IT Executive news

• China poised to play pivotal role in NAND flash industry

  11-11-2015 22:54
  
  China is a growing presence in the NAND flash industry and is expected to play a pivotal role in supply and demand over the next two to three years, according to a new report.
  According to research firm TrendForce, state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup has become a prominent example of the surge in Chinese deal-making in the semiconductor sector where the nation is filling production capability gaps with acquisitions and investments.
  Tsinghua plans to buy a 15% stake in U.S. data storage company Weste
  
  Read more

• Thread Group ready to start approving IoT devices that talk to each other

  11-11-2015 22:37
  The Alphabet-backed Thread Group is now certifying products that use its networking protocol for connected devices, marking a big step toward a home Internet of Things that can communicate.Thread has backing from big industry players including Samsung, Qualcomm and ARM Holdings, and its wireless mesh protocol could become the networking system for products that use a wide range of IoT software platforms. The Thread Group and partner UL have started testing products to see if they work together e
  
  Read more

• Supporters and opponents of LTE-U both claim victory after collaborative testing

  11-11-2015 22:33
  
  Recent tests to see whether LTE-U technology interferes with Wi-Fi signals prove conclusively that LTE-U poses no problems whatsoever for Wi-Fi networks, and also that LTE-U (Long-term evolution in Unlicensed spectrum) will drown out Wi-Fi, depending on which party is to be believed.
  Both the pro-LTE-U side of the debate, backed largely by Qualcomm, and the anti-LTE-U side, made up of a host of different tech companies under the aegis of the Wi-Fi Alliance, say that testing has vindicated their
  
  Read more

• Apple said to be planning person-to-person payments service

  11-11-2015 22:20
  Apple is in talks with major banks on an extension of its Apple Pay service that would allow person-to-person payments.The discussions are continuing and it's unclear whether any banks have struck a deal with Apple, reported The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, citing "people familiar with the talks."The newspaper said the envisaged service would allow users to send payments from their checking accounts to others using their phone and isn't imminent. It said one person had told it the service c
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Alibaba's Singles Day smashes online shopping records

  11-11-2015 22:00
  
  It was always going to be big, but the day-long "Singles Day" promotion on Chinese online shopping site Alibaba on Wednesday smashed previous recordsm, with millions of people participating and $14.3 billion worth of goods sold.Compare that to Amazon's revenue for the entire last quarter of $18 billion."Singles Day" began in 2009 as an attempt to get customers who are single to buy themselves gifts and takes place on November 11 for its singly-significant numeric date of 11/11.For 24 hours on Tm
  
  Read more

• Low-end servers get DDR4 memory

  11-11-2015 21:55
  
  Dell and HP are bringing a new form of DDR memory to low-end servers in order to let  small and medium-size businesses run databases and other applications faster.
  The new Dell PowerEdge and HP Proliant servers are equipped with DDR4 memory, replacing the older DDR3 memory. DDR4 memory provides up to 50 percent more bandwidth and consumes 35 percent less memory than DDR3.
  Some applications like databases are bandwidth sensitive, and servers are being loaded with more RAM to handle in-memor
  
  Read more

• Deutsche Bank digging out of technical debt, while moving to cloud

  11-11-2015 21:51
  
  Deutsche Bank is facing significant technology overhaul challenges, the likes of which might make IT teams at the most sophisticated companies beg for mercy. Yet experts say the company, which last month recorded a $6.6 billion loss for the third quarter, must clear these hurdles if it’s going to survive in a sector where consumers expect to manage their money and other financial services from any device.Deutsche Bank, like many large banks, is paying down technical debt accrued from years
  
  Read more

• Meet the first Toyota Mirai and the big, expensive plan to keep this hydrogen car alive

  11-11-2015 21:50
  
  The first Toyota Mirai to be sold in the United States might as well be the first car on Mars. It lands on a planet that can’t easily support hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. It’s kept alive only by elaborate and expensive means. The car and its creator face huge odds yet remain determined to, as the hero of the recent movie The Martian put it, “science the shit out of this.”
  Toyota and its partners might as well be making a space station. A lot of science—and money&md
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• BrandPost: Challenges of Managing Security for Virtual and Cloud Environments

  11-11-2015 21:32
  
  Server virtualization and cloud services offer compelling benefits, including hardware consolidation, rapid provisioning and reduced infrastructure complexity. But virtualization and cloud technologies also introduce security and compliance challenges that are not easily addressed with traditional vulnerability management tools and techniques. These challenges include:Sprawl Because it’s so easy and fast to spin up new servers or clone existing ones, organizations often create a large numb
  
  Read more

• Facebook pushes into news with its Notify app

  11-11-2015 20:45
  
  Facebook today unveiled Notify, a standalone app designed to push news directly to users.
  The app is aimed at people who are busy and don't always have time to look for the breaking news, weather alerts and information they want and need.
  "Notifications are becoming one of the primary ways people first learn about things wherever they are," wrote Julian Gutman, a Facebook product manager in a blog post. "Everyone has different interests, so whether you're into sports, celebrities, news, movies,
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: The varied paths to healthcare technology success

  11-11-2015 20:20
  
  Today, many hospital systems and health networks are investing in innovation to get access to new and better technologies that enhance and improve health care delivery.
  Some are approaching innovation as incubators, accelerators, and/or innovation centers. Others are raising money for innovation through venture/equity funds, self-funding/bootstrapping, or crowdfunding.
  The provider-based innovation models they choose come in several forms, depending on which fits best within their mission, goal
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: The varied paths to health care technology success

  11-11-2015 20:20
  
  Today, many hospital systems and health networks are investing in innovation to get access to new and better technologies that enhance and improve health care delivery.Some are approaching innovation as incubators, accelerators, and/or innovation centers. Others are raising money for innovation through venture/equity funds, self-funding/bootstrapping, or crowdfunding.The provider-based innovation models they choose come in several forms, depending on which fits best within their mission, goals a
  
  Read more

• Report: Google in talks to build its own phone

  11-11-2015 18:44
  
  Google might just go all-in and build its own smartphone.
  According to The Information, Google is having internal discussions about this very idea. It wouldn’t be a dramatic leap for this to happen: Google already builds its own hardware with the Chromebook Pixel and the new Pixel C tablet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
  Read more

• HP Inc. begins life with a new 4K laptop

  11-11-2015 18:38
  
  It didn't take long for the newly formed HP Inc. to release its first product, the ZBook Studio, a feature-packed, 15.6-inch laptop with a 4K screen.The laptop can be configured to be as speedy as a gaming laptop, but is targeted at mobile workers.The laptop marks the first product launched by HP Inc., which officially commenced operations last week after Hewlett-Packard split into two: HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. More laptops, hybrids and tablets are expected to be released by HP In
  
  Read more

• Microsoft, Box co-develop Windows 10 app with deep Office ties

  11-11-2015 18:01
  
  On Wednesday, Microsoft continued its neutral approach toward cloud storage providers by partnering with Box, which has launched its own universal app for Windows 10.
  In April, Box announced at Microsoft's Build conference that it was working with Microsoft to develop a Windows 10 app. That partnership has now come to fruition, with the scheduled release of the app in the Windows Store today.
  The app works with the Windows 10 file picker, so that Microsoft Office workers can work in Word, Power
  
  Read more

• Box boosts Windows 10's enterprise potential with new app

  11-11-2015 18:00
  
  Enterprise-focused cloud storage company Box is trying its hardest to be Microsoft's best buddy, and the company continued down that path Wednesday with the release of a new app for Windows 10.The app, which is powered by the new operating system's Universal App Platform, is designed to let Windows 10 users of all stripes access files stored in Box from devices that range from desktop PCs to tablets and even Windows smartphones. Box announced its plans to build this app in April, and its introdu
  
  Read more

• IDC says big data spending to hit $48.6 billion in 2019

  11-11-2015 17:59
  
  The market for big data technology and services will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 percent through 2019, according to a forecast issued by research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) on Monday. IDC predicts annual spending will reach $48.6 billion in 2019.IDC divides the big data market into three major submarkets: infrastructure, software and services. The research firm expects all three submarkets to grow over the next five years, with software — information managem
  
  Read more

• US government lab dabbles in new computer designs

  11-11-2015 17:11
  
  Rethinking conventional computer designs, which are decades old, the U.S. Department of Energy has set its sights on creating systems that could supplant today's PCs and servers.The Los Alamos National Laboratory -- best known for its work with nuclear weapons -- is developing and acquiring new types of computers as it looks to replace conventional computers. Its newest toy is a D-Wave 2X quantum computer, which the lab purchased from D-Wave Systems for an undisclosed price.The acquisition of th
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: iPad Pro reviews: Is it worth buying?

  11-11-2015 17:05
  
  Apple's new iPad Pro tablet is finally on sale, and a ton of reviews have just hit the web. Is the iPad Pro worth buying? Find out what the critics think of Apple's big tablet in the reviews I've included below from top sites.
  The MacStories review of the iPad Pro
  Federico Viticci at MacStories has an extremely long and detailed review of the iPad Pro, with many screenshots. Federico liked the iPad Pro so much he's decided to switch to it.
  If you don't read any other review of the iPad Pro, be
  
  Read more

• Silicon Valley startup aims to make VR better with eye contact

  11-11-2015 17:00
  
  Augmented reality and virtual reality headsets are on the cutting edge of technology these days, with companies like Microsoft, Google and Facebook all vying to get to market with headsets that can augment reality or transport users into a virtual world. 
  One of the problems with the current suite of headsets both on the market or coming soon is that they're only crudely able to track where a user is looking. Microsoft's Hololens, for example, can track users' gazes by where their hea
  
  Read more

• How bad a boss is Linus Torvalds?

  11-11-2015 16:20
  
  I’ve known Linus Torvalds, Linux’s inventor, for over 20 years. We’re not chums, but we like each other.
  Lately, Torvalds has been getting a lot of flack for his management style. Linus doesn’t suffer fools gladly. He has one way of judging people in his business of developing the Linux kernel: How good is your code?
  Nothing else matters. As Torvalds said earlier this year at the Linux.conf.au Conference, “I’m not a nice person, and I don’t care about y
  
  Read more

• 8 tips for hiring a Web designer for your business

  11-11-2015 15:49
  
  Many ecommerce and website platforms claim to be so easy to use that even nontechnical folks can create an attractive website. However, if you are like most people, you are still probably going to need some design help if you don’t want your site to look like everyone else’s.[ Related: 8 ecommerce categories that will be hot in 2016 ]So how do you find a good Web designer – and by “good” we mean an individual or agency who has designed in your preferred Web platform
  
  Read more

• 11 top IaaS cloud computing certifications

  11-11-2015 15:04
  
  One way to stay abreast of the fast-changing cloud market is to get trained on the leading cloud platforms, open source technologies and vendors that make up this increasingly important industry. These are some of the leading infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing certifications, listed in alphabetical order. It’s not an all-inclusive list.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
  Read more

• New Evernote iOS handwriting features no match for Microsoft Surface, OneNote

  11-11-2015 14:53
  
  Evernote's latest iOS update lets you add sketches and handwriting to notes, and it arrived just in time for the release of Apple's iPad Pro. The upgrade adds support for the Apple Pencil stylus and Split-View multitasking in iOS 9 for compatible iPads.The latest version of Evernote for iPhone and iPad adds your finished sketches to notes and puts your handwriting through its optical character recognition (OCR) system, to make the text searchable — assuming your writing is legible, of
  
  Read more

• How to recognize an online fraudster

  11-11-2015 14:40
  
  What makes an online fraudster? Can you tell by looking at their age? Gender? Billing address? When they shop? The answer is both yes and no, according to a recent report called "The United States of Fraud," produced Sift Science, a fraud detection and prevention software company. They identified factors including age, billing address, shipping address and purchase value that are more likely to signal fraud. This is especially important given the U.S.'s ongoing shift to EMV credit card
  
  Read more

• What's up with Google Fiber?

  11-11-2015 14:32
  
  Let’s face it: when it comes to Internet connectivity, there’s no such thing as “too fast.” And optical fiber is the only choice for connectivity that exceed 1,000 Mbps, aka Gigabit Internet. Optical fiber provides higher bandwidths – download speeds 40 times faster and upload speeds more than 300 times faster than garden variety broadband – and spans much longer distances than electrical cabling. And some companies, such as Bell Labs, Cisco and Comcast are cl
  
  Read more

• GoDaddy rebrands itself with an eye on diversity

  11-11-2015 14:12
  
  At its heart, GoDaddy.com has always been a customer-focused company built on a foundation of hard-core engineering acumen. Oh, you were thinking more along the lines of bikini-clad women and NASCAR? That's so 2011.In the brandless market of the late 1990s and through much of the 2000s, companies left it up to their IT departments and Internet teams to shop for, purchase and manage their domain names, websites and Internet presence. There wasn't a need for a public brand, unless it was to drum u
  
  Read more

• Microsoft sets up data centers in Germany amid US surveillance concerns

  11-11-2015 13:56
  
  Microsoft is delivering its cloud services, including Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online from two new datacenter regions in Germany, in a move that aims to deflect customer concerns about access to their data by U.S. surveillance.The data centers, located in Magdeburg and Frankfurt am Main, will be unusual in that control over the data will not be with Microsoft but with Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems, which will be acting as a data trustee for Microsoft's customers' data.Access to
  
  Read more

• 7 tech giants share their core values

  11-11-2015 13:44
  
  Tech giants share their core valuesImage by ThinkstockTech companies often seem so large that it's easy to forget they were once startup businesses. And, along the way, successful businesses take time to develop strong mission statements based off the core values of the company.What values lie at the core of the country's most successful businesses? MidAmerica Nazarene University gathered data on the seven biggest tech firms in America to catalog and rate the core values of each company. While s
  
  Read more

• Why IT and Operations are on a collision course

  11-11-2015 12:30
  
  What would you do if you found out some of the software running your company was behind schedule on dozens of patches and updates — including critical security patches that were several years out of date? You might think that could never happen. You'd be wrong.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
  Read more

• 7 tips to becoming a successful CISO

  11-11-2015 12:11
  
  You don’t have to reinvent the wheelImage by ThinkstockWhile success is gauged different in every job, there are similar strands that run through each opportunity. Todd Bell, who is an international expert and leading speaker on preventing security breaches for new start-ups to Global Fortune 500 companies, looks back at his years in the security industry and offers up these seven tactics that will help you stay atop the field.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please clic
  
  Read more

• New Apple TV opens door for enterprise use

  11-11-2015 12:06
  
  The fourth-generation Apple TV offers a range of new features including Siri, a more versatile Bluetooth remote and the ability to search for content across multiple streaming services. The biggest advance, however, is the arrival of an Apple TV App Store and the opening of the platform to developers. For now, the available apps are consumer focused; games and apps for streaming services dominate, though there are a fair number of fitness, cooking, shopping, travel, and education titles, too.
  S
  
  Read more

• Toyota's A.I. research efforts could mean cars that anticipate traffic, pedestrian moves

  11-11-2015 12:00
  
  Toyota Motor Corp. is taking a leading role in artificial intelligence research, investing heavily in areas that boost advancements to autonomous cars and robots that can aid the elderly.
  Last week, the auto maker announced that it was investing $1 billion over the next five years to establish two research and development centers – the main center in Silicon Valley and a secondary campus near MIT in Massachusetts. The project is expected to eventually include 200 scientists and engineers.
  
  Read more

• Review: Cisco ACI shakes up SDN

  11-11-2015 12:00
  
  The concept of object health is present throughout ACI. When problems are detected, an object’s health score drops from 100, with lower scores indicating greater severity. This is hierarchical, so while a port that is disconnected on a single endpoint will show a health score of 0, the fabric node containing that port may show a health score of 50, and the application containing the down endpoint may show a score of 80. This can be traced visually through the Web UI by selecting the Healt
  
  Read more

• Microsoft bolsters artificial intelligence with additions to Project Oxford

  11-11-2015 12:00
  
  Microsoft's Project Oxford, a suite of developer tools based on the company's machine learning and artificial intelligence research, is getting a new quintet of services, the company announced at its Future Decoded conference in London. Developers can now take advantage of an emotion detection service that looks at a photo and lists an array of emotions that it detects on the subjects' faces. For each person in an image (up to a certain number), the service will pass back the probabilities
  
  Read more

• Google Go turns 6 as new release nears

  11-11-2015 12:00
  
  Google's Go language, which turns six years old this week, is set for a series of improvements in the compiler and HTTP/2 realms.
  The planned Go 1.6 release, due early in 2016, will feature an SSA-based (static single assignment form) optimizing compiler back end. SSA simplifies and improves the results of compiler optimization, requiring that each variable is assigned only once and is defined before usage.[ Also on InfoWorld: Download the quick guide to Google Go today. | Keep up with hot topi
  
  Read more

• Geautomatiseerd testen brengt renaissance

  11-11-2015 09:05
  Software-ontwikkeling is pas klaar als het live staat. Nu agile development voet aan de grond gekregen heeft in Nederland versnelt ook het update-tempo van software in productie van maanden naar weken. Dat kan alleen als de kwaliteit en de kwantiteit van het testwerk flink omhoog kan. Linksom of rechtsom kom je dan bij... lees meer
  
  Read more

• App companies propose new model for worker benefits

  11-11-2015 06:49
  Worker advocacy groups, companies offering services through apps, a variety of policy experts and venture capitalists  are proposing a new model for worker benefits that will be "portable" across the number of jobs they do in the new on-demand economy."Self-employed workers choosing to engage in flexible work may also encounter unforeseen work disruptions or other hardships without the protections and benefits that may be provided through full time employment," executives of app companies l
  
  Read more

• Ransomware for Mac is nothing to worry about -- for now

  11-11-2015 03:40
  
  Apple computers haven't been impacted by ransomware, a pervasive and insidious class of malware that encrypts files on a computer in exchange for a ransom.
  That's not because Apple's operating system is any more secure than Windows; it's more that malware writers haven't gotten around to writing ransomware for OS X since infecting Windows machines has been so profitable.
  However, a Brazilian security researcher, Rafael Salema Marques, decided to show how easy it would be for malware writer
  
  Read more

• Sens. Grassley, Durbin launch new H-1B fight

  11-11-2015 02:57
  
  Two of the Senate's leading H-1B reformers, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), say abuse of the H-1B visa "is real" and the need for reform urgent. On Tuesday they introduced a new reform bill they say will protect U.S. workers.
  These senators have made repeated efforts since 2007 to try to reform the H-1B program. This time, they're getting help from co-sponsors Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), where Disney replaced U.S. workers, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Sen. Sherrod Bro
  
  Read more

• 'Sold Out' offers a new look at the H-1B debate

  11-11-2015 01:40
  
  The 2016 presidential contest may the first election to focus on the impact of the H-1B visa program on the U.S. workforce. The signs so far are good that the candidates -- Democrat and Republican, alike -- are willing to talk about it. There may even be rewards at the ballot box for office seekers who make the visa an issue.
  The H-1B visa is 25 years old this month and IT workers have been training their visa-holding for many of those years. The reservoir of angst and anger about this runs dee
  
  Read more

• ProtonMail comes back online, shores up DDoS defenses

  11-11-2015 01:31
  
  ProtonMail, the Switzerland-based encrypted email service, has found its footing again after a wild ride over the past week.
  The free service has said it was hit by two different groups using distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) that took it offline.
  Now it has partnered with Radware, which offered its DDoS mitigation service for a "reasonable price," allowing service to resume, ProtonMail wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
  "The attackers hoped to destroy our community, but this attack ha
  
  Read more

• Google sharpens its container-focused cloud products for battle

  11-11-2015 00:53
  
  Google unveiled some major enhancements to its container-focused cloud offerings on Tuesday to take advantage of new open-source developments and boost the performance of its products in a competitive market. Google Container Engine, a service based on the Kubernetes open-source project that manages clusters and orchestrates Docker containers in Google's cloud, now has the latest updates to Kubernetes. Those enhancements came out on Monday, so it's a quick turnaround.The upgrades include su
  
  Read more

• Nvidia powers up drones, robots with Jetson TX1 board

  11-11-2015 00:30
  
  Nvidia hopes to equip drones and robots with high-performance computing capabilities with its new Jetson TX1 developer kit announced on Tuesday.The TX1 developer kit includes an uncased board with all major components on it. It is the size of a credit card, but with 1 teraflops of horsepower, delivers more performance punch than developer boards available today.Robots and drones require autonomous and smoother navigation capabilities, and the TX1 will help enable such devices, said Jesse Clayton
  
  Read more

• Look for an Internet of 30 Percent More Things next year

  11-11-2015 00:22
  
  If you think the Internet's busy now, just wait until next year. Gartner estimates there will be 6.4 billion connected devices in 2016, up 30 percent from this year.
  That means people will be adding 5.5 million new objects to the Internet of Things every day. Consumer devices will proliferate most, while the ones for enterprises bring in more money, Gartner said in its annual IoT report released Tuesday.
  Companies will shell out US$868 billion for IoT hardware next year, while consumers will sp
  
  Read more

• T-Mobile's Binge On frees Netflix and Hulu from data caps, but not YouTube

  11-11-2015 00:07
  
  T-Mobile USA will exempt a list of video streaming services from monthly data caps with Binge On, a feature that could let some subscribers watch more clips and shows without buying a more expensive plan.Those users will have to be happy with DVD-quality video, though, because that's all they'll be able to get on those services if they switch on the Binge On setting.The feature will be available for free starting Nov. 15 for any subscriber with a monthly data plan with 3GB or more. It includes N
  
  Read more

Follow @ITExecutiveNews on Twitter!