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Microsoft to begin connecting Skype and Lync Microsoft provided an updated roadmap for its Lync unified-communications platform on February 19, the opening day of the company's first Lync Conference in San Diego. The biggest piece of new news is that Lync-Skype connectivity/federation is coming later than many expected. The first piece of that connectivity --- sharing of presence, instant messaging (IM) and voice across the two services -- will be available to all Lync users as of June 2013. Video connectivity between Skype and Lync isn't coming until some time in the next 18 months, officials confirmed today. Customers who were testing Microsoft's Lync 2013 last year noted that Skype federation was one of the features of Lync 2013. Microsoft officials also confirmed Skype federation was designed to be part of the Lync 2013 release . But when Lync Server 2013 RTM'd in October 2012, along with the rest of the new Office client/server products, Skype

Survey shows companies need Linux talent and they need it bad Survey says: Businesses need Linux IT pros, they need them now, and they're willing to pay real money to get them. Got mad Linux skills? Then the job market wants you and it wants you bad. (Credit: The Linux Foundaiton and Dice.) The 2013 Linux Jobs Report survey , which was conducted by the Linux Foundation and Dice , the self-proclaimed #1 technology job board, found that hiring managers from corporations, small and medium businesses (SMBs), government, and staffing agencies want Linux professionals — and they want them now. In particular, this survey of 850 hiring managers and 2,600 Linux professionals found: 93-percent of hiring managers say they will hire a Linux pro in the next six months, an increase from 89 percent in 2012. More hiring managers in 2013 say that finding Linux talent is difficult — nine out of 10 in 2013; eight out of 10 in 2012 — underscoring th

Apple, newfangled iWatches and becoming a mature company Apple is reportedly looking into wearable devices such as next-gen watches, but the development is just one more sign that the company is maturing and needs some new tricks. The big news Sunday into Monday---and rumored before---is that Apple is testing a smart watch. This smart watch would apparently go nicely with Apple's television set that has been rumored to change the world.These new markets for Apple illustrate what has Wall Street a bit worried these days: What can Apple do as its next trick? Here's why answering that question is such a big deal: Apple is projected to report fiscal 2013 net income of $42.2 billion on revenue of $183.1 billion. In fiscal 2014, analysts currently expect Apple to report net income of $48.1 billion on revenue of $207.2 billion. In 2015, Wall Street analysts project Apple to report net income of $52.45 billion on revenue of $235.76 billion. For what it's wort

Anonymous Indonesia defaces Myanmar tourism site Anonymous Indonesia has breached a Myanmar tourism site in retailiation against the government's treatment of the Rohingya people. The hacktivist group announced late-Wednesday in a Twitter post it had defaced the tourism site,  mm.myanmar.net , which provides travel and location information, lodging and sights.   A message left in the defacement said the site's data was safe and that the message was meant for the Myanmar government. "We call on the government of Myanmar to stop the violence and the expulsion against Rohingya based on humanitarian," the message read. The defacement also contained a link to a news report by The Nation on how the Myanmar government considered the Rohingya race as illegal immigrants and had refused to grant them citizenship rights. In a Twitter reply on Thursday, Anonymous Indonesia apologized for the defacement and explained it merely wanted to inform the Myanmar gov

Microsoft's 'Blue' wave is coming to more than just Windows As we've known for a few months, the Windows client team at Microsoft is working on its first "feature-pack" update for Windows 8, supposedly due this summer/fall, which is codenamed "Blue." But it turns out Blue isn't a Windows thing only, according to one very accurate tipster of mine who doesn't want to be identified. Blue also is the way Microsoft is referring to the next substantial platform update for Windows Phone, the Windows Services (like SkyDrive, Hotmail, etc.), and Windows Server, according to my source. In other words, Blue is a wave of product refreshes which are not expected to arrive exactly all on the same day, but which are meant to be released more or less around the same time. Before these various Blues come to market, there will continue to be minor fixes, firmware updates and new features added to Windows 8, Windows RT, Wind

Microsoft to launch the new Office commercially on January 29 There have been lots of rumors that January 29 would be the day that the latest version of Office would be generally available via retail channels. But thanks to a tweet from the Office team, and a #Timeto365 campaign/hashtag -- which I saw via Winbeta.org -- we now know Microsoft is "launching" the new Office on Tuesday in Bryant Park, New York. (Thanks for the heads up, guys! Luckily, I live within walking distance.) Microsoft released Office 2013 to manufacturing on October 11, 2012. The company made the final bits available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, as well as volume-licensing customers, before the end of last year. Recently, Microsoft made $10 versions of the final Office 2013 bits available to volume licensees with Software Assurance as part of its Home Use Program. Microsoft officials have been saying for a couple of months that Redmond planned to make the final bits commerc

India developing national cybersecurity architecture India is in the midst of developing and implementing a national cybersecurity architecture that is aimed at preventing sabotage and espionage of its core IT systems and networks. In a report Monday , the Economic Times said that the system will protect critical information infrastructure and networks by monitoring activities, while designated government agencies will offer certification to vendors and service providers to provide additional safety measures. "It will also involve capacity and authority for operations in cyberspace," said Shivshankar Menon, national security advisor for India, in the report. "The goal is to prevent sabotage, espionage, and other forms of cyber attacks that could hurt us," he added.Menon said that the National Security Council has approved the architecture in principle, and implementation details are being worked out with the ministries and agencies. Following this,

The inside story of the Raspberry Pi Eben Upton's overwhelming emotion at having co-created a $35 Linux computer that sold in the hundreds of thousands last year is surprise. The 34-year-old chip architect is genuinely taken aback that demand for the Raspberry Pi proved to be orders of magnitude larger than a small pool of aspiring UK computer engineers. "We honestly did think we would sell about 1,000, maybe 10,000 in our wildest dreams. We thought we would make a small number and give them out to people who might want to come and read computer science at Cambridge," he told ZDNet. The first inkling of the fervour the credit card-sized board would create came in May 2011, when the first public outing of the Pi in a BBC video generated some 600,000 views on YouTube. Upton and his colleagues revised their initial run of boards up to 10,000, thinking that would be more than enough to meet demand. It wasn't. The 10,000 boards sold out within hou

Microsoft buys home-automation startup R2 Studios   It's official. Microsoft has purchased id8 Group R2 Studios , the home-automation startup, for an undisclosed amount. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Microsoft had beat Google and Apple to the punch in the quest to buy R2 Studios . But it wasn't until Microsoft issued the confirmation on January 10 that the Softies confirmed the deal was done. R2 Studios founder Blake Krikorian will be Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB), which is the home of the Xbox. Krikorian will report to Marc Whitten, Chief Product Officer for IEB, Microsoft officials said. Krikorian was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Sling Media Inc., inventor of the Slingbox. Microsoft's press release didn't detail how or when R2 Studios' technologies and patents will fit into Microsoft's product line-up. But Microsoft, like R2 Studios, has been active in the home-au

Microsoft's 'Orleans' cloud programming model gets a Halo test drive Whenever anyone from Microsoft describes a Microsoft Research project, there's almost always a disclaimer -- specifically, "There's no guarantee when and if this technology will ever see the commercial light of day." Given that caveat, it's interesting when a Microsoft Research project takes a step forward. Recently, that seems to have happened with "Orleans," a cloud-programming model I last blogged about back in 2010. When perusing the end-of-year research roundups, I found this interesting tidbit buried in the eXtreme Computing Group's list of accomplishments for 2012: "The cloud-systems team celebrated a year of successful deployment of its distributed cloud technology—Orleans—in production for Microsoft’s Halo team, and the team has scaled its system very significantly since then." That's one pretty impre