First real glimpse of Apple's iPhone 5

UPDATE: Here's the full-blown Macworld account of the Apple iPhone 5 news.

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MIT to light up umbrellas this weekend, rain or shine

Hundreds of MIT students will light up the Cambridge, Mass., sky on Sunday night using programmable, umbrellas outfitted with colorful LED lights in a large-scale performance piece orchestrated by the MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Pilobolus dance company.

The UP (The Umbrella Project) piece involves specially designed umbrellas with hand controllers created by researchers in MIT's Distributed Robotics Lab at CSAIL. Participants will be able to change their umbrella color and work collectively to create designs on the fly.

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Is this what IT pay is really coming to?

Spotted this handmade sign on the front of the InteropNet booth at the annual Interop Las Vegas event last week.

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Interop: SDN, SDN, SDN...but coulda been worse

I thought for sure by now, 2.5 days into my Interop Las Vegas adventure, I'd be sick to death about hearing of SDN. In actuality -- and despite Cisco SVP Rob Soderbery's pre-emptive apology during the opening keynote on behalf of his colleagues inundating attendees with software-defined networking this and that -- the hype wasn't bad at all.

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Last place you want to see a Windows error message: Las Vegas hotel elevator, 20th floor

Heading up to my hotel room during Interop Las Vegas I realized one of my worst nightmares: A Windows error message in the elevator, 20 floors up.

Even worse: Windows XP (though I wasnt quick enough with the smartphone to capture a picture of the Windows XP screen...)

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Touting my way through Interop Las Vegas

I’ve been threatening for years to do more with video while at trade shows, but have generally defaulted to our video expert Keith Shaw.  But now empowered with an iPhone 5 (good riddance BlackBerry Bold), I’m boldly barreling ahead, using the Tout app for piecing together 15-second or less video vignettes of my trip to Interop Las Vegas (we did something similar at CES, though I wasn't part of that).

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SNL shatters Google Glass

The SNL Weekend Update crew gave Google Glass the business Saturday night, portraying the next big thing from Google as the next big distraction (WARNING: This video veers into naughtiness by the end).

The wearable computer technology, which recently made headlines when a developer version of the Android-based device was rooted, is expected to be generally available by year end, though likely will be too pricey for many at least at the outset.

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Star power smackdown: Interop's Cisco & Juniper execs vs. CTIA's JLo & Ashton Kutcher

The networking and computing industry invades Las Vegas this month, and from the looks of it, next week's Interop will be among the techiest of the events, while CTIA the week after is going for a little more sizzle.

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Interop Las Vegas 2013 Live Blog

RIT students win national cyberdefense title after falling in finals past 2 years

A team of Rochester Institute of Tecnology students earlier this month won the National Collegiate CyberDefense Competition vs. 9 other regional winners, showing resiliance after being beaten in the finals the past 2 years.

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Massachusetts-based mobile apps specialist reaching out to young Florida engineers

Mobiquity, a Wellesley, Mass.-based professional services firm that specializes in enterprise mobile apps, is eyeing engineering talent at the University of Florida as it expands into Gainesville with plans to hire 260 people in the area over the next few years. 

Mobiquity expects its office to be located in Innovation Square, the live/work/play research community being developed on Southwest Second Avenue between the UF campus and downtown Gainesville.

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Android smartphones given a shot at tracking gunfire

Vanderbilt University researchers have developed DARPA-funded Android smartphone add-ons that could be used to help security teams determine which way sniper gunshots are coming from.

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With Japan Prize, it's wait 'til next year for computer/networking innovators

The annual Japan Prize, which honors researchers whose work "has contributed to the peace and prosperity of mankind," this year goes to laureates in the Materials and Production field as well as in the Biological Productinoa nd Biological Environment field. $500K is awarded for each field and winners also receive gold medals and certificates in the presence of Japan's Emperor.

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Apple reveals WWDC dates: June 10-14 in San Fran

Apple this morning made official the worst kept tech secret around: That its WWDC will be held June 10-14 in San Francisco at the Moscone West convention center.

Apple will make tickets available online worldwide on April 25 at 10am pacific time. Last year, tickets sold out in 2 hours.

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Colorado State compsci prof nets $400K NSF grant for speeding data streams

The National Science Foundation has awarded a Colorado State University computer science professor a $400K grant to develop new ways to speed computer systems used for applications such as healthcare and homeland security.

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UPDATE: Boston techies race past $50K goal to support Boston Marathon bombing victims

Nonprofit outfit Technology Underwriting Greater Good (TUGG) of Cambridge, Mass., and Boston-based Fundraise.com are seeking to raise $150K to support victims of Monday's Boston Marathon bombings. Donate here.

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IDG News Service live camera feed at Boston Marathon finish line captures smoke from explosions

The IDG News Service, which supplies stories and multimedia content to Network World and its sister publications, is located at 1 Exeter Plaza and overlooks the Boston Marathon finish line. While the office was closed today, a live camera feed was set up and captures smoke emanating from the deadly explosions that took place Monday.

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Boosting retailers' efficiencies more than a game for Arkansas researchers

Two University of Arkansas research centers, one focused on RFID and the other on imaging technologies, have joined forces on technologies that could make retailers much more efficient.

The RFID Research Center in the Sam M. Walton College of Business and the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will also work to develop standards to encourage widespread adoption of the technologies.

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Google fellows Dean and Ghemawat earn ACM-Infosys Foundation Award for cloud computing breakthroughs

Move over Sergey Brin and Larry Page, at least for the moment.

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Livestream here on Friday, March 22: Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff speaks to customers in Boston

Our partners at IDG News Service will be hosting a livestream of Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff's keynote at a customer event in Boston on Friday, March 22 from 10-11:30am EDT. Please join us here for the presentation....

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