TechLife March 2022

The school year is looming ahead for students all over Australia, so it’s a great time to lay in the right sort of kit. Back in my day, that meant pencil cases and schoolbooks, but the 80s were a long time ago, and laptops are now a far more common learning tool. A laptop is practically essential for uni students, and even high-schoolers can benefit from a portable computing device in their backpacks. But where to start? And what form factor, or operating system? Do you want something with a bit of gaming grunt, or something that won’t break the bank? Perhaps a two-in-one device that can double as a tablet? We’ve got all the answers, this issue, and have gathered nine great – but very different! – portables for you to…

Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2022 Clean and accelerate Windows PCs. Over time, Windows tends to slow down and become cluttered due to leftover files and Registry entries. Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2022 is a customisable Windows cleaner and accelerator. Privacy protection is another focus of the program, with the ability to significantly limit telemetry and data collection by Microsoft. Don’t just accept the Windows defaults! Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2022 includes a total of 23 modules to boost and customise Windows systems. The program also analyses your OS and hardware, wipes or encrypts data and helps with file recovery. Download link: www.techlife.net/ exclusives Image Former Batch-edit and convert images with ease. With Image Former you can get your pictures in top shape in no time at all: select any number of pictures, define actions and start conversion. Whether you want to…

The Summit E16 Flip from MSI is a business laptop geared towards content creators that packs an Intel Core i7 CPU, a Nvidia RTX 3050 laptop GPU, WiFi 6E, a PCIe Gen 4 SSD and a 16-inch QHD+ display into a 2-in-1 form factor. The device’s 360 degree hinge allows you to use it in tent mode or to flip the screen all the way around and use it in tablet mode. Thanks to the inclusion of MPP 2.0 technology and the award-winning MSI pen, with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, digital artists can draw and take notes on its touch display without having to lug around a separate graphics tablet. Design Unlike other business laptops that feature similar designs and try to outdo one another on specs alone, the MSI Summit…

Some Windows 10 and 11 users have been suffering at the hands of a strange Outlook bug which affects the search facility in the desktop email client, but a resolution has now been applied by Microsoft. The bug affected those who installed the November 2021 preview cumulative update (KB5007253) or later (so that includes the December update, of course), and means that when searching in the Outlook app, recent emails may not be returned in a search when they should be. Microsoft explains: “This issue is related to emails which have been stored locally in PST or OST files. It might affect POP and IMAP accounts, as well as Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft 365 hosted accounts. If the default search in the Outlook app is set to server search, the issue will…

Microsoft is launching an update for cloud storage service OneDrive that will help users more easily control who has access to their files. As per a new entry in the company’s product roadmap, Microsoft OneDrive users will soon benefit from the ability to specify access permissions before copying a sharing link for a file. “We are updating the copy link command to give customers the ability to change their link type and permissions prior to generating a new link and pasting it into the app of their choice,” explained Microsoft. The feature is currently in the process of rolling out, but should take effect for all OneDrive users by the end of the month. The new OneDrive feature bears a striking resemblance to functionality already available with rival service Google Drive, which has long…

Google is reportedly making a new AR headset – and this tech junkie is having flashbacks. Picture me in 2013, an idiot greeting the world while wearing a monocular AR device that made me look like a 21st Century Mad-Eye Moody. I could blame Google. It was their Google Glass AR headset, after all... but the fault really lies with me for not recognising that I looked like a Glasshole. In truth, Google Glass was incredible wearable technology, way ahead of its time. I mean way ahead. So far ahead that no one understood that you can’t just have innovation for the sake of innovation. There’s an aesthetic aspect. Anything you put on your body must be attractive or at least look like it belongs there. Google Glass failed that litmus test. The technology…