In late 2000, rumors about about a new personal transportation device that could change the way people got around started making the rounds. Steve Jobs initially said it could be “as big as the PC,” while John Doerr speculated that it would be more important than the Internet. So when the Segway was actually introduced in December 2001, anticipation was very high. But while it […]
Source: GSMA Singapore’s three mobile operators have announced plans to support a global authentication standard that will allow their customers to access online services with their mobile number. In a joint statement released Tuesday, M1, StarHub, and Singtel said they would adopt the GSMA authentication standard, Mobile Connect, which would create a single digital user identity. This would enable their mobile customers to access supporting services including […]
I never thought it could happen. I never thought that Donald Trump would become President of the United States. I just couldn’t conceive of a world in which a celebrity competition reality star, oft-failed businessman, former Comedy Central Roastee, and friend of Grimace would be tapped to lead the greatest economy and military the planet has ever known. And I wasn’t the only one. […]
The reaction to the election of Donald Trump is as much a function of social media and its negative effects on the populace as anything the candidates did or said. People like to say social networks, especially Facebook, are a great way to maintain relations with old high school chums and relatives you ditched when you were 20. In reality, if you wanted to stay […]
The Lego-compatible, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled SBricks Plus have four ports that are inputs and outputs, so you can attach sensors, motors, and lights. Image: Vengit Remember those colored bricks you used to play with as a child, or possibly much more recently? They were great, and still are, for building anything from bridges to trains. But in hindsight they lacked one thing: interactivity. Things started to change […]
The smart home is gaining ground, but it’s still a muddle of confusing standards, competing platforms, and gadgets that don’t do what you might expect. But the promise of products that can make your life a little easier is hard to resist, so I’m here to answer the inevitable questions that arise. Whether it’s figuring out the best connected door lock to assembling the right […]
Malwarebytes Ransomware continues to evolve and it is becoming more and more of a challenge for the general public to stay shielded from such threats and security experts to stay on top of the evolving strains of ransomware being found in the wild. It is not just the malicious code itself, however, which is a problem. Now, support scammers are taking tips from ransomware developers to make […]
The coolest vehicle I saw at AutoMobilityLA (aka, the LA Auto Show) this week wasn’t even real, at least initially. To debut its new I-PACE all-electric crossover, Jaguar herded media into a Hollywood studio with a dozen or so tables in a large room, each topped with HTC Vive VR headsets, Dell Precision workstations, stereo headphones, and a joystick controller. Keep in mind that automotive […]
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has demonstrated its memory-driven computing architecture The Machine, bringing its vision for the future of computing closer to fruition. The idea behind the project, which has been running for five years, is to combine memory-driven computing, photonics, and a new fabric that can together deal with vast amounts of data. The working components that HPE showcased included compute nodes that share a pool […]
Although women comprise a small fraction of tech professionals—just one in four, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology—several nonprofits and startups are working to jumpstart women’s participation in computer science. In a previous column, I considered Grace Hopper Academy, a New York City coding bootcamp designed explicitly for women. GHA’s sister school, Fullstack Academy, takes that program online with a Remote […]
Everything across the utilities landscape should be connected, instrumented, and measured, according to Cisco Australia CTO Kevin Bloch, in order to move forward from automating operations to augmenting human decision making and predicting the future using the Internet of Things (IoT). Speaking at Utility Week in Sydney on Tuesday, Bloch stressed the importance of connecting everything possible to the IoT so as to make use of the […]
Every tech magazine comes out with a “best products of the year” list at around this time. Readers love lists—and it is shopping season, after all. Plus, it’s an easy story to do: Just open up a Web browser and start searching for the best of everything, then rewrite what you read online. Maybe throw in a few outliers, so the list is less generic than the […]
Over the years, I have often written about Silicon Valley’s desire for Washington to stay out of its hair. Except for lucrative defense contracts, the tech industry would prefer to work unrestrained by politics and government regulations. That trend lasted well into the early 1990s, but when Bill Clinton was running for president, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins and then-CEO of Cisco, John Chambers, figured […]
Vocus Communications has said it will be investing more in data analytics and digitising its customer service processes over the next year in order to continue competing in the telecommunications landscape. “This year, we have decided to invest in our data analytics capability, taking advantage of the forced shift from copper to fibre occurring over the next few years in both Australia and New Zealand,” Vocus chair […]
Illegal file sharing is in the news again, as a report from the Australian government finds piracy on the decline thanks to the rise of legitimate streaming services. Respondents indicate they would be glad to pay for content rather than illegally download it, provided the alternatives are reasonable. Piracy, it seems, is not simply about getting free content, but about finding content in the most […]
(Image: file photo) Nearly a million users across Europe were thrown off the internet during the weekend into Monday after criminals tried to hijack home routers as part of a coordinated cyber attack. Security researchers said that routers provided to customers in Germany by their internet providers were at risk of attack from the notorious Mirai malware, most notable for its large-scale botnet that brought parts of […]
Two weeks before the election, I traveled to Maine for a conference and drove through Massachusetts and New Hampshire on my way. In Silicon Valley, which was mostly Clinton country, I’d seen very few signs or bumper stickers promoting any candidates. But as I drove through the northeast, plenty of Trump signs were displayed on people’s lawns, fences, and car bumpers. I did see a […]
The Asus ROG GT51 ($4,999) combines a powerful aesthetic with equally strong internal components, resulting in a distinctive looking and high-performing gaming desktop. Design-wise, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s definitely a conversation piece—if you want your rig to look like the gaming system it is, it’ll probably work for you. With dual Pascal graphics cards, a ton of RAM, and a useful […]
Small to midsize businesses (SMBs) looking for a soup-to-nuts Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony system will do very well with 8×8 Virtual Office Pro. The service offers both basic and a good selection of advanced features as part of its base pricing bundle, which starts at $24.99 per user per month. There’s a good selection of calling plans and, perhaps most important, a good number of integrations […]
Many Android music apps tout their ability to introduce listeners to new tunes by using secret algorithms or community input, but none of them can do what WhoSampled does. The free WhoSampled Android app, based on the popular website of the same name, helps you connect the musical present to the past by highlighting the song snippets that were used to build other songs. If you fancy […]
Okta Identity Management, an excellent identity management service that begins at $2 per user per month, is one of the big names in the Identity-Management-as-a-Service (IDaaS) space, even earning top marks in a 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant report. While kudos from an industry analyst firm can be an indicator of a strong product, most potential users are more concerned with features and pricing, areas in which Okta […]
Astro Gaming’s new A50 wireless gaming headset follows its predecessors as one of the most impressive, and pricey, headsets on the market. It rings in at a hefty $300, but justifies its price tag with excellent audio quality and a full feature set, including an attractive charging cradle. It’s light, comfortable, sounds fantastic for both games and music, and it can work with your Sony PlayStation 4 […]
Eventually, you’re going to need extra storage—especially as modern technology enables higher-quality videos, photos, and other media. The SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD ($499.99 for 960GB) is a versatile, higher-capacity solid-state drive (SSD) that can take its fair share of knocks. It’s not going to turn heads in terms of style, but if you’re looking for speedy transfers, the Extreme 900 should definitely be on your short […]
While some users are looking for advanced security features or ruggedized drives to take into the field, many are simply looking for a reliable and fast place to store their data for travel. The Oyen Digital MiniPro 3.1 USB-C Portable Solid-State Drive ($299 for 1TB) does exactly that with its sleek design and fast data transfer speeds. On top of that, it’s one of the most affordable […]
