cisco

Parker smartphone app enables realtime parking search

Have you ever wanted to be able to just look at your phone and know where all of the open parking spaces are in your area? That, in a nutshell, is smart parking and it's coming to the San Francisco Bay Area thanks to a partnership between Streetline and Cisco. Interestingly, San Francisco itself isn't the first city in the San Francisco Bay Area to get these smart parking spaces. That honor belongs to Sausalito, which will be joined today by San Mateo and San Carlos.

Take a walk around downtown San Mateo or San Carlos today and … Read more

NYC payphones get revived as touch-screen tablets

Payphones are a dying breed, which will probably make some people yearn for our simple past and others celebrate our tech-filled future.

New York City and two companies, Cisco Systems and City 24/7, announced today that they're officially commencing their plan to transform those endangered species into 32-inch touch-screen information kiosks, a.k.a. "Smart Screens," around the city, according to GigaOM.

The idea was originally introduced in April and the companies have been testing the pilot project over the last few months. Now, the Smart Screens are officially live and a handful of kiosks are … Read more

Cisco nabs cloud-networking start-up Meraki for $1.2 billion

The three colleagues who created the cloud-networking and Wi-Fi startup Meraki at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science six years ago were not expecting to be acquired by Cisco Systems. But the tech giant announced today its intent to buy the startup saying it plans to throw down $1.2 billion in cash, along with retention-based incentives.

"The acquisition of Meraki enables Cisco to make simple, secure, cloud managed networks available to our global customer base of mid-sized businesses and enterprises," Cisco's Enterprise Networking Group senior vice president Rob Soderbery said in a statement. "Meraki's … Read more

Cisco kicks off fiscal year with strong earnings

Cisco shares rose by 6.8 percent on Tuesday after the bell as the networking giant published a rather solid earnings report for the first fiscal quarter of 2013.

The San Jose, Calif., based corporation reported a net income of $2.1 billion, or 39 cents a share (statement). Non-GAAP earnings were 48 cents a share on a revenue of $11.9 billion -- up by 6 percent on an annual basis.Wall Street was expecting Cisco to report first quarter earnings of 46 cents per share on revenue of $11.78 billion.Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers asserted … Read more

VPN connections made a lot easier

Cisco AnyConnect is an iOS app for connecting through VPNs (not necessarily those controlled by Cisco hardware). It provide access through a secure tunnel to allow iPhones and iPads to access corporate e-mail, files, and remote desktops. The app is free and works with any VPN that supports the standard DTLS security layer.

Cisco AnyConnect is a popular application for laptops that many road warriors employ. The port to the iOS environment is well done, and we had no trouble connecting to the same devices through our iPad and iPhone as we did with our Windows-based laptops and MacBook Pro. … Read more

Cisco cuts ties with ZTE

Cisco Systems has washed its hands of Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE, Reuters reports, after Cisco determined that ZTE was selling Cisco-branded networking equipment to Iran.

This year, the China-based firm had been reported as selling restricted and banned computer equipment developed by Cisco and other U.S. companies to Iran's telecom firms. According to the publication, ZTE agreed to ship U.S. products -- including Cisco switches -- to firms based in that country last year.

Following investigations conducted by the FBI, the U.S. Commerce Department and the companies that allegedly uncovered the sales, the general counsel … Read more

Apple scores as second best global brand in new report

Apple is the second best brand in the world, according to market research firm Interbrand.

Among the 100 best global brands for the year, Apple came in just behind top-seated Coca-Cola. Based on specific factors, Coca-Cola scored a total brand value of $77.8 million, while Apple was given a value of $76.5 million.

In ascending to second place, Apple saw a 129 percent rise in its brand value since last year, the largest gain among all the brands on the list.

How does Interbrand choose which brands it considers best?

The research firm uses three factors: 1) the … Read more

Cisco's John Chambers eyes retirement, successor

John Chambers, who has served as Cisco Systems' CEO longer than many of today's hottest companies have been in existence, is hinting that his retirement may not be far off.

The 63-year-old Chambers has been running the networking equipment giant since 1995 and recently told Bloomberg that he envisions a scenario in which he could retire as chief executive in the next two to four years to assume the role of chairman. He also offered insight into who might be tapped to succeed him when that time comes, saying there are as many as 10 candidates on a list … Read more

Inside Huawei, the Chinese tech giant that's rattling nerves in DC

SHENZHEN, China --Chen Lifang is a bit flummoxed.

Chen is a board member and senior vice president at Huawei, the giant telecommunications gear maker based here. She's digesting news that broke a day earlier that the U.S. House Intelligence Committee has increased the pressure it's putting on the company to disclose details about its ties to the Chinese government. The bombshell came in the form of a letter, released to the media, from the committee's chairman and the ranking Democrat to Huawei founder and Chairman Ren Zhengfei.

Really, the letter was more of an 11-page laundry … Read more