21 tips for making Android a better personal assistant

Android devices can do all sorts of wizardry these days -- everything from taking your heartbeat to turning off the lights in your bedroom. But sometimes, it's the simple stuff that matters the most.For business users in particular, a top-notch experience is crucial in three core areas: email, for keeping up with correspondence on the go; calendar, for making sure you don't miss important appointments (like your weekly podiatrist session -- hey, I'm not here to judge); and contacts, for having easy access to the people you need to reach, podiatrist or otherwise. No matter how many impressive feats your phone can perform, it won't do you much good if it doesn't deliver in those domains.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Wi-Fi client vulnerability could expose Android, Linux, BSD, other systems to attacks

A serious flaw in a component that’s used to authenticate clients on Wi-Fi networks could expose Android, Linux, BSD, and possibly Windows and Mac OS X systems to attacks.The vulnerability is in wpa_supplicant, an open-source software implementation of the IEEE 802.11i specifications for wireless clients.The component is cross-platform and is used to control WPA and WPA2 wireless connections on Android, Linux and BSD systems. It can also be used by some third-party wireless software on Mac OS X and Windows, but these operating systems have their own built-in supplicant implementations that are used by default.The vulnerability stems from how wpa_supplicant parses SSID (Service Set Identifier) information from wireless network frames when the CONFIG_P2P option is enabled. If exploited, the flaw can allow attackers to crash the client (denial of service), read contents from the process’s memory or inject arbitrary data into its memory, which could result in arbitrary code execution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, April 23

Facebook’s mobile shift shows through in financial resultsIt doesn’t seem so long ago that analysts were fretting over Facebook’s mobile playbook, but now the social media giant is monetizing a user base that is increasingly on smartphones and tablets. In reporting its financial results Wednesday, it said that a solid majority of its advertising revenue for the first quarter came from users on mobile devices, the New York Times reports.Facebook gives Android phones souped-up caller IDFacebook wants to move even closer to the core functions of your Android smartphone, with a new dialer app called Hello that uses Messenger to call your friends. The company also says it can give you better security with enhanced call-blocking, and uses the Facebook database to identify callers, PC World reports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, April 23

Facebook’s mobile shift shows through in financial resultsIt doesn’t seem so long ago that analysts were fretting over Facebook’s mobile playbook, but now the social media giant is monetizing a user base that is increasingly on smartphones and tablets. In reporting its financial results Wednesday, it said that a solid majority of its advertising revenue for the first quarter came from users on mobile devices, the New York Times reports.Facebook gives Android phones souped-up caller IDFacebook wants to move even closer to the core functions of your Android smartphone, with a new dialer app called Hello that uses Messenger to call your friends. The company also says it can give you better security with enhanced call-blocking, and uses the Facebook database to identify callers, PC World reports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hardware Gateways in Overlay Virtual Networks

Whenever I’m running an SDDC workshop or doing on-site SDN/SDDC-related consulting, the question of hardware gateways between overlay virtual networks and physical world inevitably pops up.

My usual answer: You have to understand (A) what type of gateway you need, (B) what performance you need and (C) what form factor will give you that performance. For more details, watch the Hardware Gateways video from Scaling Overlay Virtual Networks webinar

Watch the video

SDN Terminology from RFCs?

80% of your job in networking is getting you and your co-worker to agree to what the terms mean.

That paraphrase comes from one of my three networking profs in college, from literally 30 years ago. But that statement is still true today. Getting to a shared understanding of what we mean helps in any conversation about networking, and failing to truly understand the terminology can cause problems.

SDN promises many things, but it certainly has a big impact on networking terminology. SDN introduces many new terms, but it also redefines some terms and reemphasizes the underlying concepts behind other long-used terms.

And then there are no terminology police to run around and make us all use terms the same way. It’s enough to drive you crazy!

Today’s post (and possibly a few more) explores some attempts to answer some of the questions about what SDN terms to use and what they mean. In this post, I’ll look at a relatively new Internet RFC: the SDN Layers and Architecture Terminology RFC.

 

Overview: Terminology is a Challenge

What’s a network? Is it a class A, B, or C network, as defined by IPv4? Any subset of an IPv4 class A, Continue reading

Yahoo explores ears, knuckles to unlock smartphones

If you’re tired of using your fingertip or a PIN to unlock your smartphone, Yahoo suggests using your ear instead.In a project presented at the 2015 Computer-Human Interaction Conference (CHI) in Seoul this week, Yahoo showed that other body parts can unlock phones in a fast, secure manner.This approach to biometric authentication makes use of capacitive touchscreens in phones. Compared to relatively expensive fingerprint sensors, which have been deployed in higher-end phones, Yahoo’s technology can be used on any phone with a touchscreen, even cheap handsets.While not as simple as PINs, the system would be quicker and more convenient than inputting four digits.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Huawei eyes US enterprise market despite political challenges

Past political trouble in the U.S. isn’t stopping Huawei Technologies from selling its enterprise services in the country.The Chinese company, which was labeled a U.S. national security threat in 2012, has been effectively blocked from selling telecommunication gear to U.S. carriers. Government officials there are concerned about Huawei’s alleged ties with the Chinese government, even as the company has repeatedly denied the claims.Huawei, however, hopes it can still attract U.S. customers to its enterprise products, which include servers, storage and IT services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco VIRL NXOSv NXAPI Update

Cisco officially announced the April release of Cisco VIRL the announcement and upgrade instructions can be found here. Some of the highlights from the upgrade are: ISOv is now up to version 15.2(2)T...

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Qualcomm hit by China fine, cut in Samsung business

Qualcomm’s second-quarter profit dropped 46 percent, mainly because of a large fine the company had to pay in China for settling antitrust issues.The chip company also cut its revenue outlook for 2015, citing loss of business for its Snapdragon processor from key customer Samsung Electronics and a concentration of the premium market around two players - Apple and Samsung, among other factors.Qualcomm lost business from Samsung as the South Korean vendor decided to use its in-house Exynos processor rather than the Snapdragon 810 chip in its flagship Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphones. The impact on Qualcomm has been large because makers like Samsung have decided to focus on newer products rather than legacy products. The chipmaker does not expect an immediate shift in its share of components in Samsung’s premium devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Qualcomm hit by China fine, cut in Samsung business

Qualcomm’s second-quarter profit dropped 46 percent, mainly because of a large fine the company had to pay in China for settling antitrust issues.The chip company also cut its revenue outlook for 2015, citing loss of business for its Snapdragon processor from key customer Samsung Electronics and a concentration of the premium market around two players - Apple and Samsung, among other factors.Qualcomm lost business from Samsung as the South Korean vendor decided to use its in-house Exynos processor rather than the Snapdragon 810 chip in its flagship Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphones. The impact on Qualcomm has been large because makers like Samsung have decided to focus on newer products rather than legacy products. The chipmaker does not expect an immediate shift in its share of components in Samsung’s premium devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook video is booming, now at 4 billion views per day

Besides connecting with friends, Facebook is fast becoming the place to watch videos. Billions of videos.Facebook is now serving up more than 4 billion videos to its users daily, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday. The figure is striking in part because it’s increasing so fast: In January, Facebook was showing 3 billion videos a day.“Video is a big opportunity for us,” COO Sheryl Sandberg said during Facebook’s quarterly earnings call. Besides being a way for users to share content, it’s a way for marketers to advertise on the site.One reason Facebook’s viewing count is so high is that videos uploaded to Facebook now play automatically. Facebook defines a view as three seconds or more, so people are likely to rack up views just scrolling through their news feed. Still, it’s an indication of how much video is on the site.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US House approves cyberthreat sharing bill; privacy concerns remain

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to approve legislation that would encourage companies to share cyberattack information with each other and with the government, despite concerns that it would put new consumer information in the hands of surveillance agencies. The House voted 307 to 116 on Wednesday to approve the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (PCNA), which would protect companies that voluntarily share information from customer lawsuits. Several digital rights groups and cybersecurity researchers oppose the bill, saying it requires data shared with civilian agencies, including potentially personal information, to be passed on to the National Security Agency.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Box wants to be a platform for easy-to-write enterprise apps

A developer edition of Box will allow enterprises to build applications on top of the company’s content collaboration and sharing capabilities without using the Box user interface or requiring users to have a Box account.The announcement of the Developer Edition at the Box Dev conference is the company’s latest step beyond its legacy as a storage, sync and sharing service and toward its higher calling as a platform company. Box aims to provide cloud resources like big names such as Amazon Web Services do, but with additional features that take more work off developer’s plate when creating an enterprise application.Since it went public in January, Box has been under scrutiny for signs of a path to profit. Box’s traditional service is up against competing products, such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, from bigger companies with other ways to make money. That makes cloud storage by itself a commodity business with brutal price competition, so the company is reaching higher with more differentiated features, said Chris Yeh, senior vice president of product and platform, in an interview at Box Dev.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mobile ads now generate almost 75 percent of Facebook’s revenue

Facebook continued growing its business with ads placed on small screens last quarter, when it generated 73 percent of its sales from mobile ads.Facebook’s total first-quarter revenue was US$3.54 billion, up more than 40 percent from a year earlier, the company reported Wednesday. That was a bit less than the consensus analyst estimate of $3.56 billion, as polled by Thomson Reuters.With a trove of personal data on its billion-plus members—many of whom now log in from their smartphones—Facebook’s mobile ad business has become a powerhouse.During the quarter, which ended March 31, Facebook grew its mobile ad sales by 59 percent to $2.59 billion. After going public in mid-2012, Facebook faced questions from investors over its ability to grow its business on mobile, but the company eventually dispelled those doubts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mobile ads now generate almost 75 percent of Facebook’s revenue

Facebook continued growing its business with ads placed on small screens last quarter, when it generated 73 percent of its sales from mobile ads.Facebook’s total first-quarter revenue was US$3.54 billion, up more than 40 percent from a year earlier, the company reported Wednesday. That was a bit less than the consensus analyst estimate of $3.56 billion, as polled by Thomson Reuters.With a trove of personal data on its billion-plus members—many of whom now log in from their smartphones—Facebook’s mobile ad business has become a powerhouse.During the quarter, which ended March 31, Facebook grew its mobile ad sales by 59 percent to $2.59 billion. After going public in mid-2012, Facebook faced questions from investors over its ability to grow its business on mobile, but the company eventually dispelled those doubts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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