Blackberry’s Future | Monday Note

Closing paragraphs of a stark Jean-Louis Gassée Blackberry reality check

"This isn’t a brightly optimistic picture. Today, Blackberry finds itself caught between Samsung and Apple at the high end, and a rabidly fermenting crowd of Android (official or not) clones at the lower price range.
So, why not consider heresy, or apostasy: Ditch the newer BlackBerry OS too few developers believe in, and bet on Android devices to support BlackBerry’s enterprise services.
The answer is probably the same as it is for Nokia: It’s too late."

p.s. the post also notes that the Playbook is dead again

Blackberry’s Future | Monday Note

Prepare for change! This is not your father’s database industry — Tech News and Analysis [GigaOM]

I don't agree with all of the conclusions/projections in this DBMS market snapshot, but it's a timely round-up of related themes. See this page for an updated version of the 451 Research database market map referenced in the GigaOM article.

"SUMMARY: Incumbent database vendors aren’t exactly struggling to make ends meet, but the smart ones know that resting on their laurels might get them there someday. That’s because open source technologies like NoSQL and Hadoop are coming after their business."

Prepare for change! This is not your father’s database industry — Tech News and Analysis

Apple unveils iOS 7 business features | ZDNet

See the full article for business-oriented iOS 7 feature highlights

"Ahead of the iOS 7 launch later this year, likely in line with a new iPhone release, Apple is touting a bevy of new software features designed with business users in mind.
It's not just about the back-end mobile management features, and Apple knows it. The functionality to the end-user also counts. iOS 7 now includes a range of user experience enhancements as the technology giant continues to compete with already-established and well-developed rival platforms and vie for the hearts of enterprise users.
In recent years, enterprise and business users are increasingly picking up Apple products, despite the company focusing more on the consumer market. And now for the first time, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) users are also recognized, keeping Apple up-to-date with the current business trends."

Apple unveils iOS 7 business features | ZDNet

Leaked Details Of Facebook’s New Chat Rooms Feature | TechCrunch

IRC++?

"This could inch Facebook closer to the “social discovery” industry populated by companies like Tagged and Badoo. But instead of meeting total strangers, you’re likely to have a trusted mutual friend to bridge the gap in Facebook chat rooms. This adds value to Facebook. It wouldn’t just be a place recreate your offline social graph, but to expand it.
There’s certainly a chance that feature’s privacy implications will prove too complicated, or it will flop in its test and end up like the rarely used Facebook video chat option. But in this case, Facebook is building out a tried and true online social interaction. If chat rooms succeed, they might not just move the needle for Facebook in terms of engagement. They could make the social network a more exciting, serendipitous place to spend time — a kick of spice that could keep the 9-year-old site from growing bland."

Leaked Details Of Facebook’s New Chat Rooms Feature | TechCrunch

Microsoft's Cloud-Based Office Shifts to Perpetual Update - Businessweek

Closing the update churn gap...

"Microsoft launched cloud-based Office 365 two years ago, and in the past year has shifted its culture more toward that of an Internet company, Vice President Jeff Teper says. A year ago, 80 percent of the engineers in Office’s servers and services group were working on the big updates that took place every few years, and 20 percent were assigned to quicker fixes for Office’s cloud products; now it’s the reverse. Office 365 users receive monthly updates, and soon, Teper says, they’ll be weekly. The Office cloud-products team, which had just a handful of data analysts four years ago, now has dozens who track user satisfaction as updates go live."

Microsoft's Cloud-Based Office Shifts to Perpetual Update - Businessweek

Sony Vaio Pro 13 review - Bonnie Cha - Product Reviews - AllThingsD

High praise, relative to other recent Windows 8 PC reviews

"If you’re a Windows user, the Sony Vaio Pro 13 is a beautifully built laptop that offers speedy performance and good battery life compared to other Windows Ultrabooks. But in terms of overall value, you’ll get more from the MacBook Air."

Sony Vaio Pro 13 review - Bonnie Cha - Product Reviews - AllThingsD

Google Is Developing Android Game Console - WSJ.com

All of this and yet still no Nexus toaster-fridge...

"Google Inc. is developing a videogame console and wristwatch powered by its Android operating system, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet company seeks to spread the software beyond smartphones and tablets.
With the game machine and digital watch, Google is hoping to combat similar devices that Apple Inc. may release in the future, according to the people.
Google is also preparing to release a second version of an Android-powered media-streaming device, called Nexus Q, that was unveiled last year but not sold to the public, these people said."

Google Is Developing Android Game Console - WSJ.com

Splunk Announces Beta Version of Hunk: Splunk Analytics for Hadoop - Datanami

People who can't get into the beta may be sunk into a Splunk Hunk funk

"“Hunk is an important addition to the Splunk product portfolio. Our customers love how Splunk software enables them to easily visualize and analyze data, and they asked us if we could help them do the same on the sizeable low-cost data stores they’ve built up in Hadoop. To create it, we extended our technology with a new patent-pending virtual index technology,” said Guido Schroeder, Senior Vice President of Products, Splunk. “Hadoop is a tremendous technology full of potential – if you can get to the data and act on it. We developed Hunk as a standalone software product to help organizations give broader user groups insight into their data assets without custom development, costly data modeling or lengthy batch processing iterations. By providing interactive data exploration, discovery and analytics, Hunk empowers users to derive actionable insights from this raw data in Hadoop.”"

Splunk Announces Beta Version of Hunk: Splunk Analytics for Hadoop - Datanami

iOS 7 includes the ability to control your iPhone or iPad using head movements [video] | 9to5Mac

Likely to be good SNL fodder

"Discovered by an anonymous tipster, iOS 7′s “Accessibility” section now includes a feature that allows you to control your iPhone or iPad with left or right head movements. We’ve tested this ourselves and found it to be quite accurate, but it’s quite tedious to control your device this way since it cycles through all of the options on the screen and you move your head when it is bordering around the option you want."

iOS 7 includes the ability to control your iPhone or iPad using head movements [video] | 9to5Mac

Google Now introduces a few new contextually aware features | Ars Technica

The future is Now?...

"Google Now has undoubtedly become one of Android's most popular features, and the company continues to add improvements to Cards to make its contextual application increasingly capable. Today, Google introduced more new features for Google Now, including a live TV feature and Google Offers.
Google detailed the new Cards in a blog post on Android's Google Plus page today. TV Cards, as they're called, work with Internet-connected televisions to help bring up more information about what's on-screen. Users must connect their Android device to the same network the television is connected to and then tap the "Listen for a TV Show" Card in the Google Now application to look up more information. This feature will display items like show factoids and a profile of the actors in the cast."

Google Now introduces a few new contextually aware features | Ars Technica

Oracle Teams With Netsuite to Offer HR Apps to Midsize Businesses - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Netsuite and Salesforce.com are suddenly looking a lot like Oracle subsidiaries

"Oracle and Netsuite have teamed up to integrate Oracle’s human capital management and financial applications with the Enterprise Resource Management cloud application for which Netsuite is known. Given Netsuite’s speciality in reaching midsize companies, it should add to Oracle’s reach to have its HR and financial applications in a combined package. Deloitte’s role is to build a team of experts to help companies get the combined product deployed."

Oracle Teams With Netsuite to Offer HR Apps to Midsize Businesses - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Wearable Devices Nudge You to Health - NYTimes.com

From a David Pogue device roundup; Fitbit must be doing something right (although perhaps not forecasting), as its latest Flex device is showing a ~2-month back-order period. I'm still waiting for the rumored Apple iWatch...

"Now Fitbit, whose original 2008 tracker clipped to your clothing, has entered the bracelet game with a screamingly obvious improvement: Bluetooth. Its new Flex band ($100) communicates with your phone wirelessly and automatically. You don’t have to remove, dismantle or even touch the band on your wrist. The Flex’s factory setting is to transmit the data only when you open the Fitbit app on the phone, so you sacrifice little phone battery life."

Wearable Devices Nudge You to Health - NYTimes.com

Life after Google Reader is looking good - Business - The Boston Globe

Final paragraph of a Hiawatha Bray Reader RIP

"After finding so many strong alternatives to Reader, I’m almost glad the service is going away. Millions of us already give Google enough personal information to make it a one-stop shopping center for any NSA spy with time on his hands. Perhaps July 1 is a good day to declare our independence."

Life after Google Reader is looking good - Business - The Boston Globe

Hadoop Big Data Ecosystem Gets Big Boost As Hortonworks Nabs $50 Million In Fresh Financing - Forbes

Today's Hadoop Summit keynote should be interesting

"The news speaks to the health of the Hadoop ecosystem and more importantly about the speculation about the future of Hortonworks. Many in the industry were saying that Hortonworks was primed to be target for an acquisition. This funding gives Hortonworks a viable option to maintain their independence as a growing venture and gives them an alternative to a merger or acquisition.
Great news for the open source Hadoop ecosystem as both Hortonworks and Cloudera both are doing extremely well in the marketplace."

Hadoop Big Data Ecosystem Gets Big Boost As Hortonworks Nabs $50 Million In Fresh Financing - Forbes

Oracle and Salesforce Form Broad Cloud Alliance - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Another dimension of the CRM + ORCL deal

"Salesforce will run on Oracle’s version of Linux, and its cloud applications will be running on ExaData-branded hardware. The ExaData buy in particular should be a shot in the arm for Oracle’s hardware business, which it has been building up since its 2010 acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Last week, on a conference call with analysts, Oracle CFO Safra Catz predicted that the hardware division would start growing after numerous quarters of revenue declines, as soon as this quarter. Now we can see what she meant by that. As the biggest provider of software-as-a-service, Salesforce is giving Oracle’s Exa line of hardware a pretty ringing endorsement that other companies may want to follow. And as Om Malik noted today, it’s a loss for Dell, whose hardware Salesforce had used previously."

Oracle and Salesforce Form Broad Cloud Alliance - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

How Big Data + Social Data Will Determine the Next President - Gurbaksh Chahal - Voices - AllThingsD

Also see Data You Can Believe In (NYT)

"Social data is fundamentally changing how advertisers approach the art of marketing. Now, we can track pretty much anything online — our campaign decisions are influenced by factors that extend far beyond the impression and conversion metrics that permeated the ad industry just five years ago. This data-centric shift in advertising has enabled political parties to hone campaign approaches toward predicting outcomes and undeniably, it is this elegant blend of social data, big data, and targeting that will determine the 2016 Commander-In-Chief."

How Big Data + Social Data Will Determine the Next President - Gurbaksh Chahal - Voices - AllThingsD

Barnes & Noble Pulls Back After Losses in Tablet Wars - WSJ.com

Turbulent times for Barnes & Noble

"The bookseller said Tuesday that losses at its Nook digital business more than doubled in the quarter ended April 27, easily wiping out profits generated at its bookstores. As a result, Barnes & Noble said it would stop producing its own color tablets, in favor of co-branded devices made by third-party manufacturers.
Barnes & Noble will continue to design and make its own black-and-white Nook e-readers, which account for the majority of its e-book sales. But with e-reader sales expected to decline over time, it is unclear how competitive Barnes & Noble can be long term without its own presence in the tablet market, which is forecast to keep growing."

Barnes & Noble Pulls Back After Losses in Tablet Wars - WSJ.com

Salesforce.com and Oracle Announce New Strategic Partnership [Oracle press release]

I'm guessing Salesforce.com got a deep discount... but it's a positive sign, as with the recent Microsoft/Oracle agreement, that they're committing to no longer actively punish their joint customers (i.e., they will presumably make sure their offerings actually work together)

"Salesforce.com [NYSE:CRM] and Oracle [NASDAQ:ORCL] announced today a comprehensive nine-year partnership encompassing all three tiers of cloud computing: Applications, Platform and Infrastructure.
Salesforce.com plans to standardize on the Oracle Linux operating system, Exadata engineered systems, the Oracle Database, and Java Middleware Platform. Oracle plans to integrate salesforce.com with Oracle’s Fusion HCM and Financial Cloud, and provide the core technology to power salesforce.com's applications and platform. Salesforce.com will also implement Oracle’s Fusion HCM and Financial cloud applications throughout the company."

Salesforce.com and Oracle Announce New Strategic Partnership

Doctor Performs First Google Glass-Equipped Surgery | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

I'm Feeling Yucky

"Grossmann set up the Hangout in advance and used it to connect up to a nearby iPad, which displayed the images he was live-streaming through his Google Glass headset.
"I was able to show not just the patient's abdomen, but also the endoscopic view, in a very clever, simple and inexpensive way. I think that there should be ways to directly stream the endoscopic view thru Google Glass (My friend @Julianmb, also a Google Explorer, and his team of experts from @Droiders are working on that!) but this was a "Poor's Man's" set up," Grossmann writes."

Doctor Performs First Google Glass-Equipped Surgery | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Microsoft licenses Age of Empires for iOS, Android versions | PCWorld

More evidence of a strategy tax recalc in Redmond

"A version of Microsoft's Age of Empires game franchise will be developed for iPhones and Android devices, the first time an official Microsoft title will be released for the mobile platforms. 

The initial title will be developed in English by Japanese developer KLab and released globally, with a Windows Phone version and additional languages to follow. The companies said the new game will have a mobile social component, a strength of KLab."

Microsoft licenses Age of Empires for iOS, Android versions | PCWorld

Pink Floyd: Pandora's Internet radio royalty ripoff [USA Today]

Note to Pandora: it's probably not a good sign when the surviving members of Pink Floyd reunite to publicly petition against your proposed policies

"It's a matter of principle for us. We hope that many online and mobile music services can give fans and artists the music they want, when they want it, at price points that work. But those same services should fairly pay the artists and creators who make the music at the core of their businesses. For almost all working musicians, it's also a question of economic survival. Nearly 90% of the artists who get a check for digital play receive less than $5,000 a year. They cannot afford the 85% pay cut Pandora asked Congress to impose on the music community."

Pink Floyd: Pandora's Internet radio royalty ripoff

Why does everyone except Google want to build a reader? — Tech News and Analysis

Excerpt from an Om Malik reader roundup/reality check

"Google executives, obviously, missed that part about engagement and I don’t blame them. Google’s DNA as a company is to send people somewhere else from Google’s search bar. In order to be an engagement-centric company, it needs to think like Facebook and keep people constantly locked into its ecosystem.
If Google was thinking along those lines, it could see that with Google Reader, Google News and Google+, it could have built a truly interesting and highly social reader experience that could be addictive, and yes, a good place for selling advertising. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised – creator Chris Wetherell told us that Google Reader was living on borrowed time even before it was launched to the world."

Why does everyone except Google want to build a reader? — Tech News and Analysis

Is Your Office Making You Unproductive? - At Work - WSJ

Sign of the times

"In a new study, a large design firm responsible for creating corporate offices world-wide has found that most modern workspaces, while built to foster collaboration and ties between workers, may stifle our ability to focus and get things done.
Global design firm Gensler found that companies’ attempts to provide space for staff to collaborate–  often via open-plan layouts or low cubicles–have compromised workers’ ability to concentrate. The study, which surveyed  2,035 employees at a variety of firms, found that the most effective workplaces include both quiet spaces and collaborative areas, and give employees a choice of where they’d like to work at any given time."

Is Your Office Making You Unproductive? - At Work - WSJ

Oracle puts database, middleware, Linux on Microsoft Hyper-V, Azure • The Register

Putting customers first and, Microsoft and Oracle hope, Amazon Web Services last

""A lot has happened," Ballmer explained, "but we are going to continue to compete in areas. I think both companies have always – at least for many, many years – had respect for one another and have done the work our customers have really wanted us to do. Maybe a little bit more behind the scenes to get Windows Server and the Oracle database, middleware server, and applications to run.
"In the world of cloud computing, I think that behind-the-scenes collaboration is not enough because people wanted more from us, people wanted more from Oracle. And frankly, the relationships between the two companies ... have evolved, despite the fact that we continue to compete, in a very positive and constructive manner on a number of fronts.""

Oracle puts database, middleware, Linux on Microsoft Hyper-V, Azure • The Register

Review: Facebook Home | MIT Technology Review

Final paragraph of a critical Facebook Home review

"The moral vision of the Dynabook posited that people would use technology to manipulate code and data, to create models of the world—as many as they needed in order to understand it. In contrast, Facebook has a single model of the world, unapologetically monolithic: the canonical graph of the relationships between more than a billion human beings. If the company is to grow, it must insert itself between people and their smartphones; there are still simply too many moments spent watching things, or reading things, or making things, that it does not own."

Review: Facebook Home | MIT Technology Review

Microsoft and Oracle announce enterprise partnership [Microsoft News Center]

I suspect their joint customers consider this a welcome, albeit long overdue, development

"Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. today announced a partnership that will enable customers to run Oracle software on Windows Server Hyper-V and in Windows Azure. Customers will be able to deploy Oracle software — including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server — on Windows Server Hyper-V or in Windows Azure and receive full support from Oracle. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
As part of this partnership, Oracle will certify and support Oracle software — including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server — on Windows Server Hyper-V and in Windows Azure. Microsoft will also offer Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server to Windows Azure customers, and Oracle will make Oracle Linux available to Windows Azure customers."

Microsoft and Oracle announce enterprise partnership

[Free 6/25 webinar] Data Modelers Still Have Jobs: Adjusting For the NoSQL Environment | DataStax

Excerpt from the abstract of a free webinar scheduled for tomorrow at noon ET

"Using concrete, real-world examples, the presenter will show the following:

• How abandoning modeling altogether is a recipe for disaster, even in—or especially in—NoSQL environments

• How experienced relational modelers can leverage their skills for NoSQL projects

• How the NoSQL context both simplifies and complicates the modeling endeavor

• How lessons learned modeling for NoSQL projects can make you a more effective modeler for any kind of project"

Data Modelers Still Have Jobs: Adjusting For the NoSQL Environment | DataStax

AOL Reader Opens to the Public, Collapses Under the Strain [The Digital Reader]

Not a great first impression for AOL

"It’s nice to see all of the work that AOL has put into this, but the most important detail today is that the service can’t function under the strain. I am still unable to actually use AOL Reader to do anything, and in fact just a couple minutes ago I was kicked out and forced to sign in again. If AOL Reader isn’t stable enough to keep users logged in then it’s not ready for prime time.
I can understand why AOL felt they had to rush things; the Readerpocalypse is only 7 days away and that doesn’t leave them much time to if they want to get any traction in this niche. That’s why Digg is making sure to get Digg Reader out this week, but one important difference between Digg and AOL is that the latter rushed things."

AOL Reader Opens to the Public, Collapses Under the Strain

A Cretaceous Checkpoint | Platformonomics

First paragraph of a timely IBM reality check by Charles Fitzgerald

“In our last installment of doing tomorrow’s technological paleontology today, I laid out my case for why IBM’s future looks different than the last decade because financial engineering isn’t the kind of engineering necessary to make the transition to the cloud. For my efforts, I got a lot of financially-oriented pushback that basically amounted to “past performance is in fact an indicator of future performance” and pointers to predictions from all-knowing Wall Street analysts who think IBM stock is going ever higher. I don’t pretend to know where the stock market is going in the short term, but I do believe IBM faces massive headwinds in the midst of a generational shift in technology. Interestingly, people associated with IBM were unanimous in their agreement with my thesis, both publicly and privately.”

A Cretaceous Checkpoint | Platformonomics

AnandTech | The 2013 MacBook Air Review (13-inch)

From the conclusion of an exceptionally detailed 2013 MacBook Air review

"Five years after its introduction, the MacBook Air really has grown into a very polished, mature platform. The 2013 model is really the epitome of what Apple set out to build back in 2008, we just finally have the right hardware available to realize the vision. Nearly every component has been perfectly selected. The chassis remains excellent. The keyboard and trackpad are non-issues. CPU performance is good for a mainstream PC and GPU performance is literally the highest you can offer in a 15W TDP. The SSD is no compromises, and Apple has implemented the fastest WiFi available as well. Only the display is beginning to show its age, not because it's substantially behind the similarly priced competition but because Apple has given us Retina Displays nearly everywhere else."

AnandTech | Print The 2013 MacBook Air Review (13-inch)

[IP] From the principal architect -- Skype / NSA - Dave Farber - com.listbox.v2.ip - MarkMail

From a snapshot of Skype amid "PC plus" transition

"How do we solve that for our users? Servers. Lots of them, and more and
more often in the Windows Azure cloud infrastructure. In the case of
instant messaging, we have merged the Skype and Windows Messenger message
delivery backend services, and this now gets you delivery of messages even
when the recipient is offline, and other nice features like spam filtering
and malicious URL removal. For calling, we have the dedicated supernodes
already, and additional services to help calls succeed when the receiving
client is asleep and needs a push notification to wake up. And over time
you will see more and more services move to the Skype cloud, offloading
memory and CPU requirements from the mobile devices everyone wants to enjoy
to their fullest and with maximum battery life."

[IP] From the principal architect -- Skype / NSA - Dave Farber - com.listbox.v2.ip - MarkMail

Facebook Aims to Become Newspaper for Mobile Devices - WSJ.com

FaceFlipbook?...

"The social network has been quietly working on a service, internally called Reader, that displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The project, which the company has been developing for more than a year, is designed to showcase news content in particular. Recent versions of Reader resemble Flipboard Inc., a smartphone and tablet app that aggregates stories from multiple sources and lets users swipe to flip through articles, said the people with knowledge of the project."

Facebook Aims to Become Newspaper for Mobile Devices - WSJ.com

Microsoft and Nokia won’t beget a Googorola clone | Monday Note

Excerpt from another timely Jean-Louis Gassée reality check

"One can’t imagine that Ballmer will call it a day and cede the field to Google and Apple. Personally, I admire his never-give-up attitude, always talking up the future, unfazed by past bold pronouncements gone wrong, but enthusiasm isn’t a strategy. And in the smartphone market, Microsoft doesn’t have many moves left. Regardless of the technical merits of its new mobile OS, momentum seems elusive; market forces that once worked against Windows competitors in the PC field now seem to confine Windows Phone to an insignificant market share against the two dominant and their complementary business models."

Microsoft and Nokia won’t beget a Googorola clone | Monday Note

Chicago Grid | Track a stolen bike from your phone with Bike Spike

The Internet of missing or damaged things; if you're primarily interested in speed, route, and terrain data, I recommend (freemium) Strava

"What it is: Like OnStar for bikes. Contains a GPS and anti-theft device that alerts its owner if a bike is stolen or tampered with. After a collision, an accelerometer gauges if the impact was serious — if so, BikeSpike will alert emergency contacts and police. It also collects data on speed, route and the terrain of a ride, which riders can access through a subscription service."

Chicago Grid | Track a stolen bike from your phone with Bike Spike

AOL is launching a Google Reader replacement Monday: ‘All your favorite websites, in one place’ - The Next Web

Launching Monday, but tbd if AOL can offer anything not already offered by leading reader clients such as Feedly; also see AOL Is Launching a Google Reader Replacement – Their Third Attempt at a News Reader Service (The Digital Reader)

"As the end of Google Reader nears, AOL is planning to announce its own alternative to the service: “AOL Reader.”
As you can see on the current landing page for the service, which is public, its tagline is “All your favorite websites, in one place.” The service is currently operating in private beta."

AOL is launching a Google Reader replacement Monday: ‘All your favorite websites, in one place’ - The Next Web

Oracle and Salesforce: a Data-Sharing Deal - NYTimes.com

The odd couple

"Next week, according to people familiar with the agreement who were not authorized to speak on the record, Oracle and Salesforce will announce that their products will be able to easily share data.
That way, customers can use things like customer contact and product details that they have on Salesforce with Oracle’s applications, which include similar sales and people-management software. The data sharing could make both products more attractive to buyers, because it will increase what companies can do with the software."

Oracle and Salesforce: a Data-Sharing Deal - NYTimes.com

NSA Concedes Hadoop Beats Its Pricey Alternatives – ReadWrite

Final paragraphs of a timely Hadoop market dynamics snapshot

"In short, while Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, insists that Google "is not in cahoots with the NSA," the reality is that everyone in the Hadoop and related open-source communities is. Not by choice or nefarious design, but simply because the open-source community now regularly writes better software than billions of dollars in government money can buy, and agencies like the NSA recognize this.
The next phase is for such government agencies to start participating actively in the communities from which they derive so much benefit. Accumulo is a start, but if the government is serious about pushing the state of the art with Hadoop and other Big Data technologies, it needs to contribute code, not just cash."

NSA Concedes Hadoop Beats Its Pricey Alternatives – ReadWrite

Facebook Announces That It's Out Of Ideas [Buzzfeed]

Excerpt from a stark Facebook reality check

"Facebook has continued to grow since. But other services have grown faster. Facebook’s response, from its new, privileged perspective, has been to behave with a mixture of jealousy and ruthlessness. It blatantly ripped off Snapchat with Poke, which was a flop. It responded to the rise of messaging apps with a messaging app of its own, which was a success. It released a clear Instagram rip-off, which was a failure, before buying Instagram. Today, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom took the stage to give an uncharacteristically forced and wooden speech about a new video feature in his app. The invitation to the event said, “A small team has been working on a big idea.” Systrom’s script included, more than once, the phrase, “This changes everything.” The app, in every important way, resembles Twitter’s suddenly popular Vine."

Facebook Announces That It's Out Of Ideas

Video Wars: Facebook 15, Twitter 6 - Businessweek

Meanwhile, no news about the recently-rumored Facebook RSS client :(

"The Instagram video-sharing tool has several features Vine lacks: color filters, image stabilization, and other editing tools. Instagram videos can also be more than twice the length of a six-second Vine. This ought to please critics, who say Vines are too short to be useful, but it may bore those who already say they’re too long.
Facebook’s (FB) biggest advantage over Twitter, though, is the size of the Instagram community. Founder Kevin Systrom says Instagram has 130 million monthly users, and it’ll be easy to get them sharing videos with a feature integrated into an app they’re already using. "

Video Wars: Facebook 15, Twitter 6 - Businessweek

Hewlett-Packard Makes Its Move Against IBM in Big Data - Businessweek

Big goals for HP's big data solutions

"As demand for personal computers continues to slump, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) is trying to make itself more attractive to businesses. On June 11 the company unveiled HAVEn, a software package that knits together technology from its data analysis units. The move pits HP against IBM (IBM), a leader in mining corporate data. While HP long succeeded with consumer-friendly design and printing features, it now aims to offer corporate clients a more complete package, says Chief Operating Officer Bill Veghte. “Customers want solutions,” Veghte says. “They don’t want simply a piece of hardware or a piece of software.”"

Hewlett-Packard Makes Its Move Against IBM in Big Data - Businessweek

Samsung Introduces ATIV Q, ATIV Tab 3 Tablets - Bonnie Cha - Product News - AllThingsD

Two OSes * four display modes = one versatile toaster-fridge

"At an event in London today, Samsung introduced the ATIV Q, a hybrid device that can run Windows 8 and Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2. The company said it designed the ATIV Q after its customers expressed a desire to access Android apps on a Windows PC. Now, users can switch between the two operating systems seamlessly.
You can even pin Android apps to the Windows 8 start screen, and transfer and share files between Windows 8 and Android. (Asus also introduced a Windows-Android hybrid, the Transformer Book Trio, at Computex earlier this month.)"

Samsung Introduces ATIV Q, ATIV Tab 3 Tablets - Bonnie Cha - Product News - AllThingsD

Oracle CEO Ellison Promises "Startling" Cloud News Next Week - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Never mind those pesky quarterly results; wait until you see what we're going to announce next week...

"During a conference call with analysts to discuss Oracle’s Q4 earnings results, Ellison said Oracle will next week make a series of “startling” announcements with several companies, including Microsoft and Salesforce.com.
“Next week we will be announcing partnerships with the largest and most important SAAS companies in the cloud, and they will be committing to our 12C technology for years to come,” Ellison said. He went on to name Salesforce and Microsoft among those companies."

Oracle CEO Ellison Promises "Startling" Cloud News Next Week - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

MakerBot Sells to Stratasys for $403M -- Plus $201M for Earn-Outs - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD

Making much money

"The democratizing of 3-D printing just saw its first big deal, with the sale of MakerBot to Stratasys for $403 million in stock, with an additional $201 million in performance-based earn-outs.
Stratasys is a larger industrial 3-D printing company, which has been around since 1989, while MakerBot has pioneered the desktop 3-D printing. But it has sold more than 22,000 3-D printers since it was founded in 2009, especially the most recent MakerBot Replicator 2 unit."

MakerBot Sells to Stratasys for $403M -- Plus $201M for Earn-Outs - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD

Apple and Netflix Dominate Online Video - NYTimes.com

iTunes Radio is probably an ominous leading indicator for Netflix, in terms of a likely future Apple subscription-based video streaming service

"In a recent study, the NPD Group, a research firm, said Apple was by and large the leader for home video downloads. For television shows, iTunes accounted for 67 percent of this market in 2012, and Microsoft’s Xbox video service was a distant second with 14 percent of the market, NPD said. For movies, iTunes had a 65 percent share of the market, with Amazon and Microsoft far behind at 10 percent each, it said.
Another popular method for watching movies and TV online is paying a subscription and streaming as many as you want. In the subscriptions-based video streaming market, Netflix is dominant, with a 90 percent share, and Hulu Plus and Amazon are still hardly relevant."

Apple and Netflix Dominate Online Video - NYTimes.com

Microsoft Adds Office for iPhone. Yawn. - NYTimes.com

In other Microsoft news, see Microsoft Reverses Course on Xbox One Policies: The Xbox team dials back the crazy (Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows)

"Anticlimax (noun) 1. An event or conclusion that is far less important, powerful or striking than expected. 2. The release of Microsoft Office for the iPhone. [...]

In the end, then, Office Mobile for iPhone is very little, very late. Its non-Microsoft competitors are already far more useful. Unless you want to sign up for Office 365 anyway, the other apps are a much better value, too."

Microsoft Adds Office for iPhone. Yawn. - NYTimes.com

Sizing Up Big Data, Broadening Beyond the Internet - NYTimes.com

Extensive big data coverage in the NYT -- the article excerpted below is part of a big data special section; there's also a related NYT Sunday Magazine article, Data You Can Believe In

"The story is the same in one field after another, in science, politics, crime prevention, public health, sports and industries as varied as energy and advertising. All are being transformed by data-driven discovery and decision-making. The pioneering consumer Internet companies, like Google, Facebook and Amazon, were just the start, experts say. Today, data tools and techniques are used for tasks as varied as predicting neighborhood blocks where crimes are most likely to occur and injecting intelligence into hulking industrial machines, like electrical power generators."

Sizing Up Big Data, Broadening Beyond the Internet - NYTimes.com

BlackBerry’s keyboard a plus for many, but new phone’s still lagging - Business - The Boston Globe

Lead paragraph of a Hiawatha Bray review of what is now the #4 (behind Windows Phone) smartphone platform in the U.S.

"The new BlackBerry smartphone is here, and it’s a fine piece of work — light, sleek, and thin, and featuring the classic pushbutton keyboard. It’s exactly the phone I needed two or three years ago. But today? Not so much."

BlackBerry’s keyboard a plus for many, but new phone’s still lagging - Business - The Boston Globe

Apple’s radical ios 7 redesign is only skin deep. - Slate Magazine

Final paragraph of a superficial iOS 7 beta review; check the full post for a lively discussion thread

"Altogether, the changes make for a design that’s neither an obvious improvement nor a downgrade. Instead, iOS 7 is a step sideways. It’s a bold new look, and depending on your aesthetic sensibility, you’ll either love it or hate it. But that’s as deep as it goes. It doesn’t add many new features to your phone. It doesn’t improve the iPhone’s usability to any great degree (and for smartphone novices, it might well be more difficult to learn than iOS 6). It won’t fix Apple’s problems with data-driven cloud software. Perhaps, over time, iOS 7’s purpose will become apparent; it’s possible that the new design is a foundation for the future of Apple’s mobile software, one whose ultimate utility will be proven over the next few years. That’s the best-case scenario. The more likely outcome is a collective meh."

Apple’s radical ios 7 redesign is only skin deep. - Slate Magazine

Big Data Arrives at the Oxford English Dictionary | What's The Big Data?

In the OED, but with a vague definition

"big data n. Computing (also with capital initials) data of a very large size, typically to the extent that its manipulation and management present significant logistical challenges; (also) the branch of computing involving such data."

Big Data Arrives at the Oxford English Dictionary | What's The Big Data?

Evernote Blog | Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome Gets Gmail Clipping

A convenient Chrome conversation clipper

"Email accounts are much more than a history of conversations. They contain photos, research, files, purchase receipts, travel itineraries, and just about everything in between. The trouble with email is that with thousands of emails in an account, it become incredibly difficult to organize things and find what you need, which is precisely where Evernote excels.
Whenever you receive an important email, simply open it and click on the Web Clipper. The email, along with any attached files, will be saved to Evernote. The Web Clipper grabs only what it can see, so if you want to clip all parts of the conversation, be sure to expand the thread.
You’ll also be able to place it into your notebook of choice, assign any relevant tags and add a note."

Evernote Blog | Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome Gets Gmail Clipping

Walt Mossberg Tests Two New Laptop Batteries - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

The new MacBook Air is ~27% less expensive than the comparable Sony, when the latter includes an optional second battery (the Sony is ~14% more expensive if you're willing to have ~half the battery life)

"In my tests, I was able to largely confirm Intel’s battery-life claims. This was especially true of the 13-inch MacBook Air I evaluated, whose battery life in my test jumped 65 percent from my last test of the machine, even though it hasn’t been significantly redesigned, except for the inclusion of the new Intel chips, faster Wi-Fi and solid-state storage and a slightly more potent battery. It has become a computer capable of all-day use when performing typical tasks, even though its dimensions and 3-pound weight are unchanged."

Walt Mossberg Tests Two New Laptop Batteries - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

Google's Effort to Skirt Regulation May Invite More Scrutiny - NYTimes.com

Final paragraph of a Google/Waze deal reality check

"At the least, this all means that the Waze acquisition is likely to get a thorough review by the government. The battle will now begin. That Google will keep Waze without restrictions is no certainty. But the government faces a challenge. If it does decide to try to unwind this acquisition, Google is going to push the bounds of the law as hard as it can. The future of map search is at stake, and Google may not be evil, but this is business."

Google's Effort to Skirt Regulation May Invite More Scrutiny - NYTimes.com

These Guys Want to Hack Your Home. And You Should Let Them | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

IFTTT meets the Internet of Things

"To use IFTTT, simply select the services you’d like to link and indicate what you’d like them to do. You can even select from “recipes” built for specific tasks. For the most part, these are tasks that happen solely on the internet. For example, you can use the service to automatically upload a photo to Dropbox when you post it to Facebook, or send a tweet when you post to your blog. But the services also ties into many physical devices, including the Jawbone UP fitness tracker, the Phillips Hue home lighting control system, and Belkin’s WeMo devices, which can detect motion in a room and toggle electrical flow from an outlet."

These Guys Want to Hack Your Home. And You Should Let Them | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Goodbye Google Reader | Monday Note

This would be a curiously circuitous route for Google, if so

"The best explanation I’ve read (on my Reader feeds) is that Google wants to draw the curtain, perform some surgery, and reintroduce its RSS reader as part of Google+, perhaps with some Google Now thrown in:
'While I can’t say I’m a fan of squirrelly attempts to draw me into Google+, I must admit that RSS feeds could be a good fit… Stories could appear as bigger, better versions of the single-line entry in Reader, more like the big-photo entries that Facebook’s new News Feed uses. Even better, Google+ entries have built in re-sharing tools as well as commenting threads, encouraging interaction.'"

Goodbye Google Reader | Monday Note

HP Autonomy Acronym Explained : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search

The rest of the HP project HAVEn story (almost...)

"Know what Haven means in HP Autonomy speak? At lunch yesterday, I learned that the acronym means:
H is for Hadoop, the dust bin for digital stuff
A is for Autonomy, the HP acquisition fueling MBA case studies
V is for Vertica, the HP big data analytics acquisition
E is for enterprise, the customer seeking refuge from other vendors
N is for… not sure, the one thing I know about big outfits."

HP Autonomy Acronym Explained : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search

ip: Brewster Kahle estimate -- How much storage to record all voice traffic

Interesting economic times; check the source for a spreadsheet model and related discussion

"I believe this may have been caused by my june 12th tweet:  https://twitter.com/brewster_kahle/status/345016937409024000
Cost to Store All US Phonecalls from a Year in the Cloud: $27M, 4k sqft, $2M/year in power. bargain!"

Listbox • Email Marketing and Discussion Groups

Official Blog: Introducing Project Loon: Balloon-powered Internet access

From an overview of the latest Google moonshot; also see How Google Will Use High-Flying Balloons to Deliver Internet to the Hinterlands (Wired)

"We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It’s very early days, but we’ve built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today’s 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy—and that’s part of the reason we’re calling it Project Loon—but there’s solid science behind it."

Official Blog: Introducing Project Loon: Balloon-powered Internet access

Facebook Will Launch A News Reader At June 20th Press Event | TechCrunch

Interesting speculation about the subject of a Facebook event next week; it would be richly ironic if Facebook is able to get a boost from an integrated XML syndication client just as Google is shutting off Google Reader

"A reader of any form would certainly qualify as a “big idea”, as Facebook is all about connecting you to people, things, and information you care about, and news is by definition what people care about. A successful launch could drastically increase time spent on Facebook, fill it with useful data about what topics people are interested in, offer new advertising opportunities around current events, and most importantly, make us all better informed citizens of Earth."

Facebook Will Launch A News Reader At June 20th Press Event | TechCrunch

Big data meets the Bard - FT.com

To read or not to read; check here for a Distant Reading book review

"Here’s some advice for bibliophiles with teetering piles of books and not enough hours in the day: don’t read them. Instead, feed the books into a computer program and make graphs, maps and charts: it is the best way to get to grips with the vastness of literature. That, at least, is the recommendation of Franco Moretti, a 63-year-old professor of English at Stanford University and unofficial leader of a band of academics bringing a science-fiction thrill to the science of fiction."

Big data meets the Bard - FT.com

Office Mobile for iPhone Review | Office 365 content from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows

Final paragraph of a more positive Office Mobile for iPhone review

"It’s impossible to look at something like Office Mobile for iPhone and not wonder about expected future Office Mobile versions for iPad, and Android handsets and tablets. But unless you’re quite experienced with Office Mobile on Windows Phone—unlikely—then Office Mobile for iPhone may be somewhat confusing. First, it’s for the iPhone, not the iPad. And second, it’s nothing like a full-featured Office productivity suite. But as a mobile companion solution, it works quite well. And it’s basically identical to the Windows Phone version, which isn’t too shabby. If you use Office and, gasp, an iPhone, this one’s a no-brainer."

Office Mobile for iPhone Review | Office 365 content from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows

Microsoft Office for iPhone is pathetically bad | Mobile Technology - InfoWorld

Not a fan -- from the second page of the review

"I have to be fair to Microsoft: Its version of Mobile Office for Window Phone has all the same issues and limitations, as did the years-old version of the long-dead Windows Mobile platform. Microsoft is not treating iOS users worse than users of its own Windows Phone, as Microsoft does to Mac users of Office. But the fact that the Windows Phone version is just as useless underscores how lousy Mobile Office is -- it's clearly not meant to be a serious office productivity tool, but instead a check-off "yes, we support Office documents" for naive buyers. Given this self-crippling, I can only imagine how bad an eventual iPad version of Office will be -- after all, a good one would kill any chance of broad adoption of Windows tablets."

Microsoft Office for iPhone is pathetically bad | Mobile Technology - InfoWorld

Talking Retail: The New Windows Store Only at Best Buy [Microsoft Windows Blog]

One way for Microsoft to attempt to leapfrog the 407 worldwide Apple stores, at least in the U.S. and Canada

"Brandon LeBlanc: What’s unique about the Windows Store only at Best Buy?
Chris Capossela: Well, unlike a lot of store-within-a-store concepts, this will actually be a department-level takeover within Best Buy stores. And they will be massive in size, up to 2,200 square feet in some locations. The other unique thing about the Windows Store is the people. There will be an additional 1,200 staff on hand to provide a great customer experience, whether it’s choosing the right PC or showing consumers how to stream Xbox music through their Surface. Finally, the online experience should be fantastic. We’ll have a full online Windows Store experience that will mirror the in-store look-and-feel and offer a full range of Microsoft products, even those from other places in the Best Buy store."

Talking Retail: The New Windows Store Only at Best Buy

NSA Snooping Was Only the Beginning. Meet the Spy Chief Leading Us Into Cyberwar | Threat Level | Wired.com

Or, as the new (this week) Daily Show segment puts it, "Good news! You're not paranoid"

"Alexander runs the nation’s cyberwar efforts, an empire he has built over the past eight years by insisting that the US’s inherent vulnerability to digital attacks requires him to amass more and more authority over the data zipping around the globe. In his telling, the threat is so mind-bogglingly huge that the nation has little option but to eventually put the entire civilian Internet under his protection, requiring tweets and emails to pass through his filters, and putting the kill switch under the government’s forefinger. “What we see is an increasing level of activity on the networks,” he said at a recent security conference in Canada. “I am concerned that this is going to break a threshold where the private sector can no longer handle it and the government is going to have to step in.”"

NSA Snooping Was Only the Beginning. Meet the Spy Chief Leading Us Into Cyberwar | Threat Level | Wired.com

Finally. Office 365 is available for the iPhone, lets you edit any Word, Excel and PowerPoint file - The Next Web

Also consider the free Office Web Apps

"The app has a few catches though. For starters, every users needs an Office 365 subscription, which isn’t exactly cheap. Microsoft Office 2013, installed on a PC, is also a necessity for some of the app’s most pivotal features, such as resumed reading and accessing recent documents.
Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers is available now in the App Store, but only for users based in the United States right now. It’s compatible with the iPhone 4 and up running iOS 6.1 or later, as well as the fifth generation iPod Touch.
So there you have it. Office on iOS. You asked for it. Microsoft delivered. Eventually."

Finally. Office 365 is available for the iPhone, lets you edit any Word, Excel and PowerPoint file - The Next Web

Red Hat ditches MySQL, switches to MariaDB [ITWire]

LAMP t-shirts are still valid (although LAMMPPP might be more accurate -- Linux/Apache/MariaDB/MongoDB/Perl/PHP/Python)

"According to news from the Red Hat summit which concludes in Boston on Friday, RHEL 7 will also include MongoDB.
The switch was expected to happen after Red Hat's community distribution Fedora announced earlier this year that it would be moving to MariaDB. But it will come as a major jolt to Oracle, the owner of MySQL. (openSUSE, the community distibution of SUSE, also announced a switch to MariaDB at the same time as Fedora.)"

Red Hat ditches MySQL, switches to MariaDB

Big Data's Human Error Problem | Big Data [InformationWeek]

Check the full article for some timely data quality insights and this page for more details about next month’s CDOIQ Symposium

“Has the problem of bad data grown worse in the era of big data? No, not really, says author and industry analyst Joe Maguire, one of the organizers of the MIT Chief Data Officer and Information Quality (CDOIQ) Symposium, to be held July 17-19 in Cambridge, Mass.

The event, now in its 7th year, focuses on the issues of information quality and the need for a chief data officer (CDO) role within enterprises. In addition to being one of the conference organizers, Maguire will moderate a panel on human factors in information quality.”

Big Data's Human Error Problem | Big Data

Apple Claims 20% of U.S. E-Book Market, Double Previous Estimates - Mac Rumors

In related news, see DOJ Misfires on Jobs Email in Apple E-Book Case — It Was a Discarded Draft (AllThingsD)

"Publishers Weekly reports (via paidContent) that testimony from Apple executive Keith Moerer in the ongoing e-book price fixing trial has revealed that Apple holds approximately 20% of the e-book market in the United States, roughly double many of the previous estimates made by third parties."

Apple Claims 20% of U.S. E-Book Market, Double Previous Estimates - Mac Rumors

Apple posts new video, 'Making a difference. One app at a time.' | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Some inspirational app stories at the link below

"Apple on Wednesday afternoon posted a new and uncharacteristically lengthy video to its YouTube channel.
The video is rather powerful and highlights how iOS apps are having a substantive impact in a myriad of ways. "

Apple posts new video, 'Making a difference. One app at a time.' | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Facebook Unveils Hashtags for Real-Time Public Conversations - WSJ.com

#BetterLateThanNever? See this Facebook newsroom page for more details

""To date, there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what's happening or what people are talking about," said Greg Lindley, Facebook's product manager for hashtags, in a blog post. "Hashtags are just the first step to help people more easily discover what others are saying about a specific topic and participate in public conversations.""

Facebook Unveils Hashtags for Real-Time Public Conversations - WSJ.com

A Tablet That Doubles as a Desktop, or Vice Versa - NYTimes.com

David Pogue reviews Lenovo's 27" quasi-tablet

"Fortunately, if the tabletop novelty ever does wear off, the Horizon is always happy to pop back up into its original form as a perfectly adequate Windows PC. And it doesn’t cost much more than its upright-only rivals. So if you were considering one of those all-in-ones, buying the Horizon instead is almost a no-brainer.
In any case, Lenovo deserves great credit for transforming the tablet into something that’s fresh and interesting, something that serves a purpose no other machine quite fills. There really is something new in the Horizon."

A Tablet That Doubles as a Desktop, or Vice Versa - NYTimes.com

Imperfect privacy’s better than none - Business - The Boston Globe

Excerpt from a Hiawatha Bray privacy-related tools round-up

"The simplest solution is to use Microsoft’s Skype Internet calling service. The software is free, and millions of us carry it on our computers and smartphones. Sound quality is generally excellent, and Skype calls are automatically encrypted.
In fact, Skype call security is so good that the FBI is begging Congress to force Microsoft Corp. and other Internet phone companies to add “back doors” so they can listen in. If that ever happens, Skype will lose much of its appeal for privacy buffs. But for now, it’s a good choice."

Imperfect privacy’s better than none - Business - The Boston Globe

Chicago Grid | Ihnatko offers his thoughts on the new Mac Pro and other Apple developments

Concluding paragraphs of a pithy perspective piece that starts here

"“‘Can’t innovate any more’, my ass!” Apple VP Phil Schiller said, during the unveiling of the new Mac Pro. Yeah, Apple has been hit with that complaint a lot over the past year, and it’s never made any sense to me: it implies that Apple is required to knock us on our butts on a schedule, not when it’s the appropriate time to do so.
Apple certainly showed us something on Monday. With this new Mac, they showed us that they’re still the company that regularly makes us think “What the hell is that?”…and then provides us with an answer that we like."

Chicago Grid | Ihnatko offers his thoughts on the new Mac Pro and other Apple developments

Apple Flatters Microsoft With Imitation - Businessweek

Perhaps not entirely good news for Microsoft, if this is an accentuate-the-positive snapshot

"If Apple, the tech world’s de facto purveyor of good taste, has moved closer to Microsoft’s design, then it follows that Microsoft must be doing something right. Microsoft needs this kind of affirmation as it continues its seemingly quixotic bid to become a serious player in the mobile market. And recent market data suggest that, like the talking guy in the Monty Python plague cart, Windows Phone is “not dead yet.”"

Apple Flatters Microsoft With Imitation - Businessweek

Facebook follows Google, Microsoft in asking permission to disclose how many FISA requests it receives - The Next Web

Transparency R Us -- next time around, if we have permission, for sure...

"The ask is simple: “We urge the United States government to help make that possible by allowing companies to include information about the size and scope of national security requests we receive, and look forward to publishing a report that includes that information.”
Google and Microsoft made similar requests. Frankly, expect each of the listed eight firms that are a part of PRISM – whatever PRISM is finally determined to be – to make similar statements. This is not the first line dance of this sort: when the companies denied providing “direct” access to their servers, they did so in near prose lockstep."

Facebook follows Google, Microsoft in asking permission to disclose how many FISA requests it receives - The Next Web

Evernote's Phil Libin and Flipboard's Mike McCue on iOS 7 and OS X - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsD

Excerpt from an iOS7 first-impression snapshot

"Update: I followed up with Libin to see what he was thinking a day later. “I’ve had some time to play with iOS 7 now and it’s confirmed my initial reaction: This is a very big deal for us,” he said. “We’re going to have to do a serious redesign of our apps to really take advantage of the new capabilities, but it’ll lead to a much better product. Lots of work, lots of excitement.”
As for Flipboard’s McCue, he said the new software was inspiring to him as both a developer and user and that “everybody has to step up their game a bit.”"

Evernote's Phil Libin and Flipboard's Mike McCue on iOS 7 and OS X - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsD

HP and Google Team Up to Offer Small Businesses "IT in a Box" - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

HP is now a Google Apps reseller; HP is also seeking a safe HAVEn in big data

"It’s the latest move on the chessboard by HP to get a little closer to Google, and it is interesting in light of the fact that Microsoft has both been building its own hardware — the Surface — and also cozying up to HP rival Dell with a $2 billion loan to help finance its $24.4 billion leveraged buyout. The move is also taking place against the backdrop of HP’s further embrace of Android and Chrome-based hardware. It just added a second Chromebook to its line of notebooks, and also offers an Android-based tablet."

HP and Google Team Up to Offer Small Businesses "IT in a Box" - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Toshiba's Kirabook - A Windows Laptop With an Apple Price - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

The Windows 8 toaster/fridge dilemma continues; also see Apple and Microsoft Desktop OSes: Two Models, One Winner (Tech.pinions)

"I’ve been testing a Kirabook for the past five days and I found it to be a good computer whose strongest feature is a brilliant, high-resolution screen. It’s a speedy and reliable machine that’s thin and light without feeling cheap.
But I consider it overpriced for what it offers. It actually costs more than a MacBook Air, but with much worse battery life, an older processor and a design that looks like a lot of other grayish, metallic laptops."

Meanwhile, the latest MacBook Air models started shipping this week

Toshiba's Kirabook - A Windows Laptop With an Apple Price - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

TIBCO Software Acquires StreamBase Systems - Datanami

Another successful Stonebraker start-up story; see his Wikipedia article for other database start-ups with which he has been involved lately

"TIBCO Software Inc. today announced it has acquired StreamBase Systems, Inc., a privately held provider of high performance event processing and real-time analytics software. StreamBase enables companies to rapidly build, test, and deploy real-time applications for streaming big data. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. "

TIBCO Software Acquires StreamBase Systems - Datanami

Apple - Press Info - Apple Gives Sneak Peek Into the Future of the Pro Desktop

This was the device that led Apple marketing SVP Phil Schiller to observe "Can't innovate anymore, my ass," during yesterday's WWDC keynote

"The next generation Mac Pro is architected around an ingenious unified thermal core that allows the desktop to efficiently share its entire thermal capacity across all the processors. The result is a pro desktop with breakthrough performance packed into a design that is one-eighth the volume of the current Mac Pro. Next generation Intel Xeon E5 processors with up to 12 core configurations deliver double the floating point performance. With two AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs, the all-new Mac Pro is up to 2.5 times faster than the current Mac Pro and delivers up to an amazing 7 teraflops of compute power. The new Mac Pro also features PCIe-based flash storage that is up to 10 times faster than conventional desktop hard drives and includes the latest four-channel ECC DDR3 memory running at 1866 MHz to deliver up to 60GBps of memory bandwidth.* With all that power, the new Mac Pro lets you seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K video while simultaneously rendering effects in the background."

Apple - Press Info - Apple Gives Sneak Peek Into the Future of the Pro Desktop

Apple unveils Google Docs-like 'iWork for iCloud' for both Macs and PCs | Digital Trends

So like Office Web Apps, but several years later, and probably not supported on Android devices real soon now?... Check this Apple beta page for more details.

"Apple’s Roger Rosner took the stage at this year’s WWDC to introduce the new version of iWork. Available later this year, the brand new iWork for iCloud application will allow you to “create beautiful documents whether you’re on a Mac or a PC.” That’s right, a Mac or a PC! That’s because iWork for iCloud works via your Web browser. It also works on iOS, making it a truly cross-platform app. "

Apple unveils Google Docs-like 'iWork for iCloud' for both Macs and PCs | Digital Trends

For the first time, a third of American adults own tablet computers | Pew Internet & American Life Project

Check the source for more details

"The following chart shows the increase in general tablet ownership over time, beginning with May 2010 when just 3% of adults said they owned a tablet computer."

For the first time, a third of American adults own tablet computers | Pew Internet & American Life Project

Google Glass in Everyday Life -- Now That's a Little More Like It - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD

Worth 3:51 of your time, imho

"The latest Glass video, which Google released today, takes a different tone. A group of employees wearing Glass goof off together and search for random stuff. It’s not overproduced (it was shot with Glass); in fact, it’s refreshingly amateurish.
You come away with a better idea of why you might want to wear Glass: To win an argument about Prince’s real name while you’re holding a beer; or to look up nearby restaurants on the fly; or to check arrival times of a friend’s flight while driving to the airport."

Google Glass in Everyday Life -- Now That's a Little More Like It - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD

What Does a Bing-Powered Siri Mean for Google? - Liz Gannes and John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

I didn't catch any spontaneous applause following the nonchalant Siri + Bing reference in yesterday's WWDC keynote. The article also notes "Because come fall, the last place where Google services will remain the default on iOS will be in the search bar for mobile Safari."

"But with the debut of iOS 7, Siri search will default to Bing instead. Not only will it use Microsoft’s search index to answer all queries that it can’t quickly answer on its own, it will skip the “would you like me to search the Web” interim step entirely.
Caveat: You can force Siri to search Google by asking it to do so — “search Google for smartphones.” But that requires an explicit command, one that adds an additional layer of complexity to a voice interface that’s supposed to be intuitive."

What Does a Bing-Powered Siri Mean for Google? - Liz Gannes and John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

Microsoft to Price Xbox One at $499 - WSJ.com

Perhaps following the J.C. Penney pricing play book -- price high now and coupon/discount later; coincidentally, Sony’s Next-Gen PlayStation 4 Will Cost $399, Launch “This Holiday Season” — With More Than Just Games in Tow (AllThingsD)

"Microsoft Corp. announced Monday that its new Xbox One will be launching in November for $499, well above price levels it has previously set for new videogame-console launches. The company was quick to point out that the device would sell as a single package, with no extra charges for accessories such as its popular Kinect controller device."

Microsoft to Price Xbox One at $499 - WSJ.com

Apple Plays Up Its Cool With Mobile OS Update - WSJ.com

So somehow having endless speculation about what Apple might next unveil makes the news less significant? Watch the WWDC keynote and decide for yourself; I for one believe Apple's competitors had a very bad day yesterday...

"Investors, whose faith in Apple has waned in recent months, brushed off the announcements, many of which had been previously reported. Apple shares closed down less than 1% to $438.89. This year, the stock is down about 18%.
Monday's event was a potpourri of announcements across Apple's product lines. They included new laptops, a version of iOS to run in cars, a new Mac operating system and a music service known as iTunes Radio."

Apple Plays Up Its Cool With Mobile OS Update - WSJ.com

‘Big Data,’ by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier - NYTimes.com

A timely book review; for a detailed book summary, see New Books in Brief

"Why spread such a huge net in search of a handful of terrorist suspects? Why vacuum up data so indiscriminately? “If you’re looking for a needle in the haystack, you need a haystack,” Jeremy Bash, chief of staff to Leon E. Panetta, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and defense secretary, said on Friday.
In “Big Data,” their illuminating and very timely book, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, a professor of Internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and Kenneth Cukier, the data editor for The Economist, argue that the nature of surveillance has changed."

‘Big Data,’ by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier - NYTimes.com

Hadoop Sharks Smell Blood; Take Aim at Status Quo - Datanami

First and last paragraphs from a snapshot of some interesting database market dynamics

"There may be blood is in the water as major Hadoop sharks, Cloudera and MapR, roll out new campaigns and messaging aiming directly at the turf of the traditional database management systems. Does their hype match-up with reality? Not everyone thinks so.
[...]
While none of the Hadoop vendors will openly say that they believe Hadoop will ever completely replace the traditional database, it’s clear that the Hadoop war is starting to cross boundaries into the traditional world, with all of the organization’s data being the ultimate prize."

Hadoop Sharks Smell Blood; Take Aim at Status Quo - Datanami

Android vs. Apple. Market Share vs. Profit Share, Part 255 | Monday Note

Excerpt from another timely Jean-Louis Gassée reality check

"Never mind two differences. First, the iPhone never lacked apps, 750,000 of them at last count. And never mind that it is immensely profitable, that Apple is embarrassingly flush with more cash than all its high-tech colleagues combined. The pundits won't accept evidence as an answer. Market Share will trump Profit Share. Why let facts cloud a good argument?
One is tempted to point to the race to the bottom that PC clone makers have experienced over the past decade. HP enjoys the largest Market Share of all PC makers, but it also "enjoys" less than 4% operating profit for its efforts. Meanwhile, Apple's margin is in the 25% range for its Mac line. That may not be as enjoyable as the 60% margin for the iPhone, but it's a solid business, particularly when you consider that the clone makers, HP and Dell foremost, are angling to get out of the business altogether."

Android vs. Apple. Market Share vs. Profit Share, Part 255 | Monday Note

This Time It's Real: Google-Waze Deal on the Way - By Liz Gannes and Mike Isaac - Mobile - AllThingsD

New Waze home?

"While no deal has been inked yet, the acquisition is likely to be finalized in the coming days, sources said, with one source expecting a Tuesday announcement date. The deal could reach upwards of $1.3 billion, according to Globes, which first reported the news of the impending acquisition.
Waze will remain an independent entity for the time being, one source said, perhaps assuaging some fears that the tech giant will either outright kill or significantly alter the popular app."

This Time It's Real: Google-Waze Deal on the Way - By Liz Gannes and Mike Isaac - Mobile - AllThingsD

Apple Enters Busy Field of Streaming Radio - NYTimes.com

Apple WWDC speculation

"“The genius of iTunes 10 years ago was that they made the mainstream consumer understand what digital music was, and how it all worked,” said Russ Crupnik, an analyst at NPD Group who studies the digital music market. He said Pandora was mainstream, with 200 million registered users, but it was not a dominant global player, and that a similar service from Apple would expose more people to online radio.
The company is also expected to introduce new Mac notebooks and a redesign of iOS, its software operating system for iPhones and iPads, at the four-day developers conference. The conference includes seminars where software developers can get training on the latest Apple software development tools so they can start making apps."

Apple Enters Busy Field of Streaming Radio - NYTimes.com

The real story in the NSA scandal is the collapse of journalism | ZDNet

Tangentially, also see The New York Times' Small But Significant Change to Its Blistering Obama Criticism (in Slate, which is, in a deeply-nested dimension, a division of The Washington Post Company)

"That rush to publication set off the Internet echo chamber and the cable news networks at a full-throated roar. The story and its key, now apparently discredited arguments have been spread far and wide.
The Post compounded its error by quietly correcting its story and not publicly acknowledging that there were errors in the original story. In fact, the revised story still claims the NSA and the FBI are “tapping directly into the central servers” of those companies when that allegation no longer appears to be true.
In short, one of the great journalistic institutions of the 20th Century is now engaged in outright click-baiting, following the same “publish first, fact-check later” rules as its newer online competitors.
Something tells me the Pulitzer committee won’t be considering this story for next year’s awards."

The real story in the NSA scandal is the collapse of journalism | ZDNet

'I Cannot Figure Out Why This Was Classified to Begin With' - James Fallows - The Atlantic

Final paragraph from a James Fallows perspective piece

"There is a lot more to learn about this program, its reach into public life, its alleged or real benefits, and the possible consequences of its revelation. But at face value, I feel about this news the way I did when the Pentagon Papers were unveiled many decades ago. The public has learned something important about policies carried out in its name, at what seems -- for now -- a modest cost to vulnerable individuals or national safety as a whole."

'I Cannot Figure Out Why This Was Classified to Begin With' - James Fallows - The Atlantic

TechEd 2013: Microsoft Details Cloud-First Strategy for the Enterprise | Paul Thurrotts WinInfo content from Windows IT Pro

Lead paragraphs from a Paul Thurrott TechEd summary

"At what might arguably be called the most energetic and captivating TechEd keynote in many years, Microsoft corporate vice president Brad Anderson and a bevy of fellow executives made the collective case for the firm’s transition to devices and services. But the day was perhaps most notable for a related announcement that was delivered internally to Microsoft’s employees and then shared with the public: Going forward, Microsoft’s enterprise emphasis is in cloud services.
“To enable this transformation we had to make deep changes to our organizational culture, overhauling how we build and deliver products,” Microsoft Server & Tools president Satya Nadella wrote in his letter to employees. “Every one of our division’s nearly 10,000 people now think and build for the cloud – first. Our engineers live a ‘live-site’ first culture to better respond to our customers in real time. And we are laser-focused on building more complete end-to-end service scenarios, or modern workloads, to deliver more value to our customers and partners.”"

TechEd 2013: Microsoft Details Cloud-First Strategy for the Enterprise | Paul Thurrotts WinInfo content from Windows IT Pro

Ray Ozzie here. Regarding "minitruth" - you've got to maintain a bit of a sense... | Hacker News

Excerpt from a timely reality check

"Anyway, unlike 'web tracking' issues which seem to be broadly ignored because of our love for ad-supported services, I hope we all (especially the young readers of reddit, hackernews, etc) wake up to the fact that these privacy and transparency issues are REAL, and that they truly will impact you and the country you live in, and that even if you don't consider yourself an activist you really should get informed and form an opinion. Again, this is a non-partisan issue, and let's all work to ensure that it stays this way.
Two great organizations where you can learn are EPIC and EFF. (Disclosure: I am on the board of EPIC.) Take it in, and think. Your contributions are needed and would of course be quite welcome.
http://epic.org
http://eff.org"

Ray Ozzie here. Regarding "minitruth" - you've got to maintain a bit of a sense... | Hacker News

Revelations Give Look at Spy Agency’s Wider Reach - NYTimes.com

Very big data and digital dilemmas

"Because of smartphones, tablets, social media sites, e-mail and other forms of digital communications, the world creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data daily, according to I.B.M.
The company estimates that 90 percent of the data that now exists in the world has been created in just the last two years. From now until 2020, the digital universe is expected to double every two years, according to a study by the International Data Corporation.
Accompanying that explosive growth has been rapid progress in the ability to sift through the information."

Revelations Give Look at Spy Agency’s Wider Reach - NYTimes.com

Cloudera adds search to Hadoop distro and says it’s just getting started — Tech News and Analysis [GigaOm]

Excerpt from a timely big data analytics reality check

"The bigger picture here, though, is the encroachment of the open source Hadoop technology — whether sold by Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR or whomever — into the lucrative data management and analytics space once (and still) dominated by vendors selling expensive software and big-iron systems. For now, Olson said, technologies like Cloudera Impala and the new search feature will be less functional than their legacy counterparts (Teradata for data warehousing and Autonomy for enterprise search, for example), but that could change over time."

Cloudera adds search to Hadoop distro and says it’s just getting started — Tech News and Analysis

Susan Landau: Canaries in the Coal Mine [Huffington Post]

Mining mobile metadata

"Such transactional information is remarkably revelatory. A recent paper in Nature found that with 95 percent probability four location points were sufficient to identify an individual (home and work pairs are often unique). Location tells you lots: who is going to church on Sunday (and which church), whether someone has changed jobs, where they are going for medical treatment), and with whom they are spending their nights. Three decades ago, the last time our laws (specifically the Electronic Communications Privacy Act) codified government's access to telephone billing records, telephones were large objects that didn't go anywhere. Now, with the ubiquity of cell phones -- and the consequent disappearance of payphones -- everyone carries a device that reveals their location many times a day. This transactional information can be more revelatory than the content of the calls, which is currently much more highly protected by law."

Susan Landau: Canaries in the Coal Mine

Charlie Rose Talks to Evernote CEO Phil Libin - Businessweek

Excerpt from an Evernote snapshot

"Is Evernote a Big Data company?
We have close to 60 million users. We do quite a bit of analysis of your information, but that never leaves your account. We never do it to target ads or sell you anything. Everything put into Evernote is totally private. We’re definitely on the other side of the fence from a lot of companies who are basically just figuring out how to make money off of your data."

Charlie Rose Talks to Evernote CEO Phil Libin - Businessweek

Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

More speculation on the imminent demise of Google Reader

"“As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process,” says Richard Gingras, Senior Director, News & Social Products at Google. “Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day — replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day.”
Google Reader, and other RSS readers, subscribe to this “old” model. You sit, you pore through the day’s news link by link. Yes, some people are glued to their readers constantly. (Guilty!) And yes, you can use an app like Feedly to get your RSS fix on the go, but it’s a passive news-getting experience. With its updates to Now and Plus, Google wants its readers to take this more active approach to news consumption."

Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

#36. A Summary of ‘Who Owns the Future?’ by Jaron Lanier | New Books in Brief

Another extensive New Books in Brief summary -- excerpt:

"The long short of it is that we must find a way to pay people adequately for the information and content they contribute to the information economy. Lanier argues this means reorganizing the Internet in such a way that informational transactions are monetized—such that the users of information are charged and the providers are paid for each transaction. It is not going to be easy to reorganize the Internet in this way–not only technically, but also because we have all become accustomed to using the Internet the way it is (and we like getting things for ‘free’).
Ultimately, though, we will have no choice, for our current course is leading us to an economy that is dominated by wealth at the top—and eventually no wealth for anyone. At some point, this state of affairs must lead to a revolt and/or a complete breakdown."

#36. A Summary of ‘Who Owns the Future?’ by Jaron Lanier | New Books in Brief

CIA Venture Arm In-Q-Tel Invests in Narrative Science - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Check here for an index of Forbes articles attributed to Narrative Science

"If you’d like to see an example of their stuff, you can head to Forbes, which is using Narrative Science to create automated earnings reports and previews, like this look-ahead at Smucker’s prospects for tomorrow.
And as far as the CIA and like-minded agencies, you can imagine lots of places where Narrative Science could go to work. Those guys have a lot of data, and it would probably be helpful to have some of that sorted into sentences and summaries. It would be great to show you an example of that work, but obviously that’s not gonna happen."

CIA Venture Arm In-Q-Tel Invests in Narrative Science - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD

Republican National Committee Hires Senior Facebook Engineer As Chief Technology Officer [Huffington Post]

This reminds me of a line from "The Right Stuff" -- "Our Germans are better than their Germans."

"The Republican National Committee has hired a senior Facebook engineer with a decade of experience in Silicon Valley to fill its newly created position of chief technology officer, The Huffington Post has learned.
Andy Barkett, 32, an engineering manager at Facebook and a California native, will head RNC efforts to make the party more competitive in the digital realm, the RNC confirmed Thursday evening. One source called the decision to hire Barkett "a relatively speedy development." Barkett will split his time between Silicon Valley and Washington, sources said."

Republican National Committee Hires Senior Facebook Engineer As Chief Technology Officer

AMD No Longer Just Bound To Windows OS, Now Open to Android : The Droid Guy

Interesting times for AMD

"Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of global business units at AMD, said in her interview at the Computex trade event in Taiwan that the brand is expanding its OS options as it designs chips based in x86 and ARM architecture. It is also widening its borders for Android devices and Chrome OS for third-party chip design and integration, the vice president added."

AMD No Longer Just Bound To Windows OS, Now Open to Android : The Droid Guy

Intel 'Silvermont' chip demo makes old Atom look lame | Business Tech - CNET News

For more background details, see Deep inside Intel's new ARM killer: Silvermont (The Register)

"The "current best-in-class Intel Atom-based tablet" (Clover Trail) was pitted against a tablet with the upcoming (and completely redesigned) quad-core Silvermont Atom (aka, "Bay Trail") packing a new "video encoder and decoder."
[...]
On Tuesday, Intel said Silvermont will offer 2X the CPU (central processing unit) and 3X the GPU (graphics processing unit) performance of the current Atom technology in the market.
Silvermont will "enable sleek designs with eight or more hours of battery life and weeks of standby, as well as support Android and Windows 8.1," Intel said."

Intel 'Silvermont' chip demo makes old Atom look lame | Business Tech - CNET News

Informatica Wants to Be a Big-Data Overlord - Businessweek

Informatica attempts to catch the big data wave

"Informatica wants to improve the situation with Vibe, which it bills as a virtual data machine. The big pitch here is that companies should build Vibe into their applications and devices to ensure they can all communicate well and hammer away at big data problems with relative ease. The technology builds off Informatica’s success in the so-called data integration market, where it helps applications built by such companies as Oracle (ORCL), SAP (SAP), and IBM (IBM) work together. Through Vibe, Informatica hopes to move from being a niche data-integration player to a major force in Big Data and the equally hyped “Internet of Things.” Last year, the company posted record full-year revenue of $811.6 million, and its shares have more than doubled over the past five years."

Informatica Wants to Be a Big-Data Overlord - Businessweek