As in previous years, most of the fun associated with CES actually happens before the famous trade show officially starts. Major tech companies rush to announce their new products ahead of the big opening day (January 7, for CES 2014) in an attempt to steal the show, like Lenovo just did with its Windows 8.1-based ThinkPad Tablet 8. For those who are not already there, CES could likely be over before it kicks off.

Nvidia is also part of the pre-CES announcements, as the US company has already announced a new mobile processor, called Tegra K1. The new chip is based on the Kepler architecture, that is used in the GeForce GTX 790Ti video card. "For the first time, next-generation PC gaming will now be available on mobile platforms", says Nvidia.

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All-in-one PCs are popular in the office and in customer-facing environments because they’re stylish and take up less space than conventional models.

HP has been an active player in this field for a while and has now updated its range of all-in-one (AiO) models with four new systems including -- for the first time -- one that runs Android.

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There are some near console-quality games available on the iPad, so it makes sense to have a console grade controller to play them with. Gaming peripherals and accessories maker SteelSeries today introduces the Stratus, a wireless gaming controller specifically designed for devices running iOS 7.

The controller, which claims 10+ hours of battery-life (and takes two hours to charge), connects to your iPhone or iPad using Bluetooth, freeing up Wi-Fi so you can play the games on the big screen via AppleTV using AirPlay Mirroring.

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Lenovo is making lots of announcements today, chief among them being the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon 14-inch Ultrabook. Designed using carbon fiber (which is lighter than magnesium and aluminum but stronger than both), the X1 Carbon weighs just 2.8 lbs, making it the lightest 14-inch Ultrabook in the world.

The X1 Carbon features the Adaptive Keyboard, which dynamically adjusts based on the software or application being used, and also integrates voice and gesture control. The PC comes with an improved ColorBurst Display which, according to Lenovo, "provides sharper, brighter images at higher resolutions with better viewing angles for a superior visual experience".

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Even though CES has yet to officially commence (it starts on January 7), tech companies have already started to announce products that will be showcased at the well-known trade show. One of the latest is Chinese maker Lenovo, which just unveiled its newest Windows 8.1 tablet, the ThinkPad Tablet 8.

Unlike some other 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets that we have seen so far, the ThinkPad Tablet 8 is the first to actually rival, specs-wise, the latest Android flagship slates and Apple's iPad Mini with Retina display. Heck, it is so intriguing that I might actually buy one (assuming that it will be available, locally).

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What comes to mind when you hear the name Pinterest? It's probably the famous content sharing site that enables users to pin their online finds to a virtual pinboard. But a British firm has proved in court that it registered the Pinterest trademark in Europe two months before the more famous Pinterest had even registered the name in the US. Premium Interest -- which feasibly shortens to Pinterest -- is a news aggregation service based in London founded by Alex Hearn.

The startup registered the Pinterest trademark in Europe in January 2012, but it wasn't until two months later that Pinterest filed for the trademark in the US. The ruling was made by the European Commission’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, Trade Marks and Designs Division "rejected in its entirety" Pinterest's claim to the name in Europe. The court made its decision back in November, but the ruling has only just been made public.

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It seems not a day goes by when there isn't some sort of news about a security breach or malware. And lately, those have become more high profile -- Target not too long ago had customer information leaked and Snapchat just surrendered data, with the latter not even bothering to apologize to its customers.

Now a report from security researchers at Fox IT claims that Yahoo has been spreading malware through the ads served on the site. "Clients visiting yahoo.com received advertisements served by ads.yahoo.com. Some of the advertisements are malicious", the company notes.

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Google may have just announced the closure of Flock and Bump, but it's not all about closures -- there are also acquisitions taking place as well. The latest addition to the Google fold is Bitspin. The name of the company may not be immediately familiar, but this is the company behind the Android alarm clock app Timely. At this stage it is not clear whether the company has been bought outright by Google or if there is a partnership in the cards, but there is certainly something afoot.

An announcement on the Bitspin website says:

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The start to any new year is always slow, and 2014 is no different. As the tech world struggled to shake off its New Year hangover, it was a pretty quiet week. The pace should start to pick up again, though, as CES is just around the corner!

The New Year wasn't the only cause for celebration; it was also Linus Torvalds' 44th birthday. Tablet makers were popping the champagne corks as it was revealed that such devices were among the most popular Christmas presents. Microsoft was also celebrating Windows 8 gaining a 10 percent market share, but Windows 7 also continues to grow in popularity.

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Music is my favorite hobby. Actually, calling it a "hobby" is probably a gross understatement. Whenever possible, I listen to music; before bed, while I write, in the car -- everywhere. When I think back to how much money I spent on music over the last few decades, it is actually depressing. Surely, I could have started an IRA instead and been on my way to retirement; no, I wouldn't trade my memories of listening to and buying music in record stores for anything.

However, the state of buying music has had its ups and downs over the last decade and a half. File-sharing services like Napster and BitTorrent sites have made music piracy easy. Ultimately, the music industry paid the price with a decline in CD sales. Many people blame the industry for its own woes, due to obscenely high CD prices in the late 90's and early 00's. However, all has not been lost -- there has been a digital-download purchase renaissance happening since the launch of Apple's iTunes in 2003. Year after year, sales of downloadable online music has increased -- until now. In 2013, online music sales have decreased for the first time ever. Oh noes!

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It's becoming quite a trend with Google. Buy up an interesting company or service, sit on it for a little while… and then shut it down. The latest victims of Google's seemingly never-ending cull are Flock and Bump. Bump was only acquired back in September, but it is already on the kill list. At the time of the acquisition, there was debate about whether the service might be rebranded, but as of the end of January it will be no more.

Bump was, in its day, quite an innovative tool, seen by many as the precursor to NFC. It enabled files to be quickly transferred between devices by bumping them together. Flock was a similar tool, but concerned solely with photo sharing. However as of 31 January, both apps will disappear from view, as announced in a blog post by CEO and co-founder of Bump, David Lieb:

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First in a series. Every week thousands of great new iOS apps arrive in the App Store. These range from big name games to tiny gems hoping to build up a following by word of mouth. A trip into the app store can be a world of discovery, but it’s an area we’ve somewhat neglected in the past here at BetaNews.

Well that’s set to change. Every Friday I’ll highlight the best new apps of the week -- both free and paid -- for iPhone and iPad. I’ll cover the biggest releases, naturally, but also endeavor to pull out some new or recently updated apps that you likely won’t be aware of.

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Sixty-second in a series.  The overall count of new apps that were published to the US Windows Store stayed well below the 2,000  mark for the second week in a row. Just 1,326 were published to it this week .

That's a slight decrease of 17 apps when compared to last week, and likely still caused by year-end festivities.

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Unchecky, the clever tool which adjusts setup programs so they don’t install adware by default, has been upgraded to version 0.2.

Core improvements start with support for many more installers. There have also been more than 20 issues resolved, some significant, which means this release is far more stable.

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Snapchat has received quite a bit of publicity after allegedly turning down buyout offers of billions of dollars from Facebook and Google. Now, the service is in the spotlight once again following a leak which exposed 4.6 million phone numbers and usernames.

Snapchat has responded to the leak in a blog post, which explains that the culprit is actually an abuse of the Find Friends feature. According to the service, "it was possible for an attacker to use the functionality of Find Friends to upload a large number of random phone numbers and match them with Snapchat usernames. On New Years Eve [sic], an attacker released a database of partially redacted phone numbers and usernames. No other information, including Snaps, was leaked or accessed in these attacks".

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