• Mayor seeks to solidify San Francisco's place as tech hub
  The newly elected mayor of San Francisco is waging a one-man crusade to lure technology firms to his city over the objections of some community advocates, who point to the previous tech boom in the 1990s as evidence that more industry means less affordable housing. Mayor Ed Lee -- whose overtures to the technology industry include special tax breaks and regular company visits -- says courting the industry will create jobs and that without the incentives, San Francisco's startups would likely move to other cities. Data show that between the third quarters of 2010 and 2011, San Francisco added 116 tech firms employing more than 6,000 people. The Wall Street Journal (4/29)      

• AMD to reduce its data centers by 75%, employing cloud services
  Advanced Micro Devices plans to reduce its roster of global data centers from 12 facilities to three by 2014. The company intends to make up the difference in computing capacity from the consolidation by making more use of cloud-based services and upgrading its computer hardware. PCWorld Business Center/IDG News Service (4/26)      

• Social networking becoming platform of choice for mobile malware delivery
  Hackers are increasingly turning to social networking applications such as Facebook and Twitter to deliver malware to mobile device users, according to AVG Technologies' Q1 2012 Community Powered Threat Report. AVG said Google's Android platform is particularly susceptible to attack -- thanks to the platform's rapid market adoption -- and noted that the search giant removed more than 100 malicious apps from its Google Play store last year. MobileMarketingWatch.com (4/27)      

• Can HP reclaim its innovation heritage?
  Hewlett-Packard aims to recapture its "heritage of innovation" with a new software and immersive-display package called Photon Engine, says Executive Vice President Todd Bradley. If the technology proves a money-spinner, it could help HP break the cycle of underinvestment that's seen R&D fall from 4% of sales seven years ago to just 2.6% of sales this year. Bloomberg Businessweek (4/26)      

• 6 steps to successful virtualization
  More businesses are adopting virtualization technology to improve efficiency and service, but experts say many enterprises are waiting too long to virtualize so-called Tier 1 mission-critical business processes. Parag Patel, vice president of alliances at VMware, says administrators need to think of virtualization as a six-step process that starts with the talking to vendors, continues with rethinking department priorities and ends with updating management methodology. CIO.com (4/27)      

• The secret to good leadership: Pay attention to your team
  Leadership isn't about being brilliant and knowing all of the answers, executive coach James Scouller says. Good leaders have a "sense of destination" and a vision that helps team members move forward together. They also remember that each person has a different mindset and knowledge level. TheSalesDirector.com (4/27)      

Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on ExecTech readers in the past week.

• Tablets to become preferred computing device by 2016 (Computerworld)

• Researchers unveil the X-ray smartphone (PCWorld)

• Poll finds disconnect between employees, businesses on BYOD (eWeek)

• New smartphone technology from AT&T could make house keys obsolete (Popular Science)

• New cloud business models bring challenges for IT suppliers (ComputerWeekly.com (U.K.))

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

• Spray-on conductor could revolutionize the electronics industry
  A group of engineers at the University of Exeter has developed an ultra-thin and flexible conductive material they say could one day be used to make electronic clothing and increase the efficiency of solar panels, among other things. Dr. Monica Craciun and her colleagues created GraphExeter by adding a layer of ferric chloride molecules between layers of graphene. The team is now developing a spray-on version that could be applied as a conductive coating to things like glass and fabric. TG Daily (4/30)      

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