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Articles 51 articles, 2016-07-03 00:01 Samsung to Unveil Galaxy 1 S7 Edge Olympic Edition on July 7 (1.02/2) Images of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Edition leaked online last month, revealing the design of the phone, to go along with rumors on its specs. It was known that Samsung intends to unveil the smartphone well before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, which start on August 5 and end on August 21. This means that the Olympic Edition should have a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 820 or Exynos 8890, depending on the region. Rear camera capacity reached 12MP, with 5MP in the front. Battery capacity was 3600mAh. It is also said that the phone will come with some custom wallpapers and possibly a theme related to the Olympics Games. Samsung could also offer special e-coupons and discounts. Details on price and availability aren’t available yet, but the smartphone is expected to more widely available, unlike some of Samsung’s other special editions. Either way, Samsung will be providing many more details during next week’s unveiling. 2016-07-02 14:28 Alexandra Vaidos Windows 10 Anniversary Update makes great strides 2 for accessibility (1.02/2) Accessibility options are not a new feature for Windows, but the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update includes even more than before. This week it was confirmed that the update will launch on 2 August , just days after the free upgrade period ends (although it's worth noting that people with accessibility needs will still qualify for a free upgrade after this date). If you've been testing out the insider builds of Windows 10, you may well have noticed accessibility improvements, but now it is only a matter of weeks before they are made available to everyone. In a blog post rounding up what's been added over the last year, Microsoft also reveals the latest additions. The blog post serves as a handy reminder of just how much has been done to make Windows 10 as accessible as possible. But development is not stopping. Microsoft has added a new AutoSuggest feature which provides verbal cues about suggestions to searches that are conducted. Windows 10 Anniversary Update is not just about making Windows itself more accessible. Microsoft has also introduced a number of features and tools for developers that make it easier to integrate such options into apps. Here are the full details of Microsoft's accessibility advancements: Microsoft also says that accessibility improvements have been made to Edge, Mail, Cortana and Groove. Photo credit: Stanislaw Mikulski / Shutterstock 2016-07-02 13:07 By Mark Tesla is being investigated 3 in wake of first autopilot- related death (1.02/2) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a “preliminary evaluation” into an accident involving a 40- year-old man that was killed while his Tesla Model S was in autopilot mode. This is the first known fatality in more than 130 million miles where autopilot was activated, Tesla said. According to the Levy Journal , the accident took place on May 7 in Williston, Florida. The victim, identified as Joshua Brown, was reportedly an active member of the Tesla subreddit. Roughly two months ago, a video of his Model S autopilot avoiding a crash went viral and was even tweeted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In a statement on its website, Tesla said Brown had a loving family and was a friend of both Tesla and the broader EV community. According to Tesla, the vehicle was traveling on a divided highway with autopilot engaged when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky. As such, the brakes were never applied. The car essentially drove “under” the gap of the trailer, making contact with one of its weakest points: the windshield. Had the accident involved the front or the rear of the trailer, Tesla said, its crash safety system would likely have prevented serious injury. Tesla extended its deepest sympathies to Brown's friends and family. 2016-07-02 19:37 Shawn Knight HTC Nexus Marlin Spotted 4 on Geekbench (1.00/2) HTC Nexus Marlin was spotted on Geekbench , according to leakster Roland Quandt. The post reveals some specs of the upcoming smartphone, mainly that it will be powered by a quad-core 1.6GHz processor and 4GB of RAM. The new Nexus will also come with Android Nougat 7.0 out of the box, as Google is expected to release the new Android version and the Nexus smartphones about at the same time. Last year, Google unveiled the Nexus 5x and Nexus 6P in September and the devices went on sale a month later. This would indicate that the company might keep last year’s scheduling and unveil the Nexus phones in the same month of this year, but that’s just speculation at this point. 2016-07-02 15:02 Alexandra Vaidos IBM to Buy EZSource to Help Developers 5 Modernize Mainframe Apps (0.01/2) IBM will acquire EZSource to help customers modernize mainframe apps for migration to hybrid cloud as part of digital transformation efforts. The mainframe is not dead, and IBM is doing its part to ensure that big iron will not be going anywhere for some time. Big Blue announced on June 1 its intent to acquire EZ Legacy ( EZSource ), an Israel-based application discovery company, to help developers easily understand and change mainframe code based on data displayed on a dashboard and other visualizations. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016. Financial terms of the deal were not released. The ability to quickly evaluate existing enterprise applications and modify them represents a critical piece of the digital transformation puzzle. IBM is intent on helping its customers transform their organizations for the digital age by gaining value out of their mainframe assets. The company will integrate its expertise in hybrid cloud, the API economy and DevOps with EZSource's mainframe application modernization technology. EZSource provides a visual dashboard that shows developers which applications have changed to ease the process of modernizing applications, exposing APIs and opening up development resources. IBM's decision to acquire its long-term partner EZSource is largely driven by the fact that the digital transformation and API economy is estimated at being a $3.75 billion market, and to capture some of this share, companies must first understand and modify legacy mainframe software to be at the center of their digital enterprise, IBM said in a post by Mary Hall, an IBM marketing and social media staffer, on the IBM Mainframe Insights blog . "The mainframe is the backbone of today's businesses," said Ross A. Mauri, general manager of IBM z Systems, in a statement. "As clients drive their digital transformation, they are seeking the innovation and business value from new applications while leveraging their existing assets and processes. " Combining EZSource's offerings with IBM's will obviate the need for developers with specialized skills handling processes that previously were manually intensive, Mauri noted. IBM's API management solutions, including z/OS Connect and IBM API Connect , integrated with EZSource's technology will help connect services from core mainframe applications to new mobile, cloud, social and cognitive workloads, IBM said. "While they have always been highly exaggerated, rumors of the IBM mainframe's death continue to circulate," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "The platform's notable longevity and success are due to numerous factors but first and foremost has been IBM's efforts to continually evolve mainframe technologies and make them relevant for new business processes and use cases. " King said this deal should add a few more years to the mainframe's "remarkable" life. Meanwhile, IBM's DevOps offerings, such as IBM Application Delivery Foundation for z Systems and IBM Rational Team Concert , will combine with the EZSource software to help developers migrate legacy mainframe apps faster. IBM said EZSource provides developers with information about which sections of code access a particular entity, such as a database table, so they can easily check them to see if updates are needed. Without the advanced analytics in the EZSource solution, developers would need to manually check thousands or millions of lines of code to find the ones that need to be changed. EZSource delivers three key products: -- EZSource:Analyze , which provides a graphical visualization of application discovery and understanding for developers and architects; -- EZSource:Dashboard , which offers multiple categories of application metrics for managers and executives; and -- EZSource:Server , which integrates with third-party source code management, workload automation and CMDB tooling systems to provide application to infrastructure mapping. "The subtext of IBM's purchase of EZSource is the critical importance of reconciling and integrating new mobile and social apps with traditional backend 'systems of record'— particularly the IBM mainframes residing in major banks and financial organizations that power 30 billion business transactions every day," King said. Supporting and streamlining the integration process is crucial for IBM and its customers since failure could cripple emerging processes, like smartphone "pay" apps, he added. Meanwhile, enabling a newer generation of developers to support the mainframe has been Compuware's mission for the last several years. Tools that provide deep application understanding via visualization enable both mainframe and non-mainframe developers to manipulate mainframe data and implement code changes, faster and with fewer mistakes, Compuware said. "As businesses increasingly compete via digital means and the mainframe serves as a back-end server for mobile and web front ends, development teams must keep pace with the requirements of modern application delivery," Chris O'Malley CEO of Compuware, told eWEEK.