Table of contents for October 2024 in Tech Advisor

Microsoft is apparently keen to cut its popular legacy Windows applications with storied histories. Following the official deprecation of WordPad, another app is now heading to the chopping block by the end of this year and will no longer be supported with updates. We’re talking about Paint 3D, the revised version of Microsoft Paint that’s been available since 2016. Back in 2017, we gave it an honest try and found that Paint 3D was actually a lot of fun to use. X/Twitter user @phantomofearth recently spotted a banner in the app informing them that Paint 3D would be removed from the Microsoft Store and deprecated starting on 4 November, 2024 (fave.co/3SYbXYa). WHY IS PAINT 3D BEING DEPRECATED? While Microsoft hasn’t officially given word on why Paint 3D is being discontinued,…

Microsoft Clipchamp’s video editor is one of the company’s best products. AI is one of the company’s top initiatives. So, voilà: AI is being added to Clipchamp in three big ways. Two new features are being added today, to both Personal and Work accounts: background removal and noise suppression. But there’s an enormous new feature due in the autumn: video creation via an AI prompt, with video, audio and transitions all selected by AI. Clipchamp is Microsoft’s ‘built-in’ video editor inside of Windows. It’s a Web app, but simple and easy to use. It might not have the power of pro tools like Da Vinci Resolve, but neither Paint nor Photos are designed to compete with Adobe Illustrator or Lightroom, either. All three are designed for efficiency and ease of…

Price: £1,049 from fave.co/4cAOgw4 DSamsung’s fifth flip phone in as many years, with the company skipping the ‘2’ branding. For the first few generations, it was the clear market leader, with no realistic alternative in the UK and US. But more recently, Motorola’s revamped Razr Ultra (also known as Razr+) line has offered strong competition. That’s especially true in 2024, where the Razr 50 Ultra/Razr+ (2024) offers a compelling experience for less money than Samsung. Does the Z Flip6 do enough to re-establish it as the go-to flip phone brand? I spent a week using it as my main smartphone to find out. DESIGN The design of the Galaxy Z Flip6 is almost identical to its predecessor, for better and for worse. It functions just like any other clamshell foldable,…

Price: £399 from fave.co/3Md3YCT Samsung’s first smart ring is here and will no doubt introduce the category to the mainstream. The big questions include ‘what does a smart ring do?’ and is ‘Samsung’s better than rivals?’, with the Oura Ring Gen 3, RingConn Smart Ring and Ultrahuman Ring Air all credible alternatives. There’s lots to unpack, so I’ve spent a couple of weeks with the Galaxy Ring on my finger to see how it performs. DESIGN The Galaxy Ring is one of the best-looking smart rings on the market if you ask me. It’s got a concave shape on the outer side, but is mostly flat on the inside, apart from three bumps where sensors are housed. The design helps avoid scratches, as does the fact the Galaxy Ring is…

By the way,” Alexa sometimes says after responding to a command, followed by a random titbit or suggestion you never asked for. Sound familiar? To be fair, Alexa is just trying to be helpful with its “by the way” asides. Still, Amazon’s chatty voice assistant tends to butt in when it’s not wanted, making unnecessary announcements or overstaying its welcome with random digressions. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to make Alexa pipe down. In some cases, all it takes is tapping a few toggles in the Alexa app. In others, a little hacking is involved. Either way, we’ll guide you through the process – and in return, you’ll get a little peace and quiet. TURN OFF WEATHER NOTIFICATIONS It’s always a good idea to keep abreast of dangerous weather…

Most people on the internet use the Chrome browser, and even though advertising puts food on my table, I can’t blame them – because I block ads, too. Google, as the world’s biggest advertising company, doesn’t appreciate that, which is why recent policy changes in Chrome are going to impact one of the browser’s most popular ad blockers. A change in Chrome’s extension support – from the Manifest V2 framework to the newer V3 – is being billed as a way to make browser add-ons safer, more efficient, and compliant with modern APIs. But it’s also deprecating features that complex extensions reply upon. One of those extensions is uBlock Origin (fave.co/46Zv8GX), an ad-blocking tool with over 30 million users according to its Chrome Web Store page (and presumably many more…

Google’s big Pixel launch event has been consistently held in October for a while now, but the company has switched things up in 2024. Moving to August means Google’s new flagship phones arrive before Apple’s iPhone 16 range. And with new foldables and wearables also on the agenda, plus key software news, there’s a lot of news to talk about. In this article, we’ll run through everything Google announced at its Made by Google 2024 event. 1. PIXEL 9 Price: £799 from fave.co/4cFIk54 Like all the Pixel 9 phones, the new regular model gets a subtle redesign. The Pixel 8’s rear camera visor is gone, replaced by a more traditional module with rounded corners. Swapping the glossy glass back for matte should reduce fingerprint smudges, while Google claims durability is…

Price: £1,799 from fave.co/3Xn31P3 Samsung’s 2024 Galaxy Z devices have landed, and while the Galaxy Z Flip6 got some pretty significant hardware upgrades, the changes to the Z Fold6 are far more subtle. This year, the focus is on refinement, and of course, Galaxy AI. This year, we get a wider cover display, slimmer bezels, and a slimmer and lighter design refresh, but that’s about it on the hardware front. The rest of the features are software-based, and thus likely to make their way to other Samsung Galaxy devices in the future. But with a £50 price increase, plus stiff competition from manufacturers like Xiaomi, Honor and Vivo, has Samsung done enough to maintain its dominance as the most popular large-screen foldable? I’ve been living with the Z Fold6 for…

Unless you’re a camera enthusiast, you probably take most of your photos and videos with a smartphone. And you’re not alone: according to photo printing company Max Spielmann around 92.5 percent of the estimated 4.7 billion photos are taken each day with a phone. That’s a lot of people relying on their phones to capture the world around them every single day. So, it probably goes without saying that cameras are a crucial part of modern handsets. However, as you’re probably aware, image and video quality varies hugely depending on the phone you choose. Many flagship, mid-range and even budget phones can take good photos, but only a select few reach an elite level when it comes to photography and/or videography. In this article, we’re showcasing the 10 absolute best…

Cloud or online storage is practical for many reasons: Provided you have an internet connection, you can access your data from anywhere, regardless of the end device. Synchronization ensures that content is always up to date wherever you are. Photos, screenshots, and other files can be backed up automatically, files can be shared, browser settings and passwords can be synchronized, as well as – at least with Microsoft OneDrive – system and app settings. Unlike Dropbox or Google Drive, OneDrive is deeply integrated into the operating system and even runs on the computer with Windows 11. Here we present the Microsoft cloud in detail, provide tips, and explain the differences in functionality between the various Microsoft subscriptions. SET UP ONEDRIVE, EVEN WITH A LOCAL WINDOWS ACCOUNT You can use OneDrive…

It seems like every month or so we hear about a new security flaw affecting tons of consumer-grade CPUs. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising, though, since the complexities of modern processors and the PCs around them have grown to truly labyrinthine degrees. But the latest issue affecting AMD processors is pretty big – so big, in fact, that it extends back through generations of CPUs, some of which are long out of support and may never be fixed. The ‘Sinkclose’ flaw allows an infected PC to run unchecked code on an AMD Ryzen processor in System Management Mode, bypassing checks in Windows and even most BIOS and UEFI set-ups. The issue was discovered by researchers from IOActive (fave.co/4duwiwN) and shown off at Defcon. Once compromised, these systems can be infected…

In case you missed it, Samsung has had one of its biggest launch events ever, but we have you covered so here’s everything that was announced at Galaxy Unpacked 2024. Not only did we get a new generation of foldable smartphones, Samsung also launched new smartwatches, its first smart ring and new wireless earbuds to boot. With seven new Galaxy products, let’s get you up to speed on what’s new. 1. GALAXY Z FOLD6 Price: £1,799 from fave.co/3Xn31P3 Samsung’s new book-style foldable is an iterative update on last year’s Z Fold6, but there are still some notable upgrades. On the hardware side, perhaps the biggest one is the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset, which should benefit both performance and battery life, despite no improvements to the 4,400mAh…

Price: £599 from fave.co/4dNCbVt The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is Samsung’s answer to the Apple Watch Ultra. A smartwatch built for the extreme outdoors and for fitness fans who don’t consider nailing daily step totals as the kind of accomplishment to shout about. Like the new Galaxy Watch7, the Ultra runs on Wear OS 5, the latest version of Google’s smartwatch operating system. It matches that new software with features like the latest GPS positioning technology, new specialist sports modes and includes safety features to make the Ultra the ideal smartwatch to have on for big hikes or tackling a triathlon. The Watch Ultra marks yet another new direction for Samsung’s smartwatch family, but was it the right one? Possibly. DESIGN There’s no getting away from the fact that the…

This story was inspired by some unsolicited tech advice from the TSA. Coming home from a recent vacation, my wife left her phone at airport security. After a frantic race back from the gate, we were able to get the phone back without issue, along with a tip from the agent who was holding onto it: put an emergency contact on the lock screen, so whoever finds your phone knows who to call. There are actually a bunch of ways to do this, which I’ll explain shortly. But the incident also brought to mind a broader point about how to deal with lost or stolen devices, both before and after the fact. If you have any trips coming up, it’s worth taking a few minutes to know your options. iPHONE…