SaaS Sellers in AWS Marketplace can now log metering records with AWS CloudTrail

AWS Marketplace, which lists over 3,800 software listings from popular software vendors across 35 product categories, has announced that SaaS sellers can now log metering records using AWS CloudTrail in all regions. CloudTrail is a service that enables operational auditing of your AWS account along with governance, compliance, and risk auditing. AWS Marketplace now delivers all SaaS Marketplace Metering Service metering records to CloudTrail to help sellers with their operational auditing. Sellers can use CloudTrail logs to help test new SaaS applications, while onboarding to AWS Marketplace, or to confirm that records have been received by the Marketplace Metering Service.
Quelle: aws.amazon.com

The iPhone Will Soon Allow You To Screen Record And People Are Both Excited And Scared

“This is taking dragging culture to a whole new level. Tea and receipts have been upgraded.”

On Monday, Apple announced a laundry list of cool and nifty updates and features to the iPhone. But perhaps the coolest, niftiest, and most adapting feature is the fact that iOS 11 will allow you to screen record your phone. (!!!!)

On Monday, Apple announced a laundry list of cool and nifty updates and features to the iPhone. But perhaps the coolest, niftiest, and most adapting feature is the fact that iOS 11 will allow you to screen record your phone. (!!!!)

Faiz Shakir / Apple

New York resident Faiz Shakir, 20, whose tweet and video showing this function has gone viral, told BuzzFeed News he was excited to try it out as soon as he learned about it. “I was shocked because you could be recorded while on FaceTime or Snapchat without your knowing,” he said.

New York resident Faiz Shakir, 20, whose tweet and video showing this function has gone viral, told BuzzFeed News he was excited to try it out as soon as he learned about it. "I was shocked because you could be recorded while on FaceTime or Snapchat without your knowing," he said.

“I think there’s multiple benefits,” Shakir said. “It’d be easier to show people who may need help with their phone exactly how to do something, i.e. my grandparents always ask me for help with their iPhone and now I can send a how to video via iMessage.”

Note: Shakir was able to upgrade to iOS 11 with a beta version, as he's part of a developer program with Apple. The upgrade will not roll out to the public until the fall.

Faix Shakir


View Entire List ›

Quelle: <a href="The iPhone Will Soon Allow You To Screen Record And People Are Both Excited And Scared“>BuzzFeed

The Trump Administration Just Did McDonald's And Uber A Big Favor

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

The Trump administration has withdrawn Obama-era legal interpretations that said millions of American workers, from McDonalds cooks to Uber drivers, should be treated as employees of the corporations they work for.

One of the interpretations, written by the Department of Labor in 2015, said workers should be considered employees of a company if they are “economically dependent” on it — a definition that would include the independent contractors that power the gig economy. Another said fast food workers hired by franchise owners should be considered jointly employed by the food giants themselves.

Today, after announcing their withdrawal, the Labor Department removed the text of each guidance from its website. They're still available online here and here.

When the Obama Labor Department first released the new definition of employees, it was seen as an attempt to rein in the trend towards classifying workers as independent contractors — a practice popular among startups like Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Postmates.

Christine Owens, the executive director of the National Employment Law Project, said in a statement that the change reflects the Trump Administration’s “willingness to take symbolic steps to attack workers – here, at the expense of additional clarity for all parties.”

Palak Shah, the director of social innovation at The National Domestic Workers Alliance, echoed the idea that the Department of Labor's withdrawal muddies interpretation of employment law. “It makes it harder for employers to follow the law, harder for workers to thrive in this economy, and harder for the government to enforce the law,” she said.

Robert Galbraith / Reuters

The Obama-era guidance on classification poked holes in arguments put forth by gig economy companies, which classify the people working on their platforms as contractors, according to Harvard Law professor Ben Sachs. But, he said, based on today’s withdrawal, it seems “the new DOL may pursue a difference course.”

The “joint employer” guidance has also been deleted. The fast food industry celebrated the change on Wednesday, with the the International Franchise Association, a major industry group, calling the joint-employer guidance “one of the most costly and burdensome regulations impacting the franchise business model.”

“While uncertainty surrounding the new joint employer standard has made it harder for America’s 733,000 franchise owners to grow and create new jobs, we are pleased the DOL is taking first steps to undue this costly regulation,” Matt Haller, the IFA’s Vice President of Public Affairs, in a statement.

While there are few immediate consequences of the change, it will almost certainly affect the outcome of cases now before the National Labor Relations Board, which concern whether parent companies like McDonald's are responsible for labor conditions at franchise locations, and what rights and benefits companies like Uber owe their drivers.

Alex Passantino, former Acting Administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, said that the shift will likely result in “the Department of Labor pursuing fewer cases at the national level, and more cases ending at the local level, without efforts to pursue up-chain to a corporate franchisor or upper tier contractor.”

He said that it signaled that the department under Trump will likely “give more respect to traditional business relationships than the previous administration.”

The National Retail Federation, which represents the interests of companies that rely on contractors, was also pleased, calling the change “an important first step in reversing one of the most onerous regulations imposed by the previous administration on businesses.”

“Drastically expanding joint employer liability to hold one business responsible for the actions of another independent business, such as a subcontractor or franchisee, did nothing to protect employees and only created uncertainty that led to more growth-chilling litigation,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay in a statement. “Retailers hope Congress will build on this progress and put the issue to rest once and for all with clear, fair legislation defining joint employers.”

Caroline O'Donovan contributed reporting to this story.

Quelle: <a href="The Trump Administration Just Did McDonald's And Uber A Big Favor“>BuzzFeed

Apple Is Sharing Its Secret iPhone Screen Repair Machine

If you cracked your iPhone screen and were dreading the wait to get it fixed, things might be looking up.

By the end of the year, Apple will nearly double the locations around the world that use its closely guarded screen fixing technology, according to Reuters.

The iPhone maker will sell 400 of its proprietary screen repair machines to third-party authorized service providers, which include chains like Best Buy and smaller independent shops, in 25 countries. Reuters reports that the machines, which Apple calls “Horizon Machines,” are “gray metal boxes the size of a microwave with a swing-out windowed door” and that they take between 10 and 12 minutes to repair a cracked screen without much human involvement.

Distributing these repair machines to third-party shops is a shift in strategy: Apple has largely controlled the processes and technology involved in repairing iPhones. If you brought your phone to one of Apple's authorized third-party service providers in the past, the shop didn't actually repair it themselves. Until now, these third party stores would mail iPhones to Apple stores or repair centers for certain repairs, including screens.

Apple is initially rolling out 200 machines to some of Apple's 4,800 authorized third-party service providers in Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, London, Shanghai, Singapore, and other places.

There are currently about 500 screen fixing machines in the wild, almost all of them operating behind the scenes at Apple's own retail stores or the company's mail-in repair centers, according to Reuters.

The motivation for the distribution, Apple told BuzzFeed News, is twofold: meeting increasing demand for same-day repairs, especially in places without Apple stores, and relieving pressure on Apple stores, which are facing rising wait times as more people buy iPhones.

Estimates peg phone repair as a $4 billion business worldwide. Apple previously charged $99 for a screen repair if you had Apple Care (which cost $99 or $129 per year, depending on the size of your phone); now the price for a screen repair if you pay for Apple Care has dropped to $29.

Some independent, unauthorized repair shops say they'll fix a phone for as little as $10. But you'll void your warranty and Apple Care if these unapproved smartphone mechanics damage your device in any way. Apple also told Reuters that the Horizon Machine is the only thing that can fix a phone that needs more complex repairs, like if its touch sensor needs replacing.

The announcement comes as eight states are considering “right to repair” bills.

The legislation would require tech companies to make individual parts, diagnostic tests, and repair manuals to consumers and third-party retailers, something Apple has refused to do since the iPhone debuted a decade ago. iPhones aren't the only target of the bills though: Farming equipment is high on the list, too.

Apple has lobbied against the bills, saying that these laws would open up the nearly one billion iPhones worldwide to hacking and that it won't be able to ensure that third-party repairs meet quality standards. The company wouldn't comment on whether it will continue to lobby against these bills.

Apple told Reuters that the legislation — introduced in New York, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Wyoming — had nothing to do with the timing of its plan to give third party repair shops the ability to repair iPhone screens on their own.

Quelle: <a href="Apple Is Sharing Its Secret iPhone Screen Repair Machine“>BuzzFeed

Ready for data to change your world? Join us in Munich.

We’re living through the third great revolution in modern business. First came economies of scale, which we harnessed with the Industrial Revolution, the assembly line, and the creation of global markets. Second was network effects, seen most obviously in the rise of the Internet and the Web. Third—right now—we are entering the age of data.
At our Fast Track Your Data event, coming up on June 22 in Munich, Germany, we’ll help you become one of the winners in this revolution.
Disrupt yourself before others disrupt you
We’ve been doing serious analytics with data for 20+ years, but our abilities have increased radically in just the past few years as we’ve made data science pervasive. Today, forward- looking organizations are using new ways to handle their proprietary data—the crown jewels that give them unique competitive advantages—as they embed machine learning and other data science applications into their businesses.

We at IBM are giving them the tools and support they need to help them do that. At the Munich event, we are bringing together top business and technology leaders to share success stories and discuss how to use data to disrupt your company and your industry—before others disrupt you.
Sharing success stories from data leaders worldwide
These leaders are driving great results across a wide range of industries and contexts. A big healthcare provider is creating better patient outcomes while improving cost-effectiveness. A transportation giant has reinvented its data retention to radically streamline back-office operations. Our European customers are using cognitive analytics to get ahead of their sweeping GDPR compliance requirements coming in 2018. And on and on.
This event will show you the areas where the data revolution is enabling companies as they:

Optimize current operations to intelligently automate processes, reduce costs, and increase speed
Increase customer intimacy with greater personalization to make each interaction more relevant and engaging
Speed up customer service with smart feedback loops that improve the entire customer experience continuously

In Munich, we’ll go into detail about how you can achieve these results via the four pillars of:
 

Hybrid Data Management
Unified Governance
Analytics & Visualization
Data Science & Machine Learning

Working alongside our customers in these areas, we are using open source technologies and increasing the simplicity and elegance of tools for use across your organization, not just by data scientists, coders, or other technical pros.
How to Participate
The breakthroughs just keep coming, and we want your success story to be next on the list. That’s why we invite you to join the conversation in Munich. There are three ways to participate:

Attend in person to hear from leaders from IBM and our client companies who are driving real-world results with data and analytics
Join the interactive livestream
Access the online archive of the event

The journey into the age of data is just beginning. Register now so you can Fast Track Your Data with us in Munich on June 22.

A version of this article was originally published on the IBM Big Data and Analytics Hub.
The post Ready for data to change your world? Join us in Munich. appeared first on Cloud computing news.
Quelle: Thoughts on Cloud

AWS Greengrass is Now Generally Available

Starting now, AWS Greengrass is available to all customers. AWS Greengrass is software that lets you run local compute, messaging, data and state synchronization for connected devices in a secure way. With AWS Greengrass, connected devices can run AWS Lambda functions, keep device data in sync, and communicate with other devices securely – even when not connected to the Internet. Using AWS Lambda, Greengrass ensures your IoT devices can respond quickly to local events, operate with intermittent connections, and minimize the cost of transmitting IoT data to the cloud.
Quelle: aws.amazon.com