Software Breaking News

Oracle buying Taleo for US$1.9 billion in direct hit at SAP

Oracle is buying cloud-based talent management and employee recruitment software vendor Taleo for roughly US$1.9 billion, the company announced Thursday. The move comes shortly after SAP's move to acquire SuccessFactors, a close competitor of Taleo, for US$3.4 billion in a deal that has yet to close.
Microsoft exec: Lync-Skype integration a 'compelling opportunity'

Microsoft is looking at creating a bridge between Lync, its enterprise IM, voice and video communications product, and Skype as part of its broader initiative to extend the Office platform, a company executive said on Wednesday.
Free Web tool consolidates data on code vulnerabilities

Enterprise coders can now use an open source Web application that lets them consolidate software vulnerability data from a range of scanning and test tools. With a centralized view, and reporting and management tools, ThreadFix speeds the work needed to fix software bugs and vulnerabilities, including those in proliferating mobile apps.
Kernel guru Greg Kroah-Hartman joins Linux Foundation

One of the principle maintainers of the Linux kernel, Greg Kroah-Hartman, has joined the Linux Foundation as a fellow, the same position held by Linux creator Linus Torvalds, the foundation announced.
Microsoft 'committed' to Hyper-V OpenStack support

Microsoft may try to revive support for Hyper-V in OpenStack as the community considers removing the code -- which one OpenStack developer called broken and unmaintained -- from the stack.
13 Windows 8 features worth knowing about

Upgrades, system migration, support headaches -- IT folks are probably dreading the next major Windows rollout. Yet Windows 8, which is scheduled to move to the beta stage in late February and will likely launch in the fall, does offer several compelling new features for both IT and end users.
IBM buys Worklight for mobile software platform

IBM on Tuesday announced plans to buy Worklight, a move that will give it a range of cross-platform mobile application development technologies. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter, were not disclosed.
Microsoft sets Office 15 public beta for summer 2012

Microsoft announced it has kicked off a "technical preview" of the next version of its money-making Office suite and promised a public beta will ship this summer.
Macworld | iWorld 2012 Best of Show winners

The annual expo for Mac and iOS users has evolved to focus on the user community, but the Macworld | iWorld exhibit hall where companies show off their wares is still a huge part of the show--you might even say it's the most important part. Hundreds of products are on display, but a few stand out from the rest. We call these products the Best of Show.
Dig deep into Lion: The best overlooked, underrated features

Apple billed this summer's release of Mac OS X Lion as having more than 200 new features, but most coverage of Lion in the intervening months has focused on only a handful of them. While iOS-like navigation and app-launching interfaces, autosave/restore capabilities, AirDrop file sharing and an emergency restore partition are by all means important, there are a lot of helpful tweaks and enhancements that can easily be missed.
Cisco's project "Futurama" targets consumerization of IT

Cisco is in the midst of a major initiative to better integrate its various collaboration products and to give their interfaces a uniform, consistent design in order to make them easier to use and more effective at helping employees work with each other.
Macworld | iWorld: It's about business, too

Despite the show's emphasis on music, art, and fun, serious business apps are also making an appearance at Macworld | iWorld.
2011 'eventful year for Mac malware'

2011 was an eventful year for Mac malware, seeing the release of the 'most effective and widespread malware' targeting Macs to date, according to Intego.
Sh*t End Users Say

Killing a video meme with one of our own
Google patches several serious Chrome bugs

Google on Monday patched four vulnerabilities in Chrome, and disclosed that it had patched a fifth two weeks ago.
Microsoft reveals launch date for next-generation SQL Server 2012

Microsoft has announced a March 7 online event for the launch of SQL Server 2012, the next generation of its database product.
Security roundup: Anonymous attacks DOJ, RIAA sites; Israeli-Palestinian cyberconflict escalates

Angered by the move by federal authorities to shut down the popular website Megaupload on charges it illegally shared movies, TV shows and e-books, hackers said to be working on behalf of the hactivist group Anonymous late yesterday launched denial-of-service attacks against a number of websites, including that of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
FBI busts programmer for stealing US Treasury code

The FBI said it arrested a computer programmer in New York this week and charged him with stealing proprietary software code from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The software known as the Government-Wide Accounting and Reporting Program (GWA) handles all manner of U.S. government financial transactions.
NetApp's Tom Georgens: How we got big, stayed nimble, and view storage today

In an exclusive interview, NetApp CEO Tom Georgens talks about virtualization, the private cloud, and how his company defines big data
Surging mobile use creating big security headaches: survey

An explosion of personal mobile devices on corporate networks is creating new security headaches for the enterprise, according to a survey of IT professionals by a network security vendor.
RainStor launches Hadoop version of enterprise database

Online database repository provider RainStor unveiled what it is calling the industry's first enterprise-class database that runs natively on Hadoop.
Chinese 'attack US DOD smart cards' with Sykipot malware

A new strain of Sykipot is being used to attack U.S. Department of Defense smart cards.
Internet group seeks wider input for BIND 10

The Internet Systems Consortium is looking for a few more good programmers to bring the next generation of its open source BIND DNS server software to fruition.
Jaspersoft aims its open-source analytics suite at PaaS vendors

Open-source BI (business intelligence) vendor Jaspersoft wants its software to become another arrow in the quiver for developers using commercial PaaS (platform-as-a-service) offerings.
WowWee puts real toys in digital games, creates 'appcessories'

WowWee showed an upcoming game platform at the Consumer Electronics Show called AppGear, which combines real toys with on-screen animation to create a new product category it calls "appcessories."