Wayne Williams

Still trying to justify the cost of Google Glass to yourself, or your significant other? The ability to use it to evade zombies and get fit in the process might not be enough to tip the balance, but it’s certainly another tick in the 'for' column.

Immersive fitness app Zombies, Run! has been adapted to work with Google’s wearable. If you’re not familiar with it, the app essentially turns a real-world jog into a journey through the zombie apocalypse. On Android and iOS it’s pretty much an audio-only affair, but the Glass Edition changes that.

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At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) back in February, Nokia surprised people with a new Android-powered smartphone series. The Nokia X line consists of the X, X+ and XL, with the devices designed to fit somewhere between Nokia's low-end Ashas and high-end Windows Phones. There was speculation that once Microsoft had taken over the Finnish manufacturer's mobile business that this new line would be killed off -- keeping the focus solely on Windows Phone devices -- but that turns out not to be the case.

Today Microsoft announces the Nokia X2, which the tech giant introduces "as the newest addition to the expanding Nokia X family of affordable smartphones designed to introduce the 'next billion' people to the mobile Internet and cloud services". Like the Nokia X, the new device gives users access to both Android apps and popular Microsoft services, like Skype, Outlook.com, and OneDrive.

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Microsoft ended support for XP two months ago, yet consumers are still proving resistant to change, and many businesses are similarly reluctant to upgrade to a newer version of Windows.

According to security firm Bitdefender, which conducted a three-month global study into the operating system use of small and medium businesses, nearly 19 percent of firms, or almost one in five, are sticking with the aging XP despite security concerns.

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If you’re in the market for a new Apple computer, but can’t afford a top of the line model, you’ll be pleased to know Apple has today rolled out a new entry-level iMac.

The new system is available now and comes with a 21.5 inch screen, 1.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive and Intel HD Graphics 5000.

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Of all the malware threats out there, ransomware is arguably the nastiest. It locks your computer, encrypts your files, and then demands payment to free your data. You can remove it easily enough, but doing so won’t get you your files back. And unfortunately ransomware is beginning to make its way on to Android devices.

Avast has just released a Ransomware Removal app which will eliminate this type of threat from infected Android phones and tablets. It scans your device, tells you if you’re infected and if you are it will remove the malware and (according to Avast) decrypt your hijacked files.

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Whatever your reasons for switching to Windows 8.1 -- be it finally upgrading from XP, or the arrival of a new PC at home or work --  you’ll find "New Windows" a slightly alien place at first. You can action various changes to make it more like the OS you’re used to (boot to desktop -- soon to be the default -- and switching to the All Apps view are great first moves), but if you want a proper Start button and menu, you’ll need third-party help. Fortunately there are plenty of great choices available, including some excellent free programs like Classic Shell and IObit StartMenu 8.

Seasoned Windows 8.x users might sneer at you for "going back to the old ways", but there’s no question that if you use a keyboard and mouse and have limited interest in the Modern UI, a "real" Start button and menu can do wonders for your productivity. Here are our top 14 recommendations -- free and paid.

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Twenty-third in a series. It will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that with the World Cup now underway loads of new and improved football/soccer offerings have arrived in the App Store. There are games, so you can practice your (virtual) skills, and apps that let you follow the matches and your team's progress through the tournament. The official FIFA World Cup app is one of the better choices.

Away from football, the App Store saw the release of two long awaited new games -- Angry Birds Epic, a new RPG featuring Rovio's famous characters, and Broken Age, a graphic adventure from legendary game designer Tim Schafer. There's also an app that lets you transform iOS devices into audio speakers, a hotel guide, and a speed reading app, to mention just some of the latest releases.

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Samsung is holding an event at the Theater, Madison Square Garden in New York City later today to (presumably) launch the Galaxy Tab S, and maybe additional devices. The tag line for the event is "Tab into Color".

Our own Brian Fagioli will be there, and will be reporting on all of the announcements made by the South Korean firm, but you can also be part of the event as Samsung will be live streaming proceedings.

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Google, Facebook and other tech giants are investing in ways to bring Internet access to those far flung parts of the world which are still offline. Creative methods include using balloons, satellites, drones and lasers. Despite this concerted effort, an estimated 4 billion people still don't have access to the Internet.

The Internet Society (ISOC), a global not-for-profit organization founded in 1992, has published its inaugural Global Internet Report in which it charts the spread of the Internet, highlights trends, and illustrates the principles that, it says, "will continue to sustain the growth of the Internet". Importantly it identifies two distinct groups of non-Internet users and reveals the barriers that must be overcome in order for them to gain access.

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It’s been well over a year since Piriform first announced plans to bring CCleaner to Android. At the time the company suggested the release would be "soon" but it took until April this year for the first Beta version to be made available.

Tens of thousands of users signed up to test the app, and Piriform has added some additional features along the way. Today, the company finally announces the full version is now available on Google Play, and as you’d expect from Piriform, it's totally free and without ads.

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Around 50 percent of PC users are on Windows 7, while just 12 percent are running Windows 8.x, yet Microsoft is leaving the more popular OS vulnerable to zero day attacks by choosing to only patch the newest Windows version. That’s the findings of two security researchers who built a tool to compare 900 libraries in Windows 8 with their Windows 7 counterparts.

"If Microsoft added a safe function in Windows 8, why does it not exist in Windows 7? The answer is simple, it’s money -- Microsoft does not want to waste development time on older operating systems. They want people to move to higher operating systems," security researcher Moti Joseph claimed in a presentation at the Troopers14 conference in Heidelberg, Germany.

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If you’re a fan of the Xbox One, you’ll be able to see what Microsoft has planned for its console later in the year by tuning into the tech giant’s E3 media briefing later on today. That kicks off at 9:30am PDT/5.30pm BST.

If, however, you’re more excited by Sony’s PlayStation 4, you’ll be pleased to know you can watch that press conference instead. Or, if you’re just a fan of games, irrespective of platform, you can tune into both.

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If you’d have asked me a week ago if I wanted a new case for my iPhone 5s, I’d have said no. I already own two cases -- an official Apple one in black, and a photo case with a picture of my daughter on. Both serve my needs perfectly. Another case? No thanks, no need.

A week later, and my view has changed completely. I have a third case, a Kloqe, and it’s the only one I’m likely to ever want or use. Kloqe is an all-aluminum affair that doesn’t interfere with phone reception, and comes in the same range of colors as the iPhone -- black, white, gray and champagne/gold. You can choose the one that matches your phone or go for something different.

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This year’s E3 is about to start, and all the big gaming companies are set to show what we can expect to see from them in the coming year.

Microsoft will be hoping to use this year’s gaming event to get people excited about Xbox One which, so far, has been roundly trounced by its big rival, Sony’s PlayStation 4. Microsoft recently announced it would be selling its console without the Kinect, in a bid to lower prices, and hopefully improve sales.

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Twenty-second in a series. It was Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week and as expected the company took the wraps off OS X 10.10 ('Yosemite') and iOS 8.

New features in the next iteration of the mobile OS include interactive notifications, HealthKit, Family Sharing, improved chatting, a better keyboard, and iCloud Drive. It will be released sometime in the fall.

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