Cisco

Cisco is working with the Chinese government, on Person of Interest!

There are few things I love more in this world than goofy hacker talk in a techno-thriller, and we got that in abundance this week on Person of Interest. But you know what I love more than that? When this show delivers an absolutely paranoid conspiracy theory that I secretly believe is mostly true. Like…

Belkin is buying Linksys from Cisco. All routers are going to be the same!

Hack Turns Cisco’s Desk Phone Into a Spying Device

Cisco’s internet phones—which sit on thousands of desks around the world—have been shown to be easily hacked and turned into remote spying devices. The official announcement comes two whole weeks after Cisco first found out about the problem. The exploit was discovered by Ang Cui and Salvatore Solfo, a pair of computer scientists from Columbia…

Cisco is trying to sell off the router company Linksys, which it bought for $500 million back in 2003. [Bloomberg]

Apple, Samsung, Nokia, and Others Urge Congress to Free Up Spectrum

A band of tech giants, including Apple, Samsung, and Nokia, has sent a letter—yes, a letter!—to Congress, urging it to free more spectrum for mobile data. The Hill reports that the companies explained to congress that “authorizing new spectrum auctions is timely and relevant” to current debates over the “fiscal cliff”. They went on to…

Scary Cisco Executive Vows to Make Finding a Whistleblower His Personal “Hobby”

Last week, an internal memo from Cisco was leaked to the press. It was in response to reports that Cisco had overcharged California State University $100 million to use its network. Well, the leak made people at Cisco angry, and that anger has materialized into a bizarre manhunt, executed by one vice president, in his…

Cisco Connect Cloud Lightning Review: Manage A Network’s Competing Connections

If you have a bunch of devices sharing a network, the bandwidth can get bottlenecked. For new Linksys routers, Cisco is solving that problem with Connect Cloud, a platform that lets you manage all of your connections from anywhere. What Is It? It’s support software available for new Linksys routers. Get full control over how…

This Is How Big the Internet Is

The internet is a big and amorphous thing to talk about. What’s it made of? Web pages? Articles? Facebook? Stuff you can blow up? How about just how much people actually use it. According to Cisco, we chewed through 30.7 exabytes per month last year. That’s the equivalent of about 6 billion 5GB HD movies.…

NYC Subways Getting Their Very Own 47-Inch Touchscreens

Because why not? Many a New Yorker has been caught unawares by service changes, delays, and other forms of public transit fuckery. With that in mind, NYC Transit and Cisco are installing 47-inch On the Go! Travel Stations for flustered commuters. The touchscreens will be a godsend (on paper) for travelers looking to get out…

China Enlists Cisco To Spy On the Public

500,000 cameras have been purchased by the Chinese government for installation in the Chongqing city over the coming three years, to keep an eye out for crime, but more importantly political activists. Or so human-rights warriors fret. Since the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, the US government has been strict about US companies selling their…

Cisco Cius: The Biggest Difference Between a Tablet and a Business Tablet Is $400

Oh, Cisco. I appreciate that you’re elbowing your way to a seat at the Android tablet table. Everyone else is! But dropping a $750 Android slate on an unsuspecting enterprise market is not how you make friends, Cisco. But wait, there’s a justification! Which is probably not a good sign to begin with, needing one…

Cisco Threw Their Flip Cams in the Trash

We knew Cisco was killing off the now-obsolete Flip cam, but did they really have to dump them into the trash can, like a used condom or empty box of Lucky Charms? And why’d they toss the globe paperweight? https://gizmodo.com/the-flip-camera-is-finally-dead-your-smartphones-got-bl-5791203 The mass grave pic was snapped by a Cisco employee who must have been troubled…

Exclusive Images of FlipLive, the Streaming Video Camera that Will Never Be

Here are the first photos of Flip’s never-to-be launched FlipLive. The FlipLive was supposed to be Flip’s next-generation camcorder, one that could stream video to the cloud. But Cisco killed the brand the day before the Live was supposed to launch. David Pogue, who revealed the existence of the FlipLive, argues that Cisco should have…

Linksys E4200 Dual-Band Router Is Their Newest Top of the Line

Not only does the latest Cisco/Linksys E4200 router look amazing for a router, it’s got upgraded features from their older models, like 6 antennas and dual-band wireless-N. The six antennas (both internal and external) are supposed to make this reach farther inside larger homes, and can shoot up to 450Mbps at 5GHz, or 300Mbps at…

Former Apple Exec Mark Papermaster Snapped Up by Cisco

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Sorry, I mean Mark Papermaster—after getting booted from his cushy role heading up the iPhone hardware team at Apple, we’ve not heard of him for over three months. https://gizmodo.com/iphone-hardware-boss-departs-apple-5607230 News emerged over the weekend that Cisco Systems has hired Papermaster as their new Vice President, after all that…

How to Video Chat From Your Couch Without Breaking the Bank

Video chatting—the future is now! But it sure is expensive. Between Logitech’s Revue ($300 for the box and $150 for the cam), and Cisco’s $600 Roman emperor-priced offering, you might feel left out. But you have (affordable) options. FaceTime is new, and awesome, and laptop video calls are cool—of course. But being able to plop…

Cisco Umi Brings HD Video Conferencing To Your Living Room

Cisco’s rumored telepresence-at-home system is now official and it’s called Umi. The set up comprises a set top box, a remote, and a 1080p camera that sits on top of your TV. It’s the new way to visit grandma! According to Engadget, the Umi will place video calls at 1080p and record them at 720p,…

Cisco’s Telepresence Video Chat is Expected for Homes Next Week

We’ve been hearing for a while that Cisco was wanting to get down with Joe Blow on the street, so it’s not at all surprising to hear that next week they’re rumored to unveil a “cheap” home-telepresence product. When we say cheap, we mean it won’t cost much more than one of their Flip camcorders,…

The New Flip HD Pocket Cams: Like the Old Flips, But Smoother

When a product’s sole tenet is simplicity, revisions can be tricky. The new Flip MinoHD and UltraHD cameras play it safe: the video’s still 720p, but it’s 60fps and image-stabilized, and the devices look familiar but the Ultra’s now accessory-friendly. https://gizmodo.com/flip-slidehd-review-too-much-to-be-good-enough-5515694 Flip’s four new cameras—an 8GB and 4GB UltraHD ($199 and $149) and 8GB and…

Could self-aware cities be the first forms of artificial intelligence?

The cities of the future will be huge and super-dense — but will they also be alive? Could the increasingly complex systems needed to manage the next generation of megacities become our first true artificial intelligence? People have speculated before about the idea that the Internet might become self-aware and turn into the first “real”…