Wayne Williams

It’s been a couple of weeks since Windows Insiders on the Fast ring got a new build of Windows 10 for PC. A PCI bug prevented a promising build from being released sooner, but the problem has been fixed, and so today Build 14328 arrives for both PC and Mobile.

The past few Windows 10 Fast ring releases have debuted some great new features, and Build 14328 is no different, introducing, among other features, Windows Ink, a wealth of Cortana improvements, and a new Start experience.

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I don’t use the Windows Calculator very often, but occasionally I need to work something out and so fire it up. Today, upon opening the calculator, I was presented with a message asking me to rate the app in the Windows Store. If I was enjoying it. Which of course I wasn’t. It is a calculator after all, and the only time I’ve ever enjoyed using one of those was as a teenager when I typed in "5318008" and turned it upside down. Even the enjoyment of doing that was very short lived.

Now, the Windows 10 calculator begging for user ratings in the Windows Store isn’t a new phenomenon. A thread on Reddit discussed this some months ago, but this is the first time I’ve experienced it for myself, and obviously three months after it was first flagged as a nuisance, it’s still going on. Seriously who at Microsoft thought this was a good idea?

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Want to watch some pornography on your phone but can’t be bothered to actually search for it? From today you can receive links to free adult content just by texting an emoji.

Pornhub’s new "Emoji 4 Porn" service offers a selection of 30 public emoji (plus an unspecified number of secret unlisted ones to find) that you can use to request whatever sort of pornography you’re into. Send them a taco emoji, for example, and you’ll receive Latina videos. A camcorder emoji will give you links to amateur content. You can probably work out what sort of videos you’ll get if you send them a melon.

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Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14322 less than a week ago, introducing numerous improvements and changes to Action Center, notifications, Cortana, Settings, emoji, Microsoft Edge, lockscreen, and more.

Today, the software giant rolls out another new build to the Fast ring, Build 14327, which, as well as fixing various known issues, also introduces a couple of noteworthy additions, including a Messaging Everywhere preview which lets users send and receive text messages from a Windows 10 PC.

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You probably know that you can use a potato as a battery and power clocks and small light bulbs from it. You don’t have to use a potato either -- certain other vegetables and fruits work just as well.

Arkyne Technologies claims that plants can also be used as a power source, and has produced a product called Bioo Lite which is able to use leafy green flora to charge devices, like smartphones and tablets. The company is currently seeking finance for its invention on Indiegogo where it has already hit 112 percent of its funding goal with a month to go.

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Personally I think Windows 10 is a great operating system. It’s a bit unfinished still, but the Anniversary Update coming in July will fix a lot of the problems, and also introduce additional features. That said, I can fully understand why some people might decide Windows 10 is not for them and opt to roll back to a previous OS.

Microsoft allows users to 'undo' an installation directly from within Windows 10, but there is a catch -- you only get 30 days in which you can do this. That’s not the only method of rolling back Windows 10 though, there are other tools which you can use for the task beyond that time limit.

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Old computer favorites never die, they just fade away for a bit and then reappear in a new form looking for funding on Indiegogo.

The ZX Spectrum was previously resurrected as Vega, and the handheld Vega+, and now there’s a new version of the Commodore 64 looking for funding. Called simply THE 64, this too will be available in desktop and handheld versions.

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Apple’s QuickTime was popular years ago, particularly for anyone wanting to watch movie trailers on the web, but its time has long since passed. There’s really very little need to have it installed on your system these days.

Because you no longer need it isn’t the only reason to uninstall it though. Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative has released two advisories (ZDI-16-241 and ZDI-16-242) which detail new, critical vulnerabilities affecting QuickTime for Windows, and these won’t be patched as Apple has reportedly deprecated the software.

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It’s no surprise that the Raspberry Pi Zero was such a hit. Priced at just $5, the tiny uncased device sold out immediately, and despite occasional reappearances at retailers like The Pi Hut, it’s remained ever-elusive.

If you haven’t yet managed to get your hands on the Pi Zero, the good news is it will soon be back in stock, and in much greater numbers than before. And that’s not the only welcome news. The restocked device will be packing a much requested new feature.

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Microsoft is doing its best to persuade users of Windows 7 and 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10. Having seen reasonable -- but not outstanding -- upgrade numbers as a result of aggressively ramming the new OS down users’ throats, the software giant is now trying to sell the benefits of Windows 10 to those customers still on the fence.

An online Windows 10 demo covering PC, Tablet and Phone lets users see the new OS in action, and gives them the opportunity to upgrade if they like what's on offer.

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Tablet manufacturers are forever trying to deliver the lightest and thinnest products, and today Amazon introduces a new Kindle which is designed to feel almost weightless.

The Kindle Oasis isn’t simply light, weighing in at just 131 grams, it’s also very thin, at just 3.4 mm at its slimmest point. That makes it 30 percent thinner on average than any other Kindle. It also offers an ergonomic grip to shift the center of gravity to your palm, making it perfect for reading one handed. The built-in accelerometer automatically detects whether you are reading left or right handed, and rotates the page and page turn buttons accordingly.

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I know plenty of people who -- literally -- spend their lives on Facebook, sharing everything they do, and obsessively reading and reacting to every post made by their friends.

But here’s the thing. Despite all of the hours they put into being on the site, they probably only know a fraction of what it has to offer. There are a lot of features tucked away that they -- and you -- might never encounter. Think you know Facebook? Think again...

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No one enjoys seeing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows. It can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you were right in the middle of something important when it occurred, and you have no idea what caused it.

Armed with the information on the blue screen, and the stop code, you should be able to track down a cause and possible solution on the web, but this does require you to jot down the necessary details. However, that chore is likely to soon be a thing of the past.

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Alcantara is a soft, suede-like material made in Italy that’s used in high-end luxury products. It’s often to be found in car, aircraft and yacht interiors because it looks great and gets better with age.

Microsoft has used this proprietary material to create a new Signature Type Cover for Surface Pro 4 and, there's no denying, the end result looks incredibly classy. No longer will you be embarrassed by your Surface Pro 4’s existing scuffed and dirty blue cover as you quaff champagne on a long flight home on your personal Lear Jet, trading amusing stories with BFFs Richard Branson and Elon Musk (I speak from personal experience of course).

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Children enjoy watching streaming video, but a lot of content out there really isn’t suitable for them. This is why Google introduced YouTube Kids, a curated, family-friendly version of the video streaming site.

Following in YouTube’s footsteps, the BBC is today rolling out a version of iPlayer aimed at younger viewers which cleverly filters available content based on the age of the child.

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