TechLife May 2022

Most of us – and especially TechLife readers – are living increasingly more and more digital lives. It’s become even more true since the pandemic hit. Many of us have switched to working from home, while also depending upon the internet for everything from staying in touch with friends through lockdowns, to grocery shopping and more. With all that increased time online, it means there’s more opportunities for our activities to be tracked. So, in this issue we give you the tools to take control of your connected life. In our cover feature this month we show you how to block ads and cookies, force websites to use secure encryption, and how to use a private search engine. And much more! It’s essential reading. But it’s not all doom and gloom! This…

Ashampoo Backup 2021 Backup software to easily back up and restore entire partitions. Ashampoo Backup 2021 backs up and restores entire disk partitions, including bootable Windows installations, in just a few clicks. Incremental auto-updates ensure backup files are always up-to-date and prevent data loss. The user interface was designed with simplicity in mind and is intuitively usably by anyone. Backups are always restorable, even in the event of highly corrupt or ransomware-infested systems, thanks to a built-in rescue feature that requires no technical knowledge. This backup software is self-explanatory and streamlined to cover the most essential features so there is no learning curve. Backups are automatically and incrementally updated without the need for manual intervention. Download link: www.techlife.net/exclusives F-Rename Quickly and easily rename files. Every computer user knows them: meaningless file names, generated by the digital…

From $1,199, www.apple.com/au The iPhone 13 mini is Apple’s smallest new iPhone, and the only compact phone you should buy if you’re looking to fully wrap your hands around your next smartphone. For its size, there’s nothing that comes close to the understated power of the iPhone 13 mini. You wouldn’t know it by looking at this second-generation iPhone mini, though. Nearly all of the major upgrades over the iPhone 12 mini are inside the one-hand-friendly phone, so it doesn’t look much different to last year’s device. Design The iPhone 13 mini is built to be premium, but has a smaller body than most top-end smartphones. It’s designed for those who want a smaller device, with Apple’s smartphones increasing in size over the last five years. It features a 5.4-inch screen – we’ll dive into…

Google says it has made a major breakthrough on carbon-free energy Google has been working to develop better tools to track energy consumption and production in order to achieve its 24/7 carbon-free energy goal by 2030. As part of these efforts, the search giant announced a new tool called Time-based Energy Attribute Certificates (T-EACs) last year to advance a more granular approach to energy tracking. Universal Control is finally here, making iPads and Macs even more useful As a part of the recently-released macOS 12.3, Universal Control is now enabled. It’s a beta version of the software but is fully functional. In essence, this feature lets you use your iPad with your Mac, seamlessly letting you use your mouse and keyboard on the tablet. It will also allow you to wirelessly transfer files…

The annual Australian PC Awards gives us a wonderful opportunity to consider the year just passed, and spotlight the things that were very much better than the others. It’s always fun for us to do this here at APC, and we hope you’re inspired to do an upgrade or two as we run through the finalists, highly commended, and winners. These awards cover products released in Australia through 2021, and were judged by the editorial team here at TechLife, along with our friends at sister Future publications APC, TechRadar, PC Gamer, and PC PowerPlay. Narrowing down the finalists took a long time, and the many pros and cons were carefully considered. In this year in particular, value played a larger than usual role in determining the winners. Where we feel it…

$3,579, www.panasonic.com Last year’s Panasonic Lumix GH5 II was just the appetiser: for would-be filmmakers looking for a small camera with huge creative potential, the Panasonic Lumix GH6 is the true main course. And what a feast it is: the new flagship in Panasonic’s Lumix G range of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras based on the Micro Four Thirds mount, the 25.2MP GH6 fits a dizzying array of movie skills into its compact body. There’s 5.7K video at 60fps and Apple ProRes 422 HQ recording, 7.5 stops of in-body image stabilisation, 4-channel XLR audio recording and a monitor that can be tilted in almost any direction. Design and handling The GH6’s body shape is immediately familiar: it’s that well-worn, DSLR-inspired design used by most of Panasonic’s Lumix G series. It might not be particularly original,…