Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger has over 330 million users around the world and is capable of delivering the infrastructure for approximately 40 million simultaneous conversations, according to statistics provided by the Redmond-based company. These numbers might convince you that Windows Live Messenger is the world's most popular instant messaging platform. However, there is actually an instant messaging platform from China that is much bigger than MSN in terms of number of users, and you probably would have never heard of that service before. With over 1 billion usernames, China's largest instant messaging network Tencent QQ is at least three times larger than Windows Live Messenger and even two Facebooks couldn't even keep up on par with it. And this isn't just it.

Windows Live Messenger is set to receive a major revamp, and "social" will be its main highlight. With social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter getting more popular than ever, it appears that the Windows Live team at Microsoft will integrate these social sites and blogging platforms such as Wordpress into its upcoming Windows Live Messenger, beyond its current chat functionality. The latest leaked screenshots of Windows Live Messenger 2010 Beta or better known as Wave 4 have started surfacing on the web showing its improved interface and some new impressive social features. From the screenshots taken by Chinese site cnbeta, the "Social" view allows users to "connect" to Windows Live and Facebook, including Twitter and Wordpress. As both Twitter and Wordpress do not support IM services, it is too early to determine how Windows Live Messenger will be "linked" with the two platforms. It could be similar to the current Web Activities after all.

Phil Newton, of Samsung, recently stated that a 10-inch Chrome OS netbook is on its way, later this year. You're probably thinking, these specs are awful for a computer. For a Windows netbook, yes they are, but for Chrome OS the specs will work fine. Chrome OS is for speed. It is an OS that runs in a browser that allows you to connect with the cloud. Since it is a browser the specs listed above, will be really fast, for a cheap price.

KDE 4.4 has just been released. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's an abbreviation for the K Desktop Environment. KDE is a popular Linux desktop environment designed for easy-of-use and functionality. It comes with new features, mimicking the Windows 7 "Snap" Feature and unique tabbed window groups. KDE 4.4 brings revolutionary new window management features, akin to the release of tabbed web browsing.

Chromium, a group partnered with Google, has made a video showing the concept of a Chrome OS tablet. Initially Google was aiming the Chrome OS towards netbooks. Is it now aimed at a tablet? With the upcoming release of the JooJoo and the iPad, can Chrome OS sell as a tablet? I honestly don't think so. I believe Google should aim this OS at the Netbook.

There are over a dozen of desktop clients out there that enable users to access Facebook without visiting the social networking website itself. One of the latest in town is Microsoft's Silverlight 4 Beta Client for Facebook. Although the tech juggernaut has already released SilverFace and FishBowl on April and November last year respectively, but neither of them is as impressive and awesome as its successor. Runs on both Windows and Mac OS X, the Silverlight client for Facebook works really fast and its user interface is way beyond words can describe. It comes complete with essential functionalities -- Status updates, photo browsing, mail and even a neat photo uploading tool. I personally love its dark interface. On the home screen, you would see the News Feeds in the middle, with the filters located on the left. The right section is pretty outstanding -- mouse over the random pictures and the user who uploaded them. Posting your first update using this client may be an "arduous" task to some because the option isn't as prominent as the original Facebook website. Click on the "What's on your mind?" link located at the top of your news feed and a box will appear.

Stumbled across a Flickr album that is filled with hundreds of beautiful and amazing HDR photos? Well, if you're looking for an easy and convenient way to download and enjoy the pictures when you're offline, then this is when Bulkr comes in really handy. Bulkr is a simple, fast and intuitive Adobe AIR desktop application that enables users to download Flickr photos in bulk with just a click of a button. You can download up to 200 pictures in 6 different sizes (square, thumbnail, small, medium, large, and original) from your photostream, favorites, explored photos, Flickr search, or even any user's photostream. What's more is that you can resume download if connection breaks during download. This feature is particularly if you're downloading a pretty large album.