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If all ransomware attacks were as feeble as the first recorded one, we’d have little to worry about. In 1989 Dr Joseph Popp, an evolutionary biologist from Harvard University, unleashed a Trojan that encrypted only file names. The method for unlocking these was quickly discovered in the malware’s code. Nearly 30 years on, and the hackers behind the devastating WannaCry attack made no such mistake. Thousands of computers worldwide were crippled, including many NHS machines. It feels like a turning point in the fight against ransomware, because governments, businesses and organisations finally seem to realise its potential for destruction. But it will also surely inspire other hackers to target the many millions of ordinary people using Windows 10. The hack led the headlines for days, but much of what was…

Amazon has released two new, cheap Fire tablets, with sharper screens, longer battery life and more storage. The ‘All-New’ Fire comes in two sizes: seven and eight inches. Prices for the former start at £49.99 (for 8GB) rising to £59.99 for 16GB. The larger Fire costs £79.99 (16GB) and £99.99 (32GB). Only the eight-inch Fire has an HD screen. Its battery life is 12 hours – four hours longer than the seven-inch version. They are the first Amazon tablets to come with Alexa, the company’s voice-activated ‘personal assistant’ that’s built into the Echo smart speaker. It means you can summon Alexa’s help through the tablet when in a different room to the Echo. Older Fire tablets will receive Alexa through a software update in the coming weeks. Both devices are…

Keep IT as secure as NHS visitors I respect the optimism of Professor Mark Skilton, who wants a “global cyber police force” (News, Issue 502, page 6) following the WannaCry hack, but it will never happen. Can anyone seriously imagine Israel sharing security details with Iran? Or North Korea with South Korea? OK, so President Trump seems relaxed about the Russians knowing what the US is up to, but that will stop once sanity returns to the White House. Instead, companies and organisations must realise that protecting their computer systems is just as vital as protecting their buildings. The NHS is a good example. My daughter has just given birth, so I’ve spent some time recently in a local maternity ward. Every effort is made by the hospital to keep…

Q Genealogy site MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) has taken an annual subscription, which is nearly £60 higher than last year’s. I’d been given no prior warning about the renewal or the cost, but I’m outside the 14-day cancellation period. Is there any way I can get my money back? Sherrell Sachse A There may be. Sherrell should first simply try talking to MyHeritage, explaining that she wasn’t told about the price rise. She may catch the company in a generous mood, although it may lead only to a reduction in the subscription, not a refund. If that doesn’t work, Sherrell could take MyHeritage to the small claims court, saying that the company broke the law that requires them to tell customers when their subscriptions are increasing. But she’d find it tricky to…

YOU TELL US WHEN COMPANIES GET IT RIGHT We all tend to moan and complain when things go wrong, so I thought when things go right it would be nice if everyone heard about it. I’d just like to compliment Chillblast (www.chillblast.com) for their first-class support. I have twice needed help with my desktop PC. The latest occasion when ‘Virtualization’ was disabled’ in the BIOS (it was a problem with Kapersky Safe Money). Within minutes of my email they replied with clear and rational advice. It was absolutely outstanding, a gold standard. I’d like to think that all companies could try harder with home-based support teams rather than call centres in India. Lawrie Woodyer Has a company impressed you with its customer service? Please let us know: editor@computeractive.co.uk HOW TO…

FILE BACKUP Disc Archiver 1.0.3 www.broadexsystems.com/discarchiver What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Backing up your data is the single best way to protect yourself against ransomware because it ensures your files are safe even if you’re attacked. Most backup tools and tips assume you’ve shelled out for online storage, external hard drives or even a NAS. But what about good old-fashioned CDs and DVDs? They’re easy to file on your bookshelves and give to friends and family, and they’re still cheap. The main downside is that today’s files are often too big to fit on a single disc. That’s where Disc Archiver steps in. This free program makes backing up files to CD, DVD and Blu-ray much easier than using your PC’s built-in burning tools. It automatically splits…

This ebook reader is a good size, with a grippable back and wide border This new version of the waterproof ereader is even more waterproof: its IPX8 rating means you can not only drop it in the bath but fall asleep while doing so, since it’ll survive for at least an hour. It’s no longer rated dustproof, so sawmill operators should hang on to the old model. Like other ebook readers, the Aura displays pages in black-and-white ‘e ink’, which looks like a real book page, not a glowing screen. As before, Kobo’s ComfortLight feature can be turned on when necessary, and it now adjusts to cut blue light in the evening, when it can affect sleep. You can adjust the brightness manually. The resolution stays the same, at 265…

The first mobile phones, which were like bricks with telescopic aerials, had chunky number keys like landline handsets. As the handsets shrank, these turned into little clicky buttons, but you still only got 0-9, plus star and hash. Typing meant hitting numbers repeatedly to cycle through letters, a skill quickly mastered by the young who learned, like ancient Hebrew scribes, that it was faster to leave out the vowels. With the iPhone, the buttons moved on to the screen, where there was room for the whole alphabet. But you had to look, you couldn’t touch-type. BlackBerry owner RIM had been cramming QWERTY keyboards into phones since they were pagers (pictured), and never stopped. The KEYone’s buttons, though, aren’t what they used to be. Rather than hard and clicky they’re rubbery…

How can I use my TV as a monitor for my laptop? Q I often work on my laptop in the living room. It occurred to me I’m using a 13in screen when there’s a 48in HDTV in the corner! I don’t really want to plug in and unplug a cable every time, but is there an easy way to use the big screen? Brenda Halifax A You could buy a Google Chromecast 2 (£30 from John Lewis www.snipca.com 24414, pictured). Plug this into your TV and you can mirror your laptop’s screen to it. The highest resolution supported is 1920x1080 pixels (1080p Full HD), which matches most 27in monitors. You’ll sit further away from the TV, so it’ll look sharp. Install and run Google’s Chrome browser (www.snipca.com/24415), go to the…

“It’s neat, easy to set up and provides great coverage” Every tech manufacturer and his dog is now quite determined that every household needs a mesh network: a set of two, three or four routers that work together to distribute Wi-Fi evenly around your home. What they’ve found harder to agree on is how much we’ll be willing to pay for it. BT launched its Whole Home Wi-Fi (see our review, Issue 496) at £300 for three dishes, then quickly discounted it to less than £200. Netgear still thinks its Orbi (see Issue 498) is worth the best part of 400 quid for just two boxes, which is beginning to look optimistic. Linksys wanted £350 for its two-pack Velop system, but retailers have decided £249 is more reasonable. If you…

Add 3D images to your newsletters What you need: Windows 10 Creators Update Time required: 40 minutes One of the best features in the Windows 10 Creators Update is the new Paint 3D app. As its name suggests, it lets you create content that includes three-dimensional text and images. We’ll show you how to create a newsletter using images stored on your PC and take you through other great features that Paint 3D has to offer, including professional-looking 3D images you can use for free. STEP 1 To use Paint 3D you first need to update your PC to the Windows 10 Creators Update. If you haven’t already, the easiest way to do this is to open Settings, click ‘Update & security’, then click ‘Check for updates’ 1 (the process…

Timbre Free Android: www.snipca.com/24511 Many popular audio and video-editing apps are free, but they have certain drawbacks including ads, watermarks and in-app purchases. Timbre has none of these, so you can use it to join, cut, split and convert audio and video files with ease. We’ll show you how to use it in the next issue. Echo – NHS Prescriptions Delivered Free iPhone: www.snipca.com/24512 This app gives NHS patients an easy way to schedule repeat prescriptions and have them delivered to their home. The app has been updated to work with 90 per cent of GP surgeries in England. You can chat with a member of the Echo team within the app, and postage is now free for all items. Audm £4.99 a month iPhone: www.snipca.com/24513 Audm takes long journalistic…

Delete Chrome history more selectively Chrome’s ‘Clear browsing history’ tool only provides basic options when it comes to deleting browsing history. For greater control try the History Eraser extension instead. To get it, go to www.snipca.com/24380, click ‘Add to Chrome’, then ‘Add extension’. Click Skip when prompted to install the ‘Click&Clean’ extension. Once it’s installed open it by clicking its icon (a pencil eraser) at the top right. The Eraser section lets you choose precisely what you want to remove, whether that is browser history, download history, cookies, and so on. Simply tick the relevant boxes. Next, click the ‘Erase the following items from’ dropdown menu and select a time period (such as a month). Or to select a specific time period, choose the ‘-/-’ option, click the date in…

Is MultiClipBoardSlots working correctly? QI liked the idea behind MultiClipBoardSlots (Issue 493, page 42) so I installed it and saved some items that I frequently copy and paste. It worked fine, but once I rebooted the computer my saved items disappeared. There does not seem to be any provision for saving them so that they are restored on reboot – am I missing a trick? Charles Gambrill AYou’re not missing a trick, Charles. MultiClipBoardSlots doesn’t keep track of the items you save to its clipboard between PC reboots. It’s designed more for helping you manage specific tasks during one session on your computer. But there are programs that do what you want. Try 1Clipboard (www.1clipboard. io), for example. To get it, click the ‘Download – it’s free’ button, then click…

Disappearing ports I’ve owned or driven loads of cars. A lifetime ago, for example, I had an Austin Maestro. Remember those? They could talk! My memory might be playing tricks on me but my Maestro’s chatty dashboard mostly seemed to say, “I’ve broken down again. Sorry about that, old chap”. Later, I treated myself to a Ford Granada Scorpio. That was a good car. Well, right up until it veered off the road and ended up crumpled in a ditch. Must have had faulty self-driving technology, that one. Since then, I’ve owned Volkswagens, Toyotas, Volvos, Minis and even, for reasons I might one day explain in this column, a Reliant Robin. That’s many different marques. But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed over the years, and that’s the little camping…

Social-media websites were swamped with false reports of missing children within hours of the suicide bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. Hoaxers posted Twitter requests for news of supposed loved ones, often including photos of people who weren’t at the concert. It appears they were hoping the messages would be retweeted by people who thought they were helping. Some messages were retweeted over 10,000 times. Twitter was also used by people to post genuine messages about missing loved ones, highlighting how hard it is for users to tell real news from fake. Once the tweets were dismissed as hoaxes, Twitter users asked Greater Manchester Police to investigate, with one saying: “Sickening people using fake stories to get attention during this sad time”. Photos purporting to show bodies…

Jane Hoskyn puts the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and software stuffed with junk Junk offender: ImgBurn Download mirror sites like Tucows and Softpedia have a history of bundling junk in their installers, so we generally advise that you download programs directly from developers’ websites instead. But then programs like ImgBurn come along and turn that advice on its head. ImgBurn is a good tool for saving data to CD and DVD, which keeps your files away from ransomware hackers. Our favourite, Disc Archiver (see Best Free Software, page 18), is safe and junk-free, but the same can’t be said for the likes of BurnAware Free (Named & Shamed, Issue 497) and ImgBurn. Mirror, mirror The ImgBurn website offers an unlucky seven download links, including six that take you…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive On first-name terms with my high street Arthur Lomas is being a touch callous when he implores us not to mourn the death of the high street (Letters, Issue 502). I take his point that not all shopping is a pleasant way to spend the weekend, but there are many people who need essentials every day, and for them the high street will never be replaced by the internet. I’m probably a good example. Every day in my small Wiltshire town I visit my high street to buy items from the newsagent, the butcher, the bookstore and the charity shop. I know the first names of all the people in those shops, and they know mine. I always…

We stand up for your legal rights Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Write: Consumeractive, Computeractive, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD Please include both your phone number and address. Unfortunately, we can’t reply to all your letters. Can I get a refund for faulty secondhand laptop? Q Ten months ago I bought a refurbished Dell Windows 7 desktop PC from eBay seller Tradetrading (www.ebay.co.uk/usr/tradetrading). The laptop has now completely died. I only paid £50, but it wasn’t used much or connected to the internet because it’s a spare for my bedroom. Tradetrading is fobbing off my phone calls. Can you help? Kaz Hilto A We’ll try. Kaz realises that she’s missed the 180-day deadline to claim a refund through PayPal’s Buyer Protection. But she was right…

Q My phone contract with EE included a new iPhone 6S, which developed vertical lines down the side of the screen after only 29 days. I took it back immediately, but EE’s sales assistant told me I’d dropped and damaged it, which I hadn’t. It was sent away for repair, but EE says it can’t be fixed, and that I have to pay £250 for a replacement. Surely this is wrong? Bill Cole A Yes it’s wrong. As is becoming disconcertingly common, a Computeractive reader has been left frustrated by a sales assistant’s misunderstanding of consumer law. In this case, the assistant didn’t know that within six months of purchase the onus is on the retailer to prove that a fault has been caused by the customer. Screen faults can…

WATCH OUT FOR… Fake URLs with Cyrillic letters What’s the threat? Scammers have created a fake URL for the messaging service WhatsApp using letters from the Cyrillic alphabet that look similar to letters in the Latin alphabet (used in English). Instead of www.whatsapp.com, the URL is http://chatsapp.com.com/?colors (see screenshot), with the letters ‘ç’ and ‘t’ replacing ‘w’, and ‘t’. The criminals hope you won’t notice. The URL appears in adverts for a tool that promises to change the colour of WhatsApp. If you click the link, you’re redirected to a scam site that asks you to share it with your friends, who will receive the message ‘I love the new colors for whatsapp’, and a link to the fake site. Next you’re told to install the Chrome extension BlackWhats but…

It looks rather like an Apple TV, but where Apple offers films and TV series to rent or buy, the H3 Espresso is mostly about watching live. Its TVPlayer app works like a Freeview box, giving you access to 79 free channels, including all the UK terrestrial ones. You also get CNN International, YouTube and, for those with a subscription, Netflix. There’s no BBC iPlayer for catch-up TV. It all comes over the internet, so you don’t need an aerial but you do need reasonably fast broadband: 2Mbps is recommended as a minimum. Picture quality is better than traditional TV or standard definition Freeview, though not as good as HD cable. If you want more channels, TVPlayer Plus offers 29, including MTV, Gold and Cartoon Network, for £5.99 a month,…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2016 Back Issue CD: £15 fromwww.snipca.com/23209 LAPTOP Dell Inspiron 15 5000 £699 from www.snipca.com/23375 Tested: Issue 459 Now updated with Intel’s seventhgeneration processors, this laptop ( not the 2-in-1 version) now edges the ZenBook below and starts at just £449, but mid-range configurations with SSD and AMD R7 graphics are the best choice. ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenBook UX305CA If you want something sleeker, this offers basic performance in a superbly slim and light metal case. £600 from www.snipca.com/23376 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £600 from www.snipca.com/24140 Tested: Issue 501 Samsung’s new mid-sized tablet has a wonderful HDR screen and comes with a pen included, unlike Apple’s iPad Pro. But its processor isn’t the fastest and it’s disappointingly expensive, especially…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Rearrange photos within your albums In Issue 501’s ‘What Should I Download?’ (page 19), your advice was to switch to Google Photos, which is what I use to back up and organise my photos. In the same tip, you said: “And while its automatic sorting and searching are great, it doesn’t let you rearrange photos manually”. It’s true that you cannot rearrange photos that you upload to Google Photos. However, you can rearrange photos within your albums. Go to www.photos.google.com, then log in using your Google account. To create an album, move your cursor to the top left of any photo you want to add to your album, then tick to select it. You’ll see tickboxes on all the other photos…

AGES 0-5 Hey Duggee: The Big Outdoor App £2.49 www.snipca.com/24514 (Android) £2.99 www.snipca.com/24515 (iOS) A spin-off from the CBeebies show, this app will entertain your child with a variety of activities and games. Our favourites include catching falling acorns, making a paper boat to help the ants and piloting a submarine in an underwater adventure. AGES 6-10 BBC Doctor Who 360 Website: www.snipca.com/24516 This game works on any device, including a PC. Simply go to the website in your browser and tap Play to fly the TARDIS through the time vortex, collecting energy orbs by tilting your device or using the mouse. At one point, you’ll need to turn around to avoid threats from the past. AGES 11-16 Pictionary* Free www.snipca.com/24517 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/24518 (iOS) Take turns to draw, and…

SWAY Create your own online newsletter In our Workshop on page 35, we explain how to create a newsletter using 3D images. If you want to create a relatively simple online newsletter and then share a link to it, Sway lets you do that. Go to www.sway.com and log in using your Microsoft account. On the ‘Welcome to Sway’ page, scroll to the ‘Start from a template’ section, click the arrows to the left and right until you reach the Newsletter template, then click to open it. You’ll see a page layout with random images and text that you can customise. Click ‘Start editing this Sway’. In the editing pane, you’ll see the text and image sections. Click in the text section, delete any default text and replace it with…

Rather than delete your browsing history, you might want to save it so you have a record of websites you’ve visited. Do this with NirSoft’s free BrowsingHistoryView tool. To get it, go to www.snipca.com/24390, scroll to the bottom of the page, click the ‘Download BrowsingHistoryView’ link, extract the downloaded ZIP, then double-click BrowsingHistoryView.exe. To see your entire browsing history, choose ‘Load history items from any time’ from the ‘Filter by visit date/time’ dropdown menu, tick the boxes next to the browsers you use, then click OK. Your browsing history is displayed as a list. To make it easier to analyse, you can sort it by browser by clicking the Web Browser column header. To save your history, press Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select everything in the list, then click…

User name Password Have you ever left the house only to be tormented by the niggling worry that you’ve forgotten to turn the oven off or lock your front door? While it may be far from convenient, you can always return home to check and alleviate your anxiety. But what if the knot in your stomach has to do with one of your online accounts? What happens, for example, if you’ve been to a friend’s house and logged on to your email account using their computer, or if you popped to the library and used one of its public PCs to access your Facebook account, and you get the sinking feeling that you forgot to click the logout button? Here we explain how to remotely sign out of the most…

Q Not long ago, I came across a handy little tip that makes entering web addresses in Firefox quicker – pressing the Control key+Enter adds the .com part. I use this keyboard shortcut regularly now, but it occurred to me recently that most of the websites I visit end in.co.uk rather than.com. Is it possible to change the behaviour of this shortcut to enter.co.uk instead? Anthony Parks A Yes. First, click in Firefox’s address bar, type about:config and press Enter. Read and take note of the warning, then click the ‘I’ll be careful, I promise!’ button. Next, in the Search bar just to the left of the address bar, type browser.fixup.alternate.suffix. Then, under Preference Name, right-click browser.fixup.alternate.suffix and choose Modify (see top screenshot). In the ‘Enter string value’ box that…

The remake of Nokia’s highly anticipated 3310 phone sold out in many stores within hours of going on sale on 24 May. Carphone Warehouse said that it had run of out stock for the “reimagined classic”, which first went on sale in 2000. Vodafone said it still had some phones left, but confirmed that demand had been “really high”. Available for £49.99 in blue, yellow, grey and red, the phone is a throwback to the days before smartphones, Facebook and selfies. It has a 2GB camera, a battery that lasts for 22 hours of talk time, and offers limited web connectivity through 2.5G. It also contains the game Snake, a much-loved feature of the original phone. Nokia made more than 126 million of the first 3310, before phasing it out…

NEW TECH BADGES FOR GIRL GUIDES Video-blogging and app design could become new skill badges for the Girl Guides. They have been suggested by members of the association, after it asked the public on social media for ideas to “bring our activities bang up to date”. It’s part of a programme to make the organisation “more relevant” to the lives of girls and teenagers. WARN USERS ABOUT FACEBOOK ADDICTION Health experts have said that Facebook and Twitter should display pop-up warnings if users are on the sites for too long. In a report on young people’s wellbeing, the Royal Society for Public Health said that the sites should warn users about the dangers of becoming addicted to social media. It also called for them to monitor what people write in…

A machine Adolf Hitler used to encrypt messages sent to his generals has been recreated online to honour the British codebreaker who cracked it. The Nazis thought the Lorenz SZ42 (pictured far right) was unbreakable because of how complicated the encryption was. It used 12 wheels and a series of switches to scramble text, and was capable of producing more than 16 billion billion potential combinations. But mathematician Bill Tutte, working at Bletchley Park, uncovered the Lorenz code by analysing a mistake a German spy made while sending a message. The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) hails it as “the greatest intellectual feat” of World War II. Encryption experts now regard the Lorenz as more advanced than the Enigma machine, famously cracked by Alan Turing. The Virtual Lorenz website (www.snipca.com/24419,…

If you struggle to hear mumbled dialogue when you watch TV (join the club), you probably find subtitles invaluable. They feel like a friend, helping you to watch and enjoy in comfort. So I was appalled – if not entirely surprised – to hear that hackers are now targeting subtitles used by popular media players including Kodi and VLC. Researchers at security firm Check Point have discovered malicious subtitle files that install malware on users’ computers after breezing past their antivirus (AV) programs, which tend to assume that subtitle files are safe (www.snipca.com/24527). The researchers haven’t said what form this zero-day malware takes – it could be ransomware, for all we know – but they have urged AV firms to recognise the threat of hacked subtitle files, which it called…

I would like to award Computeractive the award for ‘Understatement of the Year’ for its comment that Facebook reading people’s brains “has the potential to go very wrong” (‘What’s All the Fuss About?’, Issue 502). Initially it was heartwarming to read how ‘brain-computer interfaces’ can help disabled people to move their paralysed limbs. But it was just as depressing to read Facebook’s plans to convert our thoughts into text. Let’s remember how Facebook makes it money – through advertising. In the UK alone it made about £1.2bn last year. Every change it makes to its site is for one purpose only – to make more money through advertising. The reason Facebook is so attractive to advertisers is that they can tailor adverts to types of people – young, old, male,…

Q A friend gave me an HP 15 laptop that she’d bought in the US. The hard drive has failed, and despite it having seven months warranty, HP in England refuses to repair it. The reason given is that the hard drive in the laptop isn’t the same as the one HP has in stock. Can you help? Charles Larman A We’ll do our best, because HP’s excuse sounds lame. But what’s puzzled us is why HP didn’t point that it’s under no legal obligation to honour a warranty meant for the US market. Instead it’s muddied the waters by claiming that it doesn’t have any compatible hard drives, which we think is unlikely. Many hard drives are interchangeable. It’s one reason why a retailer can’t refuse to take back…

‘Goodwill’ from Three, but bad policy We like goodwill gestures because they show companies can be flexible. But often companies use the term to describe something that, actually, they are bound to do by law. It gives the erroneous impression that the company is doing the customer a favour. The latest company guilty of this is Three. As we reported in Issue 502, it sold reader Peter Gilmore a ZTE V7 Blade phone that developed a fault within two months. Three told Peter to return it to ZTE for repair, which he did, but this didn’t fix the phone. At this point Three demonstrated a shocking ignorance of consumer law. It wanted to send the phone for another repair, seemingly not realising that under the 2015 Consumer Rights Act companies…

“Your laptop should boot up as before, but quicker” Laptops aren’t as easily upgradable as desktops, and some not at all, but if yours has a standard 2.5in hard drive this Kingston kit helps you swap it for a much faster 480GB SSD. Costing £10-£15 extra over the drive alone, this bundle adds an external caddy that lets you plug in the SSD via USB before you start. Using the supplied Acronis True Image HD software, you clone your existing hard drive to it. Then it’s out with the screwdriver to swap the drives, using the included foam spacer if necessary, and your laptop should boot up as before, but quicker. Our tests showed write speeds over 500 megabytes per second (MB/s) and read speeds over 550MB/s, falling to 320-440MB/s…

A few years ago, Sonos, the big name in multi-room audio, cut the price of its cheapest speaker to under £200, and since then we’ve seen a growing number of competitors. At first glance, Yamaha’s model may be the most similar to the Sonos Play:1 – it’s almost the same size and shape, but its fabric cover feels a bit less synthetic and its glossy touch-sensitive top panel is arguably more elegant. Like the Play:1, it comes in black or white, and crucially it’s about £80 cheaper. It’s hard to match Sonos’ sound quality, but we found the WX-010 sounded surprisingly good. A 2.5cm tweeter and a 9cm woofer are packed inside, along with two passive radiators to boost the bass, and what came out was rich and punchy, although…

Win 1 of 4 KitSound Hive2 Bluetooth speakers The revamped Hive2 speaker has more power and clearer sound than ever. It creates 12 Watts of audio power, delivering warm rich bass notes alongside a controlled mid-range and a delicate treble. It gives you the sort of sound quality that you wouldn’t normally expect from such a small speaker. Fully charged it lasts up to 12 hours. To enter this competition, email your address to cacomp@dennis. co.uk with ‘hive’ in the subject line by midnight 20 June. Good luck! You can buy the Hive 2 speaker for £31.99 from Amazon UK. For more KitSound products visit www.kitsound.co.uk, and follow @KitSoundUK on Twitter.…

Most Android apps run in the background even when you’re not using them, which can drain your mobile data. While some background apps, like Gmail and WhatsApp, need to do this to alert you of new emails and messages, most apps do not. GlassWire is a great free app that identifies these data-draining culprits and lets you stop them running. It also has a useful feature that will ensure you stay within your mobile data limit. STEP 1 Install the app (www.snipca.com/24431) and open it on your Android phone or tablet. When it first opens, tap Go To Settings. Here, tap GlassWire, then the ‘Allow usage access’ slider to turn it on 1 . Now tap the back button 2 twice to return to the app, tap Next, then tap…

iOS Create slick videos with Apple’smovie-editing app Apple’s iMovie is one of the best free apps for editing videos. It previously cost £3.99 unless you had bought a new iPhone or iPad after September 2013. However, Apple recently made the app free for everyone. Install and open iMovie (www.snipca.com/24509), tap Continue, Create Project, then tap Movie. Tap to select the photo and video files you want to add to your movie, then tap Create Movie. You’ll see a preview pane at the top of the screen and a timeline below containing the files you selected. To rearrange files within your timeline, tap and hold any file, then move it to the left or right. Small buttons appear between each file. Tap one to see a range of transition effects (such…

WINDOWS 7, 8, 10 Make more room on your screen There’s an easy way to hide the taskbar when you’re not using it to create more space on your PC screen. To do this in Windows 7, right-click your PC’s Start button, click Properties, select the Taskbar tab, tick ‘Auto-hide the taskbar’, click Apply, then OK. In Windows 10, open Settings, click Personalisation, Taskbar at the bottom left, then switch on the ‘Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode’ slider. To access your taskbar, move your cursor to the bottom of the screen and it will slide into view. WINDOWS 7, 8, 10 See what time it is across the world If you have family or friends living in other countries and you want to phone or Skype them, there’s…

We’ve previously covered several Excel formulae that make analysing data easier. The “IF” formula is another handy one that lets you categorise numbers into two distinct groups based on their value. For example, you can set a formula to display Higher or Lower next to numbers in relation to a specific value. For our example, we’ll create a formula that puts Pass or Fail next to exam scores where 70 is the pass mark. First, click inside cell F1, then type =IF(E1>=70, “Pass”, “Fail”). The formula basically states that if the number in cell E1 exceeds or is equal to 70, add Pass in cell F1. If the number is below 70, add Fail. Press Enter after typing your formula to see the score assessment appear in cell F1. Next,…

What is it? A new version of Windows 10 that can only run apps installed from the Windows Store, which means you won’t be able to download many popular programs. For example, Chrome and Photoshop will be off limits because neither is available through the Windows Store – at least, not yet. Remind me again - what’s the difference between apps and programs? Windows Store apps have been designed to work on touchscreen computers, as well as PCs operated by a mouse and keyboard. Programs only work with the latter. This affects the design of both. Buttons in apps are larger, and more spaced out, to better suit finger taps. But they usually lack right-click options, and have fewer features than programs. Are Office apps available? Yes, preview versions of…

Q I’ve been using Windows 10 for over a year now, mostly without problems. I don’t often use the Control Panel but when I do, I usually open it from the Windows key+X shortcut menu, which I learned from a tip in Computeractive ages ago. Microsoft recently modified my PC by applying the Creators Update. This seemed to go well and everything worked as it should afterwards, but now when I press Windows key+X to summon the little menu, Control Panel has disappeared! I’ve had to resort to launching it by typing its name into the Start menu and clicking the entry when it appears. This works, but it’s nowhere near as convenient. Why did Microsoft remove the Control Panel from this menu, and is there any way to get…

Q Can you help? I updated the Facebook app on my iPhone, which may have been a mistake because now it makes loads of really irritating sounds when I tap the navigation buttons. The previous version was silent, which is how I liked it. I don’t remember if this is a setting I’d changed previously but, either way, I can’t work out how to shut it up now. Activating the mute switch on the side of my iPhone does the job but that kills all other sounds, too, which isn’t what I want at all. Why did this happen, and how do I hush the Facebook app without silencing the rest of my iPhone’s sounds Emily Hathaway A You’d have to ask Facebook’s programmers why they apparently decided to enable…

2.5G Phone network set up in the 1990s. Was the first to allow photos and videos sent by MMS 32bit A measure of how much info a computer can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern PCs are 64bit. ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. A technology that converts a standard phone line into a broadband internet connection. Adware Unwanted adverts that come with software. aptX A codec to compress audio so it can be transmitted over Bluetooth. Architecture A set of rules and language that govern how hardware and software work Bandwidth A measure of how much information can be transferred through a connection. BIOS Basic Input-Output System.…