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Выставку CES 2012 выбрала компания LaCie для анонса продуктов с интерфейсом Thunderbolt: внешних накопителей 2big Thunderbolt с новым интерфейсом и устройства eSATA Hub Thunderbolt, позволяющего использовать порт Thunderbolt для подключения внешних накопителей с интерфейсом eSATA. Накопители серии LaCie 2big Thunderbolt поддерживают конфигурации RAID, горячую замену дисков и цепочечное подключение. В алюминиевых корпусах может находиться два HDD суммарным объемом до 8 ТБ. По данным компании, максимальная скорость обмена данными достигает 311 МБ/с. Что касается устройства eSATA Hub Thunderbolt, оно рассчитано на использование совместно с компьютерами Apple, оснащенными портами Thunderbolt и дает возможность подключать к ним внешние накопители с интерфейсом eSATA. В конфигурацию устройства входит два порта eSATA и два порта Thunderbolt. Второй порт Thunderbolt служит для формирования цепочки устройств с поддержкой Thunderbolt. Поставки 2big Thunderbolt и eSATA Hub Thunderbolt компания обещает начать в текущем квартале. Источник: LaCie #vk ixbt.com »

Oracle is working to beef up its Apache Hadoop-based software and services for its enterprise customers via a partnership. Oracle is hooking up with Cloudera in a joint agreement to provide Apache Hadoop distribution and tools for the Oracle Big Data Appliance. Specifically, Oracle has integrated Cloudera's Distribution Including Apache Hadoop (CDH) and Cloudera Manager software into the Oracle Big Data Appliance. The Oracle Big Data Appliance is an engineered system that aims to provide a high-performance, scalable data-processing environment for handling large databases. Cloudera isn't the only Apache Hadoop-based provider Oracle could have chosen to partner with. On the start-up side, there's Hadapt, DataStax, and MapR. However, Andy Mendelsohn, senior VP of Oracle Database Server Technologies, said the maturity of Cloudera's products and the company's expertise on the enterprise level helped make them the right choice. Mutually Beneficial Oracle's Big Data Appliance is competing against similar offerings from IBM and EMC. The appliance is an engineered system of hardware and software that incorporates Cloudera's Distribution including Apache Hadoop and Cloudera Manager, an open source distribution of R, Oracle NoSQL Database Community Edition, Oracle HotSpot Java Virtual Machine and Oracle Linux running on Oracle's Sun servers. CDH is the most widely deployed commercial distribution of Apache Hadoop for the enterprise. Mike Olson, co-founder and CEO of Cloudera, said the partnership is expected to deliver the first engineered system designed to make Apache Hadoop work together with Oracle's product stack, creating a solution that can address the most demanding analytic workloads. Big Data Acquisitions Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, said the partnership is a win-win. As he sees it, Oracle is coming late to the Hadoop-based Big Data party. He points to EMC's Greenplumb acquisition and IBM's Netezza acquisition, as well as HP's Vertica acquisition in this space as evidence. "Oracle kind of pooh-poohed the Big Data market... newsfactor.com »

Oracle is working to beef up its Apache Hadoop-based software and services for its enterprise customers via a partnership. Oracle is hooking up with Cloudera in a joint agreement to provide Apache Hadoop distribution and tools for the Oracle Big Data Appliance. Specifically, Oracle has integrated Cloudera's Distribution Including Apache Hadoop (CDH) and Cloudera Manager software into Oracle Big Data Appliance. Oracle Big Data Appliance is an engineered system that aims to provide a high-performance and scalable data processing environment for Big Data. Cloudera isn't the only Apache Hadoop-based provider Oracle could have chosen to partner with. On the start-up side, there's Hadapt, DataStax, and MapR. Andy Mendelsohn, senior vice president of Oracle Database Server Technologies, said "Cloudera has the enterprise quality and expertise that make them the right choice to work with on Oracle Big Data Appliance" and pointed to the company's "mature, reliable and innovative products and services." Mutually Beneficial Oracle Big Data Appliance is competing against IBM and EMC. The appliance is an engineered system of hardware and software that incorporates Cloudera's Distribution including Apache Hadoop and Cloudera Manager, an open source distribution of R, Oracle NoSQL Database Community Edition, Oracle HotSpot Java Virtual Machine and Oracle Linux running on Oracle's Sun servers. CDH is the most widely deployed commercial distribution of Apache Hadoop for the enterprise. "The blending of Oracle Big Data Appliance with CDH and Cloudera Manager is a natural and highly complementary fit," said Mike Olson, co-founder and CEO of Cloudera. He said the partnership would deliver the first engineered system designed to make Apache Hadoop work together with Oracle's product stack to address the most demanding analytic workloads. Big Data Acquisitions Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, said the partnership is a win-win. As he sees it, Oracle is coming late to the Hadoop-based Big Data party. He points to... newsfactor.com »

Oracle сегодня объявила о заключении партнерского соглашения с компанией Cloudera, по условиям которого продукт Apache Hadoop будет совместим с решением Oracle Big Data Appliance. Напомним, что компания Cloudera занимается технической поддержкой платформы Hadoop в интересах коммерческих пользователей.
Компании договорились, что недавно выпущенное решение Oracle Big Data Appliance будет поставляться с Cloudera Distribution, включающим в себя Apache Hadoop и Cloudera Manager. Также решение Oracle будет включать в себя фирменную нереляционную СУБД Or it.siteua.org »

Компания MSI объявила о начале выпуска экстремальной системной платы MSI Big Bang-XPower II.
MSI Big Bang-XPower II: экстремальная системная плата на новейшем чипсете 11 января 2012, 18:08 Компания MSI объявила о начале выпуска экстремальной системной платы MSI Big Bang-XPower II. Флагман линейки с набором системной логики Intel X79 Express является преемником известной платы it.siteua.org »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Trulia, a real estate website that competes with Zillow Inc, unveiled a new service on Thursday that helps real estate agents identify the best leads by tapping a trove of data the company started analyzing last year. Reuters: Internet News »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A blackout scheduled for Wednesday to protest against proposed legislation on online piracy has failed to get the support of the biggest Internet players. Reuters: Internet News »

Coca-Cola has plastered ads on bus shelters and billboards. Honda and Volkswagen have posted online videos. Kia has launched movie theater ads. Yet the ads don't specifically tout cars or cola. They hype the brands' Super Bowl marketing plans. In a trend sure to thrill sellers of ad space, and irk anti-commercialism activists, marketers are running ads for their ads. Big Game advertisers, who paid an average of $3.5 million for each 30 seconds of airtime on NBC, are working ahead of Sunday's game more than ever before. They want viewers to actively seek out their big-budget TV ads and to get involved with the digital and social-media efforts of which the commercials are a centerpiece. "You want to make sure that you get the most out of what is a very big and a very expensive event," says Pio Schunker, Coke North America head of integrated marketing. By touting their ads early, marketers hope to stand out from the game-day commercial clutter, says Brad Adgate, research director at marketing agency Horizon Media. And unlike some other live events, consumers are hungry to see Super Bowl-related content and welcome these promotions, he says. Says Coke's Schunker, "People want to feel that they've gotten inside and advanced information." They also readily share it via social media. After VW posted its teaser ad on its Facebook page -- it showed dogs barking the Imperial March tune from Star Wars in its 2011 ad -- the video was "shared" more than 676,000 times. "That's all free advertising," Adgate says. Among pre-game efforts: Online videos. Both VW and Honda's teasers end with "2.5.12" references to the game. Audi's video hyped its ad and included clips from its past Big Game spots. "Every February a new chapter unfolds," said Audi's ad. "But nothing has prepared you for this." Outdoor ads. Coke's ads promote the polar... newsfactor.com »

Call it the "second-screen" Super Bowl. About two-thirds of smartphone and tablet owners use their gadgets to do things like text or post on Twitter while watching TV, according to research firm Nielsen. So, for Sunday's game, companies from Coke to Chevy are trying to reach fans on all the "second screens" they have. Chevrolet rolled out the first Super Bowl smartphone app that allows Big Game watchers to enter a contest to win everything from pizza to a new Camaro. Kia is the first company to show its Super Bowl ad ahead of the game in movie theaters. And Coca Cola set up a Facebook page and Web site so viewers can see its animated polar bears -- one cheering for the New England Patriots and the other for the New York Giants -- reacting to the game in real time. "The world is changing," says Pio Schunker, Coca Cola's vice president for creative excellence. "We needed to come to the party with something new and different." Advertisers have big incentives to stand out. With more than 111 million viewers expected to tune into the game, the Super Bowl is by far the biggest stage for marketers. It's also not cheap -- NBC is charging an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot. And the competition is fierce: there will be more than 70 TV ads during the Super Bowl battling for attention. To create buzz, it's no longer enough for marketers to simply get people talking at the water cooler the morning after the game. They also want to engage the people who like reacting to big events like the Super Bowl by posting on Twitter or Facebook or texting their friends, says David Berkowitz, vice president at digital marketing agency 360i. "People are glued to their digital devices, sometimes sharing far... newsfactor.com »

With so many security breaches making headlines, it's no wonder young companies like Splunk are making their moves into the public markets. The real-time operational intelligence firm, which was recently named a Gartner APM Innovator, sandwiched an initial public offering in between two major enterprise security announcements. Splunk's latest innovation, Enterprise Security Intelligence Solution, includes the Splunk App for Enterprise Security 2.0, and Splunk Enterprise 4.3, the company's flagship software for collecting, indexing and harnessing machine data. "While more and more organizations are embracing the power of Big Data, many are ignoring the security threats that lurk within that information," said Christina Noren, senior vice president of solutions for Splunk. "Customers who use Splunk Enterprise to monitor and analyze machine data to gain insights into their operations in real-time can use the Splunk App for Enterprise Security to monitor, identify, investigate and respond to critical known and unknown security threats." Big Data Meets Security Intelligence Splunk Enterprise works to offer visibility into increasingly security-relevant IT events -- even those that some might see as beyond the purview of typical security solutions. Splunk offers this visibility through a Big Data engine that aims to help security professionals understand unknown threats hidden as patterns in terabytes of normal user-credentialed activities. Those unknown threats could include advanced malware or a malicious insider. "Splunk is at the forefront of helping organizations harness their Big Data," said Rachel Chalmers, research director of infrastructure management at The 451 Group. "Splunk 4.3 is an exciting, logical and evolutionary step that embraces mobility and increased ease of use. Splunk 4.3 is especially important for business users, with dashboards that provide insights -- integrating real-time and historical data for analysis, and which are easy for business users to personalize on the fly." The Splunk App for Enterprise Security combines with the core Splunk engine to... newsfactor.com »

Компания LaCie, анонсируя на январской выставке CES 2012 накопители 2big Thunderbolt , обещала начать их продажи в текущем квартале. Максимальный объем устройства был определен равным 8 ТБ. Накопитель такого объема пока купить не получится, а вот модели объемом 4 и 6 ТБ уже доступны на сайте компании. Модель объемом 4 ТБ стоит $649, 6 ТБ - $799. В алюминиевом корпусе LaCie 2big Thunderbolt размерами 91 x 172 x 200 мм находится два жестких диска со скоростью вращения шпинделя 7200 об/мин. Устройство с интерфейсом Thunderbolt поддерживает конфигурации RAID 0, 1 и JBOD, горячую замену дисков и цепочечное подключение. Максимальная скорость в режиме чтения достигает 327 МБ/с, в режиме записи - 320 МБ/с. Источник: LaCie #vk ixbt.com »

Facebook's hotly anticipated IPO is months away, but investors apparently can't wait that long to jump on the social-media stock bandwagon. Companies in the business of connecting people online, mainly for marketing purposes, have seen their shares rocket 35% or more this year as investors scramble for a piece of the Facebook effect. The big gains come as many social-media companies report financial results for the first time since going public. Zynga, the leading social-gaming company, reported a fourth-quarter loss of $435 million after the markets' close Tuesday. "Facebook is shining a light on both the initial public offering market and on Facebook wannabes," says Francis Gaskins of IPOdesktop.com. The social-media stock frenzy is apparent in the: Big 2012 gains by U.S. social-media leaders. LinkedIn, a site that allows professionals to link with each other, and Zynga, an online gaming firm, are the key public U.S. social-networking stocks. LinkedIn and Zynga are up 35% and 53% in 2012, respectively. Solid rises by global social-media stocks. Renren and Quepasa, generally regarded as the Facebooks of China and Latin America, have rebounded along with a rally of stocks in emerging markets. Shares of Renren and Quepasa are up 53% and 37%, respectively, undoing some of their poor performances last year. Tailwind from related Internet stocks. Pandora, while not exactly a social-media stock, is enjoying the interest in Internet stocks, gaining 33%. The USA TODAY Internet 50 index, a collection of 50 big Internet stocks, is up 15%. Facebook's IPO filing showed how profitable it is and silenced critics of the social-media business, says Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities. The filing revealed how critical Zynga is to Facebook's success and how the two are quickly dominating the industry, says Colin Sebastian of Robert W. Baird. Investors are wondering if this is a new area that's so big they have to... newsfactor.com »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When Jason Goldberg set out to raise a new round of funding for his flash sales site Fab.com, he dispensed with the usual PowerPoint presentations and instead gave potential investors a look at the crown jewels: the "dashboard" of real-time analytics that can instantly spot trends and enable the site to tweak its offerings on the fly. Reuters: Internet News »

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - "Kony 2012," a YouTube video targeting a Ugandan guerilla leader, has gone viral, amassing almost 10 million views and celebrity backers like Oprah, Ryan Seacrest and Rihanna. Reuters: Internet News »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Andreessen Horowitz, a three-year-old venture capital firm, has made a big mark in Silicon Valley partly through the sheer scale of its endeavors, with big funds totaling some $2.7 billion and big investments in high-profile companies including Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and Groupon. Reuters: Internet News »

IBM on Tuesday rolled out its first update of DB2 software in four years. With DB2 10, working with InfoSphere Warehouse 10, Big Blue aims to help clients "tame the data deluge" and speed up business processes so execs can make faster decisions on analytical insights. According to IBM, the new software never stops crunching -- it continually accesses, compresses, and analyzes data. The goal is to free up IT staff to work on higher-value tasks such as Big Data and business analytics. IBM is betting companies will see the value in DB2 10 and InfoSphere Warehouse 10 in the Big Data era that is witnessing organizations struggle to gain insights from information assets. New high-performance apps that demand instant access to new -- and massive -- types of data is growing exponentially. Big Blue specifically mentioned data from social networks, sensors and mobile devices, as well as internal business applications. Easy Integration "Today's growing data volumes make it tougher for clients to access the right data when they need it to stay competitive," said Arvind Krishna, general manager of IBM Information Management. "IBM has advanced database and data warehouse technology to the point where data management can be automated and insights shared more broadly than ever before, freeing up decision makers and IT staff to focus on business growth." IBM promises that DB2 10 and InfoSphere Warehouse 10 software will easily integrate with Big Data systems, automatically compress data into tighter spaces to prevent storage sprawl, and slice information from the past, present and future to eliminate expensive application code. And it's not just talk. IBM did testing. During testing, clients performed data warehouse queries up to 10 times faster to speed up decision making, freed up storage space up to 90 percent to dramatically reduce storage needs, and easily migrated data from... newsfactor.com »

A small Virginia-based cellphone company said Wednesday that it will start selling the iPhone, at prices that undercut the big carriers. Ntelos Holdings Corp. will sell the basic model of the latest iPhone, the 4S, for $150 on April 20. That's $49 less than what AT&T, Verizon and Sprint charge. Versions with more storage sell for $250 and $350, also $49 cheaper than the rivals. A two-year contract is required, with monthly service fees of $80 or $100, comparable to fees charged by others. Ntelos is based in Waynesboro and has about 421,000 subscribers in Virginia, West Virginia and portions of Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky under the nTelos Wireless brand. It's the fifth U.S. phone company to get the iPhone, after the big three and Mississippi-based regional carrier C Spire Wireless, which started selling it late last year. Phone companies subsidize the iPhone, which costs about $600 wholesale. Selling it means shouldering a big upfront cost. Ntelos Chief Financial Officer Stebbins Chandor said the phone would start paying off in 2014. A bigger regional phone company, U.S. Cellular, has said it turned down the iPhone because it was too expensive. Ntelos CEO James Hyde said it needed the iPhone to fill a gap in its smartphone lineup and compete with other carriers. In the first quarter, the company lost about 5,000 subscribers from its contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative, while adding subscribers to cheaper prepaid services. Ntelos shares fell 30 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $20.35 in midday trading. newsfactor.com »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A group of e-commerce start-ups, backed by some of the tech world's most pedigreed financiers, are betting that Facebook Inc can become an e-commerce powerhouse to rival Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc. Reuters: Internet News »

Интернет-продажи — это современный Клондайк и самый востребованный навык на ближайшие 10–15 лет. Занимаясь интернет-продажами и развивая этот навык, вы получаете возможность стать миллионером абсолютно легально.



Из этой передачи вы узнаете:
— В чем ценность Интернет-продаж?
— Почему именно эта сфера так востребована?
— Как научиться Интернет-продажам? podfm.ru »

Интернет-продажи — это современный Клондайк и самый востребованный навык на ближайшие 10–15 лет. Занимаясь интернет-продажами и развивая этот навык, вы получаете возможность стать миллионером абсолютно легально.



Из этой передачи вы узнаете:
— В чем ценность Интернет-продаж?
— Почему именно эта сфера так востребована?
— Как научиться Интернет-продажам?

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In a move to demonstrate its commitment to the Linux platform, IBM on Wednesday rolled out its IBM PowerLinux Systems and Solutions. The new offerings are designed to help customers exploit the cost efficiency of Linux and virtualization for business-critical workloads. IBM says its PowerLinux Solutions can integrate new Linux-specific Power7 processor-based hardware with industry-standard Linux software from Red Hat and SUSE for analyzing "Big Data." Two new servers are part of the deal: the IBM PureFlex System and the value-priced IBM PowerLinux System. Colin Parris, general manager of IBM Power Systems, explained that serving the Linux market is an important initiative for IBM as a whole. "As CIOs seek to transform their IT department from a cost center to a strategic asset," Parris said, "many have a misconception that deploying Linux on x86 servers equipped with VMware software is their only option for taking advantage of open-source applications." A Stellar Linux Strategy Big Blue is making some big promises with its PowerLinux Solutions and supporting systems. The company says the technology is designed to lower deployment time and costs, while offering greater performance, dependability, and workload density than competitive x86 platforms at similar price points. We asked Laura DiDio, principal analyst at Information Technology Intelligence Consulting, to expound on IBM's latest Linux offerings. She told us Big Blue's servers and strategy are well thought out from a price, performance and business standpoint. "IBM has clearly covered all its bases and done its homework in terms of market research in sizing the current and future market for industry standard Red Hat and SUSE Linux distributions on its Power servers," she said. Their latest announcement, she explained, "has all the elements to make the PowerLinux platform a success, including brand recognition and respect; demonstrable experience in performance, technical service and support, and a new pricing... newsfactor.com »

Before the iPod and earbud generation turned listening to music into a typically solitary experience, the iconic boombox made it more social. Today, the very fact that the tunes we listen to often reside on smartphones and tablets -- or in the cloud -- can make sharing out loud more challenging, especially when you'd rather not be tethered to a speaker dock. In 2010 Jawbone, known for excellent noise-canceling Bluetooth headsets for cellphones, unveiled a neat battery-operated speaker called Jambox. This cool 12-ounce brick doubled as a wireless stereo speaker and speakerphone. It cost $199, came in a few colors and, via Bluetooth, communicated with smartphones, computers, tablets and other devices. But what blew you away was the remarkably big sound that came out of a contraption that's not much larger than a stick of butter. You could stash it in a bag or backpack and barely notice. Only the sound wasn't big enough, it seems, for Jawbone. This week, Jawbone unveiled the aptly named Big Jambox, designed with extra power for larger rooms or the great outdoors. It becomes available May 15 in three models: red dot, white wave, graphite hex. Big Jambox is brick-shaped like its smaller sibling, the top-selling retail speaker, Jawbone says. Only this time the brick is closer in size to an actual brick. At 2.7 pounds, it's portable, just not quite like the original. Still, you can easily lift Big Jambox with one hand, transport it to the backyard or to your office where, like the first Jambox, you can use it as a speaker phone. At $299.99, it also carries a bigger price than the first Jambox. To determine if Big Jambox justifies the larger sum, I compared Jawbone's new speaker with an attractive rival, the SoundLink Wireless Mobile speaker from Bose. The Bose costs the same as... newsfactor.com »

IBM is acquiring Vivisimo in its latest Big Data move. What does that mean for your enterprise? Perhaps plenty. Vivisimo is a federated discovery and navigation software that helps organizations access and analyze Big Data across the enterprise. Vivisimo software automates the discovery of data and helps employees navigate it with a single view across the enterprise, no matter what format it is or where it resides. The goal is to provide valuable insights that drive better decision-making for solving operational challenges. We caught up with David Corrigan, director of strategy for IBM's Infosphere portfolio, to discuss the promise of Vivisimo, how it fits into IBM's portfolio and how it can help enterprise customers. Q. How does the Vivisimo acquisition fit into IBM's portfolio? A. It fits really well into our Big Data platform. Vivisimo is going to be incorporated into the Information Management brand and will be part of the Big Data portfolio. We see it as a critical capability because it enables federated discovery and navigation of Big Data sources -- unstructured and structured content. Vivisimo adds a unique capability to the market. We can say: "We can understand your Big Data sources. We'll leave them exactly where they are and we'll figure out the value. You decide what you need to bring into the Big Data platform itself for deeper analysis. In other words, you can get an idea of the value and you can navigate through it before you bring it all into the Big Data platform. Of course, there's a separate set of use cases around navigation and search and visualization that enable end-user applications. Q. So what does that mean practically speaking for clients? Can you offer us a couple of scenarios? A. Big Data is emerging in a lot of organizations and they have to figure it... newsfactor.com »

What does the Android operating system and a can of half-price tuna at the supermarket have in common? Both, it seems, are loss-leaders, examples of big-picture thinking to gain a long-term profit from a short term loss. Just as the cheap tuna brings customers into a store to buy the overpriced items, Android seems to represent resources devoted by search giant Google without immediate profit in order to keep people using their site as a tour guide of the Internet and downloading apps and other digital multimedia content from Google Play. 'Big Loss for the Whole Year' In papers related to the lawsuit alleging that Android infringes Oracle's copyrights, the company provided figures that were read in court by U.S. District Judge William Alsup. According to Reuters, there was no net gain from Android in all four quarters of 2010, quoting Alsup as saying, "That adds up to a big loss for the whole year." The jury was not present at the time. Reuters said Android revenues for 2010 were about $97.7 million. Showing a loss would make it more difficult for Oracle to say that Google stole Java copyrights for Android to profit from it. If the jury sides with Oracle, the next phase will be assessing damages. Oracle also claims patent infringement by Google. Those allegations will be heard separately. Open to question is whether the open-source Android platform, which debuted on Oct. 22, 2008, powering the HTC Dream, has since turned a profit. Google gives away the system to a range of handset and tablet manufacturers, including Samsung, Motorola Mobility (which Google is in the process of acquiring), HTC and LG. Android is now the most popular operating system in both the U.S. and global markets, and Samsung is its biggest hardware partner with devices on all major carriers. Wireless analyst Gerry Purdy... newsfactor.com »

(Reuters) - AOL Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly results and said it intends to hand over to shareholders 100 percent of the proceeds from its patent sales to Microsoft. Reuters: Internet News »

TORONTO (Reuters) - Planning a wedding? A new web app lets the bride and groom-to-be create a social website that connects guests with each other before the big day. Reuters: Internet News »

When Red Robin Gourmet Burgers introduced its new Tavern Double burger line last month, the company had to get everything right. So it turned to social media. The 460-restaurant chain used an internal social network that resembles Facebook to teach its managers everything from the recipes to the best, fastest way to make them. Instead of mailing out spiral-bound books, getting feedback during executives' sporadic store visits and taking six months to act on advice from the trenches, the network's freewheeling discussion and video produced results in days. Red Robin is already kitchen-testing recipe tweaks based on customer feedback -- and the four new sandwiches just hit the table April 30. Facebook's initial public offering Friday -- the largest by a technology company -- is a watershed moment for the consumer side of the Web, but social networking's real economic impact might be ahead as companies learn how to harness "social business" tools. Beyond advertising on Facebook or Twitter, companies are using social networks to build teams that solve problems faster, share information better among their employees and partners, bring customer ideas for new product designs to market earlier, and redesign all kinds of corporate software in Facebook's easy-to-learn style. "At a very basic level, Facebook is the most popular application ever, with a billion people who know how to use it," said Marc Benioff, chief executive of salesforce.com, whose Chatter social-networking tools are used by 150,000 companies. "The ability to access information is much better because it's easier to get to it." After a slow start, Big Business is embracing social media in a big way. Forrester Research says the sales of software to run corporate social networks will grow 61% a year and be a $6.4 billion business by 2016. Two-thirds of big companies surveyed now use Web 2.0 tools such as social networks... newsfactor.com »

It's official. Google has closed on its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility. But what does this mean for the merged company? There are still more questions than answers. In a Tuesday morning blog post, Google CEO Larry Page opined about how the phones in our pockets have become supercomputers that are changing the way we live. He pointed out how it's now possible to do things we used to think were magic -- or only possible on Star Trek. Things like getting directions on the spot, watching a video on YouTube or taking a picture and sharing it instantly with friends all over the world. "Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone," Page wrote. "We all remember Motorola's StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. And as a company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google." Motorola Gets New CEO Although Page didn't offer much insight on what Google will do with Motorola, he did announce that Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing that big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. Long-time Googler Dennis Woodside has taken the reins. After extolling Woodside's virtues in the blog he turned his attention back to technology, indicating that Motorola would still make mobile phones, saying: "It's a well-known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. "Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound -- as will the ability to just... newsfactor.com »