It’s another Tuesday and that would only mean that there’s a
new episode of Tech Tuesdays on TFL! Last week, we talked about the gaming
console Ouya, the security breach that happened on Yahoo! and Formspring and an
Nvidia event.
In this week’s episode, the news is all about three big IT
companies and the different events that transpired within the past 7 days that
are related to them. First on the list is Google.
GOOGLE
American search engine giant recently acquired Sparrow. For
those who don’t know, Sparrow is an email client for Mac OS X and iOS that offers
an intuitive and streamline user experience to Apple consumers. Originally
meant as a minor project, Sparrow went on sale in the Mac App Store on February
9, 2011 and immediately became the top grossing paid app in less than one day.
On July 20, 2012, Dom Leca, Sparrow’s CEO, announced in the company’s
website that they will be heading to Google to work with the Gmail team. She
also said that even though they are going to help Google with Gmail, Sparrow
will continue to offer and provide support to their existing customers from Apple
devices.
Google hopes that through the acquisition of Sparrow, their
Gmail app can be improved in iOS and Mac and possible improve it further on the
PC and on Android. Unfortunately for Apple device users, the acquisition means
that development of the app for iOS and Mac will eventually stop to make way
for projects from Google.
YAHOO!
After the disastrous hacker attack last week on Yahoo!
voices, the Sunnyvale, California-based internet company has got itself a new
CEO – former Google executive Marissa Mayer.
Mayer will be at the helm of the internet company as it
tries to bounce back from financial problems and internal turmoil brought about
by thousands of lay-offs and failed attempts of the past four CEOs of the
company.
According to a document from the Securities and Exchange Commission
of the United States, 37 year old Mayer will be paid by Yahoo at an annual base
rate of $1,000,000. She will also be eligible for an annual bonus under the
Company’s executive incentive plan which will be at 200% of her base salary.
Furthermore, she will also be given $12 million worth of stocks
(in grants and options) over the next three years and $14 million worth of
restricted stocks to compensate for the money she would have gotten if she
stayed with Google. And on top of that,
Yahoo will also give her an extra $30 million if she stays with the company for
five years.
Not bad right, especially since she’s expecting a baby boy
by October this year.
MICROSOFT
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, raised the curtains on the
company’s latest update to its very popular suite of office applications –
Microsoft Office.
Microsoft Office 2013 or MS Office 15, according to Ballmer
will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and
business customers. The new suite, will
sport the new Metro look and will be seamlessly integrated with the user
interface of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft. It will
also be touch-friendly, with support for tap to select and pinch-to-zoom
functionality.
Also, it will reportedly be heavily dependent on Microsoft’s
cloud service, with documents being saved by default to the cloud, allowing
users access to content while on the go by using other devices like tablets and
smartphones.
Office 15 will be shipped together with ARM-based windows 8
devices, which is scheduled to be released by October 2012. It will also be
available as a stand-alone product, with pricing and availability to be
announced.
And just like Windows 8, Office 15 is already available for
download as a consumer preview via Microsoft’s website.
