Wayne Williams

As you may already be aware, Microsoft has discovered that in certain situations the Surface Pro’s power cable could overheat, making it a potential fire hazard.

This is a problem that affects cables for the Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro 3 on devices purchased before March 15 2015 (in the US) or July 15 2015 (in all other territories). Microsoft has issued a voluntary recall, and you can now request a replacement power cord. The process is fairly simple, and this is what you need to do.

So many companies get hacked these days that it’s almost easy to be blasé about the news of another data breach. If your password gets compromised, you can change it. If your credit card details leak, you can cancel the card. But what happens when an extramarital affairs website you’re a member of gets hacked, and your personal details fall into the wrong hands?

When Ashley Madison was hacked last year, members had two straight choices -- come clean to their other half, or stay calm and hope it all blew over. Unfortunately, the fallout from the hack continues unabated, and some unfortunate Ashley Madison users have started to receive blackmail letters through the mail. And, for the recipients, the letters are truly terrifying.

Two weeks ago, the Comodo Threat Research Lab discovered a malware campaign aimed at businesses and consumers using the WhatsApp mobile messaging service. That attack used official looking emails masquerading as WhatsApp content.

Now Comodo’s researchers have identified a similar phishing campaign targeting Facebook users, which it believes was created by the same group behind the WhatsApp malware.

43 percent of UK consumers expect drones to be the most influential technology in 2016, according to IEEE’s annual survey, with smart phones (38 percent) and 3D printing (31 percent) close behind.

The online survey, conducted in November 2015, questioned over two thousand adults to find out what technology they expected to see more/less of. While the list of devices predicted to fall from favor included obvious tech like digital music players, standalone digital cameras (both 15 percent), and ebook readers (9 percent), some 8 percent of respondents declared wearables had had their day.

Despite getting off to a very shaky start, Microsoft’s Surface Pro is now a firmly established product that can genuinely replace not only your iPad, but your laptop too. However, there’s potentially bad news for anyone who purchased one of the company’s slates before 15 July 2015 (in Europe) or March 2015 (in the US).

Microsoft has discovered that in certain situations the Surface Pro’s power cable could overheat, making it a potential fire hazard.

Fed up of Microsoft aggressively pushing Windows 10 on you? Happy to stick with Windows 7 or 8.1? You’re not alone.

Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to say no to Windows 10 (wouldn’t it be great if there was a "no thanks" button you could click to make the upgrade message and installation files simply go away?) but you can reject it using a Group Policy Setting or a registry tweak.

Windows 10 is a decent operating system, but Microsoft has seen fit to remove certain features found in previous iterations of the OS.

If you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 and have been disappointed to discover one or more of your favorite features have been removed, the good news is it should be possible to restore the missing functionality without too much effort.

We all know that Microsoft wants as many people as possible to upgrade to Windows 10. The new OS is free for users of Windows 7 and 8.1, and the firm has the stated goal of getting it on a billion devices within 2-3 years.

To achieve this aim, Microsoft is pushing its new OS very aggressively, forcing it on to users, even if they have no desire to upgrade and have taken steps to actually prevent it.

It’s been a while since we’ve had any new Windows 10 preview builds, thanks to the holiday season, but Microsoft has at last pushed out a new build to the Fast ring. The software giant plans to make the Fast ring live up to its name this year with an accelerated release schedule.

In the future Microsoft’s criteria for releasing builds to the Fast ring will be much closer to its criteria for releasing them to its internal rings, which means new builds are likely to be buggier and suffer other issues. Build 11099, which is available for Insiders to download now, should be relatively stable however, as Microsoft has had a while to iron out any big problems.

If you’re running Windows 10 you might want to head to Settings, Update & Security as Microsoft has just pushed out a cumulative update for its new OS.

This is an update for non-Windows Insiders, and brings the current build up to 10586.63.

Data breaches were rarely out of the news last year, with the likes of VTech, OPM, Experian/T-Mobile, Ashley Madison and even Hello Kitty all admitting to data leaks.

While you might expect attackers to be using sophisticated methods to get at user data, a new survey from software solutions firm BMC and Forbes Insights reveals that in many cases, it’s known but unpatched vulnerabilities that are being exploited.

Protection solutions specialist Arxan Technologies has just released its fifth annual State of Application Security report which takes an in-depth look into the security of some of the most popular mobile apps available.

The company found a huge discrepancy between consumers’ beliefs regarding the level of security built into the apps, and the degree to which developers of these apps actually address known application vulnerabilities. Worryingly, 90 percent of the applications tested were vulnerable to at least two of the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) Mobile Top 10 Risks. These are the most critical risks facing apps.

If you’re still using Windows 8 it’s now time to upgrade because that operating system is about to get a whole lot less secure.

From today, January 12 2016, Microsoft will stop issuing security patches for its 3-year-old tiled OS, which will mean users will no longer be safe from newer threats.

There’s no shortage of VR products available to buy, but the daddy of them all is unquestionably Oculus Rift. Unlike some rivals, this isn’t just a device you slap a smartphone in and strap to your face, it’s a full blown VR system with a sensor for tracking head position, and an input device that’s been built specially for navigating VR worlds.

The Rift has just gone up for pre-order now, and Oculus will start shipping it from March 28. It will be available in 20 countries, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. The full list of supported territories is here. It will also be available through select retailers from April.

NetMarketShare’s latest desktop usage figures suggest that Windows 10 now has nearly 10 percent of the market. And that translates to over 200 million devices, according to the latest figures released today by Microsoft.

Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, Windows and Devices Group, says "there are more than 200 million monthly active devices around the world running Windows 10" and he reports some other interesting adoption figures about the new OS, which will surprise a lot of people.