Select developers already have access to Google’s futuristic glasses, but now the search giant has launched a competition giving ordinary American citizens the chance to buy a pair before they’re launched, and become a "Glass Explorer" (as Google terms those "bold, creative individuals who want to help shape the technology").

To be in with a shot you need to tell Google, via Google+ or Twitter, what you would do with the glasses if you had a pair. The more creative your answer, the more likely the chance of you actually being selected. "Wear them on the subway and get mugged" probably won’t win.

Parental controls software is normally bulky, complex, and the kind of application which can take some considerable time to configure. There may be lots of files to install, resident components which must always be running in the background, user profiles to create, content filters to customize, and the list goes on.

If your child protection needs are simple, though, you may not have to worry about any of this, as DNS Angel can provide a reasonable amount of protection with a single click.

I have to be completely honest -- I am not a fan of the default Android keyboard. For people like me who write in languages other than English on a day-to-day basis, it misses the mark entirely, and does not adapt to my writing style either. Ever since I bought my Galaxy Nexus only one Android keyboard has lived up to my expectations -- SwiftKey. And now there's a new version, and it's even better than ever.

On Wednesday, after a couple beta versions, SwiftKey 4 made its way onto Google's Play Store in both smartphone and tablet form. The popular third-party keyboard introduces a plethora of new features, including support for swipe input through Flow and revamped predictions.

Apple has released iTunes 11.0.2 for Mac and Windows. The new build, also available for Windows 64-bit machines as iTunes 11.0.2 64-bit, adds a Composer viewing option to the Music section, plus promises greater responsiveness when syncing large playlists.

The update, which also includes performance and stability improvements, plus one notable bug fix, comes hot on the heels of a Java update released by Apple to prevent hackers accessing the computers of its employees.

When the BBC launched a dedicated sports app for iOS devices a month ago, it said it was working on an Android version and expected to release it in a matter of weeks. Well the good news for sport-loving Android owners is that day has finally arrived.

The new BBC Sport app is compatible with devices running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and above, and has been optimized for screens up to 7-inches so should display perfectly on devices such as Google’s Nexus 7.

Spanish security company Panda Security Ltd has released Panda Cloud Antivirus Free 2.1.1, a minor update to its free cloud-based security tool for Windows. Version 2.1.1 is the first release to secure a Windows 8 compatible logo after passing the eligibility requirements laid down by Microsoft.

Panda Cloud Antivirus, also available with built-in firewall in Pro form, is primarily a maintenance release, building on the major improvements found in version 2.1, which included real-time protection for Windows 8 Store apps and anti-exploit technology.

UK Telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced the winners of the auctions for 4G spectrum on the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands, and it’s a list with no surprises. After more than 50 rounds of bidding the winners are EE, Hutchison 3G UK, Niche Spectrum Ventures (a subsidiary of BT), Telefónica, and Vodafone.

The Office for Budget Responsibility had expected the auction to raise £3.5bn but in the end it actually raised considerably less -- £2.34bn. A fraction of the £22bn the 3G spectrum auction brought in for the Treasury in 2000.

No wonder Google wants to open retail stores and sell more gadgets. Apple's reach is enormous, which is as important for the brand as making mullah -- and there is a whole lot of that. According to NPD, the fruit-logo company accounted for 19.9 percent of all US retail consumer technology sales last year, up from 17.3 percent in 2011.

Samsung ranked second, accounting for 9.3 percent of sales, up 2 points year over year. HP (8.2 percent), Sony (4.4 percent) and Dell (3 percent) rounded out the top five.

Apple may be perceived as a bastion of security and users generally feel safe from the plagues that us Windows users suffer, but market share plays a large part in that perception. The bigger target gets more attention. Well, the party may be over, folks, because the fruit-logo company has a problem, and it is one that is incredibly familiar to Windows users -- Java. The Oracle software platform may be one of the most exploited ones on computers.

Today Reuters reports that Apple, a company largely known for never admitting error -- think "You're holding it wrong" -- released a statement describing "the widest known attacks targeting Apple computers used by corporations". The same exploit had been used to attack social networking giant Facebook.

Ninth in a series. Robert X. Cringely's brilliant look at the rise of the personal computing industry continues, explaining why PCs aren't mini-mainframes and share little direct lineage with them.

Published in 1991, Accidental Empires is an excellent lens for viewing not just the past but future computing.

On Tuesday, Santa Clara, Calif.-based technology company Nvidia took the wraps off a new mobile processor part of its Tegra lineup, named Tegra 4i. The latest product comes with "fully integrated 4G LTE" connectivity, a first for Nvidia, and it is designed to fend off attack from similar solutions, like Qualcomm's newest Snapdragon lineup.

The new Tegra 4i sports 60 custom GPU cores and a 2.3GHz quad-core CPU that is based on the "newest and most efficient" ARM R4 Cortex-A9 architecture. The traditional Tegra battery-saver core is also present. The Tegra 4i, however, comes in slightly under the Tegra 4 processor unveiled at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, the latter of which features 12 more GPU cores and is based on the faster ARM Cortex-A15 architecture.

If you use Hotmail then you may already know that you are moving to Outlook.com. You may not want to, but you are -- unless you plan to scrap the whole thing and head over to Gmail, Yahoo mail or another service. Microsoft officially launched Outlook overnight, but the service beta debuted six months ago; we reviewed here already.

So, to help users along in this moving process, the company posted a question and answer page appropriately titled "My Hotmail account was upgraded to Outlook.com".

Developers looking for Ubuntu on smartphones will get a second treat on February 21. Today, Canonical revealed a build for tablets. Supported testing devices for both platforms: Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. Ubuntu replaces Android, not runs alongside or dual-boots with it.

"Ubuntu tablet" supports multi-touch slates running dual-core ARM A9 processor with 1GB of RAM and 8GB storage. However, Canonical's ambitions are greater for commercially-shipping products: dual-core A15 processor and 2GB RAM for 7-to-10 inch tablets and quad-core A15 or x86 processor and 4GB of RAM for 10-to-12 inch slates. The specs reveal plans to compete with touch ultrabooks or tablet hybrids like Microsoft Surface Pro. The operating system supports up to 20-inch tablets. However, lower-end tablets will be a priority.

According to Gartner, by 2017 around 25 percent of enterprises will have their own app stores for managing home grown and corporate-sanctioned apps on PCs and mobile devices. Bring Your Own Application (BYOA) is becoming almost as important as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in some corporate workplaces.

StackMob, a cloud-based mobile platform provider, has today launched a new Enterprise Marketplace for third-party services, aimed at offering a simple and effective way for larger organizations to build and deploy their own full-featured mobile applications.

On Tuesday, after numerous leaks and rumors, Taiwanese mobile device manufacturer HTC unveiled a new flagship Android smartphone tastefully named One. With One the company has jumped off the ever increasing display size bandwagon and decided to stick to a more tried and true 4.7-inch panel, while packing a high-end quad-core processor.

The international One comes in silver and black and, depending on the market, other colors such as red might be available as well. The front of the handset is dominated by rounded corners and symmetrical speakers while the back features the now traditional tapered edges that HTC previously introduced with smartphones such as the Windows Phone 8X or DROID DNA. It's simply striking to look at.