LucidChart is a fantastic example of how an HTML5 Web app can offer functionality comparable to a desktop application on any platform with an appropriate browser, and not even require a full-time connection to work. After having become the most popular paid app in the Chrome app store, and then launching full offline functionality at Google I/O this year, LucidChart on Tuesday announced it has raised a million dollars in seed funding from 500 Startups, 2M Companies, K9 Ventures, and other unnamed angel investors.

LucidChart was crafted in late 2009 to be the pure Web app version of Microsoft Visio, where multiple users can render and manipulate graphical charts in the Web browser in real time. It even has support for Visio .vdx documents.

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Editor's note: This article was commissioned by Dell. To learn more about Dell's solutions for improving responsiveness while reducing costs with virtualization, please visit Dell's site by clicking here.

Virtualization as a concept has become one of the most important technologies to come about in the modern PC era. The benefits are many: IT administrators love virtualization because it cuts down on administration and data center size and the bookkeepers approve of it as it cuts down on IT costs. Many businesses aren't taking advantage of its full benefits, however.

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Windows Phone 7.5, code-named 'Mango', has been released to manufacturing according to a blog entry by Microsoft's Terry Myerson, Corporate Vice President, Windows Phone Engineering.

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Microsoft debuted two new accessories Tuesday that will be ready for the important holiday shopping season. A wireless headset with Bluetooth capabilities along with a new media remote are expected, both sporting the gloss black enclosures that the newer Xbox 360's have shipped with.

The wireless headset will operate on Xbox's radio frequencies, but the company has also made it compatible with mobile phones and other devices through integrated Bluetooth support. Using it as a handsfree headset shouldn't be a problem: it looks very much like the standard mobile phone wireless headset.

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This can't possibly be the right way to endear tablet geeks to Honeycomb.

Today, Verizon announced that Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 goes on sale July 28th, with 4G LTE radios. That means Tab 10.1 and not Motorola XOOM will be the Android tablet big bandwidth grabber from the largest wireless carrier in the United States. XOOM shipped sooner, but with 3G radios. Early adopters have to send back their tablets for 4G LTE upgrades.

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Australian software company Auslogics has revealed a new free benchmarking tool, BenchTown, and an online community site, BenchTown.com, where you can compare your PC's performance with others. The benchmarking options are fairly standard, with your CPU, RAM, hard drive, 2D and 3D graphics performance being tested.

Each component has its speed checked in multiple ways, though -- RAM is tested for both bandwidth and latency, for instance -- and our initial tests suggest the results are reasonably accurate. Keeping things simple means you can get your final score quite quickly, in around five minutes, and if you want to focus on a specific area (graphics, say) then you can run only those tests for even faster feedback.

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Since the advent of the mobile app store, consumer electronics companies have been trying to port that same app-using experience over to the television screen, with notable attempts being made by search engines Yahoo and Google with Yahoo Widgets and Google TV. According to recent figures by market research company In-Stat, a vibrant TV-based app environment is still just a pipe dream.

In-Stat, now a subsidiary of NPD Group, has published its second-quarter view of the digital entertainment ecosystem, and the app model is a very long way from being mainstream among TV viewers.

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Any Windows system degrades over time. The reason it becomes less effective is because it collects junk data. As you install programs, save and retrieve files and do all the things your computer was designed for, temporary files build up in hard-to-reach areas, data fragments get left behind and before you know it, you have a very messy system indeed. It's high time for a spring clean.

Instead of grabbing a mop and bucket, you'll need to strategically delete the unwanted data. Old programs don't just litter the place; they leave a mess in the registry and within some of Windows data folders. Eusing Cleaner 2 can help you to reclaim some speed by cleaning these out.

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I'm asking because of a poorly reported and likely misleading post at TechCrunch.

The headline is compelling: "Android's Dirty Secret: Shipping Numbers Are Strong But Returns Are 30-40%". The sourcing is pure BS. John Biggs writes "many return rates are approaching 40 percent said a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers".

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Do we really need another browser-based operating system? Chrome OS isn't enough? That's the gist of Mozilla's "Boot to Gecko" -- or B2G -- proposal.

"Mozilla believes that the web can displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development," according to the B2G project page. It's similar to Netscape's goal in the mid- to late-1990s -- the browser should replace the operating system as development platform. Microsoft squashed Netscape like a bug, preventing that ambition, contributing to the browser developer's demise and setting off major antitrust cases on two continents.

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OK, Windows users, here's your chance to set the record straight. If you dare. The Mac Fanclub of bloggers is gaga today over the image you see above. It's supposedly McDonalds Australia's instructions for connecting Windows PCs and Macs to WiFi. The Windows setup is a whole lot more complicated than for Macs. What should you expect from MacDonalds?

I haven't roamed on Windows for awhile, but on my last trip I don't recall connecting to encrypted or open hotspots being anywhere as difficult as these instructions indicate. It's three easy steps for the Mac, and eight fairly complicated ones for Windows XP or Vista.

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ZocDoc, a web-based service for finding doctors and booking appointments without making a single phone call, launched its official Android app on Monday, and it is freely available for download in the Android Market.

ZocDoc is frequently compared to restaurant reservation service OpenTable because, well, it's really the same thing, but instead of booking dinners, the user is booking medical or dental appointments.

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Editor's note: Software developer Steve Lacey was killed in a tragic car crash on July 24th, reportedly when another driver accelerated in an unrelated road rage incident. In perhaps a sign of changing times, a number of notable geeks are writing their remembrances on Google+. Here, Robert Scoble shares about working with Lacey at Microsoft. More recently, Google employed Lacey.

When I first met Steve Lacey, back in 2004, he was working at Microsoft on the Flight Simulator team and I could instantly tell he was a geek's geek (e.g., a pioneer everyone looked up to). You can see the video we did together. (Silverlight required)

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Mobile security issues are no longer the next big thing. The threats are here, and vulnerabilities could be present in your pocket right now.

Apple has released the second security update to iOS 4.3 in just over a week. While the last update addressed a vulnerability to maliciously crafted PDF files, this update fixes a security issue with certificate validation.

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Program lockups are always annoying. But if the app in question has the text of an important document, which you've been working on for hours, and not actually saved to disk yet, then it could be a real disaster.

Don't shut down the hung program, though -- you may still be able to recover your carefully crafted words, just as long as you've a copy of DumpIt to hand.

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