PC Pro April 2016

EXCUSE ME, BUT I hope you don’t mind if I ask you to read to the end of this column? That would be terribly kind. It’s about manners, you see, a topic inspired by the excellent Radio 4 series fronted by David Mitchell on modern manners. The second programme dealt with the internet and phones. The latter is undoubtedly a scourge on society. I may not have the wit of Mr Mitchell, but is it too much to ask that you reach the end of my sentence before reaching into your pocket and checking your phone? It’s not my fault, I hear you cry. If I’m sitting in the pub and there’s a vibration in my pocket, how on earth am I meant to resist the temptation to check it? Well, because…

Sam Marshall Giving users Office 365 without training is like installing a kitchen without also teaching cookery, argues guest columnist Sam Marshall on p117 Nicole Kobie Forget London: Nicole explains why it makes sense to set up a tech company in Cambridge, Cardiff, Cornwall, Reading or the North East on p40 Nik Rawlinson Nik shows you how to create publications, from newsletters to magazines, using this month’s bonus software, Serif PagePlus X4. See p52 Barry Collins If your laptop is crushed, who you gonna call? Most likely it’s Kroll Ontrack. Barry speaks to its UK managing director in Profile on p20…

Background and analysis on all the important news stories Vinyl comes full circle A journey through time: how music formats have changed p12 Five stories not to miss Our quick-fire guide to the world of tech in the past month p13 PC Probe Why Netflix’s attempt to ban VPNs is doomed to fail p14 PC SALES FIGURES make for grim reading. According to figures from research group IDC, PC shipments fell by 10.8% in 2015 compared to 2014, dropping below 300 million units for the first time since 2008. Moreover, the long decline looks set to continue, despite potential upgrades to Windows 10. That’s bad news for the companies that made their name during the golden age of the PC: Dell, Microsoft, Intel and others. As the PC continues to dwindle, these companies are frantically looking for new…

The LP is enjoying a Lazarus-like comeback, with a 64% jump in sales in 2015. There’s even new hardware hitting the market, including a relaunch of the £4,000 Technics SL-1200 turntable. It seems audiophiles like to physically own media in quality formats, although the debate over which formats offer higher quality or richer sound rumbles on. The 2.1m vinyl albums sold last year marked the LP’s best figures in 21 years, during which the CD has prospered and started to wane, while downloads and streaming have exploded. However, while audiophiles are leading a boom for vinyl, the LP remains niche and makes up a tiny slice of overall music sales. At the other end of the perceived quality spectrum, streaming music via services such as Spotify leapt 81% year on year, overtaking…

1 Microsoft calls time on ageing Internet Explorers Microsofthasended supportforseveral versionsofInternet Explorerasit continuestopush userstowardsthe latestversion. Januarymarked thefinalupdatefor outdatedversionsof InternetExplorer,although whichoptionsremainavailabletoendusers dependsontheirinstalledversionof Windows.Onlythelatestcompatibleversion foreachOSwillbesupported–peopleusing WindowsVistawillbeabletopatchInternet Explorer9,whileWindows7andWindows8.1 usersonlyhaveInternetExplorer11asa supportedMicrosoftbrowser. Thecompanyisalsoendingsupportfor Windows8;securityupdateswillonlybe availableforusersthathaveupgradedto8.1. 2 Employers can read your personal chat messages, court rules Employersarewithintheirrightstoaccess privatemessagessentviachatorwebmail accountsoncompanycomputerson companytime,accordingtoEuropeanCourt ofHumanRightsjudges. Althoughworkemailshavelongbeen consideredfairgameforemployers,arecent casehighlightsthatbossescandelveinto personalchatorwebmailaccounts– providedstaffwereusingtheaccounts duringworktime. Thecasewasbroughtforwardafter aRomanianengineerwasfiredforusing YahooMessengerforbothworkandprivate communicationsoncompanytime.The engineerarguedthecompanyhadviolated hisrighttoconfidentialcorrespondence,but theEuropeanjudgessaiditwas“reasonable thatanemployerwouldwanttoverify thatemployeeswerecompletingtheir professionaltasksduringworkinghours” 3 Chrome browser’s speed boosted by 26% Googleistorolloutanewcompression technologyforitsChromebrowser,with thecompanyboastingthenewalgorithm willmakesurfing26%faster. Thecompanysaysitwilluseanew “Brotli”algorithmtocompressdatasuchas fontsandotherpageelementsthatcanslow webtraffic.Thenewalgorithmwillreplace thetwo-year-oldZopflialgorithmtocutdata transferlevelsandbatteryusage.Itcould alsobeusedinrivalbrowsers. “Wehopethatthisformatwill besupportedbymajorbrowsers inthenearfuture,asthesmaller compressedsizewouldgiveadditional benefitstomobileusers,suchaslower datatransferfeesandreduced batteryuse,”saidZoltánSzabadka, softwareengineerforGoogle’s compressionteam. 4 Industry campaigns against US back doors Apple’sTimCookandexpertsfrom42 countrieshavecalledonUSofficialstoback downontheirplanstoforcetechcompanies toincludebackdoorsinencryptionsystems. USauthoritieswantaccesstoencrypted messagesthatonlysecurityofficialswould beabletouse,butprivacyexpertsbelieve anybackdoorwouldcreateweaknesses thatcouldbeexploited.“Usersshouldhave theoptiontouse–andcompaniestheoption toprovide–thestrongestencryption available,includingend-to-endencryption, withoutfearthatgovernmentswillcompel access,”readstheopenletteron securetheinternet.org. 5 Google admits cars would have crashed with out human intervention DocumentsloggingGoogle’sdriverlesscars haverevealedthattheauto-drivingvehicles wouldhavecrashed13timesin14months hadahumannottakenoverthewheel,and thathumanshadtotakethereins341times duringthetestperiod. Ofthe341“disengagements”,272 involvedthesoftwarerealisingtherewasa problemandaskingthedrivertotakeover, while69incidentsinvolvedthedriver needingtograbthewheel.Google saidtenofthepotentialcrashes weredowntoitstechnology, whiletheotherthreewere downtootherdrivers. Thedatawasbasedon 424,331drivingmilesand Googlesaidthedistance betweenissueshadrisen from785milesto5,318 milesinthepastyear.…

NETFLIX HAS BECOME the leading gateway to films and TV, but it’s struggling to please both its viewers and the third-party film and TV studios that provide its content. This perilous position of the go-between has been highlighted by the company’s announcement that it plans to block VPN connections. The move could put paid to the trick used by many paying Netflix customers of accessing content that’s not officially available in their territory. Customers in the UK have long been able to log in through a US-facing VPN to fool Netflix into thinking the connection is coming from Springfield rather than Sheffield, and access the US’ richer library. “Some members use proxies or ‘unblockers’ to access titles available outside their territory,” said David Fullagar, vice president of content delivery architecture at Netflix when…