Computeractive -julkaisun 533 -irtonumeron sisällysluettelo

Most of the texts and voicemails I send contain the same four words: ‘train cancelled, home late’. Sometimes I add a fifth that can’t be printed in a family magazine. These are not the kind of messages I would like to be remembered by. That doesn’t make me unusual - most messages sent by most people are similarly unexciting (apologies if you relate the frustration of train delays as sonnets). But those sent during a memorable event, or by loved ones no longer with us, have more meaning. Video chats also capture precious moments. I know several grandparents whose first sighting of their grandchildren, born on foreign shores, was on Skype. Downloading and keeping these is much harder than it should be. Manufacturers seemed to have overlooked the basic human…

Facebook faces the maximum fine from the UK data watchdog for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but it’s a tiny proportion of the company’s multi-billion revenues. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has been investigating how political groups use personal data to target adverts during campaigns, says it’s intending to fine Facebook £500,000 for breaking the Data Protection Act. Specifically, the company has been accused of “failing to safeguard people’s information”, and not being “transparent” about how people’s data was used by other firms. It’s waiting for Facebook’s response before confirming the fine, which is a fraction of the company’s earnings. Based on its reported net income of $5bn in the latest quarter, it would take the company just 18 minutes to pay it. The watchdog has been investigating Facebook since…

A system that displays a roadside warning if it detects a phone being used in a passing vehicle is being tested for the first time in the UK. Norfolk County Council, which has installed the equipment on four roads, hopes it will act as a deterrent. Using a directional antenna, the detector picks up radio waves from a phone, measuring signal strength and how long the phone has been used for. It then shows a warning sign of a device with a red line through it (pictured). It won’t be able to tell whether the driver or a passenger is using the phone, nor will it record footage of vehicles, though the council said that capturing specific number plates could be a “future development”. The system won’t be triggered by…

Thanks for including the news story about the BBC Micro software archive (www.snipca.com/28290) in Issue 532 (page 7). I had no idea that such an archive existed. My family and I had many hours of fun with the BBC Micro in the 1980s. It was an excellent introduction to computing and physics for my children. In particular, I remember the program that let you emulate a hot-air balloon where you had to calculate how far you could get given a certain wind speed/direction, and the amount of gas on board. The 747 Flight Simulator (pictured) also gave us hours of fun and frustration! I still have the the BBC Micro (in its original box and hopefully still working), along with a 5.25in disc drive and disc-based programs, numerous cassette-based programs,…

We all like to give Microsoft a good telling off, don’t we? Well, it might be good to redress the balance a little. Over the past two weeks I’ve used the chat line for Windows problems on two occasions. The first was related to being unable to get Cortana up and running. The technician spent over an hour working his way through my system and was prepared to keep going, but I had to end the session as time was running out for me. He couldn’t do enough to assist. He even typed full instructions on how to resolve the problem before he signed off. The second time was more pressing. For some reason my PC would not let me close the system down. A female technician this time. Again…

Vehicle-tax renewal scam In July, I got an email supposedly from the ‘Driver and Vehiclew Licensing Agency’ (DVLA) about the renewal of vehicle tax. It had the GOV.UK crown logo, but the sender address of army@indonek.com, the poor English (“this is a vehicle tax reminder letter(V11) who tell you to renew it”) and a sentence in French indicated a scam. The timing is also interesting as, a few days before, I submitted my driving-licence renewal form. I didn’t click the link (‘Check now your vehicle tax status’). The DVLA warns about such scams at www.snipca.com/28346. Frank Everett Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

LAPTOP | £179 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28407 Once upon a time, netbooks – mini laptops with limited specifications at a low price – were the future. Then along came the iPad. Still, demand for cheap portable PCs never went away. Laptop-tablets like Asus’s Transformers put a bit of life back into the market, and a few full touchscreen tablets with keyboards like the Linx 12X64 (£199 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28408, see our review, Issue 516) have squeezed Windows 10 into budget tablet form. But we don’t see many 200-quid laptops any more. “A sleek shape and big screen, but slow for more complex tasks” Here’s an exception. From a distance, you could mistake its matt aluminium case for a MacBook Air. It doesn’t have such razor-thin front edges, but its screen is…

What does it do? That’s a good question. Intel Optane is a kind of non-volatile memory (or NVM). You might think it's related to NVMe, (the fastest kind of SSD) and guess it’s a storage drive. But from the word ‘memory’, you might think it was RAM. Well, you'd be in the right ball park. It’s actually a drive that was introduced to avoid delays in transferring data between storage and RAM. Why would I want it? The point of the original 16 or 32GB Optane drives (around £30-£60, pictured) was to cache data that your PC was often reading from storage to RAM – your regularly used programs and files – making a hard drive or SSD on the older SATA interface feel faster. Accessing the Optane chips can…

£146 fromAmazonwww.snipca.com/28450 Compared with the Nextbase 512GW, the even pricier DVR-4HD is limited to Full HD and lacks polarisation and HDR. But a relatively big image sensor means you still get a good picture, and it isn’t just for recording: you also get speed-camera alerts and optional warnings when the camera thinks you’re drifting out of your lane or about to hit something. In practice we’re not sure we’d use lane detection, because it can give you false alarms and won’t always spot danger. You can also record sound inside your car but there’s an option to turn it off. Wi-Fi and GPS are built in, and a 16GB microSD card is included. Snooper’s PC software gives a detailed view of recordings, but a companion phone and tablet app doesn’t…

Which SSD do you recommend for my laptop? Q I have a laptop with an Intel i7-2640M processor, 8GB of memory and a traditional hard drive. It now loads very slowly, especially using Photoshop. Would you recommend an SSD, and if so what size and make? Gary Wild A The i7-2640M is a dual-core processor from Intel’s Sandy Bridge generation, released in 2011. In the industry-standard Geekbench benchmark tests, it scores around 2,870 for single-core and 5,400 for multi-core tasks. By last year, Intel’s i7-7500U (still with two cores) had only edged this up to about 3,900 and 7,600. However, the new quad-core i7-8550U now scores 4,220 and 12,980. So when you can afford to replace your laptop, you’ll see a huge improvement all round – although finding an affordable…

DIGITAL NOTEBOOK | £26 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28462 Ever wished that what you scribbled on paper could magically be stored in your PC? The Rocketbook is the answer! Maybe. You buy this comb-bound notebook and write or draw on its pages, which have a faint grid of squares pre-printed, using a Pilot Frixion ballpoint (£8 for five from www.snipca.com/28463). Then digitise each page by taking a photo of it with your phone, and… “A clever idea but the most pointless gadget we’ve tested in a long time” Wait, what? The nicely designed Rocketbook app does make this simple, automatically straightening up your snaps with the aid of those squares, but relies on decent light and a good-quality phone camera. It worked well with our Samsung Galaxy S7, but the squares were…

Winner of a Great Pick award in Computeractive, devolo’s GigaGate Wi-Fi bridge delivers lightning-fast internet around your home. Comprising a base and satellite, it provides an effective, targeted connection between your router’s location and your devices using the 5GHz band. The gigantic 2Gbps transmission capacity makes for a fantastic multimedia experience. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘gigagate’ in the subject line by midnight 14 August. The devolo GigaGate Starter Kit is sold in selected high-street shops and online, including on Amazon (www.snipca.com/25979). It has an RRP of £219.99. Extra satellite units cost £129.99 each (www.snipca.com/25980). For more information visit www.devolo.com…

What you need: Android phone or tablet (with SIM card) Time required: 20 minutes Google has updated its free app Datally with four useful new features. Previously, it only let you find hotspots and stop apps from using mobile data in the background. Now you can set daily limits to ensure that you’re in control of your mobile-data usage. The new update also lets you identify apps you don’t use but that still use your data, find secure free Wi-Fi networks on a map, and set a guest mode to ensure that other people don’t go over your limit. STEP 1 Install and open Google Datally (www.snipca.com/28424), tap Get Started, Allow, then Open Usage Access. You now need to give the app permission to monitor your mobile data, so tap…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT ✔ Send emails that self-destruct using Gmail I followed your Workshop on the new version of Gmail version (Issue 528, page 35), but was sceptical about trying this until I read that Google is planning to migrate all users to this version in October. A new feature that has been added since (and therefore wasn’t covered in your Workshop) is the Confidential Mode. This lets you create and send ‘confidential’ emails with an expiry date and passcode that can’t be forwarded, copied or printed by the recipient. If you’re not yet using the new Gmail, log into your account, click the settings (cog) icon at the top right, then click ‘Try the new Gmail’. To send a ‘confidential’ email, click the Compose button, then click the…

AGES 0-5 Puzzingo Toddler Kids Puzzles* Free www.snipca.com/28547 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/28548 (iOS) This game consists of simple puzzles on various themes (letters, numbers, shapes and objects) that help improve your child’s recognition and memory skills. After each puzzle, your child will see a mini-game that they can play. AGES 6-10 Pokémon Quest* Free www.snipca.com/28549 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/28550 (iOS) In this new game, your child needs to form a team of Pokémon, then battle with other players on Tumblecube Island. Each Pokemon has their own unique moves and charms, which your child needs to figure out as they go along. AGES 11-16 Coding Planets Free www.snipca.com/28551 (Android) Coding Planets will teach your child the basics of coding through a series of planetary activities. They first need to program their spaceship to…

Tidy up your notification area The notification area (to the left of the clock and sometimes referred to as the system tray) can soon get cluttered with icons for programs running in the background. To hide any icon, click and hold it, then drag upwards into the hidden overflow box that appears. Alternatively, to edit which taskbar icons are displayed (including any programs that aren’t currently running), right-click an empty section of the taskbar, select ‘Taskbar settings’, scroll down to the ‘Notification area’ section then click ‘Select which icons appear on the taskbar’. Any that are switched off will be hidden when active. To display all icons in the notification area regardless of their setting, switch the ‘Always show all icons…’ option at the top to On (see screenshot below…

1 Keep two computers in sync If you’re spending all summer working on your laptop in the garden, you’ll soon be faced with the challenge of syncing all those files back to your desktop PC without losing or overwriting any of them. The best free tool for the job is still Microsoft’s SyncToy (www.snipca.com/28492). It’s not been updated with new features for some time, but it’s still safe to use on all current versions of Windows. It’s also really easy. Install SyncToy on your desktop PC, then click Create New Folder Pair to link a folder on the PC with a folder on your USB stick (see screenshot below). Choose the Synchronize option to sync all changes made in both folders. If you feel confident, you can even create a…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 10bit HDR 10bit high-dynamic range. HDR means better contrast, greater brightness and more colours. 10bit can store more images than 8bit. 256-AES XTS Military-grade level of encryption. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. Add-on See Extension. ADF Automatic Document Feeder. A device that feeds sheets of paper into a printer, one by one. Bandwidth A measure of how much information can be transferred through a connection at one time. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. BMP Bitmap. A type of image file. Cache A temporary space for storing information. Can be memory used on…

Hospitals’ reliance on old-fashioned fax machines to communicate has been branded “ludicrous” by senior doctors. A freedom of information request from the Royal College of Surgeons revealed nearly 9,000 fax machines were in use across hospitals in England. Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Trust topped the list, using 603 machines. Richard Kerr, chair of the Royal College of Surgeons’ Commission on the Future of Surgery, said it was “farcical” for the NHS to be dependent on “archaic” technology while encouraging the use of artificial intelligence in medical treatment and research. He said the NHS was “stubbornly attached” to fax machines, adding it “cannot continue to rely on a technology most other organisations scrapped in the early 2000s”. Ninety-five trusts, around three-quarters of the total, responded to the survey. Surrey and Sussex…

Teenagers are swapping sex for online relationships, a survey from British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) shows. The charity suggests this may be a reason why teenage pregnancy levels have dropped sharply since 2007. Last year, they fell to their lowest level since records began. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show there were 18,076 conceptions to women aged under 18 in England and Wales in 2016 (down 11 per cent from 2015). This works out at 18.9 conceptions per thousand women aged 15 to 17, much lower than the 47.1 per thousand in 1969 (the first recorded figure). The research, which involved 1,000 16 to 18-year-olds, suggests teenagers who regularly socialise face to face are more likely to be sexually active. Around 70 per cent said they speak…

Robots can deal with yes/no questions In response to your News story in Issue 532 (page 6), I wouldn’t mind ‘talking’ to robots in call centres as long as it was to answer simple yes/no questions, or to find out basic info, such as opening hours. Many companies already use automated answering messages for these purposes. What’s the difference between those messages and robots governed by artificial intelligence? That doesn’t mean I’d want people to lose their jobs. Call-centre workers get a lot of stick, and probably lots of abuse too, but most of the time they are helpful and patient to this octogenarian, who struggles with much of what the world throws at her. Victoria Lovell Heading to ‘inconvenient’ cashless future Apparently, going cashless and paperless is a time-saving,…

Can Virgin insist on repairs? Q In May I bought a new Nokia 3 phone from Virgin, but it was faulty. I asked Virgin for a refund within 30 days of purchase, but it said it would only repair the phone, saying I was outside its 14-day cooling-off period. This repair hasn’t worked, and Virgin says it’s allowed to try another. Is this true? Andy Pearce A No it’s not. We’ve told Virgin it must let Andy choose a full refund or a new phone, plus pay compensation for the airtime he’s paying for but can’t use. The 14-day period Virgin refers to applies only to unwanted goods bought online or over the phone, not products that are inherently faulty. With the latter, you’re entitled to choose a refund or…

WATCH OUT FOR… Fake Argos ‘£170 refund’ messages What’s the threat? Fraudsters are sending text messages claiming you’re owed money on your Argos credit card. The scam says: “Your Argos card has a refund of £170 from an overpayment”. It tells you to tap a link to get your money back, but this leads to a fake website that will steal your payment details. What makes the scams hard to spot is that they appear as part of an existing conversation thread with Argos. ‘Big John’, a DJ on Sheffield radio station Hallam FM, tweeted a screenshot of the scam (www.snipca.com/28414, pictured) showing how it appeared below “legit texts” stating he had a package to collect. Argos’s customer-service team (https://twitter.com/ArgosHelpers) told him to ignore the message, saying “multiple customers” had…

START MENU Classic Start 4.4 www.snipca.com/28522 What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 Fans of Classic Shell - the free program that lets you replace Windows 10’s unwieldy Start menu with a simpler version reminiscent of Windows 7 - were left out in the cold last year when the developer, Ivo Beltchev, suddenly pulled the plug on it. Beltchev cited Microsoft’s relentless Windows update schedule as one of the reasons for stopping development – Classic Shell stopped working after 2017’s Fall Creators Update. However, thanks to his decision to make the software open source, we now have Classic Start, which is the same program in all but name. It will probably be flagged as potentially unsafe by Windows SmartScreen, but that’s a false positive. It’s also worth noting this…

£138 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28442 This is nearly the same as the 412GW (see opposite), but its lens gains a polarising filter and high-dynamic range (HDR) feature to help ensure it keeps a clear picture in tricky conditions, such as low sun. You might want to pay the extra to reduce the risk of missing anything, but for about a third less money, the 412GW is better value. SPECIFICATIONS 2560x1440 video at 30fps or 1920x1080 at 60fps • 3in screen • MicroSD slot (requires card) • Wi-Fi • Mini HDMI output • 50x109x37mm (HxWxD) www.snipca.com/28443 VERDICT:…

£118 fromAmazonwww.snipca.com/28451 This is the smallest camera we tested, and accordingly has the smallest screen – which doesn’t really matter, because it’s good enough for setting up the camera, and a better way to view footage is on the companion Drive HD mobile app. Unfortunately, the Apple version hasn’t been updated since 2014 and may not work with iOS 11 or higher, so it’s effectively Android only. There’s also a USB connection to transfer video files to a PC. The CDR 900 records at slightly better than 1080p resolution, and has a G sensor to ensure video is saved if you have a crash. There’s a microSD card, although at just 8GB it’ll last less than two hours before overwriting. Handily, there’s a mode to use the CDR 900 as…

PHONE | £120 from Very www.snipca.com/28470 Huawei’s Honor brand has a lot of current models, and a lot of them are called 7. The 7A costs more than the 7S but less than the 7C. There’s also a 7X, but somewhere around this point we gave up. The exact price is also something of a mystery. When we first received the 7A, the company’s www.hihonor.com website was selling it for £140, but at the time of writing showed it reduced from £170 to £130, while Very was selling it at £120, down from £140. At any of these prices it’s an attractive phone. The processor and storage specs are basic. Huawei’s version of Android 8 (Oreo) doesn’t always respond instantly so you can forget fancy games; and you’ll need a…

ZX Printer What was it? Sinclair’s ZX81 was the first popular home computer in the UK, and one of its most exciting options was the ZX Printer (pictured). At £49.95 (about £200 in today’s money), it was only £20 cheaper than the Spectrum itself. No inkjet or laser printers were available to the general public yet, and even dot-matrix impact printers were expensive, so the ability to print at home was unique. It worked by passing a current through a layer of aluminium painted on four-inch wide paper, supplied on a roll. Where the silvery top layer burned off, a black surface was revealed, forming characters or graphics. The horizontal resolution was 256 pixels or 32 characters, working out at 70 dots per inch (dpi). How have things changed? Today,…

What you need: PaperScan; Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 20 minutes There are times when you may notice that your scanned documents are in the wrong order, slightly askew, or display unwanted elements (punch-holes and margins, for example). PaperScan is a brilliant free program that can resolve these problems with just a few clicks. We’ll show you how to use it to crop, rotate, straighten and re-order scanned documents, remove margins and punch-holes, and even turn your cursor into a magnifier. STEP 1 To get PaperScan, go to https://paperscan.orpalis.com, then click the Free Download button. In the ‘Start your free trial’ window that opens, type your name, email address, select Individual 1 in the ‘I am a’ dropdown menu, choose ‘PaperScan Free’ 2 in the ‘Choose edition’…

ANDROID Use Google Podcasts’ new features In Issue 532’s Best New Apps, we recommended Google Podcasts, which lets you subscribe to and download podcast episodes to listen to offline. The app recently added two useful new features. You can now modify playback speed, and cut out long silences. When you first open the app (www.snipca.com/28535), you’ll see a list of categories (Comedy, Arts, ‘News & Politics’, ‘Sports & Recreation’, etc). Swipe across a category to see the podcasts within it, then select the ones you want. Alternatively, you can search for podcasts by tapping the search icon at the top left, then typing a keyword. Tap the correct suggestion, then tap the +Subscribe button to do that. From now on, when you open the app, you’ll see any podcasts you’ve…

WINDOWS 10 Free up storage space using Windows’ built-in tools There’s an easy way to check how much unused storage space you have on your PC, then free up more space if necessary by deleting files you no longer need. Open Settings, click System, then Storage on the left. You’ll see the total amount of storage space on your hard drive, including used and free. Click this to see a breakdown of item categories and how much space each takes up (see screenshot below). You can remove items by clicking a category. For example, if you click ‘System & reserved’, you’ll see the option to delete redundant system restore points. Clicking ‘Apps & games’ lets you sort items by size, so you can remove unwanted space-hogs more easily. Click ‘Temporary…

What is it? A Guildford-based company (http://earthi.space) that uses 4K cameras to capture what happens on Earth from 300 miles up. In theory, these videos could then be streamed online, like Google Earth but with live footage instead of still pictures. How does it work? Cameras on the company’s VividX2 satellite (pictured below), which launched in January, constantly reorient to focus on a location (this is called the video-staring mode). The result is a 50 frames-per-second (fps) video of an area, with each pixel representing 60cm (24in). At best resolution, it can show features just under a metre across. This kind of ‘earth-observation’ data has been analysed for years, often for city planning and defence, but previously in still images only. The company initially plans to launch 15 satellites that…

Extend Wi-Fi to your garden Join me, if you will, on a terrifying journey to the end of my garden. Here you’ll find mosquitoes loitering with intent, empty beer cans chucked over the fence by charming locals, and an internet dead zone. My tiny patch of hell on earth. A sensible person might fill this no man’s land with useful items such as a water butt and beehive, neither of which would complain about being too far from my router to pick up Netflix. But I’m not a sensible person, I’m a spoiled Wi-Fi addict who earns a living writing about the internet. Me finding a spot where there’s no broadband or mobile internet is like a decorator finding an unpainted spot in the middle of the wall. I have…

Microsoft has added features to two of its most useful tools - Registry Editor and Notepad - in the Preview version of Windows 10. They are expected to appear in the next Feature Update (version 1809), due this autumn. When you start typing in Registry Editor, you’ll see a dropdown menu suggesting terms that could come next, similar to how web browsers suggest search terms. It’s also easier to delete steps when typing paths in the Editor. You can use Ctrl+Backspace to delete the last path, or Ctrl+Delete to delete the path immediately after the cursor In Notepad, the new ‘Wrap around’ function lets you search the entire document. You can also change text size by pressing Ctrl+Plus and Ctrl+Minus, or by pressing Ctrl and scrolling your mouse wheel.…

MALWARE FALLS DURING WORLD CUP Malware infections fell during the World Cup in countries on days they were playing matches, according to research from UK security company Enigma Soft, makers of SpyHunter software. Its analysis (www.snipca.com/28426) shows that infections dropped by an average of 19.88 per cent on matchdays, as people turned off their PCs to watch football on TV. The biggest fall was in Uruguay (41.39 per cent), much higher than in England (16.81 per cent). WATCH ANONYMOUSLY ON YOUTUBE YouTube has added an incognito mode to its Android app, letting you watch videos without them being saved in your search history. To turn it on, tap your profile photo (or avatar) top right, then tap ‘Turn on Incognito’. It warns you that your activity may still be visible…

The UK has slipped four places to 35th in the world’s broadband rankings, below 25 other European countries and even Madagascar – home to dancing lemurs (pictured) and giant baobab trees? despite the island being on the UN’s list of Least Developed Countries. In the 12 months to July 2018, researchers from M-Lab, which includes analysts from Google, tested how long it would take to download a high-definition film in 200 countries. Singapore topped the list for the second year running, taking 11 minutes at an average speed of 60.39Mbps, far ahead of Sweden in second place (46Mbps). The UK’s average speed was 18.57Mbps, at which speed it would take 36 minutes to download a film. War-torn Yemen came bottom of the 200 countries, averaging just 0.31Mbps. It would take…

Having recently experienced the passing of a much-loved family member, I know how devastating it can be. And when you’ve just lost a loved one, the last thing you expect – or need – is a letter from PayPal telling you that their death has violated its terms and conditions. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Howard Durdle after his wife Lindsay died in May this year. After Howard informed the company that Lindsay had passed away, Paypal sent a letter – addressed, unbelievably, to Mrs Durdle herself – explaining that “you are in breach of condition 15.4c of your agreement with PayPal Credit, as we have received notice that you are deceased”. The letter, which you can read in full at www.snipca.com/28488, goes on to threaten legal action. PayPal…

Picture this: all our schoolchildren learn English, then some rich American schemer realises he can earn more money by telling us we must all learn Spanish (or Russian or German). Surely this is similar to all the millions of people who had to get to grips with and are comfortable with Windows 7 but are being coerced into Windows 10. I am nearly 80 years of age and am happy with Windows 7. I would find it difficult to start learning a new (and it appears quite different) operating system. As a regular reader of Computeractive, I have read about people in every issue having problems with updates and security. I’m staying with Windows 7 as long as I can. Peter Brice CA says Many readers have emailed us to…

Nearly three years after it was introduced, many retailers are still struggling to grasp the basics of the Consumer Rights Act (CRA). Thankfully, Computeractive readers are better informed, and continue to contact us to fight for a refund. In Claire Maughan’s case against Furniture Village (see Issue 532), the fault clearly lay with the retailer. It sent her a £4,130 sofa that was not only late, but also faulty. Claire rejected it within 30 days of receiving it, which meant that under the CRA she could insist on a refund. But Furniture Village was operating under a different law – one known only to itself. It initially agreed to a refund, but then changed its mind, saying it would re-make the sofa for her. Before the CRA it would have…

Edge is safer than Chrome. Oh not it’s not. Oh yes it is. Since Microsoft launched Edge in 2015, the browser wars have descended into pantomime-like bickering. Microsoft points to several reports from Texan security testers NSS Labs that claim Edge blocks more threats than Chrome. But at last year’s Pwn2Own conference, where ‘good’ hackers look for vulnerabilities in browsers, five were found in Edge, one in Firefox, and none in Chrome. Beneath these claims lies a deeper truth: you’ll generally be safe using any browser as long as you strengthen it by turning on security settings and adding relevant extensions. One of the best is Norton Safe Web, which Symantec has now released for Edge, making it available as a free download from the Microsoft Store (click the link…

How can I convert MP3 to use with YouTube? Q In Issue 530, you answered a reader’s query about converting YouTube audio to MP3. How do you do the opposite and convert MP3 to YouTube? Michael Ogden A With its focus firmly on videos, YouTube doesn’t make it easy for you to upload MP3 files (or any other audio files, for that matter), but with a little work it can be done. What you need to do is effectively turn the MP3 file into a video, using a static image as the background. YouTube supports multiple video formats, but you should stick to the most popular – MP4. To convert your audio and upload it to YouTube, consider using an online tool like Audioship (https://audioship.io). Once you’ve uploaded your MP3…

£35 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28453 Despite being ridiculously cheap, this dash cam has a reasonably fast lens for low-light sensitivity, a decent-sized screen with clear controls and a G sensor. There are no frills beyond that, but what do you want for 35 quid? You can watch a live feed or play back and download recordings on your phone using the Yi Smart Dash Camera app, which works on Apple and Android devices and is regularly updated. For PC transfer you’d need to use a microSD card reader. The picture quality is undeniably less sharp and clear than from the higher-resolution cameras, but still pretty good, and for the money this is a surprisingly decent dash cam – always bearing in mind you’ll need to add a microSD card. SPECIFICATIONS 1920x1080…

PHONE | £529 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28477 A decade ago, analysts were suggesting Apple should make a smaller version of its smartphone – an iPhone Nano – for users who didn’t want a big, heavy device in their pocket. At that time, the iPhone 3G had a 3.5in screen and weighed 133 grams. Today, the iPhone X has a 5.8in screen and weighs 174g. It’s fair to say we’ve got used to larger phones. But there’s still a place for smaller-than-average ones, and the XZ2 Compact shows why. Although it’s £170 cheaper than its full-size counterpart, for £529 (or £499 on O2 pay-as-you-go) you wouldn’t expect any corners cut. The water-resistant anti-scratch case is plastic, and quite thick, but classy, with a fingerprint reader below the single camera. The 5in screen…

LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UX410UA £590 from www.snipca.com/26789 Tested: Issue 518 With a dual-core Intel i3 processor, 4GB of memory and 128GB SSD, this slim aluminium 14in has just enough power to make Windows 10 feel smooth – and unlike Asus’s cheaper models it has a very good Full HD screen. ALTERNATIVE: Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,149, but the best deal is with the brand new quadcore i7-8550 and QHD touchscreen. £1,200 from www.snipca.com/26796 DESKTOP PC Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC CS £600 from www.snipca.com/27705 Tested: Issue 528 With a six-core Ryzen 5 1600 processor and 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, this is a brilliant all-round desktop PC for the money, completed by 8GB of memory, 120GB SSD and 1TB hard drive. ALTERNATIVE: Lenovo IdeaCentre 620s…

Keepsafe Browser Free Android: www.snipca.com/28542 iOS: www.snipca.com/28543 Privacy company Keepsafe has released a new app that lets you lock your browser using a PIN, fingerprint scanner or Touch ID. It also lets you block website trackers using sliders. Its ‘secret’ tab feature automatically deletes all browsing data when you finish. Carrott Weather* Free/£4.99 Android: www.snipca.com/28544 iOS: www.snipca.com/28545 This popular iOS weather app is now available on Android. It gathers accurate weather data from Dark Sky, then narrates this to you. You can customise these voices with four personality types - snarky (default), friendly, homicidal, and overkill (which contains strong language). Firefox Lockbox Free iOS: www.snipca.com/28546 Lockbox is very useful if you use Mozilla Firefox as your default PC browser, and also have an iPhone or iPad. It lists all the…

EXCEL Round up (or down) decimal numbers in Excel Excel has some useful formulas that let you round up or down numbers within a spreadsheet column. We’ll show you how to use three of these. The first formula (called ROUND) lets you limit the numbers that appear after the decimal point - for example, you can abbreviate 9.2134 to 9.21. The second formula (ROUNDUP) lets you round up a number to the next highest whole number (9.2134 to 10). The third (ROUNDDOWN) lets you round down a number to the next lowest whole number (9.2134 to 9). The method for all three formulas is similar. First, click inside the cell of the first value in the column. Next, click the Formulas tab, then the ‘Math & Trig’ dropdown menu and…

The digital revolution has provided countless ways to keep in touch with our nearest and dearest. We can leave voicemails to send birthday wishes wherever we (or they) happen to be; send words of encouragement face to face via video chat; and text congratulations or commiserations with just a few taps. In fact you may at times feel a little inundated with messages. Most you probably read and discard, some you may not even read. But every so often you have an exchange that means something special. Whether it’s a text-message conversation about your daughter’s wedding, a video chat congratulating your grandchild on their exam results, or a voicemail left by someone close who’s since died. Our modern devices are great at sending and receiving messages, but not so good…

As demonstrated with the Sticky Keys hack, it’s relatively easy to reset the password to your Windows account. It’s also a good reminder that the Windows password shouldn’t be viewed as a castiron way to protect your personal data. Even if you use a Microsoft account (which can’t be reset using the Sticky Keys hack), if someone steals your computer, they’ll be able to remove the hard drive, plug it into another computer and, after changing a few permissions, access your files. That’s not to say the Windows password doesn’t perform an important function. It will stop a child, for example, from accessing your computer and hammering the keys until all settings have been changed. It will also stop others from casually using your computer, whether maliciously or otherwise. But…

Why can’t I download Google Lens? Q In Issue 530, in your Best New Apps section (page 44), you indicate that the Google Lens app is available for devices with Android 6.0 and later. When trying to download it on my Android 7.1.1 phone I see the message that the app is incompatible with my device. I already have Google Photos installed, so can you please advise why Google Lens is incompatible with my phone when it is supposedly compatible with Android 6.0 onwards? Thank you for a great mag, incidentally. John Reed A There’s currently no clear answer to this, though we can offer some insight. Google Lens is compatible with versions of Android 6.0 and later. However, that doesn’t mean a particular phone has all the hardware necessary…