Today’s topics include the availability of Outlook for Apple Watch, EMC looks to VMware for a possible buyout, Xiaomi is preparing to produce its own ARM-based mobile processors, and news about a cyber-espionage campaign linked to China.
Outlook is now available on Apple Watch, Microsoft announced on Aug. 6. Available now on the Apple App Store, the app enables owners of the wearable computer to access their Outlook inboxes without pulling out their iPhones or iPads.
“You’ll never miss what’s important with Focused Inbox Watch notifications,” Microsoft’s Carlos Bohórquez Marín, product manager for the Modern Collaboration group, said in a statement.
EMC executives are reportedly considering arranging a buyout by VMware as one of several restructuring options that would put the storage giant on more solid financial footing and push back at investor pressure to shed its VMware business.
Citing unnamed sources briefed on the discussion, news site Re/code is reporting that EMC CEO Joe Tucci and other executives are reviewing an array of scenarios for adjusting to a changing market that is mobile- and cloud-focused and to ongoing demands from activist shareholder Elliott Management to streamline its operations and return more money to investors.
Xiaomi, the 5-year-old Chinese smartphone maker that is challenging Apple in the massive Chinese market and is preparing to begin selling devices in the United States and Europe, reportedly wants to start making its own ARM-based chips.
According to reports in China media outlets, Xiaomi wants to join the ranks of Apple, Huawei Technologies and Samsung as another smartphone maker that builds its own custom-designed processors rather than buying chips from Qualcomm or MediaTek. The company has gathered the necessary ARM licenses and plans to begin designing them next year.
An espionage group with links to China has systematically infected more than 100 Web destinations that are popular with a variety of industries and government agencies as part of a scheme to infect sensitive targets, according to managed-security firm Dell SecureWorks.
The team of spies, which Dell labeled “Threat Group 3390” and which security firm CrowdStrike calls “Emissary Panda,” use sophisticated methods and detailed planning to infiltrate targets.
By knowing which Websites their targets visit and compromising those sites, Threat Group 3390 has infected more than 50 companies in the automotive, electronics, aeronautical, pharmaceutical and oil-and-gas industries.