IT Executive news

• Best Deals of the Week, September 5th - September 9th - Deal Alert

  09-09-2016 23:55
  Best Deals of the Week, September 5th - September 9th - Deal AlertCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found this week, the week of September 5th. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted!45% off Epica Emergency Solar Hand Crank AM/FM/NOAA Digital Radio, Flashlight, Cell Phone ChargerWith its compact design, 3-LED flashlight, and 5-way charging (hand crank, solar, USB, AC and DC), and retractable antennae, you'll never be left in t
  
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• Faster, longer-range Bluetooth 5 to reach devices soon

  09-09-2016 22:50
  
  A new version of the Bluetooth wireless spec will be coming to devices soon, giving users faster connectivity among devices over longer distances.
  The new version, Bluetooth 5, is a big upgrade over Bluetooth 4.2, the current specification. In a clear line of sight, the range of Bluetooth 5 could stretch to 400 meters, said analysts at The Linley Group in a research note this week. That means users could connect a smartphone to a Bluetooth speaker that may not even be visible.
  Final Bluetooth 5
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Linux Mint 18 review: Playing it safe

  09-09-2016 22:30
  
  Clement Lefebvre, the founder and project lead of Linux Mint has announced the release of Linux Mint KDE (LMK) 18. As a hardcore Plasma user I had to test this release. What I found was a mixed bag.What makes Linux Mint uniqueLinux Mint is a very conservative and ‘play it safe’ distribution. It, seemingly, focuses more on empowering users to use their computers the way they already know, instead of running after ‘innovation’. Due to this approach Linux Mint has beco
  
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• Ford buys ride-sharing service and will offer bike-sharing services

  09-09-2016 21:36
  
  Ford today announced it is acquiring Chariot, a San Francisco-based commuter ride-sharing shuttle startup that will become part of a plan by the carmaker to address growing urban congestion.
  Ford also announced it is collaborating with Motivate, a bike-sharing service, in order to offer create that "Ford GoBike" sharing service across San Francisco and the Bay Area.FordFord and bike-sharing service Motivate are  working to add new bicycle stations and to increase the number of bikes to 7,0
  
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• This new imaging system can read closed books

  09-09-2016 20:24
  
  They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but a new imaging system from MIT can see right through the cover and read the book while it's still closed.That's thanks primarily to terahertz radiation, the band of electromagnetic radiation between microwaves and infrared light, and the tiny gaps of air between the pages of any closed book.Terahertz radiation can distinguish between ink and blank paper in a way that X-rays can’t, and it also offers much better depth resolution than ultr
  
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• Bing's NFL predictions for Week 1 include several upsets, and one it missed

  09-09-2016 20:00
  
  NFL football is back, and Microsoft’s Bing has returned with its crystal ball, picking the best bets for Week 1 of the new season and looking ahead to the predicted Super Bowl winner: the (yawn) Carolina Panthers.
  For week 1, Bing has also picked three upsets: Buffalo Bills over Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers over Los Angeles Rams, and New York Jets over Cincinnati. Unfortunately, Bing already missed one: Carolina, which Bing predicted had a 57 percent chance of toppling Denver at
  
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• Macy's will start selling Apple products this holiday season

  09-09-2016 19:48
  Stopping by Macy’s for some holiday shopping this year? You might be able to pick up an Apple Watch or a brand-new iPhone 7.
  Following the launch of new Apple products on Wednesday, Macy’s has announced plans to sell Apple gear at 180 of its retail locations across the country. The iPhone, Apple Watch, MacBook, and other Apple accessories are expected to be available at Macy’s just in time for Thanksgiving and the holiday shopping season this year. Macy’s president
  
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• 10 million tiny computers: Raspberry Pi Foundation announces milestone

  09-09-2016 19:28
  
  The signs were there at the Raspberry Pi’s launch. The debut of the beloved little card-computer was marked by overwhelming demand, so much so that the Raspberry Pi Foundation, “punch-drunk” at the response, had to suspend orders temporarily.
  Now, more than four years after the fact, 10 million Raspberry Pis have been sold and the demand shows no signs of slowing down. It represents orders of magnitude more success than project founder Eben Upton anticipated.
  +ALSO ON NETWORK
  
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• 23% off SnapPower Guidelight - Outlet Coverplate with LED Night Lights - Deal Alert

  09-09-2016 19:19
  
  The SnapPower Guidelight is a plug-and-play replacement for standard plug-in night lights and hardwired lights. It installs within seconds and requires no wires or batteries. SnapPower is designed to look and function like a standard outlet cover by day, with LEDs that provide ambient lighting at night. Its list price of $22 has been reduced on Amazon to $16.99. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Apple takes iPhone 7 preorders, quickly exhausts supply of Jet Black

  09-09-2016 19:06
  
  Apple began taking pre-orders for its iPhone 7 and 7 Plus earlier today, and not surprisingly, some models quickly exhausted their supplies, leaving customers with weeks to wait.The scramble to order an iPhone began at midnight PT, 3 a.m. ET, when Apple and U.S. carriers opened the doors to their online sales sites.By business hours, Apple's iPhone 7 Plus in Jet Black -- a new, highly-polished finish -- faced a delay in shipping that stretched into November, with the smaller iPhone 7 Jet Black r
  
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• Can a family plan finally make Google's bargain wireless service Project Fi relevant?

  09-09-2016 18:52
  
  Project Fi may finally let you bundle multiple friends and family members into one group wireless plan.
  According to Android Police, which dug into the latest Project Fi app’s APK, there are several references that allude to a forthcoming family plan. There’s no set launch date, but the work is clearly underway since it’s hiding in plain site in the latest version of the Project Fi app.
  Why this matters: Project Fi is Google’s strange but intriguing take on wireless serv
  
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• Apple Watch Series 2 offers glimpse of smartwatch future

  09-09-2016 18:49
  
  With the Apple Watch Series 2 announcement on Wednesday, Apple focused on using the upcoming smartwatch for fitness. It includes built-in GPS for tracking hikes and distance runs and is “swim-proof,” or water-resistant to 50 meters.
  Of course, the Series 2, on sale for $369 on Sept. 16, will be good for other things, like messaging and Apple Pay. But Apple chose to dwell on fitness, a pivot away from the way it marketed the original Apple Watch, which shipped in April 2015. Some Pok
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Overcrowding in the C-suite

  09-09-2016 17:38
  
  Remember when the C-suite was a simple, uncrowded place? There was a CEO with business strategy, growth and vision responsibility, and a CFO who oversaw the financial side of the business. Rounding it out, there was (sometimes) a COO who managed operations. And that was often it — a small trio of leaders who shared the job of driving the business forward. Today’s packed C-suites look quite different.
  It’s hard to keep track of all the C’s you might encounter in a C-suite
  
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• BrandPost: CIO Interview with Brannon McDaniel, SVP, Global IT, General Cable

  09-09-2016 17:22
  
  Today, the smartest long-standing brands use tech to improve experiences while still respecting their history and culture. A great example is General Cable, which, after nearly two centuries, brought in its first Global IT leader. Brannon McDaniel explains what it means to take the physical cable business into the future.What is your main focus as CIO of this massive business?I’ve been in the role for six months and it’s actually a new position for the company. Historically, we have
  
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• BrandPost: Don’t Let Complexity Make Your Network a Liability

  09-09-2016 17:00
  
  We’ve all experienced a blurring of the lines between the workplace and our personal lives, as we answer work emails at home, shop for personal products during lunch at the office and place work calls on whatever device is in our pockets. A company’s networks are no exception: The proliferation of third-party cloud applications; a vast increase in the number of devices accessing networking resources; and an increasingly mobile workforce using cloud networks off-premise mean that ther
  
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• Today's supercomputers will get blown away by these systems

  09-09-2016 16:49
  
  The Department of Energy says the $40 million it is investing in nearly two dozen multi-year projects will result in exascale computing systems that perform calculations on data 50 to 100 times faster than today's most powerful supercomputers.
  The DoE Exascale Computing Project says such high-performance computing systems can make at least a billion billion calculations per second, and will be used to process data for applications such as energy security, economic security, scientific discovery
  
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• UK police listened in to 9 percent more calls last year

  09-09-2016 16:30
  The U.K. government has published a report on the staggering scale of surveillance in the country last year.The report, compiled by the Interception of Communications Commissioner's Office (IOCCO), covers the surveillance activities of the U.K.'s three main intelligence agencies (MI5, the Secret Intelligence Service, and GCHQ, the Government Communications Headquarters), the tax authority, and a number of police forces.It shows that warrants for the interception of communications rose 9 percent&
  
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• Best iPhone 7 Cases & Protectors Discounted Now on Amazon - Deal Alert

  09-09-2016 16:25
  
  While you wait for your new iPhone to come in, Amazon already has iPhone 7 cases and screen protectors in stock, and many of them are significantly discounted. Here are our picks for the best discounted iPhone 7 cases you should consider dropping in your cart right now, in various styles and colors.73% off amFilm iPhone 7/6s/6 screen protector
  74% off Maxboost 2 Pack Tempered Glass Screen Protector For Apple iPhone 7 & iPhone 6/6s [3D Touch Compatible] 0.2mm Screen Protection Case
  
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• How to write an arbitration clause for offshore outsourcing deals

  09-09-2016 15:42
  
  No one likes to anticipate an outsourcing relationship going bad, but a certain number of them inevitably will. Ideally, the two parties are able to work through disagreements without resorting to legal remedies, but having a mechanism for resolving disputes short of litigation is critical — particularly when working with foreign IT services providers. That’s why incorporating an effective arbitration clause into international outsourcing contracts is critical.[ Related: IT Outsourci
  
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• Xen Project patches serious virtual machine escape flaws

  09-09-2016 15:25
  
  The Xen Project has fixed four vulnerabilities in its widely used virtualization software, two of which could allow malicious virtual machine administrators to take over host servers.Flaws that break the isolation layer between virtual machines are the most serious kind for a hypervisor like Xen, which allows users to run multiple VMs on the same underlying hardware in a secure manner.The Xen hypervisor is widely used by cloud computing providers and virtual private server hosting companies like
  
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• Merck en Orange Business Services breiden samenwerking uit

  09-09-2016 14:05
  Farmaceutisch bedrijf Merck en Orange Business Services hebben een overeenkomst getekend voor uitrol van een next-generation netwerk op 200 locaties voor ondersteuning van digitale transformatie-initiatieven. Het netwerk en de bijbehorende diensten zullen de huidige infrastructuur van Merck versimpelen en een ongekende... lees meer
  
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• Wolters Kluwer en Capgemini verlengen samenwerking in Noord-Amerika

  09-09-2016 13:49
  Wolters Kluwer en Capgemini hebben hun bestaande samenwerking in Noord-Amerika met vijf jaar verlengd. Binnen de hernieuwde samenwerking zal Capgemini diensten blijven leveren op het gebied van finance en accounting, waaronder elementen van procure-to-pay (P2P), record-to-report (R2R) en order-to-cash (O2C). Capgemini... lees meer
  
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• Star Trek tech: From science fiction to science fact

  09-09-2016 13:35
  
  From science fiction to science factImage by Stephen SauerWhen Star Trek first made its television appearance 50 years ago this week, it showed us cool technologies and gadgets that people could only dream about in the 1960s.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Why Sling TV should be on every cord cutter's radar

  09-09-2016 13:16
  
  The Sling TV streaming service seemed a bit like an afterthought when Dish launched it last year. Not anymore. In the last few months, Sling added channels and now supports a wide range of streaming devices, some of which it gives away for free or sells at a discount.Sling TV probably won't replace Netflix on your streaming menu. It doesn't offer movies without an add-on package, and unlike Hulu it doesn't have a deep library of popular and vintage television programs. What Sling does
  
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• Cybersecurity moet echt hoger op agenda

  09-09-2016 13:03
  Onze economie en welvaart lopen risico als cybersecurity niet hoger op de agenda komt bij overheid, bedrijfsleven en burgers, waarschuwt de Cyber Security Raad (CSR), een onafhankelijk adviesorgaan dat het kabinet adviseert. De raad reageert met zijn waarschuwing op het rapport Cyber Security Beeld Nederland 2016, dat... lees meer
  
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• Why not taking a lucrative layoff package is brain-dead stupid

  09-09-2016 13:00
  
  Years ago I argued that layoff packages should be avoided because of the opportunities a savvy insider could have in a firm that was going to suddenly be short a lot of savvy insiders. It was more a bird-in-the-hand kind of argument given you’d have no idea what job you’d eventually end up with. However, after reviewing the outcome of programs like this over the years I can, with some authority, say that is no longer a sustainable position. In fact, in reviewing some recent programs
  
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• University of California’s outsourcing is wrong, says U.S. lawmaker

  09-09-2016 12:49
  
  A decision by the University of California to lay off IT employees and send their jobs overseas is under fire from U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif) and the IEEE-USA.
  The university recently informed about 80 IT workers at its San Francisco campus, including contract employees and vendor contractors, that it hired India-based HCL, under a $50 million contract, to manage infrastructure and networking-related services.
  The university employees will remain on the job until the end of February, but b
  
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• Why Fitbit Charge 2 is the best fitness wearable money can buy

  09-09-2016 12:03
  
  The new Charge 2 fitness tracker ($150) is the best Fitbit device I've ever tested, and I’ve used every one of the company's products (except for its very first tracker). I'll even take that a step further: Backed by Fitbit's easy-to-use mobile app and opt-in leaderboard, Charge 2 is the best fitness-focused, non-smartwatch wearable you can buy right now.After a week of using the wristband tracker day and night, I have only three complaints.The bad stuff about Fitbit Charge 2
  1. Charg
  
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• Tested: This all-AMD $650 PC proves VR-ready rigs don't have to be expensive

  09-09-2016 12:00
  
  Experiencing virtual reality will blow your mind, but it’ll also demolish your wallet. Or at least that’s what people think, and that perception was exacerbated when Oculus’s CEO said that building a Rift setup from scratch will set you back a cool $1,500. Since theOculus Riftitself costs $600, that implies you’ll need a $900 PC to run it. I often hear people say you’ll need to spend about $1,000 on a PC for VR.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, pl
  
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• Ruby creator floats new concurrency model

  09-09-2016 12:00
  
  Developers using the open source Ruby dynamic language are in for some big changes. The language is set to feature a new concurrency and parallelism model, called Guild, in the Ruby 3 upgrade tentatively slated to arrive before 2020.
  Plans detailed at a technical conference in Kyoto, Japan this week cite intentions to equip Ruby for a programming landscape that increasingly has moved to multi-core processing. Currently, Ruby supports concurrency via threads, but making thread-safe programs
  
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• Why iPhone 7 might be a better fit for enterprise than consumers

  09-09-2016 11:21
  
  SAN FRANCISCO — Apple's new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have a number of new features, including a force-sensitive home button (no more clicking), water- and dust-resistant enclosure, better camera, brighter display, stereo speakers, faster processor and improved graphics performance. However, one key feature is missing: the 3.5mm audio port.The move wasn't a surprise. Reports surfaced months ago about an iPhone without an audio jack. However, during its annual product showcase, Apple expla
  
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• US lawmakers make last-ditch bid to block internet governance transfer

  09-09-2016 08:03
  
  Republican lawmakers are making a last-ditch bid to thwart the proposed transfer by the U.S. of internet governance to a multistakeholder body, by calling on the government to reconsider its plans to put the transition into effect by month end.Raising fears that control of the internet could pass to authoritarian regimes, the legislators wrote in a letter Thursday to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker that there were unresolved issues, such as the ability
  
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• FAA advises against using or charging Galaxy Note 7 phones on planes

  09-09-2016 04:34
  
  The Federal Aviation Administration has advised passengers not to turn on or charge their Galaxy Note 7 smartphones on board aircraft, following reports of exploding batteries in the device made by Samsung Electronics.The U.S. aviation regulator said Thursday in a statement that in the light of the incidents and concerns raised by Samsung about the devices, it also advises passengers not to stow the phones away in any checked baggage.Samsung last week offered to replace the phones for its custom
  
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• Yes, U.S. did hack Elysée Palace in 2012, French ex-spy says

  09-09-2016 01:13
  
  Bernard Barbier, a former head of the French signals intelligence service, shared a few stories with students of CentraleSupélec, the elite engineering school from which he graduated in 1976, at a symposium this summer.There was that time he caught the U.S. National Security Agency delving into computers at the Elysée Palace, residence of the French president, for example. And flew to Washington to tell them they'd been found out. Or when the Canadians said they -- and the Iranians
  
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• Cisco exec churn: Enterprise chief Soderbery out

  09-09-2016 00:39
  
  The Cisco executive wheels keep churning. Today the person in charge of Cisco’s enterprise engineering organizations Robert Soderbery said he has left the company via a post on LinkedIn.
  More on Network World: Cisco: IP traffic will surpass the zettabyte level in 2016+
  Soderbery wrote: “It has been a fascinating time to be at Cisco and there are many experiences I take away with me. It was an incredibly diverse set of challenges, from the incessant battle with the likes of HP and Hu
  
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• RSA: Expect business as usual now that Dell owns it

  09-09-2016 00:34
  
  RSA
  Amit Yoran
  Enterprises should expect business as usual from RSA in the wake of its being swept up by Dell this week in the largest tech deal ever, with company executives saying it will retain a good deal of autonomy to carry out its strategic plans.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Apple Watch Series 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know about the second-gen Watch

  09-09-2016 00:31
  Apple’s second-generation smartwatch is finally here. The Apple Watch Series 2 is not a drastically different device than the original Watch that debuted almost two years ago, with 38mm and 42mm models. But there are still some notable improvements, upgrades, and cool new collaborations. Here’s everything you need to know about the new Apple Watch Series 2.Let’s get to it: Is it waterproof?Yes! At least more-so that then first-generation Apple Watch. Whereas the original Watch
  
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• Data hoarders are shining a spotlight on past breaches

  09-09-2016 00:18
  
  Old data breaches carried out years ago are entering into the limelight thanks to anonymous internet users like Keen.Earlier this week, Keen, a data collector who runs the site Vigilante.pw, helped to uncover details about stolen data taken from the popular porn site Brazzers. A copy of almost 800,000 accounts, probably originally hacked back in 2012, fell into his hands.The stolen database is just one of the many Keen has on file, in fact, and each one can involve thousands or even millions of
  
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• iPhone 7 and 7 Plus FAQ: Everything you need to know about Apple's new phones

  09-09-2016 00:16
  
  Apple’s annual iPhone event was jam-packed with information, but between the lingering look at the new jet black finish and all the business about AirPods, you may have missed some important details about the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
  But we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you may have missed during Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller’s presentation, plus some facts he didn’t mention, in case you’re thinking of upgrading to a 7 but can’t quite decide. For
  
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