Category: News

There’s a flood of vendors out there looking to make infrastructure management as smooth and as manageable as possible. Stackpop is a cloud-based service that helps enterprises analyze and optimize their IT infrastructure spending. Its pitch is that its easy to use and brings in real savings. The New York-based company addresses the disconnect between finance and IT, helping track contracts and spending, and providing useful intelligence when it’s time to renegotiate or shift vendors and technologies. It also acts as a comparison tool and marketplace for buyers and sellers, pitting it against colo brokerages in addition to spend tracking and aggregation.

While its appeal is obvious for the end users of infrastructure, for the infrastructure providers themselves, StackPop has the potential to become a very potent marketplace to drive sales. It aids in comparing, configuring and buying from over 450 infrastructure providers in 40 countries and wants customers to never buy blind again. As it grows this part of what it does, it stands to gain insight to general buying and infrastructure trends across the world, so users can see what is being paid on average.

The challenge lies in making infrastructure services like colocation as transparent as cloud or hosting. As hybrid infrastructures continues to gain traction, a management platform like StackPop stands a good chance of becoming something of note. It already touts some large customers like gaming site IGN, social check-ins provider Foursquare, and online fashion retailer Gilt Groupe.

A large part of what StackPop does is analagous to personal finance and budgeting tools, such as personal finance portal Mint.com, only for IT infrastructure. Mint.com, now owned by Intuit, is an application that helps people understand their finances. It gives a user the ability to aggregate and monitor all financial accounts from one simple, attractive, and mobile-friendly app. It drew a large crowd of users as a startup and was soon acquired by the financial software giant Intuit. Mint.com and Stackpop are similar in terms of what they hope to achieve, although Stackpop’s features go beyond the “read-only” data aggregation seen at Mint.

Roots at Panther Express

Stackpop was founded in October of 2011. The co-founders were infrastructure guys, network and systems engineers. Co-founder and CEO Jason Evans says the talent behind the company grew its global chops at content delivery network Panther Express, where they started with 10 servers and, grew the company to 45 global locations before being acquired by CDNetworks.

Evans moved to Mediamap, a real-time bidding platform that had a handful of servers on Rackspace upon arrival, which built out to 6 global data centers including Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa.

“We’ve always had the idea of creating better tools to help grow and scale the infrastructure,” said Evans. “The original idea for Stackpop came from we had an unused cage we had purchased on a 2-year agreement at Panther, and it was a big waste. We tried to sublease it but couldn’t.”

That unused IT purchase highlighted a problem, and an opportunity. “The idea came out of the question – ‘How do we create a second level marketplace for space capacity at a discounted rate?’” said Evans. In April of 2011, Stackpop was formed to pursue solutions.

Evans teamed with Stackpop CTO, Aram Grigoryan, also a Panther Express alumni, and put together a seed round of funding in the fall of 2011. The beta for the serviced came out March of last year, and has closed $1.2 million in transactions through the platform and through its partners. Provider feedback has been positive.

Infrastructure Spending Insight That Goes Beyond Cloud

There are a lot of web sites that provide information about infrastructure. However, there’s no one transactional platform that drives and dominates infrastructure spending. “There’s a need for a more transparent and transactional platform,” said Evans. “We had to get a little more involved from a personal level.”

One year ago, the President established the White House Council on Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) that established an innovative new model of federal-local collaboration dedicated to assisting communities get back on their feet and create jobs by helping them better leverage federal resources and form key partnerships to implement economic visions. Teams of federal employees are embedded with seven Mayors across the country to provide tailored technical assistance to cut through red tape, increase government efficiency, and build partnerships to help local leaders implement sustainable economic plans.

A year later, we have learned a lot about collaboration, team work, and how the federal government can support local communities working as a team to get things done. 

These lessons are outlined in the Strong Cities, Strong Communities Annual Report, which describes the impact of the SC2 Initiative and identifies emerging innovations that have the potential to be applied to many other communities working to strengthen their economies and job creation at the local level. 

At a time when communities must accomplish more with every dollar of investment, SC2’s work in its first few years has already enabled communities to maximize the impact of more than $345 million in existing federal funds.

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Safeguard Scientifics, the Wayne, Pa.-based investment company that focuses on growth-stage healthcare and tech companies, has promoted Jeffrey McGroarty to Senior VP and CFO. McGroarty joined the company in 2005 as a vice president and corporate controller. He succeeds Stephen Zarrilli, who was named president and CEO of Safeguard last November.

PRESS RELEASE:

Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE), a holding company that builds value in growth-stage healthcare and technology companies, announced that Jeffrey B. McGroarty, 43, an accounting and financial executive who joined the Company in 2005 as Vice President and Corporate Controller, was named Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective today. Mr. McGroarty succeeds Stephen T. Zarrilli, 51, who was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Safeguard on November 1, 2012.

“Jeff is a strong, capable executive who has worked closely with me to improve Safeguard’s financial strength and flexibility, positioning the Company to maximize value,” said Mr. Zarrilli.

During his tenure at Safeguard, Mr. McGroarty has managed the Company’s accounting, financial operations, SEC reporting, treasury and tax functions, and also has delivered value-added guidance and service in these same areas to Safeguard’s partner companies.

“I’m energized by this opportunity to further sharpen Safeguard’s focus on its core business, increase capital under management and continue to build high-potential, growth-stage companies in the healthcare and technology sectors as we work towards more consistent monetizations,” said Mr. McGroarty.

Prior to joining Safeguard in December 2005, Mr. McGroarty was interim Controller at Cephalon, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEPH), an international biopharmaceutical company. Before that, he was Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis at Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE), a global manufacturer and recycler of lead-acid batteries. While at Exide, Mr. McGroarty had a major role in the company’s reorganization and emergence from bankruptcy. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where he was responsible for domestic and international audits, due diligence, consulting and post-transaction integration of mergers and acquisitions for clients in the U.S. and United Kingdom.

Mr. McGroarty earned a B.A. degree in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and has M.B.A. degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

About Safeguard Scientifics
Founded in 1953 and based in Wayne, Pa., Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE) provides growth capital and operational support to entrepreneurial and innovative healthcare and technology companies in medtech, healthtech, specialty pharmaceuticals, financial technology, digital media, and Enterprise 3.0. For more information, please visit our website at www.safeguard.com.

The post Safeguard Scientifics Names Jeffrey McGroarty as CFO appeared first on peHUB.

It’s been rumored for a while now that Eminem has been working on a studio album. Now, that rumor has been all but confirmed.

Dr. Dre, a long-time collaborator and producer for Eminem, this week called in to a radio show called Big Boy’s Neighborhood, which airs on 106 FM in Los Angeles. Dre told the host that Eminem is just about finished with his new material. Dre also mentioned that he has been back in the studio himself, though he states he is “just having fun.”

“Em is finishing up his project, man,” said Dre. “And for me, man, I’ve just, like, gotten inspired again to go back in the studio. So I’m…really just having fun, with life and having fun being creative and just trying some new and different things with myself, man.”

Eminem has released six studio albums during his career. HIs last effort was 2010′s Recovery, which received generally good reviews from fans and the media.

Dr. Dre’s full interview can be heard below:

(via Huffington Post)

For T-Mobile, it is a move necessary to gain traction. For the past three-plus years, the No. 4 carrier in America has made many attempts to bridge the gap. They’ve introduced new plans a number of times — it feels like dozens. They’ve run aggressive marketing campaigns touting the speed of their network. If it’s in the wireless marketing playbook, they’ve tried it. They even ran an end-around play, but still haven’t gained their desired traction.

Yes, they’re the No. 4 carrier in America, but they’re a distant fourth. At 33.9 million subscribers they trail No. 3 Sprint by more than 20 million. At this point in the game, attracting that many subscribers is a nearly impossible task. The bulk would have to come from not only Sprint, but also Verizon and AT&T — both of which boast over 100 million subscribers. But why would more than 20 million subscribers leave these larger, more reliable, and more convenient networks? Such is T-Mobile’s dilemma.

Last year they proposed a solution: a merger with MetroPCS. In the past this might not have worked as well. Before LTE started to cover America, MetroPCS and T-Mobile used different technologies to power their networks. But with converging technologies, the merger is a bit more feasible. Still, it leaves the combined company with a deficit. MetroPCS will add around 9 million subscribers, meaning Sprint will still have a more than 10 million subscriber advantage.

At the same time, Sprint will likely make a move of its own soon enough. After a lucrative buyout offer from Japanese carrier Softbank, Sprint received a competing offer from Dish Network. The latter makes the situation even more interesting, given Dish’s existing wireless holdings and a long-held desire to get into the consumer cellular market. The combined company won’t gain many subscribers over Sprint, but it could breathe new life into a company that hasn’t made much progress in the past few years.

The culture of mergers and acquisitions will likely continue. Spectrum is rare, and even with a spectrum auction in the offing, many carriers will find it more efficient to simply acquire another company’s spectrum and subscribers. We saw this with the spectrum auction in early 2008. Verizon and AT&T were expected to compete for the attractive C block, but Verizon ended up having the run of it because AT&T decided to pursue acquisitions.

There are still a number of smaller and regional carriers that could be acquisition targets in the next year or so:

• Cricket — which was previously an oft-discussed merger partner with MetroPCS
• US Cellular
• Cincinnati Bell
• C Spire (Cellular South)
• SouthernLINC
• Various Cellular One holdings

Not all of these entities are publicly held, so mergers can become a bit more complicated. But given the need to pick up new spectrum and subscribers, the larger carriers could find it worth their while.

In other words, T-Mobile and MetroPCS could be just the start. Sprint is likely to go next. Will any other carriers combine and consolidate in order to keep up with the wireless giants?

The post MetroPCS Board Approves T-Mobile Merger, Further Consolidating US Wireless Landscape appeared first on MobileMoo.

Last month, Vimeo launched a full video on demand service that lets Vimeo PRO creators sell their work on the site. It’s pay-to-view, with much freedom (and profits) given to the creators. Creators get to set the price for their work, and they take 90% of the profit.

Today, just over a month later, Vimeo is announcing that creators have uploaded hundreds of paid videos, and viewers have made “thousands” of purchases. Not too specific, but it looks like there’s at least some significant buzz over Vimeo’s newest project. With their VOD service off and running, Vimeo is now looking to make all the content easier to discover.

To that end, Vimeo has launched a redesigned On Demand homepage.

“Introducing: the new Vimeo On Demand home page, which puts the focus on the creative films and series distributed using the new platform. Looking for something to watch tonight? Boom. Check out “Vimeo Selects” for titles we find interesting, or browse the entire On Demand catalog by genre. You can even keep track of all your On Demand purchases in “My On Demand,” right on this page. Because it’s hard to remember them all when you’ve bought hundreds of them, right? RIGHT!?” says Vimeo’s Blake Whitman.

The dive in paid videos began back in September of last year, when Vimeo introduced their Creator Services platform. The first service unveiled was the “tip jar,” which allowed viewers to leave tips for video creators. Vimeo promises that there are more improvements left to be made to their new VOD platform.

Have you paid to stream anything using Vimeo yet?

TPH Partners has invested in Channel Energy. Financial terms weren’t announced. Denver-based Chanel is an upstream company focused on the acquisition and development of onshore oil and gas properties across several basins in the U.S.

PRESS RELEASE

TPH Partners, the middle-market energy private equity funds manager, has partnered with management to form Channel Energy, LLC, an independent upstream company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Channel is focused on the acquisition and development of onshore oil and gas properties across several basins in the U.S.

“We think that now is a great time to be putting capital to work in the oil and gas business, and we have an extensive list of potentially overlooked opportunities identified”
Channel is led by Kevin Corbett, President and CEO, and Doug Izmirian, EVP and CFO, who have almost sixty years combined experience in the oil and gas industry and a proven track record of success. Over his thirty-one year career, Mr. Corbett has led successful exploration and development projects onshore in the U.S., and in Europe, Asia and Africa, including previously founding and leading Wrangler Resources and Sequoia Production. Mr. Izmirian also has an impressive background, previously serving as co-founder and CFO of TransZap and as a co-founder of Citadel Oil and Gas Corporation.

Channel will utilize management’s experience and technical expertise to pursue primarily liquids-focused assets in historically prolific basins through a combination of acquisition and farm-in transactions.

“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to put capital to work with such an excellent management team. Kevin is a proven oil finder with a track record of value creation, and Doug’s history of successful entrepreneurship in the oil patch will add an important element to the team’s skill set,” said George McCormick, Managing Partner of TPH Partners.

“We think that now is a great time to be putting capital to work in the oil and gas business, and we have an extensive list of potentially overlooked opportunities identified,” said Kevin Corbett, President and CEO of Channel. “Doug and I feel that we and the TPH Partners team are very well aligned in our views and expectations, which makes for a great partnership, and we look forward to working together in the creation and growth of this new company.”

About TPH Partners

TPH Partners, based in Houston, Texas, is the private equity arm of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., LLC, an integrated energy investment and merchant bank. TPH Partners makes private investments in the upstream, oilfield service and midstream subsectors of the energy industry. For more information on TPH Partners, please visit www.tphpartners.com.

About Channel Energy, LLC

Channel Energy, LLC is an independent upstream company based in Denver, Colorado. For more information on Channel, please contact Channel Energy at [email protected].

The post TPH Partners Invests In Channel Energy appeared first on peHUB.

As previously reported, the EU has finally released documents clearly stating its concerns with Google’s competitive practices and listing, for the first time, Google’s actual proposals for settlement.

Ahead of the release, the FairSearch Coalition (a group of Google competitors – including chief rival Microsoft – hellbent on seeing Google’s business regulated by governments) issued a statement indicating it would likely have more suggestions for how Google could go beyond its proposals to make things better for its competitors. Now, the group has put out another statement.

Thomas Vinje, counsel and spokesman for FairSearch Europe had this to say:

“FairSearch applauds the Commission for laying out a clear and compelling case that Google is abusing its dominant position by giving its own products preferential treatment in search results. This is an important conclusion that must lead to meaningful remedies. We have always said that the best remedy for consumers and innovation would be to require Google to apply the same policy to search results for its own products as it does to all others.”

“However, Google’s proposed commitments appear to fall short of ending the preferential treatment at the heart of the Commission’s case based on formal complaints from 17 companies. Google’s own screen shots in its proposal (see p. 30) shows it seeks approval to continue preferential treatment for its own products. We will study the proposal in detail and offer an empirical analysis based on actual tests.”

Page 30? Okay, let’s take a look:

Look at that. Google Shopping results right at the top for a search for “dslr camera”. Perhaps they should be doing it the way FairSearch member Microsoft does it:

Oh, wait a minute.

It’s almost as if a search engine offering its own shopping results for product queries is the industry standard:

bookshout! said Thursday that it raised $6 million in Series B funding. Dallas-based booshout! said it will use the proceeds to expand its digital book distribution and engagement platform, as well as giving authors control of their audiences.

PRESS RELEASES

It’s one thing to sell a book. It’s another to build passionate communities around the content, providing lucrative channels for new sales and marketing opportunities.

Today bookshout! announced $6M in Series B funding to expand its digital book distribution and engagement platform, giving authors control of their audiences and publishers a new and powerful sales channel.

Ambassador Enterprises led the Series B round, increasing its investment in bookshout!. The firm sees significant opportunity for innovation where new tools for social sharing and engagement give authors and publishers better data to connect readers with books they want to read, and identify opportunities for additional merchandising and promotion.

“bookshout! is reinventing how digital books are sold, shared and consumed,” said Daryle Doden, CEO of Ambassador Enterprises. “Traditional publishing is like baseball before Moneyball. The industry is guessing what people want. By serving authors and publishers in a process-oriented, measurable way, bookshout! is eliminating the guesswork and building tools that let content creators take control of their audience.”

bookshout! recently released support for digital bulk sales, special sales and promotions that enable publishers and authors to sell digital books in bulk at events, conferences, book tours and other group activities. With a promo code or a gift card, readers simply visit a private-labeled landing page and redeem the coupon to get a book, automatically becoming part of its “reading circle.”

As a result, authors gain a powerful platform to engage fans, share ideas, answer questions and promote bonus content, while publishers gain a valuable channel to capture analytics and target sales and promotions. Early adopters include: CareerBuilder.com, which sponsored Nolan Bushnell’s book tour for “Finding the Next Steve Jobs,” and the Kauffman Foundation, among others.

“Publishers need to participate in new distribution channels, including direct-to-consumer,” said Joe Wikert, General Manager, Publisher, & Chair of Tools of Change (TOC) Conference at O’Reilly Media, Inc. “bookshout! offers publishers many of the data and analytics benefits of having a direct channel, but without all the upfront costs associated with creating one.”

“Publishing is on the verge of a major shift from creation to distribution and consumption, but the big players like Amazon and Barnes & Noble have shut out the authors and publishers, preventing them from engaging with their readers,” said Jason Illian, CEO of bookshout!. “This new investment enables us to expand our platform to create new opportunities for authors, publishers and readers to connect in more meaningful ways around the books they love.”

For more information on digital bulk sales, special sales and promotions, contact: [email protected].

About bookshout!

bookshout! empowers readers, authors and publishers to make the e-book experience more collaborative and enjoyable than ever. Based in Dallas, Texas, bookshout! features more than 250 publishers and 100,000 books accessible via iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire HD or the web. For more information, please visit www.bookshout.com.

About Ambassador Enterprises

Established in 2008, Ambassador Enterprises is a for-profit, philanthropic, equity firm investing in leaders and the organizations they lead. Believing that an investment in people and teams will pay returns in the form of healthy relationships and communities, Ambassador recently acquired a former university campus in Fort Wayne (IN), establishing The Summit, a cooperative learning community. To learn more, visit www.ambassador-enterprises.com.

The post Bookshout! Raises $6 Mln appeared first on peHUB.

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Zynga’s most high-profile acquisition of last year was OMGPOP and its game Draw Something. The game proved incredibly popular, but soon began to bleed users by the millions. Now Zynga is trying to win over those who left with a sequel.

Zynga announced during its earnings results that Draw Something 2 is now available on iOS devices. Unlike other sequels that would be content with adding new words, OMGPOP has added a number of new features that encourages more sharing. Players can also finally save their own creations as well as the creations of others for later viewing:

For the first time, players can save their drawings in their own galleries and check out the work of other burgeoning artists and celebrities too. The game has a full spectrum of new tools and colors, allowing players to tap into the full limits of their creativity. There are new textures and patterns, like zebra, plaid and camouflage; and new tools, like an 8bit Pixel Pen, Sparkle Pen, stamps, highlighter, crayon and more. There are also more than 100 new vibrant colors. The new Free Draw option gives players creative freedom to draw freestyle and share their art with the world.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a sequel without some new words. Zynga says that Draw Something 2 features thousands of new words, including words “that touch on the latest pop culture trends and current events.”

Draw Something 2 is now available for iOS devices in the App Store. Zynga says it will be on Google Play shortly.

The past two days have been interesting ones for Huawei and their efforts to break into the U.S. market. During a summit with analysts on Tuesday, Huawei’s Executive Vice President Eric Xu made some statements indicating Huawei was going to abandon the U.S. market. At least, that is how many people interpreted his comments. A day later Huawei issued a clarification to explain that Mr. Xu was commenting on growth in other developed countries, especially European markets. Huawei anticipates those markets will be much more important for them than the U.S. market, but they have no intention of abandoning the U.S. market.

As the world’s second largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, one would think Huawei could achieve a significant presence in the U.S. However, the company has been subject to claims that it is really a front for Chinese espionage efforts. The clearest and most explicit instance of this came last fall when the U.S. House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee issued a report claiming Huawei and ZTE may pose a major risk to U.S. security. The House Committee also believes Huawei may be guilty of bribery, corruption, discriminatory behavior and copyright infringement.

Huawei has struggled to gain a foothold in selling telecommunications gear in the U.S., no doubt thanks to the virtual blacklisting of the company. However, the mobile division is achieving some limited success. For 2012, Huawei made CNY 31 billion ($5.1 billion USD). More recently they have had to resort to measures like selling their phones through Amazon instead of directly by carriers.

source: Beijing News
via: phoneArena

Come comment on this article: Huawei announces departure from U.S. market, then reverses course

People riding bikes for exercise, recreation or commuting don’t need to waste their energy any longer. Oh, they can still ride, but now they can recoup some of the power they generate on their ride and use the juice to charge up their mobile devices. A new Kickstarter project for the Silva Cycle Atom is the secret.

The Atom is made of two parts: a small generator with electronic power regulation and a removable battery pack with a USB port.  Most bicycles with a quick-release rear wheel can use the Atom, which sits between the rear tire and bike frame. A USB cable can be run from the Atom to a charge a mobile device while riding, even as the battery pack recharges. Here’s how it works:

Taking the Atom’s battery pack with you when leaving your bike is a snap; just remove it when you lock up your bike. I like the fact that the battery pack pulls “double duty”: You can recharge it through a conventional outlet as well. With a 1300 mAh battery capacity, a fully-charged Atom should recharge an iPhone to about 70 percent full. Handsets with larger batteries — say the new Galaxy S 4, for example — would only get about 40 to 50 percent of a recharge with the Atom.

The project is hoping to raise $85,000 by May 23 and it’s well on its way already: At time of writing, over $55,000 were pledged. The first 300 early-birds already committed a discounted $85 for the Atom, so if you want in now, you’ll have to fork over $95. The project founders expect to sell the Atom for $105, so you can still get a discount now. Delivery estimates for the Atom are November.

Are there cheaper ways to recharge your devices? Of course there are. But this product is perfect for heavy bike commuters. And when I take weekend rides, I often use my phone to track the ride via GPS so I can get speed, elevation and other data. The apps and radios to make that happen aren’t kind to my phone batteries, so the Atom would be a great companion for those activities too.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Despite lagging far behind the iOS App Store and Google Play, the growing Amazon Appstore is beginning to be taken seriously by mobile app developers, right as it gears up for a wider international rollout, according to app analytics company AppAnnie.

Out of 1,500 mobile app developers surveyed, 22.5 percent are publishing for Amazon devices, according to AppAnnie’s inaugural Amazon app developer index published on Thursday. That’s tiny compared to its larger mobile rivals, but the big finding had to do with developers’ motivations: the Amazon Appstore is becoming an important outlet for developers, but not because they’re impressed with the company’s new hardware devices. Rather, AppAnnie found that the No. 1 thing driving developers to Amazon’s store is simple convenience: 52 percent said they already build Android apps, so it’s easy to port them over for Amazon’s store.

The other reasons they gave show Amazon still has a ways to go in convincing more developers that it’s an important and necessary outlet for their work. Among those already publishing on the platform only 24 percent said they did so because they “believe Amazon Appstore market share will grow,” and a meager 7 percent said they “believe the Kindle Fire will be a leading device.”

Some other interesting stats AppAnnie found:

• 56 percent of Amazon Appstore publishers focus on games
• Half say games are the leading revenue driver for them

AppAnnie sees big things for the store. There are already 75,000 apps on it and 19,000 developers signed up — which pales in comparison to 850,000 iOS app and 800,000 Google Play apps available — but the Appstore hasn’t been widely accessible outside the U.S. However that’s changing soon: Amazon announced last week it would be opening the Appstore to 200 countries over the next few months, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, India, South Africa and South Korea.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Tablets wars: Apple is from Venus, Amazon is from Mars
• What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media

Both in and out of video games, it seems that patient gamers are always rewarded. While early adopters can often end up shelling out $60 for a new game and $30 to $60 more for a title’s DLC, those who are willing to wait for the experience can often grab award-winning games at lower prices with all DLC already included.

That’s the case this year for gamer’s who haven’t trekked across the plains of Skyrim. Almost two years after the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda has announced that a “Legendary Edition” of the game will launch on June 4 (June 7 in Europe) for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game will cost $60.

Skyrim: Legendary Edition will include a version of Skyrim updated to the 1.9 title update and all three of the game’s DLC’s: Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn.

Bethesda announced earlier this month that it has officially stopped development on Skyrim. The team that was still working on the game has been shifted to a new project, which could be The Evil Within, Fallout 4, or some other unannounced Bethesda title.

Google has just updated document files in Google Drive to add some Google+ integration and also make conversations much easier to begin.

First off, you’ll now see the Google+ profile pictures of everyone currently working on the document right at the top. Before, it was just the names that appeared. If you hover over the photo, you’ll see a small snapshot of their Google+ profile pic, complete with details. From there, you’ll be able to add them to your circles without ever leaving the document. It’s a small, but useful update for those who use Google Drive to collaborate on projects.

Starting a group chat also got easier with today’s update:

“In addition, you can now start a group chat with just one click. Simply select the new chat button at the top right and a chat box will appear, making it easy for you to quickly message everyone in the file,” says Google software engineer Eric Zhang.

Google says that you should start seeing the new features in your Drive documents today or tomorrow. Also, in the future, Google plans to add these new features to other types of files, like Google Sheets.

Melissa Gilbert, actress and recent contestant on “Dancing With The Stars”, tied the knot on Wednesday to fellow actor Timothy Busfield.

The couple announced their engagement in January, and as it was the third marriage for both, they went low-key for the ceremony at San Ysidro Ranch in California, with Gilbert choosing a non-traditional gown for her big day. The strapless dress was done in a deep red, with several tiers of fabric for the skirt.

Gilbert and Busfield have known each other for nearly twenty years but only recently were able to pursue a romantic relationship; both of them were married over the years, Gilbert to actor Bruce Boxleitner. The pair got divorced in 2011.

“It’s been hard on the kids and that’s been hard to watch but ultimately everyone’s going to be fine,” said Gilbert of the divorce. “Everything takes time.”

The new couple have five children between them. As for the wedding gown, bridal expert Harmony Walton says color is popular these days.

“Wedding dresses no longer have to be white,” she said. “Blush and even bright pink gowns are huge runway and aisle trends and even bolder colors like black, red, yellow, and pale blue work well for the fashion-forward bride. Vera Wang just debuted a collection of wedding dresses with black and a few years back she wowed us with red, giving brides the okay to go bold on their wedding day. And celebs have taken note! Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Biel, and now Melissa Gilbert are among the recent brides to wear color. It’s a wonderful departure from the traditional wedding gown, especially if it’s not the first wedding like Melissa’s and the couple is looking for something different.”

Image: Twitter

Cisco (CSCO) announced new MDS storage networking solutions for storage area networks, to help customers address rising cloud and big data requirements.

9710 Multilayer Director

Cisco says that at 24 terabits per second of total switching capacity, the new Cisco 9710 Multilayer Director delivers more bandwidth than any storage director in the industry. Powering both SAN and LAN networking operations it will support high-density Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). The new model builds on the MDS heritage of nonstop operations, including software upgrades, by providing the highest fault-tolerant capabilities with fully redundant (N+1) fans, switching fabrics, and power-supplies or grid redundancy (N:N). The new MDS 9710 Multilayer Director supports up to 384 line-rate 16 GB Fibre Channel ports or FCoE in a single 14 RU chassis.

“As the leading IT service provider in Norway, we look to Cisco as a key technology partner to support us in the process of consolidating and upgrading data centers. We require storage networks to support the next generation services and level of availability our customers demand,” said Jo Marius Pedersen, SAN specialist, EVRY.  ”The converged management, predictable high performance, flexibility and reliability of the 16 GB optimized Cisco MDS Multilayer 9710 has through thorough testing shown unprecedented results. The changing technology landscape, with its exponential data growth and increasing pressure to reduce cost and complexity, forces us to constantly balance innovative and known solutions. We can definitely recommend businesses with similar challenges to evaluate the innovative MDS platform.”

9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch

The Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch delivers storage services, including Cisco I/O accelerator and Data Mobility Manager, which improve SAN efficiency by performing important storage services centrally in the fabric. This architecture reduces the time and resources required to perform common storage management functions and simplifies and accelerates data protection for regulatory compliance. It contains up to 40 line-rate ports of 16 GB FC/FICON, 8 ports of 10 GbE FCoE, and 2 ports of 1/10GbE FCIP/iSCSI, while delivering a rich set of storage services via licensing.

“Today’s announcement cements Cisco’s technology leadership in the storage director market,” said David Yen, senior vice president, Data Center Group, Cisco. “Cisco continues to deliver the greatest depth and breadth for an end-to-end data center unified fabric. Together with our ecosystem of partners, we are reshaping the data center into an IT linchpin that transforms business continuity and operations for customers, one that is critical to today’s competitive business environments.”

In the following video Cisco discusses the new MDS solutions, and how storage is changing, with 16 Gigabit Fibre Channel, solid state drives, and block and file-level storage designs.