"All we know is, he’s called The Stig". And that is, quite literally, all we are supposed to know. The identity of the driver clad in the white racing suit is a closely guarded secret, though some leaks have taken place over the run of the popular British series.

Recently, the Top Gear test track even appeared on Google Street View, and as further proof the little Google car was really there, the show itself has posted a video shot during the mapping.

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Google Chrome extensions are designed to improve or modify functionality that the web browser offers. Some extensions in the official Chrome Web Store have millions of users who all rely on the functionality their add-ons provides them with.

While not as powerful as Firefox add-ons, Chrome extensions are easily powerful enough to manipulate websites that you visit, or communicate with a remote server. News about extension abuse reached the mainstream press recently.

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Introduced in 2012, Google Apps Vault is designed to manage business-critical information and preserve important data.

It helps safeguard information for continuity, compliance and regulatory purposes and is used by thousands of businesses, schools, and governments. Google has now expanded Apps Vault's capabilities by introducing targeted legal holds.

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What's that? Another music streaming service? Another one?! You could be forgiven for having this reaction to the news that Dr Dre's Beats Music is now available for iOS and Android; this is a market that is already rather saturated, and music lovers are not exactly short of options when it comes to picking a service to satiate their audio needs. So any new service vying for attention has to have something rather unique to offer if it is going to stand out from the competition.

Beats Music does have a unique selling point. It is a service that is about more than just streaming music, it aims to deliver the right music according to the time of day, what you are doing and where you are. Is this sort of stream tailoring enough to win over music fans? Only time will tell, but Beats Music certainly has a fight on its hands if it is to wrestle users away from the existing services that have been established for some time.

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The phablet. It's a device with a silly name, but it's a market that is gaining massive momentum. Analysis by Juniper Research suggests that the number of larger-screened devices that ship will rocket by 600 percent by 2018. Projected figures show shipments jumping from around 20 million devices in 2013, to 120 million five years later. But taking into account the loose definition of a phablet it is possible that the figures could be even higher.

In fact there is no "official" definition of a phablet, at least in terms of the size of screen a device must sport in order to qualify for the title. Juniper Research acknowledges that phones with very large screens are increasingly common, with many high-end handsets featuring 5 inch - 5.5 inch displays. For the purposes of its report, Juniper Research uses the term phablet to refer to handsets that have a screen size between 5.6 inches and 6.9 inches.

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Now that CES 2014 is completely out of the way (although there was still time for me to pick my favorite tech from the show), it's back to business as usual. For many a company, business as usual means security issues, and Microsoft suffered at the hands of The Syrian Electronic Army. Again. The earlier security issues at Target were found to be far worse than first thought, affecting an estimated 100 million customers, and a potential security flaw was identified in Starbucks' mobile apps. For the antivirus side of protection, Kaspersky's Internet Security was named product of the year by AV-Comparatives.

Hoping against hope that new tech isn’t embraced for the sake of embracing new tech, I pondered the need for curved screens. In the mobile world, KitKat started to roll out to the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and also announced the company somewhat deceptively named Galaxy Tab3 Lite, which is in fact no lighter than the non Lite version, other than in terms of hardware specs.

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Fans of cinema may recall seeing the Godzilla films. No, I'm not talking about the 1998 abomination starring Matthew Broderick, I am referring to the classic films from the 1950s and 60s. The films focused on a giant lizard, named Godzilla, who terrified Tokyo.

Besides Godzilla, another memorable character from the films was a monster called Mothra. This monster looked like a moth or butterfly and was able to fly. Thanks to Google, you too can fly through Tokyo, plus other Japanese locations, just like Mothra -- well, virtually at least.

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I have often wondered how many Windows Phone users are relying on Google Search, instead of Bing, to look things up on the InterWebs. The percentage should not be very high seeing as Microsoft deeply integrates Bing with the dedicated search button and makes it the default choice for processing queries from Internet Explorer. I can imagine the software giant saying "This time they will all bing it, not google it" and doing an evil laugh afterwards.

To use Google instead of Bing, Windows Phone users can change the default search engine in the Internet Explorer settings and/or navigate to its web page and look things up from there. Personally, I prefer the former route as it is more convenient and faster, though I would not be surprised to learn that there are people who are not familiar with this option. However, Microsoft does not allow users to change the default search engine when using the dedicated search button. As you can see, the odds favor Bing. It should, therefore, be the users' favorite by a long shot, shouldn't it? The answer is not so clear.

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Cloud storage has become the norm these days, with the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple all offering services. It's even built right into Windows 8.1 and Office 2013, and many other apps are adding various integrations.

Now Google is announcing an update to Drive, which brings new, and much needed functionality to its offering. The service allows for easy collaboration on projects, but until now, it was difficult to track the various changes being made.

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There is a common misconception that anything that is made available online is fair game for use by other people. Found an image you like on a website? Why not just grab a copy and use it on your own? In some cases this is not a problem and the owner of the image will not mind others re-using imagery in whatever way they want, but this is certainly not always the case.

Google Image Search has long made it possible to filter results by the type of license they have, but now things have just got a whole lot easier.

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I'm going to let you in on a secret, something Google would love to know -- I'm a really hot guy. While my sexiness is debatable, what I mean by hot is, I tend to be sweaty. Because of this, I utilize central air conditioning to cool myself down. Apparently, this is extremely sensitive data, as the internet is in an uproar over Google's purchase of a company called Nest. The acquired company specializes in internet connected home devices, such as thermostats, and some people are scared that the search giant has crossed a line.

Yes, Google knowing how users use their thermostats is apparently the straw that broke the camel's back. While the company already has access to your emails, Google Maps data, and more, for some odd reason, this has become a rallying point. OK, so maybe the uproar is more than just thermostat data. I understand the fear of Google infiltrating your home. Guess what? You don't have to invite it in. In other words, no one is forcing you to buy an internet-connected thermostat. You can continue to work your thermostat manually, like a cave man. However, for people who want the convenience, perhaps their data is a fair trade. Nothing in life is free.

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I contacted Nest's PR late last week but heard nothing back. Now I know why. The company has been sold to Google for $3.2 billion. Quite what the acquisition means for Nest and its products long term is difficult to say -- "Nest will stay Nest" according to Nest’s CEO Tony Fadell (the "godfather of the iPod" as he’s also known) -- but it does signal an important move for Google.

The company already knows a lot about you. Depending on which of its services you use it knows what your interests are, where you go on the Internet, and (via Android) in the real world, where you live, who you know, the topics you discuss in emails, the videos you watch and comment on, and more. And now, it could soon begin to know more about what you do in your own home.

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The concept of a thermostat is pretty simple. If you are cold, turn the heat up and if you are hot, do the opposite -- a no-brainer. However, as the internet of things continues to expand, enhanced capabilities and internet connections are introduced to previously simple devices.

If you aren't familiar, Nest Labs was founded by two ex-Apple employees, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers. The design of the company's products makes that apparent. The first product released by the company, a thermostat has a round, clickable interface that is reminiscent of the iPod Classic. It can be connected to the internet, to allow networked control. Today, Google announces the acquisition of the company for $3.2 billion -- a surprising announcement to say the least.

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This was a week dominated by CES, and there were a huge number of announcements about upcoming hardware. Lenovo took the wraps off the (slightly) heavyweight ThinkPad Tablet 8, but any excess weight was countered by the ultra-light ThinkPad X1 Carbon ultrabook. HP's range of business desktops even included one device running Android, while Nvidia's new Tegra K1 promises much for the mobile market.

Competitor Qualcomm revealed two processors designed for entertainment while Pure's Connect platform opens up the possibility of using any streaming music service with its wireless speakers. Smart TVs are set to benefit from the addition of Roku software, but it seems that the technology du jour is 4K, with a new 4K laptop from Toshiba joining the streams of 4K TVs and monitors.

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You're probably expecting me to write a scathing exposé on how I've come to dislike Google Apps. That's quite far from the truth behind why we left Google. There is a lot more to the story than meets the eye. It goes way farther than just a decision based on boxes checked off on a spec sheet. After more than one month since making the move to Office 365 full time, I can comfortably say we made the right decision as a company.

And of anyone who can make an honest dissection of Google Apps against Office 365, I'd say I'm as well suited as anyone in the IT blogosphere to be passing such critical judgement. Notwithstanding my own personal usage of Gmail since 2005 and Google Apps for my IT company since early 2010, I've likewise been both a Google Apps Certified Trainer and Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist for years now. And I've personally been involved in Google Apps transitions for numerous small and large organizations in both the public and private sectors. So to say that I've been deeply invested in Google-ism for some time now is an understatement.

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