IT Executive news

• 3 ways to transform a carry-on bag into smart luggage

  28-02-2017 23:08
  
  Do you have smart luggage envy? If so, buy a Bluesmart ($449 to $599) or Raden ($295 to $395). But if you still love your Briggs & Riley or other "dumb" suitcase, worry not. There are at least three ways to give your existing bag some smarts, at least when it comes to tracking it.1. Get a GPS tracker
  Smart luggage typically offers electronic tracking, helping you locate a missing or stolen bag on a map. Usually, tracking is done via Bluetooth, because GPS can be a battery hog. By comparison,
  
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• Facebook releases 'Prophet' -- its free forecasting tools -- for Python and R

  28-02-2017 23:01
  
  Facebook has open-sourced its Prophet forecasting tool, designed "to make it easier for experts and non-experts to make high-quality forecasts," according to a blog post by Sean J. Taylor and Ben Letham in the company's research team. "Forecasts are customizable in ways that are intuitive to non-experts," they wrote.
  The code is available on GitHub in both Python and R.
  Prophet is aimed specifically at business problems such as computer infrastructure capacity planning that have at least severa
  
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• Aruba's top exec, large customers talk about Wi-Fi’s present and future at Atmosphere

  28-02-2017 23:00
  
  Aruba kicked off its annual Atmosphere conference on Tuesday in Nashville with a keynote from CTO Keerti Melkote that featured CTOs and CIOs from several of the company’s most prominent customers.
  One of the key points made by Melkote, now the sole head honcho of the company following the departure of then-CEO Dominic Orr in January, was that the HPE-owned wireless equipment maker is working hard to unify Aruba’s offerings over the past year.
  + ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Coolest new And
  
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• Laid-off IT workers worry US is losing tech jobs to outsourcing

  28-02-2017 22:24
  
  Sixty-three-year-old Bob Zhang is worried about the future of tech jobs in the U.S. Will the high-paying positions be a thing of the past?  Zhang thinks it’s already starting to happen. He’s one of 79 IT workers from the University of California, San Francisco, who’ve been laid off. Tuesday was their last day on the job. To replace them, the school is outsourcing some of their work to an Indian firm.“Usually, they outsource the low-paying jobs,” he said at a ga
  
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• New FCC chairman: Net neutrality rules were a 'mistake'

  28-02-2017 22:06
  
  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules, passed two years, ago were a "mistake" that caused uncertainty for the broadband industry, the agency's new chairman said.The net neutrality rules, along with the FCC's decision to reclassify broadband as a regulated common carrier, "deviated" from the U.S. government's longstanding light-touch regulatory approach toward the internet, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.Two years after the
  
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• Mobile devices get a new spec to ensure quality 4K HDR video

  28-02-2017 22:02
  
  The group that sets standards for 4K on high-definition TVs has established specifications for 4K and HDR (high-dynamic range) video on mobile devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops.The devices will be eligible for a "Mobile HDR Premium" certification if they meet minimum specifications tied to screen resolution, bit depth and a handful of other elements that define picture quality.The specification was announced on Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.For use
  
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• BrandPost: Containers 101

  28-02-2017 22:01
  
  As containers and microservices become more mainstream, you may wonder how to pave the way to adoption. How can you use containers to automate application deployments? What tools do you need to help your path to adoption? How can you get there faster, with fewer chances for errors and re-work?A new Geek Guide sponsored by Puppet, Containers 101, covers everything you need to know about:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How combining SEO and web design can boost your marketing efforts

  28-02-2017 21:59
  
  When a business kicks off a new website, careful consideration usually goes into its design. Attractiveness, professionalism, and usability are top concerns, all geared toward providing visitors easy access to the information they’re seeking. But all of that hard work is wasted if customers never see a business’s website in the first place.
  Search engine optimization (SEO) has long been the foundation of every business’s content marketing strategy. With the right text on a pag
  
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• AWS failure hits websites and apps

  28-02-2017 21:33
  
  Amazon Web Services, a major cloud hosting service, is having a system failure that has been affecting web sites and apps.
  AWS reported on its Service Health Dashboard at 2:35 p.m. ET that its engineers were working on the problem that has affected websites including Netflix, Reddit and Adobe. Those sites seem to be up and running now.
  The Associated Press reported that its own photos, webfeeds and other online services have been affected.
  AWS tweeted that the performance of its Service Health
  
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• Boston Dynamics takes big jump with two-legged Handle robot

  28-02-2017 21:15
  
  Robotics company Boston Dynamics has built a two-legged, wheeled robot that can roll down a flight of stairs and jump on and off a table, all while maintaining its balance and speed.
  Handle, a 6-foot, 5-inch tall robot, can travel at 9 mph and jump four feet, according to Boston Dynamics, a Alphabet-owned company, which posted a video of the robot on YouTube.
  With 10 actuated joints, the robot has a range of 15 miles on one battery charge.What has attracted attention to the Handle video, which
  
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• Microsoft adds Store app-only restriction as option in Windows 10

  28-02-2017 21:13
  
  Microsoft has added a setting to Windows 10 that will let users restrict new software installation to only those apps hosted in the Windows Store.
  The option debuted in the latest version of Windows 10 Insider, the preview program which gives participants an early peek at the next feature upgrade as Microsoft builds it. That version, labeled 15042, was released Friday.[ Related: Fix Windows 10 problems with these free Microsoft tools ]
  With the setting at its most stringent, Windows 10 will blo
  
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• HP's Pavilion x360 with a Kaby Lake processor has dropped to $479

  28-02-2017 20:46
  The Microsoft Store has another great sale on a Windows 10 2-in-1 convertible, and this one’s rocking the latest generation of Intel’s Core processors. Right now, you can pick up the HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 15-bk193ms for $480. Like other devices sold at the Microsoft Store, this is a Signature Edition PC, which means bloatware from the computer maker is significantly reduced.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 26% off Portal Mesh Wi-Fi System (2-pack) - Coverage for Homes up to 6,000 sq. ft., Gigabit Speed - Deal Alert

  28-02-2017 20:22
  
  PORTAL is designed for homes with lots of devices and many neighbors. WiFi devices all share the same airwaves, and just like an old highway with not enough lanes, your internet slows to a crawl whenever there are too many people and devices crowding the same channels. Mesh 2.0 patented technology and 9 dedicated antennas act like a shield to keep your WiFi maxed out at the speed you pay for. The result is consistently fast reliable internet, lag-free gaming and smooth ultraHD video streaming e
  
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• HTC’s Netflix-esque VR subscription costs $6.99 per month

  28-02-2017 20:06
  
  HTC is giving users of its Vive virtual reality headset access to a Netflix-like subscription service. Everyone who currently owns a Vive will get a free trial for a month, and the service will cost US $6.99 a month thereafter.
  For that price, users will be able to pick out five virtual reality apps at the start of each month, including games and other interactive experiences. The service will be available in a "couple weeks," Rickard Steiber, the company’s senior vice president for
  
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• Intel will change its approach to PC chip upgrades

  28-02-2017 19:54
  
  Intel is changing its view on how it upgrades chips.Rather than tying chip upgrades directly to the manufacturing process involved, Intel will look at delivering a sustained set of performance upgrades with each new chip architecture."We're going to be focused more on the generation by the amount of performance increment it will give us," said Venkata Renduchintala, president of Intel's Client and Internet of Things businesses and its Systems Architecture Group. "I don't think generations w
  
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• Moscow’s smart tech includes 160,000 cameras to detect traffic violators

  28-02-2017 18:46
  
  BARCELONA -- Moscow has rolled out new technologies to make the city safer, including 160,000 outdoor cameras focused on traffic and areas of possible crime.
  The effort is one of the largest municipal camera installations in Europe. Moscow, with 12 million residents, has installed enough camerasin the last 18 months to rival the number of traffic and public cameras used in London. There, the use of CCTV cameras ignited a public outcry over privacy invasions.To read this article in full or to le
  
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• Trend Micro report: Ransomware booming

  28-02-2017 18:31
  
  The profitability of ransomware made it the top cyber threat last year in two categories: the number of attacks and the amount of money generated for crooks, according to a Trend Micro lookback on data collected from customers.
  Not only is the ransomware business booming, it’s innovating, with Trend Micro researchers identifying 752 new families last year, up from 29 in 2015.
  Add to this the rise of ransomware as a service (RaaS) and payments made to anonymous bitcoin accounts, and the re
  
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• AI scheduling startup launches subscription for businesses

  28-02-2017 18:21
  
  Setting up meetings can be a pain, since they often require folks to send emails back and forth figuring out a time before finally sending off a calendar invitation to block everyone’s schedule. A New York startup called x.ai wants to simplify that with a helpful bot, and they just launched a product aimed at serving businesses.
  The service provides users with access to x.ai’s assistant, which can go by Andrew or Amy Ingram, to automatically set up meetings with people inside a comp
  
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• MediaTek will sit out the ARM race for Windows 10 PCs

  28-02-2017 18:15
  Despite a turbulent past, Windows PCs with ARM are making a grand return later this year, but only with Qualcomm chips.
  Another big ARM chipmaker, MediaTek, is sitting out the opportunity to put its ARM-based chips in Windows PCs because the company sees it as a limited opportunity.
  MediaTek's chips are already used in Chromebooks, but ARM has had a turbulent history with Windows. That's another reason for the company to stay out.
  ARM getting into PCs is like Intel trying to get into smart
  
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• Roborace: When software engineers are the heroes

  28-02-2017 18:11
  
  It's rare that software engineers are lauded as the heroes of anything, but Roborace CEO Denis Sverdlov wants to change that.
  Sverdlov, formerly CEO of Russian mobile operator Yota, set up Roborace last year with the goal of organizing street races that will pit self-driving cars against one another.
  "In the racing environment engineers are usually in the background. Here the software engineers are the heroes," he said at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.
  Designing and building high
  
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• A better security strategy than ‘know your enemy’: Know your co-workers

  28-02-2017 17:51
  
  Cyberthieves today know that it’s better to be sneaky and crafty than forceful. To be even more blunt, they know that it’s better to trick you into doing their work than to break in and do it themselves.
  That trickery starts with ever-more-subtle ways to get you to click on an email attachment. A recent attack used an employee accomplice who was to flag any meetings with multiple people and note who was presenting. Within 30 minutes of one meeting’s end, the crooks sent a
  
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• Productinformatiemanagement geoptimaliseerd

  28-02-2017 17:14
  NXP Semiconductors heeft het beheer en gebruik van productinformatie geoptimaliseerd met een upgrade van de Dassault Systèmes ENOVIA-applicatie. Daardoor kunnen R&D-teams sneller reageren op vragen van productie, kwaliteitsmanagement en andere afdelingen. Verder is het bedrijf nu goed voorbereid op het... lees meer
  
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• Cisco Jasper grows Internet of Things reach, breadth

  28-02-2017 17:06
  
  Nearly a year after it bought Jasper for $1.4 billion, Cisco this week strengthened the company’s Internet of Things reach by adding support for an emerging low-power WAN technology and expanding its partner programs further into automotive and healthcare.
  Cisco bought Jasper and its Control Center platform to firmly establish a hold in the IoT world. And indeed, it has. CEO Chuck Robbins noted in Cisco’s recent earnings call that “Jasper connects more than 40 million devices
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: macOS: Change your login screen background image

  28-02-2017 17:02
  
  Many of us login into our Macs at least once per day, and it can get rather tedious seeing the same login screen day after day. Not to worry, you can customize your Mac’s login screen by changing the default background image.
  Here’s how you can do it:
  1. Find a .PNG image with the same resolution as your Mac’s display.
  If you don’t know your Mac’s display resolution, just click the Apple logo in the menubar and then go to About This Mac then go to Displays. You wil
  
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• Cisco completes live trials of Narrow Band IoT

  28-02-2017 16:54
  
  At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, Cisco announced that its Cisco Jasper IoT connectivity management platform has completed live trials of Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) on its Control Center, paving the way for rapid growth in areas like smart meters, smart cities, smart parking, building automation, asset tracking and remote agriculture."IoT plays a critical role in helping companies embrace innovative new service-oriented business models, and with the addition of NB-IoT sup
  
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• Deep dive into Windows Server 2016

  28-02-2017 16:43
  
  Windows Server 2016 was officially released in September, but we waited until all of the bits were at production level before taking a deep dive into Microsoft’s flagship server operating system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• 38% off iClever Ultra Portable Tri-folding Bluetooth Keyboard With Touchpad - Deal Alert

  28-02-2017 16:34
  
  Work more efficiently while on the go. Compact, versatile, durable and light, this new keyboard from iClever folds on two innovative hinges that double as grips to keep your board steady, while the grips on each end keep it from sliding around. It pairs quickly with up to 3 devices, switching with the push of a button, and features a high sensitivity touchpad for mouse functionality. When folded, it takes up roughly the same space as a smartphone. Compatible with not only IOS and Android, but al
  
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• A tale of two user experiences

  28-02-2017 15:37
  
  Everybody knows that installation and setup are the neglected backwaters of software engineering.  If you’re thinking to yourself, “but in the cloud, there’s nothing to install, no DLL hell, no traumatic transitions, so no big deal,” you’d be wrong.Even in the cloud, there’s system configuration, data conversion and migration, security settings, compatibility issues, plug-ins, JavaScript incompatibilities, browser versions and add-ons.  Consequently,
  
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• Meizu technology can charge a smartphone in 20 minutes

  28-02-2017 15:23
  
  Chinese smartphone maker Meizu claims its Super mCharge technology can recharge batteries in as little as 20 minutes.To prove its point, the company demonstrated the superfast charging capabilities during a press conference on the show floor of Mobile World Congress, which is being held in Barcelona.The charging speed is even faster than Qualcomm's recently introduced Quick Charge 4.0, which "is engineered to charge a typical smartphone from zero to 50 percent in about 15 minutes or less," the c
  
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• Apple and SAP to release ‘developer-centric’ tools for iOS

  28-02-2017 15:20
  
  Apple and SAP are preparing to release new tools and training to help developers  build enterprise apps for iOS devices. SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS, which is integrated with Apple’s Swift programming language, will be available on March 30, according to SAP, which announced the plans this week at Mobile World Congress.The companies have been working on the developer tools that can take advantage of native capabilities of iOS devices and the SAP Academy for iOS since they inked a w
  
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• BrandPost: How IT Can Empower the Enterprise with Self-Service Analytics at Scale

  28-02-2017 15:00
  Business intelligence used to be a top-down affair which IT often approached in the same manner as traditional IT projects. The business makes a request of IT, IT logs a ticket, then fulfills the request following a waterfall methodology.While this approach centralized data and promoted consistency, it sacrificed business agility. There was a significant lag between question and answer. And this delay led to lackluster adoption and low overall business impact. Fast-forward to today and IT f
  
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• Dell Boomi bringing startup mentality to hybrid cloud market

  28-02-2017 14:44
  
  While Dell sold off many software assets as part of the 2016 mega merger with EMC that created Dell Technologies, it kept Dell Boomi as a critical component for helping IT shops build and run hybrid clouds. Dell Boomi offers integration platform as a service (iPaaS) – a set of cloud-based capabilities for connecting everything from SaaS apps to EDI and internet of things applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Enterprises enter the 5G spotlight at MWC

  28-02-2017 14:09
  
  Mobile World Congress takes place this week, so it’s time again for carrier and vendors to serve up bold claims about what 5G cellular will do for users -- this time, with a dash of realism.“5G is not ready yet,” T-Mobile USA’s CTO Neville Ray said Monday morning. “It’s maturing quickly, but it’s not real today, and I can’t go and deploy a 5G radio to serve my customers with and give them a handset.”Like most other carriers, T-Mobile is testi
  
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• Visa, Mastercard beef up mobile payment tech at Mobile World Congress

  28-02-2017 12:53
  
  BARCELONA -- Mobile payments made in different parts of the globe were an important theme at Mobile World Congress this week, with leaders Visa and Mastercard announcing new services.
  Visa on Monday announced one of the most unusual approaches, one that relies primarily on older QR code technology through its mVisa payment service. It went live Monday for merchants and customers in India, Kenya and Rwanda and will soon be available in Egypt, Pakistan and a few other developing countries.
  The se
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Unlocking the value in patient-generated health data

  28-02-2017 12:45
  
  We've killed more people because we didn't share data than because we did. This and other such memorable quotes were among my many takeaways from the HIMSS annual conference last week in Orlando.Along with the increase in healthcare consumerism, there is a growing awareness among health systems of the need to involve patients in their medical care. An important aspect of enabling that is to harness the continuous stream of data from wearables, sensors and other internet of things (IoT) devi
  
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• 15 unfilled tech jobs that cost the U.S. billions

  28-02-2017 12:34
  
  Unfilled tech jobs that are costing the U.S. billionsImage by Thinkstock With IT industry unemployment hovering at around 2.8 percent (as of Q3 2016) and organizations struggling to land talent, many companies find themselves with unfilled jobs. That's a problem not just for individual companies, but for the U.S. economy as a whole, says Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor."Filling open jobs doesn't just help workers. It also helps companies and the broader economy. Every job that's
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Can you say what strategic outcomes your project is targeting?

  28-02-2017 12:30
  
  You won't believe this. While the disciplines of technology innovation, software practice, project management and business strategy have always been advancing, 83 percent of organizations do not know how to achieve the business value they need.Tech projects must contribute directly or indirectly to strategic outcomes. The good news is: The odds of accomplishing that rise if you start with and keep focus on business outcomes that the organization needs.What categories of business outcomes do you
  
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• 7 universal rules of threat intelligence

  28-02-2017 12:29
  
  ThreateningImage by ThinkstockCybersecurity is a heroic task. Every day, businesses and organizations face an onslaught of attacks from malicious actors across the globe. As part of your organization’s cybersecurity efforts, it is your job to not just catch these attacks as they happen, but try to mitigate threats and prevent them before anything occurs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Will a cyber crisis add to chaos of Trump’s first 100 days?

  28-02-2017 12:28
  
  While plenty of controversy has surrounded President Donald Trump’s fledgling administration, it hasn’t yet faced a major crisis.
  But according to Forrester Research, aside from any political or military events, the new president will face a cyber crisis sometime within his first 100 days.
  The company made the prediction last fall, prior to the election, as part of its “Predictions 2017” brief, so it didn’t specifically focus on either Trump or Democratic candidate
  
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• Huawei's new smartwatch doesn't need a phone

  28-02-2017 12:15
  
  The days of having your smartwatch tethered to your phone may be coming to an end.
  At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Huawei showed off its Watch 2 smartwatches. One of the models comes with 4G connectivity and allows users to take calls and use some apps without having to be connected to their phones.  
  The smartwatch comes in three models: the Watch 2, the Watch 2 4G, and the Watch Classic, which has a less rugged feel. Out of these, only the Watch 4G will let you roam the streets fr
  
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• Relax: This phone measures your blood pressure

  28-02-2017 12:00
  
  This Swiss electronics company is on a mission: to stop millions of people dying of ignorance each year.Worldwide, high blood pressure leads to around 9.4 million deaths annually according to figures from the World Health Organization. And yet, the condition is easily diagnosed and treated. In the Americas, the prevalence of high blood pressure fell from 31 percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 2014, but remains high in developing countries.Before high blood pressure can be controlled, though, it nee
  
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• Class of 2017 Yearbook: The Premier 100 Technology Leaders

  28-02-2017 12:00
  
  Class of 2017 Yearbook: The Honorees
  Name
  Title
  Employer
  Dimitris K. AgrafiotisChief data officer and head of technology productsCovancePeter L. AmbsCIOCity of AlbuquerquePeter K. AndersonCIOGreater Cleveland Regional Transit AuthorityMatthew B. ArvayCIOCity of PhoenixSami Ben JamaaSenior executive officer and CIOCoca-Cola East JapanTimothy C. BirdsallSenior vice president of information services and chief medical information officerCancer Treatment Centers of AmericaDouglas E. BlackwellSenior v
  
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• Brendan Eich: Tech giants could botch WebAssembly

  28-02-2017 12:00
  
  WebAssembly is a highly lauded portable code format that holds the promises of making the web run faster while extending the browser to accommodate multiple languages beyond JavaScript. Falling under the jurisdiction of the World Wide Web Consortium, the project has been supported by major browser vendors Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla. It's now available as a preview in browsers, with a draft specification due this quarter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click
  
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• Comparing agile project management frameworks

  28-02-2017 11:21
  
  In my article "How to choose the right project management methodology," I covered the key considerations and some of the assessment criteria when choosing a methodology. Now let's take a closer look at three popular agile frameworks and how they compare to make it easier to choose which to use for your next project.SCRUMLEANKANBANDefinitionA predefined and recurring set of rules, roles and processes used to expedite the release of higher quality products. The manufacturing and technology princip
  
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• How to use your Android device as a mobile hotspot

  28-02-2017 11:01
  
  It's not always easy to find reliable Wi-Fi on the go, especially if you're looking for a secure, private connection. Public Wi-Fi networks can leave you vulnerable to hackers and create privacy issues if you're viewing sensitive data. But if you have an Android smartphone in your pocket, you're just a few steps away from having a private, personal Wi-Fi hotspot.All smartphones running Android 2.2 or later have built-in hotspot capabilities, but some carriers might limit access to the feature de
  
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• This tiny chip could revolutionize smartphone and IOT security

  28-02-2017 10:10
  
  Engineers at South Korea's SK Telecom have developed a tiny chip that could help secure communications on a myriad of portable electronics and IOT devices.The chip is just 5 millimeters square -- smaller than a fingernail -- and is capable of generating mathematically provable random numbers. Such numbers are the basis for highly-secure encryption systems and producing them in such a small package hasn't been possible until now.The chip, on show at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,
  
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• Alibaba calls for tougher Chinese laws against counterfeiters

  28-02-2017 07:58
  
  Under pressure from the U.S. government and vendors in various markets to crack down on counterfeiters, Alibaba has called on the Chinese authorities for clearer laws and higher penalties.“Law-enforcement agencies often found it difficult to classify and quantify incidences of counterfeiting and also had difficulties building legal cases due to ambiguous counterfeiting laws," the Chinese retail giant said in a statement, which claimed that the company's strenuous efforts to curb counterfei
  
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• Smart teddy bears involved in a contentious data breach

  28-02-2017 03:08
  
  If you own a stuffed animal from CloudPets, then you better change your password to the product. The toys -- which can receive and send voice messages from children and parents -- have been involved in a data breach dealing with more than 800,000 user accounts.
  The breach, which grabbed headlines on Monday, is drawing concerns from security researchers because it may have given hackers access to voice recordings from the toy's customers. But the company behind the products, Spiral Toys, is deny
  
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• Qualcomm details plans for Windows 10 PCs with Snapdragon 835

  28-02-2017 02:13
  
  Qualcomm has big plans to bring back ARM to Windows 10 PCs, and there is a chance that its Snapdragon 835 could support Windows Holographic for VR headsets.The company is already working with major PC makers for using Windows 10 with Snapdragon 835, its latest chip introduced in Sony's Xperia XZ smartphone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.The response to Windows 10 with Snapdragon 835 has been positive, and the grim memories of Windows RT -- a colossal failure in bringing ARM to PCs -- have
  
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