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Internet Explorer staved off rival browsers on personal computers in the first month of 2012, but a new battlefield is emerging where Microsoft has virtually no presence today: mobile.

Among personal computers, IE reclaimed a chunk the global browser usage, rising from 51.9 percent in December to 53 percent in January, according to new statistics from Net Applications.

However, while browsing with desktops and laptops dominates, mobile devices are catching up. Smartphones and tablets accounted for an all-time high of 8.8 percent of browsing in January, up from 7.7 percent the month earlier.

And on mobile, Microsoft'… Read more

Google announced that it is shutting down its photo-editing service, Picnik, much to the dismay of many Picnik users.

Once Picnik closes its doors for good on April 19, Picnik users will be forced to seek out alternative photo-editing tools. There's always the popular free desktop tools like Paint.NET or GIMP, but true alternatives to Picnik are Web-based editors. Here are a few of them to consider:

Photoshop Express Adobe's Photoshop Express has all the basic editing tools like crop, resize, red-eye, as well as more advanced editing features like fill light, sharpen, and exposure. It also … Read more

Google topped Fortune magazine's list of Best Companies to Work For 2012, knocking the nearly paternalist SAS Institute from the top perch.

The Web giant claimed the top spot on the strength of both its financial performance-- revenue, profits and share price all climbed--and employee gratitude for its corporate culture. Fortune noted that Google employees have access to bocce courts, bowling alleys, and, of course, free food.

Each year, Fortune compiles the list of large companies that treat their employees well, generally by granting perks that the rest of us wish we had. SAS, which came in third this … Read more

Conventional fluorescent tube light fixtures officially need to die now that a Japanese company has announced a Wi-Fi-equipped LED fluorescent tube lamp replacement worthy of being on a spaceship.

The 40W LED light panel from NetLED is networkable to the cloud, allowing users to dim the lights to various intervals of brightness (and wattage) from a computer, smartphone, RFID-enabled device, or motion/light sensors. An iOS app for NetLED is already available, and according to AV Watch, an Android version is in the pipeline as well.

As with any other technology way ahead of its time, there's a rather large cost involved with NetLED's fixtures. Each individual main tube costs 19,800 yen ($257), but the main tube can drive up to three secondary lights, which cost 14,000 yen ($182). Then you need the primary NetLED server, which sets you back another 60,000 yen ($781) and supports up to 100 lights.

Using LED lights in an office is a wise power-saving solution that currently presents a rather large initial cost, but NetLED offers some compelling control schemes. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Many an iPad has been besmirched by kitchen grease and condiments. Save your super-expensive tablet from spilled milk by picking up an Android-powered NetChef.

NetChef is primarily a recipe device, but it also holds photos, plays music, connects to Facebook, gives you the weather, and runs Android apps.

There are 500 built-in recipes for those times when your Internet goes down during Thanksgiving dinner prep. An endless supply of recipes is available from manufacturer Sungale's own database and all the Android cooking apps you can download.

NetChef runs Android 2.3. The current version of the gadget is … Read more

LAS VEGAS--It's always frustrating to find a dead spot in your wireless networking. Fortunately there's now an easy and affordable fix, the new 300Mbps Easy-N Range Extender, model TEW-736RE from Trendnet.

The company introduced the new device at CES 2012 and claims that it will help extend the range of your wireless network within minutes.

According to Trendnet, all you have to do is place the TEW-736RE in an area of low wireless coverage, then simply press the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button on your router or access point, then on the TEW-736RE and you're done: the … Read more

If you haven't whipped your Web site into shape for easy viewing on small-screen devices, you'd better get cracking.

That's because the use of mobile devices reached an all-time high in December, accounting for 7.7 percent of browser usage according to Net Applications' measurements of daily visits to its network of 40,000 Web sites. That may still be a small fraction of total Web traffic, but it's a large and growing population in absolute numbers.

Tablet browsing in many ways is similar to desktop browsing; screen resolution on the dominant iPad and iPad 2 … Read more

Windows XP is still the dominant OS worldwide after more than 10 years, but Windows 7 continues to narrow the gap.

XP ended last year with a 46 percent slice of the OS market, according to December data from NetApplications. Although impressive after a decade, that number proved a hefty drop in use for XP, which kicked off 2011 with a 55 percent share and has fallen each month since then.

On the upswing, Windows 7 rang out the year with almost 37 percent of the market, a solid gain from 22 percent last January and further proof of its … Read more

Despite a drop in December, Apple's iOS remained the top platform for mobile browsing, according to the latest stats from NetApplications.

Throughout December, iOS carved out a 52 percent share of the mobile market, down from 54 percent in November and 61 percent in October, but still in the lead. Google's Android ended December with a 16 percent share, a dip from the prior two months.

Drilling down further, the iPhone accounted for 25 percent of all mobile browsing and the iPad 24 percent, leaving the iPod Touch with 2 percent. Android 2.3 was the most popular … Read more