Dark data, sounds like something from a sci-fi movie doesn't it? In fact analysts at Gartner define dark data as information that enterprises collect and store as part of their day-to-day business activity but then fail to use for any other purpose.

Symantec's latest product, Data Insight 4.0, aims to shine light into the gloom and allow companies to take control of their dark data. The package works to integrate Symantec's security and storage offerings, giving companies a unified method of handling their information.

I love both Windows 8 and the 8-inch tablet form factor. So, when I was given the opportunity to test and review the Acer Iconia W3, I was very excited. Acer has a good reputation for quality hardware, so I expected a real home-run result. Unfortunately, this device is more of a foul-ball.

Upon opening the box, I was presented with an attractive white tablet. However, handling the product revealed a different story -- it is made of a very cheap-feeling plastic. I don’t mind plastic; I recently bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 which is made of the material. However, not all plastic is created equal -- the Acer tablet feels low quality which lessens the user experience. On the back of the tablet are stickers for "Windows 8" and "Intel Inside" which are unnecessary.

The magic is gone. As recently as mid-2012, rumors of a new iPhone was command performance -- bloggers and social networkers rushed every little bit of spec speculation to the web. A year later, has-beens are kings. Buzz belongs to the once high and mighty: HTC, Motorola, Nokia and Sony, each a former market-share commander. These companies are all something Apple, and even Samsung, is not: Hungry. Pride goes before the fall, they say. Pride brought down the big four (five, including BlackBerry), as their execs laughed off iPhone's launch in June 2007. They laugh again, as their companies bring truly innovative mobiles to market and Apple acts much as they did six years ago.

The fruit-logo company has a huge problem that is core to future competition. For nearly a decade, Apple benefitted from free-marketing, as enthusiast tech bloggers and reporters and over-eager Wall Street analysts and investors fanned the smallest flicker of rumor into raging fire. Now Android rises, like one of those robots in "Pacific Rim", to crush the iPhone monster. Meanwhile, Apple's humbled stock price gets less bang from rumors. CEO Tim Cook signaled three months ago that new "innovations" won't come until autumn -- and there are no leaks to rally the faithful against the horde of Android and Windows Phone infidels. The problem isn't bleeding market share -- a circumstance in most every market outside the United States -- but one of bleeding mindshare.

PRISM enables the NSA to categorically violate your right to privacy and reach far beyond the boundaries typically enforced by courts. So why aren’t the politicians furious about this?

They instead seem to be focused on Edward Snowden. Since his leak of the PowerPoint slides detailing the NSA’s surveillance program, politicians from both parties -- including the liberal Nancy Pelosi and Republican House Speaker John Boehner -- have called his arrest.

While the jury remains in deliberation over Windows 8, and its upcoming successor, Office is still a workhorse in the Microsoft stable of software. Even the attempt to turn it into a subscription model did little to phase customers. Businesses on the other hand are even more acceptable to these options and now Microsoft has announced expanded markets for its latest Office 365.

Microsoft's Andy O'Donald announces "Office 365 is expanding commercial availability in 38 new markets, 3 new languages, and 5 new currencies". This brings the total to 127 markets worldwide.

Last month, I sold my Nexus 7 and declared that I didn’t miss it. At first, the declaration was true. However, as time marched on, I began to long for a tablet. When lying in bed, I tried using my Chromebook but it just wasn’t comfortable. And so, I began to search for a new tablet.

I considered the iPad (full size and mini), Android tablets, and even the Surface RT; I was open to anything. However, as my research continued, I decided to stick with Android. I like iOS and Windows RT but I have too much money invested in the Android ecosystem. I really liked the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 but was turned off to the high price tag ($399.99). Luckily, Samsung has released a tablet that is similar to the Note 8.0 but for $100 less -- The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0.

Get out your wallet and prepare your foreign investment portfolio because, just as Jimmy Buffet tells us it is always five o'clock somewhere, the market is also always open somewhere. Google Finance today grows a bit fatter, adding even more of those exchanges to its reporting.

Greg Pennington, Product Manager for Google Finance announces "we want you to have the world’s financial data at your fingertips. We’ve launched five new exchanges on Google Finance".

Edward Snowden’s revelations about what data big companies like Facebook, Google or Skype give to the NSA -- and therefore to the US Government -- confirm what many already know: the internet is not a safe place.

Snowden’s leaks set alarms off in the business world, too. Even though people think our personal conversations and what we post online is monitored, many were unaware that company communications are also intercepted for espionage purposes. The USA and UK take the lead in this practice, but recent news suggests these governments aren’t the only ones. Other countries -- such as France -- have their own intelligence projects.

Understanding how your digital photo collection is laid out normally requires just a few moments of thumbnail browsing. Click a folder here, another over there, and you’ll quickly be able to locate the pictures you need.

If the folders aren’t accessible, though -- they’re on a CD, say, or you want friends to get a quick overview of an image set -- then it can be useful to generate a contact sheet, another image with thumbnails of your folder contents. And that’s where the free Snap2Img comes in.

Romanian developer Chris P.C. has released ChrisPC Free VideoTube Downloader 5.0, a major new version of its free video downloader and converter tool for Windows. The tool sports a slight name change -- it was previously called ChrisTV YouTube Downloader -- but adds a number of new features to its roster.

The major new feature is an option to add an entire YouTube channel or user video list to the program’s queue for downloading and converting to a different format. Note that the free version only supports up to 15 files at any one time.

Explore any Windows application and you might find some content you’d like to use elsewhere: the soundtrack in a game, an introductory video somewhere, maybe a few embedded images or icons. Sometimes these might be available as separate files in the program’s folders, but often they’ll come packaged in a DLL or some other library format which can’t be accessed as easily.

You could then turn to a more specialist solution, perhaps something which allows you to view and work with the resources in a Windows executable. But if that sounds too complicated, there’s always X-Ripper, a free tool that can extract images, audio and video content from any file type.

Since Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8 in late-October, last year, the tiled smartphone operating system received two major updates. The first, codenamed "Portico", was revealed nearly seven months ago (and rolled-out in early-2013), introducing a couple of essential features like the option to keep Wi-Fi enabled during sleep or send canned text messages after rejecting calls.

The second, and the latest Windows Phone 8 update, debuted alongside the Nokia Lumia 925 in mid-May (and has yet to roll out to other compatible smartphones). Microsoft has since kept quiet when it comes to the latest slew of improvements, deciding to unveil the new features early this month.

When Active Directory first hit the enterprise computing scene over a decade ago, the tech pundits dismissed AD as just another Microsoft sideshow. Something that would never see any widescale adoption in the face of NetWare and other heavy hitters in the LDAP arena. Even longtime Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott got it wrong and doubted success. Thirteen years later and organizations small and large live and die by their Active Directory domains.

It's funny, then, that AD is the sole dinosaur running atop on-premise servers at corporations worldwide which supposedly "can't" be moved to the cloud. Microsoft has been busily converting its on-premise products into cloud platforms with relatively good results over the last 3-4 years. While Microsoft surely doesn't want to become a has-been within the physical server arena for organizations hesitant to move to the cloud, it no doubt has been playing two face when it comes to on-prem vs cloud-hosted solutions.

Rumors that Microsoft was planning to cut the price of Surface RT have been swirling for a couple of days, and yesterday they came true. Staples in the US is currently advertising the 32 GB base model of the device for $349.99, a drop of $150. Although the price reduction hasn’t been seen elsewhere yet, it should start appearing at other retailers next week. No word on whether the reduction will be offered in other territories.

The price cut is interesting as it’s yet another example of Microsoft offering aggressive discounts on Surface RT. The 32 GB version was made available to schools and universities for $199, and attendees at the Worldwide Partner Conference and TechEd gatherings were offered Surface RT 64 GB with touch cover for $99 (although admittedly they had to pay a fortune for a ticket in the first place).

Emsisoft has announced the release of Emsisoft Emergency Kit 4.0, its portable bundle of antivirus detection cleanup tools.

The company says a greatly improved cleaning engine based on the commercial Emsisoft Anti-Malware will deliver safer and more thorough removal of threats.