Public wireless networks are becoming more and more popular as a means of attracting people to a particular business or service, and this is just one of the many ways in which free (or almost free) Wi-Fi can be accessed. It seems, in fact, that there are many ways in which you can connect wirelessly to the Internet, almost anywhere…

Aware that I should probably listen to the occasional contemporary sound, I became a convert to the BBC’s 6 Music channel, which plays an astounding mix of great tunes from the 1950′s to the 2010′s. Now able to get my fix of good music, it suddenly occurred to be one day when I was heading out that I would be unable to listen to this digital-only radio station in the street – without a suitable mobile app with which to do so.

Just like a full desktop, a new PC build can be expensive. The best way to minimize the cost while focusing on the most suitable components is to upgrade your unit, rather than start from scratch. Various cost-saving options are open to anyone building a brand new computer or upgrading an existing device.

Security threats have increasingly come from new directions and that isn’t looking set to change in 2013. There are new risks you should be aware of, exploits of popular applications, increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks, malware, and scams targeting our love of social networks and photo sharing, and threats associated with viewing online videos.

Windows Phone has a great relationship with social networks, integrating Windows Live, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook into its People hub. This integration means that the user can quickly check statuses, reply to posts and messages, share photos and generally save time by keeping their online social experience centralized. It doesn’t always work this way, however. While these services are integrated into the OS, some of their functions are limited.

Just one more city to go. I launched my tank attack, positioned my bombers and arranged the infantry for the final push. It wouldn’t take long, I knew it, and as the dominoes fell, total victory would be mine. And then Civilization V crashed.Video game crashes are still extremely frustrating – especially as they really shouldn’t happen in this day and age. There are various factors and these will tell you the eventual fix for the issue.

I’ve been building a media centre recently. Actually, scratch that – I’ve been building two. One is a compact device (my Raspberry Pi) running the RaspBMC distribution of XBMC, while the other is a traditional HTPC home build – a media centre in a slimline PC case with added TV card. At this stage I haven’t quite decided which system I’m going to stick with long term, so I have a sort of competition running between the two.

While computers and the Internet have moved into the public consciousness since the late 1990′s, their importance wasn’t quite appreciated until recently. But the computer revolution that started in the 1960′s was well into its stride when the following excellent documentaries were broadcast in the 1980′s and 1990′s. These must-watch films explain everything you need to know about the birth of computing and the development of the Internet.

There seems to be a sort of general malaise among users – the tech savvy and everyday users alike – that because your computer fits in your pocket, it can’t be infected by malware, Trojans, worms or other threats. This is, of course, ridiculous, and perhaps stems from the age-old misunderstanding of the nature of malware transmission.

Back in the day, a bricked device would be very tough to recover, but over the years some resilience has been built into smartphones and tablets. These days a few clever button presses, useful additional software, a USB cable and a few prayers (the prayers are optional, of course) will sort out many bricking issues. But as it turns out, you don’t even need to go as far as that!

After spending hundreds of dollars on smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops, we all try to be vigilant when it comes to thieves. In most cases you can walk down a street without any trouble; most days your briefcase or satchel won’t be stolen when you put it down beside you in a restaurant or railway station. Most days, your home or office won’t be broken into and your computer stolen.

When I head out I’m already carrying my Windows Phone. What I don’t need is an extra device in order to access any books I might fancy reading. Fortunately, Amazon appreciates this and has released apps mimicking the functions of their popular Kindle device. One of the first apps to launch on Windows Phone 7 back in October 2010, Amazon Kindle is now available for Windows Phone 8 devices.

Whenever you switch to a new operating system there are always a few new things to learn – and with Windows 8, the learning curve has increased considerably with the new user interface and built-in store adding a new dimension to Microsoft’s long-running OS. One of the key differences in Windows 8 is the approach to social networking.

As befits a new operating system, over the past few weeks we’ve featured many articles about how to use and tweak Windows 8. With the focus largely on tweaking. After all, when so many developers have gone to the lengths of making tools to make the new operating system more customizable, it would be a shame to overlook this, especially when so many potential Windows 8 users seem to want to make changes.

I recently purchased a new Windows Phone 8 device (the Nokia Lumia 920) and discovered a much-improved mobile operating system compared with the previous Windows Phone 7.5. However, as much as I am enjoying the new phone, its increased speed and wider selection of functional apps, there is one thing that is a bit of a [...]