Xpertfeed

Summary:  Microsoft's coming Skype Teams service may be available for beta testing by November. Meanwhile, LinkedIn and Microsoft are partnering on new training courses. Microsoft may be aiming to deliver a beta version of its  Skype Teams service  -- its intended Slack competitor -- by November, according to a new report. Sams' sources also said Skype Teams will likely be available as part of the various Office 365 business plans, and it will be integrated with other Office 365 services. Given there's also a free tier of Slack, I wonder whether Microsoft may opt for a freemium model, as it has with a number of its existing services, and offer an entry-level free version of Skype Teams with options to upgrade to unlock more features.Brad Sams of Petri.com provided an update this week from his sources on  what's happening with Skype Teams . Sams said Skype Teams has been under development for 18 months and that it's currently in private testing. An expan...

Summary: Google continues to make Google Maps more sophisticated, as Apple, Uber, and others work on their own mapping capabilities Google has acquired the two-year old startup Urban Engines to incorporate its location-based analytics into Google Maps. "Location analytics is an important focus for both Urban Engines and Google, and we're excited to combine forces to help organizations better understand how the world moves," said Urban Engines in a blog post . Google Maps has been improving and expanding its functionality, as Apple and other companies like Uber bolster their own mapping capabilities. Jen Fitzpatrick, who leads the Google Maps team, told Business Insider that they're trying to build "the richest, deepest, most detailed understanding of the real world that's ever existed". That includes incorporating the sort of rich traffic data that Urban Engines collects and...

Summary: Microsoft's late October hardware launch this year may be as much about its partners' Windows 10 devices as much as its own Surface-branded ones, sources say. Microsoft is holding a fall hardware launch in late October, where I'm hearing it will take the wraps off a Surface-branded device, which some of the contacts are saying is known as "Cardinal".(I don't know if "Cardinal" is a codename or a final name. I'm betting codename.) I've heard that Surface Cardinal could be positioned as a product that can turn your desk into "a studio". My bet: Cardinal is the rumored Surface All-in-One device running Windows 10, which may come in  one, two, and/or three different screen sizes (21, 24 ,or 27) , as first reported by Windows Central. This may be  the consumer-focused version of Microsoft's Surface Hub , as Windows Central speculated, using the Perceptive Pixel screen technology that's at the core of Surface Hub...

Summary: The delay comes amid a handful of reports of exploding batteries in the flagship device. Samsung is delaying shipments of the Galaxy Note 7 to conduct more quality control testing, the company  confirmed  to Reuters. The company did not elaborate on why it needs to conduct more quality testing on the new, large-screen flagship device, which has been available in the US since Aug. 19. However, the delay comes amid scattered  reports  of instances in which the battery of the device apparently exploded. While less concerning, there have also been some reports of substandard performance, and Matthew Miller reported on his experience with lag and performance issues. After performing a hard reset, though, Miller reported having a "flawless" experience with the phone. The Note 7, which features an improved curved glass design, water resistance, microSD expansion card, and usability improvements, has received largely rave reviews. D...

Summary: Google's focus on core features puts Nougat ahead of iOS 10 as Apple fumbles about trying to freshen up the user interface and revitalize stale apps. Android 7.0 Nougat is now out, and while only owners of recent Nexus device such as the Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel C, or Nexus 9 tablet currently get the benefit of this release, it's clear that Google is moving in the right direction. All this while iOS 10 -- still in the beta stage -- feels like it's in the doldrums. Nougat seems to have been a smooth release for Google, with no reports of any widespread issues, which you'd expect from the fact that Google keeps a tight grip over the Nexus hardware ecosystem. However, given that Apple has an equally tight control over its hardware ecosystem, and yet still manages to fumble, I think a problem-free release is noteworthy. Nougat also contains some rather nice features that I'm sure iOS users would like to see come to the iPhone and iPa...

Summary:  AMD wants to get into high-end desktop CPUs once again. "Our focus is on high-performance CPUs and GPUs." This is what AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su told journalists gathered at an event on 18th August night in the San Francisco, a stone's throw away from the Intel Developer Forum gathering.And AMD has been putting the time and effort into powerful silicon lately. AMD makes the processors for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, including the One S and the upcoming Project Scorpio, and it also released a very capable $200 graphics card in the form of the Radeon RX480. Now AMD is once again setting its sights on the desktop PC. At the event, the company officially delayed new CPUs based on its Zen architecture until "early 2017." But AMD was keen to fire a shot of Intel's bow at the event by showing a rendering demo where an 8-core/16-thread engineering sample Zen CPU outperformed an Intel 8-core/16-thread Broadwell-E CPU - Intel's $1,100 hi...

Summar y: Seagate has taken the wraps off its whopping 60TB solid-state drive for the enterprise. Seagate says its SSD has twice the density and four times the capacity of Samsung's 15TB PM1633a. Image: Seagate/Twitter Seagate has been showing off its monster 60TB solid-state drive (SSD) this week, which breezes past the 15TB SSD that Samsung launched in March. But don't expect to see Seagate's SSD in a consumer device any time soon, with the new drive set to join the high-performance end of its datacenter portfolio. Samsung's   PM1633a has a 2.5-inch form factor   and holds 15.36TB of data. For now, it remains the largest commercially available SSD and   reportedly costs $10,000 per unit . Seagate's 60TB Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) SSD on the other hand opts for the familiar HDD 3.5-inch form factor. The company says that its drive has "twice the density and four times the capacity" of Samsung's PM1633a, and is capable of holding up to...

Summary: Microsoft has acknowledged officially that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will be its only feature upgrade to Windows 10 this year. Two new feature refreshes are coming in 2017, however.   While a number of us Microsoft watchers have been saying for a while that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update would be Microsoft's only feature update to Windows 10 in 2016, now Microsoft officials are acknowledging the same. In a recent   TechNet article itemizing new IT pro features for the Anniversary Update   (codenamed "Redstone 1"), Microsoft officials included this line: "Windows 10, version 1607 is our third Windows 10 feature update released. Based on feedback from organizations moving to Windows 10, this will be our last feature update for 2016, with two additional feature updates expected in 2017." (I saw the line above in   a post by The Verge's Tom Warren , who saw it on   Windows Central .) The first Windows 10 feature release by Mi...

Summary: Oracle CEO Mark Hurd called Oracle and Netsuite 'complementary' cloud applications. Oracle has announced it is acquiring cloud-based ERP provider Netsuite for $9.3bn in cash, or $109 per share."Oracle and NetSuite cloud applications are complementary, and will coexist in the marketplace forever," said Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd. "We intend to invest heavily in both products -- engineering and distribution." Oracle's ties to Netsuite go back to the 1990s, when Netsuite CEO Zach Nelson served as Oracle's marketing chief. Oracle founder Larry Ellison is Netsuite's largest investor, and both companies have had a keen focus on the enterprise resource planning space. But while Netsuite has lived and breathed in the cloud since its inception, Oracle has struggled to transition to an all-cloud business model. Adding Netsuite to the fray, with its subscription-based, on-demand co...

Summary: Artem Vaulin was charged with operating the illegal file-sharing site, which has allegedly allowed people to copy and distribute more than $1 billion worth of media. Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested the alleged owner of the world's most popular illegal file-sharing site, Kickass Torrents (KAT).  Thirty-year-old Artem Vaulin of Kharkiv, Ukraine, was arrested in Poland, and the United States will seek to extradite him, the US Justice Department announced . He was charged in the US District Court of Chicago with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of criminal copyright infringement. "Vaulin is charged with running today's most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials," US Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said in a statement. ...