Rival search services gain a guaranteed spot alongside Google results, but competitors say it isn’t enough. 10 Great Google Apps Tips (Click image for larger view.) Google has agreed to settle a eu Union antitrust investigation launched three years ago by promising to modify how it operates its search business. After twice rejecting Google’s proposed changes to its search business practices last year, the eu Commission, the ecu executive body, now finds Google’s concessions adequate to prevent a legal challenge. For Google, the agreement eliminates the chance of a costly antitrust battle in European courts. The corporate still faces separate antitrust inquiries regarding its Android business and to the way in which its Motorola Mobility unit, that is being sold to Lenovo, sought injunctions over industry-standard patents. In January, Google settled an antitrust inquiry conducted by the Federal Trade Commission, to the dissatisfaction of FairSearch.org, a lobbying group supported by Oracle, Microsoft, Nokia, and diverse search industry competitors. Unsurprisingly, FairSearch.org offered an identical assessment of... Read More »

iOS developers earn $7 billion, while Apple keeps $3 billion. 10 Lavish Monuments To Tech Egos (click image for larger view) Apple customers spent over $10 billion inside the company’s App Store in 2013, demonstrating the continuing appeal of native mobile apps and the company’s curated software distribution model. In December alone, Apple App Store customers spent over $1 billion, the foremost revenue in one month for the reason that App Store’s debut in July 2008. Apple said its iOS developers have earned $15 billion so far. That’s after Apple has taken its 30% cut. And almost half that payout, about $7 billion, was returned to developers in 2013, when Apple had about $10 billion in App Store sales and retained $3 billion. Many companies will be thrilled to have earned $3 billion in net revenue from apps in 2013. As Bloomberg BusinessWeek observes, were Apple’s App Store listed by gross revenue among publicly traded companies, it should rank 238th, between Public Service Enterprise Group... Read More »

After years of rumors, Office for iPad could arrive before the top of the month. Here is what we all know. Windows 8.1 Update 1: 10 Key Changes (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) A native version of Microsoft Office for iPads is the software equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster: rumored to exist, endlessly discussed, and stubbornly unrevealed. That may all change by the tip of the month. In line with multiple reports published late Monday, Microsoft will announce Office for iPad on March 27 at an event in San Francisco. Will the much-anticipated release live up the hype? Here is what we all know to date about Microsoft Office for iPad. 1. Office for iPad may be Satya Nadella’s first major announcement as CEO.Microsoft issued press invitations late Monday to a March 27 event at which new CEO Satya Nadella will deliver remarks “regarding the intersection of cloud and mobile.” Citing unnamed sources acquainted with Microsoft’s plans, Reuters, ZDNet, and The Verge... Read More »

Facebook has suffered some ignominious strikeouts during its 10 years. Consider these 10 features and products that did not fly. Few may have predicted the upward push of Facebook when Harvard University sophomore Mark Zuckerberg launched it with friends from his dorm room 10 years ago. Back then it was “thefacebook.com,” a social network exclusively for Harvard students. The service had no photo albums, no Timeline, no News Feed. It was a bare-bones, static profile page where users could list their basic information and interests. Facebook’s popularity rose quickly, amassing millions of users because it expanded to varsities and universities, high schools, and beyond. The social network boasts greater than 1000000000 users worldwide today. In a up to date interview, Zuckerberg reflected on Facebook’s tenure and his own success: “I’m just really lucky. i actually feel this deep responsibility, and that i attempt to help folks here feel how unique of a position we’re in, and that we have to do the greatest that we... Read More »

Getting IT pros to renounce old habits is without doubt one of the hardest things about building a brand new, private cloud architecture. Why will we need different boxes for servers, storage, and network switches within the datacenter? They’re all just computers, says David Reilly, who’s the worldwide technology infrastructure executive for Bank of America. Why can’t companies fill their datacenters with white-box computers filled with x86 chips and a ton of memory, controlled by software that may make that box an in-memory storage device today, a software-defined switch tomorrow, and a server next week?   This radical departure from today’s datacenter approach is not only idle salon chatter. Bank of America, this country’s second-largest bank with about $2.1 trillion in assets, has a team of folks instantaneously exploring the way to reinvent the bank’s datacenters using a personal cloud architecture. The hardest portion of attending to this type of total reset of the datacenter, Reilly says, is persuading technologists to throw out their old ways... Read More »