Wayne Williams

Yesterday was unquestionably the day of the tablet. Nokia unveiled the Lumia 2520, its first Windows RT 8.1 slate, Apple announced the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, and Microsoft’s Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 went on sale.

It was unfortunate timing for Microsoft. On a day when Steve Ballmer and co. would have hoped people would be talking about Surface, they were salivating over Apple instead. The fruit logo company inflicted more damage on Microsoft than just drawing focus for a day however.

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Despite being billed in the press as an iPad event, Apple announced much more than just the iPad Air and new iPad mini today. As well as improved hardware it revealed its OS update Mavericks would be free, and the giveaways didn’t stop there.

Its iWork productivity apps -- Pages, Numbers and Keynote -- and its iLife creativity apps -- iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand -- have been redesigned to take full advantage of OS X Mavericks and iOS 7, updated to 64-bit, integrated with iCloud and made entirely free. They’ll come bundled with new Macs or iOS devices. If you’re an existing user, and running Mavericks or iOS 7, you’ll be able to update to the new versions. Not planning on buying new hardware and not an existing user? You’ll still need to pay to get them, I’m afraid.

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When a big tech company live streams a launch event, we usually embed it here for readers to sit back and enjoy. Apple likes to make things difficult though. At last month’s iPhone event it didn’t bother providing a live stream, and you can only watch today’s iPad event if you’re one of the Apple faithful.

To be fair, the restrictions on today’s live stream should surprise no one. It’s exactly the same deal as the iPad reveal last year -- you need to be watching on Apple TV or using Safari 4 on Mac OS X 10.6 or later, or iOS 4.3 or later.

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Last week my colleague Mihaita Bamburic explained how to install the freshly released Windows 8.1 in VMware Player and Workstation, and I wanted to follow that up by showing how to set up the new OS in my personal favorite virtualization software -- Oracle VirtualBox.

There are many reasons why you may want to try out Windows 8.1 before committing to it as your primary operating system -- if you used Windows 8 and hated it, you may want to see exactly how much better the updated release is. If you’re thinking of upgrading from an old OS but aren’t sure about the Modern UI, this a good way of trying it out first.

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Oh dear. If you try and search using Google in Windows 8.1 there’s a very good chance the results page won’t display properly. Whatever you search for will generate a mangled page that works, but makes finding the results you want rather tricky.

This problem doesn’t affect searching using Google in Chrome, or Firefox, it only affects IE11 in both Modern UI and Desktop modes.

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You don’t want to save files locally on your hard drive -- you want to store them in the cloud, right? That’s what Microsoft thinks anyway. For that reason it’s baked SkyDrive into the heart of Windows 8.1 and made it the default save-to location for documents.

Although you can easily save elsewhere, one of the main save options, Libraries, has been removed from File Explorer’s sidebar. Another of those weird decisions that the Redmond, Wash. tech giant likes to make from time to time (like giving us a Start button without a Start menu).

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You’ve probably never given any thought to exactly how much time you spend gazing, gawping, glowering and glaring at screens on a daily basis -- but with TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones being such a major part of our lives, you probably won’t be surprised to hear it’s a lot.

Virtual meetings specialist PGi was curious to find out exactly how much time the average person spends a day looking at various screens and has created an infographic which reveals the shocking (or, depending on your viewpoint, not so shocking) results.

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With Windows 8.1 Microsoft has attempted to fix a lot of the things that were wrong with Windows 8, and make the operating system more appealing by throwing a bunch of additional features into the mix. It won’t appeal to everyone, but it is a massive improvement over its predecessor.

If you’re planning on updating your computer to the new OS, or are still on the fence and need a little nudge to join the tiled side, let me take you on a guided tour of what’s new.

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We all know the original Surface RT failed badly, and there are multiple reasons for its lack of success, including overpricing, poor distribution, commercials that revealed nothing about the product, and of course Windows RT -- the operating system that was a total mystery to consumers. No one knew anything about it. It came out of nowhere, hidden in the shadows of Windows 8.

What does RT mean? To anyone? (It’s just another in a long line of ambiguous Windows acronyms, joining the likes of XP, NT and CE). It looks like Windows 8, but it isn’t. It can’t run (most) desktop applications, despite having a desktop, and has other less than obvious limitations too.

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It’s nearly a year since Microsoft released the divisive Windows 8, and this week sees the launch of Windows 8.1 -- an update to the tiled operating system that aims to fix many of the perceived wrongs of the first version, while introducing some very welcome new features.

If you’re a Windows 8 or RT user you’ll be able to download the update for free starting at 4AM PDT (that’s 12pm in the UK) on 17 October. You’ll be able to get it directly through the Windows Store.

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I gave up on the idea of "inbox zero" a long time ago, and now simply embrace "inbox full to bursting", but Taper is offering a new approach to email management that might just make it easier to stay on top of things.

It’s on Kickstarter now, and currently a long way away from its funding goal (but with over a month still to go) so may never see the light of the day, but it’s such a crazy idea that I wanted to share it with you.

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There’s no question that Windows is a lot safer now than it used to be, thanks to Microsoft adding features like automatic updates, SmartScreen, and Windows Defender to its operating systems. I wouldn’t fully trust the built-in protection as my sole line of defense, but installing security software is no longer the very first thing I do on a new PC.

Dennis Batchelder, Partner Group Program Manager for the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, says that Microsoft remains fully committed to protecting its consumer and business customers, and highlights some of the things the company is doing behind the scenes to keep users safe.

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The Xbox One that’s currently available for pre-order is a very different beast from the system Microsoft originally announced back in May. Despite the changes that have been made to the games console/set top box, I think it’s a very promising product and one I’ll likely purchase at some point in the future.

But it’s Sony’s rival PlayStation 4 that’s going to be the big hit console this holiday season, pushing the Xbox One into a distant second place -- at least according to the findings of a new survey.

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There’s probably nothing worse for a major company than getting hacked. Just ask Adobe. But when the company in question is a provider of security software, well the embarrassment factor goes through the roof. And it’s definitely not good news for consumers who rely on the company’s software products to keep them safe online.

The website of AVG, makers of one of the world’s most popular free anti-virus products, was apparently hacked by a pro-Palestinian group earlier today, and fellow antivirus company Avira has also just suffered the exact same fate.

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With not long to go now until the general availability of Windows 8.1 on 18 October, Microsoft is attempting to get potential upgraders excited by highlighting the new operating system’s apps and services in a blog series called "Right from the Start".

The latest post covers Internet Explorer 11, and there’s lots of new and improved features in the updated veteran browser. "We are proud of the new Internet Explorer and how far the browser has come and we know that users will be impressed, too!" enthuses Ryan Gavin, General Manager, Microsoft Apps & Services.

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