Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Yesterday, to a somewhat unexpectant world, Microsoft unleashed a new operating system: Windows 10 S. The company would of course prefer that you didn’t think of this as it having a second stab at Windows RT, but it's hard to ignore the fact that that's basically what's happening.

This is, after all, a copy of Windows that is only capable of running apps downloaded from the Windows Store. Microsoft is placing a good deal of emphasis on the performance and security the operating system offers, but with the option of unlocking Windows 10 Pro (for a fee, of course), is this just a sneaky way for Microsoft to take advantage of unsuspecting laptop-buyers on a budget?

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Yesterday we debated whether interest in the Apple Watch is falling, but Tim Cook says that sales have doubled over the last year. This is an easy claim to make when you don’t reveal the actual sales figures, but the story is definitely less rosy when we look at the iPhone. For the second quarter ever, sales of Apple's smartphone fell.

This was not only a drop in sales, but an unexpected one. While analysts had been predicting sales in the region of 52.27 million, the reality is that the company shipped just 50.2 million in the quarter ending April 1, 2017. It might not seem like a big difference, but the sustained fall in sales saw Apple's stock to follow suit to the tune of 1.5 percent.

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A leaked internal document shows that Facebook is capable of identifying people according to their emotional state. The document, seen by The Australian, shows how the social network can monitor users' posts and determine when they are feeling "stressed, defeated, overwhelmed, anxious, nervous, stupid, silly, useless, or a failure."

The leak pertains to Facebook's Australian office and suggests that algorithms can be used to detect "moments when young people need a confidence boost." It raises serious ethical questions about Facebook's capabilities, but the company denies it is doing anything wrong.

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It would appear that the Apple Watch is losing its shine. A number of big-name apps have dropped support for the wearable, including Google Maps, Target, eBay and Amazon. It's not clear exactly why support was dropped, but as it took a little while for users to notice and start complaining on social media, a general lack of interest is likely to blame.

Google has offered a vague promise that Google Maps will return to Apple Watch "in the future," but gives no sense of timescale, and there are no similar assurances from any of the others who have quietly killed off their apps.

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Twitter continues to place ever-increasing importance on video on its network, and the company has announced a new batch of partners that will bring a host of live-streamed programming to the service.

There are 16 streaming partners in total, including Bloomberg which will bring a 24-hour rolling news services to Twitter. Other partners include Live Nation which will deliver live concert performances, and NBA, PGA and MLB to cater for the sports side of things.

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Like Google, Facebook places great importance on advertising. The social network not only earns money from ads itself, but also allows companies and individuals to do so by displaying ads in videos. Pirates were quick to spot an easy way to earn money -- steal someone else's popular video and watch the ad revenue roll in.

Now Facebook is fighting back in a way that has already been used to some extent by YouTube. There is a new "claim ad earnings" option in the Rights Manager tool which enables the owner of a particular video to bag the ad revenue when their material is pirated. But the update to Rights Manager are more far-reaching than this.

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It's something that many people have expected for some time, and now we know that it's true. Facebook has admitted that governments around the world have used the social network to spread propaganda and try to influence the outcome of elections.

In the run-up to the US election, there was speculation that powerful groups had been making use of Facebook to influence voters by spreading fake news. Now, in a white paper, Facebook reveals that through the use of fake accounts, targeted data collection and false information, governments and organizations have indeed been using the social network to control the news, shape the political landscape, and create different narratives and outcomes.

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A hacking group by the name of TheDarkOverlord has leaked the first episode of the Netflix show Orange is the New Black [Update: the group has since leaked 9 more episodes]. The season premiere of the hit show is not set to air until June, but TheDarkOverlord released it to The Pirate Bay after Netflix failed to meet ransom demands.

The group allegedly managed to get hold of the episode after gaining access to the systems of post-production studio Larson Studios in Hollywood. When Netflix refused to comply with its demands, which are described as "modest", the show was made available for BitTorrent users.

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Google+ finds itself the butt of many a joke, but the company behind the service is happy to proclaim that "millions of people use" it. There are already numerous ways to discover content on Google+, and now there's yet another: Topics.

This is essentially Google's take on the idea of related content, and it's a bid to keep users on the site -- or in the app -- for longer. Not content with having people reading what they set out to read, now additional "Topics to explore" will be suggested.

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Today Facebook publishes its Global Government Requests Report, revealing just how many data requests the social network has received from governments around the world. This time around, the report covers the second half of 2016, and it shows a mixed-bag of figures.

While the number of items that had to be restricted due to contravention of local laws dropped, the number of government data requests increased by 9 percent compared to the previous six months. Facebook is well-aware that it faces scrutiny and criticism for its willingness to comply with data requests, and the company tries to allay fears by saying: "We do not provide governments with "back doors" or direct access to people's information."

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Malware is something of a recurring problem for Android users, and it seems as though Google is fighting a never-ending battle to keep the blight out of the Play Store. The latest large-scale batch to be discovered takes the form of adware known as FalseGuide.

As you may have guessed from the name -- and your own experience of Google Play -- this malware spreads by fooling people into installing apps purporting to be guides to popular games. The apps themselves are fairly innocuous -- and often are guides as they claim to be -- but they then download additional modules which can be used to bombard users with ads.

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The "related articles" feature of Facebook's News Feed is nothing new -- in fact it has been with us for more than three years. But now the social network is trialling a new way of displaying related content; rather than waiting until you have clicked on a story to suggest related stories you might be interested in, Facebook will instead be offering these suggestions before you read an article.

As well as giving users the chance to read more about a topic from different source, Facebook says that it will help people to discover articles which have been fact-checked. It is -- almost by accident, it seems -- another way for Facebook to tackle fake news.

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The fight against fake news continues, with Google announcing not only changes to search algorithms to help prevent false information from rising to the surface, but also new tools to allow users to report "unexpected, inaccurate or offensive" results.

While the algorithm tweaks should impact on general search results, the reporting tools have been designed for Google's Autocomplete predictions and Featured Snippets which have been problematic in recent months. Updated algorithms should help to ensure more authoritative pages receive greater prominence, while low-quality content is demoted.

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If you're using a desktop or a laptop, there are a number of diagnostic tools built into your operating system that you can use to check various components of your computer. When you're using your smartphone, however, you might feel as though you have to install a bunch of apps to do the same job.

But this is not the case. There are a large number of tools built into your OnePlus 3 or OnePlus 3T -- you just need to know how to find them. As you'll probably have guessed from the headline, these are not utilities you're going to find by browsing through the list of installed apps -- you need a special code.

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Donald Trump is obsessed with the notion of FAKE NEWS. Whether his definition is the same as everyone else's is open to debate, but there is a genuine problem with the spread of propaganda, nonsense, and stories which are clearly fabricated. Google and Facebook and other big names from the world of tech have started to fight back, and now it's the turn of Jimmy Wales.

The Wikipedia founder is setting up WikiTribune, an online news publication which focuses on fact-checking, using a combination of paid journalists and contributions from the community. It is described as a "new kind of news platform," and aims to provide "accurate information with real evidence, so that you can confidently make up your own mind."

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