IoT is making devices smaller, smarter, and – we hope – safer. It’s not easy to make all those things happen at once, but chips that can help are starting to emerge.On Tuesday at ARM TechCon in Silicon Valley, ARM will introduce processors that are just a fraction of a millimeter across and incorporate the company’s TrustZone technology. TrustZone is hardware-based security built into SoC (system on chip) processors to establish a root of trust.It’s designed to prevent devices from being hacked and taken over by intruders, a danger that’s been in the news since the discovery of the Mirai botnet, which recently took over thousands of IP cameras to mount denial-of-service attacks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What's big, red, and supposed to be the next big thing in workplace collaboration? Google's new Jamboard, a massive touch display and accompanying cloud service that's supposed to help business users brainstorm together. Jamboard works like a digital whiteboard, letting users sketch out ideas, attach digital sticky notes, plus bring in content from the web into a single, constantly updating workspace. People can use Jamboard to collaborate both on the 55-inch mega-display of the same name, or using accompanying tablet and smartphone apps for iOS and Android.
The Jamboard is available in private beta for business customers of Google's G Suite productivity service offering starting Tuesday. The company expects to make it generally available early next year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google has acquired a 3-year-old eye-tracking company for virtual and augmented reality headsets, signaling the tech giant's interest in the immersive technologies.Eyefluence, founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneurs Jim Marggraff and David Stiehr, develops eye-interaction technologies to control VR and AR headsets. "Eyes can instantaneously transform intent into action, enabling communication as fast as you can see," the company says. The deal with Google was announced Tuesday. "With our forces combined, we will continue to advance eye-interaction technology to expand human potential and empathy on an even larger scale," Eyefluence said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Let’s jump into the Cool Tools Time Machine to go back to the year 1996. The Internet, at least on the consumer side of things, was just beginning to take off, and there was a Clinton running for president (well, at least some things stay the same). Axis Communications
Axis Communications NetEye 200, the company's first network-based video camera.
In that year, a company called Axis Communications created its first networked video camera, the NetEye 200, which could transmit video at 1 frame per 17 seconds in normal resolution, or 1 frame per second (fps) in CIF resolution. Since then, resolution and frame rates have gotten much, much better, with current cameras supporting 4K resolution. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
OpenStack users running their workloads on IBM's SoftLayer public cloud infrastructure took it calmly when the company's object storage development lead, Brian Cline, announced that SoftLayer is going away.Cline opened his presentation with the news at the OpenStack Summit in Barcelona on Tuesday.But it's not as bad as it sounds. The same services will still be available from the same servers, managed through the same SoftLayer control portal: Only the brand is going away.IBM is going to replace the SoftLayer name with Bluemix, its broader cloud platform, making SoftLayer services just another page in the Bluemix catalog of infrastructure, platform and application services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) establishes what telephone numbers exist. It would be safe to say that most people know and understand that the short code of 911 will connect callers with police, fire or medical services in the event of an emergency. But did you know that there are seven other numbers, arguably as important?N11 numbers, or telephone short-codes, provide callers quick and simple access to other special assistance that may be needed without tying up emergency services resources and phone lines.Usage of these codes is established by the Federal Communications Commission based on use defined by the NANP Administrator, and is as follows:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
People who tend to lose or misplace things may turn to “smart” trackers, tiny devices which can be attached to keys, TV remotes, just about anything, and then the Bluetooth-enabled tracker helps you find the “lost” item via a smartphone. Many have a crowdsourcing feature so other people on that tracker’s network can also help locate a missing item. But how secure are these IoT trackers? Two researchers at Rapid7 decided to find out.Deral Heiland, principal security consultant at Rapid7, aka @Percent_X, and Adam Compton, senior security consultant at Rapid7, aka @tatanus, took aim at four different trackers: iTrack Easy, Nut Smart Tracker, TrackR Bravo and Tile. They looked at the devices as well as the companion iOS apps and found issues with each.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SQL Server Analysis Services, one of the key features of Microsoft's relational database enterprise offering, is going to the cloud. The company announced Tuesday that it's launching the public beta of Azure Analysis Services, which gives users cloud-based access to semantic data modeling tools.The news is part of a host of announcements the company is making at the Professional Association for SQL Server Summit in Seattle this week. On top of the new cloud service, Microsoft also released new tools for migrating to the latest version of SQL Server and an expanded free trial for Azure SQL Data Warehouse. On the hardware side, the company revealed new reference architecture for using SQL Server 2016 with active data sets of up to 145TB.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Helping people in a crisis is always hard. It’s even harder when those people in need are on the move.How can they learn about resources available nearby to help them? How can volunteers be assigned to where they can help the most? How can supplies be ordered to meet the demand for meals, blankets and medicine?The Refugee Aid app from Trellyz and the StockVUE inventory management system from LoadStar Sensors can help. Movement on the Ground
The challenge: Finding and helping the homeless and refugees
Finding and communicating accurate information about groups in need is difficult. This applies to both the homeless and refugees. Their need is immediate, and they’re on the move. It’s hard to provide them with help that may be available from multiple non-profits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As the OpenStack Foundation kicks off its 2016 international conference in Barcelona this week, 451 Research has new predictions for how fast the open source cloud computing project is growing.The research firm predicts that OpenStack revenues will grow by a compound annual growth rate of 35% in the coming years, ballooning to a $5 billion industry by 2020.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: The enterprise wish list for hybrid cloud | OpenStack Director on why open source should be the foundation of your data center +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Guidance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for improving motor vehicle cybersecurity has attracted criticism from lawmakers who said that mandatory security standards were required.“This new cybersecurity guidance from the Department of Transportation is like giving a take-home exam on the honor code to failing students,” said Senators Edward J. Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, who are both members of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.“In this new Internet of Things era, we cannot let safety, cybersecurity, and privacy be an afterthought,” the senators added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Twitter may trim its staff again by about 300 people or 8 percent of its workforce, as the company tries to cut costs in trying times.The widespread job cuts could come before the company releases its third-quarter earnings on Thursday, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. It cautioned that the precise number of jobs affected could change.A Twitter spokeswoman said in an email that the company doesn’t comment on rumor or speculation.Twitter announced in October last year that it was laying off 336 employees.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Giving up an old cell phone number for a new one may seem harmless. But for Lyft customers, it can potentially expose their accounts to complete strangers.That's what happened to Lara Miller, a media relations specialist living in California. Earlier this month, she discovered two credit card charges made in Las Vegas, over 400 miles away."I thought it was legit fraud on my debit card," Miller said. But in reality, another woman had accidentally taken over her old Lyft account. It happened because the phone company had recycled the cell phone number Miller had canceled back in April -- opening the door to the hack.The problem involves Lyft's login process. The ride-hailing app does away with the hassle of usernames and passwords, and instead signs up customers with their smartphone's cell number.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The massive DDoS attacks that took down internet address-translation service Dyn and its customers last week raise a lot of need-to-know questions about the overall security of online infrastructure and its performance.While the attacks were ultimately mitigated and have subsided, the means for carrying out others are still viable and could crop up at any time with other targets. Here are some questions and answers that address what happened, how it happened, whether it could happen again and what the consequences might be.Is the internet broken?No, or at least not any more than it was before. It’s made up of a system of independent vendors and institutions working cooperatively to provide access to sites around the world. Each works in its own best interests but also cooperates with the others to make the system work for everybody. Like any such system, it’s got flaws and weaknesses. The Dyn attackers targeted some of these vulnerabilities and exploited them for maximum effect.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A Chinese electronics component maker is recalling 4.3 million internet-connected camera products from the U.S. market amid claims they may have played a role in Friday's massive internet disruption.On Monday, Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology said it was recalling earlier models of four kinds of cameras due to a security vulnerability that can make them easy to hack."The main security problem is that users aren't changing the device's default passwords," Xiongmai said in a Chinese-language statement posted online.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Prominent U.S. politicians quickly raised concerns about the proposed $85.4 billion merger of AT&T and Time Warner, but some analysts expect it to pass regulatory muster after a lengthy review."The big question is how a new presidential administration will try to make a mark with its handling of the deal, but I expect whoever is elected will essentially wave [in approval] as it goes by," said Bill Menezes, an analyst at Gartner.Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, both voiced concerns about the deal, while a Senate Judiciary subcommittee has already vowed to hold a hearing on the matter in November.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On numerous recent occasions, Cisco Executive Chairman John Chambers has acted as a harbinger for dramatic changes he and others say face the world because of the pace of technology change.In a video recorded at a recent International Monetary Fund event Chambers says technology “will transform every business model that we see,” predicting that “40 percent of the companies in America, Asia, Europe … will disappear in the next decade.”As dramatic as these predictions may seem, they are not unprecedented in business history. In fact, many of the dynamics at play, although happening at a more accelerated pace today, are in part responsible for the success of the company that Chambers led from 1995 to 2006. In this post, I’ll look at two examples from business history, companies whose fates were intertwined with that of Cisco Systems, and compare to the forces at work today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As the old adage states: People are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain. This is a problem because strong cybersecurity depends upon both individual skills and organizational collaboration between cybersecurity, business and IT groups. To use another analogy, cybersecurity is a team sport. If the cybersecurity team doesn’t communicate and collaborate well with other groups within an organization, it will be difficult—if not impossible—to stay current with what’s needed for security incident prevention, detection and response.Unfortunately, this is the situation too often today. According to a new research report from ESG and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA)—The State of Cybersecurity Professional Careers—20 percent of cybersecurity professionals claim that the relationship between cybersecurity and IT teams is “fair or poor” today, while 27 percent rate the relationship between cybersecurity and business team as “fair or poor."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Micca Speck G2 provides convenient playback of all popular photo, music, and video formats up to 1080p Full-HD resolution on any TV or HDTV. It has a 1080p HD output for sending sharp and clear video and audio in pure digital format to HDTVs, as well as composite AV output for use with analog TVs. The Speck G2 reads media from USB Drives, USB Hard Drives, SD/SDHC Flash Memory Cards, MBR FAT32 and NTFS file systems, up to 2TB. File formats supported are:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Technology changes faster than many of us can keep up with it. New paradigms like software-defined networks and the cloud emerge, and the old ones continue to hang around.But while the hotshot programmers and big data geeks get to play with the shiny new toys, you're busy waiting for the robots to come and take away your job.[ Find out how to get ahead with our career development guide for developers. | The art of programming is changing rapidly. We help you navigate what's hot in programming and what's going cold. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's Application Development newsletter. ]
It doesn't have to be that way. Whether you cut your teeth on Unix and AIX or you tire of doing the necessary but thankless tasks that come with keeping the lights on and the datacenter humming, there's still time to reinvent yourself.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here