G Data has announced the availability of its new consumer product line, including G Data Antivirus 2014, G Data InternetSecurity 2014, and the high end G Data TotalProtection 2014.

And the company is particularly highlighting its new CloseGap technology, which apparently “provides fast, effective protection against computer malware, based on a balanced combination of reactive and proactive malware detection techniques”.

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Jolicloud may perhaps be the coolest cloud service you have not yet discovered. Created back in 2009, the company derived from Joli OS into a platform to access your cloud-based online life. It brings together everything you have stored on all of the various cloud services and, if you are like me, then that can be a wide net to cast.

The service finally adds search -- a feature long sought after by users. The company announces that it has "made it very easy to search anything you have in your Jolidrive: music, photos, documents, videos in your online storages but search can also help you find great content in all your favorite social services like Instagram, Tumblr, SoundCloud, Youtube and more".

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Google may be a company of many personalities -- browser and operating system developer, connected-device manufacturer, fiber-optic Internet servicer, search giant and social network, among many others. But the core business is still about one thing: Advertising, as calendar first quarter results, delivered today after the closing bell, show.

Revenue rose 31 percent to $$13.97 billion, year over year; operating income, excluding Traffic Acquisition Costs, was $3.48 billion, up from $3.39 billion. Net income climbed to 3.35 billion up from $2.89 billion. That's $9.94 earnings per share, including costs associated with discontinued operations.

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Today, after the closing bell, Microsoft revealed what might be the closest-watched quarterly results in 11 years. Fiscal third quarter, like the one in 2002, marks a time of record-low PC shipments, with blame falling on the newest operating system. In recent weeks, every idiot arm-chair pundit imaginable has taken to the web to proclaim Windows 8 a failure and prophesying Microsoft's doom.  Not so fast. This company is still a money machine.

For fiscal Q3, ended March 31, Microsoft revenue reached $20.49 billion. Operating income: $7.61 billion and net income was $6.06 billion, or 72 cents a share.

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Marissa Meyer is bringing big changes to Yahoo and one of them is apparently getting the old search site back into the public focus with new mobile apps. That process begins today in the world of both Apple and meteorology -- fitting since tornado and thunderstorm season is getting underway and hurricanes are on the horizon.

Today the company announces a sleek new weather app that is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch -- uninspiringly named "Yahoo! Weather App". Marco Wirasinghe claims the new app will "bring together beautiful images from our Flickr community to show you current local conditions, with all the details you want to know about the forecast".

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Xbox is due for a refresh this year and it's a good time to write my wishlist. I’ve been accused of being a Windows fanboy, which I’m not. I’ve also been accused of being a Windows Phone fanboy. No again. But I’ve never been accused of being an Xbox fanboy, which I absolutely am.

With the Xbox, Microsoft has a stellar platform on its hands. The console has gone from a third place alsoran to a major player in the console wars: a strategy Microsoft desperately needs to adapt to Windows Phone, but that’s a different article. As the world of computing shifts to mobile, so is gaming, allowing companies like Apple to get into the business. What do vendors that build consoles need to do to adjust their strategy? I can’t say much for Sony or Nintendo because I don’t use those platforms anymore. For Microsoft, here’s my wish list for the next Xbox platform update that I think will allow it to remain a major gaming industry player despite the shift to mobile computing.

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What were they thinking?

It made sense when Microsoft decided to update Windows to be an operating system not just for PCs, but for tablets. In fact, it was a rather clever strategy: Declare tablets to be PCs, and then show that Windows tablets do more than Android or iOS, including running all those existing Windows programs. So far, makes sense.

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I have previously gone on record as wanting a smartwatch. Yes, I still wear a watch because I am a runner and we are fastidious about time and distance and having a timepiece that prevents the need for driving a route to get the measurement is a major time and gas saver. Previously I looked at Pebble, with its built-in RunKeeper, but today TomTom changes that.

The company announces the TomTom GPS Sport Watches, built specifically for the athlete -- a new range of GPS watches designed to deliver "at-a-glance" performance information for runners, cyclists and swimmers.

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There’s been a lot of talk and rumors flying about Twitter’s new music discovery service, but today the social network revealed the details and launched the first app for it.

Based partly on the social site’s recent acquisition of the music startup We Are Hunted, Twitter #music is described as a "new service that will change the way people find music".

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If you are unable to comment on BetaNews stories, our apologies, comment service Disqus suffers service problems this morning. A reader alerted me about 30 minutes ago. When I couldn't comment on any story, I had headed over to Disqus only to get an "unavailable" message.

"Disqus has been intermittently unavailable for the past few minutes, and we are working on a solution. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate your patience", according to the Status site, which I got to from a Tweet. BetaNews is one of many sites that relies on the service for comments.

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If you don’t look after your computer, it will start to slow down and misbehave. Smartphones too can get clogged up and begin to lag as the amount of storage space and available memory starts to diminish with use.

There are lots of good, free apps available that you can use to make sure your Android (or iOS) device is running at peak performance. Here are some of the more recent.

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Every time you create, modify or access a folder on your PC, Windows records these details in the Registry. There’s nothing shady about this -- the action is a key part of recording your folder view settings, and maintaining a list of your favorite folders -- but it does introduce a privacy risk, as snoopers can use the data to track some of your PC activities.

Exactly how much information is exposed here will vary, but if you’re not already familiar with the issue then it makes sense to check your PC with the free ShellBag AnalyZer & Cleaner. There’s no adware, no installation required, just download and launch the program and in a few seconds you’ll have the full picture.

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Have you ever heard the saying "Better late than never"? After a string of modest (and even disappointing) quarters, Nokia's Windows Phone bet is starting to pay off as Lumia sales finally show noticeable signs of improvement.

In Q1 2013, the Finnish manufacturer managed to sell a not-so-shabby 5.6 million Lumia smartphones, roughly two-thirds of which are Windows Phone 8-based devices such as the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. Lo and behold, Lumia sales even surpassed those of the low-end Asha and Symbian smartphone series, with Nokia managing to move just five million of the former and 0.5 million of the latter. Considering the price difference between Windows Phone devices and Asha and Symbian-based ones, that is impressive.

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A company that operates huge data centers around the world is probably not the thing that springs to mind when you think 'green'. But that is exactly the case in the latest Green Power Partnership Top 50 List released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA rankings of usage figures are based on annualized partner contract amounts (kilowatt-hours). Microsoft's Josh Henretig announces "According to the EPA, Microsoft is purchasing nearly 1.9 billion kWh of green power, which is enough energy to meet 80 percent of Microsoft’s electricity use in the US".

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Two days after AT&T started taking pre-orders for Samsung's Android flagship,  US mobile operator Sprint has made the Galaxy S4 available for purchasers who wish to get their hands on the smartphone before the official sales day.

If you pre-order a Galaxy S4 from Sprint, America's third-largest carrier says that it will do its "best to get it to you by Saturday, April 27". That's three days before shipments start on AT&T. But what's the damage on your credit card? On a two-year contract the Sprint-branded 16 GB Galaxy S4 -- available in both Black Mist and White Frost -- runs for $249.99, which is $50 more compared to what AT&T asks for the smartphone in the same 16GB storage trim.

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