Blair Hanley Frank
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Blair Hanley Frank
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AWS August Roundup: Now you can query streaming data with SQL
The dog days of summer are over, and it's time to get back to work. While you were out enjoying the sunshine and sipping margaritas, Amazon continued to update its cloud platform with new services like Kinesis Analytics, which lets users query streaming data with SQL. There were also a ton of updates to existing services, with the company's load balancer service moving up the stack, hourly billing coming to virtual desktops and support for customers bringing their own encryption keys for Amazon to manage. Here's the detailed breakdown:Kinesis Analytics is here to query streaming data with SQL Amazon launched a new product to help users process and gain insights from large amounts of streaming data as it's coming in, rather than waiting to process it when it hits a database. Kinesis Analytics lets users set up SQL queries to run on batches of data as it arrives in Amazon's cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Box unveils new Relay workflow tool in partnership with IBM
Companies that want to try simplifying the tangled mess of their internal workflows will be able to use a new tool from Box to help.Box Relay is a new product the enterprise storage company announced on Tuesday that's aimed at giving employees a way to manage and track the process of doing repetitive work, like submitting expense reports and getting agreements approved.Using Relay, power users will be able to design workflows that they can then share with co-workers inside an organization and people from other companies who work with them. According to Chris Yeh, Box's senior vice president of product, Relay is aimed at making Box the system that people use to get work done together, in addition to storing files.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Windows 10’s new beta lets computers download updates from other PCs
Microsoft is trying to make it faster for people to download Windows updates by using the vast network of PCs around the world to deliver them. A new beta build of Windows 10 released on Wednesday enables Delivery Optimization by default, which lets PCs download update bits from other computers connected to the internet. Those bits can be delivered alongside those brought in from Microsoft's servers, to help speed up the process of downloading updates, especially on less reliable network connections. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Facebook’s new algorithm will help save VR movies from shaky-cam
Facebook wants to make sure that any VR home movies shared on its social network won't make people puke. That's why the company is building a new video stabilization algorithm that will help smooth out all of the bumps and shakes that come from wielding a 360-degree camera. The new algorithm is designed for stabilizing 360-degree videos in particular, something that Facebook says is important for addressing the growing amount of spherical footage. Previous stabilization technology was designed primarily for videos with a smaller field of view because they were usually taken with traditional 2D cameras. It's an important step for Facebook, which has been focused on virtual reality content and 360-degree video, especially after its US$2 billion acquisition of VR hardware maker Oculus in 2014. The social network introduced support for 360-degree video a year ago and has been pushing it ever since. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Okta’s API access product targets the trend toward services
Okta has changed key parts of its product portfolio to attract new users to its corporate identity management and access control platforms. The startup is launching a new API access management product and revamping its provisioning service to make it easier to change employees' permissions within a company.The changes, announced at the company's Oktane conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, were designed to give Okta more ammunition against a growing field of identity-management rivals, including Microsoft and OneLogin.Okta API Access Management builds on Okta's existing tools for developers who manage application logins. It lets administrators control how users of those apps access business systems that are surfaced through APIs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Okta’s API access product targets the trend toward services
Okta has changed key parts of its product portfolio to attract new users to its corporate identity management and access control platforms. The startup is launching a new API access management product and revamping its provisioning service to make it easier to change employees' permissions within a company.The changes, announced at the company's Oktane conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, were designed to give Okta more ammunition against a growing field of identity-management rivals, including Microsoft and OneLogin.Okta API Access Management builds on Okta's existing tools for developers who manage application logins. It lets administrators control how users of those apps access business systems that are surfaced through APIs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Okta partners with Google to secure cloud identities
Identity management vendor Okta and Google have announced a partnership aimed at getting enterprises to secure their users' identities in the cloud.As part of the deal, Google will use Okta as its preferred identity provider for Google Apps enterprise customers. Businesses that buy a ton of Apps for Work licenses will also be encouraged to use Okta's services to manage how their users connect to business apps. Okta's identity management product makes it possible for companies to create one central directory of employees, who can then use a single set of credentials to get into business software that they need to use. That includes Google Apps and a variety of other services like Salesforce, Yammer, and ServiceNow. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Okta partners with Google to secure cloud identities
Identity management vendor Okta and Google have announced a partnership aimed at getting enterprises to secure their users' identities in the cloud. As part of the deal, Google will use Okta as its preferred identity provider for Google Apps enterprise customers. Businesses that buy a ton of Apps for Work licenses will also be encouraged to use Okta's services to manage how their users connect to business apps. Okta's identity management product makes it possible for companies to create one central directory of employees, who can then use a single set of credentials to get into business software that they need to use. That includes Google Apps and a variety of other services like Salesforce, Yammer, and ServiceNow. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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New Surface Pro 3 firmware update should solve battery woes
Surface Pro 3 owners who have had problems getting reasonable battery life from their tablets have relief coming their way. Microsoft pushed out a firmware update to Surface Pro 3 devices on Monday that's supposed to fix a problem that keeps the battery from charging all the way. An error in a limited number of devices causes the system to get the wrong charge capacity for the Surface Pro 3's battery, the company said. As a result, the battery isn't charged all the way, even though the system thinks it reached capacity. "Think of this like a fuel gauge in a car, where the car looks to the fuel gauge to determine how much to fill the tank," Microsoft said in a support document accompanying the update. "In this case, if the fuel gauge isn’t working right, the car would also not be able to fill the tank—even though the tank is fine."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft acquires intelligent scheduling startup Genee
Microsoft has acquired Genee, a startup that provided a virtual assistant for scheduling appointments. The deal, announced Tuesday, will bring the Genee team into the Microsoft fold and put them to work on bringing intelligence into Office 365. Genee's service let users loop in an artificial intelligence assistant that could interpret sentences like "set up lunch at some point this week" and turn them into calendar appointments. Acquiring Genee is part of Microsoft's ongoing crusade to build intelligent productivity software and services using AI. The company has focused on that area under the tenure of CEO Satya Nadella, with features like Office Delve, which finds documents shared within an organization that are relevant to a user, and Focused Inbox in Outlook, which filters unimportant email into a separate tab so it's not cluttering a user's experience. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google is killing Chrome apps on Mac, Windows and Linux
Three years after introducing special apps that run inside the Chrome browser, Google announced Friday that it will be removing them from Windows, Mac and Linux by early 2018. Google introduced those apps in 2013 as a way to offer new functions that weren't otherwise available on the web. Chrome browser apps also gave developers a way to write one app that would run across Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS.The apps come in two flavors: Hosted Apps, which are essentially installable web apps, and Packaged Apps, which are closer to a traditional app like those you might find in the iOS App Store or Google Play Store. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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These are the lessons Trulia learned from building a chatbot
It's a competitive real-estate rental market out there, and Trulia wanted to capitalize on the interest with a new Facebook Messenger bot it launched earlier this month.The bot lets users search for rental properties and keep up to date on new properties when they become available. Trulia's bot came out of a quarterly hackathon project hosted by at real estate tech firm this past May, and the company learned a lot about bot-building. The experience showed that businesses should give bot-making a shot, even if they're not tech companies, said Yardley Ip, general manager for Trulia Rentals."Given that the tools are so easy to use, and it's so lightweight to develop [a bot], I think businesses should try it," Ip said. "At least, at minimum, from the customer service angle. Because there are frequently asked questions that users and customers have, and why not use a bot as a way to respond to your users quickly?"To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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HipChat beats Slack to the punch with group video calling
It just became easier for HipChat customers to get some face time with each another whenever they want it. The company has launched new group video calling and screen sharing functionality that lets up to 10 other people share a virtual face-to-face meeting. Users can spin up a call in a HipChat channel, or bring additional people into a one-on-one video call. That way, people who work in far-flung teams can get onto the same page face-to-face, using the same software that they count on for text chat during the day. HipChat's announcement Thursday is a move to compete with both consumer services like Skype and Google Hangouts, as well as workplace videoconferencing systems like Lifesize and Skype for Business. The launch is particularly important for HipChat's competition with Slack, which recently added group voice calls and has video calling on its roadmap. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft’s attempts to steal Evernote users moves to the Mac
Microsoft is now giving Mac users an easy path to get their notes out of Evernote and into its OneNote note-taking service. The company on Thursday announced a OneNote Importer beta, which lets users copy their notes over from one service to the other with a few clicks. The importer looks for Evernote notebooks on a computer, and then prompts users to log in with either their personal Microsoft accounts or one controlled by an organization like the company they work for. After that, the importer does the heavy lifting to bring files into OneNote. The importer requires users to run OS X El Capitan, the latest version of Apple's operating system, and have all of the Evernote files they want to import already sitting on their computers. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft PowerShell goes open source and lands on Linux and Mac
Sysadmins, rejoice: PowerShell is coming to Linux and Mac. Microsoft announced Thursday that its automation and scripting system is breaking out of the confines of Windows and going open source.The company is also releasing alpha versions of PowerShell for Linux (specifically Ubuntu, Centos and Redhat) and Mac OS X. A new PowerShell GitHub page gives people the ability to download binaries of the software, as well as access to the app's source code. PowerShell on Linux and Mac will let people who have already built proficiency with Microsoft's scripting language take those skills and bring them to new platforms. Meanwhile, people who are used to working on those platforms will have access to a new and very powerful tool for getting work done. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Here’s how to get the Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update
Microsoft has begun rolling out its big Anniversary Update for smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile. Users who want to get their hands on it will be able to do so through their phone, according to a blog post update by Microsoft on Tuesday. To check for the update, users should open up the Settings app, then navigate through Update & Security > Phone update > Check for update. After that, the phone should download the update and install it. However, Microsoft notes that actually getting the update is dependent on a variety of factors, including "manufacturer, model, country or region, mobile operator or service provider, hardware limitations and other factors." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft will bring holographic ‘mixed reality’ to every Windows 10 PC
Microsoft is bringing Windows Holographic to the masses with a forthcoming update to Windows 10, in a move to make it easier to blend physical and digital reality on any PC. Windows Holographic will be made available through a software update sometime in 2017, Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group, said at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Tuesday. Microsoft and Intel are working together to provide minimum hardware specifications for Windows Holographic PCs and headsets, he added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google says its databases are enterprise ready
Google is continuing its campaign to entice enterprises to its public cloud platform by rolling out database services stable enough to serve businesses' production workloads. To that end, the company announced the general availability of three database-focused products: the second generation of Cloud SQL, its managed database service; Cloud Datastore, its NoSQL document database; and Cloud Bigtable, its NoSQL database service that powers products like Gmail. Each of those products has a service level agreement associated with it, guaranteeing a certain amount of availability. Dominic Preuss, Google's lead product manager for storage and databases, said in an interview that many companies wait until after cloud services have been declared generally available before adopting them. Tuesday's announcements are aimed at reaching those customers at a time when Google is trying to position its cloud as a competitor to Amazon, Microsoft and IBM for large business customers. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Here’s why Azure Stack will only run on certain hardware
Microsoft made a divisive announcement last month when it revealed that Azure Stack will be delayed until the middle of next year and that the private cloud software will only run on a set of integrated hardware systems rather than a wide variety of hardware. Now, the company is trying to explain that change to customers. On Thursday, Microsoft Principal Group Program Manager Vijay Tewari makes the case for shipping Azure Stack on a small variety of hardware in a video interview. His main point is this: constraining the software to a small set of hardware leads to a better product that's more useful right out of the gate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Here’s why Azure Stack will only run on certain hardware
Microsoft made a divisive announcement last month when it revealed that Azure Stack will be delayed until the middle of next year and that the private cloud software will only run on a set of integrated hardware systems rather than a wide variety of hardware. Now, the company is trying to explain that change to customers. On Thursday, Microsoft Principal Group Program Manager Vijay Tewari makes the case for shipping Azure Stack on a small variety of hardware in a video interview. His main point is this: constraining the software to a small set of hardware leads to a better product that's more useful right out of the gate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here