Table of contents for 696 in Computeractive

Police have arrested a man suspected of running a major operation that allowed viewers to watch paid-for Sky channels for free online or via an Amazon Fire TV Stick. The 38-year-old from Wolverhampton is being questioned after police searched his home on 15 October. Officers carried out further searches at four business addresses in Wolverhampton and Coventry. At one location they seized a server (pictured) that was being used to host the illegal streaming service. The arrest is the latest in renewed efforts by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) to crack down on illegal streaming, especially via devices like Fire TV Sticks. Criminals can modify these devices to install apps that let viewers access paid-for content illegally. A YouGov survey last year found that one in 10 Brits…

The Government is considering whether to adopt the European Union’s rules on forcing tech manufacturers to use the same charging ports. It comes after the EU passed a law in 2022 that requires firms to use a standard charging cable, in order to reduce the amount of electronic waste. The law has seen USB-C become the standard, with Apple adding it to iPhones for the first time in 2023 (pictured)–though the company criticised the rules for harming innovation. Most small devices are covered by the law, including phones, tablets, ebook readers, cameras, headphones and portable speakers. Laptops will be added in 2026. The UK’s Office for Product Safety and Standards said it would “potentially help businesses and deliver consumer and environmental benefits if we were to introduce standardized requirements for…

One of the fears about AI is that it’ll automate tasks in the workplace currently done by humans, leading to a huge wave of job losses. The counter-argument is that the time workers save will free them to be more productive in ways we can’t predict, boosting efficiency and innovation. That’s about to be put to the test by the Government, which has signed a five-year deal with Microsoft for civil servants to use the company’s Copilot tools. These can reduce what Microsoft boss Satya Nadella calls the “drudgery” of work, such as transcribing, summarising and emailing meeting notes. He claims putting AI in the hands of civil servants will improve the “services that the Government offers, whether it is in health, whether it is in education, whether it is…

We expect mini PCs to be small but GMKtec’s NUCbox G5 is absolutely tiny. At just 44x72x72mm (HxWxD), it’s less than half the size of our current favourite mini PC, the Geekom A8 (£899 from www.snipca.com/51157, reviewed in Issue 689). At £210, it’s also less than a quarter of the price. “A tiny PC for Windows at a very low price, but don’t expect miracles” It may be cheap, but its plastic case feels remarkably well constructed, with no obvious weak points. It’s light, too, weighing just 170g, so you could easily stick it on the back of a monitor if you want to hide it away. It’s compatible with a VESA mount, so you could use one of those to screw it in place, although it’s so lightweight you…

Q My current computer has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 graphics card with 1GB of video RAM. I edit videos using Vegas Pro, though I’m also looking at DaVinci Resolve. I checked the requirements of both and found that the graphics card should have a minimum of 4GB RAM. My PC has a Ryzen 5 1600 processor and 16GB RAM. I assume upgrading the card would give me a boost in editing speed, but which one should I choose? I don’t need anything too fancy or above about £150. Tim Kingscote-Davies A As you are familiar with the brand, we’d suggest you stick with Nvidia. That said, Nvidia graphics cards under £150 with at least 4GB of RAM are few and far between. The best option we could find was…

What are they? Smart doorbells that use artificial intelligence (AI) to create ‘dynamic’ messages rather than pre-recorded ones. What does that mean? In the world of technology, anything described as dynamic means it can change or adapt in real time, usually responding to specific conditions. A dynamic doorbell can change the message it plays depending on whether you’re in, the time of day and the person calling at your home. Do such devices actually exist yet? Yes, just one–the SwannBuddy4K, which uses the SwannShield virtual assistant to respond to visitors. You give details through the Swann Security app, such as where deliveries should be left (“behind the bins”) or how to reply if someone asks for a person who doesn’t live there (as pictured above right). SwannShield will respond accordingly…

Switch Google Maps to incognito mode Many Google Maps users don’t realise that the app (though not the website) has a special incognito mode. Similar to the feature in Chrome, this prevents Maps from saving details of your browsing and search history to your Google account, and using your activity to personalise what you see–such as restaurant recommendations and advice about your commute. Incognito mode also stops Google updating your Location History and showing notifications from Maps. Less usefully, it disables the option to download maps to explore offline. To switch to incognito mode in the Google Maps app, tap your profile picture in the top-right corner and select ‘Turn on incognito mode’ (see screenshot below). This will relaunch the app to show an ‘Incognito mode turned on’ confirmation message,…

Why doesn’t SMPlayer work? Q I downloaded the free media player SMPlayer (www.smplayer.info), which you’ve recommended in the past. But when I try to use it with YouTube I see a ‘client error occurred’ message that says “the caller does not have permission”. Do you know what that means? Rev Gerald Rodgers A You need to install a plug-in to play YouTube videos in SMPlayer. You’re usually prompted to download this when you first attempt to play a YouTube video, but if you missed this or you want to try reinstalling the plug-in to see if this fixed the problem, click the Help menu (1 in our screenshot below) and select ‘Install/Update YouTube support’ 2. Why won’t my old laptop upgrade to Windows 11? Q My Asus X550C laptop is…

Google has added a Channels section to its ‘Chromecast with Google TV’ device and Google TV Streamer for watching live TV, though the latter still lacks BBC and Channel 4 content. The new section on the Chromecast ’s Google TV interface shows the logos for BBC One and Two, as well as ITV 1 and 2, STV and Channel 5 (see screenshot right). Selecting one takes you to the show currently being broadcast live. You do however need to install the relevant apps to see live programmes. To watch BBC One and Two, for example, you’ll first need to install the iPlayer app on your Chromecast. Do this either through the app store on the device, or via the Google Play Store on your PC. If you opt for the…

Sky will continue to offer its satellite-based TV service Sky Q until at least 2029 after extending its deal with global satellite provider SES. It also means Freesat, which uses the same satellite infrastructure as Sky Q, will survive for five more years. Around 3.6 million customers once subscribed to Sky Q, but that number has fallen sharply as customers increasingly switch to streaming TV through the internet. Sky has responded to this trend by focusing on its streaming services Glass and Stream in recent years. It claims 90 per cent of new TV customers choose streaming over satellite. Industry analysts had expected the company to start winding down Sky Q as customers switch to streaming. It cut 1,000 jobs earlier this year, mostly in its satellite engineering division. But…

Why I don’t need an AI PC I doubt many people will be tempted to upgrade to Windows 11 because of the new AI tools in the 24H2 update (Issue 695, page 6). I’ve been hugely impressed by how AI works, especially when having conversations with ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com) or enhancing old photos using Upscayl (https://upscayl.org), but both those are free (yes, I know ChatGPT has paid-for options, but the free version is all you need). These kinds of tasks are what ordinary people are using AI for, not the complicated stuff you need an NPU for. I’ll keep using my boring-but-fast non-Copilot Windows 11 PC for many more years, and when I want to use AI I’ll go online and look for a free tool. Mal Lewington I’ve stopped using…

Until now, all the Copilot+ laptops we’ve reviewed have used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor. That’s because there aren’t any Intel or AMD processors with the kind of NPU cores that can surpass Microsoft’s qualifying criteria of 40 TOPS. The X Elite achieves 45, which means it’s good at outsourcing the laborious work of processing instructions for AI tools to its NPU, so they don’t get in the way of everyday tasks and slow things down. “Slick design, high-quality screen and amazing battery life” The Acer Swift 14 AI, however, doesn’t use the X Elite. Instead it comes with Qualcomm’s 10-core Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 chip. That’s a couple of cores fewer than the Elite, but the NPU is just as powerful as previous machines. In our performance benchmark…

Apple is launching two new versions of its AirPod earbuds, which are cheaper alternatives to its AirPods Pro 2 (£229 from www.snipca.com/52458). The two new versions are pretty much identical, but only the £179 version offers active noise cancellation (ANC). If you tend to mostly use these at home in a quiet environment, the cheaper pair (£129) will be adequate for your needs. If you typically wear them out and about on trains or in busy streets, we’d recommend ANC. The design isn’t a giant leap from previous models, with the same distinctive stems extending downwards out of your ear, but the buds themselves are sleeker, lighter and smaller than the Apple AirPods 3. They also have some of the options built into the AirPods Pro 2, such as the…

What is it? The Maxfree K3 (www.snipca.com/52532, pictured) is a mechanical keyboard, with a short, wide 13in touchscreen attached. What does it do? It may look like a laptop cut down to size, but it doesn’t operate on its own. Instead it works like any other wired keyboard, meaning you still need to plug it into the device you want to type on via its USB-C port. You can then use the keyboard as normal and its screen as a secondary monitor. What’s the catch? It’s expensive given its limitations, even at its current price of $220 (around £169), which is discounted down from $599.99 (around £462). The keyboard is fine but not worth paying this much for, and the screen is too small to be really useful. So can…

What you need: Google account; Proton account Time required: One hour Google is more than just a search engine. For many people, it’s also a place to store important files online, maintain an online address book and–perhaps most important of all–send and receive email. But the company’s reliance on your data to show personalised adverts makes many people uneasy. It’s not surprising that millions of users have looked for more private alternatives. The best of these by far is Proton. Founded and based in Switzerland, where personal privacy laws are strict, it promises your data will always be safe from prying eyes. The company behind it is owned by a non-profit foundation and its structure requires it to always put people before profits. It doesn’t sell users’ data and says…

Backing up important files from your PC used to involve copying them onto CD or DVD (or floppy disk, going back even further). Not only was this a slow and laborious process, but the limited space offered by optical discs meant you could end up with teetering piles of them cluttering your desk. External hard drives were always an option, but they tended to be large, heavy and expensive, while the first USB sticks–though considerably smaller–were sluggish and low capacity. Thankfully, things have improved dramatically in the last 10 years and we’re living in a golden age of affordable portable storage. Higher capacities, faster speeds and much more compact designs have made external drives an essential addition to any home-computing setup. The trouble lies in deciding which one to buy…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Why is my laptop shutting down? Q I’ve been trying to use Topaz Video AI and VideoProc video-editing software, but my laptop just shuts down after a couple of minutes. It’s a Dell Precision 7710 with an Intel Core i7 6920HQ processor, Radeon 7100 8GB graphics and 64GB of RAM running Windows 10 Pro. Should my laptop be able to run these apps? Is there anything I can do to stop it shutting down when I’m trying to use them? As it stands, they’re unusable. Simon Pordage A We had to edit your question for space reasons, but you also told us that you’d run benchmarking tests with Geekbench (www.geekbench.com), and included some performance scores, asking if they’re sufficient to run these apps. Such numbers, no…

128-bit encryption An extremely secure method of encrypting data. 2K A screen with 2048x1080 pixels. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. 720p/1080p/1440p Common types of high-definition video of 1280x720, 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 pixels respectively. Active noise cancelling Method for reducing unwanted sound by adding a second sound designed to cancel the first. AES 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard. A form of encryption based on a key length of 256 bits. AI Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human. Architecture A set of rules and language that govern how hardware and software work. ARM Processors that are more energy-efficient and used in more devices than AMD and Intel chips. Benchmarking Comparing software…

Brave has reminded users that it won’t stop the popular ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin working in its browser, despite Google preventing it from running in Chrome. UBlock Origin is one of the most significant casualties of Google forcing developers to use the new Manifest V3 standard for creating extensions. Google says this move makes extensions more private, secure and reliable as well as faster. It works by imposing stricter controls on how extensions filter and block content, which affects ad-blockers more than any other type of extension. Google has added warnings to its Play Store for extensions that will stop working soon because they haven’t been updated to work with Manifest V3. This includes uBlock Origin, though the extension’s developer Raymond Hill said the Lite edition (www.snipca.com/52538) will continue to…

Amazon has launched its first colour Kindle, 17 years after releasing its first ebook reader. It shows covers in colour in your Kindle Library or Store, as well as any colour photos and images. It also lets you add colour highlights to text that you can easily search later. The Colorsoft (pictured right) has a seven-inch screen that Amazon claims has “rich, paper-like colour”, but it costs £270–over £100 more than the Paperwhite, which has a black-and-white screen. Amazon has always wanted to make a colour Kindle, but until recently thought it would have to sacrifice fast page turns, battery life and high resolution. But it says the Colorsoft solves this problem by using LEDs made from nitride, which is a chemical compound that efficiently converts electricity into light. Amazon…

Reader Louise Ellis recently asked us where she could find more information on her husband’s ancestor Herbert Ellis, who made his living as a juggler. Many of us have talented ancestors who entertained the crowds who flocked to the circus, the music hall or theatre from the mid-19th century onwards. Browse fairground and circus and archives Louise and other readers should start by searching Sheffield University’s National Fairground and Circus Archive (www.snipca.com/52347), home to nearly 80,000 records and photos. In the menu on the left you can narrow your results by period, location and type of entertainment (‘Subject’). For music-hall entertainers try the British Music Hall Society (www.snipca.com/52343), which has a comprehensive research guide. But for ancestors who acted in the theatre look in the ‘Ellen Terry and Edith Craig…

Most of us are happy if our email skills extend to knowing the difference between CC and BCC. But Joshua Murrell had to go further by hacking into the staff accounts of businesses and changing their email addresses to disposable emails. Through these temporary accounts he stole £40,000 from staff reward schemes The 26-year-old from Oldbury, West Midlands, also hacked salary-sacrifice schemes, ordering Cycle2Work scheme vouchers, Xbox games and iPhones. But Murrell wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. He forgot–or simply didn’t know–that disposable addresses can be traced to an IP address. Police did just that, found where he was living, and discovered voice notes to his underling Dominic Smith discussing their scams. He admitted several charges of fraud and was sentenced to two years and seven months…

The Arzopa Z1RC is a 16in portable screen that you can take out and about with you and plug into your laptop as a second monitor. Alternatively, if you tend to work more at home, you can use it alongside your desktop PC monitor and tidy it away when you’re finished to keep clutter to a minimum. “A second monitor with a sensible design and accuratescreenat a reasonable price” We were impressed with the integrated stand, which constitutes a metal strip with a hinge at the top that makes positioning the screen straightforward. The stand kicks out at the back and leaves the screen slanted at a typical laptop angle (see main image)–slightly tilted back at the top. It also works if you rotate the screen by 90 degrees into…

You’re all probably aware of how much a soundbar can improve the audio quality of a mediocre TV speaker, so it comes as no surprise that one could also enhance your PC’s sound setup. The Creative Sound Blaster GS3 is an affordable unit that will beef up your monitor’s speakers. It’s very simple to set up, with a USB-C port that can both power the speaker and carry audio. On its right-hand side there’s a simple dial for controlling the volume, which we love, and buttons for switching between the three audio-input options (USB-C, Bluetooth and auxiliary). A final button lets you cycle through several lighting options. The front edge has a strip of lights capable of displaying millions of colours, but you have to select one of the default…

LAPTOP Dell Inspiron 14 Plus  £799 from www.snipca.com/51831 Tested Issue 683 This laptop has the same processor (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H) as our previous favourite (Acer Swift Go 4), but manages to squeeze more speed out of it. It also comes with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and a 14in 2240x1400-pixel screen. Excellent value overall. ALTERNATIVE Acer Swift Go 14 Still a fast and powerful laptop, with a great 14in screen. £949 from www.snipca.com/49733 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 £799 from www.snipca.com/50039 Tested Issue 667 With a much brighter screen than our previous favourite–the Galaxy Tab S8–this is perfect for watching TV. It also has a faster processor, so tasks feel smoother, even with several windows open. £799 will get you the 128GB version. If you want 256GB you’ll need…

What you need: Windows PowerToys Time required: 30 minutes The conventional way of creating several versions of a file has been to copy the original, carry out any edits, then save it under a different name. However, the more often you do this, the greater the risk you’ll eventually end up overwriting the original. The latest release of Microsoft’s PowerToys suite of toolsincludes New+, which minimises this risk and makes the whole process much easier. It lets you create a library of master files (or templates). Once created, you can then quickly recreate these templates whenever you need them and wherever you are on your PC with a single right-click, before making any edits to them. STEP 1 PowerToys is a free download for Windows 10 (version 2004 or later)…

In a perfect world you’d always give a presentation live to all your club members, but it can be tricky to get everyone in the same room at the same time. As an alternative, you can convert your PowerPoint presentation into a video and make it available for members to watch (this option isn’t available in LibreOffice Impress or OnlyOffice). This is a sensible thing to do for two reasons: first, it’s as live as you can get after the event, and you can even add narration to the slides if you want. And second, it turns the presentation into a file format that members who don’t have PowerPoint can watch. It’s quite a new feature though–you’ll need to be using PowerPoint 2019 (version 16.19) or subscribe to Microsoft 365…

There are often big advantages to be gained from switching phone providers–and relatively few downsides. As we explained in Issue 690’s Cover Feature (‘Cancel your phone contract’, pictured–buy a back issue from www.snipca.com/52555), switching to a different mobile network or mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) could save you money on your monthly bills, improve your coverage and help you avoid expensive roaming charges. Switching to a new landline provider offers similar benefits–the impending copper switch-off (in January 2027) means there are some great deals for cheaper landline and broadband contracts. While switching mobile or landline contracts is easier than ever, it comes with hidden dangers. If you don’t take your old phone number with you, it may end up being recycled, which could put your privacy at risk and make…

Taking photos on your smartphone is supposed to safeguard them against accidental loss. Pictures are automatically backed up to the ‘cloud’, and when you delete them they’re sent to a Bin folder for 30 days rather than being instantly erased. But I still sometimes find–or rather don’t find–shots missing from my photo library. I’m sure I didn’t deliberately delete them, unless they were particularly unflattering, so they’re forever lost to the digital ether. With the recent advances in AI-powered image generation, I wondered if I could recreate lost photos from text prompts. I decided to find out by using three free AI tools to try and replicate three pictures from my library: a photo of a fox on my garden wall, a scenic Scottish campsite and an old picture of…