"We want to give everyone the chance to be productive no matter where they are, so today we’re releasing a new update to the Google Docs app for Android", Vadim Gerasimov, Google software engineer explains. "We've brought the collaborative experience from Google Docs on the desktop to your Android device. You'll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in". Well it's about time.

"We also updated the interface to make it easier to work with your documents on the go", he continues. "For example, you can pinch to zoom and focus on a specific paragraph or see the whole document at a glance. We also added rich text formatting so you can do things like create a quick bullet list, add color to your documents, or just bold something important".

Wow. Apply bold. I'm just so excited.

"Finally, the office suite thhat should have been here since the start", comments Mark at the app's Android Market product page. "Works rather well on my Eee Pad, but it needs keyboard shortcuts -- like Ctrl+I for italics -- in order to be complete. Might aso be nice to have a page setting mode as well".

"Google Docs is close to where it should have been a year or more ago!", writes Angel de Marc, who uses Motorola XOOM.

V. Ellis Wade: "Today's update finally addressed the problem of document editing. Gonna give it a few more days, but this might mean an uninstall for Evernote".

"Better interface and functionality now, but still not enough. Am I the only one who think so?", asks Oscar, another XOOM user.

"This was the update I have been waiting for", writes Vachea, who uses Galaxy Nexus. "It looks so much more professional now. Love it, guys, keep up the good work".

There are many different ways and means of customizing the Windows 7 desktop, both using tools built into the OS itself, and third-party apps. But they all seem to make one assumption: that the default location for the Start menu’s button -- the left or top of the Taskbar depending on its position -- is the right one.

In many cases, this might feel right or natural, but what if you disagree? What if you’d like the Start button to be placed to the right of, or below, the Taskbar’s Notification area? If the idea interests you, then take a look at Start Orb Mover 1.0.

Start Orb Mover comes from the folk at The Windows Club, and is still very much in its early stages of development, despite the 1.0 version number. There are many things to like about it -- small download (1MB) and portability, so there’s no installation or messing about with system files involved.

Once running, the app moves the Start menu button to the center of the Taskbar, but it can also be placed to the right or bottom (if you’ve positioned the Taskbar vertically along one of the screen edges). You can also change the Start menu button to another design, three are provided, if you don’t like the original button. These settings are controlled by right-clicking the new Start button to reveal a new pop-up menu. From here, select Settings to make your changes.

You’ll find some other useful shortcuts on this menu too: one for opening cmd.exe with administrative privileges, and three options for starting, stopping and restarting Explorer.exe. There’s also the option to close the app, at which point the Start button magically reverts to its original location.

Here come the Bugs

The theory, then, is great, and if you’ve always wanted to move the Start button somewhere else you might already be eagerly downloading the app now, but there are some major caveats. Version 1.0 is clearly an early build, and we expect a minor update to be released pretty quickly based on some of the glitches we encountered. None are insurmountable -- this is a portable app after all, and if all else fails just reboot your PC to revert to the status quo -- but they’re annoying nonetheless.

First, when you launch Start Orb Mover after extracting it from the zip file, you’ll see the usual security message associated with downloaded files appear; it’s very important you untick “Always ask before opening this file” before clicking Run, or you’ll run into problems.

You’ll also see this message appear when you close the app for the first time, referring to ShowIt. We found this hung, forcing us to close the box via the X button, and then get an error message regarding the tool while the Start button remained hidden from view. Again, the solution is relatively simple: open the AppFiles folder inside the Start Orb Mover folder, then double-click ShowIt manually before unticking the “Always ask…” box and clicking Run (it should then shut down properly in future).

They’re both annoying glitches, but you should at least not encounter them more than once. However, other problems also appeared during testing: we found that when the Start menu was too low when it appeared after clicking the Start button if it was displayed at the bottom of the screen -- it was fine when the button was at the top, but we wonder if this is a universal issue, or just one with our laptop’s widescreen display resolution.

Ultimately these glitches do take the shine off what could be a useful, if somewhat niche, app. Let’s hope they’re fixed soon.

In the meantime, if you’re happy to experiment, you’ll find Start Orb Mover is a free download for PCs running Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit only.

Technology is becoming something of a fight club, as competitors (and some partners) beat up one another over intellectual property rights. Apple sues seemingly everyone, while Microsoft collects royalties from most Android licensees. Motorola, holder of 17,000 patents with about 7,000 more pending, joins the foray, too, and Microsoft is big-time pushing back.

In a week where Microsoft accused Google of circumventing Internet Explorer privacy settings and posted the demeaning "Googlighting" video comes another slap down: The software giant filed antitrust complaints in Europe against Motorola and new owner Google.

Microsoft claims that Motorola demands high licensing fees for video patents and seeks to block Windows and Xbox sales without payment. It's allegedly high-stakes extortion, a series of low blows that has Microsoft calling on the referee to step into the fight.

Simply stated: To participate in technology standards, patent holders agree to license on "reasonable and non-discriminatory terms", better known simply as RAND here and FRAND in Europe, adding word "fair". These cover what are typically called "standard essential patents" that are broadly adopted and necessary, meaning certain products require them. Microsoft claims there's nothing fair, reasonable or non-discriminatory about Motorola licensing fees.

FRAND removes monopoly advantage over patents used in industry standards, which is major reason why it can be an antitrust matter when any IP holder demands onerous licensing terms or otherwise interferes with competition.

Microsoft filed the complaint with the European Union's Competition Commission, which also is investigating Samsung for abusing 3G FRAND patents. In separate statements, Google and Motorola said they had not yet seen the complaints.

Fist-Fighting

The underlying issues are more complex than just FRAND. Microsoft and Motorola already were locked in a legal row. In October, Microsoft filed an infringement claim alleging that Motorola violated patents related to Android. In December, the US International Trade Commission found that Motorola had violated one of seven Microsoft patents.

A month earlier, Microsoft filed a lawsuit accusing Motorola of demanding exorbitant licensing fees for FRAND video and WiFi patents. Today's antitrust complaint extends Microsoft's legal fight over them.

The question: What's fair and reasonable? Microsoft has an answer. "Motorola is demanding that Microsoft pay a royalty of $22.50 for its 50 patents on the video standard, called H.264", Dave Heiner, Microsoft deputy general counsel, asserts.

"As it turns out, there are at least 2,300 other patents needed to implement this standard. They are available from a group of 29 companies that came together to offer their H.264 patents to the industry on FRAND terms. Microsoft’s patent royalty to this group on that $1,000 laptop? Two cents".

Heiner gunned for Microsoft's search rival in corporate blog post "Google: Please Don't Kill Video on the Web". I couldn't have written a better title, and BetaNews readers often comment about my baiting headlines.

He continues: "For a $2,000 laptop, Motorola is demanding double the royalty -- $45. Windows is the same on both laptops, and so is the video support in Windows. But the high-end laptop will have a bigger hard drive, more memory, perhaps a titanium case -- and Motorola is demanding a hefty royalty on all of this, even though none of these features implements Motorola’s video patents".

Heiner's post is rich with rhetoric, which I chose not to sample. The tone rings similar to other recent attacks against Google and ignores Microsoft's own aggressive, competitive licensing tactics; there Android licensees stand tall among them. Microsoft now collects patent fees from most manufacturers making Android handsets, with Motorola being major exception.

Under New Management

Detente defines FRAND, or did until the recent patent fighting over mobile devices and Google's acquisition of a large patent horde. In putting up its "change of management" sign, Google's position on standard essential patents and FRAND causes concern everywhere. For example, European and US regulators approved Google's Motorola merger but with caveats.

Earlier this month, the US Justice Department explains its reasons for approving the Google-Motorola merger and sale of other patents to Apple and Microsoft, among others.

"Motorola Mobility has had a long and aggressive history of seeking to capitalize on its intellectual property and has been engaged in extended disputes with Apple, Microsoft and others", the Justice Department's letter explains. "Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility is unlikely to materially alter that policy".

In approving three deals, trustbusters looked at possible abuse of standard essential patents. Apple and Microsoft assurances placated Justice Department lawyers, but not Google's.

In a November letter to European competition authorities, Apple assured that: "A party who made a FRAND commitment to license its cellular standards essential patents or otherwise acquired assets/rights from a party who made the FRAND commitment must not seek injunctive relief on such patents. Seeking an injunction would be a violation of the party’s commitment to FRAND licensing".

In a notice posted this month, Microsoft takes a clearer position:

Microsoft’s approach is straight-forward:

1. Microsoft will always adhere to the promises it has made to standards organizations to make its standard essential patents available on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms.

2. This means that Microsoft will not seek an injunction or exclusion order against any firm on the basis of those essential patents.

3. This also means that Microsoft will make those essential patents available for license to other firms without requiring that those firms license their patents back to Microsoft, except for any patents they have that are essential to the same industry standard.

4. Microsoft will not transfer those standard essential patents to any other firm unless that firm agrees to adhere to the points outlined above.

By comparison, as the Justice Department observes, "Google’s commitments were more ambiguous and do not provide the same direct confirmation of its SEP licensing policies".

Google also didn't preclude seeking injunctions over standard essential licenses. "Google reserves its rights to seek any and all judicial remedies against counterparties that refuse a RAND license or subsequently breach any of their commitments on the terms of any license agreement covering the acquired [Motorola Mobility] Essential Patent Claims or the counterparty's Essential Patent Claims", according to a letter sent to IEEE earlier this month. Additionally, Google plans to seek patent cross-licensing agreements in some cases.

"Google’s statement therefore does not directly provide the same assurance as the other companies’ statements concerning the exercise of its newly acquired patent rights", the Justice Department warns. "Nonetheless, the division determined that the acquisition of the patents by Google did not substantially lessen competition, but how Google may exercise its patents in the future remains a significant concern".

Problem: No company's public position can truly be trusted since all have vested and often conflicting interests in the outcomes and there is so much money at stake. For example, Google has forsworn H.264 for open-source WebM. Onerous license terms could be used to dissuade other companies from licensing the video codec. Meanwhile, Microsoft is unlikely to embrace WebM by choice.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Piccillo/Shutterstock

The startup provides a web-based email analytics platform that lets users track the status of their messages from any email provider in real time, to see whether they were viewed and clicked through, so they can be effectively tailored for optimum engagement.

When we last looked at Tout, these analytics could be tied into Highrise, Batchbook, and Capsule CRM platforms. Today, the company announced the golden goose of CRM integration: Salesforce.

ToutApp for Salesforce ties these real-time tracking and email analytics features into the popular cloud CRM suite, and includes email templating, automatic file attachments and performance reports so businesses can better manage their email comunications with clients and customers.

"ToutApp is addressing a major pain point in Salesforce: the ability to template, track and manage your day-to-day sales emails," said Tawheed Kader, CEO of ToutApp. "We believe our comprehensive yet simple-to-integrate solution between Salesforce, iOS and cloud-based app will not only save hours of emailing time but will also provide deep insights into your sales communications."

ToutApp’s pricing is based on team size and volume of usage, ranging from $12 per month for 25 tracked emails per day, three Tout groups and 10 email templates, all the way to $199 per month which has unlimited groups and shared templates, and team-wide analytic tracking for up to 25 users.

As announced last year, development on mobile is officially over, as is direct development for Linux flavors of the Flash player. Adobe will focus its efforts on two key areas where Flash has a significant presence: video and gaming. The effort is aimed at making the technology viable "for the next decade", the company says.

Gaming is an obvious choice for Flash. Since the platform's inception, Flash has seen heavy use in this market. Adobe says it plans to create a formal game development program as well as game services to support developers who use Flash to create their games.

"Adobe believes that the rapid innovation and consistent reach uniquely possible via Flash will continue to make it exceptionally well suited for gaming", it says.

Video is another area where Adobe (and Macromedia before it) found surprising success. Flash allows website developers to deliver video content across operating systems without the need for an external player. Here Adobe sees opportunities in "premium" video, as more entertainment providers take to the web.

Much of its future efforts will focus on bringing better content protection controls to Flash in order to make it a viable option for those wishing to bring premium content online. "Online video is still in its infancy and Adobe believes we will see more broadcast and premium content available online", it argues.

On the platform side, Adobe will officially only continue development on Mac and Windows platforms. Linux development is being left to Google, whose Pepper plug in API will now control Flash on the platform. The company plans to support its own in-house efforts for another five years.

Mobile is also scrapped, as previously announced. On the Mac and Windows side, the company plans to release Flash Player 11.2 in the next month or so, with mouse compatibility and video playback enhancements. Players codenamed "Cyril" and "Dolores" will debut in the second quarter and then the second half of the year, bringing enhancements necessary to support Adobe's plans to refocus on gaming.

With all this, we return to the first sentence of the story. Is Flash really dead? No. Is it weakened? Yes, but only due to the path the market is already taking. Technologies like HTML5 are doing the things that once only Flash could provide. It can be argued that this refocusing was something that Adobe should have done a long time ago.

Did Apple win? If you're looking at it from a HTML5 vs. Flash perspective, then yes. But there are still things that HTML5 cannot do, such as protected content. This is why Adobe has made the conscious decision to stick it out in web video. There is still a niche for them here, and Flash can fill that hole nicely.

"VZW is investigating customer issues in connecting to the 4GLTE data network. 3G data, voice and text services are operating reliably", the company writes in a tweet mid-morning on Wednesday. Reports are widespread: outages are reported in Detroit, Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Columbus, Ohio among other locations.

In most cases 3G appears to still be operational, but LTE service is down. Some users report poor signal quality, while others say they are without service at all. These service issues seem to be less common but still as widespread, disputing Verizon's claims that affected users still have service.

So without knowing a cause, it looks like there's a major issue with Verizon's LTE network once again.

One user reports on Twitter from Los Angeles of "little or no 3G service" on his RAZR. Another user reports that 3G data also went down in Ohio, but has since returned.

"OK my @VZWnews iphone is also now an expensive ipod touch. WTF", David Shen of Palo Alto, Calif. tweets to Verizon's official Twitter account.

"There's nothing "reliable" about the 3G... Unless you count being slow and crappy", Steve from Florida tweets<;/a> in response to Verizon's 4G woes.

Issues with Verizon's service architecture were the primary issue causing previous failures. The company said in the weeks following the initial outages that it made changes to better isolate outages in the LTE network when they occur.

Obviously that's not the case, because this outage is just as widespread as every one before it. Why can't Verizon keep its LTE network up? That's becoming a serious question.

Do you have Verizon LTE? Please report service issues (or if you have working service, too) in comments. We'd like to hear from you.

Mozilla's offering will differ from Chrome in that it will be more of a platform than a simple HTML5 app store. The Mozilla Web Apps platform will include APIs that Mozilla has submitted to the W3C for standardization, and it will include a new user identity scheme so that web app users can tie their apps to their identity rather than their device.

"The Web is the largest platform in the world. We are enabling the Web to be the marketplace, giving developers the opportunity to play on the biggest playing field imaginable," said Todd Simpson, Mozilla’s Chief of Innovation in a statement on Wednesday. "By building the missing pieces, Mozilla is now unlocking the potential of the Web to be the platform for creating and consuming content everywhere."

The "write once, run anywhere," mantra is often thrown around when discussing the virtues of Web app development, and it has led companies such as Intel, AT&T, and Opera Software into the fold.

Mozilla Marketplace will be available to consumers later this year.

Photo Credit: IQConcept/shutterstock

Microsoft is stepping up its anti-Google campaign, in a couple new moves clearly intended to generate FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about its rival's products, corporate image and credibility. In the past two days, Microsoft launched at least two separate offenses: one against Google Apps, which competes with Microsoft's key businesses -- productivity software -- and the other an attempt to capitalize on the news surrounding Google's apparent circumvention of Safari privacy controls.

Google must defend against attacks from Microsoft on multiple fronts -- they're opportunistic and follow a pattern of attempting to cash in when Google is vulnerable. It also happens with increasing frequency. Consider Microsoft's attempts a year ago to justify copying Google results by turning around and accusing the Mountain View, Calif. company of click fraud.

Then there was the time Microsoft hid behind a group working for "fairer search" to accuse Google of unfair competition. But that's the past. Present offenses achieve new lows only surpassed by political candidates. (Say, Microsoft, did you add former campaign managers to the payroll?)

'Googlighting' or Overused Marketing Schtick?

In the above video, posted yesterday, Microsoft parodies 1980's ABC comedy-drama Moonlighting to show Google is "new to the game", and sees corporate customers as beta testers for productivity apps. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, "moonlighting" is the practice of having a secondary job in addition to your primary one. In most cases, you're not as good at that second job, and that's the point Microsoft tries to make.

This isn't the first time Microsoft personified a Google feature into a person. Last summer's "GMail Man" poked fun at Google's use of the content of your email messages in order to serve advertisements. Funny thing, Microsoft's Hotmail slaps ads alongside your messages, too.

I'll admit to finding GMail Man (as did many other people) interesting and original. The video brought up a valid point about Google's advertising strategy. At the same time, a style of marketing can be overused. In two separate video campaigns Microsoft portrays Google as being pretty sleazy. At best, Microsoft certainly toes the line on this one. At worst, the videos are so dirty, the company should hire out staff to run negative political campaigns.

Kicking 'em when They're Down

As expressed earlier, Microsoft executives seem to relish in piling on when Google's not having a good day. Take for example Monday's post by Internet Explorer vice president Dean Hachamovitch. He claims that Google uses similar tactics to the Safari exploit in order to bypass the browser's privacy settings. IE uses a technology known as P3P to protect users from malicious cookies, and the site must present a statement to the browser explaining how the cookie is used, and that statement cannot include user tracking.

"We've found that Google bypasses the P3P Privacy Protection feature in IE", Hachamovitch writes. "Google's P3P policy causes Internet Explorer to accept Google’s cookies even though the policy does not state Google's intent". If an invalid P3P policy is encountered, the policy is accepted by default. This means the cookie has free reign to do as it pleases, regardless of privacy settings. Microsoft has made the conscious decision to follow W3C specifications, which renders its privacy controls partially useless. Hachamovitch says that the company is investigating the option of ignoring invalid P3P policies, which makes sense. So do it!

From there the post takes an opportunistic tone, urging users to upgrade to IE9, which includes an additional anti-track feature called Tracking Protection.

The feature isn't based on P3P and isn't susceptible to the workarounds that do exist. The charge against Google is doubly low: P3P is far from secure, and in most cases not even enforceable; the push towards Tracking Protection is a bait-and-switch tactic, by using accusations against Google to cajole Windows users to adopt IE9.

Microsoft's timing reveals much about its intentions. Hachamovitch posted his Google-privacy accusations on a US holiday, when news was otherwise light. By late day yesterday, there were blog posts and news stories everywhere. (Well, not at BetaNews. The stink from Microsoft's blog post filled the newsroom. We intentionally waited.)

Half-Truths and Damn Lies

Google is shooting back, calling P3P "impractical" for providing modern web functionality (Microsoft introduced P3P in 2001 with Internet Explorer 6 -- right, the browser the company wants everyone to finally stop using). "Today the Microsoft policy [on using P3P] is widely non-operational," Google communications and policy senior vice president Rachel Whetstone says. Whetstone points to a 2010 study indicating as many as 11,000 websites were not issuing valid P3P policy statements.

"The reality is that consumers don't, by and large, use the P3P framework to make decisions about personal information disclosure", she argues.

Facebook strengthened Whetstone's argument, telling ZDNet Tuesday that it also ignores P3P. "While we would like to be able to express our cookie policy in a format that a browser could read, P3P...is not effective in describing the practices of a modern social networking service and platform", the company says in a statement.

There are bigger problems in Redmond -- like making the company truly competitive. Microsoft executives need to focus less on raking Google over the coals every chance they get, and more on how to advance their own company. With a share price that has been stagnant for much of the past decade, shouldn't that be job number one? Or advancing release of new Office and Windows versions?

While at it, Microsoft should rethink its browser privacy control strategy, since it has little, if any, support among the Web's biggest players.

When it comes to keeping your Windows setup lean and mean, you don’t need to look much further than Advanced SystemCare PRO 5. IObit’s flagship system tuneup utility has come on leaps and bounds since its initial release, and now offers comprehensive maintenance and optimization options for keeping your PC in tip-top condition.

With new Active Boost technology maintaining your computer’s key resources in real-time, improved malware detection and extra maintenance and optimization tools, ASC PRO 5 is an essential tool for all PCs. But get this, for a limited period ending at 23:59 Central European Time on February 22, you’ll be able to pick up a free single-license copy worth $19.95, complete with all the additional features and functionality over the free version.

To get your free copy of ASC PRO 5, which runs on any PC with Windows 2000 or later installed, just visit the Downloadcrew Giveaway site before the deadline. Follow the instructions provided to download the software and unlock the full version with the serial code provided.

There’s no registration involved, so you don’t have to sign up for anything – everything you need to get and use the software is provided at its Download page.

Optimize Your PC

Why download and install IObit Advanced SystemCare PRO 5 for your PC? It’s basically your one-stop shop for maintaining and optimizing your computer through a series of utilities designed to improve performance, root out problems and even detect and remove malware.

The program’s divided into four sections: Quick Care for those who want a quick and easy tune up, plus Deep Care for more experienced users happy to delve deep into the program’s innards to get the performance they specifically want. Turbo Boost speeds up your system with just a few clicks while Toolbox provides shortcuts to 25 more tools spanning categories including clean, optimize, repair and security.

Version 5 introduces Active Boost technology, which optimizes your application’s RAM and CPU use in real time. Malware detection is improved greatly thanks to new cloud-based technology for up-to-the-minute scans, while Turbo Boost is able to recover more system resources than before. Also enhanced are the Quick and Deep Care sections.

It’s all very simple to use, but because you’re potentially making fundamental changes to your system, it’s good to know that ASC PRO 5 flags potentially harmful changes, plus backs up every tweak it performs, so if -- for example – you run into problems after using the Registry cleaning portion of the program, you can quickly and easily roll back your computer to a working state.

Key Facts

If you’ve got more than one PC to look after, you might be interested to learn that throughout February we’ve got a massive 68 percent off the three-PC license of ASC PRO 5. You pay just $12 instead of $39.95 as a result of this discount.

Important reminder: the download offer lasts through 23:59 Central European Time Wednesday February 22,. You will need to register your license by Friday 24 February. See the Downloadcrew Giveaway site for full details.

Back in October, Canonical Ltd. announced that Ubuntu would be coming to smartphones, tablets and TVs. Tuesday, Canonical announced it is not only bringing Ubuntu to phones, tablets, and televisions, but it is doing so through Android, and in a form very similar to Motorola's Webtop interface.

"Your Next Desktop Could be a Phone," Canonical says.

It's quite a statement coming from a company that makes desktop operating systems. "Forget the office PC. Just dock your corporate phone and enjoy Ubuntu. Anywhere. One address book. One set of bookmarks. One place for your text messages and email. No more typing on a tiny screen when all you want is a keyboard and a mouse. Seamless integration of your desktop and mobile worlds."

When a phone equipped with Ubuntu for Android is docked into an appropriate hardware dock with HDMI out and Keyboard, it launches the Ubuntu environment in parallel with Android. It is not virtualized, but is instead a native linux environment running off of the same Linux kernel that Android uses. It requires a dual-core device, however, so that both environments can run and share services.

Canonical bills Ubuntu for Android as a complete desktop, and it includes applications for office (Google Docs), web browsing (Chromium), email (Thunderbird), media (PiTiVi, VLC Player, Ubuntu Music Player) and messaging (Android dialer, Gwibber). Personal files stored in the phone such as contacts, calendars, photo galleries, and music can all be accessed via the Ubuntu desktop interface.

Text messages and voice calls are also routed through the desktop in a fashion more like a desktop VoIP and messaging client than a phone to allow a seamless experience.

With this, Canonical looks to be taking a slightly different approach than it has with other builds of its operating system, and the company is primarily targeting OEMs and devicemakers with today's announcement. Canonical says it's a "just cause for more cores" and that it could seed "a whole new peripheral ecosystem" similar to the one associated with Motorola's Webtop.

In December, Canonical-founded nonprofit Linaro announced it had completed middleware for low-cost dual-core ARM boards that allowed for deployment of either Android Ice Cream Sandwich or Ubuntu Oneiric Ocelot, and this could play into the initial availability of Ubuntu for Android.

Well, that's what many of you say.

Last week I asked: "Are you bored with Windows Phone?" Simple reason: Windows 8 and Windows 8 on ARM share in Metro a similar tile-like user interface, and I had seen some user complaints about being bored with WP 7.5. I asked the question in anticipation of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which Microsoft promised to release by month's end.

Given the UI similarities, WP users are a good measure for assessing Metro's viability as the new window to Windows. Windows 8 will bring the most fundamental change to the UI since the graphical user interface adopted for version 3.0 and then revamped for Windows 95. Such change comes with risks users will resist, stalling adoption or leading some customers to adopt something else (with Mac OS X near top of list).

Maybe my post rallied the fanboys or represents a broad base of Windows Phone users. Whichever, neither or both, you give a rousing endorsement to the tile-like UI.

"I have a had windows phone for a few months now, and I love it", Jesse Dobson comments. "The simplicity is cool, but I mostly like the phone because of the live tiles, social network integration, Windows Live services integration, the Xbox 360 Companion app, and, most importantly, Zune music pass!!" Many of these same features/benefits are expected with Windows 8's Metro UI.

Jason Kohlhoff loves "Metro, and I can't wait for Windows 8". He and his wife have the HTC Trophy.

Perhaps not meaning to, reader Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca makes a point that is central to the reason why I posed the "boring" question:

Yup, the tiles look boring. On paper or, well, the Interwebs. But that's because you can't show anything 'live' in a static image. On the actual phone, the tiles change, a lot. In fact, if one isn't careful, they can change too much and the home screen can become quite a mess. If anything, they're the complete opposite of boring.

"Are you mad?" Dinesh Pabbi asks, in all caps, no less. "Metro is so good to use and looks absolutely beautiful".

R Walrond, who develops Windows Phone apps, unsurprisingly isn't bored. "I switched to WP7 because I was bored of my iPhone (plus it was much easier to develop for). I don't understand the complaints about the tiles. They come to life with content all the time at least on my Samsung Focus".

Rodney Jones:

Windows Phone is visually, technically, and intuitively awesome to use everyday, even after a year with the device. The apps have the best aesthetics of any platform, and the live tile system works great, and displays the info I choose instantly. Windows Phone's design concept is perfect, and could never be boring because of its natural disposition. Those who say otherwise simply have not used WP!

"'Boring' is certainly not the word I would use, but 'comfortable' is", Eric King comments. "I've had my WP7 for over a year now, and I can't imagine wanting to switch to either the iPhone or Android interfaces".

"I've had a Samsung Focus since October 2010 and I love it. I did buy my teenage daughter an iPhone 4S and honestly I hated setting it up", David Cornelson writes. "I wouldn't trade my Windows Phone OS for anything and certainly not an iPhone. I have the Lumia 900 on pre-order too".

Nokia announced the Lumia 900 Windows Phone in early January. The smartphone is expected to go on sale in March, and Microsoft started taking preorders about two weeks ago. Most readers responding to our poll plan to buy one.

Carlo Mendoza is "not bored at all". I've had an HTC HD2, but have been running WP7 on it a little more than a year". He's "very excited to get Lumia 900. It's only going to get better with Apollo & Windows 8. I see it from the 'Data/Information first' perspective, which is really what the Metro user experience is about in my opinion".

Frequent BetaNews commenter "woe" isn't giddy with enthusiasm and breaks from the largely favorable comments:

The question should be: "Are you bored with Metro?" My answer is yes. When it came out on the Zune is was pretty cool. Microsoft moves as fast as a glacier, because here we are how many years later and its on everything they own finally.

Metro is boring. It was different and new yes, but plain and boring. It is fast -- because its so simple. Simple colors on a simple single-color background. No 3d effects or raised effects, so it's fast. Smart move in terms of a smartphone, since you don't have to waste CPU/GPU cycles on the fancy GUI features -- but boring. In some places, like the calendar on Windows Phone Metro is boring and ugly.

I have recently seen Windows 8 server screen shots, some of the NIC teaming dialog boxes and they were all Metro -- YUK!!!

Okay, so only most of you say Windows Phone isn't boring. Will you have the same opinion about Windows 8? I'll ask the question again after you have spent some quality time with the Consumer Preview.

But if you prefer a simpler life then installing mRemoteNG (a fork of the mRemote project) could make a lot of sense.

When you first launch the program it’ll check your system to see which remote connection technologies it currently supports. On our test PC, for instance, mRemoteNG reports that we were currently set up to support RDP, VNC, PuTTY (SSH/ Telnet/ Rlogin/ RAW) and more.

We weren’t configured to support Citrix ICA connections, unfortunately, but the program didn’t just say that. A helpful error message also told us where to download the appropriate client, and even provided instructions on how to register the relevant file manually.

Once you’re properly configured, it’s then very easy to create a new connection, provide the appropriate host name, username and password.

You’ll then have to select the connection protocol from a list: RDP, VNC, SSH versions 1 and 2, Telnet, Rlogin, RAW, HTTP, HTTPS and ICA.

After that, you’ll be able to set up all the appropriate settings for that protocol. So for RDP, say, you’re able to tweak “Appearance” settings including resolution, number of colours, bitmap caching, whether to display wallpaper, themes and more.

And once you’ve built up a library of connections then you’re able to launch them at any time with a quick double-click, and view the results in mRemoteNG’s straightforward tabbed interface. It’s all very easy, and the program could be a useful tool for anyone who regularly works with multiple remote connection technologies.

Photo Credit: Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock

Microsoft Office may be the most widely-installed suite, but for the average user it is expensive and unless a copy came pre-installed on your computer, you may not feel inclined to part with that amount of money. This explains the increased interest in free alternatives, and one such suite is LibreOffice Productivity Suite, which has just hit the milestone release number of 3.5.0.

It is fair to say that an office suite is not the most exciting piece of software anyone is going to install, but it is something vital to so many people and it is important that it does its job well. One of the reasons Microsoft Office is so popular: It's feature-packed and caters to almost any requirements you may have. When you start to look at free alternatives, you’ll often find that quality starts to slip and important features get dropped.

These are not charges that can be leveled at LibreOffice, which is just about as riddled with features as you could possibly hope. Should you be unfamiliar with the suite, this particular set of office programs comprises a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing tool, presentation application, a database and an equation editor.

Fully-loaded Suite

It is impressive to see that a database tool has been included, and while this is not something that everyone will need no corners have been cut. For many people, the cornerstone of any office suite is the word processor, and LibreOffice’s offering is suitably adorned with everything you would expect. On-the-fly spell checking has become a fairly standard feature of modern word processors and while grammar checking is sometimes available, it is often slow and unreliable. The latest version of LibreOffice  introduces a faster checker and improved handling of errors to help make it clearer what issues have been detected. Recent changes to the handling of headers and footers make these document components even easier to work with.

But an office suite is about more than the word processor, and the spreadsheet tool is just as important. Calc is an extremely competent program that is Excel compatible and now boasts support for documents that contain up to 10,000 sheets.

Elsewhere in the suite you’ll also find the presentation tool Impress, drawing and logo creation app Draw, and Math the equation and formulae editor. Each of these programs has very much the same look, so once you have spent time using any of them, you’ll immediately feel at home in any of the others.

Speedy Development

This is an office suite that has come a long way in a relatively short space of time. Breaking away from OpenOffice has led to a faster development cycle, which in turn has mean that it has been possible to address issues long causing problems for users in different ways.

Something that has long deterred serious writers from making the switch to LibreOffice was the lack of a live word count. This might seem like a minor point, but when you need to write to a word count, you want to be able to focus on getting the words down on the page rather than having to keep checking through menus to see how many more words you have left to work with. The addition of a live word count to the latest version is a small but important change, and just goes to demonstrate that such a little thing makes such as big difference, and is an excellent example of listening to the target audience.

In the past, if you wanted to keep up to date with the latest version of the suite, it meant performing a manual check online to see if anything new had been released. Arguably one of the most useful additions to the software is the update availability notifier; when a new release hits the servers, the program will let you know so you can update your program straight away.

LibreOffice does fall down slightly in terms of looks. The toolbars are a little cluttered and the design of some of the buttons a too busy, and the aforementioned live word count, while useful, has been oddly implemented so a separate window needs to be kept open to monitor a changing word count.

The way the installer works is interestingly different to other apps and recognizes the fact that making the switch from one office suite to another is a big step. On the one hand, the installer informs you that it could be used as the default handler for Word, Excel and PowerPoint document -- but importantly, does not steal file associations by default -- and also points out the fact that if you are only trying out the suite you might want to leave this option disabled. This is a small touch, but it irons out an annoyance that has plagued too many other programs in the past.

Cross-platform Compatibility

A big plus point for LibreOffice: it is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Cost-conscious computer users may have opted to go down the Linux route to save money on hardware and software, and this suite is available for users of this operating system. But if you are working in a multi-platform office environment, or want a reliable way to collaborate on projects with people using different systems, this is a great way of ensuring a level playing field on which everyone has access to the same tools and options and does not have to worry about incompatibility issues.

Overall, this is an office suite that comes highly recommended. The decision to break away from the main OpenOffice product has led to a faster development cycle and this has resulted in the impressive product we now see before us.

Choosing an office suite is quite a personal affair, and it is not possible for one suite to cater to the needs of every user. LibreOffice Productivity Suite 3.5.0 achieves an excellent balance of everyday features that are intuitive and more powerful options that will be welcomed by businesses and power users.

Whether you are currently in the market for a new office suite or not, this is well worth taking a look at as you may just be swayed. However, it is worth noting that this release (version 3.5.0) is recommended for power users. The Document Foundation recommends that less technically minded users and businesses hold off updating for the time being.

Photo Credit: Liv friis-larsen/Shutterstock

That's my question for you this Tuesday morning, following new rumors about Office for iPad and its imminent release. Over at The Daily, Matt Hickey insists Microsoft has nearly finished development and "the app will soon be submitted to Apple for approval". The software supposedly has capabilities from Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word and inherits characteristics from Windows 8's Metro UI.

Whoa, can this really be a good idea, Office on iPad?

I'm unconvinced that Office for iPad is a good idea from a Windows platform perspective. Reports from numerous analyst firms -- Canalys, Gartner and IDC among them -- are clear: iPad hurts PC sales, which in turn impacts Windows. During fourth quarter (fiscal second for Microsoft), Windows and Windows Live division revenue declined by 6 percent year over year and profits even more; 11 percent. Microsoft blamed a hard drive shortage, but Mac sales rose to record numbers -- 5.2 million, up 26 percent year over year, while the broader PC market declined by 1.4 percent, according to Gartner). The reasons are more complex than Microsoft states, then, and iPad is high among them. So why in hell would Microsoft contribute to its own OS platform's decline?

Most IT mangers tell me the same thing: They make OS platform decisions based on applications. By offering Office on iPad, Microsoft makes adopting iPad an easier decision for many corporations, which also happen to make up Microsoft's core market base. So why give them incentive to deploy iPads that might take away PC sales today and Windows on ARM sales in the future? There are reasons. Among them:

1. Office as platform is another matter. Viewed from revenue and profit, the Business Division is more important to Microsoft than Windows and Windows Live. During calendar fourth quarter, Business division generated $6.28 billion revenue and $4.15 billion profit compared to Windows and Windows Live's $4.74 billion and $2.85 billion, respectively. That's a trend, not a one-off quarter. Office accounts for more than 90 percent of Business division revenues.

Additionally, Office is front end to many back-end Microsoft server products and to cloud services. Trickle down sales are huge.

2. Enterprises use Office and already are adopting iPad. According to a recent IDG Connect study, enterprise business or IT managers with iPads use their laptops less (54 percent) or have replaced notebooks with the tablets (16 percent). Office is the productivity app standard among corporate users, but software not available to them on iPad.

From customer retention and service perspectives, Microsoft should make Office available wherever these customers want to use it. Then there is the additional revenue potential from selling these customers yet another version of Office. Why sell once what you can sell again and again?

3. iPad doesn't really threaten Windows. That's a view common among BetaNews commenters and no doubt at Microsoft, too. The company offers Office for the Mac, which certainly helps Apple computer sales but hasn't (yet) caused Windows any real hurt.

Importance of the first two reasons is greater as well. By the way, I do see iPad taking away Windows PC sales, but what Microsoft managers presumably think matters more.

4. Office for Macintosh is hugely profitable and iPad can be, too. People often ask me why Microsoft offers Office on Mac, given Apple computers compete with Windows PCs. Simple answer: Microsoft makes money and could generate additional revenue on iPad. Apple shipped more than 15 million iPads in fourth quarter -- 55 million to date -- and none with Office, the most successful desktop productivity suite ever.

Why let Apple take all that cash to the bank with iWork apps? Pages, which Apple sells for $9.99, is the third top-grossing iPad app. Do the math. What if Microsoft offers Office on iPad for $39.96 ($9.99 per app) and one-quarter of the iPad install base upgrades? That's nearly $550 million in sales. Too bad Microsoft has to share 30 percent with Apple, eh?

5. Less is more. Microsoft has already announced plans to offer Office with Windows on ARM. Price is uncertain, and possibly free or cost invisible to the customer. Office on iPad would be good way to showcase what users can expect from Office for Windows on ARM -- and more. Surely Microsoft can offer more capabilities and different, if not better, user experience. Microsoft reaps revenue rewards today from iPad while preparing something similar but better for Windows later.

Okay, I've made a case for why Office on iPad could make sense. There remains your answer to the question: Should Microsoft release Office for iPad?

Photo Source: The Daily

Fast forward to today. RIM attempts to right the sinking ship and fix the disastrous initial release of Playbook OS 1.0 with the second version of that mobile operating system. You guessed it: the signature additions to the operating system are those native email, calendar, and contacts apps missing from RIM's first try.

"Building on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet's proven web browsing, multimedia and multitasking strengths, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements as well as expanded app and content support", mobile computing senior vice president David Smith says.

A little confused here: shouldn't your strengths in any device your company releases be about keeping in touch, something you've made millions on over the past decade or so, not basic features that should be expected out of any device? Let's not beat up RIM too much here though, at least the company is making an effort to answer critics.

Hold the presses, there's still something missing yet: BlackBerry Messenger. I would call that a glaring omission, as the application is popular among the CrackBerry set. I guess RIM will fall back on its excuse to connect your PlayBook to your phone, but this was the strategy that got them into trouble with the technorati the first time.

Maybe we'll see that feature in PlayBook OS 3.0? Oh RIM, you are so fun to pick on.

There is some cool stuff to report: calendar and contacts include social integration, which pulls in information from friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are also enhancements to BlackBerry Bridge -- the application that connects the BlackBerry to the PlayBook -- offering faster file transfers and the ability to use the BlackBerry as a wireless keyboard and mouse.

If you're interested in finally getting the features that you should have had back in September, PlayBook OS 2.0 is available immediately as a free download. Now go and get that update, all ten of you (I kid, I kid).

Nvidia's Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip architecture has thus far been used in a handful of high-end Android "superphones": Motorola Atrix 4G, Photon 4G, LG Optimus G2X, and the Samsung Captivate Glide, to name a few.

Today, Nvidia and Chinese smartphone maker ZTE announced the Mimosa X, the first Android smartphone to use Nvidia's products for both applications processing and wireless communications since the company acquired wireless modem maker Icera last June.

The Mimosa X is powered by the dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor, GeForce GPU, and Icera 450 HSPA+ (21Mbps) modem, it will run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), feature a 4.3-inch (960 x 540) screen, a rear-facing 5 megapixel camera and a forward-facing chat camera, as well as 4 GB of storage expandable to 32 GB via microSD.

The ZTE Mimosa X doesn't yet have an exact launch date or price, but it will debut some time in the second quarter, with pricing targeted at the "mainstream" smartphone consumer. This is a departure from all former Tegra 2 smartphones, which all entered the market at the high end. So not only does this phone usher in the total Nvidia chip solution, it also brings Tegra to the masses.

For some reason NPD and Nielsen issued data within days of one another looking at device buyer demographics -- hence why I'm posting about price at all. Beyond the press release data, which you can read in a few paragraphs, I wondered about Macs and iPads, seeing as analyst firms Canalys and DisplaySearch insist that tablets are PCs. So I asked Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, about US demographics.

"From an income perspective, about 44 percent of people who bought an Apple product -- that's iPads and MacBooks -- had over a $100,000 income vs 26 percent of the entire market", he says. Wowza. Selling prices are absolutely a factor. iPad starts at $499 and sells for as much as $829. By comparison, Amazon's Kindle Fire is $199. Then there are Mac laptops, which start at $999 and cost as much as $2,499.

Among these same buyers, 24 percent are 55 or older versus 29 percent for non-Apple computers and tablets. "Apple buyers are definitely a little bit younger in that range", Baker observes. "The income is more telling, because younger people can have more money but older people can't be younger".

But ages are closer when singling out tablets. "iPad owners are a little older -- by about a year", Baker says. That's a mean age of 50 vs 49. "Apple way over-indexes in older people. They're more willing to spend for that perceived extra cost of Apple. Everyone thinks that Apple is dominant among young people, and that's just not the case". The income gulf drops a little, with about 42 percent of iPad owners having incomes over $100,000 vs 26 percent for other tablet buyers.

While NPD offers rich data on Apple devices, Nielsen looks at the broader US smartphone market -- without singling out iPhone. Among all age groups, "smartphone penetration" was highest among those making $100,000 or more. That's 75 percent to 80 percent for those ages 18 to 44, with the higher number among 25-to-34 year olds.

Photo Credit: Katherine Welles/Shutterstock

"To build a SkyDrive experience on WinRT, we took an approach that we expect many web developers will choose to take on Windows 8. We built the entire app using modern web technologies like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5, and because of our recent updates to SkyDrive.com, we were able to use the same JSON APIs and JavaScript object model that the website uses. The only difference on Windows 8 is that we bind the results to modern controls that were built for touch. This is part of the reason it’s so fast, and the touch behavior works so well (and works on Windows on ARM too,)" Mike Torres and Omar Shahine, Group Program Managers for SkyDrive said on Monday.

Third-party application developers will also have the option to save files to the user's SkyDrive instead of locally, sort of like the way certain Android and iOS content creation apps have the option to save to Dropbox, Box, SugarSync, or other third-party cloud storage services.

An early version of the SkyDrive Windows 8 app will be bundled with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

The desktop application will integrate the user's SkyDrive into their Windows Vista, 7, or 8 Windows Explorer. With the application installed, users will be able to drag and drop files up to 2GB in size for direct upload to their cloud storage. If these files are then changed on the desktop, they will automatically be updated in SkyDrive.

Finally, the update to SkyDrive.com will add a "Devices" heading that lets users connect to any remote PC to access files that aren't expressly synced to their cloud drive. In order to do this, users will have to provide a second factor of authentication in the form of a code that is send to the user's mobile phone or alternate email address.

Microsoft on Monday did not explicitly talk about storage allocation, but Torres and Shahine did mention that "SkyDrive for the desktop will also provide the ability to sync up to your available quota of storage (and the ability to unlock more)," and Microsoft's demonstration video appears to show a 75GB capacity. With the Windows 8 Consumer Preview just around the corner, we're excited to see what the new SkyDrive has to offer.

While digital video formats are more popular than ever, most people still have large collections of DVDs and Blu-rays. One of the many advantages of digital video formats is that they are easily stored on removable hard drives and can be searched and cataloged in a variety of way.

Movie Label 2013 is the latest version of a movie cataloging tool that has been designed to place you firmly in control of your DVD collection, storing more information than is possible in the majority of similar tools that are available.

At its most basic, the application can be used to create a simple database of all of your DVDs and Blu-rays so even if you choose not to have your discs out on display you’ll never lose track of what you own. But this is an app that can also be used to catalog your DivX video files in the same way and keep track of which discs you have lent out to other people.

One of the biggest problems with any sort of cataloging software is the data entry side of things, but Movie Label 2013 makes things nice and easy – you can either scan the bar code of a disc and the data will be downloaded for you automatically, or you can perform searches that will populate data fields for you.

If all of this sounds like nothing special, the app has plenty of tricks up its sleeve. There are data fields that are simply not found in any other app and this is what sets Movie Label 2013 apart from the competition. Not only are you able to store details about the cast of shows and movies but you can also save information such as the type of equipment used on a shoot and attach details of awards that have been won -- this is great if you ever want to track down all of the movies starring a particular actor that have been nominated for Oscars. Additional options such as filming locations, advanced searches, a wonderfully redesigned program interface and a high level of customization mean that this is perfect for any self-respecting movie buff.

Weighing in at $39.95, it could be argued that Movie Label 2013 is a little on the expensive side -- but bear in mind that there is also a professional version available for almost double the price at $69.95 if you want to install the program on up to three computers, export data and create your own reports -- but it is pretty powerful.

Movie Label 2013 goes far beyond any other comparable tool, and while there is nothing to stop you from knocking up a more basic database in Access, this is far more feature-rich and good looking than anything most people would be capable of producing.

You can find out more by paying a visit to the Movie Label 2013 review page.

Photo Credit: Leigh Prather/Shutterstock

If last week’s Outlook Configuration Analyzer hasn’t helped to sort out your Outlook problems then you’ll probably need to resort to the usual manual troubleshooting approach, which for instance might involve launching the program with one of its command line switches.

You’ll first need to figure out which switch is appropriate, though, and then manually apply it to your copy of Outlook, which isn’t exactly convenient. But fortunately the free and portable OutlookParameterGUI does a good job of simplifying the whole process.

If you’re unfamiliar with these command line switches then you might start by browsing them via the program’s Parameter tab. Each one comes with a brief explanation, so, for example, you’ll read that starting Outlook with the /cleanprofile parameter “removes invalid profile keys and recreates default Registry keys where applicable”. Which sounds like a useful option if your installation has been damaged for some reason.

You really do need to read these explanations carefully, however, because some of the options will delete your Outlook customizations (/cleanviews will delete your custom views, say, while /cleanrules deletes client and server-based rules). But if you’re happy that a particular parameter suits your needs, then just click the Start button and OutlookParameterGUI will launch Outlook with it.

And as a bonus, there’s also a handy pane with some useful information about your Outlook setup: its architecture (32 or 64-bit), version number and service pack details, serial number (if you click Options > Show Serial) and more.

There’s nothing too out of the ordinary here, and you could of course manually apply the various command line switches yourself without downloading any extra software at all. OutlookParameterGUI does make the process easier, though, and at a mere 673KB won’t exactly get in your way, so on balance it more than justifies a place in your portable troubleshooting toolkit.