Smartphones and Tablets to Take Over in 2011, Researchers Say

Posted by & filed under Apple, business models, Cloud Computing, Google, Hardware, revenue model, Software.


Description: The research firm IDC predicts that in 2011, computing’s third major technology wave will become mainstream, when computers held in one’s hand — smartphones and tablets — really take over and start putting personal computers in the rearview mirror.

Source: NYTimes.com

Date: Dec 2, 2010

Next year, the research firm says in a report published Thursday, there will be 330 million smartphones sold worldwide and 42 million media tablets. Tablet sales are expected to more than double next year, and to keep climbing, “breezing by netbooks, the phenomenon of two years ago,” said Frank Gens, chief analyst for IDC.

“The PC-centric era is over,” the IDC report says. Within 18 months, it forecasts, non-PC devices capable of running software applications will outsell PCs. In tablets, IDC adds, Apple’s iPad will remain the leader, but lower-cost tablets will begin making inroads, especially as demand for tablets really takes off in emerging markets.

IDC uses a hardware-centered definition of technology eras — devices that open up computing to large new groups of users. So, by its definition, the first era began in the 1960s, when many people got access to computers, seated at mainframe terminals. Next came personal computers in the 1980s, and mobile devices that are full-fledged computers were next.

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Questions for discussion:

  • How big is the mobile computing industry and what devices would you include?
  • Why is cloud computing so important to companies that compete in the mobile computing industry?
  • Is there any way for Apple to maintain their industry domination in the tablet industry?

Security needs drive cyberforensics industry

Posted by & filed under Biometrics, cyber terroism, Cyberforensics, industry analysis, Privacy, Security.

Description: Cyberforensics, the science of finding and securing digital evidence buried deep within company networks, is fast emerging as a global industry.

Source: USAToday.com

Date: Nov 23, 2010
Three major players are in the vanguard.PricewaterhouseCoopers has recently hired several former law enforcement agents and prosecutors to supplement its cyberforensic services, which already have 3,000 employees and 55 labs in 37 countries.

Verizon Business — supplier of communications, networking and security technologies to large organizations — has pumped more than $50 million into cyberforensics-related services in the past two years. That includes setting up a state-of-the-art hygienic lab to examine computer circuit boards.

And Stroz Friedberg, a private CSI-like company founded by an ex-FBI agent and an ex-U.S. Attorney, recently received a $115 million investment from private equity firm New Mountain Capital to open new offices across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Demand for cyberforensics is being driven by “the proliferation and complexity of security issues companies are facing,” says Alok Singh, New Mountain’s managing director. “Issues of data security and integrity are critical for all companies around the world.”

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Questions for discussion:

  • How does cyber forensics work?
  • Is cyber forensics an industry that should be regulated by government?
  • How big an industry is cyber forensics?

Canada’s culture can still make its mark on the Internet

Posted by & filed under cyber terroism, cyber war, national culture, Privacy.

Description: The boundless promise of the Internet come three challenges to nationhood and country: to our common culture, because the Internet has little regard for content restrictions.

Source: Globe and Mail

Date: Nov 24, 2010

Culture: Canadians are creating great art and inventing new forms of communication inspired by and adapted for the Internet: artful videos like Arcade Fire’s We Used To Wait; comedy, like Quebec’sTêtes à claques; or The Globe and Mail’s own Emmy-winning online reports, Talking To The Taliban, and Behind The Veil.

But it will only get harder for Canadian cultural producers to get by and get noticed. There is so much choice online already, and much of the content can be consumed freely. The Internet is penetrating already existing regulated media, such as TV and radio.

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Questions for discussion:

  • What challenges does the internet present to Canada?
  • Do we share too much information on the Internet?
  • Should Canada police The amount of Canadian content through policy making and penalties?

The Internet needs peacekeepers. Is Canada ready?

Posted by & filed under cyber terroism, cyber war.

Description: It is a crime in progress, a cyber-fraud network that moves with blistering efficiency between servers in England, criminals in Russia and victims around the globe. It is borderless, profitable and almost impossible to stop. It is the digital future of criminality.

Source: Globe and Mail

Date: Nov 24, 2010

But perhaps the scariest aspect of these networks of compromised computers isn’t their capacity to defraud users and Web sites. It is the fact that they are also the means by which much larger cyber-battles can be carried out — even between governments that are locked in a digital arms race.

At the birth of the Internet some 40 years ago, when the first bits of digital information flowed between two university computers in California, few could have envisioned what the communications network would one day become: the centre of the world’s business, social and educational interaction and one of the most important inventions in human history.

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Questions for discussion:

  • Who should protect Canadians and others from Cyber terrorism ? Explain?
  • Should Canada be the cyber sleuths of the world like we are the peacekeepers in the real world?
  • If Canada are not the cyber police, what country is positioned to take on this roll?

Exploring the anti-social side of social media

Posted by & filed under FaceBook, Human Resources, Privacy, Social Media.

Description: The Public Isolation Project was born.

As she literally X’s off the 30 days she is spending cut off from the world, Norine chronicles her experience through her blog http://www.publicisolationproject.com/.

On the other side of the glass, Elliott is filming a documentary on their collaboration.

They are not anti-technology, Elliott says, just hoping to inspire more conversation about how everything from the internet to iPads are shaping people’s lives.

Source: CNN.com

Date: Nov 22, 2010

We think we are being social on these gadgets,” she said. “And it can be a really great thing when people live in different states, but when you are at dinner or you are trying to have a conversation and you are being distracted by these other things. Or maybe you are just not going out as much because you are staying home and are online.”

Usually a TV and photography production manager based in Los Angeles, California, Norine ended up in her own personal fishbowl in Portland after a chance meeting with Josh Elliott.    Click here for rest of story

Questions for discussion:

  • Do you feel social media changes the way people communicate? Explain?
  • Are we being “social” when we are on our electronic gadgets?
  • What are the social benefits of our gadgets and using them for communication?

Credit Card Companies Woo Programmers

Posted by & filed under Apple, Ecommerce, M-commerce.

Description: Now the big credit card networks, looking for ways to increase their presence in mobile and online, are replicating that model. In the past year, Visa (V), MasterCard (MA), and American Express (AXP) have spent nearly $3 billion to buy Net-based payment processors.

Source: BusinessWeek.com

Date: Nov 18, 2010

Want to skip the line at the ballpark? Download the iConcessionStand smartphone app. It lets sports fans order hot dogs and cold beer from their mobile phones and pay by transferring money from PayPal (EBAY) to a nearby food vendor. An alert pops up when the order’s ready.

PayPal, a unit of eBay (EBAY), earns about a three percent cut of the transaction, but the app wasn’t built by PayPal’s engineers.  iConcessionStand is one of more than 1,000 apps devised by entrepreneurs using PayPal X, a software tool that lets programmers work PayPal’s payments-processing technology into their own products. These outside developers will generate $1 billion in transaction volume for PayPal this year.    Click here for rest of story

Questions for discussion:

  • Why is the demand for app programmers so large?
  • Do you feel the growth of these programming skills will continue to grow?
  • Why is mobile computing growing at such a fast rate?

Worm Was Perfect for Sabotaging Centrifuges

Posted by & filed under cyber terroism, cyber war, Security.

Description: Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran’s nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control.

Source: The New York Times

Date: Nov 18, 2010

Their conclusion, while not definitive, begins to clear some of the fog around the Stuxnet worm, a malicious program detected earlier this year on computers, primarily in Iran but also India, Indonesia and other countries.  The paternity of the worm is still in dispute, but in recent weeks officials from Israel have broken into wide smiles when asked whether Israel was behind the attack, or knew who was. American officials have suggested it originated abroad.   The new forensic work narrows the range of targets and deciphers the worm’s plan of attack. Computer analysts say Stuxnet does its damage by making quick changes in the rotational speed of motors, shifting them rapidly up and down   Click here for rest of story

Questions for discussion:

  • Do you feel this is cyber terrorism or cyber war? Why?
  • Is it wise to keep the source of this worm code secret?  Why?
  • Do you feel this is a satisfactory way to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon?

How the new copyright bill will affect Canadian culture

Posted by & filed under Copyright, IS ethics, Security.

Description: So how do we protect and promote Canadian culture in the digital age?   Right now, the answer to that question is intertwined with the fate of Canada’s copyright policies.

Source: The Globe and Mail

Date: Nov 17, 2010

For years, Canada has attempted to protect its cultural content – books, music, television, film – from being overshadowed by those of larger nations, notably the United States. Canadian private television broadcasters such as CTV and Global are required to spend 30 per cent of their gross revenues on Canadian programming. Thirty-five per cent of the songs on Canadian commercial radio stations must be by Canadian artists.   Click here for rest of story

Questions for discussion:

  • Do you think Canadian content rules are still relevant in the digital age?
  • Should Canada’s copyright policies be more about economic protection or Canadian social content protection?
  • Are their downsides to Canadians of making this copyright policy to strict and onerous?

Tech-savvy put business intelligence to work

Posted by & filed under Business Intelligence, Human Resources, Software.

Description: They’re doing it using modern business intelligence, or BI. Analyzing large sets of data to rev up business operations is as old as arithmetic.

Source: USA Today

Date: Nov 17, 2010

Sitting in a cafe in Sydney awhile back, Danny Kennedy and Andrew Birch mused about all the valuable free data Microsoft and Google float out on the Internet.  In particular, they wondered if they could tap into the tech giants’ mapping services to remotely design rooftop solar energy systems using satellite images and aerial photos.  Turns out they could. Four years after that “aha” moment, Kennedy and Birch operate Sungevity, a thriving solar energy firm with 100 employees involved in designing residential solar energy systems.  Click here for rest of story

Questions for discussion:

  • How has Business Intelligence spurred on the development of unique business start-ups?
  • How have data visualization tools changed who uses BI in an organization?
  • What skill sets do you think will be the most important for employees to posses in using BI in the future?

Firesheep sidejacking tool highlights risk of using free Wi-Fi

Posted by & filed under Cloud Computing, Privacy, Security, WI-Fi.

Description: Firesheep — a month-old Firefox plug-in that anyone can use to sidejack your free Wi-Fi session — is gaining attention in tech-security circles.

Source: USA Today

Date: Nov 10, 2010

Any time you use a free public Wi-Fi hookup — such as those you find at Starbucks and many airports — your risk of having someone sitting nearby commandeer your session is imminent. That’s because most free Wi-Fi hookups are unencrypted.

Sidejacking has been around since at least 2007. It’s considered an obscure attack vector. However, no one we know of has yet done a comprehensive study to measure how often sidejacking actually takes place.  Firesheep was unveiled on Oct. 25 by Eric Butler, a Seattle-based Web application software developer and researcher. Good guy researchers like Butler are referred to as white hats. White hats try to beat black hats — bad guy hackers — to the punch in finding fresh security flaws. White hats release their findings to start public discussions. Their goal is to prompt quick fixes and thus do their small part to improve overall security.      Click here for rest of story

Questions for discussion:

  • What is Firesheep and what are the security concerns of this product?
  • Is sidejacking a real threat or just driven by alarming media reports?
  • What is the difference between a white Hat hacker and a Black Hat hacker in regards to Firesheep?