Mega data centers’ innovations in serviceability, automatically detecting and recovering from failures, procurement practices, and so forth will become standard practice in all modern data centers. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The most recent issue affecting Outlook.com and Hotmail users was caused by temperature spike in one of Microsoft’s data centers, an executive said. Read more »
Microsoft online services including Outlook.com, Hotmail and Skydrive are experiencing problems on Tuesday night. Read more »
Microsoft had a handful of journalists at its new Envisioning Center last week to show off its latest and greatest technology. Here’s what it demonstrated. Read more »
Microsoft is no joke when it comes to building web infrastructure and developing techniques such as machine learning. The company thinks its heavy investment in these areas will pay off big-time in the years to come. Read more »
Talko, a super-stealthy startup co-founded by Microsoft’s former chief software architect and strategist, will make use of Amazon Web Services. Read more »
Worldwide IT spending finished out 2012 with a growth rate of 3.8 percent over 2011, the lowest growth rate since 2009. Fourth-quarter 2012 earnings reports and guidance were notable in their lack of any decisively positive news to raise 2013 spending expectations much. Those optimistic about […] Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile device users already know about TouchPal, the third-party keyboard that speeds input with swiping gestures and word prediction. The free app has now graduated to the big screen of Windows 8. Read more »
The Business Software Alliance has released its annual ‘Global Cloud Scorecard’. Given the source and ranking criteria, the results need to be taken with a bucket of salt. Read more »
If Google really did set off the process that led to Microsoft’s mammoth fine, then this was in a way just another episode in an increasingly nasty war between the two companies. Read more »
First Samsung decided not to even sell its Windows RT tablet in the U.S. Now it appears to be pulling the product out of Germany and unspecified other European regions. Here’s why. Read more »
Microsoft was naughty and got caught, and now it has to pay handsomely. Here’s the rundown on what happened, why it mattered, and why it may not happen again in quite the same way. Read more »
All-you-can-read digital magazine app Next Issue Media is expanding from iPad to Windows 8. The company partnered with Microsoft and hopes that users will want to read digital magazines across their devices. Read more at paidContent »
The console era is over — or so a growing number of game-industry executives would have us believe. While social and mobile gaming have taken a sizable share of the video games market, there is room for growth for hardware, particularly in streaming technology and the emergence of open-source platforms. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason fired, Google CEO Sergey Brin feels emasculated by phones but not by nerd glasses and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is putting an end to remote work. Plus Oscars & Fashion. Here is our take on the week that was! Read more »
VMware, the king of in-house server virtualization, wants partners to help it defeat Amazon for corporate cloud workloads. One problem: VMware has its own issues with its partners. Read more »
Facebook has announced the purchase of Atlas Solutions, with CNBC reporting the deal went for around $100 million. The deal had been rumored for a while now, as Facebook is looking to improve its ad platform and Atlas Solutions would give them additional advertising info. Read more »
Data portability — the ability to move your information between clouds (or in and out of clouds) with relative ease — is a key concern of companies considering a cloud move. Read more »
File-share-and-sync vendor Box will announce more enterprise-friendly security features and alliances at the RSA Conference on Monday. Read more »
Pity poor Microsoft email users: Hotmail and Outlook.com service is out for many on Monday — indeed some have complained that the service has been on the fritz for weeks since an earlier outage. Read more »
Hortonworks Data Platform for Windows, now in beta, brings Hadoop to Excel and SQL Server (and vice versa.) Read more »
IT folks who worry that cloud computing adoption will kill jobs, may be surprised by the results of a new survey; Amazon unveils OpsWorks; Rackspace makes price changes. Read more »
Microsoft Azure, which started the week with kudos as the best cloud storage service, is down and out on Friday. Read more »
Naysayers may continue to ignore the trend, but tablets aren’t toys and the tablet market isn’t a fad, as 2012 shipments show. This year, tablets could surpass both desktops and laptops. Read more »
Joachim Kempin is the former Microsoft exec who handled the company’s interesting relationships with OEM partners. Now he’s weighing in with ideas to bring Microsoft back to power. Read more »
Google isn’t just an internet search company any more. As it pushes Google TV, Google Glasses, and Chromebooks, it needs to let customers try-before-they-buy. Read more »
The web is getting more visual and our communication options now span video, voice and the written word. Technology and the web are breaking down the barriers of distance. Can bandwidth and devices keep up? Read more »
It’s only been a couple of months since Barnes & Noble downgraded guidance for its Nook business. Now the company is doing so again. Unfortunately, Nook Media is supposed to be the profitable part of the company. Read more at paidContent »
Flash memory and database servers are among possible solutions for online dating sites getting swamped with traffic at peak times such as Valentine’s Day. Read more »
Salesforce.com’s Do is morphing into Do More with easy links to Google Drive, Dropbox, Harvest, Wufoo, Contactually and Desk.com Read more »
So you’re building an important application on Heroku’s Platform-as-a-Service but need some help configuring it? Now you can now get that. For a fee. Read more »
I had high hopes for Windows RT but the apps I want aren’t supported. Windows 8 on Atom chips offers similar battery life and better app compatibility so why go RT? Right now there’s only one reason. Read more »
Dropbox wants you to know it’s serious about winning business users and has beefed up Dropbox for Teams admin capabilities to ease IT concerns. Read more »
Not finding enough touch-friendly apps on your new Surface Pro or Windows 8 machine? Try the free Bluestacks player, which boasts more than 750,000 Android titles. Read more »
Microsoft’s Los Angeles studios is working on interactive TV content for the Xbox Live platform. First shows are set to launch before the end of the year. Read more »
Matt drove for miles to three difference stores, but persistance pays off as he purchases a 128 GB Surface Pro. Hear about that and both hosts final thoughts on the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone. Read more »
A recent Microsoft job posting shows the company is ready to take the next step to unify its development platform between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. Read more »
After long last, Spotify’s music service comes to Microsoft Windows Phone 8 smartphones. After the download, Spotify offers a free 48 hour trial with no credit card information needed. Read more »
When the BlackBerry team said Skype was committed to bring its app to BB 10, did you envision the software being a simple Android port? Me neither. Read more »
