Stories by Al Sacco

Apple spent only a minute or so of its two-hour WWDC keynote discussing the enterprise features in its upcoming iOS 8 mobile OS, which is set for release this fall. The response from the crowd after the business announcements was notably tame compared to the roars that followed many of the other announcements. The fact is, iOS 8 actually packs a set of valuable new features that demonstrate Apple's strengthening relationship with the enterprise and with business users.

Yesterday data security company Sophos released the results of a survey it conducted on enterprise use of popular cloud-storage services such as Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and OneDrive.

Last week location-based social network Foursquare released a new mobile app and broke its service into two components. The new "Swarm" app for iOS and Android (a Windows Phone version is expected later this summer) is for check-ins and friend-finding, while the evolved foursquare app will no longer features check-in functionality and focuses instead on local search.

Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, and their associated 911 call centers, now accept emergency SMS text messages, but the new functionality is currently available only in limited areas in 16 states.

Last week, a report from New York-based global investment news site BrightWire.com suggested that Apple's upcoming smartphone, the iPhone 6, will (finally) support near-field communications (NFC) technology. BrightWire.com cited "a source close to the matter."

When Glass was first unveiled at Google's annual I/O developer conference in the summer of 2012, it was seen mostly as an expensive novelty that would be available to only a select few "Explorers," at least for a few years. Today, the device is still not widely available, and it still costs $1,500, but it's proving to be much more than novel to some businesses and organizations. (Glass isn't the only form of wearable tech making waves in the enterprise; read "Wearables Offer Promise (and Peril) for the Enterprise" for details.)

Battery life has never really been the iPhone's strength, though it has improved since 2007, the year the first iPhone was released. The original iPhone got about eight hours of talk time, according to Apple, while the latest Apple smartphone, the iPhone 5s, gets about 10 hours talk time. The first iPhone had a 1440mAh battery and the iPhone 5s has a 1570mAh battery. Capacity only increased by 12 percent during the last six years, according to ZDNet.com, while average life increased by 25 percent.

Yesterday, Nielsen released its first quarter 2014 smartphone market share numbers for the United States, including numbers for the leading smartphone OS options and the leading device manufacturers.

BlackBerry today released an update to its BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) 10 software designed to address a "Heartbleed"-related OpenSSL vulnerability in the version of Apache Tomcat used within the BES BlackBerry Work Connect Notification Service. (A detailed breakdown of the vulnerability is available on NIST.gov.)

These days, it seems like every new smartphone is packed with "must-see" new features, often with clever names, meant to set it apart from all the other devices on the market. Those features frequently prove to be less than useful over time. The brand new HTC One (M8) is no different.

Yesterday, wireless industry group CTIA announced a partnership between many of the major smartphone makers and all of the leading U.S. wireless carriers that's designed to enable smartphone "kill-switch" functionality on handsets sold in the United States after July 2015.

The terms "Internet of Things" (IoT) and "connected home" are two of the trendiest buzzwords in the technology world today. And while both clearly offer very real potential, they also introduce their own share of risk, particularly if they're not approached with caution, according to Jerry Irvine, an owner and CIO of IT outsourcing services firm, Prescient Solutions.

A couple of months ago, Amazon sent me its (then) new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" tablet for review. After spending some time with the device, I wrote a piece comparing its strengths to the most popular tablet available today: Apple's iPad.

There are many reasons why The Container Store, a Coppell, Texas-based retailer of storage systems and accessories, has made Fortune Magazine's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For" the past 15 years.

iPhone lovers will find a friend in each of these eight must-have Lightning charging devices, all of which are functional, stylish and unique.