As someone who lives and breathes mainframes, I often forget that people who aren't part of this world don't always believe some of the truths that I believe to be self-evident. One common way that I raise eyebrows is when I tell my fellow technologists that mainframes are perfect for supporting mobile applications. In fact, it is almost guaranteed to invoke skepticism. So let me just say it again: mainframes and mobile are a perfect combination.At first glance, it's easy to see why this might be somewhat incongruous. Mainframes have been around for more than half a century, and for most of their history the idea of small, portable devices was the stuff of science fiction. When laptops, smartphones and tablets (and, more recently, intelligent wearables) came on the scene they were truly revolutionary because they fulfilled the long-standing promise of truly portable computing. So what role could "Big Iron" possibly play in a world of increasingly smaller devices?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The second wave of 802.11ac is coming ashore and the new MU-MIMO technology (Multi-User, Multiple Input Multiple Output) is going to make a splash. It’s one of the biggest improvements to Wi-Fi we’ve seen to date with the potential to greatly increase wireless network throughput and make a huge difference in dense, high capacity networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
If you’re planning to buy a new smartphone this year, but haven’t bought one yet it might be better to wait a bit longer: Apple, Samsung Electronics and OnePlus are all expected to launch new models in the next couple of months.Here are some of the models you should see during the second half of the year:OnePlus 2While most of the products on this list (and their specs) are just rumors, Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has been busy detailing its 2 model, which will be launched on July 27.So far, OnePlus has revealed the phone will have a fingerprint sensor and be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810. The company is using an upgraded version of the processor, v2.1, that isn’t susceptible to the overheating issues that the first version reportedly suffered from, it said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you’re planning to buy a new smartphone this year, but haven’t bought one yet it might be better to wait a bit longer: Apple, Samsung Electronics and OnePlus are all expected to launch new models in the next couple of months.Here are some of the models you should see during the second half of the year:OnePlus 2While most of the products on this list (and their specs) are just rumors, Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has been busy detailing its 2 model, which will be launched on July 27.So far, OnePlus has revealed the phone will have a fingerprint sensor and be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810. The company is using an upgraded version of the processor, v2.1, that isn’t susceptible to the overheating issues that the first version reportedly suffered from, it said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A consumer protection group in China is suing Samsung Electronics and a Chinese vendor for placing too many preinstalled apps on phones, and is demanding that the whole smartphone industry eschew bloatware.On Thursday, the Shanghai Consumer Council said it filed public interest lawsuits against Samsung and Oppo for not only placing so much bloatware on their phones, but also making it impossible for the user to easily remove the apps.The consumer protection group has been receiving a growing number of complaints, and found that these preinstalled apps can take up a phone’s storage or download data without the user’s knowledge. In response, the group has filed the lawsuits in a Shanghai court, as a way to discourage smartphone vendors from weighing their products down with pre-installed software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Sprint this week quickly reversed plans to impose a 600 Kbps limit on streaming video as part of a promotion called "All-In" that charges $80 a month for unlimited talk, text and high-speed data.The All-In plan, announced Tuesday, ironically was intended to "end consumer confusion & frustration," according to a press release.But the 600 Kbps video stream cap, originally contained in a footnote about the plan, incited widespread frustration and anger on social media sites and elsewhere.MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch
The 600 Kbps limitation was interpreted by Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, as a violation of Title II net neutrality rules, which Sprint had supported before the Federal Communications Commission. "To throttle video is such a clearcut violation of Title II," he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The road warrior's essential mobile toolkit: Summer editionImage by ThinkstockSummer is full swing, which means millions of Americans will be cashing in their vacation days and enjoying time away from the office. But for those road warriors who can't disconnect entirely, we've augmented our road warrior's essential mobile toolkit with some of this summer’s best options to stay connected, protected, and productive no matter how far you roam. So hit the beach, pool, or trail this summer without missing a beat from your digital life.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi has hopes of selling at least 80 million smartphones this year, but that goal may harder to reach than originally thought.On Thursday, the fast-rising company announced it had sold 34.7 million smartphones for the first six months of 2015. Although the figure means that sales were up 33 percent year-over-year, Xiaomi still has its work cut out to reach that 80 million number.Given that Xiaomi sold its first phone only four years ago, the company has made astonishing progress to become one of China’s top smartphone brands. It was even briefly the country’s largest vendor, before falling behind the new market leader, Apple, in this year’s first quarter, according to research firm IDC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook is preparing a new way to show videos on the social network and opening the door to a new source of advertising revenue at the same time.The new feature, called Suggested Videos, will roll out first on iOS in the coming weeks and probably will come to other platforms like Android and the Web in the next few months.It works like this: When users click on a video in their News Feed, a new area pops up with related videos from Facebook partners that users can also watch. Some of those videos will be advertisements, and when a user watches one of them, Facebook will share the advertising dollars with the other partners supplying the video.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
TracFone, a major provider of prepaid mobile phone service, must keep its promise to let customers unlock their devices and transfer service to competing carriers, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said.TracFone must transition to unlockable phones in a settlement announced by the FCC Wednesday. In addition to the TracFone brand, the company provides pay-as-you-go mobile service through the brands Straight Talk, Net10 Wireless, SafeLink Wireless, Telcel America, Simple Mobile and Page Plus Cellular.TracFone, with about 25.7 million U.S. mobile customers, violated FCC rules by failing to live up to promises that it would unlock phones for customers enrolled in the agency’s Lifeline program, a subsidized mobile program for low-income people, the agency said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For the first time in a number of years the use of authorized federal wiretaps decreased 13% in 2014 over 2013.According to the 2014 Wiretap Report, released today by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a total of a total of 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized, with 1,279 authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges. Compared to the applications approved during 2013, the number approved by federal judges decreased 13% in 2014 and the number approved by state judges increased 8%. One state wiretap application was denied in 2014, the report stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When Wakefield Canada, the exclusive distributor for Castrol in Canada, set out to replace the tablets used by their sales team, it went right to the source to figure out what to buy: The people who would be using them in the field. "A big part of this was really involving our end users in the tool selection," says Kent Mills, Wakefield Canada CTO. MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch
The company landed on the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Here's why – and how they made an easy transition. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi will finally begin selling product in Brazil, marking the first time it has sold handsets outside of Asia.On Tuesday, Xiaomi unveiled its Redmi 2 phone for Brazil, which will cost BRL499 (US$160) when it goes on sale later this month.The company hopes to repeat the success it has had in China selling feature-packed Android handsets at low prices. In just a matter of a few years, Xiaomi has become the country’s largest smartphone vendor. Some in the media have called it “the Apple of China” due to its rising popularity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The IT world has been buzzing recently with partnerships and acquisitions on the wireless networking front. HP announced its decision to acquire Aruba Networks and will reportedly focus its efforts on new software that allows customers to manage entire networks with a single app. We also learned about the newly formed partnership between Juniper Networks and Ruckus Wireless, demonstrating Juniper's continued effort to become a real player in the wireless space. All interesting revelations, but will these changes pose a real threat to Cisco, the reigning networking champ?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Don't let wonky tech get you down!Image by Denimadept/WikipediaLife would be simpler if every piece of technology we dealt with worked in an obvious and straightforward way. Life would also be a lot duller.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Expect vendors soon to introduce devices with three forms of wireless support to Fast Identity Online (FIDO) two-factor authentication.
The FIDO Alliance today is issuing a new specification for FIDO to support Bluetooth, low-energy Bluetooth (BLE) and near field communications (NFC) wireless technologies in two-factor authentication tokens, according to FIDO Alliance executive director Brett McDowell.
That means the alliance recommends that device manufacturers use the spec to start producing and selling these wireless devices.MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch
Existing FIDO specs already defined how to make authentication tokens that can be plugged into USB ports. With the new specification these authentication devices would just have to be near a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop that also supports the same wireless technology and is trying to connect with a server that supports FIDO authentication. So devices without USB ports could still authenticate via FIDO.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amidst the battles raging over whether sharing-economy workers should be considered contractors or employees, last week I called for a compromise that would combine the appropriate features of both independent contractors and employees to create a new way to deal with this new kind of business relationship.I still believe that this is the best approach for coping with an emerging class of workers that doesn't fit neatly into either of the existing categories. But what happens until companies, workers, and regulators can strike such a compromise? And what if compromise proves impossible to achieve? Will forcing companies like Uber to actually "hire" its workforce really spell doom for the sharing economy?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Shazam is releasing a new version of its music recognition app that lets users connect with artists they like and see what songs they’ve searched for using its service.Shazam lets people identify songs, TV shows and movies by capturing a brief snippet onto their phone, which gets matched against Shazam’s database. The new version due out Tuesday, for iOS and Android, lets users see what songs have been identified by artists using the app. Because not even musicians know every song that’s playing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Uber is adding to its mapping smarts by acquiring technology used by Microsoft’s Bing Maps, and has hired roughly 100 Microsoft employees who work on image collection and data analysis.Microsoft decided it will no longer collect the imagery and data for Bing Maps itself, and will instead rely on partners. Bing Maps will continue to provide driving directions and information about traffic and road conditions.The employees joining Uber constitute “a small number” of Microsoft’s larger maps team, the companies said.For Microsoft, the acquisition fits with its decision a year ago to focus on productivity services, which are at the core of its strategy, a spokeswoman said on Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A carrier technology that uses Wi-Fi frequencies to provide LTE connectivity could let the big wireless providers mess with your home connection and push you on to their networks, according to comments filed today with the FCC by several watchdog groups.The technology is called either LTE – Unlicensed or Licensed Assisted Access (LTE-U or LAA), and it essentially works by using 4G/LTE radios to send and receive data via the same 5GHz frequencies as Wi-Fi. This lets carriers offload traffic from their congested licensed networks to consumer Wi-Fi, easing the load.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: 9 creative ways to destroy sensitive data + The programmer's guide to breaking into management +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here