Apple's Self Service Repair program was welcomed when it first launched a little over year ago, but right from the start even its fans acknowledged there was room for improvement. Having listened to customer feedback, Apple has responded accordingly, announcing an expansion of the program so that it covers a wider range of devices, and the elimination of a System Configuration process annoyance.

The changes means that in addition to the M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the program is also now available for the iPhone 14 lineup. Apple also points out that self-repairers will no longer be obliged to contact the Self Service Repair support team to run the final step of a repair.

The Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 11 have not been the recipients of much love -- either from users who find them limited and awkward, nor from Microsoft which has not updated the software for an age.

The company has already announced that the separate Mail and Calendar apps will be discontinued starting in September next year, with the new Outlook for Windows app being touted as the replacement. Despite the ill feeling towards the older apps, the announcement has been met with such a backlash that Microsoft has been forced to rethink its plans.

With little fanfare, Microsoft has released details of the updated listed of hardware supported by Windows 11. The new system requirements see the addition of support for a large number of CPUs from Intel, AMD and Qualcomm.

The update to the list of supported processors comes shortly after the release of Windows 11 Moment 3. As well as adding support for a large number of new CPUs, there have also been some removed from the list.

It has been hard to ignore ChatGPT this year as the world goes crazy for the AI tool. While the artificial intelligence is still in its relative infancy, it is astonishing just what can be achieved with it; all that's needed is an idea and a cleverly worded prompt.

There are limitations to what it can do, some of which have been hard-coded into it. In theory, ChatGPT won't do anything illegal, or provide access to illegal content. In theory. Just as users found that while the AI wouldn't provide a list of torrent sites when asked, there was a way to bypass the block (by asking for a list of sites to dodge in order avoid encountering illegal content), and so a technique has been unearthed that can be exploited to get ChatGPT to spew out product keys for Windows 10 and Windows 11.

A US judge has blocked Microsoft from buying Activision Blizzard following a request from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The move is a temporary block while a complaint by the FTC that the deal could "substantially lessen competition" in the gaming sector is fully investigated. It puts the US in agreement with the UK, which blocked the deal earlier in the year, but is standing against the European Union which has given it the green light.

With the release of the June 2023 security updates for Windows 10, Microsoft has brought Windows 10 21H2 to the end of service. This means that the Home, Pro, Pro Education, and Pro for Workstations versions of Windows 10 21H2 will no longer receive any more updates.

End of service for Windows 10 21H2 has been known about for quite some time, and Microsoft recently reminded users that it was about to happen. What has upset some, however, are the forced upgrades that Microsoft is implementing.

It is the time of the month when Microsoft releases its regular batch of patches for Windows, and this means a new cumulative update for Windows 11.

The KB5027231 update is a mandatory one which addresses a wide range of issues with the operating system including one that resulted in a "Document not saved" error when saving, copying, or attaching files. The update also addresses a Windows Kernel issue, and dozens of other fixes including those from the KB5026446 update.

Having all but given up on its own mobile operating system, Microsoft has been gradually warming to Android and iOS by adding support for Google and Apple's software in the likes of the Your Phone app. And then there is Windows Subsystem for Android which the company has been developing and adding to for some time.

The latest improvement to the compatibility layer that makes it possible to run Android apps in Windows is the arrival of file sharing. Microsoft says that the ability to share files between Windows Subsystem for Android and Windows 11 is something that has been in high demand from users.

In a series of announcements at Xbox Games Showcase 2023, Microsoft has revealed that Game Pass subscribers will soon be able to stream select PC games through NVIDIA GeForce NOW. This means that a library -- albeit a limited one -- of PC games will be playable on low spec PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, mobile devices, TVs and more.

The company also announced a new Xbox console -- the Xbox Series S 1TB in Carbon Black. Priced at $350, the gaming system will be available later this year.

Streaming music services are great, but they are -- obviously -- reliant on an internet connection. While most give you the option of saving tracks to listen to offline, this requires a degree of preparation that not everyone has time for. So Spotify has come up with a solution.

The company has revealed that it is working on a feature called Your Offline Mix. It is a playlist that is automatically created from what you have been listening to recently, and it means that you will always have something to satisfy your musical appetite even if you don't have an internet connection.

It is now several months since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. As such, the developers of numerous apps and services are following suit -- Google included.

The company has revealed that it will end support for Google Drive for desktop on Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 later this summer. No 32-bit version of Windows will be supported either, meaning that Drive users will have to upgrade their operating system, or stick with the web-based version of Google's cloud storage service.

Signing up for the Windows Insider program is a great way to gain access to the latest features of Windows 11 as soon as possible. One of the most recent changes made by Microsoft is a completely new look for File Explorer which has been made available in Windows 11 Build 23475.

But even if you are part of Dev channel and have this build of Windows 11 installed, you may be disappointed to find that you're stuck with the old version of File Explorer. There is, pleasingly, a way to force Windows to give you the new look.

For many people, it can be useful to have Windows 11 installation media available for when a full reinstall of the operating system may be necessary. Microsoft has long made it possible to download Windows installation images, and the company has just updated the Windows 11 ISO

This means that it is now possible to download Windows 11 22H2 directly from Microsoft and use it to install the OS. It eliminates the need to install an older version of Windows 11 and then download a hefty update separately.

Although Apple announced the latest versions of its mobile and desktop operating systems at WWDC a few days ago, it will be months until the final versions of iOS, iPadOS and macOS Sonoma are available.

There will be, however, numerous beta builds for curious users to try out, starting with the early developer betas. Traditionally, Apple has only made these versions available to paying developers, but this year the company has decided to make them freely available to anyone with an Apple ID.

Chrome has long had the unenviable reputation of being a resource hog. This is something that Google has been working on over the years, and one of the most recent improvements has seen the introduction of the Memory Saver feature which puts inactive tabs to sleep to free up RAM.

With the feature enabled, you have just had to trust that it is working -- but now Google has made a change that makes it clear just how much memory is being saved by each tab. And in a future update, the browser will make it even more obvious about just how many resources it has freed up.