Table of contents for 670 in Computeractive

For my first years online I used a childhood pet as my password. That was risky, but I blame my parents for lacking the foresight to call our cat M#p5s@!a$Vj8 rather than Bimbo. Over time I added my date of birth to Bimbo, plus exclamation marks, hashtags and every type of bracket known to man (square, round, curly, angled). Only when it was leaked online did I start using password managers. But now passwords themselves are on the way out, being replaced by passkeys. I was sceptical of this at first – viewing it as overkill in an increasingly risk-averse society. Those reservations haven’t entirely left me, but I’ve been using passkeys for the past six months and wouldn’t go back. They’re safer, easier to use and as unhackable as…

More than 400 million people now use Windows 11 two years after it launched, which is one year longer than it took Windows 10 to hit that milestone. The figure comes from internal Microsoft data seen by our sister site Windows Central. It indicates that Microsoft’s strict technical requirements for running Windows 11 have severely restricted the number of people upgrading. However, Windows Central says Microsoft is happy with the number of people upgrading, and that it’s beaten internal goals. The latest analysis from Statcounter (www.snipca.com/48104) shows that 23.64 per cent of all Windows computers run Windows 11, far less than the 71.62 per cent running Windows 10. These figures have hardly budged in the past six months. • Should you install Windows 11 on old computers? See page 60…

NEXT COPPER SWITCH-OFF AREAS NAMED Openreach has named the next 28 locations where it will scrap copper phone lines, ahead of the nationwide switch-off in December 2025. The lines in these areas will be disabled from November 2024, and include exchanges in Dartmouth, Kelso, Liverpool, Newcastle, Staines and Tonbridge. See the full list at www.snipca.com/48070. 20,000 SIGN ‘EXTEND W10 SUPPORT’ PETITION Campaigners have given Microsoft a petition calling for it to extend support for Windows 10 beyond October 2025. It was set up by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a non-profit consumer organisation in the US, and contained 20,000 signatures. PIRG’s Lucas Gutterman said Microsoft should continue providing security updates for “the millions of people who can’t upgrade their computers” – see www.snipca.com/48068.…

NEW SANDISK STICKS HAVE 400MB/s SPEED Western Digital has released USB-C sticks in its Ultra Dual Drive Go range in three new colours – Navagio Bay (blue), Lavender and Absinthe Green (pictured). They have transfer speeds of 400MB/s and come in three capacities: 64GB (£11.49), 128GB (£18.99) and 256GB (£49.99). Buy from www.snipca.com/48002. PAY $1 TO SEND & REPLY TO TWEETS IN TRIAL New users signing up to X (formerly Twitter) in New Zealand and the Philippines are being charged $1 (about £0.82) a year to send tweets and reply to posts. X said the trial will help to cut spam. Those who don’t pay will only be able to read posts, watch videos and follow accounts. The company didn’t say whether it would introduce the fee in other countries.…

Mistype a website’s address and you might end up on a site created by scammers who have bought a URL similar to the genuine one. These ‘typosquatting’ attacks continue to impersonate most major websites and companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft. To help protect you, Google has updated Chrome to suggest legitimate URLs if you misspell one. In its example, Google shows a misspelt URL for YouTube (1 in screenshot) and two authentic links to the site below 2, both indicated by its logo. Clicking one of these takes you to the real YouTube site, out of reach of scammers. Chrome’s suggestions are based on what you’ve previously visited in the browser, so you won’t see a genuine URL as an alternative if you’ve never been to that site.…

When did you explain why you should stop using credit cards when shopping online? Roy Pringle CA SAYS In Issue 665, page 60. Buy it from www.snipca.com/47978. I’m tempted to buy a Sony Walkman music player. Have you reviewed one recently? Terry Marshall CA SAYS Yes, the NW-A306 in Issue 662, page 29. Buy it from www.snipca.com/47979. How long ago did you round up the best apps for smart TVs? CA SAYS That was last year, in Issue 636’s Cover Feature. Read it on our Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/44660.…

It’s not often consumers get to have their say on digital services they rely on, but the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) is asking for feedback on its investigation into the cloud-computing dominance of Amazon and Microsoft. Cloud computing is the business of selling computing resources to other companies – such as storing data and running software – which they can use remotely over a network. It’s worth £7.5bn in the UK, with Amazon and Microsoft sharing 60 to 70 per cent of the market, ahead of Google on 10 to 15 per cent. Competition experts have long argued the industry needs reform. This has been backed up by a recent Ofcom report that claims Amazon and Microsoft impose technical restrictions that make it hard for customers to switch to…

I have a grandfather born in Ireland, but I can’t obtain a certificate/registration of his birth to prove he’s Irish. His name is James Johnston, born in 1860 in Belfast. He died in Portsmouth in 1928. They were Catholics, and formal records favour Protestants. Birth certificates in Northern Ireland start from 1864, which works against me. Can you help? Robert Heath Look for a baptism record instead. You can search over 3,500 Catholic registers at https://registers.nli.ie. Other useful websites for Irish research include Irish Ancestors (www.johngrenham.com) and Roots Ireland (www.rootsireland.ie). You may need to create a dossier of genealogical evidence to prove his identity. For further advice, contact the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland: www.snipca.com/47902. Have a genealogy question for Judith? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in…

Luke McInerney might be wanted by police in connection with an assault case, but that hasn’t stopped him popping up on social media to taunt detectives. He responded to an appeal for information on Swindon Police’s Facebook page by posting a video of himself on a beach. “Here’s where I am,” he laughs. “Catch me if you can, yeah?” (see www.snipca.com/47970). Not content with that, he also wrote, “If u offer a reward I’ll tell ya Where I am”. We’re not sure what’s worse – his mocking of authority or his disregard for grammar. Whatever else he may be guilty of, he has already committed several crimes against good English. We’ve no doubt the law will eventually catch up with u, Luke. Have fun while ya can.…

EDGE Find related text on web pages using AI The ‘Find on page’ search tool, which you launch by pressing Ctrl+F, is an essential function in all browsers, letting you quickly find all instances of a word, name or phrase on the current web page. Last year, Microsoft expanded Edge’s ‘Find on page’ tool with the option to only match whole words, and it’s now integrated AI to make the feature even more useful. When you misspell the term you’re looking for, the improved ‘Find on page’ tool will use AI to guess what you mean and provide ‘Also found’ suggestions. These may also include synonyms and related terms for correctly spelled words – for example, ‘journalism’ and ‘updates’ when you search for news (see screenshot above right). The AI-powered…

ANDROID & iOS Use two WhatsApp accounts on one phone Back in Issue 658 (page 44), we explained how you can log into your WhatsApp account on up to four additional phones, allowing you to easily switch between devices. But what if you have two WhatsApp accounts – perhaps one for personal messages and the other for business – and want to use them on the same phone? The latest update to the chat app addresses this dilemma by letting you sign into two WhatsApp accounts on one phone. Your device must be dual SIM, which means it accepts two SIM cards or eSIMs, so you can add a second phone number to WhatsApp. To do so, open the Settings screen in WhatsApp and select Account then ‘Add account’ (1…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Install apps from the new Microsoft Store website Microsoft has redesigned the website for its Store (www.snipca.com/47945) to add a ‘carousel’ of apps, games and film and TV content along the top (1 in our screenshot below). It aims to make this an easier way to browse what you want. Click the arrows at either side to move through them. Each section has its own headings under the carousel. In the Apps section 2 you’ll find the ‘Top free apps’ of the moment 3, which included iTunes, Spotify and WhatsApp when we visited. Scroll down and you’ll find sections such as Essential apps, Creativity apps and ‘New & trending’ apps. WINDOWS 11 Automatically create videos from photos and music Microsoft’s Moment 4 update for Windows 11,…

Adding slides from your PowerPoint presentation into Word documents is useful if you want to create handouts to accompany a slideshow. You could take screenshots of your slides, but it’s much smarter to copy and paste slides as objects because any changes you make to your presentation will be mirrored in Word. In PowerPoint, right-click the slide you want to copy across in the left-hand pane (1 in our screenshot) and click Copy. Now open Word and click the Home tab on the toolbar. Click the dropdown arrow under Paste 2, and select ‘Paste Special’. In the window that opens select ‘Paste link:’ 3 then choose Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Object 4. Click OK. The slide will appear in your document as an object 5.…

Passkeys are undoubtedly the future of logins, and hopefully this feature will have convinced you to try them. However, we still have some way to go before passwords become obsolete, and many tech companies – even members of the FIDO Alliance – have yet to introduce full passkey support. Google’s recent switch to passkeys is a major step towards mainstream adoption, as is Microsoft’s new passkey manager in Windows 11, but it’s likely we’ll continue to hang on to traditional passwords for another few years. Early data suggests that people are finding it easy to switch to passkeys. Research by Dashlane found that 92 per cent of passkey-creation requests are completed successfully, compared with only 54 per cent of password-creation requests (www.snipca.com/48008). There are always reservations about new technology, but…

Q I’ve been looking to fix a particular Wi-Fi blackspot in my home. Well, it’s actually the conservatory and garden. I can sometimes get a connection in the conservatory, but it’s flaky at best, and in the garden the signal is all but non-existent. I’ve been looking at options to resolve this and was thinking about a range extender, like the TP-Link AC750 (£20 from www.snipca.com/47786, pictured) because it’s cheap and I have a spare mains socket in the conservatory. However, a friend suggested it would be a false economy and I’d be better off investing in a mesh Wi-Fi network. I’ve looked at a few of these, but they are all much more expensive. What’s the fundamental difference, and do you have an opinion on which option would be…

TESCO MOBILE EXTENDS FREE EU ROAMING Tesco Mobile has extended free roaming in the EU until 2025, letting customers use minutes, texts and data at no extra cost. It applies both to customers on monthly subscriptions and those on pay-as-you-go deals. For more information visit Tesco Mobile’s site: www.snipca.com/48067. TALKTALK CLOSES TV STORE & WIPES CONTENT TalkTalk closed its TV Store on 31 October, angering customers who have lost all the content they had paid for and downloaded. It blamed the rise of streaming services, saying stores of downloaded content are now “outdated”. Some customers claim to have been offered £25 compensation for content purchased – see TalkTalk’s community forum: www.snipca.com/48031.…

Amazon is to start delivering items by drone in the UK by the end of 2024. Its Prime Air service will carry packages weighing under five pounds to destinations within one hour of its base. Amazon said it will start in a single location and then expand to more areas. Customers will be able to choose from “thousands” of suitable items, it added. Deliveries will be made using the company’s new MK30 drone, which it claims is quieter than previous test models, and can fly twice as far and in more types of weather, such as “light rain, and hotter and colder temperatures” (see www.snipca.com/47981). Amazon added that the drones use sensors to “identify and avoid obstacles in the delivery area”. It says this technology can detect objects that “weren’t…

‘160 batteries for £3’ Most scams on Facebook are so badly worded that they’re easy to spot. But not so this ‘offer’ supposedly from Argos, selling 160 batteries for the “low price of £3”. It cited “upcoming changes in alkaline battery regulations” as the reason for the promotion, which sounds like it might be genuine. How many people would know anything different? I didn’t see any spelling or grammatical mistakes, and the photo looks like it’s from inside an Argos store. Wouldn’t surprise me if many people have fallen for this scam. You can see what it looks like at www.snipca.com/47930. Adam Bedford Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Unlike Barry Freeman (Letters, Issue 669), I don’t understand the logic of sticking with Windows 10 just because Microsoft is rumoured to be releasing Windows 12 next year. He mentions that nobody wants to “buy a dead duck”, but the point is that you don’t have to pay for Windows 11. It’s free to upgrade, and this process is relatively straightforward as long as your PC is technically up to scratch. I see no reason why Windows 12 won’t also be free and simple to switch to. Perhaps Barry and others don’t want the hassle of having to learn Windows 11 if it’s going to be superseded by 12. But I think that’s the wrong approach. The leap from Windows 10 to 12 is going to be more confusing if…

For the past 30 years the phone line in my house has been dreadful. There have been horrible crackling noises on the line, sometimes so loud that the caller can hardly be heard. None of my phone line or internet suppliers over the years have fixed the problem, despite fiddling with the BT box opposite my house. A while ago the line was worse than usual, so I contacted Vodafone, who I’ve been with for a couple of years. The chap I spoke to said he’d get someone to look in the phone line box on the main road near me. While we were talking the crackling noises disappeared. “Oh,” he said, “that’s our engineer, he was in the area anyway so he is currently working on your connection in…

PDF VIEWER Sumatra PDF 3.5 www.snipca.com/48052 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 Sumatra PDF has long been one of our favourite PDF tools. It’s simpler and less bloated than the likes of Adobe Acrobat Reader but more versatile than the PDF viewers built into browsers. Its first major update for over a year brings a raft of new features and improvements that make Sumatra an even better and faster way to read PDF files and other formats, including MOBI (ebooks), CBZ/CBR (comic books) and – as of this version – the new image format AVIF. Sumatra PDF 3.5 sees the long-awaited addition of a dark mode to make viewing PDFs easier on your eyes, especially at night. To activate this, click the three-line menu button in the…

Keumars Afifi-Sabet puts the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and misbehaving software When is a pop-up advert not a pop-up advert? When it’s delivered by McAfee’s antivirus software, and you get two conflicting excuses from the company. This saga began when reader Patrick Wilmore sent us screenshots of a McAfee pop-up that appeared on his screen. It claimed that his “available memory” was 18 per cent (1 in our screenshot), and warned that anything below 30 per cent could impact a PC’s “speed and performance” 2. Other alerts showed his memory at 14 and 19 per cent. Patrick doubted these claims straight away. His PC has a hefty 32GB of RAM, and he was running only Outlook when the warning popped up. He then checked Task Manager and found…

MESH Wi-Fi | From £380 (for two nodes) from Amazon www.snipca.com/47957 This is one of the most affordable Wi-Fi 6E mesh systems around, but it’s still not exactly cheap. Support for the extra 6GHz network inevitably drives up the cost of any mesh system, as each node must include an additional radio alongside the usual 2.4GHz and 5GHz transmitters. So while this Velop system is competitively priced for what it is, you’re still looking at £380 for the two-unit system or £500 for three. Stylish and fast, as long as you don’t use its Wi-Fi 6E channel Two may be all you need, however. We found that the two-unit option reviewed here was more than sufficient to completely cover our medium-sized three-bedroom home. There’s certainly elegance in the design. Each…

The C8C Outdoor Pan/Tilt Camera is EZVIZ’s first outdoor Wi-Fi Pan/Tilt Camera, combining an exquisite design with extensive features. With 1080p high-definition video and images, it captures more details than ordinary outdoor cameras. With a 352-degree horizontal rotation and 95-degree vertical rotation, the C8C gives you an all-around view of your surroundings. You can see and hear what’s happening through the EZVIZ app on your phone or tablet. The AI algorithm intelligently detects the motion of human shapes in real time. When people enter your customised detection area, you will be alerted immediately. There are three night-vision modes available to provide protection in all circumstances. And its weatherproof design keeps it operating without being interrupted by wind, rain or snow. To enter this competition, answer the question at www.snipca.com/47824 and…

I’ve just read Issue 664’s Cover Feature in which you recommend using Vividl (www.snipca.com/46995) instead of 4K Video Downloader (www.snipca.com/46993). I was using the latter some time ago, but have since changed to a better alternative. And what I use instead I now use aTube Catcher (www.atube.me, pictured right), a free app that lets me download from multiple sites at once. It does this by creating a batch file of downloads. I can download in a choice of formats and resolutions, and there are options for burning to disc. I mostly use the program to download videos and convert the soundtracks to MP3 audio files, which I then put on a USB stick to play in the car. The software also updates automatically. Tell us why you stopped using a…

Eurostar Trains Free* Android www.snipca.com/48023 iOS www.snipca.com/48024 Following its merger with European train company Thalys, Eurostar has updated its app to let you buy tickets for even more destinations, including Antwerp, Cologne and Düsseldorf. The booking system has been streamlined and the app offers useful features such as a lowest-fare finder and an AI chatbot. Rain Free Android www.snipca.com/48015 Despite the name, this new weather app doesn’t just tell you when it’s going to pour down, but provides a 12-day forecast including actual and ‘feels like’ temperatures; wind speed and direction; sunrise and sunset times; and much more. Its friendly design makes even the wettest, gloomiest days look cheerful Letterboxd Free* Android www.snipca.com/48021 iOS www.snipca.com/48022 This popular app for movie lovers, which lets you discover, rate and create watchlists of…

PowerToys users have long been able to press the left Ctrl button twice to activate Find My Mouse. This darkens the screen except for an area around the mouse cursor (1 in our screenshot). In version 0.74 Microsoft has added the option to use the right Ctrl button. Open PowerToys, then click ‘Mouse utilities’ on the left. Next, click Open Settings, then select the ‘Activation method’ dropdown menu and choose ‘Press Right Control twice’ 2. You can also now create your own shortcut. Click the pencil icon 3 in the ‘Activation shortcut’ section and choose your combination by pressing the keys on your keyboard. This can be any combination, as long as it begins with Win, Ctrl, Alt or Shift.…

There are plenty of financial programs that can help you track your club’s expenses, but many are overkill if you just need something simple. That’s where Notion can help. It’s a collaborative workspace that you can use to capture your thoughts, manage a team or even run a small business. It has lots of templates, including travel planners, journals, CVs and to-do lists, but here we’ll focus on the Simple Budget option. Templates make it easy to get started, but if you’d rather make your own Notion document from scratch, click ‘Create new page’ and start typing. Create an account and edit the template Before you can start, you’ll need a free Notion account, so visit www.notion.so and click the top-right ‘Get Notion free’ button. If you have a Google…

Apple offers the useful ability to securely share your passkeys with other people. This allows you to grant trusted friends and family members access to your accounts with specific websites and apps, without needing to send them the password. The sharing is performed using AirDrop, so both you and the recipient must have that feature enabled on your iPhone or iPad. Open the Control Centre by swiping up from the bottom edge (on an iPhone) or down from the top-right corner (on an iPad) of the screen and ensure AirDrop is activated, along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (which it uses to transfer data). Additionally, the person you’re sharing your passkey with must be listed in your Contacts with the email address they use for iCloud, and vice versa. To send…

Neighbours Freevee’s revival of the Australian soap opera (pictured) is its most popular programme in the UK. You can also stream hundreds of old Neighbours episodes. Occupation In this highly rated sci-fi film from 2018, a group of small-town residents have to band together to survive after a devastating alien attack. Columbo Freevee has the first seven seasons of the long-running US series, starring Peter Falk as the crumpled but savvy detective (pictured). The Theory of Everything Starring Eddie Redmayne, this BAFTA-winning biopic tells the story of Professor Stephen Hawking. Bosch: Legacy Made exclusively for Freevee as one of its Originals, this police-procedural series has a 100-per-cent score on review site Rotten Tomatoes (www.snipca.com/48065).…

Why is Brave’s lion logo greyed out? Q I was keen to try the Brave browser, having been persuaded by your recommendation in Issue 668’s Cover Feature on using browsers that don’t track you. However, I couldn’t click the lion logo to the right of the address bar. You said doing this opens the Shields section so you can turn on and off web trackers. Yet the lion logo is greyed out on my version of Brave, and doesn’t respond to clicking. Perhaps it didn’t download properly? Wayne Butler A We don’t think there’s anything wrong with your download of Brave - which is straightforward and free from www.brave.com. Instead, we think you’ve not moved beyond Brave’s home page, or its ‘new tab’ page, which opens when you press Ctrl+N.…

The Moment 4 update is a triumph for Microsoft’s new strategy of regularly releasing batches of new tools rather than waiting for annual updates. It calls this “continuous innovation”, and it’s both improved traditional tools like File Explorer and introduced new features like passkeys and Copilot. So it’s such a shame that Microsoft’s stringent technical requirements mean millions of users are stuck on Windows 10. This remains an excellent operating system, but it’s looking increasingly limited next to its successor.…

Microsoft is adding support for hearing aids to Windows 11, letting you use the devices to take calls, listen to music and stream audio. It comes in the Insider Preview Build 25977, released in October, and applies to hearing aids equipped with the latest Bluetooth Low Energy Audio (LE Audio) technology, such as Oticon’s Real range (www.snipca.com/48059, pictured). LE Audio uses the LC3 audio codec, which delivers high-quality audio while conserving battery power. It also means audio can be transmitted to multiple devices simultaneously. Microsoft said forthcoming updates will add extra features to hearing aids, such as controlling audio presets within Windows settings. Your computer will need to support LE Audio in order for hearing aids to work with the new technology. To check this, search for and open Device…

LEAD CASE Will Hive refund me after ending support for cameras? Q I’ve read that in 2025 Centrica will no longer support its Hive View outdoor home security camera (pictured), which means it will stop working. Do I have any rights considering I bought the camera only two years ago? John Clare A John has the usual consumer rights, but nothing stronger. Companies aren’t legally bound to support products indefinitely. The Consumer Rights Act does give you up to six years to seek redress (five years in Scotland), but that doesn’t mean the law expects all goods to last that long. Hive has said it won’t refund customers who are unhappy about the decision, but we still think it’s worth complaining and asking for some money back. Include proof of…

Sweet Home 3D Mobile www.snipca.com/48055 Price: £4.29 (Android)/£3.99 (iOS) Free trial period: None What you need: Android or iOS If you’re thinking of redesigning your home, Sweet Home 3D is the best free software for the job, allowing you to create a detailed plan, including walls, doors and furniture, then view the result in 3D. The developer recently launched a mobile version, so you can use Sweet Home 3D on your phone or tablet, with the catch that – unlike the desktop program – you need to pay for it. The benefits of using Sweet Home 3D on your mobile device are obvious. You can walk around your home while drawing your plan, rather than dashing back and forth to your PC, to ensure that dimensions and positions are as…

WHAT THEY SAY Lenovo www.snipca.com/47954 “If you’re not in the Extended Reality (XR) industry, terms can be a little confusing. XR includes augmented reality (AR), 3D digital overlays on transparent lenses to view real-world environments, and virtual reality (VR), immersive 3D experience in opaque headsets. AR and VR are converging into mixed reality (MR), the merging of a real-world and digital environments, almost like toggling between AR and VR.” WHAT THEY MEAN Forget XR – we’re now in the BS industry.…

LAPTOP-TABLET | £799 from Currys www.snipca.com/47900 If this looks familiar, it’s probably because Acer has released a number of Spin models over the years. The most recent we reviewed, in Issue 666, was the Chromebook Spin (£699 from www.snipca.com/47409). The Spin 5 runs Windows 11 Home but retains the option of flipping the screen all the way back so you can use it as a tablet. It comes with a stylus, which makes it easier to write by hand without leaving fingerprints. We love the way you can use this device in so many different ways. A versatile device that runs Windows smoothly – shame the screen is so limited After being bowled over by the speed of our current favourite laptop – the Huawei MateBook 16s (£1,279 from www.snipca.com/47904,…

What are they? Every modern processor is made up of a number of cores, with each doing the work of a single processor. Most models from Intel now combine two different types of core – performance (P-cores) and efficiency (E-cores). Performance cores handle the hard work of the most demanding software, such as games and video editing. The efficiency cores take on background tasks, such as checking for messages or running antivirus software. How do they work? E-cores are smaller and use less power than P-cores. They help processors use power more efficiently, so you’ll often find a higher ratio of them in mobile processors designed for devices that run off batteries. What are their specs? Intel’s specifications always state the number of P-cores and E-cores in a processor. For…

What is it? Swiss company I’m Back has developed a digital camera sensor attached to a 35mm film roll (pictured), which you can insert into an old analogue 35mm camera. What does it do? By inserting the film roll into a camera and connecting it to a small base unit, which attaches to a standard tripod mounting, you can convert an analogue film camera into a digital one. What’s the catch? First you need to have kept your old 35mm camera. Next, you’re going to have to spend 539 Swiss Francs (around £495) to back the project on Kickstarter (www.snipca.com/47989) before 3 December. It has already achieved its funding target so will definitely go ahead, but you’ll have to wait until next June before you get the product. So can…

TV STREAMING Watch Netflix on your Chromebook I always thought there wasn’t much you could install on a Chromebook, but when I bought one I found that some of my favourite services are available to download from the Google Play Store. The one I use most is the Netflix app. Open the Play Store from your Chromebook’s main menu – its icon is in the bottom-left of the screen. Type Netflix into the search box, then click Install (see screenshot below left), followed by Get Started. Philip Hunter VOICEMAIL Access your voicemail from other phones We recently had an emergency that required me to listen to a voicemail on my phone. But I’d left my phone in a pub about 30 miles away, which meant we had to drive back…

£69 from www.snipca.com/47852 Back in Issue 659 (page 63) you recommended Manhattan’s SX Freesat HD box for readers on a budget. As it costs just £69, I thought it was worth trying out as my main TV device in a small cottage we own in Devon. It has turned out to be an excellent replacement for my ancient Humax SD box. I know the HD picture quality can’t compete with 4K, but it’s sharp enough for my eyes. In a rare moment of common sense from the manufacturer, the device presents channels in the conventional order, starting with BBC 1. My previous box had a confusing order that I never got the hang of. Choosing favourite shows and channels is easy too. The box’s simplicity prompted me to buy one…

Location Guard Chromium www.snipca.com/47909 Firefox www.snipca.com/47911 Although a VPN stops websites identifying your location, it can feel like overkill when you just want to avoid revealing precisely where you are. Location Guard solves this problem by applying random ‘noise’ to your location to make detection less accurate. There are three privacy levels (see screenshot), which you can switch between on a site-by-site basis, depending on how mislocated you want to be. Unlike a VPN, your faked (or spoofed) whereabouts won’t be in another country but up to 7,116 metres (about 4.5 miles) away, so you can still get useful local information. Alternatively, use the extension’s ‘Fixed location’ option to place you somewhere else in the world. Location Guard doesn’t hide your IP address – for that you still need a…

MoneySavingExpert Free Android www.snipca.com/48027 iOS www.snipca.com/48028 The MSE app lets you browse all the money-saving news and articles from Martin Lewis’ website, including the weekly email. It also includes tools such as Bill Buster – which alerts you when cheaper mobile and broadband deals are available; eligibility calculators for credit cards and loans; and an AI-powered chatbot for quick queries. Best For Money-saving advice Snoop Free* Android www.snipca.com/48025 iOS www.snipca.com/48026 Following the closure of Money Dashboard in October, Snoop is now the easiest way to manage your finances on your phone. Connect your bank account and credit card(s), and the app will sort your spending by category, create monthly budgets and expense reports, and recommend deals to save you money on bills and subscriptions. Best For Tracking your spending Trolley.co.uk…

MICROSOFT EXCEL Import tables from websites Copying and pasting tables from a web page into spreadsheets can be fiddly because it often causes errors in formatting. To avoid these, use Excel’s ‘Get & Transform’ tool, which is an easier way to extract and import data from the internet. It’s built into Excel 2016 and later, while in 2010 and 2013 you’ll need to install a Microsoft add-in (see www.snipca.com/47908 for details). First, click the Data tab in the toolbar, then From Web on the left (1 in our screenshot below). Enter your URL into the text field, and click OK. In our example, we’re importing the final 2022/23 Premier League table from Wikipedia (www.snipca.com/47901). In the next window, named ‘Access Web content’, we clicked Connect. Then, in the final Navigator…

Over the next few pages, we’ll reveal which programs, apps and websites now support passkeys, but for a quick demonstration of how they work you can visit Passkeys.io (www.passkeys.io). Enter your email address, click Continue and follow the prompts to create an account with the demo site and a corresponding passkey. If you’re using Chrome, you’ll be able to save the passkey to Google Password Manager, so you can autofill it by clicking the email-input field. In other browsers, click ‘Sign in with a passkey’ and choose one of the other options, such as using your phone, Windows Hello or a security key.…

We’re going to assume that you’ve tried and failed to install the full version of Windows 11, but you’re still keen to try it, and are prepared to bypass Microsoft’s technical specifications. If the Windows 10 computer you want to upgrade is your main machine and you’re happy with it, then you’ll naturally be reluctant to risk running Tiny11. Only do so if your enthusiasm for Windows 11 outstrips your caution. Bear in mind that if you stick with Windows 10, you’ll need to buy a new computer with Windows 11 (or possibly 12) before October 2025, when Microsoft plans to end support for 10. But if the computer you want to upgrade is a spare machine gathering dust, then what have you got to lose? This is the attitude…