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
Gene Munster, one of the most watched Apple watchers as a longtime research analyst at Piper Jaffray, has now started a venture capital fund that promises to invest in exactly the sorts of startups Apple and its competitors are likely to buy.Loup Ventures (which gets its name for a word meaning "wolf" or "to leap/pounce" depending on which language you choose), also consists of former Munster colleagues at Piper Jaffray, Doug Clinton and Andrew Murphy.MORE: Yup, Apple made our list of 2016's Sorriest Tech CompaniesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
No sooner had we put our list of 2016's Sorriest Tech Companies to bed than Facebook rang in the new year with a fresh apology -- for blocking an Italian writer from using a photo of a well-known statue of nude sea god Neptune found in Bologna.As Mashable relays, a writer/historian named Elisa Barbari used a photo of the 16th-century work to highlight her Facebook page titled "Stories, curiosities and views of Bologna." Innocent enough it would seem, but the photo got snared by the social network's photo police for violations of its advertising policies, which prohibit use of images or videos of nude bodies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has alerted app developers that it will not be accepting new app or app update submissions from Dec. 23-27, so the clock is ticking...
Apple annual announces a holiday schedule, presumably to give some of the real people behind the app management process some time off. However, this year the break is only 5 days vs. 7 the past couple of years.
While developers won't be able to submit new apps or updates during the break, they will have access to other iTunes connect features.
Apple recently announced its Best of 2016 list, highlighting top apps and developers. Statista shows that about 2 million mobile apps are available for download on the Apple App Store, including the top new free app (well, it costs $10 to activate the good stuff), Super Mario Run. Nintendo says Super Mario Run was downloaded 40 million times in its first 4 days of availability, and Apple confirmed that is a record-breaker.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Anyone who has ever done any news video knows that much of what originally gets recorded winds up on the cutting room floor, or these days, in the digital dustbin. That's usually for the best and that was the case recently when myself and other IDG editors were asked to share our 2017 tech predictions, as seen in the embedded video here.
But since I went to the effort of coming up with another prediction, beyond expecting 5G hype to crank up in 2017, and looked back to see how my 2016 predictions fared, I figured I'd lay that all out here.
My other prediction, which was essentially thrust upon me every time I attended a conference in the second half of 2016, or more recently, peered into my email inbox, is that enterprise IT staffs are going to be inundated with requests by higher ups and end users to support conversational interfaces and chatbots.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A sorry, sorry lotMicrosoft couldn’t get out of its culturally-clueless way in 2016. Samsung apologized over and over for its flaming Note7 fiasco. HP, T-Mobile, Facebook and pretty much every other big name in tech was forced to issue a public apology or more during the year, as public relations pros earned their money (or not) to salvage their employer or client’s reputation – for the time being. You won’t be sorry for taking a spin through this collection of corporate apologies from the tech world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A sorry, sorry lotMicrosoft couldn’t get out of its culturally-clueless way in 2016. Samsung apologized over and over for its flaming Note7 fiasco. HP, T-Mobile, Facebook and pretty much every other big name in tech was forced to issue a public apology or more during the year, as public relations pros earned their money (or not) to salvage their employer or client’s reputation – for the time being. You won’t be sorry for taking a spin through this collection of corporate apologies from the tech world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While the Internet of Things has started to become useful, many are still freaked out about devices not working well together and becoming security liabilities. The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) will attempt to address both of those concerns via its new IoT Testing Services.
Test services will apply to devices for homes, industrial networks, smart cities and connected cars, according to UNH-IOL. What's more, testing will be offered for the IPv6 Forum's IPv6 Ready IoT Logo in the spring.
MORE: Beware the ticking Internet of Things security time bombTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While the Internet of Things has started to become useful, many are still freaked out about devices not working well together and becoming security liabilities. The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) will attempt to address both of those concerns via its new IoT Testing Services.
Test services will apply to devices for homes, industrial networks, smart cities and connected cars, according to UNH-IOL. What's more, testing will be offered for the IPv6 Forum's IPv6 Ready IoT Logo in the spring.
MORE: Beware the ticking Internet of Things security time bombTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
MIT, which not surprisingly has a good track record of securing techie leaders for its commencement speakers, has signed on Apple CEO Tim Cook to do the honors on June 9, 2017.It will mark the first time one of Apple's leaders delivers a commencement address at MIT. Past MIT speakers from the technology field have included United States CTO Megan Smith (2015), Dropbosx CEO Drew Houston (2013) and Digital Equipment Corp. Founder Ken Olsen (1987).Cook in 2015, as George Washington University's commencement speaker, told grads to ignore the cynics and change the world like Steve Jobs did (see Cook's GW commencement speech transcript).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ChangeIP, which refers to itself as a "rockstar, low-cost and high-touch web host," has hit a sour note with customers over the past few days. The company on Monday afternoon reported that it "suffered a system wide DB failure that cascaded to all of our DB systems. Restore been on going since yesterday [Sunday, Dec. 11]." ChangeIP said that due to the size of its MySQL database, recovery was taking longer than anticipated and it was hard to say when a total restore would take place. Early on Tuesday (eastern time), the company said its DNS service had been restored, but that it was still working to restore its database and get web, dynamic DNS and control panel functions back in working order.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The team behind the Apache Zeppelin open-source notebook for big data analytics visualization has renamed itself ZEPL and announced $4.1M in Series A funding.ZEPL, which swears a certain professional football organization had nothing to do with it ditching its former name (NFLabs), is one of numerous companies smelling blood in the water around Tableau, the $3.5 billion business intelligence and analytics software vendor that has stumbled financially in recent quarters and seen its stock price plummet accordingly. The pitch from ZEPL entering my email inbox read: "Is Open Source project eating Tableau's lunch?"To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Depending up on how loosely I define "enterprise technology vendor," I'd say about a third of the 2017 Glassdoor Best Places to Work in the U.S. list consists of companies that supply IT professionals and those they support.Facebook (hey, they sell Workplace collaboration tools) is all the way up to #2, rising from #5 last year, and Google (#4), system integrator World Wide Technology (#5) and Adobe (#9) are all among the top 10. Consulting firm Bain & Co., is #1 for the third time since 2012, and replaces Airbnb as top dog this time around in the 9th annual rankings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Best Songs of the Year lists are flooding the Internet these days, with music watchers from NME to Rolling Stone to Fuse sharing their picks. But what about the best technology-themed songs of 2016?I know a few possible candidates, including Tacocat's take on anonymous trolls in "The Internet" (see video below), but could use your help if you have candidates please email me here.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amazon began counting down to Black Friday 2016 with tons of tech deals in early November, and now that Black Friday (Nov. 25) and Cyber Monday (Nov. 28) have passed, the online retailer is still counting down. Now it's on to the Amazon 12 Days of Deals, playing off the 12 days of Christmas theme.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Just in case you aren't spending enough already on tech products, Best Buy is offering a post-Black Friday 2016 Special Edition Tech Sale featuring super fancy laptops, tablet cases and computer mice.
We're talking everything the fashionista or hardcore fanboy/fangirl on your holiday shopping list didn't know they needed. Best Buy's Special Edition Tech collection features 11 items and they'll be available while supplies last starting on Dec. 4 in select stores and online at BestBuy.com.
MORE: 50-plus eye-popping Black Friday 2016 tech dealsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When my iPhone 6s started shutting down earlier this month even though it still had 20% or 30% battery life showing, I suspected maybe it was just getting too cold. After all, I've seen my iPhones be temperature sensitive in the past.But it turns out that the problem really stemmed from a bug in version 10.1 or 10.1.1 of Apple iOS, and now Apple is offering free battery replacement by those affected. The weird thing that those of us affected by this have experienced is that after charging the phone back in, it almost immediately turns back on, back at its 20% or 30% battery level.MORE: Best Black Friday 2016 deals on Apple iPhones, Macs & MoreTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Paying respectsImage by Network World staffThe worlds of networking, computing, science and inventions have lost pioneering and influential figures in 2016, from those who brought us networked email to the earliest PCs to movie icons. Here’s our modest tribute to these innovators worth remembering. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Some say email is or will soon be dead, but try telling that to retailers promoting Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2016 sales in recent weeks.Amazon, Walmart and the rest absolutely inundated shoppers who wittingly or not had shared their email addresses with retailers. MORE: 50-plus eye-popping Black Friday 2016 tech dealsEmail marketing analysis firm eDataSource reports that more than 35,000 Black Friday-themed email campaigns were mailed during the period from 10 days before Black Friday (Nov. 25) to Cyber Monday (Nov. 28), representing a 50% increase from a year ago. The Cyber Monday messaging deluge followed suit, with about 24,000 campaigns mailed over the same period and a 36% increase from 2015.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As anyone who watched any football over the weekend, and didn't blow by all the commercials knows, we all NEED a smart speaker like Amazon Echo or the newer Google Home. And lucky you: both products are among the tech items that retailers are offering at cut-rate prices this Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016 holiday shopping season.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bob Brown