File-sharing pioneer BitTorrent Inc has just released uTorrent 3.2.2, the latest build of its free, lightweight Windows-only BitTorrent client. Version 3.2.2’s most notable change is the addition of Windows 8 compatibility.

The latest build also introduces a new built-in advertising platform, Facebook and Twitter icons, tweaked Add Torrent dialog and a number of major and minor bug fixes.

ISO images are a popular way to distribute software, and Windows has become much better at handling them in recent years. Windows 7 added the ability to burn ISO images to disc, for instance, while Windows 8 is able to mount them as virtual drives.

Creating ISO images in the first place remains a little more challenging, of course, but if that’s something you need to do (even only occasionally) then there are some very simple solutions around. And few are quite as straightforward as Folder2Iso.

Many people were aghast when Microsoft forked over a hefty $8.5 billion in May of 2011 to purchase Skype. The software giant took awhile to get going with its new toy, but now we are starting to see the results. Microsoft announced a brand new platform set to improve communications for small business.

Skype in the workspace connects these companies to customers, partners and suppliers all around the world. The best part may be the price -- "It's a free-to-use online platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs" states Skype's Ural Cebeci. So far, so good.

The Start screen is without doubt one of the major new features of Windows 8. It may come as a surprise that the Start screen's customization options are not as extensive as those made available on the desktop. There are, for instance, only 20 designs that you can select for the Start screen's background, opposed to an unlimited amount of custom wallpapers or desktop backgrounds that you can add to the Windows desktop. The color scheme too is limited to 25 different pre-configured schemes, while you are not limited to fixed color schemes on the desktop.

Stardock, the creators of Start8, a popular Windows 8 Start menu program, have created Decor8 to tackle the issue. Decor8 introduces options to change the appearance of the operating system's Start screen in a way that goes beyond what Microsoft has envisioned for it.

Tonight, my wife received a routine email from Apple. Hey, I didn't get one. But since I declared independence from Apple in July, I really don't care. But you might.

Apple is in process of migrating existing email addresses from @mac.com and @me.com, all of which reflect different iterations of cloud services. I've had mac.com since 2000, or thereabouts. Then four years ago, Apple moved everyone to MobileMe, adding a second domain. Now there's a third supporting iCloud, which debuted about a year ago. This means some Apple users will soon have three different email addresses -- and all of them functional. Confused yet?

DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as it is technically known, has a history of turning seemingly crazy ideas into reality. Now this branch of the Defense Department pursues a new camera/sensor system designed to aid soldiers' vision on the battlefield.

The agency describes it this way: "As missions shift, however, and warfighters are required to work in smaller teams and access more remote locations, it is technology that must adapt if it is to remain useful. Desirable features for many new man-portable systems include small size, light weight, minimal power consumption, low cost, ease of use, multi-functionality and, to the extent possible, network friendliness".

Searching through my old Microsoft Watch posts for one thing, I found another -- my Sept. 23, 2008 news analysis "How Android hurts Microsoft". I wanted to find some of my past posts about contextual computing, and you can read more about that soon. For today, this story uses the lens of the past to look at the present.

I take lots of flake from commenters, whether directly on posts or blogged by others elsewhere, about my stories. Many accuse me of idiot perspective and being clueless. But often my seemingly brash analyses at the time, peering into future implications, are generally right. If you look at the totality of my writing, there is consistency of thinking that rightly anticipates trends. Abrasive writing style, provocative headlines and forceful argument puts off some people, especially those who don't like change or embracing new ideas. Occasionally I write seemingly contradictory perspectives, trying to look a things dimensionally rather than flatly. The Microsoft Watch post is one example of many that demonstrates what I mean.

Some computer games require you to be connected to the Internet at all times to play them. While that sounds reasonable for online multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft or Team Fortress 2, it doesn't make sense for single-player games that you play on your own. Always-On DRM limits access to the purchased game due to that requirement.

Not only is it necessary to have an Internet connection to play the game, which means no playing in situations where you do not or where unreliable, it also means that you rely on the game company server to be online as well.

Verizon Wireless will begin taking orders for the HTC Windows Phone 8X, Nokia Lumia 822, and the Samsung ATIV Odyssey at 1:00 a.m. Eastern Time tonight.

According to Verizon Wireless:

Most phone cases are designed to protect your handset from being dropped, or accidentally scratched. The Survival Senbei iPhone 5 Case is designed to stave off hunger pains should you find yourself miles from anywhere and unable to dial for a pizza.

The hand-crafted cases, now on sale in Japan, are made entirely from lightweight brown rice and salt and baked into a senbei rice cracker that fits perfectly around your iPhone 5. They do take anywhere up to a month to be delivered though, as the creator, a middle-aged Japanese woman called Mariko, can only usually manage to make three good ones a day.

Sometimes, we don't agree on what's the best approach to stories. Colleague Mihaita Bamburic and I looked at the same Strategy Analytics numbers but reach different takeaways. He focuses on Samsung Galaxy S III shipments surpassing iPhone 4S during Q3. I latch on to something else: S3 shipments tripling in one quarter.

Samsung started selling S3 internationally on May 29 -- 28 countries to start, with expansion planned to 147 locales from 297 cellular carriers. The smartphone soft launched in the United States on June 21. According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped 5.4 million Galaxy S IIIs during second quarter, more than tripling to 18 million in Q3. That's a helluva change, even for a new product shipping first time into the sales channel.

Egyptian Attorney General Dr. Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has sent the official request to ban pornographic websites in Egypt, according to Egyptian state newspaper Al-Ahram Wednesday. Mahmoud sent letters to Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, to the head of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, and to the Ministers of the Interior and Information, demanding that sites "inconsistent with the values ​​and traditions of the Egyptian people and higher state interests" be blocked.

This ban on Internet porn stems from a 2009 State Council Administrative Court case that called for a government ban on sites harboring material deemed offensive to traditional Islamic beliefs. In March of this year, the court ruled that Internet porn "destroy[s] all religious beliefs, ethics and moral values," and that a ban should be put in place.

It's not exactly a secret that Microsoft wants everyone to have an Xbox or that the company just recently released it's very first tablet in the form of the Surface RT, with a Windows 8 Pro model coming soon. But, would Microsoft actually consider combining these two seemingly different platforms?

Some people seem to think that may happen, but I want to talk the company down from the ledge and say "Please abandon this silly idea" before it becomes the biggest blunder since Bob. In fact, I would love to scream at the company NO! It would be a terrible and costly stumble by the Redmond, Wash. folks.

Hurricane Sandy struck the Eastern US coastline and affected millions of people. Japan's third largest carrier, Softbank, contributed half a million dollars to aid in the relief efforts, and recently Verizon Wireless announced that it will support affected customers.

The big red implemented the "Hurricane Sandy -- Voice & Text Program" to show its support towards affected customers from parts of New Jersey and New York. As a result they will not be billed for domestic voice and text usage charges incurred between October 29 and November 16. The nation's largest carrier states that it will act proactively and swallow the cost of the bill without any action required by affected customers.

The only thing that ever stood in the way of my becoming a major international singer/songwriter was my inability to sing. Or write songs. I took guitar and piano lessons as a kid, and am pretty handy at Rock Band, but I’m not a great musician, so I never really get invited to jam with more musically-minded friends.

However, that might change, if I can persuade some of them to give Google’s latest interactive Chrome experiment a try.