Features

• Oracle's strategies to get real-world verdict at Collaborate user event

  Oracle's sprawling annual OpenWorld conference doesn't kick off until September, but next week the Oracle user group-backed Collaborate event will be held in Denver.

• Wello aims to bring the gym home through live training service

  Maggie Perkins was mulling whether to give up her gym membership when she tried out Wello, whose fitness trainers offer workouts through live two-way video feeds. Four months later, she has no regrets about her decision to forego the gym.

• Analyst, SAP dispute over reported support discounts reveals murky picture

  SAP and a financial analyst are at loggerheads over a recent report by the analyst, which said that a handful of customers had received substantial discounts on their software maintenance renewals.

• HP-Autonomy fraud allegations fallout: The winners and losers

  Hewlett-Packard's bombshell revelation that it would take a US$8.8 billion non-cash writedown after allegedly discovering major accounting fraud related to its Autonomy business unit has rocked the tech world.

• 7 outsourcing nightmares -- and how to avoid them

  Poor communication, shortsighted contracts -- don't get derailed by an IT outsourcing agreement gone awry

• Cloud drives speech recognition forward for Microsoft

  For years, using voice recognition technology on phones or other devices has been a novelty -- something people try once but never again, usually because it works so poorly. But recent developments, including harnessing the computational power of the cloud, have made it more usable and will make it even better in the near future, according to Microsoft.