Third in a series. Some readers of my last column in this series seem to think it was just about the movie business but it wasn’t. It was about the recorded entertainment industry, which includes movies, broadcast and cable television, video games, and derivative works. It’s just that the movie business, like the mainframe computer business, learned these lessons first and so offers fine examples.

Whether from Silicon Valley or Seattle, technology companies see video entertainment as a rich market to be absorbed. How can Hollywood resist? The tech companies have all the money. Between them Amazon, Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft have $300 billion in cash and no debt -- enough capital to buy anything. Apple all by itself could buy the entire entertainment industry, though antitrust laws might interfere.

Maybe you’re having problems with Flash, and would like to do a clean reinstall. Or perhaps you’ve decided the technology causes more problems than it solves, and would like to delete it forever. Whatever the reason, you may one day find you want to completely remove Flash from your PC -- but that can sometimes be a problem.

You won’t be able to use the standard uninstaller if there are other background processes using Flash, for instance. And your Flash installation can sometimes become corrupted, causing further complications. Don’t give up, though -- with just a little perseverance your PC should soon be Flash-free (apart from embedded plugins via apps like Chrome, anyway).

This year could be big for game consoles. Ouya expects to begin shipments in March or April and Steam has announced its very own console is in the works. Not to mention that Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, has placed a mysterious countdown clock on his blog, leading to lots of speculation, including, of course, the next Xbox -- the "720".

Where does all of this lead? The good analysts at IDC are convinced you will purchase a new console this year: "2011 and 2012 were tough for many console game disc developers and publishers", says Lewis Ward, research manager. "With the advent of eighth-generation consoles, starting with the Wii U, historical norms strongly imply that game disc revenue will stop bleeding in 2013 and rise substantively in 2014".

Consumer Electronics Show is a big crazy event. There is a lot of new technology that might or might not see the light of day a couple of years down the road, and a whole lot more stuff that is rather hum-drum. Walking through millions of square feed of convention seeing thousands of cheap speakers and iPhone cases and over sized TVs can be a numbing waste of time.

That is why I like the side event, Showstoppers, which puts together a pretty good lineup of interesting tech products. While nothing jumped out as much this year as last, these are a few that piqued my interest as having some potential, or were simply interesting.

Microsoft may have pulled out of the Consumer Electronics Show in 2013 and going forward, but not stayed away. CEO Steve Ballmer still managed to find his way on stage for the big pre-show keynote and now the Research arm of the company has arrived in Las Vegas as well.

Eric Rudder, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Strategy Officer, made his way into the Samsung keynote earlier today to show off IllumiRoom.

On Tuesday, even with all the CES 2013 madness, Microsoft introduced a host of new features addressed to the company's Windows Azure SDK for .NET. The latest version of the software development kit focuses on expanding support in roles, increasing productivity, making new tools available and delivering new and updated libraries.

The revised Windows Azure SDK for .NET allows users to run cloud service applications in Windows Server 2012, and provides access to more features in IIS 8 (Internet Information Services) and .NET 4.5 when the server operating system is selected. The updated software development kit also introduces support for Visual Studio tools, delivering improved tooling for Cache and Server Explorer for Storage and Service Bus, diminished context switching to portal as well as support for up to 25 management certificates per subscription.

There is no shortage of new tablets being announced at this week's Consumer Electronics Show -- Acer Iconia B1-A71, Polaroid M7 and M10 and VIZIO 11.6" Tablet PC, among many others. Meanwhile, NPD DisplaySearch forecasts that global tablet shipments will surpass notebooks this year. But what's interesting is a dramatic shift in size preference, which is why I want to know: Which is right for you?

DisplaySearch predicts that tablets with 7-to-8 inch screens will overwhelmingly dominate the market, with 45 percent share. Meanwhile, 9.7 inches -- the size Apple popularized with iPad -- will fall to just 17 percent share. Yet many of the slates debuting at CES are in the larger categories, typically between 10.1 and 11.6 inches. Does size really matter that much, and is smaller better?

CyberLink has released a notable update to its popular and powerful consumer video editor range. With release GM4, both CyberLink PowerDirector 11 Ultra and CyberLink PowerDirector 11 Ultimate add ultra hi-def resolutions to file production, support for editing GoPro HERO3 clips and an additional seven transitions to the Transition Room.

The new release, which is available for a 25 percent savings with exclusive bundle of extra goodies worth nearly $70 from the Downloadcrew Software Store, also promises improved program stability and frame accuracy, plus resolves a number of issues.

Even though at CES 2013 manufacturers reveal some of the most high-tech products, such as 4k OLED TVs, which are, price-wise borderline unreachable for most consumers, there are some affordable and appealing devices, too. Case in point are Polaroid's M7 and M10 tablets that feature dual- and quad-core processors, respectively, as well as Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The US-based consumer electronics company aims for the stars by pitching the two tablets against more established market competitors. Polaroid aims at Apple's iPad Mini with the M7, while the larger M10 takes on Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 in the company's wishful thinking. On a more down-to-Earth note, the dual-core M7 packs 7-inch panel with 1280 by 800 resolution, giving it a pixel density of 216 ppi, among the highlights.

Whether you’ve accidentally deleted a file, a partition or an entire drive, there are plenty of recovery tools you can turn to for assistance. And most of these claim ease of use as a key selling point. You won’t have to worry about low level drive structures or other complexities, as the program will try to handle everything for you.

If you’re at home with file systems, though, and familiar with partition tables and the MFT, you may sometimes get better results with a tool which lets you take more hands-on control. And the free (for personal use) DMDE is a great example.

Following on from Huawei's announcement of the Ascent Mate yesterday, Chinese electronics company Lenovo has unveiled its own phablet at CES 2013. However, unlike Huawei, which opted to give its device a "huge" 6.1-inch HD IPS+ panel, Lenovo has chosen a more restrained 5.5-inch display for its K900 smartphone, bringing it in line with the current Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Lenovo has provided few details concerning the K900's specifications. The smartphone is known to ship with a 5.5-inch IPS display sporting a resolution of 1920 by 1080, delivering a pixel density higher than 400 ppi. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Power comes from a "forthcoming" Intel Atom processor. According to Lenovo, Intel has yet to "release complete specifications", which explains the lack of specifics regarding the component.

There was a time when Play.com looked set to rival Amazon in the UK. The online retailer, which focussed initially on selling DVDs, made a big splash when it launched in 1998 by offering its products for the same price as Amazon but, crucially, threw in postage for free, a move which made shopping there a lot cheaper overall.

However, time hasn’t been kind to Play.com. First it was sold to Japanese company Rakuten for just £25m in September 2011, and then the government closed a Jersey tax loophole that allowed retailers to avoid paying VAT (Value Added Tax) on items under £15. With Rakuten seemingly unwilling to back up its investment, Play.com limped on, but the writing was on the wall for the once great retailer.

For those of you still using Microsoft's long-standing Instant Messaging service, bad news is on the horizon. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant revealed in early November last year, that it was planning to retire the aging Messenger and replace it with Skype "in the first quarter of 2013". Well, Microsoft is not backing down and just added the precise expiration date  -- March 15.

Microsoft sent an email detailing the process to what is most likely a considerable number of current as well as former Messenger users. I upgraded my Hotmail account to Outlook in August last year, and have not used the service in ages, yet Microsoft sent me one anyway probably emphasizing, "Hey, don't you think of using it anytime soon". There is some good news for Chinese users though -- Messenger will continue to be available in mainland China, likely due to high local demand.

I like a good mystery. When Samsung teased us with ‘something new’ I wanted to know what it was (I’m still not entirely sure, to be honest, given Samsung announced so many products at CES). When Microsoft says it’s sold 60 million licenses I want to know how many of those were sold to consumers (Microsoft remains tight lipped).

And now a new mystery has arrived to pique my interest, this time courtesy of Facebook. The social network has sent out invitations to the press inviting us to a media event at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters on January 15 to "see what we're building". Since press events are rarely held at Facebook's corporate HQ, it’s likely to be something big.

What do you really want from a security suite? Most companies appear to believe the answer is "as many features as possible", and so they’ll cram their products with as many vaguely security-related tools as possible, in the hope that the sheer weight of functionality might win you over.

Comodo Internet Security Pro 2013, however, takes a very different route. There’s no spam filter here. No parental controls, or backup tool. And it won’t add warning icons to your web page search results. Instead, the program concentrates very much on the core security basics: detecting and removing known malware immediately, while preventing even brand new threats from causing any damage.