Microsoft Issues Excel Data Transformation Updates, Performance Perks

The April 2016 update for Excel 2016 streamlines several tasks, including appending multiple tables, and provides a snapper user experience on select features.

Microsoft has new updates in store this week for Excel 2016 power users, including performance enhancements and more flexible ways of transforming and mashing up data.After applying the update, available now to Office 365 subscribers, Excel 2016 will allow users to append multiple tables using a single Append operation. In the past, combining more than two tables required users to select the first two (primary and additional table) and subsequently build upon them one table at a time. Now, a new “Three or more tables” option in the Append tables dialog box allows users to select and add multiple tables in one shot.Excel 2016 also does a better job of handling jagged CSV (comma-separated values) files. Jagged CSV files contain an unequal number of columns across its rows, hence the term.”With this update, the detection logic for data columns in CSV files has been dramatically improved to recognize these extra columns,” wrote the Microsoft Excel team in a blog post. “There’s no additional user action required to benefit from this improvement (besides importing the CSV file again using the latest product version).”

Query Editor data previews now display more data, allowing users more freedom in exploring a table. Previously, previews imposed 3,000-cell and 100-column limits. Now, using a new virtualized view, users scan scroll within a table to see all of its contents.   

In addition, the April 2016 update introduces a new one-click percentage transform feature. After selecting a column, users can pick the new Query Editor option to quickly create a new column based on a percentage calculation of their choosing.Users may also notice that routine Query Editor transformation operations, like renaming, removing and reordering columns, can be accomplished faster. Excel no longer requires a reload of the data from a remote data source and instead executes these actions locally, improving performance.Another performance-enhancing tweak, the ability to switch off Navigation Columns when using database connectors, helps provide a snappier, more responsive user experience.While helpful in many instances, “it turns out that the cost of retrieving Navigation Columns for a given table is high enough that it degrades the performance of retrieving data previews, thus degrading the overall user experience for simple scenarios,” explained the Microsoft staffers. Practically all relational database connectors support the option to disable Navigation Columns, except for Azure SQL Database, SQL Server and SQL Server Analysis Services.Users can eke out further performance gains by disabling background downloads of data previews on Excel workbooks. The feature appears under Query Options while creating a new query in the Data menu item.Rounding out the new functionality is the ability to sort columns alphabetically using the Choose Columns transformation builder, improved invalid URL handling in the SharePoint List connector and OAuth support on the Exchange Server connector. When connecting to Web data sources, Excel now enables users to specify where their credentials apply, from the domain level in a URL to a specific page.
Source: eWeek

Virtual Reality Advances on Display at Silicon Valley Expo

The third annual Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Expo, April 27-29, is the biggest one yet, although much of what’s being shown are works in progress.

SAN JOSE—Virtual stores, virtual worlds, immersive environments, 360-degree cameras, developer tools and more were on display here at one of the biggest events focused on virtual reality.With almost 150 exhibitors, the third annual Silicon Valley Virtual Reality conference and expo, running April 27-29 has come a long way since 2014.”We had 34 exhibitors that first year and that was pretty much everyone in the industry,” Karl Krantz, CEO and creator of the SVVR event, told eWEEK.These are heady times for VR, entering what can be considered its second or third act depending on how you rank earlier generations of the technology. “Virtual reality became a dirty word in the ‘90s because it didn’t meet its promise. When consumers tried the products they were disappointed,” said Krantz.

So even though the VR industry has been around for decades, a new generation of products powered by advanced hardware and software is just coming to market or will shortly. Even Krantz admits most of the products being shown here are works in progress. “There are only a few finished, polished products,” he said.

One example is AltspaceVR, a new mobile app that lets you make a virtual reality phone call to others using a Samsung Galaxy phone compatible with the company’s Gear VR headset. Others can join the call using Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or desktop computers with the AltspaceVR app installed. When you make a “VR Call” using the app, you can join friends and others in a virtual space where you appear as your favorite avatar.The company already offers or plans a variety of virtual meeting spaces designed as taverns floating offices, living rooms, deserts and space stations. It’s also partnered with performers like Sarah Silverman on an improv comedy event all in VR.Visual Intellect has a more serious mission. The company, which has customers in the oil and gas industry, was showing how its 3D visualization system could be used for designing complex structures such as a power plant or factory.”Before you had to build the plant; now you can build a virtual simulation you can walk inside of, spot design problems and change things before they break or fail in the real world,” Mukesh Patel, Director at Visual Intellect, told eWEEK.Besides designing the virtual environments, Patel said the company’s 3D visualization system can be used for training purposes and it can even simulate an explosion at an industrial plant to see if workers can understand what they need to do in such an emergency.Two of the more ambitious VR ventures are from Noitom and High Fidelity.Noitom (the name comes from the word ‘motion’ spelled backwards) has been offering an interactive VR solution in China that works in large spaces—something along the lines of the virtual reality Holodeck made famous by the television series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”The system, called Project Alice, is being developed in association with several partners and includes hardware from Lenovo and graphics processors from Nvidia. Content is being developed in association with Chinese media giant Alpha Animation, Swiss VR house Kenzan Studios and mobile phone technology company Smartisan.The company says the Project Alice experience will be available in the United States. later this year for about $100,000. “Most of VR has focused on single player experience like Oculus. We’re focused on multiplayer interaction, up to five users, in a large space,” said Noitom’s director of marketing Roch Nakajim, during a press briefing on Project Alice.High Fidelity was created by a VR pioneer, Philip Rosedale, who over a decade earlier created the pioneering Second Life virtual reality platform. High Fidelity takes advantage of the latest hardware to support not just VR headgear, but controllers that create virtual hands you can use to pick up, throw and manipulate things in a virtual world much as you would your own hands in the physical world.”Being able to use my hands changes everything,” Krantz says. “I find I can’t go back to just sitting down with headgear, I’m used to that full body movement. I’ve actually lost weight the past month using these systems.”As for what’s coming next Krantz is a big believer that VR can enhance the social media experience. He admits there’s a certain irony in the fact that the more “real” the VR experience, the more compelling it is. “Some of the most amazing places in VR are recreations of nature,” he said.
Source: eWeek

SAP Now Enabling Specialized Development for HANA Projects

The company now is moving into agile, fast-iterative and specialized software development for apps using its HANA in-memory database.

SAP continues to expand far beyond the reaches of mere data center software. The SAP that used to simply sell systems middleware and on-premises business applications a decade ago has advanced far past where many people thought it would go when it was struggling to find new markets in the early 2000s.The company, which has morphed virtually all of its platforms into cloud services, now is moving into agile, fast-iterative and specialized software development for apps using its HANA in-memory database.On April 27, the Germany-based software giant released new functions called Focused Build and Focused Insights for SAP Solution Manager — SAP’s central lifecycle hub for building SAP systems and solutions on premises and in the cloud.SAP Solution Manager is a highly stable development platform that offers integrated, end-to-end management processes to all SAP support customers. Ninety-eight percent of all SAP customers buy some level of support.

Focused Build and Focused Insights, available now on SAPStore.com, enable the development of specialized features and functionality for all types of applications — cloud, mobile and on-premises — and for various verticals.

Customers with app-function needs — for example, specialized health care, financial services, or scientific use cases — beyond the standard scope of Solution Manager can now use Focused Build and Focused Insights to develop and enable specialized features on top of Solution Manager, and then make them available for digital delivery on SAPStore.com.Focused Build helps boost efficiency in IT delivery by providing a built-in and integrated tool-supported way to manage business requirements, simple improvement requests and software development in implementing HANA-based projects.Focused Insights allows users to tailor dashboards in their innovation and operation control centers to specific needs. They can build and distribute configurable, customer-specific dashboards in minutes without the need for custom programming. The dashboards and reports can be created to align with the user’s objectives and requirements for operations, monitoring, governance, application performance and program readiness.Focused Insights also enables the delivery of content tailored for all roles in an organization, using the same set of indicators, from real-time metrics to long-term strategic IT key performance indicators for operators, administrators, managers and executives.To license these solutions, go to SAPStore.com, select the number of user licenses needed, and simply purchase them with a credit card. Pricing is $284 (€250) per user per year, with a contract term of 12 months, which is renewed automatically.
Source: eWeek

Apple Report First Drop in Revenue Since 2003

DAILY VIDEO: Apple Q2 revenue falls 13% marking first sales decline since 2003; AT&T sees postpaid consumer smartphones stall, DirecTV revenue gains; Windows 10 IoT gains an industrial edge; and there’s more.

Today’s topics include Apple’s first sales decline in 13 years, AT&T’s report of a sales shift from consumer smartphone users to business mobile users, Microsoft and partners announce new Windows 10-powered IoT devices and Google is allowing software vendors to try Google Apps for free through the end of the year.

Apple’s string of 13 years of quarterly revenue reports without a decline came to an end April 26 as the company reported second-quarter 2016 revenue of $50.6 billion.

That number is 13 percent lower than the $58 billion the company posted a year ago. Net income was also down in Q2 to $10.5 billion from $13.6 billion a year ago as sales of the company’s flagship iPhone smartphones leveled off.

Apple also missed analysts’ revenue estimates as it reported $50.6 billion in sales, below the $51.97 billion average estimate of 34 financial analysts who were surveyed by Thomson Reuters in advance of the earnings report.

AT&T lost 4,000 mobile postpaid net customers in the first quarter of 2016, instead of adding to that profitable category of customers as it has in most past quarters, but it still saw a 24 percent revenue gain, largely due to its acquisition last year of DirecTV.

However, AT&T also reported 75.8 million mobile business connections, which are up from the 66.9 million logged in the same period last year.

The company brought in revenue of $40.5 billion, up from $32.6 billion one year ago before it acquired DirecTV in July of 2015, and posted a net income of $3.8 billion, which is down slightly from the $3.3 billion it earned in the same quarter last year.

At the Hannover Messe industrial technology conference in Germany this week, Microsoft and partner companies are demonstrating how Windows 10 can help enable IoT-enabled business processes for factories, equipment makers and suppliers.

Along with the company’s new cloud-based Azure IoT device management capabilities and the Azure IoT Gateway SDK, which were also announced the week of April 25, Microsoft enlisted some technology partners, including Dell, to introduce Windows-based devices for connected enterprises.

Dell’s contribution is the new Dell Edge Gateway 5100 running Windows 10 IoT Enterprise. Billed as Dell’s “most industrial IoT device,” the hardware provides built-in data capture and edge analytics capabilities in an enclosure that can resist the hard knocks that come from running on factory floors and other industrial environments.

Google has extended an incentive program it has in place for businesses that currently might have contracts with other cloud vendors to switch to Google Apps cloud productivity suite for free.

Google launched the incentive program last October in a bid to get more organizations to try Google Apps. Since then, more than 200,000 users have “gone Google,” according to Neil Delaney, the company’s director for global inside sales/midmarket.

Google has seen tremendous interest in the program from smaller and midsize organizations, he said. As a result, Google has decided to extend the global program through the end of 2016.

Source: eWeek

Comcast Buying DreamWorks Animation for .8B as It Expands Its Reach

As more cable customers cut their connections and move to streaming video, Comcast looks to find new revenue in a changing market.

Comcast is acquiring DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion as the longtime cable company continues to build its future by adding complementary businesses to steady it as the future of cable television remains unfocused.The deal, which was announced April 28, brings together Comcast with the powerful DreamWorks nameplate, which has produced a wide range of popular animated films, including Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. The merger brings huge opportunities for content streaming to Comcast, which like other cable companies, is seeing its business impacted by customers who are replacing their cable connections with streaming video and original programming from services such as Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime.The DreamWorks acquisition is being made by Comcast’s NBCUniversal division, which was itself acquired by Comcast in stages in 2011 and 2013. DreamWorks Animation, which creates animated feature films, television series and specials, live entertainment events and related consumer products, will become part of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, which includes Universal Pictures, Fandango, and NBCUniversal Brand Development, according to Comcast.”DreamWorks Animation is a great addition to NBCUniversal,” Steve Burke, the CEO of NBCUniversal, said in a statement. “Jeffrey Katzenberg [the CEO and co-founder of DreamWorks] and the DreamWorks organization have created a dynamic film brand and a deep library of intellectual property. DreamWorks will help us grow our film, television, theme parks and consumer products businesses for years to come.”

Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2016, Katzenberg will become chairman of DreamWorks New Media and will serve as a consultant to NBCUniversal, according to the companies.

Interestingly, an April 27 report by The Wall Street Journal based on anonymous sources who allegedly were familiar with the then-rumored acquisition said that Katzenberg was “expected to leave” the company if it was purchased by Comcast. An NBCUniversal spokesperson declined to comment about the report following an April 28 inquiry by eWEEK and referred a reporter to Katzenberg’s new role with the combined companies.”Having spent the past two decades working together with our team to build DreamWorks Animation into one of the world’s most beloved brands, I am proud to say that NBCUniversal is the perfect home for our company; a home that will embrace the legacy of our storytelling and grow our businesses to their fullest potential,” Katzenberg said in a statement. “This agreement not only delivers significant value for our shareholders, but also supports NBCUniversal’s growing family entertainment business.”In his new role, Katzenberg will work with NBCUniversal’s AwesomenessTV, NOVA and other new media units, the company stated.Two IT analysts told eWEEK that the deal is intriguing for the companies and for consumers.”This clearly showcases that Comcast is anticipating the end of cable and is beginning to pivot the company in more of a Netflix/Amazon/HBO streamed-content service direction,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst of Enderle Group, told eWEEK in an email reply to an inquiry. “While cable isn’t going away tomorrow, Comcast needs a fallback plan if the market continues to move away from cable models to content services.”For a company like Comcast, it can “still provide far more current content thanks to unique licenses than content-only companies can, but this too is likely to change so they need their own exclusive content to assure they remain favored,” wrote Enderle. “They will still need to deal with their massive customer satisfaction issues, but this move showcases that Comcast is working to make sure they don’t go quietly into the night.”
Source: eWeek

Microsoft Adds Nano Server Option to Windows Server 2016

A new prerelease build includes an option to install a lightweight version of the operating system software.

Microsoft released Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 on April 27, a test build that includes Nano Server as an installation option. First announced a year ago, Nano Server is a container- and cloud-friendly version of Windows Server that dispenses with the GUI, 32-bit support and other software components that compete for CPU cycles. This week, Microsoft has incorporated Nano Server as a deployment option on both the Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5.”It is a remotely managed option similar to Windows Server in Server Core mode, but significantly smaller, has no local logon capability, and only supports 64-bit applications, tools, and agents,” according to an online support document. “It takes up far less disk space, sets up significantly faster, and requires far fewer updates and restarts than Windows Server with the full desktop experience.” According to Microsoft’s estimates, Nano Server’s image is 25 times smaller than that of a full Windows Server image with desktop functionality.To help administrators keep a closer eye on their Nano Servers, along with Windows Server 2016’s new data center modernization features, Microsoft also announced the release of System Center 2016 Technical Preview 5 on April 27.

The latest version of the software giant’s collection of data center management tools includes “advanced software-defined datacenter support, including managing the lifecycle of Nano Server hosts and virtual machines, simplified deployment of the new Windows Server 2016 software-defined networking components, and support for Storage Spaces Direct and replicated storage volumes,” informed Mike Neil, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Enterprise Cloud group, in a blog post detailing the new capabilities.

For organizations eyeing an upgrade to Microsoft’s latest operating system, System Center 2016 Technical Preview 5 includes new rolling upgrade capabilities. They allow IT shops to upgrade clusters running Windows Server 2012 R2 to Windows Server 2016 without interrupting hosted workloads.Administrators can also use Technical Preview 5 to configure and test Shielded VMs using System Center’s Virtual Machine Manager. Shielded VMs are hardened Hyper-V virtual machines that are encrypted and provide protection against malware, network threats and even rogue administrators to tenant VMs in private clouds and hosted environments.System Center 2016 features improved monitoring over heterogeneous environments. In a nod to the “Linux love” espoused by Microsoft of late, Microsoft claims that the software offers better Linux and UNIX systems monitoring at scale—a 2X improvement, according to the software maker—as well as provides better visibility into an organization’s LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) software stacks.On the automation and orchestration front, the software offers “improved experiences for authoring, testing, debugging and executing runbooks,” said Bala Rajagopalan, principal group program manager of Microsoft System Center, in his rundown of the new features found in System Center 2016 Technical Preview 5. These include the ability to create runbooks with PowerShell scripts and Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) plug-in support for runbook authoring and testing.
Source: eWeek

OpenStack Board of Directors Boosts Diversity for Cloud Governance

VIDEO: Alan Clark, chairman of the board at the OpenStack Foundation, discusses the latest governance issues tackled by the open-source cloud group.

AUSTIN, Texas–Overseeing the overall governance of the OpenStack Foundation is the board of directors, which has undergone some changes in the last six months with new members.Alan Clark has been the chairman of the OpenStack Foundation since the foundation was created in 2012 and chaired a number of meetings run by the board at the OpenStack Summit here. Clark also serves on the Linux Foundation board of directors, providing him with a unique perspective on open-source governance models.In an exclusive video interview with eWEEK, Clark details what was discussed at the OpenStack Foundation board meetings and the direction the open-source cloud is headed.”The board has become more diverse in many ways, including gender and geography,” Clark told eWEEK. “That brings in unique perspectives.”

Clark added that he remains enthusiastic about the OpenStack board of directors for a number of reasons. For one, the board is very active–it doesn’t just show up for the meetings and then walk away.

“The board members are very much interested in the success of the community,” Clark said. “They are very community-focused and not very vendor protective, and that’s been positive.”Watch the full video interview with Alan Clark below:

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
Source: eWeek

Liquid-Cooled 2-in-1, Chromebook Headlines Acer's Refreshed Lineup

The Switch Alpha 12 Convertible Notebook

The Switch Alpha 12 is a liquid-cooled, fanless, 2-in-1 for businesses, consumers or schools. The Windows 10 machine features 6th-generation Intel Core i7, i5 or i3 processors, a 12-inch In-Plane Switching touch-screen display (2,160-by-1,440), Intel HD graphics and an aluminum chassis. The notebook, which will be available in May for $599, can be configured with 4GB or 8GB of LPDDR3 SDRAM memory and 128GB, 256GB or 512GB solid-state drives (SSDs) for data storage. Also available are an optional backlit keyboard, an optional Acer Active Pen for writing on its screen, and several optional docking stations for individual or multiple business users.

Source: eWeek

A Look Into IBM's OpenStack Meritocracy

VIDEO: Angel Diaz, IBM vice president of Cloud Architecture and Technology, discusses how Big Blue has earned its place in the OpenStack community.

AUSTIN, Texas–IBM is one of the biggest contributors to the open-source OpenStack platform, which helps to serve as a core component of IBM’s cloud efforts. Helping to lead IBM’s cloud efforts is Angel Diaz, vice president of Cloud Architecture and Technology, who has taken a very developer hands-on approach to make sure IBM leads by example.In a video interview with eWEEK, Diaz discusses the role that IBM plays in the OpenStack community and why it matters to IBM’s overall business. Diaz said that IBM has over 200 developers working upstream in OpenStack. He also noted that IBM helped to start the OpenStack Foundation back in 2012, shaping the organizational and governance structure to help the group succeed.”We helped to start the foundation, but when we did that we weren’t given a single committer,” Diaz told eWEEK. “We had to earn our right in the community through the meritocracy.”In open-source communities, a code committer is a valued and trusted position that is based on an individual’s ability to write and contribute code as well as the person’s commitment to a given project. Diaz noted that IBM now employs multiple project technical leaders (PTLs) of OpenStack projects, and those individuals and IBM itself have earned the respect of the community.

“It’s how we do business–we contribute,” Diaz said. “We’re not open-source leaches.”

Watch the full video interview with Angel Diaz below:

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
Source: eWeek

Movidius Announces Fathom Deep Learning Accelerator Compute Stick

Movidius, a leader in low-power machine vision technology, today announced both the Fathom Neural Compute Stick – the world’s first deep learning acceleration module, and Fathom deep learning software framework. Both tools hand-in-hand will allow powerful neural networks to be moved out of the cloud, and deployed natively in end-user devices.

The new Fathom Neural Compute Stick is the world’s first embedded neural network accelerator. With the company’s ultra-low power, high performance Myriad 2 processor inside, the Fathom Neural Compute Stick can run fully-trained neural networks at under 1 Watt of power. Thanks to standard USB connectivity, the Fathom Neural Compute Stick can be connected to a range of devices and enhance their neural compute capabilities by orders of magnitude.

Neural Networks are used in many revolutionary applications such as object recognition, natural speech understanding, and autonomous navigation for cars. Rather than engineers programming explicit rules for machines to follow, vast amounts of data are processed offline in self-teaching systems that generate their own rule-sets. Neural networks significantly outperform traditional approaches in tasks such as language comprehension, image recognition and pattern detection.