If Facebook made a mixed-reality headset packed with a dozen cameras that not only scanned your living room but also your eyeballs, would you wear it? If Amazon.com Inc. made a journaling app that prompted you daily to give behavioral data, would you dish? If Google made a watch that asked you to log the peaks and troughs of your moods to build a picture of your mental health, would you give that information away?

If you answered no to these questions, youve also highlighted the unique position Apple Inc. has carved out for itself. Its spent the last decade building up a reputation for protecting its customers privacy and it is increasingly putting that to the test. At its World Wide Developers Conference this week, the company announced new products that would process more personal information about consumers than ever before, from retinal scans to mental health data.

The companys new Journal app, which will come out this September, prompts users to write about their experiences throughout the day based on where theyve been, what music theyve listened to and what exercise they might have done. A new feature in Apples Health app meanwhile encourages people to log their daily emotions on their iPhone or Apple Watch. The goal is to enable users to better care for their mental health.

That, along with all the private footage processed on the companys new headset, is an extraordinary level of personal data to trust to a single tech company. But privacy advocates this week were like mimes in a library completely silent. No complaints. Thats because Apple, with its estimated 2 billion active devices across the world, has built some of the highest levels of consumer trust in the tech industry, and there seems little to worry about. The company is so well-respected for its approach to data protection that Anthropic, one of the worlds most cutting-edge AI companies, borrowed text from Apples Terms of Service to morally steer its own ethical competitor to ChatGPT.

Five years ago, at the height of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, the idea of selling a computer that scanned your retinas, or an app that tracked your mental health, would have seemed deeply invasive. But Apple can pitch such services, which need that data to become more personalized, because the company doesnt collect it or repackage it for advertisers, the longstanding business model for social media and online search firms.

Apple can maintain its reputation for privacy because it is a devices company, meaning its apps process information on devices themselves, rather than on servers in the cloud. An array of increasingly powerful proprietary chips, like the R1 that powers the sensors and cameras in the new Vision Pro headset, make that possible. Apple has been upgrading Siri to take more commands offline, for instance, utilizing its Neural Engine on iPhones and iPads with the A12 Bionic chip or later versions. By contrast, Amazons Alexa only works when its devices are connected to the Internet.

The optical data that Apple collects through the Vision Pro is encrypted, stays on the headset and isnt shared with Apple itself or with third-party apps and websites, the company said this week. The same goes for the reams of new behavioral data that its Health and new Journal app will be collecting.

In the companys conference keynote video this week, Apple emphasized its commitment to user privacy more than usual, flashing an animation on the screen of the Apple logo turning into a padlock with a satisfying clunk noise several times throughout the presentation. It seemed as though Apples leadership knew that the tradeoff for processing more personal data was reinforcing its privacy and security standards.

To that end, the company also announced new rules for developers making it harder for them to do device fingerprinting for targeted advertising purposes, and which also increases the amount of work they must do to show users how they are collecting their data.

Theres just one oddity in all this, which didnt get any mention in this weeks WWDC keynote: Apples quiet efforts to build a bigger targeted advertising business. Apple puts display ads on its App Store and also on its News and Stocks apps, and the company is planning to expand those ads to other pages on the App Store.

Apples advertising unit has meanwhile been growing in size and gaining more internal clout. According to a Bloomberg News report last year, Apple is planning to grow its annual ad revenue from $4 billion to the double-digit billions over the next few years. Research group Evercore ISI estimates that revenue could hit $30 billion over the next three to four years.

The data that Apple uses for targeted advertising is processed by the company and not shared with third parties which is what Facebook does but that personal information is still flying around an enormous internal ecosystem. And while the company has told me that three-quarters of its mobile users have personalized ads turned off, that still leaves hundreds of millions of others whose personal details are being used by Apple to show them ads in the App Store. And they are likely to see such advertisement more as the companys ad business grows.

For now, Apple seems to be striking a workable balance between processing much more personal data and using it within its own walled garden. But as its ad business grows, and it invites more third-party developers onto the new Vision Pro platform, Apple will be under greater pressure to keep that balance in check. It may well get harder over time too.

Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, she is author of We Are Anonymous.

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In Apple We Trust With More and More Personal Data - HT Tech

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, USA, May 30, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Elastics.cloud, a Smart Interconnect technology company focused on enabling efficient and performant composable architectures, today announced that it will be demonstrating its first-to-market rack-scale memory pooling and expansion solution with Compute Express Link (CXL) over Ethernet at Computex 2023 in partnership with MSI.

The CXL protocol provides connectivity for servers and devices and enables the sharing of memory and other resources. Addressing enterprise, cloud, fog, and edge markets, Elastics.clouds next-generation CXL-based solutions go beyond connectivity within the rack by allowing management of intra-rack and inter-rack traffic and hiding latency, driving overall system efficiency for demanding, data-intensive workloads and reducing TCO.

The demonstration at Computex 2023 will show two CXL 1.1 compliant MSI servers connected via a CXL interface over cables. Utilizing Elastics.cloud IP on FPGA, each server can access a low-latency pool of memory consisting of its own CXL-attached memory and the CXL-attached memory on the other server.

CXL is enabling the disaggregation of component resources in todays server architectures, said Elastics.cloud Founder and CEO George Apostol. Elastics.cloud delivers solutions that enable composable, rack-level architectures, resulting in greater utilization, performance, and efficiency of component resources, while bringing down the costs at scale.

The currently available memory pooling and expansion solution provides over 20x improvements in bandwidth, throughput, and latency with in-memory database workloads. Up to 100x performance improvements are expected with the upcoming ASIC solution.

Elastics.cloud will exhibit this solution with MSI at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1, 4F, Booth #L0818 from 9:30am to 5:30pm from May 30 to June 2. Please stop by the booth to learn more about Elastics.cloud and to see the live demonstration.

About Elastics.cloud

Elastics.cloud, Inc. is a Smart Interconnect technology company focused on enabling efficient and performant architectures to create flexible, scalable, low latency composable systems. The company provides silicon, hardware, and software which leverages the Compute Express Link (CXL) interconnect standard to provide high-performance connectivity to a broad ecosystem of components and is first to market with CXL-enabled symmetric memory pooling.

http://www.elastics.cloud

Kishore Moturi, Sr. Director Corporate StrategyElastics.cloud+1 408-396-5962Kishore.Moturi@elastics.cloudVisit us on social media:LinkedIn

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Elastics.cloud to Showcase Memory Pooling and Expansion Demonstration with MSIs CXL 1.1 Servers at Computex - EIN News

At its annual Dell Technologies World conference in Las Vegas last week, Dell joined a spate of companies this year in releasing new products that address emerging needs in edge management, secure generative AI development, zero trust security and multicloud workload management. Its no surprise that these are the hottest sectors of enterprise IT products and services sales here in 2023.

New items Dell introduced include the NativeEdge platform; a partnership between itself and Nvidia to build Project Helix, a secure on-premises-based generative AI management package; Project Fort Zero, another new crack at providing an end-to-end zero trust security solution; and updates for its multicloud app-service management platform, Apex.

Dell had only a loosely coordinated edge strategy for a few years until last October when the company previewed a new development called Project Frontier, which was to result in a standalone edge operations software and hardware platform sometime in 2023.

Sometime in 2023 is now here. Project Frontier is now closed, and Dell said its replacement, dubbed NativeEdge, is the industrys only edge operations software platform delivering secure device onboarding at scale, remote management and multicloud application orchestration. Companies such as IBM, AWS, Google, HP, Microsoft, Hitachi, Oracle and several others may dispute the only claim, however. Here is Gartners most recent edge computing market report.

This is the industrys only edge operation platform that mixes up and delivers three things in parallel: secure device onboarding at scale; remote management of devices in those locations; and multicloud application orchestration to edge devices from data centers to make sure that the edge outcome end-to-end is deployed in the lifecycle, Dell SVP of Edge Solutions Gil Schneorson told reporters.

Edge operations, which make use of automated processes, are generally found in locations ranging from manufacturing floors and retail stores to remote wind turbines and long-distance hospital operating rooms.

Use cases for edge computing are growing because more organizations want to manage and secure data at the source but often have limited IT support to do it.

For example, a large manufacturer may need to automate packaging and shipping across its numerous factory sites in various geographies. This means connecting multiple technologies, such as IoT, streaming data and machine vision, which requires dedicated devices to run multiple software applications across locations. Testing and deploying infrastructure to run the applications can take months. With NativeEdge, the manufacturer can consolidate its technology stacks using existing investments and reduce the time to deploy edge assets and applications from months to weeks, Schneorson said. The platform uses automation to streamline edge operations and helps the manufacturer securely roll out new applications to all sites from a central location.

NativeEdge is designed to run any enterprise edge use case with automated deployment, Schneorson said, integrating with various Dell data center hardware nodes. NativeEdge includes built-in zero trust internal use-confidential capabilities, Schneorson said.

The NativeEdge software platform will be available in 50 countries beginning in August, the company said.

Everybody needs easier when it comes to incorporating generative AI into an enterprise system, no matter where its use is being considered. Pre-built AI data models are one major step in that direction.

Dell and Nvidia revealed that Project Helix will result in a series of full-stack solutions with technical expertise and prebuilt tools based on their own infrastructure and software. This includes a complete blueprint to help enterprises use their proprietary data and more easily deploy generative AI responsibly and accurately, Dell said.

Project Helix gives enterprises purpose-built AI models to more quickly and securely gain value from the immense amounts of data underused today, Jeff Clarke, Dell Technologies vice chairman and co-chief operating officer, said in a media advisory. With highly scalable and efficient infrastructure, enterprises can create a new wave of generative AI solutions that can reinvent their industries.

Blueprints for on-premises generative AI Project Helix will support the complete generative AI lifecycle, from infrastructure provisioning, modeling, training, fine-tuning, application development and deployment, to deploying inference and streamlining results, Dell said. The validated designs will use Dell PowerEdge servers, such as the PowerEdge XE9680 and PowerEdge R760xa, which are optimized to deliver performance for generative AI training and AI inferencing, the company said. They will combine with Nvidia H100 Tensor Core GPUs and networking to form the infrastructure backbone for these workloads.

Dell did not indicate whether the Helix models could be run optimally on other brands of servers. Dell Validated Designs based on the Project Helix initiative will be available through traditional channels and Apex flexible consumption options beginning in July.

Dell Apex software, introduced in May 2021, is designed to work across all cloud platforms, public cloud storage software, client devices and computing environments. New additions to the companys multicloud portfolio span data centers to public cloud and client devices include:

Dell, Microsoft, VMware and Red Hat platforms for specific cloud-based use cases:

Dell Apex Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure features full-stack software integration and automated lifecycle management through Microsoft native management tools. The platform is designed for application modernization and is said to offer faster time to value of Azure based on Azure Arc-enabled infrastructure with consistent operations and governance across on-premises data centers, edge locations, and the Azure public cloud using Azure Arc.

Apex Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift aims to simplify container-based application development and management, wherever applications are developed and deployed, through full stack software integration and automation with Kubernetes. Users can run containers and virtual machines side by side, natively within Kubernetes, for a wide variety of workloads including AI/ML and analytics, with broad GPU support across any hybrid cloud footprint, Dell said.

Apex Cloud Platform for VMware gives users the flexibility to deploy vSphere on a fully integrated system with Dell software-defined storage. It joins Dell Apex Private Cloud and Dell Apex Hybrid Cloud within the broader Dell Apex portfolio to offer more choices for VMware users.

This is still on the drawing and testing boards for the next year until further notice. Project Fort Zero is designed to make zero trust more available for mid-range and smaller enterprises and is engineered to provide a hardened end-to-end zero trust security solution for global organizations to protect against cyberattacks.

Fort Zero is part of an ecosystem of more than 30 technology companies and will result in a validated, advanced maturity zero trust solution within the next 12 months, Dell said. Zero trust is designed for decentralized environments, but integrating it across hundreds of point products from dozens of vendors is complex making it out of reach for most organizations, Herb Kelsey, industry CTO of government projects at Dell, told reporters. Were helping global organizations solve todays security challenges by easing integration and accelerating adoption of Zero Trust.

The fully configured Fort Zero solution will serve a variety of use cases, including on-premises data centers; remote or regional locations such as retail stores where secure, real-time analysis of customer data can deliver a competitive advantage; in the field, where a temporary implementation is needed in places with intermittent connectivity, such as airplanes or vehicles, for operational continuity.

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Dell Intros New Edge, Generative AI, Cloud, Zero Trust Prods - The New Stack

While on the surface it appears that the stock market has had an incredible first five months, especially compared with 2022, in reality it has just been a handful of stocks that have lifted the Nasdaq up a stunning 25% and the S&P 500 up almost 10%. Just to prove how narrow the rally has been, the venerable Dow Jones industrials were actually down 0.13% in 2023 as of Fridays close.

So what are growth stock investors to do? Chase the rally that has been driven by the innovations in artificial intelligence? There is always a chance it continues higher, but with Nvidias market cap over $1 trillion after Tuesdays close, it looks as though much of the money has been made.

We screened our 24/7 Wall St. technology universe looking for stocks that still have upside from current levels and are rated Buy but also come with dependable dividends. That way, if the rally stalls, there is a reason to hold on to these quality, and in some cases, old-school names.

It is important to remember that no single analyst report should be used as a sole basis for any buying or selling decision.

Investors who are more conservative may want to consider this mega-cap tech leader, which recently posted outstanding quarterly results. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) designs, manufactures and sells internet protocol (IP) based networking products and services related to the communications and information technology industry worldwide.

Cisco provides switching products, including fixed-configuration and modular switches, and storage products that provide connectivity to end users, workstations, IP phones, wireless access points and servers, as well as next-generation network routing products that interconnect public and private wireline and mobile networks for mobile, data, voice and video applications.

Its cybersecurity products give clients the scope, scale and capabilities to keep up with the complexity and volume of threats. Putting security above everything helps corporations innovate while keeping their assets safe.

The networking giant posted solid fiscal first-quarter results that beat earnings expectations, and it offered up strong forward guidance.

Investors receive a 3.13% dividend. Credit Suisse has a $69 target price on Cisco Systems stock, while the consensus target is $56.28 and Tuesdays closing share price was $50.17.

This company continues to be a huge player in the fiber optic world.Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) is a technology pioneer that manufactures LCD glass for flat-panel displays for multiple product lines.Telecommunications (30% of Cornings sales) produces optical fiber and cable, component hardware and equipment, and photonic components for the telecommunications, CATV and networking industry. In addition, the companys Environmental Technologies division (12% of sales) produces specialized glass, glass ceramic and polymer-based products for the automotive industry.

Shareholders receive a 3.55% dividend. J.P. Morgans price target is $40, and Corning stock has a consensus target of $37.00. The shares closed on Tuesday at $31.16 apiece.

This high-quality company pays a solid dividend, but its shares have been hit hard. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) designs, develops, manufactures, markets, sells and supports information technology (IT) hardware, software and services solutions worldwide. It operates through three segments.

Infrastructure Solutions Group provides traditional and next-generation storage solutions, and rack, blade, tower and hyperscale servers. It also offers networking products and services that help its business customers to transform and modernize their infrastructure, mobilize and enrich end-user experiences and accelerate business applications and processes. It also offers attached software and peripherals, as well as support and deployment, configuration and extended warranty services.

The Client Solutions Group offers desktops, notebooks and workstations; displays and projectors; attached and third-party software and peripherals; as well as support and deployment, configuration and extended warranty services.

The VMware segment supports customers in the areas of hybrid and multi-cloud, modern applications, networking, security and digital workspaces, helping customers to manage IT resources across private clouds and complex multi-cloud, multi-device environments.

Dell also provides information security and cloud software and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions that enable customers to migrate, run, and manage mission-critical applications in cloud-based IT environments.

Dell Technologies stock comes with a 3.08% dividend. Credit Suisse has set a $50 price target. The consensus target is $48.67, and Tuesdays final trade was for $47.32 a share.

This blue chip giant still offers investors who are more conservative an incredibly solid entry point, a massive dividend and a degree of safety. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) provides integrated solutions and services worldwide through the following four business segments.IBMs Software segment offers hybrid cloud platform and software solutions, such as Red Hat, an enterprise open-source solutions; software for business automation, AIOps and management, integration, and application servers; data and artificial intelligence solutions; and security software and services for threat, data and identity. This segment also provides transaction processing software that supports clients mission-critical and on-premise workloads in banking, airlines and retail industries.

The Consulting segment offers business transformation services, including strategy, business process design and operations, data and analytics, and system integration services; technology consulting services; and application and cloud platform services.

The Infrastructure segment provides on-premises and cloud-based server and storage solutions for its clients mission-critical and regulated workloads; and support services and solutions for hybrid cloud infrastructure, as well as remanufacturing and remarketing services for used equipment.

The Financing segment offers lease, installment payment, loan financing and short-term working capital financing services.

The dividend yield here is 5.15%. The $158 Stifel price target is well above the $140.79 consensus target, and IBM stock closed on Tuesday at $129.48.

This is another familiar name that could offer among the best in total return potential. Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) designs, develops and sells network products and services worldwide. The company offers various routing products, such as ACX series universal access routers to deploy new high-bandwidth services; MX series Ethernet routers that function as a universal edge platform; PTX series packet transport routers; and NorthStar controllers.

Juniper Networks also provides switching products, including EX series Ethernet switches to address the access, aggregation and core layer switching requirements of micro branch, branch office, and campus environments; QFX series of core, spine and top-of-rack data center switches; and Juniper access points, which provide wireless access and performance.

In addition, the company offers security products including SRX series services gateways for the data center; Branch SRX family provides an integrated firewall and next-generation firewall; virtual firewall that delivers various features of physical firewalls; and advanced malware protection, a cloud-based service and Juniper ATP.

Juniper Networks stock investors receive a 2.89% dividend. The J.P. Morgan price target is $42. The posted consensus target is $35.74. On Tuesday, shares closed at $30.69.

Seagate

This disk drive giant looks reasonable at current trading levels.Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: STX) provides data storage technology and solutions in Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands and elsewhere.

The company offers hard disk and solid-state drives, including serial advanced technology attachment, serial attached SCSI and non-volatile memory express products; solid-state hybrid drives; and storage subsystems. Its products are used in enterprise servers and storage systems and edge compute and non-compute applications.

Seagate also provides an enterprise data solutions portfolio, comprising storage subsystems and mass capacity optimized private cloud storage solutions for enterprises, cloud service providers and scale-out storage servers and original equipment manufacturers. In addition, it offers external storage solutions under the Seagate Backup Plus and Expansion product lines, as well as under the LaCie and Maxtor brands in capacities up to 16 terabytes.

Shareholders enjoy a 4.66% dividend. Seagate Technology stock has an $82 price target at Mizuho Securities. The $62.83 consensus target is much closer to the most recent close at $61.00 a share.

This old-school semiconductor company offers solid value at current levels and is a great pick for investors who are more conservative. Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is a broad-based supplier of semiconductor components, ranging from digital signal processors to high-performance analog components, to digital light-processing technology and calculators.

Some 65% of the companys sales are exposed to the well-diversified, business-to-business industrial, automotive, communications infrastructure and enterprise markets. While business from those sectors, especially automotive, could suffer in the near term, the analyst feels the solid dividend should support the shares.

The company is also a big Apple supplier, so the long-term outlook for this venerable leader makes it a safer bet for investors with less risk tolerance.

Investors receive a 2.81% dividend. BMO Capital Markets has a $215 price target. The consensus target is $180.82, and Texas Instruments stock closed at $176.55 on Tuesday.

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Miss the Huge AI Rally? 7 Dividend Tech Stocks to Help Catch the Rest of the Run - 24/7 Wall St.