Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has said that one of his biggest failures when he was chief executive of the search-engine company was underestimating the importance of friends. In a speech in California, Schmidt said he had not addressed the impact of social networking services such as Facebook and that, as a consequence, Google had missed on "the friend thing".

We’ve already mentioned the Windows Phone prototype Nokia CEO Stephen Elop says he’s already carrying; now the chief exec is taunting Walt Mossberg with unannounced devices at D9. Speaking at the conference this week, Elop said “I carry around all forms of innovative hardware, and there are a number of interesting products still coming from Nokia.”

IT departments, long criticized as being too slow in offering new technologies and services, may be facing a grassroots rebellion in many companies over cloud services, according to a new survey of cloud adoption inside companies. Avanade, a services company  created by Microsoft and Accenture 10 years ago, sponsored the survey, which found 20% of those responding said they had gone around their IT department to provision cloud services.

Computer World UK 

Microsoft has shown off Windows 8 for the first time, taking aim at growing competition from tablet-friendly rivals. According to Microsoft, Windows 8 will herald a change of approach running from the chip to the interface, and will scale from touch-only small-screen devices to large desktops. Microsoft will be hoping the tile-based interface - which borrows from the Windows Phone 7 user interface - will help it make up lost ground on Apple and Android devices in the booming tablet market.

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The iPad now accounts for nearly 1 percent of all Web browsing, which may not sound like a lot until you look at the numbers for Apple's closest competitors. The iPad conducts 0.92 percent of Web browsing, but the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab clocks in at a meager 0.018 percent, the Motorola Xoom at 0.012 percent, and the BlackBerry Playbook at 0.003 percent.

Having discovered that there's a smidge of intestinal fortitude still lurking there deep in its flabby guts the US regulator, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), has bellied-up to the bar and is demanding written proof of AT&T's assertions that its takeover of T-Mobile USA is justified because it will ensure "maximum efficiencies in the use of spectrum".

After numerous leaks, we finally have the official announcement from T-Mobile regarding the new Android offerings from Samsung – the Exhibit 4G and Gravity Smart a.k.a GT2. The Samsung Exhibit 4G has been offered at less than $100 after a $50 mail inrebate on T-Mobile. The specs of the device running Android 2.3 Gingerbread include a 1GHz processor, 3 megapixel camera on the rear with flash and a camcorder. A front facing camera with pre-installed video chat has also been incorporated.

Orange has commissioned a study to promote its recyclingscheme, and it found that a whopping £2.7bn worth of mobile phones are lying unused in people’s homes across the UK. The report in today’s Telegraph also noted that almost a third of consumers were unaware that they could make money by selling their unused gadgets. It’s not clear how big a user-base was used in this study, but I’m not entirely confident of that statistic, and I posit that most people simply never get ’round to selling their old devices.

French digital economy minister Eric Besson signed a decree on 1 June launching the tender for operators to bid for the opportunity to deliver LTE services using part of the frequencies recovered from the analogue TV switchoff. Following numerous consultations, on 31 May telecom regulator Arcep submitted to the government its proposal on how assign the spectrum for 4G mobile services. It set three priorities, national coverage, increased competition and obtaining value from this state asset. The process will officially begin within the next few days, once the announcement is published in the official gazette.

The Finnish mobile phone company have updated their net sales forecast for the devices and services division in the second quarter of 2011, to ‘substantially below’ its previous expectation of more than €6 billion, to take into account a drop in sales margins from between six and nine per cent to about break-even. It has abandoned any forecasts for the rest of 2011 as a whole, although it does expect to be able to give short-term forecasts during the remaining quarters. It had expected net sales to be comparable to 2010, perhaps even stronger later in the year.