Microsoft Dynamics 365 won’t come cheap, leaked details suggest

Microsoft's upcoming Dynamics 365 cloud software promises a one-stop shop for ERP and CRM, but its modular convenience could come at a considerable cost, with strong incentives to sign up for bundle pricing.So suggests a blog post published Monday but since taken down by Microsoft partner Encore Business Solutions. The blog post outlined how pricing and licensing will work for the new enterprise software. (A cached version of the post is still online.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to make hybrid cloud work

Last year, hybrid cloud was a priority for many enterprises, although with a certain amount of confusion about what it involved. This year, those ambitious plans are showing up as an approach to hybrid cloud that relies on platform as a service (PaaS) to take full advantage of cloud models.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

New Yorker sues Apple over botched iPhone Upgrade Program pre-order

A New York man yesterday sued Apple in federal court, claiming that the company misled him and others when it pitched the iPhone Upgrade Program last year.The lawsuit asked for class action status, a move that if approved would let others join the case.Emil Frank of Brooklyn, N.Y., complained that he had not been able to pre-order an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus on Friday because Apple limited the number of devices for Upgrade Program participants while letting others reserve new phones."[Apple] allowed non-iPhone Upgrade Program customers to snap up the limited inventory of the new devices while telling countless iPhone Upgrade Program customers to 'check back later,'" Frank asserted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: iOS 10 adds speed and smarts

Ten versions of iOS have been released since the iPhone's debut in 2007. At the time, the groundbreaking OS, coupled with innovative touchscreen hardware, changed the mobile landscape and altered what people expect from their mobile devices.Now, a decade later, comes a feature-rich iOS 10, delivering subtle refinements to the user interface, new capabilities and important enhancements to oft-used applications. The overall effect is a cohesive OS made more useful by tying together functions in ways that allow you to do more without having to jump between apps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Grow Up

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Azure Service Fabric enters public beta for Linux workloads

Developers who want help running Linux- and Java-based microservice applications will have a new Microsoft service to take for a spin. Microsoft announced Tuesday that it's launching the public beta of Service Fabric support for running applications on the popular open source operating system with the popular programming language. It's an expansion of Service Fabric's capabilities, at a time when Microsoft is spending more effort to support Linux in addition to platforms it controls.Service Fabric on Linux was first announced at the company's Build developer conference in San Francisco earlier this year, and the public beta will be made available on Sept. 26, during Microsoft's Ignite conference.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Riverbed’s back with a beefed-up SD-WAN solution

Riverbed Technology is well known as the de facto standard for WAN optimization and pioneered that market. Maybe there were a few vendors with solutions out before Riverbed, but it was the company that defined and evangelized that market.However, the WAN market changed and over the past few years. The industry has seen the meteoric rise in software-defined WANs (SD-WAN), and Riverbed had fallen behind many of the startups in the space.Over the past year, Riverbed has been aggressively rebuilding its portfolio, including the acquisition of Ocedo, to better align with SD-WAN and has come roaring back. At its Disrupt event this week, the company made a number of announcements, indicating just how far the company has come in the last 24 months.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Riverbed’s back with a beefed-up SD-WAN solution

Riverbed Technology is well known as the de facto standard for WAN optimization and pioneered that market. Maybe there were a few vendors with solutions out before Riverbed, but it was the company that defined and evangelized that market.However, the WAN market changed and over the past few years. The industry has seen the meteoric rise in software-defined WANs (SD-WAN), and Riverbed had fallen behind many of the startups in the space.Over the past year, Riverbed has been aggressively rebuilding its portfolio, including the acquisition of Ocedo, to better align with SD-WAN and has come roaring back. At its Disrupt event this week, the company made a number of announcements, indicating just how far the company has come in the last 24 months.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google Cloud Eases IoT Development with Prototyping Kit

Beaglebone Green includes WiFi and Bluetooth radios.

The scoop on Cisco’s resurgence in collaboration and its long range plans for IoT

Rowan Trollope was hired four years ago to breathe new life into Cisco’s collaboration group, the results of which are partially on display with new capabilities coming out in Apple’s release of iOS 10. In fact, he did so well with collaboration he was also given responsibility for Cisco’s Internet of Things efforts. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up with Trollope, who is senior vice president and general manager, IoT and Applications, to see how he managed the collaboration turnaround and what he has planned for IoT.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enterprises hope their mobile users pay attention to security

To ensure mobile security, enterprises need the whole-hearted cooperation of their workforce. But many workers don’t seem to know or care about their company’s mobile security policies.That conundrum fits my experience of how these things work in the real world, and it’s also one of the conclusions of a new survey—Enterprise Mobility Security Goals & Challenges—conducted by Silicon Valley management services provider NetEnrich.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

War between Windows 10 and Linux coming to Intel’s Joule board

Microsoft is challenging Linux's domination in Raspberry Pi-type computers by bringing support for Windows 10 OS to more developer boards.The newest computer to get a version of Windows 10 will be Intel's Joule, which has cutting-edge hardware compared to Raspberry Pi 3.To be specific, Joule will get support for Windows 10 IoT Core -- a slimmed down version of Windows 10 -- by year-end, Microsoft said in a blog post last week. Joule currently supports only the Linux OS.With Windows 10 IoT Core, Joule can be used to develop gadgets, robots, drones, wearables, medical devices, and smart industrial devices. The OS is supported by four other mini-computers -- Raspberry Pi 2 and 3, Qualcomm's DragonBoard 410c, and Intel's MinnowMax.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple lost the autonomous car battle before it began

Apple faces major obstacles to becoming a car company—or even a supplier of navigation and infotainment systems voluntarily integrated into vehicles by auto manufacturers. Hopelessly addicted to rich margin, premium iPhones, Apple doesn’t have much to offer automakers, and what little it could offer will be rejected for good business reasons.Apple designs premium smartphones and consumer products, contracting their manufacture to a mature Chinese supply chain. Reports by Bloomberg and The New York Times about Apple’s shift in its autonomous car program missed this most fundamental point. But the shift from building an autonomous electric vehicle (EV) to building the software that guides self-driving vehicles will not earn  Apple a leading position in the autonomous vehicle business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Interview: Dr. Pat McCarthy Of The Giant Magellan Telescope

On the Citizens of Tech Podcast #43, we interviewed Dr. Patrick McCarthy of the Giant Magellan Telescope project, currently under construction in Chile.

The GMT is in a new class of “extremely large telescopes.” Featuring a custom glass formulation, seven asymmetric mirrors being polished in Arizona, and software that will correct in real-time for atmospheric distortion and physical alignment, the GMT will gather images too dim for us to have ever seen before.

Among the anticipated advances is the ability to see planets orbiting distant stars, allowing us to get that planet’s spectrographic signature. That data will help us find planets with the chemical signatures of life. We’ll also be able to look ever further back in time as we observe across light years, clarifying our understanding of the universe’s opening moments.

Pat was an outstanding spokesman for the GMT, clearly explaining the project’s worth to science, construction challenges, and relation to other extremely large telescope projects. He also helped us understand the pros and cons of terrestrial vs. space-based telescopes.

15% off Veepeak USB Rechargeable LED Motion Sensor Light for Closet with Magnetic Mounting – Deal Alert

The Veepeak Rechargeable Motion Sensor Light offers a simple solution to lighting any area inside your home. The portable and detachable design makes it versatile enough to be used as a night light in hallways and bedrooms or as a cabinet or closet light for dim areas. Installation is a breeze, the magnetic strip with 3M adhesive allows you to quickly mount wherever you need extra light.  This light is motion activated and will automatically turn on once it detects motion; when no movement is detected for about 20 seconds, the light will automatically turn off. This LED light is powered by built-in Lithium battery which can be charged with included USB cable by a phone charger or PC USB port. No electric wire, no need to replace batteries and one full charge provides up to 500 times of sensing at full brightness.  This light currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars (read reviews).  For more information and buying options, see the discounted LED Motion light on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Ransomware and backups

Read through the recent Wall Street Journal ransomware article and you’ll find some great stats on the growing threat and cost. One thing you won’t find: the word “backup.” We’re happy to see ransomware finally getting the attention it deserves, but why discuss the problem and leave out the obvious, simple antidote? It’s like an article on a bike theft epidemic that fails to mention that none of the bikes were locked up. —Cloud Security Alliance

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Hackers found 47 new vulnerabilities in 23 IoT devices at DEF CON

Smart door locks, padlocks, thermostats, refrigerators, wheelchairs and even solar panel arrays were among the internet-of-things devices that fell to hackers during the IoT Village held at the DEF CON security conference in August.A month after the conference ended, the results are in: 47 new vulnerabilities affecting 23 devices from 21 manufacturers were disclosed during the IoT security talks, workshops and onsite hacking contests.The types of vulnerabilities found ranged from poor design decisions like the use of plaintext and hard-coded passwords to coding flaws like buffer overflows and command injection.Door locks and padlocks from vendors like Quicklock, iBlulock, Plantraco, Ceomate, Elecycle, Vians, Lagute, Okidokeys, Danalock were found to be vulnerable to password sniffing and replay attacks, where a captured command can be replayed later to open the locks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hackers found 47 new vulnerabilities in 23 IoT devices at DEF CON

Smart door locks, padlocks, thermostats, refrigerators, wheelchairs and even solar panel arrays were among the internet-of-things devices that fell to hackers during the IoT Village held at the DEF CON security conference in August.A month after the conference ended, the results are in: 47 new vulnerabilities affecting 23 devices from 21 manufacturers were disclosed during the IoT security talks, workshops and onsite hacking contests.The types of vulnerabilities found ranged from poor design decisions like the use of plaintext and hard-coded passwords to coding flaws like buffer overflows and command injection.Door locks and padlocks from vendors like Quicklock, iBlulock, Plantraco, Ceomate, Elecycle, Vians, Lagute, Okidokeys, Danalock were found to be vulnerable to password sniffing and replay attacks, where a captured command can be replayed later to open the locks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple’s new Bluetooth security hole

When the iPhone7 ships, you’d best have your mobile device management (MDM) on the phone locked down. Apple’s self-described “courageous” move to warrant Bluetooth instead of wired headphone connectivity will give you nightmares. Part of the problem is the Bluetooth protocol itself; the other problem is that civilians leave it on and accessible. But you’ve already buttoned down all of that stuff, right? Like others in the tech press, I’ve taken out my Bluetooth analyzer and watched the count of responding devices in downtown Bloomington, Indiana, near the lab. It’s easy to do. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Carnegie Mellon touts increase in incoming women CompSci students

Carnegie Mellon University is boasting that nearly half (48%) of incoming School of Computer Science undergraduates are women, a new diversity record for the institution. This echoes results at another top-notch computer science school, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's College of Engineering, which says 46% of its 190 incoming freshmen CompSci students are women. That's up from 24% the year before. Guy Blelloch, associate dean for undergraduate programs at CMU, says 38% more women applied for admission with SCS as their first choice. The school, which increased its first-year undergrad class in computer science by 30% this fall, says men and women are judged by the same admission standards.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here