November 2015

Amazon Studios released Storywriter today, a free cloud-based screenwriting application that anyone with an Amazon account can use.

Internet companies like Amazon or Netflix started the production of original series and movies years ago in an effort to reach a certain level of independence from networks and film studios but also to break away from limitations such as TV show episodes that always had to run the same amount of time.

I have to admit that I have not made many Windows Store purchases ever since Microsoft launched the store with Windows 8.

The new store that shipped with Windows 10 offers not only apps and games, but also music and movies which should increase its appeal in the long run.

Microsoft runs a promotion currently in which apps, games, movies and music are offered for $0.10 each instead of the regular price.

I was not sure what to expect at first but have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised with what is on offer.

Google added map downloads, offline navigation and other capabilities to the most recent version of its maps software Google Maps.

I'm still looking for a travel app for my trip to Asia next January that allows me to download maps to the device in advance so that I can use the mapping app even if I don't have access to Internet.

The new capabilities were reason enough to take another look at Google Maps.

A new version of the popular archive software 7-zip has just been released. This would not necessarily make the news normally but it is the first stable version of the program in a very long time.

7-Zip used to be my go-to program for all things archives years ago but lack of updates forced me to look elsewhere for those needs.

While it worked fine for popular formats such as zip or rar, support for new formats such as rar5 were not added to the program due to the lack of updates.

The following guide explains how I fixed the error "We couldn't install Windows 10. The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during BOOT operation".

I tried to upgrade a system running the RTM version of Windows 10 to the newly released Threshold 2 build. I have done so numerous times on other machines and never ran into issues before.

This time was different however as the following happened: Windows Update picked up the new version just fine, it would download it and start with the installation.

Microsoft launched the first big update for its Windows 10 operating system this month and while it introduced several new features and much-needed improvements, issues were reported as well.

Probably the most common one was that Microsoft rest some or even all default apps and settings in the update.

Opera Software released an update to the Developer channel (bringing the version to Opera 35) yesterday that introduces a batch of new features and improvements to the web browser.

Probably the biggest feature to find its way into Opera 35 is audio muting. It works similar to how Chrome and Firefox handle it: audio indicators are displayed automatically in tabs when audio starts to play on sites.

Media, photos and videos, can take up huge amounts of storage space on mobile devices thanks to high-definition cameras being built in to modern smartphones.

Storage space on the other hand, especially when it comes to low-end and mid-end smartphones, has not caught up with these improvements yet, and if you run a phone with 8GB or 16GB of storage, you may notice quickly that it is not sufficient to hold a large number of photos or videos due to the size of the data.

Two-Step Verification is a popular method to improve the security of accounts by adding another verification step to the authentication process.

It blocks attackers from accessing the account with the password alone, as they need the second code as well for that once Two-Step Verification is enabled.

Companies like Google, Twitter or PayPal use two-factor authentication already, and Amazon is the latest to introduce the feature for Amazon accounts.

Microsoft's Windows XP operating system was not universally loved when it came first out as it was criticized by part of its user base for phone home functionality and other invasive features.

While those pale in comparison to Windows 10, the criticism brought along with it a first batch of privacy tools aimed at disabling spy-features in the operating system.

One popular choice back then was XP-Antispy, a program first released in 2011 that provided users with direct options to change or even turn off many of the invasive features of the Windows XP operating system.