IT Executive news

• BrandPost: Want Agile DevOps? Shift Left.

  31-03-2016 23:42
  
  The office of the CIO exists to enable the business to do business! That mission is achieved through the design, delivery and operation of the innovative systems and solutions that each business requires. The challenge CIOs face is keeping up with exponentially increasing demands and the business expectation to deliver solutions fast, at a lower cost and with higher quality. You’re already doing all you can, right?What more can you do? Try “Shift Left.”
  What’s Shift Left
  
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• The 10 Mac games you need to play from March 2016

  31-03-2016 23:00
  March's Mac gamesWe always aim to bring you a broad selection of games for our monthly Mac game roundup, but our picks from March seem especially diverse in terms of genre, scale, style, and price points. Hyper Light Drifter kicks things off, as the just-released indie adventure seems to be living up to the hype based on early user reviews. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• FCC votes for strict new broadband privacy rules

  31-03-2016 22:33
  
  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has taken a major step toward new regulations requiring ISPs to get customer permission before using or sharing their Web-surfing history and other personal information.The FCC voted 3-2 Thursday to approve a notice of proposed rule-making, or NPRM, the first step toward passing new regulations, over the objections of the commission's two Republicans.The proposed rules, which will now be released for public comment, require ISPs to get opt-in permission
  
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• Here's how Hololens could transform car buying

  31-03-2016 22:22
  
  Microsoft's Hololens promises to merge the real and virtual worlds in ways that haven't been possible before, and on Thursday morning, the company demonstrated one way the gadget could transform the way we buy cars and just about any other major product.The demonstration, which you can watch below, used a Caterpillar earth mover, but it's not difficult to see how this could be expanded to cars, houses, furniture, or a host of other goods.It begins with a sales pamphlet -- the kind of t
  
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• NASA to test inflatable habitat for future Mars missions

  31-03-2016 22:07
  
  The SpaceX cargo resupply launch for the International Space Station set for April 8 will have something more than the usual scientific experiments, food and replacement parts for the orbiter.
  The spacecraft will be carrying the BEAM space habitat made by Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace that will be attached to the outside of the space station for a two-year test.
  NASA scientists expect that inflatable habitats, also known as expandables, will eventually house astronauts when they land on Mar
  
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• Intel's fastest 22-core Broadwell chip comes to new servers

  31-03-2016 21:50
  
  Every time Intel announces new Xeon chips, server makers waste no time in announcing new products to take advantage.Lenovo, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Dell have announced faster servers with Intel's new Xeon E5-2600 v4 chips based on the Broadwell architecture. The chips have up to 22 cores and are significantly faster than the Haswell-based Xeon E5-2600 v3, which shipped last year.Dell measured a 28 percent improvement in server application performance based on SAP benchmarks on the ne
  
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• IBM is creating larger brain-mimicking computers

  31-03-2016 21:24
  IBM says it wants to make intelligent computers that can make decisions like humans. This week, it shipped the NS16e, its largest brain-inspired computer yet, and has big goals ahead.The company plans to create bigger versions of the NS16e -- which was purchased by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory -- to come closer to matching the scale of a human brain."Perhaps one day we may see a single rack of neurosynaptic system with as many neurons and synapses as in a human brain," said Jun Sawada,
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to get helpful feedback from your boss

  31-03-2016 21:16
  
  It happens all too frequently. When I was an HR manager employees would talk in my office at performance appraisal time and ask me how to interpret this feedback from their bosses.“Just keep doing what you’re doing.”If that is the sum total of the feedback you get, you can leave frustrated. Sigh.You don't have to give up just because you got an unhelpful answer.
  There are strategies you can use to get what you need. If this question doesn't work, “Can you be more specific
  
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• 10 no-cost home security mobile apps worth a download

  31-03-2016 20:58
  
  The App Store and Google Play stores are awash in home security apps. How do you choose?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Microsoft: No baked-in ad blocker for you!

  31-03-2016 20:53
  
  Microsoft does not plan on baking an online ad blocker into its Edge browser, a company engineer said today, rebutting a piece published Wednesday that got wide follow-on coverage.
  "We are not building a native ad blocker within [Microsoft Edge], but we will support third-party ad blockers like AdBlock and AdBlock Plus," tweeted Jacob Rossi, an engineer on the browser team, earlier today.
  Rossi and another Microsoft developer, Kyle Pflug, who also tweeted comments about the purported in-Edge-ad
  
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• Eat your heart out, quad-cores, Intel just dropped a 22-core CPU on us. Boom

  31-03-2016 19:56
  
  Think your eight-core PC is cool? Not anymore. Intel is turning loose a 22-core monster of a CPU, dubbed the Xeon E5-2600 V4.
  The CPU’s 22 count is made up of Broadwell cores, which when combined with Hyper-Threading, amounts to no fewer than 44-threads in a single-socket computer. On a dual-socket machine, you’re looking at 88 threads in a workstation. Yes, cue Johnny Dangerously joke here.
  The new Xeon E5-2600 V4 hasn’t shown up on Intel’s ARK product list yet, but it&
  
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• This new jobs site helps data scientists and employers hook up

  31-03-2016 19:51
  
  Now that "data scientist" has been declared this year's hottest job, it seems a safe bet that there are plenty of people out there calling themselves by that name but without the requisite skills. Enter Correlation One, a new, data science-specific job site focused on helping employers and qualified professionals connect.Billed as a matchmaker for data scientists and employers, Correlation One on Thursday announced its official launch, and it has some specific mechanisms in place to help the bes
  
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• LG develops blazing fast 15W wireless charging

  31-03-2016 19:51
  
  Imagine being able to set your smartphone down on a wireless charging pad and have it back up to 50 percent in just 30 minutes.
  That type of capability may be possible thanks to an innovation announced by LG Innotek. The LG subsidiary says it’s developed a 15-watt wireless charging module, which is three times faster than the current five-watt wireless solutions. 
  LG Innotek says the development product follows the standards set forth by the World Wireless Power Consortium and AirFue
  
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• Microsoft pitches developers on building applications for Office users

  31-03-2016 19:45
  
  Microsoft Executive Vice President Qi Lu had an interesting pitch for developers Thursday: Build applications that use data from Microsoft Office.Microsoft's crown jewel for building apps that integrate with Office is its Graph set of APIs, which let developers build applications that know how users work with one another. Lu, speaking at the company's Build developer conference, announced six new APIs to improve the Microsoft Graph, including one that allows developers to see when a group of use
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Failure is an option

  31-03-2016 19:36
  
  In just about any movie or book that includes a military presence, there is more than likely a line of dialogue by the hero or General to the effect of, “Failure is NOT an option!” Perhaps, when aliens are taking over the earth and probably going to destroy all of humanity that could arguably be true. However, I think when it comes to project management that is not true… not by a long shot. Many of us have pulled ourselves from the smoking ruins of a project to say, “Wha
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Staying in the fast lane – Put a little more 'T' in your 'C' suite

  31-03-2016 19:32
  
  Is your business about to be digitally disrupted? How can you see around that corner unless you are staying abreast of the changes in today’s digital world? If you or your C-suite peers don’t really “get” social media, rely on the CIO as the “AV Guy,” or still only use a couple of apps on that super computer in your pocket, it’s time to get your technology muscle in shape. Here are a few simple pointers to use for yourself, or to use with your C-Suite pe
  
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• Microsoft fires back at AWS with Azure Functions service and more

  31-03-2016 18:45
  
  Microsoft Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie has fired back at Amazon in the ongoing public cloud wars, announcing a set of new capabilities for Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.
  Guthrie showed off a variety of new capabilities for Azure during a keynote address on Thursday, the second day of Microsoft's Build developer conference. The features  include a new Azure Functions service, which lets developers set up functions that activate whenever a particular event happens.
  Developers do
  
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• Intel's new super-fast SSDs feature 3D NAND

  31-03-2016 18:30
  
  Intel promised super fast and high-capacity SSDs with 3D NAND chips last year, and the company announces the first of those drives Thursday.The new SSDs stand out for blistering speed, but top out at 2TB of capacity, which may be a disappointment to some customers considering the drives could potentially hold up to 10TB.The new lineup of SSDs with 3D chips includes the SSD DC P3320, SSD DC 3520, SSD DC D3700 and D3600. The SSDs are targeted at data centers, workstations and storag
  
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• Intel's 22-core Broadwell chips will speed up cloud services

  31-03-2016 18:30
  
  Intel continues to jack up the number of CPU cores in its chips, on Thursday releasing Xeon E5-2600 processors that have up to 22 cores.Intel packed more cores into the chips in response to growing demand for cloud and mobile services. The greater number of cores will allow cloud providers to stream more movies or applications from each individual server.The chips, based on Intel's Broadwell microarchitecture, will also go into workstations. Paired with a high-end graphics processor, workstation
  
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• Hackers can abuse the iOS mobile device management protocol to deliver malware

  31-03-2016 18:25
  Starting with iOS 9, Apple has tried to make it harder for attackers to trick users into installing unauthorized apps on their devices by abusing stolen enterprise certificates. However, it left one door open that attackers can still exploit: the protocol used by mobile device management products.In a presentation at the Black Hat Asia security conference on Friday, researchers from Check Point Software Technologies will demonstrate that the communication between MDM products and iOS devices is
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: CIOs need to reconceive the process design for IT support services

  31-03-2016 17:55
  
  I’ve been observing the end-user computing environment and believe it’s time for a complete rethink on how IT groups support their end users. What I usually find is that the support interactions are a lot like support interactions with cable companies – and most cable company customers feel that’s an infuriating experience. Cable companies design their interactions with customers to be most efficient for the cable company. They seek to optimize or lower the cost of t
  
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• Microsoft shows fruits of Xamarin acquisition with Visual Studio integration and more

  31-03-2016 17:45
  
  In its continuing push towards making its tools available across platforms, Microsoft announced Thursday that it will give Windows developers using .NET the native ability inside Visual Studio to write applications to Android and iOS.
  It's all thanks to tools from Xamarin, a company that Microsoft acquired earlier this year. Using Xamarin's SDK, developers can use C# to write applications that can run on Apple and Google's mobile platform, despite the language's history as a Microsoft product.
  
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• New Facebook Messenger bot helps you manage your flights

  31-03-2016 17:14
  
  The same day that Microsoft painted a vision of a future infused with helpful chatbots, you can already start planning trips with one—though it has nothing to do with the company that created Windows. Instead, Facebook announced that Dutch airline KLM would integrate with Messenger to deliver your confirmation message, boarding pass, and check-in reminders inside a single conversation thread. Messenger's KLM integration can also help you rebook flights and communicate with a live customer
  
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• Hands-on: How HoloLens handles creating shared experiences

  31-03-2016 16:56
  
  Late in the day on Wednesday, Microsoft gave a handful of press members at its Build developer conference a sneak peek at the HoloLens hardware it began shipping to developers that same day.The "Holographic Academy" aimed to get a group of about 70 journalists from a simple canvas to a working holographic application in just an hour, through a guided tour of the development tools for Microsoft's new augmented reality headgear. In the end, we were left with a fascinating glimpse into what Microso
  
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• 5 things you should know about two-factor authentication

  31-03-2016 16:35
  
  One of the best pieces of security advice any computer expert can give you is to enable two-factor authentication for websites that support it. With password breaches so common nowadays, it could be the one thing that keeps hackers from stealing your identity online. Here are five points to help you understand this technology.
  Two-factor authentication or two-step verification?
  A lot of people think they're the same thing, but that's not really accurate.
  There are three types of authentication
  
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• Cool new products from big data’s Hadoop World show

  31-03-2016 15:51
  
  Strata World/Hadoop WorldImage by FlickrThere’s a big world of big data tools and services, and many of the leading ones are on display this week at Strata World/Hadoop World in San Jose. From the latest distributions of open source database technology to handy tools for helping to manage them, check out some of the latest big data technology hitting the market this week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Consumers still think wearables are expensive, confusing — but also 'nerdy cool'

  31-03-2016 15:46
  
  Wearable technology is now very much a part of everyday life, thanks largely to the success of fitness trackers – including Fitbits – and smartwatches. However, it's still a stretch to suggest wearables are mainstream, and though the average consumer is cautiously interested in the devices, the results of a recent survey suggest many folks still have a number of nagging concerns.Colloquy, a marketing-focused research company, yesterday released the results of a February 201
  
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• IBM to buy Salesforce.com consulting specialist Bluewolf

  31-03-2016 15:32
  
  IBM sees customers of Salesforce.com as key to growing revenue at its Global Business Services consulting division.No, it's not buying Salesforce.com, as was rumored last year.Big Blue has, instead, made a bid for Bluewolf, a consulting practice that specializes in helping companies integrate Salesforce.com's CRM services into their IT systems. IBM values the market for this and other Salesforce.com-related professional services around at US$111 billion annually.Bluewolf has been working with Sa
  
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• Trending toward the unknown unknowns

  31-03-2016 15:24
  
  The world is one big trend — actually a billion interdependent micro-trends. We are surrounded by them. Everything that has more than one data point has a corresponding trend. Unsurprisingly, the media is obsessed with trends. Quality journalism is being buried under an avalanche of listicles enumerating trends.As an IT executive, it is critical that you stay on top of the trends that really matter. Unfortunately, there is a trend toward executives spending too much time on unimportant tre
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Final Four: March Madness data lessons

  31-03-2016 15:11
  
  Each year, as March Madness narrows to the Final Four and millions of Americans’ brackets go bust, diehards and casual fans alike ask themselves: What can this teach us about data mining?It’s a natural question. And it’s an especially important one for those who work with large data sets that contain information about inherently non-uniform entities subject to random forces and influences.You know, like people.Let’s start at the beginning.Why we didn’t win a billion
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 ways to maximize productivity through asset reuse

  31-03-2016 15:07
  
  Asset reuse is the repurposing of intellectual property, software, physical devices, business processes, and other similar company assets. From my perspective, this is one of the most powerful ways to maximize productivity. I say this because it helps you get more value out of the items you already own. In effect, you’re getting additional value for free.Economically, there is a major financial incentive to reuse your created, purchased, and acquired assets. As an example, let’s assu
  
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• AMD's new FirePro S9300 X2 is its latest monster GPU

  31-03-2016 15:00
  
  AMD is releasing one monster graphics card after another as its GPU speed battle with Nvidia heats up.The company's FirePro S9300 X2, announced Thursday, is AMD's second-fastest graphics card to date. The product is targeted at servers and supercomputers, where GPUs are used to speed up visual and scientific applications.The new FirePro delivers a maximum single-precision performance of 13.9 teraflops. That's shy of the 16 teraflop performance provided by the recently announced Radeon Pro Duo, a
  
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• Microsoft puts Windows Phone on hold

  31-03-2016 14:40
  
  Well, now we know why Microsoft’s Windows Phone didn’t appear at Microsoft’s Build keynote on Wednesday: it simply isn’t on Microsoft’s radar screen at the moment.
  The question, of course, is whether it will ever be again.
  “We’re going to do some cool things with phones, but this year phones are an important part of our family but not the tip of the spear,” Windows chief Terry Myerson told The Verge on Wednesday. 
  To read this article in full
  
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• Are healthcare CIOs being cut out of the analytics loop?

  31-03-2016 14:13
  
  Healthcare CIOs are facing new challenges as their organizations shift toward a care delivery model known as “population health management,” or PHM. Essentially, PHM aims to improve the health of a patient population in order to reduce the cost of caring for that population. Healthcare organizations are being forced to take this path because Medicare and private health insurers are replacing payments based on the volume of services with payments based on “value” – w
  
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• Feds tackle open source code quality

  31-03-2016 14:11
  
  Even as the White House is calling on federal agencies to make more use of open source projects, there's also a federal effort under way to reduce the number of vulnerabilities in those products via better code review tools and bug bounties.
  By the end of September, the Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security plans to award funding for a project designed to improve the performance of static code analysis tools.
  "We're in the process of approving proposals now from academi
  
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• Dell powers up Precision desktops for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive

  31-03-2016 14:00
  
  Virtual reality is poised to change PC configurations, and Dell is packing serious horsepower in its new Precision desktops as a way for users view and create VR content.The desktops will be equipped with high-end graphics cards and Intel's new Xeon E5-2600 v4 chips, which have up to 22 cores.You can't get more horsepower or cutting-edge technologies in a desktop, and these computers will run the most demanding games and applications.The new Precision Tower 5810, 7810 and 7910 desktops also supp
  
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• 10 myths marketing technology vendors want you to believe

  31-03-2016 14:00
  
  When shopping for marketing technology (martech) software, should you believe everything the vendors say? That depends on the merchant, the product category and a number of other important factors, according to Scott Brinker, editor of the chiefmartec.com blog and program chair for the March 2016 MarTech USA conference in San Francisco.Miscommunications and misguided customer expectations are inevitable in an industry that's growing so rapidly. Just five years ago, fewer than 150 martech softwar
  
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• Your Linux-based home router could succumb to a new Telnet worm, Remaiten

  31-03-2016 13:53
  Building botnets made up of routers, modems, wireless access points and other networking devices doesn't require sophisticated exploits. Remaiten, a new worm that infects embedded systems, spreads by taking advantage of weak Telnet passwords.
  Remaiten is the latest incarnation of distributed denial-of-service Linux bots designed for embedded architectures. Its authors actually call it KTN-Remastered, where KTN most likely stands for a known Linux bot called Kaiten.
  When scanning for new victims
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 ways to be a better project manager

  31-03-2016 13:41
  
  Good, better, best. If we are dedicated to our profession, we usually always want to be improving. Granted, there are those days and weeks when we are just trying to keep our heads above water and we can't think about improving...just maintaining. I get that. I've been there. In fact, I feel like I'm there right now...at least this week. But I do want to improve, become more organized, serve my clients better and increase my chances at being more successful on each project I manage and on each c
  
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• 6 ways you're getting teamwork wrong

  31-03-2016 13:26
  
  Knowing how to best encourage teamwork and collaboration is key to reaping the benefits in your company. But without careful planning and practice, it's easy for your teamwork and collaboration initiatives to go off the rails. Mario Moussa, a professor in the executive programs at The Wharton School of Executive Education, Derek Newberry and Madeline Boyer, lecturers at the Wharton School of Business and senior consultants at Percipient Partners offer these tips for avoiding common collaboration
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Sony will bring classic Playstation games to iOS, so why won’t Nintendo?

  31-03-2016 13:00
  
  Sony recently announced that they have formed a special games division designed to bring some of its classic Playstation games to the iOS platform. This is fantastic news and should please all iOS gamers. Sony's classic games should prove to be huge hits on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.Michael Grothaus reports on Sony's decision for Know Your Mobile:
  I’m old enough to remember the first Sony Playstation, and truthfully, I freak out a bit when people tell me their first console was the P
  
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• iPhone SE review: It's a pocket-size powerhouse

  31-03-2016 12:57
  
  The SE is the little iPhone that could. With a 4-inch screen and the body of an iPhone 5s, it fits in my pockets better than my iPhone 6s, and it’s easier to use one-handed. But it doesn’t compromise much over its bigger, more expensive siblings.If you were waiting for Apple to put out another 4-inch phone before you’d upgrade, you’re probably dancing in the streets right now—and you should be, because this phone is such a huge step up from the iPhone 5s. If you are
  
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• Flexibility keeps me focused, excited and engaged in my work

  31-03-2016 12:48
  
  August 19 will mark my three-year anniversary at CIO.com. It's also a major milestone; This is the longest I've ever worked at a company. My previous stints at publishers each lasted just over 18 months. A number of factors pushed me out a number of doors and into the freelance world in 2008 -- where I stayed until that fateful August day in 2013.From my first day at CIO.com and parent company IDG, my editors, managers and coworkers made it clear that when it comes to work-life balance "life" is
  
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• 5 dev tools for better code security

  31-03-2016 12:00
  
  5 dev tools for securing your codeImage by geralt via pixabayInformation security is of paramount importance these days, and there is no better place to start securing systems and data than in the software development process itself.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Nieuw ecosysteem voor industrieel internet gelanceerd

  31-03-2016 10:03
  Industriële reus GE heeft de ontwikkeling van een digitaal industrieel ecosysteem aangekondigd. Het samenwerkingsverband, het Digital Alliance Program, brengt systeemintegratoren, telecom serviceproviders, onafhankelijke softwareleveranciers, technologieleveranciers en resellers samen met de technologie en... lees meer
  
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• MedStar Health partially restores services after suspected ransomware attack

  31-03-2016 03:07
  
  MedStar Health said Wednesday it is restoring computer systems following a cyberattack that reportedly involved file-encrypting malware.The not-for-profit organization, which runs 10 hospitals in the Washington, D.C., area, was hit with ransomware, the Baltimore Sun reported on Wednesday, citing two anonymous sources.MedStar Health officials could not be immediately reached for comment. The organization issued two statements Wednesday, but did not describe what type of malware infected its syste
  
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• Apple mimics other browser makers, produces Safari developer preview

  31-03-2016 02:55
  
  Apple today released its first developer preview of Safari for OS X, saying it is following in the footsteps of other major browser makers -- all of whom provide early looks at their under-construction projects -- to give website designers and app creators a continuous sneak peek.
  Labeled "Safari Technology Preview," the browser can be downloaded by anyone, not just Apple registered developers, and runs alongside the production-quality Safari on OS X. The preview will be updated via the Mac App
  
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• 63 cases seek access to locked Apple, Google phones, ACLU says

  31-03-2016 02:53
  
  The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday it has uncovered 63 confirmed cases in which federal agencies have sought court orders to force Apple or Google to unlock phones to gain access to data.
  The ACLU posted a blog and an interactive map of the U.S. to show where the cases were filed.
  The group gleaned the information through Freedom of Information requests that it filed jointly with the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. The interactive map will be updated as more cases are u
  
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• Report: Microsoft will build ad blocking into a future version of Microsoft Edge

  31-03-2016 01:58
  
  Microsoft is working to build ad blocking into the “next” version of Microsoft Edge, according to a report.
  Ed Bott, who sat in at a Microsoft Edge session at Microsoft’s Build conference here in San Francisco, snapped a photo of a slide presented by Microsoft executives. “Build ad blocking features into the browser” is “targeted for the next version” of the browser, version 4682811. 
  When and if it arrives, ad blocking inside Microsoft Edge w
  
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• Apple is giving an iPad Pro to every team in Major League Baseball

  31-03-2016 01:34
  
  The iPad Pro is stepping up to the plate.
  Apple has struck a multiyear partnership with Major League Baseball to equip every coach in the league with a 12.9-inch iPad Pro. According to The Wall Street Journal, MLB coaches are expected to use the iPad Pros to browse through performance stats from various seasons, calculate how a hitter will do against a certain pitcher, see “spray charts” of where the hit ball is most likely to go, and pull up videos from previous games. 
  &ldquo
  
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