Today’s topics include the announcement of Xerox splitting into two companies, Google’s Chrome browser may soon mark HTTP sites unsafe, Microsoft has released Cordova tools extension for its Visual Studio Code and software maker PTC is pushing to bring augmented reality technology to the enterprise.
On Friday, Xerox announced that it will split into two independent publicly traded companies, one focused on document technology and the other on business process outsourcing.
The move comes as a result of the company’s review of its portfolio and capital allocation options announced in October 2015. The move highlights the ongoing challenges channel firms face as businesses look to migrate more of their operations to the cloud.
Google is reportedly getting ready to implement a proposal it made slightly more than a year ago to include a feature in its Chrome browser that will warn Internet users when they land on an unencrypted HTTP Website.
According to a report from Motherboard, the plan apparently is to have Chrome display a red “X” over a padlock icon in the URL bar when a user visits an HTTP Website.
Google has not publicly reported when it plans to formally introduce this feature. But a Google employee who wanted to remain anonymous confirmed that it could happen soon.
Microsoft announced support for Apache Cordova development in its Visual Studio Code lightweight text editor.
With the Visual Studio Code Cordova Tools Extension, developers can debug hybrid apps, find Cordova-specific commands in the Command Palette, and use IntelliSense to browse objects, functions and parameters.
Apache Cordova is a popular mobile application development framework originally created by Nitobi, which Adobe Systems purchased in 2011.
Augmented reality has been primarily a consumer technology in these early days of its development, finding its way into video games and marketing efforts, and into some early products like Google Glass.
However, Jim Heppelmann, CEO of software maker PTC, believes it is in the enterprise that augmented reality will have its most significant impact, and he is pushing to position his company to the forefront of the evolving market.
According to a Juniper Research report, the use of augmented reality applications in the enterprise will grow from a $247 million market in 2014 to $2.4 billion by 2019.