Alan Buckingham

I jumped into Windows 8 way back at the first opportunity -- the Developer Preview. Then moved to the Consumer Preview and finally the Release Preview. But, because I’m something of a procrastinator, I haven’t yet got around to updating my computer to the full version, despite purchasing a copy of the new operating system as soon as it was released.

If you’re anything like me, and are still running the Release Preview, I’ve got some bad news. Today is the end of the line. All preview versions of Windows 8 expire on January 15, 2013. Worse, you will have to do a clean-installation because Microsoft has no upgrade path from the Release Preview to RTM. Note also that the final version of Windows 8 will not support upgrading from any prior Windows 8 Preview releases, though the migrate option will still be supported, according to Microsoft MVP Andre de Costa.

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Patch Tuesday came and went last week without Microsoft addressing a glaring error -- a zero-day flaw in Internet Explorer versions 6 through 8 that attackers use to gain control of a computer. The defect did not affect IE versions 9 and 10, which have been called more secure by some experts.

Now the company is rolling out an uncharacteristic out-of-cycle patch to fix the bug. This follows a manual fix the company released earlier to help users of these legacy browsers protect themselves from attack.

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After its "non-appearance" at last weeks Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the company Microsoft is front-and-center at this week's National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Convention & EXPO in New York to show off Windows Embedded 8 Handheld. The operating system a version designed with the retailers in mind.

According to Barb Edson, Microsoft's General Manager of Marketing and Business Development, the company is "introducing our device hardware partners, and showcasing the next generation of mobile line-of-business application experiences with one of our launch customers, showing how Windows Embedded 8 Handheld devices help them deliver on the promise of intelligent systems".

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Microsoft pulled out of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for 2013 and beyond. Maybe. Maybe not so much. The company was not entirely absent and some of the presence was not even stealthy. It started with CEO Steve Ballmer's surprise appearance on stage during the pre-show keynote address -- an event that Microsoft once owned, but this year belonged to Qualcomm.

In the middle of the presentation Ballmer walked on stage and proceeded to, not only endorse the Snapdragon chips, but to also show off some Windows Phone 8 devices and Windows 8 tablets. It may have seemed like a passing of the torch from the old guard to the new, but the Redmond, Wash.-based company did not stop there. Oh no.

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It may be Friday evening and, according to Jimmy Buffett it is always five o'clock somewhere, but Dropbox has not finished its work week, pushing out one final update. So put away the beer or wine and pick up your Android. Late today the company announced an update that "makes it super easy to share collections of photos with friends and family".

Dropbox has been busy lately, given the stiff competition the cloud service is suddenly receiving from all sides -- Box, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive and others. This update is all about photo sharing. From the Photos section, users can now tap a button and choose the pictures they wish to share with friends and family. You can add them to a shared album or even do it via an emailed link. In fact, you can even utilize Facebook or Twitter for the process.

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This is not the first year that Google has tracked the spread of the flu, but it may be the worst, from what the search giant's tracker is showing. Speaking for BetaNews, if I can, we have certainly felt the flu's effects so far this season, and we are spread out across the world, so that alone is telling.

The Google Flu Trends for the 2012-2013 season shows an alarming swing, with the graph heading steeply in the up direction beginning in early November and skyrocketing from there. In fact, most of the 50 states are now depicted in red -- 42 red versus 8 in orange. And orange is not much better.

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If your office, like many others in businesses around the world, uses Cisco-branded telephones then you may have a big problem. The networking company issued a security advisory with the catchy name "cisco-sa-20130109-uipphone".

"Cisco Unified IP Phones 7900 Series versions 9.3(1)SR1 and prior contain an arbitrary code execution vulnerability that could allow a local attacker to execute code or modify arbitrary memory with elevated privileges", the notice warns.

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This year could be big for game consoles. Ouya expects to begin shipments in March or April and Steam has announced its very own console is in the works. Not to mention that Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, has placed a mysterious countdown clock on his blog, leading to lots of speculation, including, of course, the next Xbox -- the "720".

Where does all of this lead? The good analysts at IDC are convinced you will purchase a new console this year: "2011 and 2012 were tough for many console game disc developers and publishers", says Lewis Ward, research manager. "With the advent of eighth-generation consoles, starting with the Wii U, historical norms strongly imply that game disc revenue will stop bleeding in 2013 and rise substantively in 2014".

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Microsoft may have pulled out of the Consumer Electronics Show in 2013 and going forward, but not stayed away. CEO Steve Ballmer still managed to find his way on stage for the big pre-show keynote and now the Research arm of the company has arrived in Las Vegas as well.

Eric Rudder, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Strategy Officer, made his way into the Samsung keynote earlier today to show off IllumiRoom.

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Just because Microsoft is not in Las Vegas -- other than a cameo appearance by CEO Steve Ballmer last night...oh, and all of its software, which is powering many of the gadgets you see at the Consumer Electronics Show -- the company is not standing still, today announcing updates to cloud storage service SkyDrive.

That is important because all of those Windows 8 computers and tablets, and even the Windows Phone 8 devices that are being displayed in Sin City can utilize SkyDrive for storage. In fact, the upcoming Office 2013 will do so as well. That means the company's cloud needs features to get customers interested.

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Some trends are really bad. Take set-top box designs, which are headed in the wrong direction. Entertainment devices used to have traditional box shapes. Some were longer or deeper or taller, but they all stacked on a shelf. They fit neat and tidy in your media center. Those days are gone.

Where did this madness all begin -- insanity that sweeps though the Consumer Electronics Show this week? Boxee is as good a place to start as any. The original Boxee Box had a "unique" shape -- I am being kind. However, version two, not surprisingly, went with a more traditional shape in an effort to raise sales and fit better within the living rooms of customers. Lesson learned.

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Welcome to the second Tuesday of the month, the day that has become universally known in tech circles as Patch Tuesday. It is that one day when Microsoft chooses to reach out and touch our computers in an effort to fix whatever has gone wrong or been exploited over the past month. Even during the Consumer Electronics Show we cannot escape Microsoft -- Steve Ballmer made a surprise appearance on stage last night, and now there is this.

For January 2013 there are several fixes in store for customers. There is of course the obligatory Malicious Software Removal Tool update, which appears almost every month. The tool works in the background in an effort to keep PC's safe. Most customers never know it is there because it does not appear in any app list, but if needed, you can launch it from "Run" by typing "MRT".

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Netgear read my mind. Hopefully not all of it, but the company is welcome to my tech thoughts at least. Just recently several of us here at BetaNews wrote about the tech we used most in 2012. In my column I mentioned that my trusty HTPC grows long in the tooth -- you think dog years are rough, try computer years. I started using a Netgear NeoTV instead. As I mentioned then, and will reiterate now, the interface is not flashy, but it works seamlessly. the hardware is robust as well.

In the end though, I admitted my plans in 2013 were to move to Google TV because of the added features -- web browser, apps, you know the routine.

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While the Consumer Electronics Show is mostly about gadgets for your home, there's more to it. Unfortunately, devices that are more functional, as opposed to flashy, tend to fly beneath the radar. That means that good, useful equipment, that we will actually see on the market before CES 2014, does not get the attention it deserves.

That is the case with a new LaCie network attached storage device designed for small businesses. The company today announced its 5big NAS Pro, a device that brings some new functionality to the product line. According to LaCie, the new NAS will have what it describes as "True Hybrid Cloud". This will use the company's own cloud storage, Wuala, and display both network and cloud storage in one view. This means one interface for both users and administrators, which is especially important on mobile.

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Firefox OS is coming this year and we have already seen some early previews. In order to hit the ground running these days any operating system, be it desktop or mobile, needs a healthy app ecosystem. To that end, Mozilla today announced "App Days", a series of events around the world that are designed to get developers excited and moving for this upcoming release.

In the announcement, Mozilla's Mark Coggins explains that at "each App Day event, you’ll have the opportunity to learn, hack and celebrate Firefox OS, Mozilla’s open source operating system for the mobile web. Technologists and developers from Mozilla will present tools and technology built to extend and support the Web platform, including mobile Web APIs to access device hardware features such as the accelerometer".

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