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http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/software/Windows/Windows%20server%202016/multipoint%20server-470-75.jpgIntroduction and software-defined data centreWhile Windows 10 is something of a retreat on Microsoft's part, back to the familiar desktop and Start menu, Windows Server 2016 is a much bolder move. Although you'll be able to treat it as just another version of Windows Server if you want – with a range of improvements in security, virtualisation, networking and storage, suitable for sharing files and running applications like Exchange and SQL Server for businesses small and large – it's also designed to be a very different platform for a new style of applications. As well as the traditional n-tier client-server architecture and the familiar approach of virtual machines, Windows Server 2016 will also support applications built using microservices and containers. Containers and microservicesThat's where Nano Server and Docker support come in. Nano Server is a new deployment option for Windows Server 2016 that has a much smaller footprint, a subset of the Windows Server APIs – and consequently needs far fewer patches and reboots. Nano Server has no local GUI at all, doesn't support MSI for installing graphical server applications, and the recommended way for working with it is remotely, using PowerShell scripts or the web-based graphical tools Microsoft is building in the Azure portal (like a web version of Task Manager), or with tools like Chef. http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/software/Windows/Windows%20server%202016/server%20and%20gui-420-90.jpg Nano Server supports Hyper-V and ASP.NET and it's also going to be useful for clustered storage, but mostly it's designed to work with containers, and Windows Server 2016 has multiple types of those. The first is a Windows Server container – that's the Windows Server equivalent of a Linux container and it's something you can manage with the Docker management engine that's built into Windows Server 2016, or with Microsoft's own container management APIs. Microsoft is already supporting Kubernetes and Mesopshere for orchestrating containers on Azure and it's likely those will be supported on Windows Server as well. Then there's a Hyper-V container – that has more security and isolation, and Azure will use them for running the multitenant services that execute code customers have uploaded. It also gives you more flexibility because you don't have to have the same kernel running in the container as in the underlying server; with Hyper-V container you can update the server but the container will keep the version you've tested with your code. Virtual machines don't go away – and Hyper-V is getting some key improvements, from being able to hot-add memory and virtual network adapters, through better security for Linux VMs, to much improved backup, and being able to nest Hyper-V VMs inside each other – but VMs solve a different problem from containers. A virtual machine is a virtual version of a whole server; a container is a way of abstracting an application (and in the microservices world, you'll end up with multiple containers working together). http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/software/Windows/Windows%20server%202016/storage%20replication-420-90.jpg The software-defined data centreIf you think that sounds more like the cloud than a server in the office, you're right – the technologies coming in Windows Server 2016 are the ones that Microsoft has been building and refining for Azure, like containers and large-scale software-defined networking and storage. Those are features for the 'software-defined data centre' that larger businesses are moving towards, either for private and hybrid cloud or for ubiquitous virtualisation. The idea is to introduce a new software-defined control plane for the data centre that lets you get sophisticated network and storage features with commodity hardware. That includes software-defined networking features that come directly from Azure, like a programmable network controller and load balancer. The most widely applicable feature may be the new rolling cluster upgrades that let you upgrade all the servers in a Hyper-V or Scale-Out File Server cluster without any downtime – each VM gets automatically shut down, upgraded and restarted in turn. You can also take your time about upgrading, running as a mixed-mode cluster until you're ready to move everything to the new OS. The new version of Storage Spaces, Storage Spaces Direct, means you can use JBOD for cluster storage rather than more expensive storage. If you run multiple virtualised workloads, the new Storage QoS promises much better resource sharing – this is based on work by Microsoft Research and lets you set policies that guarantee minimum and maximum IOPS. The new network controller takes care of allocating resources dynamically, to make sure the different VMs share resources fairly. Some of these features will doubtless be specifically in Windows Server Data Centre rather than the standard version – for example, Storage Replica, which gives you block-level synchronous replication over SMB 3 between servers for disaster recovery and high availability. You could use that for a stretch cluster, or replicate directly between storage volumes. Again, this is the kind of high-end storage functionality you've had to buy expensive hardware like SANs to get, that will work in Windows Server 2016 with much cheaper commodity hardware. Docker on Windows Server: how will it work?Still a serverOn the other hand, if you want to keep using Windows Server the way you already have, you'll be able to do that with Windows Server 2016, with just a little more work. You won't find yourself installing Nano Server by accident because you'll have to deliberately build an image to get that. Instead the default is to install Server Core, again without a GUI – not even Server Manager. To get that you have to specify that you want local admin tools, and if you want the desktop you have to install that specifically as well. http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/software/Windows/Windows%20server%202016/windows%20defender-420-90.jpg The shift away from giving you a graphical interface on the server itself is deliberate. Mostly it's because of the overhead of the components you need to run the GUI – taking that out is a large part of why Nano Server is so much smaller. But it's also part of the move to automation and remote administration, which is essential for cloud because you can't run around all your different servers to administer them. Microsoft is also pushing developers of server apps to make sure you can administer them remotely, instead of having to set them up and maintain them from a graphical interface you can only see when you're in front of the server or using Remote Desktop. What we're used to calling Full Server is still in Windows Server 2016, but it's getting a new name that doesn't suggest it's the best and most powerful way to run a server; that will probably be something like Server with a client experience. The client name is to emphasise that this is for things like Remote Desktop Services, Server Essentials or MultiPoint Server – which is one of the new roles in Windows Server, for running ultra-thin clients, for education or retail. http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/software/Windows/Windows%20server%202016/server%20gpu-420-90.jpg Remote Desktop also gets some major improvements to RemoteFX graphics. The way the server GPU is virtualised means remote users will get a virtual GPU that's powerful enough to play games – or do hardware acceleration in programs like Google Earth and Photoshop. New features for DNS management, improved IP address management, options for limiting how long admins can get elevated rights for, and even built-in Windows Defender mean there will be plenty of reasons to upgrade. But Windows 2016 also marks a clear change in Microsoft's server strategy, with cloud and hybrid playing an ever-greater part. Particularly for larger businesses, this is the time to think about shifting away from graphical interfaces on servers and considering the advantages of containers and cloud-style management. Why the next version of Windows Server will be a two-faced beast http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194405155/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47efa8ea/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194405155/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47efa8ea/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194405155/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47efa8ea/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194405155/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47efa8ea/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194405155/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47efa8ea/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47efa8ea/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/Xe18LkkKdas

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/Randoms/Rdio-stations-470-75.jpgWith the recent launch Apple Music providing the entire world with a live, 24-hour streaming radio station called Beats 1, rival streaming service Rdio had to do something drastic to keep its name in the game, which is why it has launched a bunch of curated radio stations in several new territories around the globe. Rdio already had stations available to users in the United States, Canada, and UK, but now its reach has expanded to Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Unlike Beats 1, the stations won’t be live, and won’t feature celebrity hosts like Zane Lowe, but there will be more listening variety on offer, with label-curated options from the likes of from Arts & Crafts, DFA, Blue Note, Glassnote Records, and XL to choose from, among others that were already available. Listeners will also be able to enjoy curated content from various key-local and social ‘influencers’, such as Hype Machine, Consequence of Sound, A.V.Club and Country Weekly, among others. Best of all, Rdio’s new radio stations, like Beats 1, are completely free to all users. Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Rdio… which one should you pick? http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194396144/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ed3afb/sc/28/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194396144/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ed3afb/sc/28/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194396144/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ed3afb/sc/28/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194396144/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ed3afb/sc/28/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194396144/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ed3afb/sc/28/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47ed3afb/sc/28/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/6Vj_ylQ9btA

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/MacLifeWebContent/HowtoResetLaunchpad/Launchpad-hero-470-75.jpgLaunchpad - a built-in feature of OS X for Mac - is a way to easily organize, manage and access your apps in a manner similar to that found on iOS. If you use Launchpad a lot, however, it can become messy and cluttered if, for example, you've created too many folders or forgotten where you stored specific apps. When Launchpad becomes a little too disorganized, you can use this quick trick to reset the layout of Launchpad to its default settings, just as if you reinstalled OS X. To do so, open the Terminal app (located in Applications/Utilities), and then type the following command: defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool true; killall Dock http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/MacLifeWebContent/HowtoResetLaunchpad/Launchpad_Terminal-420-90.jpg When you enter this command (followed by the return key on your keyboard) then relaunch Launchpad, you'll notice that the layout has been restored to the original defaults: Apple apps on the first screen, then third-party apps on the second screen onward. Your custom folders will be gone as well when you do this. Note that this will not remove your apps from Launchpad. It will only reset to the initial folder structure and remove your custom folders for app organization. You can now choose to keep Launchpad as a clean slate, or you can reorganize it to your liking, placing apps inside of folders and on different screens by clicking and holding on an app icon until the icons begin shaking - similar to how you organize apps within iOS. Is the New MacBook 2015 everything it's cracked up to be? http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194372603/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47eb01d6/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194372603/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47eb01d6/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194372603/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47eb01d6/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194372603/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47eb01d6/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194372603/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47eb01d6/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47eb01d6/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/MQ8SWcWZQiQ

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/other/ghostscreen-470-75.pngEuropean researchers are hoping to revolutionise our interactions with computers by letting users change the shape of displays with their hands. The project is called Generic, Highly-Organic Shape-Changing Interfaces - GHOST for short. "It's not only about deforming the shape of the screen, but also the digital object you want to manipulate, maybe even in mid-air," explained GHOST coordinator Kasper Hornbæk from the University of Copenhagen. "Through ultrasound levitation technology, for example, we can project the display out of the flat screen. And thanks to deformable screens we can plunge our fingers into it." Probably only five years offThe team has built a series of prototypes of different shape-changing displays. 'Emerge' lets you pull data out of a bar chart with your fingers, and move it around, while 'Morphees' are flexible devices that can change shape automatically according to your needs, stretching to shield your fingers when you type in a pin code for example. YouTube : www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC6l6dy04zIOne project at the University of Bristol has spun off into a startup called UltraHaptics, which uses ultrasound to create feeling in mid-air. The company now employs 12 people, and has attracted seed investment in the UK. "Displays which change shape as you are using them are probably only five years off now," said Hornbæk. "This will have all sorts of implications for the future, from everyday interaction with mobile phones to learning with computers and design work." YouTube : www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaZHj9SEzLQ'Talking like a parent' could be the best way to encrypt your emails

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/software/Google/DeepDream/Deep%20Dream%20Fear%20and%20Loathing-470-75.jpgGoogle's code for its Deep Dream neural network system already looked like the search giant had fed acid to one of its computers, but after unleashing the code to the greater public someone decided to apply the filter to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. As if that movie didn't already have a strong enough cocktail of drugs coursing through its frames, the uploaded by the GitHub user graphific adds a whole other trippy dimension to this contemporary classic. If that's not enough, just search a social media site for #deepdream to see what Google's image processing systems can do to everything from an interstellar landscape to a self portrait. " width="420">YouTube : How are these computer images generated?Last month Google posted on its blog some images that demonstrate the progress the company is making with AI neural networks in mimicking the visual learning processes of the human brain. Part of Google's explanation of the underlying processes involved showing what happens when specific systems are enhanced to full capacity, resulting in distorted images that look like the effects of a potent dose of LSD. The images were popular enough for Google to issue an abridged code pulled from one of its Artificial Neural Networks so that the greater public could distort images of their own. Check out the Google Photos review http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194330219/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e56ce9/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194330219/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e56ce9/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194330219/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e56ce9/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194330219/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e56ce9/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194330219/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e56ce9/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47e56ce9/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/-MPEc0GQcck

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/logos/Instagram%20camera-470-75.jpgAfter years of allowing people (over 300 million active users worldwide, if we're counting) to post relatively puny pictures on its service, an Instagram spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge that it is rolling out an image resolution upgrade. Instagram's iOS and Android apps will be adding support for images of up to 1080 x 1080 pixels in size, a significant jump from the 640 x 640 resolution it's had since it launched back in 2010, back when phones still had rotary dials. Okay, the rotary dial thing is an exaggeration, but when you think about how far smartphone displays and cameras have come in the last five years, it's amazing that it took Instagram this long to update its resolution. The spokesperson stated that the rollout would be happening gradually, but did not say when the update would be available to all users. The Verge was tipped off about the image boost rollout on Friday, after a reference to '1080px' was found in Instagram's source code. Instagram is planning to invade your inbox http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194321088/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e433ac/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194321088/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e433ac/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194321088/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e433ac/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194321088/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e433ac/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194321088/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e433ac/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47e433ac/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/1iT1PPqir6M

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/software/Amazon/Amazon%20Cloud%20Drive%20app-470-75.JPGAmazon launched new iOS and Android apps to access files stored on its Cloud Drive service, but don't expect to get too much from the experience. Even though the Cloud Drive apps complement Amazon's affordable unlimited digital storage, the implementation lacks a post-PC strategy. Unlike competing apps from Google, Microsoft and Dropbox, Amazon's app is read-only, lacks the ability to automatically sync content from your phone and denies users the ability to manually upload locally stored files on an Android or iPhone. To do any of these tasks, you'll have to resort to the old-fashioned way – firing up the web browser and accessing Cloud Drive's web interface. It seems Amazon may have rushed the apps to stake a claim in the competitive cloud market. What you can doEven though not everything is "cloud nine" with Cloud Drive, there are still things you can do from within the apps. The app will allow you to view documents, files, videos and photos that have already been uploaded. You can use the app to share what's in your cloud with others. Cloud Drive allows users to send files on the cloud as an email attachment or as a public link. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't allow for private links on Cloud Drive, so business users will likely steer clear of the public link option, especially with sensitive or confidential files. Cloud Drive also allows you to open files with other apps. PricingIf you can live with the short list of features that the Cloud Drive mobile apps allow you to perform at this time, then the service's all-inclusive $60 (£38, AU$80) per year unlimited plan is far cheaper than rival services. For users and small businesses with copious digital storage needs, Google's and Dropbox's $9.99 (£6, AU$13) monthly pricing for 1TB of cloud space can add up quickly. Microsoft makes its OneDrive service free and unlimited to Office 365 subscribers. Photographers who don't need to store other file types – like Office files or PDFs – can subscribe to a cheaper $12 (£7, AU$16) per year plan that includes unlimited photo storage. However, if you're shooting from your phone, you'll also need to download the Cloud Drive Photos app to upload from your mobile device. Hopefully, Amazon will build more functionality into the Cloud Drive mobile apps in the future. Competing Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox apps all come with more features, including automatic file uploads and document editing capabilities. "Amazon tells us it plans to keep the pricing the same as it expands its service to mobile, and it will also continue to invest in both the Cloud Drive and Cloud Drive Photos apps going forward," TechCrunch reported. To appeal to enterprise customers, Amazon will need to also beef up Cloud Drive security with features like two-factor authentication. Read our picks for the best cloud storage service http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194320213/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e27e6a/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194320213/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e27e6a/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194320213/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e27e6a/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194320213/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e27e6a/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194320213/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47e27e6a/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47e27e6a/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/nLQPhucTSEA

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/internet/Hacking/hacking-usethisone-470-75.jpgOver the weekend, one of the most notorious and secretive security surveillance companies, Hacking Team, has been hacked and hundreds of Gigabytes of data that includes emails, source code and internal documents stolen. It is not clear at this stage who hacked Hacking Team and more importantly, why. The attackers made sure that their intrusion would not go unnoticed by defacing the company's Twitter account and making public more than 400GB of content. Hacking the hackers This tactic would, in theory, allow the attackers to hide their tracks and proceed towards their real intended target(s), in what is likely to be a state of confusion and FUD for Hacking Team's clients. The Italian company offers a wide range of services and tools, all aimed at helping organisations and governments, gather data on individuals. A lot of its clients are allegedly oppressive governments although the company has always maintained the opposite. The hacked files show that Hacking Team counted customers from Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Lebanon, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sudan, Russia, UAE amongst those who had paid for its services. The company's social accounts and website are no longer accessible. Source: CSOHow the open plan office is helping hackers http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194302888/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47deebd1/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194302888/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47deebd1/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194302888/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47deebd1/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194302888/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47deebd1/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194302888/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47deebd1/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47deebd1/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/GwZSlvwBEn4

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/windows-10-full-470-75.jpgWhen WZor, the infamous leaker that managed – somehow – to get his mitts on most of Microsoft's software well before they're launched, leaked a few screenshots of the yet-to-be-announced Build 10163 of Windows 10, there were a couple of images that mentioned July 9. That date could well be when the RTM version of Windows 10 is signed off. That version is usually the one that gets sent to all the PC makers, retailers and developers, hence RTM (release to manufacturing). A bit of house-keepingBuild 10162 was released on Friday and no new features were included. Microsoft engineers are instead focusing on tidying up the operating system ahead of its big launch with a clear focus on squashing existing bugs. It is likely that Build 10163 will be the latest one before Windows 10 goes gold on Friday but Microsoft surprised us last week with three builds in four days so there's still plenty of time (assuming WZor's leaks are indeed true) for a bit more action. Source: WzorCheck out our hands-on preview of Windows 10 and our coverage of Windows 10. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194299481/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dedd7b/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194299481/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dedd7b/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194299481/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dedd7b/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194299481/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dedd7b/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194299481/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dedd7b/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47dedd7b/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/abQiLu2cR7I

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/internet/Google/terminator_robots-470-75.jpgThe future of roboticshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/internet/Google/terminator_robots-420-90.jpg There's an old Walt Disney cartoon on YouTube called 'Modern Inventions', a tongue-in-cheek snapshot of how the world considered robots and what we as a society might end up doing with them, poking a little fun along the way. When you consider it was made way back in 1937, it shows just how much – and for how long – we've been fascinated by robotics. What's even more intriguing is how its appearance in popular culture has changed very little since. Robotics has obviously come a long way from those comical beginnings, but more often than not, it's hidden away behind factory doors, doing everything from building cars to filling your orders on websites. But that's all set to change. 225km/h with no driverhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/future%20of%20robotics/225km-420-90.jpg While Google has captured most of the attention with its driverless car efforts over the last few years, many traditional car makers are quickly catching up and actively researching various aspects of driverless vehicles. German carmaker Volkswagen is leading Europe's AdaptIVe (Automated Driving Applications and Technologies for Intelligent Vehicles) program, which includes a 'who's who' of engineering giants including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Bosch as well as universities from most of the major European motoring economies. The research project began in January 2014 and is expected to run over the next three-and-a-half years. It looks like good progress is being made as well – in October 2014, Volkswagen subsidiary Audi and Stanford University teamed up to push an Audi RS 7 sports car around the famed Hockenheim track in Germany at race speeds of up to 225km/h, all with no driver, no human intervention – and no accidents. Tech companies line uphttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/car%20tech/google_automated_car-420-90.JPG The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has predicted that up to 75% of all vehicles will be autonomous by 2040, making it a growth market all major tech companies are eyeing off – and sooner rather than later. Google's Nexus 9 Android tablet is powered by Nvidia's equally-new Tegra K1 processor, but Nvidia has its eye on a much greater prize for the Tegra K1 than just phones and tablets. The new CPU is being touted as a solution for self-driving cars, with reports it has already been mated to a LiDAR (light radar) sensor used in many driverless vehicles to map terrain and obstacles in front of the vehicle. Also interesting is the growing affordability of the technology involved – with much of it built on the rise and rise of low-cost computer processors. Here, it's enabling faster, smarter, more capable robotic systems to be built. There is much more CPU horsepower inside the fitness band on your wrist than what guided man to the moon in 1969 and now, companies such as Renesas Electronics, ST Microelectronics and Freescale Semiconductor (all licensees of smartphone/tablet chip designer ARM) are major players in the automotive market. Military robotshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/future%20of%20robotics/military%20robots-420-90.jpg Star Wars may have brought robots to the battlefield on the big screen, but the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is making it happen in real-life. We might not quite be at 'Attack of the Clones' stage just yet, but like most things, developments in technology often have military beginnings. Engineering firm Boston Dynamics has been spending DARPA's money developing a range of walking/running bots or 'quadrupeds' with impressive results, including the pack-mule now being trialed for the US military, the impressive in 2011-12, reaching just short of 50km/h, and the most-recent untethered version called , combining the freedom of the LS3 with some of the speed of Cheetah. It's not surprising then that Boston Dynamics was purchased by Google in December 2013.From engineering to ethicshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/future%20of%20robotics/from%20engineering-420-90.jpg At its basic level, the science of robotics is a marriage between mechanical and electrical engineering, but it also has many relatives coming along for the ride. As the technology becomes ever more sophisticated, software development increasingly plays a dominant role, which calls on other disciplines such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. That also pushes into the realm of 'machine psychology', the idea of machines thinking and morally reasoning like humans. Further and you reach into the theoretical area of 'cyberethics', looking at the issues of technology from a legal, moral and social perspective. While the engineering involved in getting a car to drive itself has progressed incredibly over the last ten years, that still may be an easier feat than working out some of the ethical ramifications of the technology. For example, you're in a driverless car travelling along a narrow road and just about to enter a single-lane tunnel when a child suddenly runs in front of you and trips over. Does the car swerve, injuring you, or remain on its straight course and injure the child? This 'tunnel problem', prompted by Ph.D. student Jason Millar from Canada's Queens University, is a modified version of the classic 'trolley problem' often used to discuss consequentialism, the ethical theory described as choosing a moral option that results in the 'the greatest good for the greatest number'. Solving this dilemma from a human perspective is hard enough – but how would programmers code a driverless car to solve this problem? And who gets to make that decision? Who to save?http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/future%20of%20robotics/who%20to%20save-420-90.jpg Roboticists from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, a joint-venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol, created a simple experiment of this 'who to save' style problem by programming a robot to prevent a human-simulating drone bot from falling into a hole, which it did successfully. But adding a second drone left the robot with a choice dilemma. In many of the test runs, the robot took so long to decide that both drones ended up in the hole. The question being increasingly asked is how do you teach robotics morals? How do you embed robots with ethical theory to make decisions, sometimes based on these examples of the 'lesser of two evils'? In fact, so crucial is the requirement for ethical thought becoming in general that the Australian Computer Society (ACS), which provides accreditation to local universities for degrees in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), has deemed it necessary that all new students undergo formal ethics training as part of their degrees – both undergraduate and postgraduate. That's to ensure future ICT professionals are adequately armed with the ability to tackle ethical and moral dilemmas an increasingly-technological society will likely face. The end of car insurance?http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/car%20tech/Laird%20on%20Wheels/car_tech_week1-420-90.jpg As the future of driverless vehicles is in the latter stages of research and early stages of implementation, cyberethics is coming to the fore as a serious and relevant question – and one that driverless car developers will have to answer to governments and society as a whole. And it's already being grappled with - according to reports, California lawmakers wrote into the statutes allowing driverless cars that any new application will have a 180-day inspection cooling-off period before governments will allow it to be sold to the public. California isn't alone - other US states including Florida and Nevada have also enacted legislation covering driverless vehicles. Another by-product of the impending arrival of driverless vehicles is the impact it may have on the car insurance industry. The general thinking is that 90% of all motor accidents are the result of human error – taking out the 'human error' may see claims fall by a similar amount, with some are already predicting this could spell doom for insurance companies as a result of falling premiums. Jobs under threathttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/future%20of%20robotics/jobs%20under%20threat-420-90.jpg It's an example of where robotics is providing opportunities for some, but looks set to take them away from others. The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported that new figures from the Australian Department of Industry show as many as 500,000 jobs are under threat of automation. But the Australian Industry Report 2014 surprisingly suggests that 'being low-skilled does not necessarily mean that your job will be replaced by robotics'. Further, the report says 'robots are increasingly replicating the tasks of medium and high-skilled workers'. However, department chief economist, Mark Cully, told the AFR fears of mass-unemployment and poverty amongst middle-class employees are 'overblown', with the report declaring automation will allow new technologies to deliver higher productivity and lower-cost products. Industrial roboticshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/future%20of%20robotics/industrial%20robotics-420-90.jpg Part of that productivity increase is already coming from industrial robotics projects like Swisslog's AutoStore, which replaces human pickers and sorters with robotic ones on a major scale. The system has already been installed by Australia's Catch Group to power the logistics of websites like 'Catch of the Day'. AutoStore isn't the only option in this area either – Amazon purchased Swisslog-competitor Kiva Systems in 2012. If you think of the complexity of multiple bots running around picking items from thousands of bins, there's nothing easy about it. In fact, Amazon is organizing the first Amazon Picking Challenge at the 2015 International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Seattle this year to try and promote innovation in the area. It appears to be aiming as something of a 'DARPA Grand Challenge' for the automated picking robotics industry. You'll also start seeing autonomous industrial robots turning up in the most unusual of places – including the vege garden! Sydney University's Ladybird was designed by its Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) to provide autonomous farm 'surveillance, mapping and classification for the vegetable industry' and has been successfully trialed in Cowra, NSW. Building your own roboticshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/future%20of%20robotics/building%20your%20own-420-90.jpgBut if you're not quite ready to commit to a university degree, there are plenty of alternatives you can try out. Today, the proliferation of low-cost electronics and computer chips means building your own self-propelled, self-monitoring robotic machines is almost 'silly' affordable. Whether it rolls or walks, you can pretty much build it now. LEGO's Mindstorms NXT and newer EV3 systems are popular entry points, particularly for lower/middle high-school students that can start them off but also grow into reasonably complex designs. If you're a school teacher, there are numerous education packs available from local LEGO distributors, although be warned – they can become quite expensive. Beyond (and even an alternative to) Mindstorms, the next entry point is Arduino, the open-source microcontroller circuitboard system developed in Italy, but now manufactured and sold all around the world. Arduino predominantly uses low-cost 8-bit processors that you program with a simplified C++ language called Wiring. Arduino is more 'real world' than NXT and sophisticated enough to handle everything from simple hobby robots to eight-legged octopeds and multi-prop unmanned aerial vehicles (or 'drones'). Arduino can mate with all manner of electronic and mechanical devices and is a great next-step platform – but you have to do all the design work yourself. If you have the necessary electronics and software coding skills, Arduino can be a cheaper, but also more complex alternative to LEGO's Mindstorms platform. Beyond Arduino, you're getting into the rarified air of 32-bit CPUs of the same class used in current fitness bands and trackers. These ARM Cortex M-series chips provide a serious jump in performance and are used by industry in all manner of embedded applications – even to handle wireless broadband control in smartphones and tablets. The futurehttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/other/pepperrobot-420-90.jpg Like most areas of science, society's engineering capabilities in robotics continue to stretch the current legal framework, particularly in motoring. From insurance and employment growth to ethical theory and the military, the future of robotics is causing much thought across all sectors as we figure out the ramifications of combining computer processing and all manner of motors into self-moving objects. We've come a long way from the early days of Walt Disney cartoons, but you also get the sense that in the grand scheme of things and the potential the future has in store, we really haven't come that far at all. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194276251/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dcbc45/sc/28/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194276251/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dcbc45/sc/28/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194276251/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dcbc45/sc/28/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194276251/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dcbc45/sc/28/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194276251/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dcbc45/sc/28/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47dcbc45/sc/28/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/JJAv-FROPEQ

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/Miscellaneous/Smart-home-Home-automation-Kensington-AV-470-75.jpgTurn your living room into a high-tech paradisehttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/TRBC/Miscellaneous/Smart-home-Home-automation-Kensington-AV-420-90.jpg For typical homes, the living room is the space likely to have the most technology in it, between the TV, DVD/Blu-ray player, gaming console and audio system. Depending on how old your equipment is, though, your living room tech may be ripe for replacement with newer, smarter and more integrated devices. Wireless Network: Routerhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/WN-router-420-90.jpg Let's start with your wireless network, as this is what ties everything together. There's a good chance you're still using the same basic Wi-Fi router that you got when you first signed up with your Internet service provider. This is sufficient for basic web connectivity, but once you start doing things like high definition video streaming, voice-over-IP audio and video calls, and online gaming – especially if there are multiple people in the household doing these things simultaneously – you'll need to upgrade to a router that supports the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard and is better at prioritising high-bandwidth traffic. To cut down on the number of boxes that are daisy chaining from your telephone line, you can get a device that combines an ADSL2+ modem and Wi-Fi router in one. The D-Link Viper ticks all the requisite boxes, boasting the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, 2.4GHz and 5GHz dual-band technology, and advanced QoS (quality of service) controls that efficiently dole out bandwidth to ensure stutter-free video streaming and gaming. The Viper's easy-to-use web-based interface shows a visual diagram of all of the devices that are currently connected, and you can even drag and drop them into different 'priority tiers' based on the amount of bandwidth each device needs. While you're setting up your wireless router, it's worth digging through the advanced settings to add some extra smarts to your wireless network. Adding the strongest level of security encryption is a no-brainer to ensure dodgy neighbours don't leech off your Internet connection, but there are other things you can do to maintain control over your network. The D-Link Viper supports features like the ability to view the web browsing history for each client/device, share files stored on a USB drive with other devices on the network, and even monitor and manage the network when you're not at home using the mydlink web portal or mobile app. Wireless Network: 802.11achttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/WN-802-420-90.jpg Compared to the previous 802.11n standard, 802.11ac is up to three times faster, offering up to 1.3 gigabits per second. Of course, you won't actually get those Internet speeds in practice, as you'll be held back by the speed of the Internet connection, but you will see a significant boost in transfer speeds when you're moving files between computers on your network. To take advantage of the faster 802.11ac connectivity, your devices will need to either support 802.11ac or be able to connect to the router using an intermediary device. The good news is that more and more devices now support 802.11ac out of the box – the latest Macbook Pro and MacBook Air laptops support it, as do tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S and iPad Air. Various smartphones support it as well, although the Xbox One and Playstation 4 (along with its predecessors) are limited to the slower 802.11n. Wireless Network: USB adaptors and bridgeshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/WN-USB%20adaptor-420-90.jpg There are a couple of options for enabling devices using 802.11n (or older) to connect to the router at the faster 802.11ac speed. For desktop computers and laptops, you can use an 802.11ac adapter that plugs into a USB port. You don't need to go with the same brand of USB adapter as the wireless router, as technically speaking it should be compatible with any device using the same standard. That said, setting up a wireless network can be tricky at the best of times, and if you want to minimise the chances of any issues cropping up, you may be better off going with an adapter from the same brand as your router. Unfortunately, those same USB adapters aren't compatible with gaming consoles. If you want to get your Xbox, Playstation or Wii onto the faster 802.11ac standard – or even other living room devices, like your TV, Blu-ray player, and media players like the Apple TV and Western Digital WD TV – you'll need to connect them to an 802.11ac wireless media bridge or range extender. The Linksys RE6500 is one such device that you can connect your slower Wi-Fi devices to using network cables. This connects wirelessly to your Wi-Fi router using 802.11ac and pipes that bandwidth through to all of the devices that are hard-wired to it. Of course, if your Wi-Fi router is conveniently located in the living room, you can save yourself the hassle by connecting your devices directly using a network cable. It isn't as neat as the wireless approach, but it also minimises any wireless interference that can slow-down the connection. TVhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/televisions/future-ofTV-420-90.jpg Your next port of call will be taking a good hard look at your current TV. Televisions are one of those things that you can be perfectly happy with for years – that is, until you see a friends' TV that's bigger, brighter and more feature-packed than your one is. Whether it's time for an upgrade will depend on what you're lacking with your current setup. If it's size and/or picture quality, then it's difficult to get around the need to buy a new TV set. Whether you need one that also has all of the latest bells and whistles (ie Smart TV functionality and UHD resolution) is another question altogether. TV: OLED and UHDhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/TV-OLED%20and%20HUD-420-90.jpg If it's cracking picture quality you're after, we'd recommend putting your money with OLED over UHD. Both technologies add a premium to any TV's pricetag, but OLED technology – an upgrade over LED that adds deeper black levels, faster response times, and colours that practically jump off the screen – will give you a better return on investment at this point in time. UHD, which stands for Ultra High Definition (or four times full HD), theoretically offers a sharper picture, but that's only if you have source material that's encoded at the higher resolution. It will be another three years at least before 4K content is readily available, and even then, you'll have no problem watching that content on a Full HD TV. For now, LG is the only vendor that's currently selling OLED TVs. Despite the stranglehold it has on the market, the 55" LG 55EC930T curved OLED TV is surprisingly affordable, offering incredibly vivid colours that LED TVs can't compete with. It also offers the new curved screen technology, which provides a more immersive experience over the traditional flat panel. It's not so good if you want to wall mount your TV, but if it's propped up on a regular stand, the curve adds more of a cinematic, IMAX-style feel to your living room. The LG 55EC930T is more than just a pretty face – it also offers Smart TV functionality via its Web OS interface, with a built-in digital video recording feature that lets you schedule recordings and save them to an attached external hard drive. TV: Smart functionalityhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/televisions/TCL/TCL%20Roku%20TV%20Netflix%20recommended-420-90.jpg If it's mainly Smart TV functionality you're after, however, you may be better off sticking with your existing TV and adding a cheap media player to it or connecting your existing mobile devices. Made-for-TV apps like the web browser, Facebook and Twitter are vastly inferior to what you can get on your laptop, tablet or smartphone, so you're better off connecting your mobile device to your TV if you want to use those apps on a larger screen. The easiest way to do this is using a direct HDMI connection. If you're connecting a laptop, it may have a full-sized HDMI port, in which case you can simply connect it to the TV directly using a standard HDMI cable. Alternatively, your laptop may have a mini-HDMI or mini-DisplayPort interface, and you'll need a special adapter to connect it to an HDMI cable. In both cases, you can set your laptop up to either 'mirror' the display onto your TV (in other words, show an exact replica of what's on your laptop screen on the TV), or extend the display so that certain windows appear on the TV and other windows on your laptop. Using an extended display setup means you can continue using your laptop for other tasks while you're playing a movie from your laptop on the TV simultaneously. TV: Applehttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/TV-Apple-420-90.jpg For mobile devices that don't have any means of connecting to a TV using a cable, you'll need to opt for a wireless connection. The easiest and most universally compatible way to do this is by connecting an Apple TV to your TV. At AU$109 (£59, US$69), the Apple TV is a relatively affordable way to kill two birds with one stone: it adds a semblance of Smart TV functionality to your current TV, and it also gives you a way to wirelessly connect your mobile devices to your TV. If you're an Apple user, then setting your devices up with an Apple TV is simple using the AirPlay feature. On a MacBook, you can use the AirPlay Display feature, which is accessible from the toolbar on the top of the screen, denoted as a square with a triangle at the bottom. Assuming your Apple TV is connected and your TV is switched to the right HDMI input, click the AirPlay icon on your MacBook and select 'Apple TV'. By default, it will mirror your MacBook's display to the TV; if you want to extend the desktop instead, click on the AirPlay icon again and select 'Extend desktop'. The process is more or less the same with an iPhone or iPad. On either device, scroll up from the bottom of the screen to bring up the iOS Control Centre and tap on the 'AirPlay' icon. Select Apple TV, switch the 'Mirroring' function to 'On' and tap 'Done' to mirror your iOS device to the TV. Given the shape of the TV, you're better off using your device in landscape mode to maximise your TV's display real estate. The ability to wirelessly stream your mobile device to your TV isn't the only benefit of the Apple TV. It's main purpose is actually to give you an easy way to buy or rent movies and TV shows from the vast library of content in iTunes, as well as give you access to a range of Internet video channels such as YouTube, Vimeo, Vevo, and Crackle. What you won't get on Apple TV are any of the catch-up TV channels or premium cable offerings. In that respect, Smart TVs are a better option as many of them come with those apps built-in. Gaming consoles also provide access to catchup TV, although the latest PS4 and Xbox One don't have as many catchup TV apps as the previous generation of consoles. TV: Androidhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/TV-Android-420-90.jpg For non-Apple devices, there are various apps that will let you tap into the AirPlay functionality. While iTunes for Windows lets you play any music in your iTunes library through an AirPlay-compatible device, it doesn't let you do the same for videos. AirParrot 2 lets you mirror your screen, extend your desktop, or just output a specific application to your TV via the Apple TV. It also supports various other devices, including the Google Chromecast and AirPlay-compatible audio devices. Android smartphones and tablets can also tap into AirPlay using third party apps. Our favourite option is doubleTwist AirSync. While the base media player is free, adding the AirPlay component does require an IAP on the Google Play Store. To set it up, make sure you're connected to the same wireless network as your Apple TV. Open doubleTwist and go to Settings, scroll down to 'Enable Streaming' and switch it on, and tap 'Allow' in the pop-up. Next, find a video you want to play using doubleTwist's navigation panel, starting playing it, then tap the image to bring up the playback controls. Tap the wireless button, and turn the 'Apple TV' setting on. Your video should start playing on your TV. The great thing about this setup is that you don't have to keep doubleTwist active on your mobile device screen – you can switch to another app and continue using your smartphone or tablet as normal. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194271271/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dc0b79/sc/28/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194271271/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dc0b79/sc/28/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194271271/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dc0b79/sc/28/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194271271/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dc0b79/sc/28/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194271271/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47dc0b79/sc/28/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47dc0b79/sc/28/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/fkva7g71Sg4

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/Miscellaneous/Smart-home-Home-automation-Kensington-AV-470-75.jpgTurn your living room into a high-tech paradisehttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/TRBC/Miscellaneous/Smart-home-Home-automation-Kensington-AV-420-90.jpg For typical homes, the living room is the space likely to have the most technology in it, between the TV, DVD/Blu-ray player, gaming console and audio system. Depending on how old your equipment is, though, your living room tech may be ripe for replacement with newer, smarter and more integrated devices. Wireless Network: Routerhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/WN-router-420-90.jpg Let's start with your wireless network, as this is what ties everything together. There's a good chance you're still using the same basic Wi-Fi router that you got when you first signed up with your Internet service provider. This is sufficient for basic web connectivity, but once you start doing things like high definition video streaming, voice-over-IP audio and video calls, and online gaming – especially if there are multiple people in the household doing these things simultaneously – you'll need to upgrade to a router that supports the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard and is better at prioritising high-bandwidth traffic. To cut down on the number of boxes that are daisy chaining from your telephone line, you can get a device that combines an ADSL2+ modem and Wi-Fi router in one. The D-Link Viper ticks all the requisite boxes, boasting the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, 2.4GHz and 5GHz dual-band technology, and advanced QoS (quality of service) controls that efficiently dole out bandwidth to ensure stutter-free video streaming and gaming. The Viper's easy-to-use web-based interface shows a visual diagram of all of the devices that are currently connected, and you can even drag and drop them into different 'priority tiers' based on the amount of bandwidth each device needs. While you're setting up your wireless router, it's worth digging through the advanced settings to add some extra smarts to your wireless network. Adding the strongest level of security encryption is a no-brainer to ensure dodgy neighbours don't leech off your Internet connection, but there are other things you can do to maintain control over your network. The D-Link Viper supports features like the ability to view the web browsing history for each client/device, share files stored on a USB drive with other devices on the network, and even monitor and manage the network when you're not at home using the mydlink web portal or mobile app. Wireless Network: 802.11achttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/WN-802-420-90.jpg Compared to the previous 802.11n standard, 802.11ac is up to three times faster, offering up to 1.3 gigabits per second. Of course, you won't actually get those Internet speeds in practice, as you'll be held back by the speed of the Internet connection, but you will see a significant boost in transfer speeds when you're moving files between computers on your network. To take advantage of the faster 802.11ac connectivity, your devices will need to either support 802.11ac or be able to connect to the router using an intermediary device. The good news is that more and more devices now support 802.11ac out of the box – the latest Macbook Pro and MacBook Air laptops support it, as do tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S and iPad Air. Various smartphones support it as well, although the Xbox One and Playstation 4 (along with its predecessors) are limited to the slower 802.11n. Wireless Network: USB adaptors and bridgeshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/WN-USB%20adaptor-420-90.jpg There are a couple of options for enabling devices using 802.11n (or older) to connect to the router at the faster 802.11ac speed. For desktop computers and laptops, you can use an 802.11ac adapter that plugs into a USB port. You don't need to go with the same brand of USB adapter as the wireless router, as technically speaking it should be compatible with any device using the same standard. That said, setting up a wireless network can be tricky at the best of times, and if you want to minimise the chances of any issues cropping up, you may be better off going with an adapter from the same brand as your router. Unfortunately, those same USB adapters aren't compatible with gaming consoles. If you want to get your Xbox, Playstation or Wii onto the faster 802.11ac standard – or even other living room devices, like your TV, Blu-ray player, and media players like the Apple TV and Western Digital WD TV – you'll need to connect them to an 802.11ac wireless media bridge or range extender. The Linksys RE6500 is one such device that you can connect your slower Wi-Fi devices to using network cables. This connects wirelessly to your Wi-Fi router using 802.11ac and pipes that bandwidth through to all of the devices that are hard-wired to it. Of course, if your Wi-Fi router is conveniently located in the living room, you can save yourself the hassle by connecting your devices directly using a network cable. It isn't as neat as the wireless approach, but it also minimises any wireless interference that can slow-down the connection. TVhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/televisions/future-ofTV-420-90.jpg Your next port of call will be taking a good hard look at your current TV. Televisions are one of those things that you can be perfectly happy with for years – that is, until you see a friends' TV that's bigger, brighter and more feature-packed than your one is. Whether it's time for an upgrade will depend on what you're lacking with your current setup. If it's size and/or picture quality, then it's difficult to get around the need to buy a new TV set. Whether you need one that also has all of the latest bells and whistles (ie Smart TV functionality and UHD resolution) is another question altogether. TV: OLED and UHDhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/TV-OLED%20and%20HUD-420-90.jpg If it's cracking picture quality you're after, we'd recommend putting your money with OLED over UHD. Both technologies add a premium to any TV's pricetag, but OLED technology – an upgrade over LED that adds deeper black levels, faster response times, and colours that practically jump off the screen – will give you a better return on investment at this point in time. UHD, which stands for Ultra High Definition (or four times full HD), theoretically offers a sharper picture, but that's only if you have source material that's encoded at the higher resolution. It will be another three years at least before 4K content is readily available, and even then, you'll have no problem watching that content on a Full HD TV. For now, LG is the only vendor that's currently selling OLED TVs. Despite the stranglehold it has on the market, the 55" LG 55EC930T curved OLED TV is surprisingly affordable, offering incredibly vivid colours that LED TVs can't compete with. It also offers the new curved screen technology, which provides a more immersive experience over the traditional flat panel. It's not so good if you want to wall mount your TV, but if it's propped up on a regular stand, the curve adds more of a cinematic, IMAX-style feel to your living room. The LG 55EC930T is more than just a pretty face – it also offers Smart TV functionality via its Web OS interface, with a built-in digital video recording feature that lets you schedule recordings and save them to an attached external hard drive. TV: Smart functionalityhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/televisions/TCL/TCL%20Roku%20TV%20Netflix%20recommended-420-90.jpg If it's mainly Smart TV functionality you're after, however, you may be better off sticking with your existing TV and adding a cheap media player to it or connecting your existing mobile devices. Made-for-TV apps like the web browser, Facebook and Twitter are vastly inferior to what you can get on your laptop, tablet or smartphone, so you're better off connecting your mobile device to your TV if you want to use those apps on a larger screen. The easiest way to do this is using a direct HDMI connection. If you're connecting a laptop, it may have a full-sized HDMI port, in which case you can simply connect it to the TV directly using a standard HDMI cable. Alternatively, your laptop may have a mini-HDMI or mini-DisplayPort interface, and you'll need a special adapter to connect it to an HDMI cable. In both cases, you can set your laptop up to either 'mirror' the display onto your TV (in other words, show an exact replica of what's on your laptop screen on the TV), or extend the display so that certain windows appear on the TV and other windows on your laptop. Using an extended display setup means you can continue using your laptop for other tasks while you're playing a movie from your laptop on the TV simultaneously. TV: Applehttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/TV-Apple-420-90.jpg For mobile devices that don't have any means of connecting to a TV using a cable, you'll need to opt for a wireless connection. The easiest and most universally compatible way to do this is by connecting an Apple TV to your TV. At AU$109 (£59, US$69), the Apple TV is a relatively affordable way to kill two birds with one stone: it adds a semblance of Smart TV functionality to your current TV, and it also gives you a way to wirelessly connect your mobile devices to your TV. If you're an Apple user, then setting your devices up with an Apple TV is simple using the AirPlay feature. On a MacBook, you can use the AirPlay Display feature, which is accessible from the toolbar on the top of the screen, denoted as a square with a triangle at the bottom. Assuming your Apple TV is connected and your TV is switched to the right HDMI input, click the AirPlay icon on your MacBook and select 'Apple TV'. By default, it will mirror your MacBook's display to the TV; if you want to extend the desktop instead, click on the AirPlay icon again and select 'Extend desktop'. The process is more or less the same with an iPhone or iPad. On either device, scroll up from the bottom of the screen to bring up the iOS Control Centre and tap on the 'AirPlay' icon. Select Apple TV, switch the 'Mirroring' function to 'On' and tap 'Done' to mirror your iOS device to the TV. Given the shape of the TV, you're better off using your device in landscape mode to maximise your TV's display real estate. The ability to wirelessly stream your mobile device to your TV isn't the only benefit of the Apple TV. It's main purpose is actually to give you an easy way to buy or rent movies and TV shows from the vast library of content in iTunes, as well as give you access to a range of Internet video channels such as YouTube, Vimeo, Vevo, and Crackle. What you won't get on Apple TV are any of the catch-up TV channels or premium cable offerings. In that respect, Smart TVs are a better option as many of them come with those apps built-in. Gaming consoles also provide access to catchup TV, although the latest PS4 and Xbox One don't have as many catchup TV apps as the previous generation of consoles. TV: Androidhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Living%20room%20tech/TV-Android-420-90.jpg For non-Apple devices, there are various apps that will let you tap into the AirPlay functionality. While iTunes for Windows lets you play any music in your iTunes library through an AirPlay-compatible device, it doesn't let you do the same for videos. AirParrot 2 lets you mirror your screen, extend your desktop, or just output a specific application to your TV via the Apple TV. It also supports various other devices, including the Google Chromecast and AirPlay-compatible audio devices. Android smartphones and tablets can also tap into AirPlay using third party apps. Our favourite option is doubleTwist AirSync. While the base media player is free, adding the AirPlay component does require an IAP on the Google Play Store. To set it up, make sure you're connected to the same wireless network as your Apple TV. Open doubleTwist and go to Settings, scroll down to 'Enable Streaming' and switch it on, and tap 'Allow' in the pop-up. Next, find a video you want to play using doubleTwist's navigation panel, starting playing it, then tap the image to bring up the playback controls. Tap the wireless button, and turn the 'Apple TV' setting on. Your video should start playing on your TV. The great thing about this setup is that you don't have to keep doubleTwist active on your mobile device screen – you can switch to another app and continue using your smartphone or tablet as normal.

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/internet/YouTube/youtube_subscription-470-75.jpg 5 essential browser add-ons for videohttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/internet/YouTube/youtube_subscription-420-90.jpg If you're inclined to downloading media content (and if you're reading this, we assume you are), you've probably already found a few browser add-ons to help you out. There are dozens of Torrent and NewsBin search add-ons, for example, and you may already have a few that help you find what you want faster. Our favourite add-ons, however, are the ones that really add functionality to your browser and make it a much better tool for downloading. Here we've listed some of our favourite browser add-ons for Chrome and Firefox. The first four we couldn't live without, while the last offers a certain level of convenience for people who don't like having a lot of apps installed. Video DownloadHelperhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Video%20Downloading%20Tools/Video%20DownloadHelper-420-90.jpg Available for: Firefox Link: Video DownloadHelper We've yet to find a better add-on for saving YouTube, Daily Motion and other embedded videos to your hard disk than Video DownloadHelper. It readily supports resolution selection on major services, and it can also convert videos for you, turning those .flv files into .mp4 files (for example) that your media player can natively play. It's very easy to use. It appears as a button in Firefox, and is also accessible from the Tools menu once installed. Next to the button, a small arrow appears. Whenever you visit a site with embedded media that Video DownloadHelper can grab and save to your disk, the icon will start spinning. Then just click on the arrow next to it and a list of embedded files will appear, with different resolution options and file formats if available. Click on one of them, and it will add the download to your browser download queue. To convert videos as you download them, right click on the icon and select preferences. Click on the Conversion tab, enable Conversion. There will be a button to download and install an external converter application on your PC. Once that's done, you can set your conversion rules (formats and so on). Unfortunately, on the free version of the app, it will leave a watermark. Hola!http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Video%20Downloading%20Tools/Hola-420-90.jpg Available for: Chrome (incl. Android), Firefox Link: Hola! One of the key reasons people purchase a VPN service is to access content in countries that normally restrict us. The thing is, a paid VPN service isn't the only way. There are a handful of free browser add-ons that can accomplish a similar feat. Admittedly, they're not as capable or reliable as a commercial VPN service, but if you're not keen on paying the freight, they're the way to go. Probably our favourite such add-on is Hola! It's highly effective, working for sites like Hulu, Netflix and the BBC iPlayer. You just head to the site that you want to view the video on, where you'll see the obligatory "dude, not from your country" message. Then you click on the Hola! icon in the tool bar and select the country you'd like to appear to be from. A second later the icon will change to the country flag, and you'll be effectively spoofed for that site. Then just reload the page and watch away. It even works with Google Cast, so you can beam your videos to your TV. However, it's important to note that the company was recently found to have been selling its users idle bandwidth. Under the brand name of Luminati, Hola! was offering paying clients the ability to route data through IPs of its users all over the world. Despite this, we still see it as a useful service when it comes to downloading online videos. Google Casthttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Video%20Downloading%20Tools/Google%20Cast-420-90.jpg Available for: Chrome (all platforms) Link: Google Cast You really need a Chromecast device for this to be useful, but if you do get hold of a $50 Chromecast, this opens up a world of options. What it does is beam an open Chrome tab to your TV screen via the Chromecast. That might not sound like much, but when combined with embedded video players it's actually very useful. The VLC add-on that's installed along with the VLC media player, the one that lets you play video in your browser, works with it. You can watch embedded Hulu or Netflix videos, or beam BBC or ABC iPlayer videos. Of course, you can also stream YouTube videos and other embedded pages. Operation is very simple: go to whatever tab you'd like beamed to your TV set. Click on the Google Cast icon in the toolbar, and select your target Chromecast device. Video up to 720p is supported. DownThemAll!http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Video%20Downloading%20Tools/Downthemall-420-90.jpg Available for: Firefox Link: DownThemAll! Although it doesn't do embedded media very well, DownThemAll! is a fantastic tool for quickly hoovering up regular linked content on a web page. Say you find a page with a bunch of links that you'd like to download; instead of clicking on them one by one as selecting Save As, you can fire up download them all and just check boxes next to all the items you want to grab. It works for any file type, and can readily sort images and videos from other types of content. If for example, you wanted to grab all the MP3 files linked from a given page, you'd open up the DownThemAll add-on, select the Audio filter and check any items you'd like to download. You could also use the dTa OneClick button to automatically grab everything that matches your last selected filter options. The add-on includes a download manager that lets you pause, reorder and resume downloads. Torrent Tornadohttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/How%20tos/Video%20Downloading%20Tools/Torrent%20Tornado-420-90.jpg Available for: Firefox Link: Torrent Tornado If you don't love opening a new app to download torrents and would rather just do it all in your browser, you can try Torrent Tornado, an Add-on for Firefox that serves as a basic but capable BitTorrent client, capable of downloading at decent speeds. Clicking on the Torrent Tornado icon opens up a new tab in Firefox, which lists currently downloading torrents and allows you to add more. Torrents and magnets links can also be associated with Torrent Tornado in the settings, so that clicking on a torrent link of any kind will automatically fire up the Torrent Tornado tab. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194225337/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d6df92/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194225337/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d6df92/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194225337/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d6df92/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194225337/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d6df92/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194225337/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d6df92/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47d6df92/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/gsn2h2Cal0Y

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/mobile_phones/Samsung/Samsung%20bloatware-470-75.jpgAlthough manufacturers and carriers have backed away from loading up smartphones with a bunch of useless software in recent years, at least two hardware makers are being taken to task in Chinese courts for doing just that. Shanghai Daily today reported both Samsung and Oppo face legal action in China in an effort to protect consumers from smartphone "bloatware," or the practice of loading up devices with software of questionable utility or worth. The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission announced the action on Thursday, which has already received approval in separate cases from the The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. Cited as two of the worst offenders were the Samsung SM-N9008S with 44 preinstalled apps, while the Oppo X9007 model tipped the scales with a whopping 71 pieces of bloatware, including "various games and other programs." Take that, bloatwareShanghai's consumer rights defenders studied 20 different smartphone models prior to taking legal action, noting that many of them were sold with preinstalled apps that could not be removed from the device. Perhaps more damning, the Commission also claimed some of the handsets "stole" cellular data - accusations Samsung and Oppo will have 15 days to respond to before trial dates are set. "We hope it will force other companies in the sector to end the unreasonable, but common, practice of preinstalling apps without telling consumers. This is something that is very much necessary for the healthy development of the whole industry," Commission Secretary General Tao Ailian said yesterday. The consumer rights group hopes to force Samsung and Oppo to clearly indicate on the packaging which apps have been preinstalled, as well as "instructions on how they can be removed." Godspeed, good people! http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194193181/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d13651/sc/23/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194193181/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d13651/sc/23/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194193181/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d13651/sc/23/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194193181/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d13651/sc/23/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194193181/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47d13651/sc/23/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47d13651/sc/23/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/_dhfA1Sna5Y

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/other/Week%20in%20tech/New%20Week%20In%20Tech/Hololens%20July%203%202015-470-75.jpgYou know something's big when it eclipses Kanye West's Glastonbury impression of a man trapped in a lightbulb factory: yes, we're talking about the launch of Apple Music and Beats 1 Radio, which might just be the future of music. And that's not all. We've heard Mark Zuckerberg explain why Facebook's machines aren't scary and sinister, seen what looks awfully like the iPhone 6S and heard a Microsoft rumour so tasty you might want to lick it like a lollipop. An Android Lollipop. It's week in tech! Music Non-StopIt's here and it's pretty good: Apple Music launched this week as a direct competitor to Spotify and Tidal and the other streaming services. But it's not all good. It appears to have killed off the Home Sharing feature for music on iOS devices, it's replaced half of our album art with "random junk that Apple Music has downloaded from the internet" and the catalogue has some notable omissions. Naturally we've identified the five issues Apple Music really needs to fix. Facebook faces the musicFacebook boss Mark Zuckerberg delivered a Q&A this week, facing tough questions from celebrities. Yes, we're being a bit sarcastic. Zuck reckons that one day we'll be able to send thoughts to one another, which sounds terrifying, and he explains that Facebook is building AI systems "that are better than humans at our primary senses: vision, listening, etc," including "systems that can recognise everything in an image or a video." That's not terrifying at all. Still, until the machines take over at least Facebook advertisers can make money annoying us with ads in between Facebook videos. iPhone 6S: the "S" doesn't stand for "secret"Apple's iPhone 6S has gone into production, and it's believed to have the same Force Touch tech as the Apple Watch and recent MacBooks. It's rumoured to have a massively improved camera too, and if the leaked photos are accurate the differences between it and the iPhone 6 are internal: like other S-version iPhones, it looks almost identical to its predecessor. It doesn't seem to be getting the rumoured dual-lens camera, though: maybe we'll see that in the iPhone 7. LG G4 S: the "S" stands for "stop making so many G4s""There are now more versions of the LG G4 than there are Pokemon," Matt Hanson says. "Having yet another version of the LG G4 seems a little like overkill, and could end up confusing consumers," but it seems that LG is going to carry on regardless. The G4 S will look pretty similar to the LG G4, but it might be a little bit cheaper. HoloLens: to Infinity and beyondFancy playing Disney Infinity in augmented reality? Disney might just make that augmented reality, um, reality. John Vignocchi, VP of production at Disney Interactive, is more excited about AR than VR. "We've had multiple meetings and discussions with Oculus; multiple meetings and discussions with Sony about Morpheus; multiple meetings and discussions with Microsoft about HoloLens. We're very interested in that space," he said. It's the Amazon Hour of Power!Next-day delivery is so 2014. This year it's all about one-hour delivery, an idea that older heads will remember as the last big idea of the dotcom boom before the bubble burst and CEOs had to go and live in their cars for a couple of years while angry shareholders hunted them with flaming torches. But it's back. Back! BACK! And this time it's made it as far as London, where Amazon will be offering one-hour delivery to Prime members – albeit only on certain products to a few Prime members in certain postcodes, so it's a bit like a taxi driver who won't go south of the river. Roam if you want to, roam around the worldThe EU, eh? What's it ever done for us? Well, it's just binned international roaming fees, which is pretty good. As of June 15, 2017, roaming fees won't be charged to people travelling within the EU. The only losers here appear to be the mobile phone companies, so don't be entirely surprised if they start demanding we vote to leave in the 2017 referendum. Meanwhile closer to home, Ofcom has banned the practice of charging for "freephone" 0800 and 0808 numbers from mobiles. Other numbers – starting 084, 087, 118 or 09 – will still be charged, but the costs will be made clear when you call. Is Microsoft going to grab a Lollipop?This time last year Microsoft killed Nokia's Android experiments, but it seems that it might be having a change of heart: the tastiest tech rumour doing the rounds this week says Microsoft is seriously considering killing off Windows Phone and embracing Android for its mobile phones. Far-fetched? Maybe, but the rumour appeared just days after Satya Nadella sent staff a mission statement saying that Microsoft must "make some tough choices in areas where things are not working." Is Windows Phone one of those areas? Watch this space. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194161825/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ce334a/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194161825/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ce334a/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194161825/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ce334a/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194161825/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ce334a/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194161825/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47ce334a/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47ce334a/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/dL6Q74zNCrM

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/6%20essential%20mac%20mouse%20and%20trackpad%20tips/mouse-hero-470-75.JPGIntroductionhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/6%20essential%20mac%20mouse%20and%20trackpad%20tips/mouse-hero-420-90.JPG They're an integral part of your computing setup, and you use them so often you practically forget they're there. We're talking about your mouse and trackpad, and there's more to them than you might think; both input devices offer options and shortcuts that can make your life easier. Here are six top tips to improve the way you use your Mac's mouse and trackpad. 1. Customize Trackpad Gestureshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/6%20essential%20mac%20mouse%20and%20trackpad%20tips/point-and-click-420-90.JPG Open System Preferences > Trackpad. Click on the first tab, Point & Click. If you'd rather tap your Mac's trackpad than press down to click, check the first box. If you want to add a secondary click (a control-click action), check the next box down and choose one of the options from the drop-down menu. The next option, Look Up, is very useful. Check it and you can tap any word in any document with three fingers to look it up in the dictionary, thesaurus and Wikipedia. Finally, to move windows by dragging with three fingers, check the bottom box. 2. Control the way you scroll and zoomhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/6%20essential%20mac%20mouse%20and%20trackpad%20tips/scroll-and-zoom-420-90.JPG Your Mac is configured to allow you to zoom in and out of images and web pages by either pinching and unpinching with two fingers or by tapping the trackpad with two fingers to activate what Apple calls Smart Zoom. That can be very useful, but can also be confusing if, say, you tend to leave your thumb resting on the trackpad. To switch off this behavior, tap the Scroll & Zoom tab in the Trackpad System Preferences pane and uncheck the second and third boxes. If you don't want to rotate an image with your fingers on the trackpad, turn that off, too. 3. Change the default gestures for navigating OS Xhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/6%20essential%20mac%20mouse%20and%20trackpad%20tips/more-gestures-420-90.JPG In OS X, you can activate Launchpad or Exposé and slide between full-screen apps using either three or four fingers to swipe across the trackpad. The default is four, but we prefer to use three. To change it, click the More Gestures tab in the Trackpad pane and make sure the relevant items are checked. Choose "Three fingers" from the drop-down menus. If you set swiping between full-screen apps to use three fingers, make sure you also set the "Swipe between pages" option to two fingers to avoid confusion. 4. Use gestures in QuickTime Playerhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/6%20essential%20mac%20mouse%20and%20trackpad%20tips/quicktime-controls-420-90.JPG In addition to system-wide gestures, there are some that only work in specific apps. In QuickTime Player, drag two fingers from left to right across the trackpad to scrub forwards through video. To return to normal speed, just lift your fingers from the trackpad. Drag two fingers from right to left to scrub backwards. The further across the trackpad you drag, the faster the video will go. To enter full-screen mode, spread two fingers across the trackpad. To leave full-screen, pinch with two fingers. 5. Configure scrolling with the Magic Mousehttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/6%20essential%20mac%20mouse%20and%20trackpad%20tips/mouse-scroll-direction-420-90.JPG Apple's Magic Mouse uses many of the same gestures as the trackpad, and you can customize these as well. To change the direction in which pages scroll when you swipe up and down with one finger, open the Mouse pane in System Preferences and click Point & Click. Uncheck "Scroll Direction: Natural" (that's "natural" according to Apple, anyway). You can switch off the right-click option of the Magic Mouse here, if you find the lack of a separate external button confusing (or hard to press with consistency). We find, though, that if you leave it on, you'll eventually get used to it. 6. Create navigation gestures for the Magic http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/6%20essential%20mac%20mouse%20and%20trackpad%20tips/mission-control-420-90.JPG You can swipe between pages and full-screen apps, as well as activate Mission Control, using gestures on the Magic Mouse. Navigating pages can be done with one or two fingers. If you set it to one, make sure you uncheck the "Swipe between full-screen apps option" in the More Gestures tab of the Mouse pane to avoid potential confusion. If you don't use Mission Control, you might want to uncheck the box that allows you to activate it with a double-tap, so you don't keep launching it by accident. Finally on the mouse front, if you ever want to check your mouse's battery level, click the Bluetooth menu bar item and hover over the Mouse that's currently connected to see the charge remaining. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194166076/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6d1/sc/28/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194166076/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6d1/sc/28/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194166076/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6d1/sc/28/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194166076/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6d1/sc/28/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194166076/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6d1/sc/28/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47cdf6d1/sc/28/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/gOqLcYNaT5Y

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/software/Windows/server%202003%20migration-470-75.jpgIntroduction and software updatesIf you're still running Windows Server 2003 on any of your systems, it's time to take an urgent look at your options, because as of July 15, 2015, you're not going to be getting patches and security updates any more (unless you're paying for the extremely expensive direct support), and you'll no longer be able to get phone or online support. July 14 is the last Patch Tuesday that will cover Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2. That means that if you process customer credit cards or fall under the PCI DSS regulations for any other payments, which say that you have to have the latest security patches installed, then you might end up getting fined, see your transaction fees go up, or even have your bank refuse to accept transactions. Malware and other issuesAs well as the threat of malware that takes advantage of faults found in Windows Server that Microsoft will no longer be patching, you may start running into issues with certificates. The less secure SHA1 algorithms and certificates are being deprecated (Chrome is dropping them particularly quickly) but Windows Server 2003 needed a hotfix to get certificates signed using SHA2 algorithms – and if any more issues show up, Microsoft won't be issuing hotfixes. On the storage side, Windows Server 2003 only works with the very old, very slow SMB 1 protocol; the latest version is 3.1.1 and it's considerably faster. Not only will moving to a newer version of Windows Server mean that accessing file shares and other storage on your server will be much faster, Microsoft is also planning to ship future versions of Windows with SMB 1 disabled, which means at some point you'll have to reconfigure new PCs to connect to file shares on Windows Server 2003 at all. Moving to a new version of Windows Server will get you a lot of new and improved features, from virtualisation with Hyper-V (if you're currently paying for VMWare tools, you can get many of the features free in recent versions of Windows Server), through Storage Spaces that let you build your own storage network with cheap disks in your server, to Direct Access that lets you replace VPNs with something much easier for users. Security is much improved, plus Windows Server 2008 and later versions give you the option of running the minimal Server Core install; with a smaller footprint, there are fewer bugs – and fewer security patches to install, which means fewer restarts. Third-party updatesYou can expect to stop getting updates for any software you're running on your Windows Server 2003 system as well. Microsoft has already stopped supporting Exchange 2003, SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Project Server 2003 and Live Communication Server 2003 (SQL Server 2005 reaches end of support on April 12, 2016), but third-party vendors often stop making sure new releases run on out of date versions of Windows Server. You'll find it hard to use Windows Server 2003 with Microsoft Azure as well; running Server 2003 in a virtual machine on Azure isn't supported, so you can't just virtualise your servers and run them in the cloud. In fact, virtualising Windows Server 2003 systems doesn't help you very much – you can treat it as a last resort for dealing with applications you're not ready to replace that won't run on newer versions, but running a Windows Server 2003 VM on even the latest version of Windows Server doesn't get you any support. If you have to virtualise, put the server on a private network and set up a VPN so only specific machines get access to it, but remember that's only a temporary solution. How to moveMigration considerationsIf you're still running Windows Server 2003, it might be because you don't know it's there – use the free Microsoft Assessment and Planning toolkit to find out if you have any servers that need replacing. This will also tell you what applications are running on your servers – think of it as a chance to see if you still need all those applications as well as to find out whether you can run the same software on newer versions of Windows Server. You're definitely going to need new hardware to run a new version of Windows Server; look for a server that has a TPM to get the best security features when you do move to Windows Server 2016. But don't wait until that comes out in 2016 – you need to get off Windows Server 2003 before then. Running Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 is a rather different experience from running Windows Server 2003, but while it's tempting to move only to Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2, remember that Windows Server 2008 is already out of mainstream support (as of January 2015), so you'll only have to perform another migration soon. There's an advantage to buying a Windows Server 2012 R2 licence as soon as possible (even if you're planning to use the downgrade rights to run Windows Server 2008 R2 instead of running the latest version) – on August 1, 2015 (according to a Microsoft blog that's since been removed) the cost of Windows Server CALs (the client-use licences you need to buy for users who connect to your servers) will go up by about 13%. Application compatibilityIf you know about your servers and you still haven't updated, it's probably because you don't want to move your apps. Windows Server 2012 R2 has pretty good application compatibility with Windows Server 2003; although it's 64-bit only, most 32-bit applications will still run on it – as long as they don't run in kernel mode or have any 16-bit code. You will need to get new versions of security software and system utilities like backup and management tools though (Windows Server now has Microsoft Defender anti-virus built in). If you don't have the original software for applications you want to migrate, use tools like AppZero to extract the application, along with its data and settings, and migrate it to the new system. Microsoft has the free online Exchange Server Deployment Assistant that lets you migrate Exchange data to a new server. There are third-party utilities from companies like Dell and Metalogix that can migrate workloads like Exchange, GroupWise, Notes, SharePoint and Project. Treat the end of Windows Server 2003 as a chance to think about what your business needs its servers for, and do as much automation as possible to simplify the next time you need to update them. Given the popularity of cloud services, if you're only using your server for email and file sharing, you can also think about switching to Office 365 and just having Network Attached Storage in the office for local files. You might even save some money by getting off Windows Server 2003. Windows Server is transforming for the cloud-first world http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194166075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6b4/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194166075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6b4/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194166075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6b4/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194166075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6b4/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194166075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47cdf6b4/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47cdf6b4/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/f4F8mubDFZU

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/software/Plex/PlexHack-470-75.jpgBad news everyone: In a blog post to customers, popular media server app Plex has confirmed that the servers hosting the company's blog posts and forums were hacked on July 1st. Reporting that the hackers nabbed IP addresses, forum private messages, email addresses and encrypted passwords from anyone who has logged into the Plex forums, the company has taken the precaution of resetting all of its forum users' passwords and emailing anyone affected. The company is claiming that there's no evidence the intruders compromised any other databases, it's taken the forum servers offline to fully investigate the breach. Per-Plex-ed about the safety of your payment info?All other systems are still online and operational and the company is claiming that because users' credit card and other personal information weren't stored in the breached systems, that this sensitive data was unaffected by the hack. Despite the fact that the stolen passwords were 'hashed and salted' if you were using a simple password without lots of numbers, capitals, lower case letters and symbols, it could be easy enough for the hackers to decrypt this information. It's for this reason the company suggested the password managers; 1Password and LastPass, which can create and remember all your secure logins for you. Check out Lastpass Hack no vault data taken

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/software/Microsoft/Windows%2010%20background-470-75.jpgWindows 10 updates are rolling out faster than ever, but don't expect many front-facing changes to the latest Insider Preview Build 10162. This is the third update to the Windows 10 Insider program in as little as a week, with Microsoft increasing its cadence of releases in the weeks ahead of the official launch of Windows 10. "Build 10162 is another great one," Gabriel Aul, General Manager of the Operating Systems Group at Microsoft, said in a statement. "In fact, our testing and internal telemetry metrics show it has better reliability, performance, battery life and compatibility than any Windows 10 Insider Preview build so far." Aul did not mention if there are any new features in Build 10162. Going darkBuild 10158 was the first Insider Preview release this week. That update brought a lot of visual changes and new features to Windows 10, including a new, dark theme with Microsoft's Tron-inspired desktop wallpaper. Cortana even gained more voice in the build, as the Halo-inspired digital assistant can now be commanded to send emails. Additionally, Microsoft updated the Windows 10 Photos app in the Store, adding support for GIFs. Prior to Build 10162, Build 10159 added over 300 big fixes and refinements, but Microsoft did not give specifics on the changes. Aul had previously cautioned that future builds released to Insiders would be centered around bug fixes and polish, rather than new features, and Build 10159 and 10162 fall in line with this direction. The faster Fast RingGiven the rapid succession of build releases, Aul said that Build 10162 will go out first to Fast ring members. "We're looking at Build 10162 as a candidate and unless we see any issues emerge in the Fast ring we'll look to publish it to Slow (with ISOs) early next week," Aul said. Compared to the Slow ring, Fast ring Insiders get preview builds first, sacrificing stability for early access to new features and fixes. The grand debutMicrosoft stated previously that the new operating system – which brings back the Start menu and adds features like Cortana, the Microsoft Edge browser and Continuum for hybrid owners to easily switch between laptop and tablet modes – will launch on July 29. The upgrade to Windows 10 will be free, during the first year of release, to customers moving from Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. However, Microsoft noted early this morning that not all customers will be seeing the update initially on July 29, and that Insiders will have first access at downloading the operating system when it becomes available on launch day. For those not qualified for the free promotion, Windows 10 Home will retail for $129 in the US, £99 in the UK and €135 in Eurozone markets. Microsoft announced previously that Windows 10 Professional will cost $199 (£131, AU$262), but did not specify pricing for markets outside the US. It is expected that pricing for Windows 10 will be similar to Windows 8.1 when that OS launched. The company is rolling out Windows 10 in waves, likely to stem an overwhelming amount of traffic. Microsoft's ambitious goal is to have Windows 10 on a billion devices in the next few years. Microsoft also announced the different features available to the various versions of Windows 10. Windows 10 Enterprise is not expected to launch with the consumer editions this month. Read our coverage of Windows 10 http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194130695/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c962ea/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194130695/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c962ea/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194130695/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c962ea/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194130695/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c962ea/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194130695/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c962ea/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47c962ea/sc/3/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/T_0-qPLOE7w

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/microsoft-office-android-official-470-75.jpgWindows 10 might be the product Microsoft will focus most of its internal resources on for the next few weeks (it launches on July 29) but that doesn't mean that others are neglected. The company has added a slew of new features to Office 365, its business suite of SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications. The first of them, PowerShell for Office 365, brings a CLE (command line environment) to system administrators that are eager to automate repetitive administrative tasks or want to access capabilities not present in Office 365 Admin Center. More importantly perhaps, there's a library that contain scripts that allows administrators to rapidly do mundane things remotely. Microsoft has even put up a PowerShell website complete with a Yammer-based community. Skype for BusinessOffice 365 for enterprise will also get access to the technical preview of Skype for Business. This version offers Skype Meeting Broadcast capabilities to eligible Office 365 customers worldwide, allowing up to 10,000 people to be part of a meeting. Other notable features include PSTN in the US, allowing people to join even without internet access. Cloud PBX with PSTN calling is also integrated in that iteration allowing users in the US (for now) to make and receive traditional calls in their Skype for Business client application. That functionality will come to customers worldwide towards the end of the year. The announcement comes as Microsoft confirmed the integration of Cortana, one of the key features of Windows 10, with Office 365. Read our review of Office 365 http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194122991/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c8b9b9/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194122991/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c8b9b9/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194122991/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c8b9b9/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194122991/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c8b9b9/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194122991/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c8b9b9/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47c8b9b9/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/MJZ8-Y23k2A

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/microsoft-wip-470-75.jpgMicrosoft has published an exhaustive printable guide that aims to help users find the Windows 10 edition that's right for them. The document, which is available as a table, lists salient features from all four consumer and business Windows 10 editions but excludes Windows 10 Mobile (consumer and enterprise) as well as Windows 10 IoT. Arguably, the best value for money package is the education SKU (stock keeping unit) which is essentially the same as Windows 10 Enterprise minus the Long Term Servicing Branch which only makes sense in an enterprise setup anyway. Other than that, Windows 10 Home Edition provides you with most of the features that you'd expect from a standard consumer version. Consumer-grade encryption, mobile device management and even the ability to side-load line of business applications. Interestingly, Microsoft is pitching the Education version of Windows 10 as the preferred upgrade path for Windows 10 Home, rather than Pro as it was usually the case. Education was previously known as Pro Student and required verification of one's student status prior to purchase. Source: Windows.comCheck out our coverage of Windows 10 and our Windows 10 hands on preview. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194127967/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d1/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194127967/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d1/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194127967/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d1/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194127967/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d1/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194127967/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d1/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47c803d1/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/L4zMF2aeLPU

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/microsoft3-470-75.jpgMicrosoft has confirmed that the five million or so participants in the Windows Insider Program will get the first stab at Windows 10 RTM, which is essentially the version that will be delivered on physical shelves. Terry Myerson, the head of Microsoft's Windows and Devices group, confirmed that Windows Insiders will get the updates to Windows 10 first on July 29. Those who have reserved, either from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, will get the upgrades in waves. Expect full ISO copies to be available on MSDN for developers to download. It is highly likely that those who will register from today onwards will not receive their copies on the launch date. What's more, Microsoft will also test how your computer will provide you with "a great experience" according to the company's parlance. Otherwise, the Windows Upgrade tool will provide you with more details, probably in line with what the Windows Experience Index did on Windows 7, providing useful tips. Alternative compatible solutions, Myerson says, will be available for most upgrade incompatibilities in the Windows Store after any upgrade. What it will not do though is prevent you from completing the upgrade. Source: Windows.comCheck out our coverage of Windows 10 and our Windows 10 hands on preview. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194127966/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d2/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194127966/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d2/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194127966/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d2/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194127966/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d2/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194127966/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c803d2/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47c803d2/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/jO5HBpEZk70

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/mobile_phones/HowTos/ChangingAndroidKeyboard/Keyboard-470-75.jpgHow to install a third party keyboard on Androidhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/mobile_phones/HowTos/ChangingAndroidKeyboard/Keyboard-420-90.jpg Your Android device could have come with any number of different keyboards. It might be the best one around or it could be absolutely awful, it's all down to the whims of the manufacturer. But Android thrives on freedom and you needn't be stuck with the keyboard your device shipped with. There are dozens of alternatives and installing a new one is simple. So whether your current keyboard auto-corrects the sense out, of your messages or you're simply wondering what else is out there, you're just a few steps away from something shiny and new. Step 1 - See what's out therehttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/mobile_phones/HowTos/ChangingAndroidKeyboard/Step%201-420-90.jpg There are loads of keyboards available and a quick search for 'keyboard' on Google Play will give you plenty to choose from. Finding the right one can be trickier. Your best bet is to take a look at the reviews and screenshots and see if it looks like a good fit. If you can identify exactly what you dislike about your current one it could be easier to filter through them too. However we'll kick you off with two suggestions. There's SwiftKey for one, which is highly customisable, lets you swipe-to-type and learns from you for more accurate auto-correct. Or there's Google Keyboard, which has many of the same features, a clean interface and the might of Google behind it. Step 2 - Install and enable ithttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/mobile_phones/HowTos/ChangingAndroidKeyboard/Step%202-420-90.jpg Once you've picked a keyboard, you'll want to download and install it from Google Play. Then you need to enable it. In many cases launching the app will guide you through the process, asking you to first enable the keyboard and then set it as your default one. However if you're not prompted you can manually do it from your device's settings screen. Head to the 'Language & keyboard' section, then tap 'Current Keyboard'. If you see the one you want in the list tap it to set it as your default. If you don't see it tap the 'Choose Keyboards' option, enable the one you want and try again. Note that the exact wording of these screens may differ based on your handset and what version of Android you're running, but they'll be along those lines. You can also achieve the same thing by going onto any screen where you'd enter text so the keyboard pops up. You'll then see a keyboard icon at the top of the screen. Swipe down the notifications shade and tap that to get to the change keyboard screen. Step 3 - Get to grips with ithttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/mobile_phones/HowTos/ChangingAndroidKeyboard/Step%203-420-90.jpg Congratulations, you now have a new keyboard! You'll want to test it out thoroughly to make sure it's the one you want. Some keyboards have extra tabs and buttons which allow you to customise them, while others will display customisation options when you enable them or tap on them in the settings screen. What and how many options you'll get depend on the keyboard, but they can cover everything from the appearance, size and layout of the keyboard to gestures, voice input and more. Not happy with it? Then just head back to Google Play and try another. There's bound to be one out there with your name on it. Step 4 - Switching backhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/mobile_phones/HowTos/ChangingAndroidKeyboard/Step%204-420-90.jpg If after all that you've decided that actually you miss your original keyboard it's easy to switch back. Just head back to the 'Language & keyboard' section of the settings screen or tap the keyboard icon on the notifications screen when the keyboard is visible and reselect your old one. If you're fairly sure you won't want to return to the one you've downloaded then you might as well delete it too, so it doesn't clog up your storage. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194120075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c7775a/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194120075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c7775a/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194120075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c7775a/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194120075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c7775a/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194120075/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c7775a/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47c7775a/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/xSZLxxibR44

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/how%20to%20improve%20the%20os%20x%20dictionary/crapulent-470-75.JPGThe dictionary in OS X provides typing and spelling-correction support (such as autocorrecting as you type, or the red lines under misspelled words). This dictionary service is important to helping users type error-free in OS X and applications, but did you know there's a way to train the dictionary so that it learns new words that it doesn't recognize? In this how-to, we'll show you exactly how it's done. Learning wordsIf you have turned on spell check as you type, then you'll notice that in most OS X applications that support it, misspelled (or thought-to-be-misspelled words) will appear with a red underline beneath them. Sometimes, though, correctly spelled words are marked as misspelled — this can commonly occur with uncommon words, names, and places of business. http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/how%20to%20improve%20the%20os%20x%20dictionary/learn-words-420-90.JPG In these cases when the word is actually spelled correctly but OS X simply doesn't recognize it, you can easily add the word to the OS X dictionary so that it qualifies for autocorrection and spelling suggestions in the future when typing. To do so, right-click on the supposedly misspelled word and select the "Learn Spelling" option that appears in the contextual menu. Removing Learned WordsIf you no longer wish to have the word in the OS X dictionary, then you can easily remove it by typing in the word, then right-clicking on it, and selecting "Unlearn Spelling." Removing Multiple Learned Wordshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/Features%202/computing%20how%20tos/how%20to%20improve%20the%20os%20x%20dictionary/spelling-420-90.JPG If you have a lot of learned words that you'd like to get rid of, then you can manually open the plain-text file that stores these learned words. To do this, open a Finder window, then press Command + Shift + G (or go to Go > Go to Folder...). Type in " /Library/Spelling/" and click "Go." In the directory that opens, you'll see a file called "LocalDictionary." Simply open this file in TextEdit, remove the unwanted words, then save the document. You can also reset the entire dictionary by removing the "LocalDictionary" file to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194106658/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c5a57d/sc/28/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194106658/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c5a57d/sc/28/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194106658/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c5a57d/sc/28/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194106658/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c5a57d/sc/28/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194106658/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c5a57d/sc/28/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47c5a57d/sc/28/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/yzcOQEOPng8

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/Software/Microsoft/Office%202016%20Windows%20Touch%20and%20Mac/5%20things%20about%20office%20touch/excel%20startup-470-75.jpgIntroductionhttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/TRBC/Software/Microsoft/Office%202016%20Windows%20Touch%20and%20Mac/5%20things%20about%20office%20touch/excel%20startup-420-90.jpg Simple, easy to use, and the same on desktop PCs and tablets as well as Windows phones, Office for Windows 10 can still be confusing if you're not clear about what it's for and when it's free. Luckily, we're on hand with some handy clarifications about exactly what you can expect from this touch-friendly incarnation of Microsoft's Office suite. We'll look at exactly how it's different from the desktop version of Office 2016, what caveats there are in terms of it being free, and how it's tied into OneDrive more. Not to mention discussing which Windows users will be able to avail themselves of these handy apps. Anyway, enough of the introduction, click through our slideshow to get the full lowdown on Office for Windows 10… Also check out our hands on with Office for Windows 10Get ready for Office for Windowshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/TRBC/Software/Microsoft/Office%202016%20Windows%20Touch%20and%20Mac/5%20things%20about%20office%20touch/onenote-420-90.jpg When Windows 10 arrives, it will include its own version of Office, which Microsoft calls Office for Windows, or sometimes Universal Office, to distinguish it from the familiar desktop version of Office, which also has a new version coming out soon (both for Windows and Mac). Office for Windows is a set of touch-friendly versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook Mail and Outlook Calendar – as separate apps, rather than being tools inside a single Office Hub. Office for Windows is only for Windows 10http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/TRBC/Software/Microsoft/Office%202016%20Windows%20Touch%20and%20Mac/5%20things%20about%20office%20touch/outlook%20universal%20design-420-90.jpg The latest previews of the Office apps refer to themselves with names like Word Mobile Preview, probably because this is the first preview build that runs on both Windows 10 and Windows 10 for Phones. They're 'universal' Windows apps, which means you get the same app whether you run it on a Windows 10 notebook or a phone – or even HoloLens and Xbox One if Microsoft decides to make the apps available there. That's different from the way Microsoft reuses as much code as possible for versions of Office on different platforms (so PowerPoint for Mac 2016 and PowerPoint on iOS have quite a lot of code in common). Universal apps are exactly the same app on all Windows 10 devices, but on smaller screens the interface changes to fit into the available space better. But universal apps like this only run on Windows 10, so you won't be able to use these new Office apps on Windows 7 or 8. Office for Windows differenceshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/TRBC/Software/Microsoft/Office%202016%20Windows%20Touch%20and%20Mac/5%20things%20about%20office%20touch/very%20helpful-420-90.jpg The Office for Windows apps have a lot of familiar Office features thanks to that code reuse, especially OneDrive integration, but there are also lots of features they don't have: Word has reading view and PowerPoint has transitions, and in time you'll be able to use the Office add-ins that already work in Office for iPad, but there are no macros in Excel for Windows, for instance. The apps will get more features over time, especially OneNote which currently lags a long way behind the desktop version. But Microsoft isn't planning to add all of the missing features or get rid of the desktop version of Office – Office for Windows is intended to be the same kind of quick, easy, on the go experience for viewing, editing or creating documents that you get in Office for iPad and Android. That's why in particular, the Outlook Mail and Calendar apps for Windows 10 aren't the Outlook that you're used to either. Especially on the phone, they're much more like the Acompli app that Microsoft bought and renamed Outlook, and eventually the calendar will probably be based much more on another Microsoft acquisition, Sunrise. Plus there are plenty of programs in the desktop version of Office like Access and Publisher that won't be part of Office for Windows; instead there are new apps like Sway. Office for Windows is free, with caveatshttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/TRBC/Software/Microsoft/Office%202016%20Windows%20Touch%20and%20Mac/5%20things%20about%20office%20touch/powerpoint%20for%20work-420-90.jpg Some Windows 10 PCs will come with Office for Windows 10 already installed; that's devices with a screen that's 10.1-inch or smaller. Other Windows 10 users will be able to download the Office for Windows apps from the Windows Store (although the Windows Store suggests they may be pre-installed as the Mail and Calendar apps). If you do have to download them, we expect they will be free in the same way as for iOS and Android, where you can install and use the apps, but you have to have an Office 365 subscription to unlock some of the features. It's also worth noting a line in the new Microsoft services agreement and privacy statement for consumers that points out: "Office consumer based services, applications or products... are for your personal, non-commercial use unless you have commercial rights under a separate agreement with Microsoft." So even if Office for Windows comes free on an 8-inch tablet, you technically need to have an appropriate Office subscription if the document you're working with is for work and you're doing more than just looking at it. You'll be using OneDrive morehttp://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/TRBC/Software/Microsoft/Office%202016%20Windows%20Touch%20and%20Mac/5%20things%20about%20office%20touch/onedrive-420-90.jpg Because they're designed to be easy to use on the move, on small devices, the Office for Windows apps don't make you do things you're used to on the desktop like explicitly saving or naming your documents. Changes are automatically saved as you work, and if you don't remember to rename them yourself, you'll end up with a lot of documents called Document 42 and Document 513. Your documents are also saved into OneDrive by default – if you want to keep them anywhere else you'll have to move them explicitly. Leave them where they are and the recent files menu that opens automatically in every app will show all the documents you've been editing on all your devices. Once Office for Windows is released with Windows 10, we expect Intune to get the same options for controlling whereby users can save documents that it already has for Office on iPad. You will be able to set things up so that any document opened from a secure company location can't be saved into someone's personal folders, on their PC or on another cloud storage service, or even copied and pasted into email if it's not a message on a company account in an email app that's also managed. Office for Windows will be simple to use, but it will also work with the management and security tools that businesses need to get personal devices back under control. http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194092400/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c3e380/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194092400/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c3e380/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194092400/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c3e380/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194092400/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c3e380/sc/15/a2.imghttp://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194092400/u/49/f/415085/c/669/s/47c3e380/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/415085/s/47c3e380/sc/15/mf.gifhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/t6TtPqhHidY