Apple today released iOS 6.1, which is available via over-the-air download. The update extends 4G LTE support to 36 additional carriers, bringing the total to 70. High-speed data is also available to 23 more carriers for iPad. Apple already supports LTE in Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom and United States, among others. New coverage extends to Denmark, Finland, Italy, Philippines, Switzerland and some Middle Eastern countries, to name a few.

"If you look at the total of all of these and the incremental subscribers that are in those countries, that’s over 300 million", Apple CEO Tim Cook boasts. Availability and adoption aren't the same thing. IHS iSuppli sees global LTE subscribers reaching 198.1 million this year, up from 92.3 million -- that's 115 percent -- in 2012. The analyst firm forecasts 139 percent compound annual growth rate through 2016, with 1 billion expected subscribers.

Google is moving forward with Chrome, both the web browser and the operating system, quickly and seems to be gaining traction. Sure, the browser is popular, but the OS struggled early on, but new notebooks, err...Chromebooks, have been getting a lot of attention, including TV ads in the United States.

However, the search giant has learned that security is pretty important to the end-user, and probably more so to those looking at these computers, because buyers probably tend to be more on the "techie" side. That is why Google has annually invited people to "hack" Chrome in an effort to find and fix flaws.

Microsoft is announcing something Office-related tomorrow, January 29th. That much is clear given all of the evidence that popped up over the weekend and has continued to mount today. Still, the company likes to hold some secrets and stating something emphatically would be inappropriate reporting on my part. However, trying to connect the dots is a fun exercise that we certainly can do.

First, over the weekend a new website from Microsoft appeared with a teaser message --  "Coming January 29th. More time to do the things you want. #timeto365".

Keeping with an ongoing trend, Android solidified its global smartphone dominance in fourth quarter and for all 2012, according to Strategy Analytics. The Android Army sent iOS idolaters into retreat during Q4, iPhone 5's first full three months of sales. Like I explained in September, "Android wins the smartphone wars".

During fourth quarter, iOS share fell to 22 percent from 23.6 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, Android rose to 70.1 percent from 51.3 percent. For all 2012, iOS nudged up to 19.4 percent from 19 percent share, while Android reached 68.4 percent, up from 48.7 percent. The differences between the quarter and year, strongly suggest sales surge at the end, for Android, which forebodes poorly for Apple when iOS got big lift from iPhone 5's recent launch.

Who outside Hollywood doesn't like BitTorrent? There's another reason for you to, with the new PC-to-PC file synchronization app. It is free, but for now "pre-alpha", meaning users should beware of the potential dangers -- bugs, crashes. You know the routine. It is also only available in private beta, so if you are interested then you will need to request an invitation.

Once you gain access then you will find the app is available for Windows, OS X and even Linux. The download file is small -- just under 500 KB for the Windows version.

… Milo carefully said nothing when Major —— de Coverley stepped into the mess hall with his fierce and austere dignity the day he returned and found his way blocked by a wall of officers waiting in line to sign loyalty oaths. At the far end of the food counter, a group of men who had arrived earlier were pledging allegiance to the flag, with trays of food balanced in one hand, in order to be allowed to take seats at the table. Already at the tables, a group that had arrived still earlier was singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in order that they might use the salt and pepper and ketchup there. The hubub began to subside slowly as Major —— de Coverley paused in the doorway with a frown of puzzled disapproval, as though viewing something bizarre. He started forward in a straight line, and the wall of officers before him parted like the Red Sea. Glancing neither left nor right, he strode indomitably up to the steam counter and, in a clear, full-bodied voice that was gruff with age and resonant with ancient eminence and authority, said:

"Gimme eat".

To be frank, acronyms like "SAFE" and "BYOD" are not overly exciting, especially when combined with words like "business" or "enterprise". There's just something missing that makes related adverts unappealing and boring. Samsung, however, begs to differ and has meshed all those terms together with unicorns to create two rather cool video ads.

The two commercials are, at core, related to SAFE, which is short for Samsung for Enterprise, and the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) movement but with an emphasis on entertainment rather than bombarding the viewers with too many technical details. At the same time the South Korean corporation did not pass on mocking BlackBerry devices, once known as the business world's top choice for at-work smartphones.

PhrozenSoft has released Mirage Anti-Bot 3.0, a tiny tool which aims to prevent your PC from accessing sites infected by the Zeus, SpyEye and Palevo families of malware.

The core of the program remains very simple. It just downloads the excellent www.abuse.ch blocklist and updates your HOSTS file accordingly, immediately preventing you from accessing any of the included malicious domains.

In a move that aims to consolidate the company's branded app selection on Lumia Windows Phones, Nokia has unveiled a new, subscription-based premium service dubbed Nokia Music+, that builds atop of the established Nokia Music platform. A "+" sign can make quite the difference.

Music+ is not designed to replace currently available free services such as Mix Radio, but rather to offer Lumia owners the paid option for "unlimited music discovery". The Finnish manufacturer says that Music+ is aimed at "people who care enough about music to pay something for more quality and choice" and, depending on the user's location, will run for around EUR3.99 or $3.99 per month. But what are the advantages?

Gridlee for iOS is a fairly average arcade game, certainly nothing to get excited about. You wouldn’t want to play it more than once, and, to be honest, you probably wouldn’t want to download it in the first place, even though it’s free. Except there’s more to Gridlee than meets the eye.

The game, which was developed by Videa Inc. in 1982, isn’t a remake for iOS. It’s the actual original ROM image running on an up-to-date full version of the MAME4iOS Reloaded Project by Seleuco, an excellent arcade emulator banned by Apple. And if you know how, you can use Gridlee to play a wealth of classic arcade games on your iOS device for free. No jailbreak required.

Suddenly, I feel sorry for the folks over at Apple. Chicken Little bloggers and Wall Street analysts run round crying "The sky is falling!" Strangely, they are believed. Apple shares are down 38 percent from September's all-time high. On Friday, the company's market cap fell below Exxon's. Suddenly, the world's most valuable company isn't. I just don't feel right kicking fruit as it falls down, so as a gesture of goodwill my boycott ends today.

That's not to say I have plans to buy any Apple products. I'm more than satisfied with Chromebook and my three Nexus devices. That said, as an act of solidarity, I let Apple auto-charge my credit card for iTunes Match renewal today. I don't own a single device that supports the service, but, hey, what's $24.95 between friends? I was a loyal OS X and iOS user until my boycott started in June 2012, protesting aggressive patent lawsuits -- unaffectionately called innovation by litigation.

Transforming a standard portrait photo into something which stands out from the crowd, a shot you’d genuinely like to share with others, usually takes a great deal of time and expertise. But if you don’t have much of either, you might want to consider Funny Photo Maker, an excellent tool which produces great results with the absolute minimum of hassle.

As you might guess from the program name, this isn’t a regular photo editor and won’t be for everyone. But if you’d like to take a friend’s face and place it on an ape, a magazine cover, movie poster or something similar, then you really need to take a closer look.

BitTorrent has a bad reputation. While it is largely considered a haven for people sharing and downloading illegal files from movies to music to software, it is also a legitimate service. Many Linux distros, for instance, are made available through the network thanks to the easy peer-to-peer sharing methods utilized.

Now BitTorrent is looking to get into the PC-to-PC syncing business, an area Microsoft just left when it killed off Live Mesh. In a post earlier today the company announced a "pre-alpha" version of BitTorrent Sync is available through the Labs service. However, the release comes with a rather important caveat --  "If you’re comfortable using early, incomplete software, and if you’re committed to helping us figure out a better way to sync, we want to hear from you".

Thirteenth in a series. Microsoft released the company's fiscal second-quarter results on January 24 and to the surprise of many the company's Windows division did well despite PC shipments being down during the same period.

Windows Store has recovered from last week's low number of new store apps. This week, 928 new apps were listed in the operating system's US store, an increase of more than 31 percent over last week. Free apps, on the other hand, only increased by 136 this week while paid apps made a huge jump to 5,801 from 5,011 the week before.

If you ever wanted Apple's tiny laptop, cash in your savings or dig out the credit card. Best Buy has a short sale going, discounting MacBook Air by $200. That means price starting at $799.99 today and tomorrow for an 11.6-inch model with Intel Core i5 processor and 64GB SSD. Double the storage for another 100 bucks.

The promotion, part of Winter Doorbuster Days, is Friday and Saturday. Best Buy discounts other goodies, but MacBook Air stands out for the price, which lowers the entry cost to joining the Mac Fan Club. But Best Buy also sells the Samsung ARM Chromebook, for $249.99, also with 11.6-inch panel, similar size and weight and comparable (if not better) ergonomics. And Best Buy can't stock Chromebooks fast enough. While the company doesn't release sales data, social network chatter reveals bounty hard to get. So can we just blame Chromebook for Best Buy's sale?