Alan Buckingham

Sadly the summer is winding down, with Labor Day weekend having arrived. But that means the best time of the year for runners is now on the horizon, with cooler autumn weather. To get you ready for this time of year, Samsung has struck up a deal with Nike.

This deal brings together one of the top phone makers and a famous running shoe manufacturer. The two are teaming up for a new Nike+ app that will be coming to the Samsung smartwatch platform.

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It's been a bad month for Mozilla, as the company seems to be shedding user data left and right. The problems are apparently not over as new information has come to light regarding the loss of another 97,000 emails and passwords that were left exposed.

The latest issue comes via Bugzilla, and the organization has reset all user passwords in an attempt to alleviate the issues. However, that didn't stop customer data from being exposed for about three months.

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You're likely familiar with actor Michael J. Fox, star of the Back to the Future movies, that we, of a certain age, all remember. Now the actor suffers from Parkinson's Disease, a mality his foundation wishes to draw awareness to, perhaps even help with finding a cure.

Now wearable technology is getting in on the action. Intel has teamed up with the charity in an effort to utilize such items as the Pebble Watch to help in the fight. While a number of people are skeptical about this path that technology is now heading down, this certainly makes for a good use that few would likely argue against.

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BitTorrent Sync has gone from alpha to beta to full release. Along the way it has become one of the best and most secure sync apps, with security largely because of its decentralized nature. Now the service is getting a major update that adds even more features to the platform.

BitTorrent is introducing large file sharing, allowing something like an entire folder full of photos to be shared with a group of friends and family. With the new work-flow that has been built for version 1.4, customers don't need to set up an account. "There's two ways to send a link, via email or copying it to your clipboard (so you can send using any communications tool of your choice)", Erik Pounds, vice president of product management, explains.

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While Windows Phone gets a lot of attention for what it doesn't have, the Microsoft mobile platform is slowly making progress. Now it is scoring a major win, and getting on par with rivals, as Spotify announces it will be going free for Windows Phones.

The new update means customers can now listen to their music without ponying up the monthly fee for a Premium account. The new free version is ad-supported, and customers can still choose to pay the monthly fee for Premium, and eliminate those ads -- and also get offline playlists, as well.

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The land of the rising sun, Japan, has some bustling cities. That can lead to headaches for tourists attempting to navigate the foreign surroundings -- not the easiest thing to traverse, as many travelers have learned.

However, Bing is attempting to improve on this, adding new features to its mapping service within the nation. Multiple updates have been made to the services.

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In the new online original content landscape, Amazon is not messing around, having announced several new comedy shows debuting this year. Now the streaming video service arm of the retailer is greenlighting new pilots of kids shows as well, though these aren't the first to hit Prime.

In all, five new pilots were announced, though this means little about which will survive, as Amazon allows the viewers to vote. The winners gain a full season production run. The losers simply go away after one episode.

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Football season has arrived, at least in the form of training camps and practice games. As people's minds turn towards the sport, gamers also get excited about the latest Madden release. To that end, Madden 15 is heading for Xbox One. Beginning now the game can be pre-ordered, and there are some bonuses if you jump through the necessary hoops.

Xbox Live chief Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, did the honors of announcing the release. The game can be downloaded, but will not be playable until the official launch date, which is slated for 12:01am PDT on August 26th, so not far off at all.

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The Ice Bucket Challenge has taken off on social media in the past week or so. The campaign is designed to fuel awareness of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease -- a problem that has famously, and sadly, afflicted Stephen Hawking, though many others are just as unfortunate. It's certainly a worthwhile cause, and something everyone should be aware of and fund, if they can spare a few dollars.

But what if a major company attempted to hijack the pledge drive for the benefit of its product? It's really hard to say if that is what Samsung has done, but it certainly seems to be that way.

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While the claims of Android malware may be a bit overblown, it does exist and has to be a consideration for customers. That fact has brought about an abundance of software designed to combat the perceived problem.

Now Sophos is jumping into the market with an updated version of its offering, but for the moment this latest version is in a testing phase. The company is calling on Android users to begin beta testing the new offering, and the security firm is adding an incentive in the form of prizes for people willing to step up.

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Yes, I know not everyone is a smartwatch fan. It is a device reserved for geeks, athletes and the curious souls who wish to know what it's about. Pebble was one of the first to market (Microsoft came early, but failed) and now it has one more app to get existing customers, and potential ones, excited.

With baseball season heading into the homestretch and football, basketball and hockey all looming, the company has landed ESPN for its wrist technology. You'll get scores and game updates right from the watch -- Sports Center always with you while you're out and about, not sitting on the sofa watching the game.

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The NFL season is about to get underway, though pre-season games are already in full swing. The Score wants to bring you all of the action with its latest "mobile-first" update, that includes lots of enhancements for fantasy team owners, as well.

The app is multi-sport, so don't worry if you’re a fan of baseball or basketball instead. This update announcement, though, focuses on the season at hand. The new version promises to "provide the most detailed, comprehensive, in-depth football data found on a multi-sport mobile app".

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Rdio, one of the top streaming music services, and SoundHound, an ace at recognizing what music you're listening to, are teaming up to bring better integration to customers. The two companies are announcing a new agreement that will bring them together in a unique way, allowing customers to utilize the two in tandem.

Beginning now, the latest SoundHound update will begin placing tagged songs into a playlist titled, appropriately enough, "Soundhound". This playlist will be accessible from within your Rdio account. The new service is named "Connect to Rdio".

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The football (US version -- apologies to those in the rest of the word) season is getting under way, as the NFL kicked off the pre-season two weeks ago with the traditional Hall of Fame game. At the same time, the league has been pushing out its new Now app to various platforms like Xbox One, Fire TV and Roku.

The latest to get the new service is Apple's living room solution, the Apple TV. Like its rivals, the tiny box is getting the app, which brings the NFL alive in video format. This adds the massive library of NFL Films, along with original content, made specifically for the app, as well as a bit of live stuff, such as press conferences.

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Iceland is an island that lays in the middle of the Atlantic between Norway and Greenland, thought to have first been populated by Celtic monks. It's also a stark landscape, dotted with volcanoes and geysers, that give it a certain beauty and savagery.

If it happens to be on your bucket list of places to see, and the trip isn't in your budget at the moment, fear not -- Google Maps can give you a glimpse of the country. The search giant has unveiled its latest use of Street View, and this one treks across Iceland.

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