Wayne Williams

Windows 10 is, it’s fair to say, a bit of a divisive product. While it hasn’t alienated users to the same degree Windows 8.x did, it hasn’t been universally embraced in the same way that Windows 7 was either.

Part of the reason for that can be laid squarely at Microsoft's door -- the company’s overly aggressive push to get people to upgrade meant a lot of users were put off before they’d even given the new OS a chance.

It’s been a full week since the last Insider Preview build made its way on to the Fast ring, but it’s been worth the wait.

Arriving just in time for the weekend, the latest release, Build 14942, is much more interesting than its predecessor, and introduces some major new features.

Anonymous has declared war on various organizations and individuals in the past, ranging from Islamic State, and Ku Klux Klan, to Donald Trump.

Today, in a video it describes as a "call to arms", the hacktivist collective declares war on -- wait for it -- the "corrupt" US government, which it says has "been working to end the Constitution because it has been bought by corporations" and will "endanger the American people".

If you have a phone running Windows 10 Mobile, you can use it as a mini PC, connecting it to a TV or monitor. However, this functionality -- Continuum for phones -- is only available on certain devices.

If you want a more powerful pocket PC, then Ockel Sirius A is a promising solution. It’s a full Windows 10 PC in a tiny, mobile-sized device that will fit comfortably in your pocket.

Two weeks ago, Microsoft released Insider Preview Build 14931 to the Fast ring. It wasn’t the most exciting of new builds, as it didn’t offer any new features as such, but focused instead on improvements and fixes.

Today, that build makes its way to the Slow ring. Improvements for PC include:

Two weeks ago, Microsoft finally removed its scummy Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8.1 systems. This came as a major relief to everyone who didn’t want to upgrade to the latest operating system, but who had been forced to weather a storm of increasingly sneaky tactics as the software giant pulled every trick possible to get as many users to upgrade before the free period expired.

With the nagware removed, users were no doubt hoping that would be the end of the matter, but it turns out that might not be the case after all.

Google’s Chromecast has evolved a fair bit since the streaming dongle first launched three years ago.

The newest member of the Chromecast family, announced today at the Made by Google event, keeps the same puck-like design of its predecessor, but offers 4K resolution video streaming, for a very affordable price -- just $69.

Google, as you’ll no doubt be aware by now, is hosting a major hardware event today where it will be taking the wraps off, among other things, its new Pixel phones.

The "Made by Google" event will showcase the next generation of Google created hardware, and start today at 12PM ET/5PM BST / 9AM PT.

Four weeks ago, I reported on how hacktivist collective Anonymous was planning its own weekly news show. The aim of Teh Weekly News is, Anonymous says, to "balance establishment media by providing unregulated investigative news that has not been molded to corporate or government interests".

The first episode of the new show is available to watch below, and does a good job of covering all of the stories that likely anger you when they appear, often only fleetingly, in the mainstream news.

September wasn’t a good month for Windows 10. After enjoying uninterrupted meteoric growth since launch, usage share for the new OS actually dropped off last month, according to the latest figures from NetMarketShare announced on Saturday.

That's not the only bad news for Microsoft either. Gamers, who typically prefer to be running the latest operating system, also turned their back on Windows 10 in September.

It was expected, that once Windows 10 stopped being free, upgrades would slow significantly. That turned out not to be the case last month when NetMarketShare’s usage figures showed it, rather surprisingly, to be business as usual. Growth in August was no different from growth in previous months, although I speculated it might have been buoyed by sales of new back to school PCs.

In September though, according to NetMarketShare, Windows 10 didn’t just show slower growth, it actually went into reverse gear and lost usage share. Yes, you read that right.

It was clear at the launch of the new Apple Watch that the company was focusing very much on the health aspect of its popular wearable, and by making the new iteration waterproof it could, for the first time, appeal to swimmers as much as runners.

Apple Watch Series 2’s basic swim functionality may be enough for some users, but if you take your swimming seriously, there’s a new Swim.com app designed with you in mind.

The Ignite conference in Atlanta might be keeping many Microsoft employees busy, but it hasn’t stopped developers working on the next big update of Windows 10.

A week after Build 14931 arrived on the Fast ring, Windows Insiders are today being treated to another new update -- Build 14936 for PC and Mobile.

There are a lot of media streaming products to choose from, but my personal favorite is Amazon’s Fire TV Stick. It’s compact, powerful and gives you access to Amazon’s full range of on-demand video content, as well as apps and games.

Today, the retail giant announces a new version of Fire TV Stick that’s faster and adds Alexa voice control to the remote. No more browsing long lists of TV shows and movies, now you can simply ask Alexa to play anything you're interested in, launch apps, and more.

There are lots of different messaging apps available, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google’s latest offering, Allo. Which you use will likely depend on what apps your friends prefer, but privacy might also be a big factor. Google Allo, for example, is a bit of a privacy nightmare, unless you use the Incognito mode.

You probably don’t want Facebook snooping on your private conversations, so may have steered clear of Messenger previously, but the good news is the social network now lets you send private messages to friends which can only be read on the device of the person you're communicating with -- and not by Facebook itself.