In April, Microsoft concluded acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services division, announced in September 2013. With ownership comes responsibility, which starts with Microsoft preserving and reviving an iconic brand. Before the phone maker fumbled touchscreen smartphone market, the brand dominated the world -- commanding overwhelming cellular handset market share across Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.

Some competitors strayed from the path Microsoft follows. For example, Google wrongly sold Motorola to Lenovo, which is reason for big smiles up Redmond, Wash. way. Hardware's research and development value to software and services cannot be overstated. Apple gets it, and I thought Big G did, too. Nokia is a vitally important asset to Microsoft that goes way beyond Windows Phone.

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The idea of connected devices means far more than wireless webcams and televisions that are connected to the internet. The Internet of Things is a buzzword, but it’s also a real, tangible thing. Consumers and businesses alike are looking to the ways in which connected devices can help to make life easier, more efficient, and more profitable. In many ways, this is Internet 2.0 -- we've had Web 2.0, now the Internet is being taken to the next level -- as the benefits of getting ever more devices not only online, but also communicating with each other, are realized. But just as with the web, the IoT needs protocols to ensure compatibility between devices, and this is what HyperCat hopes to bring about.

A collaboration between dozens of UK technology firms, HyperCat is… well… let's allow it to introduce itself. "HyperCat is a media type for the web allowing servers to list catalogs of resources. It is designed to make discovery of IoT services and assets easier". It's a protocol, a specification, a standard. It's an attempt to define the semantics of the Internet of Things, helping to level the playing field and start everyone off on an even footing. As we saw with the VHS and Betamax battle, and the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD format wars, there are just no winners when there are two or more competing formats. It makes perfect sense to pin down how the IoT should work as early as possible, and this is precisely what HyperCat aims to do.

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I'll let you in on a secret -- I was not a good student. I was more interested in daydreaming and staring out the window than learning about long division and history. I would wait all year for summer vacation so I could turn my brain off for a couple of months. While some people liked to read during the vacation, I much preferred flattening pennies on the railroad tracks, running around barefoot in the grass or throwing rocks at a random object like a stop sign. Book learnin' during the summer months was for suckers.

Today, Microsoft announces plans to ruin summer vacation for kids with the power of Bing. Yes, the company actually wants kids to learn while off from school. Will you make your kid learn?

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Samsung Galaxy S5 may face stiff competition from the likes of HTC One (M8), LG G3 and Sony Xperia Z2, but it is doing quite well sales-wise in major markets, according to a report released today by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Apple's older iPhone 5s, however, still edges ahead.

"In the USA the Samsung Galaxy S5 was the second highest selling smartphone in May just behind the iPhone 5s", says Kantar Worldpanel ComTech global strategic insight director Dominic Sunnebo. "Apple loyalty is high in the US, with former iPhone owners making up just 8 percent of Galaxy S5 sales. The majority of those switching to Samsung were LG and HTC users".

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Database specialist DataStax is using the 2014 Spark Summit to announce the release of its latest product. DataStax Enterprise 4.5 includes some major updates aimed at improving ease of use and security.

Built from the ground up, upgrades in DSE 4.5 include lightning fast in-memory analytics with Spark -- thanks to a recently announced partnership with Databricks. In addition automated diagnostic and performance tuning drives operational simplicity and enhanced visual management. For the first time companies can now easily merge Cassandra data with Hadoop and avoid the complexities of data management thanks to partnerships with Hadoop vendors Cloudera and Hortonworks.

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In the absence of proper folder support, a number of Windows Phone developers -- including Nokia -- have decided to take matters into their own hands, by releasing apps that give users the option to group live tiles on the Windows Phone 8 homescreen. The results are not folders, however.

The live tiles that are created are just shortcuts which open the app enabling the feature. The grouped items are displayed within that app. Welcome to Windows Phone-style faux-folders. The reason why the feature is missing out-of-the-box, even in Windows Phone 8.1, is because Microsoft has decided not to implement it, likely because the tiled operating system is meant to be experienced without folders.

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In a matter of months, a rumbling schism has developed in the Android camp. On one side sits HTC, churning out gleaming handsets of jaw-dropping design ingenuity. On the other sits Samsung, which seems content to slather everything in plastic, too busy beefing up its smartphones' specs to turn its attentions to ground-breaking design.

LG occupies the hallowed middle ground between the two, having packed impressive specs into a well-crafted handset. The LG G3 is the flagship weapon gunning for the Android top spot against Samsung and HTC -- and we have to say it's putting up quite the fight.

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As you may already know, Windows Phone 8.1 was showcased by Microsoft in early-April. The presentation was shortly followed by the introduction of three smartphones running the new tiled operating system, namely Nokia Lumia 630, Lumia 635 and Lumia 930, of which only the first has launched.

Because Windows Phone 8.1 is a huge upgrade over its dated predecessor, Windows Phone 8 users, naturally, want to know when the upgrade will officially roll out. The latest iteration is already offered to members of the Preview for Developers program, but, believe it or not, not to the Windows Phone 8-toting public, who makes up for the large majority of Windows Phone customers.

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Software company IObit commissioned a survey into the personal content stored on smartphones, and found a lot of users have something on their devices they would rather others -- and in particular their partners -- didn’t see.

The survey, which was conducted among 5,000 international smartphone users, revealed some fascinating details, including that 81 percent of people feel SMS messages on their smartphones should be private, and a third of respondents want to actually conceal part of their SMS logs -- especially from their significant others. Of course, it’s not just text messages that users want to hide.

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Google had lots of announcements at last week's I/O conference, though most seemed to have been overshadowed by Android Wear. However, that doesn't mean that the other things weren’t important. One of the items shown was Android TV, though it may lend as much confusion as it does clarity to Google's living room strategy.

There are a couple of reasons for that. First is that the company already has Google TV, which also runs Android, though the set-top boxes based on the platform have failed to gain much traction in the market. The other, and perhaps much more pressing issue, is Chromecast.

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Google plans to make many more Nexus products despite rumors that it wants to abandon the line in favor of a partnership to work closely with Android manufacturers on bespoke smartphones.

Head of Android engineering Dave Burke confirmed that it is "still invested in Nexus" products even though Android Silver is on the way leading some to speculate that it would be the replacement for Nexus.

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Social networks are funny beasts, and this is certainly something that's true of Facebook. The site has a patchy history with regard to user privacy, and there are constant complaints about how personal content is used, who can gain access to it, and the privacy settings that are in place. But like all modern companies, Facebook likes to be seen listening to its customers -- or at least appear to listen. A recent example of 'listening to the people' is Facebook's reaction to the #FreeTheNipple campaign which ultimately led to the site bowing to pressure and permitting photos of breastfeeding to be published. There have also been numerous instances of responding to complaints and making privacy settings easier to control.

Like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and even the NSA, Facebook has released transparency reports that detail data requests and the like. Transparency reports are something that users all but demanded, and delivering them is excellent PR for the companies involved. Now Facebook is taking things up a notch, fighting for users' rights in court. Earlier this week it emerged that the social network is fighting a US court order which forced it to hand over user data. The data was requested as part of an investigation into benefit fraud. Facebook complied but complained that it was a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

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Google Glass is available to purchase in both the US and UK now, although the high asking price ($1,500/£1,000) will certainly put off many potential buyers, as will the news that if Google decides to make a change to the specs’ specs in the future (as it did this week, doubling the memory to improve performance), existing users will have to pay full price to get their hands on the latest model.

But price and lack of future proofing may not be the wearable’s biggest problems. A friend of mine who tried Glass out said the device made him feel like a futuristic cyborg, but look like a massive geek. And that could be a huge stumbling block. In June, mobile App Performance Management (mAPM) firm Crittercism commissioned an online Harris Poll survey among over 2,000 US adults aged 18+ and found that of those who were interested in wearable technology twice as many (54 percent) said they would opt for a smartwatch rather than computing glasses (26 percent).

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NSA, Snowden, spying, yadda, yadda, yadda. This story is old, I know, but it goes on. The activities of the NSA and other government agencies have forced the online world to look very closely at how its data is being used, and how the companies handling it operate. Just about every online company worth its salt has gone out of its way to bemoan the NSA, their need to comply with data requests from the agency, and their inability to reveal everything they want to about what the NSA is asking about.

We have seen "transparency reports" from Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn and numerous other companies. But as suggested by my use of quotes, and as alluded to in the opening paragraph, there have been (severe) limits to the levels of transparency we have seen. "Quite opaque" might be a better description. Still, with the world and its dog falling over one another to release the most details, most comprehensive, and most self-congratulatory report, we probably should have predicted that pressure on the NSA would reach a point at which it felt forced to show its own hand. That time has come. The microscope has been turned around, and the security agency is now laying bare its own facts and figures.

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Fourth in a series. Before adopting the Chromie lifestyle and declaring independence from Apple two summers ago, I primarily was a Mac user. I wrote most of the so-called anti-Apple stories (so some commentary say) on the company's laptops. Chromebook still warms my heart, but for the summer -- and likely longer -- we part ways. On June 20, I walked out of Microsoft Store San Diego with a free Surface Pro 3. But I am accidental thief; that story later.

In April, I wrote about "My two years with Chromebook", giving loads of praise. I might still use Chrome OS as my primary platform today, but I'm a bifocal reader now and wanted to reduce eye-strain. I purchased a refurbished Surface RT preinstalled with Windows 8.1, because of the free Word, which will ease ebook publishing. I really enjoyed the user experience, much more than the Surface Pro reviewed in February 2013. Updated operating system is major reason. Also, Microsoft's ClearType improved my reading ability. Windows' terrific graphics -- on the tablet and Nokia Lumia Icon smartphone -- are good for the aging eyes, too.

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