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One of the best ever marketing slogans was Apple’s ‘1,000 songs in your pocket’, which impeccably captured the iPod’s appeal (read this essay on its marketing brilliance: www.snipca.com/41578). It comes to mind every time someone asks me why a device as supposedly outdated as the USB stick continues to thrive. You may not be able to (or want to) install 1,000 programs on your stick, but you can certainly get enough on there to create a computer in your pocket. And I don’t just mean carrying Windows around with you. Our Cover Feature also explains how to run Linux and Chrome OS from your stick, as well as the best software to build PC-repair kits and entertainment hubs. Until you can fold up laptops like handkerchiefs (HankieBooks?) and slip them…

I bought a computer for my grandson from Fierce PC (www.fiercepc.co.uk), which is based in Great Harwood in Lancashire and has been in business since 2014. I ordered it through the company’s Amazon store (www.snipca.com/41451). Unfortunately, it failed after only three months, while it was still under warranty. Despite the difficulties created by Amazon’s constraints when communicating with companies that sell through it, I managed to connect with a lady in Fierce’s support department who immediately understood that the PC was not at my address, but was actually with my grandson. She provided excellent documentation and instructions regarding the collection of the PC. This all went smoothly, and the machine was repaired and returned just a few days later in full working condition. Fierce’s help was service as it should…

IMAGE VIEWER FastStone Image Viewer 7.6 www.snipca.com/41622 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 FastStone Image Viewer is one of the most popular free programs for browsing photos stored on your computer. This latest version is its best yet, adding several welcome features and making the program speedier to use. You’ll notice an improvement in performance from the moment you launch FastStone Image Viewer 7.6, because it now loads more quickly and displays its ‘tree’ of folders instantly, as well as their contents when clicked. Select an image, and FastStone helpfully shows its size in the status bar at the bottom of the program window, as well as in the preview pane in the bottom-left corner. If you find the default interface too bright, you can switch to…

Don’t get Snappy Driver from Sdi-tool.org Here’s a cautionary tale from reader David Noble, who told us how he was caught out after installing Snappy Driver, as we suggested in Issue 627’s ‘Stop Using Rubbish Software’ Cover Feature. He admits he didn’t quite follow our advice to the letter. Instead of using the snipca link we provided (www.snipca.com/41002) to safely download the software from the developer’s site, David searched for the program on Google. That might sound sensible enough, but the site at the top of the search results (https://sdi-tool.org) is blatantly using the software’s good name to download junk on to PCs. Clicking the yellowy-orange Download button (pictured) not only smuggles in the Opera browser and Skype without warning, but a subsequent scan from Malwarebytes revealed no fewer than…

PC | £1,500 from Chillblast www.chillblast.com We’re used to seeing gaming PCs ablaze with colourful lights, but this can be a bit of a Marmite scenario – some may love these illuminations, while others hate them. The Chillblast Fusion Vanguard’s toned-down exterior will please the latter group. The only radiance to see through the tempered glass is the bright white of the Corsair liquid cooler and a small flash of coloured light on the side of the graphics card. “Understated exterior conceals a Windows and gaming powerhouse” Most of the time the Vanguard stays almost silent, emitting only the lowest of hums. Even when pushed to its maximum in high-resolution games, we doubt you’ll find it a distraction. There’s plenty of gaming power on offer, too, with Chillblast choosing an…

What is it? Modern mice measure their sensitivity in dpi (dots per inch). It tells you how many measurements the mouse can detect for every inch that it’s moved. How does it work? Most modern mice are optical, meaning they have a camera inside, such as the one you can see on the bottom of the Logitech Signature M650 (pictured below, £40 from www.snipca.com/41579). This takes photos of the surface the mouse runs on, hundreds of times every second. As it moves, the camera tracks that motion and converts it into the movement of the cursor on screen. What are the specs? Most decent mice offer a range of sensitivity levels. The M650, for example, is set to 400dpi by default, but it can go up to 4,000dpi. In regular…

What is it? Dell has launched a range of high-resolution monitors, called UltraSharp USB-C Hub (pictured), with high-resolution screens and multiple ports built in. What do they do? The idea is that you leave peripherals such as your mouse, keyboard, webcam and other devices connected to the monitor. Then, when you hook up your laptop, you only need to use a single USB-C cable. This will display your laptop on the monitor screen, connect it to the network and provide enough power to charge it. What’s the catch? We think Dell might have overdone it with the ports. We counted three USB-C ports and five USB 3.0 ports. There’s also an Ethernet, HDMI, two DisplayPorts and a headphone jack. It makes for a pricey monitor, costing £686 for the smallest…

Chess – Play & Learn Free* Android www.snipca.com/41585 iOS www.snipca.com/41586 Chess.com has redesigned its mobile app to make it easier to navigate. The home screen now offers one-tap tabs for starting games, solving puzzles, viewing chess lessons and getting the latest event news. You can also get statistics about your gameplay and see your rank in the Players League. Supercasts Free Android www.snipca.com/41591 This easy-to-use app finds you free podcasts from across the world that “inspire, inform and entertain”. Choose from genres including News, Science and Technology, then listen to recommended podcasts directly in Supercasts, save and share your favourites, adjust the playback speed and download episodes to play offline. MaskerAid Free* iOS www.snipca.com/41595 MaskerAid offers a fun way to share photos without compromising the privacy of your subjects. It…

MICROSOFT WORD Centre your text in tables It’s easy to reposition words so they’re centred horizontally in each box in a Word table. Simply select the text – by pressing Ctrl+A or dragging your cursor over it – then click the Home tab and click the Center option in the Paragraph section at the top. The text will move left or right to the middle. It’s a little harder to centre text so it’s exactly in the middle of each box – ie, centred horizontally and vertically. We recommend selecting the text by dragging to make the Table Tools section appear at the top (1 in our screenshot) – it will disappear if you click outside the table. Now, click Layout 2 in this section, then the Align Center option…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT What’s eating my storage space? Q My Windows 11 laptop has a 500GB SSD. Recently, I was surprised to find that I have only 44GB space left. The Pictures folder holds 38GB, Documents 24GB and Videos and Music virtually nil. The only apps I have installed are BT Cloud, Skype and three web browsers. Is this what I should expect, or is something filling up my hard drive? John Brown A Without having our hands on the machine, it’s hard to say. However, this concern is aired by many readers, so we’ll use your question as an opportunity to explore a few possibilities – and to explain why your 500GB drive probably doesn’t have 500GB of storage. In fact, we’ll make that aspect our starting point.…

FIX GOOGLE PIXEL PHONES YOURSELF Google has teamed up with tech-repair site iFixit to sell spare parts for its Pixel phones, meaning you’ll be able to fix them yourself. The service will be available in the UK later this year from www.ifixit.com/google (pictured above). IFixit already sells official repair kits for iPads and iPhones – just search for your device at https://store.ifixit.co.uk. iDRIVE ADDS 1TB PC STORAGE Online-storage company iDrive (www.idrive.com) has added 1TB of PC data to its subscription package, which costs 99 US cents for the first year, then $9.99 a year (around £7.64) after that. It will continue to offer unlimited mobile photo and video storage as part of the package. The service launched in June 2021, soon after Google Photos ended its free unlimited plan. Read…

VODAFONE DOUBLES ITS PAYG DATA Vodafone has doubled the data that phone customers can use on some of its pay-as-you-go ‘Big Value Bundles’. For £15 you now get 20GB; for £20 your limit is 40GB; and for £30 you get 100GB. However, on the cheapest package (£10) data increases by only 2GB, to 7GB. See www.snipca.com/41546 for details. DELL ADDS TILE TRACKER TO STYLUS Dell has released the first touchscreen stylus with a Tile tracker built in, making it easier to find. If you ever lose it, you can track it down using the Tile app on your phone or tablet. Tap ‘Find’ in the app and your stylus will begin buzzing and blinking its lights. The Premier Rechargeable Active Pen (pictured) is available for £93.73 from Dell’s store: www.snipca.com/41539.…

Microsoft has finally addressed one of the most inexplicable security flaws on the internet: it has upgraded its Update Catalog so files you download from it are encrypted by HTTPS, not HTTP. This means there’s no chance of the updates you install being intercepted by hackers. It’s long overdue. Previously, browsers – Microsoft’s Edge included – would often block downloads from the Catalog because they correctly judged the HTTP link to be insecure. To get around this you had to right-click a file and select ‘Save as’. Now you can just download a file and your browser should accept it. You can check this by visiting the Catalog (www.snipca.com/41540), searching for an update you know you need – whether it’s for Windows, a driver or to fix a security fault…

LEAD CASE Can Samsung offer refund instead of replacement tablet? Q Samsung was offering a trade-in promotion for the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G phone and Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra 5G tablet (pictured), which I took advantage of. The tablet was faulty, so I sent it back for a replacement, but instead was given a refund. This messed up the dual deal, which as well as giving me money off both devices came with a free keyboard cover for the tablet worth £209. Then Samsung took £570 from my account for the phone’s trade-in allowance, despite the fact I’d sent in my S21 phone. What are my rights? Guy Peters A Samsung has breached the contract by giving Guy a refund for the tablet, instead of the replacement it promised. It…

How can I transfer music files to my MP3 player? Q I have lots of music files on my laptop and would like to transfer them to an MP3 player. The list of tracks comes up as an Apple playlist, and the MP3 player doesn’t appear, so I can’t drag and drop the files. Is there some software I can download to help me? Ed Nicholls A It sounds like you’re using Apple’s iTunes software, but you might have more luck with an alternative music manager. Our favourite is MusicBee (https://getmusicbee.com), which you can download for free from www.snipca.com/41628 - click Get MusicBee Installer, then the green Download button. Extract the contents of the ZIP file and install the program. When you first launch MusicBee, it will offer to import…

LAPTOP | £665 from Box www.snipca.com/41523 If you’re in the market for a no-nonsense, business-like laptop that runs Windows well and is reasonably priced, this model could be of interest. However, its screen may leave you wanting more. It’s a 15.6in panel with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The problems began with our colorimeter tests, which indicated a maximum brightness level of only 269cd/m2. Even when we were indoors, we felt the need to try increasing the brightness setting in the hope of pushing it beyond its maximum. Then there’s colour coverage, with the screen only capable of reproducing 59 per cent of the sRGB colour standard. You’ll get away with working on documents, spreadsheets and browsing web pages, but it will make your videos and photos look dull. “A…

My main laptop has a fingerprint reader in the trackpad, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be without it. It makes logging in quick, keeps my computer secure, and gives me confidence that the chance of anyone else gaining unauthorised access is very slim. An integrated reader will be one of my requirements when shopping for my next PC but, should that not be an option, I’d have no qualms about using an external device, as long as it could be left plugged in permanently. How do you use your fingerprint reader? Please let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Play background music in Skype calls Back in Issue 607’s How To on improving how you sound in video calls, you suggested switching on Skype’s ‘Low’ option to minimise background noise without distorting your voice. It was good advice, and instantly improved my regular video calls. One thing you may not have realised is that Microsoft recommends the Low setting to allow the other person hear music you’re playing in the background as you speak. I do this when talking to friends, because we sometimes play a game of ‘guess the composer’ or ‘guess the album’. To enable this setting, open Skype, then click the three dots to the right of your name and select Settings – you can also press Ctrl+, (comma) to get there.…

Pouch Chromium, Edge & Firefox www.snipca.com/41504 Although Honey (www.joinhoney.com) is the most popular tool for finding voucher codes for online stores, we think Pouch is a better choice for UK shoppers. Covering more than 3,000 UK stores, the extension automatically detects discounts when you visit a site and either applies them at the checkout or lets you copy the code (see screenshot). It works with big names including Amazon, B&Q, Currys, easyJet and all the main supermarkets, and doesn’t interfere with your shopping, simply showing the number of available savings on its toolbar button. You can also save your favourite brands to be notified when codes and offers become available. Although Pouch has a cashback scheme called Pouch Points, which lets you earn points as you shop to redeem for…

Rover – Dog Boarding & Walking Free Android www.snipca.com/41601 iOS www.snipca.com/41602 From the website of the same name (www.rover.com), this app helps you find trustworthy people in your area to walk and look after your dog. Simply enter your postcode, specify your dates, times and pooch size, and Rover will list verified local ‘sitters’ and their prices. You can then contact and book them directly through the app. Best For Finding dog walkers and sitters PetsApp Free Android www.snipca.com/41604 iOS www.snipca.com/41605 Avoid the stress of taking a poorly pet to the vet by using PetsApp to arrange a video consultation without leaving your home. The app finds your nearest vet, and lets you chat to them in a virtual waiting room to get advice about your pet’s condition before you…

Run a survey with Google Forms One of the best ways to learn what your members want is to ask them in an online survey. It gives them a chance to consider their views, and reply in their own time. For simplicity and options, the surveys offered by Google Forms are hard to beat. In our example, a Second World War history club (‘War Bores’) is asking members which topics to cover. Decide how members can answer questions Visit https://forms.google.com and you’ll see some templates to help you get started, but we’re going to click the Blank icon to create our own. Enter a title for your form at the top of the page, and then click Untitled Question (1 in our screenshot right). Click the ‘Multiple choice’ dropdown menu…

Your computer will usually be set to check its hard drive or SSD for an operating system before looking anywhere else, and so will ignore your USB stick. To get around this, reboot it, then press whichever key interrupts the boot process to launch the BIOS or UEFI configuration screens. These control how your PC boots, and how its various components communicate with one another. The key you need to press to access this will probably be shown during the boot process. If it isn’t, check your machine’s manual or look in online forums. Work your way through the screens, looking for a boot order or boot device option (or similar). When you find it, change the boot order so your computer always looks for a USB stick to boot…

It’s easy to take electricity for granted – until you lose it. Even battery-powered devices such as phones, tablets and laptops need regular recharging via a wall socket, while your PC, monitor and wireless router are totally dependent on the mains. When your power supply is cut off, so is your access to your computer and the internet, and outages are more common in the UK than many people realise – and not just when storms cause power cuts, as happened in February. By investing in a battery backup device called a UPS (uninterruptible power supply), you can protect yourself against most power problems – and it may not cost as much as you’d think. Why you need a battery backup The most obvious threat to your mains power supply…

Why can’t I use WhatsApp on my PC? Q In Issue 626 (page 46) you explained how to install WhatsApp on your computer from the Microsoft Store (via www.snipca.com/40905). However, it appears you also need to have WhatsApp on your phone, and it no longer works on my Microsoft Lumia 650. How else can I use WhatsApp on my PC? Ann Emmerson A We probably should have made it clear that, in order to use WhatsApp on your PC, you’ll also need a mobile phone running the latest version. Until recently, using WhatsApp on a computer (either via the Microsoft Store desktop app or WhatsApp Web https://web.whatsapp.com) not only required you to link your account via a mobile phone, but also forced you to keep the phone nearby during use,…

SKY LAUNCHES 900MBPS BROADBAND Sky has launched its fastest ever broadband, hitting a top speed of 900Mbps, which is fast enough to download an HD film in five seconds. The Gigafast package costs £55 a month on an 18-month contract, rising to £60 thereafter. Sky says you’ll be able to claim back money if speeds dip below 600Mbps. Visit Sky’s site for details: www.snipca.com/41573. UBER TO SELL TRAIN, COACH & PLANE TICKETS Uber will soon let UK users book train, coach and plane tickets through its app as it plans to become a “one-stop shop” for transport. The tickets will be available as QR codes within the app. You’ll also be able to book Uber drivers to take you to and from the station or airport. The service will be…

I do most of my shopping at Tesco, so I was interested in an email that claimed the supermarket owed me money because of a ‘system error’. But then the email said I made a complaint in store about an item I had purchased, and this system error had stopped me getting a refund. Absolute rubbish. And not a very clever scam. For it to work, it needs to reach people who have complained, and that surely will always be a small number. I showed it to Tesco staff when I next shopped there, and they said it had been confirmed as a scam. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Lenovo has given reader Eunan Jackson a full refund of £59.99 after he complained that its Smart Clock 2 doesn’t come with a dock, despite the website showing a photo of it sitting inside one. As we explained in Issue 627, Eunan thought this photo was misleading – and we agreed. You had to look very closely to spot that the device was a ‘NonDock’ model. The dock was a key reason why he bought the clock, so he was understandably angry. The dock is available separately, but only in the US, so Eunan wouldn’t have been able to buy it even if he had been happy to splash out more cash. Lenovo’s product description doesn’t say that the dock isn’t on sale in the UK. To see this confirmed,…

I live in Northern Ireland and would like to trace my family tree. Bearing in mind that all records were lost in a fire in Dublin in 1922, is it worthwhile subscribing to a genealogy company? Davis Andrews Not all records were lost in the fire. Civil records for births, marriage and deaths in Northern Ireland from 1864 to 1921 are available for free at www.irishgenealogy.ie. You can pay for more recent records via the GRO Northern Ireland (www.snipca.com/41402). The 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses are free at http://census.nationalarchives.ie, plus fragments from earlier censuses. Have a genealogy question for Chris? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

When a device connects to your home network, it sends a request to your router asking for an IP address. Your router’s Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server looks to see which addresses are in use, then it sends a spare one, so your device can connect to the internet. DHCP works brilliantly, but the servers that are built into routers are typically quite limited and lack useful features. They can also be hard to use. More powerful is the DHCP server built into my Synology NAS drive, which shows me what’s connected to my network, lets me set the DNS servers I want, and quickly fixes IP addresses for important devices. To switch to it, I first typed ipconfig into Command Prompt and noted down the Gateway address of…

PHONE | £419 from Apple www.snipca.com/41576 The iPhone SE is an unusual proposition from Apple, a company that’s often (quite rightly) accused of making products that are too expensive for many. The concept behind the SE is that it takes the latest processor from Apple’s flagship phone – currently the iPhone 13 – and puts it inside an older case. As with the previous 2020 version, this new model uses the case design of the iPhone 8, a relatively small phone with a 4.7in screen, and the last iPhone to maintain the classic original look with a physical home button on the front. “A small screen that feels a little dated, but Apple’s processor keeps things quick” The processor is the star of the show. Apple’s A15 Bionic is faster…

Q I have a Samsung Galaxy A3 phone (launched in 2014) with a 4.7in screen. I’m generally happy with it, but its 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM are holding me back, and very few apps seem to be able to use its external storage option. I want a new phone that I can still slip into a shirt or trouser pocket. Can you suggest anything that would fit the bill? Mike Frizelle A If you’re willing to switch from Android to iOS, there’s a very obvious option. Apple’s latest iPhone SE (£419 from www.snipca.com/41565 – read our full review on page 25) has a 4.7in screen that would suit you perfectly. Inside the case it has many of the same components as the larger iPhone 13, so you’re…

VIDEO DOORBELL | £229 from Amazon www.snipca.com/41629 Eufy is the home-appliances brand of Chinese tech manufacturer Anker, and isn’t as well-known in home security as rivals Arlo and Ring. However, it has been quietly building its profile with affordable home-security products loaded with clever features. The Video Doorbell Dual is the company’s latest offering and has a unique design that includes two cameras. There’s a front-facing 2K camera with a 160-degree field of view, while a downward-pointing 97-degree HD lens is trained on the floor, capturing any packages left on your doorstep. “High-quality footage, local video storage and parcel protection” When the unit’s button is pressed, a notification is sent to the Eufy Security app on your smartphone, from where you can view a real-time feed from both cameras. A…

CHROMIUM & FIREFOX Block unwanted cookies automatically Cookie consent pop-ups are the bane of our online lives, and recent research by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology found that many websites ignore our requests anyway. Blatantly disregarding GDPR rules, 69.7 per cent of the sites analysed in the study assumed positive consent before it was given, while 21.3 per cent implanted cookies despite users rejecting them (www.snipca.com/41497). To combat this problem, members of the institute have created an extension that automatically blocks cookies to stop sites invading your privacy. It’s called CookieBlock and is available for Chrome and other Chromium browsers (www.snipca.com/41493), Edge (www.snipca.com/41494) and Firefox (www.snipca.com/41495). When you install the add-on, it lets you choose which types of cookie to block and allow – for example, you can permit…

ANDROID & iOS Listen to and record WhatsApp voice messages WhatsApp has made a slew of changes to its voice-messaging feature that make it much easier to listen to audio notes that people send you – and to record your own. Our favourite new option is ‘Out of Chat Playback’, which lets you keep listening to a voice message after leaving the conversation you received it in. This means you can read and reply to messages from other people, while the audio continues to play – very handy if the sender is particularly chatty or long-winded. It’s complemented by a new Remember Playback option, which lets you pause and resume voice messages without needing to start again from the beginning, and another new option that lets you speed up playback…

WINDOWS 11 Create folders in the Start menu Microsoft is adding a new feature to Windows 11 that lets you create folders in the Start menu by dragging icons on top of each other. Our screenshot below shows three folders, Office 1, Productivity 2 and Social 3, each containing icons for four tools. To remove an app from a folder, drag it out and drop it anywhere on the Pinned apps section. You can easily name these folders, too, as this animation shows: www.snipca.com/41627. This feature was part of Preview Build 22557, released in February, and is now being added to the full version. If you haven’t received the update yet, keep checking every few days. WINDOWS 11 Create your own caption styles You can create your own style for…

As well as finding and opening files and programs in a jiffy, PowerToys Run lets you type commands to control your computer, which saves you a lot of pointing and clicking. Here are our favourite shortcuts. shutdown Shuts down your computer, so make sure you save your work first. restart Restarts your computer (see screenshot). sign out Signs you out of Windows. lock Locks your screen so it can only be unlocked with a password. empty recycle bin Provides a speedy way to empty your recycle bin and free up space. UEFI firmware settings Lets you access your PC’s UEFI so you can tweak boot settings IP address Instantly discover your computer’s IP address…