The ever-busy developers at Microsoft have been gradually releasing fun new utilities for Windows users to mess with. These PowerToys tend to add a bit of quirky-but-practical functionality to your operating system, and they’re completely free for you to try. We’ve covered some of their previous offerings, but two latest additions are some of the best yet.

It’s a bummer that Dark Sky is going away for some people—whether you’re an Android user or your depend on the service’s API for your own customised weather setup, like a Home Assistant card. But maybe it wasn’t the best weather service to begin with?

Dark Sky just announced it has been acquired by Apple, and with the sale come a few big problems for fans of the hyper-local weather app. First of all, the Android app is going away altogether—for obvious reasons. You can continue to use it until July 1, and subscribers will be refunded any money they’ve spent on a subscription that will soon become worthless.

Once again, a batch of Android apps managed to make their way onto the Google Play Store and infect more than one million devices with malware. I don’t mean to be glib about it; it’s a problem, and it’s happening with enough frequency, and affecting enough people, that it feels almost kind of commonplace at this point. If you download random apps you’ve never heard of, or apps that haven’t haven’t been critically reviewed, even if they have a lot of downloads and user reviews, you’re taking a risk.

Which Android app is worth a spot on your new smartphone or tablet? Trying to find the very best of the best is a challenging process, because there are millions of apps to pick from on the Google Play Store. Even if you just scan Google’s “top free” or “top paid” list on a daily basis, you’ll miss out on a lot of digital gems. Allow us to help you out with some of our favourites for Android.

Over the past few weeks, more and more of us have started spending a bit more time at home. Maybe your office is asking everyone to work from home, or you’re self-quarantining because you’ve travelled recently or been exposed to someone that has the virus. Or maybe all your plans to attend sporting events, concerts, and movies have been cancelled. Whatever the reason, you’ve probably found that you have a bit of extra time on your hands. How are you spending it?

I stirred up a bit of a hornet’s nest this week when I suggested that people should switch from Google Authenticator to another two-factor authentication app on Android. I recommended Authy, but that’s only because I use it and find it incredibly convenient. Not only does it forbid you (and other apps) from taking screenshots of it, but I appreciate the additional verification security built into Authy (and the options you have to maintain the security of your 2FA keys even when using more controversial features, like its ability to quickly synchronise your 2FA keys to other devices you own).

I’ve been working from home for a number of years now, and there are few things more satisfying than being able to do your laundry and get work done instead of having to waste your precious evening hours on chores. It’s the one silver lining of the coronavirus—the hope that maybe, just maybe, some companies will relax their anti-WFH policies a bit and allow employees to take advantage of the extra productivity (and world’s easiest commute).

Setting up a new phone is always a pain. But it can be especially annoying trying to search for and re-download all of your apps. In the video above, I show you how to easily find all the apps you’ve ever downloaded or purchased.

A recent Buzzfeed investigation discovered that several popular VPN and adblocking apps for Android and iOS secretly collected user data and sent it to Sensor Tower, a cross-platform data analytics service for app developers. The snooping apps include.

Android users have been urged to delete any apps from the Chinese company Shenzhen Hawk immediately. The 24 apps were released into the Google Play Store under fake developer names and have been downloaded more than 380 million times - which translates to a lot of vulnerable devices. Here's what you need to know.

Many of us have become accustomed to constantly force closing apps. We were told it helps improve battery life and makes our phones run faster. But the truth is, it can actually have the opposite effect.

Google recently announced it banned over 600 apps from the Play Store for using aggressive advertising practices. Buzzfeed reports that many were published by relatively popular developers like Cheetah Mobile, which had 45 apps available on the Play Store—some with billions of downloads—before being banned.

Does your phone continue to show you work-related email or Slack notifications even after your workday is over? Do you feel compelled to open those apps when you see the notifications, just to make sure you haven’t missed anything important—and then do you feel compelled to respond right away, even if the message can wait until the next day?

Fitness classes can be motivating in a way that exercising by yourself is not. Somebody’s pushing you to go the distance, to do that next rep, and with luck they’ll drown out the part of your brain that’s tempting you to go home and have dinner already.

Sometimes, you want to be alone, but your coworkers, pets, or kids won’t go away. Goodbye, productivity. Thankfully, there are plenty of techniques you can use to carve out a little bubble of comfort for yourself when you’re trying to burn through all the items on your to-do list.

The Fintech revolution is upon us. A product of technological developments pushing financial services into the next (or, arguably, the current) realm, ‘Fintech’ has spawned countless apps, websites, services and solutions, many of which are aimed at improving the financial life of consumers who have previously been at the mercy of the big banks.

Whether we’re not paying attention or we just don’t want to deal with the world, we all have those moments when we realise ... we’ve been on the computer all day. When this happens, you can beat yourself up for your lack of willpower (or sheer laziness), or you can turn to an application for help.

When you’re in a rush and see a line of restless passengers standing at the check-in counter, having your airline’s app downloaded is key.