PagerDuty streamlines real-time collaboration with webhooks
The SaaS alert and incident tracking company PagerDuty has announced the addition of webhooks to its software to streamline integration with other tools.
Development teams will be able to improve collaboration and incident response by customizing their web applications. This allows improved reporting and alerting so that, for example, any changes to the status of a logged entry will cause messages to be sent automatically.
Google+ rolls out new enterprise-friendly features
Google has announced new features in its Google+ app for Android aimed at making its social network a valuable workplace tool. On the company's enterprise blog, Joël Kalmanowicz, Product Manager, Google Apps Team says, "If you're a Google Apps for Business, Government or Education customer, today we're releasing a few new features designed to make it even easier for you to get things done with Google+".
The app now supports multiple accounts allowing you to sign in to both work and private profiles and easily switch between them. You can also create restricted posts that can't be shared outside your organization. There are new domain labels too, both in the app and on the web, allowing you to quickly identify your colleagues' profiles so you know that you're connecting and sharing with the right people.
Microsoft targets international businesses with Surface
Microsoft has announced the launch of new channels to sell Surface RT and Surface Pro to business, education and public sector customers. In addition to the US commercial channel which launched in July, today's announcement sees 17 countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK added to the list.
Writing in a blog post Cyril Belikoff, Director -- Microsoft Surface says, "This availability in international markets, along with the updates coming to Surface RT with Windows 8.1 are all important milestones for our customers. We know that people who use Surface love it! We’re looking forward to introducing even more customers in more places to the powerful productivity that Surface uniquely makes possible".
Where do iPhones come from? The facts of Apple life
With the upcoming release of the Jobs biopic Apple is set to be in the spotlight in coming weeks. It's timely then that the Finances Online website has released an interesting report tracing the iPhone’s supply chain.
It makes for fascinating reading. The rare earth minerals used in many of the phone’s components are 90 percent sourced in China and Inner Mongolia. Move up to the component level and the LCD panels, chipset, memory and batteries are all made in Korea. The iPhone 5's innovative display -- which eliminates a layer of glass -- is made by LG for example. The gyroscope that works out which way you’re holding the phone comes from STMicroelectronics, a French/Italian company.
Hypervisor turns the public cloud into an enterprise test platform
California-based Ravello Systems has released its Cloud Application Hypervisor. It may have a name straight out of sci-fi, but this product allows enterprises to use public cloud platforms to test their in-house applications.
Differences in storage, networking and virtualization techniques have previously prevented the use of the cloud as a practical test platform. Ravello's software makes any public cloud look and feel exactly like the enterprise data center from an application's perspective.
BYOD set to drive extra security on consumer mobile devices
According to research group Gartner consumers are unwilling to pay for security products on their mobile devices. But thanks to BYOD and the need to protect corporate data it believes security providers have an opportunity to get their products onto more devices.
Gartner predicts that by 2015, 30 percent of the criteria for consumer product selection will be based on requirements to secure mobile computing platforms. It urges product managers to expand their endpoint security to cover all popular mobile devices as well as traditional PC systems.
Buy it now -- ZTE Open Firefox phone comes to eBay
Chinese electronics company ZTE has announced that it's to start selling its Firefox phone on eBay in the US and the UK. Available only in a fetching shade of orange and unlocked for use on any network the phone will cost $79.99 in the US and £59.99 in the UK.
The ZTE Open offers an affordable smartphone based entirely on open web standards using the Firefox OS. It has all of the functions you'd expect of a smartphone including calls, messaging, email and a camera, plus additional functions like built-in social network integration with Facebook and Twitter, location based services and access to the Firefox Marketplace to download apps.
Harnessing the cloud can free SMEs to grow
Technology is being underused by growing smaller companies according to communications and cloud specialist Qubic. The company says that hosted technology can help businesses grow by freeing them from the need to invest in hardware infrastructures.
Chris Papa, Managing Director of Qubic says, "With small and medium-sized businesses having been particularly badly hit by the economic downturn, they are the ones most in need of extra support to enable them to prosper. A hosted solution can help encourage start ups and SMEs in general to grow as it means that businesses can use technology on a 'pay-as-you-use' basis as opposed to tying up cash in a server with a telephone system which costs a fortune".
More gloom for PC makers as European sales slump by 20 percent
As my colleague Wayne Williams reported earlier today the PC market is continuing to shrink at the hands of tablets. Further confirmation of this, just in case you needed any, comes from a Gartner survey showing that the PC market in western Europe slumped by 20 percent in the second quarter of 2013.
All PC segments in Western Europe declined over the quarter. Mobile and desktop shipments dropped 23.9 percent and 12.2 percent respectively. PC shipments in the professional market declined by 13.5 percent, while the consumer PC market decreased 25.8 percent in the same period. This equates to a 19.8 percent drop overall
Google Play store flooded with scam apps
The Google Play store is being bombarded with apps designed to scam unsuspecting users, according to consumer advice platform Scambook.
The scammers aren't even bothering to write malicious code, instead relying on simple human error to install their fraudulent apps. One app in particular has no purpose other than to launch a link to an adult video website. When the user is then asked to register, an email form is generated linking to another service on another website. Users are then asked to pay a $3,200.00 yearly fee within days of receipt.
Migration from XP made more complex by demand for BYOD
Microsoft will pull the support plug on Windows XP on April 8 2014. But with only 10 months to go to the deadline as many as 39 percent of enterprises have yet to migrate to another version of Windows, warns services and solutions company ITC Infotech.
Current trends towards BYOD are also making the migration process more complex but businesses need to address the issues in order to future proof their operations.
New IBM Flex Systems squeeze a bigger cloud into a smaller data center
Announcing a raft of additions to its Flex System range, IBM aims to help companies consolidate their IT infrastructures and reduce operating costs. The new systems combine the latest server technology with updated virtualization, network and management tools. They will allow the fast deployment of increasingly large clouds without needing to boost the size of the data center.
IBM quotes Morgan Stanley's Cloud Perspective survey which has found that by 2014 businesses will have migrated at least 62 percent of their database workloads to the cloud.
Dell board agrees terms of buyout offer
A special committee of the Dell board has reached an agreement with the company’s founder Michael Dell over a buyout of the company.
Under the agreed terms Mr Dell, in partnership with the investment firm Silver Lake, will buy back the company he founded in 1984 for $13.75 a share plus a special one-off dividend of 13 cents per share. This is in addition to a guaranteed third quarter dividend of 8 cents per share. The deal which values the company at $24.5 billion will be put to a special shareholder meeting on September 12.
Enterprise planning company grows 250 percent as businesses move to the cloud
Cloud-based analytics supplier Tidemark has announced its latest set of results which show 250 percent year-on-year growth. This is driven by businesses moving away from legacy suppliers as they seek to unlock the power of their data.
Christian Gheorghe, Founder and CEO of Tidemark says, "Legacy vendors, such as Oracle Hyperion, SAP and IBM Cognos are suffocating customers with archaic technology that prohibits getting the right people involved in actively managing the performance of the company. The velocity of business and increasing importance of data outside a company's walls have created new challenges that can't be solved by focusing on a few power users who act as the gatekeepers to information".
UK families gather around their big-screen TV sets... and do their own thing
The rapid growth in usage of tablets and smartphones is turning us into a nation of multi-taskers according to a report by the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom. Although 91 percent of adults tune in to the main TV set in the lounge at least once a week, around 53 percent now access other media whilst watching television.
We're interacting with TV shows or sending off tweets and Facebook posts about them whilst we watch. We're also performing unrelated tasks like shopping and surfing the web whilst the TV is on. Most of this is done via smartphones, with 51 percent of adults now owning one compared to only 27 percent two years ago. Almost a quarter of households now own a tablet computer too.
Ian's Bio
Ian spent almost 20 years working with computers before he discovered that writing about them was easier than fixing them. Since then he's written for a number of computer magazines and is a former editor of PC Utilities. Follow him on Mastodon
© 1998-2026 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.