DigitalGlobe’s soon-to-be six satellites gather data at a freakish pace — capturing images of everything from natural disasters to shipping containers in ports. DigitalGlobe’s soon-to-be six satellites orbiting the globe are amassing image data at a freakish pace. Its archive would be ready to offer new services with that data, provided it could maintain the gathering, storage, indexing, and repair-delivery infrastructure had to support it. DigitalGlobe offers image services to forestry agencies, mining companies, government crop-estimating experts, and other organizations seeking information on everything from the choice of cars in a competitor’s car parking zone to the variety of shipping containers in port. The Longmont, Colo., firm has varieties of satellites in orbit, some collecting color images, some black and white. It applies different software to the resulting data — as an instance, stretching upward when it’s viewing the Himalayas and other mountain ranges, and chopping the shadows off tall buildings lest the picture misrepresent their true height. But one in all its biggest tasks... Read More »

Is Microsoft’s Office 365 Personal best for you? Here is what it’s a must to know. Windows 8.1 Update 1: 10 Key Changes (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) This week Microsoft announced Office 365 Personal, a version of the cloud-based subscription service with the intention to become available this spring. Since its launch in July 2013, Office 365 has tallied greater than 3.5 million consumer subscribers. Will the brand new version help the service further expand its reach? Listed here are five essential facts about Microsoft’s newest Office offering. 1. Office 365 Personal will cost as low as $70 per year. Office 365 Personal will allow users to run Office applications on one PC or Mac and one tablet. Users can subscribe for $6.99 monthly, or annually for $69.99. Microsoft confirmed to InformationWeek that Office 365 Personal will entitle users to Office Mobile on “multiple” non-Windows smartphones, and that the corporate will announce specifics soon. Like any flavors of Office 365, Personal will... Read More »

This was an outstanding year for Microsoft with some big customer wins. But these seven missteps were just dumb. Hey, Nobody’s Perfect If you are looking in Microsoft’s rear mirror, that you can describe what you spot in hundreds of the way. One adjective you almost certainly won’t use for the company’s 2013 is “quiet.” It was a hectic year even by Microsoft’s standards. From Windows 8.1 to Xbox One to the Nokia device business acquisition to Office 365’s continued growth to Steve Ballmer’s (somewhat) surprising retirement announcement — let alone that whole NSA spying thing — it seemed each week brought a brand new wave of headlines out of Redmond. There was excellent news. Office 365 had some big customer wins and gave the impression to solidify the way forward for the Office franchise. Xbox One seems to be a success. The Azure cloud is expanding globally. The skin 2 and Surface 2 Pro are sold out, or even if there’s some inventory management... Read More »

Yahoo suffers hack attack, eyes third-party database and reused credentials as likely culprits, may enforce two-factor authentication to aid users recover accounts. 9 Notorious Hackers Of 2013 (Click image for larger view and for slideshow.) Yahoo said it reset passwords for an unspecified collection of accounts after detecting an unfolding hack-attack campaign. “Recently, we identified a coordinated effort to realize unauthorized access to Yahoo Mail accounts. Upon discovery, we took immediate action to guard our users, prompting them to reset passwords on impacted accounts,” said Jay Rossiter, who’s accountable for Yahoo’s platforms and personalization products, in an “important security update for Yahoo Mail users” blog post. Some related notifications, however, have not begun to be made. To help users recover their accounts, Yahoo said it should force users to employ second sign-in verification — its version of 2-factor authentication — which sends a six-digit code via SMS to a user’s registered cellular phone number, provided they’ve one on file. According to Litmus email analytics, Yahoo... Read More »

Amazon Prime customers get free deliveries and instant streaming video downloads. But will they accept a $20 price hike? 10 Jobs Destined For Robots (Click image for larger view.) Amazon has increased the cost of its $79 Prime free delivery service by $20, the primary hike because it was introduced nine years ago. After April 17, those signing up can pay $99 a year for 2-day free delivery of purchases and streaming of Prime Instant Video movies. The move may bring it a momentary surge in signups. “Lock in low cost,” reads an indication at the Prime join up page. But what it means in the end is open to discuss. UBS analyst Eric Sheridan downgraded his recommendation of Amazon stock from buy to neutral, in response to a survey before Amazon’s move that the web retailer would lose Prime members if it raised the yearly fee. The UBS survey found that at $99, about 58% of Prime users said they might renew. At $119,... Read More »