IT Executive news

• Highly Rated, Dramatically Discounted Adapters - Deal Alert

  09-06-2016 23:23
  Logitech Bluetooth Audio Adapter for Bluetooth StreamingTake just about any traditional set of speakers and make them Bluetooth enabled for streaming audio wirelessly from your favorite device. Currently discounted 30% to $28.HDMI Female to Female High Speed Gold Plated AdapterThis straightforward adapter couples two HDMI cables together for extended length. Currently discounted 46% to $6 for a pack of two.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Google's Larry Page may be working on flying cars

  09-06-2016 22:31
  
  Google's Larry Page is reportedly investing $100 million in trying to build flying cars.
  Page, Google co-founder and CEO of its parent company Alphabet, reportedly is the owner of Zee.Aero, a private company that may be working on an "all-electric plane that could take off and land vertically — a flying car,"according to a report from Bloomberg.com, which cited 10 people with close knowledge of the startup. Zee.aero is also based in Mountain View, Calif., where Alphabet's headquarters are
  
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• In IoT’s early days, challenges, opportunities revealed

  09-06-2016 22:12
  
  In 2010, two entrepreneurs in Boston came up with the idea of turning shipping containers into miniature plantations, and Freight Farms was born.
  The company’s Leafy Green Machines, outfitted with LED lights and humidity-controlled ventilation systems, provide an ideal growing climate for up to 500 heads of lettuce per week, not to mention other crops such as herbs and micro-greens.
  +MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: The Most Powerful Internet of Things Companies +
  Since day one, the containers have
  
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• XML is toast, long live JSON

  09-06-2016 21:54
  
  If you haven't heard much about XML lately, you're not the only one. XML has been rapidly falling out of favor with developers and has been replaced with a more flexible and faster format.XML, the Extensible Markup Language, rose from the SGML format in the 1990s. It reached the 1.0 spec in 1997 and grew from there. The primary appeal of XML is that it was ideal for transferring data between other formats. It required far fewer filters for data conversion to share data between different applicat
  
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• BrandPost: CIO Interivew with Rick Hanzelin, Vice President of IT Infrastructure and Web Center at Peapod

  09-06-2016 21:24
  
  What is your main goal in your role, which, I assume, is equivalent to CIO?We actually don’t have a CIO title, since Peapod is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ahold. There is a Global CIO, and a CIO of the American unit… having one in our subsidiary would be confusing. That said, my focus is making sure people have the right access to the right info at the right time. We are a real-time business as well as a shopping service for delivery to homes and businesses, which means there
  
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• This tool taps machine learning to take the guesswork out of content marketing

  09-06-2016 21:16
  It's every marketer's goal to reach customers in the right place, at the right time, and with the right message, but the online world doesn't make that easy. A new tool announced Thursday uses machine learning to help.Called Lithium Reach, it aims to eliminate some of the guesswork inherent in marketers' jobs by recommending the best social content and the best time to publish it.The average consumer brand today has 55 social media accounts and nearly 45 employees managing them, according to Lit
  
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• Lenovo planning new AR, VR devices with Google's Project Tango

  09-06-2016 20:08
  
  Lenovo will build more virtual and augmented reality devices after its new Phab2 Pro smartphone, and virtual reality headsets may be high on that list.The Phab2 Pro, which was introduced on Thursday at the company's Tech World conference, closes the gap between 3D virtual and real worlds.But the Phab2 Pro, which is based on Google's Project Tango visual computing platform, is just the start.The company is planning more devices with Project Tango, Jeff Meredith, vice president and general manager
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Business culture or business case?

  09-06-2016 20:00
  
  It was a client who asked me, "David, you talk about alignment a lot. Business culture. Business case. Which should we strive for?"I gave him a lawyer's answer — I said, "Both."On reflection, I think that by achieving one you will, with a bit of luck, achieve the other.Like most things, it all depends on upon your organization.I think, as project leaders, by aligning everything we do with business case, we can actually become influencers of business culture.When finance directors, the
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 5 graphic design hacks for marketers with no design skills

  09-06-2016 20:00
  
  Marketers tend to be very creative by nature, but this doesn’t always translate to the kind of creativeness needed to design marketing materials or develop eye-popping websites. While marketers are good at innovating big-picture campaigns, slogans, and ideas, the actual designs are generally reserved for, well, designers. And while you don’t want to let your design team go, there are a few simple things that can enhance your own design skills in no time at all.Everyone needs some bas
  
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• Google just made a leap for quantum computing

  09-06-2016 19:49
  
  Many approaches are being tried in the race to develop a working quantum computer, but Google this week reported using a combination of techniques with particularly promising results.In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, a team of researchers from Google and several academic institutions describe a method that they call "quantum annealing with a digital twist." Essentially, they combined the quantum annealing approach with the "gate" model of quantum computing and found that they
  
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• Lenovo's Phab2 Pro will be the first Google Project Tango AR smartphone

  09-06-2016 19:39
  
  Lenovo's new Phab2 Pro, developed with Google, brings augmented reality to smartphone screens without the need for a headset.
  The device, which has a 6.4-inch screen, pushes smartphone functionality to new heights. The giant display presents a wealth of information that changes how people interact with the physical world around them.
  The smartphone, based on Google's Project Tango computer vision technology, will ship worldwide in August for US $499, Lenovo announced Thursday. It's loaded with
  
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• BrandPost: Leveraging the power of scalable machine learning

  09-06-2016 19:26
  
  In today’s digitally driven world, enterprises need to find ways to extract valuable insights from huge amounts of data. That data is both generated within the organization and captured from external sources, from every application and social media to the networks of sensors that constitute the Internet of Things (IoT).
  To make sense of these data assets, enterprises need automated tools that continually analyze data and generate information and insights that business leaders can use to k
  
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• HTC goes after business users with $1,200 Vive BE VR headset

  09-06-2016 19:07
  
  HTC is introducing a Vive virtual reality headset for businesses, available later this month for $1,200. Except for a few extra perks, there's little difference between the Vive Business Edition (BE) and the consumer edition of the headset, which can now be purchased in 24 countries for $799.The Vive BE can be commercially licensed, will have a dedicated support line and a 12-month warranty. There are also blue highlights on the front of the headset that identifies it as a Vive BE headset. The h
  
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• Android owners losing interest in social media apps

  09-06-2016 18:55
  
  Android users spend less time with social media apps than they did just a year ago, according to a new report from SimilarWeb, a company that measures website and app performance. The total amount of time people spent using the four leading Android social apps — Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter — dropped in seven of the nine countries included in SimilarWeb's study, which compared the time users spent with the four apps year-over-year during the first quarter of 2016. 
  
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• BrandPost: Implement Mobile Device Security

  09-06-2016 18:44
  The mobile revolution has essentially handed responsibility for device management and security to your users. This may sound terrifying, but it doesn’t have to be. As long as you have a solid mobile device security strategy that is based on best practices and implemented consistently across the enterprise, you can successfully combat the risk involved in enabling mobile productivity.But a successful mobile device security strategy can be a major challenge to design and implement, particul
  
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• BrandPost: Free SQL Server 2016 Licenses!

  09-06-2016 18:40
  As part of the SQL Server 2016 launch event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a commercial database promotion that provides customers with free licenses if you are running a competitor’s platform (Oracle, Sybase, SAP Hana). The offer ends on June 30, 2016; however, free is never free. In order to qualify, there is a laundry list of criteria that a company must meet in order to get these licenses. Read on to learn what you can do to qualify for these licenses.Step one is to run an inv
  
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• Project Fi is expanding its coverage with addition of U.S. Cellular

  09-06-2016 18:37
  
  If you’re one of the few who’s switched over to Google’s crazy mobile experiment, your coverage might get a boost in some areas thanks to a new partnership with U.S. Cellular.
  Google announced the move on its Official Android Blog, and says the coverage will roll out in “the coming weeks.”
  In the announcement, Project Fi Product Manager Evan Jacobs said that Fi users have a connection, “nearly 99% of the time, and spend about 95% of cellular time on LTE.&rdqu
  
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• BrandPost: Should You Hire Contractors?

  09-06-2016 18:34
  Today’s technology makes it easier than ever to scale your business. Attracting new customers, which used to mean labor-intensive mailing and sales calls, can now be done by providing an online click button. Product development, which once demanded intensive in-house resources, can be done efficiently in the cloud. As a result, your business can grow much faster. But will you have the staff you need to provide top-notch service to your new customers?Balancing the number of employees with t
  
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• HTC pushes commercial virtual reality with packaged offer

  09-06-2016 18:28
  
  HTC on Thursday announced a Vive Virtual Reality package focused on business users for $1,200that includes dedicated customer support.
  The company's decision to offer its Vive Business Edition (Vive BE) in addition to a consumer-focused version for $799 has caught the attention of analysts who foresee a potential market for using VR in commercial settings, such as design, car manufacturing and medicine.
  The Vive BE will launch this month in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany and France, and wi
  
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• BrandPost: Roaming Rights, Windows VDA, and You

  09-06-2016 18:28
  For years now, Microsoft has offered virtual desktop access (VDA) through Software Assurance. Soon, this feature will no longer be available.If you’re like me, sometimes it feels as if life revolves around Microsoft licensing. I love digging into the details—and one thing that I was slightly surprised to see in Microsoft’s product terms was that roaming rights were retired for Windows Enterprise and Windows VDA. You may ask, “What does this mean?” Well, it means th
  
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• GE to open new locations to develop Industrial Internet talent

  09-06-2016 18:12
  
  For the past several years, General Electric (GE) has been pursuing a profound digital transformation with an eye to claiming a stake at the heart of the digital industrial revolution. GE CTO Chris Drumgoole says thriving in the era of the Industrial Internet requires employees with new capabilities — technical, analytical and leadership skills that are explicitly cross-discipline.
  "Like a lot of big IT shops around the world — we resemble a lot of them, I'm sure — we've been
  
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• US agency lines up broad support for ICANN transition

  09-06-2016 17:35
  A U.S. agency has lined up broad support for its plan to end the government's oversight of the Internet's domain name system, despite opposition from some Republicans in Congress.The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on Thursday released statements of support for a plan to end its oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Among supporters of a plan, developed by the ICANN community, to transition ICANN's domain na
  
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• More than 32 million Twitter credentials reportedly hacked

  09-06-2016 16:38
  The company trying to be the Google of hacked user credentials says it just obtained another huge leak, this time affecting Twitter users. LeakedSource recently reported it obtained a database of more than 32 million Twitter login credentials from a user going by the alias [email protected].
  LeakedSource uses a freemium model where anyone can search for their own credentials for free; however, to see the majority of the leaked credentials users must subscribe to the service. Twenty-four passes
  
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• Why political candidates can't do agile

  09-06-2016 15:24
  
  Regardless of who the candidate is or how competitive the race might be, the political animal is a creature of habit. If you took those habits and applied them to an agile software project, there’s almost no chance that things would turn out well.Politicians live in a world where they need to make promises that they have no idea how they are going to keep. Who’s going to pay for that bridge to nowhere? Not my taxpayers. Agile projects need a world where almost no specific promise wo
  
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• 6 ways video can boost your business

  09-06-2016 15:11
  
  According to a recent Aberdeen report, marketers who use video see much faster revenue growth (49 percent) than those who do not. However, video has become more than just a marketing tool. With their capability to visually explain and demonstrate things and concepts, videos can help businesses not only showcase their products and services, attracting new customers, but they can help companies attract new employees and even make workers more productive.Here are six cases where video can be benefi
  
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• Why consumers still aren't buying social media buy buttons

  09-06-2016 14:00
  
  Despite a whole lot of hype, social commerce isn't living up to its potential.Social media sites have massive audiences, but turning social engagement into sales has eluded almost every platform with a social backbone. "Buy buttons" and similar mechanisms that let retailers sell directly to consumers within social apps simple aren't creating customers, at least not yet.Since 2014, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and others added click-to-buy features, but their collective experimentation
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Read your PowerPoint slides!

  09-06-2016 14:00
  
  It’s OK to look at the screen and read from your slides during a presentation. Sacrilege, I know. But you have permission to look at the screen, and even read a little of it aloud, as long as you obey the following rules:When to read from slides
  It is fine to refer to the screen occasionally to sync up where you are in the presentation. But don’t read every slide. I look to the screen about every other or third slide just to confirm where I am.
   Don’t read every word
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Q&A: Jonathan Riddell on the release of KDE neon User Edition 5.6

  09-06-2016 14:00
  
  The primary goal of neon is to offer the latest Plasma experience to users in a distro form. KDE neon User Edition 5.6 is based on the latest version of Plasma 5.6 and aims to showcase the latest KDE technology on a stable foundation.
  It is a continuously updated installable image that can be used not just for exploration and testing but as the main operating system for people enthusiastic about the latest desktop software.
  I talked to Riddell to know more about this release and the state of ot
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Mac: How to use web sites as screen savers

  09-06-2016 14:00
  Screen savers can be great fun on your Mac, they add a very personal touch to your computer that differentiates it from others. Most people tend to use the usual kinds of screen savers for their Macs.But now there’s a new app called WebViewScreenSaver that will actually let you use your favorite web sites as screensavers.Paul Horowitz details how to use WebViewScreenSaver for OS X Daily:
  You can use any URL, site, or web page, and you can even reference a remote list of URLs if desired.1.
  
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• IoT pushes IT security to the brink

  09-06-2016 13:30
  
  The Internet of Things (IoT) offers many possible benefits for organizations and consumers—with unprecedented connectivity of countless products, appliances and assets that can share all sorts of information. IoT also presents a number of potential security threats that organizations need to address.
  “There is no doubt the levels of risk are set to increase alongside the growth in deployment of IoT devices,” says Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. IoT will introduce
  
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• 5 reasons the Surface Pro 4 is fit for the enterprise

  09-06-2016 13:15
  
  Many manufacturers have been vying for the title," best enterprise hybrid tablet" since the release of the Apple iPad Pro and Samsung TabPro S. However, none have managed to live up to the Surface Pro 4, which was quickly hailed as one of the fastest adopted enterprise tablets soon after its release, and it recently surpassed the Apple iPad Pro for sales in the U.K.
  It's popularity is no accident Microsoft has spent years tirelessly improving its hybrid offerings, and that work has resulted in a
  
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• Why you need a mentor

  09-06-2016 13:11
  
  My first job after college was as an editorial assistant in the professional/computer books division of a global publishing company. Though my two immediate supervisors were male acquisitions editors, the managing editor, I'll call her Jessica, took me under her wing.She was petite but fiery, with a penchant for Ally McBeal-style micro-miniskirt suits and sky-high heels. But it was more than her attire that commanded attention and respect -- she was well-spoken, assertive, warm and witty, and sh
  
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• FAQ: How Apple’s new App Store subscriptions affect you

  09-06-2016 13:10
  
  Seemingly out of nowhere, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, gave interviews to several news outlets about significant changes to certain App Store policies around subscriptions—notably letting all apps potentially offer automatically renewing subscriptions. The company followed up with a page on its developer site describing what’s coming.
  This update might have far-reaching effects, or they might fizzle. For current owners of apps that imple
  
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• Why robocallers can stalk you on your cell phone

  09-06-2016 13:00
  
  WASHINGTON – “Do not call” doesn’t work so well anymore. Telemarketers and scammers are finding ways around the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which sought to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls. At the same time, the act is blocking beneficial robocalls, such as those from health care providers.  
  “TCPA is showing its age,” said Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican and chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee
  
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• Is anyone listening?

  09-06-2016 13:00
  
  Ever have the feeling that your business sponsors don’t really listen to you?
  Just about all of us in IT have been there. You might be talking to someone when you realize that this business person has no idea what you’re talking about. You might be giving a formal presentation only to see on the faces in your audience incredulous, quizzical looks that seem to say, “You must be crazy to think that anyone understands a word of what you are saying.”
  Sometimes our error is t
  
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• Why you don’t have to fix every vulnerability

  09-06-2016 12:49
  
  Let that vulnerability sit for a bitImage by ThinkstockThe word “vulnerability” typically comes with a “must fix now” response. However, not all vulnerabilities should be treated equally because not all of them pose a risk. It all depends on what the data represents. In fact, some vulnerabilities are OK to deprioritize, depending on associated threats and the value of the asset at risk. For example, a lock on a 20th floor window of a building is not as important as one on
  
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• CIO wordt steeds vaker afgerekend op omzet

  09-06-2016 12:33
  CIO’s van grote bedrijven worden in toenemende mate medeverantwoordelijk gehouden voor de bedrijfsresultaten en rapporteren dan ook vaak direct aan de CEO. Bovendien verschuift het aandachtsgebied van de CIO aanzienlijk Hij of zij wordt in toenemende mate geconfronteerd met uitdagingen die nauwelijks raakvlakken... lees meer
  
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• Securing your car from cyberattacks is becoming a big business

  09-06-2016 12:01
  
  A modern car has dozens of computers with as much as 100 million lines of code -- and for every 1,000 lines there are as many as 15 bugs that are potential doors for would-be hackers.
  With vehicles becoming more automated and connected to the Internet, to other cars and even roadway infrastructure, the number of potential intrusion points is growing  exponentially, according to Navigant Research.
  While cybersecurity became a top priority for carmakers after a 2015 Jeep Cherokee was hacked
  
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• Salesforce puts Lightning in a tightly sealed bottle

  09-06-2016 12:00
  
  Looking to take cloud app security to a new level, Salesforce is rolling out its LockerService architecture for its Lightning apps platform.
  Lightning provides components for building multi-form-factor apps for deployment on Salesforce App Cloud. LockerService isolates individual components in their own containers and helps promote coding best practices, said Ryan Ellis, executive vice president of product management at Salesforce.[ Download InfoWorld’s essential guide to microservices an
  
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• IT leaders: Don't fear the future

  09-06-2016 12:00
  
  For longtime Computerworld columnist Thornton May, the inevitability of technology progression means that a key skill for IT leaders is to anticipate what’s coming and determine what will be worth incorporating into the business and what will be little more than a fad. Here are some of May's predictions for what to keep on your radar going forward.(computerworld.com)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Transfer by US of Internet oversight could face new hurdles

  09-06-2016 08:18
  
  U.S. plans to transfer the oversight of key technical Internet functions to an international multi-stakeholder governance model have run into hurdles with two bills being introduced on Wednesday that would require the government to first take the approval of Congress for the transition.A bill proposed in the Senate by Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, called the Protecting Internet Freedom Act, would prohibit any transfer of Internet domain name system functions except if expressly allowed unde
  
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• What’s the buzz: Python gorges on tools and libraries

  09-06-2016 03:15
  
  The BeeWare project is increasing options for the Python language by offering a collection of tools and libraries for mobile and web development.
  Billed as "BeeWare, the IDEs of Python," the collection follows the "Unix philosophy" of each doing one thing well. Libraries provide functionality ranging from iOS and Android application development to CSS support, while tools cover activities ranging from browser support to conversion of Python code to Java and debugging.[ Also from InfoWorld: 10 h
  
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• D-Link camera can be hijacked to become a spy-cam

  09-06-2016 03:06
  
  D-Link is working to fix a weakness that allows attackers to take over remote control of one of its cameras so they can eavesdrop, and the company is checking whether others of its products have similar vulnerabilities.
  The vulnerability allows for the injection of malicious code and forces a password reset, which means attackers can gain remote access to the camera’s feed, thereby enabling eavesdropping, according to Senrio, a startup that monitors devices, scores how vulnerable they are
  
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• HPE's new converged IoT systems bring horsepower to the edge

  09-06-2016 02:04
  
  The biggest names in data centers and clouds are now vying to dominate the emerging IT battleground in factories, vehicles and power plants.The so-called industrial Internet of Things calls for data-gathering and analysis at the edge of enterprise networks, where conventional systems wouldn’t be efficient or hardy enough. IT stalwarts like HPE, IBM and Dell say they can now meet those requirements.The challenge is to make sense of large amounts of data pouring in from sensors on industrial
  
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• Asus' Jonney Shih on product design and artificial intelligence

  09-06-2016 01:51
  
  If there's one thing that separates Asus from its competitors, it's the company's willingness to experiment with new designs.Asus has had a few big hits that the rest of the industry followed, like the Eee PC in 2008, which sparked the craze for netbooks. Other products have fared less well, like the PadFone, a hybrid device that includes a smartphone that docks into a tablet.But year after year, in a hardware industry that shies away from risk, Asus usually has a surprise or two up its sleeve.
  
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• Affordable drones are the new wave of underwater exploration

  09-06-2016 00:30
  
  Underwater exploration has never been a cheap endeavor. Aside from a submarine or an underwater rover, your options for unlocking the secrets of the deep are rather limited.Two companies are working to change that by creating compact, affordable underwater robots.
  The first is O-Robotix, the maker of Seadrone, which takes concepts from aerial drones and modifies them for use under water. The 10.5-by-12 inch Seadrone is compact enough to carry in your hand and has a gimbal-mounted HD camera that
  
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