IT Executive news

• Cord cutting could cause Dish to drop Viacom channels

  20-04-2016 21:52
  
  With more and more consumers watching TV via streaming video services, the giants of pay TV, including Dish Network and Viacom, are fighting to hold onto their pieces of the shrinking revenue pie. And it's not just their problem; consumers are caught in the middle, and they'll eventually face fewer viewing options and higher cable bills.Dish, Viacom rift a direct result of cord cutting
  Dish and Viacom are the subject of the latest skirmish. Dish is the third-largest pay TV provider in the United
  
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• Microsoft Windows 10 Mobile Build 14327 adds texting via PC, strips out Skype

  20-04-2016 21:34
  
  One of the reasons we keep our phones out at work is to quickly and surreptitiously reply to a text or a phone call. With Microsoft’s new beta build of Windows 10 Mobile, we can put them back in our pockets.
  With Build 14327 of Windows 10 Mobile for the Fast Ring of Windows Insiders, Microsoft has added its Messaging Everywhere Preview, an early look at a capability to send and receive texts while seated at your Windows 10 PC, rather than via your phone. The only loss in this build is Sky
  
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• Apple's emphasis on security makes ARM-powered Macs 'inevitable'

  20-04-2016 21:22
  
  Apple will offer Macs equipped with an ARM processor, the same silicon used in the iPhone and iPad, an analyst said, calling the move "inevitable" because of the company's emphasis on security and encryption.
  "If Apple truly wants to bring their security philosophy to their products in every part of the ecosystem, they must also do what many predict and make A-series processors for Macs," said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, in a piece posted to Tech.pinions Tuesday (subscriptio
  
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• Save 40% on the TP-LINK Wi-Fi Smart Plug - Deal Alert

  20-04-2016 20:27
  
  The TP-LINK HS100 smart plug is quite simply a power outlet that you can control from anywhere. Using your smartphone, you can turn devices on & off, set programs to turn them on & off at set times while you're away, or engage a "countdown timer" which powers the switch off after a set amount of time. Installation is simple -- just plug a device into your smart plug and connect to your wifi network. The HS100 is also compatible with Echo, for voice control. Buy multiple plugs and get cr
  
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• Intel's tablet adventure looking more like its netbook disaster

  20-04-2016 20:26
  
  Intel's rise and fall in tablets are starting to resemble the company's misadventures in netbooks less than a decade ago.The company is quickly distancing itself from basic tablets, a market it prized as little as two years ago, to go after detachable devices, hybrids, and high-end tablets that can double as PCs.Intel could also ax some Atom tablet chip lines that brought the company success two years ago. Intel this week laid off 12,000 people as part of a restructuring plan that
  
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• 68% off Amir 3 in 1 Cell Phone Camera Lens Kit - Deal Alert

  20-04-2016 19:59
  
  With this lens kit from Amir you can take high clarity, professional photos wish fisheye, macro and super wide angle format from virtually any cell phone. These professional HD lenses reduce glass flare & ghosting caused by reflections. A universal clip design makes it easy to attach to most cell phones, iPads and PC's as well.  The fisheye lens capture images at 180-degrees, wide angle lens at 140-degrees and the macro lens magnifies 10x with a minimum object distance of 10-15mm. The
  
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• Chrome turns 50 and stands at a crossroads

  20-04-2016 19:50
  
  Google’s Chrome browser has just reached a major milestone, hitting its 50th release.
  For Google, it’s a moment for positive reflection. To emphasize Chrome’s might, the company points to the browser’s 771 billion page loads per month, 1 billion monthly active mobile users, 9.1 billion auto-filled forms, and 145 million malicious webpages averted. One might also point to Chrome’s ever-growing usage, accounting for 47 percent of all worldwide pageviews, including mo
  
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• 4 ways to apply SLAs to shadow IT

  20-04-2016 19:31
  
  The risks and costs of shadow IT have been always been a concern for IT organizations. Yet the business clearly values the capability to procure certain IT services to rapidly meet its changing business needs — so much so that these informal IT capabilities are springing up even more often than IT leaders realize. One 2015 report by Cisco indicated that the number of unauthorized cloud applications being used in the enterprise, for example, was 15 to 10 times higher than CIOs estimated.[ R
  
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• San Francisco to require solar panels on new buildings

  20-04-2016 19:17
  
  The San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week unanimously passed legislation to require all new commercial or residential buildings with 10 or fewer stories to have solar panels.
  The Better Roofs ordinance was penned by Supervisor Scott Wiener, who said the measure was needed to fight climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.Creative Commons Lic.
  Photovoltaic (foreground) and Solar water heating (rear) panels located on rooftops in Berkeley, Calif. The low tilt of the photovoltaic
  
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• UMCG: data driven is dezelfde datataal spreken

  20-04-2016 18:53
  Data-gedreven zijn betekent voor het Universitair Medisch Centrum van Groningen in de eerste plaats ‘dezelfde taal spreken’, om de groeiende hoeveelheden en bronnen van data (onder meer vanuit wearables) op een eenduidige manier te kunnen benaderen. Op basis van die beschikbare informatie kan de zorg... lees meer
  
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• CIO’s serieuzer genomen in boardroom, maar veelal bezig met legacy

  20-04-2016 18:26
  Wereldwijd omarmen CIO’s de digitale transformatie om hun organisatieprocessen en -systemen opnieuw uit te vinden. Digitalisering zorgt ervoor dat de invloed van de CIO in de bestuurskamer groter wordt, zegt BT naar aanleiding van de publicatie van een internationaal onderzoek onder ruim 1000 CIO’s. Toch... lees meer
  
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• Apple to pay $24.9 million to settle Siri patent lawsuit

  20-04-2016 18:15
  Apple has agreed to pay US$24.9 million to a patent holding company to resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit accusing Siri of infringing one of its patents.Apple will pay the money to Marathon Patent Group, the parent company of Texas firm Dynamic Advances, which held an exclusive license to a 2007 patent covering natural language user interfaces for enterprise databases. Marathon reported the settlement in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday.To read this article in full or
  
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• Samsung shows off 'pink gold' Galaxy S7, S7 Edge

  20-04-2016 18:08
  
  One company’s rose gold is another’s pink gold. Whatever you call it, a Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will soon be available in the season’s trendy color scheme.
  Samsung announced Wednesday a new “Pink Gold” model will first come to South Korea before it heads to other markets. It didn’t specify if the model would make it to the U.S., though it would make sense given Samsung’s large footprint here. 
  The option joins Black Onyx, Gold Platinum, White Pearl,
  
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• New point-of-sale malware Multigrain steals card data over DNS

  20-04-2016 18:06
  Security researchers have found a new memory-scraping malware program that steals payment card data from point-of-sale (PoS) terminals and sends it back to attackers using the Domain Name System (DNS).Dubbed Multigrain, the threat is part of a family of malware programs known as NewPosThings, with which it shares some code. However, this variant was designed to target specific environments.That's because unlike other PoS malware programs that look for card data in the memory of many processes, M
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS packs a lot of punches for enterprise customers

  20-04-2016 17:55
  
  Canonical has announced the latest LTS release of Ubuntu -- 16.04. Canonical develops two version of Ubuntu -- regular releases that are supported for 18 months and LTS releases that are supported for 5 years. The newest LTS release, Ubuntu 16.04, comes with many new features for enterprise customers. Among the most notable is the arrival of ‘Snaps,’ a new package format for applications on Ubuntu.Canonical wants to own the enterprise with a snap
  Snaps is a much needed fix for applic
  
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• BrandPost: The Search for the Elusive Data Scientist: How CFOs and CIOs Can Work Together

  20-04-2016 17:28
  
  When it comes to the power and potential of data, the opportunities and challenges are crystal-clear: Big Data and analytics is the top priority for LOB, according to the 2016 State of the CIO Report. More than three-quarters of respondents to KPMG’s “Going Beyond the Data” survey of over 800 senior executives say they are already making faster and more accurate decisions thanks to data and analytics (D&A). As the study stated, “Today, the issue is no longer about own
  
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• How an online real estate company optimized its Hadoop clusters

  20-04-2016 17:13
  
  San Francisco-based online residential real estate company Trulia lives and dies by data. To compete successfully in today's housing market, tt must deliver the most up-to-date real estate information available to its customers. But until recently, doing so was a daily struggle.Acquired by online real estate database company Zillow in 2014 for $3.5 billion, Trulia is one of the largest online residential real estate marketplaces around, with more than 55 million unique site visitors each month.H
  
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• Chatbots land on Skype's Mac client and Web app

  20-04-2016 16:01
  
  If you’ve been dying to try out Skype bots but don't have a Windows PC, Android, or iOS device to chat on, you’re finally in luck. Skype recently rolled out bot integration to the Mac client and the service’s beta web app.
  There are only six bots to try out right now, which is to be expected since this is still a preview feature. Despite the small numbers, some of the automated services are fairly useful. Give Bing News some keywords such as “Presidential election”
  
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• Polaris Office offers business version with team folder, management features

  20-04-2016 15:38
  
  Polaris Office made the jump from the phone to the PC a few months ago, and the company has taken the next step: a version aimed at businesses.
  Polaris Office Business, though, is aimed less at workers than at their managers. At $6.99 per month (versus $3.99/mo. for the consumer version) the new version offers everything that the consumer version does, plus specialized management features. Note that the $6.99 monthly fee includes support for up to 15 devices, too.
  Admins may be interested in th
  
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• Career advice: Setting limits with a boss

  20-04-2016 15:03
  
  Ask a Premier 100 IT LeaderStephen J. GoldTitle: Executive vice president and CIOCompany: CVS HealthCVS Health CIO Stephen J. GoldGold is this month's Premier 100 IT Leader. If you have a question you’d like to pose to one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders, send it to [email protected] read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• How to tell if Amazon's Kindle Oasis ereader is right for you

  20-04-2016 14:43
  
  When I first saw the $290 price of Amazon's new Kindle Oasis, I literally gasped. What is Jeff Bezos and Co. thinking, asking nearly $300 for a dedicated ereader? Aren't these devices going the way of the MP3 player or Flip camcorder? (Remember the Flip? You can still buy one of these discontinued video cameras for $315 — on Amazon, of course.)But back to Oasis. For $290, you can purchase two Kindle Paperwhites ($120 and up) and still have $50. You could almost buy a low-end Appl
  
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• Rejecting employees' pleas, EmblemHealth CEO sets major IT layoff

  20-04-2016 14:12
  
  EmblemHealth CEO Karen Ignagni told employees Tuesday that "several hundred" IT and operations workers will be laid off as a result of a decision to hire services firm Cognizant.
  The announcement came just as IT employees at the New York-based insurer began an effort to convince the firm not to move the work to an outsourcer.
  Ignagni explained her decision in a video to employees that was posted on YouTube by attorney Sara Blackwell. The Florida attorney, who is representing displaced Disney IT
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why I ditched the iPad Pro 12.9 for the iPad Pro 9.7

  20-04-2016 13:57
  
  Flashback.I grabbed an iPad Pro 12.9 the day it hit stores. I was super excited about the device because I am a heavy tablet user; I have been using a tablet since the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 days. As a Linux user, I resisted iOS and Mac OS till 2013. I gave in because none of the other tablets were good enough for me. In 2014, I bought my first iOS device. I started off with the iPad Mini 3, and moved to the iPad AIR and then graduated to the iPad Pro.Why I didn’t like the 12.9 iPad ProTo rea
  
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• Why machine learning is the new BI

  20-04-2016 13:37
  
  Business intelligence has gone from static reports that tell you what happened, to interactive dashboards where you can drill into information to try and understand why it happened. New big data sources, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices, are pushing businesses from those reactive analytics – whether you look back once a month to spot trends or once a day to check for problems – to proactive analytics that give you alerts and real-time dashboards. That makes better use of op
  
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• Making the case for in-house data centers

  20-04-2016 13:32
  
  Outsourcing, cloud services and financial pressure are constant realities for IT leaders. Shared data centers and cloud service providers are often a good choice. If the organization’s IT demands are difficult to predict or highly variable, building additional data centers make little sense.Despite the cloud trend, managing internal data centers effectively remains an important IT responsibility. Cost optimization, vendor management and creative ways to add value are all in play for data c
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Does MacOS need more screen savers?

  20-04-2016 13:00
  MacOS has much to offer any user, but it doesn’t come with a lot in terms of screen savers. And that has rankled an Apple redditor who expressed his dismay in a recent discussion thread.I’ll share my thoughts on MacOS screen savers below, but here’s the post from redditor Mrcruncher:
  The built in screen saver’s are old and quite poor. For example the photos screen saver keeps ‘forgetting’ to use my photos and goes back to defaults.Are there any good non-apple
  
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• Are agile, DevOps and similar certifications worth it?

  20-04-2016 12:59
  
  Certifications have always been about benchmarking and assessing IT professionals' ability to use technology and provide something of a guarantee that candidates are competent with needed skills in the workplace. But as DevOps, continuous delivery, agile, scrum and other frameworks become necessary, the question around certification of these skills becomes this: How can you accurately assess and measure the less-tangible, softer skills hiring managers require? And if you're an IT pro, do you nee
  
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• 8 universities at the forefront of big data

  20-04-2016 12:58
  
  Universities at the forefront of big dataImage by ThinkstockBig data has exploded in a way that has left companies unable to find enough qualified candidates to hire, and schools can't churn out skilled data scientists fast enough. Up until now, boot camps have helped fill the data skills gap and plenty of colleges and universities have created master's programs in this burgeoning field. And, while it's true that boot camps are a great way to learn new skills fast and a master's degree is a grea
  
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• EU charges Google with foisting its search and browser on smartphone makers

  20-04-2016 12:41
  
  The European Commission on Wednesday made new antitrust charges against Google, alleging that the company foisted its search application and the Chrome browser on Android smartphones makers as a condition to license its other apps and services.The commission also charged Google with preventing makers from selling devices running variants or “forks” of its Android operating system, and giving financial incentives to both phone makers and mobile network operators if they agree to prein
  
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• These CISOs explain why they got fired

  20-04-2016 12:36
  
  Today’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) leads an increasingly precarious life.Since the emergence of the job title in the late 1990s, the CISO job has become more complex - and demanding - by the day.Whereas once this was a technical job focused largely on fixing firewalls and patching vulnerabilities, today’s security chiefs are expected to do this and a whole lot more. They’re charged with juggling the day-to-day operations of their security team with meeting board
  
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• 6 ways to better align IT with the business

  20-04-2016 12:30
  
  If you're a tech executive tired of being instructed to "align IT with the business," you're not alone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Waar blijft InsurTech?

  20-04-2016 12:26
  Door Ronald Jansen – Holland FinTech verzorgt iedere maand een inspirerende meeting met pitches van start-ups die gericht zijn op de financiële wereld. Werkzaam in de verzekeringswereld wil ik mij maandelijks laten verrassen door nieuwe innovatieve oplossingen voor verzekeraars. Maar dit valt nogal tegen.... lees meer
  
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• Solar panels don't last forever and degradation varies wildly, study says

  20-04-2016 12:00
  
  A recent study by an international certification body found that how well solar panels stand up to wear and tear varies greatly, but where they're manufactured has little to do with quality.
  The report, the PVEL-GTM PV Module Reliability Scorecard was published by Norway-based DNV GL. The tests, performed by PV Evolution Labs (PVEL), included five test categories. The number of photovoltaic module manufacturers taking part varied from 17 to 22, depending on the test.
  The modules were tested to
  
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• Cloud review: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM and Joyent

  20-04-2016 12:00
  
  The message from the cloud has always been simple: Surrender your cares, IT managers, and we’ll handle everything. Forget about skinning your knuckles installing servers, double-checking diesel backups, or fretting about 1,000 or 10,000 things that could go wrong. Give us a credit card number and your data. We’ll do the rest.
  There are options for the teams doing data analytics. Microsoft offers a number of big data crunching services that are integrated with the Azure cloud. Once y
  
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• As Intel shifts its focus to the cloud, it commands its PC products to fight—or die

  20-04-2016 12:00
  
  Right now, inside Intel’s headquarters, a deadly serious game of “Gladiator” is pitting Intel’s client products against one another. 
  During its quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Intel said it now expects the PC market to decline in the “high single digits” throughout all of 2016, rather than the mid-single-digit drop it previously expected. IDC and Gartner said recently that the PC market dropped between 10 and 12 percent during the first qu
  
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• US Senate passes bill that could pave the way for commercial drones

  20-04-2016 08:45
  
  Legislation passed by the U.S. Senate could pave the way for the commercial deployment of drones in the national airspace, besides addressing safety issues by, for example, providing for a pilot that would find ways to lock down errant drones if they are close to airports.The new rules in the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2016, passed Tuesday by a vote of 95-3, reflect the opportunities seen in the country for the use of drones both for commercial and other applications
  
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• YouTube dives into VR, live-streaming with 360 video

  20-04-2016 03:03
  
  Virtual reality and live-stream videos are hot right now and YouTube doesn't want to be left out of the game.
  The Google-owned video-sharing website announced today that it is launching live streaming of 360-degree videos - you know, those videos where you can see all around, as well as up and down, in the scene.
  The company also is unveiling spatial audio for on-demand YouTube videos, giving users a sense of distance, depth and intensity of sound.YouTubeYouTube today announced live streaming 3
  
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• Microsoft might be eyeing a Surface phone with a trackpoint/fingerprint reader

  20-04-2016 03:03
  As computing devices shrink, Microsoft seems to think that a trackpoint, or “thumb mouse,” might be a good idea, especially if it hides a practical surprise: a fingerprint sensor that could be used to enable Windows Hello.
  As noted by Windows Central, Microsoft recently filed a patent for a low-profile pointing device with an optional optical sensor beneath it which could be used for identification purposes and for navigation. There’s no guarantee that the patent wil
  
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• Verizon is offshoring jobs, records say

  20-04-2016 03:02
  
  A key issue raised by labor unions in their weeklong strike against Verizon is the offshoring of work. The unions say Verizon has plans to send more jobs overseas. Verizon isn't saying what it is doing in this respect, but there is a paper trail of documents filed by its employees that point to offshoring.
  The union contends that Verizon wants, in a labor contract, to shift more jobs to contractors. Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers are on strike.
  "They want the ability to contract work -- as much
  
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• AWS focuses on hard disks for new big data services

  20-04-2016 02:49
  
  Amazon Web Services is going retro to help companies deal with big data workloads. The cloud provider announced Tuesday it's launching two new volume types for its Elastic Block Store service that are powered by traditional, spinning disk hard drives. The new Throughput-Optimized HDD and Cold HDD EBS volume types let companies store files cheaply in a way that's still useful for big data workloads like MapReduce and Kafka. the Throughput-Optimized service is aimed at frequent use cases, whi
  
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• Looking for common ground in Apple vs. the FBI

  20-04-2016 00:48
  
  A top Apple lawyer and the FBI’s top tech official agreed Tuesday that cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the tech giant could avoid stand-offs over how to access encrypted data as well as the need for law enforcement to hire its own hackers to decrypt information of criminals and terrorists.
  But they disagreed on what the cooperation would look like.
  Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, told a House commerce oversight subcommittee that the company already works with
  
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