John Cox

Cisco's Wireless Networking Business Unit doesn't actually talk so much about wireless networking these days. Increasingly, its message aimed at IT groups is about the broader concept of "mobility."

The change, not only for Cisco but its rivals, reflects the fact that mobile workers are no longer focused simply on replacing an Ethernet cable with a Wi-Fi signal and being able to carry their corporate laptop to the conference room. The real question has become: what can they, and the company, and the company's customers, now do once they've made that replacement?

The next iPhone, which may or not be called iPhone 5, will have a 4-inch screen according to several unidentified sources cited in news stories this week.

An array of bloggers and technology commenters are already accepting these mainstream media accounts as confirmation of the long-rumored big-screened phone.

With its future up for grabs, Research in Motion at its annual BlackBerry World conference next week will focus on simplifying development for its soon-to-be-unveiled BlackBerry 10 operating system. HTML5 is one key technology in that strategy to create a viable ecosystem of applications for a new generation of mobile devices expected to ship by year-end.

The simplicity is needed because BB10, based on a real time kernel acquired with RIM's buyout of QNX Software Systems in 2010, is a complete break with the software that runs on standard BlackBerry smartphones. Sales of those devices have been collapsing since the third quarter of 2010, and continue to do so, as RIM's recent fourth quarter earnings show. RIM sold just over 11 million smartphones, down 21 percent from the previous quarter, and 500,000 PlayBook tablets; quarterly revenue was $4.2 billion, or 19 percent less than the third quarter and 25 percent less than a year ago.

New software lets IT groups deconstruct mobile apps running live on iOS and Android devices and uncover bottlenecks, glitches, and a whole lot of other pain points for enterprise mobile users.

First RIM roiled its shrinking universe of users and developers with a single tweet about ending side-loading of apps on its PlayBook tablet. And then the company created more confusion with a blog post this week that was supposed to give "nuance" to the tweet.

And it's still not clear whether RIM plans simply to block side-loading as it's currently understood and practiced among PlayBook users, or to modify it and limit it. Side-loading, which is also an issue in other mobile platforms, is the ability to install applications outside of an official "app store," in this case BlackBerry App World.

Mobile carriers embracing Wi-Fi is one of the sub-themes of Mobile World Congress. And the particular flavor of Wi-Fi that's generating buzz here is 802.11ac, which promises to boost handset throughput to over 300Mbps.

What MWC is driving home is how close 11ac products are to appearing. For clients to achieve those speeds, they have to be talking to access points or hotspots or even so-called "small cells" (compact cellular base stations) that are also outfitted with 11ac radio chips.

The world's cellular industry is coming to Barcelona Spain next week for Mobile World Congress. But one of the key topics will be an entirely different radio technology: Wi-Fi.

At MWC, you'll be see a massive change in the industry's thinking about this unlicensed radio standard, now a standard part of smartphones, tablets, gaming devices, and even cameras. Faced with soaring mobile data demand, a range of network and service providers want to "tame" Wi-Fi, making it behave as conveniently, predictably, and reliably as cellular phone calls. Among other things, that change could spell the end of "free Wi-Fi."

The U.S. Air Force has abruptly cancelled a plan to buy nearly 3,000 iPad 2 tablets, just days after a news site raised questions about including a Russian-developed app for encrypting and reading documents.

The original plan, posted in late December on the Federal Business Opportunities website, was to buy 2,861 iPad 2 machines to be used as electronic flight bags carrying digital versions of charts and technical manuals. The procurement specified the use of GoodReader, a popular iPad document reader developed by a Moscow, Russia software developer, Yuri Selukoff, of Good.iware. The same application, which has been well-reviewed by bloggers and tech sites, has been used in two other similar deployments, one for Alaska Airlines and another for Delta.

Apple today released the developer preview for Mountain Lion, which will be generally released late summer 2012. Among the key changes: versions of applications and services originally created for the iOS mobile platforms; built-in integration with the iCloud service; and a new application security feature called Gatekeeper.

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A free new service lets IT groups quickly set up basic management of corporate and personal mobile devices running Android or Apple iOS.

The cumbersomely named Amtel Free Business Mobile Device Management is a Web-based service, with client-side apps for Android and iOS devices. The potential appeal for enterprise IT is that it can apply basic mobile management features quickly, without capital spending or most other operational costs. It lacks a range of more sophisticated features found in the paid service, as well as technical support and maintenance services from the Santa Clara company.

A new security tool lets enterprise IT groups set access and share policies for employees, including mobile users, who are working with the online Google Apps suite.

Using the Web-based DomainWatch, from New York City-based startup BetterCloud, an administrator can see an overview of the enterprise's full suite of Google Apps assets -- documents, presentations, calendars, and wikis and Web pages created with Google Sites. The policy editor lets you create and apply sharing and access rules for individuals or groups of users and assets.

Enterprise coders can now use an open source Web application that lets them consolidate software vulnerability data from a range of scanning and test tools. With a centralized view, and reporting and management tools, ThreadFix speeds the work needed to fix software bugs and vulnerabilities, including those in proliferating mobile apps.

The beta version of ThreadFix is available via GoogleCode, along with tutorials and a range of support information (see links below). It can be easily configured to import test and scan results from open source tools such as Bugzilla for bug tracking, and Skipfish, an active Web application security reconnaissance tool, as well as commercial products like Fortify (now part of HP), a comprehensive software security assurance system, and IBM's Rational AppScan product set.