Wayne Williams

When choosing a portable Bluetooth speaker you’re probably swayed by several factors -- size and brand being chief among them. I own a Cambridge Audio Minx Go, and the Cambridge Audio name was definitely one of the reasons I considered that speaker in the first place.

Sond Audio probably isn’t a name you’re familiar with. It’s actually Ebuyer’s own audio brand, and products under that label include speakers, headphones and soundbars. The Sond Audio portable NFC speaker is the first Sond product I’ve tried, so is it a hit or miss?

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Microsoft doesn’t seem to know exactly what to call its version of Windows 10 for smartphones. It was called "Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones", and then yesterday, when unveiling the different editions of the new operating system, Microsoft called it "Windows 10 Mobile".

Today, however, it’s back to "Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones", although in the official blog post announcing the latest release -- Build 10080 -- it’s also called "Windows 10 Insider Preview for phone". I guess you just have to take your pick. Hopefully the tech giant will have decided on an official name when it releases the finished version later in the year.

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All models of the Raspberry Pi have always been very affordable -- that’s a big part of the appeal. When the B+ launched 10 months ago it was priced at $35 dollars -- which was the same as the regular B model, despite improvements which include additional USB 2.0 ports, lower power consumption, and better audio.

However, three months ago the Raspberry Pi 2 arrived, and that was also priced at $35. Suddenly, the B+ seemed like a bad deal in comparison. But not anymore.

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I’m a huge fan of Zombies, Run! and whenever I hit the treadmill (or, less frequently, the streets) the exercise app is always with me, turning a boring run into an action-packed journey through the zombie apocalypse.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Season 4 of Zombies, Run! for ages now, and today is the day it arrives, bringing with it not only 40 new missions, but also some big improvements, including an important pricing change -- it’s now free to play.

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Microsoft Research Devices and Networking Summit 2015 brings together over 175 experts to discuss cutting-edge developments, potential breakthroughs, and ongoing technology concerns.

Microsoft believes the event deserves broad participation, so will be live streaming key speeches, interviews, and demos from the Summit, and you can watch Wednesday's webcast right here as it happens.

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Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s website seems to serve three main purposes these days -- provide tasty recipes to try in the kitchen, keep visitors informed about his latest campaigns and, oh yes, infect your PC with password stealing malware.

Three months ago, Malwarebytes discovered a well hidden malicious injection on the official website of Jamie Oliver which redirected unsuspecting visitors to an exploit kit. This was apparently dealt with, but then a month later the issue resurfaced. So surely, after having been infected twice, the site is now clean? I think you can guess the answer to that.

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It’s been a month since the last Windows 10 for phones Insider Preview arrived -- Build 10052 -- but the good news is Microsoft is preparing a new release and Insiders on the Fast ring could receive it as soon as this week.

According to Gabriel Aul, head of the Windows Insider program, Build 10080 is the current candidate and it’s this which will be making its way onto phones, provided it passes Microsoft’s internal testing.

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At the moment you don’t need a Windows license to run the Windows 10 Insider Preview. Anyone can download an ISO, install it, and update the OS as new builds arrive. Microsoft wants to get feedback from as many users as possible to avoid repeating the catastrophe that was Windows 8.

But what happens when the preview versions stop and we reach RTM? We know the operating system will be free (in the first year) to anyone running a copy of Windows 7 or 8.1, but if RTM is a straight update, like all previous Windows 10 builds, does that mean every Windows Insider will be able to upgrade to RTM for free?

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Windows 10 Insider Preview has a dark secret… Well the newly released Build 10074 does anyway.

If you open the Windows Store and hit Ctrl-T, the app will switch from a light to a dark theme. Pressing the same key combination will restore the app’s lighter look. As far as we can tell this trick only works for the Store, but you can enable the dark theme on other apps with a spot of registry editing.

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When you install an app on iOS it will ask for permissions as and when required. In Android things are done differently, and you’re informed about what permissions are required from the off. This can be rather disconcerting, as some of the permissions requested can seem both scary, and unnecessary.

Usually, there’s a good reason why an app needs the permissions it does, although it may not always be obvious, and it’s all or nothing. If you don’t agree with the list of permissions the only option is not to install the app. You can’t simply block or revoke individual permissions, at least not without rooting your device first. However, that may be about to change soon.

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Do you pay for goods in stores with your smartphone? If so, you’re in the minority. According to Javelin Strategy & Research’s new Mobile Proximity Payments Forecast 2015 report, while 9 percent of online transactions are currently made on a smartphone, mobile proximity payments -- that is using your smartphone to buy something in a brick and mortar store -- account for just 1 percent of all retail transactions.

Apple users lead the way when it comes to mobile proximity payments, with almost 16 percent having made at least one purchase in a month. That’s nearly double the rate of Android smartphone owners.

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Build is over for another year, but that’s not the only Microsoft conference around. Ignite, the new enterprise focused tech event, starts today in Chicago.

Not familiar with Ignite? It’s essentially a number of Microsoft conferences rolled into one. As the tech giant describes it, Ignite is: "for big thinkers looking for an edge. It’s for anyone who attended the Microsoft Exchange, Lync, Project, SharePoint, MMS, or TechEd conferences -- and then some. It’s for senior decision makers seeking what’s next, and who want insights on key technology trends in the industry. It’s for IT professionals who need hands-on experience to enhance their tech skills. It’s for enterprise developers and architects looking for innovative ways to maximize application development. It’s for those who want to feel inspired and enlightened. It’s for you".

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Every month NetMarketShare releases usage share figures for all of the major operating systems. In the past these figures tended to paint an interesting picture of how well -- or rather how badly -- Microsoft’s newest operating system was doing. Occasionally the OS grew share, occasionally it lost share -- sometimes quite dramatically.

Now though, the only picture that’s being painted by these monthly figures is an operating system that has no future and will vanish quietly, and with zero fanfare, once Windows 10 arrives.

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When Microsoft announced it was planning a summer release for Windows 10, there were some raised eyebrows. When AMD suggested the new OS would launch in July, there were a lot more raised eyebrows. Windows 10 is coming on nicely, but there’s still a lot of work to do to get everything done and dusted in time.

It turns out Microsoft agrees. While Windows 10 will be released in the summer (not "July", just "summer"), it will only be available for desktop PCs, at first.

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Microsoft has created a new website which makes use of its recently released Face detection APIs to guess a user’s age based purely on a photo they submit.

The creators expected around 50 people to be interested in trying out the project, but the site has gone viral, racking up over 35,000 users as of yesterday, and likely hundreds of thousands more today. People want to know how they are perceived by others and a site that promises to predict their age based on an uploaded photo was bound to be a hit. It’s a shame then, that a random number generator could probably produce more accurate results.

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