IT Executive news

• AT&T's coming SD-WAN services will tap into FlexWare

  05-10-2016 23:07
  
  Software is beginning to simplify one of the hardest kinds of networking: wide-area networks that link up an enterprise’s remote sites, branch offices, and data centers. Now AT&T is getting in on the game.On Wednesday, the carrier announced AT&T Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), a service that will control all of an enterprise’s WAN connections with the same software.What software-defined networking has done for data centers, SD-WAN does for networks stretched acro
  
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• Nokia buys small semiconductor company to land 5G tech

  05-10-2016 22:56
  
  A small semiconductor company based in Cambridge, Mass., was acquired today by Nokia, in a move to make the Finnish giant’s base station technology more energy-efficient.
  Eta Devices’ technology and institutional expertise appear to be at the heart of the acquisition, for which terms and pricing were not disclosed. Eta has 20 employees, located in Cambridge and at an R&D office in Stockholm, Sweden.
  +ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Satya Nadella's comp package slips 3% to $17.7M + Happy
  
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• IT Resume Makeover Homepage

  05-10-2016 22:46
  CIO.com has worked with resume writers, career strategists and professional-development experts in our ongoing series to help you better showcase your talents and identify possible weaknesses in your IT resume. Check out the before-and-after resumes and learn from your colleagues.IT Resume Makeover: Don’t downplay your success
  It's easy to fall into the trap of downplaying your skills and accomplishments. But on your resume you need to do the exact opposite.To read this article in full or
  
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• IT Resume Makeover: How to Write to Your Audience

  05-10-2016 22:43
  
  One of the keys to good writing is tailoring the message to your audience, but when the subject is you, and you're writing your own resume, even professional writers can get stymied.
  Amram Hakohen is a senior technical writer with an impressive list of employers, contract projects and successful consulting work, not to mention glowing references and testimonials, but the audience wasn't getting the message.
  "The most important element in a resume, to me, is considering your audience," says Step
  
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• AT&T, IBM team up on FlexWare for virtual networks

  05-10-2016 21:46
  
  AT&T and IBM said Wednesday they have teamed up to offer more cloud networking services to businesses.
  IBM will sell AT&T's new FlexWare for setting up and managing virtual network functions on a single network device, such as a router. It is already globally available through the AT&T Network on Demand service, which is made up of software-defined networking and virtualization technologies. Pricing is based on the functions needed by the customer.
  The partnership means customers ca
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why healthcare artificial intelligence isn’t about creepy-looking robots

  05-10-2016 21:44
  
  Technology is a big part of healthcare. In a 2014 McKinsey survey, more than 75% of patients polled said that they would like to use digital healthcare services, as long as those services meet their needs and provide the level of quality they expect.And yet the healthcare industry lags behind every other sector when it comes to implementing technology. HIPAA Journal writes, "In some cases, the new technology now being introduced by healthcare providers was first introduced in other industry sect
  
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• FBI arrests an NSA contractor suspected of stealing hacking tools

  05-10-2016 20:32
  The FBI has arrested a U.S. government contractor for allegedly stealing classified documents, possibly including hacking tools.Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, has been charged with stealing government materials, including top secret information, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.Martin, who held a top-secret national security clearance, allegedly took six classified documents produced in 2014."These documents were produced through sensitive government sources, methods, and cap
  
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• Chip card lawsuit to move forward against Visa, Mastercard, others

  05-10-2016 20:31
  
  A federal judge has ruled it is plausible that four national credit-card companies improperly conspired “in lockstep” to set a deadline of Oct. 1, 2015 for requiring retailers to upgrade their technology to accept embedded chip cards for credit and debit card purchases.
  In an order issued Friday (Case number C 16-01150 WHA),U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup agreed with two small Florida businesses -- B & R Supermarket and Grove Liquors — which brought the lawsuit in
  
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• BrandPost: A Whole New World: The challenges and opportunities of digital

  05-10-2016 20:24
  
  A corporate time-traveler from the past likely wouldn’t recognize today’s tech landscape: There’s a whole new digital world of business that is vastly different from just a decade or two ago, with an accelerated pace of technology advances that are changing the rules — and risks — of every aspect of running a successful organization. Once cutting-edge trends such as data analytics, digital labor, IoT, cognitive automation and design innovation are now becoming
  
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• Happy 25th once again to Linux, 'the little OS that definitely could'

  05-10-2016 20:07
  
  Aug. 25 may be Linux's official birthday, but Oct. 5 is in many ways the day it began to make a real mark on the world. That's when Linux creator Linus Torvalds officially released the first Linux kernel into the wild."As I mentioned a month(?) ago, I'm working on a free version of a minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers," Torvalds wrote in a newsgroup post on Oct. 5, 1991. "It has finally reached the stage where it's even usable (though may not be depending on what you want), and I am willing to
  
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• Here's everything new in Android 7.1

  05-10-2016 20:00
  
  Our first look at Android 7.1 came courtesy of the Pixel phone, but now we’re learning more about what sets it apart from the first iteration of Nougat.
  Android Police got some info direct from Google, and combined with that and our time at yesterday’s “Made by Google” event we have an unofficial changelog of what’s headed to the Google Pixel and other Android phones (eventually) in terms of specific software features. Here’s a breakdown:To read this article
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Strategic CxOs extend the boundary of inquiry

  05-10-2016 19:56
  
  About this blog
  To be “enterprising” is to be eager to undertake or prompt to attempt. To show initiative and be resourceful. These are leadership traits, so to be enterprising is to lead. “Analytics” is how we use data to inform decision-making in the context of achieving business objectives. These are management practices, so analytics is about management.“Enterprising Analytics” is about being creative, resourceful and adventurous with decision-making to ac
  
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• Crisis planning: 6 ways to put people first

  05-10-2016 19:07
  
  If your business is located in the southeastern U.S., you're probably bracing for hurricane Matthew, which as of this writing is headed for Florida after making landfall in Cuba. All-too-familiar with the havoc a hurricane can wreak, you likely have a battle-tested plan for dealing with such storms and their aftermath.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 4 content marketing tips for a successful product launch

  05-10-2016 19:00
  
  You should never launch a product blindly. Everyone knows this — yet it’s amazing how many companies are launching products without developing a comprehensive plan of attack when it comes to content. One of the most important aspects to a new product launch in 2016 is supplementing the launch with quality content and appropriate placement. Are you prepared?Are you launching a failure?
  According to McCombs School of Business professor Rob Adams, more than 65 percent of new products la
  
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• Satya Nadella's comp package slips 3% to $17.7M

  05-10-2016 18:44
  
  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received a compensation package for the year ending June 30 worth approximately $17.7 million, a 3% reduction from 2015, according to security filings.
  A preliminary proxy statement submitted Monday to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission showed that Nadella's pay cut was about a third of the 9% downturn in Microsoft's revenue during the same period.
  The chief executive received $1.2 million in salary, the same as the year before; $4.5 in a cash performance
  
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• I want out of Windows patch hell

  05-10-2016 17:57
  
  I like Windows 10. But I don’t like getting stuck in eternal reboot hell.
  For days now, one of my Windows 10 Anniversary Update PCs has been relentlessly rebooting and rebooting and … well, you get the idea. I’m not alone. This Sisyphean cycle is plaguing many other people.
  Patches were welcome. After all, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, a.k.a. Windows 10 SP1, came with a host of problems. There were unexplained freezes, Cortana was fouled up, webcams were broken and multi
  
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• What #MadeByGoogle really means

  05-10-2016 17:53
  
  Google announced some cool consumer electronics devices at its San Francisco event yesterday hashtagged #MadeByGoogle: Google Home personal digital assistant, two new flagship phones under the new Pixel brand, Chromecast Ultra (capable of 4K video), Google Wi-Fi, and a VR headset for the Pixel phones. The usual sales channels—Verizon, Best Buy and Google Play—will distribute them.
  It sounds like the consumer electronics business, but it is not.To read this article in full or to leav
  
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• Up To $50 off Various Amazon Kindle Models, Limited Time Discount for Prime Members Only - Deal Alert

  05-10-2016 17:51
  
  Amazon has quietly released a good deal on its popular Kindle series of e-readers, but it's available only to Prime Members, or anyone who has an active 30-day free trial. For a limited time, Kindle's price sinks from $80 to $50, Kindle Paperwhite from $120 down to $90, and the Kindle Voyage drops from $200 to just $150. Which dovetails with the new "Prime Reading" benefit they just announced (See: "Prime Members Now Get Unlimited Reading On Any Device, Amazon Announces - Deal Alert" @ Techconne
  
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• How to encrypt your Facebook messages with Secret Conversations

  05-10-2016 17:29
  
  Good news, privacy enthusiasts: Facebook’s one-on-one encrypted messaging feature called Secret Conversations is now live for all Android and iOS users. 
  Secret Conversations allows Messenger users to send end-to-end encrypted messages to their Facebook friends. There are a few caveats, however. First, it only works on a single device. Facebook says it doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to distribute encryption keys across your phone, tablet, and PCs.A beta version of Sec
  
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• Guccifer 2.0 claims to have hacked the Clinton Foundation

  05-10-2016 17:07
  
  Hacker Guccifer 2.0 now claims to have hacked the Clinton Foundation, but the documents posted show Democratic campaign data from organizations already compromised.Guccifer 2.0, believed by some security experts to be a Russian team of  hackers, posted several documents Tuesday that he claims to have taken from servers at the Clinton Foundation, the charity founded by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, husband of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.Earlier this year, Guc
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Apple users react to Google’s new Pixel phones

  05-10-2016 16:55
  
  Google’s new Pixel phones are getting quite a bit of attention in the media. The new phones have many Android users wondering if they should dump their current phones to upgrade to the Pixel.But what do Apple’s customers think of the Pixel phones? This topic came up recently in the Apple subreddit, and there were some interesting responses posted by Apple redditors:
  NikeSwish: “What are your impressions on the first ‘Made by Google’ phone, the Pixel and Pixel XL?Pix
  
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• New 3D printable ink can make synthetic bones for people

  05-10-2016 16:50
  
  Researchers at Northwestern University have created a 3D printable ink that creates a synthetic material implantable in human patients and that quickly induces bone regeneration and growth.
  The researchers are calling the ink a type of "hyperelastic bone" (HB) material that can be easily customized, making it especially useful for the treatment of bone defects in children.
  "Adults have more options when it comes to implants," Ramille Shah, who led the research, said in a Northwestern School of
  
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• Yahoo calls report of secret email scanning 'misleading'

  05-10-2016 16:30
  
  Yahoo has called a Reuters article about a secret email scanning program "misleading," and said no such system exists. On Tuesday, the Reuters article claimed that Yahoo had created the custom software program after receiving a classified U.S. government order.  That software program is reportedly capable of scanning all incoming emails from Yahoo customers for information provided by U.S. intelligence officials.However, on Wednesday Yahoo disputed the report.“We narrowly interpr
  
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• Why it takes a cloud service to manage cloud services

  05-10-2016 16:15
  
  How many cloud services is your business using right now?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Prime Members Now Get Unlimited Reading On Any Device, Amazon Announces - Deal Alert

  05-10-2016 16:09
  
  Amazon has just announced one more compelling reason to consider a Prime membership -- "Prime Reading". As a Prime member, you now have unlimited access to over a thousand books, current issue magazines, comics, Kindle Singles, and more. With access from any device – including your phone, tablet, or Kindle – so you can read as much as you want, however you want, and whenever you want. Learn more about the new benefit and/or the other benefits of a Prime membership (free 2-day shippi
  
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• Cerber ransomware kills database connections to access important data

  05-10-2016 15:46
  
  In order to encrypt some of the most important data stored on computers and servers, the Cerber ransomware now tries to kill processes associated with database servers.The goal for ransomware programs is to affect as many valuable files as possible in order to increase the chance that affected users will pay to have them restored. For consumers these files are things like personal photos, videos, documents and even game saves, but for businesses, its usually data stored in databases.The problem
  
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• Lenovo won't make Windows 10 phones because it doubts Microsoft's commitment

  05-10-2016 15:37
  
  Like everybody else in the world, Lenovo isn't sure what Microsoft's future plans are for Windows 10 Mobile. As a result, the company is staying far away from that mess. That's the word from Lenovo's chief operating officer, Gianfranco Lanci, who leads the company's PC and smart device group.
  Speaking at the Canalys Channel Forum in Barcelona, Spain on Tuesday Lanci said the company has no plans to release a Windows Phone, as reported by The Register. 
  “I don’t see the need to
  
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• Level 3 blames huge network outage on unspecified configuration error

  05-10-2016 15:25
  
  Level 3 Communications has cited an unspecified "configuration error" as the root cause of its nationwide network outage on Tuesday.
  Here's the statement issued by the Broomfield, Colo., service provider:On October 4, our voice network experienced a service disruption affecting some of our customers in North America due to a configuration error. We know how important these services are to our customers. As an organization, we’re putting processes in place to prevent issues like this from
  
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• Virtual assistant faceoff: Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant and Siri

  05-10-2016 14:00
  
  Alexa vs. Cortana vs. Google Assistant vs. SiriImage by Thinkstock/Google/Amazon/Apple/MicrosoftMore than a year ago, in July 2015, I threw a set of questions and requests at four of the most popular virtual assistants: Apple's Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Now (now Google Assistant) and Microsoft Cortana. I then wrote about their responses, to show strengths and weaknesses. The winner? Siri.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Can Facebook really do enterprise collaboration right?

  05-10-2016 14:00
  
  The enterprise collaboration space is already noisy, and it's about to get even louder when Facebook at Work makes its long-awaited debut next week. The market is wide open for new entrants, because workers and the IT professionals that support them are "starved for good tools," according to Tim Crawford, a former CIO who currently advises technology executives at large enterprises and blogs at AVOA.com. Crawford says no one set of tools has really hit the mark. Facebook isn't the first con
  
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• How to be a more 'authentic' IT leader

  05-10-2016 13:43
  
  A funeral seems like the last place to find professional leadership lessons, but at the service celebrating her mother's life, LaVerne Council found inspiration she brings every day in her role as assistant secretary for Information and Technology and CIO, Office of Information and Technology, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
  "My mother wasn't a CEO. She wasn't on the cover of a magazine. But the church was packed. I remember the minister saying, 'Millie was one of those people who always ha
  
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• Special report: Hacking the election

  05-10-2016 13:30
  
  Recent attacks by Russians on the U.S. elections systems has raised fears about voting integrity. We examine which fears are realistic and which are overblown(infoworld.com)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 3 tips to foster a culture of innovation

  05-10-2016 13:25
  
  Innovation starts with corporate culture -- it needs to be fostered throughout departments, encouraged and, perhaps most importantly, followed up on. What defines innovation in the enterprise is constantly evolving and changing. In today's business climate, innovation hovers steadily around technology and keeping on top of the latest industry trends to stay relevant.
  Pamela Rucker, chair at the Technology Advisory Council, and CIO Advisor for Women in Leadership on the CIO Executive Council, say
  
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• Q&A: The myths and realities of hacking an election

  05-10-2016 13:00
  
  Election hacking has become a key topic during this year's presidential elections, more so now that candidates and voters are being actively targeted by actors that are assumed to be acting with Russian support.
  In this modified edition of CSO Online's Hacked Opinions series, we explore the myths and realities of hacking an election, by speaking with a number of security experts.Q: Can the national election really be hacked? If so, how?"It’s unlikely that the national election could reall
  
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• One election-system vendor uses developers in Serbia

  05-10-2016 13:00
  
  Voting machines are privately manufactured and developed and, as with other many other IT systems, the code is typically proprietary.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• If the election is hacked, we may never know

  05-10-2016 13:00
  
  The upcoming U.S. presidential election can be rigged and sabotaged, and we might never even know it happened.
  This Election Day voters in 10 states, or parts of them, will use touch-screen voting machines with rewritable flash memory and no paper backup of an individual's vote; some will have rewritable flash memory. If malware is inserted into these machines that's smart enough to rewrite itself, votes can be erased or assigned to another candidate with little possibility of figuring out the
  
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• Hacking an election is about influence and disruption, not voting machines

  05-10-2016 13:00
  
  Every time there's an election, the topic of hacking one comes to the surface. During a presidential election, that conversation gets louder. Yet, even the elections held every two years see some sort of vote hacking coverage. But can you really hack an election? Maybe, but that depends on your goals.
  The topic of election hacking is different this year, and that's because someone is actually hacking political targets. Adding fuel to the fire, on Aug. 12, 2016, during an event in Pennsylvania,
  
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• Hacked voter registration systems: a recipe for election chaos

  05-10-2016 13:00
  
  How do you disrupt the U.S. election? Hacking a voter registration database could very well do just that.
  Imagine thousands or even millions of citizens' names mysteriously disappearing from a database. Then when election day comes along, they find out they aren't registered to vote.  
  Some security experts warn that this scenario isn't totally far-fetched and could deny citizens from casting ballots.
  "If that happens to a few voters here and a few there, it's not a big deal," said Dan Wal
  
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• 5 ways to improve voting security in the US

  05-10-2016 13:00
  
  With the U.S. presidential election just weeks away, questions about election security continue to dog the nation's voting system. It's too late for election officials to make major improvements, "and there are no resources," said Joe Kiniry, a long-time election security researcher.
  However, officials can take several steps for upcoming elections, security experts say.
  "Nobody should ever imagine changing the voting technology used this close to a general election," said Douglas Jones, a
  
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• 3 nightmare election hack scenarios

  05-10-2016 13:00
  
  The question on the mind of many voting security experts is not whether hackers could disrupt a U.S. election. Instead, they wonder how likely an election hack might be and how it might happen.
  The good news is a hack that changes the outcome of a U.S. presidential election would be difficult, although not impossible. First of all, there are technology challenges -- more than 20 voting technologies are used across the country, including a half dozen electronic voting machine models and several
  
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• Why Google can't truly compete against Apple without retail stores

  05-10-2016 12:51
  After years of making killer software, Google’s next step is to try to integrate it all together into hardware that’s just as impressive.
  On Tuesday, Google showcased a slew of new products aiming to replicate Apple’s success when it comes to creating an ecosystem. The high-end Pixel phones feature state-of-the-art cameras and a built-in virtual assistant. Daydream View is a portable headset designed specifically for Android VR. While Google Home, Chromecast Ultra, and a new W
  
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• Review: TensorFlow shines a light on deep learning

  05-10-2016 12:00
  
  What makes Google Google? Arguably it is machine intelligence, along with a vast sea of data to apply it to. While you may never have as much data to process as Google does, you can use the very same machine learning and neural network library as Google. That library, TensorFlow, was developed by the Google Brain team over the past several years and released to open source in November 2015.
  Most developers should start learning TensorFlow by checking out its code repository and model repository
  
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• Firefox to follow Chrome’s lead on Flash, PDFs

  05-10-2016 12:00
  
  As part of efforts to remove generic plugin support, Mozilla's Project Mortar explores alternative approaches to providing non-web platform technologies, starting with the Firefox browser's handling of PDF rendering and Flash support.
  The newly unveiled project looks to deliver these technologies cheaper while providing a better user experience. To that end, Mortar will explore the possibility of bringing Google's PDFium library, used in the Chrome browser, and the Pepper API-based Flash plugin
  
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• This robot vacuum cleaner plays J-Pop, because this is Japan

  05-10-2016 10:09
  
  Two of Japan's biggest obsessions have collided on the Sharp booth at this year's Ceatec electronics show, where the company is displaying a robot vacuum cleaner that blasts J-Pop songs while it sweeps.Sharp said it developed the prototype after hearing comments from users of its Cocorobo robot cleaner that they don't like to hear the sound of the unit as it goes about vacuuming the floor.So, the new version was born.It blasts out J-Pop songs sung by Vocaloid, Yamaha's popular voice synthesis so
  
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• Panasonic has a technology for transmitting data by human touch

  05-10-2016 09:58
  
  Panasonic has developed a data transmission system that can exchange information through human touch.
  The prototype human body communication device sends data at up to 100kbps through a radio field on a person's skin. When they touch an object or person with a suitable transreceiver, data can be exchanged.
  The device is on show at this week's Ceatec electronics show in Japan through several color-coded demonstrations.
  In one, for example, a person can hold a color-coded ball. When they touch a
  
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• Adapteva's 1,024-core Epiphany V mega-chip packs serious wallop

  05-10-2016 06:00
  
  Back in 2010, an Intel researcher said 1,000-core processors would be feasible. We're in that era, and the race to make chips faster and more power efficient is gaining steam.The latest mega-chip is a 1,024-core processor called Epiphany V, which was announced by Adapteva on Wednesday. Adapteva claims it will have enough juice to outperform some of the latest gaming and server processors.It has a mere 24 more cores than the 1,000-core KiloCore, a test chip made by researchers at University of Ca
  
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• US tech giants say they didn't do Yahoo-style email spying

  05-10-2016 02:37
  
  Reports of a secret Yahoo program to search through customers' incoming emails has spurred other tech companies to deny ever receiving a similar request from the U.S. government.The program, reportedly created last year through a classified U.S. order, involves Yahoo searching through hundreds of millions of user accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI.Other U.S. tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook, denied doing anything like it. Most also said
  
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• Five questions about taking Google's new phones to work

  05-10-2016 02:09
  
  Google unveiled a massive strategic shift on Tuesday, announcing that it is officially getting into the business of designing and releasing its own smartphones. The Pixel and Pixel XL, announced at a special event in San Francisco, are the company's first forays into that market after working with outside manufacturers for several years to produce its Nexus line of devices.
  The phones are snazzy gizmos packed with some of the latest features that Google could come up with, like a new intelligen
  
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• BrandPost: To the Cloud and Back (Part 1)

  05-10-2016 01:00
  
  The cloud is a much praised, and also much maligned, term these days. On one hand, it allows businesses to grow their infrastructure in burstable capacities with just a few keystrokes. On the flip side, business users are turning to the cloud to avoid having to request resources and services from their IT partners. No matter which side the business user falls into, almost everyone is in agreement that the cloud is here to stay.
  Businesses are quickly adopting the cloud for many workloads. Some
  
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