Apple: iPhone 7 helps US giant return to growth

Apple has reported its highest quarterly revenue, as the iPhone 7 helped it return to a growth in sales in the final three months of 2016.

In its first full quarter since the iPhone 7's release, Apple reported net sales of $78.4bn (£62.3bn), up 3% on the same period a year ago.

Chief executive Tim Cook said Apple had sold "more iPhones than ever before".

It had also set new records for revenues from its Mac, Apple Watch and services divisions, he said.

iPhone recovery

"We're thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple's highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way," Mr Cook said.

Apple had suffered three quarters in a row of falling revenue as intensifying competition, particularly from Chinese rivals, hit sales of its flagship iPhone.

In April, the firm reported its first fall in quarterly revenue since 2003, hurt by slowing sales in China.

A continued slowdown in iPhone sales led to Apple then reporting a drop in annual revenue in October, the first such fall in 15 years.

Apple shares rose 3% in after-hours trading following signs of a recovery in the latest results.

The firm said it had sold 78.3m iPhones in the three months to 31 December, up from 74.8m a year before.

It reported revenue of $54.3bn from iPhone sales, plus $7.2bn from the Mac, $5.5bn from the iPad, $7.1bn from services and $4.0bn from other products, including the Apple Watch.

However, Apple warned that iPhone sales would miss analysts' expectations in the current quarter.

It suggested that customers were holding back on phone upgrades in anticipation of the launch of the tenth anniversary iPhone later this year.

Intel works on 5G modem capable of reaching 5Gbps

The equipment would have the ability to view downloads at up to 5 GbpsWhile it's hard to even find points where the 4G connection works decently - especially when you get out of the big Brazilian capitals - a lot of the world is already looking at 5G. While Chinese companies like Huawei have been developing this form of mobile broadcasting across the globe, Intel seems to be dedicated to being one of the technology pioneers in the West. Proof of this is that the famous processor manufacturer is designing the world's first modem for this type of connectivity, with the toy being able to emerge in a virtually finished version during the second half of this year. According to the Phone Arena, the device would have the capacity to reach high transmission speeds, enabling downloads of up to 5 Gbps - enough bandwidth to download a Blu-ray movie of around 50 GB in just over a minute.

The equipment would have the ability to view downloads at up to 5 Gbps

How is this possible? Well, to what appears, Intel's idea is to put together a good number of features and features under the same flag to get to connections like these. This means that the device must aggregate multiple bands, use low-latency frequencies, and adopt advanced channel encoding to create this unique online experience. In addition, technologies such as MIMO and 4G fallback should also be part of the project, ensuring that the modem can use part of the current infrastructure in its activities.

The whole package should allow mobile phones and other mobile devices to make or receive large transmissions without gagging and that devices within the Internet concept of Things - including intelligent and autonomous cars - can exchange information almost instantaneously. In the US, major telephony operators are working to implement 5G by 2020, while in South Korea the agenda is tighter: the country expects to have its ultra-fast network ready by 2018 for the Winter Olympics.

Apple MacBook Pro saves man from bullet in Florida airport shooting

On Friday, a gunman identified by authorities as Alaska native Esteban Santiago, 26, pulled a weapon out of his checked bag and opened fire on unsuspecting travelers picking up their luggage at a baggage claim in Fort Lauderdale's airport. The assailant killed five people and wounded eight. Describing the grisly scene to CNN's Anderson Cooper, Frappier said he, too, was shot in the back while taking cover on the ground. Luckily, he was lying prone, his backpack making an impromptu "tortoise-like" shell. Inside the pack was a MacBook Pro and other miscellaneous items. As seen in the image above, the bullet from Santiago's gun traveled through an opening in the backpack and apparently hit the laptop's display, continuing through the aluminum unibody chassis, battery and other circuitry before exiting near the side intake vents. The bullet ultimately came to rest in the backpack's front pocket. Frappier said he hastily stowed the MacBook Pro before debarking, leaving the backpack flap slightly ajar. Upon inspecting the bag and laptop, law enforcement agents determined the bullet likely passed through the small opening, meaning it was not deflected before coming into contact with the Apple hardware. It is not yet clear what type of pistol was used in the attack. According to subsequent reports, Santiago enlisted in the Army National Guard in Puerto Rico in 2007. He served in Iraq for ten months in 2010 and later transferred to the National Guard in Alaska in 2014, where he was stationed as a combat engineer. Santiago was discharged in 2016 for unsatisfactory performance.

Super Mario Run to launch on the iPhone and iPad

Nintendo is expected to roll out Super Mario Run to iPhones and iPads shortly.

The app marks the first time the firm has created a smartphone game based on its most famous character.

It follows the successful release of Pokemon Go earlier in the year. Nintendo owns a minority stake in the Pokemon Company, but the title was developed by a third party.

Experts predict the new game will also prove popular, but suggest an anti-piracy feature is misguided.

"Mario is one of the best loved and established icons of gaming and I think this is going to be tremendously successful," said Piers Harding-Rolls from the IHS Technology consultancy.

"To open up the full game you have to make an in-app purchase - it's quite big but it is a one-off and I don't think people will think Nintendo is trying to rinse their audience."

But he added that he thought it was a "misstep" to require users to be online in order to play - something the game's producer Shigeru Miyamoto has said was done to limit piracy.

"Some demographics will be wanting to use this as they commute and we know that the coverage in some markets is relatively patchy," said Mr Harding-Rolls.

"Not having offline capability to play will also be an issue for kids travelling in cars."

Cisco and Extension Team Up to Tackle Modern Clinical Workflow Challenges

Mike Haymaker - February 25, 2016

On January 29th, 2016, Cisco joined forces with Extension Healthcare, a leading healthcare alarm safety and event response company, to create a plan, build and manage service that optimizes the network infrastructure for Extension Engage customers. Our two companies are combining our passion for improving clinical and patient experiences to deliver a high-performance workflow for every clinician and a powerful collaboration and communication platform for every hospital.

As a global leader in healthcare infrastructure technologies, Cisco has been on a mission to bring the power of “digital” to every healthcare organization.   In a world where they have to enable, differentiate and define their businesses leveraging digital technologies and devices, embracing a digital strategy will help them remain viable in an extremely cost sensitive environment where patient experience patient outcomes are key metrics.

Because the quality of any application and solution is only as good as the network that it’s delivered on, Cisco has developed a Digital Healthcare Architecture (DHA), based on our Medical Grade Network best practices and guidelines, offering availability from anywhere at any time.  The DHA takes into account the unique requirements of healthcare for the following three key pillars:  security, mobility, as well as unified communication and collaboration technologies.

Our newly announced service, Cisco Connected Health Service with Extension Engage, leverages Cisco’s DHA architecture and services expertise to maximize the success of Extension Engage deployments.

As Todd Plesko, CEO of Extension Healthcare, has said,  “No one company can handle all of the technical and environmental aspects of clinicians using smartphones and also deliver the clinical communication and collaboration platform to run on those smartphones. Our relationship with Cisco’s Connected Health services team solves that problem by bringing two great companies together that will bring peace of mind to hospital executives that their environment is ready, their investment is safe, and the project is going to be successful.”

Digital Payments Lack the Framework for Success…And That Needs To Change

Jeff Kastelic - July 22, 2015 

In an era of constant technological evolution, our utilization of different technologies, including mobile devices, has had massive impact on the financial services industry. As a result, the industry is facing major disruption as new technology translates into new ways of exchanging value (money). In fact, digital payment concepts are constantly developing, with technology advances changing the payment universe as we know it. Disruptive innovations, such as Apple Pay, continue to gain scaled acceptance globally. Contactless payment solutions could take us a step further towards getting rid of the security and convenience shortfalls of traditional credit and debit cards, but it’s important that a capable, secure network is put in place before digital payments can truly flourish.

The Changing Payments Landscape

The first official currency was introduced in Turkey in 600vBC and, around 1661 AD, coins evolved into bank notes. In 1946, the first credit card was introduced and since the start of this century technology advances have disrupted the world of money more than once. In 1999, European banks started offering mobile banking while in 2008, contactless payment cards were issued in the UK for the first time. Now, driven by mobile and Internet technologies, we are in the early stages of fundamentally changing how we perceive the concept of money. Financial control is no longer only in the hands of the financial industry. Today, entrepreneurial minds are connecting us to our (and others) money in new and innovative ways.

Smartphones and tablets have recently become common devices with 79.4 million U.S. consumers who shop online. According to (source) 51% of U.S. digital buyers are expected to make purchases using a mobile device. New services like Apple Pay and mobile payments (M-payments) are becoming increasingly common in financial services. The questions we must begin to consider are, who will be the key providers in the financial services market in the future and what sort of payment ecosystem will emerge?

Traditional Banking Under Pressure

According to Capgemini’s 2014 World Payments Report (WPR), M-payments transactions are expected to grow by 60.8% annually through 2015. Electronic payments (E-payments) growth will decelerate to 15.9% growth during the same period. The continued growth in volumes of E-payments and M-payments is putting pressure on all industry stakeholders to rapidly adopt these channels.

Number of Global M-Payments Transactions (Billion), 2011–2015F

Even with this phenomenal growth, too many banks have been sitting on the sidelines waiting to formulate a clear payments strategy and are at risk of becoming increasingly marginalized.

Firms using legacy systems in their back offices are constrained by multiple external forces and internal challenges. The main external challenge emanates from multiple regulatory and industry initiatives related to security and data privacy and a glaring lack of global standards for the exchange of value in the digital world. Other external challenges include overcapacity in the payments processing space, which has led to pressure on traditional business models and the need to find revenues from sources other than volume growth. Understanding these challenges is critical to the development of a reliable network that can enable an improved, efficient and safe fabric for the movement of money.

What Will The New World Look Like in the Virtual Currency Space?

A reliable and cost effective network is vital to success in today’s payments and financial industry. The framework around the movement of value is shifting dramatically, with a greater degree of origination points and rails being run by non-financial entities which are leveraging their proprietary network and/or access to end-clients. Regulatory bodies, including the Federal Reserve System, have recognized the shift towards digital currency and have made an open call to the industry to innovate around speed, cost, and safety. At the same time, security remains a fundamental concern—while there is, with ongoing innovation in securing the entire payment stream; there is still not a 100% reliably safe, transparent and traceable infrastructure.

Robots Invade Cisco RTP Campus this Weekend

The Cisco Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina campus, normally quiet over the weekend, will be alive and buzzing with activity this Saturday, September 12, as hundreds of students, robots, coaches, and volunteers gather for a day of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning.

For the second year, Cisco RTP is hosting the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Kick-Off in partnership with North Carolina A&T State University (North Carolina FIRST Affiliate Partner for FTC) and NC FIRST Robotics. The centerpiece of the day: Congressman David Price will present the “Game Reveal”—when wide-eyed students learn the rules and guidelines for this year’s robotics competition, and are able to see the field of battle for the first time.

The event takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and students will have the opportunity to join forces with competitors from across the state, learn from FTC robotics coaches and team mentors, participate in interactive workshops, and learn of this year’s FTC tournament game. This technology competition is open to 7th to 12th grade students, where teams are not only responsible for designing, building, and programming robots to compete in specific challenges, but also learn the importance of working together, sharing ideas and treating each other with respect and dignity.

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Watson, the decision whisperer

At the rate you hear the words ‘big data’ and ‘analytics’ thrown around these days, you might think everyone was using them. And sadly you’d be wrong. In reality, most business folks leave insights out of their decisions because the tools to extract them are too complicated. Here’s a new name to drop. IBM Watson Analytics. Using natural language and a keyboard, anyone can go mining data for instant insights. Just ask your question and Watson can help guide you through answers. No fancy statistics degree required. Get the scoop →

Cisco in Healthcare Video

In my position at Cisco I manage a team who helps our customers set an architecture vision and processes for using Cisco solutions to achieve business outcomes.  Despite the fact that we have been creating solutions for Healthcare for many years now, some of our customers are still not fully aware that Cisco offers a suite of architectures and products besides the routing and switching portfolio that we are traditionally known for.  Members of our Business Transformation team took this on as a challenge and created this video showing how Cisco solutions can be impactful across many points in the care continuum.  https://youtu.be/X0AWC_rCK2c .  Solutions from location services, physical safety and security, virtual patient observation, digital signage, care coordination, TeleHealth to any location using any number of endpoint devices, and patient infotainment can all drive measurable impact and outcomes which can increase productivity, improve patient satisfaction, improve provider satisfaction, and help organizations manage the care and wellness of their patients.

Cellular Calls on your nearest Wi-Fi AP

Can you place phone calls over Wi-Fi to save roaming costs when you travel abroad? Is there an easy solution for making phone calls despite poor indoor cellular coverage?

The answer is Yes! You can do all of the above using a new solution adopted by service providers and cell phone vendors known as Wi-Fi calling. The most compelling aspect of the solution is its non-intrusive nature. You don’t need to install any apps or change your directory; it’s all tightly integrated and built into the phone itself.

Mobile Service Providers (MSP’s) are extensively using Wi-Fi to offload data to meet the ever-increasing demands of mobile device users. In the next phase of Mobile-Offloading MSP’s are now supporting Voice over Wi-Fi (and refer to it as Wi-Fi calling).

iOS and Android devices support it today. Apple’s supports Wi-Fi calling with newer phones along with iOS8, whereas on the Android front, Wi-Fi source code is publicly available, and is being supported on almost 30+ phones.

Services providers are embracing Wi-Fi calling throughout the world. As Sprint and T-Mobile are leading the way in the US; EE in UK and 3, SmarTone are early adopters in Asia. Wi-Fi calling is expected to be supported by larger variety of mobile devices and offered on more MSPs by the end of 2015. AT&T has already enabled this service in the latest version of iOS 9 beta.

Safer Communities and Countries in the Digital Era

Keeping citizens, communities, and countries safer

Around the world, countries are under increasing pressure to better serve their citizens, protect critical resources, and ensure safe communities and nations. In response to these pressing challenges, governments are seeking innovative solutions to address these challenges. In the era of digital disruption,communities and countries are looking to digital solutions and intelligent connections with the Internet of Everything (IoE).

Next week I travel to London to support the newly launched Cisco and Intel Communications Zone at DSEI.  Together with our partners, we will showcase and demonstrate innovative ways to deliver mission-critical, secure communications and digitally-enabled capabilities with the Internet of Everything.

Demonstrations will include:

Cisco Mission Fabric Communications

Digital Defense Capabilities for Smart+Connected Base

Mission Adaptive Capabilities

Unified Computing on the Mission Edge

Premium Mobile Broadband (PMB)

Secure and Reliable Cisco Embedded Networks

Partner sessions in our presentation theatre

Be ready for any mission

The secure mission fabric provides the network foundation with convergence of mobility, cloud, and resilient communications to provide an integrated, reliable, and secure connection to the entire battlefield.

Connected operations

Connected intelligence surveillance reconnaissance

Fog compute environment

Real-time intelligence and security

Supply chain and logistics

Connected logistics

Robots Invade Cisco RTP Campus this Weekend

The Cisco Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina campus, normally quiet over the weekend, will be alive and buzzing with activity this Saturday, September 12, as hundreds of students, robots, coaches, and volunteers gather for a day of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning.

For the second year, Cisco RTP is hosting the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Kick-Off in partnership with North Carolina A&T State University (North Carolina FIRST Affiliate Partner for FTC) and NC FIRST Robotics. The centerpiece of the day: Congressman David Price will present the “Game Reveal”—when wide-eyed students learn the rules and guidelines for this year’s robotics competition, and are able to see the field of battle for the first time.

The event takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and students will have the opportunity to join forces with competitors from across the state, learn from FTC robotics coaches and team mentors, participate in interactive workshops, and learn of this year’s FTC tournament game. This technology competition is open to 7th to 12th grade students, where teams are not only responsible for designing, building, and programming robots to compete in specific challenges, but also learn the importance of working together, sharing ideas and treating each other with respect and dignity.

Americans increasingly view the internet, cellphones as essential (2014)

How hard would it be to give up your cellphone, the internet, your television or your landline telephone? When the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project posed that question to Americans, they found that internet users were the most attached to their communication platform — and that landline users are now much less attached than they were just eight years ago.

Cloud is Transforming TV: Cisco Is Transforming Cloud TV Delivery

By now it’s very clear that TV and entertainment viewing habits are changing. More people are accessing more content on more devices than ever before. Revenue from subscription OTT services is expected to almost double — to $50 billion by 2020 (!) — a shift that represents a huge opportunity for service providers.

To meet this opportunity, service providers – and their partners, like us – need to think differently about how services are delivered. We need to give customers what they want – fast and easy access to the shows they love, when they want them on all the screens they want to use. Plus we need to move fast. Yearly (or even quarterly) releases just don’t cut it in today’s technology landscape, so cluttered with platforms and new devices hitting the market at a frequency we’ve never seen before. At the same time, applications-based services release new features and functionality on a weekly basis (or daily, or hourly, in some cases.)

And then there’s the challenge of live and linear content. Providing linear streams needs significant up-front investment, with lead and delivery times for equipment and technology slowing down the process and making it difficult to launch new services quickly.

To help Service Providers meet these challenges Cisco today unveiled ‘Infinite Video’ a member of our new Infinite suite of cloud-powered video solutions. Our new Infinite Video solution will help service providers deliver outstanding Video experiences to multiple screens, utilizing one cloud, on regular broadband access connections, within the home and on the go. We are bringing ‘Video dial-tone’ to the market, ensuring that we are maintaining quality whilst providing users the full-featured linear, on-demand and time shifted video experiences they seek.

We’re providing a User Experience that is ready to go live as soon as the Service is up and running. We’ve built it to work on multiple platforms and devices, including tablets, smartphones, HDMI sticks and set top boxes, running iOS and Android, so it’s pre-integrated for the devices the market wants. And we’ve made sure that there are branding options available, to let the Service Provider put their stamp on the interface.

And by working in the cloud, and using new methods and processes for delivery – DevOps for video – we can give our customers the accelerated launch times they need, and then maintain that speed as new services are rolled out and new devices hit the market. This is precisely where Infinite Video gives our customer the edge over their competition.

The Importance of Video Security That Scales

This week at IBC we are happy to announce that we’ve reached 300 million active VideoGuard Everywhere client devices. Think about that for a moment!

How did we get this far? Not long ago, service provider video distribution was simple: Service providers distributed the content they purchased from video programmers, over the networks they managed, to set-top boxes they also managed. (Ah, life was so much simpler then!)

And while this simplicity limited our viewing experience to a big screen at home, it was reasonably sufficient — because at the time, the big screen was pretty much the only screen we watched. Such end-to-end, managed environments simplified operations, and made it easier to protect the video service from piracy.

Then came the emergence of broadband connectivity, and the wide availability of second (and third, and fourth) screen devices. Their very existence allows service providers to provide more content to more devices, over a variety of wired and wireless networks, which is good. But the need to keep purchased video content secure forever looms as a challenge — a challenge that widens with every unmanaged device and network that enters the field of view.

nitially, service providers tried the waters by deploying standalone, over-the-top video services to unmanaged devices, like personal computers. But, increasingly, traditional, managed distribution and the newer, over-the-top (OTT) distribution are converging. Set-top boxes can now receive the same OTT service as unmanaged devices, while content from the managed network can be shared to unmanaged devices.

Network Automation and Programmability for Application deployments using Cisco Nexus 9000 and F5 BIG IP

Ravi Balakrishnan | January 13, 2016 at 1:32 am PST

One of the major burdens in today’s Data Center is the management of complex IT environments. It requires considerable staff time to configure, deploy, and manage application infrastructure. Increasingly Automation and Programmability are becoming top of mind for Developers and Operators as companies transform to cloud based business models.

Virtualization and Programmability of Network and Application Service Infrastructure is making it possible to test policies and configurations before production, in increasingly complex configurations.. This support and ability to test is paramount as DevOps continues to make its way into the network and bring with it the benefits developers and operators have begun to enjoy: stability of infrastructure, consistency of policy, and speed of deployment. By including critical network and application services as part of an extended Continuous Integration/Development (CI/CD) pipeline, organizations can enjoy the benefits of a more agile deployment pipeline.

Today, many customers are eager to learn and implement best practices on how Network Programmability and Automation can come to the rescue of Data Center operators, from initial network startup through provisioning of new workloads and end points and into visibility and monitoring of operations.

With Cisco Open NX-OS on the Cisco Nexus 9000 and Nexus 3000 Series switches, Cisco exposes the full power of the underlying Linux operating system. In addition, Cisco provides numerous extensions that make it possible to access these capabilities with the appropriate level of security and protection desired by the specific user. Likewise, F5 BIG-IP’s programmatic framework provides Developers, the ability to work with control plane, data plane and simplified application deployments through their iControl, iRules and iApp applications.

To further kindle your interest on this topic, I want to invite you for an online Panel session titled “Network Automation and Programmability for application deployments using Cisco Nexus® 9000 and F5 BIG-IP”, the latest episode of our series of live developer panels being hosted  by Cisco and F5. This episode is going to discuss capabilities and use cases for Network Automation and Programmability with the devices.