Articles about Cloud

Microsoft is announcing something Office-related tomorrow, January 29th. That much is clear given all of the evidence that popped up over the weekend and has continued to mount today. Still, the company likes to hold some secrets and stating something emphatically would be inappropriate reporting on my part. However, trying to connect the dots is a fun exercise that we certainly can do.

First, over the weekend a new website from Microsoft appeared with a teaser message --  "Coming January 29th. More time to do the things you want. #timeto365".

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BitTorrent has a bad reputation. While it is largely considered a haven for people sharing and downloading illegal files from movies to music to software, it is also a legitimate service. Many Linux distros, for instance, are made available through the network thanks to the easy peer-to-peer sharing methods utilized.

Now BitTorrent is looking to get into the PC-to-PC syncing business, an area Microsoft just left when it killed off Live Mesh. In a post earlier today the company announced a "pre-alpha" version of BitTorrent Sync is available through the Labs service. However, the release comes with a rather important caveat --  "If you’re comfortable using early, incomplete software, and if you’re committed to helping us figure out a better way to sync, we want to hear from you".

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Thirteenth in a series. Microsoft released the company's fiscal second-quarter results on January 24 and to the surprise of many the company's Windows division did well despite PC shipments being down during the same period.

Windows Store has recovered from last week's low number of new store apps. This week, 928 new apps were listed in the operating system's US store, an increase of more than 31 percent over last week. Free apps, on the other hand, only increased by 136 this week while paid apps made a huge jump to 5,801 from 5,011 the week before.

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Late this afternoon, Microsoft answered a question oft-asked by investors this month: What's up with Windows 8? The new operating system, which launched October 26, was supposed to lift sagging PC sales and demonstrate the capability to successfully compete with so-called post-PC platforms like Android and iOS. Now we know more. Windows & Windows Live revenue passed Business, making the OS division most-valuable again.

For fiscal second quarter, ended December 31, Microsoft revenue was $21.46 billion, up 3 percent year over year. Operating income: $7.77 billion, a 3 percent decrease. Net income was $6.38 billion, or 76 cents a share.

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Windows 8's new Start screen evokes many emotions from customers, with most falling on either the love or hate side with almost no middle ground. However, one thing that can be agreed on is that the screen has no shortage of information. Users are bombarded with messages from Facebook, email, weather and countless other endlessly updating tiles. Now Microsoft has added one more to the perhaps overloaded mix.

Today the company announced it is pushing an update to the SkyDrive app for Windows 8 that will bring the live tile features to the cloud storage and sharing platform.

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Windows Update is supposed to keep Surface RT shipshape, particularly Security Tuesday updates. But the January 8 bundle causes problems for some Surface users, and Microsoft acknowledges there is an issue.

In an offical statement given to BetaNews: "Some Windows RT customers who attempted to apply monthly security bulletins had issues installing updates. Specifically, impacted Windows RT devices went into connected standby mode during the installation of updates from Windows Update, causing Windows Update to be disrupted. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and are working to correct the issue".

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Investors rewarded Google today, pushing shares up close to 6.5 percent soon after the opening bell and staying in that range. At 12:09 PM EST, the stock traded at $748.23, up 6.45 percent. Google opened at $735.83, up from yesterday's $702.87 close.

After the closing bell, on January 22, Google delivered fourth quarter and 2012 results that clearly satisfy someone. For the year, Google revenue reached $50.18 billion, up 32 percent from $37.9 billion in 2011. Motorola contributed $4.14 billion. Net income: $10.74 billion or $32.81 earnings per share. Average analyst consensus was $41.41 billion revenue and $39.73 earnings per share. Oh, the wiles of investors. Yearly EPS missed the Street, as it did for the quarter.

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Microsoft's efforts to improve the company's cloud platform, Windows Azure, most definitely do not fly under the radar. Over the past few months the software giant brought Windows Azure Services to Windows Server 2012, introduced a plethora of new features for its cloud platform, updated the Windows Azure SDK for .NET and, on Tuesday, announced the general availability of Windows Azure Media Services.

Windows Azure Media Services is basically a Media Platform as a Service or PaaS, as Microsoft likes to call it, that allows users to implement video streaming, using various formats, to Android, HTML5, iPad, iPhone, Xbox, Windows 8 or Windows Phone, among other supported clients. Developers can control Windows Azure Media Services through REST APIs or Java SDK and .NET SDK in order to build an automated media workflow which can upload, encode and stream video.

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Nikon is to launch a new online photo-sharing service on January 28. The successor to the Japanese firm’s my Picturetown will be open to all, although Nikon camera users will be able to upgrade to a special account with increased storage and advanced features, for free.

The basic version of the service will give users 2GB of online storage. Nikon owners who upgrade through the dedicated verification app will get 20GB, and the option to password protect images and restrict downloads.

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Today, I formally begin covering Google earnings, as I have done for Microsoft (a decade) and Apple (about six years). This first report won't be as thorough as the others, as I get my head around the financials, which share little in common with APPL and MSFT other than money. Today's earnings announcement is refreshing respite from third quarter's, when an incomplete press release pushed out early and while the market was open.

For calendar fourth quarter, revenue rose 36 percent to $14.42 billion, year over year; net revenue, excluding Traffic Acquisition Costs, was $9.83 billion, up from $8.13 billion. Net income climbed to $2.89 billion up from $2.71 billion. That's $8.62 earnings per share, including costs associated with discontinued operations. Operating income was $3.39 billion, down from $3.51 billion year over year.

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Even though Microsoft's lips have been sealed shut on the topic, launch of Office 2013 (and the new Office 365) is imminent. Speculation is fueled by the Office 2013 available on its Home Use Program (HUP) website, something which has customarily preceded most prior Office launches. If the show is about to begin, then all of these preparatory charades are quite the indicator.

Martin Brinkman provided a wonderful in-depth preview on Office 2013 this past summer, and the great majority of what he covered is still valid in the final bits. I've personally been using a MSDN copy of Office 2013 Pro Plus since about late October and am quite pleased with the product. Ever since Microsoft dabbled with x64 capability in Office 2010, in-house developers increased memory and security aspects that 64-bit provides and the result is a smoother, safer Office experience. Microsoft posted a long Technet article on the benefits of x64 Office 2013 this last summer.

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Kim Dotcom’s new cloud storage and file-sharing site Mega is unquestionably a huge hit, racking up registrations like crazy. After an hour the site had received over 100,000 sign-ups, and was up to half a million registered users in the first 14 hours. According to a new tweet from Dotcom, it’s currently seeing 60 uploads a second.

Mega has made a big deal about security and privacy, with the site offering what it calls User Controlled Encryption, or UCE. All files stored on Mega are automatically encrypted, as are data transfers to and from the site. Users hold the keys to their own files so Mega’s staff don’t know what’s being uploading or shared, a move designed to protect the site from the authorities. However, despite all this promising security, it turns out the site may not be quite as safe as billed.

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On January 19, 2012 at 6:48 am local time Kim Dotcom's mansion was suddenly raided by authorities looking for evidence against his popular MegaUpload file sharing website. Since then the case has dragged on, but done little to dampen Dotcom's enthusiasm and spirit. The colorful internet tycoon chose the exact moment of that raid, 365 days later, to launch his brand new Mega site.

In many ways Kim Dotcom is a larger than life figure and Mega is a larger than life site. For one, the service is offering 50 GB of free storage, much more than cloud storage offerings from services like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Box and Dropbox. There are also paid plans for those who need more storage.

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Twelfth in a series. It's slow week for new application releases for Windows 8. The number of new apps in the US Windows Store is 635, down from 961 the week before. While I would not - yet - say that this is a sign of things slowing down, it is definitely something that I'll pay attention on in the coming weeks.

The total number of apps in the US store this week is 25,384 of which 20,373 are free to install and 5,011 paid; that is a ratio of 4:1 in favor of free apps.

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Like it or not, the New Zealand-based entrepreneur Kim Dotcom continues to make headlines thanks to his latest project, Mega. The cloud storage service launches on January 20, and merely days before the big opening Dotcom revealed that Mega will indeed be mega in the storage department.

In a Twitter post, Kim Dotcom said that Mega will offer "generous limits for free [plan] users". But just how much is "generous"?, you may ask. The soon-to-be-introduced service will give users a whopping 50GB of free cloud storage, matching MediaFire's offer, and top established market competitors such as Box, Dropbox, Google's Drive and Microsoft's SkyDrive. Basically if there's a "box" or "drive" in the title, then it's not as "roomy".

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