What TV technologies will shine at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show? Take a sneak peek. The annual Consumer Electronics Show starts January 7, and we have already got quite a lot of hints about what TV technologies are inclined to make an appearance. Here’s a listing of 5 tech trends to observe for at CES 2014. 1. HDMI streaming sticks. Google gave everyone the proverbial swift kick within the pants when it launched its Chromecast streaming stick. Now copycat products are on their way. We all know that Alticast plans to demo an HDMI dongle, while Arris Group has hinted at an identical product inside the works. LG Electronics announced a handle Azuki Systems last summer to bring a collaborative HDMI adapter product to market. Prepare for dongles on parade! (See Arris RDK Boxes Coming Soon and Azuki, LG Counter Google Chromecast.) 2. 4K TV everywhere. It is not just the television display companies with the intention to be showing off their ultra-high-definition wares at... Read More »

Pivotal takes on Cloudera and Hortonworks with GemFire XD, enhanced SQL querying, and new machine-learning options in Pivotal HD 2.0. 8 Datacenters For Cloud’s Toughest Jobs (Click image for a bigger view and slideshow.) Pivotal, the EMC spin-off company pursuing modern application development within the context of cloud computing and massive-data analysis, on Monday released Pivotal HD 2.0, an update of its Hadoop distribution incorporating an in-memory database and a battery of latest analysis capabilities. Pivotal HD 2.0 is the vendor’s first distribution in keeping with Apache Hadoop 2.2, the newest release of the open source platform incorporating YARN system resource management controls. The discharge also integrates and supports Apache GraphLab, an open source framework for derivatives monitoring, recommendations, and graph analytics. The big news, however, is the addition of GemFire XD, an in-memory database designed to execute algorithms and analytics on data in real time. Blending elements of Pivotal’s GemFire (in-memory object grid) and SQL Fire (in-memory database), GemFire XD puts a SQL-compliant, in-memory... Read More »

Philip Rosedale’s new startup, High Fidelity, hopes to make virtual worlds mainstream by clearing technical hurdles that Second Life stumbled over. Second Life founder Philip Rosedale says he knows why the virtual world did not achieve mainstream acceptance. He’s got a plan to do it again, and do it right this time.  You remember Second Life. It is a so-called “virtual world,” a 3-dimensional digital environment where people drive cartoon-like “avatars” to chat, role play, dance, play music, make art, create virtual landscapes, buildings, and vehicles, do business, make fortunes, or even have cybersex. Evangelists predicted in 2006 to 2007 that it’d be as big because the web itself, and shortly we’d all be living our lives in virtual worlds.  Second Life proved bewitching for plenty people. i used to be one in every of them. But the general public sneered. It’s still around, and it got lots right, but it’s mostly forgotten. But not by Philip Rosedale. The boyish, 45-year-old Second Life founder stepped... Read More »

2013 proved a superb year for Google. Will 2014 be even better? Google had a great year in 2013. As of mid-December, its stock was up about 55% for the year. Apple meanwhile was up a trifling 4%. Google is anticipated to absorb greater than 1/2 all mobile ad revenue this year, and its share of the market appears prone to continue growing because it becomes better at monetizing YouTube on mobile devices. Android consolidated its position because the leading smartphone platform, by volume if not quality. In step with IDC, Android handsets accounted for 81% of all smartphone shipments worldwide throughout the third quarter of the year. Chrome OS found its footing as a platform for low-priced laptops. Google+ has over half one million users, even supposing it has fallen short when it comes to sharing and engagement. Google must have a fair better 2014, as Larry Page’s effort to position more wood behind fewer arrows continues to repay. But before we get to... Read More »

IBM denies sharing customer information with U.S. government, asserts it could challenge any data demands through “judicial action or other means.” IBM Predicts Next 5 Life-Changing Tech Innovations (Click image for larger view.) IBM denies sharing customer data with the U.S. government and says it’s going to challenge any demands for info through “judicial action or other means.” IBM on Friday issued an open letter to its clients assuring them that it has not relinquished customer data to the U.S. government and it pointedly said it’ll do whatever is important to guard such data and notify customers of any government requests. The letter was issued soon after the Intercept News Site reported last week that that classified documents pilfered by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed that the NSA had built technology to automatically infect “potentially millions of computers” worldwide with malware to ensure that the agency to glean data from foreign Internet and make contact with networks. [Want more at the fallout on NSA... Read More »