Techno-News Blog

By Kevin Bullis, Technology Review

Eric Giler points a remote control at a small black pad leaned up against a wall, and three lamps instantly light up and a tablet computer starts charging. The funny thing is, the devices all sit several feet away from the black pad, which provides power, and aren’t plugged in. Giler is the CEO of Witricity, a startup that hopes to revolutionize electronics by replacing wireless charging systems with ones that send power safely through the air. The nearly five-year-old company uses technology developed at MIT that extends the range of inductive wireless charging.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39657/?p1=MstRcnt

By: Fahmida Y. Rashid, eWeek

As federal officials and the White House increasingly call on Congress to pass the comprehensive cyber-security bill to protect critical infrastructure, the House moves forward with its version. Federal law enforcement officials expect cyber-espionage, hacktivists and cyber-attacks to soon surpass traditional terrorism as the No. 1 threat facing the United States, according to Congressional testimony. “Stopping terrorists is the No. 1 priority,” Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Feb. 1. “But down the road, the cyber-threat will be the No. 1 threat to the country. I do not think it is necessarily [the] No. 1 threat, but it will be tomorrow.” The U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper urged the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate to pass legislation to increase cyber-security in both the public and private sectors during a hearing of the House Select Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats on Feb. 2. Clapper discussed intrusions on public systems that control major defense weapon systems, electrical grids and banking infrastructure. The U.S. economy is losing upwards of $300 billion per year because of rampant cyber-espionage, Clapper said.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/CyberLegislation-Bill-Approved-by-House-Senate-Prepares-its-Own-200306/

By: Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek

Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus features a cheaper LTE baseband chip, the better to secure rapid LTE migration throughout the world, according to a new teardown. A new teardown of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus reveals a device with a new, cheaper Long-Term Evolution (LTE) baseband chip and a powerful 1.2GHz processor. “The new chip is estimated at nearly half the cost of the prior chip’s $23 price tag,” read the Feb. 6 note from ABI Research accompanying the teardown. “This type of cost reduction is an important milestone in securing the rapid migration to LTE throughout the world.” Other featured elements of the teardown included a [Texas Instruments] OMAP4460 1.2GHz processor, which matches the performance of Samsung’s 1.2GHz Exynos at the expense of consuming “significantly more power in computational intensive tests.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Networking/Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-Teardown-Reveals-Cheaper-LTE-Chip-711685/

By: Michelle Maisto, eWeek

Smartphone sales surged past PC totals—even with the iPad helping numbers—for the first time ever during the fourth quarter, according to Canalys. Smartphone sales surpassed those of PCs for the first time ever, during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to research firm Canalys. What’s more, smartphones also outsold PCs—even with the inclusion of tablets, such as the Apple iPad, into the mix. In all, vendors shipped 158.5 million smartphones during the quarter, up 57 percent from 101.2 million units during the same quarter a year ago, compared with 120.2 million PCs. Smartphones led for the full year 2011, as well, on shipments of 487.7 million units to 414.6 million PCs. Of those PC units, 63.2 million were tablets. “Smartphone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone,” Canalys analyst Chris Jones said in a statement. “In the space of a few years, smartphones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Smartphone-Sales-Beat-PCs-for-First-Time-Ever-Canalys-164565/?kc=rss

By: Michelle Maisto, eWeek

Apple’s iOS is the more misbehaved mobile OS, according to Crittercism crash reports from November and December. Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, may change that–for the worse. Crittercism, which provides developers with real-time, actionable crash reports for mobile applications, measured crashes between November and December, and in some instances found iOS crashes to number more than twice those of Android applications. Versions have a lot to do with it, Crittercism CEO Andrew Levy told Forbes. “The permutations go on forever. That’s a large reason for creating our platform.” Apple’s iOS 5.0.1 was the most crash-inclined version of all, accounting for 28.64 percent of crashes between Dec. 1 and Dec. 15. iOS 4.2.10 accounted for 12.64 percent, iOS 4.3.3 for 10.66 percent and iOS 4.3.5 for 8.9 percent. Among Apple devices, the great majority of crashes were logged on iPhones—74.41 percent—followed by the iPod touch, at 14.87 percent, and the iPad, at 10.72.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/iPhone-iOS-Apps-Crash-More-than-Android-Report-358312/?kc=rss

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google is ready to build out its high-speed fiber network in Kansas, paving the way for the company to build thousands of miles of cables and other infrastructure across Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri. The company selected Kansas City out of more than 1,100 companies last March as the winning bidder for its fiber network, which aims to shuttle data at 1G bps to thousands of homes in the city. Woven together as part of a big broadband fiber mesh, the cable network will facilitate data at “speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today,” according to Kevin Lo, general manager for Google Access. Google will build the fiber backbone and then connect Google Fiber into homes across Kansas City, though it hasn’t said which neighborhoods will be connected first.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Networking/Google-Fiber-Laying-Starts-in-Kansas-City-823134/?kc=rss

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

The iPad juggernaut should continue in 2012 with the iPad 3, expected to launch in the first quarter. When the iPad 3 becomes available, it is widely expected Apple will follow the pattern it set for its iPhones by discounting the iPad and iPad 2. With Apple setting the bar and market expectations, Misek expects tablet prices to fall to an average of $350. The market may be dominated by iPad with an assist from Android in the near future, but Microsoft will make a “viable push with its Windows 8-based tablets,” Misek wrote in a Feb. 6 note to clients. “The first ones are likely to launch in late 2012, but the units will likely not significantly ramp until 2013.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/iPad-Android-Will-Spur-Tablet-Market-to-125M-Units-820105/?kc=rss

by KFC, Technology Review

One of the buzzwords in artificial intelligence research these days is ’embodiment’, the idea that intelligence requires a body. But in the last few years, a growing body researchers have begun to explore the possibility that this definition is too limited. Led by Rolf Pfeifer at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, these guys say that the notion of intelligence makes no sense outside of the environment in which it operates. For them, the notion of embodiment must, of course, capture how the brain is embedded in a body but also how this body is embedded in the broader environment. Today, Pfeifer and Matej Hoffmann, also at the University of Zurich, set out this thinking in a kind of manifesto for a new approach to AI. And their conclusion has far reaching consequences. They say it’s not just artificial intelligence that we need to redefine, but the nature of computing itself.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27553/?p1=blogs

by KFC, Technology Review

Here’s their conclusion: “Our experiments show that it is possible to estimate ranges of popularity with an overall accuracy of 84% considering only content features.” So before anybody lays eyes on these articles, it’s possible to work out in advance how popular they are likely to become. That’s pretty impressive and may herald important changes in the way articles are written and edited. It’s not hard to imagine an automated article checker–rather like the grammar checkers in word processing programs–that reads articles and predicts how popular they are likely to be when published. In a sense, that’s what journalists do now when they choose topics to write about. But this process is entirely intuitive, based as much on gut feel as on a good understanding of the dynamics of the audience. Huberman’s algorithm could automate this process.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27555/?p1=blogs

by MARGARET WENTE, Globe and Mail

Until now, online learning has been regarded as the poor stepchild of the higher-education world – widely suspected of being a second-rate substitute for the real thing. But that’s about to change. The digital revolution is going to disrupt higher education in the same way it’s disrupted so many other industries. And it’s about time. Higher learning still relies on the medieval model, when scholars gathered in one place to listen to professors lecture at them. It’s increasingly expensive, and doesn’t do a very good job of delivering what a lot of students want and need in a way that society can afford. The digital revolution will make higher education better, cheaper, more accessible, more engaging and far more customized than anything that exists today.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/margaret-wente/were-ripe-for-a-great-disruption-in-higher-education/article2325979/

By Brian Robinson, Federal Computer Week

Technologies come and go. Of course, that’s equally true in government, despite the feds’ propensity to hang on to IT much longer than its recommended expiration date. As refresh cycles turn over, agencies see familiar — and often well-loved — technologies replaced. We’ve hit unusually uncertain times, however. The “cloud first” mandate, the mobile revolution, cybersecurity fears and budget constraints are just some of the issues that agency leaders must tackle as they consider the future of the IT infrastructure. With that in mind, Federal Computer Week looked at a handful of familiar technologies that could — or should — be reaching the end of their shelf life in 2012 and pondered the likelihood that they will still be with us in 2013.

http://fcw.com/articles/2012/01/15/feat-tech-on-the-outs-2012.aspx

By Buster Bytes, San Jose Mercury News

Today marks the beginning of Black History Month, which is a perfect time to commemorate the achievements of African Americans in the history of technology. This month-long observation began in 1926 as Negro History week under the suggestion of historian Carter G. Woodson. It was expanded in 1976 to become Black History Month. It is celebrated in the United Kingdom in October and in February in the United States and Canada, where it is also known as African-American History Month. This column generally deals with technological advances, it will now set out to remember some of those African Americans who have been most influential in our nation’s development in this field. And while these innovators and their contributions are far too many to list in one column, here are just a few of the more noteworthy: (please follow the URL for the rest of the story).

http://www.prospectusnews.com/mobile/famous-african-americans-in-technology-1.2760108

by School CIO

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced the results of a yearlong pilot of HMH Fuse: Algebra I, the full-curriculum algebra app developed for the Apple iPad, involving the Amelia Earhart Middle School in California’s Riverside Unified School District. The pilot showed that over 78 percent of HMH Fuse users scored Proficient or Advanced on the spring 2011 California Standards Tests, compared with only 59 percent of their textbook-using peers. The first assessment of the pilot— Riverside’s district algebra benchmark –took place during the second trimester of the 2010–2011 year. Students using HMH Fuse scored an average of 10 percentage points higher than their peers. The app’s impact was even more pronounced after the California Standards Test in spring 2011, on which HMH Fuse students scored approximately 20 percent higher than their textbook-using peers.

http://www.schoolcio.com/article/math-scores-rise-with-use-of-ipad-algebra-curriculum-/52154

by the BBC

Google has been asked to suspend changes to its privacy policy by a group of EU data protection regulators. Google plans to unify 60 different privacy policies across its products from 1 March. In a letter to the search giant, the EU group called for a “pause” so it could complete its analysis of the change. The call came from The Article 29 Working Party – an advisory body which includes representatives from all EU data protection authorities. In the letter sent to Google chief executive Larry Page on Thursday the group said: “Given the wide range of services you offer, and the popularity of these services, changes in your privacy policy may affect many citizens in most or all of the EU member states.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16870465

by Adam S. Bellow, MindShift

Sometimes teachers and administrators need a kick in the pants to see what they perceive as problems re-framed in a different way. Adam S. Bellow, author of The Tech Commandments, and founder of eduTecher, spoke to a roomful of receptive teachers at the recent ISTE 2011 conference, and demonstrated some of the ironies and contradictions the education system is mired in. And he had some advice.

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/the-seven-golden-rules-of-using-technology-in-schools/

By Buster Bytes, San Jose Mercury News

Today marks the beginning of Black History Month, which is a perfect time to commemorate the achievements of African Americans in the history of technology. This month-long observation began in 1926 as Negro History week under the suggestion of historian Carter G. Woodson. It was expanded in 1976 to become Black History Month. It is celebrated in the United Kingdom in October and in February in the United States and Canada, where it is also known as African-American History Month. As this column generally deals with technological advances, it will now set out to remember some of those African Americans who have been most influential in our nation’s development in this field. And while these innovators and their contributions are far too many to list in one column, here are just a few of the more noteworthy: (please follow the URL for the rest of the story).

http://www.prospectusnews.com/mobile/famous-african-americans-in-technology-1.2760108

By: Brian T. Horowitz, eWeek

conference in Las Vegas, telehealth vendor Consult A Doctor will introduce new cloud-based virtual exam models that hospitals and clinics can implement and customize to suit their requirements. Telehealth provider Consult A Doctor plans to debut two new additions to its remote-care platform at the HIMSS12 health care IT conference from Feb. 20-24 in Las Vegas to allow hospitals and clinics to customize subscriptions for cloud-based virtual visits. Consult A Doctor is a cloud-based platform that allows patients to consult with a doctor or health plan at any hour. “It goes through the Internet, so when you call, you’re actually calling into the cloud platform,” Wolf Shlagman, founder and CEO of Consult A Doctor, told eWEEK. The company’s two new platforms are called MyHospital 24/7 and MyClinic 24/7. The service operates over VOIP, email or video.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Health-Care-IT/Consult-A-Doctor-to-License-Its-Telehealth-Platform-to-Hospitals-Clinics-725638/?kc=rss

By: Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek

Windows Phone 8 will integrate in many ways with Windows 8, among other features such as BitLocker encryption, according to two new reports. Windows Phone 8 will support multicore processors and native BitLocker encryption, and integrate in many ways with the upcoming Windows 8. Those are just a few of the features mentioned in a Pocketnow.com report Feb. 2, many of which were subsequently confirmed by Paul Thurrott in a posting on his Supersite for Windows. Pocketnow claimed its information came from a Microsoft-produced video meant for Nokia executives and hosted by Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore. Pocketnow paraphrases Belfiore as saying that Windows Phone 8 will “use many of the same components of Windows 8” and that areas of heavy overlap include “kernel, networking stacks, security and multimedia support.” Developers will apparently have the ability to reuse massive chunks of code when “porting an app from desktop to phone.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Windows-Phone-8-Will-Integrate-with-Windows-8-Reports-619487/?kc=rss

by the BBC

Campaigners say they were motivated to act by media reports about supply workers’ conditions. An online petition, signed by 155,000 people, has called on Apple to do more to ensure its Chinese factory workers are treated better. The campaign, on Change.org, follows reports of poor working conditions in factories that make Apple products. A separate SumOfUs petition, with more than 43,000 signatories, calls for the iPhone 5 to be made “ethically”. Apple acknowledged the demands. Its chief executive earlier said it cared about every worker in its supply chain. The Change petition was organised by Washington-based communications worker Mark Shields.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16832106

By Don Reisinger, eWeek

If Apple’s incredibly strong iPad sales during the fourth quarter told industry observers anything, it’s that the company’s tablet was far and away the most-desired slate of 2011. Part of that might be due to the fact that the tablet didn’t face much serious competition. But it’s also due to the quality consumers and even some enterprise users found in the device. But 2012 is a new year with a host of opportunities for every tablet maker. Every major firm, from Apple and Samsung to RIM and Amazon, has a chance at becoming the top tablet maker of the year. However, they’ll need to achieve that by delivering all the features that consumers and enterprise customers are looking for in their tablets. They’ll also need to promote the products effectively to make sure the world knows about the features and components that can make their models real contenders.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Networking/Tablet-King-for-2012-10-Factors-That-Will-Determine-the-Leader-167869/?kc=rss

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google’s Android OS finished 2011 with 47.3 percent U.S. smartphone market share, according to comScore. No. 2 Apple iOS garnered 29.6 percent share, thanks to the iPhone 4S. Google’s Android smartphone market share topped 47.3 percent, closing 2011 nearly 18 percentage points higher than No. 2 Apple’s iOS in the United States, according to comScore. While Android’s share rose from 46.9 percent in November, it is iOS that finished the year on a strong note. The platform topped 29.6 percent through December, up nearly a full percentage point from 28.8 percent in November. Apple reported that it sold 37 million iPhones during the holiday quarter, up from 17 million the quarter before, as the company continued to wage a market and legal battle with Samsung. The top Android OEM shipped 36 million smartphone units, up from 28 million the quarter before, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Android-Smartphone-Share-Totaled-47-For-2011-comScorecomScore-269916/?kc=rss