IT Executive news

• Justice Department slams Apple's 'corrosive' rhetoric in its latest court filing

  10-03-2016 23:49
  
  UPDATE: March 10, 2016, 3:46 p.m. Pacific—In a conference call Thursday afternoon, Apple’s SVP and chief legal counsel Bruce Sewell said, “The tone of the brief reads like an indictment,” and in 30 years he’s never seen a brief trying so hard “to smear” someone. “It should be deeply offensive to everyone who reads it.”
  “Corrosive rhetoric” could be this week’s “dormant cyber pathogen,” the latest salvo in the go
  
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• HP's industrial 3D printer on track to ship this year

  10-03-2016 22:15
  
  After announcing in 2014 it would bring an industrial 3D printer to market within two years, HP went mostly silent -- until now.
  Next week, HP plans on pitching its Multi Jet Fusion 3D printer at the South by South West (SXSW) conference in Austin.
  Steve Nigro, president of 3D printing at HP, said the MultiJet Fusion 3D Printer is on schedule for mass production and will ship late this year; it will retail for between  $100,000 and $1 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comm
  
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• Need machine learning? HPE just launched a new service with more than 60 APIs

  10-03-2016 22:05
  
  If 2015 was the year analytics tools became ubiquitous in enterprise software, 2016 is shaping up to do much the same for machine learning.Just last week artificial-intelligence startup Nervana launched an offering that promises "deep learning on demand," and on Thursday Hewlett Packard Enterprise released a product of its own for what it calls "machine learning as a service."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Facebook aims to kill banner ads, but will the industry follow?

  10-03-2016 21:57
  
  During the past few years, Facebook took an up-close-and-personal look at the ad exchange business, and it didn't like what it saw. The company decided to kill a component of Atlas, its ad-serving and measurement platform, that would have let marketers use the social network's targeting features to buy ads on other sites and in mobile apps."Facebook's making a bet that only video and native ad units add value, so they won't be party to selling other kinds of inventory on their site or anywhere e
  
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• Intel is lining up super-fast Optane SSD tech for MacBooks

  10-03-2016 21:52
  
  Intel's been quiet about its super-fast Optane memory and SSD products, but a few emerging details may hint at how they could be used in products like Apple's MacBooks.Optane is a brand name for a new type of memory and SSD based on 3D Xpoint, a technology jointly developed by Intel and Micron that can be 10 times denser than DRAM, and 1,000 times faster and more durable than flash storage. The soon-to-be-released 3D Xpoint technology will be compatible with NVMe, a super-fast storage proto
  
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• Amazon.com back up after site, app crash

  10-03-2016 21:19
  
  Online retail giant Amazon.com is back online after suffering a crash across its website and mobile app Thursday afternoon.
  The outage appears to have begun around 2:25 p.m. ET this afternoon and lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. The site and app appeared to be up and running normally at 3 p.m. ET
  Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
  Users from across the U.S. reported the crash.
  The site DownDetector.com reported a dramatic spike in complaintsabout the site's lack of re
  
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• Emergency Flash Player patch fixes actively exploited vulnerability

  10-03-2016 20:27
  
  Adobe Systems released new versions of Flash Player in order to fix 18 critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited to take over computers, including one flaw that's already targeted by attackers.
  "Adobe is aware of a report that an exploit for CVE-2016-1010 is being used in limited, targeted attacks," the company said in a security advisory. The flaw stems from a heap overflow condition and was reported to Adobe by researchers from antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab.
  Kaspersky Lab did not immedi
  
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• FCC wants ISPs to get customer permission before sharing personal data

  10-03-2016 20:15
  Broadband providers would often be required to get customer permission to use and share personal data they collect under regulations proposed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.Broadband providers have an unrivaled ability to track customers and collect personal data, and there currently are no specific rules covering broadband providers and customer privacy, FCC officials said Thursday.The goal of the rules is to give broadband customers notice, choice and control over their per
  
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• Kicked out of PCs, Blu-ray drives are revived in data centers

  10-03-2016 19:38
  
  Blu-ray and DVD drives are being kicked out of PCs but finding a new life in data centers as storage that can retain data for up to 100 years.A massive new system from Sony called Everspan is a collection of optical drives that can store up to 181 petabytes of data. The system can expand to 55 feet in length and have hundreds of Blu-ray-like drives.The system will be used for long-term storage of data that isn't modified often, or information that businesses feel need to be retained for specific
  
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• The LG G5 arrives in the U.S. in early April

  10-03-2016 19:32
  
  Android smartphone fans should be smiling.
  LG announced today that its new LG G5 is coming to the U.S. in early April at major carriers and retailers.
  Meanwhile, Samsung's new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones go on sale tomorrow, March 11.
  All three new phones run Android 6.0 (Marshmallow).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• JavaScript founder Brendan Eich: WebAssembly is a game-changer

  10-03-2016 19:11
  
  When it comes to the Web's future, JavaScript creator Brendan Eich, remains bullish on WebAssembly but also gives a thumbs-up to Google's Service Worker technology.
  Eich, speaking at the O'Reilly Fluent conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, called WebAssembly the most exciting development he has seen in the past year. The project boosts Web performance by providing a portable code format to run in browsers at native speeds. Major browser vendors Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla all are
  
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• It's Buddy Week

  10-03-2016 18:57
  
  It’s ecosystem partnership week. And data center stalwart Mellanox, SDN start-up Plexxi and Cisco partner vArmour have all delivered.
  Mellanox buddied up with Cumulus Networks to add Cumulus Linux NOS to its new Spectrum 10/25, 40/50, and 100 Gbps Ethernet switches. Mellanox itself has made multiple contributions of 10/25, 40/50, & 100G Ethernet switch and Open Compute Platform (OCP) adapter designs.
  Cumulus Linux has been chosen by several hardware and software vendors as a NOS optio
  
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• Sales reps can now tap Salesforce's predictive CRM smarts in Outlook

  10-03-2016 18:55
  
  Almost exactly a year ago Salesforce launched an app that brings CRM data into Microsoft's Outlook email software, and on Thursday it made a like-minded move with its SalesforceIQ Inbox product for what it calls "relationship intelligence."Already available for Gmail, SalesforceIQ Inbox aims to give sales representatives access to SalesforceIQ's predictive technology right from their email inbox, allowing them to connect email, Salesforce CRM and customer social data more easily. Arising fr
  
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• Video profile: On the go with Navy Federal CIO Bill Hills

  10-03-2016 18:37
  
  By day, he drives IT innovation at Navy Federal Credit Union. At night, CIO Bill Hills tangoes away his tensions. (idg.tv)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Microsoft Visual Studio adds R support

  10-03-2016 17:25
  
  Microsoft's Visual Studio added support for the R programming language this week with the unveiling of the open-source R Tools for Visual Studio, now available in public preview.
  The release includes an R editor, code autocompletion, debugging, built-in git and GitHub support and an R plotting window and R Markdown/knitr support for exporting reports to Word or HTML format.
  This brings Visual Studio in direct competition with the highly popular RStudio IDE for developing R code. RStudio has a s
  
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• Employers get creative with compensation

  10-03-2016 16:51
  
  Savvy companies are getting smarter about compensation, and are using transparency, variable pay and bonuses to recognize their best employees.According to compensation software and services company PayScale, 86 percent of top-performing companies -- those who are leaders in their industry and who exceeded revenue targets for 2015 -- agree with this statement: “Our people are our greatest asset.” In contrast, 78 percent of average companies agreed with the statement.The 2016 Compensa
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The iPhone SE doesn't need 3D Touch to succeed

  10-03-2016 16:25
  
  Rumors about Apple's new 4-inch phone, the iPhone SE, are everywhere on the Web these days. Some sites have even shown leaked photos of components, cases being made ready and every other tidbit you can think of about the new phone. And everything so far seems to indicate that the iPhone SE will not have 3D Touch included as part of its feature set.This has led some folks to dismiss the iPhone SE as not being worth buying. But I think that's a mistake, everything I've seen about the iPhone SE see
  
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• How 5 tech giants are mobilizing the enterprise

  10-03-2016 16:20
  
  Smartphones and tablets are becoming a fixture in business as industries embrace mobile technology -- for example, field workers are relying on portable rugged devices and  retail shops are managing an entire store from a single tablet. So it's not surprising that technology manufacturers are rushing to become the industry standard.But there is more to mobile adoption than sleek new hardware. IT departments want to be reassured that these devices are equipped with enterprise-level security,
  
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• Context is king: Aruba founder talks about future of wireless

  10-03-2016 16:17
  
  Networks able to understand contextual clues will improve security, flexibility and provide broad new feature sets, said Aruba founder and CTO Keerti Melkote in a keynote address from the company’s Atmosphere conference on Wednesday.Jon Gold Keerti MelkoteMelkote’s presentation teased some novel technologies that Aruba is in various stages of incorporating into its offerings, though few timelines were offered.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Four “knows” about driving transformation

  10-03-2016 15:31
  
  Perhaps you’re a CIO managing the transformation to a DevOps environment. Or implementing new collaborative business models with business stakeholders. Or reorganizing your IT department into a business-centric IT-as-a-Service model.The word “transformation” is synonymous with “radical change,” and rightfully so. It’s an extreme and thorough difference from the accepted or traditional form of business activities. It’s disruptive. It’s loaded with c
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Is it "live or is it Memorex?" Is emerging technology hype or reality?

  10-03-2016 15:24
  
  "Is it live or is it Memorex" was an ad campaign for cassette recording tapes from Memorex. Could you tell if the sound was genuine, authentic and real from the artist, or was it a recorded copy?Definitions
  Let's start by taking a look at some definitions as a backdrop for technology that can be, and are, misconstrued and misinterpreted today, especially in the emerging technology landscape:Real: actually existing or happening: not imaginary. Not fake, false, or artificial. Important and deservi
  
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• How to use BI to improve the customer experience

  10-03-2016 14:45
  
  When Timothy J. Whall became CEO of Protection 1, a full-service provider of residential and business security solutions, in 2010, he made it clear that the company’s primary goal was to reduce attrition. The way he planned to do this was by improving customer service as well as the customer experience, both for business and residential customers.A subscription-based service with nearly 2 million customers across the United States, Protection 1’s new management team understood that t
  
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• Obama’s big data project targets community improvement

  10-03-2016 14:30
  
  As businesses are scrambling to make better use of the growing volume of data they are collecting, the federal government sees in big data an opportunity for meaningful social improvement.The Obama administration this week launched the Opportunity Project, a coordinated effort to use "open data effort to improve economic mobility for all Americans," according to a White House fact sheet.[ Related: Feds advance open data roadmap despite challenges ]Aden Van Noppen, an advisor in the office of the
  
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• Is DevOps good or bad for security?

  10-03-2016 14:26
  
  If you think of DevOps as failing fast – as Facebook used to put it, “move fast and break things” – then you might also think of rapid releases, automation and continuous integration and deployment as giving you less time to find security problems. After all, you’re changing code, updating features and adding new capabilities more rapidly. That means more chances to introduce bugs or miss vulnerabilities.With 2016 set to be the year DevOps goes mainstream – Ga
  
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• Wi-Fi hotspot blocking persists despite FCC crackdown

  10-03-2016 14:22
  
  The FCC has slapped hotels and other organizations with nearly $2.1 million in fines since the fall of 2014 for blocking patrons’ portable Wi-Fi hotspots in the name of IT security, or more likely, to gouge customers for Internet service. But Network World’s examination of more than a year’s worth of consumer complaints to the FCC about Wi-Fi jamming shows that not all venue operators are getting the message (see infographic below).
  Indeed, more than half of the 50-plus compla
  
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• Hands-on with 3 great carry-ons for techie travelers (video)

  10-03-2016 14:20
  
  I’ve been writing about and reviewing laptop bags and other luxury luggage for years. Most recently, I decided to focus on four-wheeled carry-ons, and I published a slide show on CIO.com titled, "11 carry-on bags for today’s tech-savvy traveler." I liked three of the bags featured in the story so much, I recorded a hands-on video with them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 10 tech tools to survive a business trip

  10-03-2016 14:13
  
  Traveling with technologyWhile business trips are a necessary evil for many, having the right tech tools to go with your laptop or tablet can make even the most grueling trip a little more bearable. Thanks to the cloud, the software problem has mostly been solved. But that’s put more demands than ever on your hardware. The following collection of tech tools should help take the trepidation out of your travel plans.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• FTC orders nine PCI auditors to share assessment details

  10-03-2016 14:11
  
  The FTC is on a data breach enforcement roll. Last summer, the courts allowed it to fine companies with weak cybersecurity practices. Now, the FTC is taking a closer look at payments processing, checking to see how auditors measure compliance with industry rules.
  Specifically, the FTC has requested information from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mandiant, Foresite MSP, Freed Maxick CPAs, GuidePoint Security, NDB, SecurityMetrics, Sword and Shield Enterprise Security, and Verizon Enterprise Solutions,
  
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• Opera's new browser blocks ads natively

  10-03-2016 13:54
  
  Opera Software has updated its desktop browser to block ads without the need for a plug-in.With its 2.07 percent share of the desktop browser market last month, according to StatCounter, Opera's move is unlikely to scare advertisers, or website operators dependent on advertising revenue -- particularly as the blocker is turned off by default.However, the browser might interest website operators, as with a single click it allows them to compare the load times of their sites with ads, and without,
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 8 ways to fun-size your content

  10-03-2016 13:52
  
  Last year, Google researchers discovered not that humans have the same attention span as goldfish, but that it’s even worse. Around eight seconds to be exact. We’re also loving short videos and infographics more than content, but that doesn’t mean written content is dead—far from it. What it does mean is that long-form articles are a thing of the past on most platforms. There will always be a place for longer-form content (scholarship journals, anyone? Serious financial m
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Carving a true path to an innovation culture

  10-03-2016 13:46
  
  Enabling innovation is hard. It is not just building new products or improving existing ones or improving processes, workflows and interactions. It requires a change in thinking, a change in culture and a change in expectations of delivery and progress. It is about treating innovation as a sum of three parts - implementation, adoption and value confirmation. And the key to enabling such a culture is through a combination of pragmatic agility, APIs and automation.The path to true innovation that
  
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• Ton Kromwijk (Nestlé), nieuw bestuurslid EuroCIO: “Kern is belangenbehartiging in Brussel”

  10-03-2016 13:39
  Ton Kromwijk, Head of GLOBE Management Office van de Zwitserse food & health-gigant Nestlé, Direct Member van de European CIO Association (EuroCIO), is eind vorig jaar aangetreden als board member. “De kern is belangenbehartiging in Brussel.”“Ik ben bij EuroCIO betrokken vanwege het... lees meer
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Healthcare tailored with precision medicine

  10-03-2016 13:00
  
  Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) is discovering tomorrow’s cures. Illumina (Solexa) sequencing, Roche 452 sequencing, Ion torrent (Proton/PGM) sequencing, and SOLiD sequencing are revolutionizing the study of genomics and molecular biology. Next-generation sequencing is enabling precision medicine for an individual patient by linking potential biomarkers to access clinical outcomes. This is digital healthcare.The breakthrough
  The first DNA sequencing started in the early 1970’s, but
  
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• Master Marshmallow: 12 useful tips for Android 6.0

  10-03-2016 12:30
  
  Google's Android 6.0 Marshmallow release may have been announced last October -- but if you're like the majority of Android users, it's probably pretty new to you right about now. Heck, you might even still be waiting to receive it! (The joys of Android upgrades, eh?)
  Whether you're a Marshmallow newbie or an Android 6.0 veteran, though, there's plenty to be learned about Google's latest major mobile effort. Check out these tips and see what new tricks you can teach your favorite Android phone
  
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• This company migrated to the cloud to get BETTER security

  10-03-2016 12:00
  
  Once it was determined that SOC2 was business critical, Chief Information Security Officer Clarke Rodgers says he analyzed the different ways of getting there and finally determined that moving to the cloud was the most efficient path.  Rodgers recently shared the story with Network World Editor in Chief John Dix.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• HP Spectre X360 15T review: It's sexy and thin, but comes with a performance cost

  10-03-2016 12:00
  
  With its new Spectre X360 15T, HP is offering a different approach to the high-end, high-performance 15-inch laptop. This is a laptop, the company says, that’s aimed at folks who want a sizable screen and reasonably great performance wrapped in a great package.The Spectre X360 15T certainly has the "great package" part down. It's essentially a bigger version of the beautiful 13-inch Spectre X360. Both feature a similar CNC-milled aluminum chassis, as well as a 10-point touch IPS
  
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• 21 hot programming trends -- and 21 going cold

  10-03-2016 12:00
  
  Programmers love to sneer at the world of fashion where trends blow through like breezes. Skirt lengths rise and fall, pigments come and go, ties get fatter, then thinner. But in the world of technology, rigor, science, math, and precision rule over fad.
  That's not to say programming is a profession devoid of trends. The difference is that programming trends are driven by greater efficiency, increased customization, and ease of use. The new technologies that deliver one or more of these eclipse
  
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• Google AlphaGo AI program beats star South Korean Go player again

  10-03-2016 09:52
  
  Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo scored another win Thursday against star South Korean player Lee Se-dol, giving a boost to Google’s growing position in the field of artificial-intelligence.The close contest in Seoul was the second in a series of five games being played in South Korea, the last of which is scheduled for Tuesday.On Wednesday, a shocked Lee had resigned the first game to AlphaGo in a cliffhanger.AlphaGo appears to have surpassed its first day's play with Lee saying that if he
  
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• Opera's testing a browser that kills ads, accelerating webpage loading by up to 90 percent

  10-03-2016 09:00
  
  Opera's fired a broadside in the web content wars Thursday morning, becoming the first desktop Web browser with built-in ad blocking—and explicitly encouraging users to turn it on as a way of improving their browsing experience.
  Competing browsers like Chrome or Firefox assign plugins like AdBlock Plus the task of blocking ads. But with Opera’s 37.0.2162.0 developer build for Mac OS and Windows, it's baked right into the software. Opera claims that turning on the ad-b
  
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• Locky ransomware activity ticks up

  10-03-2016 03:47
  
  Locky, a new family of ransomware that emerged in the last few weeks, has quickly made a mark for itself.Computer security companies say it has become a commonly seen type of ransomware, which is used to hold a computer’s files hostage pending a ransom payment.Trustwave's SpiderLabs said on Wednesday that 18 percent of 4 million spam messages it collected in the last week were ransomware-related, including many linked to Locky."We are currently seeing extraordinary huge volumes of JavaScri
  
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• You want to help foot the bill for my data? Yes, please.

  10-03-2016 02:45
  
  If you read some recent tech news reports, you’d think wireless carriers have committed an act of sedition. The overblown debate about sponsored data, or zero-rating, as it’s otherwise known, reached fever pitch with the finding that T-Mobile provides less than high-definition video to its customers through its Binge On service. Gasp! How will we live? 
  The entire episode reignited a debate about whether wireless carriers can and should be providing their consumers with sponsor
  
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• Meet Connie, Hilton’s smart robot concierge

  10-03-2016 02:42
  
  One day soon you may be staying at a Hilton hotel and, when you ask for directions to the pool or what time breakfast starts, the concierge helping you may be a robot.
  Hilton and IBM announced on Wednesday that the companies are teaming up to pilot a smart robot, dubbed Connie, that will act as a hotel concierge, answering guests' questions and learning as it works.
  Connie, which will be working in a pilot test at the Hilton McLean in Virginia, is designed to interact with hotel guests and answ
  
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• Blame smartphone use for polls that missed Sanders' Michigan win

  10-03-2016 02:41
  
  Sen. Bernie Sanders' surprise victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's Michigan Democratic presidential primary came after many pollsters predicted she would win handily.
  The average of 18 major polls prior to Tuesday's primary indicated Clinton would win by 21.4%, according to an analysis by RealClear Politics.
  "We all blew it," said Steve Mitchell, CEO of Mitchell Research & Communications of East Lansing, Mich., in an interview Wednesday.Mitchell's firm showed
  
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• Google has joined Facebook's Open Compute Project and submitted a 48-volt rack design

  10-03-2016 02:35
  
  Google has joined Facebook's Open Compute Project and proposed a new design for server racks that could help cloud data centers cut their energy bills.
  The OCP was started by Facebook six years ago as a way for end-user companies to get together and design their own data center equipment, free of the unneeded features that drive up costs for traditional vendor products.
  Other big cloud providers such as Microsoft jumped on board, but Google, which is known for operating some of the world's most
  
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• Experts say 'chip off' procedure to access terrorist's iPhone is risky

  10-03-2016 00:53
  
  The iPhone 5c at the center of the legal battle between Apple and the FBI might be accessible through a delicate hardware technique, but experts warn it would be difficult.In recent days, the American Civil Liberties Union's technology fellow and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have suggested a method that would let investigators repeatedly guess the iPhone's password.Federal investigators fear San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook may have configured his work phone to use an Apple
  
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• The U.S. will see an amazing total solar eclipse in 2017

  10-03-2016 00:46
  
  If images of this week's solar eclipse whetted your appetite for the real thing and you live in the U.S., you don't have long to wait. In August 2017, a total solar eclipse will be seen in a path that crosses the entire country -- the first time in almost 100 years that this has happened.
  "The next one's a really good one," said David Hathaway, an astrophysicist at NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Center in Silicon Valley. "For most of the U.S., you're within driving distance of this."
  The eclips
  
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• World’s coolest concept cars

  10-03-2016 00:44
  
  World’s coolest concept carsImage by REUTERS/Steve MarcusHigh-tech wizardry leads the way in the concept car world this year. All manner of wildly-shaped electric cars and in BMW’s case at least an augmented reality vehicle. Many concept cars of course, remain just that -- a concept, but some do make it off the drawing board into real life. Take a look.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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