Author: enews

Busan Declaration looks like a statement of intent The ITU has kicked off three weeks of wrangling over the future of the Internet – the 2014 Plenipotentiary – with a ministerial statement that’s likely to spark concerns about the direction of the coming summit. The Busan Declaration, issued at the close of the Busan ICT ministerial meeting, is filled with high-minded language about inclusion and the spread of the Internet, but there are angles that will worry those who believe the ITU is preparing a takeover of the Internet. The…

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The days of experiencing a snapshot of the world through a tiny plastic porthole when you fly may soon be a thing of the past, as future aircrafts could offer a crystal clear panoramic view of the world below, without any windows at all. At the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), our scientists and engineers are developing ultra-flexible, high-definition display technologies that could line the interior walls of cabins and display live footage from external cameras. As well as cocooning passengers with a panoramic view of the skies, this interactive…

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The U.S. reiterated its stance in favor of a multistakeholder model for Internet governance today. Speaking before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said that the United States will “not allow the global Internet to be co-opted by any person, entity, or nation seeking to substitute their parochial worldview for the collective wisdom of this community.” At a minimum, the United States appears cognizant of the risks at hand. Earlier this year, the United States’ National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)…

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Competition to offer cloud services is heating up. Here’s how to take advantage of the cloud pricing battles — even if you have no interest in adopting these technologies.  A strange thing is happening in cloud computing: pricing continues to drop even as more competitors enter the fray, and the functionality available increases. For smaller companies or limited-use cloud applications, pricing may be the ultimate in affordability: free. An interesting confluence of factors has created this unique period in cloud computing. Cloud gets nasty From a vendor perspective, the cloud is…

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The most creative innovations of the digital age came from those who were able to connect the arts and sciences. They believed that beauty mattered. “I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics,” Steve Jobs told me when I embarked on his biography. “Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.” The…

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Skype launches a free mobile messaging app for users to send and receive short videos. Microsoft’s Skype joined the hot mobile messaging market Tuesday with the launch of a simple and straightforward video messaging app called Skype Qik. The app is available for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone and doesn’t require a Skype account to use. Skype Qik was born out of the mobile video streaming website Qik, which Skype acquired in 2011 for $150 million and shuttered in April. The stripped-down and reimagined service combines a hodgepodge of characteristics from other…

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