IT Executive news

• Microsoft antagonizes users with intrusive new Windows 10 upgrade tactics

  16-10-2015 21:11
  
  Microsoft has gone aggressive -- far too aggressive, say some -- in its push to get users onto Windows 10, including setting the upgrade to automatically download through Windows Update, and on some PCs, blocking all other updates from installing and offering only the choice of upgrading to the new OS or delaying the deal for 48 hours.
  Perhaps coincidentally, the latest stratagems coincided with a noticeable increase in Windows 10's usage share, a measure of an operating system's online activit
  
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• FAQ: The FCC’s upcoming broadcast-TV spectrum auction

  16-10-2015 21:09
  
  The Federal Communications Commission on Friday took another step toward its unprecedented auction of broadcast TV spectrum, expected to kick off on March 29, 2016.
  A major goal of the auction is to make more wireless broadband spectrum available for an explosion of 4G and, soon, 5G demands, as users stream video and other data to smartphones, tablets and other devices.What's the latest?The FCC on Friday gave hundreds of TV stations throughout the nation maximum opening competitive bidding pric
  
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• Windows-centric IBM changes its tune on Mac deployments

  16-10-2015 20:36
  
  IBM is doing something it has never done before: allowing employees to use Macs at work. So far it’s a success. Four months into its new program, IBM finds Mac support requirements are lower than those of a traditional PC environment, customer satisfaction is higher, and the pricier upfront cost of buying a Mac is more than offset over time.
  For a longtime Windows-centric organization, it’s a big change.
  “There had always been quite a lot of built-up demand by people who wante
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How do you define project success?

  16-10-2015 20:22
  Project success is what we all strive for. Yet, that may be a moving target based on the wants, needs and preferences of your corporate leadership or your project customer. Some say, “make it profitable” and voila...you're a success. Some say, deliver on time and you're a success. Some want both. Same say it's all about customer satisfaction...which often has an element of the other two in it. Usually, if you are delivering late or way over budget, the customer isn't likely going to
  
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• iFixit teardowns reveal new iMac and Magic accessories are hard to repair

  16-10-2015 19:12
  
  The freshly announced 21.5-inch Retina iMac, Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2, and Magic Trackpad have already been cracked open for your viewing pleasure, mostly to see how easy they are to repair. The verdict: They are incredibly difficult to fix on your own. (Surprised?)
  The team at iFixit immediately got to work taking apart the new iMac, keyboard, mouse, and trackpad, and while each teardown is worth a read, we picked out the highlights.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, plea
  
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• Why we need behavior-centric detection and response

  16-10-2015 19:03
  
  According to the Verizon 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), 60 percent of the time, attackers were able to compromise an organization within minutes. Meanwhile, in more than 75 percent of the cases, the average time to discover breaches was measured in days. These findings  indicate a growing “detection deficit” between attackers and defenders. Verizon sees this as one of the primary challenges to the security industry today and going forward.
  For incident responder
  
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• LinkedIn Groups gets (mediocre) makeover, new iOS app

  16-10-2015 18:52
  
  LinkedIn Groups got a makeover this week, along with and its first-ever iOS mobile app. Some of the changes are extensions and modernizations of existing features, but other improvements could help Groups members keep the ideas and conversation flowing.The professional social network recently made some policy changes to Groups, and it is now following up with an iOS app and new look and feel for the desktop experience. Some longtime Groups users see the redesign as a welcome change, while others
  
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• BYOD is as entrenched (and complicated) as ever

  16-10-2015 18:24
  
  The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend has been around for years in U.S. workplaces and even though it's become a fixture at many companies, some IT shops are still coming to grips with it.
  In hard numbers, the prevalence of BYOD in the workplace is difficult to measure. Researchers offer a wide variety of statistics.
  Research firm Strategy Analytics, for example, said three-quarters of business smartphones and tablets shipped in the second quarter in North America were slated to wind up in the
  
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• Google's book scanning project is fair use, appeals court rules

  16-10-2015 18:17
  
  Google's book scanning project constitutes fair use under U.S. copyright law, an appeals court confirmed Friday, ending a ten-year legal fight by the Authors Guild and other writers' groups to have it stopped.
  Google began working with libraries in 2004 to digitize their book collections, including works still protected under copyright, and makes snippets of the digital copies accessible through its Google Books search engine.
  Authors filed suit against Google in 2005, complaining that this bre
  
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• Red Hat dives further into DevOps with Ansible buy

  16-10-2015 18:15
  
  Red Hat will acquire IT automation software provider Ansible in a bid to bolster the tools it can offer enterprises for managing hybrid cloud environments through DevOps and other initiatives.
  The deal is expected to close this month. Terms were not disclosed, but at least one report suggests a purchase price above $100 million.
  Red Hat declined to provide further details.
  Ansible offers modular enterprise-grade software for automating apps, systems and cloud resources. The North Carolina compa
  
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• Why you shouldn’t trust cloud service providers

  16-10-2015 18:05
  
  Simply stated, you can’t trust the employees of cloud service providers. Frankly, I don’t think we can really trust our own employees anymore either, but at least our capability to monitor them is far greater. Early on we had warnings of the problem of just anyone having access to secure data when Google Engineers got caught stalking Google customers through their access. Their getting caught and our finding out about it was pretty remote. I’ve seen, over the years, crimes rang
  
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• New Microsoft trade-in deal will give you up to $300 for your old MacBook or laptop

  16-10-2015 17:14
  
  The only thing the Microsoft Store loves more than a trade-in deal is a trade-in deal for Apple devices. On Thursday, the company launched its latest appeal to Apple owners by offering up to $300 for MacBook trade-ins. You can also trade-in other riffraff running that Windows thing for up to $200 back. Surface trade-ins are not allowed, nor are laptops not intended for sale in the U.S. and Canada (gray market/imported devices).
  As usual, it’s not as simple as sliding your old laptop acros
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to uninstall Flash from your Mac

  16-10-2015 17:09
  Flash has been a steaming pile of crap for a long time, and now it's pile of crap that stinks even worse than it did before. BGR is reporting a major Flash vulnerability and the only way to protect yourself is to remove it entirely from your Mac.I'll show you how to remove Flash in this tip, but first here's a snippet from BGR's report:
  ...the company confirmed a major security vulnerability that affects all versions of Flash for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. You read that correctly…
  
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• Lenovo takes a stand against Microsoft Surface as other OEMs begrudgingly sell it

  16-10-2015 16:44
  Microsoft’s newfound success as a maker of high-end PCs is starting to create some awkward situations with other vendors.
  That much became clear this week, when Lenovo President and COO Gianfranco Lanci said he refused an arrangement to resell Surface devices to enterprise customers, The Register reports. Microsoft “asked me more than one year ago, and I said no, I don’t see any reason why I should sell a product from, within brackets, competition,” Lanci said.
  While it
  
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• Microsoft's Device Night lets you try out Surface Book and other Windows 10 devices

  16-10-2015 16:03
  
  The Hololens coming out party isn’t the only big product tour Microsoft's conducting in October. Beginning Monday, Microsoft fans in major cities from Atlanta to Vancouver will be able to get a first-hand look at the new Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL, and refreshed Microsoft Band.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Germany will make telcos share customer data with the police

  16-10-2015 15:51
  
  Even as the European Union attempts to tighten privacy laws, law-enforcement interests have won a battle in Germany: a new law forces communications service providers there to once again make data about their customers' communications available to police.On Friday morning, the German parliament approved a law requiring ISPs and mobile and fixed telecommunications operators to retain communications metadata for up to ten weeks.The country has had an on-again, off-again affair with telecommunicati
  
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• Sporting goods CIO hopes to hook customers with IoT, mobile apps

  16-10-2015 15:47
  
  Seconds after arriving at a rushing river decked out in his fishing gear, a man receives an email notification from his Orvis mobile app. The sporting good provider offers tips about different casting techniques, promising fishing holes, recommendations for bait, current fishing conditions and other helpful information. You can call it the Internet of Fishing. Orvis CIO Davis Finnegan calls it the future.That future will have to wait, though, as Finnegan has other fish to fry. Since joining the
  
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• 3 reasons to pick Google Keep over Evernote (and 3 reasons not to)

  16-10-2015 15:20
  
  More than two years after releasing the Google Keep note-taking app for Android and the Web, the search giant finally released an iOS version in late September. So now that Google Keep is native to iOS, Android, and the Web, can it making a dent in Evernote's massive (and loyal) user base?Maybe. Here are three good reasons to use Google Keep instead of Evernote. (I tested Google Keep on an iPhone, as well as an Android tablet and via a Web browser.) And to be fair, I also noted three ways E
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why Quest Diagnostics is an important showcase for healthcare partnerships and IT innovation

  16-10-2015 15:02
  
  Lab test market leader Quest Diagnostics recently announced an important big data analytics partnership with Inovalon, a cloud-based analytics provider, to deliver real-time patient analytics to Quest’s vast community of physicians and hospital systems. The partnership is a crucial step in Quest's evolution from a company known only for lab tests to becoming essentially a health information services company. This is important at many levels for healthcare industry observers, and more spec
  
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• AT&T to 'lifelong customer:' Shut up, talk to the lawyers

  16-10-2015 14:38
  
  You don't need an MBA to know that in business, few things are more important than listening to your customers. So it's surprising that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who earned an MBA from the University of Oklahoma, told a customer that AT&T isn't at all interested in his suggestions. Ever. In fact, if you send Stephenson an unsolicited suggestion, you'll get a similar response from his lawyers.Reuters/Kevin Lamarque AT&T CEO Randall StephensonTo read this article in full o
  
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• Lenovo feels IT's pain in 'Users Happen' ad campaign

  16-10-2015 14:00
  
  IT professionals spend a lot of time enabling secure access to data and productivity tools, but they also occasionally find themselves in humorous user support situations. A new Lenovo marketing campaign, called "Users Happen," highlights some of the most outlandish and hard-to-believe stories IT managers hear from employees when devices unexpectedly meet their makers. Users happen, IT deals with itMichael Ballard, senior manager of digital marketing at Lenovo, says the new campaign is des
  
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• Software quality sucks – what are you going to do about it?

  16-10-2015 13:29
  
  Are you getting fed up with software quality these days? To be more specific, the lack of any software quality? The giants in the industry are feeding us steaming piles of untested shoddy bits and it’s about time something was done about it.We’ve all heard a lot of noise about agile development methods and super quick iterations and moving at the speed of business. But when you stop and take a look at the software you actually use today, there’s no other conclusion than we can
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Enterprise IT appears to be going insane

  16-10-2015 13:20
  
  Long may we have high-quality, capable, resilient, inexpensive IT. Unfortunately for CIOs and enterprise IT, these characteristics don’t equate to “value” in 2015 in the opinion of business users. Increasingly, business users are less and less enchanted with IT consistently achieving its SLAs and KPIs and increasingly grouse about such things as a faster way to market, a better customer experience or a lower cost in the employee on-boarding process.Business users are frust
  
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• Intel's tiny Curie chip for wearables coming to Arduino early next year

  16-10-2015 12:15
  
  School kids and hardware enthusiasts who want to start tinkering with Intel's tiny Curie chip will be able to get their hands on it early next year in the form of an Arduino development board.
  Curie is a new chip module that Intel showed at the International CES in January. About a centimeter across, it includes a 32-bit microcontroller, Bluetooth Low Energy for connectivity, a small amount of RAM and Flash, and a six-axis sensor with a gyrometer and accelerometer.To read this article in full o
  
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• PC rivals band together in $70M ad effort to convince consumers they need a new machine

  16-10-2015 12:00
  
  Microsoft, Intel and the world's three largest computer makers -- Dell, HP and Lenovo -- have banded together for the first time in a joint marketing campaign to convince consumers they should replace their aged personal computers with new systems.
  The campaign relies on the tagline "PC Does What?" and will launch Oct. 19 with television, print, Web and social advertisements, along with "native" ads, a new term for the old-school label "advertorial." Native advertising is specially-designed dig
  
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• Kleinere cloud-aanbieders potentieel innovatiever en klantvriendelijker

  16-10-2015 10:32
  Grote cloud-aanbieders hebben tot nog toe klanten kunnen trekken en vasthouden met enorme opslagcapaciteit en lage tarieven. Maar ze hebben iets te verliezen: innovatiekracht en customer experience (CX). Kleinere providers, die meer open staan voor nieuwe ideeën en flexibeler zijn dan grote tech-reuzen, kunnen op... lees meer
  
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• US proposal aims to regulate car privacy, make hacks illegal

  16-10-2015 08:50
  
  A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives has proposed requiring vehicle manufacturers to state their privacy policies, besides providing for civil penalties of up to US$100,000 for the hacking of vehicles.The lawmakers have also proposed that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration set up an Automotive Cybersecurity Advisory Council to develop cybersecurity best-practices for manufacturers of cars sold in the U.S.The move comes in the wake of the increasing automation of ca
  
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• Google, Facebook and peers criticize CISA bill ahead of Senate consideration

  16-10-2015 06:53
  A trade group representing Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other tech and communications companies has come down heavily against the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, a controversial bill in the U.S. that is intended to encourage businesses to share information about cyberthreats with the government.The Computer & Communications Industry Association claims that the mechanism CISA prescribes for the sharing of cyberthreat information does not adequately protect users’ privacy o
  
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• Online ad industry, battling ad blockers, admits it messed up

  16-10-2015 06:31
  
  From one perspective, it could be argued that the online advertising industry is getting what it deserves. After years of having Web pages stuffed with ads, surfers are increasingly blocking them with free tools.The other perspective is that ads, like them or not, pay people to create content, which other people like on the Web. Since finding paying subscribers is hard, ads are a key source of online revenue for publishers.In a frank post on Thursday, a senior executive of the largest online adv
  
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• Software a winner as VC market heads to biggest year since dot-com era

  16-10-2015 06:18
  
  Venture capitalists are investing more money in private companies than at any time since the dot-com bust, with software companies grabbing the biggest slice of the pie.In the third quarter this year, the software sector received the highest level of funding of all industries in the U.S., scooping up US$5.8 billion in 412 deals, according to the latest MoneyTree Report.Venture capitalists also invested $5 billion in 242 of what the report calls "Internet-specific" companies, a classification for
  
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• China to consume nearly 30% of the world's flash, 21% of DRAM

  16-10-2015 02:43
  
  Chinese domestic DRAM and NAND flash consumption is dramatically increasing with the rise in popularity of Chinese PCs and smartphones, according to a new report from TrendForce.
  China this year will purchase $12 billion worth of DRAM and $6.67 billion worth of NAND flash, representing 21.6% and 29.1% of the global revenues for those markets, respectively.FlickrIntel and Micron's 20-nanometer NAND flash chip is smaller than a typical postage stamp and able to store 1 terabit of data.To read thi
  
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• The PC industry joins forces to promote PCs in a new, mildly cringey ad campaign

  16-10-2015 02:42
  
  Over the last few years, consumers have begun turning away from personal computers in favor of smaller, sexier phones and tablets. A group of major PC makers, plus Intel and Microsoft, think that it’s high time the PC gets its due.
  A multi-company ad campaign called “PC Does What” will show off the capabilities of a new generation of PCs powered by Intel sixth-generation Core processors from Intel and the Windows 10 operating system from Microsoft, and manufactured by Dell, He
  
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• Skype for all: Microsoft lets users send direct links to chat with anyone via Skype

  16-10-2015 02:40
  
  For millions, Skype remains the go-to VoIP app for messaging and communication. But millions more use WhatsApp or Google Hangouts or another solution. For them, Skype has a new option: initiating a Skype session via a direct link.
  It’s pretty simple: Users of Skype for Windows, Skype for Mac, or Skype for the Web will soon be able to send friends a link. Once they accept it, they’ll be able to launch Skype from the web and join the conversation. Also, if you have a Skype name a
  
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• Top Linux-o-lanterns from around the Web

  16-10-2015 02:30
  
  A glimpse at open source fandom depicted in Halloween pumpkin carvings.RELATED: Top Mac-o-lanterns from around the web Top Tech-o-lanterns from around the web To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 9 developer trends you can bank on in 2016

  16-10-2015 02:29
  My predictions are a little early this year, but don't worry, they're of the same sterling quality you've come to expect. Most apply to big data, but I've stepped outside the confines of my usual domain here and there for your entertainment. Enjoy.Developer trend No. 1: Containers will rule the worldDocker will continue to develop, gain security features, and add various forms of governance so that you are unable to pull down a tree of containers that depend on pnwd.com. Emulating an entire mac
  
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• Dropbox's next play is yet another collaborative writing tool

  16-10-2015 02:04
  If there's one space in the software world that's crowded, it's the document collaboration market. Google, Microsoft, Evernote, Box, Quip and a whole host of other companies all want to get a piece of the pie.Dropbox just threw its hat in that ring Thursday with the public beta release of Paper, the simple, collaborative and cloud-based text editor that it previewed in Engadget and Wired. A document in Paper starts simple: Users only see a title field and a body field when they open a
  
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• Mind your analytics - or get ready for ethical hot water

  16-10-2015 01:29
  It's no secret that the implications of big data extend far beyond organizational benefits into the societal and ethical realm, but market researcher Gartner predicts that the improper use of big data analytics will cause half of all business ethics violations by 2018.Organizations could suffer loss of reputation, wasted resources, competitive weakness and even legal sanctions as a result, Gartner said.The best-known example in this area may be the oft-told case of Target's pregnancy-prediction
  
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• IoT is here and mobile networks will never be the same

  16-10-2015 00:38
  In 10 years you may be trying to watch cat videos in 4K, 8K or 16K resolution, but mobile networking will be as much a big-data problem as a bandwidth drag race. 
  The systems that carriers brag about now for delivering games and streaming media to smartphones will have to be totally re-architected in the next few years to accommodate sensors, cameras and remote-control connections, according to Marcus Weldon, president of Bell Labs. 
  The New Jersey-based research group is part of Alca
  
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