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As we enjoy the restive Memorial Day weekend here in the States, I finally have a chance to relax from the hustle and bustle of tech consulting life. In my leisurely net browsing, I came across an interesting conundrum raised in an article I stumbled upon at ArsTechnica by Peter Bright titled simply "Lync 2013 is everything that Skype should be. Why do they both exist?"

It's a very intriguing question that led me to think a bit deeper about this admitted two-face coming out of Microsoft. This is especially true for me because I've had the chance to get knee deep into Lync since we ditched Google Apps in favor of Office 365 last year.

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A new piece of research from Salesforce.com claims that apps boost worker productivity levels considerably.

In fact, app usage apparently boosts productivity by some 34 percent, according to the study which interviewed 470 staff members across small and large businesses in the UK.

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In the world of politics, the wheels of change move slowly; very slowly indeed. Parties and those in power have a vested interest in maintaining the established order, and any attempts to buck the status quo are usually fairy fiercely opposed. Contrast this with the technological world where there are new innovations made every single day -- even at the weekend! Technology doesn’t run out of money and leave an entire nation on the verge of collapse. Technology is not interested in race, class, sex, sexuality or other characteristics. It is certainly true that technology is largely driven by a desire to generate profit -- we are, for the time being, living in a capitalist world, after all -- but it is profit born of fulfilling people's needs and desires.

Can the same be said of politics? To a large extent politics is self-serving. There's still an interest in generating a profit, but it is for the benefit of the few. Technology serves the masses, and has the potential to serve and benefit all. Of course, the term "technology" is rather broad. For the purposes of this article, I'm going to use it to refer to computers, the internet, smartphone, the cloud, electronic/connected devices, robots and the like. For all the gestures to democracy and choice, politicians are, for the most part, interested in serving certain sections of society. There are of course those parties and politicians who are able to take a wider view, have an interest in helping those at the bottom as much as those at the top, and value all people equally.

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While I am mostly a Windows and Linux user, I also run a Hackintosh. I do this for a couple of reasons -- partly curiosity, but mostly I just want to be knowledgeable about all operating systems. So, periodically I will boot into my OS X SSD and play around. Today, I decided to check for updates and received the below scary message. At first I thought I was hacked or compromised. After some Googling however, it seems I am not alone and it is not limited to Hackintoshes. The problem is on Apple's end and is an enormous fail.

"An Error has occurred.The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be 'swscan.apple.com' which could put your confidential information at risk". My confidential information at risk? Oh my!

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Amazon Studios has been busy as of late, producing its own original content, running both Betas and Alpha House this past season. The studio arm has also been testing pilots for upcoming shows, most recently, ones for children.

Now the online retailer is debuting the first, titled Tumble Leaf. "A vibrant blue fox, whimsical friends, exhilarating adventures and discovery await all those who explore the stop-motion world of Tumble Leaf. Amazon’s first original kids series is available today, exclusively on Amazon Prime Instant Video at no additional cost for Prime members", is the description given by Amazon.

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Despite that I've owned an HP 11 Chromebook since its release, I've viewed it as little more than a novelty. I work from an office on the third floor of my home, which has a nice size desk, desktop PC and 15.6 inch laptop, both running Windows 8.1.

However, as the weather warms (finally!) I considered making the move out to my porch, something I did last summer as well. In that case I lugged the Windows laptop with me, not a difficult task, but the size is really more than I need for carrying around.

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It should come as no surprise that this week's big news was Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 unveiling. Brian had been looking forward to the NYC event and was at the event to get hands on with the new device. There's certainly a lot to love about Microsoft's third generation tablet, but there is that price to consider. If you like the look of what you see, the device is available for pre-order right now -- and if you're undecided between the Surface and a MacBook Air, Mihaita compared the two. Maybe you're one of those who thinks it’s a niche product.

The Surface Mini failed to make an appearance, but there are still lots of other tablets to choose from -- although they are yet to make much of an impression in higher education, unlike Chromebooks which have found their way into Welsh schools. Will Microsoft's tablet manage to attain the longevity of Apple's iPad? You'd be forgiven for thinking that hell itself had frozen over at the news that work is underway that will make it possible to run Android and iOS apps side by side on the same device.

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Not all nerds are fat, but a good amount of us are. It's no surprise that sitting on our butts staring at a computer screen while drinking Mountain Dew and eating Doritos can pack on the pounds.

While technology has taken many a computer nerd down the path of poor health, it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, technology can actually be good for you. Case in point, fitness wearables like the ones from Fitbit can help you gain control of your life by tracking your activity. Today, HTC, AT&T and Fitbit are launching a promotion that will save you $50 when buying an HTC One M8 and a Fitbit fitness tracker.

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A PC is a major expense -- even a cheaper one is a few hundred dollars, and if you want, it's possible to spend thousands on a machine. The good news is that these days, PCs are lasting longer than ever. Whereas in the past, your machine might have been feeling outdated within a few years, these days a good PC can last for ages before the hardware inside starts to be underpowered. That said, the longevity of your machine does of course depend on how well you look after it. A poorly cared for machine can easily end up coming to a premature end. So with that in mind, we're going to look at how to care for your PC and ensure that it lasts for all those years of computing it should do.

To begin with, we're going to discuss issues you should consider from a longevity perspective before you buy a PC -- in case you're mulling a purchase in the near future, there are some important points to bear in mind.

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I learned about the change yesterday, unhappily. File this story under "read the fineprint department". Since Apple introduced its extended warranty plan, I have praised the benefits and plucked down the extra $99 for every new iOS device. AppleCare+ extends standard repair coverage to two years and offers fairly affordable replacement -- up to two times. Somehow I missed that Apple raised replacement price to $79 from $49 for iPhone.

The saga started around the midday meal. My daughter expressed amazement how last week her iPhone 5s popped out of her jeans and fell from a third-story balcony. No damage. Twenty-minutes later, while we sorted clothes for the thrift store in the garage, she fumbled the device, which fell face flat onto the cement -- shattering the screen. No words can describe either of our reactions. The irony was so thick my eyeglasses fogged.

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Windows 8.1 with Bing first came to our attention three months ago. It’s essentially a regular version of Windows 8.1, but for OEMs and with Bing set as the default search engine. Making Bing the default option helps to lower the cost of the OS for system builders.

A range of new Windows devices are set to be unveiled over the next couple of weeks in the run up to Computex in Taipei, with many of the lower cost ones expected to be running this variant of the tiled operating system.

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Data organization wars have claimed a victim. Springpad, the notebook service designed to help users "get inspired, get organized, get more done" is to close. After six years of helping people store notes, recipes, project ideas and more, Springpad will close in just over a month. The world of note taking tools, managers and general information organizers has become crowded. The likes of Evernote, OneNote and even Google Keep have all been vying for attention in recent years, and there are only so many users to go around.

The closure rumors started last night with the Verge citing the oft-mentioned "person familiar with the company's plans", but now it has been confirmed. In a blog post the Springpad team confirms what hundreds of thousands of users hoped and prayed would turn out to be untrue -- as of June 25, the service will cease to function. At this stage no reasons are being given for the closure, but it will leave users scrabbling to find a new home for their data.

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The Pixelmator Team has released Pixelmator 3.2 for Mac OS X. Codenamed Sandstone, it’s a significant update with the promise of a brand new -- and much improved -- Repair tool.

The new release also extends 16-bits per channel support to all Macs and throws in two new features (Lock Layers and Convert Selection into Shape) alongside a selection of improvement, UI tweaks and general bug fixes.

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Emanuele Colombo has announced an official Android release of his file transfer tool Dukto, which is also available for Windows, OS X, Linux, Symbian and more (there’s even a commercial iOS version).

Colombo suggests that there may be some compatibility issues, warning: "I tried my best to make it work flawlessly with any device, but I couldn’t do too much due to my very low free time and some limitations in current Qt support for Android".

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The most recent evolutions on the Web -- including IoT, mobile, big data and cloud -- have caused not just an explosion of connections between devices and web services, but also an explosion in traffic. The industry has responded with high-performing distributed application architectures. However, these interdependencies create performance risks for enterprise applications, most of which are mission-critical and have a key role in generating revenue. Performance and downtime are now the top threat to the bottom line.

The modern enterprise is asking for flexible technologies that can tie together both legacy and new applications in a way that ensures the highest-level of application availability and performance.

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