Nachdem die Darmstädter Software AG erst am Dienstag die Übernahme der auf Planung und Optimierung von IT-Landschften fokussierten Berliner Alfabet bekannt gegeben hat, kündigt der zweitgrösste deutsche Softwarekonzern nach SAP nun eine enge Zusammenarbeit mit dem US-amerikanischen SAP-Anbieter Bristlecone an.
Nach acht Monaten Youtube-Sperre können Internetnutzer in Bangladesch jetzt wieder auf das Videoportal zugreifen. Die Sperre ist heute, Mittwoch, wieder aufgehoben worden. Man befinde sich im Gespräch mit dem Betreiber Google, dass die „beleidigenden und umstrittenen" Videos von der Seite entfernt werden.
Der US-amerikanische Mobile-Chiphersteller Qualcomm hat über seine Einheit Qualcomm Technologies eine Kooperation mit Microsoft geschlossen, wodurch Qualcomm-Chips künftig auch in Windows RT 8.1-basierten Tablets zum Einsatz kommen sollen.
Google-Manager Eric Schmidt rät Eltern, mit ihren Kindern noch vor der sexuellen Aufklärung über den Umgang mit persönlichen Daten im Internet zu sprechen.
Für ihre Büroadministration hat dieser Tage mit Knöpfel Life Consulting bereits die 5.000ste Anwenderin das Abonnement für die Internet-Lösung Abaweb-Treuhand der Ostschweizer Standardsoftwareherstellerin Abaus Research gelöst.
Das von lokalen Energieversorgern (EVU) gegründete Gemeinschaftsunternehmen „Swiss Fibre Net“ (SFN) soll zu einem der wichtigsten Breitbandlieferatnen für Sunrise werden. Ein nun unterzeichnetes Abkommen zur strategischen Zusammenarbeit beinhaltet einem Communiqué zufolge, für den Schweizer Markt gemeinsam Glasfaserdienstleistungsangebote (FTTH) zu entwickeln.
Der Secure-Messaging-Spezialist Seppmail mit Sitz in Neuenhof erweitert seine Secure E-Mail Appliances mit der Funktion "Large File Management" (LFM). Damit lassen sich E-Mails laut Firmenangaben mit grossen Anhängen unkompliziert übermitteln.
Mit Peter Hauri hat das Zürcher System- und Beratungshaus Fritz & Macziol (F&M) Schweiz neu einen Business Development Executive verpflichtet. Der 60-jährige Manager, der auch Einsitz in die Geschäftsleitung von F&M nimmt, war zuvor fast 40 Jahre in verschiedenen leitenden Positionen im Verkauf bei IBM Schweiz tätig.
Equinix hat heute den ersten Abschnitts seines fünften Zürcher Datenzentrums – des ZH5 International Business Exchange (IBX) – eröffnet. Mit dem ZH5 will Equinix laut Communiqué der Nachfrage nach Services von Unternehmen insbesondere aus der Netzwerk-, Cloud-, Content- und Finanzbranche begegnen.
SAP und Microsoft arbeiten offenbar an einem gemeinsamen Software-Paket für integrierte Shop-Floor-Services. Eine Kombination der Business-Lösungen der beiden Software-Konzerne soll die Handhabung für den Endnutzer erleichtern.
Beginning June 26, users will be able to download the beta or preview version of Windows 8.1 fairly simply, via the Windows Store. But Microsoft officials confirm that upgrading to the final RTM build will include a gotcha—you’ll need to reinstall all of your apps. Put another way, Windows RT users will be forced to reinstall all of the “Metro” apps (now known as modern apps) they’ve added to the OS, once the final RTM version is released. And Windows 8 users will be forced to reinstall , which first reported the story. However, if the average user opts out of the Windows 8.1 beta and decides instead to upgrade to Windows 8.1 when it is finally released, they will not be required to reinstall their applications, Microsoft representatives confirmed. The Windows 8.1 preview is meant for enthusiasts and IT pros.
As the time for a shareholder vote draws near, the Dell special committee weighing competing bids for the company said Wednesday that a plan from investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management comes up short by billions of dollars. The Dell committee reiterated that an offer from company founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners is superior. The remarks were made in a with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In February, Dell , offering $13.65 per share. The deal is being financed through cash and equity contributed by Dell, cash from investors affiliated with Silver Lake, and a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, as well as other debt financing. Dell is betting that as a private company operating outside the scrutiny of Wall Street, it will be better able to execute its strategy to push into high-margin products and services.
The Digital Advertising Alliance, a coalition of online advertising networks and companies, will soon release guidelines for the use of targeted advertising on mobile devices, although it’s been difficult to come up with standards in the diverse mobile marketplace, members of the DAA said. With mobile privacy standards under fire from some U.S. lawmakers and privacy advocates, the DAA is working toward guidelines that will address consumer choice related to targeted ads on mobile devices, including ads that appear in mobile apps, said Mike Signorelli, a counsel to the DAA. The mobile guidelines will have stronger standards governing the use of smartphone users’ geolocation data than for some other personal data, Signorelli said during a panel discussion on the mobile guidelines at a DAA conference in Washington, D.C. The mobile guidelines will include “heightened safeguards” for real-time location data, he said. But there may be some continued disagreement on how the guidelines handle location data. Location data is critical to mobile advertisers who want to give smartphone owners real-time offers, said Ho Shin, general counsel for Millennial Media, a mobile advertising firm.
Gosh, the new Windows 8.1 Start screen is so gosh-darned friendly! And you know what? It is. Microsoft’s pulled some of the best features of Windows Phone out into its new revision, and taken a step forward. Purists may still dislike the fat, space-sucking fonts and live tiles, but there’s an indubitable appeal to displaying pictures of one’s loved ones when the PC is not in use. , too. Let’s take a look at the new features.
College graduates receiving their diplomas this year were teenagers when the first iPhone debuted and Facebook allowed anyone to create a profile. As this tech-saturated generation enters the IT workforce their familiarity with technology—especially consumer products—can lead to communication and work style clashes with more seasoned employees who may not share a passion for digital life. And while new hires are versed in current technologies like mobile, social media and cloud computing, these recent students may struggle adjusting to professional life. Managers and co-workers may too find themselves at odds when trying to communicate with people who are used to sharing ideas in 140 character bursts. “If you look at the individual coming right out of school, they’re born in the Facebook era,” said Corinne Sklar, chief marketing officer at IT consulting and staffing firm . “They leverage technology and expect it to do something for them.” To solve these generational workplace differences, companies are turning to training methods tailored to meet the specific challenges facing college graduates and their managers and co-workers.
of what they charge for them. The logic is that, even though equipment of all kinds eventually breaks down, the extended warranty doesn't make sense because many needed repairs are covered by a standard manufacturer's warranty, and that once the standard warranty expires, equipment breakdowns are relatively unlikely. Further, even when things do break after the warranty has expired, the cost of repairs is not much higher than buying the warranty to begin with. last year with an interesting blog post in which writer Rafi Mohammed previously argued that Consumer Reports' analysis didn't include additional value that consumers and businesses receive from extended warranties. Namely, this includes "peace of mind" benefits that can't be easily quantified financially, since an extended warranty takes the hassle out of those eventual repairs. As Mohammed notes, "Extended warranties mitigate the concern of being 'ripped off' on the repair, because service companies have an incentive to fix the problem efficiently. Bottom line: There's value in being able to sleep well at night."
Intel has backed its vision for computers that see and hear by dedicating a $100 million investment fund to the venture, and committed its customers to supplying the technology by late 2014. Intel launched the Intel Capital Experiences and Perceptual Computing Fund on Tuesday, dedicated to spending $100 million to the technology over the next two or three years. In a related announcement, Intel said that it would license SoftKinetic’s issu middleware to add to an existing SDK for perceptual computing. Intel’s commitment to perceptual computing lags that of Microsoft, which launched a version of its as well. That version boasts recognition features as well as improved skeletal tracking. In September, that included a camera from Creative Technologies that could be used to interpret gestures, listen for audio commands, and recognize faces. Creative’s camera, the Senz3D, is still a developer project, Intel said Wednesday, but will be made available to consumers later in the year for an undisclosed price.
After years of Windows OS exclusivity, Advanced Micro Devices is opening the door to design chips to run Google's Android and Chrome OS in PCs and tablets. AMD is expanding OS options as it designs chips based on x86 and ARM architecture, which run multiple OSes, said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of global business units at AMD, in an interview at the Computex trade show in Taiwan. AMD is also expanding its custom-chip business, and Android and Chrome OS offer flexibility for third-party chip design and integration, Su said. "We are very committed to Windows 8; we think it's a great operating system, but we also see a market for Android and Chrome developing as well," Su said.
Microsoft announced that , along with the Windows 8.1 update. Sales of Windows RT tablets like the Surface RT have been underwhelming thus far, but Outlook will change that. When the Windows 8.1 update comes to the Windows Store later this year, Outlook RT will join Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote as a free app on Windows RT systems. That is huge news in general, but it’s particularly intriguing for business users. The Surface RT (and Windows RT tablets in general) is a decent tablet, but it's computing. It has distinct advantages over its Surface Pro sibling—it’s thinner, lighter, cooler, quieter, and has significantly better battery life—but it can’t join a Windows network domain. With the Windows 8.1 update, it still won’t be able to join a network domain, but the IT and BYOD in Windows 8.1 is no match for Outlook, and business users need consistency between the tools they use on their primary PC, and the apps available on the Windows RT tablet.
The number of malware samples that use P-to-P (peer-to-peer) communications has increased fivefold during the past 12 months, according to researchers from security firm Damballa. The largest contributors to this increase are advanced threats like ZeroAccess, Zeus version 3, and TDL4, said Stephen Newman, vice president of products at Damballa. However, there are also other malware families that adopted P-to-P as a command-and-control (C&C) channel recently, he said. “The use of P-to-P in advanced malware threats has been around for quite some time, but we’ve never really seen it take the hold that we’ve started to see now,” Newman said. The reason why this is happening now has to do with cybercriminals’ desire for resiliency in the face of takedown efforts that can disrupt centralized C&C infrastructures, he said.
Texas Instruments and Qualcomm are working on products that will power small mobile base stations, also known as small cells, and help improve indoor coverage and speeds for businesses. Small cells can be used in homes, public spaces and offices to offload traffic from mobile networks. Rolling them out in offices will open the door for dedicated voice capacity, mobile unified communications, local switching of voice traffic, and other context-aware services, according to industry organization Small Cell Forum. (PDF) chips have been developed to power small cells aimed at corporations. To make the products a good fit for companies, Qualcomm and TI have implemented power-over-ethernet, for example. Other similarities include support for both 3G and LTE, including carrier aggregation for the latter. The technology speeds up LTE networks by combining two or more swaths of bandwidth into one channel in the same or different frequency bands.
Windows tablets are about to get a whole lot more Office-y. Mere moments after announcing that . Diminutive Windows 8 tablets won't be receiving Outlook, but they Windows 8 devices. Reller and the While tossing in Office . Tiny tablets are more often used for consumption than creation, and while the modern UI and apps should stand up well, the Windows desktop will probably be too small to navigate comfortably on a sub-10-inch screen.
SAP is buying privately held Hybris in a bid to build out an e-commerce software offering that connects with customers across multiple “channels, devices and touch points.” Terms of the deal, which was announced Wednesday, were not disclosed. It is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. Hybris, which is based in Switzerland, is the fastest-growing e-commerce software vendor in the world, according to SAP’s announcement. It sells an “omni-channel” platform spanning mobile, call center, in-store and Web commerce, and caters to both large and small companies, SAP said. In addition, the Hybris technology provides a “single view” of customers and products across channels thanks to built-in master data management and other capabilities, SAP said.
Intel’s just announced more details about its upcoming Thunderbolt 2 interface technology, and the news might just make high-definition video buffs start drooling. display. That, Intel claims, means Thunderbolt 2 will be able to transfer a 4K video while simultaneously displaying it on a discrete monitor—something today’s Thunderbolt can’t manage. Thunderbolt 2 also incorporates DisplayPort 1.2 support, which allows for video streaming to a single 4K video monitor or dual QHD monitors. Thunderbolt 2 is also backwards compatible, which means that any current-gen Thunderbolt cables and connectors you’ve already purchased will work just fine with the new interface.
At $99, the mini PC developed by thin-client expert Young Song is meant to be affordable. In fact, the price is so low, most consumers won’t hesitate to buy one, he said Wednesday. But unlike other mini PCs that run Windows, this one comes with Google’s Android OS installed, with the aim of shaking up the desktop market. “Nobody is making an Android PC,” he said, on the sidelines of the Computex show in Taipei. “But I think Android can become mainstream.” to the project.
The next version of Microsoft’s relational database management system (RDMS) promises to bring immense performance gains to online transactional processing systems. will come with a new in-memory OLTP engine, one built with the company’s Heckaton set of technologies, first developed by Microsoft Research. in New Orleans. “We are doing it because it is a way to achieve unprecedented low latency and high-scale throughput for transactional data.” Microsoft has billed Heckaton as an in-memory technology, though unlike other in-memory data stores, such as Oracle’s TimesTen, it does not place the entire database into working memory, or RAM, to speed performance. Rather, it selectively moves only the most consulted database tables to memory.
Developer tool company AppGyver loves the PhoneGap platform, but is convinced there is room for productivity and performance improvements and is working on products to achieve both. AppGyver has released a public beta of Steroids ToolBelt, which allows Web developers to create mobile apps for iOS and Android using PhoneGap more quickly than what is currently possible, according to co-founder and CEO Marko Lehtimaki. PhoneGap is an open-source framework for building cross-platform mobile apps using HTML5, Javascript, and CSS. It was originally developed by Nitobi, which was acquired by Adobe Systems. Development is now led by the Apache Cordova project. In general, PhoneGap is heading in a good direction, but third-party additions are needed to complete it, according to Lehtimaki. Steroids promises easier debugging and easier ad-hoc distribution of projects. The latter means developers don’t have to bother with mobile provisioning profiles, instead they can just send the client a QR code that when scanned installs the app.
Nick Parker has one of the more interesting jobs in the PC business right now. As corporate vice president for Microsoft’s OEM division, he manages the company’s relationships with PC manufacturers, including sales and licensing of Windows. It’s not always an easy job. Microsoft , although the popularity of tablets hasn’t helped. At Computex, Microsoft is taking steps to strike back. Parker gave Microsoft’s keynote at the show Wednesday and hosted the first the Outlook email application. IDG caught up with Parker after his keynote and had a chance to ask him a few questions. Following is an edited transcript:
Fujitsu will this month launch a super-thin Ultrabook, built on Intel’s latest Haswell processors, with an 11-hour battery life and a screen resolution with nearly three times HD resolution. The company said the new “UH90/L” model from its Lifebook line will be the world’s thinnest for a laptop with a hard disk drive, measuring 15.5 mm at its thickest point. It will mark Fujitsu’s entry into the quickly growing ranks of PCs built around Haswell processors, which boast slightly improved performance along with reduced power requirements. The computer has a 14-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,800 pixels, or 2.7 times full HD, with a pixel density of 262 ppi. That's more pixelicious that either the Macbook Pro with Retina Display or the aptly named Chromebook Pixel. It's built with Sharp’s IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) technology, named after the semiconductor on which it is based. The machine will run on a 45 watt-hour lithium polymer battery. Fujitsu said it will target the gaming market with the Windows-based Ultrabook, teaming with Square Enix, makers of the Final Fantasy series, for promotions. The laptop will come in red and black.
Microsoft said early Wednesday morning that Outlook would be added to the Office suite bundled with Windows RT tablets, including the Microsoft Surface, which will also see some new function-key enhancements. See the video below to watch the new features in action. , first out of the gate in the smaller category.
Intel has developed a new chipset to support the advanced features in its fourth-generation Core-series CPUs. The biggest changes are related to input/output—the various pathways through which data enters and exits the PC. Intel has also jettisoned support for some old technology; namely, the PCI bus. There are several chipsets in the 8 series, but we’ll focus on the high-end Z87. A computer using the Series 7 chipset that supports third-generation Core processors can have a maximum of 14 USB ports, but only four can be fast USB 3.0 ports (USB 3.0 can deliver data-transfer speeds up to 4.8 Gbps, where USB 2.0 maxes out at just 480 Mbps). Since most PCs had a mixture of both, the older USB 2.0 ports would be identified by black collars and the newer, faster USB 3.0 ports would have blue collars. The Series 8 chipset also supports 14 USB ports, but as many as six of them can be of the USB 3.0 variety. What’s more, all 14 ports are managed by Intel’s eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI), which is considerably more power efficient than the previous solution. The next most significant improvement is related to the number of SATA 6 Gbps interfaces that the chipset can support, so it’s arguably more important to desktop systems that have multiple hard drives. Where the Series 7 chipset could support a maximum of two SATA 6Gbps ports, the Series 8 chipset can support up to six.
It’s official: Intel’s fourth-generation Core processors, , are loose in the market. Like the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge microarchitectures that preceded it, Haswell is a big step forward for Intel’s Core family, simultaneously maximizing CPU and GPU performance while consuming less power. Haswell isn’t for everyone. For now, older Sandy Bridge-E Core i7 processors that use Intel’s LGA 2011 socket remain Intel’s flagship products for hardcore PC gamers. But the fourth generation of Intel Core CPUs are where it’s at for mainstream power users who crave Intel’s most advanced technology. Unfortunately, unlike second-gen Sandy Bridge and third-gen Ivy Bridge processors—which use the same LGA 1155 socket and hence play well with a broad range of new and existing motherboards—Haswell-based processors use a new socket, LGA 1150, and thus require motherboards built around Intel’s 8-series chipsets. But that problem is also an opportunity: Since you can’t just drop a Haswell CPU into your current PC, now is the perfect time to build a new, killer Haswell-based rig. And you can do it yourself for less than a grand—if you know where to look. Typically, you get the best value in desktop processors a bin or two below the top-of-the-line products. For example, a Core i7-3770 costs about $40 (or 15 percent) less than a Core i7-3770K ($289 vs. $329), but it delivers roughly 98 percent of the latter’s performance. The same holds true for most Core i5 and Core i3 processors, albeit with smaller price differentials. The only differences between a Core i7-3770 and a Core i7-3770K are a 100MHz base clock deficit on the standard 3770, and the 3770’s inability to alter multipliers freely. The more expensive “K-SKU” is fully unlocked and lets users alter the CPU multipliers for easier and more flexible overclocking.
A Northern California man being pursued by police smashes his own smartphone and throws it into the ocean. The evidence is gone, right? But wait: The police retrieve the phone. Where it goes next, and what happens to it there, is like the geekiest possible In a plain beige building in a Novato, California, office park hides a government-grade clean room, multiple layers of security, and a signed photograph from George Lucas. It overlooks a small pond alongside a quiet stretch of road, and most people drive right past without a second glance. can involve resurrecting busted hard drives from Skywalker Ranch or salvaging data from smartphones that went through the wash, but sometimes a special order comes in to recover data from a device that might be used in a criminal investigation. It's part of a process known as data forensics, and it requires many of the same skills that data recovery engineers employ to salvage pictures of your cats from a broken camera. DriveSavers' forensic analysis work isn't widely publicized. You're more likely to know the company as a service that can salvage your family photos when you accidentally wipe the wrong hard drive or drop your laptop down a storm drain.
Amazon.com has set up a website with its brand in India, but will not be selling on the site. In line with Indian government rules, the new marketplace is only offering sales and order fulfillment services to Indian retailers. Amazon Seller Services set up in February last year another website called Junglee.com that in India to advertise their products free to Indian shoppers and drive traffic to their stores where the sale was completed. With the launch Wednesday of its “Selling on Amazon” and “Fulfillment by Amazon” programs on Amazon.in, sellers in India will have access to unlimited and free ‘virtual shelf space’ and scalable, pay-as-you-go fulfillment and customer service offerings, Amazon said in a statement.