IT Executive news

• Google rebrands Apps for Work as G Suite, adds intelligent features

  29-09-2016 22:37
  
  Google rebranded and enhanced its productivity suite Thursday with new intelligent capabilities that help it better compete with Microsoft Office 365.
  G Suite is the new name for the group of applications that include Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It's a group of apps that the company is trying to push on organizations looking to make their employees more productive, with an emphasis on collaboration capabilities.
  Docs, Sheets, and Slides are each getting new features aimed
  
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• How the Apple Watch will take this NYC restaurant's customer service to the next level

  29-09-2016 22:36
  
  Danny Meyer is best known as the mastermind behind Shake Shack, the restaurant chain that handily beats In n Out for the best fast food burger in America. (Bold words, yes, and I stand by them.) But he’s also at the forefront of hospitality industry trends, eliminating tipping at most of his restaurants and offering paid parental leave company-wide. Now he’s bringing the Apple Watch into his rebooted Union Square Cafe in Manhattan to level up on customer service in some unexpected w
  
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• Bounty for iOS jailbreak exploit jumps to $1.5 million

  29-09-2016 22:33
  
  The value for zero-day exploits targeting Apple's iOS software is jumping. On Thursday, a company called Zerodium began offering as much as US $1.5 million for them.Zerodium is the same company that offered $1 million last year for an exclusive iOS zero-day exploit that can remotely jailbreak a device. However, that bounty was only temporary, and it was eventually awarded last November.Zerodium's new $1.5 million bounty is asking for a remote jailbreak exploit targeting iOS 10. The bou
  
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• Researchers make progress toward computer video recognition

  29-09-2016 22:10
  
  Computers can already recognize you in an image, but can they see a video or real-world objects and tell exactly what's going on?Researchers are trying to make computer video recognition a reality, and they are using some image recognition techniques to make that happen.Researchers in and outside of Google are making progress in video recognition, but there are also challenges to overcome, Rajat Monga, engineering director of TensorFlow for Google's Brain team, said during a question-a
  
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• Trump says Google Search biased against him

  29-09-2016 22:08
  
  Just two days after his first debate with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump told an audience at a political rally in Wisconsin that Google is biased against him and suppressing search results.
  After saying that a new Google "poll" showed him leading Democratic nominee Clinton, he went on to accuse the market's most dominant search engine of working against him.
  Google itself did not run a poll after the debate.
  Instead, the Independent Journal Review commissioned a poll using Google Consumer Survey
  
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• BrandPost: Why a Single Version of the Truth is Key to Manufacturing Success

  29-09-2016 21:33
  
  Adding on to your enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution with applications designed to help automate various processes can not only be expensive, but also extremely complicated. Your business is complicated enough. You need visibility across your entire operations, without all the headaches.
  In a recent report, Aberdeen Group cited that top performing manufacturers are 2.2 times more likely to implement one, end-to-end ERP system with functionality that was previously provided by
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 4 keys to a happy and successful retirement

  29-09-2016 21:26
  
  Most workers think about what it might be like to retire, and I was no exception.  I knew a number of people who had retired but, unfortunately, they seemed to disappear rather quickly after leaving the workforce, and my understanding of the retirement lifestyle was very limited. Because of this, I have tried to make myself available to the people I worked with and thought I might summarize what I have shared with them in two to three blog posts.My former colleagues rarely ask me how I migh
  
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• Which is cheaper: Containers or virtual machines?

  29-09-2016 21:15
  
  The emergence of application containers has come with questions about where this technology fits in the enterprise technology landscape, and more specifically how it compares to virtual machines.
  +MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Are containers VM killers?
  A new report from 451 Research has some provocative findings on just how advantageous containers could be, not just for developers and operators, but for the finance team too.
  “451 Research believes containers are better placed, at least theoreti
  
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• US carriers will look to LTE-U tests to protect Wi-Fi

  29-09-2016 21:03
  
  The biggest U.S. carriers planning to deploy controversial LTE-Unlicensed technology expect to use gear that’s been tested for coexistence with Wi-Fi, their executives said Wednesday.Speakers from Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA said they expect all the LTE-U devices they use to be vetted through a test plan created by the Wi-Fi Alliance. They also anticipate that gear based on a related technology, LAA (Licensed Assisted Access), will be certified through tests for that system.That&rsqu
  
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• Israeli startup says its new software would have prevented Tesla hack

  29-09-2016 20:52
  
  Israeli startup Karamba Security today announced a new product for securing the electronic control units (ECUs) of connected and self-driving vehicles that it said could have prevented a recent Tesla hack.
  Karamba's Carwall software uses a vehicle's factory software settings to discover noncompliant code in a car's ECUs and automatically creates security policies in real time to block the code.
  Karamba also announced a $2.5 million second series funding round from venture capital firm Fontinali
  
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• Google will shore up one of its biggest cloud weaknesses next year

  29-09-2016 20:28
  
  Google is making a major change to its cloud platform infrastructure that will help shore up one of the company's biggest weaknesses relative to competitors like Microsoft and Amazon.On Thursday, Urs Hölzle, the company's senior vice president of technical infrastructure, unveiled eight forthcoming regions around the world for the company's cloud services. The regions are all slated to launch in 2017 and will be comprised of multiple data centers for companies looking to run high-
  
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• Microsoft combines Cortana and Bing with Microsoft Research to accelerate new features

  29-09-2016 20:20
  On Thursday, Microsoft took the unusual step of combining its Bing and Cortana product teams with Microsoft Research, in a bid to accelerate innovation for both the search engine and the digital assistant.
  The move was part of a broader reorganization that saw Microsoft split its Applications and Services Group, which also included Microsoft’s Office applications, into two separate organizations. Office applications will form their own group.
  Though Microsoft has asked researchers to work
  
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• 24% off Sphero 2.0, The App-Enabled Robotic Ball - Deal Alert

  29-09-2016 20:16
  
  Sphero 2.0 is the app-enabled ball that does it all. Intelligent and well-rounded, Sphero lets you play, learn, and explore. Create obstacle courses, turn your living room into a video game with augmented reality apps, upgrade family game night with multiplayer fun, or learn to program with their free SPRK lessons. This virtually unstoppable companion is waterproof, pet-proof, and ready for any adventure. It averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 300 people (read reviews) and its list pri
  
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• 16% off ChargeTech 27,000mAh Portable Battery Pack with AC Outlet & USB Ports - Deal Alert

  29-09-2016 19:15
  
  Take the power of an AC Outlet with you wherever you go. This battery pack from ChargeTech is the first battery pack not to be limited by USB ports. Compact enough to fit your purse, backpack, or briefcase, it can handle laptops, lights, projectors, and even medical devices up to 85 watts -- almost anything you can think of. The included international adapter allows ChargeTech to work in any country around the globe. Take it on your travels or let your friends from other countries use it while t
  
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• ‘Cloud washing’ gives way to true cloud services

  29-09-2016 19:01
  
  When CompTIA technology analyst Seth Robinson was researching his new report on the state of cloud computing in July some of the results were puzzling. The 500 business and IT executives who participated reported that their use of SaaS applications had declined since the last time CompTIA completed the survey in 2014. The data ran contrary to claims from every consultant, research firm and tech pundit.The head-scratching stat: 45 percent of CompTIA respondents said they used cloud productivity s
  
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• Microsoft opens up its 'million dollar' bug-finder

  29-09-2016 19:00
  
  Microsoft is previewing a cloud-based bug detector, dubbed Project Springfield, that it calls one of its most sophisticated tools for finding potential security vulnerabilities.
  Project Springfield uses "whitebox fuzzing," which uncovered one-third of the "million dollar" security bugs during the development of Windows 7. Microsoft has been using a component of the project called SAGE since the mid-2000s to test products prior to release, including fuzzing both Windows and Office applications.&
  
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• White House to data scientists: We need you

  29-09-2016 18:45
  
  It's been nearly two years since President Obama created the U.S. chief data scientist role, and the man currently in the job had an urgent message Thursday for attendees at Strata+Hadoop World: We need you."We are at the first step in making data work for every American," said DJ Patil in a keynote speech at the show. "It's only going to make a difference when people like you step up and show that it's not just feasible but scalable."As chief data scientist in the White House Office of Science
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: LibreOffice celebrates its 6th anniversary with bug fixes and minor improvements

  29-09-2016 18:20
  
  LibreOffice is a free and open source suite of office applications that’s available for many different operating systems including BSD, Linux Desktop, macOS and Windows. LibreOffice seems to be the only open source productivity software that’s available across all of these platforms.
  A very brief history of LibreOffice
  When Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems there were concerns about the future of major open source projects like MySQL and OpenOffice.org.Michael "Monty" Widenius, the f
  
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• Galaxy Note7 battery woes continue as company investigates phones that are running too hot

  29-09-2016 18:10
  
  Samsung just can’t catch a break. The company would rather be touting the one million replacement smartphones it has shipped to customers, which by all accounts is a rather swift response to the exploding phone crisis.
  Instead, Samsung is dealing with new reports that replacement Note7 units are running too hot to place next to one’s ear. Samsung told The Wall Street Journal there is no safety concern with these Note7 models, though it may a major irritant for those who had to
  
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• New USB-C audio standard joins the iPhone 7's quest to kill the headphone jack

  29-09-2016 17:15
  
  The future of mobile device audio is here, and if you hated the iPhone 7’s Lightning connector headphones, you’ll loathe this new solution. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) recently announced the audio specification for USB Type-C was now complete.
  Officially named the USB Audio Device Class 3.0 specification, this new release sets the standard for how audio should work over USB Type-C. The USB-IF hopes the new specification will be the “primary solution for all digital aud
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The state of artificial intelligence for the enterprise

  29-09-2016 16:41
  
  Without cloud computing, today’s artificial intelligence (A.I.) boom would not exist. Both the advent of cloud computing and advances in machine intelligence have made it easier for companies to deliver A.I.-based features that create new ways of engaging customers. Most companies now use cloud-based systems for complex computing tasks that require intense CPU/GPU utilization, data operations and analytics work, or other tasks that would cause a traditional, locally-managed server to have
  
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• These ransomware tricks fool the most hardened security pro

  29-09-2016 16:31
  
  Ransomware quite often target businesses (for example hospitals) rather than individuals. Corporations have more valuable data and more money for ransom (ransom increases from roughly $500 per computer to $15,000 for the entire enterprise).
  Cyphort has examined different variants of ransomware to help users get an idea of what might be coming down the Internet pipeline. So keep an eye out for these characteristics before your network is taken hostage.
  RELATED: Who is a target for ransomware?
  &n
  
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• New streaming devices from Roku, Amazon best Chromecast

  29-09-2016 15:53
  
  If you're ready to cut the cord and ditch cable, two new low-cost streaming video devices that hit the market this week are worth a look.Roku, maker of one of the first popular streaming devices, has updated nearly all of its products, and the new Roku Express costs just $29.99. Amazon also updated its Fire TV Stick, a USB dongle that plugs into the back of your TV, with new voice recognition features. The price of the new Fire TV Stick is the same as the last generation stic
  
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• White House to bolster STEM education, close skills gap

  29-09-2016 14:54
  
  On paper, the Obama administration has taken many steps toward advancing education and training in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math -- a critical policy priority for many businesses that say they struggle to hire qualified workers.[ Related: Obama expands STEM education and training efforts ]But White House officials are quick to acknowledge that more work needs to be done, particularly in recruiting girls and minority students into computer science and other technica
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Container management war heats up with release of Kubernetes 1.4

  29-09-2016 14:52
  
  Google has announced the release of Kubernetes 1.4 that makes it easier to install and use Kubernetes. To ease the process of installation, Kubernetes has been packaged with its dependencies for major Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Ubuntu. Just fire up apt-get or yum and install Kubernetes on your system.
  But that’s just the installation part. Once you have Kubernetes installed there is a new tool called ‘kubeadm’ which reduces bootstrap
  
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• A pre-launch history of Facebook at Work

  29-09-2016 14:44
  
  After almost two years of trials and tests, Facebook will finally launch its social platform for businesses, Facebook at Work, on October 10 in London, according to TechCrunch.com. The company also reportedly decided to make a significant price change that should generate more revenue for Facebook but at a potentially higher cost for customers. In December, the company said its social network for business would be free at launch and it would eventually charge for additional support, analyti
  
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• Killer keyboard shortcuts to help you master Windows

  29-09-2016 14:00
  
  Despite notable advancements in speech-recognition technology and voice input, and the popularity of tablets, the humble PC continues to be the workhorse device of choice for many workers around the world. And whether you're an office-bound professional slouched behind a desktop PC, or a globetrotting executives armed with the latest ultrabook, the "physical" hardware keyboard continues to play a crucial role in productivity.The last thing you want in the heat of the moment is to fumble around f
  
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• How social media is shaping the 2016 presidential election

  29-09-2016 14:00
  
  When the leading candidates for America's next presidency traded barbs this week during the first presidential debate, political operatives and energized voters were hard at work sharing opinions (and insults) on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Much of today's political discourse starts on social media, and the medium often amplifies vitriol and slants information.The 2016 presidential election isn't the first event for which social media has been used as a political tool, but to
  
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• Diversified supply chain helps 'Vendetta Brothers' succeed in criminal business

  29-09-2016 14:00
  
  Even smaller criminal groups are using smart business tactics to help insulate them from risk, such as the Vendetta World online shop, which sells credit card numbers.
  According to a report released today by FireEye, the two criminals behind this operation are using relatively sophisticated business practices to evade prosecution and diversify their product supply.
  "Criminals are typically more direct," said Will Glass, threat analyst at FireEye. "They'll see the cards themselves. You don't usu
  
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• Support family and friends with Windows 10’s new Quick Assist app

  29-09-2016 12:30
  
  Among the new features that Microsoft rolled out with last month's Anniversary Update to Windows 10 is an app called Quick Assist -- a remote-access tool that is especially designed to work with Windows 10 systems. As you likely know, remote-access applications allow two computers to connect over the internet so that a person at one of them can remotely control the other. In this way, the person controlling the computer remotely can diagnose or fix a problem with it -- for example, by running a
  
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• Security myths that can make you laugh… or cry

  29-09-2016 12:10
  
  Not so true anymoreImage by ThinkstockIt is sort of like those commercials that stated it must be true because I read it on the internet. There are long held beliefs that have gone unchallenged and accepted. Then there are those who put their head in the sand with such statements as “I don’t need to protect my network, there is nothing worth stealing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Doctors: E-health records raise costs, don’t help patient outcomes

  29-09-2016 12:01
  
  Three out of four U.S. physicians believe that electronic healthcare records (EHRs) increase practice costs -- outweighing any efficiency savings -- and seven out of 10 think they reduce productivity, according to a new survey.
  Deloitte's "2016 Survey of US Physicians" released this week found little had changed since its last report two years ago, when doctors surveyed at the time generally held negative opinions of EHRs.
  The latest survey found nearly all physicians would like to see improvem
  
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• Review: Office 365's Delve, Sway, and Planner fall flat

  29-09-2016 12:00
  
  Microsoft's latest productivity tools have a few compelling features but integrate poorly with Office(Insider Story)
  
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• Java microservices group seeks less Oracle control

  29-09-2016 12:00
  
  MicroProfile.io, a group that has set out to improve enterprise Java for microservices deployments, plans to form its own foundation.
  The foundation is expected to fall under the umbrella of the Eclipse Foundation, said Rich Sharples, senior director of product management at Red Hat, which has participated in MicroProfile.io.[ The big 4 Java IDEs reviewed: See how Eclipse, NetBeans, JDeveloper, and IntelliJ IDEA stack up. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's Application Dev
  
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• Agile werken? Maar dan wel ‘all the way’!

  29-09-2016 11:38
  Door Henk Stienstra en Remko Zuidgeest – Voorheen betekende ‘technology push’ dat de techniek vooropliep en de klant of gebruiker het nauwelijks kon bijbenen: hij remde de snelheid van de ontwikkelingen omdat zijn adoptievermogen te gering was. Tegenwoordig is het omgekeerde aan de orde: nieuwe... lees meer
  
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• Budget voor dataprojecten leidt tot nieuwe uitdagingen

  29-09-2016 10:45
  Nog maar een vijfde van de organisaties zegt dat zij onvoldoende budget heeft voor ontwikkeling van datatoepassingen. Maar nu veel bedrijven de financiële middelen beschikbaar hebben om te starten, komen zij er achter dat het invoeren van een datagedreven werkwijze vooral draait om een andere manier van werken die... lees meer
  
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• FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

  29-09-2016 10:06
  
  The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts."There have been a variety of scanning activities, which i
  
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• Children's cartoon reveals the insane reality

  29-09-2016 09:53
  
  My 5-year-old son's been watching a lot of Inspector Gadget lately, both the newer reboot and the original that I remember from my own childhood. In case you (somehow) don't know what I'm talking about, the show revolves around the bumbling, clueless cyborg secret agent Inspector Gadget and his brilliant, logical and highly capable niece Penny.Gadget fancies himself an ace crime-fighter and believes he's been instrumental in cracking cases when, in truth, it's clever Penny and her loyal canine s
  
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• Tech leaders form educational nonprofit for AI

  29-09-2016 04:29
  
  Demonstrating the increasing industry excitement around artificial intelligence, Amazon.com, Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft are forming a nonprofit organization to increase understanding of AI technologies and formulate best practices.
  Members of the Partnership on AI will conduct and publish research under an open source license in areas such as ethics, fairness, and inclusivity, according IBM, which announced the nonprofit on Wednesday. Other aspects to be researched
  
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• A new Microsoft tool shows how Win 10 might affect devices

  29-09-2016 02:47
  IT administrators trying to figure out how to move their organizations to Windows 10 have a new tool that might change the game. This week, Microsoft released the Windows Upgrade Analytics Service, designed to make it easier to decide whether you can carry out a massive upgrade.WUAS gives administrators a sense of what drivers and applications are running in their environment, as well as how many devices are running Windows 10. Using Microsoft telemetry data, it decides whether those devices and
  
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• You'll start seeing Search Ads in the App Store on October 5

  29-09-2016 01:41
  Apple has a new way for iOS developers to promote their apps in the App Store – but it comes with a price.
  On Wednesday, Apple revealed that Search Ads will go live in the App Store starting October 5. The information came in an email Apple sent to app developers encouraging them to create an ad campaign to appear in U.S. search results. Developers who sign up will receive a $100 credit towards their first campaign.
  Apple just sent the announcement email to developers. @AppStore search ad
  
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• The Yahoo hackers weren't state-sponsored, a security firm says

  29-09-2016 01:32
  
  Common criminals, not state-sponsored hackers, carried out the massive 2014 data breach that exposed information about millions of Yahoo user accounts, a security firm said Wednesday.
  Yahoo has blamed state actors for the attack, but it was actually elite hackers-for-hire who did it, according to InfoArmor, which claims to have some of the stolen information.   
  The independent security firm found the alleged data as part of its investigation into "Group E," a team of five professiona
  
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• HP rethinks its ink policy, allowing third-party ink again

  29-09-2016 01:16
  HP said Thursday it will issue an optional firmware update that will allow customers with certain inkjet printers to use third-party cartridges again, a capability HP had quietly taken away in the name of quality.
  HP said it will provide the firmware update in about two weeks via a dedicated support forum. According to the BBC’s original report about the incident, the affected printers are the small-business OfficeJet, OfficeJet Pro, and OfficeJet Pro X. It wasn’t immediately c
  
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