Wayne Williams

Amazon is always looking for new ways to get its Alexa digital assistant into more homes. It’s rolled out a variety of Echo products over the years, most recently the Fire TV Cube, and Echo Dot Kids Edition.

A year ago, the company introduced the Echo Show, an Alexa powered device with a built-in 7-inch touchscreen. Today, the retail giant announces a free software update to turn an existing Fire tablet into a slimmed down Show, and there’s a new optional charging dock to complete the experience too.

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Amazon’s Fire tablets have been a big success for the company, with the Kids Editions proving very popular with parents. As well as offering age-appropriate content, they come with a kid proof case which makes them much harder to break than regular tablets.

Today the retail giant introduces a new model to the range. The Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is its largest kid friendly device to date, and for a price that’s very reasonable.

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The next big feature update of Windows 10, codenamed Redstone 5, has been shaping up nicely, with lots of great improvements and new additions.

The highlight of this future update is unquestionably Sets, a tab-based feature that’s designed to let you access related web pages, research documents, files, and applications in one location. Sets was originally planned to be part of the April 2018 Update alongside Timeline, but Microsoft needed a little more time to get things right, and so pushed it back. Sadly it now looks as if it won’t make it into the following feature update either.

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It’s been a couple of weeks since Microsoft last rolled out a new Windows 10 Redstone 5 build for Insiders, but today the wait for an update is over.

Build 17704, for those on the Fast ring and Skip Ahead, includes a number of big improvements and changes.

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Some people are worried about the prospects of robots taking over their jobs, but there are some tasks around the home that you would relish a robot doing for you -- such as vacuuming.

Robot vacuum cleaners are fantastic time-saving gadgets, and thanks to Wellbots you can win a Neato Botvac D7 Connected Robot Vacuum for your home as part of BetaNews' ongoing 20th birthday giveaway celebrations.

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We’ve written a lot recently about 2018 editions of past Windows operating systems, including Windows 7, XP and even Windows 95.

Microsoft Windows 95 Mobile imagines what the 23-year-old OS would look like if it was running on a modern smartphone today, and while its creator firmly has his tongue in cheek here, I have to say it has a certain retro-appeal to it.

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Fans of Kodi know that there’s a new version of the open source home theater software in development. Kodi 18 Leia introduces a number of big changes, including an overhaul for the Music and Live TV sections.

For Windows users there’s a dedicated 64-bit build, Android owners can populate the screen with content using a feature called Smartplaylists, and there have also been numerous changes for Linux.

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Cryptojacking might not be as terrifying a threat as ransomware, but it’s a major annoyance that’s becoming more and more prevalent. If you’re not familiar, the attack essentially uses other people’s systems to mine cryptocurrency, usually without their consent.

When a cryptocurrency miner is running, your system will experience slowdowns and maybe crashes. The miner will eat up system resources, interfering with tasks like streaming video.

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As you’ll know if you’re a frequent visitor to BetaNews, YouTuber Kamer Kaan Avdan has been creating some fantastic concept videos for various operating systems of the future, including Windows 11, iOS 12 and Android 9.0.

Most recently though, it’s his modernizing of Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows 95 which have really caught people's attention. If you’ve watched any of his videos, and thought how cool it would be to actually run one of those operating systems, the bad news is they remain purely concepts for now. However, you can customize your existing OS with some wallpapers from his most popular creations.

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At its recent WWDC, Apple revealed the latest version of macOS -- Mojave. The OS update introduces a number of new features, including a dark theme and desktop Stacks. One of the more interesting additions is Dynamic Desktop which cleverly cycles through a set of 16 images of the desert taken at different times of the day.

If you like the idea of this, but are on Windows 10, the good news is it’s now possible to get the feature on your OS, and for free.

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Windows 10 is a very good operating system, but despite Microsoft initially offering it as a free upgrade, many users were reluctant to switch from Windows 7, and it’s easy to understand why. A lot of Windows 10’s big changes -- the Microsoft Store, bundled third-party apps, live tiles in the Start menu, Cortana, Bing integration, and so on -- simply weren't that appealing to users of previous versions of Windows.

Windows 7 still offers everything that most people would want from an OS, but nearly a decade on from its debut, it now looks and feels quite dated compared to its successor. But if the aging OS had a modern makeover, could it win back many of those people who have moved on to Windows 10? I suspect so. Take a look at Windows 7 -- 2018 Edition and make up your own mind.

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Windows 10 has long had a reputation for being a rather problematic operating system. Part of this is down to early versions famously spying on users, and Microsoft shoving it onto systems against the owners' wishes didn’t help either.

Rolling out major feature updates twice a year has led to numerous complaints and problems as well, with one of our most searched-for articles here being how to rollback an update.

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As recently noted by AdDuplex, the Windows 10 1803 rollout is progressing much more smoothly than all previous feature updates. AdDuplex’s figures suggest over 50 percent of Windows 10 users have already been offered the update, while Microsoft’s own numbers say 250 million machines have it. With close to 700 million Windows 10 systems, that’s just over 35 percent.

It’s certainly been a huge improvement over the famously slow and problematic Creators Update last year, and part of the reason this rollout has been so successful is down to Microsoft’s use of AI and Machine Learning.

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With the Windows April 2018 Update now available to all, it’s full steam ahead for Microsoft on the next big feature update, codenamed Redstone 5.

New builds are arriving on a weekly basis, and today sees the rollout of Build 17692 for Insiders on the Fast and Skip Ahead rings.

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Windows 95 was never much to look at, with its predominately grey, boxy design, but two decades ago it was revolutionary, introducing Windows users to the concept of a Start menu and taskbar for the first time, as well as rudimentary plug-and-play support.

Truth be told, it was never the greatest of operating systems (Windows 98 and XP both improved significantly on the foundations it laid down) but if it had a modern makeover, could we forgive its shortcomings? Feast your eyes on Windows 95 -- 2018 Edition, and decide for yourself.

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