Cloud-based sales platform specialist Seismic is launching a new version of its product aimed at giving marketing teams a deeper insight into how their material influences actual sales.

It's focused on increasing conversion rates for B2B sales, shortening sales cycles and boosting customer retention rates.

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"Abandonware". It’s the scourge of the industry. Every time a vendor abandons a software product, a puppy dies. Or an orphan. Or a Java developer.

Regardless, nobody likes to see their favorite app/game/platform get left behind. It’s the worst kind of techie betrayal. You spend days, weeks or even months mastering a product only to have the virtual rug pulled out from under you.

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Since it was brought to our attention three months ago, Heartbleed made countless headlines due to the severe dangers it poses. The vulnerability, which affects systems using the OpenSSL library, allows hackers to penetrate affected servers without leaving any trace of their actions behind. Its severity would lead us to assume the people responsible to prevent it from making any (more) damage have already taken all the necessary precautions in this direction.

And, indeed, popular service providers have been quick to address the problem, with the likes of Google, Facebook and Microsoft publicly stating whether the vulnerability could affect their products and users, and issuing patches where needed. This has given us a false sense of security, knowing that the worst has passed. Yet, even today, Heartbleed can still do quite a bit of damage.

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BlackBerry is still alive and kicking in the smartphone market, at least in terms of intentions if not market share, and the company will be launching a major handset by the name of Passport this September.

This phone was previously known as "Windermere", and the spec was rumoured last month, with the handset boasting a 4.5-inch screen with a 1440 x 1440 resolution, offering a very sharp 453 dpi.

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Even though it has gone to the effort of switching to another rendering engine to reach more users, Norwegian software company Opera, in mid-2013, ceased to further update the Linux version of its browser, leaving users without new features, bug fixes and security patches. In the meantime, Opera's main competitors, like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, continued to give them the level of support that they deserve.

Now, after close to a one-year hiatus, the company behind the well-known browser announces the availability of Opera Developer 24 for Linux (and, of course, OS X and Windows). It is an unexpected release, and also great news for those hoping to witness the browser's triumphant return in the land of the open-source kernel.

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Closing one Windows process is usually straightforward. Clicking File > Exit should get the job done, Alt+F4 may also work, and Task Manager is on hand if you need it (Ctrl+Shift+Esc, right-click the process, select End Task).

Life gets a little more complicated if you want to close multiple instances of one program. Or restart them. You can still do this from Windows, but ProcessKO (also available in a 64-bit version) makes it much easier to close, restart and generally work with troublesome processes.

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LinkedIn has launched its first standalone job search app that provides a dedicated service for users looking to search and apply for jobs on the social network.

The decision to release LinkedIn Job Search on iOS comes as no surprise, with 40 per cent of the network's 300 million users accessing the site on mobile devices.

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For many organizations under 100 users or so, there has been a trend on the rise that is either decimating formal IT departments entirely, or trimming them down to bare minimum levels. Many in the IT industry wouldn't notice it, because, of course, they may likely be working for such a department themselves. It's hard to have an objective viewpoint when you're part of the status quo.

As an outside consultant, who works with a variety of organizations small and large, I see my clients and their support structures from a different lens. Being an outsider here has its advantages, namely in being able to see many of these IT departments for what they are.

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A shipment of OnePlus One smartphones heading for Europe has been delayed for two weeks due to having incorrect font on the back of the handsets.

In a somewhat embarrassing setback, Android World reported that the company explained to consumers the reasons for the delay to the prototype shipment in an e-mail sent this week.

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Social media is increasingly important to brands, both as a marketing tool and in terms of managing their image. But fully monitoring and understanding social trends is impossible using only human analysts.

Data intelligence specialist Bottlenose has launched a solution in the form of Nerve Center 2.0, which gives brands the ability to act on social and media-driven trends in real time using automatic trend detection and alerts, emotion and demographic analysis, and open APIs.

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Facebook is at the heart of delivering applications to a generation of content-hungry consumers, who expect short, intense experiences and flawless execution when they engage with brands. Because of this, companies like Facebook invest millions to ensure their platforms are robust enough to withstand almost any situation.

Apps look simple to the user, but under the hood they are often incredibly complex. When someone Likes a post on Facebook or places a comment, a single click triggers millions of lines of code and activates thousands of servers, so managing these applications is challenging.

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While Long Island is rather close to Manhattan, it is a far different experience. NYC is full of things to do, Long Island simply isn't. Retail is a pastime for us -- going to Best Buy, Target or the mall is a big deal. So, when Microsoft announced plans to open up a new store in the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, there was a huge buzz. Lately, that buzz was magnified when a Demi Lovato concert was announced to accompany the opening. Microsoft would be giving away tickets and chances to meet the singer.

Truth be told, I did not know who Demi Lovato was (a pop singer), but apparently I am in the minority as thousands upon thousands of people (mostly young girls) started lining up at 10pm the night earlier to sleep at the mall so they could achieve tickets at 11am the following day. Yes, they waited in line 13 hours! This resulted in a really exciting store opening and BetaNews was there covering it.

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It’s tough to make an impact in the crowded Windows image viewer market, and so most newcomers try to impress users with advanced features, like their vast file format support or a lengthy list of editing tools. And that would be fine, except they often forget about the basics, like building a comfortable interface which people actually want to use.

Xlideit is following a different path. There’s no RAW format support here, no red-eye removal, no automatic image correction or other extras. Instead the developer is focusing on the interface fundamentals first, and so far he’s doing a very good job.

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QIP Shot is an interesting screen capture tool with some unusual bonus features.

It doesn’t just capture the usual full screen, active window or freehand rectangle, for instance. You can also grab ellipses, freehand areas and even scrolling windows (web pages which are too lengthy to fit on the screen, perhaps).

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This is the week of the Surface Pro 3. Brian had already attended the launch event earlier in the month, and has provided an essential list of hardware and software purchasers need to grab for the best all round experience -- he even goes as far as suggesting that it's better than a MacBook Air. Even before launch there was an update available for the tablet-cum-laptop, and there was also news that the Intel Core i3 and i7 models would be shipping earlier than previously expected. But not all of the products we looked at this week were quite so "every day". There was the wifi doorbell complete with camera, and also the prospect of charging your phone wirelessly with your pants -- yes you did read that correctly.

The Windows Phone market is dominated by Nokia, but a new batch of handsets has been unveiled by Indian manufacturer Micromax. If Android is your mobile OS of choice, you may be thinking about venturing into the rooted world. This week a new tool was released that makes the process as quick and painless as possible, opening up a whole new breed of apps and options. Joe decided to take a walk on the wild side and adopt the Nokia Lumia Icon as his phone of choice. In the Android arena, a new contender entered -- the Amazon Fire Phone. Will a kill switch be added? Microsoft and Google have agreed to add it to their mobile operating systems.

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