professor Rajesh Menon, specializes in the intersection of nanotechnology and optics, and has a good track record of commercializing its work. MORE: 10 cool network and computing research projectsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
University of Utah researchers are touting an engineering breakthrough that they say could have supercomputers working at the speed of light within three years and other computers including mobile devices doing the same sometime after that.The University's Menon Research Group, led by Associate Professor Rajesh Menon, specializes in the intersection of nanotechnology and optics, and has a good track record of commercializing its work. MORE: 10 cool network and computing research projectsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The first trailer for the new "Steve Jobs" movie starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs and Seth Rogen as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has hit the web, and it's pretty intense even though it's all dialogue.The film is slated to arrive in U.S. theaters on Oct. 9, four years after Jobs died.Apple enthusiasts are hoping the film, which was originally going to be directed by David Fincher and star Christian Bale, will be a major upgrade over the Ashton Kutcher "Jobs" movie from 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered the commencement address to the George Washington University Class of 2015 on Sunday, May 17. He reflected on negative and positive influences in his life, from Gov. George Wallace to President Jimmy Carter to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, urged students to find their direction and to make a difference in the world. Here's the transcript from his talk as well as the video, which is below.
Hello GW.Thank you very much President Knapp for that kind intro. Alex, trustees, faculty and deans of the university, my fellow honorees, and especially you the class of 2015. Yes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Do you think of your iPhone more as a phone or a camera? The latter might wind up being more true for many if the latest rumors about what Apple will bring to iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 come to fruition.
Two well-respected Apple watchers this past week indicated that the next iPhones will likely boast 12 megapixel cameras with smaller pixels designed for higher quality photos. The past few models of the iPhone, going back to the 4S introduced in 2011, have had 8 megapixel cameras.
Pixel Party
IHS China’s Kevin Wong, referring to the next Apple smartphone as the iPhone 6S, “confirmed” via his sources that a 12MP camera is on the way, according to the G for Games site.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM’s Andy Thurai didn’t quite put the words into former RSA CTO Deepak Taneja’s mouth, but did prompt him by asking at the start of a TIE Startup Con panel in Cambridge, Mass., earlier this month whether Internet of Things security is a “time bomb ready to explode.”Taneja responded that technology is advancing at a rate that’s outstripping enterprises’ ability to secure internal and cloud resources, and then along comes IoT in the form of all sorts of networked sensors and gadgets. “Organizations aren’t spending that much on security. It’s increasing, but it’s not enough and IoT only makes it worse,’ he said. “So it is a time bomb. “To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Given that Apple sold 61 million iPhones in its most recent quarter and that the iPhone 6 Plus now dominates the U.S. market for phablets with 5.5-inch screens or bigger, you might think Apple could coast for a spell, and that rumors of the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 would be overkill. But no, the rumor mills cranks along.Your Brain on iPhone 7
Noka Productions
Some people are really into the iPhone, and the filmmakers at Noka Productions think the iPhone 7 could literally be into you.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown/NetworkWorld
TIE Startup Con "Unicorn" panel (L-R) Moderator Deepak Sindwani of Bain, WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey, Actifio CEO Ash Ashutosh
Unicorns are all the rage these days, and we’re not talking about the ones in fantasy stories or on your kids’ bedspreads. The unicorns that people at events like last week’s TIE Startup Con (formerly TIEcon East) are agog over are private companies with valuations of $1 billion or more, such as co-working office space provider WeWork and data virtualization company Actifio, whose founders talked shop during the opening panel at the Cambridge, Mass., get-together for entrepreneurs and investors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The National Football League's long-awaited Investigative "Report Concerning Footballs Used During the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015" concludes it is "more probable than not" that New England Patriots personnel violated league rules and that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was not in the dark about it."Based on the evidence developed in connection with the investigation and summarized in this Report, we have concluded that it is more probable than not that New England Patriots personnel participated in violations of the NFL Playing Rules and were involved in a deliberate attempt to circumvent those rules," the so-called Wells Report concludes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Tech pundits and Apple fanboys/fangirls have shared their views on the new Apple Watch in recent weeks, but The Fine Brothers bring you the only review you really need to see: A seven-and-a-half-minute YouTube videos in which kids have their say.This is a twist on the usual Fine Brothers videos, as they usually try to stump today's youth with yesterday's technology, as they did here with Walkmans ("Video makers torture kids with unexplained Walkmans"). One kid says he's speechless upon identifying the Apple Watch, but the rest are certainly not....To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New man in chargeImage by Shutterstock/CiscoCisco’s choice of Chuck Robbins, Senior VP of Worldwide Field Operations, as the company’s next CEO came as a surprise given that two Cisco presidents were seen as frontrunners for the job. But a look at the 49-year-old Robbins’ background might explain why he is being given the reins of this $47 billion networking company. He’s not just a sales guy…To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Terry Johnston/Flickr
Just as I was deciding between going with an Apple Watch tattoo or one of the old Fantasy Island TV show star Tattoo on my wrist, comes confirmation from Apple that ink on your wrist indeed can much up heart rate readings on your new Apple timepiece. Oh well, back to the iPhone 7 rumor rollup for me...To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Terry Johnston/Flickr
Just as I was deciding between going with an Apple Watch tattoo or one of the old Fantasy Island TV show star Tattoo on my wrist, comes confirmation from Apple that ink on your wrist indeed can much up heart rate readings on your new Apple timepiece. Oh well, back to the iPhone 7 rumor rollup for me...To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There are plenty of places online to bounce ideas off of other network and IT pros, but Kevin Franzen felt there was a need for at least one more, and he calls it the WirelessGeek.net forums.“I am trying to provide an open forum for engineer types to discuss wireless networks,” says Franzen, a certifiably smart wireless network guy (CWNE #136 and CCNP-Wireless) who works in Austin as principal network engineer for a large telco that is not affiliated with the forums. “Currently folks try to use Twitter for this but it is not effective. The other wireless forums are related to vendors or a training company.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple says that iOS 8, released to the public in September, can now be found on 81% of iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices accessing the Apple Store. That's up from 77% from Apple's March report and up from 68% in January.The iOS 7 edition of Apple's software for iPhones and iPads now accounts for just 17% of devices, with 2% on even older versions, according to Apple on its developer page. Some have balked at moving to iOS 8 because of the space required to download it, while others have been spooked by buggy releases. Apple
But iOS 8 has a lot going for it, including that it's compatible with devices as far back as iPhone 4S and iPad 2, from 2011. What's more, people are buying the new iPhone 6 and 6S in droves, with Apple selling 61.2 million units during the the first three months of 2015, way more than the 44 million iPhones it shipped during the same quarter last year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple says that iOS 8, released to the public in September, can now be found on 81% of iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices accessing the Apple Store. That's up from 77% from Apple's March report and up from 68% in January.The iOS 7 edition of Apple's software for iPhones and iPads now accounts for just 17% of devices, with 2% on even older versions, according to Apple on its developer page. Some have balked at moving to iOS 8 because of the space required to download it, while others have been spooked by buggy releases. Apple
But iOS 8 has a lot going for it, including that it's compatible with devices as far back as iPhone 4S and iPad 2, from 2011. What's more, people are buying the new iPhone 6 and 6S in droves, with Apple selling 61.2 million units during the the first three months of 2015, way more than the 44 million iPhones it shipped during the same quarter last year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Google Fi app showed up for the first time Wednesday on the Play Store: The catch is that you'll need a Nexus 6 phablet and an invitation to the new wireless service in order to make any use of it.
Google's Project Fi, unveiled last week to mixed reviews, offers a potentially lower cost wireless service whose magic includes a SIM card that enables your Android device to bounce between Sprint and T-Mobile LTE networks as well as WiFi hotspots. Initially, the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service will only be available on the Nexus 6.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown