Category: What’s On

In a memo to employees on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spelled out his mission for the company: "to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more." Microsoft will also aim to "reinvent" productivity and business processes, build an intelligent cloud platform and create a more personal computing experience for its users, he said. Nadella's vision statement comes just a week after the company announced major leadership changes in which four top executives will be stepping down.

An engineering breakthrough by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, has the potential to double the speed of fiber optic networks. The findings, reported by a team of photonics researchers in the June 26 edition of the journal Science, could dramatically increase the maximum power capacity of signals sent through fiber optic cables. Although not every user connects to the Internet through an optical cable, fiber optics do serve as the primary infrastructure for much of the Internet. Increasing

Networking company Netgear just made a big move in the cable modem router world. So big, in fact, that high-speed Internet users on home fronts everywhere have good reason to rejoice. The firm just rolled out the industry’s fastest-ever cable modem router. It’s the first router in the Nighthawk line and it aims at cable Internet subscribers who have an extreme need for broadband speed. The Nighthawk AC1900 Wi-Fi Cable Modem Router works with HD and 4K streaming service tiers. Netgear

The wrap up of DockerCon on Tuesday also marked the ushering in of a new era for the convention's namesake company and the containerization ecosystem in general. One visible, real-world sign of the shift came when Docker founder and CTO Solomon Hykes and CoreOS CEO Alex Polvi met on stage to shake hands and announce the launch of the Open Container Project. Being led by the Linux Foundation, the Open Container Project includes a large number of other participants, including Amazon

Are you ready for another PC on a stick? Lenovo this week joined a handful of companies that have come out with this concept by releasing the Ideacentre Stick 300. The portable gadget works with any HDMI-compatible device, which means it can be plugged it into a flat-screen TV -- or provide ultra-portable computing power to road warriors in hotel rooms or any location where there's a device with an HDMI port. Set to hit retail shelves in early July, the

Redmond rolled out Office for Android-powered tablets in January. Now, Microsoft is finally releasing Office apps for the Android phone. That means if you’re using a Samsung, LG, HTC or some other Android smartphone you can tap into the power of Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps on the run. All you have to do is download them from the Google Play store.Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office Client Applications and Services team, said the rollout completes “the Office experience

Many reporters have developed an ad hoc system of using Google-related tools in their work. Now the tech giant wants to consolidate those tools and make them easier for journalists to use. On Monday, the company announced the launch of a new site called News Lab, which intends to connect journalists with programs, data and other resources -- all from Google -- to help in their reporting. The site will feature tutorials and best practices on how to use Google products

Containers have quickly become crucial tools for rapid-scale application development, and a new project aims to protect their usefulness by establishing common standards for software containers. Among the companies joining forces for the Open Container Project announced today are Docker, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, EMC, Google, Microsoft and VMware. The Open Container Project will be run under the auspices of the Linux Foundation. Docker called the effort "one of the more significant [announcements] in the history of containerization."Among the other organizations

Windows users, rejoice. Over the weekend, Microsoft announced that its latest operating system, Windows 10, will be free for anyone who wants it. Previously, the company said that it would make the new OS available as a free upgrade, but only to certain users who were currently running Windows 7 or 8. That arrangement would have excluded anyone still running Windows XP, Vista, or even Windows 7 Enterprise Edition. But that would have left a lot of users, especially a lot

A second cache of 276,394 documents stolen from Sony Pictures Entertainment -- possibly by hackers in North Korea -- was posted online Thursday by the not-for-profit media organization WikiLeaks. Posted on the third anniversary of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange's asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the latest Sony documents include confidential memos from executives on coming films, notes on IT strategies, financial forecasts and movie marketing and merchandising plans.Among the documents is a memo that discusses a potential transaction in

Consumers are barely used to the Apple Watch, and already there’s discussion about what might be included with the next edition of the wearable. Media reports on Friday revealed details about a second-generation model that might sport a video camera and a new wireless system. The first Apple Watch was released just two months ago. The camera would be called the FaceTime Video Camera and would be integrated into the top bezel of the Apple Watch 2, letting users make and

Hewlett-Packard offered up a slew of new laptops on Friday, including the Pavilion x2 tablet-notebook hybrid that features a magnetic hinge so it can easily transform from notebook to tent mode to stand mode. The Envy notebooks, meanwhile, promise longer battery life and a new curved profile. “Customers want devices that are portable without sacrificing battery life or power,” said Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager, Consumer Personal Systems, HP. Frost said the company redesigned its notebook product line for

The theme so far this week at the three-day Electronic Entertainment Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center has been video-gaming, with Sony claiming the keynote address slot. Here are nine announcements from the conference so far: New "Doom" on the WayBethesda got E3 under way by showing off the latest installments of first-person shooter "Doom" and post-apocalyptic role-playing saga "Fallout 4." The latter game will be available in November, with the new "Doom" set for spring 2016. Bethesda also unveiled

The online file-sharing service Box on Tuesday announced a "deep integration" with Microsoft Office Online that will let users more easily open, edit and save Office documents. Box users will now be able to manage Office files directly from Box and automatically save any changes in real time without having to open other applications installed on their devices. The new integration eliminates the need for users to upload or download files, or to move files back and forth between different applications

With the debate continuing over how Android security compares to the security of other mobile platforms, Google is getting more proactive. The mobile operating system maker just launched Android Security Rewards, complete with cash incentives to encourage security researchers to keep digging for -- and reporting -- flaws. Google will provide both money and public recognition to security researchers who discover and disclose vulnerabilities to the Android Security Team. The actual rewards are based on the severity of the bug that's

After a federal court rejected attempts by cable and phone companies to stop net neutrality on Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission's plan for new Internet rules went into effect. Under the new rules, the FCC can assert extra authority over the Internet to establish equal access to Internet speeds and Web sites. Companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have claimed that the rules are beyond the FCC’s powers, and challenged them in court. A full hearing on the issue is scheduled

Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter (pictured on left), announced on Thursday that he would be stepping down as head of the social media company, effective July 1. Jack Dorsey (pictured on right), the company’s chairman and co-founder, has been named interim CEO while the board of directors begins looking for a permanent replacement. Costolo said he would continue to serve on Twitter’s board of directors, while Dorsey will continue to serve as CEO of Square Inc., the payments and financial services

Businesses that need to handle workloads with a range of different demands have a selection of new cloud-based, general-purpose instances to choose from through Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS on Thursday announced the availability of M4 instances, a next-generation Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) offering. Powered by custom 2.4-GHz Intel Xeon E5-2676 v3 Haswell processors, M4 instances are designed to support a variety of applications, including relational and in-memory databases, gaming servers, caching fleets, batch processing and business applications like SAP and

Big Blue is looking to make its mark on the mobile device and wearables market. No, IBM isn’t pushing out a smart watch or even a smartphone. In partnership with SiCAD, a silicon design platform company, IBM just announced High Performance Services for Electronic Design Automation (EDA). IBM is billing EDA as the electronic industry’s first enterprise-class, secure cloud service that provides on-demand access to electronic design tools.Jai Iyer, founder and CEO of SiCAD, pointed to a clear market need. There’s

Tech giant Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off Monday at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco with the headlining keynote address. Among the topics discussed during the address were new capabilities for OS X, updates coming to iOS, native apps for the Apple Watch, a streaming music service, and a new version of the watchOS operating system. At the event, Apple also introduced Swift 2, the next-generation of its programming language, which was first rolled out at

As consumer demand for online data, streaming content and mobile services continue to grow, Apple is reportedly looking to boost its high-speed networkinfrastructure to provide more of those services in-house. Citing "people familiar with the plans," Bloomberg on Monday reported that Apple's new network ambitions are aimed at helping it better compete with rivals like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. While Apple already operates its own data centers in California, Nevada, North Carolina and Oregon, it wants to boost its internal capacity

Skype for Web Beta Rolled Out to U.S., U.K. UsersAs more and more users gravitate toward mobile versions of their favorite software, Skype is joining the crowd by opening up access to its Skype for Web beta to make it easier to connect to the service. Microsoft's Skype for Web debuted as a closed beta last fall, but it is now available as an open beta to all users in the United States and the United Kingdom. Skype for Web is

Continuing its efforts to increase its appeal to enterprise users, Dropbox announced this week that it is expanding its business-level service with new features in administration, security, and integration. Dropbox has made several moves in recent months to boost Dropbox for Business, including certification with ISO 27018, a new standard for data security and privacy that mandates strict requirements for data handling and employee access control. In March, the company also added a commenting function that allows users to add feedback

U.S. Government Suffers Massive CyberattackThe U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is reporting a cybersecurity incident that affects its systems and data. The breach may have compromised the personal information of 4 million current and former federal workers. "Within the last year, OPM has undertaken an aggressive effort to update its cybersecurity posture, adding numerous tools and capabilities to its networks," according to a statement on the government site. "As a result, in April 2015, OPM became aware of the incident

Given the lukewarm response received so far to wearable technology, it makes sense that Google would want to expand the definition of the term. So the company has introduced Project Soli, an attempt by its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division to harness the power of hand and finger manipulation to make it easier to interact with ever-smaller devices and screens. The idea behind the technology, introduced at Google's I/O 2015 developers' conference this week, is that instead of using tools,

Given the lukewarm response received so far to wearable technology, it makes sense that Google would want to expand the definition of the term. So the company has introduced Project Soli, an attempt by its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division to harness the power of hand and finger manipulation to make it easier to interact with ever-smaller devices and screens. The idea behind the technology, introduced at Google's I/O 2015 developers' conference this week, is that instead of using tools,

Remedy Service Management 9.0, the new IT service management (ITSM) platform from BMC, is designed to provide both IT managers and end users with a more intuitive, consumer-type experience. BMC announced the release of the new platform, which it claims can boost IT productivity by up to 75 percent, earlier this month. BMC said the Remedy 9 platform provides a Smart Reporting feature for IT professionals that delivers custom reports, dashboards and user-friendly interfaces for "better, faster decisions." For end users

Remedy Service Management 9.0, the new IT service management (ITSM) platform from BMC, is designed to provide both IT managers and end users with a more intuitive, consumer-type experience. BMC announced the release of the new platform, which it claims can boost IT productivity by up to 75 percent, earlier this month. BMC said the Remedy 9 platform provides a Smart Reporting feature for IT professionals that delivers custom reports, dashboards and user-friendly interfaces for "better, faster decisions." For end users

Tech giant Apple has acquired Metaio, a company that creates tools for authoring, rendering and managing augmented-reality applications, for an undisclosed sum, according to legal documents filed in Germany. A notarized registration form filed in a Munich court indicates that 29,121 Euros (around $32,000) in shares held by Metaio were transferred to Apple last week. Based in Munich, Metaio was founded in 2003. The company grew out of an internal project at Volkswagen to provide specifications and instruction manual overlays on

One of the biggest challenges marketers face these days is keeping track of customer behavior across multiple channels and devices. Oracle is hoping to help with that by adding new mobile capabilities to its Oracle Marketing Cloud. Those new capabilities, rolled out earlier this month, include an enhanced mobile Data Management Platform (DMP) that helps to link multiple identities across platforms and devices to a single customer. The update also lets marketers more easily send links, coupons and other notifications to

We all know the Internet has revolutionized civilization, but have you ever stopped to think just how much it has changed your life over the past 15 years -- and what the future may hold? The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reports unprecedented growth in information and communications technologies (ICTs) since 2000. Here are some mind boggling statistic from the latest ITU report: there are over 7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide -- up from 738 million in 2000 -- and 3.2 billion

As virtual-reality enthusiasts await the first consumer edition of Oculus Rift next year, Facebook, which owns the game and the firm that makes it, is beefing up its talent roster. Oculus Wednesday said it acquired a trio of 3D reconstruction experts from computer vision firm Surreal Vision. The three founders of the UK-based immersive technology company will be moving over to Oculus: Richard Newcombe, the inventor of KinectFusion, DynamicFusion and DTAM (Dense Tracking and Mapping); Renato Salas-Moreno, the inventor of SLAM++

CRM behemoth Salesforce is rolling out the next iteration of Community Cloud, technology that lets companies combine business data and processes with its customer relationship management (CRM) platform to create personalized, mobile destinations. Specifically, Salesforce is adding Targeted Recommendations, Lightning Community Builder and Templates and Salesforce Files Connect for Google Drive. The goal is to help companies connect with stakeholders in new ways.Community Cloud was already making an impact before the new features. Digital communities result in 48 percent faster case

There's a big problem with the security questions often used to help people log into Web sites, or remember or access lost passwords -- questions with answers that are easy to remember are also easy for hackers to guess. That's the key finding of a study that Google recently presented at the International World Wide Web Conference in Florence, Italy. Google said it analyzed hundreds of millions of secret questions and answers that users had employed to recover access to their