IT Executive news

• Tesla to take back some Autopilot controls

  04-11-2015 23:36
  
  Just a couple of weeks after releasing new self-driving features for its Model S vehicles through a software upgrade, Tesla will place new constraints on its Autopilot system to further limit when it can be used.
  Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussed the Autopilot issue during a question-and-answer session after the company reported its third-quarter financial results yesterday. TeslaThe Model S now has automatic steering, lane-keeping capability and an automatic lane-change feature.To read this articl
  
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• Dropbox woos large businesses with new Enterprise offering

  04-11-2015 23:19
  
  Large enterprises have a new Dropbox product tailored for them that the company unveiled at its user conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.Dropbox Enterprise is built on the foundation of Dropbox Business, the company’s product aimed at organizations. Companies that buy it will get access to all of the features in Dropbox’s business-facing offering, plus special capabilities like the ability to prevent people with certain email address domains from using them with a Dropbox person
  
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• Hey, all you engineers! Want to go to Mars?

  04-11-2015 21:39
  
  Are you an engineer who has dreamed of working on the International Space Station or maybe on the surface of Mars?
  Your big chance could be here.
  NASA announced today that it's looking for its next class of astronaut candidates. While the space agency is hoping to find scientists, medical doctors and pilots, it needs engineers, too.
  "This next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights, and help us realize the goal of putting boot prints on the R
  
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• Microsoft finally ties the knot with Red Hat for Linux on Azure

  04-11-2015 21:18
  In a move many consider long overdue, Microsoft and Red Hat on Wednesday announced a new partnership through which Microsoft will offer Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the preferred choice for enterprise Linux workloads on Azure.Azure will become a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider sometime in the next few weeks, making it possible at last for Red Hat Cloud Access subscribers to bring their own virtual machine images to run on Microsoft's cloud platform.Microsoft has long offered Azure su
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: What it takes to become Santa's CIO

  04-11-2015 20:55
  
  I just returned from my interview to become Santa’s next CIO. You might think your organization needs some major upgrades, but could it be of the magnitude that I will face? Imagine walking into the world’s largest factory AND distribution center to discover everything is based on technology from hundreds of years ago!Following are a few of the questions that I was asked during the interview and the responses that I believe will demonstrate my ability to assume this exciting position
  
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• Microsoft tries social media again with Skype sharing and Sway blogging

  04-11-2015 20:50
  
  Microsoft has failed at social media so far, but its latest attempt has some potential. Instead of creating its own platform, Microsoft will use existing services like Skype as social mechanisms.
  Microsoft said Wednesday that it's adding a sharing button to Skype, as a way to pass along interesting content and begin a conversation about them. Separately, Microsoft also launched Journal, a blogging platform that uses Microsoft’s Sway tool to host content on the nearly forgotten Docs.c
  
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• Firefox again flirts with dangerous 10% user share level

  04-11-2015 20:15
  
  Mozilla's Firefox, returning to a multi-month cycle of user share losses, is again flirting with the dangerous 10% milestone, according to data from analytics company Net Applications.
  In October, Firefox's user share rang in at 11.3%, Net Applications said Sunday. That was a two-tenths of a percentage point dip from the month before, and the fourth consecutive month of contraction.
  The October mark was Firefox's lowest since August 2006, when it had been on the market less than two years and o
  
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• Dropbox touts enterprise growth at user conference

  04-11-2015 19:33
  
  If there’s one question hanging over Dropbox these days, it’s about the company's enterprise strategy. While the cloud storage provider has proven wildly popular among consumers, its products have had a slightly harder time gaining massive adoption in the enterprise. But the company has grown rapidly over the past several months.Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston announced at the company’s first conference for users Wednesday that there are now more than 150,000 companies
  
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• Trojanized Android apps flood third-party stores, compromise phones

  04-11-2015 19:12
  
  Attackers are creating rogue versions of popular Android applications that compromise the security of devices and are extremely hard to remove.Researchers from mobile security firm Lookout have found more than 20,000 samples of such trojanized apps. They're typically fully functional copies of top Android applications like Candy Crush, Facebook, Google Now, NYTimes, Okta, SnapChat, Twitter or WhatsApp, but with malicious code added to them.The goal of these rogue apps is to aggressively display
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Innovate your way back to the future

  04-11-2015 19:05
  
  When it comes to both effective communication and to innovation, we have the same opportunity to improve our effectiveness.That was a major takeaway from an executive round table I recently hosted in New York City for nine senior IT executives focused on improving communication and innovation within our organizations.Work Back to the Future
  The idea I came away with is to work “Back to the Future.” That is, you really can’t “get there from here” by working forward f
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: New 4-inch iPhone rumor excites Apple's customers on Reddit

  04-11-2015 19:03
  
  Rumors abound in the Apple universe, and one of the latest ones suggests that a new 4-inch iPhone may be coming early next year. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a research note that indicates that a 4-inch iPhone featuring an A9 processor could be on the way from Apple.
  I'll share my own thoughts about this below, but here's what Apple Insider had to say about the report:In a research note obtained by AppleInsider on Tuesday, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, whose predictions have in the past been a
  
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• Windows 10 adoption rises with Steam users: 25 percent have jumped to the new OS

  04-11-2015 18:16
  Windows 10 hit a milestone in the PC gaming world last month: The operating system is now installed on more than a quarter of all computers running Steam.
  Valve’s monthly Steam hardware and software survey shows that 26.63 percent of users were running 64-bit Windows 10 in October. Another 1.01 percent were running “Windows 10,” which presumably refers to the 32-bit version, for a grand total of 27.64 percent. The survey was first spotted by WinBeta.
  With these results, Window
  
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• Google tries to woo enterprises with new Android for Work initiatives

  04-11-2015 18:00
  
  Google continued its enterprise push on Wednesday with the launch of new programs relating to Android for Work, its group of features and services that help make the mobile operating system easier to manage for businesses.To attract more companies to the program, the first 3,000 businesses that deploy enterprise mobility management services and set up Android for Work will get a free Nexus 5X phone that they can use to test all of the mobility management features in Google’s operating syst
  
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• Partnership powers predictive and prescriptive analytics

  04-11-2015 17:32
  
  GoodData, a specialist in business intelligence for monetization, and big data analytics consulting firm Absolutdata, sealed a partnership today with the aim of helping customers unlock the value of their data with predictive and advanced analytics capabilities on the GoodData platform."The thrust of our partnership is to bring our organizations together to help clients get significantly more value out of their data — driving sales, marketing conversion, efficiency within organizations, su
  
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• iOS 9 now on two-thirds of Apple's iPhones, iPads & iPod touches

  04-11-2015 17:03
  
  Apple's iOS 9 software for its iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices is now on 66% of those products, which means the new edition of iOS is off to a faster adoption rate than last year's iOS 8.
  The software was released in mid-September, and adoption is up from 52% shortly after that. Apple said in early November last year that iOS 8 was on 56% of devices after being released in mid-September. One reason for iOS 9's fast adoption is that it takes up less space on devices, so is more easily down
  
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• Encyrption ban banished from draft UK surveillance bill

  04-11-2015 16:30
  
  A threatened ban on encryption has been banished from a draft bill on surveillance powers in the U.K. -- but the government plans to explicitly allow bulk surveillance of Internet traffic by security and intelligence agencies.U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May began by listing the things the draft bill did not contain as she introduced it in Parliament on Wednesday."It will not include powers to force U.K. companies to capture and retain third-party Internet traffic from companies based overseas. I
  
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• CIOs must overcome CEOs’ unclear strategy to drive digital transformations

  04-11-2015 16:16
  
  Rising demand for digital experiences will force companies to accelerate the pace of initiatives intended to capture customers in 2016, according to a survey of 947 business and IT executives polled by Forrester Research. But as CIOs revamp their IT systems and processes to meet these expectations, they will have to overcome the lack of clear strategies articulated by the top brass."What we're seeing is that everyone is focused on digital strategy and transformation," Sharyn Leaver, Forrester's
  
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• Want to try Microsoft's Cortana on iPhone? Fill out this questionnaire

  04-11-2015 16:06
  Microsoft is almost ready to begin testing Cortana for the iPhone, with a limited public beta launching in the coming weeks.Users who want to try the iOS beta version of Microsoft’s virtual assistant can fill out a brief survey on the iPhone model they use, what version of iOS it runs, and how often they useCortana in Windows 10. Microsoft says it will start sending limited download links over email soon. At first, the Cortana beta test will only be available in the United States and China
  
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• 2M businesses pay for Google for Work, but what does that mean?

  04-11-2015 15:42
  
  Google says more than 2 million businesses now pay to use its Google for Work suite of productive apps for enterprise. The company has been unwilling to disclose specific numbers about Google for Work usage for years, but it apparently changed gears in a long-delayed attempt to highlight the platform's growth.Google still won't say exactly many businesspeople use paid versions of Google for Work at those two million companies. Jack Dawson, chief analyst and founder of tech research firm Jackdaw,
  
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• OneDrive users petition Microsoft to rethink storage cuts

  04-11-2015 15:13
  
  OneDrive users on Tuesday took to an online petition website and to Microsoft's own UserVoice feature request service to demand that the company rethink its decision to reduce free storage allotments by 83%.
  On the Change.org petition site, an open letter to the OneDrive team asked for a U-turn. "The newest changes to the storage plans have bought much concern to the OneDrive and Windows community," the petition said. "Discontinuing the unlimited storage option on grounds of abuse is fair enoug
  
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• Nexus 5X or Nexus 6P: Which one should you buy?

  04-11-2015 15:00
  
  Life is full of difficult decisions, and as Android fans we’re facing our most difficult decision yet: choosing which Nexus device to buy.
  If you think I’m kidding, then you haven’t read our reviews of the Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X. These two smartphones are the full package, complete with the latest version of Android Marshmallow and powerful hardware to back it up. Their camera abilities are actually pretty decent this time around, too, and both phones feature lightning fast
  
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• Surface Book sacrifices repairability for sleekness as anti-DIY trend continues

  04-11-2015 14:56
  
  Chasing Apple’s sleek, sexy, and coveted MacBooks, Microsoft’s Surface Book—the company’s first shot at a laptop—sacrificed much of what makes PCs so great: the ability to conduct repairs and swap out parts yourself. In fact, Microsoft’s design choices were so unfriendly to do-it-yourself types that the teardown specialists at iFixit recently gave the laptop a 1 out of 10 rating—the worst possible grade.
  This shouldn’t be a surprise if you’v
  
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• Top executives and cybersecurity: a fickle relationship?

  04-11-2015 14:47
  
  For decades now the relationships between CISOs and their top executives have been a matter of touch and go. In the early 2000s, following 9/11 and a number of high profile worms such as Code Red and Nimda, cybersecurity jumped from a marginal, often ignored, topic to front and center in the boardroom.
  However, as weeks and months went by, interest and the urgency around cybersecurity waned. It was ignited again in 2003, as more enterprises geared themselves toward becoming Sarbanes-Oxley compl
  
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• Digital right to repair: You bought it, but do you own it?

  04-11-2015 14:42
  
  The Ancient Romans had an adage, freely translated from Latin as “let the buyer beware.” In no uncertain terms, it implied that once you bought something, it was yours – including whatever troubles that might bring. However, nowadays, the act of purchasing something (software and electronics in particular) is encumbered by layers of legalese, which often means that you don’t really own what you just bought -- at least not in the sense that most people are accustomed to.
  
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• 15 of the worst tech marketing and PR moments ever

  04-11-2015 14:21
  
  When disaster strikes……it can be very, very funny, as long as said disaster is happening in the high-pressure world of tech PR and marketing. Technology, as a sector, tends to take itself very seriously, so the results of tech companies trying to appeal to its idea of the average consumer can get pretty absurd. Here are a few of our favorites.Thomas Edison electrocutes an elephant because he’s a jerkImage by WikipediaPublic DomainTo read this article in full or to leave a com
  
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• 6 tips to identify project management red flags

  04-11-2015 14:18
  
  6 tips to prevent project management failuresImage by ThinkstockRobert Burns famously wrote, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry," and while he was addressing a mouse in his poem, his words sum up the day-to-day struggles of IT project managers.The key to successful project management is being able to not only to balance the "triple constraints" of time, resources and quality, but to identify red flags that could signal an impending project disaster."The most important thing to re
  
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• How to push security earlier into the dev process

  04-11-2015 14:00
  
  A new crop of products is emerging that aim to implant security best practices and compliance checks as early and often as possible when new infrastructure is spun up in the cloud or when new applications are launched in a rapid development environment.
  The idea behind these products is that security should be incorporated into the entire life cycle of resources being used or applications being developed. Some vendors contend that too often security assessments are either not performed, or they
  
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• 18 companies that suck at customer service

  04-11-2015 13:59
  
  Customer experience can make or break a company. Whether customer service is very good or very bad, it gets peoples' attention, creates customer loyalty and affects a company's bottom line Forrester Research launched the U.S. Customer Experience Index as an annual report in 2007. This year, for the first time, the company published it twice, and from now on it will release two reports per year. The company looked at 299 brands in 18 industries. "The impetus was that companies were incr
  
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• TalkTalk breach investigation leads to fourth arrest

  04-11-2015 13:34
  
  Police investigating the data breach at U.K. telecommunications operator TalkTalk made their fourth arrest late Tuesday, as lawmakers launched their own inquiry into the case.The Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit and the National Crime Agency arrested a 16-year-old boy at an address in Norwich, England, after visiting it with a search warrant.Police had previously arrested a 15-year-old boy from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on Oct. 26, a 16-year-old boy in Feltham, England, on Oct. 29, an
  
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• You moved to the cloud ... the Internet's down. Now what?

  04-11-2015 13:31
  
  You’d think the whole world had come to a standstill. A few weeks ago, when both Google Drive and Google Docs suddenly went AWOL for an afternoon, knowledge workers had no idea what to do. Since all of their data was stored online and the app they use for normal word processing was not available, they had little recourse but to switch to WordPad and, in some cases, try to remember where they left off in a business document. When it comes to mission-critical enterprise apps, not being
  
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• Sales innovation: Tiffani Bova, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner

  04-11-2015 13:26
  
  When the world’s largest technology companies need guidance on business transformation and sales innovation, they call Tiffani Bova, a VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner. Clients consider Tiffani one of the preeminent thought leaders in the industry. Her current emphasis is focused on improving sales methodologies, processes and performance. She is passionate about helping her clients grow and increase competitiveness through sales innovation. She is constantly on the lookout for tran
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why you need a project governor

  04-11-2015 13:21
  
  Project management is regularly discussed in business publications. A simple Google search will reveal a plethora of articles with suggestions for improving one’s project management skills. It is surprising, though, that a very closely related topic – project governance gets limited press from industry experts.The Project governor’s role is critical to the success of a project. Research signals that IT governance can improve the returns on IT investment by about 40 percent.&nbs
  
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• 5 moves for every new CISO’s playbook

  04-11-2015 12:59
  
  CISOs are pulling up roots and moving to new companies at a rapid pace as demand grows for leaders with cyber and information security expertise and salaries skyrocket. Many veteran infosec professionals are also joining the CISO ranks for the first time as companies add the position to their C-suites.
  Four years ago, 20 percent of CISOs had less than two years on the job, according to Gartner. Today it’s closer to 30 percent, according to analyst estimates. “You’ve also got a
  
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• As space station marks 15th anniversary, robotic advances hit home

  04-11-2015 12:39
  
  The International Space Station hit a significant milestone this week -- 15 years of humans living and working onboard the orbiter.
  The space station has been a working test bed for scientific research, leading to advances in robotics, communications, water and air purification and even medical care.
  "For 15 years, humanity's reach has extended beyond Earth's atmosphere," wrote NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, in a statement on the anniversary. "Since 2000, human beings have been living conti
  
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• Make analytics pay off for you and your customers

  04-11-2015 12:30
  
  The Four Points by Sheraton in Halifax, Nova Scotia, had an ongoing challenge typical to most hotels: putting guests in the rooms with the amenities they desire most.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Review: Office 365 fails at collaboration

  04-11-2015 12:00
  
  For several years, Microsoft has been promising a compelling vision in Office 365: a common platform of productivity and collaboration tools that all departments could use, with the extra security assurance of integrating policies and access into Active Directory. Over time, Microsoft delivered a compelling road map for how all the pieces would work not only in Windows but in other operating systems like OS X, iOS, and Android.Document collaboration: Wait a bit longer for OneDrive for BusinessS
  
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• 4YFN Challenge: ‘Onbegrensde mogelijkheden voor ontwikkelaars’

  04-11-2015 09:22
  Een wereldpodium voor z’n toepassing, elke ontwikkelaar en startup droomt ervan. IBM en KPN helpen een handje. Tijdens een wereldwijde developer challenge leveren zij de technologie en API’s op basis waarvan slimme mensen en bedrijven aan de slag kunnen. De beste inzenders worden gepresenteerd tijdens het... lees meer
  
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• San Francisco votes against measures to restrict Airbnb

  04-11-2015 08:53
  
  Airbnb and the so-called "sharing economy" got a shot in the arm as early results on Tuesday suggested that the voters in San Francisco had voted down a measure that would place tight restrictions on the operation of short-term vacation rental businesses.In the wake of accusations that operations like Airbnb were helping push up rents in San Francisco, Proposition F aimed to limit short-term rentals of a housing unit to 75 days per year, among other measures.More than 55 percent of the about 133
  
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• Microsoft's latest Surface Pro 4, Surface Book update addresses screen flicker issue

  04-11-2015 02:04
  
  Microsoft’s November updates to the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book appear to be designed to fix complaints that users have had about the screen flickering on both devices.
  According to Microsoft, the Surface Book received five updates, while the SP4 received four. The only difference is that Microsoft pushed a keyboard and trackpad fix to the Book that it didn’t choose to add to the Surface Pro 4’s firmware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 4 risk management must-haves for independent contractors

  04-11-2015 02:04
  
  4 risk management must-haves for independent contractorsImage by ThinkstockIn the past five years, the independent workforce grew faster than the overall economy, according to MBO Partners’ 2015 State of Independence in America Report. The trend isn’t slowing, either: 71% of those who already work independently are doing so in addition to a full- or part-time job, and one in seven full-timers are considering switching to all independent work.To read this article in full or to leave a
  
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• 8 facts that explain Google's complex situation with Chrome OS

  04-11-2015 02:03
  
  The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Google would fold the Chrome OS into Android, spawning widespread rumors and speculation. Then Chrome and Android VP of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer contradicted the Wall Street Journal in a tweet confirming Google's commitment to Chrome OS. And a Google spokesperson's response to my request for clarification unequivocally stated that Google wasn't sun-setting the Chrome OS. But then again, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who once ran the Chrome group
  
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• With A.I. advances, Facebook tests M, your newest assistant

  04-11-2015 02:01
  
  Striving to keep up with the increasing demands of delivering users' News Feeds, Facebook is pressing hard to advance artificial intelligence.
  Today the company reported that it's making headway in this area to create and test an artificial intelligence assistant dubbed "M."
  Unlike other intelligent systems that might tell the user what the weather will be or to pull up a map, M is designed to complete multi-step tasks.
  M, according to Facebook, is set up to purchase a gift, for example, and ha
  
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• Many US enterprises still running XcodeGhost-infected Apple apps, FireEye says

  04-11-2015 02:01
  Dozens of U.S. enterprises are still using Apple mobile apps seeded with malware for a clever hacking scheme revealed last month known as XcodeGhost.The computer security firm FireEye said Tuesday it has detected that 210 enterprises that are still using infected apps, showing that the XcodeGhost malware "is a persistent security risk," according to a blog post.Last month, more than 4,000 applications were found to have been modified with a counterfeit version of Xcode, which is an application d
  
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• Open source Java projects: Docker

  04-11-2015 00:42
  Docker is an open platform for building, shipping, and running distributed applications. Dockerized applications can run locally on a developer's machine, and they can be deployed to production across a cloud-based infrastructure. Docker lends itself to rapid development and enables continuous integration and continuous deployment like almost no other technology does. In short, Docker is a platform that every developer should be familiar with.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, p
  
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• T-Mobile offers users free 4G LTE CellSpot to boost indoor cellular coverage

  04-11-2015 00:19
  
  T-Mobile on Tuesday announced an indoor 4G LTE CellSpot that will help small businesses and residents connect up to 16 simultaneous calls or data sessions.
  The device is free to T-Mobile Simple Choice postpaid customers as long as they remain with the carrier, and a $25 deposit is required. The device will be available Wednesday through T-Mobile customer care or participating stores nationwide.
  T-Mobile CEO John Legere called the CellSpot the first mini tower available from a U.S. carrier, and
  
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