Autor: HCFG

BlackBerry(s bbry) might not be doing too well, but BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has seen a recent uptick in popularity, thanks to new Android(s goog) and iOS(s aapl) apps. It comes as a surprise, then, that executive VP in charge of BBM, Andrew Brocking, has left the company. BlackBerry confirmed Brocking’s departure on Monday to BGR. CNET is reporting that it was Brocking’s decision to leave the company, and John Sims, head of global solution, will now manage the BBM group. BlackBerry CEO John Chen had previously mentioned the company’s hopes for turning BBM into a revenue stream, though it is unclear how it plans to do so and if Brocking’s departure will have an effect.

Autor: Lucian Constantin

A Adobe liberou uma atualização para o Flash Player que corrige uma vulnerabilidade crítica de execução de código remoto que está ativamente sendo explorada na rede.  A falha permite que um cracker controle a máquina remotamente um sistema infectado, disse a Adobe por meio de um alerta de segurança publicado nesta ultima semana.

A vulnerabilidade foi identificada como CVE-2014-0497 na lista Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures e foi classificada como “integer underflow”. Ela pode ser explorada para execução de um código malicioso no sistema.

“A Adobe está ciente dos relatos de que um exploit para essa vulnerabilidade está ativo e recomenda que os usuários atualizem o produto para a versão mais recente.”

A companhia liberou o Flash Player 12.0.0.44 para Windows e Mac e o 11.2.202.336 para Linux. As versões do Flash incluídas no Chrome e no Internet Explorer 10 e 11 serão automaticamente atualizadas por meio…

It looks as though another Dragon Quest related game could be coming to the US, if a trademark found by Siliconera is correct. The publication has noticed that Square Enix has registered Luminaries Of The Legendary in the US. Speculation is rife regarding which Dragon Quest game it could be. Let’s hope it’s for the Nintendo 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VII, rather than a smartphone title.

It looks as though another Dragon Quest related game could be coming to the US, if a trademark found by Siliconera is correct. The publication has noticed that Square Enix has registered Luminaries Of The Legendary in the US. Speculation is rife regarding which Dragon Quest game it could be. Let’s hope it’s for the Nintendo 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VII, rather than a smartphone title.

As Hadoop moves from the early-adopter phase into the mainstream, IT organizations across all industries are asking how to make the business case for Hadoop at their company. For all of its benefits, namely it is a radically cheaper alternative for storing and processing large amounts of structured and unstructured data, and it can be an uncomfortable fit in a traditional IT environment. With that in mind, it’s important to put Hadoop to work on the tasks it was designed for, to ensure its success in your organization.

In this webinar, our panel will discuss these topics:

• What evidence is there that Hadoop is now mainstream?
• What use cases is Hadoop most suited to?
• What are the challenges and best practices for implementing Hadoop in an ETL offload environment?
• What are some methodologies and tools for success?

Speakers include:

• Richard Winter, president, WinterCorp

• David Loshin, principal consultant, corporate analyst and…

Open Road Integrated Media, the digital publisher cofounded by former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman in 2009, has acquired E-Reads, the ebook publisher founded by literary agent Richard Curtis in 1999. E-Reads has published over 1,200 titles, most of which are science fiction and fantasy.

“As I recently surveyed the state of the industry, it became apparent that it was time to seek an alliance with a company with greater resources, particularly in the all-important area of marketing,” Curtis said in a statement. Open Road, which has published over 4,000 titles, centers its business around digital marketing and has published books by authors like William Styron, Michael Chabon, Sherman Alexie and Alice Walker as ebooks for the first time.

E-Reads authors include Harlan Ellison, sci-fi author Greg Bear and mystery author Barbara Parker. Open Road has partnered with other publishers to market their ebooks, but this is its first straight acquisition…

HTC’s fourth quarter earning results are in, and things still aren’t looking very good. Quarterly revenue was NT$42.9 billion ($1.42 billion US), down from NT$60 billion a year ago. And as revenue continues to fall, HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang believes the company must place a renewed focus on the mid-range market, according to Reuters.

“The problem with us last year was we only concentrated on our flagship,” Wang told Reuters last week. “We missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market.”

It is true that HTC didn’t release many mid-range phones last year. After the high-profile launch of the HTC One, the company later introduced One Mini and One Max variants, all of which hover around the higher-end of things. There were still some low-cost Desire handsets kicking around out there, but compared to competitor Samsung, HTC didn’t have nearly as many devices on the market.

But…

Announced at January’s Consumer Electronics Show, the Asus VivoTab Note 8 tablet is now available for sale. The original price was slated to be $299, but the Windows 8.1 tablet launched on Microsoft’s online store for $329 on Monday, notes Engadget. Just hours after its initial availability, the VivoTab Note 8 shows as “out of stock” in the Microsoft(s msft) Store.

I’m not reading the lack of stock as a successful launch, mainly because we have no idea how much inventory Microsoft actually started with. The VivoTab Note 8 is also slightly more expensive than its peers in the store: Similar tablets from Toshiba, Dell and Lenovo are currently priced at $299 and recently were on sale for as low as $229.

One key difference the VivoTab Note 8 has is a Wacom digital stylus that can register more than 1,000 levels of pressure sensitivity. Unlike Microsoft’s own Surface…