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Wide range of technology topics, including software, security, operating systems, mobile, storage, servers and data centers, and technology companies

Arm’s high-stakes licensing suit against Qualcomm ends in mistrial, but Qualcomm prevails in key areas

21 December 2024 @ 12:21 am

Arm has lost a battle over licensing of its microprocessor designs to Qualcomm, ending doubt over the immediate future of some of the chip maker’s products. The jury in the US District Court for the District of Delaware spent the week listening to arguments in the protracted and increasingly rancorous licensing dispute between Arm and Qualcomm over whether Qualcomm is properly licensed to use technology acquired when it bought startup Nuvia in 2021. The verdict, delivered Friday, is hugely significant, not only for the parties involved but for the maze of other companies that have built their product development around their technology, however, the battle is not over yet. A

WordPress.org statement threatens possible shutdown for all of 2025

20 December 2024 @ 7:04 pm

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg on Friday announced a shutdown of almost all services on WordPress.org, the open source project site that’s the home of the software, plugins, and the WordPress community, but was unclear on when the shutdown would end.  This move sharply increases the uncertainty surrounding WordPress, IDC said. “My sense is that many enterprise WordPress administrators will think twice about continuing to use the software under these circumstances,” said IDC Research Manager Michele Rosen. “It’s such a shame to watch a leader in the open source community repeatedly sabotage his own project.” “At this point, I have real concerns about th

Arm awaits verdict in high-stakes licensing suit against Qualcomm

20 December 2024 @ 6:18 pm

Arm is waiting to see if it has won a battle over licensing of its microprocessor designs to Qualcomm that has cast doubt over the immediate future of some of the chip maker’s products. The jury in the US District Court for the District of Delaware spent the week listening to arguments in the protracted and increasingly rancorous licensing dispute between Arm and Qualcomm and all that’s left is to hear their verdict. The verdict, expected on Friday, could be hugely significant, not only for the parties involved but for the maze of other companies that have built their product development around their technology. It’s an extraordinary clash between companies tha

Apple in the enterprise: highlights and expectations as 2024 winds down

20 December 2024 @ 5:23 pm

Apple has had a busy year in enterprise tech. Apple Intelligence, spatial computing, the war to protect the user experience against excessive regulation, security, privacy and continued improvements to Apple Silicon and valuable OS improvements for enterprise deployment have occupied much of its time. With this in mind, it’s a good time to speak with Apple device management and security leaders from Jamf, Kandji, Jumpcloud, and Fleet to find out what mattered most in 2024, and what they expect in 2025. Fleet: Crowdstrike was important — to Apple I spoke with

Google’s contractors told to evaluate Gemini responses outside their expertise

20 December 2024 @ 2:24 pm

Behind the responses from genAI models are testers who evaluate those answers for accuracy, but a report released this week casts doubt on the process. According to a story published on Wednesday, contractors working on Google Gemini are now being directed to evaluate AI prompts and responses in areas in which they have no background, rather than being allowed to skip them as before. This flies in the face of the “Building responsibly” section of the Gemini 2.0 announcement, which said, “As we develop these new technologies, we recognize the responsibi

How to perform a clean install in Windows 10 and 11

20 December 2024 @ 11:00 am

One key technique in the Windows repair playbook involves wiping out everything on the storage device (typically C:\) from which Windows boots and on which that OS resides. Prosaically enough, this device is often called the boot/system drive or disk. After doing away with the existing disk layout and contents, one basically starts over with an entirely new disk layout and Windows installation into which nothing from a preceding install can carry over. Windows professionals call this a “clean install” because it wipes the disk before setting up a new disk layout, and installing a fresh, new copy of the Windows operating system and various other important supporting elements.

12 eye-opening Google Android app tricks from 2024

20 December 2024 @ 10:45 am

We talk about tons of tips for making the most of Android and tapping into all the operating system’s easily overlooked options, features, and shortcuts. But when it comes to real-world productivity, Google’s actual operating system is really only half the story. With Android in particular, lots of core OS-level elements exist as their own standalone apps — technically separate pieces of the puzzle that live in the Play Store and are updated numerous times a year in a way that reaches all of us at the same time. It’s a sharp contrast to the all-in-one strategy on the other side

Kazakhstan’s Digital Policeman: Pioneering the future of law enforcement

20 December 2024 @ 4:14 am

In the era of digital transformation, public safety stands at a critical crossroads. Law enforcement agencies globally are under increasing scrutiny to enhance transparency, efficiency, and trust within their communities. Against this backdrop, Kazakhstan’s “Digital Policeman” initiative has emerged as a shining example of technological innovation in policing. The initiative leverages state-of-the-art technologies like smart badges and military-grade mobile devices, designed to empower officers while ensuring accountability. These smart badges go beyond conventional body cameras, offering features such as continuous, tamper-proof video recording, GPS tracking, encrypted data handl

Anthropic’s LLMs can’t reason, but think they can — even worse, they ignore guardrails

19 December 2024 @ 6:40 pm

Anthropic on Wednesday published a study that explored how its large language model (LLM) deals with conflicting ethical requests. The results show that LLMs can still surprise, something that should scare IT execs preparing to trust generative AI (genAI) results. Let’s start with what Anthropic did — and the fact that the company should be applauded for both trying the  experiment and publishing the re

If Meta prevails against Apple in Europe, AI surveillance will be a feature, not a bug

19 December 2024 @ 4:53 pm

Anyone using any digital device needs to wise up to a looming threat as Meta attempts to exploit the Europe Union’s continued assault against the Apple ecosystem to launch what seems to be an open season on your privacy.  What seems to be happening is a tyrannical combination of the following sequence of events: Concerning Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance, the European Commission has