As previously reported by SiliconAngle, Apple has recently released Ping, a social networking enhancement along with iTunes 10. And it looks like it’s already run into its first apparent snag, according to an article at Engadget, …the company was making a last-second change to its new Ping social-network-for-music: the removal of Facebook Connect for finding friends. Seriously -- although an option to find friends via Facebook was conspicuously present during Steve's keynote demos, it's not there anymore. Oddly, the option was there at the very beginning -- several Engadget staffers definitely saw a Facebook button when they signed up for Ping last night, and there's a whole thread on Apple's support site of people who also saw it and

No sooner had we posted this morning on the offer / counter-offer bidding war between Dell and HP for the ownership of 3PAR that the Financial Times began reporting that the war was over, and HP walked away the winner. Hewlett-Packard appeared to have won the bidding battle for data storage technology company 3Par on Thursday, after Dell said it would not raise its offer and was ending talks. I spoke with John Furrier briefly before he went on the air this morning at VMworld on #theCube, and he took great joy in pointing out that he was on record predicting the outcome of the auction. “HP wins big here, mainly because 3PAR’s technology looks is set to become an essential piece of HP’s thin provisioning segment,” said John. �

It’s been eighteen days since the bidding war over 3Par began, and we’re wondering if there’s even an end in sight. 3Par released a statement this morning saying that HP raised its bid again, to $33 per share. That’s an increase from its previously announced offer of $30 per share. This “Superior Proposal” aims to woo 3Par as far away from Dell’s initial acquisition offering as it can, with the terms of agreement allowing the server company to entertain other offers. That’s exactly what 3Par has been doing, stretching this bidding war out for nearly three weeks. Back in August, John Furrier predicted 3PAR bidding would exceed $2 Billion, and predicted back in May that storage would be the next hot market to watch for merg

We’re hard at work, but we thought we’d take a minute to show you some of the goings on from the show floor.  Stay tuned to SiliconAngle.TV for continuing wall-to-wall coverage of VMworld 2010!

Majority owned by Sprint-Nextel, the Clearwire service currently offers flat priced services for laptop wireless connectivity, but recently stated plans to develop a pay-as-you-go plan. From a brief Reuters article, Clearwire is the first U.S. service provider to offer fourth-generation wireless services but its biggest rival, Verizon Wireless, is expected to follow suit with a 4G service later this year. Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc. While different pricing models will greatly benefit consumers—I know that it does for me, with a lot of phone companies selling mobile hot spots—the competition of also breaking into 4G from 3G should help lower entry prices. Without pricing to report, w

The first set of videos is from the game called Harvest and it is no wonder Microsoft has put its foot down when it comes to the handset specs. [Cross-posted at Winextra]

The Twittersphere and storage industry are abuzz with the ongoing bidding for 3Par.  HP and Dell are aggressively pursuing the company and have a vested interest in 3Par technology. I believe that HP is more motivated to acquire 3Par and will prevail. Both Dell and HP believe that a 3Par acquisition will generate additional business value, and they both must realize that the losing party will be placed in a difficult situation.  I believe that HP has more to gain by acquiring 3Par and more to lose by failing to do so.  Here is my assessment of the gains and losses by each bidder: HP gain if they win: HP has a broad storage portfolio and 3Par’s products would replace/augment the EVA and XP product lines.  EVA was de

An acquisition by Google hints at more development around the GoogleMe project. Angstro, a social news aggregation startup founded by Rohit Khare, is the latest in a stretch of socially-oriented Google acquisitions. Launched in 2008, Angstro scours blogs and news sites to find the information most relevant to individual users’ needs. It added Knx.to last year, layering in real-time search componnents for more contextual results. An accompanying API has introduced the social componnt for Angstro, bringing it full circle for many of today’s current search trends. While Khare will be joining Google, details surrounding the full acquisition of all Angstro’s technology and platforms have not been revealed. He posts on Angstro's

As expected, the bid for 3PAR has risen again, with Hewlett-Packard making another offering at $30 per share in cash.  In an earlier post this morning, Dave Vellante surmised that the offers for 3Par would exceed $2 billion, and now they have. Hoping to finalize the deal once and for all, this latest bid by HP is an 11% premium above the most recent price of $27 per share, made by Dell.  That bid actually matched HP’s previous bid, which was nearly $3 higher than Dell’s $24.70 bid before that. Most interesting about this bidding war is that 3Par has accepted most of these offers.   The storage solutions company just can’t say no.  I should throw a bid out there--3Par apparently entertains them all.  See here for more analy

Perhaps 3PAR has made up its mind. Dell announced this morning that 3Par has accepted its increased offer for $27 per share in cash. The latest counter bid matched HP’s late-day offer for 3Par, which we covered last night. From Dell’s released statement, The cash tender offer, through a wholly-owned Dell subsidiary, is for all outstanding shares of 3PAR common stock, without interest, and subject to reduction for any federal back-up withholding or other taxes. The offer documents will be amended to reflect the new offer price, but this will not alter the timing of the acquisition. Unless extended, the tender offer and any withdrawal rights to which 3PAR stockholders may be entitled will expire at midnight, EDT, on Sept. 20,