Never bother with a scanner again. Thanks to high-quality cameras on today's top smartphones and nifty behind-the-scenes tech, scanning a document or photo with great results is as easy as opening an app and snapping a picture.
Here are CNET's top picks for the best apps to turn your phone into a scanner.
Evernote, the popular note-taking service, has built a fantastic free scanning app called Scannable. It's useful for scanning receipts, business cards and in particular, printed documents.
That's because the app uses optical character recognition (OCR), which can detect the letters and numbers on whatever you scan so that you can search for words or phrases within the scanned digital document. The app's OCR feature works automatically, analyzing documents for words and characters as you make the scan. It also uses this feature to pull information from a business card, like emails and phone numbers, so you can save it to your phone. It's one of the best solutions I've found for digitizing business cards.
Evernote Scannable in action.
What makes Scannable so great is that it's foolproof to use. All you need to do is open the app and point your camera at what you want to scan. The app does the rest of the work by searching the camera's field of view for a sheet of paper, automatically focusing the shot and taking a photo. Move on to another piece of paper if you have a multipage document and Scannable will combine them together and let you delete scanned pages you don't want to or need.
It then quickly edits the scan to improve the contrast and brightness to make it as clear and readable as possible. If you'd rather not have it automatically scan anything in the camera's field of view, there's a manual capture mode too.
You can set the app to automatically save any scans directly to your Evernote account or manually export them to your iCloud storage or the Camera Roll in the Photos app. You can also choose to share scans in a message, email or other apps on your phone. The biggest downside of Scannable is that it doesn't really keep a list of previous scans. You'll need to save or discard a scan once you've captured it in order to save or share a new one.
For scanning documents with your phone, it's very hard to beat CamScanner. This free app covers all the basics, plus much more.
The app uses your phone's camera to scan printed documents, receipts, business cards and even words and doodles on a whiteboard. When you finish a scan, CamScanner analyzes the content of the image to automatically organize everything by type. That means, all of your business card scans are saved in one folder, while documents go in another. As an added bonus, the app also lets you create scans from photos you've previously taken. Most importantly, the scan quality is stellar, though your mileage may vary by your phone's camera.
CamScanner
Once you've captured an image, there are tons of ways to edit it by adjusting the color, contrast or brightness, or by cropping the image. You add can watermarks and annotations too, plus add tags so you can search for scans later. There are also built-in collaboration tools, where you can invite other people to make edits to your scans. The list of features goes on, including search and connections to popular cloud storage services, like Dropbox or Google Drive.
Like Scannable, CamScanner has OCR, but you'll need to download a plugin to use it. With OCR, you can search documents by keywords or phrases, which works phenomenally. You can also use OCR to export and edit text from your scans, but to this you'll need upgrade to the full version of the app, which is $4.99 (£3.99, AU$6.49). It's currently $1.99 (£0.79, AU$1.29) at the time of publishing.
You'll need to create an account to use the app, but this lets you upload your scans automatically to CamScanner's website, which makes it really easy to get them on your computer. CamScanner is also available for Windows Phone and iOS.
This simple app lets you scan documents, whiteboards and photos and import them to your Microsoft account. You can save scans as PDFs or add them to OneNote or OneDrive. If you rely on those services a lot, Office Lens is a great choice for you.
One of my favorite scanning apps, Scanbot has a fantastic friendly design that is foolproof to use. The app automatically scans documents when you point the camera at a piece of paper, which is convenient. Then you can crop the scan and pick the final scan from four versions with different brightness and contrast effects.
The free app does basic scanning, and you can pay 99 cents per month (£0.50, AU$1) or a $4.90 one-time charge (£3.99, AU$6.49) to upgrade to the Pro version which gets you extras like OCR, automatic tagging and themes. You can also use Pro for free with ads.
Apple first announced iOS 9, the mobile operating system that runs on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad lineups. The update refines Apple's vision of a mobile computing experience, adding features such as running two apps at the same time on the iPad or markup features for signing documents in the Mail app. The list of new features is long.
While iOS 9 has been available as a public beta for the past few months, Apple plans on making it publicly available starting Wednesday, September 16. Once available, anyone with a supported iOS device (more on that in a minute) can download and install the OS.
Compatibility
The general rule of thumb here is, if your device is capable of running iOS 8, it'll run iOS 9. You can check the version of iOS your device is currently running by launching the Settings app, then tapping on General followed by About and looking at the number on the Version line.
If you have any lingering doubt, this list should clear it right up. See your device in this chart? It can run iOS 9.
With an update incoming, now's a good time to perform a little routine maintenance on your iOS device. Start by taking an inventory of the apps you have installed on your device and uninstalling anything you haven't used in the last couple of months. This both frees up precious storage space and declutters your home screen.
Additionally, it's a good idea to remove any old photos and videos eating up space on your device (You shouldn't be keeping them there anyway.). Rick Broida offers a few services you can use for backing up your phones. And there's always the option of syncing your device to your computer with a cable.
Backups are important
Before updating, you'll want to have a current backup of your device. You have two options, iCloud or iTunes.
Technically, your device should be backing up your device every night while its charging, but it's not a bad idea to have a backup made moments before you hit the update button. Launch the Settings app, tap on iCloud, then scroll down until you find the Backup option and tap on it. A Backup Now button will become active after a brief moment, which you'll want to tap on. Make sure you're connected to Wi-Fi and have your iOS device charging.
Using iTunes to backup your device just as easy, if not a bit more time consuming. Launch iTunes and connect your iOS device via a USB cable. A device icon will appear next to the various category icons along the top of the iTunes window. Select your device, and then from the summary tab select This Computer. Additionally, check the box next to Encrypt backup and enter a password when prompted. By encrypting the backup you can forgo having to re-enter passwords should you need to restore your device.
Time to update
With a current backup, you can update with peace of mind should anything go wrong you can restore your device and not lose everything.
The process for updating to iOS 9 can be done via iTunes, or directly on your device. Either way, you should plan on setting aside about an hour where for your device to run through the update process.
Launch-day jitters
With any new software launch, there's always a chance complications will surface. If you're not the type who wants to spend time troubleshooting issues, it's best to wait a few days after release to update. You're really not going to miss out on anything.
Dell plans to invest $125 billion over the next five years in China, betting on the country's growing economy to provide alternative revenue sources beyond the dwindling PC market.
The PC maker's CEO Michael Dell announced Dell's new strategy in Shanghai on Thursday. The chief executive said the new "In China, For China" strategy will include an investment of $125 billion over the next five years, $175 billion contributing to imports and exports, and will also "sustain one million jobs through the ecosystem."
Dell said the investment demonstrates the firm's "long-term commitment to the Chinese market." China is Dell's second-largest market outside of the United States, and as PC sales to dwindle, it is critical that other avenues for business growth are explored.
China, thanks to a growing economy and increasing technological market, may turn out to be the ideal place to source new ideas, innovations and establish sound research and development into products which will keep Dell strong as consumer demand for traditional PC systems slides.
"China and the United States are among the countries where the information industry is developing the fastest, resulting in the most vibrant enterprises. The Internet is the new engine for China's future economic growth and has unlimited potential.
Being an innovative and efficient technology company, Dell will embrace the principle of 'In China, for China' and closely integrate Dell China strategies with national policies in order to support Chinese technological innovation, economic development and industrial transformation."
The investment plan for China also includes a heavy role for the firm's corporate VC arm, Dell Ventures, in pushing the strategy of "massive entrepreneurship and innovation by all," which will provide support for Chinese enterprises and entrepreneurs.
Dell also plans to expand its research and development team in the region, focusing on "end-to-end solutions" suitable for the Chinese market and working more closely with local partners in the fields of Big Data and cloud technology.
Dell also announced a new collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in establishing the "Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Joint-Lab."
The lab will focus on the application of brain information processing and artificial intelligence, which includes "cognitive function simulation, deep learning, brain computer simulation, and related new computing systems," according to the company.
The world's third-largest PC maker said Dell fully supports China's Internet+ plan. Unveiled in March this year, Internet+ is the Chinese government's hope for promoting further economic growth through e-commerce and online services. Ironic, considering the country is also one of the worst when it comes to Internet censorship.
Despite this, Dell says the company will fully support Chinese enterprises and startups specializing in storage, cloud computing, Big Data, data centers, mobility and security.
The idea of a tablet that is as useful as a laptop is one that tablet-makers have been pushing since even before the iPad's original introduction. Apple's new iPad Pro makes a similar pitch, and is aimed at office and creative professionals, as well as more mainstream entertainment consumers.
For tablets and hybrids that use Microsoft Windows, it's an easier argument to make, as these devices can run exactly the same desktop applications as laptops and desktops. Devices running mobile operating systems, such as Android or iOS, are restricted to their own native applications and special versions of programs such as Photoshop or Microsoft Office, which are often not as flexible or full-featured as the versions on Windows or Apple's OS X operating system for Mac computers.
By adding a bigger, higher-resolution screen, keyboard cover and active stylus, plus new feature-packed versions of Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop and other iOS apps, the iPad Pro is pitching itself as a true laptop replacement. But does it measure up?
We'll have to wait to get hands-on with the device to say for sure, but in the meantime, we can compare the specs and features of the iPad Pro with both the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and the similarly priced 13-inch MacBook Air. For the list below, we took the base model of each, and added a sold-separately keyboard and stylus if available.
Base model price (in US dollars, plus keyboard and stylus if available)
Apple iPad Pro: $1,067 ($799 + $169 + $99) Microsoft Surface Pro 3: $928 ($799 + $129) Apple MacBook Air: $999
Screen size/resolution:
Apple iPad Pro: 12.9-inch; 2,732x2,048 Microsoft Surface Pro 3; 12.0-inch, 2,160x1,440 Apple MacBook Air: 13.3-inch; 1,440x900
Processor:
Apple iPad Pro: Apple A9X Microsoft Surface Pro 3: 1.5GHz Intel Core i3 Apple MacBook Air: 1.6GHz Intel Core i5
Storage/RAM:
Apple iPad Pro: 32GB/RAM unknown Microsoft Surface Pro 3: 64GB/4GB Apple MacBook Air: 128GB/4GB
Weight:
Apple iPad Pro: 1.57 pounds (713 grams); Microsoft Surface Pro 3: 1.76 pounds (798 grams); 2.42 pounds with keyboard cover Apple MacBook Air: 2.96 pounds (1.35kg)
Battery life:
Apple iPad Pro: 10 hours (Apple estimate) Microsoft Surface Pro 3: 7:28 (CNET battery drain test) Apple MacBook Air: 18:00 (CNET battery drain test)
But if Apple is throwing a gauntlet down at Microsoft's Surface Pro, it may not go unanswered for long. Microsoft is said to be planning an October 2015 introduction of its next tablet, which is very likely to be called Surface Pro 4.
We'll test the performance, battery life and usability of the iPad Pro when it's available in November, which is when we'll really be able to see how it measures up to a full Windows or OS X computer. In the meantime, our initial impressions of what each device is best suited for is as follows:
Apple iPad Pro: Potentially able to replace laptops and hybrids for many productivity tasks, but it remains to be seen if it feels practical for all-day, every day use, or if app switching and file management will be awkward.
Microsoft Surface Pro 3: Works better when paired with its keyboard cover, as Windows still feels more at home on a laptop or desktop than a slate, but it offers the best of the Windows experience in a very portable package.
Apple MacBook Air: The most traditional of the bunch, the MacBook makes for especially easy navigation, thanks to its best-in-class touchpad.
Note: Apple has unveiled the successor to OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Called OS X 10.11 El Capitan, it introduces a ton of new features including a split-screen view, Spaces Bar and under-the-hood performance improvements.
Yosemite is the second version of OS X since its reboot last year, when Apple switched from naming its annual OS X updates after big cats to places in California. It also neatly side-stepped the problem of where to go after 10.9 by avoiding the use of numbers altogether (although they do still exist in the geekier parts of the OS like System Information, where Yosemite is referred to as OS X 10.10).
So, what's new? Quite a lot, actually, and nearly all of it in the name of greater consistency between OS X and iOS. That's not to say that Apple is gradually merging the two operating systems – there's no evidence at all that's on the agenda. Nevertheless, several alterations and additions in Yosemite do tie OS X more closely with iOS 8.
Even in the early days of its tenure, Yosemite can already be counted as a success in one way. According to metrics company Net Applications, Yosemite accounted for 36.6% of all instances of OS X, setting a new Mac adoption record in the process. Like OS X 10.9 Mavericks that came before it, Yosemite was made available as a free download, racing out of the traps on October 16. In comparison, Mavericks, which hit the App Store on October 22, 2013, gained a Mac-only user share of 32% after its first month of availability.
Apple has released an update to Yosemite, bringing the operating system to version OS X 10.10.3. The new update brings a number of performance improvements, bug fixes, enterprise features, support for the new Force Touch touchpad, a new Photos app, improvements to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth performance and more racial diversity with emoji. Additionally, 10.10.3 expands the number of supported Macs that can use 4K, 5K and Ultra HD TVs.
Interface
The most obvious change, visually at least, is the new interface. Yosemite does to the Mac what iOS 7 did to the iPhone and iPad. Its user interface is flatter – though not flat, there are still drop shadows and other nods to the third dimension, it's just that now they exist for a purpose rather than being merely eye candy. No more glassy textures.
There's more translucency in Yosemite than its predecessor, Mavericks. Where once it was limited to the Finder's menu bar, it now pops up in lots of places, including Finder menus and the sidebar of Finder windows. It's been tweaked so that the underlying image is blurred and less distracting than in Mavericks, but we suspect it will still be a love it or hate it feature. If you do hate it, you can 'reduce' it in the Accessibility pane of System Preferences.
Perhaps the most controversial change in Yosemite's user interface, however, is the switch in font from Lucida Grande to Helvetica Neue – another alignment with iOS. It takes a bit of getting used to, and for some it will never be right, but we found ourselves warming to it over time.
Some of OS X's application icons have changed to resemble their iOS counterparts. iTunes, for example, now has a red icon instead of a blue one.
Finder
Not a huge amount has changed here, but there is one key addition: iCloud Drive. Your iCloud storage drive now shows up in the Finder and you can drag and drop files and folders to it just like any other location. It also displays the files you've opted to store there from apps like Pages, Numbers, and Text Edit.
Folders are now a brighter blue, but Apple hasn't taken the opportunity to rethink its confusing implementation of tags, which is a great disappointment. For those of us who used to mark Finder files and folders with a specific colour to indicate action that needed to be taken, for example, the tagging system is an irritation more than an aid.
Dock
The shelf has gone, which will be a great relief to many, and the Dock has now reverted back to its original format, a rectangle. Not so good is the loss of the Dock preferences from the Apple menu – to change things like magnification or show/hide, you must now pay a visit to System Preferences. However, on the plus side, the dock is fairly customisable using a free app called cDock, which allows you to change the dock's theme, add spacers, show only active apps and more.
Windows and buttons
The traffic light buttons at the top left of windows have, like everything else in Yosemite, lost their glassy texture and are now flat matte red, amber, and green. But there's a more significant change – the green button now acts, by default, as the full-screen switch in apps that support full-screen use. The arrows at the top right corner of windows are gone. In apps that don't support full-screen operation, the green button reverts to its regular duty of maximising windows. Holding down the Option (Alt) key also switches the green button from full-screen to maximise.
Dark Mode
Brand new in Yosemite is Dark Mode, which turns some aspects of the OS a much darker shade of grey, to make it more comfortable to use your Mac in dim lighting. These include the Finder menu bar, Dock, and application switcher. During the beta period some elements of Dark Mode, such as Finder menus, were poorly implemented, and it remains to be seen whether they have been fixed in time for the full release.
Notification Centre
Hands up if you used Notification Centre in Mavericks? No, us neither. But Yosemite makes it much more interesting by adding a Today panel that works in a similar way to iOS 8's Notification Centre. It displays your Calendar appointments, the weather, world clock, and other elements you choose. And it supports third party widgets too. Oh, and it's another OS X element to be given the translucent treatment.
Spotlight
Spotlight in Yosemite is unrecognisable from its predecessors. Where once it slid almost apologetically into view underneath the magnifying glass on the menu bar, it now leaps into action in the centre of the screen. It looks, and operates, much more like a launcher such as Launch Bar, Quicksilver, or Alfred, than Spotlight of yore.
There's a good reason for the change, however; Spotlight is now much more useful than it used to be. It hooks into online data sources to pull out information and display it on-screen. Type in the name of a movie, for example, and you'll get a thumbnail image and a plot summary with credits courtesy of Wikipedia. Type in the name of a restaurant or hotel, and Spotlight will display a snippet of a map, along with details of the establishment and reviews from Yelp.
For local files, it displays inline previews of documents and, as before, can be used in lieu of a calculator when you're in a hurry. It might just be enough to tempt you away from your favourite launcher.
Safari
The first impression Safari makes when launched is that it's smaller and lighter than it used to be. Apple has reduced the height of the menu bar and the result is the loss of toolbar favourites. They no longer display by default, though you can switch them back on again from the Bookmarks menu.
New tabs now open with a display of tabs from the Favourites folder, rather than Top Sites. And those Favourites tabs appear again when you start to type in the address bar. A new tab switcher, accessed by pressing a button on the menu bar which is identical to the tab switcher in iOS, displays open tabs from all the devices connected to your iCloud account in the main window. You can navigate to any open tab, or close tabs on other devices.
The only other items on the sparse toolbar are a share icon, again identical to the iOS 8 share button, navigation arrows, and a button to show or hide the left-hand pane which displays Bookmarks, Reading List, and Shared Links. There's no Home button.
The address bar is now even smarter, though, and works similarly to Spotlight. Movie titles display snippets from Wikipedia under the address bar, and hotels and restaurants show the same details as Spotlight. Click once and you're given a more detailed preview, click again and you're taken to the relevant website.
iTunes
Besides the new icon, iTunes has had its interface overhauled. The Albums view looks even smarter than it did before, with better use of album covers' predominant colours for backgrounds. And the Artists view now gets a similar treatment to Albums.
Navigation has been made less intrusive. There are only three options at the top of the window now: My Music, Playlists, and iTunes Store. View options are now in a dropdown menu on the right, and Movies and TV Programmes, along with other content, have been moved from a dropdown menu to icons on the toolbar. By default, only music, movies, and TV shows are shown, but an Extras menu item allows you to add more.
The iTunes Store has had an overhaul too, and is now as clean and crisp as everything else in Yosemite. Here too, navigation has changed, though not necessarily for the better. It took us a bit of poking around to find out how to get to the App Store, for example. It turned out that it's hidden by default and you need to enable it from the same Extras menu that you use in the Library to view additional content there.
It seems as though Apple has deprecated the App Store in iTunes, at least in terms of making it easy to access, perhaps in recognition that many of us now buy iOS apps directly from the iOS App Store rather than iTunes.
Mail
At first glance, very little has changed in Mail, aside from the user interface. It handles threaded messages slightly differently, displaying the first name and initial of everyone in the thread in the preview, rather than just that of the most recent sender.
There are, however, two important new features. The first is Mail Drop, which allows you to send multi-gigabyte attachments (up to 5GB) by first sending them to iCloud and then allowing the recipient to download them at their leisure.
The second new feature is a poster child for Yosemite's Extensions, a feature which allows third parties to add functionality to Yosemite apps and features, in a similar way to iOS 8's Extensions. This one's called Markup and allows you to annotate image attachments from within Mail.
Photo
No - you haven't spotted a typo - Photo is OS X Yosemite's new application for photos that is set to replace iPhoto in Yosemite. iPhoto is currently the default app for photo management, but Photo, which was introduced in the OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 beta in February, is expected to replace it when the update is pushed out to users. Photo showcases a much more streamlined view of your snaps and allows you to push your full-resolution photos to iCloud, making them available on every Apple device. In addition to viewing imags, Photo has Aperture-like editing capabilities that are likely to appeal to starting out photographers.
Messages and FaceTime
Messages gets the same flat speech bubbles as iOS 8. That, however, is the least significant change. You can now send SMS messages directly from Messages to any phone, as long as you have an iPhone connected to your iCloud account on the same Wi-Fi network.
Likewise, FaceTime now allows you to make and receive telephone calls on your Mac, using your iPhone as a proxy.
In Messages, you can now remove yourself from busy threads, switch on Do Not Disturb to mute notifications, and send audio snippets as well as text or images.
Calendar
Day view in Calendar now uses the right-hand side of the window to display details about any event or appointment you click on, with the left-hand side showing the full day, hour by hour. It looks great and is very useful, but comes at the expense of the multi-day appointment display that used to inhabit the left-hand side of Day view.
Continuity
The ability to use Messages and FaceTime for SMS messages and phone calls is part of what Apple calls Continuity. The theory is that you should be able to use whichever device – Mac, iPhone, or iPad – you want at any time, and accomplish anything on one you could do on another.
Handoff is another aspect of Continuity. The idea is that you could, say, start typing an email on your Mac, and then pick it up on your iPhone and carry on, without ever having to close or save it, or think about how to do this.
It works like this: whenever you have a handoff compatible app open on an iOS device nearby (hardware and software compatibility allowing), the app's icon appears to the left of the Dock. Click on it and you open the OS X equivalent app and continue working on the open document. The other way round, the icon appears on iOS 8's Lock screen or at the very left of the app switcher and you tap it to call up the document.
It's a very clever and very useful feature, but does some nifty behind the scenes work that uses both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. So to use it, and other Continuity features, you'll need a device and a Mac that supports the latest version of Bluetooth. That means an iPhone 5 or later, iPad 4 or later, including the iPad mini, or an iPod touch 5th generation. Apple started introducing Bluetooth 4 in the Mac on the mid-2011 MacBook Air – but you'll need to check if your specific Mac supports it.
We tested it using the public beta of Yosemite with iOS 8.0.2 on a Retina MacBook Pro and it worked pretty well both ways round. It did take a bit of fiddling to get it to work the first time, and trying to figure out where the icon on iOS had gone after the Lock screen disappeared took a few minutes (it's to the left of the current app in the app switcher, so obscured when you initially invoke the switcher), but nevertheless, it worked.
The other aspect of Continuity is AirDrop. Where previously you could AirDrop files between Macs or between iOS devices, you can now swap them between Mac and iOS devices.
AirPlay
Yosemite allows Mac users to 'mirror' the Mac's audio and video output to an Apple TV without either being on a Wi-Fi network. The two devices can create a peer-to-peer network to connect with each other. However, you'll have to have the most recent Apple TV, released in March 2013, as older models don't support the feature. And you still can't mirror an iOS device on a Mac's display in order to, for example, watch video stored on your iPad on your iMac screen.
We liked
Continuity is an excellent addition, and the ability to make and receive phone calls from your Mac in particular is something we've been waiting for since the advent of Bluetooth a decade ago.
iCloud Drive is also overdue, particularly for those of us who pay for additional storage, and it's good to see that it's as easy to use as Dropbox or OneDrive. The Today view transforms Notification Centre and we can't wait to see what developers do with Extensions.
We disliked
Apple introduced tags with Mavericks. We didn't like the implementation then, and the way it hijacked colour coding, and we still don't. Handoff, while great, isn't intuitive and it's easy to become frustrated when trying to get it to work.
There seems to be no reason for the removal of Dock preferences from the Apple menu, and while it's a minor irritation, it's an irritation nonetheless. And the ability to AirPlay to, rather than just from, a Mac looks like it must remain on the wish-list for at least another year.
Final verdict
Yosemite is as big a deal for the Mac as iOS 7 was for the iPhone and iPad. Visually it takes a bit of getting used to, and there will no doubt be a period of bedding in as Apple smooths out one or two rough edges. If you were a fan of glassy textures and 3D tropes, you'll be disappointed. For the rest of us, however, the user interface is cleaner, crisper and looks particularly stunning on Retina displays.
User interface aside, the biggest news is the ever-tightening link between Apple's two operating systems. If you're uneasy with being 'locked in' to Apple's universe, prepare to be very uncomfortable.
Apple's mission is clear: it wants to make swapping between iOS and OS X as seamless as possible, while retaining the strengths of each platform. That involves compromises, however, and one of them is using iCloud and an Apple ID for all your stuff. If you can live with that, Yosemite is very good indeed.
Windows 10 is an entirely new version of the veteran Windows operating system – a version that is make-or-break for Microsoft.
It was released on 29 July in seven versions, which we'll tell you a lot more about below, as well as give you our complete verdict on all aspects of the new OS.
Even though Windows 8.1 did improve things, there's no escaping that withWindows 8, Microsoft was hugely complacent, buoyed by the success ofWindows 7. It drastically misunderstood its users with a fundamentally changed user interface which didn't make any logical sense and was hard to learn. It failed us. It failed itself.
Thankfully 2015 Microsoft is pretty different to 2012 Microsoft. The key management of the corporation has changed. It has woken up to the fact that people can choose other operating systems. It's keen on making stuff for OS X, Linux, iOS and Android. As you'll hear, it's allowing apps from other platforms to be easily ported to Windows, too.
Microsoft believes the future of Windows is as a platform for all. Like Android, the strength of Windows is in the thousands of companies that develop for it (see the section about Universal apps for more on the relationship with developers) and use it in their products.
That's why Windows 10 is no longer just an operating system for 32 and 64-bit PCs. It will also run on the ARM platform for smaller tablets and smartphones. Windows 10 is going to run on phones – it's the new version of Windows Phone, but it's not that clear whether Microsoft will brand new Windows Phones as 'Windows 10' or not. If you know what Windows RT was, then don't worry, because it's nothing like that.
Universal apps will run not only on PCs, but on Windows 10 phones, Windows 10 for IoT devices and Xbox as well.
Like Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 before it, Windows 10 is part of the Windows NT family.
From the Windows 10 Preview to RTM
We were part of the Windows Insider program, which has given people early access to Windows 10 through various phases of its development. The latest version, which this article is based on, is known as build 10240, made available on 15 July. It is the RTM- or Release to Manufacturing - version. RTM will also be on Windows 10 PCs.
RTM doesn't have the usual 'Windows 10 Insider Preview' text on the desktop, and it has also been released to everybody in the Windows Insider program – even those who didn't want the latest updates (the 'slow' ring as opposed to the 'fast' ring).
Even now Windows 10 is eleased, the Windows Insider program will continue, and Microsoft will release Windows 10 updates to members of the program first.
While it's natural that Windows 10 will be considered as 'finished' by reviewers (us) and consumers, Microsoft doesn't subscribe to this point of view, and says it will carry on developing the OS with additional tweaks.
Upgrading to Windows 10
We know that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for the first year of release if you have Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or a Windows Phone 8.1 device. If you have Windows 8.1 (PC or phone) there should be no issue in installing Windows 10.
If you have Windows 7, you'll need to make sure you meet the system requirements – see below.
If you have a device with Windows XP or Windows Vista on it, you'll need to do a clean install – make sure you meet the System Requirements which are:
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Free hard disk space: 16 GB
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
A Microsoft account and Internet access
Even though the free upgrade version of Windows 10 is only available for a year, Microsoft stressed that those updating during the promotional period will be able to use Windows 10 at no cost forever (or as the company puts it, for the "supported lifetime of the device"). When you upgrade, you'll be upgraded to the appropriate version – see 'Windows 10 versions' below.
If you're on a version of Windows that can be upgraded (7 or a version of 8) you might well have seen an icon appear on your desktop via Windows Update (providing your machine is up-to-date, of course). Clicking the icon launches a window that enables you to reserve your place in the queue to download the free upgrade.
You'll then get a notification when it's ready to install. This is presumably so Microsoft can drip down some elements early to your PC and avoid an old school iOS-style server meltdown when the new version is available.
If you have a pirated copy of Windows already, you will be able to "make it genuine" by getting hold of Windows 10 via the Windows Store. It's not completely clear whether this upgrade will still be free.
If you're unfortunate enough to have a Windows RT device, sorry, but you won't be able to upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft sold you a dud.
You'll need to make sure you're upgrading to the right version – see the section on Windows 10 price below.
Upgrading will mean you'll lose a few things whatever version of Windows you're on, but none of them are of any consequence – these include desktop gadgets from Vista, Media Center and Windows 8 Metro. All very forgettable.
Windows 10 release date
The Windows 10 release date is July 29. The operating system will be available in 190 territories globally (111 languages), with existing Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users having one year (until July 29 2016) to upgrade free to the new version. After that they will presumably still be able to upgrade, but they'll have to purchase an upgrade version.
Microsoft has planned a phased approach to the launch. Windows 10 will be release for desktop and laptop devices first, and will then trickle down to phones, the Xbox One, Arduino machines and finally its own HoloLens.
Windows 10 will be available in seven versions. These are IoT (Internet of Things, for devices like Raspberry Pi, Intel Galileo or Imagination's Creator Ci20), Mobile, Home, Enterprise and Professional. There's also a new Mobile Enterprise version (as Microsoft takes aim at BlackBerry's stomping ground), well as Education.
Windows 10 Mobile and Mobile Enterprise are predictably for small screens less than eight inches in size, so small tablets as well.
Windows 10 Mobile is a joy to use (we've got the Windows Insider version running on a Lumia 640). It doesn't have IE, but it does have Microsoft Edge. Mobile Enterprise is designed to be similar for IT admins to deploy as Windows 10 Enterprise (see below), but we haven't seen it in action.
Windows 10 Mobile, Mobile Enterprise and Windows 10 for Xbox (a new system update including Cortana) are among Windows 10 features and versions thathaven't hit the streets at the same time as the other verisons.
Windows 10 Home includes game streaming from Xbox One and other consumer features like Cortana, as well as Windows Hello for logging into your PC via a fingerprint scanner or your face.
Windows 10 Home and Pro are available free to some users – see more on that below.
The Pro and Enterprise versions come with security and management improvements. Windows 10 also has a completely new approach to licences (including the ability to sign in with Azure Active Directory accounts). Both can join a domain.
Windows 10 Pro also includes Hyper-V for virtualisation, BitLocker whole disk encryption, enterprise mode IE, Remote Desktop, a version of the Windows Store for your own business and assigned access (which locks a PC to running only one modern application, to use like a kiosk). Network admins can also schedule updates so they don't happen at important times.
Enterprise adds group policy Direct Access for connecting without a VPN, AppLocker for whitelisting apps and BranchCache for sharing downloads. Enterprise also has an option that doesn't get changes (apart from security updates for five years). For more on this, check out What Windows 10 means for the enterprise.
Windows 10 Education is designed for Universities and similar organisations. It's similar to Windows 10 Enterprise, but it can also be installed as an upgrade to Windows 10 Home. That means organisations can integrate students' own PCs with their own.
In comparison, there were only four versions of Windows 8.1 (five if you include Windows Phone 8) and one of them was the dead-as-a-dodo Windows RT.
Whatever version of Windows 10 you get, Microsoft will offer mainstream support for it until October 13, 2020 with Extended support until October 14, 2025 (so just security updates for the last five years).
It will be free to upgrade to Windows 10 for the first year after release. That doesn't mean you will have to pay after that if you've already upgraded, it just means that you need to upgrade your PC by Summer 2016.
Windows 10 Home and Pro will be available for free to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users that have appropriate licenses, so Windows 8.1 Pro users can upgrade to Windows 10 Pro and so on.
For users who are not eligible for Microsoft's upgrade program – those who upgrade outside the first year free offer, those running a pirated version or those running a Windows operating system older than Windows 7 – Windows 10 Home will cost $119 (£78, AU$156) and Windows 10 Pro will cost $199 (£131, AU$262) per license.
There is an option for Windows 10 Home users who want to upgrade to Pro, but it isn't cheap – they will have to pay an additional $99 (£65, AU$130) for the Windows 10 Pro Pack.
But if you don't have the ability to get a free upgrade to Windows 10, then listen up: the cheapest, (legal) route to getting Windows 10 on your PC is via Windows 7. Yep, you should buy Windows 7 first. You will need to download truckloads (several GBs) of updates before you'll get offered the OS upgrade, but it can be done.
