IT Executive news

• BlackBerry's IoT plans start close to home: cars, asset tracking

  07-01-2015 23:15
  
  BlackBerry is taking the same approach with its Internet of Things platform, launched Wednesday at International CES, as it is with its handset business: Aim at its core markets.In IoT, the struggling mobile vendor has found an emerging area of technology where it may have the right combination of strengths. The company signaled as much last May when it announced Project Ion, a future cloud-based service it said would make it easier for enterprises to develop IoT software.The results of that
  
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• NASA Readies Long-Distance Fix for Rover’s 'Amnesia'

  07-01-2015 23:08
  
  NASA engineers are planning to send a software fix to a rover that has been working on Mars for nearly 11 years longer than expected.
  The Mars rover Opportunity has been suffering from a glitch that's causing what NASA scientists describe as memory and data loss -- or a robotic "amnesia" -- since early December. Now, they're nearly ready to send aloft a software update they hope will rectify the problem.
  The danger lies not in the distance the software fix will have to travel but in replacin
  
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• Yahoo search share creeps up after Firefox deal

  07-01-2015 23:00
  
  Yahoo has inched ahead in the U.S. search market after becoming the default search tool in Mozilla’s Firefox browser, according to StatCounter, a web analytics company.It’s not a huge victory for Yahoo. The increase in search share was small, from 8.6 percent in November to 10.4 percent in December—the month when Yahoo replaced Google as Firefox’s default search option in the U.S.Still, it’s Yahoo’s biggest U.S. search share since 2009, according to StatCounter, a Dublin, Ireland-
  
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• Kingston Unleashes its First PCIe SSD with 1.4Gbps Speed

  07-01-2015 22:55
  
  Kingston's HyperX division announced this week at CES that it is releasing its first PCIe SSD.
  Shipping in February, the HyperX Predator internal PCIe SSD will be the highest-end SSD the company has ever produced -- and it'll offer the fastest speeds in the HyperX SSD lineup. The SSD is targeted at gamers, overclockers and enthusiasts, Kingston said.
  Pricing won't be available until the drive ships, Kingston said.
  The HyperX Predator will initially come in 240GB and 480GB capacities. A 960GB
  
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• FBI director again points to North Korea for Sony attack

  07-01-2015 22:35
  
  North Korean hackers left footprints when they breached Sony Pictures Entertainment late last year, the director of the FBI said Wednesday.Despite some disagreement about the source of the cyberattack on Sony, FBI Director James Comey again pointed the finger at North Korea. Hackers “got sloppy” when attempting to mask their IP addresses, showing investigators that some emails from the hackers to Sony employees came from Internet connections used only by North Korea, Comey said at a cyber
  
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• Italy's e-commerce boom leaves hangover for some

  07-01-2015 22:30
  
  Italy’s e-commerce sector has celebrated a bumper Christmas, but some people are left nursing a hangover now that the party is over.Online sales in Italy over the holiday season were the best ever and beat expectations, Roberto Liscia, the president of Netcomm, a consortium of online vendors, told Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper Wednesday.“We had estimated e-commerce purchases worth 2.5 billion euros (US $2.95 billion). Instead we reached 3 billion euros, with an annual increase of 28 percent,�
  
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• iPhone 6 Boosts iOS Market Share; Android Slips

  07-01-2015 22:21
  
  Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus continued on a sales tear in November, prompting a surge in iOS's smartphone user share in all but one of the countries monitored by Kantar Worldpanel Comtech, the research firm said today.
  The boost to Apple's share came primarily at the expense of Google and its Android operating system.
  "While remaining the dominant global OS, Android's market share dropped in most European markets and in the U.S., where the decline was the first since September 2013," said Car
  
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• Women and the Future of IT

  07-01-2015 22:16
  
  The future of IT very much depends on our industry collectively being able to rebrand our discipline as a preferred place for women to work. The attraction and retention of female IT executives is not just a “feminist” or “women’s studies” issue. It’s an IT industry issue — an issue all of us have to understand and take action on.
  Until recently I had labored under the very erroneous assumption that in IT, and in the technology industry in general, gender bias didn’t exist. I
  
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• New Year, New CIOs!

  07-01-2015 22:03
  
  The new year tends to herald some major new appointments, and 2015 is no different. PR Newswire
  Caterpillar announced that effective January 1st, Julie Lagacy would become the company's Chief Information Officer and vice president with responsibility for the Global Information Services Division. Julie has more than 26 years with the company.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Wireless Charging -- McDonald's is Lovin' it

  07-01-2015 21:50
  
  McDonald's is installing 600 wireless charging stations for enabled mobile devices in 50 restaurants in the U.K.
  The announcement represents a major expansion of wireless charging technology that's still in the early stages of deployment in public places.
  The charging stations from Aircharge are based on the Qi (pronounced "chee") wireless standard, which is backed by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC).
  Of the 20 million consumer devices estimated to have shipped in 2013 with wireless charg
  
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• BlackBerry Jumps into Smartwatches with BBM on Android Wear Devices

  07-01-2015 21:31
  
  LAS VEGAS -- BlackBerry on Wednesday demonstrated its Messenger application on Android Wear smartwatches at the International CES trade show.
  The brief onstage demo for reporters and analysts indicated a new direction into wearable technologies for BlackBerry. At the same time, it showed that BlackBerry, long a stronghold of business users, expects businesspeople to begin buying smartwatches for quick wrist-based alerts and longer communications that don't require digging into a pocket or pu
  
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• Retail Banks turn to IT to drive revenue in 2015 - Computerworld New Zealand

  07-01-2015 21:03
  
  Computerworld New Zealand
  Retail Banks turn to IT to drive revenue in 2015
  Computerworld New Zealand
  As the economic outlook improves, retail banks are using IT to grow revenue. Across the senior IT executive respondents in Ovum's ICT Enterprise Insights survey, 43% highlighted supporting revenue growth as one of the top three strategic priorities for ...
  
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• Why SDN All-Stars Are Heading to Brocade

  07-01-2015 21:03
  
  Why is it that a who’s who of SDN developers is landing at Brocade?
  Over the past two years, the company has lured a handful of industry All-Stars to work on software enabling its networking portfolio, including Fibre Channel storage-area network switches, and Ethernet switches and routers. The most recent hire is Michael Bushong, who jumped from start-up Plexxi to Brocade late last year to run product management.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Marco Arment Sparks Debate About Apple Software Quality

  07-01-2015 20:56
  
  An influential blogger who often writes about Apple stirred the pot Monday with a post that called out the Cupertino, Calif. company for losing its way on software quality.
  Marco Arment, formerly the lead developer of Tumblr and perhaps best known as the creator of Instapaper, took Apple to task for what he called "embarrassing bugs and fundamental regressions" in OS X, its Mac operating system. His Monday post caught a lot of peoples' eyes -- Arment has more than 77,000 followers on Twitter
  
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• Blocks Modular Smartwatch Plans November Launch, Android-based OS, and Waterproof Design

  07-01-2015 20:56
  
  LAS VEGAS—Looking at a chunky prototype of the world’s first modular smartwatch, it’s hard to believe we’ll see a finished product this year. But Blocks Wearables is still planning to ship by November, preceded by a Kickstarter campaign in June.
  The five-person startup is building a smartwatch that users can customize through links in the watch band, each containing an optional component such as an extended battery, a heart rate monitor, a microphone, or a cellular radio. These links
  
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• CES 2015: Searching for the Smartwatch Market

  07-01-2015 20:46
  
  For the smartwatch industry, the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show has served as a sort of massive strategy meeting to figure out how to turn the wristwatch into a technology device.
  The panel speaking at a smartwatch session at CES in Las Vegas this morning brought up an interesting parallel – how the traditional watch made its way to the wrist in the first place. Utility use cases like the military, which mandated a wrist-worn time piece to coordinate operations, eventually turned a device
  
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• Google Kills Off Google TV, Feeds it to Android TV

  07-01-2015 20:40
  
  Google is dropping its Google TV brand, the company announced Tuesday, and will focus its living-room entertainment efforts instead on Android TV and Google Cast.
  In a Google Plus post to the Google TV Developers account, the company said that the Google TV libraries would no longer be available, although existing Google TV devices will continue to work normally.
  + ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Best of CES 2015: In pictures | Security uses social media to capture football fan for "thought crime"? N
  
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• Democrats' bill would ban paid prioritization by ISPs

  07-01-2015 18:40
  
  Democrats in the U.S. Congress have wasted no time in resurrecting a debate over net neutrality rules, with lawmakers introducing a bill that would ban paid traffic priority agreements between broadband providers and Web content producers.A day after new members of Congress were seated, Democrats on Wednesday introduced a bill in both the House of Representatives and the Senate that would require the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to ban paid prioritization agreements. The FCC is prep
  
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• Macro-based malware is making a comeback, researchers warn

  07-01-2015 17:50
  
  For the past several months, different groups of attackers have distributed malware through Microsoft Office documents that contain malicious macros, reviving a technique that has been out of style for over a decade.Macros are scripts that contain commands for automating tasks in various applications. Microsoft Office programs like Word and Excel support macros written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and these can be used for malicious activities like installing malware.To prevent abus
  
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• Microsoft adds boards feature to Delve to ease content organization

  07-01-2015 17:30
  
  Microsoft has added a feature to its Delve content discovery tool that lets users gather material related to a certain task or idea and place it in a central location.Called boards, the feature works by allowing users to create a board around a specific topic by populating it with cards that Delve has created, Microsoft said Wednesday. For example, users can create a board that contains cards pertaining to a certain work project.Delve uses Microsoft’s Office Graph machine learning engine to
  
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• This Microsoft Surface Lookalike Runs a Productive Version of Android Instead

  07-01-2015 17:23
  
  A trio of former Google employees are trying to make Android more work-friendly with a tablet that looks a lot like Microsoft’s Surface Pro.
  At first glance on the CES show floor, the Remix Ultra-Tablet seems like a cheap Surface knock-off. It has a two-stage kickstand similar to that of the Surface Pro 2—albeit one that feels flimsier than Microsoft’s model—and a magnetic keyboard cover with traveling keys and a felt material over the trackpad.
  But the hardware is mainly a showcase
  
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• Is Silicon Valley Numb to Age Discrimination?

  07-01-2015 17:16
  
  The Santa Clara-based San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League appear to be in the midst of a youth movement led by its 34-year-old owner Jed York. Unfortunately, it's happening both on and off the field. This week, two former employees filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the team.Anthony Lozano, 56, was the facilities manager and had worked for the team for 22 years. Keith Yanagi, 59, was the director of video operations and had worked for the team for 25 years. Both claim
  
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• Quiz: Name the Linux Distro

  07-01-2015 17:06
  
  To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Will Enhanced Servers Do Away With Need For Switches?

  07-01-2015 16:50
  
  As more and more servers are virtualized, connections between them are increasingly handled by virtual switches running on the same servers, begging the question, does the top of rack data center network switch ultimately get subsumed into the server?
  Advocates say yes, especially given that servers today are packed with multicore processors, additional Layer 2 intelligence and dense optical connectors. Upstream core connectivity could then be provided by optical cross connects that just mov
  
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• WhatsApp users top 700 million, could hit 1 billion in a year

  07-01-2015 16:20
  
  Mobile messaging platform WhatsApp has accumulated more than 700 million monthly active users and seems on track to reach 1 billion in about a year, a target Facebook set when it acquired the company in 2014.The announcement comes about 11 months after Facebook acquired the app for US$16 billion, a move that reflected the importance that Facebook places on mobile users.The latest WhatsApp milestone is significant because it also highlights the recent rise of messaging apps as a more popular a
  
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• Startup Reddo Mobility Gets $4.25M to Give Windows Apps a Second Wind

  07-01-2015 16:02
  
  Desktop Windows apps aren't disappearing from enterprises overnight, but if startup Reddo Mobility has its way, many of them will morph into mobilized ones sooner than later.
  This startup-of-sorts – Cambridge, Mass.-based Reddo emerged last summer from a restructuring of HTML5 developer tools vendor Gizmox – Wednesday announced it is flush with a fresh $4.25 million in funding to pursue its mission. Gizmox had raised $18 million over the years.
  Reddo’s first funding round since spinnin
  
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• Manoj Saxena Appointed to Dallas Fed's San Antonio Branch Board - Business Wire (press release)

  07-01-2015 16:00
  Manoj Saxena Appointed to Dallas Fed's San Antonio Branch Board
  Business Wire (press release)
  Saxena has held leadership positions as a business leader, IT executive and venture capitalist. He currently serves as chairman of Cognitive Scale and founding managing director of The Entrepreneur's Fund IV. He also is a special advisor to IBM senior ...
  
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• Google Talks Video Ads at CES

  07-01-2015 15:41
  
  Google wants to do for video advertising what it's already done for search and display — make video ads seamless, make it easy to measure them transparently and make video hugely impactful for brands. "Vegas is actually the perfect place to be giving a keynote about brand advertising," said Neal Mohan, Google's vice president of display and video ads, at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES)."You show up with a fat wallet, full of confidence," but after betting on uncertai
  
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• Palm Lives! TCL to Revive the Classic Brand

  07-01-2015 15:40
  
  Early smartphone pioneer Palm is making a comeback—at least in name. Chinese multinational TCL Communication, which produces smartphones as the Alcatel OneTouch, recently announced it would relaunch the Palm brand as a U.S.-based company. TCL acquired the rights to the Palm name from Hewlett-Packard.
  Although the name Palm will return, the original company won't be resurrected. The last remnants of the original Palm are distributed across LG, which now owns the webOS platform after purchas
  
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• How to Turn Your iPhone Into a USB Thumb Drive

  07-01-2015 15:36
  
  I used to carry a USB drive containing important files on my keychain. Just in case the drive fell into criminal hands, I encrypted the files. Unfortunately, the drive's software, which I needed to access the files, didn't always work the way it was supposed to. So I gave up.Thankfully, you don't need to carry a keychain-based USB drive anymore. All you need is a decent app to transfer files between your computer and smartphone (or tablet).Apple's iOS devices were apparently out to lunch when
  
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• Data Security, Mobile and the Cloud are the Main Headaches for IT Leaders says BCS

  07-01-2015 15:24
  
  Security and loss of data, mobile working and the cloud are the top things that keep digital leaders awake at night, according to a survey from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
  The Institute's annual Digital Leaders survey among 350 senior IT pros gives a snapshot of what organisations are planning for over the next 12 months, and the longer term period of 3-5 years.
  The survey revealed that information security (60 percent), cloud computing (55 percent) and mobile computing - including
  
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• Sony and Chase: Don’t Blame the CISO

  07-01-2015 14:42
  
  Over the last couple of weeks, I have read numerous news stories about the widely publicized security breaches at Sony and JPMorgan Chase. It seems as if everybody is a Monday-morning quarterback, with every other reporter voicing an opinion on how these breaches should have been prevented. In particular, I read two articles that specifically blamed the information security organizations at those companies for failing to properly stop the attackers. That’s not fair.To read this article in
  
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• The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Wednesday, January 7

  07-01-2015 14:15
  
  Beat out of a windfall?Apple’s headline-grabbing $3 billion acquisition of Beats last year was a nice earner for Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine—but were the co-developers of the iconic headphones cheated out of their fair share? That’s the claim of a lawsuit charging fraud that’s been filed by Monster and CEO Noel Lee.Intel pledges to boost diversityAfter thoughtlessly stepping in a big pile of controversy over women in tech last summer, Intel is stepping up to tackle the diversity problem:
  
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• Why Betting on Google is Risky Business for Enterprises

  07-01-2015 14:00
  
  Google has an enviable track record for new services it unleashes on the masses, but not all of its bets pay off. The company supplanted many industries and carved significant roles for itself in emerging businesses during the last 16 years, but there have still been rough patches and complete misses.No company succeeds in all of its endeavors. However, when Google fails or decides to throw in the towel on one of its many projects there are often far reaching repercussions. It sometimes doesn
  
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• How Ecommerce Businesses Can Beat the Competition in 2015

  07-01-2015 13:55
  
  In 2015, global B2C ecommerce sales are expected to be over $1.7 trillion, with mobile commerce accounting for nearly $300 billion in sales. And as online business owners know, the ecommerce space has become increasingly competitive, with e-tailers constantly having to come up with new ways to attract consumers, many of whom shop via a mobile device (smartphone or tablet).[ Related: 7 Resolutions Ecommerce Businesses Should Make for 2015 ]So what can online businesses do to help ensure they s
  
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• Should You Hire a Chief Social Media Officer?

  07-01-2015 13:35
  
  A social media presence for your business is no longer optional. It's a necessary part of your marketing, communications and customer relationship strategy in today's digital marketplace. It makes sense, then, to put this important function in the hands of an experienced, knowledgeable professional. Some experts even recommend creating a Chief Social Media Officer role.
  
  The Case for a Chief Social Media Officer (CSMO)
  
  "The days of putting an intern or entry-level employee in charge of a co
  
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• In IoT Standards Battle, There is No Neutral Zone for This CTO

  07-01-2015 13:23
  
  LAS VEGAS – Jan Brockmann, the chief technology officer at AB Electrolux, one of the world's largest appliance makers, is on a mission at the International CES trade show to help shape the future of the Internet of Things.
  Electrolux operates 45 factories and has many brands, including Frigidaire, Eureka and Kelvinator. Brockmann believes the Internet of Things (IoT) is critical to his company. He wants the big IT vendors to cooperate on IoT protocols and allow his company's appliances to
  
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• IoT companies should ensure consumer privacy, warns US regulator

  07-01-2015 13:10
  
  Internet connected devices are popping up like wildfire at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. But while this new technology has the potential to provide enormous benefits for consumers, tech companies should put more effort into protecting consumer privacy and security, a top official at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said.Every new gadget revealed at CES seems to be connected to a smartphone, the Internet or location services in one way or the other, whether it’s a he
  
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• 6 Social Engineering Tricks That Can be Avoided if You're Careful

  07-01-2015 13:00
  
  Six Social Engineering tricks that can be avoided if you're carefulImage by ShutterstockSocial Engineers work on multiple levels. The key to their success is to target human nature and emotion. However, some of their most common tricks can be avoided if their victims have advanced warning. With that said, here's six of the most common tricks, presented by someone who uses them often: Nathan Drier, the Principal Security Consultant at Trustwave.To read this article in full or to leave a comment,
  
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• A Glimpse of the Smartwatch of 2020

  07-01-2015 12:30
  
  LAS VEGAS -- What will smartwatches look like and how will they function in 2020?
  Today there are already hundreds of models from dozens of vendors, some focused on fashion, while others have a sleek, modern design and functions that include cameras, cellular or Wi-Fi wireless connections and more.
  In five years, some industry insiders said they would like smartwatches to be as fully functioning as smartphones, only smaller and able to run apps as well as make calls and take photos.
  Others
  
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• The Big 4 Java IDEs Compared

  07-01-2015 12:00
  
  When you think of a Java IDE, you undoubtedly imagine a graphical application in which you write Java source code, then compile, debug, and run it. Of course that's a small part of the picture -- if you're building a Java application, odds are good you're working with more than Java.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Curved displays from TVs see uptake in PCs, monitors

  07-01-2015 09:00
  
  Curved displays may be a fad in TVs, but they could stick around longer in computer monitors.Samsung’s curved TVs inspired a new all-in-one PC with a curved display, and Hewlett-Packard and Dell announced new 34-inch curved displays at the International CES in Las Vegas. The curved displays provide a snug and immersive viewing experience, the companies argued.At first glance, the monitors resembled flat LCD panels, and the slight curvature became noticeable only after closer inspection. Tho
  
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• China's OnePlus targets flagship phones from big players

  07-01-2015 08:20
  
  Carl Pei is only 25 and his one-year-old startup has set out to figuratively kill the other leading smartphones in the market.It’s certainly an ambitious goal for a Chinese company few may have heard of. But last year, his company OnePlus came out with a phone marketed as the “Flagship Killer” that went off and became an underground hit—not just in China, but also in the U.S, where the demand has outstripped the supply.“We basically weren’t prepared for what happened,” said Pei,
  
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• Apple's Beats unit sued by Monster over headphone deal

  07-01-2015 07:15
  
  Apple’s Beats Electronics and its cofounders have been sued in a U.S. court for allegedly easing out headphones developer Monster from a partnership ahead of the 2014 acquisition by the iPhone maker.Describing a 2011 investment by HTC in Beats as a “sham transaction,” Monster and its founder Noel Lee have alleged that the deal was used by Beats to invoke a clause in its contract with Monster to end the partnership while retaining all rights to the headphone technology.HTC, which has als
  
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• Microsoft reports variant of banking malware that targets German speakers

  07-01-2015 05:35
  
  Microsoft says German speakers are being targeted by a new variant of a powerful type of malware that steals online banking credentials.The malware, called Emotet, was spotted around last June by security vendors. It is notable for its ability to sniff out credentials sent over encrypted HTTPS connections by tapping into eight network APIs, according to a writeup from Trend Micro from last year.Microsoft has been observing a new variant, Trojan:Win32/Emotet.C, which was sent out as part of a
  
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• Retail banks' IT investments to focus on revenue growth: survey - THE BUSINESS TIMES

  07-01-2015 04:27
  
  THE BUSINESS TIMES
  Retail banks' IT investments to focus on revenue growth: survey
  THE BUSINESS TIMES
  Forty-three per cent of senior IT executive respondents in Ovum's ICT Enterprise Insights survey have signalled "supporting revenue growth" as one of their top three priorities for this year. "The need to grow topline revenue through sales and customer ...
  
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• Intel's tiny Curie wearable computer could go into jacket buttons

  07-01-2015 03:55
  
  Intel wants to win the battle for your body with the smallest ever wearable computer called Curie, which is so tiny, it was barely visible to the audience during an on-stage demonstration.The button-sized computer will go into different types of wearables, even tiny coin battery devices that typically run for days and months, said Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, during a keynote at the International CES in Las Vegas on Tuesday.“This product—they can deliver wearables in a range of form fact
  
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• Almere kiest voor Xerox

  07-01-2015 03:45
  De gemeente Almere heeft na een Europese aanbesteding besloten om het volledige printerpark te vervangen door multifunctionele machines en productieprinters van Xerox. De gemeente wil over flexibele afdrukmogelijkheden beschikken en voorbereid zijn op digitalisering van documenten.
  
  Xerox zal bij de repro drie... lees meer
  
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• Gogo Inflight Internet Serves Up 'Man-in-the-Middle' with Fake SSL

  07-01-2015 02:58
  
  When a third party inserts itself between a user and a destination website and uses fake SSL certificates in an attempt to cover it up, it's usually known as a "man-in-the-middle" attack, and offers an opportunity for outsiders to eavesdrop on conversations and steal credentials.
  Four days ago, Google Chrome security engineer Adrienne Porter Felt was on an flight where she was using Gogo's in-flight Internet -- and discovered that Gogo was issuing fake Google certificates.
  According to Gogo,
  
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• Wearables expand to waistline, feet and fingers

  07-01-2015 02:55
  
  Wearables for the wrist are all the rage at this year’s International CES show, but companies are also coming up with devices meant to be worn on your waist, your feet and your index finger.Enter Belty, a smart belt developed by French firm Emiota. When you put it on, the mechanical belt buckle will tighten around you automatically for a comfortable fit. It will then adjust the waist size automatically when it appears you’re sitting down or standing up.Emiota designed the smart belt as a
  
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