IT Executive news

• Google accused of tracking school kids after it promised not to

  01-12-2015 23:38
  
  Google has been collecting information about schoolchildren's browsing habits despite signing a pledge saying it was committed to their privacy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a complaint filed Tuesday.The digital rights group said Google's use of the data, collected through its Google for Education program, puts the company in breach of Section 5 of the Federal Communications Act and asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.“Despite publicly promising not to, Goo
  
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• HP exits low-cost tablet market in product shakeup

  01-12-2015 23:19
  
  If you're looking for a low-priced tablet from HP, you soon will not be able to find one.HP is exiting the low-end tablet market amid declining prices and slowing demand. Instead, the company will focus on detachables, hybrids and business tablets at the higher end of the market."We are going to focus where there is profitability and growth and will not chase the low-end tablet market. We are focusing on business mobility to deliver tablets built for field service, education, retail and healthca
  
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• Consumer SSDs and hard drive prices are nearing parity

  01-12-2015 21:24
  
  The prices of mainstream consumer SSDs have fallen dramatically every year over the past three, and by 2017 they are expected to be within 11 cents of the per-gigabyte price of hard disk drives (HDDs).
  The plummeting prices have also driven the recent adoption of SSDs in laptops. This year, they will be used by manufacturers in about 24% to 25% of laptops, according to a new report by DRAMeXchange, a division of market research firm TrendForce.
  Next year, SSDs are expected to be in 31% of new c
  
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• Cortana now gets business data from Microsoft's Power BI service

  01-12-2015 21:18
  
  Microsoft is bringing the Cortana virtual assistant deeper into the business world by combining its capabilities with those of Power BI, the company's business intelligence and analytics service.With the new integration, Power BI users running the latest version of Windows 10 can ask their computers questions about information stored with the business intelligence service and get answers back in the form of simple numbers, charts and even complex reports, depending on how they have the system se
  
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• Online shoppers hit Cyber Monday -- hard

  01-12-2015 20:54
  
  Come on, admit it. How much work did you get done yesterday? Not much? Well, you’re not alone.
  Bosses across the country may not be happy to hear that people hit the big Cyber Monday sales hard.
  Yesterday’s Cyber Monday drew in record sales, with numbers jumping 17.8 percent over the same day last year, according to IBM Watson analytics.
  IBM’s Watson supercomputer, which uses artificial intelligence, is the machine that took on Jeopardy’s game show champions. Onearea whe
  
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• Freescale's latest Internet of Things chip is as thin as a blade of grass

  01-12-2015 20:37
  
  Smart cards could get smarter and fitness bands more fit with a new chip from Freescale Semiconductor that's as thin as a blade of grass.The company's latest sliver of silicon for low-powered devices like payment cards, wearables and medical sensors is just 0.34mm thick. It's the kind of chip that's needed for the Internet of Things, where a little bit of processing goes a long way but there's not much space or power to do the work.The Kinetis K22 is an MCU (microcontroller unit), a low-power em
  
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• UK intelligence service GCHQ is on trial for hacking

  01-12-2015 19:08
  
  GCHQ, the British signals intelligence service, is in the dock accused of hacking computers without individual warrants in order to tap communications.The allegations, made by messaging providers and campaign groups GreenNet, RiseUp Networks, Chaos Computer Club and Privacy International, among others, concern the use by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters of "thematic warrants" to hack computers. They began making their cases to the U.K.'s Investigatory Powers Tribunal in London on
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How To Manage Digital Business Risks

  01-12-2015 18:54
  
  As shown in the previous blog about risk, risk identification, assessment, and management are different for services owned and managed by IT (TCS risks) compared to assets owned by IT (TCO risks). The Total Cost of Service– Risk Management (TCS-R) is the identification, assessment, and visualization of an organization’s service-based systems and project portfolio.This goal of this blog is tell you the top TCS-R approaches that can be used to quantify digital business services risk. I
  
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• A privacy standard for Internet of Things suppliers

  01-12-2015 18:49
  
  The Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to generate the next economic big bang. But the expected boom will go bust if people worry about losing their privacy in the IoT ecosystem. The time is right for the stakeholders who stand to gain billions from the IoT to rally behind a common privacy standard that earns user trust.IoT gold rushIndustry analysts agree on one thing: An explosion of Internet-enabled consumer products, connected cars, smart homes and wearables will generate a global economic
  
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• Windows 10 usage overtakes Windows XP (by one count)

  01-12-2015 17:23
  
  Windows 10 usage has moved into third place among desktop operating systems according to StatCounter, overtaking both Windows XP and Mac OS X in November.
  The metrics firm, which measures pageviews on a large sampling of websites, puts Windows 10 usage at 10.18 percent over the last month. OS X claimed 9.36 percent of usage in November, followed by Windows XP with 8.5 percent. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are still in front, with 49.27 percent and 13.02 percent usage in November, respectively.
  Win
  
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• Windows 10: Now on 148M PCs

  01-12-2015 17:09
  
  Four months in, Windows 10 powers approximately 148 million PCs, according to measurements released today by analytics vendor Net Applications.
  With that many machines running the new OS, Microsoft has reached the 15% mark in marching towards its goal of putting Windows 10 on a billion systems by mid-2018.
  Windows 10's user share -- a proxy for the portion of all personal computers worldwide that ran the OS -- grew 1.1 percentage points in November to 9%.
  Microsoft launched Windows 10 on July 2
  
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• Federal CIOs struggle to recruit and retain top IT talent

  01-12-2015 16:38
  
  Federal CIOs are working through a number of long-term IT initiatives in areas like cloud computing, mobility and open data, but often struggle to recruit and retain top talent."The pace of change is so significant," Richard Spires, the former CIO of the Department of Homeland Security, said during a recent panel discussion hosted by Federal News Radio."That is a major challenge for a CIO and his or her management team -- how do you keep your workforce fully skilled to be able to take advantage
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Good riddance to the iPhone's headphone jack!

  01-12-2015 16:36
  There's been quite a lot of media coverage about a rumor regarding Apple removing the headphone jack in the iPhone 7. As usual some people are bleating and whining about this possible move as they desperately cling to the headphone jack's outdated technology.
  Get over it, folks. Apple has always pushed the boundaries in terms of adopting new technology and letting go of old ones. And the headphone jack in the iPhone is certainly no exception. It's truly ancient technology and should have been d
  
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• Microsoft Store kicks off 12 daily deals with a chunky HP convertible

  01-12-2015 16:14
  With Black Friday and Cyber Monday out of the way, Microsoft is moving on to its annual “12 Days of Deals” holiday sale.
  Today’s deal is an HP Pavilion x360 convertible laptop for $499, with a 13.3-inch (1366-by-768 resolution) display, Intel Core i5-6200U processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 1 TB hard drive, weighing in a 3.8 pounds. Microsoft says it’s knocking $150 off the regular price, though this particular configuration is nearly impossible to find elsewhere. (Amazon hasa
  
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• AT&T's raising the prices of legacy unlimited data plans

  01-12-2015 15:32
  
  AT&T plans to hike the cost of its unlimited wireless data plans by $5 in February 2016. This will be the first price change for AT&T’s unlimited plans in about seven years, rising from $30 to $35 per month. AT&T gave up on unlimited plans in 2012 back when 3G was king but many users are still holding on to their juicy contracts and refuse to let them go.
  “Consumers and businesses are using mobile data at record levels and the trend is expected to continue,” AT&
  
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• Verizon LTE now available for IoT devices

  01-12-2015 15:01
  
  Verizon on Tuesday announced U.S. availability of chipsets for Internet of Things (IoT) devices that can connect to its LTE network at speeds up to 10Mbps.
  The carrier also said it began a pilot two weeks ago with drone partner PrecisionHawk to monitor a grape crop at the Hahn Estate winery in Soledad, CA. Verizon intends to use the drone pilot project to help develop mapping and analytics for agribusiness, then to sell its LTE network and IoT integration as a package deal to wineries.VerizonVe
  
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• Microsoft and HP reveal more details about cloud partnership

  01-12-2015 15:00
  
  Hewlett Packard Enterprise outlined new details about its hybrid cloud partnership with Microsoft in an announcement Tuesday, saying it will provide a new hardware product that integrates with the Azure cloud platform and build its software to take advantage of Microsoft's offerings.Companies interested in integrating Microsoft's Azure cloud with HPE's on-premises systems can now purchase the new Hyper-Converged 250 for Microsoft Cloud Platform System Standard, an appliance that brings together
  
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• 3 ways CIOs can use outsourcing to save millions on printing

  01-12-2015 14:38
  
  Despite the focus on digitalization, businesses remain reliant on printing paper, from marketing materials to invoices to reports. And many companies still provide transactional information to customers that require hard-copy printed documentation, such as proxies and financial statements.A Fortune 1000 organization can spend upwards of $100 million dollars a year on printing, depending on the industry. Yet due to lack of central oversight and ownership of the print management function, much of
  
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• Karma Go offers contract-free unlimited data for mobile pros

  01-12-2015 14:32
  
  All-you-can-eat mobile data is a sweet gift for on-the-go techies, and the Karma Go gadget delivers it without a contract.Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon offer unlimited mobile data plans, but they come with performance caps. And in some cases, such plans are available only to people who signed up for them years ago.Karma Go delivers flexible, unlimited mobile data plans for frequent road warriors. It's a sleek, hockey-puck style device that converts Sprint's 4G LTE/3G CDMA netw
  
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• Nearly 370 million IE users have just 6 weeks to upgrade

  01-12-2015 13:51
  
  Nearly 370 million Internet Explorer users have just six weeks to upgrade their browsers or switch to one from a Microsoft rival, new data showed today.
  In August 2014, Microsoft took Internet Explorer (IE) users by surprise when it announced that most had to be running IE11 by Jan. 12, six weeks from today. After that date, Microsoft will support IE9 only on the barely used Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and IE10 only on Windows Server 2012. All others, including those with devices pow
  
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• 5 tips to avoid scaring away top tech talent

  01-12-2015 13:41
  
  Stop scaring away your tech talentImage by ThinkstockAs college graduates enter the workforce, companies will be clamoring to get the best and brightest talent in the door. But making a mistake in the interviewing process isn't just something candidates have to worry about -- companies need to make sure they're just as prepared to interview these star recruits. Here are five tips from Adam Ochstein, founder and CEO of StratEx -- a Chicago-based firm that provides human resource services and soft
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The 3 T's of a cybersafety program

  01-12-2015 13:40
  
  The most effective safety programs are a result of employee awareness. The more aware, the less likely it is that employees will hurt themselves as they perform day-to-day activities in a dangerous environment. Effective cybersecurity strategies employ the same focus on end-user awareness. IT can only do so much without end users taking responsibility for how they access the internet and respond to emails. It is relatively easy to set up firewalls, update operating systems and deploy antivi
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to avoid M2M

  01-12-2015 13:34
  
  I recently talked with a fabulous IT leader. When Nipa Chakravarti took the IT reigns at TransAlta (Canada’s largest publicly traded power generator and provider of renewable energy), she faced a massive $40 million IT ERP re-implementation. After taking a look at it, her first action was to cancel this project. She said they needed to get the company out of the M2M world – her term for the “many months and millions of dollars” involved in large IT implementations. &
  
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• How to fix Windows 10 printing problems

  01-12-2015 13:09
  
  Thinking back, I can dimly recall that in the era of Windows 3.0, 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups, printer drivers could be particularly vexing. Since then and until the release of Windows 10, printer problems didn't register much on my radar. But I've noticed that in the wake of upgrading my network to Windows 10, printer problems have occasionally manifested in this brave new desktop era.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Enterprise nets: HP, Cisco, Brocade and Huawei take charge

  01-12-2015 13:04
  
  A report released today by Cambridge, Mass.-based researcher IHS named Huawei, Cisco, Brocade and HP as the four leading companies in the enterprise networking sector.
  The leaders, according to IHS research director Matthias Machowinski, were chosen in part because of their roles as large-scale providers of a range of networking products and services for the enterprise.
  +ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Welcome to the Internet of stupid (hackable) things + Looking into the crystal ball of Amazon’s
  
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• How to boost your LinkedIn profile ranking

  01-12-2015 12:44
  
  Copying and pasting your resume into LinkedIn isn’t enough to get noticed. Hiring managers – tasked with filling an abundance of IT jobs with a lack of candidates – rely on LinkedIn to find the best talent. With a booming IT job market and rising salaries, optimizing your profile for search is key to nabbing a new opportunity. “This is a candidate-driven market. There’s a talent war in IT,” says Matthew Ripaldi, senior regional vice president at IT r
  
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• Forecast 2016: 5 fast-track trends to tackle now (and one to ignore)

  01-12-2015 12:30
  
  Of all the burning questions that keep tech execs awake at night, perhaps none is more urgent than, "Are we keeping up?" The breakneck pace of change in IT and in business at large means that CIOs and other senior technologists can't afford to lose focus as they head into 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• No letup seen in Chinese cyber spying

  01-12-2015 12:06
  
  A deal announced two months ago between China and the U.S. was pitched as bringing an end to economic espionage.
  But if any business leader thinks that means their organizations are no longer a target, they haven’t been paying attention.
  That is the unanimous conclusion of a number of experts who have been tracking cyber attacks from China in the two months since Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama announced that, “neither country’s governmen
  
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• Windows 10 vs. OS X: Which gives sys admins more control?

  01-12-2015 12:00
  
  Now, nearly everything can be managed as if it were a mobile device, using APIs at the operating system for assured reach and consistent implementation of company policies across all devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Judge applies common sense to question of what constitutes a data breach

  01-12-2015 12:00
  
  Enterprise security is a frustrating game, because IT winning 99.9% of the time isn’t enough. One lucky cyberthief or one careless employee — something completely beyond your control — can cause a data breach, a failure that will stay on your résumé forever. But a small dose of sanity emerged on Nov. 13 when a federal judge ruled that a data breach needs to have actual victims, not merely hypothetical ones.
  The ruling, by D. Michael Chappell, the chief administra
  
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• HPE's Synergy is a new type of 'composable' infrastructure

  01-12-2015 09:05
  
  Hewlett Packard Enterprise has developed a new type of "composable' hardware that it claims will cut data center costs and slash the time it takes to spin up new applications.Called HPE Synergy, it combines storage, compute and network equipment in one chassis, along with management software that can quickly configure the hardware automatically to provide just the resources needed to run an application, HPE said."HPE Synergy's unique built-in software intelligence, auto discovery capabilities an
  
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• Samsung appoints new head for mobile business

  01-12-2015 08:53
  Samsung Electronics has appointed D.J. Koh, head of mobile research and development, as the new chief of the company's mobile communications business.The move follows some setbacks in Samsung's mobile business during the tenure of the former head J.K. Shin, including an underestimation this year of demand for the Galaxy S6 edge, while overestimating demand for the Galaxy S6 with a non-curved screen.Samsung said Tuesday that Shin and another co-chief executive officer would step back from day-to-
  
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• Mozilla identifying home for Thunderbird as it focuses on Firefox

  01-12-2015 07:30
  To better focus on Firefox and its other products, the Mozilla Foundation decided in 2012 to address the on-going stability of the open-source Thunderbird email client rather than new development, which was passed on to volunteer developers. The rationale for the decision was that in view of the growing popularity of Web-based alternative forms of communications, Thunderbird was not likely to be a source of innovation and was seen more or less as a settled product with a basic set of featur
  
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• U.S. proves to be a stronghold for Windows 10

  01-12-2015 02:42
  
  Windows 10 usage in the U.S. is about 24% higher than worldwide, U.S. government statistics show.
  Windows 10's October share of all Windows editions was 10.9%, according to the Digital Analytics Program (DAP), which collects and collates visits to more than 4,000 websites on over 400 different domains maintained by U.S. government agencies, including the National Weather Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration.
  That was significantly higher -- 24% higher, in
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Healthcare analytics: Early days for many, significant progress for some

  01-12-2015 02:39
  
  Healthcare has been identified as a sector that could benefit greatly from the use of advanced analytics, especially in the area of clinical outcomes improvement. Use cases such as readmissions reduction and population health analytics are high on the priority list of senior executives looking to navigate the transition to value-based care.Yet, recent studies indicate that something is holding back the sector from realizing the full potential of analytics. A study by Health leaders Media on popu
  
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• Is Evernote getting out of the retail business?

  01-12-2015 02:02
  
  Two years ago, Evernote shocked the world when the company began selling a whole smorgasbord of physical products.Some of them made sense, like a stylus that worked with Evernote’s app and a scanner that pulled documents into the note-taking software. Others were more tenuously connected to Evernote’s core business, with observers taking particular glee in pointing out the company’s new collection of socks.At the time, then-CEO Phil Libin said the Evernote Market was a way for
  
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• AT&T to hike grandfathered unlimited data plans by $5

  01-12-2015 01:35
  
  AT&T bummed out a lot of long-time iPhone users Monday by announcing a $5 per month rate hike on grandfathered unlimited data plans. AT&T hasn’t offered new customers unlimited data since 2012, but users who snapped them up in the iPhone 3G era and clung to them until now (including yours truly) will see the first price hike in seven years, from $30 a month to $35.
  AT&T will first notify affected customers, and then start charging them the extra $5 in February 2016. While AT&a
  
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• Microsoft's brand-new CRM boss takes the wraps off Dynamics CRM 2016

  01-12-2015 01:27
  
  When Microsoft offered a peek at the next Dynamics CRM earlier this month, Bob Stutz, the software's longtime leader, was still at the helm. That changed soon afterward, so on Monday, it was a brand-new CRM boss who released the new software to the public."As the new leader of Microsoft’s CRM Business Applications group, it is my great honor and privilege to announce that Dynamics CRM 2016 is now available," wrote Jujhar Singh in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comme
  
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• Data breach of toy maker VTech leaked photos of children, parents

  01-12-2015 01:16
  
  The data breach of Hong Kong toy manufacturer VTech appears to have also included photos of children and parents, adding to what could be one of the most surprising leaks of the year.VTech, which makes cordless phones and what it terms electronic learning devices for kids, apologized on Twitter on Monday. The company said it has suspended the affected service, called Learning Lodge, and is notifying customers.Vice's Motherboard tech news site, which first reported the breach, said on Monday the
  
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• The world's mobile bills are getting easier to pay

  01-12-2015 00:51
  
  Mobile broadband has gotten much more affordable in the past year, while wired Internet service has grown further out of reach for some of the world's poorest people.That's according to an annual report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations, which tracks IT development levels in 167 economies. The average affordability of mobile broadband has improved by between 20 percent and 30 percent in the past year, the report said. This doesn't mean anyone s
  
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