IT Expo – Communications Future

It will take a new breed of innovators to bring the communications to their full potential for enterprises and consumers alike was the message at the IT Expo in Miami Beach, Fla., where top executives from Yahoo!, Polycom, and Free Conferencing urged the rethinking of legacy communication systems. IT Expo is an umbrella conference for several smaller events such as Digium Asterisk World, SmartGrid Conferenece, Cloud Communications Summit and 4G Wireless Evolution Conference… read more

Move over VoIP

Super-fast Wi-Fi is here. The 802.11n standard ushers in increased network throughput and range that will change wireless access, services and applications. Poor indoor cellular coverage creates unacceptable quality for users. This is especially true in the interior spaces of large buildings or in facilities with a substantial amount of electronic interference, like hospitals. Vo-Fi provides the flexibility to tune coverage to ensure that all areas where telephone access is required have exceptional coverage, eliminating dropped calls and guaranteeing excellent call quality…  read more

Sending information via light waves either in physical light guides or wireless is not new, but existing wireless systems either require direct line of sight or are diffused and have low signal strength. Optical communications systems could provide faster, more secure communications with wider bandwidth and would be suitable for restricted areas like hospitals, aircraft and factories…  read more

iPhone Users at Risk of Downloading Malicious Applications

Apple’s iPhone app review process is inadequate to stop malicious apps from getting distributed to millions of users, according to Nicolas Seriot, a software engineer and scientific collaborator at the Swiss University of Applied Sciences (HEIG-VD). Once they are downloaded, iPhone apps have unfettered access to a wide range of privacy-invasive information about the user’s device, location, activities, interests, and friends…  read more

Smarter Cyber Attacks in the Future

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, driven by botnets, have doubled in bandwidth since the attack was first identified in 2001. But according to the survey, botnet operators appear to be changing their tactics to make some DDoS attacks more difficult to detect and more focused on specific systems running a network. Security architects who monitor and manage many of the underlying systems that ensure smooth data flow across the Internet are growing anxious over the deployments of some of the latest technologies designed to improve Internet security and reliability…  read more

Apple’s new iPad is a handheld device that is designed for browsing the Internet, playing games, reading e-books, and viewing video content. It fills a product hole between the iPhone smartphone and MacBook laptop. However, the device has limited manageability and security features, which could be a concern for enterprises looking to manage the device remotely, analysts said…  read more

Predictions for Enterprise Social Networking

Just 25 per cent of enterprises will use social networking data to improve performance and productivity by 2015, according to analyst firm Gartner. The firm said in a new set of social software predictions that most businesses are still a long way from using social networks to analyse the information flows that occur between staff and business partners…  read more

Flash: The Adobe – Apple Cold War

For those who live their life on the Web, Apple’s seemingly resolute refusal to put Flash on its mobile devices (it works just fine on Apple’s notebook and desktop computers) is a bit of mystery. Flash has become ubiquitous on the Internet, providing the software environment for tens of thousands of online games, and millions of video streams…  read more

Energy-harvesting rubber sheets developed at Princeton University could be used to power mobile phones and other electronic devices in the future. The sheets, which are composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded onto silicone rubber, work by harnessing the natural energy from body movements such as breathing and walking, and then using this to generate electricity when flexed…  read more