IT Executive news

• Obama sets goal of establishing a Mars habitat

  11-10-2016 23:49
  
  President Barack Obama has set a goal of sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and getting them safely home again.
  But that's not his only goal.
  In a commentary appearing on CNN.com, Obama set an ultimate goal of setting up a habitat on Mars so astronauts can live there for an extended time.
  "When our Apollo astronauts looked back from space, they realized that while their mission was to explore the moon, they had 'in fact discovered the Earth,' "Obama wrote. "If we make our leadership in space e
  
  Read more

• AllSeen's merger with OCF brings IoT closer to common ground

  11-10-2016 23:37
  
  Two of the main IoT standards groups have merged, probably bringing consumers closer the day when your lights, your refrigerator, and the power company can all talk to each other.
  On Monday, the Open Connectivity Foundation and the AllSeen Alliance announced they would merge under the OCF name. The two groups include companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, Cisco Systems, GE Digital, and Haier -- possibly a critical mass of IoT component and product makers. OCF's scope even extend
  
  Read more

• Timeline of Samsung's disastrous Galaxy Note7 debacle

  11-10-2016 23:18
  
  This week, in an unprecedented move from a technology leader, South Korean electronics company Samsung said it would permanently halt production of its flagship Note7 smartphone, nearly a month-and-a-half after the first reports surfaced of Note phones that spontaneously caught fire, and following recall and exchange programs in multiple countries. The decision appears to mark the untimely end of what some early reviewers called Samsung's "best phone ever."The following infographic highlights no
  
  Read more

• 27% off SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick 200GB - Deal Alert

  11-10-2016 23:09
  
  The SanDisk Connect wireless stick is a flash drive with a unique twist -- you can access it wirelessly. Whether it's in your pants pocket, in your bag, or on the picnic table at your campsite, the Connect wireless stick lets you stream media or move files wirelessly with up to three computers, phones or tablets simultaneously. Connections are made via built-in wifi (think "hotspot"), so no external wireless or internet services are needed. A USB connection is also available, if desired. St
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Apple Mac shipments take a beating in Q3 as PC shipments decline

  11-10-2016 22:26
  
  Sales of Windows PCs fared better than Apple Macs during the third quarter this year.Third-quarter PC shipments declined by 3.9 percent compared to the same quarter last year, but Mac shipments dropped by 13 percent. PC shipments totaled 68 million units, according to IDC.The declines weren't as bad as expected, and were roughly 3.2 percent ahead of IDC's initial projections, the research firm said.In the top five PC companies, fourth-placed Apple registered the largest decline, with the 13 perc
  
  Read more

• Facebook, Twitter cut access to monitoring tool used by police

  11-10-2016 22:18
  
  Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were handing over data to a monitoring tool that law enforcement agencies were using to track protesters, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.The social media analysis tool, called Geofeedia, had been harvesting posts from the social media networks for surveillance purposes, and more than 500 law enforcement and public safety agencies have been using it, the ACLU said in a Tuesday report.Through a public records request, the ACLU found that Geofe
  
  Read more

• Will Facebook Workplace help or sideline workers?

  11-10-2016 22:02
  
  Facebook is about to find out if its new enterprise-focused collaboration tool can thread the needle between social tool and social disturbance in the office.[ Related: Facebook at Work (finally) launches as ‘Workplace' ]The company on Monday took the wraps off Workplace, formerly known as Facebook at Work, a version of its social network that is focused on keeping co-workers connected and working, rather than sharing pictures of last weekend's apple picking adventure or new puppies.To rea
  
  Read more

• With help from Docker, Google's Go jumps in popularity

  11-10-2016 21:42
  
  Google's Go language, which anchors projects like Kubernetes and Docker, keeps climbing the charts in language popularity.
  Ranked 65th a year ago in the Tiobe Index of language popularity, it has climbed to 16th this month and is on track to become Tiobe's Programming Language of the Year, a designation awarded to the language with the biggest jump in the index.[ Find out how to get ahead with our career development guide for developers. | The art of programming is changing rapidly. We help you
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The Note 7 is dead: What Samsung must do now

  11-10-2016 21:27
  
  Samsung formally stopped production, sales and exchanges of its Note7 smartphones early Tuesday, after several weeks of reports that the devices -- and even their replacements -- overheated, smoked and caught fire.[ Related: Timeline of Samsung's disastrous Galaxy Note7 debacle ]The death of the Note7 will be costly, according to many analysts.Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy has pegged the overall cost to Samsung at $5 billion to $7.5 billion, not including the hard-to-estimate
  
  Read more

• Buggy Windows 7 cumulative update? Just tell us, says Microsoft

  11-10-2016 21:15
  
  Microsoft has told business customers that when they run into problems with Windows 7's new patch maintenance regime they should file a ticket with the company's support desk.
  But a pair of patch experts doubt that that -- or Microsoft's other remediation suggestions -- will prevent the new cumulative updates from disrupting business.
  "Microsoft's response is to open a support case to alert [the company] to the issue," said Susan Bradley in an email reply to questions. "I challenge Microsoft to
  
  Read more

• Supreme Court wrestles with size of damages for Apple design patents

  11-10-2016 20:58
  The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, hearing arguments in a long-running Apple and Samsung patent dispute on Tuesday, seemed to question a 19th-century law that allows huge infringement damages in design patent cases.Questioning lawyers for the two companies, the justices repeatedly referred to a law that instructs courts to award patent damages based on the total profit from the infringing device, instead of from just the infringing pieces of the device.The total-profit rule for de
  
  Read more

• Ford engineer called MyFord Touch infotainment system 'a polished turd'

  11-10-2016 20:47
  
  Documents in a class-action lawsuit against Ford and its original MyFord Touch in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system reveal that the company's engineers and even its top executive were frustrated with the problematic technology.
  The documents from the 2013 lawsuit show Ford engineers believed the IVI, which was powered by the SYNC operating system launched in 2010, might be "unsaleable" and even described a later upgrade as a "polished turd," according to a report in the Detroit News, which was
  
  Read more

• PAL-V opens the first flying car school in North America

  11-10-2016 20:18
  
  Roosevelt, Utah, now has the distinction of being the first city in North America to have a flying car school. The location was chosen both for its mountainous terrain and concentration of reputable instructors, according to Mark Jennings-Bates, vice president of sales for PAL-V.Operators of the PAL-V Liberty flying car will be required to have a sport pilot license, which usually entails a minimum of 20 hours of flight time: 15 hours with an instructor and five hours solo. During instruction,
  
  Read more

• How tech vendors can boost IT's business acumen

  11-10-2016 20:08
  
  If you are like most CIOs, you have an IT organization that is good at many things, but when it comes to understanding how its own work in IT drives business value, the team has room for improvement.That was the situation that Guy Brassard faced when he joined Southwire, a $4.8 billion electrical-wire, cable and cord manufacturer. The company's management team set a strategy for growth and operational excellence, which put increased pressure on IT. Several acquisitions and transformational activ
  
  Read more

• Second group of hackers found also targeting SWIFT users

  11-10-2016 20:02
  
  A second hacking group is also trying to rob banks by exploiting the SWIFT money transfer system, following a US$81 million heist in February that used a similar approach.The cyberattacks have been going on since January and have been targeting companies in the U.S., Hong Kong, Australia, and other countries, according to a Tuesday report from security firm Symantec.A "rough guess" is that about 100 organizations have been hit so far, based on the 74 individual computer infections detected,
  
  Read more

• Hardware makers unite to challenge Intel with Gen-Z spec

  11-10-2016 19:37
  
  After years of being offered as separate technologies, storage and memory are beginning to merge. It's already happening, for example, with 3D Xpoint, a technology from Intel and Micron that can serve as memory, storage, or both.
  Now, a new consortium, called Gen-Z, is out to ease the transition to this new class of storage and memory in computers. It's creating a new specification and architecture that will make it easier to add new forms of non-volatile memory to computers.
  Gen-Z will have a
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Measuring business-IT convergence

  11-10-2016 19:03
  
  We have discussed in prior articles the importance of aligning the business and IT (see "What Do We Mean When We Say 'Business-It Alignment'?"). We also said that we want to move away from calling it "alignment" and use the word "convergence." However one of the questions I get from my clients is, "How do I go about measuring this alignment?"The challenge has been that business and IT often do not communicate with each other. Business people speak in their language, and IT doesn't understand wha
  
  Read more

• Wi-Fi vs. LTE could be the start of a mobile rollercoaster

  11-10-2016 19:00
  
  The long fight over LTE networks sharing frequencies with Wi-Fi may be just the first of many battles as device makers and service providers try to make the most of the limited available spectrum.Around the world, regulators and industry are working on how to let different kinds of networks use the same spectrum. The new techniques and policies they use should lead to better mobile performance in some areas, but it’s also likely that wireless performance will fluctuate more as you mov
  
  Read more

• With the Galaxy Note7 dead, here are 7 other Android phablets to consider

  11-10-2016 18:58
  
  Cease FireImage by REUTERS/Edgar SuIt’s official: the Galaxy Note7 is no more. The company already pulled out a miracle with its unprecedented recall to address the phone’s defective battery, only to be scorched again when more units started igniting. Samsung has now stopped production and wants you to (again) power off your device for good.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
  Read more

• Encrypted communications could have an undetectable backdoor

  11-10-2016 18:12
  
  Researchers warn that many 1024-bit keys used to secure communications on the internet today might be based on prime numbers that have been intentionally backdoored in an undetectable way.Many public-key cryptography algorithms that are used to secure web, email, VPN, SSH and other types of connections on the internet derive their strength from the mathematical complexity of discrete logarithms -- computing discrete logarithms for groups of large prime numbers cannot be efficiently done usi
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: The what’s now and what’s next for digital

  11-10-2016 17:37
  
  In recent months, we’ve explored how digital transformation within businesses has sparked parallel transformations in C-suites across the globe. The rise of CDOs (chief digital officers) has created big change at the top of many organizations as they work to address the digital demands hitting all levels of business today. Pick a department — finance, customer service, IT, marketing, HR, R&D — and you are very likely to see one or more mobile, social, cloud and data initiat
  
  Read more

• Let’s get serious about IoT security

  11-10-2016 16:42
  
  No one doubts anymore that internet of things (IoT) devices pose a huge security threat, as a recent massive IoT-fueled DDoS attack made clear. But what many enterprises have yet to wake up to is that major structural changes are needed, involving IT and C-level executives above IT. IoT is a new and different kind of threat that can’t be effectively battled in an old-fashioned way. 
  From an enterprise’s perspective, there are three sides to the IoT threat: 1) being attacke
  
  Read more

• 3 reasons to buy Fitbit Flex 2 (and 3 reasons not to)

  11-10-2016 16:34
  
  Fitbit's fourth new fitness tracker of 2016, Flex 2 ($100), is a worthy successor to the original Flex. It is the lightest, thinnest, most flexible Fitbit wristband, and Flex 2 doesn't look clunky next to your analog watch or smartwatch. It's also worth a look if you frequently swim for exercise.
  However, Flex 2 has some unfortunate compromises. 3 reasons why you should buy Fitbit Flex 21. Flex 2 is very thin and light
  Flex 2 is 30 percent smaller than the first Flex model, according to Fi
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Slippery iPhone? Try egrips protective sticker

  11-10-2016 16:21
  
  Apple’s iPhone has long been known as one of the most visually attractive smartphones on the market. The iPhone’s brushed aluminum case has made it a distinct icon in a market teeming with competitive products.However, as attractive as the iPhone’s brushed aluminum may look to the eye, it also makes the iPhone incredibly slippery. Anyone who has held an iPhone 6, 6s or 6s Plus knows what I’m talking about from their own experience.That is why most people opt to put some s
  
  Read more

• 7 attributes of a successful CMO in the digital age

  11-10-2016 16:05
  
  Conducting market research. Overseeing branding and messaging. Working with the sales team to drive revenue. These were the traditional responsibilities of a CMO. And they still are. But with the rise of digital marketing and social media, as well as video and mobile technologies and analytics and CRM, the role and responsibilities of CMO have grown and evolved.Here are seven qualities CMOs, or aspiring CMOs, need to be successful in today’s digital marketplace.1. Tech savvy
  “As CMOs
  
  Read more

• 7 enterprise mobile management features in Windows 10

  11-10-2016 16:02
  
  Security and enterprise mobile management (EMM) are big concerns for businesses of all sizes as they scramble to make sure corporate data is secure. And there's no shortage of EMM products, but there are features already baked into your operating system?Microsoft, for example, with its Windows 10 update, Redstone 1 -- officially called the Windows 10 Anniversary Update 1607 -- introduced a slew of new IT friendly features. Here are the six most notable features in the latest update that will get
  
  Read more

• BSIMM7: Older then, younger now

  11-10-2016 15:49
  
  As the BSIMM (Building Security In Maturity Model) gets older, it is also getting younger.
  With the release of the seventh version of the software security measurement tool, launched in 2009 by Cigital CTO Gary McGraw along with colleague Sammy Migues, and Brian Chess, then of Fortify Software, the average “maturity” of the membership is declining, said McGraw.
  The goal from the beginning has been to help software developers use real-world data and analysis designed to build se
  
  Read more

• Yahoo Mail suspends automatic mail forwarding as privacy controversies swirl

  11-10-2016 15:32
  
  In what can only be called awfully suspicious timing, Yahoo has turned off automatic email forwarding—a crucial feature when changing email accounts—for Yahoo Mail users. Anyone who has already enabled the feature is not affected, but others cannot activate it.
  On its help pages, Yahoo says mail forwarding is currently under development. “While we work to improve it, we’ve temporarily disabled the ability to turn on Mail Forwarding for new forwarding addresses,” th
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Facebook’s clickbait rule and what it means for marketers

  11-10-2016 14:59
  
  Just a few short weeks ago, Facebook announced their intention of shifting the focus away from clickbait headlines and towards the type of authentic communication that allowed the social networking platform to experience unprecedented growth many years ago. Specifically, Facebook is trying to put an end to those annoying clickbait headlines that drive most users crazy, and deliver relevant posts that they find engaging and informative. As a marketer, it’s important that you pause to consid
  
  Read more

• How older workers can thrive in IT

  11-10-2016 14:45
  
  Mark Zuckerberg's infamous foot-in-mouth statement on the importance of being young and technical ("young people are just smarter") landed him in a lot of hot water. But regardless of whether you believe that technology's best left to the young generation or you think that it's wasted on the young, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, there's no question that it becomes ever more difficult to find a job in tech the older you get.
  But as Silicon Valley struggles with its exclusionary image, recruit
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: What door locks teach us about IoT cybersecurity

  11-10-2016 13:59
  
  Would you be surprised to learn that the first mechanical lock and key were invented about the same time as the first message encoding keys? Mechanical security keys, for doors, gates, living spaces, etc. date back over six thousand years to the time of the Pharaohs. Not surprisingly Simon Singh’s great history of encryption technology, The Code Book, also traces encryption keys back as far as the hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt. But I would argue that only recently, with the advent of the
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: Google tacks toward home

  11-10-2016 13:30
  
  Last week, Google made a number of consumer-oriented announcements, most particularly a product called Home, a speaker/personal assistant designed to compete against Amazon’s Echo.Echo is no joke, and the Seattle company’s huge victory with its intuitive home assistant is prodding Google to up its game in a market where it should be winning. Not Nuance, not Apple, not Microsoft, not Google, but Amazon has figured out the home assistant, and Google has to respond with its full array o
  
  Read more

• Samsung discontinues Galaxy Note7 after battery debacle

  11-10-2016 13:23
  
  Samsung Electronics has discontinued production of its Galaxy Note7 smartphone, which has been plagued since its introduction in August by battery problems that caused fires and even explosions.The company confirmed Tuesday that it is discontinuing production, a day after it said that it had advised carriers and retail partners worldwide not to sell or exchange the replacement Note7 phones that were intended to solve an issue of overheating batteries in the previous version.U.S. carriers includi
  
  Read more

• Old and in the way

  11-10-2016 13:00
  
  It’s long been known that Silicon Valley has a monochromatic white-bro culture in which minorities and women are severely underrepresented. But a problem that is just as serious is only now coming into focus: The tech industry is ageist as well. If you’re of a certain age and you’re looking for a job in tech, you need not apply.The evidence is in plain view. In 2007, then-22-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told an audience at Stanford that when it comes to hiring peop
  
  Read more

• IDG Contributor Network: 5 myths about digital transformation every CEO must know

  11-10-2016 13:00
  
  I spoke to more than 30 CEOs over the last 12 months about a range of topics including digital transformation. These CEOs represent midsize to large companies in financial services, consulting and IT services, retail healthcare and other industries from Australia, United States, India, United Kingdom and Japan. I wanted to know what they thought about the digital revolution sweeping the world, reinventing industries, redefining new business models and creating great opportunities for proactive b
  
  Read more

• 5 ways to better survey IT employees

  11-10-2016 12:30
  
  To keep employees' unhappiness from reaching a tipping point, companies are turning to more frequent surveys to gauge the mood of their staffers, thanks to a slew of new survey and collaboration tools that make pulse-taking easier.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
  Read more

• Is tape storage dead … again?

  11-10-2016 12:14
  
  Much like the mainframe, tape still has its place. It’s a veteran technology that is heralded for being cheap, reliable and simple, and advancements continue. Even so, by the time you’ve invested in tape robots for automation and verification steps to make sure your backup actually captured your data, all that labor and infrastructure means tape isn’t as cheap as the per-megabyte costs make it look.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insid
  
  Read more

• 7 ways to take back control of your cloud strategy

  11-10-2016 12:02
  
  The age of shadow ITImage by ThinkstockIn 2015, 35 percent of IT spend was managed outside of IT departments, and by 2017, Gartner predicts that CMOs alone will spend more on IT services than CIOs. This includes both insecure and secure cloud apps and services that employees and business units are increasingly adopting without ITs knowledge or oversight – a movement known as Shadow IT. Today, every department from accounting to engineering is stealthily adopting these cloud services, causi
  
  Read more

• Group policies, meet EMM: New and old Windows 10 management unite

  11-10-2016 12:00
  
  One of Windows 10's biggest internal changes is support for management and security APIs à la enterprise mobile management (EMM). It uses APIs similar to those in iOS, Android, and MacOS. But Windows 10's EMM policies are limited compared to what traditional Windows management tools can do. Thus, a lot of what IT does to manage PCs today can't be done in Windows 10 via EMM, such as set up kiosk mode or enable local encryption. Instead, old-school tools like System Center Configuration Ma
  
  Read more

• Supreme Court will hear Samsung, Apple damages dispute on Tuesday

  11-10-2016 05:50
  
  The U.S. Supreme Court is to hear arguments Tuesday in a closely-watched dispute between Samsung Electronics and Apple on the procedure for calculation of damages for the infringement of design patents.In general terms, a design patent protects the way an article looks, while utility patents address the way an article is used and works, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Some older Samsung smartphones were found by a jury in 2012 to have infringed three design patents related to
  
  Read more

• Samsung officially halts Note7 sales, reiterates commitment to work with CPSC

  11-10-2016 01:25
  
  Following reports of more Galaxy Note7s bursting into flames, Samsung on Monday released a statement saying it has stopped sales of the phone and is no longer exchanging original Note7s for ostensibly safe replacement phones.
  The statement also encourages owners of replacement Note7s to power down their phones and request either full refunds or exchanges for the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge. Moreover, Samsung reiterated its commitment to work with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission—the g
  
  Read more

• WikiLeaks dumps another trove of email, allegedly from Clinton aide

  11-10-2016 01:20
  
  U.S. accusations that WikiLeaks is helping Russian hackers influence the upcoming election hasn't stopped the controversial website from dumping emails allegedly stolen from a Hillary Clinton aide.On Monday, WikiLeaks released an additional batch of 2,000 emails stolen from Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, which could fuel negative press coverage of her candidacy.This came after the site dumped the first batch of emails last Friday, the same day U.S. intelligence agencies publicly blam
  
  Read more

• Microsoft fleshes out seismic change to Windows patching

  11-10-2016 01:17
  
  Microsoft has elaborated on the new patching policy for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 that takes effect Tuesday.
  In a post to a company blog accompanied by graphics that resembled a periodic table, Michael Niehaus, a product marketing director for Windows 10, fleshed out the massive change in how Windows 7, the standard in business and the most popular OS on the planet, will be serviced starting with this month's Patch Tuesday.
  Microsoft announced the new plan two months ago, saying then that as of
  
  Read more

Follow @ITExecutiveNews on Twitter!