50 billion household devices will be on the Internet by 2020, according to Cisco. And we're hearing foreign governments are hacking our infrastructure. Surely our refrigerators are next!
Cisco's rumored sale of Linksys suggests we may have problem with innovation and profit at the edge of our Internet, and that could be critical to the evolution of many Internet-delivered services.
Apple may want to do a TV offering, but to meet its goal it would have to address three specific issues that have been exposed by earlier attempts to make Internet TV work.
A survey by JD Powers found that customer interest in product features is lessening as phones evolve. Rather than features, price is driving purchases, and that change could have a dramatic impact on how IT departments secure these devices.
LED lightbulbs will be used not only for home and business lighting automation, but possibly also for locating shoppers inside stores and transmitting data at hundreds of megabits per second.
The FBI recently issued a warning to smartphone users, highlighting two mobile malware applications: Loozfan, which steals personal information, and FinFisher, which is spyware that takes over a smartphone's functions.
The bring-your-own-device approach isn’t suited to monitoring of enterprise equipment and processes. In these cases, it is up to IT to come forward with gear suited to the task.
The decision could discourage innovators looking to the past, and require companies to build from the ground up, leading to a new generation of stagnation in the IT world.
Many vendors are moving away from hardware. The latest to join that movement is a bit of a surprise: Lowe's has decided to offer networked home security services. So, how will the company fare in this segment?
If your friends and relatives can't manage to make it to an event with you, never fear: Researchers at Yamagata University are developing a miniature, wearable robot that uses telepresence to let you carry your loved ones around on your shoulder!
Self-driving cars are being tested in Nevada, but can this technology work optimally without Internet integration, and can we offer integration without improving security considerably? In fact, all M2M is a potential risk until security is tightened.
Tired of idle chitchat while your hair is being washed or your muscles relaxed? Never fear: Robots are here! Robots have taken on hair washing tasks at Japan's Hair salon Super Hair Seo, and DreamBots has developed the Wheeme, which gives individuals a deep body massage.
After a long run of significant growth, cellphone sales dipped by more than 1 percent this quarter, according to market research firm International Data Corp. The change will have a significant impact on vendors, such as Nokia and RIM, who have struggled recently.
Why are we hearing so much about WiFi roaming when what most users say they want is simply automatic registration and re-registration when they move into a hotspot? It may be because carriers want tablets to be made cellular-ready, to make it easier for someone to move from WiFi-only to 3G/4G.
Apple's numbers show that it may be giving Microsoft an opportunity to gain ground in tablets by failing to cement Mac, iPhone, and iPad lines together with an effective cloud strategy.
Videoconferencing systems now are quite static. Users set up a camera, and it stays focused on the target regardless of whether or not the user moves during the presentation. NTT is developing a system that moves with the speaker, providing a feel similar to a face-to-face conversation.
US counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, who came to prominence with his prescient warnings before the 9/11 attacks, tells Smithsonian Magazine the US was responsible for the Stuxnet supersmart worm that attacked parts of nuclear reactors in Iran – and in the process, has given away one of the world's most sophisticated cyberweapons.
Cellphone suppliers are constantly on the lookout for ways to differentiate their wares. Nokia may be at the head of the pack when it comes to wearable devices. The company has been working on technology that notifies individuals when a call comes in by creating a tingling sensation… on their tattoos.
Some say that exposure to violence in gaming, online video, etc., is creating a violent culture. Tom says it's not that straightforward. Rather than regulate violence, we should understand it better.
Sean Hogan, vice president of global healthcare delivery systems at IBM, discusses the fundamental shift happening in healthcare today, how this is impacting businesses, and the role IT plays in this transformation.
Ever get that feeling where you don’t want to go to the office but have physical tasks that need to be done there? Well, help is on the way. Japanese researchers have developed Telesar V, a robot that can function in the place of a person. Unlike other virtual connections, this one comes with a 3D body suit, so the bot can mimic your motions and you can stay home.
We think Amazon's Kindle Fire is pushing Apple to a smaller iPad format. But Sony's Vita and the interest in a small device for portable gaming may create the real threat. Keep your eye on the tablet-gaming space!
As it turns out, Nicole wasn't alone in thinking that TwitterPeek – the $300 single-purpose device just for Tweeting – was the most useless device to ever be released.
The drive to stream TV directly to HD sets, to tablets, or to PCs in the home may create a broader demand for streaming, and this could create a major new source of traffic pressure on mobile networks, mobile pricing, and mobile service policies.
Google may give Microsoft an opening for its phone and tablet if it can't induce all the Android handset and tablet vendors to update their OSes to Version 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Forcing users to choose between buying a new device and having an obsolete OS is a bad idea.
More than any other company, Research in Motion has been hurt by the runaway success of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android systems. Though it is losing a significant share of the smartphone market, RIM has found a way to possibly stay afloat with "Mobile Fusion," its plan to expand its robust enterprise management functions to other devices.
A Citigroup researcher says Amazon is developing its own cellular phone. Amazon, take heed: It's a tougher business to crack than selling the Kindle Fire.
Sony and Ericsson broke up so Sony can compete more effectively with Apple. But is that competition pulling the power of innovation out of the Net by creating a shell of gadgets that hide us from the Internet (and hide the Net from us)?
Today's infants quickly move from the womb to a touchscreen. A survey by Common Sense Media found that half of children under eight years old access a mobile device like a smartphone, a video iPod, or a tablet; and experts are mulling the ramifications of this.
This holiday season, whether you're shopping for a personal smartphone or smartphones for your business, it's useful to know the latest and greatest specifications.
Apple's patent duel with Samsung may be in large part because it doesn't like Ice Cream Sandwich and the union of the tablet and smartphone arms of Android. But the multi-device angle may be more important than the characteristics of individual phones or tablets.
Amazon's new Fire isn't an iPad competitor, but it is a device that will rival Barnes and Noble's Nook. It also may signal a shift toward retail-dominated Web media versus the ad-dominated form. In short, be prepared to pay more for content!
Google's buy of Motorola Mobility will start a wave of innovation. Prepare to see handset models with bigger screens and even new TV applications as Apple and Google spar for new opportunities in the market.
I've got the solution to Microsoft's smartphone problem: Forget Phone 7, forget Nokia, forget smartphones! Instead, focus on making Windows 8 a killer in the tablet space.
What validates us as humans are things we can do that computers can't. Michio Kaku tells us in his latest book, "Physics of the Future," that computer reproduction of the human face will not be fully achieved for decades. Hooray!
The proliferation of "dumb" devices that use the Internet to obtain data or communicate may turn what was once a creative network of users into something resembling a power grid. Security risks and the connection of millions of low-cost PCs in developing countries won't help matters.
The next wave in cellphone design is… paper. Researchers at Queen's University and Arizona State University have designed a pliable cellphone, one they envision will soon makes its way into the marketplace.
Google’s Android@Home is the first step in its plans to create an Android-powered "life fabric," where appliances lead us through changing, controlling, and, yes, maybe monitoring our lives. Are we ready to sort out the bad from the good in this?
European scientists recently announced RoboEarth, an "Internet for robots." RoboEarth has the potential to create smarter robots by networking them and allowing them to communicate. But are there risks? The time is now to set protocols for robot interaction across networks.
The winner in the tablet space will be whichever company can fix its flaws first: Google must fix its versions-of-Android problem, and Apple needs to build a cheaper iPad. Place your bets!
PC shipments are down, but it's not that tablets are killing the PC: It's that the Internet isn't supporting PC sales anymore. For five years, most PC growth could be attributed to the need for an Internet window, and now smartphones and tablets are taking over that role. Forever.
The risk the iPad now faces is less from feature competition than from price competition, and the players most likely to compete in price are Amazon and Barnes & Noble. By subsidizing their "tablets" with ebook sales these guys may field affordable products that could redefine the market.
Hewlett-Packard says it will put webOS into all its desktop and laptop computers next year. This could herald a new generation of computer applications.
Eye control may be the next wave of changes in computer user interfaces. Lenovo and Tobii have developed prototype systems that respond to users' eye movements.
The Sony court decision to compel a jailbreak site to reveal IP addresses of visitors shows that in trying to enforce the DMCA we may be trampling on rights of people who never hacked, jailbroke, or even owned a Sony game product. A better balance of rights and law is needed here.
HP's WebOS device family can wirelessly link devices to share connections and information. This could be a step toward making the tablet a voice device, and a major blow to traditional telco voice services.
Sony's plans for an NGP portable gaming system show that the tablet is having an impact on the gaming space. We are seeing that changes in user behavior are driving new devices, and changes in device capabilities are driving new behaviors.
Internet companies have the dubious distinction of comprising about half of the Top 15 Hated Companies in the US. Poor products and mediocre customer service are the reasons for the notoriety.
Android and tablets are the winners at the Consumer Electronics Show, but Android also showed a bit of version and feature disorder that could break the "universal" appliance OS into a bunch of little, non-competitive enclaves.
CES is all about wireless gadgets, but big tech conferences, ironically, often run out of wireless capacity. Attendees may witness first-hand the wireless problem created by our video appetites as they browse new gadgets that increase consumption.
Kevin Kelly's new book, "What Technology Wants," is insightful, but it remains an unanswered question how we can influence the future of technology in a positive way.
Inexpensive metals (nickel and iron) combine to create super-fast memory devices that promise faster boot times and lower power consumption. Old muscle-cars in your smartphone.
Apple's iPad defined the tablet space, but it may not control it, because Apple is limited in how it can exploit tablets without impacting the Mac. MeeGo and Android, both Linux-based, could develop a new dynamic for computer and Internet use based on the tablet.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
