Given IBM’s earnings miss last week and the impact it had on company shares I thought rather than just criticizing the company it might make better sense to consolidate my ideas for how to fix IBM. Here they are.

Early in his tenure as CEO, Sam Palmisano made changes that created IBM’s problems today. IBM customers are buying fewer products and services. Revenue has dropped each quarter for the past ten. Sam’s changes alienated IBM customers, many of whom are ending what has been in many cases a multi-decade relationship. No amount of earnings promises, no amount of financial engineering, will fix this problem.

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Sony is known for its engineering prowess in a lot of consumer goods, such as TVs, Walkmans, cameras, etc. But what it is not known for -- in any good way, at least -- is software. Sony's software is generally the low point of its product, which isn't unexpected, as software was never the firm's focus. So, when you look at the PS4 and Xbox One, you will notice Sony's advantage in pure gaming, while Microsoft brings software features likes apps (e.g. Skype), and multi-window support.

Sony's update today finally delivers some of the 'next-gen' software features it bragged about a year ago. Share Play is now available and lets your friend join your game, even if they don't own it themselves. There are some limitations without a PlayStation Plus membership, but that was to be expected. YouTube will finally get an app on the PlayStation store. Additionally, you can now use the 'Share' button to upload gameplay highlights directly to YouTube from your PS4.

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In a push for a more family-friendly Internet, the UK government is considering plans that could mean porn and adult websites will soon have to verify that visitors are over 18 years of age.

The legislation is being drawn up by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and would initially only affect UK-based websites. Similar to the verification tools already in use by gambling websites, the plans would also affect the owners of domains that sell guns or any other kind of adult content.

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If you need to annotate an image then most graphics editors will have a few tools to help: text, drawing, maybe a shape or two.

That’s fine for the basics, but if you regularly need more then it’s worth trying iPhotoDraw, a free image annotation program for Windows XP and later.

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Everybody deserves the opportunity to compete and feel good about themselves. The Special Olympics is a great example of this; people with intellectual disabilities compete against each other in sports to build confidence, and most importantly, have fun. The non-profit organization is essential for many people the world over.

Today, Microsoft announces that it is partnering with the organization to modernize its technology with a big focus on the cloud. The Special Olympics will be getting all kinds of cool stuff, like Lumia smartphones and Surface tablets.

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News aggregator service Feedly has unveiled Feedly 24.0, a major new release of its iOS and Android-friendly tool. The iOS build follows days after the Android version was unveiled.

Version 24.0 introduces two new features of note: access to shared collections and tagging support. The iOS version also debuts a new design optimised for the latest iPhones while the Android build introduces support for the forthcoming Android L.

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Just a few days ago Microsoft released its financial data for Q1 2015 (yeah, the timescale is weird) and we learned a little about where the company's money is coming from. According to data compiled by FactSet and published by USA Today Microsoft is in fact the tenth most profitable company in the world.

The list has been put together by taking into account companies' "net income before discontinued operations and extraordinary items for their latest fiscal year", and it finds Microsoft in interesting company. Sandwiched between oil giant BP and banking behemoth Wells Fargo & Company, Microsoft just managed to sneak into the top ten with $86.8 billion in revenue.

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When it comes to sports, I am a born loser. New York is chock full of successful sports teams like the Yankees and Giants, but I am not a fan of them. You see, I love the Mets, Jets, Islanders and Knicks; these teams have historically been horrible and I have had much disappointment in my life.

Today, the team I love the most, the New York Knicks, selects ZTE to be its official smartphone sponsor. Unfortunately, even the basketball team's sponsors aren't winners, as ZTE is the mere fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the USA.

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On May 15, 2001, while previewing the first Apple Store to analysts and journalists, then CEO Steve Jobs boasted: "Apple has about 5 percent market share today", but the remainder "don't even consider us". Jobs exaggerated, and not for the first time, seeing as how Mac global share was more like 2 percent. But the ambition, to use the retail shops to "double our market share", was achievable. Three years following his death, with 10-percent long ago reached in the United States, something more startling occurred: During calendar Q3 2014, Apple moved into fifth place for global PC shipments, according to IDC. The question is why?

I have wondered for weeks, and waited until Apple's quarterly earnings report before writing an analysis. By my math, the average selling price of Macs was about $1,200 -- that in a PC market where sales are sluggish, at best, except below $300 selling price. Yet, according to financial disclosures, Apple shipped a record 5.5 million Macs, with units up 21 percent annually and 25 percent sequentially and generating $6.625 billion revenue; that's an increase of 18 percent and 20 percent, respectively, for the same time periods. Who in the hell is buying these things, and for so much money? The answer may surprise you.

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For a significant number of users a computer session starts, and ends with Chrome. Google continued to reinforce this with Chrome Apps, which are apps that run on the desktop, outside of the browser and can be pinned to your taskbar.

You will soon be able to open files from the Windows file explorer directly in Chrome Apps. Chrome apps will be able to specify the file types they handle, and for those file types, you will see the Chrome App listed in 'open with' when you right click a file. If the Chrome App is the only app installed which handles that file type, it will be set to default (so simply double clicking will open the file in the Chrome App). This will essentially remove all distinction of Chrome apps and desktop programs you have installed on Windows.

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Another day, another iPhone scandal. It seems like we can’t go through one news cycle without something to blame Apple for. While yes, the iPhone is nowhere near perfect, at times the level of negative press has bordered on ridiculousness.

My patience with these iScandals reached its breaking point this weekend. Here on BetaNews we covered the latest media-created iPhone flaw, which apparently is called "dyegate". The gist is this: a small minority of users complain that their iPhones are being stained by the dye from their jeans. That’s right: it is Apple’s fault that the consumer purchased a cheap pair of jeans that weren’t correctly pre-washed at the factory to prevent these dye bleeding issues.

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Microsoft just stoked the fires of the cloud storage wars once again. There have been various updates to OneDrive in recent months. Microsoft lifted the 2GB file size limit all the way up to 10GB, and we showed you how to up your free storage to 15GB. But if you’re an Office 365 subscriber, things just kicked off -- storage limitations are a thing of the past.

Starting today, Office 365 Home, Personal and University plan subscribers have unlimited OneDrive storage. Store as much as you like in the cloud for free. Well, free if you ignore the subscription you've paid, or continue to pay each month. The roll out to the consumer level subscriptions starts today, but you'll need to take action if you're interested.

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The problem with email and text messaging is that context can be lost in transmission. In other words, even if your intentions are good, the recipient may misinterpret the overall tone. This can cause the communication to break down quickly and lead to hurt feelings. Believe it or not, in business, it can even lead to review by Human Resources, as employee relations are harmed.

Emojis are often criticized as being stupid and silly -- something teens use for talking about nonsense. I disagree, as they can help establish the proper tone of your message. A smiley face or picture of a jack-o-lantern can liven up your text message or tweet so it cannot be misconstrued as being angry. Today, Bing learns how to speak the language.

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The number of people living in cities is expected to double by 2050, meaning congestion and pollution will increasingly be a problem for city dwellers. As a result the cities of the future will demand smarter traffic management solutions and more intelligent vehicles.

Experts say that car industry will develop more in the next decade than it has in the last fifty years due to the rise in connectivity and mobile technology. The industry is gearing itself up for the age of the 'connected car' but how will this manifest itself? What will cars look like five, ten even twenty years from now?

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There is currently no shortage in the market when it comes to streaming devices. Quite frankly, there are so many available, that it can be very hard to choose; Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku -- it is dizzying.

Today, Amazon further complicates the decision with the all-new Fire TV Stick. Yes, the company already offers the Fire TV box, so the Fire TV Stick, in some ways, competes with its existing offering. However, the big selling point of the Fire TV Stick is the price -- $39. But wait, you may be eligible to get it cheaper!

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