Forbes has named Microsoft's Steve Ballmer the worst chief executive to still have a job.

Ballmer was listed number one on Forbes' list of chief executives who should be fired. Microsoft's chief was ranked ahead of horrible bosses such as Cisco's Jeff Chambers and General Electrics Jeffery Inmelt.

"Without a doubt, Mr Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today," wrote Forbes contributor Adam Hartung.

Ballmer took over Microsoft in 2000, during Windows' heyday, with company stock swapping hands at $60 a share. During his tenure he's driven a company once accused of holding a monopoly on its industry into a $30 a share stock option.

Who could forget some of the lowlights of Ballmer's rein? The Zune, Windows Vista, Windows ME, and Internet Explorer 6 were all award-worthy failures from Microsoft's chief executive.

But maybe Forbes is being a bit harsh on Ballmer. Sure, he is a billionaire who's bad at his job. How many people can be voted worst chief executive and still have employment? He survived the Zune era with a job still intact. He must be doing something right.

^{Phone Box on Ladcastle Road Dobcross (Paul Anderson) / CC BY-SA 2.0}

What's red, useless, sits on the street and could be yours for £2,000? No, not Andy Carroll but if you want to fork out a wedge of cash for something similar, then BT are once again flogging off their red phone boxes.

The grand red K6 boxes are testament to the mobile revolution that has swept the world over the past decade. Who needs to fumble around for 10p pieces to make a call, when everyone carries a mobile?

According to BT's figures, the number of calls made from payphones has dropped 80 per cent in the past five years, and six out of ten phone boxes lose money.

Little wonder then that those in charge of BT's payphone business have looked at alternative ways to make money.

“Now you can buy a  twentieth century design icon that’s famous around the world for your home or garden or you could even buy one as a gift for the person you know who has everything,” gushed Katherine Ainley, general manager for BT payphones, announcing the sell off.

It's not the first time BT has sold off its red phone boxes – it got rid of a load back in the 1980s, when it realised that horrible-looking plastic cubicles were far cheaper to maintain.

And other companies have been selling the phone boxes ever since – usually at eye-watering prices.

Meanwhile, BT has for the past four years been offering local communities a chance to “adopt” a red phone box – although the cost for doing so is a meagre £1, rather than the near £2,000 it would cost to buy one.

But as the internet age gathers pace, it seems likely that BT's kiosks won't be the only bit of red street furniture destined for the history books. Surely it can't be too much longer before the Royal Mail starts flogging off post boxes too?

In an interesting move, SAP has decided to start targeting consumers with its business product portfolio.

Now it's not every day that the average consumer wants to pick up a new enterprise resource planning or business process system, but since SAP has entered the more exciting IT areas of in-memory computing, cloud computing, mobile technology and analytics, the firm clearly believes it has something to offer the wider public.

Targeting consumers may be a clever move that other software companies could follow, especially with the growing trend to IT consumerisation in businesses, and the fact that business staff - rather than IT staff - are increasingly dictating IT purchasing decisions.

Not only that, but consumers are often bringing the technology they use at home to work with them, and vice versa.

Either that, or SAP will find that consumers' interest in technology ends at social networks, smartphones, and online retail, and they are not in fact interested in big data analytics and new computing architectures.

The way in which SAP will talk to consumers is through a new global advertising campaign (what else?) that aims to showcase the recent advancements it has made in IT.

The 'Run Like Never Before' campaign will be managed SAP's advertising partner, Oglivy & Mather and coincides with SAP's 40th anniversary.

The advertising firm said the campaign is geared to be unlike traditional business-to-business advertising in order to connect "on a human-level".

It added that the campaign will feature "high-energy music, engaging imagery and film techniques that are commonly see in consumer advertising".

All well and good, but whether or not the IT revolution has reached the stage of SAP becoming a household name remains to be seen. After all, it's hard to imagine your nan asking for help running her Business ByDesign account, but you never know.

When Google announced its decision to splash out $12.5bn on Motorola there was immediate speculation that the deal could alienate other Android manufactures, chiefly HTC and Samsung.

At the time Google went to great lengths to reassure those firms, and the market in general, that the deal would not upset the Android apple cart, with Motorola receiving no preferential treatment despite being a part of Google.

Executive chairman Eric Schmidt even said during a visit to South Korea, the home of Samsung, that Motorola would remain an independent business unit.

His words at the time: "We're not going to change in any material way the way we operate."

However, in an all-too-predicatable twist, the firm is now said to be on the verge of booting out current chief executive Sanjay Jha and replacing him with the Google man who oversaw the deal, Dennis Woodside, according to sources quoted by Bloomberg.

Google has not responded to a request for comment on that report.

This looks like a clear contradition - after all parachuting in your own man to replace the leader of a firm you are buying seems to present a pretty substantial material change. How independent can Motorola be if headed up by a Google executive?

No doubt those at Samsung, HTC and the rest of the Android collective will note this development with interest and reconsider what Google is up to.

The rumours will also be of great interest to Microsoft, which will be hoping to entice any concerned Android vendors to its Windows Phone operating system, particularly as the platform continues to garner positive reviews.

The relationship between Google and Microsoft have reached an all-time low, and so the folks at Redmond are probably considering how best to further stir the waters of the Android community - although V3 hopes it doesn't involve anything as awful as this video that hit the web this week:

Apple's share price passed the $500 mark for the first time in the firm's history on Monday afternoon as the success of its iPad 2 and iPhone devices continue to make the firm one of the world's most valuable companies.

It has taken just six months since passing the $400 on the Nasdaq market to rocket to £500 and comes three years after the firm's share price was a comparatively paltry $89.31 in February 2009.

Since then the success of its iPhone and iPad ranges, particularly their increasing use among both consumers and business users, has fuelled the firm's valuation, which is now inching towards $470bn as it continues to rake in record profits.

The firm's financial success is in stark contrast to some of its key rivals, with the likes of Microsoft stagnating on $30 per share price - and a market cap of $256bn - and Nokia on just $5 a share or a $18.5bn market cap, as other firms find it hard to make any traction in the smartphone and tablet markets.

Only Google can outperform Apple for share-value, with its stock currently priced around the $613 mark, but with fewer shares it circulation, it's value is a 'paltry' $199bn.

The question everyone will be asking, though, is clear: why on earth didn't I buy some shares in Apple three years ago?

One of the most interesting things about Facebook filing its $5bn initial public offering (IPO) is that it finally provides some hard evidence into the company's success and operating strategies, having for so long been a private company with closed books.

Mostly notably, the firm is already making some strong returns on its advertising model, with revenues up to $3.7bn for 2011, an increase of $1.7bn from 2010, showing the company's advertising-led model is paying off.

However, it is not just advertising that is driving this income, with the firm revealing in the filing that Zynga was responsible for 12 per cent of this income, as Facebook takes a cut of any purchases made by users in the games that run on the site.

Away from the financial figures, the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), also highlights some of the ways in which the company is setting itself up to deal with having to appease Joe Public once they get their greasy mitts on shares in the firm.

The most interesting of the caveats Facebook has placed within its IPO relates Mark Zuckerberg's right to appoint the company's successor in the event of his death.

"In the event that Mr. Zuckerberg controls our company at the time of his death, control may be transferred to a person or entity that he designates as his successor," the filing notes.

However, Zuckerberg clearly has no intention of handing control over any time soon as he's made sure that the share structure of the company works in his favour.

Each share of the 28.4 per cent stake he controls in the firm has a 10 times greater power than normal shares on any issues shareholders vote on, ensuring he retains overall control of the firm.

"[This] provides Zuckerberg with the ability to control the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if he owns significantly less than a majority of the shares, [...] including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets," it reads.

Zuckerberg has also committed to only draw a salary of $1 a year from 1 January, 2013, similar to Steve Jobs during his time at Apple. He probably expects to eek out a living via bonus schemes and share grants.

The firm will also likely be forced to start providing regular updates on the number of active users on the site, which has now been revealed as 845 million, so it may even be the case it can tout one billion members in the run up the firm going public in May.

No doubt that will send already rabid investors into a full-blown frenzy. All this from its inception in a dorm room in Harvard. Amazing.

ORLANDO: As one of the technology industry's biggest spenders on research and development, it was no surprise to find IBM showing off a range of projects that staff in its Center for Social Business are busy working on behind the scenes.

The project that most caught V3's eye was its Gamification Engine for the Enterprise product that looks to offer organisations a way to provide staff with a more engaging way to share knowledge or learn new skills.

The interface is heavily reminiscent of geo-location service Foursquare, with users able to acquire badges if they complete certain tasks or goals, as well as comparing their ranking with other users in a certain group or division on a public leaderboard.

The tool lets users earn badges, rewards and compete with co-workers.

Yaniv Corem, a software engineer at IBM, explained to V3 that, thanks to services like Foursquare, staff in organisations are "no strangers to gamification" and that the tool could have several uses within the business community.

"With this tool you can build databases of knowledge on key topics by allowing staff to share information in a competitive and playful way," he said.

Corem added that the firm is considering adding the tool to its Connections platform at some point in the future, but that nothing was guaranteed as yet.

Another tool the firm is working on is its "time-based storytelling" offering Historio, which it has already used itself to gather together information on its 100th anniversary celebrations that took place in 2011 (see image below).

Each blue dot represents a key moment in IBM's history, which links to more information on that topic, including text, images and video.

Jamie Rasmussen, another IBM software engineer, explained the tool could have uses for businesses to document their company’s history to the public, as IBM has done, or for staff to share knowledge of a product's history internally.
 
Another interesting tool the firm was showcasing was a Twitter analysis platform that attempts to gather 'human data' on users of the site to analyse the likelihood of them responding to a question or their interest in a given topic.

"This will help a brand know if it is worth trying to engage with a user, the best questions to ask and whether they should offer an incentive to encourage feedback," IBM research staff member Jeffrey Nichols told V3.

Such projects show that, after 100 years of being one of the biggest technology firms in the world, IBM has no intention of resting on its laurels and is keen to place itself at the heart of the social business revolution taking place in the market.

One of the nice things about Twitter is that firms on the site often share titbits of information about what they are up to, to help keep customers, partners and other 'interested parties' updated on their comings and goings.

It was with interest, then, that V3 spied a tweet by Intel UK that showed several employees, including its chief technology officer Justin Rattner, posing outside Number 10 Downing Street this morning.

Interested to know what Intel was doing at such a venue, V3 contacted the firm and, after a couple of hours, was sent a fairly vague statement claiming there was nothing unusual about the meeting, but that all discussions held were strictly off limits.

"With regards to Justin Rattner's visit to Number 10 this morning, as with all major companies, Intel has regular catch-ups with Downing St," Intel said.

"The subject of these conversations is always confidential; we will obviously announce anything significant as and when appropriate."

V3 wondered why, if you were so chummy with the folks at Number 10, would you post a picture advertising your presence there. That's when things got really interesting: on returning to Twitter to look at the picture once more, we noticed that, shock, it was gone.

Sadly, not expecting Intel to pull a fast one in this manner, none of the team in the V3 office had managed to grab a screenshot of the Intel folk outside Number 10.

So the firm is happy to admit the meeting took place, but leaving a picture on Twitter showing staff outside the venue was deemed too much?

This suggests the picture should never have been put online and was removed when questions from the press raised the alarm – creating yet more intrigue into what the meeting with the government was about.

Hopefully Intel will come clean in the future and explain what it was doing inside that illustrious residency – perhaps, as one colleague quipped, they were busy implanting a new chip inside Cameron.