Wayne Williams

Game of Thrones has never been a show to play things safe. Every time viewers thought they knew where things were going, the series would usually prove them wrong -- often with an unexpected death, or a twist hardly anyone saw coming.

The eighth and final season has just ended, and it’s fair to say -- like much of the eighth season (episode five, The Bells, in particular) -- the finale left viewers divided. I personally loved it (albeit not unreservedly), while my colleague Brian Fagioli hated it. Either way, people have been talking about it.

Continue reading →

If you’re a Windows 10 user then you might be interested in -- or even excited for -- the next generation of Microsoft’s Edge browser which is being built around Chromium.

If you’re a Mac user, then you likely couldn’t care less about it. Still, Microsoft is hoping it can change your mind and today it introduces the first preview build for macOS.

Continue reading →

These days, if you want to chat with friends and family you probably do so through one of the many mobile messaging choices -- such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Snapchat.

Before mobile communications really took off, Microsoft’s cross-platform MSN Messenger (later rebranded Windows Live Messenger) was the chat tool. At its peak, some 330 million users a month were logging into the instant messaging client. MSN Messenger was discontinued in 2014, with Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype from eBay largely to blame for its demise, but if you’ve ever wondered what the chat tool might look like if it was revived today, then MSN Messenger 2019 Edition is the answer.

Continue reading →

The May 2019 Update is still undergoing testing in the Release Preview ring, but Microsoft is busy working on builds from the 20H1 branch, the feature update set to be released in the first half of next year.

We’re starting to see new features arriving on that branch, and today’s flight, Build 18898, adds a useful addition to the Task Manager.

Continue reading →

Intel yesterday disclosed a new group of Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) hardware vulnerabilities that affect its CPUs.

Rogue In-Flight Data Load (RIDL), Fallout, and ZombieLoad speculative execution attacks are related to Spectre and Meltdown which were discovered last year, and allow attackers to leak in-flight data from CPU-internal buffers (Line Fill Buffers, Load Ports, Store Buffers), including data never stored in CPU caches.

Continue reading →

Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP back into 2014, but took the 'highly unusual' step of releasing a patch for the ancient OS two years ago in a bid to fightback against the WannaCry ransomware, and then included XP in that June’s Patch Tuesday updates.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that that would be the very last time Microsoft patched XP, but no. The software giant has included Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (also no longer supported) in today’s Patch Tuesday fixes.

Continue reading →

Development is proceeding well on Windows 10 20H1, even though that feature update isn’t set to be released until the first half of next year.

Microsoft rolled out Build 18894 two days ago, with File Explorer and Accessibility improvements, and today it releases build 18895 with an important fix -- although this flight isn’t available to everyone.

Continue reading →

Windows 10 19H1 -- aka the May 2019 Update -- is currently undergoing testing in the Release Preview ring, with the aim being to start rolling it out to all by the end of the month.

In the meantime, the software giant is working on builds from the 20H1 branch, the feature update set to be released a whole year from now.

Continue reading →

Being paid to play games all day long is a dream job for many people. There are a number of ways you can make this a reality, such as live-streaming on Twitch.

HighSpeedInternet.com is currently looking to pay someone to play Fortnite this summer, and will also cover their high speed internet costs for one year, plus hook them up with a new modem and router. Best of all, this opportunity is open to everyone, not just professional gamers.

Continue reading →

It’s getting increasingly difficult for hardware companies to keep their new smartphones under wraps. Leaks prior to the official announcement mean we often know all about a new device well in advance.

We already knew a lot about the new Pixel phones that Google revealed today at its I/O conference, but it’s good to have everything confirmed. If you've always fancied a Pixel smartphone but couldn't justify the asking price, then the new Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL could well provide the perfect solution.

Continue reading →

Microsoft’s developer conference Build 2019 is underway, and one of the things that the software giant announced today is a new app for command-line users.

The Windows Terminal is an update of the existing Command Prompt/PowerShell apps and is expected to arrive in the middle of June.

Continue reading →

Today is a big day for Microsoft as Build 2019 kicks off with a keynote from CEO Satya Nadella.

There likely won’t be too much to excite consumers, as the event is aimed squarely at developers, but as usual there will be some interesting news coming out of the event in Seattle, including more information about the next version of Microsoft Edge.

Continue reading →

Microsoft’s app store came into being at the same time as Windows 8. It was, as I said at the time, part of an attempt to copy Apple's successful model. I think most people expected the Store to be a bit rubbish, but it turned out to be even worse than that. Seven years on and it’s wasteland full of knock offs and junk apps. It hasn’t fallen on hard times, it’s always been that bad.

Part of the problem is there’s no longer a need for the Store, or the apps that it offers. If you want a piece of software to run on your PC, or your Windows tablet, you can download it from a wide range of sources, and the versions you’ll find elsewhere -- programs, legacy apps, whatever you want to call them -- tend to be superior to the crippled and/or packaged apps Microsoft is offering. So what’s the point of the Store?

Continue reading →

Modern smartphones are fantastic, but they burn through battery life like no-one’s business. Most of us charge our devices overnight, but if you’ve used your phone a lot in the day, there’s a good chance you’ll have needed to top up the battery at least once at some point -- especially if your handset is getting on a bit.

Few people choose a smartphone based solely on its battery life (as the abject failure of the 18,000mAh battery-toting Energizer P18K shows) but it is still an important consideration. If you’ve found you’re not getting as much life from your phone as the manufacturer claimed, you won’t be too surprised to see an investigation by consumer champion Which? came to the same conclusion.

Continue reading →

Windows 10 19H1 -- the May 2019 Update -- is currently undergoing additional testing in the Release Preview ring to try and solve a number of upgrade blocks, including one which prevents the update from installing if you have a USB drive or SD card plugged in.

Microsoft is still working on future releases though, and today pushes out Build 18890 to Insiders on the Fast ring (and those who had previously opted to Skip Ahead).

Continue reading →