Woody Leonhard

No matter how you slice it, there's only a finite number of people and companies that will put their data in the public cloud, but that hasn't stopped the competition -- for a free service, no less! -- from turning cutthroat. But the market could be in trouble if the same standards that brought down Megaupload are applied, or if providers continue to abuse users' trust.

Over the past few days, two industry heavyweights have tossed their hats in the online storage ring. Microsoft's SkyDrive came first, with 7GB of free storage, tight integration with Office Web Apps, and promised (but not yet delivered) Windows 8 Metro support. The next day, Google announced its long-anticipated Google Drive, improving upon Google Docs with 5GB of free storage and tight integration with Google Apps.

All indications are that "Windows Live" won't be part of the Windows 8 lexicon. Microsoft seems to be re-(re-re-re)-branding the ragtag collection of applications formerly known as Windows Live-something, gussying up some of them, assigning them shorter monikers, and casting them center stage for the Metro part of Windows 8.

For those of you who depend on one or more of the current Windows Live lineup, you may find yourself stuck with orphaned apps -- which, given the status of the "legacy" Windows 7 desktop in Windows 8, shouldn't come as a huge surprise.

Office on the iPad is a foregone conclusion. It's been that way since Microsoft dipped its toe in the water with OneNote on iPhone a year ago, then crossed the Rubicon with OneNote, SkyDrive, and Lync on the iPad last December. It's never been a question of if, only when -- and what mating dance Apple and Microsoft undertake in the process.

Rumors have flown for almost as long as there have been iPads. The pundits started roaring again on Tuesday when Rupert Murdoch's TheDaily.com published a photo and commentary about "a brief hands-on with a working prototype of the software." The photo shows an iPad with what appears to be a full-screen app that includes a large Office logo that looks much like the Office 2010 logo, four Metro-style tiles, and a decidedly un-Metro, un-iPad text link marked "new document."

The latest Mobile Subscriber Market Share report from comScore shows Microsoft's average share of smartphone subscribers in the U.S. has fallen yet again, from 5.7 percent in the three months ending August 2011, to 5.2 percent in the period ending November 2011. It's a significant hit, specifically because comScore measures the total number of subscribers, not the number of new phones purchased, and the number of Windows Phones purchased in the U.S. is approaching oxymoron territory.

A Microsoft planning graphic leaked last week has brought a ray of hope to the Microsoft faithful, but the situation for Windows Phone is bound to get worse -- much worse -- before it gets better.

Last week Microsoft released (or perhaps I should say re-released) a beta version of Windows Defender Offline, a seriously useful tool for recovering dead Windows XP (SP3), Vista (RTM, SP1, SP2), Windows 7 (RTM, SP1), or Windows 8 (Developer Preview) systems. Yes, it even works on Windows 8.

Curiously, except for the Windows 8 support, it's almost identical to the old Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper.

Ready to take the hardest programming quiz ever?

I'm not talking about a CS 401 exam. I'm talking about not-quite-real-world, stretch-your-synapses questions that will give you a headache. And if you're lucky, they'll lead to a phone interview with one of the headhunters at Facebook.

In the two weeks since Microsoft unveiled its Windows 8 Developer Preview at Build, more than a million people have downloaded the bits, leaving the vast majority of IT pros wondering what in the world their organizations may someday be getting into.

Here, Microsoft has been characteristically mum, except for the targeted and highly vetted postings of the Windows engineering team on its Building Windows 8 blog. That dearth of substantial information, not to mention reams of unanswered questions, has not prevented Preview users from providing meaningful observations on Windows 8 for the end-user's perspective.

This week Apple won a temporary injunction in Germany, barring Samsung from selling Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets in every EU nation except the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the fight's expected to extend to Galaxy phones as well. Apparently the injunction was imposed using an emergency procedure that didn't require a hearing. Samsung claims it wasn't even notified that a block was in the works and has vowed to fight in court today.

For those of us anxiously anticipating the deployment of Android tablets and Galaxy S IIs in our companies, that's a body blow.

Microsoft's last earnings report revealed three plump cash cows: $3.6 billion operating income for the quarter in the Office division, $2.9 billion in Windows, and $1.8 billion in Server and Tools, not to mention that tidy $32 million profit in Entertainment. Yet there was one absolute disaster: the $728 million loss for the Online Services Division.

I don't turn into a fanboy very often, but for Google+ I'll make an exception.

Particularly after the "Hell no, Steve must go!" chants from big-time investors, insiders, and employees, nobody expects CEO Steve Ballmer to stay at the helm of Microsoft until they pry his SideWinder keyboard from his cold, dead fingers. But no one has reliable deets on when he may depart, either, or how it might all go down, despite titillating rumors that surface regularly.

The latest scuttlebutt appeared on Windows8update.com, which passed along a tip from "someone who shall remain nameless" that SteveB "is set to resign as CEO of Microsoft sometime after the launch of Windows 8." Give the site credit for saying -- twice -- that this was a rumor and not intended to be taken as truth.

If you haven't yet checked to see if your email address and password are now public knowledge, it would be a good idea to take a couple of minutes to make sure your information wasn't compromised in the past few days. One thing is certain: Seldom have events supplied a more compelling argument for following basic security measures.