Rovio, the Finnish mobile gaming company, has been on a roll lately with Bad Piggies rocketing to the number one spot in app stores and the teaser videos for the upcoming Angry Birds Star Wars game getting widespread attention. Now the company has quietly pushed out an October holiday update for the "Seasons" franchise that is aptly named "Haunted Hogs".

The update, which began rolling out this morning for Android users, is a rather major update as opposed to the usual simple addition of a new level or two. This one actually not only changes the game icon, but reworks many of the insides of the game as well. Aside from the icon, you will immediately notice that the years (2011, 2012, etc.) have been replaced by Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3.

The first Microsoft Surface reviews are beginning to surface and they’re a mixed bag to say the least. Since all my money is going towards a new 4th gen iPad, and Microsoft is happy to send me a copy of Windows 8, but not a Surface tablet (sorry, Surface PC), I can’t give you my own insightful opinion on the device, but I can tell you what the early reviewers are saying.

And that early feedback is good (mostly) but far from being universally glowing. Pretty much all of the reviews point out the one thing we knew was going to be a problem: that there just aren’t anywhere near enough apps at the moment. But there are other issues that we didn't know about, such as that it soon gets very heavy, the cameras are poor, and it can be sluggish at times. Here’s just a selection of what those early reviewers are saying:

Microsoft recently announced that it will now permit migrating Xbox Live accounts from one country to another. While the Xbox community rejoices in celebration, I reflect on my assiduous journey to have my account migrated, and wonder if my case along with that of a fellow friend and others who joined our cause, contributed to this outcome.

Back in 2002, I got a copy of Unreal Tournament for the original Xbox, and with that an update for the new and exciting Xbox Live service. To join the service, I had to create a Microsoft Passport account (aka Windows Live ID, or more recently Microsoft Account), which I did using an existing, non-Hotmail email address that I still use today.

Little more than a month ago Dell introduced the Latitude 10, a Windows 8-based tablet aimed at business users, but withheld the price. Two days ahead of the Windows 8 October 26 launch, the US company slapped a price-tag on its XPS 10 and Latitude 10 tablets.

Unlike the Latitude 10, that runs Windows 8, the Dell XPS 10 is aimed at consumers and will ship with the ARM-compatible Windows RT, similar to Microsoft Surface.

Less than 48 hours ahead of its launch of Windows 8, Microsoft has unveiled Skype for Desktop 6.0 for Windows and Skype for Mac 6.0, a major new release of its popular cross-platform chat tool. Skype for Desktop 6.0 focuses on improving integration with existing Microsoft Messenger and Facebook services.

New features include the ability to log in using either Microsoft or Facebook accounts before linking all three together. One reason for doing so is that Skype now supports IM conversations with Messenger contacts as well as other Skype and Facebook friends.

To answer my colleague Joe Wilcox’s question, I won’t be buying an iPad mini. I will however, be shelling out on a 4th gen iPad. I already own an iPad 2, and was thinking of upgrading to the 3rd gen version, but I knew an update was likely. Even though Apple only rolled out the most recent iPad in March, there were a few clues that suggested a sooner-than-usual upgrade was on the cards.

Firstly, the Lighting port. On the accessories front alone it’s important for Apple to transition its devices to the new connector as quickly as possible, which means putting it in all of its relevant hardware. Secondly, the 3rd gen iPad gets incredibly hot when doing graphically intensive tasks. The new A6X chip will, I suspect, greatly reduce that problem. Making the iPad faster (while keeping the price the same) will also help position it a little further away from the new mini. However, the main reason for the upgrade is much more straightforward: it kicks the hell out of the competition.

Thousands of high schools have jumped on the tablet bandwagon and adopted one-to-one iPad programs. This year, over 600 districts in the US are piloting iPad programs and more are considering it. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said that they've shipped over 1 million iPads into the education space.

These numbers are remarkable and in general are a positive trend when it comes to adoption of technology in education. That being said, there is cause for concern. The majority of iPad deployments thus far have been messy and poorly executed. A recent study conducted on the efficacy of iPads in four California school districts found that students who used iPads performed no better than the control group.

US wireless carrier T-Mobile announced two weeks ago that the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note II will come its way "this fall," and surprise, surprise -- it's available starting today.

Unlike AT&T, that announced the "phablet" alongiside the LG Optimus G a week ago and priced the Galaxy Note II at $299.99 on a two-year contract, T-Mobile will sell the Samsung-made quad-core smartphone in Marble White and Titanium Gray for a marginally higher $369.99 on a new two-year contract, basically $70 more than what the former charges for it.

Networking infrastructure company Cisco announced on Tuesday evening that its first "Smart+Connected" city will be the planned community of Lake Nona, Florida which exists inside the city limits of Orlando. The fifteen-year Lake Nona project will be Cisco's first of nine planned Smart+Connected cities. The company first announced this initiative more than two years ago.

The Smart+Connected initiative is Cisco's experiment with building the communications infrastructure that connects all aspects of a community, from government to health care to education to enterprise to home and beyond. More than simply a communications ecosystem, the initiative is squarely focused on preparing for the nascent "Internet of things" era.

Uh-oh. While Apple was launching all its new and improved products yesterday, bad news brewed in the background. I just hope the company hasn’t pre-emptively spent any of the $1.05 billion it was awarded from Samsung recently, because the US Patent and Trademark Office has just ruled that 20 patents relating to overscroll technology (the bounce effect that happens when you scroll beyond the edge of an image or document) are invalid, and that could spell problems for the Cupertino, Calif.-based corporation.

According to Groklaw, "the notorious rubber-band patent [Apple's] been going after Android with, has just been tentatively rejected by the USPTO on re-examination. Apple has two months, until December 15, 2012, to respond and try to save it".

Tweaking performance is something that virtually every Windows user is interested in. There are various degrees to which performance tweaks can be applied, starting with simple things such as ensuring that there are not too many programs configured to start when Windows launches, to more advanced options such as tinkering with services and the registry.

Whether you are a newcomers to system tweaking or a more seasoned user, turning to a third party-tool -- rather than doing all of the legwork yourself -- not only helps to save a good deal of time, but also helps to reduce the risk of making mistakes that could have disastrous consequences; edit the registry incorrectly and you could find that you have an unbootable system on your hands.

The ASUS Windows 8 tablet roadmap leaked little more than a month ago, giving pundits reason to speculate on whether the rumored pricing would hinder the success of the Windows 8-based devices.

The Taiwanese company has officially announced pricing for its VivoTab RT (Windows RT-powered) tablet and put previous pricing rumors to rest.

Google is intent on making as much of the world available in Street View as possible. It recently added 250,000 miles of roads and additional special collections, and even provided a startling glimpse inside one of its own data centers.

The company has several methods of gathering this visual imagery, including a fleet of Street View cars, trikes and snowmobiles. Its latest innovation is Trekker, a backpack with a camera on top, which is currently used to capture 360-degree photos of the Grand Canyon.

Microsoft launches Windows 8 in just two days, and manufacturers such as HP are putting all their cards on the table, and announcing pricing for their Windows 8 lineups.

Even though there were models introduced long before today, HP chose to keep quiet about their pricing. But after Microsoft priced its Surface tablet, the company has finally announced that its similarly-sized Envy x2 sporting an 11.6-inch display and the Intel Atom Z2760 processor will be priced starting at $849.99. One of the most recently introduced devices with attractive accessories, the business-oriented ElitePad 900 running the same type of processor bearing the "Clover Trail" code-name, is still a no-show in terms of pricing, and instead will be announced closer to its availability.

As text editors go, Notepad and Wordpad are clearly just a little too basic, which is why a host of developers have made their own replacements available online. But if you’re just a regular user then many of these may seem too complex, with syntax highlighting, code folding, regular expression support and many other features which may not rank high on your priority list.

There are also some mid-range editors around, though, and Jarte is one of the most interesting: portable, free and feature-packed, yet also concentrating on the kind of functionality that matters to most people.