Table of contents for 543 in Computeractive

Misbehaving rock stars of yore used to prove their bad-boy mettle by throwing TVs through hotel windows. That’s one extreme and rumbustious way to ditch your TV, but we can’t condone it, no matter how hedonistic you are. In the 21st century, ‘ditching’ your TV doesn’t have to be taken quite so literally. Rather, it means discovering convenient new ways to watch your favourite programmes, whether on the telly itself, or on your phone, tablet and computer. But with so many different streaming services and devices, it’s hard to know what’s best for your viewing preferences. Let Nik Rawlinson be your guide. His Cover Feature (page 50) is a masterpiece of explanation. By the end I’m confident you’ll know exactly what’s right for you. As 2018 reboots into 2019, I’d…

Readers warn readers Windows 7 ‘crash’ warnings While searching on the internet in November, a message warned me my Windows 7 system was about to crash. This was complemented by a ticking clock and an instruction to ‘click the box’ below (which I didn’t). To me it was obviously a scam and I attempted to cancel it. This only produced another warning (more convincing than the first), advising I take urgent action. Trying to cancel this produced yet another warning. I wasn’t able to remove any of them normally, so I shut down my computer. On rebooting all was fine, and I haven’t seen the warnings since. John Hedger Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

I’ve been reading with great interest the letters about the use of video appointments with doctors. In the 1990s, in conjunction with BT, I researched and pioneered the use of video conferencing over ISDN2 – ISDN6 telephone lines for police forces such as Thames Valley Police, and produced a book on the subject. We also looked at using video-conferencing kiosks at police stations to reduce opening hours, and the potential for medical consultations. Video appointments are not a new concept! The technology is now better, faster and cheaper. However, no one appears to be considering the human aspect of the equation, such as teaching people to use the technology to prevent the problems of a bad consultation. In fact the wider sociological considerations, unless addressed, will totally outweigh the advantages…

Like Dave Mullen in Issue 536 (page 43), I love my HP DeskJet 2630 printer (£24 from Amazon www.snipca.com/29016, pictured). I bought it primarily because it automatically orders new cartridges when you’re running low. This was working well until early November, when it appeared to malfunction. I didn’t know what was going wrong, but customer support at HP seemed to understand what the problem was (as you’d expect, I suppose!). I spoke to them online, and they solved the problem quickly. All is working well now. I’ve been sceptical of these ‘live chat’ services in the past, but this one worked well. Speaking on the phone is still my preferred choice, though, because it’s easier to ask questions verbally than by typing. It’s the first time I’ve had to speak…

SYSTEM TOOL MiTeC Task Manager Deluxe 2.5 www.snipca.com/29899 What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 The Task Manager tool built into Windows (accessed by pressing Ctrl+Esc) is great for showing a quick overview of what’s gobbling up resources on your PC. But if it leaves you wanting to know more, you’d be hard pushed to find anything as detailed as Task Manager Deluxe. It’s a small, portable program and therefore requires no installation. Some antivirus programs may flag MiTeC’s site as unsafe. However, a check on VirusTotal shows the site and program pose no danger. The VirusTotal service is part of Task Manager Deluxe, highlighting any potentially unsafe processes you’ve got running. You need to set it up, though, first by adding the VirusTotal column (right-click the column bar…

When you want to make your voice heard, social media can be a powerful tool. Not long ago, I complained to an airline when the tickets I was booking online suddenly doubled in price. The company fobbed me off over the phone, but when I complained publicly on Twitter, I was offered the tickets at the lower price. Sadly, fraudsters have found a way to exploit this, as Barclays customer Mike Tinmouth will tell you. He took to Twitter to complain that his business account was taking a long time to set up. Barclays got in touch with Mike directly, apologising for the delays. Except it wasn’t Barclays – it was criminals. By posting his complaint publicly, Mike had inadvertently given fraudsters all the information they needed to scam him.…

PHONE | £899 from Amazon www.snipca.com/29703 Expensive and cheerful Nine hundred quid is a ridiculous amount for a phone, but compared with the similarly sized iPhone XS Max (£1,099) it could almost be a bargain. The Mate 20 Pro certainly looks expensive: the screen fills the whole front, except for the notch, and curves at the edges, while the back, also glass, arranges three Leica-branded cameras and a flash in a striking square. The black and Twilight (dark blue) finishes pick up fingerprints easily, but the sea-green option has subtle grooves. It’s IP68 waterproof, and innovatively the fingerprint reader is built into the screen. It unlocks the phone quickly, but takes a while to learn your fingerprints. Face recognition is an alternative, with depth sensing that also assists selfie camera…

What do they do? They let you print and digitise paper documents wherever you are. Some need a mains connection, while others are rechargeable. We don’t see a lot of them, but Epson has just launched two new A4 scanners, the WorkForce DS-70 and DS-80W (with Wi-Fi), and its battery-powered WF-100W printer (see www.snipca.com/29945, pictured right) remains available. Why would I want them? Epson says the gadgets are for employees who travel around – well, obviously – but could also be useful in offices that no longer provide centralised equipment. They could also appeal to anyone with limited desk space. What’s the catch? You can get a regular inkjet printer with a scanner built in from around 50 quid. Portable machines cost £150-£200 apiece, and although the claim of four…

PC MONITOR | £317 from Box www.snipca.com/29929 More pixels for less Many people use a 27in monitor with a resolution of 1920x1080 (Full HD) or 2560x1440 (QHD) pixels. It’s getting more affordable to move up to 3840x2160 (UHD, also known as 4K), but unless you work with your nose pressed against the glass, that many dots is arguably overkill. Stretch the screen to 31.5in, increasing its area by a third, and it makes more sense. It should also cost more money, but the ProLite X3272UHS-B1 goes back to basics to make it as affordable as possible. “Big and cheap – this is one of the best high-resolution options” This is most obvious in the stand, whose spindly metal legs (pictured below) reminded us of the animated gas cooker that Wallace…

COMPETITION Win 1 of 4 MAGIX Movie Edit Pro Plus The latest version of MAGIX’s award-winning Movie Edit Pro software makes it ever faster and easier to create brilliant videos, giving you powerful cutting tools to modify everything just the way you want it. Using the new ‘Active destination’ feature, you can drag and drop videos, effects (up to 1,500!) and music to your timeline with the utmost precision (see screenshot). Also new is ‘Chapter export’, which lets you export individual chapters rather than your entire video. In addition, the revamped ‘Plug-ins’ section gives you a better overview of the effects, letting you preview your movie as you apply them. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘magix’ in the subject line by midnight on 1 January. You can…

Most pay-monthly SIM deals let you share mobile data with a PC or tablet by setting up your phone as a mobile hotspot. To do this on an iPhone, open Settings and tap Personal Hotspot (see screenshot). Tap the switch beside Personal Hotspot to activate it. Make a note of the Wi-Fi password in the box below, and the name of your phone, which is shown in the section headed To Connect Using Wi-Fi. On an Android phone, open Settings, tap Network & Internet, and then tap ‘Hotspot & tethering’. Tap the switch beside Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot to switch it on. Now tap ‘Set up Wi-Fi hotspot’ and make a note of both the network name and password. If the password is obscured, tap ‘Show password’ to reveal it. Now,…

Fitbit Charge 3 £129.99 from Fitbit.com www.snipca.com/29917 ✓ My son bought me a Fitbit Charge 3 fitness tracker for my birthday. He set it up for me, showed me how to use the app to monitor my fitness and told me to charge it about once a week. Unlike my watch, it’s water resistant, so I don’t need to worry about taking it off in the shower or when it rains. A few days passed by before I refreshed the app and saw useful data sections. The app tracked how many miles, steps and minutes I walked each day, and even how many floors I climbed. It also recorded how many hours and how well I’ve slept (Light, Deep and REM sleep). More importantly, it constantly tracks your heart rate…

Words With Friends 2* Free Android: www.snipca.com/29857 iOS: www.snipca.com/29858 Words With Friends 2 is a multi-player Scrabble-like game that you can play online with friends and family. It offers a choice of modes, including a lighting round with a time limit, and even a solo mode to help you improve your skills. Word Stacks* Free Android: www.snipca.com/29861 iOS: xwww.snipca.com/29862 This app was only released in September but it’s already one of our favourites. The aim is to find words on a specific topic in a grid of lettered blocks. The topic is shown at the top, and the blocks disappear when you find a word. You’ll have to select words in the correct order to solve the puzzle. Wordscapes* Free Android: www.snipca.com/29859 iOS: www.snipca.com/29860 This popular game is a bit…

Signature Maker www.snipca.com/29819 This website lets you preview changes as you make them. In the Basic tab you enter your club’s info, and in the Social tab you add links to social-media pages. To add a photo you first need to upload it to Dropbox or Google Drive, then paste it in the Photo/Avatar URL field. When you’re done, click Setup Instructions to find out how to add your signature. Mail-Signatures www.snipca.com/29820 Mail-Signatures offers over 20 templates that you can customise. Select your email service at the top left, then type your details. Depending on the template you choose, you’ll see options to add one or more images. When you’re happy with your preview, click ‘Apply your signature’ at the bottom to see instructions on how to add it to…

YouView (www.youview.com), founded by the BBC, ITV and BT Group, is a streaming set-top box with built-in Freeview tuner. It gives you the best of both worlds, with live digital content, catch-up services and on-demand streaming, plus Netflix, Now TV and Sky for an extra fee. Amazon Prime support was also added a couple of months ago. You can buy YouView direct from stores such as Amazon and Argos; as a built-in feature on some Sony TVs; and as a TV and broadband bundle from TalkTalk, BT and its subsidiary Plusnet. High-definition YouView set-top boxes cost around £130; Ultra HD boxes cost around £160.…

Software maker Glorylogic had a busy year in 2018 – and one of our PCs still bears the scars. In March, the company launched 500th Video Converter (www.snipca.com/29934), a pestilent pile of junk that bundles Avast Free Antivirus (which you can decline) and Opera (which you can’t). Not only did the installer force Opera on us, it made it the default browser, embedding it so deeply that Windows couldn’t uninstall it without help from IObit and AdwCleaner. We’d advise you to ignore it and use VLC (www.videolan.com) instead. It’s better than ever, with improved subtitling and high-definition support. Other Glorylogic activity in 2018 included new versions of ISO Workshop, Image Tuner and True Burner (www.glorylogic.com). Avoid them all in 2019.…

Where’s my October Update? Q I read the advice on page 62 of Issue 539 to get the Windows 10 October Update (1809), but my laptop is refusing to accept there’s anything to update. I also followed your published link to the Dell website, at www.snipca.com/29342, but I didn’t see my Inspiron N5010 listed. Am I therefore to understand that my laptop is obsolete in terms of receiving updates from 1809 onwards? If not, what should I do? I am a long-term subscriber incidentally, and enjoy learning from Computeractive. Dhruv Patel A You might be aware that after we went to press with Issue 539, Microsoft found a major bug with the October Update and stopped its distribution. So, while some users received 1809, millions more – like you –…

NHS video chats would avoid hospital hassle NHS consultations via Skype? Bring it on. Just because a relatively small number may want face-to-face consultations, this should not stop the bulk of consultations by Skype, or other remote means. If this can save the NHS money, and people’s time and resources in getting to/from a hospital/surgery, then why is this not a good thing? This must be the way forward. I respect that those wanting to get a face-to-face appointment should still be allowed to, but I’m sure the bulk of us would prefer to avoid all the hassle and costs of journeys and parking. And, by the way, I’m 79 living in the middle of the countryside, and yes lucky enough to have fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband. Hally Hardie Skype consultations…

LEAD CASE Can I get a refund for returning my faulty phone? Q In December 2017, I bought a refurbished Samsung S6 phone from eBay seller Hi-tech Electronics UK (www.snipca.com/29722). A fault soon developed with the phone, though it could still be used. We returned it in September this year. Hi-tech Electronics has sent a replacement, but refuses to refund the £14.60 postage costs. Can you confirm that the seller must refund my postage? Gordon Findlay A Yes, we can confirm that retailers must pay return costs if an item is inherently faulty, and the customer makes a claim using the Consumer Rights Act. But herein lies the confusion. Hi-tech Electronics thinks Gordon was returning the phone under its 12-month warranty, which presumably doesn’t promise to pay return costs. Gordon…

Map where your ancestors lived If you want to get a picture of the kind of life your ancestors led, a good place to start is where they lived. You can plot their geographical progress using record sets like marriage certificates, census returns, electoral registers and even old telephone directories, all of which give you the street – and often the house number – where they were based. These addresses provide some insight into their lives. Did they live in the same town, street or even house from cradle to grave? Or were they restless wanderers (as anyone with a railway navvy in their family tree will recognise)? Track your ancestors’ movements The first thing to do with old family addresses is to plot them on a map. Start by…

Can I stop auto-playback in my music player? Q I’ve created iTunes playlists (dance, waltz, quickstep, etc) to play music for a tea dance. I play a tune, set another to play next, then want it to stop. However, iTunes continues to play after the second tune. Can you recommend an alternative? Derrick Farman A As you’ve experienced, iTunes just wants to keep playing music. You can tame its enthusiasm by clicking the Up Next button (just to the left of the Search box at the top) after queuing your second track. You’ll see an entry titled Back To, followed by the name of one of your playlists. Click the ‘Clear’ button just to the right of this – iTunes will then stop after playing your second track. But it’s…

PC | £791 from Dell www.snipca.com/29822 Don’t call it boring A story often told by civil engineers is that if you looked up ‘Boring’ in the Yellow Pages, it used to say ‘See Civil Engineers’. Of course, this was in recognition of their expertise at making big holes in the ground. Civil engineers didn’t like to mention that the joke wore thin, partly because, as the name implies, they’re very polite, and partly because abrasion monitoring is more of a mechanical engineering job. In 1996, though, at their request, the entry was finally removed. Today, the Yellow Pages itself is being expunged, with the last printed copies going out in January 2019. But if there was a Yellow Pages for computers it would say, ‘Civil Engineers – see Dell OptiPlex’.…

Devices that never caught on Nokia N-Gage What was it? Launched in 2003, the N-Gage was a portable digital assistant (PDA), mobile phone and game console in one. Despite industry scepticism, it attracted major game franchises including Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk’s. Unlike Nintendo’s rival Game Boy Advance, the N-Gage also offered wireless online multiplayer. Why did it die? The £250 N-Gage was basically a Nokia Symbian mobile phone. Its 2in, 176x208-pixel screen could display 3D colour graphics but was so tiny it gave users eye-strain, while the low-end ARM processor struggled to render fast action. To swap game cartridges, you had to take off the back and remove the battery. Making phone calls was also awkward because the speaker and mic were on the edge of the device. Nokia…

What you need: MiFi router and a 3G- or 4G-enabled SIM Time required: One hour Landlines are rapidly falling out of favour. I’ve only got a phone plugged into mine for emergencies, but so far – fingers crossed – it’s never been used. That’s why it rankles to be paying £18.99 a month for line rental. By paying for a year upfront, I could save £1.50 a month, but it still seems a lot to pay for something I don’t use. The thing is, I do still use my landline. It’s easy to forget that it also brings broadband into your home, so it’s not entirely going to waste. There are other options, though, one of which is called MiFi, a trademark owned by Hutchison 3G in the UK. The…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT BT Cloud installs on your default drive I’m writing to let you know what happened when I tried to install BT Cloud on my PC. My PC has a 128GB SSD (drive C) and 2TB hard drive (Drive d). After encountering some problems with OneDrive syncing my files, I decided to use BT Cloud (exclusive to BT Internet subscribers) as my backup online storage service (see screenshot). I reserve my C drive for my operating system, and have set all my programs to run from the D drive. Foolishly, I installed BT Cloud thinking it would create its sync folder on the D drive like these programs. Within days, I started getting ‘Low disk space’ pop-up notifications, which baffled me until I spotted the culprit –…

ANDROID & iOS Adjust background blur in your portrait photos Most of the cameras on new Android and iOS devices have a useful portrait mode setting - not to be confused with portrait orientation. Portrait mode makes your photos look more professional by focussing your subject and gently blurring the background. A useful new feature in Google Photos lets you manually adjust the intensity of the background blur in these photos. The process of taking a photo in portrait mode is similar on iOS devices and Google’s Nexus and Pixel phone, but the steps may differ slightly for phones from other manufacturers. Open your Camera app, select the Portrait option at the bottom, tap the screen to select your subject, then tap the shutter button to take a photo. Next,…

WINDOWS 10 Stop websites playing videos automatically After pausing the Windows 10 October 2018 Update for a few weeks to iron out flaws, Microsoft have now made it available again. If you didn’t install it in October, you can now download the update by going to Settings, clicking ‘Update & Security’, then ‘Check for updates’. Wait for the updates to download. You’ll need to restart your PC to install them. One of the best new features of this update is the option to stop websites automatically playing videos when you launch them in Edge. You first need to enable the feature, so open Edge, click the three dots at the top right, Settings at the bottom, then click the Advanced tab in the left panel. Now scroll to the ‘Media…

We usually associate tables with Excel, but did you know that Word also has some superb tools to help you create attractive tables? You first need to select how many rows and columns you want, so click the Insert tab, the Table dropdown menu (at the top left), select the number of columns and rows you want, then click the Design tab to see different styles you can apply to your table. Expand the Table Styles menu by clicking the arrow at its bottom right. You’ll see a number of coloured styles to choose from (see screenshot). The first row of your table is highlighted because, by default, it’s set as the table header. Untick Header Row at the top left if you don’t want this style. If you’re doing…

What is it? It’s the slightly daft name given to emerging technology that ‘listens’ for vibrations made in the electromagnetic field, which we all make when we move. Hidden sensors in the floors and walls of homes would monitor where we go. Er, isn’t that called spying? In the wrong hands, yes. But the technology is being developed by Ming-Chun Huang and Soumyajit Mandal, two scientists at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. As far as we know, they don’t plan to sell the technology to Kim Jong-un. What is their plan then? One ambition is to cut the amount of energy buildings use. Huang says the technology could analyse movements in a room to work out how much heat and light is needed there. The sensors lie dormant…

When I moved into my house six years ago, it didn’t have a satellite dish, cable or aerial – and still doesn’t. Until recently, I’d been streaming everything I watch using an old Mac mini plugged into a cheap TV. But when the TV’s panel started to burn out, I decided it was time for a change. I considered a smart TV, but decided that, having never had “smart” features built in before, I wouldn’t miss them if they were absent from whatever I bought next. In the end, I opted for a regular 40in Blaupunkt television, costing just shy of £199 from Currys PC World. It has a built-in Freeview tuner but, as I have no intention of getting an aerial, I won’t be using it. Instead, as I’m…

WORLD’S FIRST 16TB HARD DRIVE ARRIVES Seagate has made the world’s first 16TB 3.5in hard drive, boasting enough capacity to hold two billion Word documents (at 10KB per page), or 60,000 hours of Netflix (at 280MB per hour). It’s aimed at businesses for now, with the price expected to be around £500. It uses HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic recording), which reduces the size of bits, dramatically increasing storage capacity. SKYPE ADDS SUBTITLES TO ONLINE CHATS Microsoft has added subtitles to Skype, transcribing your conversation in real time. They’re available in the latest version of Skype (8), and work in both one-to-one and group chats. You can turn them on for individual chats, or every call you make – follow Microsoft’s instructions at www.snipca.com/29989. NEW TRAIN COMPLAINTS WEBSITE LAUNCHED Train passengers can…

Chrome 71 www.google.co.uk/chrome Click, click, oops. That’s the sound of someone accidentally signing up to a paid-for service online. It’s easily done, particularly when websites hide the price in print so small even the Hubble Telescope would struggle to detect it. It’s the latest scam Google is blocking in its Chrome browser. The new version (71) shows you this warning (pictured) if you’re about to visit a site that doesn’t make its pricing “visible and obvious”. It will appear whether you’re browsing on your phone, tablet or computer. In its blog (www.snipca.com/29901), Google gives the example of “Andrea”, who visits a gaming page that asks for her mobile number. She thinks this is just to register, but the microscopic small print confirms she will be charged “an undisclosed amount per…

Reading about the cot that has an iPad built in (Issue 542, News, page 8) reminded me of some old neighbours of ours who made their own version. Their one-year-old was sleeping badly, so they stuck an iPad to the inside of the cot using Velcro and played nursery rhymes. We moved soon after, so I don’t know how well it worked. They seemed rather proud of their ingenuity, but I didn’t think it was a good idea. I didn’t say so of course, but I discussed it later with my wife, concluding that kids are being exposed to technology - and particularly touchscreen devices - too early in life. None of our grandchildren, all between seven and 11, have their own phones or tablets. When we were raising three…

Refunds can be hard to get, so we’re not going to quibble when a reader gets their money back from a company that wasn’t actually responsible for doing so. This was the unexpected outcome of Stephen Perkin’s case (Issue 536). He spent £66 on a voucher from group-buying website Groupon for a TENS massage machine. To receive the item, he had to redeem the voucher on Easylife’s website (www.easylifegroup.com). The moment he did this, the responsibility for the item passed from Groupon to Easylife. When the machine arrived, it was faulty. Easylife picked up the machine, but mistakenly insisted Groupon was responsible for a refund or repair. We told Easylife that it needed to refund Stephen, though perhaps it misunderstood. Rather than sending the money to Stephen, the company sent…

I’m struggling to keep various bits of research – web links and snippets of text like descriptions of old churches and so on – in one place. What do you suggest? George Henderson Try the excellent free program Zotero (www.zotero.org). You can gather research from websites with one click and then organise them by collection using keywords and saved searches, making it easy to find what you need. It’ll also help you create references and citations to import into reports and other material. It’s a general-purpose tool, so while it’s great for family history, you can use it for other research too. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Adaware Web Companion Adaware Web Companion is a free tool from the company formerly known as Lavasoft. This once-respected developer of once-great security software was acquired by a private equity fund a few years ago and has subsequently become a lot less respected and significantly less great. Web Companion claims to boost your web browser’s defences by protecting you from fraudulent websites, malware, phishing attacks and browser hijacks. In practice, however, the program fools you into installing a collection of browser add-ons you don’t need, changes your homepage without asking and fills your screen with a never-ending stream of unwanted notifications about supposed ‘threats’, as well as adverts for Adaware’s paid-for security products (see screenshot). Web Companion is available to download from www.webcompanion.com – tellingly,…

PHONE | £499 from OnePlus www.snipca.com/29844 Why pay more? Based in China, OnePlus rents no shops and runs no TV ads in the UK, but its phones have expanded from an invitation-only internet phenomenon to being sold on contract by the major networks. The best deal is still to buy outright fom the manufacturer, and even though it’s 30 quid more than its predecessor, the 6T is just the kind of bargain we’ve come to expect. Nobody has yet built a phone that’s all screen, but this comes as close as we’ve seen. There’s a tiny border at the bottom, smaller than on a Samsung Galaxy S9, and a minimal notch at the top to accommodate a single front camera. That means no depth-sensing tech or dancing emoji, but Face…

Which microcomputer will trigger my light display? Q I need a low-voltage system to switch relays on and off for a controlled time, activated by inputs such as sound and movement. It’s for my Halloween lights in 2019. I need a programmable microcomputer such as Arduino. Any suggestions? PW Grundy A Nothing like starting early! Yes, Arduino (www.snipca.com/29866) is an opensource platform used for sensor/actuator projects. For a first foray into lighting control, though, it might be complex. Raspberry Pi (www.raspberrypi.org) is easy to start with. A basic Pi Zero (from £5) should do, and sensors are available (for example, www.snipca.com/29868). Good tips on relays are at www.snipca.com/29872. Also look at the BBC micro:bit (www.snipca.com/29869). This was created for schools but has lots of uses. Its built-in LED array could…

LAPTOP HP Envy 13 £849 from www.snipca.com/29555 Tested Issue 539 The combination of an eighth-generation 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. £1,449 from www.snipca.com/26796 ANDROID TABLET PRICE DROP Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £389 from www.snipca.com/27058 Tested Issue 501 Samsung’s new mid-sized tablet has a wonderful HDR screen and comes with a pen, unlike Apple’s iPad Pro. But its processor isn’t the fastest and it’s disappointingly expensive, especially compared to the £319 iPad 9.7in. ALTERNATIVE Asus ZenPad…

For me, this is the kind of technology that’s ‘nice to have’, but by no means a tool I use every day. Aside from taking a MiFi router abroad so I can share a single internet connection, it’s a handy gadget to keep in my campervan because it means I can take my equipment on the road. Parking on the banks of a river, brewing a fresh pot of coffee on its stove and connecting my laptop over MiFi is a surefire way to keep the creative juices flowing. Would you give up landline for MiFi? Tell us what you think: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

What you need: TeamViewer; Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 30 minutes The latest version of our favourite free remote-access program TeamViewer (14) has a brilliant new feature that will save you time when remotely fixing problems on other people’s PCs. Fixes you make in this version (killing background tasks, removing programs that slow the PC, and so on) are now saved as scripts. In future, you can fix these problems with one click by selecting the relevant script. STEP 1 To download the latest version of TeamViewer, go to www.snipca.com/29827, click the green Download Now button 1 and open the downloaded setup file. Here, select ‘Basic installation’ 2, ‘Personal/Non-commercial use’ 3, then click ‘Accept – finish’ 4. The program will install and open on your PC. You…

PicPick ✓ For ages, PicPick was my favourite program to take and edit screenshots on my PC. The tool lets you create keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots. You can set it to take delayed screenshots and even edit them using different tools. However, I eventually got fed up with it nagging you to update to the paid-for version. And what I use instead… Microsoft’s Snip & Sketch, the successor to Windows Snipping Tool, was released as part of the October 2018 Update. Press the Windows key+Shift+S to launch the tool, then select the area you want to take a screenshot of. Like PicPick, the app has a range of tools to crop and annotate your screenshot. Press Ctrl+S to rename and save the file on your PC. I find this…

NetSpot - Wi-Fi Analyzer Free Android: www.snipca.com/29853 This app helps you monitor the strength of your Wi-Fi signal around your home and detect other networks in the area that might be causing interference. It presents its findings as live, colourcoded graphs, which you can sort by Wi-Fi channel or signal strength. PocketCasts £3.99 Android: www.snipca.com/29854 iOS: www.snipca.com/29855 The latest version of our favourite podcast app has a redesigned interface and includes many new features. Our favourite is the option to play any episode of a podcast without having to subscribe first. You can also search for specific terms within episodes, such as guests’ names. Three.do Free Android: www.snipca.com/29856 This app simplifies the process of creating to-do lists and reminders to just three taps – hence the name. Simply tap the…

One of the best new features of Microsoft’s next big update (version 1903, due in April next year) is a Windows Light Theme, which you can read about at www.snipca.com/29816. While it is currently restricted to Windows Insiders (customers who try out pre-release versions of Windows), you can download and use the new Windows Light wallpaper that comes as part of it. Unlike Windows 10’s current wallpaper, which has a blue Windows logo and fades to black, this theme has a lighter logo which fades to light blue. Overall, it makes the desktop brighter and icons easier to see. To view it, go to www.snipca.com/29817. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see download links for different Surface devices and screen resolutions. Click the link relevant to your Surface device,…

Create an email signature for your club An email signature is like handing over a personal business card every time you send an email because it gives the recipient all the information they need about you at a glance. You probably use a a signature on your personal email, but if you run a club, it’s even more important that your organisation’s emails come with all your relevant details, including a logo, website address and any socialmedia accounts. While all email services let you create a unique signature, there are many free online tools that make this job even easier. We’ll first explain how to create a signature using the four most popular email services - Gmail, Outlook, Outlook.com and Thunderbird. Create signatures in Gmail, Outlook & Thunderbird In Gmail,…

You don’t need a satellite dish for Sky Sports. Dumping cable doesn’t mean waving goodbye to Challenge TV. Whether Antiques Roadshow, Midsomer Murders, Blue Planet or top-level sport, there’s not much on TV these days that can’t be streamed from the web. No wonder, according to Ofcom research, that 42 per cent of Brits are ditching their TV. That’s still fewer than own a DVD player, but it might not be for much longer. DVD use has fallen 20 per cent in 10 years, while smart-TV ownership has grown from one in 20 homes when they first appeared in 2012, to very nearly one in two today. This is driven by changes in the way we consume television. The days of half the country sitting down on a Saturday night,…

Don’t let anyone tell you traditional PC software is dead. We see so many superb programs released every week that we struggle to narrow them down for our Best Free Software section (see pages 18-19). New releases from the likes of FastStone, Mozilla and LibreOffice hog the limelight – and deservedly so – but this means many lesser-known releases fly under the radar. To rectify this situation, we’ve scooped up some of those gems from the wayside, tested them thoroughly to weed out the pretenders, and are happy to present them here with a warm recommendation. And because we love all kinds of software, we’ve devoted an entire page to phone and tablet apps and web tools. Every one of them deserves to join your software arsenal for 2019. SYSTEM…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Why won’t Outlook block junk emails? Q I use Outlook 2016 for email on my Windows 10 PC. When I receive an unwanted email I right-click it and choose Junk followed by Block Sender. This moves it to the Junk Email folder. However, I have noticed that some senders’ emails still go to my inbox even when blocked. I checked this by opening the Junk menu and choosing Junk Email Options, and then clicking on the Blocked Senders tab. The address in question was clearly in the list, so why is it being ignored? This happens with a few senders’ emails, although the majority do repeatedly go straight to the junk folder. Paul Davies A This happens because your copy of Outlook has been set up…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. AES 28 Bit Advanced Encryption Standard. An extremely secure method of encrypting data. AES-256 Advanced Encryption Standard. A form of encryption based on a key length of 256 bits. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Architecture A set of rules and language that govern how hardware and software work. Bandwidth A measure of how much data can be transferred through a connection at one time. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. Software built into every PC that connects the vital components. Blue light Light…