Our #BigDataSV was a smash hit this week, broadcasting live from theCUBE on SiliconANGLE.tv a host of interviews with Big Data practitioners, thought-leaders, vendors, venture capitalists, and analysts. This week’s Best of theCUBE series is a great place to start, with an awesome interview with Eron Kelly, GM of Product Marketing – Data Platform at Microsoft, and John Kreisa, VP of Strategic Marketing at Hortonworks, who sat down with our own John Furrier. They discuss the partnership between Microsoft and Hortonworks, and discuss how they are contributing through open source initiative towards making Big Data more usable.

Here is a rundown of our top stories for the week of February 10th:

SiSense optimizes analytics platform for mobile | #BigDataSV

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At the Strata Conference in Santa Clara this week, cloud analytics specialist SiSense unveiled a new version of its flagship offering that has been optimized for smartphones and tablets. With the number of mobile devices set to exceed the world’s population this year, the update is a natural (and arguably overdue) evolution for a startup seeking to make data insights more accessible to end-users. Mobile is key to making data more accessible to end users, but anticipating a bevy of varied access points through browser applications and devices doesn’t come without its challenges.

See the video below for a great recap of the top developments and highlights from Strata and #BigDataSV:

‘Bad news’ is ‘good news’ for Bitcoin

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The real reason that Bitcoin has been hitting the headlines so often is not because it’s weak. Rather, it’s because Bitcoin has never been stronger, supported by a growing community of users scattered all over the world, on the cusp of being legitimized by the US government, with it’s use becoming more widespread by the day. With so many people staking so much in Bitcoin, it’s little wonder that any snippet of information – good or bad – makes the headlines. The “bad news” just confirms the “good news” that Bitcoin is getting stronger by the day.

MtGox blames troubles on the Bitcoin protocol, Core developers beg to differ.

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Over the weekend MtGox went offline for several hours and it took the noted bitcoin exchange almost a day and a half to reach out to customers with a press release explaining what happened. The gist? MtGox blames troubles on the Bitcoin protocol itself, blaming an issue that has been known by the community since 2011. This fact seems to be the driving factor behind what’s been happing to the MtGox exchange: the underlying infrastructure is similar to an old house with bad wiring and poor plumbing.

10 of the best data center infographics online today

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Emerson Network Power’s “2013 State of the Data Center” illustrates that global dependence on everything digital is pushing IT to the forefront of the organization. As a fun fact: Google spent $7.35 billion in capital expenditures on data center expansions in 2013. To help parse out relevant statistics and information on data storage, we’ve put together a collection of the 10 best data center infographics across the internet.

Apple TV to be unveiled in April, iPhone 6 will come in two flavors

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The report comes from Bloomberg, and claims that Apple will be unveiling its new set-top box this April – just in time for the spring season. Meanwhile, Bloomberg also claims that the company is working on delivering more content to users. Apple was said to be in talks with Time Warner Cable, which would allow Apple TV users to access more live TV content. But since Bloomberg’s report, we’ve learned that Comcast has bought Time Warner Cable for $45 billion in an all-stock deal. Does that affect Apple’s plans with Apple TV — it has to right? In other Apple news, the company is said to be sticking with its plan of releasing two different iPhones come this September, so that would be an iPhone 6. According to leaked photos that surfaced, Apple will be releasing 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones.

Those are the highlights from the week of February 10th! How is the data center going to play into Big Data? When do we start to see serious data workload agility? How far will the MtGox news drop Bitcoin? Is the reaction to the MtGox news actually GOOD news for Bitcoin? Does Comcast purchasing Time Warner Cable affect Apple TV and if so, how? Will Apple ‘wow’ us again with the iPhone 6 after a few “misses” according to Apple fanboys? Lots to look forward to news-wise in the coming weeks!