This week HP introduced its first hyperscale server, Google and Amazon had major service updates, and a Microsoft insider leaked the existence of Xbox Stingray.

Hewlett-Packard made a splash on Monday with the launch of Moonshot 1500, a solution that’s designed to serve as a building block for hyperscale environments. The server stands out thanks to its relatively open architecture: it includes a first-of-its-kind cartridge mechanism that enables customers to slot in their processor of choice. This allows users to customize the box for their specific workloads, whether Big Data or cloud.

A day after HP announced the general availability of its hyperscale box, Google unveiled a set of libraries that make it to integrate Twilio’s cloud-based communications platform into apps hosted on App Engine. The native Python and Java libraries enable developers to build voice and SMS features into their apps with just a few lines of code.

Amazon also had a PaaS update this week. The cloud behemoth enhanced AWS Elastic Beanstalk, its popular app deployment service, with  support for .NET applications. The upgraded platform is compatible with both the Microsoft Web Deploy .zip format and the Toolkit for Visual Studio, which means that developers can upload their code directly from within their IDE and save a few clicks in the process.

Over in the personal cloud space, it’s rumored that Microsoft is planning to launch not one but two consoles: Durango, which will compete with Sony’s Playstation 4, and a stripped-down model known only as Stingray. Paul Thurrott, the well-connected blogger who uncovered the existence of the system, described it as a low-cost Netflix box that will compete with set-top boxes such Roku.  SiliconAngle founding editor Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins provided his take on the report in a recent appearance on our morning NewsDesk show (full episode below).