It is no secret that with the introduction of Windows 8.1, SkyDrive, the Microsoft cloud-based storage solution, will get much deeper integration. But now the company is detailing a bit more than what had already been gleaned from the RTM, announcing a new Smart Files feature, incorporating Bing with it.
Smart Files has been merged into SkyDrive in version 8.1 of Windows, but the company has revealed more details about how it will work and what customers can expect.
"In the Windows 8.1 preview we saw consumers using SkyDrive in two distinct ways. The first group of people are very conscious of what they have saved to disk and most of their files are online-only. We found that the majority of people using smart files take up 80% less disk space than they would without smart files. The second group of people are on the other end of the spectrum: they explicitly chose to have all their files available offline, and so have their entire SkyDrive stored locally", says Mona Akmal, the Group Program Manager for SkyDrive apps.
Smart Search is powered by Bing and can work right from the desktop in the next-generation version of Windows -- enter a keyword based on a subject from a photo or document and Microsoft promises that it can find the file. "People are starting to take photos not only to capture special moments, but also to keep track of everyday information, so we are really excited about this scenario and proud to unveil this valuable OCR search feature", the cloud team states.
The company plans to unleash version 8.1 on the public in October, but select users can get it now. SkyDrive integration is among the many changes being made to the Windows 8 successor, some of which customers actually asked for -- others mostly perceived by Microsoft. Smart Files is just one more detail coming to the forefront in this upcoming release.
This past Monday Microsoft 
Microsoft held an event in NYC to 
The video game controller has evolved over the years. However, from the iconic NES and going all the way to the soon-to-be-released PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, they are basically the same; directional pad on the left and buttons on the right. Sure, the number of buttons has increased, and there are now analog thumb-sticks, but overall, the concept hasn't changed -- until now.
Microsoft continues the push to make its latest platforms more appealing to a rather skeptical audience, this time teaming with Crackle, the streaming video service launched by Sony. Exclusive shows are fast becoming a hallmark of these video services, with Amazon and Netflix already in on the act, and now Crackle is taking its first shot.
These days most browsers offer some form of basic protection against clicking a fake link and visiting phishing websites (facsimiles of genuine sites that attempt to trick users into giving up sensitive personal information like passwords and credit-card details). But they don’t offer much else protection against other dangerous sites.
I am a big fan of thunder and lightning storms. There is nothing else in nature that is simultaneously fun, romantic and scary (depending on the situation and company). However, there is a very serious side to these storms -- death or injury by lightning. Yes, an electrical storm can end your life if you aren't careful.
As 
All of the major antivirus firms -- big names like Symantec, McAfee, AVG and Kaspersky -- offer mobile security apps for Android which can help protect against malware and theft. There are offerings from lesser known companies available too.
AD detector which lists installed apps that collect data about how you use your device and lets you uninstall any that sound suspicious.
Sameer Singh is an M&A professional and business strategy consultant focusing on the mobile technology sector. He is founder and editor of 
Some habits are hard to kick. Even though the world is trending towards a digital lifestyle, many business users still use Post-it Notes. I am guilty of using these low-tech pieces of paper daily. Sometimes, I need to quickly jot-down a note or phone number; a piece of paper can be faster than unlocking my smartphone or workstation. However, at the end of the day, I find my desk littered with these things. I have often wished for an easy way to transfer them to my computer.
We already know that 
I am a long time customer of a home security system, and it has been a wild ride through much of its history, but not one I will detail here -- suffice it to say, the alarm can scare you to death for no reason at times. Adding a camera can intensify this problem, by opening up the motion detection to every creature that wonders into the field of view -- a lot as I live in a rural area.
Technology moves at a feverish pace. It feels like only yesterday that the iconic Blackberry was the market leader for smartphones. However, fast-forward to 2013 and we see a 
Microsoft has taken over the tech news today with its 
A docking station is something that many people felt was lacking from the Surface lineup, and this has been rectified with version 2. The Surface Docking Station not only adds power, but also three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, Ethernet, audio in and out and Mini DisplayPort. Other accessories were also announced, including improved versions of the Type and Touch covers. The Type Cover 2 is available in two colors, is thinner than the original and is also backlit.
With queues stretching around Apple stores and talk about stock sell-outs dominating the tech news, it comes as no surprise that the iPhone 5s and 5c enjoyed brisk sales this launch weekend. The only question was exactly how many units the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant would shift of its new devices.
Investment in big data continues to rise in 2013 according to a new survey by 
Just days after the launch of 
Apple stole the limelight from just about everyone else this week. The big news was, of course, the 
Two days ago Apple 
If you own a smartphone it’s likely you download apps for it, and given the proliferation of mobile devices, it’s not surprising that the volume of app downloads is continuing to rocket.
A new white paper compares Android and Windows devices for use in the public sector and education. It looks at four areas it considers critical -- ease of use, security, productivity and lifecycle -- and finds Windows devices to be the "superior choice".
The Innovator’s Dilemma, a 1997 book by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, made the point that successful companies can lose their way when they pay too much attention to legacy products and not enough attention to new stuff. They are making so much money they either don’t see a competitor rising up or are too complacent to feel threatened. In either case the incumbent generally loses and the upstart (usually one of many) generally wins. The best way for successful companies to avoid this problem is by inventing the future before their competitors do.
The Google homepage changes little, though minor tweaks here and there have been known to take place. The company, and its customers, largely prefer a sleek, clean look. Minor changes to properties contained in the top menu bar and the color of said bar have been the biggest changes we normally must learn to deal with.
Just in time for iOS 7, Google has announced the release of 
Like my colleague Mark Wilson, I was excited about the launch of iOS 7 yesterday, but the update to the new mobile operating system took hours and hours to complete. Starting, failing, doing nothing… When the upgrade finally began -- for real -- it did so at a glacial pace. I have a 100Mbps connection, but the iOS 7 download was at dial-up speeds.
I could actually find a lot more than seven things I love. The lock screen for example, is one of them. I can access the notifications from here without unlocking the screen, and unlocking is done by swiping to the right from anywhere, not just flicking a switch at the bottom.
So… it's here. 
It's a shame. I dearly wanted to love iOS 7. The iPhone 5c and 5s announcements got me excited about Apple again -- which is odd as many people were deriding the company for its lack of innovation. I was seriously considering getting back into the world of iPhone (it's a while since I owned my 3GS), but I'm not sure I could live with the OS full time.
When it comes to Android, many users like to tinker and root their devices. Many of these users also flash custom-roms; a modified version of the Android operating system. This is typically done to add features, remove carrier-installed apps and heck -- even just for fun. For years, CyanogenMod was viewed as the "holy grail" of custom-roms.
I just have to ask, because the price irks me.
The first new iPhone reviews are in, and there is increasing buzz about how 5s supplies will be greatly limited, as in "
Anyone who manages to get their hands on an 
Just yesterday, Microsoft played its latest card in the music battle, announcing Linkin Park's latest song would 
It seems that every online company is in a sharing mood at the moment. 
Microsoft and 
There can be few of us who don’t rely on a todo list of one form or another to manage our increasingly hectic schedules -- and there are certainly plenty of tools to choose from. To help juggle deadlines and manage my time, I've long relied on 
We all have information relating to banks, insurance companies, utilities, retailers and more that we need to keep. But now that we increasingly manage our accounts online how do you cope with saving statements and other important information that you receive electronically?
Clicking Plugins > MultiCam Designer opens a four pane window, where you can add your source clips (although only from the Media Room or your hard drive, not the timeline). As usual with multicam editing you must then synchronize your clips, and PowerDirector supports all the options you’d expect. Choose "Audio Analysis" and the program will sync the clips itself (and generally very successfully, in our first tests); it can also use video timecodes, or file creation times; or you can manually add markers representing the same time point in each clip.
Additionally, picture-in-picture and text objects can now be given a motion blur effect, with a custom blur length and density. It takes a little experimenting to find where this works, and where it really doesn’t, but we found the effect did give a smooth and more realistic motion to many of our animated captions.
Better format and standards support sees the program able to import animated GIFs, movies with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 channel audio, and PowerPoint files (although the latter needs PowerPoint to be installed on your PC). These may be enhanced with two new content packs, Holiday Pack 4 and Content Pack Premium, and there are some new transition effects on hand if you need them.
After saying everyone except hardware partners would need to wait until next month to get their hands on Windows 8.1, Microsoft last week relented and made the 
Windows 8.1 has been chewed on around the internet for sometime now, with a Preview release, 
China has been in the spotlight lately. Most recently, the country was rumored to be the major catalyst for the "low cost" iPhone 5c. However, this has largely been 
Microsoft is no stranger to finding itself on the receiving end of complaints about security issues that are found in Windows and its other software. But now the Redmond company is turning the tables on consumers, saying that they need to do more to secure their own computers. 
The Internet can be a dangerous place if you aren't careful. There are viruses, malware and Trojans just waiting to ruin your day. Unwary computer users can significantly increase their chances of infection by searching for questionable things, and even seemingly innocuous search terms can be unsafe.
I’ve already declared my 
Panasonic has introduced its new lineup of headphones, including four over-ear, or monitor styles, and two in-ear, or earbud, models. In-ear has become quite popular after the success of the iPod and now many smartphones even come with an included pair, albeit generally of questionable quality.
Big news came from Apple and Microsoft this week. Microsoft seemingly had a change of heart; having previously said that Windows 8.1 RTM would not be made available before its official launch date, the company 
Clicking the "Clean Up" tab reveals six tools which aim to help you free up valuable hard drive space.
The Optimize tab provides access to a mix of tools, some familiar, some much more interesting.
The results? Boot time fell 32 percent, from 69 to 47 seconds; used RAM dropped from 2.2 to 1.9GB; running processes fell from 85 to 74, and our thread and handle count also saw small drops (from 1,190 and 31,290 to 1,012 and 27,403). There was also significantly reduced CPU usage, particularly at boot time, and the whole system felt snappier and more responsive.
California-based project management software provider 
Many of novelist Stephen King's books and short stories have found their way to the screen either through a movie or mini-series. Some, like The Shining, have become classics in the eyes of fans, while others...well... This season a King novel has returned the author to prominence on the small screen -- Under the Dome has been the most watched show of the summer season.
Following in the footsteps of Facebook, fellow social-media site Twitter has filed for an IPO. In other words, the company wants to sell stock in itself by going public. However, Twitter probably hopes not to follow Facebook's initial performance which was 
I use Facebook daily to stay in touch with friends, family and colleagues. However, despite my heavy usage, I am concerned about my privacy. Facebook is notorious for changing its policies and settings and it can be difficult to stay on top of it. Today, popular security and anti-virus company AVG 
Where once malware was aimed at disrupting your computer, today it's more likely to be out to steal your personal information and get access to your finances. BullGuard has a track record of guarding against this type of threat with products like 
The launch of Windows 8.1 is right around the corner and, in fact, many of us are already using the next-generation operating system either in Preview or RTM form. Consumers, however, are not the only focus for Windows, and the software maker has taken steps in version 8.1 to ease the transition for business by bringing back the Start button (sort of) and adding a "boot to desktop" mode.
AT&T finds itself on the receiving end of an internet backlash after tweeting an advertisement for the BlackBerry Z10 that used 9/11 imagery. On the anniversary of the tragedy that saw the Twin Towers fall, the US phone giant 
Google faces claims for damages from people who had personal data collected from their wireless networks as the company gathered information for its Street View service. Google had previously claimed that emails, usernames and passwords had been collected unintentionally, but the 
You’ve found some text you need on a web page, and so you copy it to the clipboard, paste it into a document. But now there’s a problem. Not only have you got the text, but it’s also come with links, colors, and a host of other formatting you really didn’t want at all.
Okay, it was an easy joke, I confess, but thanks to recent 
You know how the internet is meant to be one of the few remaining forums in which you’re free to speak your mind? That could be set to change in a slightly concerning way. You might think that if you have your own website you're free to say pretty much whatever you want (legality providing), but the UK's domain name registry, 
ROX Player
Select the option you require, and setup will go through the install process, restarting as required and when it completes you’ll be invited to customize the OS, log into your Windows account and so on.
Its no secret that a lot is changing in the 8.1 update of Microsoft's operating system, which suddenly 
So, you got that new Android phone that's capable of taking HD video, but your friends and family really do not care to watch your cinematography skills on a five-inch screen. The good news is that you may just have a certain streaming set-top box sitting right in your living room that can solve your woes.
Android is my mobile operating system of choice. While I am 
Two weeks ago I wrote a piece called 
When you need to send confidential documents to someone else steganography can be an effective technique. Use SteganPEG to embed your files inside JPEGs, say, then just email them as normal, and casual observers will see only normal pictures. They’ll never realize your hidden data is inside.
The best and fastest computer upgrade I ever made was when I went from a hard-disk to a solid-state drive. It greatly improved my boot speed and overall performance. However, with great speed came a great decrease in storage space. At the time, I had gone from a 2TB HDD to a 90GB SSD.
Chief information officers are increasingly looking at enterprise architecture in order to drive their digital strategy according the latest research by analysts 
The Xbox Music expansion doesn’t end there. Microsoft will be adding Radio to its web player in the coming months, and a Web Playlist feature -- which scans tracks on a web page and then creates a custom playlist inside Xbox Music -- will be added to Windows 8 on October 17, rolling out alongside Windows 8.1.
Looking at the biggest stories on BetaNews from September, 1 - 7, 2013. This was a week packed with news from IFA in Berlin -- lots of big announcements to whet our appetites for the coming months. 
America has been a leader in space since Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and I was still wearing diapers. A teacher rolled a TV into our classroom letting us all view the landing of the first Space Shuttle mission and, later, Challenger's journey tragically ended on my birthday as I sat stunned in front of my TV.
Microsoft is locked in a battle for your note-taking needs on mobile devices. Evernote is the perceived king of the field, but OneNote is certainly a strong competitor and today the software giant announces improvements to the iOS version of the Office app.
A taste of the future of computing is available from the Physics department of the 
Apple says it will appeal against 
Microsoft's partnership with the National Football League has entered the spotlight recently, thanks to the software giant 
I love frozen yogurt; particularly
When Windows 95 was released there was a lot of fuss about the Start menu and debate about whether it would catch-on. It was a significant departure from icon shortcuts in program groups; or superficially at least. In reality, it was simply the program groups (folders) put in a hierarchical order and rather wisely, the option to place folders, icons and shortcuts on the desktop remained (to this day).
Andy Gowen is a compulsive buyer of the latest and brightest tech. He has managed UK regional IT projects, has a successful consultancy business and is COO of Extremis Technology; a company that develops communities for people displaced by disaster. Andy is an associate lecturer at the University of East Anglia teaching market strategy and leadership.
Earlier in the week, Lenovo 
Derrick Wlodarz is an IT Specialist who owns Park Ridge, IL (USA) based technology consulting & service company 
In recent weeks we've seen social collaboration become the new black as far as business computing is concerned. 
Nokia's "Devices & Services" division generated revenues of almost €27 billion over the last 12 months. However, this included Nokia's feature phone division which is practically worthless from Microsoft's perspective. At best, Microsoft may have considered the Asha range to be relevant, while ignoring the rest of the feature phone portfolio. Using Lumia revenues for the last 12 months, the deal was valued at 1.09 times revenue (effectively €187 for every Lumia sold in the past 12 months). If we use Lumia/Asha revenue, the deal was valued at 0.71 times revenue. Earnings multiples in this case were irrelevant as Nokia was making operating losses.
Sameer Singh is an M&A professional and business strategy consultant focusing on the mobile technology sector. He is founder and editor of 
When I was in elementary school, I thought I was pretty cool. You see, I wore the Nintendo 
On March 11, 2011 a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, but despite the extremely high intensity of the tremor itself, it was the resulting tsunami that caused the real damage. Most notable, and scary, was the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukishima nuclear plant.
I still remember buying my first 64-bit processor -- the AMD Athlon 64 3200+. I bought it a decade ago for a system built in 2003. At the time, home computers were still mostly using 32-bit processors and running 32-bit software. However, one of my favorite Linux distributions, Ubuntu, has been offering 64-bit versions since 2004 with the 
VMware today announces 
Playing with fire is generally considered bad practice -- I know, as a parent I recommend my kids avoid it. Amazon, however has a whole new Matchbook that it can not wait to set alight. In this case, thankfully, there are no pyrotechnics involved -- just some good literature.
In 2004, Major League Baseball announced a Spiderman 2 promotion. The first, second and third bases would display the superhero's logo. As expected, baseball fans were livid and, as a result, the promotion was cancelled -- they did not want to cheapen the sport that they love. However, baseball is not just a game. It is an identity. Yes, people actually identify with the pastime, and the same can be said for Android. Sure, some may view it as just a mobile operating system, however, many geeks and nerds actually identify with the mobile OS. It is not just an operating system to them. Android is their stance against the establishment and a way to bond with other Google OS users.
We've already seen an 
In something of a surprise move, 
