Microsoft remains publicly committed to outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer’s vision. Is that discouraging his potential replacements? 7 Mistakes Microsoft Made In 2013 (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Microsoft usually makes news in the course of the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, however the buzz typically centers on Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates giving a keynote speech that sets the tone for the approaching year’s technology trends. That’s now not the case. Microsoft is playing just a background role at this year’s show, and possible tensions in its ongoing CEO search coming to the fore. Ford CEO Alan Mulally, who have been perceived as a number one candidate since Ballmer announced his retirement plans in August, is not any longer within the running, in keeping with an AP report published this week. This technically narrows the list of possible successors, but reports continue to signify that power struggles are playing out behind the curtain. The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 3... Read More »

Automaker alliance will let cars be recognized as Android devices, seeks to dim Apple, Microsoft influence in automotive tech. CES 2014: 8 Technologies To Watch (click image for larger view and slideshow) Google, automakers Audi, GM, Honda, Hyundai, and graphics chip maker NVIDIA have formed the Open Automotive Alliance to increase the Android platform to vehicles. The coalition of technology and car companies aims to position Android in automobiles this year. The businesses hope to advertise innovation, safety, and a more intuitive user experience. Sundar Pichai, senior VP of Android, Chrome, and Apps at Google, said in an announcement that bringing Android to automobiles will facilitate the combination of mobile technology into vehicles and supply drivers with a well-known interface. The initiative should simplify developing mobile applications that run on or along side automotive electronics — in place of writing code to speak with many various proprietary systems, car-oriented apps can process data using common Android APIs. [How should mobile apps be like cocktails? See... Read More »

From robots to Obamacare, listed here are the 15 ultimate InformationWeek government tech stories from 2013. If several words could sum up 2013 for the govt technology community, they could be surveillance, robots, security, cloud computing, mobility, sequestration, and HealthCare.gov. Each helped defined the year. It is sensible, then, that every of those topics figured prominently in a single or more of the year’s hottest stories in InformationWeek Government. This year’s top-ranking stories, in keeping with the variety of readers who read them, capture a glimpse of ways technology shaped the work that government agencies were busy tackling in 2013. Government surveillance practices which have remained largely out of sight for Americans suddenly spilled into our living rooms in April as surveillance video played a number one role in identifying the suspects within the tragic Boston Marathon bombing. Although the rapid arrest of the surviving suspect brought a way of the advantages of surveillance, it also made clear just how much the nation’s citizens had... Read More »

Programs aim to take advantage of technology to higher inform and have interaction citizens in a variety of topics, from scientific research to budgeting. The Obama Administration released a second round of open government initiatives, introducing nearly two dozen plans to stimulate or improve the government’s interaction with citizens — from streamlining Freedom of knowledge Act (FOIA) requests to “participatory budgeting” mechanisms allowing citizens to steer public spending projects of their communities. The Second Open Government National Action Plan (NAP) expands on initiatives from the administration’s first set of open government initiatives, released in September 2011. Those initiatives included improving the functionality of different government websites, including the White House “We the folks” online petition site, Performance.gov, Data.gov, and other open data initiatives throughout government agencies. Other initiatives launched or expanded by the administration, in accordance with a Dec. 6 post by Nick Sinai, US Deputy CTO, and Gayle Smith, special assistant to the President, include efforts to expand using challenges, incentive prizes, citizen science,... Read More »