ACM Queue - Mobile Computing

Mobile Devices in the Enterprise: CTO Roundtable Overview: An overview of the key points discussed in the ACM Roundtable on Mobile Devices in the Enterprise

Mache Creeger — 2011年8月12日 09:07:23 GMT

The CTO Roundtable on Mobile Devices in the Enterprise focuses on the implications of the widespread use of mobile devices, such as smartphones, in the enterprise computing environment. These new personal devices have presented great challenges and opportunities for the protection of valuable information assets and creation of business value. What follows are the key points from that broader conversation.

ACM CTO Roundtable on Mobile Devices in the Enterprise: Finding solutions as growth and fragmentation complicate mobile device support

Mache Creeger — 2011年8月03日 15:06:38 GMT

BlackBerry? iPhone? Android? Other? Thin client or fat client? Browser or Wi-Fi? Developers of mobile applications have many variables to consider in a rapidly changing environment. The mobile device market is growing quickly and fragmenting as it does so. Supporting mobile devices in the enterprise is getting much more complicated because of both this rapid growth worldwide and the diverse set of devices and networks.

Mobile Application Development: Web vs. Native: Web apps are cheaper to develop and deploy than native apps, but can they match the native user experience?

Andre Charland, Brian LeRoux — 2011年4月12日 00:27:51 GMT

A few short years ago, most mobile devices were, for want of a better word, "dumb." Sure, there were some early smartphones, but they were either entirely e-mail focused or lacked sophisticated touch screens that could be used without a stylus. Even fewer shipped with a decent mobile browser capable of displaying anything more than simple text, links, and maybe an image. This meant if you had one of these devices, you were either a businessperson addicted to e-mail or an alpha geek hoping that this would be the year of the smartphone. Then Apple changed everything with the release of the iPhone, and our expectations for mobile experiences were completely reset.

Like a Podcast in the Sea: Mean ol’ LoTech Blues: Is it just a matter of semantics?

Stan Kelly-Bootle — 2006年7月27日 10:33:08 GMT

Like a Podcast in the Sea - Mean Ol' LoTech Blues

Is it just a matter of semantics?

Stan Kelly-Bootle, Author

Mache Creeger's general pessimism¹ about IT's status quo rests on his perception that HiTech (the character- and tree-saving token for High Technology, somewhat, if not totally, vitiated by this long-winded, unnecessary explanation) is not quite Hi enough. IT relies too much on dreary, evolutionary gradualism rather than on the exciting Kuhnian discontinuities that spell revolution and paradigm shifts.²

I have no qualms about Creeger's observation that the marketeers, both commercial and academic (if such categories can be distinguished in these pursy PC times), are fond of paint jobs - coloring the most modest upgrades with claims of major, must-have breakthroughs. This is an ancient and, alas, effective promotional ploy in other trades. I recall one cornflake manufacturer who was forced to confess that what was "new" about its latest product was the bold slogan "NEW" on the package.

Java in a Teacup: Programming Bluetooth-enabled devices using J2ME

Stephen Johnson — 2006年5月02日 08:29:10 GMT

Few technology sectors evolve as fast as the wireless industry. As the market and devices mature, the need (and potential) for mobile applications grows. More and more mobile devices are delivered with the Java platform installed, enabling a large base of Java programmers to try their hand at embedded programming. Unfortunately, not all Java mobile devices are created equal, presenting many challenges to the new J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) programmer. Using a sample game application, this article illustrates some of the challenges associated with J2ME and Bluetooth programming.

Streams and Standards: Delivering Mobile Video: The era of video served up to mobile phones has arrived and threatens to be the next “killer app” after wireless calling itself.

2005年6月07日 09:49:16 GMT

Streams and Standards: Delivering Mobile Video

The era of video served up to mobile phones has arrived and threatens to be the next “killer app” after wireless calling itself.

TOM GERSTEL, TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM

Don’t believe me? Follow along…

Mobile phones are everywhere. Everybody has one. Think about the last time you were on an airplane and the flight was delayed on the ground. Immediately after the dreaded announcement, you heard everyone reach for their phones and start dialing.

Mobile Media: Making It a Reality: Two prototype apps reveal the challenges in delivering mobile media services.

Fred Kitson — 2005年6月07日 09:48:58 GMT

Mobile Media Making it a Reality

Two prototype apps reveal the challenges in delivering mobile media services.

FRED KITSON, HP LABORATORIES

Many future mobile applications are predicated on the existence of rich, interactive media services. The promise and challenge of such services is to provide applications under the most hostile conditions—and at low cost to a user community that has high expectations. Context-aware services require information about who, where, when, and what a user is doing and must be delivered in a timely manner with minimum latency. This article reveals some of the current state-of-the-art “magic” and the research challenges.

In our research we are combining media systems and mobility systems to support the creation, distribution, and consumption of rich media to mobile or nomadic users. In this article we present two visions of future applications. The first is an example of personal context-aware mobile services that leverage RFID technology. The second is a highly collaborative interactive mobile gaming system. This example in particular highlights some of the key technical challenges we encountered while developing a prototype. We then focus on some of the broader system and software issues that need to be addressed to fully realize commercially viable mobile media systems. In particular, we summarize the complexities of getting media anywhere, creating media anywhere, and securely delivering media anywhere.

Enterprise-Grade Wireless: Wireless technology has come a long way, but is it robust enough for today’s enterprise?

Bruce Zenel — 2005年6月07日 09:48:40 GMT

Enterprise-Grade Wireless

Wireless technology has come a long way, but is it robust enough for today’s enterprise?

BRUCE ZENEL AND ANDREW TOY, MORGAN STANLEY

We have been working in the wireless space in one form or another in excess of 10 years and have participated in every phase of its maturation process. We saw wireless progress from a toy technology before the dot-com boom, to something truly promising during the boom, only to be left wanting after the bubble when the technology was found to be not ready for prime time. Fortunately, it appears that we have finally reached the point where the technology and the enterprise’s expectations have finally converged. Even with the current level of maturity in this space, creating and managing a cohesive wireless strategy within an enterprise is difficult. There are technological hurdles, cost/efficiency trade-offs to be considered, and obtaining buy-in/acceptance at all levels of the company. To identify and overcome these issues, we have developed a model called enterprise-grade wireless. This article is a discussion of the model itself, the context in which it exists, and a justification of its criticality to the enterprise.

WIRELESS IN THE ENTERPRISE DEFINED

It is important that we first define the context of this article. We have a specific view of what constitutes wireless in the enterprise; note that we are not espousing that this is the only view, just defining the perimeter of the space to improve the applicability of the various points we make in the discussion that follows.

A Conversation with Teresa Meng: The founder of Atheros analyzes the role of signal processing in the evolving world of wireless communications.

Robert Broderson — 2004年4月16日 10:01:25 GMT

A Conversation with Teresa Meng

In 1999, Teresa Meng took a leave of absence from Stanford University and with colleagues from Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, founded Atheros Communications to develop and deliver the core technology for wireless communication systems. Using a combination of signal processing and CMOS RF technology, Atheros came up with a pioneering 5 GHz wireless LAN chipset found in most 802.11a/b/g products, and continues to extend its market as wireless communications evolve.

Wireless Networking Considered Flaky: You know what bugs me about wireless networking? Everyone thinks it’s so cool and never talks about the bad side of things.

Eric Allman — 2003年12月05日 10:56:22 GMT

Wireless Networking Considered Flaky
Eric Allman, Sendmail

You know what bugs me about wireless networking? Everyone thinks it’s so cool and never talks about the bad side of things. Oh sure, I can get on the ’net from anywhere at Usenix or the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), but those are _hostile_ _nets_. Hell, all wireless nets are hostile. By their very nature, you don’t know who’s sharing the ether with you. But people go on doing their stuff, confident that they are OK because they’re behind the firewall.

Let’s face it: WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is a joke. There’s no privacy on a wireless net. When you type your password, it’s there for the world to see—and take, and abuse. A lot of places don’t even bother with WEP, even behind firewalls. You want free ‘net access? Drive into a random parking lot in Silicon Valley and pull up next to one of those big, two-story “ranch house” style buildings that seem to be ubiquitous there. You’ll have a shockingly good chance of being on the ‘net. But not just the Internet: their _internal_ network. And if you sniff that network you might just get a password or two. Or maybe several dozen. You’ll probably even trip over some root passwords.