Techno-News Blog

by John Biggs, Tech Crunch

We sat down with Greg Duffy, CEO of Dropcam, to talk about his company’s move into online DVR services connected with their cool little HD webcams. The big news? Dropcam cameras now upload more video per day than YouTube. Duffy noted that the company is working towards more intelligent content sensing so their cameras and online DVR service will be able to pick out faces and figures in the scene and be a bit more intelligent with notifications and motion sensing. There wasn’t any new Dropcam hardware to speak of this CES but the service is definitely more interesting these days simply because a cloud-backed DVR could be a lifesaver for businesses and personal users alike.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/10/dropcam-now-processing-more-uploaded-video-than-youtube-says-ceo-greg-duffy/?

by PC World Staff

The forward march of technology moves at a dizzying pace. Yesterday’s gadgets look like quaint antiques. Today’s gadgets are already tainted by the mark of familiarity. And tomorrow’s gadgets appear to be magical, enchanting, engineering wonders. That is, until they become today’s gadgets, at which point, “meh.” Yes, we’re suckers for new and shiny tech toys at PCWorld, so we gathered up all our reporters and set them loose on digging up details about the PC, mobile, and home entertainment hardware of 2013 and beyond.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2021345/future-tech-2013-the-pcs-tablets-and-cutting-edge-hardware-of-tomorrow.html

By John Cox, Network World

The next major advance in Wi-Fi, the still-in-draft IEEE 802.11ac standard, seems like a slam-dunk: It promises data rates ranging from 433Mbps to, in some configurations, 1.3Gbps, hence the label “Gigabit Wi-Fi.” What’s not to like? But as is usual in wireless networking, the actual implementation of 11ac in products, their deployment and use make for a more complicated picture.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/010312-outlook-gigabit-wifi-265254.html

by ReadWriteWeb

The last several years have seen an explosion in mobile applications. By the end of 2013, both Android’s Google Play and the Apple iOS App Store will be hosting a million apps – and we have only seen minor signs of slowing growth. Where the heck are all these apps coming from? Thousands upon thousands of developers are working hard to pump out games, social networks, utility and productivity apps, news readers… if you can dream it, someone is building an app for it. So, how much time and effort is going into feeding this beast? Exactly how long does it take to build a quality native mobile app (not a mobile Web, HTML5 app)? Boston-based Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) mobile-cloud-platform vendor Kinvey set out to answer just that question.

http://readwrite.com/2013/01/09/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-a-native-mobile-app-infographic

by Adam Webster, Edudemic

It’s a simple reality that if you give someone a way to do something that they can relate to, engage with and enjoy, they will do the job you give them better. Students are vey workman-like when I give them laptops. They know what is ‘expected’ and they get on and do it. When I give them iPads, I don’t know what they’ll produce at the end of it and often neither do they. If that scares you as a teacher then iPads are probably not the right device for you. If this excites you, then try and get hold of just one. Hook it up to an Apple TV and see what you can do with a few apps and a newly revitalised class,

http://edudemic.com/2013/01/ipad-king-of-classroom/

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Ed

As the New Year rings in, higher education leaders reflect on IT challenges they face. Two university CIOs named seven top technology issues they have to tackle, including mobile support, decision-making and governance.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/7-Technology-Issues.html

By Liu Jiayi, ZDNet

A recent quake jolted Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, where over 14 million people live, and also Deyang and its surrounding areas–all of which were severely damaged during the 2008 quake. The Chengdu Institute of Care-life, a local earthquake research and warning organization, managed to send two warning messages to its Weibo site, the Chinese version of Twitter. According to the institute’s director Wang Tun, the warning system automatically goes online and sends messages as soon as five seconds after any of its 200 detectors–covering an area of over 20,000 square kilometres–pick up a shockwave. At present, with less than 1,000 online followers and a little over 100 tweets, the warning system only covers the metropolitan area of Chengdu. But Wang still believes even a few seconds of “heads up” will make a huge difference in case of a devastating quake.

http://www.zdnet.com/cn/china-reduces-casualties-with-quake-warnings-via-social-media-7000009415/

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, ZDNet

The best selling laptop of the day? The Linux-based Chromebook. We all know now that Windows 8 sales have been…. disappointing. You can blame the hardware. You can blame Windows 8’s mixed-up interfaces. You can blame the rise of tablets and smartphones. Whatever. The bottom line is Windows 8 PC and laptop sales have been slow. So, what, according to Amazon, in this winter of Windows 8 discontent has been the best selling laptop? It’s Samsung’s ARM-powered, Linux-based Chromebook. Shocked? Amazed? Why? The Chromebook has several things going for it.

http://www.zdnet.com/amazons-top-selling-laptop-doesnt-run-windows-or-mac-os-it-runs-linux-7000009433/

By Jack Clark, ZDNet

Toshiba has announced four high-security families of drives for enterprise users. The self-encrypting SAS and SATA drives (SEDs) were announced by Toshiba on Sunday. They use cryptographic technology to secure drives quickly against improper access and are designed for organisations that place a premium on data security. “System administrators can help to better secure sensitive data by using encrypted storage devices,” Scott Wright, product manager of Toshiba’s storage products business, said in a Toshiba statement.

http://www.zdnet.com/toshiba-tees-off-2013-with-self-encrypting-drives-7000009450/?s_cid=e539

by Will Knight, Technology Review

In the latest issue of Wired, the article Better than Human predicts that remarkably intelligent robots are poised to wheel, scamper, or perhaps hover into your workplace and wrestle the keyboard or pen from your puny and incompetent humanoid hand. That’s right, the machines have figured out how to do your job and they’re tired of you messing it up. It’s an entertaining read, and there are some threads of logic to be found, but it’s mostly unrestrained futurism. The article argues that robotics and AI have reached an “inflection point” that will rapidly change the usefulness of machines, setting them on course to take over every job that is currently done by a human by the end of this century. But, in a neat and reassuring twist of logic—based, evidently, on the lesson of the Industrial Revolution—the piece also concludes that this technological revolution will create just as many new jobs as it destroys.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/509571/robots-arent-coming-for-our-jobs-just-yet/

By Antonio Regalado, Technology Review

Harvard economist Ricardo Hausmann advises governments on what to manufacture. The U.S. has lost millions of manufacturing jobs since 2000. Industries have moved offshore. America’s trade deficit in physical goods is $738 billion a year. So what’s the path forward? Countries trying to understand what’s next for their export industries often call Ricardo Hausmann. The Harvard economist and onetime planning minister for Venezuela has developed a kind of economic aptitude test for nations. Using complexity theory and trade data, Hausmann looks at what a country is good at making and predicts what types of more valuable items it could produce next.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509281/you-must-make-the-new-machines/

By David Talbot, Technology Review

The year 2012 saw continued growth in the adoption of mobile communications gadgets, but few technological breakthroughs. But in the months ahead, the guts of mobile devices could be ripe for technological disruption and significant performance boosts. Smartphones and tablets are, in some respects, primitive and inefficient inside. Crack open their sleek surfaces and you find a jumble of standalone processors. There are typically several modems for processing for different wireless standards: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and, in newer phones, near-field communications. Finally, there are processors for image and video processing, and for the accelerometer and gyrometer. Housing and powering all of these standalone islands of processing is fundamentally inefficient, but technologies are emerging for putting them all together.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509241/a-do-it-all-programmable-processor-for-smartphones/

By Nathan Eddy, eWeek

While the United States is still struggling to rein in elevated unemployment rates, the tech sector is faring far better than the rest of the economy, as numbers released by IT hiring specialist Dice suggest. In the company’s January report, there were 77,052 available technology jobs listed, including 47,742 full-time positions, 32,677 contract positions and 1,702 part-time jobs. The report also noted 526 telecommuting positions were available. The Dice report also provides a list of the top 10 metro areas for tech jobs, with New York City taking the No. 1 position as it continues its rise as a major rival to Silicon Valley. However, the report also noted a single job posting may reflect more than one skill, location or type of position, and therefore total figures for those attributes may be greater than the total number of jobs posted.

http://www.eweek.com/it-management/slideshows/new-york-silicon-valley-lead-nation-for-tech-jobs-dice/

By Michelle Maisto, eWeek

Apple is already testing iOS 7, according to reports. The timing is in sync with reports of an early summer, rather than fall, debut of the next iPhone. Apple is working on iOS 7, the next version of the software run by its iPhone, something that may shock few people. Devices running a pre-release build of iOS 7 visited AppleInsider on various days in December, the tech site reported Jan. 2. The day before, The Next Web blogged that it had been contacted by developers who said their logs showed visits from devices with new iPhone identifiers. The iPhone 5, for example, has iPhone5.1 and iPhone5.2 identifiers, depending on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) model of the device and which band it runs on.

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/apple-ios-7-tests-underway-suggesting-an-early-summer-iphone/

By Don Reisinger, eWeek

The 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, which opens Jan. 8 in Las Vegas, will give technology producers an opportunity to introduce new products that could become the top sellers of the year. From televisions to computers to smartphones, a host of products will be on display. There’s even a chance that some vendors will unveil new devices that will reshape markets or even create an entirely new one. By the time CES adjourns on Jan. 11, technology buyers will have a much clearer view on where the technology industry is headed for the next couple of years. CES puts a spotlight on emerging trends and helps the world determine where they should spend their technology dollars, pounds, yen, Yuan or deutschmarks. It’s an exciting time. This eWEEK slide show will take a look at the products and trends that will likely be the talk of this year’s show. If all goes well, the event—and its aftermath—will be something today’s technology customers won’t want to miss.

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/slideshows/ces-2013-to-showcase-latest-smartphones-sharper-mobile-graphics-tvs/

by MindShift

Just as we need to know about animal cells, it is vital to understand a little about computers. In today’s world, one may argue that this is more important than learning about rock formations. Basic concepts on operating systems like file management should be introduced in grade school. These young students will find a lesson on how computers work as fascinating as one on electricity. It will help them appreciate the magic behind the computers they use everyday. Maybe they should have a chance to know – ‘Is it Save or Save As’?

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/12/save-or-save-as-should-third-graders-know-how-computers-work/

by Bernard Golden, CIO

This has been a curious year for cloud computing. The technology has moved into mainstream consciousness, but many vendors remain frustrated with the pace of enterprise adoption. While widespread agreement about the importance of cloud computing is present, many vendors see enterprises pursuing internal cloud implementation projects with a slow pace. As you can imagine, vendors are impatient with this pace—but not as frustrated as early-stage investors in those vendors. Notwithstanding, I expect 2013 to be an inflection point for cloud computing, although not in the way many IT organizations or vendors do. You can expect that cloud computing trends of 2012 will become more vivid in 2013 and will prove disconcerting to incumbents, no matter which side of the vendor/buyer table they sit on. Cloud computing will prove more disruptive to the established order of things than almost anyone anticipates, and it will prove to be extremely uncomfortable for many.

http://www.cio.com/article/724286/5_Cloud_Computing_Trends_That_Will_Be_Big_in_2013

by NetworkWorld

We’re not sure some of them are even on the drawing board, but they’d be great to see… visit the URL to check them out.

http://www.networkworld.com/slideshow/78425/16-most-anticipated-tech-products-of-2013.html

by Brian Bergstein, Technology Review

To say that Bono is the lead singer of the rock band U2 is like saying that Thomas Edison invented the record player: it leaves out a lot of biography. The 52-year-old Irishman (born Paul Hewson) is also a technology investor and an activist who cofounded the ONE and (RED) organizations, which are devoted to eradicating extreme poverty and AIDS. He has spent years urging Western leaders to forgive the debts of poor nations and to increase funding for AIDS medicines in Africa. Bono answered questions over e-mail from MIT Technology Review’s deputy editor, Brian Bergstein, about the role technologies—from vaccines to information services—can play in solving our biggest problems.

http://www.technologyreview.com/qa/508771/bono-on-how-technology-can-transform-the-world/

by The Physics arXiv Blog

“Teleportation is the extraordinary ability to transfer objects from one location to another without travelling through the intervening space. The idea is not that the physical object is teleported but the information that describes it. This can then be applied to a similar object in a new location which effectively takes on the new identity. And it is by no means science fiction. Physicists have been teleporting photons since 1997 and the technique is now standard in optics laboratories all over the world. The phenomenon that makes this possible is known as quantum entanglement, the deep and mysterious link that occurs when two quantum objects share the same existence and yet are separated in space. Teleportation turns out to be extremely useful. Because teleported information does not travel through the intervening space, it cannot be secretly accessed by an eavesdropper.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/509106/best-of-2012-chinese-physicists-smash-distance-record-for-teleportation/

by the Physics arXiv Blog

Nobody knows how much of the web has been archived for future generations. Museums and libraries have long attempted to preserve cultural artifacts for future generations. Given that the internet is a cultural phenomenon of extraordinary variety and influence, it’s no surprise that archivists are turning their attention to preserving it for future generations. That’s no easy task given the rate at which new pages, pictures, videos and audio recordings appear and disappear from the online world. So an interesting question is how much of the web they’ve so far managed to save. Today, Scott Ainsworth and a few pals from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, give us an answer of sorts. They say it depends on how and what you count because different online sources seem to be archived in wildly different ways.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/509411/computer-scientists-measure-how-much-of-the-web-is-archived/