While they may be selling the “picks and shovels” associated with the internet of things gold rush, the world of connected devices is a rich opportunity for semiconductor companies. Read more »
The “mobile first” philosophy is under way today. That means a new generation of mobile-centric data centers will arise over the next three years, with chips, servers, and power architectures customized for mobile workloads. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In the early days of the web, David Isenberg famously predicted the rise of a so-called stupid network with smart endpoints. Joe Weinman, of Telx, argues that instead the network has become “pervasively intelligent” and will only get smarter. Read more »
Jason Hoffman is familiar to many in the computing industry as the CTO of Joyent and a leader of the movement to build distributed systems. But before that, he was a doctor who helped his mom beat cancer. Here’s how the past and present connect. Read more »
Our computer networks and broadband connections are reliant on both light and electronics, but a breakthrough at the University of Minnesota might help take the electrons out of the equation. A new device can use light to switch states, which could enable faster, more efficient broadband. Read more »
MightyText won Qualcomm’s QPrize event yesterday, but the IP texting app and the nine other finalists are also a microcosm of Qualcomm’s views about what mobility can bring to computing and how to design for mobiles. Read more »
Cloud computing and distributed applications are part of a greater shift to building out an ecosystem with inter-dependent parts. This may seem obvious, but what is less obvious is how the industry will interoperate and develop systems that let information flow through the ecosystem. Read more »
Founders Fund and Dustin Moskovitz’s Good Ventures have led a $15 million round in a company that is trying to replicate the intelligence of the human brain in software. Vicarious’ goal is to help humanity thrive by inventing the algorithm to create to intelligent machines. Read more »
Broadband use in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are growing incredibly quickly, but developed nations are still the heaviest broadband users. This research shouldn’t come as any big surprise but the fact that Norway has access to more bandwidth than Africa does. Read more »
Like it or not, sweeping software bugs are just part and parcel with operating the largest computing systems the world has ever seen. Although Amazon is already fixing the problems that caused its latest outage, this won’t be the last we see. Read more »
One hundred years after he was born, the pioneering work of brilliant British polymath Alan Turing is as important as ever — so important, in fact, that his thinking about how computers work is still visible in every single line of code that gets written. Read more »
Today, conventional wisdom suggests that cloud computing will bring increased efficiency to computing markets, which will then decrease costs. Cloud computing will allow organizations to cut IT spending and help relieve pressure on IT budgets. But that’s not going to happen. Read more »
UnboundID raised $12.5 million to build software that allows people and businesses to manage and trade on their identity across professional and social networks in a simple way. In the binary world of computers, writing software to manage fluid human relationships is tough. Read more »
We’re walking around with sensors in our pockets: those of us carrying smartphones, anyway. As said at Structure:Data, there are huge opportunities for companies to improve existing services and create new ones with the huge amount of data provided by mobile computers. Read more »
For most people, the only data they’ll ever really see about themselves are the pretty charts generated by applications like Mint or Jawbone. Some people take their personal data a little more seriously, tracking their lives for years, then showing the world what that looks like. Read more »
An out-of-work truck driver from California made headlines on Friday when he turned the tables on AT&T, and stuck it to the phone giant in small claims court over his data plan… Read more »
As Dropbox launches a new photo upload capability to make it easier to move digital photos from smartphones to the cloud, the debate as to whether Dropbox itself is the next big disruptor or just a feature to be acquired or co-opted flares anew. Read more »
Hewlett-Packard continues to be rocked by a flood-induced hard drive shortage; its go-to printing business is sputtering; the company as a whole continues to spend too much on too many products; and it needs to get its design-and-execution mojo back. Read more »
Forget those old X-ray specs in the back of comic books (which never worked anyway). Google is reportedly working on a pair of Android-powered glasses that could record data and display information for around $400 to $500 and make you look ever dorkier. Read more »
A Wall Street Journal investigation finds that Google was tricking Apple’s Safari browsers into dropping their ad-tracking protections in order to promote Google+. What does this say about Google’s attempts to promote its services? And about Apple’s proprietorship over its users? Read more »
Apple has once again cut prices on its iAd system for rich in-app advertising on iOS applications, as ad buyers continue to balk at the up-front cost of participating in Apple’s vision of how mobile advertising should work. Read more »
Google is close to announcing its own long-rumored cloud storage service for consumers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The new Google Drive — which would offer some storage free — would compete head on with existing services like Dropbox. Read more »
Now that Google has brought its Chrome browser to desktops, laptops, Chromebooks (remember those?) and, just today, to Android 4.0 tablets and smartphones, where will Chrome appear next? For $60, it can be on your wrist, but don’t expect to browse for anything but the time. Read more »
Just thirty years ago, innovation in almost any category was measured in years, but today it’s measured in weeks or months. That cycle will continue to accelerate, especially in IT. So here’s how to build an IT ecosystem that can keep up. Read more »
Apple’s huge iPhone sales numbers from its latest quarterly results helped it grow its mobile phone business by 128.4 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a new report. That makes it the third-largest mobile phone maker by volume. Read more »
Path has updated its app for the iPhone with the debut Wednesday of version 2.0.5. The key new part of the update is the addition of a new effect called “Depth” that brings what’s known as tilt-shift capabilities to Path’s photo taking feature. Read more »
In Facebook’s IPO document filed Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg dedicated a significant portion of his letter to something a bit out of the ordinary: Teaching potential investors about “the Hacker Way” and dispelling the negative connotation the word “hacker” has gotten in the mainstream media. Read more »
IOS development is not for the faint of heart, and a new blog post by developer Kent Nguyen does a good job of pointing out exactly why. Nguyen targets those who would be footing the bill for app development, in the hopes of lessening sticker shock. Read more »
If you bought a Mac last year, you probably have a Thunderbolt port on your computer doing nothing right now. As of Wednesday, however, Seagate’s GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter is available to order, which means you could soon be transferring data to GoFlex drives at lightning speeds. Read more »
Now that Samsung offers the Galaxy Tab 7.7, my patience to upgrade the old Galaxy Tab has paid off: This small slate with high-def display offers big performance. Here are benchmarks compared to other tablets like the Transformer Prime; both are solid performers in real life. Read more »
Apple is the king of the PC heap, so long as you consider the iPad among those devices. Research firm Canalys does, and its most recent look at PC sales, focusing on the fourth quarter of 2011, shows the PC market growing with the iPad included. Read more »
Macworld | iWorld had some fantastic products. Ignoring anything that wasn’t actually shipping, since so many products never actually make it to market , here are my top picks from the show. They include most iDevice companions, but also one product any Mac user wil love. Read more »
We’ve already talked about some key highlights from the Macworld | iWorld 2012 show, particularly from the prosumer and developer angles. But my focus here is on those products average Apple users might be interested in, for both Mac and iOS devices. Read more »
One of the trends I saw on the floor at Macworld | iWorld 2012 is an increasing number of companies producing high-end audio and home theater equipment to use with your Mac and/or iOS devices. Here are some standouts from the show floor. Read more »
While the target audience for Macworld | iWorld is your typical consumer, there are a few vendors in attendance that are focused on reaching developers. If you’re a developer yourself, or work with developers, you might want to stop by the following vendors during the show. Read more »
Apple’s iBooks Author impressed Diesel Sweeties creator and artist R Stevens so much that he created an e-book with it during the course of a weekend and distributed it free to readers. On Thursday, Stevens shared some interesting details about that experiment. Read more »
Apple’s iPad sold 15.4 million units during the final calendar quarter of 2011, representing a 111-percent year-over-year increase in tablet sales. Android tablets may have gained market share during the same period, but it’s PC makers that should fear that growth. Read more »
Big data has gotten very, very big if the elite talking heads at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, are talking about it. And they are talking about it. Sessions include “Decoding the data deluge” and “Personal data: the ‘new oil’ of the 21st century.” Read more »
Apple reported impressive financial results on Tuesday, setting new records in its quarterly revenue and profit. Now, data from online portfolio manager SigFig indicates that the old Wall Street adage of “buy on the rumor, sell on the news” did not hold true in this case. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone 4S has helped it regain ground lost to Android in consumer smartphone market share, but it’s also having a very positive effect on enterprise adoption, according to a new report. The iPad remains by far the top tablet in business. Read more »
