Daily Tech Briefing: March 28, 2014

To show how seriously Blackberry takes security breaches, CEO John Chen recently took to the company’s blog to state that legal action would be taken against anyone inside or outside the company who leaks corporate secrets. This statement came after images of BlackBerry 10.3—the company’s future mobile operating system update—were leaked to the Internet. The images showed that BlackBerry 10.3 will include features like added sensors, camera upgrades, design changes to the keyboard and more.

While Amazon Web Services has been well ahead of the curve when it comes to providing hosted applications, Web services and development environments in the cloud, it has been lagging behind when it comes to virtual desktop implementations—until now. On March 26, Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of Amazon WorkSpaces. This will be a fully managed desktop computing service that operates in the cloud.

Sprint has developed a program with the Competitive Carriers Association and NetAmerica Alliance to help additional parts of rural America gain access to 4G LTE technology. Sprint explained that they will be offering members of the CCA and NetAmerica Alliance low-cost access to the tools they need to build out LTE networks. Members will also get access to affordable smartphones and tablets so they can use the technology. Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son stated that he wants to fight back against what he calls the duopoly of AT&T and Verizon, two companies that he believes are making it impossible for Sprint and T-Mobile to get a fair share of the mobile market.

Finally, Microsoft recently announced that Microsoft Azure will now be available to users in China. This makes the software giant the first global public cloud provider in China, a region that has the potential to be incredibly lucrative for those in the public cloud computing market.