NexDock is probably a new name to a lot of our readers. The company’s first product was a crowd-funded $120 device that made a 14″ laptop-of-sorts out of pretty much anything with an HDMI output. Now the company is back with a second revision that can also turn one of Intel’s recently-announced Compute Cards into a hybrid tablet-laptop device with a touchscreen.
The device is shaped like a conventional tablet with a bulge in the chassis, where the Compute Card is inserted. The company cleverly calls this bulge an ergonomic hand grip. Instead of the old Micro HDMI plug, the second-generation NexDock uses a USB Type-C port that allows a connected device to provide brains for the screen while simultaneously being charged.
The potential of a device like this is easy enough to recognize. The NexDock offers easy-to-understand functionality for the average user. A particularly active person who is tough on hinges and screens could keep a couple NexDocks on hand and easily swap his computer or smartphone from chassis to chassis. Frequent upgraders can easily reuse the docking unit as they move to newer devices, too.
NexDock says a crowdfunding campaign for the new docking unit with Intel Compute Card compatibility will begin in mid-2017.

© Source: http://techreport.com/news/31292/nexdock-offers-a-home-for-intel-compute-cards
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Getting physically fit is a typical New Year’s resolution. Given that most of us spend more time online than in a gym, the start of the new year also might be a great time to improve your security “fitness.” As with physical fitness challenges, the biggest issue with digital security is always stagnation. That is, if you don’t move and don’t change, atrophy sets in. In physical fitness, atrophy is a function of muscles not being exercised. In digital fitness, security risks increase when you fail to change passwords, update network systems and adopt improved security technology. Before long, your IT systems literally become a “sitting duck.” Given the volume of data breaches that occurred in 2016, it is highly likely that everyone reading this has had at least one breach of their accounts compromised in some way, such as their Yahoo data account. Hackers somewhere may have one of the passwords you’ve used at one point to access a particular site or service. If you’re still using that same password somewhere, in a way that can connect that account to you, that’s a non-trivial risk. Changing passwords is the first of eight security resolutions that can help to improve your online security fitness in 2017. Click through this eWEEK slide show to discover the rest.

© Source: http://www.eweek.com/security/slideshows/resolve-to-follow-these-8-steps-for-better-data-security-in-2017.html
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise has agreed to buy SimpliVity for $650 million as it expands its hyperconverged offerings, and analysts say it’s a great deal.
SimpliVity makes management software that helps administrators gain control over data center resources. The tools help enterprises make efficient use of server, storage and networking resources.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.
For months, HPE was rumored to be pursuing SimpliVity, which also offers convergence tools for servers from Dell, Lenovo and Huawei. Hyperconvergence companies are a hot commodity. Nutanix, a top player in the market, went public in September last year.
Hyperscale companies typically have virtualized environments so computing resources can be scaled quickly. HPE is aggressively chasing cloud deployments with its hyperconverged hardware, and SimpliVity’s tools will fit into those offerings.
The acquisition is a big deal for HPE, said Patrick Moorhead, principal at Moor Insights and Strategy, in an email.
« I predicted HPE would make infrastructure purchases once they started to spin-merge their services and software divisions, » Moorhead said.
HPE recently sold its software assets to Micro Focus and spun off its services assets, merging them with CSC to create a new company .
SimpliVity was valued at more than $1 billion late in 2015, so HPE got a good deal, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. HPE is adding good assets to its growing hyperconverged portfolio, he said.
« SimpliVity will be better under the broad wings of HPE, » King said.
HPE’s acquisition of SimpliVity will give it a leg up on Dell and Lenovo, King said. Those companies offer servers with SimpliVity as well as products based on Nutanix technology.
Once the deal is complete, HPE will offer the SimpliVity Omni Stack software with its ProLiant DL380 servers. The company will also integrate SimpliVity hyperconverged systems in Proliant servers in the second half of this year. SimpliVity customers won’t be affected by the acquisition, HPE said.
HPE also reassured customers that it would continue offering the HC 380 and the HC 250, which are hyperconverged systems with virtualization technology from VMware. Dell last year acquired EMC, which owns VMware. Since then, HPE has been trying to cut EMC assets from its product lines. But it’ll be harder for it to cut products based on VMware, which dominates virtualization deployments.
HPE is also looking to change data center architectures with The Machine, which will use new types of memory and storage and high-speed laser interconnects to link resources in a data center.

© Source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3158828/servers/hpe-to-buy-simplivity-for-650m-to-boost-hyperconvergence.html
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Qualcomm is accused of anticompetive practices when it comes to licensing its patents.
Qualcomm forced Apple to use its chips exclusively in exchange for lower licensing fees, excluding competitors and harming competition, the US said in a lawsuit Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed by the Federal Trade Commission, accuses Qualcomm, the world’s biggest maker of baseband processors for mobile phones, of maintaining a monopoly over chips for cellular phones through a « no license, no chips » policy. That policy imposed « onerous » supply and patent-licensing terms to extract high royalties from cell phone makers and weaken competitors, the commission said.
« Qualcomm recognized that any competitor that won Apple’s business would become stronger, and used exclusivity to prevent Apple from working with and improving the effectiveness of Qualcomm’s competitors, » the FTC said in a statement .
The lawsuit continues a pattern of antitrust scrutiny directed at Qualcomm in recent years. Last month, the South Korean Fair Trade Commission hit the chipset maker with an $850 million fine for maintaining an « unfair business model » and creating a monopoly with its practices. In February, China fined Qualcomm almost $1 billion as part of a long-running antimonopoly investigation into the company.
In its heavily redacted complaint ( PDF ), the FTC said the patents Qualcomm held are standard-essential patents — technology that is essential to the industry and must be licensed to competitors under fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms (FRAND). But the complaint alleges that Qualcomm consistently refused to license some standard-essential patents to rival chipmakers, in violation of its FRAND commitments.
« Qualcomm’s customers have accepted elevated royalties and other license terms that do not reflect an assessment of terms that a court or other neutral arbiter would determine to be fair and reasonable, » the FTC said in its complaint.
The company said the FTC’s lawsuit is based on « flawed legal theory.  »
« Qualcomm has never withheld or threatened to withhold chip supply in order to obtain agreement to unfair or unreasonable licensing terms, » Qualcomm said in a statement. « The FTC’s allegation to the contrary — the central thesis of the complaint — is wrong.  »
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Qualcomm shares fell 4 percent to $64.19 on news of the lawsuit.

© Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/qualcomm-forced-apple-into-exclusive-chip-deal-ftc-says/
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