Table of contents for 566 in Computeractive

Regular readers of my ramblings will know that I like to describe the complexities of computing using good (and frequently bad) analogies, even if most are so tortured that they’d confess to any crime. So please allow me another attempt as we examine the wonders of the hard drive. In computing anatomy, the hard drive is the part of the brain that controls long-term memory, housing happy reminiscences of childhood holidays that you can download whenever you’re feeling nostalgic. I thought this was rather clever until a Google search told me that memories are stored all over the brain, not in one special place. Drat. Thankfully, our hardware expert Jonathan Parkyn has avoided analogies in his brilliant guide to the best things you can do with hard drives and SSDs.…

Virgin Mobile customers have reacted with anger to new pay-as-you-go prices that charge them £6 a day for sending a single text, making a single call and using any data. From 18 November, Virgin will charge a flat rate of £2 for just one call, up to 200 minutes. It will also charge £2 for one text, up to 200 texts, and for using data, up to 200MB. It means customers who make just one call a day will pay £60 a month. You’ll pay the same if you send just one text message a day. Not all pay-as-you-go customers will be moved to this deal. Virgin said it will email those who are affected. Customers could consider switching to Virgin’s JAM pay-as-you-go packages, which for £5 a month give…

30,000 ‘SEXTORTION’ EMAILS SENT AN HOUR Scammers are sending 30,000 ‘sextortion’ emails an hour falsely claiming they have videos of the recipients performing a sex act. More than 500,000 hijacked PCs have been turned into a botnet to bombard people with the emails. They threaten to publish the videos online if a payment of $800 isn’t made. See an example at www.snipca.com/33057. YAHOO TO AXE ALL PUBLIC GROUPS Yahoo is closing all its public Groups (groups.yahoo.com) on 14 December, and will erase all content within them, including photos, files and attachments. You have until that date to download any content you want to keep, following Yahoo’s instructions at www.snipca.com/33043. Groups will continue only in private, so any new members will need to request an invite or be invited by an…

An NHS secretary who was sacked aged 86 because she “wouldn’t use the office computer” has become the oldest person in the UK to win a payout for age discrimination. Eileen Jolly, now 89, was sacked from Royal Berkshire Hospital in January 2017 after a manager claimed her “old secretarial ways” prevented her from learning how to use computers. She said at the time: “I felt as though he had assumed that at my age and because of my health I was a liability and incapable of change, and had to go”. An employment tribunal heard that she was “shocked” by colleagues who said they were worried they might find her “dead on the floor”. The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust admitted she had been unfairly dismissed because she was…

BT’s marketing department must have loved your news article in Issue 565 (page 7) about it providing home visits “for free”. May I politely suggest that these visits aren’t free, but are just something you’re paying for in your monthly bill. We live in a strange world where a company sends engineers to fix problems with their equipment and can boast about doing it without charging you. Sorry if this sounds obvious, but of course they shouldn’t be charging you! BT isn’t the only company guilty of this. It seems like every day I read about Sky or TalkTalk or Virgin offering a ‘free’ password tool or Wi-Fi boost. They’re not free because they are simply acting as incentives for you to sign up to a contract, or renew your…

Recently, I ordered a dual colour/black cartridge refilled pack from Stinkyink (www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk). It arrived very promptly, but the colour cartridge was not accepted by my Canon printer, despite me trying several times to make it work. I contacted Stinkyink and two hours later they advised me to carry out certain operations with the printer. I tried these but, alas, they didn’t work. I emailed them again and they immediately replied to say they had sent me a replacement pack in the post. This was 3.30pm. It arrived at 9am the following day and worked instantly, without any further problems. I was impressed by this amazing service from Stinkyink. Norman Marrison Has a company impressed you with its customer service? Please let us know: editor@computeractive.co.uk Contact: Stinkyink…

How can I see all devices on my network? Q I enjoyed your recent Cover Feature on Wi-Fi (see Issue 565) and I’m particularly interested in discovering what devices are connected to my network. However, my BT router only seems to show selected devices. Is there a program that will reveal all connected devices? Barry Jameson A First, try refreshing the connected devices window in your router’s settings – it sometimes takes a minute or so for it to find all devices. If that doesn’t do the trick, download the Fing app (www.fing.com - free for Android and iOS, but it does contain adverts). Make sure your phone is connected to your wireless network, then open the app and press the refresh button (a circle with an arrow). Fing will…

PC | £1,230 from Chillblast www.snipca.com/33037 It’s computer industry lore that £1,000 will always get you a desktop PC capable of tackling just about any job – not necessarily with aplomb, but at least without causing an apoplectic fit. Some users pay a lot more, though, and you could easily spend £1,500-plus without straying into ‘workstation’ territory, mostly the preserve of businesses. “An enormous amount of performance for the price” Between a grand and half as much again, however, is what we can only refer to as a Twilight Zone. “Another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. A land of both shadow and substance…” Actually, there are some good deals in this price range for those who demand more from their hardware, but…

LAPTOP HP Envy 13 £999 from www.snipca.com/29555 Tested Issue 539 The combination of an eighth generation quad-core i5 chip and MX 150 graphics makes this an excellent all-round laptop, let down only by the poor colour reproduction of its Full HD touchscreen. Seven-hour battery life is adequate, and it’s nicely made. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,200, but the best deal is with the brand new quad-core i7-8550 and QHD touchscreen. £1,280 from www.snipca.com/26796 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £350 from www.snipca.com/30707 Tested Issue 501 Now discounted and with a stylus included, this full-size HDR tablet is a better deal than the new Tab S4 (see Issue 540). Apple’s faster £319 iPad with optional £89 Pencil is superior, but lacks microSD expansion. ALTERNATIVE Amazon…

In Issue 564 (page 19) you answered my query about what to use as a replacement for the BBC’s doomed red-button news, for which many thanks. Your recommendation of the Chromecast device prompted me to wonder whether my Samsung TV might be smart enough to do the same thing without any added hardware. I was delighted to find it was! It has a function called Screen Mirroring, which proved easy to set up to work with my phone, so now I will be able to see the BBC news in much the same way when it has been removed from the red button. Brilliant! I checked Argos for the Chromecast device and looked on Amazon also, to see if it was cheaper there. I was surprised to find much cheaper…

iOS/iPadOS Capture warped text Prizmo Go (www.snipca.com/33114) has long been one of our favourite tools for capturing text on iOS and iPadOS. It’s quick, accurate, and doesn’t need an internet connection if you’re converting printed text. Developer Creaceed has just released version 3 which, along with translating scanned text between 59 languages and a new dark mode for iOS 13, can now handle text on curved pages (see image below). This is a boon for anyone scanning from books or magazines that refuse to sit flat, and adds to the appeal of what was already a very tempting optical character recognition (OCR) tool. It can even handle handwritten notes if you sign up to the Premium plan (£9.99 for one year), although recognition is understandably dependent on the neatness of…

WINDOWS 10 Reveal hidden audio effects Depending on the make and model of your sound card, you may be able to turn on a range of effects to improve your PC’s audio quality. To find out what’s available on your sound card, open the Sound Settings window by clicking Start, typing sound settings, and selecting Sound Settings. Next, click the Sound Control Panel link - you’ll find this either in the top-right corner of the window or at the very bottom. Next, make sure the Playback tab is selected, then right-click your speakers (if you have more than one set attached, your default speakers will have a ticked green box next to them), then select Properties. Select the Enhancements tab to see what your sound card offers. Some will have…

If you’re working in LibreOffice and your computer crashes, the next time you run the program it will offer to recover your unsaved work. While sometimes handy, declining the offer takes three individual clicks, which can soon get annoying. To avoid this, you can disable this prompt (while keeping the saving process enabled), then turn it back on when you actually want to recover a document. To do so, click Start, then type writer. LibreOffice Writer should appear in the results. Right-click it, then select ‘Open file location’ and a File Explorer window containing shortcuts to all LibreOffice programs will appear. In our example, we’re changing the options in Writer, so right-click the Writer shortcut, then select Properties and make sure the Shortcut tab is selected. To prevent the documentrecovery…

The humble hard drive isn’t necessarily the most glamorous component in your PC. But, alongside your processor and memory, it’s one of the most important. Not only is it where you store your files, but it’s also the launchpad for your PC’s entire operating system every time you switch it on. It’s a hard worker, too – scouring itself for data every time you launch a file, and constantly writing and rewriting data in the background every time you carry out tasks such as transferring photos or saving changes to a document. In the old days of computing (in this case, that’s about 12 years ago), hard drives required a lot of ongoing care and maintenance. We don’t have to worry too much about that anymore – recent versions of…

Web address prefixes For most websites, you can ditch the fiddly‘https://www’prefix. Full stops in Gmail addresses Don’t worry about getting the full stop in the right place in Gmail addresses. It pays no attention to them, so emails to j.smith@gmail.com, jsmith@gmail.comand even j.s.m.i.t.h.@gmail.com will all end up in the same inbox. Complete sentences When you’re writing an email, Gmail will offer to complete sentences for you - just press Tab to accept the suggestion. If this becomes irritating, click Settings, scroll down and turn Smart Compose off.…

6 mins, 51 secs Average time £300 Liverpudlians spend on mobile-phone calls (longest in the UK) - p8 55% Proportion of UK homes that will be gigabit-capable by 2021 - p49 £300 How much one reader “wasted” on a Samsung tablet - p43 HOW TO USE SNIPCA URLs We use snipcas to turn long URLs that are hard to type into ones that are short and simple. They aren’t websites themselves, which means they won’t be recognised if you type them into Google. Instead, you need to type them into your browser address bar, then press Enter. Doing this will take you to the correct website.…

The Government has scrapped plans to make people prove they are over 18 to watch porngraphy online amid concerns from websites and privacy fears. The law had already been postponed twice as ministers and the adult industry struggled to come up with a system that worked. One idea was for newsagents to sell ‘porn passes’ to people who could prove they were 18 or over. These would contain a code to sign into adult sites. Another proposal was for people to prove their age by signing into sites through ‘Digital ID’ apps, though privacy campaigners warned hackers would target this data to blackmail users. Under the rules, websites would have used their own software to check the age of users, and be regulated by the British Board of Film Classification…

The Church of England is working with Vodafone and O2 to build antennas on churches in order to boost phone signals in areas with poor coverage. It has agreed a new scheme with Cornerstone, the company that runs Vodafone and O2’s masts, to build 4G and 5G antennas in an “efficient, predictable and fair process”. Churches are often the tallest buildings in rural areas, meaning they can distribute signals to a wider area. Masts have been placed on many churches over the past 25 years, but this latest scheme provides legal details that make it easier for local clergy to decide whether to add one to their own church. Becky Clark, Director of Churches and Cathedrals, said churches don’t have to accept proposals for a mast, but the new procedure…

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has suggested that if the site had existed in 2003 it might have helped to prevent the Iraq War. In a speech at Georgetown University, Washington DC, that was streamed live online, Zuckerberg claimed that the war happened in part because people around the world lacked the technology to consider how others felt. Referring to his time at Harvard University, he said there was a mood of “disbelief” among students when the war began. Zuckerberg studied psychology and computer science at Harvard between 2002 and 2004 until dropping out to concentrate on Facebook. He added: “I remember feeling that if more people had a voice to share their experiences, maybe things would have turned out differently”. Zuckerberg was talking to students to defend the role Facebook…

Microsoft gives me more headaches than CCleaner As a user of CCleaner for over 15 years without problems, I think it’s reprehensible that Microsoft has banned people recommending the program in its forums (News, Issue 564, page 9). My own usage has mainly been confined to the basic settings, as many features in the more advanced settings are beyond my computing knowledge and comprehension. Personally, Microsoft has given me bigger headaches than CCleaner ever did, even crashing my computer after a Windows ‘update’. Computeractive hit the nail on the head by intimating that Microsoft are reacting to past controversies surrounding CCleaner. If Microsoft ban CCleaner from being used by Windows customers, they do so at their peril. Eric Lake Internet is dead fast in the dead of night I was…

LEAD CASE What are my rights if Sky’s Wi-Fi guarantee fails? Q I was thinking about changing my broadband supplier to Sky after reading about its new guarantee to provide a strong Wi-Fi signal throughout the home. I live in quite an old house with some thick walls, so if there are still some rooms where it won’t work, what are my legal rights? Erica Stonehouse A Erica is tempted by Sky’s Broadband Boost package, launched in September, which states “from the bedroom to the kitchen, we guarantee WiFi in every room of your home, or we will give you money back” (see www.snipca.com/32991). The key phrase here is “in every room”, which is a stronger promise than is currently guaranteed under UK law. For an extra £5 a month,…

It might be a ravenous, data-gobbling, beast of a company, but you’ve got to hand it to Google: it knows how to make complex tasks simple. And this is definitely the case when it comes to accessing computers from afar. Over the years, I’ve used various tools to gain remote access to my PC (AnyDesk, GoToMyPC, TeamViewer and more), but none come close to the simplicity of my current favourite: Chrome Remote Desktop (CRD). As you’d expect, you need a Google account to use it (get one free at accounts.google.com/signup) and Google’s Chrome browser. I regularly use it when called upon to fix problems on the computers of friends and family. Most recently, a friend couldn’t download his emails in Outlook. I could have spent hours on the phone asking…

TABLET | £349 from Apple www.snipca.com/24022 While about 90 per cent of smartphones sold today aren’t made by Apple, more than two-thirds of tablets are. This new version of the basic iPad is sure to continue the trend, providing top-end features and build quality at an affordable price. Adding half an inch to the original 9.7in screen doesn’t just enlarge the incredibly sharp picture but fits more in, thanks to even more pixels. The screen isn’t quite as good as the iPad Pro’s, lacking its wider DCI-P3 colour space, but it is wonderfully bright and perfectly calibrated for standard sRGB. Inside the matt aluminium case, the A10 processor is well up to serious work and 3D games, beating the likes of Microsoft’s Surface Go – the difference being, of course,…

Q My wife is looking to upgrade her current PC, which has an Intel i5-750 processor and ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics. It’s mainly used to edit family photos, using Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, and for online browsing and emails, not for gaming. We’re considering the Palicomp AMD Aryze 750, which, with an optical drive and Wi-Fi, works out at £800. Would this be a good choice? The upgrade has been prompted by the latest Windows update, which fails with a black screen. Ron Cook A As you may know, the Windows problem you mention has now been fixed (see www.snipca.com/33049), so this may not be so urgent. At 10 years old, though, your PC will struggle to keep up with new software. Palicomp’s AMD Impulse RYZ7 (£500 from www.snipca.com/32913,…

SMARTWATCH | £399 from Apple www.snipca.com/33068 After last year’s introduction of ECG (electrocardiogram) heart monitoring, which can warn you if your heart shows signs of irregular rhythm, there’s no big new hardware feature in the new Apple Watch, but it’s still a significant upgrade. Most importantly, the screen now stays on all the time, only dimming when you’re not using it rather than turning off until you raise your wrist. This makes it much more convenient to glance at the time or exercise stats, especially when you’re doing something like cycling and your wrist is already where you can see it. It does reduce battery life slightly, but it’ll still last you a full day. The catch is that, for the moment, the screen only stays on in Apple’s Workout…

Winner of a Buy It award in Issue 564, D-Link’s DIR-1960 router delivers superb speed throughout your house. In our tests download speeds peaked at 460Mbps, while upload speeds hit 375Mbps. Even two floors away we still got 329 and 284Mbps respectively. Such speeds are fast enough for several people to stream 4K video at the same time, and comfortably faster than almost all UK domestic broadband connections. You can also add a DAP-1620 range extender (priced £45) to create a mesh network. The DIR-1960 has four Ethernet ports for wired devices and a USB 3.0 socket to share storage over your network. Its built-in software makes it easy to set up your network and tweak basic or advanced settings via your browser or in an app. Particularly clever is…

Adobe Acrobat Pro I used to subscribe to Adobe Acrobat Pro and could claim the cost back on work expenses. When I retired a few years back I needed to find a cheaper - preferably free - alternative for editing PDFs. And what I use instead I tried several PDF editors that claimed to be free, but they always seemed to have some catch. Even the tool I now use, Apowersoft Online PDF Editor (www.apowersoft.com/pdf-editoronline), sticks a watermark on your PDFs - well, the downloadable version of the software does. Instead, use the online version, which doesn’t require installation (though you need to download a ‘launcher’) and has no watermark. It’s obviously not as powerful as Adobe’s program, but it’s good for basic PDF editing, letting you remove pages and…

Noto Free (99p per month or £9.99 a year for export tools and file embedding) iOS www.snipca.com/33106 Noto is a beautiful digital notepad with integrated folders and a slick interface. It’s simple, keeping your words front and centre, but letting you also embed scanned documents, tables and even videos if you opt for the paid-for upgrade. With one-tap styling, bulleted lists and checkboxes for building to-do lists, it’s as flexible as it is easy to use. Lockdown Free (£7.99 a month or £47.99 a year if you also want to use the optional VPN) iOS & iPadOS www.snipca.com/33111 Block your apps – not just your browser – from accessing specific websites for as long as you choose. This is a quick and easy way to control who and what has…

When you’re enjoying your favourite music on your headphones, the last thing you want is Windows audio notifications ruining the experience, such as when a new email arrives. There are two ways to avoid this. One involves lowering the volume of Windows notifications; the other is to divert the audio to your computer’s speakers, not your headphones. To do either, first start playing your music on your computer, then click Start, type sound settings, and select the Sound Settings options in the results. Next, click ‘App volume device preferences’. Find the app you’re using to play your music in the list, then select your headphones in the Output box. Next, locate the Sound app in the list (this controls Windows notifications) and choose whether to output them to your headphones…

Find the best time for a club event Trying to settle on a date for a club event often results in endless emails about who can make which dates. Using Doodle, you can propose dates to your members, then ask them to mark which they can make. To get started, go to www.snipca.com/32989, then click the red ‘Create a Doodle’ button (top-right). Next, enter a title for your event and, optionally, a location and note, then click Continue. Select proposed dates You can now add your proposed dates to the calendar. Our photography club meeting is going to last one hour and we want to suggest it’s held at 8pm on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday in the first two weeks of November. We scroll the calendar to November using…

If you’re trying to recover files on an old drive, you may find your progress is blocked by an error message telling you that you don’t have the correct permissions to access a folder. This usually happens with personal folders (Documents, Photos, Music and so on) that are locked to another user account. The way round this is to take ownership of the folders so that you can open them and retrieve their contents. Microsoft has made the procedure convoluted but with a little patience it can be worthwhile. First, right-click the folder you want to access, select Properties, then the Security tab. Next, click the Advanced button at the bottom. In the following window, click the blue Change link to open the ‘Select User or Group’ window. Now click…

Choose between Local and Microsoft accounts When you first sign into Windows 10, you can choose to enter your old Windows 7 account details or sign in with a new Microsoft account. With the latter, your Windows settings are synced across all the PCs you use, and you can quickly reset your password online if you forget it. If you decide to switch to a Microsoft account at a later date, you need to click Start, Settings, Accounts, ‘Your info’, then click ‘Sign in with a Microsoft account instead’. If you already have a Microsoft account, use your credentials to sign in – if not, click the ‘Create one’ link and follow the steps. Check your security software Once you’ve signed into Windows 10, it’s important to check the security…

Q I’m trying to install a copy of Serif DrawPlus 8 on to my new Lenovo IdeaPad 320S laptop, from the original Serif CD. However, it keeps failing – displaying an error message about a “cyclic redundancy check”, whatever that means. This same software on the same disc has installed and works fine on my Windows 10 desktop PC. Any ideas what might be causing this? Robert Bowers A This message most likely stems from some minor damage on the disc’s surface, which might be imperceptible to human eyes. The read laser on your desktop PC’s optical drive is probably just that little bit less sensitive than the one on your new machine, so it succeeds where your new machine fails. A thorough clean of the disc’s underside with a…

Where’s my More option in File Explorer? Q Like David Guyton, in Issue 560’s Problems Solved section (page 67), I’d like to expand the Comments field in File Explorer. However, your suggestion didn’t work on my Windows 10 PC. I’ve included a screenshot so you can see when I rightclick the headings, as you advise, I see a different pop-up. There’s no More option. As such, I’ve been unable to proceed. I’d be very grateful for further suggestions. Barry Simmons A Your screenshot gave us all the information we needed. In short, you’re right-clicking in the wrong place. We have to accept a little blame here, as we did say “right-click the headings at the top”, but we probably should have said to right-click the headings at the top of…

I love the National Trust, but it’s talking rubbish when it says people’s interest in technology is killing the UK’s love of folklore (News, page 6, Issue 565). I belong to a Morris dancing group in Somerset, and we’re as passionate about preserving England’s traditions as anyone. But that doesn’t mean we reject modern technology. We use Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to organise and promote meetings, as well as to make connections with other enthusiasts throughout the country. Also, I think that the more you use phone apps, the more you appreciate the more spiritual side of life as a pleasant contrast. For example, after an hour or so scrolling through Facebook I cleanse the soul by reading dusty old hardbacks on druidism. That might make me sound a little…

How long should a product last? This question, regularly asked by Computeractive readers, has been partly answered by the European Union’s new ‘right to repair’ Ecodesign Directive. From April 2021 companies will have to supply spare parts for goods for up to 10 years after they’ve first gone on sale. The rules apply to lighting products and white goods like washing machines and fridges, though not PCs, phones or tablets. It follows years of complaints from customers about products breaking soon after the warranty expires. Currently, if the product can’t be repaired or fitted with a new part, customers have to buy a replacement. This law is being backed by the UK Government, so Brits should benefit whatever happens with Brexit. If we leave before April 2021, the UK will…

BROWSER Firefox 70 www.firefox.com What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Privacy has been at the heart of recent Firefox updates, and this trend continues with the introduction of a new Privacy Protections report (see 1 below for how to access it). This report displays how many online trackers Firefox has blocked over the past seven days (in just 30 minutes of browsing, it blocked over 1,000 on our computer). Firefox also now blocks social-media trackers, which prevents the likes of Facebook and Twitter from keeping tabs on your web activity. Scroll further down the report and you can sign-up for alerts if your email address has been the subject of a data breach. Firefox uses the popular HaveIBeenPwned service (www.haveibeenpwned.com) to provide these alerts. If you want stronger…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Google’s nannying apps Depending on the device you’re using, storage space can be a precious commodity. My Android phone, for example, has only 32GB of internal storage, with no ability to expand this via SD cards. I’m always having to delete apps and files to make room. So, it really annoys me when I buy a new device, only to discover it has considerably less storage than advertised because it’s been preloaded with a ton of junk. You expect phone manufacturers to stamp their mark on their Android devices by adding lots of semi-useless apps. But I was dismayed to learn that Google itself is set to impose more stuff we don’t need. The company’s new licensing terms force all manufacturers of devices running Android…

Computeractive is owned by Dennis Publishing, which employs a team of specialist technical reviewers. You’ll often read references to our benchmark testing, which is a method of assessing products using the same criteria. For example, we test the speed of every PC and the battery life of every phone and tablet in exactly the same way. This makes our reviews authoritative, rigorous and accurate. Dennis Publishing also owns the magazines PC Pro, Computer Shopper and Web User and the websites Expert Reviews (www.expertreviews.co.uk) and IT Pro (www.itpro.com). This means we can test thousands of products before choosing the most relevant for Computeractive. FAIR AND IMPARTIAL Our writers follow strict guidelines to ensure the reviews are fair and impartial. The manufacturer has no involvement in our tests. OUR AWARDS We award…

What is it? Air-quality sensors (like Airthing’s Wave Mini, pictured) increasingly feature in home devices and detect potentially harmful substances in the air. These so-called ‘Volatile organic compounds’ (VOCs) include the smelly chemicals released by fresh paint, new furniture and cosmetics, and can also be released by open fires. ‘Particulates’ are fine solids or droplets, including smoke. These could cause allergy-like symptoms, irritation, nausea, tiredness or long-term damage to the lungs and other organs. Many devices also measure temperature and humidity, and some detect carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and radon. What does it do? Usually you’ll just get charts and notifications in an app, so you can open your windows or try to find the cause. If you have a device that can exchange air-quality data with a platform such…

What was it? Until just a few weeks ago, Daydream was Android’s virtual-reality (VR) platform. But when the flagship Pixel 4 phone was launched in October with no mention of Daydream support, the writing was on the wall. It’s now confirmed that the Daydream View (pictured), which let you strap in your Android phone to make a virtual-reality headset, has been discontinued, and the standalone helmet previously described as ‘Coming soon’ has effectively changed its status to ‘Don’t hold your breath!’ Why did it die? Not many Android users bothered with Daydream, which was only supported by a few phones. VR technology has swiftly moved on since Daydream arrived in 2016: the Oculus Go (£199 from www.snipca.com/27987, see Issue 530, page 28) now gives you a complete system for under…

What you need: Microsoft Excel Time required: One hour The web is awash with useful data, from weather forecasts and census returns, to national statistics and timetables. As long as they’re publicly available and rigidly structured, you can import them into Excel and perform calculations on their contents. You can set up your own server-based database to integrate personal data or use one of the two data types the Office 2019 version of Excel already knows about: statistics on every nation worldwide, and live stock market updates. For earlier versions see box on page 36. In this issue, we’ll use the latter to build a spreadsheet that tracks a share portfolio, with conditional formatting highlighting the biggest movers in the market. 1 Add your stocks and related data Create a…

WI-FI Set up dynamic DNS to access cameras remotely I loved Issue 565’s Cover Feature on advanced ways to master your Wi-Fi network, but here’s one idea you missed out. When your router connects to the web, it’s given a temporary address by your service provider. The reason it’s temporary is that there aren’t enough addresses to go around. They need to be recycled for use by other people when you don’t need them. This can be a problem if, like me, you’ve got a security camera set up that you need to monitor when away from home, and there’s no app to access it. The solution is to use a dynamic DNS (DDNS) service, which gives you a unique web address with which to access your home network. The…

$19.80 (£16.10) from http://oprintware.com In Issue 563’s Cover Feature, ‘Don’t Pay For New Hardware’, I see the subject of wireless printing came up. I’d like to recommend O’Print, which I have used for years to print wirelessly from my iPhone, iPad and Windows computers. It’s not free (though there is a free trial), but it’s still my idea of perfect software, and anyone can use it. Our home network is complex (part-wired, part-wireless). It has Wi-Fi extenders and three non-wireless printers with added redirections, set up with more than six PCs, several Windows laptops, two iPads and two iPhones. Often I mention O’Print to bemused visitors, none of whom say they’ve heard of it. When I try to work out what it saves in exasperation and wasted time, the advantages…

ShipTrax24 Free (£4.79 for Pro version) Android www.snipca.com/33108 Find any ship, whether in port or on the high seas, then tap it to see a map of its route to date. Upgrading to the Pro edition reveals full details about the ship’s stats, departures and arrivals, as well as letting you tap at a spot in the sea to see which ships are nearby. Best for Maritime enthusiasts NATS AE Free IOS www.snipca.com/33107 NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services) handles air-traffic control for UK airspace, but its iPad app covers the whole planet, allowing you to track flights across the Pacific as easily as commuter hops over the Channel. We particularly like the 3D view that puts you among the aircraft so you can view their relative heights. Best for…

LIBREOFFICE CALC & MICROSOFT EXCEL Flip a column of cells Excel and Calc both let you use filters to re-order a column of cells in ascending or descending order. However, these filters won’t let you simply flip a column of values (so the first moves to the bottom, the last to the top, and so on, independent of sequencing). To do this, you need to use a slightly different method. First, insert a new column to the left of the cells you want to flip. In this new column, type 1 in the top cell, then 2 in the second. Highlight these two cells, then drag down the bottom-right corner of the highlighted section so all your cells are numbered sequentially. Next, highlight your original cells and the numbered ones.…

What is it? An increasingly common term to describe connections that can hit speeds of 1Gbps (1,000Mbps), fast enough to download an HD film in 45 seconds. It’s what Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to see “sprouting in every home”, an aim that has seen him accused of watering down his previous ambitions. What were they? In June, while bidding to become Conservative leader, he urged the Government to deliver full-fibre broadband by 2025, dismissing the current target of 2033 as “laughably unambitious”. The controversy lies in the difference between full fibre and gigabit capable. And what is the difference? Fibre cables, or the lack thereof. With full-fibre broadband, fibre-optic cables go straight to your home, which is why it’s sometimes called Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH). This makes it much faster than…

Remove adverts from your Start menu and lock screen Right-click your desktop, then select Personalise. Click ‘Lock screen’, then select Picture or Slideshow in the Background menu and switch off ‘Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen’. Click Start in the left pane and disable ‘Show suggestions occasionally in Start’. Limit your notifications Windows 10’s constant notifications can become annoying. Click Start, Settings, System, ‘Notifications & actions’, then set your notifications at a level you’re comfortable with. Scroll down and disable apps you no longer need notifications from. Select your quick actions Quick actions are the shortcut buttons you see at the bottom of the Action Centre panel that slides out when you click the speech bubble in the bottom-right corner of your…

Q A while ago I set up my Amazon account so I could have items delivered to a local Amazon locker. That’s worked brilliantly, but a newer locker has recently been set up that’s half a mile nearer to my house. Obviously, I’d prefer to have my orders delivered to this locker, but I cannot find any way to change my locker in my Amazon account. Can you assist? Lisa Sullivan A Yes. This is one of those options that’s deeply buried, and thus difficult to fin, but here’s what to do. First, click the ‘Accounts & Lists’ option at the top right, then click Your Account (see screenshot 1). Now click Your Addresses (see screenshot 2), followed by Add Address. Next, under ‘Add a new address’, click the little…

iOS and iPadOS? Q I’ve had my iPad Mini for a number of years but, as I don’t like pointless change, I only occasionally apply the updates that come from Apple. With the most recent one it caught my eye that the name seems to have changed from iOS to iPadOS. Does this mean iOS is no more? Or are there now two different systems? If that’s the case, then what’s the difference between them? I have installed it, and at least to me, it looks very similar to before. Alf Wilson A Apple has split its original iOS mobile operating system, creating two distinct versions – one for iPhones and the other for iPads. Currently, these two platforms look and feel very similar, and share very many features. However,…

3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 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. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. Add-in Microsoft’s name for tools that can be added to Office software. Adware Unwanted adverts that come with software. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. Software built into every PC that connects the vital components. Botnet A group of infected computers connected together via the internet, and used to infect other PCs, send junk email and perform other criminal tasks. Calibration The process of…