The long-anticipated Skype Messaging app is finally here. That is, if you have a Windows Phone smartphone, and just happen to be running Windows 10 Mobile developer preview. The company quietly released the new messaging client on Sunday.

The Skype Universal Messaging app, as evident in the screenshots and descriptions, comes with a user interface that seems very similar to the built-in messaging app on Windows Phone 8.1 and above. The app, as you would expect, also offers a quick option to do voice calling.

The old adage about how children grow up so fast can easily be applied to many things. The tech world is littered with things we take for granted, and these would once have felt like science-fiction to us. Streaming music is one of those things -- who would have thought you would one day have all of the music you wanted with no vinyl, tapes or CDs?

Pandora is now celebrating ten years in the business. It's hard to believe the little service, created by by Tim Westergren and powered by the Music Genome Project, managed to crack the code and bring music that suits a particular taste, even introducing artists you may have never heard before. Create a station based on an artist, or multiple ones, and Pandora will cook up something to keep you interested.

Yesterday, I joined the 61 percent. The figure represents the people who, in a MusicWatch survey of 5,000, had turned off auto-renew on their free Apple Music trial, which for all ends September 30. Unless something really big comes out of this week's media event, where new iPhones could debut and iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan receive release dates, I will listen elsewhere. For now, I will stream higher-fidelity tracks from Tidal, and expand my musical horizons at services like SoundCloud.

Strange thing: I don't dislike Apple Music. Curated playlists are "frak me" good. Family pricing, $14.99 per month, is very reasonable. The library is voluminous; if I want to listen to it, Apple Music likely has it. Then there is the benefit of easy access to my own library of about 14,000 tracks alongside juicy fruit picked from the orchard.

British metal band Iron Maiden has teamed up with Japanese firm Onkyo Corporation to produce a set of headphones -- or Ed-Ph0n3s, named after the Eddie mascot. Founding member and bassist Steve Harris used the headphones when mixing the new album The Book of Souls, and fans of the Maiden will be able to get their hands on a pair of their own too.

Designed specifically with rock and metal listening in mind, the Ed-Ph0n3s were on display at IFA 2015 in Berlin this week. We'd already seen mock-ups of the full-ear bins at CES earlier in the year, but now we've seen the finished product and know more about the specs.

Having trouble locating Lumia Storyteller, Lumia Beamer, Photobeamer, and Lumia Refocus in the Windows Store? Quit trying; they are no longer available to download. That's because Microsoft has pulled these services from the official store as part of its ongoing “streamlining” efforts, it announces in a blog post.

The company has pulled Lumia Storyteller, Lumia Beamer, Photobeamer, and Lumia Refocus apps, and noted that those who have it installed on their device, will stop receiving any app updates after October 30, 2015. The said apps won't be able to offer online services. Lumia Panorama and Video Uploader are also among the affected apps, and they too won't receive any updates from the company.

The on-going refugee crisis in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East has grabbed hearts and headlines around the world. As European governments argue over who should take in the thousands of desperate people, European citizens have criticized the speed and scale of the help offered, whilst simultaneously donating money, food, and equipment to help those in desperate need.

Now Google has stepped in, offering €1 million ($1.1 million) to the organizations providing help to refugees. In addition to this, Google.org (the branch of the company "using innovation to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges") is setting up a page to make it easier for people to make donations, and says that it will match any money donated by Google users.

Email danger isn't new, and we've all been (hopefully) vigilant for years. Don't open attachments is the general rule, though there are some obvious exceptions -- the person confirms they sent it to you. Otherwise, a message from someone you know may very well not have not been sent by them -- I got one a few days ago from a company contact and it had a file attached. Don't open it! When I inquired she replied to me that the address had been hacked.

Absolutely nothing I've just said will protect my kids or parents -- they will happily click away. The problem is, these things seemed to go away, at least mostly, but now they are on the comeback trail according to a new report.

Edward Snowden might be holed up in Russia, but that's not going to stop him from criticizing the country. While accepting the Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression’s Bjornson prize, the former NSA contractor used a speech to call Russia's attitude to internet freedom and homosexuality as "fundamentally wrong".

The US government has indicated that it has no intention of pardoning Snowden so he remains in exile -- for now, this is in Russia. Not shy to court controversy -- and possibly biting the hand that feeds -- he has hit out at the Russian government saying that its control and restrictions it places on the web are a "mistake in policy".

A post has appeared on Microsoft's TechNet that suggests the company could be on the verge of combining Skype for Business and the consumer version of Skype into a single product known as Skype Central.

The move would echo that taken with OneDrive, and would help to streamline things a little for developers. The post is written by Microsoft's Tony Eversole and is designed as a placeholder so developers have a central point to exchange news and information.

If you've been wondering what LG's new Nexus 5 -- expected to be launched at an event 29 September -- looks like, wonder no more. We've already seen one leaked image purporting to show the device, and now we have another one to add to the pot.

This one is a particularly clear shot, and its quality means it's hard not to think that this is an official photo. Of course, this has not come from Google or LG -- at least neither have said as much -- but Android site AndroidPIT has obtained an image from a trusted source.

Spybot developer Safer Networking has released Spybot Anti-Beacon, a portable free tool which makes it easy to disable a host of Windows 10 tracking technologies.

Just launching the program displays the current status of 10 "problem" areas: Telemetry Hosts/ Services/ Group Policy, Consumer Experience Improvement Program Group Policy/ Scheduled Tasks, Application Impact Telemetry, Steps Recorder, WiFi Sense, "Apps use advertising ID" and P2P Windows Updates.

The 'keylogger' that's built into Windows 10 has gained something of a bad reputation -- but it's really a bit of a misnomer. Yes, there is a component that -- technically speaking -- tracks what you input using the keyboard, screen, mouse, voice, and stylus... but it's a bit more complicated than that. It is not really a keylogger in the sense that the malware term usually implies.

Microsoft openly admits that "when you interact with your Windows device by speaking, writing (handwriting), or typing, Microsoft collects speech, inking, and typing information". It's done with the intention of improving the accuracy of suggestions, providing a personalized experience, and so on. But we live in an age where privacy matters. If you are concerned about the privacy implications of this component of Windows 10, you can disable it. Here's how.

Cybercriminals are a motivated bunch that continually change up their approaches to evade traditional detection-based security. Rather than continuing the insane circle of identify and respond security, it’s time to flip your cyber script and focus on gaining situational awareness of the real risks your organization actually faces.

Once you know what hackers are after and how they are getting in, you can shift your defenses accordingly. To that end, let’s take a look back on the first half of 2015.

We worry about our children, or at least we should. Stranger danger is everywhere in today's world, unlike the one we grew up in. You may have wondered around town on your own, rode in a car with no seatbelt and probably asked the question "what's a bike helmet?"

Well, things are not that safe anymore, and in fact they can be downright scary. Websites and apps are trying to sell things to kids (it will be your money that they spend). But worse, predators lurk in the shadows looking for information for potential targets.

Windows gadgets made their first appearance in Vista as a convenient way to install tiny desktop tools like clocks, system monitors or weather applets.

The technology was retired in 2012 due to security vulnerabilities, but these days any danger is minimal, and if you were a fan then 8GadgetPack provides an easy way to run more than 50 gadgets on Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 PCs.