This week Atari, the game system that my generation grew up with, filed for bankruptcy. It's a sad end to an icon of youth, but, still, the company's legal troubles do not spell an end to everything. First, while there are legal nuances that I will not detail because of the complications they bring with them, the important thing is what Atari meant to all of us -- games. Simple, 8-bit joy, created with the 2600 way back in the dark ages of 1977.

Just because the company experiences financial woe does not mean its legacy will cease to exist. The games live on in many forms, and we can still relive our youth whenever that nostalgic mood strikes.

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There are many fine travel apps for the Android platform, some of which I detailed previously. However, I left out "actual travel apps" in favor of covering more esoteric ones that readers may find useful. But now one of the better services has made its way to the Google mobile devices, with the launch, just now, of Gogobot.

The site has long been a staple on the web and, more recently, on iOS. However, Android customers were left out in the cold until this morning.

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Users of the satellite TV provider’s free Sky Go service -- which enables subscribers to watch live Sky channels and on-demand programming on mobiles and tablets -- will soon be able to download TV shows and movies on their portable devices.

According to Sky, this will make it the first mobile TV subscription service to offer downloadable Hollywood movies in the UK and Ireland.

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Twelfth in a series. It's slow week for new application releases for Windows 8. The number of new apps in the US Windows Store is 635, down from 961 the week before. While I would not - yet - say that this is a sign of things slowing down, it is definitely something that I'll pay attention on in the coming weeks.

The total number of apps in the US store this week is 25,384 of which 20,373 are free to install and 5,011 paid; that is a ratio of 4:1 in favor of free apps.

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I suspect Microsoft may keep track of the number of people who use a Start button/menu replacement app in Windows 8, but it is not in the company's interest to say so -- both because a large number would reflect badly on the decision to remove the feature and because the company did a lot of, ah, "research" to determine the feature was not necessary. Oh, and the whole privacy thing as well.

Pokki, which is perhaps the market leader in this new genre of Start-menu-adding apps released a bit of information today: "1.5 million Pokki downloads on the new OS itself and users opening the Pokki Menu an average of 10 times a day".

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The words "free" and "50GB of cloud storage" don't often come together in the same sentence, so when the company announced the mind-boggling offer there was only one question on my mind: "When's it coming to Android?" Well, good things come to those who wait! After an almost five-month hiatus, MediaFire arrived on green droid land.

So what's it like? Well, straight off the bat MediaFire for Android "features" a major flaw -- users cannot sign up for the cloud storage service using the app. That's an inconvenience seeing as, for instance, Box or Dropbox do sport the basic functionality. That said, the app does have some interesting features starting with the camera options.

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When I need to make a payment or send money to someone, I use a bank app on my smartphone. It’s quick and easy, and I can check my balance beforehand to make sure I’ve got enough cash in my account. The app does require me to know the other person’s bank details though, and so isn’t particularly handy for making swift payments to just anyone.

Fortunately the Payments Council is working on a project that will make it possible for anyone living in the UK to send secure payments via text message. You won’t need to worry about account numbers or sort codes -- all you’ll need is the recipient’s mobile number.

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Usually when users wish to transfer apps with data between Android devices, a fairly cumbersome process is involved. There's an easier way though. Koushik Dutta, the developer behind popular modding tools such as ClockworkMod and ROM Manager, unveiled Carbon, an app that can get the job done by itself after touching a few buttons.

But who actually needs it? While Carbon may present a limited appeal to most Android users, it actually makes sense for those running apps grabbed from third-party sources such as Interweb forums, a common occurrence for modders, beta apps that are unavailable to download from the Play store (a good example is the Dropbox preview build) or for users that simply wish to have the same app data across several devices. Think of game saves and you get the picture.

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With the growth of the mobile market in the form of smartphones and tablets, the ability to print from anywhere has become increasingly important. In this new generation of computing a whole new genre of software has been born, giving users the ability to print while on the go. My favorite has been Breezy, but HP is making big strides in the market as well with its ePrint service, which allows users to send any document or photo to a printer in the home or to other locations where they can stop and grab the printout while on the road.

Today the company announced the addition of 8,000 Walgreens locations to its service, bringing the total number of places available to more than 30,000.

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What's the go-to app for testing internet data speeds on mobile devices? Undoubtedly Speedtest.net is one of the most obvious answers coming from Android and iOS users, but not from those rocking Windows Phone 8. For some time, Ookla, the company behind the app, has turned a blind eye to Microsoft's smartphone operating system but, starting Monday, Speedtest.net is finally available for those who prefer tiles to icon grids.

As you may expect, the app carries over much of the existing functionality from its Android and iOS siblings but, unlike them, Speedtest.net for Windows Phone 8 is dressed up in a much nicer looking package. The app displays ping (latency in miliseconds) as well as the internet connection download and upload speeds. Per the usual tradition, it continues to display the speedometer with the live indicator in the foreground.

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So you bought a Samsung Galaxy S III (or maybe even received one for Christmas) but find the skinned TouchWiz experience too "crowded"? Fret not, you don't have to go down the custom ROM route and lose useful functionality along the way, as PalaTool makes it easy to cut down on gimmicky features, and even add some of the Android 4.2 flavor into the mix as well.

Before you get all excited by the prospect of chiseling Samsung's TouchWiz skin there are two important prerequisites to consider. First, PalaTool requires Android rooting rights, which straight off the bat involves extra work that may include voiding the warranty if something goes terribly wrong (in most cases that never happens). Secondly, the tool must be installed using a custom recovery such as ClockworkMod or Team Win Recovery Project. That out of the way, let's take a look at what PalaTool can really do.

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It may be Friday evening and, according to Jimmy Buffett it is always five o'clock somewhere, but Dropbox has not finished its work week, pushing out one final update. So put away the beer or wine and pick up your Android. Late today the company announced an update that "makes it super easy to share collections of photos with friends and family".

Dropbox has been busy lately, given the stiff competition the cloud service is suddenly receiving from all sides -- Box, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive and others. This update is all about photo sharing. From the Photos section, users can now tap a button and choose the pictures they wish to share with friends and family. You can add them to a shared album or even do it via an emailed link. In fact, you can even utilize Facebook or Twitter for the process.

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Eleventh in a series. Microsoft has updated two of the native apps that Windows 8 ships with this week. The News and Finance apps have received updates that enhance performance, improve network connectivity and add support for additional regional sources.

A total of 24,749 apps are listed in the US Windows 8 store this Friday. Of those, 20,019 are free to download and install, while 4,730 are paid applications. That's an increase of 961 apps this week.

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Shortly after Apple launched its disastrous maps app, Google’s CEO Larry Page made a comment regarding how it had taken Google seven years of hard work to get to where it’s at now. Seven years sounds like a long time, but it pales into insignificance when compared to the 232 years that British mapping agency Ordnance Survey has been making and refining its maps.

It’s rather surprising that it’s taken this long for the OS to put its work on iOS, but the agency has at last come up with an official app. OS MapFinder isn’t a straight alternative to Google Maps or Apple Maps though. Rather, as Ordnance Survey puts it, the app is "aimed at walkers, ramblers, runners, cyclists and generally anyone looking to enjoy the outdoors".

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Users of Google’s popular desktop browser have a choice of release channels. If you hate bugs and crashes, there’s the stable version of the browser (which was just updated). If you don’t mind taking a little risk and want to get your hands on the newest features, there are the Beta and Dev channels. And finally, if you want to be on the absolute cutting edge, there’s the Canary build which runs alongside any other Chrome installs you have.

Android users don’t have this degree of choice, but from today Google is offering a new Beta channel for phones and tablets running Android 4.0 and up, and the good news is it can be installed alongside your current version of Chrome so you’ll always have a stable version of the browser on hand.

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