Ian Paul

Nokia has released its first teaser video leading up to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, hinting at a new camera-centric announcement. "Get ready to capture a pure view," the teaser reads before flashing February 27, the first day of the trade show, on the screen.

While it's not clear what Nokia plans to announce, it will almost certainly have something to do with snapping a picture on your smartphone. The teaser video shows a series of snow-covered vistas followed by short one-liners such as "pure detail," "pure depth," and "pure definition" followed by the message about capturing a "pure view."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is recommending that privacy conscious users delete their Google Web history before the search giant's new unified privacy policy kicks in. Google Web history is Google's online log of all your search activity, and some browsing history.

Starting March 1, Google's new privacy policy will bring together 60 disparate privacy documents into one umbrella policy. After that time you will be treated as one single user across almost all Google products. The company, as a result, will be able to deliver all kinds of new levels of personalization such as location-based schedule reminders and better targeted ads. But privacy advocates are concerned that Google's new policy will give users less control over their data.

Microsoft could be weeks away from releasing a version of Office for the iPad including apps for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The purported iOS apps would have the ability to edit a file locally on your tablet or edit an online document from, presumably, SkyDrive, Microsoft's online file storage service. Rumblings about Microsoft producing an iPad version of its famous productivity suite have been circulating for months.

But The Daily claimed it recently saw Office for iPad and had some hands-on time with a working prototype. The online newspaper even managed to take a photograph of the suite's start screen that includes options for creating Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents. Other popular Office programs such as Outlook don't appear to be part of Microsoft's plan for the iPad. The report did not mention any details about pricing or a specific release date other than to guess that the apps would be coming out in the next few weeks.

Fluent, a new Web-based e-mail client created by three former Google engineers, turns your inbox into a Facebook-like stream that lets you view conversation threads, attachments and mail from multiple accounts at a glance.

Fluent works with your existing Gmail account (including Google Apps accounts), but there are plans to expand it to other webmail services at a later date. Fluent is currently in a closed beta period, but the company is adding new users every day. You can sign up for an invite on the service's front page.

Privacy advocates and now some members of Congress say Google should answer for its practice of bypassing the default privacy settings of potentially millions of users of Apple's Safari browser.

Scientists say they have created the first transistor from a single phosphorous atom using near-atomic precision, which could keep development of processors on track with Moore's law until at least 2020 and offers the possibility of a general-purpose quantum computer that processes data significantly faster than current devices.

To create the transistor, scientists at the University of New South Wales, Australia used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to manipulate atoms on the surface of a crystal inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber. The newly created transistor was then covered with a non-reactive layer of hydrogen and encased in silicon.

Does using Bluetooth ever drive you crazy with dropped connections to your desktop mouse, or with pairing and sound-quality problems on your smartphone? If so, you're not alone.

As a wireless connectivity technology, Bluetooth is designed to be relatively easy to use, and typically it requires little more than entering a four-digit PIN to instantly pair, say, a keyboard with your iPad.

Google reportedly breached the privacy of millions of Apple Safari users by fooling the web browser into accepting tracking cookies it normally wouldn't take. Google, however, says this is an unhappy accident and that Google never intended to track its users in this manner.

Apple CEO Tim Cook believes that tablets such as the iPad will outsell PCs in the coming years thanks to the explosive popularity of one-panel slates as well as innovation from tablet makers and app developers. "From the first day [the iPad] shipped, we thought that the tablet market would become larger than the PC market," Cook said Tuesday during the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. "I feel that stronger today than I did then."

Following its 2010 launch, the iPad quickly became one of Apple's most popular products, outselling the Mac in nearly every quarter, and, since mid-2010, even the iPod. More than 55 million Apple tablets have been sold to date. "This 55 million is something no one would have guessed, including us," Cook said, noting that it took the iPhone three years to sell 55 million, while the iPad did it in less than two. "It's on a trajectory that's off the charts."

Apple is reportedly looking to combat the slew of 7-inch Android tablets such as the Kindle Fire, Toshiba Thrive and Samsung Galaxy Tab with a smaller version of the iPad. The company is rumored to be testing a new iPad design with a display size around 8 inches and a resolution similar to the iPad 2's 1024-by-768 display. Apple, however, has yet to sign off on the idea to start producing the purported iPad Mini, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A smaller iPad is not expected in March, when most Apple watchers believe the company will unveil the third iteration of its tablet. And yet, reports about Apple looking at smaller designs persist. So could it be true? Is a smaller iPad on the way to save Apple's tablet from the onslaught of more cheaply-priced Android competitors?

Rovio's Angry Birds is smashing into Facebook Timelines everywhere with Angry Birds Beta on Facebook. The popular mobile device game has arrived on the social networking site with new levels exclusive to Facebook, virtual prizes and the ability to send free gifts to your friends and compete for high scores. The Facebook version of Angry Birds also features four new power-ups beyond the game's famous Mighty Eagle that lets you win difficult levels with just one click.

The social version of Facebook works just as fans of the popular game would expect and is somewhat similar to previous PC versions of Angry Birds such as the recently launched iteration on Google+. Instead of dragging your finger across a touchscreen, you use your mouse to launch your birds into those detestable green pigs. On the left side of the gameplay area there is a social column where you can invite friends, receive gifts such as power-ups, and buy extra power-ups using Facebook credits that you can also send to friends. You can also play the game in full-screen mode.

Firefox Mascot image: Mozilla JapanThe Mozilla Foundation has big plans for Firefox in 2012 that can be summarized in two words: Google Chrome. That's not to say the Firefox browser won't have some unique features, such as a tool that lets you see how you're being tracked across the Web, a new online identity system for passwords management, and a customized Metro-style interface for Windows 8. But some of Firefox's biggest features we'll see in 2012 are already found in Google's Chrome and other Web browsers.

Here's a look at the five biggest catch-ups features announced by Mozilla's recently updated 2012 roadmap.