Microsoft testing underwater datacenters

Microsoft on Monday revealed that as the world turns to computing power in the cloud it is working to put datacenters under water.
 
Researchers working on "Project Natick" tested a prototype vessel on the ocean floor about a kilometer off the US Pacific Coast for about four months last year.
The vessel was named after a "Leona Philpot" character in popular Xbox video game franchise 'Halo.'
"The bottom line is that in one day this thing was deployed, hooked up and running," Microsoft Research NExT special projects leader Norm Whitaker said in a post at the company's website.
"A wild ocean adventure turned out to be a regular day at the office.

iPad Pro Outsells Microsoft's Surface Tablets in Q4 2015: IDC

The global market for tablet computers ended 2015 with a whimper, as the once sizzling market showed further signs of cooling, a market tracker said Monday.
 
Research firm IDC reported a 13.7 percent year-over-year drop in worldwide tablet sales in the fourth quarter, with 65.9 million units shipped.
For the full year, IDC said the number of tablets shopped fell 10.1 percent from a year earlier to 206.8 million.
Tablet sales had been gaining momentum through 2014 but failed to live up to many forecasts as consumers shifted to slim laptop computers and kept their tablets longer than expected before replacing them.
One bright spot in the tablet market however has been the "detachable" segment with removable keyboards such as the iPad Pro, which is growing at a strong pace, according to IDC.
For 2015, detachable tablets reached an all-time high of 8.1 million units, the report said.
"One of the biggest reasons why detachables are growing so fast is because end users are seeing those devices as PC replacements," said IDC's Jean Philippe Bouchard.
"We believe Apple sold just over two million iPad Pros while Microsoft sold around 1.6 million Surface devices, a majority of which were Surface Pro and not the more affordable Surface 3. With these results, it's clear that price is not the most important feature considered when acquiring a detachable - performance is."
Jitesh Ubrani, an IDC analyst, said the Apple's iPad Pro "was the clear winner this season as it was the top selling detachable, surpassing notable entries from Microsoft and other PC vendors."
But Ubrani said Google's new detachable tablet had a "lackluster" reception and noted that its Android platform "will require a lot more refinement to achieve any measurable success."
Apple kept its position at the top of the overall tablet market with fourth quarter sales of 16.1 million units, a market share of 24.5 percent despite a drop in unit sales of nearly 25 percent.