Gloomy February is generally in need of more celebrations, and it has gotten one: Anywhere Working Week is on now. But this initiative from UK business, government and nonprofits to promote remote work is hardly getting pulses racing. Flexible work deserves a higher profile.…
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One-quarter of work devices are smartphones and tablets, Forrester finds
We know consumerization is eating away at the dominance of PCs, but Forrester Research has released fresh numbers on the phenomenon. The results are bad news for Microsoft, with Forrester finding one-third of work devices are non-Microsoft and a quarter mobile.…
Read MoreJohn Chambers on why Cisco never bought Skype
Cisco, the networking company that many felt would be a great acquirer of Skype had looked at the VoIP and video company and declined because it couldn't see a way to do a deal without upsetting its service provider customers, according to Cisco CEO John Chambers.…
Read MoreBox boosts Android clients, continues Windows Phone snub
Cloud storage player Box is beefing up its Android clients with collaboration and batch upload support. It also seems to be favoring Android devices even over popular IPhones and iPads and is definitely backing them at the expense of Windows Phone.…
Read MoreDiData launches OpSource cloud services
Systems integrator Dimension Data bought OpSource for its cloud services in June, and is now unveiling the updated cloud offering under its brand. The updated services include a public compute-as-a-service cloud, a private version of same, as well as managed hosting and managed services.…
Read MoreMobile app companies agree to CA rules on privacy policies
Mobile privacy will still be a murky issue despite a new agreement between the state of California and six leading mobile companies over how best to help app developers comply with a California law requiring them to post a privacy policy.…
Read MoreFeds need to put the fizz in FISMA
Cloud service providers are all rushing to claim compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002. The only problem is that FedRAMP, the federal effort to ensure a safe move to the cloud, won't sign off on certifications for three or four more months.…
Read MoreMicrosoft tries too hard, flubs privacy-related attack on Google
Microsoft loves to jump on Google's mistakes, but probably should have taken a pass before it slammed the search giant for not following an outdated standard that a close partner also shuns.…
Read MoreMicrosoft ties SkyDrive tightly to Windows 8
Microsoft isn't taking the cloud storage challenge lying down. The company plans to build tight links between its Windows 8 and its SkyDrive cloud storage, making it easy for users running Windows 8 on tablets, PCs or phones to put their digital stuff on SkyDrive.…
Read MoreWhy start up in Boston?
It may not be Silicon Valley but the Boston-Cambridge metro area has a lot going for it -- infrastructure expertise, a deep talent pool, and VC funding. Facebook famously went elsewhere, but here's why other local companies started here (and will stay put.)…
Read MoreBarney Pell on parking, payments and QuickPay’s future
Barney Pell has a new startup. The serial entrepreneur, who sold Powerset to Microsoft, has founded a new company called QuickPay, which aims to revolutionize the way that people find and pay for parking. QuickPay has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Fontinalis Partners.…
Read MoreWah! Wah! Mommy, Skype won’t play with me
European Union's decision to approve the Microsoft & Skype merger without any objection isn't sitting well with Cisco, the unified communications giant who is worried that Microsoft will use Skype to dominate the video calling industry. Sour grapes for a company caught in it own business-model.…
Read MoreDon’t look now but Microsoft Azure is a kick-butt cloud
Microsoft's ambitious Windows Azure cloud is many things -- it's a full-fledged PaaS for developers. But beneath that, it is also a huge pool of foundational storage infrastructure for rent. And in that arena, it could be the only real competitor to Amazon.…
Read MoreGoogle algorithm guy, Microsoft DSP expert get NAE nod
Two industry luminaries -- Google Fellow Amit Singhal and Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Henrique "Rico" Malvar -- were elected to the The National Academy of Engineering this week. Singhal oversees Google's search algorithms and Malvar specializes in signal processing and compression.…
Read MoreSaaS valuations come back to earth — sorta
It looks like some of the bloom is off the SaaS rose. New numbers show the booming growth in valuations of SaaS companies is slowing after a long run-up as pure-play SaaS companies face more competition from legacy players.…
Read MoreNeil Young is right — piracy is the new radio
Neil Young put a lot of the media industry's hysteria about file-sharing into perspective when he said in a recent interview that "piracy is the new radio -- that's how music gets around." In fact, a certain amount of "piracy" can be good for business.…
Read MoreMacworld | iWorld 2012 highlights for general Apple users
We've already talked about some key highlights from the Macworld | iWorld 2012 show, particularly from the prosumer and developer angles. But my focus here is on those products average Apple users might be interested in, for both Mac and iOS devices.…
Read MoreWeb giants take on phishing in quest to make the Internet better
Companies such as Google, PayPal, Facebook and Microsoft have teamed up to create a standard to help boost email security. They are part of a working group to create the DMARC standard, which will help cut down on the number of phishing attacks.…
Read MoreCausecast takes corporate philanthropy beyond the Fortune 500
Los Angeles-based startup Causecast this week debuted its Employee Impact Platform, a web-based program that connects companies and their employees with non-profits and charitable causes. With Causecast, small businesses can compete with larger, more established companies when it comes to offering employees ways to give back.…
Read MoreApple to buy Hollywood? Not a chance.
Could Apple spend its $100 billion in cash to create a virtual cable operator to compete with Comcast and the like? Sure. But it would have a really hard time offering a competitively priced service and building a profitable business out of it.…
Read MoreNokia’s Windows Phone transition shows promises kept
Nokia's smartphone sales were down 31 percent in the final quarter of 2011 as the company's switch to Microsoft's Windows Phone continues. But one million Lumia's sold to date is a good start, and Nokia is delivering on its transition plans, which gives it a chance.…
Read MoreA CTO’s take on cloud
Joe Coyle, CTO of global integrator Capgemini, sees a lot of cloud pitches from all the major technology vendors -- and God knows they all have a cloud strategy. Here's what he thinks of the current state of the market.…
Read MoreHP moves big data ops to Cambridge
The greater Boston area may not be the hub of the big data universe that some recent research suggests, but it got a leg up this week with news that tech giant Hewlett-Packard is moving some of its big data operations to Cambridge.…
Read MoreIBM, Microsoft tout fat cloud progress, but proof is thin
To hear IBM and Microsoft tell it, their respective cloud strategies are coming along nicely, thank you very much. But given the hazy definitions of cloud computing and the lack of real numbers, it's hard to tell if that really is the case.…
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