Peter Sayer
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German industry is poised to exploit rural broadband
Internet speeds of 50Mbps are nothing but a pipe dream for most inhabitants of Britain, while even 5Mbps would be a welcome boost for many living in remote areas.Yet by 2018, German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants all Germans, even those in rural communities, to have access to 50Mbps broadband connections, she said at the opening ceremony of the Cebit trade show on Sunday.This ambitious goal, if attained, could revolutionize many aspects of farming and forestry, allowing a transition from practices based on intuition and tradition to those based on big data and analytics.And German businesses, including century-old agricultural machinery maker Claas, enterprise software specialist SAP, and a new generation of mobile app developers, are ready to take advantage of it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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German IT spending forecast to rise on eve of industry’s biggest trade show
IT spending is forecast to rise faster than previously expected in Germany, a bellwether for European industry, while IT sector jobs there will total almost one million by year-end. However, forthcoming legislation could have a chilling effect, industry association Bitkom warned.The news will put a smile on the faces of exhibitors and visitors at the giant Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, which opens Monday.Last year, 26,000 new jobs were created in the German IT industry, more than the 10,000 expected, Bitkom said. It expects 21,000 more will find employment in the industry by year end, taking the total to 990,000.The faster-than-expected rise in employment last year has prompted the association to raise its forecast for German IT spending on IT, telecommunications and consumer electronics this year to €155.5 billion (US$163 billion), up 1.5 percent year on year compared to an earlier growth forecast of 0.6 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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BlackBerry teams with Samsung and IBM to offer governments a secure tablet
BlackBerry is returning to the tablet market—this time with the help of Samsung Electronics, IBM and Secusmart, the German encryption specialist BlackBerry bought last year.This is not the PlayBook 2 that BlackBerry was rumored to be working on last year, but the SecuTablet, developed by Secusmart and IBM for a German government department.The SecuTablet is a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 LTE 16GB bundled with some software from IBM and SecuSmart’s special MicroSD card, which combines a number of cryptographic chips to protect data in motion and at rest. Samsung’s Knox secure boot technology ensures that the OS on the tablet has not been tampered with, while IBM’s contribution to the security chain is to “wrap” certain apps in an additional layer of code that intercepts and encrypts key data flows using the Secusmart hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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SanDisk’s InfiniFlash is a new storage format that will sell for under $1/GB
SanDisk is hoping the $1/GB price of its new InfiniFlash storage platform will be enough to convince customers that all-flash systems can be viable for big-data applications, including content streaming and giant databases.The first InfiniFlash product, the rack-mountable IF100, will sell for less than $1 per gigabyte, with the exact cost depending on who’s buying, and how many, said Ravi Swaminathan, SanDisk’s general manager of systems and software solutions.Pretty much everything about the IF100 is hot-swappable, whether it’s the dual power supplies, the four fans, or the row of up to 64 flash storage cards each holding 8 terabytes. That gives the 3U (133 millimeter-high) box a capacity of up to 512TB.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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YO! This messaging app has a lot more to say for itself, even offline
Mobile World Congress is not the best place to launch a new messaging app: With thousands of tech-savvy visitors in Barcelona, many of them toting multiple connected devices, public wireless and Wi-Fi networks quickly become so saturated that it’s difficult to send a message via Internet, even a brief “Yo,” to a nearby colleague.But that Yo is so last year. The app that could only send one word still sent every message to a central server before bouncing it over to its destination.This year showgoers will be able to try out a new Android app, called YO!, that can send text messages, photos and videos over Wi-Fi to other users nearby without any Internet connection whatsoever, making it a true peer-to-peer messaging app. And as long as they’re prepared to disable certain security settings on their phone, they won’t even need to log on to the Play store to get it: Anyone with YO! installed on their phone can share it with other would-be users over Bluetooth.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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YO! This messaging app has a lot more to say for itself, even offline
Mobile World Congress is not the best place to launch a new messaging app: With thousands of tech-savvy visitors in Barcelona, many of them toting multiple connected devices, public wireless and Wi-Fi networks quickly become so saturated that it’s difficult to send a message via Internet, even a brief “Yo,” to a nearby colleague.But that Yo is so last year. The app that could only send one word still sent every message to a central server before bouncing it over to its destination.This year showgoers will be able to try out a new Android app, called YO!, that can send text messages, photos and videos over Wi-Fi to other users nearby without any Internet connection whatsoever, making it a true peer-to-peer messaging app. And as long as they’re prepared to disable certain security settings on their phone, they won’t even need to log on to the Play store to get it: Anyone with YO! installed on their phone can share it with other would-be users over Bluetooth.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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YO! This messaging app has a lot more to say for itself, even offline
Mobile World Congress is not the best place to launch a new messaging app: With thousands of tech-savvy visitors in Barcelona, many of them toting multiple connected devices, public wireless and Wi-Fi networks quickly become so saturated that it’s difficult to send a message via Internet, even a brief “Yo,” to a nearby colleague. But that Yo is so last year. The app that could only send one word still sent every message to a central server before bouncing it over to its destination.+ See our full coverage of MWC 2015 + This year showgoers will be able to try out a new Android app, called YO!, that can send text messages, photos and videos over Wi-Fi to other users nearby without any Internet connection whatsoever, making it a true peer-to-peer messaging app. And as long as they’re prepared to disable certain security settings on their phone, they won’t even need to log on to the Play store to get it: Anyone with YO! installed on their phone can share it with other would-be users over Bluetooth.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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YO! This messaging app has a lot more to say for itself, even offline
Mobile World Congress is not the best place to launch a new messaging app: With thousands of tech-savvy visitors in Barcelona, many of them toting multiple connected devices, public wireless and Wi-Fi networks quickly become so saturated that it’s difficult to send a message via Internet, even a brief “Yo,” to a nearby colleague. But that Yo is so last year. The app that could only send one word still sent every message to a central server before bouncing it over to its destination.+ See our full coverage of MWC 2015 + This year showgoers will be able to try out a new Android app, called YO!, that can send text messages, photos and videos over Wi-Fi to other users nearby without any Internet connection whatsoever, making it a true peer-to-peer messaging app. And as long as they’re prepared to disable certain security settings on their phone, they won’t even need to log on to the Play store to get it: Anyone with YO! installed on their phone can share it with other would-be users over Bluetooth.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Ericsson seeks to block sales of Apple products in US, stepping up patent dispute
Some Apple products may be banned from sale in the U.S. if Ericsson gets its way after filing a barrage of patent lawsuits.The Swedish telecommunications equipment vendor filed nine lawsuits against Apple on Thursday, seven in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and two in the U.S. International Trade Commission, alleging infringement of a total of 41 of its patents, it said Friday.Apple is no stranger to the courts when it comes to patent disputes. Previous cases have often focused on the “look and feel” of its products, turning on the curvature of a phone’s corners, or how it indicates that it can’t perform an action when someone swipes the screen. Many of the patents Ericsson says Apple is infringing, though, cut right to the heart of smartphone and tablet functionality: their ability to connect to 2G, 3G or 4G mobile networks to make calls or exchange data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Gemalto says spies probably didn’t steal mobile phone encryption keys from it after all
SIM card maker Gemalto has dismissed recent reports that U.K. and U.S. spies obtained encryption keys protecting millions of mobile phones by hacking its network.Secret documents revealed last week suggested that spies from the U.S. National Security Agency and the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters had stolen SIM card encryption keys from Gemalto, allowing them to intercept the conversations of millions of mobile phone users. The GCHQ documents, dating from 2010, were among those leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Gemalto says spies probably didn’t steal mobile phone encryption keys from it after all
SIM card maker Gemalto has dismissed recent reports that U.K. and U.S. spies obtained encryption keys protecting millions of mobile phones by hacking its network.Secret documents revealed last week suggested that spies from the U.S. National Security Agency and the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters had stolen SIM card encryption keys from Gemalto, allowing them to intercept the conversations of millions of mobile phone users. The GCHQ documents, dating from 2010, were among those leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Apple plans two European data centers running on renewable energy
Apple plans to open two European data centers running on renewable energy in 2017, following similar moves by Google and Facebook in the region.The new data centers will host a number of Apple services for European customers, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage text messaging service, Apple Maps and Siri, its voice-controlled personal assistant. By hosting the data within the European Union, Apple could avoid the need to export EU users’ data to the U.S. or other data protection regimes, a sensitive issue as EU legislators discuss renewing the bloc’s data protection regime.Apple plans to spend a total of €1.7 billion (US$1.9 billion) on the two data centers, which will each cover around 166,000 square meters.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Expedia to buy Orbitz for $1.6 billion
Cheaper air travel is making the world seem smaller—and that’s increasingly the case for the online booking market too, with Expedia planning to swallow up rival Orbitz Worldwide barely a month after buying the smaller Travelocity.Expedia operates online booking services for flights, car rentals and hotels, including the Hotels.com brand, while Orbitz offers similar services under its own brand and at Ebookers.com and Hotelclub.com.For Expedia, the acquisition is primarily about growing its customer base: The companies offer similar services in overlapping markets. Orbitz also operates “white label” travel booking services for airlines and bank loyalty programs through its Orbitz Partner Network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Expedia to buy Orbitz for $1.6 billion
Cheaper air travel is making the world seem smaller—and that’s increasingly the case for the online booking market too, with Expedia planning to swallow up rival Orbitz Worldwide barely a month after buying the smaller Travelocity.Expedia operates online booking services for flights, car rentals and hotels, including the Hotels.com brand, while Orbitz offers similar services under its own brand and at Ebookers.com and Hotelclub.com.For Expedia, the acquisition is primarily about growing its customer base: The companies offer similar services in overlapping markets. Orbitz also operates “white label” travel booking services for airlines and bank loyalty programs through its Orbitz Partner Network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here