Table of contents for 561 in Computeractive

My first ever PC, nearly 30 years ago, was so big you could’ve used it as a fence at Aintree. It took up almost half of the floor of my tiny student bedroom. Over time, my PCs got smaller as my bedrooms got bigger, but I never dreamt you’d be able to cram immense processing power into a box half the size of a packet of Shreddies – or indeed one that fits in the palm of your hand. As Jonathan Parkyn reveals in our Cover Feature, the new breed of mini PCs make great alternatives to desktop computers and laptops. They’re fast, quiet, use little energy and, crucially, are now affordable. But as with many areas of computing, ‘mini PC’ means different things to different people. Here, we explore…

Websites like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram will be fined millions of pounds for showing “harmful” videos, as part of the Government’s aim to protect children online. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom will be given new powers to investigate and penalise sites if they show videos that contain violence, child abuse or pornography. It will be able to fine sites that don’t check users are over 18, and fail to give parents controls to stop their children seeing video content that “impairs their physical, mental or moral development”. As well as fining sites five per cent of their revenue, Ofcom will be able to “suspend” or “restrict” their services in the UK. The Government says Ofcom will be given the powers in September 2020, following a consultation this summer. Ministers are also planning…

More than half of Brits aged over 65 now shop online, according to the 2019 ‘Internet access’ report (www.snipca.com/32454) from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The number has jumped from 48 to 54 per cent – the first time it’s been over half in the 21 years the ONS has been surveying the public about internet use. However, over-65s don’t shop anywhere near as often as younger people. They were most likely to buy three to five items in the three months surveyed (January, February and April 2019), much lower than the 11 items people were most likely to buy in every other age group. Overall, 82 per cent of adults bought items online in the past year, a jump of five per cent. Among all shoppers, 44 per…

I’ve been a member of the National Trust (NT) for some 30 years now, and love visiting its sites and buildings. But I’ve noticed in recent years a tendency for it to create silly news stories to drum up publicity. I never thought one would appear in Computeractive, but there it was on page 6 of Issue 560 (‘Tech beats nature in war of words’). To paraphrase Andy Beer from the NT, he seems to think that if children think tweeting has nothing to do with birdsong, they will lose their love of nature. Poppycock! Every time I visit an NT site there are loads of kids running, skipping and playing. They paddle in streams (nothing to do with Netflix). They listen to birds singing (nothing to do with Twitter).…

We feared the worst when Neill Harrild’s emails to Bluetooth and audio retailer Layen UK (www.layen-uk.com) kept bouncing back (see Issue 560). He wanted to get a refund for an i-Dock 4.1 Bluetooth music receiver (pictured) which he had returned after it developed a fault. When emails go unanswered, it’s usually because the company has terrible customer service, or is deliberately ignoring the customer. In some cases, though, it’s because the company has gone bust. We thought that was possible because in February Layen dissolved a name it had been trading under. However, the company’s owner Martin Kamarauskas assured us that Companies House had forced it to make the change. He replied quickly to our request for help, apologising for Neill’s “bad experience”. As a small company, he said, customer…

Can you recommend a user-friendly alternative to a text editor that allows me to directly view and edit the code in GEDCOM files? Joe Hollis Ancestris is a GEDCOM viewer and editor that offers a range of editing tools. You’ll need to install Java Runtime files (www.java.com), but once in place download the ‘Daily’ version of Ancestris (visit www.ancestris.org, click the Download heading, then scroll down a little). Extract its zip file to a folder, then double-click ancestris64. exe inside ancestris-latest\ancestris\bin. Open your GEDCOM file, then choose View, Gedcom Editor to edit it, line by line. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

As a child back in the 1980s, I singlehandedly kept Radio Rentals in business by hiring camcorders all the time - the oversized type that took full-size VHS tapes and left you with backache. Editing my masterpieces was always a chore, though, and involved linking the camcorder to my VHS player having inserted a blank tape. I then had to play the video on the camcorder, while frantically pressing the Record and Pause buttons on my VHS player to capture what I wanted. Thanks to my smartphone, these days I can record video at a far higher quality whenever I like. But editing on the phone can be just as fiddly. Yep, I can quickly trim the start and end points of clips, but there is no easy way to…

Most smartphone brands rely on Chinese manufacturing, which couldn’t ask for a better showcase than this eye-popping new phone from the market-leading Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp. A huge AMOLED screen fills the whole front, with no notch. Want a selfie? The motorised camera flips up at a jaunty angle, only to retract when you’ve finished or, indeed, if you drop the phone. That’s a nice touch, but you’ll still want to avoid accidents considering this is an all-glass device, available in black or green. Although some of the detailing is a bit fussy, it’s a gorgeous piece of hardware. On the back (pictured below) is a standard wide-angle camera with a bright f/1.7 aperture, an ultra-wide f/2.2 and an f/3 5x telephoto. These have, respectively, 48, 8 and 13-megapixel…

Chrome OS is still basically a glorified web browser, so to judge how useful a Chromebox would be to you, try spending your whole day in the Chrome browser app on a PC. With services like Google Docs and web app versions of Microsoft Office now available, as well as creative tools like Google Photos and Pixlr, there’s quite a lot you can do. But it’s not Windows, and many advanced tasks aren’t possible. For gaming, Chrome OS is more like a mobile platform, and compatible with Android games, although how playable they are is pot luck. Chromeboxes will also work with Google’s Stadia console subscription service when it launches later this year. The CXI3 comes with a mouse and keyboard (pictured), but they are rubbish. You could add better…

Double sentry Like Netgear’s Arlo, the mydlink Pro wireless security camera requires a separate hub to connect it to your broadband. This kit includes a hub and two cameras, and if you shop around it’s no pricier than some standalone units. You can add up to two more cameras at around £135 each. “Crystal-clear results and handy homestorage options” The original Arlo is now cheaper (£230 for the hub and three cameras from Amazon www.snipca.com/32488), but it only shoots at 720p resolution, compared with the mydlink Pro’s crystal-clear 1080p with 7.5-metre night vision. That makes the mydlink Pro more comparable to the newer Arlo Pro 2 (£450 for hub plus two cameras from www.snipca.com/32490). In both cases you can place the cameras inside or out and run them from their…

Winner of a Computeractive ‘Great Pick’ award in Issue 555, Netgear’s Orbi Outdoor RBS50Y extends your Wi-Fi into your garden, giving strong signals outside your home and works with every router. It has excellent specifications, with six antennas and is rated AC3000 for its of 400Mbps and 866Mbps networks (on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands respectively). NETGEAR The Orbi performed exceptionally well in our tests, hitting speeds over 450Mbps, much faster than we’ve seen with other equipment. If you add the RBS50Y to the three-box Orbi Ultimate Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi RBK53 system (£410 from Amazon, www.snipca.com/31687), you’ll guarantee an extremely fast signal throughout a large property. To enter, email your home address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘Orbi’ in the subject line by midnight 10 September. Good luck! You can buy…

Windows 10 has supported USB-C since day one, but it’s not available on previous versions. However, third-party drivers make it possible to add USB-C support to earlier versions. StarTec claims that the expansion card we mention on page 36 is compatible with Windows 7 and later. If you’re using an older operating system, we’d recommend holding off on upgrading to USB-C until you’re ready to buy your next PC, because you may have trouble finding a device that supports your current configuration. You’re also less likely to enjoy the speed benefits that USB-C offers when using an external adapter because your integrated ports may comply only with the USB 2.0 standard or earlier. When Windows 7 launched nine years ago, it initially lacked support for USB 3.0, even on computers…

RunAsXp email client Free from www.runasxp.com I’d like to recommend RunAsXp to Jonathan Parkyn, who in Issue 558’s Named & Shamed (page 21) said he’s still looking for an email program to replace Windows Live Mail (WLM). His search is at an end! RunAsXp is an up-to-date, modified version of Outlook Express (see screenshot), and works perfectly with Windows 7, 8/8.1 and 10. At the end of the installation you’re asked for a small donation, and you’re then sent three installation keys. Only one is needed, with the other two as spares. Having tried WLM, eM Client and many others, I can say that RunAsXp beats them all. The developer gives superb assistance with quick replies to emailed queries, and there is a support forum as well. Highly recommended! Also,…

PixPax Free Android, iOS https://pixpax.app Newcomer PixPax is the UK’s first photoprinting app to use only recycled paper for its matt 4x3in prints, with printed frames and captions if you want - and it lets you place unlimited free orders. So how does it make money? You only get 18 free prints per order (£3.99 delivery), and ‘top up’ prints and hanging kits cost extra. Best For: Eco-friendly photo snaps FreePrints Photobooks Free Android www.snipca.com/32473 iOS www.snipca.com/32474 First came the magnificent FreePrints (www.snipca.com/32495), with its un-refusable offer of 45 free 6x4in prints every month (£1.49 delivery). Now here’s FreePrints Photobooks, which sends you a 20-page 7x5in softcover photo book for free every month (£5.99 delivery). They’re fantastic quality and make brilliant gifts. Best For: Photo albums Cheerz Free Android, iOS…

OFFICE CALC & MICROSOFT EXCEL Split text into separate cells Paste the contents of a text file into a spreadsheet and it will often be inserted as cells within a single column, which isn’t ideal. For example, if you paste the results from a running race, you may end up with each runner’s name, age and finishing time all in a single cell. In both LibreOffice Calc and Microsoft Excel you can quickly split the text in each cell, allowing you to better manipulate the results, such as ordering the list by finish time. In Calc, highlight the column that you want to split, then click the Data menu at the top and select ‘Text to Columns’. In the window that appears, select the ‘Separated by’ option, then choose how…

Mini PCs at a glance – all shown to scale *Barebones system (requires additional components) Build your own, cheap mini PC If you plan to do little more than browse the web, stream films and carry out basic office tasks, there’s little point splashing out on an expensive mini PC that you’ll never use to its full potential. The Jetway JBC420 (our Gold winner, above) is a prime example of a solid, low-cost mini PC. Its Intel Celeron processor isn’t powerful enough to play games and will struggle with more demanding tasks such as video editing, but it’s fine for general, web-based activities and the projects we outline on pages 53-55. It comes with 2GB of memory, but there’s no hard drive as standard. The JBC420 uses mSATA drives, such…

Why can’t I change VirtualBox settings? Q First, thanks for your excellent and informative magazine. I tried to follow the virtualisation How To feature (Issue 555, page 35), which went well until I tried to create the ‘vm shared’ folder. Am I supposed to create this folder in Windows 10 and the Windows 7 virtual PC? That aside, in VirtualBox an error appears informing that hardware virtualisation is enabled in the system settings on the Acceleration tab, and should be disabled as the host platform doesn’t support it. However, this area is greyed out so cannot be changed. I tried looking for solutions online but no luck. Could you advise? David Robinson A Let’s start with the error, which is happening because you’re trying to launch a 64bit edition of…

Virgin Media has promised to freeze prices for “vulnerable” customers, such as pensioners, the unemployed and people with disabilities. The move is part of an “enhanced package of measures” to protect a reported 100,000 customers who find it hard to shop around to find better deals. Virgin said it will freeze prices for customers who haven’t contacted the firm for three years. It will then try to get in touch with them to conduct an “annual review” to see if they can be moved to a better deal. If Virgin can’t reach customers, they’ll be automatically moved to “the most appropriate and best available package”, which should be cheaper than their existing deal It claimed these measures go further than Ofcom’s new rules which, from next February, force broadband providers…

Almost fooled by Norton ‘renewal I received an email apparently from Symantec telling me my Norton Security Premium would soon expire, and that I should click one of the links to renew. I was almost taken in because it quoted my real product key. However, my subscription expires in 2021, so I emailed Symantec who identified it as a scam because the address that sent the email (renewalpromo@norton-sales.com) isn’t genuine. Fortunately, no damage was done as I didn’t click the links. The subject line of the email was ‘Super Renewal 1 year of extra Norton protection and Norton Utilities’. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

In Issue 560 (News, page 6) you raise the intriguing possibility of Microsoft releasing a Windows 11. I think you may be right. It won’t be called that, of course. Microsoft has said many times that there will never be a Windows 11, so using that name would be too embarrassing a U-turn. But I suspect it may be coming, with a trendy name that dispenses with numbers. My theory is based on Microsoft’s decision to reduce the number of Feature Updates to one a year. This is a very good move because users like myself were getting fed up with the constant and random restarts while the computer updated. But the consequence of this is that Microsoft will only be able to release new tools once a year. That’s…

I’ve been a TalkTalk customer for many years now and have, of course, been aware of the seemingly relentless criticisms that the company has faced. However, despite these problems, I have remained relatively trouble-free, and on the odd occasion I’ve needed help I have, with a degree of patience, managed to overcome any difficulties. I recently received an apology in the form of an email from the company headed ‘We’ll be adding a credit to your account’. To my surprise, this was in connection with my requested upgrade to TalkTalk’s faster fibre broadband. The email explained that the refund of £20 was compensation for a delay which was at most four days beyond the predicted date. This gesture was completely unsolicited and came as a pleasant surprise. Has a company…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Freemake Video Downloader Freemake’s free video-related software used to be pretty decent. Indeed, there was a time when I considered Freemake’s Video Converter tool all but essential for making sense of the many different video file formats flying around the internet. Since then, however, Freemake has seemingly transformed itself from a fairly trustworthy software provider into one of those companies that resorts to tricking users into paying for premium upgrades and offloading unwanted junk on to people’s hard drives. Take Freemake Video Downloader (www.snipca.com/32483). The tool’s primary function is to download copies of online videos from sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and others in a variety of formats – a practice that, in itself, is slightly dodgy, since downloading content violates most video-streaming sites’ terms…

Q I’m thinking of replacing my five-year-old desktop PC. I don’t play games but do quite a bit of video editing, video conversion and DVD burning. So I would appreciate some advice on choosing a unit with plenty of storage and processing power, a DVD writer, and Windows 10 on SSD. Tony Pritchard A The 720p resolution of DVD is low by today’s standards: most people are shooting and watching in 1080p, moving to 4K. To stay futureproof, consider a recent Intel i7 (i7-8 or or 17-9) Ryzen 7 (2700 or 3700) processor, though an i5 or Ryzen 5 could be adequate for 1080p. A separate graphics card (GPU) can help with adding effects and rendering playback as you work, but if you do a lot of conversion, go for…

A giant leap? Disappointingly, the Samsung Space Monitor isn’t South Korea’s answer to the US’s Space Force. It’s just a PC screen that comes on a desk clamp instead of a stand. This is the 32in version, with 4K resolution to take advantage of all that space. There’s also a 27in (£330 from www.snipca.com/32409) with 2560x1440 pixels but a higher 144Hz refresh rate for gamers. The 32in’s 60Hz refresh rate is perfectly fine, though, and you get a huge area for your Windows desktop or your favourite films. “Saves desk space while addingWindows desktop space” With 40 per cent more square inches, the larger model makes the most of Samsung’s design concept: to minimise the impact of a big screen on your desk space. A slim, square-edged case with extremely…

Devices that never caught on Sony Clié What was it? Launched in 2000, the Clié (pictured) was Sony’s range of Palm OS personal digital assistants. At the time, several makers were licensing the operating system originally created for the PalmPilot PDA, creating a market comparable to Android today – but much smaller, because the primitive apps and fussy interfaces of these early pocket computers, with awkward stylus and button input, limited their appeal. Sony gave its Clié devices an edge by adding photo, video and audio features. Why did it die? Clié handhelds were still based on tiny, unresponsive screens, and with neither Wi-Fi nor cellular data built in, accessing the web or email required a slow and unreliable Bluetooth connection to a mobile phone. Syncing to the user’s PC…

Pull Out & Keep Issue 561 What you need: USB-C adapter or expansion card Time required: 30 to 60 minutes depending on your option The world is moving to USB-C, and if your computer is a couple of years old, it’s already falling behind. USB-C (also known as USB Type-C) is between 830 and 6,600 times faster than the first-generation USB plugs and cables. Even the so-called SuperSpeed+ USB 3.1 standard, which seemed inconceivably fast when launched just five years ago, only runs at a quarter the speed of USB-C. Of course, if all you’re doing is connecting your phone to charge it, you might not notice how fast it’s working. But if you’re streaming video from an external drive or editing a home video, you can enjoy higher resolutions…

I’d like to thank Jane Hoskyn for her brilliant feature on British maps in Issue 560. It’s already kept me busy for a few days, and will probably entertain me more in the days to come. She mentioned Flightradar24 (www.flightradar24.com), which is probably the website I spend most time on. It’s great, but it certainly knows how to tempt you into paying for more advanced tools. For example, you’re only allowed to apply one filter to specify the types of plane you want to see. Once you’ve done that, you have to pay a monthly or yearly fee to use more filters. I eventually succumbed to the temptation, and now pay $9.99 a year (around £7.90) for the Silver package. This lets me choose other filters, such as type of…

ANDROID & iOS Stream and download Freeview TV shows to watch anywhere Freeview has finally launched an Android app (www.snipca.com/32464), six months after launching on iOS (www.snipca.com/32465). Both are free to download and you don’t even have to create an account - just install the app and dive straight into streaming live and on-demand TV shows. Well, almost. Freeview is a gateway to all the major UK networks’ streaming services, namely BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 (Channel 4), My5 (Channel 5) and UKTV Play (Dave, Really, Yesterday and Drama). They’re all free to watch, but you do need to have their apps installed in order to stream and download their shows. The Freeview app then acts as a one-stop gateway. The new app avoids the need to trawl through…

WINDOWS 10 Make notifications appear for longer Windows notifications (the small boxes that slide in from the bottom right of your screen) warn you if there’s something wrong with your PC, alert you to incoming emails and more. However, as they only display for five seconds it’s easy to miss them. You can click the square speech-bubble icon at the right of your taskbar to view recent notifications, but having to constantly check this is a pain. Alternatively, you can make the notifications stay on screen for longer. To do this, open Settings via the Start menu, then go to ‘Ease of Access’ and select Display on the left. Scroll down the settings on the right until you reach ‘Show notifications for’. Click the box below this to change the…

32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 720p/1080p Common types of high-definition video of 1280x720 and 1920x1080 pixels respectively. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. Alternative technology to LCD for flatscreens. Aperture Opening that controls the amount of light entering a camera lens. ATX Advanced Technology eXtended. A motherboard and power-supply specification developed by Intel in 1995. Biometrics Using measurable personal characteristics, such as fingerprints, for identification. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. Software built into every PC that connects the vital components. Calibration The process of checking that colours are accurate on a monitor. Core Units on a processor…

For some using a phone while eating at a restaurant is the height of bad manners, but new research shows that many diners now demand a good phone signal as well as excellent food. In a survey from Wi-Fi-engineering firm Global Wireless Solutions, 26 per cent of Brits said they regularly browse the web at the dinner table, with 18 per cent now expecting free Wi-Fi as standard in restaurants. Over a fifth (23 per cent) said they had to leave a restaurant because the signal wasn’t strong enough, while 11 per cent complained that a poor connection had “ruined” their dinner. The survey tested signal strength at 50 restaurants, finding that O2 and EE had the highest rate of successful call attempts at 99 per cent. However, EE only…

BBC PULLS STATIONS FROM TUNEIN The BBC is pulling all its radio stations from the audio-streaming service TuneIn (https://tunein.com) on 30 August. It said it took the decision because TuneIn wouldn’t let users sign into their BBC accounts, nor provide the corporation with data that would let it show personalised recommendations to listeners. BBC podcasts will remain available on TuneIn. Read more on the BBC’s site: www.snipca.com/32480. ONE FIFTH OF CARE HOMES HAVE NO WI-FI A fifth of care homes in the UK lack Wi-Fi, while less than half make it available in both communal areas and residents’ bedrooms, according to research from Carehome.co.uk. The site, which surveyed 2,800 care home owners, managers and care workers, called the findings “shocking”. Minister for Care Caroline Dinenage said: “I want to see…

BritBox should cater for ‘discerning viewers’ If nobody else will defend the BBC/ITV’s BritBox, then I guess I must. In Issue 560’s Letters Stephen Palmer asked why he should pay £5.99 a month to watch shows such as Downtown Abbey, Gunsmoke and Space:1999, which he already gets. My answer is that the £5.99 will include a greater quality of programme from the past, including those not available on the current channels. Just think of the great dramas of yesteryear: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I, Claudius, The Naked Civil Servant and The History Man. And all the landmark documentaries like Civilisation, Man Alive, The Ascent of Man, Life on Earth and Ways of Seeing. These acquired tastes won’t be served on throwaway channels like Dave or ITV4. I think there will…

LEAD CASE Is TV screen burn an inherent fault? Q In February 2017, I bought a £1,600 55in LG OLED TV from Domestic & General (D&G, www.domesticandgeneral.com), and now there’s a ghost image in one corner and the middle of the screen is a different colour. The problem is screen burn, according to the technician sent out by D&G, but this fault isn’t covered in my warranty. LG says it will charge me £1,200 to repair the TV. But isn’t screen burn an inherent fault? David Biggins A Good question, but it’s not easy to answer because screen burn (also known as burn-in) isn’t a clearly defined problem. Rather, screen burn is something of a catch-all phrase that describes several types of fault. It’s also possible that the problem is…

Reader David Roberts emailed us to ask how he could transfer a family tree from paper to digital using his copy of Family Tree Maker (FTM). Once done, he needs to export the file in a format that his brother-in-law – who doesn’t have FTM – can see on his laptop. To do this, set up the tree in FTM then choose File, Export. Click Continue and select GEDCOM from the ‘Output format’ dropdown menu. Click OK twice to export the file using the default settings, then email the GEDCOM file to the person who needs it (they’ll need to install My Family Tree, free from chronoplexsoftware.com/myfamilytree). Once it’s installed, they’ll then need to choose ‘Import GEDCOM…’ at the welcome screen. Share data as charts, reports and stories You can…

How do I remove silences from my audio recordings? Q I regularly attend astronomy talks and like to record the sessions as MP3 files to listen back to at a later date. Many of the recordings contain long pauses, making them frustrating to listen to. Can you recommend a tool to remove these silences? Ian Marsden A Audacity is perfect for this, although the process does involve a little trial and error. First, download Audacity (free from www.audacityteam.org), then open the audio file you want to edit. Once loaded, press Ctrl+A to select the entire audio track. Next, click Effects at the top, then select Truncate Silence. The default settings often work well, so before tinkering leave them as they are, then click Preview (see screenshot). Your audio will now…

Boris Johnson is making big promises about keeping criminals locked up for longer. I only hope these pledges extend to crooks who scam money out of vulnerable people. Muhamed Talukdar and Syam Hussain (pictured) are a case in point. In June, they were found guilty of laundering £200,000 stolen by fraudsters who phoned elderly people posing as police officers. In June at Worcester Crown Court the pair were sentenced to eight months in prison. But a recent appeal saw this slashed to a community order with an unpaid work requirement of 50 hours, meaning they walked out of court as free men. This result sends exactly the wrong type of message to would-be fraudsters. Get caught helping cheat people out of thousands of pounds and you’ll get a slap on…

Pillar box Google’s Chrome operating system is much less demanding than Windows, so PCs capable of running it can be built much more cheaply. That means we’re used to seeing Chromeboxes at the bottom end of the market, starting at a couple of hundred quid with a basic Celeron processor. If you use one of these regularly for more than just online shopping and checking your email, however, the slow performance can get annoying, and as a home-cinema centre or for games from the Google Play Store, you might need a bit more processing power. At over 500 quid, this Intel i5 version of the CXI3 is straying into proper PC territory, but it’s still relatively affordable and has the advantage of being extremely compact – more like the size…

What does it do? Alexa is Amazon’s voice assistant, competing with Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Assistant and Samsung’s Bixby. She’s embedded in the Echo range of smart speakers, but lives in the cloud, on Amazon’s servers. Why would I want it? Alexa can answer questions, check the weather or sports results, and control ‘smart’ lighting, heating and security systems. Amazon licenses other companies to offer Alexa ‘built in’. Note the distinction between products that can be controlled by Alexa and those that hear your instructions. The latter include some phones and laptops, the Sonos One speaker (see Issue 524) and Orbi Voice, a £279 add-on unit for Netgear’s Orbi mesh Wi-Fi. Despite not having an in-car display solution like Apple’s CarPlay or Google’s Android Auto, Amazon has also persuaded…

LAPTOP HP Envy 13 £799 from www.snipca.com/29555 Tested Issue 539 The combination of an eight-hgeneration quad-core i5 chip and MX 150 graphics makes this an excellent all-round laptop, let down only by the poor colour reproduction of its Full HD touchscreen. Seven-hour battery life is adequate, and it’s nicely made. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,200, but the best deal is with the brand new quad-core i7-8550 and QHD touchscreen. £1,280 from www.snipca.com/26796 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £397 from www.snipca.com/30707 Tested Issue 501 Now discounted and with a stylus included, this full-size HDR tablet is a better deal than the new Tab S4 (see Issue 540). Apple’s faster £319 iPad with optional £89 Pencil is superior, but lacks microSD expansion. ALTERNATIVE Amazon Fire…

I split my time across three different platforms: an Asus laptop running Windows 10, a Mac mini running macOS and a pair of Raspberry Pis running Raspbian. While all of the work I do on the Raspberry devices is saved to the web, I frequently need to swap large files between the laptop and Mac, for which an SSD connected via USB-C is by far the fastest option, as both the Mac and the laptop have USB-C ports built in. I do have a USB-C-to-USB 3.0 adapter, which I could theoretically use to connect the drive to the Raspberry Pi 4 (the first model to integrate USB 3.1 ports). But it would probably be overkill because I use the Pi primarily as a little writing gadget for accessing Google Docs…

Windows Notepad ✓ I stopped using Windows Notepad not because I disliked it, but because I suspected there were alternatives that had more sophisticated tools. It always seemed very one-dimensional to me. And what I use instead… As the plusses after its name suggest, Notepad++ (https://notepad-plus-plus.org) adds loads of functions to Notepad. The one I find most useful is tabs (see screenshot). I’ve become so used to flicking between tabs when browsing online that I now look for software that replicates this experience. Another great tool is the spell checker, while the line numbers help to keep everything in order. You can easily zoom in and out of the text, and install plug-ins to add even more useful tools. Tell us why you stopped using a website, app or program:…

Space Weather Reporter Free Android www.snipca.com/32468 Extreme weather doesn’t just happen above your house. Discover the geomagnetic storms, solar flares and - wait for it - ‘coronal mass ejections’ taking place far above the Earth’s atmosphere. Tap an event type with a red dot to see what’s happening. It’s dry scientific data, so we hope it adds more colour with future updates. Squarespace Free (plus £10+ subs) Android www.snipca.com/32470 iOS www.snipca.com/32471 Website builder Squarespace has a proper app at last, so you can create a website on your tablet without having to go via your mobile browser. It’s not the cheapest option - £10 per month minimum after a free trial - but it’s the most slick, with drag-and-drop tools for building superb-looking pages for your club, event, small business…

Curiously, Windows doesn’t include the option to add a recycle bin shortcut to your taskbar. Fortunately, there is a workaround. First, right-click an empty portion of your desktop, select New, then Folder. Give the folder a name, such as ‘Recycle Bin’, then drag the recycle bin icon on your desktop into it; this creates a recycle bin shortcut within the folder. Next, move the folder to wherever you want to store it (for example, in your Documents folder) - make a note of this location as you’ll need it in a moment. Now right-click an empty section of the taskbar. If ‘Lock the taskbar’ is ticked, click it once to unlock it. Right-click the taskbar again, click Toolbars, ‘New toolbar…’, then navigate to the new folder you just created and…