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IDG Contributor Network: Projecting the Internet of Things’ massive potential impact on business

Often, when we hear about Internet of Things (IoT), we think of it in terms of consumer-oriented scenarios—home security, switching lights on, fitness bands, and so on.But in fact, the IoT has room to completely transform business too. Telematics isn't just consumer-oriented.Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer presented a webinar on digital innovation recently, and in it he provided a synopsis on where he thinks IoT and business is headed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CA names Xbox cofounder its new CTO

Xbox cofounder Otto Berkes may have spent the bulk of his recent years focusing on consumer technology, but his next career move will be set squarely in the enterprise arena, as CA Technologies on Monday announced that it recruited him to serve as its next CTO.Most recently, Berkes was CTO at HBO, where he was responsible for the development of HBO Go as well as all of the company’s technology efforts including media production, internal business systems and technology operations.Before that, Berkes—who has been awarded seven patents and is one of the four original founders of Xbox—spent 18 years at Microsoft, where he held a number of senior-level positions including senior software developer, partner-level architect and general manager.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BlackBerry settlement allows Typo keyboards for iPads, not iPhones

BlackBerry has reached a settlement with Typo Innovations, which made an accessory keyboard for iPhones that the handset maker said infringed its patents.Under the settlement announced Monday, Typo, which was co-founded by “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest, is barred from selling keyboards for devices with screen sizes smaller than 7.9 inches.BlackBerry sued Typo in 2014 after the company released a keyboard that fit the iPhone 5 or 5S like a protective case; BlackBerry claimed the keyboard copied those found on its own handsets. The keyboard is one of the differentiating features that has made BlackBerry loyalists cling to their old-school smartphones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BlackBerry settlement allows Typo keyboards for iPads, not iPhones

BlackBerry has reached a settlement with Typo Innovations, which made an accessory keyboard for iPhones that the handset maker said infringed its patents.Under the settlement announced Monday, Typo, which was co-founded by “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest, is barred from selling keyboards for devices with screen sizes smaller than 7.9 inches.BlackBerry sued Typo in 2014 after the company released a keyboard that fit the iPhone 5 or 5S like a protective case; BlackBerry claimed the keyboard copied those found on its own handsets. The keyboard is one of the differentiating features that has made BlackBerry loyalists cling to their old-school smartphones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pure says users can upgrade the same all-flash array for a decade

Enterprise storage is a long-term bet. Pure Storage, a growing maker of all-flash arrays, is reshuffling the deck on that gamble in a way that might save IT departments time and money.Pure’s plan is to let customers keep the same system for a decade, upgrading various components as improved versions come out but never having to migrate the data from an older array to a new one. For some organizations, this could eliminate an expensive and time-consuming effort every few years.The elements of the new approach have been coming together for a while. But the company formally introduced the strategy and gave it a name—Evergreen Storage—as it unveiled its fourth-generation product on Monday. Evergreen Storage applies to all generations of Pure hardware already shipped as well as versions yet to come.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nokia wants to build data centers for mobile operators

Nokia wants to help mobile network operators launch new services and cut their costs with a new range of servers, switches and storage they can use to virtualize their networks.Enterprises have already adopted virtualization and cloud-based IT infrastructures, and now telecommunications operators are looking at doing the same thing. Meanwhile equipment vendors like Nokia are increasingly offering operators the hardware and software to provide telephony, messaging and mobile broadband as virtualized services.Telecommunications operators instigated the move away from dedicated, proprietary equipment to virtualized hardware. A group including AT&T, Verizon, China Mobile, Orange and Deutsche Telekom proposed a concept called NFV (Network Functions Virtualization), which is now being standardized by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google’s new privacy settings page aims to gives users more control

Google has launched a centralized hub that lets users manage the privacy and security controls of all its services, and introduced a site with information about these topics.The hub, called My Account, is not the first effort from Google to centralize settings: in 2009, it introduced a dashboard to let users control settings on most services on one page.On My Account, people can control settings for Search, Maps, YouTube, Gmail and other products in one place, Google said in a blog post on Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook will send encrypted emails as users add PGP key to profile

Some Facebook users should soon be able to receive encrypted emails from the social networking site if they add PGP public keys to their profiles. Facebook called the PGP feature “experimental” and said it is slowly rolling it out, although a timeline wasn’t provided. The PGP key details will be added to the “contact and basic info section” of a person’s profile under “contact information.” Facebook sends messages to private email accounts to inform users when they have a private message or friend request, for example. It currently uses TLS to establish secure connections to a person’s email provider, but this won’t keep the details of an email private from prying eyes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New projected smartphone display could make device size irrelevant

As regular TechWatch readers (hi Mom!) readers know, I'm a big "phan" of giant phablet devices. That's not because I like to tote around comically large slabs of metal and plastic, but because I find smartphones more useful the more screen real estate they present.Last week, Chinese tech manufacturer Lenovo showed off its Smart Cast concept phone at its own Tech World conference in Beijing. Like a concept car, it's not clear if the Smart Cast phone will ever make it to production, but the technology has the potential to eventually shatter the connection between device size and screen size. By projecting the device's touch screen on to any convenient surface, smartphones may one day be able to have displays of any size. Critically, the Smart Cast technology lets you interact with the projected screen, so you can use it as a keyboard or other input channel, as well as a monitor. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 ways to make the most of your Android device

When you stop and think about it, the word "smartphone" is starting to sound a little stale.Sure, these pocket-size gadgets we tote around are capable of making calls -- but for most of us, that's become a secondary feature compared to the range of data-centric functions the devices enable. In reality, we're carrying tiny, capable computers that also happen to work as phones.[ Get the best office productivity apps for your Android device, and explore 12 great Lollipop APIs every Android developer will love. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobile Computing newsletter. ] Android devices in particular offer advanced functionality when it comes to the computer-level task of managing and manipulating files. The Android operating system allows you to perform all sorts of PC-like tasks, from dragging and dropping files between your phone and computer to plugging a USB drive directly into your device and accessing its contents. Between what Android offers out of the box and the features that third-party apps add to the equation, that shiny little slab in your pocket packs serious productivity potential.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel to buy Altera for $16.7B, eyes IoT market

Pursuing opportunities in the Internet of Things market, Intel has sealed a deal to buy Altera in an all-cash transaction valued at about $16.7 billion, which would be Intel’s largest acquisition ever.News reports that the companies were in talks first surfaced in late March. However, those negotiations reportedly broke down in early April because Altera considered Intel’s offer of $54 per share too low.However, late last week the New York Post and other media outlets reported that talks had resumed after Altera reported disappointing financial results on April 23. Those reports were based on anonymous sources. The price of the final deal remains $54 per share.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here