Table of contents for 645 in Computeractive

Lenovo has released emergency updates for many of its best-selling laptops, after flaws were detected that can allow hackers to deactivate the UEFI Secure Boot. This is a part of your computer that stops malware running during the boot process, before the operating system has loaded. All the affected laptops are from the company’s IdeaPad, ThinkBook and Yoga ranges, and include both Windows 10 and 11 machines. To check whether your laptop needs updating, you need to know its model number – find this by typing system information in the Start menu, clicking Open, then looking next to ‘System Model’. To fix the flaw, Lenovo recommends using its Vantage tool for updating system drivers, available to download from www.snipca.com/44041. Alternatively, update your laptop manually by visiting www.snipca.com/44030, then scrolling down…

Amazon Prime subscribers can now listen to all 100 million tracks in the company’s music catalogue, but only in ‘shuffle’ mode. This means that you can’t pick a song to listen to. Instead, you have to choose an artist, album or playlist and let Amazon decide the order. Previously, Prime subscribers could listen to only two million tracks in the Amazon Music collection, but were able to select specific ones to play at any time. Playlists you’ve saved now play ‘similar’ tracks instead of sticking to the order you created. Amazon will also now add recommended tracks to new playlists you create. You can only skip six tracks an hour except in the 15 ‘All-Access’ playlists that Amazon has created for you, which allow unlimited skipping. Some of these playlists…

Google has said it will remove the option to switch back to the old Gmail layout, forcing you to use the new version that was introduced earlier this year. It launched the new design to make it easier to open Google’s Chat, Spaces and Meet tools without switching between tabs or windows. These appear at the top left of your Gmail menu (1 in our screenshot), while the email folders 2 and Labels 3 are on the next panel to the right. At the time of writing you can still revert to the old layout by clicking the top-right Settings (cog) icon, then selecting ‘Go back to the original view’. But Google said in a blog post (www.snipca.com/44013) that this will be removed at some point in November. You can…

Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive Teenagers give thumbs up the thumbs down It didn’t surprise me to read about youngsters finding the ‘thumbs up’ emoji insulting (Issue 644, page 8). According to my teenage grandson, the world of emoji etiquette is complex and constantly evolving. He said that you should never send the ‘crying with laughter’ face because it could be seen as an inappropriate response. Apparently, youngsters prefer the skull emoji (pictured below) to illustrate amusement. I have no idea why. He also advised me to avoid the hand-clap emoji because it’s seen as sarcastic. But the biggest faux-pas you can make when texting a teenager is ending a sentence with a full stop. This tells the recipient that the conversation is over, and you don’t desire…

If you don’t already have a monitor you can connect to a mini PC, such as the Beelink model reviewed left, you could opt for an all-in-one desktop PC instead. This combines the screen and PC into a single unit. For the price we weren’t expecting the design of the Acer Aspire C24-1651 to rival Apple’s iMac, and so it proves. The bezels at the top and bottom are chunky by modern monitor standards, while the plastic feet and unconvincing silver effect around its edges don’t exactly scream luxury. However, it takes up barely any space and the surprisingly decent wireless keyboard and mouse mean there’s none of the usual spaghetti-type pile-up on your desk, apart from the power cable and brick. “A tidy, space-saving PC solution that handles Windows…

Although this 2022 version of the Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet is an upgrade on the 2020 release, the improvements are relatively minor. At a glance you’d be hard-pressed to spot the difference, though on closer scrutiny you’ll see the buttons and ports have moved positions. Inside, there’s a slight boost to the processor, which now has six cores rather than four. There’s also a little more RAM in the 64GB version (£130 – or £140 without ads), which increases from 2GB to 3GB. Unfortunately, neither improvement makes much difference to the performance, which remains clunky and fairly unresponsive. That said, if you’re only looking for a device to watch movies and TV shows, it’s absolutely fine. This is in no small part thanks to its battery life, which lasted…

Housed in a robust aluminium body, Lindy’s DST-Pro USB-C Laptop Docking Station provides exceptional connectivity for your device. With support for a single screen resolution of 5k 60Hz (DisplayPort), you can connect your laptop with some of the industry’s leading monitors. It also works with dual display (5K 60Hz plus 4K 60Hz) and triple display (one 4K 60Hz and two 4K 30Hz). There are four USB ports (three Type A, one Type C), delivering a SuperSpeed connection of 5Gbps. It also provides 100W pass-through charging, and has ports for Gigabit Ethernet, SD card, microSD card and a 3.5mm combo jack. To save desk space, Lindy includes a stand to securely place the DST-Pro – as pictured. To enter this competition, answer the question at www.snipca.com/43828 and submit your details. It…

What are they? We’re not entirely sure yet, but it sounds like Microsoft is planning to make low-cost computers that show you adverts – probably promoting its own products as well as those from other companies. Oh great. Won’t the ads be annoying? Probably – most adverts are. But the trade-off is that the money Microsoft gets from the ads will make it financially viable for the company to sell computers cheaper than they otherwise would’ve sold them. What kind of adverts are we talking about? Not sure about that yet, either.  Don’t know much really, do you? Well, what we do know is that Microsoft recently posted a job advert for a software engineer to help “chart a new direction” for its business model that includes “low-cost PCs powered…

Find out when you’re likely to have cuts The National Grid has warned that we’re likely to face power cuts this winter as energy supplies come under pressure. We don’t yet know how often they’ll happen, but you can find out at what point in the day you’re likely to have them. Every home and business on the power grid, aside from essential sites such as hospitals and sewage farms, is organised into a Load Block. Each Load Block is designated a letter, which you’ll find in a small box at the top of your bill, just below your address (pictured below). Should rolling blackouts be necessary, these blocks will determine who loses power and when, in accordance with the Government’s Variable Rota Disconnection Plan. You’ll find details of the…

Microsoft is planning to add a search bar to Windows 11’s Task Manager to make it easier to find processes running on your computer. It added the tool to Build 22623.891 of the operating system, available to Windows Insiders. In a blog post (www.snipca.com/44043), the company called the feature a “top request” from users. It showed the example of searching for Notepad (1 in our screenshot), with results appearing below on the same page 2. Pressing the keyboard shortcut Alt+F takes your cursor to the search box. Microsoft is also adding separate light and dark modes to Task Manager, so it can be different to the main mode you’ve set for the rest of Windows. It’s not known when Microsoft will bring the tools to the full version of Windows…

Fax machines are set to disappear from homes and offices after Ofcom proposed removing the legal requirement for BT to provide landline connections for the devices. The current Universal Service Obligation (USO) that forces BT and KCOM (in the Hull area only) to provide fax services was established in 2003, when fax machines were far more common. But Ofcom said that the fax machine “has been overtaken by email and document-sharing software that offer the same or better functionality”. It added that the long-term switch from a copper phone network to internet-based communications means fax services “can no longer be guaranteed to work” as before. The regulator said that faxes have remained popular when finalising big-money transactions with tight deadlines, such as house purchases and football transfers. Freedom of Information…

When children in the 1950s and 60s wondered how robots would aid us in the future, most would have imagined human-like machines helping out with incredibly hi-tech tasks around the home. Few would have thought of gigantic robotic arms doing something as menial as picking up a book and placing it in a crate. What’s exciting about that? But such machines might have greater consequences for humans than a smiling cyborg that cooks you dinner every evening. It’s actually extremely hard to build a robot that’s versatile enough to pick up a range of items. This is why Amazon is so thrilled about Sparrow (pictured), which it demonstrated recently to the press at its robotics hub near Boston, Massachusetts. “Sparrow has vacuum-based suction pads to pick up products of different…

Index old records to boost research The FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) project, part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has digitised millions of genealogical records from its main archive in Utah. To make them more accessible for genealogists, it allows volunteers to index records and add them to online records that can be searched by other people. Here, we’ll explain how you can help. Filter indexes by difficulty level To start, log into your FamilySearch account (or create one for free), then click the ‘Get Involved’ heading at the top to see four options. The first provides an ‘Overview’ training page, which includes a tour explaining how indexing works. Don’t skip this – it’s very helpful. We’ll come back to My Opportunities and ‘1950 U.S. Census’ in a…

Back in Issue 621 (page 29) we reviewed Sky Glass, a new TV from the satellite broadcaster that connects to the internet and provides all Sky’s services through your broadband service, bypassing the need for a satellite dish. It’s an attractive option for people who want Sky and need a new TV, but don’t want (or are prohibited from having) a satellite dish installed. If you already have a perfectly decent TV, however, Sky has now launched a version of the same service that you can connect to your existing set. It’s a little black box, similar in appearance to a Roku, and like Sky Glass there’s no need for a dish. “Cost-effective way for those who want Sky TV without a satellite dish” Stream is the cheapest way to…

Q After the death of my wife I decided to scan all the photos I had of her. Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that the scanner I was using had developed a number of marks on the glass. This means that, if I scan a dark photo, there are light patches all over it, which I then have to remove in Photoshop. Can you recommend another flatbed scanner, preferably a Canon or Epson model, which will run on Windows 7? My budget is up to about £80. Alan Smith A Epson’s standalone scanners are a little more expensive than Canon’s, and slip outside your price range. That leaves you with two Canon options, the LiDE 300 and LiDE 400. Both are perfectly sufficient for scanning photos in high resolution, so we’d recommend…

This is the sequel to the Clara HD, which has been kicking around Kobo’s product range since 2018. At first glance the two devices look almost identical, with the same tablet-like plastic chassis and 6in display. There’s only one button and one port. The power button has moved to the back of the device, rather than on the bottom bezel as on the Clara HD. This change makes the edges of the device look sleeker. The USB-C port replaces the microUSB slot on the bottom of the device. There are other new elements, including waterproofing to IPX8 (meaning you can safely drop it in the bath), Bluetooth audiobook support, and greater storage capacity (now 16GB up from 8GB). The 6in screen makes the upgrade to the latest E Ink Carta…

What you need: Microsoft Safety Scanner Time required: 20 minutes Is your computer misbehaving? This isn’t always a sign of something serious: a sluggish system might be caused by updates downloading in the background, and a stuck cursor could result from the batteries in your mouse running flat. However, it could be the result of malware, which is serious, because it might be performing unauthorised tasks in the background, like feeding back your activity to a remote server controlled by hackers, or encrypting your files so it can demand a ransom to release them. To combat threats like these, you should already be running the security tools built into the version of Windows you’re using, which for 10 and 11 means Microsoft Defender Antivirus. These keep a look out for…

WHAT YOU CAN DO Turn your old TV into a smart TV for under £40 Record and rewind live TV without a set-top box Watch free TV without adverts using a browser extension Watch recent and classic films and TV shows for free Tune into hundreds of channels from around the world Enjoy unlimited content without signing up for an account Never pay full price for a streaming service again As the cost-of-living crisis continues, many of us are saving money by cancelling our memberships to streaming services. A recent report by the market research company Kantar (www.snipca.com/43911) found that the number of UK households with at least one streaming subscription fell by nearly one million between January and September, as people prioritise paying for essentials such as food and…

Apple has said it will replace its Lightning connector with USB-C in future iPhones sold in the European Union, in response to the new law making the port compulsory on phones and tablets. Speaking at a conference held by Wall Street Journal, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said: “Obviously, we’ll have to comply; we have no choice”. The law, passed in October, forces manufacturers to build USB-C ports into all phones and tablets by autumn 2024. The EU claims this will save consumers up to €250m (about £215m) a year on “unnecessary charger purchases” and cut 11,000 tonnes of waste per year. Apple is against the law, saying it will “stifle innovation” and cause an “unprecedented volume of electronic waste” because iPhone users would throw away…

WATCH OUT FOR… Fake search results for GIMP software What’s the threat? Scammers infected Google search results for ‘gimp’ with adverts leading to a fake download page for the image-editing software. The advert, spotted by the website BleepingComputer, showed the correct URL for GIMP (www.gimp.org – see screenshot 1), but clicking it led to ‘gilimp.org’ 2, which looked identical to the real site. Clicking the Download button installed a 700MB malware file. It’s not known how the hackers managed to make the URL ‘gilimp.org’ appear as www.gimp.org in the advert, though one theory is that they tricked Google by using letters from the Cyrillic alphabet, not a Latin-based alphabet like English. This ‘homograph’ attack can be effective when the letters look similar in both alphabets. Visit www.snipca.com/43912 and read the…

This mini PC uses a laptop processor and a custom motherboard to create a tiny and very portable computer that can do everything a standard desktop PC might be expected to do. What’s refreshing about this model is that instead of making do with a low-powered chip – such as a Pentium Silver or the Celeron found in the £199 Beelink U59 we reviewed in Issue 642 (www.snipca.com/43395) – it offers the full four-core power of an 11th-generation Core i5-11320H processor. “A mini PC that punches above its size, is well connected and easily upgraded” With 16GB of memory (which could be upgraded to 64GB if needed) and a 500GB NVMe SSD (also easily upgradable), the result is a highly responsive PC that runs like something much larger. The inclusion…

This mouse is probably about as small as a controlling device can get before it becomes unusable. It measures 26x60x107mm (HxWxD) and weighs 78g, which makes it small, squat and light enough to slide into your trouser pocket. While this is really handy when you’re travelling around and want something small to pack alongside your laptop, you’ll probably want something larger to use with a desktop PC. The other immediate benefit is the price. For £24 you’d be hard pushed to find another wireless mouse that matches the high build quality on offer here, even if the Modern Mobile Mouse is relatively pared back, with few extra features. It has the three core-function buttons on top (left, right and a central scroll wheel), and another button on the base that…

What you need: Text Grab Time taken: 15 minutes Copying text from a document is fairly straightforward – just highlight the words, press Ctrl+C to copy, then paste with Ctrl+V. It’s not so easy when you’re dealing with text embedded in an image, scanned document or protected PDF – unless, that is, you’re using Text Grab. This terrific free tool, which had a major update in November, captures text in images and other files, then immediately copies it to your Windows clipboard, ready for you to paste into a document, email or any other text window. Here we explain how to use it. STEP 1 Go to www.snipca.com/43969, scroll down, then click the Text-Grab.exe link 1. Once the file has downloaded, move it to a dedicated folder (we created one…

No matter how many times I purge my computer of unwanted programs, forgotten downloads and redundant files – usually in the course of writing tips for this magazine – the junk always seems to build up again. Perhaps this is because, like a vegan chef who can’t resist a Big Mac or a doctor who smokes the occasional cigar, I don’t always practise what I preach when it comes to cleaning up my PC. So I was interested to learn that Microsoft has created a new, free tool for removing junk from Windows and freeing up storage space. It’s called PC Manager but mysteriously it’s only available to download from a Chinese Microsoft website, where it was discovered by an Italian Twitter user with the splendid name Aggiornamenti Lumia (www.snipca.com/43831).…