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Here’s my idea to improve the Amazon Fire TV Stick: make its remote control beep when you whistle a particular tune. Perhaps then I’d be able to easily locate it every evening rather than spend ages trying to guess where the kids have left it (I once found it in a slipper shoved down a watering can). Sadly, it’s not one of the tips suggested by Robert Irvine in our Cover Feature, though he does come up with some belters, including installing a VPN and reclaiming storage space. His hacks for the ‘Chromecast with Google TV’ (catchy name) and Roku Streaming Stick+ are just as useful. I’ve taken his advice and installed the Plex app on the former, and fixed the latter’s occasional buffering. These days most of my viewing…

Google Earth now has a time-lapse tool that lets you see in seconds how the planet has changed over the past 37 years. It’s part of the biggest update to Google Earth since 2017 and has been built using more than 24 million satellite images, representing “quadrillions of pixels”. In total around 20 petabytes of data (20 million GB) was used to make a “video mosaic that’s the equivalent of 530,000 videos in 4K resolution”. To use it, visit www.snipca.com/38048, then type a location into the search box and press Enter. You can jump through the years by clicking on the timeline. You can also watch 800 time-lapse videos made by Google that are intended to highlight planetary change, including “urban expansion, mining impacts, river meandering, the growth of megacities,…

Is mystery PayPal fee a ‘continuous payment authority’? LEAD CASE Q Maurice Griffiths’ case in Issue 603 about PayPal taking £4.99 per month out of his bank account caught my eye. There may be another explanation, unrelated to his having a PayPal account. PayPal provides merchant services to businesses, which allows them to accept debit and credit card payments. Even if you don’t have a PayPal account, transactions show up on your bank account as a PayPal charge. Could this possibly be the reason? Rob Mackean A Rob may be on to something here. Certainly, the amount being taken each month isn’t the £9-a-year ‘inactivity fee’ it’s charging people for not using their account (this was introduced last December: www.snipca.com/37614). It does sound more like what’s called a continuous payment…

Find long-lost cousins around the world Some of the best discoveries you’ll make as a family historian come from talking to distant cousins. A veritable treasure trove of photos, mementos and stories lie in wait, but how do you go about finding and making these connections? One website that can help is Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com). Enter details of your ancestors as they appear in selected censuses from the UK, Ireland, US and Canada and it will search for matches with other people who have recorded the same information. This part of the process is free, but if you find a match and wish to contact your ‘lost cousin’ directly you’ll have to buy a 12-month subscription for £10 (or £12.50 for a joint account, such as for a husband and…

What can I use to turn speech into text? Q Can you please advise on software that will type the spoken word into a document, rather than me having to type it out? Stephen Paynter A There are several speech-to-text tools you can try – just be forewarned that none are perfect, and errors will creep in no matter how clearly you dictate. One of the most accurate is Dragon Naturally Speaking, which learns to recognise your voice and improves its accuracy over time. However, at £179 for the Home edition (www.snipca.com/38013), it’s also very expensive. For a free alternative, try Windows’ built-in tool, which you can activate by pressing Windows key+H (the first time you do this you’ll be prompted to turn on Speech Recognition in Settings). You’ll then…

If you’ve ever had a bad experience with an estate agent, then spare a thought for the owners of a Devon home, who recently had their financial details and large amounts of other personal data exposed online. Incredibly, the sensitive information in question was not stolen in some kind of online data breach, but was exposed via a virtual 3D tour of the property, posted by West Sussex-based estate agent Fowlers on Rightmove. Viewers of the tour could zoom into images – most notably in the study room, where sensitive documents including cheques, insurance policies and invoices could all be clearly read (we’ve pictured it in low resolution, so nothing’s legible). Thankfully, the breach was spotted by a security expert and the offending images have now been taken offline.…

PHONE | £130 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37980 Motorola has launched another new range of smartphones and the cheapest is the Moto G10, which started at £130 and is already seeing retailers shaving a few pounds off the price tag. It’s impossible to make a smartphone this affordable without compromises. At a glance, the only dead giveaway that it might be cheaper than rivals is the plastic back and the relatively thick bezel around the edge of the screen, which is 2mm wide on the top and sides, and double that at the bottom. The screen itself measures 6.5in across the diagonal and uses an IPS panel. It has a resolution of only 1600x720 pixels but produced good colour accuracy in our tests. The trade-offs begin to show in the overall performance,…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2020 Back Issue CD: £15 from www.snipca.com/37026 LAPTOP Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 £799 from www.snipca.com/37348 Tested Issue 601 Weighing just 1.16kg, this is an excellent lightweight laptop with a great screen and an AMD processor faster than many Intel rivals. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a microSD card reader. Battery lasts nearly 16 hours. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £1,299 from www.snipca.com/36642 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite £299 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…

I have an uncanny knack for losing my keys. As a kid, I tried to locate them (with varying degrees of success) using one of those devices that beeped when you whistled. These days, I use a Tile Pro. I particularly like its long battery life. Unlike the Curve, which requires regular charging, switching the Tile Pro’s battery (£2.99 for a four-pack from www.snipca.com/38044) is an annual event. I’m aware that if I lose my keys while on a walk, I’ll have to rely on the Tile community to help track them down, but with the Tile app indicating that there are 473 other users within 10 miles of my home, there’s a good chance that one of them will walk past whichever park bench my keys are under. I…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Connect Bluetooth speaker to Freesat TV My wife is a great fan of BBC Radio 4, but we struggle to get reception for ordinary or digital radio because our walls are two-feet thick. Internet radio is okay, but the microwave kills it off. Our solution was to buy a Bluetooth 5.0 transmitter (£11.99 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37854) and connect it to our Freesat TV (there’s no ordinary signal in the Devon Valley where we live). We also bought a ZoeeTree S1 Bluetooth speaker for £15.99 from Amazon (www.snipca.com/37855, pictured), and a case for it too (£13.99 from www.snipca.com/37856). The TV needs to have a 3.5mm headphone socket and a USB socket for power (with a cable length of 40cm). I switched on the TV, then the transmitter…

Notes Free iOS www.snipca.com/37932 Apple’s built-in Notes app has a handy – albeit fairly hidden – graph-paper feature. To access it, tap the ‘new note’ icon, then tap the three-dots button in the top-right corner and select ‘Lines & Grids’. Here you can select from a range of layouts, including graph paper. Best for Quick sketches of layouts and plans Paper Printer Free* Android www.snipca.com/37933 For most of us, actual graph paper is something we only use once in a while. And, more often than not, when you do need some there’s never any around. This useful app lets you print your own blank graph paper whenever you need the odd sheet. Best for Creating your own graph paper Draft Paper Free* iOS www.snipca.com/37934 A digital graph paper app that’s…

Are you struggling to keep your club members’ attention during presentations? Adding YouTube videos to your slides is a great way to liven things up. One way of doing this is to include a link to your chosen video within your slide. It’s not ideal, however, as you have to click the link to play the video, which will then open in a separate browser window. A neater alternative is to use Google Slides, which lets you search for YouTube videos and insert them directly into your presentations. Insert your video Go to www.google.com/slides and log into your Google account (if you don’t have one, click the ‘Create account’ link to set one up for free). Open the presentation you want to add the video to (or create a new…

Install a VPN on your Fire Stick VPNs are an effective way to protect your privacy online and unblock restricted content, and you can install one on your Fire TV Stick just as easily as on your PC, phone or tablet. There are several VPN apps in the Amazon Appstore. Our favourite is the free version of Windscribe VPN (www.snipca.com/37907), which gives you 10GB of data every month and a choice of servers in 10 countries. Sign up for Windscribe’s free plan at www.snipca.com/37908, then choose Find, followed by Search on the home screen of your Fire TV Stick and search for ‘Windscribe’ (you can also ask Alexa to “find Windscribe”). Install the app from its Appstore page, then open it and sign into your Windscribe account. Select the big…

Sideload apps that Google TV doesn’t offer The Apps section in Google TV lets you install apps and games from the Play Store that are specifically designed for streaming devices. If you find its selection too limited, you can sideload apps that your Chromecast doesn’t officially support, with the usual proviso that you should only do so from trusted sources, such as APK Mirror (www.apkmirror.com). The tricky part involves getting the APK installation files on to your device. On your computer, phone or tablet, download an APK file from APK Mirror, then upload it to Google Drive. On your Chromecast, search for and install the file-manager app File Commander (www.snipca.com/37935), or just ask Google to “find File Commander”. Open the app, select Add Cloud from the menu and choose Google…

The Roku Channel www.snipca.com/37955 Roku’s own app is a great source of free films and TV shows, including documentaries, classic Westerns and series that were originally broadcast on Sky and Channel 4. Pluto TV www.snipca.com/37959 Unlike most streaming services, Pluto TV is completely free (though with adverts), with no need to sign up. You can browse and watch more than 100 live channels, including several devoted to films. The United Kingdom Channel www.snipca.com/37958 Explore the UK’s best tourist attractions without the queues or Covid restrictions. Videos include a tour of Edinburgh Castle, a walk across Tower Bridge and Maypole dancing! TWiT www.snipca.com/37960 Stay informed of the latest tech news, reviews and advice by streaming the TWiT (The Week in Technology) channel. It gathers all the podcasts and videos from the…

Q I’m not a computer expert but I have learned from your magazine how to access Task Manager to close apps that aren’t responsive. I use this from time to time on my Windows 10 PC, which is getting on a bit now. My problem is more of an annoyance because, whenever I enter Task Manager and try to click an item I want to close, the list jumps around. So, one moment the errant app might be under my mouse pointer, but by the time I click it’s jumped to somewhere else. What’s going on and how do I stop this? Joe Curtis A This will be happening because at some point in the past, intentionally or accidentally, you clicked on one of Task Manager’s column headings to sort…

Eagle-eyed readers may notice that, in a change to the advertised column, this page is not about how I hacked my streaming device. So enthused was I with that idea that I agreed to write a whole Cover Feature about the subject instead (see page 50). “I liked it so much, I bought the company!”, as Victor Kiam used to say in the old Remington TV ads. Instead, in another dated reference, I’m going to explain how I found a way to play Chuckie Egg on my Windows PC. “You could spend the rest of your life rediscovering your gaming past” I’ve been watching an interesting documentary series on Netflix (when not hacking my streaming stick) about the early days of the video-game industry. Called High Score (www.snipca.com/37998), it traces…

Chrome now lets you send a link to a section of a webpage, while Edge lets you search your web history across multiple computers, as major new versions of both browsers are launched. The standout feature in Chrome 90, released in mid-April, is the option to right-click text online to generate a link you can then email to someone. To do this, use your mouse or trackpad to highlight the text you want to send, then right-click it and choose ‘Copy link to highlight’ (see screenshot above right). This creates a URL ending in the hash symbol (#). When the person you’ve sent the link to clicks it, they’ll be taken to that particular chunk of text, not to the top of the webpage. To achieve this previously you had…

NEW IPAD 1,500 TIMES FASTER THAN FIRST Apple has launched a new iPad Pro (pictured) that it claims processes graphics 1,500 times faster than the first iPad, released in 2010. It’s powered by an eight-core M1 processor, the same chip that’s in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini. It’s available from £749 (11in) and £999 (12.9in) from www.snipca.com/38032. JOIN MASS ACTION TO SUE FACEBOOK An Irish privacy group has started a mass lawsuit against Facebook to claim compensation for EU users whose phone numbers were leaked in 2019. It’s thought that UK citizens will be able to sign up because the breach happened before Brexit. The numbers of around 533 million people worldwide were leaked. Sign up at www.digitalrights.ie/facebook and check whether your number was leaked at www.haveibeenpwned.com.…

TURN OFF MIC AND CAMERA IN POWERTOYS Microsoft has added a Video Conference Mute option to PowerToys, letting you turn off your mic and camera with a keyboard shortcut. Download version 0.36.0 from www.snipca.com/38002 – scroll to the bottom and click ‘PowerToysSetup-0.36.0-x64.exe’. Once installed, press Windows key+N to turn both mic and camera on and off; Windows key+Shift+A for just the mic; or Windows+Shift+O (the letter, not zero) for just the camera. The tool is still ‘experimental’, so it may contain bugs. ADD BOOK COVERS TO KINDLE LOCK SCREEN You can now show the cover of the book you’re reading on the lockscreen on your Kindle device (pictured). Called ‘Display Cover’, the feature is available on the ‘without-advert’ versions of select devices, including Kindle (8th Gen and above) and Kindle…

Block FLoC with DuckDuckGo www.snipca.com/37926 Tech companies love to use acronyms to disguise the severity of tools that track you. The latest is Google’s FLoC, which stands for ‘Federated Learning of Cohorts’. This deliberately incomprehensible term is Chrome’s new system for tracking users, which divides them into anonymous groups (‘cohorts’) based on demographic information (age, location, gender) and behaviour online. Google says this is more secure than cookies made by websites that collect data based on your individual behaviour. It plans to ban these cookies by 2023. However, the problem is that FLoC is turned on by default in Chrome (you may already have been included without even realising). In response, privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has updated its Chrome extension to block FLoC. You don’t have to do anything if…

Here’s a senior question. If an article in Computeractive refers to a PC, would the advice or information mentioned also be relevant to a laptop with Windows 10? Hugh Donnelly CA SAYS That’s a great question. So much technical advice, particularly online, uses the terms PC and computer interchangeably, or fails to spell out how the guidance might alter if you’re using a laptop. We know how perplexing such careless language can be, so we try to be as precise as possible. As a matter of style, we tend to use ‘computer’ when referring to a machine that could be either a desktop PC or laptop. When specifically we mean a laptop or desktop PC, we tend to use those terms. So generally, if we say ‘Windows 10 computer’, we…

When Neal Sims contacted Currys PC World about a broken Arris Freesat box, he was surprised to be told that because he’d owned the device for more than 28 days he had to contact the manufacturer instead (see Issue 601). Thankfully, the retailer has realised it made a mistake and has now refunded him. As Currys PC World should have known, it was legally responsible for dealing with his complaint, and shouldn’t have tried to pass the buck to Arris. The 28-day deadline doesn’t actually exist in law, so we have no idea where that came from. We gently reminded the company of this, and it offered to replace Neal’s box. Unfortunately the new device started suffering the same problems. Neal then asked us whether he’d need to accept another…

I’m trying to upload JPEG files of charts and trees I’ve exported from Family Historian to Photobox, but they keep coming out blurry. Can you help? Kate Taylor By default, Family Historian’s export tools save images at the current screen resolution, so they’re not suitable for printing in a book. To fix this, set up your diagram as normal, then choose Diagram, followed by Options. Set the Scaling to 500% and click OK, then save your diagram or chart as normal (click the ‘Page’ button once to hide any ‘page boundaries’ when producing charts). You should find the saved image now scales up perfectly. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

As part of my job, I install and test an absurd amount of software. The useful and trustworthy stuff makes it through to the pages of Computeractive, but I also have to wade through less reputable programs. One of my pet hates is those that sneakily send data on how I use the program back to the developer – a process known as ‘phoning home’ – without first asking me. To spot these, I use GlassWire (www.glasswire.com). I’ve set it to run in the background as soon as Windows boots (click the Glasswire menu button top left, ‘Settings…’, then tick ‘Run on startup’), so it alerts me as soon as a program ‘phones home’. If I miss the alert, which appears in a pop-up window above the system tray, I’ll…

PHONE | £250 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37996 Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi has two ranges of phone: Mi and Redmi. Redmi is its cheaper line of models, and the Redmi Note 10 Pro is a typical example – a brilliant Android smartphone at a very affordable price. For £250 you get a phone with an impressive specification: a Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G processor paired with 6GB RAM, and a 120Hz AMOLED screen. It also has a 108-megapixel main camera and comes with 64GB of storage. For just £20 extra you can upgrade the storage to 128GB. “A superb camera, durable battery and a high-res screen” The front is dominated by the 6.56in screen, ringed by a thin bezel running all the way around. While the bottom border is slightly wider, the difference is barely…

What’s the best choice for printing on to CDs? Q My Canon MG8250 printer has given up the ghost. I don’t need a negative scanner, but do want to print on to CDs. What do you recommend as a replacement? I have a budget of up to £200. Jim Scott A Our favourite multifunction printer at the moment is the Epson Expression XP-6105 (pictured), which at the time of writing was available from Argos for £90 (www.snipca.com/37995). It can print on to CDs, as you require (see all specs at www.snipca.com/37997). Note that this is the white version of the black XP-6100 and, apart from the colour, the two are identical. If you can’t find one, it’s worth looking for the other. Printers are in short supply at the moment,…

PORTABLE SMART SPEAKER | £159 from Argos www.snipca.com/38015 The Roam is a significant step in a new direction for Sonos, which has resolutely stuck to making high-quality indoor Wi-Fi-connected speaker systems for years. The seal of Pandora’s box was broken with last year’s Sonos Move, which introduced both Bluetooth and an outdoor-friendly speaker to Sonos’s range. Now it’s taken another stride into the daylight with this affordable and very portable Bluetooth speaker. “Has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and great sounds” Admittedly, £159 is probably at the upper limits of what you’d want to spend on a portable Bluetooth speaker, though we think it has enough features to make it well worth considering. It works with Bluetooth while you’re out and about, but connects to your existing Wi-Fi-based Sonos system…

Using Freesat’s Recordable 4K TV Box, you can record up to four programmes at the same time when connected to a wideband low-noise block downconverter (LNB) satellite dish. With 500GB of storage, you can keep up to approximately 250 hours of video in standard definition. You can even restart live TV where available, so missing the start of a programme doesn’t mean missing out. Once you’ve set up the box, you’ll have over 170 channels (20 in HD) at your fingertips, with no monthly fees. You’ll be able to watch programmes on demand, including 4K shows where possible, from some of the most popular free and paid-for services: BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, Netflix, BritBox and Amazon Prime Video. It’s simple to set up. It works with your existing satellite dish,…

ANDROID Identify toolbar icons with Microsoft SwiftKey’s tooltips Microsoft SwiftKey (www.snipca.com/37927) is one of the most popular alternative keyboards for Android. Part of its appeal is the way it allows users to customise the keyboard with themes, but it also offers a number of practical advantages, such as the option to use swipe gestures for one-handed typing. The latest update adds another useful feature – tooltips for the keyboard’s toolbar icons. These are pop-up labels that help you quickly identify an icon’s function – handy if you find the icons themselves hard to see or difficult to remember. You’ll need SwiftKey installed and enabled first, then check it’s set as your device’s default keyboard under Settings, System, then ‘Language and input’. While using the keyboard, long-press one of the toolbar…

WINDOWS 10 Stop your webcam flickering Depending on the lighting in your room, you may find your webcam adds an irritating flickering effect to video calls – fluorescent lighting is particularly bad for this. Thanks to a hidden feature in the Windows Camera app, you can usually fix this - or at least reduce the problem. If you’re in the middle of a video call, either end the call or turn your video off (in Skype, click the camera icon; in Zoom, click Stop Video). Next, click the Start button on your taskbar, type camera, then select the Camera app from the results. Click Settings (cog icon, top left), then go to the Videos section at the bottom, click the ‘Flicker reduction’ box and select either 50Hz or 60Hz (see…

What is it? Fairly obvious, we’d have thought. It’s liquid that boils. Like water in a kettle? That’s one perfectly respectable example, but Microsoft is boiling liquid for a far more technically advanced reason than making a cuppa. And that is? To keep its computer servers cool, so it can process huge amounts of data. That photo right shows them bubbling away nicely in a data centre somewhere in the state of Washington. But wouldn’t boiling liquid heat up the servers? Not in this case. The boiling is actually caused by the heat coming off the servers as they process massive amounts of data. Vapour rising from the boiling fluid meets a cooled condenser in the lid of the “couch-shaped” tank the servers are submerged in. This changes the vapour…

Downloader by AFTVnews www.snipca.com/37940 This Google TV app is trickier to use than its Amazon equivalent (see page 51) as you need to install a separate browser plug-in, but it’s still a great way to download the APK installation files for apps. Plex www.snipca.com/37941 The brilliant Plex app lets you stream thousands of films, TV shows and podcasts, as well as your own media files from other services. Most of the content is free. Send Files to TV www.snipca.com/37944 Install this on both your Android device and your Chromecast, and you’ll be able to share files between the two over your Wi-Fi network. Just choose Send on your device or Chromecast and select a file. Old Movies www.snipca.com/37948 Watch free movies (hosted on YouTube) from the classic Hollywood era on…

NOW CHEAPER THAN EVER! WHAT YOU GET ✓ 100-per-cent malware protection ✓ Password-hack alerts ✓ Free online backup (75GB) ✓ Password manager PLUS A free VPN Norton is made by respected US security company Symantec. It has always performed strongly in Computeractive antivirus tests, so we highly recommend it. 10 devices for two years NOW ONLY £24.99* Normally £179.99 Buy it from our Software Store at www.snipca.com/33247 *while stocks last…

32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. Active noise cancelling Method for reducing unwanted sound by adding a second sound specifically designed to cancel the first. Add-on A program that adds extra features to your browser. Administrator Someone who can make changes to a computer that will affect others who also use it. Altimeter A sensor for measuring height about sea level. 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. APK Android Package Kit. The file format Android uses to install apps. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of…

PC SALES HIGHEST FOR NINE YEARS The boom in PC sales has continued into 2021, according to figures for the first quarter of the year. Industry analysts Canalys said that 82 million computers were sold between January and March, up from 53 million in the same period last year, an increase of nearly 57 per cent. It’s the best first quarter for PC sales since 2012. Lenovo remains the biggest manufacturer, selling nearly a quarter of all computers, followed by HP (23.3 per cent) and Dell (15.7 per cent). YAHOO ANSWERS CLOSES AFTER 15 YEARS Yahoo Answers has now closed after more than 15 years. The question-and-answer service stopped receiving new queries on 20 April, and finally shut down on 4 May. Users have until 30 June to download their…

The Government is to allow taller phone masts across England to speed up the delivery of 5G networks, in new legislation to be voted on in Parliament. Mobile companies will now be permitted to build new masts of up to 30 metres (98 feet) in most areas, and up to 25 metres (82 feet) in protected areas. Currently, masts aren’t allowed to be taller than 25 metres. The proposals also allow firms to extend existing masts by up to 25 metres in normal areas and 20 metres (65 feet) in protected areas without council permission, and then by up to 30 metres and 25 metres overall with permission from local authorities. Another measure will allow companies to erect 15-metre (49-feet) ‘monopole’ masts simply by notifying local councils rather than applying…

Car tax email from Belgium I received an email claiming that my vehicle was “no longer taxed” and it came from ‘Driver Government Gateway – Pay your tax vehicle Gov.uk’, with a suspicious-looking Belgian email address (fqlxlnxe@telenet.be). The email was written in bad English: “We have generated a new invoice, and we suggest you to use a credit card instead of a debit, to avoid any other consequences that might appear in case again won’t be enough funds inside”. It told me that DVLA had been “notified electronically” that payment had failed, and asked me to click a link to pay the tax. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

I’ve got bad news for Hugh Jenkins, who in Issue 604 asked us not to forget the “lonely millions” who aren’t connected to the web. Before I deliver this news, I should say that I wholeheartedly agree with him. There are simply too many people living restricted lives because they’re not fully participating online. He makes some excellent points. But the bad news can’t be avoided any longer. It’s simply that those in power – in Government, the media, cultural institutions and so on – don’t care about the disconnected millions. They’ve made a simple calculation, which is that most of these people are old, probably over 80, and therefore not worth considering when building systems that make the modern world work. These decision-makers probably don’t even realise they’ve come…

PayPal has received quite a bit of criticism in recent issues, so I thought it would be interesting to give an example where they’ve behaved properly. In early January, I bought an air fryer from an eBay seller that turned out to be based in China, even though they claimed to be in the UK. Nothing had arrived by March, so I contacted the seller. I got one reply written in bad English explaining that delivery from China had been delayed. I asked why it was coming from China when the listing said UK, but got no further reply. I then raised a case with PayPal’s Resolution Centre. I thought it would help my case by forwarding them the seller’s solitary email and product listing saying the air fryers would…

CLIPBOARD MANAGER CopyQ 4.0 www.snipca.com/38001 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 In Issue 604 (page 20), we explained how to use Ditto (www.snipca.com/38000) to store your clipboard history. While it’s not quite as easy to use, CopyQ is a similar tool and has some useful extra features (to download CopyQ, go to the link above, scroll down then click ‘copyq-v4.0.0-setup. exe’ file). As with Ditto, CopyQ integrates seamlessly with the Windows clipboard, so when you select some text and press Ctrl+C (or right-click an image and select Copy), that item is added to your CopyQ clipboard history. To access your history, simply click the CopyQ system-tray icon – you can also set up a keyboard shortcut to open it (see 4 below). To use an item from your…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Free MP3 Cutter Joiner I don’t know about you, but I have a few old CDs that, for one reason or another, are a real pain to rip to my digital music collection – either because all the songs run together as one, long single track, or because they include a ‘hidden’ track that usually gets tagged on to the end of the last track. Either way, I’ve been looking for a tool to chop up MP3 files like these into individual songs. Free MP3 Cutter Joiner (www.dvdvideomedia.com) seemed the perfect choice. And it would have been perfect, too – had I been looking for a tool packed with unwanted software that fed me constant adverts and took all my data. Free MP3 Cutter Joiner’s…

What does it do? A device’s IP (Ingress Protocol) rating is a measure of how good it is at stopping things from the outside getting in. We usually think of it as the level of waterproofing, but it actually consists of two ratings, one for water (or any other liquid) and another for solids, such as dust. How does it work? The rating is represented as two digits, such as IP65. The first number (‘6’ in this case) refers to the protection against solids, while the second number (‘5’) is the protection against liquids. The solids rating ranges from 0 to 6, while the liquids goes from 0 to 8. Don’t confuse it with a device’s IP address (Internet Protocol), which is used to find a device on a network.…

EARBUDS | £80 from Huawei www.snipca.com/37971 Huawei’s wireless FreeBuds 4i are designed to take on the increasing range of active noise-cancelling earbuds available for under £100. Available in a choice of three colours (red, black or white), these are the cheapest noise-cancelling earbuds we’ve reviewed to date. The buds are IPX4-rated, which means they can withstand being splashed with water, so are fine outdoors or at the gym, but shouldn’t be immersed in a swimming pool. While their sound output isn’t the most detailed, it’s good enough that you can make out individual voices in ensemble pieces. However, they don’t offer the kind of punchier bass you’d find in more expensive earbuds, such as Apple’s AirPods. The FreeBuds 4i proved reasonably effective at dampening low-end noise (such as the rumble…

What is it? QD-OLED is a new screen technology from Samsung, which takes the best elements from its own Quantum Dot technology (superb brightness and accurate colour reproduction) and blends it with the best bits of OLED screens (ultra-dark blacks and wide viewing angles). What does it do? Quantum Dot technology uses tiny lights of different colours to create the mixed colour in each pixel, while OLED uses a filter to change the colour of a white light. By starting with an OLED pixel that’s blue instead of white, and changing the colour by adding red and green light, Samsung says it’s now getting the best of both worlds. What’s the catch? You can’t buy one yet. Prototypes are expected to appear this summer but it’s likely to appear in…

What you need: Vodafone Curve location tracker Time required: One hour Whether it’s a set of keys, a wallet or an over-adventurous dog, we’ve all got things that are likely to go missing. You might be able to recover whatever you’ve lost by retracing your steps (or shouting ‘biscuits’ loudly enough), but there’s no guarantee. There is a better way: location trackers. You can attach these small devices to your possessions, then locate them via an app on your phone or tablet. Here, we’ll show you how to set up and use Vodafone’s recently updated Curve tracker (pictured right), which uses GPS to let you pin point its location. It’s not your only option, however, so before we explain the Curve in more detail we’ll look at how it compares…

Smart Photo Widget Free* iOS www.snipca.com/37929 This AI-powered app gives you a homescreen photo widget that cleverly reframes photos so they look their best, while skipping blurry, poorly shot photos, screenshots and more. It’s free to use but paying (£2.79 per year or £9.99 lifetime use) unlocks unlimited photo collections and the ability to add effects to your snaps. Jigsaw Video Party Free* Android www.snipca.com/37930 iOS www.snipca.com/37931 Better suited to a tablet than a phone, this app for jigsaw puzzlers offers the ability to invite friends to join you via in-game video chat. There are several starter puzzles to play for free, and further themed bundles – including Classic Paintings and ‘Animals & Nature’ – can be unlocked for £3.99 each. OneDrive for Android Free* Android www.snipca.com/37928 The latest version…

MICROSOFT POWERPOINT Get feedback on your presentations When you’re preparing a presentation, it’s always a good idea to have a dry run in front of someone so they can give you feedback. If there’s no one available, the free online version of PowerPoint (otherwise known as ‘PowerPoint for the web’) will oblige. And thanks to a recent update it will now give even more comprehensive feedback, including on your body language. To use it, sign into your Microsoft account at www.office.com. If you don’t have an account, click Sign-in (top right), then ‘Create one’. Next, load your presentation, select the SlideShow tab, then click ‘Rehearse with Coach’ (see screenshot). If you want feedback on your body language, and have a webcam attached to your PC, click the down arrow next…

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Mirror the screen of your PC and mobile device Like other streaming sticks, Roku lets you mirror the screen of your PC, phone or tablet on your TV screen. This is useful for viewing content on apps that Roku doesn’t support, such as Kodi. On a Windows 10 PC, click the notifications icon in the bottom-right corner, choose Connect and select your Roku streaming stick, then on your TV choose Allow or Always Allow. On your Android device, swipe down from the top of the screen and choose Cast, ‘Screen cast’ or similar option. On an iPhone or iPad, open the Control Centre, choose Screen Mirroring and enter the code that’s shown on your TV screen to connect to your Roku stick (see screenshot below left). You can connect devices…

Q I have an old Windows Vista laptop. Over the years you’ve said old laptops could have new operating systems installed. I took mine to a local computer shop, but they said it is too old for this. Is this correct or can a new operating system be installed? If so, which one? Lee Morris A We’re not sure which laptop you have, so it’s impossible for us to say with any certainty what it will or will not run. Nonetheless, if Vista is running okay then it’s not completely unrealistic that your machine might run Windows 10. This demands a minimum 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM (or 2GB for 64bit Windows 10) and 16GB of harddrive space. However, Microsoft doesn’t offer a free upgrade from Vista to 10, so…

Q I have just purchased a new Canon printer. Perhaps foolishly, without reading the instructions, I connected it to my Windows 10 computer and switched it on and then Windows set it up. This took just a few moments and then I was able to print. Nothing has changed – I can still print and everything is working well, but I’ve recently discovered that the box contained a driver CD-ROM from Canon. Given that everything is working well, I’m hesitant to install this and wondering if I even need to? Would there be any risks or benefit in doing so? What is the difference between whatever’s on this disc and whatever Windows 10 has installed to run my printer? Scott Hammond A Given that everything is working as you want,…

Why doesn’t your suggested network shortcut work? Q On page 46 of Issue 602 you published a tip that promised quick access to a PC’s network connections, by clicking Start and then typing ncpa.cpl. However, this produced no response on my PC – and nor could I find that file by searching. Can you help? Christopher Clayton A Assuming you’re spelling the command correctly – and it’s correct in your email to us – then something else is amiss. First, check that the file is present and working. To do this, press Windows key+E to launch File Explorer, then navigate to C:\Windows\System32. Next, scroll through the list of files to find and then double-click ncpa.cpl (see screenshot below). If it’s there and your double-click action launches the Network Connections menu,…