"Sorry. I don't update like that."

"I'm sorry, I can only do one thing at a time."

"I guess PowerPoint isn't one of those things."

"Should we just play chopsticks?"

Imagine the above, spoken in Siri's voice, while comparing the iPad side-by-side with the latest Windows 8 tablet from ASUS. (The fact that Microsft chose Siri to mock the iPad is ironic considering that Windows can't currently compete with Siri.)

Then it flashes a price comparison:

Then it closes with the new Windows slogan "Less talking, more doing." That's the dialog of a new 30 second video "Windows 8: Less talking, more doing" that was just posted to Microsoft's Windows YouTube account. 

Where to start?

I think that Microsoft's first point about Windows 8's live tiles is the most salient point of the bunch. As I've said here many times before, iOS' grid of icons UI hasn't changed since the original iPhone came out in 2007 and it's stale as hell. Apple needs to overhaul the iOS springboard with multiple-sized, live-updating widgets. What was revolutionary five years ago has turned into a useless and kludgy interface. Case closed. 

The spot's second jab, about being able to see two apps at once on Windows 8, is legitimate, but disingenuous. While it can't display two apps simultaneously, iOS has had multitasking since iOS 4 in 2010. Ok, so it's not real desktop class multitasking, but the feature is available on iOS, you just can't view two apps simultaneously on the iPad. Deal breaker? Hardly. 

Microsoft's third point about iOS not having PowerPoint is total crap. While true, it's only because Microsoft hasn't released Office for iOS so that it give Surface a perceived advantage. It's no different than Apple not releasing Keynote for Windows. But Keynote is substantially better than PowerPoint (on the desktop and on the tablet) and it opens .PPT files so the argument is bogus. I wouldn't use PowerPoint for iOS if Microsoft offered it for free tomorrow. Microsoft would get more credibility if it mentioned Word and Excel, which are better than Pages and Numbers.

And let's not forget that the ASUS VivoTab Smart doesn't include PowerPoint, it's an additional purchase. Office 2010 costs $100-$400 more (depending on your license), Office 2013 will set you back $140-$400 and Office 365 costs $100 per year. 

The video's main argument is on price. It quotes the 64GB iPad at $699 and the ASUS VivoTab Smart 64GB at $449, both accurate points. However, the video neglects to mention that you can purchase a 16GB iPad for $499 (and a 16GB iPad mini for $329), so you only showing the $700 iPad is misleading.

Microsoft's iPad comparison website has a few legitimate points (microHDMI and microSD ports, better printing options, multiple user accounts), but a lot can inferred from the features that it omits (like unit sales, installed base, market share, etc.)

Here's the video embed, so you can judge for yourself:

What's your take on the MS spot and on Surface in general?

Update: Some of the initial reviews of the VivoTab hardware on Amazon are pretty scathing.

Organizations are leaning heavy on their IT experts to deliver innovation that will open up markets and better understand customer trends. But this isn't happening yet. CIOs' glum attitudes about their employers' capacity to innovate were captured in a new survey by Harvey Nash USA.

Perhaps it's because they're too busy trying to keep the lights on to dive into the innovation side as much as they would like. Or perhaps the fact that only 30% received raises in the past year -- while 60% still are still experiencing pay freezes -- is adding to the glum.

The survey also finds CIOs are extremely concerned about staffing skills, and acknowledge that many parts of their businesses outside of IT are taking the reins of technology purchases. 

The vast majority, 93%, say retention of talent is a concern. For example, 34% say they are short on big data skills. The most sought-after skills include enterprise architects (42%) and business analysts (38%). 

More CIOs are relying on contract IT labor. Te survey finds that 14% of CIOs now have more than half their staff on flexible contracts, compared to 9% last year.

CIOs say they are losing more direct control of their technology vision and sharing it with other departments. Forty-three percent of CIOs say there is a degree of shared ownership of digital technology between the IT and marketing teams. A growing number of CIOs see more than 10% of their budgets controlled outside of the IT department: 38% today, compared to 34% in 2012 and 26% in 2011.

Big investment areas this year include cloud (63%), mobility (62%) and collaboration (46%).

A couple of interesting quotes to come out of the study:

"Core skills are shifting every day; advanced statistics, data visualization and DevOps are all recent requirements and in short supply. Finding people who are curious, multi-skilled, and can operate effectively in two or three related disciplines is a key part of bringing teams together and bridging silos."

- Richard McLaren, Managing Director, Data and Sciences, Mi9

"With big changes in how we must platform core capabilities being driven primarily by cloud and packaged cloud apps, we are faced now with fundamental decisions that feel more like buying services than the traditional orientation of 'building' capabilities. This 'shift' also poses a huge talent and skills challenge—again, away from build and run, towards internal consulting and complex vendor management."

- Rob Cain, CIO Enabling Functions, The Coca-Cola Company

As a professional naval architect, I often specify Caterpillar marine diesel engines for inclusion in new and modified ships. This week we see Caterpillar announced their new Cat B15 Android smartphone that brings a rugged designed Android smartphone to consumers at a very reasonable price.

I have seen prices for enterprise, field-focused rugged devices appear at double or more of the consumer price so I have to admit I was a bit shocked by the low $349.99 SIM unlocked price of the B15. Caterpillar has a couple previous models of rugged phones, but this new B15 is running Android Jelly Bean with a 4 inch display, ability to withstand a 5.9 foot drop and water submergence of 3.2 feet for 30 minutes.

Check out the CNET.com hands-on with the B15.

The Cat B15 works on GSM networks around the world, including AT&T and T-Mobile in the US. The device is protected by an aluminum and shock absorbent rubber shell, giving it the IP67 rating. Specifications include:

• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
• MediaTek MT6577 Dual 1GHz Cortex(TM)-A9
• Wireless bands: Quad-band GSM and Tri-Band 3G (no T-Mobile 1700 MHz)
• 4 inch WVGA display with Gorilla glass
• 4GB internal storage and 1GB RAM with microSD expansion support
• 5 megapixel camera and VGA front facing camera
• Dimensions of 149.95 x 125 x 69.5mm and 170 grams

The Cat B15 is designed for field workers and active lifestyle folks (snowboarders, mountain bikers, etc.). With decent specs and a price competitive to what we see with Google Nexus devices, this could be quite popular for those who need a rugged solution.

According to data from the Brazilian Ministry of Communications, it is expected that the number of mobile phone lines able to make payments will reach 130 million in two years' time. Currently, there are approximately 260 million mobile phone lines in operation across the country.

The Brazilian government is interested in facilitating the growth of "mobile wallet" services to provide access to banking to people on lower incomes and promote financial inclusion - something along the lines of what is already being done in African countries such as Kenya for quite some time. And, of course, foster a model that could bring endless business opportunities to existing and new financial services players.

The Brazilian Central Bank (BC) will have 180 days to produce the practical regulation roadmap and establish how the existing mobile payment providers will adhere to the framework. BC representatives have been quoted in the Brazilian press as saying that one of the main concerns include interoperability - it is crucial that all telcos and banks are able to provide services based on a common set of standards.

According to BC bosses, it is expected that m-payments will initially be mainly focused on transfers of cash between users of the service and then move on to retail transactions. At that stage, the government may even be a user of the technology - paying benefits via the system, for example.

As rules become clearer for m-payments, it is expected that large organizations such as banks will leverage on their existing mobile services to provide options to those without bank accounts - seems like a perfect opportunity to attract customers that may end up taking up more sophisticated products in future.

But it shouldn't take long for other players to join in the party. A case in point is the launch of Zuum, the m-payments offering of Telefónica-MasterCard's joint venture Mobile Financial Service. The product is focused on those without bank accounts and has a target to intermediate up to 600,000 transactions by the end of 2013.  

The service will be available from november and will be delivered in partnership with Vivo - the largest mobile phone provider in Brazil - given the telco's penetration amongst consumers of lower incomes. Users will be able to pay bills and transfer up to R$ 2,700 ($1,317) per month. 

When vendors craft the messages they wish to impart to attendees at user conferences it is not something taken lightly. There are basically four kinds of conference tones that can be taken by the vendors:

1. celebratory self-promotion re: past product introductions with no real net new news (50% of events)
2. lots of hype regarding several incremental enhancements to the product line (30% of events)
3. big technical changes to the product line (10% of events)
4. painting a vision of where they will take their customers into the future (10% of events)

Frankly, I really try to avoid conferences of the backslapping, self-congratulatory tone of the first type. All that rah-rah with no additional substance is a waste of time for me.  I really don't care much for conferences that dwell on lots of minor incrementalism either (the second type). Spending a couple of days to learn about some new user interface improvement to a Fixed Asset application is, well, kind of boring.  Sometimes the big technical changes to the product line (the third type) get my attention as I often wonder how the vendor is going to bring the installed base along for the ride.  I sometimes enjoy those conferences as the technology leaders in that firm often share fascinating perspectives about where they see the future of the technology market moving.  But, this third type of event is very technology (not business) focused and, sometimes their “big” changes get lost on the business users in attendance.

The conference you really want to attend is one where a vendor is painting a very fascinating vision of where they are taking clients into the future (the fourth type). The keynote speakers will describe “the afterlife” for those customers who join them on this adventure. These speakers are often passionate about the power of the new technologies that their firm and other technology firms are introducing. They can articulate realities that will soon be visited upon businesses across the globe. And they will challenge you to challenge your firm's leadership into preparing for an amazing and, hopefully, profitable change.

In the very best conferences there is a sequence to how this afterlife story is revealed. A visionary will describe what the future of business will look like. They will explain the different forces converging simultaneously on your firm, the technology space and competition that will predicate a significant change in the business technology ecosystem. The second speaker will describe both the opportunities available to those early adopters of the technology and the consequences to the laggards who refuse to adopt them or delay the adoption beyond a reasonable timeframe. This speaker creates a burning platform for change and puts hard economic consequences in front of the attendees so that they can more clearly understand the implications for their firm. The third speaker will layout the glide path which companies must follow to rapidly and fully take advantage of the new technology and the business results that it will help deliver.

This week, SAP had a fourth type of opportunity but, in my opinion, kind of flubbed the delivery of the message. They wanted to communicate a fourth level story to attendees but seemed to fall into a third level type of delivery. That is, they got all too excited about their new technology and forgot to explain the destination, journey and burning platform parts of the story.

So, I will attempt to fill in the gaps with what you should have heard there. Here goes:

The real story should have been around how different competition will be for SAP’s customers now and going forward. Businesses, large and small, will want to tap into vast amounts of internal and externally produced information to create competitive insights never possible with the mostly internally focused ERP data that predominates the contents of the corporate data centers today. SAP offered up several examples at the event showing how customers and others are capable of processing hundreds of millions of point-of-sale transactions in sub-second time. They showed how it is possible for small startup companies, small to midsize businesses and large enterprises to utilize new tools like its HANA analytics capabilities. This aspect of HANA is cloud based and uses massively parallel, in-memory computing.  

It is the power of analytics, specifically analytic applications that use BOTH internal and external data, which permits companies to gain insights into product usage, customer consumption data, competitor activity, social sentiment, etc. The insights into these kinds of questions give businesses outsized opportunities to widen their profit margins, extend their market share and otherwise disrupt the economic stability and underpinnings of their competitors. It is for this powerful, economic and timely reason that customers of SAP must change to a more analytic driven business model. ERP data alone will not be the catalyst for the second generation of business and process excellence. Rather, as computing has evolved to a utility computing model, internally based transaction systems such as ERP software are also becoming utility-like in their scope and purpose. The future of application software has moved to the analytics world and SAP's customers must make that move and move quickly.

It is this sense of urgency and focus around a different business decision-making model that is the burning platform SAP should have discussed more completely at Sapphire 2013. Second, SAP should have laid out a clear roadmap on how businesses will make this transition to a more analytically driven firm. I believe that roadmap would've included significant discussion around rapid change in the IT organization and how software is deployed for many organizations.

SAP has been working on a strategy for several years now to enable all of their customers to move to cloud computing platforms. Through a variety of initiatives, they have attempted to make the transition from on-premises applications and solutions to cloud-based products as painless as possible for their installed base. This part of the story though is merely an aspect of the journey for SAP's customers yet it was a considerable part of the conversation at this year's conference.

To this point, SAP’s  ECC product line (the Enterprise suite of products nee R/3) can now run on cloud environments. The transport mechanism for this is a HANA cloud platform that allows the software’s data calls to go through HANA instead of a relational data base. RDBMS technology will still be used as a persistent store for data but the real power of in-memory processing, particularly for I/O intensive functions (e.g., optimization and algorithmic programs), will supercharge the software ownership experience for these customers.

This ECC product can now be moved, relatively painlessly, to a private cloud system, a public cloud like Amazon’s AWS or to SAP’s HANA cloud center.

The SAP center, the subject of a press conference two weeks ago, contains servers, configuration tools, etc. to run essentially all of SAP’s current ECC customer base. Known internally as the petabyte farm, this center has rows of server racks that permit massively parallel computing via 200+ servers and 200+ terabyte memory access. Sub-second speed for analytics, financial statement generation, optimization programs, etc. is now possible.

So, for ECC customers, there are fast, low cost options to get your traditional ERP solution into the cloud and to take advantage of the cloud analytics your company will need so that it can maintain competitive parity or gain competitive advantage.  Don’t move and your firm will still be trying to milk a few insights, slowly, from its ERP-only data. Laggards won’t win this scenario.

Other SAP customers include acquired SuccessFactors and Ariba customers as well as SAP product lines of BusinessOne, All-in-One and Business ByDesign. SuccessFactors, Ariba and Business ByDesign have been cloud solutions for a long time and support multi-tenancy. These products will now run on the HANA cloud hardware and may see additional architectural changes to bring them more in line with the HANA cloud platform. The remaining products (All-in-One, BusinessOne) can also run in the HANA cloud environment.  Hosted cloud (single-tenant) solutions of these products have existed for years.

In effect, all of the SAP product lines now are cloud enabled but some differences do exist.  These include:

• Not all product lines are multi-tenant and some may never go this way. SAP executives expressed no real product demand to make their ECC suite multi-tenant. 
• Partners may host some solutions. Third party cloud provisioners may host the HANA cloud environment and some big systems integrators may do so while also creating additional cloud add-on applications for this new environment. SAP is, obviously, offering their HANA environment, too.
• A number of new, small, entrepreneurs (approx. 400) have built applications on HANA cloud platform technology. Many of these firms created entire solutions in under 3 weeks and have never had an alternate platform.

The bottom line in all of this is:

• SAP customers need to get off the non-cloud, on-premises versions of their ERP software soon.  The cost to maintain this bygone computing model has reached the end of its useful life for many firms.
• These customers need to have their ERP data AND third party data accessible via in-memory analytic tools to gain the operational insights that will help them remain competitively relevant and vibrant. Keeping ERP data on fixed disk systems does not provide the speed and reaction that a modern business needs.
• Business insights gleaned from internal ERP data are facing a diminishing benefits curve. Better, more impactful insights can originate from marrying internal with external data.
• Traditional ERP reporting tools and architectures were appropriate for smaller volumes of data. To manage the data from machines, video, social networks, etc. a different technology environment is mandated.  Trying to manipulate this big data with ERP data on existing on-premises, traditional IT will not work (or work well).
• Competition will drive all SAP customers to move to cloud and in-memory solutions relatively soon. It is better to engage in the planning process for this now than find out that a competitor is clocking your firm with fast, nimble market insights your company cannot yet see.  The planning must begin now.

Disclosure: SAP picked up some of my travel and lodging costs for Sapphire.

You may have read the news that several people have recently departed HTC, either on their own or on HTC's terms, but I think the proclamations that HTC is done are a bit premature at this time. There are still many great people at HTC and the HTC One is a fantastic product that I personally highly recommend and have purchased for myself.

As you know HTC has seen regularly falling financials for over a year and when people see this type of performance they usually expect changes in leadership and strategy. HTC has wonderful employees and people that I generally like so while it is very painful to see some of them depart, it is not unexpected to see leadership changes with such financial results. We would actually expect it from a company who is trying to get back on track.

We don't know about the inner workings of HTC and maybe there are serious internal conflicts and issues causing these recent departures. I still know many great people working at HTC and hope they all continue to work to refine and perfect devices like the HTC One. I am getting questions from people asking if they should return their HTC One with these leadership changes and I can't tell you what to do, but I am keeping my device since it is still great even without the awesome people I know working at the company.

HTC may be making these changes in marketing, some in product departments, to change things up. These changes may including bringing most of the work back to Taiwan and focusing on the Asian market, which is actually a huge market that could sustain a company like HTC without US and worldwide sales on a smaller scale than what we see now. HTC may also have a new marketing strategy in mind and be looking to focus that message from their home country. 2013 will be a defining year from HTC. I wish all of those who recently departed the best and know that with their talents and energy they all will succeed.

Related ZDNet HTC One articles

• T-Mobile HTC One: World's best smartphone on US best value major carrier
• HTC One review
• Improve smartphone photos with native editing tools (gallery)
• Mophie Juice Pack for HTC One provides protection and 2,500mAh: Gallery
• HTC One Car Kit brings its sleek design and functionality to the road: Review

While she maintained much of the optimistic rhetoric during the quarterly conference call on Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman didn’t mince words when it came to admitting HP needs to continue working harder.

Pointing towards recent news surrounding Project Moonshot and converged infrastructures, Whitman remarked these will form the “backbone of tomorrow’s cloud.”

See also: HP's Whitman reiterates 'multi-year journey' amid Q2 revenue miss

But for the moment, she described that the problem is balancing the "power of the past" with the "power of the future" for every enterprise unit from servers to storage.

According to HP's second quarter earnings report, its enterprise services (application and business services along with IT outsourcing) revenue declined by eight percent annually while the enterprise group overall was down by 10 percent.

The latter department covers networking, business critical systems, technology services, storage, and industry standard servers revenue.

In regards to these figures, HP’s chief financial officer Cathie Lesjak admitted that the quarter was “not what we expected it to be.”

But the converged infrastructures unit was a bright spot and was up 48 percent up year-over-year.

Whitman described the converged infrastructure market as "highly competitive" with many other tech stalwarts competing for share.

"For me, this all comes down to our willingness to win, and we are committed to winning," Whitman declared.

Without specifying more details nor a roadmap, Whitman noted that HP leaders are working on "revamping business models" to give its sales teams more tools and agility to adjust pricing.

Whitman hinted we'll hear more about these particular efforts later this year.

Today's buy is Thumb Labs, a New York City startup focusing on mobile app design and development. Much like the Yahoo-Tumblr merger earlier this week, Thumb Labs offers further fodder for the validity and strength of New York's startup scene.

Thumb Labs co-founders Rich Kern and Jared Verdi confirmed the news on their website on Wednesday.

The pair explained further that they have already been working closely with another recent Adobe purchase: Behance, an online social media platform for creative professionals to showcase and share their work.

It looks like Thumb Labs resources (talent and products) will be merged with the unit for collective work under Adobe's Creative Cloud software suite.

Here's more from Kern and Verdi:

Like many working in the tech industry, we have come to rely on Adobe products on a daily basis, and have closely followed their evolution throughout the years. With the announcements at Adobe MAX earlier this month, and the launch of the Creative Cloud, it is clear that this is an exciting time at the company. We are looking forward to contributing to these efforts, as Behance's vibrant community becomes more deeply integrated into Adobe's tools.

Thumb Labs will continue to fulfill "any existing obligations" over the next few weeks. Although an exact end date has not been provided, the co-founders acknowledged that Thumb Labs will halt all independent services soon.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

On May 7, Microsoft rolled out a YouTube app for Windows Phone 8 that the company developed itself. On May 15, Google sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist letter about that app, noting it violated some of the YouTube terms of service, including not displaying ads and allowing users to download content from the app. Google requested that Microsoft either block or pull the YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store by today, May 22.

Microsoft decided to meet Google part way. The company is rolling out, as of 4 pm ET/1 pm PT on May 22, an updated version of its YouTube app for Windows Phone that disables video downloads, but which still doesn't display ads. 

Windows Phone users who've already downloaded the Microsoft YouTube app will lose the video download functionality if and when they apply the update. Those who haven't yet downloaded the app will get the version without the video downloading capability once they grab the app.

A Microsoft spokesperson sent the following statement when I asked about its plans for the app around today's Google-imposed deadline:

“Microsoft updated the Windows Phone YouTube app to address the restricted video and offline video access concerns voiced by Google last week. We have been in contact with Google and continue to believe that our two companies can work together to hone an app that benefits our mutual customers, partners and content providers. We’re earning new customers every day, with IDC reporting recently that Windows Phone posted the largest year-over-year gain among leading operating systems. We look forward to working with Google to maintain a great YouTube experience for the growing number of people who rely on both of our respective products.”

I've reached out to Google for comment on Microsoft's actions. No word back so far.

As a happy Windows Phone user, I can see both Google's and Microsoft's sides in this battle. I want more Windows Phone apps, but I can't blame developers for hesitating to commit time and resources to a platform which is now No. 3 in marketshare, but a very distant No. 3.

Microsoft officials have complained repeatedly and consistently that Google won't provide them with access to necessary application programming interfaces that would allow Microsoft to build a YouTube app for Windows Phone that would serve ads. Microsoft built its YouTube app for Windows Phone with an existing and public YouTube API, but not one that provides ad support.

But Google doesn't allow other phone platform makers, including Apple, BlackBerry and now, Microsoft, to build YouTube apps for their phones. Instead, Google is the one that builds and maintains these native apps.

Google officials have made it clear they aren't interested in supporting Windows 8 or Windows Phone with many Google-developed applications. The implication, at least on the Windows Phone side, is its low market share (around three percent) makes the platform not worth its while to build and support with a native app. Google did build a native YouTube app for Xbox with Microsoft's help, seemingly because of Microsoft's strong share in the gaming console space.

Google has suggested that Windows Phone and BlackBerry users who want to access YouTube do so by going through the mobile YouTube site -- which a Google spokesperson previously said serves up display search and in-stream video ads. (An aside: I don't see these ads on my Windows Phone 8 using IE10, but Google has said they exist.)

Is Google obligated to provide Microsoft with access to its APIs so it can build a YouTube app that complies with its terms of service? I'd argue no, but I'd also point out that Google's CEO recently dinged Microsoft for withholding access to its messaging APIs. Two can play the closed API game. The difference is, Google officials want to claim they are completely open. Microsoft officials don't make that claim.

So now what? Is Google going to sue Microsoft over this? No word. If it does, it could end up giving Microsoft more fodder for its Scroogled Google-bashing campaign -- if not grist for some kind of antitrust complaint, I'd think.

I'm not an app person on my mobile devices. I often find I prefer to access sites like YouTube, Facebook, New York Times and others through my browser rather than through a dedicated app. But what about you, other Windows Phone users? 

Investors had high expectations for Workday, and it delivered.

The Pleasanton, Calif.-based company, which sells cloud-based enterprise resource planning ("ERP") software, reported first quarter 2014 losses per share of $0.15 on revenue of $91.6 million, handily beating expectations of $0.18 losses per share on revenue of $87 million.

Shares (WDAY) were up slightly in after-hours trading.

That's a total revenue increase of 61 percent over the same period a year ago. Subscription revenues were $68.4 million, an increase of 85 percent from same period a year ago.

More numbers to know for the quarter ended April 30, 2013:

• Operating loss, non-GAAP: $24.5 million (same period last year: $18.5 million)
• Operating cash flows: $17.3 million
• Free cash flows: $15.3 million
• Cash and equivalents: $805.8 million

Chief financial officer Mark Peek said he was "very pleased" with the quarter. Co-founder and co-CEO Aneel Bhusri said the company is seeing "increased customer demand" for its wares.

Workday offered Q2 guidance of revenues between $97 million and $101 million, for growth of 55 to 61 percent. It also predicted that it would end the fiscal year with revenues between $425 million and $440 million, representing growth of between 75 and 80 percent.

The company directly competes with SAP and Oracle, and has managed to gain a significant lead over them by embracing software-as-a-service delivery of its payroll, financial management and human capital management software, rather than the on-premise approach on which those more established companies built their names. Workday has spent freely on research and development in pursuit of mobility and big data opportunities.

Workday made its initial public offering in October 2012, and has racked up losses ever since, even as the value of its shares has more than doubled, from $28 to $68. The company continues to indicate to investors that it's playing for the long term, and today's results indicate that it's headed in the right direction.

JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy wrote this week in a note to investors:

We spoke with a couple of contacts in the Workday ecosystem and walk away with consistent conviction in the company's multi-year growth opportunity. The most important feedback is that WDAY is outpacing the entire HR industry with its pace of product development. A key partner stated that he has never seen one product stay ahead of the market and with less competition for as long as Workday has. The rapid pace of development causes our contacts to believe that WDAY will eventually close the functionality gap with software mega vendors, even in Financials.

They seem to agree: last month, Lone Pine Capital significantly increased its share of ownership of Workday to 9.35 percent, making the hedge fund its fifth-largest shareholder.

On the subsequent investor's call, Bhusri said that Workday now has 450 customers and is engaged in "heavy investment in mobile technologies." He also said that the financials market "dwarfs" the business intelligence and recruiting markets, and that BI was especially hard to predict because "customers are still understanding what big data is."

Peek focused on the value of the company's escalating subscriptions over the long run. "Once we win a customer, we keep a customer for years beyond the initial subscription period," he said.

Though the company is "mindful of the challenging macroeconomic environment and the muted [estimates] on IT spending," Peek said that Workday is focused on "market expansion, continued product innovation and growth" beyond its 1,950 employees.

"We believe that continued investment in our applications will be a key driver for growth," he said.

"The world is moving to the cloud, there's no doubt about it," Bhusri added. "We're the youngest vendor with the most mature solution."

Leading up to Hewlett-Packard's second quarter earnings report after the bell on Wednesday, analysts were expecting a mixed bag.

They got one.

The tech giant reported second quarter earnings of $1.1 billion, or 55 cents per share (statement). Non-GAAP earnings were 87 cents per share on a revenue of $27.6 billion.

Wall Street was expecting earnings of 81 cents a share on revenue of $28.08 billion for the second quarter.

Out of the six core segments highlighted in the second quarter report, only the software group posted a positive revenue mark as the support team was up by 12 percent annually.

The rest of the software unit along with the remaining five segments all dropped in revenue on an annual basis.

CEO Meg Whitman highlighted the better-than-expected earnings per share stat in prepared remarks:

We beat the upper end of our non-GAAP diluted EPS outlook for the quarter by $0.05 per share, driven by better than expected performance in Enterprise Services and Printing, coupled with the accelerated capture of restructuring savings and improvement in our operations.

As far as the revenue miss (and the rest of the company) goes, Whitman reiterated that HP is still in the midst of a "a multi-year journey," adding that she feels good about the rest of the year. She continued that HP is "on track to deliver on our fiscal 2013 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share outlook."

For the outlook, Wall Street predicted that HP will project a weaker third quarter sequentially with sales of $27.78 billion.

HP settled on a third quarter earnings guidance range of 84 to 87 cents per share.

For fiscal 2013, HP kept its previous earnings guidance range of $3.50 to $3.60 per share.

Check back for more on HP's second quarter after today's conference call with analysts and investors at 2PM PT/5PM ET.

Screenshot via HP Investor Relations

After a long string of high profile attacks on accounts held by government and news agencies, Twitter is finally stepping up its game.

The microblogging business is adding the option for two-factor authentication. It's quite similar to the models employed by Google and Facebook.

Twitter users can simply access their security settings to find the new feature and opt-in to require a verification code to be sent via SMS each time they sign in.

Jim O'Leary from Twitter's product security team acknowledged in a blog post on Wednesday that "even with this new security option turned on, it’s still important for you to use a strong password and follow the rest of our advice for keeping your account secure."

Nevertheless, it's a worthy (and arguably necessary) improvement for the social network.

Some of the more recent and widely-reported attacks have hit targets ranging from The White House to the Associated Press to more than 250,000 users at large earlier this year.

At the end of April, the San Francisco-based private company penned a memo to news media outlets warning that such cyber attacks would continue.

In regards to the media, Twitter added at the time that most of the security breaches appeared to be "spear phishing attacks" targeting corporate email. 

For a closer look at Twitter's new security feature, check out the promo clip below:

Image via The Official Twitter Blog

Even with Google I/O over, the Internet giant continues to update a number of its products with minor tweaks and enhancements this week.

For the business set, some of the more notable upgrades have to do with Drive and Analytics.

The Android version of Drive, in particular, is being updated with improvements for making it easier to create and access documents while on-the-go.

This includes being able to "scan" documents by snapping photos of them, which are then automatically saved as PDF files.

Google software engineer Denis Teplyashin suggested in a blog post on Wednesday this could also come in handy for keeping track of business cards. Despite apps such as Bump on the market, there has yet to be a suitable replacement for calling cards.

Android users can also adjust fonts in spreadsheets and print directly from the app through any cloud ready-printer.

As for Analytics, Google is adding new templates targeted towards retail and marketing professionals looking to keep better track of goals regarding sales and in-store visits.

Google Analytics product manager Stefan F. Schnabl explained further in a separate blog post that these updates are meant to make it easier to measure customer behavior and evaluate business performance:

For example, if purchases are your key objective, Ecommerce tracking allows you to measure sales performance. Yet sales are just one possible goal—there are many other important interactions that may be valuable to your business, such as media plays, social connections, newsletter sign-ups, a minimum purchase value, or the amount of time spent on a screen. Using Goals, you can measure these types of engagement activities and track how these interactions help you to meet your larger business objectives.

More details about setting up and using the new Goals templates are available on the Google Analytics blog now.

Screenshots via Google

Linux. From its original concept way back in 1991, to its near world domination in 2013, Linux has travelled far as an operating system and as a symbol of freedom.

You can now find Linux on every type of hardware from mainframes to mid-range servers to desktops to tablets to cell phones and down to miniature computing devices such as the Arduino. There's really no limit to what Linux can do or has done for technology.

Its positive impact on computing cannot be denied.

But its positive attributes were ignored by mainstream companies for many years no matter how loudly we converts sang its praises and weathered its criticisms.

I heard, and ignored, every possible criticism and threat launched at me over my obsession with Linux. I started the local Linux User's Group in spite of opposition from the local UNIX Special Interest Group (SIG), whose leader was less than thrilled that I would have the audacity to start such a group, when clearly Linux fans should be part of his group. No thanks. I didn't buy it then and I still don't.

Linux is different.

In the beginning, it was a reactive alternative to DOS, Windows, and all the commercial UNIX flavors—more of a, "Byte me, losers, I use Linux and there's nothing you can do about it" kind of thing. Its use was a reaction to the cookie-cutter, dronism of the day. I liked it at first because it made people mad and was subversive but I also liked it because it was cool.

Once I stopped my experimentation and rogue installations, including dual booting my corporate desktop system, I began shell scripting and creating automated processes. I also actually programmed my own Internet daemon and created my own distribution that began my technology writing career: Linux as a Windows Terminal Server Client (Sys Admin Magazine, November 2002).

The opposition began to subside once I saw increased corporate uptake for server farms, web services, hosting, and the virtualization explosion. Of course, no one remembered giving me excrement about how my work with Linux was pointless. Many of the original naysayers were now converts or, if you can believe it, experts who were into Linux from the early days. Yeah, right.

It doesn't matter now because we got what we wanted: mass Linux adoption. We did want that didn't we?

Somehow, though, the taste of victory was bittersweet, as I suppose it always is. I mean, we did want mass adoption and now that we have it, Linux, for me, has lost a bit of its original luster. But frankly, all operating systems have lost their luster. They don't hold the same fun that they once did nor do they hold my attention like they did back then. I seem to be growing weary of the next version and newest release of this or that distribution. It's a strange feeling because there was a time when I installed every new version of SUSE, Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Debian that hit the FTP servers.

No one argues anymore when you say that you're going to install a Linux system. No one threatens your job or your life if you dare put that "niche" operating system on the network. It's what we worked for—fought for—and got.

My undocumented, unapproved, and unwelcomed installations were not for naught. They meant something. They were good. My campaigning and outright soliciting for Linux had value. My initial cross-platform solution and all of my subsequent writings, including those for Linux Magazine, Linux Pro Magazine, ServerWatch, and many others, have great value. It's all part of history. My history. Linux history.

It's been years since I've heard the pretentious ring of, "Why don't you just do that on Windows?" It's been years since I've had to justify my right to use Linux. And it's even been a few years since the last time I had to correct someone's mispronunciation of Linux.

If you've gotten the feeling that I'm the type of person who must react against something for his motivation, you're correct. I need something to push against, something to argue about, and a cause to fight for. Linux was that last stand. I defended it against the Romulans and Philistines who came from every direction to oppose its use.

Now our blades have been beaten into blade enclosures. 

I've given up on the idea that Linux will ever make any inroads into the desktop OS market. I'm actually OK with that. As a server operating system, as a phone operating system, as a tablet operating system, and as a personal legacy, I have accomplished—along with thousands of others—what I set out to achieve all those years ago: Linux in the mainstream.

I have to thank Linus Torvalds for years of tormented joy. His "hobby" ended up being a life's work for myself and so many others. Eighteen years ago, I was just discovering the wonderous world of Linux and had little idea that it would bring me as far as it has.

I still love Linux. I still work with it every day. It is still very much a passion and a pursuit. But I no longer have to convince anyone of its features, stability, customizability, or flexibility as an operating system. I no longer have to offer it apologetically in tech circles nor do I have to wince just after saying Linux out loud around a group of Windows system administrators.

I can freely explore cross platform solutions and interoperability all I want, for as long as I wish, knowing that I will have a large, interested audience. It feels good, in a way, to be able to wear a Linux T-shirt without the feeling that I need to also wear those glasses that allow you to see who's behind you.

It's odd how the tides have changed. Once upon a time, when I wrote about Linux as an alternative, the comments were as rancid as they are now when I laud Windows or a Microsoft technology.

Linux is mainstream now and I have to get used to that. Perhaps Windows is the new Linux and I can embark on the pursuit of chasing Windows technologies and developing oddball and cool custom solutions on it. Maybe there's hope for me yet.

What do you think of mainstream Linux? Do you think it's replacing Windows as a mainstream OS or do you think they can survive, side-by-side in harmony? Talk back and let me know.

Big Data and analytics are powerful, and the technologies around them are exciting. But if they can only be harnessed by highly-paid specialists, then they haven't fully evolved. We need data and analytics technologies, but we shouldn't need expensive, scarce, Shaman practitioners to use them. More than data scientists, we need tools that empower knowledge workers to do Big Data analytics on their own.

Is crossing over possible?
People can certainly obtain the literacy necessary to carry out analytics on Big Data.  Business people can be made capable of working with the data, and developers who are not currently analytics-focused can be made capable of collecting the data and performing analytics in their code.

Of course, certain people can be trained to become very highly-skilled specialists, but that would be the exception more than the rule, and that's OK.  We don't need people to retool en masse into scientists, we need them to obtain a competency.

Beyond the hype
The term "data scientist" is over-hyped.  But in fairness, so are the terms "Big Data" and "analytics," and yet these are still quite valid areas of specialization.  The problem with the term "data scientist" goes beyond the hype; there's an attitude and adversarial tone to the term. This tone discourages people from obtaining analytics competency, as it transmits an implicit message that the work must be outsourced to highly-trained individuals.  Aside from the hype, it's pretension and snobbery that make "data scientist" an unhelpful term.

Dilution of the term
There a risk that many technologists will become "data scientists" in the name of finding a better gig, in exactly the same way that happened with other lofty titles in technology ("architect," for example).  Title inflation happens in any field, but in the tech field, terms and titles are in any case viewed as metaphors, more than literal descriptions.  Tech folks tend to take poetic license with titles, and those who don't do so find themselves at a disadvantage compared to those who do.

It's the tooling, stupid
Analytics in general, and Big Data specifically, have terribly immature tooling compared to mainstream relational database and BI products.  That being the case, it's no wonder that only "scientists" can get real work done.  These tools were built for laboratory use, not business use.

Just as self-service BI is in vogue (and is legitimately quite powerful) today, so too should self-service Big Data and predictive analytics be a market phenomenon.  Once it is, people with the skills that we classify under data science today will still have an important role, but it won't be nearly so central as it is now.

Data literacy, and what it could look like
It won't come as a surprise that I believe a scenario where we have more data literacy -- and business and tech people who are "bilingual" -- to be the one that will most successfully solve the labor issues we face.  Data science is about having a command of both data technology and business domain expertise.  If the technology becomes simple, and business people become more adept with it, then business users can be bona fide analytics professionals.

If I had my druthers, a perfect business analytics wonk would be a sales, marketing or planning professional who was also a tech power user, had a command of statistics, knew Excel very well and could do some light programming.  But that's an ideal…and in order for analytics technology to take off, we shouldn't need people to fit this ideal in order to be productive Big Data analysts.

Data science algorithms?
Implicit in the definition of data scientist is possession of business intuition and instinct that mere algorithms can't replace.  If you accept that the term is legitimate, then you accept that a combination of human intelligence and technology expertise is what makes someone an authentic data scientist.  While I'm not a huge fan of the term "data scientist," I do feel the experience of the business user and her non-algorithmic intimacy with the semantics of the data is very important.

What we will need, and what we won't
Expertise in data exploration and visualization tools, programming/developer skills, an understanding of statistics, and high-level database design skills will remain important, regardless of whether the data scientist role remains in vogue.  Equally important will be a deep understanding of the business, and the data sources that measure its activity and outcomes.

The term "data scientist" will subside and may well sound dated five years from now.  The skills will become more commonplace and commoditized.  When that happens, the real boom will begin, because the technology will become widely adopted and thus more useful.  But for the relatively small club of people clinging to a data scientist identity and pay scale, it may seem like a bust.

Summing up
Big Data technology is powerful, and it keeps getting better. But the technology does, right now, require niche specialists to derive the greatest business value from it. These specialists have to be renaissance people – possessing a combination of technology, mathematics and business skills, and knowledge. It's not clear that being so clever and versatile makes these specialists into "scientists," but it does make them rarefied.

Nonetheless, for Big Data and analytics implementations to grow and become truly mainstream, having such diverse skill set requirements for them is not a sustainable situation. Market need is going to drive evolution in the technology such that the barrier to entry will not be nearly so high as it is now. If for some reason that didn't happen, then adept use of Big Data would continue to be an option open only to a relatively small group of customers.

The solution to our problem isn't legions of new data scientists. Instead, we need self-service tools that empower smart and tenacious business people to perform Big Data analysis themselves. The specialists will still have an important role, but they won't be the linchpin to scaling Big Data across industries.

After Microsoft's May 21 Xbox One reveal -- which included information about the coming Xbox One operating system that is based on Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor technology -- some developers and users were left wondering whether Microsoft is going to enable any Metro-Style Windows 8 or Windows RT application to run on the next Xbox.

Microsoft officials aren't talking about the Xbox One developer story yet; it sounds like they are planning/hoping to hold off until the Build 2013 conference in late June to share more details on that. But here's what I've gleaned from talking to my sources about this.

As we learned yesterday, the Xbox One OS includes a host OS, which is a heavily modified Hyper-V hypervisor; and two partitions. One partition, called the "Exclusive" partition, is a custom virtual machine (VM) that is designed just for games. It is designed to give games on the Xbox One complete control on everything from memory management to storage, I hear. While games can be paused or switched, only one game can run at a time in this VM. (If Microsoft steps up its support for indie games on Xbox One, those games are going to run in this partition.)

The other piece of the new OS the "Shared" partition. It's called shared because multiple applications can share this VM. According to one of my contacts, this VM is based on the Windows 8 "core," which means the kernel, file system, graphics stack, networking stack and security elements. Like the Windows core that is shared with Windows RT and Windows Phone 8, the Shared partition core is based on the WinRT application programming interface (API). One of my sources said internally it's actually called WinXRT, the same way that the Windows Phone implementation of WinRT is known internally as WinPRT.

However, the similarities between the Windows environments seem to end there. On top of the Xbox One Shared Partiion core, the Xbox team created a custom UI for Xbox One. Microsoft supposedly isn't going to allow just anyone to write apps that can run here; devs will have to be chosen and invited, the way that they are now on Xbox 360. And they're not going to be inviting Salesforce or Oracle or even the Microsoft SharePoint team to write apps to run here. More likely are things like Netflix and Skype and other media/companion/social kinds of apps.

Core first-party, Microsoft apps like Xbox Music and Video will run in the Shared Partition, too. But these won't just be the same Windows 8/Windows RT versions of these apps; instead, they'll be Xbox-customized ones that will make use of chunks of the Windows 8/Windows RT complements' code, according to my source. (There need to be customized to work with the Xbox controllers and Kinect.)

I'd think as Microsoft continues to add more features and functionality to Windows 8, starting with Windows 8.1 (Blue), some of these security/reliability/performance-focused features will find their way back into the Shared Partition Core. So yeah... don't be looking for the new Start Button or a way to boot straight to desktop on your Xbox One, even when these options come to Windows 8.1.

So at Build 2013, I do expect Microsoft to play up the message that there's increasing a common core codebase on Windows Phone, Windows PCs and tablets and the coming Xbox. There will no doubt be more on the increasingly common developer platform for all of these screens. This year won't be the year when there is just one shared developer platform across these screens (even if Microsoft officials go so far to claim this is the case). Nor will there be a unified Windows Store for Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox One this year. 

It's taking a while to turn the ship and more closely align the release cadences across all the teams that develop anything that involves a flavor of Windows. Yet slowly and surely, Microsoft's moving in that direction. 

• Save money. Overinvesting in computing power by giving a worker “too much machine” and over-investing in software licenses for applications that won’t be used are common implications of One Size Fits All enterprise computing. You can save money by provisioning appropriate hardware and software to various classes of workers.
• Preempt BYO. While IT departments are coming around to the virtues and values of BYO, managing excessively diverse BYO comes with management costs. You can preempt some types of BYO by providing the right tool to the right worker at the right time… obviating the need for them to bring their own.
• Drive worker productivity and innovation. Innovations like tablets and Chromebooks can empower certain classes of workers to achieve new levels of productivity. Providing the right worker – for example, a traveling salesperson – with a tablet can enable new scenarios and create tangible returns.

Tablets are driving new interest in workforce segmentation. When we asked IT decision makers whether tablets would provisioned for general employee use, only 15% agreed. But when we asked IT decision makers which roles they would consider offering tablets as standard issue devices today, and which roles they would likely offer tablets tomorrow, specific classes of workers emerged as tablet-empowered:

According to IT, executives lead the pack with double-digit growth, followed by traveling sales, heavy travelers, and field workers. All of these groups will see swift increases in tablets. But for non-traveling sales and the vast majority of information workers, tablets won’t be standard issue devices. Tablets are being distributed on a value basis, not as a universal standard issue.

Segmenting the workforce this way can lead to segment-specific innovations. I spoke with the VP of Infrastructure and Operations for a global company that sells many of its products via consumer retail. The company employs a large sales force that visits thousands of retail locations in Asia. They developed a custom tablet application that fundamentally changed these salespeople’s visits to retail: With the tablet app, a salesperson goes into a retail store location and takes photos, allowing them to assess inventory counts, the accuracy of displays, etc. Most interestingly, the app uses location tagging. This tagging isn’t merely used to judge whether salespeople are doing their jobs or not (though it is). Instead, it’s generating big data in the background: Let’s say a specific SKU isn’t selling in a particular region. Data analytics derived from the location tags, in relation to the other data, now helps this enterprise to diagnose problems with its channels and products. Sales visits using tablets generate an entirely different set of information, meaning the company can solve its business problems much more effectively.

Without a segmented device strategy (providing tablets to salespeople) and an app strategy (designed specifically for the sales role), the company wouldn’t be gaining this business value. And it all started by departing from One Size Fits All computing.

The virtual desktop is on its way to being spruced up as Nvidia sharpens its focus on the enterprise.

See also: Citrix launches mobility blitz, revamps its product line | Dell unveils new virtual desktop portfolio catering to mobile workers

The visual computing technology company is getting into the action at Citrix Synergy in Anaheim this week with the announcement that its Grid vGPU appliance now supports integration for Citrix's XenDesktop 7 application delivery platform.

Nvidia reps boasted this brings the performance, stabilitity and compatibility of hardware-accelerated graphics to virtual desktop environments.

With such high-definition graphics and capabilities on tap, some of the more obvious uses cases and verticals make this combination suitable for digital content creation, engineering, architecture, and other visual intellectual property applications.

Nvidia also suggested connecting with manufacturing clients and supply chain partners as well as healthcare archiving.

While an exact date hasn't been revealed, Nvidia promised general availability will happen later this year.

Image via Nvidia

There's no doubt that the Xbox One is a games console, but it's a games console with a twist.

Here's what we know so far.

• 8-core AMD APU based on the Jaguar architecture
• AMD Graphics Core Next GPU
• 8GB DDR3 RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support
• 4K HDMI
• 500GB hard drive
• Blu-ray optical drive
• USB 3.0

Instantly, it's clear that the Xbox One is a win for AMD. In fact, it's a double win for the Sunnyvale, California-based chipmaker because the company also managed to get inside Sony's upcoming PS4 console. However, given how close the Xbox One and PS4 are in terms of hardware spec, that's perhaps not surprising.

The APU in the Xbox One is based on the Jaguar architecture, which is a follow-on to the Bobcat architecture used to build the Ontario, Zacate and Hondo APUs. The CPU is likely to be clocked somewhere in the region of 1.5 to 2.0GHz, while the graphics core should be good to around 1GHz.

Whether Microsoft decides to pull out all the stops and max out the hardware, or keep things a bit more subdued in order to control heat – and, by extension, sound for the coolers – remains to be seen. Given the problem that the Xbox 360 had with heat, I would expect Microsoft to play it safe.

One interesting difference is that Microsoft has gone for GDDR3 RAM while Sony opted for the faster GDDR5 variety. While this is not necessarily a downside – Microsoft could make up for the slower RAM by making effective use of caches – it suggests that Microsoft is taking a softly-softly approach to power usage with the Xbox One.

The Xbox One is powered not by one but two operating systems running on a custom version of Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor. There's the Xbox OS for gaming, and a Windows kernel for apps. The multiple cores gives the new console enough power to handle the multiple operating systems, and the hardware can switch between the two operating systems and devote APU cores as required.

This is an interesting approach, and gives the Xbox One unprecedented flexibility in terms of what it can do. 

Shifting from the inside of the Xbox One to the outside, the new console ship with an upgraded Kinect voice and motion sensing bar – which can wake the console up from sleep and is sensitive enough to detect gestures and even the gamer's heartbeat – and a redesigned controller.

The more I look at the Xbox One the less I see a games console and the more I see an entertainment system. Everything from the styling, the integration of live TV, the apps, and the low power consumption points to this device being more than just a gaming device.

Two interesting facts gaming-related to come out about the Xbox One is that first of all it won't be backward-compatible with any current Xbox 360 titles, which means that gamer's investment in the old hardware hits a brick wall, and the revelation that running 'used' games will incur a 'fee,' details of which have not been revealed. So in one swoop, Microsoft is cutting off at the knees the old game titles, and simultaneously putting a choke point on the second-hand games market.

How this goes down with gamers remains to be seen.

See also: SAP, EMPEA intro analytics tool for investment advice in emerging markets

At the heart of the upgrades is new BLU acceleration technology being pumped out from IBM's Research and Development labs.

Some of the new features include analytics access without the need to develop a separate layer of data modeling and processing high-performance data analysis in parallel across different processors.

By adding its DB2 database software to SmartCloud, IBM boasted that both corporate and government customers could see up to 25 times faster reporting and analytics.

Additionally, IBM is opening up the SmartCloud for SAP's HANA in-memory database.

This means support for a physical SAP HANA Appliance on IBM SmartCloud for SAP's business management apps, hosted on the SmartCloud Enterprise+ cloud environment.

A virtual SAP HANA appliance is also available for SmartCloud Enterprise, but it is still in test mode.

Both the physical and virtual SAP HANA appliances for IBM SmartCloud are being sold through "bring your own license" subscriptions. Licenses can also be bought from IBM Global Business Services.