Tired of waiting for Office to be optimized for their mobile gadgets, a growing contingent of younger companies is turning to cheaper, simpler and touch-friendly apps that can perform word processing and other tasks in the cloud.

Take Artivest Holdings Inc, a New York-based financial services startup that sells alternative investment products. The New York-based company uses an app called Quip, which combines word processing and messaging, to handle all but the most sensitive legal and financial files.

"There are no more Microsoft Word documents being circulated. If someone emails me a Word document, I'll tell them to put it in Quip," said Artivest Chief Investment Officer David Levine.

"If I'm walking to and from home, or going to an appointment, I can review or edit on my iPad. Not being tied to my desk, that's a big pro," he said.

The speed with which apps like Quip have been adopted is forcing Microsoft to intensify its efforts to bring the powerful but ageing Office software suite to tablets and smartphones, according to people close to the company.

Microsoft already has a full iPhone and iPad version of Office ready for release, the sources said. The only question is when Chief Executive Satya Nadella, who took over in February, will pull the trigger.

Nadella wants to widen Office's customer base but has to balance that with the flagship Windows franchise, which benefits greatly from tight integration with Office, especially on desktop computers.

"We have some pretty exciting plans," said John Case, the top Office marketing executive, without giving any details. "Certainly, interest in Office on the iPad is extreme. When they (customers) want to do real work, they are going to want to use Office."

Investors for years have urged Microsoft to adapt Office, its most profitable product, for mobile devices from Apple Inc and Google Inc - rather than shackling it to Windows as PC sales decline.

Activist investment firm ValueAct Capital, whose president Mason Morfit sits on Microsoft's board, has more recently voiced misgivings about Office's continued mobile absence, sources familiar with the firm said.

According to one analyst estimate, Microsoft is giving up $2.5 billion a year in revenue by keeping Office off the iPad, which has now sold almost 200 million units.

"Office is being disenfranchised on the hottest growth platforms," Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund wrote in a note to clients. "Maybe it is time to focus on Office independent of Windows."

The move is widely seen as a way for users of the search engine to avoid official scrutiny of where they go online, reports the Washington Post.

It is also seen as a reaction to continuing revelations about the extent of surveillance of web browsing habits by the National Security Agency (NSA) .

Google said it was now encrypting all the text involved in searches "by default" around the world.

Users in other countries, such as the US and UK, have had the option to encrypt searches since 2010.

"The revelations of this past summer underscored our need to strengthen our networks," said Google spokeswoman Nikki Christoff in a statement.

Documents taken by whistleblower Edward Snowden have shown that the NSA has had regular access to the data centres operated by Google and many other web firms.

In China, the web browsing and social media habits of citizens are monitored by a very sophisticated system that attempts to stop people finding out about or sharing information on sensitive subjects.

Ms Christoff said encrypting search text was just one of many improvements it had made in the past few months to help people maintain their privacy.

Google reduced its presence in China in 2010 after it clashed with the nation's authorities over demands to censor searches or redirect people to government-approved sites. This has meant that Google has a very small share of all searches, about 5%, carried out in China,

Most Chinese people tend to use the home-grown Baidu search engine that does comply with official censorship requests.

Chinese satellite pictures of debris in the South China Sea are not connected to the missing Malaysian airliner, Malaysia's transport minister says.

Hishammuddin Hussein also denied a US report that Flight MH370 might have flown for hours after contact was lost.

Chinese state TV is still treating the pictures as relevant and says a warship is continuing to hunt for the debris.

The plane went missing early on Saturday with 239 people on board. The search now includes the Indian Ocean.

The minister said the disappearance of the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft was unprecedented.

Mr Hussein told reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport that the Chinese embassy in the Malaysian capital had said the satellite images were released by mistake and "did not show any debris from MH370".

The grainy satellite images were released by China's State Administration of Science on Wednesday.

Despite the denial, state TV in China says a warship is continuing to search for the debris spotted in the South China Sea.

One commentator dismissed Mr Hussein's comments, and the report said China would continue to analyse new satellite images. 'Everything was normal'

Meanwhile, the Indian army has confirmed it is joining the search for Flight MH370 after focus was extended to Andaman Sea, in the Indian Ocean.

India will be sending military ships and aircraft to try to locate a possible crash site, it said.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mr Hussein denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that the plane had sent engine data to the ground for more than four hours after it lost contact with air traffic control.

He said that his team had spoken to Malaysian Airlines and Rolls-Royce, the engine's manufacturers, who both said the report was "inaccurate".

"The last transmission from the aircraft was at 01:07 which indicated that everything was normal," Mr Hussein said.

He added that the aircraft had been fully serviced, with the last maintenance conducted on 23 February 2014.

Mr Hussein said that efforts to locate the aircraft were ongoing, promising to "spare nothing in our efforts to find MH370".

"There are currently 43 ships and 40 aircraft searching the South China Sea and Straits of Malacca," he said.

In a separate press conference in Vietnam, an air traffic official said five ships and three aircraft had been sent on Thursday to the area indicated by the Chinese satellite images but had found nothing.

The BBC's Nga Pham in Vietnam says the official declined to answer a question on whether he was frustrated with Malaysia's communication and co-ordination, referring the matter to the foreign ministry.

More than half of the world's exchanges were hit by cyber attacks in 2012, according to a paper released last year by the World Federation of Exchanges Office and the research department of the International Organization of Securities Commissions.

"We are worried a lot and we are far more worried now than we were just a couple of years ago," Magnus Bocker, chief executive of Singapore Exchange Ltd, said during a panel discussion at the Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida on Wednesday.

Bocker said spending on cyber security is on the rise, but said exchanges need to do a better job of sharing information with each other on effective ways of combating cyber criminals.

At Nasdaq OMX Group, the number of cyber attacks aimed at disrupting the exchange's online network actually fell by 30 percent to 35 percent in the latter half of 2013, possibly due to a thawing of relations between the United States and Iran, Chief Executive Officer Robert Greifeld said. That said, Nasdaq is not letting its guard down, he added.

"You obviously have to be very vigilant and you will never be secure and you have to walk around paranoid," he said.

Nasdaq has been adding former military and government security experts to its cyber security team, as well as working closely with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify potential threats, Greifeld said.

Cyber criminals targeted Nasdaq's community forum website last July and gained access to the email user names and passwords of the members of the site, which took two days to come back online. In 2010, hackers infiltrated the exchange's computer systems and installed software that allowed them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies, Reuters reported.

The interconnectedness of the mostly electronic markets makes the system more vulnerable, and exchanges need to work with their customers to make sure they are protected from attacks as well, said Jeffrey Sprecher, head of New York Stock Exchange owner IntercontinentalExchange Group.

Selling accelerated after reports U.S. F-16 fighter jets landed at central Poland's Lask air base on Thursday to take part in military exercises seen as Washington's gesture of support for its eastern NATO allies. Volume on the S&P e-Mini futures totaled more than 27,000 contracts at 1:02 p.m..

Russia said it had started military exercises near the border with Ukraine, in what is likely to be seen as a show of force in the standoff with the West over Crimea. Ukraine's acting president said Russian forces were concentrated on the border "ready to invade," but he believed international efforts could end Moscow's "aggression" and avert the risk of war.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany assumes this weekend's referendum in Crimea will be followed by steps to absorb the region into Russia, and if there is no change in direction the European Union will be forced to consider a further, third stage of sanctions.

The comments reinforced earlier remarks from Germany's Angela Merkel, who warned Moscow it risked "massive" political and economic damage if it refused to change course on Ukraine.

"(Ukraine headlines) are certainly going to be the catalyst but there is more under the surface," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

"There is no military solution to this. All it is, is positioning and let's be realistic, these Chinese numbers last night were not good."

China's economy slowed markedly in the first two months of the year, as growth in investment, retail sales and factory output all fell to multi-year lows.

The S&P 500 easily broke below its 10-day and 14-day moving averages, which were acting as short-term technical support levels. It also broke below the 1,850 level.

"A close under 1,845 is very ominous," said Mendelsohn.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 189.39 points or 1.16 percent, to 16,150.69, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 18.67 points or 1 percent, to 1,849.53 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 57.797 points or 1.34 percent, to 4,265.535. Economically-sensitive sectors such as industrials .SPLRCI, down 1.3 percent and technology .SPLRCT, down 1.4 percent, were the worst performers. General Electric (GE.N) fell 1.3 percent to $25.43 while Apple Inc (AAPL.O) lost 1 percent to $531.45.

Amazon had warned of an increase of as much as $40 in January, citing rising fuel and transportation costs. The service, which offers unlimited two-day shipping among other perks, had cost $79 since its introduction in 2005.

The average Prime customer in North America spends at least twice as much as non-users, according to some analyst estimates. Analysts do not expect users to drop the service en masse, but one said it may temper its growth.

"We wonder if a meaningful price increase would dissuade some on-the-fence potential Amazon Primers from ponying up for the membership," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney said in a research note.

Amazon considers Prime instrumental to boosting purchases of goods and digital media. Prime customers get a limited selection of book downloads and film and television streams as part of the service, which has helped expand its presence on mobile devices.

The company is facing pressure to show sustained bottom-line growth, following years of rapid revenue expansion at the cost of profits. Analysts estimated the price increase could add about a half billion dollars to annual operating income, assuming all of the more than 20 million Prime users in the United States keep their subscriptions.

"If you consider things like inflation and fuel costs, a Prime membership valued at $79 in 2005 would be worth more than $100 today," Amazon spokeswoman Julie Law said.

Mahaney expected the move would drum up between $300 million and $400 million in added annual operating income, if between 1 percent and 5 percent of Prime users drop the service. This would add between 45 cents to 55 cents per share to earnings.

Amazon shares climbed about 1 percent to $374.31 at midday.

Some analysts said consumers tended to strongly resist online fee hikes, such as when Netflix Inc tried in 2011 to raise its annual subscription fee by what it called "the price of a latte." It backtracked after a customer revolt.

Some Amazon Prime customers responded quickly.

In February, as Facebook shares surged 11%, the market value of the social network surpassed that of Oracle, the business software maker, making it the fifth-most valuable U.S. tech company behind Apple, Google, Microsoft and IBM, an analysis of data compiled by Nasdaq.com shows.

Facebook, whose market worth has surged 150% during the last 12 months to $184 billion (as of Monday's close), has cracked the Top 5 in market valuation less than two years after its IPO.

With iPhone and iPad maker Apple at No. 1 and two more of the five most valuable companies selling online advertising -- namely Google and Facebook -- the stock market reflects that tech sales growth has shifted toward consumers and away from corporate-focused firms such as Oracle, Cisco Systems and IBM.

Founded in 1911 and helped mightily by a Depression-era contract to make U.S. Social Security punch-cards, IBM at the beginning of this week was worth about $12 billion more than Facebook, founded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg a decade ago to facilitate the meeting of other students at Harvard University.

Given that the stock market is a leading indicator of business expectations, Facebook looks poised to make a run at IBM as fourth-most valuable tech firm, unless the current bull market goes bearish.

For 2014, Facebook is expected by Wall Street analysts to post annual sales growth of 44%. On the other hand, top-line growth estimates for every tech company that sells mainly to large enterprises are in the single digits. IBM's sales, for example, are expected to rise just 1%.

Apple's top valuation of roughly $479 billion, meanwhile, shows the biggest tech business in 2014 remains the sale of smartphones and tablets.

Google, whose most important business is selling Internet ads on those mobile devices and PCs, remains No. 2 in valuation at $405 billion.

The search giant's sales are expected to jump 18% this year – or three times faster than Apple's revenue growth estimate.

By divesting itself of its unprofitable Motorola handset unit, Google will further boost both sales and profit growth, giving it a shot to overtake Apple as most valuable company.

Microsoft, the No. 1 maker of PC software, remained No. 3 on the tech valuation list at $316 billion. Its sales are expected to rise 8% this fiscal year.

Amazon.com, the biggest U.S. online retailer, and Qualcomm, the leading maker of smartphone chips, are Nos. 7 and 8, respectively, on the tech valuation list.

They also provide the first direct evidence that there may be as much water trapped in those rocks as there is in all the oceans.

The diamond, from central-west Brazil, contains minerals that formed as deep as 600km down and that have significant amounts of water trapped within them.

Researchers have published their findings in the journal Nature.

The study suggests water may be stored deep in the interiors of many rocky planets.

Diamonds, brought to the Earth's surface in violent eruptions of deep volcanic rocks called kimberlites, provide a tantalising window into the deep Earth.

A research team led by Prof Graham Pearson of the University of Alberta, Canada, studied a diamond from a 100-million-year-old kimberlite found in Juina, Brazil, as part of a wider project.

They noticed that it contained a mineral, ringwoodite, that is only thought to form between 410km and 660km beneath the Earth's surface, showing just how deep some diamonds originate. Buried oceans

While ringwoodite has previously been found in meteorites, this is the first time a terrestrial ringwoodite has been seen. But more extraordinarily, the researchers found that the mineral contains about 1% water.

While this sounds like very little, because ringwoodite makes up almost all of this immense portion of the deep Earth, it adds up to a huge amount of deep water.

Dr Sally Gibson from the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the work, commented: "Finding water in such large concentrations is a hugely significant development in our understanding of the ultimate origin of water now present at Earth's surface."

The observation is the first physical evidence that water can be stored in the deep interiors of planets and solves a 25-year-old controversy about whether the deep Earth is dry, wet, or wet in patches.

Discussing his findings, Prof Pearson told BBC News: "The discovery highlights the unique value of natural diamonds in trapping and preserving fragments of the deep Earth.

"It's incredible to think that, as you hold this sample in your hand, the residual pressure at the interface between the diamond and the inclusion is 20,000 atmospheres."

Describing his diamond sample, he said: "It looks like it's been to hell and back, which it has." Blue planet

A blast that scattered debris onto nearby rooftops brought down neighboring five-story buildings with a total of 15 apartments at about 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) on the largely residential block at East 116th Street and Park Avenue in Upper Manhattan.

Clouds of thick smoke billowed from the rubble of the apartment buildings that sat above a ground-level church and a piano store in a largely Latino working-class neighborhood. Officials declined to give a number of people still missing.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who rushed to the scene in East Harlem, where a cascade of twisted and burnt metal blocked the sidewalk and covered parked cars, said preliminary information showed the explosion was caused by a gas leak.

Officials at the press conference said the blast occurred 15 minutes after a resident in an adjacent building called Con Edison to complain of a gas odor.

Hundreds of firefighters were scouring the mounds of debris for survivors and trapped bodies.

"There are a number of missing individuals," de Blasio said. "We are expending every effort to locate each and every loved one."

Crews also scrambled to clean up the debris, which littered nearby train tracks and shut down Metro-North Railroad service, ahead of the evening commute.

Neighbors said they thought an earthquake was shaking them from their beds and breakfast tables. The explosion, which could be heard from blocks away, shattered windows around the neighborhood.

"All of a sudden the whole building shook. We had no idea what was going on," said Robert Pauline, 56, a Columbia University data processor whose apartment six blocks away was rocked by the explosion.

The force of the blast blew Joseph Concepcion, 30, who lives less than a block away, at least an inch off his couch.

"I literally got lifted off my couch, the boom was so strong," Concepcion said.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the collapse and sent his condolences to the victims' families and his support to first responders at the scene.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone impacted by this incident," the White House said in a statement.

Crowds of residents, their faces covered with protective scarves and masks, filled the sidewalks of surrounding streets, which were blocked off with yellow police tape.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in London on Friday ahead of a referendum Sunday on whether the Ukraine's Crimean peninsula will join Russia or go independent.

"People are just kind of reassessing, they are looking at that headline and thinking maybe it is not going to turn out to be a disaster in Russia and Ukraine," said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

"It's good they are talking and it's good Kerry is going to do it before the weekend - if they do something on Friday to allay any fear over the weekend, that is a positive."

Stocks had fallen earlier in the session on concerns about a weakening economy in China. London copper, seen as a proxy for China's economic health, rebounded after hitting its lowest level since July 2012.

Geopolitical developments have moved to the forefront this week as a dearth of fresh corporate results and economic data offered no catalysts to push the benchmark S&P index above its most recent record close on Friday.

"We've climbed so far, to continue to climb is definitely going to be a see-saw move," said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Ukraine's government appealed for Western help on Tuesday to stop Moscow annexing Crimea, but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalize rule from Moscow within days.

EU member states have agreed the wording of sanctions on Russia, including travel restrictions and asset freezes against those responsible for violating the sovereignty of Ukraine, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 14.54 points, or 0.09 percent, to 16,336.71, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.16 points, or 0.12 percent, to 1,865.47 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 6.291 points, or 0.15 percent, to 4,313.478.

EPL Oil & Gas Inc (EPL.N) jumped 29.4 percent to $37.65 after the company agreed to be acquired by larger rival Energy XXI Ltd (EXXI.O) for $2.3 billion, including debt. Energy XXI shares lost 6.3 percent to $21.90.

Express Inc (EXPR.N) dropped 11.3 percent to $16.18 after the apparel retailer reported fourth-quarter earnings and forecast a profit for the current quarter that fell far short of analyst expectations.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in London on Friday ahead of a referendum Sunday on whether the Ukraine's Crimean peninsula will join Russia or go independent.

"People are just kind of reassessing, they are looking at that headline and thinking maybe it is not going to turn out to be a disaster in Russia and Ukraine," said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

"It's good they are talking and it's good Kerry is going to do it before the weekend - if they do something on Friday to allay any fear over the weekend, that is a positive."

Stocks had fallen earlier in the session on concerns about a weakening economy in China. London copper, seen as a proxy for China's economic health, rebounded after hitting its lowest level since July 2012.

Geopolitical developments have moved to the forefront this week as a dearth of fresh corporate results and economic data offered no catalysts to push the benchmark S&P index above its most recent record close on Friday.

"We've climbed so far, to continue to climb is definitely going to be a see-saw move," said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Ukraine's government appealed for Western help on Tuesday to stop Moscow annexing Crimea, but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalize rule from Moscow within days.

EU member states have agreed the wording of sanctions on Russia, including travel restrictions and asset freezes against those responsible for violating the sovereignty of Ukraine, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 14.54 points, or 0.09 percent, to 16,336.71, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.16 points, or 0.12 percent, to 1,865.47 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 6.291 points, or 0.15 percent, to 4,313.478.

IPOs by technology companies have been highly popular in the United States and analysts say that despite King's reliance on a handful of games, its IPO would be well-received due to the popularity of its games and the conservative pricing.

Twitter Inc's successful IPO in November and a surge in Facebook Inc's shares have fueled speculation that other tech firms could go public, including music-sharing service Spotify, lodging website AirBnB and mobile payments company Square.

Dublin-based King said on Wednesday it expected to price its initial public offering of 22.2 million shares at between $21 and $24 per share. At the top of this range, the company would be valued at about $7.6 billion.

"I think the bankers have priced the deal in a way so that initial investors can realize a first-day pop in the stock," said Josef Schuster, founder of IPOX Schuster, a Chicago-based IPO research and investment house.

However, Schuster and other analysts questioned if King could maintain its breakneck growth rate and avoid the fate of other game makers such as Zynga Inc and Rovio, whose fortunes have mostly relied on one game.

"Candy Crush," launched in November 2012, involves moving candies to make a line of three in the same color. It was the most downloaded free app and top revenue-grossing app in 2013.

Founder and CEO Riccardo Zacconi, who has led the company since it started in Sweden in 2003, will have a 9.5 percent stake following the IPO.

"I think the valuation of a P/E ratio of 13 for a high-growth company is indeed reflecting a skepticism about the ability to continue growing at such a rapid pace," said Jay Ritter, a professor and IPO expert at the University of Florida. "The ability to come up with future games and get people to pay for the game is a big question mark."

ANOTHER ZYNGA?

King's revenue has grown to $602 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 from $22 million in the first quarter of 2012.

The company offers 180 games through mobile phones, Facebook and its own website.

But much of its growth has been fueled by "Candy Crush," which brings in about three-quarters of its revenue.

The game has been downloaded more than 500 million times since its launch in 2012. The basic games are free, but players must pay for add-ons or extra "lives".