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If my body were a storage device, it would be a hard drive. It’s got lots of moving parts, it’s probably past its best, and it makes similar noises: clicking (my knees), grinding (my jaw), buzzing (my head, notably before my first coffee of the day). I could try installing an SSD as a rejuvenating tonic, but I’d rather not think about where it would have to be inserted. My computers had no such fears when I shoved SSDs inside them. I now have a Crucial SATA drive speeding up my ageing PC, while my laptop can thank a Samsung NVMe model for making it feel young again. Your machines will also be revitalised if you follow Nik Rawlinson’s advice in our Cover Feature. Just make sure you pay close…

Norfolk County Council has been granted permission to sue Apple in a class action case in the US. It claims that a pension fund it runs lost money as a result of Apple giving misleading information about the number of iPhone sales in China. Apple’s boss, Tim Cook, told shareholders in November 2018 that although the company was “seeing pressure” in some emerging markets such as Russia and Turkey, he didn’t put China “in that category”. Shareholders were relieved by this news because China is one of Apple’s biggest markets. However, two months later Apple gave a profit warning after what Cook called “lower than anticipated iPhone revenue, primarily in Greater China”. It was the first time Apple had cut sales forecasts since 2002, and sent shares tumbling by eight…

I always judge companies by how patient they are when talking to someone who isn’t very technical. So top marks to 1pMobile, who spent 20 minutes explaining to my 84-year-old mother how their pay-as-you-go system worked. She’s never had a smartphone before, so she was daunted by the prospect. She had no need to be tied to an expensive contract, so I knew 1pMobile’s no-contract system would be ideal. I rang the company on my mother’s landline to explain all this, and spoke to a very helpful customer assistant who answered every question my mother had – even when she asked the same question a couple of times! I spoke to the assistant afterwards to thank him for being so patient, and he said that he’d actually enjoyed the experience…

www.snipca.com/40956 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 Falling comfortably between the basic PDF functions now offered by most browsers and the advanced options of paid-for software such as Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, PDF24 is a free feature-packed toolkit for all your PDF needs. Its quirky, sheep-themed interface gives you access to 41 tools for working with PDF files, and this update expands and refines its capabilities. Most notably, PDF24 has changed the way it creates PDFs. It no longer ‘pre-processes’ files before passing them to its rendering tool, which improves the quality of the end result, especially when merging PDFs. Additionally, you can now merge a large number of files more quickly, using a tool called QPDF, which better preserves each PDF’s content. Another welcome change is…

Q I have a file on my desktop that is proving impossible to remove. When I try to delete it, or drag it to my recycle bin, Windows says: ‘The action can’t be completed because the file is open in another program’. Is there any software I can use to get rid of this locked file? Andrew Grimshaw A You should first try to find out which program has the stubborn file open. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to launch Task Manager and check the Processes tab for a likely culprit. Right-click any programs that may be using the file and select ‘End task’, then try deleting the item again. If that doesn’t fix the problem, your best bet is a tiny free tool called ThisIsMyFile. This is specifically designed to unlock and/or…

Osagie Aigbonohan won’t be swiping right on Tinder for a while, after he was sentenced to 28 months in prison for conning several women via dating apps. In one life Aigbonohan, originally from Nigeria and staying illegally in the UK, worked as a school caretaker. In his other life he posed as lothario Tony Eden, tricking his victims into handing over thousands of pounds. He told one victim he needed the money to buy drilling equipment for his overseas business, and another that he needed to pay for colleagues’ funerals. Police think he contacted over 200 people, stealing around £20,000. “We want to encourage all those who think they’ve been a victim of romance fraud to not feel embarrassed or ashamed but rather report it,” said Dominic Mugan from the…

Made by Chinese firm Onyx Boox, this is an intriguing device that combines an ebook reader with aspects of an Android tablet. It has an E Ink screen, so there are limitations on what you can do compared with even the most basic tablets. However, with Android 11 and the Google Play Store installed, it provides many more opportunities than Kindle or Kobo ebook readers. “A great two-in-one device if you usually carry both an e-reader and tablet” It measures 229x195x5.8mm (HxWxD) and weighs just 420g. The screen is a generous 10.3in across the diagonal (slightly larger than a standard iPad) and has a resolution of 1404x1872 pixels. It comes with a Wacom stylus you can use to scribble notes or draw objects on the screen. The surface has a…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2020 Back Issue CD: £15 from www.snipca.com/38164 LAPTOP Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (256GB) £672 from www.snipca.com/39635 Tested Issue 601 Weighing just 1.16kg, this is an excellent lightweight laptop with a great screen and an AMD processor faster than many Intel rivals. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a microSD card reader. Battery lasts nearly 16 hours. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £849 from www.snipca.com/40042 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 £541 from www.snipca.com/40822 Tested Issue 623 This performed so well in our most recent tests that it has ousted the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro as our favourite. It has…

DeepL Translate Free Android www.snipca.com/40919 iOS www.snipca.com/40932 New to Android, this translation app provides a faster and simpler alternative to Google Translate, and linguists say it’s also more accurate. It uses AI to detect and translate to and from 26 languages, including Bulgarian, Chinese, Finnish and Russian, and you can tap to hear the spoken result. Bizarre Travel: Unique Trips Free iOS www.snipca.com/40934 Now that holidays are allowed again, why limit yourself to the same old destinations? Bizarre Travel recommends unusual places to explore, eat and stay in countries all over the world, based on your tastes and budget, so you can venture off the beaten tourist track. It’s currently free, but may eventually become a paid-for app. LoWeather Free* Android www.snipca.com/40935 Some weather apps cram in too much information,…

MICROSOFT WORD & LIBREOFFICE WRITER Add vertical dividing lines between columns If you use column layouts in your documents, you should consider inserting vertical lines between each column to make sure they are clearly separated. To do this in Word, place your cursor within a column then open the Layout tab, click the Columns dropdown menu and select More Columns. In the box that opens, tick the ‘Line between’ box (1 in our screenshot), followed by OK. You can change the gap between the line and the columns 2, and see how this looks in the Preview box 3. It’s a similar process in LibreOffice Writer. Place your cursor where you want the line to go, then click Layout followed by Page Columns. Next, click the dropdown menu and select…

Hard drives are fragile, mechanical devices, which are spinning up and slowing down the whole time you’re using your computer. The heads that read and write your data can neither be too close, nor too far from the disk surface as they reposition themselves. Should you jog or jolt your computer when the drive is in motion, it will try to secure the heads so they don’t crash into the disk surface and scratch your data out of existence. When damage does occur, or sectors wear out, your drive can usually work around the problem by copying any data that’s in danger to a safer part of the disk. However, it can only do this so many times. As more and more of a disk is marked as unusable, its…

All shops that sell more than 32kg of batteries a year are legally required to provide in-store recycling collection – usually in the form of a bin for your old AAs, AAAs, watch batteries and more (see picture). Disposing of the lithium-ion batteries from phones and laptops isn’t always as straightforward, but the Recycling Locator at Recycle More (www.snipca.com/40914) will help you find the nearest facilities that accept them. You can also check your council’s website to see if a battery-collection scheme is available in your area. Many laptop manufacturers offer battery-collection programmes in conjunction with Valpak (www.snipca.com/40916) or the European Recycling Platform (www.snipca.com/40915). However, these are generally aimed at businesses to let them recycle batteries in bulk. A better option is to visit a high-street electrical store - Currys…

PARAMOUNT PLUS COMING TO THE UK TV-streaming service Paramount Plus will launch in the UK in the summer at no extra cost to Sky Cinema and Sky Q subscribers. The channel, which owns the rights to Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, confirmed the news on Twitter (www.snipca.com/40975). New shows planned include a revival of US comedy Frasier and a mini-series about the making of The Godfather. VIRGIN ENDS CANCEL FEE FOR HOME MOVERS Virgin Media O2 has scrapped early-termination fees for customers who move to a new home in an area outside its network. Until now, you had to pay a fee based on the remaining months of your contract – a policy that was heavily criticised by consumer groups. In 2018, Ofcom fined Virgin £7m for overcharging customers. Read…

Street lights, CCTV poles and bus shelters across the UK will have 5G transmitters installed as part of a Government scheme to “slash red tape” that it claims is delaying the roll out of the technology. It launched the Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator (DCIA) scheme last year to explore how software can be used to simplify the planning process when telecom companies request to install equipment on publicly owned buildings and curbside infrastructure – or ‘street furniture’. It has now announced the first pilot schemes to help firms check where their equipment can be installed. Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez said it will modernise the way “local authorities and operators work together in a way that ultimately delivers faster, more reliable mobile coverage for millions of people” (www.snipca.com/40878). Eight companies…

NEW NOKIA PHONES LAST THREE DAYS Nokia has released two Android 11 phones that it claims have a battery life of three days. The Nokia G11 (pictured) and Nokia G21, priced £119.99 and £149.99 respectively (www.snipca.com/40931), also have a Super Battery Saver mode to make the charge last even longer. The main difference between the phones is that the G21’s rear camera is 50 megapixels, compared with the G11’s 8-megapixel version. WORDLE SPIN-OFF HAS FOUR PUZZLES An unofficial Wordle spin-off challenges you to guess four five-letter words at the same time. Called Quordle (www.quordle.com), it has a version that lets you play an unlimited number of times – unlike Wordle which restricts you to one game a day. Wordle was bought in January by the New York Times, but remains…

Mozilla describes its phone/tablet browser Firefox Focus as having “next-level” privacy features, pitching it as a more secure alternative to Chrome (on Android) and Safari (on iOS). The app automatically wipes your history as you browse, so it’s a reasonable boast. What’s surprising though is that it’s taken until version 97 of Firefox Focus for Mozilla to turn on HTTPS mode by default. This means you’ll always be sent to the more secure HTTPS version of a website, rather than the older, unsafe HTTP. If a site only uses HTTP, you’ll see a ‘Secure Site Not Available’ message (as pictured on Mozilla’s website at www.snipca.com/40856). You can click ‘Continue to HTTP Site’ if you want, but don’t enter any personal details on the site. To download Firefox Focus, visit the…

Can Dell force me to buy a more expensive laptop? Q In mid-December, I bought a Dell Latitude 9510 laptop (pictured right) from Dell’s website, and received an order confirmation by email. Delivery was meant to be in the first week of January, but when it didn’t arrive I called Dell only to be told it had cancelled the order in December because it had no stock. Dell then tried to get me to buy a different, more expensive laptop. Don’t you agree this is bad service? Jon Bylo A Yes, it’s poor service, but there’s probably not much Jon can do because no money left his account, and therefore he never formed a contract with Dell. Sending a customer an email confirming an order is a grey area of…

www.snipca.com/40952 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 This excellent opensource program for creating bootable disc images has added a welcome feature that changes the way it works. Previously, you needed to copy any disc-image files you downloaded, such as operating systems in ISO format, from your hard drive to a USB stick, and boot them from there. The latest version lets you boot disc images from a local drive, which is useful if you don’t have much space on your USB stick or it’s running slowly. The program itself still needs to be installed on a removable drive, but you can now easily browse locally stored disc images, and create special ‘vInk’ files for them (see screenshot). These vlnk files are then copied to the USB stick,…

Bank statements are useful for checking what’s coming in and out of my account (it’s mostly the latter). But they are fairly blunt snapshots of spending over a certain month. I prefer to monitor my outgoings over the course of a year, to see which months are the most expensive. The smartest way to do that is to use Excel’s sumifs formula, which adds up values only if multiple criteria are met. In my case, I use it to add up spending based on categories (mortgage, utility bills, etc) within a set month. As I explain how I do this, we’ll be hopping between two screenshots – A (above) and B (below right). To start, I created an Excel spreadsheet with two Tabs: Table and Transactions. On the Table tab,…

Adobe’s program simplifies the complicated process of editing videos, thanks to its accessible interface, easy-to-use tools and creative shortcuts. The three tabs at the top of the interface – Quick, Guided and Expert – offer novices an opportunity to fix their videos quickly and learn how to use the program’s more complex tools, while also providing experienced users with plenty of control. This 2022 update adds a handful of improved features, mostly focused on recording video on mobile phones and sharing it via social media. Most social networks have a preferred aspect ratio for uploaded video, and Premiere Elements lets you choose this at the start of the process, assuming you know where you want to share it. Alternatively, you can export a finished video to the specific size you…

The datAshur SD, from UK company iStorage, is an encrypted USB drive that works with removable microSD cards with capacities ranging from 32GB to 1TB. This makes it a unique and affordable drive that you use with as many iStorage microSD cards as required. They’re easy to use. Just insert your iStorage microSD Card into the slot and enter your 8-64 digit PIN to authenticate and use as a normal flash drive. When the drive is locked, all data on the iStorage microSD card is encrypted using AES-XTS 256bit hardware encryption In this competition we’re giving away a datAshur dual pack that includes iStorage’s KeyWriter software, which clones other datAshur SD USB drives with the same encryption key, allowing you to create a secondary drive as a backup. To enter…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Make bookmarks visible in Microsoft Word Your tip in Issue 625 (page 47) on adding bookmarks to Word was useful, but you didn’t mention that you can make Word show where the bookmarks are located. I find this helps hugely when navigating large documents – which, as a semi-retired solicitor, I have to do often. First you need to click the File tab, then Options at the bottom followed by Advanced. Next, scroll down to the ‘Show document content’ heading and tick the ‘Show bookmarks’ box. Now simply click OK to make the change. Once you’ve done that, any bookmarks added to highlighted text or images will be shown as square brackets (1 in our screenshot), while those placed elsewhere will appear as a thin vertical…

Letterpress Free* Android www.snipca.com/40938 iOS www.snipca.com/40939 Letterpress is a simple but addictive word game that you play against either a bot, a friend or a random opponent. The aim is to control as much of the 5x5-tile board as possible by creating words using letters close to the other person’s selection. The longer the word, the more points you score. Best For Testing your vocabulary skills SpellTower Free* Android www.snipca.com/40944 iOS www.snipca.com/40945 SpellTower is a cross between Wordle and Tetris. The premise is simple: build words by tracing your finger around adjacent letter tiles. When you find a word, the letters disappear and the tower of tiles adjusts accordingly until they’re all gone. There are several modes to choose from to keep things interesting. Best For Combining words with strategy…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT What’s wrong with my TV’s Text button? Q I have four Samsung smart TVs. On the most recent model, which I bought a couple of years ago, pressing the text button on the remote (just above the volume – pictured right) fails to display the menu. My other TVs are all older, and if I press this button while watching BBC One, Two and News channels, the menu appears. As I’m hard of hearing, I use the menu all the time. I know it’s available on this newer TV because it has appeared on two separate occasions over the past two years. Otherwise, the red button always takes me to the catchup area. Pressing the text button on my other TVs generally gives me subtitles on…

SAMSUNG LAUNCHES NEW GALAXY TABLETS Samsung has launched its Galaxy Tab S8 series of Android tablets, the successor to the Tab S7 – currently our favourite Android device (see page 30). There are three models: the standard Tab S8 (pictured – prices start at £649 for 128GB storage), the Tab S8+ (£849, 128GB), and the Tab S8 Ultra (£999, 128GB). Screen sizes are 11, 12.4 and 14.6 inches respectively. Order now at www.snipca.com/40877. INSTALL RASPBERRY PI OS WITHOUT SECOND PC You can now install an operating system (OS) on a Raspberry Pi computer without using a second PC. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has launched a ‘bootloader’ tool that lets you install an OS over the internet. Previously, you had to install it on to an SD card when setting up…

I recently received a type of Covid-related scam that I’d not seen before. It came as a text message on my Android phone, and told me I’d been in “close contact with a person who has Omicron”. The reason I was suspicious is because it said I had to order a ‘Test Kit’ from https://nhs-omicron-pcr.com. I used to work in the NHS, and I knew it wouldn’t use a URL like that. Nor in fact would it text you a request to order a kit to test yourself. You can see what that shameless scam looks like at www.snipca.com/40837. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

You can’t bank on retailers to tell you if you’re using the wrong law when asking for a refund. Reader Colin Faulkner realised that when using the Consumer Contract Regulations (CCRs) to ask Amazon for help with a faulty air fryer (see Issue 623). As we explained, he should instead have used the Consumer Rights Act (CRA). We pointed this out to Amazon, which has now sent him a replacement. Colin had contacted us because Amazon claimed he was too late for a refund. This was true under the CCRs, which give you 28 days to return an item bought online, over the phone or from a catalogue, but not under the CRA, which lets you make a claim for faulty goods for up to six years (five in Scotland).…

My great-grandmother worked as a missionary in China for the Presbyterian Church of England. How can I find further info about what she did while there? Michelle Graham Records from the Foreign Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Church of England (now the United Reform Church) are held in London at the School of Oriental and African Studies (www.soas.ac.uk). These include application records, personal papers of those in service, and minutes of the meetings involved. Read its guide at www.snipca.com/40836. Have a genealogy question for Chris? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

Word Office’s Microsoft clone It takes a certain breed of masochist to write documents or tweak spreadsheets on a smartphone. Should you ever feel the need, avoid the hideous Word Office Android app like an undercooked chicken burger you’ve found on the bus. How Microsoft’s lawyers aren’t all over this, I’ll never know. When the app’s heading on the Google Play Store (www.snipca.com/40829) mentions ‘Word’ and ‘Excel’ (see screenshot) and uses the accompanying logos, I’d argue it’s clearly trying to trick people into thinking it’s Microsoft Office. Well, it’s not Microsoft Office. Instead, it’s made by that well-known multinational giant, South Pole Mobile. Who? Exactly. Installing the app will definitely drive you up the pole. The first thing it does is thrust a load of adverts down your throat, before…

What are they? When you sit directly in front of your computer monitor, laptop screen or TV, you expect to see the best possible picture. However, if you move to one side, you may find that the colours start to change. The viewing angle is a way of specifying at what point this distortion begins to occur. Think of it in terms of a cone shape that extends out from the centre of your screen (as pictured). How do they work? Modern screens use a complicated arrangement of lights, filters and electronic components, arranged in many layers, to create each pixel you see on screen. Depending on how these layers are arranged, some elements of a pixel might be obscured by its neighbouring pixels or some other part of the…

This is an affordable webcam that’s easy to set up and designed to make basic video calls. It has 1080p Full HD resolution and comes with a stand you can use to mount it to the top of your monitor. It also has a built-in privacy shield that uses magnets to snap open and shut – the shut position cuts the camera feed in addition to actually covering the lens. When active, a small ring light lets you know the camera is on. Being a Microsoft product you’d expect it to work well with Windows, and it doesn’t disappoint. You simply plug it into a USB port and Windows does the rest. There is a downloadable tool called the Microsoft Accessory Centre that provides further options for configuring the camera,…

What you need: USB stick Time required: One hour Many of us now use our email inboxes as ad-hoc filing systems, packed with holiday schedules, bank statements, and everything in between. It makes sense to back up that important information from time to time. The so-called 3-2-1 rule advises that an effective backup strategy involves making three backups on two different storage types, and keeping at least one copy ‘off site’ (ie, not in your home). Email meets most of those requirements. Almost certainly there’s a copy of your messages online (in the ‘cloud’), or on your internet provider’s servers. And, if you’re using an email program like Outlook or Thunderbird, you have a second copy already, on your computer. Here, we’ll show you how to make the vital third…

CHROME Display Chrome’s new permission prompts Google has redesigned the messages that Chrome displays when a website asks for permission to know your location, use your camera or microphone, or send you notifications. Its research found that most users simply dismiss these prompts by clicking Block, so the browser will now show less annoying ‘request chips’. These appear in your address bar when a website requires your permission to perform a specific action (see screenshot below), rather than being triggered automatically as soon as you open the site. Most chips only show their full messages when clicked, so they’re much easier to ignore than the current pop-up prompts. The new design is being rolled out gradually, but you can enable it now through Chrome’s Experiments page. Type chrome://flags into the…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Use WhatsApp Beta in dark mode Many people prefer using WhatsApp on a computer than their phone because they find it easier to type on a physical keyboard than on a phone’s touchscreen. The bigger screen also helps. You can download a desktop version of WhatsApp from www.whatsapp.com/download, but it’s better to use the app from the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.com/40905) because it uses fewer system resources than a traditional program. If you’re a prolific WhatsApp user, consider installing the beta version of the app. It’ll give you the chance to try new features early, such as the dark mode added in February. To select it, click General on the main Settings page, then choose Dark (see screenshot below). Once set, it will be applied across the…

Why didn’t you provide fix to overwriting downloads? Q In answer to Dan Willink’s question, in Issue 622’s Problems Solved (page 69), the solution is simple and I’m amazed you didn’t provide him with it. All he needs to do is choose ‘All Files (*.*)’ (see screenshot below) in the ‘Save as type’ dropdown menu. He can then type any file name and extension he want! Chris Ellison A To recap, Dan asked us two questions. The first was whether there was a way to avoid (1), (2), (3) and so on being added to a file’s name when saving downloads, where the file name already exists. The second question was whether the ‘.htm’ or ‘.html’ file extensions could be be added to Notepad ‘save as type’ menu, alongside ‘Text…