Inhoudsopgave van August 2017 - Computer Shopper

THIS MONTH we’re focusing on the streaming service Kodi, with a complete guide on setting up the software, how to get it working with different devices and – most importantly – how to use it legally (see page 96). If the Kodi movement has so far passed you by, the tool has managed to get itself a bad reputation as it’s mostly associated with illegal downloads of popular content. Carry out a web search for ‘Kodi’, and the auto-complete suggestions include ‘Sky Sports’, ‘Premier League’ and ‘Game of Thrones’. Game of Thrones has the dubious honour of holding the title of most illegally downloaded show for the past five years, no doubt partly in thanks to viewers being able to access it through dodgy Kodi add-ons. Initially, HBO, which makes…

THE PHONE THROBS in my pocket, its high-pitched ringtone wakes the dog. I answer warily, “Hello?” A jolly American voice is on the other end. Of the phone, not the dog. “Hi there, this is Mel Magazine in Los Angeles. Can I speak with Mel Croucher please?” I am still wary. “Did you say Mel Magazine?” “Ha, ha! Yes. We’re called Mel. Is Mel there? We’d like to do an interview. We’re interviewing all the famous Mels in the world.” I am flattered, before I realise the list of famous Mels is a very short one, and I must be in the lower depths. I put a smile in my voice, “Well hello to you too. This is Mel speaking.” There is a pause. “Huh? Mel Croucher, computers and stuff?”…

Ransomware makes NHS wanna cry SAY WHAT? AS ALREADY ADVISED by our Cyber Insider on page 10, WannaCry was the really bad example of ransomware that the world was definitely not waiting for. Attackers were able to gain remote access to users’ computers and install malicious driver programs in order to lock files and demand a ransom. The attack started to hit the NHS first in mid-May, leading to many cancelled medical appointments and procedures, and then spread out internationally, affecting dozens more countries. It made headline news in the papers and on the television, and raised a lot of awareness about who uses which operating system, and who patches them and when. So far, WannaCry has hit more than 200,000 computers in 150 countries, crippling hospitals, governments and businesses.…

Canada Bell ringing Telecoms provider Bell has admitted a hacker attack on its systems might have seen the loss of data relating to millions of its customers. Reports say a ransom demand was made, but the firm declined. Reportedly the hacker has the details of 1.9 million users. “There is no indication that any financial, password or other sensitive personal information was accessed,” the company said. “Bell took immediate steps to secure affected systems. The company has been working closely with the RCMP cyber crime unit in its investigation and has informed the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.” Canada Bank deposits hidden Konami code Banks are not known to be places for laughing in, but the Bank of Canada has made a little effort to inject a bit of fun…

“My voice is my password” The voice-recognition security key needed on an HSBC banking login, which the BBC beat with a twin “As cyber criminals become more sophisticated, there is simply no way for customers to protect themselves against threats unless they update their systems” Microsoft warns on WannaCry patching problems “Detained for seven years without charge while my children grew up and my name was slandered. I do not forgive or forget” Julian Assange celebrates freedom from his stay at the Ecuadorian embassy “In harnessing the digital revolution, we must take steps to protect the vulnerable and give people confidence to use the internet without fear of abuse, criminality or exposure to horrific content” The Conservative election manifesto promises a better online world “Today’s decision sends a clear signal…

£1,900 • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT Another excellent (if expensive) slimline gaming notebook, this time with decent battery life THANKS TO MORE power-efficient CPUs, gaming laptops are finally getting thinner. The latest example is Gigabyte’s Aero 15, a radical departure for a company whose high-performance offerings have tended to be rather hulking. The price is a sticking point: besides being a huge chunk of change in itself, the £1,900 asking price is a full £100 more than its closest competitor, the entry-level Full HD Razer Blade. This includes the very same quad-core Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card as the Aero 15, and also benefits from a slim chassis, so Gigabyte’s laptop might be a tricky sell. That said, there’s absolutely nothing lacking about those specs, especially…

£468 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT This photographer’s companion is a powerful Android handset and worthy upgrade to the P9 THE LEICA-BRANDED Huawei P9 (Shopper 342) was a pleasant surprise when it launched last year. Much of that was down to its dual rear cameras, which Huawei has wisely decided to carry over unchanged to the new P10. It also raises the issue of what’s actually new, especially since the P10 is pricier than the P9 was on release. The biggest difference lies in the P10’s improved physical appearance, which is uncannily iPhone 7-like in design. Huawei has tossed away the easily scratched all-metal silver back of the P9 in favour of a smooth, matt black rear that’s far easier on the hands (and pocket). THUMB AND GAMES The fingerprint sensor…

£256 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Kyocera’s Ecosys P5026cdw is a capable colour laser that turns out decent results without breaking the bank THESE DAYS, EVERYONE likes to put ‘eco’ in their product names, but Kyocera’s Ecosys printers have a fair claim to being slightly better for the environment. Their photoconductor drums are made from ceramic (hence the ‘cera’ in Kyocera), giving them a longer service life than you’d find elsewhere. The drum on the P5026cdw is guaranteed for the earliest of three years or 100,000 prints – two or three times what we’d expect from a conventional equivalent. In other ways, the P5026cdw is a completely typical small office colour laser. It can connect via USB, wired or wireless networks, has a front panel USB slot for walk-up document printing,…

£39 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A simple way to add security to Windows and online accounts WE ALWAYS RECOMMEND securing your PC or laptop via two-factor authentication, but while this boosts account security by requiring you to enter a one-time code (usually sent via text or generated via an app) as well as your password, it is an additional hassle. As a result, two-factor authentication can get annoying, to the point where it can feel like more trouble than it’s worth. With the Yubico YubiKey 4, you get the benefits of two-factor authentication, but without any of the downsides. This small USB key stores the cryptographic information you need; provided it’s inserted into your computer, all you need do is tap it when requested, and the two-factor information is sent…

£116 • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A powerful and well-priced hard disk designed for NAS devices, but smaller capacities would be good to see IF YOU’RE BUYING more storage for your PC, the odds are that you’re looking to upgrade with an SSD. However, the humble mechanical hard disk isn’t dead yet. If you want a lot of storage at the best price, even the most keenly priced SSD can’t compete with a hard disk. In particular, a hard disk makes a lot of sense for anyone looking to upgrade their NAS device, most of which are designed with mechanical storage in mind. Enter the Toshiba N300 High-Reliability Hard Drive, which is designed specifically for NAS usage, putting it in competition with the similarly focused WD Red series. With any NAS,…

£40 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A great upgrade, the new Fire TV is our favourite media-streaming stick THE ORIGINAL AMAZON Fire TV Stick proved itself to be one of the best media streamers available. Small, cheap and with support for most major streaming services, it was the perfect smart upgrade for most TVs. The only real issue was that the device was a little slow. This year, the new Fire TV Stick fixes most of the original’s problems and throws in an Alexa voice-powered remote control for good measure. For just £5 more than the original cost, that’s good value in our book. Although the new Fire TV Stick is the same size as the old one – it’s slightly bigger than a USB flash drive – the internals have…

Chat and Communication Evernote 6.4.2.3788 Store your notes, ideas and plans in the cloud, and synchronise them between computers. UPDATED Mailbird 2.4.3.0 A free desktop email client for Windows. UPDATED Miranda IM 0.10.69 Chat with friends across multiple messaging platforms, including AIM, Facebook, IRC and MSN, all from one simple interface. UPDATED Skype for Windows 7.36.0.101 Make internet voice and video calls for free, and buy credit to make calls to mobiles and landlines. Trillian 5.6 Use all your instant-messaging accounts with one application. Supports Windows Live!, AIM, Yahoo! and Google Talk. UPDATED WhatsApp Desktop 0.2.4240 A free PC and Mac version of the popular messaging app, allowing you to chat straight from your desktop instead of using the web app. Customisation iolo System Mechanic Free 16.5.214 Speed up your…

£500 • From www.box.co.uk VERDICT A near-silent system with heaps of extras, but CPU and storage speeds fall behind AS IMPORTANT AS it is to consider power, storage and features when choosing a basic home or home office PC, there’s one other thing that can’t be judged from reading specifications alone: loudness. It may be acceptable to have half a dozen fans whirring when you’re playing games with a headset, but for working and everyday browsing, keeping a PC’s volume down is crucial. While none of the systems on test here is annoyingly rowdy, Box’s desktop goes above and beyond with the excellently named Cooler Master Silencio 352 chassis. The front and side panels are lined with sound-absorbing foam, so even with both intake and exhaust fans running hard, they’re…

£500 • From www.gladiatorpc.co.uk VERDICT It’s devoid of fancy features, but this quiet PC is a capable performer with speedy storage ARIA OFFSHOOT GLADIATOR impressed with its £600 gaming PC, the Centurion (Shopper 347), and now it’s found similar success with a bread-and-butter office PC. The Enterprise appears entirely focused on core specs instead of gimmicks or extras, packing an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM and a 250GB SSD. Specifically, Gladiator has opted for the quad-core, 3GHz Core i5-7400, the same as the Palicomp i5 Titanium. One might think this relatively low clock speed (by full-fat Intel desktop chip standards, anyway) would mean weaker performance even in the most basic image test, but happily this isn’t the case: the Gladiator Enterprise scored a very high 106, as…

£500 • From www.pcspecialist.co.uk VERDICT A competent but unremarkable system, given a welcome boost by Intel Optane THE ENIGMA K3 is another PC that’s eschewed an SSD in favour of Intel Optane memory, along with Cyberpower’s. Once again, it’s relying on a 1TB hard disk (the Seagate Barracuda, by far the most common choice at this price point) accelerated by a 16GB Optane module, which slots into the M.2 port on the motherboard, effectively creating a 16GB cache for your favourite programs and files. According to AS SSD, this boosts sequential read speeds all the way up to 753.18MB/s, which is faster than you’d get from any SATA SSD. Write speeds are expectedly more in line with regular mechanical performance, at 119.63MB/s. You might also notice that this is slower…

Kodi has exploded in popularity in recent years for good reason: this media player is lightweight, runs on loads of devices, is easy to use and is expandable via optional plug-ins. But it’s the latter point that has seen Kodi make headlines for the wrong reasons, with plenty of developers using the software to stream pirated movies, TV and even live sport. Don’t let that cloud your judgement of what’s an excellent media streamer, though, as the base program is completely legal and a great way of viewing video and photos on your TV or PC. In this complete guide, we’ll show you how to get started with Kodi, how to use its advanced features, install add-ons, and stay legal and safe with it. By the time you’ve finished, you’ll…

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick is a brilliant place for Kodi. This small USB stick plugs into an HDMI port on your TV and is the simplest, cheapest and most convenient way of getting Kodi. Even better, the Fire TV Stick runs a custom version of Android, which means it’s compatible with most apps, including Kodi. Note that these instructions will also work on other Amazon Fire TV devices, not just the Stick. 1 Enable apps from unknown sources and ADB Plug your Amazon Fire TV stick into your TV and plug the USB power cable into a spare USB port or use the power adaptor. Go to Settings, Device, Developer options. Find Apps from unknown sources, which should be switched off, and turn it on, then say yes in the…

SpotiMC Source: See below Zip: repository. beta. emby. kodi-x. x. x. zip Repository: Kodi Emby Beta Addons, Music add-ons, Spotify Like it or not, Spotify has changed the way we think about music. For only £10 per month, it lets users enjoy a huge library of tracks, and even allows music fans to download content to listen to offline. Throw in a range of varied playlists to help you discover music and other neat features, and Spotify is one of the best streaming services you can get. SpotiMC brings all the benefits of the streaming service to XBMC, and thanks to an easy-to-understand UI, it’s a must-have app for any Spotify user. Installation is a bit of a pain, though. First, download the Zip file from bit.ly/SpotiMC (the download will…

Clive Webster has been tinkering with computers ever since Windows 98 forced him to manually install his drivers clive@computershopper.co.uk IT’S COMMON TO have a sense of paranoia online, the feeling that you’re being watched, that every click you make is being tracked and every page you read is being logged on some secret server. The reason you feel you’re being watched is because you are. But you can fight back against the cookies, trackers, browsing logs, geo-locators and targeted ads by using a VPN. This cheap – or free – software can hide your identity, location and browsing choices online. VPN STANDS FOR virtual private network. It’s a purely software (virtual) tool that gives the appearance of your device being directly and securely connected (a private network) to a web…

Photographer, musician, sound engineer, designer and video producer Ben Pitt guides you through a multimedia project ben@computershopper.co.uk THE BEST PHOTOS show something that we don’t normally have the opportunity to see. It might be a stunning sunset, unusual animal behaviour or just a fleeting facial expression that tells an interesting story. Macro photography provides lots of opportunities to unlock hidden worlds. Whether it’s natural subjects such as insects or flowers, or man-made objects such as jewellery, circuit boards or guitar amp valves, a macro lens can see things your eyes can’t. Capturing these subjects can be a technical challenge, though. You’ll need the right kind of lens, and lighting and exposure settings need to be carefully controlled. Then there’s the added challenge of creating an interesting composition. We’ll cover all…

Madeline Bennett “The mobile phone. Mainly for my terrible time-keeping, so I can always pre-warn people I’m running late – again” David Ludlow “The Nintendo Gameboy: the first time games truly became portable” Nathan Spendelow “The selfie stick. Just kidding: USB-C connectivity, of course” James Archer “The Shopper test PC, which also deserves the tech equivalent of a Purple Heart” Dave Neal “The microchip. In fact, all chips. See also crisps” Roland Moore-Colyer “GPS: without it I would be left huddled in some dark corner of London or New York” Simon Handby “Noise-cancelling headphones: turn on, tune out, drop off”…

I CAN’T POSSIBLY write this column about any other subject than ransomware, following the recent attack on the NHS. That particular episode is covered in depth in News (see page 14), so I want to talk about how this kind of attack can be prevented or, at the least, the damage mitigated. Malware has long been designed to make its creators money, but ransomware is in many ways the peak evolution of this use. By encrypting user documents, ransomware extracts money directly from the infected. It’s easy to see why so many people pay up. For starters, an infection can’t simply be removed, as with other types of malware. Doing so may prevent further files being compromised, but it doesn’t bring back any of the encrypted files. The only solution…

For the wallet The standard Moto G5 was a huge let-down – we expected big things from the successor to the Moto G4, the best sub-£200 smartphone ever, but the G5 made backwards steps in terms of performance, battery life and camera quality, with no real improvements to make up for it. Not so with the Moto G5 Plus. Performance is more competitive, photos look better than even those of the Moto G4, and the battery lasts longer than the G5’s, even with a larger 5.2in display. It’s not a perfect budget handset, but it’s much closer to what we wanted from the G5. (Page 22) For the den In the past year, laptop makers have finally figured out how to cram powerful gaming systems into reasonably slimline frames. The…

HANDS UP IF you’ve ever seen one of these on the road? I have, so that’s one of us. The Sinclair C5 is a pretty widely derided future stab at ecological driving that was just too early for its own good when it was unveiled in 1985. When it was announced, it looked OK. It wasn’t exactly Knight Rider, but more of a motorcycle sidecar that had made a break for freedom, but it was by Sir Clive Sinclair, and boy didn’t you want one? No? Just me, then; well, it was more my brother actually. The dangerous thing is that he could afford it, so to my parents this was kind of a real threat. I can’t remember what happened but I suspect that the elders had the last…

£350 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A vivid Full HD touchscreen saves this budget hybrid from feeling a little too cheap SINCE ONE OF the core Computer Shopper tenets is to provide straight-up buying advice, we’re generally as keen on a good bargain as you are. Unfortunately, the line between ‘affordable’ and ‘tat’ is easily and constantly blurred, hence why we sometimes end up with devices such as the Venturer BravoWin 10K (Shopper 346) – a £150 2-in-1 and an apt reminder that spending next to nothing on tech hardware can risk ugly, plasticky consequences. With a rubbish keyboard attachment. We therefore approached the PrimePro 12 TS with trepidation; at £350, it stands to reason that overall quality is on the up, but this is still firmly at the budget end…

£480 • From www.laptopsdirect.co.uk VERDICT Quite simply, this is one of the best plus-sized smartphones money can buy MANY WOULD HAVE poked fun at 5.7in smartphones a few years back, but now they’re a common sight, and the Honor 8 Pro shows why: it’s an impressively specced Quad HD handset that merges the beauty of the Honor 8 and Huawei P10, while keeping the price down to a very reasonable £480. Honor has ditched the 15 layers of glass found on the regular Honor 8, instead opting for a matt finish, and the result is stunning. The sleek, rounded edges and full-metal unibody design give the phone a premium feel, and its 184g weight complements the phone’s handling. It’s also just 7mm thick, which is even slimmer than the 7.3mm…

£193 • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT A stable overclocking platform that’s teeming with ports, the AX370-Gaming 5 plays very nicely with AMD Ryzen NOW WE’VE ESTABLISHED that AMD’s Ryzen CPUs are viable Intel alternatives – especially the Ryzen 7 1700 (Shopper 353) – it’s time to start thinking which motherboards to pair them with. Since all Ryzen chips use the new AM4 socket, and are incompatible with older AM3 or AM3+ boards, this is a must for any system built around the Zen architecture. There’s also a new line-up of chipsets to consider: the enthusiast-grade X370, the general performance-focused B350, the budget A320, and the X300 and A300 series for small form factor (SFF) builds. Gigabyte’s Aorus AX370-Gaming 5 is, in many ways, a quintessential X370 model. It takes advantage of…

£298 • From www.theevohomeshop.co.uk VERDICT A flexible and powerful internet-connected alarm system you can rely on SMART ALARMS MAKE a huge amount of sense. After all, if your alarm is triggered while you’re out of the house, it’s better to know about it via an app, rather than having a siren go off back home. It’s rather surprising, then, that the big names in home security have largely shied away from smart home products. That changes with the Honeywell Evohome Security. Honeywell has a long history selling home alarms, so it’s good to see it shift its expertise to the smart home market for two reasons. First, Honeywell’s standing gives a good deal of confidence that this is a product that will be around and supported for a long time.…

£1,000 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT An upmarket bridge camera stuffed with advanced videography features, but the lens lets it down THE PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-FZ2000 is the successor to the FZ1000 (Shopper 321), a premium bridge camera that excelled for both photos and videos and was a good deal cheaper than its main rival, the Sony RX10. At first glance the FZ2000 appears to be very similar, once again using a 1in, 20-megapixel sensor and with a slightly longer 24-480mm (equivalent) zoom, up from 25-400mm on the FZ1000. However, there are much bigger changes in the small print of this new model. The 2.4-million-dot viewfinder is up from 0.7x to 0.74x, giving a luxuriously big view of the scene. The articulated LCD is a little sharper, and is now a touchscreen.…

£90 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT Incredibly loud audio and thumping bass from this clever waterproof speaker WITH ITS DISTINCTIVE barrel shape and the cross on the front, the UE Wonderboom looks a little like a modern interpretation of Monty Python’s Holy Hand Grenade. Rather than physically blowing things up, the Wonderboom portable Bluetooth speaker offers an explosion of audio. The design is tough and practical, too, with the Wonderboom IP67 certified. This means that it’s dustproof, has been drop-tested from five feet, and can survive total submersion in water up to 1m deep, for as long as 30 minutes. The latter is actually rather difficult to achieve, as the UE Wonderboom floats, so to submerge it you’d need to attach a few weights. This buoyancy does mean that the speaker…

£500 • From www.chillblast.com VERDICT This green PC offers enviously high single-core and storage performance in a compact package LIKE THE MORE gaming-focused Chillblast Fusion Nitro (Shopper 347), the Fusion Flanker is a dinky microATX system squeezed into a CiT F3 mini tower case. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: this is one of the best budget cases by far at combining relatively compact dimensions (412x208x366mm) with a unique, though not weird or offputting, aesthetic. Pointy and relatively intricate, the F3 looks great here (though the green-and-black colour scheme of our review unit might not have as wide an appeal as the white-and-black version we’ve seen before), and it’s not just a good looker, either. At the front, next to the single USB3 and USB2 ports –…

£499 • From www.meshcomputers.com VERDICT Powered by Windows 10 Pro, Mesh’s PC is great for working – and almost everything else THERE ARE PCs you can use in a home office, and there are bona fide home office PCs, with Mesh’s Home PC – CS being very much the latter. While there is much to like about the hardware, which we’ll get to shortly, what makes this system a contender for serious work is its Windows 10 Pro operating system. This version, one step up from the usual Windows 10 Home, provides a clutch of added features that can make for more secure and flexible home and even SMB working. We’re particularly fond of Windows Update for Business; Windows 10 Home is infamous for forcing through OS updates, which can…

£500 • From www.wired2fire.co.uk VERDICT The Diablo Vertex is a decent system with a good SSD, but needs more to achieve greatness THE DIABLO VERTEX certainly gives a good first impression. The BitFenix Nova case is tall, dark and handsome, giving an air of respectability to this budget build, aided further by the tactfully sized side window and slimline vertical vents that run down both edges of the front panel. As far as Intel Core i3 systems go, it also seems to have a minor advantage over the i3-7100-based Cyberpower Infinity X33 Optane, Box Cube Essence Quiet and PC Specialist Enigma K3 by going for the Core i3-7300 instead. This is also a dual-core, quad-threaded CPU, but runs at an ever-soslightly faster 4GHz clock speed. PREMIER, IN However, if this…

The best smartphone for travelling is the one you already have, which you’re comfortable using. Key holiday features can, for the most part, be bolted on: if your phone of choice is weak on battery, isn’t waterproof or has a weak camera, you can address that via a power pack, case or app, respectively. But if it’s time for an upgrade and you have holidays looming, look for a handset that has the features that best suit your travels, whether it be rugged or waterproof, support for dual SIM cards, a solid camera or long battery life. For our money, we’d head out on our travels with the Samsung Galaxy S7 (Shopper 353) in hand. It’s a small – by current standards – 5.1in display, making the handset easy to…

Send your problems to businesshelp@computershopper.co.uk Turning the tables I have a form in an Access database that needs to show data from three separate tables. I can show the data from the ‘main’ table without any problem on the form, but I’m not sure how to show the data from the related tables. I’ve been trying to understand how to do it using a DLookup, but it seems rather complicated. Is DLookup the best way to do this? Cath Jerome There are in fact several ways to show data from related tables on a form. You say that the data is held in related tables, so I’m assuming you’ve set up a structure where data is stored in only one table (so you don’t, for example, store the name and address…

letters@computershopper.co.uk Ransomware’s the catch? We had some work done on our household electricity supply. In spite of the UPS, my desktop computer developed a bootup fault: error code Oxc000014c. After trying lots of different methods to fix the problem, I resorted to System Restore. Much to my surprise, it worked: I now have my desktop working as before. My question is: would this process get around ransomware, as you would be restoring the system to the state it was in before the installation of the malicious software? If this idea is worth a fortune, cash please – not bitcoins. Chris Adam System Restore works by taking a backup of certain system files and settings, rather than a wholesale backup of your computer. So if you were to get a ransomware…

David Neal RANTS HERE’S A THING. It is up to us to decide whether or not we want to write a rant or a rave for the magazine, and this month I had settled myself down nicely to write a nice little rave about a lovely thing. I had a pot of tea, put some smooth jazz on and opened a fresh packet of biscuits. I was in full-on praise mode. That was until I began the task and sodding Cortana reared its head, intruded on what I was doing, and changed my mind and subject for me. This, then, is now a rant about Microsoft’s very own voice-activated personal assistant and why I don’t seem to be able to stop it from always – and I mean always –…

1 Phone-squeezing The HTC U11 smartphone is apparently leading with a new feature: squeezable sides 2 John McAfee Not only has the security legend announced the most secure phone in the world ever, but Johnny Depp is lined up to star as him in a film of his life. 3 Google DeepMind Google’s AI masterwork continues to smash people at old Chinese board games, beating the current Go world champion in a best of three. 4 Computer skills The Raspberry Pi Foundation has merged with CoderDojo, with the aim of getting more kids involved with coding and digital creation. 1 Samsung’s S8 iris scanner Easily bypassed by a German hacking group and a fake eye 2 Paint names Some AI software was tasked with naming new paint colours and came…

IBM makes quantum processing leap IBM IS GETTING ready to release a pair of prototype quantum processors that it expects will lead to huge processing improvements. The firm will release the IBM Q processors in two stages, delivering a version to early-access commercial partners, developers, researchers and programmers first. One of the processors features 17 qubits, and leverages significant materials, device and architecture improvements to “make it the most powerful quantum processor created to date”, IBM said about its home-grown quantum system. “It has been engineered to be at least twice as powerful as what is available today to the public on the IBM Cloud and it will be the basis for the first IBM Q early-access commercial systems.” The second quantum processor will be a 16-qubit chip that will…

YOUR TRUSTED GUIDE TO WHAT’S NEW £249 • From www.motorola.co.uk VERDICT It’s not the budget masterpiece we were hoping for, but the Moto G5 Plus delivers on performance and camera quality FOR A YEAR, the Motorola Moto G4 (Shopper 343) represented the pinnacle of budget smartphone design, which is why the Moto G5 (Shopper 353) was such a disappointment; it’s still a decent handset, but takes so many backwards steps that there’s no reason to choose it over last year’s model. However, the Moto G5 Plus – the larger phablet version – couldn’t be more different. Not only is it a far more accomplished device than its own predecessor, the Moto G4 Plus, but it easily warrants the £80 premium over the Moto G5, with a better camera, nicer looks…

£599 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT An AMOLED display and upgraded stylus makes this one of the best Android tablets yet IT’S BEEN A while since an Android tablet has really piqued our attention. Some great devices have shown up, such as Huawei’s MediaPad 3 (Shopper 348), but with Apple’s iPads still ruling the market, there hasn’t been a truly exciting Android slate since the Google Pixel C (Shopper 338). The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 changes that. It doesn’t look much different to Samsung’s last premium tablet offering, 2015’s Galaxy Tab S2 – it’s still got a gorgeous 9.7in AMOLED display, and is seriously thin and lightweight, but the big difference is that Samsung has lobbed the enhanced S Pen stylus in the box for free. That alone is almost worth…

£70 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT It’s a touch pricey, but the Pixma TS5050 is a smart-looking MFP with good performance THE PIXMA TS5050 is another of Canon’s new additions to its home colour MFP range. The curved edges and attractive squat design make it look more like fancy audio-visual kit than something as mundane as a multifunction peripheral, but an MFP it is: it can print, scan and copy, and you can connect to and share it across your home Wi-Fi network. It’s also great to see that Canon has made the TS5050 less fiddly to use than previous generations: the combination of a colour 3in display and redesigned controls are a definite improvement, and Canon has finally ditched its confusing mix of separate selection buttons and direction rocker. Now…

£85 • From www.box.co.uk VERDICT Superb hardware and performance make this microATX mobo a contender for almost all Ryzen builds AMD’S B350 CHIPSET is targeted at ‘Performance’ users, taking it a step down from the X370 chipset’s ‘Enthusiast’ level. This means that while B350 motherboards are still created with potent PCs in mind, you can expect less of a focus on high-end water-cooling support and almighty dual- GPU configurations. This can be seen quite clearly on MSI’s B350M Mortar. It does actually have two PCI-E x16 slots, which is one more than we’d usually see on a microATX board, and it does support AMD CrossFire for doubling up graphics cards (Nvidia’s equivalent, SLI, is limited to X370); however, the bottom slot merely runs at x4 speeds. It’s also a PCI-E…

£30 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT A neat idea, but this smart mount for your car is outdone by free Android tools USING YOUR PHONE with your hands while driving is a big no-no, which is why Logitech is hoping to have some success with its ZeroTouch in-car mount. Once connected, it gives you a hands-free way of interacting with your smartphone via the ZeroTouch Android app, as well as the baked-in Amazon Alexa smart assistant. Logitech sells the ZeroTouch in two different packs, depending on the type of smart phone mount you need. There’s a £30 Dashboard Mount that sticks to your car’s dash, or a £10 Air Vent model that clips on to the blade of an air vent. Despite the price difference, both models provide the same magnetic…

£377 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Nikon sets its sights on VR with the KeyMission 360, but a poor app lets down its high performance WHILE THE LIFE of the average Computer Shopper scribe is a sedentary one, rather than one filled with white water rafting and jumping out of planes for fun, we know a good action camera when we see one. Nikon’s VR-ready KeyMission 360 has all the hallmarks: it’s waterproof, dustproof and shockproof, and it comes with two highresolution cameras fixed to the sides, offering everything you need to film your own virtual-reality videos. What’s more, it’s made by Nikon, a company with a long-standing and well-deserved reputation for quality photography hardware. It all sounds like a recipe for success – in theory. MISSION STATEMENT It’s certainly up…

VERSATILITY PALICOMP i5 Titanium While not quite as powerful overall as the Mesh PC (right), Palicomp’s i5 Titanium is still as nippy and responsive as you’d want, thanks to its quad-core Intel Core i5-7400 processor and healthy 8GB of dual-channel RAM. The 250GB SSD and 1TB hard disk also provide a perfect balance between capacity and read/write speeds. It does well for features and connectivity too, with a versatile DVD-RW drive at the front and an ultra-fast USB Type-C port at the back, complementing the standard assortment of USB2 and USB3 ports. A jack of all trades PC, and a master of some. DOING BUSINESS MESH Home PC – CS The Home PC – CS’s relatively blazing performance should appeal to everyone, including those who don’t just want a system…

£499 • From www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk VERDICT The swiftness of Intel Optane overshadows a so-so processor/RAM combo THE BIGGEST REASON to consider the Cyberpower Infinity X33 Optane is right there in the name: this is one of the very first pre-built PCs we’ve seen to use Intel Optane, a clever and inexpensive method of improving hard disk performance. Instead of a SATA or NVMe SSD, the Infinity X33 Optane uses a mechanical 1TB WD Blue HDD as its primary storage. Without Optane, that would be a pretty bad idea – by keeping your Windows installation on a hard disk, you’re usually condemning yourself to slower performance in almost every task – but here, Intel’s drive effectively creates a 16GB cache, within which it places your most-used applications and data. Because this data…

£500 • From www.palicomp.co.uk VERDICT Fast storage and a versatile CPU are the backbone of this excellent microATX system FLICK A FEW pages back and you’ll see that our current budget PC Best Buy is Palicomp’s AMD Avenger (see page 56). You’ll also notice that this, the i5 Titanium, shares both an exact price and the ultra-compact Fractal Core 1100 chassis – and yet, these visually identical systems are drastically different. Most obviously, this is an Intel-based rather than AMD-based system, so instead of a cheap and cheerful Athlon X4 880K, you get a newer, more powerful Intel Core i5-7400. Despite the AMD chip’s higher 4GHz clock speed (the i5-7400 runs each of its four cores at 3GHz, and can Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz), the i5 Titanium outpaces the…

The Raspberry Pi 3 is one of the best microcomputers around, combining impressive speed with fantastic value in a tiny form factor. It’s also versatile, and can run Kodi. To follow these guides, you’ll need a Raspberry Pi and a microSD card. The Raspberry Pi Foundation recommends a minimum of an 8GB card, but buy a larger card if you want to install media directly on to your media server; we recommend buying at least a 32GB card. 1 Download NOOBs for Pi We recommend using OSMC, a complete operating system that comes packaged with Kodi and is optimised for the Pi. To install this OS, you need the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s NOOBS installer (www.raspberrypi.org/ downloads/noobs), which automatically configures an SD card with the OS of your choice. To get…

Simply put, Kodi skins change the entire look and feel of the media player, completely replacing the standard interface. Best of all, skins are completely free, so you can experiment with different ones until you find the one that you like the best. We’ve picked our favourite skins on this page, with all of them available in the official Kodi repository. This makes them very easy to install. Just go to Settings, Interface and click the Skin option (the default setting is Estuary). Click the Get more button and you’ll see a big list of all of the available skins. Just select the one you want and Kodi will download it. You now need to go back to the Skin option and select your downloaded Skin from the main list.…

Send your problems to help@computershopper.co.uk By the numbers A few months ago I changed the way my modem/router and Wi-Fi router were set up so that the former is now operating in pure bridge mode for the latter. Doing this freed up the private IP address – 192.168.0.1 – that the modem/router was previously occupying, and in an idle moment I recently decided to change the router to use that address, rather than 192.168.0.2, which it used previously. All the wired devices and sundry wireless devices (Android and iOS) updated their DHCP leases and carried on working without any issues. The couple of devices I’ve configured to use static addresses carried on as normal, too, but our three Wi-Fi-connected Windows 10 computers were all scuppered. From each I can ping…