If you spent all day Friday trying to activate your iPhone, why not take a break and catch up on some non-iPhone related news? Here are some of our favorite stories from the week that was.

• Plurk on the Desktop: What's already out there, and what's next
  We hear you loud and clear. Many Download Squad readers are tired of reading about micro-blogigng service Twitter. So we promise, from now on it's all Plurk, al the time. But seriously, Twitter may be the biggest name in micro-blogging, but it's not the only game in town. This week we took a look at some of the desktop clients for accessing Plurk, the new kid on the block who's already making a big splash. Is that a mixed metaphor?
• Truecrypt updates to version 6, hides your subversive plots even better!
  Popular, open source encryption application Truecrypt got a major update this week. The new version adds support for multi-core CPUs, speedier encryption, and the ability to encypt your entire OS or hide system volumes on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008.
• Glubble vs. Kidzui: Good kid browsers, silly names
  So you've tried telling your kid to stay away from the darker corners of the interwebs where strangers keep offering them candy and that's not working. Why not try replacing Firefox or Internet Explorer with a kid-friendly web browser? We have all the details on two of the most popular browsers for the under 10 set.
• Sending attachments with Gmail is just a click away - gAttach!
  Ever wish you could change your default email application in WIndows to a web-based email service like Gmail? Now you can. 'Nuff said.
• Windows XP ain't the only OS retiring this year - Goodbye Windows 3.11
  Sure, Windows XP may be grabbing all the headlines this summer, what with Microsoft officially ending sales of the venerable, but durable OS. But did you know that an even older, if slightly less stable version of Windows was still available through the Windows embedded channel? Come November, though, you'll no longer be able to find Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. Quick, somebody start a petition!
• All-in-one driver solution with DriverMax
  You back up the important files and software on your computer. But what about your drivers? DriverMax is a simple, free Windows utility that makes a backup of all the drivers instaled on your system. Whether you need to reinstall Windows or just want to make sure you have a backup in case anything happens, DriverMax can help.

There are already more desktop apps for Twitter than we could ever possibly cover without losing our minds. But what about that OTHER microblogging service, Plurk? A couple of people have hacked the mobile version into Adobe Air to create two similar apps: PlurkAir and PlurkIt. This is ok for now, but it's nowhere near the level that Twitter clients have achieved.

That's where Plurker comes in. It's scheduled to be the first dedicated Windows desktop version of Plurk, and the feature list looks pretty impressive. Sort Plurks using custom searches, set alerts for private Plurks you receive, enjoy autocompleting @message functionality, and way too much more for us to list here. If Plurker is as good as promised, it could give Plurk a big user boost by taking away one major excuse not to use the service.

When Twitter users recently stumbled onto Plurk, it gained a big chunk of new users who like the interface, but want to remain active on Twitter as well. Now there's a solution, and it's called Feedtweeter. Right now, all it does is push your Plurks to Twitter, taking out any fancy formatting that wouldn't come across in a tweet. However, support is planned for feeding other services into Twitter, including Flickr, del.icio.us, and YouTube. Feedtweeter is currently in closed beta.

Plurking to Twitter is attractive because they're both the same type of service: microblogging. But even though something you write on Plurk might be perfect for Twitter, pushing every link you post on del.icio.us into a Twitter account might be, well, spam. We've seen this before with other services that post to Twitter via RSS feeds, and we don't really need another one of those. What's useful here is realizing that Plurks might have formatting issues that make them hard to feed into Twitter, and offering a solution to the issue.

Plurk is a new micro-blogging service that looks a lot like a Twitter clone. At face value Plurk allows you to post updates letting people know what you're up to. You know, telling everyone you're brushing your cat, or feeding your hair, or trying to break the world beer drinking record whilst standing on your head.

The normal stuff.

There might be more that meets the eye to this little service though.

Right off the bat, here are some features that make Plurk stand out:

• No character restrictions
• More elegant display of your "timeline", with Ajax drag and drop capability
• Pre-set emoticons and prefixes such as "was, is, will"

Pretty basic stuff, right?

Well here are the two potential game changers:

• Karma Points
• Cliques

What are Karma points? Basically it's a measure of how active you and your Plurk friends are on the site. The more Plurk services you use (such as instant messaging or uploading a profile picture) the more points you'll rack up.

And what are cliques? Well you know the answer to that. It's the ability to group your friends together into categories that you choose. Pownce lets you do this already, and so does Facebook...but the possibilities are endless with this one. Think of being able to send updates to very unique groups of people. Family, friends, possible investors or colleagues. You could spend an infinite amount of time shuffling your cliques based on what's happening around you. Has someone fallen off the map or lost favor with you? Then they're out of the clique. It's sticky AND useful.

Twitter's downtime and focus on marketing over substance has maddened a lot of people. Who will be there to clean up the mess? Don't shirk, it might be Plurk. On the other hand, Plurk may have to deal with the same scaling and reliability issues as Twitter. The service was down for a brief period this morning. What do you think? Are you ready to leave Twitter for a service that offers more features? Or would you rather stick to a network that already has a loyal userbase?

UPDATE: There is indeed a 140 character limit.