Tag: techeye

Datacentre automation market worth billions

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

server-racksA report by Markets and Markets estimated that by 2019 the datacentre automation market will be worth $7.53 billion.

The report said that demand for fast data access and storage continues to rise and that’s creating more and more datacentres.  Datacentre automation is sometimes known as Software Defined Data Centres (SDDCs).  Automation helps management deal with scalability, flexibility, manageability and reduced costs.

The market research company said it segments the datacentre automation market by hardware such as network automation, server automation and storage automation.  It also values the secor by service including consulting services, installation and support.

The demand for data is forcing businesses to either build new datacentres or upgrade existing sites.

And the cost of datacentre infrastructure continues to increase at the same time as IT budgets continues to decrease.

Majr vendors in the industry include HP, Oracle, Dell, Brocade, Cisco, IBM, CA and BMC Software.

Hungary backs off internet tax

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

Viktor Orban, Hungary's PM, when he was quite a slip of a youthThe prime minister of Hungary said today that his government will shelve plans to introduce an internet tax.

That follows a week of protests against the proposed move, which would have had the Hungarian government charging a fee on every gigabyte of data downloaded.

The initial plan was to have charged 150 forints (40 pence) per gigabyte but PM Viktor Orban was forced to back off from that plan.

Instead the government was going to introduce a tax rate of 700 forints a month for individuals while companies were going to be charged 5,000 forints a month.

The protestors weren’t just furious at the tax but were worried the move was undemocratic.

Orban’s party holds a two thirds majority in the Hungarian parliament

IBM signs deal with Chinese cloud giant

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

Executives from Tencent and IBMA major Chinese IT player – Tencent Cloud – has signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate with IBM to bring Software as a Service (SaaS) for various industries.

Both firms will concentrate on emerging small and medium enterprises in healthcare and other fields.

Tencent Holdings is one of the major providers of internet services in mainland China, and its Cloud division sells to enterprises and developers a number of offerings.

Taosang Tong, a senior executive VP of IBM said: “Tencent has a stable and reliable cloud computing platform, while IBM has abundant industry expertise aimed at the enterprise.”

Nancy Thomas, a managing partner at IBM China said the two companies will bring scale and cost benefits of cloud computing to Chinese enterprises.  “The industry dimension makes this especially appealing for businesses,” she said.

Financial considerations were not disclosed.

Twitter is no fun for the many

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

tweetA group of researchers based at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) has analysed Twitter and come up with ways to increase your influence.

People with few followers attempt to boost their popularity by increasing the number of tweets they send but this is costly and inefficient.

The researchers analysed thousands of conversations and discovered how to measure relates effort to influence by people using Twitter.

The structure of Twitter is the key to influence. Twitter is a heteregeneous network wherer there are a large number of people with few folllowers and a very few with up to 40 to 50 million followers.

Rosa M. Benito, a researcher at UPM, said: “Ordinary users can gain the same number of retweets as popular users by increasing their activity abruptly.”

The diagram shows a visualisation of the spreading of messages on Twitter (retweets network in green) on the followers network (grey). The nodes represent users and their size is proportional to the number of followers that they have. Red indicates users who have written original tweets and yellow indicates users who have retweeted them.

Sony saved by expelling the Welsh

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

hollow-crown-welshIt seems that getting rid of its Welsh CEO Howard Stringer has been good for the struggling Japanese outfit Sony.

Sony reported a second-quarter operating loss which was a lot narrower than the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street had predicted. Part of the reason was that the PlayStation 4 games console reduced the impact of its sluggish smartphone division.

Everyone expected a loss after Sony took an impairment charge of $1.58 billion on its mobile division but the fact that it was not grim was being seen as proof that the restructuring announced in May by Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida is working.

Sony’s operating loss reached $77 million in July-September, compared with the $1.47 billion estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

The company posted a net loss of $1.22 billion for the quarter and held its full-year net loss forecast at $1.07 billion.

Sony upped its operating profit forecast for its gaming division to $300 million for the year after shifting 3.3 million PlayStation 4 consoles in the second quarter, moving it further ahead of rival Xbox One, made by Microsoft.

Weighing on electronics was the mobile division, where Sony lowered its smartphone sales outlook to 41 million handsets from 43 million, compared with 39 million last year.

Yoshida, the CFO, said the company would greatly shrink its smartphone business in China, where it has been squeezed by nimble local rivals like Xiaomi, while the incoming chief of the mobile division, Hiroki Totoki, would focus on improving carrier relationships.

Yoshida said a weaker yen was a negative for Sony as it loses 3 billion yen for every yen the Japanese currency falls against the dollar.

 

Android creator walks from Google

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

Forbidden-Planet-528x812Andy Rubin, co-founder of the  Android mobile business and head of its robotics effort is leaving Google.

According to a statement from Google, Rubin will start a company to support startups interested in building technology-hardware products.

It is possible that Rubin is getting a little bored. Last year, Google’s browser and applications chief Sundar Pichai replaced Rubin as head of the Android division, bringing the firm’s mobile software, applications and Chrome browser under one roof.

Android was pretty much Rubin’s baby having built it into a free, open-source software platform now used by most of the world’s largest handset manufacturers. He switched from that role to lead a series of robotics acquisitions for Google in 2013.

Word on the street is that Rubin likes to run his own show and was facing constraints on his activities at Google. However, Rubin himself has said that he did not really have any problems with independence at Google and left because he wanted to do something new on his own.

Top TV makers reject OLED

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

tv58Samsung and LG have decided that the world is not ready for OLED and the next generation of TVs will run on quantum dot technology.

The problem is that they can’t come up with a way of making OLED affordable for the mass market.

Quantum dot involves incorporating a film of tiny light-emitting crystals into regular liquid crystal displays (LCD). The manufacturing process is relatively straightforward and offers improved picture quality at much cheaper cost than using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED).

The manufacturers think that the resulting lower prices could help the technology catch on far quicker. One industry analyst estimated a 55-inch quantum dot TV would be priced 30 to 35 percent more than a current LCD TV, while an OLED TV could be 5 times more expensive.

LG’s 65-inch ultra-high definition OLED TV cost $11,350  which is a big problem.

The only real difficulty is that the quantum dot material comes from a small pool of suppliers, including Quantum Materials and Nanoco who are almost certain to jack up the prices as it might be in short supply.

Nanoco said a South Korean plant being built by partner Dow Chemical will start quantum dot production in the first half of 2015. Analysts believe the output is destined for a local client.

LG plans to make quantum dot TVs in addition to OLED TVs. Analysts regarded that a tacit acknowledgement that OLED needs more time for prices to come down before eventually becoming the new standard.

LG Chief Financial Officer Jung Do-hyun told analysts after the company reported earnings that OLED is the fundamentally superior product.

Samsung Vice President Simon Sung said that quantum dot is among many technologies under consideration.

Sony is the only major electronics manufacturer selling quantum dot TVs. Researcher DisplaySearch forecasts 1.95 million quantum dot TV shipments next year, for just 0.8 percent of the market, growing to 25.5 million by 2020. IHS Technology sees OLED TV shipments at 7.8 million units by 2019 from 600,000 in 2015.

 

Tim Cook is gay – so what?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News, Opinions

tim-cook-glareThis morning the Tame Apple Press is full of praise for Apple CEO Tim Cook “coming out as gay as if it is really important.

Writing in Bloomberg Businessweek, Apple CEO Tim Cook, unprompted, has said that he is gay. It was news that comes as no surprise to anyone, so why in 2014 was it news?

Cook’s sexuality has been known  for ages, in fact when he took over, I mentioned it in his biography only to have it cut out by the news editor. “Who the hell cares?” he diplomatically pointed out. Indeed.

If Cook had come out in Oscar Wilde’s time, when it was illegal, it would be news. However, this is 2014 and being gay is normal. The sort of people who do not think it is normal are the sort of people who have all sorts of undesirable prejudices and no one wants to be like. Even the concept of “coming out” is a relic of a time when homosexuality had to be secret and not considered normal.

Why does it matter? The Tame Apple Press says that such an announcement will “save lives” because kids will no longer be bullied for their sexuality. After all if Tim Cook can come out then the other kids will say “It is ok the guy who makes our great gadgets is gay so we will accept you”. Clearly the Tame Apple Press has no understanding of the minds of bullies.

So if it does not really make a difference why is Cook saying it?

Apple has been in the press a lot lately and the news has not been good. Its iPhone 6 bent and caught fire, it was implicated in the bankruptcy of its Sapphire Glass maker, Apple Pay was rejected by retailers, its iCloud was hacked and celebrities had their naked selfies exposed, the iWatch is late and will probably be a turkey.

Fairly or unfairly there are mutterings are that “none of this would happen under Jobs” and “Apple is not the same”,

The feeling is that Apple needs a “personality” as a leader and Cook is decidedly lacking in that regard. This announcement was like a back-story episode in Season 2 of a sci-fi drama. We have known that someone is two dimensionally evil, hates aliens, or has a phobia about custard, but in this episode we are shown the reason. This is “fleshing out of the character” is not designed to provide information, but is supposed to make a 2D character more three-dimensional.

The problem is that Tim Cook’s only back-story is that he is gay – the very thing that for the last two decades humanity in the Western world has decided is normal. As a result, he is still as two dimensional as his phones because really… who cares what Cook bonks?

 

Intel impedes Windows 10

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News, Products

Intel-logoA report said that sales of notebooks using Microsoft Windows 10 are likely to be hit because Intel will be tardy releasing an appropriate chip.

Digitimes Research said that the Intel Skylake microprocessor is supposed to be ready at the beginning of the third quarter in 2015 but will probably not hit the streets until the end of next year or even 2016.

The news will plunge Microsoft into the depths of despondency.  It is already taking a hit because uptake of the notoriously shabby Windows 8.x isn’t going to plan.

Windows 10 is supposed to be the summum bonum – that is to say it will work properly because there won’t be a Windows 9.

Digitimes Research estimates that Intel’s delays won’t make the acceptance of Windows 10 any easier and it appears the alliance between Microsoft and Intel is crumbling.

Intel could not be contacted for comment at press time.

The report is here.

UK government to offer free wi-fi

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

Ed VaizeyThe government has a plan to offer free wi-fi in over 1,000 public buildings across the UK in a bid to make everything a little more accessible.

According to the Telegraph, we’ll soon have free wi-fi offered in libraries, museums, and other buildings as part of the government’s plans to turn our cities into “super connected cities”.

Oxford, London, Edinburgh, Leeds and Birmingham are just some of the places where the free wi-fi will be installed, said the report.

The Telegraph says that some free wi-fi hotspots have already gone live but the majority will offer service by March next year.

Ed Vaizey, who is the UK government’s digital economy minister, said it’s all part of a long term economic plan, to give access to businesses, visitors and the general public.

He claimed that the free hotspots will make UK cities more attractive to visitors.

Other places in the world have similar schemes but accessing the wi-fi is not necessarily a piece of cake because of high demands on services.

Tablet market continues to grow

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

iPad-miniWhile some say that the phenomenal growth of tablet sales is starting to wane, a report today claims that the situation is quite different.

IDC said that the worldwide tablet market grew by 11.5 percent in the third quarter of 2014 – shipments totalled 53.8 million units.

The market research company said that sales were boosted by the “back to school” season and also an increased appetite for tablets in the US – one of the biggest markets.

Apple is still the leader in tablets, but is continuing to see a decline in its sales.  It shipped 12.3 million units in the third quarter, while Samsung shipped 9.9 million units and despite being second has an 18.3 percent market share. Asus displaced Lenovo from number three.

Next was Asus, followed by Lenovo and in number five position is RCA, which got to its worldwide position by shipping 2.6 million tablets in the USA.

Parallel worlds really do exist

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

saturnIt seems that the dreams of sci-fi writers have a basis in science because academics have come up with a new theory based on the existence of parallel universes.

The scientists, at Griffith University, claim that they’ve taken interacting parallel worlds out of the realm of science fiction and into that of hard science.

The team of academics says that parallel universes interact with nearby worlds influencing each other by a subtle force of repulsion.

This theory, the team avers, explains the anomalistic and strange phenomena in quantum mechanics.

Professor Howard Wiseman says: “The universe we experience is just one of a gigantic number of worlds. Some are almost identical to ours while most are very different.”

He added: “All of these worlds are equally real, exist continuously through time, and possess precisely defined properties.”

The theory predicts something new that isn’t Newtonian nor confirms to quantum theory.  He believes that it will be possible to test for the existence of such worlds.

Semiconductor firms have Moore’s Law hope

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

minionsOne of the problems with semiconductor firms like Intel continually shrinking the size of chips is that soon they’ll be up against the limits of the lithographic methods used to make microprocessors.

But scientists at UC San Diego may have an answer which will let Intel engineers sleep easy in their bunny suits at night.

Nanoengineers at the university claim to have invented a new type of lithography in which – they say – nanoscale robots swim over the surface of light sensitive materials to create the surface patterns that conventional lithography produced.

The scientists said that not only does it solve some of the lithography problems of the future, but it also is a simple and more affordable way of doing the trick.

Electron beam writing is very expensive and complex.

How does it work?  The nanorobots are chemically powered, self propelled and magnetically controlled.  Jinxing Li, a student at UC San Diego said: “All we need is these self propelled nanobots and UV (ultraviolet) light. They work together like minion, moving and writing and are easily controlled by a simple magnet.”

Google ready to take driving seat

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

jalopyThe next battle between Apple and Google is set to take place in your car as you’re speeding down the motorway.

While Apple had the first to market software that synchronises iPhones to vehicle entertainment systems with Carplay, it seems that it faces tough competition from Google with Android Auto.

Apple initially had the backing of car companies like BMW, Citron, Ferrari, Jaguar, Mercedes, Peugeot and Toyota, according to ABI Research some of these players have unaccountably delayed implementing Carplay.

Meanwhile, the same report says that Android Auto will now be supported by Bentley, Infiniti, Maserati, Renault, SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen.

According to Filomena Berardi, a senior analyst at ABI, it appears some car manufacturers like Android because it’s a more open operating system.

She thinks that most car manufacturers will now support both. Well, you wouldn’t want to turn down buying a Maserati because it only supports, iPhone, would you?

UK NHS keeps Windows XP on life support

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

heart-rate-on-a-screen-ekg-machineNHS Trusts are insisting on keeping Windows XP machines despite concerns that they are about as secure as a celeb’s naked picture on the iCloud and have cost £5.5 million from Microsoft to support.

According to Citrix, the mobile workspace company, which filed a freedom of information act request to get its data, all the of 35 NHS Trusts are still using Windows XP and that just five are using  desktop virtualisation technology to handle migration away from it.

Jason Tooley, UK country manager at Citrix, said that like the rest of the public sector, the NHS is under tremendous pressure to do more with less and the IT department is no exception.

He called on NHS trusts across the UK to harness technology today to transform IT processes for the better. Using IT — including desktop and application virtualisation — can positively impact the entire workplace, delivering increased productivity and ultimately improved patient care.

Microsoft announced Windows XP’s end of life on 8 April 2014 but the British government has an extension on support until 8 April 2015 and with this in mind. More than 74 percent of the trusts surveyed admitted their last devices wouldn’t be migrated until March 2015.

Another 14 percent are unsure when they will transition their last computer away from Windows XP and in addition to the five that are already using virtualisation, just two more plan to take a similar path before the deadline.

There are rumours that the UK government could end up signing another extension with Microsoft to provide a second year of support and it’s likely to cost the same £5.5 million it shelled out for help this year.

Under that deal, Vole provides security updates for the 12 year old OS as well as Office 2003 and Exchange 2003 for the entire UK public sector, and a similar deal was signed by the Dutch government for the same level of support.

World on the street is that  the UK government may wait for Windows 10 to come to its rescue and there’s a distinct possibility we will be talking about an NHS stuck on Windows XP this time next year.