67628163
submission
jfruh writes:
The Bluetooth spec never quite became the worldbeater it was billed as, but it's aiming to become indispensible to the Internet of Things. Updates to the spec make it possible for low-powered Bluetooth devices to gain direct access to the Internet, and, perhaps more importantly, make those devices a lot harder to hack.
67627855
submission
jfruh writes:
With Microsoft aiming to make more money from cloud services and software subscriptions, some have speculated that Windows itself might be given away for free with the aim of locking users into Microsoft's ecosystem. But company COO Kevin Turner says that, while Windows 10 pricing hasn't been decided yet, it definitely won't be a "loss leader".
67512639
submission
jfruh writes:
In 2012, Microsoft invested $300 million in Barnes & Noble's Nook division. This week, Microsoft agreed to sell its interest back to B&N so that the struggling bookstore could try to spin the division off as a separate business or sell it. The sale price was so low that Microsoft essentially lost nearly $190,000 every day on the botched attempt to gain access to the e-reader ecosystem.
67512491
submission
jfruh writes:
One of the EU's selling points is that it provides a single regulatory apparatus for the entire European market — but this isn't the case for everything. Data protection laws, for instance, provide a confusing thicket of different regulations across the continent, and now, much to the frustration of large American Internet companies, it seems that a plan to consolidate these rules under a single EU agency are coming apart.
67482131
submission
jfruh writes:
Google Glass, launched with such fanfare and promise, is now at risk of becoming a punchline. But Google's announcement that future Glass models will use Intel chips might help that turn around, with the chipmaking giant providing boosts in two wildly disparate areas: computing power and marketing savvy.
67443513
submission
itwbennett writes:
In the last three months, Fitbit, Snapchat and Sidecar all began lobbying in Washington for the first time, each paying D.C.-based lobbying companies to monitor moves by the federal government and lawmakers that might impact their business. Some companies have gone a step further and opened their own office in D.C., with their own lobbyist. Uber began in-house lobbying this year, less than a year after it first arrived in Washington, and has already spent $100,000 on its own efforts. Music streaming service Pandora, which has spent almost a million dollars on lobbying in the last four years, registered its own lobbyist in September and quickly spent a further $120,000. And then there's the erstwhile over-air TV streaming company Aereo, which had already spent $820,000 over two and a half years to pay a lobbying company, and then a few months after the Supreme Court ruling it filed papers to begin lobbying activity itself.
67443041
submission
itwbennett writes:
The FTC has reached a proposed settlement with PaymentsMD, an Atlanta health billing company that used the sign-up process for its billing service to surreptitiously seek customers’ consent to obtain detailed medical information. The medical information PaymentsMD requested included customers’ prescriptions, procedures, medical diagnoses, lab tests performed and their results, and other information, the FTC said. The bright spot in all this: In all but one case, the health care providers contacted for data refused to comply with PaymentsMD’s requests.
67389893
submission
jfruh writes:
Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town is a subdivision taking shape southwest of Tokyo. Built buy Panasonic, it aims to eventually produce zero CO2, but in the short term will reduce CO2 emissions by 70 percent compared to 1990 levels, as well as reducing water use by 30 percent. The town features lots and lots of solar panels, and, as you might expect, lots and lots of Panasonic appliances and gadgets.
67389735
submission
jfruh writes:
Hewlett-Packard acknowledges that its Unix business is in decline. However, the company also knows those customers remaining need support, and has rolled out a roadmap for its HP-UX Unix variant that will keep it up-to-date until 2025.
67386683
submission
itwbennett writes:
For the past two years, a team of Iranian hackers has compromised computers and networks belonging to over 50 organizations in 16 countries, including airlines, defense contractors, universities, military installations, hospitals, airports, telecommunications firms, government agencies, and energy and gas companies, researchers from IT security firm Cylance said in an extensive report released Tuesday. According to the report, 'ten of these victims are headquartered in the US and include a major airline, a medical university, an energy company specializing in natural gas production, an automobile manufacturer, a large defense contractor, and a major military installation.'
67338397
submission
jfruh writes:
Big companies like Google may need to fill seats with high-skilled workers, but smaller companies — which often fit the profile of the hip workplaces people dream of — still have the luxury of picking and choosing. That's why applicants' social skills and "cultural fit" are so important, which may shatter your dreams of tech as a clique-free meritocracy.
67338113
submission
jfruh writes:
Websites that sell counterfeit goods are being hit where it hurts: their domain names, leaving them unable to conduct commerce online at all. A Christmas-shopping-timed move by US and EU officials have put 292 domain names under the control of law enforcement. It's not clear what burden of proof lies on the police here.
67336065
submission
itwbennett writes:
Plaintiffs in the Apple iPod iTunes antitrust litigation complain that Apple married iTunes music with iPod players, and they want $350 million in damages. The lawsuit accuses Apple of violating U.S. and California antitrust law by restricting music purchased on iTunes from being played on devices other than iPods and by not allowing iPods to play music purchased on other digital music services. Late Apple founder Steve Jobs will reportedly appear via a videotaped statement during the trial, scheduled to begin Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
67266685
submission
jfruh writes:
Driverless vehicles are coming. The question is: what form will they take? Uber's management has suggested that, rather than owning our own private autonomous, cars, we'll all be glad to pay Uber by the trip for a private ride in one. But an Italian consultant working on experimental driverless vehicles in Europe thinks that the future will lie with automated buses, because diverless cars, 'may be able to go and park themselves out of harm’s way, they may be able to do more trips per day, but they will still need a 10 ft wide lane to move a flow of 3600 persons per hour ... their advantages completely fade away in an urban street, where the frequent obstacles and interruptions will make robots provide a performance that will be equal, or worse than, that of a human driver, at least in terms of capacity and density.'
67105085
submission
jfruh writes:
An report from Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, desscribes a hefty bill for unpaid back taxes paid by "M company," a tech firm described in terms that seem to only fit Microsoft's Chinese subsidiary. The company apparently used accounting trickery to hide profits, resulting in an investigation and a hefty back tax bill.
