Dropping your iPhone in the toilet could soon be something you can laugh instead of cry about if the latest Apple iPhone 8 rumors are to be believed.That new phone line can't come soon enough for Apple, which Wall Street firms say is suffering iPhone 7 and 7 Plus revenue declines due to people holding out for the AMOLED curved-screen next big thing.WATER & DUST
Apple Insider and others picked up on a Korea Herald report that the next big iPhone will be able to withstand being submerged at almost 5 feet for 30 minutes, giving it the highest rating possible for smartphone water resistance. (Not to be overlooked: the iPhone will likely also be more dust resistant.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hot topics at this year's RSA Conference in February will include cloud security, Internet of Things security and encryption -- and all of those issues unsurprisingly are represented among the 10 finalists announced for the event's annual Innovation Sandbox Contest for startups.I ran the company descriptions provided in the RSA Conference press release about the contest through a Wordcloud generator and produced the spectacular graphic above that put "data" protection at the heart of what these newcomers are addressing. The biggest shock for me was that machine learning didn't get mentioned in each description...but it did make the cut in three of the 10.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hot topics at this year's RSA Conference in February will include cloud security, Internet of Things security and encryption -- and all of those issues unsurprisingly are represented among the 10 finalists announced for the event's annual Innovation Sandbox Contest for startups.I ran the company descriptions provided in the RSA Conference press release about the contest through a Wordcloud generator and produced the spectacular graphic above that put "data" protection at the heart of what these newcomers are addressing. The biggest shock for me was that machine learning didn't get mentioned in each description...but it did make the cut in three of the 10.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As one of those Super Bowl watchers who prefers the football over the commercials, I try my best to get the ads out of the way before the big game, which this year will be played in Houston on Sunday, Feb. 6.Here's a running list of Super Bowl 51 commercials from technology companies -- I'll leave it up to you to decide whether brands are getting their $5 million worth. So far, it looks like tech companies will take a back seat to beer, candy and other brands, in terms of the number of advertisers, on Super Bowl Sunday.MORE: Techiest commercials from Super Bowl 50, in 2016To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Researchers at top universities, backed by funding from federal and other outfits, are pumping out loads of research on network security, wireless networking and more. Here's a recap of 7 impressive projects from recent months.1. Not that you trust mobile apps in the first place…
Carnegie Mellon University researchers took a deep dive into about 18,000 popular free apps on the Google Play store and found that not only about half of them lacked a privacy policy but a good number of those that have policies aren’t adhering to them.
As many as 4 in 10 apps with policies could be collecting location information and nearly 1 in 5 could be sharing that data without getting your permission to do so, To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Researchers at top universities, backed by funding from federal and other outfits, are pumping out loads of research on network security, wireless networking and more. Here's a recap of 7 impressive projects from recent months.1. Not that you trust mobile apps in the first place…
Carnegie Mellon University researchers took a deep dive into about 18,000 popular free apps on the Google Play store and found that not only about half of them lacked a privacy policy but a good number of those that have policies aren’t adhering to them.
As many as 4 in 10 apps with policies could be collecting location information and nearly 1 in 5 could be sharing that data without getting your permission to do so, To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hasbro is giving Monopoly fans a choice of going old school, very old school or new school in an online vote to determine which tokens will come standard with a new version of the game hitting shelves in August.The Monopoly Token Madness Vote, open through Jan. 31, leaves the fate of old faithfuls like the Scottie dog, thimble and wheelbarrow in the hands of voters, who might be tempted by more than 50 new contenders. Monopoly has been around since 1935 and Hasbro says the game is enjoyed by more than 1 billion players around the world.Hasbro has protected itself from voters getting to, uh, creative, by restricting the token choices to a pre-selected pool of designs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You're in luckWe've cobbled together a slew of things for the geeky among you to do on Jan. 13 -- Friday the 13th that isth. And we suggest you do it up because you won’t get another chance until Oct. 13, 2017.Don’t miss the day!Mobile apps exist solely for the purpose of reminding you when Friday the 13th is coming up. Pocketkai’s free iOS app will remind you of the one to three Friday the 13ths coming up each year for the next 50 years. The Bogeyman’s Android app will do likewise, for the next 10 Friday the 13ths.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Computers and videogames are a painImage by Networkworld/Stephen Sauer.More than 600 computer- and video game-related injuries suffered in 2015 were reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission by about 100 hospital emergency rooms through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. NEISS is used to help spot possible issues with categories of products that are causing harm, though as you’ll see here, computer and video game users aren’t blameless. (With apologies to those who truly were injured…)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Some of the biggest names in tech have issued warnings over the past year about how their devices can overheat and catch on fire, but an analysis of emergency room data shows that most computer-related injuries stem from far less dramatic circumstances.
We’re talking about computers falling on people’s heads or being dropped on their toes. More than two dozen injuries resulted from tripping, such as down the stairs while carrying a computer or by getting tangled on a laptop cord. Not so shocking: A handful of injuries related to pulling out plugs too hastily.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Enough of the iPhone 10th anniversary celebrations (yes, I'm looking in the mirror here): It's time to channel our collective Apple watching energies into iPhone 8 (not to mention possible iPhone 7s and 7s Plus editions).
As Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the company's press release about the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone, "The best is yet to come."Heavy metal rumors
The hot rumor this week is that Apple will re-embrace stainless steel, harkening back to its pre-aluminum body iPhone 4 and 4S models. Speculation is that the iPhone 8 will have a bezel-free, 5.8-inch OLED display.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Sure, you perform surgery on computer systems every day and are often on call to handle emergency password procedures, but salary-wise my IT professional friends, you are no doctor.LinkedIn Tuesday published its list of the top 20 highest paying jobs (median base salary as reported to LinkedIn Salary) in the United States, and the medical/healthcare field dominates. Tops is Cardiologist, with a median base salary of $356K, followed by Radiologist ($355K), Anesthesiologist ($350K), Surgeon ($338K) and Medical Director ($230K). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While Network World writes a lot more about Apple these days than we did 10 years ago, we didn't skip over the original iPhone announcement on Jan. 9, 2007.Here's a look back at how we covered the story, and you can check out the recorded Facebook Live video below, which features a couple of physical Network World magazine issues from early 2007 (we converted to an online-only publication in mid-2013).MORE iPHONE 10TH ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE: Whirlwind look back at every iPhone model | iPhone prototypes that never saw the light of day | 10 iPhone features that rocked the smartphone world | A look back at prognostications that the iPhone would be a flopTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple CEO Steve Jobs had the MacWorld crowd eating out of his hand and yukking it up when he introduced the first iPhone 10 years ago this Jan. 9.Among his gags: A photo of an iPod with a rotary dial on it. MORE iPHONE 10TH ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE: Whirlwind look back at every iPhone model | iPhone prototypes that never saw the light of day | 10 iPhone features that rocked the smartphone world | A look back at prognostications that the iPhone would be a flop | 10 years of the iPhone: How Apple changed pretty much everything in the enterpriseTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
So many cool networking and IT startups, so little time to write about them all. One way that we at least acknowledge their presence, however, is by running this interactive timeline of funding announcements.First out of the gate this year are companies such as CloudCraze, NGDATA and Klipfolio (OK, it's a stretch to call Klipfolio a startup, given that the business was founded in 2001, but it did re-launch into the cloud in 2011...and the company just got fresh funding).MORE: Hottest Enterprise Networking & IT Startups of 2016To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung Electronics America President and COO Tim Baxter didn't mess around during the company's press event at CES 2017 in Las Vegas this week: He addressed the company's tough 2016 and fiery Note7 phablet debacle right away.Baxter began: "As you know, this year was a challenging year for Samsung. Some of you were directly impacted and certainly many saw the media coverage, especially about the Note7. We continue our intensive efforts internally, and with third-party experts, to understand what happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again. And very soon, we will be sharing the root cause report on the Note7." (See Baxter's talk in the video below at about the 33-minute mark.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued an alert that Toshiba on Wednesday has greatly expanded its recall of laptop computer battery packs due to burn and fire hazards.More specifically, these are Panasonic lithium-ion battery packs that have been found susceptible to overheating in 41 models of the Toshiba Satellite laptop, which runs Windows. The firm has received five reports of the battery pack overheating and melting, including one additional report since the first recall announcement; no injuries have been reported.MORE: Samsung Note7's phenomenal flame-out timelineTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Ideas forum TED ended its year by picking its top 10 TED Talks for the year, and we'll start 2017 off by selecting a handful of techie ones we figure might be of particular interest to Network World readers.These talks, published during 2016, touch on subjects ranging from AI to the Blockchain to Linux (as discussed by Linus Torvalds himself). One nice thing about the TED YouTube channel is that videos are now captioned, so yes, you can digest these videos even when you're not in a position to actually listen to them...MORE: 9 tantalizingly techie TED TalksTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When it comes to iPhone cases, I'm all about sturdiness. So when London-based "fashion technology company" Mous hit me up to take a look it its new Limitless iPhone case I said sure, but was expecting more style than substance.I have to admit though, this case is both good looking and a solid protector for your Apple smartphone.MORE: Bring on the iPhone 7 parody videosMous, which got its start a couple of years back making a funky and functional Musicase designed to contain your phone AND and earphones, funded its Limitless line in part through an Indiegogo campaign that raised more than $372K and that ends Jan. 8. The company pushes its use of premium materials, from marble to walnut, and dramatically shows how resilient its cases are via YouTube videos of encased phones being dropped from cranes or tossed around Apple stores.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You think you have problems? Sure you do, but pity those in science and technology tasked with advancing artificial intelligence, drones and healthcare methods that are fraught with peril despite potentially huge benefits.The University of Notre Dame's John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values has issued its fourth annual list of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology, and it contains some doozies. It might have seemed tough to top some of 2016's issues, from lethal cyberweapons to bone conduction for marketing, but no sweat. Of course the Notre Dame center's researchers hope to be able help address some of these new concerns.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown