PC makers have fully embraced touchscreen laptops and desktops, but don’t expect Apple to head down that road.Last week, the company introduced two MacBook Pros that feature slim OLED displays to replace the keyboard’s function keys. Apple launched its latest products just one day after Microsoft unveiled its massive Surface Studio desktop designed for creative professionals, a demographic once solidly in Apple territory. Why didn’t Apple go fully touchscreen with its new MacBooks? Is the Touch Bar an interim step, a sign that Apple is unsure of its footing?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Stating it wants Outlook for mobile to be more than just checking messages while waiting in line for coffee, Microsoft today announced a new scheduling experience for Outlook for iOS that's similar to the Outlook feature on the desktop. The scheduling assistant for Outlook for iOS is similar to the desktop version of the app, which lets you see your co-workers' schedules, so you can schedule an event at a time that works for everyone.First, you create an event in your calendar, then add co-workers to the “People” field. Times that work for everyone show in white, yellow indicates availability for one or more people in the group, and red indicates times with no availability. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When Amazon announced its earnings last week, Wall Street was disappointed, with the company’s stock tumbling 5%. But if Amazon didn’t have its cloud business, Wall Street may have been even more bearish. By non-Wall Street standards, the online ecommerce giant had a nice quarter: Revenues of $32. 7 billion were up 29% from the same quarter last year and the company turned a $575 billion profit. The revenues and earnings were less than consensus estimates and Amazon gave vague guidance on future performance heading into the always-busy holiday shopping season. Amazon AWS continued its healthy growth across sales, operating income and Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) Net Sales To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A few weeks back, I wrote a post contending that, as traditionally defined, the term unified communications has no meaning. Since then, I have had many interesting conversations with people who have varying opinions on the subject. This post is to pass along some of what I have learned.Un-unified In alignment with my contention, most of the conversations on the subject have confirmed that when someone in a work situation needs to communicate with someone who is not within earshot, they typically use tools that are very, well, un-unified. If we need to talk to someone, we call. We still email as much as any other modality. Second to that, we text and increasingly group message. If we need to share or collaborate on information that is in a document, we webchat. Begrudgingly, we occasionally video chat. A few people do use a single tool for these functions, but more often we choose between a set of tools—applications that are specialized to the task at hand.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
They say necessity is the mother of invention. That statement has been true in networking for decades now, as many of the innovations in the network have been driven by changes in compute.For example, Ethernet became the de facto standard to consolidate all of the various LAN protocols that once existed. Another example is the virtual switch. That was invented to solve the hair pinning problem associated with moving traffic between two virtual machines on the same host.+ Also on Network World: Which is cheaper: Containers or virtual machines? + There’s another major compute shift going on that will drive the need for network evolution, and that’s the rise of containers. If you’re not familiar with containers, think of them as a lightweight runtime environment that includes an application and all of its dependencies, including configuration files, binaries and libraries. Containers are similar to virtual machines except they share a single operating system and kernel, so it’s much lighter weight. A VM can be a few to tens of gigabytes in size,where a container is likely to be just a few megabytes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Shadow Brokers are back, releasing message 5 - trick or treat. This time, instead of releasing Equation Group exploit tools, the group dumped a list of servers allegedly compromised by the NSA-linked Equation Group.As usual, the Shadow Brokers included a slaughtered-English rambling message which primarily focused on the upcoming elections. One portion reads: TheShadowBrokers is having suggestion. On November 8th, instead of not voting, maybe be stopping the vote all together? Maybe being grinch who stopped election from coming? Maybe hacking election is being the best idea? #hackelection2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Shadow Brokers hacker group is back, releasing message 5 - trick or treat. This time, instead of releasing Equation Group exploit tools, the group dumped a list of servers allegedly compromised by the NSA-linked Equation Group.As usual, the Shadow Brokers included a slaughtered-English rambling message that primarily focused on the upcoming elections. One portion reads: TheShadowBrokers is having suggestion. On November 8th, instead of not voting, maybe be stopping the vote all together? Maybe being grinch who stopped election from coming? Maybe hacking election is being the best idea? #hackelection2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I spent a few days with Trend Micro last week at its Insight event here in Boston. While Trend is a $1 billion + global cybersecurity vendor, too many cybersecurity professionals still think of Trend as an Asian-based AV player. This perception is completely antiquated however, as Trend now offers: A tightly-integrated next-generation endpoint security suite. There’s a lot of industry rhetoric out there proclaiming Trend as a legacy AV vendor. Don’t believe it! Yes, Trend Micro’s endpoint security product has been around forever but the company has continuously enhanced it technology to keep up with the latest requirements. Most recently, Trend added machine learning for pre- and post-execution prevention/detection of 0-day malware which puts in on par with the next-generation endpoint security crowd. Oh, and Trend also offers its own EDR functionality as well. Armed with its new product, Trend’s layered endpoint defense should meet the security efficacy and operational efficiency requirements of even the most demanding enterprises. A strong network security defense portfolio. Now that the dust has settled from Trend’s acquisition of TippingPoint a year ago, the company also has robust products for network security. After HP let Continue reading
The Roverbeats Unify enables Bluetooth 4.0 capability on traditional audio systems lacking Bluetooth functionality. Just connect it to your system's A/V, RCA, or 3.5mm jack input. The Unify is the first Bluetooth receiver to have a 200mAh battery, allowing it to provide up to 10 hours of continuous high quality music playback. And with NFC capability, the Unify can quickly connect with any other NFC enabled device in the matter of seconds. The adapter gives you wireless control up to 33 feet. It currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 1,100 people (read reviews), where its typical list price of $36 has been significantly reduced to just $17.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A little over a year ago, I wrote how FC Barcelona, perhaps the world’s most iconic soccer team, offers very little in the way of technological enhancements to fans at its home pitch, called Camp Nou.+ Also on Network World: FC Barcelona's soccer stadium foregoes technology + Well, it turns out there’s a lot more to the story of how the famed club uses technology. First, Barça is finally adding tech enhancements, including more than 1,000 Wi-Fi access points, as well as video security cameras, touchscreens, contactless ticketing, new mobile apps and much more. The club is also working on a dramatic new stadium at Camp Nou, scheduled to be ready for the 2021-2022 season, designed to further embrace a technologically enhanced fan experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
MIT Technology Review's EmTech conference is all about looking to the future of tech and what's more futuristic than artificial intelligence? If you are up to date with the latest news on AI, or maybe you've just watched a few episodes of HBO's Westworld, you might be wondering how soon your job will be replaced by a robot. But if the presentation at MIT 's EmTech conference this year is any indication, while artificial intelligence is at an impressive point, we're still far off from robot domination.To emphasize that point, Dileep George, co-founder of Vicarious, an organization working on next-generation AI algorithms, showed video of robots falling over in silly situations in his presentation, Artificial Intelligence at Work. The footage not only got some laughs, it also highlighted the vast limitations of current robotics. According to George, it's not that we don't have the hardware to create intelligent robots, it's that we don't have the software to make robots intelligent enough to do something as simple as fall down correctly. Instead, most robots unnaturally tense up and fall to the ground from a mere push.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Make no mistake: Professional and state-sponsored cybercriminals are trying to compromise your identity -- either at home, to steal your money; or at work, to steal your employer’s money, sensitive data, or intellectual property.Most users know the basics of computer privacy and safety when using the internet, including running HTTPS and two-factor authentication whenever possible, and checking haveibeenpwned.com to verify whether their email addresses or user names and passwords have been compromised by a known attack.[ Watch out for 11 signs you've been hacked -- and learn how to fight back, in InfoWorld's PDF special report. | Discover how to secure your systems with InfoWorld's Security Report newsletter. ] But these days, computer users should go well beyond tightening their social media account settings. The security elite run a variety of programs, tools, and specialized hardware to ensure their privacy and security is as strong as it can be. Here, we take a look at this set of tools, beginning with those that provide the broadest security coverage down to each specific application for a particular purpose. Use any, or all, of these tools to protect your privacy and have the best computer security possible.To Continue reading
The city of Kansas City, Mo., blazed a new technology trail in May when it launched its first streetcar line with public Wi-Fi that spreads across two square miles, covering more than 50 square blocks. It also marked the debut of the city's first-generation smart city corridor for new technologies, many of which will run wirelessly over one of the largest free public Wi-Fi zones in the country.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Despite all the news coverage about successful cyberattacks, developers are still writing code full of security vulnerabilities.Of course, nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes, and as software projects get more and more complex, it can be easy to mix potential problems.But that doesn't explain why so much software is full of the most basic errors.According to a report released this month by Veracode, 61 percent of all internally-developed applications failed a basic test of compliance with the OWASP Top 10 list on their first pass. And commercially developed software did even worse, with a 75 percent failure rate.These are basic, well-known problems, like SQL injections and cross-site scripting.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. – Experts at a recent technology conference agreed that blockchain has a bright future, but warned it may be a rocky ride until that future arrives. Blockchain is a distributed database that uses a secure digital ledger of transactions that users can share across a computer network. It’s also the technology behind virtual currency bitcoin. “When you are at the leading edge there will be mistakes. People will get a lot wrong in the next five years. I think of it kind of like running with scissors,” says Constellation Research analyst Steve Wilson at the Oct. 26 Connected Enterprise conference hosted by his company. Constellation Research Connected Enterprise conference From left to right: Shawn Wiora, CEO of Maxxsure, Silicon Valley Product Exec Chirag Mehta, and Aron Dutta, Global Head of Blockchain at IBMTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Can’t you ever get enough bandwidth? It may seem that way when you run up against current constraints, but despair of being able to afford additional capacity. Really, though, what you should be asking is can you get the bandwidth you need, when you need it.In the past, you really didn’t have much choice. You made calculations based on ongoing needs and figured out whether you could afford something extra for peak capacity.Software-drivenThe future, built on software-driven networks and virtualization, is one of bandwidth on demand, when you need it. AT&T Network on Demand revolutionizes enterprise network services by emulating with software the functions of complex hardware components and servers. Instead of waiting for truck rolls, ultimately you’ll be able to order new services in near real time through an online, self-service portal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
CenturyLink plans to acquire internet backbone company Level 3 Communications in a US$34 billion cash and stock deal that aims to consolidate the networks and customers of the two companies.The combined company, operating in more than 60 countries, will be able to offer CenturyLink's larger enterprise customers the benefits of a larger global presence, and will also be positioned to further invest in the reach and speed of its broadband infrastructure for small businesses and consumers, the companies said.CenturyLink is currently focused on global communications, hosting, cloud, and IT services, offering both network and data systems management with more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe, and Asia. It provides broadband, voice, video, data, and managed services over a 250,000-mile U.S. fiber network and a 300,000-mile international transport network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Black Friday 2016 headlines are dire: ”Is Black Friday dead?” “Black Friday: Is the commercial holiday dying?” ”Black Friday is Dead, Long Live Black Friday” But no, Black Friday isn’t really dead and oodles of computers, smartphones, video game consoles and TVs will be snapped up at bargain prices on Friday, Nov. 25 itself, as well as pre-Thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving Day and on the Saturdays leading up to Christmas. Oh, yeah, even Cyber Monday will grab stragglers on Nov. 28.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An online hackers' forum has deleted a section that allegedly offered paid distributed denial-of-service attacks, following last Friday's massive internet disruption. HackForums.net will be shutting down the "Server Stress Testing" section, the site's admin Jesse "Omniscient" LaBrocca said in a Friday posting. "I do need to make sure that we continue to exist and given the recent events I think it's more important that the section be permanently shut down," he wrote. The section was designed to let members offer so-called stress testing services for websites as a way to check their resiliency. However, security firms claim Hack Forums was actually promoting DDoS-for-hire services that anyone can use to launch cyber attacks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A U.S. banking regulator says an employee downloaded a large amount of data from its computer system a week before he retired and is now unable to locate the thumb drives he stored it on.The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is a part of the Department of the Treasury, said the loss represented "a major information security incident" as it reported the case to Congress on Friday.The data was taken in November 2015, but its loss was only discovered in September this year as the agency reviewed downloads to removable media devices in the last two years.The employee in question used two thumb drives to store the information, both of which he is unable to locate, the agency said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here