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Whatever you’ll be doing on 16 August 2022 – swimming with sharks, power-walking through the Alps or creosoting the garden fence – I hope you’ll still be using the same computer that you are now. Adverts may say otherwise, but you don’t always need the latest tech. Sometimes what you’ve got is good enough. The tricky bit is making your devices last longer than tech companies want. They’d much rather you go thousands overdrawn splashing out on everything shiny and new. I suspect they won’t like our Cover Feature in which we show you how to add five more years (and counting) to your PC’s life. Perhaps I should send a copy of this issue to Microsoft. Many readers have emailed me angered by the company’s decision to end Windows…

Broadband customers should receive compensation if they don’t get the speed they pay for, a group of MPs have said. The British Infrastructure Group (BIG), led by Conservative MP Grant Shapps, has called on regulator Ofcom to extend its proposals for compensation, which cover slow repairs and missed appointments, but not poor speeds. This is “unacceptable” BIG said in its new Broadbad 2.0 report (www.snipca.com/25140). BIG recommends that Ofcom considers applying the same rules to broadband companies that Ofwat does to water companies under its Guaranteed Standards Scheme. This forces water companies to automatically compensate customers when things go wrong with their service, such as low water pressure. Major internet service providers (ISPs), including BT, Sky and Virgin Media, have signed up to Ofcom’s voluntary code of practice, which allows…

Adobe has finally said it will end support for its unsafe plug-in Flash, but not until 2020, leaving users at risk for another two and a half years. For the past 20 years Flash has made it possible for you to access multimedia content online, such as games, videos and radio. But in recent years hackers have increasingly exploited its security flaws to launch attacks. These have often been ‘malvertising’ attacks, in which malware is smuggled inside online adverts. Adobe said in a blog post (www.snipca.com/25088) that it will “stop updating and distributing” Flash, and will encourage developers and websites to move to “new open formats”, such as HTML5 and WebGL. These are built into browsers, meaning that on many sites you no longer need to install a plug-in to…

I’ve never quite understood the response of so-called ‘freespeech campaigners’ to laws that restrict access to porn online. In Issue 507 (News, page 9) you quote one such person, Jerry Barnett, who seems to suggest that placing 18+ age blocks on porn sites is an affront to democracy. What hysterical hogwash! Does he think that about the TV watershed? Or adult magazines being on the top shelf of a newsagent? Or 18 classifications for the cinema? What is it about the internet that makes people cry ‘freedom of speech’ every five minutes? This isn’t about undermining people’s rights. Unless I’ve misread the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 15-year-olds can’t claim they are persecuted just because they won’t have unfettered access to porn online. I accept that some computer-savvy teenagers will…

Q I placed an order with Appliances Direct (www.appliancesdirect.co.uk) for a Hisense Fridge Freezer (pictured) on Thursday 29 June, for delivery on Monday 3 July. After cancelling the order on 1 July, Appliances Direct said I’d have to pay a cancellation fee of £59. Is this excessive? David Hamper A The problem isn’t that the fee is excessive; it’s actually completely illegal. A retailer is not allowed to charge fees for cancelling purchases. Under the Consumer Contract Regulations (CCRs) you can cancel an online purchase any time from the moment you click the order button to 14 days after the goods arrive without any incurring any fees. We’ve told Appliances Direct this, but have waited over a week for a reply. We’ll let you know if they get back to…

I bought a Dell Venue Pro 11 tablet in June 2014. As a business and home user the tablet format suited my needs perfectly – no dust or greasy keyboards! Also included was a Dell Dock, which let me use the tablet as a replacement for a desktop PC, giving me a connection to a monitor, external hard drives and a keyboard. I also bought a Next Business Day warranty for two years. Within two months the tablet’s SSD suffered a catastrophic failure. But disaster was averted when Dell fitted a replacement SSD within 24 hours. Over the next 18 months I experienced the failure of both the male and female dock connectors, which again was sorted within one working day. In June this year I connected the tablet to…

WhatsApp doesn’t charge 99p As a recent convert to WhatsApp, I was concerned to read about scam emails being sent to users. They say “your subscription is ending soon” and ask you to update your payment info by signing into a “customer portal”. It’s rubbish of course. WhatsApp used to charge users 99p a year, but no longer. I can imagine some people will fall for the scam, particularly because the emails use a similar shade of green to WhatsApp, and because it is signed “the WhatsApp team”. To see what the email looks like visit Action Fraud’s site: www.snipca.com/25003. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

New products tested by our experts It may have arrived as a free upgrade, but Windows 10 is still very much a profitmaking product. And Microsoft’s most profitable version is Windows Pro. It costs £100 more than the standard Home edition, selling at £220 – more expensive than some PCs. That’s why most of us don’t have it, and miss out on some of Windows 10’s best features. With Pro’s Remote Desktop, you can fully control your PC from anywhere (give or take a bit of fiddling with the settings). With BitLocker you can encrypt any file or drive so it can only be read with a password. Perhaps best of all, Windows Update for Business is exactly like Windows Update, except it runs when you choose, rather than at…

What does it do? High dynamic range (HDR) means increased contrast (more difference between the darkest black and the lightest white). It also implies more gradations between those extremes, to keep everything smooth. The same principle applied to colour gives you a wider ‘gamut’ (colour range). Imagine turning down the contrast and brightness on your TV so everything looks dull. HDR is the opposite (see image below). We’re not talking about ‘HDR’ photo-editing tools, which boost shadow and highlight detail, creating an artificial effect if overused. HDR is about making things look better, not different. Why would I want it? The move to 4K resolution packs more detail into TV screens, and phone, tablet and PC screens are gaining more pixels for the same reason. High dynamic range is a…

Some people can’t tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on their TV. Many of us still watch DVDs, with only a fifth of the resolution of Full HD. So it’s questionable whether we really need 4K TVs, with four times more pixels again. Bearing all this in mind, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a phone with a 4K screen. A phone, for heaven’s sake. There are calculations you can do to see how close to a screen you’d have to sit to see the pixels. For a 40in 4K TV, you’d need to be within five feet (1.5m). To distinguish the dots on the XZ Premium, you would have to put it inside your eye. 4K would be good for virtual reality (there are several compatible headsets), but…

Since the turn of the year, half a dozen big-brand mesh Wi-Fi products have arrived in the UK. In alphabetical order, we reviewed BT Whole Home Wi-Fi in Issue 496; Devolo GigaGate (Issue 501); Google Wifi (Issue 502); Linksys Velop, (Issue 503); and Netgear Orbi (Issue 498). So which should you pick? There are certainly differences between them, but it’s hard to say what they will mean to you. All are simple to set up. The GigaGate only creates a 2.4GHz wireless network from its satellites, omitting the faster 5GHz. But in our tests that didn’t make much difference to the speed. Velop creates a separate network even if you keep your existing base router, which will mean changing some login details. TP-Link similarly says its Deco is intended to…

“It works with your phone to monitor your fitness – just don’t take it for a swim” The Fitbit Charge 2 can be seen as both a fitness band and a smart watch. It won’t do as much as pricier options like the Apple Watch, but it can buzz your wrist to notify you of phone calls, texts and appointments on your phone, which it connects to wirelessly. Like rivals, this is really a phone accessory rather than a standalone product. A big part of fitness tracking is generating information that’s displayed later to show you how you’re doing, and this takes place primarily on your phone screen. The Charge 2 also relies on your phone’s GPS to detect where you are then measure how far you’ve walked or run.…

Dial-up internet WHAT WAS IT? Dial-up gave ordinary users the ability to connect their computers to others over the telephone network using a modem. In the UK, ‘standard dial-up’ (SDU) was pioneered by Demon, which offered TCP/IP connections – internet access – in the early 1990s. HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED? The first dial-up users couldn’t do much except email each other, text chat and swap photos, which downloaded very slowly. But open internet access soon overtook earlier online services like CompuServe and AOL, whose subscribers could only access a limited range of content. By 1995 there were 25,000 websites; a year later that had multiplied by 10; and today there are over a billion. Demon charged £10 a month, about half as much as a basic broadband package today, but…

Gutenberg Books Free Android: www.snipca.com/25183 iOS: www.snipca.com/25184 Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) started digitising out-of-copyright books four decades ago but it doesn’t have an official app. This app (new to Android) fills the gap. It lets you browse and download any of Gutenberg’s 50,000 ebooks to your device. You’ll find classics that you can download with one tap. Teleport - photo editor Free Android: www.snipca.com/25185 iOS: www.snipca.com/25186 Teleport has many photo-editing features that other apps charge for. As well as blurring the background of your photo, you can remove the subject from one photo and paste it into another. You can also change the background of your photo with a few taps. Solar Eclipse Timer £1.99 Android: www.snipca.com/25187 iOS: www.snipca.com/25188 The next solar eclipse in the UK is on 21 August at…

OUTLOOK Customise sound alerts for email contacts Whenever you receive an email you’ll hear a default sound alerting you. It’s easy to customise this sound for specific contacts. This can help you quickly identify important emails that need urgent attention. To do this, first select any email from the contact you want to create a customised sound alert for. Next, click the Rules button in the Move section at the top right, then click Create Rule. In the pop-up window that opens, you’ll see several ‘rules’ you can apply to emails from that person. Tick the first (From) box at the top to confirm the contact’s name. Tick ‘Play a selected sound’ (see screenshot). You’ll notice that Windows Notify Email is the default sound. Click the Browse button to open…

Mozilla’s entry into the note-taking market, Firefox Notes, is so new it’s referred to as a ‘Test Pilot Experiment’. See www.snipca.com/25208 for details of the other tools Firefox is developing. Notes adds a notepad to your Firefox sidebar so you won’t even have to leave the browser to quickly jot down a reminder. To get it go to testpilot.firefox.com in Firefox, click ‘Install the Test Pilot Add-on’, close the box that asks for your email address, then scroll down the ‘Pick your experiments’ section and click Get Started under Notes (see screenshot). When the Notes page opens, click Enable Notes (top right) and you’ll see the Notes sidebar opens on the left of the browser window. Just click in the main section (where the ‘Welcome’ message is) to start typing.…

Our experts solve all your tech problems Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk Q I don’t seem to be able to install Kaspersky Internet Security on my Apple iPad. I use it on my laptop, as recommended by yourselves, and I’d like to safeguard my iPad in the same way. Presently I use F-Secure Safe, which I assume is okay. However, I know I can rely on Kaspersky. So why can’t I get it onto my iPad? Stuart Sulley A It would be foolish to say infection is impossible but the fundamental design of Apple’s iOS – the operating system that runs on your iPad – means that it is unlikely ever to happen. It forces apps to operate in a ‘sandbox’, which stops them from…

Q I’ve been told that Microsoft supports only the two most recent versions of Windows 10, so is the recovery drive I made a year ago now useless? Do I need to make a new one every few months to guarantee receiving security updates? Simon Rooney A Your impression of Microsoft’s Windows 10 support intentions is not entirely accurate. The company did state that only the “two most Current Branch for Business (CBB) versions are actively serviced”, but CBB relates to versions of Windows 10 used by organisations and businesses. Most home users will be using what, for support purposes, Microsoft calls a Current Branch (CB) edition. As users of CB editions of Windows 10 are effectively forced to download the latest updates, it is very difficult to avoid using…

Why won’t PCMark 10 benchmark my PC? QI downloaded PCMark 10 (Issue 506, page 18) because I wanted to know how my PC was coping. Not very well appears to be the answer, because the program simply states ‘No Matching Benchmarks Found’ when I try to run a test. My PC is old (it has an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor with 8GB RAM and a GeForce GT 240 graphics card), but I was still expecting something. Any advice? Duncan Bird AThe bad news is your PC is too old for the program. To run a benchmark test in PCMark 10 your PC must have a graphics card that’s OpenGL 4.3 compatible – which is a fancy way of saying it must be capable of displaying the complex 2D…

You could soon save money on your electricity bills by letting power companies turn your appliances off and on via the internet, as part of a major shake-up of how electricity is delivered to the public. The Government hopes the measure will help power firms cope with periods of high demand on the national grid. By signing up to cheaper ‘time of day tariffs’, residents would, for example, agree that their fridge-freezers can be switched off for a few minutes at peak times, or their washing machines be turned on to maximise use of cheap solar power during sunny periods. To take part customers must have a smart meter installed to transmit usage data to the power company. As part of the plans, energy regulator Ofgem is to allow tech…

Patients waiting in Accident and Emergency should have Wi-Fi access, top doctors have said. This would let them browse the internet on phones, tablets and laptops during waits for treatment. It’s a recommendation made by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) in a new report setting out standards in patient care. It has drawn up a 50-point checklist (www.snipca.com/25171) to help improve the patient “experience”. As well as Wi-Fi the list includes a TV and reading material. The RCEM calls these forms of entertainment “developmental”, which means they should be considered on top of the “fundamental” care that all hospitals must offer. One of the fundamental points in the checklist is telling patients whether they can use phones, and, if so, providing a bank of chargers. The checklist covers…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Java Java’s safety reputation ranks somewhere up there with thin ice and half-cooked chicken, but is it deserved? Not entirely. Java itself is not malicious. It’s just a software component. But Java (that’s Java Runtime Environment, not to be confused with JavaScript, Java coffee or Java the fifth largest island in Indonesia) is easily and regularly exploited by hackers. I almost feel sorry for it. But then this week I tried installing it, and how did it thank me for giving it a chance? By bundling a Yahoo PUP. I needed Java so I could test Data Crow (www.datacrow.net), one of an everdecreasing circle of programs that require Java. Data Crow is an excellent free tool for cataloguing collections – anything from book collections to…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive Porn blocks: banks fear credit card scams So the great and the good have decided that a creditcard number will be required to access porn sites. The banks must be delighted. Supplying personal details to people who run porn sites must be high on banks’ list of things they don’t want to happen. As far as I’m aware porn sites aren’t run by Disney and Sony, but by people who you probably don’t want living next door. If young people want to register with porn sites then they will, unless their parents run a house where everything is kept under lock and key. Accessing the credit-card numbers while Mum and Dad are having a bath (not at…

Q I have five dongles for a pay-asyou- go (PAYG) service that Vodafone ceased offering two years ago. The dongles still have credit on them of at least £40. I can’t get Vodafone to reimburse this. Can you help? David Birt A After we contacted Vodafone it agreed to donate £40 on his David’s behalf to the animal charity Blue Cross. He’s now waiting for confirmation of the payment. The company made this gesture even though it didn’t know how much money it owed David because it had closed his accounts. Although it’s been two years since we first wrote about this problem, you can still try to reclaim lost money. Ofcom told us that people owed money should contact it (www.ofcom.org.uk/contact), although it doesn’t intervene in individual cases. You…

We stand up for your legal rights Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Please include both your phone number and address. Q I bought a garden patio heater from QAV Direct (www.qavdirect.co.uk), which was delivered on 7 July. It wouldn’t work but when I contacted the company I was persuaded to try a new burner unit, which is part of the heater. This didn’t work and neither did a third one sent. I sent them back expecting an instant refund, but QAV says it wants to test the units first. Can you help? Keith Bond A We’ll certainly try, although due to data-privacy laws QAV Direct won’t discuss Keith’s account until he’s given it permission to talk to us. But we can answer his question: yes,…

Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools What’s the threat? Scammers are pretending to be customer-support teams on Twitter, hoping to trick you into handing over your account details. In particular fraudsters have been targeting Amazon customers who have complained on Twitter about late deliveries. They have been scouring Twitter for complaints, then sending a direct message to disgruntled customers from the account @amazonhelps2, confusingly similar to the real account name @AmazonHelp. The messages contained an apology, and a request for the email address used for the Amazon account. If the customer provides this, the scammers then ask for credit-card details “for security purposes”. How can you stay safe? We wouldn’t discourage you from contacting companies through Twitter because these days it’s often the best way to guarantee…

WRITING TOOL yWriter 6.0.1 www.snipca.com/25109 What you need: Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 The hardest part of writing a book is keeping track. Scenes, ideas and characters soon descend into a disorganised mess, even if you’re writing something as familiar as your own life story, and traditional word processors don’t help much. So author Simon Haynes created yWriter to plug the gap. This free program lets you manage your whole book at a glance, using menus of chapters and tabs for scenes, characters, notes, location and ‘items’ (such as photos and audio files). It’s simple to build, edit, move, clone and search. The menus are full of easy-to-use tools that help you weed out duplicated scenes, create a work schedule and plot your book on a visual ‘StoryBoard’. New…

When a manufacturer strips back its model’s name to a single digit, you know something’s afoot. In Nokia’s case, having sold its Windows-based mobile-phone division to Microsoft (the only company left with any interest in making Windows phones), and licensed its brand to a third party for the retro budget Nokia 3310, it marks the Finnish company’s re-entry into the phone market with its own line of Android devices. This is the cheapest model in that range. Available in silver and white, copper and white, black, or blue, the 3 is reminiscent of the old Nokia Lumia phones, with square-cornered metal surround and sleek plastic back. It’s slim for such a large phone, but doesn’t come with mod cons like a fingerprint reader, water resistance or USB Type-C. The screen…

Last time we reviewed Amazon’s mid-range ebook reader (Issue 458) it had had a major upgrade, sharpening the screen from 212 to 300 pixels per inch (ppi). Since then, the hardware hasn’t changed, but if you buy the Paperwhite today you’ll get a very different e-reader, because last year Amazon made a big upgrade to the software. Having recently tested the rival new-model Kobo Aura H2O (£150 from www.snipca.com/24473, see Issue 503), we went back and tried the Paperwhite again. The changes start at the home screen, which is clearly laid out and gives you quick access to settings as well as your books. Open a book and the benefits of Amazon’s new typesetting engine are obvious – improved justification and hyphenation help to avoid awkward spacing. The attractive new…

Watches and bracelets that track your steps and heart rate are often aimed at people who see themselves as ‘sporty’. But they’re just as useful to those of us who never go to a gym but would like to pay a little more attention to our fitness and try to maximise the benefits of everyday activities, such as walking. So we’re glad to see the Charge 2 has a plain design, with a decent-sized screen that works fine as a digital watch too. It has a choice of wristbands available. If you want motivation, the Charge 2 sets you targets and even lets you compete with friends. If that sounds like a nightmare, it’s all optional. You can just go about your normal day and check your stats later, finding…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2016 Back Issue CD: £15 fromwww.snipca.com/23209 LAPTOP Dell Inspiron 15 5000 £749 from www.snipca.com/24851 Tested: Issue 459 Now featuring Intel’s seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors, the Inspiron 15 is great value for a full-size laptop with i7 CPU, anti-glare Full HD screen, 4GB AMD R7 graphics and a 1TB hard drive. More basic models start at £429. ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenBook UX310UA This sleek (if slightly plasticky) 13in adds a super-sharp 3200x1800-pixel screen to i5 performance with a 256GB SSD. £700 from www.snipca.com/24852 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £600 from www.snipca.com/24140 Tested: Issue 501 Samsung’s new mid-sized tablet has a wonderful HDR screen and comes with a pen included, unlike Apple’s iPad Pro. But its processor isn’t the fastest and…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Add colour to your old black and white photos This tip is very useful for anyone who, like me, has loads of black and white photos and would like to see what they look like in colour. I stumbled upon this excellent website called Colorize Photos (www.snipca.com/25199). The free account gives you 5,000 credits a month. Each credit equates to the number of seconds it takes the program to colour your photo. This usually requires about 10-30 seconds (depending on the photo’s file size), so 5,000 monthly credits should be more than enough for most people. After creating an account, click the Upload button, upload any black and white photo you have on your PC, then click Colorize It. The results…

AGES 0-5 Mathlandia 99p www.snipca.com/25189 (iOS) Mathlandia is the best way to introduce your kids to numbers 1 to 10. It has six number-recognition games, involving ordering, counting, adding and subtracting, with cute alien characters helping kids along. Our favourite is where they need to tap the balls to make the calculation. AGES 6-10 Dotopedia Free www.snipca.com/25190 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/25191 (iOS) This new educational app is like Wikipedia for youngsters. They can read more than 300 articles on topics ranging from nature to technology. They then complete challenges where they need to draw, join dots and match items based on what they learned. AGES 11-16 Grasshopper: Learn to Code Free www.snipca.com/25192 (Android) Grasshopper is currently in beta, but you get an invite to start using it within a few days.…

Switch on File History Windows File History lets you manage which of your files are backed up automatically so you can restore old versions if you need them. To switch it on you’ll need to connect an external drive or large (64GB+) USB stick to your PC. Once that’s done, click Start, type control panel, press Enter, then click ‘System and Security’ followed by File History. Click the ‘Turn on’ button (at the bottom right, below where your external drive is listed). File History will now start backing up your personal files (such as your documents, downloads, music, photos and videos). While this is processing you’ll see a ‘File History is saving copies of your files for the first time’ message (see screenshot below). When this disappears the backup process…

Uninstall programs you don’t need The background processes, start-up items and other junk that programs add can all hamper performance. Right-click Start, then click ‘Apps and programs’ and get uninstalling. Disable startup items Slow startup times aren’t a sign of old age – they’re a sign that you’ve got too many programs launching in the background when you switch on your PC. Open Task Manager and disable any you don’t need. Keep it free of malware Malicious software can hamstring your PC and, in some cases, kill it stone dead. So make sure your security tool is switched on, up to date and running regular scans. Turn off Windows features that strain your system Windows visual effects can make older PCs sluggish, so switch off the ones you don’t want.…

Microsoft has announced that those on the Insider Preview can fast-forward to the update coming after the Fall Creators Update, due next May (codenamed Redstone 4 – www.snipca.com/25105). This will also spell the end for certain features. Here’s what could get the chop. INTERNET EXPLORER The end is surely nigh for Internet Explorer (IE). Its replacement Edge is already with us and yet Microsoft seems hesitant to let it go. But as Edge starts to rival Chrome and Firefox, IE’s days are numbered. WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER Windows Media Player has been showing its age for some time, and VLC – now available from the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.com/25104) – is faster and has more features. VIEW 3D Paint 3D has already replaced Paint and 3D Builder as a design tool, and…

Q I need a new monitor for my Windows 10 PC. Looking through the adverts I see lots of mentions of 4K and 4K UHD. I do know that 4K means a high resolution, which I want, but I don’t understand the difference between ‘4K’ and ‘4K UHD’. Could you explain? Chris Hopkins A The answer to this question can be really simple or rather confusing. We’ll start with the simple answer, which is that from your perspective as someone shopping for a new monitor there’s really no difference. When it comes to computer displays (and TVs for that matter), the terms ‘4K’ or ‘4K UHD’ are used pretty much interchangeably. Specifically, it’ll mean a screen with a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels — or four times higher than Full HD…

1080p High-definition video with 1920x1080 pixels. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 5K Video with a horizontal resolution of 5120x2880 pixels. 720p A resolution of highdefinition video: 1280x720 pixels. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. 802.11n A standard for wireless networks that allows for high transfer speeds. Augmented reality Lets you view the real world on a screen and add elements from the digital world. Bandwidth A measure of how much information can be transferred through a connection at one time. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. Biometric Using unique personal characteristics, such as fingerprints, for identification. Browser hijackers Programs that change your default browser without…

You should suffer less disruption when installing the Fall Creators Update after Microsoft changed the way major updates are downloaded. It means you’ll be able to use your PC for longer as the update, due in October, is installed. All updates are installed during ‘online’ and ‘offline’ phases. During the former, you continue to use your computer while parts of the update process happen in the background. These include checking to see if an update is available, downloading it, then waiting to reboot your PC. More troublesome are the offline periods, during which the full update screen shows on your computer, leaving you unable to use it. To ease frustration, Microsoft has moved some update processes from offline to online, such as backing up your content and adding new Windows…

NEW SITE SHOWS VEHICLE CRIME A new website shows you how many vehicle crimes took place in a particular area, helping you to choose somewhere safe to park your car. Park Smart (www.snipca.com/25116), from Co-op Insurance, displays crime statistics from between November 2016 and April 2017. Just type your postcode into the box to see a map of crime hotspots. It covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland. AUTO-PLAY VIDEOS COMING TO GOOGLE Google has added one of the most loathed elements of the modern internet to its search results – videos that play automatically. Some searches for films and TV shows now play videos in the right-hand sidebar of the results page. Several other popular sites, including Facebook and Twitter, have been criticised for showing auto-play videos.…

Pretending to shoot your boss used to be a simple matter of cocking your finger and going “pow”. I don’t condone this act – not just because my boss will be reading this, but because it’s a threat of violence. Mobile Gun (www.snipca.com/25141) is a new Android app that lets you “shoot” any real human – neighbour, traffic warden, spouse – using augmented reality (AR) and a virtual gun. You can record the “shooting” then upload the video online. Harmless fun? Absolutely not. This app doesn’t just normalise extreme violence, it personalises it. “This is clearly only for fun between friends,” Mobile Gun’s developer, D Genesis Manuel Antony, told The Times (www.snipca.com/25142), but the potential for abuse by stalkers and trolls is clear. That ex who’s bored of posting insults…

I would like to thank Computeractive for ending years of conjugal dispute. My wife has always claimed that I snore like “an elephant trumpeting through a megaphone”. That may be the case, but I’ve always maintained throughout 41 years of marriage that she is the louder snorer. Well, I finally got my evidence using ‘Do I Snore or Grind’, the phone app you recommend in Issue 507 (page 60). I hid the phone in our bed, hoping it would be a noisy night of snoring. I got my wish. I pressed the record button and heard a few mumblings from my side, but thunderous growls from hers – like a whole herd of elephants. I played her the evidence and finally, belatedly received some acknowledgment that I’m not the cacophonous…

Q I bought the game Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch for PS4 (pictured) via the online PlayStation store on 25 June, for £15.99. But because the game has so many bugs it is impossible to play it properly. I reported this to Sony asking for a refund, but was told to approach Rodeo Games, the game’s developer, for help. Sony said that because I’d downloaded and played the game it didn’t have to give me a refund. Is that right? Taff Lovesey A No, Sony is mistaken to say that Taff has to contact Rodeo Games. One of the major improvements to your rights under 2015’s Consumer Rights Act (CRA) is protection for software, and digital downloads such as games, music and videos. Like physical products, these must now be fit for…

We typically say that if you have a problem with a product, you should first approach the retailer for help, not the manufacturer. Under the Consumer Rights Act, retailers carry more legal responsibility for fixing a problem, or issuing a refund. But that doesn’t mean contacting manufacturers always proves fruitless, as Computeractive reader George Mackison has found out. In Issue 507, we explained that he got in touch with TV manufacturer Finlux about a faulty set he bought from a retailer. After we contacted Vestel, the Turkish company that owns Finlux, it has sent George a USB stick containing a firmware update that fixes the problem with the TV. Finlux does provide 12-month warranties, but only for items sold directly from its website (www.finlux.co.uk, pictured). George bought his TV through…

https://public.fundraisingpreference.org.uk Staying safe isn’t just about avoiding malware and scams. You also need protection from being overwhelmed with spam that, while legal, can confuse or intimidate you. One type of spam that’s got out of control is calls, texts and emails from charities. These have been widely criticised for preying on the elderly and vulnerable. In response, the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) has been launched to let you block charities from contacting you. They then have up to 28 days to remove you from their marketing list. To sign up go to the URL above, click Start (or ‘Start on behalf of someone else’), then search for a charity (by name or number). Click Select on the next page, then choose the forms of marketing you want to block (‘All’…

How can I catalogue my records and CDs? Q It really is time I catalogued my collection of CDs and vinyl records, and I’d appreciate your help in identifying a program that can do the job. I’d like to be able to search for the title or artist by typing any available information. Barry Simmons A Once upon a time I’d have had no hesitation in recommending the free, open-source program Data Crow (www.datacrow.net). But it has one huge drawback – it won’t run unless Java is installed on your PC. Java is not only a notorious security vulnerability, but if you try to install it afresh, it bundles a nasty Yahoo toolbar, so it’s fair to say it’s no longer worth the hassle. So instead, I’m going to recommend…

The Intel Core processors used in laptops (indicated by a single- or double-letter suffix such as ‘U’), have the same series names as their desktop PC counterparts – i3, i5, i7 – but use less power and generate less heat. The ‘U’ stands for ‘Ultra low power’. So they run at slower clock speeds and have less cache (built-in memory that makes data available faster). More significantly, they may have fewer cores. That means the i7 in the new Microsoft Surface Pro (see page 21), with just two cores, can barely equal a desktop PC i5 in single tasks and falls way behind in multi-tasking. But the Apollo 15’s i7-7700HQ is different. The ‘Q’ stands for ‘quad core’, and those four processing units produced scores across our tests similar to…

What’s the best device for my Audible books? Q I have an iPad Air which is full of my Audible audio books. Because I can’t expand its storage, I would like to buy something else just for audiobooks that’s small and has internet access but not much else – apart from lots of memory. Screen quality is obviously not important. Edith Rutherford A You have a wide choice of devices: the free Audible Manager program (see www.snipca.com/25122), for Windows PCs only, can download previously purchased books from Audible’s servers (you only have to do this once) to any ‘Audible Ready’ device. These include SanDisk’s tiny Clip Jam MP3 player (£25 from Amazon www.snipca.com/25124), with its simple LCD track listing display. It only has 8GB of storage, but a microSD card,…

Win 1 of 3 WD Blue Desktop 2TB Hard Drives Winner of a ‘Buy It!’ award in Issue 506, WD’s Blue Desktop Hard Drive outperformed drives that, in theory, should be faster. It excelled at reading and writing random files and when loading programs - the sort of thing your main hard drive spends most of its time doing. It was also noticeably quieter than its rivals. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘wd2tb’ in the subject line by midnight 29 August. WD’s Blue Desktop Hard Drive comes in six sizes: 1TB (£43), 2TB (£61), 3TB (£90), 4TB (£113), 5TB (currently unavailable) and 6TB (£205). Buy them at these prices from Amazon at www.snipca.com/24885. For more information on WD’s products visit www.wdc.com and follow @WD_UK on Twitter.…

What you need: Timbre; Android phone or tablet Time required: 30 minutes New free app Timbre has loads of useful options for editing videos on your Android phone or tablet. You can convert videos from formats that aren’t supported by your device, split longer videos so you can send them via messaging apps, and trim videos with just a few taps. Unlike other apps that offer the same range of features, Timbre doesn’t contain adverts or in-app purchases, and won’t add watermarks to your edited video. STEP 1 Install and open the app (www.snipca.com/25113). You’ll see three sections - Audio, Video 1 and More 2 . The Audio and Video sections contain similar editing options. We’ll first show you how to convert video formats. Tap Convert 3 . In the…

ANDROID Access your entire Google search history The Google Assistant app has a new feature called My Activity. This lets you access your entire Google search history from all the devices you use the same Google account on. Search history includes everything you’ve searched for within all Google products – Google Assistant, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Chrome, Play store and more. Open the default Google app (multicoloured ‘G’) on your device, tap the new circular tab at the bottom right, swipe right, then tap Go To My Activity. This opens a new web page within Chrome where you’ll see your search results grouped into categories. To remove a result from your search history, tap the three dots at its top right, then tap Delete. The search bar at the top lets…

WINDOWS 10 Prioritise important emails in your inbox Windows 10’s Mail app has a new feature called ‘Focused inbox’ that shows only your most important emails. According to Microsoft, these are “emails that you likely want to act on” from “people you interact with often”. Other emails (including newsletters, promotional emails, etc) appear in a separate tab. Search for and open the app on your PC, then log in with your Microsoft account if you need to. We found some of our important emails in the Other tab, while nonessential emails were in the Focused tab. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to change which tab specific emails are directed to. Right-click any email in the Focused tab, then click ‘Move to Other’ or ‘Always move to Other’ (moves all future…

You might have expected us to include tips for buying more expensive upgrades, such as a new processor or graphics card. We don’t think there’s much point in going down this route. By the time you’ve bought the processor and/or graphics card, made sure your motherboard and power supply unit is compatible (upgrading these will cost you even more), then paid for a specialist to install everything, you might as well have bought a new PC. It’s far better to shop around for a PC with the latest processor, graphics card, SSD and USB connections. You could consider our current favourite desktop PC – the Palicomp i5 Titanium, priced £500 (see Buy It, page 30).…

Q I’ve played Minesweeper from Windows XP onwards, but it seems to have disappeared from Windows 10. I looked on Microsoft’s website and found it for downloading, which I did. But this version looks very different, and I hate it. Is there a way to get the original version back, without actually buying a second-hand PC? Gerald Dear A The original Minesweeper and old favourites such as the card game Solitaire were dropped from Windows 10. Microsoft created new versions and made them available free from the Windows Store (at www.snipca.com/25018), as you discovered. We’re not exactly sure what’s happened in your case, but we assume you installed Windows 10 over XP on your old PC, or that you bought a new Windows 10 PC. Either way, Minesweeper won’t be…

Q I worry about losing data due to my PC hard drive or NAS failing, DVDs getting scratched, flash drives becoming corrupt, cloud-storage hacks or ransomware attacks. I glanced at my DVD drive and saw an M-Disc logo. Google tells me this technology has been around since 2009 and that M-Disc DVDs and Blu-rays will last up to 1,000 years! I’ve never noticed these when shopping for improved ways to store data. Will they really keep my data safe for a millennium? Ben Gransden A The answer is a few parts science and several more parts marketing spin. Unlike conventional optical disc formats such as DVDs and Blu-rays, which employ organic dyes in their manufacture, M-Disc-branded DVDs and Blu-rays use non-organic materials that should not decay through oxidation. M-Disc inventor…

Ilove a good discount. Who doesn’t? That’s why you’ll often find me in the Tesco bakery aisle, late into the evening. I’m there to snag bargain bread products. Sometimes I’ll lurk there waiting for the arrival of the staff member armed with the Magic Yellow Sticker Gun. That’s the Magic Yellow Sticker Gun that with each passing hour fires ever-lower price tags. Turn up minutes before closing and the wielder of the Magic Yellow Sticker Gun becomes seriously trigger-happy. Bang – a whole farmhouse loaf for 20p! Pop – a stack of bagels for 10p! Zap – a box of doughnuts for 5p! “I want a tool that scours every discount site to find me the best code at that very second” Those are all real last-minute price cuts that…