AVG got into the cloud storage business with its LiveKive offering. I won't go into the gory details but the service did not work so well. Now the anti-virus maker has elected to kill off the product, and perhaps it was a merciful death.

Users began receiving warning messages in their email before the shutdown took place. Customers could grab their data, though depending on how much was there, the download could have been painful.

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Back in May, the EU Court of Justice ruled that people have a "right to be forgotten" from search results. Google fairly quickly set up an online form to allow complainants to put forward their case for censoring their appearance in results. It didn’t take long for Microsoft to follow suit, and Bing users were soon afforded the same option.

Forget.me was one service that offered to take care of Google removal requests for people, and at the time CEO Bertrand Girin promised that "if Bing and Yahoo get their Right to be Forgotten forms in order, we’ll be able to provide you with the possibility of submitting your URL to all three search engines at the same time." For Microsoft, that day has come.

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It stopped short of actually naming the device, however Microsoft has admitted it was planning to add a second new Surface to its line-up.

Although leaks and rumors are usually best viewed with a heavy dose of skepticism, when they are as insistent as the talk regarding Surface Mini was, it’s safe to assume there’s at least some fire under all that smoke. We were fully expecting to see a seven inch version of the tech giant’s slate rolled out alongside Surface Pro 3, but there was no sign at all of it at the New York launch event two months ago. So what happened?

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Cybercriminals are constantly targeting end users via phishing and social engineering attacks in attempts to access sensitive information or corporate data and bypass traditional endpoint security. Often these attacks are delivered from devices outside the enterprise, belonging to customers or suppliers for example.

Internet security specialist Comodo is launching a new product aimed at plugging the security gap and guarding against, keylogging, SSL sniffing, remote screen viewing, memory scraping, man-in-the-middle attacks, zero-day malware and more.

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Microsoft has released its earnings results for the fourth fiscal quarter of the year (that is Q2 CY2014), posting revenue of $23.38 billion, gross margin of 15.79 billion and operating income of $6.48 billion. As a result, earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.55 (below analyst expectations of $0.60).

Revenue, gross margin and operating income are higher than a year before, when they reached 19.89 billion, 14.29 billion and 6.07 billion, respectively. However, EPS is lower, dropping from $0.59. "We are galvanized around our core as a productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world, and we are driving growth with disciplined decisions, bold innovation, and focused execution", says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "I'm proud that our aggressive move to the cloud is paying off -- our commercial cloud revenue doubled again this year to a $4.4 billion annual run rate".

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IOBit has unveiled Driver Booster 2.0 Beta, a preview of the next major version of its driver update tool for Windows. The utility offers simple updating to free users, while a paid-for Pro version adds the ability to back up drivers along with faster download speeds and other enhancements.

Version 2.0 opens with an overhauled user interface, designed to make the program even simpler to use. Users also gain the ability to make the program semi-translucent via a Transparency slider in the program’s Settings menu.

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They’re extremely basic, horribly limited, just about the most low-tech form of computer animation you can get. But then animated GIFs are almost 25 years old, so we probably shouldn’t expect too much. And even now, they’re still useful as a reliable way to display simple animations on just about every platform.

We’ve discussed several ways to create animated GIFs before, but the latest is Movie to Gif, which does exactly what its name suggests: point the program at a video and it’ll render a finished GIF for you.

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Despite its repeated attempts to elbow its way into mainstream popularity, Windows Phone is going on four years old and is still being slapped down by iPhone and Android -- like an overly buoyant younger sibling with a penchant for multi-colored tiles.

Trouble is, now more than ever the pressure is on. LG, Samsung and HTC have all already fired their flagships into the market, and with the promise of a bigger, bolder iPhone in September, it's high time we saw a Windows Phone that can start leading the pack rather than trailing behind it.

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Data makes the modern world go round and by being able to use it effectively companies can gain a competitive advantage, improve customer experience and enhance operational efficiency.

Database specialist Oracle has combined a number of its offerings including the newly acquired BlueKai Audience Data Marketplace to form Oracle Data Cloud, a platform that provides customers access to world-class data-as-a-service (DaaS) offerings to allow companies to exploit marketing and social media data.

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Nokia Lumia 520 has proved to be an extremely important entry-level handset for Windows Phone, allowing the platform to reach more consumers and become more relevant in emerging markets. Its successor has to live up to high expectations, as it has to exceed the 12 million activations mark quicker than Lumia 520 has managed to, in order to be considered a success. That is no easy task, when the competition in the entry-level smartphone market is heating up.

So does the new Lumia 530 have what it takes to become a worthy Lumia 520 successor? Well, it at least gets off on the right foot, as Microsoft says its new Windows Phone 8.1 entry-level offering is expected to cost €85 before any local taxes and subsidies, and under €100 "on the highstreet". And that goes for the Dual SIM version as well; it will play a key role in increasing Windows Phone's popularity among price-conscious buyers.

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As the 20th Commonwealth Games kicks off in Glasgow, most of the attention will be focused on the athletes attempting to turn years of hard work into gold medals. However, there is another less public, yet still hugely important, side of the games that we think also deserves some attention.

Behind the scenes in Scotland, computer giant Dell will have an integral role in providing the IT infrastructure that will help meet the demands of the 71 participating federations and ensure that the entire event runs as smoothly as possible.

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Since the start of this year, it has felt like Armageddon within the cyber-security arena. Attacks are coming thick and fast, with resultant breaches hitting the headlines. Advanced malware -- it’s clever, almost always relentless, and it's increasingly encrypted!

In every organization there are two types of traffic -- inspected traffic and non-inspected traffic. There’s a reason for that. Well, actually, it’s one of three reasons: performance, scalability or cost.

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While I consider myself to be a relatively forward-thinking and open-minded guy, I do not blindly accept everything the media and corporate America shovels in my direction. For instance, I am very hesitant to support Google Glass and self-driving cars. I am hardly a conspiracy theorist -- just a realist in light of Snowden leaks.

Today, Motorola announces a new feature for the Moto X -- unlock with a tattoo. Yes, the company expects users to embrace a skin-worn unlocking method. While I am sure Motorola's intentions are good (I hope), this is not something I plan on utilizing.

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Piriform Ltd has released CCleaner for Mac 1.08, a minor update to the Mac version of its freeware cleaning tool. Unlike the Windows version, which is updated monthly, CCleaner for Mac’s updates are more sporadic -- this is the first new release since November last year.

The new version opens by adding support for the OS X 10.10 Yosemite Developer Preview, which should mean it’ll work with the final version when it’s released later this year, although a further update for official compatibility is likely.

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The Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Eben Upton was inspired to create his bare-bones credit-card sized computer after noticing a decline in the number of children learning to code. He wanted to create a cheap computer designed to be programmed, much like the BBC Micro, which was hugely popular in UK schools back in the 1980s.

Although the Raspberry Pi has since found a massive audience outside of schools, it’s still an educational tool at heart, and its low cost and energy efficiency make it ideal for introducing computers into rural schools in developing nations.

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