EMC has reported encouraging financials ahead of the company’s crucial shareholder vote this week, as the vendor targets strategic markets and profitability ahead of its upcoming acquisition by Dell.
With the largest technology merger in history pending approval, the storage giant reported strategic successes during 2Q16 that it can build from as it continues toward its landmark expected integration into Dell.
After a full year of bottom-line declines during 2015, EMC notched a second consecutive quarter of year-to-year net income improvements during 2Q16, rising 160 basis points to 9.7 per cent, supported in part by cost restructuring initiatives but also by heightened monetisation of investment in strategic solutions areas.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM’s revenue continued to decline in the second quarter but growth in some of its strategic initiatives like cloud computing and data analytics suggest that the company may be on track in its transition plans.The Armonk, New York, company said Monday that revenue from its new “strategic imperatives” like cloud, analytics and security increased by 12 percent year-on-year to US$8.3 billion. That increase was, however, lower than the growth the company had reported in these businesses in the first quarter.Cloud revenue – public, private and hybrid – grew 30 percent in the second quarter, while revenue from analytics grew 4 percent, revenue from mobile increased 43 percent and the security business grew 18 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The FBI is using antiquated computer systems to deliberately foil requests made under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, a new lawsuit alleges.Ryan Shapiro, a national security researcher and Ph.D. candidate at MIT, has been studying the Freedom of Information Act for years with a particular focus on noncompliance by government agencies. He already has multiple FOIA lawsuits in motion against the FBI, and earlier this month he filed a new one.In it, he describes numerous attempts to obtain information over the past two years, and the FBI's frequent response that it can't locate what he's looking for.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Enjoy the power and fun of a Polaroid camera without the Polaroid camera. This little standalone photo printer connects to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, and is powered by a rechargeable lithium polymer battery, so it's designed to be portable, easy and fun to use. On a single charge the gadget will print 25 photos -- without ink. Instead, it uses heat to produce deep, vibrant colors that are completely smudge-proof, on 2x3 paper that is waterproof, tear-proof and backed with adhesive so you can peel-and-stick for added fun. It ships with 10 sheets loaded, but paper is easy to find on Amazon and comes in packs of 20, 30 or 50 (found here). A compact and protective carrying case is also available at what seems to be a reasonable price (found here). The Polaroid ZIP mobile printer currently averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 1,150 customers (read reviews). Its typical list price of $159.99 has been reduced by 19% to $129.99. If you're looking for a fun and unusual summer gift idea for yourself or someone on your list, see the discounted Polaroid ZIP mobile printer Continue reading
ZTE's US $99 ZMax Pro packs in some of the latest smartphone technologies, something you wouldn't expect in a low-priced handset.The smartphone has a 6-inch screen and is available only through MetroPCS in the U.S. It weighs about 175 grams and is 8.9 millimeters thick.It has some top-line features found in the latest smartphones, like a USB Type-C port. It also runs on the latest Android OS 6.0 code-named Marshmallow.The Gorilla Glass 3 screen shows images at a full HD resolution. The handset has 32GB of internal storage, and a micro-SD card for expandable storage. That's a lot of storage for a handset under $100.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Early this month, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) introduced an H-1B reform bill that, he said, has little chance of being enacted this year. But that wasn't the point of the bill."I introduced my legislation, in fact, when I saw [that H-1B] wasn't going to be in the [Democratic] platform," Pascrell said during a telephone press conference Monday about his legislation.The Democrats, both presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and the party itself, have not called for H-1B reforms. It's not mentioned in Clinton's or in the party's draft platforms. That's in contrast to Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, who has detailed visa reforms in his platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s summertime, which means you may not be keeping up with all the news in the busy cloud computing industry.Last week there were a handful of announcements that flew somewhat under the radar, but have important implications for this market.Congress considers moving Federal IT to the cloud There’s a movement afoot in Congress to encourage more government workloads to migrate to cloud computing platforms, according to GovInfoSecurity.com. A bill named Move IT Act aims to sure up cybersecurity defenses and upgrade legacy infrastructure systems while making it easier for federal agencies to use cloud computing services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Harry Potter fans, take note: Scientists have made an object "disappear" using a cloaking device similar in many ways to the invisibility cloak imagined by author J.K. Rowling.Researchers from the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at the Queen Mary University of London worked with U.K. industry recently to demonstrate a device that allows curved surfaces to appear flat to electromagnetic waves. It's not an invisibility cloak just yet, but it could bring the much-yearned-for item closer to reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Skype is bringing a new app to smartphones, computers, and tablets running Windows 10 on Monday, ahead of Microsoft's Windows 10 Anniversary Update launch.People who are beta testing Windows 10 through the Windows Insider Program now get a new version of the Skype Preview App, which will allow them to call mobile and landline phones from their computers, leave and receive voicemails, and put calls on hold.The new Skype app will replace the existing Skype desktop app, along with calling and messaging apps that were bundled with the original release of Windows 10. It's unclear when the app will be released to all Windows 10 users, but this announcement brings that closer to reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Backhaul and fronthaul have come a long way through the generations. When I started out, fronthaul was literally the length of industrial coax cable that you could easily observe running from the bottom of a cell phone tower to the top. Backhaul was always where the excitement was—in all the signal processing smarts surrounding transcoding. This technology existed to condense almighty 64k bit/sec. pipes down to a 16k bit/sec. ones and vice versa.
Today, the story has moved on and converged quite a bit, but the uncoordinated shaping of these spaces in those early days has resulted in two worlds or two heterogeneous technology silos, one each for fronthaul and backhaul. This is not going to fly in 5G, and a fusion is coming that will bring these two worlds together.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A U.S. district court judge last week effectively ended a payphone company’s lawsuit against the City of New York, opening the door for an ambitious public Wi-Fi hotspot program to proceed.The payphone company, Telebeam, had sued the city in 2014, arguing that the city shouldn’t have been allowed to force Telebeam to cede up 1,300 public payphone sites when it awarded the contract to rival CityBridge.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Microsoft disavows 1B-or-bust goal for Windows 10 + Hackers claim to have launched DDoS attack that crashed Pokémon Go serversTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the latest attack that shows how hard it is for users to identify phone numbers with premium call charges, a researcher has found that he could have earned millions by abusing the online phone verification systems used by Google, Microsoft, and Instagram.Many websites and mobile apps allow users to associate a phone number with their account. This can be used for two-factor authentication or as an account recovery and verification option. Many of these systems rely on codes sent via text messages, but also offer the option to call the user and dictate such codes.Last year, a Belgian IT security consultant named Arne Swinnen started wondering if such systems test if the numbers entered by users have premium charges attached to them and set out to test several popular services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Even though gadgets like virtual reality and augmented reality are the “it things” in the technology space, there are still systems coming out that let you do normal things like computing, web browsing and movie watching / book reading.Here’s a quick roundup of three notebook and desktop systems (using those terms loosely) that offer some unique features and usage scenarios aimed at the business and consumer markets. Kangaroo.cc
The Kangaroo Mobile Desktop Pro (with cover removed to show inside of system)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Since the release of the iPhone, ARM's chip designs have driven a mobile revolution. The small chip company has brought giants like Intel to their knees in the realm of mobile phones and tablets, and now it's on the verge of being acquired by Softbank for a stunning US$32 billion.
You may not know it, but outside of PCs ARM is in almost every device we use, from smartphones to TVs to home appliances. It licenses chip designs to manufacturers, and over the last 25 years, over 90 billion ARM-designed chips have gone into devices. ARM will continue designing processors for various segments of the computing industry after the acquisition, but investments will go up and product development will be faster, said Simon Segars, CEO of ARM, in a video. Here are three immediate things you need to know about the deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The planned sale of Opera Software to a group of Chinese companies for $1.2 billion has foundered, the Norwegian browser maker announced today.Instead, an alternate deal has been struck to sell the Opera desktop and mobile browsers, and other small pieces, to a Chinese private equity firm for $600 million.The original transaction folded after it failed to win regulatory approval from the U.S. and People's Republic of China (PRC) by a July 15 deadline. Opera did not specify whether approval was lacking from both countries, or just one. "The Offeror and Opera have used their best efforts to obtain the regulatory approvals required for the consummation of the Offer, but the condition...was not satisfied," Opera said in a Monday statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Technology is not a bad thing; it’s not inherently scary. Sometimes new technology gets misused or tainted with mission creep. Most of the time, tech actually makes our lives easier and better. Here are two tales about “new” tech that could potentially predict the future. One seems scarier than the other.Algorithm to predict at birth if a person will be a criminal
Algorithms control aspects of your life whether you are aware of it or not. They are used to come up with risk scores and even predict the future. But how would you feel about an algorithm that seems to be ripped straight from Minority Report? It would identify criminals far before they could commit a crime, since it would “predict at the time of someone’s birth how likely she is to commit a crime by the time she turns 18.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's called Stream, and it's supposed to let people easily work together with one another on videos, and then share that content both inside and outside their company.In the realm of consumer web services, video is ascending. Facebook has been emphasizing video posts on its popular social network, while YouTube is still going strong. Microsoft is trying to take some of that mojo and bring it to the business world with the launch of an open beta for Stream on Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Professional sports teams around the world—including the NBA’s Golden State Warriors—are working furiously to leverage all kinds of technology, from mobile connectivity and social media to player analytics and augmented reality. But according the Warrior’s vice president of marketing and digital, Kenny Lauer, it will be at least two to five years before virtual reality (VR), perhaps the most exciting new development, will achieve widespread adoption.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Japan’s SoftBank is set to acquire UK chip design company, ARM, to cash in on growing demand for processors and other technologies for the internet of things and mobile markets, according to news reports.Softbank is paying up to US$32 billion for the chip design company that licenses its designs to a large number of chip suppliers to smartphone makers and to the emerging IoT market, according to the reports.SoftBank has invested in a number of media and technology companies, including Internet retailer Snapdeal in India and ride-hailing app company Didi Chuxing in China. It also acquired Sprint Nextel in 2013.But the acquisition of ARM would place the company in a market where it would be an upstream supplier to some of the biggest names in the tech industry as licensees of ARM’s designs like Qualcomm gear up to supply chips to the the connected devices market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When I’m not writing about technology or playing wi-, er, testing software or hardware, I cook. Food and cooking are two of my passions and one of the worst things about being in the tech world is that cooking usually has to take second place. Today, however, I have the pleasure of combining tech with my culinary pursuits as I recently got my hands on a really cool cooking device that’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled and controlled by a smartphone app. The device is an immersion circulator called Joule that was developed by one of my favorite foodie resources, ChefSteps. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here