PC Pro March 2016

I SIT IN MY study surrounded by technology: a smartwatch, smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop PC. In the living room there’s a smart TV, a connected Blu-ray player and set-top box. Despite this abundance of smart gadgetry, though, I feel no smarter than I did last year or a decade ago. I should probably define what I mean by smart – if I was just that little bit smarter I would have already. I’m not talking about facts at my fingertips, because they’re freely available. Who won the 1972 FA Cup final? Who scored the winning goal? No need to store such trivia in my brain when Google can provide the answer. No, I’m thinking about our personal ability to achieve more with our lives, to be better human beings, through smarter thinking.…

Simon Edwards One of the world’s leading experts on antivirus software, Simon shares the thinking behind the testing in our Labs. Read his Q&A on p82 David Moss What did you do last summer? David avoided the beaches, instead launching a Raspberry Pi into the edge of space. Lift off on p116 Davey Winder Taking part in a Facebook quiz may be giving away more than you realise, thanks to opaque privacy policies, explains Davey. See p118 Jennifer Schneidereit What does it take to become a games developer? Jennifer, co-founder of indie games company Nyamyam, speaks to us on p28…

RIPPING MUSIC FROM a CD to your phone is once again illegal – as is taking photos of designer objects. Copyright law is convoluted, but the UK took a step towards sanity in 2014 with the introduction of a private copying exception, which allowed individuals to back up films in the cloud or rip tracks from CDs into digital formats. However, that has now taken a step backwards, after a legal challenge from rights holders who claimed they weren’t being properly compensated, “for what they saw as a loss of sales opportunity,” said Peter Dalton of tech law firm Kemp Little. This compensation is required under EU law. “The UK government was keen to avoid any sort of levy, and argued that its limited copyright exception (which allows copying for personal use…

LAPTOPS Dell XPS 13 Late 2015 update, £1,149 dell.com/uk NEW ENTRY We already loved the Dell XPS 13, but this update makes it irresistible. Skylake processors, superfast SSDs and Thunderbolt 3 all help it fly through tasks, and the design is as amazing as ever. REVIEW: see p64 ALTERNATIVES Apple MacBook Pro 13in with Retina display NEW ENTRY The Force Touch keyboard makes the MacBook Pro even better. From £999; apple.com/uk REVIEW: pcpro.link/almacp15 Asus C201 Chromebook It has weak points – the screen is okay rather than great – but the C201 is ideal for life on the move thanks to its outstanding 12-hour battery life. £150; currys.co.uk REVIEW: pcpro.link/alasusc201 HP Stream 11 Good looking, well built and equipped with a decent display, the petite Stream 11 is as good as it gets for the money. £179; hp.co.uk REVIEW: pcpro.link/alhp11 TABLETS Apple iPad Air 2 9.7in tablet,…

When you announce that you’re moving to a new home, your friends and family tend to ask the obvious questions, such as “which area are you moving to?”, or “what’s your moving date?” However, this time, my mother-in-law’s first inquiry was: “Is it a smart home?” That’s significant, because the lady in question wouldn’t mind my saying that she’s far from a technology enthusiast. Even if she did mind, she’d never know, because the likelihood of her reading a computer magazine is zero. If the idea of the smart home has made an impact on her, the idea is evidently gaining mainstream traction. Perhaps that’s partly to do with the very graspability of the term itself. When people talk about the “Internet of Things”, I’m always struck by how opaque the phrase…

What is it about music-streaming services that turns musicians into babbling morons? “They’ve seized control of it,” said Radiohead’s Twiglet-in-chief, Thom Yorke, in a recent interview about YouTube’s grip on musicians’ work. “It’s like what the Nazis did during the Second World War. Actually, it’s like what everyone was doing during the war, even the English – stealing the art of other countries. What difference is there?” Yes, Thom. Apart from the genocide, concentration camps and immaculate uniforms, it’s exactly the same. However, at least it made a change from yet another swipe at the musicians’ battered football of choice: Spotify. Artist after artist has queued up to take a potshot at Spotify for failing to add enough noughts to the end of their royalty cheques: Taylor Swift, Adele and Björk…