Wayne Williams

A week ago Microsoft pushed out a new Windows 10 Mobile build to Lumia 950 and 950 XL users. Build 10586.29 was the first cumulative update and originally made available to Windows Insiders.

However, things didn’t go particularly smoothly with the new version, and a large number of users reported having installation problems.

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Three weeks ago the Raspberry Pi Foundation shocked pretty much everyone with a new version of its popular barebones microcomputer. While previous models were hardly expensive, the new Raspberry Pi Zero was just $5 (plus any extras you required, of course).

Inevitably, demand was huge and the Zero sold out pretty much immediately.

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Windows 10 is still very much a work in progress, as are the apps that come as part of it. The November Update (aka Theshold 2) introduced some cosmetic changes throughout, and there have been other changes made in the many other updates.

The Films & TV app recently gained a new Dark Mode which improves things greatly, but it’s disabled by default. Here’s how to turn it on.

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Ever since Apple allowed adblockers on iOS 9, we’ve seen a steady influx of these types of apps appearing in the App Store. Today, yet another one arrives, but this new release has an interesting pedigree, coming as it does from Mozilla.

Focus by Firefox is a free content blocker for Safari users on iOS 9 that gives users greater control over their privacy by allowing them to block categories of trackers such as those used for ads, analytics and social media.

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It used to be that a new version of Windows would be a major shot in the arm for PC sales, but that’s no longer the case. According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tracker, shipments are expected to fall 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, bringing the overall decline for the year down by 10.3 percent.

As a result, IDC has revised its forecast for next year, but it does see things stabilizing by the end of 2016, and even predicts some growth.

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This might come as a surprise to Microsoft, but not everyone wants to upgrade to Windows 10. As the slowing pace of the updates shows, there are plenty of people who are more than happy with Windows 7 or 8.1, and who don’t want to switch to the new OS.

While some people are simply delaying the upgrade, plenty of other users have no interest at all in Windows 10, and are actively taking steps to avoid it. But "no" doesn’t mean "no" to Microsoft. It apparently means "Yes, I want to upgrade"!

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Microsoft is continuing to refine and polish its new mobile operating system, and is working to address feedback and issues reported by Windows Insiders.

The latest Windows 10 Mobile build doesn’t contain any exciting new features but rather is a cumulative update, which explains the new build number -- 10586.29. Microsoft is also planning to make this build available to additional devices early next week.

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Microsoft really, really wants people to upgrade to Windows 10. Even though the new OS is free, users of Windows 7 and 8.1 are proving a bit reluctant to switch, so the software giant has rolled out some new updates for the older operating systems which promise to make the upgrade much smoother for those who do decide to take the plunge.

There are two updates available now, one for Windows 7 and one for Windows 8.1, both of which make improvements to the Windows Update Client.

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NetMarketShare has released its usage share figures for November, and they make for interesting reading. As you would expect, Windows 10 grew its share again, but the growth rate is clearly tailing off, continuing the trend we’ve seen over the past few months.

Windows 7 and 8.x users show no great rush to migrate to the new OS, with only Windows XP shedding users.

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I’m lucky I get to try out a lot of tech and, like my colleagues here at BetaNews, I buy a fair amount of shiny new products too. 2015 has been a good year for new hardware and I have a long list of items that have become essential to my daily life.

I picked up a trio of new Apple products this year -- an iPhone 6s, an iPad Air 2, and an Apple Watch -- but as much as I love them all, not one of those is the product I’m most thankful for in 2015.

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The various existing models of the Raspberry Pi aren’t exactly expensive. The top of the line device -- the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B -- costs just $35. But if that’s a little too rich for you, how about a model that costs just $5?

If it was the beginning of April, you might expect this to be an April Fool, but the Pi Zero is real, and available now, although it may well have sold out by the time you read this because, at just five bucks (the cost of an over-priced flavored large latte), demand is bound to be high.

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Over the weekend we spotted that the Windows 10 November Update (aka Threshold 2) had been removed from the Media Creation Tool (MCT), and had seemingly disappeared from Windows Update too. We asked Microsoft why this was, and the software giant responded by saying it had decided to remove the November Update from the MCT (giving no actual reason for the decision) but that the update was still available through Windows Update.

This didn’t ring entirely true -- the November Update seemed more like Schrödinger's Update: both simultaneously mandatory, and not available -- but Microsoft had no further comment to make. Today, however, the company admitted to us that there was a problem with the update, and that was the real reason for its disappearance.

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Windows 10 is a decent operating system, but it’s very much a work in progress, and one that’s definitely not without problems. It has some very rough edges (which are slowly being addressed), various annoying bugs (ditto), and of course, it spies on users.

The November Update (aka Threshold 2) fixed some issues (if you were able to get it) but also caused some new problems too. We reported previously how it had reset privacy settings and default apps for some users, but worse than that it appears the update has been uninstalling some third party desktop programs without asking.

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Shopping for presents for the holidays, or for bargains for yourself during Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be a nightmare. A lot of people opt to shop purely online in order to avoid the hassle of fighting their way through crowded stores.

You can get the items you buy on the web delivered to various locations, including home and work, but if that’s still not convenient enough for you, how about having the deliveries made directly to your car instead?

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Windows 10’s growth might have slowed quite dramatically in recent months, but never underestimate the power of free.

According to the latest prediction from Gartner, the new operating system is set to enjoy not only the fastest growth of any version of Windows, but is poised to become the most widely installed Microsoft OS ever, quickly overtaking both XP and Windows 7.

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