BetaNews Staff

Artificial intelligence in retail: It's the right move

Technology has long since advanced to the point where it can make decisions better than people can, and yet grocery managers are still happy to use their own experience to drive decision-making, sacrificing speed, efficiency and savings.

By optimizing key strategic areas of pricing and replenishment, and automating decisions using machine learning, retailers can combine the speed of their decisions with their KPIs (margins, volumes, mark downs). Yet still retailers are not currently marrying the two in a responsive and effective way.

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Why you should embrace AI

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) will destroy jobs, robots will replace humans… We are no stranger to these talks about the evolution of AI and the rise of robots. Some go as far as predicting that one in three jobs will be replaced by robots in the next 20 years (including clerical jobs), while others preach that sophisticated software in tiny gadgets that will end up affecting our self-worthy and identity.

In the meantime, studies show otherwise, and all this automation anxiety is simply overblown. The only thing professionals should be afraid of is becoming obsolete by missing the chance of turning this technology to their advantage.

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Dropbox introduces Smart Sync and Paper

Dropbox has announced "significant product updates", introducing Smart Sync (some of you might know it as Dropbox Infinite), and Paper.

The company says the introduction of Smart Sync and Paper will boost team productivity and improve collaborative processes, end-to-end. First up is the Smart Sync. Dropbox calls it an "industry first", cross-platform, on-demand cloud storage solution. It offers intuitive storage, allowing users to sync all the content from their computers to their Dropbox accounts.

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Do workers need the right to disconnect?

Beach sunset

On January 1, 2017, workers in France were given the "right to disconnect". Article 55 of the El Khomri Act is a key measure of the country’s revised Labor code that obliges companies with over 50 workers to begin negotiations with employees and guarantee them the right to ignore their smartphones outside of working hours.

It’s no secret that the rise of the smartphone has created an always-on culture, but while that has led to leaps in productivity it has also seen workers around the world burn out more quickly, compromise their work-life balance and become more stressed. Cabinet Eleas found that 12 percent of France’s working population suffers from a "burn out syndrome," with 37 percent admitting they use their devices outside of working hours each day.

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Why telecom companies must take advantage of the gig economy

The most successful telecommunications enterprises are those that embrace new technologies, and think about ways that new business models or approaches can drive revenue gains while reducing costs. Such companies emphasize not only building network "plumbing", but also offering real connected solutions to their customers. In short, successful telecom companies understand that continuous innovation is imperative to their success.

However, while telecom companies may aspire to work and think dynamically, many are discovering that they do not have the right in-house talent to address evolving industry developments. The desire for network engineers who can climb poles and install equipment has been replaced with a need for software developers who can develop media and content distribution strategies, and many telecom companies are struggling to fill this talent void.

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Online business startups are hitting an all-time high

Recent market analysis and reports are suggesting that more people are starting businesses of their own right now than ever before. This rise in the number of small startups around the world in the last few years is a direct result of growth in the online sector.

Young and successful entrepreneurs like Sam Ovens have inspired and paved the way for thousands of potential business ideas to come into fruition by using the internet and all it has to offer. Taking a deeper look into the reports that the analysts have conjured up regarding online businesses, it is possible to trace out a few root causes behind both the rise of ecommerce, as well as its recent success.

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The effect of cybercrime on businesses and consumers

Here we are, at the end of the first month of a new year and where are we? Well, I guess that very much depends on who you are. If you're a hacker, then things are looking good for you. If you're a consumer, the evidence suggests you won't be fooled twice, but is that good enough? And if you're a business, you've got the same security problems as last year but with enhanced threats from hackers and careless employees as well as enhanced expectations from consumers.

So, exactly what is happening in today's security world and what does it mean for you?

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Cisco acquires intelligence software company AppDynamics

Tech giant Cisco has announced that it is buying AppDynamics, a privately-held application intelligence software company headquartered in San Francisco.

The deal is worth $3.7 billion, and will be completed in cash and assumed equity awards.

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Demand for security pros in UK rises by 46 percent

security flaw

To say that IT security professionals in the UK are in demand would be a severe understatement. A new report by Experis says there has been an increase of 46 percent in the demand for both permanent and contract IT security professionals.

The report, entitled Tech Cities Job Watch, says companies are putting more emphasis on long-term investments.

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Security is more important than availability in app development

Business security

Security is now the top priority for app development, surpassing availability, a new report by F5 Networks states. The State of Application Delivery report is based on a poll of more than 2,000 IT, networking, application, and security professionals worldwide.

Looking at how they are deploying and managing their applications in a rapidly evolving landscape, the report also says that organizations in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa), expect more than three quarters (76 percent) of their apps in the cloud this year.

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Net neutrality repeal? Bad idea, say IT pros

The vast majority of IT professionals (82 percent) that manage computer systems and Internet services of US-based businesses are in support of net neutrality.

This is the conclusion of a recently released report by Spiceworks, which tackles the topic of net neutrality and how its abolishment might affect businesses.

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4 big security threats facing your small business

endpoint security

You no longer have to be a large corporation to draw the attention of cybercriminals. In fact, your small business could be appealing to hackers, simply because you don’t have the same level of security that a big firm can bring to bear.

Learning more about the most common risks can help you protect your organization and ensure you don’t fall victim to a scammer.

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Should geo-blocking be an option for DDoS prevention?

DDoS attacks

2016 should have reinforced what security experts have been telling us over the years. Cyberattacks are not a matter of "if" anymore but "when."

Last year, there was no such thing as "too big to fail" as top tech firms like Yahoo!, Dropbox, and LinkedIn all reported data breaches. Internet services provider Dyn, which is used by Twitter and Spotify, was also hit with traffic-based attacks, affecting uptime of these popular sites. Banks and government institutions also fell victim to attacks that compromised information of millions of users -- a bank in Sri Lanka even lost billions of dollars to spoofed international transactions.

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Mobile ad-blocking will get out of control in 2017

It wasn’t just the news of Trump and Brexit that dominated headlines in 2016 -- adblocking also remained high on the news agenda after experiencing a roller-coaster year. Murmurs among the industry claimed that 2016 would represent a possible adblocking Armageddon, while the IAB’s CEO and president, Randall Rothenberg, spewed the words of Adblock Plus (ABP) as "extortionists, internet killers, an unethical, immoral, mendacious coven of techie wannabes."

But that wasn’t all. In August, an epic back-and-forth battle between ABP and Facebook kicked-off as we successfully circumvented each new update made by the social media giant to uphold the users’ rights of blocking ads on the desktop version of the site. And if that wasn’t enough, in late November we once again proved that adblocking is 100 percent legal after a sixth court win, this time over German publisher Spiegel Online.

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Lloyds bank hit by DDoS attack

DDoS attack

The Lloyds Banking Group fell victim to a massive cyberattack this week, that was responsible for temporarily disrupting its services.

The attack is being attributed to an international hacking group. It launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against the company's online services that lasted for two days. During this time, customers were reportedly unable to make payments online or check their account balances.

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