Wayne Williams

Here at BetaNews, we’re big fans and supporters of the Raspberry Pi. The super-affordable ARM GNU/Linux computer has brought programming back into schools (and beyond) and enjoyed staggering success, becoming the most successful British computer of all time, in just a few short years.

I chatted with Eben Upton, creator of the Raspberry Pi, about his success, most memorable highlights, and plans for the future.

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The Creators Update rollout is continuing at a glacial pace, with most Windows 10 users yet to be offered it. The reason for this is Microsoft wants to make sure the update is fully compatible with PCs before it’s pushed to them (you can, of course, download and install the update manually at any time).

However, it turns out there’s a whole class of PCs running Windows 10 that simply can’t be upgraded to the Creators Update. And these aren’t old PCs either.

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Microsoft has been producing operating systems for decades, but it’s never been very good at naming them. Things started off well enough, with a straightforward numbering system -- Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, Windows 3.0. Then the company opted for a year-based approach -- Windows 95, Windows 98 -- before switching to using letters -- Windows ME (Millennium Edition) and XP (eXPerience, eXtra Patches?).

Then we had Windows Vista, followed by a return to numbers -- Windows 7 and Windows 8, and a random jump to Windows 10. And now we’re getting twice yearly updates for that latest operating system, with rubbish names that appear to have been thought up by someone who hates their job.

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If you’re in the market for some wireless headphones, and you own an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and/or Mac, then Apple’s AirPods are likely on your list of possible purchases. Once setup, they’re always on, always connected, and they can detect when they’re in your ears, so the music will pause the second you remove them.

The biggest downside, besides the $159 asking price, is they only come in one color -- white. That’s not great if you own a Jet Back iPhone, or you just don’t like white headphones. But it is possible to get them in black, and in choice of finishes.

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MacX Video Converter Pro is an all-in-one video toolkit that can download, convert, compress, repair, record and edit video in a few clicks, giving you complete control over all video files at 83x faster speed.

It’s available for both Mac and Windows, and the main features include:

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Microsoft’s annual ebook giveaway sees the company offering vast amounts of guides for free. These are high-quality titles covering pretty much every Microsoft product or service you care to think of.

There are millions of Microsoft ebooks up for grabs, and you can download as many -- or as few -- as you'd like (or all of them if you're feeling greedy), and they are available in a choice of formats -- PDF, MOBI, EPUB and DOC.

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As was expected, just after releasing the ISO files for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Build 16232 to all Windows Insiders, Microsoft has rolled out a brand new build just for those on the Fast ring.

Build 16241 comes with a sizeable number of improvements and fixes.

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Manage stress and boost your productivity at work using mindfulness.

Mindfulness at Work Essentials For Dummies explores the many benefits of utilizing mindfulness techniques in the workplace, offering managers, HR professionals and business people of all levels guidance on how mindfulness can help with the development of core business skills. Innovative companies like Google have made mindfulness in the workplace a hot topic -- and for good reason.

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Need networking know-how, but don't know where to turn?

Whether you're a networking administrator or an everyday computer user looking to set up a network in your home or office, Networking For Dummies seamlessly gets you connected with the basics and gives you the knowledge to work out whatever kinks may come your way -- in no time. Inside you'll find step-by-step instructions on setting up and maintaining a network, and ensuring you're following best practices with storage and back-up procedures.

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It used to be very easy to find pirated movies, music and software using Google Search, but the company has taken steps over the past few years to downgrade sites offering easy access to such material. You can still find that content of course, it’s just a lot harder than it used to be.

But despite this crackdown, Google has just introduced a new feature that makes it much easier to find the best Torrent sites.

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Last summer, industry website Music Business Worldwide ran a story claiming that Spotify was bulking up its platform with 'fake artists' created by producers under untraceable pseudonyms.

Culture publication Vulture brought the story to a wider audience a few days ago, prompting Spotify to finally release a statement vehemently denying the allegations, but here’s where it gets interesting.

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It’s a great time to be a Windows Insider at the moment, as the past two Windows 10 builds -- Build 16226 and 16232 -- are jam packed with new features and major improvements.

Build 16237 arrives today in time for the weekend, and like its predecessors, it offers a lot of changes, fixes, and additions.

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Running is a great way to get fit and lose weight, but it’s rarely fun. London-based developer Six to Start has changed all that with Zombies, Run!, the most popular smartphone fitness game in the world, which transforms a boring run into an action-packed journey through the zombie apocalypse.

I’m a big fan, having used it since the early days, as well as other Six to Start apps, including The Walk, and Racelink. I spoke with Adrian Hon, CEO of Six to Start, and he told me about the app’s early days, and what’s next for the company.

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Kodi is a very flexible media center that you can use to watch local media, or stream content via third-party add-ons.

If you share Kodi with other family members you can set up user profiles for each person who uses the software. This will let you all keep what you watch separate and you can control what content your children have access to.

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Microsoft has made a change to its cloud synchronization and storage service OneDrive that requires users to use NTFS formatted drives.

The change came out of the blue, with no announcement from Microsoft, meaning that anyone using a non-NTFS drive, such as an SD card, suddenly found themselves unable to use their OneDrive shares, and as you might expect they aren’t too happy about that.

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