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Is there a more irritating term than ‘preloved’? Websites like eBay increasingly use it instead of ‘second-hand’ to make items sound more desirable. It only works with some items though – mostly clothes. Calling a jumper ‘pre-loved’ makes it sound like it’s been wined, dined and sent flowers on Valentine’s Day, rather than slept in 100 times and been used as a makeshift bib. ‘Refurbished’ is a much more honest term when describing second-hand PCs, laptops, phones and tablets. When customers return these devices, retailers test, repair and rebuild them, so they’re ready to be sold again. They work as good as new, but cost much less than the original full price. The market for refurbished devices is booming, and there are fantastic deals everywhere. But there are also plenty…

Can I get refund for gift cards not valid in Australia? LEAD CASE Q In June, our 11-year-old grandson visited us from Australia. We took him to Currys, buying two £50 Nintendo gift cards. However, he can’t use them back at home in Australia. Neither Currys nor Nintendo will refund us, even though the cards haven’t been used. Do we have any rights? Paul Taylor A We’re afraid Paul doesn’t have any rights because neither Currys nor Nintendo have to ensure that gift cards are eligible outside the country of purchase. If you’re planning to use a product in another country, you should always ask the retailer whether it can be used there. If the retailer gives you misleading information you may have a case against it. Paul said he did…

What’s the best VPN for my French holiday? Q I’m about to spend a month in the south of France, and would love to access some UK TV while I’m there. Is there a VPN that’s purpose-built for France-UK connections? David Rhodes A Sorting out a VPN before travelling is a good idea, not least because it makes connecting to unfamiliar Wi-Fi networks less risky. If you also want to use one to watch British TV, make sure it has servers in the UK and that they’re not blocked by UK broadcasters. In our experience, NordVPN (see screenshot below) is the best. It has more than 5,500 servers in 60 countries and, in our tests, unblocked BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+. It’s also incredibly fast, peaking at 820Mbps.…

What do they do? Generally, the more cores a processor has, the better equipped it is for complex multi-tasking operations. However, processors are sometimes quoted as also having a certain number of threads, which send multiple instructions to each core. Cores can perform more than one task at a time by juggling threads, which makes them operate as additional ‘virtual’ cores. How do they work? Threading is handled by individual processors, so they can manage their own efficiency. If one core is busy doing a job and another instruction comes through, the processor can reassign the task to a different core, so it can be done at the same time. If several light jobs need doing while another core is busy with the original activity, they can be threaded through…

What is it? A “321-layer 4D NAND” chip (pictured) from South Korean manufacturer SK hynix. What does it do? NAND chips are the electronic components of SSDs that store all the data. The layers work in parallel, so by stacking them up you can store more data. This chip has enough layers to create an SSD with 100TB of storage. Current NANDs go up to 236 layers. What’s the catch? With so many layers working in parallel, a new interface is needed to access them at SSD speeds. This hasn’t been finalised yet, but suffice to say you won’t be able to plug one into your motherboard’s regular M.2 SSD slot. Also, it’s currently only a prototype – production isn’t expected to start until 2024 at the earliest. So can…

What you need: Mozilla Thunderbird Time required: One hour Thunderbird has just been updated – and we like what we see. Version 115 of the free email client, which you can download from www.snipca.com/47173, has a fresh new look and logo (pictured above right). The tabs of its old interface are still there, but you can hide them if you only have one component open. There’s also a column of icons that switch between email, calendar, address book and more; a handy search box in the title bar; and a discreet menu that saves you picking your way through the full menu bar. It’s not just redesign for design’s sake, though, as there are other changes that will make an appreciable difference to the way you manage your email. Chief…

CHROME Restore the classic download manager Back in Issue 655 (page 42), we explained how to get Chrome’s new download manager by enabling a hidden experiment. The feature has now been added to the stable version of the browser – but not everyone is happy about the change. Previously, when you downloaded files from the web, they were shown in a bar along the bottom of the browser window. This could sometimes become crowded with items and obscure the lower part of the page you were viewing. To fix this problem, Google has relocated the download manager to a button in Chrome’s top-right toolbar. This looks like a down-arrow pointing at a tray (1 in our screenshot below) and only appears once you start downloading a file. The button becomes animated…

Callsheet Free* iOS www.snipca.com/47257 Callsheet lets you look up information about films and TV shows without the ads, auto-playing videos and sign-in prompts that now blight IMDb. Find out where to stream a film or TV series, hide potential spoilers and view relevant Wikipedia articles. The first 20 searches are free, then it costs £1 a month. Shortwave Email Free Android www.snipca.com/47259 iOS www.snipca.com/47258 New to Android, this app upgrades your Gmail account to provide a simpler, faster and ad-free email experience. It groups related emails into ‘bundles’ you can respond to, archive, snooze or pin to read later; summarises messages using AI; and lets you block unwanted senders and trackers. Google Arts & Culture Free Android www.snipca.com/47260 Google has redesigned its brilliant but sprawling Arts & Culture app to…

The latest version of PowerToys (0.72) improves the Mouse Highlighter tool so it can follow your cursor as you click and drag – making it easier to keep an eye on it. If you’ve already downloaded PowerToys, launch it and check whether you have an update to install. This should take you to version 0.72 or more recent. If not, download it from the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.com/47273). Once you’ve launched PowerToys, click ‘Mouse utilities’ on the left (1 in our screenshot), followed by the Open Settings button. Press the Windows key+Shift+H keyboard shortcut to turn it on 2. Under ‘Appearance & behavior’ you can change the highlighter colour for both left- and right-clicking, as well as other settings to make it easier to see. In our example, we changed the…

Why should I buy a refurbished computer or mobile device? The obvious answer is to save money, which is particularly important during the current cost-of-living crisis. Refurbished devices cost significantly less than brand new models, often saving you hundreds of pounds, while offering the same features and performance. You’ll also be helping the environment because the PC, phone, laptop or tablet – and the components inside it – will be given a second lease of life, rather than becoming landfill. This means you won’t be contributing to the world’s growing pile of electronic waste. Doesn’t ‘refurbished’ just mean ‘scrubbed-up second-hand’? Not really. ‘Refurbished’ is an umbrella term for used goods that have been recertified or repaired for resale, which encompasses everything from devices that were sold but never taken out…

Aside from not being able to withdraw money from cash machines, or use them where contactless payments aren’t accepted, there are a few drawbacks to virtual debit and credit cards. Some online services may cancel or pause your subscription if they suspect you of trying to defraud them, even if you’re only trying to avoid being defrauded yourself. Other services decline virtual-card payments at checkout. If you use a disposable virtual card to make a purchase, or have switched to a new digital card, you won’t be able to claim a refund if there’s a problem with your order. The card number will have expired, which means the retailer can’t pay money back into it. This is in contrast to standard credit cards, which offer purchase protection when you spend…

When repairs are dragging on, telling companies to hurry up often reaps rewards for us. That’s what’s happened with HP, which was taking far too long to fix Paul May’s PC (see Issue 663). He returned a new TE02-1000na desktop PC (pictured) soon after purchase because it developed a fault. At this point he had owned it for less than a month, so could have demanded a full refund rather than wait for a repair or replacement. However, by asking HP to repair the PC he had given up his right to an instant refund. HP then said it couldn’t repair the PC because it didn’t have the right replacement part. He wasn’t happy about this and asked for a refund, but HP said the machine was on an “engineering…

OFFICE SUITE LibreOffice 7.6 www.libreoffice.org What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11, macOS or Linux LibreOffice has received a major update that further cements its status as our favourite free office suite. There are new options and improvements for all the main LibreOffice tools, as well as tweaks to its interface. For example, the Recent Documents list you access from the File menu now shows the most recent items for the current module first. This means that if you’re using Writer, text documents you recently opened in that application will be listed above spreadsheets from Calc and presentations from Impress. Word processor Writer gets the most attention in this release, with several welcome additions. The most useful is a new Page Number Wizard, which makes it much easier…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Samsung’s all-logging ‘No Log VPN’ Many free VPN apps are the modern equivalent of snake oil, in that they promise you the Earth and deliver the square root of naff all. With countless obscure options to choose from, relying on a known brand is normally a good rule of thumb. That’s why I gave the ‘Samsung Max VPN & Data Saver’ a spin. This app comes installed on Samsung Galaxy devices, but it’s also available to all Android users via the Play Store (www.snipca.com/47084) – from where I installed it on my Oppo Find X3 phone. With more than 50 million downloads, and built by a reputable company, there seemed little to worry about. Samsung even goes to great lengths to assure you they value your privacy, claiming…

PHONE ❘ £300 from Amazon www.snipca.com/47162 Intelligent design There are significant compromises with the Motorola Edge 30 Neo that explain why this Android smartphone costs only £300. For example, it has a modest 128GB of storage, there’s no microSD card slot to expand this, and its 4,020mAh battery that left it lagging behind rivals in our battery test (it still lasted over 17 hours when playing video, but other similar models can exceed 20). Physically, though, it feels like a more expensive phone. The design is sublime, from the subtle grain effect on the rear (pictured below), which makes the plastic look like brushed aluminium, to the bundled transparent protective case. The smaller battery helps keep the phone compact, with a 6.3in screen and no wasted space. Moreover, it has…

LAPTOP PRICE DROP Acer Swift 3 14in £799 from www.snipca.com/44367 Tested Issue 648 Comes with a powerful 12th-generation Intel processor and 1TB SSD to make Windows tasks feel incredibly fast. Also has a decent 2560x1440-pixel IPS screen and comes with plenty of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4-compatible USB-C. ALTERNATIVE Lenovo Yoga 6 Gen 7 Has a slower processor, and half the storage and RAM, but remains a good laptop for the price. £799 from www.snipca.com/44950 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 £749 from www.snipca.com/42211 Tested Issue 634 Samsung has replaced its own Tab S7+ to become our favourite Android tablet. It’s fast with a stunning 11in screen, and has a longer battery life than the iPad. This model gives you 128GB – you’ll need to pay around £649 for 256GB.…

uBlacklist Chromium www.snipca.com/47145 Firefox www.snipca.com/47146 Google’s search results prioritise popular websites and those that use SEO tricks to gain their pages more prominence, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best matches for your query. If you’re tired of your search results being cluttered by sites you never visit, you can remove them using uBlacklist. This extension lets you stop specific domains appearing in Google results simply by clicking the ‘Block this site’ option next to a URL (see screenshot). You can view all the sites you’ve blocked, and remove entries if necessary, by going into uBlacklist’s Options. This page also lets you skip the confirmation box when you block sites and enable the add-on for other search engines including Bing, DuckDuckGo and Brave Search. If you don’t like that,…

AroundMe Free* Android www.snipca.com/47277 iOS www.snipca.com/47278 AroundMe helps you find nearby amenities including cash machines, hospitals, petrol stations, pharmacies and supermarkets, and provides maps, contact details, reviews and photos. Some of its information is out of date and it includes ads (pay £2.99 a month to remove these), but it can be faster than using Google Maps. Best For Finding local amenities InYourArea Free Android www.snipca.com/47279 iOS www.snipca.com/47280 Created by Reach, the publisher of more than 100 regional newspapers and websites, InYourArea provides local news and info based on your postcode. This includes breaking stories, details of upcoming events and property for rent or sale. There’s also a Community section where you can interact with your neighbours. Best For Getting local news UK Bus Checker Free* Android www.snipca.com/47284 iOS www.snipca.com/47283…

ONLYOFFICE Create a new style of list OnlyOffice 7.4, released in June, lets you create ‘styles’ to change how lists appear in your documents. First, make your list in your document. In our example, we created a list with three levels (1 in our screenshot below). Next, double-click the top level in your list 2, and select Home at the top, followed by the ‘Multilevel list’ icon 3. Now click List Settings, to open a box where you can change formatting options such as colours, font, size and indentation. Click a number under ‘Select level’ 4 to change which level in your list you’d like to change. In keeping with our example, we only customised formatting for levels 1, 2, and 3. Click OK when you’re happy with your new…

As well as the standard checks you should make before buying refurbished tech (see page 53), pre-owned phones and tablets require further attention. Determining their condition is straightforward - generally Grade A is as nearly new as it gets, Grade B means minor cosmetic blemishes and Grade C devices have noticeable scratches and look used – but these grades may have different labels such as Pristine or Fair. Before you buy, check whether the phone or tablet comes with a charger – some companies only provide a charging cable to reduce waste – and any other accessories, including a manual. When you receive your device, you should ensure all data from the previous owner has been wiped, the battery charges fully, the camera and microphone work, and it connects to…

You can buy a refurbished version of virtually any device, but with certain items it’s better to wait for the price of a new model to drop. For example, it’s tempting to save a hundred pounds or so with an as-new smart TV. But most people hang on to their TV sets for years, so it’s likely a set has been returned because it was faulty. It should be repaired by the reseller, but it’s hard to tell how old and used TVs are, and there are lots of ways they can go wrong – see our Cover Feature in Issue 661 (buy it from www.snipca.com/47253). Pre-owned headphones can also seem appealing, when heavily discounted – provided you trust they’ve been thoroughly cleaned after being in someone else’s ears. But…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 2K A screen with 2048x1080 pixels. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 7-Zip A free, open-source file-compression tool. 720p A common resolution of high-definition video: 1280x720 pixels. AI Artificial Intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. Often used to describe technology that can perform human-like tasks. Bandwidth A measure of how much data can be transferred through a connection at one time. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. Software built into every PC that connects the vital components. It’s visible for a few seconds when the PC starts. cd/m2 Candela per square metre.…

Plans to let you switch broadband quickly with just ‘one touch’ have been delayed by nearly one year until March 2024. The One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo, https://totsco.org.uk), which is in charge of implementing the new ‘one touch’ process, says it’s aiming to get the system working by 14 March 2024. In 2021, Ofcom set a deadline of 3 April 2023 for internet companies to introduce a system that starts the process of switching as soon as you’ve contacted your new provider. But Ofcom postponed this when providers admitted they weren’t ready for the change. It said the delay was “extremely disappointing and frustrating” and accused providers of letting down their customers. TOTSCo said that the new date of next March “strikes the right balance” between the need to act…

When my subscription to Evernote (https://evernote.com) increased in early July, I decided to downgrade my level to a free one and cancelled my PayPal link to it. However, just like Fagin, I reviewed the situation and changed my mind. Reversing this decision resulted in several emails to and from Evernote, as we discussed the best way to reinstate my subscription. I ended up talking to someone in customer support called Eden S, who efficiently dealt with the mess I had created. Their email to me when the problem had been resolved was one of the most courteous replies I’ve ever had from any company. It said: “As a valued customer of Evernote, my goal is to provide you with the good quality of service you deserve. I’m glad that I…

Wise Folder Hider Pro www.snipca.com/47315 Price: £19.90 per year Free trial: N/A What you need: Windows 10 or 11 We’re big fans of Wise’s free programs such as Disk Cleaner and Program Uninstaller, but Wise Folder Hider is one of its ‘freemium’ tools. It lets you hide and encrypt your personal photos, documents and other files, but do you need to pay to get its full privacy benefits? Both versions of Wise Folder Hider make hiding files, folders and even entire USB sticks incredibly easy. Simply click the relevant button, select the item you want to conceal and it will vanish from File Explorer. You can additionally lock it with a password (see screenshot), in case someone using your PC opens Wise Folder Hider to see what you’re hiding –…

PRINTER ❘ £55 from HP www.snipca.com/47266 Not fit for a print When it comes to tech like PCs and smartphones, you can usually grab a bargain by compromising on a few extras to get a more affordable model that still represents great value for money. However, this rule of thumb doesn’t always apply, as the HP DeskJet 2710e demonstrates. The printer has a basic, no-nonsense design that makes it fairly easy to use. Unlike many multifunction printers it’s relatively compact, measuring 154x425x304mm (HxWxD). The lid on the scanner has a low profile, and the controls on the left edge keep everything neat and tidy (pictured below). “Budget machine for so-so prints at sluggish speeds” It’s not fast though. With our 24-page black-and-white document, it took nearly 19 seconds for the…

SECURITY CAMERA ❘ £80 from Amazon www.snipca.com/47220 Record holder Top-of-the-range home security systems tend to start expensive and come with bundled subscriptions that raise the cost even higher. That makes the Wiz Indoor Wi-Fi Camera all the more refreshing, because it’s affordable to buy and doesn’t require a subscription to record footage (to a microSD card) – though you would still need one to save video online. As you might expect of an £80 security camera, it isn’t the most advanced device. The first thing missing from the package is an adapter to connect the included USB cable to a power socket. You may have a spare one available, but if not you’ll need to find one separately. It records in 1080p HD video, which should be good enough for…

SEARCH Get shortcut‘cheat sheets’ in DuckDuckGo I love DuckDuckGo, so I was delighted to see your Cover Feature on it in Issue 662 (buy the back issue from www.snipca.com/46928). One tip I’ve never seen you mention in any issue is typing cheatsheet in DuckDuckGo’s search engine to see a list of keyboard shortcuts for a particular site or program. For the tip to work, you have to add the name of the site/program, so type excel cheatsheet (1 in our screenshot left), for example, to see the shortcuts that Microsoft has created for Excel 2. You need to click Show More 3 to see all of them, and there’s also a link to see the links on Microsoft’s site 4. Using this method you’ll find shortcuts for Chrome, Facebook, Firefox,…

ANDROID Chat privately using Google Messages Back in Issue 658 (page 45), we wrote about the RCS (Rich Communication Services) feature in Google’s Messages app (www.snipca.com/47255), which lets you send photos and videos in text messages without being charged by your mobile network. Google has now updated the app – which comes installed on Android phones – to apply end-to-end encryption to your messages. This new feature brings Messages more in line with WhatsApp and Facebook, which also encrypt messages, and means no one but you and the recipients can view the contents of your text conversations. It works in both one-to-one and group chats, and is enabled by default, though your phone network may ask you to agree to its updated terms of service. To ensure you’re using RCS,…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Bring back XPS Viewer One of Microsoft’s oddest decisions was to exclude XPS Viewer from Windows 10 and 11. This was useful in previous versions of Windows as a way of reading XPS files, which are similar to PDFs, albeit not as popular. To restore this tool, search for and open ‘Optional features’ in Windows. Next, in Windows 10, click ‘Add a feature’ at the top left then select XPS Viewer in the list and click Install. In Windows 11, click the top-right ‘View features’ button (1 in our screenshot below), then search for ‘XPS viewer’. Tick the box next to its entry 2, then click Next, Install. Once installed, restart your PC and search for XPS Viewer to find it. WINDOWS 10 & 11 Remove tasks…

Switching between two open spreadsheets in an Excel workbook can be fiddly and time consuming, especially if you need to compare data between them. Instead, consider opening your workbook in a new window so you can read or edit two tabs at the same time. Click ‘View’ at the top and select New Window (1 in our screenshot). Your workbook will now appear in a second window 2. This is the same file, so any changes you make in one will appear automatically in the other. To do this in LibreOffice Calc, click Window on the toolbar and select New Window. You can arrange these two windows as you see fit, although we’d recommend snapping them for the best view, as we’ve done in our example. By dragging your window to…

With inflation still uncomfortably high, few of us can afford to spend many hundreds of pounds on a new smartphone or laptop. This means hanging on to our current devices even after they start slowing down and running out of space, when we once would have splashed out on a replacement. Refurbished technology provides a simple solution to this dilemma, by letting you buy the devices you want, with the same features and performance, for a significantly reduced price. While these items aren’t brand new, they’re often as good as – and can save you a small fortune. Recent research by Vodafone found that nearly a third of Brits (32 per cent) already own a refurbished phone, and another 24 per cent are planning to buy one (www.snipca.com/47254), so there’s…

Google Pixel 7 (128GB) From £390 from MusicMagpie www.snipca.com/47232 Full price: £599 Saving: £209 Get Google’s most recent smartphone in Good quality for this bargain price, or pay an extra £50 for Pristine condition. Apple iPad 9.7 (2018, 128GB) From £172 from Back Market www.snipca.com/47290 Full price: £419 Saving: £247 Save nearly £250 on this five-year-old iPad in Fair condition, or pay £20 more for Good condition or £33 extra for Excellent. Samsung Galaxy A40 £90 from OnBuy www.snipca.com/47289 Full price: £250 Saving: £160 Click the Refurbished tab in the Compare Sellers box in the link above to view bargain prices for this Samsung phone. Microsoft Surface Pro 6 (1796 – Wi-Fi only) £210 from Envirofone www.snipca.com/47238 Full price: £599 Saving: £389 Although Envirofone has mislabelled the Microsoft Surface Pro…

Burn a DVD today and there’s no guarantee it will be readable in 10 years’ time. Even if the format isn’t obsolete by then, the disc itself may have degraded – a process known as disc rot – while in storage. This happens when the chemicals it’s made of degrade, oxidise, or react to ultraviolet light. As a result, the various layers that make it up can literally peel apart. When this happens, the disc becomes unreadable. There’s no way to ensure that it won’t happen to your discs, so making copies of your personal discs every few years makes sense – or, better, backing them up to an alternative medium, like a local hard drive or online storage.…