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At one time, about four years ago, it felt like I was the only Surrey-to-London commuter not playing Candy Crush on their phone. I don’t know what the few remaining commuters play now, but I still haven’t crushed any candy – not on my phone, tablet, or computer. In fact, it was one of the first things I removed from the Windows Start menu once I realised it required just a few clicks. Deleting such adverts (for that’s what they are) is one of the tips Robert Irvine explains in our Cover Feature, along with expelling outdated Windows programs, wiping unnecessary updates and uninstalling temporary files that seem to have become permanent. More controversially, he also suggests five Windows tools that you should replace. I agree with him on Groove…

SCROLL FASTER IN ONLINE EXCEL Microsoft has improved the web version of Excel to make it faster to scroll rows in your spreadsheets. It also claims to have “significantly reduced” the time it takes to load a workbook, and to make it quicker to select the cells you need, so you’ll enjoy “a more fluid experience when working in the grid”. Read Microsoft’s Excel blog to see these changes in action, and for more improvements: www.snipca.com/37224. PLAY OLD GAMES ON PLEX ARCADE Plex has launched a gaming service that lets you play 27 old Atari arcade games, including Missile Control, Lunar Lander and Centipede. Called Plex Arcade, it costs £3.99 a month after a seven-day trial. This price comes down to £2.29 if you subscribe to a Plex Pass, which…

Broadband providers and mobile networks have given £940m worth of support, including free data, calls and texts, during the Covid-19 pandemic. A study by technology analysts Assembly Research examined 50 offers from companies and found that 20 of them – amounting to £340m in value – were directed at the most vulnerable people in society. As well as free calls and texts, help has included scrapping data charges on essential websites, such as NHS pages and educational services. Nineteen offers were available to everyone, coming to £250m, while six were targeted at NHS workers (£220m). Four offers (£130m) were aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses survive the pandemic. Assembly Research said that in “nearly every country” companies have taken measures to help people use data and access the internet…

NETFLIX AUDIO BETTER ON PHONES & TABLETS Netflix has updated its audio to make programmes sound better when you’re watching on Android phones and tablets. It has upgraded the xHE-AAC codec to make audio clearer in “noisy environments” and work better with mobile connections. It also makes the volume consistent between shows. However, these tweaks apply only to devices running Android 9 (released in 2018) or later. Read more at www.snipca.com/37204. VIRGIN LAUNCHES 5G IN 100 TOWNS & CITIES Virgin Mobile has launched its 5G service in more than 100 towns and cities across the UK using Vodafone’s mobile network. Virgin customers with 5G plans and phones will be moved immediately on to the Vodafone network, while 4G customers will remain on EE until Virgin’s deal with EE’s parent company…

In its blog post announcing version 88 of Edge (www.snipca.com/37191), Microsoft says that using a weak password is a terrible idea because “bad actors” can guess them and access your accounts. This doesn’t mean that the cast of EastEnders want to hack you. In tech jargon, a bad actor is simply someone with criminal intent – typically a hacker or scammer. But the point remains true: using 12345678 as your password is a worse idea than asking Dot Cotton to keep a secret. To help you stay safe, the new version of Edge has a tool called Password Monitor that tells you when a password you’ve saved in the browser has been leaked online in a data breach. When this happens (as it inevitably will), you’ll see a warning at…

Can a firm refuse full refund because of Covid? LEAD CASE Q I bought a dinosaur-dragon toy for £44.98 from Magoloft (www.magoloft.com, pictured) for my granddaughter, paying by Mastercard, but it doesn’t work. The site initially offered half my money back, not a full refund. The reason it gave was that it’s not accepting returns because of the pandemic, and therefore couldn’t check whether the toy was faulty. I refused this offer, and now the site won’t reply. Can they use Covid as an excuse? John Taylor A No they can’t. Yes, the pandemic is affecting all companies, big and small, and some deliveries or refunds may take longer, but that doesn’t mean websites can refuse to take returns. Magaloft’s excuse made us suspicious, so we investigated and found that…

Find Prisoner of War records Search World War One records The National Archives (TNA) provides an excellent introductory guide to Prisoner of War (PoW) records available online (www.snipca.com/37146). Once you’ve digested this, it’s time to start searching them. Many records were kept by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has digitised index cards for prisoners – you can search this list for free at https://grandeguerre.icrc.org. Enter their surname, select their nationality and status (military), then click Search. The list isn’t comprehensive – it doesn’t, for example, include my great-granduncle Joseph Peers, who served in the Monmouthshire Regiment during World War One. You should also search Find My Past’s ‘Prisoners Of War 1715-1945’ collection (www.snipca.com/37151 – you’ll need a Plus subscription costing £12.99 for one month to view records).…

How can I download YouTube videos? Q I am a former Web User subscriber who, on its closure, was transferred over to Computeractive – and I am delighted with it. Could you tell me the best way to download hour-long recordings of waterfalls on YouTube? I would love to transfer one to a USB stick, then display it on a small TV set. Steve Jessney A We recommend using a free tool called YouTube-dl, which needs to be run via Command Prompt. To download it, go to www.snipca.com/37249 and click the ‘Windows.exe’ link at the top of the page. Next, open File Explorer (press Windows key+E) and navigate to your Downloads folder (click This PC in the left-hand pane, then Downloads). To open Command Prompt in this folder, press Alt+D…

I’ve heard of scammers pretending to be police officers, Microsoft staff and even Nigerian royalty, but never an ageing Hollywood superstar. A recent spate of online dating scams in Stockton, near Middlesbrough, included one fraudster wooing his match by pretending to be Rocky and Rambo legend Sylvester Stallone. According to the Northern Echo (www.snipca.com/37252), the unnamed victim was so convinced they were talking to the real Sly that they were prepared to pay for him to fly to England for a date. The Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board has published a short guide on spotting dating scams (www.snipca.com/37253), such as being suspicious of people who don’t want to meet in person. Perhaps they should add ‘rich movie stars who ask for the price of a plane ticket’ to the list?…

PC | £449 from Currys www.snipca.com/37172 Low-rise tower We usually think of a desktop PC in a tower configuration as being a huge thing that you have to hide under your desk. The Acer Aspire XC-895 comes in a smaller tower case, though, which still stands upright, but is small enough to sit unobtrusively next to your monitor. Its footprint is only 100x330mm, and it stands 295mm high. “A good choice if you want to spend less now and upgrade later” It has plenty of ports for such a small device. There’s a full size SD card slot on the front, along with a USB-C port, a USB 3.0 port and two 3.5mm audio jacks for headphones and microphone. But don’t be fooled by the slot on the front for…

PHONE | £769 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37212 Out of this world Samsung’s Galaxy S21 is the first top-end phone to be launched in 2021, with the South Korean company clearly looking to start the year with a bang. As usual there are three models in the range, but this S21 is the most affordable. The S21+ offers a larger screen and a bigger battery for £949, and the S21 Ultra is even bigger and has a 108-megapixel camera for £1,149, but we think this basic model offers the best value for money. “One of the best performing Android phones we’ve seen” The 6.2in 120Hz screen reaches almost to the edge on all sides and is absolutely superb. In testing, it displayed 95.8 per cent of the sRGB colour range, with a…

WIRELESS EARPHONES | £229 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37195 Some good snooze at last If you count yourself among the unfortunate group of people that struggle to nod off at night, these sleep-inducing earbuds might help. For £229 you get the buds, a puck-shaped aluminium charging case, three different sizes of silicone eartips and a USB-C charging cable. The Bose Sleep app is also required, and runs on both Android and iOS devices. The earbuds connect to your mobile device over Bluetooth but don’t stream audio from it like regular earbuds. Instead your smartphone controls the playback of a range of sound effects that are stored in the earbuds. This uses less power than regular streaming, ensuring the buds have a long enough battery life to last through the night. However, it…

D-Link’s DIR-X1560 router brings next-generation Wi-Fi 6 technology into your home, dramatically increasing signal capacity and bandwidth to support more devices simultaneously. Four high-gain external antennas and built-in power amplifiers work together to generate a broader and more reliable Wi-Fi signal to reach more rooms and provide coverage throughout your home. Using 1024-QAM technology, it can deliver Wi-Fi combined speeds of up to 1500 Mbps, while beamforming and MU-MIMO target higher bandwidth to all your devices. It has a Wi-Fi Guest Zone, so you can set guest logins for when you have visitors and block any devices you don’t know. Use the app to set parental controls so you can manage what your children see online. To enter this competition, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk by midnight Tuesday 23 February.…

Heynote Free Android www.snipca.com/37235 Never forget important jobs or errands. This app lets you write them on your phone’s wallpaper so they always appear behind your app icons until you’ve completed them. You can set the size and font of each message, and choose the background you want to use as your wallpaper. Now there’s no excuse for leaving jobs incomplete. Dual £4.99 iOS www.snipca.com/37234 When you need to keep an eye on several web pages at once, Dual lets you open them side by side. You can set up six different workspaces, each of which can display one, two or four pages simultaneously. The reload button refreshes everything at once, and there’s even an ad-blocker. The Poetics Free iOS, Android www.thepoetics.app Apple highlighted The Poetics – available for iOS…

MICROSOFT WORD Resize multiple images faster Microsoft Word includes a hidden shortcut that lets you repeat your previous action. To try it, carry out an edit (such as underlining or changing the size of text), then highlight another section of your document and press F4. Word will now repeat your last action on the selected text. This shortcut is particularly helpful when resizing images in a document so that they’re all the same height or width. Right-click the first image in your document, then select ‘Format Picture…’. In the window that appears, select the Size tab, then make sure the ‘Lock aspect ratio’ box is ticked (see screenshot) – this ensures your images aren’t squashed or stretched as a result of being resized. Enter the size you want all your…

Computer manufacturers such as HP, Lenovo and Dell are notorious for preinstalling their own software on PCs and laptops. Often referred to as ‘bloatware’, none of these tools are essential for Windows to function, and can safely be ignored or uninstalled. Sadly, this isn’t as simple with the bloatware that Microsoft installs itself, which not only clutters your desktop, menus and hard drive, but also consumes valuable system resources. When was the last time you opened Groove Music, Dolby Access, and games like Bubble Witch 3 Saga? We’re guessing ‘never’, so why do you need this junk in your Start menu? While Microsoft can’t be held responsible for the temporary files and other unwanted items left on your PC by third-party programs, it does a poor job of tidying up…

Where are my nearby walking routes? Q I had MapMyWalk on my Android phone, though I’ve never found it helpful. I was therefore intrigued to learn from Issue 596’s Best Apps For Walkers panel, on page 45, that it offered “dozens of new circular and point-to-point walks”, so I took another look. But my version offers no such walks. When I select Routes from the menu, I get only two tabs: MyRoutes and Bookmarked. I don’t see the Nearby tab that appears in your screenshot. Thinking there might be a new version, I reinstalled the app, but nothing changed. Am I doing something wrong? Roger Hughes A No you’re not, and this problem mystified us too – so we contacted developer Under Armour to ask what was going on. The…

O2, Three and Vodafone have agreed to build and share 222 phone masts to boost 4G coverage across rural parts of the UK. Most of the masts (124) will be built in Scotland, with 54 in England, 33 in Wales and 11 in Northern Ireland. The locations of the masts aren’t being revealed until planning permission has been granted. Construction will begin this year, and should be completed by 2024. The announcement is the first stage of the Government’s Shared Rural Network (SRN) scheme to help extend 4G signals to 95 per cent of the country by 2026. It’s being funded by £500m of public money from the Government and a further £500m from the networks, which will share existing masts as well as build new ones. According to Ofcom,…

GIFFGAFF ADDS DATA TO GOODYBAGS Mobile network Giffgaff is boosting the data of its standard 4G package from 2GB to 3GB while keeping the price at £8 per month. It’s also adding two new 5G ‘golden goodybag’ deals, priced £15 for 25GB and £20 for 100GB. However, it’s increasing the cost of using data on its pay-as-you-go (PAYG) packages from 5p per MB (megabyte) to 10p. VODAFONE’S GIGACUBE CREATES 4G WI-FI Mobile network Vodafone has launched a new router that uses the company’s 4G service to provide Wi-Fi in your home. It claims that the Gigacube B818 (pictured) can reach maximum speeds of 1.6Gbps download and 150Mbps upload, though in everyday use they’ll be significantly less. Prices start from £30 a month for 100GB of data. Read more at www.vodafone.co.uk/gigacube.…

Apple has warned people with pacemakers not to use any iPhone 12 model too close to their chest because it contains magnets that may cause the medical device problems. The company updated its support pages (www.snipca.com/37209) to say that the iPhone 12, which launched last November, should be kept “a safe distance” away from pacemakers and implanted defibrillators. It defines a safe distance as more than six inches in normal use, and 12 inches when charging wirelessly. The advice applies to all four iPhone 12 models: standard, Pro, Pro Max and Mini. Apple explains that the iPhone 12 contains more magnets than previous models in order to work with its MagSafe wireless charger, priced £39 (www.snipca. com/37211), which attaches to the back of the device (as pictured). Both the magnets…

Not difficult to spot ‘amaozn’ scam In January I received an email claiming to be from Amazon with the subject line ‘Purchase Receipt (Thank you for your purchase!)’. It told me my delivery of a mini PC was in process and that the order couldn’t be changed. I had ordered no such item, of course. The scammers hoped I would ring a US number (+1 800 872-6041) to confirm that I hadn’t bought this PC. It was obviously a scam - a slight giveaway was that the sender was ‘amaozn order’ and their address was amazonorder056@gmail.com. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Finally, we have some positive news about a case against PayPal, though it took longer to resolve than it should have. Back in Issue 578, published last April, we explained how PayPal had refused Ronald Hemes a refund for a poorly made model of the Space Shuttle he bought from a Chinese website. Its initial reason was that the item had been sent to Ronald – something he didn’t dispute. His point was that the model wasn’t as described, and so he refused delivery from the courier and assumed he’d be entitled to the full refund of £20.60. As with many cases against PayPal in the past few months, we couldn’t understand why it had dismissed his case. After months of chasing, PayPal told us the case had been resolved,…

If I perform a search on a website like Ancestry then copy and paste or bookmark the resulting URL, will clicking this address later show any datasets added since the original search was performed? Dave Selway Yes, the web link should trigger a new search based on your previous search terms. If you’ve performed a general search across Ancestry, it should include any datasets the site may have added since your original search. The search should work for as long as the website uses the same search tools. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

Most people use the DuckDuckGo search engine (www.duckduckgo.com) to safeguard their privacy. Unlike Google, it doesn’t store your search history then sell it to the highest bidder. Although admirable, this is not the reason I use DuckDuckGo. After all, I have multiple Gmail accounts, my phone runs Google’s Android operating system and I plan my days using Google Calendar, so I’d need to do more than simply stop using Google’s search engine to get my privacy back. The reason I use DuckDuckGo is quite simple – I just prefer it. Like Google, it has a clean, uncomplicated design, but it also offers some terrific hidden features that improve the whole search experience. My favourite is a feature that lets me turn off adverts – do this by going to Settings…

PC | £999 from Currys www.snipca.com/37137 Game for most things HP might not be the first brand you think of when looking for a versatile PC that’s as good at gaming as it is at creating spreadsheets, but the Omen 25L range could change that. It comes in a variety of configurations but our review model came installed with an Intel Core i5-10400F processor, 16GB of memory, a 256GB SSD, 1TB hard drive, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card. “Impressive graphics performance for gameplaying, less speed on everyday tasks” Most of the PCs we’ve seen at this price come with Nvidia’s GTX 1660 graphics, so putting an RTX 2060 in here is a generous move. In our tests this produced a frame-rate boost of around 10fps over similarly…

LAPTOP | £1,540 from Lenovo www.snipca.com/37179 Back in black Lenovo’s ThinkPad range are workhorse laptops, often found in the bags of office workers. However, they’re just as useful in the home if you want a solid, reliable laptop without frills and frivolities. You won’t find a ThinkPad with a shiny silver case but the practical black magnesium alloy of this model hides a competent computer with an attractive three-year warranty. “A reliable workhorse with a great screen and pacy performance” You can equip a ThinkPad with a range of alternative components but our review unit came with an octa-core AMD Ryzen Pro 4750U processor, 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. This is an impressive configuration, but costly at £1,540. You can reduce the price to £1,260 with a cheaper…

Q I connect my PC to my monitor using a VGA connection. My PC has a second VGA port on the back. If I connect it to a second VGA monitor, however, it doesn’t work. What do I need to add to my PC to work with both monitors? I don’t have an HDMI port on either monitor. Phil Barrett A The extra VGA port is the one you’d connect to if there wasn’t a graphics card present. You told us you have a Radeon R5 235 graphics card installed in your PC, which explains why this port is disabled. However, there should be other ports on your graphics card. The models we’ve seen come with HDMI and DVI ports. Although your monitors don’t have these ports, you can buy…

What is it? Wearing a face mask has become an unfortunate necessity that’s not going to disappear any time soon. However, a number of companies have launched smart masks, adding new functions you never knew you needed. What does it do? All sorts of things. The AirPop Active+ Halo Smart Mask (£149 from www.snipca.com/37226, pictured) measures the quality of air you’re breathing. The MaskFone (£50 from global. maskfone.com) has built-in earbuds and microphone, so you can take calls and listen to music. Razer’s Project Hazel (www.snipca.com/37227) is still a prototype, but will amplify your voice to reduce muffle and can bathe your face in coloured light. What’s the catch? Price. These masks are designed to be reused, so are expensive. Don’t forget how much you paid for them and accidentally…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Invert PDF colours so they’re easier to read I’ve been keeping myself entertained during the latest lockdown by reading World War One unit diaries from The National Archives, as you recommended in Issue 597’s Grow Your Family Tree column. As you rightly say, they’re fascinating to read, but they can stretch to hundreds of pages for each volume. After a while, I found them a strain on my eyes. A fix for this is to invert the colours in the pages of the PDF, so they appear white on black, not black on white. To do this, first download the unit diary you need (or indeed any PDF you want to invert), then open it in Chrome or Edge. You now need to change the code…

Chambers Dictionary Android £7.99 www.snipca.com/37239 iOS £9.99 www.snipca.com/37238 Beloved of crossword setters (not to mention crossword solvers), Chambers includes 300,000 words and phrases. As well as using the standard search tool, you can enter the parts of a word you know, and replace missing letters with question marks to deliver matching results, which is handy for completing puzzles. Best for Crossword addicts Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus Android Free* www.snipca.com/37243 iOS £6.99 www.snipca.com/37242 This is a mammoth dictionary and thesaurus with hundreds of thousands of definitions, cultural notes, biographical entries, synonyms and more. The iOS app requires a payment and works offline as the definitions are stored locally. The Android version draws its definitions from the web, but you can upgrade to offline functionality with an in-app purchase. Best for…

Share club info in a Google Drive folder From planning documents for an upcoming event to enrolment information for prospective members, there’s a plenty a club will need to share. Emailing these details on an ad-hoc basis not only takes time, but also risks people working off old document versions. With a free Google account, you can streamline the process by creating shared folders that only people you specify can access. Your members don’t need a Google account to access your shared folders, but as the administrator you’ll need one to set them up. If you don’t already have a Google account, create one for free at www.snipca.com/37225. Next, go to https://drive.google.com and, if prompted, sign into your Google account. To create a shared folder, click New (top left), followed…

Just when you thought you’d rid yourself of all Windows’ built-in junk, Microsoft announces another unwanted feature. This one is called ‘News and Interests’, and will appear as a large pop-up tile above the taskbar in the right-hand corner of your screen. It provides a personalised and constantly updated feed of news headlines, weather forecasts and online content tailored to your interests, much like the start page in Edge. ‘News and Interests’ has already been spotted by Windows 10 Insiders, so you can expect it to appear in a future Feature Update. The good news is that it can be turned off by right-clicking the taskbar and unticking the ‘News and Interests’ option.…

We can’t imagine many people minding that the next Feature update will arrive a little later than expected. On the contrary, most users will be thankful that they’ll be able to enjoy their current version of Windows for a few more weeks before they have to press ‘Update now’ and hope for the best. But it does suggest that the autumn’s update could be a biggie (technical term), with some of the biggest changes to Windows 10 since it launched in 2015 – perhaps significant enough to feel like a brand new operating system.…

One in six households have found it difficult to afford broadband during the lockdowns, Citizens Advice has said. The charity warned that many of society’s poorest people are being “locked out” of access to key services online, such as applying for jobs and benefits and ordering medicine. It wants the Government and Ofcom to make it compulsory for all providers to offer cheaper plans to people struggling financially. Currently, only three of the 13 largest broadband providers – BT, Virgin Media and KCOM – offer special discounts for customers on low-income benefits, it said. Alistair Cromwell, Acting Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said: “The pandemic has cemented the fact that broadband is an essential utility. It is not a luxury for those who can afford it”. He added: “While the…

Google has updated Chrome to show smaller and less annoying alerts when you browse the web, though you have to add the setting to turn them on. To do this, type chrome://flags/#permission-chip into Chrome’s browser bar at the top of your screen to show ‘Permissions Chip Experiment’ highlighted at the top, then select Enabled in the dropdown menu on the right. Finally, click the Relaunch button that appears at the bottom right. With this turned on, you’ll see these smaller alerts – which Google calls ‘permission chips’ - appear to the left of the URL in your browser bar (it’s the ‘Use your location?’ message in our screenshot). After a few seconds the message changes to a small icon. These new alerts are much less intrusive than the normal alerts…

Google is better the devil I know As a dedicated user of Google’s products, I’m afraid Issue 597’s Cover Feature (‘Stop Using Google’) simply proved the old adage that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. My brilliantly simple Chromebook delivers all the services that the average owner of a Windows laptop needs without the high cost, slow startup, viruses and interminable updates. The idea that I should replace Google’s rich ecosystem with a rag-bag of free and paid-for accounts with alternative providers is frankly risible. Better the devil I know. The feature I’m waiting for is ‘Stop Using Microsoft’. I recently found out the hard way that you cannot install Windows without a Microsoft account and continual nagging to sign in so that you can be tracked for…

In late November I placed an order with LED Hut (https://ledhut.co.uk, pictured) for AA and AAA batteries, and my credit card was charged £30.86. After a week without delivery, I tried to trace the order but the courier did not recognise the tracking number. I notified the site, who said the batteries had been dispatched on the order date but the courier was having problems with the tracking page. After 20 days without delivery I told the site to cancel the order and refund my card. However on day 22 the batteries arrived, so I told LED Hut that I’d accepted the late delivery and instructed them to charge my card. They immediately replied saying I could keep them without payment for the inconvenience. I hadn’t expected that – well…

ASTRONOMY SOFTWARE Cosmonium 0.2.1 www.snipca.com/37256 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 When viewing the night sky, Stellarium (http://stellarium.org) is a great companion, letting you choose your precise location on Earth before revealing what you’re looking at. Cosmonium (click the Windows download link under the Binaries heading) does things slightly differently, letting you travel across our solar system and beyond. Use your mouse to navigate (left-click to pan, right-click to rotate and use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out). To locate an object such as a moon, planet or star, press Enter to open the search box, type its name, then select from the results and press G to leap to that point in space. Alternatively, you can select objects simply by clicking them from your current…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Auslogics BoostSpeed Some junk offenders lazily trot out the same old tricks time after time. But not Auslogics. I’ve noticed that the Australian software company likes to keep us all on our toes by experimenting with creative new ways to target you with unwanted garbage. I’ve hauled Auslogics over the coals in the past, most recently for Duplicate File Finder (Issue 588) and its attempts to turn junk into a game by offering ‘Mystery Boxes’ that entice you to pay for tools you probably don’t need. This time, however, my sights are set on BoostSpeed – a tool the company claims on its web page (www.snipca.com/37248) will optimise your PC by removing unwanted tools and disabling startup programs. It’s ironic, then, that the tool has…

LAPTOP-TABLET | £979 from Dell www.snipca.com/37157 Flipping marvelous Few of us can afford to fill our boots with every single gadget we want, and we often have to make a choice when it comes to buying the next must-have item. If you’re torn between a laptop and a tablet, however, then you could stick your finger into both pies with this latest version of Dell’s 2-in-1. “It’s great, but flipping it round into a tablet won’t make it feel like an iPad” Unfortunately, you won’t get the best of both worlds here. There’s no problem with the laptop configuration, which looks and works as well as any Dell laptop ought to. Flipping the screen all the way round, however, doesn’t turn this into an iPad, and Windows 10 doesn’t come…

What does it do? The ubiquitous HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) can be used to connect almost any modern device that requires a screen to any TV or monitor made in the last 15 years or so. How does it work? Because all screens now work digitally, the HDMI cable (pictured) takes the digital signal from the source device and carries it to the screen. The monitor or TV uses this stream of information to build up the image. If you cut an HDMI cable in half you’ll see a number of wires. These share the load of carrying all that data, which is time-stamped to help the receiving device put it all together again. What are the specs? There have been a range of HDMI standards over the years,…

PHONE | £180 from Motorola www.snipca.com/37196 Going, going… still going The Moto G9 Power is the third and final model in Motorola’s G9 range, following on from the G9 Plus (£200) and the G9 Play (£160). It follows the pattern of previous generations of Moto G phones with the ‘Power’ in the name hinting at this smartphone’s superior battery life. Inside there’s a 6,000mAh battery, the biggest to be fitted into a Moto phone to date. According to Motorola, it should last 60 hours between charges. “A large screen, generous storage and a battery that’ll get you through a weekend” The battery isn’t the only impressive thing about the phone. It also has a large 6.8in screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor and a generous 128GB of internal storage, which…

LAPTOP Honor MagicBook 14 £600 from www.snipca.com/34688 Tested Issue 580 Using an AMD Ryzen 3500U processor, this lightweight metal laptop beat Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 with Intel’s i7-1065G7 in our tests. The 14in Full HD screen lacks colour accuracy but looks decent. For the money, it’s a great buy. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim notebook, although prices now start at a steep £1,629 from www.snipca.com/36642 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite £349 from www.snipca.com/35795 Tested Issue 582 Competing with Apple’s cheapest 10.2in iPad, this slim aluminium tablet comes with an S Pen stylus and a generous 64GB of storage at a reasonable price. It’s less powerful, but a great buy if you prefer Android. ALTERNATIVE Amazon…

iOS Install any font on your iPhone or iPad iPads and iPhones come with a range of fonts built in, and apps can also install their own to give you even more. But what if the font you want to use isn’t included in any of them? If you’re working on a creative project you might find yourself restricted, or only able to do half the job until you can transfer the unfinished document to your PC to be fully formatted with the fonts you need. This where the All Fonts app (99p from www.snipca.com/37233) comes into its own. It lets you install any TrueType or OpenType font directly from your PC on to your iPad or iPhone. It works by setting up a small web server, which runs on…

WINDOWS 7, 8.1 & 10 Set your primary display When you’ve got more than one monitor attached to your PC, one of them will be designated as the primary display – in other words, the one that shows taskbar icons for your programs and the system tray. If you want to set a different monitor as your primary display, right-click an empty part of your desktop and select ‘Display settings’ (in Windows 7, select ‘Screen resolution’). At the top of the window that opens, you’ll see all the monitors attached to your PC. Click the one that you want to use as your primary display, then scroll down and tick the ‘Make this my main display’ box (see screenshot below). Your taskbar and system tray icons will now move to…

What is it? An artificially intelligent (AI) chess program with a difference – you might actually be able to beat it. How come? Because it’s been built to mimic the kind of mistakes humans make. This makes it different to other chess computers, which have been programmed to win at all costs. How difficult are they to beat? So difficult that no human has conquered a computer in a tournament in 15 years. Ever since Deep Blue famously beat Garry Kasparov in 1997, chess computers have become increasingly more formidable, calculating millions of moves every second. This is a significant advantage because even after just four moves by each player, the number of potential positions is in the hundreds of billions. Also, they never become hungry or tired, nor lose…

Mail and Calendar Windows 10’s built-in email app is very basic and lacks proper mail filters. Despite the name, the calendar isn’t integrated, but opens in a separate app window. Replace with Thunderbird www.thunderbird.net This is a full-featured free email client with loads of customisation options. Photos Although it offers some useful features such as photo slideshows, the Photos app is slow and rudimentary compared with traditional image-viewing programs. Replace with FastStone Image Viewerwww.faststone.org FastStone is speedy, sophisticated and packed with editing tools and effects. Sticky Notes This app undoubtedly has a nostalgic charm, but the sticky notes you create don’t actually ‘stick’ on top of other windows, which surely defeats their purpose. Replace with Stickies www.snipca.com/37165 This tool provides an ‘always-on-top’ option and also lets you set notes to…

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