The future is now: The 10 biggest tech innovations of 2014

A hoverboard. A virtual reality headset. A PC with a drawing board and 3D imaging capabilities. Believe it or not, all these things are real today. See them for yourself right here.

It's amazing and it's real
Perhaps the most noticeable story in consumer hardware in 2014 was what didn’t ship. Intel’s 14nm Broadwell chips suffered massive delays. AMD never introduced a new line of graphics cards. Valve’s hotly anticipated Steam Machines failed to launch whatsoever. Blech.

But don’t let the no-shows fool you. Some staggering technological innovation hit the streets in 2014—tremendously powerful gear that seemed like futuristic fantasy but is sitting on store shelves today.

Speaking of the future, let’s kick this off by getting back to it.

Hendo Hover
Eat your heart out, Marty McFly. You’re looking at a real-life hoverboard. No, this isn’t the next chapter in that hoverboard prank from Funny or Die—this thing is legit and already fully functional in prototype.

From the Kickstarter description: “The magic behind the hoverboard lies in its four disc-shaped hover engines. These create a special magnetic field which literally pushes against itself, generating the lift which levitates our board off the ground.”

Whoa. The Hendo Hover isn’t expected to ship until 2015, but for now we have an oh-so-sweet video of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk riding a real-life hoverboard.

Samsung Gear VR
Lawnmower Man is finally real. After several fits and false starts in previous eras, affordable, truly compelling virtual reality has at long last materialized. Only it wasn’t Oculus Rift that pulled us into the future—it was Samsung.

Samsung’s $200 Gear VR headset uses the company’s Galaxy Note 4 phablet as its brains and display to create believable, wire-free virtual reality. The software inside is actually powered by Oculus, and the headset itself outshines the Rift in some ways. Sure, the need for a Note inherently limits Gear VR’s potential audience, but you can buy it today—while the launch of the consumer version of Oculus Rift is still months off.

SSDs get faster, stronger
Solid-state drives rock, period. Even the crappiest, oldest SSD can make your PC feel like greased lightning. Two innovations in 2014 cranked SSDs to yet-higher speeds.

Samsung’s 3D V-NAND technology—which stacks flash cells rather than laying them side-by-side—was used to create the effixient and expeditious 850 Pro series SSDs. Then Samsung applied V-NAND techniques to three-bit-per-cell “TLC” flash to create the 850 EVO, which brought insane SSD longevity to the masses.

If the 850 Pro’s SATA-saturating speeds aren’t enough, crazy-fast M.2 PCIe SSDs started hitting the shelves in 2014, delivering respective read-write speeds north of 700MB/s and 500MB/s, depending on the model. Daaaaaaaang.

The future of Wi-Fi
Speaking of blistering fast speeds, the next generation of Wi-Fi—802.11ac—became the current generation of Wi-Fi early in 2014, when the standard was officially ratified. Using a mixture of beamforming, packing more data into each spatial stream, and other improvements, 802.11ac delivers significantly more than double the transfer speed of previous-gen 802.11n routers in PCWorld’s real-world testing—and that’s using a 2x2 802.11ac adapter. You can nearly triple that speed using an 802.11ac bridge.

In fact, 802.11ac is so fast that groups are scrambling to create new Ethernet standards just so wired networks can keep up. Check out PCWorld’s networking section for a slew of 802.11ac router reviews.

Intel’s power play
Okay, so Intel didn’t ship Broadwell on time. Hardcore PC types probably didn’t even notice, since Chipzilla tossed enthusiasts two mighty enticing bones in the form of Haswell-E and its new Devil’s Canyon chips.

Haswell-E is Intel’s most powerful consumer CPU ever; the flagship 3.0GHz Core i7-5960X rocks eight cores (16 processor threads), 20MB of cache, and 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes. It’s Intel’s first-ever octa-core consumer chip, and it’ll set you back a cool grand. Then there’s Devil’s Canyon. The quad-core Core i7-4790K comes clocked at 4.0GHz, with a 4.4GHz turbo clock—the first Intel chip to ever crack the 4GHz barrier.

Sure, AMD chips have cracked 5GHz and had eight cores for a while now—but they’re just not as beefy as Intel’s top-end processors.

DDR4
Haswell-E dragged another cutting-edge tech into stores shelves along with it: DDR4, the next generation of RAM. Faster and far stingier with energy than DDR3, DDR4’s arrival has been long-awaited—though currently available DDR4 kits cost an arm and a leg and don’t really provide a jaw-dropping performance boost over their older brethren.

PCWorld’s DDR4 primer can explain what all the hub-bub is about. (Hint: It’s all about power.)

USB Type-C
OK, OK, one more connection technology and I’m done, I promise!

I’m drooling just thinking about USB Type C, and I’m not normally a “drool over networking” kind of guy. Why? Because Type-C is reversible—no more fumbling around to plug your USB cable in the right way! Because Type-C USB will deliver USB 3.1's blazing 10Gbps speeds and up to a whopping 100 watts of power. Whoa. But that’s not all! Type-C will also be able to deliver DisplayPort audio/video signals. That’s some kind of wonderful.

USB Type-C was finalized and entered production this summer. We maaaay see compatible products squeeze onto shelves before the end of the year, but 2015 appears more likely.

5K displays
Did you finally splurge for 4K display this year, now that prices are coming down to semi-reasonable levels? Congratulations! Your fancy new display is already obsolete.

Apple released a Retina iMac with a “5K” display in October, while Dell released a standalone 5K monitor of its own in December. The 5120x2880-resolution screens pack the equivalent of 14.7 megapixels, which is almost twice as many as a 4K display and seven times the resolution of a typical 1080p monitor.

Each will set you back $2,500, but at least Apple tosses a fully functional computer in for that price.

Minority Report lite
Hardware makers also tinkered with fancy concepts that blurred traditional PCs, touchscreens, voice commands, and even 3D scanners into singular workstations that blend the physical with the digital.

Both HP’s Sprout and Dell’s Smart Desk rock regular monitors in their usual positions, but each also puts a touchscreen “mat” on the desk, where a keyboard would normally go. There, you can manipulate objects with your hands. HP’s Sprout goes a step further with its “Illuminator” atop the traditional monitor, which gazes down at your tactile work area and can make 3D scans of objects you place on the mat.

Will these hybrid devices ever take off? Who knows. But Dell and HP deserve props for taking PCs in an imaginative direction.

Smartwatches
Yeah, yeah, smartwatches technically existed before this year, but they truly seemed to come alive in 2014.

Android Wear, with its colorful displays and Google Now-powered smarts, sparked an unprecedented flood of smartwatches and only got better as the year went on. The long-rumored Apple Watch emerged from the shadows, complete with incredibly intriguing “Taptic” technology. Even stalwarts like Pebble upped their game after Apple and Android appeared in force.

The wearable revolution is on in full force now—but is this uprising coming from the people, or from electronics companies hungering for a new hit category now that smartphone and tablet sales are starting to taper? We’ll likely know more after the Apple Watch’s launch in early 2015.

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20-plus eye-popping Black Friday 2014 tech deals

iPhone 6, iPad Air, Samsung Galaxy gear and big cheap TVs among the hottest electronic deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2014.

Black Friday is upon us
Word is that more retailers will relent to public pressure – I mean do the right thing for their employees – and close on Thanksgiving Day this year. But that won’t prevent them from going all out online, where much is automated and the workers are less prominent. Here are some of the best deals on network and technology offerings for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and in between. (Compare with last year’s deals)

Dell: Inspiron 15-inch laptop
Powered by an Intel Celeron processor and running Windows 8.1, this system boasts 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Dell’s special pricing for those getting through online beginning at 12 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 28, is $190, a $110 discount off what Dells calls the “market price” (though Dell appears to regularly sell the laptop for $250.

Target: Apple TV
Like other retailers, Target has a number of deals on Apple products. Among them: $11 off an Apple TV device, which you can get for $89 on Black Friday.

Target: iPhones, iPads and gift cards
Apple gives retailers little leeway in terms of discounting its products, so Target and others often resort to selling the Apple products for the regular price, but bundling the with gift cards. Target is offering a $100 Target gift card with an iPad Air 16GB WiFi tablet ($400), iPad mini 3 16GB WiFi tablet ($400) or iPad mini 2 16GB WiFi Tablet ($300).

Best Buy: Samsung Gear Fit Fitness watch with heart rate monitor
Best Buy is slashing the price on this gadget, which comes in black, from $150 to $100. Count your steps taken and calories burned in style, with this device, which syncs up with various Android phones. Best Buy’s online sales will run Thursday/Friday, with stores opening at 5 pm on Thanksgiving Day where allowed, and again at 8 am on Friday.

Best Buy: Surface Pro 3
The retailer is cutting $50 to $150 off the price of Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablets with 128GB of storage or more (they start at $1,000 before the discount). Note that this does not include the keyboard for the flexible 12-inch touchscreen device.

Best Buy: Panasonic 50-inch LED TV doorbuster
This 33-pound Panasonic TV, which serves up a 1080p and 60Hz HDTV picture, usually costs $550. The pre-Black Friday price is down to $500, but will go for just $200 in this in-store-only deal on Thanksgiving/Black Friday.

Microsoft: Tablets and games
The Microsoft Store lists a slew of deals, some for which you need to wait until Thanksgiving or Black Friday, and others that you can snag ahead of time. Among the early bird specials is a Lumia 635 phone for 1 cent with a new service contract. The phone has a 4.5-inch screen, runs Windows 8.1 and has 8GB of storage. Microsoft also has lots of Xbox and game deals available in its store this holiday shopping season.

Staples: Asus x205-TA Laptop computer
This bare-bones Windows 8.1 machine, with a 32GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM, normally goes for $250. It’s already been marked down to $200, and for Black Friday, Staples is cutting that price in half. The laptop, featuring 802.11abgn WiFi, is powered by an Intel Atom processor and has an 11.6-inch screen.

Staples: JLab Pro-7 Tablet
OK, can’t say we know this brand either, but for $40, it could be worth a shot if you just want to play around with a small Android tablet. The device usually sells for $70. It only packs 8GB or storage, but has a MicroSD slot for adding up to 32GB more.

RadioShack: RC Surveyor Drone
Satisfy your drone curiosity and freak out your neighbors with this 2.4GHz quadcopter that’s been marked down from $70 to $35 for Black Friday. This lightweight flyer comes with a built-in 1080x720 camera, can be controlled up to 65 feet away and can even do stunts. RadioShack will be opening on Thanksgiving morning, again late in the afternoon, and then at 6 am on Black Friday.

Costco: HP Envy 15.6-inch TouchSmart Laptop
This computer is powered by an Intel 4th generation Core i7 processor, runs Windows 8, features Beats audio and a 1TB hard drive. Costco, which is tossing in a second-year warranty, is slashing its $800 warehouse price by $150 for Black Friday shoppers who come into the store.

Office Depot/Officemax: Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
The price on this 10.1-inch Android tablet has been axed to $250, which is $100 off the usual price. Yes, this isn’t Samsung’s latest model, but it only came out in April. The device features a 1.2GHz quad core processor, and 16GB of storage, expandable to 64GB.

Meijer: Samsung Galaxy Tablet Lite
This 7-inch, 8GB tablet will run you $99 on Black Friday, which is $40 off the regular price. Plus, you’ll get a $20 coupon for your next shopping trip. The touchscreen tablet boasts a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor.

Sears: 55-inch Samsung LED TV
This 1080p Smart HD-TV, usually priced at $1,400, is available for $800 starting on Thanksgiving night (though note that Sears already lists TV for $1,000, not $1,400). It comes integrated with services such as Netflix and Pandora.

Belk: iLive Bluetooth Soundbar
This 32-inch black bar will enable you to wireless boom your tunes for $70 -- $30 off the usual price. Works with iOS gadgets and most Android and BlackBerry devices. Can also sync up with your TV, game systems and more. This is an online deal.

Shopko: Kindle Fire HD tablet
This lightweight 7-inch WiFi tablet (with 8GB of storage, 1GB of which is internal memory) will have its price shaved by $20, so you pay $80. The retailer’s Black Friday deals start at 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day, though look for additional doorbusters as early as Wednesday.

Various retailers: Record Store Day specials
Got an MP3 hater in your life who prefers to spin big ol’ discs? Record Store Day, an annual April event designed to accommodate record lovers, expands for a Black Friday event that will feature limited-edition offerings from a variety of singers and bands, including The Afghan Whigs, The Beatles and Chvrches.

Walmart: iPhone 6
The monster retailer, which has said it will match Amazon prices in all its stores to kick off the holiday shopping season, has a pretty fine deal on the iPhone 6, which will cost $179 for a 16GB model with a two-year contract (typically $199). What’s more, you’ll get a $75 Walmart gift card, plus another $200 gift card for a smartphone trade-in. (Some industry watchers have warned about whether the 16GB size will only lead to frustration for iPhone 6 users...)

Walmart: 65-inch Vizio LED TV
This behemoth set will go for $648 this Black Friday, a savings of $350. Walmart says a 60-incher last holiday season went at $688, so you can see where pricing for big TVs is going…

Walmart: Xbox One Assassin’s Creed Unity Bundle
This package, including the Microsoft game console, the new edition of Assassin’s Creed and Version IV: Black Flag, will be available for $329 starting on Thanksgiving Day at Walmart. That’s down from the usual price of $400, though actually that price has already been marked down to $349.

Toys R Us: 5th generation iPod touch
You don’t hear about these much anymore, but it makes sense that Toys R Us would sell this Apple mainstay. The 16GB model is selling on Black Friday for $150 -- $50 off the usual price. It comes in many pretty colors, too!

Kohl’s: Innovative Technology portable power bank
Kohl’s isn’t the first retailer we think of for tech products, but we did come across this possible stocking stuff: a Justin 2200mAh Power Stick Portable Power Bank for $10, which is $15 off the regular price. USB-pluggable, works with most smartphones to keep you from running out of juice when not able to plug in.

Hhgregg: LG 50-inch smart LED TV
The electronics retailer has a ton of TVs on sale, with many prices slashed by $100 or more. One example: The LG 1080p 120Hz LED WebOS Smart HDTV, which will go for $658, down from $800. You get a free 6-month Spotify subscription to boot.

eBay: LG 60-inch Plasma Smart TV
The online auction site is offering this big HDTV, with two pairs of 3D glasses, for $750 starting at midnight EST on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 26.

Newegg: CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme H710 Desktop PC
This machine, boasts an Intel Core i7 4790K (4.0GHz) processor, 8GB DDR3 and 2TB of storage, and runs Windows 8.1 64-bit. The price has been slashed from $1,100 to $800.

Newegg: Asus 13.3-inch Chromebook
The online retailer is knocking $50 off a $250 Asus 13.3-inch Chromebook with Intel Celeron N2830 (2.16GHz) processor, 2GB of DDR3 memory and 16GB SSD.

Amazon: HP Chromebook
Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday lines are blurred big time, with the online retailer rolling out deals early and often. Among them: This 11.6-inch Chromebook with 2GB of SDRAM and a 16GB solid state drive for $150 — $130 off the regular price.

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A guide to the top mobile payments options

 The launch of Apple Pay last month jump-started the mobile payments business, with several companies pushing hard to become your preferred payment method in stores. Even more competitors are on the horizon, promising to bring a lot more security and convenience compared to today's plastic payment cards.

The magnetic-stripe cards currently used in the U.S. are simply not very secure. Your name, card number and expiration date are all encoded on the stripe without protection, and hackers have been targeting payment terminals to steal that data, jeopardizing the security of tens of millions of card holders.

Banks are racing to introduce more secure, chip-based cards by October 2015, but phone-based systems like Apple Pay and Google Wallet are here now and offer a good deal of convenience and security. But not all mobile payment systems are equal. Here's a look at the major systems out there and how they work:

Apple Pay
Included with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and upcoming Apple Watch, Apple Pay allows users to load their credit card details and then make payments using a short-range wireless system called NFC. With it, users simply bring their phones close to a terminal for a payment to be made. It's more secure too, because the card number isn't sent. Instead, a substitute called a token is sent so the retailer never sees your card number. The token, if stolen, is useless for subsequent purchases and the only time it gets matched to your card number is by your bank.

Apple has created a system that's incredibly easy to use: the cardholder authenticates the transaction by putting their thumb on the phone's fingerprint sensor, which happens in seconds. It only works with banks and card companies that have partnered with Apple, but that list is growing. Apple is keen to point out that it never sees details of your purchases. Only U.S.-issued cards are supported at launch, but it will expand to other countries in 2015.

Google Wallet
Also based on wireless NFC technology, Google Wallet appears similar to Apple Pay, but it's a little different behind the scenes. When paying with Google Wallet, Google assigns your phone a MasterCard number. It exists only in your phone -- you don't receive an actual card, and you don't have to go through a credit check. When you pay, the retailer gets that MasterCard number and Google immediately charges your chosen credit or debit card for the same amount. The two-step process, which is invisible to the user, means any U.S. debit or credit card can work with Google Wallet. It also means the retailer never sees your actual card number, which makes it more secure, but also means that Google can see every purchase you make.

Softcard
Backed by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, Softcard is another NFC-based payment system. The service requires a dedicated Softcard app, customized by each carrier, and a special SIM card that has a secure payment chip. The SIM card is available free. It works with phones running Android 4.4 (KitKat) or above and Windows Phone 8.1 and supports cards from American Express, Chase and Wells Fargo. For other banks, Softcard will set up a virtual American Express card that can be used in much the same way Google Wallet uses a virtual Mastercard. With that, any debit or credit card is supported.

PayPal
The eBay-owned payments company is pushing beyond the virtual world into brick-and-mortar retail. One version, in use at Home Depot, allows PayPal account holders to purchase goods by tapping in their phone number and a PIN code at payment terminals. A newer version involves the customer "checking in" on a PayPal app when they enter a store that accepts the payment system. That action alerts the store to your presence and paying is as simple as telling the cashier you want to use PayPal. The check-in action transmitted your presence and account details to the store, so the cashier just needs match the charge to your account. The app is available on Android, Apple and Windows Phone.

CurrentC
CurrentC (get it? "currency") has been developed by some of the biggest names in retail in the U.S. including Sears, Target and Wal-Mart. It will be launched in early 2015 and, while many details are still unclear, appears designed to solve two problems for its backers. The first is the roughly 2 percent fee that credit card companies charge on each transaction. CurrentC will work with a customer's bank account, avoiding the fees although also losing the fraud protection offered on cards. Secondly, customers will be able to share personal information, like their name, birthday and contact details, with a store, presumably for incentives although quite how that will work is yet to be detailed.

A big difference lies in the technology used by CurrentC. Unlike Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Softcard, it doesn't use NFC but instead displays a barcode on a phone screen that is scanned by the cashier.

The system was under the radar until October when two CurrentC members, CVS and RiteAid, stopped accepting NFC payments right after the launch of Apple Pay. That brought a wave of negative publicity and eventually forced the company to divulge a little more about its plans. The CEO said additional forms of payment, including cards, might be supported and CurrentC could switch from a barcode to NFC or Bluetooth. But for now, we're just waiting to see what the retailers will come up with when it launches.

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Hey Samsung: Not everybody has to be a platform

It's easy to see why everybody wants to be a platform these days. Just look at Apple: By owning both the hardware and the operating system, it gets total control over what developers build on its platform -- and a sizable cut of the revenues besides. In return, developers get an unmatched distribution channel directly to customers' devices. As Apple extends to new devices, those developers get to come along.

So it's no wonder that Samsung, eternally defining itself by its struggles with Apple, wants to be a platform, too, especially in the face of shrinking profits. On paper, it seems so simple: Samsung has the hardware business. It's making some wearables, investing in a connected home business with the SmartThings acquisition, and getting into virtual reality.

Open some APIs, give out some SDKs, talk about "open" and host a big-time developer conference in San Francisco (as in, the Samsung Developer Conference I write this from) to make sure everybody knows how committed you are.

But what Samsung is lacking, what major platform providers have in spades, is something harder to pin down, and much harder to imitate. Apple, Salesforce, even Microsoft lately, have demonstrated that most vague, but most important notion. They have vision -- a clear and present mission that drives them forward, even when that path isn't immediately obvious.

But Samsung? Samsung has really good phones and some solid tablets and a partnership with Oculus and SmartThings and now Project Beyond, a super nifty 360-degree streaming 3D high definition camera. But in the entire two-hour keynote session this morning, attendees were treated to a rapid-fire string of previously announced non-news like the Simband open health wearable platform (now open for developer sign-ups), a demo of what's possible with SmartThings and a reaffirmation that the company will keep investing in Samsung Knox, its enterprise workspace feature.

Other than the virtual reality stuff, and the Project Beyond camera, which are actually, really, very cool, it's mostly a lot of the same old. The only "new" thing coming to Samsung devices is Samsung Flow, a me-too take on Apple's cross-device Continuity features. Other than that, the company was just trying to show developers that products exist and can be built upon without offering a tremendously compelling case for why. It's not really leadership material.

When Apple is selling watches, Google is selling Nest thermostats, and Microsoft is revamping Windows for the multi-device future, Samsung's follow-along mentality of "just add developers" just doesn't seem like enough, no matter how many sensors it adds to Simband.

(The company's technical keynote takes place Thursday; maybe there'll be something more impressive that will change my mind. But I doubt it.)

The point here is that Samsung is a hardware company, in so many ways. It's succeeded in the first place by making devices that people actually want to use. And part of how it got there was by being part of somebody else's ecosystem. And yeah, it must chafe those at Samsung corporate command to have Google to thank for the success of the Galaxy S line of phones. But maybe, just maybe, throwing your support behind an operating system that nobody asked for, wants, needs or supports (Tizen) wasn't the right answer, no matter how technologically proficient it is.

And in the same way people ask whether Microsoft's hardware business is good for Microsoft's vision as a service provider, they have to also ask whether this whole insistence on being a software provider is good for Samsung's business. Nobody seems excessively jazzed about developing for the Samsung-backed Tizen ecosystem in a world where Android and iOS are already pretty well standardized.

"Ecosystem" is just a fancy word for building the stuff that users, not corporations, want. Rather than controlling everything, maybe a renewed focus on being the best part of the Android ecosystem -- and on making what customers actually want -- would do Samsung good.

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'The cloud is the new normal,' Amazon Web Services executive says

Andy Jassy touts larger customer cloud deployments at the AWS user conference

The cloud is no longer relegated to handling ancillary jobs, but is quickly become the base for mission critical -- or even all -- enterprise IT operations, the head of Amazon Web Services said.

"The cloud is the new normal," said Andy Jassy, Amazon Web Services senior vice president during Wednesday's opening keynote of the company's annual Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas.

In order to test the cloud, organizations might first try using it for ancillary hosted services, Jassy said. They then might use the cloud as a launching pad for new services, rather than operating those in house, sidestepping the burden of moving legacy applications or data to a different environment. Next up for those testing the cloud might be to ramp up its use for mobile or analytic applications.
aws andy jassy 500 Joab Jackson/IDG News Service

Andy Jassy, Amazon senior vice president in charge of Amazon Web Services, speaks at the AWS re:Invent conference 2014 in Las Vegas.

Increasingly, however, AWS is finding that organizations are moving entire data centers, as well as their entire IT operations, to the cloud, Jassy said.

An organization may have a lease coming up on a data center or need to do an expensive hardware refresh, and the pending costs or long-term commitment to infrastructure "that is kind of frozen in time," may cause it to more heavily consider the cloud, Jassy said.

"This is a trend that is accelerating at a very fast rate," he said.

AWS' win of a government contract to run the services of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 2013 caused a lot of other organizations to take notice, Jassy said. "A lot of customers would say if it's secure enough for the CIA, it is probably secure for us too," Jassy said.

To this end, Jassy brought to the stage Tayloe Stansbury, chief technology officer for financial software and services provider Intuit, which is in the process of moving many of its core applications to AWS. Intuit employs 8,000 workers, 3,000 of which are engineers. It has 50 million customers and generates about $4 billion in annual revenue.

The AWS cloud is good enough for Intuit, evidently. The company first set up a few small apps tools to run online. Impressed with the results, the company then proceeded to move to the cloud one of its data centers that was coming up for lease renewal. Doing that cut costs by up to six times, Stansbury said.

In addition to cost savings, running on AWS brings Intuit a number of other advantages, Stansbury said, including the ability of developers to create services more quickly. if Intuit acquires a company that already uses AWS, the integration process goes a lot more smoothly.

Intuit runs 33 applications, 26 services and eight tools on AWS. The company's popular Mint financial adviser service now runs on AWS. Over time, the company will move all of its offerings to the cloud, Stansbury said.

Other AWS customers have also come to rely almost entirely on the cloud, including Condé Nast and News Corp. media companies, Suncorp bank, Hess energy company and a number of independent software vendors such as Infor and Splunk, Jassy said. Of course, one of AWS' big early wins was the Netflix streaming service.

In addition to customer wins and big-picture predictions, Jassy also unveiled new and forthcoming services on AWS.

Perhaps most notable is a fully relational database, called Aurora, aimed at competing with traditional enterprise-oriented relational databases from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM.

In early 2015, the company will start offering a set of tools to ease and streamline the process of writing and deploying applications within AWS, including AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline and AWS CodeCommit.

The company also unveiled some management tools for administrators. The AWS Key Management Service eases the considerable burden of managing encryption keys that are used to protect an organization's data and applications.

The AWS Service Catalog gives administrators a central location for an organization's employees to procure AWS services from a central portal.

AWS Config provides a way to document how AWS services are used and configured, which could be a big help for organization that uses ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) or a CMDB (configuration management database) to manage resources.

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10 cool new features found in iOS 8.1

Don't be fooled: iOS 8.1 is no mere "dot" release. This rapid update from Apple is chock-full of great new features, several of which could change how you work, shop, and share.

Not your average iOS update
Don’t be fooled: iOS 8.1 is no mere “dot” release. This rapid update from Apple is chock-full of great new features, several of which could change how you work, shop, and share.

iOS 8.1 is available for the iPhone 4S and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod touch (5th generation) and later—although many of its standout features are only compatible with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3. To get this latest release, go to Settings > General > Software Update. To take advantage of the many Continuity features included with iOS 8.1, make sure to also install OS X Yosemite on your Mac.

Ready? Great. Read on to learn the ten most notable features of iOS 8.1.

Apple Pay
This is the big one—using your iPhone to pay for your purchases. It’s a snap to set-up. Launch Passbook, and if you already have a card linked to your Apple ID—which is how you buy apps and media from the App Store and iTunes—your card should be listed there if it’s one of Apple Pay’s partner cards. If you don’t have a linked card, or you want to add a different one, you’ll see the option to add a card to Apple Pay. Your iPhone’s camera will launch, and then you’ll simply take a picture of the card. It may take a few seconds for the issuing bank to verify the information, but once that happens, you’re ready to begin using Apple Pay—assuming you’re in the U.S. (You can add multiple credit and debit cards to Apple Pay, and you can also change the default card for payments by going to Settings > Passbook & Apple Pay.)

Several retailers, apps, banks, and card providers are already on board. To use it in a brick-and-mortar store, place your iPhone on the cash register’s payment terminal. Your iPhone will detect the terminal and launch Passbook, and then Touch ID will request your fingerprint to complete the purchase.

Yes, it’s that simple, and yes, it’s secure. Thanks to Apple’s “secure element” chip, which encrypts your payment information, neither the retailer nor Apple has access to your actual credit card number. Retailers don’t even see your name.

Hardware requirements limit Apple Pay to the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 3, and the upcoming Apple Watch. Because the new iPads do not include an NFC chip, they can only use Apple Pay for in-app purchases and not at retail point-of-sale terminals.

Camera Roll
Hello there, old friend! Apparently, Camera Roll on the iPhone mattered a great deal to tons of users—and for some third-party app functionality. Apple brought this feature back with iOS 8.1. Once again, your iPhone’s local photos are kept inside the trusty Camera Roll album. Photo Stream, a folder of your synced photos, still remains…er, sorta. Beginning with iOS 8.0, Apple introduced iCloud Photo Library. Switch on this beta service and “Camera Roll” disappears, even with iOS 8.1, replaced with a catchall “All Photos” album.

iCloud Photo Library
Apple’s iCloud Photo Library stores the full-res versions of all your pictures across all of your Apple devices in iCloud, including iPhone screenshots and any edited photos. This beta service is now accessible to all devices running iOS 8.1. Just go to Settings > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photo Library.

However, this feature is not without issues. Lots of pictures mean lots of space. Apple still provides 5GB of free iCloud storage for all your needs. After that, however, it costs $1/month for 20GB or $4/month for 200GB of storage space. Need more than that and you may wish to consider non-Apple alternatives, such as Dropbox.

Another thing to consider is that your photos are uploaded to iCloud Photo Library at full resolution. This matters because all your connected iOS devices will now automatically download these same photos, which chews up the hard drive on your mobile device. To mitigate this, Apple lets you choose to “Optimize iPhone (or iPad) Storage.” Select this setting and only the iCloud Photo Library will store the full resolution photos and videos, with the optimized (smaller) files stored locally.

Continuity continued
If anything in iOS 8.1 rivals Apple Pay, it’s the build-out of Continuity features Apple first revealed at WWDC. This latest release is bursting with cross-platform Continuity goodies. Draft a Pages document on your Mac, for example, and continue working on it on your iPad, from the exact spot. Work on a Keynote presentation on your Mac, and then finalize it on your iPhone moments before the meeting starts. Your iCloud account keeps everything in sync.

To make this magic happen, you must first enable Handoff. Go to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps.

Handoff works with Mail, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Calendar, Maps, and other programs. App developers can even incorporate Handoff into their apps.

Phone calls on your Mac
One very cool new Continuity feature in iOS 8.1 is the ability to make and receive calls on your Mac running Yosemite. As with all Continuity features, you must have Handoff enabled on your iPhone. Now, when a call comes to your iPhone—even if it’s being charged in another room—it will also ring on your Mac. Even better, you can call anyone from your Mac.

It’s a bit tricky to set up at first, but trust me, this feature is totally worth it. Your devices (e.g. iPhone and Mac) must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network and signed into your iCloud account.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > FaceTime > iPhone Mobile Calls > On.

On your Mac, go to FaceTime > Preferences, and check iPhone Cellular Calls.

Done! To place a call from your Mac, click on a phone number from Contacts, Calendar, Safari, Spotlight, or Messages, or a contact inside FaceTime. According to Apple, your Mac will even auto-dial a conference call passcode if it’s included in the Calendar event.

Text everyone everywhere
Apple allows iMessages to be sent between the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod touch. It’s already great service, but it’s even better with iOS 8.1. Now you can send and receive SMS and MMS messages from any device, just as you would send an iMessage.

To enable this feature, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding on your iPhone. As a security precaution, Apple will then send you a code that you must enter to activate this feature. Done! Now you can chat with even non-iPhone folks from inside Messages on your Mac.

Hint: You must have an email address enabled in iMessage before Apple’s activation code can be sent: Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive, and add an email address there.

Instant hotspot
iOS 8.1 makes setting up a personal hotspot a breeze. Just go to Settings > Personal Hotspot > On to enable this feature. That’s it. Now, your iPhone will show up in the list of Wi-Fi connections on your Mac or iPad—provided your Mac is running Yosemite and has Bluetooth enabled. Oh, and be mindful of your carrier’s data limits.

Save money
Two minor iOS 8.1 features could actually save users money. You can now choose between 2G, 3G, or LTE networks for cellular data—provided these are available from your carrier. Check it out by going to Settings > Cellular.

Another clever feature: With iOS 8.1, Apple has made it possible to share Passbook passes via AirDrop.

Missing in action
With every new iOS release, several users witness their devices mysteriously rebooting, or experience their battery life depleting more quickly. Unfortunately, at least for older devices, there are no noticeable improvements in speed or battery life with iOS 8.1, but you can figure out which apps suck up the most battery life by going to Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage.

Tricks and treats
We’ve already revealed several tricks with iOS 8, but since the iOS 8.1 release is still relatively new, there are probably some hidden gems that we’ve missed. If you spot any clever tricks, share them in the comments below.

Cult of Mac found one hiding amongst the many Accessibility features. This trick lets you adjust the brightness on your device by tapping the home button three times.

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Zoom. Turn zoom on, and tap your screen three times with three fingers to pull up the contextual menu. Select “choose filter,” then select “low light.”

Still with me? Now go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut, and set to “Zoom.”

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Windows 10 Technical Preview deep-dive: A promise of better things to come

So far, Microsoft's next-gen operating system is looking good.

It's been nearly a week since Microsoft announced that it will follow Windows 8.1 with Windows 10 -- and released its Technical Preview so that those interested could take a first look at the new operating system. Since then I've been exploring the new OS, alongside the sparse documentation Microsoft has released.

Much of the under-the-hood kernel level work has been done; the Preview is a tool for Microsoft to understand how to bring its next-generation Windows to its desktop users. That's an important problem for the Windows team to solve before the new OS is released in mid-2015. Some enterprise customers are still moving from Windows XP to Windows 7, so Microsoft needs to put in place an upgrade path from Windows 7 to this new version. It needs, as Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive vice president of operating systems, said in San Francisco, "to feel like going from a Prius to a Tesla" -- without having to learn to drive all over again.

There are actually two versions of the Windows 10 Technical Preview. The Technical Preview that most people are referring to is aimed at individual enthusiast users or SMBs and can be downloaded from the preview.windows.com site. An Enterprise Preview for volume licensing customers is available from the TechNet evaluation center.

(If you're planning on evaluating an entire Windows 10 infrastructure, there are also technical previews for the enterprise-directed Windows Server and the System Center management suite, which can be downloaded at Technet.)

While this review focuses on the Technical Preview, as it's the release that most users will explore, I tried out both releases. There's very little difference between the two at this point, with the Enterprise Preview adding security and networking features on a par with the current Windows 8.1 Enterprise releases.

As test machines, I used a Surface Pro 2 running Windows 8.1 (which I used to examine update scenarios) and a series of Hyper-V virtual machines (which I used to test clean installs). In both cases, I found the installation process quick and easy.

I created USB installation media from Microsoft's ISO downloads. It's a surprisingly forgiving installer: One of my test machines was mistakenly set up with the Technical Preview release rather than Enterprise, and I was able to install Enterprise over the top of Technical Preview without having to reset the test PC between installs.

One thing is clear: This is a first cut at the Windows 10 desktop experience and so naturally it is more than a little rough around the edges. This should be kept in mind.
User experience

With all the disparagement of Windows 8's user interface, this was clearly the area that was going to get the most focus from testers. That's not surprising: Windows 8 was a break from several generations of Windows user experience. Windows 10 steps back into more familiar territory.

Much of the criticism of Windows 8 focused on the separation between its two UI models, with desktop apps and Windows Store apps running in separate containers. Windows 8.1 started to blend the two ways of working, but Windows 10 finishes the job, mixing the two on the familiar Windows desktop.

The most obvious change in Windows 10 is the return of the Start Menu. As shown at the Build 14 conference last April, it's a mix of the Windows 8 Live Tiles with the familiar Windows 7-style menu -- one right next to the other.

The Start Menu is back, in a hybrid of the familiar Windows 7 Start Menu (jumplists and all) and the Windows 8 Start Screen, complete with Live Tiles.

Working with the new Start Menu is easy enough: To launch it, all I had to do was click on the Windows logo in the corner of the desktop. Like the Windows 7 Start menu, it has a hierarchical list of apps and support for Jump Lists (which, oddly, fly out and replace the Live Tile section of the Start Menu). I was able to drag to adjust its height and add Live Tiles and pin apps to adjust the width.

I'm still of two minds about the new Start Menu, though. It works well on a keyboard and mouse device, but Microsoft does seem to have made some odd decisions. For one thing, it doesn't support the ability to group tiles that would make the Start Screen easier to navigate. Instead, I was presented with a long string of tiles with no way of choosing how they're displayed. Of course, this is still a preliminary UI, but right now it seems a bit strange, especially with the work done in recent Windows Phone builds that add features like collapsible groupings of tiles.

Tablet users will need to wait for the 2015 Consumer Preview to see the new Windows Phone-like touch UI that was teased in a couple of slides at the launch event. There's also a planned Continuum experience for two-in-one devices that will switch from a tablet UI to a desktop UI when in keyboard mode. I'll be looking forward to trying that out, as one of its target devices, the Surface Pro 3, has quickly become my day-to-day PC.

One thing to note: If, like me, you do an upgrade Windows 10 install on a Windows 8.1 touch PC, you'll keep the original Start Screen. It's easy enough to switch between the two user interface modes -- though if you've filled a start screen with Live Tiles you're going to get a very wide Start Menu, as all your Live Tiles will be on the new Start Menu. Mine ended up scrolling off the side of the screen on the test Surface Pro 2.

Microsoft has stepped back from the immersive model for its WinRT-powered Windows Store apps. They can still run full screen, but the default is a new windowed mode. This lets Windows Store apps run alongside desktop apps, in fully resizable windows with familiar controls.
Windows 10 Windows Store apps Simon Bisson

Windows Store apps now run on the Windows desktop, in their own fully resizable and snappable windows, alongside existing Windows desktop apps.

There's also a new set of controls on the top left of the window that duplicates the old Windows 8 touch controls and charms. One option gives access to any app commands, while others replace the old swipe-able charms bar -- with the addition of print and project buttons.

It's clear that these controls are still experimental. They're very small on a high resolution screen and don't work at all well with touch. Even so, it's interesting to see how Microsoft is thinking of delivering its new controls to a mostly desktop audience.

The Windows 8 charms bar is in this build of Windows 10; on a touch-screen device I could still swipe from the right to access the Windows 8 charms. Microsoft spokespeople were clear that this was only for the Technical Preview release, and that they were still considering how to change this behaviour. One change is already in place: Swiping from the left brings up the Win-Tab task switcher rather than the fiddly Windows 8 task view, which let me tap and swipe a carousel of my active apps and manage my virtual desktops.

Oddly, the menu bar for Windows Store apps is a couple of pixels bigger than that for a desktop app. I found it to be a disconcerting mismatch, especially when I was tiling windows using Windows 10's new quadrant snap feature (see below). Yes, this is an early look at the OS, but when Microsoft is talking about how design-led the Windows development process is, it's somewhat incongruous.

If you prefer to use Windows from a command line (after all, the good old DOS commands are still there!), Microsoft has finally updated its Windows console with a set of experimental features. There's now support for the same Ctrl-key shortcuts as the rest of Windows (at last!), along with the option of having a translucent console. I found that the same options are also available for the PowerShell console, something that should make IT administrators' lives just that little bit easier.
A new snap mode

Windows 8's snap mode let me choose how to display two (or more on higher-resolution screens) Windows Store apps. It was closely related to the similar desktop Aero snap mode introduced with Windows 7. Windows 10 brings the two approaches together with a new quadrant snap mode.

The new quadrant snap feature in Windows 10 helps arrange app windows, both desktop and Windows Store, to take advantage of monitor screen real estate.

Quadrant snap simplifies the process of snapping more than one app to a screen. Once you drag an app to a corner, it snaps to fill half the screen, and a new snap assistant displays the remaining apps so that you can snap another, if you want. Drag a third app into a screen corner and Windows 10 rearranges the windows to create a vertical division between that app and another (with the option to pick and snap a fourth app). Quadrant view with four apps really requires a large screen to work well.

Currently, Windows Store apps will only snap to half the display -- they don't support quadrant snapping. That means I was able to snap two desktop apps in the upper and lower half of the screen, while a Windows Store app occupied either the left or the right side.

Like the current Windows snap tools, Microsoft offers keyboard shortcuts, adding Win-Up Arrow and Win-Down Arrow for snapping apps to the top or bottom of the screen (joining Win-Left Arrow and Win-Right Arrow for snapping them to either side). Once done, I could adjust the width and height of the snapped windows to get the optimum layout for the task at hand.

The new snap features are useful, but a little odd at first. It takes some time to get used to them, and I found myself regularly disconcerted by the differences between Windows Store and desktop apps. The two should work identically, and it's somewhat jarring to realise they don't.

I also miss the ability to snap Windows Store apps to one side of a desktop, a Windows 8.1 feature that proved surprisingly useful with Twitter apps and with Microsoft's OneNote. While I understand that Microsoft is yet to deliver the full Windows 10 UI, it's odd to find something that feels it should be a step forward instead appears to be a step back.
Virtual desktops

Way back in the mists of time, Microsoft offered a series of Powertoys, apps that in many cases have now become Windows features. Among them was a Virtual Desktop manager that let you set up four different virtual desktops that you could use to manage your workspace -- for example, segregating personal apps from your work apps. (Vista users will remember those used for the Flip 3D task switcher.) These virtual desktops are now part of Windows 10, controlled from the Win-Tab task switcher keystroke or from the new task switch icon on the Windows taskbar.

Windows 10 Win-Tab Simon Bisson
The Windows 10 task switcher now has a carousel of large live app views, and also lets you switch between virtual desktops – and create new workspaces.

It's easy enough to create a new Virtual Desktop: Just click the + symbol at the bottom of the task switcher window. Apps can be launched as usual from the Start Menu or from pinned taskbar icons; Microsoft has added a set of visual cues to help locate running apps, with a small rectangle under an active app icon on the taskbar showing that the app is running in another virtual desktop.
Windows 10 Taskbar Simon Bisson

Apps running on another virtual desktop are highlighted by a small bar under the app icon on the taskbar.

Virtual desktops share the same wallpaper as other desktops, and don't persist between reboots. If users are going to get the most from this approach, then Microsoft is going to have to provide a tool that lets you build multi-desktop environments that are ready to go from boot. I'm expecting to use the tool to keep mail and IM away from the screen where I'm writing in order to reduce distractions.
A universal approach to development

It's clear that Microsoft still sees its WinRT development model as the way forward for Windows. That's not surprising: By offering a sandboxed operating environment with contracts that allow apps to work together, it's much more secure than the familiar Win32 APIs. (Introduced in Windows 8, contracts enable WinRT apps to communicate, even when they've been developed by different companies and have no direct links.)

At the launch event, Microsoft's Myerson and Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president, operating systems group, talked a lot about Universal Windows apps, a new generation of Windows Store apps based on the tools introduced at Build 2014.

Universal apps are Microsoft's latest solution to the old problem of how you can deliver code that runs on Windows desktops, tablets, phones -- and, according to Myerson, on Internet of Things devices and game consoles. Instead of working on a write-once, run-everywhere system, Universal apps let you build a common core of business logic that can be wrapped in an appropriate user interface for a device. It's a sensible approach, and combined with Microsoft's relationship with cross-platform development system Xamarin, also means that apps can be delivered to iOS and Android as well.


I'm expecting to hear a lot about Universal apps between now and Windows 10's release. They're the next wave of Windows Store apps -- and with the new APIs that are being delivered with Windows 10, look likely to finally offer the same capabilities as the more mature Win32. Microsoft is starting to position Universal apps as a significant differentiation between its development platforms and its competitors' tooling, and with a single store for Universal apps, it has a key way to help developers monetise their apps.

There are certainly a lot more WinRT namespaces in the new release; while Microsoft isn't intending to focus on Windows 10 developers until its next Build event in April 2015, there's plenty here for developers to explore. Many of the new namespaces are focused on productivity and information management scenarios, which points to more shared code in future Windows Phone releases. Apple's Continuity lets information flow from phone to tablet to PC, and from an exploration of the WinRT namespace, it looks as though Windows 10 will be able to offer something similar.

Programmatic access to contacts, to email and to messaging makes a lot of sense in a multi-device world, and giving WinRT the tools to do this goes a long way toward encouraging developers to work with Microsoft's new programming model.

Microsoft is clearly targeting enterprise users with this latest version of Windows. While many of the underlying enterprise features rely on a new release of both Windows Server and the System Center management suite (and the cloud Intune service), there's a lot that's being done to ensure that enterprise concerns with Windows 8 won't be issues in Windows 10.

One key concern is the use of Microsoft Accounts for the Windows Store. While Microsoft hasn't described how the Windows 10 store will operate, a now-deleted blog post detailed how it would use Azure Active Directory accounts as an alternative authentication model and would also allow IT departments to curate their own store experiences. I'd expect Microsoft to announce how this feature will operate in conjunction with the 2015 release of key Windows management tools, alongside new Azure AD features.

Then there's the separation of personal and business information on devices (especially Windows tablets in BYOD scenarios). I talked to senior Microsoft spokespeople at the Windows 10 event in San Francisco, exploring how a new container model would allow secure partitioning of work and personal data. Work apps would get access to the work container and information in one container can't be copied to another -- even via cut and paste. Some apps, like Office, will be what Microsoft calls "enlightened" -- able to work in both contexts while still keeping information under control.

The Windows 10 Technical Preview is most definitely a very early release, and it's still hard to judge exactly what shape the final product will take. As alpha releases go -- and the Technical Preview is very much an alpha -- it's stable and familiar.

I've now installed it as both an upgrade and VM installs, with no problems. I'm not yet ready to run it as a production OS -- that's likely to wait until the Consumer Preview, when we'll get a better picture of the final OS. Until then, what we've currently got is a Windows 10 that still looks very much like Windows 8.1, with elements of a new UI and a new set of APIs.

Many of the key new features, like the containerised separation of user and corporate data, aren't yet accessible, as they rely on systems management tooling that won't be available until the early part of 2015. That could be a problem for IT departments that want to try out those high profile features, though at this point in the Windows 10 development cycle it's probably best to use the Technical Preview to explore compatibility issues and to understand the effects of tuning the delivery of Windows 10 updates.

There's a lot for Microsoft to do between now and launch, especially around delivering on its user experience promises. But with a timetable that seems to indicate a release in the second half of 2015, there's still plenty of time. Many of the nuts and bolts are in place -- what we're waiting for now are the supporting services and the fit and finish in order to get a better handle on the final shape of the new Windows.

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CIOs Share Must-Have Cloud Skills

Cloud computing prompts IT organizations to rethink how they acquire talent and develop skills.

As the clouds roll in, IT organizations are recasting their tech talent requirements.
giants in the cloudmain

“You don’t need people to build servers anymore. You need somebody good at managing another organization responsible for doing that. That’s a different skill,” says Josh Jewett, CIO at Family Dollar. “You go from managing outcomes yourselves to managing outcomes through others.”

Jewett is one of 16 CIOs who spoke to us about the move to cloud computing. A key topic of discussion was how to cultivate cloud-ready talent. On the skills front, CIOs are in agreement that companies need to reexamine the traditional roles and capabilities in their IT shops to be successful in the cloud.

Everything Is Different in the Cloud
Cloud is a big change for people and organizations, says Randy Spratt, CIO and CTO at healthcare services provider McKesson. There are “different skill sets, different relationships with vendors, different ways of deploying and provisioning services.”

Change management becomes an “evangelical” function, Spratt says. “Just building and deploying isn't enough. You need to educate businesses about what they have. It's like an internal sales job.”

Essential is a grasp and understanding of virtualization; if it can't be virtualized, it can't go to the cloud, says Bob Fecteau, CIO at IT support company SAIC. While newer entrants in the workforce have been trained in virtualization, they need to understand the business they’re supporting -- there has to be a balance and that takes time, Fecteau says.

Bob Fecteau,CIO at SAIC
In general, Fecteau says he sees a path away from pure skills (coder, network manager) and toward information brokers. Tomorrow, IT will be asked, “How can you get me the info we need to make key business decisions?” he says.

It’s not as simple as repositioning a data center architect and saying, “Now you’re the cloud architect,” says Paula Tolliver, CIO and corporate vice president, business services, at Dow Chemical. “You have to have more of a systems integration mindset for [cloud] architecture roles,” she says. “You’re going to be piecing together a cloud environment from multiple service providers in infrastructure and applications.”

Brian LeClaire’s approach to skills acquisition is to identify the best-in-class solutions, then leverage vendors to help with testing, implementation and training.

“We run concurrent pilots across solutions, then we bring the vendor in for implementation and training and upskilling our base,” says LeClaire, CIO at Humana. The health insurance provider also has hired people with specific cloud skills, usually pertaining to a particular tool. “The tool is no good if you don't understand the applications the tool is meant to help,” LeClaire says.

Avnet’s approach has been to train current employees on new cloud technologies, which lets CIO Steve Phillips leverage those employees’ institutional knowledge. To help staff transition to cloud-friendly skills, Avnet holds technology days, followed by job shadowing, so IT workers can spend a day or two learning about a specific technology.

Steve Phillips, CIO at Avnet.
At Whirlpool, CIO Michael Heim is considering sending some of his IT team to “intern” at VTEX, to learn cloud processes. Whirlpool is implementing an ecommerce suite from Brazil-based VTEX for Latin America, its biggest e-commerce market. In addition to accelerating the team’s development, it’s also a good way to build a healthy relationship between the two companies, Heim says.

Heim also invited staff from Amazon to visit, to show Whirlpool staff how AWS works. “That opens my team’s eyes,” Heim says.

A desire to learn new skills is essential, says John Marcante, CIO at The Vanguard Group. “Roles are definitely changing. Cloud allows for a lot more automation and less sophistication and deep knowledge,” Marcante says. Fortunately, IT pros tend to pick up new technologies quickly, he says.

“If you don’t like to learn, you’re in the wrong field.”
Editor’s Note: Giants in the Cloud was written by Network World assistant managing editor, features, Ann Bednarz, based on interviews conducted by CIO Magazine managing editor Kim S. Nash, CIO.com senior editor Brian Eastwood, Network World senior writer Brandon Butler and Computerworld technologies editor Johanna Ambrosio. This package, based on an idea from CIO executive editor Mitch Betts, was edited by Network World executive features editor Neal Weinberg, designed by Steve Sauer and illustrated by Chris Koehler.

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Women in IT: No longer a nice-to-have

If you’re in IT -- and reading this article about women in IT – the odds are that you’re male. After all, just 24% of the U.S. IT workforce is female, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, quite a fall from its high point of 36% in 1991, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. This is at a time when women make up more than half (57%) of the professional U.S. workforce.

But odds are that you’ll keep reading, as male IT executives increasingly seem to care about encouraging women to join the profession. In a recent study by Harvey Nash, nearly three-quarters (71%) of CIOs globally said they recognized the gender imbalance in their organizations.

The trend is also seen outside of IT, at the highest ranks of corporate professionals: A report by Institutional Shareholder Services from this fall found that the percentage of women nominated for boards at large U.S. companies has doubled since 2008, to 30% this year.

It’s noteworthy that there are fewer women, on average, on the boards of software and services companies (16.3%) and hardware and equipment companies (13.6%) than the S&P 500 average, which is 18.7%, up from 16.3% in 2011.

Nevertheless, the reason for the interest in attracting more women into technology is likely tied to the push for diversity in general. “Managers frequently mention to me that diverse IT teams foster greater innovation and collaboration, which is so important for the digital age,” says Harvey Nash, CEO of the namesake recruiting firm in a blog post.

Here are four ways in which IT organizations can attract and retain women professionals and help them flourish in their careers once there.

1. It starts with a change in attitude: recognize that hiring women in good for the bottom line.
More companies realize that attracting women to the company is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a business imperative, says Colleen Doherty, assistant vice-president in human resources at Cognizant Technology Solutions. “A lack of diversity will get a business nowhere fast, in terms of growth and innovation,” Doherty says.

There is no end to the studies verifying exactly that point. According to Fortune Magazine’s analysis of data from Factset Research Systems, the financial results of the biggest companies in the U.S. with female CEOs beat the stock market, averaging a return of 103.4% during the woman’s tenure, compared with the average 69.5% return for the S&P 500 stock index over the same period. Revenue also flourished; the 51 companies in the Fortune 1000 with a female CEO, generated 7% of the total revenue for the entire group. Studies by Credit Suisse Research and McKinsey & Co. show similar results of companies with women on their boards performing better than those with all-male boards.

Not to mention, Doherty says, clients and partners increasingly expect to see a diverse workforce in the companies they do business with and are even putting diversity questions in their RFPs. “The global awareness about diversity is at a fever pitch,” she says.

2. Beef up recruiting efforts, both internally and externally
With that ammunition, IT organizations can make a push to establish internal groups that support their women professionals, or at the very least, identify external groups for them to join. At Cognizant, Doherty formed Women Empowered as part of the company’s larger diversity and inclusion initiative. The group – which has expanded globally in the five years of its existence – aims to attract, retain, develop, communicate with and create networking opportunities for women in the company.

In addition to recruiting efforts, the group sponsors “lunch and learns,” mentor programs, meetings, external speakers and speaking events with clients. There is a Women Empowered newsletter, and Doherty is working to create an app for women to download on their mobile devices. The trends at Cognizant are improving, Doherty says, as the company is seeing more women at the associate director, director and vice-president levels now than in 2012.

External groups for supporting women professionals abound. Recruiter Harvey Nash hosts three groups: one intended to attract college and high school women into the profession; one to support pre-executive women in their IT careers; and one for women in senior IT leadership roles. CompTIA also hosts the Advancing Women in IT community, as well as an online resource center for women entering the profession or desiring to advance their careers.

3. 'It takes women to hire women’, so give current female IT workers a larger role in recruiting and retention
Anecdotal evidence suggests that women workers will tend to feel most comfortable in companies in which women are already present. When Doherty first joined Cognizant five years ago, she says, “I was much more comfortable having a conversation with [chief finanial officer] Karen McLoughlin than a male executive at that time,” she says. “It takes women to hire women, and having a ‘Karen’ in the position she was in was critical to making this work.”

For this and other reasons, “proactive succession planning to develop the next generation of female IT leaders is essential if meaningful change is to be achieved,” concludes the Harvey Nash report. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that sometimes women need more encouragement than men to move to that next level. Scott Seese, CIO at eBay, for example, says he is passionate about developing the next generation of women leaders at the company and has begun holding events to encourage the professional growth of women in the organization.

4. Think long term: That young woman you hire today could be your CIO down the road.
According to the Harvey Nash survey, the CIO of the future will look quite different from today, if you consider that the CIO of tomorrow is coming from the ranks IT workers who are in their 20s and 30s. While just 7% of this year’s survey respondents were female, for instance, representing a drop of 2% from the year before, that trend is not likely to continue. When these IT managers, senior architects, analysts and associate directors mature into leadership roles, the recruiting firm estimates that 13% of CIOs will be women.

Whether your goal is to increase innovation, boost profitability, improve collaboration or simply have your IT organization better reflect the workplace as a whole, attracting and retaining women professionals is clearly a move toward the future.

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iOS 8 tips and tricks you need to know

Some advice on how to make iOS 8 work for you.
iOS 8, Apple's latest mobile OS, introduces a ton of new features that promise to make using your iOS device a whole lot more efficient and even more fun. Here are some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of iOS 8.

Find out which apps are draining your battery
Given how much people use their iOS devices, battery drain is a pesky problem a lot of people have to deal with. Thankfully, in iOS 8 Apple has made it easy to figure out which apps in particular are using more than their fair share of battery power.

To check this, simply go to Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage and you can quickly determine which apps are draining your battery. Given that some apps run in the background, you might be surprised to see which apps are the worst offenders. More importantly, this enables you to be smarter about your app usage when battery life is a concern.

Use Siri hands-free with "Hey Siri" command
Apple in iOS 8 has made Siri even easier to use. With a new setting, Siri is always listening. In order to awaken it, simply say "Hey Siri" and then state your query. Note, though, that this feature only works when your iOS device is plugged into a power source.

To get this feature up and running, simply go to Settings > General > Siri and then toggle on the Allow 'Hey Siri' feature.

Quick access to recent contacts and favorites
iOS 8 makes it easy to access your most recent contacts. To do so, simply double tap the home button and the normal multitasking interface will appear. But located above it will be a listing of your most recent contacts. From there, simply tap on an individual photo to bring up options to text message, call, or FaceTime. Tap a photo again to return to the main view. And as a cool hidden feature, if you swipe your list of "Recents" to the right, you're then presented with quick contact buttons for people you've previously designated as your "Favorites."

Get notified when important emails come in
If you send out an important email and are waiting for a reply, there's no need to keep checking your email in iOS 8. Instead, you can create a flag for a specific message so that iOS will notify you when a response comes in. To do so, simply swipe to the left on any particular email message and hit the "More" button, where you can then select "Notify Me..." You'll then receive notifications when anyone replies to the email thread.

Quickly send an audio message to friends
A fun new iOS 8 feature is the ability to send quick audio messages to friends. To get started, you’ll note that there's now a microphone icon situated on the lower right-hand corner of the Messages screen. If you tap and hold the icon, it will bring up a window that will automatically start recording an audio message.

Quickly listen to audio messages by raising your iPhone
When you see that you have an audio message, all you have to do to listen to it is raise your device to your ear and the message will begin playing automatically. Note that this feature is on by default but can be turned off by going to Settings > Messages and then scrolling down and toggling off the "Raise to Listen" button.

View detailed weather information
When looking at the weather for a particular city, simply scroll to the bottom, where you'll be presented with a slew of additional weather information, including the details regarding the chance of rain, barometric pressure, humidity, and even how fast the wind is blowing.

Optimize your iPhone storage
If you use iCloud for your photos, you can save space on your iPhone by only saving optimized photos to your iOS device. To do this, go to Settings > Photos and select "Optimize iPhone Storage." This will ensure that the photos stored on your phone aren't full quality, which isn't always necessary on the smaller screen.

Set a timer with the iOS 8 camera
Among many new camera features, iOS 8 introduces the ability to set a pre-set timer for photos. To do so, fire up the Camera app and you'll see a clock icon towards the upper right part of the screen. If you tap on that, you'll then be presented with the option to set the timer for 3 or 10 seconds. Next, tap the shutter button and the timer will then start counting down, give you ample time to set up the shot and get everyone, or everything, in place before the camera goes off.

Find your iPhone's last location
With iOS 8, Apple has added another feature to make it easier to find your iOS device when it seems to have disappeared. The feature is called "Send Last Location," and as the name implies, it will automatically send you the last known location of your iOS device when the battery gets down to a low level. This is great because once the battery is drained, Find my iPhone is of no help. Knowing where your iOS device was before it ran of out juice, however, is a godsend.

To activate it, go to Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone and then toggle on the "Send Last Location" button.

Record Time-Lapse video footage
One of the great new iOS 8 features is the ability to take time-lapse video footage. All in all, it's a great way to add an element of "time passing" to your video footage. Using it is as simple as can be: simply fire up the Camera app and swipe until you're in "Time-Lapse" mode. Note, though, that in order to really see the wonder that is time-lapse, make sure you record footage for at least 45 seconds. Some time-lapse video suggestions include sporting events and weather.

Pre-load websites in Safari for faster viewing
Safari in iOS 8 has a great new feature that promises to make web browsing even faster. If you go to Settings > Safari > Preload Top Hit and toggle the feature on, Safari will pre-load the top hit from your search results. If data usage is a concern for you, you probably want to toggle this feature off.

QuickType in Messages for faster typing
Messages in iOS 8 now includes more enhanced predictive typing, where iOS tries to predict what word you might want to say next. What makes this feature incredibly cool is that Messages will learn your writing style with respect to each person and will make more informed predictions the more you use it. That way you can receive formal word predictions when you're communicating with your boss and more slang-oriented terms if you're chatting with one of your buddies.

If you're not into the QuickType feature, you can quickly disable it by tapping and pressing on the globe/emoji icon next to the keyboard, then toggle on and off "Predictive."

Quickly send a video message
From the main Messages view, tap and hold the camera icon on the lower left corner of the screen. Next, tap the red button to quickly record a video message for one of your friends. Tap the red button again to end the video and then tap the upward facing arrow to send it.

Request the desktop version of a mobile site
With a powerful and capable browser like Safari, sometimes we don't want to view a website's awkward and sometimes less-functional mobile site. Thankfully, Safari makes it easy to request a website's desktop site. To do so, simply tap on the Safari URL bar once to bring up Safari's Favorites window. Next, simply scroll downwards to reveal an option to add that site to your Favorites list or view the desktop version of that site.

Keep your web browsing private with DuckDuckGo
Apple in iOS 8 added DuckDuckGo as a new search engine option. DuckDuckGo is privacy-oriented and, as opposed to Google, doesn't track what you're searching for or the sites you're visiting. To select DuckDuckGo as your search engine of choice, simply go to Settings > Safari > Search Engine and select away. Note that Yahoo and Bing are additional options.

Hide private photos
If you have photos that for whatever reason you want to keep private, iOS 8 makes it easy. Simply tap and hold on a photo and you'll see an option to "Hide." Select that and you're good to go. Note, though, that doing this simply removes photos from your Years > Collections > Moments view. The photo is still viewable from within the "Albums" view.

Automatically delete Messages after 30 days
Messages can, quite stealthily, use up a lot of your storage space, especially if you're prone to sending or receiving a lot of photos. To avoid this, it's possible to have messages automatically delete from your phone after 30 days or after a year.

To do so, go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages and select the option you're most comfortable with.

Scan your credit card into iOS 8
Instead of laboriously entering in your credit card information on iOS 8 Safari, users can now take a photo of their credit card and iOS will auto populate all the requisite fields. To do so, go to Settings > Safari > Passwords & AutoFill > Saved Credit Cards > Add Credit Card. There you can enter in your credit card manually or use your camera. This will be especially useful once Apple Pay becomes active.

Record Slo-Mo video footage at 240 fps
With iOS 8 and Apple's new iPhones, the bar for video recording has been raised. You can now shoot slo-mo video footage at a whopping 240 fps. When you're in the Camera app, simply swipe to the right until "Slo-Mo" is selected and you're good to go.

Search for a word on a webpage
This is actually an old iOS trick but it is so helpful and useful it's worth mentioning. If you're on a webpage and want to search for a specific word or phrase, simply tap the URL bar and start typing the word or phrase in question into it. Next, you'll be presented with a few Google Search suggestions. Ignore those and scroll to the bottom where you'll see a section titled "On This Page." Tap that and you can then cycle through each instance of that word or phrase.

See what time a message was sent
Originally introduced in iOS 7, this is a great feature that's worth mentioning for any new iPhone users out there getting acquainted with iOS 8. With Apple's Messaging app, it’s extremely easy to see when each individual message was sent. To do so, simply swipe to the left from the messaging screen and the time will appear to the right of each message.

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How to ensure the success of your private PaaS project

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

Building a private platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud that provides on-demand access to databases, middleware, presentation layer and other services can enable consumer agility, lower the cost to maintain that agility, and increase the utilization of on-premise resources.

That is a trifecta of self-reinforcing value for the business. Agility and cost have traditionally been thought of as tradeoffs in IT, but thanks to standardization, consolidation and automation that is tightly coupled with the technology used to provide cloud services, private PaaS clouds have the potential to eliminate that trade off.

In order to achieve those simultaneous benefits, it’s important to think about why you are implementing a private cloud, what workloads make sense for that private cloud, and how you intend to marry the two together. Let’s look at five practical considerations for a successful discrete private cloud implementation project that can form the building block of an eventual larger-scale transformation.

* Suitable workloads. Most IT services are used to either run the business or grow/transform the business. Run the business activities such as ERP, CRM, Finance, HR and similar tend to have stable workloads, usually consisting of small deviations around a moving average, perhaps also with relatively predictable spikes such as seasonal or periodic variations. These activities also have a generally lower rate of change because they are ingrained in organizational processes, and are often centrally-managed for the same reason.

On the other hand, grow/transform activities involve launch of new offerings, big data analysis, cross-channel marketing/selling, and organizational change, all of which have unpredictable workloads and high ongoing rates of change.

Your intuition might tell you that the grow/transform activities are naturals for private PaaS clouds. The agility gained by developers allows them to provide new services on a short timeframe, while also allowing those services to be rapidly decommissioned if circumstances change. It’s also fairly obvious that many “run the business” workloads do not need the agility of private clouds, and in fact it may be a high-risk maneuver to place them on a shared services environment.

There is, however, a gray area in times of business change. During these periods of evolution many “run the business” applications are forced to act more like “grow/transform the business” applications – with high rates of change, variable workloads and the need for rapid provisioning/decommissioning. In those cases, the neat segregation between workloads breaks down. As such, a private PaaS cloud needs to be able to provide services that address the needs of both types of applications. It needs to provide agility… but with the reliability/security/scalability of traditional IT services.

* What services to offer? When it comes to figuring out what services to offer, the answer lies with your users. Help them prioritize their needs and offer as few services as possible.

Customers can have hundreds of variants in their IT environment. This sprawl is often the result of lack of governance, lack of standardization, and a bottoms-up/best-of-breed mentality that resulted in “configuration pollution” (a wide variance among arguably-similar stack configurations). Managing such an environment is expensive and inefficient.

Example of categories for a Private Cloud Service Catalog.
Compare that complexity to the service catalog of most public cloud providers. For example, the Oracle Database Cloud Service has only a few offerings. Not 50, or 500 or 5,000. Your private cloud service catalog should look and sound more like a public provider’s catalog. Doing that requires making choices about standardization and consolidation. Sometimes these choices are politically challenging, but they need to be made nonetheless or your private cloud will not provide the cost optimization that it should.

* Is chargeback necessary? Chargeback/showback is the idea of passing consumption costs back to the consumer either via internal automated transfer costs (chargeback) or simply via reporting (showback). It sounds great on paper, and is a relatively simple matter to execute technically with a fully-integrated cloud management regime (since the software that does the automated provisioning knows who’s using what at all times). But the transparency it provides is truly transformational to an organization, and therefore has political and human consequences. A well-implemented private PaaS cloud will automatically have all the information IT needs to make costs transparent, but making those costs visible is an organizational decision.

* PaaS versus IaaS? To reiterate, if your goal is agility and cost reduction, PaaS gives you more flexibility, more efficiency and more value than infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). The raw shared compute and storage (think hypervisors, guest OSs, etc.) that IaaS provides are simply containers that then need to be installed, configured and managed, and that cost lives somewhere (either in the provider or the consumer’s bucket).

Furthermore, because most organizations pass the configuration effort onto the consumers, the tendency for “bottoms-up” configuration pollution continues to be a problem. I call this “cost shifting”. PaaS, on the other hand, provides instantly-consumable services (database, middleware, presentation layer, etc.) in standardized configurations that can be managed with minimum effort on an individual basis and with maximum efficiency on an enterprise scale. IaaS provides efficiency but primarily just shifts costs around. PaaS doesn’t just shift costs around, it eliminates a substantial portion of them outright.

Chart of service types
* How to succeed? The most successful model I’ve seen to introduce PaaS to an organization is to start small, with a well-defined scope. Pick a service, or two services, and a defined user base (say, a particular LOB development organization in a “grow the business” activity) and let them see what PaaS can do for them.

In conclusion, PaaS clouds offer an unprecedented opportunity to simultaneously lower costs, increase agility and maximize utilization. They also carry the potential for meaningful cultural transformation by making IT costs transparent. Unlocking that value requires careful up-front analysis and an unwavering commitment to consolidation, standardization and automation -- and most importantly, simplicity. But with the proper commitment, the rewards can be tremendous.

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You drain me: Apple replaces some iPhone 5 batteries for free

'Very small percentage' affected, says Apple; but small sample showed 2 out of 3 phones eligible

Apple last week said that it will replace some iPhone 5 batteries free of charge, claiming that "a very small percentage" of the smartphones needed to be charged more often and that those charges were quickly exhausted.

The program, which was announced only in a support document published on Apple's website, offered free battery replacements for iPhone 5 devices that "suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently."

According to Apple, the affected phones were sold between September 2012 and January 2013, and "fall within a limited serial number range." The Cupertino, Calif. company also said that only "a very small percentage" of iPhone 5 devices were impacted.

Computerworld's experience was different. Out of an admittedly small sample -- three iPhone 5 phones bought during the stretch in question, each several weeks apart -- two were eligible for the battery replacement. Neither of the two that qualified, however, had required more charging than was normal for a nearly-two-year-old iPhone, nor did their batteries drain any faster than the third, ineligible, device.

Apple started selling the iPhone 5 on Sept. 21, 2012. It retired the model last year when it was replaced by the iPhone 5S and 5C.

This was not the first time that Apple has dealt with iPhone battery issues. In October 2013, the company confirmed that it was contacting a "very limited" number of iPhone 5S owners and offering them a replacement phone.

In both 2009 and 2011, iPhone users also reported battery-draining problems with their iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S devices, respectively.

Customers can check their iPhone 5 for battery replacement eligibility on Apple's website by entering their device's serial number. That can be found under Settings/General/About.

Until Friday, Aug. 29, the replacement deal will be available only in the U.S. and China; on that date, other countries will come online.

Users must take advantage of the free replacement within two years of the phone's last purchase, or by March 1, 2015, whichever comes first. Customers can take their smartphones to an Apple retail store or authorized service provider for the new battery swap, or ship it to Apple.

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Five reasons to build an enterprise app store ASAP

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

Enterprise IT leaders are embracing enterprise app stores as a way to get business-approved applications into the hands of end users, and with momentum building, now is the time to seize the opportunity. Our recent survey identified the five key reasons why IT should consider building an enterprise app store.

Increased app usage control. Seventy two percent of respondents say increased control over app usage is a primary benefit of having an enterprise app store. To manage business approved applications in the next 12 months, 41% have either deployed an enterprise app store or plan to.

An app could be anything from standard business software to a third-party app like Dropbox. The goal is for users to come to the enterprise app store for all their apps, which enables IT to track costs while remaining in the loop on usage metrics.

This approach empowers us to better track which apps are in use across the enterprise and exert better control over those apps. An enterprise app store features solutions IT is familiar with and able to support. Ultimately, IT must align the apps with those that their customers want and need to do their jobs.

Decreased risk. Sixty five percent stated reduced risk is a primary benefit of having an enterprise app store. When it comes to improving enterprise application security, 61% of survey respondents say implementing an enterprise app store is either very effective or effective.

Growing mobile usage in the enterprise includes users accessing social media and other unapproved apps, which can leave a network open and vulnerable to hacking. An enterprise app store minimizes the potential of malware and spyware resulting from shadow IT by providing more options within the app store that IT has approved.

Control over software expenditures. Fifty four percent of survey respondents say greater control over software expenditures is a primary benefit of having an enterprise app store. With an enterprise app store, IT is kept in the loop with clear visibility over user expenditures.

A user who is unaware that a software license was already purchased may innocently purchase another license. This line item expense often becomes buried and forgotten about when paid for through an employee expense account, and therefore drives up costs unnecessarily. Deferring to IT, who typically receives preferred rates not available to other departments such as HR or marketing, is another way to lower costs.

When IT has control over users coming to the enterprise service catalog for apps, they can start looking at trends by department. Enabling IT to offer users suggestions based on what solutions their coworkers are using is a powerful tool. Monitoring what users are requesting means IT can stay on top of trends and deliver better tools that address user needs.

By having a single pane of glass, IT can ensure customers have the apps they need to do their job, ensuring they are the latest versions and retiring those no longer in use, thereby increasing the value of the app store.

IT is often in the unfortunate position of having to clean up someone else’s mess. Commonly, it involves an unauthorized app that wreaked havoc on a laptop or even the network. IT may have to stop what they are doing and set up a team just to tackle the issue at hand. Shadow IT operations create unnecessary administrative expenses for the organization and headaches for the IT
An enterprise service catalog, which houses the enterprise app store, enables IT to be more proactive in making sure users aren’t getting apps the company can’t support or that pose potential security risks.

Forty one percent of survey respondents say reduced license fees is a primary benefit of having an enterprise app store. Realizing cost savings on license fees is easy to execute with the visibility gained from an enterprise app store.

IT is in a position to strike deals where they obtain licenses at a bulk rate. Achieving a cost savings via consolidating and pooling discounts on solutions multiple users need is an area in which IT can become the fiscal hero.

The time to build an enterprise app store is now. The benefits of building an enterprise app store are numerous. The question is not why should you build an enterprise app store, but why aren’t you building one right now?

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