Let this serve as a lesson: Looks can be deceiving.Samsung has introduced two new phones in its Galaxy line, and it's interesting to compare the two. Samsung's Galaxy S6 is a gorgeous phone that's both beautiful and brimming with top-notch technology. It really is an impressive device. The Galaxy S6 Edge is essentially the same phone with an added curve to its display that makes it even more striking.On paper and in pictures, the Edge seems like the phone to own. But after using it alongside the regular S6 for the past several days, I'm not convinced it is.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Ruckus became the first enterprise wireless equipment vendor to roll out an 802.11ac Wave 2 access point today, with the release of the ZoneFlex R710.The R710 features the multi-user MIMO capability characteristic of Wave 2 devices, using what Ruckus calls Beamflex technology – built around antenna polarization – to focus signals directionally, making more efficient use of available bandwidth. The company says the R710 can handle 800Mbps of throughput via the older 2.4GHz frequencies, and 1733Mbps via 5GHz.Analyst and Network World contributor Zeus Kerravala said that the R710 is, in a very real sense, far ahead of its time."There aren't any wave 2 [client] devices expected for at least 18 months," he said. "So they are way early."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Salesforce.com has acquired Toopher, the developer of a mobile two-factor authentication app that uses location-awareness.Toopher in Austin, Texas, said on its website that it will no longer sell its current products, but is “thrilled to join Salesforce, where we’ll work on delivering the Toopher vision on a much larger scale as part of the world’s #1 Cloud Platform.”It did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition.Salesforce spokeswoman Karly Bolton confirmed the purchase but did not provide further details. Toopher’s website is now inaccessible, except for the notice announcing the acquisition.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An enterprise mobility partnership between Apple and IBM has yielded more iPhone and iPad apps, including the first ones for the health care industry and industrial production management.Under an agreement announced last July, the two companies develop enterprises mobile apps together, and IBM sells and supports Apple hardware. The first 10 mobile apps debuted in late December and a second batch was released in March. The apps released this week bring the total offered to 22.The four new health care apps are for nurses who work in hospitals and provide home care. Hospital RN replaces a nurse’s pager and phone with an iPhone, and allows them to access a patient’s records. The app uses iBeacon technology to identify patients and displays notifications including status updates on hospital equipment that is offline, backups at the lab and patient requests.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook has released a new app for making videos that it thinks can win over the competition by allowing collaboration among friends.The company on Wednesday released Riff, a mobile app that lets people create short videos and then share them with friends. A video creation and sharing app alone is not unique—other services like YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter provide some other apps for this—but Facebook is hoping to distinguish its app by adding a strong collaborative element to it.After someone creates a video in Riff, that person’s Facebook friends can add to the video with a video of their own. From there, friends of the friend can add to it, and so on. This has the potential to give the video a communal effect, reminiscent of the Our Stories function in Snapchat that lets people watch videos taken by others during an event or over a period of time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Wi-Fi has significantly changed the way we work and play, enabling us to interact with the digital world from anywhere in the physical world. Furthermore, free Wi-Fi access is on the rise, from local coffee shops to international restaurant chains. However, the convenience of free Wi-Fi comes with some real threats, from computer viruses to identity theft.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 7 reasons to deploy Wi-Fi security in Enterprise mode
Wi-Fi is a type of wireless local area network (WLAN) technology that enables an electronic device such as a laptop or smartphone to exchange data or connect to the Internet using radio waves. The core technology behind Wi-Fi is a device called an access point, which acts like a bridge between the wired network and the Wi-Fi network. The access point, in turn, typically connects to the Internet via a network router.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Monitoring or capturing Wi-Fi traffic on Android smartphones and tablets is possible. I’m not just talking about Wi-Fi stumblers or traffic usage apps, but full network sniffers that can capture and display the raw 802.11 network packets from the airwaves. Instead of having to run captures on your bulky laptop, you can walk around with your Android tablet or phone tucked away in your pocket.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Samsung and Apple are the undisputed kings of the smartphone world, and both own right about 20 percent of the global market, according to recent research from IDC. Apple and the iPhone beat out Samsung and its seemingly endless array of handhelds in total sales to end users for the first time during the final quarter of last year, thanks in no small part to the white-hot market reception of both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung and Apple are the undisputed kings of the smartphone world, and both own right approximately 20 percent of the global market, according to recent research from IDC. Apple and the iPhone beat out Samsung and its seemingly endless array of handhelds in total sales to end users for the first time during the final quarter of last year, thanks in no small part to the white-hot market reception of both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amazon wants to try putting physical “buy now” buttons all over your houseBecause Jeff Bezos hasn’t yet figured how to wire your brain directly to Amazon’s warehouses, the company is experimenting with cluttering your home with special-purpose buttons in the name of e-commerce. Its new Dash Buttons can be put up anywhere—kitchen, bathroom drawer, broom closet—and programmed to put in a buy order for, say, laundry detergent, by syncing to the Amazon mobile app over the user’s home Wi-Fi network. The devices will go out to Prime customers by invitation only.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
During Apple's most recent special event, the company announced that HBO Now, a new HBO service which doesn't require a cable TV subscription, would premiere on Apple TV.In the days that followed, it was discovered that HBO Now will be an Apple TV exclusive for three months, after which the service will be opened up to other media platforms. Still, with HBO seemingly not needing Apple to get a foothold in the living room, one has to wonder why and how Apple was able to secure a 3 month exclusivity arrangement.Addressing this very topic, HBO CEO Richard Plepler explained as much during a Tuesday interview with CNBC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Verizon customers can now opt out of having a unique identifier placed on their phones that critics have labelled a ‘supercookie’ because it’s almost impossible to remove.Verizon said in January that it would allow subscribers to opt out of the tracking mechanism, but it didn’t say when. On Tuesday, it said the identifier won’t be inserted for customers who opt out of its mobile advertising program.The move hasn’t satisfied privacy advocates, who say many customers won’t be aware that they need to opt out of the program. The identifier should be “opt in” instead, those advocates say.“This is an improvement, but it doesn’t do nearly enough,” said Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, a senior staff technologist with Electronic Frontier Foundation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple Pay is coming up short for many people who attempt to use the mobile payment service at the register.A survey from research firm Phoenix Marketing International found that 68 percent of respondents who have used Apple Pay had encountered an issue when making an in-store purchase.The leading compliant made by nearly half of respondents was that retailers’ sales terminals took too long to record a transaction. Other problems: employees who didn’t know how to process sales with the mobile wallet (42 percent); errors in how the sale posted (36 percent), like a transaction appearing twice; and out of service Apple Pay terminals (27 percent). Almost half of the Apple Pay users surveyed (47 percent) found that the particular store they visited didn’t accept Apple Pay although the retailer was supposed to support the service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amazon might be on to the killer app for restocking toilet paper from the privacy of your home.Amazon Prime members can now request an invite to get their hands on “Dash Button,” a small oval-shaped device to be placed strategically around the home like drawers, cupboards ... or the bathroom wall. Push its button, and the device will instantly purchase an item of the user’s choosing. Currently there’s more than a dozen buttons for buying Tide laundry detergent, Bounty paper towels and Gillette shaving products. Users can set up the device to send them any applicable item they want; a link on Amazon’s site refers users to more than 250 Dash button products including moisturizers, dog food, and paper towels.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
French company Infinit has released Android and iOS applications for free file-sharing that promise improved transmission speeds over cloud-based services.High-resolution smartphone cameras that can shoot 4K videos means that such a service is needed on mobile devices, Infinit said in a blog post on Tuesday. There are already apps for Mac OS and Windows.All the apps are free and there is no limit on file sizes or types that can be transferred. There are two ways to share files. Recipients who have the one of the apps installed get a notification they have to accept. It’s also possible to share content with users who don’t have the apps; they get a link to download it from via email.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I figured this had to be an early April Fool’s Day joke … or the New York Times doesn’t understand that “one-sentence story” is an oxymoron.And a spokesperson for the newspaper tells me via email that it’s no joke. A press release reads:
The New York Times has developed a new form of storytelling to help readers catch up in seconds on Apple Watch. One-sentence stories, crafted specially for small screens, will provide the news at a glance across many Times sections, including Business, Politics, Science, Tech and The Arts.One-sentence stories are accompanied by The Times’s award-winning photography and short, bulleted summaries. Readers can use Handoff to continue reading any story on iPhone or iPad, or tap “Save for Later” to build a personal reading list.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) revolution is in full swing. According to a global survey of CIOs by Gartner, 38 percent of companies expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016. As BYOD adoption accelerates and consumer smartphones and other devices evolve, the technology we use at work must find a way to keep up.Consumer devices are tightening the bond between ‘Man and Machine’, and one thing is certain: our smartphones and smart watches are getting smarter. In fact, it’s eerie how smart they have become. There are the widely used personal devices: the explosion of smart watches like the highly-anticipated Apple Watch™, the enormously popular fitness bands like FITBIT®, and smartphones like Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge™ that are making strides in streamlined app management.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple Pay got off to a hot start after its debut in October, attracting 11% of all credit card-using households and converting 66% of iPhone 6 users in its first four months on the market, according to an ongoing study of more than 3,000 credit card users conducted by market research firm Phoenix Marketing International.Although iPhone users appeared eager to try out Apple's new mobile payment plan – the study estimates that more than 88% of those who set up an Apple Pay wallet went on to make a purchase with it either in a retail store or in a mobile app – they have run short on opportunities to use them in the time since."The demand is there: 59% of Apple Pay users have gone into a store and asked to make a purchase with Apple Pay," Greg Weed, Phoenix Marketing International director of research, said in a statement. "But so is the disappointment: 47% visited a store that was listed as an Apple Pay merchant only to find out that the specific store they visited did not accept (or were not ready to accept) Apple Pay."To read this article in full or to leave Continue reading
LG Electronics is expected to introduce its next high-end smartphone on April 28, and has hinted that the back of the device will be covered in leather.In the light of the growing focus on looks at the recent Mobile World Congress, it wouldn’t be surprising if LG uses better materials for the successor to the G3, which is expected to be called the G4. The invite for April 28 that the company sent out on Tuesday just said “save the date” and “see the Great”, but the text is written over a leather back with stitching on one side.LG wouldn’t be the first to offer leather or faux leather as an alternative. Real leather is an option on Motorola Mobility’s Moto Maker customization service, and Samsung Electronics uses faux leather on the back of the Galaxy Note 4.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has quietly launched a trade-in program to let Chinese customers exchange their old iPhones and iPads for the latest devices, which could help promote adoption of its upcoming Apple Pay and Apple Watch.The trade-in program has already been available in the U.S., but Apple on Tuesday brought the service to China, mentioning it in an update to its website.Chinese customers will be able to exchange iPhones as old as the iPhone 4 to receive store credit that can be used towards the purchase of a new unit, according to an Apple store worker in Beijing.The company, however, will only accept units that were officially sold in China, and not in other countries. Customers can bring the old devices to a local Apple store, where the product serial numbers and overall quality will be checked.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here