VMware public cloud gets vCloud Air SQL, Site Recovery Manager Air, object storage
Jordan Novet
“VMware today announced several enhancements to its vCloud Air public cloud at the company’s annual VMworld conference in San Francisco.
Companies can test and run plans for disaster recovery in vCloud Air’s new cloud-based Site Recovery Manager Air. And VMware is starting to offer disaster recovery on vCloud Air based on usage, instead of just as part of a monthly or yearly subscription.”
Google Chrome will start blocking Adobe Flash ads today
Michal Addady
“Internet ads that use Adobe Flash will be blocked on Google Chrome as of Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Google has chosen to do this because Flash technology increases page-loading times and kills battery more quickly, overall decreasing the quality of the Chrome experience. The Flash ads will still be available, but users will have to click on them to get them to play.”
Lenovo’s new MIIX 700 is a Skylake-powered Surface Pro clone
Peter Bright
“Lenovo’s ideapad MIIX 700 (the capitalization there is all Lenovo’s; what “ideapad” lacks in upper case, “MIIX” makes up for in spades) has a familiar look to it. It’s a 12-inch tablet with an integrated kickstand and a detachable keyboard cover, just like Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3. It even shares Surface Pro 3’s unusual 3:2 aspect ratio: the top-end screen has a 2160×1440 resolution. It matches the Surface Pro 3’s thickness (0.35 inches) and width (11.49 inches), though it is ever so slightly taller at 8.27 inches and a hair lighter (1.7 lbs, to Surface Pro 3’s 1.76).
The big difference comes on the inside. While we’re expecting Microsoft to announce an update to Surface Pro 3 in a bumper event in October, at the moment it’s still using Intel’s 4th-generation “Haswell” processors in their 15W Y-series incarnations. The MIIX 700 will include Intel’s latest Skylake mobile processors, sporting up to a Core m7. The new Core m line cut power usage substantially. They default to a 4.5W draw, though they can be configured up to 7W or down to 3.5W.”
Wacom turns a new page in digital notetaking (hands-on)
Lori Grunin
“Wacom dove into IFA, the huge international consumer electronics show in Germany, with a bunch of updates to its existing product line, plus a new digital notetaking solution, Bamboo Spark. Updates include a new version of its Bamboo Fineline all-purpose iPad stylus, a redesigned version of its consumer-focused Intuos graphic tablets and updated versions of its passive Bamboo Solo and Duo navigation styluses for touchscreen devices.
The Intuos Pen and Touch series is a pressure-sensitive graphics stylus and multitouch-capable computer-attached tablet bundle. The new version has two big buttons in the corners and a grid, which makes it look a lot funkier.”
Microsoft trumpets Windows 10’s momentum at IFA
Mark Hachman
“Nick Parker, corporate vice president of the OEM division at Microsoft, introduced the IFA audience here in Berlin to Windows 10, pointing out the momentum that the operating system already has.
“Our strategy is clear and our strategy is to build the best mobile and productivity services for the cloud-first mobile-first world,” Parker said. However one cuts the data—509 million new Windows devices in the coming year, or 1.5 billion Windows users—Microsoft is poised to succeed, he said.”
