Alan Buckingham

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.

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Google TV started slowly, with a less than stellar launch thanks to the overpriced and barely functional Logitech Revue. Since then, the platform has managed to slowly get off the ground, though still not living up to its full potential. Better pricing and improved functionality has raised expectations, however, giving cause for hope among the faithful.

The platform is already solid enough to power a living room's entertainment with no problem, as I have been doing since earlier this year when my HTPC simply became too old and slow to handle the task any longer. But questions lingered when I made this shift -- how would I access my stored media? What about the web?

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This past Monday Microsoft held a Surface event in New York City, unveiling the next-generation of its flagship tablet, which hits the market in late October, just after the Windows 8.1 launch. Now the software giant wants to get customers familiar with the upcoming product by holding a series of in-store shows.

"The team had so much fun showing off the new gear, they decided to hit the road to give you a chance to get hands on and meet some of the people behind the scenes of Surface", the team announces.

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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.

Cleaners, the service's new exclusive show, will premiere on October 3rd, but customers with Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox 360 can all get a sneak peek. "Starting today and running through to October 2nd in advance of the world premiere on October 3rd – you can watch all 6 episodes of Crackle’s new series 'Cleaners' on Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Xbox 360", says Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc.

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The countdown to the Xbox One release is on, and we are receiving regular updates regarding what to expect, from game releases to entertainment options. Now Microsoft is adding another dimension to the platform, this time aiming to boost your physical fitness level.

Today, the console maker announces the latest device will come with Xbox Fitness -- providing you obtain an Xbox Live Gold membership, of course.

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Netflix is locked in a heated battle for your streaming dollars. Rivals Amazon Prime and Redbox Instant, to name just two, are on a mission to knock the king off the hill. Today the video giant announces a new weapon in its arsenal -- better HD coming to subscribers everywhere.

"The great TV shows and movies on Netflix will look even better on HD screens with a higher bit rate stream, Super HD, that applies less compression to the 1080p image", says Joris Evers, director of corporate communications at Netflix.

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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.

Now, Sighthound wishes to fix that problem with new technology that can distinguish images and filter out the false alarms. "Sighthound Video has been trained to simulate the human brain’s recognition abilities. The software not only detects motion, it detects people. The software’s ability to detect and differentiate humans from animals or other objects greatly reduces the number of false positives and unnecessary alerts sent to users, which can make even the most modern security cameras unusable", the company claims.

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CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (yes the acronym doesn't work unless you speak French) and LHC, the Large Hadron Collider, have been in the news quite a bit in recent times. The search for, and possible discovery of, the elusive Higgs Boson, the so-called "God-particle", is a major step forward for science.

Now the Google Maps Street View team have hung up their snorkels, dusted off their hiking boots, sailed home from the Galapogos and set their sights on a bit of science.

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Not to call out my parents, but neither is online -- they do not own a computer or tablet and, only last week, my mom was rather forcefully pushed into the smartphone world thanks to an aging flip phone. I can at least partially forgive them -- they are not young and these new-fangled gadgets lose them, though others in the same age bracket seem to have moved along with the times.

At any rate, the couple is not alone according to a new report announced by Pew Research. A full 15-percent of Americans are offline and, of those, 94-percent plan to stay that way.

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The response to an apparent Gmail issue seems mixed here at BetaNews -- some claim to have experienced email delays, while others noticed nothing. But, regardless of how real or wide-spread the problem was, a problem did exist and Google would like to explain how it happened in an effort to retain trust in its email service.

"We’d like to start by apologizing -- we realize that our users rely on Gmail to be always available and always fast, and for several hours we didn’t deliver. We have analyzed what happened, and we’ll tell you about it", begins Sabrina Farmer, Senior Site Reliability Engineering Manager for Gmail.

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Microsoft has taken over the tech news today with its Surface 2 launch, but the company doesn't stop there, keeping the ball rolling with a bit more news, this time from the cloud. SkyDrive has become tightly integrated with today's marquee products, Windows and Office, as well as being a competitor to rival services from Google and Amazon. Now the company announces a new storage tier.

"Today, we are happy to introduce a new storage option to add 200 GB of additional storage to your SkyDrive for $100 per year", says Omar Shahine, Group Program Manager for SkyDrive. For perspective, Microsoft describes this as enough space to store one photo per hour from birth through college graduation -- this obviously depends on average image size, which continues to grow.

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It's September 23rd and Microsoft is holding court in New York City. The subject du jour is the brand new Surface 2, the follow up to a tablet PC much maligned for its poor sales and pricing. But today the tech giant has the opportunity to right these perceived wrongs with a fresh start.

There have been numerous rumors swirling around this "reimaging" of the flagship Windows 8 (8.1 likely) tablet, and uncertainty even about the name, at least for the lower end model -- will Microsoft keep the confusing RT moniker or go for something entirely different? -- we really don't know at this point. However, my colleague Brian Fagioli and I are currently on converging train rides headed for Penn Station and will be bringing you all of the details as the event unfolds.

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Two days ago Apple rolled out its latest mobile operating system offering, iOS 7. To compliment this new release, Microsoft is making sure to keep up with the latest version of the OS, by pushing out a brand new version of the Bing app. The company is hitting Apple hard with integration right into the heart of the platform.

"With the release of iOS 7 this week, you can now experience Bing search results in Siri", the software giant announces. The Bing search within Siri aims to deliver various types of results, keeping you from going to the web browser to view the same list of results. Microsoft explains, "for example, when you ask Siri a question, you will either see a specific answer or search results from Bing, including web links, related searches, images and video".

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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.

Today, that status quo is upset by a major, at least in relative terms, design change to that tried and true interface. The menu bar across the top of the screen disappears and is replaced by a new pop-up menu.

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Those waiting to do battle with the pork side in the next version of Rovio's popular Angry Birds series of games got a surprise treat today when, without announcement, the much anticipated Star Wars II appeared in the Windows Phone Store.

The Finnish game maker has been building momentum and anticipation towards a big launch tomorrow, which was expected to be cross-platform. But, for once, it was customers of the Windows mobile platform that received the bonus often reserved for Android and iOS users.

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