IT Executive news

• BrandPost: 3 Reasons for IT to Embrace Modern Collaboration

  15-10-2015 22:30
  
  IT is in a powerful position to provide mission-critical technologies across the enterprise. When it comes to communication and collaboration, organizations are often dealing with a myriad of complex options in addition to maintaining or deprecating legacy systems.In order to empower modern business collaboration, IT has to move beyond maintaining clunky legacy collaboration tools and instead embracing true, mobile-enabled, cloud-powered collaboration that meets the needs of every member of your
  
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• Canon aims to make impact in 3D printer market

  15-10-2015 20:30
  
  If Canon were to use its prototype 3D printer to print components for production models, Rep-Rap style, customers might see it a little faster.Canon claims, after all, that its new 3D printing technology will be good enough for rapid manufacturing, in addition to the rapid prototyping for which many businesses already use 3D printing.However, while the company showed off samples printed with the prototype at Canon Expo, an event for its customers in Paris this week, the machine itself was a no-s
  
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• 7 simple, low-cost ways to acquire new customers

  15-10-2015 19:59
  
  Even the most successful brands need new customers if they want to grow their business, or stay profitable. And while there are more places, and ways, than ever to find prospective customers, you can waste a lot of time and money by choosing the wrong customer acquisition strategy.So what are some of the best, most cost-effective ways to attract shoppers to your products or services? Dozens of marketing and sales experts share their top seven low-cost strategies for new customer acquisition. [ R
  
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• JetBlue adds free Wi-Fi, says it can handle streaming video

  15-10-2015 18:53
  In-flight Wi-Fi has a reputation for being painfully slow and overpriced, but JetBlue says its new Wi-Fi service is both fast and free.
  As of this week, JetBlue’s “Fly-Fi” satellite Internet service is installed on all 150 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. The airline aims to install Fly-Fi on 60 E190 planes—the rest of its fleet—by the end of 2016.
  JetBlue, which has partnered with Internet provider ViaSat, claims it will offer “up to” 20 Mbps per device.
  
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• Tesla enables Autosteer, other autonomous tweaks, in its Model S

  15-10-2015 17:49
  
  Tesla today released an over-the-air software upgrade that enables five new autopilot functions for its Model S sedans, including a beta version of Autosteer and Auto Lane Change.
  While Autosteer is more akin to an enhanced adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist than a fully self-driving vehicle; it does automatically maintain distances from other cars around the Model S.
  Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk has said his company will produce a fully autonomous vehicle within three years. Te
  
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• VMware to buy mobile email manager Boxer

  15-10-2015 17:42
  
  At VMWorld Europe, virtualization kingpin VMware announced plans to augment its mobile management suite with the purchase of startup Boxer.
  +MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What Dell buying EMC means for VMware | Will Pat Gelsinger need a new laptop after the Dell-EMC deal? +
  The Texas-based company founded in 2012 has built an email management app for Android and iOS that’s gained popularity in the consumer market. It aggregates email from Exchange, GMail, Yahoo, iCloud and AOL, among others and
  
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• Aruba succeeded where other Wi-Fi companies failed: A talk with the founder about the acquisition by HP, what comes next with Wi-Fi

  15-10-2015 17:42
  
  Wireless LAN stalwart Aruba was acquired by HP last March for $3 billion, so Network World Editor in Chief John Dix visited Aruba co-founder Keerti Melkote to see how the integration is going and for his keen insights on the evolution of Wi-Fi. Melkote has seen it all, growing Aruba from a startup in 2002 to the largest independent Wi-Fi company with 1,800 employees. After Aruba was pulled into HP he was named CTO of the combined network business, which employs roughly 5,000. In this far rangin
  
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• Analytics and the state of knowing

  15-10-2015 17:34
  
  For the past seven years, I have traveled around the world asking organizations what they know, what they don’t know, what they need to know and how they come to know. Answers in hand, I have set about examining the data in the context of business outcomes and mission accomplishment (in the case of not-for-profit enterprises). I have come to some broad conclusions about the general state of knowing in the world today. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click h
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why I gave up on iOS gaming and bought a Nintendo 3DS XL

  15-10-2015 17:18
  I've finally thrown in the towel when it comes to gaming on my iPad and iPhone. I've tried for years to really enjoy games from the iOS app store, but I've come to the conclusion that gaming on iOS devices stinks and that it's not going to get any better.
  I hate to admit that because I really do love my iPhone 6s and iPad Air 2. They are delightful devices and they do quite a bit for me. But I've finally been forced to admit that they just don't cut it when it comes to playing games.
  iOS freemi
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why I gave up on iOS gaming

  15-10-2015 17:18
  I've finally thrown in the towel when it comes to gaming on my iPad and iPhone. I've tried for years to really enjoy games from the iOS app store, but I've come to the conclusion that gaming on iOS devices stinks and that it's not going to get any better.
  I hate to admit that because I really do love my iPhone 6s and iPad Air 2. They are delightful devices and they do quite a bit for me. But I've finally been forced to admit that they just don't cut it when it comes to playing games.
  iOS freemi
  
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• Malvertising is a troubling trend

  15-10-2015 17:16
  
  Over the past few weeks, my company’s employees have been hit by more than the usual number of malware infections. And the reason why is both startling and troubling, because these infections represent a new type of threat that is much harder to avoid than anything we’ve seen before.
  It started three weeks ago when my application firewall sent out an alert about active malware known as the Angler exploit kit on one of my company’s computers. This came as a surprise, because my
  
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• Death to passwords! New Yahoo Mail protects with push notifications instead

  15-10-2015 16:54
  Yahoo began its assault on the password in March with SMS-based two-factor authentication, and now the company wants to finish what it started. On Thursday, Yahoo announced Yahoo Account Key, a password-less method of logging in to Yahoo Mail that will roll out to other Yahoo services in the coming months.
  Account Key effectively works like two-factor authentication, allowing you to authorize new logins via your smartphone or tablet. The only difference is Account Key is not a secondary back-up
  
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• Windows 10 upgrades reportedly appearing as mandatory for some users

  15-10-2015 16:24
  
  Microsoft is reportedly making it harder for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users to avoid the upgrade to Windows 10.
  Some users now claim that they no longer see an option in the Control Panel to install updates to their current version of Windows. Instead, a message says that the “upgrade to Windows 10 is ready,” and prompts users to “restart your PC to begin the installation.” Another user claims to have seen a countdown timer for installing Windows 10, with an option to r
  
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• Government watchdog blasts IRS for mismanaged migrations from Windows XP, Server 2003

  15-10-2015 16:08
  
  Government auditors have blasted the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for missing deadlines to upgrade Windows XP PCs and data center servers running Windows Server 2003, both of which have been retired by Microsoft.
  In a recently released report, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) criticized the IRS for spending nearly $140 million on upgrading Windows XP to Windows 7 even as it failed to meet the support cut-off of April 2014. At the deadline, over half of the IRS's P
  
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• Apple comes to controversial iOS 9 Wi-Fi Assist's defense

  15-10-2015 15:48
  
  Since Apple released iOS 9 in mid-September for its iPhones and iPads one of the most talked about -- and maligned -- features has been a hard-to-find one dubbed Wi-Fi Assist. But Apple has been pretty quiet about the feature until this week.
  In a nutshell, Wi-Fi Assist is designed to save your connection from crapping out when you're in a weak Wi-Fi zone by switching you over to cellular wireless. And the feature is on by default.
  The problem there, if Wi-Fi Assist's tolerance for Wi-Fi shakin
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to maximize stakeholder involvement when acquiring new enterprise software

  15-10-2015 15:18
  
  Conventional wisdom is that stakeholders must be involved when selecting enterprise software. But who are the stakeholders and why must they be involved? How can you maximize that involvement? Note that this is not a technical issue, but a people issue that directly affects the outcome of a software acquisition project.Who are the stakeholders?
  Internal users: Employees who make regular use of the system. In most projects, the internal users are the most relevant stakeholders. If they have truly
  
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• The cloud changes IT culture, demands new tech skills

  15-10-2015 15:00
  As enterprises are moving to the cloud, it's changing a whole lot more than just where companies' data and services are sitting.Most of the changes the tech workers had to go through were at least eventually met with acceptance and sometimes excitement. Fewer than 10 of their IT people left the company because of the changes they were asked to make.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Tracking is no longer just on the rails for Boston's MBTA

  15-10-2015 14:54
  
  Big Conductor could be watching you … but only if you want him (or her) to.
  That, of course, is not the way a press release a couple of weeks ago put it, announcing the launch of a pilot program by private contractor Intersection to track riders’ who are using the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) system in 10 of its stations in Boston and Cambridge.
  The pitch from Intersection, an “urban experience” company created through a merger of media company
  
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• How marketing tech lets you get personal with your customers

  15-10-2015 14:19
  
  In the "Good Old Days," businesses had personal relationships with their customers. They knew who their customers were and what they liked. Today, technology and the sheer scale of business have disrupted that one-to-one relationship. The result has been a surge in marketing tech and the value of customer data as businesses seek new ways to understand who their customers are and what they want."It used to be all about the shopkeeper," says Nick Worth, CMO of Belgium-based omnichannel marketing a
  
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• 'Legitimate' rooting apps paving way for malware

  15-10-2015 14:00
  
  Companies that create tools for "rooting" Android phones may be within the law, but they may be inadvertently paving the way for malware developers.
  According to a paper presented this week by University of California professor Zhiyun Qian, the developers of commercial root apps work hard to break the security of Android devices -- and then malware developers either piggyback on those exploits or figure out how they work and incorporate them into their own apps.
  Somewhere between 27 and 47 perc
  
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• Is the office desk phone obsolete?

  15-10-2015 14:00
  
  It's found in every modern business, on every desk. It's powerful enough to connect even the most geographically distant workers, and yet, it strikes fear into the hearts of many millennial workers. It's the desk phone, and despite the prevalence of text messaging, collaboration apps and video conferencing, rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.
  "Maybe the desk phone is headed for retirement, but it's not there yet. There's still a significant portion of the workforce that prefers u
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Healthcare - moving beyond average

  15-10-2015 14:00
  
  There is an obvious incentive for healthcare providers to realize the full potential of value-based care; however, for that to happen, the industry needs to recognize how widespread conformity is in the profession, and how many individuals change attitudes and behaviors to match the norms.Many of the best and brightest mimic the healthcare organizations they believe should be followed.The question becomes, "Can healthcare providers break informational influence enough to tell a more comprehensiv
  
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• Canon balances privacy, efficacy in CCTV demos

  15-10-2015 13:59
  
  For a few days this week, one corner of Paris became one of the most closely surveilled in the city, as Canon showed what the future of CCTV might look like. The company demonstrated a system that respect privacy by only recording persons entering a restricted area, and another that can call up images from a network of cameras corresponding to a person of interest. Canon is increasingly moving beyond its core activities in copying/printing, medical imaging and photography, boosting its
  
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• 4 ways businesses can close the legacy tech skills gap

  15-10-2015 13:25
  
  As older IT professionals age out of the workforce, companies are employing a variety of strategies to ensure the next generation of technologists can keep their legacy tech running smoothly.
  "One of the most significant challenges businesses face when it comes to legacy technology is perception. Generally, in the IT industry, newer is better -- we're always looking for the next hot thing. But these legacy technologies -- like COBOL, mainframes, C and C++, among others -- still have value, and t
  
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• 10 (mostly) free must-have Windows 10 apps

  15-10-2015 13:15
  
  Get these apps firstApps not only make using your Windows 10 device easier by giving you better ways to do the things you want to do, they can also make the experience a lot more fun. While there are plenty of built-in apps on Windows 10 devices, there’s a whole host of free or almost-fee apps that are guaranteed to make you more productive. These essentials tools will allow you to work with, share and annotate documents; back up your important data; organize and personalize your desktop;
  
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• Asus ZenWatch 2 review: It convinced me to wear a smartwatch every day

  15-10-2015 13:00
  
  I’m so happy to have finally found an Android Wear watch I like. The ZenWatch 2 isn’t perfect, but it’s managed to fill the void until other smartwatch makers start catching on that it’s really what a watch looks like that matters most.
  Android Wear is still in its infancy, but that’s okay. It’s Google’s job to work on the software and pump it up with features that users will find helpful. And as Google is busy toiling away at that, the manufacturers ar
  
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• Top 4 marketing automation tools and why you'll love (and hate) them

  15-10-2015 12:52
  
  Modern marketing isn't just about funnels and conversions. Really, it's all about the tools.
  Hundreds of SaaS marketing tools exist that are designed to handle everything from scheduling tweets to helping marketers better understand their audiences. To determine which tools are worth the money, we asked digital marketers to weigh in. Here are the top four marketing automation tools (in terms of votes) cited by our 28 respondents, along with a few alternative utilities that are also worth a look
  
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• Road warriors are prime targets for hackers

  15-10-2015 12:18
  
  Many executives—particularly senior business leaders—frequently travel worldwide as part of their jobs. Hackers and cyber criminals know this, and that adds a risk factor that companies should not ignore.
  “Adversaries in the form of businesses, governments and criminals target traveling business executives for the same two reasons they always have: the actual person, and information the executive has,” says Jim Jones, an associate professor in the Computer Forensics prog
  
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• Review: VMware Workstation 12 gets a shine for Windows 10

  15-10-2015 12:00
  
  Think of VMware Workstation 12 as VMware Workstation 11, Service Pack 1. The latest point release of the commercial virtualization environment for desktop machines is decidedly incremental, the changes adding little beyond official support for the most recent generation of hardware and the latest revisions of operating systems to be run either as a VMware guest or host. That said, there’s little one might want from a desktop virtualization platform that Workstation doesn’t already p
  
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• Hoe gaat softwareselectie in het SaaS-tijdperk?

  15-10-2015 09:54
  Spreadsheets. Planners in de business kunnen niet zonder. CIO's krijgen er hoofdpijn van omdat ze nogal eens een eigen leven leiden naast andere systemen. Financieel directeuren, strategy en operations directeuren en hoofden verkoop praatten op de eind september gehouden gebruikersbijeenkomst Hub15 van SaaS-vendor... lees meer
  
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• Cloud-infra groeit met bijna 25% in 2015

  15-10-2015 09:43
  De totale uitgaven aan IT-infrastructuur voor cloud services zoals servers, opslag en ethernet switches, (gecorrigeerd voor overlap tussen servers en opslag) zal groeien met ruim 24% tot ruim 32 miljard dollar dit jaar, aldus een rapport van IT-marktonderzoeker IDC.Dit bedrag staat voor een derde van de totale... lees meer
  
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• Is Apple's security honeymoon on OS X ending?

  15-10-2015 06:02
  
  Apple scored unforgettable hits against Microsoft with its Mac vs. PC ads, which anthropomorphized Windows as a sneezing, miserable office worker.  
  Security experts always knew that the campaign was a clever bit of marketing fluff, one that allowed Apple to capitalize on Microsoft's painful, years-long security revamp.
  The landscape is changing, however. Apple's market share of desktop computers is nearing 17 percent. OS X, Apple's operating system, is popular with consumers and enterpris
  
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• AT&T's single-number service for connected devices does the carrier a favor, too

  15-10-2015 02:28
  
  AT&T now has a way to use the same phone number for all your connected devices, a capability that could simplify some subscribers' lives but may have more to do with the carrier's own goals.The new service, called NumberSync, lets subscribers assign their primary phone number to wearables and other devices via AT&T's network. It's a technical leap beyond the legacy numbering system to help subscribers -- and AT&T -- take advantage of the Internet of Things. With all your devices
  
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• BrandPost: System Misconfigurations Can Put Your Data at Risk

  15-10-2015 02:23
  
  While many organizations focus on their vulnerability management programs to find critical vulnerabilities like the highly-publicized Shellshock, Poodle and Ghost, it’s equally important to validate system build and configuration change management processes, as these activities can also leave your systems and data at risk.How can system misconfigurations leave you vulnerable?A good example is last year's data breach at MBIA. MBIA is the largest bond insurer in the USA and was in the news
  
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• Why Intel continues to make money while PCs nose-dive, in two words

  15-10-2015 01:53
  We normally think of Intel as the engine of the PC. But as Intel proved on Tuesday, the company can keep increasing revenue even as the PC market declines—and if it ever recovers, Intel’s business is poised to take off.
  Why? Data centers.
  Intel’s consumer processor division, called the Client Computing Group, still makes up close to 60 percent of its business—$8.51 billion in total third-quarter revenue, compared to $4.1 billion for its Data Center Group. But while CCG&n
  
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• Think Apple OS X is below the malware radar? Think again

  15-10-2015 01:52
  
  Instances of Apple OS X malware are soaring this year, already totaling more than five times the number tallied over the previous five years combined, according to an in-house Bit9 + Carbon Black tally.
  Instances totaled 180 from 2010 through 2014, but have already reached 948, according to “2015: The most Prolific Year in History for OS X Malware”, the results of a 10-week study of malware crafted for the operating system.
  The Bit9+Carbon Black research team analyzed data it gather
  
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• Skype: The final frontier?

  15-10-2015 01:51
  
  Microsoft, Skype's parent company, earlier this year unveiled a public preview of its translator tool, and it's straight out of Star Trek.
  I have always wanted my relatives that live abroad to be able to connect with my wife here in the U.S. Until now, the fact that they don't speak the same language has prevented them from being able to have a meaningful conversation. The Skype Translator is on course to change that.
  Although translations for Russian and Ukrainian -- the two languages that wou
  
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• Feud heats up over chip cards, FBI warning

  15-10-2015 01:50
  
  A National Retail Federation attorney said Wednesday that an updated FBI warning on chip card vulnerabilities waters down the need for PIN security.
  The FBI on Friday posted a revised warning about vulnerabilities with new chip-embedded credit cards that deletes language about the need to use PIN security, which had appeared in the FBI's original version last week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• VW to focus on hybrids and electric cars, will revamp diesels

  15-10-2015 01:48
  
  After suffering a regulatory and public relations debacle over cheating emissions tests, Volkswagen announced a new strategy that will see it focus on hybrids and electric cars.
  VW also said it will be revamping its diesel vehicles to include traditional emissions control systems.
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other European environmental agencies charged VW with using embedded software to thwart emissions standards by turning on emission control systems during tests and turning
  
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• BT Group may give OpenStack the boot

  15-10-2015 01:32
  
  OpenStack has gained considerable popularity over the years for its open-source cloud platform, but this week it looks like one major user is seriously considering dropping the technology in favor of a proprietary alternative.U.K.-based telecom giant BT Group said it will switch to a different option for delivering virtual enterprise services, according to a Wednesday report in Light Reading, unless OpenStack can address its concerns regarding six key areas: virtual network functions, service ch
  
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• Microsoft details takedown requests in expanded transparency report

  15-10-2015 01:10
  
  In response to growing government demands for data, tech companies have been detailing those requests in transparency reports that elaborate on what gets done when government agencies come calling for users' data.Microsoft just released the latest incarnation of its data on Wednesday, including a new report on requests to get information taken down from the company's services.  Those requests, unsurprisingly, are focused on Bing, since it's the Microsoft service most responsible f
  
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• 9 ways to celebrate “Back to the Future” Day

  15-10-2015 00:02
  
  Another made up geeky dayWednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 marks the day in which time-traveler Marty McFly arrives from the past (from the movie “Back to the Future Part II”. The Internet is freaking out about this upcoming “holiday”, and in the tradition of fake geeky holidays like “Star Wars Day” (May 4), Pi Day (March 14) and “Talk like a Pirate Day” (September something), we now have a day to celebrate everything related to the time-travel movie, which
  
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