Xpertfeed

Summary:  After building up the capabilities of its ID Graph, Oracle is making the tool a direct part of its Audience Builder UI. For more than a year, Oracle has been building up the capabilities of ID Graph, a tool in the Oracle Data Cloud that helps marketers understand consumer behavior across channels. On Wednesday, Oracle announced it's putting ID Graph directly into the hands of marketers with an enhanced version of Audience Builder, the user interface within the Oracle Data Management Platform. The updated Audience Builder makes it easier for customers to manage and select certain types of customer identities, in order to analyze audiences based on the device or platform within which the ID was created. "In the past, you weren't really able to manage all of these different identities and where they were going," Oracle senior product marketing manager Karen Kokiko. "Marketers knew customers were making these journeys across devices... A consume...

Summary: Hackers targeted the tech companies as recently as February 2016, but Foursquare denied a breach. Another day, another hack. Weebly and Foursquare are the latest in a long line of tech companies under scrutiny for their security practices. On Thursday, breach notification site LeakedSource posted details of the attacks  in a blog post  explaining what happened. More than 43.4 million accounts were stolen in the attack, thought to have been carried out in February. According to a sample of the data, each record in this mega breach contains a username, email address, password, and IP address. Stolen passwords were stored with bcrypt, a strong system for scrambling passwords. In a statement, the company confirmed the breach. "At this point we do not have evidence of any customer website being improperly accessed," said a spokesperson. "We do not store any full credit card numbers on Weebly servers, and at this time we're not aware that any cr...

Summary:  Details of a new Windows 10 Paint app have leaked ahead of Microsoft's supposed all-in-one Surface (Surface studio) launch later this month. Microsoft has been working on a major refresh of its Paint app for Windows, which introduces support for 3D objects, stickers, and other tools for creatives. A  video demonstration  and  tutorial  for the new Paint, found by Twitter user WalkingCat, details a complete overhaul and new features to support 3D creation,  sharing 3D designs with a community  of artists, and stickers. The new app is currently only available to invited alpha testers but it may get a wider showing at Microsoft's upcoming Windows 10 event on October 26,  according to  Windows enthusiast site Thurrot.com. Microsoft watchers expect the company will unveil an all-in-one Surface PC and a possible Surface keyboard and mouse. The tutorial video shows new painting tools that support pen and touchscreen...

Summary:  Six days after delivering a failed Windows 10 update, Microsoft has offered a fix-it script and an explanation. Six days after it delivered a cumulative update that failed to install on some users' PCs, Microsoft has released a fix-it tool. In an email statement, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that the update, which tries to install and then rolls back repeatedly, affects PCs that previously ran a build delivered through the Windows Insider Program and were later switched to the public Current Branch release. " We became aware of an issue with the recent Windows 10 cumulative update that impacted a small number of customers in the Windows Insider Program that were running a previous build of the OS. We have created a solution to resolve this issue, which is now live and can be accessed  here ." That link goes to the  Windows 10 1607 (RS1) Script fix to unblock update for Insider , a Microsoft Installer file that makes the same changes I desc...

Summary: G oogle has rolled-out new data-saving features targeting Android and Chrome users on slower mobile networks. Google's News and Weather app for Android is getting a new Lite mode, designed to save bandwidth for users on slower connections. The new Lite mode will do away with some of the extras found in the normal mode, while cutting images and other content to the bare essentials. Google says Lite will use less than a third of the data of normal mode. Besides saving on summary news information within the app, Lite mode also automatically optimizes the webpages that are opened. Google's  has said in the past  this feature helps load pages four times faster and use 80 percent less data. Lite mode will automatically detect when a device is on a slower network, or it can be manually set to always on or always off. The new mode is  rolling-out  this week to users in India, where mobile networks are largely 2G and 3G, and will arrive in Brazil, I...

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...