The 2014 South by Southwest festival is in full swing. It's a combination of tech, music and film rolled into one Texas-sized good time. While it all sounds like a fun-house, there is a serious note to some of the discussions. AVG was part of a forum on connected cars, taking a look at the data collected and what happens to it.

It's not all doom and gloom -- nobody showed a hack that will let the perpetrator literally take over your car. But who controls the data being collected by said vehicle is certainly a security concern. The security company's Judith Bitterli spoke during the meeting and then put her thoughts together in a quick post.

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Windows 8.x has become an easy target for Microsoft haters. While the disdain for the operating system is not limited to fanboys of Apple, Google and Linux, they are definitely among the loudest -- and rightfully so. After all, Microsoft has dominated the home computing landscape for decades and people have been waiting for a misstep.

In reality, Windows 8.x is the first true Windows stumble. Sure, Vista wasn't great but history has been more unkind to that OS than it truly deserved. It wasn't so bad if you had decent hardware. While I like Windows 8.x, it is problematic -- on a desktop. Well, at least it was. You see, Windows 8.1 Update is an amazing update that dramatically improves the experience for mouse and keyboard users. My colleague Mark Wilson calls it the final nail in the coffin -- I call it the first move towards greatness. It is time for Windows users to stop crying like babies.

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Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Live365... internet radio has become more normal to today's generation than that box which sat on the nightstand or kitchen counter when I was young. Now a new survey seems to show the correlation between age and the new way of listening to music.

Edison Research conducted a random phone survey, targeting users aged 12 and older and the results were rather emphatic. The numbers were collated for the 12 and up, 18-34 and 18-49 demographics and it seems many of you just may be listening to internet radio while you are reading my story.

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Whether they involve upgrading equipment, switching operating systems or moving to the cloud, data center modernization projects can be complex and costly.

According to Agile Data specialist Delphix, many organizations estimate that their modernization projects will take years and cost millions of dollars whilst impacting on existing operations.

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In an ideal world, updating Windows would never require any manual intervention. You’d set up your PC to install updates automatically, and get on with other things, leaving your computer to manage any patches all on its own.

Life isn’t always that simple, of course. If you need to update a PC which doesn’t have a fast (or any) internet connection, or maybe you have to manage the updates for several systems, then the regular Windows Update applet may not be enough.

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I'm not going to rehash all of the reasons Microsoft has to show concern over rival Chrome OS, but now Google is providing one more to add to that list. It's not major, and likely won't sway someone's decision towards a Chromebook, but it heaps another straw onto the camel's back.

The search giant is offering a 60-day free trial of its Google Music All Access, which normally costs users $9.99 per month -- or $7.99 if you got in very early, as I did.

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Apache Software Foundation has unveiled the first public beta of its forthcoming Apache OpenOffice 4.1 release. The new version continues to build on the major changes introduced when version 4 was released last year.

Although termed a minor release, version 4.1 does add one major new feature -- the ability to commentate and annotate on text ranges -- as well as a number of significant improvements. It also moves to 64-bit only on the OS X platform.

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Delivering services from the cloud has changed the face of business computing in recent years. But load balancing hasn’t really evolved beyond locally deployed systems.

Until now that is. Cloud-based website security and performance specialist Incapsula has announced an integrated cloud system to provide in datacenter and cross-data center load balancing as well as automatic failover for disaster recovery.

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Go to work on the Windows desktop and the mouse cursor is normally very useful, a helpful guide which ensures you’re always pointing and clicking in exactly the right place.

Sometimes, though, it’s a little different. If you’re taking screen grabs, maybe watching a full-screen application, you might not want the mouse cursor around. And that’s where AutoHideMouseCursor can help.

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Apple's policy of updating older iPhones to the latest iOS version has its perks. Users are better protected against security exploits, get access to new features (but not all of them), and Apple can tout low fragmentation levels. However, there is also a downside. Newer iOS releases often make older iPhones sluggish.

I have first-hand experience with this, as my iPhone 3G ran slower after updating it to iOS 4.0, than it did before. The same thing has also happened with the iPhone 4, which Apple had vetted to receive the iOS 7.0 update, even though the mobile operating system was designed to work best with beefier hardware. Luckily, it looks like iOS 7.1, that was released yesterday, attempts to solve this problem, albeit not entirely.

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TotalEdit Professional is an interesting and very capable Notepad replacement. But it used to cost $29.99, a major issue when competing editors such as Notepad++ cost nothing at all.

It seems that the developers have also realized this is a problem, though. And as they’re looking to Android and iPhone products as a means to generate revenue, TotalEdit Professional is now available for free. (It still installs as a trial version, but just register with the license code 2D5B073C-93D0-6D40-8970-B041-C2C and it’ll be activated right away).

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Qi is one of the most popular wireless charging standards, used by many companies in devices like chargers, speakers, smartphones and tablets. It adds convenience to such products, giving users the option to top up the battery on their handsets without plugging cables into them. I personally use a Qi wireless charger, made by Nokia, with my Lumia 920 and Google Nexus 7.

One of the hurdles Qi has to overcome to become more popular and attractive to consumers is mass-market support from key players, like smartphone vendors and mobile operators, which can dictate which standard they embrace. Qi appears to be on the right track, as it just added Microsoft and Samsung to its growing list of supporters.

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When the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 were unveiled last year in Manhattan, I was on hand. While the tablets were the stars of the event, there were many interesting accessories too. My favorite accessory was the Surface Music Kit as it allowed music creation in a unique way. However, the Power Cover was intriguing too. You see, it acts like the normal type cover, but dramatically extends the battery.

Sadly, the Power Cover has been unavailable for purchase. Surface fans such as myself, have been clamoring to obtain it. Luckily, a release date has finally come to light -- March 19th. It will work with the Surface 2, Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 -- the Surface RT has been left out of the party.

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When it comes to computers, there are two routes to take -- buy a pre-built model from a manufacturer like Dell or build your own. While you can save money by going the pre-built route, you don't get to pick the specific components. Sure, you can pick the size of the drives or the amount of memory, but the brands and quality can be a question mark.

One of the most important components of any system build, is the RAM. It can be tempting to buy a cheap generic brand, but that is never a good idea. After all, system stability can take a major hit from cheap memory. Some of the best memory uses Samsung modules. Today, that company announces it has achieved mass-production of 20nm 4Gb DDR3 memory modules. This means improvements to smartphones, tablets and PCs.

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Early this evening, I exchanged emails with someone writing a blog post about Chromebook. He seeks sales numbers that I doubt are available. Success is a difficult measure despite the hype. In January post "The trouble with new Chromebooks" here and "Twenty-Fourteen isn't Year of the Chromebook" on my personal site, I raise questions about the computer's future.

I extend reservations in the text of my email reply, which follows.

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