China arguably makes the technology world go around. While the United States and other countries are a source of popular ideas, the manufacturing and production implementation of those ideas often happens in China. And so, the country is a very important economy in which to prosper and grow.

The Chinese people have taken favor to an unlikely operating system, Ubuntu Kylin, which Canonical calls "a version of Ubuntu optimized for them". In other words, Linux is gaining ground in the most populous country in the world -- the People's Republic of China.

Google is delving into its wallet once again, fishing out a little cash and going on a spending spree. This time around, it is Israeli startup SlickLogin that is being put in the shopping cart. You may not have heard of the company, and that’s because its services haven't even launched yet, but it is looking to revolutionize two-factor authentication. Additional layers of security are being added by every website worth its salt, and SlickLogin has an interesting alternative to the traditional password.

Like many other two-factor security systems, this makes use of smartphones -- but in a somewhat different way. Rather than generating a unique code that is emailed out and needs to be typed into a website, SlickLogin is audio-based. A unique sound is generated and played through a computer's speakers. So far, so weird. To make things more interesting, and probably more secure, the sound is inaudible thanks to being ultra-sonic, and an app on a smartphone placed near the speaker picks up the sound and completes the authentication process.

It seems to be hacking season at the moment, with new high profile victims hitting the headlines just about every day. The latest target is Kickstarter. The website, which exists to help projects raise the funds they need to get off the ground, was hacked on Wednesday, but details of the attack -- along with an apology -- have only just been made public. If you're wondering why is has taken so many days for Kickstarter to speak out, the company has pre-empted your question and supplied a FAQ: "We immediately closed the breach and notified everyone as soon we had thoroughly investigated the situation".

In a statement on the Kickstarter website CEO Yancey Strickler explained that the company had been contacted by law enforcement officials and alerted to the activity of hackers. It's not clear what users are likely to find more alarming, the fact that the site was hacked in the first place, or the fact that it was not Kickstarter that noticed, but a third party.

The Seattle Seahawks overwhelming victory in this year's Super Bowl may now be a memory, but the ads certainly live on. Those that debuted during the big game continue to run during our daily TV shows, and Google's video service has been polling viewers to get a feel for what really came out on top that Sunday.

While everyone likely had a personal favorite, there was a consensus amongst the masses, and the company has unveiled its top five from the NFL championship.

WindowsX has updated both of its skinning tools, Windows 8 UX Pack 8.0 for PCs running Windows 7, and Windows 8 Transformation Pack 8.0 for earlier versions of Windows, including XP.

The latest version of the tools, which aim to give users the Windows 8 look and feel in earlier versions of Windows, have been updated to better reflect the changes introduced in Windows 8.1 as well as provide a number of other tweaks and bug fixes.

It is usually Bill Gates who is heralded for his philanthropy, but according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, it is Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg who is currently the most generous. In another change from the norm, malware threats to OS X, Linux and Android have increased, showing it is not just Windows that is prone to attack. As if to prove this, Mac malware has been discovered that has been designed to steal Bitcoins from victims. Factor in all of Apple's devices and the company managed to sell more units than Windows PCs are sold, although this revelation caused quite some debate.

Twitter found itself in the headlines after the James Dean estate tried to gain control of a fan's James Dean-related account. Twitter has already spoken out about the shackles binding companies from being open about government data requests -- companies are practically falling over themselves to add their names to the list -- and Dropbox is in agreement. The European Commission has expressed a desire to wrestle some control of the internet from US hands voicing fears that too much influence was being exerted,

Adobe’s open source code editor Brackets has received an update to Sprint 36, adding some significant new features.

Smart file watchers mean the editor and Project tree now recognize when files are modified outside of Brackets, and update automatically. You’re always looking at the latest state of your project, no manual refresh required.

Ubuntu is a wildly popular Linux distribution. Heck, it is probably the most well known distro. However, it is also based on Debian. While Canonical undoubtedly puts a lot of work into its operating system, many of the components are developed by others, including the Debian and Gnome communities -- it is a team effort.

Canonical has not exactly been a team player. If you recall, last year the company announced it was not using the Wayland display server in support of its own, called Mir. This angered many in the Linux community. With that said, Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical founder, shocks the open-source world by conceding in his fight against systemd. Yes, he announces that Ubuntu will abandon upstart as a result of systemd being selected by the Debian technical committee.

Leave a PC unattended for a while and the standard lock screen keeps it reasonably safe. Press Win+L, the lock screen appears, and only someone who knows your password will be able to restore the desktop.

This is simple, straightforward, and easy to use. It's not particularly configurable, though, so if you need more control then you might prefer ScreenBlur.

Laplink Software has released Laplink Sync for iOS 7.0, the latest release in Laplink's new Sync family, a collection of tools designed to allow users to manually sync media and other files across multiple platforms.

The app allows users to sync photos and videos between iPads, iPhones and iPod touches, and -- for an extra fee -- can also be used to sync with Android mobiles and Windows PCs running Laplink Sync for desktop. A Mac version is currently in development.

The world of VoIP services is one packed with various names bustling for attention. One of the biggest names in the game is Viber, which started small but grew impressively as it spread across platforms -- now it has grown to the point that it is deemed worthy of handing over $900 million. At least that is the view of Rakuten, the Japanese firm behind Play.com and the Kobo eReader that agreed to part with this not insubstantial sum of money for an outright purchase of Viber Media Ltd.

With around 280 million registered users, Viber could be quite a money-maker for Rakuten who explained that the service has a "rapidly growing numbers of users, especially in emerging countries". With its fingers already in various online pies -- ebooks, shopping and streaming media through Wuaki.tv -- Viber represents yet another string to Rakuten's bow as the company "aims to be the global number one internet services" provider.

Sixty-eight in a series. Welcome to this week's edition of the Best Windows 8 apps series.

After last week's negative growth we are seeing a slight increase in apps this week. It is nothing to brag about though, as the total number of apps increased by 50 only, but still better than negative growth.

Years ago, when people thought of the future, videophones were prominent in their imaginations. Television shows such as Star Trek and The Jetsons made use of video communication. Today, we have many different choices when video chatting -- Apple's Facetime, Google's Hangouts and Microsoft's Skype are a few popular ones.

However, when it comes to multi-platform video communication, for many people, Skype is the best choice. No other popular video chatting service will work on iOS, Windows Phone, Android, OS X, Windows, etc. With that said, Microsoft is looking to give prizes to some people that utilize Skype often on multiple devices.

For many, Valentine's Day is about being with a loved one, making gifts, and celebrating their relationship. However, for eccentric T-Mobile CEO John Legere, this day is about breaking up and feeling good about it. Eh?

That is not quite logical at first, until you realize that Legere is actually talking about breaking up with your mobile operator of choice and showing T-Mobile, the self-proclaimed Un-carrier, your love. And, the man has some nice pictures to go along with his new advice for Valentine's Day.

According to data from market intelligence specialist IDC worldwide shipments of personal and entry level storage (PELS) grew by 13.6 percent in 2013.

By the end of the year 75.2 million units had been shipped. Shipment values were up too, growing 6.2 percent over the year to reach $6.7 billion.