Alan Buckingham

This may seem a bit ironic, given that Xbox Live spent much of last Saturday down, but this weekend Microsoft aims to make up for that little mishap with a free weekend of, well...possible service. Xbox Live Gold adds many of the features that the console has become known for, such as ESPN, YouTube, iHeartRadio and much more.

Xbox Live chief Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, announces "if you’ve always wanted to check out the latest entertainment experiences on Xbox 360, now is your chance". The service will go free beginning at 10am ET today (Friday April 19) and remain that way though 1pm ET on Monday April 22.

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Jolicloud may perhaps be the coolest cloud service you have not yet discovered. Created back in 2009, the company derived from Joli OS into a platform to access your cloud-based online life. It brings together everything you have stored on all of the various cloud services and, if you are like me, then that can be a wide net to cast.

The service finally adds search -- a feature long sought after by users. The company announces that it has "made it very easy to search anything you have in your Jolidrive: music, photos, documents, videos in your online storages but search can also help you find great content in all your favorite social services like Instagram, Tumblr, SoundCloud, Youtube and more".

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Marissa Meyer is bringing big changes to Yahoo and one of them is apparently getting the old search site back into the public focus with new mobile apps. That process begins today in the world of both Apple and meteorology -- fitting since tornado and thunderstorm season is getting underway and hurricanes are on the horizon.

Today the company announces a sleek new weather app that is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch -- uninspiringly named "Yahoo! Weather App". Marco Wirasinghe claims the new app will "bring together beautiful images from our Flickr community to show you current local conditions, with all the details you want to know about the forecast".

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I have previously gone on record as wanting a smartwatch. Yes, I still wear a watch because I am a runner and we are fastidious about time and distance and having a timepiece that prevents the need for driving a route to get the measurement is a major time and gas saver. Previously I looked at Pebble, with its built-in RunKeeper, but today TomTom changes that.

The company announces the TomTom GPS Sport Watches, built specifically for the athlete -- a new range of GPS watches designed to deliver "at-a-glance" performance information for runners, cyclists and swimmers.

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A company that operates huge data centers around the world is probably not the thing that springs to mind when you think 'green'. But that is exactly the case in the latest Green Power Partnership Top 50 List released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA rankings of usage figures are based on annualized partner contract amounts (kilowatt-hours). Microsoft's Josh Henretig announces "According to the EPA, Microsoft is purchasing nearly 1.9 billion kWh of green power, which is enough energy to meet 80 percent of Microsoft’s electricity use in the US".

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You may want to sit down, because I know this will comes as a shock, but it turns out that if you do not have antivirus software installed and enabled on your PC then you are more likely to get malware.  If my truck gets stolen the next time I am at the store then I am more likely to walk home also.

Okay. I am making light of a serious study, but the statement from Microsoft that "malware infections [are] 5.5 times more likely without antivirus software" lends itself to a bit of levity.

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No, I am not talking of the nerdtastic movie from Joss Whedon, but of an app. I have written twice now of my move from an HTPC to Google TV in the living room, with my most recent post surrounding ways to get both live TV and home media to the tiny set top box. For serving up home media I opted for Plex, which seemed the best solution.

Plex is both a server and app and both are free. Simply install the server software on an always-on computer and control it from a web browser dashboard. From there you can direct it to all of your media -- movies, TV shows, music and photos. It is dead simple to set up and maintain.

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Most of the focus these days seems to be around Outlook.com, as Microsoft anxiously endeavours to move its apps online and turn software into a service. But, while the latest version of Microsoft's productivity suite -- Office 365 Home Premium -- includes the ability to access the apps on the web, ultimately it is still a software suite on your computer.

Now Microsoft Research wants to bring new functionality to the desktop version of Outlook and is announcing the release of Mañana Mail to do just that.

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Allow me to begin with an emphatic statement: if you have Java on your computer then get it off now! Oracle released its latest round of security patches for the incredibly buggy, and surprisingly still popular, platform, with numerous new holes waiting to either be patched or exploited.

When word came down of the latest fixes and I mentioned it in the BetaNews newsroom, our president Scott Alperin could utter only "seems like time to put PC-side Java out of its misery". Indeed.

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Microsoft's relentless push for Outlook.com brings an app update to the enemy camp, today -- big move given that Android now represents a large portion of today's mobile market. Two weeks ago, Microsoft unleashed a major calendaring service overhaul.

The interface has been completely revamped and new features come along for the ride. As you may know, Google has pulled support for Exchange ActiveSync, but Microsoft now works around that.

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The glory days of Torch, a Chrome-based web browser known for its built-in Torrent capabilities, may be short-lived because similar functionality is headed your way right in the web browser you are probably using right now. Surf, the plugin announced back in January, rolls into full beta release today.

The company announces that "BitTorrent Surf started out as a little Chrome experiment: a way to make BitTorrent simpler. Basically, Surf transforms your browser into a BitTorrent client; with discovery and downloading built in". The experiment apparently went well because the browser plugin hits beta mode for not only Chrome, but also Firefox as well.

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Later this year, November 22nd to be exact, part two of The Hunger Games, titled The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, will hit the big screen. Microsoft's Internet Explorer team has partnered with Lionsgate to set up a new IE-optimized website for the sequel to the blockbuster movie with the hope of not only getting you excited about the film but also about the "browser you loved to hate".

The Hunger Games Explorer launches on the heels of the MTV Movie Awards which premiered the trailer. Microsoft's Roger Capriotti says "with the global launch of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire trailer, fans can now visit The Hunger Games Explorer to be immersed in this world, track every development of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, including tweets, exclusive images and videos, and then share their thoughts and excitement with others around the world creating a global conversation".

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Back on March 28th Ouya president Julie Uhram announced the tiny Android-based gaming console started shipping, but only to backers of the Kickstarter project. Additional details were added such as a software update which would be run upon first boot up and that the device would officially hit retail stores on June 4th.

As we have seen around the web, some have already received their boxes, but what if you did not get in on the Kickstarter ground floor, but instead placed a pre-order when those went live back in August of 2012? I happen to fall in that category and so I inquired about the timeframe and received a response from Ouya's Carmelo Martinez.

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Facebook Home, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on April 4, and leaked as three APK files shortly after, today officially hit the Google Play store and the HTC First, announced at the same event, can officially be ordered through AT&T. The social network today pushes out a new launch page designed to make a splash with its live background of endless video.

The Google Play app describes itself as "the mobile experience that puts your friends at the heart of your phone". It essentially functions in the same way as any other launcher app for Android, bringing Facebook front and center on your homepage. From the moment you unlock your device you will be bombarded with a steady stream of photos, posts from friends and notifications of all sorts -- it's like a full-screen Windows 8 Live Tile totally dedicated to Facebook.

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For the most part Microsoft's Windows updates, known as Patch Tuesday, aim to fix problems as opposed to causing them. That is not always the case, and the most recent update, which took place this week, is a shining example of what happens when good intentions go bad.

On April 9th Microsoft released two "critical" security updates and seven others rated as "important" for both Windows and Internet Explorer as part of its latest round of updates, collectively covering 14 issues. However one of those fixes, labeled KB2823324 and aimed at the Windows 7 file system kernel-mode driver, went badly for some customers. The result was reports of blue screens of death (BSOD) and also infinite reboots.

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