If you haven't heard of graphene, or its new brother silicene, you will.For the uninitiated, graphene is a super cost-effective, ultra-hard and light-weight conductor. It's better than copper at conducting and is in fact the world's most conductive substance. Silicene is similar in that it's also ultra-thin, but it has properties that may be more suited for use in chips.We've been hearing about graphene for a while. However, this miracle substance has a slight, somewhat awkward problem for a superstar. Despite its second-coming-like trumpet blowing, it's not very good in transistors. The reason: it doesn't have the necessary logic operation capability.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.Actifio OneKey features: Actifio One is a flexible cloud-based service for midmarket companies to extend their datacenter. Built on the copy data virtualization technology, applications are available when and where users need them. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Indian outsourcer Infosys is to acquire Panaya, a U.S. vendor of automation technology for testing enterprise software deployments and upgrades.The cash deal values Panaya at an enterprise value of US$200 million, and is in line with the company’s strategy under new CEO Vishal Sikka to automate processes, including by using artificial intelligence, to cut down on repetitive tasks and accelerate services delivery.“This acquisition aims to use automation to boost the revenue of the company without a corresponding increase in staff,” said Sudin Apte, CEO and research director at analyst firm Offshore Insights. He pointed out that Infosys’ rivals like Tata Consultancy Services already use some degree of automation developed in-house.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In this era of the all-pervasive cloud, it’s easy to assume that the data we store will somehow be preserved forever. The only thing to fret about from a posterity perspective, we might think, is the analog information from days gone by—all the stuff on papers, tapes and other pre-digital formats that haven’t been explicitly converted.Vinton Cerf, often called “the father of the Internet,” has other ideas.Now chief Internet evangelist at Google, Cerf spoke this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he painted a very different picture.Rather than a world where longevity is a given, Cerf fears a “digital dark age” in which the rapid evolution of technology quickly makes storage formats obsolete thanks to a phenomenon he calls “bit rot.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple’s automotive ambitions may extend beyond CarPlay, its vehicle dashboard software.Managers from the company’s iPhone unit are leading employees in automotive research projects at a secret Silicon Valley lab, according to a report in the Financial Times Friday.Apple designers have met with executives and engineers at auto makers and in some cases recruited them, including the head of Mercedes-Benz’s Silicon Valley research and development division, the report says.If Apple is indeed building a car it will quickly run into one of its biggest rivals—Google, which is far along in its development of an autonomous vehicle. Traditional automakers are also getting smarter about incorporating technology in their vehicles. Chevrolet’s cars can come with built-in LTE hotspots, and in January Audi ferried journalists from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas in a self-driving car.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A “today in history” post from The Poynter Institute includes an old newsreel showing that ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, was also the first to raise the specter of government prying eyes ... or a least a look over your shoulder.Here’s that 20th Century Fox newsreel, with a transcript below for those who’d rather read:
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Panasonic’s Toughbooks are known for their strength and durability, but the company is trying to resolve some of the heft and size issues with its latest model.The Toughbook 54 14-inch laptop is just 1.9 kilograms (4.19 pounds), much lighter than its predecessor, the Toughbook 53, which was over 2.5 kilograms. Panasonic has also doubled memory capacity of the laptop to 16GB, and included a spare bay to improve storage capacity.The Toughbook isn’t going to compete on weight with laptops marketed as being super light, such as Dell’s XPS 13, which weights a bit more than 1 kilogram. But it is much tougher, thanks to a magnesium alloy chassis that can withstand drops of just under 1 meter. The Toughbook 54 has a handle, making it look much like a mini-suitcase.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
U.S.-based GeoPoll is partnering with Control Union, an international provider of agricultural inspection and safety services, to reach out to African farmers and bring them into global supply chain networks while ensuring compliance with standard business practices.GeoPoll provides technology for data collection, using mobile platforms for surveys. Control Union will be able to use GeoPoll technology to reach small-holding farmers to gain more information about their practices. The idea is to bring increased transparency to food supply chains globally, with a focus on key products such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, fruits and vegetables, palm oil, rice, and tobacco. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After acquiring a competitor weeks ago and just announcing plans to buy another one, Expedia may look like the dominant player in online travel, but its CEO argues the deals are necessary to battle another rival: Google.Expedia offers online booking services for flights, car rentals and hotels under brands such as Hotels.com and Hotwire.com, and plans to beef up its business with Thursday’s US$1.6 billion proposed acquisition of rival Orbitz, which offers similar services and operates sites such as CheapTickets.com.Snatching up Orbitz will give Expedia the customers it needs to fend off companies that have muscled their way into the online travel agency space, including Google, said Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during a webcast held to discuss the Orbitz deal. Google, along with traditional travel industry players like hotels, are all trying to establish themselves as the best option for consumers looking to book travel.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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
Restrictive governments getting better at censoring the InternetAuthoritarian government are censoring the Internet more aggressively and using more sophisticated technology, according to the annual World Press Freedom Index being released Thursday by Reporters Without Borders. China is judged “a pioneer” in the field, after blocking access to all Google services during the last year and stamping out domestic coverage of protests in Hong Kong and the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Iran is also high on the list, as it works on a national intranet that will keep citizens off the global Internet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has forced its suppliers to end a form of “bonded labor” that saddled assembly line workers with unnecessary hiring fees, and put them in debt to third-party recruiters.The requirement went into effect starting this year, the company said on Wednesday in its latest supplier responsibility report, which examines the labor conditions at factories that produce Apple products.Many of these factories are based in mainland China, where suppliers are hiring thousands of local workers. But in periods of labor shortages, Apple suppliers have at times relied on third-party recruitment agencies to bring in more temporary workers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems posted quarterly revenue and profit gains that included growth for its software-defined networking products, and Chairman and CEO John Chambers used the occasion to lay down the gauntlet to SDN rival VMware.The company’s revenue hit $11.9 billion in the fiscal quarter ended Jan. 24, up 7 percent from a year earlier. SDN, a new market that might imperil Cisco’s traditional network hardware business, was a strong point: Sales of the company’s recently introduced Nexus 3000 and 9000 data-center switches, key to its SDN architecture, grew 350 percent.Cisco claimed 1,700 total customers for its SDN architecture, called ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure), up from 970 the previous quarter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook is taking its crusade for open networking to a broader battlefield, using its 16-port “Wedge” switch design as the basis of a new modular platform that can link together racks of servers across a data center.The social networking juggernaut doesn’t intend to become a data networking vendor. It designs switches for its own needs and then open-sources its hardware designs so others can use them. In time, other companies could turn Facebook switch designs into products for sale, but Facebook won’t be directly involved, said Matt Corddry, director of hardware engineering at Facebook.GOOD LUCK: Geeky Ways to Celebrate Friday the 13thTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hitachi Data Systems is purchasing business intelligence software maker Pentaho to incorporate analysis into Internet of Things systems it’ll build for the healthcare, public safety and other industries.“Hitachi owns the infrastructure and Pentaho owns the data integration and analytics platform and know-how to harness the value in big data,” wrote Pentaho CEO Quentin Gallivan in a blog post detailing the rationale behind the acquisition.Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of global conglomerate Hitachi, and focuses on IT and data center support and integration. It has been working to expand into the IoT market, which will generate over $2 trillion in business for all industries by 2020, according to Goldman Sachs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Federal IT projects have hit the critical care list all too often and now watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office have moved those undertakings to its High Risk List which means Congress and the executive branch should take an extra special look at the situation.The GAO puts out the High Risk List every two years at the start of a new Congress, with the notion that resolution to those problems in particular could save billions in taxpayer money. The list currently includes 32 items ranging from climate change and cyber security threat response to Medicaid fraud.+ More on Network World: FBI: The top 3 ways Congress could help fight tenacious cyber threats +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The University of Connecticut announced yesterday that it has connected a new 100G fiber link, giving its faculty an improved ability to collaborate with others around the world on data-intensive research projects.The connection links to a global backbone network called Internet2, which is a specialized research and education infrastructure linking government, corporate and academic organizations together.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Microsoft to release next generation of Windows Server in 2016 | iPhone still king of enterprise mobile as usage skyrockets, study finds +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Uber Technologies has started a pilot across Indian cities of new safety features for its ride-hailing app, but the new measures may cut no ice with regulators in Delhi where the service was banned.The app will now let users send driver and vehicle details to their relatives and friends, and will also have an SOS button that will enable riders to contact the local authorities in an emergency.Uber was banned from Delhi in December after the alleged rape of a woman passenger by one of its drivers.It announced in January that to keep the service going, it had applied for a license under the city’s revised Radio Taxi Scheme that places tighter controls on taxi operators.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple is investing in a vast solar plant in Northern California that will generate as much electricity as the company uses to power all its operations in the state.Apple will invest $850 million in the plant through a partnership with First Solar, CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday. It will cover 1,300 acres—equal to about 1,000 football fields—in Monterey County, about an hour south of Apples Silicon Valley headquarters.The plant will generate enough energy that it could power Apples entire operations in California, including its data center, retail stores and offices. That’s also enough energy to power 15,000 California homes, Cook said.It doesn’t mean Apple’s stores and offices will consume power directly from the plant. But the investment allows Apple to lock in a low, fixed rate for renewable energy, and probably also obtain renewable energy certificates to offset its carbon foot print.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As controversy flares over workforce diversity in tech, Intel’s Rosalind Hudnell is working on an ambitious plan to spark change that could forever alter hiring practices at IT companies.She realizes, though, that change has to start from within the company, and that it won’t come overnight. Hudnell, Intel’s chief diversity officer, is responsible for implementing the company’s much-publicized US$300 million initiative to bring more women and under-represented minorities into its workforce by 2020. The challenges are many.The effort comes as an intense debate rages over what’s perceived as the technology industry’s sexist culture. Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, for example, apologized after igniting a firestorm when he said in a public interview that not asking for pay raises is “good karma” for women.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here