IT Executive news

• Flash isn't dead quite yet, though Adobe prepares to 'decommission' a download page

  15-09-2016 23:31
  
  Adobe is preparing to “decommission” its Adobe Flash Player software and turn off its download links to current and older versions of the software on Sept. 23, according to a warning on a Web page for large organizations.
  Adobe, however, said that the warning was just a part of a process of "updating and rearranging some of our adobe.com pages," according to a company spokeswoman. "The warning message shown in your article was done by the Flash team as a courtesy for people who may
  
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• No, Apple isn't buying rival streaming service Tidal

  15-09-2016 23:11
  
  Tidal may have landed some high-profile exclusives, like the streaming rights to Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Prince’s entire back catalog, but that doesn’t mean Apple has any interest in buying Jay-Z’s streaming service.
  “We’re not looking to acquire any streaming services,” Apple Music leader Jimmy Iovine told BuzzFeed, shooting down a rumor from earlier this summer that Apple was having early talks with Tidal execs to explore the possibility.To read
  
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• Windows 10 haters: Try Linux on Kaby Lake chips with Dell's new XPS 13

  15-09-2016 23:03
  
  Rejoice Linux fans; the OS will work on laptops with Intel's Kaby Lake chips.Three new models of Dell's slick XPS 13 Developer Edition will be available with Ubuntu OS and 7th Generation Core processors in the U.S. and Canada starting on Oct. 10.Prices for XPS 13 DE will start at US $949. Dell also announced the XPS 13 model with Kaby Lake and Windows 10, which will ship on Oct. 4 starting at $799.Dell didn't share details on what version of Ubuntu desktop OS will be preloaded. It officially sup
  
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• The FBI could have saved money with this iPhone 5c hack

  15-09-2016 22:48
  
  The FBI may have paid a small fortune to unlock an iPhone 5c used by the San Bernardino shooter. But a security researcher has demonstrated a way to do it for less than US $100.Sergei Skorobogatov at the University of Cambridge used a technique known as NAND mirroring to bypass the passcode retry limit on an iPhone 5c. Using store-bought equipment, he created copies of the phone’s flash memory to generate more tries to guess the passcode.  Skorobogatov detailed the whole process in a
  
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• XYZprinting announces $290 desktop 3D printer

  15-09-2016 22:38
  
  XZYprinting today announced its least expensive 3D printer for students, educators and small businesses at a cost of $290.
  The new da Vinci Mini is available at XYZprinting's online store, as well as at other online retailers such as Amazon, Overstock.com and Sam's Club, which has priced it at $270.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Microsoft bets that battery claims will boost Edge

  15-09-2016 22:19
  
  Microsoft today continued to press its case that Windows 10's Edge browser is more power efficient than rivals.In a post to a company blog, Jason Weber, a director in the web platform team, trumpeted new streaming tests that show Edge displayed content longer than other browsers on identical battery-powered Surface Book laptops."With the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft Edge is more efficient than ever, and still the best choice for extending your battery life on Windows 10," said Weber.
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: What role should the CFO play in a system implementation?

  15-09-2016 22:16
  
  We all know the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. The three bears return home to find that someone has sat in their chairs, eaten their porridge and slept in their beds. In each case, Goldilocks had to try out all three options before selecting the right one for her.
  As the CFO or vice president of finance, you are the Goldilocks on your company's new finance and accounting system implementation project. There are three basic options for you to choose from: serving on the steering c
  
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• Autopilot tech supplier fears Tesla is pushing safety envelope too far

  15-09-2016 21:51
  
  The chief technology officer of a technology supplier that enables Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot driving technology believes the carmaker is pushing the safety envelope too far.
  "It is not designed to cover all possible crash situations in a safe manner," Amnon Shashua, CTO and executive chairman at Israel-based Mobileye NV, told Reuters Wednesday.
  Shashua's comments came the same day a second fatal accident was revealed through a lawsuit filed against Tesla by the father of a man allegedly
  
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• As Dell and HPE revamp, Lenovo sets sights on enterprise cloud servers

  15-09-2016 21:50
  
  The cloud -- both on-premise and off-premise -- is transforming servers and data centers, and many companies are getting vendors to customize hardware for specific cloud-based workloads.Lenovo wants a bigger chunk of that market and is working toward offering custom-built converged servers targeted at specific tasks. The company is also looking for a larger opportunity with custom hardware for large-scale customers.Companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon are designing their own servers
  
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• Facebook, Google gather questions for presidential debates

  15-09-2016 21:12
  
  Facebook and Google will have a role in the upcoming presidential debates.
  Technology and social media companies have been tapped to help the American public engage with Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, during the three debates, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization running the high-profile events.
  “Facebook and Google will be providing data to the moderators in the weeks leading up to the debates on what pe
  
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• Samsung Note 7 recall could hurt brand, or not

  15-09-2016 21:05
  
  Samsung's recall of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones over reports that dozens caught fire might have a lasting impact on the company's image.
  Or not, depending on which analyst you ask.
  "What more can a vendor do than a complete recall?" asked Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Research. "This is exactly what Samsung did. All I'd say is that that they could have sent out the 'power down' message a few days earlier and maybe sent that through the carrier text network like a weather ale
  
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• Blue Ocean UI for Jenkins surfaces better info for dev teams

  15-09-2016 20:50
  
  Blue Ocean, a revamped user interface for the Jenkins CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) server, moved to a beta release stage this week, with general availability expected in early 2017.
  The open source project rethinks the Jenkins user experience, surfacing information for development teams with as few clicks as possible, according to a Jenkins blog entry. "Basically, it's a complete redesign of the user interface," Jenkins founder Kohsuke Kawaguchi said this week. Built on a
  
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• Microsoft’s the top open-source contributor on GitHub

  15-09-2016 20:35
  
  The organization with the largest number of contributors to open-source projects over the past year on GitHub is, surprisingly, Microsoft, GitHub announced today.
  Fully 16,419 contributors affiliated with Microsoft worked on open-source GitHub projects during the past 12 months, GitHub said, ahead of 15,682 from Facebook, 14,059 from Docker and 12,841 from Angular.
  +ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: LinuxCon: Q&A with inventor of, um, Microsoft PowerShell + Open source-happy Microsoft joins Eclipse Fo
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why healthcare needs to care about Google's acquisition of Apigee

  15-09-2016 19:44
  
  Integration software is sexy, and it's back.Last week, Google dropped $625 million to buy Apigee, a company that specializes in integration software known as application programming interfaces (API). The deal validates the API economy, estimated by research firm Forrester to be a $3 billion business by 2020.Interestingly, one of the real-life examples cited in Google’s announcement was how drug retailer Walgreens uses Apigee's API management platform to enable consumers to order presc
  
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• Microsoft sets dead date for Insider builds

  15-09-2016 19:39
  
  Microsoft will soon pull the plug on older builds of its Windows 10 previews to again force testers to either abandon the program or update to the newest version.
  As the company released the latest beta of Windows 10 -- identified as build 14926 -- Microsoft's Insider spokeswoman reminded users that they would start to see on-screen expiration notices.
  Testers on the Fast "ring" of the Windows Insider program, who receive more builds at a faster clip than others, will begin seeing expiration no
  
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• 28% off Western Digital 2TB My Passport Ultra Portable External Hard Drive - Deal Alert

  15-09-2016 19:38
  
  If you're looking for a ton of portable storage at a rock bottom price, you may want to consider this deal currently available on Amazon. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars from nearly 5,500 people (read reviews), this Western Digital external hard drive features fast USB 3.0 connectivity, is compatible with both PC and Mac, has optional 256-bit AES hardware encryption, automatic cloud backup, and comes with a 3-year warranty. List price is $119.99 but with the current 28% discount you can buy it now for
  
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• In 2020 danken meer dan 18.000 Nederlanders hun baan (in)direct aan Salesforce ecosysteem

  15-09-2016 19:32
  Salesforce en het ecosysteem van klanten en partners zijn goed voor 1,9 miljoen directe nieuwe banen en meer dan 2,8 miljoen indirecte banen in 2020 wereldwijd. Organisaties die kiezen voor Salesforce dragen voor 389 miljard dollar bij aan het bruto binnenlands product (BBP). Dit blijkt uit nieuw onderzoek dat... lees meer
  
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• Chrome OS gets cryptographically verified enterprise device management

  15-09-2016 19:07
  Companies will now be able to cryptographically validate the identity of Chrome OS devices connecting to their networks and verify that those devices conform to their security policies.
  On Thursday, Google announced a new feature and administration API called Verified Access. The API relies on digital certificates stored in the hardware-based Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) present in every Chrome OS device to certify that the security state of those devices has not been altered.
  Many organizat
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Three reasons why CIOs should play PokemonGo

  15-09-2016 19:00
  
  PokemonGo reached $500 million in revenue faster than any other game in history. At this point, we don’t know if the mobile landscape is forever altered or if PokemonGo will be the app equivalent of Milli Vanilli.Most of my conversations with colleagues and clients have focused on whether or not it is socially acceptable for adults to play PokemonGo. Unlike a number of writers on the subject, I confess that I actually play the game. #TeamValor.To read this article in full or to leave a com
  
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• How leading CIOs tackle business disruption

  15-09-2016 18:32
  
  Southwest Airlines CIO Randy Sloan remained in the airline's Dallas headquarters for nearly 40 hours last in July, as he and his team scrambled to find the technical problems that grounded 2,300 flights. Hunkering down, checking IT systems and strategizing in office war rooms for hours isn't ideal for any employee, let alone the IT chief.Southwest Airlines CIO Randy Sloan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• EU threatens to open e-commerce antitrust investigations

  15-09-2016 17:15
  
  The European Commission may open antitrust investigations into price restrictions and online sales bans in the e-commerce industry, it warned Thursday.It is concerned that consumers across the European Union may be paying more than they should for a range of physical and digital goods sold online because of restrictive practices by manufacturers and distributors.The European Union's goal of creating a single market for goods and services has historically been hampered by the geographical and lin
  
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• Asana's new feature lets users 'track anything'

  15-09-2016 17:07
  
  Asana is making it easier for users to adapt its work-tracking software to more than just task management.The company announced Thursday that it's launching support for creating custom fields inside the product, so that it's possible for people to use the same service they rely on for tracking work tasks to also manage other things. So, a recruiting team could use custom fields to track a candidate's name, status, interview times and more.The custom fields feature was first announced last year a
  
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• Pokémon Go guide app with half a million downloads hacks Android devices

  15-09-2016 16:40
  
  Security researchers have found a malicious application on Google Play that had over 500,000 downloads and was designed to gain complete control over Android devices.The application masqueraded as a guide for the popular Pokémon Go game and used multiple layers of obfuscation to bypass Google Play's malware detection mechanisms, researchers from Kaspersky Lab said in a blog post.The app contains a malicious module that doesn't execute immediately. Instead, the app waits for another applic
  
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• Tech leaders, activists call for Obama to pardon Snowden

  15-09-2016 16:18
  Tech luminaries Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, have joined a new campaign pushing for a pardon of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.Other supporters of the PardonSnowden.org campaign, launched Wednesday, are Harvard law professor and tech policy author Lawrence Lessig; tech investor Esther Dyson; noted cryptographer and MIT professor Ron Rivest; and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow.The campaig
  
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• FCC Chair's update on 5G wireless, robocalls, business data services & more

  15-09-2016 16:00
  
  The following statement was made by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler before the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the United States Senate during a hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission" on Sept. 15.
  Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson, and Members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our work at the Federal Communications Commission. Since we last met six months ago, the Commission has continued to make strong progress on our po
  
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• Why a leading PR firm chose Facebook at Work

  15-09-2016 15:57
  
  Facebook at Work has been in closed beta for the last 20 months, but the world's largest social network plans to officially push into enterprise later this year, and the company is adding features at a steady clip. Last month, for example, the team introduced group audio calling, a new call tab, a modular inbox for work chat that highlights frequent contacts and recent or unread conversations, search filters and live video.Weber Shandwick, a well-known public relations (PR) firm with offices in
  
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• 70% off Omaker M4 Portable Bluetooth Shower and Outdoor Speaker with 12 Hour Playtime - Deal Alert

  15-09-2016 15:11
  
  The M4 speaker from Omaker is IP54 rated, so its rugged splash, shock and dustproof design makes it ideal for shower and outdoor use. The latest Bluetooth 4.0 technology helps it pair quickly with your device (tap-to-pair with NFC capable devices) and maintain a long 33-foot connection range. Crystal clear sound quality and robust bass is realized through a 3W audio driver and passive subwoofer. The M4 is capable of producing 12 hours of music at 80% volume, up to three times long
  
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• Gamergate leader’s arrest doesn’t signal change

  15-09-2016 14:53
  
  My mother raised me to look for the best in everyone. Give others the benefit of the doubt. Never wish ill upon anyone -- not even your worst enemies. But I couldn't help feel the slightest (OK, it was more than slight -- sorry, Mom!) bit of glee when I read Brianna Wu's post on The Daily Dot reporting that Ethan Ralph was arrested last week.
  Who's Ethan Ralph, you ask? He's one of the more prominent ringleaders of the Gamergate movement, which makes a game of trolling, harassing, threatening an
  
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• Comparing Apple Watch Breathe app and Fitbit Charge 2's Relax mode

  15-09-2016 14:34
  
  "Stress reduction" features probably don't top your list of must-have functionality in a wearable, but if you're looking to break up busy days with quick, deep-breathing exercises, you now have two excellent choices: Apple's new Breathe app in watchOS 3 and Fitbit's Relax mode, which is currently only available on the new Charge 2 tracker.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• McCain opposes splitting NSA and Cyber Command

  15-09-2016 14:31
  
  The head of the Senate Armed Services Committee is threatening to block any nominee to head up the National Security Agency if the Obama administration follows through on a plan to decouple the spy agency from U.S. Cyber Command, the digital warfare unit established in 2009.[ Related: U.S. Cyber Command struggles to retain top cybersecurity talent ]At a hearing on cybersecurity and encryption this week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued for preserving the current "dual hat" operating structure w
  
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• SAP turns to NTT to add driver data to its connected car analytics system

  15-09-2016 14:30
  
  Safer passengers and healthier drivers might be among the outcomes of a new trial by a German software company and a Japanese telecommunications operator.NTT, the Japanese co-inventor of a sensing fabric used in health-monitoring clothing, is pairing up with business software developer SAP to collect and process real-time data on drivers' heart rate and alertness.SAP already sells a real-time analytics tool, Vehicle Insights, for processing data from connected vehicles.In the trial with NTT it w
  
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• Controversial H-1B bill pulled from House committee

  15-09-2016 14:29
  
  The House Judiciary Committee’s vote on the “Protect and Grow American Jobs Act,” the latest bill purporting to address problems with the H-1B visa program was pulled from the schedule late on Tuesday.Introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), and Scott Peters (D-Calif.) over the summer, the bill is intended to “close a major loophole” in the non-immigrant visa program which both Indian and U.S. IT services firms use to bring foreign born technology professionals s
  
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• Sophos rolls out Intercept X for endpoint protection

  15-09-2016 14:02
  
  Sophos is coming out with Intercept X, its new name for endpoint protection that’s based on technology acquired when it bought SurfRight last year to broaden its endpoint strategy.
  The product uses behavior-based screening to detect malicious behavior on endpoints rather than signature-based protection that requires constant updating and can lag behind attackers’ efforts to create new versions.
  The software looks at the behavior of processes, specifically watching for 24 techniques
  
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• How Apple is already moving past the iPhone 7

  15-09-2016 13:00
  
  Come Friday, Apple will start selling the iPhone 7, but all anyone wants to talk about is the next one. Even before Phil Schiller showed off the new iPhone’s cameras and jet black body, rumors about the so-called 10th anniversary phone had already blunted much of the excitement about this year’s model. 
  If even half of what’s been reported comes true, the 2017 iPhone is going to be bigger than the last three models put together: OLED, edge-to-edge screen, wireless chargin
  
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• What the rise of permissive open source licenses means

  15-09-2016 12:40
  
  "If you use any open source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source." That's what former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said back in 2001, and while his statement was never true, it must have spread some FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about free software. Probably that was the intention.This FUD about open source software is mainly about open source licensing. There are many different licenses, some more restrictive (some people use the term "protective") than others. Re
  
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• Awareness training: How much is too much?

  15-09-2016 12:22
  
  Security experts agree that humans are the weakest link in the security chain. Virtually all of them agree that security awareness training can strengthen many of those weaknesses.
  But how best to do that can generate some debate.
  Lysa Myers, a security researcher at ESET, summarized in a recent post what she said was a collective message from several presentations at the recent Black Hat conference: While it is possible to train employees to be "hyper-vigilant, it can create more problems
  
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• 7 ways to avoid alert fatigue

  15-09-2016 12:10
  
  So much noiseImage by ThinkstockAs a company grows, more tools are required, and with more tools come more alerts and often a breakdown of processes and procedures to handle them. Soon enough, the alerts coming from each of your systems and tools sound like an obnoxiously loud cocktail party, everyone having different conversations about different things. As a result, Security and DevOps teams become so desensitized to these alerts that even when the system flags a truly anomalous activity, it m
  
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• Hands on: WatchOS 3 is the OS Apple always intended

  15-09-2016 12:00
  
  Apple's watchOS 3 marks the company's third attempt to provide a satisfying user experience for a wrist-based screen. This version, which was unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in June and released on Tuesday, addresses long-standing issues that have marred the Apple Watch experience since the wearable arrived last year -- including slow app launch times (especially third-party apps), obsolete Complications data, odd interface choices and inaccurate heart rate data for certain w
  
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• Google's Angular 2 JavaScript framework finally arrives

  15-09-2016 12:00
  
  Angular 2, the long-awaited rewrite of the popular JavaScript framework, is finally going live Thursday evening, Google said on Wednesday afternoon. The moves follows a beta release stage last December and a release candidate first offered in May.
  With the final release, Google is offering a framework optimized for small payload size and performance, said Jules Kremer, technical program manager for Angular at the company. "With ahead-of-time compilation and built-in lazy loading, we've made sur
  
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• Flash vs. HTML5: The last stand

  15-09-2016 12:00
  
  Believe it or not, Flash still has an ardent fan club. The once-ubiquitous media player for browsers has taken its lumps, thanks in large part to security issues. However, diehards remain in Flash’s corner in its battle with HTML5, despite the sense that Flash may be on the ropes, as HTML5 continues to close any functionality gaps it might have had with its proprietary predecessor.
  Occupy HTML5, a Facebook page that pitches itself as “The movement to rid the world of HTML purism,&rd
  
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• Clinton dodges H-1B question, but Trump wants changes

  15-09-2016 12:00
  
  Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump responded to series of questions about science policy, including two questions on immigration.
  What the answers reveal is this: Clinton and Trump are as divided as night and day on H-1B reforms. Trump supports reform and U.S. worker protections; Clinton simply avoided answering the question.
  But both candidates support the idea of making it possible for foreign students who graduate from U.S. schools to remain in this country. The only difference is that Clinton
  
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• Ruim kwart miljoen studenten in concurrentie met robots

  15-09-2016 11:31
  Studenten op het mbo, hbo en WO volgen nog volop opleidingen die leiden naar werk dat op de korte termijn in potentie door robotisering verdwijnt. De instroom van deze opleidingen neemt bovendien niet af. Daarop duidt een data-analyse van Deloitte.Bij de analyse is gekeken naar de uitstroomgegevens van opleidingen... lees meer
  
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• Safety of Tesla Autopilot under scrutiny again, this time in China

  15-09-2016 11:03
  
  Tesla Motors is once again facing controversy over the safety of its Autopilot technology for assisting car drivers, this time in connection with the death of the driver in a Model S crash in China.The father of the deceased filed a lawsuit in a Beijing court in July against the car dealer who sold him the car, alleging that his son had turned on the Autopilot feature before he crashed into a vehicle in January in the northeastern province of Hebei, according to reports citing Chinese state broa
  
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• Gmail outage for business users lasted over 12 hours

  15-09-2016 08:47
  Gmail service for users of the Google for Work cloud-based productivity suite was down for over 12 hours on Wednesday, apparently affecting users in a number of countries including the U.S.
  Google reported early Thursday that the problem was resolved for the vast majority of affected customers, and it would be working individually with the rest of them. It said it would provide a more detailed analysis of the incident to customers once its internal investigation is completed.
  The company first
  
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• Gmail outage for business users continues over 12 hours later

  15-09-2016 08:47
  Gmail service for users of the Google for Work cloud-based productivity suite has been down for over 12 hours on Wednesday, apparently affecting users in a number of countries including the U.S.Google first acknowledged the problem on its Apps Status Dashboard at 8:16 a.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, stating that it is investigating reports of an issue with Gmail. “Based on reports, it affects only Google for Work Gmail users," Google said. Affected users were redirected to a page with 'Ser
  
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• Hackers are shaping U.S. election coverage with data leaks

  15-09-2016 02:09
  Hackers are becoming a major source of political leaks in this year’s presidential race.Case in point: On Tuesday, stolen emails from former secretary of state Colin Powell became headline news after a mysterious site with possible ties to Russian cyber spies gave them to the press. Since then, media outlets have been pointing out juicy details found in the emails. For example, Powell called Clinton “greedy” and her rival Donald Trump a “national disgrace.”The incid
  
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• GitHub launches built-in project management boards for its code repos

  15-09-2016 01:50
  
  GitHub, the popular site for managing software development projects, is now also a lightweight project management service, thanks to a new feature.
  The company launched Projects on Wednesday, which is a feature to help with all the work that springs up around a code repository.
  It lets teams organize tasks into a board interface, where Pull Requests, Issues, and Notes from a repo can each be represented by a card. Those cards can then be rearranged into custom columns, so users can track h
  
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• Self-driving cars won't make us more productive

  15-09-2016 01:41
  
  Self-driving cars are raising hopes that we’ll get a lot done when we don’t have to drive anymore. According to a University of Michigan study, that’s about as likely as a parent finishing two memos and a big presentation while taking a teen-age learner out to drive.The average U.S. driver spends an hour a day in their car, but the study concluded that for 62 percent of Americans, freeing up that driving time won’t make them any more productive. And the findings suggest r
  
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• How to connect the Dots with cool new smartphone-friendly beacons

  15-09-2016 00:19
  
  A Kickstarter project for glowing Bluetooth beacons designed to make your smartphone more useful has blown past its $20K goal with about a week to go.
  Iota Labs is building physical Bluetooth 4.0-enabled Dots that use location tracking to put your smartphone notifications into context. For example, stick one in the kitchen to prompt you to check food expiration dates or in your car to automatically open up Waze. Put one in the hallway to let you know -- via its LED color as it senses you being
  
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