wireless - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Amazon prepping Android app store, tablet?

  Amazon is said to be readying an Android app store and tablet, a move that should boost Google's mobile platform while also challenging Google's own Android Market.

• Cisco expects BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to do well

  Cisco expects RIM's new BlackBerry PlayBook to do well among businesses moving toward tablets, and help to augment customer demand for Cisco's WebEx service and Unified Communications Manager platforms.

• Meeting the new PCI wireless requirements

  Beginning Sept. 30, Visa will require merchants and related businesses to conduct wireless security scans to prove compliance with version 1.2 of the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) which is designed to safeguard cardholder data from wireless threats.

• FCC takes 'free love' approach to white spaces spectrum

  The Federal Communications Commission's new approach to dealing with white spaces spectrum has gone from "proceed with utmost caution" to "if a channel looks open, use it."

• How CIOs can influence new product innovation

  We've all heard the hype about a future of data-driven, always-connected devices where everything from cars to game consoles to refrigerators plays a role in the Internet of Things. We envision our household appliances tapped into the power grid, analyzing and fine-tuning electricity use. We expect our parked cars to one day use Wi-Fi to send traffic and weather forecasts to our office computers before we head out on the commute home.

• Infosys CEO: People trade privacy for tech benefits

  People are willing to adjust their ideas about privacy if they can benefit from revealing more of their personal information, the CEO of Infosys Technologies said Thursday.

• Baron analysts using iPads over fast 802.11n network

  The first day the iPad went on sale in April, half the financial analysts and executives at Baron Funds in New York's Manhattan offices lined up and bought their own -- and then immediately wanted to use them via Wi-Fi at work.

• Sprint CEO doesn't see metered 4G service

  Sprint CEO Dan Hesse today said that he doesn't anticipate Sprint adopting the tiered pricing models for 4G data services that have been floated by rivals AT&T and Verizon.

• Google Android smartphones winning over businesses, ChangeWave finds

  Companies are increasingly spending their smartphone dollars on Google Android devices, at least in part at the expense of RIM BlackBerry devices, according to ChangeWave Research’s latest numbers. 

• Wireless networks, apps gaining ground in unlikely places

  CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Mobile and wireless applications are already profoundly affecting underdeveloped areas of the world, experts on a "Future of Mobile" panel said at the EmTech@MIT 2010 conference here Wednesday.

• Qualcomm shells out more details on Peanut wireless technology

  CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Qualcomm is developing a short-range radio technology called Peanut that would require less battery power than Zigbee , Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband technologies.

• 6 Ways to Improve Your WiFi Network

  Four out of five Cisco enterprise customers have to shore up their wireless networks, says Chris Kozup, director of mobility solutions marketing at Cisco. Many were caught unprepared to handle the sudden swell of mobile devices -- iPhones, Androids and now iPads -- during the last couple of years, he says.

• iPhones, iPads secure enough, but what about Android devices?

  Apple has done enough security-wise with its iPhone and iPad to make many CSOs comfortable with the mobile devices connecting to corporate networks, but Google's Android still has a ways to go.

• New Verizon COO oversaw three years of surging wireless growth

  Newly promoted Verizon COO Lowell McAdam had a short but productive tenure as head of Verizon's wireless business, which has added 25.5 million subscribers since 2007. Looking forward, Verizon is grooming McAdam to eventually take over as CEO when current Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg retires from the company.

• Wireless consumer-ization: User joy, IT's misery

  Wi-Fi support has made its way into all kinds of consumer devices -- from smartphones to gaming consoles, cameras, DVD players and televisions -- and it is often implemented with native connection sharing capabilities. While great for consumers, this creates security and performance issues when any of these devices end up at work.