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Today’s topics include an update to the iOS version of Facebook’s social networking app to fix a problem that caused rapid battery drain, IBM launches Apache Spark-as-a-Service, BroadSoft expands cloud communications with project Tempo, and Cisco is buying IoT Analytics company ParStream.
Facebook has updated its social networking app for Apple’s iOS mobile device operating system to fix a problem that caused premature battery drainage for some users. In an Oct. 22 post on Facebook, Ari Grant, Facebook’s engineering manager, announced the update in response to “reports of some people experiencing battery issues with the Facebook iOS app.” The main problem was something called a “CPU spin” in the company’s network code.
IBM launched a new Apache Spark-as-a-Service offering to help organizations better wrangle big data for real-time insights. Announced at the IBM Insight 2015 conference in Las Vegas, the availability of IBM’s Spark-as-a-Service offering on IBM Bluemix follows a 13-week beta program with more than 3,000 developers using it to build intelligent business and consumer apps. The company also redesigned more than 15 core analytics and commerce applications with Apache Spark.
BroadSoft officials are looking to grow the company’s presence in the increasingly competitive cloud collaboration space with a new initiative that they say will make unified communications simpler and workers more productive. On Oct. 26, the company introduced Project Tempo, an effort based on BroadSoft’s UC-One platform that will integrate real-time communications and collaboration tools as well as cloud applications. The vendor also is including contextual intelligence that will give employees and businesses insights into how their unified communications technologies are being used and integrate users’ conversations, social profiles and availability.
Cisco Systems is bolstering its capabilities in the Internet of things with the acquisition of ParStream, whose analytics database technologies enable organizations to more easily store and parse large amounts of data at the network’s edge. Cisco officials expect the number of connected devices that will make up the Internet of things to jump from about 25 billion last year to more than 50 billion by 2020 and present businesses worldwide with a $19 trillion opportunity.