IT Executive news

• 10 things you need to know about the security risks of wearables

  28-03-2017 23:54
  
  The risks from corporate use of activity trackers and other wearables is low, some experts say -- especially in comparison to all the other security and privacy risks CISOs, CIOs and IT folks must worry about.That said, as with any connected device, there is risk potential. For example, recent research suggests that devices such as Fitbits can be hacked (when the hacker is within close proximity). By focusing on accelerometers and other motion sensors, researchers at the University of Michigan a
  
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• Intel digs deep to keep Moore's Law alive

  28-03-2017 23:19
  
  The landmark Moore's Law observation, which is now more than 50 years old, keeps shapeshifting as the physical challenges of making smaller chips mounts.Many scientists agree that Moore's Law is dying, but Intel is clinging on to it for dear life. It has been Intel's guiding light for making chips smaller, faster and cheaper.Now, Intel is changing the way it measures process technology advancements, which will help the company continue to boast about hitting key Moore's Law metrics in terms of e
  
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• 47% off First Alert 10-Year Carbon Monoxide Alarm with Temperature - Deal Alert

  28-03-2017 23:08
  
  First Alert's CO710 CO alarm is powered by sealed, ten year lithium batteries to provide continuous protection for ten years without battery replacement, and a built-in end-of-life alarm lets you know when its time is up. Its modern, compact design allows easy tabletop or wall mount placement, and it displays CO levels along with room temp on a backlit display. The unit's "peak" function captures and allows you to retrieve the highest CO level recorded in your home. In the event of a CO inc
  
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• 46% off CyberPower Surge Protector 3-AC Outlet with 2 USB (2.1A) Charging Ports - Deal Alert

  28-03-2017 23:06
  
  The Professional Surge Protector CSP300WUR1 safeguards common home and office devices, such as computers and electronics, by absorbing spikes in energy caused by storms and electrical power surges. Designed for convenience, the portable CSP300WUR1 is ideal for travelers. It provides 600 joules of protection, has three surge-protected outlets, and a folding wall tap plug. Two USB ports (2.1 Amp shared) charge personal electronics, including smartphones, digital cameras, MP3 players, and othe
  
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• FBI warns of attacks on anonymous FTP servers

  28-03-2017 22:41
  
  The FBI warns that attackers are targeting vulnerable FTP servers used by small medical and dental offices as a way to obtain medical records and other sensitive personal information.While the dangers of placing sensitive data on these servers is well known, smaller businesses may not have the expertise or motivation to upgrade.The attackers can use the stolen data to harass, intimidate and blackmail these businesses, the FBI says, and may also include using the stolen information to commit frau
  
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• Scammers scare iPhone users into paying to unlock not-really-locked Safari

  28-03-2017 22:28
  
  Apple yesterday patched a bug in the iOS version of Safari that had been used by criminals to spook users into paying $125 or more because they assumed the browser was broken.The flaw, fixed in Monday's iOS 10.3 update, had been reported to Apple a month ago by researchers at San Francisco-based mobile security firm Lookout."One of our users alerted us to this campaign, and said he had lost control of Safari on his iPhone," Andrew Blaich, a Lookout security researcher, said in a Tuesday intervie
  
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• Elon Musk’s next venture may link human brains with computers

  28-03-2017 22:12
  
  Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk today indicated he may be helping a new company that would develop technology that lets humans communicate their thoughts to computers.While Musk hasn't made many details about the new venture public, he included the name "Neuralink" in a tweet. TwitterIn that post, Musk alluded to information about his plans that would be released on the blog site, WaitButWhy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• China devotes $22 billion to domestic chip industry expansion

  28-03-2017 22:03
  
  China is pouring more money into chasing its semiconductor ambitions. The state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup, which has been building up the country’s chip-industry infrastructure, received a 150 billion yuan (US$22 billion) in financing on Tuesday.The funds come from the China Development Bank and a national integrated circuit investment fund, two groups tied to the country’s government.Tsinghua Unigroup hasn’t said what the money will be specifically used for. But it will go towa
  
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• CIOs take on digital transformation programs in diverse areas

  28-03-2017 22:00
  
  Some examples of digital transformation are easy to spot and identify. We all know about how Uber is changing transportation, AirBnb upending hospitality, GE betting big on IoT, and IBM leveraging Watson in new AI challenges. If you work for a B2C company or already put out customer facing experiences, then it might be easier to identify new digital opportunities.Recent news has made me question why some organizations and CIO struggle to define their digital strategy and get started with a trans
  
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• BrandPost: Business Flexibility Through Hyperconvergence

  28-03-2017 21:33
  
  Flexibility—it’s one of those things you can’t have too much of. In today’s ever-shifting global-business frontier, having it ensures long-term survivability. How so? Well, as trends fluctuate and change, flexibility allows you to evolve at a much more fluid pace without nearly the effort and cost a static organization experiences.If you’re in need, you’re also in luck. Technology already has this covered in the form of hyperconvergence. It brings a business t
  
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• Report: Samsung’s flagship smartphones tank just before Galaxy S8 launch

  28-03-2017 21:30
  
  A financial report cited by South Korea’s Yonhap News says that Samsung’s higher-end smartphones are accounting for a rapidly decreasing share of the company’s sales.Premium smartphones account for just 29% of Samsung’s smartphone sales, down from 75% in mid-2013, Yonhap quotes a Hana Financial Investment report as saying. The disastrous battery problems experienced by the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 undoubtedly have a lot to do with the company’s shrinking premium device
  
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• Refurbishing Samsung Note7s for resale is a 'disastrous' plan, analyst says

  28-03-2017 21:28
  
  Just two days before Samsung's launch of the Galaxy S8 on Wednesday, the company announced it will consider using some recalled Galaxy Note7 smartphones for re-sale as refurbished or as rental phones.One analyst bashed the plan as "disastrous," while another said Samsung is performing a "balancing act" following the Note7 fallout when some units overheated and caught fire.Samsung also said in a statement on Monday that it could detach salvageable components from the Note7s for reuse. It may also
  
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• BrandPost: Industry Experts Predict the Future of Mobility

  28-03-2017 21:23
  
  With a strong trend towards company only business devices (COBD) approved in today’s workplace, you can expect only a moderate shift towards BYOD in the future, according to the experts.We partnered with research firm IDG to conduct our Tech Pulse Mobility survey, 106 IT decision makers weighed in with their current statistics and predictions for future mobility trends. So what's ahead for 2017? Will mobility become more prevalent? How will mobile devices connect to corporate enterprise se
  
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• Amazon Connect brings contact centers to the cloud

  28-03-2017 21:08
  
  Amazon today released Connect, a contact center as a service offering hosted in the Amazon Web Services cloud.The move represents AWS attempting to jump into a burgeoning market for cloud-based contact center software, while continuing to push AWS into the enterprise communications market. Just last month AWS announced Chime, a cloud-based Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) offering.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Amazon Web Services vs. Microsoft Azure vs. Google Cloud Platform | This is not th
  
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• Jethro automates data engineering tasks for BI on Hadoop

  28-03-2017 20:50
  
  Eli Singer, CEO of Jethro, provider of an acceleration solution for interactive business intelligence (BI) on big data, says that despite its promise, BI on big data is fundamentally broken because SQL-on-Hadoop remains too slow."Today's approach to BI on big data is not working," Singer said in a statement Tuesday. "Under the SQL-on-Hadoop hype lies monumental failure rates with existing approaches."Meet Jethro
  Singer's answer is Jethro 3.0, the newest version of Jethro's enterprise solution, a
  
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• Tips for building a culture around 'business outcomes'

  28-03-2017 20:24
  
  Over the last 10 years, IT’s role has been to support or enable business strategy. This meant that CIOs needed people in their organizations who could understand a set of business requirements, translate those requirements into technology solutions, and deliver those solutions on time and on budget.But in the new era of IT, when IT informs, or even defines, business strategy, CIOs need a different kind of IT professional. They need to transform their teams from order-takers to order-shaper
  
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• Excel for Windows finally gets real-time collaboration

  28-03-2017 20:21
  
  Microsoft has brought live, collaborative editing to its Excel app for Windows through a beta update it launched on Tuesday. The new feature lets testers collaborate with one another on the same file from inside the app.Live collaboration has been a major focus of Office 2016, which Microsoft released roughly a year and a half ago. The suite first offered real-time co-authoring for the desktop version of Word, then expanded those capabilities to PowerPoint. It’s a major change fo
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Core OS offers Tectonic preview for Microsoft Azure

  28-03-2017 19:43
  
  Core OS has announced a new release of its Tectonic Kubernetes distributon that allows the deployment of high availability Kubernetes 1.5.5 clusters to AWS, bare metal and adds support for more environments, including preview availability for Microsoft Azure and OpenStack.This means that irrespective of the platform on which you are running your infrastructure, you can benefit from easy-to-use Kubernetes through Tectonic.Making it easier to use
  There is quite a lot of disruption happen
  
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• Microsoft winds up work on Windows 10 Creators Update

  28-03-2017 19:24
  
  New clues signaled that work has wrapped up on Microsoft Windows 10's next feature upgrade, dubbed the Creators Update, with a release to customers expected in one week, perhaps two.Build 15063, first issued to participants in Microsoft's Windows Insider preview program on March 20, has been identified by Windows experts as the likely RTM candidate for Creators Update.Although Microsoft no longer publicly tags builds with the labels "release to manufacturing" (RTM) or "release candidate" (RC), t
  
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• 9 biggest information security threats through 2019

  28-03-2017 19:17
  
  The information security threat landscape is constantly evolving. To help you navigate the terrain, each year the Information Security Forum (ISF) — a nonprofit association that researches and analyzes security and risk management issues on behalf of its members — puts out its Threat Horizon report to provide members with a forward-looking view of the biggest security threats over a two-year period. What follows are the nine biggest threats on the horizon through 2019 that your organ
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Dell Wyse 3040: not your father’s thin client

  28-03-2017 19:01
  
  Thin clients have been around for the last three decades in various forms, but many CIOs have shied away from them due to technological limitations or cost. However, over the last ten years a lot has changed on the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) front to enable thin clients to be much more powerful. Additionally, thin clients themselves have become more powerful and capable while reducing size and cost with nearly every generation. With the latest generation of GPU-accelerated VDI from NVI
  
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• Microsoft releases Win10 Creators Update—but proceed with caution

  28-03-2017 18:53
  
  Microsoft has quietly released the full, original disk images (ISOs) for build 15063 of Windows 10 version 1703—the Creators Update, codename Redstone 2—and yesterday Windows fan Steve Truman, @KPRP42, published a list of links to Microsoft’s Techbench download servers.I recommend that you do not install these ISOs. In fact, over the course of the week I will describe how to avoid the Creators Update, at least until it’s ready for prime time. No matter
  
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• LastPass is scrambling to fix another serious vulnerability

  28-03-2017 18:49
  
  For the second time in two weeks developers of the popular LastPass password manager are working to fix a serious vulnerability that could allow malicious websites to steal user passwords or infect computers with malware.Like the LastPass flaws patched last week, the new issue was discovered and reported to LastPass by Tavis Ormandy, a researcher with Google's Project Zero team. The researcher revealed the vulnerability's existence in a message on Twitter, but didn't publish any technical d
  
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• Malware infection rate of smartphones is soaring – Android devices often the target

  28-03-2017 18:06
  
  Smartphones are by far the most popular target of mobile malware, and the infection rate is soaring, according to new research by Nokia.During the second half of 2016, the increase in smartphone infections was 83% following on the heels of a 96% increase during the first half of the year, according to Nokia’s latest Mobile Threat Intelligence Report gathered from devices on which Nokia NetGuard Endpoint Security is deployed in Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.To read
  
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• 44% off Smartphone Screen Magnifier with Foldable Stand - Deal Alert

  28-03-2017 18:02
  
  Enlarge your smartphone's display and watch a bigger screen at a longer distance, minimizing eye fatigue. The magnifier with integrated stand is designed to be foldable, lightweight and portable. It currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from almost 500 reviewers on Amazon (read reviews), where its list price of $26.99 is currently discounted 44% to just $14.99. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Study finds devices are not wiped properly

  28-03-2017 17:51
  
  As an individual, you might have an old smartphone or tablet sitting around your house collecting dust. Before recycling it, you hire a company to wipe the drive clean of any personally identifiable information. With the storage on today’s smartphones, there could be credit card information sitting in the background.You feel relieved as you pass off the device to be cleaned. A load off your shoulders, you have taken another item out of your house that was cluttering up the living room. Rig
  
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• BlueJeans teams with Dolby for teleconference audio clarity

  28-03-2017 17:14
  
  BlueJeans customers will be getting improved call quality, thanks to a partnership the company unveiled Tuesday. Dolby is working with the videoconferencing company to improve call clarity for people using its service.As part of the deal, BlueJeans will integrate Dolby Voice technology for all the video and audio calls made using its service. It will provide a number of benefits to users, like reducing background noise on calls and normalizing sound levels from different speakers.While BlueJeans
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: How to keep your filthy iPhone clean

  28-03-2017 17:12
  
  Let’s face it, smartphones can get incredibly dirty given how often they are touched by human hands. Bacteria and viruses just love to adhere to the surface of the iPhone.But there are some ways you can keep it clean, according to a writer at CNBC.Todd Haselton reports for CNBC:
  Did you know the smartphone in your pocket might be the dirtiest thing on you at any given moment?An oft-cited report from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that 92 percent of the smartphones
  
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• 9% off Nyko Rechargeable Power Station for Xbox One Controllers - Deal Alert

  28-03-2017 16:04
  
  The Power Station from Nyko attaches to the side of the Xbox One console and charges 2 included rechargeable batteries for use in Xbox One Wireless Controllers, for up to 25 hours of play time. It's powered by USB so there are no visible cords, and is designed to look like a natural extension of your console. The Power Station averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 190 people on Amazon (read latest reviews here), where its typical list price has been reduced 9% to just $15.97. See this deal on Amaz
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The power of inventory management means service with a virtual smile

  28-03-2017 15:39
  
  Customer service is an extension of technology. Rather, technology is an example of a company’s ability to deliver excellent customer service.Abercrombie’s CEO on Giving Consumers What They Want https://t.co/BGsm2qwbVv via @wwd— Andre F Bourque ♕ (@SocialMktgFella) March 28, 2017
  It highlights the strengths — or exposes the weaknesses — concerning an organization’s renown for reliability. It reveals whether a business with an online presence and a physic
  
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• What you need to know about Windows 10, UWP and desktop apps

  28-03-2017 15:30
  
  Windows 10 (like Windows 8 before it) isn’t just a new version of Windows. It also comes with a new model for building apps that’s much more like the sandboxed approach of smartphone operating systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Plesk teams with Kolab for open source groupware

  28-03-2017 15:00
  
  Plesk, one of the major providers of website management solutions, has chosen Kolab Systems’ groupware solution for its millions of users.
  "You can now deploy Kolab in your Plesk installation with the Premium Email powered by Kolab extension. this extension is a step forward in the field of turn key groupware and online collaboration software. This package is easy and convenient to deploy — it can literally be installed in a few clicks, and it provides full Kolab functionality w
  
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• 10 digital marketing jobs that top the pay scale

  28-03-2017 14:59
  
  Digital marketing jobs that top the pay scaleImage by Thinkstock If you're looking for a hot career that combines cutting-edge technology with creativity, then digital marketing is the place to be. And, according to IT and digital marketing recruiting and staffing firm Mondo's annual Digital Marketing Salary Guide for 2017, many digital marketing roles offer the opportunity for six-figure salaries because of the combination of skills required and the huge demand for those skills in the current j
  
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• Linium Achieves InFusion Partner Program Status from Misys

  28-03-2017 14:55
  
  Linium, a world-class provider of business services that empower the entire enterprise, announced today it has joined the Misys InFusion partner program. Misys, a global financial software company, will expand its opportunities to deliver the world’s leading solution for servicing commercial loans.
  
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• Cyberverzekeringen in zwang bij Nederlandse bedrijven

  28-03-2017 13:34
  De Nederlandse neiging om alle risico’s te willen uitsluiten via verzekeringen heeft een gunstige invloed op de markt voor cyberpolissen, die de afgelopen twee jaar enorm is gegroeid. Daarop duiden cijfers van Lloyd's.Tussen 2014 en 2016 ziet de (her)verzekeraar, die ook onderzoek deed naar de perceptie van... lees meer
  
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• How politics is impacting your company's productivity

  28-03-2017 13:25
  
  It's difficult to escape politics in America -- the Trump administration dominates the network news cycle, social media feeds and nearly every corner of pop culture. And it's starting to affect the workplace, according to a survey of 500 full-time U.S. employees by Wakefield Research in conjunction with BetterWorks, a company that offers performance management software.The results found that 87 percent of employees "read political social media posts at work," while 80 percent said they have disc
  
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• Internet privacy? Who needs that?

  28-03-2017 13:00
  
  While the headlines are dominated by the further misadventures of a clueless president who can’t keep his Twitter tweeter shut, his Republican colleagues in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Senate continue to destroy the internet. First, Trump’s man in the FCC has set out to wreck net neurality. Now, the Republican-dominated Senate has screwed over your internet privacy.The FCC had already voted to stay some rules requiring broadband providers to take reasonab
  
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• Great Google apps you didn't know you needed

  28-03-2017 13:00
  
  Many of the best Google apps don't come pre-installedImage by Sarah Jacobbson PurewalYou already use plenty of Google apps. Android is a Google product, after all. And your phone almost certainly came with Google Maps and Gmail, for example.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• How to respond to device and software backdoors inserted or left by vendors

  28-03-2017 12:30
  
  It’s bad enough when black hat hackers insert malicious backdoors into systems and software after vendors/makers have sold these into the marketplace. It is another matter when the vendors who create these devices and programs unwittingly or purposely leave backdoors inside their products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• Social engineering fake outs

  28-03-2017 12:22
  
  Unannounced visitorImage by Manel TorralbaEveryone can get duped by con men. It just takes one opportunity for the bad guys to take advantage. Social awareness campaigns hinge on keeping employees diligent when it comes to security at their company. That link from the IRS, your bank or the post office sure looks real – but look a bit closer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, prepares for Cobol, cloud, mainframes

  28-03-2017 12:01
  
  A new administration takes office and announces plans to modernize IT across the federal government. Sound familiar? It should. Every administration sets this goal -- and now it's President Donald Trump's turn.The White House on Monday announced an "Office of American Innovation," which will be tasked with "modernizing the technology of every federal department," said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, at his daily briefing Monday. The goal will be "identifying transformational" proje
  
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• Next.js 2.0 plays better with React and JavaScript

  28-03-2017 12:00
  
  Next.js, a minimalist framework for server-rendered React applications, has moved to a 2.0 release focused on enabling smaller apps and making it easy to use React.Developers can place React components in a pages directory and, by then run next to get automatic code-splitting, routing, hot code reloading, and universal server- and client-side rendering. This plays well with the rest of the React and JavaScript (NPM) ecosystems.[ Use JavaScript in your dev shop? InfoWorld looks at 17 JavaScript e
  
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• FAQ: What is 802.11ay wireless technology?

  28-03-2017 12:00
  
  Products based on the IEEE 802.11ad (WiGig) standard have really only begun rolling out over the past year, but an effort to deliver an enhancement dubbed 802.11ay that promises to deliver faster and longer range W-Fi networks is gaining steam. Here’s the lowdown on this newest in the 802.11 WLAN series… I can’t believe I have another 802.11something-or-other to keep track of. Believe it. Though really think of 802.11ay as an enhancement of 11ad in the unli
  
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• All the new Apple Watch bands—and third-party knockoffs for under $25

  28-03-2017 12:00
  
  New for Spring 2017Spring is in the air, and Apple wants to put a new Apple Watch band on your wrist to celebrate. On Tuesday, the company announced Sport Bands, Woven Nylon bands, and Hermès leather bands in fun spring colors, as well as standalone Nike Sport bands that used to only come with the Nike+ edition of the Apple Watch Series 2.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• 802.11ay Wi-Fi: “It’s going to be a very scalable spec”

  28-03-2017 12:00
  
  Peraso Technologies, one of the early players in 802.11ad (WiGig) gigabit wireless networking, is also readying for enhanced Wi-Fi technology called 802.11ay that promises higher speeds and greater reach.The Toronto-based company, whose semiconductors enable smartphones, tablets and other devices to exploit unlicensed 60 GHz wireless technology, is bullish on 11ay to support an even wider range of products than 11ad. (See Also: Our FAQ on 802.11ay)To read this article in full or to leave a
  
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• Solar power-related jobs in U.S. grew 25% in 2016

  28-03-2017 11:30
  
  New data from the Solar Jobs Census 2016 shows that employment in the solar-power industry increased by a historic 25% nationwide from 2015 to 2016, for a total of 260,077 workers.The industry added 51,218 new jobs in 2016, a growth rate about 17 times faster than that of the overall U.S. economy, which grew by 1.45%. One out of every 50 new jobs added in the U.S. was created by the solar industry, representing 2% percent of all new jobs.Growth occurred in 44 of the 50 states. And in 21 states,
  
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• IT Salary Survey 2017: Tech salaries hold tight (for now)

  28-03-2017 10:00
  
  Our survey of 2,700 tech pros shows steady pay increases. But with predictions for IT spending and hiring all over the map, salaries could be in for a wild ride.(computerworld.com)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• IT Salary Survey 2017: Tech pay holds tight (for now)

  28-03-2017 10:00
  
  If you had asked Samuel Vivian about the long-term prospects for his IT career at this time last year, he would have said, “It’s kind of iffy.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
  
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• IT Salary Survey 2017: Compare your pay

  28-03-2017 10:00
  
  Use our interactive Smart Salary Finder to compare your compensation with that of IT workers with similar jobs and experience levels across the U.S. or broken out by region.(computerworld.com)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• How to motivate the modern tech worker

  28-03-2017 10:00
  
  As a Midwest insurance brokerage navigating digital transformation, Ash Brokerage is committed to pulling out the stops to attract and retain the right IT talent. Because its Fort Wayne, Ind., location isn’t a draw compared to other metropolitan areas, Ash offers competitive salaries in addition to bonuses. But compensation alone isn’t enough to keep a deep bench happy and engaged, says CIO David Threm.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Stor
  
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