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I once owned a Chillblast PC that was so big Stanley Kubrick could’ve used it as the black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I reckon it was at least 10 times the size of Chillblast’s WAP 3500U, which wins the Gold Award in our Cover Feature on mini PCs. There were mini PCs around when I owned my Chillblast beast, but cramming everything into a small box meant manufacturers compromised too much on power. That’s no longer the case. Most of the machines we recommend are capable replacements for bigger Windows PCs, while the others are ideal for online work. Above all, mini PCs now feel less like a novelty for specialists, and more like the smart choice for everyday users who want to save space and money. If…

Microsoft is testing a new ‘overflow’ menu for Windows 11 that will provide room for extra icons above your taskbar when you’ve filled up the existing space. If you open more programs than the taskbar can accommodate, a three-dotted button will appear (1 in screenshot above). Clicking this reveals the overflow bar 2, which in the example above contains icons for Microsoft’s Camera, Paint, Solitaire, Outlook and Command Prompt apps. The overflow bar disappears when you click outside it or open a program. The feature is part of Build 25163 for Windows 11, which is available only to Windows Insiders. If it proves popular, it may appear in the first Feature update (22H2) for the operating system, due this autumn. In its blog (www.snipca.com/42765), Microsoft said the overflow “has…

EE has become the first UK mobile network to block access to websites offering illegal downloads of paid-for music. It follows a long anti-piracy campaign by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which in 2012 went to the High Court to force broadband providers to block access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. The High Court then ordered broadband firms to block more than 70 websites that allowed people to download music illegally. It will now extend the law to cover mobile networks, starting with EE. The company is already blocking 75 pirate music sites from its broadband service, and will now also apply this to their mobile network. EE said that “as network speeds increase and content file sizes for music decreases, mobile networks are seeing a rise in piracy”.…

Having chosen a Bose Solo 5 soundbar (£239 from Amazon, pictured) based on the company’s reputation for quality, I was disappointed when after just two years it refused to switch on. I rang their customer-service department and was honest about its age and explained I’d done all of their recommended checks as well as testing the power supply, which was fine. Bose told me they offer a repair service for £80 (www.snipca.com/42448), but I said that as a disabled pensioner I didn’t want to spend that kind of money. They then said they would repair the soundbar for free. They collected it from my home, sent it to their repair centre in Belgium, and returned it in full working order. They even updated it too. Now that’s what I call…

How can I open scans saved in XIF format? Q Some years ago I bought an HP scanner, which came with a program from Xerox called Pagis Pro. This gave me a lot of flexibility when scanning multiple-page documents, but it saved files in XIF format. Since I upgraded from Windows 7 to 10, the program won’t work, so now I have hundreds of scanned documents that I can’t view. Do you know of any program I can use to view and convert these XIF files? Mike Shattock A This was a tricky question to answer because XIF - short for Xerox DIFF - is an obsolete format. It was created specifically for the ScanSoft Pagis Pro program you mention, as an extension to the TIFF format, enabling users to save text…

Samsung makes smartphones that appeal to a whole range of budgets, right up to its best phones that cost more than £1,000. At the other end of the scale is this phone, the Galaxy A13, which costs £150. To get the price down to this level, Samsung has made a few compromises. Samsung has its own range of processors, and this one comes with an Exynos 850, along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. You can expand the latter via microSD card if necessary. You won’t get away with much less if you want to run the latest version of Android, and there is the occasional stutter and delay as the phone moves through apps and menus. “A decent screen, good-looking photos and 24-hour battery” That’s backed up…

Q I require a smartphone that is small enough to slip into my pocket, preferably less than 6in. I don’t need high resolution as I download photos and videos to my PC. Please don’t recommend Doro as I have tried one previously and found it to be too basic. Peter Jackson A Your choice of phone is certainly limited by your requirement for a smaller screen, but there are still options available. Our suggestion would be the Asus Zenfone 8 (pictured, £599 from www.snipca.com/41564), which was released in May 2021. It looks good, performs well and crucially has a 5.9in screen, which should fit nicely into your pocket. It comes with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, though you can upgrade this to 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM for…

Panasonic has produced some brilliant OLED TVs, but this is the first one that’s smaller than 50in across the diagonal. But let’s face it it, this 48in model will be big enough for most modestly-sized living rooms, and its smaller size helps make this the first Panasonic OLED TV priced below £1,000. The TX-48JZ980 manages to squeeze 4K resolution (3840x2160 pixels) into the screen, and delivers the familiar OLED benefits of perfect contrast and wide viewing angles, which are essential if you aren’t going to be the only one watching. “A rich and vibrant screen, a generous set of connections and excellent speakers” It also continues Panasonic’s all-encompassing embrace of high dynamic range (HDR) technology, by supporting both the HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats, as well as the more standard…

What you need: Old hard drive; precision toolkit Time required: One hour Your hard drive is full of sensitive data. The emails, photos and browsing history scattered across its disks present an intimate portrait of your daily life. An identity thief would love to get their hands on it, so it’s vital that you take extra care when disposing of old drives. Recycle your old laptop with the hard drive intact, and your files will be easy to recover, even if you’ve formatted it. This is because when you format a drive you don’t touch the files it contains: all you do is wipe the table of contents that Windows uses to locate them. For an analogy, imagine you bought a second-hand book from which someone had torn out the…

CHROME Tweak Chrome to load web pages faster Chrome 103, which was released at the end of June, introduced a new type of ‘prerendering’ technology. This enables the browser to load web pages more quickly by downloading certain design elements in advance. Previously, prerendering required a lot of system memory and also posed a security risk because it preloaded potentially dangerous JavaScript. Both these problems have been fixed in the new version but, as is often the case with Chrome, faster prerendering is currently an ‘experimental’ feature that’s disabled by default. To activate it in Chrome 103 or 104 (due early August), type chrome:flags into the browser’s address bar and press Enter to access the Experiments page. Search for prerender (1 in our screenshot below left) and you should find three…

MICROSOFT WORD Convert tables in documents to images Converting a table in Word into an image preserves all the information within it, preventing you or anyone from changing it (accidentally or otherwise). To do this, create your table then click inside it to make the handle appear at the top left (1 in our screenshot). Click the handle to highlight your table, then right-click it and choose Cut (create an image and lose the original table) or Copy (to create an image but keep the table). Now place your cursor where you want the image to appear, then click the Home tab at the top of your document, followed by the Paste dropdown menu. Now click Paste Special, then select ‘Picture (Enhanced Metafile)’ 2 in the ‘As:’ box. Next, click…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT How is a PIN safer than a password? Q My new Windows 11 laptop asks me to sign in with a PIN, while my old desktop PC, running Windows 10, requires a password. Microsoft suggests a PIN is more secure, but I simply do not understand this. The PIN on my Windows 11 machine is just four numbers, but the older computer has a password of a dozen letters. How can a four-digit PIN be safer than my longer password? Derek Gillum A This is a great question. In fact, the idea is so counter-intuitive that even Microsoft struggles to explain the logic on its blog post on the matter (at www.snipca.com/42499). So, in simple terms,…

Scammers can buy the personal data of pensioners on Facebook for as little as 16p, it’s been claimed. A BBC investigation found that fraudsters were targeting wealthy pensioners by advertising sets of data such as ‘UK Old Age High Income Leads’. Criminals can use this data to commit identity theft, such as impersonating a victim to open a bank account and take out huge loans, or buy goods in their name. They could also resell the information on the dark web to other scammers. A team from the BBC’s Morning Live show bought the details of 1,000 people living in Britain. The data, which the BBC securely destroyed, included names, email and home addresses, their approximate net worth and an estimated income bracket. The reporters contacted every person whose details…

Google’s data servers in London crashed during July’s heatwave, forcing some websites and online services offline. The company reported several “cooling-related failures” on Tuesday 19 July as temperatures hit 40 degrees celsius in the UK for the first time (www.snipca.com/42750). It said that it also “powered down” some of its machines to prevent further damage, adding that only a “small set” of its customers were affected. Servers run by Oracle also struggled in the heat. The company said that due to “unseasonably high temperatures” two cooler units in its London data centre “experienced a failure when they were required to operate above their design limits”. Both Google and Oracle’s data centres have powerful air-conditioning units, but neither were designed to cope with the excessive heat. The companies claimed that all…

Microsoft has confirmed that it will end all support for Microsoft 365 tools in Windows 7 and 8.1 next January. It stopped supporting Windows 7 in January 2020, but allowed companies and individuals to pay for Extended Security Updates, which guaranteed that the office suite would receive security fixes. This service will end on 10 January, 2023 – the same day that Microsoft ends support for the whole of Windows 8.1. You’ll still be able to use Microsoft apps on 8.1, but not install any new ones. Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is a subscription service costing from £5.99 a month, or £59.99 a year. It contains all the usual Office tools, including Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. If you stop subscribing you lose access to the tools, making…

Can I get a refund from PayPal Credit? Q Last November, my wife bought me a £450 set of Apple AirPod Max headphones (pictured) from eBay seller Buy It Direct Discounts (www.snipca.com/42605), paying by PayPal Credit (www.snipca.com/42606). After one set quickly became muffled, the seller emailed us a software fix, but it was for the wrong headphones. We returned them, but months later we’re still waiting for a refund. We contacted PayPal, which told us to speak to our bank. Is that right? Alan Mitchell A Since contacting us Alan has received a refund from the seller after emailing them to explain his rights under the Consumer Rights Act. So while he’s pleased with the outcome, he should never have been told by PayPal to contact his bank, which had no…

Explore Ireland’s Virtual Record Treasury Imagine if a fire during the Blitz had destroyed the national archives, which at the time were held at Chancery Lane in central London. That fate befell Ireland on 30 June, 1922, when in the opening act of the Irish Civil War, a devastating explosion and fire destroyed the Public Record Office in Dublin. A century on, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (https://virtualtreasury.ie) has reconstructed much of the material that was lost. Many documents have been retrieved using transcripts of records made before the fire, and by studying copies of documents held in other archives worldwide. Further badly damaged records, bundled and stored for a century, are now undergoing conservation efforts. Go on a virtual tour There are two major parts to the Virtual…

My Computeractive colleagues are big fans of the Brave browser (www.brave.com), and for good reasons. Like them, I admire how it prioritises your privacy, most notably by blocking adverts, and it’s compatible with many Chrome extensions. It has one major flaw, however, which is that it doesn’t work with Google Drive’s offline mode – and that’s a deal-breaker for me because most of my writing is done in Google Drive while not connected to the internet. While there is a Chrome extension for using Google Drive offline (www.snipca.com/42600), it’s deeply unreliable, often failing to work with Brave (as these frustrated users will attest: www.snipca.com/42601). That keeps me stuck on Chrome. It’s not my first choice, but at least I’ve made it easier to use and more private by installing the…

What is it? A measure of how much light radiates from a screen. When reviewing, we’re interested in a screen’s maximum brightness level, which is how much light it would give off when it’s showing a blank white screen at its brightest settings. How does it work? Different types of screen work in different ways. Some, such as IPS panels, use a light behind the screen that gets filtered by each pixel to produce the colours and brightness required. Others, like OLED panels, use a light in each pixel, which means you can switch a pixel off rather than simply blocking light. Blocked light is prone to escaping, which is why lesser screens struggle to produce perfect blacks. What are the specs? The SI standard unit of luminance is candelas…

Wireless earbuds for £20 are nothing new. Online retailers are chock full with budget buds that look just as good as more expensive alternatives from big-name brands right up until you stick them in your ears and start listening. The difference with JLab’s GO Air Pop buds is that they actually sound pretty good. In fact, for the price, they’re amazingly good. That isn’t to say they match the likes of Sony or Sennheiser. If you’re able to spend the extra money, those brands are still worth considering. However, if your budget is more modest, these JLab buds are a sensible choice. One of the first things you’ll appreciate is the battery life. The buds themselves will last for eight hours, while the case can hold another 24 hours of…

What is it? Rumours coming through via Korean website ETNews (www.snipca.com/42614) claim that Apple is working on iPads with bespoke OLED screens, and will arrive in 2024. What will it do? Current iPad screens (such as in the iPad Air, pictured) use IPS technology with a white backlight that’s filtered to create black and coloured light. OLED panels have a light in every pixel, which can be switched off to create perfect blacks. As a result, OLED screens have perfect contrast and wide viewing angles. What’s the catch? None that we can see. OLED screens are widely considered superior to IPS versions. A more pertinent question is why it’s taken Apple so long – rivals already offer OLED tablets, such as the Lenovo Tab P12 (reviewed in Issue 636). So…

ANDROID & iOS React to WhatsApp messages using any emoji In Issue 631 (page 44), we covered WhatsApp’s new emoji-reactions feature, which lets you respond to people’s messages using an emoji without sending a separate reply. Initially, there were six options to choose from – thumbs-up, heart, laughing face, shocked, crying and folded hands – but the feature has now been expanded to let you react using any emoji. Press a message in a WhatsApp conversation to open the emoji-reactions panel, then tap the plus sign at the end of the row (see screenshot below). You can now browse the hundreds of emojis included in the app’s keyboard and select the relevant one for your response. Change your reaction by pressing the message again and selecting a different emoji –…

Create and promote events with Eventbrite Hosting an event is one thing, but promoting it and keeping track of who’s coming can be a real challenge. One way to make it easier is to manage the logistics through Eventbrite, whether your event is physical or happening online. It charges a fee if you’re selling tickets, but not if your event is free – compare the pricing options at www.snipca.com/42494. Enter details and add a link In our example, a history club is giving a talk on the Lancaster bomber and has decided that it will also be streamed on YouTube to reach a wider audience. First, create an account at www.eventbrite.co.uk, or log in with your existing Google details if you have a Google account. Now enter information about your…

Most problems with our smartphones, such as the screen going blank or an app failing to open, are nothing to worry about and can be fixed with a quick recharge or restart. But sometimes there are more sinister reasons for our devices misbehaving, especially because hackers are finding ever more devious ways to spread mobile malware. Particularly worrying are infections that run in the background, which can steal your money, data and identity before you even realise your phone has been compromised. Here, we reveal six giveaway signs that your Android phone or iPhone has been hacked, and explain the best ways to regain control. Excessive data usage Even if your monthly phone plan includes unlimited internet access, an unusual spike in data usage can be a cause for concern.…

Why can’t I use Flash Renamer? Q Back in Issue 620 (page 66), you recommended Flash Renamer (www.snipca.com/39924) to reader Howard Angel as a way of removing numbers from the front of his MP3 filenames. This looked ideal for me, and all was going well until I got to my Bob Dylan tracks, where I wanted to remove a long redundant title string. Then I started getting messages saying that the path ‘might contain unicode characters (not yet supported)’, and that I should make sure I have ‘sufficient file privileges’. What does that mean? John Perkins A This is because the renaming tool doesn’t support Unicode. If you check the filenames for those songs, you’ll probably find there are some non-standard characters in there somewhere, such as symbols or foreign-language…

Create his own online map I never mind people stopping me in the street to ask for directions. Not only does it give me the chance to show off my expert local knowledge, but it also allows for the type of friendly face-to-face interaction that’s increasingly rare these days. I’ve even chased lost souls down the street after realising I’d got a detail wrong, shouting “actually it’s second on the left. Second!”, at which point they usually look more worried than friendly. “Felt avoided directing me through someone’s back garden” Google Maps eliminates the need for these exchanges, but its level of detail can sometimes prove overwhelming. So I was interested to read about a new website called Felt (https://felt.com), which lets you create your own maps that include only…

BUY CANVAS PRINTS OF GOOGLE PHOTOS You can now buy photo and canvas prints of pictures you’ve stored in your Google Photos account. Google already offered this service in the US, but now it’s being expanded to 29 other countries, including the UK. Previously the only products you could buy here were photo books. Prices start at 13p for a standard 4x6in print, with sizes rising to 24x36in. Canvases start at £23.99. Read more on Google’s blog: www.snipca.com/42736. GET MONEY ADVICE WITHOUT USING DATA Mobile networks O2 and Virgin have added more sites offering help on “fuel poverty, debt advice and financial support” to its ‘zero-rated’ list, meaning you won’t use any of your data allowance when visiting them. They said it was part of a “wide range of measures…

Ofcom is to investigate whether internet-based phone services (VoIP) can guarantee access to 999 calls during power cuts. Concerns have been raised that as the UK phone service moves from the analogue public switched telephone network (PSTN) to digital, there will be times when VoIP customers will be unable to phone emergency services. The problem was highlighted during February’s storms when widespread power cuts knocked many routers offline, meaning thousands of customers couldn’t make phone calls over the internet. It exposed VoIP’s main weakness compared with the traditional landline, which works through copper cables connected to a local exchange, and therefore isn’t affected by power cuts. Ofcom’s current rules compel VoIP providers to “take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access” to emergency services. Since 2018, Ofcom has expected firms…

David Turner has persuaded iD Mobile to cancel his wife’s contract following her stroke last year, but only after he sent a letter from her speech and language therapist confirming that she’s unable to use the phone (see Issue 635, page 14). Currys, which owns iD Mobile, had asked a debt-collection agency to chase David for the £24 he owed, despite him having explained his wife’s disability. We told Currys that David would hardly make up the story for such a small amount, but it still requested confirmation by “medical correspondence on headed paper stating the condition”, or a note from Citizens Advice. David was worried about how long it would take for a medical professional to find the time to write a letter, but the speech therapist was able…

EBOOK MANAGER Calibre 6.1 www.snipca.com/42716 What you need: Windows 10 or 11, macOS or Linux This brilliant open-source program is the best way to read and manage ebooks on your computer without being tied to a single service such as Amazon’s Kindle Store. It lets you convert ebooks easily from one format to another, edit their contents, download articles from the web, back up and share your library, and much more. Calibre 6 is the first big update for a year-and-a-half (the 6.1 refers to a few bug fixes implemented shortly after its release) and somehow finds space for even more features without making the interface overcrowded. The most significant is a full-text search tool, which indexes all the ebooks in your collection, so you can quickly find mentions of…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Foxit’s pre-ticked boxes and hard sell There was a time when Foxit was seen as the best alternative to Adobe’s bloated PDF reader. Now, it’s pulling more stunts than Evel Knievel (not the most topical reference, I grant you). The fun and games start on the download page (www.snipca.com/42618), where you have to choose between PDF Editor 12, PDF Editor Pro 12, PDF Editor Pro + 12, PDF Editor (two versions) or PDF Reader (two versions again). I closed my eyes, pointed randomly at the screen and went for PDF Reader without add-ons, described as a “free download”. It might be free, but it has six pre-ticked boxes in the installer (see screenshot), plastering your screen with icons and shortcuts, as well as making Foxit the default PDF…

The Find X5 Lite is the most affordable model in Chinese manufacturer Oppo’s latest range of smartphones, which also includes the Find X5 and the Find X5 Pro. As you’d hope from a phone at this price, it takes elements of its more expensive stablemates, but makes the necessary compromises to keep it more affordable. It comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 900 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The choice of processor is a bit underwhelming and one we’d expect to see in cheaper models. That said, it’s fast enough to make Android feel responsive. In our performance multi-core benchmarking test, it scores 2,154, which is way ahead of the cheaper Samsung A13 reviewed on page 25. However, perhaps more telling is that it falls short of the…

Chinese manufacturer Poco has launched a watch to accompany its popular range of smartphones. It isn’t intended to rival the most expensive models, but has plenty of the functions you’d expect, while coming in at an affordable price. You don’t need a Poco phone – it will work with any Android or iOS device. There are two key functions covered by the phone. The first is that it provides a link to your phone, so you can read notifications and messages without having to fish for your handset out of your bag or pocket. The second is that it tracks your basic fitness information, such as counting your steps to ensure you’re keeping active and tracking any other exercise you get up to. This is fairly basic, though it has…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2021 Back Issue CD: £17 from www.snipca.com/42077 NEW LAPTOP NEW ENTRY Lenovo Yoga 6 Gen 7 £623 from www.snipca.com/42509 Tested Issue 637 Lenovo’s new laptop has an amazing screen, a fast processor and lasts 15 hours on a single charge. It has all the ports you need, including two USB-C, two USB 3.0 and HDMI. At £623 it represents stunning value. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £934 from www.snipca.com/40042 ANDROID TABLET PRICE DROP Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 £549 from www.snipca.com/42211 Tested Issue 634 Samsung has replaced its own Tab S7+ to become our favourite Android tablet. It’s fast with a stunning 11in screen,…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Find and remove files with long names I’ve been using SearchMyFiles ever since you suggested it way back in Issue 565 (page 20) as a way of finding files in a disorganised hard drive. It’s one of those ingenious tools from NirSoft (www.nirsoft.net) that you often recommend, and certainly better than any Windows search tool I’ve used. A recent update to the tool (version 3.20) lets you search for files with a name longer than a specified number of characters, which is a handy way of finding and eradicating certain files. To download SearchMyFiles, visit www.snipca.com/42580 then click one of the links at the bottom. You’ll need to extract it from a ZIP file when it downloads. Open the program, then…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Change the colour of the Files app One of our favourite programs at the moment is the Files app, which is an excellent alternative to File Explorer. It adds plenty of tools that File Explorer lacks, such as tabs, and has a modern design reminiscent of Windows 11’s style. But if you don’t like the default theme (which will match your default Windows theme), you can change to one of 21 other colours. First, if you haven’t installed Files, do so from the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.com/42548), open it, then click the Settings cog top right. Now click Appearance at the top (1 in our screenshot below), followed by the dropdown menu to the right of ‘Custom themes’ 2, then pick your colour. Some of the colour…

What is it? The ancient practice of copying music from a CD you bought online or in a shop to your PC. Ah, yes – I seem to recall that. Why is it in the news? Because Microsoft has just added it to Windows 11’s revamped Media Player app which, until now, has lacked support for CD ripping, despite this function having been a part of the operating system from Windows XP to 10. In fact, it couldn’t even play CDs until this ability was added a few months ago. So, can I rip my old Kate Bush CDs now? Only if you’re a Windows 11 Insider. As Microsoft announced last month (www.snipca.com/42651), CD ripping was added to a recent preview build of Windows 11 and is currently being tested…

Many software companies now allow users to pay for their products by monthly subscription. The benefits are that you can cancel at any time without having to fork out a big sum upfront, and get updated with new features and bug fixes as soon as they become available. On the downside, companies can increase the subscription price at any time, and with the cost-of-living crisis placing a heavy strain on our finances, paid-for programs are a relative luxury compared with food and energy. In this feature, we suggest seven software subscriptions you should cancel and the best free alternatives to use instead. Cancel Adobe Acrobat DC www.snipca.com/42623 Price £13.14 per month Although Adobe’s Acrobat Reader is free to use (and you need it to open pages in our Back Issue…

3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 720p/1080p/1440p Common types of high-definition video of 1280x720, 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 pixels respectively. AAC Advanced Audio Coding. A type of music file. Adware Unwanted adverts that come with software. ALAC Apple Lossless Audio Codec. File format for storing digital music without losing any sound quality from the original. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a screen. Traditional PC screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. Bandwidth A measure of how much data…