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If I could be reincarnated as anything, I think I’d choose a solid-state drive (SSD). I’ve just tested the life expectancy of the Toshiba SSD in my laptop and it should work for another 100 years at least – many more decades than my rickety body will. No moving parts means it has a pretty easy life: saving files, loading software and booting PCs. It never has to unblock sinks, grout tiles or remember which bin to put out every week. However, as Robert Irvine reveals in his Cover Feature, they can still go wrong if you mistreat them. He explains how to configure them expertly so you’ll maximise their speed advantage over traditional hard drives. His tips cover programs that check your SSD’s lifespan, commands to save files faster…

Can retailer refuse repair if I can prove an inherent fault? Q In June 2021, I bought a Mobvoi TicWatch Pro S (pictured) for £178.39. I already owned one, so I put it away and forgot about it. We started to use it recently when my husband’s own smartwatch became faulty, but it will charge to only 50 per cent. Mobvoi first said it would repair the watch if it’s shown to be inherently faulty, but has now changed its mind. Is it allowed to do this? Deborah McDougall A No it’s not. Under the Consumer Rights Act Deborah has up to six years to report an inherent fault. If it turns out to be faulty, Mobvoi has to help her, whether that’s with a repair, replacement or refund. However,…

What’s the best free alternative to Photoshop Elements? Q I’ve used Photoshop Elements 12 for over 10 years, so it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. Is there a current free alternative? I’d like a tool that can eliminate converging verticals. Can only Photoshop do this? Rod Turner A Converging verticals is a recurring problem for photographers. They appear in photos shot at an extreme angle, such as when looking up at the top of a tall building, where its edges appear to get closer as they recede. Expensive tilt-shift lenses can help or – as you seem to have been doing for the past decade – you can edit images using a tool such as Photoshop Elements. One of the best free alternatives is GIMP (www.gimp.org). Open your image…

PHONE | £279 from Xiaomi www.snipca.com/45510 Xiaomi Poco X5 5G Chip panned The Xiaomi Poco F3 (reviewed in Issue 608) was our favourite Android smartphone for many months, seeing off other budget models which came and went. Unfortunately, while subsequent Poco models have been decent, they haven’t seen the great leap in performance and features that made the F3 special. “Its slick, vibrant screen and decent battery is let down by its ageing chip” Now we have the X5, a phone that costs just £279, comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and offers a great screen and satisfactory battery life. There’s also an 8GB/256GB model that costs £319. The screen is superb. It’s a stunning 6.67in AMOLED panel, with a 2400x1080-pixel resolution and a smooth 120Hz refresh…

ANDROID Stop cookies tracking you in Firefox The latest version of Firefox for Android (www.snipca.com/45446) adds a welcome privacy feature called Total Cookie Protection, which stops cookies following you around the web. The option has been available in the Firefox desktop browser since 2021 and works by creating a separate ‘cookie jar’ for each site you visit. This prevents cookies from tracking you to other sites and sharing your data with third parties such as advertisers. Total Cookie Protection is part of Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protection, but only works when that feature is set to Strict mode (see screenshot below). To activate it, tap the three-dot menu button in the bottom-right corner of the mobile browser and choose Settings. Select ‘Enhanced Tracking Protection’ and switch the mode from Standard to…

Use AI to transcribe your meetings When you host an important online meeting it’s vital that someone is taking accurate notes that everyone can agree precisely reflects what was said. This can be tricky to do by hand, so it’s worth using an AI tool to automatically transcribe what people say. Our recommended program for this task is the excellent Otter, which works in Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. As well as a transcription that you can easily share, it produces a summary that lets you jump to specific points, and an audio recording. It gives you 300 hours of transcription for free every month – though it does limit you to 30-minute meetings. If your meetings last longer, you can simply restart Otter’s transcription, effectively making the next…

Does RestorePhotos limit you to two photos a day? Q I tried RestorePhotos.io (www.snipca.com/44855) to sharpen blurry faces, as you recommended in Issue 651’s ‘Restore your old photos & videos’ Cover Feature. The results are impressive. However, you said there are no limits to how many photos you can fix. But disappointingly, I was only allowed to fix two. When I tried to upload a third image a message said I had uploaded too many images and to try again in 24 hours. Can you check this? John Weston A We didn’t mention this in our original article because there were no such limitations at the time. So, why did RestorePhotos.io start imposing these restrictions? Well, it might just have been our fault. In a recent tweet (www.snipca. com/45433), the…

INTEL’S GORDON MOORE DIES AGED 94 Semiconductor pioneer and Intel co-founder Gordon Moore (pictured) has died at the age of 94. In 1965 he famously predicted that the power of processing would double every year, later changing this to every two years. This became known as Moore’s Law and has generally held true since. Intel paid tribute by saying it had lost “a visionary” (www.snipca.com/45530). BT REFUNDS CUSTOMERS CHARGED TWICE BT has refunded customers after it took two direct debit payments for one month’s broadband, forcing some to pay using their overdraft. Customers started to complain on 21 March, posting on BT’s forums (www.snipca.com/45531) and Twitter (www.snipca.com/45532). BT said the error affected only a “small number” of customers and apologised for the inconvenience. TOMORROW’S WORLD If you were wondering whether…

WATCH OUT FOR… Emotet malware in OneNote files What’s the threat? For the first time criminal gangs are emailing OneNote files containing the deadly Emotet botnet. Until recently, hackers hid this malware inside Excel and Word email attachments. If the recipient opened the attachment and enabled macros, Emotet would be installed on their computer, stealing email contacts to use in future spam attacks. Microsoft thwarted the effectiveness of this form of attack last year by disabling Excel and Word macros by default. This means the malware won’t run automatically when you click to open an attached file. In response, cyber-gangs started to infect OneNote files with malware, with US security firm ProofPoint detecting 50 separate scam campaigns in January alone (see Protect Your Tech, Issue 652). Since Emotet started attacking…

Explore civil-service records Civil servants are employed within departments to carry out the will of central government. The modern service developed in Britain in the 18th century, with positions granted through patronage, or by wealthy individuals purchasing posts. It was reformed in the early 19th century to service the British Empire, with recruitment to ‘Her Majesty’s Civil Service’ exclusively based on merit and a good education. Find proof of age As a general rule, civil-service personnel papers are not sent to the National Archives at Kew, but retained by the respective departments. However, the National Archives does hold some records that can help, including the British Imperial Calendar from 1809-1972, and the Civil Service Year Book from 1972 onwards, as well as the papers of various high-ranking civil servants from…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Keep Clean’s annoying ads and junk I had finally lost patience with my phone. The device – an Oppo Find X3 Lite – kept pestering me with alerts warning me that I was running out of storage. I couldn’t work out how to free up enough space to put a stop to these messages, so in desperation I installed the clunkily named ‘Keep Clean – UselessFile Clean’, an Android app that promises to remove “useless & large files”. The app sits in Google Play Store’s top 10 free apps, with 10 million downloads – so it must be doing something right – right? Wrong! In hindsight, I should have scrolled down to the various disgruntled one-star reviews on the app’s listing (www.snipca.com/45459). And failing that, I certainly should…

GAMING CONTROLLER | From £120 from Amazon www.snipca.com/45472 Turtle Beach VelocityOne Flightstick Ready for take off Despite the onslaught of computers into our lives, pilots still don’t fly planes using a keyboard. Which is why, if you’re a fan of Microsoft Flight Simulator or any other flight-based gaming software, a flightstick adds a level of immersion and control that’s simply unparalleled. Turtle Beach’s VelocityOne Flightstick comes fully assembled, but it’s quite light, so you’ll need to use it two-handed. Alternatively, it comes with the necessary screws to attach it to something heavier and more stable. Along with the stick itself, there are levers on both sides for controlling in-game elements such as throttle and flaps. Everything feels smooth and is well-built. It also comes with Bluetooth support, which connects to…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Type specific URLs to open browser sections As someone who prefers typing commands to making small mouse movements, I enjoyed your feature on tweaking URLs to open specific pages online (Issue 654, page 62). I do the same to open sections of the browsers I use: Chrome, Edge and Brave. This saves me clicking through their settings. The URL I type most often is chrome://bookmarks to see all the bookmarks I’ve saved. It’s a quick way to remove bookmarks you no longer need. Replacing bookmarks with extensions, downloads and history takes you to those sections. Another one I’ve just discovered is chrome://version (1 in our screenshot), which takes you to a page showing the numbered version of Chrome you’re using 2. I find this useful when reading…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Stop personal files being saved on work computers If you have a work computer or share one with others, you should consider preventing OneDrive from saving personal files on it. To do this, launch OneDrive on your work/shared machine, then click the top-right cog icon to open Settings. Now click Account on the left (1 in our screenshot below), followed by ‘Choose folders’ on the right 2. You’ll now see which folders are available on all your computers. Untick any you don’t want to appear on your work/shared computer 3 then click OK. WINDOWS 10 & 11 Use Quick Assist’s advanced options In Issue 654’s Workshop (page 38) we explained how to use the new laser pointer in Quick Assist to help fix problems remotely on someone…

What are they? We’re fairly sure you already know. Wikipedia describes them as the “fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus”, and you’ve probably eaten them in soups, curries, risottos, pizzas and salads. You may even have foraged for them in the countryside. But what you’ve probably never done is use them to power your computer. You’re not wrong. But has anyone done that? Well, yes, actually. Meet Professor Andrew Adamatzky (pictured below), who runs the Unconventional Computing Laboratory at University of the West of England in Bristol. What’s that? Adamatzky founded it in 2001 as a place to “develop computers for the next century” using techniques based on chemical or living systems. It’s the only ‘wet’ lab – one which handles chemicals, liquids and organic matter - in the…

1440p Type of high-definition video of 2560x1440 pixels. 2G/3G/4G/5G A set of technologies that delivers faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. AES 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard. A form of encryption based on a key length of 256 bits. AI Artificial Intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human. Alt Text Words that appear in place of an image if the image fails to load online. Also used by screen-reading software to describe images to visually impaired readers. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Most commonly used in smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. Batch file Commands that are processed in sequence, often without needing input from the user. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an…

PHOTO EDITOR Icecream Photo Editor 1.25 www.snipca.com/45546 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 Free photo editors range from basic tools such as the Photos app in Windows 10 and 11 to advanced programs aimed at professionals such as GIMP. Icecream Photo Editor is closer to the former, offering a wide selection of editing tools in a simple, uncluttered interface. Unlike some Icecream software, which restricts certain features to the paid-for version, this new program is entirely free to use – with no watermarks, locked options or upgrade nags. Click ‘Browse for images’ when you launch it to select the photos you want to edit – the software supports all the main image formats including JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF and WEBP. In addition to standard options for cropping,…

At the sharp end Any TV you’ve bought in the past few years is likely to have a 4K resolution, to make the most of the high-quality streaming services available. Your current PC monitor, on the other hand, probably doesn’t have this level of resolution. AOC’s U27P2CA monitor may persuade you to upgrade, however – offering 4K at a reasonable price. “An incredibly sharp image, easy setup and elegant design” The screen is a 27in IPS panel with a maximum brightness level of 350cd/m2, contrast ratio of 1,000:1, and a refresh rate of 60Hz. That’s a little slow for gaming, as is the 4-millisecond response time, but it’s perfectly fine for general Windows work. All those specifications translate into a picture that’s pleasant to look at and is incredibly sharp.…

Top draw Wacom is renowned for producing premium, professional tools for digital artists, with some of the best drawing tablets currently available, including the similarly named Wacom One. So this cheaper, more basic device (called One by Wacom) is slightly outside its usual remit, but very welcome for amateur artists that want a pen-like interface for their PC without paying professional prices. The device is lightweight, uncomplicated and stylish. Unlike the Wacom One, it lacks a built-in screen. This means you can’t see what you’re drawing directly on the tablet, as you might if you were using a stylus on a regular tablet. Instead, this acts more like a mouse, in that moving the stylus around just above the tablet moves the cursor on your PC screen. Make contact with…

CHROME Manage your downloads more easily Chrome’s download manager is notoriously basic compared with other browsers. When you download files from the web, they are shown in a bar along the bottom of the window, which can quickly become crowded with items and obscures the lower part of the page you’re viewing. For the past year Google has been working on an improved Chrome download manager that adds a download button to the browser’s top toolbar. Clicking this opens a list of current and recent downloads, including details of their progress and file size, which makes them much easier to access. Chrome 111, released in March, enhances this feature by showing the number of active downloads on the toolbar button. To use the new download manager – which Google calls…

LIBREOFFICE CALC, MICROSOFT EXCEL & ONLYOFFICE Convert units of measurements in spreadsheets Excel’s =CONVERT function lets you convert different units of measurement. In our example, we’re converting Celsius degrees in cell A2 so it appears as Fahrenheit in B2. So, in B2 we type =CONVERT(A2,"C","F") (1 in our screenshot), and 25o Celsius is converted into 77o Fahrenheit 2. The letters for Celsius (C) and Fahrenheit (F) are taken from Microsoft’s list at www.snipca.com/45377. Other conversions you can perform include stone (s) to grams (g), feet (ft) to yards (yd), and litre (lt) to gallon (gal). In each case, place the letters in the speech marks as in the example above. For measurement units in OnlyOffice and LibreOffice Calc visit www.snipca.com/45379 and www.snipca.com/45380 respectively. The functions works the same in both of…

WHAT YOU CAN DO • Check the health of your SSD and reveal its estimated lifespan • Reduce the time it takes to save files to your SSD • Free up space on your drive to boost its performance • Force Windows to allocate maximum power to your SSD • Disable unnecessary features that slow your drive • Ensure your PC is configured to boot from your SSD • Benchmark-test your drive to monitor its speed over time Solid-state drives (SSDs) have revolutionised our computers over the past decade, making them faster, quieter and much more reliable. If you’ve bought a new laptop or desktop PC in the last few years, it almost certainly includes an SSD, either as its sole boot and storage drive, or coupled with a traditional…