Hardware

Near field communication use growing outside smartphones

A growing number of smartphones have near field communication (NFC) capabilities to make mobile payments, but accessories and ultrabooks also now increasingly have the same technology.

By Agam Shah | 23 May, 2012 05:17

Tags: research in motion, mobility, mobile solutions, DIGITAL GEAR, consumer electronics

Defining 'big data' depends on who's doing the defining

Big data is an IT buzzword nowadays, but what does it really mean? When does data become big?

By Brandon Butler | 10 May, 2012 20:41

Tags: IDC, hardware systems, Data Center, Configuration / maintenance, Big Data, Amazon Web Services

The IT paradox: A diminished role in technology, but greater clout in the business

There is a paradox in the technology that IT employs and deploys. As it becomes easier to use and simpler to manage, it is actually increasing in complexity. And there is a paradox within this paradox concerning how IT relates to the business. More on that in a bit.

By Nicholas D. Evans | 08 May, 2012 00:08

Tags: salesforce.com, Mobile and Wireless, Management and Careers, internet, cloud computing, Apple

Smartphone screens are getting bigger

Smartphone screens are getting larger, although vendors will likely continue to offer many sizes to woo a wide variety of users.

By Matt Hamblen | 03 May, 2012 20:11

Tags: smartphones, Motorola, Mobile and Wireless, htc, hardware systems, hardware, consumer electronics, at&t, Apple

BYOD battle: A tale of two opposing IT viewpoints

EdSouth is a bank holding company active in the student-loan arena, and Arrow Container Corp. manufactures cartons and containers. Their ideas about letting employees use their own mobile devices at work for business — what's often called "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) — couldn't be more different.

By Ellen Messmer | 19 April, 2012 20:33

Tags: Android, Apple, Apple iOS; Android; iPhone; Pad, at&t, AT&T Enterproid Divide, Configuration / maintenance, consumer electronics, Data Center, hardware systems, iPhone, networking, pc, smartphones, wireless

Hot for this quarter: The best smartphones

Device manufacturers are starting to roll out some of their marquee smartphones in an effort to generate some buzz before Apple inevitably drops its newest iPhone this (northern) summer.

By Brad Reed | 19 April, 2012 08:45

Tags: Apple, consumer electronics, Evo 4G, Galaxy Nexus, htc, HTC Evo 4G LTE, HTC One X, networking, Nokia, Nokia Lumia, Nokia Lumia 900, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, smartphones, wireless

Open for business: It's the year of the corporate app store

With more employees using smartphones and tablets for business, enterprises are setting up their own app stores for application distribution, leveraging a consumer model for mobile application access that is tuned to the workplace. Instead of saddling already overburdened IT personnel with getting applications to individual devices, these app stores provide a central distribution mechanism for employees to download applications themselves.

By Paul Krill | 16 April, 2012 20:11

Tags: Apple, applications, consumerization of IT, Google, mobile apps, mobile technology, software

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) review: A nice price, but where's the 'wow'?

Android devices - both smartphones and tablets - are getting increasingly affordable. With its new Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) tablet, Samsung is obviously hoping to claim its piece of the budget-price pie.

By JR Raphael | 12 April, 2012 09:18

Tags: Emerging Technologies, hardware, hardware systems, mobile, Mobile and Wireless, Mobile OSes

In depth: Nokia's great Windows Phone hope - Beauty without brawn

Nokia may sell more cellphones than any other company in the world, but it's been all but excluded from the United States for years -- and it's seen its global sales steadily shrink as the iPhone and Android smartphones have become the darlings of buyers in an increasing number of countries. Nokia's relevance has been fast receding, and its Symbian, Maemo, and MeeGo efforts became a pattern of failure for a company that just didn't get it. In response, a year ago, Nokia bet its future largely on Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's answer to Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

By Galen Gruman | 10 April, 2012 20:13

Tags: Apple, Computer Hardware, consumer electronics, consumerization of IT, Google, Microsoft, mobile, Mobile OSes, mobile technology, Nokia, smartphones, symbian, Windows Phone

Case study: Designing 'iPad WLANs' poses new, renewed challenges

Complications that the influx of Apple iPads and iPhones bring to enterprise Wi-Fi networks and wireless LAN administrators are illustrated vividly at The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario.

By John Cox | 26 March, 2012 15:31

Tags: Apple, aruba, Aruba networks, enterprise wifi, enterprise WLAN, health care, iFixit, industry verticals, iPad deployment, meru, networking, Ottawa Hospital, wi-fi, wireless, wireless lans, WLANs, WLANs / Wi-Fi

The big promise of big data

For Twitter, making sense of its mountains of user data was big enough of a problem that it purchased another company just to help get the job done.

By Joab Jackson | 14 March, 2012 04:04

Tags: applications, cloudera, data management, data mining, MapR, oracle, software

'Siri, I have some some suggestions for you'

When Apple's new iPad was unveiled last week , one of the features users had hoped for didn't come with it. Siri, the voice-controlled personal assistant that's been such a hit on the iPhone 4S, wasn't among the tablet's new features. (Apple did add a dictation feature, but it has none of Siri's interactivity; all you can do is one-way dictation.)

By Michael deAgonia | 13 March, 2012 21:16

Tags: Apple, consumer electronics, Macintosh, Mobile and Wireless, Mobile Apps and Services, smartphones

FAQ: What you need to know now about the 'new iPad'

Yesterday, Apple pulled off the wraps from the new iPad -- yes, that's the official name -- and spent more than an hour on a San Francisco stage touting what's changed, like the screen, and what hasn't, like the price.

By Gregg Keizer | 09 March, 2012 08:00

Tags: Apple, at&t, Macintosh, Mobile and Wireless, Mobile Apps and Services, networking, wireless, wireless networking

This year's mobile screens will stun and amaze

It seems like all phones and all tablets do all things for all people these days. Every single smartphone and touch tablet has become just about everything anyone could ever want in a mobile device.

By Mike Elgan | 06 March, 2012 02:28

Tags: Apple, asus, cloud computing, consumer electronics, Microsoft, mobile solutions, mobility, NEC, samsung, screens, smartphones, tablets

I dumped my iPhone 4 for the Android Galaxy Nexus

I like a lot of things about my iPhone 4. For starters, the whole "antennagate" thing was overblown. Lots of phones drop bars if you grip them a certain way while in a weak signal area. (My new Galaxy Nexus does.) And although I live in a dead zone for both AT&T and Verizon, right out of the box my AT&T iPhone 4 got noticeably better reception than my original iPhone. A simple iPhone 4 case prevented any loss of signal reception due to hand shielding.

By Scot Finnie | 02 March, 2012 21:54

Tags: Apple, at&t, consumer electronics, Macintosh, Microsoft, mobile, Mobile Apps and Services, Mobile OSes, smartphones

The industrial robot revolution

One small step for man, a giant leap for robot-kind.

By Sandra Gittlen | 20 February, 2012 22:25

Tags: Configuration / maintenance, Data Center, hardware systems, health care, industry verticals, manufacturing, NASA, robots

FAQ: What's what in OS X Mountain Lion?

Last week, Apple took most Mac users by surprise when it released a developers preview of Mountain Lion, the company's newest desktop operating system, and announced it would ship the upgrade later this year.

By Gregg Keizer | 20 February, 2012 22:15

Tags: Apple, Macintosh, Mac OS, operating systems, software

OS X Mountain Lion: A big cat for business?

Apple surprised the tech world by unveiling a developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion, the next generation of its desktop operating system set to ship this summer - just a year after OS X 10.7 Lion arrived.

By Ryan Faas | 19 February, 2012 09:13

Tags: Apple, cloud computing, internet, Macintosh, Mac OS, mobile, Mobile Apps and Services, Mobile OSes, operating systems, software

How to buy a tablet

As more tablets come to market, be prepared to be wowed by the power that some of these slates are capable of. You'll find plenty of models out there, including tablets with impressive dual-core processors or even quad-core chips. And many tablets can satisfy specific needs. The iPad 2 shines bright, but it isn't the only star in the tablet universe.

By Melissa J. Perenson | 13 February, 2012 15:00

Tags: mobile solutions, mobility, tablets

How to choose a tablet for your business

The idea of using an easy-to-tote tablet for work appeals to you. You can use it for email, note-taking, presentations, accessing the Web, and other business tasks - at least if you're not dependent on complex spreadsheets or physical input. Tablets are easier on the eyes than the tiny screens of smartphones, and they're better for your back than lugging a laptop.