We’re heading to fall, so expect snow in higher elevations and the Great Plains and the middle of the country as far south as the Texas Panhandle in the next few days. Maybe the 5 to 8 inches forecast for Denver will help the Colorado wildfires. And this being 2020, a storm in the Caribbean could ramp up to a tropical storm since the water’s still so warm. That’s just so 2020, right?
Acer-palooza. Acer’s TravelMate series of commercial notebooks for biz has three new options: the TravelMate P2, TravelMate P4, and TravelMate Spin P4. All include the latest 11th Gen Intel Core processors with Iris X graphics and up to NVIDIA GeForce MX350 GPUs, meet MIL-STD military durability standards, and are uber-portable at 2.87 to 3.58 lbs. Available now through March depending on model and location.
Professional and enthusiast creators get some love in a beautiful new ConceptD 300 mid-tower desktop (pictured) and updated ConceptD 7 and ConceptD 7 Pro creator notebooks. 10th Gen Intel Core processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU for the desktop, and new Vortex Flow thermal solutions and more for the notebooks. The mid-tower comes with a white case, black face, and an elegant wood top panel that’s far too attractive to hide under a desk.
No one doubts Chromebooks anymore, but should you find someone who does, hand them the new Acer Chromebook Spin 513 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c and 4G LTE. Integrated Qualcomm Adreno 618 graphics and a flip-here, flip-there screen for every situation included. Staying put but like the Chrome OS? Try the Acer Chromebox CX14, built for school labs and classrooms.
Consumers and small businesses got some love from Acer as well. New consumer notebooks across its Swift, Spin, and Aspire series will hit shelves over the next few months. 11th Gen Intel Core processors, Iris X Max discrete graphics or NVIDIA GeForce MX450 GPUs available, and long-lasting batteries (up to 17.5 hours) as well.
Don’t forget to give your eyes a treat with one of Acer’s six new Predator and Nitro gaming monitors. Sized from 27 to 32 to 34 (curved) inches and resolutions from 1920 x 1080 to 3440 x 1440 to make every gamer happy.
Wintel news. SK hynix has boosted its 3D NAND memory solutions by purchasing Intel’s NAND memory and storage business (excluding the Optane platform) for $9 billion. The required governmental approvals are expected in late 2021, and Intel will retain all intellectual property related to NAND flash wafers until the final closing.
You might want to get in on the forthcoming Salesforce in Microsoft Teams pilot project (pictured) and test how well the mashup of Salesforce CRM and Microsoft Teams works for your customers.
After that, your team may start begging for the Verizon and Microsoft Azure 5G mobile edge computing team-up. Ultra-low latency and fast are good attributes for any network.
Security news. Now available, the new SlashNext on-device AI mobile phishing defense for iOS and Android with natural language should help your clients with poor self-control on their mobile devices (you know, executives) avoid getting hooked. Link-based detection and coverage of all mobile comm channels help as well.
Attivo Networks revved up its ThreatPath tool, part of the ThreatDefend Endpoint Detection Net family of products. Keeps an eye on credential exposures and more.
Email security player IRONSCALES updated its Phishing Simulation & Training module just in time for Cybersecurity Awareness Month. You also get greater access to content from Habitu8, Cybermaniacs, InfoSequre, and NINJIO.
Hello to Secure Software Manager from DigiCert, a modern way to automate and manage PKI security. Integrated secure key management for code signing into the development process and more.
Chrome news. Chrome fans inside enterprises may like the new Parallels Desktop for HP Chrome Enterprise (pictured), an enhanced feature of Chrome Enterprise to let users run fully featured Windows legacy applications and ERP software on their Intel Core processor-based Chrome OS device. A virtual Windows machine makes this happen inside the Chrome world.
Grab your virtual furniture dolly and truck or let Google Cloud help you move to Chrome OS with its Chrome OS Readiness Tool. Free and private, it reports how cloud-ready devices are based on a Google database of applications verified by companies.
Other product news. Cisco’s new Catalyst 8000 Edge family (Catalyst 8500 Series Edge Platform, 8300 (pictured), and 8000V Edge Software) link together the enterprise SD-WAN and network edge by delivering automated and secure connectivity to applications across cloud, data center, and edge. Available now.
NetApp revved up its ONTAP data management services and announced both a more flexible NetApp Keystone Flex Subscription service and a new NetApp SolidFire Enterprise SDS product. Jumps higher and runs faster, all with more security.
The HP Create Ecosystem expands further with new remote solutions and collaborative workflows. The next-generation Z by HP and DreamColor displays are reimagined and reworked for the creator with seamless color accuracy, performance, and an ultra-thin frameless design.
Can’t we all use a few more working neurons? Ivanti thinks so, at least based on their new Ivanti Neurons for Patch Intelligence and Spend Intelligence. Both build on the Ivanti Neurons hyper-automation platform announced in July.
BetterCloud unveiled a new centralized platform offering enterprise insights into employee SaaS adoption in multi-SaaS environments. How about reducing security risks? Got that too.
Salesforce expanded Work.com, its back-to-the-office solution for the coronavirus era, with new products like an employee workspace and helpdesk to boost productivity along with communication apps for relaying new policies and procedures. Should also help Work.com for Vaccines.
Comcast Business and Aruba worked together for the launch of Comcast Business Teleworker VPN. Helps enterprises roll out secure and high-performance connection between remote workers and their corporate network.
Need full virtual machine backup and fast recovery for HC3 clusters? Of course. Peruse the new Acronis Agentless Backup for Scale Computing HC3 for easy, reliable, and efficient backup.
Small and powerful fit the new Belkin BOOST CHARGE PRO 60W charger. Up to 53% smaller than other laptop chargers, the gallium nitride (GaN) charger can handle a variety of devices, including the MacBook Pro and newest iPhone 12 models.
Want more Wi-Fi outside? Of course again. Check out the new EnGenius Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) outdoor access point that starts shipping this month.
Non-product vendor news. Axcient has a new senior leadership team. Hello to new Chief Revenue Officer (and Webroot veteran) Charlie Tomeo (pictured), Chief Revenue Officer and Vice President U.S. Sales Tim Sheahen, Director of OEM & Licensing Jim D’Espinosa, and Director of Partnerships Phillip Seigenfeld.
Mimecast welcomes Jonathan Corini as the new senior vice president of global channel sales.
Two red carpets have unrolled over at Broadvoice. Robert Sanchez joins as regional channel manager, Mountain West, and Joseph Galluzzi is the regional channel manager, Northeast.
Pax8 joined the 8×8 Open Channel Program as a strategic partner. That means Pax8 customers in the U.S. can now get the 8×8 Open Communications Platform.
The supply chain side of Ivanti just launched the Ivanti Wavelink Strategic Alliances Program. A new, formal ecosystem for hardware and device makers, ISVs, and other tech partners that work with Ivanti Wavelink products.
Kensington showed Advantage Partner Program participants some love by adding the Kensington Advantage Portal. It should help energize sales, accelerate insights, and amplify support.
SAP just announced that its industry cloud solutions portfolio now services three new industries: retail, professional services, and industrial machinery and components. All will run on the SAP Cloud Platform.
The pandemic has made acquiring and working with talent harder, along with everything else. For the first part, Citrix Systems and Upwork are expanding their collaboration to support flexible work models and offer secure access to untapped pools of specialized talent.
This week’s stats ticker:
Think security is locked down? Ha ha ha. New CoreView research found that on average, 50% of enterprises running Microsoft 365 are not managed by default security policies. Oops. Enterprises are failing to implement basic security practices, such as the 78% of M365 administrators who don’t have MFA activated, which could prevent 99% of data breaches. Double oops. M365 admins are given too much control, which leads to other sensitive info being stolen. 57% of M365 admins have excess permissions and 36% of M365 admins are global admins, meaning they can do pretty much everything they want.
Let’s get 2020 over with already. How tired are we of 2020? So tired that the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry, Iselin Nybo, apologized for the upcoming arrival of Daylight Savings Time, which will add an hour to this interminable year. “”As minister of time, I strongly regret that 2020 will be another hour longer. This has already been a very demanding year for many,”” Nybo said.
In another example of “”only in 2020″” comes video of a Zamboni at Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex in Rochester, N.Y., bursting into flames while smoothing the ice. Yes, a flaming Zamboni machine.
