Computer

Thursday, 31 October 2013

Smartwatches and other wearables offer big development potential

Computerworld - SAN FRANCISCO -- The future's bright for wearable devices, even if it's a little foggy right now.

That's what a panel of experts told a packed room of developers at the first Samsung Developers Conference here on Tuesday.

Developers were in attendance primarily because they're interested in what apps they might create for Samsung's Android-based Galaxy Gear smartwatch and future wearable devices.

One of the experts on the panel, Han-Shen Yuan, senior director of engineering at eBay, said his company is excited by the potential for wearables, especially those that get email, text and other notifications that can be quickly responded to. EBay has built an app for the new Gear smartwatch that tells auction bidders when they've been out-bid, so they can quickly respond.

Yuan said it's too early to know how important the eBay app on the Gear will be, but he said eBay saw a sudden 30% hike in revenue when it first took its e-commerce and auction capabilities to mobile devices several years ago.

He also noted that notifications on smartphones are coming so frequently that they become confusing to users, so a smartwatch notification can add clarity.

Path, a social network that restricts the number of social contacts to 150 people, believes wearable devices can keep social networking more intimate. Ray Ho, a software engineer at Path who appeared on the panel, said he realized the value of wearables like Google Glass smart glasses when a user held up a baby to take a photo up close, which solicited an immediate response from friends.

Another panelist, CJ Cornell, said greater intimacy of connections from wearable devices might sound threatening to older users, but is exciting to young users like college students. Cornell its working with college students on wearable prototypes at Cogswell Polytechnical College in Sunnyvale, Calif.

"College students are a group open to lack of privacy," he said, noting how many intimate details they're willing to share on Facebook or other social networks.

Cornell said he is 50% deaf, but wears hearing aides that are equipped with Bluetooth technology. That gives him the potential to easily gain personal information -- such as a person's name -- when the person is less than 10 feet away. The ability to share information over Bluetooth, he said, "...is a grand future."

Wearable technology might be used to connect to biometrics and semantics-based software that can help interpret emotions -- something that could be useful in many situations, Cornell said. Police are already exploring the use of head-mounted devices that can scan a crowd to interpret faces for evidence of emotions that could be tied to potential violent acts.

"Don't bet against any of these crazy ideas" for using wearables, Cornell told the Samsung developers. "There are 1 billion young people willing to experiment with wearables who are being enabled by new hardware and software. People will be doing this stuff."

Bluetooth Low Energy, version 4.0, offers the opportunity to place beacons in a shopping mall or other large venue to precisely locate a person -- if wanted -- or be used to offer coupons or special offers, panelists said.

A shopper in the men's section of a store might be able to get a coupon for a special deal when entering the department. The low energy features of Bluetooth 4.0 would allow it to work well with small devices with small batteries, like a smartwatch or smart glasses, the panelists said.

The potential for geo-fencing on small devices is also getting a boost from Samsung's software development efforts involving Mobile Wallet 2.0 tools available to developers, Samsung executives said.

Analysts have said wearable technology is in its infancy, even though several manufacturers, including Apple, are expected to launch smartwatches. Meanwhile, Google has been demonstrating Google Glass for more than a year.

The panelists agreed that wearables are just beginning to arrive, but compared their development potential to the early days of e-commerce, which quickly took off.

"We're still trying to figure out what's going to happen with wearables," Ho told developers. "Keep building [applications], because we'll eventually hit something powerful."

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at Twitter @matthamblen or subscribe to Hamblen RSS Matt's RSS feed. His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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How Cloud Communications Reduce Costs and Increase Productivity

Small and midsize businesses are moving to the cloud to host their communications capabilities. Learn how enterprise-quality phone benefits, online management, conferencing, auto attendant, and ease of use are built into a system that is half the cost of a PBX.

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Sprint to launch four smartphones with tri-band Spark technology

Computerworld - From big to little Samsung smartphones, Sprint announced Wednesday it will sell the Galaxy Mega for $199.99 and the Galaxy S 4 mini for $99.99, both with two-year service plans, starting Nov. 8.

Sprint also said it will sell the LG G2 smartphone on Nov. 8 for $199.99 with a two-year deal. All three will work over three bands of 4G LTE spectrum that Sprint offers, a technology called Sprint Spark, which is designed to achieve unprecedented speeds.

The HTC One max will also be available soon on Sprint Spark, the carrier said, for $249.99 and a two-year agreement.

The new phones will benefit from working with hand-off mode between 800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz frequencies, Sprint said in a blog, noting that the capability will be added to the phones with software updates after launch.

Speeds with Spark could reach 50 Mbps to 60 Mbps, giving improved performance for video and other bandwidth-intensive apps.

Sprint noted that the Spark rollout to 100 cities will take up to three years, but said five markets already have the capability: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa and Miami. Typical LTE download speeds average less than 12 mbps.

The Galaxy Mega has a 6.3-in. HD touchscreen, while the Galaxy S 4 mini has a 4.3-in. Super AMOLED HD display. Samsung has said other U.S. carriers will also offer the mini device.

The LG G2 has a 5.2-in. display while the HTC One has a 5.9-in. display. Sprint listed other specs on its web site.

Sprint said the Spark technology could eventually lead to 2 Gbps wireless speeds, and has a demonstrated speed of 1 Gbps in a lab.

This article, Sprint to launch four smartphones with tri-band Spark technology, was originally published at Computerworld.com.

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Taiwan protests Apple maps that show island as province of China

IDG News Service - Taiwan is demanding Apple revise its mapping software and remove a label that describes the island as a province of China, rather than as a sovereign state.

Taiwan's foreign ministry made the complaint to Apple, said an official on Wednesday. "The maps don't acknowledge Taiwan as its own nation. We voiced our disapproval and hope Apple will make the change," she said.

The complaint was lodged after local media reports said that users on the island had noticed the change in Apple's latest iOS and Mac OS versions. When searched, Taiwan is listed as "China province Taiwan" on the maps. The foreign ministry learned of it, and contacted the company.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

While the labeling may just be an innocent mistake on the part of Apple, the political status of Taiwan has long been a controversial issue between the island and mainland China. Following a civil war, in 1949 Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party took control of the mainland, forcing the nationalist Kuomintang government to flee to Taiwan. Both the island and the mainland have since maintained separate governments.

However, to this day, it remains a sensitive topic. China's government wants to reclaim Taiwan, while some citizens on the island support full national independence. Worries even persist that the political status of Taiwan could one day result in armed conflict between the two governments.

But it's not the first time a U.S. tech company has labeled Taiwan a province of China. In 2005, Google also sparked anger on the island when the company's maps listed Taiwan as a Chinese province. Now the company's maps simply call the island Taiwan, adding nothing more.

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Tom Wheeler confirmed as new FCC chairman

IDG News Service - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of a new chairman to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

The confirmation of Tom Wheeler as chairman and Michael O'Rielly as a commissioner ends a deadlock over the appointment of two key FCC executives after Republican lawmakers withdrew their opposition.

Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn was named acting FCC chairwoman in May after Julius Genachowski, chairman since 2009, stepped down earlier this year.

Wheeler is a former investor and head of telecommunications industry groups. President Obama said, when announcing Wheeler as his choice in May, that "for more than 30 years, Tom has been at the forefront of some of the very dramatic changes that we've seen in the way we communicate and how we live our lives."

Mobile industry group CTIA congratulated Wheeler and O'Rielly on Tuesday on their confirmation by the Senate.

"We are energized to work with the full panel of Commissioners at a time when the agency looks to deliver much-needed spectrum to fuel the deployment of mobile broadband services and maintain our global leadership in the mobile wireless ecosystem," the wireless industry association said in a statement.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz earlier on Tuesday said he had removed a hold on Wheeler's nomination after the nominee reassured him during a meeting that regulation of campaign funding disclosures, without congressional action, was "not a priority."

There were also concerns raised that Wheeler would promote industry rather than consumer interests. Gigi B. Sohn, president and CEO at Public Knowledge, a consumer rights group, said the organization looked forward to working with Wheeler. "We expect that he will work to preserve a strong FCC that will ensure an open, universally accessible and affordable communications system that serves all Americans," Sohn said in a statement about the confirmation.

"We also expect that he will carry out the president's communications policy agenda, which includes robust open Internet requirements, vigorous broadband competition, affordable broadband access, diversity of voices and serious consumer protections, all backed by vigorous agency enforcement," she added.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com

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Top U.S. spies defend surveillance of foreign leaders

IDG News Service - U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday defended surveillance of other countries' leaders, saying such efforts are common practice across the world's intelligence agencies.

Surveillance efforts focused on learning the plans of other national leaders have long been part of U.S. and other countries' spying efforts, James Clapper, U.S. director of national intelligence, said in response to a lawmaker's question regarding press reports about U.S. spying on the telephone conversations of other countries' leaders.

Without commenting on surveillance of specific leaders, Clapper said that targeting foreign leaders has been a "basic tenant" of many countries' intelligence efforts for the last 50 years. Foreign leaders criticizing the U.S. efforts may be ignoring their own intelligence agencies' efforts, he told the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

"Is this something new and different that the intelligence community might try to target foreign leaders' intentions, to try to determine what the best policy might be for the United States?" asked Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the committee.

"It's one of the first things I learned in [intelligence] school in 1963," Clapper answered. "It's a fundamental given in the intelligence business."

Rogers asked if U.S. allies were targeting the communications of U.S. leaders. "Absolutely," Clapper said.

Clapper and General Keith Alexander, the U.S. National Security Agency's director, also disputed press reports saying the agency was collecting the content of telephone calls and Internet communications of tens of millions of Europeans. Press reports suggesting those numbers were based on a misreading of a screenshot leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Alexander said.

In many cases, the numbers reported were based on collection done by other countries' intelligence agencies and shared with the NSA, Alexander said. The press reports saying the NSA was collecting the information were "completely false," he said.

Rogers complained about the press reports on the NSA's spying on other national leaders, saying it "certainly has created an international row" based on "very poor, inaccurate reporting."

Representative James Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, asked Clapper and Alexander about the impact of proposals to end the NSA's bulk telephone records collection in the U.S. Earlier Tuesday, a group of more than 85 lawmakers introduced a bill that would end the telephone records program.

The end of the program would set back U.S. intelligence to the levels of information available before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Alexander said. "If we take away that program, what you do is create a gap," he said. "What you're asking me is, is there a risk? The answer is yes. We know that risk because that's where we existed on 9/11."

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Twitter kicks off pre-IPO investor roadshow

Computerworld - Twitter kicked off its pre-IPO roadshow, meeting with potential investors and touting the social network's ability to democratize users' voices and the power of instantly sharing information with the world.

Twitter executives had a low-key meeting with a select group of high-profile investors at a hotel in Philadelphia on Monday, according to a report from the Bloomberg news service.

CEO Dick Costolo and Chief Financial Officer Mike Gupta met with investors at the invitation-only event, the report noted. They are reportedly meeting with potential investors in New York City today, moving on to Boston and Chicago later this week.

"We just never thought it would go this way and I think that's part of the reason it's succeeded," said Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter, in a video featuring company executives that was put together for the roadshow. "It's such a simple tool but people have done some amazing thing with it."

In the video, Twitter noted that more than 500 million tweets are posted per day. More than 350 billion tweets have been published since the site was launched in 2007.

Twitter has more than 230 million global monthly active users, Costolo said, and 77% of those users are outside the U.S. and another 76% primarily access Twitter on a mobile device.

"Twitter gives every voice the ability to echo around the world," said Costolo. "Twitter is a powerful platform to share information with the world instantly. When events happen in the real world, they happen digitally on Twitter... Anyone can tweet and anyone can read tweets. It has democratized content creation and distribution,"

The video also notes that users tweeted pictures of passengers being rescued from a U.S. Airways jet that made an emergency landing on the Hudson River in 2009. It also shows President Obama making his first presidential tweet in 2010 and an astronaut talking about tweeting from space.

Twitter is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange next week.

Last week an amended S-1 pre-IPO document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, showed that Twitter is setting its share price between $17 and $20.

Twitter, with a maximum valuation of $11.1 billion, plans to offer 70 million shares, while giving underwriters an option for another 10.5 million.

During its roadshow, industry analysts expect investors to grill Twitter executives on why the microblogging site hasn't turned a profit and how it plans to rectify that. Along with quizzing executives about how they plan to fend off social rival Facebook, potential investors also are likely to focus on how the company can sustain user growth and engagement, their advertising plans and why some people join the site but don't end up using the service.

This article, Twitter kicks off pre-IPO investor roadshow, was originally published at Computerworld.com.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at Twitter @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed Gaudin RSS . Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

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Why Good Employees Leave (And How You Can Keep Them)

CIO - It's tough when good employees leave: Productivity sinks, morale suffers and colleagues struggle with an increased workload until you find a replacement. On top of that, recruitment and search costs, training and on-boarding new hires can make for a difficult and expensive transition.

The best solution, of course, is keep your workers happy so they don't want to leave. But before you can implement a plan to increase employee retention, you need to determine why valuable employees are leaving.

"Most people don't quit their jobs, they quit their managers," says Wendy Duarte, vice president of recruiting at recruiting, hiring, and consulting firm Mondo.

While that insight might be hard to swallow, understanding that your organization's management philosophy could be part of the problem is the first step to improving retention, she says.

Are You the Problem?

"When you lose your top talent, the first place to look is at management," Duarte says. "Managing teams as a whole is hard. You have to manage to each individual, and invest time into discovering what each member of a team needs both at work and outside of work to do their job to the best of their ability," she says.

One of the key things -- if you're really listening to employees -- is to find out if they are getting the resources to add to and change their roles, to take on more and different responsibilities, to spearhead new projects, to experiment. -- Wendy Duarte, Mondo.

Do your employees feel that they're all "in this together"? Do they feel their suggestions, concerns and challenges are acknowledged and, when possible, acted upon? Do they feel valued? Are they being listened to, or just heard?

While it may sound inconsequential, Duarte says, simply listening to employees' concerns and doing what you can to address those -- or at least explaining why they can't be addressed at the present time -- can go a long way toward keeping the best and brightest, she says.

Having a strong set of corporate values, a mission statement and specific goals (for the company, departments, teams and individuals) can help direct employees' energy and help them see how their individual contributions are part of a greater whole, says Rona Borre, CEO and founder of hiring, recruiting and consulting firm Instant Technology.

"That gives them a stake in the company, a way to measure success. But they also need to feel valued as part of that bigger whole," Borre says.

Helping employees feel valued isn't difficult, says Borre, but it may involve investing a bit more time to listen, gather feedback and then incorporate that feedback into company policies and mission statements, she says. In addition, it could require a bit more capital to make sure that compensation is tracking with national averages and offering perks that match or exceed those available at similar firms, she says.

Teach Your Tech Employees Well

Another way to help employees feel valued is to recognize and help them achieve their full potential. That means making educational and career advancement opportunities available, and encouraging employees to use those resources, says Duarte.

"Make sure employees are aware of available opportunities to grow and to expand their knowledge," she says. "One of the key things -- if you're really listening to employees -- is to find out if they are getting the resources to add to and change their roles, to take on more and different responsibilities, to spearhead new projects, to experiment," Duarte says.

"Most people don't want to come to a job every day and just slog through, doing the same thing day after day. They want to learn new things, try new things, and if you can support their efforts to do that, you'll inspire loyalty and that can help with retention," Duarte says.

Especially in the IT field, keeping your technology environments and solutions platforms current can help keep valuable employees excited about and engaged in the direction the company's going, says Borre.

"We have two clients right now who can't necessarily afford to pay top-of-the-bracket salaries, but they are always updating their platforms and making sure they're on the cutting edge of technology," Borre says.

If you can't change your platforms, or solutions upgrades aren't in the budget, she says, then consider sending your employees to training on cutting-edge systems to emphasize that you value their education and their emerging skill sets.

"Make sure they can get some new skills and experiences, even if they can't do it at work," she says. "Give them the flexibility and the freedom to play around, and also the opportunity to get exposure for themselves working with the new technology."

Duarte adds that not all educational opportunities have to be job- or career-focused. At Mondo, she says, a two-week sabbatical program is available for employees who've been with the company for three or more years.

"The sabbatical program is a huge motivator," she says. "If you've always wanted to travel, you can take the time and go to an exotic place, learn a new language, learn about a new culture and then come back and tell everyone about the experience and what you've learned," she says.

"Want to be a yoga instructor in your spare time? We have tuition reimbursement programs for almost any kind of program that employees can take advantage of to make their lives richer, both inside and outside of work," she says.

Do You Strive to Create a Work/Life Balance

These approaches are mostly initiated from the top-down, and, in and of themselves, aren't a cure-all, says Duarte. Paying attention to employees' struggles to manage work and home life also can go a long way toward keeping top talent, Duarte says.

At Mondo, says Duarte, employee retention efforts are focused on the little ways to make employees lives easier, both at work and at home, she says.

"At Mondo, for example, it can be as simple as having a bowl of fresh fruit in the break room. It can be something like offering a dry-cleaning service that picks up and delivers items for employees while they're at work. Little things that emphasize the importance of work-life balance go a long way toward making employees feel that they're not just disposable cogs in a wheel, but a valuable asset to the company, and to their families," says Duarte.

With such a high demand for top IT talent, you can't afford to have their top employees jump ship. By constantly inviting feedback, listening to employees' concerns and incorporating that into the fabric of everyday life -- both for the company and for employees' home lives -- you can ensure they're keeping and nurturing the best and brightest, Duarte says.

"There is a talent shortage, and you're going to have to give a little to be able to retain top talent," Duarte says. "You don't have to be a mega-billion-dollar corporation or spend tons of money to give people luxury perks or rockstar treatment; what you do have to do is give people the opportunity to grow, and to evolve and change to meet the needs of your employees," she says.

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