Technology news: Apple updates, Sumsung updates, Foxcon, Facebook, cloud technologies

NSN’s new network fabric has it all: LTE, Wi-Fi, and cloud

Details: Published on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 10:59

NSN-network-fiber At Mobile World Congress next week, Nokia Siemens Networks plans to reveal its most ambitious mobile network design to date: a complex system of 100 small LTE, HSPA and Wi-Fi cells that behaves, from the network’s point of view, as a single cell site.

NSN is using a concept from cloud computing called a ‘fabric’ and retooling it for the purposes of mobile broadband.

Hi-tech cars: Driver distraction warning in US

Details: Published on Monday, 20 February 2012 14:41

US transport safety officials have proposed guidelines to limit driver distraction from gadgets built into cars.

The planned voluntary rules would cover "integrated electronic devices, including mobile phones". Officials want distracting functions to be disabled when driving.

In 2010, US figures suggested that "distraction by a device or control integral to the vehicle was reported in 26,000 crashes".

Sign documents digitally in the cloud

Details: Published on Friday, 17 February 2012 18:41

Cloud storage service provider SurDoc is giving out a digital pen to help user execute contracts in the cloud without having to print them out and rescan them.

How do you compete with hugely successful cloud storage service companies like Dropbox or Box.net? You add a feature to your service that plays to one of the biggest challenges keeping offices from becoming more paperless: how to collect the signatures needed for legally binding documents.

CloudBees puts its PaaS anywhere

Details: Published on Tuesday, 14 February 2012 18:30

CloudBees’ Java-centric platform as a service can now run inside a customer’s data center, at a hosting provider or on the Amazon public cloud, or on some combination of the above.

Many companies would like to give their developers a PaaS option but are hesitant to go all-in with the public cloud. Just a few PaaSes, like VMware’s Cloud Foundry, offer that sort of hybrid cloud deployment choice.

Cloudscaling wants to make OpenStack webscale

Details: Published on Saturday, 11 February 2012 14:00

Cloud computing consultancy Cloudscaling is realigning its business around the open-source OpenStack framework, and it has a message for the world: If you want to use open-source software but operate like Amazon Web Services, we’re your man.

The company, which has helped build public clouds for the likes of Korea Telecom and Internap, is putting its consulting muscle behind a new OpenStack-based software platform that is built with webscale in mind.

African rival to iPad launched

Details: Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 19:00

An African alternative to Apple’s iPad was launched in the Republic of Congo last week, with the Way-C tablet currently on sale only in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire.

Invented by the 26-year-old Verone Mankou the tablet costs only $300. Way-C means “the light of the stars” in a dialect of northern Congo. “Originally the idea was to design a low-cost computer to bring Internet access to as many people as possible,” Mankou said.

Amazon Fire skips preloaded Google apps

Details: Published on Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:30

Since Google Inc. introduced its Android operating system in 2007, the company’s strategy has been simple: Give it to developers for free and make money when consumers click ads on the Web or through apps. That model is hitting a snag.

Amazon.com Inc. and Chinese Internet giants Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. are using Android as a building block for their devices, skipping preloaded applications such as Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube that generate ad revenue for Google, as well as its app store. Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, which is gaining ground on Apple Inc.’s iPad, comes with none of those apps.

iPhone, iPad apps for children with learning difficulties

Details: Published on Monday, 16 January 2012 12:26

If technology allows us to do one thing well, it's to develop software and networks to increase levels of communication.

Taking this as a starting point, some individuals and organisations have come up with a number of applications that can be used to assist children with learning difficulties. The apps currently on the market cover a variety of developmental issues — including emotional, social, organisational and basic skill learning.

World's biggest tech show searching for "wow"

Details: Published on Monday, 09 January 2012 18:00

The world's biggest technology trade show will feature razor-thin laptops, powerful new smartphones and fancy flat-screen TVs, but talk in the cavernous halls of the Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off on Monday night, may focus on whether the show itself has a long-term future.

Apple Inc, which has set the agenda in consumer electronics for the past decade, does not even attend the show.