Table of contents for 538 in Computeractive

Here’s my answer to the question on this issue’s cover: yes, yes, yes, yes, and… yes. According to the ‘Have I Been Pwned?’ website, five old email accounts of mine have been infiltrated by hackers. I was expecting one or two, but five? Some I’d forgotten about, others I no longer use, but one was an account I signed into every day. Not anymore. It’s now dead, deleted, wiped-gone to that great big recycle bin in the sky. I urge you to try the site straight away, ransacking your memory for ancient accounts. If one has been hacked, strengthen your password using our tips, or consider closing it. With new data breaches being reported every week, the risk of being hacked has never been higher. Stolen information is advertised on…

Labour plans to offer free Wi-Fi in city centres to stop the high street suffering a ‘slow and agonising death’. It’s hoped free web access will encourage people to spend more of their leisure time in the high-street. The proposal was one of five announced at the party’s conference in Liverpool last month to reverse the decline of Britain’s shops. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said that, as well as free Wi-Fi, Labour would scrap cash-machine charges, provide free bus travel for under 25s, end bank and post office closures, and “overhaul the broken business rates system which is hammering retail”. She added: “Boarded-up shops and deserted high streets are a result of years of neglect and austerity. Our country needs to radically change course so our towns can thrive…

In your hands, a USB is a magic wand containing precious videos, photos and documents. In the hands of hackers, they are pocket-sized malware carriers ideal for infecting devices. Apple confronted this threat earlier this year by introducing USB Restricted Mode, which locks your Lightning port one hour after you turned on your iPhone or iPad, preventing anyone (who may have got hold of your device) from accessing your data if they don’t know your passcode. It’s particularly good at blocking brute-force attacks. Apple turned on this setting in iOS 11.4.1, released in July, but not all users would have updated their device to install it. To make sure everyone gets the protection, Apple has turned it on by default in iOS 12, released last month. To check it’s working,…

Apparently, I own what is probably the world’s oldest sat-nav. Acting on a TomTom email announcing a major map update, I connected my device and was greeted with the following message (see screenshot). It seems my map is 584 months old, and needs updating because roads have changed. True, whole motorways, bridges and tunnels have been built in the past 48 years and 8 months! I don’t recall buying a TomTom in January 1970. It could have been a Christmas present, but I lacked wealthy relatives. Where would I have mounted it inside my high-mileage 1959 948cc Austin A40? I probably shoved it in the glove compartment, having got fed up waiting for it to find a signal from satellites that were yet to be launched. HJ Hill…

There are two lessons to learn from our failed attempt to get a reader’s money from US online-survey site GreenPanthera (www.greenpanthera.com). We’ve spent the past 10 months trying to get Mark Hoggan’s cash, having featured his case in January (Issue 518). One lesson is to always read the small print, particularly when claiming money. Mark’s problems began when he told GreenPanthera he had updated his email address because he was changing ISP. However, his PayPal account-into which he would receive the money-was associated with his old email address. GreenPanthera refused to let Mark update the email address on his account because his request came from that address. It insisted the request had to come from Mark’s old email, with which he had signed up to the site. It said this…

My father was born in Germany in the 1920s. Where is the best place to try and trace his family? Paul Schober Before hunting for relatives, it pays to do some research into your father’s family tree. This will give you more avenues to explore, and more accurate information to work from. Start your search for online records at GermanRoots (www.snipca.com/29159) – although aimed at Americans of German descent, you’ll find several directories of resources that could help you too. Also visit FamilySearch’s ‘Germany’ page (www.snipca.com/29160) for resources. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

Last year, I was quite upset when rumours surfaced of Microsoft’s plans to kill off Paint. If you know of a quicker way to crop, resize or annotate an image, I’d like to hear about it. Actually, hold off on the emails. I’m aware there are plenty of tools that can do the job better, but I love Paint because it’s so simple and familiar. The program’s barely changed since I first started using it in Windows 3.1. Given all that, why do I find myself returning time and again to the labyrinthine menus, tools, and options of GIMP image editor (www.gimp.org)? Well, there are some things Paint struggles with. Multi-layered images are a case in point. Using the Layers feature in GIMP, I can create a collage of photos…

PC £1,500 from Chillblast www.snipca.com/29166 Sharper images Your lawnmower only cuts grass. Your dishwasher won’t dry clothes. Your toaster baulks at anything but bread, give or take the occasional Pop Tart. But your PC will handle any digital duty you throw at it, from web browsing to music production. That’s the beauty of general-purpose computing. Some jobs, though, aren’t quite as general as others. A special-edition PC for video and photo editing that’s also good at everyday tasks For gamers, keeping up with the latest 3D offerings needs a high-spec graphics card. If gaming isn’t your thing, you could save some money on this component, but for ambitious work and creative programs you’ll need a fast processor. For photo and video editing you’ll need a combination of both, balanced to…

A nice little Moto Motorola, now owned by Lenovo, announced this budget smartphone earlier in the year at the same time as the G6 (see our review, Issue 530), but we can’t blame them for holding it back a bit longer. At an even lower price, this could be the G6’s strongest competition. There are three E5 models, with the E5 Play offering the cheapest option at just £89, but resembling last year’s E4 more than the shiny new E5. It has a traditional 16:9 screen and a relatively small battery which (unusually these days) is easy to swap. The E5 Plus, at £150, is the biggest option, with a battery capacity to match. The plain E5 is a fashionably tall 18:9 phone, but with top and bottom borders in…

What was it? In September 2009, tech blog Gizmodo posted a video (www.snipca.com/29250) showing a foldable computer with two 7in touchscreens (pictured). The user is shown swiping maps and scrapbooks, handwriting notes, and flicking content from one screen to the other. Just a day later, Microsoft applied for a US design patent on a ‘dual display device’. The Courier certainly looked unusual, but maybe not very new. Although the iPad hadn’t yet been announced, the touchscreen aspects echoed the iPhone and its Android rivals. How did it die? On 29 April 2010, Microsoft said it had no plans to make the Courier. Dualscreen computers haven’t caught on. But Lenovo’s Yoga Book (see our review, Issue 490) has a pressure-sensitive pad that displays a keyboard when needed, or can be used…

14 pages of easy-to-follow workshops and expert tips Pull Out & Keep Issue 538 What you need: An old smartphone; optionally, a Bluetooth receiver, USB cable and USB charger that fits a car cigarette lighter socket Time required: 60 mins More than a decade into the age of the smartphone, most homes have at least one old device sitting at the back of a drawer–unused, unwanted and unloved. That’s a shame, because they all have some residual value, even if you’d rather not sell them. We wouldn’t recommend using very old phones on a daily basis because they can present a security risk if they’re not updated to run recent apps and operating systems. But, as we’ll show you in this project, they are perfect for use as in-car entertainment…

In Issue 536, Jane Hoskyn described her ordeal trying to transfer her appearance in a 2005 Countdown episode from video tape to her PC (see page 74). After her best efforts failed to pay off, she resorted to recording the episode using her smartphone. I’m sure there are many people who have old VHS tapes they’d like to digitise, so I thought I’d share the two methods that I’ve used. The first way is to use companies that offer this service for about £25 per VHS tape-great if you have a couple of VHS tapes. However, if you have many VHS tapes like I do, then this method will end up costing you a fortune. I use an old system called the ION Audio Video 2 PC MKII Digital Video…

iOS Use Apple’s new password manager Apple has released the latest version of iOS (12). To update your device, open the Settings app, General, then Software Update. You’ll see a message if you’re running the latest version. If not, you’ll be prompted to download it. It’s a huge file (around 1.5GB), so make sure you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network. Once it’s downloaded, you’ll be prompted to restart your device to install it. One of our favourite new features is how iOS handles passwords. Now, when you create a new account on a website or app, your iPhone or iPad will offer to remember the password you created. If you want to enter a password that you’ve already saved, tap the Passwords button at the top of the keyboard. You’ll…

WINDOWS 10 Install Windows themes from the Microsoft Store Bored of your PC’s desktop and fancy a change? Microsoft’s Themes are a collection of images you can set as your desktop’s background that change at regular intervals. You can download these from the Microsoft Store and most are free. To try these, open Settings, click Personalization, Themes on the left, then click the ‘Get more themes in Microsoft Store’ link. You’ll now see several ‘themes’. Click one to reveal the images it contains as well as a list of related categories. Click the Get button to download the theme you like, then click Launch. You’ll now see the theme within the Themes section on your PC. Select that theme to start using it. By default, the images within each theme…

What is it? Technically called ‘latency’, it’s that infuriating delay you get when watching live TV online, causing the programme to appear several seconds behind the pictures broadcast on a TV set. That may not sound like a long time, but it was crucial during this year’s World Cup in Russia. How so? Viewers watching England’s matches live on the BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub heard their neighbours-watching on normal TV-yelling in delight (or howling in despair) up to 30 seconds before the goals were shown on their device. Sometimes, people even had time to celebrate a goal on Twitter and Facebook before it was shown online. Delays also badly affected Amazon Prime’s recent streaming of the US Open tennis championships, with some action lagging by 44 seconds. Isn’t there…

While these sites are safe, there are plenty of scam sites that also offer to check your email accounts and passwords for security breaches. The shameless irony of it! As they promise to reveal what’s been stolen, they are secretly collecting the data themselves. To avoid getting caught out, type the web addresses we provide here directly into your browser’s address bar. While typing them into a search engine may bring up the correct websites at the top, there’s a greater chance of accidentally clicking a rogue link further down the results. Also, take care to type the correct URL. Scammers will often register web addresses that are very similar to legitimate ones (often changing only one letter). The websites themselves often look authentic, making it hard to tell whether…

Some users on the Windows Insider Programme recently reported seeing pop-ups from Microsoft suggesting Windows users should stick with Edge rather than use a rival browser (see screenshot). Although Microsoft hasn’t officially responded, tech news site The Verge says company sources have since told them it was just a ‘test’ and that the pop-up had been dropped. It’s not unchartered territory for Microsoft, however. Search for ‘Chrome’ or ‘Firefox’ using Edge and you’ll see a large banner listing reasons why you should stick with Microsoft’s browser. Edge may be fast and its ad-stripping Reading mode works well, but it appears people simply don’t want it. According to online statistics site Statista, Edge’s global market share is only 1.9 per cent. If that wasn’t bad enough, people also seem unwilling to…

More than 22,000 people in the UK were victims of fake tech-support scams in the past year, losing a total of £21.3m. The figures come from Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime, which says the crime is one of the top five most-reported scams in the country. In an attack, fraudsters will phone or email you saying there’s a fault with your computer, or force a pop-up warning to appear on your screen urging you to take action (see example pictured). The scammers will either ask for payment to fix the non-existent fault, or install malware on your computer, giving them access to your bank details Action Fraud released the figures to promote a campaign to educate people about this type of scam, which it…

Almost half of adult internet users have suffered “harm” online Ofcom has said, as it called for social networks to be regulated. The watchdog has presented research showing that 45 per cent of people have been affected by negative experiences online. These include harassment and being targeted by scams. Interactions via social-media networks and email are the most likely to cause harm. About 20 per cent people said they reported offensive or harmful content when they saw it. Hate speech, illegal sexual content and harassment were most likely to be reported. Additionally, 79 per cent of the public are worried about going online because they’re concerned about illegal content, being hacked, or privacy breaches. Ofcom released the study, which questioned almost 1,700 people, shortly before its boss Sharon White said…

US robo-scammer I’ve had my fair share of phone scammers telling me I’ve been hacked, and they need urgent access to my PC. Until the summer they’ve always spoken with an Asian accent. But recently I’ve had several calls playing an automated female American voice, claiming my internet has been “compromised”. It tells you to enter a number to connect to your provider. Perhaps these scams have become so widely associated with Indian accents they’re now trying American? It sounded so cheesy that I wasn’t fooled for a second, but people who have had less experience of scams might be. Please warn them. Margaret Saunders Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

It was interesting to see Computeractive refer to the “pre-digital generation” in your comment on the story that Health Secretary Matt Hancock wants all patients to be able to chat to their GP on Skype. As a 76-year-old, I belong to that generation, but as a former IT worker I also belong to the computer generation. This is an important distinction, I believe. Another name for the ‘digital’ generation would be the ‘smartphone’ generation. Or maybe ‘Facebook’ generation. These are people for whom their phone is the gateway to a better life. This goes hand in hand with a desire to share everything about their daily life, and a lack of formality when discussing personal matters. It doesn’t surprise me therefore that young people are happy to video-chat with their…

I recently ordered a gift card online for my wife’s birthday from Bonmarché (www.bonmarche.co.uk). I logged into an old account, but failed to notice it was for my old address, which we moved from in October 2016. So, to my horror, I realised that the gift card would go to my old home I rang Bonmarché customer services within minutes, and a very helpful lady said she would sort it out and address the envelope herself. Three days later it arrived, handwritten, in time for my wife’s birthday in early September (though the invoice inside had my old details). Disaster avoided! I have since been into my account and updated my billing and delivery info. It’s a timely reminder for us all to update our stored information. Kevin Spencer Has…

VIDEO EDITOR DaVinci Resolve 15 www.snipca.com/29224 What you need: Windows 8.1, 10 If your video-editing needs don’t stretch beyond simple tasks such as trimming clips, DaVinci Resolve is probably overkill. But for those who want to try their hand at professional-level techniques, it’s an amazingly powerful tool with impressive features. First-timers may find the choice of tools overwhelming initially, but there are plenty of tutorials online (like this YouTube video: www.snipca.com/29223). It also comes with a 2,500-page user guide. The Edit module is a good place to start. Here you can import your clips (by clicking File, Import File, Import Media), drag them on to the timeline, then trim and arrange as you like. You can also apply visual and audio effects within the Edit module, as well as impressive…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Facebook Idon’t really use Facebook any more. I decided to give it up when it turned out that UK firm Cambridge Analytica had been taking personal information from 87 million users in order to target US voters with political adverts. But if I did still post on my timeline, my current Facebook status would be: ‘Enough with the junk!’ Facebook is all about algorithms, you see. And it turns out that one of them is designed to spam you with junk mails and mobile notifications if it notices you haven’t logged into your account for a couple of days. These messages are designed to tempt you to reconnect with the social network. But, in my case, they’ve had precisely the opposite effect. This is partly…

What does it do? Alexa is Amazon’s voice assistant, competing with Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Assistant and Samsung’s Bixby. It’s embodied in the Echo range of smart speakers, but lives online, on Amazon’s servers. Why would I want it? Alexa can answer questions, check the weather or sports results, and control ‘smart’ lighting, heating and security systems. Amazon licenses other companies to offer Alexa ‘built in’. Note the distinction between products that are automatically controlled by Alexa and those that respond directly to your instructions. The latter include some phones and laptops, the Sonos One speaker (see our review, Issue 524) and Orbi Voice, a £279 add-on unit (pictured) for Netgear’s Orbi mesh Wi-Fi. Despite not having an in-car display system like Apple’s CarPlay or Google’s Android Auto, Amazon…

Q My keyboard is very noisy and obtrusive. Have you reviewed any quiet backlit keyboards for desktop PCs? Alan Wilton A Our keyboard reviews tend to focus on mechanical models, which are preferred by some users and can last for ages but can be rather noisy. Logitech’s K375s (£40 from www.snipca.com/26961, see our review, Issue 522) is a quiet option, but not backlit. The same company’s Illuminated Keyboard K740 (£70 from Amazon www.snipca.com/29176, pictured below) could be the answer. It has adjustable LED backlighting and PerfectStroke keys, which have a traditional look but a shorter travel and a mild click. There’s also a wireless version, the K800, but the batteries will need charging (via a microUSB cable) every week or so, which seems like a lot of hassle to pay…

Master of none Brother’s model names are reliably explanatory. MFC stands for a multifunction centre. L is for laser. D means duplex, so it can print both sides of the paper, although in this case it can only scan or copy one side at a time. W stands for built-in Wi-Fi (with the usual Apple, Android and online-storage support). As for the numbers, well, 2710 is a bit less than 2750, and this is a bit less capable than the MFC-L2750DW (see our review, Issue 526), which prints quicker and can copy both sides. If we were naming it, though, we’d call it a Stealth printer, because it has that chiselled all-black look and, for a laser, works surprisingly quietly. It’s rated for 30 pages per minute, but only managed…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2017 Back Issue CD: £15 from www.snipca.com/26848 LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UK41OUA £590 from www.snipca.com/26789 Tested Issue 518 With a dual-core Intel i3 processor, 4GB of memory and 128GB SSD, this slim aluminium 14in has just enough power to make Windows 10 feel smooth–and unlike Asus’s cheaper models it has a very good Full HD screen. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,149, but the best deal is with the brand new quad-core i7-8550 and QHD touchscreen. £1,350 from www.snipca.com/26796 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £470 from www.snipca.com/27058 Tested Issue 501 Samsung’s new mid-sized tablet has a wonderful HDR screen and comes with a pen, unlike Apple’s iPad Pro. But its processor isn’t the fastest and…

Neither my nine-year-old car, nor my 45-year-old campervan, have CarPlay or Android Auto, and the camper’s radio doesn’t even pick up radio any more. However, a Bluetooth receiver in the car and a 3.5mm cable plugged into the aux-jack in the campervan keep me entertained on long journeys. As an early user of phones, I have enough outdated devices to leave one in each if required, but I prefer to switch a single device between them so I don’t lose my place when listening to podcasts and audiobooks. Nik Rawlinson How do you use your phone in your car? Let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

What you need: Autorun Organizer; Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 20 minutes When you install some programs they automatically set themselves to start up with your PC, thereby slowing its boot time. The latest version of the free program Autorun Organizer informs you as soon as this happens, so you can then decide what to do. It tells you which programs you don’t need at startup, and gives you the option of temporarily disabling or removing them. STEP 1 To install the program, go to www.snipca.com/29180 and click the green Get It button 1. Open the downloaded setup file 2, click Yes, Next, select ‘I accept the agreement’, then keep clicking Next until the program installs. Once that’s done, click Finish to launch it. You’ll see a…

Adobe Acrobat Reader Adobe’s Acrobat Reader is great for viewing and editing PDFs, but it takes up a lot of hard-drive space (around 250MB). But that’s not my biggest gripe with it. I was recently checking my PC’s startup items and realised that the program had added itself to launch with my PC. Even worse, a quick check on IObit Uninstaller revealed the program also installed web-security tool McAfee WebAdvisor without my permission. Strike three! I instantly uninstalled it. And what I use instead… If you only view PDFs (and don’t edit), then a simple program like Sumatra PDF (www.sumatrapdfreader.org) is ideal. Most browsers also let you view PDFs by dragging and dropping files into them. However, if you need a PDF editor on a par with Adobe Reader, Foxit…

Microsoft Whiteboard Free iOS www.snipca.com/29255 Microsoft’s new app provides you with a blank, white screen you can draw on or write across. Use a stylus or your finger to make important notes or a quick doodle. You can even add screenshots from your device, annotate them using the pen tools, then share them. NASA Selfies Free Android www.snipca.com/29256 iOS www.snipca.com/29257 You may never get the chance to travel into space, but with this fun app you can pretend that you have. Take a picture of yourself and the app will put you in a spacesuit and offer a stunning range of galactic backdrops. PicTapGo £2.69/£2.99 Android www.snipca.com/29258 iOS www.snipca.com/29259 One of the highest-rated photo-editing apps on iOS is now available on Android. It has a built-in camera that lets you…

Create infographics If a picture is worth a thousand words, an infographic can be worth a large volume of statistics and data. These are graphic representations of data that use charts, diagrams, text and images (or any combination). It can be an interesting way to condense and highlight data in a leaflet or newsletter, letting your reader digest complex information quickly and clearly. For example, the information in this infographic about Gigabit LTE (www.snipca.com/29209) would be daunting in a plain-text document. Another good example is the BBC's ‘Timeline of the Far Future’ infographic (www.snipca.com/29210), which breaks down multiple future events across time and space into something we can understand with relative ease. You will have seen plenty of infographics when browsing newspapers and websites. But they are increasingly prevalent in…

British Airways (380,000 leaked user accounts), MyHeritage (92 million), Equifax (143 million). Just three examples of recent-and massive-data breaches. Even combined, they represent a small proportion of the billions of accounts hacked over the past few years. A timely reminder that, no matter how careful you are with your passwords, you can’t always rely on companies being as diligent. What you can do, however, is make your password as difficult to crack as possible, so if you are the victim of a careless company your password won’t instantly give itself up. Despite the advent of new biometric techniques (such as fingerprint, iris and face recognition), the majority of us still tend to use passords to verify our identity online. And if you create your own passwords using similar terms (maiden…

Get started with LastPass 1 LastPass only works via browser extensions, so go to www.lastpass.com, click the red Get It Free Now button, then create a new account, including a secure master password (see page 55). You’ll then be prompted to download the extension for your browser. Once installed, click the LastPass icon in your browser (three horizontal white dots on a red background) and click Open My Vault 1. 2 You can now import passwords from other sources, such as your browser or another password manager. Click More Options at the bottom left of the My Vault page, then Advanced, Import 2 and follow the on-screen instructions. Alternatively, you can add sites to LastPass simply by logging into them. When LastPass detects you’re logging into a new website, it…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT What’s happened to my date shortcut? Q For years I’ve used the Alt+D keyboard shortcut in Office 2007 to insert the current date as text, not as a field that might be inadvertently updated by Office. I use this when writing letters, amongst other things, where it is very important that the date is fixed once inserted. However, it seems that after a recent Windows 10 update something went wrong with Office, because now this keyboard shortcut no longer works. I set this up many years ago and I cannot remember how I did it, though it must have been very simple as I find a lot of things too complicated. Can you point me in…

MPs have demanded that Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg answers their questions after it admitted a data breach affecting up to 90 million users. The company revealed hackers had been able to exploit a security flaw in its ‘View as’ feature, which lets users see how their profiles look to others. They accessed accounts, then stole the ‘digital key’ that lets users log in without re-typing their password. With this info, hackers could have hijacked entire accounts. Damian Collins MP, chair of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee, said the breach “demonstrates more clearly than ever why Mark Zuckerberg should face public scrutiny about the practices and policies his company employs to keep British users’ data safe”. It’s not known how many UK users were affected, but worldwide Facebook…

START SKYPE CALLS ON ALEXA USING VOICE You’ll soon be able to launch Skype calls on Amazon Echo devices using just your voice. To make a call (voice or video), you’d say “Alexa, call Dave (or whoever) on Skype”, and “Alexa, answer” when receiving a call. In a blog post (www.snipca.com/29193) Microsoft said the service will arrive “later this year”. In August, Microsoft and Amazon teamed up to offer Cortana and Alexa across each other’s devices. ZEN OFFERS 300MBPS ‘ULTRAFAST’ BROADBAND Zen Internet has become the latest internet service provider to offer ‘ultrafast’ speeds of up to 300Mbps using G.fast technology, which builds upon existing copper cables. The Rochdalebased firm has launched two packages: 145Mbps costs £42 a month, while 300Mbps costs £49.99. You’ll have to pay a one-off £55…

The BBC has launched a website of well-known music to help trigger memories in dementia patients. Scientists have known for years that music can soothe dementia symptoms, such as depression and anxiety. It can also help patients remember events and people in their life. The website, called Music Memories (https://music memories.bbcrewind.co.uk), is divided into three categories – classical, popular and theme tunes – comprising 1,800 tracks. Music from composers such as Beethoven, Elgar and Mozart are in the classical section. Popular music is broken into decades, starting in the 1920s, while theme tunes include both radio and TV programmes. To create a playlist of favourites, click the heart icon on a track’s page (see screenshot). To build the site, the BBC worked with charity Playlist for Life, which makes an…

Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools What’s the threat? Scammers are hacking the email accounts of bank employees so they can impersonate them during financial transactions, tricking customers into sending them money. In these ‘ghosting’ scams, they intercept email discussions at a crucial point, telling the victim to send their money to a “revised” account. An Ayrshire farmer, who has remained anonymous, recently lost thousands of pounds. Halfway through negotiating a loan with his bank to buy machinery from a dealer, he received an email supposedly from the bank asking him to send the money to a different account to the one previously given. This email seemed genuine because it came from the address of a bank employee, and contained the correct contact details, plus the usual…

Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive iPhones sexist? Men struggled with tiny Nokias So iPhones are the latest thing to be labelled ‘sexist’ (News, Issue 537, page 6)? I don’t remember the same fuss being made before the advent of smartphones, when devices were getting smaller and smaller-and often too small for male hands. I had a couple of petite Nokia phones 15 years ago that my wife’s small, manicured hands could operate with precision. But it was too small for my clumsy claws The answer to the problem is staring the feminists in the face: stop buying the iPhone. Apple’s lost millions will soon make it change its mind. Don Smith Escaping Apple’s ‘expensive world’ after 15 years Like John Walker (Letters, Issue 537), I switched from an…

Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Please include your name, phone number and address. LEAD CASE How long can a company keep my personal data? Q After your News story in Issue 534 (page 7), about the Currys/PC World security breach, I asked the company to remove my data from its files. I was told as long as I was a customer it would keep the data for up to 10 years. Can a company keep data about me when I’ve asked them to remove it? John Leese A John’s question isn’t easy to answer because people don’t have an absolute right to force companies to erase their data. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told us your right to delete data depends on the specific circumstances,…

If you’ve got lots of genealogy documents to organise, follow Nick Peers’ advice to… This issue’s column is inspired by reader Roger Feesey, who writes: “My father spent many days and hours over several years researching our family tree in the days before the internet had taken off. I have lots of paper-based data and some handwritten family trees. Is there software, free or otherwise, that I can use to turn it all into a tree?” We’ll make two assumptions: 1) you won’t want to record too much data about each ancestor, and 2) your primary aim is to produce a chart containing basic details with the option – if you have access to old photos – of attaching headshots. Enter your ancestor’s data We recommend using the free program…

Is there a simple tool to schedule file backups? Q I’m looking for simple software to schedule regular incremental backups of files on my Windows 10 laptop to an external drive, together with an easy way to see what they contain. Paragon Backup & Recovery and EaseUS ToDo are frequently recommended, but I find them too complicated. Anthony Robinson A For simple, but effective backups, look no further than the File History tool built into Windows 10. Since it integrates seamlessly with the rest of Windows, it’s easy to use. Go to Settings, click Update & Security, then Backup. Make sure your external drive is plugged in, then click ‘Add a drive’ and select it from the list. Windows will now start backing up all user folders (such as Desktop,…

If I told you that Barclays had just announced a new call-verification feature to protect its mobile and online customers against scammers, you’d probably assume I was making it ‘hero of the fortnight’. Sadly not. Barclays has, indeed, announced a new anti-fraud measure (www.snipca.com/29229), which sends customers a message to confirm that a call is genuine. The trouble is, this feature has been rolled out only to Barclays Premier customers (who have to earn £75,000 a year, or have £100,000 saved in the bank). We accept some banking tools should be provided on a paid-for basis, but that shouldn’t apply to anti-scam tools. Barclays should be protecting all its customers, not just the wealthy ones. The bank claims the service will be available for all customers “in the coming months”,…

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 Alphr (www.alphr.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 every…

BUY IT! Coding? It’s a ball Sphero hasn’t always been the most immediately enticing of robot toys. Rather than the usual mechanical humanoid, or even an animated excavator like Anki’s Cosmo (see our review, Issue 515), it’s just a ball. But it’s always had some of the most advanced programmable features, and this latest version works even harder. The Bolt is still a transparent plastic sphere with its internal workings on show, but it now incorporates a panel of LED lights – reminiscent of the BBC micro:bit (see Issue 492) with added colour – that serve as a simple on-board display screen. You control everything wirelessly from Sphero’s apps. The Sphero Play app (iOS and Android) lets you drive the little ball around (it propels itself by shifting its weight),…

The latest version of Pinnacle’s flagship video editor is packed with new tools and over 2,000 new effects. With powerful new colour-grading controls, you can change the ambience of video to perfectly set the mood (see screenshot below), while three-and four-point editing makes it easier to precisely place clips in your timeline. Also new is MultiCam Capture Lite, which lets you record your screen and webcam simultaneously. With screen-recording software, you can easily capture video and audio, then seamlessly edit them together. Existing tools have also been enhanced, including 360-degree video editing. With support for all popular 360-degree formats, you can now turn your panoramic footage into a fun ‘tiny planet’ effect. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘pinnacle’ in the subject line by midnight 23 October. You…

It’s illegal to hold your phone while driving (or when riding a motorbike), even if you’re stopped at traffic lights, stuck in congestion or just supervising a learner driver. Break the law and you could receive between anything six points and a driving ban, on top of a fine of £200 to £1,000. Using voice control or mounting your phone in a holder is allowed, as long as you don’t block your view of the road and other traffic, and don’t allow yourself to be distracted while driving. You’ll find the Government’s official advice at www.snipca.com/29192. Apps like those we’ve highlighted, which reduce the number of interface elements and provide easy-to-tap buttons for common features, help to emulate the screens built into more modern cars. We’d still recommend using your…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk EXTERNAL DRIVES Disconnect external drives in your taskbar The safest way to remove any external devices (hard drives or USB sticks) connected to your PC is to right-click its icon on your taskbar, then click ‘Eject [drive name]’. In most cases, you may not see this icon because it will be hidden within the overflow box (accessed via the up arrow on your ’ taskbar). The easiest solution I found is to click the up-arrow icon in your taskbar, then drag and drop the external-drive icon on to your taskbar (see screenshot). It’ll now permanently appear there, so you can right-click it when you’re ready to disconnect. Philip G Coggin KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Carry out actions on your taskbar using key combinations Windows has a number…

Google Chromecast (£30 from Google www.snipca.com/29237) I have an old ‘dumb’ 42-inch TV that I’ve been using since before smart TVs became a thing. It’s never given me any problems so I don’t see any reason to upgrade. However, one thing I do want is the option to stream phone content to it. A few months ago, I visited my local Currys shop and asked an assistant for a solution and he suggested Google’s Chromecast. It was only £30 so I was easily sold. After setting it up, I realised what a difference this tiny little gadget would make to my TV viewing. I now use it watch BBC iPlayer and YouTube videos, and it’s even persuaded me to sign up for Netflix and Spotify (it lets me stream songs…

Pocket Casts £3.99 www.snipca.com/29261 (Android) £3.99 www.snipca.com/29262 (iOS) This may seem like a lot to pay for a podcast app, but it doesn’t pester you with adverts and the advanced tools are great. These include an easy-to-use Discover section, and you can modify playback speed, remove silences and boost the volume. Best for: Playback controls Overcast* Free www.snipca.com/29263 (iOS) If you just want a simple app that lets you subscribe and listen to podcasts, then Overcast is the best option. It has a clean interface that lets you create playlists using specific options. The 3D Touch button lets you quickly view episode details without opening the app. Best for: Ability to create and modify playlists Podbean Podcast App & Player* Free www.snipca.com/29264 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/29265 (iOS) Podbean recommends podcasts based…

LIBREOFFICE WRITER Add photos to documents and edit them within LibreOffice Unlike Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer doesn’t offer built-in tools to edit images you’ve added to your documents. However, it does let you edit your images using your usual photo-editing software from within LibreOffice. To insert your image, move your cursor to the appropriate place in your document, click the Insert tab, Image, navigate to your image file, select it, then click Open. By default, the image will open in full size. To resize it, click and drag any of its green borders. Click and drag the entire image to reposition it. At the top, you’ll see options to align the image (left, right or centre), add text to it and align text to the corners of your image. To…

STEP 1 Use this slider 1 to zoom in and out of your infographic. Double-click any text field to edit it. In the menu on the left, you’ll see options to change its font style, size, colour and formatting 2. You can also change your line spacing and height using these sliders 3. STEP 2 Select an image you want to replace, then press Delete. Now click the Graphics 1 or Shapes tab 2, then select the image you want to add to your infographic. Alternatively, click the Uploads tab 3 to use images stored on your PC. You can now resize and reposition it within the infographic. STEP 3 To download your file, click the Download button 1. You’ll see several file-format options. Select ‘High-res PNG’ 2 for a…

BRUTE FORCE As its name suggests, this is a crude method that tries all possible combinations, one after another. For example, attempting to crack a four-digit passcode, a brute-force attack would try ‘0001’, then ‘0002’ and so on. A four-digit passcode has only 10,000 combinations, which doesn’t require vast computing power or much time to crack. Longer, more complex ‘alphanumeric’ passwords (comprising letters and numbers) can also be hacked in a brute-force attack, but require more powerful computers. Serious hackers have fast machines that can try billions of passwords every second. DICTIONARY ATTACK Instead of trying numerous character combinations, it tries to crack passwords using a specific list of words. This could be every word in the English language, or just words that are commonly used in passwords (such as…

Before we dive into Chrome’s new features, it’s a good idea to check which version you’re running. Google’s browser updates automatically, but new versions are often rolled out gradually, so you may not be using the latest offering yet. Click the Menu button (three vertical dots at the top right), Help, then About Google Chrome. A green tick will be displayed next to the version number if you have the latest release-if not, Chrome will download and install the update. Tidier tabs The revamped tab bar is the first sign you’re running the latest version of Chrome. The sharp edges of old have been ditched in favour of smoother, more rounded tabs. Now, when you have multiple tabs open, they sit in one long bar, each separated by a vertical…

We like nearly everything about Android app Beebdroid (www.snipca.com/29022). This BBC Micro emulator is free, small (586KB), and integrates with the Stairway To Hell games archive. But the developers have abandoned it, offering not a sniff of an update for three years. At least you can still download it, unlike iBeeb (http://ibeeb.co.uk), a powerful SSD-supporting BBC Micro emulator built by JSBeeb creator Matt Godbolt for iPad and iPhone. It sounds amazing but Apple won’t allow it in the App Store (www.snipca.com/29037). All is not lost, however. EmBeeb (www.snipca.com/29038), an offshoot of the iBeeb project, is a free web-based emulator simple enough to run in a mobile browser. You can’t load your own files but it supports BASIC and comes bundled with games including Elite (see screenshot), Repton and The Hobbit.…

Virtualisation and emulation? Q I’ve seen mentions in Computeractive of virtual PCs and ‘virtualisation’. I’ve also seen mention elsewhere of emulation to play old games on the computer. What I don’t understand is the difference between these. I want to play games from the 1980s and 1990s, so would I need virtualisation or emulation software? I’d be grateful for one of your lovely concise explanations! Samuel Reeve A On the surface at least, virtualisation and emulation appear to be very similar. In fact, at least in terms of the benefits to their users, they are very similar. However, the terms do refer to concepts that are really quite different. In the world of PCs at least, virtualisation is typically used to refer to tools like VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org). These, as you…

Where’s my Gmail mailing list on my tablet app? Q In your ‘In the Club’ column (page 48) of Issue 535 you explain how to create a mailing list in Gmail. This was good advice and by following your instructions I succeeded in doing this. However, while it works with my PC I cannot get that mailing list from Gmail on to my tablet. Why not? Claude Legrand A You didn’t tell us which tablet or email app you’re using but it doesn’t matter because in all cases the answer is the same. Google’s own Gmail mobile app doesn’t currently support this feature, so it’s not possible. Theoretically, an app could support this feature for a Gmail account that’s been set up with the appropriate labels, but we’re not aware…

4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 802.11n A standard for wireless networks that allows for high transfer speeds. 8bit/32bit/64bit A measure of how much information a computer can process at once. Many older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 8bit was used by most computers up to the late 1980s. Add-in Microsoft’s name for tools that can be added to Office software. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a display. Traditional computer screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. Beta versions are often released so problems can be ironed out. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. Essential software built into every PC that connects the…

It gladdens my heart to learn that the pinnacle of modern cyber-security is a USB stick. Not some hi-falutin holographical biometric encryption algorithm, but an actual stick you can put on your keyring and use to open a tin of sardines should the need arise. This special USB stick costs money, but it’s less than £20 and it’ll keep cyber-crooks off your online accounts forever. And here’s the best bit: it’ s called Fido. I’ve set my accounts to request 2FA whenever I try logging on from an unfamiliar location–say, a hammock in Siberia Well, sort of. Fido is actually the governing body for USB security keys and similar devices. You’re supposed to write it as ‘FIDO’, which FidoAlliance.org calls “the World’s Largest Ecosystem for Standards-Based Interoperable Authentication” without explaining…