Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

If you're a heavy user of your iPhone, you'll be aware of the need to keep your battery topped up. You could carry around a battery pack, or you could stick your charger in your pocket in the hope that you'll be a near a power outlet. Or, you could invest in one of Apple's official charging cases.

The iPhone-maker has just launched a trio of smart battery cases -- for the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR -- which allow you to protect and charge your phone at the same time.

With the emphasis it places on privacy, it should come as little surprise that search engine DuckDuckGo is less than keen on Google. The latest demonstration of this is the company's decision to eschew Google Maps in favor of Apple's MapKit JS framework to power its map-related searches.

DuckDuckGo says that this brings users a "valuable combination of mapping and privacy", both on the desktop and on mobile.

Just weeks after relaunching Mozilla Labs, the Firefox maker has announced that the browser's Test Pilot program is closing down. The move comes as Mozilla says it is "evolving Firefox's culture of experimentation".

The Test Pilot Program has been a beta testing ground for numerous Firefox features including Containers, Activity Stream and Firefox Monitor. But while this particular program is going away -- and with very little notice -- Mozilla says that experimentation will continue, and promises that experimental features will not be disabled for those who are currently using them.

To help bring in more money to fund new shows, Netflix is increasing its prices in the US with immediate effect.

The cost of plans is jumping by between 13 and 18 percent, and new users will have to pay the new prices straight away. Existing customers can expect to see their subscription fees going up at some point over the next three months.

Google has reminded developers that their apps will be removed from the Play Store if they request SMS or Call Log permissions. The policy change was announced last year, and over the next few weeks the app removal process begins.

While these particular permissions have been used to give Android users a choice of dialers and messaging apps, Google says there have also been instances of abuse. The company is introducing far stricter restrictions in the name of privacy and protecting user data.

After five years of leaking information about unreleased builds of Windows, BuildFeed has shut up shop.

Over the weekend, the site posted a slew of build numbers including references to onecore and shell_devices_foldable. But there will be no more leaks coming from the BuildFeed. Citing "extensive internal pressures and external pressures", site founder Thomas Hounsell says that he has terminated his project with immediate effect.

You've very probably been using Windows 10 for a long time now, but that doesn't mean that you've discovered everything it has to offer. The operating system is packed with features, but there are some that are hidden away to the extent that they could be considered secrets.

One such gem is the screen recording tool. What? You didn't know that Windows 10 could record videos of on-screen activity? You're not alone. The screen recorder is built into the Game bar and you may well not have seen it. If you've ever wondered how to make video of what you're doing in Windows, this is precisely the utility you need. Here's how to access and use it -- including details of a secret keyboard shortcut.

Chinese smartphone-maker Huawei has sacked an employee after he was arrested in Poland, charged with spying. Weijing Wang, the company's sales director in Poland, was dismissed by Huawei as it tries to limit the damage to its reputation -- the company is already viewed as a potential security risk by numerous countries including the US.

Huawei insists that the charges leveled against Wang are unrelated to the company, but said that the allegations brought it into disrepute. Poland's internal affairs minister, Joachim Brudziński, has called on NATO and the EU to work together to decide whether Huawei should be excluded from operating in some markets.

If you were hoping to get your hands on a Chromecast Audio, you're out of luck: Google has stopped manufacturing the device.

More than this, the audio-only version of Chromecast is out of stock pretty much everywhere, so your only hope of getting one now is probably to pick one up second hand. Google says it has a range of products that users can turn to if they want to enjoy music, so Chromecast Audio was deemed surplus to requirements.

With so many apps and games available in Google Play, it's easy to get carried away and fill up your phone. You can use Settings to keep track of how much space you have left, but now Google has made it possible to monitor free space from within the Play Store.

A new storage indicator lets you monitor the amount of storage space you have available, so you can easily tell if you're going to have room to download more from the store -- and also to make room for those apps you desperately want to install.

With the US government shutdown in its third week, President Trump continues to try to convince both his own party and the Democrats to agree to fund one of his campaign promises -- a wall on the southern border.

So far, the shutdown has seen national parks and more left unstaffed, and today is the first payday on which hundreds of thousands of federal workers will not receive a paycheck. Another side effect of the shutdown is that numerous government websites are offline as their TLS certificates have expired, and no one is available to renew them.

If you have upgraded to Windows 10 version 1903 -- or Windows 10 19H1 as you may know it -- you will find that a portion of your hard drive has been set aside thanks to the new "reserved storage" option.

Microsoft introduced this Storage Reserve (as it is also known) to "ensure proper performance and successful updates of your device", but not everyone is happy about it. You may be running low on disk space, or you just might like to remain in control of how your hard drive is used -- in which case, read on to find out how to disable reserved storage.

Netflix has millions of users around the world, but how many of these are actually paying customers? Many of us either know (or are) people who share their Netflix account with friends and family, or leech off the one person they know that's willing to pay for a subscription.

But Netflix free rides could be coming to an end. At CES, UK-based firm Synamedia revealed artificial intelligence software that could be used by Netflix and other companies to detect and block the sharing of account credentials.

If you're on a tight budget, or you're looking for a cheap "throw-away" laptop you can pop into a bag when you're travelling, Chuwi's HeroBook could be for you. Aimed at students and "low-income workers", the HeroBook's specs are nothing to get too excited about, but this is not the point of this particular laptop.

What the HeroBook is about is giving users a reasonable experience and above-acceptable hardware for a super-low price. For $199 you could kit yourself out with a laptop that is capable enough for day-to-day computing, or could serve as a secondary laptop for travelling with -- at this price, you won't mind too much if you lose or damage it!

A security specialist has discovered a bug in Google's Knowledge Graph -- the cards that appear at the top of search results to highlight key pieces of information and provide quick answers to questions-- which makes it not only possible, but simple to manipulate search results.

Wietze Beukema has demonstrated how it is possible to make simple tweaks to a search URL and display a knowledge panel card containing whatever data you want. While it is not possible to change the results that appear when people conduct a search, the bug means that fake links can be shared with others, displaying false information to mislead people.