So the Windows 10 briefing is well underway, and Microsoft has already dropped a bombshell, although it’s one that many people will have been expecting.

If you have Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows Phone 8.1 you will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. That’s right, it won’t cost you a single penny. And who doesn’t love free? Now the bad news… it's only free if you upgrade in the first year.

In the world of searches, there's one name that rules supreme -- Google. But new figures show that while the search giant is still the most popular way to track down content online, it is starting to lose ground to Microsoft and Yahoo. The latest statistics from comScore are in broad agreement with those published by StatCounter a couple of weeks ago.

Both sets of numbers agree that Microsoft and Yahoo are eating into Google's lead when we look at US searches conducted in December and compare them to November. While Big G will not be happy to see that its grip on the search crown is loosening slightly, the company has little to fear just yet.

LastPass has released LastPass for Mac 3.2.0, a desktop version of its popular password-management tool. The app, also available as a series of browser extensions for Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera, now sits at the heart of the user desktop.

Once installed and launched, LastPass for Mac places an icon into the menu bar. It also creates a new Quick Search tool for speedily accessing, viewing and editing stored passwords and other notes.

Microsoft didn’t livestream its Windows 10 reveal last September, mostly because it wasn’t a product launch as such, or even a presentation aimed at consumers (it was more just a name announcement and a quick run through of the features). The software giant will, however, be livestreaming today’s Windows 10 briefing.

Called "Windows 10: The Next Chapter", the event will include presentations from Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore, Phil Spencer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and cover the consumer side of the new operating system. We’re also expecting to find out more about Windows 10 Mobile.

Windows Phone is the last major mobile platform to receive an official Mega app, following Android, iOS and even BlackBerry. It took quite a long time for the offering to make its public debut in Store, as the cloud storage service, which launched two years ago, first mentioned details surrounding its development in mid-2013.

Expectations are high, also taking into account the fact that Mega currently sits in Windows Phone Store as version 2.0. What does it have to offer? Well, let's take a look at the features it has, and should have.

Increased reliance on systems and data means that downtime and loss of information is a greater problem than ever before.

Disaster recovery specialist Vision Solutions has launched the latest version of its annual State of Resilience report which highlights the trends and challenges for business and IT leaders.

In order to gain a competitive edge marketers are keen to gain insight from customer data. But the information may be spread across various systems and the cloud, making it hard to access.

In response to this problem marketing software company AgilOne is launching a product built from the ground up to unify online and offline data integration, cleansing, insights and campaigns, seamlessly bridging the worlds of digital and offline marketing.

No matter how much Windows Phone has progressed, it feels like it will always be held back by its app store. Lots of nice titles continue to be unavailable, despite claims of the so-called "app-gap" closing. It is not, clearly. When top developers eventually release their apps on the platform, they usually come long after their Android and iOS counterparts and are rarely updated. Let's not even talk about feature parity, which is a huge issue on its own. Of course, that is if those top developers can be convinced to support Windows Phone in the first place, which isn't always the case. It's not an easy thing to do.

Windows Phone Store is also not helped by the developers who decide to abandon or leave the platform altogether. The latest blow is dealt by Chase Bank, which has supported Windows Phone for more than two years. It just announced that it will take the latter route, packing its bags and leaving the platform in just a few days.

Whether you’re typing up an entire interview, or just trying to note a few song lyrics, the endless clicking of Play/ Pause/ Rewind means it’s usually a very tedious process.

PmTrans is an easy-to-use Java-based application which can help in various ways. There’s no installation, the program is a single JAR file which you can download and run right away.

Dropbox is one of the most familiar, endearing and enduring names in the cloud, and it is continuing its expansion. The lastest addition to the fold is CloudOn, an Israeli startup with a focus on mobile productivity in the cloud that boasts 9 million users who use the service to edit Microsoft Office documents.

More accustomed to providing cloud storage, Dropbox's most recent acquisition sees the company expanding further into Europe. No details have been released about any money that may have exchanged hands, but news of the acquisition comes just days after Microsoft acquired Israeli company Equivio. So what does the acquisition of CloudOn mean?

You have to take a little (sometimes a lot) of salt with some of the revelations made by Edward Snowden, but his latest claim is, on the surface at least, a damning one for Apple.

According to the NSA whistle-blower’s lawyer, the iPhone has special software installed which can be remotely activated, and used to keep tabs on your whereabouts. A spyPhone, if you will.

In the past few years the adoption of new methods to access corporate data has led to traditional endpoint security being less effective. At the same time there are concerns about the number of employees who have access to data and how much of a threat they present.

Data security specialist Vormetric has released its latest Insider Threat Report which reveals that 93 percent of US organizations polled believe that they’re vulnerable to insider threats.

IObit Malware Fighter Free has been updated to version 3 with a range of new features and enhancements.

The "Browser Protect" module provides real-time protection for your home and search pages, blocks some malicious sites, eliminates malicious toolbars, and prevents malware modifying your system DNS settings.

Smartphones make me fed up. There. I said it.

Every year since Apple released its paradigm shifting iPhone 3G and pushed the industry into the stratosphere there has been nothing to get truly excited about in a sector that should be just that: exciting.

Google has today announced the release of Chrome 40 for iOS.

The big addition to version 40.0.2214.61 is Handoff support, which enables mobile users to continue from Chrome to their default browser on OS X.