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News

• Lenovo announces service for cloud-aware clients

  Lenovo on Tuesday announced a hosted applications service that can detect the hardware capabilities of an end user's laptop and tailor the service accordingly.

• Google +1 = Social overload

  I'm not sure how to say this, but I'm starting to think I might be antisocial.

• Google adds site-blocking option to search

  Ever wish you could keep certain sites from showing up in your Google search results? Thanks to a new feature being rolled out right now, you can.

• Get a quick and easy disposable e-mail address

  Here's a common hassle: You sign up for some freebie, promotion, or service that requires your e-mail address--and suddenly your inbox is deluged with ads, notifications, and other spam.

• RIM, Nokia, DoCoMo dodge Google's 'dumb pipe' menace

  Google's growing influence in the mobile industry is clearly proving worrisome to some established device makers and operators, a few of whom put up a united front against the search giant during a round table at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Wednesday.

• Online Dating for Nerds

  Valentine's Day is just around the corner--and if you're without a special someone, <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/142432/online_dating_horror_stories.html">online dating</a> might sound like a <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/159382/online_dating_adds_video_goes_local.html">viable option</a>.

• Amazon adds CloudWatch to management tool

  Amazon has added CloudWatch to the list of services that are integrated with its AWS (Amazon Web Services) Management Console, allowing IT staff to create alarms and troubleshoot from a browser.

• Amazon's Beanstalk aims to make Web Services easier to use

  Amazon on Wednesday planned to introduce an offering that combines its Web services into one tool that is aimed at making it easier for customers to use and fine-tune the services.

• Dropbox 1.0 arrives with selective sync feature

  Version 1.0 of the cloud-based synchronization service Dropbox has been released. It comes with a selective sync feature, a new Mac OS client and better performance, according to a Thursday blog post.

• Google debuts text analysis tools

  Google has introduced two tools that may help users discover new ways to parse the company's massive collections of public information.

• Google launches new 'body browser'

  Watch out, TSA: Google's getting into the game of exploring the human body.

• First look: Chrome OS beta's Achilles' heel is its reliance on the Web

  Computers and their software today are too complicated, and users are increasingly looking at iPads and cloud-based services such as Google Docs to handle the basics that most of us stick to: document editing, photo management, emailing, Web browsing, and the like. Running Office on a PC or Mac is beyond overkill for most people. Google proposes we do away with the PC altogether, at least part of the time, and replace it with Google's cloud-based laptop -- an appliance in which the Chrome browser serves as operating system. With the Chrome OS, all actions occur in the browser and the cloud.

• Ticketmaster unfazed by odd band names

  If you can't quite spell Hannah Montana or Boyz II Men you're not alone. But Ticketmaster found it doesn't pay to be too strict about spelling and modified its search engine to accommodate creative alternatives. Managers of enterprise and website search services could do well to follow Ticketmaster's lead.

• What Dell's purchase of cloud company signals

  A little-noted announcement earlier this month could have huge implications for cloud take-up in smaller businesses. Dell has snapped up Boomi, a company that describes itself as a "cloud integrator."

• Microsoft, Google slug it out for Uncle Sam's cloud business

  Judging by market share only, Google's Google Apps Web-based e-mail and collaboration suite hasn't begun to loosen Microsoft Office's tight rein on the corporate world.