Microsoft announced earlier this year that it will be bringing Windows Phone's digital voice assistant, Cortana to the desktop as well as rival mobile platforms. We've already seen Cortana -- the rival of Apple's Siri, and Google's Google Now -- on Windows 10 technical preview, and now we're getting our first look at Cortana on Android.

While the company is yet to officially release Cortana on Android, the APK file of the digital voice assistant got leaked a few minutes ago. We tested the APK and did the signature verification, and can report and confirm that it is all legit. You can download it from here (though; it is advised you always snag things from official channels).

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Microsoft has made a real mess out of explaining its plans for Windows 10 to the masses. I talked about the company’s inability to stop confusing the hell out of Windows 10 users three weeks ago. While the company has slowly been clearing up much of the fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding its new OS, one big question remained. Just how long would the company be offering free updates for?

"The lifetime of the device" said Microsoft. Which, frankly, meant nothing to anyone. A PowerPoint presentation buried on Microsoft's site suggested that Window 10 users would get free upgrades only in the first 2 to 4 years. Which is hardly any time at all. Thankfully, that turns out not have been true, as today -- at long last -- Microsoft has updated its Windows lifecycle fact sheet.

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We all love Qualcomm processors, and so do the manufacturers. And while Qualcomm is enjoying a good hold over almost the entire mobile industry, the regulators are in doubt as to whether the US company has achieved its dominance through fair practices. Or is there something else to the story?

The European Commission (EC) has now opened the case. They announced today that they have opened two antitrust probes into the company.

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If you don't have a solid state drive in your computer, you are crazy. Prices have decreased dramatically, making it affordable for most consumers. Money is tight? Cut out the Starbucks for a few weeks and drop a Benjamin on the upgrade -- it is worth it.

There are many brands to choose from, with comparable speeds, so you want to target reliability. Two of my favorite brands are Samsung and Kingston, but there are solid lesser-known brands too. ADATA is such a brand that targets value, but has a history of dependability too. That company is launching a new SSD, called the XPG SX930, which is aimed at gamers and offers a 5 year warranty. Is a gaming-grade SSD just marketing speak, or should gamers take notice?

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Enterprises may have eleven or more commercial tools in place for application performance management (APM), yet they're not using them effectively according to a new survey.

Application intelligence company AppDynamics has released the results of a survey, conducted by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), of IT professionals from companies of all sizes across both North America and Europe, looking at the APM solutions they have in place, monitoring gaps, and the time and resources required to resolve application-based issues.

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There’s a new-old elaborate scheme going around the English-speaking world, and this one targets Apple users and their wallets.

According to a report by The Telegraph, iPhone and iPad users in the US and the UK have started getting pop-ups on their devices, telling them the iOS had crashed and that they need to call support in order to fix the problem.

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Businesses turn to the cloud in search of efficiency and cost savings, so being able to measure how successful a strategy is at these aims is important.

A survey by hybrid financial management provider Cloud Cruiser shows that 72 percent of respondents indicated that tracking cloud usage and costs is extremely or very important to their IT function.

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PopKey for Desktop is a free Windows and OS X tool for browsing, saving and sharing the latest animated GIFs.

It’s a desktop spin on the company’s PopKey GIF keyboard for iOS, and has a simple, app-like interface which keeps options and controls to an absolute minimum.

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One-hundred and thirty-seven in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows in the past seven days.

Microsoft released Windows 10 Build 10240 this week which is the RTM version of the operating system that will be released in less than two weeks to the public. The company plans launch celebrations even though there won't be many devices available on launch day that have the new operating system installed.

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For the first time in more than a decade the amount of spam has fallen to less than 50 percent of the total volume of email.

According to the latest Symantec Intelligence Report, the overall spam rate has dropped to 49.7 percent, the first time a figure this low has been recorded since September 2003.

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In past versions of Windows, Microsoft has allowed users to configure how they want operating system updates to be delivered. Those looking for the ultimate protection configure Windows Update to automatically install them, while others may, accidentally or not, disable the feature or postpone installing any updates for a very, very long time. I have seen systems that last had updates installed years before I was asked to troubleshoot them.

With Windows 10, however, Microsoft is taking matters into its own hands, by making automatic updates mandatory. This applies to both home and business users, unless the latter group turns to dedicated tools that allow them to have more control over how updates are installed. Basically, you have to go out of your way to keep Windows 10 out of date.

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Netflix has had another excellent quarter, announcing 3.3 million new subscribers in the past three months. The company’s revenue continues to grow with £1.05 billion this quarter, but investment in originals and advertising is taking a bite out of the profit, with only £16 million reported this quarter.

Even with the profit issue, Netflix’s stock went soaring once again. The video streaming service has managed an 100 percent rise in stock price in six months, and announced in the financial report a seven-to-one split in revenue, bringing the price back down to $100 (£64).

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Facebook wants to make Messenger appeal to as many people as possible, so, last month, it announced that it will no longer require new users to have a Facebook account in order to use its increasingly popular messaging service. The feature was initially said to be offered in just a handful of markets, US, Canada, Peru and Venezuela.

Now, the feature is made globally available according to Facebook's David Marcus. Just like in the first markets, all that new users need to sign up for Messenger is their phone number.

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Classic open source audio editor Audacity has been updated to version 2.1.1 with some welcome additions and improvements.

A new Ctrl+click "scrub play mode" enables playback -- both forwards and backwards -- just by moving your mouse cursor across the waveform.

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Rumors are growing that Google Glass is about to make a return. Back in January, the search giant announced that the commercially available Explorer Edition was being discontinued. Although the company would surely have liked more consumers to take the plunge, its £1,000 price tag deterred many. However, Google Glass has not been killed off but is merely lying dormant, with Google claiming that it has learnt much from its Explorer program, using it as a kind of "open-beta".

Sources now indicate that Google Glass Enterprise Edition will soon be launched, targeting the business environment. Although there has been no official word on the release, Google has confirmed that the next iteration of Glass is in development and targeting the enterprise landscape actually makes a lot of sense.

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