Mihăiță Bamburic

Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro is a pricing mystery. The Redmond, Wash.-based corporation revealed the price for the ARM-powered branded tablet, but left its more powerful counterpart --the one equipped with Windows 8 Pro-- unpriced. But recently, information on the latter surfaced on a German website.

Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro was introduced to the Notebook.de "Surface tablet" lineup, and it is currently available for pre-order in two storage options. Pricing for the entry-level model that comes with 64GB of internal storage starts at EUR809 including VAT (Value Added Tax), and the version with 128GB of internal storage runs for 909EUR including VAT. The 64GB Microsoft Surface with Windows RT runs for EUR699 on the same German website.

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Most Android users use the Google Play store to find and install apps for their device. But what happens when you want to install one downloaded from a third-party source, like an Android forum?

Android modders are usually faced with using a file manager such as the one from CyanogenMod 10 in order to open files that are copied from the computer in order to install them. It's not the most straightforward method, which is where APK Installer comes into play. How does it work? After adjusting a few settings it's fairly easy -- just involves drag & drop to install apps directly from the computer.

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Prepaid communications services are very popular among residents of the old continent. Skype, the Microsoft-owned VoIP and Video chat company now offers prepaid cards in the United Kingdom.

With Skype Prepaid Cards, users of the popular VoIP service can get access to a number of paid features such as worldwide calling to landlines and mobile phones, text messaging, or multi-user video calling. There are two prepaid cards currently available, one that costs GBP10, and one for GBP20. Both can be purchased at more than 1,400 stores across the United Kingdom from Asda, Currys, PC World, Sainsbury's or WHSmith.

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Android 4.2 Jelly Bean launches together with the new Nexus lineup starting November 13. But if you have a Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus and can't wait more than a week, then Android 4.2 Transformation Pack is the ticket.

Like the name suggests, the mod allows Galaxy Nexus users to experience a number of changes introduced in the latest version of Android. Currently at version 2.1, the transformation pack delivers the Nexus 4 lockscreen, but without widgets, the new version of Gmail with swype support, Gallery, sounds, and a Clock app with stopwatch functionality. The new camera is one of the most touted changes and it too is available in the Android 4.2 Transformation Pack.

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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is not without its limitations. In order to perform a number of basic file operations, users have to download third-party apps from the Google Play Store. However, that's not necessary for those using CyanogenMod 10 nightly builds. The popular custom Android distribution now comes with an in-house file manager.

The team behind the project offers an alternative to popular solutions available on Google Play Store, but without any region restriction or price tag attached next to it. The interface is designed to offer sufficient functionality without confusing the user, all while offering a clean look and feel. Since CyanogenMod 10 allows the use of elevated permissions (popularly known as "root"), File Manager allows users to perform various file operations and access all items available on the internal and external storage.

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One of the main perks in buying a Google Nexus 4 is its attractive price. Sure, it doesn't have LTE, but it is no less of a compelling product in LTE's absence. As it turns out, the smartphone might also carry a different price tag outside of the Google Play Store.

The Phone House, which is a retailer based in Spain, gave some details concerning the local availability and price of the LG-made Nexus 4. In the Google Play Store the device retails for EUR299 for the 8GB version and EUR349 for the 16GB one, but according to The Phone House, LG's suggested retail price is actually EUR599.

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Joe Wilcox is wrong. My colleague and I both own the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus. So in theory he should see the light --  Nexus 4 is so many times better than its predecessor. For the first time in a few years Google has the brass to release a smartphone that will no longer be left for dead in a month or two by fellow Android smartphones.

Before you go all out and say that I might be insane for dismissing 4G LTE, let me be clear -- not many need it. US-hung journalists like to boast about the capability in reviews praising the high speeds. But that does not reflect the reality around the globe, where fast data speeds are not the norm nor will they be in the next year or so. Nexus 4 is so much more than missing LTE cellular connectivity, and that's rather obvious when comparing it with its predecessor. I love the Galaxy Nexus, but even I have to admit that it's rather outdated for the end of 2012.

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Associate Professor Devavrat Shah and his student Stanislav Nikolov will unveil a new algorithm in November at the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Information and Decision in Social Networks. With a 95 percent accuracy it is reported to predict which topics will trend on Twitter by an average of an hour-and-a-half advance. MIT says that the social network could make use of the algorithim and even charge extra for ads that are linked to the future popular topic. At the same time, it can be implemented to determine ticket sales for movies, duration of bus rides and possibly stock prices.

The latter might gather some interest from Wall Street, but judging by the presentation that MIT made so far it is not at the top of the list. The idea behind the algorithm is to find meaningful patterns from a sample set, which in Twitter's case is represented by topics that were not popular as well as previously trending ones.

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The phablet is catching on. Two months ago Samsung announced the Galaxy Note II and in the meantime the South Korean corporation managed to sell three million units in 37 days since its release. That's right, and it barely touched US carriers.

The first iteration of the popular and controversial device sold 5 million units over a five month period. "Sales of Galaxy Note II are growing three times faster than that of the previous Galaxy Note", Samsung says in a statement. The success is rather impressive for what is basically a niche smartphone, with what may be considered limited reach due to its intimidating size. By comparison its smaller brother, the Galaxy S II, sold 20 million units in the first 100 days but, unlike the Note II the former appeals to a larger market audience.

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Almost two months ago Motorola announced the new Droid Razr HD, but there was something missing. Don't get me wrong, it's nicely spec'd but Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich doesn't exactly shout 2012, does it? Fear not, Jelly Bean is underway and for the more eager owners of the smartphone there is a leaked ROM available as well.

This is not an official build, and therefore it may still have software issues. That said, thanks to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Droid Razr HD users can take advantage of features like Google Now and Project Butter. In order to keep elevated privileges (popularly known as "root") after installing the leaked ROM, OTA RootKeeper or a similar application must be installed beforehand.

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There is no stopping Ice Cream Sandwich! Android 4.0 continues its growing streak month after month, based on the number of devices accessing Google Play during the 14 days ending November 1. But Gingerbread is still the sweet that rules them all.

Just like in the last few months, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean reports the highest growth. It reached a distribution level of 2.7 percent, which is 50 percent higher compared to the previous data released by Google. Growth is likely influenced by the popular Nexus 7 tablet and smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Note II.

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Almost four months ago the European Commission opened an investigation after Microsoft failed to distribute the browser ballot to Windows users. The problem, according to the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation, only affected 10 percent of PCs, but Mozilla says there's more to it than meets the eye. Microsoft claims a glitch, lasting 18 months, caused the ballot to disappear.

Harvey Anderson, who works at Mozilla on business and legal affairs, revealed some numbers that portray the impact on Mozilla Firefox downloads. Prior to Microsoft fixing the problem daily downloads of the popular open-source browser decreased by 63 percent to 20,000 per day. After Microsoft decided to fix the issue the number of Mozilla Firefox downloads increased by 150 percent to 50,000 per day. The European Commission isn't overly excited by what happened, and sent Redmond a "statement of objections". That usually implies that a fine is underway...

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Even though the Asus Nexus 7 and Samsung Galaxy Nexus share the same version of Android and similar display resolutions, some apps are not identical. On the Google-branded Nexus 7 tablet, the Calendar app displays more information, and thanks to the modding community it's now available for the Galaxy Nexus as well.

Instead of the lines in the Calendar app from Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the modded tablet variant shows a text description for each event of the day, making it a bit more useful.

Two modded versions are available at the moment, with the first based on the Calendar that ships with Android 4.1.2 and the second on the one available as a separate download from Google Play. Both can be used, but only the latter allows users to sync events dating back one full year.

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Early last month LinkedIn added a new feature which allows users to follow 'thought leaders'. Today, the popular business-oriented social network introduced new features to complement the recently added functionality.

LinkedIn announced that more than four million of its users now follow thought leaders, the latter of which created more than 850 posts. The social network introduced 150 thought leaders a month ago, but the number has been increased and now includes the CEO of Box, co-founder of Reddit as well as others. Users can now sort thought leaders based on a number of criteria such as alphabetical or most followed.

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Three days ago Microsoft publicly unveiled Windows Phone 8. In order to complement the newly released smartphone operating system, the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation first launched the Windows Phone app for Windows 8 and now the OS X version is available as well.

The main role of the application is to sync Macs with both Windows Phone 7 and 8 devices as well as Zune HD media players, but the focus is obviously more on the former considering the recent event. Using the app, media files such as movies, music, podcasts or TV shows can be synced from an existing iTunes library, as well as pictures and videos from iPhoto or Aperture. The app works the other way around too, since pictures and videos taken with a smartphone can be imported to the existing Aperture and iPhoto libraries.

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