PC Pro November 2022

You walk into a shop. You head to the computers sitting on the table, but you’re confused. That huge colossus of a desktop PC, with screaming fans and so much RGB lighting that Elton John thinks it’s garish, has a Core i7 and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics. But so does the tiny laptop to its left. Surely one can’t be as fast as the other, can it? You turn to the sales assistants for help and they assure you that both machines are just as fast as the other. After all, a Core i7 is a Core i7, and an RTX 3070 is an RTX 3070. Right? Well, obviously, you know that’s wrong. For one because you’re one of the technorati that reads publications such as PC Pro, and for another because…

Darien Graham-Smith Darien lifts the lid on DDR5 memory, revealing not only the differences compared to DDR4 but also disentangling the mystery of latency… and what all those numbers mean. See p44. James O’Malley If you have a student living in your household or about to leave for uni – no matter their age – then you also have access to a bunch of handy discounts. James reveals how to save big money from p40. Steve Cassidy Every cloud provider has its own benefits and disadvantages. If you’re trying to decide for your business, read Steve’s in-depth comparison of AWS with Microsoft Azure from p102. Jemima Johnstone Britain’s departure from the EU doesn’t mean that we have to stop hiring tech talent from overseas; it’s just made it harder. Immigration lawyer Jemima Johnstone explains all from p116.…

It was only a few months ago that NFTs were the hottest trend in tech. Celebrities from Paris Hilton to Snoop Dogg were cashing in, and tech visionaries were imagining how the metaverse could be built on the back of nonfungible tokens. Now it appears that – like tulips and Beanie Babies before them – the hype-train may have hit the buffers. According to The Block (theblock.co), a site that compiles NFT data, weekly NFT trading volume fell dramatically from a high of $1.1 billion last May to a much more sluggish $53 million in mid-August. Similarly, weekly NFT sales have fallen from almost a million per week at the end of last year to around 280,000. The downturn can also be seen in the behaviour of crypto firms. OpenSea, the largest NFT…

Exciting news if you’re rich, famous or paranoid: Apple has announced a new feature that will lock iPhones down tighter than ever before. Lockdown Mode, which is set to launch on iOS16 in the autumn, will cut off or restrict a wide range of features that most of us take for granted. Messages won’t be able to receive attachments, your phone won’t accept calls and messages from unknown numbers, and the Safari web browser’s rendering engine will be stripped back with features such as embedded fonts disabled. “What these really advanced groups have figured out is there [are] some flaws in things that don’t require any interaction,” said Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist at security firm Sophos. “In the security world, we call them zero-click vulnerabilities, meaning the user doesn’t have to be…

Exclusive investigations into technology practices. Email probe@pcpro.co.uk if you have a story If you log onto Facebook on an election day you might see a banner at the top of your news feed urging you to vote. There’s even a link to help you find your polling station. Or maybe you’ll just type your postcode into one of the news websites covering the election, to find out where to go and who your candidates are. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it helps make you an active participant in British democracy. What might surprise you is where the tool that helped you find this information came from. It wasn’t provided by the government, or the Electoral Commission, the body that oversees elections. Nor was it the work of big news organisations. Instead, the…

PREMIUM LAPTOPS Apple MacBook Pro 14in Stunning creative power from £1,899 from apple.com/uk Alongside its 16in sibling, this is simply the world’s best laptop for demanding users. The amount of power on tap via the M1 Pro or M1 Max processor is staggering, and it’s backed up by a terrific screen and stunning battery life. With all the ports you could ask for, the only negatives are its relative bulk (especially compared to the Air) and high price. REVIEW Issue 328, p58 ALTERNATIVES Apple MacBook Air (M1) The M2 MacBook Air is brilliant but expensive. Most people can happily save £250 and buy the M1 model for £999, as it’s still fast, light and top quality. From £999 from apple.com/uk. REVIEW Issue 318, p40 NEW ENTRY Dell XPS 15 (2022) Surely the best Windows all-rounder money can buy, with a slim design,…