Facebook is ready to shake up its advertising efforts through a new platform that has already been dubbed by some as having the potential to be more powerful than Google’s current offering.

Atlas, which should be announced next week, allows marketers to track Facebook users that have seen, interacted with or acted upon ads on the social network, as well as third party sites and applications.

No one likes to be in the middle seat on airplanes, right? It's a metaphor appropriate for retail -- and the place where Windows sits in NPD's final assessment of U.S. 2014 back-to-school sales growth. Chromebook continued a nearly two-year unit-sales surge, while Macs made last-minute gains, and Windows PCs survived only by aggressive tactics that pulled down average selling prices. For Microsoft and its partners, the strategy cut market share losses but at great hidden costs.

Back-to-school 2013 was a bloodbath, with unit sales through U.S. channels dropping by 2.5 percent annually -- a loss that pulled down overall PC sales during first half of last year. For 2014, sales are up about 3 percent overall, or 3.5 percent for notebooks and flat for desktops.

By virtue of the fact that we carry them around most of the time, mobile phones often get damaged and the iPhone is no exception. Insurance company Protect Your Bubble has analyzed its customer data to reveal the most common ways in which iPhones suffer problems.

Cracked screens are, as you might expect, the most common type of damage on 41 percent. Water damage accounts for 24.4 percent, though unfortunately no details are given on how this occurs or the exact nature of the liquids involved. We'd guess toilets are a factor in quite a few and Protect Your Bubble says it has had calls about phones damaged in Ice Bucket Challenge related incidents. It seems a high number of people manage to completely destroy their phone by smashing it into pieces too with nine percent admitting to running over their phone with a heavy object.

It's important for any business to establish an online presence, and this is certainly true in emerging markets. It's something recognized by Google, and the company is teaming up with Endurance International Group to help SMBs in Africa and Southeast Asia to launch online ventures.

Google's reputation online precedes it, but Endurance might not be a name that's overly familiar. The company provides hosting, and the new partnership with Google is set to benefit businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Apple could have a huge problem on its hands if iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are susceptible to bending. According to some early adopters, the new iPhones can show visible signs of damage after only a few days of normal use.

That's because the build quality does not appear to stand up to the challenges posed by pants' front pockets, which are causing the metal shells to bend near the cutouts for the physical side buttons. Light metal shell, meet thin profile.

Key to the sales process is communicating with customers and often that means sales people being away from the office. Mobile technology means that there's no excuse for being out of touch though.

CRM specialist Selligy is launching a set of tools that allow sales professionals to manage their deals and update their sales forecasts quickly and accurately from their smartphones. IT uses information from the phone including location and calendar details to deliver relevant information when it's needed.

In its first major updates for almost 18 months, Foxit Corporation has unveiled Foxit Reader 7.0 and Foxit PhantomPDF 7.0. Both builds gain Shared Review capabilities along with 2D Barcode Display.

Each build also gains unique functionality -- user environment customization is the biggest draw in Foxit Reader, for example, while Foxit PhantomPDF users gain an Outlook Add-in, plus PDF Portfolios and Document Sanitzation features.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is among the most important new mobile devices to go on sale in the second half of 2014, alongside Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (which launched last week); the latter is a direct competitor. The Android phablet was slated to go on sale next month, but, in no small part thanks to the strong sales performance of the new iPhones, Samsung wants to get it in consumers' hands much sooner.

Samsung has announced that Galaxy Note 4 officially goes on sale this Friday, September 2014, in its home country of South Korea. There pre-orders started earlier this month, with consumers reportedly showing a strong interest in the device. But what if you live outside of South Korea?

Whilst smaller businesses are keeping pace with mobile adoption trends they don't always have the security knowledge needed to protect themselves.

This is among the findings of a survey by Kaspersky Lab which asked 3,900 IT professionals worldwide about the challenges encountered by their businesses over the last year.

First in a series. Now that the initial excitement surrounding the launch of the new iPhones has calmed down, most of us new iPhone owners have had a chance to play around with our new devices a bit.

So what’s there to love about the iPhone 6 lineup? What do we hate? In this first article we’ll take a look at the positives. No doubt, ten million phones sold over the weekend indicate that most consider this a significant step forward for the iPhone itself, so I think it’s only fair to you and Apple to wax poetic about the good things first. Note this is not a review, but more just musings on the device itself. Every tech publication known to man has already written how "game-changing" and  "revolutionary" it is, so here we’re going to give equal time to both the fanboys and naysayers. Both camps have valid points.

Happy birthday to Nintendo, a company that has touched the childhoods (and adulthoods) of so many gamers with its imaginative games and zany consoles. On this special occasion, we thought we'd explore the company's long and varied journey and ask how can the company ensure that Mario is still collecting coins in 2050?

The birth of Nintendo for the bulk of today's gamers may be marked by the creation of its trademark Donkey Kong and Mario characters in 1981. In actuality though, the history of the company goes back to 1889, when it was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to manufacture playing cards (hanafuda) in Kyoto (also the year the capital moved from Kyoto to Tokyo).

DIY laptop building is about to hit the mainstream thanks to a new project based on the Raspberry Pi that uses 3D printing to bring a revolutionary concept to the Kickstarter crowd-funding site.

Pi-Top is a 3D-printable fully-fledged laptop based on the Raspberry Pi kit that allows anyone to build an affordable, completely functional computer whilst at the same time learning some vital skills.

Symantec has announced the first full release of Norton Security ($79.99) and Norton Security with Backup ($89.99), its one-stop replacement for Norton Antivirus, Norton Internet Security and Norton 360.

The most obvious change is the revamped interface. It’s recognizably Norton -- if greener than usual -- with its many functions neatly organized under Security, Identity, Backup and Performance tabs.

Home theater nuts tend to like Plex -- it's cross-platform compatible, working on Windows HTPC, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and various other platforms. The server software is free, though you'll pay for the client apps; there is also Plex Pass, which requires a higher fee if you care to upgrade.

The pass gives users access to exclusive premium features, such as camera upload, cloud sync, free apps and more. You can currently grab this for $3.99 per month or $29.99 for the annual version.

Growing up, one of my favorite films was Back to the Future. Marty McFly was probably the coolest guy ever; he could skateboard, play guitar and oh yeah... travel through time! Sure, him making-out with his mom in the car was a little weird, but the protagonist was undoubtedly awesome.

While there are many memorable moments from the movie, one thing tends to resonate with movie-goers the most -- the Flux Capacitor. This cheesy-looking box was the technology behind time-travel, but most importantly, it looked super-cool (nerds and geeks love flashing lights). Today, ThinkGeek announces a USB smartphone and tablet charger for the car, which is modeled after the popular Flux Capacitor.