05/07, 7:30pm
Patch fixes numerous bugs, requires OS X 10.5.8 or higher
A new update is available for Microsoft Office 2011, the most recent version of the widely-used office suite. Version 14.3.4 addresses numerous issues and bugs, adds a needed font for sharing documents, and most importantly further refines the interoperability of the Office 365 initiative, allowing the option for users to jump to the subscription version of Office if they want. In addition, the new version adds the built-in option of saving files to SkyDrive and SharePoint in Microsoft Word.
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04/30, 11:46am
Express Dock now available for purchase
After months of delays Belkin has finally made its Thunderbolt Express Dock available for purchase through its online store. First announced at CES 2011, the Express Dock was originally expected to be launched in September 2012. However, various setbacks and revisions continually pushed this date back until Belkin finally began accepting pre-orders this past February. The final revision is being sold for $300 and features eight ports, one FireWire 800, one Gigabit Ethernet, three USB 3.0, one 3.5mm audio-in, one 3.5mm audio out, and one Thunderbolt port, that can simultaneously be connected to a computer through a single Thunderbolt cable.
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04/29, 3:09pm
Item libraries, Bluetooth scanners speed up checkouts
Square has issued a major update of the iOS and Android versions of Register, the app for the company's retail checkout system. Version 3.0 focuses on improvements for restaurants: customers can add custom tips, and the payment pad now supports multiple custom amounts, which can each have individual notes attached. On the iPad, customizable kitchen tickets can include a name or number, and orders can be modified at the counter.
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04/24, 9:01am
Study files mobile devices being used indoors as much as on-the-go
A new study by Filemaker has found that mobile devices are being used for building management and other "inside" enterprise jobs as much or more than they are employed "in the field" or on-the-go. Businesses -- the survey of 500 Filemaker Go customers found -- are "mobilizing" automated processes including web and remote-device admin, maintenance reports and connection to in-house servers more and more, allowing even workers who don't leave the building the freedom to do their jobs at or away from their desks.
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04/18, 6:00pm
Enables more social interaction, showcases 'influencers'
Business-oriented networking service LinkedIn has unveiled version 6.0 of its iOS app, which brings an overhauled design to the iPhone and iPod version based on the design of the iPad app. The program allows more than 200 million professionals to post career histories and job information, network with colleagues and mentors, search for future employment opportunities, catch up on industry news and participate in discussions. The iPhone version can now be used to edit a user's profile and save recommended jobs, among other changes.
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04/08, 3:47pm
1,600 individual servers can fit in a standard rack
HP today unveiled the world’s first commercially-available Moonshot system, which the company claims uses up to 89 percent less energy, occupies 80 percent less space, and costs 77 percent less compared to traditional X86 servers with the same processing power. The 4.3-unit high system is tailored for "social, cloud, mobile, and big-data" uses.
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04/02, 11:18pm
Device integrates off the shelf servers with easy user setup
Cloud systems company Nebula today announced the availability of the Nebula One, a low-configuration enterprise cloud computer. The hardware is a turnkey private cloud system that provides computational, network, and storage services through a simple self-guided interface with familiar APIs, using industry-standard servers from vendors such as HP, IBM, and Dell.
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04/02, 5:31pm
iOS update improves Drive functions
Google has brought Quickoffice to the iPhone and Android devices for Apps for Business customers. Quickoffice lets users work with Microsoft Office files; previously, Apps for Business subscribers were limited to using an iPad app. The new releases still require an Apps for Business account, but are otherwise free downloads.
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04/01, 6:58am
Shutdown of AMD, Cell-based supercomputer despite #22 ranking
The Los Alamos National Laboratory is shutting down its Roadrunner supercomputer, after deeming it too energy inefficient. Constructed by IBM in 2008, the five-year-old supercomputer was at one point the fastest in the world after achieving a speed exceeding one petaflop: one million billion calculations per second.
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03/29, 9:23am
QuarkXPress upgrade promotion
Quark has announced an extension to its upgrade promotion that allows QuarkXPress version 3 through 8 users to upgrade to QuarkXPress 9 for $349. Customers now have until June 30 to take advantage of the $500 discount, which otherwise is only offered to QuarkXPress 8 users. Features of v9 include a number of processes that can automatically style content based on styling rules, a cloning tool for duplication design elements, and access to App Studio for creating HTML5-based apps for the iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, and Android devices.
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03/28, 7:00pm
Study highlights differences in world region use, productivity apps
A new report by business networking giant Citrix has taken a look at the global usage and activation share of the top mobile platforms, and confirms other recent findings that iOS is not only dominant in enterprise, but is actually gaining ground against competitors. The study found some surprising variations in platform patterns in the three primary world regions, but saw Apple as the largest share in all three. It also noted that the iOS versions Numbers and Pages have become popular alternatives to Microsoft Office for many enterprise users.
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03/12, 8:00pm
Security issues, bugs addressed in latest update
Microsoft has updated its flagship Mac product, Microsoft Office for Mac in both the 2011 and 2008 editions, along with a separate update for Entourage Web Services for Office 2008. The updates fix critical security issues and also help improve overall security, including "fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code," according to the release notes. In addition, the 2011 Office update delivers several bug fixes, and the Entourage update now syncs information with Exchange Server.
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03/07, 8:20pm
Android losing ground with business, but inching up in tablets
Two new studies -- one focusing on enterprise usage of mobile devices, the other looking at tablets -- have shored up conventional wisdom on the distribution of platforms, relegating everything but iOS and Android offerings to "other," but providing some new insights and a hint of changing trends. Advertising network and mobile analyst firm Chitika finds that the iPad continues its overwhelming dominance, but shows Android tablets finally inching up in usage, while Egnyte's study finds Android falling in corporate influence.
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03/01, 7:45pm
Pundits fear competition, productions issues hurting Apple
On Friday, AAPL closed the week by dropping nearly $11 to $430.87, its lowest point since January 2012. The stock has now lost nearly 40 percent from its all-time high of $705 a share, and despite healthy sales forecasts and a string of better news for the company, including the dropping of David Einhorn's "silly sideshow" lawsuit over the issuing of preferred stock. The falling price comes in the face of Wall Street managing to eek out a tiny gain for the day, in spite of news that congressional leaders are unable to avoid the so-called "sequestration" crisis.
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02/27, 5:55am
Introduces retail Liquipod Tower system at MWC
Aftermarket water protection provider Liquipel has started working with JayBird to offer some of its products with the hydrophobic coating already applied. The partnership comes at the same time as Liquipel announces the availability of its Liquipod Tower, a self-contained machine that allows for retail establishments to offer the treatment to their customers.
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02/27, 2:30am
Microsoft exec avoids question, suggests Surface, 365 options
The head of the Office division at Microsoft played coy and dodged questions from analysts about plans to release an iPad version of Microsoft Office, stressing the current online versions and suggesting the program as a selling point for the company's beleaguered Surface tablet. Kurt DelBene was asked about the software at a Morgan Stanley technology conference in San Francisco, but instead pointed to iOS versions of some Office add-ons such as OneNote, Lync, SharePoint and its cloud-storage offering SkyDrive.
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02/26, 10:23pm
Even older iOS equipment dwarfs Android in activations
Not only does Apple completely dominate enterprise activations of mobile equipment, its share of such activations is growing, according to a new report [PDF] from Good Technology. Looking over the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple devices accounted for eight of the top 10 mobile activations in the corporate sector, with the current iPhone lineup grabbing the top three slots and recent iPad models rounding out the top five. The first Android device, the Samsung Galaxy S III, took sixth place with six percent, with other Android models being beaten out by the iPad 4 and older iOS devices.
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02/22, 11:49am
MacTech Office accreditation program
MacTech has announced that it will now be offering a new Microsoft Office for Mac accreditation program. The half day course will be offered the day before each MacTech BootCamp II in 2013 and includes information on both Microsoft Office for Mac and Microsoft Office 365. At the end of the course, attendees will be evaluated on the content presented, and those who demonstrate sufficient knowledge will become a "Microsoft Office for Mac Accredited Support Professional." This accreditation includes an official certificate from Microsoft, as well as an accreditation graphic for use on web sites.
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02/21, 10:34am
Restrictions push users to buy full apps
Apple-owned FileMaker has announced iOS Demo Solutions, a new section on its website. The page gathers together a variety of iPad and iPhone database tools created using FileMaker. In keeping with its name, each app in the section is limited either in terms of time or features, in a bid to get people to pay for full products.
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02/20, 7:55pm
Receipt printer costs extra $300
Mobile-based point-of-sale developer Square has announced the Business in a Box, a new hardware option for retailers. The system includes a cash drawer, a Square card reader, and a WindFall iPad stand, meant to hold an iPad running the Square Register app. In theory the combination should be able to handle all major POS tasks, including creating custom inventories and running analytics.
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02/15, 11:50am
Tempo SSD cards gain Mac Pro boot support
Sonnet Technologies has upgraded its Tempo SSD and Tempo SSD Pro cards, to now support booting in Mac Pro computers. With the update, users can boot from a Mac Pro even in a RAID 0 configuration with two solid-state drives. The Tempo SSD card uses a 6Gb/sec SATA controller and a PCIe 2.0 interface to deliver read speeds of up to 500MB/sec from a single SSD or 660MB/sec from two SSDs configured as a RAID 0 set. Meanwhile, the Tempo SSD Pro users a higher-performance 6Gb/sec SATA SSD controller that supports sustained read speeds of up to 960 MB/sec from two SSDs configured as a RAID 0 set. The Tempo SSD and Tempo SSD Pro are available now at costs of $150 and $300 respectively.
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02/14, 1:38am
Problem identified, causes excessive resource use on both ends
A bug in iOS 6.1 that played havoc with battery life and resources on the iOS device and caused excess logging and usage on Microsoft Exchange-based servers when syncing with iOS devices has been identified, Apple reported on Wednesday. The company says a fix will be made available in a forthcoming update, but doesn't give a firm timeframe. Under iOS 6.1, devices that try to sync with a site running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 cause errors and problems on both the device and the server.
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02/10, 8:38pm
Share sale repeat of $1.45B transaction last year
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt will be selling two-fifths of his stake in the company in exchange for a significant amount of cash. The former CEO will earn around $2.51 billion from the transaction, the intention for which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission after hours on Friday.
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02/05, 9:09pm
Builds on move to web-based interface, plug-in architecture
FTP administration and file-serving software CrushFTP has been updated to version 6.2, building on and addressing issues with the earlier release that moved the program entirely to a web-based interface and introduced client applications, multimedia support, PGP encryption, multiple admin capability and more. The new update offers many changes and improvements, and fixes numerous bugs. The CrushSync real-time sync engine has been redesigned to use the web interface, and CrushTask has been extensively improved.
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02/04, 10:47pm
Switcher interest in new BB smartphones said to be 'surprising'
Sensing a change in the corporate marketplace since they last ruled the roost, BlackBerry today announced the first app for iOS and Android based on a feature of their BlackBerry 10 platform called "Work Space." The app essentially allows smartphone owners to "split" their device into two profiles: a group of apps for personal use, and a group for work that can be administered remotely without interfering with the personal "side." By keeping the two sets of data separate, the solution is marketed as promoting user security.
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02/04, 8:15pm
Corrects bugs, enhances features, adds speed, Retina support
Apple has issued a minor update to its OS X Server app for Mountain Lion, now at version 2.21. The $20 program allows anyone with a Mountain Lion install to turn the OS into a server OS utilizing a suite of utilities included in the application. The update improves the speed of downloading Mac App Store software through improved caching, adds Time Machine service monitoring, brings Retina display support for the Wiki Server, adds the ability to use Active Directory groups in Profile Manager and more.
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02/01, 10:54pm
Signals the beginnings of an overhaul in progress
Recent job postings and the acquisition of enterprise-grade organizational software patents by Apple may suggest that work is underway on revamped versions of the programs comprising what Apple still calls the iLife and iWork suites. While it is possible that the company has planned a nearer-term update to the aging programs, the moves also suggest that any overhauled versions -- which would be supervised now by lead hardware and software designer Sir Jonathan Ive -- are a long way off.
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01/23, 3:35pm
Management software gets BlackBerry 10 compatibility
Research in Motion is now shipping BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. The software handles mobile device, security, and app management tasks for large organizations. The v10 release includes compatibility with RIM's upcoming BlackBerry 10-based phones, such as the Z10.
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01/23, 12:41pm
Israel-based company specializes in software-defined networking
Network equipment manufacturer Cisco is intending to acquire Israel-based networking software producer Intucell for $475 million. The deal would give Cisco more options to offer its customers in terms of software-defined networking, as well as access to Intucell's existing agreements with telecommunications companies such as AT&T, something that Intucell provides some of the infrastructure for.
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01/16, 4:25pm
Third High Street chain to do so in seven-day period
Movie rentals company Blockbuster's United Kingdom arm has applied for bankruptcy protection after 24 years of operation. The move takes place in the same one-week period as photography chain Jessops and music retailer HMV headed into administration in the UK, unable to battle online retailers and providers of online and post-based services
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01/10, 4:07pm
Requires Coordinate license
Google has released an official Coordinate app for the iPhone. The title is aimed explicitly at businesses that already have Coordinate service licenses. With one in place, though, the app can be used to track workers' locations in real-time, assign jobs, and pass along information needed to complete tasks.
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01/07, 11:06am
LaCie introduces Blade Runner, new RAID options
LaCie has announced three new storage devices at CES. Among these is the Blade Runner, a desktop hard drive designed by Philippe Starck. Its name stems from "blades" enclosing an amorphous main body, which in turn houses a 4TB hard disk. The drive has a single USB 3.0 connection, and costs $300. Only 9,999 units are being produced.
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01/04, 3:06am
Records sales, new growth in enterprise could mark 2013
Despite the three-month decline of Apple's stock price, some analysts are now more confident that the company has some solid operations behind it and will continue to deliver industry-beating growth rates across 2013 and into the following year, even if speculated new products such as "Pandora-like radio service" or long-rumored HDTV set never materialize. There is also some evidence the corporate and enterprise buying of Apple products may snowball in 2013.
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12/20, 12:01am
Apple's iOS line holds dominant stake in phone, tablet activations
Premium enterprise email outfit Intermedia has released results of its poll of small- and medium-business smartphone and tablet activations, showing Apple as having a hugely dominant presence in both areas, particularly in tablets. While combined sales of Android phones may be significantly larger than that of iPhone alone, when it comes to business the results are lopsided in the other direction, with Apple accounting for 68.2 percent of phone activations and 92.6 percent of tablet activations.
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12/07, 9:56am
Existing free users of Apps for Business remain unaffected
Google has withdrawn the free version of its Apps for Business to new registrations. Originally offered as free to organizations with less than 200 users, Google has reduced the user count periodically over time to the most recent 10-user limit, and now forces individuals to use the personal Google Account or face paying for the single "for Businesses" option.
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12/03, 6:41pm
Resolves issue with screen-sharing graphics in iChat, Messages
Apple has updated the client and admin components of its Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) to version 3.6.2 in order to address an issue where users may only see white video when screen sharing from Messages or iChat to a system running OS X Lion. The current client version of ARD, which for most users is included in their version of OS X, can be updated through Software Update on Lion or Mountain Lion (website and Mac App Store not yet updated).
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11/30, 3:26pm
AViiQ offering wood iPhone case
A new line of iPhone cases that feature various real wood trims has been released by AViiQ. The Thin Case with Wood measures less than 1.4mm thick and provides full device protection to the iPhone. Available in 5 wood and color combinations, including yellow-walnut, blue-cherry, green-cherry, white-maple and black-walnut, the case sells for $28 online.
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11/28, 4:43pm
Continued requests to keep details confidential ignored by government
More details about Amazon's UK tax affairs have been released to the public by the British government, despite requests for secrecy. The ongoing Parliament's Public Accounts Select Committee released details supplied by the retailer relating to taxes, with the provided evidence showing that a total of £1.8 million ($2.9 million) in corporation tax was paid in 2011.
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11/28, 2:51pm
Pogo Connect adds Photoshop Touch support
Ten One Design has announced that its Pogo Connect stylus is now fully compatible with the updated version of Adobe Photoshop Touch. The Pogo Connect, which was originally launched at the beginning of October, uses Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity to pair directly to an iPad and offers full pressure sensitivity and palm rejection functionality. The Pogo Connect can be ordered online for $80, while a pack of additional tips costs $10.
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11/28, 2:29pm
S3 storage also reduced by a quarter
Amazon has launched a new data warehouse service at the Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference today, alongside some price changes to its hosting and processing services. The petabyte-scale service called Amazon Redshift will allow users to "dramatically increase the speed of query performance" when large sets of data are being analyzed, and will work with the same SQL-based tools already being used.
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11/27, 1:11pm
Supplied sales information requested to remain confidential
Amazon has released details on its Black Friday and Cyber Monday Kindle sales, calling the two days the "best ever for the Kindle family." The figures are released at the same time as confidential sales figures for the company's UK operations were published by a parliamentary committee investigating its British tax affairs.
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11/21, 10:32pm
Enterprise sales up over 50 percent, nearing 10 percent marketshare
Part of Apple's ability to defy -- sometimes quite dramatically -- the ongoing slump of traditional PC sales may be due to a slow-growing but increasing acceptance of Macs in the enterprise. Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf has highlighted the growth in a note to investors using data from the September quarter, showing that sales of Macs to US businesses has nearly doubled over the past year, from 5.4 percent in fiscal Q4 2011 to 9.3 percent in the most recent quarter. While sales of PCs to the business sector were down 13.3 percent year-over-year, Apple was up more than 21 percent in the same period.
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11/05, 7:59pm
Samsung For Enterprise launches in Europe
Samsung announced today that it had launched its enterprise security-oriented program, Samsung For Enterprise (SaFE), in Europe ahead of a global rollout. The program, aimed at accommodating the Bring-Your-Own-Device trend in enterprise, has already launched in the United States, but the global launch is meant to spread Samsung's reliability and security standards to the international market. The program integrates Samsung's B2B platform and leverages a number of Samsung-approved developers to provide applications and services that allow enterprises to rely on Samsung devices without needing to worry about potential security issues.
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10/25, 11:13am
Honeywell's rugged Dolphin 70e Black gets 12-hour life, area-imaging scanner
Honeywell has introduced its first rugged enterprise hybrid phone, the Dolphin 70e Black. It sports a 4.3-inch, capacitive touchcscreen that is viewable in direct sunlight and is IP67-rated for resistance to water and dust. It also has what most consumer handsets lack in the form of an enterprise-class, area-imaging scanner.
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10/22, 6:29pm
Agency will shift $2.1 million in annual purchasing to Apple
In yet another blow to beleaguered Canadian tech giant Research In Motion, the US government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has filed to stop using BlackBerrys for its agency smartphones, and will instead switch to Apple's iPhones. The deal, worth $2.1 million annually, will provide iPhones for most of the agency's more than 17,600 employees, according to a solicitation document obtained by Reuters. ICE studied both Android and iOS as options before deciding that iPhones best met its needs.
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10/22, 3:07pm
Z-Push iOS 6 bug fixed
The My Passport Enterprise, a new portable hard drive designed for use with Microsoft's Windows To Go, has been released by WD. My Passport Enterprise features 500GB of storage space and several security features including BitLocker full disk encryption. With support for Windows To Go, customers can turn their drive into a bootable Windows 8 workspace that includes all of their data and settings. The My Passport Enterprise will be available across the US on October 26th for $120.
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10/22, 7:40am
Windows 8 may be by-passed by enterprise altogether
Although Microsoft has invested a huge amount of effort in developing Windows 8, it is unlikely that many companies will be early adopters of the new OS, reports Reuters. It is also quite possible that some enterprises may never adopt it according to analysts. From an enterprise perspective, Windows 8 is perceived primarily as a consumer operating system with many companies still to make the switch to Windows 7 from Windows XP.
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10/10, 5:05pm
Coupon company moves into Square, OpenTable territory
Groupon has announced its first point-of-sale system for retail, Breadcrumb. The technology is iPad-only, but designed to be easily connected to hardware such as cash drawers and receipt printers. On top of handling transactions, the system also presents information on topics like sales figures, and food and labor costs.
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10/10, 2:32pm
Balance feature locks enterprise functions
Research In Motion headlined the second-day keynote at the MobileCon expo in San Diego, where the company once again showed off its upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform. Chief information officer Robin Bienfait reiterated RIM's commitment to building a fresh computing platform "from the ground up," and further claimed the mobile device is "approaching the functionality and power of a laptop."
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10/09, 11:44pm
Now offers global proxy, Lock to App, fixes, more
Late Tuesday, Apple updated its Apple Configurator mass-imaging and control program for Macs that manages remote iOS devices to version 1.2, adding support for iOS 6 features on supervised devices. Also new with this version a "Lock to App" feature, a global HTTP proxy, support for iOS 6 restrictions, and a way for managers to allow users access to features previously restricted, including access to the iBookstore for purchase of certain kinds of e-books, use of Game Center, iMessage and allowing users to remove apps from the device themselves if desired.
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