Panda Security has announced the availability of the first public beta for its do-everything home user suite, Panda Global Protection 2014. The package includes an antivirus engine, firewall, identity protection, spam filter, parental controls, virtual keyboard, local and online backup modules, file encryption and shredding, and remote PC access.

New features this time include boot analysis of your system for better detection of even the stealthiest of malware. There will also now be protection for Mac, iOS and Android devices (the latter component isn’t available yet, but clicking "Multi-device protection" within the program will tell you more).

With the purpose of further improving the user experience on Lumia smartphones, Nokia adds its own apps atop of Windows Phone 8. Most of the extra software is available to download directly from the Nokia collection inside the app store, but the remaining few are hidden from prying eyes.

When an update arrives, Lumia users can only wait for the Store app to display a counter and afterwards allow them to install the latest update. And, as Windows Phone users know, that can take some time -- a day or even longer sometimes. So what are your options? Well, you can look up QR codes and scan them or just use the LUMIA pusher app, which allows you to update every single extra right from your Lumia smartphone.

I used to think my iPod touch was the bee’s knees when it came to digital music players. Exposure to true audiophile-friendly models from the likes of Cowon and Colorfly, coupled with listening to FLAC tracks on my budget Sony Xperia phone taught me better, and for a while I was incredibly frustrated with the shortcomings of Apple’s supposedly market-leading player.

I’ve since discovered that most of that frustration can be targeted at the frankly rubbish Music app that ships with iOS. And now I’m ready to embrace decent sounding music on my iPod touch thanks to a fabulous app called Accudio Free 1.0.0.

Microsoft is on an update streak with Windows Azure, introducing significant new features at a steady pace. For the past couple of months we have witnessed an overwhelming number of changes meant to improve the company's cloud platform, including the Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service) support announced two weeks ago.

Microsoft's latest move in this never-ending chess game with its rivals is the Windows Azure SDK (Software Development Kit) 2.0 for .NET which now features improvements for websites, cloud services, storage, service bus and PowerShell automation. Let's take a look at what's new.

After a year-and-a-half on an iPhone 4S, I'm now on the current cutting-edge of smartphonery: Samsung Galaxy S4. I've used the phone for almost 3 days now. It's good. I'm excited. Are there any ball games on tonight?

Where was I? Oh yeah, the phone. I'm so excited that I could...do something that excited people do. Honestly, it's a phone. It's a very nice phone with some great features, a great physical design and a lot of bling features that I'll probably never use. I can believe it's the best of the Android phones, but I haven't tested all the others.

Using your laptop on the move can mean having to dart from one power source to another. Whether you have a new laptop with a brand new battery, or an aging system with a battery that has seen better days, the amount of time you can use your computer without plugging in is of paramount importance. There are steps you can take to maximize the life of your battery, and it is also something that FatBatt can help you with.

There are several facets to the app. Firstly, it aims to give you an accurate estimate of how long your battery is going to last before you need to charge it up. This enables you to make informed decisions about how to use the time available to you, and how to manage your next charging session.

Well, it's May 1 somewhere, which perhaps explains why Switch to Windows Phone popped up on Google Play tonight with the date. The concept is simple: Microsoft tries to ease the transition between platforms, or at least help evaluate if such move is workable. But the app-matcher comes up short and can't resolve something more fundamental: People with money invested in apps won't be quick to rebuy them elsewhere.

StWF is easy enough to use once installed; letting it scan and match on my Nexus claims to match 85 percent of the Android apps. But like most of the people reviewing the app, there's no way I see to view the list. Could it be the app posted early and the supporting services aren't switched on, or did Microsoft simply muck up?

Digg hopes to capitalize on Google Reader's unceremonious execution, scheduled for July 1, and no last-minute reprieve from the governor appears to be coming. Today the social-sharing site released more details about its plans, including a timeframe for the beta and results from its survey of RSS users.

The new Digg reader app will arrive in June, at least in beta form. However, the company promises that this is only the start of the work. "Our beta release in June will be just the beginning, a product built with experimentation in mind by a team eager to work with you to build something you love", Digg says in an announcement today.

Some days, I look at Google and my mind's eye sees Microsoft. This is one of them. Developers adopting Google+ Sign-In will get a big benefit in search results. The tie-in -- to monopoly search -- feels oh-so like Microsoft tactics to woo and keep developers on Windows during the 1980s and 90s. Yeah, I feel déjà vu right about now.

In February, the search and information giant added Google+ Sign-In as an option developers can include with their apps. In my news analysis then, I called the authentication service "bold and disruptive" and a "Facebook killer". The direct search tie-in makes my early sentiment a gross understatement. Google gives developers every reason to prefer its authentication mechanism, which hugely benefits the social network. The monopoly product is used to extend reach into an adjacent market. Say, didn't trustbusters on two continents prosecute Microsoft for tying together Windows and browser?

After using the Android and iOS counterparts, Facebook app for Windows Phone 8 feels rudimentary and out of place by comparison. Even though the interface takes some design cues from the operating system, it is not very intuitive, wastes too much screen estate and displays content in a visually unappealing way. The app would be rather nice, except 2010 has long passed.

Now Microsoft wants you to love the Facebook experience on Windows Phone 8, releasing a beta app that stands up against the Android and iOS alternatives. Gone is the infinite horizontal scrolling, now replaced by tabs that you might actually find useful. Swiping to the right reveals a tab to the left of the screen, containing a link to your profile, favorites, groups, friends, apps, settings, the usual policy information and a log-out button.

I have a question for you? Is 24-month financing the same as 2-year contract for service? Washington State attorney general believes so. He calls T-Mobile's "no contract" plans deceptive. Last week, the carrier agreed to making changes, paying court fees and offering customers refunds on phones purchased between March 26 and April 25.

About 45 minutes ago, I got email from T-Mobile offering full refunds on devices purchased during the time period (that would be iPhone 5 for my daughter and father-in-law). I live in California, not Washington State, but T-Mobile is headquartered there. So the court order is farther-reaching, which is why I'm posting today.

Windows Phone customers have options for driving apps -- both Bing and Nokia produce excellent solutions. Now one of the most intriguing options for Android and iOS is preparing for a push to the Microsoft mobile platform and impending competition with the existing solutions already in place.

Waze, which happens to be my GPS app of choice on Android, announces early beta testing on Windows Phone 8: "We are now opening a beta program for Windows Phone users and we'd like you to join" says the company in its announcement.

Microsoft has released Skype for Desktop 6.5 Beta, a new preview version for Windows users. The new release is notable for introducing support for Skype Video Messaging to Windows, a feature that allows users to send pre-recorded video messages to other Skype users when offline. The feature has already landed inSkype for Mac, Skype for iOS and Skype for Android.

The new video calling feature allows users to record video messages that can be sent to other contacts, even when they’re not online, and requires that Adobe Flash already be present on the computer.

Under Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has started to really embrace mobile, rolling out a succession of apps. That run continues today, with the launch of a new Yahoo app for Android.

Available now, the app delivers a stream of short news summaries with images, to give you the gist of something. If you have the time you can then read the full article at your leisure. You can personalize the content you see by scrolling to the end of each story, and ticking the topics you like, and removing those you’re not interested in. Your preferences are maintained across all of the devices you use. Yahoo says: "The more you use the app, the more relevant stories you'll start to see".

Piracy has long been a frustrating problem for software makers, musicians and movie and TV studios. The introduction of BitTorrent, while not designed to facilitate this theft, brought the problem to the forefront. Now one tiny game studio takes matters into its own hands with hilarious results.

Greenheart released Game Dev Tycoon simulation game, but the company also did something unique -- seeding a cracked version of that game on a Torrent site. The object of the play is to design games and build up your own successful studio.