“For example, by combining UrbanCode software with the IBM MobileFirst Worklight technology, businesses can now author and deploy an application for any mobile device in hours, versus a previous multi-day timeline,” IBM explained in a press release. “The UrbanCode solution also works with traditional applications including middleware, databases and business intelligence.”

Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

UrbanCode works to speed up the design, production and delivery of software, cutting down the time between updates to applications. The company’s DevOps platform includes applications such as uDeploy, uBuild, uProvision, and uRelease, and helps to update apps, receive feedback, and improve production speeds. It’s a play that better connects IBM to social, cloud and big data app producers that require rapid development speeds.

“Companies that master effective software development and delivery in rapidly changing environments such as cloud, mobile and social will have a significant competitive advantage,” said Kristof Kloeckner, general manager, IBM Rational Software. “With the acquisition of UrbanCode, IBM is uniquely positioned to help businesses from every industry accelerate delivery of their products and services to better meet client demands.”

IBM will continue to support UrbanCode’s clients and plans to upsell them on a broader portfolio.

“Together UrbanCode and IBM technology will be unmatched in the industry, providing businesses a continuous process for developing, testing, and delivering new and updated software,” said Maciej Zawadzki, chief executive officer, UrbanCode. “By removing the bottlenecks that traditionally exist between development teams and production systems, businesses can drive rapid innovation.”

Its IBM’s second deal of 2013. In the last three years, IBM has spent about $12 million on acquisitions, ISI analyst Brian Marshall noted in the company’s press release.

To gain similar capabilities, BMC, an IBM competitor in systems management tools, acquired Varalogix to accelerate its development speeds.

The investment includes a $20 million equity trade from Sorenson Capital and $25 million in structured debt from Silicon Valley Bank. The funding allows it to “reduce outside ownership and add Sorenson as a strategic, long-term partner,” the company explained in a press release.

“By consolidating our ownership and adding a strategic partner like Sorenson Capital, while strengthening our relationship with Silicon Valley Bank, AccessData is better positioning itself to take advantage of its unique place in the market,” said Tim Leehealey, CEO of AccessData.

AccessData currently serves more than 130,000 users in law enforcement, government agencies, corporations and law firms worldwide. It provides software solutions as well as digital investigation, hosted review services, digital forensics and litigation support training and certification. CIRT 2, its flagship product, is a cyber protection platform that utilizes malware analysis, large-scale data auditing and remediation while integrating with network and computer forensics.

“By combining AccessData’s strong market position with Sorenson Capital’s proven track record of taking companies to the next level, we believe we can accelerate growth at AccessData and deliver  extensive value to shareholders and customers alike,” said Ron Mika, a co‐founder and Managing Director of Sorenson Capital. “This is an exciting company and a compelling opportunity. We are anxious to see where the team can take it over the coming years.”

It has offices in Washington D.C., New York, Houston and San Francisco, as well as in the UK and Australia.

Panetta made his case in a speech last week at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York, the New York Times reported.

Though Panetta did not specifically blame Iran for a series of cyber attacks that erased vaults of data at US banks and a Middle Eastern oil company, he did say that Tehran has“undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage.” The AP cited a state official who reported that Washington knew who launched the attacks and that it was a nation state.

Panetta said there has been increased technological aggression against the United States and US businesses by China, Russia, Iran and militant groups. The dire picture he painted went far beyond databases, financial systems and tech infrastructure typically targeted by hackers.

“An aggressor nation or extremist group could use these kinds of cyber tools to gain control of critical switches,” Panetta said. “They could derail passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail passenger trains loaded with lethal chemicals. They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country.”

In sounding the alarm, Panetta also called for legislation that would mandate new cyber security standards at critical private-infrastructure facilities such as pipelines, power facilities and water treatment plants where a cyber attack could cause widespread devastation and panic. A cyber security bill was blocked last August by a group of Republicans including John McCain, who sided with the US Chamber of Commerce, which argued that such regulation would stifle private businesses already struggling in the recession. President Obama is said to be weighing the possibility of an executive order to promote the sharing of cyber security information between the government and the private sector.

Cyber attacks in the form of the Shamoon virus wiped out database files at the the Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco and Qatari natural gas producer RasGas. Service of denial attacks have also been launched against US banks to over run their systems and take them offline.

“They have been going after everyone—financial services, Wall Street,” a senior defense official told the Wall St. Journal. “Is there a cyberwar going on? It depends on how you define ‘war.’”

Iran isn’t the only country potentially waging a hack war. Last week, the House Intelligence Committee warned US firms against doing business with Huawei and ZTE, two prominent Chinese tech companies, because of cyber spying concerns.

Security companies warn against cyber crime as often as most people talk about the weather. When the War Department takes a stand, however, somebody had better listen.

The EU Competition Commission has ruled that Microsoft failed to comply with a 2009 ruling mandating it to offer a choice of web browsers, which could mean a hefty fine of up to $7.4 billion, about 10 percent of the computer giant’s revenue in 2012, Reuters reported. Following its investigation that began last July, the commission is compiling formal charges.

It’s the second time the company has failed to comply with an EU mandate. The last one stemmed from Microsoft’s failure to provide essential compatibility information to rival developers in 2008 and cost the company $1.28 billion in fines.

In a 2009 deal with regulators to settle an anti-trust case and avoid a penalty, Microsoft agreed to offer a series of browser alternatives through a ballot-style “choice screen,” which included such default options as Firefox, Safari Chrome, Opera or another browser. The company complied until the February 2011 release of Windows 7 service Pack 1, which did not offer the ballot choices.

‘”The fault is there, it has been there for more than a year and it is clear that we need to react,” stated European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. “It is not only the distortion of competition during this period which concerns us; it is very serious, from my point of view, that the remedies imposed on Microsoft have not been applied.”

Microsoft admitted to the breach, but blamed it on a “technical error.”

“While we believed when we filed our most recent compliance report in December 2011 that we were distributing the [browser ballot] software to all relevant PCs as required, we learned recently that we’ve missed serving the [browser ballot] software to the roughly 28 million PCs running Windows 7 SP1,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The company distributed an update to reinstate the browser ballot and offered to extend the length of its agreement with the commission for an additional 15 months, GeekWire reported.

The commission will open formal proceedings into the company’s breach of its agreement, a process not expected to take long as “the company itself explicitly recognized its breach of the agreement,” Almunia stated.

The use of Explorer has been slipping over the last several years due to competition with Google Chrome, with use in Europe roughly halving since 2008 to 29 percent this year, according to web research firm Statcounter. Chrome, meanwhile, holds 29.3 percent, while Mozilla’s Firefox holds 30.3 percent.

Google, meanwhile, faces its own pressures from the commission, which charges that the search engine has also engaged in anti-trust practices to deliver its search results.

The amount is surprising, but what is more surprising is that the four year old bootstrapped company actually took it. The company has amassed more than 3.1 million software projects and more than 1.7 million users, all on its own dime while achieving profitability.

The company offers developers a site to store, write, and collaborate on software coding projects. Instead of labor intensive traditional techniques, code can be easily written and coded back into the project. While open source projects are free, developers can pay $25 monthly for a business account that keeps their code repository private. Companies can purchase a similar software coding product for $250 per year per user.

Why take the cash now after four years of success?

“Because we want to be better. We want to build the best products. We want to solve harder problems. We want to make life easier for more people,” Tom Preston-Werner, GitHub’s co-founder stated in his blog. “The experience and resources of Andreessen Horowitz can help us do that.”

The company was also inspired by an Andreessen Horowitz entitled “Software is Eating the World,” which points to a number of industries from agriculture to defense to Hollywood that are being consumed by more cost effective software approaches. Preston-Werner also said the company was impressed with the culture of the firm.

“…Like GitHub, they’re trying to do things differently. They believe in software as the future of everything. They want to help founders build great companies. They clearly have no interest in the status quo of venture capital,” Preston-Werner blogged. “Over the past few months we’ve gotten to know Marc and one of his partners, Peter Levine, and we really like them. We wish we could hire them both, but they already have jobs.”

The company will use the funding to push into new markets, make the system more usable to beginners and more powerful for professionals. The company’s vision, according to Preston-Werner, is to “GetHub Everywhere.”

“We want GitHub to be usable by everyone in the software ecosystem — everything from individuals to small teams and businesses to students at universities,” Preston-Werner told Bloomberg.

Similarly, “Safeguard your data. By doing nothing” was replaced by “Safety. Built in.” A comparison of the two files can be found at this Sophos news site.

“I view the changes in the messages pushed out by their marketing department as some important baby-steps,” Graham Cluley, a security expert at Sophos, wrote in a blog post. “Let’s hope more Apple Mac owners are also learning to take important security steps — such as installing antivirus protection.”

The Flashback botnet infected Mac machines through a hole in Java software, netting hackers as much as $10,000 a day at the height of its tyranny. Though Oracle had patched the hole in February, it took Apple until April to fix its own hole. The malware worked to take Google’s share it made on paid clicks.

Still, Flashback wasn’t the only virus to turn Apple’s security statement on its head. Mac Defender, which masqueraded as virus protection, infected a number of Macs in 2011, according to the New York Times.

Windows computers have always born the brunt of cyber attacks because of the platform’s popularity. However, as Apple gains greater footing in the PC market, currently at 12 percent and growing, hackers have more to gain by targeting the Mac platform, upping the ante of liquidity. In this new age of cyber crime, it’s always best to keep the front door locked, no matter the device or manufacturer.

The iOS 6 platform features a new and improved Siri voice assistant with 200 new features. Siri is now designed for easy updates to sports content. It also has your table covered with integrations from Yelp and Open Table. Siri also has integration with Rotten Tomatoes to make it easier to socially comment on movies and watch trailers. Siri now has the ability to launch applications. It even speaks Chinese, Mandarin and Korean, and is now part of the iPad as well.

Addressing the concerns “addressgate” in which users address books were downloaded through a platform glitch, iOS6 also features a new “Privacy” section under the Settings app that allows users control over which apps have access to photos, reminders, contacts, reminders and location services. Apps also ask permission from users before allowing third party apps from accessing phone content. The platform also features Guided Access, which allows users to lock an app when in use so other controls are inaccessible.

IOS 6 actually enables streaming users’ songs stored in the iTunes Match service, whereas previous platforms actually downloaded the song to your phone first.

The platform also includes a VIP mailbox that allows you to star certain contacts as VIPs, such as your boss or work colleagues. Notification settings can be adjusted to only alert you if a particular contact sends mail. The phone also includes a do-not-disturb feature, and can send reminders to call those people back, or send them messages to call you back. Some users can be Whitelisted, meaning those calls will always go through, such as if from a boss, spouse or child in the case of emergencies.

Phone numbers are now integrated with your Apple ID, making it possible to answer Facetime calls on either your iPad or your Mac. Facetime now works everywhere, not just WiFi but 3G and 4G networks.

The platform can also clean out your wallet by including digital passes such as boarding passes, tickets, or coupons, which can easily be downloaded from a QR code.

Apple also said goodbye to Google Maps on the iOS 6 platform, switching to the much anticipated “Flyover,” a 3D mapping system designed from the ground up by Apple. The maps will have Siri-integrated directions and include local search features, with more than 100 million businesses on board so far. The mapping system also includes a crowd-sourced generated real time tracking service so users can spot slow traffic and accidents. In turn navigation is reportedly in the works. Maps are featured in beautiful 3D which can be toggled on within the app. A flyover feature shows you your route from the point of view of an airplane. The mapping feature strikes a huge blow to Google, not only breaking its mapping monopoly but likely pulling millions of developers away as well.

IOS 6 also allows for easy integration into Facebook, allowing single-sign on for apps, quick sharing from notifications, synching of contacts, and sharing buttons in the iTunes and App Stores. It allows you to always be logged into Facebook on native apps, and includes a “Tap to Post” to Facebook button as well as a “Tap to Tweet” button for fast sharing connections. Siri also integrates to Facebook, making it possible to say a post instead of typing it.

Apple also released a new MacBook Pro that features a new stunning “Retina” display of 5,184,000 pixels. The device runs on a Core i7 CPU, has seven hours of battery life, and is slightly thinner than its predeccesor. Prices start at $2,199 for a 2.3GHz Core i7, 8GB of RAM and GeForce GT 650.

The MacBook Air line got a boost from Ivy Bridge-class processors from Intel. Graphics are reportedly 60 percent better than the previous version. The device now features solid state drives of up to 512 gigabytes as well as USB 3.0, 10 times faster than its predecessor. Suprisingly, the device will also cost $100 less.

As Stem’s bare bones website mysteriously states, “Don’t turn off the lights.” Recently
launched out of stealth mode and landing a Series A investment of $10.2 million, the
company takes a green energy approach to energy savings without asking companies
to turn off a single switch or modify what they’re doing in any way. The payback is
immediate from day one, directly tackling one of the biggest expenses that affect the
bottom line–the electric bill.

The company takes advantage of computing power in the cloud to analyze massive
amounts of data. Stem then combines this data with state of the art battery power and
predictive analytics to do something that was impossible just a few years ago. It’s SAAS
solution analyzes a business’s energy usage, buys energy during non-peak, cheap times,
and stores the energy in a battery the size of a dorm fridge for later use. Essentially, it
combines business intelligence on one side, energy storage on another, and has developed
IP for predictive capabilities that allow businesses to buy energy more efficiently. The
savings more than pay for the service.

“We look at electric use like you’d look at financial trading,” said Brian Thompson, CEO
of Stem. “As energy use is constantly fluctuating, so does your energy costs. We buy
energy when it’s low, sell it when it’s high, and we do so whenever it makes the most
sense for our customers.”

“Like solar, the savings vary according to the size and type of business and are
significant. Stem tackles the portion of the electricity bill that hasn’t been touched
before–the part you have to pay,” Thompson continued. “We provide immediate savings,
and the customer doesn’t have to do a thing. People are going to be very pleasantly
surprised when they see the difference.”

Founded in 2009, the company has been focused on R&D, and has only begun to scratch
the surface when it comes to marketing, which is where this new round from Angeleno
Group and Greener Capital will come in handy. Though still in pre-sales, the company
has already signed enough customers to outstrip its manufacturing capacity until next
year. Its clientele include businesses with large commercial spaces – hotels, service
stations and supermarkets. While the company has initially targeted medium to large
businesses as it enters the market, Thompson views every business as a customer, as the
savings could equally apply to small businesses and even households down the road.

“We plan to play a critical role in the digitization of commercial energy,” Thompson

said. “We believe there will be a storage box in every business. Like hybrid cars, every
business should be a hybrid business. If you think of every business and every building
as a customer, and no one has deployed this technology yet, when you do the math you
realize we have a lot to be excited about.”

Not that there aren’t and won’t be competitors in the future. While other companies do
specialize in energy storage solutions, none couple it with business analytics and IP
that includes predictive capabilities. As competitors emerge, Thompson argues, Stem’s
technology will be well ahead of them.

“It would take significant time and resources to create a comparable solution for this
market, and we have a couple of major head starts,” Thompson said. “Like Google’s
advanced search algorithms keep it competitive, we have a system that works with
several years of development behind it.”

It was Stem’s uniqueness in the field that sealed the investment, explained Zeb Rice, Co-
founder and Managing Partner at Angeleno Group, the lead Stem investor.

“We have evaluated hundreds of companies in the cleantech sector. Stem is the only one
that uses big data, cloud computing and energy storage to improve the bottom line,” Rice
said in a statement.

And while the company’s solutions are green for the planet, they’re also green for the
dollar, Thompson pointed out.

“Any green energy improvement worth its salt is also a money making machine,”
Thompson said. “All companies have one green mandate- reduce the total cost of
ownership. We provide real savings while being good for the environment. That’s what
real efficiency is all about.”

The designs are created based on photographs taken by the user. The app essentially allows you to turn your face or someone else’s face into pottery such as a bowl, glass or plate. After the design is completed, you upload it. Sculpteo then sends the plans to local 3D printing facility which manufacturers the object using a ceramic printing process.

Though the app itself is free, the price tag for the finished product depends on the size and complexity of the design, with large objects going for around $300, while a ceramic mug will cost around $70.

The company is also partnering with a number of designers such as Jen-Louis Frechin to develop new ways to transform “human data” such as facial profiles into personal designs, allowing customers to use prototypes that they then personalize from photographs for a finished product that’s one of a kind.

The technology also allows for personalized images on mugs and iPhone cases.

The company also has backing from SV Angel and Sequoia Capital.

Piazza enables a Q&A platform in which students share and answer questions in a format similar to a wiki. Each class gets its own page, with collaboration taking place in real time to encourage discussion. Students can bookmark questions for quicker answers, with each answer contributed by individual students in a collaborative process that includes a version history documenting what each student wrote. Students can bookmark questions of a particular interest, and professors can likewise view the bookmarks to see which areas receive the most questions.

Hubs can be created by both professors and students, with professor answers separate for easier finding.

“Across every sector, the world is witnessing seismic shifts away from clunky, centrally-mandated software packages towards tools designed from the ground up to be social and collaborative,” said Ethan Kurzweil, Vice President at BVP who recently joined Piazza’s board of directors. “That wave is breaking in education, and Piazza is best positioned because of its ability to create positive engagement among users.

Emerging from private beta in January, the site currently enrolls over 100,000 students in hundreds of schools around the globe, including 109 of the top 250 colleges in the US. Piazza is currently used at Stanford, Georgia Tech, Berkeley, MIT, Cornell, Harvard, Columbia, the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, Purdue, Virginia Tech, the University of Waterloo, the University of British Columbia, Princeton, the University of Texas, and the University of Central Florida.

The company reports that the average user is on the site four hours a day, keeping the tab open and checking it throughout the day to update work. When the product was used in the fall of 2011, 96 percent of the questions posted on the site were answered, with 45 percent answered by students and 67 percent answered by professors, with a median response time of 25 minutes.

A computer science class in Berkeley has over 19,000 contributions in one semester, averaging a contribution every 22 minutes with an average response time of eight minutes.

“We’ve grown up with a more social communication style, but at the same time a lot of students are reluctant to participate in class forums because they don’t want to seem too smart or too dumb,” said said Tianbo Xu, a student at UC Berkeley and the president of the school’s IEEE student branch. “Piazza has figured out how to create a vibrant social network centered on your class without demanding that you disclose everything. Once you’ve used it, it’s hard to imagine not using it.”

“With Piazza, for the first time I can expect a level of engagement outside of class that enables me to challenge my students with harder problems,” said Srinivasan Keshav, Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Waterloo. “I know they will work through them and learn together using Piazza then come to class knowing what they need to learn. That’s not just a better way to get questions answered, it’s a more effective style of teaching and learning.”

The company will use the funding to for research and development as well as expansion strategies into other schools.