Google's sticking its proverbial fingers into a whole lot of proverbial pies right now: search, social media, advertising, smartphones, restaurant reviews, self-driving cars and a ton more. A rumor swirling around the 'Net says the company's about to offer all those, +1 more: a cloud storage service similar to Dropbox. Yes, the long whispered-about GDrive service has reared its elusive head again -- but now it's just called Drive.
Streaming works well for music and movies, so why not push out software updates that way as well? That's the question Avast Software asked itself when building Avast 7, the next major release of its antivirus software set to hit the streets sometime later this year. Avast 7 will give users streaming updates on new malware threats in addition to regular virus database updates, Avast Software says.
Ever since MegaUpload was hit with arrests and seizures last week, everyone has been wondering how the US government managed to get access to internal communications between the company’s founders. Most of the incriminating conversations cited in the indictment are Skype IMs that would have long been purged from Skype’s servers. According to Cnet, it has been confirmed that the FBI obtained a warrant to obtain the data, and that might have included using government-issued spyware.
You're not a rookie on the Internet anymore so it's inexcusable to lock down your online accounts with weaksauce passwords. We're sure your girlfriend's fly, but using her name as a password is a poor security practice, and so is using any of the commonly recognized passwords out there, like 123456 and iloveyou, to name just two. If you're serious about security, you're using multiple passwords that are difficult to guess, which can also be difficult to remember. Symantec wants to help.
The market for routers is pretty well established at this point, but that isn’t stopping companies from trying to build in new features to get you to upgrade. D-Link’s newly announced offerings are looking to connect you in a variety of ways, and at a variety of price points. The company is offering up a low-cost cloud router, a pricey media-enabled option, and more networking goodies. 
Who needs a universal remote? Actually, we do – juggling receiver, TV, Xbox 360 and Blu-ray player controllers is a pain in the ass – but if a company called Crestron has its way, universal remotes may just become a thing of the past. The company is working with consumer electronics manufacturers to roll out its newly announced “Crestron Connected” standard, which allows users to monitor and control their Creston Connected devices from anywhere in the world using a web-based interface.
If you’re rocking the Dropbox app on your Android phone, you may have noticed that it updated last night. More than a mere bug fix, said update is instead a full-fledged version 2.0, complete with Ice Cream Sandwich support and a host of new features designed to make using the Dropbox app a smoother, more seamless experience. Looks like Christmas came early for Android users. 
Tis the season to shop around, and while you're out there buying gifts, sometimes you have to splurge on yourself. That's what IBM is doing, which announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DemandTec, a cloud-based analytics company, for around $440 million in an all-cash transaction. IBM is hoping the acquisition will extend its Smarter Commerce initiative by adding cloud-based price, promotion, and other merchandising and marketing analytics to its portfolio.
German enterprise software maker SAP announced that its subsidiary, SAP America, has entered into a definitive agreement to scoop up SuccessFactors, a provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions. Under terms of the agreement, SAP will acquire all outstanding shares of common stock of SuccessFactors for $40 per share, valuing the deal at a staggering $3.4 billion.Connect with MaximumPC
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