Author: Eva Glass

Eva Glass first rose to prominence in The INQUIRER. She continues to work behind the scenes to dig out the best stories.

Microsoft shuffles its board

Posted on September 23, 2014 by - Moving People, News

Visa's ScharfTwo senior executives from non technology sectors have been appointed to the board of Microsoft, while two existing board members have stepped down.

Microsoft said that Teri List-Stoll, chief financial officer of Kraft Foods and Charles W. Scharf, CEO of Visa, will take up their new positions on the 1st of October.

At the same time, Dave Marquardt and Dina Dublon are to retire from the board following Microsoft’s annual shareholders meeting in December. The board constitues 12 individuals.

Scharf, 49, pictured has been CEO of Visa since November 2012 and before that was a senior executive at JP Morgan Chase.  List-Stoll, 51, from Kraft previously worked at Procter and Gamble.

Microsoft’s chairman, John Thompson said the appointments were to help the company transform itself into something completely different.

CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella said that List-Stoll brings “exceptional” financial and operational expertise and had wide knowledge from working for decades in consumer and retail industries.  Scharf brings a “deep understanding of how commerce is changing globally”.

Smart meters cause disagreements

Posted on September 23, 2014 by - News

Smart Meter - WikimediaInstalling smart meters in a household could be far more trouble than they’re worth.

That’s the conclusion of a team of researchers from the University of Nottingham which has studied the phenomenon.  The team, belonging to the Horizon Digital Economy Research at the university said that the UK government is beginning an initiative next year to bring smart meters in all homes by 2020.

Smart meters let people see how much energy they use and how much it costs.

But, says Dr Caroline Leygue, sharing a house isn’t always easy.

“Importantly, beyond simple effects on energy use, we were interested in how these displays influenced emotions and the interactions that people had around them. For example, if people saw that someone used more than their fair share of energy, depending on the display they felt more anger, or guilt and fear — not the intended consequence of installing an energy display!”

The researchers placed volunteers into two situations – one in which they all split the energy bill but one or more people used more than their fair share, and another in which energy is used equally in a house.

But, she said, the more information people had on the display about their other housemates’ usage, the angrier they became.

She said that over a third of people would call a house meeting to discuss the problem and one quarter would ensure freeriders pay more in proportion to the energy they used.

CIOs need to get actively involved

Posted on September 23, 2014 by - News

lightbulbsThe days when IT was an afterthought are over and done and chief information officers (CIOs) need to become actively involved in business processes.

That’s the conclusion of a report from Gartner. Cassio Dreyfuss, research vice president said: “Over time, IT has graduated from being a support tool to being a business enabling and a business creation tool. Under that much broader and inclusive perspective, it makes more sense to talk about IT-related expenditures in each and every business initiative and respective budget. In this way, the CIO is challenged to adopt a higher profile and actively engage in opportunities to influence IT decisions in business budgets.”

While each organisation has its own set of processes, the CIO has a unique contribution for organisations of all sizes but must have a handle on the business challenges and style of each organisation.

A CIO needs to get “intensely” involved with budget decisions and can bring several skills to these discussions.

He or she needs extensive knowledge of the information used in an organisation and who uses what information, when, how and with what objective.  It’s also important to understand the business processes and master how all that information as well as having a comprehensive and educated perspective on technology of all types.

Big Data market growing exponentially

Posted on September 23, 2014 by - News

server-racksAnother survey on the growth of big data technology and services underlines the growth in this sector of the IT market.

Market research company IDC predicts that the western Eurpean big data market will grow between now and 2018 at a compound annual growth rate of 24.6 percent.

IDC said that western European organisations are catching up with the USA rapidly because of a combination of smaller datasets, challenging economies and privacy concerns.

The market sector is segmented into infrastructure, such as servers, storage and networking;  software; and services.  Storage was worth $536 million in 2013, while the server market is worth $314 million.  But the largest segment is software, worth an estimated $698 million last year, followed by services which was worth $593 million.

IDC said the UK, Benelux and the Nordic countries are showing higher initial adoption, but Germany and France are fast catching up.

But Alys Woodward, research director at IDC, warned that getting value from investments in big data is far from guaranteed. Vendors need to clearly demonstrate to their customers how their organisations can benefit from adoption.

Apple claims sales record for iPhone 6

Posted on September 22, 2014 by - News, Products

Apple's Tim CookGizmo firm Apple claimed it sold over 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus phones in the three days after it was launched by CEO Tim Cook. (pictured)

The phones are available in the UK, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Canada, Australia and the USA – and will be sold in 20 more countries on September 26th.

Cook said that while there are supply constraints on the iPhone 6, the launch is Apple’s best ever.

The phones uses Apple’s A8 chip which is a 64 bit microprocessor, touch app Apple Pay and 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch retina HD displays.

The phones also come with an upgrade to the operating system, iOS 8, which offers new features including predictive typing and a Health app.

Apple is using its familiar trick of charging quite a bit extra depending on the memory. In the US, for example the magic figure is a $100 hike between the 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models.

Diamond nanothreads could lift us to space

Posted on September 22, 2014 by - News

Diamond nanothreads, PennA team of researchers at Penn State University said it has produced ultrathin diamond nanothreads that could just possibly lead to the production of a space elevator between earth and the moon.

John V Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn, said: “One of our wildest dreams for the nanomaterials we are developing is that they could be used to make the super-strong, lightweight cables that would make possible the construction of a “space elevator”, which so far has existed only as a science-fiction idea.”

The discovery shows that the nanothreads include a long strand of carbon atomswhich resemble the fundamental unit of a diamond.

Badding said: “It is as if an incredible jeweller has strung together the smallest possible diamonds into a long miniature necklace. Because this thread is diamond at heart, we expect it will prove to be extraordinarily stuff, extraordinarily strong, and extraordinarily useful.”

The threads are extremely small and only a few atoms across.

Apart from the wild dream of producing an elevator between earth and the moon, more practical applications include materials in vehicles that are lighter, more fuel efficient and so less polluting.

One obstacle is that high pressure needed to produce the diamond nanothreads limit production to only a few cubic millimetres at a time.

Windows 9 looms into view

Posted on September 22, 2014 by - News

Microsoft campusWhile very many people haven’t yet upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, and very many people have stuck with Windows XP, it seems that Microsoft will show off Windows 9 soon.

Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows has delivered some Windows 9 screenshots from sources he is not ready to name in advance of Windows Technical Preview – due out in October.

And guess what, Microsoft is bringing back the Start menu.  There was much gnashing of teeth when it decided not to build it into Windows 8.x Start menu, particularly among corporate users of the operating system.

The preview uses the same Store as Windows 8.1, while mobile apps will run in floating windows on the desktop, according to Paul Thurrott.

Microsoft has a long running record of producing versions of Windows that are dogs followed by versions that are functional and popular.

Windows Vista was a dog, and Windows 8.x is a pooch too.  Perhaps Windows 9 will be better.

4G phones enter price war phase

Posted on September 22, 2014 by - News

SnapdragonFierce competition in the smartphone chipset and microprocessor market means prices of devices are likely to drop next year.

Smartcom, Qualcomm, Marvell and Broadcom are all competing in offering 32-bit quad core devices all hovering around the $8 to $9 mark.  They are eyeing up Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 210 which costs $9 in bulk, according to suppliers that have talked to Digitimes.

It’s interesting that Intel doesn’t seem to be involved in this price war because it’s usually the first on the block to trigger price wars.  That could indicate its tardiness in joining the smartphone fray.

There is growing demand for 64-bit eight core units which as part of the bill of materials cost around $15-$20.  Four core CPUs cost around $12-$15.

All of this means a scrabble on behalf of the component suppliers which may well lead to cheaper overall bills of materials for smartphones.

AMD reads Synopsys

Posted on September 22, 2014 by - News

AMDlogoAMD has signed a deal with Synopsys, which gives it access to a range of designs and intellectual property on advanced 16nm/14nm and 10nm FinFET process technologies.

According to Kitguru, AMD will give Synopsys IP and engineering resources.

AMD gets interface, memory compiler, logic library and analogue intellectual property from Synopsys and will use it to develop future generations of chips to be made using 14nm/16nm as well as 10nm FinFET manufacturing processes.

Synopsys hires approximately 150 AMD IP R&D engineers and gains access to AMD’s interface and foundation IP. The move clearly saves AMD money although it is not so good in terms of resources, whereas Synopsys becomes stronger.

Synopsys provides chip designers a broad range of high-quality IP for integration into system-on-chips (SoCs) and delivering expert technical support. It makes its cash effectively developing non-critical areas of chips.

AMD has a huge library of various complex IP used in advanced microprocessors and graphics processing units.  AMD gets silicon-proven IP for the chips it will make in the next several years in exchange for interface and foundation IP as well as engineers. AMD claims that it will give it ability to “focus its valuable engineering resources on its ongoing product differentiation and IP reuse strategy.”

Mark Papermaster, AMD senior vice president and chief technology officer said that it will allow AMD to focus internal teams on designing the 64-bit processor, graphics and peripheral IP that makes the difference between AMD and its competition.

Synopsys can deal with AMD’s future SoCs.  The two companies have been working together for more than a decade.

 

Tesco finds huge black hole in accounts

Posted on September 22, 2014 by - News

tescoMajor British grocer Tesco unexpectedly announced that it had overstated its profits to the tune of £250 million.

It has launched an inquiry into the accounting mess and in the meantime has suspended four senior executives until the inquiry is complete.

Those four executives are believed to include Tesco UK’s MD, Chris Bush.

Deloitte will head up the inquiry and as a result of the mess Tesco will deliver its next financial results in late rather than early October.

Dave Lewis, who took over the helm of chief executive officer earlier this month said that the company had uncovered a serious problem and acted to address it.

Shares in the giant grocer fell on the unexpected news by as much as 10 percent.

It is the third profit warning Tesco has made this year and it is believed the overstatement is caused to accounting anomalies in the food division.

Multiferroics could revolutionise memory devices

Posted on September 19, 2014 by - News

memoryfutureA team of researchers at the City College of New York (CCNY) claims to have discovered new complex oxides that have both magnetic and ferroelectric properties.

That opens the possibility of producing advanced memory devices that can use both properties.

The CCNY team have made a mineral that isn’t found in nature and is based on barium, titanium and manganese, according to lead researcher Professor Stephen O’Brien.

In combination with other teams from other universities they observed magnetic and ferroelectric properties in a crystal group that’s called “multiferroic”.

O’Brien thinks: “The Holy Grail in this field is the combination of both magnetic and ferroelectric elements at room temperature with a sufficient magnitude of interaction.”

He said using these properties could displace flash memory or lead to small memory devices that have “massive” storage capacities.

The quest is for the ultimate memory device, it seems.

LTE to boost broadband access for homes

Posted on September 19, 2014 by - News

wirelessmastThe widespread  adoption of LTE for fast internet access on smartphones and tablets will have a knock on effect on the broadband wireless market.

That’s according to ABI Research, which foresees the widespread adoption of LTE making it easier for people without DSL, cable or fibre optic broadband to have fast internet connections in their home.

And a number of chipset and other vendors will accelerate that push, according to Jake Saunders, 4G director at the market research company.

Those include vendors including Huawei, ZTE, and Netgear, which are all readying routers based on LTE that will let people have 4G connections at home. Chipsets from Intel, Sequans, Qualcomm and GTE are all competing in this space.

Shipment numbers for residential and commercal LTE gateways is set to grow to 44 million units by 2019.  Many people living in rural areas who have been excluded from fast net access are likely to have an answer to their problems sooner rather than later.

Bug slows Apple’s health push

Posted on September 19, 2014 by - News

gala_appleApple said a problem with its iOS8 means that apps for fitness and health are likely to be delayed.

The problem comes from Apple’s HealthKit – a developer tool that lets third party developers like their own applications and devices communicate with Apple’s own features.

But Apple is downplaying the problem and claims it will fix the bug by the end of a month.  HealthKit is a back end set of functions and is different from its own Health app released in iOS8.

Meanwhile, people that have upgraded their Apple kit to iOS8 continue to grumble over minor glitches.

Some people have complained that they’ve had to delete content to give enough space for iOS8, while others have complained about problems with Dropbox.

Teething problems aren’t unusual for upgrades to operating systems. Experts generally advise people to wait a little while before installing the upgrades while minor glitches are ironed out.

Thin clients have their day

Posted on September 19, 2014 by - News

Dell logoAs many as 97 percent of enterprise client device are now thin clients and share continues to grow.

That’s according to market research firm IDC, reporting on sales in the second calendar quarter of this year.

Growth in these type of devices is epected to be 5.8 million units, that’s growth, year on year, of 6.2 percent.

And there’s a trend for enterprises to buy thin clients without operating systems – so called zero clients.  Those types of devices held a 27.9 percent share in Q2 2014, and up 22.8 percent from the first quarter this year.

Windows Embedded OS thin clients hold the lead with 41.6 percent share.

As far as vendors go, Dell (DellWyse) is top of the pile, with a 28.8 percent share. HP has fallen to number two, with 26.5 percent share.  Ncomputing is third at 11.6 percent share, followed by Centerm which has a large share in Chinese markets, and Igel which is strong in western Europe.

Amazon introduces more tablets

Posted on September 19, 2014 by - News

Fire HD6 from AmazonInternet giant Amazon announced the Fire HD6 tablet, at a price of £79 for the base model. It also introduced the Fire HDX8.9 at £329, and two Kindles.

The cheap and cheerful Fire HD6 comes in two configurations, an 8GB and a 16GB version – the latter costs £99.

The device comes in a range of five colours, uses a 1.5GHz quad core processor, a six inch HD display, and front and rear cameras.

It also includes unlimited cloud storage for photos taken with all of its Fire devices. It gives access to Android apps and is compatible with most of the digital content on the interweb.

The device weighs 290 grams and has a claimed battery life of eight hours.  Full charge via a micro USB port – supplied in the box – takes six hours.

It also has a Slimport USB 2.0 microB connector that lets you plug it into HDTV or VGA monitors or to PCs and Macs.

The Fire HD6 has a limited guarantee of a year.

The Kindle comes with touch now and costs £59, while the Kindle Voyage costs from £169.