The internet sure seems mad about something.You’re not kidding.More than usual, that is.You’re right. President Trump just signed a bill into law that rolls back internet privacy protections enacted by the previous administration, and that has made things just a little angry around the ol’ internet.What kind of privacy rules are we talking about here?The previous iteration of the Federal Communications Commission created new rules last October for ISPs which stipulated that those ISPs would be required to seek customer permission before selling things like browser history data to advertisers for targeting purposes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There’s nothing like a giant, powerful technology company really letting its collective hair down with a goofy April Fools’ announcement. Do you think that we’re fooled, giant, powerful technology companies? We see you there, lurking behind your jolly masks. Anyway, here’s the 2017 installment of this collective exercise in well-choreographed image management. Enjoy.The iFixit micro toolkit
The specialist tools that iFixit uses for its widely watched teardowns of most major smartphone and tablet releases are neat, without question – so here’s a teeny little set of them, meant for use by hamsters. No, really. Watch the video.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Tech companies like to get into April Fool’s day – those whimsical titans of capitalism – and nobody gets into it in a bigger way than Google, which rolls out a solid handful of gags every year, some of which are even interactive.This year is no exception, as the search titan deploys its finest humor modules to delight us for a day before going back to trying to manage all the information on earth in a totally non-creepy way.ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: White House to issue commemorative solar eclipse safety glassesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Office pranksI know, I know – that jerk from sales deserves it. That snippy attitude last time you showed up to fix his “slowdown problem,” which was obviously just him having like 150 Chrome windows open at once. Still, as tempting as it might be, you can’t just take revenge on the guy’s computer. Please, just go and read something else now. You’ll feel like a better person.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Harry Potter-related Raspberry Pi creations have made it into the august pages of this notionally weekly roundup in the past, but this, I’m pleased to say, is easily the coolest such entry.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: The Gearhead Toolbox: Raspberry Pi tools + Windows 10 Creators Update: The 5 biggest changesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Halt and (don’t) catch fireImage by SamsungThis April 21, you can lay your hands – safely this time – on Samsung’s latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. They’re both unsurprisingly impressive devices, and Samsung’s going to be hoping that they can restore the company’s fortunes in the wake of the Note 7 debacle and legal troubles at home, and in advance of Apple’s anticipated iPhone 8 or iPhone X release later this year. Check it out.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A report issued this morning by the Pew Research Center and Elon University said that online interactions will continue to be shaped by trolling and mistrust, according to a survey of digital scholars and futurists.More than four in five of the 1,537 respondents surveyed said that the tone of communication via online media like social networks and discussion sites would either become more unhinged over the next decade or stay roughly the same.ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Microsoft's Docs.com is sharing dangerously sensitive personal files and information + 5 burning questions with new IETF Chair and Cisco Fellow Alissa CooperTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A financial report cited by South Korea’s Yonhap News says that Samsung’s higher-end smartphones are accounting for a rapidly decreasing share of the company’s sales.Premium smartphones account for just 29% of Samsung’s smartphone sales, down from 75% in mid-2013, Yonhap quotes a Hana Financial Investment report as saying. The disastrous battery problems experienced by the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 undoubtedly have a lot to do with the company’s shrinking premium device sales, but the report indicates that those sales were already in decline before the Note 7 incidents began to attract widespread negative publicity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
802.11ac wave 2 is the splashy new kid in the wireless technology pool, but some experts caution that you might not want to let it play without lifeguards present just yet.Wave 2 access points are now available from major wireless vendors, and have started to make inroads into the enterprise. The technology has been gaining ground in sales statistics recently, to the point where it’s starting to undercut sales of first-gen 802.11ac gear.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Study shows 802.11ac wave 2 APs gaining sales ground + US lawmakers question police use of facial recognition techTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The least-Apple tablet update everImage by AppleLess sleek and thin? More hardware bang for your buck? The price actually dropped?! Who are you, and what have you done with Apple? The inscrutable gadget company also announced the availability of red iPhone 7s, a new video feature, extra bands for Apple Watch, and a Swift update. Check them out.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An experiment by scholars at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands has demonstrated a wireless network based on infrared rays that can move data at speeds of 42.8Gbps.The system, which is the work of new Ph.D recipient Joanne Oh, uses light “antennas,” which don’t have any moving parts, translating signals from a fiber-optic cable into infrared light and beaming them to receivers in the same room, which can be tracked by their return signals – when a user’s device moves out of one beam’s area of function, another light antenna can take over.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Cisco security advisory dump finds 20 warnings, 2 critical + Raspberry Pi roundup: Pi Day, Remembrances of Pis Past, competitor corner, STEM and SKULLSTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An experiment by scholars at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands has demonstrated a wireless network based on infrared rays that can move data at speeds of 42.8Gbps.The system, which is the work of new Ph.D recipient Joanne Oh, uses light “antennas,” which don’t have any moving parts, translating signals from a fiber-optic cable into infrared light and beaming them to receivers in the same room, which can be tracked by their return signals – when a user’s device moves out of one beam’s area of function, another light antenna can take over.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Cisco security advisory dump finds 20 warnings, 2 critical + Raspberry Pi roundup: Pi Day, Remembrances of Pis Past, competitor corner, STEM and SKULLSTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Since we’ve just had a Raspberry Pi anniversary, you might think that it’s excessive to trumpet another Pi-related holiday just one week later, but, well, Tuesday was Pi Day, this is the internet, and I’m afraid that’s just the way these things go.OK, so Pi Day isn’t, strictly speaking, a Raspberry Pi thing – around these parts, it’s more of a pie-in-the-face thing – but that didn’t stop the Raspberry Pi community from getting in on the act. The estimable Alex Bate over at the official Raspberry Pi Foundation blog put together a graphic to make sure everyone understands certain key points of terminology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Since we’ve just had a Raspberry Pi anniversary, you might think that it’s excessive to trumpet another Pi-related holiday just one week later, but, well, Tuesday was Pi Day, this is the internet, and I’m afraid that’s just the way these things go.OK, so Pi Day isn’t, strictly speaking, a Raspberry Pi thing – around these parts, it’s more of a pie-in-the-face thing – but that didn’t stop the Raspberry Pi community from getting in on the act. The estimable Alex Bate over at the official Raspberry Pi Foundation blog put together a graphic to make sure everyone understands certain key points of terminology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The second wave of 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology, primarily distinguished by new MIMO capabilities, bigger channels and the general ability to handle larger and denser groups of connections, is starting to make its way into enterprises.MU-MIMO is the piece that’s got everyone excited for wave 2 – it stands for multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output, meaning that access points use larger numbers of antennae that can be managed algorithmically to provide a more flexible distribution of wireless resources. In essence, these are smarter access points that are better able to handle large numbers of users at any given time, and feature more advanced ways to manage different kinds of wireless links.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The second wave of 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology, primarily distinguished by new MIMO capabilities, bigger channels and the general ability to handle larger and denser groups of connections, is starting to make its way into enterprises.MU-MIMO is the piece that’s got everyone excited for wave 2 – it stands for multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output, meaning that access points use larger numbers of antennae that can be managed algorithmically to provide a more flexible distribution of wireless resources. In essence, these are smarter access points that are better able to handle large numbers of users at any given time, and feature more advanced ways to manage different kinds of wireless links.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The National Science Foundation today announced that it would hand out a total of $6.1 million in research funding for Northeastern University and US Ignite, Inc in a partnership designed to hasten the development of advanced wireless technologies.US Ignite is a non-profit dedicated to creating uses for futuristic wireless technology, and it will pair off with Northeastern University to create the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research project office, working to perform vetting, documentation and management for projects under the PAWR program.“Through experimental research platforms that are at the scale of small cities and communities and designed by the U.S. academic and industry wireless research community, PAWR will explore robust new wireless devices, communication techniques, networks, systems and services that will revolutionize the nation's wireless systems,” the NSF stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I am a shameful forgetter of important dates, as family and ex-girlfriends will be happy to tell you. They can detail the brainless “duh?” expression, with tinges of dawning comprehension, that I make when I am reminded that, yes, it’s today, and yes, I have forgotten.It’s a different story, professionally – I did remember that the Raspberry Pi’s fifth birthday took place this weekend, but I was traveling to cover a wireless company’s annual conference for work, and I simply couldn’t fit it in. So, to the little tiny computer that was one of the very first stories I covered for Network World, I’m sorry. I really did have other stuff to do.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Easy or tough?Image by ThinkstockLinux has a bad rap as a daily driver – the programs aren’t written to run on Linux, it’s tricky to install stuff, and so on. But it might surprise people who think along those lines to learn that plenty of the distributions out there are actually quite simple to use. Here’s our latest appreciation of the desktop Linux landscape.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the roughly two years since Aruba Networks was acquired by HPE, it’s become the larger company’s de facto wireless arm, more or less taking over HPE’s existing networking division and changing almost not at all after the merger.Network World sat down with Senior Vice President and General Manager Keerti Melkote and CTO Partha Narasimhan at Aruba’s annual Atmosphere conference in Nashville last week to talk about future wireless technology, security, and more.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: University of Washington Wi-Fi-meister talks Aruba, managing big networks | Aruba’s top exec, customers talk about Wi-Fi’s present and future at Atmosphere 2017 +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Jon Gold