Microsoft has officially announced to offer pirate amnesty to all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, with free upgrades to Windows 10. Earlier, Microsoft has offered cheap Windows 8 activations for $14.99 to gain traction for the newly released OS, but this time it's absolutely free for all. The offer will be available worldwide and would also means that anybody during the first year of Windows 10 release can pirate Windows 7 or Windows 8.x and then upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

Despite being the most widely used authentication system of the digital world, Password based authentication have their own set of issues and challenges. Whether it be the compromised security situation due to leakage and brute-forcing of passwords or be it the inconvenience of memorizing passwords and the hassle to input them every time for access.

Microsoft has tried to tackle the issue in Windows 8 by using Picture Login Feature, their are also some third-party apps like face-recognition authentication app Blink! as an alternative. Taking things further, Microsoft will be introducing Windows Hello Biometric Authentication Technology in upcoming Windows 10 devices. The new authentication system utilizes a variety of biometric inputs like fingerprint, face, or iris scans, in addition to hardware and software fingerprinting to allow seamless, secure and instant user recognition and sign-in.

According to Microsoft, Windows Hello was designed to replace insecure password based authentication and deliver enterprise grade security and privacy for it's users. The technology makes authentication a simple matter of looking at or touching a device running Windows 10 and be immediately signed in. The new technology is designed to be much safer than traditional passwords, the combination of user biometric data and the device signature are the keys to your Windows experience, apps, data and even websites and services. Do watch the video shared below for a demonstration and further introduction to the technology.

Finally got the chance to give Microsoft Windows 10 Technical Preview a try, to get it loaded onto a new machine I opted to create a Bootable Windows USB drive as shared ahead. While the Windows 7 Bootable Disk Maker Tool worked fine for Windows 8 Bootable USB, it failed with Windows 10 TP ISO image.

I used the excellent portable, bootable usb disk maker utility Rufus to get the job done, just point the utility to Windows 10 TP ISO as shown below and click the Start button.

The $35 Raspberry Pi Mini-PC originally aimed to be an affordable educational device to learn computing has started a whole new category of enthusiast using the mini-computer under various scenarios from smart electronic projects to desktop computer's and mini-servers.

The all new second generation Raspberry Pi 2 Model B has now available offering 6x more performance then it's predecessor, thanks to an all new 900MHz Quad-Core Armv7 SOC (Single Board Computer) Broadcom BCM2836 coupled with 1GB of RAM. Apart from the CPU and RAM everything remains the same from form factor to connectors like 4 USB ports, 40 GPIO pins, Full HDMI port, Ethernet port, Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video, Camera interface (CSI), Display interface (DSI), Micro SD card slot and VideoCore IV 3D graphics core - which means all the older accessories and software-code can be used with the new Pi.

To make the news even more sweeter, the new Raspberry Pi 2 Model B will cost the same US$35 and will also support an IoT (Internet Of Things) trimmed down version of Microsoft Windows 10. This release of Windows 10 will also be 100% free for the Maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT.

Microsoft has announced the Internet Explorer killer, company's Windows 10 will ship with a brand new browser, codenamed “Project Spartan.” Designed for Windows 10, Spartan is a single browser developed for the entire Windows 10 device family - from keyboard and mouse on the Windows 10 desktop to touch, gestures, voice, controllers and sensors on other devices. The new web-browser from Microsoft is designed to offer a more interoperable, reliable, and discoverable experience with advanced features including the ability to annotate on web pages, a distraction-free reading experience, and integration of Cortana for finding and doing things online faster.

Powered by a new rendering engine, Spartan is designed for the modern web with greater emphasis on performance, security and support for modern web-technologies across Windows 10 devices. The new rendering engine will be the default engine for Windows 10, Spartan will also allow loading of IE11 engine for legacy enterprise web sites and applications using older technologies designed only for Internet Explorer, such as custom ActiveX controls and Browser Helper Objects.

Latest build of Microsoft Windows 10 Technical Preview is now made available for users to download, notable changes (also shared in the video posted at the end of this blog post) and new features from previous build includes Cortana! for Desktop, New Settings App, New Store (BETA), New Windows Menu, New Start Menu, New XBox App, New Photos and Maps apps!, Native MKV and FLAC support, Connect Hub for technologies like Bluetooth and Miracast.

Microsoft seems to have learned the lesson and this time asking users what features they want in Windows 10. To collect public opinion Microsoft is utilizing the popular UserVoice platform as Windows Feature Suggestion Box asking Windows PC/Tablet users to provide ideas, suggestions and feedback to help build the next version of Windows best ever. Do make your Vote count, every user gets 20 votes to vote for their favorite features.

Microsoft is adding native support for newer audio and video codecs to the upcoming Windows 10 OS release, the new codecs to come pre-installed with Windows would be MKV - the high-quality container format which can have multiple streams of audio and subtitle along with video, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) or H.265 - the successor to de-facto video compression standard MP4 V.264 and FLAC - the high-quality, lossless audio format loved by audiophiles.

A new kernel version signify new changes at the very core level of the operating-system, and the build 9888 of Microsoft Windows 10 which just surfaced via some private channel suggests a kernel version jump from 6.4 to version 10.0 as shown in images below. This large jump in kernel version number hints at massive overhaul of the underlying components and seems to be targeted on company's effort to consolidate all of its platforms into OneCore, a name given by Microsoft to it's single kernel for all of the company's operating systems (Desktop and Mobile).

As expected Microsoft announced the next major upgrade to their flagship operating system at a press conference in San Francisco, however the new version is called Windows 10, and not Windows 9 as everyone anticipated. With this new incarnation of the Windows OS platform, Microsoft will be unifying the application Eco-system for all devices: desktops, laptops, consoles, tablets, and phones - Microsoft's executive VP of operating systems, Terry Myerson said "There will be one way to write a universal application, one store, one way for apps to be discovered purchased and updated across all of these devices". The new hybrid Start Menu is one such addition which acts as an bridge for unifying Metro-style apps which can now operate inside their own windows in Desktop/Laptop mode. There's a new, multiple-desktop feature and also a feature that lets users easily grab objects from one desktop and transfer it to another. The Microsoft Windows 10 Technical Preview builds for desktops and laptops are now officially available for download with integrated activation keys from the links shared ahead, the final Windows 10 version is scheduled to be launched in late 2015.