Still waiting for Google Maps on IOS, until then.....Nokia?

Nokia plans an ambitious expansion of its mapping and location-based services platform beyond its own smartphones to competing devices running OSes other than Windows Phone 8, it said Tuesday.

The move is being backed with the acquisition by Nokia of Earthmine, a California-based provider of street-level 3D imaging data, and will see Nokia going head-to-head with Google, Apple, and dedicated mapping companies like TomTom.

"We want to give everyone with any type of device to ability to use this, the best location platform in the industry," said Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, speaking at an event in San Francisco.

Nokia will use the "Here" brand name across its location platform.

The company hopes that by expanding its platform beyond its own handsets, it will benefit from the greater scale of the service and in turn make its own service better.

Nokia's platform includes mapping and satellite data, 75 million searchable points of interest, car and foot navigation data, and public transport information.

Toshiba FlashAir wireless memory cards arrive

A wireless high-capacity SD card announced by Toshiba in March finally made it to retail shelves Tuesday.

The $80 FlashAir card allows data stored on the device to be transferred using standard WLAN communications. There is no installing of drivers or software and the built-in wireless LAN access point in the card does not require that it be connected to the Internet.

Several devices can access the card at the same time, Toshiba explained in a statement. So, for example, you could show your friends photos on your smartphone while at the same time downloading them to a PC.

The card, which has an 8GB capacity, is optimized for power efficiency and switches on only when necessary.

Enable more Windows 8 Tiles

Windows 8 Annoyance #4 - Solved

Forget the Bing app

Skip the Bing app, and pin the Bing website instead.

I'm a Google fanatic, but when I'm tooling around in Windows 8's Start screen on a touchscreen device, I find that the Bing search app's picture-heavy aesthetic fits very nicely with Windows 8's Modern design. Like many Modern-style apps, however, the Bing app includes an irritating quirk: Selecting a search result pops you out of the Bing app and opens the page in Internet Explorer. It's a mild annoyance in the grand scheme of things, but it still drives me nuts.

You can have your attractive cake and eat it too by pinning the Bing.com website to the Start screen. Head to Bing.com, click the Pin This Site icon in the toolbar, and then select Pin to Start. Annoyance averted.

Windows 8 Annoyance #3 - Solved!

Higher resolution, lower readability

Desktop image sizing options: Not just for the hard-of-seeing.

Windows 8 has spurred a whole new hardware type: the laptop-tablet hybrid. Many of these devices sport 1080p IPS displays that are breathtaking to behold. I've had the opportunity to test a few hybrids extensively, and I've found that the blessing of a high-resolution display comes with an accompanying curse.

Many convertibles stick to an Ultrabook-type form factor, squeezing that 1080p resolution into a 10- to 12-inch screen. The ultrapacked pixel density makes for a razor-sharp picture, but text appears a bit too small for my taste in desktop mode. Fortunately, a trick that helped farsighted folks browse with ease in Windows 7 still applies in Windows 8.

Right-click anywhere on the desktop, select Screen Resolution, and then click Make text and other items larger and smaller. The Change the size of all items option works great if you plan on sticking to a touchscreen interface, boosting the size of icons and text alike to make them finger-friendly. I prefer using the Change only the text size option on hybrid-type devices that include a touchpad or mouse, however. The drop-down menu includes a bevy of text types, each of which you can individually alter to suit your particular needs.

Windows 8 Annoyance #2 - Solved!

No POP for you!

That POP option in the Mail app? It's a trick.

One of my biggest Windows 8 irritations is its lack of POP email support in the native Mail app. I get it, Microsoft: IMAP's syncing functionality fits better into the cloud-connected, work-everywhere vision you have for Windows 8. But tell that to all the nontechie people who lean on me for computer support, and who rely on the POP email addresses that their ISPs handed out.

If you're running Windows 8 and need to keep tabs on a POP email account, I first recommend downloading Mozilla's free Thunderbird email application and using it in Desktop mode. But if you don't want to do that (or if you're running Windows RT), you have a workaround for Microsoft's POP reluctance, though it's somewhat clunky.

The key lies in the Mail app's support for popular webmail clients, including Gmail and Outlook.com—two free favorites that just happen to be able to connect and link with outside POP email accounts. See where I'm going here? Just create a free email account with either service, and then link your POP mail account to it using the tutorials supplied by Outlook.com or Gmail.

After persuading your POP account to play nice with your Outlook.com or Gmail account, add your chosen webmail service to the Windows 8 Mail app through the normal means. Voilà! Your POP mail will work its way into the Mail app inbox by way of its webmail proxy.

Here's the kicker: When you send email, the Mail app will let you use only your webmail email address, not your POP mail address. There isn't any way around the limitation, but at least your messages will land in your inbox.