Facebook at Work, Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) professional version of its social network, is expected to launch in the coming months, after spending a year in tests, a company executive said. The new service, geared towards workplace collaboration, is nearly identical to its ubiquitous social network, with a scrolling news “feed”, “likes” and a chat service. “I would say 95 percent of what we developed for Facebook is […]
Docker support. OpFlex backing. A stronger focus on layer 4-7 service. These are among the upgrades Cisco is rolling out with the new software release for its Application Centric Infrastructure, or ACI. Cisco’s bigger picture goal is to improve its Software Defined Networking (SDN) portfolio built on open APIs, open standards and a flexible ecosystem. The move could appease some Cisco critics that have accused the firm […]
Growing concern over privacy has prompted the Federal Trade Commission to turn to academia for its new chief technologist. The commission announced this week that it has appointed Carnegie Mellon University professor Lorrie Cranor to assume that post effective in January. She will replace Ashkan Soltani, who has served as chief technologist since November 2014. Soltani was a privacy practitioner who worked with The Washington Post to […]
This has never happened before. The global smartphone market is posting its first single-digital growth year on record. That’s according to the latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker from market research firm IDC. The firm predicts worldwide shipments will grow 9.8% to hit 1.43 billion units this year, thanks in part to slowing growth in Latin America, Western Europe and the Asia Pacific. The slower-than-expected growth actually […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| House prices in Dubai will bottom out towards the end of next year, real estate consultancy Cluttons said in its Dubai 2015/16 Winter Residential Property Market Outlook. House prices are expected to fall another 3-5 percent over the next 12 months. The report said values for both apartments (-0.8%) and villas (-0.5%) dipped marginally during the third quarter of this year, marking the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Masdar announced the start of the operational stage of its pilot programme in Ghantoot, Abu Dhabi, which will see 1,500 m3/day of potable water produced over the next 15 months using four unique technologies that demonstrate commercially-viable and energy efficient solutions for renewable-powered desalination. After launching the programme in 2013, Masdar partnered with four global industry leaders – Abengoa, Suez, Sidem (Veolia) and […]
Building on a connected-car technology it first introduced in 2007, Ford today launched an app that will let users remotely lock, unlock, start or locate their vehicles using their smartphones (pictured). The new Sync Connect feature will even allow car owners to, for example, schedule their vehicles to start up at 7:50 a.m. so the interiors are warm and comfortable when they get in to drive to […]
In the wake of the ISIS terror attacks in Paris, many technology companies are looking ahead and preparing for the worst. Disaster recovery is a new focus for some, while others have had their eye on the target for much longer. IBM, for example, announced a contest today that gives developers access to its cloud to encourage disaster response-related app development. Just days after Friday evening’s attacks […]
CEO Satya Nadella (pictured) today revealed Microsoft‘s plans to enhance enterprise security and help its customers have stronger protection for what he referred to as the “mobile-first, cloud-first world.” Addressing the Microsoft Government Cloud Forum in Washington, D.C., Nadella said that Microsoft already invests $1 billion in security research and development each year, but despite that the company is creating a new Cyber Defense Operations Center. Nadella […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Young people in the UAE have revealed what they want for, and from, the future of major events in an international study launched ahead of the Host Cities 2015 summit. It finds young people in Dubai are most confident globally in their city’s readiness to host a major event and will overwhelmingly back a ‘home bid’ – with the FIFA World Cup their […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai’s external debt continues to be at tight spreads, given still high leverage and refinancing challenges but this is somewhat offset by certain positive aspects, a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch research report said. The positives include still solid local bid on the shorter end of the curve and its low-beta defensive status within an emerging markets context. The Iran nuclear deal is another […]
A security researcher who uncovered a high-risk exploit in Chrome for Android has received more recognition this week after demonstrating how the vulnerability works at a security conference in Tokyo. Late last year, Guang Gong, a researcher at 360 Total Security, uncovered a vulnerability that could be used by hackers to gain system server privileges on Android devices. Yesterday during the PacSec conference in Japan, Gong demonstrated […]
|By Nitten Nair|I had never watched the movie “Up in the Air” starring George Clooney. Not because I don’t watch his films, but I found reading of the initial synopsis a little depressing. A guy who lives out of a suitcase because he has to fly around the world firing people – not so exciting. Nor did I come across any reviews which strongly stated otherwise. The […]
|By TAP Staff|An Emirati researcher has revealed the possibility of linking the rivers of Pakistan (rivers Dasht and Indus) to the UAE through undersea pipelines. The proposal is intended to support the world’s efforts in the face of climate change by helping to reduce the rise of sea levels and to fight desertification. Abdullah Al-Shehhi says, “The Pakistani river of Dasht is the closest river to the […]
|By TAP Staff| Business confidence in the Middle East is at its lowest ebb for more than five years, according to the latest global survey of accountants. The Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) carried out jointly by ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants) for the third quarter of 2015 suggests that the renewed fall in oil prices is likely […]
Two months after announcing a $50 million investment in artificial intelligence (AI) research, Toyota is more than doubling down on its bet. At a press conference in Toyko today, the car maker unveiled plans to spend $1 billion over the next five years to establish a new company — the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) — focused on AI and robotics. The institute will be located in Silicon […]
Drone maker DJI and Canonical want to help developers’ applications take flight. Literally. The companies announced today that they are releasing a computer embedded on a drone platform. The goal is to allow developers to transform drones into more intelligent, autonomous machines capable of performing complex computing tasks on their own, according to DJI. The DJI Manifold, as the new system is called, runs on Canonical’s Ubuntu […]
The world is awash in crude, but big oil companies are lining up to develop new fields in Iran even as they slash spending and abandon exploration elsewhere. One thing explains this paradox: cost. The Middle Eastern country is one of the cheapest places in the world to tap new oil fields and pump from existing wells. The slump in crude prices makes Iran even more attractive […]
|By TAP Staff| About 60-70% of the Middle East businesses are owned by family businesses and 88% of them are present in five or more sectors, most common being real estate, construction, retail, manufacturing, and travel and leisure, according to the findings of a study on GCC family businesses undertaken on behalf of the Gulf Family Business Council (GFBC), the regional association of Family Business Network International […]
|By TAP Staff| Etihad Airways and IBM announced a ten-year technology services agreement worth approximately US$700 million. The transformational agreement, one of the most important strategic collaborations by Etihad Airways, will provide access to the latest cloud-based technologies and services for the airline, its group companies and equity partners. Etihad Airways, one of the fastest-growing airlines in the world, carried 14.8 million passengers in 2014, and serves […]
|By TAP Staff| Investors are expressing growing skepticism that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise rates this year amid fragility in the global economy and earnings, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for October. Fewer than half (47 percent) of investors believe the Fed will raise rates in 2015, down from 58 percent in September. A net 19 percent of the panel says […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai is hoping that the lifting of sanctions on Iran will help the emirate’s economy to withstand some of the negative shocks it has been suffering in recent times. Those “pull factors,” which also include increased demand from India, will compensate for any economic headwind from China’s slowdown, Raed Safadi, executive director of the economic research and policy division at the Dubai Department of […]
|By TAP Staff| The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has forecast the first fall in U.S. oil production in eight years. Total output of crude and natural gas liquids is forecast to fall 0.5 percent to 12.47 million barrels a day next year, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its monthly market report Monday. The decline is being driven by the fall in prices, which has […]
|By TAP Staff| MENA M&A market showed no signs of improvement in the third quarter, with the total value of transactions remaining less than $3 billion, according to the latest MENA Research Partners report. This is well below the average levels of the past 6 years and the trend has depressed the average deal sizes. From a geographic perspective, while deal activity remains largely driven by a […]
