Microsoft confirms Azure cloud computing services launching in China on June 6 – and my top collection of links

We’re speaking about companies (Google), people (Rand Paul) and everything in between.

Ok, let’s get going. All the links:

• “Data collected by software-maker Soluto reveals that a majority of Windows 8 users mostly ignore Metro (design language) apps — those self-contained, Modern UI-sporting, one-touch install applications found both in the Windows Store and come bundled with the OS” – [Study suggests majority of Windows 8 users ignore Metro apps – www.techspot.com]
  
• “Microsoft confirms Azure cloud computing services launching in China on June 6 – In November, Microsoft and 21Vianet announced that they were working together to bring Azure, a infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service product, to China” – [thenextweb.com]
• Hands-on (and on camera) with Xbox One’s new controller and Kinect – “That experience unfortunately did not include a chance to sample any actual gameplay running on Xbox One hardware, but it did include an opportunity to get some time with the new Xbox One handheld controller and revamped Kinect camera” – [arstechnica.com]
• Review: Otterbox Defender iON powered iPhone case – “However, a cycling holiday from the Netherlands to Denmark in which my IPhone would be used for both photos and video suggested that at least a temporary change of policy might be in order” – [9to5mac.com]
• “Rand Paul: ‘The Senate should apologize to Apple’ By Philip Elmer-DeWittMay 21, 2013: 11:10 AM ETThe junior senator from Kentucky has been tweeting up a storm in Apple’s defense” – [Sen. Rand Paul: ‘The Senate should apologize to Apple’ – tech.fortune.cnn.com]
  
• “MSNBC‘s Chris Jansing tours a safe room that saved an Oklahoma couple and their neighbors” – [Why aren’t there more storm shelters in Oklahoma? – openchannel.nbcnews.com]
  
• Google’s new 3D Maps destroy Manhattan in the wake of Apple’s Flyover – “Wednesday, May 22, 2013, 06:05 pm Google’s new 3D Maps destroy Manhattan in the wake of Apple’s Flyover Nearly a year after Apple introduced its own Maps service in IOS 6 with Flyover 3D satellite views, Google is expanding its own online Maps to support similar 3D satellite imagery, with the same sorts of buckled roads and visual distortions Apple was castigated for last summer” – [appleinsider.com]