Google Cloud’s long-awaited price cuts have finally been announced with various new features coming as part of the decreases that follow earlier cuts by its two main competitors in the space in Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

The search giant cut some products by almost 80 percent and added direct peering, container scheduling and a new container engine built on Google’s Kubernetes technology.

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Despite a little spat with Taylor Swift, Spotify seems to be mostly improving all the time, adding updates and content on a regular basis. The latest update aims to marry your computers to your mobile devices via new, and rather unique, remote app.

The company is announcing a new feature for Premium subscribers, allowing users to access Spotify on their computer using remote control from the phone or tablet.

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XMind has released XMind 6 (aka v3.5.0), a significant update for its popular mind mapping application.

The Free, Plus ($79) and Pro (currently on special offer at $99) editions can all now save maps to Evernote -- images, attachment and text -- making it easy to access them on different devices.

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Three months ago I reached the end of my tether. I'm lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful and unspoilt parts of the UK (it nearly wasn’t part of the UK had the Scottish referendum on independence taken a different turn), but there's one problem: truly awful broadband. There is a 'choice' of one broadband provider who is capable of trickling sub 0.5Mbps connections into houses in the area -- and that's on a good day.

One Twitter rant later, a few emails exchanged with Satellite Internet led to the arrival of two installers to get me set up with a 20Mbps satellite connection. My initial impressions were great. The internet worked as it should for the first time in months. But my fear was that this was just a honeymoon period. So what’s the story nearly three months down the line -- what is it like to live with a satellite internet connection? Were my initial concerns about data usage well-founded?

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I so requested to buy Amazon Echo, which promises to bring Star Trek-like responsive computing to the home. The cylindrical device, announced today, is a Bluetooth- and WiFi-enabled speaker that responds to users' questions. Just say "Alexa" and ask something. "What's the weather?" "What is the largest dinosaur?" This is how search information should be, assuming Echo resounds as strongly as Amazon's product information and demo video claim.

Touchless interaction is by no means new. Apple got the jump with personal assistant Siri, which responds to requests and commands on iOS devices. Google Now, available on multiple platforms, is far superior, and Windows Phone now has Cortana. All three cloud-based touchless-response systems make your voice the primary user interface. But Echo, like the Moto X smartphone, is always listening, such that the interaction is almost completely hands-free. That's the difference.

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Public and private clouds have been rapidly adopted by businesses around the world over the past few years. However, the debate over the pros and cons of each model has led to the emergence of a new type of cloud that allows businesses to avoid making compromises. The hybrid model enables organizations to enjoy a combination of the scalability and flexibility of public offerings with the manageability and security of their private counterparts, so it's unsurprising to see them becoming so popular. Indeed, Gartner predicts that by 2017, half of large enterprises will use hybrid cloud.

So what makes this model so attractive for businesses, and what does the future hold for the hybrid cloud?

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There are a huge number of Android music players around, most of them competing for your attention with their vast and ever-extending lists of features. That’s great news if you’ll use all their functionality, but otherwise it may just get in your way.

Dub Music Player + Equalizer seems relatively simple by comparison, but it delivers the core basics most people need, and comes wrapped in a great looking, easy-to-use interface.

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I recently read a LinkedIn discussion about SaaS vs. locally installed software. There were many myths presented, mostly to suit the agendas of the vendors and their respective technologies (I know, I know -- shocking that such things would happen on LinkedIn).

The discussion spiraled towards the (incorrect) conclusion that treasurers are paranoid about cloud software's security issues. However, I've not personally encountered such paranoia. What I've instead found is that treasurers are inquisitive about any pitfalls a cloud delivery model presents -- as they should be. Most often they will engage their IT colleagues to evaluate the security, infrastructure, and technology of any proposed third party solution. Treasury is not often equipped to make this assessment, and would otherwise risk falling prey to the agenda (and technology choices) of the vendors. Security assessments typically focus on three areas:

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The basketball season is freshly underway in the US and NBA fans are waiting to see how their respective teams do. While many have a general idea of which will be good and which may just not pan out, there are always surprises.

For those NBA fans who are eying an Android TV device like the Nexus Player then Google has sweetened the offerings a bit. Folks will now get access to live basketball games on the set-top box, though a subscription is obviously required.

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Cloud adoption is booming amongst business users, but there's a big variation in what developers and IT managers want from their cloud deployments.

Developers want instant access to cloud services and true self-service capabilities, while IT managers require greater control, visibility and integration across the whole cloud spectrum.

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A new update has been rolled out to WhatsApp that lets users see when the person they are talking to reads a message. The check marks that appear next to messages to indicate that a message has been successfully sent and successfully delivered now have a third indicator mode. A double blue check mark means that the message has been read.

WhatsApp took the messaging world by storm when it first appeared on the scene. Despite having been found to be one of the most insecure messaging tools out there, it remains incredibly popular with around 600 million monthly users. WhatsApp's impact was such that Facebook parted with $19 billion to buy it, and this month the service celebrates its fifth birthday.

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A new survey suggests that the vast majority of drivers text while behind the wheel, despite being fully aware of the dangers involved.

The research indicates that 98 percent of motorists who own a mobile phone and text regularly are aware of the risks, yet 75 percent still admit to texting while driving.

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In an effort to drum up awareness about its Surface Pro 3 slate, Microsoft has been dishing out devices free to every TV show and broadcaster going, often sponsoring shows (aka filling them with incongruous product placement) and handing over cash to get the message out.

Unfortunately the message that seems to be coming across a fair bit lately is that the recipients prefer iPads. The CNN news team has certainly found a good use for the promotional Surfaces that Microsoft paid them to use -- the devices apparently make a good wall, behind which it’s possible to use Apple’s tablet surreptitiously on air. And as one newsreader discovered, Microsoft Surface also makes a wonderful stand to rest an iPad against.

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In spite of some incidents here and there, both iOS and OS X are mostly safe from malware. Obviously, that assumption only holds true assuming that users do not go out of their way to get into trouble by jailbreaking their devices and messing with cracked apps or software grabbed from shady places. It is common sense, really -- the security measures that Apple enforces can only go so far to protect users in uncontrolled environments. (The same thing can also be said in regards to Android and Windows, but that is a different story.) And if you need any more proof of just how important it is to stick to trusted sources, this is it.

In the past six months, hundreds of thousands of iOS and OS X users have been affected by the WireLurker malware family, according to security research firm Palo Alto Networks, after using Chinese third-party app store Maiyadi App Store to download OS X software. Go figure!

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It's easy to assume that the range of choice available when buying online leads to a lack of consumer loyalty with people shopping around for the best deal.

However, a new survey from e-commerce specialist Avangate suggests that customers are looking for a long-term relationship with providers of online services.

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