Alan Buckingham

Are you sitting down? I know this will come as a shock, and I want to prepare you. Adobe Flash is the source of a new attack against PCs. Honestly, in this case it really is not Adobe's fault (unlike some other past cases), but the software is still the vehicle used in this drive-by. Microsoft reports that Trojan:Win32/Preflayer is in the wild and changes the home page for Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Yandex.

"These sites appear to be a type of search engine, but there are pop-up advertisements displayed on the pages, and there was an instance where I was redirected to a different page not of my choosing", Jonathan San Jose, Microsoft antivirus researcher, says.

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The 2012 Kickstarter darling Ouya has been anticipated ever since it skyrocketed past its fund-raising goal and began pre-production. While Sony has released information on its next-generation PlayStation and many people have been talking up the new Xbox, Ouya may have outdone both larger companies in terms of publicity and expectation.

CEO Julie Uhrman announces that "Today we start shipping our early backers their OUYAs. And at our unveiling event this evening, the first of you will get to see OUYA in the flesh (or, metal, as it were)".

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I love Amazon Prime. If I had a Kindle I would probably love it even more, if that were possible. Over the past two weeks I have also come to love my new Google TV, which has taken over our living room, with control of the DirecTV DVR and apps thrown in to boot. One of those apps is Amazon and I use it quite often, keeping a string of movies and TV shows in my watch list.

Now the Google PrimeTime app for Google TV has been updated to version 1.4.3-43-79424. This innocuous little name actually comes with a huge feature update. Not only has Amazon Prime content been rolled into the service, but you can control it and Netflix and HBO GO subscriptions from within the app as well.

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Apple has gone to great trouble to craft its stores and reputation. The company refers to its employees as geniuses, for goodness sake! Taking your device in for repair is alluded to as a visit to the "genius bar". It is an entire ecosystem designed to make the customer feel confident and comfortable when dealing with the company. It is also a setup that lends itself to comedy and U.K. hard cider maker Somersby saw that opportunity.

The company has produced a new one-minute TV spot that portrays the Apple Store as a bar that serves up its cider and the geniuses explain why it is so good. The ad does not so much make fun of Apple (that is what Samsung is for), but instead uses the tech company's concept as a basis for some good tongue-in-cheek humor.

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My name is Alan and I am a Temple Run Addict. I play Temple Run 1, Temple Run 2, Temple Run Brave, Temple Run Oz...I have a problem and I am here to admit it. My wife should be my steadying force, but she has a Windows Phone 8, and now I fear she may fall victim to the same affliction.

As of today she can steal the idol from that cave and attempt to outrun the apes through the jungle in Temple Run. The game, long popular on Android and iOS, has landed on Windows Phone after a long wait from customers.

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¡Hola! Many of us use Google Translate, some on a daily basis. For instance, I follow a few blogs in Reader (a moment of silence please) that are published in languages that are foreign to me. For the most part it works well, but can also lead to some rather amusing results. Now you can get those same laughs from your Android phone, even when you are offline.

Today Google's product manager Minqi Jiang announces that the search giant and mobile operating system developer is "launching offline language packages for Google Translate on Android (2.3 and above) with support for 50 languages, from French and Spanish to Chinese and Arabic".

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Microsoft loves its special edition Xbox customizations. In the past we have seen such things as the Star Wars Xbox and the white Xbox to name only two. Now the game console maker is pushing out a new limited edition controller to make you feel more a part of your first-person shooter game: camouflage version of the wireless device.

Xbox Live chief Larry Hryb explains: "Today we are announcing the Xbox 360 Special Edition Camouflage Wireless Controller, which features a transforming D-pad and a unique camouflage design. The price will be $54.99 USD (ERP). In the U.S., the controller will be available exclusively at Walmart beginning in May. Outside the U.S., the controller will be available in select regions worldwide, also from May".

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Google news, at least for some of us, recently is grim (Reader goes bye-bye). In fact, I no longer trust the search company will keep anything, while my colleague Wayne Williams dumps Google for Microsoft. Trust is essential and Google has lost it for me. Microsoft, on the other hand, is on a roll, of sorts, with its Windows Blue "leak" and now another cloud win for its Office platform.

Microsoft announces eight more government offices have adopted its Office 365 platform, further rubbing salt into the Google Docs wound. At today's CIO Summit, the company welcomes aboard: metros Kansas City and Seattle; counties Dupage and King; colleges California State University Sacramento, University of Colorado Springs and University of Miami; and San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

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Over weekend Microsoft's next version of Windows, known by code name "Blue" leaked out to the world via BiTorrent. Over the past two days we dissected the operating system in every way possible from first look to screenshot images to ways to install the still buggy operating system.

Now that the initial euphoria has passed, we can settle down and get a good look at what exactly will change in the operating system later this year when Windows Blue is rumored to be released.

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Zombieland, the 2009 cult classic movie, about four unlikely people who come together to fight their way across an undead-filled America, is making a comeback of sorts -- rising from the dead, as it were. Amazon Studios has picked up on the surprisingly popular movie and the not so surprising Zombie fetish we have and announced its latest offering.

Zombieland the series will be produced as a pilot and make its way into your living room via Amazon Prime. It is the seventh comedy pilot announced by the online TV studio and it joins six children's show pilots also under production.

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Windows Blue owns tech news for the past two days, from its leak to BitTorrent yesterday, to first-look articles today. While we all try to digest what is included in the next version of Windows, which really is more of an update to the current iteration, it really is much easier to get a sense by visual aid as opposed to listening to talking heads like me drone on with descriptions.

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Last week, Digg revealed plans to build a replacement app for Google's soon-to-be-defunct Reader and compete with other services that have suddenly become popular, like Feedly and The Old Reader. While I wait to someday have my OPML file uploaded to The Old Reader (currently number 3,590 in the queue), I am trying out some other alternatives -- I really liked Feedspot, but updating seems spotty.

In a blog post, Digg says "Google did a lot of things right with its Reader, but based on what we’re hearing from users, there is room for meaningful improvement. We want to build a product that’s clean and flexible, that bends easily and intuitively to the needs of different users. We want to experiment with and add value to the sources of information that are increasingly important, but difficult to surface and organize in most reader applications — like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Hacker News. We likely won’t get everything we want into v1, but we believe it’s worth exploring".

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When I was growing up one of my parents' favorite expressions was "do as I say, not as I do". The old adage likely rings true in this case as well. You see, as a rule I don't recommend downloading files from BitTorrent, as you are just as likely to get a virus as a legitimate program, movie or song. That applies to leaked files especially.

But, there are legitimate reasons for the sharing service -- upcoming artists share music, Linux shares distros, even producers have distributed movies in this way.

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The Wirecutter, a popular gadget site run by former Gizmodo head Brian Lam, was under attack on March 19 and 20 from a source that should have been trusted. The advertising agency that handles that site and many others like The Awl, The Hairpin, The Splitsider and more, came under attack thanks to an exploited flaw in the code.

The Wirecutter reports that "the cause was an exploit on an OpenX advertising server run by the guys who handle ads for The Wirecutter". The attack reportedly lasted for 10 hours and allowed for the insertion of malicious code onto an advertising server that could be inserted into the ads displayed on The Awl network.

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The tech news these days seems filled with stories of piracy, security flaws and every company trying to push its latest software and hardware releases. Then, every once in a while, something truly fun and enjoyable comes along to save us from our otherwise overwhelming tech world.

Today is the birthday of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, who also goes by the alias of William Shatner. To celebrate the Captain's birthday, online TV streaming service Hulu wants to open up the Star Trek world to even more viewers.

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