Starting today, AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory , also known as AWS Managed Microsoft AD, enables you to increase user logon performance by changing your AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory’s default site name.

Following the recent announcement of updates to the PostgreSQL database , we have updated Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL to support PostgreSQL minor versions 10.3, 9.6.8, 9.5.12, 9.4.17, and 9.3.22. This release fixes PostgreSQL security vulnerabilities included in current and previous minor releases by PostgreSQL community and contains additional bug fixes and improvements.

With this update, we have also added support for the ‘amcheck’ extension -to verify the logical consistency of the structure of indexes – in PostgreSQL version 10.3; pg_hint_plan extension upgraded to 1.2.2 in PostgreSQL 9.6.8; PLV8 extension has been updated to version 2.1.0 in PostgreSQL version 9.6.8, 9.5.12, 9.4.17, and 9.3.22.

To use the new versions, you can create a new Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database instance with just a few clicks in the AWS Management Console , or upgrade an existing instance using point-and-click upgrades. An upgrade operation involves a short period of unavailability for your database instance. Learn more about upgrading your database instances from the Amazon RDS User Guide .

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale PostgreSQL deployments in the cloud. See Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Pricing for regional availability.

You can now use Amazon CloudWatch Events to react to resource configuration and compliance change notifications from AWS Config. AWS Config records configuration changes to your AWS resources and evaluates those changes with respect to best practices and internal guidelines according to AWS Config rules. With this launch, you can now use the native capabilities of CloudWatch Events to filter the notifications coming from AWS Config. CloudWatch Events can then trigger specific actions, such as a running an AWS Lambda function, an AWS Systems Manager command, or terminating an Amazon EC2 instance.

You can now use Resource Groups Tagging API to centrally manage tags and search resources for 13 additional AWS services. The API enables five operations that allow you to programmatically tag and untag resources, list resources with a specific tag, and list unique tag keys across 41 AWS services. For a list of supported AWS Services, see Resource Groups Tagging API documentation .

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) has added new Amazon CloudWatch Events to notify customers when volume creation or deletion is accomplished. Instead of having to continuously poll describe-volume API to determine whether the volume has been created or deleted after issuing the command, customers can use these events to track the volume state. 

AWS is pleased to release a major update to the Red Hat OpenShift Quick Start reference deployment.  

Starting today, AWS Organizations enables you to use the console to view and control which AWS services have trusted access to your organization. AWS services for which you enable trusted access can now access your organization information and perform actions in multiple AWS accounts within your organization.

Alexa for Business now lets you create address books that make it easier for users to place phone calls from shared Echo devices. With Alexa for Business, you can place Echo devices in common areas like conference rooms, shared workspaces, or hotel rooms. These are called shared Echo devices, and you can make phone calls from these devices. With this feature, you can create address books and assign them to specific shared Echo devices, which lets users ask Alexa to make phone calls by name rather than by speaking phone numbers. IT can add frequently accessed phone numbers to address books, such as an IT helpdesk, or the facilities team, and make it easier for users to access these services. 

NXP and AliOS, the IoT OS developed by Alibaba, enter into a partnership to drive the development of smart cars in China.

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Bio-printing is printing cells and other body materials using 3D printers to create approximations to various body tissues and organs or to create scaffolds in which to grow such tissues, for medical research, for example. Commercial printers designed for the job are expensive – costing over $10,000 – according to Carnegie Mellon University, where a …

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