Microsoft this year joined a growing number of companies that forbid users from filing class action lawsuits. The new policy, however, has failed to stop at least one disgruntled Xbox user. Read more at paidContent »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: Apple/Motorola judge questions the need for software patents, how the Windows PC advantage dwindled before the iPad, yet another patent suit in Apple’s second-most important market. Read more »
Overall, between 2012 and 2017, more than 900,000 light-duty PEVs will be sold in the United States. But there remain hefty inhibitors to mainstream plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) use, including limited vehicle driving range and large battery packs, not to mention steep prices. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In a recent interview, NASA CIO Linda Cureton said the space agency still uses OpenStack for some projects but that it must be pragmatic in all cloud technology choices going forward. Various NASA entities are using Amazon and Windows Azure as needed. Read more »
Google’s new infrastructure-as-a-service offering Compute Engine is a big, big deal in the world of cloud computing. Now that it’s a reality, here are five things I think Google Compute Engine means for the cloud industry. Read more »
Google celebrated day one of Google I/O 2012 conference with a slew of new products and more announcements. Stand back a little and you start to see a company has pitch battles on its hand on many fronts, despite being strong on search, advertising and android. Read more »
The new Google App Engine release gets more global with better European data center coverage, plus better search APIs, SSL support for custom domains, and more integrated PageSpeed optimization. On the flip side, the Cloud SQL database still isn’t fully baked. Read more »
According to 451 Research, the enterprise PaaS market will grow to be worth more than $3 billion by 2015. For businesses, it’s important to know the developments that are critical to properly deploying a PaaS solution that save time and development costs. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Skype is taking first steps towards a browser-based future, and key to these efforts is a technology originally open sourced by Google: WebRTC could allow Skype to run video chats int he browser without any plugins, and finally make the company open up its walled garden. Read more »
With Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Yammer, it’s clear social has arrived. And what goes for internal communication goes for recruiting as well, writes Josh Bersin, CEO of consultancy Bersin & Associates, in an article laying out the feverishly hot social recruiting start-up scene. Read more »
Most of the noise coming out of Google I/O this week will be around the company’s infrastructure as a service plan. But developers who have banked on the Google App Engine platform as a service have some very specific requests of Google. Read more »
Google, Microsoft and more than 500 colleges and universities are joining the team behind the Gig.U project to create a new partnership designed to bring broadband to rural America using Super Wi-Fi. The plan is to launch six pilot projects by the first quarter. Read more »
Communications-as-a-Service (CaaS) technology brings together business applications, the Internet and the world’s public-switched telephone network (PSTN) to provide businesses with new ways of enabling communication. Here’s how to leverage this new technology. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Satya Nadella, who leads Microsoft’s Azure effort, said he would welcome the chance to sit down with Rackspace president Lew Moorman to hash out how to make it easier to move workloads between the companies’ respective clouds and ease cloud lock-in fears. Read more »
Amazon has been the king of cloud services for nearly six years but now the company has new deep pocketed competitors – Microsoft and Google. And while Microsoft announced its plans earlier this month, Google is likely to launch its new, improved platform at Google I/O. Read more »
Microsoft plans to bring big data to the little guy, said Satya Nadella, the executive directing the company’s gigantic Windows Azure cloud effort. It’s backend work with Hadoop is a big piece, but the linkage to Excel will bring big data to the masses. Read more »
Google is planning to make a significant push into both the consumer market and especially the enterprise market with its Chromebook cloud-based laptops, according to Sundar Pichai. The Chrome VP told GigaOM Structure attendees that Google Apps have opened the door to the cloud. Read more »
Microsoft took the wraps off Windows Phone 8, which will not just gain many needed features but also share common core code with Windows 8 on the desktop. That means apps can be made to run on phones, tablets, laptops and other Windows computers. Read more »
Lew Moorman, president of Rackspace, said cloud providers that clone Amazon APIs miss the point of true cloud interoperability. Eucalyptus and other cloud providers clearly disagree. The debate will doubtless rage on this week at the GigaOM Structure conference. Read more »
Discussions about the cloud now involve more than just the IT department. New developments in hardware architectures, more-energy-efficient data centers, regulatory concerns and simplifying analytics are all discussions currently circling through the industry. Here’s what to consider when thinking about your business in the cloud. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Microsoft did what many would consider unthinkable by introducing Surface, a slick 10.6-inch tablet with two different models designed and built by Microsoft. There’s a key strategic difference, however: Surface tablets place Microsoft in direct competition with its licensees for both tablets and PCs. Read more »
Microsoft’s reported deal to buy Yammer for its enterprise social networking savvy isn’t done yet, but the move — despite what many see as a too-hefty price tag — could make sense. Pairing Yammer with the Microsoft Office juggernaut could be a winner. Read more »
The tech giants have arrived in the online storage market and Dropbox and Box are in the midsts of parlaying their features into actual products–and, eventually into big-time companies. Heere’s an inside look at the thinking behind a new product category. Read more »
Now six years old, the Apache Hadoop platform for storing and processing huge amounts of data, perhaps the catalyst of the current big data movement, appears ready for its closeup. According to the companies leading the Hadoop charge, they’re already beating away customers with a stick. Read more »
Speculation has begun that Microsoft will launch its own tablet device on Monday, but will it be a full computer or a consumer device? No matter what’s announced, it could have implications regarding Windows partnerships and the public’s desire, or lack thereof, to buy Microsoft hardware. Read more »
Amazon is looking more like an enterprise tech vendor all the time. On Thursday, it announced spruced-up support offerings for customers deploying work on the AWS cloud. As it woos companies to put mission-critical loads into Amazon’s cloud, expect more support services to come. Read more »
Microsoft released an an updated iOS version of My Xbox Live that turns the iPhone into a remote control for an Xbox 360, while Android owners get their first version of Microsoft’s app. Microsoft ‘s new Smart Glass service will be on non-Microsoft platforms too. Read more »
In a recent blog post, NASA’s CIO Linda Cureton gives both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services a shout-out for helping NASA save money while serving its constituencies. But she made no mention of OpenStack, the cloud platform NASA helped bring to life. Read more »
CloudLock, the Waltham, Mass.-based startup specializing in cloud security, says it’s bringing PCI compliance to Google Drive storage. The company’s new service scans files flowing into and out of Google Drive looking for personally identifiable information. Read more »
Anyone who has used Microsoft Excel since 1993 has likely dabbled at least once with VBA, or Visual Basic for Applications. Now, a pair of MIT students have created an plug-in alternative to VBA called IronSpread, which uses the cross-platform Python scripting language. Read more »
Enterprises unnerved by the bring-your-own-device movement that many had promoted are now trying to lock down employees’ own devices for security purposes. The unintended consequence is that many of those employees, frustrated by these restrictions, just use unsanctioned devices instead. Read more »
Once a rising star, HTC continues to lose lustre as it not only faces increased competition from Apple and Samsung, but also due to alleged patent infringements and limitations on future products. With three issues at once, this may be the worst week in HTC’s history. Read more »
Windows Azure, Microsoft’s huge platform-as-a-service, is getting a big boost from Appfog and Apprenda, two small PaaSes that will make it easier to run hybrid clouds using Azure back-end services. That addresses a concern among business customers that want to run apps in house. Read more »
Research firm IDC offers up its look at smartphone market share through 2016 and suggests several surprising trends: Android may peak this year while Windows Phone will jump past iOS in 2016. A year ago, IDC said the same thing for 2015. Here’s the problem. Read more »
With all the cloud computing hubbub this week as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Oracle gala events all vie for attention, it’s telling that most of the buzz centers on what exactly, Larry Ellison will tweet some time tomorrow. Read more »
Microsoft hopes to prove Windows Azure a worthy adversary to Amazon Web Services with new solid-state block storage cloud, dramatically revamped REST API, and a console to meld management of on-premises and Azure-based applications on a single screen. Read more »
Android enthusiasts have a new way to control their smartphone or tablet, courtesy of Microsoft. The company released a new Android app and supporting web service Tuesday called on{X}, which lets users create JavaScript code or simple recipes that add automated tasks to their connected device. Read more »
Microsoft unlocked an new achievement this month, surpassing 100,000 apps for its Windows Phone mobile platform. But there are several reasons why this number isn’t equating into sales of Windows Phones. There’s a still a key question Microsoft hasn’t answered about its mobile platform. Read more »
Fifteen years after buying WebTV, Microsoft is once again trying to bring the wide-open Internet to the living room. Here’s a look at Internet Explorer for Xbox and other highlights from Microsoft’s E3 presentation Monday. Read more at paidContent »
At Computex, Asus introduced numerous new computer designs for Microsoft Windows 8, covering laptops, desktops, Ultrabooks and more. There’s even one laptop with two screens. But the smartest move by Asus is to re-use the popular design from its Android tablet and dock, the Transformer Prime. Read more »
