Some new executive talent has been added to Microsoft in its big marketing push behind Windows Phone, former McCann Erickson New York president Thom Gruhler.

For eight years, Gruhler led the Verizon Wireless account for McCann, which at $1.9 billion was the agency's biggest U.S. account. Because of his role in that account, Gruhler was named president of the flagship New York office in 2009.

Protection software is something that most people will most readily associate with desktop and laptop computers, but even owners of mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets have to take care. It is not just viruses, something that can affect Android users, that mobile device owners have to worry about. It is the risk of losing a device or having it stolen.

Besides the value of the device itself, there is also the data it contains to consider. If you have concerns in any of these areas, AirCover is a free tool for iOS and Android that could help to give you peace of mind.

Taking artistic license on such a serious subject like Foxconn's working conditions disgusts me.

When National Public Radio aired a segment of Mike Daisey's popular stage show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" during its current events program "This American Life", little did NPR know the implications of its piece. The show set off a firestorm of criticism, putting Apple in even a worse light than it already is.

During today's conference call announcing Apple's cash dividend and stock repurchase plans, CEO Tim Cook said about new iPad's launch: "We had a record weekend, and we're thrilled with it". Later, in a one-sentence press release issued by the nation's second-largest carrier: "On Friday, March 16, AT&T set a new single-day record for its iPad sales and activations". Apple and AT&T today talked record sales without giving actual numbers.

So how many is "record"? Hell if I know. That's the point. "Record" means nothing without real numbers behind it. Did Apple and AT&T sell 45 iPads? That would be a record if sales were 44 during iPad 2's launch. Perhaps the number is 1 million, which would certainly be sales to boast about -- in just 10 countries. (Please jump to the exciting update below.)

Is Microsoft's Bing having a meltdown? One of my colleagues just alerted me to troubles accessing Bing Maps. He gets an error message, as do two other BetaNews staffers. We're located in different parts of the country using various cable or DSL services. This is not a localized problem.

The outage appears to be broader than Bing Maps. I also can't get to Bing News, while someone else couldn't get Search, which works for me. Colleague Tim Conneally pinged Bing Maps while I wrote the first paragraph and got repeated timeouts. Are you having Bing troubles today?

When NetZero burst onto the scene with the promise of free Internet for all in 1998, it was a transformative moment. No longer was the Internet a playground for the privileged: all you needed was a computer and a phone line, and you were online. The company is about to do the same for mobile data.

Starting today, NetZero is offering 200 megabytes of data free to anyone who purchases a dongle or hotspot from them. The dongle retails for $49.95, while the hotspot sells for $99.95. The service is provided through a partnership with Clear. With the purchase, NetZero's free plan will remain in effect for a period of one year.

Seagate, the world's number two hard drive maker by market share, announced on Monday that it had achieved the 1 terabit per square inch data density milestone, with a demonstration unit utilizing heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR.) Still very early in its development, Seagate said this technology will not be utilized in commercial storage solutions until some time "later in this decade."

Current HDDs utilize the technology known as Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR,) which was first introduced in late 2005 as a replacement for the original longitudinal recording method that had been in use since the advent of spinning hard drives. Toshiba was the first HDD maker to release its PMR drives, with Seagate and Hitachi following suit.

One month after open-source media player VLC reached its landmark 2.0 release, the VideoLAN Organization has released VLC 2.0.1 FINAL. The brand new update of this popular cross-platform media player divided opinion, particularly among Mac users, when version 2.0 shipped, and this latest release aims to fix many bugs and annoyances reported over the intervening period.

Version 2.0.1 also tweaks the revamped Mac OS X user interface further, plus adds support for MxPEG files and streams as well as limited support for Blu-ray disc menus. It also improves support for multi-tracked MKV video files and removes version 2.0’s “flawed” auto-detection of ALSA audio channels. There are also a number of security updates.

"We are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program", Apple CEO Tim Cook told financial analysts this morning. Late yesterday, Apple announced a surprise 9 am EDT conference call today to discuss what it would do with its nearly $100 billion in cash.

During the September quarter, Apple will start paying a $2.65 dividend, which the company expects will amount to about $10 billion a year. During the December quarter, the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant will start the share buy-back program. Apple fiscal 2013 Q1 begins September 30.

You can get hold of a full version of Ashampoo WinOptimizer 8, which normally retails for $39.99, completely for free, courtesy of  Downloadcrew. This offer ends 23.59, Central European Time, on March 19, which is 6:59 pm EDT. You can download, install and register the software, completely free.

Ashampoo WinOptimizer 8 is a complete tool for maintaining, optimizing and securing your system. It’s packed with features -- version 8 added over 100 new features alone -- that will help you clean up, speed up and protect your PC.

I have a reputation for provocative headlines and affirmative writing style, and this irks some readers. But I, and my colleagues here at BetaNews, strive for accuracy in reporting. You can bitch about tone and disagree with storyline and dispute posts' points. I confidently say that we report responsibly.

Following the lead of my predecessor, Scott M. Fulton, BetaNews steers away from rumor stories and the feeding frenzies that often envelope the news media -- sometimes even when the originating blog or news site is highly trusted. Some of you accuse me of being anti-Apple, but I treated with great caution January reports from "This American Life" and the New York Times about worker abuses at Foxconn factories producing Apple gadgets. The ensuing controversy was opportunity to repeatedly zing Apple, as many sites did -- obviously to drum up pageviews. BetaNews didn't. My agenda is responsible reporting, not standing for or against any company or product. The Mike Daisey scandal proves the wisdom of that policy and spotlights what's wrong with news on the web today.

Editor: This weekend, esteemed radio program "This American Life" aired "Retraction" -- a stunning refutation of its most popular episode ever -- "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory", which aired on January 6. A "Marketplace" investigation has revealed that Mike Daisey fabricated or exaggerated aspects of the stage play upon which the segment is based. In April 2011, long before the TAL episode aired and the Apple controversy and protests following it, Larry Seltzer attended the stage play and expressed doubts about the presentation's accuracy. We reprint his review, which takes on stunning prescience in context of TAL's retraction.

I had no idea what I was going to see when relatives took me out in Washington DC to see The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs starring -- exclusively -- Mike Daisey. I didn't expect a political polemic. I'm still not totally sure what to make of it. Daisey's style is a monologue, a combination of storytelling and lecturing, just him on the stage. It was a hell of a performance and this was his second show that day.

The house of Mozilla is pumping out application updates faster than ever, and while we have now become used to the accelerated release schedule of Firefox, and indeed other browsers, this is not the only app to be given the fast-track treatment.

Mozilla’s email client, Thunderbird has also been moved onto the same rapid release cycle and this means that there are new alphas and betas to look forward to more frequently. Whether you’re only interested in running the most stable version of the software, or you’d prefer to try out the latest and greatest features as soon as possible, there is a version of the application for you.

Apple's iPad dominated news about hardware this week, but there was still plenty else going on in the software world.

If you’re running Windows but like the idea of trying out different operating systems, or just installing a different version of Windows without the need for dual booting, VirtualBox 4.1.10 (build 76836) may be what you’re looking for. When you’re running virtual system in this way you can use VirtualBox Extension Pack 4.1.10 to add extra features such as better USB performance and networking booting.

Windows 8 brings a totally new user interface model with its Metro environment, which is receiving mixed response from developers and end-user customers. The tile-like UI certainly is different from the classic desktop.

Does Metro mean that software will be even more creative than in previous Windows generations? Is there an inherent flaw in software design that prevents us from getting better software and will it still exist with Windows 8?