Alan Buckingham

HBO GO for Roku set-top boxes launched back in late 2011, but, like many streaming networks, users are required to prove they subscribe to the channel through a participating cable or satellite provider. It's a frustrating problem that hopefully will slowly go away -- the Super Bowl was just streamed by Fox Sports without this restriction.

One major provider that wasn’t part of the Roku family was DirecTV, but that is now changing. The device maker and TV service have reached an agreement to make HBO GO available to those who enter DirecTV as their television service.

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It seems you can’t have a platform these days without an attached store, and Microsoft Office is no exception. There are many useful tools and templates that users can add to Word, Excel and other programs contained in the suite.

Now Access will be joining the party. A report today claims that as of February 3, Microsoft has given the green light to apps for the database program. Microsoft’s Matt Evans reports that “Access apps have been part of Office 365 subscriptions since Office 365 General Availability was announced in February 2013. Until now, Access apps were in preview and weren’t supported under the Office 365 service-level agreement (SLA) and compliance standards”.

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Last week my colleague Derrick Wlodarz wrote a great deal about today's home automation push, comparing the entire thing to Skynet. I see his point, but I'm not sure I can resist the urge. After all, the convenience is so enticing, it's hard to ignore the technology that can add so much functionality to your home.

Over the weekend I stumbled upon an Indiegogo project that captured my fancy. bRight Switch is designed to replace your wall-mounted light switch, adding just a bit more technology to the room.

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Today is a big day if you happen to be a fan of American football. It's Super Bowl Sunday, and the stage is set for the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos to collide at Met-Life Stadium. The ads and the game itself, bring millions of viewers from all over the world, and the NFL has chosen this day to unveil its new mobile service.

NFL Now will be available this summer, and the league has an introductory commercial planned to air during the big game, but details about what to expect are being revealed ahead of kick-off.

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GoPro, if you aren't familiar, is a little video camera that can be mounted on a dashboard, handlebars or helmet. It is designed to bring the viewer into the action, letting you experience what it feels like to plunge down that steep hill on a mountain bike, or ski jump off that ramp.

Now the durable little cameras are set to get their own channels on the Xbox platform. These will arrive for customers of both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, though it won't be coming until this summer.

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It's Super Bowl weekend, a time when many Americans gather in front of the TV, with snacks laid out before them. While we'll all be watching the Denver Broncos collide with the Seattle Seahawks, that’s not all the big game is about. Many people watch as much for the commercials as for the gridiron battle.

YouTube is readying its Ad Blitz service, which already contains a number of previews of the upcoming commercials that you'll get a full look at this Sunday.

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Beats Music has been on a wild ride since its launch. Registration was closed within days of the big event, as the service claimed system problems. It then reopened, adding extra time to the free trial period in an effort to say "sorry" for the problems. Most recently, the release of the Windows Phone app was pushed back.

Well, that mobile app, which was originally slated for release last Friday, has finally seen the light of day. The service quietly made it live today, with not so much as an announcement on the company blog.

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Despite that we have had all sorts of news in recent weeks regarding music streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio and Pandora, one we rarely seem to mention is Last.fm. That changes today, as the company enters into an agreement with Spotify that it hopes will be mutually beneficial.

Beginning today Last.fm customers will have access to the full catalog of Spotify Music. "Last.fm's users, spanning over 50 countries, will now be able to listen to the entire Spotify music catalog on-demand, including individual tracks, full albums, playlists and Spotify recommendations. It’s never been easier to get access to both the music that you know and love, and all of the music we know you’ll love", says Spotify's Candice Katz.

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You shouldn't be using your phone in the car, and laws in many locations tell you so. But there are uses that don't interfere with your concentration on the road, such as mounting your handset on the dash or windshield and using it for navigation. There are also hands-free devices and even built-in solutions within new cars.

Now Clickdrive wants to take this to another level, bringing in-car integration to vehicles that don't currently contain such technology. The hardware-software solution has just launched an Indiegogo fund-raising drive, stating "founder Mark Sutheran and business partner Rishi Saraswat have developed Clickdrive from the ground up to create the world's first device to be entirely dedicated to driving in the information age".

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It seems malware is everywhere these days, and many a user falls prey to it through emails, downloaded files and malicious websites. One trick is to name a bad file after a popular existing app -- Flash is a top target for this sort of thing.

The FileZilla FTP Client seems to be the latest target in this type of attack. Security researchers at Avast discovered this happening with versions 3.7.3 and 3.5.3 of the software. “We have noticed an increased presence of these malware versions of famous open source FTP clients”, the firm announces.

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The Pirate Bay seems to be a never-ending controversy, as we have discussed here many times. The site has been hounded by the law all around the world, although it always seems to manage to survive. Now the service has achieved a major victory, at least in the Netherlands.

A three-judge panel in The Hague has ruled that the blocking of The Pirate Bay by ISPs is not legal. The case had been filed by two providers -- Ziggo and XS4ALL.

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Yamaha is one of the leading names in the home theater industry, bringing devices to your living room such as its line of A/V receivers. As you know, many of these devices are now "connected", meaning they come with Ethernet and even WiFi.

Now Spotify announces a partnership with Yamaha that will bring its streaming music to your living room. The hardware maker is bringing access to select versions of its receivers.

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It’s been a busy week for Beats Music, with a big launch, followed closely by a subsequent closure of registration due to problems with the network. Regardless if the problems were real or a publicity stunt, the streaming service is back now.

Today the company’s CEO Ian Rogers issues a thank you to those who have stuck with it, and to show his gratitude he made a special offer. "To thank you for being early we are extending the 7 day trial to 14 days for all customers who sign up before Saturday evening".

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There is something to be said for the cloud and web-based services. However, when you rely on these things, sometimes it goes a bit wrong. That's not as bad as it sounds. It can go very wrong with your home computer and network as well. Today, Google is experiencing one of those "glitches".

As of this writing, the Gmail service seems to be restored for all users, and I've inquired with writer friends around the US and the world to verify that. However, there is a rather bizarre side-effect, but it's only affecting one poor user. Sadly, that person is getting the bulk of the email being sent since the outage relented.

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"All we know is, he’s called The Stig". And that is, quite literally, all we are supposed to know. The identity of the driver clad in the white racing suit is a closely guarded secret, though some leaks have taken place over the run of the popular British series.

Recently, the Top Gear test track even appeared on Google Street View, and as further proof the little Google car was really there, the show itself has posted a video shot during the mapping.

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