Wayne Williams

Why pay for something when you can get it for free? Provided free, really is free of course (so many "free" things these days come with hidden costs). If you’re an Android user you’ll want to sit up and pay attention to a new app from Amazon which provides a way to get your hands on all of the apps and games that are actually available for free throughout the Amazon Appstore.

Better still, while the apps and games offered might include in-app purchases in other stores, in Amazon Underground, everything is entirely free. Find an app you like and you'll pay nothing for it, ever.

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People worry about everything these days, and new technology is often a big cause for concern. Wireless charging, which is starting to appear in appliances, cars, and furniture, has some people fretting that it will microwave their internal organs while they sleep, and it wasn’t that long ago that people were stressing over the possible side effects of Wi-Fi too.

A BBC investigation a few years back found that RF radiation levels in some Wi-Fi-enabled schools were up to three times higher than the levels emitted by a typical mobile phone mast, leading to suggestions that Wi-Fi should be banned in places of education in the UK until its possible dangers had been fully investigated. Of course Wi-Fi hasn’t been banned in schools, or anywhere else for that matter, and it’s become far more ubiquitous. A new iPad app by Dutch designer Richard Vijgen uses augmented reality to visualize the network of radio waves that surround us, and it provides a truly fascinating glimpse into the invisible world that we now rely so much on.

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OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service, is heavily integrated into Windows 10. We've already explained how you can remove the OneDrive entry from File Explorer, but what if you don’t want the service in your new OS at all?

You can disable or uninstall it completely by following these simple steps. This will remove it from File Explorer, and everywhere else.

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If you’re used to using Firefox or Chrome (or Internet Explorer for that matter), switching to Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 can be a little confusing at first, as it’s not always obvious how to do relatively straightforward tasks in the new browser.

We've already shown you how to change Microsoft Edge's default download folder, and also how to change the default search engine (one of our most frequently asked questions). But how do you access your browsing history in Edge?

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User Account Control (UAC) has been part of Windows since Vista. When it was first introduced it was incredibly annoying, but over the years Microsoft has tamed it a little to the point where it only springs into action when it has to. Most of us don’t really pay too much attention when the prompts pop up now.

However, they can still be rather obtrusive at times. Try to launch regedit in Windows 10, for example, and you’ll be presented with a full screen UAC prompt that temporarily prevents you from doing anything else until you've clicked it away. This is the most annoying aspect of UAC, but the good news is you can stop the prompts from taking over your PC in this way.

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Windows 10 is, for the most part anyway, a decent operating system, but there are teething problems with it. We’ve explained how to fix many of the worst issues with the new OS, but for many people problems persist.

Audio woes are easily the most common complaint with the new operating system and so Microsoft has taken the unusual step of releasing a series of short troubleshooting videos that will help anyone experiencing sound problems to (hopefully) overcome them. And yes, it’s not just one video, it is a whole series -- with 7 videos posted so far.

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Microsoft is pushing Bing heavily in Windows 10. Bing is the default search engine in Microsoft Edge, and while you can change this to Google (or any other choice), the process of doing so is far from intuitive -- you can’t simply pick "Google" from a list of options.

Cortana, Microsoft’s built-in personal assistant, is powered by Bing too, which means when you ask her a question she doesn’t immediately know the answer to, she’ll open up your default browser and display a list of results sourced from Microsoft’s search engine. There is a way to get her to use Google instead though, but you won’t find this in any Settings.

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Windows 10 has officially launched and is available to all, but that doesn't mean the end of the Insider Preview program. Far from it. Sure, there haven't been any major updates since the OS arrived at the tail end of last month, but that's only because the primary focus has been on fixing issues and improving performance on the mainstream version. If you're a Windows Insider on the Fast ring it's time to get excited once more, as Microsoft has just rolled out a brand new build.

Build 10525 offers a couple of changes, but the biggest addition by far is the introduction of updated color options. If you want to change the default color for Start, Action Center, Taskbar, and Title bars, you can now do so easily. The new feature is potentially buggy, and disabled by default, but you can toggle it on by going to Settings > Personalization > Colors.

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I’ve read some interesting guestimates on the number of Windows 10 downloads lately. One blog plucks a figure out of the air -- "50 million sound fair to you?" -- another blog inflates the number -- "Let’s go with 53 million!" -- and then a whole bunch of other blogs and sites that should know better run with these numbers as if they are real.

The only way we’ll actually know how many Windows 10 downloads there have been to date is if Microsoft releases numbers (and even then, they probably need to be taken with a slight pinch of salt), but we can get a rough, and reasonably accurate idea of Windows 10’s usage share and, from there, the number of downloads to date.

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Despite its name, AMC (Advanced Mobile Care) Security 5.0 doesn’t just keep your Android phone safe from malware and other threats. The recently updated app can also clean up junk, boost your device by killing unnecessary tasks, extend its battery life, block calls and SMS messages, and uninstall unwanted apps.

The security side of things is of course the app’s main focus and this includes an antivirus scanner, surfing guard, and anti-theft. There’s also a security guard which lets you toggle settings like Bluetooth, and GPS on or off.

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Although Google has been dropping some very heavy hints lately, we didn’t know exactly what sweet treat the next version of its Android operating system would be named after.

Well, if you were hoping to place a bet on "M&Ms" (or go for a truly outside flutter on "Maltodextrin"), you’re too late I’m afraid, and also lucky as you’d have lost your stake. M, Google says, is for Marshmallow.

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Google is an original name. It’s based on the word googol (1.0 × 10100), but with a different spelling. Alphabet, the name of the tech giant’s new parent company, is far from unique, however. There are hundreds of other "alphabet"-named companies right across the globe. The best known of these being the BMW subsidiary Alphabet International GmbH which owns both www.alphabet.com and www.alphabet.co.uk.

BMW is currently looking into whether Google has committed any form of trademark infringement with its new company name and obviously has the financial clout to take things to court if it feels it has a case. But BWM isn’t the only example of a company with Alphabet in its name, and some -- like Alphabet Signs based in rural Pennsylvania -- find themselves in the weird (and painful) position of paying Google for searches that have nothing to do with them.

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Windows 10 is a good operating system, but it does suffer from annoying inconstancies, and frustrating bugs. Microsoft is slowly addressing the latter by rolling out updates designed to make the OS run more smoothly.

The latest update, KB3081438, resolves various issues and, in Microsoft’s own words, includes "improvements to enhance the functionality of Windows 10".

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There’s a new type of mobile phone crime happening in London, according to the BBC, and it’s been dubbed "cyber-flashing". This, in a nutshell, is when the victim -- a woman in the first reported case of its kind -- receives pictures of a stranger’s genitals on their phone.

The offending photos are received via Apple’s Airdrop feature, and so it only affects iPhone owners.

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Samsung is holding its annual Galaxy Unpacked event at New York’s Lincoln Center today, and we’ll be there to bring you hands-on reports following the presentation.

We’ll have to wait to see what’s unveiled, but it’s expected the South Korean tech giant will be announcing two new 5.7-inch smartphones -- the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge Plus -- and maybe a new smartwatch, the Gear A. If you can’t be at the event, don’t worry, you’ll be able to watch it right here live.

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