Wayne Williams

5to9

Microsoft Lumia launches an uplifting 'good news' paper to inspire commuters

Most newspapers are full of bad, and depressing news. Microsoft Lumia wants to change that, and is putting together its own print newspaper that it hopes will inspire commuters and help them to "achieve more".

The Five to Nine newspaper will focus on positive, uplifting content, and also show workers how they can use technology to work smarter and more efficiently. There will be five editions, published between 22 June and 26 June, all focusing on a different theme (culture, music, fashion, design, and sport) and featuring commissioned content alongside crowd sourced "good news" stories, life hacks and musings.

By Wayne Williams -
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Keep your Raspberry Pi 2 safe with the official new case

Although there are plenty of enclosures available to buy for the Raspberry Pi, all of them come from third parties. There’s never been an official case for the Pi, until now.

The brains at the Raspberry Pi Foundation first talked about creating an enclosure for the wildly popular device some two and a half years ago, and it’s finally come to fruition. If you’re worried about damaging your Pi, or just want to give it a stylish look, then the Official Raspberry Pi Case is for you, and as you’d expect, it’s incredibly cheap.

By Wayne Williams -
Security

LastPass hacked, email addresses, password reminders and more compromised

A lot of people trust LastPass to keep their passwords safe, which is why news that the company has been hacked and its user data compromised is seriously worrying.

LastPass discovered and blocked some suspicious activity on its network last Friday and immediately launched an investigation. Today it reports its findings, and they're very concerning indeed.

By Wayne Williams -
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Watch Sony's PlayStation E3 press event live here

Microsoft’s press event has finished, and revealed a lot of great gaming news, including that the Xbox One will soon be able to play selected Xbox 360 games. Huge news.

Next up it’s the turn of Sony. The company will have lots of gaming news of its own, and it won’t only be content relating to the PlayStation 4. Expect to find out more about Morpheus, the company’s VR headset that’s set to rival Oculus Rift.

By Wayne Williams -
Xbox

Watch Microsoft's E3 keynote live here

The annual E3 video game conference gets underway properly from tomorrow, but Microsoft’s press keynote takes place today, and you’ll be able to tune into it right here as it happens.

The company’s focus will, naturally, be on the Xbox One and Windows 10, but there will also be plenty of games announcements too -- Microsoft says we can expect to see "the greatest games lineup in Xbox history" this year.

By Wayne Williams -
Windows 10 Insider Preview build 10130 Slow Ring desktop

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130 now available to download on the Slow ring

Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130 to the Fast ring two weeks ago, but it came with a couple of major bugs that meant it wasn’t suitable for all. Last week Microsoft pushed out ISOs of the build, for people who were having trouble updating to the new version through Windows Update, but it still wasn’t deemed stable enough for Slow ring Insiders.

Well, the good news is if you’re on the Slow ring you can finally update Windows 10 to Build 10130, as Microsoft is pushing the update out to everyone now. And your patience is rewarded with news that the update comes with some useful fixes.

By Wayne Williams -
Internet speed fast mbps speedometer

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 comfortably beats Apple's iPad Air 2 in speed tests

UK consumer watchdog Which? tested a range of popular tablets and discovered that when it comes to speed, there’s only one champion, and that’s Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3.

It turns out it wasn’t only Microsoft’s slate that bested Apple’s tablets in the speed stakes. The iPad mini 3, which sells for £319 in the UK, was beaten by the Tesco Hudl 2 which costs just £99.

By Wayne Williams -
Music

Apple Music should fear Spotify, not the other way around

Apple’s recently announced streaming music service is being viewed by many as a potential Spotify killer. Spotify might have more than 20 million paying subscribers and over 75 million active users, but Apple is a force that cannot be ignored, and being late to the party means nothing.

So should Spotify be concerned about the forthcoming battle with Apple? Unquestionably. Although, if new research is to be believed, it’s Apple that should be worrying the most.

By Wayne Williams -
oculus

Watch the unveiling of the Oculus Rift consumer headset here

Oculus will be one of several names demoing virtual reality products at E3 next week, but ahead of the big games show the company is going to be taking the wraps off of the consumer model of its VR headset later today.

The Oculus Rift consumer model isn’t actually due to go on sale until early next year, but today’s special event should give us a good idea of what to expect from the device, more concrete release details, and hopefully the all-important price.

By Wayne Williams -
hacker attack

Security firm Kaspersky Lab hacked by a 'nation state'

Security firms are supposed to keep us safe from threats like malware and hacker attacks, but occasionally they fall foul of the bad guys too. A year ago Avast was hacked, and some 400,000 user details were stolen. Two years ago, AVG and Avira had their websites taken over by pro-Palestinian hackers.

The latest security firm to be hacked is Russian anti-virus software maker Kaspersky Lab.

By Wayne Williams -
win 10 logo

How to get the Windows 10 upgrade notification to appear in Windows 7 or 8.x

If you’re running Windows 7 or 8.x you should by now see a small Windows 10 icon in the system tray. Click this and you can reserve your free Windows 10 upgrade in advance of the operating system’s launch on July 29.

Once you’ve reserved the upgrade, Windows 10 will download as soon as available and you’ll be able to install it at your convenience. However, for some reason this icon isn’t appearing on all systems. It wasn’t on mine for example. If you want to summon the upgrade icon, this is what you’ll need to do.

By Wayne Williams -
Windows 10 logo no

How to remove the Windows 10 upgrade notification from Windows 7 and 8.x

If you’re certain you don’t want to upgrade to Windows 10, or you want to do so at your own pace without being nagged into it, the upgrade notification that appears in Windows 7 and 8.x can be viewed as an unwanted annoyance.

There are plenty of reasons why you might not want to upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as it becomes available -- you might be more than happy with your existing OS, or you may wish to wait until Windows 10 has been out for a while and all of the big issues have been patched. After all, you have a year to upgrade for free. If you want to remove the upgrade notification, there’s a simple tool for the job.

By Wayne Williams -
security hand

Windows 10 will keep you safe from malware

Microsoft’s past attempts at protecting Windows users from malware have been patchy at best. However, with Windows 10 the company is offering a new way to help protect its customers from dynamic script-based malware and other forms of cyberattack.

AMSI (Antimalware Scan Interface) is an interface standard that allows applications and services to integrate with any existing antimalware product on your PC. Those apps can call the new Windows AMSI APIs at any time to scan for malware.

By Wayne Williams -
Dr Lela Koulouri

Female scientists hoping to beat an app-building world record at Google

Apple’s WWDC keynote was noteworthy for a lot of reasons, but one of those was the fact it featured women presenting on stage for the first time. Usually at such events it’s a male-only affair. The tech industry is still dominated by (mostly white) men, and when women make an appearance it generates headlines -- which is both sad and a little crazy.

On Saturday (June 13) an all-female group of IT experts, engineers and scientists will take over the Google Campus at the heart of London’s Tech City in a bid to not only break a Guinness World Record, but also to challenge preconceptions.

By Wayne Williams -
iOS 9 shown on iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 Plus

How to install iOS 9 beta on your iPhone or iPad right now, with or without a dev account

At the WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple demoed iOS 9. New features include updates to Apple Pay, a News app, improved Notes, a more intelligent Siri, updated keyboard, split screen on iPad, and a new low power mode that promises to deliver up to three more hours of battery life.

If you’re an iOS user, it looks like a great update, and you’ll be able to try out the public beta when it is released in July (the finished version will be released in the fall). But hold on, you don’t want to wait that long? Well the good news is there’s a developer preview already available, and it’s possible to install this with or without a dev account. A word of warning though, don't skip the backup step as according to Apple, "Devices updated to iOS 9 beta cannot be restored to earlier versions of iOS".

By Wayne Williams -
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