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I have 12,319 reasons to take notice of this issue’s Cover Feature: that’s how many emails I have squatting in my Sent folder. Some of them were short, urgent messages well suited to email, but many would have been better served through WeTransfer, Padlet or MediaFire, just three of the excellent email alternatives we recommend. Giving up email completely is unrealistic, of course. It’s still the best way for readers to contact me, for example (at the address below). But much email use is a result of habits learned two decades ago. Back then I used to email work to myself so I could pick it up at home, and transfer photos via a USB stick. I also recall email threads with friends, family and colleagues that grew chaotically long.…

Scammers are exploiting the collapse of travel company Thomas Cook by tricking people with the promise of refunds. They are emailing and phoning people, pretending to be ‘refund agents’ from the company or a bank, asking for bank details in order to process the non-existent refund. They appear to be randomly contacting members of the public, rather than focusing on people who had booked holidays with the 178-year-old firm. Citizens Advice also warned the public that scammers are trying to persuade frustrated customers to rebook their holidays through them. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps called the scams “absolutely disgusting”, adding that the Government has issued public warnings. For genuine advice on claiming a refund visit https://abta.com/thomascook. Check whether your flight or holiday is covered by ATOL protection at www.snipca.com/32898. You’ll like…

UPDATE IE NOW TO FIX SECURITY FLAW Microsoft has released an emergency security fix for versions 9 to 11 of Internet Explorer (IE). It fixes a flaw that hackers were exploiting through booby-trapped websites. Visit www.snipca.com/32861 and check the Product column on the left for your version of IE and the Platform column for your edition of Windows, then click the relevant Download link. AMAZON’S MESH WI-FI COMES TO UK Amazon is to sell its Eero mesh Wi-Fi in the UK for the first time. You can control it using voice commands through Alexa, asking it to pause Wi-Fi access to particular devices, or turn on the guest network. The base package costs £99, while a three-pack containing the base unit and two extenders is available for £249. It’s due…

WATCH OUT FOR… Dodgy links and files in emails What’s the threat? New research shows that 99 per cent of cyber-attacks require the victim to act in some way, such as by opening an infected file or clicking a link in a scam email. The report, from California security firm Proofpoint, lays bare the extent to which hackers rely on tricking victims through phishing attacks. Researchers said hackers prioritise such attacks because they are much more costeffective than building malware to exploit flaws in software. Scammers are becoming more sophisticated with the timing of the emails they send, treating their attacks like a marketing campaign. For example, they send fake emails from work colleagues during the day when their fellow workers are much more likely to be expecting them. One…

LEAD CASE Who do I claim my free headphones from? Q I recently bought a Samsung S Galaxy 10 phone from Three after going through deals on uSwitch (www.uswitch.com). Part of the offer was a pair of AKG Y500 wireless headphones (pictured), allegedly worth £129.99. The phone turned up, but not the headphones. I asked Three, but was put on hold and never got an answer. Can you help me? David Thompson A Yes, we’re happy to. We looked at the uSwitch website and found this offer, but as often happens with freebies, such as additional devices or cashback claims, it’s not clear whether the headphones will be automatically sent to customers, or whether you have to request them within a specific time. Any offer, especially if it played a…

Merge GEDCOM files into your tree One of genealogy’s most rewarding aspects is contacting other people who share some of your ancestry. You may even get around to swapping family trees, at which point you could discover that there’s plenty of material you’d like to add to your own tree. Request a copy of your contact’s family tree in GEDCOM format. They should be able to pick and choose what to share with you when they export the file, depending on which program they’re using. The same is true for any file you share with them – be careful to select only the shared branch of the tree and unless your contact is a close relation, opt to privatise living relatives before clicking Export. Combine your research Most packages offer…

As a kid, remote controls fascinated me. I remember being insanely jealous of a friend who could turn his TV off using this small, black box. But that was in the 1980s. These days, I can’t move for the blighters. Everything’s got a remote. My TV, DVD player, speakers, Chromecast… all cluttering up my lounge, but then gravitating toward the back of the sofa when needed. One remote control I don’t resent, however, is Unified Remote. It comprises two parts: server software that runs on the computers I want to control, and a phone app to do the controlling. Download both from www.snipca.com/32825 (the app is available for Android and iOS). Once the server software is running, I load the app, tap the menu button (top left), Servers, then select…

LAPTOP | £501 from ebuyer www.snipca.com/32809 This is the first laptop we’ve seen from Taiwanese company Nexstgo. Sold in the UK mainly through catalogue shops, it’s also a first in being available in a paisley design (www.snipca.com/32811). This made it one of the more head-turning items around the office, but you might prefer the plainer (and cheaper) Pearl White finish; there’s also Angel Blue, reminiscent of HP’s Stream models. “Looks more expensive than it is, but cheaper rivals do a similar job” The specification is modest, with a 128GB SSD – enough for most people’s work files, but not much entertainment content – and just 4GB of memory, half the usual 8GB, which is really pushing it if you want to flick between multiple apps or web-browser tabs in Windows…

Q I have old colour photos in several albums. If they were damaged, lost or faded, they’d be gone forever. So I thought of using a printer-scanner-photocopier to digitise them and burn them to DVDs. Is one scanner better than another? Hugh Rogers A Buying a multi-function device only for scanning does turn the industry’s economics to your advantage, and should give adequate quality for home use from 6x4in prints. But you’d get better results from a dedicated flatbed such as Canon’s LiDE 300 (£50 from Amazon www.snipca.com/32854, pictured), which captures more colour data. Scanning at 600 dots per inch (dpi) should get all the detail; use 1200dpi if you want to be sure and don’t mind big files, but no higher. Professional scanners have extra hardware to remove dust…

SPEAKER | £99 from Ikea www.snipca.com/32873 Sonos, which makes expensive multi-room speaker systems, and Ikea, famed for its cheap furniture, are not natural bedfellows. And yet here they’ve teamed up to make something that feels exactly right. At £99, the Symfonisk bookshelf speaker is the cheapest official Sonos speaker so far, and the most obviously plastic, but its rounded-rectangle shape and fabric front grille really couldn’t look any classier. Integrating with all major music services, it’s the cheapest Sonos speaker so far Unlike the Sonos One (originally reviewed in Issue 524, page 25; second-generation model £185 from Amazon www.snipca.com/32878), the Symfonisk isn’t a smart speaker, so you’d need something else to access Alexa or Google Assistant. Nor does it support direct Bluetooth audio input: it relies on a Wi-Fi network,…

Pinnacle Studio 23 Ultimate software The latest version of Pinnacle’s flagship video editor features powerful new editing tools, flexible keyframe-based controls and a wealth of creative effects. It helps users take complete command of their footage to produce unique, sophisticated videos. The advanced toolkit includes the eagerly awaited Video Masking tool (see screenshot below). This lets you enhance or remove elements in your video, blur faces, clone subjects, selectively apply effects to any portion of a clip, layer footage with text or shapes, create text masks, and more. Also new is Clip Nesting, which makes it easier to group multiple clips and collectively apply transitions and effects. Many of the program’s most popular tools have been improved. Color Grading now comes with Selective Vectorscope capabilities to optimise colour correction for…

I was pleasantly surprised to see PDF Shaper (www.snipca.com/32614) recommended in Issue 562 (see ‘What Should I Download?’, page 19). I didn’t think many other people knew about this excellent tool. Now that my secret is out, I may as well encourage other people to use it. In Issue 562 you suggested PDF Shaper as a tool for extracting images from a PDF, which it’s excellent at. But my main reason for using it is how easily it lets you add pages to your PDFs. To do this you have to click Number Pages in the right-hand menu, which opens several options. I start with the ‘Text position’ dropdown menu. This shows you where the page number will appear (bottom left, bottom centre, or bottom right). I love the little…

iOS Use new keyboard in iOS 13 Apple’s iOS 13 is ready to download. By the time you read this, your iPhone might already have prompted you to update but, if not, and you want to jump to the front of the queue, open Settings and tap General, followed by Software Update. Make sure you have at least 50 per cent of your battery’s power remaining (or, better, connect to the mains), and tap ‘Download and Install’ (see screenshot below). If you want to install future updates automatically when you’re connected to the power and your phone’s sitting idle, tap Automatic Updates, then tap the switch so it slides to the right. They’ll be installed overnight when your phone is both charging and connected to Wi-Fi. The release of iOS…

WINDOWS 7, 8.1 & 10 Quickly repeat tasks in Command Prompt One of the drawbacks of using Command Prompt is that some commands can stretch to many characters (see our file-size tip below), making it easy for mistakes to slip in. You can use the arrow keys to cycle through and repeat past commands, but repeatedly tapping the up key to find the one you’re after takes time. A far quicker way is to press F7. A box will then appear, listing all your previous commands. You can now browse the list more easily using the arrow keys. If you spend a lot of time in Command Prompt, you can extend the default 50-command history. To do this, right-click the Command Prompt window’s title bar, select Properties, then the Options…

Both LibreOffice Calc and Microsoft Excel make it easy to open web addresses within spreadsheets by converting them to hyperlinks after you’ve typed them. However, if you paste a bunch of web addresses from another source, such as a text file, they won’t be converted into hyperlinks. You can remedy this using the Hyperlink function. Whether you’re using Calc or Excel, create a column next to the one with your nonhyperlinked web addresses. To do this, right-click the column to the right of your web addresses and select Insert (Excel) or Insert Before (Calc). Assuming your first web address is in cell A1, as in our example, type =HYPERLINK(A1) into cell B1 (see screenshot) and press Enter. The same address should appear, but this time it’s hyperlinked. Now highlight cell…

Q Since I downloaded LibreOffice, every time I open images stored on my memory stick they appear in LibreOffice. What’s happened, and how do I get them back to how they used to open? Joe Pester A When installing LibreOffice you allowed the Draw program to become the default for viewing images. That’s an easy mistake to make, but it’s also easily fixed. First right-click any image and then point to ‘Open with’ before clicking ‘Choose another app’ (see screenshot 1). This summons a box headed ‘How do you want to open this file?’. LibreOffice Draw will be listed under ‘Keep using this app’, but that’s not what you want. We don’t know which app you used to open images, but the default in Windows 10 is the Photos app.…

APU and a CPU? Q I’m looking for a new PC but I’m a bit out of touch. A savvier friend has suggested that AMD is now worth considering for the main processor. Is he right? If so, what’s the difference between an APU and a CPU? It seems only AMD makes APUs, but both Intel and AMD make CPUs. Is an APU better than a CPU? Is there a reason why Intel doesn’t make APUs? Derek Humphries A AMD is certainly enjoying a renaissance with its Ryzen processors, which are once more now serious competitors for Intel’s Core range. Insofar as it’s possible to compare any two processors ‘like for like’ – which, given the complexity of both the products and the range, really isn’t easy – Ryzen models…

9.6Gbps Theoretical top speed of Wi-Fi 6 - p10 99 per cent Proportion of cyberattacks that require action from the victim - p11 1,700 Number of TV clips in the BBC’s new online archive - p8 HOW TO USE SNIPCA URLs We use snipcas to turn long URLs that are hard to type into ones that are short and simple. They aren’t websites themselves, which means they won’t be recognised if you type them into Google. Instead, you need to type them into your browser address bar, then press Enter. Doing this will take you to the correct website.…

Judges have ruled that British site Ebuygumm (www.ebuygumm.co.uk) is named after a well-known Yorkshire saying, and doesn’t infringe the copyright of eBay and Gumtree. The two sites argued that Ebuygumm, which claims it’s the “fastest growing site” for buyers and sellers in the UK, was confusing internet users and taking “unfair advantage” of their brands. They also claimed that it was based in Birmingham and had no connection with Yorkshire. But the head of Nominet, which governs the registration of website names in the UK, dismissed the case. Michael Silverleaf QC ruled it was “entirely plausible” that Ebuygumm had chosen its name “as a word play on the Yorkshire phrase ee bah gum”. He added that anyone who listens to cricket commentator Geoffrey Boycott (pictured) is likely to have heard…

You can watch some of the most memorable moments in TV history in a new online BBC archive. Launched to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Nationwide, it contains more than 1,700 clips from the BBC’s overall archive of 10 million hours of footage. The BBC says many of the clips “paint a rich social history of Britain in the television era”. Such footage includes a 1967 report on the “disgusting, disgraceful and effeminate” trend of men growing long hair (www.snipca.com/32817), and a 1995 story on whether women should be allowed to enter working men’s clubs “unescorted” (www.snipca.com/32818). It also includes clips that have proved popular when posted by the BBC Archive team on Twitter (https://twitter.com/BBCArchive), such as a 1977 vox pop from a woman remembering the early days of…

Microsoft has banned people from recommending CCleaner on its support forums (https://answers.microsoft.com). When someone tries to mention CCleaner’s URL on the forums it’s now replaced by four asterisks (****), although moderators will still be able to mention it in “exceptional cases”. According to reports, moderators were told that URLs for 10 other programs have been banned, but it’s not known what they are. Microsoft hasn’t explained its decision, leading some to speculate that it’s because CCleaner may cause problems with Windows, and therefore shouldn’t be recommended to users of the operating system. One potential problem is when people use CCleaner to remove temporary data, such as cookies, that users need to sign into sites and services. However, neither Windows Defender nor Microsoft SmartScreen currently prevents CCleaner from running. It’s also…

Technology is ‘forced on to people before they’re ready’ There were two interesting stories in Issue 563 that tell us a lot about modern Britain. In your ‘Question of the Fortnight’ (‘Why do so many Brits still not use the web?’), you examined why nearly 20 per cent of Brits don’t use the web. A few pages earlier you reported on Sainsbury’s putting checkouts back into one of its stores after people found it hard to use their ‘Pay & Go’ phone app. These stories are connected because they tell you about how technology is often forced on to people before they are ready. No matter how loudly the media and the Government shout about the benefits of the internet, there will always be people who prefer more traditional ways…

It’s now commonplace - if still rather unsettling - for services to ask for your phone number and email address when you sign up. What’s far less common is software requesting your bank details even if you bought the program from a high-street retailer. That’s the position Paul Thomas found himself in (see Issue 562). For the past 17 years he’s been buying Symantec’s Norton antivirus from PC World, then entering the product key online to activate it. But Symantec’s website now won’t accept this key without customers also entering their bank details. Paul is reluctant to do that for security reasons, and also because he didn’t want his subscription to be automatically renewed. He phoned Symantec’s customer service, but it was unable to help. We thought we had a…

WI-FI ANALYSER WinFi Lite www.snipca.com/32889 What you need: Windows 10 Whether you’re diagnosing problems with your Wi-Fi, want to improve its performance or are simply curious about the other wireless networks in your area, WinFi Lite tells you everything you need to know (and a whole lot more besides). We’ve looked at plenty of similar tools in the past (including the impressive WiFi Analyzer, see Issue 562, page 20), but the brand new WinFi Lite has to be the most comprehensive yet. You need to download it from the Microsoft Store using the link above, which means it only works with Windows 10. The sheer detail provided by WinFi can be daunting, especially if you’re new to wireless networking, but you can tweak the settings to hide those sections you’ve…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: IObit Uninstaller IObit is no stranger to our Named & Shamed page, which is a pity because the company actually makes some decent software. Back in Issue 532, we took its Driver Booster tool to task for trying to foist unwanted programs on us during installation. Sadly – if not surprisingly – IObit Uninstaller pulls the same trick. To be fair, it’s not as sneaky as other junk offenders – the extra ‘gifts’ aren’t selected automatically, and declining them is reasonably easy - but I’d rather not see them at all. My main gripe is that IObit treats the entire program as a billboard for its other software, which is ironic given that it’s supposed to remove junk from my PC. A banner ad along…

Computeractive is owned by Dennis Publishing, which employs a team of specialist technical reviewers. You’ll often read references to our benchmark testing, which is a method of assessing products using the same criteria. For example, we test the speed of every PC and the battery life of every phone and tablet in exactly the same way. This makes our reviews authoritative, rigorous and accurate. Dennis Publishing also owns the magazines PC Pro, Computer Shopper and Web User and the websites Expert Reviews (www.expertreviews.co.uk) and IT Pro (www.itpro.com). This means we can test thousands of products before choosing the most relevant for Computeractive. FAIR AND IMPARTIAL Our writers follow strict guidelines to ensure the reviews are fair and impartial. The manufacturer has no involvement in our tests. OUR AWARDS We award…

What is it? Polaroid Lab (www.snipca.com/32858) is a new way to print photos from your smartphone. You load it with traditional Polaroid instant film, open the photo you want in the Polaroid Originals app, pop your phone on top of the gadget, and it reproduces the screen as a photo print. What does it do? It’s basically a Polaroid camera with a mount over the lens. It takes and develops a photo of your screen using the Polaroid instant process. What’s the catch? Catch? The whole idea is incredibly silly. When it launches later this year – presumably in time for Christmas, or any other occasion when gullible folk are tipsy – the Polaroid Lab will cost $100, currently equivalent to £92 including VAT. That’s the same price as instant…

Iomega HipZip What was it? Launched in 2001, the HipZip was a £290 portable digital music player based on Iomega’s removable storage technology. The 100MB Zip, resembling a 3.5in floppy disk with 60 times the capacity, had become a popular storage device. Using the 2in PocketZip version of the format, the HipZip offered 40MB per disk, or about a CD’s worth of audio with heavy compression, plus the capacity for data storage. It was cheaper per megabyte than contemporary memory cards, and more flexible than MP3 players with built-in storage. Why did it die? The Apple iPod appeared a couple of months later, with 5GB of space for £349. To match this, a HipZip owner would need to juggle 125 PocketZip disks costing about £1,000. This made the HipZip’s other…

Chrome I first installed Chrome quite a few years ago. It wasn’t a giant chunk of RAM (or so I thought!). Over time I got fed up with its new updates slowing everything down (especially bad because I have a 10-year-old system). So I put the boot into Chrome and said farewell. And what I use instead I switched to Firefox (www.mozilla.org/firefox) because it doesn’t hog my memory or my processor, making it easier and faster to use. One of the things I like is how you can choose what to block on pages in its brilliant Content Blocking feature (see screenshot), which you mentioned in Issue 548 (page 11). I will use Firefox until I get fed up with it and hunt for another browser. Tintin Lamb Tell us…

Minesweeper Free iOS: www.snipca.com/32842 Minesweeper first appeared in Windows 3.1, but it’s been missing in action since Vista. Now it’s back on iPhone. Tap a square to see how many neighbouring squares contain a mine. If you manage to clear the board without hitting a mine, you win. This retro classic remains one of the greatest logic puzzles devised. D.Weather Free iOS: www.snipca.com/32843 We love the practical forecasting in D.Weather, which tells us it’s ‘Terrible’ weather for washing the car, sports or fishing, and that we need to dress for cool temperatures. The animated maps are genuinely useful, too, showing you exactly when rain clouds will be passing overhead. Vivaldi Free Android: vivaldi.com/android The Vivaldi browser is built from the ground up to protect your privacy, with encrypted sync to…

Ever wondered what the AltGr key on your keyboard is for? No, it’s not an Alt key to use when you’re angry – it stands for Alt Graph and lets you access extra key commands. For example, press AltGr+4 (the 4 key at the top, not the one on the numeric keypad) and a Euro symbol (€) will appear. You can also use AltGr to make switching between open windows easier. Instead of pressing Alt+Tab, which only displays the task-switcher window while you’re holding the Alt key, try using AltGr+Tab. The task switcher window now stays on screen even if you release both keys, so you can use the arrow keys to find the window you want. Can’t see an AltGr key on your keyboard? Don’t worry – you can…

Create an inventory of your club’s stuff Catalogue your club’s books, CDs and DVDs If you have a collection of club-related DVDs that you loan out to your members, consider using EMDB (www.emdb.eu) to keep track of who’s got what. As you add DVDs to your database, EMDB looks them up on IMDB (the online film database). If it finds a match, it adds extra information, such as year of release and cover art. If your DVDs are more obscure, they probably won’t be on IMDB so you’ll need to enter the details yourself, but you can stick with just the name if you want to keep things simple. When someone borrows a DVD, you mark it as being on loan (see screenshot below), then click the Return button when…

How can I still upgrade to Windows 10 for free? When Windows 10 launched in July 2015, Microsoft offered it as a free upgrade to Windows 7 (and 8) users for a year. After that, the company continued to let people who used assistive technologies (for the elderly or disabled) to upgrade for free via a special offer. This backdoor to a free W10 slammed shut in January 2018. Today, the company line is that anyone who wants to upgrade an existing W7 (or 8) PC to W10 needs to pay for it. However, a loophole in W10’s activation system makes it possible – in certain circumstances – to upgrade without paying. The loophole stems from the way activation now works in Windows 10. All copies of Windows require a…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT How do I count over 24 hours in Quattro Pro? Q I have a spreadsheet in Quattro Pro (now part of WordPerfect: www.snipca.com/32794) that I use to log hours worked on different jobs for different clients. The columns include the start and finish times, in hh:mm (hours and minutes) format. For each group of rows relating to a job I total them in a cell in the next column, also in ‘hh:mm’ format. Now I want to get a total of all the jobs. However, because the ‘hh:mm’ format is limited to counting 24 hours, the relevant cell actually shows a sum that represents the number of hours by which the total exceeds a whole number…

Why won’t my EXIF data erase? Q I tried to remove metadata using Exif Purge (www.exifpurge.com), as suggested on page 52 of Issue 558’s cover feature, and then following the process outlined by Rob Sedgwick in Readers’ Tips, on page 43 of Issue 561. Sadly, the original time and date were still there in the file, and also when I opened the file in Photoshop. What am I doing wrong? Chris Walsh A The problem here is that you’re talking about file date and time ‘stamps’, which are not as such metadata. Rather, information such as the date created, modified or last accessed are considered by Windows as absolute data points: immutable, factual details about the file that always travel with it. As such, they’re not removed by tools like…

Close old online accounts for good Logging off is all the rage. I used to think my teenage niece was unusual for not wanting to use Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, but it turns out she’s just another standard kid, rebelling against her parents’ hopeless devotion to social media. The log-off phenomenon is cited by everyone from Ipsos MORI to Stanford University (whose report you can read at www.snipca.com/32795, unless your child/grandchild has confiscated your tablet). “I no longer love tech indiscriminately. But I once did, and that’s left me with a deadweight of obsolete accounts” I, too, am growing weary of living life online, which means I’m down with the kids for the first time in 20-odd years. I no longer love tech indiscriminately. But I once did, and that’s…

Citizens Advice has urged mobile network Three to stop “ripping off all its loyal customers” and commit to measures to stop them being overcharged. It wants Three to join the other major networks in agreeing to voluntary measures that prevent customers overpaying when their initial contract ends and they have paid off the cost of their phone. After analysing public data the charity found that between 154,000 and 210,000 customers are paying a so-called loyalty penalty each month. Each customer is being penalised between £10 to £13 a month, which amounts to an extra £2.7 million a month in total. Citizens Advice chief Gillian Guy described Three’s behaviour as “unacceptable”. “All eyes will be on Three to see if it puts this right and agrees to stamp out the loyalty…

MPs have said that mobile-network providers should be forced to let customers switch to a rival when they can’t get a signal. In a report on the broadband and phone divide between urban and rural areas, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee called for a ‘rural roaming’ scheme to end the blight of poor phone signals in the countryside. It said that because natural competition between networks has failed regulator Ofcom should impose this on the companies. In 2014, Theresa May, then Home Secretary, killed off similar plans on security grounds, saying they could have a “detrimental impact” on law enforcement. But the committee said that people in the countryside have waited too long for improved coverage. It added: “On the eve of the roll-out of 5G, rural communities…

I’d like to take issue with Terry Sims’ point that tech-savvy people like Computeractive readers would be eager to upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 (Letters, Issue 563). I don’t doubt his assertion that readers of this magazine know more about computing than most people. But he’s wrong to assume that this knowledge makes it more likely they will upgrade. I take the opposite view. I’d argue that those who choose not to upgrade may actually have more technical knowledge. This is because they have a greater understanding of the differences between operating systems, and realise they don’t always need to upgrade when Microsoft says so. Also, you shouldn’t underestimate the technical confidence needed to continue using unsupported operating systems. For example, I carried on using Windows…

I can’t recommend Mr Memory enough! My 2011 iMac had been very slow for some time so I decided to look into upgrading the memory. After visiting several websites I came across Mr Memory (www.mrmemory.co.uk). I wasn’t sure what I needed, but after typing in my make and model the website took me to a page that showed me exactly what I had to purchase. It even had a video, which showed me how to install it. I was still a little dubious because I’d never heard of the company and they were significantly cheaper than any of the other well-known companies on the internet. I needn’t have been concerned! My parcel arrived the following day, including a little packet of sweets, which was a nice surprise. I was able…

What can I download to replace BBC red button? Q With the Beeb dropping its red-button news service on the TV (see page 8), what can I use instead? I’m looking for something silent, succinct and reliable, and have an Android phone. Alan Turk A We’re still mourning the beautifully uncomplicated (though, at times, painfully slow) Ceefax, so we share your sorrow at the demise of the red-button service. There is, however, another way to read the headlines on your TV. It involves using a Chromecast streaming device – if you don’t already have one, they’re £30 from Argos (www.snipca.com/32891). You’ll also need to install two apps on your phone. First, download the free BBC News Android app from www.snipca.com/32892 (iOS users can get it from www.snipca.com/32893). This gives you…

DESKTOP PC | £599 from PC Specialist www.snipca.com/26306 More power per pound The fall in the value of sterling in the past few years hasn’t yet had much impact in the supermarket, but it’s certainly been felt in consumer technology, where we’ve seen the prices of computers drifting steadily upwards. Fortunately, the pace of progress in electronics is as fast as ever, so you can still get a more powerful system for the same money as last year. However, if you have your eye on a particular set of requirements on the performance spectrum – say, a budget Windows 10 desktop PC that will handle photo and video editing as well as basic home and office tasks, with a proper graphics card for 3D games and creative software – it’s…

PHONE | £370 from Amazon www.snipca.com/32856 We told you the Galaxy A70 was one to watch out for (see Issue 555, page 28). Here it is, and we were right. It’s a big-screen phone with a long list of benefits, not compromises, at a third of the price of Apple’s similarly sized iPhone 11 Pro Max. Big-screen phone with many benefits, at a third of the price of an iPhone 11 Pro Max At first glance, this isn’t the most stunning device by today’s standards, which just goes to show how high today’s standards are. The A70 fuses curved toughened glass and a metal frame to present a slim, pleasantly rounded form that’s almost all screen, with just a sliver of black border at the bottom and a teardrop notch…

PORTABLE PRINTER | £82 from Amazon www.snipca.com/32865 Like the HP Sprocket 200 see Issue 559, page 25), this is a rechargeable portable printer that connects to your smartphone or tablet (not a PC) and prints 2x3in Zink photo stickers (£22 for 50 from www.snipca.com/32867). Like the Sprocket 200, it’s barely bigger than a fag packet and comes in a choice of colours. And like the Sprocket 200, it works with an app that lets you add filters or an overlay to your pics before printing them, in just under a minute, using a thermal process that’s simple and foolproof, though not silent. So, which should you choose? HP’s software has a few more options, including Reveal, an augmented reality (AR) feature that attaches time and location data to your photos,…

LAPTOP HP Envy 13 £849 from www.snipca.com/29555 Tested Issue 539 The combination of an eighth-generation quad-core i5 chip and MX 150 graphics makes this an excellent all-round laptop, let down only by the poor colour reproduction of its Full HD touchscreen. Seven-hour battery life is adequate, and it’s nicely made. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,200, but the best deal is with the brand new quad-core i7-8550 and QHD touchscreen. £1,280 from www.snipca.com/26796 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £350 from www.snipca.com/30707 Tested Issue 501 Now discounted and with a stylus included, this full-size HDR tablet is a better deal than the new Tab S4 (see Issue 540). Apple’s faster £319 iPad with optional £89 Pencil is superior, but lacks microSD expansion. ALTERNATIVE Amazon Fire…

Although you have set up several profiles to work in specific ways for particular jobs, you can still apply your own settings on a case-by-case basis. Even here, the existence of multiple profiles pays dividends, though, as you’ve done half the job already. By defining your paper sizes and how you want each document laid out as part of each profile, you only need to select the one closest to the result you want, then tweak the quality and colour settings to achieve the desired result. Better yet, if your printer is connected directly to your PC, you have full control over which profiles are available to other family members if you share the printer on your network. When setting up the profile earlier, we told you not to allow…

PRINTING Buy HP Envy 5030 wireless printer In Issue 563’s Cover Feature Nik Rawlinson gave loads of excellent ideas for boosting the capabilities of your hardware. One of the best was his suggestion to share a printer on a home network using TP-Link’s printer server, which you plug into your router. One obstacle preventing this would be if your router is hard to reach. If so, you could connect it using a Powerline networking set, like the Netgear PL1000. However, this costs £30 (from Amazon: www.snipca.com/32655). Add this to the £35 of TP-Link’s printer server, and you’ll end up spending more money than the cost of a new printer with built-in wireless networking. I’d recommend the HP Envy 5030 (pictured above), which connects wirelessly. When I bought the printer, it…

Amazon Fire 7 (2019) £50 from www.snipca.com/31962 I’ve just retired, so need to save the pennies a bit more than before. I couldn’t persuade my wife that we needed a £200 Samsung Galaxy Tab, but a £50 Amazon Fire was acceptable. I’ve read lots of user reviews from people lamenting its low screen resolution, or the seven-hour battery life. But the screen looks fine to me, and seven hours seems ample. Amazon is proud of the fact that you can use Alexa on the tablet, but I’ve not really found it useful. What is useful is the £150 I’ve saved by picking a cheap but cheerful tablet that does all the basics very well. I can watch BBC iPlayer, read and send emails, and browse the news, which is what…

Vault* Free Android: www.snipca.com/32844 iOS: www.snipca.com/32845 Hide photos, videos and more, and back them up online. You get 1GB of storage with a free account; upgrading bags you 1TB of storage, break-in attempt alerts and an ad-free interface. The Data Transfer tool will help shift files between devices when you upgrade your phone. Best for: Keeping photos hidden Notes Free iOS: Built in Apple’s Notes has password protection and fingerprint unlocking built in. Open Settings and tap Notes, followed by Password. Provide a password twice, then tap Done. To create a locked note, open the note you want to protect and tap the share button at the top of the screen, followed by Lock Note. Best for: Quickly adding secure notes Sec Notes* Free Android: www.snipca.com/32847 Protect jottings and spreadsheets…

LIBREOFFICE WRITER & MICROSOFT WORD Print pages in the right order Some printers (mainly laser printers) will reorder pages for you so the first page is at the top, but a majority of home inkjet printers leave you to do the dirty work. If you’ve just printed a large document, having to reorder the pages yourself takes time and could lead to errors. However, using a simple trick in Word or Writer, you can avoid this. In Writer, you can do this on an ad-hoc basis: click File, Print, then tick the ‘Print in reverse order’ box located halfway down the list of options on the right. In Word, click File, Options, then select Advanced on the left. Scroll down in the main window to the Print section, then tick…

What are they? Videos you can take of yourself on your phone then play back in slow motion. Depending on your point of view, the word is a clever amalgam of ‘selfie’ and ‘slow-motion’, or yet another insult to the English language, on a par with phablet, sexting and unfriend. Either way, you’re going to come across it a lot in the next few months. Who came up with it? Apple. In fact, it’s so pleased with itself that it wants to trademark the term so it can only be associated with the iPhone 11, which launched last month. And iPhone 11 has a slofie app? Well, it has a slofie mode in the camera app, though just to confuse things it’s actually called ‘slo-mo’, not slofie. Apple’s use of…

Before carrying out any major changes to your PC, you should always back it up. We suggest making two backups before upgrading to W10 – one of your personal files and one of your entire system. Should anything go wrong, a full system backup lets you you restore your PC to its pre-upgrade condition. We recommend avoiding the backup tools built into W7 (using W10 to restore these backups doesn’t always work). Instead, use a tool such as EaseUS Todo Backup Free (www.snipca.com/32832). Just before you carry out the upgrade, connect a large external hard drive and run EaseUS Todo Backup. Click the Menu button (three lines), then click File Backup. In the left-hand pane, tick the folders you want to back up (My Documents, My Music, My Photos and…

2.4GHz Wireless networks working at this frequency have longer range, but are more prone to interference. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 5GHz Wireless networks working at 5GHz have shorter range, but are less prone to interference. 720p/1080p/1440p Common types of high-definition video of 1280x720, 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 pixels respectively. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard with speeds up to 10 times faster than 802.11ac. Also called Wi-Fi 6. Alexa skill Apps for Amazon’s Echo that perform voice-activated tasks. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Most commonly used in smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape…