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Features

• Why virtual assistants are the ‘killer app’ for wearables

  ‘Hearables’ and smart glasses will keep us in range of our virtual assistants everywhere, all the time.

• Buying Slack could give Amazon another enterprise toehold

  Amazon is apparently interested in buying Slack Technologies, a move analysts say could allow Amazon to push further into the enterprise.

• Will Amazon Go be a game-changer for retail?

  Should retailers worry about Amazon Go, the internet giant’s no-checkout-required store? The answer is both yes and no.

• Why Amazon is the current king of the virtual assistants

  Amazon surprised many analysts and competitors with its Alexa cloud-based voice assistant, and the company seems determined to help partners pack the tech into every product imaginable. Alexa has a clear lead in the smart home, but how long will it last?

• Amazon.com's Alexa now lets you order wings

  Wingstop has launched a voice-based ordering service that leverages Alexa, Amazon.com’s popular virtual assistant technology that’s seeing momentum across several sectors.

• The future of Drupal could be cooking in this lab

  Acquia Labs has no illusions of making self-driving cars or shooting things into space like Google X, but the budding applied research arm of enterprise open-source Drupal provider Acquia does have designs on a slew of new applications for what it anticipates will be an increasingly browserless world.

• U.S. cloud vendors adjust to Snowden effect, Privacy Shield

  AWS, Microsoft and Google are building data centers in Europe to address privacy concerns in a post-Snowden world. Cloud infrastructure revenue is rising, but how much better could be for U.S. vendors?

• Microsoft wins battle for Boeing in war with AWS

  Boeing chose the Azure cloud platform because Microsoft agreed to collaborate on analytics software intended to help improve operational efficiency in the narrow margin aviation sector.

• Amazon targets compliance-driven markets

  Amazon Web Services EC2 Dedicated Hosts are designed to give you an on-premises experience in the cloud – for good or bad.

• Is BYOK the key to secure cloud computing?

  Amazon, Adobe and Microsoft offer it but how realistic is it to “bring your own keys?” Do you want your business to have the burden of managing and securing your own cloud encryption keys?

• How the tech industry is greening its data centers

  The desire to be masters of their own energy domains has helped fast-track a growing community of self-generating – and increasingly green – data center power consumers.

• Silicon Valley's 'pressure cooker': Thrive or get out

  People working in Silicon Valley may cry at their desks and may be expected to respond to emails in the middle of the night, but that's the price to work for some of the most successful and innovative tech companies in the world, according to industry analysts.

• Is the World as Flat as We Think?

  In 2005, Thomas Friedman's award-winning book The World Is Flat championed the transformative power of globalization. It highlighted how the traditional barriers of commerce, communication and politics were rapidly changing in these early years of the 21st century, due to the powerful impact of the Internet. It's a brilliant work whose core ideas continue to be proven as the digitization of every industry accelerates.

• Microsoft Surface Mini seems likely to ship soon

  Microsoft may be prepping to ship a mini version of its Surface tablets within a month, based on an Amazon.com listing for a case custom made for the device.

• Gift Guide 2013: Kid stuff and geek stuff

  As a dad of three youngsters, one of my favorite categories in the holiday gift guide is seeing what technology-related fun we can dig up and play with. Here our a bunch of our favorite toys and silly geeky things that will keep your kids (or the kid in you) entertained for weeks, months or even years.