Google might have a greater market share when it comes to mobile operating systems, but it is behind Apple on some of the essentials, and it shows.

That is the opinion of Wall Street Journal’s Dan Gallagher, who reflected on the Google vs Apple, Android vs iOS battle, as Google prepares the launch of Android 6.0, named Marshmallow.

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Six years and six updates later, Google's own programming language, Go, has reached version 1.5. Go 1.5 sees Google "removing the last vestiges of C code" from the code base, and the runtime, compiler and linker are now all written in Go rather than C.

Despite a massive overhaul to the code base, Google assures users that Go 1.5 maintains the promise that Go programs will continue to be supported by all subsequent releases. There is also a move towards mobile devices, with ports of the iPhone and iPad architectures and linking to the Go mobile project opening up the possibility of developing for Android and iOS.

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As promised by Gabe Aul just over a week ago, Microsoft today releases Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3. One of the biggest new additions to this build is native support for Windows Server Containers, Microsoft's take on Linux containers.

Developers have been begging for container support in Windows Server for some time now, and the introduction of this feature could be the start of Microsoft offering up some serious competition to Linux server software. This is not the only new feature to be found in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3, there's also software-defined datacenter enhancements and new Nano Server functionality.

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If you're wary about going the whole hog and installing Windows 10 as your main operating system, you might consider going down the dual boot route, or installing Windows 10 in a virtual machine. Virtualization is a neat option and Microsoft has released a trio of readymade virtual machines that let you test out Windows 10 with Microsoft Edge.

The downloads are provided with web developers in mind -- they're meant to be used to test how websites function under different versions of Microsoft's web browser and these latest releases see the dropping of the beta tag from Edge. But these downloads are not going to just be of interest to developers as they give anyone the chance to try out Windows 10 in a safe environment.

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Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the launch of Internet Explorer. First making an appearance in the Windows 95 era via the Microsoft Plus! Add-on pack which featured the excitingly-named Internet Jumpstart Kit and version 1.0 of the browser people love to hate and hate to love.

Two full decades later we have slowly but surely worked up to Internet Explorer 11 -- Chrome, for comparison has hit the 40s in less than half the time -- and now IE has been all but retired. With the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft Edge is the new kid on the block. Twenty years is a long gestation period. Was it worth the wait?

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Joaquim Vergès, the man behind Twitter app Falcon Pro, is joining Twitter. His much loved app will live on, but Vergès will soon be starting work as part of the official Twitter team, helping with the development of the UI.

The announcement came -- of course -- via a tweet. Vergès said that he was going to use Falcon Pro as a testing ground for new features, but explained that he had become frustrated by the limitations of being a third party developer.

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Microsoft is taking steps to try to ensure that the apps that people want to see on Windows are actually available. We've already seen the company woo developers with tools such as Project Westminster to make it easier to create Universal Windows Apps, and Astoria to help convert Android apps for Windows.

Project Islandwood was the same idea, but for iOS apps -- the idea is that by making it easy to convert apps for Apple's platform into Windows apps, Microsoft can use developers to plug the 'app gap'. To spread the project's net further, it has now been released under the name Windows Bridge for iOS and -- more importantly -- it has been released to GitHub as an open source tool under the MIT license.

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Is the battery in your smartphone being used to track your online activities? It might seem unlikely, but it's not quite as farfetched as you might first think. This is not a case of malware or hacking, but a built-in component of the HTML5 specification.

Originally designed to help reduce power consumption, the Battery Status API makes it possible for websites and apps to monitor the battery level of laptops, tablets, and phones. A paper published by a team of security researchers suggests that this represents a huge privacy risk. Using little more than the amount of power remaining in your battery, it is possible for people to be identified and tracked online.

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For many people Google Chrome is their browser of choice. It may be popular, but most users would concede that Chrome has something of a memory problem -- it will gobble up resources like they are going out of fashion. To get around this issue, all manner of extensions have sprung up offering tab suspension -- but there's a hidden Tab Discarding option built in that does the same job.

As revealed by Google's François Beaufort, the Chrome development team is working on bringing the feature, which is already used by Chrome OS users, to the Windows, Linux and Mac versions of the browser. The Discarded Tabs feature works by unloading tabs from memory when resources are running low, and reloading them if and when they are next clicked. If you install the latest nightly builds, this is already available to you -- here’s how to use it.

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It's not that we're (necessarily) lazy, but technology entices us all to find quicker ways of doing things. The internet is something of a behemoth and there are plenty of tools out there that aim to tame it -- one of which is automation service IFTTT.

Harnessing the power of apps, devices, and the cloud, IFTTT has just unveiled five open source projects. Now available on GitHub, the projects can be used by anyone to integrate IFTTT automation in their apps and services.

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If you're a Google Voice user, you'll almost certainly have experienced its frequently insane attempts at voicemail transcriptions. There are times when these offer some hilarious relief in the middle of a dull day, but they also stand in the way of, you know… actually understanding what's been said.

Transcriptions that are not accurate are less than helpful, and Google has taken steps to up its game. Using sample voicemails from volunteers, it has been possible to improve voicemail transcriptions so there are far fewer errors. The new and improved system is available right now, and Google is keen for you to try it out.

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Lego is something that is most often used to build models. The versatile little bricks have been keeping children (and adults) entertained for generations, and there have also been plenty of instances of the toy being used for more than just playing. Now, thanks to the work of designer Carlos Arturo Torres, children with a missing limb could build their own from Lego.

It's an idea that merges the worlds of play and entertainment with practicality. The Colombian designer has come up with a modular system which can be used by inventive kids to create elaborate arms that are as functional, as advanced, or as silly as they want.

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Apple is letting developers and enthusiasts test out beta versions of iOS 9 ahead of launch. While the company is keen on getting feedback for the next version of its mobile operating system (just as Microsoft is with the preview builds of Windows 10), there have been concerns that problems with apps during beta testing has led to a swathe of negative reviews in the App Store.

Developers have complained that problems with iOS betas can cause problems with their apps, rather than their apps being inherently problematic. To address the issue, Apple is placing a ban on App Store reviews from iOS 9 beta testers.

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It's not long since we first learned about Android M at Google I/O and today Google launches Android M Developer Preview 2. As the name would suggest, this is a build aimed primarily at developers, giving them an opportunity to ensure their apps are ready to take full advantage of everything the latest version of the operating system has to offer.

Two key changes between Lollipop and Android M are improvements to security and battery life. The second developer preview includes more improvements to permission settings such as how fingerprint authentication works and changes to the way permissions are handled for external storage.

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What do you do if you need to encourage developers to produce more apps for your platform? Make it much, much simpler of course. This is the problem Microsoft has faced for some time now, and in a bid to address the issue it hopes Project Westminster is the answer. With the launch of Windows 10 looming, there's never been a better time to be seen addressing the so-called app-gap.

We learned a little about Project Westminster at Build 2015 earlier in the year -- it basically makes it easy to convert existing web apps into Universal Windows Apps that can run on phones, tablets, and computers. Microsoft is also pushing other projects -- Astoria, Islandwood, and Centennial -- for converting Android and iOS apps, as well as traditional Windows applications into universal apps. Is it enough?

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