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One of the things I mention very infrequently is that I was groomed to be a CEO from a very early age. At IBM, I was part of two programs. One was a unique Tiger Team effort designed to correct underperforming units by eliminating problem executives, and then replacing them with team members until new and hopefully better executives could be found. The other was the firm's grooming program for top executives. Those were on top of my three management degrees and Certified Management Accounting certificate. ...

Home networks are a key building block for today's connected home systems and products, and wireless is the dominant method of connectivity for a variety of smart home, computing and entertainment devices. As a result, loss of wireless connectivity can be disruptive to the user experience and seriously impair the value proposition of computing and entertainment devices.

In 2018, 8.8 percent of all retail sales globally, totaling more than US$2 trillion, were made online, according to the Global Online Retail Spending report. As the total number of online purchases continues to grow, a compelling case can be made that e-commerce customers expect to receive support that is as good as or even better than those who purchase the very same products in a store...

Apple announced several new services earlier this week. Apple TV+, the star of the lineup, will launch this fall with some high-profile original content -- something that has become key to the success of any over-the-top streaming service Apple also announced Apple TV Channels, an aggregation service that will pull together content offerings from c...

The Zorin OS 15 series, released last week in beta, introduces many changes to its desktop interface and utilities. It keeps Zorin on track with its goal of maintaining a Linux OS for everyone, not just advanced Linux users....

You'd be hard pressed to find a tactic more capable of winning and losing customers than personalization. In the past, bad personalization has cost businesses three-quarters of a trillion dollars. In the future, Gartner claims smart personalization will enable businesses to boost their profits by up to 15 percent: ...

The United States Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced an investigation into the privacy policies, procedures and practices of seven Internet broadband providers and related entities: AT&T Inc....

A depressing number of people think that the be-all and end-all of CRM is the CRM application. While CRM software is a vital tool, CRM itself is really a discipline: It's the cultivation of the customer relationship and the management of customer data to create better experiences for the customer and to generate better results for the business The ...

Apple is getting into the credit card business. The company has announced a virtual payment card built into the wallet app on iPhones. Apple Card sports a number of features aimed at helping consumers lead a healthier financial life "With our hardware, software and services, we think that Apple is uniquely positioned to make the most significant ch...

The European Parliament plenary on Tuesday adopted the "Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market" by a vote of 348-274 with 36 abstentions. Member states will have two years to adopt the directive's rules under their national laws....

Here we go again, right down the hype cycle and into new product land. In the last week, two major enterprise software companies, Oracle and Salesforce, announced customer data platform products. Oracle announced its product last week in Las Vegas at its Modern Customer Experience (MCX) event. This week, Salesforce announced that it is building a ...

Apple on Monday announced a raft of new services, including original TV programming and news and magazine offerings, at an event held at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California The Apple TV+ service, which will launch in the fall, already has a number of high-profile shows in its lineup:...

Telegram Messaging on Sunday announced a new privacy rights feature that allows user to delete not only their own comments, but also those of all other participants in the message thread on all devices that received the conversation. Although the move is meant to bolster privacy, it's likely to spark some controversy Telegram, a cloud-based instant...

Not long ago, T-Mobile COO Mike Sievert said the company would start selling a wireless home broadband service. Now, it looks as though it has begun a pilot program of invited users. However, there is an important catch with respect to this new service: the motive behind it If it works and is priced well, and if it is popular with customers, it cou...

I spent last week at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference, and I expect this will be the last year it will go by that name. The company has evolved significantly during the last decade with robotics, artificial intelligence, and even complete workstations and servers taking it well beyond its GPU roots. My bet is this will become Nvidia's Developer Conference going forward, as the firm displaces Intel in the hearts and minds of developers and buyers. ...

Retail is facing battles on all fronts. Up against Amazon's streamlined operations on one side, and a higher demand for flawless customer service and experience on the other, it's either think or sink for many. However, AI has thrown some early adopters a lifeline. As Amazon has proven with its stranglehold on the retail industry, online shopping ...

Cybersecurity experts at Microsoft's Windows Defender Security Intelligence Team this week reported their discovery of two new email-based phishing campaigns. One targets Amex (American Express) users, while the other targets Netflix customers. Both campaigns reportedly are very well-crafted, featuring legitimate logos and even fill-in forms that closely mimic those on the respective company's own websites...

Oracle held its Modern Customer Experience conference in Las Vegas this week, and it was eye-opening. This is the fourth MCX conference and an important milestone for a company that came to the cloud later than its competition. No doubt about it, Oracle has done much in a short time to develop and deploy its customer experience vision, so it is no...

SparkyLinux is a Linux distro that can ignite your daily computing experience. Its spark is pushing me to rethink my computing priorities Regularly reviewing so many Linux operating systems for Linux Picks and Pans has serious consequences for my computing sanity. I normally have a flirtatious episode with a new release each week, and I'm always on...

Facebook on Wednesday unveiled its Oculus Rift S virtual reality headset at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco It will be available this spring for US$399....