Machine Learning, AI Key to Google's Future, CEO Sundar Pichai Says

In a blog post Sundar Pichai shares his vision of Google’s future that will focus on machine learning, artificial intelligence, mobile computing and the cloud.

Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence capabilities of the sort displayed by Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo system when it recently beat one of the world’s top professionals at the ancient Chinese game of Go, will play a key role in Google’s future.That’s the view of CEO Sundar Pichai, who on April 28 shared the company’s high-level vision of the future with stockholders and the general public in a post on Google’s official blog.Usually it is Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who provide the annual update. But this time, the task was left to Pichai, “since the majority of our big bets are in Google,” Page, who is now CEO of Google parent Alphabet, said in a brief note prefacing the blog. “I wanted to give him most of the bully-pulpit here to reflect on Google’s accomplishments and share his vision,” Page wrote.There was little in Pichai’s blog by way of specifics about the company’s direction. But it involves machine learning, AI, mobile computing and the cloud.

Much of Google’s efforts to make its search and related services more powerful and user-friendly in the years ahead are being driven by the company’s investments in AI and machine learning, Pichai said.

These technologies already have been implemented in applications such as voice search, Google Translate and spam filtering. “We’ve been building the best AI team and tools for years, and recent breakthroughs will allow us to do even more,” Pichai said pointing to AlphaGo as an example of the kind of virtual smarts the company is able to deliver.Google will parley its advances in these areas into making its search technology even more sophisticated and responsive than it already is, Pichai said. The goal is to evolve search into more of a smart assistance capability where users will be able to get help from Google based on context, situation and needs.“The average parent has different needs than the average college student. Similarly, a user wants different help when in the car versus the living room. Smart assistance should understand all of these things and be helpful at the right time, in the right way,” Pichai explained.Eventually machine learning and AI will help shape the way people accomplish daily tasks, how they travel and tackle bigger challenges like cancer diagnosis and climate change, Pichai said. He did not say how Google plans on using AI in these areas, but some current examples, such as Google’s work on autonomous vehicles, offer some pointers.Another major area of investment for Google is the mobile web, Pichai said. Mobile devices already are a major source of traffic for a majority of Google’s websites and the company has been working on making the use of mobile application a faster and smoother experience for users.Over the past year, Google has been working with developers, publishers and other stakeholders in the mobile ecosystem on projects such as Accelerated Mobile Pages and Progressive Web Apps, Google’s CEO said. Such efforts are geared towards enabling better mobile experience for everyone.The company has also been working on improving its Chrome browser for mobile devices, which in the four years since its launch is already used by 1 billion active mobile users, Pichai claimed.“Over time, the computer itself—whatever its form factor—will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day. We will move from mobile first to an AI first world.”
Source: eWeek

LG Mobile Phone Revenue Drops 15.5% in Q1 2016 From Year Ago

Overall LG profits rose 65.5 percent, but its smartphone division faltered just before its latest LG G5 handset arrived on the market.

LG’s overall first-quarter profit for 2016 rose 65.5 percent compared to a year ago, but that intriguing rise was at least jarred by a 15.5 percent drop in the company’s smartphone revenue and a 12 percent drop in smartphone shipments in the quarter.LG reported an operating profit of $420.25 million (505.2 billion KRW) for Q1 2016, which is a 65.5 percent jump from the $277.45 million (305.2 billion KRW) brought in during the first quarter of 2015.Overall LG revenue for Q1 2016 was down, however, to $11.12 billion (13.36 trillion Korean Won) from the $12.72 billion (13.99 trillion KRW) brought in one year ago, according to the company’s financial figures, which were reported April 28.Sales for LG’s mobile phone division were disappointing, with revenue of $2.46 billion, (2.96 trillion KRW), which is down 15.5 percent from Q1 2015, according to LG. Smartphone shipments were also down, to 13.5 million units, which is 12 percent lower compared to a year ago and to the fourth quarter of 2015.

LG attributed the drops in mobile phone revenue and sales to “a result of the business entering the slow season as well as declining shipments of existing flagship models due to high interest in the recently announced LG G5.” The company said it expects that “competition in the smartphone market will continue to increase, leading to further price erosion which LG plans to counter with a strong global push for the modular LG G5 smartphone and new mass-tier models such as its X series.”

LG’s mobile division posted an operating loss of $168.2 million (202.2 billion KRW), “primarily due to increased marketing expenditures for the new LG G5 flagship smartphone,” the company reported.While the mobile division suffered, LG said it was bolstered by other divisions that performed well, including its home appliance and air solution products.”LG’s overall global sales and profitability are expected to improve in the second quarter, with double-digit growth in revenues and higher profitability anticipated as LG continues its premium-focused strategy with LG Signature products, the LG G5 smartphone and 4K Ultra HD OLED TVs,” the company said in a statement.Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis, told eWEEK that LG’s Q1 “mobile losses reflect investments in marketing the G5 smartphone ahead of launch,” but that the company was able to withstand those losses because of good performances in other divisions. “Fortunately, LG’s appliances and televisions are selling well, which gives the mobile group some cushion to invest up front in the hopes of seeing returns when G5 sales show up in the next quarter.” That’s not a guarantee of increased sales, however, he added. “There may not be much: not only is Samsung doing well in the premium smartphone space, making it harder for LG to succeed, but LG’s G5 is predicated on consumers buying into its modular design concept, and there are limited G5 add-ons available at launch.” Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told eWEEK that other than the mobile division, “LG’s financial performance in the past quarter gave investors something to smile about today, but the company admitted that it faces tough issues in the longer term.” With major mobile players, including Apple seeing sales erode, “the road ahead for LG looks rocky, at best,” said King. Jan Dawson, chief analyst for Jackdaw Research, agreed. “Back in 2013 and 2014, it looked like LG might have finally cracked its smartphone business–it was growing and even flirted with profitability for a while, but things have been going downhill since late 2014 and there’s no sign of improvement there,” he said. “It’s basically suffering from the same issues as most Android smartphone vendors–a lack of differentiation at the high end, and being undercut by budget Android smartphones at the low end, leaving it without much of a market. In a saturating global smartphone market, that’s a really tough spot to be in.”LG’s smartphone sales situation is in contrast to Samsung’s Q1 results, which were also announced on April 28. Samsung threw the dice in March and released its latest flagship Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones a month earlier than usual, which led to revenue and profit figures that are 6 percent and 12 percent higher than the same quarter one year ago. The news was finally good for the beleaguered smartphone, consumer appliance, display and semiconductor company, especially after a run of tough financial quarters over the past year as it fought tough competition from Apple’s iPhones and others.In the company’s first quarter of 2016, Samsung posted revenue of $43.8 billion (49.78 trillion Korean Won) and net income or profit of $5.58 billion (6.68 trillion KRW), which are up 5.7 percent from 47.12 trillion KRW in revenue and up 12 percent from 5.98 trillion KRW in profit from the same quarter one year ago. The 49.78 trillion KRM in revenue exceeded the 49 trillion KRW the company announced in early April when it released preliminary estimates based on early figures.Samsung’s mobile division, which includes smartphones, brought in 27.60 trillion KRW in Q1 2016, which is up from the 25.89 trillion KRW brought in one year ago. Profit for the mobile division was 3.89 trillion KRW, up from 2.74 trillion KRW one year ago. The company said it also saw good performance in its mobile division due to “strong sales and improved cost efficiency through the streamlining of mid-to-low-end smartphone lineups.”Samsung’s mobile phone results contrasted sharply with those of Apple, which earlier this week announced its Q2 2016 earnings that saw a quarterly decline in revenue for the first time since 2003. Apple reported revenue of $50.6 billion, 13 percent lower than the $58 billion the company posted one 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 ending Apple’s enviable 13-year record of uninterrupted sales growth. Apple’s latest iPhone 6 models went on sale last September.
Source: eWeek

Samsung Smartphone Sales Help Hike Q1 2016 Profit, Revenue

The March release of Samsung’s latest Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge flagship phones apparently helped raise the company’s Q1 revenue and profit.

Samsung threw the dice in March and released its latest flagship Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones a month earlier than usual, which has apparently led to revenue and profit figures that are 6 percent and 12 percent higher than the same quarter one year ago.The news was finally good for the beleaguered smartphone, consumer appliance, display and semiconductor company, especially after a run of tough financial quarters over the past year as it fought stiff competition from Apple’s iPhones and others.In the company’s first quarter of 2016, Samsung posted revenue of $43.8 billion (49.78 trillion Korean Won) and net income or profit of $5.58 billion (6.68 trillion KRW), which are up 5.7 percent from 47.12 trillion KRW in revenue and up 12 percent from 5.98 trillion KRW in profit from the same quarter one year ago. The figures were announced by Samsung on April 28.The 49.78 trillion KRM in revenue exceeded the 49 trillion KRW the company announced in early April when it released preliminary estimates based on early figures.

The company’s earnings rise was “led by the early launch and successful sales of the flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge (pictured), improved memory product mix, expanded 14nm supply of System LSI products and increased sales of OLED panels,” Samsung said in a statement.

The company’s mobile division, which includes smartphones, brought in 27.60 trillion KRW in Q1 2016, which is up from the 25.89 trillion KRW brought in one year ago. Profit for the mobile division was 3.89 trillion KRW, up from 2.74 trillion KRW one year ago. The company said it also saw good performance in its mobile division due to “strong sales and improved cost efficiency through the streamlining of mid-to-low-end smartphone lineups.”Samsung has been continuing in the last year to battle its way back from several tough financial quarters caused largely by cheaper phones from global competitors and shrinking sales as consumers waited to buy Apple’s latest iPhone 6 models when they went on sale last September.Several IT analysts told eWEEK that Samsung’s Q1 numbers brought relatively good news for the company.Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, said that the company’s year-over-year profit increase “handily beat analyst’s estimates” and was driven largely by sales of the new Galaxy S7 handsets. “That was notable since the new handsets didn’t become available until March, which is the last month of the quarter.”At the same time, Samsung “also seems less encumbered by weakening smartphone sales plaguing key competitors, like Apple,” said King. “Overall, Samsung enjoyed a strong first quarter but market conditions could mar the company’s performance later this year.”Another analyst, Rob Enderle of Enderle Group, said one reason for Samsung’s success in the quarter is that the company “tends to do demand-generation marketing much more aggressively on phones” than competitors such as LG “and it certainly paid dividends.”That sales marketing success by Samsung with its S7 and S7 Edge phones likely even caused lower sales for Apple’s competing iPhone 6 models, which earlier this week contributed to that company’s first quarterly revenue decline since 2003, said Enderle. “Samsung regularly out-markets their peers and generally outperforms them when they do this.  When they pull back on marketing they then tend to fall off particularly against Apple who has been historically far more consistent” in the past.Jan Dawson, chief analyst with Jackdaw Research, told eWEEK that Samsung’s Q1 figures show that it “continues to recover somewhat from its toughest days.” The company is “still not growing enormously in smartphones, but the Galaxy S7 really seems to have helped stabilize things and improve its margins. This was the first quarter in almost two years in which mobile rather than semiconductors were the biggest contributor to margins, and that’s something of a milestone in the recovery of the mobile business.”Samsung’s latest Galaxy S7 Edge and S7 handsets, which debuted March 11, are water-resistant and are powered by Qualcomm quad-core 2.15GHz/1.6GHz processors for U.S. users and include 4GB of LPDDR4 memory, 32GB of built-in storage, microSD expansion slots, a 12-megapixel dual-pixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The Galaxy S7 Edge features a 5.5-inch quad-HD Super AMOLED display and a screen that wraps around both right and left edges of the device, while the Galaxy S7 has a 5.1-inch quad-HD Super AMOLED display.
Source: eWeek

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