Gmail 'spams' Hotmail user's account

 Google has reportedly fixed a bug with its Gmail service that sent a user thousands of unwanted e-mails.

The bug allowed auto-fill of e-mail address in Gmail when accessed from the Google Search results page and affected the Hotmail account of David S Peck.

According to CNET, it was discovered that Google filled in another person's e-mail address in a new Gmail message whenever anybody signed into a Google account and clicked on the top Gmail sub-link in Google search results for Gmail.

Unfortunately, the receiver of the unsolicited e-mails was Peck, whose Hotmail address had been auto-filled.

A Google spokesperson cited a 'technical glitch' on e-mail addresses that were already revealed on public web pages appearing 'too prominently' in search results, adding that the bug had been fixed. 

On Friday, the site experience major outage of its Gmail and Google+ service due to a temporary error at the same time when members of its reliability team sat down to answer questions on Reddit's AMA session.

The Perfect Size for an Apple iTV is 60 Inches?

The Perfect Size for an Apple iTV is 60 Inches? is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Gotta Be Mobile.According to the latest report from the Wall Street Journal, Apple may not have plans to construct an Apple-branded iTV HDTV that measures less than 60 inches diagonally. Citing comments made Terry Gou, chairman of Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn, a U.S. manufacturing facility is to be constructed and would be purposed for making LCD displays no less than 60 inches.

“Automation, software and technology innovation will be our key focus in the US in the coming few years,” Gou said. “We will continue to invest in displays as it is an important component for all products including smartphones, tablets and TVs.”

It’s still unclear whether Foxconn will bring a manufacturing plant into the U.S. The company does have a broad and diversified global presence outside of China and operates facilities in countries such as Hungary, Vietnam, and Brazil currently.

Though there’s speculations that Apple would expand beyond the inexpensive $99 Apple TV set top box and create its own branded, standalone HDTV, the company has remained quiet on those plans. If Apple is in fact exploring an Apple iTV that would run some variant of Apple’s iOS platform and may come with support for apps and games, and the company does partner again with Foxconn, then an iTV under 60 inches may not be part of the equation.

Extrapolating Gou’s comments along with prior speculations about Apple’s plans may give us a better understanding of the iTV. Given that it would be expensive or prohibitive to ship large panels and large HDTVs from Asia to the U.S., a U.S.-based manufacturing plant from Foxconn would help to alleviate these concerns of Apple being able to deliver and sell an iTV in the U.S. to U.S. consumers.

Apple has been trying to bring back manufacturing to the U.S. and a joint presence in the U.S. with Foxconn may help the company improve its image to American consumers. It already is assembling the Mac Pro desktop computer in Texas and is partnering with GT Advanced Technologies to manufacture sapphire glass displays in a facility in Arizona.

Most recently, Apple is rumored to be launching an Apple TV hardware refresh this year that would add additional capabilities to the streaming set-top box. It’s unclear if a full scale App Store would be in Apple TV’s future this time around, but a revamp of the UI was mentioned in that rumor.

9 Ways Social Media Marketing Will Change in 2014

From the decline of Facebook use among teens to Twitter's IPO, if there is one thing we know for sure about social media, it's that few trends hold on for long — so marketers need to stay on their toes.

See also: The Top 10 Most-Shared Super Bowl Ads of All Time

With that in mind, we asked nine successful entrepreneurs how they are planning on altering their social media marketing strategies in the next six months, based on their predictions for the new year. Here's what they had to say.

1. Graphic software will rise.

 Posts on Facebook with photos get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-throughs than text-based posts, according to Kissmetrics. With the rise of Pinterest and Tumblr, it's going to become increasingly important to produce content in visual form, whether it is infographics, images with text overlay or pretty quote graphics. We'll be using more graphic software to turn our written content into visual content to make it more shareable on social media.

Why Samsung quietly cheers when Apple sells an iPhone

In the marketplace,  Samsung  Electronics and Apple battle for customers. In the courts, they fight over patents. Yet every time Apple sells an iPhone, Samsung quietly cheers, too.

In addition to being one of Apple's main competitors, Samsung is one of its top suppliers. Samsung provides the application processor in the iPhone 5S - the brains of Apple's flagship handset, and one of its most expensive components.

Because Samsung is not only the biggest maker of smartphones, but also a leading provider of parts to Apple and other gadget makers, company executives say they are confident that the electronics giant can work its way through a difficult period. On Friday, Samsung confirmed that it had sustained a sharp slowdown in sales growth and earnings in the fourth quarter of 2013 and warned that business conditions would remain challenging in the first half of this year. Apple's sales have risen, and those gains have shored up Samsung by lifting the performance of its chipmaking business.

Samsung said that one-time factors were largely responsible for the fourth-quarter weakness. These included a special bonus totaling 800 billion won, or $740 million, that Samsung paid out to employees on the 20th anniversary of a management initiative to improve quality, as well as the effects of a surge in the strength of the South Korean currency, which Samsung pegged at 700 billion won.

"This kind of adjustment is normal for a high-growth industry," said CW Chung, an analyst at Nomura, though he added that Samsung's earnings could be "flattish" for the next two years.

Sales in the company's mobile division fell 9% in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter, it said, acknowledging that sales of high-end smartphones had been weaker than expected. The premium segment, in which Samsung offers handsets like the Galaxy S4 and the Note 3, is the most lucrative part of the business, but analysts say it is increasingly saturated.

Samsung faces a renewed challenge from Apple, which introduced two new handsets - the iPhone 5S and a less expensive model, the 5C - in the second half of last year. Apple also recently reached agreements to distribute its phones via the largest mobile carriers in Japan and China.

While analysts said iPhone sales grew strongly after the latest models were introduced, with Apple regaining market share, Samsung's chipmaking business shared the spoils. That unit posted a 7% quarter-on-quarter increase in sales, helped by "increased AP shipments for a competitor's new product," said Jee-Ho Baek, Samsung's vice president of memory marketing, in a conference call with analysts. He was referring to application processors, and while he did not mention Apple by name, the allusion was clear.

Samsung's mobile division provides about two-thirds of the company's operating profit, but analysts expect that portion to decline in the coming years as the smartphone business matures. The chipmaking unit is expected to pick up some of the slack. That trend was already apparent in the fourth quarter, when the semiconductor division provided 24% of operating profit, up from 16% a year earlier.

Overall, Samsung posted net income of 7.3 trillion won, or $6.7 billion, up from 7.04 trillion won a year earlier but down from 8.24 trillion in the third quarter of 2013. Fourth-quarter sales of 59.28 trillion won were up from 56.06 trillion won a year earlier but flat compared with the third quarter of 2013. Operating profit, at 8.31 trillion won, was in line with a forecast issued two weeks ago.

The company said it expected weakness to persist in the first half of 2014, though it insisted that this was because of the "seasonality" of the technology industry, in which purchases are often deferred until later in the year.

While Samsung makes a wide range of consumer products other than phones, including televisions and home appliances, many of these have sluggish sales and low profit margins. Sales and earnings fell sharply in the display panel business.

Tablet computers are one area of promise, with sales and market share growing. Samsung executives said in the conference call that they were optimistic that new devices with larger screens would expand the tablet business further. The company also sees so-called wearable technology as a promising trend, though an early example, the Galaxy Gear smart watch, has gotten off to a slow start.

For now, that has left Samsung's chipmaking arm to pick up most of the slack from the new softness in smartphones. Memory chips, which are recovering from a long price slump, are outperforming more complicated semiconductor devices like application processors. Samsung said memory chip sales had been bolstered in the fourth quarter by the introduction of new video game consoles like Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. 

How to Save Money and Use Less iPhone Data

How to Save Money and Use Less iPhone Data is a post by Craig Lloyd from Gotta Be Mobile.

If you’re on the road a lot, chances are that you use up a lot of data, and that could be costing you overage fees if you’re not careful. According to a survey of mobile data consumption in 2013 conducted by JDSU, iPhone 5s users (and iPhone users in general) are using up the most data compared to any other smartphone or tablet.

The survey examined data usage habits of over a million mobile subscribers using over 150 different mobile devices over a 24-hour timespan in Europe, and it was discovered that Apple flagship smartphone owners gobble up more data than anyone else. Using a lot of data can end up costing subscribers at the end of the month, whether it’d be in overage fees or the need to upgrade their data plan to account for more data.

This got us thinking. Aren’t there ways to try and reduce your monthly data usage without making a ton of sacrifices while out on the go? Indeed, there are. Let’s take a look at some simple tricks that you can pull in order to save yourself the embarrassment of overage fees.

Get on WiFi

One of the most effortless methods to save precious data is to simply jump on a WiFi network, whether that be at home, at work or at a coffee shop. You can watch all the YouTube videos you want without having to worry about using up your allotted data amount. However, if a WiFi network isn’t around, there are still a few settings that you can change to at least lessen the damage done to your data plan.

Turn Off Cellular Access for Specific Apps

More than likely, most of your apps need to access the internet to download data and other information so that it’s up to date and can provide a better user experience. However, that requires the app to tap into your data allotment and go wild, and the damage can be pretty bad if it’s an app like Netflix or Spotify.

However, you can easily disable these kinds of apps from connecting to the internet if you’re on a data connection. Simply open up the Settings app, tap on Cellular and then scroll down to the section titledUse Cellular Data For. You’ll see a list of the apps that you have installed and from there, you can disable any specific app from accessing the internet when you’re on a 3G or LTE connection.

Personally, I have the data-hogging apps disabled, including the App Store, Netflix, Spotify, Downcast and even FaceTime (because video chatting uses up a lot of data if you’re not on WiFi).

Disable Background App Refresh

On smartphones, apps can automatically refresh with new information, even when they’re not open and being used. This new information has to be downloaded, though, and if you’re not on a WiFi connection, the data used can add up quickly, depending on how many of your apps are refreshing in the background.

However, you can disable this feature on specific apps. Simply open up the Settings app and navigate to General > Background App Refresh. You can flip the main switch at the top to completely disable Background App Refresh, or you can disable it only on specific apps. Disabling this feature also saves battery life, so it’s a win-win situation.

Disable Data Usage in Cloud and Photo Apps

While you can disable certain apps from using cellular data, it’s also a good idea to disable the feature inside of the app itself, if it provides such a setting. In many cloud storage apps and photo apps, you’ll find a setting that allows you upload files only over a WiFi connection or use a data connection if WiFi isn’t available.

It’s always safe to only allow uploads over WiFi, that way you’re not hit with any surprise overage fees when you’re next statement rolls out.

6 Best Calendar Apps for iPhone and iPad

6 Best Calendar Apps for iPhone and iPad is a post by Kevin Purcell from Gotta Be Mobile.The built-in iOS calendar app offers only the basics for handling a person’s schedule, so we went looking for the best replacement calendar apps for iPhone and iPad.

The six calendar apps include some that work only on the iPhone while others run natively on both the iPhone and iPad. We believe any of these 6 apps will better serve users better than the Calendar app that Apple provides.

Fantastical 2 – $1.99 (iPhone)

This great app does one thing better than all the others. Fantastical 2 creates an appointment by typing in natural language. Instead of tapping a bunch of buttons to add an appointment, type or speak using the mic on an iOS keyboard. For example, one might write or say, “Lunch with Barb at noon on Saturday at El Portal in Morganton.” The app automatically takes the name of the appointment, “Lunch with Barb” and creates it. The noon time gets added as well as the date. Fantastical 2 adds the place too. The app syncs in real-time with the calendars set up in iOS.

Fantastical 2 displays information in a simple easy to use user interface. Pull down to switch between Day, Week and Month views as well as an Agenda list of appointments in chronological order with Reminders mixed in based on their date/time.

We recommended the first version and it’s Mac cousin and still love it for both iPhone and Mac. We just wish Flexbits would code a version that ran natively on the iPad instead of just the blown up iPhone version.

Sunrise Calendar – Free (Universal)

Sunrise Calendar isn’t just a pretty face. It also makes data entry and editing simpler. Tap an appointment and a box flies out to the side to view the details. Then edit them as needed. To add an appointment hit the plus button in the upper right and enter the details.

Sunrise doesn’t do live syncing with Google calendar very well. I added an appointment and it took some time before it showed up on my computer calendar. It also doesn’t let users enter natural language details like Fantastical 2 unless the user does a long press on the plus button. That only works on the iPhone version, but we assume it will show up on the iPad soon. We like the free price and the look of Sunrise though. We also like the simple event editing features making this a nice choice if Fantastical 2 doesn’t appeal to users.

Be warned that it asks for an Apple ID, which will make some nervous. People who don’t plan to use iCloud’s calendar won’t worry about this. It does require a Google ID to use with Google Calendar.

Calendars 5 – $6.99 (Universal)

Readdle makes another beautiful and functional Calendar replacement. Calendars 5 works well with both appointments and reminders. It lets users input information using the same kind of natural language that Fantastical 2 offers, but comes with the added benefit of running natively on iPad as well as iPhone.

When a user installs Calendars 5, it asks whether the iPad or iPhone should sync with a Google calendar or the local iPad or iPhone calendar.

Tap a date in Month view and it takes the user to that day. There’s a column on the left third of the screen showing appointments from the week after the date. The day’s agenda takes up the right two-thirds of the screen.

Tempo Smart Calendar – Free (iPhone)

Tempo does one thing really well. It integrates the calendar, email, contacts and maps to create a solution for busy people who attend a lot of meetings and want to manage all the data in one app. It’s overkill for many of us, but people who send and receive a lot of meeting appointment requests via email and meet with people will love Tempo.

We only wish we didn’t need to create an account with Tempo. For the right people, it’s worth it.

Calvetica Calendar – $2.99 (Universal)

While Temp works best for people in an enterprise situation or for people who make a lots of appointments with others, Calvetica Calendar takes a simpler approach. It looks better than the iOS Calendar app and makes it simple to work with a light or busy schedule.

We like that Calvetica Calendar uses the built-in calendar system in iOS so there’s no need to enter account info. It syncs reliably and quickly with the iOS calendars. We also love the month view which shows a day’s agenda along the side when the user highlights it in month view.

Pocket Informant Pro – $12.99 (Universal)

Pocket Informant gives users a digital day timer. It handles the calendar and reminders or to do lists just fine. It adds note taking to help a person stay organized all in one place like we used to do with paper day timers. The old ugly version used to use a skeuomorphic look, but they went with the iOS 7 design theory and made it look more modern and flat.

The various parts of the app sit along the right side. A view for each class of information shows itself when the user taps the tabs. There’s a summary view, calendar, tasks, notes and contacts.

The app could stand a few improvements, like inking options in the note taking section. It’s also the most expensive in our roundup. However, we like that we get an option for those who like all of their personal information management in one app and it syncs with a web version, useful for people who want to use their data on another person’s computer.

7 Early Tips for Samsung Galaxy S5 Buyers

7 Early Tips for Samsung Galaxy S5 Buyers is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.

We aren’t sure how many people are thinking about buying the rumored Samsung Galaxy S5 but we’re sure there are a lot of people that fall into that category. As we march closer to an expected Galaxy S5 release date, we want to offer up some early tips for those who might be committed to the device already or are truly on the fence, wrestling with a decision.

Samsung hasn’t confirmed anything yet but it has become very clear that the company is hard at work, preparing a successor to the Samsung Galaxy S4. The device, currently dubbed Galaxy S5, has seen an absurd number of rumors emerge over the past few months, some of which have started to firm up inside the new year. Galaxy S5 rumors point to a powerful device and one that should compete with the likes of the iPhone 5s, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the HTC One, and HTC’s rumored HTC One successor, the HTC M8.

Rumors point to both a plastic and metal design for the Galaxy S5, the metal design being a change from Samsung’s previous Galaxy S models. It’s also rumored to have a 5.2-inch QHD display and or a 1080p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor or a Exynos 6 processor, a 16MP camera that could include ISOCELL technology, Android 4.4 KitKat, and a number of wide sweeping software changes that should ensure that the Galaxy S5 is vastly different from its Galaxy counterparts. At least until Samsung upgrades the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 with some of the new features.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 rumors also suggest a possible launch in February or March with a release at some point in April, possibly around the same time that the Galaxy S4 was released. Nothing is set in stone but it’s quite clear that things are progressing and those who have waited for the Galaxy S5 or are simply in the market for a high-end smartphone, will see a launch very soon.

With that in mind, we want to offer some tips for those who might be caught in the Galaxy S5 rumor maelstrom, are looking to buy a smartphone for the first time, or simply need some tips in order to improve their plans. Here, we offer up seven of our own Samsung Galaxy S5 buyers tips, derived from years of preparing and buying smartphones.

Prepare for an April Samsung Galaxy S5 Release Date

Rumors are swirling, Galaxy S5 launch date rumors have backtracked, and Samsung still hasn’t sent out any invitations for its launch event. Suffice to say, prospective Galaxy S5 buyers are probably confused and looking for answers. Well, we don’t know exactly when Samsung is going to announce the Galaxy S5 but we imagine that it will be in February or March. Every single rumor, leak and report can’t be wrong. There has to be some truth to it all.

A recent report from Bloomberg suggested a release by the end of April and the report backed up just about every Galaxy S5 release date rumor that has emerged thus far. So, at this point, it’s probably time to circle the month of April on the calendar and prepare for the Galaxy S5′s arrival sometime during that month. Samsung will more than likely send out invites to an event weeks in advance and when it does, consumers will have their official answer. For now though, start preparing for a Galaxy S5 release in April and stop thinking about the “what ifs” and alternatives. April is likely.

Research Other Devices

Now is the perfect time to start researching alternatives to the Samsung Galaxy S5. There are going to be a ton of options on the table once the Galaxy S5 arrives and the more prepared that you are, the easier the decision is going to be. We suggest taking a look at the current crop of smartphones first and narrowing down your options from there. Devices like the HTC One and Galaxy S4 may be old, but they’re still potent and most importantly, they’re affordable. They will likely be much cheaper than the Galaxy S5 once it arrives on shelves.

Consumers will also want to look into devices like the iPhone 5s, Galaxy Note 3 and Moto X, three of the strongest smartphones out on the market. The Galaxy Note 3 and iPhone 5s are both going to be on shelves once the Galaxy S5 arrives as they are relatively new. Prospective Galaxy S5 buyers would be wise to take a look at both of them in the build up to the Galaxy S5′s launch. It won’t hurt.

From there, we suggest taking a look at some of the rumored smartphones of 2014. The HTC M8 and iPhone 6 both come to mind as they will pose a threat to the Galaxy S5. The HTC M8 is rumored for next month while the iPhone 6, or at least one version of it, could arrive sometime this summer. It’s important to take note of these devices before diving into the Galaxy S5.

Look Into Carrier Options

In addition to doing your homework when it comes to Galaxy S5 competitors, we suggest exploring potential Galaxy S5 carriers as soon as possible. The Galaxy S5 hasn’t been confirmed for any U.S. carriers at this point but there is no reason to believe that it will land beyond the Galaxy S’ usual crop of carriers. That means AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, and a host of smaller regional and pre-paid carriers.

Each carrier has its pros and cons. Verizon for instance has the largest network in the land but it also tends to be last in line when it comes to software updates. T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network is small but it also has a speedy HSPA+ 42 network backing it up, something that other carriers do not have. Data plans vary, costs differ, and it will be important to know what you’re getting into once the Galaxy S5 is announced for these carriers. And it will be.

Research how much data you use and which carriers offer the best 4G LTE coverage in your area right now and deciding on a new carrier will prove to be a much easier task come release day.

Don’t Hype Yourself Up

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is going to be a good phone, there is no doubt about that. However, it’s probably not going to be perfect and those who are expecting a perfect smartphone from Samsung need to start tempering their expectations right now. A lot of the people that were disappointed by the Galaxy S4 last year were the people that bought into the insane hype and got themselves worked up to the point that there was no way that the Galaxy S4 would meet expectations.

Rumors are going to emerge all the way up to the Galaxy S5 announcement and you will want to keep a level head or else you’re going to be setting yourself up for disappointment. Those that don’t let that happen will find that their smartphone shopping experience will be a much more manageable one and far more pleasant.

Stay Up to Date

That said, we encourage prospective Galaxy S5 buyers to stay up on the latest Galaxy S5 rumors. While there will be features and dates that don’t pan out, rumors do do a good job of narrowing things down. In the next few weeks, we expect to have most of the Galaxy S5 figured out thanks to rumors and those who have been paying attention will certainly be a leg up on those who join the game late.

Rumors should always be taken with a grain of salt but we expect Samsung Galaxy S5 rumors, now that we’re this late in the game, to continue to peck away at Samsung’s new flagship, revealing just about everything buyers need to know about the Next Big Thing.

Keep those expectations tempered but take in a healthy dose of speculation. It’s part of the fun.

Start Saving Money Now

This may sound like a no-brainer but it’s important to keep in mind. The Samsung Galaxy S5, more likely than not, will come with a price tag that is in and around $199.99 on-contract, $650 off-contract. We haven’t seen any confirmations just yet but given the pricing of the iPhone 5s, we expect Samsung and its carrier partners to offer competitive pricing. The only rumor that we have seen is from SamMobile who suggests that the metal Galaxy S5 will be around 800 Euros and the plastic model will be 600 Euros. That’s extremely expensive, if true.

Point is, the Galaxy S5 isn’t going to be cheap. It’s a flagship smartphone and it will command a flagship price tag. Those who are thinking about buying it should think about setting some money aside for the purchase. Perhaps it’s $5 each day up until the Galaxy S5 launch, or something of that nature. We’ve done this in the past and it has helped soften the blow of buying an expensive piece of technology.

Evaluate Storage Needs

It’s not clear just how the Samsung Galaxy S5 lineup is going to look. Last year’s Galaxy S4 came in 16GB form only to Sprint, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular though the device did come armed with a microSD card slot that can store up to 64GB. As we’ve pointed out, the microSD card storage is limited to certain files, making the on board storage that much more crucial. 32GB versions of the Galaxy S4 came to AT&T and Verizon and those two carriers only. Whether the Galaxy S5 follows that or not is unclear.

What’s important is that prospective buyers start evaluating their needs right now. Are you the type of person that takes a lot of photos or shoots a lot of video? Then you’re probably going to need to go with one of the largest Galaxy S5 storage options or if there is only one option, think about investing in a cloud service. Average users that don’t game or shoot a ton of content might think about getting the smallest Galaxy S5 storage option available.

This may seem ridiculous but it will make deciding on a specific option easier come release day. In some cases, it may also save a lot of money. Larger storage variants are always more expensive.

Hadoop 2.0 - A Big Step For Big Data

Research firm IDC in a recent report shows that companies combine Hadoop with other databases to make big data analysis. A significant proportion of survey respondents said Hadoop is used to replace traditional data warehouse technologies. This ranges from the analysis of raw data, whether operational data, data from different machines or terminals or point-of-sale, or data on customer behavior collected by the e-commerce retail systems.

Hadoop was designed especially for the analysis of large data sets to build scalable, distributed applications. The last October announcement of Hadoop version 2.2 by Apache Foundation marks the first stable release of Hadoop – making it move even deeper into the organization to pursue unstructured and semi-structured data types.

To manage big data, Hadoop implements the paradigm called MapReduce defined by Google according to which the applications are divided into small pieces of software, each of which can be run on a different node of all those who make up the system.

One of the most important components in Hadoop 2.0 is YARN. YARN is often referred to as MapReduce 2.0 or MRv2. Compared to MapReduce 1.0, YARN the advantage that the management of the engine is excluded from the actual algorithm. This also means that the user can use MapReduce algorithm a plug-in instead of using as an interactive process. This is considered a milestone in the development of Hadoop from a simple tool to a complete operating system for big data.

Analysts from research firm Gartner says Hadoop 2 marks a significant development of the open source project that the passionate developer of the Apache community have created together. Their goal was to make especially the data platform easier to use and more stable. The new organization led by YARN allows the simultaneous execution of multiple applications on HDFS, the distributed file system while providing better monitoring of data throughout its lifecycle.

During a recent Gigaom Research webinar, analyst and researcher for Gigaom Research said that YARN is loud Hortonworks rather a framework that can not only analyze batch processes, but also data streams and can also analyze interactive queries. Companies like Amazon Web Services, Cloudera, Hortonworks, IBM, Intel, MapR Technologies, Pivotal Software, Twitter, Facebook and others are couching their big data message and providing insight into where the market is headed using Apache Hadoop technology. NASA relies on Hadoop to handle large volumes of data in projects such as the Square Kilometer Array, for viewing the heavens. Hadoop partners Cloudera and Hortonworks have already endorsed the new version and adapted their products to the new YARN framework.

Hadoop 2.2 stimulates not only the way apps for big data platform to be written, but also makes entirely new methodologies of data crunching possible that were previously unthinkable due to architectural limitations.

Tech Mahindra bullish on hiring; headcount to cross 1-lakh soon

With a bullish outlook on the Indian IT story and its own hiring plans, Mahindra group's technology venture Tech Mahindra says its headcount will cross the 1-lakh level in about a year, from close to 85,000 at present.

"I don't think there has been any stagnation in hiring activities in the Indian IT space. Seven years ago, we were six-seven thousand people and today we are 85,000," Tech Mahindra Vice Chairman Vineet Nayyar said here.

Asked when Tech Mahindra would reach the 1-lakh mark, he said: "Its a matter of a year or so. I don't see it as a very big deal."

Nayyar, who was here for the World Economic Forum ( WEF) Annual Meeting, told PTI in an interview that India's IT story is not over, but its nature would evolve depending on the changing needs.

"The fact is that skills are in India and those skills are needed. There would be drafting of new needs, which would be overlaid by the new technology that would evolve and those needs are not going to go away.

"So, as far as I can see, the Indian technology story is not over and in fact it will strengthen further because increasingly India is becoming an epicentre for its evolution and growth," he said.

When asked about hiring trends in the IT sector, Nayyar said he does not think there has been any slowdown in hiring and every passing year all firms have been hiring more people.

"I am sure that IT will create huge employment going forward too and then you should understand that for each job in IT, you create at least three additional jobs and most people say it is an under-statement. So, net-net on employment side, I am fairly bullish," he added.

Talking about the emergence of new markets for Indian IT companies, Nayyar said the technological needs are going to increase globally, because technology has become so pervasive in everyone's life -- from a child of 2-3 years to all of us.

"When needs arise, the responses would come and capabilities would evolve and it so happens that there is a huge abundance of young and bright people in India and all these people make a unique talent base, which I don't think is replicated elsewhere," he said.

On the trends seen in the clients' IT spending budget, Nayyar said, "They have no choice because need for technology is growing and it pervades the entire company now from the top to the bottom.

"People have no choice but to increase their technology budget, specially if they want to compete, if they want to control costs and if they want to be competitive," he said.

Asked about the spate of leadership changes among Indian IT companies, Nayyar said there was nothing to worry about.

"We are all professional people and hopefully each leader who has gone has created enough leadership skills at lower levels," he added.