Der weltweite Servermarkt verzeichnete im ersten Quartal 2013 gegenüber dem Q1 im letzten Jahr einen stückzahlmässigen Rückgang um 0,7 Prozent. Umsatzmüssig beträgt die Schrumpfung sogar 5 Prozent. Dies geht aus den neuesten Zahlen von Gartner hervor.
Der pannenreiche Facebook-Börsengang hat ein Nachspiel: Die US-Börsenaufsicht SEC brummte dem verantwortlichen Börsenbetreiber Nasdaq eine Strafe von zehn Millionen Dollar auf. Es ist nach Angaben der Behörde die höchste Summe, die jemals ein Börsenbetreiber zahlen musste.
Der US-Prozessorhersteller Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) hat neue low-end Server-Prozessoren vorgestellt, die in Microservern zum Einsatz kommen sollen. Die neue AMD Opteron X-Series wurde ursprünglich unter dem Codenamen Kyoto entwickelt.
Im Rahem der Swisscom Dialog Arena wird am 19. September im Hallenstadion Zürich wiederum der Swisscom Business Award in den Kategorien «Mobilität» und «Effizient zusammenarbeiten» verliehen. Jetzt wurde bekannt, welche sechs Finalisten um die Auszeichnung kämpfen werden.
Das berufliche Netzwerk Xing hat jetzt ein eigenes Sales Team in der Schweiz installiert. Dazu hat das Unternehmen laut Communiqué drei neue Stellen geschaffen.
Trotz des verschärften Konkurrenzkampfes will sich Apple-Chef Tim Cook bei der Entwicklung neuer Produkte nicht unter Druck setzen lassen. Cook kündigte am Dienstag auf der branchenweit vielbeachteten Konferenz "All Things Digital" zwar die Einführung neuer Geräte an, die Massstäbe setzen sollen.
Von den insgesamt gut 70.000 Apps, die den Windows Store von Microsoft füllen, stammen immerhin schon 550 aus der Schweiz. Darunter etwa Apps von Serviceanbietern wie SRF, Comparis oder Nescafé, oder auch Geschäftsanwendungen, die von Firmen beispielsweise in der Kundenberatung genutzt werden.
Chinas Volksbefreiungsarmee will im kommenden Monat erstmals eine Übung mit Fokus auf neuartige "digitale Technologien" veranstalten. Was genau mit den neuen Technologien gemeint ist, ließ die amtliche Nachrichtenagentur Xinhua in ihrer Meldung am Mittwoch offen. Zu den Truppen gehörten auch "Spezialkräfte, fliegende Verbände und elektronische Abwehrkräfte".
Die Stiftung Warentest hat E-Book-Reader unter die Lupe genommen. Elf Geräte erhielten das Testurteil "Gut", fünf "Befriedigend", so die Juni-Ausgabe der Zeitschrift test. Zum Testsieger wurden der Kindle Paperwhite und der Kindle Paperwhite 3G mit Mobilfunk gekürt.
Kuba will seinen Bürgern den Zugang zum Internet erleichtern, Anschlüsse für Privatpersonen an das weltweite Datennetz soll es aber weiter nicht geben. Dies teilte am Dienstag das Kommunikationsministerium des kommunistischen Landes in Havanna mit.
Medium isn't the first outlet to with Facebook, but it is one of the more eloquent ones. In a lengthy monograph on the subject published this week, writer Jeswin opined on its increasing irrelevance to his life, calling the bulk of his news feed "absolutely useless" and the sharing system "completely broken." Last month, reporter Christopher Thompson announced that he would be , much to the consternation of friends and family. His reasoning was much the same as Jeswin's: Keeping tabs on all the people he'd met in his life had become "a complete waste of my time." In his piece on the topic, he added, "I found myself checking Facebook often, and it was really providing no value to my personal or professional life. I got tired of reading about people complaining and spreading negativity. And what put me over the edge was when I read a status update from someone that was nothing but lyrics from a rap song." That's a common sentiment that was somewhat formalized this week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which released a focused in on the essential callout: "Focus group discussions with teens show that they have waning enthusiasm for Facebook, disliking the increasing adult presence, people sharing excessively, and stressful 'drama,' but they keep using it because participation is an important part of overall teenage socializing." The self-loathing Facebook user seems to be an incredibly popular phenomenon, and anecdotally it looks like it's spilling over to business users, too. I checked in with several small business owners and found that concerns over Facebook range include difficulties reaching disinterested users, problems with phony user profiles, negative and , and simply trying to stand out in what has become a mammoth wall of noise.
Those still hoping for a Windows 7-styled Start experience for Windows 8.1—a.k.a. Windows Blue—will apparently be disappointed, according to two new reports filed Wednesday. that Windows 8.1 does include both a boot-to-desktop option and a Start button, as previously suspected. But the Start button essentially just moves the Start charm from the right-hand portion of the screen, where it's normally hidden, to a more prominent role in the the left-hand, bottom corner of the screen. Foley did say that users will be able to reorganize the traditional "Metro" Start page, by default, into an "all apps" view, which will veer somewhat closer to the Windows 7 Start experience. And both Thurrott and Foley seem to indicate that both the Desktop as well as the Start screen will be able to share common background images, making the transition from one to the other more natural. (To enable the "All Apps" view within Windows 8, go to the Start screen, type a and click or touch the "all apps" button in the lower right.) To recap: To switch from the Desktop to the Start screen under Windows 8, users can do one of two things—find the Start charm by sliding the Charms in from the right-hand portion of the screen, or by pressing the Windows key on the keyboard.
You can keep your Google Drive files private, or you can use it as one huge file sharing network. Many Google Drive users allow public access to their files, which means that if they have a certain type of file that you also need, you can request a copy...if you can find it.
Over 1 million users have signed up for Microsoft’s Office 365 Home Premium service, Microsoft said Wednesday, a milestone that the company touted as a success for the subscription service. are now using Office 365 in federal, state, and local government agencies.
Using a new API announced by Amazon Web Services, developers can use Amazon.com, Facebook, or Google's sign-in systems for their cloud-based apps. Perhaps more importantly for end users, Amazon Web Services has also integrated the recently announced Login with Amazon, a free service that lets third party apps and websites use the online retail giant's system for authenticating users. Login with Amazon eliminates the need for users to create a new account and password for each site, and instead allows them to sign in using their existing Amazon account information, Amazon said. Amazon calls the concept web identity federation, and the new AWS Security Token Service (STS) API (application programming interface) simplifies the development process by letting users integrate web-based sign-in platforms with their apps without having to write any server-side code, according to Amazon. The API -- which is called AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity -- requests temporary security credentials for users that have been authenticated using one of the three public identity providers. An app can then use the temporary credentials to access AWS resources such as Simple Storage Service (S3) objects, DynamoDB tables, or Simple Queue Service queues.
Speaking with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the , Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted that the future of iOS might include opening the platform to third-party developers. If it happens, it will be a dramatic shift for the Apple mobile OS, and it will have both good and bad repercussions. Apple is known for its “walled garden” approach to controlling the iOS experience. Walt Mossberg asked Cook about Facebook Home, and whether or not Apple might consider allowing that sort of customization of iOS, or interaction at that level from third-party apps. Cook responded, “On the general topic of opening up APIs, I think you'll see us open up more in the future, but not to the degree that we put the customer at risk of having a bad experience. So there's always a fine line to walk there, or maybe not so fine." Cook acknowledged that there are certainly users that want more flexibility to customize their mobile device, but he stressed, "We think the customer pays us to make choices on their behalf. I've seen some of these settings screens, and I don't think that's what customers want.”
Aiming to better address the security needs of businesses of all sizes that are facing increasingly complex attacks, McAfee has added two endpoint security suites to its product lineup. The suites, announced this week, combine a wide range of McAfee technologies, including rootkit protection, dynamic whitelisting, risk intelligence, real-time security management, and mobile-device management. Some of these technologies were previously only available as separate products. The way the security industry has responded to new types of threats over the years has been to create types of products that protect against them, so it’s become difficult for customers to understand which products they need and should buy, said Simon Hunt, vice president and chief technology officer for McAfee Endpoint Security. The goal when designing McAfee’s new security suites, called “McAfee Complete Endpoint Protection—Business” and “McAfee Complete Endpoint Protection—Enterprise,” was to have them include the broadest range of protections people need today, but to also keep them simple and efficient, Hunt said.
Companies' bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies are affecting how many traditional PCs enterprises purchase and contributing to a global sales slump, IDC analysts said Tuesday. About 25% of employees in businesses with more than 10 workers have bought the primary PC they use for work, IDC's Bob O'Donnell said, a large enough slice to meaningfully reduce corporate buying. Because many of those PCs are already purchased systems, not machines purchased expressly for work at work, BYOD is another reason why PC shipments will slump dramatically this year, O'Donnell said in an interview. "Employees say, 'I want to use all my own stuff,'" said O'Donnell, referring to how BYOD has shifted from a smartphone-only trend to also include worker-owned tablets and PCs. "They like their own stuff, they want to pick their own device, and choose the software they want," O'Donnell added.
For many enterprises, Microsoft's SharePoint is a great basic platform for collaboration and file sharing. But the software can't always do everything customers would like without getting an assist. In fact, according to a Forrester Research survey, some 65% of all SharePoint shops add functionality to the core software. SharePoint extensions include code that's generated in-house, or with help from contractors and consultants or with specialized, purpose-built add-ons from a wide range of third-party vendors. (These are not the same as the SharePoint add-ons available in 's databases and SAP's business suites. SharePoint debuted in 2001 primarily as a portal platform for enterprises, and it powers many a corporate intranet. According to a January 2013 study of 651 enterprises by consultancy Prescient Digital Media, "continues to dominate" the enterprise collaboration or intranet 2.0 market, with around half of the organizations reporting SharePoint use "in some shape or form," the study said.
When Greg Meyers was hired as vice president of IT at Biogen Idec, he had to build a relationship with marketing from scratch. Luckily, he was uniquely qualified. "I spent half of my professional life in sales and marketing and the other half in IT," says Meyers, who previously ran a hybrid marketing and technology group at Johnson & Johnson. He was in marketing at Qwest and, most recently, a CIO at Novartis. Meyers wasn't surprised that marketing and IT hadn't gelled at Biogen. That's been the case everywhere he's worked. "There are a lot of built-in rifts between the two groups," he says. The steps to create an effective relationship with the marketing group aren't radically different from those you'd take with another department.
Citrix CEO Mark Templeton has said that banning employees from working from home is an ineffective way of preventing slacking on the job. At the Citrix Synergy conference in Los Angeles this week, Citrix made a slew of product announcements, designed to enable "mobile workstyles," including the launch of XenDesktop 7 and XenMobile Enterprise, building on the company's acquisition of Zenprise in 2012. Templeton said that CIOs around the world are increasingly looking for ways to mobilize their businesses, and that mobile workstyles are needed to get the "best of the best" employees into organizations and retain them. Earlier this year, however, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer outlawed home working, after she checked the VPN logs and found that some employees weren't using the VPN often enough, suggesting that they weren't working or contributing to the company.
"We are seeing about 150,000 new pieces of malware every day now," says Simon Hunt, vice president and CTO of Endpoint Solutions at security vendor . "The attack is just impossible&we're purely on the defensive. Before we know about any new virus, somebody has to be a sacrificial lamb and die and tell us about it. It's an awful way of doing things." "I can't say blacklisting is dead, but I want it to be," he says. "I know I cannot continue down that path. It's quicker just to do a signature check and you reward me for your PC not slowing down. I'm rewarded for keeping the PC performing as fast as possible." But while a signature-based approach reduces the performance hit to the systems on which it runs, it also means somebody has to be the sacrificial sheep. Somebody has to get infected by a piece of malware so that it can be identified, analyzed and other folks protected against it. And in the meantime the malefactors can create new malware that signature-based defenses can't defend against.
Norwegian operator Telenor will use special software to ensure that all personal and sensitive content is deleted from smartphones and tablets handed in by users for recycling, a change it hopes will result in fewer customers holding on to their old devices. Users are often afraid that personal and sensitive content could be misused if they return their old phone for reuse or recycling, so they hold on to them, according to Telenor. To help change that, the operator is adding an additional layer of security to the way it handles phones that customers hand over to them. Every phone collected by Telenor will get all of the personal and sensitive content securely deleted using Blancco Mobile, according to a spokeswoman at Telenor. Blancco is a Finnish company that specializes in erasing data from PCs, laptops, servers and storage environments. The mobile version of its application is compatible with Android-based devices as well as Apple's iPhones and iPads.
Microsoft is super-sizing the storage on its Surface Pro tablet. There's a big catch with this upgrade, however: The newly expanded gigs (and a handful of other nifty extras) are only available in Japan—at least for now. ). It'll cost roughly $1,175, which is about $200 more expensive than the 128 GB model. in other markets, but they aren't quite as bold as these designs, which include a colorful floral pattern and a mech-like “Logistics Conveyor Machine.” to manufacturers making sub 10.8-inch, touchscreen Windows devices.
Government panel the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has given its approval for Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank to acquire a majority stake in Sprint Nextel in a $20 billion deal. CFIUS "found that there are no unresolved national security issues associated with SoftBank's proposed acquisition of a controlling interest in Sprint," Sprint said in a Wednesday 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. that SoftBank's use of Chinese networking equipment could make U.S. networks vulnerable to hacking and spying. As part of the CFIUS approval, SoftBank and Sprint must appoint a security director, approved by U.S. agencies that make up CFIUS, to serve on the company's new board of directors. The U.S. agencies will also have the right to review and approve network equipment operators and managed service providers for Sprint.
Microsoft has completed the first phase of the integration between its enterprise unified communications (UC) Lync server and its Skype consumer IM and IP telephony network. The company announced on Wednesday that it's now possible for Lync and Skype users to contact each other, engage in IM text sessions, and communicate via audio calls. Video conferencing integration will be delivered later. the interaction between the two products for the first time, promising global availability of the first phase of the integration in June of this year, a deadline it has now met. The interoperability works both for companies that have Lync 2010 and Lync 2013 installed on their own servers and for companies that use it as part of the Microsoft-hosted Office 365 suite, whose other components include Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. Skype users must have the latest client software for Windows or Mac OS.
Want to find out what's next in smartphones, tablets and PCs? The latest trends in hardware will be on display at the giant Computex trade show, which kicks off in Taipei next week. Computex is a treasure chest for hardware lovers, providing a glimpse of technologies that are vying to shape the next wave in computing. Smaller Windows tablets, faster chips and new styles of laptop-tablet hybrids are all expected to be on show, along with high-resolution 4K displays and the latest in motherboards, memory modules and other components. There may also be evidence of a price war in Android tablets, as chip makers Intel and ARM battle for the low end of the market. Intel is pushing its upcoming low-power Atom chip, code-named Bay Trail, into tablets priced from $200 to $400. Most tablets of all kinds today run on ARM-based processors. The biggest news will be Intel's announcement of its new Core chips, code-named Haswell, which will drive a new wave of laptops, tablets and hybrid PCs. Intel says Haswell offers a 50 percent increase in battery life and up to twice the graphics performance over laptops running its predecessor, Ivy Bridge, which was released last year.
, many users find the new interface difficult to master. That wouldn't be such a big deal if Microsoft gave you an instruction manual for learning all the new features, but, alas, I certainly didn't find one in the "box." (I bought and downloaded the upgrade several months back, so there was no box.) , which sounds like something aimed at MIcrosoft Store salespeople, not everyday users. That said, it's a very handy little resource, a 36-page introduction to Windows 8's interface and operation.
Many businesses use Google Drive to hold company files. And as long as there are businesses, there will be slideshows. But what if you have to develop a presentation with a colleague who is not in the same location as you? That's where the collaborative power of Google Drive comes into play, and Google's own Chrome app Google Slides makes collaborating on presentations as simple as your collaborators will let it be.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, —the folks behind the ingenious Transporter data-sharing and storage device—have announced version 2.0 of the Transporter software. The Transporter is a network-attached hard drive that delivers many of the same features and benefits as cloud-based services such as Carbonite and DropBox, but without the recurring subscription fees. Transporter also delivers file-sharing and file-syncing features with better privacy and security than services such as DropBox, because Connected Data’s servers function only to connect users and Transporter devices. Your data is never stored or even passes through the company’s servers, and the data is encrypted in transit using 256-bit AES keys. In a briefing earlier this month, Jim Sherhart, Connected Data’s marketing VP, explained that version 2.0 of the Transporter software features a raft of improvements requested by early Transporter buyers. The number one request, according to Sherhart, was to make the software operate more like Dropbox. To that end, Version 2.0 will deliver a simplified user interface with full drag-and-drop support and the ability to right-click on any file and share it with other users. Sherhart said the Transporter was designed principally for consumers, but that 40 percent of the units sold to date have been purchased by businesses looking for more economical and more secure cloud-based storage, syncing, and file-sharing solutions.
Hackers are actively exploiting a critical vulnerability in the Ruby on Rails Web application development framework in order to compromise Web servers and create a botnet. The Ruby on Rails development team for the vulnerability, which is known as CVE-2013-0156, back in January. However, some server administrators haven't yet updated their Rails installations. Ruby on Rails is a popular framework for developing Web applications based on the Ruby programming language and is used by websites including Hulu, GroupOn, GitHub and Scribd. "It's pretty surprising that it's taken this long [for an exploit] to surface in the wild, but less surprising that people are still running vulnerable installations of Rails," said Jeff Jarmoc, a security consultant with security research firm Matasano Security, Tuesday in a .
A former member of a band of hackers faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to a single computer hacking charge. Jeremy Hammond, 28, of Chicago admitted to participating in more than a half dozen attacks perpetrated in 2010 and 2011 by Anonymous and affiliated groups, to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in computer hacking and has agreed to pay $2.5 million in restitution. Hammond, who went by the nickname "Anarchaos," is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 6. The plea related to the most prominent of the hacks in which Hammond participated, in which analyst company Stratfor was attacked.
Microsoft said Tuesday that it has moved its botnet-fighting capabilities to the cloud, a step that will make its response teams both faster and more effective in fighting hijacked PCs. Microsoft launched its Microsoft Active Response for Security (MARS) program in 2010, relying on a series of daily emails to ISPs and other clients to warn them about the networks of hijacked PCs, known as botnets, operating within their borders.
Taiwan's MediaTek has launched a new quad-core ARM processor for tablets that is slated to be used in an upcoming IdeaTab device from Lenovo. The MT8125 chip features a quad-core processor built with ARM's Cortex A7 CPU and can run at up to 1.5 GHz. It has a dedicated graphics processor with support for 1080p high-definition video playback and image capture from cameras with up to 13 megapixel resolution. In addition, the MT8125 chip can be equipped with modems for 3G HSPA+, 2G EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless communications. Lenovo will use the new chip in an Android tablet called the IdeaTab S6000, according to MediaTek.
Windows 8 has spurred a lot of unusual hardware designs, but few are as intriguing as the tabletop tablet. Imagine a full-fledged all-in-one PC that lies flat on whatever surface you have handy. It's a design that offers all the screen real estate and CPU performance of a touchscreen all-in-one, along with the portability of a battery-operated tablet. With display sizes ranging from 18.4 inches to 27 inches, the new hybrids are ostensibly perfect for modernizing "family game night." And, indeed, these machines are bundled with touchscreen versions of board games, air hockey, poker, and other digital diversions. If you use these PCs as their manufacturers intended, your hybrid machine will be a family-room desktop computer by day and a living-room gaming platform by night. But is this an experience that consumers want or even need? Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and Sony sure hope so. Each computer maker took an independent path toward the invention of this novel form factor, though the companies were certainly compelled by a single market force: won’t ship until July. As with any experiment in crossbreeding, the goal is to generate a new life form that's superior to its parents. Is that what happened here? Yes and no.
Advanced Micro Devices had no plans to release low-power x86 server chips until the release of its ARM-based servers in 2014, but sagging server fortunes have changed the company’s direction. The company is introducing two low-power quad-core Opteron server chips called X2150 and X1150, which draw up to 11 watts of power and are targeted at microservers. The chips are based on the Jaguar core, which is already in PC processors and chips to be used in the Xbox and PlayStation 4 game consoles. The server chips, code-named Kyoto, are a late addition to company’s product roadmap. AMD started talking about Kyoto only in the last few months, and it will be an alternative to the company’s homegrown ARM chips due next year. AMD’s last server chip update came in November with the Opteron 6300 chips for multisocket servers. AMD said Kyoto chips are for low-power servers used in web hosting or cloud deployments. Kyoto will be in Hewlett-Packard’s Moonshot dense server, which can accommodate up to 45 Proliant cartridges in a 4.3U rack.