Table of contents for 682 in Computeractive

I hate the idea of binning devices just because they’re past their prime, but sometimes there’s simply no choice. Recently the battery in my iPhone 7 had degraded so much that it would only stay charged for less than the time it takes Apple to earn £5m (ie, one hour). It’s now practically useless, though Apple hasn’t yet labelled the iPhone 7 as ‘vintage’. Robert Irvine explains what this means in his excellent Cover Feature, and reveals how you can check whether other devices – PCs, laptops, tablets, smart TVs and more – are unsafe and need replacing. I’ve learned that my Microsoft Surface laptop, HP Chromebook and Asus router are no longer supported, while one of my PCs has an Intel processor that’s soon to become obsolete. Please let…

Google will destroy the data of millions of users it collected while they were browsing the internet in Chrome’s Incognito mode. The move aims to resolve a class-action lawsuit brought in California, that accused the company of invading people’s privacy by gathering their data when they thought they were browsing privately. The lawsuit sought $5bn in damages, but Google has instead agreed to delete billions of data records it has collected. It will wipe data from around the world, not just the US. Any data it can’t delete must be ‘de-identified’ so it can’t be used to identify individuals. Google will also continue to be more transparent about how Incognito mode works. For example, it has changed the wording when you launch Incognito to say that it “won’t change how…

Most of the public are in favour of telegraph poles being used for broadband, according to the industry body that represents internet providers. ISPA (Internet Service Providers Association) said a nationwide survey of 2,500 people found that 75 per cent “clearly recognise the benefits of having access to faster and more reliable broadband even if that is delivered via poles” (see www.snipca.com/50005). The survey showed that even in areas where poles are not currently being used, 69 per cent of people would accept new poles “to provide the community with better access to broadband”. Less than 20 per cent “frequently notice” poles when they are out and about, the results found, while only 30 per cent would be willing to pay to lay broadband cables underground in their street. ISPA’s…

Rude scammer ‘from So Energy’ Three times in one day I received spam calls from the number 0330 124 5686. The caller claimed to be from So Energy, which I am a customer of. She also knew my surname and quoted the first two digits of my sort code. She tried to get me to sign up to a new tariff and also wanted me to install a smart meter. Her reason was that my meter wasn’t reading properly. When I told her that I would check this by calling So Energy directly, she became rude and abrupt, hanging up soon after. She had obviously realised I wasn’t going to fall for it. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Where’s my replacement drive as warranty promised? LEAD CASE Q I purchased a Seagate 2TB portable drive from Currys in January 2022. I registered the warranty with Seagate, but after 11 months the drive failed. I returned it to Seagate’s Rescue Data Recovery Services (www.snipca.com/49867) in order to recover the data and be sent a replacement. Seagate sent UPS return labels to me, but it says the drive has been missing since December. UPS sent me claim forms to report the missing drive and Seagate says it would investigate, but still nothing has happened. Can you help? John Mulholland A We’ll do our best because John is entitled to a replacement drive, as stated in the terms and conditions of Seagate’s warranty. UPS has confirmed that the drive has been…

How do I annotate screenshots? Q I use ‘Snip & Sketch’ in Windows to capture screenshots of my PC when I want to show friends and family instructions, but I find it tricky to annotate them with pointers, numbers and text. I’ve tried a few programs like ShareX (www.snipca.com/49834), but they’re too complicated for my needs. I like the way these elements appear on your screenshots – so what do you use? Colin Faulkner A We annotate our screenshots using Adobe InDesign, which is even more advanced than the likes of ShareX. We do like ShareX, but we agree it packs a lot in, making it hard to use. A simpler alternative is Flameshot (www.snipca.com/49835). It’s free, and you can download it to your desktop, or add it to your…

Q I’m going on the trip of a lifetime and I’m looking for a portable backup device for SD cards to store my photos. Most devices I’ve found online are no longer available. I don’t want to lug a laptop around, so a self-contained battery-powered unit would be ideal. What would you suggest? Allan Branch A Like you, the only devices we can find online are either discontinued or from companies that have gone bust. We suspect the reason is that the price of memory cards has dropped to a point where there’s no real reason not to simply buy as many as you might need. You can get a 512GB SanDisk card for £80 from Currys at www.snipca.com/49940. When it was still available, the 1TB WD My Passport Wireless…

Winner of a ‘Recommended’ award in Issue 681, AOC’s CQ27G2S/BK is a stunning PC monitor that’s especially ideal for gaming. Its curved 27in screen wraps around you, so you can jump straight into the action. It has a stunning QHD resolution (2560x1440 pixels), and uses VA panel technology for deeper blacks and a high contrast for extra vivid and bright images. The 165Hz refresh rate (well over twice the industry standard of 60Hz) keeps games silky smooth, while AOC’s Low Input Lag guarantees fast-paced and realistic battles. You’ll feel your reflexes become one with the action. You can adjust the height, tilt and swivel to create the perfect gaming position. There’s also a VESA mount on the back if you want to attach it to your wall. To enter this…

BRAVE Access AI features from your right-click menu Brave 164, released in March, makes further improvements to the browser’s AI assistant Leo. When you click the ‘Show sidebar’ button in the top-right corner, the chatbot now launches by default, which saves you having to open the sidebar first to click the Leo button. Brave has also added Leo to its right-click context menu, to give you easier access to its AI features – including options that aren’t available in the sidebar. Highlight a section of text on a web page, then right-click and move your cursor to the new ‘Leo AI tools’ sub-menu (1 in our screenshot below). Under ‘Quick actions’, you can ask Leo to summarise the content of the selected text or explain it to you, by providing…

MICROSOFT WORD Create collapsible headers in documents When you’re working on a lengthy Word document with lots of headings, it’s a good idea to make them collapsible. That way, you can expand and read only the sections you want, rather than scrolling endlessly through the document to find what you’re looking for. You can do this by choosing a heading style from the Styles section in the ribbon menu – we chose ‘Heading 1’ (1 in our screenshot). When a heading is collapsed, all the text below will be hidden. This will be indicated by an arrow to the left pointing at the text, as with our ‘Hotel options’ heading 2. When a heading is expanded, it will rotate 45 degrees, as in the ‘Flight options’ header 3. Simply click…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Why is my PC booting by itself? Q I bought a refurbished Windows 10 desktop PC from Amazon, which I connected to the internet via Ethernet and is working fine for my needs. However, I’ve noticed that sometimes it appears to be ‘self booting’. By this I mean that I can shut down the computer manually, only for me to find a day or so later that the power lamp on the case is lit and the PC is ready to be used. I am not technical or super savvy, so might end up doing more harm if I try fiddling with it – so your comments would be appreciated. Joe Murray A One culprit behind this issue…

What did reader do to fix BT’s phone adapter? Q In Issue 679’s Readers’ Tips (page 40) Alan Thomassen explained how to overcome the ‘flaky’ performance of BT’s phone adapter. I thought Alan’s solution would help me solve my problems, but I don’t understand what he did. At the back of the BT router there are sockets for phone (green), Bluetooth (grey), USB (white) and WAN (red), as well as four Ethernet sockets (yellow). My desk phone is plugged into the green phone socket and works perfectly. My three linked cordless phones have their base unit plugged into the BT-supplied adapter. It’s this adapter which is the problem. So how has Alan been able to plug all of his phones into the back of the router? David Collins A Alan Thomassen didn’t…

Ken Doyle, who runs a small firm in Birmingham, asked us whether he could seek compensation if his internet provider deleted his business’s email address. He was responding to Barry Grieveson’s case against Virgin Media O2 (see Issue 681), in which we said customers aren’t automatically entitled to compensation if their provider locks them out of their email accounts. The short answer is: maybe. If Ken has a business account with his provider, it probably includes a comprehensive service level agreement or, more broadly, a service level commitment. These are contracts that state which service a company will deliver, and the standards it must stick to. A commitment to provide a business email address can be part of these contracts. But even if Ken loses access to his email, he’s…

SOFTWARE UNINSTALLER Uninstalr 2.3 www.snipca.com/50052 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 When we wrote about Uninstalr in Issue 679 (page 19), we were amused by its bold claim to be the “best Windows uninstaller”. The developer has even compiled a comparison table and lengthy video (www.snipca.com/50051) to prove the new tool’s superiority to established rivals such as BCUninstaller and HiBit Uninstaller. As we pointed out, this assertion was undermined by Uninstalr’s slow performance, so we’re pleased that version 2.3 implements lots of improvements and fixes. Although it still takes several minutes to complete its initial scan for installed software, it’s now faster at removal and does a particularly good job of detecting leftovers other tools miss. Uninstalr makes it easy to batch-uninstall multiple programs in one go…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Don’t Touch My Phone’s useless anti-theft ‘protection’ My last phone was nicked in a pub a few years back, and I’d try anything to stop that from happening again. But I’d still rather pay for a bodyguard armed with a bazooka than trust the dreadful ‘Don’t Touch My Phone’ (www.snipca.com/49902). The app lured me in due to its 4.4-star rating on the Google Play Store and the fact that it’s been downloaded 10 million times. I didn’t know anything about its Vietnamese developers Infinity Technologies Global, but I was curious about its “anti spy detector technology” and how it worked. Would it create a forcefield around my phone, vaporising thieving hands? First impressions weren’t encouraging – a loading screen told me that ‘Ads are about to be shown’…

What are they? If you’ve ever been in the appliance department of your local Currys or John Lewis you’ll be used to seeing the energy-efficiency labels that appear on fridges and washing machines. However, these labels also appear on screens, including those on TVs and PC monitors. How do they work? Products on sale should display a label similar to the one pictured right. When buying online you may have to click a link to see it. The multi-coloured graph shows how efficiently a product uses energy, with A being the most efficient and G being the least. On PC monitors the specified power consumption will also be displayed. This may include a rating for HDR mode if applicable, though this is more likely on a TV. The screen size…

ANDROID & iOS Group similar pictures in Google Photos Google has updated its Photos app with a useful feature called Photo Stacks, which keeps your pictures better organised by grouping similar shots. Instead of showing multiple photos of the same subject, taken seconds apart, Stacks presents them as a single ‘top pick’ image. Tapping this opens a film strip containing the other pictures in the stack. Google Photos will inform you when Stacks is available on your phone or tablet, and will enable the feature by default. You can switch it on and off manually by tapping the three-dot icon at the top of your photo feed and choosing ‘Stack similar photos’ (1 in our screenshot below left). Alternatively, press your profile picture in the top-right corner, followed by ‘Photos…

Pin important notes in video meetings All video-chat tools let you type messages that appear in panels next to the video, which can be helpful when asking questions or posting website links. But because they appear in the order they’re posted, it’s easy to lose track of important messages. Google recently fixed this problem by letting you ‘pin’ messages in its video-chat tool Meet, so they remain at the top for everyone to see. What’s especially useful is that anyone joining the meeting late will also see the pinned messages. They won’t be able to see any normal, unpinned messages that were posted before they joined. Google tends to first roll out features to users who subscribe to its paid-for Workspace suite of tools, but happily it has immediately made…

For the first time in nearly 25 years Google is worried that it might be dethroned as the world’s top search tool. The reason – as we explore on page 10 – is the sensational rise of ChatGPT. Launched in late 2022, it’s an AI tool that answers typed questions in plain English, usually taking just a few seconds. It’s one of the few AI tools that happen to justify the soaring hype surrounding the technology. Using ChatGPT has been easier since the start of April when OpenAI – the research body that runs the tool – opened it up to be used without registering for an account. All you need to do is visit https://chat.openai.com and start typing in the ‘Message ChatGPT’ box at the bottom. When done, click…

Businesses will have to pay $61 (about £49) per device for extended security updates for Windows 10 after Microsoft ends standard support on 14 October 2025. But this price is for the first year of support only. It will double for the second year ($122), then double again ($244) for the third. Microsoft’s Extended Security Update scheme for Windows 10 will run for only three years after 2025. For the first time it’s offering the scheme to individuals, but hasn’t confirmed pricing – though it’s likely to be significantly cheaper than for businesses (see www.snipca.com/50080). Windows 10 remains by far the world’s most popular operating system, despite support ending in 18 months’ time. Its market share even jumped in March from 67.26 to 69.07 per cent, while Windows 11 fell…

KOBO BEATS AMAZON TO COLOUR E-READER Kobo has released its first colour e-readers, beating Amazon which has been working on colour Kindles for some time. The Libra Clara Colour (pictured) has a 6in screen and costs £139.99, while the Libra Colour is 7in and costs £219.99. Both devices go on sale on 30 April – read more at www.snipca.com/50044. We’ll review them soon. EBAY AXES FEES FOR SECOND-HAND CLOTHES EBay has removed fees for selling clothes that are second-hand, or “pre-owned” to use the website’s term. It says encouraging more people to sell clothes they no longer need will help to keep them out of landfill. However, fees still apply for selling trainers, watches, handbags and jewellery. Read more at www.snipca.com/50043. TOMORROW’S WORLD Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) boss Elon…

I’ve just entered my eighth decade and thought there was little left in this world that could surprise me. But I was stunned to read in Issue 681 (page 7) that Amazon doesn’t have to state the country of origin when listing products. I admit that I’ve never looked for this information when shopping on the site, but that’s only because I buy from big-name brands who I trust. In the current climate I can understand why Sir Iain Duncan Smith said that listing items made in China was a priority. I would include Russia also, though I doubt many items are made there. But regardless of the countries, how has Amazon and other websites got away with this? It’s outrageous that they can bypass the law while all high-street…

I built my own PC housed in a Be Quiet! Silent Base 800 case (pictured), which I found well designed and of good quality. After nearly 10 years of daily use, the power switch had become a little unreliable. I went on their website (www.snipca.com/49832) and found that this case was no longer available. I submitted a request for a spare part, not expecting much, and received an automated reply. But within a day I had been contacted by their Manchester office to say they were dispatching one to me from Germany free of charge. The next morning I had confirmation it had been sent. I consider this service above and beyond the normal and would have no hesitation in using any of their products again. Has a company impressed…

Icecream PDF Editor Pro www.snipca.com/50048 Price: £49.99 per year Free trial: N/A What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 Like all Icecream programs, PDF Editor packs lots of useful features into a simple, attractive interface you can master in minutes. But it also adopts the same ‘freemium’ model, which requires you to pay to unlock certain features – it’s actually the most expensive member of the Icecream family. At first glance, it appears that the free version offers everything you need to create and edit PDF files. Unlike some PDF editors, which limit you to removing individual pages, it lets you delete and replace text and images in documents, and add annotations, shapes and stamps (see screenshot). You can also convert pages to PNG, JPEG and other image…

Look into my eyes, Robert. Imagine you’ve hacked two women’s Snapchat accounts, sold their intimate photos online, then been arrested and sentenced to eight months behind bars. Now imagine that you tried to cover your tracks by setting up fraudulent cryptocurrency accounts in another person’s name. When I click my fingers, you’ll come back to reality. One, two, three – click – and, sorry Robert, but it looks like you really did hack those accounts and you really are paying for it in prison. Temple, 36, from Bishop Auckland is a “comedy hypnotist” who has performed all over the world. He claims it’s a “ruddy good laugh”, but he clearly has a sick sense of humour. I doubt any of his fellow inmates will find him particularly funny.…

PHONE | £319 from Nothing www.snipca.com/49930 Clear winner You might recall us reviewing the first phone from oddly named UK manufacturer Nothing back in Issue 639. The Phone 2a is the second upgrade since then – the Nothing Phone 2 was significantly more expensive, launching at £629 (though it’s now down to £519 from Nothing at www.snipca.com/49931). And there’s no doubt the lower starting price certainly bolsters the appeal of the Phone 2a. As with previous models, the design of the 2a is one of its stand-out features. Its inner workings are visible through its clear plastic shell, while flashing ‘glyphs’ (essentially LEDs) communicate information about notification alerts, incoming calls and more without you needing to glance at the screen. It has fewer lights than previous models (three instead of…

I used to have multiple monitors running side by side, each connected to a single PC, so I could arrange my windows the way you can with Spacedesk. Ultimately, I found it wasn’t a great solution for me because I had to disconnect them all whenever I wanted to work elsewhere, so I bought a larger screen that would fit everything side by side. If I’d been using a system like Spacedesk, the cables wouldn’t have been a problem, and I could have saved myself the expense of upgrading my primary monitor. How do you set up multiple monitors? Please let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Find out if items are made in China I agree with calls for Amazon to state which country products are made in, so we can avoid buying from those places if we so wished (Issue 681, page 7). One site that can help is ProductFrom (www.productfrom.com), which has 120,000 products you can search. The results tell you where each item was made. I use it by clicking the top-right Search icon then typing a brand name. It’ll suggest lots of results as you type. Search for ‘Huawei’, for example, and you’ll see 21 items listed, while Lenovo produces 247 (see screenshot). Those are both Chinese firms, but it also lists products from non-Chinese firms that outsource their manufacturing to China. It…

WINDOWS 11 Restore the old Task Manager Microsoft redesigned Task Manager in Windows 11 22H2 by moving the tabbed options from the top to the left, and adding icons to represent each one. If you don’t like this design, you can easily go back to the old Task Manager – as still seen in Windows 10. First, make sure Task Manager isn’t running on your PC. Then all you need to do is press Windows key+R, type taskmgr -d (1 in our screenshot below) and click OK. You’ll see the old design appear, with the tabs (Processes, Performance etc) along the top 2. WINDOWS 11 Use ‘Voice access’ across multiple monitors Windows 11’s Moment 5 update, now installed on all PCs, has added the ability to use ‘Voice access’ across…

BT’s plan to replace its ageing copper landline network with its VoIP service, Digital Voice, hasn’t gone as smoothly as intended. Originally due to be completed by the end of 2025, the rollout has been paused several times and may be postponed until 2027 – partly because BT failed to realise the effect the switch-off would have on users of telecare devices. However, many BT customers have already been moved to Digital Voice, albeit without much guidance from the company. Here we explain how to enjoy the same benefits on your digital phone that you got from your old landline. Use your own phone with Digital Voice When you move to Digital Voice, BT will send you a Smart Hub 2 router if you don’t already have one, but you’ll…

WHAT YOU GET ✓ Real-time malware protection✓ Secure VPN✓ 75GB PC Cloud Backup✓ Webcam hack alerts PLUS Monitors the dark web for your personal information Norton is made by NortonLifeLock Inc – a standalone company dedicated to consumer cyber safety. It has always performed strongly in Computeractive antivirus tests, so we highly recommend it. 10 devices for two years NOW ONLY £19.99* Normally £179.99 Buy it from our Software Store at www.snipca.com/33247 *while stocks last…

3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 720p/1080p/1440p Common types of high-definition video of 1280x720, 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 pixels respectively. AI Artificial intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. Often used to describe technology that can perform human-like tasks. AM4 A type of processor socket used by AMD for its Ryzen series of processors. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a screen. Traditional PC screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. Beta versions are often released so problems can be ironed out. Biometric Using measurable personal characteristics, such as fingerprints, for identification. Blue screen of…