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iPhone 8: Why clock may be ticking for Apple

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Courtesy: TOI

NEW DELHI: Looks like Apple is having a hard time in deciding if it wants to retain the fingerprint sensor on its forthcoming iPhone, tipped as the iPhone 8. A report coming from Barron’s cites an analyst who had a word with one of the supply chain companies for the handset. According to the analyst, Apple only has couple of weeks to decide if it wants to include a fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 8 or not.

“Apple continues to struggle with the workaround for the fingerprint sensor,” says the analyst. “This increases the potential that the new OLED iPhone could be delayed, or ship without a fingerprint sensor, either of which could increase risk to unit sales and mix for the cycle,” he adds.

It is being said that Apple has until August this year to place an order for the chips that run the fingerprint sensor. If Apple misses the deadline then it faces the risk of bringing the new iPhone without a fingerprint ID at all. Further, it could also delay the iPhone models.

All-in-one ‘Microsoft 365’ launched for businesses, enterprises

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Courtesy: HT

The company introduced two ‘Microsoft 365’ offerings — ‘Microsoft 365 Enterprise’ and ‘Microsoft 365 Business’.
Microsoft has launched an all-in-one software product called ‘Microsoft 365’ — a new set that brings together Office 365, Windows 10, enterprise mobility and security for businesses.

The company introduced two ‘Microsoft 365’ offerings — ‘Microsoft 365 Enterprise’ and ‘Microsoft 365 Business’.

Designed for large organisations, ‘Microsoft 365 Enterprise’ is the evolution of company’s Secure Productive Enterprise offering and includes Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security.

‘Microsoft 365 Business’ is designed for small- to medium-sized businesses with up to 300 users and integrates Office 365 Business Premium with tailored security and management features from Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility and Security.

Announcing this at its annual conference ‘Microsoft Inspire’ in Washington, DC, late on Monday, the company said that digital transformation has opened an estimated $4.5 trillion market opportunity.

“Digital transformation is a wave of business innovation fueled by cloud technologies like the Internet of Things, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and data,” Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Business at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

To fuel its partners’ success and help meet the goal of a $20 billion cloud run rate by 2018, the company also announced that Microsoft ‘Azure Stack’ is now available to order.

‘Azure Stack’ is an extension of Azure that brings the agility and fast-paced innovation of cloud computing to on-premises environments and enables entirely new hybrid cloud scenarios.

“Azure Stack offers a truly consistent hybrid cloud platform, providing an ideal fit for customers who want flexibility without having to build applications in a different way,” Althoff wrote.

IT Industry sees highest decline in hiring during April: Survey

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NEW DELHI: With top IT firms laying off professionals, the IT-software industry was hit the most with a 24% fall in hiring in April this year as compared to April 2016, according to a survey by job site Naukri.com.

“The overall job market saw an 11% fall in new jobs, with IT-software industry most hit. IT-Software industry was hit the most with a 24 per cent decline in hiring in April as compared to April 2016,” the Naukri Job Speak Index said.

April jobs index saw year-on-year fall in major metros — Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, it added.

Hiring activity saw a fall in telecom, BPO, insurance and construction sectors during April as compared to April 2016.

Key industries like construction and BPO/ITES saw a 10% and 12% fall, respectively, while banking saw a 11% increase in hiring during April 2017 as compared to April 2016, it said.

Commenting on the report, V. Suresh, Chief Sales Officer, Naukri.com said: “As predicted earlier, job market continues to be volatile and the Jobspeak index in April has shown a negative growth of 11% (Y-o-Y).”

“Though major negative impact seems to be in sectors like IT/BPO/telecom/insurance and construction, there seems to be an air of caution across all sectors and this volatility is likely to continue for a few more months before the markets could move north again.”

Six out of the eight metro cities tracked saw a decrease in hiring activity in April. The index for Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru saw a dip of 28%, 18%, 29 and 28%, respectively, while Kolkata and Ahmedabad saw an increase of 10% and 19%, respectively, as compared to April, 2016, the survey noted. The maximum number of new jobs (3% month-on-month) were created in the 0-3 years’ category. Senior management hiring fell,  with jobs for 13-16 years of experience witnessing a fall of 2% when compared with March, 2017. While hiring in junior management remained buoyant, mid-management hiring (8-12 years of experience) witnessed a decrease of 3% during April.

What is the ‘ransomware’ WannaCry worm? All you need to know

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NEW DELHI: Malicious software called ‘ransomware’ has forced British hospitals to turn away patients and affected Spanish companies such as Telefonica as part of a global outbreak that has affected tens of thousands of computers.

What is WannaCry – also known as WanaCrypt0r 2.0, WannaCry and WCry?

HOW DOES IT WORK?
WannaCry is a form of “ransomware” that locks up the files on your computer and encrypts them in a way that you cannot access them anymore.

HOW DOES IT SPREAD?
Ransomware is a program that gets into your computer, either by clicking on the wrong thing or downloading the wrong thing, and then it holds something you need to ransom.
In the case of WannaCry, the program encrypts your files and demands payment in bitcoin in order to regain access.

Security experts warn there is no guarantee that access will be granted after payment. Some ransomware that encrypts files ups the stakes after a few days, demanding more money and threatening to delete files altogether.

There are different variants of what happens: Other forms of ransomware execute programs that can lock your computer entirely, only showing a message to make payment in order to log in again. There are some that create pop-ups that are difficult or impossible to close, rendering the machine difficult or impossible to use.

WHERE HAS IT SPREAD?
British based cyber researcher Chris Doman of AlienVault said the ransomware “looks to be targeting a wide range of countries”, with initial evidence of infections in at least two dozen nations according to experts from three security firms.

The broad based ransomware attack has appeared in at least eight Asian nations, a dozen countries in Europe, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates and Argentina and appears to be sweeping around the globe, researchers said.

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT WANNACRY?
WannaCry is not just a ransomware program, it’s also a worm. This means that it gets into your computer and looks for other computers to try and spread itself as far and wide as possible.

Ransomware has a habit of mutating and so it changes over time in order to find different ways to access computers or to get around patches (operating system updates that often include security updates). Many security firms are already aware of WannaCry in past forms and most are looking at this one right now to see how it might be stopped.

Several cyber security firms said WannaCry exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft and that Microsoft patched this in March. People don’t always install updates and patches on their computers and so this means vulnerabilities can remain open a lot longer and make things easier for hackers to get in.

It exploited a vulnerability in the Windows operating system believed to have been developed by the National Security Agency, which became public last month. It was among a large number of hacking tools and other files that a group known as the Shadow Brokers released on the Internet. Shadow Brokers said that they obtained it from a secret NSA server.

The identity of Shadow Brokers is unknown though many security experts believe the group that surfaced in 2016 is linked to the Russian government.

The NSA and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Apple in talks to expand India production capacity: Ravi Shankar Prasad

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NEW DELHI: Apple Inc wants to expand its contract manufacturer’s facility in the southern Indian tech hub of Bengaluru, a federal minister said on Tuesday, as the iPhone maker seeks a bigger share in one of the world’s biggest smartphone markets.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, the federal minister for Electronics and IT said, government officials were in touch with Apple and other mobile phone manufacturers for expanding facilities and setting up new plants.

Cupertino, California-based Apple last week started making iPhone SE at its Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron’s plant in Bengaluru.

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