Wayne Williams

At Build earlier this month, Microsoft announced Windows Mixed Reality dev kits from Acer and HP, and said that new products from other partners would be coming later in the year.

At Computex today, Microsoft revealed future headsets from ASUS, Lenovo, and Dell that are set to go into production soon and bring Mixed Reality to the masses. Each has something different to offer.

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Lean Websites is a practical book on website performance for web developers, concentrating mainly on front-end performance improvement.

It covers plenty of solid theory, but is also packed with useful, real world hints and tips that you can use on your sites today. The ebook, from SitePoint, examines the causes behind bloated and slow websites, dissects which assets of your page are necessary, which are nice to have, and which are not necessary at all and can be removed to shed some weight.

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Users of older versions of Windows aren’t having the best time of it lately. Last week it was discovered that over 98 percent of those affected by the WannaCry ransomware were running Windows 7, and now a new bug has been found which can slow down and crash systems running that OS and Windows 8.1.

The new bug is trivially easy to exploit, making just browsing the web potentially hazardous, and there’s currently no fix available.

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The Raspberry Pi was designed to provide an ultra-cheap way to encourage schoolchildren to learn to code just as they had back in the 1980s and 90s. Although the uncased credit card sized computer has since found a highly appreciative audience outside of education, kids -- the computer scientists of the future -- remain a priority.

CoderDojo is a global network of coding clubs for children aged from seven to 17 with the aim being to provide a safe and social place for kids to learn to program. It’s clear the two foundations have similar aims, which is why it’s no surprise that they are set to join forces.

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Sexy Web Design is an easy-to-follow guide that reveals the secrets of how to build your own breath-taking web interfaces from scratch.

You'll be guided through the entire process of creating a gorgeous, usable website by applying the timeless principles of user-centered design. Even if you're short on design skills, with this book you'll be creating your own stunning websites in no time at all.

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Rails: Novice to Ninja is an easy-to-follow, practical, and fun guide to Ruby on Rails.

Aimed at beginners, this ebook covers everything you need to get up and running, from installing Ruby, Rails and SQLite, to building and deploying a fully-featured web application. The third edition of this book has been fully updated to cover Rails 5, the latest version of the framework.

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Microsoft officially began the Windows 10 Creators Update rollout on April 11. I cautioned about rushing to upgrade to it at the time, and then Microsoft said much the same thing shortly afterwards, recommending users didn’t install it until the upgrade was offered to them.

Six weeks since the rollout began, and still the Creators Update isn’t available to the vast majority of Windows 10 users.

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At today’s launch event in Shanghai, Microsoft officially took the wraps of its new Surface Pro tablet. There was no official live stream, and the software giant’s live blog was hit by technical difficulties which meant it wasn’t updated as intended, but we finally have the information on the new device, which Microsoft describes as "the most versatile laptop."

Called simply Surface Pro, the tablet is a beautifully crafted device that’s the thinnest and fastest produced so far. It’s powered by the Core i7 7th Gen Kaby Lake processor, and promises 13.5 hours of battery life -- that's a big 50 percent improvement over the Surface Pro 4.

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It’s been a week since the WannaCrypt/WannaCry ransomware cyber attacks began, and the repercussions are still being felt. It became clear quite early on that the ransomware was hitting older Windows systems hard (Windows 10 wasn’t affected), with a lot of talk focusing on the number of at-risk Windows XP systems still in service.

But here’s the interesting thing. Most of the affected systems -- over 98 percent -- were actually running Windows 7.

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From the words, to how the form looks, and on to interactivity, Designing UX: Forms will show you how to design a web form that works beautifully on mobiles, laptops and desktops.

It’s filled with practical and engaging insights, and plenty of real-world examples, both good and bad.

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Google revealed a lot of new features and products during yesterday’s opening two-hour long I/O keynote, including more about Android O, a stripped down OS for cheap phones called Android Go, an improved way to protect users from bad Android apps, and competition for Siri in the form of Google Assistant for iOS.

That’s not the end of things though, as Google has another keynote today.

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Yes, the rumors were true (as they so often are when it comes to Google) -- the search giant announced at its I/O developer conference today that its personal assistant is coming to the iPhone.

As you might expect (and as is the case with Microsoft’s Cortana), you won’t be able to replace Siri with Google Assistant, instead you’ll need to summon it through a dedicated app. That’s not the only downside.

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When Microsoft rolled out the previous Windows 10 Redstone 3 build to Insiders (Build 16193), it looked as if the new Story Remix feature was going to be included. However, it turns out the software giant had other plans, and only made it available to a select group of testers (of which I’m lucky enough to be one).

Microsoft says that the "large majority of Windows Insiders in the Fast ring should have Story Remix right now", however, and you can check by launching the Photos app which it’s part of. (If it's not there, and you want to try it, you can request access by sending an email to [email protected].) There’s no such confusion with this week’s new release, Build 16199, as everyone can try all of the new features today -- and there are quite few of those.

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It’s that time once again when Google takes to the stage to reveal its future plans.

The annual Google I/O developer conference kicks off today, with a keynote taking place at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. Among other things, the search giant will be revealing more about Android O, the next version of its Android operating system. That’s not all though.

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Python is an open source, versatile, and powerful programming language. Learning Python, from Packt Publishing, will teach you how to master it, and code like a professional. It’s well written, easy to follow, and lays a good foundation for those who are interested in digging deeper.

Starting with the fundamentals of programming and Python, it ends by exploring very different topics, like GUIs, web apps and data science. The book takes you all the way to creating a fully-fledged application.

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