Facebook "Transparency" as Seen by Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart on Mark Zuckerberg's concerns about transparency. Steward captures the irony.

‘The Daily Show’ Weighs In On The Facebook Investment Frenzy [Video]

Apple Launches Mac App Store

Apple has launched its new Mac App Store with more than 1,000 free and paid apps in the catalog. Apps can be bought them using an iTunes account.

The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews.

Apple’s Mac App Store Opens for Business

What's Hot at Consumer Electronics Show

Verizon CEO Touts 4G

It's fast. It might be pricey, not in terms of formal price ($50a  month for PC dongle service, with a 5 Gbyte cap, $80 for a 10-Gbyte cap), but if it encourages people to watch lots of video on their PCs, using the air cards, that they might not have in the past, it could get expensive.

International long-distance slumps, while Skype soars

Growth in international call traffic has slumped while international traffic routed using Skype continues to accelerate, says TeleGeography Research.

International phone traffic grew an estimated four percent in 2010, to 413 billion minutes, down from five-percent growth in 2009, and a far cry from the 15 percent average growth rate achieved during the previous two decades.

Of course, traffic is only part of the story. International long distance, as well as most other forms of long distance service, also have been affected by lower per-minute pricing as well.

International long-distance slumps, while Skype soars: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research

Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 5.1 Percent in 2011

The telecom equipment market is poised for strong growth in 2011, with worldwide telecom equipment spending forecast to grow 9.1 percent, according to Gartner. Strong sales of mobile devices are largely responsible.

In absolute terms the most significant change occurred in the mobile services forecast. A combination of updated connection data, increased average revenue per unit in certain countries and stronger local currencies resulted in an upward revision of our mobile service forecast across 2010 through 2014. The CAGR for global mobile services revenue from 2009 through 2014 has been increased to 7 percent, up from 5.3 percent.

Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 5.1 Percent in 2011

Gartner Says Business Intelligence Will Go Mobile

By 2013, 33 percent of business intelligence functionality used by enterprise workers will be consumed via handheld devices, says Gartner.

Also, by 2014, Gartner expects 40 percent of spending on business analytics will go to system integrators, not software vendors. That would be a significant change.

Traditionally, organizations bought products almost exclusively from software companies and system integrators then helped the buyer to implement them.

However, the growth of user-driven initiatives, external information sources and the integration of unstructured content make this traditional approach increasingly risky and potentially uncompetitive.

Buyers can now evaluate solutions – for example marketing campaign effectiveness in financial services, as total packages, and select a lead provider, often a service provider, to deliver it. That leaves lots of room for changes in the supply infrastructure, with app providers becoming integrators.

At first, mobile business intelligence will largely consist of existing reports and dashboards ported to the mobile device but by 2012, Gartner predicts that organizations and vendors will develop mobile analytic applications for specific tasks or domains.

Gartner Says New Relationships Will Change Business Intelligence and Analytics