Computeractive -julkaisun 532 -irtonumeron sisällysluettelo

I’m the founding (and so far only) member of the TJAPA (Technology Journalists Against Pointless Abbreviations), and therefore regard most capitalised initials with disdain. Our Jargon Buster is full of them, most created by elitist experts who have a vested interest in making computing appear confusing to the common man. Given this, you may ask why we’ve put three large letters on this issue’s cover. It’s because some abbreviations are too important to ignore (TITI). A VPN is a virtual private network. By disguising your location, it gives you access to websites that are typically blocked in the UK. It works beyond our borders too, unlocking sites that are restricted in other countries. Another abbreviation has made VPNs more necessary than ever: GDPR. When the EU introduced these tough (and…

You can run over 160 programs written for the influential BBC Micro computer in a new online emulator. It’s part of the BBC’s new archive for its Computer Literacy Project, which ran in the 1980s with the aim of educating the public about the principles of computing and programming. The archive also includes all 267 TV programmes broadcast as part of the project, letting you watch much-loved shows such as Micro Live and The Computer Programme. The project revolved around the BBC Micro, now seen as a vital link between the early home computers and the more powerful PCs that became commonplace in the 1990s. To try the Micro software visit the emulator’s home page (www.snipca.com/28290), click ‘Run 166 BBC Micro programs…’ then click a ‘Run software’ link. Highlights include ‘Bach’,…

I don’t want to sound callous, but I find it absurd that the NHS is even contemplating treating gaming addicts (‘Question of the Fortnight’, Issue 531). The NHS has to make millions of impossibly tough choices every day that revolve around competing priorities. Which patient to treat first? Which operation to cancel? Which drugs to pay for? These are delicate dilemmas that require a juggling of resources and careful moral judgements. Deciding whether to treat gaming addiction is far less important, and I would argue requires less of a moral conundrum. I’ve always had a problem with the NHS treating any kind of addiction. I’m sure addicts lead miserable lives, but they can always pay for private treatment for what is, after all, a self-inflicted condition. You don’t become a…

I have nothing but praise for the way that Rakuten Kobo handled my problem following the last update in February to its software on my six-year-old Kobo Touch ebook reader. I had to reset the device many times. The last straw occurred while I was on holiday in Poland, when it required three resets in one day. At 10.30pm local time I decided to send an email to Rakuten, but ended up chatting online with an assistant, who listened to my problems then offered me a £20 discount against a new reader. I declined this and asked for a bigger discount because they had admitted a problem. Next day, before 7.30 am, I received three emails from them, the last offering a free refurbished replacement of my Kobo. This arrived…

Beware fake BT bill I received a fake bill supposedly from BT, claiming I owed them £959. It had the subject line ‘Your new BT bill’ and came from the email address info@missteencompton.com. I am a BT customer, but my bill is generally not more than £50, so I knew it was a scam, and didn’t click the red ‘View your bill’ button. The email looked authentic though, with the BT logo at the top and bottom, and the heading ‘Your bill is ready to view’. It also tells you ways you can pay - online, direct debit and over the phone. But crucially it didn’t show my BT account number. Peter Grainger Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

What does it do? Screens like that of the LG G7 ThinQ phone (see page 24) deliver extremely high brightness when turned up – about four times brighter than a typical desktop PC monitor. Why would I want it? The transmissive screens we mainly use today, which emit light to produce an image, work well in fairly dim environments, including most interior settings, and are great for watching a film in the dark, making notes in a conference or checking Facebook in bed. Outdoors, though, they struggle to compete with sunshine, so the more we all carry our computers around with us, the brighter our screens need to be for legibility. What’s the catch? High illumination uses a lot of battery power, which forces you to choose between your screen…

The G7 has the brightest screen we’ve ever seen on a phone. Displaying a plain white image and after tapping the Boost icon beside the brightness slider, our test equipment clocked it at 951 candelas per square metre (cd/m²). Even once the boost has turned itself off again to save your battery, you get up to 850cd/m² – enough to give you spots in front of your eyes if you turn it on in a dark room. You can forget checking your emails as you settle down in the cinema – instead of tutting at you for using your phone, people will shush each other because they’ll think the film has started. Of course, you can turn it down. What you can’t do, oddly, is set it to sRGB mode…

You could pay even less than £60 for a smart watch or fitness band, but some of the devices sold on eBay or market stalls are barely more than a wrist strap that lights up. Bear in mind the app that processes your data and shows your progress is as important as the hardware, and smaller companies are unlikely to put in the required effort in developing these. The cheapest option that would tempt us, other than the Bip, is the Garmin Vivosmart HR+ (£105 in purple or £115 in black from Amazon www.snipca.com/28358, see Issue 479), which has now fallen to about the same price as the Fitbit Charge 2 (£110 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28356, see Issue 508, pictured). These fitness bands have a monochrome screen and can notify you…

LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UX410UA £590 from www.snipca.com/26789 Tested: Issue 518 With a dual-core Intel i3 processor, 4GB of memory and 128GB SSD, this slim aluminium 14in has just enough power to make Windows 10 feel smooth – and unlike Asus’s cheaper models it has a very good Full HD screen. ALTERNATIVE: Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,149, but the best deal is with the brand new quad-core i7-8550 and QHD touchscreen. £1,200 from www.snipca.com/26796 DESKTOP PC Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC CS £600 from www.snipca.com/27705 Tested: Issue 528 With a six-core Ryzen 5 1600 processor and 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, this is a brilliant all-round desktop PC for the money, completed by 8GB of memory, 120GB SSD and 1TB hard drive. ALTERNATIVE: Lenovo IdeaCentre 620s…

FACEBOOK Mute videos on your Facebook timeline ✓ Whenever I scroll through my Facebook timeline on my Android phone, any videos on there start playing automatically with audio, which I find very annoying. After much digging through the app’s settings, I finally figured out how to mute the audio from these videos. Open the Facebook app, tap the three lines at the top right, scroll to the bottom, tap the ‘Settings and Privacy’ menu to expand it, then tap Settings. Now scroll to and tap the ‘Media and contacts’ section, then tap the ‘Media and contacts’ option. Here, turn off the ‘Videos in News Feed start with sound’ slider (see screenshot below). Now when you scroll through your Facebook timeline, videos will still play, but you won’t hear audio until…

Google Podcasts Free Android: www.snipca.com/28386 Google’s new podcast app lets you browse over two million titles and download episodes that you can listen to offline. What’s more, it ‘learns’ your listening habits and suggests podcasts that you might be interested in. You can also use Google Assistant to continue playback on other devices (Chromecast and Google Home). Microsoft News Free Android: www.snipca.com/28387 iOS: www.snipca.com/28388 Microsoft has given its News app an appealing overhaul. Once you’ve selected your topics, you can now opt for a dark theme – which is easier on the eyes at night – and customise the font to make it more legible. It also has a new Local news tab that displays breaking news stories in your area. Adobe Spark Post* Free Android: www.snipca.com/28389 iOS: www.snipca.com/28390 This…

WORD Prioritise list items using keyboard shortcuts Word has a useful feature called Multilevel Lists that lets you create priorities for items in a list. The fastest way to do this is using keyboard shortcuts. To begin, first type all your list items one below the other. Highlight these items, then click the Multilevel List dropdown menu in the Paragraph section of the Home tab (see screenshot below). The List Library section displays different Multilevel List styles. Select the one you want – we selected ‘1), a), i)…’. Your selected items will be numbered (1, 2, 3, 4). To demote an item in the list – from ‘1)’ to ‘a)’ – simply select it, then press the Tab key. Pressing this key again demotes it to the next level, from…

What is it? A new supercomputer, six years in development, that uses artificial intelligence to debate topics with humans. In a recent public debate in San Francisco, it ‘beat’ its human opponents with stronger arguments. Who decided that it won The audience. They judged that while the humans were better at delivering points, the computer’s reasoning was more persuasive. What were they debating? Two propositions: that government should pay for space exploration, and that telemedicine – diagnosing patients remotely by video – should be used more. IBM Debater supported both statements; its human opponent argued against. How does it work? By drawing on evidence from its huge database, which comprises hundreds of millions of newspaper and magazine articles on “about 100 areas of knowledge”. This means it should be able…

PROTECT YOU FROM ALL VIRUSES Some VPNs will help you avoid sites that contain malware, but they can’t offer complete protection against downloading infected programs or accessing dangerous sites. Even with a VPN, you still need to have antivirus software installed. ENCRYPT YOUR DATA AFTER IT LEAVES THE VPN While data sent from your computer to the VPN server is encrypted, the same can’t always be said for traffic sent on your behalf by the VPN server. If you use a VPN to connect to a banking website, for example, the connection will only be encrypted if the bank’s web address starts with the secure ‘https://’, not ‘http://’. If your bank’s address starts with the latter (and it’s highly unlikely to), it’s time to move your money elsewhere. BLOCK COOKIES…

Amazon and eBay have agreed a Product Safety Pledge to remove unsafe items from sale within two days of being notified. They’ll also introduce a system letting customers report dangerous products, and respond within five days. The retailers have signed up to the European Commission’s (EC) Rapid Alert System, which tells large retailers across the continent which non-food items have been classified unsafe. They will also take measures to prevent sellers re-listing banned goods, including training them about how to comply with the EU’s safety laws. Two other online stores also signed up to the Rapid Alert System: AliExpress and Rakuten-France. The pledge is a “voluntary commitment”, although the EC will “assess the progress made on the commitments every six months”. Under current European law there is no deadline for…

BT has come up with an ingenious way to make a broadband cabinet blend in with its picturesque surroundings - by camouflaging it as a stone wall (pictured). Residents in the 650-year-old Suffolk village of Stanstead had complained after Openreach erected one of its usual green cabinets in front of a flint wall that was part of the former village pub. Ervin Xhafa, who owns the wall, said the cabinet “just looked so out of place”. He told The Sun: “We tried calling the council who couldn’t help and then BT themselves. I asked why they had not taken the location into account”. The company eventually decided to cover the cabinet in material with a stone wall printed on it, which Mr Xhafa said was “certainly an improvement”. BT’s actions…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: IObit Driver Booster Updating drivers is a pain. Windows Update is meant to do it automatically, but appears to be selective about what it updates. Which is why many people use driver-update tools, such as IObit Driver Booster. “One-click driver updating & fixing ensures a smoother PC for you and gamers”, states the syntactically dubious claim on Driver Booster’s download page (www.snipca.com/28370). Historically, IObit has a bit of a reputation for clogging up people’s PCs with junk and I was rather hoping that the company might have cleaned up its act. But no. In fact, it has found newer, even more annoying ways to offload trash on your hard drive. First, the installer tried to persuade me I needed to install Dashlane, which is actually…

Gaming industry ‘should be regulated’ If gaming is as addictive and destructive as is often made out, then yes it should be treated on the NHS. However, the gaming industry should then be regulated like the other pariahs of modern society – alcohol and tobacco. So games giving points for gang warfare and violence should be banned outright - or, like alcohol and tobacco, restrict its use by high taxation. Perhaps a levy of £100 on every game sold? Obviously, the game makers are not responsible enough to regulate their own industry, and they shouldn’t be allowed to do so because they know full well how to manipulate the vulnerable in society. Fortnite, the game mentioned in the article, is a prime example: “100 players fight each other in mass…

Can BT charge me an activation fee for upgrading? Q I recently upgraded my BT Broadband to unlimited. I was told over the phone that it would cost an extra £5 a month, with no other charges. When I received the confirmation email, there was a £49 activation fee. Can BT do this? Oliver Gaskell A BT usually charges an activation fee if a customer is switching from its ADSL broadband to its Infinity fibre service. But Oliver already had Infinity, and upgraded to unlimited, so we’re puzzled why he’s been charged a fee. We’ve asked BT for an explanation. We don’t blame Oliver for being annoyed that BT’s customer service didn’t mention the fee when he rang them to upgrade. But he still had 14 days to cancel –…

WATCH OUT FOR… Fake WannaCry panic emails What’s the threat? Scammers are once again trying to trick people into thinking their computers have been locked by the deadly WannaCry ransomware. They are sending emails designed to cause panic, hoping recipients will pay the ransom, which is $650 in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The crudely written email claims all your devices have been hacked and your files encrypted. It comes from the ‘WannaCry-Hack-team’, has the mis-spelled subject line ‘!!!Attantion WannaCry!!!’ (see screenshot) and reads: “All the information will be encrypted and then erased. Antivirus software will not be able to detect our program, while firewalls will be forceless against our unique code. Should your files be encrypted, you will lose them forever”. However, this a brazen lie. Your devices and files are…

SCREEN CAPTURE PicPick 5 https://picpick.app What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 Microsoft’s Snipping Tool is fine if you need to grab a simple screenshot, but it’s limited. It also seems to be on borrowed time. In the release notes for the next Windows update, Microsoft hints that it might be ditching Snipping Tool. But no matter. Alternative screen-capture program PicPick is far superior, with many more features. It’s free for home use, though businesses and those requiring technical support will need to buy a licence (starting at $29.99). Options include everything from a simple full-screen grab to capturing scrolling windows (ideal for web pages), and fixed areas based on specific pixel dimensions (so you can grab screenshots at the right dimensions, saving you the hassle of resizing it…

Nobody wants to see the words ‘Starting at £1,699’. We’d accept ‘Going up to £1,699’ or ideally ‘Buy two for £1,699’. Still, with a top-end laptop you’re getting a PC and a monitor in one, and it’s not surprising that this add up to a fair bit of cash. Dell’s redesigned full-size convertible works hard to justify it. We’re sceptical about ‘2 in 1’ or ‘360-degree’ laptops, which have a hinge that goes all the way round, so you can fold the screen back and use it like a tablet. The risk is that the machine is too big and heavy to do that comfortably. But at 2kg, or 4lb 6½oz in old money, this laptop-tablet is as light as 15in laptops get, and the refined Infinity Edge design leaves…

Intel builds its processor chips at giant facilities in Arizona that look like sets from a science-fiction film. Palicomp is based on an industrial estate in the famous railway town of Crewe. Intel clocks the i5-8600K processor at 3.6GHz. Palicomp has tweaked it up to 4.8GHz. You can’t argue with maths – that’s one-third cooler. “For home and office use, as well as the odd game, this is a superb all-rounder” Not literally cooler, of course: the overclocked chip inevitably runs pretty warm. In our tests, however, it only occasionally hit a maximum of 90°C, which is 10 degrees below its safe limit. And it delivered excellent performance all round, excelling, thanks to its six cores, at multitasking and demanding jobs like photo and video editing. Having said that, Intel…

Mesh routers spread Wi-Fi better around your home, eliminating dead spots. When we tested Netgear’s version, Orbi, it gave excellent speeds, but at £371 it was too expensive (see our review, Issue 498). The RBK40 is a cheaper option, with two slightly smaller white plastic units lit up with blue LEDs, one of which replaces your existing Wi-Fi router while the other is positioned elsewhere in your home. If your current router is a separate box cabled to your broadband provider’s modem, replacing it should be straightforward, except you’ll have a new Wi-Fi network with a different name and password. Creating just one network keeps things simple, automatically connecting your devices in the most efficient way, whether they need the old 2.4GHz or the newer 5GHz band. You can add…

Should I replace my desktop PC with a laptop? Q I need to replace my PC and monitor. I could buy a desktop PC with an Intel i5-8400 processor for around £550 from a company like PC Specialist, but a touchscreen laptop such as the Dell Inspiron 5000 13 2-in-1 (£650 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28320, pictured) only costs about £100 more – the same as adding a Full HD monitor. Would it make more sense to have the flexibility of the laptop? Elspeth Winter A It might, but the similarities are overstated. The desktop PC has a 1TB hard drive and the laptop a 256GB SSD. The SSD will work faster, making Windows feel responsive, but has a quarter of the space. Could you fit in all your photos, videos, music…

We’re giving away one copy of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2018, the new version of the leading graphic-design software loved by millions of professionals, small business owners, and design enthusiasts worldwide. It’s packed with high-calibre tools for graphics, illustration, layout, tracing, photo editing, managing fonts and more. The suite contains the latest version of Corel’s leading design programs, including CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, Corel Font Manager, Corel PowerTRACE, Corel CONNECT, Corel CAPTURE and Corel AfterShot. It provides access to: 10,000 clipart and digital images 2,000 high-resolution digital photos Over 1,000 TrueType and/or OpenType fonts 350 professionally designed templates Over 500 interactive frames and photo frames To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘coreldraw’ in the subject line by midnight 31 July. You can buy CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2018 for £599 from…

What you need: WizFile; Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 25 minutes Windows’ default search tool indexes each file location one at a time, which can be a slow process. New program WizFile is faster because it lets you index every PC drive before searching, then displays your results in a fraction of a second. Even better, you can create your own search filters to see files you look for often in just two clicks. We’ll show you how to use the program and create these filters. STEP 1 To download WizFile, go to www.snipca.com/28282 and click the green Download button at the top left. Run the downloaded setup file until the program opens (it doesn’t contain any PUPs). Next, click the Options tab 1, click Select Drives,…

AGES 0-5 ABC Animal Toddler Adventures* Free www.snipca.com/28391 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/28392 (iOS) The activities and games in this app aim to improve a toddler’s cognitive and memory skills. They’ll learn how to identify and write letters and numbers, and it offers animal-themed games like Spot the Difference and Jigsaw Puzzles. AGES 6-10 Air Control 2* Free www.snipca.com/28393 (Android) Best played on a tablet, this game lets your child be an air traffic controller. They need to direct a plane (as it appears on screen) to a runway by drawing a path between the two. The aim is to avoid collisions, which becomes increasingly challenging as the number of planes increases. AGES 11-16 Two Words with Susie Dent* Free www.snipca.com/28394 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/28395 (iOS) Two Words is a turn-based two-player Scrabble-type…

Switch on surround sound The Windows 10 Creators Update (released in April 2017) introduced a feature to replicate surround sound played through headphones. It’s disabled by default, so to give your ears a treat, right-click the speaker icon in the notification area at the bottom right of your desktop, then select ‘Open Sound settings’. Make sure your speakers are selected in the ‘Choose your output device’ section, then click the blue ‘Device properties’ link. In the window that appears, click the ‘Spatial sound’ tab, select ‘Windows Sonic for Headphones’ from the list (see screenshot below), then tick the ‘Turn on 7.1 virtual surround sound’ box. Click OK. The enhanced audio is best experienced with a set of over-ear headphones and gives extra depth to movie soundtracks and games, creating a…

Is the open web under threat? If the sheer number of websites that are currently unavailable to UK users is anything to go by, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. From news sites to streaming services, the list of content restrictions depending on your location seems to be growing by the day. Enter the virtual private network (VPN). Previously the sole domain of corporations looking to provide secure and restricted access to their internal networks, VPNs are now hugely popular among home users - not least because they can help overcome blocked websites. At this point, it’s worth noting that, despite its name, the recent VPNFilter malware that attacks routers has nothing to do with VPNs nor their security, so don’t let it put you off them. Use Symantec’s VPNFilter…

INDEPENDENT AUDITS The VPN industry is unregulated, which many people believe is a good thing. However, it’s far too easy for rogue VPNs to make promises about securing your data – only to break them once you’ve signed up. We’d like to see more VPNs take TunnelBear’s lead in commissioning independent audits on their services (www.snipca.com/28325). CLEARER PRIVACY POLICIES Progress has been made, but there are still huge inconsistencies between what a VPN promises on their home page and what’s included in their privacy policy. Additionally, many such policies are poorly written - some are even pasted from other sites. Given that privacy is one of the main reasons people use a VPN, companies should do more to make their policies clear. GENUINE FREE TRIALS There are countless reports online…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Why won’t my tablet output to HDMI? Q My so-called ‘smart’ Sony TV isn’t as smart as it was when I bought it seven years ago. I want to subscribe to Netflix and watch catchup services, but my TV doesn’t support them and I’m loath to buy another set that will probably seem just as dumb in a year or two. I read online that I could use these streaming services by plugging a tablet or smartphone into my TV. My tablet is a 2013 Nexus 7 running Android 6.0.1. My phone is a OnePlus One. I duly bought an MHL HDMI adapter with microUSB connector, and a power socket. I plugged my HDMI cable into this and connected my tablet to the TV but nothing…

Security researchers have demonstrated how hackers could work out a password by analysing the heat left by fingers on a keyboard. Scientists at the University of California say a thermal camera can ‘see’ which keys have been pressed for up to a minute afterwards. They released images showing how the heat cools in that 60 seconds (pictured), suggesting that hackers would need to act quickly to get entire passwords. Clockwise from top left, the images show heat remaining after zero, 15, 30 and 45 seconds. The researchers said for this “thermanator” attack to work, criminals would have to place a heat-sensing camera so it has a clear view of the keys. People who type with a ‘hunt and peck’ technique of pressing one key at a time with two fingers…

MICROSOFT FACE TECH NO LONGER ‘RACIST’ Microsoft has updated its facial-recognition technology so it better detects darker skin tones. Scientists criticised the technology in March for recognising more accurately the gender of people with lighter skins. Microsoft analysed how to overcome “bias” in the results, and claims error rates for darker skin have been reduced by up to 20 times. The company explains all at www.snipca.com/28271. TESCO REPLACES CHECKOUT WITH APP Tesco is testing a phone app that would let customers buy items at a supermarket without having to visit a till. It has given some staff the Scan Pay Go app to use in a store at its Welwyn Garden City headquarters. Payment is made automatically by scanning a barcode. Hundreds of cameras and electronic sensors identify customers and…

Internet provider EE has launched two packages offering speeds up to 300Mbps, using BT Openreach’s G.fast service. The announcement came as BT confirmed 59 new areas that will be able to receive G.fast, which can hit top speeds of 330Mbps. EE’s new Fibre Max 1, providing 145Mbps broadband, costs £42 a month – £5 cheaper than the 300Mbps Fibre Max 2. Both are on 18-month contracts with unlimited usage (visit EE’s site for details: www.snipca.com/28265). Existing EE customers with a phone on a contract will have their monthly data allowance increased by 20GB if they sign up to a plan. The company said the packages are designed for busy homes that have several devices connected to the internet, claiming that on 300Mbps customers will be able to download an HD…

I recently moved house and made sure I booked an engineer visit from my internet service provider to ensure my new home had an active broadband connection from day one. Predictably, the engineer failed to show up and I had to struggle with patchy internet access for several days. Under Ofcom’s proposed compensation system, I would have received £25 from my provider to compensate me for the missed appointment, and £5 per day for the delay to the start of my service. But according to the Office of Telecoms Adjudication (OTA), the UK’s ISPs and Openreach (the division of BT that supplies the infrastructure for most of the nation’s broadband) still “remain some distance apart” in terms of agreeing who takes responsibility for paying this compensation (www.snipca.com/28372). So, like countless…

When I saw your feature on amazing new apps (Issue 530), I thought, great, I can liven up my Kindle Fire tablet with a few of these. But the first six I tried brought up the message ‘You have no available devices’. I know us Kindle owners are the poor relations of the computer world, but, in future, would it be possible when you have similar articles, to indicate which apps are compatible with Kindle? Colin Macrae CA says Colin makes a fair point. The Kindle Fire is deservedly popular with Computeractive, so we promise not to overlook it again. In the meantime, here are three excellent apps that work on the Kindle Fire: Goodreads (www.snipca.com/28296, see screenshot), a social network for book lovers; TuneIn Radio (www.snipca.com/28297), providing access to over…

The more companies involved in a case, the harder it can be to resolve. As explained in Issue 529, reader Philip Sheratt was stuck in the middle dealing with three companies – retailer Argos, mobile network Three and phone manufacturer Huawei. When Philip bought a Huawei Honor 6X phone (pictured) from Argos last November, it said he’d be able to upgrade its operating system from Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) to 7.0 (Nougat). After failing to do this for several months, he asked Argos for a refund. It refused saying the phone wasn’t inherently faulty. Philip turned to Huawei, but it said it couldn’t help because the phone was a Three-branded handset. Philip said this wasn’t true, leaving him with nobody to turn to except Consumeractive. We started with Three, which claimed…

Many of us have old online accounts lying forgotten, gathering digital dust. These pose a security risk, particularly if you’ve used the same password for some of them. A new way to track them down is using Dashlane’s Inbox Security Scan – now added to the password manager’s app (Android www.snipca.com/28327; iOS www.snipca.com/28328). In Android, tap the top-left menu button, then scroll down to the Tools section; in iOS tap the Tools button at the bottom (see screenshot for both operating systems). Next, tap Inbox Scan, then Scan My Email and choose your email provider and address. In Android, you can choose Gmail or Outlook; in iOS it’s just Gmail. Dashlane will search for accounts created with the address you select. You’ll then need to give Dashlane permission to “view…

What’s the best software to share wedding photos? Q My daughter is getting married next year and I’m looking for a phone app that will let our family and friends upload photographs taken on the big day. I like the simplicity and features of WedPics. Is there an alternative you can recommend? Douglas Sykes A WedPics (https://wedpics.com) is a hugely popular app for sharing wedding photos, but it’s not quite as free as it likes to make out. Although it won’t cost anything for you or your guests to upload and browse photos, downloading them isn’t free. To download high-resolution photos suitable for printing, you’ll need to pay 99p per photo or £14.99 for unlimited downloads (£23.99 to get unlimited download access for all your wedding guests). If you don’t…

Envy is HP’s low-end range, but this is at the top of that range, and you’d expect excellent photo printing from a printer labelled ‘Photo’. Unfortunately, the 7830 only uses four inks, and the black is pigment-based to give more solid print than the dye-based colours. What could possibly go wrong? Well, on glossy paper (best for image quality), we found areas of black came out with a visibly different finish, making pictures look patchy. This happened on both of the HP papers we tried. Colours also looked oversaturated. “Not great for photos but fine for your general printing needs” If you don’t particularly want to print photos, this photo printer could be fine. There are USB 2.0 and Ethernet ports as well as Wi-Fi, and you can print directly…

It’s time for LG to wade into this year’s flagship phone battle, and the G7 could be a winner. Though announced at a higher price, it’s selling for £599, £100 cheaper than Apple’s iPhone 8 and Samsung’s Galaxy S9. Yet it looks and feels top end. The huge screen has almost no border and an iPhone X-style notch at the top (the areas to the left and right of the notch can be left blank or used to display notifications). The classy plain case is water-resistant and finished in Gorilla Glass 5 front and back, which looks wonderful (at least until you cover it in fingerprints). On the back, ironically, is a fingerprint reader, along with the obligatory dual cameras. Every device seems to need a gimmick, and the G7…

The RBK40 comes with two identical units (like the original Orbi RBK50), but its backhaul connection (the network it uses itself to get wireless signals to and from the base, as opposed to the network it creates for you to connect to) uses two rather than four data streams. It’s recommended for smaller homes (up to 4,000 sq ft), compared with 5,000 sq ft for the original RBK50 two-pack. Whether it provides reliable reception in all parts of your home will depend on more factors, including layout and construction. One unit per storey is recommended, so if you have a basement or loft, consider a three-pack (£350 for RBK43 or £400 for RBK53). Here, though, the price difference compared with the £200 BT Whole Home Wi-Fi three-pack is stark. You…

Although you’ve never heard of it, this is one of the world’s most popular smart watches. This is because it’s made by the Beijing-based smartphone giant Xiaomi, and most of its users are in China. It’s not even officially available in the UK, but that hasn’t stopped importers offering it via Amazon, and if you venture into the wilds of eBay you can even find it for a few quid less. At around £60, it’s cheaper than even basic devices, let alone the likes of the Apple Watch. So is it any good? “Long battery life, lots of fitness data options and smart watch capabilities” Surprisingly, yes. The Bip has a colour touchscreen that, unlike Apple’s, stays on all the time, so you don’t have to rely on it recognising…

Casio C-80 What was it? In 1980, Casio launched this watch with a black-on-beige LCD, calendar and calculator, operated by 12 tiny rubber keys. Roger Moore had introduced the world to the digital watch in 1973’s Live and Let Die, with James Bond’s Hamilton Pulsar P2, and in 1977 Hewlett Packard’s $600 HP-01 added maths functions with a 28-button keyboard. But the C-80 (pictured), at $75 ($230 today), was relatively affordable and could be operated without a stylus, using Casio’s Finger Touch System to respond only to the key you pressed hardest, ignoring accidental touches. How have things changed? Today’s smart watches are more ambitious. The Huawei Watch 2 Sport (£279 from Amazon www.snipca.com/28369) has a round diver’s-style dial and a full-colour LCD screen that can show either a digital…

ANDROID & iOS Book train tickets within the UK using SkyScanner SkyScanner is a popular free app that lets you compare the cost of flights and hotel rooms across the world. The app recently added a new feature that lets you search for and book train tickets within the UK. If you’ve ever used the app to book flight tickets, you’ll find the process very similar. Open the app (Android www.snipca.com/28373; iOS www.snipca.com/28374), then tap the new Trains option at the top. You’ll now see further options to enter your departure and arrival locations, stipulate number of travellers (including any children), and add any railcards that are applicable (see screenshot below). When you’ve finished, tap the green search icon. You’ll now see a list of outbound trains, with the journey…

WINDOWS 8.1, 10 Find out if your laptop battery needs replacing After a few years, you’ll notice that your laptop needs to be charged more often, which is a sign of the battery deteriorating. To check this, generate Windows laptop battery health report. Press the Windows key, type cmd, right-click the Command Prompt option (the first search result), click ‘Run as administrator’, then click Yes. Now type powercfg/batteryreport into the Command Prompt window, then press Enter. After a few seconds, you’ll see a message telling you where the report is saved. Open the file location, right-click the ‘battery-report’ HTML file, move your cursor to ‘Open with’, then click Microsoft Edge. The report contains six sections giving you detailed battery information and graphs. Scroll to the ‘Battery capacity history’ section. If…

Windows can apply a selection of effects to your audio. What’s available depends on the make and model of your sound card, but most will let you change equaliser settings, adjust the sound to suit the size of your room, and even turn your PC into a karaoke machine with Voice Cancellation, which works surprisingly well. To see what’s available on your sound card, right-click the speaker icon in the notification area, select Sounds, then right-click your speakers in the Playback tab and select Properties. Finally, click the Enhancements tab and choose from the options available. If the Enhancements tab is missing, you may need to update your sound card driver.…

Due to their ability to anonymise your online activity, VPNs are often in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Do criminals use them? Without doubt. Should this stop law-abiding citizens from benefiting from them? Absolutely not. That said, VPNs aren’t legal everywhere. North Korea bans them outright (unsurprisingly), as do Belarus, Iraq and Turkmenistan. VPN usage is also heavily restricted in Russia, China, Turkey, UAE, Iran and Oman. If you travel to any of these countries, be sure to check whether the VPN you use is permitted before switching it on. In the UK, it’s legal to use a VPN. However, the legality of using VPNs to access blocked websites and content isn’t quite so clear. Doing so is probably breaching the terms of service for the site you’re…

Paperless schmaperless. There’s still nothing quite like printed paper for easy reading and showing off your photos. Just ask the International Space Station crew, who recently took delivery of a new HP inkjet for printing keepsakes to bring home. Apart from zero-gravity modification, it’s nothing fancy – it ‘just prints’ (see www.snipca.com/28242). You, too, can get plenty of mileage out of ‘just printing’, with no need for expensive extra supplies. All you need for these projects is an A4 printer with ink and paper, plus the odd household essential such as sticky tape and, ideally, normal gravitational forces. Make sticky labels and decals Your homebrew bottles and jars of home-made jam deserve equally personal labels - and this printing hack delivers a much classier result than white stickers. First, design…

Windows 10 doesn’t trust portable program files, so its SmartScreen security guard often tries to block them. These repeated false-positives aren’t just annoying, they’re also unfair to developers and users. You can switch SmartScreen off (go to ‘App & browser control’ in Windows Defender Security Center). But it’s like silencing the boy who cried wolf. One day, a file will be a real wolf. So leave SmartScreen switched on, and check portable programs on VirusTotal (https://virustotal.com). If all (or nearly all) AVs say it’s safe, then override SmartScreen by clicking ‘More info’, then ‘Run anyway’ (see screenshot below).…

Did you print the wrong DISM command? Q I have tried the DISM clean-up command, as shown on page 52 of Issue 529, but the Command Prompt window will not recognise the instruction. Are there any spaces in the code that I am not seeing? David Dye A We’ve checked the command that we printed and it is definitely correct, and works. So yes, either you made a typing error, or something else is awry. You didn’t say what error message you were seeing but first check that you’re using Command Prompt in ‘elevated’ mode. This is required to run any DISM command. We explained how to enable this permanently on the preceding page of the same issue but you can launch an elevated Command Prompt on an ad-hoc basis…

10bit HDR 10bit high-dynamic range. HDR means better contrast, greater brightness and more colours. 10bit can store more images than 8bit. 32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older PCs are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 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. Add-on A program that adds extra features to your browser. ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. A technology that converts a standard phone line into a broadband internet connection. Bandwidth A measure of how much data can be transferred through a connection at one time. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. Software built into every PC…

Factory reset Sometimes I envy my gadgets. If only I, too, could turn back time with a few taps of Ctrl+Z, or run a mental reverse-image search on the person I was introduced to 30 seconds ago and whose name I’ve already forgotten. But the big one, the function I really covet, is factory reset. Factory reset is an all-purpose get-out clause. It wipes the slate (or tablet) clean, undoing all your mistakes like Ctrl+Z on steroids, or like Superman flying the wrong way around the world to bring Lois Lane back to life. In real life you can only currently reset electronic devices and not actual time and space, but I’m sure Google is working on that. “Open Settings, tap ‘Factory data reset’, tap Reset Phone. Done. Wow. It…