IT Executive news

• Cisco fashions tactical ransomware defense

  12-10-2016 23:59
  
  Cisco has taken a look at its security capabilities and those of its partners and come up with a playbook to address ransomware.
  Ransomware Defense can incorporate a range of Cisco products and address different levels of concern customers might have about ransomware, says Dan Hubbard, the CTO for Cisco’s security business.
  More on Network World: Cisco Talos: Spam at levels not seen since 2010To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• U.S. IT and engineering salaries rise nearly 4 percent in 2015

  12-10-2016 22:41
  
  IT and engineering salaries in the U.S. rose 3.9 percent in 2015, the second-highest annual increase since 2010, according to a survey from IEEE-USA.
  The median income for IT and engineering professionals rose to US$135,000 in 2015, up from $130,000 in 2014, IEEE-USA said. Salaries rose nearly 4.3 percent between 2013 and 2014, after rising just 0.6 percent in 2013.
  Engineers working in systems and control, including the subspecialties of robotics and automation, control systems, industrial ele
  
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• Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 from hell

  12-10-2016 22:39
  
  There's a lot of clap-trap going around about what could be wrong with the lithium-ion batteries in the dozens of Note7s that overheated, smoked, and even caught fire in original and replacement units.[ Related: Timeline of Samsung's disastrous Galaxy Note7 debacle]The truth is that the public doesn't know -- yet. Many analysts are questioning whether Samsung knows and just hasn't said.Samsung killed production of the Note7 and stopped sales and exchanges yesterday, less than two months after th
  
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• Seagate drops the world's largest tiny hard drive

  12-10-2016 22:19
  
  Hard drives might take a back seat to SSD's when it comes to sex appeal, but when it comes to space on the cheap, Seagate’s BarraCuda line will turn heads.
  Seagate on Tuesday announced two new BarraCuda drives—one of which now holds the record for being the largest-capacity 2.5-inch drive.
  The BarraCuda ST5000 pushes the capacity limit from the previous 4TB to 5TB, and will be priced around $85. Seagate says the drive uses the company’s 1TB-per-platter design that it unveiled
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 3 ways to improve customer experience using A.I.

  12-10-2016 22:12
  
  Today, software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies can choose from several cloud computing providers, dozens of monitoring providers and hundreds of different apps to increase their efficiency and help bring their solutions to market. While great marketing and brand awareness efforts can make it seem like some companies are more favored in the marketplace, sustained customer growth only occurs with a great product experience. This is especially true given that most cloud solutions are available on a
  
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• White House: A.I. will be critical driver of U.S. economy

  12-10-2016 21:39
  
  The White House sees artificial intelligence as an increasingly critical technology that can fight cyberattacks, upgrade weapons of war, improve health care and even unclog traffic for the commute home.
  However, the Obama administration also expects that A.I. will reduce low-level jobs and create security and ethical issues.
  With critical pros and cons looming, the federal government wants to work with the private sector and academia to guide A.I. in a positive direction, according to a recentl
  
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• Putin denies any Russian interest in alleged US election hacking

  12-10-2016 21:37
  
  Russian President Vladimir Putin is rejecting claims that his country is behind any U.S. election-related hacking, saying "hysteria" is fueling the allegations."This has nothing to do with Russia's interests," he said on Wednesday at an investors conference in Moscow.Putin made the comments after the U.S. publicly blamed the Russian government last Friday for hacking U.S. officials and political groups in an effort to influence the upcoming presidential election.Stolen documents from those
  
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• BrandPost: Digital Business Transformation Framework

  12-10-2016 21:36
  
  The world is undergoing a digital transformation. For example, there will soon be over a billion smartphones, impacting all aspects of organizations’ value chains, commerce, and customer and supplier engagement processes. This transformation will result in an explosion in digital data (see Figure 1), and more importantly, usable insight.
  Figure 1: IDC’s Digital Universe Study, April 2014, sponsored by EMC (Dell EMC)
  And the smartphone isn’t the only digital technology driving
  
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• Reality, Virtually sets record for largest AR/VR hackathon

  12-10-2016 21:05
  
  More than 400 participants, mentors, workshop speakers, judges and sponsors convened at the Reality, Virtually AR/VR hackathon sponsored by the MIT Media Lab last weekend, setting a hackathon record with 75 open-source project submissions.
  The winners were KidCity VR and Waypoint Rx.
  KidCity VR, built by Anish Dhesikan, Jacqueline Assar, Theji Jayaratne, Emily Pascual and Kachina Stude, is an HTC Vive educational application for children and parents to play together in virtual reality (VR). The
  
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• Samsung's Note7 calamity cracks open a door for Apple

  12-10-2016 20:46
  
  The explosion-implosion of Samsung's premier Galaxy Note7 line may boost sales of Apple's iPhone, analysts said today, but the Cupertino, Calif. company is unlikely to publicly gloat over its rival's troubles or leverage them to push its own smartphone.[ Related: Timeline of Samsung's disastrous Galaxy Note7 debacle]"Of course Apple will benefit," said Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research. "But I don't think we should overestimate how much Apple will benefit."O'Donnell and others
  
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• Lawmakers want UK to set example on transparency in AI decision making

  12-10-2016 19:22
  British lawmakers want more transparency and less bias in decision-making -- not their own, of course, but in decisions made by AI systems.As more and more software systems and connected devices employ artificial intelligence technologies to make decisions for their owners, the lawmakers want to know what's behind their thinking. The U.K. Parliament's Science and Technology Committee has been studying the need for more regulation in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence.Recent
  
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• BrandPost: Chief Data Officer Toolkit: Leading the Digital Business Transformation – Part I

  12-10-2016 19:06
  
  The Chief Data Officer (CDO) role is red hot!! If you don’t have one, then you are totally uncool and unprepared to reap the bounty of wealth offered up by Big Data and the Internet of Things (IOT). Gartner predicts that 90 percent of large companies will have a CDO role by the end of 2019[1]. Hire a CDO, and everything will be good. Or, will it?Unfortunately, it’s hard to distinguish the charter of the CDO from that of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) or the Chief Technology Offi
  
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• Report: Samsung is still struggling to explain why the Note7 keeps exploding

  12-10-2016 18:32
  
  Racing to the market may have burned Samsung twice.[ Related: Timeline of Samsung's disastrous Galaxy Note7 debacle]First, a rush to beat the iPhone7 with a technologically superior Galaxy Note7 might have gotten the company into trouble in the first place by shipping out a phone no one realized had the potential to explode.The problem has compounded with a failed recall, culminating in a second callback and the cessation of the Note7 altogether. According to a New York Times report, the co
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Looking for an A.I. strategy? Start with an 'interrupt' strategy

  12-10-2016 18:00
  
  With the increase in the amount of data produced and analyzed in the enterprise, the increase in peer pressure to invest and grow big data, analytics and machine learning expertise and value, and the increase in the funding of big data and analytics initiatives, enterprises are getting drowned in a sea of data, analysis, dashboards and data portals.This problem will get more acute as pressure to generate new insights increases. Phrases such as "dashboard hell" or "too much noise" will become mor
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Why I didn’t buy the Apple Watch Series 2

  12-10-2016 17:59
  
  The Apple Watch Series 2 has been out for a while now, and some folks are quite enthusiastic about it. It has a built-in GPS, better water resistance, a faster dual-core processor and a display that is about twice as bright as the previous Apple Watch.But I decided not to buy Apple Watch Series 2.I already own an Apple Watch Series 1 model, the black 38mm sport version. I love the watch, it works extremely well for me as a fitness tracker. I use it when I go out walking, lift weights and do othe
  
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• How Anaplan makes dynamic strategic planning a reality

  12-10-2016 17:51
  
  Anaplan doesn’t come up in many conversations about unicorns – you know, the Ubers, Airbnbs and SnapChats of the world. But if your company is struggling with strategic planning, Anaplan is one unicorn you’ll want to learn more about. San Francisco-headquartered Anaplan’s cloud-based platform replaces spreadsheet mania as a way to handle large-scale strategic planning in real time. Companies such as HP, Intel and Morgan Stanley are streamlining sales management, forecast
  
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• BrandPost: Digital Signage: A New Way to Engage

  12-10-2016 17:20
  In an age when customers expect instant communication and entertainment, retailers are rapidly flocking to digital signs.One of the strongest benefits of digital signage is that it allows retailers to communicate and interact in real time—to grab the attention of potential customers and broadcast information throughout stores. With today’s technology, store managers can also send nearby customers personalized special offers and capture valuable demographic information.Big and Growin
  
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• Internet of Things: driver van digitale transformatie

  12-10-2016 17:17
  Door Raimond van het Reve – IoT-technologie is niet alleen bruikbaar voor het stroomlijnen van processen en verhogen van de efficiency, maar ook voor het genereren van nieuwe omzetstromen. Voor veel organisaties is de stap van klassieke bedrijfsvoering naar een IoT-gedreven, digitale organisatie echter lastig te... lees meer
  
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• 5 affordable MDM options for small businesses

  12-10-2016 17:13
  Affordable MDM options for small businessesImage by ThinkstockSmall and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have embraced BYOD. In a study of SMBs from the IT community, Spiceworks, 61 percent of respondents said they have a BYOD policy in place. However, the same study found that 56 percent of that group also said they had not implemented any mobile device management (MDM) strategies and didn't have plans to do so within the next six months.
  While BYOD might allow these smaller businesses to save on
  
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• Samsung issues elaborate fireproof boxes for Note7 returns

  12-10-2016 16:25
  
  Samsung has begun sending customers of its discontinued Galaxy Note7 smartphones special boxes designed to protect the fire-prone phablets from doing any damage on their way back to the vendor through the mail. The lithium-ion batteries in the phones are being fingered for the devices overheating, and in some cases, catching on fire.[ Related: Timeline of Samsung's disastrous Galaxy Note7 debacle]The shipping package, as discussed by XDA Developers, includes an instruction sheet that shows how t
  
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• BrandPost: All Eyes on Server Management

  12-10-2016 16:19
  The phrase “single pane of glass” is almost always included somewhere on the marketing slick for every piece of infrastructure management software. And the reason is obvious—because who in their right mind would choose to have IT administrators juggling multiple applications all day just to keep the lights on? As obvious as that may seem, the truth is that most data centers still require highly-specialized, on-site resources that are proficient with dozens of infrastructure tec
  
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• Mobileye's upcoming self-driving car chip will pack a new MIPS CPU

  12-10-2016 16:00
  
  It's been a rough few months for Mobileye, maker of the assisted driving platform used in cars from automaker Tesla. The two have been at odds over what caused recent Tesla accidents, with the car maker blaming Mobileye's system.
  Tesla is now developing its own platform for assisted driving, and Mobileye -- having denied responsibility for the Tesla accidents -- is moving on. It is designing a next-generation chip called EyeQ5, which will be used as the brains for fully autonomous cars by 2020.
  
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• Enterprises outsmarting themselves with security, while attackers easily use common techniques

  12-10-2016 15:00
  
  Bad guys use common techniques to steal data, while companies focus too much on sophisticated attacks, according to the second annual Hacker's Playbook, based on an analysis of nearly 4 million breach methods.
  Security professionals are figuring out how to block attacks from state-sponsored, advanced, persistent adversaries, said Itzik Kotler, CTO and co-founder at penetration company SafeBreach, which produced the report.
  "But if you look at the different hacks, they're not all carried out by
  
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• CIO's move to chief customer officer role signals trend

  12-10-2016 14:34
  
  If you follow conventional IT leadership thinking that views CIOs as purely responsible for back-office duties, you'd be inclined to view Equinix' promotion of CIO Brian Lillie to the role of chief customer officer as unusual.
  But in today's ultra-competitive digital world, companies are recognizing that it makes sense to put the CIO on the front lines. A CIO with intimate knowledge of his or her company’s products and the ability to pitch them to peers is a potent weapon in the battle fo
  
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• Nederland moet werk maken van cybersecurity

  12-10-2016 14:03
  Nederland moet cybersecurity hoger op de agenda plaatsen, aldus een onafhankelijk advies van Herna Verhagen, CEO van PostNL, in opdracht van de Cyber Security Raad (CSR).De raad onderschrijft de urgentie die spreekt uit het rapport. Omdat Nederland bij de koplopers behoort op het gebied van digitalisering, neemt de... lees meer
  
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• Record IoT DDoS attacks raise bar for defenders

  12-10-2016 13:38
  
  Now that its source code has been released you can expect more attacks from Mirai, the malware behind the largest DDoS attack on record, which was powered by hijacked IoT devices.
  Since release of that code last week it has been responsible for smaller attacks that look like newcomers experimenting with the malware in preparation for bigger things, say security researchers at Incapsula. “Likely, these are signs of things to come and we expect to deal with Mirai-powered attacks in the near
  
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• National Science Foundation doles out $12M for wireless growth

  12-10-2016 13:27
  
  The U.S. National Science Foundation yesterday handed out 11 grants, totaling $12 million, to researchers working on bringing the benefits of the public airwaves to more Americans than ever before.
  The awards went to researchers at a diverse range of educational institutions, including the U.S. Naval Academy, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, and Texas A&M, among others. The research itself tended to center on work that makes spectrum sharing easier, freeing up space across the increasingly crowded
  
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• Windows 10 runs again — but for how long?

  12-10-2016 13:00
  
  Microsoft may need a refresher course on what constitutes good software support.
  Almost a week after some Windows 10 PCs got trapped in reboot hell, Microsoft finally issued a patch — make that “a kludge of a script” — to finally enable affected Windows 10 users to get their machines working again.
  The fix, “Windows 10 1607 Script fix to unblock update for Windows Insiders,” doesn’t explain what’s going on. It does work, however.
  That’s nice
  
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• The internet of insecure things: Thousands of internet-connected devices are a security disaster in the making

  12-10-2016 13:00
  
  Set and forgetImage by ThinkstockWe talked to a host of tech experts about the state of security in the internet of things world, and found out the good, the bad, and the very ugly.Under attack by ... cameras?Image by ThinkstockTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Game on: Alienware's 20-year affair with gaming helps drive the future of VR

  12-10-2016 13:00
  
  Alienware co-founder Frank Azor has fond memories of the comany's early days. It was a wild time of building kick-ass PCs, gaming, lots of sci-fi shows and generally, having a good time.
  "It was four guys in a tiny little office, sending in a couple of review machines, magazines saying they were great, and the phone beginning to ring very, very slowly. We would sell about one computer every day, maybe," Azor said.
  October 15 marks 20 years of Alienware's existence. Now a part of Dell, Alienware
  
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• Leaky IoT devices help hackers attack e-commerce sites

  12-10-2016 12:30
  
  Millions of IoT devices are misconfigured so that they can forward messages -- which, combined with default admin settings, allows them to be used to attack e-commerce and other websites, a new report says.
  The problem is well known and has been around for a more than a decade, said Ryan Barnett, principal security researcher at Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai Technologies Inc., which produced the report.
  The problem first came to Akamai's attention when the content delivery network noticed attac
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Be mindful of these 3 tech changes for recruiting success

  12-10-2016 12:30
  
  Blink and you’re already behind. That’s how fast technology moves these days, and if you’re not hiring with a focus on technology, you’re crippling yourself in a world that’s increasingly dependent on it.Below are three major areas where technology can and should influence your hiring decisions and how you can benefit if you remain mindful of them.1. Distance learning lets you hire for potential — not for experience
  In America’s not-so-distant past, it w
  
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• Best tools for red and blue teams are methodology, experience

  12-10-2016 12:30
  
  In many ways, parenting and security have a lot in common. No book exists that provides all of the answers. There is no silver bullet, and both roles can be overwhelmingly stressful. Getting into the mind of the enemy, though, might be a little easier done than understanding the inner workings of the teenage mind.
  Parents are the blue teams that want to know how susceptible their children are to life's many temptations and pitfalls. The red teams, all of the possible dangers that could hurt a c
  
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• 12 hardware and software vulnerabilities you should address now

  12-10-2016 12:24
  
  It's not a stretch to say that most organizations have at least some old hardware and software still in use. An old computer that's still chugging along, running an old operating system and perhaps an application that is hard to replace, doesn't necessarily raise a red flag with IT staff. Why spend money on new equipment or software if what's already in-house is adequate and functioning?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Outsourced IT workers ask Feinstein for help, get form letter in return

  12-10-2016 12:08
  
  A University of California IT employee whose job is being outsourced to India recently wrote Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for help.
  Feinstein's office sent back a letter addressing manufacturing job losses, not IT, and offered the worker no assistance.
  The employee is part of a group of 50 IT workers and another 30 contractors facing layoffs after the university hired an offshore outsourcing firm. The firm, India-based HCL, won a contract to manage infrastructure services.
  That contract is
  
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• Microsoft opens HoloLens preorders in six new countries

  12-10-2016 12:00
  
  Microsoft is expanding the reach of its HoloLens augmented reality headgear to six new countries around the world. Starting Wednesday, interested customers in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the U.K. will be able to preorder the devices for development and commercial use.The news comes roughly six and a half months after Microsoft first launched the HoloLens Development Edition in the U.S. and Canada, and more than a year and a half after the company first unveiled the hardw
  
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• Get data-driven insights into the IT jobs market!

  12-10-2016 12:00
  
  Computerworld is pleased to offer six new regional IT jobs reports for purchase. Drawing on exclusive data from two of Computerworld's signature research projects, the 100 Best Places to Work in IT list and our annual IT Salary Survey, these special reports provide targeted information about the IT jobs market in six distinct regions of the U.S.: Pacific, Mountain, North Central, South Central, Northeast and Southeast. What's inside: Data to help you in recruiting and retentionEach report
  
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• First look: Chef’s Habitat puts automation in the app

  12-10-2016 12:00
  
  Deploying new software to production can be hard -- really hard. If you’re among the many businesses adopting new infrastructure and deployment technology today, you’re keenly aware of how difficult it can be. Even as you adopt modern devops tools to streamline development, test, deployment, and ongoing management, and to bring development and operations teams closer together, it often seems you're only creating new silos.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please cl
  
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• Facebook spins Yarn to replace NPM packager

  12-10-2016 12:00
  
  Tackling issues with the venerable NPM JavaScript package manager, Facebook is open-sourcing its Yarn package manager.[ Related: Facebook at Work (finally) launches as ‘Workplace' ]Developed in collaboration with engineers from Google, Tilde, and Exponent, Yarn can be used with every major JavaScript framework; thus, every JavaScript engineer who relies on shared dependencies in the ecosystem can pull code faster. Developers using Yarn can install packages significantly faster than with NP
  
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• Google Graveyard: What Google has killed in 2016

  12-10-2016 11:33
  
  RIPGoogle has rolled out plenty of new things in 2016, from its Android-powered Pixel smartphones to its Daydream virtual reality platform to its Duo Facetime competitor. But as always, Google has had to make room for its new stuff by ditching some old offerings. Here’s a roundup of products, services and more that Google rid itself of in 2016. (Look back at Google’s 2015 Graveyard too.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Samsung cuts revenue and profit forecast after Note7 fiasco

  12-10-2016 11:24
  
  Samsung Electronics has cut its revenue and profit forecasts for the third quarter, after the disastrous launch of its flagship Galaxy Note7, which eventually led to the company recalling the smartphones and stopping their production in the wake of reports of overheating batteries.The South Korean company said Wednesday that revenue for the quarter was likely to be about 47 trillion won (US$4.2 billion), down from the 49 trillion won that it had expected earlier this month in a preliminary forec
  
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• 10 highest-paying IT security jobs

  12-10-2016 10:00
  
  Highest-paying IT security jobsImage by ThinkstockData breaches, DDOS attacks, hacks and threats continue to dominate the headlines, so it's no surprise that some of the most in-demand IT jobs are in the security area. And with a massive skills gap, companies are willing to pay handsomely for skilled security talent at all levels."One area we're still seeing huge demand for is in cybersecurity, and hiring companies are willing to pay whatever it takes for talent that can help secure data and mit
  
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• Intel targets commercial market with company-branded Falcon 8+ drone

  12-10-2016 07:06
  
  Intel has introduced a company-branded commercial drone, the Falcon 8+, for North American markets, with the aim to lead in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market, particularly in the commercial segment.The chip maker has been looking at new opportunities for its silicon and other technologies outside its traditional markets like PCs, more so after its lackluster performance in the smartphone market. It has already dabbled in the consumer drone market through Yuneec's Typhoon H, which uses Int
  
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• HP upgrades the Envy 13 laptop with Kaby Lake, debuts the 4K Envy 27 display

  12-10-2016 06:01
  
  HP's injected a little hot hardware into the stylish Envy 13 laptop and Envy 27 display announced Tuesday night. You'll find the latest CPU from Intel in the former, and in the latter, 4K resolution and support for AMD’s FreeSync technology. HP Envy 13-inch laptopPricing on the new Envy will start at $850, and it’ll hit store shelves on October 26. Though many of its upgrades are incremental, the primary highlight is the dual-core 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-7200U 7th-generation
  
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• SkyGiraffe's Tableau connector aims to ease business data visualization

  12-10-2016 02:50
  
  While business intelligence software like Tableau helps companies better understand the data that they have saved up in systems of record like databases and CRM software, it can be hard to get the entire picture of a business from the plethora of different sources available.SkyGiraffe is launching a new connector Tuesday to help with that by allowing companies to take live data from a diverse set of systems of record and visualize it in Tableau. The connector is supposed to give businesses a sin
  
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