Today in Tech: IT Demand; Hiring; Facebook's iPhone app & Microsoft's ...

IT market: looking up?The conventional wisdom in IT sector says the real sign of demand growth is when discretionary spend picks up; that is, when companies spend not just to keep the lights on, but also in areas such as consulting. Business Standard quotes Infosys executive co-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan as saying, "We see discretionary spends coming back in the US and to some extent in Europe.” About a month back, Gartner had revised its growth forecast up from 2.5% to 3% for 2012. A more recent survey by Bluewolf found 32% of its respondents saying they would increase outsourcing in next 12 to 18 months. It's still too early to say if the old momentum will return - it might not - but outlook certainly seems better. IT hiring: Net additions downThere were signs of depleting appetite for people. Companies were delaying the joining-dates of freshers; pay hikes were low; there were more people on the bench. Looks like hiring got hit too. A story in Business Line says that the net additions had slowed down in the second quarter this year, but also points out that it could be seasonal. June quarter is not a peak hiring period, it quotes E Balaji, CEO of Randstad India as saying. Facebook speeds up its iPhone/iPad appFacebook has released an upgraded version of its iPhone/iPad app last night. It still does not have some of the features - such as share - its users were hoping for. But, it's definitely faster. Facebook had to rebuild the app from the scratch. (Here's a post on what went into it). It's important for Facebook. About a fifth of its users access it only through mobile - and mobile users in general have often complained not only about its speed but also about constant crashes. This should fix some of those concerns. However, there's a bigger problem that Facebook is yet to solve - making money out of mobile apps. Microsoft's new logoAfter more than 25 years, Microsoft has changed its logo. I personally think it gels well with Windows 8 design. But, over at Mashable, there's some expert commentary.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkZWvAJUr0[/youtube] Also of interest

• Dell & HP together on a long road to nowhere: Gigaom
• Citi, in Letter to SEC, Blasts Nasdaq on Facebook: WSJ
• Dissecting the Digital CEO: Bloomberg
• Startup looks to the cloud to make dumb phones smart: BGR
• Infosys veterans Pradeep Prabhu and Prasanna Raghavendra launch cloud startup Cloudmunch: Economic Times