Alan Buckingham

You've known for a month, providing you cared enough to notice the news. AOL announced that its once prominent media player, Winamp, would cease to exist on December 20, 2013. But before the obituary can even be written, music streaming service Spotify has stepped in with its own tribute.

Today the company announces Spotiamp -- "to honour the engineering skill and passion that goes into building wonderful software that millions of people enjoy we would like to share a small tribute to honor the great legacy of Winamp".

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By now you know the routine, though none of us really seems to understand what we should think of it. We all have opinions of course, but I'll refrain from repeating the old adage about those. In the end, we can only report what the companies reveal to us, and that most recent unveiling comes from Google.

The latest Transparency Report reveals the notices the search giant received during the period spanning January through June of this year. The numbers are not particularly encouraging -- Google says it has received "3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 pieces of content". The company also states that this number represents a substantial increase over 2012, rising by a staggering 68-percent.

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Forget Carmen Sandiego, The Pirate Bay has become the hardest thing to find these days. The torrent sharing site has been on a recent world tour, following ongoing legal woes, that have included court trials and domain seizures. The past week has been especially busy for the owners, involving lots of packing and unpacking of suitcases.

Just yesterday the site called Guyana home, making the service available for those who found the .gy domain. In previous days, the service has visited Sint Maarten (.sx) and stopped for a whirlwind tour of Ascenion Island (.ac). The Pirate Bay had, earlier this year, racked up frequent flier miles for visits to Iceland (.is) and Greenland (.gl).

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The holiday shopping season is well underway -- getting on towards the finish line actually. That said, there is still time to grab a few last-minute gifts and beg for the ones you wish to remove the bow from. And that is the question I now pose to you -- what tech toys are you harboring hopes for this time around?

I cannot, of course, read your mind, and likely not sway opinions, though I do plan to give you some unsolicited ideas on what I found to my liking in 2013.

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It seems as if we should have reached this moment long ago -- like, perhaps, when the Roku debuted? The little, inexpensive set-top box seems capable of doing most anything, with the obvious exception of acting as your DVR. But, until today, it was incapable of playing content from the most popular streaming video service on the internet.

There are some stipulations with this release -- well, one major one, at least. That is the simple fact that the brand new YouTube app appears only on the Roku 3. "We’re bringing you the YouTube app (or 'channel' in Roku-speak) today on the Roku 3 in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Republic of Ireland", announces YouTube's Sarah Ali.

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It's hard to believe it's been 12 months since I last wrote about Google's year-end video. That one featured the tragedy of Hurricane Sandy and the thrill of Felix Baumgartner's amazing leap from the stratosphere. At the time, we had no idea what the next 365 days held in store for us. Now, as the year winds down, Google has put together another of its annual summaries to illustrate what we been through.

Many companies release lists in late December, with lots of nice statistics, but Google, using the power of YouTube, wraps up everything in a nice tidy video.

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Many of us complain, some more than needed, about companies like Google and Microsoft and the possible ties each has to our personal information and potential spying accusations. But now, Google is pulling back the curtain on all of this, revealing what data it has and what the plans for it are.

Okay, I am being a bit facetious, but a new video posted by the folks at College Humor takes a look at what one potential future could look like. I'll try to give you a bit of background while simultaneously also attempting to not spoil it for you.

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Amazon has refreshed its tablet lineup, adding the HDX alongside the already solid HD, making a good product that much better. If you haven't used one of the retailer's devices, then you should know that, despite it being Android, the lineup is really about media consumption, and is particularly well suited for those who have Prime subscriptions.

But now there is another option for those who either do not subscribe to Amazon's video service, or simply want more choice. Redbox Instant by Verizon has landed in the Amazon Android App Store.

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I try to keep my cards close to the chest, but I fear I have left little doubt of my NFL allegiance. I have been a Miami Dolphins fan since I was a small child, but that has absolutely nothing do with my "other life" in the technology world. Needless to say, today's win over the feared New England Patriots was a landmark moment, sealed by an end-zone interception of Tom Brady by an unknown and undrafted rookie.

What does this have to do with tech you ask? Well, the game had nothing to do with it, unless you take into account that Surface is "the official tablet of the NFL". However, in looking through the post-game news, I ran across something rather interesting.

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Amazon has made a lot of news recently, which probably shouldn't be a surprise, given this is the shopping season and it's one of the most prominent retailers. Much of that buzz has surrounded the latest refresh of the company's line of Android tablets -- the Kindle Fires -- with Cyber Monday deals, and then another one-day sale. But now Amazon is looking to hook up those who can't afford to shell out that full price all at once.

The retail giant has quietly rolled out an installment plan to help you get that tablet. Both the 7-inch and 8.9-inch versions of the Kindle Fire HDX are included in the deal. At checkout, you will need to pony up 25-percent of the retail price, plus any taxes and shipping charges. But, after that, you will just be billed one time every 90 days (three times total) in equal amounts to cover the balance owed.

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Let me get this out of the way first -- the "12 Days of Red Stripe" has absolutely nothing to do with Jamaican beer. Instead, it's Microsoft's latest holiday push (named after the Windows Phone weekly deal), going with the 12 Days of Geekmas and the 12 Days of Deals previously announced. This latest campaign is designed for Windows Phone customers.

"The Windows Phone Store just kicked off a big holiday sale on twelve apps, indie games, and Xbox titles", announces Microsoft's Michael Stroh.

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While you can't use Lavabit any longer, there are still plenty of good email services out there, though none is perfect -- they can all experience occasional glitches, just ask Yahoo customers. I also can't tell you which ones you can trust, though I can recommend caution with all of them, given the recent news stories.

Microsoft has been on a bit of a rampage against rival Google lately, and one target of attack has been Gmail, with accusations of messages being "read" in order to better target ads. It's a rather disingenuous point, as all providers scan incoming messages, if not for ads then at least for spam filtering (and Outlook.com does have ads unless you pay to opt out).

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Do you have someone on your shopping list who is part of the Amazon ecosystem? Chances are you do, given that anyone with an Android device can install and use the Amazon App Store, Kindle App, MP3 player and more. What you may not be familiar with is something called Amazon Coins.

The currency doesn't get a lot of attention, but it can be used to purchase apps, games and in-app items. Each Coin is essentially the equivalent of a penny -- 500 Coins is the same as $5.

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Microsoft has been busy attacking the Chromebook recently, trotting out spokesman Ben Rudolph to handpick "people on the street" to tell him why the Google-branded laptop wouldn't work for them, and hiring Pawn Stars to call the notebook "a brick". The problem for Microsoft is this -- many of its biggest OEM partners, including HP and Acer, are producing hardware running the rival operating system.

Now Dell is the latest hardware maker, generally associated with Windows, to experiment with alternatives. No, Dell isn't abandoning Windows, just cheating on it with Chrome OS. The Texas-based company has strayed before, producing Android tablets, but this is its first flirtation with a Chromebook.

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Ever since Microsoft launched Outlook.com the company has been trying to get Gmail users to switch to its online email service, using various tactics, including trying to frighten them into making the move by warning of the evils perpetrated by Google, even going as far as producing unflattering videos portraying the "Gmail Man" as an email snooper.

Now Microsoft is taking steps to ease your transition from Gmail to Outlook.com. The software giant has launched a new tool designed to allow easier importing of your Gmail account, including contacts. It also claims to preserve the status of messages (read and unread), and even offers to let you retain the ability to use your "@gmail.com" address when sending emails from Outlook.com.

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