IT Executive news

• Enterprise IoT services will get a boost from this buyout

  09-03-2016 23:59
  
  Two companies that help enterprises deploy and manage Internet of Things devices are coming together to expand their global reach and scale.Kore Wireless will acquire Wyless for an undisclosed price, the companies announced Wednesday. The all-cash transaction is expected to close in the next few weeks.Kore, based in Atlanta, sells managed IoT services to enterprises that need connected devices out in the field and don't want to deal with details like signing up with carriers and keeping the devi
  
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• Bill Gates on Apple vs. FBI: A balance has to be made between the needs of investigators and privacy rights

  09-03-2016 23:49
  
  Bill Gates thinks new laws are needed to sort out the encryption conflict going on between law enforcement and tech companies.
  “The sooner we modernize the laws the better,” Gates says in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session.
  +More on Network World: 11 highest paying tech jobs in America+
  He says it’s clear the government under certain circumstances needs to be able to tap into encrypted communications, but also that there should be oversight so that power isn’
  
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• This video shows a Google self-driving car crashing into bus

  09-03-2016 23:47
  
  Video has surfaced that shows a Valentine's Day accident where a Google self-driving car was sideswiped after it pulled into the path of a city bus.
  The accident is the first time an autonomous vehicle has been to blame for an accident.
  The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority released the video today, which shows camera angles from both outside and inside the city bus throughout the accident. The videos don't show a great amount of detail, but they give the viewer a good idea about how
  
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• Wat voeg ik toe?

  09-03-2016 23:10
  Niet ‘wie ben ik?’, maar ‘wat voeg ik toe?’ wordt de vraag van de toekomst. Niet mijn woorden, maar een uitspraak die werd opgetekend in het tijdschrift Opzij. Niet lachen. Sinds Blendle lees ik namelijk alles wat ik interessant en leesbaar acht. De uitspraak betreft de observatie dat alle... lees meer
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Everything that’s interesting in Android N

  09-03-2016 23:02
  
  It’s that time of the year again, when hard core Android set out to get our hands dirty by flashing the new version of Android on our devices.
  As we are inching towards the annual Google I/O event, Google has published the preview of the next version of Android. Simply dubbed Android N, the preview of the operating system can be installed on these devices: Nexus 5x, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus 9G, Nexus Player and Pixel C.
  Users can download the images for their devices and installe
  
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• Made-in-China servers attracting more buyers

  09-03-2016 23:00
  
  Servers are facing the same fate as PCs and mobile devices, with a growing number of them made in Asian countries like China and Taiwan, a Gartner analyst says.Much like PCs and mobile devices, it's cheaper for companies to buy servers made in Asia than in the U.S., and buyers can get servers customized to meet their specific requirements, said Jeffrey Hewitt, an analyst at Gartner. Companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon, which build mega data centers, design servers in-house and have them m
  
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• Windows 10 release cadence in flux as Microsoft tries to figure out suitable tempo

  09-03-2016 22:20
  
  Microsoft is still struggling to figure out the best cadence for Windows 10 updates, a process that may result in fewer updates annually than once pledged, an analyst said today.
  "We haven't heard anything official, but the plan and the execution do not seem to be quite matching," said Steve Kleynhans of Gartner. "But that's kind of to be expected."
  Kleynhans was referring to talk the last two weeks that Microsoft may release only one Windows 10 update this year -- probably this summer -- pushi
  
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• 10 tips for CIOs looking for a seat on the board

  09-03-2016 22:10
  
  CIOs who strive to be board members must be able to communicate with senior executives and rapidly analyze balance sheets, 10-K filings and other financial documents. But there is much more to serving on a board than showing up for meetings and discussing corporate strategies. Board membership requires CIOs to build rapports with senior managers, which they say helps them become better leaders at their own companiesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Sto
  
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• Skype for Business will give businesses Surface Hub-like collaboration on a budget

  09-03-2016 22:06
  Microsoft wants to help businesses bring their meeting rooms into the future of videoconferencing without spending a whole lot of dough. That's why it announced two new Skype for Business initiatives aimed at getting existing technology connected to its work communications service.The first, codenamed Project Rigel, is aimed at helping companies turn meeting rooms into videoconferencing centers able to host interactive Skype meetings, without having to shell out thousands of dollars per room for
  
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• Tired of waiting for websites to load? This new tech can cut the time by more than half

  09-03-2016 19:48
  
  Slow-loading Web pages are surely one of the top frustrations on the Internet today, but new technology from MIT and Harvard promises to change all that. Announced on Wednesday, Polaris is a framework that determines how to sequence the downloading of a page's objects for faster load times overall.Created by researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Harvard University, the new system promises to decrease page-load times by more than 30
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Evaluating business intelligence in the cloud

  09-03-2016 19:44
  
  By working on consulting projects related to cloud BI implementations, I have seen firsthand some organizations that are too willing to adopt solutions and leverage cloud based on brand awareness or what their friends and former colleagues at other companies are adopting, and not on a detailed evaluation of their business and technical needs.Organizations need to not only look at what their business issues are now, but also what they hope to achieve in the longer term to ensure the solution they
  
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• The InSight Mars probe mission is back on

  09-03-2016 19:41
  
  After previously cancelling this month's planned launch of NASA's Mars probe, the space agency announced today that the InSight mission now is set to lift off in May 2018.
  The InSight mission, first announced in 2012, is designed to give NASA another scientific tool to help researchers understand the makeup of Mars, how it formed and why it evolved so differently from Earth.
  The probe had originally been scheduled to launch this month, but wascalled off in December when scientists were unable t
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Cybersecurity training for a multigenerational workforce

  09-03-2016 19:33
  
  In late 2015, Iranian hackers made headlines for stealing U.S. State Department data via a phishing scheme targeting individual government workers. It was a stark reminder that employees are often the most vulnerable link in an organizational network. Cybercriminals capitalize on a lack of cyber awareness. According to CompTIA’s "Trends in IT Security" study, 52 percent of security breaches result from human error. It’s easy to see why hackers would target end users. For this re
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 critical success factors to turn data into insight

  09-03-2016 19:28
  
  A quick Google search on the term “Analytics” yields varying definitions. Oxford Dictionaries defines it as “the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics” or the “information resulting from the systematic analysis of data or statistics.” Wikipedia further describes it as “the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data.” For data driven organizations, analytics is essentially the activity and process that takes, assess
  
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• Mizuho Bank speeds international securities transactions using blockchain

  09-03-2016 19:27
  
  Japan's Mizuho Bank is considering using blockchain technology to speed the cross-border transfer of financial instruments.It has just concluded a three-month trial of the technology with Japanese IT company Fujitsu.Mizuho used the Open Assets Protocol in its trial to encapsulate the type and number of financial instruments being traded, the amount due and the currency used, the country of settlement, and the transaction date. The encapsulated data was then added to a blockchain as a new transac
  
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• Intel could bring sporting events to VR headsets with latest acquisition

  09-03-2016 19:17
  
  Intel wants you to get a front-row view of sports events on TVs, video streams and even VR headsets with its acquisition of Replay Technologies, announced Wednesday.Replay's FreeD technology is a rendering engine that brings a 360-degree view of sporting events to viewers. The technology allows viewers to see plays from several angles. FreeD involves captures sporting events using 28 4K cameras located around an arena. The videos are processed on Intel's servers.Intel says it is entering th
  
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• NAVO tekent overeenkomst voor cyberpartnership met Fortinet

  09-03-2016 19:11
  Specialist in cyberbeveiliging Fortinet heeft een samenwerkingsovereenkomst getekend met het NATO Communications and Information (NCI)-agentschap, verantwoordelijk voor de werking en verdediging van de netwerken van de NAVO. De overeenkomst valt binnen het raamwerk van de NATO Industry Cyber Partnership (NICP).De... lees meer
  
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• Mac ransomware KeRanger has flaws that could let users recover files

  09-03-2016 18:19
  The KeRanger file-encrypting ransomware program for Mac OS X contains crypto flaws that could allow users to recover their files without paying cybercriminals.According to researchers from antivirus firm Bitdefender, KeRanger is based on another ransomware program, called Linux.Encoder, that first appeared in November and targeted Linux-based Web servers.The first three versions of Linux.Encoder had flaws in their cryptographic implementations that allowed the Bitdefender researchers to cre
  
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• Intuit wraps up sales, unloads QuickBase to private equity firm

  09-03-2016 17:57
  
  Intuit yesterday said it had sold its QuickBase unit, the third group it's unloaded since January, to a New York private equity firm.
  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
  QuickBase -- a platform for creating data-driven, cloud-based apps for small and mid-sized businesses -- will be acquired by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, which specializes in technology and health care. QuickBase, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., will remain there, the equity firm said in a statement.
  Quic
  
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• Red Hat Linux to run on Qualcomm server chips

  09-03-2016 17:46
  
  Qualcomm has been established in mobile devices for some time now, but it's still trying to jumpstart the market for its chips in servers. So in an effort to exploit advanced features on its server chips and appeal to as many developers as possible, Qualcomm is working with Red Hat to port a version of the Enterprise Linux Server for ARM Development Preview.
  All Qualcomm server and mobile chips are based on processor architecture from ARM, whose business model is based on licensing out its desi
  
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• Google Destinations tries to make smartphone travel search less maddening

  09-03-2016 17:45
  
  Trying to plan a trip using just a smartphone tends to be a hassle. You might have a half-dozen browser tabs and a few different apps that you’re using for research, and can easily get lost bouncing between them all. Chances are, you end up abandoning the whole process and switching to a laptop.
  Google believes it has solved this problem with a new search tool for smartphones, called Destinations on Google. With certain search terms, Google will spit back summaries of different trips you
  
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• Aruba CEO: ‘We acquired HP Networking when HP acquired us’

  09-03-2016 17:42
  
  A year after wireless mover-and-shaker Aruba was acquired by HP in a $3 billion deal, President and CEO Dominic Orr said that, if anything, the company was more in control of its own destiny than ever.
  Instead of being absorbed into the broader HP Enterprise ecosystem, it feels as though Aruba’s been hired to take over the larger company’s wireless efforts. HPE employees, like those working in HP Networking’s previous wireless programs, are coming under Aruba’s wing, acc
  
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• 5 characteristics of exceptional internal audit leaders

  09-03-2016 16:55
  
  At its best, an organization's internal audit function adds value to that organization by constantly improving its risk management, control and governance processes. But it's not that simple — leadership plays a key role in the effectiveness of internal audit functions.According to a new study of more than 1,600 chief audit executives (CAEs), senior management and board members released by professional services specialist PwC yesterday, internal audit functions that have very effective lea
  
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• Juniper, Lenovo converge for next gen data centers

  09-03-2016 16:53
  
  Juniper Networks has allied with Chinese IT stalwart Lenovo to build converged, hyperconverged, and hyperscale data center infrastructure products for the enterprise and webscale markets.
  The alliance comes as the hyperconvergence market – tight integration of compute, networking and storage into an overall software-defined IT fabric – is reaching warp speed. Cisco entered the market last week via an alliance with start-up Springpath; HPE disclosed plans for an offering this month;
  
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• Tech training course promises a job in 90 days or your money back

  09-03-2016 15:32
  
  If you work in the tech industry, you’re probably tired of hearing about the “skills gap.” It’s the term for a recent hiring conundrum where the need for STEM workers has increased faster than students can graduate with the appropriate degrees. As a result, a number of programs have popped up that are aimed at training qualified individuals quickly and for less money than a traditional degree program.CareerBuilder is the latest to join in on skills-training for workers, b
  
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• Microsoft patches remote code execution flaws in Windows, IE, Edge, Office

  09-03-2016 14:39
  
  Microsoft has fixed 39 vulnerabilities in multiple Windows components, Internet Explorer, Edge, Office and .NET Framework, many of which allow for remote code execution.
  The patches are grouped in 13 security bulletins, five of which are rated critical and the rest as important.
  According to researchers from security vendor Qualys, systems administrators should prioritize the MS16-023 security bulletin for Internet Explorer, which covers 13 critical vulnerabilities that can be exploited over th
  
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• Everything you need to know about Google Project Fi

  09-03-2016 14:34
  
  Google this week invited the masses to join its previously invitation-only wireless cell phone service, and it's worth a look — but it's also not for everybody. Project Fi service is cheaper than comparable offerings from the major carriers. Subscribers get international wireless while abroad at no extra cost. And if new customers sign up by the first week of April they can get a real bargain on a Nexus 5X smartphone.
  What's not to like? Project Fi only works with three phones: Googl
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: iPad Pro: How to use the split keyboard in iOS

  09-03-2016 14:29
  Many owners of the iPad Pro have quickly fallen in love with Apple's big tablet. But over and over again I hear some of them lamenting that there's no way to use the split keyboard on the iPad Pro. This isn't true at all, however.You can use the split keyboard on the iPad Pro, and I'll show you how to do it in this tip. But in order to enable the split keyboard, you'll have to switch your iPad Pro's display settings to the Zoomed view. How to use the split keyboard in iOS on the iPad ProHer
  
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• How to avoid collaboration overload

  09-03-2016 14:01
  
  Are you feeling the effects of collaboration overload?
  If you are, you’re not alone. As collaboration becomes a strategic initiative for businesses looking to increase productivity and cross-functional capability within the workforce, there's a much greater risk that your best employees are going to burn out.
  According to a recent Harvard Business Review report that gauged responses from more than 300 organizations, many times the proportion of time workers spend in meetings, responding t
  
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• Facebook's open network gear hits the big time at Equinix

  09-03-2016 14:00
  Facebook's open networking technology is making inroads into the data center establishment, with global giant Equinix adopting the company's Wedge switch design and an open-source architecture in some of its facilities.The collaboration is the latest sign that network and server designs coming out of the Open Compute Project, which Facebook launched in 2011, are entering the IT mainstream. It was announced at the OCP Summit in San Jose, California. OCP promotes open-source hardware that any manu
  
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• What the changing look of mobile video means for marketing

  09-03-2016 13:35
  
  What was life like before you had a smartphone or a tablet? Chances are you hardly remember. However, with U.S. smartphone use predicted to top 257 million in 2017 and tablets a whopping 150 million (according to Forrester Research), it’s clear that mobile devices have changed a whole host of things about how we live our daily lives, from how we shop and work to how we hail taxis, make restaurant reservations and get our daily news fix. One thing quickly changing is how we view video.
  
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• 11 highest paying tech jobs in America

  09-03-2016 13:00
  
  Big bucksIf you’re not quite doctor or lawyer material, but want to make a killing, then you could do a lot worse than get a tech job. Which kind? That’s what online jobs and recruiting marketplace Glassdoor reveals in a new survey of the highest paying jobs in America. We’ve filtered out the non-tech jobs like physician ($180,000 median base salary) and lawyer ($144,500 median base salary), which are Nos. 1 and 2, and go from there (though really, what isn’t a tech job t
  
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• Threat geography: Why certain kinds of cyberattacks come from certain places

  09-03-2016 12:48
  
  Coming from all directionsImage byK3nna (modified)A security expert looking at different kinds of Internet attacks coming from different countries begins to see patterns emerging. "All kinds of attacks come from all over the world," says Ben Johnson, chief security strategist and co-founder of Carbon Black. But "particular attacks are more common in particular places (or are at least more overt), and there are reasons to that. Often it fits into the capabilities of the population, the story that
  
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• India challenges 65,000 H-1B cap in the U.S.

  09-03-2016 12:10
  
  The Indian government has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization alleging that the U.S. is breaking trade rules with special fees and changes to the 65,000 H-1B cap.
  The complaint raises two separate issues it says are unfair trade restrictions.
  The first part of the complaint raises concerns about a special visa fee on firms that are the largest users of the H-1B visa. In December, Congress doubled H-1B fees on these firms to $4,000. The additional fee applies to firms that employ
  
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• These technologies will blow the lid off data storage

  09-03-2016 12:00
  
  Hard disk drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) makers are about to wow the storage market again.
  This year, Intel and Micron will introduce 3D XPoint memory, also known as Optane, which will increase performance and durability 1,000-fold over today's NAND flash.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Review: Azure Machine Learning is for pros only

  09-03-2016 12:00
  
  Machine learning is an obvious complement to a cloud service that also handles big data. Often the major reason to collect massive amounts of observables is to predict other values of interest to the business. For example, one of the reasons to collect massive numbers of anonymized credit card transactions is to predict whether a new transaction is valid or fraudulent with some likelihood.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Cross-platform F# developers get a dose of Ionide

  09-03-2016 12:00
  
  Ionide, a development tool for the Microsoft-designed F# functional-first language, will be integrated with the Forge command-line tool and will get deeper linkage to Fslab libraries for data science.
  Providing F# developers with a modern IDE, open source Ionide boasts capabilities like autocomplete, document formatting, and syntax and error highlighting. It's packaged as an Atom Editor and Visual Studio Code-compatible suite of plug-ins for cross-platform development.To read this article in fu
  
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• Google DeepMind's AlphaGo AI system wins first round against top human Go player

  09-03-2016 09:08
  
  Google DeepMind's AlphaGo artificial-intelligence system has won the first game in a cliffhanger Go match with top player Lee Se-dol, raising expectations afresh about whether machines can be programmed to overtake humans in intellectual capabilities.The match has been billed as a major challenge by a computer in a game of tremendous complexity, in the footsteps of the now legendary chess victory of IBM's Deep Blue against Garry Kasporov in 1997 and the 2011 win in the Jeopardy quiz show by Wats
  
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• Encryption project issues 1 million free digital certificates in three months

  09-03-2016 06:11
  
  Let's Encrypt, an organization set up to encourage broader use of encryption on the Web, has distributed 1 million free digital certificates in just three months.The digital certificates cover 2.5 million domains, most of which had never implemented SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security), which encrypts content exchanged between a system and a user. An encrypted connection is signified in most browsers by "https" and a padlock appearing in the URL bar."Much more work remains to
  
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• Microsoft's next Dynamics ERP suite is live on Azure

  09-03-2016 03:00
  
  Microsoft has released the next version of its Dynamics AX enterprise resource planning software, giving companies a path to running more of their businesses in the cloud.The update, made available in Microsoft's cloud on Tuesday, has a new design intended to make the software easier to use, so people can get more work done. It’s all run through a browser-based portal, so people can access it wherever they are, and on any sort of device, whether that’s a desktop PC, a smartphone, or
  
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• Google hires founder of controversial 4chan

  09-03-2016 02:30
  
  In an apparent attempt to jumpstart its lagging social networking efforts, Google has hired the founder of the often controversial 4chan image-sharing hub.
  Christopher Poole, the founder of 4chan, announced in a post on Monday that he has joined Google, though he does not specify what he will be doing for the company.
  "When meeting with current and former Googlers, I continually find myself drawn to their intelligence, passion, and enthusiasm...," Poole wrote. "I'm also impressed by Google's co
  
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• One-in-three developers fear A.I. will replace them

  09-03-2016 02:29
  
  What keeps software developers up at night, other than coding? The fear that artificial intelligence systems can replace them, according to a new survey.
  Evans Data Corp., in a survey of 550 software developers, asked them about the most worrisome thing in their careers. A plurality, 29%, chose this answer: "I and my development efforts are replaced by artificial intelligence."
  Surprisingly, this concern about A.I. topped the second-most identified worry, which was that the platform the develop
  
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• Apple's brand perception unmoved by public feud with FBI

  09-03-2016 02:28
  
  Apple's feud with the U.S. Department of Justice over unlocking a passcode-protected iPhone has not altered the public perception of the company, YouGov BrandIndex, a brand quality measurement firm, said today.
  "There has been no meaningful movement among adults 18+," BrandIndex said of its brand metrics for Apple. "The same is true for consumers along party affiliation -- neither Republicans nor Democrats have altered their perception of the brand. And Apple customers also show no significant
  
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• Windows will win as PCs evolve from desktops to detachables, IDC report says

  09-03-2016 00:03
  
  IDC, which confidently predicted the rise of Windows phones, believes that Windows tablets like the Surface Pro 4 will easily outstrip Android and iOS tablets, according to a new report.
  Monday’s report claims that the overall tablet market will drop by 5.9 percent from 2015, with tablet sales falling to 195 million units this year. But the market will return to a small, single-digit growth pattern in 2017, driven by the rise of detachable tablets like the Google Pixel C, the Apple iPad P
  
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