In order to try and acquire the remaining 49 percent of shares that Sprint does not already own, the carrier has submitted an increased offer of $3.40 per share to Clearwire's Board of Directors.

According to Sprint, this renewed offer values Clearwire at $10.7 billion. In addition, the new bid represents a 14 percent premium to Sprint's previous offer of $2.97 a share in December, and a 162 percent premium to Clearwire's closing share price the day before the Sprint-SoftBank discussions were officially confirmed.

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Sprint says that the increased offer represents the carrier's best and final offer, and "demonstrates Sprint's commitment to closing the Clearwire transaction and improving its competitive position in the U.S. wireless industry."

If Sprint manages to acquire Clearwire, not only will the company inherit additional subscribers, but the carrier will also control Clearwire's 2.5GHz spectrum assets -- something Sprint says that it has the experience and position to leverage properly. The spectrum allocation is also important for Sprint due to the migration of the firm's networks to 4G LTE standards.

The revised offer has been submitted to the Clearwire Board of Directors and is subject to its formal approval. Comcast, Intel and Bright House Networks LLC collectively own approximately 26 percent of Clearwire, and have informed Sprint that they will vote their shares in support of the transaction.

SoftBank, the majority shareholder in Sprint, originally capped the Clearwire bid at $2.97 a share, but has now consented to the increased offer.

The category, dubbed iPaaS, uses Tibco's Cloud Bus to integrate software as a service applications along with on-premise software. Tibco's aim is to enable customers to integrate various delivery models without building connectors.

Via Tibco's Cloud Bus IPaaS, the company is looking to enable its customers to deploy into the cloud without a lot of development time.

Among the key points:

• Tibco Cloud Bus has integration templates for apps like SAP and Salesforce.com.
• Configurations can be set up in minutes with integrations in hours.
• Templates can be customized.
• Changes are reflected in all cloud applications.
• Integrations are set for Tibco's tibbr, Salesforce, SAP, Foursquare, Evernote, Dropbox, Facebook, GetSatisfaction, Yammer, MailChimp, Amazon's Simple Queue Service and consumer services such as Flickr and Instagram.

Tibco Cloud Bus will run $5,000 a month for four connections and one environment with standard support. Add-ons for additional connections are $1,500 each or $4,000 for four a month.

After only recently pulling out of the U.K. and European market, Best Buy was expected to report significantly lower earnings for its latest financial quarter.

The U.S. consumer electronics retailer reported first quarter revenue of $9.38 billion, or 32 cents a share, a decline of 9.6 percent on the same quarter a year ago.

Non-GAAP earnings were 32 cents a share.

Wall Street was expecting 25 cents per share on revenue of $10.65 billion — down from 47 cents per share on revenue of $11.61 billion on the same quarter a year ago.

The retailer also noted that it ended the quarter with $908 million in cash and equivalents, a 34 percent decline from the year-ago quarter.

Best Buy issued a quarterly dividend of 17 cents per common share outstanding, or $58 million in total.

Best Buy president and chief executive Hubert Joly highlighted some key points for the quarter, noting Samsung's move to establish in-store shops in its retail outlets. Best Buy's pull-out of the European market after a spectacular fail in the region was also highlighted. The company left the EU after it sold a 50 percent stake in its joint-venture business to the U.K.'s Carphone Warehouse in April.

Joly elaborated in prepared remarks:

Looking ahead, we remain focused on making progress on our Renew Blue priorities announced last November and reiterated in March. During the second quarter, we will, in particular, complete the deployment of the Samsung Experience Shops and make significant progress in our efforts to optimize the allocation of our retail floor space to more attractive product categories, so as to increase revenue and operating profit per square foot

Samsung's push into the retail space has provided a floor for the Korean electronics giant, but Best Buy warned of hurdles ahead for the coming quarter.

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Best Buy exits European market; sells stake back to Carphone Warehouse for 500M

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Best Buy and Samsung reached an agreement to establish Samsung Experience Shops in its retail stores. This has begun to roll out, as not only the major competitor to Apple in the online retail and market share space, but now in-stores. Samsung continues to aggressively target the U.S. audience by aligning itself with one of the U.S.' major retail stores.

Joly noted: "During the second quarter, we will, in particular, complete the deployment of the Samsung Experience Shops and make significant progress in our efforts to optimize the allocation of our retail floor space to more attractive product categories, so as to increase revenue and operating profit per square foot."

However, Best Buy chief financial officer Sharon McCollam warned that Samsung's in-store impact on its floor space is expected to have "operational impacts" during the second quarter. 

By the numbers: 

• 15 stores closed in Canada last year, leading to store sales declining by 2.8 percent
  
  
• Domestic online revenue increased by 7.1 percent to $498 million
  
  
• Comparable online sales increased 16.3 percent thanks to increased traffic and higher conversion across its online platforms
  
  
• 50 percent sold in its Best Buy Europe venture, created in 2008, for approximately $775 million

Year to date, Best Buy's shares have risen by 126 percent. In pre-market trading on Tuesday, an hour after its earnings release, shares were down by around 3 percent.

Today, Amazon announced that the service has been granted Agency Authority to Operate (ATO) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) requirements at the moderate impact level.

FedRAMP is a U.S. government-wide program which standardizes security assessment and authorization for cloud products and services, in order to make sure that sensitive data on governmental networks is not compromised and is as protected as possible.

Now FedRAMP compliance has been granted, higher security protocols have been recognized; which means that a wider range of governmental bodies and authorities are able to use the service.

The U.S. Department of the Navy, U.S. Department of the Treasury, NASA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Recovery.gov, and over 300 U.S. government agencies all currently use AWS to "save money, drive research and development, and increase innovation globally," according to Amazon.

Teresa Carlson, AWS Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector commented:

"Today most government computing systems require built-to-order platforms and applications to meet government security and compliance requirements, which involve time-consuming and costly evaluations. With this FedRAMP compliance, agencies can now utilize a streamlined process from AWS when moving applications to the cloud to meet their unique business and mission requirements."

An investigation into Apple's tax practices which revealed the creation of a complex web of subsidiaries worldwide in order to avoid paying tax is expected to result in an interesting confrontation between CEO Tim Cook and lawmakers today, as reported by the New York Times.

Investigators found that rather than taking the usual route of companies that wish to lower their tax bills -- such as opening accounts in tax havens -- Apple created a number of subsidiaries that contained no staff apart from top executives. Although run from the iPad and iPhone maker's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., subsidaries were officially located in countries such as Ireland. This, in turn, meant that each offshore entity was effectively stateless -- and therefore exempt from taxes, record-keeping and the need to file tax returns.

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations which is holding Apple's hearing, commented:

"Apple wasn't satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven. Apple successfully sought the holy grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars while claiming to be tax resident nowhere."

Lawmakers say that Apple used "gimmicks" and "schemes" to avoid paying billions in tax to the U.S. government. However, the tech giant denies these claims, and within Apple's full testimony (.pdf), the company says that it contributes much to the U.S. economy, and welcomes tax reform in the United States. Apple says that reformation is necessary to promote growth and competition, and says that current legislation "has not kept pace with the advent of the digital age and the rapidly changing global economy."

Apple argues that it must keep vast amounts of cash away from U.S. shores due to the unreasonably high amount claimed by the system -- 35 percent -- and as 61 percent of the company's revenue last year came from international sales, foreign funds have to be used for expansion, acquisitions and "expenses required by its overseas operations."

The iPad and iPhone maker makes one key point: the company does pay U.S. taxes; nearly $6 billion in 2012 alone. If the U.S. government believes this amount is too low, then the system needs to be changed.

In contrast, investigators say that Apple has taken at least $74 billion away from the hands of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Apple's comments come as other companies face enquiries over tax avoidance; the U.K. parliament is currently scrutinizing the financial practices of Google, Starbucks and Amazon, whereas over in India, Infosys, Google, Samsung and Nokia have been hit with tax demands by the Indian government following tax evasion claims.

According to Bloomberg, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen made a $2 billion bid last week for LightSquared's radio frequencies, which are owned by private investment firm Harbinger Capital Partners.

Bloomberg added, based on unnamed sources said to be familiar with the deal, that LightSquared has until the end of the month to make a decision.

Dish is already bogged down by other networking and communications deals floating around -- namely a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel. The nation's third largest mobile provider was said in April to be forming a special committee to mull over the "unsolicited deal."

See also: Softbank, Sprint, Clearwire, Dish: Figuring out this merger mess

The latest turn of events for LightSquared appears to be near the end of the road for the beleaguered Virginia-based business.

CEO Sanjiv Ahuja stepped down in February 2012, but he stayed on with the company as chairman of the board.

At the time, it was reported that Ahuja's resignation had to do something with the Federal Communication Commission's move to block the launch of its 4G network.

A few months prior, Ahuja spoke at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco, arguing that there is a disparity between demand for data and the amount of available spectrum -- and that the United States is not ready to handle those problems.

But by May 2012, the wireless venture filed for bankruptcy.

See also: Accenture nabs digital marketing biz Acquity Group for $315 million | The big lesson in the $1.1b Yahoo-Tumblr deal

The primary goal of the purchase is to grab Handmark's subsidiary, OneLouder, a mobile app developer and advertising company.

The new acquisitions will be merged into Sprint's Pinsight Media+ group for the purpose of boosting its mobile advertising services offered to brands and app developers.

The media unit has been busy building an ecosystem of industry partners in the advertising and retail spaces.

For example, earlier this month the nation's third largest mobile provider announced a deal with Time Inc. to deliver content from its multiple publicatinos within a customizable section of the SprintZone application on select Sprint devices.

Both the parent company and subsidiary will continue to operate as normal with their current brand names and employees at their Kansas City headquarters under the leadership of OneLouder president Evan Conway.

Handmark founder and CEO Augie Grasis will join a new advisory board established by Sprint to provide direction to Handmark and OneLouder.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

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Apple to Congress: We do not use 'tax gimmicks'

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The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation is looking into a number of tax avoidance schemes and strategies by major technology firms.

While Apple took the opportunity to defend its position, taking the high ground over other firms that have abused the tax system at home and abroad, the iPhone and iPad maker stressed one key point: It pays U.S. tax, and if Congress doesn't believe it is paying enough, then lawmakers should change the tax rules.

Included in the testimony are a bevy of numbers that shed light on the company's activities not only in the U.S., but also abroad. Apple says that more than half — nearly two-thirds — of all its revenue comes from international sales. 

Here are the numbers we extracted from the testimony:

• Apple estimates it has "created or supported" 600,000 jobs in the U.S.; including 50,000 corporate positions, and 550,000 jobs for manufacturers and software development
  
  
• Approximately 290,000 U.S. jobs relate to the "App Economy," thanks to Apple's App Store
  
  
• 850,000 applications in Apple's App Store
  
  
• Around 800 apps from the App Store downloaded per second
  
  
• 61 percent of all Apple's revenue was earned outside the U.S.
  
  
• Around $6 billion paid in taxes to the U.S. Treasury in the 2012 fiscal year — around $16 million per day — which according to Apple accounts for $1 in every $40 in corporate tax the U.S. collected in 2012
  
  
• Apple expects its income tax bill to increase to more than $7 billion in the 2013 fiscal year
  
  
• Apple paid or collected and remitted more than $1.3 billion of U.S. state sales and use taxes
  
  
• Out of its estimated $145 billion overseas cash pile, Apple would see a 35 percent reduction after paying tax on its repatriation
  
  
• More than $9 billion paid out to third-party developers in connection with app sales

Read this

Apple's tax testimony ahead of Senate hearing: By the numbers

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The document, 16 pages in length [PDF], was posted by the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant on its website ahead of Apple chief executive Tim Cook's presence in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation is looking into a number of tax avoidance schemes and strategies by major technology firms. It comes as companies, not limited to Google and Amazon, have faced the wrath of the U.K. parliamentary select committees on public finance.

Apple takes to multiple pages to trumpet its contribution to the U.S. economy, as well as others in which the company has major offices, such as in Ireland.

"Apple welcomes an objective examination of the US corporate tax system, which has not kept pace with the advent of the digital age and the rapidly changing global economy," the testimony reads.

The company said it "supports comprehensive tax reform as a necessary step to promote growth and enable American multinational companies to remain competitive with their foreign counterparts in both domestic and international markets."

But the iPhone and iPad maker stressed certain points, seemingly pointing the finger at other companies, albeit without naming names. It noted one key point: it pays U.S. tax, and if Congress doesn't believe it is paying enough then it should try to fix the system.

"Apple is likely the largest corporate income tax payer in the US, having paid nearly $6 billion in taxes to the U.S. Treasury in [the fiscal year of 2012]," the testimony read. According to the firm, "these payments account for $1 in every $40 in corporate income tax the U.S. Treasury collected last year."

Printed in bold text: "[We] do not use tax gimmicks," it said. Apple explained that it does not move its intellectual property portfolios to offshore tax havens, nor does it use it to sell products back into the U.S. to avoid paying tax in the country. It "does not hold money on a Caribbean island," and it "does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands."

Read this

Apple's Tim Cook to propose tax changes to Congress

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Amid the seriousness of the situation, Apple was actively pointing the finger at other firms that do. In recent weeks, British Prime Minister David Cameron sent a letter its overseas territories, including the Cayman Islands, stressing the need to "get our own houses in order" by sealing the tax loopholes exploited by behemothic firms.

Apple's testimony continues to argue that the reason why it does not bring its vast amount of offshore cash back to the U.S. is that it could lose more than one-third of the cash pile's value.

Apple said that 61 percent of Apple's revenue for last year came from international sales, and amounted to two-thirds of its revenue in its last earnings call, its fiscal second quarter.

"Apple uses its foreign cash for business operations, geographic expansion, acquisitions and capital investments, and to fund other expenses required by its overseas operations, such as the capital-intensive construction of retail stores in Europe and Asia and the purchase of customized tooling equipment." 

But the company warned that if it "repatriated" those funds, "they would be reduced by a 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate."

As Apple still has shareholders to consider, it cites its investors as its sole reason for keeping its vast wealth overseas. "Apple serves its shareholders by keeping these funds overseas where they can be deployed efficiently to fund international operations at a lower cost."

"As Apple's recent bond issuance demonstrates, [we] can return capital to shareholders using debt at a far lower cost than through repatriation of foreign cash."

Cook told Politico last week that the company "unequivocally [...] does not funnel its domestic profits overseas." He reiterated that Apple "pay[s] taxes on all the products we sell in the U.S., and we pay every dollar that we owe."

San Diego-based Websense, which specializes in security software, will be acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $24.75 a share in cash. The deal comes at a 53 percent premium.

In recent weeks, we've seen the following:

• BMC Software went private. 
• Dell has plans to go private, but has had a few complications as business heads south.
• A lot of speculation surrounding companies like CA Technologies going private.  

Regarding Websense, Todd Weller, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, noted:

Websense has been a company that has struggled to grow over a multi-year basis. We believe part of its challenges have been secular in nature relating to commoditization of its core Web filtering business. Related to this, we believe Websense has also experienced increased competitive intensity.

The other players in the go-private club have similar situations. Dell is hammering margins to preserve PC market share. BMC has some retooling to do too.

The alternative is to remain public and restructure every quarter as companies struggle to revamp while reporting earnings results.

Overnight, Yahoo became important again, and bounced back to relevancy.

A little startup named Tumblr, as you likely already know, was formally acquired by the former Web giant for $1.1 billion on Monday. What's on many minds is exactly what the rate of return will be.

Yahoo has already said that its own and Tumblr's audience don't overlap. Yahoo also wants to make sure it won't "screw it up" and will keep its "hands-off" the social blogging platform — at least in the beginning. (Tumblr has a "porn problem," but that will be fixed over time, according to Yahoo executives. It's a hint that other changes may come in due course.)

Read this

The big lesson in the $1.1b Yahoo-Tumblr deal

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Tumblr chief executive David Karp will remain in charge of the company, and the site will not be forced to integrate Yahoo products and features into its own service. The company won't even have the Yahoo logo on Tumblr's website.

With such an apparent hands-off approach to its billion-dollar-buy, what does Yahoo get out of it? Potentially billions of dollars in potential, untapped revenue over the course of the next few years. 

Yahoo's ad platform took a nosedive at its recent first-quarter earnings in April. The Web giant's display ads fell from $511 million in 2012 to $455 million in the same quarter a year later. That's an 11 percent drop since Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer took charge. For Yahoo's core business, that dinged the whole quarter. Yahoo's stock tanked following the news.

It's no wonder the company is looking for a way to bolster its ad platform. And Tumblr is the perfect target for such affections.

According to sources speaking to The New York Times, the Yahoo-Tumblr seems to tie in with Yahoo knowing that it would announce poor results in its first-quarter earnings. The broadsheet said the deal came together after less than a month's worth of discussions, pegging the start date near the time Yahoo had its final figures in for its January-March quarter.

Putting ads in any way, shape or form on Tumblr seems to go against the grain of what the blogging platform's chief said in recent years. 

In 2010, Karp said he was "pretty opposed to advertising," and that "it really turns our stomachs." Two years later, he admitted he was an "idiot" and offered a first-step solution to monetizing his company's blogging platform.

Yahoo may have just bought a rough, clunky looking rock, but it knows what lies inside: 24-carat advertising diamonds.

Tumblr hosts close to 110 million blogs with more than 50 billion posts in total. In April, it received more than 13 billion global page views. But the company isn't yet profitable but has a large and growing base of users.  Last year, Tumblr had a mere $13 million in revenue last year, while reports suggest it could generate as much as $100 million this year.

Read this

How Microsoft dodged the Yahoo bullet

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For Yahoo to get its money back for seemingly little return — at least on the face of it, besides potential future Yahoo users — it has two options.

Either it can, as Mayer suggested, seamlessly integrate the 50-billion-plus into Yahoo's search engine, thus generating revenue while boosting traffic. Or, Yahoo has to start plugging its own flailing ad platform to the Tumblr faithful.

Except, it can't. Not just yet, and not as aggressively as the company may want to. Slowly, slowly; softly, softly.

From the Yahoo investor call on Monday, Mayer said: "We see some opportunities to work with bloggers who want ads, to provide ads on their websites. That would always be done with [the blogger's] permission."

She stressed that the advertising load would be "very light," and follow in Tumblr's existing advertising flow.

Of course, this indicates that users would be able to opt-in to the advertising platform. Exactly what the bloggers get out of it remains unclear. But what Yahoo needs to do next is to find that delicate balance of adverts versus Tumblr's fickle, young audience.

Mayer promised not to "screw it up," hinting a cautionary tale from the not-so-distant past. The Web may be free, but in fact it's powered by ads — if you didn't realize, it's why there's one at the top and to the right of this very article (for your viewing pleasure, of course).

But Yahoo has to tread very lightly in the near future to ease in its users to the idea of ads in a a up until now mostly ad-free environment.

One example is Accenture, which announced that it intends to buy Acquity Group, a digital marketing and e-commerce business, for $316 million.

See also: Mobile payments need carrots to boost adoption, says Accenture | Accenture investing more than $400M in new cloud capabilities

Acquity Group is touted as the second-largest independent digital marketing company in the United States with a revenue of $141 million for 2012 -- up 32 percent from 2011.

Once the deal is complete, Acquity Group’s employee base of more than 600 are expected to join Accenture.

The latest merger follows up last week's acquisition of Fjord, which was bought primarily for that company's design and marketing capabilities.

Accenture added digital production support services through the purchase of avVenta late last year.

The global consulting firm affirmed that it plans to use Acquity Group's resources to further expand its own digital marketing solution, Accenture Interactive, with chief marketing officers listed as the target customer demographic.

Pointing toward bigger industry trends, Accenture is moving more towards becoming a digital marketing services provider with the intention of serving businesses that recognize the link between IT and marketing departments thanks to data analytics.

See also: TBM startup Apptio raises $45M; plans to expand global footprint

Executives boasted the latest financing round has now completed more than twelve consecutive "record" quarters.

For reference, Rimini Street offers third-party maintenance support for enterprise software, especially from the likes of SAP and Oracle, touting cost savings up to 90 percent on total support costs over the span of a decade.

The private company plans to use the extra funding to extend its global footprint following previously announced plans for expansion in Brazil and the Asia/Pacific region.

CEO Seth Ravin also hinted at bigger future plans in prepared remarks:

As a high-growth, pre-IPO company that is rapidly expanding operations and serving a global client base, Rimini Street wanted to select a partner in this financing round that would provide a flexible, cost effective, and tailored solution to support our accelerating global expansion.

Rimini Street also revealed it plans to announce a new managing director for Europe later this week.

I've been thinking quite a bit about the Friday rumor, and now Monday morning confirmation, that Yahoo will buy social microblogging network Tumblr for $1.1 billion. In typical tech industry fashion, the news spilled out in bits and pieces over the weekend. (No rest for the weary, as they say.)

The deal is interesting for a number of reasons.

First, it is the latest bold move by chief executive Marissa Mayer, made shortly after the 10-month anniversary of her installment in Yahoo's top spot. Whatever your criticisms of her, you can't fault her for trying to rock Yahoo's purple boat, and Tumblr's massive install base certainly gives the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet stalwart the younger, more social audience it seeks for its advertising business.

Second, it is equal validation and capitulation for Tumblr founder David Karp, who successfully created a product that users—84 million of them, in just six years' time—adored but also a company (with 175 employees and $125 million in venture funding) that lacked revenue to match, totaling just $13 million in 2012. It is exceedingly difficult to create something that will catch on with millions of people worldwide; Karp did so with an unbroken focus on his end user. But it is twice as hard to do this in a way that turns a profit. (Karp famously said in 2010: "We're pretty opposed to advertising. It really turns our stomachs.")

Finally, Yahoo's acquisition of Tumblr demonstrates, as has been demonstrated with many M&A deals before this, that large companies—particularly public ones, awash in quarterly thinking—continue to have grave issues in fostering disruptive innovation. It is true that Mayer is on a tight timetable: the average length of a contemporary Yahoo CEO's tenure is less than two years, and Mayer doesn't have the job security to make six-year bets, even if she has the stomach for them. But really, which large Internet company does?

In an industry where the question, "Build it, or buy it?" is oft-repeated, how come so many companies build it (once they're too late) and buy it (only to later ruin it)? Why is it so hard for Yahoo or AOL or Facebook or Mayer's former Google or even ZDNet's own parent company, CBS Interactive, to make an early bet on the smartest 20-year-old in the office?

The great Clay Christensen explains in his landmark 1997 book, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms To Fail:

The established firms were, in fact, aggressive, innovative, and customer-sensitive in their approaches to sustaining innovations of every sort. But the problem established firms seemed unable to confront successfully is that of downward vision and mobility, in terms of the trajectory map. Finding new applications and markets for these new products seems to be a capability that each of these firms exhibited once, upon entry, and then apparently lost. It was as if the leading firms were held captive by their customers, enabling attacking entrant firms to topple the incumbent industry leaders each time a disruptive technology emerged.

You can see the parallells in today's Internet giants: Yahoo's customer base is now considered "old," though it wasn't in the company's late-1990s heyday, and so it finds itself on the prowl for new blood. AOL is in a similar situation, and acquired The Huffington Post, TechCrunch and the entire Weblogs network (Engadget, Joystiq) for this reason. Google has managed to keep some focus on the future by prioritizing talent acquisition and "Innovation Time Off," even as it makes big-company missteps (Motorola, Zagat) elsewhere.

"We promise not to screw it up," Mayer wrote on her hours-old Tumblog this morning.

And so the big lesson in the $1.1 billion Yahoo-Tumblr deal is that the Internet's largest companies remain astonishingly good at sustaining themselves but frightfully bad at disrupting the market, even in an industry that prizes and even idolizes such activity. Year after year, they continue to pay the steep price for not fostering their own disruptive innovation, even as those innovations are born from their own ex-employees. (Google alone counts Instagram's Kevin Systrom, Foursquare's Dennis Crowley, Pinterest's Ben Silbermann and Twitter's Evan Williams among its alumni. Recent valuations of those companies: $1 billion, $700 million, $2.5 billion, $10 billion.)

And so now we have Tumblr. Many have already suggested that if Mayer is smart, she'll leave Tumblr's (clean, restrained, intuitive, iterative, mobile-first) product development alone and simply enjoy the benefits of having its many users in the company database; I would go one further and say that this deal's success is predicated on keeping David Karp and the talented team he has assembled on the company payroll and flush with authority and resources.

My company would know. In July 2006, the former CNET Networks acquired the website Karp was working on, UrbanBaby, but not the then-20-year-old product director himself. Seven months later, he launched Tumblr.

EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes told reporters in Brussels, according to a European publication, that the European Commission will soon bring forward proposals to knock down the virtual cellular walls between member states in order to create a single market for all mobile users.

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EU tells member states to open up spectrum for more 4G

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"A telecoms market without borders, without fragmentation, and that is the major priority for the rest of my mandate," Kroes said. She added that she has "no intention to retire" until she has "knocked down all the barriers to the single market."

In a nutshell, this would kill any inter-country roaming charges that currently bite customers' mobile bills. The executive body of Europe also wants to improve spectrum uptake for next-generation broadband services.

Kroes empathized with businesses that find roaming charges a "costly irritant," and warned that in the upcoming "Internet of things" trend, it will become even more difficult for machine-to-machine (M2M) to succeed.

With your European passport travel freely to any other European member state without security restrictions, thanks to the Schengen Agreement of unrestricted travel across the continent. But the same doesn't apply for your mobile or cell provider. Roaming charges still bitterly hurt many consumers and businesses alike, particularly those with branch offices around Europe.

Already, thanks to a directive passed by the European Parliament, data roaming charges have begun to fall. Data roaming charges will be fully limited to 70 euro cents per 1MB of data downloaded from last July, which will fall further to 50 euro cents per 1MB downloaded this July.

According to the Commission at the time: "For a typical businessperson travelling in the EU this will mean savings of over €1,000 [$1,285] per year. A family taking an annual holiday in another EU country can expect to save at least €200 [$257]."

The Commission says completing the "internal mobile market" will add an additional 0.8 percent to Europe's gross domestic product (GDP), or €110 billion ($141.4bn).

The hope is that EU-based firms can gain a competitive edge over their U.S.-based counterparts. Because while the U.S. has six major cellular firms to cover a population of 310 million, the EU has more than 100 cellular firms covering more than 500 citizens.

The biggest threat to the U.S. Air Force may not be ground-to-air missiles, hostile Russian forces on the Bering Strait, or a foreign invasion of British troops across the eastern seaboard.

It's paper. And iPads are saving the day, according to reports.

The U.S. Air Force will save approximately $50 million across ten years — more than $5 million per year — on replacing heavy, cost-ineffective paper manuals and flight plans, which in some cases contain tens of thousands of pages of information, with Apple-branded tablets. 

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iPhones, iPads cleared for U.S. military use; DOD fortifies cloud

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According to The Street, the need to deploy Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) will free up weight taken on board the aircraft and allow additional resources to be loaded instead. 

"We're saving about 90 pounds of paper per aircraft and limiting the need for each crew member to carry a 30 to 40 pound paper pile," Major Brian Moritz, the U.S. Air Force's EFB program manager, told the financial publication.

Last year, the Air Force's Air Mobility Command (AMC) was granted a $9.3 million contract for 18,000 iPads — despite not at the time being cleared for U.S. government use — in order to replace the bulky flight manuals. 

According to the report, the weight of a stocky person can be saved in a four-person C-17 transport plane, and up to double that in a C-5 behemoth. By comparison, the latest iPad with Retina display weighs just 1.46 pounds and can store millions of flight plans and document pages. 

The Air Force is aiming to save at least $5.7 million in fuel costs alone, which is "well over $50 million," according to the major. But the cost saving isn't everything. Being able to quickly pull up "engine fire" through a simple PDF search is far easier — and less stressful — than flicking through tens of thousands of pages of text. It also might save the U.S. taxpayer even more money in the long run by not crashing the $168 million mega-plane into a mountain or a Taliban stronghold.

Now 16,000 third-generation iPads are being dished out to crew members, with the other 2,000 iPads deploying across other units. 

Last week, the U.S. military certified Apple's iOS 6 operating system, used on both iPhones and iPads, secure enough for low-level clearance work. This came just days after the U.S. government cleared the software for government use earlier in May after being granted FIPS 140-2 status.

Wall Street is expecting earnings of 81 cents a share on revenue of $28.08 billion for the second quarter. Analysts are modeling that HP will project a weaker third quarter sequentially with sales of $27.78 billion.

Evercore Partners analyst Rob Cihra said that he sees "almost no way for HP to meet consensus revenue expectations." Earnings, however, can do well do to a weaker Yen — HP's printing components are made in Japan — and restructuring. Weak PC sales should also help gross margins.

Cihra projects that HP's PC sales will be down 21 percent year over year due to bloated inventory levels with enterprise revenue down 7 percent due to weak results from x86 servers, business critical systems and storage. Services sales are likely to also be weak.

The bottom line:

We continue to see much of HP's hoped-for fiscal year 2013 stability flowing from its most recent, deep rounds of restructuring cuts. But HP has already booked more than $7B in pre-tax restructuring charges over the past 8yrs and yet we do not think that has helped its revenue or competitive momentum, with year over year revenue erosion continuing across every business and margin compression in every segment but printing. We just don’t see how HP can cut its way to a sustainable turnaround.

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore had a similar view. "We believe underlying fundamentals at HP remain under significant pressure due to challenging demand conditions in PCs, printers, servers and storage," said Whitmore.

There are a few things that can go right. For starters, HP recently launched new printers and that could help that unit. The printing industry overall remains weak. HP's launch of Project Moonshot should give the company something positive to mention for its server business.

Dell makes HP's life difficult

After multiple quarters of deciding market share in PCs didn't matter, Dell went to bolster its position in its most recent quarter. Given Dell is going private, the company needs to fortify its sales base amid the uncertainty. As a result, Dell's share vs. profit approach on PCs likely hurt HP in a big way.

Whitmore added:

Dell’s recent earnings results show it was very price aggressive in PCs (focused on share vs. profitable growth) which points to material weakness for HPs PC revs and profitability.

In other words, HP's PC results are going to struggle largely due to a price war initiated by Dell. Dell's plan is to acquire customers at the expense of profit margins. "We believe Dell’s pricing strategy is in response to aggressive tactics from Lenovo and HP last year, which resulted in Dell share losses," explained Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty.

Dell CFO Brian Gladden said last week on the company's earnings conference call:

We are trying to run the business based on that and be in a position where we are in this thing for the long term, and we position the business for success for the long term.

Most analysts said they expected HP to forgo market share and preserve profits this quarter. Dell did the same thing in recent quarters, but then cracked.

In India's latest round of tax demands hurled at tech firms, Infosys is expected to pay $105.3 million.

India's second-largest software services exporter, Infosys, is planning to appeal an income tax demand of 5.77 billion rupees ($105.3 million) set by Indian authorities, according to Reuters.

The demand has been made in relation to software development completed overseas — and therefore accounting for tax benefits which follow — in addition to revenue generated from "special economic zones in India," according to a company statement. The firm contends that the latest demand disregards tax clarification set by the Indian government in January.

Infosys is also contesting a number of similar tax demands made for the fiscal years from 2005 to 2009, according to a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing reads:

"The company has received demands from the Indian IT authorities for payments of additional taxes totalling USD 214 million, including interest of USD 62 million upon completion of their tax review for fiscal 2005, fiscal 2006, fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008."

The software services exporter plans to appeal the demand.

Infosys is not the only company to fall foul of India's tax laws. Vodafone was first to sit up and take notice of India's changing tax legislation. In March 2012, the Indian government revealed plans to amend tax laws dating back to 1962, and in response, Vodafone considered setting aside capital for a $2.2 billion tax bill to mitigate potential legal risks.

Smart move, it seems, as Google India was next to receive a slap on the wrist and a $13.8 million fine from the income tax office for allegedly "misleading the department, underdeclaring its income, violating accounting rules and attempting to show wrong revenues." Google India denied the claims and has appealed. This year, the department has claimed that Samsung India owes 1.14 billion rupees ($207 million) in back taxes, and has demanded that Nokia pays out $383 million over tax evasion claims.

Indian authorities may be quick to issue demands, but the government may not be so agreeable to paying back funds from IT companies. According to reports, the Indian government owes at least $547.6 million in service tax refunds to IT firms alone, but for some companies, delays in receiving money have stretched as far as nine years.

The Chinese telecommunications equipment makers could be subject to a formal inquiry to investigate anti-competitive behavior which is affecting European markets, according to Reuters.

European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said that the investigation is necessary to protect a "strategic" sector of the European economy. Reference to the two firms comes before global talks expected to begin in July, where the EU will engage in negotiations with the United States to create a free trade pact.

China is second only to the U.S. as critical trading partners with Europe.

De Gucht told the publication that "Huawei and ZTE are dumping their products on the European market," and Chinese state support -- resulting in cheap capital -- creates a "distorted playing field" which can only do European competitors harm.

European telecom equipment makers have not made official complaints against their Chinese rivals, and so if the investigation goes ahead, it will be on the European Commission's own initiative, also known as ex-officio.

Chinese exports to the 27-member bloc totaled $372 billion last year.

In an emailed statement, Huawei denied breaking European laws, commenting that the firm "always plays fair and we win business and trust from our customers through our innovative technology and quality service, rather than via pricing or subsidies."

The official China Daily quoted Tao Jingwen, the president of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd in the West Europe Region, who said that the EU should not be judgemental of Chinese firms. The executive denies that Huawei receives government subsidies in order to flood markets with cheap products, and the company will take "strong action" if an investigation is launched.

In addition, Jingwen told the publication that innovation, not subsidies, is critical in order to keep customers -- and if European companies blame China for financial losses, it is "sometimes caused by their own laziness."

An investigation is ready to launch but has been put on hold, giving Europe and China time to come together for a solution before moving down the route of potential sanctions.

Project Ophelia was first shown off at this year's CES. The device -- akin to a USB memory stick -- can be plugged into any monitor or display through the HDMI port to transform it into a smart device. Dell's Project Ophelia will then give both consumers and businesses access to data remotely, providing a virtual window without the need for a PC, tablet or smartphone.

Supporting both private and corporate content, the USB-enabled gadget connects to virtualization platforms from Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, increasing security required by those who have to tote information around. IT managers concerned with security have the power to manage and secure individual devices, and so data can be wiped from Ophelia in the case of theft or loss. Administrators can also use the "cloud client manager" to keep tabs on how and where Ophelia is being used.

In addition, Ophelia is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled, can connect to peripherals including keyboards and mice, and will run Android 4.0.

Consumers may also find the gadget useful, as it can transform any display in to a console in which to download apps, play Android games, watch movies or use services such as Hulu and Netflix; Jeff McNaught, executive director of cloud client computing at Dell told PC World.

Ophelia also comes with Wyse's PocketCloud, which allows users to access files stored on PCs, servers or mobile devices including tablets and smartphones.

The gadget will cost $100 and begin shipping in July, although Android developers will have the first chance to get their hands on Ophelia.

According to the WSJ, the deal could be announced as early as Monday. Tumblr will be allowed to run as an independent business unit.

Why would Yahoo, under the leadership of newly minted CEO Marissa Mayer make such a move? The WSJ speculates that it was to gain a social networking presence. Google+ is now the second most popular social network in the world. Yahoo has had no social networking sites to speak of.

Yahoo's one previous major social networking play--the purchase of GeoCities in 1999 for approximately $3.5-billion--ended in failure in 2009. 

This acquisition had been rumored for several weeks. Reports suggested Mayer would announce the deal on Monday at an event in New York City, and that both companies' boards are in the final stages of approving the deal. It has also been said that Mayer will be announcing major changes with Yahoo's photo-sharing site Flickr.  

This buyout would easily be Mayer's biggest move to date. She has been unsuccessful in freeing Yahoo of its search deal with Microsoft and in acquiring online video website Dailymotion.

While Tumblr itself generated only a minute $13 million in revenue in 2012, Tumblr has hundreds of millions of users. Better still, from Yahoo's position, its users are younger than Yahoo's existing aging, and shrinking, customer base. The move is a gamble but to make Yahoo relevant again, Mayer has decided to roll the dice on a splashy acquisition move.

Related Stories:

• Yahoo scraps Dailymotion acquisition plan
• Yahoo goes into spring cleaning mode; shuttering several products
• Yahoo's Mayer fails in effort to end Microsoft search pact
• Yahoo Mail, Dropbox partnership spells win-win for both parties
• Five reasons why Marissa Mayer's move to Yahoo is great 

Reports of strong demand for the Q10 have circulated in recent weeks. A new report this morning showed BlackBerry regaining lost market share in Canada. Several commenters to the TechRepublic poll supported that narrative.

TechRepublic user Vijitc, a multinational CIO, wrote in the comments: 

"BlackBerry woes made me switch to [Galaxy S3] last summer. Did not expect BlackBerry to make a come back. Like Android as a tablet. I have Nexus 7. But as a business phone the Galaxy does not cut it. Will definitely return to Q10 and will keep Nexus 7 tethered to Q10 hot spot for video apps."

The TechRepublic poll was run this week during BlackBerry Live 2013 when interest and exposure naturally peaked for BlackBerry. This is a self-selected poll so the numbers likely skew a little high for people interested in this topic, but the percentage was still higher than expected. With over 1,300 participants among TechRepublic's audience of IT professionals and business managers, this poll had plenty of responses to make it statistically significant.

The other question that TechRepublic asked was if the Q10 was enough to keep current BlackBerry users in the fold and avoid a future jump to Android or iOS. The response was even more emphatic in BlackBerry's favor there, as 76% said it was. 

TechRepublic commenter PurpleSkys, a Canadian business manager, wrote:

"I personally prefer they little keyboard... Keep in mind, BlackBerry has had touch for a while now. My Torch is a touch and it's a few years old. And the new BB Z10 is all touch... I'm waiting for my next upgrade with our service provider to get the new Q10."

There were also plenty of commenters who didn't plan to switch back or were on the fence. TechRepublic member Croiona, an IT department head in Great Britain, wrote:

"I moved from a Nokia E71 to an HTC Desire and then to a BB Bold. The only reason I switched to BB was because it had a touch screen but retained a conventional keypad. I hated the touch-screen typing on the HTC and wanted to have the best of both worlds. I'm not a touch typist, but I find a conventional keypad allows me to type much faster and more accurately. I'm now faced with the dilema of whether to switch back to an Android with a better sized screen and a wider range of apps, but have to suffer the touch screen typing, or stay with BB and hope it starts to catch up with all the apps available elsewhere."

I know a lot of business professionals who were long-time BlackBerry users that are now on Android and iPhone and almost all of them say that the biggest thing they miss is the hardware keyboard. Most of them comment that they write fewer and shorter emails on their phones now that they have devices with touch keyboards. For those that are tempted to go back, I'm sure they'll have to wrestle with the app trade-off that Croiona mentioned.

Nevertheless, the fact that these IT and business professionals are even considering a BlackBerry again is a win for the company. We'll watch to see if consideration can turn to into momentum for the Q10 over the remainder of 2013 as the first wave of these users have wireless contracts that come up for renewal.

Also read

• BlackBerry Q10 review
• How BlackBerry is riding iOS and Android to power its comeback
• BlackBerry releases BES 10.1: Simplified deployments, IT policy options
• BlackBerry announces colorful new Q5 device for emerging markets
• BlackBerry to launch BBM on iOS and Android this summer
• BlackBerry unveils its own social network, BBM Channels
• BlackBerry boosts enterprise IM with Microsoft Lync, Lotus support

Bloomberg, the tony U.S. financial data and news company, announced this morning that it appointed former IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano as an "independent adviser" for the company's privacy and data standards.

The news comes after Bloomberg was revealed to have given its news reporters access to data from its namesake terminals that revealed the activity of major customers such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Palmisano will "immediately undertake a review of the company's current practices and policies for client data and end user information, including a review of access issues recently raised by the company's clients," Bloomberg said. "In addition, Mr. Palmisano will make recommendations and advise on the implementation of any enhancements to these practices and policies, including the independent verification of the company's systems and procedures."

He will report to Bloomberg's board of directors.

"Sam Palmisano is an expert at understanding issues related to technology and data use, having led the transition at IBM from computers to helping customers use technology to solve business challenges," Bloomberg chairman Peter T. Grauer said in prepared remarks.

In addition to Palmisano, Bloomberg tapped the legal practice Hogan Lovells and former Bloomberg News editor-at-large Clark Hoyt to review the issues at hand: Hogan will approach the issue from a legal perspective; Hoyt will approach it from a journalistic one.

After being certified by the U.S. government earlier this month for low-level security clearance work, iPhones and iPads running the latest software are now deemed suitable for U.S. military use.

The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed in a statement on Friday that Apple's iOS 6 mobile operating system is secure enough to connect to secure Pentagon networks. 

Earlier in May, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which examines and tests mobile devices and technologies for security clearance, granted the Apple software FIPS 140-2 certification (Level 1) last Friday. This approves iPhones and iPads running the software in conjunction with the U.S. government's lowest level of national security clearance.

Read this

iOS 6 granted FIPS 140-2, approved for U.S. government use

• Read more

The Defense Dept. previously said it has up until now depended on around 470,000 BlackBerry devices, which have held U.S. government certification for many years. The department also has 41,000 Apple products and 8,700 devices running the Android operating system, according to the press release.

But because these platforms have previously not been certified or cleared for use, such devices had not been connected to secure military networks, except for testing.

Samsung recently received the nod from the Pentagon for any Samsung device protected by the Knox security software, which includes the Galaxy S4 and other compatible tablets.

For the first time, Apple's push into federal use opens up the U.S. government and military to competition for device procurement in the mobile space. 

While BlackBerrys had once held the monopoly over U.S. federal agencies, on two fronts there is an increasing responsibility for device and platform makers to secure their hardware and software, but also the dwindling BlackBerry market share has forced the federal government to look elsewhere for long term stability and reliability.

But with the decline in BlackBerry popularity and a slower-than-expected release schedule for the latest BlackBerry 10 smartphones, many federal agencies have already made headway towards rival platforms and devices.

Fortifying cloud, acquisition, data processes

The Defense Dept. also said today it will take "bold steps" to provide information and proper analysis as it fortifies its cloud computing, acquisition and data processes.

The Defense Dept.'s deputy director for acquisition resource analysis and enterprise information Mark Krzysko said cloud computing is one of many new ways to provide "decision-makers timely access to accurate, authoritative and reliable information."

He noted that the major challenge faced by the Pentagon is twofold: how can the Department make existing technologies and cloud information work together, but also how to "orchestrate the transition" from a desktop environment to a mobile one, while ensuring data security and integrity?

In conjunction with today's news regarding iOS 6's clearance for the Pentagon, Krzysko cited existing iPad use in the Department. But it wasn't just about the shiny, latest products and features. 

He firmly noted that the Department's requirement is to fully understand the "processes, people and policy framework" around the technology, data and acquisition evolution.

Google has a lot to celebrate (or at least promote) this week as I/O 2013 comes to a close. But here's one more proud title that the Internet giant can add to the list.

A new report from the online jobs and careers community Glassdoor lists the top 10 companies across all verticals with the best financial outlook for at least the next six months.

The Android maker tops the list.

Actually, the technology industry dominates the list by capturing the top six spots. Following up Google are Qualcomm, Yahoo, SAP, Amazon, and Tata IT consultancy services respectively.

Approximately 86 percent of Google employees are reported to believe that the Mountain View, Calif.-headquartered company's business will perform better in the next six months.

Compare that to the average on Glassdoor's online community. Covering roughly 250,000 companies listed on Glassdoor, only 38 percent of employees think that their companies' business outlooks will improve in the next six months.

The bright outlook for Google (not to mention the following five aforementioned businesses) follows up another report earlier this week from Glassdoor that highlighted Facebook.

The social network's future also looks more promising as most employees seem more optimistic in a post-IPO work environment.

As of April 30, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had an approval rating of 98 percent while 95 percent of current employees said they would recommend the Menlo Park, Calif.-headquartered company to friends looking for work. That's based on 393 ratings posted to Glassdoor.

Chart via Glassdoor

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even without a major presence during the opening keynote, Glass has easily been the most popular product at Google I/O 2013.

There approximately 6,000 attendees at this year's developer conference, and you can't walk a few steps without bumping into someone sporting the Android-powered specs.

While this might be the one place on the planet still where Glass might appear mainstream to the casual observer, there is no denying that the fervor around Glass isn't dying down soon.

That's helped by the fact that Google revealed a few more notable apps in the pipeline that should make Glass more useful, including apps from Twitter and Evernote.

Hot on the heels of this morning's news, product directors and designers from the Glass team discussed the growing market for wearable technology and how developers can most effectively engage in the new ecosystem.

Isabelle Olsson, the lead industrial designer behind Glass, described that when the team started up, they wanted to make sure they weren't taking something that already existed and making incremental improvements.

"To create a new type of wearable technology, it's so ambitions and very messy at points," admitted Olsson.

"To create a new type of wearable technology, it's so ambitions and very messy at points," admitted Olsson. She outlined that the mechanism's design boils down to three key elements: lightness, simplicity and scalability.

 "Those are not just fancy words. They mean something," Olsson specified.

At the moment, Olsson said she is most excited about the modular aspect of Glass, which she explained means that the frame can be removed from the main board by removing a single screw.

She continued that opens up a world of possibilities, including applying Glass directly to a pair of prescription frames.

Olsson posited, "Now we are not only excited about Glass as a software platform, but Glass as a hardware platform."

Timothy Jordan, a Google senior developer advocate for Project Glass, reiterated that Glass was founded as both a device and a platform.

"We build glass not only for developers but us too. The core principle behind Glass is that we build upon the exact same APIs you do," added Google Glass engineer Charles Mendis, comparing the audience members to development teams at Twitter and Facebook.

Google Glass product director Steve Lee explained more about the "unprecedented" Explorer Program and why it made sense for Glass.

"We see the Explorer Program as a way to learn the possibilities with Glass," Lee commented.

"We see the Explorer Program as a way to learn the possibilities with Glass," Lee commented.

Lee described one of his "most memorable" experiences with Glass thus far when he found himself at Disneyland in the front row of a roller coaster sporting Glass a few weeks ago.

Going 50 miles per hour with hands in the air, Lee described he was able to capture the experience and share it with friends directly from the Android headset.

Quite simply, Lee called it "compelling."

The Explorer Program consisted of roughly 2,000 applicants from last year's Google I/O attendance base. Now that the Explorers have had their shot to pick up prototypes, Lee noted that the next wave will go out  "soon" to the "#IfIHadGlass" program.

For reference, approximately 8,000 people were selected from over 100,000 who applied. Otherwise, there is no other public timeline for a mass market release of Glass.

Lee exclaimed that what's exciting about that group is they're not developers but a "nice cross-section" of people ranging from athletes to dentists to hair stylists.

Looking forward, each of the panelists described what they would like to see on Glass.

Lee pointed towards more fitness applications that connect with other wearable tech products as well as exercise machines. Mendis added he'd like to see more mobile commerce possibilities, perhaps being able to price scan and pay bar codes directly from Glass.

Olsson's response garnered the most applause and laughter from the audience: "I'm really into karaoke."

However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to the future of Glass. Along with trying to establish a market for itself, there is already a firestorm about how much the benefits to Glass outweigh the privacy dangers.

While Google has released a GDK for future Glass apps, Lee acknowledged that the device can still be hacked -- either for rogue apps or more nefarious purposes.

Lee replied nervously, "By design, that's not intended."

As Samsung continues to dominate in global smartphone sales, the company's supply chain is feeling the pressure.

According to recent figures released by Gartner, Android is the preferred operating system, and South Korean firm Samsung holds 30.8 percent of the global marketshare for smartphone sales. With estimated shipments of 64.7 million units in comparison to Apple's 38.3 million in Q1 2013, it is not hard to see why manufacturers and those supplying the parts and labor to assemble the company's products might be feeling the strain.

The smartphone market is worth $253 billion, and both Apple and Samsung are jostling to take the largest slice of the market as possible. However, as reported by Reuters, this means that manufacturers able to cope with rising demand are in short supply -- and so Samsung is now courting some of Apple's main parts suppliers.

Although Samsung produces much of its parts in-house, the company has approached Apple partners including Sharp -- of which the firm now owns a three percent stake in return for investment of $110 million -- which is able to manufacture a range of screens suitable for mobile gadgets. In addition, Samsung placed an order with Sharp for LCD screens suitable for the Galaxy range, although according to the publication, this order has been cancelled, at least for now.

Samsung is now using U.S.-based Qualcomm's chips more often in the flagship Galaxy S. Tech firm Toshiba and Gorilla Glass designer Corning Inc both supply parts for Apple and Samsung products.

The overlap between Samsung and Apple is currently limited and unlikely to prove a disruption. However, as more consumers adopt mobile gadgets worldwide and the fight to dominate this market continues, we may see a fight between the two giants that doesn't involve patents.

"The next round of the post-patent battle for them will be over component supplies," said Lee Sun-tae, analyst at NH Investment & Securities told Reuters. "Who wins access to the best performing components in class in large quantity -- that's the key ... and explains why Samsung is shopping for components more than ever."

Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to propose tax changes in the U.S. to encourage companies to bring money company cash funds back to the country.

According to The Washington Post, Cook believes that the 35 percent tax rate on funds brought back to American soil is a "very high number." The CEO commented:

"We are not proposing that it be zero. I know many of our peers believe that. But I don't view that. But I think it has to be reasonable."

The Apple executive will be facing congressional queries on the iPad and iPhone maker's overseas cash deposits and tax bills next week. Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have also faced U.S. government questions over practices of keeping large offshore funds in order to lower tax bills.

Apple paid $6 billion in federal corporate income tax in 2012's fiscal year, and is on track to pay $7 billion in FY2013.

Cook plans to propose tax changes at the Senate hearing in order to encourage companies to bring offshore money home for investment in the United States, and to help promote job creation and research & development. The Apple CEO wants a "dramatic simplification" of corporate tax laws, with lower rates for businesses. However, with so many ways available for firms worldwide to side-step taxes, it remains to be seen whether lowering corporate rates will make a difference.

In the U.K. on Thursday, Google was accused of "devious" and "unethical" behaviour at a tax hearing. The search engine giant only paid 1.5 percent in FY2011 by keeping its base of operations outside of the country, even though the U.K. stipulates a tax rate of 28 percent.

According to a JPMorgan report, over 1,000 U.S.-based companies hold an estimated $1.7 trillion in cash overseas.

I caught up with Whitehurst, who has led Red Hat since December 2007 after being chief operating officer at Delta Airlines, a few weeks ago in San Francisco. Here's a look at the highlights:

What's the state of open source today? Whitehurst said open source has evolved to become a leading innovation engine. "Open source is how innovation is happening. Open source started off making copies of other things, but now it's leading. Big data and software defined networking are open source," explained Whitehurst. "The new stuff is happening in open source."

What's the future of enterprise software? The enterprise software market is in flux and it's unclear how applications will be consumed in the future and how companies will react, said Whitehurst. Today companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Google are ahead of where the vendors are. "So much of enterprise software was due to identifying a problem and then building a custom solution," said Whitehurst. "Increasingly we use common systems."

Whitehurst likens common systems, which are commoditized via open source and cheap hardware, to the standard parts that eventually led to the combustion engine. Once parts were standardized there was a new wave of innovation. As computing systems become commoditized, the "profit pools are going to evaporate" for enterprise software vendors, said Whitehurst. "It's a huge challenge for most infrastructure software players."

At the very least, Whitehurst expects the enterprise software vendor landscape to radically change. The other thread for enterprise software is that it may be embedded into service providers. For instance, the functionality provided by SAP and Oracle could just become part of a broader logistical service from a company like UPS. "The line where ISVs (independent software vendors) and companies begin are blurring," said Whitehurst. "Many companies will be software companies. GE has massive amounts of software but isn't a software company."

Among the current field of software and hardware infrastructure players, only IBM has navigated this level of change before. IBM is the master of moving up the stack. Whitehurst noted that when he was at Delta Airlines, IBM was the only IT vendor who came into a meeting talking about the airline industry and not technology.

The Evolution of Enterprise Software

The Evolution of Enterprise Software: An overview

Enterprise software is evolving under selection pressure from challenging economic conditions and the adaptive possibilities afforded by cloud computing, mobility, big data analytics and social engagement.

• Read more

The other thread about enterprise software is the landscape is more diverse. "There is a whole breed of software companies developing based on an idea and they build cheaply and deploy on AWS (Amazon Web Services)," said Whitehurst. "These companies don't need much capital, a sales force and distribution because they have taken all the cost out. It's a brilliant model, but enterprise software will be more fragmented."

On Hadoop's future, Whitehurst likens the big data engine to Linux. He also sees similar opportunities for Red Hat. "Hadoop was never written for sale. Its innovation wasn't targeted for the enterprise customer," explained Whitehurst. As a result, Hadoop is commercially splintering as various parties create distributions to better target corporations. One key thing to note, however, is that Hadoop is splintering commercially, but the open source project isn't. "Hadoop will be massively used," said Whitehurst. "I could see Hortonworks and Cloudera becoming the Oracle and IBM DB2 of Hadoop. I can also see Hadoop being embedded everywhere and the value is upstream."

Would Red Hat create a Hadoop distribution? Whitehurst would never say never, but it doesn't make sense for Red Hat to create a Hadoop distribution. "We don't have any intentions right now," said Whitehurst, who noted the Hadoop distribution game is crowded. Whitehurst questioned whether various Hadoop distributions that aim to meld proprietary and open source technologies will be viable in the long run. "To take open source and proprietary stuff is hard. The way you drive a proprietary roadmap is very different than open source. It's hard to do both," said Whitehurst. "You would lose clarity in marketing and the project would be hard to drive the roadmap and work with community." Why would a player like EMC and VMware create a Hadoop distribution via Pivotal then? "Data is where all the value is," said Whitehurst, noting that having the data gives you a say on where it is stored. "EMC sees that value," he said.

Learnings from OpenShift,  Red Hat's platform as a service effort. OpenShift has 250,000 running apps and runs on Amazon's AWS. The biggest surprise so far? Enterprise customers want OpenShift on premise for private clouds. "A lot of customers wanted tighter integration between the hardware and PaaS," said Whitehurst. Red Hat's auto scaling platform is a bet that private and public platform as a service will be an enterprise hit.

OpenStack. Red Hat is also a big supporter of OpenStack, a cloud operating system that was started by NASA and Rackspace. On the surface, Red Hat appeared to be late to the game. Whitehurst said there's a role for integration with OpenShift and OpenStack. He also added that Red Hat was lukewarm on OpenStack 18 months ago. "To Rackspace's credit it created a neutral foundation," said Whitehurst. "OpenStack isn't the first effort around cloud infrastructure, but it has broad support and reference standards."

The promise of OpenStack is that it can abstract the infrastructure layer so companies get control over costs and the hardware used. It's likely that OpenStack will ultimately enable customers to automatically swap between providers such as Rackspace and AWS and their own infrastructure. "The theory is that in the next several years that the application layer will be agnostic," said Whitehurst.

Whitehurst sees Red Hat's role in OpenStack similar to its position in Linux. Red Hat will provide support and stability. "We will support an enterprise version and commit to it for 10 years," said Whitehurst, noting the exact timeline may be different. The reality is that OpenStack has new functionality and releases at a rapid pace. If you're an enterprise, you're not going to backport into every old version. That's where Red Hat comes in," said Whitehurst. "We have the credibility and knowhow to support OpenStack at scale. We'll win there," said Whitehurst. "Our biggest allure is long-term stability. We won't break the interface and won't break binary compatibility."

Does that make Red Hat a legacy vendor sans innovation? When asked if Red Hat is now part of the establishment, Whitehurst chuckled. "Well you don't get fired for buying Red Hat and we're growing solidly," said Whitehurst. However, Red Hat can't be considered a legacy player when it is contributing to efforts like OpenStack that will redefine the way IT runs. Add it up and it's a bit hard to define Red Hat. If open source is leading the way, Red Hat is a key player driving the revolution to commoditize technology. On the other side, Red Hat bring stability that enables CIOs to plan ahead. My verdict is that Red Hat is a tweener. Whitehurst seems pretty comfortable with that role.

A group of Congress members have sent a letter to Google seeking answers to privacy and data concerns caused by Google Glass.

The letter (.pdf), addressed to CEO Larry Page, was sent by eight members of Congress led by U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, Texas. The members of the Congressional bipartisan Privacy Caucus say they are concerned about possible misuse of information gathered by Google's new product, and whether Google Glass will "infringe on the privacy of the average American."

The headset, which is able to record video footage and take photos based on voice commands, has already been jailbroken within the developer phase. Modified enough, Glass could be used to innocuously record everything around you without any indicative behaviour or phrases.

See also: Exploring Google Glass: A fitting appointment, step-by-step (slideshow)

The letter's delivery comes as the tech giant holds its annual developer conference, Google I/O in San Francisco. Developers -- and those who have paid $1500 for the prototype -- are currently being tutored on how to develop apps for Google Glass, and the Glass Explorer program is designed to create the application ecosystem before the product's official launch sometime next year.

The Congress members ask whether the product will use facial recognition technology to unveil personal information about others or objects, and whether data could be collected without the consent of others -- and if Google plans to prevent this in some way. In addition, the letter cites a case in 2010 where the tech giant was collecting information from unsecured wireless networks across the globe, which resulted in Google paying out $7 million in damages. The letter acknowledges this situation was rectified, but asks how Google plans to ensure Google Glass will not unintentionally collect data from either the user or non-users without permission.

Other concerns raised include whether the new product -- when launched -- will prove to be a catalyst for the tech giant to make additional changes within its privacy policies, and if Google Glass will both collect and store data on the device itself. If information is stored, the Congress members wish to know whether security measures will be put in place to safeguard stored data.

Additional signatories of the letter include Representatives John Barrow, Steve Chabot, Henry C. Johnson Jr., Walter Jones, Richard Nugent, Bobby Rush and Loretta Sanchez. Answers have been requested by June 14. The Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus is focused on investigating the data and privacy implications and practices of large organizations and corporations, including Google, Amazon, Apple and the Social Security Administration.

SAN FRANCISCO -- While it was initially glossed over during the opening keynote session at Google I/O on Wednesday, the Cloud Messaging team offered some more details during a developers session on Thursday.

The cloud-based communications service is touted to enable developers and their services to send data more efficiently to applications on Android devices.

Like the debut of Compute Engine, the Internet first introduced Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) last year.

Since its debut on June 27, 2012, Cloud Messaging has experienced 400 percent growth in 10 months.

Approximately 60 percent of apps in Google Play are said to be now using the service at a rate of 17 billion messages sent per day.

Product team members added yesterday that the average latency rate is now 60 milliseconds.

Francesco Nerieri, head of Android Cloud for Google, outlined some of the GCM upgrades debuting this week on Thursday afternoon at the Moscone West Convention Center.

At the heart of the upgrade for Cloud Messaging is the brand new Cloud Connection Service for communicating with Android devices over an XXMP connection. This is especially important for speeding up the delivering messages back from Android devices to the Google cloud.

Supporting up to 10 connections, this function includes message upstreaming with ACK and NACK protocols while supporting existing Cloud Messaging APIs.

Based on that information and other items that developers want to highlight, GCM now supports multi-device messaging in which developers can a single message to multiple devices owned by the end user.

But ahead of all that, the start process itself has also been revamped to better streamline adding GCM support to Android apps faster.

These changes are available for apps running Froyo (Android 2.2) and higher. Note that upstreaming capabilities are only available on Google Play services.

With the move, Aruba is looking to combine its enterprise Wi-Fi technology with Meridian's location services to provide context about users and devices.

The aim is to create an "indoor GPS" system to enable applications inside of malls, casinos, arenas and museums. The idea is that companies will be able to better deliver contextual ads, directions and various pitches.

In a blog post, Meridian co-founder Nick Farina said:

Since we launched in March 2011, locations have used Meridian’s software platform to builds apps that let you find exhibits at the Art Institute of Chicago, poker tables at the Bellagio, and menswear at Macy’s.

What we found was that we often partnered with wireless network providers when approaching new locations with our software platform. In order to use our indoor location system, locations usually need to install or upgrade their Wifi network. And often this results in the location opening the network up for visitors, which is a win-win for everyone.

So we think it makes perfect sense to join a forward-thinking company like Aruba who really gets mobile and wants to expand the definition of what it means to have a Wifi network.

Separately, Aruba reported a fiscal third quarter net loss of $20.2 million, or 18 cents a share, on revenue of $147.1 million, up 12 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 11 cents a share.

Aruba, which previously said its third quarter would be difficult, said customers were cautious but overall mobility and bring your own device trends would benefit the company.

Read this

Dell goes private for $24 billion

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Dell on Thursday reported its first quarter earnings five days earlier than expected, due to a report by The Wall Street Journal detailing leaked numbers on Monday.

The PC maker reported $372 million on revenue of $14.07 billion, or 21 cents a share. 

According to average analyst estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters, Dell was expecting to report net income of $607.10 million on revenue of $13.5 billion, or 35 cents per share. 

The Journal said Dell would exceed revenue expectations with $14 billion, yet miss on earnings-per-share at 20 cents per share on a non-GAAP basis.

Breaking down the figures:

• The firm's Enterprise Solutions Group generated $3.1 billion in revenue, a 10 percent increase year-over-year. While the unit's server and networking revenue increased by 16 percent, its storage revenue decline by 10 percent.
  
  
• Dell Services grew marginally by 2 percent to $2.1 billion, but applications and business process services declined by 15 percent. Meanwhile, Dell Software's unit resulted in an overall operating loss. The company said the unit is on track to be accretive to earnings during in two years' time.
  
  
• Dell's PC building unit, the End User Computing unit, saw $8.9 billion in revenue, a 9 percent decrease. Its mobility revenue dinged the unit the most, dropping from $4.3 billion to $3.6 billion in the space of one year.
  
  
• The company ended the quarter with $13.2 billion in cash, including investments.
  
  

Dell chief financial officer Brian Gladden said the company was "confident" in its overall strategy, as the firm prepares to go private in the coming months. He elaborated in prepared remarks:

We have taken actions to improve our competitive position in key areas of the business, especially in end-user computing, and it has affected profitability. We’ll also continue to make important investments to support our strategy and drive long-term profitability.

It's not a huge surprise that Dell's first quarter earnings are weak, based on results from previous quarters.

The PC market is slipping while the post-PC market continues to expand. Dell missed a beat by failing to embrace post-PC devices as quickly as other manufacturers. 

Earlier this year, the company projected a modest growth in the PC industry, in line with Windows 8's release. But in denying that the traditional PC is on its way out, its forecasts didn't line up with what's actually happening on the front line.

Also, in its bid to take itself off the stock market, it's opened its books up to financial scrutiny. And some who have put in offers for the firm aren't happy.

Dell put the wheels in motion to go private back in February. Company founder and chief Michael Dell and investment firm Silver Lake offered $24.4 billion, or $13.65 per share. Microsoft offered $2 billion to the buy-out pot. 

A month later, the Blackstone Group offered to buy Dell for $25 billion, but shortly after pulled its proposal citing a 14 percent drop in PC shipments and the company's "rapidly eroding financial profile." By this point, it was clear that Dell's financial position was worse as it continues to expand its software and services portfolio and datacenter hardware footprint.

In the year to date, Dell's share price has risen by as much as 43 percent, but dipped and leveled out around the $13 per share mark in recent weeks. The PC maker closed down slightly at $13.43 a share. 

Given the company's plans to go private, Dell did not provide an outlook for the second quarter.

SAN FRANCISCO -- If there is one thing that Google has a lot of (besides money), it's data.

Many developers attending Google I/O 2013 this week are learning more and more about using that data to their benefit, whether it be through mobile commerce via Google Wallet or location APIs for Glass.

One of the more complex but logical places to start would be with BigQuery, Google's Web-based service for interactive analysis of massive data sets. The Internet giant boasts that the system can mine and analyze terabytes of data in just one click.

Using digital photo service Shutterfly as a case study, BigQuery product manager Ju-kay Kwek explained during a session for developers on Thursday morning about how businesses -- notably the marketing departments -- can turn this data around into customer and product marketing strategies.

Derek Stevenson, senior director of data strategy and analytics at Shutterfly, acknowledged some of the challenges surrounding big data, quipping that "big" is always relative.

In the simplest terms, those constraints consist of scale, performance, cost, and, well, simplicity.

 Stevenson remarked that data is often seen as a competitive advantage, but that requires owning the data and methodology, an experienced analytics team, and decisive action.

"The basic idea is that marketing often has a particular budget that they can invest in their channels," said Stevenson, adding that the common question often revolves around return on investment.

As of 2012, Shutterfly had more than 19 billion images stored with seven million customers registered. That comes with good amount of data about images, locations, cameras, and the users themselves.

"If they don't have to spend their time preparing data and aggregating and building cubes -- I've been on the IT side, and I can tell you that's not the fun part of the job," Stevenson joked.

Stevenson pointed out that the data isn't "random," meaning that insights require educated interpretation.

But then the challenge becomes scaling that analysis to cover more than 19 billion images, or 80 petabytes of data.

In order to tackle these issues, Stevenson posited that "traditional approaches" require compromise, whether its sampling or aggregation. But Stevenson lamented these approaches drop out some details.

The goal, he continued, is to maintain those details in order to interprets and inform interactions with all customers.

Stevenson admitted that IT departments often bear the brunt of the "multi-dimentional challenge" surrounding big data in sifting through all the details about users, volume, mergers and acquisitions, and more.

To fill that "gap" with BigQuery, Stevenson described that Shutterfly switched to a strategy that consists of the following five steps: data collection, storage (on BigQuery and Google's cloud), preparing the data for analysis, and then acting on the findings through email campaigns, online merchandizing, and retargeting ads.

"If they don't have to spend their time preparing data and aggregating and building cubes -- I've been on the IT side, and I can tell you that's not the fun part of the job," Stevenson joked.

During a talk at Google IO, Timothy Jordan, senior developer advocate at Google for Project Glass, did a walkthrough of developing for Google Glass. Judging from the overflow crowd at Jordan's talk---doors were locked as the room reached capacity and another location packed for a live stream---there's a wee bit of interest for creating Glass applications.

Also: I/O 2013: Google's location APIs likely to fuel Google Glass apps

Among the new developments:

• Jordan said the video streaming will be a URL attachment to Glass and Google will handle the processing. There's no timeline for this developer feature, but Jordan said it will be added to the documentation soon.
• The GDK, which will have a native API, is a work in progress. Jordan outlined what the GDK would do roughly, noted that the "conversation is ongoing" as it is being built and asked developers to "tell us what your dreams are for Glass."
• Glass apps are starting to build up via partners ranging from Facebook to The New York Times to Evernote to CNN and Elle. "Twitter and Glass just work well together," noted Jordan. 
• Google is working through how Glass customers will ultimately discover apps. "A healthy ecosystem revolves at some point around discover," said Jordan, who noted that Glass is still in developer preview so details around third party app distribution are to come. "We're definitely going to have something," said Jordan. 

The big takeaway here is that the Glass Explorer program is really about creating the ecosystem for Glass and the tools to make applications on the fly. Glass is a work in progress.

Jordan's talk walked through best practices such as making sure apps are tested on Glass, don't get in the way of the user and keep things simple. "Never send a notification telling someone that they didn't respond. They should be able to ignore the notification and your service keeps running," said Jordan.

Use cases for Glass today include content distribution, navigation and photos. Going forward, Google, which is pushing Google Hangout as a good Glass use, is counting on developers to create what would be a killer app. But first Google needs to get the developer tools in the field. The GDK is going to be a big help.

"Examples are really important right now. We're building up best practices and finding the best experience for Glass," said Jordan.

Unveiled at the close of SAP Sapphire in Orlando this week, Project Kraken is the combination of HP's enterprise server technology with SAP's flagship HANA in-memory database.

The key point to know is that this server prototype effectively triples the amount of memory on a single but scalable server designed for processing big data.

Running on Intel's Xeon E7 processor family (also known as Ivy Bridge-EX), Project Kraken supports up to 12 terabytes of memory on a single server unit designed for processing complex big data workloads. The current industry standard is considered to be four terabytes.

Like most new enterprise technology products -- both hardware and cloud-related -- the goals are to improve business processes by simplifying the setup and reducing processing times.

Targeted towards a myriad of verticals ranging from government and healthcare to finance and retail, potential workloads include CRM, enterprise resource planning, and supply chain management.

Project Kraken is on display at Sapphire this week, but neither company has revealed when the analytics machine might go to market.

More from SAP Sapphire on ZDNet:

• At Sapphire, SAP's Plattner swipes at critics, Oracle
• SAP co-CEO Snabe: In business, eat (or be eaten)
• SAP launches Fiori: consumer-style apps for common business functions
• McLaren CIO: How we're working with big data
• At SAP Sapphire, co-CEO McDermott plays ball with customers
• SAP bets big on the cloud, unifies under 'HANA Cloud Platform'
• SAP introduces Mobile Secure; mobile device management
• SAP Sapphire 2013 preview: Five big questions

The networking giant on Wednesday reported fiscal third quarter earnings of $2.5 billion, or 46 cents a share, on revenue of $12.2 billion, up 5.4 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 51 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for earnings of 49 cents a share on $12.17 billion.

Sentiment leading up to Cisco's results was negative. Other networking companies indicated that information technology spending was weak. Complaints about sluggish economic conditions became the norm.

However, Cisco's outlook and comments from CEO John Chambers were upbeat---somewhat optimistic even. Chambers said that Cisco was seeing some positive spending signs in the U.S. and emerging markets. He also noted Cisco was well positioned for industry turns such as software defined networking.

As for the outlook, Cisco projected non-GAAP fourth quarter earnings to be 50 cents a share to 52 cents a share with revenue growth of 4 percent to 7 percent compared to a year ago. That outlook was in line with expectations.

On an earnings conference call, Chambers noted that cloud data center revenue growth was up 77 percent, wireless was up 27 percent and WiFi sales growth was more than 100 percent. Meanwhile, U.S. commercial revenue was up 13 percent and enterprise was up 10 percent. Asia-Pacific, Japan and China orders were flat as was EMEA. That tally was an improvement over declines in the second quarter.

Chambers said:

We were especially pleased with the progress we made in Q3 in the emerging countries, with growth of 13%. As a reminder, emerging countries grew 6% in Q2. We are also pleased with the balance across emerging countries, with India growing 29%, Russia growing 16%, Brazil up 14%, China up 8%, and Mexico up 4%. The remaining emerging markets around the world, which is approximately 50% of our total business from emerging countries, was also very solid, with growth of 13% as well.

The big question here is whether Cisco is taking share or calling a tech spending turn. Chambers said:

In terms of what is changing in the market, our architectural approach -- tying together our products to solve our customers' top priorities quicker than anyone else -- is really gaining traction. That's especially true in enterprise, where (the focus is) selling to the business customer, in conjunction with the CIO, in meeting the CEO's top priorities...We have a number of challenges coming at us. In the end it will be in our opinion an architectural play -- where software will play a key component, but it will be an architecture where our place will I think win in the end.

On the broader economy and where Cisco fits in, Chambers also was upbeat. He said:

The enterprise growth is on a very good trend. I don't see seasonality on that, and I think it's probably a very good indicator of economic growth. It's nothing to write home about, but it's very solid economic growth in terms of slow but steady in terms of the U.S. is how we're modeling.

In terms of our relevance as an IT player, it's increasing. When you get Board of Directors coming through -- not the CIO, but the Board of Directors and top management, it really speaks Cisco's position in the industry is changing. When we catch our competitors, we usually leave them behind fairly quickly. Sometimes, we take a little bit long to get focused on something, but we really close well. That's a nice way of saying I'm real comfortable across all key customer segments where we're going. I think we are dramatically better positioned than the traditional data center players such as HP, Dell, and IBM as this transition occurs.

While a fresh new generation of BlackBerry phones fight a ferocious battle for third place in the smartphone race, BlackBerry's other big business remains in a great position in its red-hot market, Mobile Device Management (MDM). At BlackBerry Live 2013 in Orlando this week, the company rolled out a major update to BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) and deepened its commitment to making BES a multiplatform solution that now deeply secures its two leading smartphone competitors.

Ironically, the trend that brutally undercut BlackBerry phones during the past five years—the "bring your own device" (BYOD) movement—is now driving significant sales of BES, the company's backend software. At BlackBerry Live, the company released version 10.1 of BES. BES 10.1 will support a powerful new module that will launch at the end of June called Secure Work Space, which brings BlackBerry's high security mobile solution to Android and iOS. 

"Our customers have been asking, 'Can you just take what you've done on BlackBerry and put it on iOS and Android?'" said Pete Devenyi, BlackBerry's SVP of Enterprise Software. 

While older versions of BES could do some basic administration of non-BlackBerry smartphones like iPhone, Android, and other types of devices, the solution was limited to the basics, including a full remote wipe of devices when those employees left the company. But, that's obviously not a great solution with BYOD where employees own the devices. With Secure Work Space, BlackBerry will manage iOS and Android devices in a much more sophisticated and secure way. 

Part of that is due to the fact that BES 10 not only does mobile device management, but also does mobile application management, and secure mobile connectivity as well. This triple play raises the bar on manageability. One of the key factors that makes all of this happen in BES 10 is a module called BlackBerry Balance that cleanly separates work and personal data and applications. For example, you can't copy and paste between work and personal data and in a BYOD situation where an employee leaves the company and IT needs to wipe the business data off the device then it can wipe the work side of the phone without affecting the former employee's personal data.

However, BlackBerry Balance is limited to BlackBerry devices because they are designed from the ground up to function this way and to adhere to this security model. Because of that, BlackBerry can't bring Balance to Android and iOS because those operating systems are simply architected differently. But, BlackBerry is doing the next best thing by bringing a lot of these same features to iOS and Android with Secure Work Space. 

"With Secure Work Space, it really is a secure container," said Devenyi. 

Secure Work Space will be an app in the Apple App Store and Google Play, pending approval from Apple and Google, respectively. It will include secure email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and document editing. It won't allow data leakage including copy and paste between Secure Work Space and the rest of the device. IT will be able to remotely wipe everything in the Secure Work Space without affecting any of the other apps or data on the person's device, in a BYOD scenario.

"It really is about the separation of work data and personal data," Devenyi said. "It supports a BYOD model much more directly."

Another thing that Secure Work Space does is to create a fully encrypted tunnel back to the BES 10 server so that all communications from it are secure, even if you're on an insecure connection such as an Internet cafe or public Wi-Fi. In the past, you'd typically need to launch a VPN tunnel in order to accomplish that, but Secure Work Space does it automatically and at all times.

Devenyi said, "There's no need for a VPN. It's a [continually] secure outbound port"

The combination of secure data and apps and a secure connection turns BYOD Android and iOS smartphones and tablets into highly secure business devices. That's what BlackBerry is bringing to market at the end of Q2, built on top of BES 10.1. 

"For the first time, a solution on Android and iOS can benefit and take advantage of the BlackBerry infrastructure and BlackBerry security model," said Devenyi.

BlackBerry does not split out BES revenue from its revenue from smartphones, but clearly it's a much more attractive business than the commodity mobile hardware business. And, Devenyi said that BlackBerry is seeing "exploding" demand for MDM solutions to manage BYOD. 

In its latest analysis of the MDM market, Gartner corroborated that perspective saying, "MDM is the fastest-growing enterprise mobile software ever (in terms of number of suppliers, revenue growth and interest from Gartner clients)."

That growth is fueling a crowd of companies to jump into MDM, but BlackBerry is one of the creators of the category and one of the most trusted names in mobile security. The fact that many of the companies that need MDM for BYOD have previously relied on BlackBerry and BES to manage their mobile devices provides the company with an excellent opportunity to become a market leader in securing for iOS and Android for BYOD. The irony is obvious, but don't underestimate how much this could potentially fuel BlackBerry's comeback, no matter what BlackBerry devices do.

Also read

• BlackBerry releases BES 10.1: Simplified deployments, IT policy options
• BlackBerry announces colorful new Q5 device for emerging markets
• BlackBerry to launch BBM on iOS and Android this summer
• BlackBerry unveils its own social network, BBM Channels
• BlackBerry boosts enterprise IM with Microsoft Lync, Lotus support
• BlackBerry Q10 review

ORLANDO—Hasso Plattner stormed onto the stage with a mission.

Dispel the myths.

Shatter the lies.

Clear the air about HANA, the company's in-memory database technology.

The name is plastered everywhere here at SAP's annual Sapphire Now conference in Orlando, Florida. As it should be: the company formally announced the technology last year and proclaimed it to be its future. (The reaction was mixed: some companies were thrilled at its speed; others were skeptical of the hype around a 20-year-old concept.)

This year, the company staked its name on it, and this week, it walked the talk by moving several of its products—including its core Business Suite—to HANA.

This morning, Plattner used his closing keynote to push back on HANA's critics and clear the confusion around his company's flagship platform. In a little over an hour, Plattner lobbed bombs at the technology press (uninformed!), rival Oracle (behind the times!) and engineers who think that column store is old hat.

"After four years of preaching HANA, we have reached a relative climax," Plattner said. "It's not about HANA anymore. It's about the applications on HANA."

Plattner began by explaining what customers have been asking for. Ultimately, he said, they want a system to run the business; a wide range of applications; instant monitoring of financials, sales and other business data; full integration with other apps in the cloud; high availability; security; flexibility; extensibility of data and functions; and full access to all applications from mobile devices.

"You expect lower cost despite increasing functionality," he said. "You want to have a guaranteed path to innovation."

Core to this is the company's increasing embrace of the cloud, in all of its forms. A lower total cost of ownership, less disruptive upgrades and "a significant reduction of labor" can all be had, Plattner said. It's not something to be feared.

"There is flexibility in the licensing model," he said. "In the cloud, we can have everything."

So what of HANA, then? There are far too many haters out there, Plattner said.

Like the technology press. "I know there is freedom of speech in the United States, [but] I could not find the statement where it says, 'There is a freedom of making up facts,'" he needled.

And Oracle. "You know that I love Oracle. We love each other," he said, grinning. "Oracle made O3. Twenty years later, probably we can give something back with HANA." He laughed at his own joke.

So Plattner used his time to bust some myths about his beloved platform.

The first? That it's not possible to do virtualization with HANA.

"HANA runs totally virtualized," Plattner said. "Do we want to run a $50 billion company virtualized? Certainly not. Why should we do this? Virtualization is good when we have a large computer and we want to chop it up into many small ones."

The second: HANA needs proprietary hardware.

"HANA uses standard x86 hardware," Plattner said, listing IBM, Dell, HP, Fujtisu, Hitachi and other OEMs as proof. "This is all based on Intel reference architecture."

The third: HANA doesn't support multi-tenancy. 

"Guess what Business ByDesign runs in?" Plattner asked. SuccessFactors? Ariba? His answer: "Multi-tenancy."

"I know what I'm talking about because we bought one or two of these companies," he said.

The fourth myth: that adopting HANA is disruptive to business.

"It is not disruptive," Plattner said in retort. "We do not change the data definitions. We change the way we store them."

The fifth? That HANA is "not ready for prime time." Plattner simply displayed on the enormous screen behind him a long list of companies licensing the technology. Among them: Pfizer, ConAgra.

The sixth myth: that HANA was only for SAP's own applications.

"That hurts me," Plattner said, clutching his chest. "That really, really hurts me."

More than 60 percent of HANA use is outside of SAP applications, he said, and 431 startup companies—Optessa, Nexvisionix, EasyAsk, FanAppz, Celonis, Ovigele, Agile, Alegri, VMS, Webtalk, Precise, HyperBees among them—are on HANA.

"This is the future of SAP," Plattner said.

And the final myth: that HANA uses an old concept of columnar store.

"It's true! Twenty years old," Plattner said with exasperation. "Guess why we bought Sybase? They have a whole package of columnar store. Probably will be useful."

During his presentation, you could sense Plattner's frustration with the degree of skepticism that HANA has been met with. No matter what anybody says, he seemed to say to his audience, this is what I'm betting the company on. And I know it's a winner.

"HANA is a platform," he said. "It is not just a database."

"You put HANA underneath and it runs. Just faster."

Figures released by the analytics firm say Android phone makers and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million handhelds during the first quarter of 2013, up more than half 59 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Combined, the duopoly of Google's Android and Apple's iOS combined reaches 92.3 percent of all smartphone operating system shipments during the quarter.

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Nokia 'very interested' in tablets, but don't hold your breath

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Android rules the roost again with 162.1 million shipments, according to the figures, while Apple's iOS share — accounting for iPhones only — reached 37.4 million shipments during the quarter.

For Microsoft, there's good news. Windows Phone has now surpassed BlackBerry's declining market share and now reigns in the third-place behind Android and iOS respectively. Windows Phone accounted for 7 million shipments, taking 3.2 percent of the market share, while BlackBerry took just 6.3 million shipments, with 2.9 percent of the market share.

Shooting up by more than 133 percent on the same quarter a year ago, the platform has seen a higher increase in share than any other mobile platform year-over-year. 

According to IDC, Nokia accounted for 79 percent of the Windows Phone shipments during the quarter, suggesting the relationship between Microsoft and the phone maker was working well.

But it's not all bad news for BlackBerry. The data shows that BlackBerry 10 devices have already hit one million shipped milestone in its first quarter of availability.

"Windows Phone claiming the third spot is a first and helps validate the direction taken by Microsoft and key partner Nokia," said IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo in prepared remarks. "Given the relatively low volume generated, the Windows Phone camp will need to show further gains to solidify its status as an alterative to Android or iOS.

Jive Software is tapping into the Software-as-a-Service craze by trying to bring everyone together in a centralized fashion.

The new product is dubbed Jive StreamOnce, a platform designed to enable employees to have all of their business applications (i.e. email, CRM, converesations, document storage, etc.) onto one hub sponsored by Jive.

See also: Jive CEO: 'Facebook for the enterprise' rap is dead

The enterprise software provider touts that StreamOnce could eliminate the need to manage multiple systems for email and collaboration apps, saving both IT departments and employees across the company both time and money from having to deal with lots of configurations.

StreamOnce is starting off small with just a few partners -- but they're certainly big ones.

Available now as part of the Jive spring cloud release, StreamOnce currently integrates with Gmail, Microsoft Exchange and DropBox.

Jive is promising support and access to solutions from Oracle, NetSuite, Salesforce, SAP, and SugarCRM within the coming months.

Jive has been keen on pushing the major partners and integration strategy lately.

In April, Jive's spring release centered around virtual work spaces called PurposefulPlaces, which feature integration with Salesforce and Box. The idea behind that product is to close sales deals faster and launch marketing campaigns.

Screenshots via Jive Software

SAN FRANCISCO -- Some of the more Easter Egg-like announcements at Google I/O 2013 this week focus on Google Wallet.

The digital payments service has struggled to get wider adoption in comparison to the likes of PayPal and Square, among others.

But Google isn't giving up. One of the more creative new features rolling out in the coming months (at least in the United States) is the ability to send digital funds via Gmail.

To further encourage integration of Google Wallet services on mobile apps, a couple of engineers from the division offered some simple tips and tricks to achieving higher conversion through mobile commerce on Android.

Given that there are 900 million activated Android devices worldwide, there are certainly opportunities abound.

Nevertheless, Jon Boekenoogen, a software engineer on the Google Wallet team, acknowledged during an afternoon session that there are at least three primary challenges: discovery, account management, and the payments process itself.

Boekenoogen also cited internal research that the current mobile cart abandonment rate is approximately 97 percent.

One new API designed to combat this is the Google Wallet Instant Buy function. Basically, a user with Google Wallet should be able to make faster purchases within a few taps.

For merchants, the integration is supposed to be "lightweight" (as well as secure) through the delivery of a virtual proxy card of the consumer's information.

Google software engineer John Stuppy also stressed the need of making a good "first impression" with mobile consumers.

Bottom line, this means that apps need to run as fast as possible.

In order to reduce latency, Google added on-device caching. Stuppy explained that the tool identifies necessary data about a user and stores it on device before activity is closed. When the activity is launched again, it can inflate the user interface within 125 milliseconds.

For international sales in particular, ask for the country before the state and city, offer the ability to enter addresses in the native language, and use code strings from the carrier to predict the user's country. The last one suggests to the consumer that the seller is capable of mailing the product to that market.

Naturally, anything having to do with mobile devices, data, and e-commerce raises questions and concerns about security. Stuppy even described that security and privacy are the "unseen user experiences of any commerce application."

In what could be the most basic but essential tip, Stuppy urged using HTTPS protocol simply to protect sensitive information and prevent "man in the middle" attacks.

Otherwise, developers are rather freely opening themselves up to a world of trouble.

Upstart's model includes a mix of crowd funding, a dash of Kickstarter meets peer-to-peer loan company Lending Club and algorithms that project future income and allow "someone to borrow from their future selves." Toss in investors who can also serve as mentors in a back-to-the-future apprenticeship style and you couldn't have a gig more different than Google Enterprise.

When I caught up with Girouard at CBS Interactive's New York office I wasn't quite sure what to expect. After a few minutes I realized that learning about Upstart combined my two nerd interests---technology and finance.

Girouard and I spent a lot of time talking about the future of funding and my hunch is that conditions are lining up for alternative investment companies like Upstart. My working theory is that the student loan market is just mortgage debacle 2.0. Student loans are going to blow up. That inevitable bubble burst could make alternative models like Upstart a decent way to fund college or businesses. Girouard noted that many people will be self employed.

For investors, services like Upstart could be interesting return vehicles because they bring the human element back to investing. To a large degree, algorithms have taken the fun out of finance.

Here's a recap of my conversation with Girouard:

How does Upstart work? Generally speaking, the service today is targeted at students looking to get funding to chase a dream---whether that's taking a coding class, trying out a business idea or building a business. "An investor receives some micro portion of income over 10 years and can offer to be a mentor or advisor if it's something he or she cares about," he said. "You're buying shares of future income and allowing someone to borrow from their future selves." Think Upstart as a Zillow for people.

What's Upstart's role? Upstart serves as a platform to connect investors and students looking for funding. The business model revolves around service fees. Upstart gets 3 percent of the money raised on the platform and takes a half percent of the money invested annually.

What's the typical investment look like? The sweet spot is $500 to $1,000 into four or five people. "If you care about returns you need to be diversified," he said. "We built a regression model that predicts an individual's income over 10 years." In many respects, Upstart's selection of individuals was influenced by how Google hired employees early in their career. Google tried to predict an individual's likely success at Google based on traits, grades and other signals in a person's history. In other words, if those signals were good enough for Google they probably would be fine to help the broader economy.

The disruption angle. Upstart's formation reflects that it doesn't take a whole lot of capital to start a business. Students are using Upstart to retire student loans and fund living expenses to get a business going. "We're upstream from the VC industry," he said. "We're monetizing future potential."

Upstart's operations. Given Girouard used to run Google's enterprise business, which revolved around the cloud, it's not surprising that his company doesn't own a server. Upstart is an 11-person company and every tool it uses is cloud-based. Upstart's IT tab is less than $1,000 a month for the entire company. Its site is built on Heroku. Google Apps and Zoho are the key systems for Upstart. The company also doesn't own computers or phones. Girouard's approach is heavy on bring your own. Each employee gets $2,500 to buy computer gear and $100 a month to pay for voice and data service. "We want to see how far we can push it with cloud services," said Girouard. "Virtual assistants, Mechanical Turk are part of a myriad of services you don't need people for."

What people are necessary? Girouard said that Upstart needs a general counsel because it is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. There are people focused on outreach on both sides of the market. Upstart doesn't have marketing people yet, but does have its developers. Girouard's plan is to stay small because of the agility and ultimately create "a $1 billion business with 50 employees." "I appreciate smallness. We'll make major decisions that would take weeks or months in an hour," he added.

The demographics. Today, Upstart is focused on U.S. college students that have to be graduated by 2014 or be chasing a master's degree because "the pricing model is centered on academics." In the future, Upstart could expand to other demographics but would need different analytics and algorithms. For instance, projecting the potential income of an 18 year old is decidedly different than someone who is almost done college. The student approaching graduation has more of a track record, said Girouard. Funding a person making a mid-career switch could be more difficult because it's harder to project returns on someone in their 40s. Statistically speaking earnings and income for a Stanford engineering student is easier to predict. For someone older, work history becomes more of a signal for future success. "There are 17 million people in higher education every year so we're not in a terrible rush, but we'd like to find ways to target the Millennial and spread out in both directions," he said.

How does grit show up in the model? I asked this question because one of the factors for success is often character, grit and the ability to persevere after failure. A shiny GPA and a sheltered person who has never been allowed to fail may not succeed over time. Girouard argued that grit shows up in analytics models somewhere. For Upstart students, job offers and internships can show persistence or character. Excelling in college indicates good habits.

The narrative. People looking for funding on Upstart need to tell their stories, explained Girouard. A first person account, GPAs and autobiographies are the centerpiece of Upstart profiles. "The visual part matters a lot. You don't want a picture of you by the pool with an umbrella drink," he said.

What happens if Upstart goes away with an investment with a 10-year horizon? Girouard said Upstart is getting a backup processor so the investment can continue. Regarding payment, Upstart does the work of aggregating payments from funding recipients to investors. Recipients self report what they are earnings and Upstart does an annual reconciliation with tax returns. Those activities could be covered by a backup processor.

How do you invest? To invest in college students on Upstart you need to be an accredited investor under SEC rules. That means you need earn $200,000 a year for the last three years or have a net worth of $1 million. "You're really investing in wages and income, which are stable," said Girouard, who noted that the return target is 8 percent to 9 percent based on a pool of people investments.

Any surprises? Girouard said investors are picking things that interest them over similar schools. Girouard thought school would be the first vector for selection. In other words, Silicon Valley types would invest in tech projects from Stanford students. Instead, tech types would fund sculpture projects. "You find the world is more complicated," he said. Another investor said he would fund every female engineer on Upstart.

New features. Upstart, which launched in November, will add new functionality going forward. For instance, a community approach would highlight what happens to a person after receiving funding. Gamification to encourage mentorship could be deployed. Girouard just might wind up quantifying career karma for those who are good mentors.

On Wednesday, Google took the wraps off the Google Compute Engine. It also moved to support PHP, a popular programming language, with Google App Engine. At Google IO 2013, the search giant had a key track for its cloud platform. Engineers talked persistent disk, redundancy, scaling, storage and pitched developers on spinning up an instance for less than 2 cents an hour.

Also: Google Compute Engine updates: What you need to know

Presentations at Google IO included benchmarks showing better performance of Google Cloud Engine relative to "an unnamed competitor," which was obviously AWS.

The key items for Google's cloud platform go like this:

• There are sub-hour billing increments down to one minute. Google argues that this sub-hour billing will save money on cloud bursting.
• Smaller instances for low workloads.
• Routing and networking knowhow from Google.
• Persistent disk storage.
• A Cloud Datastore service that is designed to be used for big data applications.
• Google's cloud is also offering premium support and engineers pledged to improve the program, which it argues is already "quite responsive," say execs. 

Clearly Google could be dangerous to AWS. Google developers were clearly interested in the cloud platform. Sessions on cloud services were either packed or overflowing.

Meanwhile, the search giant has engineering knowhow, infrastructure at scale, the economics that allow it to accelerate the cloud pricing race to the bottom and credibility with enterprises via its Google Apps services. Google can also launch features at a rapid clip that may rival AWS.

However, the burden of cloud proof for enterprises will clearly rest with Google, which will have a few things to prove. Here are the hurdles Google will face challenging AWS:

1. Support. AWS has been improving its customer support and has layered a bevy of options out for customers.
2. Case studies. AWS has landed major enterprise case studies in major verticals. AWS is also handling more mission critical workloads.
3. Partnerships. Google has promising cloud services, but will need to partner with the likes of SAP and Oracle to really meet enterprise demands. Google's moves so far seem geared to smaller companies.
4. Features. AWS has a blistering pace when it comes to launching new services. By adding things like support for virtual private networks AWS is basically telling companies that it will continually improve. Google will have to prove the same.
5. A customer service ethos. Amazon revolves around the customer whether it's e-commerce, the Kindle usage model or AWS. Google doesn't have that experience working directly with customers. Google will have to prove itself and come up with features such as the AWS Trusted Advisor.
6. Longevity. AWS has been around since 2006 and enterprises are likely to dabble with Google but may be wary of a perpetual beta reputation. Google's enterprise cloud cred will take time to develop.

At Google IO, I caught up with Daniel Powers, director of global sales for the Google Cloud Platform. Powers is a cloud veteran and previously worked at both AWS and IBM. He made the following points, which go a long way to addressing those aforementioned hurdles. 

• Google's enterprise team, which sells Google Apps, Chrome and Chromebooks will also work in Cloud Platform. In other words, Google already has feet on the street and may already have more sales distribution than AWS. 
• The company will be looking to expand its cloud parterships with key players such as SAP, Oracle, Red Hat and Microsoft so there are a bevy of instances and use cases. 
• Google's cloud team met with its customer advisory board to talk roadmaps and features needed. 
• Large enterprises will be serviced by Google's large client unit, which targets Fortune 500 companies. 

Make no mistake, Google can be a threat to AWS, but it has some work ahead. However, if Google positions Cloud Platform in the context of its overall enterprise portfolio the company can close gaps with AWS quickly. For now, it's worth monitoring Google's cloud efforts, which need to develop more but are likely to garner CXO interest.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dell is aiming to knock out two records in one day with the unveiling of two new Precision workstations.

Up first, there is the Dell Precision R7610, advertised to be the world’s most powerful rack workstation.

Promising higher return on investment rates, the R7610 runs on dual Intel E5-2687W 150-watt eight-core processors with expanded memory up to 256GB spread across 16 DIMM slots.

Furthermore, the R7610 supports up to four single wide graphics cards. Dell specified Nvidia's Quadro K2000 and AMD FirePro W5000 mainstream cards as entry-level examples, followed by higher-performance Nvidia Quadro K4000 cards, or up to three double-wide NVIDIA Quadro K5000 cards.

Dell said that support for 512GB of memory and Nvidia GRID with virtualized graphics will be added later this year.

Dell is also spinning a cloud-friendly angle for this piece of hardware through Citrix XenServer 6.1.0 and XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro integrations. These certifications are supposed to enable the resources of a dedicated discrete graphics card to be shared with multiple users across a hosted-shared environment or made available to a single user or virtual machine within a virtualized environment.

The second debut is the the Dell Precision T1700 small form-factor, boasted to be the smallest tower workstation chassis in its class. Dell said it is at least 30 percent smaller than comparable offerings from Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo.

Targeted toward engineering, architecture and finance professionals, the T1700 small form-factor as well as the mini-tower version support Nvidia and AMD professional-grade graphics cards with PCIx x16 Gen 3 slots and expanded ISV certifications.

Running on Intel Xeon and Core processors, Dell also asserted the small form-factor is the only entry-level workstation to sport two front USB 3.0 ports, making it more accessible for external media and accessories.

During a media presentation on Tuesday, Efran Rivera, executive director of the Precision workstation team at Dell outlined some of the market trends that inspired the blueprints for the new Precision workstation line.

This ranges from basic trends enabled by social, mobile and cloud technologies such as a growing global workforce, enhanced software suites, and application bundling.

On a more industry-specific level, Rivera pointed towards greater system demands like 3D simulation and analysis.

But in order to address these realities, Rivera stressed integrations and certifications with industry partners, highlighting those across manufacturing, engineering, entertainment, finance and energy verticals.

The new workstations rely upon the recently introduced Precision Performance Optimizer platform, touted by the PC maker as the first automated workstation software for improving application performance -- especially through automatic performance tuning, system maintenance, and tracking and reporting schemes.

With a starting price tag of $2,179, The Dell Precision R7610 rack workstation will roll out first on May 21.

The Precision T1700 small form-factor and mini-tower models will follow worldwide on June 4. Pricing on the latter two will not be revealed until next month.

However, in Thursday's announcement, Dell noted that these entry-level workstations will offer higher performance for "desktop PC prices." Considering the costs for Dell PCs are typically on the lower end of the spectrum, this hints that the workstations will follow suit.

Images via Dell

SAN FRANCISCO -- The opening morning of Google I/O focused primarily on Android and Chrome, but the spotlight turned more towards business and the enterprise space during afternoon sessions.

One division getting a much-needed update (news and product-wise) is the Google Compute Engine, which first debuted at I/O 2012 last June as an open Infrastructure-as-a-Service for running virtual machines.

For starters, the Compute Engine is ready for an open preview and available for open signups. Essentially, interested customers can head to cloud.google.com and start using Compute Engine later today.

Furthermore, Google is adding Cloud Datastore, a new and fully-managed NoSQL-based database for non-relational data. The standalone service offers automatic scalability, ACID transactions, SQL-like queries, and indexes.

Google is also unveiling a limited preview of PHP for App Engine, which Google senior vice president Urs Hlzle described in a blog post as the most requested feature from its developer base:

We’re bringing one of the most popular web programming languages to App Engine so that you can run open source apps like Wordpress. It also offers deep integration with other parts of Cloud Platform including Google Cloud SQL and Cloud Storage.

We’ve also heard that we need to make building modularized applications on App Engine easier. We are introducing the ability to partition apps into components with separate scaling, deployments, versioning and performance settings.

Other major additions:

• Large persistent disks that support up to 10 terabytes per volume, which Google boasted as 10 times the industry standard
• Advanced Routing, a new feature that creates gateways and VPN servers for building apps that span both local networks and Google's cloud
• ISO 27001:2005 international security certification for Compute Engine, Google App Engine, and Google Cloud Storage

Compute Engine's billing policies have also been slightly revised. The two major changes to know concern sub-hour billing, which charges for instances in one-minute increments with a ten-minute minimum.

Google wants to assure customers this means they won't pay for unused compute minutes.

The second alteration revolves around shared-core instances, which now provide smaller instance shapes for low-intensity workloads.

These changes follow up another price reduction and upgrade in April. To recall, Google cut all GCE prices by four percent and introduced two more supported zones across Europe.

The Bellevue, Wash.-based company raised $45 million in a Series E funding round, bringing the total amount raised by Apptio to $136 million.

Additional funding came from existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Shasta Ventures, and certain accounts managed by T. Rowe Price Associates.

New investors include funds managed by Janus Capital, The Hillman Company, and an unnamed global institutional investor.

Apptio closed its Series D round in March 2012.

Since then, Apptio asserted that revenue has nearly doubled with more than 125 global enterprise customers already signed on for its TBM products. Some of the global corporate customers include Boeing, Royal Bank of Scotland, Safeway, Target and Xerox.

Apptio has also nearly tripled its employee base from 115 in December 2010 to nearly 350 now.

An Amazon cloud partner, plans for the new capital include further investment in the company’s technology platform as well as expansion of Apptio’s international presence -- starting with more development in Western Europe.

Page, who has had voice troubles, took the Google I/O stage to a warm reception. Page's appearance came one day after describing his health maladies via Google Plus. Page took a high road, talked technology advancements and dinged rivals in places for lack of open standards. 

For instance, Page said he was disappointed that Microsoft decided to meld Google's instant messaging protocols and didn't reciprocate. "I'm sad the Web isn't advancing as fast as it should be" due to interoperability and lack of open standards, he said.

Page's big picture technology talk resonated with developers and elevated his profile above the fray, but included a fair share of disses for rivals. One big theme from Page: Technology needs to get out of the way and become an enabler to make life easier.

"Let's get computers out of the way," said Page. He pointed to Google Maps and noted that it "got a lot of things out of the way."

"The opportunities ahead are tremendous," said Page. "We're only at one percent of what's possible. Despite the faster change in the industry we're still moving slow relative to the opportunities we have. We should be building great things that don't exist."

Page added that creating the future isn't a zero sum game and the industry is too focused on battles between vendors. From there, Page opened up the floor to questions from the audience. But Page started out by specifying, "One question per person please. We have 6,000 people."

Many of Page's responses to the questions followed a similar pattern: promoting the need to innovate and defended the company against naysayers questioning new releases.

On other themes:

• Regarding Google Glass, Page said the basic use cases are for photography for him and communcations and navigation could be amazing. However, Glass and its ecosystem will take time to develop. Page sounded like an executive who wasn't going to rush Glass.
• Regarding Android, Page said Google has had a rough relationship with Oracle. "Money is more important to them than any kind of collaboration. That has been very difficult," said Page. "Android is important to the Java ecosystem and we'll get through that. Just not in an ideal way."
• Page stressed the need for education, describing we need "more kids falling in love with math and science" and more people graduating with engineering degrees.
• Google wants its software to understand deeply and organize information and people to solve the world's problems. 

• Page said that the industry needs to add more female developers. "The only answer is that we have to start early and get more young girls and women excited about technology," said Page. "We're trying to help out anyway we can."

Rachel King contributed to this report.

More from Google I/O: I/O 2013: Google's location APIs likely to fuel Google Glass apps | Samsung Galaxy S4 gets Android Nexus treatment for $649 | I/O 2013: Google Plus getting 41 updates | Google aims to deliver tablets to all schools with new education initiative | Google gives digital music another look with Play Music All-Access | Google developer tool releases include new Maps, Games, Google+ APIs | Google I/O by the numbers: 900 million Android activations | Google to use open-source sensors to monitor I/O conference | Techmeme roundup |CNET roundup

See also: Google I/O by the numbers: 900 million Android activations | Google developer tool releases include new Maps, Games, Google+ APIs | I/O 2013: Google's location APIs likely to fuel Google Glass apps

New product and feature announcements were sparse, but executives did reiterate the Internet giant's commitment to education.

Chris Yerga, director of engineering for the Android team, retook the stage to introduce Google Play for Education, touted as an "easy and affordable" strategy to put Android tablets in all schools.

Yerga stressed that many people have argued that Google should make it possible that each student benefit from a tablet, adding that the Mountain View, Calif.-based corporation agrees.

The new store launches this fall. It enables teachers deploy an app or an e-book to all of their students' tablets at once.

As for the general Chrome update, at I/O 2012 in June, Google reported 450 million+ monthly active users on Google Chrome.

Since then, the number has grown to 750 million active users presently.

Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of the Android, Chrome and Apps teams, briefly touched on the recent release of the Chromebook Pixel laptop, glossing over the specs and adding that there will be more news on the high-end laptop later this year.

Following up a demo of how the upcoming second installation of The Hobbit franchise has been developed on the Chrome-based machine, Linus Upson, vice president of Chrome engineering, introduced new changes focused on speed, simplicity and security.

One of the major improvements in the last year has centered around JavaScript, which Upson touted is now 24 percent better on the desktop version and 57 percent better on mobile (including a 2.4 times speed boost in last four weeks alone).

Upson introduced WebP, essentially an upgrade from JPEG files with  31 percent reduction in file size. He added that the benefits are "compelling" saving on bandwidth and power.

As for video, YouTube will be adding support for VP9 later this year, an upgrade from H.264 files being that it offers a 63 percent reduction in file size at 3.0 Mbits per second versus 8.2Mbits.

Building on existing HTML5 auto-complete tools, Chrome now has a simpler form consisting of three steps: checkout, review (billing and shipping info), and submit.

The Chrome team also introduced a new UI framework, which includes the ability for developers to build their own HTML tags in a single compartment that can be shared across mobile and desktop platforms along with a toolkit that can take advantage of native components.

The unnamed framework isn't available to all developers yet, but it will be on display during I/O this week.

Developers, members of the media, and Google fanboys will also get a closer look at the Chromebook Pixel this week as attendees will all be given their own units during the show.

More to come...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Continuing to scroll through the product portfolio at Google I/O on Wednesday, Google Plus is getting a major overhaul 41 new features across Hangouts, Photos and a newly designed "Stream."
With a focus on promoting and organizing content across multiple columns, the Google Plus team described that the new stream is about "design and depth."

In reflection of just how vital hashtags have become to social networking, Google Plus is getting a new feature dubbed "Related hashtags," analyzing the content of a post and Google will designate the appropriate hashtags.

Users will then be able to flip Cards (similar to what is available on Google Now) and see content based on related topics as well as current locations.

These new changes will begin rolling out to all users starting today.

Hangouts, arguably one of the more popular functions on Google's social network, is being broken out into its own mobile app, also launching today.

Much like the Facebook Messenger app as well as Apple's FaceTime and iMessage, it offers Plus members a chance to communicate with more contacts at once away from texting and voice plans.

As for Photos, Google is expanding upon the Instant Upload feature and relying more heavily on the cloud. More pointedly, Google Plus team members remarked, "Your darkroom is now a datacenter."

Many of the updates and additional features for photo editing build upon the Picasa toolset for improving image quality, color, and auto-enhancements.

The update that garnered the most applause from audience goers was an area referred to as "Awesome," which basically taps into the GIF craze with a Vine-like video builder.