Table of contents for 638 in Computeractive

From the Editor Reading Robert Irvine’s brilliant (and rather alarming) Cover Feature, I wondered how many online accounts I had created in my 25 years online. Dozens? Hundreds? Surely not thousands? I knew a starting point would be checking how many account passwords Chrome was currently saving for me, so I typed chrome://settings/passwords into the browser bar, and counted each one as I scrolled down. The total was a staggering 236. I only sign into about 10 of them regularly (newspapers, ISPs, banks, online shopping), while the others I barely remember creating. And what’s really unsettling is that these accounts only go back a few years. What about all the services I signed up for before then? Add those to the existing list, and my overall digital footprint would easily…

Citizens Advice has called on telecoms regulator Ofcom to do more to tackle the ‘loyalty penalty’, after claiming that many broadband and phone users are still paying more than new customers. In a survey of over 3,000 UK adults, it found that one in seven have stayed on the more expensive deal they were moved to after their cheaper introductory offer ended. Ofcom has tried to address this problem by forcing broadband, TV and mobile firms to notify customers several weeks before their contract is due to expire. It claims that 1.3 million customers have moved to a cheaper deal after being contacted. But Citizens Advice said this isn’t enough, particularly in the “midst of a cost-of-living crisis”. Its analysis of the budgets of 165,000 people who came to the…

WATCH DISNEY+ ON VIRGIN TV 360 Virgin has added Disney+ to its TV 360 service, costing £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year. You’ll find it in Virgin’s Apps section, or by pressing the MIC button on your remote control and saying “Disney+”. It provides access to content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and more. For details visit www.snipca.com/42939. NOKIA’S NEW £65 PHONE LASTS ALL WEEK Nokia has released a £65 phone with a battery that it claims lasts for a week. The Nokia 8210 4G is based on the original from 1999, and comes with an MP3 player, FM radio and a rear camera. It’s available in red (pictured), dark blue and sand (grey) from www.snipca.com/42940. VODAFONE TO MATCH TRADE-IN PHONE DEALS Vodafone has launched what…

BT has confirmed that it will “absolutely” raise prices by above the rate of inflation next year, which could see the amount customers pay increasing by around 13 percent. Philip Jansen, BT’s boss, blamed the “very, very challenging” economic environment and rising costs. In current BT contracts, prices rise each April by the previous January’s Consumer Price Index rate of inflation plus 3.9 per cent. In January 2022, inflation stood at 5.4 per cent, which meant BT’s broadband bills rose by 9.3 per cent three months later (see www.snipca.com/42838). Inflation is expected to be nine per cent in January 2023, which would mean bills increasing by 12.9 per cent next April. This would add about £53 per year to the cost of a typical BT Fibre Essential package, which is…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Galaxy Clean’s useless tools If Samsung’s lawyers are reading this, I’m pretty sure they could earn themselves a very decent lunch by getting Galaxy Clean - which just so happens to share its name with Samsung’s smartphone range – removed from the Google Play Store. Dubious name aside, there’s no other reason to download this app, because its cleaning abilities are about as powerful as Ken Dodd’s tickling stick. Let’s start with the ‘battery save’, which does nothing more than list every app installed on your phone and invite you to ‘force stop’ them (see screenshot far right). Yes, if you do absolutely nothing on your phone, the battery will last longer. Who’d have thought it? The ‘memory boost’, meanwhile, uses pretty graphics to show that it had…

ANDROID & iOS View a chronological Facebook news feed There was a time when your Facebook news feed simply listed posts from your friends in the order they were published, so that new content appeared at the top. Over the years, Facebook’s algorithms switched to arranging the feed by ‘relevance’, which means you often see posts from weeks ago above fresh ones, based on their popularity and your perceived preferences. In response to feedback from users, Facebook has now added an option to its mobile app that lets you view a chronological news feed, just like in the old days. To access this, tap the new Feeds icon in the toolbar at the top (on Android) or bottom (on iOS) of your screen (see screenshot below). This lists posts from…

Track how many people read your emails Sending emails is a great way to keep in touch with club members, but do you know how many people actually read them? And do you know which subjects prompt members to open emails, and which put them off? You can find out using an email-tracking tool. Here, we’ll take you through the various options. Use read receipts Read receipts are the easiest way of tracking whether an email has been read. When an email is opened, the recipient sees a message asking them whether they want to send a read receipt. If they deny this request, you won’t receive a notification, which makes read receipts of limited value, especially as the option is no longer supported by all email services (Outlook does,…

Disconnect forgotten tools from your accounts Many websites and apps let you sign up (and in) using your Google, Microsoft, Apple or Facebook account. This saves you the time and hassle of registering with your email address and coming up with a new password. The downside to this convenience is that it allows third-party tools to access your personal data long after you’ve stopped using them. You may not even remember which services you’ve connected to your account over the years, which puts you at risk if they start abusing that privilege and collect more than just your basic profile information. To disconnect forgotten tools from your Google account, go to the Security page at www.snipca.com/42791, scroll down to ‘Third-party apps with account access’ and click ‘Manage third-party access’. Here…

BT claims that it kept the Openreach network running “safely and effectively” during the two-day strike by broadband engineers.On 29 July and 1 August, tens of thousands of workers went on strike over pay. It followed the Communication Workers Union (CWU) rejecting BT’s one-off payment of £1,500, an increase on its initial offer of £1,200. BT said this worked out as a rise of between five to eight per cent for the lowest-paid staff, but the CWU called for 10 per cent to keep up with inflation. A large majority of staff – 21,000 engineers and almost 5,000 call-centre workers – voted to strike when ballotted by the union in June. The walkout was the first strike by BT staff since 1987. Workers on the picket line held placards with…

PROCESS MONITOR MiTeC Task Manager DeLuxe www.snipca.com/42890 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 One of Microsoft’s strangest decisions in Windows 11 was to remove the option to launch Task Manager from the taskbar, effectively hiding this useful tool. MiTeC Task Manager DeLuxe (MTMD) version 4.4 is an enhanced version of the feature, giving you a clearer and more detailed view of what’s happening in the background on your PC. This helps you to monitor resource hogs, and prevent system crashes. We’d been planning to include the program in this section since version 4.1 was released in May, but the download kept triggering a security warning in our browser. Thankfully, this problem has now been fixed and MTMD is verified as completely clean on VirusTotal (see www.snipca.com/42895). Despite…

LAPTOP-TABLET ❘ £699 from Dell www.snipca.com/42629 Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 Flip topper For a while we thought this superb device would replace Lenovo’s Yoga 6 Gen 7 laptop as our Buy It! choice (see page 30). It was priced £664 when we tested it – a real bargain, and only £40 more expensive than Lenovo’s rival. However, since then its price has increased to £699. That still represents great value, but not enough to oust a laptop that’s now over £75 cheaper. “For the price, this amazing device is an absolute steal” Dell has done an amazing job keeping this laptop below £700. It has a 14in screen, is based on Intel’s latest Core-i5 1235U processor and has 8GB of RAM. There are three options, depending on the amount of storage…

The Honor Magic4 Lite 5G looks imposing, with a 6.81in screen that’s only a little shorter across the diagonal than that of the Amazon Fire 7 tablet, reviewed on page 24. However, the Magic4 Lite is smaller and slimmer than the Fire 7, so you can still easily hold it in one hand. It costs more than the Motorola Moto G31 phone, reviewed on page 26, but not so much that Honor hasn’t had to make a few compromises. Performance is good, thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. In our benchmark performance tests, it achieved a single-core score of 669 and a multi-core score of 1,875. That’s more or less what we’d expect for the price. “Great performance and battery life, but…

While we know that the cheapest products can often be a false economy, we still love a bargain, and that’s exactly what this mouse offers. For only £15 you get many of the features you’d expect in a much more expensive device – for example, options to change what the buttons do, and alter the scrolling speed. The design is more angular than most mice and this unusual shape makes it less comfortable to use than more ergonomic models. This is largely because it curves inwards on the right-hand side where most mice have curvaceous bulges, which leaves nowhere to rest your ring and little fingers. It’s a USB mouse, so you’ll have to live with its cable, but at least this means it will never run out of power.…

EBOOK READER Kobo Libra 2 £160 from www.snipca.com/40645 Tested Issue 624 A fantastic 7in screen, 32GB of storage and Bluetooth connectivity make this a rival to Amazon’s Oasis ebook reader, yet it’s £70 cheaper. Battery life is superb – we managed 54 hours of use per charge. It supports OverDrive, so you can borrow ebooks from libraries. ALTERNATIVE Amazon Kindle This low-cost option remains a good choice, especially now it has 8GB of storage. £70 from www.snipca.com/41103 PC MONITOR PRICE DROP Iiyama ProLite XU2492HSU-B1 £129 from www.snipca.com/39701 Tested Issue 618 This 23.8in screen is superb value, with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. Colour is good, covering 88 per cent of the sRGB colour range. Connect your computer via HDMI, DisplayPort or VGA, and there’s a USB hub to connect your…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Create links for specific parts of a web page When I first started writing the newsletter for my rugby club, I used to include links to web pages, but often the text I was referring to would be halfway down the page or difficult to spot. Then I learned a trick in Chrome that lets you link to a specific part of a page so that clicking it takes you straight there. You may need to activate this option by typing chrome://flags in your browser’s bar, then Copy Link To Text in the ‘Search flags’ box. If you see this option, select Enabled then restart your computer. If not, you’ve already got this option built into Chrome. Either way, open a web page and highlight the…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Delete Reliability Monitor’s history Reliability Monitor shows you when Windows encountered hardware and software failures, thereby helping you to pinpoint the source of a problem. It also keeps a history of the failures, which isn’t necessary if you’ve already solved the problem. To delete this history, search for and open Reliability History on your computer, then click ‘View all problem reports’ at the bottom, followed by ‘Clear all problem reports’ on the following page (1 in our screenshot below). Once that’s done, you’ll see the message ‘There are no reports in this view’ 2 in what should be an empty report box. One reason to do this is to find out whether you’ve actually solved a problem. Make a note of when you deleted the history…

Remove your phone number and address from Google In April this year, Google introduced welcome new options for requesting the removal of your contact data from its search results. Previously, you could ask Google to remove certain information that could identify you, including bank account and credit card numbers, government ID data and explicit or defamatory content about you. This has now been expanded to include deletion of your phone number, email address and home address from Google results, though they won’t be wiped from the wider web. Go to the support page ‘Remove select personally identifiable info or doxxing content from Google Search’ (www.snipca.com/42806) and click ‘Start removal request’. On the next page, specify whether the data appears only in Google’s search results or also on a website, and…

Why don’t your recommended Wi-Fi tools work? Q I tried using WifiInfoView (www.snipca.com/42257), as recommended in Issue 635’s Cover Feature on Wi-Fi, but didn’t get any further than a blank page with a message saying it couldn’t find a wireless adapter (see screenshot below). I’m not sure what this means. I then tried Wireless Network Watcher (www.snipca.com/42076), but it didn’t tell me anything I couldn’t have found out from my BT router’s software. In fact, my router’s software lists many more devices than Wireless Network Watcher, although some are greyed out. Should I delete these? David Lee A Looking at the screenshots you sent us, we can see that one of the computers on your network is connected to your router using an Ethernet cable. That would explain the error…

The significance of this news depends on what ‘scoped’ means in Microsoft’s peculiar vocabulary. You may think it means ‘carefully planned’, but that should be a given for any new tool added to Windows. It’s more likely to mean ‘limited’, as a way of managing expectations. But it’s had the opposite effect. Windows 10 users are now hoping their operating system will receive extensive improvements until support ends in 2025. And with so many still using it, Microsoft may have no choice.…

LEAD CASE Can you help me register a warranty? Q I’m having trouble registering the five-year warranty for a SharkNinja vacuum cleaner I bought from Currys in March this year. I’ve submitted request forms to SharkNinja (www.sharkninja.com), proving when I bought the vacuum cleaner, but Currys hasn’t been able to register it. Even emailing SharkNinja’s CEO met with no response. Can you help? Roger Pring A We’ll do our best, because registering a warranty shouldn’t be this difficult. We contacted SharkNinja’s parent company, JS Global Group, which is based in Hong Kong, to explain the problems Roger is having. It promised to contact Roger to help him register. You might wonder why Roger is so worried about not being able to register the warranty. After all, he’s protected by the…

As a technology journalist, I find that my life is full of ever-changing jargon. The biggest problem this poses is trying to remember the correct way of writing a type of technological standard. For example, is it MicroUSB, microUSB, Micro-USB or Micro USB? Computeractive’s style is microUSB, so that’s what I need to remember. I also need to type loads of special characters, such as the degree sign for temperatures (°). Try Googling this, and you’ll find plenty of methods for generating it. One commonly used option is pressing Alt+0176, though that assumes I have a keyboard with a number pad on it. And there’s no way I’ll ever be able to remember that code anyway. Instead, I outsource my typing memory to AutoHotkey (www.autohotkey.com), which can automatically replace text…

To the uninitiated, the ‘Fnatic’ in this PC’s name might look like a typing error, but it’s actually a brand. Fnatic (https://fnatic.com) is an esports team (which was news to us, too) so buying this PC is a bit like buying a football with a Manchester United badge on it: we expect that some of your money is being spent on securing the logo. Chillblast has a range of Fnaticbranded PCs and this model sits bang in the middle. It includes a Core i5-12600K processor and a GeForce 3060 Ti graphics card. It’s in a similar ballpark to the Chillblast Fusion Vanguard (www.snipca.com/42646, reviewed in Issue 630), which now costs £100 more than when we tested it, but at least isn’t covered with costly logos. “Powerful enough, but spends its…

The cheaper end of the smartphone market is increasingly cluttered, but Motorola hopes its new Moto G31 will stand out. Its tactic is to ignore the latest technical developments such as 5G, and concentrate on more visible aspects of the device, such as its design and screen, while also equipping it with a battery that can keep going for two days. “A beautiful budget phone with a two-day battery life” The build quality and design are a delight. With curved edges and a textured rear, it feels good to hold and secure in your grip. It also looks classy, despite its plastic body. Its AMOLED screen is also a pleasure to look at, producing vibrant colours and deep blacks. This and a sharp resolution of 1080x2400 pixels make it ideal…

The AnkerWork B600 Video Bar is a webcam unlike any we’ve reviewed before. Not only does it have the usual camera and microphone, but it also combines a pair of speakers and a light to ensure you’re looking your best in all lighting conditions. These additional features mean the B600 is twice the size of a standard webcam. As a result, it took a certain amount of patience to get it to sit comfortably on our 27in monitor, though you can attach it to a stand if that’s easier. “A huge webcam that’s packed with features, but it doesn’t come cheap” A flip-up camera cover protects your privacy while you’re not using the camera, and this doubles as a clever housing for the light. At the rear are two USB-C…

CHROMIUM Fake your data when signing up to websites One of the biggest hurdles to staying anonymous online is having to provide your email address - and often your name and other personal data - when you register with websites. You can keep this information private using an extension called Reggy (www.snipca.com/427240), which generates instant random identities for signing up with sites. Install Reggy in Chrome or another Chromium browser, then click its toolbar button when registering with a website that doesn’t require genuine details. The add-on will suggest a fake username and password, and other details including gender, date of birth, address and phone number, which you can enter in the sign-up form by clicking Fill Form (see 1 in screenshot below left). Reggy also provides disposable email addresses…

LIBREOFFICE CALC & MICROSOFT EXCEL Move a specific number of characters to another cell The MID function in Calc and Excel lets you move a set number of characters from one cell to another. You can use this to find characters that appear in the middle of a text string. In our example, we want to take the five numbers after the first decimal point from cell A1 and move them to B1. To do this, highlight column B then type =MID(A1, 5, 5) (1 in our screenshot right). This tells Excel to look in cell A1 and find the fifth character, which is a 3 (skipping the first three numbers and the decimal point), then treat it as the first of five characters to move to B1. As a result,…

Unlike in real life, where most of the things you say and do eventually fade from memory, the web never forgets. Your digital footprint – all the data you’ve shared online and that’s been shared about you – never fades, but just keeps growing. Details of everything you’ve done online, and personal information you guard closely offline, are spread across the internet for strangers to see and use however they want. The availability of this data isn’t just embarrassing but potentially dangerous, because it compromises your privacy and leaves you vulnerable to hackers, scammers and data breaches. You may be vigilant these days about choosing strong passwords and refusing third-party tools access to your accounts, but were you so careful 10 or 20 years ago? While you’ve probably forgotten many…

Delete your voice data from smart assistants You don’t need to own a Google Home or Nest smart speaker for your voice data to end up on Google’s servers. Google Assistant is already installed on your Android phone or tablet and listening for you to say “OK Google” or “Hey Google”. It may even have recorded your voice without your knowledge, though – to its credit – Google now requires you to opt in to audio storage (www.snipca.com/42830). To review your Google Assistant activity, go to www.snipca.com/42829 in your browser. You can either delete individual commands or click the arrow next to Delete and choose ‘Delete all time’. Select ‘Auto delete’ to erase voice data automatically after three, 18 or 36 months. To switch off voice recording, select ‘Saving to…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Why is my BT Full Fibre so slow? Q BT recently installed Full Fibre broadband in my home. According to BT’s calculation, I now have a download speed of over 500Mbps. However, online speed tests say I’m getting a maximum of just 40Mbps. Why the huge difference, and who should I trust? Bernard Pike A In this instance, you can trust both numbers. We know that sounds improbable, but we can explain why. First, the speed quoted on your BT account page refers only to the connection between the local BT exchange and your BT Smart Hub router. BT monitors this directly, so it’s likely to be reasonably accurate. However, this might be the only part of the network to benefit from such speeds. From here,…

32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. AI Artificial Intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. Often used to describe technology that can perform human-like tasks. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Most commonly used in smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. Architecture A set of rules and language that govern how hardware and software work. Augmented reality Lets you view the real world on a screen and add virtual elements. Batch…