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The storied NFL franchise, the New York Jets, once home to "Broadway" Joe Namath, hopefully has learned a Twitter lesson -- never ask something without fully thinking through the consequences, especially when your fans may be nearing the end of their proverbial ropes. Just ask Microsoft about this.

The organization chose last night, on the eve of free agency, to ask fans for their input on the direction the team should take. I seriously doubt the Jets had any real intention of allowing fans to overrule management, but meant more a fun gesture to make fans feel more a part of the process. The Jets proceeded to ask "Free agency begins tomorrow. The Jets priority should be _________".

There is a lot going on right now down in Austin, Texas. This week the city plays host to the popular SXSW Interactive show -- an idea that began as a music festival and then added technology to the mix. Today BitTorrent chose the location to remove the private tag from its Live streaming service and let the public play with it for the first time.

The service is a Peer-to-Peer live streaming platform that the company says is "for anyone with mobile video or webcams, for anyone in the moment, on the ground, or on the front lines; for everyone with the need to break news or break it down in real time".

Every once in a while I find myself having to reinstall the operating system from scratch on my laptop. Unlike previous occasions when I would contemplate choosing between Windows 7 and Windows 8 as the default OS, this time around something rather strange has happened. Instead of having to deal with conflicting thoughts, and even remorse, I installed Windows 8 and never looked back. I now wear my "Windows 8 user" tag proudly and not with regret.

If you asked me whether I really want Windows 8 not much longer than two months ago I would have said that "I love and miss Windows 7" -- and for good reasons at the time. My complaints mostly focused around the Modern UI, which was designed with tablet use in mind and not for users like me (and likely you as well) that are accustomed to Microsoft's operating systems on more traditional devices like full-fledged PCs and laptops. So what changed?

Once upon a time Google Chrome was considered the go-to browser for those looking for a fast, speedy browser, even on low-powered computers. These days, however, those running older 32-bit OSes with 4GB or less than RAM might struggle to reconcile the sluggish performance they witness on a day-to-day basis with the supposedly nimble Chrome.

The problem with Chrome -- and Firefox too -- is that the more tabs you have open, the more memory Chrome gobbles up. It doesn’t take much to assign gigabytes of RAM to Chrome, which may leave your computer creaking at the seams. Short of closing down those tabs, what can you do? The solution lies in a tiny, elegant add-on called OneTab for Chrome 1.3, which has just been launched.

On the day Microsoft promises an Internet Explorer 10 update that enables Adobe Flash without white-list restrictions, guess what happens? Adobe releases another Flash security bulletin. This is the wrong contest, competing with Oracle's Java to see which can be the most vulnerable platform on your computer.

An official statement from Adobe's Wendy Poland informs that this latest update is "to address security updates in Adobe Flash Player 11.6.602.171 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh, Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.273 and earlier versions for Linux, Adobe Flash Player 11.1.115.47 and earlier versions for Android 4.x, and Adobe Flash Player 11.1.111.43 and earlier versions for Android 3.x and 2.x. These updates address vulnerabilities that could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system".

François Beaufort, the developer who recently made headlines by outing Chromebook Pixel, is stirring up things again. He uncovered code that all but assures Google Now will soon come to Chrome and Chrome OS. I can't overstate how enormously game-changing the service will be. Google Now is the purest evolution of sync and the killer app for the contextual cloud computing era.

We are on the cusp of Star Trek computing, where information is available at the command of your voice and the machine is a personal assistant that anticipates you. Google Now delivers a hint of this future on Android devices. Bringing it to PCs puts the search and information giant ahead of everyone because, with the exception of a possible future Microsoft-Facebook partnership, no other company has the resources to provide so much personalized information to so many people in so many places in so many ways.

If you were anywhere on the Internet yesterday then you likely learned that Marvel comics, publishers of popular series like The Hulk, Captain America, Thor (sadly a personal favorite of my wife) and more, teamed up with Comixology for a giveaway. The Marvel #1 promotion wanted to distribute over 700 free comics via its platform.

Well, to say there was demand may be the biggest understatement I make today. Fans flocked to the website and the servers were periodically overloaded and taken down. Now the company has been forced to suspend the giveaway as it tries to recuperate from the overwhelming onslaught.

I've been a user, and a fan, of Soluto since the Tel Aviv-based PC management service launched back in 2010. It helped me reduce my boot time by a few seconds, but more importantly it halved the boot time of my in-laws' PC. A move to the cloud means the service now lets me remotely solve issues on several PCs belonging to less tech-savvy friends and family, and I'd definitely recommend it.

Soluto offers various useful features -- it can cut boot times and de-clutter browsers; it will let you remotely manage system security, and even add a Start menu to Windows 8. By collecting anonymous user data, Soluto also offers a fascinating insight into PC use around the globe. Did you know, for example, that in Vietnam the average PC takes a minute less to boot up than PCs in the US and UK? I chatted to Tomer Dvir, Co-founder and CEO of Soluto, about the service, and he told me how it's evolved and how the Soluto community is actively working to find solutions to the system and software crashes that plague PC users everywhere.

Launch some applications and they’ll display the Windows User Account Control prompt, asking "Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?". And while this is great for security, if you’re running the same trusted program on a regular basis then you might begin to find it just a little annoying.

You could avoid this by turning off UAC entirely, but that’s not ideal (it does have some security value). And so a better idea might be to use ElevatedShortcut. It’s a tiny portable tool which helps you to creates shortcuts that won’t generate a UAC prompt, no matter what you’re trying to launch.

Great news for BlackBerry fans! Just yesterday AT&T announced that it will carry the BlackBerry Z10 in its smartphone portfolio, and today the recently-introduced device is available to pre-order at the US mobile operator.

On a two-year contract at AT&T, the BlackBerry Z10 goes for $199.99 alongside a qualifying data plan and new activation. The US carrier also offers a one-year contract option at which point the price of the device goes up by $250 to $449.99. And, if you want to pay for the BlackBerry Z10 upfront AT&T charges you $549.99.

Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia’s latest Window Phone 8 handsets, the mid-range Lumia 720 and the entry-level Lumia 520, will go on sale in the UK from the 1 April, but would-be purchasers can pre-order the devices now.

Contract-free prices will vary slightly depending on the retailer (naturally). Clove will be selling the Lumia 520 for £169.99, while the Lumia 720 is priced at £299.99. Unlocked Mobiles has the Lumia 520 for £159.98 and the Lumia 720 for £294.98. For comparison, in the US the Lumia 520 costs $185 and the Lumia 720 $338, both before taxes.

As if the hype surrounding the next Galaxy flagship was not enough, after a couple of teasers Samsung released yet another one on Tuesday with a picture showing what appears to be the new Galaxy S IV. Well, is it?

Samsung asked us "Who’s ready for the Global Unpacked Event on March 14?", but if that's what "the next big thing" looks like, count me out. All the blogs were raving today with big headlines suggesting that Samsung actually released a teaser showing the Galaxy S IV in a shadowy background, when in fact the device in question is the plain old Galaxy S III bar the headphone grill and likely surrounding sensors and front-facing camera.

Notepad is such a horribly basic editor that there’s now a host of more powerful alternatives, all competing for your attention. But if you’ve sampled these then you’ll know that they’re often complex, aimed at programmers, and not so useful to people who don’t need Perl syntax highlighting, 18 clipboards, or whatever other high-end options they’re offering.

NoteTab Light, fortunately, takes a more mid-range approach. It has plenty of advanced features, it’s very configurable (the Options dialog splits its many settings across 17 tabs), but is also easy to learn, and you’ll quickly feel at home.

I wasn't going to write this as a separate story, resorting to Google+ and Twitter posts instead. But, hey, I'm Mr. Chromebook over here and would be remiss not informing the two people who somehow missed the news (You know who you are). Drum roll. Finally, four months after Samsung released the Arm Chromebook, you have Netflix. Stream it, baby, because you finally can.

"Today we launched HTML5 video playback for streaming content from Netflix for the ARM-based Samsung Chromebook, so you can now enjoy your favorite Netflix shows & movies", according to Google. There's not lots of fanfare in the statement, but I expect some from those of you who can finally couch-potato before your Chrome OS toy.

Launch an application on the Windows desktop and you have complete freedom to position and size its window however you like (as long as it’s resizeable, anyway). But while this is all very flexible, it also brings management problems when you need to position windows precisely, set and restore a particular window size, and so on.

There are some keyboard shortcuts which might help, just a little (press Win+Shift+the up or right arrow to maximise the current window vertically or horizontally, for instance). If you need more control, though, you might like to try Gridy, which provides plenty of useful windows management features in a very compact and convenient package.