Wayne Williams

Analyst Gartner has just released its latest worldwide devices forecast, which shows, unsurprisingly, traditional PC shipments declining, and tablets, mobile phones, and ultramobiles (hybrid and clamshell) all growing. In total, device shipments are set to rise 6.9 percent, up from the 4.8 percent growth achieved last year.

There are few surprises in the report. Shipments of mobile phones, the most popular device type in the market, are expected to reach 1.9 billion units in 2014, a 4.9 percent increase from 2013. The worldwide tablet market is forecast to grow 38.6 percent in 2014, shipments of traditional PCs are forecast to total 276.7 million units in 2014 (a 6.6 percent decline from 2013), and ultramobiles are set to grow from 21.1 million in 2013 to 37.2 million this year. Gartner has also forecast shipments by operating systems, and while Windows still shows growth, overall it's far from happy times ahead for Microsoft.

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At 10am PT, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is set to discuss the intersection of cloud and mobile at an event in San Francisco.

Although there’s no mention of it in the details we’ve seen, and no pre-briefings have been given, it’s widely expected that Office for iPad will be unveiled at the event. This will be a big move for Microsoft if it turns out to be the case, but unlike Apple's iWork suite for iPad, which is sold for a one-time fee (and provided free on new iPads), Microsoft will likely tie access into Office 365.

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Songza is an online music streaming service that attempts to predict what you're doing or feeling -- based on day, time, device type, location and past behavior -- and provide a curated playlist to suit. It offers playlists for a range of diverse activities such as waking up, working out, commuting, concentrating, unwinding, entertaining, and sleeping.

Today, the service adds a new trick -- providing music to match the current weather. Thanks to a new partnership with The Weather Company, parent to The Weather Channel, Songza will now attempt to use weather data to better predict the "context" or state of mind of the user.

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Digital currencies can be purchased in their respective markets, or acquired through "mining", which can be done using any computer or smartphone and a special piece of software. Security firm Lookout has just released details on a new piece of malware called CoinKrypt that uses a botnet of Android smartphones to mine for currency.

Because mining is incredibly resource-intensive, the process can severely run down a phone’s battery, eat through a data plan by periodically downloading what is known as a block chain, or a copy of the currency transaction history, and potentially damage hardware by causing it to overheat and burn out.

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As much as I enjoy running, I often need help and motivation to get started, and keep going, and Zombies, Run! has been my savior. I’ve mentioned the fitness app several times in the past, but if you’re not familiar, it’s a sort of interactive radio play, in which episodic stories unfold in-between tracks from your playlist as you run, transforming a real-world jog into a journey through the zombie apocalypse.

Season 3 of Zombies, Run! is out next month, but I’ve found a new running app to keep me occupied until then. BattleSuit Runner Fitness is available for both Android and iOS and is quite similar in that the missions unfold in-between your running songs, but in this game you’re DeltaSuit, an exosuit-wearing commando battling against an alien invasion.

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Microsoft has teamed up with the Computer History Museum (CHM) to make the original source code for two of its most historic programs publicly available for the first time. MS-DOS, the 1982 Disk Operating System for IBM-compatible personal computers, and Word for Windows, the 1990 Windows-based version of popular word processor.

“The museum has done an excellent job of curating some of the most significant historical software programs in computing history", Roy Levin, distinguished engineer and managing director, Microsoft Research says. “As part of this ongoing project, the museum will make available two of the most widely used software programs of the 1980’s, MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0 and Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, to help future generations of technologists better understand the roots of personal computing”.

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HTC is set to show off its new One smartphone at 11 AM ET in NYC today, although thanks to various leaks, we already know a fair bit about it, including that it will have a larger 5-inch display, be powered by a 2.3GHz Snapdragon processor, and sport a brushed stainless finish. The company also accidentally revealed that the smartphone will be available in a Google Play edition.

We’ll obviously post all of the details regarding the new device as soon as it’s officially revealed, but if you want to follow the announcement as it happens, HTC is kindly live streaming the full event.

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Eleventh in a series. Apple rolled out a cheaper 8GB version of its iPhone 5c this week (in selected territories) and also replaced the aging budget iPad 2 with the newer, 4th gen iPad with Retina Display. The replacement iPad, which is available everywhere, is priced the same as the iPad mini giving potential buyers an interesting purchasing dilemma.

Featured apps this week include one of the best looking games yet released for iOS, an app which claims to boost your fitness in just four minutes a day, one which will help you avoid people you don’t want to see, and a game which could help find a cure for cancer.

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Gmail has always supported HTTPS, and even made the communications protocol the default option in 2010. Today Google announces it will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send email.

"Today's change means that no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail’s servers -- no matter if you're using public Wi-Fi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet", Nicolas Lidzborski, Gmail Security Engineering Lead says.

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Apple’s iPhone has been getting lighter (and thinner) with each iteration, and while most of us view that as a good thing, UK based healthy living brand Desirablebody.co.uk has a different opinion, believing much, much heavier phones could help us get fitter.

"In the 80s carrying around a mobile phone meant carrying some serious weight -- and that could sometimes be a mini workout all by itself," Fitness Manager, James Finlayson states. So Desirablebody.co.uk has introduced a case that takes mobile phones back to their roots and transforms the iPhone into a dumbbell. No, seriously.

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Bitrix24 has released a new desktop app for its online collaboration service, introducing the ability to synchronize and work with group and company files.

"We are currently the only online storage and file sharing service that has a free plan with group and company drives -- Box, OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive all charge for the privilege or don’t offer the option at all. Nor do we restrict our users concerning what tools they use for document editing -- they can use MS Office installed on their PC, or MS Office Online, or Google Docs. Obviously, that alone is not enough to compete with these giants, so we decided to add communication and collaboration tools right inside the app as well," says Dmitry Valyanov, President of Bitrix, Inc.

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We all have multiple favorite websites we visit on a regular basis -- Google, Facebook, BetaNews, and so on. But if you've ever wondered how often, and when, you visit them, a new Chrome browser extension can show you.

Install Iconic History and it will scan your browser history, create a favicon for each URL you visited, and then layout the favicons in a sequence based on access time. You can scroll through time (Chrome stores up to four months’ worth of history) and hovering over a favicon will tell you the site name, and access time. Clicking on a favicon will open that site in a new tab.

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It’s fair to say the iPhone 5c hasn’t been a major success for Apple so far. Rumors prior to its launch suggested it would be a cheap iPhone, and while it is more affordable than the flagship 5s, it certainly isn’t "cheap". Those low cost expectations coupled with the actual price have affected the iPhone 5c’s sales -- with many buyers preferring to spend a little extra to get the 5s.

That might change soon though, as Apple has rolled out an 8GB variant of the iPhone 5c, making it available across Europe and China from today.

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We knew it was coming, but today Microsoft confirms that it is introducing a 64GB mobile broadband-ready version of Surface 2, and you won’t have to wait very long to get your hands on it either, as it will be available from tomorrow, March 18.

"In launching this new version of Surface 2, we’re adding the power and reach of AT&T’s 4G LTE network to an already fantastic device", Panos Panay, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Surface, states. The new slate will be available in the US at Microsoft retail stores, www.microsoftstore.com and at BestBuy.

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Games consoles, like any complicated piece of hardware, can go wrong in myriad ways, and usually at the most inappropriate moment -- when your wife’s out for the evening and you’ve got a freshly purchased copy of Titanfall, and a group of trigger-happy friends standing by, for example.

Popular product Q&A service Fixya has sifted through over 40,000 troubleshooting requests relating to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U and put together a report detailing the top five commonly encountered problems for each of the next-gen consoles. It doesn’t break down the number of problems per console (thereby neatly sidestepping fanboy accusations of one being shoddier than the other) but does still make for interesting reading.

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