Google and NASA are forming a joint research lab to look at quantum computing for things like facial recognition and understanding of disease. Their computer is from D-Wave Systems, which appears to be producing quantum computing results years earlier than many expected.
Two cloud-based software companies, GoodData, which does business analytics, and Box, which stores data, have announced a joint product. The real big deal is what products like this say about the change in thinking about information, from a static fact to a potential source of insight.
The timeline isn’t clear, but the German software giant SAP thinks it’s time to get out of selling on-premise software. SAP is offering its advanced in-memory computing product, HANA, as a cloud service, and says everything else will go there.
Amazon Web Services is in the middle of a worldwide tour, selling itself to customers and partners and gearing up for competition from a variety of new competitors.
Living Social told employees Friday that it had been hit by a cyberattack that may have left usernames, e-mail addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords for 50 million users vulnerable.
On Tuesday, Microsoft will begin offering a new, more basic cloud computing service that competes directly with Amazon’s similar services. And to make sure it’s taken seriously, Microsoft said it will match Amazon’s prices.
The medical profession is joining the move into the cloud, raising complex questions about business opportunities, Big Data and privacy.
Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its long-awaited low-power server for big data centers. The shocker is the way H.P. plans to come out with new models, using chips from many suppliers, every three to six months.
On Wednesday, Microsoft said that Windows Phone was out-shipping Apple’s iPhone in seven countries. Where? Microsoft didn’t say, so Bits asked IDC.
Apple says its systems were attacked by the same group that hit Twitter and Facebook. Like Facebook, Apple confirmed that its employees' computers were infected with malware when they visited a Web site for mobile developers.
If there is one theme that will be the topic of digital business this year, it is mobile. ComScore, which tracks Web and mobile usage, published a report about what happened in 2012, and what to expect in 2013. It shows that the effects of a movement toward mobile are everywhere, from shopping to media to search. According to the report, “2013 could spell a very rocky economic transition,” and businesses will have to scramble to stay ahead of consumers’ changing behavior.
Tracing the origins of the term "Big Data" shows how digital technology is changing the way words and ideas develop and spread, and how they are studied.
The chief executive of TSMC, one of the biggest semiconductor makers in the world, hinted at big orders to come, fueling the Apple rumor mill that the iPhone maker may soon shift its chip production to the Taiwanese company.
Facebook’s new tool, graph search, will allow users to look for photos, people and places that their friends like.
Over the last year, American regulators and trade groups have tried to contain an effort by the European Commission to increase data protection regulations. That may not slow the momentum in Europe.
Intel prides itself on having some of the smartest engineers around. When it comes to the world’s largest computing systems, however, the chip giant now takes a back seat to a certain kind of powerful new customer.
How giants like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon work with Intel could mean a lot for much of the rest of the technology industry. Their needs on things like computing power and energy consumption get a lot of attention from Intel, which expects many other companies to eventually build big systems of their own.
Diane Bryant, who runs Intel’s data center group, would not identify Intel’s Big Four, other than to say they were all American companies. It is most likely she meant Google, which leads in search; Facebook, the dominant social media company; Amazon, which has the biggest cloud rental business; and Microsoft, which uses the cloud for search ...
Jeff Hawkins got rich and famous as the brains behind Palm, an early power in mobile data. He has also developed a new model of how we think, which will now be used, he says, to revolutionize the data analysis industry.
The growth of online staffing companies, which connect freelancers with remote clients for software and accounting jobs, could change qualifications for hiring.
Forget the way we live and share on Facebook. The biggest innovation at the social network may be in back-end plumbing and innovative pricing. It is starting to affect the rest of the tech industry.
Behind the cat photos and Oscar opinions of one billion humans is Facebook’s burgeoning network of data centers. As complex as managing people’s personal data and sending them ads is, the company tries to buy from a relatively small number of suppliers, whom it keeps on a short leash.
“In computing at this scale, the data center is a factory floor,” says Frank Frankovsky, vice president of hardware design and supply chain at Facebook. “We try to keep things simple.”
