• Series

Eighty-fourth in a series. Big news this week was China's ban of Windows 8 on government computer systems which Wayne covered yesterday. Country officials seem to believe that the NSA is using the operating system to gather data.

Microsoft has released Xbox One controller drivers for Windows that users of the operating system can use to connect the controller to a Windows PC for games that support controller input.

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Eighty-third in a series.  Welcome to this week's overview of new Windows 8 applications and games.

Microsoft removed the beta tag from its Internet Explorer Platform Status website which highlights the development status of web technologies in Internet Explorer.

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Twenty-first in a series. Lots of big Apple news this week. The company revealed it is indeed buying subscription streaming service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics (which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers and audio software) for a whopping $3 billion. Following the announcement Eddy Cue, Apple SVP of Internet Services, took the opportunity to share some numbers relating to iTunes, and revealed that Apple has sold 35 billion songs, and iTunes Radio now has 40 million listeners. Cue also said that coming later in the year Apple has the "best product pipeline" that he’s seen in his 25 years at the company. Sounds exciting.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off on Monday, giving us a glimpse at some of what the company has in store for the rest of the year.

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Eighty-second in a series. Welcome to this week's selection of the best new applications that have been released to Windows Store.

Microsoft revealed the Surface Pro 3 this week, a 12-inch version with improved screen and trackpad, pen, larger keyboard and other improved features. You can read Brian's hands-on impression or Mihaita's Macbook Air comparison if you have not done so already for all the information about the new device.

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Twentieth in a series. Missed out on Weed Firm? Don't worry, Apple may have pulled that particular game from the App Store, but there are plenty of smoking new apps available to devote your time to.

New releases this week include an app that offers a fun way to find your missing iOS device, an HD remake of a Nintendo DS classic, a picture sharing app with a twist (you add songs to your shots), a construction game for kids, an app to help you catalog your favorite wines, a swarm-based game, and a GPS app for golfers.

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Eighty-first in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best new applications and games for Windows 8. Microsoft released a Windows Store update earlier this week that introduces several new or improved features.

Among the new features are an always visible toolbar at the top, collections, and additional information displayed next to apps on listing pages.

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Eightieth in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best Windows 8 apps and games that were published to Windows Store. Microsoft has released updates for several core apps for Windows 8 without mentioning what actually changed on the apps' profile page or the Windows Store page listing the application.

Apps that have received updates are Bing Health & Fitness, Weather, Bing Sports, Music, Video, Bing Travel, Bing News, and Bing Finance.

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Eighteenth in a series. New and updated releases this week include a Vine-style video sharing app with filters, an animated story creator from Adobe, new games set in the Warhammer 40k and Soulcalibur worlds, a social network for dog owners, a fitness app that promises to "lift your butt" and an endless runner that gives you the chance to watch your friends being trampled by bulls.

As always, if I miss an app that you think should definitely have been included, let me know in the comments below, or drop me an email.

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Seventy-nine in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best Windows apps and games that were published in the last seven days to Windows Store.

As always, we begin with an overview of important application updates.

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Seventeenth in a series. Microsoft updated its Office for iPad apps this week, adding some welcome new features, including the most requested of them all -- the ability to print documents. This is a feature that should really have been included from the start, but at least it’s in there now.

New releases this week include standalone apps for Google Docs and Sheets, the first in a series of new Star Wars themed story apps from Disney, a clever app that pulls high quality photos straight from your videos, a SpongeBob SquarePants version of Doodle Jump, and one of the best note taking apps I’ve ever used (and no, it’s not Microsoft OneNote -- although the iPhone version of that was also updated this week).

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Seventy-eight in a series. Welcome to this week's new Windows 8 apps overview. Several popular first-party and third-party apps were updated this week.

Microsoft's One Note application received an update that added support for additional languages, inking and rule line improvements, performance improvements, as well as an option to go to the location of the page from the recent notes view.

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Sixteenth in a series. Apple reported its second quarter results this week, and they beat analyst expectations with the iPhone doing especially well. Apple shipped 4.14 million Macs, 16.35 million iPads and 43.72 million iPhones during the quarter. iPhone sales grew by 16.8 percent while iPad sales declined by 15.9 percent. Although the iPad’s slump looks very bad in the quarter you have to remember Apple struggled to meet holiday demand the previous year, leading to an inflated number of shipments in the March 2013 quarter.

New and updated apps worthy of your attention this week include a Sonic racing game, a "ridiculous animal simulator", an activity tracker, a travel app for iPad, a world-time clock, and an alternative to Fruit Ninja with better graphics.

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Seventy-seventh in a series. The first universal app listed in Windows Store and Windows Phone Store is Microsoft's Halo: Spartan Assault.

Universal apps are available for Windows Phone and Windows 8, and need to only be purchased once to use them on all supported platforms.

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Fifteenth in a series. Featured apps this week include the latest installment in the excellent post-apocalyptic fitness app Zombies, Run!, a Heroes of Warcraft card game, a full iPhone video editor from Pinnacle, a piano tutor, a new MediaFire app for iPad, and a DJ mixing tool for iTunes and Spotify.

As always, if I miss an app that you think should definitely have been included, let me know in the comments below, or drop me an email.

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Seventy-six in a series. Microsoft released the feature pack update for Windows 8.1 this week which added several usability improvements for mouse and keyboard users.

Wayne covered the update and if you have not had the time yet to read about it, you may want to head over there to do so. One interesting aspect of it is that the update is mandatory for systems running Windows 8.1 as it is a requirement for all future updates of the operating system.

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