You’d think ponying up for a technology leader to be your school’s commencement day speaker would be so much less of a hassle than going with a high profile politician such as President Donald Trump or his rival Hillary Clinton, yet 2017 appears to be a lean year for top techies on the college/university commencement circuit.This seems especially true for tech leaders in enterprise networking and IT, whereas in the past the heads of companies such as Cisco, IBM and Salesforce.com have commanded the commencement day stage at top schools.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Speculation is heating up again this week regarding the possibility that Apple might delay the arrival of its iPhone 8 (or iPhone X) smartphone until October or November due to technical issues related to the lamination of its new curved OLED displays as well as with its 3D sensing system.Apple historically has released its new flagship iPhones in September, but scuttlebutt in the supply chain says things could be otherwise in 2017. Speculation is that Apple could roll out its 7s and 7s Plus phones in September, with the high-end iPhone 8 becoming available shortly afterwards.MORE: Apple's Mobility Partner Program comes out of hidingTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Sir Tim Berners Lee, deservingly among the most decorated of technology professionals for his invention of the world wide web, has now been honored with the 50th edition of the ACM A.M. Turing Award (a.k.a., the Nobel Prize of Computing).The MIT and University of Oxford professor is being recognized with the $1M Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) prize, funded by Google, for inventing the web, coming up with the first browser and working on the protocols and algorithms that have allowed the web to scale.MORE: Whirlwind tour of computing and telecom's top honors, awards & prizesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Sir Tim Berners Lee, deservingly among the most decorated of technology professionals for his invention of the world wide web, has now been honored with the 50th edition of the ACM A.M. Turing Award (a.k.a., the Nobel Prize of Computing).The MIT and University of Oxford professor is being recognized with the $1M Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) prize, funded by Google, for inventing the web, coming up with the first browser and working on the protocols and algorithms that have allowed the web to scale.MORE: Whirlwind tour of computing and telecom's top honors, awards & prizesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Yeah, yeah, Samsung introduced the edge-to-edge and physical-home-buttonless Galaxy S8 Android smartphone this week. Now back to iPhone 8 (or iPhone X) rumors and design concepts...BUTTON ON THE BACK
A site called iDrop News (we have "obtained exclusive information from a source with intimate knowledge of Apple’s manufacturing facility") got iPhone 8 buzzers buzzing by posting concept designs of the next flagship Apple smartphone ("the iPhone Edition") with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the back of the device, beneath the Apple logo. The idea seems to be that the bezel-less front won't allow for the fingerprint scanner there.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Verizon has hired Hans Vestberg, the CEO Ericsson bounced last summer amid cost cutting and failing financials, to head up its Network and Technology team.Network and Technology is one of three areas Verizon will focus on under a new operating structure, with the other two being Media and Telematics, and Customer and Product Operations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Verizon has hired Hans Vestberg, the CEO Ericsson bounced last summer amid cost cutting and failing financials, to head up its Network and Technology team.Network and Technology is one of three areas Verizon will focus on under a new operating structure, with the other two being Media and Telematics, and Customer and Product Operations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google researchers have released a collection of 2 million-plus labeled audio snippets designed to spark innovation in the area of sound search.The company earlier this month published a paper titled "AudioSet: An ontology and human-labeled dataset for audio events" that it hopes will combine with image recognition to strengthen overall search and identification capabilities that could be used in a wide variety of machine learning applications, including the automation of video captions that include sound effects. Google began work on the project last year.Google has exploited its YouTube business to collect 2 million ten-second YouTube excerpts (totaling 5.8 thousand hours of audio) labeled with more than 500 sound categories to create its AudioSet. Categories start at high levels such as Human Sounds and Music, and then get more specific, such as Whistling and Music Genre.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Yes, you can save quite a bit of money taking an Uber instead of a cab in most cases, but not if you leave your smartphone, purse, guitar or engagement ring behind. Kind of gives a new meaning to the term "Sharing Economy".Uber, which does have a good system for helping you recover forgotten items, has just published a list of the most commonly forgotten items left in its cars as well as a list of the "most unique" items left behind. It also reports that Los Angeles is the most forgetful city in North AmericaMORE: Blame the cellphone — Injuries pile up, from cat bites to shocks to broken bonesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I practically kick myself every time our Verizon FiOS cable bill arrives because I still haven't acted on my intention to cut the cord in some way that won't drive my family nuts and will allow me to watch local sports.Re-energizing my focus of late, I've created a Google Alert on "cord cutting" to force myself to read up on the topic and latest statistics daily. But if I was confused before, I'm even more so now.MORE: Father of the web cites 3 big concerns about his 28-year-old babyDeloitte, in its 11th annual Digital Democracy Survey of U.S. consumers, found that three quarters of more than 2,100 consumers surveyed online said they still subscribe to pay TV, such as cable or satellite, most because it comes bundled with internet service. Nevertheless, almost half of consumers subscribe to a paid streaming video service like Netflix, and nearly 60% of generation Z, millennials and Gen X do so. And more services, like YouTube TV announced last month, keep coming.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Against my better judgment, I'm going to share a few tidbits from a vendor survey — one of those marketing schemes that have become the bane of my existence as a tech journalist (See: "Right back at you vendors: OUR independent study of YOUR independent research")But I figured you'd want to know what superpowers your peers desire, since I'm sure that's a discussion you and your colleagues have had at some point or another (my superpower would be to dodge vendor survey pitches).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Against my better judgment, I'm going to share a few tidbits from a vendor survey — one of those marketing schemes that have become the bane of my existence as a tech journalist (See: "Right back at you vendors: OUR independent study of YOUR independent research")But I figured you'd want to know what superpowers your peers desire, since I'm sure that's a discussion you and your colleagues have had at some point or another (my superpower would be to dodge vendor survey pitches).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Products based on the IEEE 802.11ad (WiGig) standard have really only begun rolling out over the past year, but an effort to deliver an enhancement dubbed 802.11ay that promises to deliver faster and longer range W-Fi networks is gaining steam. Here’s the lowdown on this newest in the 802.11 WLAN series… I can’t believe I have another 802.11something-or-other to keep track of. Believe it. Though really think of 802.11ay as an enhancement of 11ad in the unlicensed 60 GHz millimeter wave band of spectrum, so it should be a pretty natural upgrade. And it could really be worth any trouble given potential speed and range improvements.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Peraso Technologies, one of the early players in 802.11ad (WiGig) gigabit wireless networking, is also readying for enhanced Wi-Fi technology called 802.11ay that promises higher speeds and greater reach.
The Toronto-based company, whose semiconductors enable smartphones, tablets and other devices to exploit unlicensed 60 GHz wireless technology, is bullish on 11ay to support an even wider range of products than 11ad.
(See Also: Our FAQ on 802.11ay)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Carnegie Mellon University this week launches its third annual online capture the flag (CTF) contest aimed at introducing middle and high school students to the world of IT security — and just maybe attract some of them into a segment of the job market hungry for talent.Anyone can register to play the free picoCTF online hacking contest beginning on March 31 and ending April 14, but only U.S. students in grades 6-12 are eligible for some $30K in prizes. CMU says about 30,000 people have partaken in picoCTF, a game in which participants must reverse engineer, hack, decrypt and do whatever it takes to solve a challenge.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Carnegie Mellon University this week launches its third annual online capture the flag (CTF) contest aimed at introducing middle and high school students to the world of IT security — and just maybe attract some of them into a segment of the job market hungry for talent.Anyone can register to play the free picoCTF online hacking contest beginning on March 31 and ending April 14, but only U.S. students in grades 6-12 are eligible for some $30K in prizes. CMU says about 30,000 people have partaken in picoCTF, a game in which participants must reverse engineer, hack, decrypt and do whatever it takes to solve a challenge.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You have until Friday, March 31 at 10am pacific time to register for a chance to buy tickets to Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which takes place at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose from June 5-9.Oh, and make sure you have $1,600 to spare for a ticket in case you do get selected. You must be a member of the Apple Developer Program or Apple Developer Enterprise Program as of February 16, 2017 to register for the lottery. Last year, those who were picked in the lottery started getting notifications within a few days of the lottery deadline.MORE: You'll see right through this iPhone 8 concept designTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has made iOS 10.3 publicly available and the software update for its iPhones and iPads is packed with a Find-My-AirPod feature as well as a slew of Siri, CarPlay and other additions.You probably know the routine by now: Head over to the General icon on your device, then hit Software Update and you'll be given the option to grab iOS 10.3 (a bit over 611MB on my iPhone) either over the air or via iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC. Unless you want to wait it out a bit and make sure Apple hasn't mucked anything up. Bob Brown/NetworkWorld
Bob Brown/NetworkWorld
Not to be overlooked in iOS 10.3, even though it works behind the scenes, is support for the Apple File System (APFS) that the company introduced last year at its Worldwide Developers Conference. APFS is designed to work better with flash storage and has improved encryption support.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has made iOS 10.3 publicly available and the software update for its iPhones and iPads is packed with a Find-My-AirPod feature as well as a slew of Siri, CarPlay and other additions.You probably know the routine by now: Head over to the General icon on your device, then hit Software Update and you'll be given the option to grab iOS 10.3 (a bit over 611MB on my iPhone) either over the air or via iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC. Unless you want to wait it out a bit and make sure Apple hasn't mucked anything up. Bob Brown/NetworkWorld
Bob Brown/NetworkWorld
Not to be overlooked in iOS 10.3, even though it works behind the scenes, is support for the Apple File System (APFS) that the company introduced last year at its Worldwide Developers Conference. APFS is designed to work better with flash storage and has improved encryption support.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
No doubt many a soccer fan has been inspired to pick up a fancy call center package or some sweet, sweet SDN technology after catching a San Jose Earthquakes soccer match at Avaya Stadium, but the company found its brand splattered all over headlines it would rather have avoided after an ugly incident at the field on Sunday.
My Google Alert on Avaya, used mainly to help keep track of the company's product announcements and business drama (Chapter 11 filing, networking business sale to Extreme, etc.), started blowing up this morning:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown