Self-driving cars: incrementalism vs. full autonomy
Last week, I came across an interesting piece by Jan Dawson about self-driving cars. In it, he argued that Tesla's (and possibly Apple's) approach of incremental improvements in automation was vastly superior to Google's goal of achieving full automation. His primary argument is that consumers need to purchase and experience semi-autonomous vehicles before they can trust the technology enough to purchase fully autonomous vehicles (especially given the likely cost of purchase). While this does appear to make some sense, there is a key flaw in this argument. The goals and business models of companies following these two approaches are dramatically different.
What do Tesla (and potentially Apple) want out of autonomous car technology? At least, in the short term, their goal is to sell more cars to consumers. What approach fits best with that goal? Incrementalism -- in other words, making sustaining improvements to their existing product to grow sales volumes and average selling prices. And as Jan rightly pointed out, consumers are unlikely to trust the technology behind fully autonomous cars right off the bat. Therefore, striving for incremental improvements in autonomy makes perfect sense for business models dependent on hardware sales.
Microsoft to donate '$1 billion' worth of cloud computing resources
With great profits, comes great responsibility. Nowadays, being profitable, creating jobs and selling quality products isn't enough from a publicity perspective. Take Microsoft, for example. Windows and Office has powered countless successful businesses, while the company employs thousands of folks globally. Yet, despite those things, in order to be seen as a friendly company, the Windows-maker -- and other corporations -- must be philanthropic too. You know what though? Regardless of motivation, its donations are much appreciated.
Today, Microsoft announces that it is donating "$1 billion" worth of cloud computing resources, which it claims is "measured at fair market value". True, this is not the same as donating $1 billion to the homeless or hungry, but it is still something for which to be thankful. With that said, the dollar figure is arguably subjective, as Microsoft is pretty much setting the value. Still, the potential for this donation is immense.
Your appliances and devices can now spend your money, as Amazon expands Dash Replenishment
The Internet of Things is all around us, and expanding daily. Our devices and appliances are increasingly connected, which can be both a good and a bad thing. Want to turn on the lights before you get home? You can do that. Forget to lock the door when you left? Do it from the store.
That all sounds great, and truthfully it is. However, there are problems, mostly surrounding security concerns that have plagued some products.
Qualcomm will manufacture server chips in China
Qualcomm has entered an agreement with the Chinese province of Guizhou to enter into a joint venture to develop chips for server systems.
This is the latest bold step by Qualcomm, which is keen to expand from relying on manufacturing chips for the smartphone and communications market. Though this could be seen as a risky strategy as Intel dominates the server chip domain with over 90 percent of the market, and with addition worries regarding both the Chinese economy and the global drop in technology demand, Qualcomm is pressing ahead with a $280 million dollar commitment for a 45 percent stake.
Microsoft to recall millions of Surface Pro power cords over potential fire risk [Update]
Despite getting off to a very shaky start, Microsoft’s Surface Pro is now a firmly established product that can genuinely replace not only your iPad, but your laptop too. However, there’s potentially bad news for anyone who purchased one of the company’s slates before 15 July 2015 (in Europe) or March 2015 (in the US).
Microsoft has discovered that in certain situations the Surface Pro’s power cable could overheat, making it a potential fire hazard.
Birst expands its networked BI platform
Cloud analytics specialist Birst is releasing new capabilities for its Networked BI Platform aimed at empowering end users in the enterprise to work with data effectively.
New features include Birst Mobile for Android, Collaboration, and End-User Data Preparation. The networked BI Platform is aimed at creating a network of interwoven BI instances that share a common analytical fabric, eliminating data silos to ensure collaboration and accelerate the delivery of BI across the enterprise.
Microsoft announces Minecraft: Education Edition
Going to school for many students is a total drag. In some schools, technology lags behind the "real world". Heck, I'm not an old guy, yet I had to learn the 100-year old Dewey Decimal System in elementary school -- something totally worthless nowadays. In other words, my interest in learning was negatively impacted by a lack of excitement and a failure to focus on the future. We kids knew the things we were being taught were dated.
Luckily, children have it much better these days. Between iPads, Chromebooks, and smartphones, everything is at their fingertips. Today, however, Microsoft-owned company, Mojang, announces that it is making education much more exciting with Minecraft: Education Edition. Yes, the wildly popular block-based game is being adapted for learning thanks to the purchase of third-party MinecraftEdu.
Internet of Things' rising popularity will increase security risks, business costs
We all know that the Internet of Things is growing, and more and more firms are using the new technology to take their businesses to the next level, but just how big is IoT now, and how much will it grow?
Gartner has given a few interesting predictions, including one which says that more than half of all new business processes and systems will use some form of IoT by 2020.
Enterprises keen to adopt Windows 10
A new survey of IT professionals from large organizations reveals higher than anticipated momentum for the adoption of Windows 10, with 63 percent of respondents expecting to run Windows 10 on a significant number of systems this year. The study from systems management specialist Adaptiva shows that of those IT departments that piloted Windows 10, nearly half (40 percent) have now deployed it on 50 percent or more of their systems, indicating strong confidence levels and unprecedented adoption of the new operating system.
The large scale movement to Windows 10 is fueling high demand for the new version of Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr), software used to distribute and update operating systems and other software. Roughly two-thirds (65 percent) of those moving to the new ConfigMgr released in December cited deployment, updating, and management of Windows 10 as their biggest motivators for upgrading. The announcement earlier this month that Windows 8 will no longer receive security patches is also thought to be accelerating the drive to Windows 10.
Samsung: Inserting the S Pen backwards will not break new Galaxy Note 5 units
As you may already know, Galaxy Note 5 has launched with a rather serious flaw: if the S Pen is inserted backwards it will get stuck and break the device's stylus detection mechanism, which, in turn, will render some of its software functionality useless. Samsung has responded quickly, advising users to "follow the instructions". As logical and simple as that may sound, it may be hard for some users to heed the advice, especially if they are, as my colleague Mark Wilson put it, "a little tired, drunk, young, or stupid".
In the meantime, Samsung has developed a new mechanism that will no longer create these kind of issues when users attempt to insert the S Pen the wrong way. And it is included in new Galaxy Note 5 units, according to the company.
61 percent of new organizations are born in the cloud
The cloud is changing the way businesses and IT teams operate and a new survey from industry specialist BetterCloud reveals the extent of the shift.
Based on a survey of 1,500 IT professionals it shows that of organizations started in the last two years 61 percent have begun their operations in the cloud. In addition 59 percent of IT professionals say the cloud has changed the structure and responsibilities of their team in the past year.
What you should consider before adopting Facebook at Work
The news that Facebook at Work is due to be rolled out in the first part of this year will be welcomed by many businesses, especially those keen to see more effective use of technology in the workplace and to see greater employee engagement through increased levels of connectivity. For employees used to managing their personal lives via social media and technology, the arrival may seem long overdue.
The work place version of Facebook will replicate many of the features of the well-known social version, giving employees and co-workers a range of ways in which to communicate, collaborate and interact. The increasing globalization of business and reliance on remote and flexible ways of working mean that keeping employees meaningfully connected is critical to driving business success. As an added side benefit, the introduction of more effective communication methods often leads to a reduction in the use of internal email systems. This in turn can help businesses manage IT capacity and reduce the need for employees to monitor unnecessary email traffic.
3 Screen Recorder extensions for Chrome
From tutorials to troubleshooting, game walkthroughs, presentations or just sharing desktop activity, everyone can use a screen recorder occasionally.
This used to mean tracking down and installing some low-level native application, but there are now some surprisingly capable Chrome extensions which just might do everything you need.
Twitter suffers global outages
For many people around the globe, Twitter was inaccessible today. The site suffered problems that affected its web and mobile faces, and it didn’t take long for the #twitterdown hashtag to start trending.
The problem was confirmed -- somehow -- on Twitter by the Twitter Support account, and the developer API status page showed that there were issues with no fewer than four APIs. On Monday, Twitter suffered a brief outage, but Tuesday's was rather longer.
AMD says SYSmark benchmarks are Intel-biased and don't reflect real-world usage
Chip maker AMD has complained that the popular benchmarking tool SYSmark is biased toward rival Intel. The company says that the software focuses far too much on CPU activity and that this is not reflective of real-world computer use.
In a stern video, John Hampton and Tony Salinas from AMD compare SYSmark benchmark with results from Futuremark's PCMark 8 as well as scripts devised in-house. Comparing an Intel Core i5 with a 'comparable' AMD FX chip, SYSmark was found to report a much greater performance difference -- in Intel's favor. AMD describes this as "quite astonishing and not realistic".
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