FunctionEight’s IT News & Views

At some point later this year, Facebook will connect one in every seven people on the planet. When it passes the billion user mark – and really it is a question of when, not if – it will inevitably be accompanied by the common lament of the social media critic: social networks degrade the idea of friendship. It’s absurd, they argue, to be “friends” with thousands of people – and an alarming sign of shallow times.

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India has become the top spam-spewing nation on the planet, suggests a report.

Compiled by security firm Sophos, the report ranks nations by the amount of junk mail routed through computers in each country.

India has leapt to the top of the spam chart in less than a year, rapidly overtaking the US, said Sophos.

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Sometimes we get lucky, and today is one of those days. I got a draft release from a partner of Google’s upcoming Google Drive service and it gives away a wealth of information about how Google plans to take on the incumbent Dropbox. The short story? 5 GB of storage, and it launches next week, likely on Tuesday at http://drive.google.com

Now let’s talk details. It’s no surprise that it will roll out for free. What’s interesting though is that Google is planning to start everyone with 5 GB of storage. Of course you can buy more, but that trumps Dropbox’s 2 GB that is included with every account. Dropbox does make it easy to get more space, including 23 GB of potential upgrades for HTC users.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Microsoft is staging a comeback — and, unlikely as this sounds, it’s one Apple and Google should be worried about.

Microsoft’s recipe relies on three key ingredients: Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox. The secret sauce, which features a dash of Bing and SkyDrive, is still simmering. But Microsoft is nothing if not patient, and it thinks its trio of core consumer products will blend together in the next few years to form a major new ecosystem.

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iOS is making inroads into the enterprise right now, largely thanks to the growth of the BYOD (bring your own device) trend.

However, a new report (PDF) from security firm Trend Micro suggests that RIM’s new OS, BlackBerry 7, is the most secure platform for businesses, ahead of iOS. With RIM having recently stated its intention to refocus on the business market (though not abandon the consumer space, as some reports incorrectly claimed) could Apple’s progress into the enterprise be stalled?

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The new leader at Research In Motion said today seismic change was not needed at the BlackBerry maker, a declaration seized on by impatient investors who say Thorsten Heins has only 12 to 18 months to turn RIM around.

Takeover talk, swirling around RIM for months, picked up steam today as Heins took the helm at a once-dominant company that now struggles to compete. But RIM’s shares tumbled more than 6% as investors wondered whether Heins could reverse RIM’s decline.

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Half a million Mac computers ‘infected with malware’
Apple laptop computer Dr Web says most infected computers are in the US

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