Announcement

Total 82 articles, created at 2016-03-30 06:02 1 Google wants to make your landline phone useful again Google is taking on traditional providers with its $10-a-month Fiber Phone service. Customers can make and answer calls from any connected device anywhere Internet is (3.01/4) available. 2016-03-30 01:01 2KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 2 US government to put IBM's brain-inspired supercomputer to the test (2.00/4) In the name of national security, of course 2016-03-29 19:54 2KB feedproxy.google.com 3 Length of shared Instagram videos extended to 60 seconds Photo and video sharing network Instagram has announced that starting today, it will be expanding the length of shared videos to 60 seconds. The Facebook owned network

(2.00/4) also said that iOS users will once more be able to make videos out of multiple clips from their camera roll... 2016-03-29 18:36 981Bytes pctechmag.com 4 EVGA's Overclocking Friendly SC17 Gaming Laptop Now Available to Pre-Order (2.00/4) EVGA is now taking pre-orders for its SC17 gaming laptop designed and built in-house. 2016-03-29 17:25 2KB www.maximumpc.com 5 Airbnb offers a sleepless night in shark-infested waters Good luck getting a good night's rest while you're in a transparent underwater chamber with circling sharks. 2016-03-30 01:01 2KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 6 5 tech trends redefining the customer experience Technology is at the core of the contact centre, and the key trends of 2016 revolve around the ways that great tech 2016-03-30 00:57 774Bytes www.itworldcanada.com 7 The Future-Ready Enterprise The economic benefits are clear — future readiness corresponds to better business outcomes. But organizations that don’t find themselves at the top 2016-03-30 00:57 1KB www.itworldcanada.com 8 The company is offering a plug-in that will enable customers to get ShoreTel telephony features while using Microsoft's UC technology. The company is offering a plug-in that will enable customers to get ShoreTel telephony features while using Microsoft's UC technology. 2016-03-30 00:20 3KB www.eweek.com 9 Snapchat adds a bunch of features to help you, you know, chat The disappearing photo and video app lets you switch back and forth between audio, video and text while chatting with friends. It also adds a ton of stickers. 2016-03-30 01:01 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 10 Toyota patents augmented-reality windshield Going by the patent filing, its main goal appears to be a better representation of a vehicle's width in a lane. 2016-03-30 01:01 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 11 Watch something bash Jupiter, causing an explosion seen from Earth Two amateur astronomers separately capture a continent-size blast emanating from the massive planet. 2016-03-30 01:01 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com

12 Minecraft helps autistic kids build richer lives All kids love building new worlds in Minecraft. But for those living with an autism spectrum disorder, it's also providing them with ways to engage in school and build healthy social lives. 2016-03-30 03:14 4KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 13 Tech execs take stand against North Carolina transgender law More than 80 CEOs, including Apple's Tim Cook, push for repeal of a law they say promotes discrimination against the LGBT community. 2016-03-30 02:05 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 14 FBI's iPhone hack raises troubling questions The US Department of Justice says it was able to break into an iPhone without Apple's help, but it won't answer queries about the data it accessed. Meanwhile, some celebrities are spreading inaccurate information on Instagram's feed change, and Nintendo gets set to... 2016-03-30 02:05 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 15 Yamaha announces 'affordable' Dolby Atmos receivers for 2016 Yamaha has detailed four new receivers for 2016 that include features such as multiroom music, Dolby Atmos and 4K compatibility. 2016-03-30 02:05 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 16 Is your NCAA bracket on life support? You're not alone Millions of fans saw their college basketball tournament brackets busted heading into this weekend's Final Four. Microsoft's Bing predictor was one of them. 2016-03-30 03:14 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 17 This time, Scott Sterling gets a volleyball beatdown Scott Sterling, the goalie who fended off a soccer shootout using nothing but his face, steps onto the volleyball court in a new sketch from BYUtv comedy troupe Studio C. 2016-03-30 03:14 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 18 Chili M&M's? taste-tests three twee new flavors Who knew M&Ms could be so polarizing? CNET tries three new varieties currently being crowdsourced by candy maker Mars. 2016-03-30 03:14 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 19 Man buys iPhone 6S, gets pancake in a box Technically Incorrect: A Chinese man reportedly thought he was getting a bargain. Instead, we all got a cautionary tale about buying expensive gadgets. 2016-03-30 01:01 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 20 Unicorns did roam the earth (but they weren't horses) Technically Incorrect: A new study from Russia and Kazakhstan suggests that a mere 29,000 years ago the one-horned animals lived on Earth -- sort of. 2016-03-30 02:05 2KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 21 ​Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10 You'll soon be able to run Ubuntu on Windows 10. 2016-03-29 22:37 3KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 22 Waze's latest update challenges heavy-footed drivers with speed warnings You'll probably still ignore them, though 2016-03-29 22:37 1KB feedproxy.google.com 23 Comment optimiser les ressources pour offrir une expérience client exemplaire Le présent livre blanc vous emmène à la découverte d’un monde différent. Il vous permet de comprendre les attentes de vos clients 2016-03-30 00:57 952Bytes www.itworldcanada.com

24 Omnichannel is no longer optional By creating real-time visibility into all interaction types -- including digital and phone -- call centre agents and supervisors can create customer 2016-03-30 00:57 989Bytes www.itworldcanada.com 25 Federal Trade Commission sues Volkswagen for deceptive diesel advertising Clean diesel? More like being taken to the cleaners. 2016-03-29 21:22 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 26 Can Microsoft build up its cool factor? (The 3:59, Ep. 18) We dive into Microsoft's upcoming developer conference, as well as the latest wireless spectrum auction and Yahoo's plans to sell itself. 2016-03-29 21:22 830Bytes cnet.com.feedsportal.com 27 How you can watch the Final Four and National Championship game in VR March Madness gets even madder 2016-03-29 21:27 1KB feedproxy.google.com 28 Silicon Valley CEOs line up in opposition to North Carolina's controversial House Bill 2 In all more than 80 CEOs and executives signed the letter to Governor McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly urging them to repeal HB2, which passed the state's legislature last week. 2016-03-29 21:17 3KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 29 Oculus Rift then and now: its journey from Kickstarter to VR firestarter A Rift in time 2016-03-29 21:05 5KB feedproxy.google.com 30 Developers turn to containers, microservices to stay on top of frenzied release schedules Close to one-third of developers say they are now required to issue releases multiple times a day, new survey shows. 2016-03-29 20:55 3KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 31 Smart Salary Finder 2016 Use Computerworld's interactive Smart Salary Finder to compare your pay with that of IT workers in similar jobs across the U. S. Our 2016 survey reports on salaries from more than 3,300 IT professionals. 2016-03-29 20:49 940Bytes www.computerworld.com 32 Switched: HTC 10 uses capacitive buttons, ditches the front-facing stereo speakers Goodbye on-screen buttons, hello fingerprint sensor 2016-03-29 20:46 2KB feedproxy.google.com 33 iOS 9.3: Here's what's breaking hyperlinks for iPhone and iPad users A new iOS feature called Universal Links is leaving many iPhone and iPad users unable to click on hyperlinks. 2016-03-29 20:16 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 34 It's Virtual Reality Week - here's everything you need to read Forget about reality for seven glorious days 2016-03-29 20:06 1KB feedproxy.google.com

35 The TODO Group and the Linux Foundation: Marrying open source and the enterprise Using open-source software is easy, getting your company to integrate open-source development is hard. The Linux Foundation and the TODO Group aim to change this. 2016-03-29 19:54 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 36 The 5 best VR laptops: these notebooks are ready for the Rift And the HTC Vive, too 2016-03-29 19:25 5KB feedproxy.google.com 37 Sony set to launch 'Ultra' 4K HDR streaming service next week You'll need a Sony 4K HDTV (and wads of disposable income) 2016-03-29 19:02 2KB feedproxy.google.com 38 Brocade Acquisition Of DevOps Automation Startup StackStorm Seen As Smart Move By Partners The networking vendor acquired the software automation startup to accelerate its DevOps style scalable open-source solutions, according to a company blog post. 2016-03-29 18:15 2KB www.crn.com 39 Infosys Software Engineer Killed In Brussels Attack Raghavendran Ganeshan, a software engineer with Bangalore, India-based outsourcing giant Infosys, was one of 32 people to die in last week's bombings in the Belgian capital. 2016-03-29 18:01 2KB www.crn.com 40 Snapchat's new Chat 2.0 lets you call friends and send sloth stickers Once a Facebook acquisition target, now a full-fledged rival 2016-03-29 17:58 2KB feedproxy.google.com 41 Brazilian PC maker Positivo sees revenues fall The largest PC and smartphone manufacturer in the country has had its 2015 performance impacted by dollar fluctuations and high levels of unsold stock 2016-03-29 17:56 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 42 Instagram videos aren't so instant anymore, and that's a good thing 60 seconds of fun 2016-03-29 17:55 1KB feedproxy.google.com 43 FCC magic will turn TV channels into mobile signals A U. S. FCC auction that began late Tuesday should end with some TV channels reassigned to cellular, helping mobile networks cover more ground and cut through walls better than they do now. 2016-03-29 17:54 4KB www.itworld.com 44 Toshiba Details Its PC Business Reorg: Set to Concentrate on Tecra and Portégé Brands for Business Users Toshiba this month revealed its finalized PC business strategy for the future. As expected, the company intends to cease selling consumer personal computers... 2016-03-29 17:45 4KB www.anandtech.com 45 Newegg Daily Deals: 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3200, WD Blue 4TB HDD, and More! So you're building a new system and decided to make the plunge into Skylake, is that it? That's not a bad option—you can build a killer system around Skyake with careful component selection, starting with today's top deal. 2016-03-29 17:38 2KB www.maximumpc.com 46 What it's like to play Miitomo, Nintendo's first smartphone game It's gonna' get a bit weird – natch 2016-03-29 17:38 8KB feedproxy.google.com 47 5 things to expect from Microsoft's big developer conference Microsoft executives will take the stage at Moscone West in San Francisco on Wednesday for the first of two keynote addresses to the company's big Build developer conference. Here are five key things to expect from the next two days of Microsoft announcements. 2016-03-29 17:31 5KB www.itnews.com 48 6 Best Windows tablets: top Windows slates reviewed The latest Windows 10 tablets and hybrids 2016-03-29 17:26 5KB feedproxy.google.com 49 Oculus Rift review roundup: the future is here, but it'll cost you The time has finally come. The Oculus Rift is shipping to consumers, and tech news sites have begun issuing verdicts on the VR headset... 2016-03-29 17:24 4KB techreport.com 50 Unisys Beefs Up Executive Roster A little more than a year after embarking on a $300-million restricting plan, Unisys has added two more top-level executives as the solution provider edges closer to its new go- to-market strategy. 2016-03-29 17:22 3KB www.crn.com 51 2016 Channel Madness: Round 2 Winners And Losers Round 2 of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs is a wrap. Here we take a look at who punched their ticket to Round 3 and who is going home. 2016-03-29 17:21 1KB www.crn.com 52 How to Save $1 Million with Data Protection Optimized for Flash If your organization is like most, you’re reluctant to spend money on backup technology, but spend you must. The amount of data that must be stored continues to explode and losing access to that data can easily lead to catastrophic results for the business. The good... 2016-03-29 17:15 6KB www.computerworld.com 53 Night Shift: How this iOS 9.3 feature helped me sleep better It's not a cure-all, but Apple's new setting reduces eye strain 2016-03-29 17:01 5KB feedproxy.google.com 54 Exclusive: Intel Americas GM CJ Bruno Talks Partner Opportunities In Client Computing, Data Center And IoT As Intel Solutions Summit kicks off in Florida, Bruno talks with CRN about the company's plans for its technology provider partners in 2016 and new opportunities in data center, memory technology, IoT and client computing. 2016-03-29 17:00 1KB www.crn.com 55 Intel Solutions Summit: Microsoft, Intel Target 600-Million- PC Upgrade Opportunity With New Channel Incentive Program North American custom builders selling Windows 10-Skylake will be rewarded with a point-based incentive program through Intel distributors. 2016-03-29 17:00 3KB www.crn.com 56 Razer Unveils Ripsaw PC and Console Game Capture Card for $180 Razer today announced the launch of its Ripsaw game capture card for PCs and game consoles. 2016-03-29 16:59 2KB www.maximumpc.com

57 TreasureHunt malware steals POS credit card data from retailers Malicious software is being targeted at smaller businesses because they're less likely to have secure systems, warns FireEye. 2016-03-29 16:52 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 58 The artistry of top The top command's many options allow you to be creative when you're looking into system performance 2016-03-29 16:31 5KB www.computerworld.com 59 Samsung Galaxy TabPro S review: This Surface Pro clone is drop-dead gorgeous Sporting the first OLED screen out in the wild, the TabPro S will turn heads…and almost makes the wait for the tech worth it. 2016-03-29 16:17 14KB www.itnews.com 60 Wearable Users Happy With Hardware, Less So With Apps A survey by Argus Insights suggests wearable makers need to spend more time thinking about app design and function. 2016-03-29 16:06 4KB www.informationweek.com 61 Sony's new camera hopes to show you that size does matter Mega zoom 2016-03-29 15:45 2KB feedproxy.google.com 62 Apple-FBI Dispute Ends, But Solution Providers Say Encryption Debate Is Far From Over Solution providers believe the balancing act between cybersecurity and the government's ability to monitor for national security risks is a 'forever argument.' 2016-03-29 14:53 3KB www.crn.com 63 10 Things You Don't Know About NTT Data Now that NTT Data has landed Perot Systems, here are 10 of the most interesting, unusual and wacky things NTT Data has been involved in since its founding 49 years ago. 2016-03-29 14:28 1KB www.crn.com 64 Oculus Rift: How to play SteamVR games and VR apps from outside the Oculus Store The Oculus Rift arrives as a locked-down platform, but you can easily open it back up if you want to play SteamVR games or VR apps from unknown sources—provided you can click a button in the settings menu. 2016-03-29 14:25 1KB www.itnews.com 65 Yahoo Gives Potential Buyers An April 11 Deadline Embattled Internet giant Yahoo sets an April 11 deadline for prospective bidders to submit proposals regarding what company assets they wish to acquire and how much they're willing to pay. 2016-03-29 14:06 3KB www.informationweek.com 66 NASA Software Audit Reveals Budgetary Black Hole The complex software designed to help launch NASA's SLS system is more than a year behind schedule and wildly over budget. The agency is currently on track to spend over $200 million developing its own code for the project. 2016-03-29 13:10 4KB www.informationweek.com 67 Let's Play Server Networking Buzzword Bingo Understanding more about server networking infrastructure and the buzz around software-defined networking can make life easier for systems administrators. 2016-03-29 13:05 3KB www.informationweek.com 68 'Torchbearer' CIOs cozy up with customers amid convergence CIOs who can transform their businesses and accelerate fiscal growth will help their companies fend of technology disruption and industry convergence. 2016-03-29 12:50 3KB www.itnews.com

69 GE's Jim Fowler on the CIO role in the digital industrial economy In this in-depth Q&A, Jim Fowler, GE CIO, discusses the future of digital and IT — and tells it like it is. 2016-03-29 12:44 11KB www.itworld.com 70 Taking the pulse of your information security culture If you have been a manager in a company of any size, you likely understand the concept of corporate culture. But do you understand the concept of a corporate security culture? If not, this article will explain what a corporate security culture is, why it... 2016-03-29 12:00 6KB www.computerworld.com 71 EVGA's SC 17 gaming notebook goes up for pre-order EVGA first gave us a look at its SC 17 gaming laptop back at CES. Today, this 17", overclocker-friendly machine... 2016-03-29 11:58 2KB techreport.com 72 Report: Google to cut off support for physical Wallet card on June 30 Now that Google's mobile payment solution is Android Pay, it looks like the Wallet card is headed for the dustbin. 2016-03-29 11:56 1KB www.itnews.com 73 Microsoft's mission at Build: Prove progress on promises to developers When Microsoft kicks off its annual Build developers conference Wednesday, it must show it's made progress on last year's promises. 2016-03-29 11:39 6KB www.itnews.com 74 44% off How Google Works Hardcover Book - Deal Alert Written by Google Executive Chairman/ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg, this book covers corporate culture, strategy, talent, decision- making, communication, innovation, and dealing with disruption -- lessons they learned while building one of the most important companies on the planet. 2016-03-29 11:34 1KB www.itnews.com 75 SimpliVity CEO Feels No Heat From HPE, Cisco, AWS Competition Doron Kempel says SimpliVity still offers the strongest hyper-converged solutions in the market. 2016-03-29 11:33 1KB www.crn.com 76 Logitech announces G900 Chaos Spectrum mouse Logitech announces G900 Chaos Spectrum mouse. Claims best performance ever. 2016-03-29 11:02 2KB feedproxy.google.com

77 SoundCloud launches a music-subscription service for Android and iOS devices The new SoundCloud Go is reminiscent of what Spotify and Tidal offer, though the company's music offerings are vastly limited in comparison. 2016-03-29 10:27 2KB www.itnews.com 78 Total cranks up computing power to better see below earth's surface Oil company Total has almost tripled the performance of Pangea, a supercomputer it uses for analyzing subsurface imaging in search of new oilfields. 2016-03-29 09:56 4KB www.computerworld.com 79 Git 2.8 improves on code control for Windows users The latest update to the open source version control system brings Windows use more in line with that of other platforms 2016-03-29 09:12 2KB www.infoworld.com 80 Oracle Seeks $9.3 Billion Over Android's Use Of Java In its long-running copyright lawsuit against Google over its use of Java in Android, Oracle has now increased its damage claim to $9.3 billion. But Google dismisses the claim as excessive. 2016-03-29 08:06 3KB www.informationweek.com 81 Samsung Pay Now Available In China Samsung has partnered with China UnionPay, the bankcard association in China to join Alibaba’s Alipay, Tencent’s WePay and Apple's ApplePay services in the competition for the China market. Samsung launches the mobile pay service only six weeks after rival Apple launched their ApplePay in the same market which is being... 2016-03-29 07:04 2KB pctechmag.com 82 Rig of the Month: Wooden PC This month's featured mod is a PC made out of wood. 2016-03-29 07:00 536Bytes www.maximumpc.com Articles

Total 82 articles, created at 2016-03-30 06:02

1 Google wants to make your landline phone useful again (3.01/4) Google is adding home phone service to a bundle of services that also includes ultra fast broadband. "While mobile phones have pushed us toward the future, home phone service is still important to many families," John Shriver-Blake, Fiber's product manager, said in a blog post. "Landlines can be familiar, reliable and provide high-quality service, but the technology hasn't always kept up. " Fiber Phone costs $10 a month, which includes unlimited local and nationwide long-distance calling. International rates for calls are identical to rates the company offers on its Google Voice service. To use the service, you'll need to attach a "Fiber Phone box" to an existing landline handset to place calls at home. You'll also be able to answer or make phone calls using the same phone number from other devices, such as a smartphone or tablet. It's unclear why customers would pay $10 a month for the service, which is similar to the company's free Google Voice offering. It could appeal to families who already subscribe to Google's broadband and TV services but who also still pay for a landline service from another company. Google could also use the Fiber Phone service as a way to entice new customers who subscribe to a competing broadband and TV service but who don't want to give up their home phone line. And it may keep current customers from jumping to competitors like Comcast and AT&T, which are rolling out service in some Google Fiber cities.

Google intros Fiber Phone, a landline service for Fiber subscribers zdnet.com.feedsportal.com Google's Fiber Phone redefines the cordless landline telephone feedproxy.google.com 2016-03-30 01:01 Marguerite Reardon cnet.com.feedsportal.com

2 US government to put IBM's brain-inspired supercomputer to the test (2.00/4) The US government's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has enlisted IBM's brain-inspired, 16-chip supercomputer system, with plans on testing just how well deep machine learning can help with the nation's security. The supercomputer system, which is scalable as needed, uses 16 of IBM's TrueNorth chips. They each can process sensory data in parallel, mimicking how a brain works (also know as neuromorphic computing), all the while using less power than has traditionally been demanded by machine learning systems. Each postage stamp-sized chip is home to one million neurons, 256 million synapses and 4,096 parallel cores, and only requires 70 milliwatts of power running in real time (about what your iPad draws, if you're curious). "Like the human brain, neurosynaptic systems require significantly less electrical power and volume," IBM explained . Oh, and it also delivers 46 giga synaptic operations per second - a factoid we're going to assume is mind-bendingly impressive. The LLNL research facility, located in California, will be using IBM's TrueNorth system to explore "new computing capabilities" for the National Nuclear Security Administration's missions, which includes the safety and security of the country's nuclear deterrent commitments. "Neuromorphic computing opens very exciting new possibilities and is consistent with what we see as the future of the high performance computing and simulation at the heart of our national security missions," said Jim Brase, LLNL's deputy associate director for Data Science. "The potential capabilities neuromorphic computing represents and the machine intelligence that these will enable will change how we do science. " The $1 million supercomputer will represent a total of 16 million neurons and 4 billion synapses. IBM will also supply an ecosystem that will help the LLNL create, program and test "energy- efficient machines that mimic the brain's abilities for perception, action and cognition. " Article continues below This 'brain-inspired' supercomputer will explore deep learning for the U.S. nuclear program computerworld.com 2016-03-29 19:54 By Farrha feedproxy.google.com

3 Length of shared Instagram videos extended to 60 seconds (2.00/4) Photo and video sharing network Instagram has announced that starting today, it will be expanding the length of shared videos to 60 seconds. The Facebook owned network also said that iOS users will once more be able to make videos out of multiple clips from their camera roll. The announcement was through a Facebook post on the Instagram page .

Instagram expands to 60-second videos, verging into YouTube territory itnews.com 2016-03-29 18:36 Ephraim Batambuze pctechmag.com

4 EVGA's Overclocking Friendly SC17 Gaming Laptop Now Available to Pre-Order (2.00/4) EVGA unveiled its SC17 gaming laptop at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. One thing that's notable about the system is that EVGA didn't source an existing system and slap its name on the box, this one was designed 100 percent in-house. It's also now available to pre-order. The SC17 brings a big display to the gaming party—17.3 inches with a 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160) resolution. That's a lot of pixels to push around, so EVGA paired an unlocked Intel Core i7-6820HK processor with a GeForce GTX 980M GPU with 8GB of GDDR5 memory. EVGA packed this thing to the gills with 32GB of G. Skill DDR4-2666 memory and a 256GB M.2 NVMe PCI-E SSD flanked by a 1TB SATA 6Gbps HDD (7,200 RPM). There's also 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, Realtek ALC 255 audio, 1080p webcam, GbE LAN, HDMI (x1) and mini DisplayPort (x2) outputs, two USB 3.0 Type A ports, a single USB 3.1 Type-C port, and a full-size white backlit keyboard. There's a lot of emphasis here on overclocking, which is not something you typically see from companies when it comes to laptops. EVGA says the CPU is capable of hitting 3.8GHz and beyond, while also noting that the GPU has some OC'ing headroom. "A FULL GUI BIOS with full mouse control gives you complete control over all aspects of performance, voltage and advanced settings right at your fingertips. Not to mention, a Clear CMOS button directly on the chassis, this is the world’s first TRUE overclocking laptop," EVGA says. If you'd rather not thinker with settings, you can get a performance boost with a press of a button that puts the laptop in Superclock mode. According to EVGA's in-house benchmarking, the net result is about 600 additional points in 3DMark Fire Strike. For a 17.3-inch gaming laptop, the dimensions seem rather reasonable at just 1.05 inches thick, albeit it packs 8.14 pounds of heft. You can pre-order the EVGA SC17 now for $2,700. Follow Paul on Google+ , Twitter , and Facebook

EVGA's first gaming laptop is a slim, aluminum-clad beast with a 4K display itnews.com 2016-03-29 17:25 Paul Lilly www.maximumpc.com

5 Airbnb offers a sleepless night in shark-infested waters Your fellow housemates will include 35 sharks at the Aquarium de Paris in France. The space is described as "a peaceful enclosure with a large cylindrical bed and breathtaking, immersive views of your new sharp-toothed friends. " The underwater space is fortified with a 360- degree transparent wall. You get a personal welcome from a world-record-breaking free diver and a tour of the aquarium along with your stay. You and your guest are required to be "medically fit" and able to climb in and out of the submerged room. Your combined weight can't be more than 418 pounds (190 kilograms). The best part of the listing is the description of its owner, a "pet owner," having "other pet(s). " There are some stringent house rules. You can't eat the chum, there's absolutely no diving and there are no selfies allowed after dark. It's also recommended that you don't watch "Jaws" prior to your stay. Unfortunately, this is not a regular Airbnb offering you can just book anytime. Potential guests need to enter by April 3 to win a night inside the aquarium, including airfare. The contest requires a very short essay (550 characters or less) about yourself, where you live and "why you belong with the sharks for a night. " The cozy but frightening chamber will host guests April 11 to 13, so if you win, you better be prepared to book your travel right away. You might also want to pack a suit of anti-shark chain mail. Just in case. 2016-03-30 01:01 Amanda Kooser cnet.com.feedsportal.com

6 5 tech trends redefining the customer experience Technology is at the core of the contact centre, and the key trends of 2016 revolve around the ways that great tech and great customer engagement go hand-in-hand. We consume and share information using multiple modalities — it’s instant, intuitive, and helpful — and it’s growing exponentially. Redefine the customer experience to fit this multimodal mindset.

2016-03-30 00:57 www.itworldcanada.com

7 The Future-Ready Enterprise The economic benefits are clear — future readiness corresponds to better business outcomes. But organizations that don’t find themselves at the top of the scale should not be disheartened. Future readiness is an ongoing journey, and organizations can see significant improvements in business outcomes from increasing their future readiness regardless of their starting point. Companies can also drive business results by choosing to focus on improving the specific aspect of their IT future readiness landscape — converged infrastructure, cloud, BDA, and future-minded IT organizational practices — most relevant to their needs.

2016-03-30 00:57 www.itworldcanada.com

8 The company is offering a plug-in that will enable customers to get ShoreTel telephony features while using Microsoft's UC technology. ShoreTel is making it easier for customers who use the company's phone system to use Microsoft's Skype for Business in their communications. The company on March 29 introduced ShoreTel Telephony for Microsoft, a new plug-in that embeds ShoreTel telephony controls inside the Skype for Business client. Through the plug-in, users will be able to use a lot of those controls directly through the Skype for Business client, from directly dialing contacts and running conference calls to transferring calls, accessing voicemail boxes, viewing and setting presence information, and routing calls. The new offering, which is aimed at enterprises and the midmarket, will give ShoreTel customers tools they're familiar with when using the Skype for Business client, and a path toward using the company's own Connect unified communications (UC) client, according to Eugenia Corrales, vice president of product at ShoreTel. "We recognize that some ShoreTel customers will use Skype for Business, so this new plug-in provides the power of ShoreTel telephony features inside that client, ensuring users have an easy, seamless experience," Corrales said in a statement. "We also offer future flexibility, giving customers the option to move to the ShoreTel Connect client when they are ready to harness the full collaborative power of ShoreTel Connect. " ShoreTel officials over the past year have rolled out the company's Connect UC offering, with its key feature being a common platform for both its on-premises and cloud-based technologies. The company last year unveiled Connect OnSite, the on-premises solution, and Connect Cloud, the UC-as-a-service (UCaaS) offering. In February, ShoreTel officials rolled out Connect Hybrid Sites , enabling customers to mix and match the UC services and applications they use across multiple sites. The idea of hybrid UC is gaining traction in the market, according to some analysts. IHS Infonetics analysts last year said that more than half of the respondents in a survey said that by 2016, they will be running at least some of their UC services over private or public clouds. ShoreTel officials said the new Skype for Business plug-in integrates on the client side, so there is no additional work for IT departments. ShoreTel Telephony for Microsoft supports Lync 2013, Skype for Business 2015 and Skype for Business 2016 clients in both Office 365 and on- premises environments. The plug-in is part of the midtier bundle for ShoreTel's Connect Cloud and Connect OnSite, they said.

2016-03-30 00:20 Jeffrey Burt www.eweek.com

9 Snapchat adds a bunch of features to help you, you know, chat Snapchat is making its chat features snappier. Oh yeah, and stickers. Snapchat introduced more than a hundred stickers, like emoji but more detailed, which rivals like Facebook Messenger already have. These include a sleeping puppy, dancing mice and a walrus drinking coffee. The new Snapchat features include looping 10- second videos or audio notes. If a friend isn't present when you want to chat, the note will be there waiting next time they check the app. You can also make an old-fashioned audio call -- what used to be known as a phone call -- through the app. You can respond with video and text, as well as voice. Snapchat also made it easier for people to cycle through Snapchat Stories, photo and video clips available for just 24 hours. After one story is finished, the next one in your feed will start. If you want to skip a Story, swipe left to get to the next one. That's it in a nutshell. Or a raccoon vomiting a sparkly rainbow if you use the stickers.

2016-03-30 01:01 Richard Nieva cnet.com.feedsportal.com

10 Toyota patents augmented-reality windshield Head-up displays as they currently exist push static images from the dashboard to your windshield using reflections. Toyota's system acts in that same way, but instead of just displaying data pulled from the instrument display, it takes readings from speed and steering- angle sensors to change the output in real time. Combined with two cameras -- a front-mounted camera to identify lane markings, and an interior camera to track the driver's view -- the system can move and adjust information on the fly. For example, as you drive faster, you're presumably looking farther down the road; the displayed information like your speed or revs can move to a corresponding position to stay in easy sight. If this ever makes it to production (a good deal of automotive-patent tech tends to disappear into the ether), I'll finally understand why that damned chime keeps going off. 2016-03-30 01:01 Andrew Krok cnet.com.feedsportal.com

11 Watch something bash Jupiter, causing an explosion seen from Earth

Space rocks aren't just something worth watching out for on Earth. They're even more likely to smash into the atmosphere of a far more massive planet like Jupiter. That's what appears to have happened earlier this month, according to two amateur astronomers who each captured and uploaded video to YouTube recently. Just doing a very unscientific comparison of the pixels, the explosion from the apparent impact this month looks to have a diameter that is 4 percent of the 86,881-mile (about 139,820- kilometer) diameter of Jupiter itself in the frame. That means we could be looking at an explosion that is almost as wide as the contiguous United States. Check it out for yourself above.

2016-03-30 01:01 Eric Mack cnet.com.feedsportal.com

12 Minecraft helps autistic kids build richer lives Two hours north of Sydney, the kids of 3-6 Rainbow, a class combining grades 3-6, in Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, are playing Minecraft. The students are bright, bubbly and talkative -- pretty much what you'd expect from any group of kids ages 8 to 11. But this class is a little different. It's run for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a diagnosis that covers a broad range of difficulties with social interactions, communication and repetitive behaviour. Yet you'd have trouble guessing that as the kids excitedly play together over a networked Minecraft session. Since Mojang, now owned by Microsoft, first released the immensely popular game in 2009, it's found a dedicated fan base of teachers, parents and kids living with ASD. Before he started playing Minecraft in the classroom, Hamish Ellem, 11, would do a lot of "aimless wandering" at the library, say his parents, Walter and Tracy. "Now he knows there's the Minecraft [section] that he can go to," says Tracy, "and he'll look at lots of other books to try and think 'what can I create in Minecraft?' to challenge himself. " Aspect is the leading national provider of education, support, diagnostic assessment and other services for people on the autism spectrum. Its teachers, like Craig Smith, deputy principal for Aspect schools in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney, have made Minecraft a big part of the classes like 3-6 Rainbow. Minecraft gives students "a much more understandable version of the actual world," says Smith, because it presents ideas in a straightforward and visual way. Seeing the game's potential, Aspect's teaching staff began designing and testing lessons that integrated Minecraft in early 2013. They learned to play the game, sat in on each other's classes, gave feedback and improved their methods. That experience, along with their expertise in autism, helped Aspect's staff create lessons around Minecraft on subjects ranging from English and science to geography and art. That's where Minecraft can help. Minecraft provides an environment that encourages social interaction as students learn to communicate and play within the game's well-defined rules. Teachers and autism specialists around the world report that, when kids work together in multiplayer mode, they figure out how talk to each other, share ideas and say what they want others on their project to do. In a situation that mirrors the classroom experience at home, Hamish and his younger brother Harrison are building worlds together. Their parents admit they "don't always get along" but say that Minecraft has given them an interest they can share. They're encouraging and challenging each other in the game -- building their relationship as brothers. "Students will get frustrated and yell at the beginning, but by the end they figure out how to resolve conflict and use their communication skills," says Jessica Koehler, director of student experience with Sparkiverse Labs, an after-school and summer camp program in the San Francisco Bay Area. Smith says that same dynamic plays out with autistic children -- they're able to learn social lessons inside Minecraft. By understanding the logic behind why people are expected to act a certain way in a Minecraft context, they can apply those same rules to make sense of real-world situations. "You could just see lightbulbs going on," Smith says. "I think the kind of life hacks that they pick up inside of Minecraft translates into the real world very nicely -- especially around those social, emotional and organisational skills. " For kids on the Autism spectrum, Minecraft gives a view of the world and the rules that frame it. In the classroom, it helps teachers show students that many things in the real world aren't so complicated. A look at the chatty and smiling students of 3-6 Rainbow shows what a difference that can make.

2016-03-30 03:14 Dave Cheng cnet.com.feedsportal.com

13 Tech execs take stand against North Carolina transgender law More than 80 business executives, including the CEOs of Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Salesforce.com, are speaking out against a recently passed North Carolina law they say could be used to discriminate against people who are gay, lesbian or transgender. The new law doesn't reflect "the values of our companies, of our country, or even the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians," reads the statement, which was also signed by the heads of IBM, Microsoft, PayPal, Airbnb, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Yelp and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. "This is not a direction in which states move when they are seeking to provide successful, thriving hubs for business and economic development," the statement said. "Discrimination is wrong and we believe it has no place in North Carolina or anywhere in the country. " 2016-03-30 02:05 Terry Collins cnet.com.feedsportal.com

14 FBI's iPhone hack raises troubling questions

The legal battle between Apple and the FBI may be over for now, but we're left with many questions unanswered. CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under 3 minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for a breakdown of the big stories, hot devices, new apps and what's ahead. Subscribe to the podcast via the links below. Subscribe:

2016-03-30 02:05 Bridget Carey cnet.com.feedsportal.com

15 Yamaha announces 'affordable' Dolby Atmos receivers for 2016 Yamaha has announced its entry-level RX-V series of receivers for 2016 and one of the biggest changes over last year is the inclusion of Dolby Atmos in three of the models. While competitor Onkyo has featured a phono input for many years Yamaha is getting back in the game with its RX-V681 and RX-V781 which both accept a signal directly from a turntable. The RX-V481 will be available in April, the 'V581 and 'V681 in May and the 'V781 in June. Australian and UK pricing and availability is yet to be announced.

2016-03-30 02:05 Ty Pendlebury cnet.com.feedsportal.com

16 Is your NCAA bracket on life support? You're not alone Here's my sliver of pride in forecasting this year's March Madness tournament: I've got more teams in the Final Four than Bing Predicts. So much for pouring over analytics and parsing the reports of countless college basketball analysts, former players and buddies. It doesn't matter what your system is or how much computing power you have. The simple truth is bracketology isn't much more than a crapshoot. An informed crapshoot at best. "That's pretty infinitesimal," said ESPN spokesman Kevin Ota. Walter Sun, a top data scientist for Bing Predicts, said it may have to do with parity. Of the 32 games played in the first round, 13 ended in upsets, Microsoft said, adding that 18 of the tournament's 64 games were decided by a slim 5 points or less. And, Bing, which had Kansas to win the title, still has North Carolina in the Final Four and now gives the Tar Heels a 45 percent chance of winning it all. "We're still competitive," Sun says. "It's not over yet. "

2016-03-30 03:14 Terry Collins cnet.com.feedsportal.com

17 This time, Scott Sterling gets a volleyball beatdown The last time the Internet saw fake Yale athlete Scott Sterling was in a 2014 sketch from BYUtv comedy troupe Studio C. His teammates carried his unconscious, bleeding body off the field after the soccer goalie ensured a big win by blocking every shot with his face. It was just like the end of the movie "Rudy," except this was soccer and Rudy Ruettiger could still see how many fingers the team doctor was holding up during his post- game examination. Now, Sterling is back on the team, only this time, he's left the brutal world of soccer for the gentle and graceful sport of volleyball in a new video from Studio C. Sterling soon learns that even a soft, leather volleyball can produce just as many concussions as a soccer ball if your primary means of defense involves stopping it with your face. Studio C's first Scott Sterling sketch struck a huge viral nerve on YouTube. The soccer sketch racked up 10 million views in just 10 days, according to an interview with the troupe in the Utah newspaper The Deseret News. Their newest video has scored more than 1 million hits since it's initial release on Monday. That means we're bound to get more Scott Sterling videos in the future. I just hope for Sterling's sake he never decides to pick up a javelin or join a darts league.

2016-03-30 03:14 Danny Gallagher cnet.com.feedsportal.com

18 Chili M&M's? taste-tests three twee new flavors It's hard for any CNETer to resist the urge to review things, so when my fellow editor Caitlin Petrakovitz and I came across three new flavors of peanut M&M's on Monday at a store near the office, we knew we had to bring them back to headquarters for some mouths-on product tests. Here's our official test taste of the new flavors, probably available at a store near you. At first bite, these taste exactly like peanut M&M's, so much so we thought we'd been tricked. Then, at the very end, a mild heat pops up that's far less spicy than a drop of Tabasco, but spicier than, well, a regular M&M. It's a slow burn on the sides and back of your tongue thanks to the chili extract. These were polarizing; some loved them, some didn't feel the heat at all and others just didn't like the spicy-sweet attempt. Have you had a chance to test the new flavors? Let us know in the comments section what you think.

2016-03-30 03:14 Sarah Mitroff cnet.com.feedsportal.com

19 Man buys iPhone 6S, gets pancake in a box Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives. As my intimate reading of Donald Trump's greatest work, "The Art of the Deal," revealed, there is rarely such a thing as a great deal. This is something that a Chinese man reportedly discovered to his chagrin. He ordered an iPhone 6S online for the fine price of 1500 yuan (around $230). This is 70 percent less than he might have had to pay in a store. For when he opened it, he found nothing more than a pancake. Had he been possessed of a sense of humor, he might have, as one of my colleagues suggested, muttered: "Syrup, where's the nearest iHop? " I suspect, though, that he felt (om)let down. You might find this story fanciful. Surely someone made it up. Perhaps. But what about the long history of Apple scams that happened face-to-face? Gadgets are expensive, especially those Apple makes. If you're buying one that seems cheap, please be sure of what you're buying and whom you're buying it from. Even when you're buying in a store, make sure you open the box before you leave. If you discover that you've got less than you bargained for, you'll feel like crepe.

2016-03-30 01:01 Chris Matyszczyk cnet.com.feedsportal.com

20 Unicorns did roam the earth (but they weren't horses) Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives. They were magical creatures that roamed the Earth and made those who saw them believe in the impossible. Well, almost. It seems more likely, in fact, that they were rhinos. Elasmotherium sibiricum is the technical name for the so-called Siberian unicorn. It was thought to have become extinct some 350,000 years ago. However, when these scientists examined well- preserved skull fossils found in western Siberia, they concluded that they were only 29,000 years old. Now, depending on your view of how the world came about, this might mean that humans and rhinocorns could have witnessed each other. There's no evidence -- at least from this research -- that the rhinocorns had magical powers. They were, however, imposing. They weighed around 4 tons and were 15 feet long and more than 6 feet tall. The frontal horn is said to have been much, much longer than that of a rhino. But why might they have survived so long in western Siberia? While science has stepped forward slowly in an attempt to be precise about animals that roamed in the past, humanity has forged ahead with its dreamy notions. No one can agree how the unicorns of fable came into being as horse-like, goat-like creatures. Neither can anyone be sure how they became a symbol of purity, as well as magic. Somehow, that wouldn't have sounded quite so romantic if he'd been talking about a rhino, would it?

2016-03-30 02:05 Chris Matyszczyk cnet.com.feedsportal.com

21 Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10 According to sources at Canonical , Ubuntu Linux's parent company, and Microsoft, you'll soon be able to run Ubuntu on Windows 10. This will be more than just running the Bash shell on Windows 10. After all, thanks to programs such as Cygwin or MSYS utilities , hardcore Unix users have long been able to run the popular Bash command line interface (CLI) on Windows. With this new addition, Ubuntu users will be able to run Ubuntu simultaneously with Windows. This will not be in a virtual machine, but as an integrated part of Windows 10. The details won't be revealed until tomorrow's morning keynote speech at Microsoft Build. It is believed that Ubuntu will run on top of Windows 10's recently and quietly introduced Linux subsystems in a new Windows 10 Redstone build. Microsoft and Canonical will not, however, sources say, be integrating Linux per se into Windows. Instead, Ubuntu will primarily run on a foundation of native Windows libraries. This would indicate that while Microsoft is still hard at work on bringing containers to Windows 10 in project Barcelona , this isn't the path Ubuntu has taken to Windows. Windows 10 at six months: Ready for primetime? Windows 10 has been available to the public for six months this week. By the numbers, it's been a hit, with 200 million active users as of the first of the year. Here's my midterm report. That said, Canonical and Microsoft have been working on bringing containers to Windows since last summer. They've been doing this using LXD. This is an open-source hypervisor designed specifically for use with containers instead of virtual machines (VMs). The fruits of that project are more likely to show up in Azure than Windows 10. It also seems unlikely that Ubuntu will be bringing its Unity interface with it. Instead the focus will be on Bash and other CLI tools, such as make, gawk and grep. Could you run a Linux desktop such as Unity, GNOME, or KDE on it? Probably, but that's not the purpose of this partnership. Canonical and Microsoft are doing this because Ubuntu on Windows' target audience is developers, not desktop users. In particular, as Microsoft and Canonical continue to work more closely together on cloud projects , I expect to find tools that will make it easy for programmers to use Ubuntu to write programs for Ubuntu on the Azure cloud. So is this MS-Linux? No. Is it a major step forward in the integration of Windows and Linux on the developer desktop? Yes, yes it is.

2016-03-29 22:37 Steven J zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

22 Waze's latest update challenges heavy-footed drivers with speed warnings While the GPS-navigation app Waze already notifies you where police officers might be on the look out for speeders, it has now introduced a warning system for when you're speeding as well. Unlike other apps offering similar features, it doesn't sound an annoying alarm when the needle on your speedometer creeps higher than the law allows. Instead, the warning pops up in the bottom corner of the app, disappearing only after your speed returns to the realm of legality. You can also customize if you want an audio warning or not, and when it actually pops up: it can appear once you hit the speed limit or once you pass the speed limit by 5, 10 or 15%. While this new feature finally brings it up to speed with competing navigation apps from Garmin and Magellan (though it's still missing from the more popular Google Maps app), it's unfortunately not yet available in the US, UK or Australia. For now, it will only be available in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad, Tobago and Uruguay. Though the rest of us need wait a while longer, you probably shouldn't be too disappointed. Waze is positioning the new feature for when you're driving on an unfamiliar road (vacation, anyone?), where you wouldn't be familiar with the speed limits of that area. And besides, if you're not actually stuck in traffic on your regular commute to and from work, chances are high that you'll casually ignore Waze's nudging anyway. Article continues below

2016-03-29 22:37 By Farrha feedproxy.google.com

23 Comment optimiser les ressources pour offrir une expérience client exemplaire Le présent livre blanc vous emmène à la découverte d’un monde différent. Il vous permet de comprendre les attentes de vos clients en termes d’expérience et vous démontre qu’en utilisant des outils d’optimisation du personnel, vous pouvez proposer à vos clients un événement absolument mémorable lors de leur prochaine interaction avec votre entreprise. Télécharger cet eBook à apprendre comment optimiser les ressources pour offrir une expérience client exemplaire.

2016-03-30 00:57 www.itworldcanada.com

24 Omnichannel is no longer optional By creating real-time visibility into all interaction types — including digital and phone — call centre agents and supervisors can create customer experiences that are streamlined, simple, fully informed, and effective. They can ensure customers are recognised regardless of their initial contact channel, they can anticipate that customers may begin in one channel and move to another as they progress to a resolution, and they can deploy technologies to make the transition between channels as convenient and enjoyable as possible. Download the eBook for the big story.

2016-03-30 00:57 www.itworldcanada.com

25 Federal Trade Commission sues Volkswagen for deceptive diesel advertising Do you remember Volkswagen's "clean diesel" ad campaign for its TDI lineup? The Federal Trade Commission sure as hell does. In fact, now that Volkswagen's admitted to selling diesel vehicles that pollute over legal limits, the FTC is not too happy with those ads. So unhappy, in fact, that it filed suit Tuesday against Volkswagen Group of America. "Volkswagen has received the complaint and continues to cooperate with all relevant US regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission," Volkswagen said in an emailed statement. "Our most important priority is to find a solution to the diesel emissions matter and earn back the trust of our customers and dealers as we build a better company. "

2016-03-29 21:22 Andrew Krok cnet.com.feedsportal.com

26 Can Microsoft build up its cool factor? (The 3:59, Ep. 18) The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis about the top stories of the day, brought to you by CNET Executive Editor Roger Cheng and Senior Writer Ben Fox Rubin. Subscribe: 2016-03-29 21:22 Ben Fox cnet.com.feedsportal.com

27 How you can watch the Final Four and National Championship game in VR

Can't get enough of March Madness? Neither can we. And now die-hard fans can get right next to the tournament action without buying a ticket to Houston. The NCAA has announced it will live stream the Final Four and National Championship game for the first time ever in VR. All you need to grab a courtside seat is a Samsung Gear VR and the March Madness Live app for VR, available for free in the Oculus Store. The 180-degree experience will not only let you watch the games from the best seat in the house, it will also provide a virtual scoreboard with live stats, game commentary from Jim Nantz and Co., arena sound and a full tournament bracket, complete with video highlights. If you don't own a Gear VR, you can still catch a 2D, 180-degree live stream on your desktop, and a 360-degree highlight reel will go up on the NCAA March Madness Facebook page at some point. The Final Four sees Oklahoma squaring up against Villanova, and Syracuse looking to take down North Carolina, beginning April 2 at 3pm ET. The National Championship game tips off at 7pm ET on April 4. Article continues below

2016-03-29 21:27 By Michelle feedproxy.google.com

28 Silicon Valley CEOs line up in opposition to North Carolina's controversial House Bill 2 A number of Silicon Valley tech executives -- including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff -- are voicing opposition to North Carolina's sweeping anti- LGBT law via an open letter to the state's Governor Pat McCrory. The letter was released through the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality NC, a state organization focused on equal rights for LGBT citizens in North Carolina. In all more than 80 CEOs and executives signed the letter to Governor McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly urging them to repeal the controversial House Bill 2, which passed the state's legislature last week. The law eliminated an ordinance passed in Charlotte, North Carolina, which protected transgender people who use public restrooms based on their gender identity. The new law also nullified local ordinances around the state that were designed to protect members of the LGBT community from being fired for their sexual orientation or identity. The letter is as follows: We write with concerns about legislation you signed into law last week, HB 2, which has overturned protections for LGBT people and sanctioned discrimination across North Carolina. Put simply, HB 2 is not a bill that reflects the values of our companies, of our country, or even the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians. We are disappointed in your decision to sign this discriminatory legislation into law. The business community, by and large, has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business. This is not a direction in which states move when they are seeking to provide successful, thriving hubs for business and economic development. We believe that HB 2 will make it far more challenging for businesses across the state to recruit and retain the nation's best and brightest workers and attract the most talented students from across the nation. It will also diminish the state's draw as a destination for tourism, new businesses, and economic activity. Discrimination is wrong and we believe it has no place in North Carolina or anywhere in our country. As companies that pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming to all, we strongly urge you and the leadership of North Carolina's legislature to repeal this law in the upcoming legislative session. Additional signees include chief executives from Airbnb, Dropbox, Google, Paypal, Lyft, Yelp, Tumblr and Brocade, just to name a few. Bob and Harvey Weinstein of The Weinstein Company also stamped their names among the opposition. The backlash to HB2 from the nation's tech leaders comes just a day after Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announced he would veto the state's "religious liberty" bill after pressure from Hollywood studios and companies such as Disney and the NFL. Salesforce's Benioff was also actively against Georgia's bill, as well as a similar bill that was proposed and eventually shot down in Indiana last year.

2016-03-29 21:17 Natalie Gagliordi zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

29 Oculus Rift then and now: its journey from Kickstarter to VR firestarter After a successful crowdfunding campaign, loads of demos, a Facebook buyout in there somewhere, and years of waiting, the Oculus Rift finally made it out to consumers on Monday. Marketed as the first major virtual reality headset designed for gaming, a lot of tests, tech, and trial and error went into the Rift's design. While it's now a refined piece of hardware, as our Michelle Fitzsimmons explains in her hands-on review of the headset, it wasn't always so. Let's take a look at how the goggles grew over the years, from a cobbled-together crafts project to the high-end consumer product it is today. Of course, we must start with the devices humbles beginnings. Oculus Co-Founder Palmer Luckey was tinkering with VR gaming well before the Rift launched its way to internet stardom. While far from the prettiest piece of hardware, Luckey's homemade prototype for the Rift did manage to charm one John Carmack, who would prove a powerful asset for Oculus. Programmer of classic games like Wolfenstein 3D and Quake, as well as a techno-wizard and virtual reality advocate, Carmack used Luckey's duct-taped architecture as a basis for his own VR software, and demonstrated the janky-looking headset at E3 2012. The collaboration between the two techies would eventually solidify in 2013, when Carmack joined the Oculus crew as the company's chief technology officer. We'd like to imagine Carmack's first order of business was replacing the duct tape with something more respectable. Debuting on Kickstarter two months after Oculus formed in the summer of 2012, this proposed "first draft" of the Rift shows just how far the headset's come in the years since. Created more as a proof of concept than a practical blueprint, the design still grabbed the tech world's attention long enough to get the footing (and backing) it needed to progress to a real-life version later on. The original Kickstarter design of the Rift was crucial in getting the project off the ground, but the lack of headphones and an over-the-head strap, plus looking pretty front-heavy, makes us really happy this design never made it to the manufacturer. Released in the fall of 2012 as the first "real" Oculus Rift, the DK1 was the first set to get in the hands of backers and other intrigued parties who wanted to see what could done with the promising new headset. While DK1's casing was clunky and the LCD screen not the prettiest display on the block, it did accomplish its primary objective and get designers interested in making games for the Rift. The DK1 also introduced many to their first foray into VR, which helped it find some love with newcomers as much as with VR vets. In the summer of 2013, Oculus began working on a new prototype for the Rift, this time focusing on creating a higher-definition field of view and trimming up the overall design of the headset. It wouldn't be long before more improvements were made, including upgrading the display even further. This eventually made the HD Prototype redundant, turning it into one of the few Oculus prototypes to never go on market as part of a development release. Eight months after the HD Prototype was unveiled, the Crystal Cove Prototype was shown off at CES 2014, complete with a shiny new external camera that allowed for improved head tracking. It also jumped from a LCD to an OLED screen, which not only improved the overall look of games played in the Rift, but also ensured images refreshed faster. This, in conjunction with motion tracking, reduced motion sickness - the bane of many a VR user. It also carried a lot of concepts that would be incorporated into the Rift's next big evolution. Shipped in July 2014, the second Development Kit for the Oculus Rift wasn't too far a cry from the Crystal Cove Prototype. That said, DK2 was miles away from DK1, sporting a better screen, improved refresh rate, and a boosted overall aesthetic, all while trimming down excess components like DK1's external control console. The Rift had come a long, loooong way since the early days of being held together by duct tape, but there were still some final touches left, leading us to... We like to call this one the "homestretch edition" as the final prototype of the Rift has so much in common with the final product, from the built-in headphones to the improved 360-degree motion tracking. Additionally, more attention was paid to the ergonomics and aesthetics, with a more comfortable headstrap, lighter construction, and slimmer casing. While the tech on the inside will be what defines the Rift, we certainly appreciated the thought given to how it'd look and feel, especially for longer play sessions. And it all comes down to this. The version of the Rift that consumers are finding on their doorsteps this week continued improving on the Crescent Bay Prototype, including refinements to the housing and headstraps to make the device more consumer friendly That said, the final version of the Rift didn't just tweak its looks. The refresh rate was cranked up to 90Hz, the resolution was given a boost, and the tracking was calibrated to work equally well for sitting or standing use. It may have taken four years, seven prototypes, and who knows how many scratched concepts that never saw the light of day, but the Rift is finally ready for the world at large. A large chunk of VR's future rides on Oculus' shoulders, but thankfully ours won't be so burdened thanks to the company waiting until the right design came along before launching it.

2016-03-29 21:05 By Parker feedproxy.google.com

30 Developers turn to containers, microservices to stay on top of frenzied release schedules The age of containers has arrived in full force. A new survey of 1,800 IT professionals finds two- thirds of organizations are using, or investigating using containers to faster and more efficiently integrate and provide microservices and services. Containers arrive, just in time. The rising use of containers maps to the increasingly hectic pace of software delivery demanded of developer shops. The recent survey released by NGINX, Inc., finds 28% of developers report they are required to issue updates or new releases "several times a day. " Another 70% -- virtually the remainder of the batch -- release new code at least once a week. Accordingly, when asked about their favorite tools or platforms, Docker and Node.js jump to the head of the list as developers' favorite tools. Their least favorite tools or platforms? Microsoft Windows and Java get this distinction, cited as "slow, heavy and complex. " Two-thirds are using or planning to use containers, and 37% are already using containers either in development or production, the NGINX survey also finds. At least a third of this group running more than 80 percent of their workloads on containers. Half of those running containers are using them for mission-critical applications. Microservices also continue to increase in applications. Nearly 70% of organizations are either using or investigating the use of microservices. Forty-four percent using microservices either in development or in production. Larger organizations are lagging in their use of microservices, with 36% having these fine-grained services in development or production. The survey also explored cloud adoption, finding that Amazon Web Services is still the public cloud service of choice. When asked what they believe is the best cloud service, half of respondents said Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is more than Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Rackspace combined. Application performance is an issue for 75% of organizations, with 25% claiming their application is outright slow. Organizations clearly see the gap, but many don't dedicate time and resources to address the issue. In fact, 31% said their organizations address performance infrequently or not at all. Still, the survey also finds that developers are taking charge and are gaining more decision- making power in the organization, with 74% saying developers are responsible for choosing the organization's application development and delivery tools.

2016-03-29 20:55 Joe McKendrick zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

31 Smart Salary Finder 2016 Is your salary on par with what your peers are making? Use our Smart Salary Finder to compare your pay with that of IT workers in similar jobs across the U. S. Our 2016 survey reports on salaries from more than 3,300 IT professionals. Please note: The more criteria you choose, the smaller the sample size. To see results for the greatest number of respondents for a job title category, leave the other lists at their defaults.

2016-03-29 20:49 Staff www.computerworld.com

32 Switched: HTC 10 uses capacitive buttons, ditches the front-facing stereo speakers The HTC 10 won't be accused of being the same exact phone as last year when it launches on April 12 because it's clearly switching up its design in a few ways. The new Android phone will now feature capacitive buttons and what appears to be a fingerprint sensor, according to a the latest teaser photo from HTC . It will inherit the same oval-shaped fingerprint scanner as the HTC One A9 from what I can see, and move back to using capacitive buttons that appeared on the HTC One M7. These are positive shakeups for the Taiwanese company's flagship phone series, as the move from the HTC One M8 to the HTC One M9 felt like an uninspiring repeat. It's the end of an era for on-screen buttons, but that fate may also be shared by HTC's beloved front-facing stereo speakers. HTC 10's fingerprint, back and recent buttons now are in the way. The bottom speaker is therefore likely to find a new home on the bottom frame of the phone. The HTC logo is also absent from this teaser image shrouded in darkness. All hope isn't lost, however. Previous HTC 10 leaks have pointed to a possible HTC BoomSound setting. It's just that may not have the prefered right and left stereo speaker setup as before. Will it still have enough to rival the Samsung Galaxy S7 , S7 Edge and LG G5? Its specs are rumored to be very similar, yet the company promises to have a trick up its sleeve. "Not all phones are created equal," teases HTC. "The fastest and smoothest Android. You'll feel it. " Yes we will. Stay tuned for techradar for the April 12 announcement. Article continues below

2016-03-29 20:46 By Matt feedproxy.google.com

33 iOS 9.3: Here's what's breaking hyperlinks for iPhone and iPad users If you're having problems opening links in Safari, Messages and Mail apps since installing iOS 9.3, then take comfort in the fact that you're not alone. Numerous threads have been posted up on Apple's support forum by frustrated iPhone and iPad users complaining about the issue. Some users claim that clicking on hyperlinks does nothing, while others say that it causes the Safari browser to crash. The problem is down to a new feature called Universal Links that allows web developers to make certain links open in their app rather than direct to the browser. This feature was first rolled out in iOS 9, but it seems that some apps - such as the Bookings.com and the Wikipedia app - have been adding too many links to an app's Universal Links association file, which, in turn, has been breaking hyperlinks in iOS 9.3 (and, according to some reports, iOS 9.2.1). Mobile specialist Ben Collier explains what's going on: "App developers put an app association file on their website which lists which types of URLs the app can open. When you install an app, iOS downloads this associated file and updates your own database of what URLs your installed apps can open. "It looks like there's a bug in iOS that completely breaks the Universal Links if it gets served an app association file that's too large. " Bookings.com have since fixed its app. Problem is, fixing the app doesn't fix the problem for those affected. Collier has also outlined a possible fix for those affected , but a proper fix will have to come from Apple. Fortunately, an official fix is in the works. An Apple spokesperson says that the company is "aware of this issue" and will "release a fix in a software update soon. "

2016-03-29 20:16 Adrian Kingsley zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

34 It's Virtual Reality Week - here's everything you need to read On August 1 2012, a Kickstarter campaign for a virtual reality headset called the Oculus Rift was launched. It was a record breaker, ending with 947% of its original funding goal, and went on to kick-start the new wave of virtual reality. Since then we've seen Sony, Samsung, LG, HTC, Valve and many others enter the arena, with plenty others sure to follow. This week, the final consumer Oculus Rift starts shipping out to buyers, with the HTC Vive to follow just days later. It's a big reason to celebrate, so that's exactly what we're going to do. Over the course of the next week we'll be ushering in the new age of VR with a series of features, reviews, and roundups of some of the best VR devices and games out there. We'll be telling you how to build the best PC for your VR system, discovering how the porn industry is changing with virtual reality, and even meeting the people who get high while using VR. Yes, it's going to be quite a varied week. We'll be using this page as a one stop shop for all our VR Week content, so keep coming back over the week for more. Enjoy. Article continues below

2016-03-29 20:06 By Hugh feedproxy.google.com

35 The TODO Group and the Linux Foundation: Marrying open source and the enterprise LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- Everyone uses open source. Almost everyone develops in open source -- yes, even Microsoft -- but getting corporations onboard with open source is still a problem. In part, Linux Foundation chairman Jim Zemlin explained in the Linux Collaboration Summit keynote speech, that's because "There is a mismatch between business's desire and capability to participate in open source. " The answer? Partner with the TODO Group to bring businesses up to speed with open source. The TODO Group is a cross-industry effort to focus on establishing best practices, tools and programs to support corporate open-source engagement. It was formed in November 2014. Today, its members include Dropbox, Facebook, GitHub, Google, HPE, Microsoft, Twitter, Walmart Labs, and Yahoo. New members include Autodesk, CapitalOne, and SanDisk. Now it's going under the Linux Foundation umbrella as a Foundation project. If many of those don't sound like open-source companies to you, you haven't been paying attention. "From car-makers and banks to retailers and hospitals, every industry relies on open- source software, and every company is an Internet company," said Zemlin. "The TODO Group reaches across industries to collaborate with open source technical and business leaders to share best practices, tools and programs for building dependable, effective projects for the long term. " These companies are doing this, Zemlin explained, because, "Open-source software enables businesses to unite development resources and build common software solutions that ultimately save billions in R&D costs. " Open source saves companies money. It's that simple. Zemlin continued: In short, what the TODO Group and the Linux Foundation are doing is bringing the rest of the corporate board over to where the CIO and CTO have been for years: Embracing open source.

2016-03-29 19:54 Steven J zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

36 The 5 best VR laptops: these notebooks are ready for the Rift If you want to explore virtual worlds in their highest fidelity, but don't have room for a PC, you're going to need a powerful laptop. This is the year of VR. Oculus Rift , HTC Vive , and now PlayStation VR are all scheduled to release in 2016 (with the former already here), bringing virtual reality out of the realm of '90s cyberpunk fantasies and into our homes. No matter how you slice it, however, VR is still cutting-edge, pricey tech. The barrier for entry into the virtual world is, at minimum, about $700 (about £619, AU$1,029) for a PS4 and a PlayStation VR headset. Taking virtual reality to the next level with a PC headset costs considerably more, with the Oculus Rift headset priced at $599 (£499, about AU$1,100 with shipping) and the HTC Vive at $799 (£689, about AU$930 with shipping). None of those costs include a VR-capable PC. Eventually, prices will come down as the technology bends to the will of Moore's Law. For now, early adopters will need to pay a hefty toll to cross the bridge into the VR space, and those who want to take their headsets on the road should brace for the costs associated with a VR-ready laptop. If you're dead set on a portable VR experience, we've got a guide to help you pick out your beastly new computer. Both the Vive and Oculus require some pretty solid specs, so the laptops on this list are definitely built for the enthusiast with deep pockets. This powerhouse won't have any troubles handling VR See more Origin EON17-SLX deals The Origin EON17-SLX has room to breath when it comes to powering a VR headset. Inside the EON17-SLX is a desktop-grade GeForce GTX 980 chip with 8GB of VRAM and one of Intel's new Skylake processors, the i7-6700K, running at 4GHz. The laptop made mincemeat of our benchmarking tests, running GTA 5 on Ultra at a respectable 41 fps at 1080p. However, all that power comes with great responsibility, meaning you'll be responsible for not using it more than 2 hours without plugging it in. The virtual reality dream can be experienced away from home, just not for very long. Expandable graphics means having it both ways See more Alienware 17 (2015) deals The Alienware 17 (2015) is a fine choice for anyone looking for a VR-ready laptop, even if the laptop needs a little help. The Graphics Amplifier allows you to hook up a desktop graphics card to the computer itself, meaning the lofty graphics card requirements for both the Vive and Oculus are attainable. In some ways, the Amplifier is a better fit than a laptop running a desktop GPU. While an increasing number of laptops have managed to cram a full desktop GTX 980 into their confines, technically Oculus and Vive only need a GTX 970, so you don't need to go all-out to hit those minimum specs. It could be a win-win. A truly monstrous mobile gaming rig See more MSI GT80 Titan deals The aptly-named MSI GT80 Titan shouldn't have any problems running VR applications, although remember: minimum specs for Oculus and Vive call for a GTX 970. The dual GTX 980M GPUs running in SLI should make up the difference between mobile and desktop GPUs, and the rest of the innards shouldn't bat an eye. Unfortunately, high-powered laptops suffer from quickly-drained batteries, and the MSI GT80 is no exception. At just under 2 hours, it's actually on the lower end of the battery-drain bell curve, so you'll need to do your virtual reality explorations close to an outlet. Since the headsets require being tethered to the computer anyway, what's one extra connection? Designed with portable virtual reality in mind The Aorus X7 DT (seen above inside a backpack) hasn't been released yet, but we did have a chance to go hands-on with it back in January. The event was designed to show off the virtual reality capabilities of Aorus' new laptop, and it did so admirably. On top of either an i7-6700HQ or 6820HK processor, the Aorus X7 DT sports a desktop GeForce GTX 980. What's more impressive than its powerful potential is that it packs it into a slim form factor. The Aorus X7 DT can even be strapped into a backpack and carried during play, allowing you to wander freely around an open space in both the real and virtual worlds. One thing we noticed in our hands-on testing was the Aorus X7 DT suffers the same poor battery life as most other powerful laptops. However, a high-spec, VR ready laptop that straps to your back is pretty damn cool, even if you can't wander too far before it needs to be charged. A water-cooled, futuristic dream The Asus ROG GX700 is another out-there, yet-to-be-released laptop that looks everything the part of the virtual reality dream. It's a futuristic, sleek laptop that can be locked into a water- cooling dock to significantly boost its performance. Seriously, the water cooler looks like a device straight out of science fiction, so donning a virtual reality headset wired into the Asus ROG GX700 is about as close as we've come yet to realizing Daft Punk's techno vision of the '90s. Connecting the cooling unit to the main machine allows you to overclock the Intel Core i7 6820HK processor and desktop-grade Nvidia GTX 980 graphics chip, already perfectly capable on their own. Keeping everything cool while overclocked allows for some seriously immersive visual capabilities. Article continues below

2016-03-29 19:25 By Seth feedproxy.google.com

37 Sony set to launch 'Ultra' 4K HDR streaming service next week Sony has announced its 4K HDR streaming app (dubbed 'Ultra') is set to land in the US on April 4 exclusively on the company's new Android TV-infused 4K sets. The new app was first announced at CES 2016 with the unveiling of its three new HDR 4K TV sets, ensuring you'd have at least some content to watch on them. However, unlike a monthly subscription service such as Netflix, you'll be required to purchase each title you wish to watch for a whopping $30. (Who said you couldn't put a price on seeing Will Smith in a resolution bordering on reality?) Regrettably, the dearth of an onboard data center means that you won't be able to house anything offline. In other words, those with at-home data caps best watch out, as 4K streaming will undoubtedly suck down a massive amount of data. At launch, only movies from Sony Pictures will be available with a library of about 40 to 50 titles. You'll also get four complimentary titles if you're planning on splurging for one of the three new 4K HDR sets this summer. The app is, however, compatible with the UltraViolet cloud service, so you'll be able to access non-4K and non-HDR films from Sony's vault as well, or upgrade the ones you might have already purchased to 4K HDR for about $12 or $15. It's a pricey convenience, to be sure, particularly when you consider how much (great) original 4K content is being offered by Netflix and Amazon at no additional charge. However, Sony's option does mean you would actually own the titles, even if it will live in the cloud, and we could eventually see Ultra adding a cheaper rentals option that would put it more in line with other streaming options. Article continues below

2016-03-29 19:02 By Farrha feedproxy.google.com

38 Brocade Acquisition Of DevOps Automation Startup StackStorm Seen As Smart Move By Partners Networking vendor Brocade Communications has acquired startup StackStorm, a provider of software for automating data center operations, which partners say will lead to new revenue opportunities for the channel. San Jose, Calif.-based Brocade, which specializes in data and storage networking products, plans to leverage StackStorm technology to accelerate its efforts to bring DevOps-style scalable open-source automation to Brocade's networking solutions, according to a blog post by the company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. [Related: Arista Aims Squarely At Cisco, Juniper With New Switching And Routing Platform ] Barry Shevlin, CEO of Vology, a Tampa, Fla.-based solution provider and Brocade partner, said StackStorm is an "intelligent" acquisition for Brocade as customers are increasingly seeking open-source technology solutions. "People are concerned about being stuck in one vendor's ecosystems and interoperability, and that certainly is playing into those conversations," said Shevlin. "[StackStorm] certainly looks to be an exciting product. " Under Brocade, the StackStorm technology will be extended to networking and new integrations will be developed for automation across IT domains such as storage, compute and security. Shevlin said StackStorm's ability to help simplify networking through automation will likely lead to more sales down the road, as simplification is at the top of customers' minds. "I think it will be more relevant for our managed service customers. We've got some full-time scripters here on site where we're constantly trying to automate and simplify managing stuff on behalf of our customers," said Shevlin. "It looks like a really good fit for Brocade. " Palo Alto, Calif.-based StackStorm was founded in 2013 and launched out of stealth mode in May 2014. StackStorm's first solution -- an event-driven automation platform that ties together every component of an environment, typically used for auto-remediation including response to security events -- was launched in September. Customers include of Dimension Data and Netflix, according to a blog post by StackStorm CEO and founder Evan Powell.

2016-03-29 18:15 Mark Haranas www.crn.com

39 Infosys Software Engineer Killed In Brussels Attack A software engineer with Bangalore, India-based outsourcing giant Infosys was one of 32 people to die in last week's bombings in Brussels, Belgium. "It is with deep regret that we confirm the passing of our colleague Raghavendran Ganeshan in the terrible attacks in Brussels," Infosys said in a statement Monday. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Raghavendran’s family and with those who were injured or lost a loved one in the attacks.” Sushma Swaraj, India's foreign minister, said on her Twitter account that Ganeshan's remains were handed over to his family in Brussels. Ganeshan, 30, was heading into the Brussels subway the morning of March 22 as he wrapped up a phone conversation with his brother, the brother told the Wall Street Journal. [Related: Infosys To Buy 122-Person Oil And Gas Partner For $70M ] “Unfortunately, [Ganeshan] was travelling in the same coach of the metro in which the suicide bomber blew himself up,” Swaraj wrote. Suicide bombers hit the Brussels airport and a subway train last week, and the Islamic State militant extremist group claimed responsibility for the attacks. "A young life, full of hope & promise cut short by mindless violence," Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, wrote on his Twitter account. Ganeshan had spent four years in Brussels and was planning to return to India in May to join his wife and 1-month-old son, said Ganeshan’s brother-in-law Bala Subramanian, according to The New York Times. Subramanian described Ganeshan as a calm, polite man who practiced an orthodox version of Hinduism associated with sacred learning and spiritual guidance. Chandrasekar Ganeshan told the Wall Street Journal last week that the subway attack occurred 15 minutes after he got off the phone with his brother. Ganeshan never spoke with his brother again. Infosys is an $8.7 billion firm and India's second-largest software exporter by sales. The company is the biggest user of the U. S. H-1B skilled worker visa program, having filed at least 16,000 visa applications every year from 2012 to 2015.

2016-03-29 18:01 Michael Novinson www.crn.com

40 Snapchat's new Chat 2.0 lets you call friends and send sloth stickers Is Snapchat your primary means of playing catch- up with your friends? If so, it's about to get a whole lot easier, thanks to the ephemeral photo- sharing app's revamped chat system. Snapchat's Chat 2.0 update - available now for Android and iPhone - adds multiple ways to reach out to your buddies beyond the app's usual "see-it-before-it-disappears" snapshots. One such addition is a collection of in-chat stickers, which takes a note from Facebook Messenger and Line and lets you send tiny images that best express your mood, from tiny pizza slices to a food-obsessed cartoon sloth. Should you prefer a more personal means of communicating, the face-to-face video chat system on Snapchat has been retooled to work with the single push of a button - no more waiting for your friend to be in the same chat to start pestering them! Voice chat has been added to make the app an internet-enabled replacement for phone service. Should a recipient somehow be too busy for Snapchat, users can leave ten-second Video Notes or voicemails that can be checked later. These features come as a pleasant not-so-surprise, as the additions were leaked two months back, spoiling the stickers and video memo features before Snapchat could officially announce them. While not part of the new Chat interface, Snapchat's update also includes an auto-advance feature for Stories - meaning you can browse through your friends' updates in a single sitting, eliminating the tedium of catching up on everyone's antics one-by-one. In essence, Chat 2.0 is Snapchat's attempt to carve out a larger niche - concentrating on more than just blink-and-you'll-miss-it pictures, but taking on the likes of chat giants like WhatsApp, Line, and Facebook Messenger on their own turf. Honestly, we were already sold by the sloth stickers, but we guess the ability to call and leave messages for your close ones is a plus, too. Article continues below

2016-03-29 17:58 By Parker feedproxy.google.com

41 Brazilian PC maker Positivo sees revenues fall The largest Brazilian PC and mobile manufacturer Positivo has posted negative financial results for 2015, caused by dollar fluctuations and low market demand. The firm posted net revenues of R$1.84bn ($506m) for 2015, a 20 percent drop in relation to 2014. According to the company, the current financial crisis in Brazil has cause a bigger impact to its financial performance than it was expected. In a statement, Positivo then used IDC numbers to illustrate the market decline. ​Has the PC hit rock bottom? Things are going from bad to worse for the PC industry. Where do we go from here? The analyst firm had predicted that the consumer market would grow by 5 percent and that corporate demand would see a 4 percent uplift. But the reality turned out to be a lot worse, with decline of 39 percent and 30 percent for the two segments respectively. As well as the dollar hike in relation to the local currency - which affects local manufacturers since about 90 percent of production cost is impacted by dollar fluctuations - Positivo faced the issue of high stock levels that the company planned for the expected demand and were not sold. This has prompted the sale of products at a discount at the end of last year, which therefore reduced the firm's profit margins. According to the manufacturer, the idea for 2016 is to keep stock at a level that is more realistic considering market trends. The expectation is now a market decline of 18 percent and 12 percent for PCs and smartphones respectively. As if the negative financial results were not enough, Positivo also had to deal with the loss of market leadership to Dell last year, who announced last year that it held the number one spot in PC sales in Brazil. As for positive news, Positivo mentioned a 127 percent uplift in smartphone sales for last year. The company has also been placing its bets on entry-level smartphones as well as feature phones , aimed at users with more basic needs and want to spend less.

2016-03-29 17:56 Angelica Mari zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

42 Instagram videos aren't so instant anymore, and that's a good thing Instagram is in the midst of a lot of changes right now , but one it's rolling out today may be music to some users' ears. The photo sharing platform announced that it's going to let everyone capture 60-second videos The new minute limit is extending to some users today, and everyone should have it in the next few months. The length of Insta's videos is currently cut off at 15 seconds, which is more than a quick Vine hit but often not enough to let true creativity flow. Instagram says the time people have spent watching video has ballooned by more than 40% in the last six months, part of the reason it wants longer clips to keep eyes glued to its feed. And if you have an iOS device, Instagram is bringing back the ability to stitch together multiple clips from your phone's camera roll to make one video. While 60 seconds is a long time to fill if you don't really have anything to show or say, I'm excited for the possibility of longer messages from other users, tutorials and closer looks at devices, like the iPhone SE techradar shot for our Instagram during Apple's event last week. And longer videos are just the beginning. There's more changes aimed at letting your creativity shine to come, as Instagram says the new limit is "one step of many you'll see this year. " Article continues below

2016-03-29 17:55 By Michelle feedproxy.google.com

43 FCC magic will turn TV channels into mobile signals For anyone in the U. S. who wants better cell coverage, an auction that began late Tuesday may be the start of a brighter future. It will end with some TV channels reassigned to cellular, helping mobile networks cover more ground and cut through walls better than they do now. That's assuming enough broadcasters want to participate and mobile operators don't get sticker shock. Both have to play, because this is the first auction of its kind anywhere. It's two auctions in one, really. This all came about because over-the-air TV doesn't need as much spectrum as it did before the digital transition. Meanwhile, mobile networks need more of it to keep up with everything people use their phones for, including a lot of the entertainment they used to get from TV. It's called an incentive auction, because the Federal Communications Commission promised broadcasters an incentive to give up some of their frequencies: They get to keep some of the money that mobile carriers pay for the spectrum. The frequencies up for auction act like TV channels do, covering a whole city from one tower and reaching all the TVs in the house even if there are walls in the way. Granted, TV doesn't always come in perfectly, but it does a better job than cellular networks under those conditions. That's because the frequencies it uses, in the 600MHz band, are lower than anything used for phones. Once carriers build networks with the new spectrum, rural residents especially should experience better service, Roger Entner an analyst at Recon Analytics said. They may also have more carriers to choose from, because a service provider that can't reach them now may become an option, he added. A successful incentive auction also should be good news for the Internet of Things , because connected equipment like trucks and smart meters often live out at the edges of networks where coverage is poor today, Entner said. "This would be the go-to spectrum for IoT," he said. AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA have all signed up to bid. Sprint has said it won't. The FCC has set down a rule to keep the two biggest carriers from getting too much spectrum, though it will only kick in if a certain amount of spectrum is made available in the auction. One thing that probably won't come out of the auction is some exciting new kind of service from an unexpected entrant to mobile, Entner said. He doesn't think anyone on the list of bidders is in a position to revolutionize mobile life. Before anything happens to mobile, broadcasters have to give up the channels. This will happen in a so-called reverse auction in which each station owner names the price for its spectrum. It can sell all its spectrum and get out of the TV business, but most are likely to sell just the narrow bands they use for extra, standard-definition channels. Tuesday at 6 p.m. Eastern time was the deadline for broadcasters to sign up for the auction. Once the FCC knows what spectrum will be available for sale, it will rearrange the frequencies in the band to make room for blocks that are big enough for carriers to use. So viewers may find their favorite channels moved around. The "forward auction" where mobile operators bid for spectrum is expected to begin in June. It will go on until no one comes up with any higher bids. The action could get pretty heated, considering this is the last major auction on the FCC's calendar for the foreseeable future. Carriers will be motivated to stock up on frequencies, Entner said. "This is the last stop through that desert. "

2016-03-29 17:54 Stephen Lawson www.itworld.com

44 Toshiba Details Its PC Business Reorg: Set to Concentrate on Tecra and Portégé Brands for Business Users Toshiba this month revealed its finalized PC business strategy for the future. As expected, the company intends to cease selling consumer personal computers outside of Japan and plans to focus on corporate and business PCs going forward. Toshiba will sell existing consumer PCs in North America and Europe and will honor the warranties in the future. However, the company has no plans to introduce any new consumer models outside of its home market. Toshiba disclosed plans to reorganize its PC business in September, 2014. The company announced intentions to stop selling consumer computers completely and focus on business and corporate PCs instead. Toshiba said that the purpose of the reorganization was to ensure profitability of this business unit and improve competitive positions against companies like Dell, HP or Lenovo on the corporate PC market. Toshiba hopes that the new focus will help it to significantly increase its B2B (business to business) sales already in fiscal 2016 (which begins on April 1, 2016) and become profitable. For a number of years Toshiba’s PC business was focused on increasing market share, which means that the company had to develop two separate product families: one for business users and another for consumers. Due to tough competition, it is not easy to sell consumer PCs nowadays. Products families have to be broad, profit margins are razor thin and suppliers have to focus primarily on sales scale and volume. While Toshiba is known for affordable systems in the U. S., that business was not profitable for the company. This was was one of the reasons why Toshiba decided to cease selling its consumer PCs outside of Japan. Because of the reorganization, the company has reduced headcount of its PC business by 1300 people as well as eliminated multiple operation sites. Toshiba plans to offer a full range of corporate personal computers, tablets and workstations. In particular, the company will offer higher-performance notebooks under its Tecra brand, ultra-thin laptops will be sold under the Portégé trademark, whereas tablets and 2-in-1s will carry dynaBook and Portégé names. “Toshiba will concentrate on the B2B PC market globally by developing, manufacturing, and selling its Tecra and Portégé brands to the corporate market,” the company said in its statement. Right now Toshiba’s retail partners offer a variety of Satellite notebooks and other low-cost consumer PCs, including models based on Intel processors featuring the Broadwell micro- architecture. These systems will be available while the stock last and then customers interested in Toshiba PCs will have to buy Tecra, dynaBook and Portégé either directly from Toshiba or from various resellers. In short, Toshiba-branded PCs are not going away from the U. S., but they will not be available widely and will cost more than they do today. The company will honor all Satellite and other warranties. “Toshiba will continue selling its consumer notebooks through its retail partners as the company expands its corporate footprint,” the company said. “Customers can purchase Toshiba with confidence knowing their product warranties and service obligations will be honored.” To better address the PC market both in Japan and in other countries, Toshiba will establish Toshiba Client Solutions Co. later this week. Moreover, the company will continue to discuss further reforms of its PC business with third parties. There are rumors that Toshiba is negotiating strategic deals with other Japanese computer suppliers and investors, but so far nothing official has been revealed.

2016-03-29 17:45 Anton Shilov www.anandtech.com

45 Newegg Daily Deals: 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3200, WD Blue 4TB HDD, and More! Top Deal: So you're building a new system and decided to make the plunge into Skylake, is that it? That's not a bad option—you can build a killer system around Skyake with careful component selection, starting with today's top deal for a kit of Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory for $190 with free shipping (normally $205 - use coupon code: [ EMCEHGJ33 ]). That's assuming you're buying a board that supports DDR4 memory, which if building a new system today is pretty much a no brainer. What this kit brings to the table is a combination of high speed and big capacity. Other Deals: WD Blue 4TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-inch for $120 with free shipping (normally $134 - use coupon code: [ ESCEHGT25 ]) Seagate Backup Plus 8TB Desktop External Hard Drive with 200GB of Cloud Storage & Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 - STDT8000100 (Black) for $200 with free shipping (normally $230 - use coupon code: [ EMCEHGJ22 ]) Corsair CX 750W ATX12V v2.3 80 Plus Bronze Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified for $75 with $3 shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [ EMCEHGJ38 ]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Adata Premier SP550 2.5-inch 240GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive for $55 with free shipping (normally $60 - use coupon code: [ EMCEHGJ24 ])

2016-03-29 17:38 Maximum PC www.maximumpc.com

46 What it's like to play Miitomo, Nintendo's first smartphone game These are changing times for Nintendo, a company forging some interesting new paths while holding onto a rich legacy. These new paths include theme parks, toys, an upcoming new console in the Nintendo NX , and yes, finally, smartphone apps. Its first app, Miitomo, will be rolling out of Japan and to the rest of the world on March 31, marking a significant milestone for the company. For it, Nintendo has partnered with Japanese mobile company DeNA, and there are more apps to come – four more between now and March 2017. So what is Miitomo? Not easy to summate in a single sentence, that's what. It's gaming meets social networking meets the bizarre. It's the type of app you'll probably jump into for a few minutes each day, but while you're there you'll have a lot of fun – and might even learn a thing or two. It's "an app that makes you discover things you might not otherwise know about your friends," says a Nintendo spokesperson during our hands-on preview. "This is a Nintendo take on communication. " Rather than simply putting Mario on mobile, Nintendo has instead made its smartphone debut with its Mii avatars – now a staple of both the company's handheld and home consoles – to create something more akin to a chat app than a game. It certainly has a few gameplay elements thrown in, but Miitomo feels like a close imitation of Tomodachi Life with more of an emphasis on fun conversation. So, think Tomodachi Life meets Kik. Got that? Excellent. Now, onto how it actually all works. Anyone who's made a Mii character on the Wii, Wii U or 3DS will be familiar with Miitomo's character creator. If you've played Tomodachi Life, then it's almost identical. Here, you'll mold your avatar, altering its face, hair, personality, and even voice. That last one is important, because your character is going to be doing a lot of jabbering. Nintendo boasts that it now has over 9,000 different animations which your Mii will make use of when it speaks. Should you already have a Mii you're already proud of, you can carry it over to Miitomo by scanning a QR code. Alternatively, if you'd like to make a new Mii in your own image, Miitomo will snap your photo and craft an avatar that it thinks most closely resembles you. Many of the ones it spat out for me were, err, interesting, but you can continue to poke and prod to perfection once you've settled on one that most closely resembles yourself. Once you're done with that, the real fun begins. Miitomo is heavily focused on questions and answers. You answer questions, your friends answer questions, everybody laughs at the silly answers. Sometimes, you might learn something interesting, such as a friend's secret celebrity crush or their honest opinion on chili dogs. I know I've already made the comparisons with Tomodachi Life, but Miitomo actually has an advantage over Tomodachi in that players don't need Nintendo hardware to play with one another – just a smartphone. Miitomo runs across iOS and Android, but Nintendo tells me that it has no plans for a Windows Phone version. Sorry. Nintendo's friend-adding system has traditionally been quite controlled, and in Miitomo that's no different. Rather than adding people by username, Miitomo only lets you add people you're already connected to on Facebook and Twitter – you must both be following one another. If only Nintendo dropped Friend Codes for this. Alternatively, you can add friends that are nearby via a system where you both tap an identical shape. It's a simple system that circumvents most risks of unwanted adds, but at the end of the day it all feels a tad limiting. Granted, most of my friends have Facebook, but if you know anyone who's off the social network radar (and lives far from you) then it's a shame there's no simple, username-based way of adding them. Once you are friends, however, Nintendo won't restrict or censor content. You can report something if you think it's offensive, but otherwise you're free to post what you like. Once your character is created, Miitomo will ask you a set of easygoing questions about yourself, such as your favorite food or film. Some do get a little weird and, occasionally, deep, but don't expect to be quizzed on any pressing international affairs. Your friends will then be able to see your answers, comment on them or "like" them, and in turn you'll be able to do the same with them. If you want, you can choose to hide your answers, which others will have to "unlock" by paying in candies. What you won't be able to do is open any instant messaging dialogue with friends; communication is strictly limited to Q&As. Answering questions won't just reveal facts about your friends, but will also unlock coins which can be spent on clothes and other items. Your character can also rank up in Popularity level and Style level. Popularity is increased, naturally, by making more friends and achieving certain social-focused goals, while you up your Style game by purchasing new outfits. Many of these outfits can be purchased from the shop, where items will change daily. However, if you see someone wearing something you particularly like, the game will let you purchase that item. Yes, that includes a hotdog outfit if you're so inclined. The most "game-like" element of Miitomo is definitely Miitomo Drop, a pinball-style mini-game in which you drop a Mii down the table and hope you land on a neat prize. But personally, I had more fun in Miifoto, the app's toybox for making up some funny, often bizarre, photos. In Miifoto you take your Mii – and your friends' Miis if you like/have friends – and make them pose in an assortment of ways for the perfect shot. You can also throw in banners, captions, word bubbles fake mustaches – tons of extra details so you can create a masterpiece like this... You can also pull in photos from your camera roll, which makes Miifoto even more enjoyable. All in all, it's incredibly customizable, letting you change the positions and sizes of Miis and other icons down with great detail, before pushing them out on social media. I can see Miitomo users spending a lot of time in this part of the app. Miitomo is free to download, but it does include micro-transactions, which you'll use to buy clothing and other accessories for your Mii. During our play with Miitomo, Nintendo emphasized that the app can be enjoyed without spending a single penny, and so far it doesn't feel like it holds you back massively for not cashing out. Coins are earned by answering questions, but you'll get a pretty big payout at the start, and more for daily login bonuses. Linking Miitomo to your My Nintendo account will also unlock added rewards. That said, if you don't have many friends also using Miitomo, you'll find yourself strapped for cash more quickly, especially if you play a lot of Mii Drop – 500 coins a go. While Nintendo hasn't fully confirmed its prices outside of Japan, it looks like you'll pay $0.99/£79p for around 1,000 coins . (This might change before launch, according to Nintendo, but if it does I can't see it being dramatically different.) I've only had a couple of hours with Miitomo, but so far there's a lot of stuff I love. I just can't help but feel like there was more potential here. I know that Nintendo has traditionally had a locked-down approach to online interactions, but I'd have loved to see a way to meet new people in Miitomo. Perhaps an area where users could join different communities? But yes, I appreciate all the prickly problems that something like that would bring. And all that aside, I still think Miitomo is a solid effort from Nintendo: it proves that it's taking its move into mobile in a careful, considered way. After the initial hype dies down, I can't see anyone but the most hardcore Nintendo-heads spending more than half an hour in the app each day. That might be enough for now – as I said, Nintendo has more to come – and there's a lot on offer for an app that can be enjoyed for free. This is an exciting year for Nintendo, and Miitomo is the starting pistol for what's to come. A starting pistol in a hotdog costume donning a fake mustache. Article continues below

2016-03-29 17:38 By Hugh feedproxy.google.com

47 5 things to expect from Microsoft's big developer conference Microsoft executives will take the stage at Moscone West in San Francisco on Wednesday for the first of two keynote addresses to the company's big Build developer conference. Here are five key things to expect from the next two days of Microsoft announcements: Last year, Microsoft used Build to show off its vision for developing applications to run on what was then an unreleased operating system. In the intervening year, the company released Windows 10 to the world, and people have started using it in droves. Right now, one of the biggest questions looming over Windows 10 has to do with the success or failure of the Universal Windows Platform, which lets developers write one app and deploy it to Windows PCs, tablets and phones. Odds are, Microsoft will take time to show off the UWP's ability to expand developers' reach to the Xbox One and HoloLens. Those demonstrations, along with new statistics about how many other devices are running Windows 10, may help Microsoft make a more compelling case to developers about why they should build for the UWP. Users will get to see Microsoft's vision for the second year of Windows 10's existence, too. While it's not yet clear what's going to be up the company's sleeve, it will be interesting to see what Microsoft chooses to do with marquee features like Cortana, its virtual assistant. This would also be a good spot for Microsoft to make its case for the future of Windows 10 Mobile, the version of its operating system that's aimed at smartphones. It doesn't have the broad interest of consumers, businesses or developers at the moment, so Microsoft has to make a case for why people should care. Big companies run, at least to some degree, on Microsoft Office. This year, Microsoft is expected to talk a little about how Office can be used as a development platform for making other work applications smarter. The crown jewel of its strategy is the Microsoft Graph , a tool that lets developers build applications that know how their users work within an organization, including what files are getting used a lot and who a particular user works with. It will also be interesting to see if Microsoft brings any news about GigJam , a product that uses the Microsoft Graph to help people work together in an unstructured way. Chances are we won't see Microsoft announce any new hardware that will jolt people like the original HoloLens announcement from last year. But this is Microsoft's big opportunity to wow developers who are about to get their hands on the first wave of HoloLens development kits and show how it can be used in a range of scenarios. Depending on how gutsy the company is feeling, we might even see a live demonstration of Microsoft Research's " holoportation " telepresence project, but that would require some serious belief in the network connectivity in the keynote hall, since it requires communication between a HoloLens and a special camera rig. Like past Build conferences, this one is expected to contain plenty of announcements about Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, along with its on-premises server business. This is 2016, and Windows Server 2016's release is right around the corner. Meanwhile, Azure is facing Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform in a war for the public cloud. That means Microsoft is under a lot of pressure to release new features, and a developer conference is exactly the right place for it, especially after Google's cloud conference last week. While Microsoft talks up its public cloud, I'd also hope to see a discussion of its Azure Stack private cloud software, which is aimed at letting companies run an instance of Azure inside a private data center. Developer tools can treat an Azure Stack instance the same way they'd treat the public version of Azure, meaning that app makers will be able to build one codebase that works with on-premises servers, the public cloud, or both. Microsoft announced earlier this year it would acquire Xamarin, a maker of tools that let. NET developers build cross-platform mobile apps. That acquisition closed just a couple of weeks ago, and it seems logical that we'll start to see the first fruits of the united Microsoft-Xamarin front at Build. This would also be the logical time for the company to announce new features for its Visual Studio development environment, since many of the developers in attendance at Build rely on it for their daily work. Stay tuned for the rest of this week to see what Microsoft has in store.

2016-03-29 17:31 Blair Hanley www.itnews.com

48 6 Best Windows tablets: top Windows slates reviewed Microsoft's been pushing tablet computers for the best part of a decade, so you can imagine how happy the success of great slates like the iPad Air and Samsung Galaxy Note series makes the software maker feel. But Microsoft doesn't give up easily, and Windows tablets have been trickling out since Windows 8 first introduced touched controls. The focus on tablets that can double as PC has only been getting bigger as with Window 10 being here now. The range of devices with is huge from simple slates to fully convertible laptop-tablet hybrids, including those where keyboards slide out from beneath the screen, as well as those with styluses and detachable keyboards. We've even seen tablet/all-in-one hybrids. There's as much variety in Windows tablet world as there is to the plethora of tablets running other operating systems. Now the question is what sort of Windows-powered tablet do you want. Are you looking for something mainly as a reading device, perhaps a dedicated Hearthstone, typing out documents on your commute or sketching ideas for a new artwork? To help you decide, here's a rundown of the best Windows tablets that we've reviewed so far. The best all-around Windows tablet See more Surface Pro 4 deals The Surface Pro 4 is by far the best Windows 10 tablet. Though it comes at a pretty penny, it's well worth the expense from the nearly premium built quality, perfect screen and ample power. Microsoft's latest tablet introduces a larger and sharper screen, plus a redesigned island that makes typing feel almost as good as a real laptop. The Surface Pro 4 the tablet that really can replace your traditional laptop and this is why the it's our Windows 10 tablet king. Little extras make this remarkable Windows tablet even more exceptional See more HP Spectre x2 deals HP's Spectre x2 bears a striking resemblance to Microsoft's Surface Pro 4. However, it's thinner and lighter thanks to being powered by a fanless Intel Core M processor. It also comes at a more affordable price tag than Microsoft's premium slate and with an included keyboard to boot. Equipped with an Intel Core m7 processor offers nearly the same performance as the Core i5 chip on the Surface Pro 4, while being more economical and efficient with battery life. The ultimate Windows 10 media tablet See more Samsung Galaxy TabPro S deals The Samsung Galaxy TabPro S is a knockout 12-inch tablet that's thinner and better built than most Windows 10 slates. It also offers a uniquely vibrant Super AMOLED screen you won't find on any Windows device either, plus a pair of punchy speakers that actually sound good. Its keyboard feels a bit lackluster but if you get over this short coming, it's the perfect Windows 10 tablet to use while streaming media and games. The most affordable Windows 10 convertible See more HP Pavilion x2 deals Getting into the world of Windows 10 convertible's isn't cheap unless we're talking about the Pavilion x2. This 10-inch hybrid comes packing a surprising amount of goods considering its small size. It comes packed with a HD screen and more than enough power to get you through a simple day of web browsing and even image editing. When you're ready kick back with some streaming media, you can pop off the 10-inch works as a portable tablet. And if you're looking for something with a bit more screen real estate there's the 12-inch HP Pavilion x2. A solid micro-sized Windows 10 tablet See more Surface 3 deals If you interested in a Surface Pro 4 but you're worried about the 12-inch form factor being too unwieldy, the Surface 3 might be perfect for you. Sporting a smaller 10.8-inch screen and Intel Atom processor, the Surface 3 is meant to be less of a laptop replacement and more of a solid Windows 10 tablet. Though the kickstand is limited to a smaller range of motion, it's nearly as versatile and works well with Microsoft's nearly perfected type cover. This 2-in-1 laptop takes thinness to a new level See more Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 deals Starting at $700 (£437 and AU$800), the Venue Pro 7000 offers a nice balance of performance and portability in a travel-friendly size. However, unless you find yourself accessing CPU and GPU taxing apps, you might find more value in an Atom-based convertible. Going with Atom will lower your cost and give you better battery life. For those who need power and performance, the confines of a 10.8-inch display may be too rigid to maximize productivity. Opening more than a few tabs or windows on the small display will trigger claustrophobia. If you need to be more productive, there are bigger convertible options, like the Surface Pro 3, to choose from that may fit that need better. Article continues below 2016-03-29 17:26 By Kevin feedproxy.google.com

49 Oculus Rift review roundup: the future is here, but it'll cost you The time has finally come. The Oculus Rift is shipping to consumers, and tech news sites have begun issuing verdicts on the VR headset. The Verge , Ars Technica , Gizmodo and Engadget all got their hands on review units, as did some general-interest publications like the Wall Street Journal. Considering that the Rift is a wildly- hyped, first-generation product, it's heartening to see the reviews so far are all fairly positive. Each of the reviews we surveyed suggests the Rift really does herald the arrival of a high-quality VR gaming experience. According to Kyle Orland of Ars Technica, the "screen door effect" caused by visible pixels is largely resolved by the final Rift's 2160x1200 display, though The Verge's Adi Robertson says he still noticed a bit of graininess. Critically, Robertson said he noticed no visible latency when wearing the Rift, and he found that the Rift's head-tracking camera was always able to figure out which way he was facing so long as he remained in its line of sight. The Rift is nothing without software titles to run, and most reviewers found a handful of favorite titles that they felt showed off what the Rift can do. Polygon's Ben Kuchera calls Eve: Valkyrie "one of the most graphically impressive games in virtual reality," while The Verge's Robertson was especially taken with fantasy title Chronos. Kuchera sums up the feelings of many reviewers when he notes that the Rift "takes you into the game, and often heightens the emotional reactions. " Even so, he thinks the current selection of games available for the hardware "communicates the vast potential of the platform going forward" more than it exposes any one killer app. Reviewers also think the Rift is comfortable to wear for long periods. Ars' Orland reported that he wore the device for hours without breaks while writing his review, and he says he didn't experience any nausea or a need to let his face breathe from time to time. Robertson thinks the headset is "lighter and more comfortable than most of its competition. " Reviewers with glasses found the Rift hard to put on and remove without disturbing those corrective optics, though. Ars tempers its praise for the platform with complaints about the use of the Xbox One controller as the Rift's primary input device, a common thread among many of the reviewers we surveyed. Those who spent time with the Rift think the Oculus Touch controllers should make for a more natural and immersive way of interacting with VR, but those controllers won't be released until later this year. On the other hand, the included headphones won praise from Engadget's Devindra Hardawar. The headphones are removable and use an over-the-ear design rather than an around-the-ear design. Still, none of the reviewers felt the need to replace them. Hardawar even went as far as to call the headphones one of his favorite features of the headset. Reviewers all cite cost as a major concern for the Rift. The Wall Street Journal says the expense of the headset is the primary reason it thinks the Rift isn't ready for mainstream consumers. Even enthusiast-oriented tech sites feel the total cost for a Rift-ready PC and the headset —about $1800—is too much to swallow. Hardawar thinks it's "hard to champion the Rift completely when few people can afford it. It's the very definition of elite technology. " Another major complaint is the quality of the device's included software. The Oculus app's interface is Spartan, and lacking in basic features like chat functions. Worse, the install directory is restricted to the same drive as the user's Windows installation, which means users who want to move their Rift apps off their boot drive are out of luck. According to Ars, Oculus has promised a fix for the restricted install directory in the next "2-3 weeks. " Although The Tech Report didn't get an advance look at the Rift, we were up bright and early on the day pre-orders for the headset went live. With any luck, our unit will ship this week, and we'll hopefully be able to say how the device performs for ourselves soon. Stay tuned.

2016-03-29 17:24 by Robert techreport.com

50 Unisys Beefs Up Executive Roster Unisys appointed two new top-level executives this week, hiring Andy Stafford as the company's new senior vice president of services, a day after the company said Inder M. Singh would join as senior vice president, and chief marketing and strategy officer. The two are Unisys' latest in a list of over 20 appointments the solution provider has made since CEO Peter Altabef took control of the then-struggling company in January 2015, then soon after announced a $300 million company-wide restructuring that would cut 8 percent of Unisys’ workforce. The two new executives at the Blue Bell, Pa.-based company - No. 19 on CRN's Solution Provider 500 - will report directly to Altabef. [Related: Unisys CEO: Challenges Have Been Somewhat 'Self-Inflicted' ] Stafford will start at his newly appointed position April 19. He will be charged with leading the company's global services delivery organization, which provides integrated solutions in security, cloud and infrastructure, applications and business process services, according to a statement from Unisys. Stafford, according to a statement from Unisys, was most recently a senior managing director at Accenture, where he headed a team of more than 100,000 across the globe. He also served as chief operating officer for Xchanging Procurement Services, chief technology officer at Virgin Group and partner in Deloitte Consulting's technology practice. He has also held leadership positions at Computacenter and Andersen Consulting. Meanwhile, Singh will lead Unisys’ global marketing and communications organization, which includes investor relations. Before he joined Unisys, Singh was a managing director at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, a senior vice president for strategy and finance at Comcast, and served in leadership positions at Cisco Systems, Lehman Brothers, Prudential Financial and AT&T. Both he and Stafford come to Unisys after a full year of restructuring at the company. While Unisys was cutting jobs and hiring new executives, it created segmented business practices in the commercial, financial services, U. S. government and public sector markets, all of which were staffed during the year. During the company's fourth-quarter 2015 earnings call in January, Altabef announced the appointment of the company's final practice leader, Eric Crabtree, now global head of the financial services practice. Reflecting on the process that led the company to hire Crabtree, Altabef said that Unisys had created its new segments from scratch and had been populating them throughout 2015, finishing with the hiring of leaders, the last being Crabtree. "With Eric's arrival, we have completed the leadership team for our go-to market. That's a very big deal. " Altabef said. Now, with the additions of Singh and Strafford, Unisys is continuing its executive hiring binge. During the year, Unisys hired at least three global executives, new general managers for the U. S. and Canada, as well as the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions, five new public-business- focused executives, a new vice president for global security solutions, a corporate controller, a new director, CTO and president of enterprise solutions. It’s unclear what other moves, if any, Unisys may make after this week. A spokesman for the company did not respond with an answer to that and other questions before this story was posted.

2016-03-29 17:22 Jimmy Sheridan www.crn.com

51 2016 Channel Madness: Round 2 Winners And Losers Off To The Enterprise 8 Round 2 of the second annual CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs is officially in the books, with the Field of 32 now down to the Enterprise 8. There are no clear favorites in any of the final regional matchups, with nearly every Enterprise 8 representative coming off of a double-digit Round 2 win. Last year's champion, Mike Valentine of Sophos, is still very much alive after a big come-from-behind win in the Solutions 16. Valentine is the only member of the 2015 Enterprise 8 to make it this far. In fact, of the eight remaining chiefs, five are making their first appearance in the tournament. So how did we get here? Take a look back at how things shook out in the Solutions 16 and cast your Round 3 votes at CRN.com/madness . Voting for the Enterprise 8 will remain open until Thursday, March 31, at noon ET.

Channel Madness: We're Off To The Enterprise 8 crn.com 2016-03-29 17:21 Chris Griffin www.crn.com

52 How to Save $1 Million with Data Protection Optimized for Flash This is a post about how to save big money on data protection, but before we dive in, let me tell you a little story. A few years ago, while attending a meeting at a law firm in a high-rise in Chicago, one of the attorneys began talking about a disaster that nearly wiped out the whole office, including the computer system. The attorney said they had experienced a “flood” in the office and he raised his hand high up on the window looking out on the famous Windy City skyline to indicate the high water mark. I thought to myself, “Wait, I am not getting this… How is this possible? We’re on the 13 th floor. Did I miss the news of some flood of Biblical proportions while I was back home in the U. K.?” The attorney saw the perplexed look on my face and then explained, “The overhead sprinklers switched on accidentally causing the inundation. It took us weeks to clean up.” Needless to say, those attorneys quickly realized the importance of backup. Let’s be honest: No one wants to do backups. It’s like going to the doctor. You know that prevention is the best medicine, but it’s something we tend to put off for as long as possible. In the same way, companies need to maintain healthy data protection systems to ensure they have reliable access to their critical data whenever they need it. The ability to rapidly access and recover data after a disaster is crucial. This is especially true when you need to monetize that data, for example, a film studio or record label deep into production on their latest projects. The studio must finish that movie or album to make a profit, so ensuring the data is protected is extremely important. Businesses may not think too much about backups, but they do need to think about protecting against such crises as user error or hardware or software failure, not to mention the threat of hacking, or, heaven forbid, a flood. My story of the Biblical flood at the law firm is a real-world case study of the need for data protection. The trouble is, until disaster strikes, most people don’t want to spend cash on backup. One of the reasons we see a lack of interest in backup is the traditional cost and complexity of doing so in an era of tight budgets. I don’t want to bore you with the details, but if you look at how backups are handled, it’s just not all that glamorous. It’s a circuitous journey that starts with storage arrays, runs through your server, and then travels through your network to a media server or backup server. Eventually the data to be stored gets to its destination where it’s tucked away for future reference. What’s more, the process just described is not always perfect or efficient. From more than 1400 customer assessments, we’ve found that more than one-third of the organizations participating have backup failure rates of more than 2%. This may not sound much, but what if your data is in that 2%? What’s also quite shocking is that more than 51% of organizations had backup jobs that lasted more than four days. Think about it. That’s an incredible timeline. Four days to do one backup? And here’s the kicker: sometimes you don’t even know what has—or has not—been backed up. Industry researcher IDC found that the organizations it surveyed have anywhere from 13 to 120 copies of data scattered across their infrastructure. Indeed, it’s not uncommon for 1TB of data at the front end to equal 42TB of data stored at the back end when you take in daily, weekly, and monthly backups with replication copies. Meanwhile, Gartner, another industry researcher, said the flow of data is increasing almost 40% annually. As it grows, your backup jobs are going to take longer and longer. We’re faced with big data growth, backups that take longer and longer (some of which fail), and the fact that we never delete anything, which adds to the overall burden of storage. What to do? One way to get out of this problem is to rethink how data storage is handled, and you can save large sums in the process. The math is simple. Let’s start by noting that Gartner has determined that the cost of protecting 1TB of data averages $1260 a year. Let’s say you have 100TB of data. Gartner projects the growth of that data will run between 15% and 40% -- depending on the data type over the next five years. If we simply look ahead over that five years, you’ll need to spend three times as much on your storage budget just to keep pace with the growth you’ll experience. It’s money you have to spend, there is no way around it. In the first year, you’ll spend $126,000 ($1260 X 100TB), and by the fifth year, allowing for a 5% price erosion per annum, $364,000 – more than $798,000 over the five years. If you start with a slightly larger installed base, say 126TB of traditional database, you’ll spend even more to keep up with the growth—more than $1 million as you add up the numbers. Of course, this is where HPE Storage can help. You’ll save that $1 million if you move to data protection that features flat, simple data protection architecture. Our converged data protection solution integrated with all-flash 3PAR StoreServ Storage and coupled with our StoreOnce data protection and deduplication solution can give you that $1 million in savings. With our integrated solution, you achieve up to 17-times faster backups with 5-times faster restores and spend hundreds of thousands dollars less in the process. We eliminate duplication and minimize what gets copied, speed up the data movement, simplify and increase the reliability of the mechanisms involved, and finally, simplify the model for data protection licensing. As part of his on stage persona, a famous sad-faced U. S. comedian complained that he could never “get no respect.” He was never the hero, always the one being laughed at. Well, storage is a little like that: It just doesn’t get much respect. But with the advent of data protection optimized for all flash, the humble process of backing-up gets newfound respect and makes you the hero of your data center thanks to all that cash you’ve saved. Want to learn more about flat backup with flash-integrated data protection, what we can do to help?

2016-03-29 17:15 Andrew Dickerson www.computerworld.com

53 Night Shift: How this iOS 9.3 feature helped me sleep better Night Shift is one iOS 9.3 feature that I'm not going to lose sleep over, even if I keep tossing and turning over whether or not to upgrade to that downsized iPad Air 9.7 . This is Apple's brand new display software that tints my screen a more eye-friendly shade of orange by using my iPhone and iPad clock and geolocation to slowly reduce the amount of sleep- inhibiting blue light emitted. I've basically been bathing in intense blue light every night before this, reading and working on my mobile devices, even though I'm fully aware it messes with my circadian rhythm and makes it harder for me to fall asleep. That all changed two months ago when I began testing the iOS 9.3 beta and enabled Night Shift. Now my screens become progressively more orange-tinted starting at sunset. Has it helped? There was only one tech-obsessed way to find out: use a sleep-tracking wearable to gauge how well I slept before and after using Night Shift. I used data from my Fitbit Surge to track my sleep I strapped a Fitbit Surge to my wrist, since the Apple Watch doesn't have an official sleep tracking app, and I let it detect my sleepless movements after I finished reading and editing work every night. The first few nights with iOS 9.3 installed, I purposely turned off Night Shift and went about my usual bedtime routine - blue light at normal levels on my iPhone 6S Plus , iPad Air 2 and New Macbook . Mid-week, I switched on the promising orange glow of Night Shift for my iPhone and iPad, and downloaded the pioneering app f.lux, which shaded my MacBook display in the same sunset- like color. Night Shift isn't going to be a cure-all for sleep deprivation, but I did see a small, but meaningful difference in my sleep quality over the course of my week-long test. Without Night Shift enabled When Night Shift was disabled, the Fitbit statistics reflected my sleeplessness with evil red lines in the beginning of the night when I was trying to fall asleep. The nights in which I turned on Night Shift showed that I was able to fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly throughout the night, despite taking measures to pass out with the same routine. With Night Shift enabled - a sleep increase in sleep quality With the exception of waking up to write in the middle of the night once - when inspiration struck - I slept better with Night Shift enabled, according to the Fitbit Surge tracker. More importantly than reading too much into red and blue spikes, I felt less eye strain when reading and working while my mobile devices and laptop screens were shaded in orange. This is my new normal In fact, I have a very difficult time turning off Night Shift and f.lux now. My normal computer screen looks insanely blue in the minutes after I turn it off, though it appears normal to other people. I really can't go back to not using it. Sort of like most sleeping pills, Night Shift can be addictive to the point where you might not be able to live without it once you start. Going back to this seems unreasonable now. So much blue! Night Shift isn't without problems though. I can't use it during low-power mode, I'm trying to save power at the end of the night and Color accuracy is an issue. Photo editing or trying to determine colors in one of my Google Spreadsheets late at night has proven impossible with it enabled. It's really hard to work when the orange tint makes spreadsheet cells in yellow look white, red look orange and light blue look green. But I can live with that because both Night Shift and f.lux are easy to disable and re-enable. Just make sure you prepare for the color switch. It's sort of like adjusting to the dark, only to have someone flip on the light switch without warning. Night Shift is incredibly easy to turn on and off thanks to a toggle switch added to the bottom of the iOS 9.3 Control Center. It's so important to Apple that it put Night Shift right in the middle of the essential shortcut buttons: between flashlight and timer, and calculator and camera. It's important enough that Apple put in Control Center shortcuts To fine-tune Night Shift further, head to settings, Display & Brightness, and tap Night Shift. Here you can set it to a schedule that works for you and tell it when to start and stop with the relaxing hues. This iOS 9.3 menu also gives you a chance to "Manually Enable Until Tomorrow" and fiddle with the warmness of the color temperature. Computer owners can find f.lux for Mac OS X here. It's a free download and includes extra options like a movie mode to make the colors appear normal, and a radically different Dark Room setting. Happy and content, basked in orange light Night Shift is completely optional, but a worthwhile display setting to explore if you have trouble sleeping immediately after staring at a screen at night. Despite the fact that this is Apple's mid-cycle software refresh between iOS 9 and iOS 10 , Night Shift is the brightest additions to iOS 9.3 and a reason enough to wade through those iOS 9.3 problems . Article continues below

2016-03-29 17:01 By Matt feedproxy.google.com

54 Exclusive: Intel Americas GM CJ Bruno Talks Partner Opportunities In Client Computing, Data Center And IoT Bruno: Channel Can Dig Into IoT, Data Center, Small Form Factor Opportunities Intel's hardware may be traditionally based in the PC market, but the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has been also making advancements in new segments -- including new technology relating to the Internet of Things, memory and data center. Partners are eyeing these new opportunities at the company's Intel Solutions Summit this week in Kissimmee, Fla. Intel Americas General Manager CJ Bruno talked to CRN about what opportunities these new segments hold for Intel's Technology Provider partners, from tapping into Intel's new performance -- enhanced 3D NAND products and 3D Crosspoint technology, to looking for business applications for the Internet of Things. Following are excerpts from Bruno's discussion with CRN on these lucrative segments.

2016-03-29 17:00 Lindsey O www.crn.com

55 Intel Solutions Summit: Microsoft, Intel Target 600-Million-PC Upgrade Opportunity With New Channel Incentive Program Intel is teaming up with Microsoft for a point-based channel incentive program aimed at getting Intel's Technology Provider partners to upgrade the 600 million PCs in use today that are 5 years old or older to the new Skylake- Windows 10 platform. Under the Accelerate Your Business initiative, North American custom builders selling Windows 10-Skylake systems will be rewarded with the new program, available through Intel distributors, set to be unveiled at Intel's Solutions Summit on Tuesday in Kissimmee, Fla. "This is a very positive thing for the channel," said Intel North America Channel Director Todd Garrigues in an exclusive interview with CRN. "This is going to move partners to move forward with sixth-gen, Core, Windows 10-based solutions. There are really cool solutions in terms of productivity, security, battery life and other features. " [Related: Partners: PC Innovation, Data Center Opportunities Top Intel Solutions Summit Wish List ] According to Intel, custom builders in North America can earn points when they purchase Intel sixth-generation Core i5 or Core i7 components and Windows 10 Pro. In order to be eligible to earn points, partners must be active Gold or Platinum Intel Technology Providers. The promotion, which kicks off this week, is valid until June 30. According to Intel, the initiative will also include training, collateral and resource kits for reseller partners to help showcase the benefits of refreshing PCs. Intel’s Skylake processors, unveiled during the summer, and Microsoft’s Windows 10 OS combined are driving an altogether new PC experience, said Garrigues. Microsoft's Cortana voice recognition software, for example, utilizes Skylake's enhanced CPU processing audio pipeline to achieve accurate Correct Accept and low False Support performance as part of its keyword spotter functionality. On the security side, Skylake contains Kernel Mode Code Integrity (KMCI) enforcement features, checking each kernel-mode driver for a digital signature. On the server side, Skylake contains Virtual Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which means its chips are secure crypto- processors designed to carry out cryptographic operations. "Intel has always been very creative when it comes to creating interest in an ever-changing PC landscape,” said Douglas Grosfield, the founder and CEO of Five Nines IT Solutions, a Kitchener, Ontario-based partner.

2016-03-29 17:00 Lindsey O www.crn.com

56 Razer Unveils Ripsaw PC and Console Game Capture Card for $180 One thing you can say about Razer is that it's not afraid to spread its wings into different product categories. We're reminded of that today with the introduction of the Razer Ripsaw , the peripheral maker's first game capture card. The Ripsaw is an external box that plugs into your PC via USB 3.0. It's able to capture raw and uncompressed game footage at up to 1080p at 60 frames per second with "nearly zero latency. " And as you're capturing game content, you can take advantage of the card's onboard audio and microphone inputs to add a snazzy secondary audio or commentary layer. "Razer has been involved with the streaming scene since the beginning of game broadcasting, with top streamers using our hardware through the ages to get the unfair gaming advantage in front of audiences," said Min-Liang Tan, Razer CEO and co-founder. "We’re excited to design a game capture card that meets the exacting needs of broadcasters and to also give newcomers a perfect tool to help them possibly become the next Syndicate or Pewdiepie. " The Ripsaw works out of the box with streaming software like Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and XSplit. It also also comes with the necessary component cables to plug-and-play with game consoles, both past and present, including the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Razer Forge TV, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. To use the Ripsaw with a desktop PC, requirements call for an Intel Core i5-4430 or higher processor, GeForce GTX 660 or above graphics card, and at least 4GB of RAM (8GB is recommended). For laptops, the Ripsaw requires a Core i7-4810MQ or above CPU and GeForce GTX 870M or higher GPU. Other specs: The Razer Ripsaw is available now for $180 . Follow Paul on Google+ , Twitter , and Facebook

2016-03-29 16:59 Paul Lilly www.maximumpc.com

57 TreasureHunt malware steals POS credit card data from retailers TreasureHunt allows criminals to steal credit card payment data from retailers Custom-built malware is stealing credit card details directly from retail point-of-sale (POS) systems, cybersecurity researchers have warned. The malware, dubbed TreasureHunt, has been observed by FireEye, which has warned the POS-targeting software is being used to steal information from specific organisations. TreasureHunt appears to target US retailers using older, less secure POS systems, which rely on "swipe", rather than chip and PIN, cards to authorise payments. Once a POS machine is infected, the software will enumerate the running processes, extract payment card information from memory, and transmit this information to a command and control server, wrote Nart Villeneuve , a threat researcher at FireEye in a blog post about the malware . Examination of the TreasureHunt code points to the source of the malware as BearsInc, who FireEye describes as "an actor on an underground cybercrime forum dedicated to credit card fraud". Such forums typically allow users to buy and sell stolen payment information. The developer of TreasureHunt posts under the handle of "Jolly Roger", with the pirate theme continued via the skull and crossbones icon used by the web interface for controlling compromised systems. Its thought this strain of POS-targeting malware was first deployed in 2014 and it's appeared more frequently in 2015 and 2016 as criminals look to infect outdated systems before US retailers complete the transition to chip-, rather than swipe-, based payment systems. "In the world of POS threats, there has been a rise in both underground offerings as well as new malware found in active use. The demand is likely due to the ongoing transition to EMV chip and PIN technology in the United States, which will eventually render these techniques largely useless," said Villeneuve. "Many cyber criminals are looking take advantage of memory scraping POS malware while it still works," he continued, adding that SMBs are the main target for POS malware . "With an increasing number of major firms transitioning to the more secure chip-enabled cards, we expect to see cyber criminals increasingly turn their attention to smaller retailers and banks that may not be as prepared for the transition," Villeneuve concluded.

2016-03-29 16:52 Danny Palmer zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

58 The artistry of top Several decades after its introduction in 1984, top is still one of the most popular tools for looking into system performance. It can help you spotlight processes that are consuming system resources, gauge resource limitations, or get a quick and very useful glimpse into how well your systems are handling their processing loads. The basic form of the command – what you see when you simply type “top” – shows the most useful performance statistics you’re likely to find on a Unix system. You get a view of how much memory is being used, the system load, the processes that are using the most resources (and who is running those processes), how long the system has been up, and whether any serious swapping is going on. Take the following top output. This system has been running for over a year since its last reboot. Some of the numbers that quickly tell you that the system is not having any problems include: You’ll probably notice that top just happens to be the process that is listed first. It's almost always a sign that the system doesn’t have much to do if the top command gets more access to the CPU than other processes. This command updates the display every 3 seconds, shows you additional lines of process data if you stretch out your window, and runs until you type “q” for quit or ^c. That first line, as you might have noticed, is the same that you get from the uptime command. The load averages are one of the most useful measures for gauging overall system performance. These three numbers represent the number (on average) number of processes that are having to wait to get access to the CPU. If the load average were 1, it would mean that there’s generally a process waiting all of the time. The.025 measurement means that there’s a process waiting only once in every four times that number is queried. There are three numbers – one that shows the average over the last minute, one that shows the average over the last five minutes, and one that shows the number over the last fifteen minutes. Getting a sense of whether the system is slowing down or speeding up, therefore, only takes a quick look at the three load statistics. In this case, the system is slowing down. You can tell this because the one-minute average is larger than the five-minute statistic and the five-minute average is larger than the fifteen-minute statistic. Keep in mind, however, that we’re only looking at fifteen minutes worth of data. You’ll need to capture a lot more load data to get a feel for how the system is doing over a longer period of time. The top command’s default is to organize the processes it report by CPU usage (highest usage first). However, you can change that interactively or when you start: Press T if you want to sort by the time processes have been running (longest running first). You can also change the interval that top uses -- the number of seconds that it waits between display updates. Use the –d option followed by the number of seconds you want each interval to take. Note that you can specify portions of seconds if you’re so inclined, though.05 is going to produce quite a frenetic display. And you can control how many views you see -- a continuous stream or some specific number of updates. Add –n # (e.g., -n 10) if you want to see only a specific number of updates before your top command completes. The command below shows performance data organized by memory usage with only one view. To look at one specific user, use the –u option. You can show cumulative time (how long processes and their dead child processes have been running) using the -S option. You can actually terminate a process within top if you have sufficient privilege. To do that, type k. You will then be prompted to enter the process ID. Similarly, you can change the nice setting of a process by typing r. You will be prompted to enter the process ID and the nice value. Setting a "nice" value, by the way, is sort of like ordering something from Amazon Prime and saying you don’t need it in two days. You're lowering the process' priority to be "nice" to other processes, giving them more opportunities to run. Some processes run with a "nice" value by default and you'll spot these when using top. One other interesting aspect of top is that you can save your top settings by pressing W (for write ) when you're running top. This will store your settings in a file called.toprc (~/.toprc). If you want to change your default top settings, you can try editing that file. For example, you can change the interval between updates (look for Delay_time in the output below) or the order in which top's columns are displayed (reverse the fieldscur settings). On the other hand, making these changes interactively is easier and more flexible. And, of course, you can always turn your favorite top command variations into aliases to make them easier to remember and use.

2016-03-29 16:31 Sandra Henry www.computerworld.com

59 Samsung Galaxy TabPro S review: This Surface Pro clone is drop-dead gorgeous Apple has a "photo-aligned" IPS panel in the new iPad Pro but the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S has a drop-dead gorgeous Super AMOLED panel. Use commas to separate multiple email addresses Your message has been sent. There was an error emailing this page. By Gordon Mah Ung PCWorld | Mar 29, 2016 4:17 PM PT If technology were people, Samsung’s Galaxy TabPro S would clearly be a super model: It’s willowy thin, extremely lightweight, and has a jaw-dropping OLED screen. Even better, Samsung’s first convertible is a PC. This sleek 12-inch tablet sports Windows 10 Home, and it’s paired with a pretty peppy CPU, too. Did we mention this machine has an OLED screen? Samsung isn’t the only manufacturer to announce an OLED in a PC—Dell, HP, and Lenovo all showed off laptops with OLEDs at CES in January. This is the first one we’ve seen in a shipping product, though, and it’s a doozy. Long used in smartphones, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens differ from the typical side-lit LED panels found in the majority of laptops and tablets today. Side-lit screens light up the entire display at all times. In order to show black on the screen, the panel has to block the light. As you can imagine, black usually appears more like gray, and any escaping light will create ugly backlight bleed. That’s not the case with an OLED panel. Each pixel can be turned on and off individually, resulting in deeper black levels and more accurate colors. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but the black levels and contrast of the Galaxy TabPro S’s OLED display are superb. How beautiful is it? I’ve always thought the Surface Pro 4 had a nice screen, but when placed side-by-side in a darkened room with the Samsung TabPro S, the SP4’s backlight bleed and grayish blacks were woefully obvious. The OLED screen also gives the TabPro S’s contrast a boost. Sure, if you go by numbers, the TabPro S's resolution of 2160x1440 might not sound impressive. It’s not 4K Ultra HD, nor does it match the Surface Pro 4’s 2736x1824. But when it comes to OLED, numbers don’t tell the whole story. Overall, the Samsung TabPro S bests the Surface Pro 4’s panel for image quality—it’s just lovely. OLEDs do have a downside: They can degrade over time. Therefore, some manufacturers attempt to slow this effect in their displays. For example, Dell’s 4K Ultra HD OLED desktop panel has a sensor that switches off the monitor when you’re not sitting in front of it, in order to reduce wear and tear on the diodes. Samsung has also taken steps to protect the Galaxy TabPro S’s screen, using a far more annoying approach. The screen dims significantly after one minute of inactivity—and you can’t override the feature. The dimming is selective, too. The screen’s brightness faded during my tests of graphics, RAM, and memory performance, but not when I fired up a video in Windows 10’s media player or ran 3DMark. It also didn't dim when I was actively using a browser window, but when a flash or HTML5 animation is running in the background, it’ll get darker. Samsung didn’t officially confirm that this dimming is related to OLED preservation, but I doubt it’s a power-saving issue, as the Galaxy TabPro S dims the screen whether on battery or plugged in. Regardless of the intent behind the feature, it’s annoying and a potential deal breaker for some. Not having control over it (at least not that I could find) is very frustrating. The Galaxy TabPro S keyboard cover wraps around both sides, which offers more protection than the Surface Pro 4 or iPad Pro keyboards. Inside the tablet is an Intel Core m3-6Y30 paired with 4GB of LPDDR3/1600 RAM and a 128GB M.2 SATA SSD. These specs may sound lower-end than you’d expect from a competitor to the Surface Pro 4, which offers Core i5 and Core i7 processors and faster storage. However, the Surface Pro 4’s base model is similarly configured, and even when you pit the TabPro S against the SP4’s higher-end options, most people won’t notice a difference in performance during typical, everyday tasks. You only get one port on the TabPro S: a reversible USB Type C port for charging and data transfer that supports USB 3.1 10Gbps transfer speeds. (Sorry, Thunderbolt 3 fans—no love this time.) It’s unfortunate there’s just a single port, since it hinders your ability to charge the device when another USB device is plugged in. Sure, you can buy a multi-port dongle, but it’s still a pain in the behind. More disappointing is that Samsung didn’t include a USB Type A-to-USB Type C dongle in the box. It's unlikely that most people who buy a Galaxy TabPro S will have the foresight to buy a dongle before there’s a need to install apps or copy programs from a USB thumb drive. HP’s Spectre X2 wins out here, as it’s cheaper, sports an LTE modem, and comes with this vital accessory. The Samsung Galaxy TabPro S (right) next to the 13-inch iPad Pro (left). You probably can’t see it, but the TabPro S is thinner by a hair. The good news is you can charge the Galaxy TabPro S using other USB Type C chargers. For instance, I was able to use the chargers for the Pixel C and the Chromebook Pixel, as well as Innergie’s third-party PowerGear USB-C 45. The Galaxy TabPro S is also one of the thinnest if not the thinnest convertible device we’ve ever seen. Samsung states its official measurement as 6.3mm, but my digital calipers say this convertible is just about 6.5mm. For comparison, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and Pixel C measure 7mm, and the Surface Pro 4 is a plus-size 8.5mm. All these are, of course, without their respective keyboards. Many people have described the Galaxy TabPro S as a Surface Pro clone, but that’s not quite right. Instead, it more closely emulates the iPad Pro. Why? I believe that the Surface line’s signature feature is its kickstand, which lets the convertible stand on its own, without the need of a keyboard cover. So HP’s Spectre X2 with its built-in kickstand, for example, is more of a Surface clone in my view. The TabPro S, on the other hand, is really a beautiful tablet with a clever keyboard case. That case connects using magnets and a set of pins on the bottom side, and when closed, wraps completely around the tablet. (It’s a nice touch for those who don’t like scuff marks on their device.) When open, the cover props up the tablet at either a 65-degree or, roughly, 165-degree angle. You can’t use the keyboard with the tablet laid flat (180 degrees), as the pins won’t make contact. Both the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S and 12.9-inch iPad Pro feature keyboard covers that act as kickstands. Both lack the adjustable angles of the Surface Pro’s keyboard. The TabPro S’s keyboard looks similar to the Surface Pro 3’s, in that all the keys sit flush with each other, but in actual use it’s a far different experience. The TabPro S's keys feel sloppy— they’re very loose and just a little too slow on the return. It’s also a bummer that the keyboard isn’t backlit. That feature used to be a luxury, but now it’s expected on high-end devices. (Heck, even the budget Surface 3’s keyboard cover has backlighting.) It’s not all bad, though. The trackpad is quite usable, though still not as nice as what you'll find on the recent keyboard covers for the Surface Pro line. And Samsung has integrated an NFC reader into the keyboard (there’s also one on the back of the tablet). In theory, you can pair a Samsung Galaxy S6 or newer phone with the TabPro S to share the phone’s data connection over Bluetooth or unlock the tablet by using the fingerprint reader on the phone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t test these two features as the app wasn’t ready during our review. Although not horrible, one of the more disappointing aspects of the Galaxy TabPro S is its loose-feeling keyboard. Despite the Galaxy TabPro S seeming more like an iPad Pro, there’s still the lingering question of whether it’s the convertible that finally beats the latest in the Surface Pro line. In terms of hot new tech, it just might—that beautiful OLED screen will leave you giddy. It’s also much cheaper than the Surface Pro 4. At $899 with the keyboard, the Galaxy TabPro S is surprisingly inexpensive when you consider the screen technology inside. A Surface Pro 4 with similar specs and a keyboard will set you back $1,029. However, the TabPro S loses to the Surface Pro 4 in the areas that likely matter more. For those who need performance, the higher-end Surface Pro 4 models are just plain faster. The integrated USB Type A port and almost infinitely adjustable angle on the kickstand also give the Surface Pro 4 a leg up. Microsoft also includes a pen with the Surface Pro 4, while Samsung hasn’t priced its pen, much less made it available. And of course, you can completely control the screen brightness on a Surface Pro 4. The Galaxy TabPro S features two available viewing angles. For a fanless, wafer-thin PC, the Galaxy TabPro S posts very reasonable performance in the kinds of tasks it will confront. In our Handbrake encode test, where we take a 30GB 1080p MKV file and transcode it into an MP4 using the default Android Tablet preset, the TabPro S outdid the Surface Pro 3, which is thicker and has a fan. This benchmark hammers all the available cores on the computer, and because it can take a long time to run, the test puts a heavy thermal load on a device’s CPU. The Core m3 in the Galaxy TabPro S performs reasonably well despite the device's super-thin body. Some devices react to this intensive CPU and thermal task by throttling down performance, which is what I’ve seen in the Surface Pro 3—its Haswell processor drops back as it heats up. Some SP3 owners say their units don’t do that, but I think that's because they’re not pushing their systems as hard. That’s not to say the Galaxy TabPro S doesn’t slow down or throttle as it heats up, but it’s on a minor level. In graphics performance, there’s not much of a gap between the TabPro S and most midrange Core i5 chips and even a few Core i7 processors, which use nearly the same graphics core. I attribute variances among the midrange Surface Pro models, the TabPro S, and the Spectre X2 to any number of minor reasons. For example, a small margin of variance always exists between benchmark runs, and then there are things like background static or even the temperature of the room when the benchmark was run. 3DMark Sky Diver is mostly influenced by the GPU in each tablet, so the Core i5 chips don’t maintain much of a lead as they use similar graphics cores. The bottom line is that with integrated graphics, the TabPro S can play Minecraft with a few settings turned down, but forget trying to play Tom Clancy’s The Division . Since these ultraportable convertibles won’t primarily be used for video editing or gaming, the more important test is office work. To evaluate a device’s performance during tasks like word processing, email, and web browsing, we use PCMark 8’s Work Conventional benchmark. As expected, the results confirm that with enough RAM and an adequate SSD behind them, it’s hard to tell the difference between Core m and Core i7 processors in these types of tasks. I can tell the difference when I drop to a more budget chip, like an Atom X7, but within the range of “Core” tablets and laptops, you’ll get a similar experience in most office tasks. In office tasks, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between a Core m3 and Core i5 chip. Where the Galaxy TabPro S really knocks our socks off is battery life. (Though there’s a caveat with that.) As mentioned earlier, an OLED panel doesn’t backlight the entire screen—so unlike a standard LED display, a pixel won’t consume power when displaying black. That means lower power consumption, and thus a much better battery life. When paired with an average-sized battery, you’ll get much more longevity out of a device that uses an OLED screen instead of an LED display. That’s definitely the case for the Galaxy TabPro S, which uses a 39-watt-hour battery. In our rundown test, in which we play a 4K video repeatedly using Windows 10’s Movies & TV application, the TabPro S gave us almost nine hours of playback. The video playback life of the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S is spectactacular considering its battery size. For contrast, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, which has a traditional IPS screen (and, admittedly, a more power-hungry Core i5) runs out of gas at about 6.5 hours. Dell’s newest XPS 13 actually ties the TabPro S, despite its Core i5 chip. But the XPS 13 does so with a giant 57-watt-hour battery. For the TabPro S to match the Dell’s battery-life performance is just phenomenal. Admittedly, our test illustrates battery life in a scenario where there’s a good amount of black on the screen, since with most movies, you have two black bars at the top and bottom of the panel that don’t drain energy due to the TabPro S’s OLED screen. However, if you were using the machine for tasks where the screen is almost all white, you’d consume far more power, maybe even more than a standard IPS panel. So depending on how you use the TabPro S between charges, your battery-life mileage may vary. As more OLED displays appear in the wild, we reviewers may begin using more than one battery test. For the moment, I can definitely say that OLED kicks butt for movie runtime. In the end, the Galaxy TabPro S isn’t the Surface Pro–killer some may expect it to be…but it’s an awesome little convertible, even with the keyboard’s drawbacks and the curious screen- dimming behavior. If you can look past its foibles, that OLED panel alone makes this a worthy purchase. It isn’t perfect, but the Galaxy TabPro S is one heck of an impressive tablet. This story, "Samsung Galaxy TabPro S review: This Surface Pro clone is drop-dead gorgeous" was originally published by PCWorld . Gordon Mah Ung — Executive Editor Start your new computer off right with solid security tools, productivity software, and other programs... If you're looking for a good time but don't have a dime to spare, these 16 free PC games will leave you... Got Apple Watch questions? Come on in. A new low-power, "brain-inspired" supercomputing platform based on IBM chip technology will soon start... The Oculus Rift arrives as a locked-down platform, but you can easily open it back up if you want to... CIOs who can transform their businesses and accelerate fiscal growth will help their companies fend of...

2016-03-29 16:17 Gordon Mah www.itnews.com

60 Wearable Users Happy With Hardware, Less So With Apps Consumers express more approval for their wearable devices than they do for the apps associated with them. The gap suggests wearable makers should focus on creating software as compelling as their hardware. Argus Insights analyzed more than 136,000 consumer reviews of wearable devices such as Fitbit, Jawbone, and other activity trackers from Nike, Microsoft, and Samsung, and of applications from November 2015 to February 2016. The company found that consumers were generally happier with their devices than they were with the apps used to interpret wearable data. In the firm's report , "Examining the Wearables Ecosystem: Roadblocks in Personal Data Interpretation," chief analyst Makenna Breitenfeld argues that the gap between the way people feel about their wearable devices and the associated apps underscores industry uncertainty about how wearable data can actually be useful. "Wearables are aspirational devices, especially when being used for fitness and personal health," said Breitenfeld. "They do a wonderful job of collecting data. But without interpretation of this data to inspire action and promote change, the devices become dispensable. " Wearables must answer the same question big data is facing: Now what? "Just because you have the data doesn't mean you can take action," said John Feland, CEO of Argus Insights, in a phone interview. Practically every company focused on data promises to translate facts and figures into actionable business intelligence. But that's easier to say than to do. Feland said he saw the same issue in the Air Force intelligence community, where lots of time was spent collecting data, but not enough time was spent on analysis. "The assumption is that once we have all the data, we can figure out the answer," said Feland. "Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. " Many device-makers, Feland said, started with the technology and haven't adequately considered user experience. "A lot of it comes down to the fact that you can't separate the design of the hardware from the software," he said. "That's one thing Apple has gotten right for years. " The report didn't include the Apple Watch or other smartwatches because they're application platforms with a variety of apps, Feland explained. Instead, it is focused on wearables with a dedicated app like those from Fitbit, Garmin, Jawbone, Lumo Bodytech, Microsoft, Nike, and Samsung. "Unfortunately, a lot of the companies are using the blind squirrel innovation strategy," said Feland. "They're digging around to find something that works. " Are you prepared for a new world of enterprise mobility? Attend the Wireless & Mobility Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now! Feland remarked that both the Nike and Jawbone apps scored well compared to apps from Fitbit, Samsung , and others. So compelling app design is possible. The report says that the Jawbone Up app is particularly appreciated due to its ability to turn data into a recommended plan of action. Part of delivering a positive user experience, Feland contends, involves making wearable data more easily transferable across applications and devices. He likens the situation today to consumer living rooms strewn with multiple remote control devices that don't talk to one another. "A lot of us will have smartwatches on our wrists but will also have other things around us," said Feland. "We need a way to bring all the data together, instead of everyone trying to mimic the walled garden strategy. "

2016-03-29 16:06 Thomas Claburn www.informationweek.com

61 Sony's new camera hopes to show you that size does matter Sony has introduced a new superzoom bridge camera with the RX10 mark III. The new camera incorporates a 1-inch, 20.1MP megapixel sensor and a 25x super-telephoto zoom lens. The built-in Zeiss Vario-Sonnar f2.4-4 lens offers an 35mm equivalent focal range of 24- 600mm. At the core of the camera is also an BIONZ X image processing engine coupled with a DRAM chip for extra memory. Together, the two components offer users a whole slew of fast shooting options. For example, users will be able to take super slow motion video capture at up to 1000 fps. Coupled with Sony's claims the camera can autofocus as fast as 0.09 seconds, the RX10 III might prove to be one of the best cameras to capture sports and wildlife. As with the Japanese firm's other cameras, the RX10 III also captures 4K video and offers a wide sensitivity range of ISO 64 to 12,800. Other specs for the camera include a XGA OLED Tru-Finder electronic viewfinder with 2.35 million dots of resolution. The new Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III available first in the UK this April and priced at £1,250. The camera will also release in the US later this May for about $1,500, as Sony has not finalized pricing. Compacts weren't the only cameras getting new telephoto lenses, Sony also announced the new FE 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 G OSS. This is Sony's longest reaching lens for its E-mount family thus far and with a minimum focusing distance of 3-feet (0.9m), it can also be used for tele-macro photography. Internally, the lens features four aspherical glass elements, two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements and Sony's Nano AR coating. Put all together they should suppress spherical aberration, distortion and chromatic aberration. The Sony FE 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS telephoto zoom lens will be available in the UK this April for £1,150. In the following month the lens will also arrive stateside for about $1,200. Expanding its line of prime lenses, Sony also announced a new FE 50mm f1.8. Like any standard nifty-fifty, the 50mm is a normal focal length lens that approximates the human eye's field of view. The f1.8 aperture will also allow photographers to really narrow their depth of field and introduce gorgeous bokeh. Arriving in the UK later this April, the new FE 50mm f1.8 will ring up for £240 and the lens will also be available in the US this may for about $250. Article continues below

2016-03-29 15:45 By Kevin feedproxy.google.com

62 Apple-FBI Dispute Ends, But Solution Providers Say Encryption Debate Is Far From Over The back and forth between Apple and the FBI over an encrypted iPhone came to an abrupt close Monday when the FBI filed court papers saying it had successfully hacked into the iPhone using a third-party vendor. The FBI is now seeking to drop its case against Apple, which had argued that Apple needed to help it open the iPhone belonging to one of the shooters involved in the San Bernardino attacks. Apple CEO Tim Cook had refused to do, saying the process of creating what he called a "backdoor" would compromise device security for all users. Solution providers, however, said questions still remain about device security and the extent of influence the government can have over a private sector vendor. [Related: Apple-FBI Debate Center Stage At 2016 RSA Conference ] In the past few weeks, many solution providers and vendors have stood up in support of Apple , saying that opening the phone would create a dangerous precedent for backdoor access into the encryption technologies they use to protect their clients' data. Now that this latest chapter in the debate around encryption technologies has come to a close, Matt Johnson, CEO of Reisterstown, Md.-based Phalanx Secure, said the industry should remain on high alert to similar "power plays" by the government to surpass security technologies down the road. "They are trying to open the great Pandora's box and give themselves more power to violate the privacy that many of us covet. Once they get this power, it never goes away. We should be wary of these acts by any of the federal agencies," Johnson said. Michael Knight, president and chief technology officer at Greenville, S. C.-based Encore Technology Group, said he expects the debate over cybersecurity and the government's ability to monitor for national security risks is far from over. "I think this is going to be the forever argument between what is the balance-counterbalance between having privacy, but also having enough oversight that if people are doing something you get an early trigger before it's too late," Knight said. Apple's Cook said in a statement about the Monday filing that the company will "continue to help law enforcement" where appropriate and build better security protections into its products. "Apple believes deeply that people in the United States and around the world deserve data protection, security and privacy. Sacrificing one for the other only puts people and countries at greater risk," Cook said in the statement. "This case raised issues, which deserve a national conversation about our civil liberties, and our collective security and privacy. Apple remains committed to participating in that discussion. " The FBI so far has refused to say which third-party vendor it used to open the phone, though industry reports have said it could be Cellebrite, an Israeli mobile forensics firm. The FBI has also not disclosed what method or vulnerability it used to hack into the iphone.

2016-03-29 14:53 Sarah Kuranda www.crn.com

63 10 Things You Don't Know About NTT Data A New Chapter For NTT Data Dell agreed Monday to sell its Perot Systems IT services business to Toyosu, Japan-based outsourcing firm NTT Data for nearly $3.1 billion. NTT Data is a $14 billion, 80,000-employee IT services provider with operations in more than 40 countries. It was founded in 1967 as part of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corp. and spun off into a separate company in 1988. NTT Data has undertaken a massive expansion outside Japan over the past decade, landing high-profile government, automobile and private sector clients. Here's a look back at some of the most interesting and unusual things NTT Data has delved into in the past 49 years.

2016-03-29 14:28 Michael Novinson www.crn.com

64 Oculus Rift: How to play SteamVR games and VR apps from outside the Oculus Store Oculus has been pretty adamant since the Rift launch that they’ve created an “open platform,” but they’re playing a game of semantics here. Yes, it’s open—but not by default. (And I don’t even want to get into the developer side of things.) If you want to taste the fruits of forbidden virtual reality—be it from Steam or from a forum post or some shady website you found—you’ll need to expressly opt in to doing so. Luckily it’s not overly difficult to tear down the walls. And you’re done! Here’s Oculus’s reasoning for requiring you to opt into running apps not provided by the Oculus Store: “Certain developers may create applications for Rift using the Oculus SDK that are not distributed through the Oculus platform. While Oculus allows this, applications from such developers have not been reviewed by Oculus for security, comfort, content, or health and safety.” So in layman’s terms, the risks here are 1) Malware 2) Vomiting 3) Pornography 4) More vomiting, and 5) Tripping and breaking your neck. But who ever let that stop them?

2016-03-29 14:25 Hayden Dingman www.itnews.com

65 Yahoo Gives Potential Buyers An April 11 Deadline Yahoo has set a deadline of April 11 for all prospective buyers to get in proposals for the assets of the company they wish to acquire, along with their bid amounts, according to reports. Also, Microsoft is eyeing a potential financial assist to private equity buyers, reports say. Yahoo has distributed letters to potential suitors asking them to indicate the assets they are interested in, the prices they are willing to pay, and details on how the purchase would be financed, according to a Wall Street Journal report . The report noted Yahoo's bidder deadline, and that interested parties will need to list conditions or approvals they would need to do a deal and key assumptions they would be making by moving forward with the transaction. Verizon Communications, Time, and IAC/InterActive are among the potential suitors that Yahoo's investment bankers have contacted regarding a potential bid. The company seeks to reduce the entrants from 40 parties that signed nondisclosure agreements to a more manageable group of serious buyers, the Journal reported. Microsoft is talking to private equity firms about potentially lending financial assistance to acquire Yahoo assets, according to Re/code. Such a move makes sense, given the fact that Microsoft has a search partnership with Yahoo it will undoubtedly want to retain, and that its former high-profile buyout attempt ultimately resulted in a search-only arrangement. Yahoo facing pressure from activist shareholder Starboard Value, moved from its previous position of wanting to sell only non-core assets to a willingness to pursue the sale of its core assets as well , despite an interest by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to spin off the core assets into a separate company that she would run. Yahoo's core assets include search, email, and Web properties like Yahoo sports and Yahoo finance. Mayer is not part of the Yahoo board committee that is handling the sales process, in part due to the potential that she may become one of the investors in a bid by a private equity firm, the Journal reported. [Read Yahoo Mail Ad-Blocking Move Angers Users .] In setting an April deadline for bids, Yahoo may be aiming to have any potential sales completed, or far enough along, before its annual shareholders' meeting, which traditionally has been held in June or July. This year's shareholders' meeting may prove contentious, given that Starboard Value has launched a proxy fight and wants investors to vote in its slate of nine directors, rather than vote for Yahoo's nominees. In launching its proxy contest, Starboard said, "Yahoo's current board has failed to deliver results for shareholders," Starboard stated in launching its proxy contest. "Significant board change is desperately needed to hold management accountable and properly oversee any operational turnaround plan, separation, or sale of assets. "

2016-03-29 14:06 Dawn Kawamoto www.informationweek.com

66 NASA Software Audit Reveals Budgetary Black Hole NASA is well known for its successful deep space expeditions, but an audit from the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found a budgetary black hole right here on Earth. An audit of NASA's spaceport command and control system software project revealed that development costs have increased approximately 77%, to $207.4 million. The release of a fully operational version has slipped by 14 months from July 2016 to September 2017. The Spaceport Command and Control System (SCCS) software is designed to control pumps, motors, valves, power supplies, and other ground equipment, and to monitor the health and status of spacecraft as astronauts prepare for launch. It's also designed to record and retrieve data from systems before and during launch. The audit warns that delays with such software designed for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket could affect the ability to react to unexpected issues during launch operations, and could impact the launch schedule for the unmanned Orion system, which is due to lift off in 2018. The SLS rocket will help NASA prepare for missions to Mars . The first exploration mission would allow the space agency to use the lunar vicinity as a proving ground to test technologies farther from Earth, and demonstrate it can get to a stable orbit in the area of space near the moon in order to support sending humans to deep space. The root of the budgetary issues appears to result from NASA's June 2006 decision to integrate multiple products or parts of products rather than develop software in-house or buy an off-the- shelf product. The report noted writing computer code to "glue" together disparate products has turned out to be more complex and expensive than anticipated. Create a culture where technology advances truly empower your business. Attend the Leadership Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now! As the report states, NASA's developers created 2.5 million lines of "glue-ware" code as of January, with almost two more years of development activity planned. In comparison, NASA re-engineered the Hubble Space Telescope command and control system with approximately 500,000 lines of glue-ware code. NASA officials estimate that it will take programmers an additional 49,176 hours to complete development of version 4.0 of the SCCS. "In our judgment, the program's reluctance to change course reflects a cultural legacy at NASA of over-optimism and over-promising what the agency can achieve in a specific timeframe," according to the inspector general's audit, which was released March 28. In addition, several planned capabilities have been deferred because of cost and timing pressures, including the ability to automatically detect the root cause of specific equipment and system failures. "NASA made its decision regarding the SCCS software architecture nearly 10 years ago, but in our view this may no longer be the most prudent course of action given significant advances in commercial command and control software over that time," the report noted. This isn't the first time NASA has experienced difficulties with similar large, complex software development efforts. Between 1995 and 2002, the agency spent more than $500 million on two separate attempts to update command and control software at Kennedy Space Center. Both efforts failed to meet their objectives and were substantially scaled back or cancelled prior to completion.

2016-03-29 13:10 Nathan Eddy www.informationweek.com

67 Let's Play Server Networking Buzzword Bingo Are you ready to play? Today there are tons of buzzwords related to server networking flying around -- server networking virtualization, software-defined network (SDN) , and many others. I want to focus on the buzzwords that will relate to your job as a systems administrator and discuss how understanding more about server networking infrastructure and the buzz around software- defined networking can make your life easier. In today’s world of the Internet of Things (IoT) , it’s easy to get lost in all the new buzz terms flying around such as cloud or SDN. Our customers want things faster, and they want them to be more agile and more efficient. The key foundation to any platform is the network. If your network isn’t up to snuff, no one will even make it to your server farm. As a systems administrator, you probably know just enough about networking to consider yourself a danger; but in reality, understanding the new concepts emerging in network infrastructure -- especially in today’s highly virtualized world -- can make your job easier. We virtualized servers years ago, but only recently has the concept of network virtualization come into play in the IT arena. This was the last frontier for virtualization, and it became a necessity with the emergence of cloud computing and the need for capacity on demand (COD). COD Requires Server Networking With SDN Cloud vendors like to say they can push a button and instantly increase capacity for your server farm. No doubt this is attractive to many companies, particularly e-commerce sites that need large amounts of capacity during the holiday season and less during the rest of the year. But what is capacity on demand and how does it work? COD relies heavily on virtualization, including both servers and server network infrastructure. Most systems administrators understand server virtualization already, but SDN is less understood. Software-defined networking is relatively new but is already essential for agile operations. Here’s what SDN really means in a nutshell: It is an abstraction of overlay networks from the underlying physical network. This means you can make changes virtually risk-free because you aren’t replacing hardware or moving cables, just updating via software. Network controllers and agents being software instead of physical hardware translates into more innovation because updates can be more frequent. You can also deploy network devices more easily because they are software-based. Otherwise, you have to buy more hardware and cable the new devices to your current infrastructure. It’s always a little scary when we send folks onto the data center floor to unplug cables and rearrange network equipment -- for me, at least. One bad move can create a very long, bad day for everyone involved. Server Network Virtualization Makes My Life Easier? Understanding SDN also helps you understand how it can evolve your DevOps management of your server farm. The goal is to stand up your systems so that you can focus on stability and innovation. Keeping folks off your data center floor is always a bonus. This paves the way to add new automation to your systems, which translates into less work for you. Remember: Work smart, not hard. Now you are ready for network buzzword bingo; may the odds forever be in your favor.

2016-03-29 13:05 Bobbie Artistain www.informationweek.com

68 'Torchbearer' CIOs cozy up with customers amid convergence "Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive. " Former Intel CEO Andy Grove memorialized those mantras 20 years ago, but they ring true today. It takes a special breed of CIO to drive change in a world where technology is enabling enterprising startups to disrupt industry incumbents, which in turn cross over to other industries, says Michael Fitzgerald, CIO advisory leader and partner of IBM Global Business Services. “CIOs everywhere realize the barriers between formerly distinct industries are collapsing, as companies in one sector apply their expertise to others – producing new hybrids and erasing traditional industry classifications in the process,” Fitzgerald wrote . Threats from tech companies such as Uber and Google are forcing auto-manufacturers into ride-sharing and autonomous driving. Imagine if one day Ford or General Motors turn the tables and pose a major threat to their tech rivals. For a modern-day example of industry crossover, consider General Electric, which is using software and sensors to capitalized on the emerging Internet of Things phenomenon. The industrial giant's Predix analytics software, which anticipates when turbines and other engines will fail, could become a huge software business to rival leading software vendors. Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff recently opined that companies fear being "Uberized out of the world.” It’s a legitimate fear among CIOs. That is why it takes a torchbearer – a CIO both innovative and capable of driving revenue growth -- to manage IT in a world where every company is essentially becoming a technology company. Fitzgerald says torchbearer CIOs demonstrate their ability to be innovative while showing a "superb financial track record" and the ability to grow the business. Torchbearers are transformational CIOs, with a predilection for peering around the corner, anticipating business threats and boosting profits. Fitzgerald enumerated some of the hallmarks of a torchbearer: Fitzgerald identified only4 percent of CIOs as belonging to the select torchbearer category, compared to the 35 percent of CIOs he identified as market followers, whose companies post weaker financial results and are slower to innovation. That number will have to ratchet up significantly if businesses are to thrive or at least survive. Indeed, even 800-pound gorillas can be disrupted, as Frito-Lay CIO Kristen Blum told CIO.com : It falls to Blum and her peers at other Fortune 500 and larger companies to ensure that this doesn't happen.

2016-03-29 12:50 Clint Boulton www.itnews.com

69 GE's Jim Fowler on the CIO role in the digital industrial economy Eventually, IT will no longer be a function — it will just be the way you work. It's a copout for CIOs to require a functional executive to lead every project. To stay relevant, IT executives need to be seen as catalysts and not speed bumps, all according to GE CIO Jim Fowler. Jim Fowler: CIOs have to find a way to establish and maintain relevance in their organizations, which will happen in two ways. From 1990 to 2010, industrial companies saw an average annual productivity increase of 4 percent, but since then, that number has diminished to 1 percent. The decrease is the result of all of the work we've been doing over the last several decades, to digitize core processes. The next wave of productivity will come in our ability to connect the digital world of IT with the physical world of machines. To remain relevant, CIOs will have to figure out, for their businesses, how to connect a physical asset to enterprise systems. Jim Fowler, CIO of GE Also, we are seeing an emerging workforce of "self-helpers. " Regardless of their discipline, college graduates are coming into our companies and creating models, spreadsheets and even advanced analytical tools; they come in with the assumption that they don't need an IT organization. They can figure out how to digitize their work themselves. How do CIOs stay relevant in this world of self-helpers? They need to figure out how to architect data so that it is readily available for these workers. Providing the right platforms and guardrails needs to be seen as a catalyst and not a speed bump. When I am in business meetings, I hear people talk about digital as a function or a role. It is not. Digital is a capability that needs to exist in every job. Twenty years ago, we broke ecommerce out into its own organization, and today ecommerce is just a part of the way we work. That's where digital and IT are headed; IT will be no longer be a distinct function, it will just be the way we work. I see three models for the CIO in this new world: First, stop talking about upgrades, obsolescence, networks, and application performance. Start talking about how your technology strategy will help your company and your customers make more money. That sounds simple, but I cannot tell you how many times I've asked an IT leader about their business model, and they can't articulate it. Second, be willing to take really uncomfortable risks. It's easy to commit to finishing a project this year or overhauling a component of infrastructure. It's harder to include on your goals and objectives, "Drive X percent revenue growth," or "Enable Y percent variable cost productivity," or "Deliver Z dollars of cash generation. " If you are willing to map your own objectives to business goals, you'll be better able to adapt. Most business leaders don't know what's possible with technology. They don't know that their processes are inefficient. My approach to educating business leaders on the art of the possible is to take them to see other companies who are doing things better than we are. Introducing them to their peers in other companies who are using technology to drive efficiency does more in one meeting than I can do in a month of discussions. Second, business leaders have to understand that your interests are tied together with theirs. When they see that their goals and objectives are mirrored to yours, and that you are raising your hand and promising to commit to a portion of their goals and objectives, all of the sudden you are having a different conversation. They have to see that you have skin in the game — that you are sharing the risk — for them to work with you in a different way. Where you have a functional sponsor, life is always easier. I'm running a project inside the company right now in supply chain, and I have a functional sponsor who understands how technology and lean process go together. In cases like this, I am willing to take the backseat and let the sponsor drive, because he has the commitment, voice and credibility. I'll be at every meeting, and I'll sign up for everything he signs up for, but he is the public face of the project. While that model works, I do not think that IT needs to bring in a functional leader every time. If CIOs are truly business leaders, and we believe what we say about our ability to understand business processes, customers, and markets, then it's a copout to say that we need a functional executive to lead every project. Take the CFO. The CFO has the power of money and has tremendous reach in an organization. CFOs can affect supply chain, marketing and sales. CFOs get into the details and the underlying process. They have broad influence because they have the rights to the dollars. They don't need someone else to lead for them. As CIOs, we have the rights to the technology, and we need to come in with that level of swagger. Up until now, technology has been a "how. " In the next five years, we're going to see a massive transformation as we move from a world where people tell machines what to do, to a world where machines tell people what to do. As CIO, my job is to show everyone that technology is moving from a "how" to a "what. " Technology is becoming part of everything we produce, whether that's a gas turbine, an aircraft engine or a locomotive. Today, every plant around the world brings forecasting, inventory, and production information together in their ERP to help managers meet a demand cycle. With machine learning and AI, we will be connecting the machines in the plant to that ERP, and our ability to determine how, when and where to produce parts to meet a demand forecast will improve dramatically. That is what makes my job as CIO so important. If I don't help people understand what happens when IT meets operational technology, then we'll be sitting here five years from now less efficient than every other manufacturing company in the world. That's why we created a new division called GE Digital, which sits outside of all of our industrial businesses. We've brought in a commercial leader who is driving the retraining of our sales staff globally. She is taking them from being people who sell hardware to people who understanding a customer's problem and provide a solution. Selling light bulbs is not a high margin business nor is it a strategic direction for the company. So, the lighting team has reinvented itself into a new company called "Current. " The sales team at Current is no longer solely focused on big box retailers and how to get more light bulbs onto their shelves. The leadership team at Current said, "Let's think about what our customers really care about. " They care about their energy costs. This business that used to sell industrial hardware now sells lighting solutions that combine solar, power production, LED technology and software. That commercial change required a sales team that was focused on SKUs and units sold to become focused on solutions and outcomes. First, we've moved to a flatter organizational model with "teams of teams" who are focused on outcomes. These are colocated groups of people who own a small, minimal viable product deliverable that they can produce in 90 days. The team focuses on one piece of work that they will own through its complete lifecycle. Second, we are igniting the workforce, which means that our workforce has to be GE employees. Today, I have 5,000 IT professionals who work for GE and 14,000 contractors. Those 14,000 contractors are great people, but they are just not as invested in the success of the company as the 5,000 employees. So, to ignite the workforce, I am insourcing. Over the next two years, I will hire 2,000 people into one of five global technology centers around the world, which are organized by the teams-of- teams mentality. We are bringing the knowledge content, intellectual property, and the real know- how back inside the company. The third part is retraining. I've got people who are still writing deep code in COBOL. That is not the agile workforce that I need for the future. One of the ways we are retraining is by re- platforming most of our applications to run in the cloud. We are doing that through ninja teams, ten people from different areas of technology who leave their day jobs to go to our west coast technology center and spend three weeks porting one application to run in the cloud. They train with our developers out there, and when they return, they own that re-platformed application. This year, we'll retrain over 600 workers through that process. That's how I’m driving an agile mentality that values technology ownership, and we are keeping the intellectual property in- house. Changing to an outcomes based model means willing to be an environment where you don't know everything about everything that you're working on. For people who are very risk averse, that's an uncomfortable place to be. Another piece of it, which we never really talk about, is the tendency for organizations to pit function against function. Whether we are in IT, HR or engineering, we care about whether our function wins. We may not ever say that out loud, but we demonstrate that attitude through our actions. That's a thought process that we have to change. I may not want to change the way I work, but if that's the right thing for the organization, I'll do it. When you are organized in silos, you tend to look after your own. But when you work more horizontally, you think about the greater good. I am excited about the way IT is coming together with operations technology in the physical world. Inside GE, we refer to this as the digital thread, where you take the data that flows from the moment the first part of a piece of equipment was designed through its entire life cycle of operations. That includes the operational data, the sensing data that comes off the factory floor when the equipment was produced, and the data that comes off the asset when it's being used by our customers. All of that data allows us to work in ways that we've never seen before. Take the role that no one else wants. At least four times in my career, I've taken a job that everybody else thought was too hard, weird, or different, and that strategy has paid off for me in spades. When you take the job that no one else wants, you learn to take risks. When you know that you are likely to fail, you learn that failure allows you to learn more than success. The tough jobs also teach you the importance and power of influence. When you take a job that no one wants, you will probably have to get a lot of people to do something that they don't really want to do. The ability to influence is the one skill that I use every day, and it's the top skill that I look for in my leaders. Take the job that no one else wants; you will get so much out of it. Jim Fowler drives GE's global IT strategy, services, and operations, and delivers innovative and transformational solutions for GE, its customers and employees. Fowler brings 15 years experience as an IT leader at GE Capital, Aviation, Intelligent Platforms, Power Generation Services, and Power & Water. Prior to joining GE, he served in IT roles with NCR and Accenture. Fowler holds a Bachelor of Science degree in management information systems and marketing from Miami University and an MBA from Xavier University.

2016-03-29 12:44 Martha Heller www.itworld.com

70 Taking the pulse of your information security culture Anyone who has been a manager in a company of a reasonable size understands the concept of corporate culture. Investopedia refers to corporate culture as "the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. " It is a pretty important concept if you want a thriving organization. To give you an idea of the importance I place on cultural fit, anyone I seriously considered for a position in the past 12 years had to complete a cultural fit study before they ever got to the technical aspect of the interview process. In recent months, the concept of a corporate security culture has been discussed. As ISACA puts it, corporate security culture determines what an organization does about security, as opposed to what it intends to do. Given that some are now referring to employees as " human firewalls ," the idea of each employee doing what the company says they do regarding security is all too important. As an example, much of the ransomware being spread today begins with an employee opening a .zip attachment to a spam email. Virtually every organization with a formal security policy prohibits the opening of.zip attachments to email, but in the absence of a supporting culture, the protections break down. The lack of a solid company security can have disastrous consequences. IBM in its 2014 Cyber Security Intelligence Index reported that 95% of all security incidents involved employee error. The problem is not just errors, however -- MarketWatch reported last week that 1 in 5 employees would be willing to sell their password for the right price. While I find such studies to be a bit dubious, I am confident this number is greater than zero. It only takes one compromised password to breach an organization. Admittedly, the concept of security culture is somewhat nebulous. With corporate culture, we have learned over the years how to foster it, and what would kill it. Security culture, being a much newer idea, is harder to grasp. As such, it may be best to ignore the idea for the time being, and focus on encouraging employee involvement in security. The culture can then develop itself. So, how do you foster employee involvement in the hopes of building such a culture? Here are some basic ideas: I mentioned earlier in this article that I was a big believer in cultural fit testing prior to employment. I think the same approach applies to security. We can all be asking questions of prospects in advance of employment to get an idea of how they would deal with security. We can ask technical questions about their security knowledge, or behavioral questions to help figure out how they have dealt with such issues in their past. Security culture begins at the top, with the CEO or head of the company. This person must model good security practices themselves, and speak sincerely about it at every opportunity. I have been involved in many an all-hands meeting where the CEO attempted to speak sincerely on a topic while reading to a script created by marketing. It is pretty easy for the employees to see right through this. The company head must understand enough about security to really speak about it. As with the CEO, every manager must live and model good security practice. Their involvement must go deeper, however. Those of us in the IT "glass house" understand how to apply security practice to the organization as a whole. What we often cannot judge effectively, however, is how to apply this to the day-to-day operations of a particular department. A manager with strong training can help we IT folks understand how to apply security to their own function. If IT cooperates, the manager will have a much easier time selling participation to the department members, and security practices will be less disruptive to the business. Early in my career, I worked for IBM in Florida, blocks away from the birthplace of the IBM PC. Every year, IBM would conduct a detailed employee opinion and satisfaction survey for each site, and then would make visible changes to the operation based on employee feedback. If they ever suspected that the culture at a site was not thriving, they would immediately do an ad hoc survey to figure out why. We can do the same thing with security, by periodically asking employees about their security knowledge, opinions and practices. That is the easy part. The hard part is analyzing the results, and acting on them to improve the organization's security posture. Those of you who regularly read my articles are probably rolling your eyes at this point, given the frequency with which I have mentioned awareness training, including the information security magic bullet. It is sufficiently important, however, to bear repeating over and over. Train your workforce, and refresh them at least yearly. We can't expect them to follow good practices if they don't know what those are. Most organizations have a community cause, like blood donation or Toys for Tots, that they support every year. These often involve posters, weekly progress updates, rallies, etc. We should do the same to foster employee security involvement. The marketing folks in most organizations could probably create an effective campaign in their sleep. Make it a priority for them to do this, and evolve the effort over time. When employees do the right thing, reward them. In some cases, material rewards are appropriate, but a reward can be something as simple as public praise. In the psychology world, this is referred to as positive reinforcement, something every parent would understand. Bottom line -- follow the right steps, and your security culture will form on its own. The reward will be a workforce focused on keeping the organization safe.

2016-03-29 12:00 Robert C www.computerworld.com

71 EVGA's SC 17 gaming notebook goes up for pre-order EVGA first gave us a look at its SC 17 gaming laptop back at CES. Today, this 17", overclocker- friendly machine goes up for pre-order. While EVGA has been making motherboards, graphics cards, and a host of other enthusiast-oriented gear for years, this is the company's first foray into in-house laptops. The SC 17 includes an unlocked Core i7- 6820HK and a variety of overclocking tools to take advantage of it. EVGA's full-fledged BIOS features CPU configuration options normally reserved for desktop motherboards, including processor voltage controls. The SC 17 also comes with a clear CMOS button to help recover from failed overclocking attempts. The notebook's arrow keys can be used to enable overclocked or power-saving modes on the fly. The SC 17's display is a 4K IPS panel, but it lacks Nvidia's G-Sync variable-refresh tech. Graphics power is provided by Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980M paired with 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. While this is Nvidia's top-end mobile chip, it might still struggle with the notebook's native resolution. The high pixel density means that gamers can probably run games at lower resolutions without too much impact on visual quality, though. The notebook houses those components in an aluminum unibody chassis that's about an inch thick at its thickest point. EVGA makes good use of the large chassis with a full-size keyboard and number pad. The SC 17's storage complement includes a 256GB Samsung NVMe SSD and a 1TB, 7,200 RPM HDD. The notebook is available for pre-order now for $2269.99, and EVGA says it'll begin shipping in "mid-April. "

2016-03-29 11:58 by Robert techreport.com

72 Report: Google to cut off support for physical Wallet card on June 30 It may be time to say farewell to the Google Wallet card. Granted, if you have one it’s probably in a desk drawer next to a non-working Lumia phone and Nexus Player remote. But if you’re still using it, you should know that indications are Google will cut off support on June 30. That’s the finding from an APK Teardown of the latest version of Google Wallet. The move makes sense, as Google’s mobile payment solution has shifted to Android Pay. Wallet has been re-purposed as an app to send money to individuals, along the lines of Venmo or PayPal. Because the dates and other details are found in code strings, that’s all subject to change since there hasn’t been any official announcement from Google. Odds are Google will let you transfer the balance to Android Pay or cash it out in some form, but you definitely want to be aware of this if you’re still using a Google Wallet card.

2016-03-29 11:56 Derek Walter www.itnews.com

73 Microsoft's mission at Build: Prove progress on promises to developers When Microsoft kicks off its annual developers conference Wednesday, it must show it has made progress on 2015's promises, analysts said today. "They have to demonstrate that they're building momentum from both user and developer perspectives," said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, referring to Windows 10 and pledges the company made last year. At 2015's Build -- Microsoft's moniker for its developers conference -- the Redmond, Wash. company set itself a goal of putting Windows 10 on a billion devices by mid-2018 , and trumpeted the "universal" concept as a solution to the weak app inventory inherited from Windows 8. Under the "Universal Windows Platform" (UWP) nameplate, Microsoft has touted a write-once, run-many model under which a single Windows app works on the unified Windows 10 framework, whether the hardware is a PC, tablet, smartphone, game console or sensor. Microsoft has expended significant resources to bolster developer tools for writing such apps, including the upgrading of Visual Studio, the creation of cross-platform toolsets to port iOS and Android apps to the Windows ecosystem, and last month, the acquisition of Xamarin. "The No. 1 goal for Build must be to show progress with the [cross-platform development] bridges, the progress with Visual Studio in that context, and how those increment the play of Windows 10," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. Both Dawson and Moorhead expect Microsoft to illustrate progress on those fronts during the keynote that will launch Build 2016 tomorrow. The keynote has become one of Microsoft's biggest platforms for announcing its strategic path for the coming year. While not a product- laden event -- unlike, say, Apple's presentations throughout the year -- the keynote is parsed by outsiders who hope to divine the firm's efforts to convince a key audience, developers, that Microsoft's technologies can be leveraged for profit. Specifically, the pair agreed, Microsoft will likely herald a new number for Windows 10 adoption or usage to drive home the message that the app market is substantial for developers, and thus worth their time and investment. Dawson put his money on a number around 250 million, while Moorhead said it would be larger, close to but not yet 300 million. "The worst case would be 250 million," said Moorhead. Microsoft last publicized a Windows 10 figure nearly three months ago, when it said that more than 200 million "monthly active devices around the world [were] running Windows 10. " That number included not only PCs, but also tablets, phones and Xbox game consoles, and was not pointing to installations, but instead tallied devices that were used at least once in the prior month. Microsoft's telemetric technologies in Windows 10 let it "see" when those devices are turned on and used by customers. The discussion of development tools, another key element of last year's Build, must also be advanced tomorrow, they said. "Microsoft has to ensure the messages coming out of Build 2016 are ... [that it] continues to support developers beyond Windows 10, both by making it easier for them to bring existing apps to Windows and by enabling them to develop for other platforms through tools such as Azure and recently-acquired Xamarin," Dawson said in an analysis published earlier this week on Tech.pinions (subscription required). "They'll talk about how developers can do a Windows 10 app for PCs and 2-in-1s, and then for 'free,' also a mobile app," added Moorhead, referring to the Xamarin framework. "Xamarin does exactly what Microsoft needs. Xamarin will actually crank out an iOS app in addition to a Windows app. " While that may be the result of Microsoft's iOS bridge, Moorhead said it was a "massive" difference, as the starting point for a Xamarin-dependent project is a Windows app, which is what Microsoft would prefer. But while Microsoft will continue to emphasize that its tools let developers expand their marketable audience -- whether bringing iOS apps to Windows, or taking Windows apps to iOS as well -- the company will also keep beating its native mobile play, the analysts agreed. "They'll make it clear that they have not given up on mobile," said Dawson of Windows. He anticipated that Microsoft would stress the business suitability of Windows-powered smartphones, if only because it's clear that few consumers have adopted the platform. "The market has been brutal, but I think it's too late for them to eliminate mobile from the conversation," said Moorhead. Instead, Microsoft will aim the conversation further down the road by suggesting that it's well-positioned to exploit the continued move toward ever-more-powerful smartphones, and the day when smaller devices better compete with PCs on a horsepower level. Developers should take the long view, Moorhead said Microsoft will suggest. And Microsoft will allude to the options developers have, even if Windows 10 on mobile doesn't work out. "There are different platforms, such as HoloLens, that can run these apps," Dawson said of Microsoft's virtual and augmented reality platform. "It's not just about mobile. " Nor should Windows be the sole focus of Build and its keynote. Microsoft's various cloud businesses, particularly Azure, must also get time on stage. "Azure has always had a presence at Build, but it's grown over time," said Wes Miller, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, who predicted significant time dedicated to how developers, especially those who concentrate on enterprise apps, can benefit from working with Azure. Moorhead concurred. "What they need to do with the realities of running the business is talk about Azure," he said, pointing to Microsoft's position as the No. 2 player in public cloud, and in his opinion, the best when it comes to hybrid environments, where public and private cloud deployments are combined. "They need to keep the heat on because Google is nipping at them," Moorhead said. "This is one of the biggest opportunities Microsoft has. And pragmatically, it makes sense. There are a ton of people to train and educate about Azure. " Microsoft will live-stream the two-and-a-half-hour keynote Wednesday starting at 8:30 a.m. PT (11:30 a.m. ET) from its website.

2016-03-29 11:39 Gregg Keizer www.itnews.com

74 44% off How Google Works Hardcover Book - Deal Alert Written by Google Executive Chairman/ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg, "How Google Works" currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 320 people ( see reviews ). List price is $30.00, but with the current 44% discount it can be purchased for $16.85 ( See on Amazon ). Covering topics including corporate culture, strategy, talent, decision-making, communication, innovation, and dealing with disruption, this insightful and motivational book explains in detail what it took to create one of the most important companies on the planet. Learn more about this hardcover book, or explore buying options, on Amazon.com.

2016-03-29 11:34 DealPost Team www.itnews.com

75 SimpliVity CEO Feels No Heat From HPE, Cisco, AWS Competition SimpliVity CEO Doron Kempel addressed the growing investments from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco in the hyper-converged space, saying the entrance of the two big vendors did not concern him. “We welcome the fact that more large vendors are validating the space,” Kempel said. “And we haven’t run into those competitors yet, so it’s hard for me to say how good their products are.” Kempel predicted that the new vendors in the market will only speed up the rate at which hyper- converged will “eat” traditional infrastructure technologies. The CEO was also clear that he does not see Amazon Web Services as a threat, or even a competitor. “Very importantly, AWS is not our competitor,” he said, but urged solution providers to explain to the C-suite how SimpliVity’s particular solutions can save a business 20 percent to 49 percent over three years. “Only SimpliVity offers the best of both worlds, cloud-like simplification and economics,” he said. “And, on the other hand, offering complete enterprise capabilities,” he added.

2016-03-29 11:33 Meghan Ottolini www.crn.com

76 Logitech announces G900 Chaos Spectrum mouse Logitech's new G900 Chaos Spectrum is claimed to be its highest-performing wireless mouse yet, beating the report rate of even wired equivalents. Logitech has announced what it claims to be its best wireless gaming mouse ever, the G900 Chaos Spectrum, with improved report rate that is said to outperform even hard-wired devices. The Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum, like many wireless mice, uses the same 2.4GHz spectrum as many Wi-Fi devices. Unlike its rivals, though, Logitech claims the new mouse has a reporting rate of just one millisecond - beating even some wired devices - and an exclusive clock-tuning technology which boosts battery life to 32 hours of continuous use per two-hour charge, dropping to 24 with lighting enabled. ' We talked with eSports pros and none of them love the cable on a wired mouse, ' claimed Ujesh Desai vice president and general manager of gaming at Logitech, of the device's inspiration. ' They wish they had the freedom of wireless but the performance and reliability of a wired mouse. So that was the design goal we gave our engineers, to build a wireless gaming mouse that was faster than the competition's wired gaming mice. G900 delivers on this promise, and we're confident it's the best gaming mouse we've ever built. ' As well as the boosted wireless performance, the G900 Chaos Spectrum includes Logitech's PMW3366 optical sensor with support for 200-12,000 dots per inch (DPI) resolution and zero smoothing or filtering. The design is built to be ambidextrous, and can be switched for left- or right-handed use by removing the magnetic button covers. These two main buttons also include a metal spring tensioning system and mechanical pivoting hinges which the company claims reduces the pre-travel distance and force required to actuate. Despite these features, the mouse weighs just 107g - the result, the company claims, of a specially-designed thin wall moulding and hollow scroll-wheel among other weight-reducing changes. The G900 Chaos Spectrum is due to launch in Europe some time next month, priced at €179 (around £140 excluding taxes.) A promotional video demonstrating its features is reproduced below.

2016-03-29 11:02 Published on feedproxy.google.com

77 SoundCloud launches a music-subscription service for Android and iOS devices SoundCloud is jumping into the crowded subscription music-streaming market, where Spotify , Apple Music , Pandora, Tidal , YouTube Music , and others are already struggling to turn a profit. SoundCloud Go costs $10 per month and is available now through an app update for Android and iOS devices. This new subscription service includes ad-free listening and the ability to enjoy your favorite music offline—a marquee feature considering SoundCloud was essentially streaming-only for the longest time. SoundCloud Go offers unlimited streaming for $10 per month, though most of the songs you’ll find are from indie artists. Along with its new subscription service, SoundCloud has also revealed an expanded library, made possible through a newly formed relationship with the last of the three major record labels, Sony Music. Now you can find mixes from your favorite hometown DJs alongside all the big- name artists, like Rihanna. You can only hear those top-tier artists if you subscribe to SoundCloud Go, however, but the upside is that you’ll have access to exclusive mixes that you won’t find even on Tidal—like this one from Kanye. There is a major caveat to all of this: SoundCloud advertises an expansive music library of 125 million songs, but 110 million of those are user-uploaded tracks, with the remaining 15 million songs from major artists. That’s about half of what bigger services such as Spotify and Tidal offer. You’ll definitely notice the difference if you try to find full albums from your favorite Top 40 artists. When I searched for Katy Perry, for example, I found only her album uploaded by a fan, rather than her actual SoundCloud profile. Katy Perry doesn’t have much of a presence on SoundCloud, despite the fact that she was the highest paid pop star in 2015. If you’re curious to try out SoundCloud Go for yourself, the company is offering a 30-day free trial for both Android and iOS users. As a longtime SoundCloud user myself, I’m curious to experience whether it’s worth the monthly fee, and I’ll be following up with a full-blown review of the Android app in the coming weeks.

2016-03-29 10:27 Florence Ion www.itnews.com

78 Total cranks up computing power to better see below earth's surface Oil company Total has almost tripled the performance of Pangea, a supercomputer it uses for analyzing subsurface imaging in search of new oilfields. Pangea's performance is now 6.7 petaflops (floating-point operations per second), up from 2.3 petaflops, the French company said Tuesday. That's enough to put it among the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world, according to Total, which based its claim on rankings published last November by Top500.org, the international supercomputer ranking organization. Total's claim is based on the assumption that no other computer has been similarly upgraded in the meantime, something we won't know for sure until the next edition of the list is published in June. But there's another wrinkle that might cast doubt on Total's top 10 status, and that's what exactly the 2.3 petaflop figure represents. In the world of supercomputer drag racing, there are two measures of top speed: maximum performance (Rmax) and peak performance (Rpeak). Rmax is measured under real-world conditions using the Linpack benchmark. Rpeak is a theoretical measure derived from the chip manufacturer's clock rating for the processors with which the computer is built. The difference between the two is an indication of how efficiently a system's designers have exploited the processors' capabilities. In quoting the value of 2.3 petaflops, Total appears to be talking about theoretical peak performance, Rpeak, as according to last November's Top500, Pangea had an Rmax of 2.098 petaflops and an Rpeak of 2.296 petaflops. Those figures have not changed since Pangea's first entry into the list in June 2013. That was enough to make Pangea the fastest supercomputer in France, ahead of several supercomputers operated by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, and to put it in 33rd place in the rankings worldwide. Top500.org determines the rankings using Rmax, and a performance of 6.7 petaflops would have been enough for seventh place overall. If instead the rankings were determined by Rpeak, however, a performance of 6.7 petaflops would only have been enough for 11th place -- just outside the top 10. Total officials reached for comment were not immediately able to clear up the mystery. Either way, barring other unannounced upgrades, 6.7 petaflops is enough to catapult Total's computer to the top of the oil industry -- and indeed to make Pangea more powerful than any other commercially operated computer. The 13 most powerful machines last November all belonged to government laboratories, universities or research institutes. In 14th place was Abel, a computer operated by oil exploration rival Petroleum Geo-Services. A Cray computer built from Intel Xeon E5-2698v3 16C processors with a total of 145,920 cores, Abel had an Rmax of 4.4 petaflops and an Rpeak of 5.37 petaflops. In comparison, Pangea was built by SGI using Intel Xeon E5-2670 8C processors running at up to 2.6GHz. Before the upgrade, it had 110,400 cores. PGS uses Abel for wavefield imaging, processing seismic data captured from its survey fleet to determine the structure of rocks beneath the surface. Total uses Pangea for much the same thing. It expects the upgrade to improve the accuracy of its subsurface imaging and to cut its costs by making seismic studies shorter. State-of-the-art, data-intensive computing is a competitive advantage, the company said. The performance boost will allow Total to analyse multiple seismic images of the same area taken at different moments in time in order to build a better picture of what lies hidden below.

2016-03-29 09:56 Peter Sayer www.computerworld.com

79 Git 2.8 improves on code control for Windows users Version 2.8 of Git, the popular and powerful open source version control system used to power the GitHub and GitLab services, was released late yesterday. According to an announcement on GitHub's blog , version 2.8 includes small but useful improvements to features, as well as a range of bug fixes. Some of the most significant changes are for Windows users, but functionality across all three major platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X) will be kept in closer sync from now on. For example, "it is relatively expensive to start processes on Windows, so many Git commands that were originally written as scripts have been rewritten in C to make them snappier," the GitHub announcement says. Performance has also been improved for submodules -- a way for Git repositories to include each other as subdirectories, such as when using external libraries. Git 2.8 allows the process of fetching submodules to run in parallel, so the process of performing git fetch on projects with many submodules is faster and more efficient. Git normally uses a configuration file to set the username and email that identifies commits on a given project. A new option in Git 2.8 forces the user to set the username and email before the commit is placed. According to GitHub, this allows users who employ multiple email addresses - - one for personal projects, one for work, and so on -- to avoid mistakenly committing under the wrong email. Git 2.8 also includes a fix for a previously documented security vulnerability and a convenient method to determine where a particular configuration setting originates from. Though the source code for Git is hosted on GitHub , it resides there in a "publish-only" repository, so pull requests aren't accepted. If you want to submit patches , you'll have to follow the project's guidelines and submit them by email.

2016-03-29 09:12 Serdar Yegulalp www.infoworld.com

80 80 Oracle Seeks $9.3 Billion Over Android's Use Of Java Oracle has increased its damage claim in its lawsuit against Google over its use of Java in Android, according to court documents. The database giant now argues it should receive $9.3 billion in damages, up from its initial $6 billion claim. In 2010, Oracle sued Google , claiming Google's Android infringed its copyrights and patents. In 2012, Oracle's patent claim was rejected while its copyright claim was upheld. The jury, however, couldn't reach a decision about whether Google's use of Oracle's copyrighted Java APIs could be excused as fair use. That prompted Judge William Alsup to rule that APIs could not be copyrighted, a position also taken by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In 2014, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington overturned that decision and the US Supreme Court refused to hear Google's appeal. So the case has returned to Judge Alsup in San Francisco, Calif., to revisit the undecided issue of fair use. Both sides are once again filing documents in preparation for a new trial currently set to begin May 9th. Back in 2012, an Oracle expert discussed copyright valuations in the $27.7 million to $32.6 million range, and damages seemed like they might end up in the $100 million range if Oracle's patent claims failed. But since then, Oracle found that Google made quite a bit of money on Android. And in January, an Oracle attorney let the world know just how much Google had made : $31 billion in revenue and $22 billion in profit, from apps and ads, since the launch of Android in 2008. Google subsequently asked the court to redact and seal that sensitive information and the court complied. Oracle's expert witnesses, James Malackowski, contends that Google owes $475 million in damages and $8.89 billion in recovered Android profits, according to a court filing. Google last week filed a response challenging Oracle's damage claim as being out of line with statutory norms. It makes reference to the $27.7 million estimate put forth by Oracle's previous expert witness in 2012. Are you prepared for a new world of enterprise mobility? Attend the Wireless & Mobility Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now! With the new trial approaching, Judge Alsup has proposed "an outright ban preventing counsel and the parties from conducting social media and Internet searches" of prospective jurors. Google, he said, has been willing to accept such a ban as long as Oracle accepts it too. But according to the judge, Oracle has not been willing to make such a commitment. In a recent filing, however, Oracle has said it will not make any "logged-in Facebook searches. " If the two sides cannot both agree to accept the proposed ban, the judge will require each side to tell prospective jurors how it will use searches of the Internet and social media accounts to investigate and monitor jurors.

2016-03-29 08:06 Thomas Claburn www.informationweek.com

81 Samsung Pay Now Available In China Samsung has partnered with China UnionPay, the bankcard association in China to join Alibaba’s Alipay, Tencent’s WePay and Apple’s ApplePay services in the competition for the China market. Samsung launches the mobile pay service only six weeks after rival Apple launched their ApplePay in the same market which is being considered a top priority for these services. Samsung which is leveraging one simple claim(or fact) that will work in its favour: its tech works with a larger number of already existing payment terminals, is being served well by partnering with China UnionPay which currently processes the majority of credit card payments in China. Notably, Samsung Pay is also using a security system called tokenization to protect against incidences of hackers and thieves cloning details of payment cards. Users will able to use Samsung Pay without having to unlock their mobile phones or launch a specially dedicated App as was the case with Google Wallet and prior technologies. Users will need to own the latest Samsung handsets to use Samsung Pay, that is the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6, Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy Note 5. Samsung Pay uses fingerprints as IDs, but the firm says it could add options for other biometric checks and hopes to make it available on older handset models in the future. Samsung Pay is already available in Korea and US and is expected to be launched in the UK and Spain eventually.

2016-03-29 07:04 Joanitah Nalubega pctechmag.com

82 Rig of the Month: Wooden PC This month's featured mod is a PC made out of wood. Call it a DeathAdder with an improved sensor Speakers at RSA 2016 lay out the high-stakes debate over encryption, trust, and privacy

2016-03-29 07:00 Paul Lilly www.maximumpc.com

Total 82 articles. Created at 2016-03-30 06:02