Networking

According to Internet statistics firm ComScore, unique visits to Facebook rocketed 89 percent between May 2006 and May 2007, from about 14 million unique visitors to 26.6 million.

Average minutes spent on the site per users also rose from 138 to 186--a 35 percent increase--and the number of pages viewed rose 143 percent, from 6,530 to 15,841. This coincides with Facebook's decision to "open its doors" last fall, no longer requiring a corporate or university e-mail address in order to gain access to the site.

Consequently, most of the growth charted by ComScore is … Read more

Yesterday, my friends Max and Zach and I were like the Three Amigos, but instead of sombreros we were armed with our iPhones. And instead of adventures with El Guapo, we were doing battle with AT&T's El EDGE network, the network the iPhone defaults to when it can't connect to an active Wi-Fi connection.

Our brave amigo adventure began when we decided to celebrate the Fourth by heading north of San Francisco to hang out at Stinson Beach. We got our fill of sun, surf and sand. During hours in the sun we got out our … Read more

So I've been working on a review of Hawking's HomeRemote wireless home automation system, but I'm stuck right now, waiting for a firmware upgrade. But I thought I'd give you a preview of what I've seen so far, because it's pretty interesting stuff. We first got wind of this Home Automation System at CES 2007, in the Z-Wave Alliance booth. The Z-Wave Alliance is a consortium of companies committed to making interoperable, wireless home automation products that are based on Z-Wave, a wireless remote control standard. Z-Wave-based products use a low-frequency radio signals to … Read more

This morning, Zoho has unveiled its new Facebook app, which allows users with Zoho accounts to work on and share their Zoho docs without leaving the boundaries of the social-networking service. Zoho has included three of its services in the new app: Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, and Zoho Show. Users have access to their entire directory of saved files for each app, along with quick options to create new ones.

Unlike some other Facebook apps, there's no profile presence or status feeds as to when you're editing or have created new documents. There's also not a way … Read more

Just before Interop in May, the OpenSEA Alliance, a new industry group focused on open software solutions for networking and security, was announced. The OpenSEA Alliance plans to develop a robust, multiplatform and widely available open 802.1X supplicant with the goal of emulating the successful Mozilla Firefox model.

Just what is an 802.1X supplicant? It's a piece of client code that authenticates an endpoint (i.e. PC or laptop) to a network and thus enhances security.

The OpenSEA Alliance is not alone in the PC space. Microsoft bundles an 802.1X supplicant in Windows XP and Vista. … Read more

Netgear announced today that two of its Draft 802.11n wireless products have been certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance as in compliance with draft 2.0 of the 802.11n spec. This certification ensures that the product in question is interoperable with products from other vendors, that it adheres to the latest security protection schemes, and that it's backward-compatible with previous generations of Wi-Fi equipment (such as 802.11g and 802.11b products). Netgear's RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N Router Gigabit Edition (WNR854T) and RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N Router (WNR834B) have both been certified as Draft 2.0-compliant. Users who have … Read more

Twitter, the social network for spewing random thoughts to friends via digital messages, is on the road to raising its first round of venture funding, company cofounder Biz Stone said this week.

It would seem that investments in Web 2.0 companies are still feverish, considering that Twitter is not yet profitable and about 8 months old, according to Stone. Even though the social network has garnered much attention recently--Presidential candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama are active Twitter heads--the number of people actually using the service isn't a whole lot.

According to research firm ComScore, the service attracted … Read more

Wow. This post from Glyn Moody just resurfaced memories that should never have been forgotten. Glyn reminds us that IBM made a patent pledge that protects OSI-approved open source projects:

IBM today pledged open access to key innovations covered by 500 IBM software patents to individuals and groups working on open source software. IBM believes this is the largest pledge ever of patents of any kind and represents a major shift in the way IBM manages and deploys its intellectual property (IP) portfolio....

The pledge is applicable to any individual, community, or company working on or using software that meets the Open Source Initiative (OSI) definition of open source software now or in the future.… Read more

On Wednesday, CNET News.com checked in with Jeff Berman, MySpace.com's general manager of video operations, to hear more about the gargantuan social network's latest project: MySpace TV. The New York Times reported Tuesday that MySpace would be refurbishing its in-house video operations this week, creating a new video hub at myspacetv.com (site not yet active) to host a mix of amateur and professional media content. Berman filled us in on exactly what to expect.

"It's really just the next step in what has been a very busy few months for us on the … Read more