Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Microsoft has always encouraged Windows 10 users to make use of a Microsoft account rather than a local one -- and it has been piling on the pressure.

In the US, Microsoft had already taken the step of hiding the option to create a local account during the installation of Windows 10, and now this seems to be spreading to other parts of the world. While there are undeniable benefits to working with a Microsoft account, the company appears to be reducing users' choices.

If you feel you should be able to benefit financially from sharing information with Facebook, there's some good news: the company is willing to pay you for your voice recordings.

The scheme is part of the social network's Pronunciations program, and it sees Facebook trying to improve its speech recognition capabilities. But if you're hoping to get rich, you might be a little disappointed.

Microsoft has released a public preview of its Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) for various Linux distributions.

The company says that the tool will also be coming to iOS and Android later this year, and more details of these mobile editions are due to be revealed at next week's RSA Conference. The spread to additional platform comes after Microsoft rebranded Windows Defender as Microsoft Defender last year.

The personal details of 10.6 million people have been posted in a hacking forum after MGM Resorts hotels suffered a data breach. The data includes dates of birth, email addresses, names, phone numbers and physical addresses, and celebrities such as Justin Bieber and Twitter's Jack Dorsey are among those affected.

While the data has only just been leaked, it stems from a security breach that took place last year. Data dating back to 2017 was found accessible on an unsecured cloud server.

One of the issues some people have with Twitter is the character limit imposed on individual tweets. While the restriction is very much the point of the site, there are times when 280 characters is just not enough... hence threading.

There's nothing to stop you from manually creating a tweet thread, but it's not something that everyone is familiar with. So to help out, Twitter has added a new button to make things easier. It's not the tweet editing option people are still begging for, but a way to link tweets together.

Microsoft has started the roll out of changes to Windows Update that give Windows 10 users more control over the process of updating. There has been a spate of problematic updates from Microsoft recently, and the change that is rolling out now introduces a new "Optional updates" section to Windows Update.

An important aspect of the new Windows Update user experience is that driver updating has been dramatically improved. Microsoft says that the changes will help users to get hold of the "highest quality, and most reliable drivers faster and with less friction".

Google has confirmed that it plans to move data pertaining to its UK users out of Europe, and will instead store user accounts in the US.

The move comes as a result of the UK's departure from the European Union, and it is a side effect of Brexit that few would have predicted. Reuters reports that Google will be placing UK user accounts under US jurisdiction, adding that it "will leave the sensitive personal information of tens of millions with less protection and within easier reach of British law enforcement".

Turning it all the way up to 11, Google today launched the Developer Preview of Android 11 -- or Android R, if you prefer. For now, the preview build is only compatible with Pixel devices (no surprises there), but what can you expect to see?

Google has chosen to put privacy and security front and center in Android 11, giving users more control and transparency. The company also says that it has added things such as enhancements for foldables and 5G, call-screening APIs, new media and camera capabilities, and machine learning.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been made a Visa principal member, making it "the first pure-play cryptocurrency company" to receive such accreditation. The membership was awarded back in December, but the news has only just been made public.

This is not the first time Coinbase has had dealings with Visa. The two companies worked together last year to launch the Coinbase Card ("a Visa debit card, funded by your Coinbase balance") in the UK, but now it will be possible to bring the debit card and additional services to more markets around the world.

Following a series of privacy-related controversies, smart doorbell maker Ring is making two-factor authentication (2FA) mandatory on all of its devices. In addition, the company is also giving users more control over personalized advertising.

Ring also says that it is temporarily pausing the use of most third-party analytics services in its apps and on its website. The company is working on giving users the ability to limit the sharing of data with third parties.

Microsoft has been making great progress with its Your Phone app recently. The app -- which makes it possible to use an Android smartphone in conjunction with Windows 10 -- has now gained support for RCS messaging.

It has been possible to send regular text messages via Your Phone for some time but now, thanks to a new partnership with Samsung, next-generation RCS messaging is available to some users too.

It is a little over a month since Windows 7 reached end of life, and in the coming months Microsoft will stop supporting the Windows 10 October 2018 Update.

Also known as Windows 10 version 1809, this edition of the operating system was released in November 2018. When May 12 2020 rolls around, Microsoft will no longer release security updates for it -- something the company refers to as the "end of servicing".

The UK government has announced plans to spend £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) on what it describes as "the world's most powerful weather and climate supercomputer".

The investment will make weather forecasts faster and more accurate, and the computer will make it easier to predict the impact of climate change. It will be managed by the Met Office, and will be used to help communities and government agencies better prepare for severe weather.

Anyone using the Dev or Canary builds of Microsoft Edge gets to try out all of the latest features and improvements early, and Microsoft says that the latest builds boast huge speed improvements.

The enhanced performance is significant. Microsoft claims improvements of up to 13 percent -- meaning that this is the sort of speed boost that should be noticeable in use, not just measurable in tests.

Microsoft has released Windows Terminal Preview v0.9 with a glut of new features and options. The company says that this update is the last release that will include new features before v1 launches.

In terms of what's new, there's a lot to explore. The latest version of Windows Terminal will now detect any version of PowerShell and automatically create a profile for you, and the wt execution alias now supports command line arguments.