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Microsoft will boost its Azure cloud offering in Japan, adding two domestic data centers to speed response times and improve reliability in the face of natural disasters.The software giant said Thursday that it would add cloud-based hosting services in two regions, one near Tokyo and one in the Kansai region further south. Redundancy is a priority in earthquake-prone Japan, where the use of online services usually skyrockets after natural disasters."By using two sub-regions, customers will be able build configurations with domestic disaster recovery, and performance will be improved," said Yasuyuki Higuchi, President of Microsoft Japan.Azure competes in Japan with offerings like Amazon's EC2 infrastructure and local cloud providers such as Sakura. Microsoft is a trusted name in corporate Japan but Azure has a reputation for being slower than rival offerings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Adorama has the Refurbished Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX VR II Lens available for $209.00 with free shipping. Compare at $396.95 new.

The Color Splash For iPad app allows you to create black and white images, with a touch of colour, Daniel Bell trys it out.

Find out who has one the third Vanguard Alta Pro 263 AGH tripod ePHOTOzine has to give away.

Amazon.com is expanding the distribution of its tablets in a big way with the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 now available for preorder in over 170 countries, and its Appstore open in nearly 200 countries.The Kindle Fire HD has been the best-selling item for Amazon since it was launched, and Amazon is now hoping to copy that success around the world. The tablets are available for preorder on Amazon.com from US$214 and $284 respectively, and will start shipping on June 13.The 8.9-inch display on the larger Kindle Fire HD has 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution, while the resolution on the smaller 7-inch model is 1280 x 800 pixels. Both models have either 16GB or 32GB of storage.Amazon is all about its content ecosystem, so the availability of the tablets is closely linked with the Appstore becoming available in more countries as well, according to Peter King, director of tablet strategies at market research company Strategy Analytics.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The latest victim of disruption by Internet technologies is a veteran of World War I: the missing persons search.French police will no longer search for adults reported missing by their families unless there are signs that the person is in danger. The police have abandoned searches in progress and stopped accepting new search requests, according to an announcement on a government website Monday. The changes took effect on Friday.Such "searches in the interests of the family" were conducted under an administrative procedure almost a century old, introduced to help families separated during the upheavals of World War I to find missing relatives, according to the French Ministry of the Interior.Requests for the searches have fallen considerably in recent years, and are now most often used to find those behind on alimony payments, the Ministry said in a letter to police chiefs announcing the changes last month. The letter instructed them to refuse further requests, adding: "You can direct people towards social networks on the Internet, which offer interesting possibilities."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Canon has launched a new “through-the-line” campaign using the creative theme ‘Power to your next step.’ Read more and comment »

The Ricoh GR is the World's smallest compact with an APS-C sensor, and features a wide-angle 28mm equivalent lens. Find out how this camera performs in our review.

Want to give your photos a bit of a kick without introducing ugly halos? A new plug-in from Topaz Labs aims to do just that, providing detailed control over a wide range of image attributes, as well as a generous range of presets that get you quickly in the ballpark. For a limited time, the new plug-in is available at a pretty significant launch discount, so if you're planning to buy, now's the time! Topaz says that its new Topaz Clarity plug-in includes a "breakthrough" halo-free algorithm. Recognizing that you may want to treat different areas of... (read more)

The U.S. government is in negotiations with SoftBank for greater control over equipment purchases by Sprint Nextel and the selection of one of the Japanese company's nominee to the U.S. carrier's board, according to a news report.Dish Network, SoftBank's rival bidder for Sprint, has meanwhile launched an advertising campaign and a website to argue that "the sale of wireless and wireline infrastructure with national strategic importance to a foreign company will weaken the security of the United States."SoftBank has agreed to give the U.S. government the right to approve one of the directors it names to Sprint's board, who will be responsible for overseeing national security issues, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.The government also wants the right to approve some of Sprint's equipment purchases and wants the removal of Chinese equipment from the network of Clearwire, a Sprint affiliate that it intends to acquire, the newspaper said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here