Brian Fagioli

As a trained Sociologist, I am always analyzing my surroundings. One of my particular interests is the plight of the working poor. It breaks my heart to see people toil away for low pay, while struggling to pay bills. Even sadder, these hard-working people are often taken advantage of by "pay-day" lenders -- they offer an extremely high-interest loan which targets the poor who cannot make ends meet.

Luckily, technology can be developed to solve many of the world's problems, including the pains of the workers living paycheck to paycheck. Yes, a new app for Android and iOS, called Activehours, is aiming to solve this problem.

When I boarded the train earlier this morning to go to the Surface Event in NYC, I had small expectations. Let me clarify -- small but not low. In other words, I was expecting a Surface Mini. Truth be told, I wasn't overly excited about yet another small tablet (manufacturers are already doing a good job with them). However, despite my trepidation about a small tablet, I was excited because it would have been a Surface, which is known for high quality. Plus, there were rumors about a new Surface Pro 3, and that had me giddy.

Imagine my surprise, when internet rumors about the Surface Pro turned out to be true and the Surface Mini was vaporware. I was front row today while watching Satya Nadella and Panos Panay unveil the Surface Pro 3 and I was smiling ear to ear the entire time. Not only was the tablet amazing, but so too was the presentation. It was very Steve Jobs-esque, which is rather appropriate. Today, Microsoft is finally a step ahead of Apple with devices. The magic has left California and gone to Washington. Here are some of my first impressions of the game-changing laptop/tablet PC hybrid.

Tablets have forever changed the landscape of computing. An entire industry has been formed from Apple's tablet alone -- iPad cases. Yes, cases for the tablet are very abundant from many manufacturers. A search on Amazon, results in a smorgasbord of options, such as color, size and price.

Unfortunately, the market is so flooded that it is nearly impossible to impress with a new case. Surprisingly, a company called Acme Made has done just that with the Ergo Book. It is an extremely svelte case, for which the manufacturer is seeking funding from Kickstarter. Will you back it?

The web browser has become one of the most important inventions of all time. It has become ubiquitous in our lives -- hell, for some of us, it has become our lives. Many of us spend hours on the web, navigating around with Safari, Chrome or Internet Explorer to name a few. And so, the browser has actually become a computing platform in itself. Google's Chrome OS and Mozilla's Firefox OS are both built with that philosophy in mind.

Today, the ever-increasingly cool Microsoft announces that it has teamed up with Ubisoft to bring Assassin's Creed: Pirates to Internet Explorer (and other modern browsers too) by embracing HTML5 and other technologies. The results are breathtaking.

This upcoming Tuesday, Microsoft is holding a Surface press event and yours truly will be attending. While nothing has been confirmed, many are speculating that we will finally see a "Surface Mini" -- a smaller Windows tablet bearing Surface branding.

That is exciting on its own, yet further rumors and speculation are predicting a Surface Pro 3 to be unveiled. Again, this is not confirmed -- purely chatter at this point. Still, as a Surface fan, a third version of Microsoft's Pro tablet has me giddy. Truth be told, I have been daydreaming about what the Surface Pro 3 could be. Here are my 5 wishes for it -- Microsoft, you'd better be reading!

Google's Gmail is a formidable email service, offering many features. Sadly, the UI is a bit poor and the overall feeling is amateurish. Many true professionals access email using the gold standard -- Outlook. While Microsoft's email software sometimes feels a bit bloated, that is probably because it is chock-full of useful things. Other than email, it is a dream for calendars, task-tracking and overall life organization.

With that said, whether I am on Windows or Mac, I always am sure to install Office so I can setup my email accounts with Outlook -- including Gmail. Unfortunately, by using Outlook rather than the Gmail web interface, I lose out on some goodies, such as starting a Hangout. Well, today this changes, as Google announces Hangouts and Outlook are hanging out with each other.

Linux Mint is a curious operating system. As great as it is, it is based on Ubuntu, which means Mint is always playing catch-up. This isn't necessarily bad for people who want stability, but for the bleeding-edgers, it can be a pain-point. In other words, the moment Ubuntu 14.04 was released, some Mint users began begging for an update. The Mint team can't really get going until Canonical releases its update first.

Keeping up with the Joneses aside, Linux Mint is a wonderful operating system -- particularly the Cinnamon variant. It is stable, pretty and easy to use. Today, the Mint team announces that version 17 of the OS reaches RC status.

Cross-platform apps are wonderful. Having the ability to create an app and have it run on multiple operating systems is ideal for developers. After all, it increases the audience for their work. Ultimately, for a paid app, this equates to more money. More money is good, right? Right.

However, it is not typical for the owner of the operating system to help developers move apps to other platforms. Exclusivity of an app can drive sales of the platform. In other words, if all apps ran on all platforms, the platform really would not matter to consumers. With that said, Microsoft does something shocking, as it shows off how easy it is to create one app using WinJS that runs on Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1 and FireFox OS. Are pigs flying?

Many people think that printers are a dying technology. Well, to a certain degree those people are slightly right, but mostly wrong. As time marches on and smartphones become more ubiquitous, a need to print lessens. For instance, people are displaying airline boarding passes on their smartphones rather than print it. Me? I still print. For something like a boarding pass, I have too much anxiety that a glitch or dead battery would impede my travels. Just yesterday, I bought concert tickets and printed them -- the venue requires it.

So, as much as people want to declare the printer dead, they are wrong. We still do not have paperless offices in the enterprise, and that was expected a decade ago. It's not happening anytime soon. With that said, Android now offers native printing in KitKat and Epson is pledging its support, with over 60 compatible devices.

There is no shortage of quality operating systems out there. Between Ubuntu 14.04, Chrome OS, Windows 8.1 Update and OS X, you can't make a bad choice. Most modern operating systems are pretty great. Personally, I utilize all of the previously mentioned OSes on a regular basis. However, I have been spending most of my time between Windows and OS X.

No, I don't own a Mac, but I did build a Hackintosh. This is just a normal PC that runs Apple's OS. This allows me to get great performance and customize my machine, while still enjoying the benefits of OS X. Today, after a period of open beta-testing, the final version of Mavericks 10.9.3 is gifted to existing Mavericks users. Is it worth the upgrade?

The market is flooded with tablets of various sizes and shapes. It is easy to lose track of them all. Samsung is one of the biggest offenders. The manufacturer makes so many tablets, that it is hard to distinguish all the features from within its offerings alone.

Today, Samsung is delivering yet another tablet, but this time it has a very focused market -- K-12 education. Yes, Samsung announces the Galaxy Tab 4 Education and your kids may be using this for learning very soon.

There's a time to hold 'em and a time to fold 'em. Sometimes things are worth fighting for and sometimes you just have to grin and bear it. Unfortunately, choosing a time to give up can be hard -- especially if your reputation relies on it.

Firefox is a good browser, but it is no longer great. From an overall experience standpoint, Google Chrome is far superior and that's OK. Mozilla's browser doesn't have to be great, but for it to stay relevant, it must know its users. In other words, the only thing keeping Firefox afloat is philosophies. People stick with the browser because it is open-source and holds beliefs in an open web. Once those philosophies are gone, so too is Firefox. Today, Mozilla chose usage over beliefs and it may pay dearly.

You may be surprised to learn this, but I used to be a crate-digger -- someone who frequented record-stores searching for vinyl. I may not look it, but I was massively into hip-hop vinyl collecting in the 90s and early 2000s. Many of my weekends were spent in Fat Beats or Beat Street in New York, just digging through boxes and crates searching for hidden gems or good deals. Sadly, the internet ruined this hobby for me and most record stores have closed. Instead of digging through crates, I now dig through Google Play Music All Access for streaming tunes.

One of my favorite record companies back in the day was Stones Throw. Besides putting out great hip-hop albums like Peanut Butter Wolf's "My Vinyl Weighs a Ton" and J Dilla's "Donuts", it also released obscure music on 7-inch. If you aren't familiar, most records nowadays are 12-inch, so the smaller 7-inch variants stood out and were fun. To celebrate an upcoming documentary on the record label, Rdio is hosting an exclusive playlist.

If you have a decent computer and you are interested in dabbling in Linux, KDE is where you might want to start. You see, there are many desktop environments for Linux, but Windows users would probably feel most comfortable in KDE -- it resembles what they are used to, with things like a start button and menu.

Beginners aside, advanced Linux geeks use KDE too -- it is powerful, beautiful and well designed. Today, KDE releases the first beta of Plasma Next and is looking for testers and feedback.

Aesthetics in technology matters. Historically, with the exception of Apple, many technology manufacturers have shipped functional, yet ugly products. While Windows-based desktops are more modern-looking nowadays, we aren't far removed from the days of beige boxes.

In my house, I have an Apple Airport Extreme router. Now, maybe it's insane to spend $200 on a router, but I had my reasons. First of all, it has great speeds and is reliable. The other reason? It's pretty! Yes, that matters as I keep it in my living room. Today, D-Link releases a new line of routers that can match your outfits or your living-room furniture.