Malcom Lewis the SVP and General Manager at Spreebird. Craig and Malcom will discuss Social Media and Black Friday and how Websites, Email and Mobile can get you daily deals from thousands of merchants. About 1 in 4 smartphone owners will use a mobile device for holiday shopping, according to an annual holiday survey by Deloitte. About 59% will use their phones to compare or check prices, 46% will use phones to check product availability, and 41% will get coupons through their handsets.        Mobile search, for example, matches local businesses’ products and services with the needs of busy household managers, empowering consumers by providing valuable search environments for discovering local deals, saving time and money, and shopping smarter, during the heaviest shopping season of the year.

Nick Swinmurn the Founder of Rankd. Craig and Nick will talk about Black Friday and how you can use RNKD as a fun way to earn VIP status, discounts and rewards from the brands you love by showing them which products you already own.

Kevin Johnson the CEO at E-Bates. Craig and Kevin will discuss E-commerce and Digital Marketing. From niceties to necessities, members of Ebates benefit from incentives at top-name merchants for everything from furniture to fashion and appliances to airfare hassle-free shopping with Ebates that includes no rebate forms to fill out and no points or miles to redeem, the site supports a strong community of savvy shoppers across the country and around the world.

Amar Hanspal the SVP of Platform Solutions at Autodesk. Criag and Amar will discuss how Autodesk has taken advantage of the iPhone, iPad and the infinite computing power available in the cloud to offer companies of any size access to high performance visualization, simulation, analysis and collaboration technologies including AutoCAD WS and the Inventor Publisher Mobile Viewer App. Additionally, Mobile and web technologies are also making it possible for Autodesk to offer a new audience of amateur designers, home owners, students and casual creators access to professional strength design tools through SketchBook, Homestyler and TinkerBox.

Todd McKeller the VP North America for Mobiles Republic. Craig and Todd discuss Apps what makes them successful. Mobiles Republic quickly established a reputation for innovation and excellence in developing successful apps for the smartphone market as well as award winning apps for feature phones including the prestigious Sony Ericsson Content Award. News Republic delivers 10,000 news stories a day from over 180 major news providers, but allows users to create topic-specific “My News” streams that filter this mass of information down to the exact stories that interest them.  For example, if you create a “My News” stream for “Paul Westcott,” that stream will capture every article about Paul Westcott for you.

Michael Wong the CEO and Founder of CooTek. Craig and Michael will discuss how to enrich the functionality of your mobile devices. TouchPal Keyboard, based on CooTek’s multiple patented technology, offers a good substitution to stock mobile device keyboards. After using TouchPal  Keyboard for a while, users often find they can type faster than ever on a virtual keyboard.

Bob Schena the CEO and Co-Founder of Rajant Corporation. Craig and Bob will discuss portable wireless mesh networks that offer secure communications-on-the-move through by being able to rapidly reconfigure and adapt in real-time. Rajant’s kinetic mesh networks are a new approach to portable wireless networks where all of the components of the networks including the nodes are constantly in motion.

Sonpreet Bhatia the Co-Founder of MyCityWay. Craig and Sonpreet will discuss MyCityWay which was designed to help anyone navigate and explore the world’s cities, like never before. for example: To find a Chinese restaurant in your neighborhood, locate the nearest wireless hotspot, or buy tickets for the next showing of a blockbuster movie or even to Connect with other users to find the perfect lunch spot, keep tabs on apartments for rent, or check a live traffic feed before you leave the office.

Andy Zimmerman the Chief Marketing Officer at Brainshark. Craig and Andy will discuss how to conduct business on the go cloud-based software lets users create online and mobile video presentations – using simple business tools like PowerPoint and the telephone – and then share and track their content anytime, anywhere improving the reach and results of their business communications, while dramatically reducing communications costs.

Catherine D’Amato the Executive Director at the Greater Boston Food Bank. Craig and Catherine will discuss how the Greater Boston Food Banks distribution of food has increased from 8 to 35 million pounds of food per year and how they are using Social Media to raise awareness and involve people in their mission. They have released an app called Give a Doodle.

Todd Porter – VP Product Innovation and Marketing at QUMU. Craig and Todd will discuss Mobile Video Solutions that engage and inspire employees, improve productivity, and reduce costs Regardless of audience size, viewer device, or network configuration, Qumu simply makes video work. Only Qumu delivers the Freedom to work with existing infrastructure; the Power to reach everyone; and the Control to do it right.

Scott Hirsch the Founder of AppsBar joins Craig to discuss the gap between over-simplified apps and costly, professionally-produced apps. appsbar is the first tool for any business, group or individual to create professional, personalized apps for use on mobile devices with no cost. . appsbar is one platform to create and submit apps to popular app stores. It presents myriad personalization opportunities with a unique interface that guides creators through the entire process – from creation, to editing, to publication – with visual and textual clues at each step.

Mahesh Makhija an Associate Vice President at Infosys joins Craig to discuss end to end business solutions that utilize the best of technology. Infosys provides solutions that span the entire software life cycle encompassing consulting, design, development, software re-engineering, maintenance, systems integration, package evaluation and implementation and infrastructure management services.

PV Kannan the CEO and 24/7 Customer joins Craig to discuss a simple and easy way for companies to acquire and retain their customers, and for customers to seek solutions to their queries, anytime and anywhere in the world.24/7 Customer, Inc. is a managed services provider of online predictive experience solutions.We transform and own the outcome of digital sales and service experiences for large enterprises with thousands of call center agents. We deliver the highest CSAT at the lowest cost, and eliminate calls.

Tom Jeineck the Founder and President of On Target Web Solutions joins Craig to discuss Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Solutions. At On Target Web Solutions, we are passionate about educating our clients about effective web design, effective and engaging social media campaigns, organic search engine marketing, the power of blogging, the power of permission based marketing and the power of ethical online business practices.

Jonathan Spira the CEO at Basex joins Craig to discuss collaborative Business Knowledge, which is the intersection of content management, portals, knowledge management, and collaboration. Information Overload is costing organizations billions of dollars annually as well as productivity time, which impacts the bottom line and revenue. When employees have to sort through a ton information and determine which of that data is correct, current and reliable. Searching for the correct answer or corroborating evidence can be time consuming and is no guarantee that the information is correct, which again costs organizations time and money.

Linda Rohrbough an Author and Consultant at Study by App joins Craig to talk about connecting students of all ages with bold and dynamic content. Study by App is an educational software development company that develops apps for the iPhone/iTouch/iPad. Our staff is a collective of teachers, authors, scholars, professors, and publishers from a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds.

Sumeet Shrivastava the President at Array IT joins Craig to discuss how federal IT initiatives and impact the government and the private sector and how new and emerging technologies and leading-edge solutions can delivering best-of-the-best industry programs and practices.

Zack Urlocker the COO at ZenDesk joins Craig to discuss Cloud Based help desk software. Zendesk is the proven cloud-based help desk software that is the fastest way to enable great customer service in rapidly growing companies. Zendesk is so easy to use and their services are trusted by 10,000 organizations for their most valuable assets: customers, partners, and employees.

Thomas Swalla the COO at Savings.com joins Craig to discuss how to find the best deals on everything you want. Tell us what brands and categories you like to shop, where you live, and Savings.com will deliver the best deals for you handpicked by expert DealPros®. In addition to providing personalized recommendations, Savings.com has one of the most in-depth databases of coupons.

Dr. Rajiv Kumar the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Shape-up joins Craig to discuss the worst health problems we face as a nation–obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, osteoarthritis, depression–are related to our collective unhealthy lifestyle. Founded initially on the basic premise that people are more likely to succeed at reaching their goals when they work together with the people they care about, ShapeUp continues to stay true to its original philosophy. The company has remained focused on uniting people to improve their health while at the same time expanding its vision for the future. ShapeUp aims to build the largest platform in the world that unites individuals with their entire health care ecosystem – including their friends, family, colleagues, employer, health plan, physicians, pharmacy, health coach, and more. By creating a simple, central place to connect with the activities, information, ideas, and people that can lead us to better health, ShapeUp is working toward improving the health of the entire world.

Brad Murdoch the Chief Marketing Officer at Visible World joins Craig to discuss how to transform your advertising production giving it more relevance and delivering it with greater effectiveness. Visible World is the leading provider of targeted television advertising solutions. The company’s suite of services enables advertisers, agencies, and media companies to deliver addressable, interactive, and measurable ads.

On Show 628 Craig spoke with the following guests.

John Fishnell the VP of Project Management at Apriso joins Craig to discuss how technology is changing global manufacturing operations. Apriso’s FlexNet is a BPM platform-based software solution for global manufacturing operations management. Apriso supports global continuous improvement by delivering visibility into, control over and synchronization across manufacturing and the product supply network.

Brian Reed the CMO and VP of Products at BoxTone joins Craig to discuss enterprise mobility management. BoxTone’s single unified mobile management platform powered by patented real-time automation technology addresses the entire mobile lifecycle: mobile device management, support management, operations management and business management. BoxTone delivers real-time centralized control of all mobile devices including iPhone, Pad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices; and the enterprise mobile applications that run on them.

Bill Anderson the CEO at Oculis Labs joins Craig to discuss commercialization of visual endpoint security technologies. Oculis Labs develops data privacy software that secures the last two feet of the Internet – the distance from the computer screen to a user’s eyes. Oculis Labs helps consumers, enterprise and government customers protect digital assets in the real world.

Ryan Scott is the VP of Marketing at Seamless, he joins Craig to discuss online food order and delivery services. Seamless has made ordering fun and easy for more than one million members and many of the world’s largest companies. Through its website, mobile web, and native mobile applications for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry, Seamless offers full menus, ratings, reviews, and exclusive discounts from an extensive network of restaurants in New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, London, and other U.S. cities. Seamless will facilitate more than $400 million in food orders from its 7,500+ partner restaurants in 2011. Seamless is an independent, privately held company.

Tyler Lessard Chief Marketing Officer at Fixmo joins Craig to discuss managing risk associated with the mobile workforce. Fixmo Inc. is the mobile risk management (MRM) company that empowers organizations to mitigate risks around mobile deployments. Using Fixmo’s solutions including its flagship Sentinel product, enterprises and government agencies ensure the integrity, compliance and auditability of every device used by their mobile workforce.

Peter Micciche the President and CEO at Certain Software joins Craig to discuss event management. Certain provides comprehensive event management solution that enables organizations to easily plan, promote, manage, and track events in an integrated, cloud-based software suite. Stakeholders at every level – planners, attendees, exhibitors, business sponsors and C-level executives – will realize more business value utilizing the event best practices and automated tools built into the Certain solution.

Mike DeVries the Chief Marketing Officer at Global Logic joins Craig to discuss Cloud based mobile applications. GlobalLogic, home to nearly 6,000 people, delivers R&D services to leading technology-enabled organizations. Since 2001, we have remained relentlessly focused on delivering innovative products, services and experiences. We work with both start-ups and technology giants, including 80% of the top global technology brands, to design and build innovative products that provide a competitive edge. With innovation hubs and design studios around the world, GlobalLogic delivers the broad range of technology design and engineering skills needed to help our clients stay ahead.

Mike Pugh the VP of Marketing at J2 Communications joins Craig to discuss cloud-based, business-critical communications and storage messaging services. j2 Global Communications offers a complete array of unified-messaging and communications services, including faxing and voicemail solutions, Web-initiated conference calling, storage messaging services, online backup, and virtual office solutions.

Ken Sun the Group Product Manager for Mobile at Intuit Personal Finance joins Craig to discuss mobile money management. Mint’s mission is to help people understand and do more with their money. Intuit has always been a customer-centric organization. Together, we’re working to get millions of Americans on track to meet their financial goals. Mint has released mobile apps for iPhone/iPad and Android.

Dr. William Jenkins the Chief Scientific Officer at Scientific Learning joins Craig to discuss How some mobile apps and games for kids – while they look like just fun – are based on learning research. Scientific Learning’s KinderSpark™ series is a collection of engaging iPad games that help young children build kindergarten readiness skills and excel in learning. Its “secret sauce” is the pairing of cognitive development research with curriculum.

Chris Holbert the CEO at SecuraTrac joins Craig to discuss a new technology to the market that brings peace of mind to families, protecting children, the elderly and pets by allowing us to know where our loved ones are located at all times. SecuraTrac® develops, markets, and sells a suite of products dedicated to bringing families closer together and improving employee safety through GPS location based technology and state-of-the-art, easy-to-use websites.

On Show 627 Craig spoke with the following guests.

Chris Holbert the CEO at SecuraTrac joins Craig to discuss a new technology to the market that brings peace of mind to families, protecting children, the elderly and pets by allowing us to know where our loved ones are located at all times. SecuraTrac® develops, markets, and sells a suite of products dedicated to bringing families closer together and improving employee safety through GPS location based technology and state-of-the-art, easy-to-use websites.

Stuart Putney the CEO and Founder of Mobylyng joins Craig to discuss HTML5 technology and its advantages for social games for mobile devices and social networks. They will also discuss which Moblyng Games have just launched on the Facebook platform.

Rachel Carollo is the Senior Director of Marketing for Fandango joins Craig to discuss the nation’s leading moviegoer destination and a unit of NBCUniversal. Fandango, the leader in the moviegoing mobile and tablet space, has seen nearly 20 million downloads of its various apps, which have won three 2011 Webby Awards.  It seems that more and more moviegoers are choosing apps as their preferred means of getting movie tickets and information.

Mark Guarnera the Executive Vice President at Vendini joins Craig to discuss the industry’s first enterprise cloud based ticketing system. Thousands of organizations utilize Vendini’s solutions for event promotion, ticket sales, and box office management of operations. The company’s suite of applications includes a fully integrated marketing system to promote events via email and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Brian Curry the VP of Product and Business Strategy at You Send it joins Craig to discuss business content collaboration. YouSendIt helps enterprises and business professionals streamline collaboration by enabling them to instantly sync and access content in the cloud and easily send files, share folders, and sign documents from anywhere — the desktop, Web or mobile devices.

Josh Koppel is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Scroll Motion joins Craig to discuss reshaping how people experience digital information and entertainment. ScrollMotion believes technology should enable, not dictate, the creative process, they offer end-to-end solutions that help companies create and distribute across digital devices without losing what makes their brands unique.

Keith Smith the President and COO at CorFire joins Craig to discuss the mobile commerce business. CorFire offers mobile technology platforms to financial institutions, mobile network operators (MNOs), payment processors, card issuers, retailers, and other technology innovators that enable delivery of mobile commerce to the mobile phone today.  Its three core technology offerings include its Trusted Services Manager (TSM) platform, a robust mobile wallet platform, and a state-of-the-art suite of mobile marketing platform.

Gregg Dunn the VP of Project Management at Sybase joins Craig to discuss Mobile Payments. Sybase 365 is the global leader in enabling mobile information services for mobile operators, financial institutions and enterprises. The recent launch of the Google Wallet has gotten the industry a buzz about what the future of mobile payments, and a mobile wallet will look like. The mobile wallet is a technology that enables consumers to transact, interact and engage with their favorite brands

Adam Kotkin the CEO at Apps Genius joins Craig to discuss Apps and Social Gaming. Apps Genius creates innovative social games and mobile applications that let you play together with real-world friends and family using the infrastructure built by social and wireless networks. The company’s cross-platform gaming and mobile applications allow users to play and interact with the same people such user would play cards, board games or go bowling within the real world, regardless of the network they are on.

Kevin Stapleford the President of V2 Broadcasting joins Craig to discuss changing the way businesses digitally connect with their customer inside of their store. V2’s proprietary The Neighborhood® shapes a unique digital customer experience that includes customized entertainment and games along shopping content, product information and social interaction right to customers’ mobile devices.

Beth Murphy the Chief Marketing Officer at Hotels Tonight joins Craig to discuss their same-day hotel booking app that brings you the best, last-minute deals. HotelTonight is made-for-mobile and available as a free download in the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace. Perfect for business travelers, vacationers and locals alike, HotelTonight brings you deals in top hotels.

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CNN has done a great job putting together a summary of the book outlining Steve Jobs‘ life.  To quote from the article:

“Steve Jobs,’ the biography of the late tech visionary that went on sale Monday, has already produced plenty of headlines: How Jobs met his birth father without knowing who he was, how he swore bitter revenge on Google for developing its competing Android system, and how he waited too long after his cancer diagnosis to get surgery that might have saved him.

“But the 656-page book by hand-picked biographer Walter Isaacson also contains a wealth of smaller, but no less telling, details about the brilliant but difficult Apple co-founder.

“Taken together, they build an illuminating portrait of a charismatic, complicated figure who could inspire people one minute and demean them the next. Even on their own, many of these snippets are still fascinating glimpses into an extraordinary life.

Related articles

• Steve Jobs Biographer Walter Isaacson To Jon Stewart: Jobs Was ‘An Awesomely Emotional Person’ (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)
• Steve Jobs’ Biography Hits Bookstores Today (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)
• New Steve Jobs Biography Reveals He Told Rupert Murdoch He Was ‘Blowing It With Fox News’ (mediaite.com)

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Open Source software has been one of my soapbox subjects for the past two decades.  You’ll find it in your smartphone (the Apple iPhone and Android are both based on it), running your car, in your television and much more.  It’s Open Source software that has helped thousands of companies develop software solutions that just wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Intel, who has been providing millions in funding to Universities, is now requiring that the Universities do not use that funding to create patented technology.  Which leads us to another subject I’ve written about in the past: Software Patents.  These are killing innovation here in the US, and will ultimately cause great, unseen, harm to the entire world economy.

Kudos to Intel for helping to stem the growth of harmful software patents!

Related articles

• The State of Open Source Software (news.slashdot.org)
• Google Snatches Over 1,000 IBM Patents (techland.time.com)
• Innovation Excellence

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The FBI has confirmed that it’s investigating claims by at least three young celebrities, Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, and singer Justin Timberlake, that their phones have been hacked.  Turns out that smart phones aren’t too smart when it comes to security and that celebrities seem to follow that same trend.

The two nude photographs of Scarlett Johansson became widely available in the US after links to them were posted on an aggregator site this week and photos and texts between Kunis and Timberlake have been available for some time.

The FBI’s rapid involvement in the case is the most interesting twist.  Cell phone hacks have been ongoing for well more than a decade, and there’s been little that has been done by law enforcement or congress to curb the assault — which may be a good thing.  Technology always leads society’s response to that technology.

If you’re not a celebrity, it doesn’t mean that you’re safe.  The contents of your phone’s contacts list, documents, email, etc. have been available to professional hackers for years and although the security technology embedded in our smart phones is getting better, it will likely be a couple of years before using our phones is reasonably safe.

Your phone can be hacked via its Bluetooth connection, WiFi connection and even over the airwaves you use to talk.  Hackers have demonstrated devices which allow them to have the same access privileges as your phone’s provider — which means that they can get at everything and anything on your phone without your permission, and without even your knowledge.

Related articles

• Scarlett Knew Nudes Hacked? (foxnews.com)
• FBI hunts hackers over Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis nude photos (canada.com)
• Dumb Celebrity of The Day: Scarlett Johansson (notforpinkhats.com)
• Hacker Ring Appears to Make Good on Celebrity Threat (wired.com)

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Microsoft and Intel have been so inter-twined for decades that there’s been a special name for them: WinTel.  The “WinTel Monopoly” has required you to run Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and the rest of their core software on Intel hardware only, with few exceptions.

There have been a couple of attempts to move away from Intel x86 architecture toward better processors (such as Digital’s Alpha and the Itanium), but this is Microsoft’s first real shot at running its core product on an inexpensive, low-power processor architecture — the ARM family.

Hitting two birds with one stone, Microsoft Windows 8 is also aiming squarely at tablet computers, and is hoping to be able to employ the power-sipping ARM family to give it a big advantage over past attempts at running Windows on a tablet.  Toward that effort of taking over the tablet world, Microsoft has adopted larger icons and a different work-flow which should make it easier to use your fingers to run your tablet.

Will it be enough?  Steve Ballmer has said that Windows is their core product family for future revenue enhancement, and there are obviously hopes that the new Windows 8 will provide them a universal platform that will sell by the millions.  Given their history of attempts at tablets over the years, it will be at least another two or three years before we’ll be able to tell if they made a dent.

And then there’s the built-in advertising platform.  Windows 8 provides a complete platform to be able to show you ads no matter what you’re doing.  No more waiting to go to a web site to see an ad   Now you’ll be able to see ads anytime.  Now there’s a feature that will attract users!

Related articles

• Windows 8 rules at Microsoft Build (roundup) (news.cnet.com)
• Competitive Advantage: Microsoft’s Post-Wintel Strategy (wired.com)
• Microsoft: No Windows 8 ARM support for x86 apps (go.theregister.com)
• Will Tablet Developers Rush to Windows 8? (pcworld.com)
• Are you ready for ads on your computer? (seattlepi.com)
• Windows 8: Way Too Early for the Hype (pcworld.com)

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Good-bye and good luck, Steve.  Steve Jobs resigned this week as Apple’s President and is looking to move to Chairman of their Board.

It would be difficult to overstate the significance of Steve Jobs to Apple, and harder still to overstate Apple’s influence on the tech sector. Jobs was the towering figure behind a towering company.

So says Steve Wozniak, the man who founded Apple with Jobs. Wozniak waxed poetic about Jobs in an interview with Bloomberg. He spoke at length about Jobs’ leadership, the culture he created at Apple and the future of the company.

“He’s always going to be remembered, at least for the next hundred years, as the greatest technology business leader of our time,” Woz said of Jobs.

Related articles

• Steve Wozniak Calls Jobs ‘Best Business Leader of Our Time’ (techland.time.com)
• A look at Apple’s CEOs from 1977 to 2011 (thenextweb.com)
• A Look Back at the Career of Steve Jobs – PC Magazine (news.google.com)
• Steve Jobs resigns: Tim Cook tells staff Apple won’t change (telegraph.co.uk)

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20 years ago Thursday, a student named Linus Torvalds announced he was going to be creating a new operating system which he intended to displace Microsoft Windows.  Torvalds described Linux as “just a hobby, won’t be big and professional.”

Today, we’ve seen Linux being used in most every mid to large-sized company around the world (including Microsoft), and runs the majority of smartphones, TVs, ATMs, navigation systems, game platforms and much more.

Linux is licensed under the GPL, which gives everyone the right to use it and allows no one ownership of of the software.  And its a big piece of software.  Linux contains 14 million lines of software and is protected by more than 520,000 patents, according to a Linux Foundation report. Governments and businesses alike enjoy the system’s flexibility and decentralized nature.

Linux is bound to grow, but with people’s love of their desktop computers, it’ll be a long time before Linux threatens Microsoft’s dominance on the desktop.

Related articles

• Linus’ First Linux Post, 20 Years Ago Today (linux.slashdot.org)
• At 20, Linux is invisible, ubiquitous (cnn.com)

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This time every year, the world’s largest hacker convention convenes in Las Vegas.  Hundreds of network security professionals, both “White Hat” and “Black Hat“, discuss security vulnerabilities which can be used to take over everything from cell phones through Defense Department computers.

This isn’t the type of conference you attend with cell phone, tablet and Internet-connected laptop.  It’s the type of conference where you turn off every electronic device you have and leave them at home.  Hacking has been the name of the game for almost 20 years at Def Con.

The scariest hacks out of Def Con?

• Siemens S7 hacks. NSS researcher Dillon Beresford demonstrated how to hack a Siemens S7 computer, gain read-and-write access to the memory, steal data, run commands, and shut the computers off.
  The scariest part?  These are the computers that are used to run big business, utilities and government systems.
• Botnets of computers which are used to steal information, now can be controlled by almost untraceable telephone calls.  Researchers Itzik Kotler and Iftach Ian Amit demonstrated a VOIP-based control infrastructure with text-to-speech feedback.
• Broadband-over-power technology monitoring allows criminals to break into homes, businesses and control power and other infrastructure.
• A spy drone made from off-the-shelf electronics was demonstrated at both Black Hat and Defcon by its creators, Richard Perkins and Mike Tassey.
• Hijack cars via their cell phone interfaces.  Remember that OnStar in your car and the new cell-phone controlled cars?  The one which the Secret Service removes from all cars it’s protecting?   A demo at Black Hat hacked a Subaru Outback car alarm, unlocked the doors, and started the vehicle, all using text messages sent over phone links to wireless devices in the vehicle.
• It’s possible to acquire a person’s Social Security number using nothing more than a photo publicly available in online social-network databases, face-recognition software, and an algorithm for deducing the numbers.

Is this the new electronic future we’ve all been waiting for?

Related articles

• The Scariest Hacks from Black Hat and Defcon (hackaday.com)
• Security Researchers at Black Hat conference show off aerial drone that can fool mobile phones and more (slashgear.com)
• DefCon Kids joins adult hacker conferences (news.cnet.com)
• DEF CON 19: Hide Your Passwords. Hide Your Laptop. Hide Your Phone. They’re Hacking Er’body Out Here (thetechscoop.net)

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It’s a sad, sad day for those of us who’ve been around for a while.  HP’s Q3 numbers going forward aren’t impressive and their solution is to axe technology that they’ve acquired over the last decade.  You know, the technology that they got great deals on, and which helped them become the dominant player in a number of markets?

Let’s tally some numbers:

HP Acquired Compaq for $25 Billion Dollars of 2002 money (remember that we’ve lost about 20% of our dollar value in the last decade).

Why?

To gain a prominent position in the latop, consumer and server marketplaces.  Compaq was well established as the leading laptop and portable computer vendor.  Remember that Compaq purchased Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998 for $9.6 Billion Dollars to gain its business server technology, including the impressive Alpha chip set.

HP went on to purchase Palm’s WebOS operating system in April, 2010 for $1.2 Billion so that it could gain an excellent mobile operating system and be able to develop a strong position in the tablet and cell phone space.

That’s $35.8 Billion Dollars worth of mergers and acquisitions to establish the leading laptop, tablet, cell phone, desktop and server company in the world.  All of that wonderful technology, patents and acquired technology leaders on the decline must have put HP is a dominant position in quite a few markets, right?  Big time wrong, especially when you consider the costs and the lack of payoff.

The result?  HP’s “retiring” Palm’s WebOS, its tablet and cell phones, has killed the Alpha processor family, is spinning off its Personal Systems Group (much of what’s left of Compaq) and is hoping to make more money going forward.

If I owned their stock, I’d be wondering where my $35.8 Billion dollars actually went.  Every one of these acquisitions was made when the rest of the market place had well established 800-pound gorillas, and when entering those markets was clearly a bad idea.

Looks like it might be time for a serious series of changes at the venerable Hewlett Packet — and I don’t think its just because I miss their calculators.  They’ve been floundering for more than a decade and these most recent write-offs just won’t be enough for them to re-establish themselves as a leader in any industry sector.

PA-Risc and IA64 server technologies aren’t going to be HP’s savior, and in-fact most of their partners have already abandoned them.  Ouch.

And to add a little more insult to their injury, Lenovo has announced its quarterly profit nearly doubled this past quarter.

Related articles

• Hewlett-Packard’s Rocky Deal History (dealbook.nytimes.com)
• HP bidding adieu to WebOS, PC business (roundup) (news.cnet.com)
• HP Kills Smartphone, Personal Computer Divisions (foxnews.com)
• HP spinoff: Carly’s final goodbye (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
• HP’s WebOS conundrum: Sell the IP or try licensing? (zdnet.com)

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It’s been more than 30 years since the IBM PC stared to unify the rough-and-tumble personal computer market place of the 1970′s.  Its design sparked decades worth of copycats and also-rans which have completely dominated the desktop market.  Things are starting to change, and we’re starting to see the decline of the Desktop “PC”.  But its demise is going to take a while, and it isn’t getting directly replaced.

Today, Tablet computers are many people’s primary computers.  Although tablet technology has existed for more than a decade, and Microsoft was its first promoter, they just haven’t taken off until Apple introduced its tablet “iPad” computer is 2010.  Since then the popularity of tablets has expanded into the millions of units and dozens of operating systems.

When will the PC go away?  For many people it already has.  One of the primary inventors of the ubiquitous PC, Mark Dean, already is using a tablet as his primary computer.

The PC isn’t being replaced with a new PC-killer device.  Its being replaced with more application-specific vertical devices such as smart phones, the computing “cloud” and of course the tablet.

30 years is a pretty good run in the technology world.  Goodbye PC.  Hello ease-of-use and ease-of-access.

Related articles

• Era of the PC ‘coming to a close’ (bbc.co.uk)
• Personal Computers Becoming Obsolete, Says IBM PC Architect (forbes.com)
• PC Designer Says PC “Going the Way of the Vacuum Tube” (slashdot.org)
• IBM executive says PC era is in its twilight (news.cnet.com)

Image by RobertCiavarro via Flickr

Our cars are getting easier to use, coming stacked with features and, as it turns out, are becoming more and more vulnerable to attack.  The integration of cellular phones into our phones and the country’s infrastructure  is getting dangerous.

Just this past week, Don Bailey revealed that he could use a simple text message to unlock certain car doors and do much more.  He said in an interview with CNN at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that the same technique could also be used to attack industrial systems, the power grid and the water system.

“I could care less if I could unlock a car door,” he said. “It’s cool. It’s sexy. But the same system is used to control phone, power, traffic systems. I think that’s the real threat.”

As insecure technologies continue to be used by companies who are unaware of the security implications of their products, our country is at severe risk.  Foreign governments, organized crime or even a small, dedicated crew of hackers looking to make a name for themselves, could quite literally destroy our economy.

Image by US Mission Geneva via Flickr

The US has a problem with cyber attacks, and those attacks seem to be originating from China.  Or maybe Russia.  Or…  Well, they are a problem.

McAfee has said that hundreds of servers have been attacked by what has to be described as professional hackers who appear to be looking for ways to get at secrets.  From government weapons systems and our diplomatic papers through the Associated Press and computer programs from companies like Google. On top of that, they’re looking for financial information from just about everybody.  And it keeps getting worse.

Don’t think that they’re not interested in your, or your company.  These hackers are quite interested in finding information which they can provide to your oversees competitors just as much as they’d like your bank account information.  Most people here in the US don’t consider that, due to the fact that there are no Intellectual Property rights in China and the fact that the Chinese government runs the entire economy, that they are very likely behind these exploits in an attempt to give their People’s Liberation Army every manufacturing advantage possible.

Related articles

• Governments, IOC and UN Hit By Massive Cyber Attack (it.slashdot.org)
• ‘Biggest’ cyber attack revealed (bbc.co.uk)
• Operation Shady Rat Is The Largest Cyber Attack Ever Uncovered [Hacking] (gizmodo.com)
• Countries brace for The Code War (money.cnn.com)
• The Fog of Cyber War: What Are the Rules of Engagement? (scientificamerican.com)