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With less than two weeks to go until the launch of Apple Music, a report suggests that the company is having trouble enticing smaller and independent labels into signing up to take part. The problem is not necessarily that there is a lack of interest in joining Apple Music, but that the three month free trial period would generate no income for the labels.

Apple Music will make its money through monthly subscription fees, a percentage of which is then shared with record labels. During the three month free trial, Apple will make no money from the music streaming service, and will therefore have no revenue to share. While this is a cost that larger labels might be in a position to absorb, small companies say it could put them out of business.

"Sticky notes" software can be very basic, and that’s not necessarily a problem. Just being able to type plain text notes as required, add a "reminder" time and browse them all later is more than enough to be useful.

The open source Windows tool PNotes.NET goes further, though -- much, much further -- and is now so powerful that it takes the genre to a whole new level.

So apparently, people are more interested in dead things than the Apple Watch, and it’s a devastating statistic.

According to a chart for Apple, from Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves, people are more interested in the iPod than the Apple Watch. No, that was not a typo, I wasn’t trying to say iPad. I meant -- iPod, the thing that’s basically been dead for years now.

One of the most important aspects of the United States is freedom. Many of us take it for granted, but in many countries, people are not free to express themselves. In the USA, citizens are free to choose their religion, whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Islam or anything else; it is glorious.

Today, Google is specifically embracing Islam by releasing a tool for Ramadan. The unimaginatively named 'My Ramadan Companion' will help Muslims to observe this very holy month.

Nest has been quiet for quite some time, but today it breaks that silence with multiple product announcements.

Alongside the launch of a new Nest Cam, there’s a completely redesigned second-gen Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm that is apparently actually good at detecting fires, and a software update for the Nest Learning Thermostat that adds new features. There’s a new app too.

It hasn't been terribly long since we saw new Kindles from Amazon, but that isn't slowing the company down. The svelte reading device is getting another update, this time it's the Paperwhite version getting the overhaul.

Amazon refers to the Paperwhite as "the most popular and best selling" version of its Kindle line, which is only slightly surprising, given that it's more expensive than the base model, which also works very nicely.

When it comes to mice, there are many types available. For the average consumer, using whatever came with their desktop is probably sufficient. If they do buy a new mouse, it is often because the old one broke. The replacement is frequently selected due to low price. After all, they probably just need to point and click.

Gamers, however, are an entirely different breed. These people love hardware and video games and will spend extra money to gain an edge. One of the most popular manufacturers of gaming mice is Razer. While the company has deviated a bit from its roots lately, it returns to form today by announcing an all-new version of its wildly popular Mamba. Best of all? It will be available in both wired and wireless variants.

Ubuntu is one of the best overall Linux distributions, but it does have its fair share of detractors. Many people dislike the direction Canonical takes sometimes, including the much-maligned Unity desktop environment. Truth be told, I rather like Unity, but I can understand why some people prefer different desktop environments.

If you like the Ubuntu base, but dislike Canonical and Unity, there is a very easy solution -- use Mint instead. Linux Mint is Ubuntu at heart, with different tweaks and desktop environments, such as Cinnamon, Mate and KDE. Today, the Mint team releases a release candidate for the upcoming version -- 17.2 'Rafaela'.

The launch of Apple News looks set to upset potential publishers if initial reaction to the service's terms and conditions is anything to go by. Bloggers have complained that they have been spammed by Apple with an email inviting them to join the service. Nothing wrong with that (aside from the unsolicited correspondence), you might say, but the problem is, complainants grumble, that acceptance of terms and conditions is assumed unless individuals actively opt out.

Again, this is not entirely unusual, but one of the terms makes for interesting reading. "If we receive a legal claim about your RSS content, we will tell you so that you can resolve the issue, including indemnifying Apple if Apple is included in the claim". But this is not the only clause that has raised the ire of bloggers.

Father’s Day is fast approaching and time is running out to secure the perfect gift. Luckily, there’s a whole host of potential presents for the tech-obsessed fathers out there, ranging from the practical to the practically useless.

So whether it’s a novelty gadget you’re after or something he’s likely to use every day, we’ve rounded up the best gift ideas for Father’s Day 2015.

Microsoft is a company in a constant state of evolution, and today this is perfectly demonstrated by a huge shakeup at the top. Satya Nadella wrote to employees to explain a number of changes to the Senior Leadership Team -- including the departure of Stephen Elop.

The former Nokia CEO and Nadella "agreed that now is the right time for him to retire from Microsoft". A question that can be heard echoing through the company is "did he jump, or was he pushed?" Mark Penn is also leaving the company to form a private equity fund. The reorganization additionally sees the company dividing into three distinct teams to "deliver better products and services our customers love at a more rapid pace".

You may have heard about ransomware attacks in the last few months. These are attacks that seize control of your machine or your data and demand a ransom to remove the virus. Back in the 90’s, these attacks were less common but demanded large quantities of money and would target large organizations, governments and critical infrastructure suppliers.

More recently, the criminals involved in ransomware attacks have realized that demanding small payments and targeting individual users can be more fruitful, and arguably is less likely to raise enough interest to warrant a law-enforcement counter-attack.

According to a report published by security specialist NowSecure, a vulnerability in the Swift keyboard software, pre-installed on Samsung devices, can allow a remote attacker to execute code on the user's phone as well as access functions like the microphone and camera.

Worse still there's no way to uninstall Swift and the flaw can be exploited even if you don't use the app. It affects leading Samsung smartphone models from the Galaxy S4 to the S6.

Some more information has been revealed regarding Tesla’s latest automotive offering.

Elon Musk confirmed that the Tesla Model III will be able to cover at least 250 miles on a single charge, marking an improvement on the previously stated figure of 200 miles.

Solving problems successfully is all about having the correct information for accurate diagnosis and then assembling the appropriate people to put things right. The problem is that the necessary knowledge is often spread across several areas of IT.

Operations performance management company PagerDuty is launching an extension to its platform called Rich Incidents aimed at reducing incident resolution times using real-time data.