Information Technology Latest Updates 28 October 2016

1 - Apple adds touch screen keys to MacBook Pro. - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) unveiled a revamped MacBook Pro on Thursday, adding a fingerprint reader, replacing function keys with a small touch screen and raising prices by several hundred dollars.The first redesign in several years is a sign Apple still sees a role for the product that launched the company, even though its iPhone has become the flagship product.
Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, described the changes as "important incremental upgrades" which would convince people with old Macs to trade up to the smaller, faster model.
But he noted that Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) competing Surface notebook allowed touch on its main screen.

2 -  After tablets and laptops, Microsoft wants to take over your creative work space-

Microsoft unveiled a premium all-in-one in the form of the Surface Studio PC at its Surface Event in New York on 26 October. The 28-inch PixelSense touch-sensitive display sporting all in one, comes with one of the thinnest displays and has a 3:2 aspect ratio.
It comes fully kitted out with a high-end Intel Core i7 processor, 2TB hard drive, 32GB RAM, Nvidia 980M GPU, four USB 3.0 ports which are present inside a small box at the base. This box connects to the display via the hinge. It also comes with a special controller in the form of Surface Dial.

3 - LG Electronics registers drop in profits as smartphone business bleeds money -  

LG Electronics Inc said on Thursday its third-quarter operating profit fell 3.7 percent from a year earlier, hit by sluggish sales in its money-losing smartphone business. LG said in a regulatory filing that the operating profit for the July-September quarter stood at 283.2 billion won ($250.9 million), compared with a profit of 293.9 billion won for the same quarter last year, Yonhap news agency reported.

Compared to the previous quarter, LG’s operating profit sank 51.6 percent. Revenue for the third quarter fell 5.7 percent on year to 13.2 trillion won, according to the filing. LG’s mobile division posted an operating loss of 463.4 billion won for the third quarter, marking its sixth consecutive quarterly loss for its smartphone business. In a statement, LG attributed “lower sales of premium devices and expenses related to business structure improvement activities” to the third-quarter loss in its smartphone business.
“Priorities for the final quarter of the year will include increasing sales of the new LG V20 smartphone and mass-tier K and X series and finalizing business structural improvements in the mobile division to be better prepared for the challenges ahead,” LG said. LG’s home appliance division reported an operating profit of 342.8 billion won and its TV division posted an operating profit of 381.5 billion won.

4 - Google parent Alphabet profit surges on mobile, video ads -  

Google parent Alphabet bested analysts’ estimates for third-quarter profit and revenue as the search company showed it has honed its core business for the mobile era and is closing in on the next wave of computing.

Propelled by strong advertising on mobile devices and video site YouTube, Alphabet’s net income climbed 27 percent to $5.06 billion. Revenue jumped 20 percent to $22.45 billion, marking the search giant’s seventh straight quarter of double-digit revenue growth. The company authorized a $7 billion repurchase of its Class C stock, pleasing investors who had been craving more after a $5 billion repurchase last year.
Google is competing fiercely with social network Facebook for dominance in the fast-growing mobile advertising market. Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai touted the company’s gains in the space, and was bullish about recent product launches such as the Google Assistant, the Google Home smart speaker and refinements to the enterprise cloud business.
The products are aimed at the rise of voice search, which many analysts believe will succeed keyboards and touch screens as a primary way users interact with devices.
“We feel well positioned as we transition to a new era of computing,” Pichai said in an conference call. “This new era is one in which people will experience computing more naturally and seamlessly in the context of their lives, powered by intelligent assistants and the cloud.” Shares of Alphabet, the world’s No. 2 company by market value, were up 1.6 percent in after-hours trading.

5 - Dyn attack: US Senator wants to know why IoT security is so anemic - 

The security around the development of Internet of Things products is weak and U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) today sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ask why and what can be done to fix the problem.