Review: Plantronics BackBeat 500 Series wireless headphones

Plantronics has been in the headphone/headset market for more than 55 years now (moon landing!), but most of their Bluetooth gear (aimed at entertainment, not the smartphone headsets) have been in the premium market. The BackBeat line of headphones include the Pro series (about $200 for the Pro 2), Fit series (about $130) and Go series ($129 for the Go 3).With companies like Apple forgoing the headphone jack on their new smartphones, the market for wireless headphones is now poised to surpass wired headphones in terms of sales. With these trends in mind, Plantronics has now entered the entry-level space (under $100) with its BackBeat 500 Series headphones ($79.99, now available). Aimed at first-time wireless headphone buyers, the BackBeat 500 still offers users features like 40mm-bass drivers, an over-the-head, on-ear fit and an up to 18 hour battery life. With multipoint Bluetooth supported, you can connect to multiple devices (such as a smartphone and laptop or tablet), and even switch between them automatically. For example, if you’re listening to music on the laptop and a phone call comes in, the headphones connect to the phone. Speaking of phones, there’s a microphone on the left earcup Continue reading

Samsung virtual assistant Bixby coming to Galaxy S8 then all smart Samsung appliances

If you are a fan of virtual assistants and Android phones, then you might regard Samsung’s jump into the race as better late than never. If you are not a fan of virtual assistants, then you might not like the Samsung Galaxy S8 which will have a dedicated button on the side of the phone to summon the assistant. Like it or not, Samsung said its virtual assistant will eventually be part of all its appliances.Yesterday, Samsung announced that its intelligent voice assistant Bixby will run on the Galaxy S8 which will launch next week. But Bixby is coming to all-things-Samsung, as the company said it will gradually be applied to all of its appliances. “In the future, you would be able to control your air conditioner or TV through Bixby. Since Bixby will be implemented in the cloud, as long as a device has an internet connection and simple circuitry to receive voice inputs, it will be able to connect with Bixby. As the Bixby ecosystem grows, we believe Bixby will evolve from a smartphone interface to an interface for your life.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung virtual assistant Bixby coming to Galaxy S8, then all smart Samsung appliances

If you are a fan of virtual assistants and Android phones, then you might regard Samsung’s jump into the race as better late than never. If you are not a fan of virtual assistants, then you might not like the Samsung Galaxy S8, which will have a dedicated button on the side of the phone to summon the assistant. Like it or not, Samsung said its virtual assistant will eventually be part of all its appliances.Yesterday, Samsung announced that its intelligent voice assistant Bixby will run on the Galaxy S8, which will launch next week. But Bixby is coming to all-things-Samsung, as the company said it will gradually be applied to all of its appliances.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

56% off D-Link Wi-Fi AC750 Dual Band Range Extender – Deal Alert

Eliminate dead zones, reduce interference, and extend the range of your home Wi-Fi coverage with this D-Link Wi-Fi range extender. With next-generation AC750 performance, the DAP-1520 provides bandwidth up to 300Mbps on the 2.4Ghz, and 433Mbps on the faster, more reliable 5GHz bands. The unit is compact and fits discretely into any wall outlet. Right now its typical list price of $45.25 has dropped a significant 56% to just $19.99. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

56% off D-Link Wi-Fi AC750 Dual Band Range Extender – Deal Alert

Eliminate dead zones, reduce interference, and extend the range of your home Wi-Fi coverage with this D-Link Wi-Fi range extender. With next-generation AC750 performance, the DAP-1520 provides bandwidth up to 300Mbps on the 2.4Ghz, and 433Mbps on the faster, more reliable 5GHz bands. The unit is compact and fits discretely into any wall outlet. Right now its typical list price of $45.25 has dropped a significant 56% to just $19.99. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CBRS workshop to focus on burgeoning shared spectrum ecosystem

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) gold rush is on, and the Wireless Innovation Forum is hosting a workshop in Las Vegas next week for those interested in becoming part of this new shared spectrum ecosystem.CBRS, as we explain in this FAQ, involves the opening up by the FCC of 150 MHz of spectrum to be shared for new commercial uses. The 3.5 GHz band will be shared among incumbents like the U.S. Navy, Priority Access License users (who win special access through an auction) and general users, which could include enterprises that want to build their private LTE networks for Internet of Things or other applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Huawei sees switch to flash as right time to rethink whole storage infrastructure

Huawei Technologies is going all flash with its latest enterprise storage system, the OceanStor Dorado V3.It's part of the new storage-as-a-service (STaaS) offering the company unveiled at Cebit on Monday, with which it aims to deliver the same experience on-premises and in the cloud. The Chinese equipment vendor is not the first to propose storage-as-a-service, but thinks now is the right time to make its move, as the convergence of big data, analytics and the internet of things increases the pressure on enterprise storage infrastructure.  "Large enterprises are talking of storage transformation, whether they should restructure their storage," said Wing Kin Leung, CTO of Huawei's enterprise business group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mozilla beats rivals, patches Firefox’s Pwn2Own bug

Mozilla last week patched a Firefox vulnerability just a day after it was revealed during Pwn2Own, the first vendor to fix a flaw disclosed at the hacking contest."Congrats to #Mozilla for being the first vendor to patch vuln[erability] disclosed during #Pwn2Own," tweeted the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) Monday. ZDI, the bug brokerage run by Trend Micro, sponsored Pwn2Own.[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ] Mozilla released Firefox 52.0.1 on Friday, March 17, with a patch for the integer overflow bug that Chaitin Security Research Lab leveraged in an exploit at Pwn2Own on Thursday, March 16. The Beijing-based group was awarded $30,000 by ZDI for the exploit, which combined the Firefox bug with one in the Windows kernel.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mozilla beats rivals, patches Firefox’s Pwn2Own bug

Mozilla last week patched a Firefox vulnerability just a day after it was revealed during Pwn2Own, the first vendor to fix a flaw disclosed at the hacking contest."Congrats to #Mozilla for being the first vendor to patch vuln[erability] disclosed during #Pwn2Own," tweeted the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) Monday. ZDI, the bug brokerage run by Trend Micro, sponsored Pwn2Own.[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ] Mozilla released Firefox 52.0.1 on Friday, March 17, with a patch for the integer overflow bug that Chaitin Security Research Lab leveraged in an exploit at Pwn2Own on Thursday, March 16. The Beijing-based group was awarded $30,000 by ZDI for the exploit, which combined the Firefox bug with one in the Windows kernel.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ARM steps up chip performance to catch up with Intel, AMD

Can ARM chips compete neck-and-neck with Intel and AMD on benchmarks? That could be happening sooner than you think.Starting next year, ARM processors will get significantly faster thanks to big changes in the company's Cortex-A chip designs. ARM is taking a page from rivals like AMD that have focused on raising the performance threshold in chips.ARM isn't known for superfast chips; it is instead mainly associated with power-efficient chips that give long battery life to devices. That focus has helped the company succeed in mobile devices, an area where Intel's power hungry chips failed.But applications like virtual reality and machine learning need more performance, and ARM is preparing its processors to take on those emerging applications. ARM is adding more cores, instructions, and faster pipelines in smaller spaces to boost performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ARM steps up chip performance to catch up with Intel, AMD

Can ARM chips compete neck-and-neck with Intel and AMD on benchmarks? That could be happening sooner than you think.Starting next year, ARM processors will get significantly faster thanks to big changes in the company's Cortex-A chip designs. ARM is taking a page from rivals like AMD that have focused on raising the performance threshold in chips.ARM isn't known for superfast chips; it is instead mainly associated with power-efficient chips that give long battery life to devices. That focus has helped the company succeed in mobile devices, an area where Intel's power hungry chips failed.But applications like virtual reality and machine learning need more performance, and ARM is preparing its processors to take on those emerging applications. ARM is adding more cores, instructions, and faster pipelines in smaller spaces to boost performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 reasons why China will rule tech, 2017 edition

China’s push to take over global technology leadership is relentless. It wants to lead in computing, semiconductors, research and development, and clean energy. It is accelerating science investment as the U.S. retreats.China may be planning a moon base. Surprised? Don’t be. It will soon have a manned space station. It is investing heavily in quantum technologies and it wants to be first to build an exascale supercomputer.In 2010, Computerworld looked at “Five reasons why China will rule tech.” Here's an update, and the case for China has grown stronger.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What to consider in developing BYOD policy

Why Have a BYOD Policy?Image by ThinkstockIn today’s work environment, employees are increasingly expected to be constantly available and communicating. Regardless of whether the company permits it, employees will use their personal devices for work. Instead of ignoring the inevitable, companies should develop and implement a BYOD policy that protects the company and balances productivity with security. Brandon N. Robinson Partner, Balch & Bingham LLP - Privacy and Data Security Practice, provides some tips.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What to consider in developing BYOD policy

Why Have a BYOD Policy?Image by ThinkstockIn today’s work environment, employees are increasingly expected to be constantly available and communicating. Regardless of whether the company permits it, employees will use their personal devices for work. Instead of ignoring the inevitable, companies should develop and implement a BYOD policy that protects the company and balances productivity with security. Brandon N. Robinson Partner, Balch & Bingham LLP - Privacy and Data Security Practice, provides some tips.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US bans electronics larger than smartphones in cabins on certain flights

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ordered that passengers on flights departing for the U.S from 10 airports in the Middle East and Africa will have to carry personal electronics larger than a smartphone as checked baggage, citing increased terror threats.Giving the approximate size of a commonly available smartphone as a guideline for passengers, the DHS said that laptops, tablets, e-readers, cameras, portable DVD players, electronic game units larger than smartphones, and travel printers or scanners were the kind of personal electronics that would not be allowed in the cabin and would have to be carried as checked baggage.Approved medical devices may be brought into the cabin after additional screening. The size of smartphones is well understood by most passengers who fly internationally, according to the DHS, which in any case asked passengers to check with their airline if they are unsure whether their smartphone is impacted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US bans electronics larger than smartphones in cabins on certain flights

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ordered that passengers on flights departing for the U.S from 10 airports in the Middle East and Africa will have to carry personal electronics larger than a smartphone as checked baggage, citing increased terror threats.Giving the approximate size of a commonly available smartphone as a guideline for passengers, the DHS said that laptops, tablets, e-readers, cameras, portable DVD players, electronic game units larger than smartphones, and travel printers or scanners were the kind of personal electronics that would not be allowed in the cabin and would have to be carried as checked baggage.Approved medical devices may be brought into the cabin after additional screening. The size of smartphones is well understood by most passengers who fly internationally, according to the DHS, which in any case asked passengers to check with their airline if they are unsure whether their smartphone is impacted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Is this the world’s first combination head shop/computer store?

Just a few doors down the street from the iconic corner of Haight and Ashbury, ground zero for San Francisco’s Summer of Love 50 years ago, sits a most unusual store. On the ground floor of a building once occupied by Jimi Hendrix, Ashbury Tech is a unique melding of old and new San Francisco.From tobacco to tech  That’s because the three-level is store is not your garden-variety electronics shop. Until earlier this year, in fact, it had been known as Ashbury Tobacco Center for the past 23 years. And approximately half of its floor space is still dedicated to bongs, pipes, vapes and other accouterments of what is commonly known as a head shop. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 Container Deployment Challenges

Save the Date- Africans @ IETF 98- 28 March, 8-9 am (US CDT)

Two Switches Saga: Now in Text Format

Remember the All You Need Are Two Switches saga? Several readers told me they’d like to have in text (article) format, so I found a transcription service, and started editing what they produced and publishing it. The first two installments are already online.

On a related topic: we’ll discuss the viability of this approach in April DIGS event in Zurich, Switzerland.