Stories by: Preston Gralla

The long-awaited Google Drive is a simple, useful, straightforward cloudstorage and syncing service that offers a full 5GB of online storage for free, with no surprises along the way. Utilitarian rather than flashy, it makes storing files to the cloud and syncing them among multiple devices as simple as saving a file to a local hard drive.

Microsoft and Google aren't going head to head just over Internet search, office productivity suites and Cloud-based applications and services. Their next looming battle is over who will own the living room, and the outcome will have surprising implications for IT as well.

If you've been sitting on the fence about making the switch to Windows Phone 7, the just-released Lumia 900 could prod you to make the leap over. This stylish, well-engineered phone shows off the strengths of the Windows Phone platform on a bright, crisp 4.3-in. AMOLED screen with a high-bandwidth LTE connection.

If you've just upgraded to Outlook 2010 from an earlier version, expect to see some very big changes, most notably the ubiquity of the Ribbon interface. The Ribbon first made its appearance in Outlook 2007, but in a relatively minor way -- on the main Outlook screen there's no Ribbon, but when you open or compose an email, the Ribbon appears. Now it's everywhere.

With all the noise about social networking sites in the last several years, it's easy to forget that if you've got more to say than what can be expressed in 140 characters, or want to do more than post brief updates, your best bet is a blog.

The beta versions of Mac OS X (code-named Mountain Lion) and Windows 8 are now being tested worldwide, and although they are quite different from one another, they share one characteristic: Both take designs and features built for smartphones and tablets

Windows 8 Consumer Preview is one of the biggest changes that Microsoft has made to Windows, moving it from an operating system aimed at a single class of hardware (PCs and laptops) to one that spans a wide range of devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Apple is riding high these days, not just in the consumer market with the iPhone and iPad, but increasingly in the corporate market as well. Some people envision the day when Apple will challenge Microsoft in the enterprise. That will never happen.

Once upon a time, Microsoft would rarely release a product on a competitor's platform. Those days may be over. At the end of last year, Microsoft launched a blizzard of apps for iPhones, iPads and Android phones. That's good news for anyone who cares about the company's future.

With the holiday season in full force, a lot of gift-givers are going to be considering one of the new color e-readers that have been introduced recently: Amazon's Kindle Fire, the Kobo Vox and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet.