If you can get past that unappealing acronym, you just might find that CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) is worth paying attention to as a serious wireless network alternative for enterprises in the not-too-distant future.It’s been hard to ignore the so-called CBRS "innovation band" of late, as everyone from Google to the big carriers to GE has been touting the potential benefits of indoor and outdoor LTE services within shared 3.5 GHz spectrum opened up by the FCC for commercial use. We’re talking carrier-based cellular service extensions, cable companies looking to get into wireless as well as private LTE networks within enterprises, sports stadiums and conference centers. Such services promise to complement -- and in some cases replace -- Wi-Fi, as well as pave the way for 5G wireless services. (See also: "FAQ: What in the wireless world is CBRS?")To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Computing Research Association has recognized Carnegie Mellon University’s Carol Frieze as its 2017 A. Nico Habermann Award winner in recognition of her efforts to promote diversity in computer science.Frieze directs Women@SCS, a student/faculty organization fostering opportunities for women, and the student-run SCS4ALL initiative to bring more underrepresented groups into the computing field. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
NASA is encouraging teachers to share its Pi Day Challenge with students on March 14, which is known in mathematical circles as Pi Day (i.e., 3.14). After all, who can't get fired up to learn more about the mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter?Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the fourth straight year has created an illustrated quiz aimed at students in grades 6 through 12 features four math problems (using pi) that NASA scientists and engineers must solve to understand space.Topics touched on in the quiz include Mars craters, a total solar eclipse, Saturn and the search for life beyond Earth.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This past week featured the Great iPhone 8 freak-out, with more rumors that the 10th anniversary Apple smartphone would be delayed past September and that it might not even be called the iPhone 8 or the iPhone X. No, instead the Apple Watch-esque iPhone Edition is the latest possible name to be bandied about.THE NEW EDITION
Forbes picked up on a report from hit or miss Japanese site Mac Otakara that Apple is mulling iPhone Edition as the name for its next flagship smartphone. This name for the speculated to be $1,000 device would align with the top-end Apple Watch, dubbed Watch Edition. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who 28 years ago this March 12 submitted a document laying out his vision for what would become the worldwide web, is proud of what his creation has become but he's also concerned enough about certain issues that he's released an open letter about them today through the Web Foundation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft's FUSE Labs has announced it is killing So.cl (or just plain Socl), a multimedia-infused social network and search tool positioned as a complement to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and other more established social services. The So.cl (pronounced Social) service quietly launched at a few universities in late 2011, became generally available in 2012 and is being discontinued as of March 15.VISIT the 2016 Microsoft Product GraveyardThe free service could be accessed via a Microsoft or Facebook account. (Confession: I created my first So.cl post this morning.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Relax, Mixpanel’s sales people probably aren’t going to pester you if you’re an enterprise IT pro. You’re not the target customer for this San Francisco-based provider of cloud-based analytics tools. But that doesn’t mean Mixpanel shouldn’t at least be on your radar since there’s a good chance you’re supporting people within your organization who might be using Mixpanel – we’re talking engineers, designers and other product development team members who want to get a better view of how their products are actually being used and received.MORE: 15 big data and analytics companies to watchTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As anyone who has sampled the immersive worlds of early augmented or virtual reality apps can attest, the experience can be downright exhilarating. So too will be the vendor battles that erupt and the commercial uses to emerge around the technologies.So says Tom Mainelli, program vice president for devices and AR/VR at IDC, which held its annual Directions conference in Boston this week. Mainelli is excited about the prospect that these eventually comingled technologies will enable us to “fundamentally rethink how we create information, share information and absorb information.”VIRTUAL REALITY
Mainelli first dove into VR, which he said basically involves “leaving one reality for another.” A recent IDC survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers found that three quarters of them said they had heard of VR and knew what it was – not surprising in light of all the new technology rolled out last year from the likes of Samsung, Facebook/Oculus and HTC. So yes, VR has gotten off to a faster start than AR through gaming apps and low-end gear such as Google Cardboard, but it could eventually become a subset of AR, the industry watcher said.To read this article in full Continue reading
As anyone who has sampled the immersive worlds of early augmented or virtual reality apps can attest, the experience can be downright exhilarating. So too will be the vendor battles that erupt and the commercial uses to emerge around the technologies.So says Tom Mainelli, program vice president for devices and AR/VR at IDC, which held its annual Directions conference in Boston this week. Mainelli is excited about the prospect that these eventually comingled technologies will enable us to “fundamentally rethink how we create information, share information and absorb information.”VIRTUAL REALITY
Mainelli first dove into VR, which he said basically involves “leaving one reality for another.” A recent IDC survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers found that three quarters of them said they had heard of VR and knew what it was – not surprising in light of all the new technology rolled out last year from the likes of Samsung, Facebook/Oculus and HTC. So yes, VR has gotten off to a faster start than AR through gaming apps and low-end gear such as Google Cardboard, but it could eventually become a subset of AR, the industry watcher said.To read this article in full Continue reading
As anyone who has sampled the immersive worlds of early augmented or virtual reality apps can attest, the experience can be downright exhilarating. So too will be the vendor battles that erupt and the commercial uses to emerge around the technologies.
So says Tom Mainelli, program vice president for devices and AR/VR at IDC, which held its annual Directions conference in Boston this week. Mainelli is excited about the prospect that these eventually comingled technologies will enable us to “fundamentally rethink how we create information, share information and absorb information.”VIRTUAL REALITY
Mainelli first dove into VR, which he said basically involves “leaving one reality for another.” A recent IDC survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers found that three quarters of them said they had heard of VR and knew what it was – not surprising in light of all the new technology rolled out last year from the likes of Samsung, Facebook/Oculus and HTC. So yes, VR has gotten off to a faster start than AR through gaming apps and low-end gear such as Google Cardboard, but it could eventually become a subset of AR, the industry watcher said.To read this article in full Continue reading
As anyone who has sampled the immersive worlds of early augmented or virtual reality apps can attest, the experience can be downright exhilarating. So too will be the vendor battles that erupt and the commercial uses to emerge around the technologies.
So says Tom Mainelli, program vice president for devices and AR/VR at IDC, which held its annual Directions conference in Boston this week. Mainelli is excited about the prospect that these eventually comingled technologies will enable us to “fundamentally rethink how we create information, share information and absorb information.”VIRTUAL REALITY
Mainelli first dove into VR, which he said basically involves “leaving one reality for another.” A recent IDC survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers found that three quarters of them said they had heard of VR and knew what it was – not surprising in light of all the new technology rolled out last year from the likes of Samsung, Facebook/Oculus and HTC. So yes, VR has gotten off to a faster start than AR through gaming apps and low-end gear such as Google Cardboard, but it could eventually become a subset of AR, the industry watcher said.To read this article in full Continue reading
You seriously might want to consider negotiating to get the word "architect" in your title if you're a technology professional. About a quarter of the titles on the latest Glassdoor report on the highest paying jobs in America are tech architect roles.
Medical and legal professionals rank at the very top of the list, with physicians pulling down nearly $188K for a median base salary, based on information supplied by employees in the online job and recruiting marketplace's database. But tech jobs are well represented too, with Enterprise Architect, at #6, commanding a median base salary of $112,560 and more than 1,300 such jobs up for grabs in Glassdoor's listings (at least 100 salary reports needed to be shared for jobs to make this list).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Rutgers University researchers have examined the tolerance levels of different personality types for being interrupted by smartphone notifications in an effort that could help phone makers and app developers build offerings that are more useful and less annoying.The research, outlined in a paper titled "How Busy Are You? Predicting the Interruptibility Intensity of Mobile Users," will be presented at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Denver this May.In fact, this research will have plenty of company in terms of new insights into how technology intrudes on people's lives. Other papers being presented include: "'If a person is emailing you, it just doesn't make sense': Exploring Changing Consumer Behaviors in Email" and "Reducing Interruptions at Work: A Large-Scale Field Study of FlowLight."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Despite the fact that Apple had no presence at the big Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona this past week, rumors about the iPhone 8 or iPhone X did not subside.Sure, Android and Windows had their week in the spotlight at MWC, but inquiring minds also wanted to know what's up with rumors about a possible new port on the next flagship iPhone.LIGHTNING FAST CHARGING
The Wall Street Journal and others reported that a USB Type-C port might be coming to the iPhone 8 to deliver faster charging and data transfer speeds. But by the end of the week, in part because of commentary from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (revealed by MacRumors), the consensus seemed to be that the USB Type-C connecter will indeed come to the next iPhone, but on the other end of the cord from the Lightning connector. That's similar to what you find in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Market watcher IDC anticipates the worldwide smartphone market will bounce back over the next few years from a sluggish 2016, but Microsoft is not expected to take part in that celebration.In fact, while Android smartphone shipments are projected to edge up from 85% this year to 85.3% in 2021 and Apple iPhones are expected to slip a tad from 14.7% to 14.6%, Windows Phone's meager 0.1% share in 2017 will drop to 0% if IDC is on the mark.While Windows Phone's predecessor, Windows Mobile, led the U.S. market as recently as 10 years ago, iOS and BlackBerry blew by it before long in the United States, and Symbian ruled worldwide until its own decline beginning in 2011.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
All of the big U.S. wireless carriers have rolled out new or updated unlimited data plans in recent weeks, and now Chevrolet is introducing one of its own for customers of its entire line of vehicles.The $20 per month unlimited prepaid plan, for owners of Chevys with in-vehicle OnStar 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspots, is being offered in conjunction with exclusive partner AT&T.MORE: 10 cool connected car featuresWhile that advertised $20 price will of course be higher once you get nailed with fees and taxes, it will still be a better deal than the $20 for 4GB and $40 for 10GB per month deals that Chevrolet is phasing out when the unlimited plan goes into effect on March 3. A $10 monthly plan for 1GB of data, as well as a $5 daily data pass for 250MB and $150 12-month pass for 20GB will still be offered.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While the traditional tablet market has had a tough go of it lately, some industry watchers do see growth ahead particularly in the 2-in-1 detachables sector, and the batch of new devices shown at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week could play a big role in any such revival.While most of the new smartphones demoed at MWC were of the Android variety, tablet makers gave Windows some love as well with possible Microsoft Surface alternatives. (Apple, as usual, didn’t display at MWC, but is said to have new iPads in the works.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google has lessened one frustration with Gmail, in allowing you to receive attachments up to 50MB, but senders are still stuck at a 25MB limit for total attachment size.What's unclear is where the heck these 25MB-plus messages would be coming from since most email systems, like Yahoo and Microsoft Outlook, also have 25MB or lower limits on attachments.(A report out of BGR India suggests the upgrade really only applies to attachments sent from within Google G Suite apps.)MORE: Google Spaces headed to the graveyardTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While Amazon Web Services hasn't yet issued an apology via its social media channels regarding big problems today with its Simple Storage Service (S3), the company's customers have turned to Twitter and Facebook to apologize to their own customers -- while pointing the finger at AWS.AWS, via its @awscloud Twitter account, did alert customers that "S3 is experiencing high error rates. We are working hard on recovering." That was posted a bit after 2pm EST and Amazon has since posted a few updates, including a note about the status dashboard recovering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
MWC 2017 Smartphone CentralImage by LenovoNo, Apple isn’t at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona teasing its iPhone 8 and Samsung isn’t formally unveiling its Galaxy S8, but plenty of other big name vendors are using the annual wireless network confab to show off their latest and greatest Android smartphones. (This roundup includes reporting from IDG News Service.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown