AME Info, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, technology briefs

Source: AME Info, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesAug.迷你倉出租 28--GOOGLE GIVES IRANIANS ACCESS TO 'PLAY STORE' : Google Inc. became the first company to extend technology services to Iranians under an authorisation issued by the US Treasury Department last May, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The company told developers they can make their Android phone apps available in Iran. However, the distribution option is only available for free apps, and not for apps for purchase or those that use in-app billing, said Google.OASIS500, MERCY CORPS TO ACCELERATE GAZA TECHNOLOGY START-UPS : Oasis500 and global humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps are planning to jointly to accelerate up to six technology start-ups this fall in the Gaza Strip, Jordan Times has reported. Starting from October, start-ups will be invited to participate in the Oasis500 acceleration process, spending two months each in Jordan and Gaza. Each start-up team will receive $14,000 of working capital from Oasis500, as well as advanced technical and business training and access to a global network of mentors to help them refine their business plans and investor presentations. Oasis500 will take a 10-15 percent equity stake in each company, and Gaza Sky Geeks will receive a 50 percent equity stake at the time of exit to cover future operating expenses.GOOGLE ACQUIRES WEARABLE TECH PATENTS: Google Inc. has acquired patents from Foxconn, a primary Apple manufacturer, in a likely bid to boost its Glass eyewear, PC Magazine has reported. Taipei-based Foxconn said the portfolio comprises Head Mounted Display (HMD) tech, which is commonly used in aviation and tactical/ground displays, engineering and scientific design applications, gaming and video devices, and training and simulation tools. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.MICROSOFT'S BALLMER TO RETIRE: Microsoft Corp's chief executive for the past 13 years, Steve Ballmer has unexpectedly announced his retirement, ending a controversial 13-year reign in which the world's largest software company lost its position as the dominant force in computing, Reuters has reported. The company said it had engaged an executive search firm and would consider both internal and external candidates to succeed Ballmer. "We are well down the path in the search," said board member John Thomson, who is leading a search committee that also includes Gates.OMANI REGULATOR URGES BUSINESSES TO USE CCTLD TO PREVENT CYBER THREATS: Oman's Telecoms Regulatory Authority (TRA) has urged firms in the country to opt for domain names with .om in place of .com, as they are less prone to cyber attacks and spam, Muscat Daily has reported. "Though we have companies in Oman that have .om as domain names, there are still many who opt for .com. Such domains are more vulnerable to threats. At our stall we will showcase the different threats," said media and consumer services manager at the TRA, Hilal al Siyabi.HP MAY SEAL ACQUISITION DEALS FOR UP TO $1.5BN: Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) has said it views acquisitions as part of the PC maker's future and it could do deals up to $1.5bn, Reuters has reported. "We have our eye on a number of areas," said HP chief executive Meg Whitman, noting that the company could do deals in the $100m to $300m range.INTEL TO LAUNCH NEW TABLET CPUS: Intel is set to start rolling out new tablet platforms in the second half of next year, Digitimes has reported, citing industry sources. The chipmaker's Cherry Trail and Willow Trail processors will arrive in the second half of 2014, with initial sample shipments of Cherry Trail to customers expected to commence at the end of 2013. The company is already set to unveil its 22nm Bay Trail-based processors with the Silvermont architecture at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) from September 10-12 and will later release its Bay Trail-T processors for tablets, supporting both Windows 8.1 and Android 4.2, the sources said.SONY TO LAUNCH PS4 ON NOVEMBER 15: Sony has set November 15 as the launch date for its PlayStation 4 game console in North America, after which the PS4 will be launched on November 29in Europe, Cnet has reported. The console would launch in 32 countries overall in time for the holiday season, the company said without specifying other dates worldwide.60 PERCENT OF LENOVO NOTEBOOKS TO BE PRODUCED IN-HOUSE NEXT YEAR: Chinese PC maker Lenovo is planning to produce 60 percent of its notebooks in-house in 2014, Digitimes has reported, citing sources from the upstream supply chain. The firm will cut outsourcing to Compal Electronics to 30 percent of total shipments from the previous 50 percent, and Wistron's share to 10 percent from 20 percent. The in-house production for 2014 will mainly take place at Lenovo's joint venture with Compal in Hefei, China. For 2013, Lenovo outsourced 75 percent of its notebook production to Taiwan-based ODMs, handling only 25 percent in house.MOZILLA TO RELEASE TOUCH-READY BROWSER FOR MS WINDOWS 8: Mozilla plans to roll out Firefox for Microsoft's Windows 8 "Modern" user interface in mid-December, more than a year after the operating system's launch, PC World has reported. The touch-ready browser, dubbed the "Preview Release," will be packaged with Firefox 26 for the Windows desktop. Firefox 26 is slated to ship on December 10.DELL'S QUARTERLY PROFIT DOWN 72 PERCENT: Dell Inc. has posted a 72 percent drop in quarterly earnings, as PC sales extended their downward spiral, Reuters has reported. Dell is increasingly resorting to price cuts to soothe customers nervous about its future and to spearhead a late foray into the enterprise computing market. "It was predictably bad. It's not a big surprise迷你倉that margins compressed to the degree that they did, when they're prioritising sales volume over profitability," Morningstar analyst Carr Lanphier said. "You have to offset that uncertainty somehow."JORDANIAN IT FIRMS MAY MOVE OUT IF TAX INCREASE APPROVED: Representatives of IT companies in Jordan have said that if a proposed income tax law is endorsed, they will be forced to move their headquarters out of the kingdom, Jordan Times has reported. "The situation is worrying and intolerable," Fadi Qutaishat, vice president for sales and marketing at Globitel, said at a gathering of ICT firms held last week to discuss the latest issues and challenges facing the sector. "The solution will be for all IT companies to act together and move their offices from Jordan to avoid the possible increase in income tax and other rising costs," Qutaishat said.MICROSOFT TO ROLL OUT WINDOWS 8.1 UPDATE NEXT OCTOBER: Microsoft has announced it will start rolling its much-anticipated Windows 8.1 update in October 17, USA Today has reported. Consumers can download the free update through the Windows Store. It will also be available at retailers and on new devices on October 18, said Microsoft.MALWARE MAY BE DISTRIBUTED VIA ANDROID MOBILE AD NETWORKS: US-based security firm Palo Alto Networks has said mobile ad networks can provide a loophole to serve malware to Android devices, Tech Hive has reported. The embedding of code for the advertising network into a mobile application ensures that ads get tracked and the developers get paid, but at the same time a third-party code represents a backdoor into the device, said Wade Williamson, senior security analyst at Palo Alto Networks, in a blog post. "If the mobile ad network turns malicious, then a completely benign application could begin bringing down malicious content to the device," Williamson said. "What you have at that point is a ready-made botnet."IDC TO CUT FORECAST FOR LAPTOPS WITH 'TOUCH' FEATURES: IDC has said that touch-ready laptop shipments are significantly lower than optimistic forecasts by computer makers, PC World has reported. Last May Acer's president, Jim Wong, said that by the end of the year 30 percent to 35 percent of his company's notebooks would sport touchscreens. "We forecast that 17 percent to 18 percent of all notebooks would have touch this year," said Bob O'Donnell, an analyst with IDC, referring to the research firm's own estimates earlier this year. "But that now looks to be too high, to be honest." He said IDC would probably drop its touch estimates to between 10 percent and 15 percent of all laptops.APPLE RESTORES ONLINE DEVELOPER SERVICES AFTER SECURITY BREACH: Apple has announced that all online services at the company's Developer Connection have been restored, the Mac Observer has reported. Apple pulled the services three weeks ago after a security breach, and slowly brought those services back online.IBM PARTNERS WITH GOOGLE, NVIDIA TO BOOST POWER CHIP UNIT: IBM has partnered with Google and a handful of other tech companies to license its Power chip technology, in an effort to attract more users, Reuters has reported. Under the OpenPower Consortium alliance, IBM, Google, Mellanox Technologies, Nvidia Corp and Taiwan-based server supplier Tyan Computer Corp will build server, networking and storage technology based on the chips for cloud data centres. The hardware and software, previously proprietary to IBM, will be available to open development and it will be licensable to others, IBM said.INTEL TO LAUNCH ANDROID TABLETS FOR EDUCATION MARKET: Intel Corp has unveiled a new line up of tablets for the education market with 10" and 7" screens, Atom chips and the Android OS code-named Jellybean, PC World has reported. The Intel Education Tablet with a 10" screen has a dual-core Atom Z2460 chip, which was used in the first Intel-based smartphones from Lenovo, Xolo, and others. The tablet provides more than 6.5 hours of battery life, according to a product brief published on the chip maker's website.APPLE, WINDOWS TABLETS LOSING MARKET SHARES TO ANDROID: REPORT: According to a report by market research firm Strategy Analytics, both Apple- and Windows-branded tablets lost market share in the second quarter, each retreating in the face of increased pressure from Android, PC World has reported. The firm pegged Apple's share of the global tablet market in the second quarter at 28.3 percent, a dramatic decline from 47.2 percent the year before, while Windows' share of the branded tablet market slipped in the quarter, falling to 6.4 percent from 7.4 percent. In contrast, Android's share climbed to 67 percent from 2012's 51.4 percent of the entire tablet market, including white-box unit, which comprised 37 percent of all shipments, the report said.MALWARE WRITERS USING CLOUD SERVICES TO SPREAD MALICIOUS CODE: Security experts have said that malware writers are stepping up their use of commercial file hosting sites and cloud services to distribute malware programmes, PC World has reported. "Attackers are starting to leverage hosting services" to stage malicious code," said vice president of research at ZScaler, a provider of cloud-based security services for enterprises, Michael Sutton. "It used to be that [attackers] would set up their own servers. Then we saw them infecting legitimate third-parties. Now they are using hosting services. They are no longer paying for hosting [malware] and are less likely to get blacklisted," Sutton said.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 AME Info (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) Visit AME Info (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) at .ameinfo.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存倉