The Internet of Things is upon us and has the potential to dramatically change our lives at a dizzying pace. From wearable technology to fully connected homes and vehicles, Gartner believes that the IoT market will grow from 0.9 billion units today to 26 billion units by 2020. This is an almost 30-fold increase, which will diversify the industry and result in a $1.9 trillion global market value. Although it sometimes appears that IoT is all about connecting Things to the Internet its real value comes from merging and analyzing…

Read More

Two of the greatest technological and entrepreneurial leaders of this age are Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, but how will we remember them in terms of their legacy of leadership and entrepreneurship? Who will we remember in years to come for their legacy to future generations? Gates has the advantage of still having time to shape his legacy, whereas Jobs’s deeds are now cast in stone and open to interpretation. Maybe it’s a little unfair to set this up as a boxing match between two entrepreneurial heavyweights, but my question…

Read More

Hm. Do optimists really have more fun? QuoTW Google researchers came clean about a nasty little security vulnerability they discovered in SSL 3.0 this week, though not before El Reg first caught wind of it. The backdoor into the ancient old encryption standard can only be used if you can intercept the victim’s packets, potentially with a malicious Wi-Fi link, but once they’re in, hackers can slurp your cookie data. Security expert Robert Graham explained: POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption) allows the hacking of clients – your web…

Read More

For a long time now, the retail payment market has been an exemplar of stability with well-established and socially accepted payment methods and little incentive for breakthrough innovation. However in the last five years, thanks to technological evolution and the impact of new market entrants, an unprecedented change in the way card payment instruments are issued and processed has been taking place. For a long time now, the retail payment market has been an exemplar of stability with well-established and socially accepted payment methods and little incentive for breakthrough innovation.…

Read More

The forty-niners rushed to California in search of gold. Some even found it. But most stayed poor and the only people who got reliably rich were people who made and sold the picks and shovels the miners needed.  Image: http://www.news.com.au/ Is that the way it is with big data? Will the only people to get rich be the suppliers of big data computer software, and computer and storage hardware? How will we know? It is damnably difficult to calculate the ROI on a big data project. You have to ask questions…

Read More

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday unveiled its next Windows operating system, Windows 10, and gave a first look at an early technical preview for the PC. The announcement highlighted advancements designed for business, including an updated user experience and enhanced security and management capabilities. The company also introduced the Windows Insider Program, kicking off its largest-ever open collaborative development effort to change the way Windows is built and delivered to best meet the needs of customers. Program participants will receive the technical preview of Windows 10 and a steady stream of…

Read More

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…

Read More