Table of contents for 698 in Computeractive

Amazon is to close its streaming service Freevee, which is free to use and includes adverts. However, many of Freevee’s shows will still be available for free in Prime Video. This includes popular programmes such as Jury Duty, Bosch: Legacy, Neighbours (pictured) and Alex Rider. These will be marked as ‘Watch for Free’ on Prime Video. The move has been expected ever since Amazon added adverts to Prime Video in early 2024. Industry analysts said it would be pointless for the company to offer two separate free video-streaming services supported by adverts. Freevee was called IMDb Freedive when Amazon launched it in 2019. It then became IMDb TV before the name Freevee was adopted in April 2022. The service became popular for offering a mix of films, old TV series…

Apple iCloud customers could each receive around £70 in compensation if a class-action lawsuit against the company is successful. Consumer group Which? is suing the tech giant for “locking millions of consumers into its iCloud service at rip-off prices” (see www.snipca.com/52888). The lawsuit alleges that Apple encourages users to store photos and videos in iCloud while “simultaneously making it difficult to use alternative providers” because it doesn’t let customers store or back up all their phone’s data elsewhere. When users go over the free 5GB they have to pay for more storage, which costs from 99p a month for 50GB (www.snipca.com/52890). Which? called iOS a “monopoly” and said it’s “incumbent on Apple not to use that dominance to gain an unfair advantage” in markets like online storage. Apple has rejected…

EBOOK READER | £160 from Amazon www.snipca.com/52730 The new Kindle Paperwhite is the sixth version of Amazon’s ebook reader. The starting price has been hiked somewhat from the previous version (released in 2021 and reviewed in Issue 620), which launched for £140. There have been upgrades to the device to justify the increase, including a larger screen, faster page turns and longer battery life (an estimated 12 weeks – up from 10). Its 7in screen is larger than the 6in panel on the basic Kindle (£95 from www.snipca.com/52731). The screen is sharp and easy on the eye. You can also adjust the tone, letting you change the background from dazzling white to an eye-friendly amber, depending on your preference and the lighting conditions around you. Its maximum brightness level of…

LAPTOP PRICE DROP Dell Inspiron 14 Plus £699 from www.snipca.com/51831 Tested Issue 683 This laptop has the same processor (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H) as our previous favourite (Acer Swift Go 4), but manages to squeeze more speed out of it. It also comes with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and a 14in 2240x1400-pixel screen. Excellent value overall. ALTERNATIVE Acer Swift Go 14 Still a fast and powerful laptop, with a great 14in screen. £749 from www.snipca.com/49733 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 £799 from www.snipca.com/50039 Tested Issue 667 With a much brighter screen than our previous favourite – the Galaxy Tab S8 – this is perfect for watching TV. It also has a faster processor, so tasks feel smoother, even with several windows open. £799 will get you the 128GB version.…

What you need: Shotcut Time required: 30 minutes Shotcut is a flexible, powerful and free video-editing tool that supports hundreds of audio and video formats, so it’s ideal for polishing videos shot on your phone or digital camera. The latest release (version 29.10) has a clever new subtitling tool, which uses AI to recognise speech in videos. This saves you from having to type a transcript when you want to add subtitles. You can also use the tool to produce a written transcript, which you can read at your leisure, or to help improve your video’s chances of being found in search results when you post it online. STEP 1 Download Shotcut from www.shotcut.org, launch it, then press Ctrl+O. In the box that opens navigate to the video you want to…

Create club logos using Canva’s Dream Lab Canva, one of our favourite design programs, has launched an AI tool that creates images based on your instructions. Called Dream Lab, it’s one of the best AI image creators we’ve seen recently, and gives you an alternative to similar tools like Adobe Firefly (see ‘In the Club’, Issue 663) and Microsoft Designer (Issue 691). Like most AI tools, Dream Lab gives you a limited number of images (20) for free. This might be enough if you need to create several one-off images, such as club logos or newsletter illustrations. If you need more, you'll have to pay £100 a year for Canva Pro, giving you 500 images a month (there’s a free monthly trial) – see www.canva.com/pricing. There’s also a Canva Teams…

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PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Can I connect headphones to my old TV? Q I’m a long-time Computeractivesubscriber, so I’m hoping you can help me. My Sennheiser TR120 ll wireless headphones were previously connected to my Samsung TV, which accommodated the jack plug directly. They worked wonderfully and enabled my partner to still hear a normal level of volume while I wore the headphones without any cables attached – which I set to the higher volume level that I need. The headphones sit on a cradle plugged into an electrical socket for charging when not in use. The Samsung TV packed up and we now use an older LG TV that we already owned. My problem now is the only connections to this LG set is an optical socket and a USB.…

Microsoft is showing adverts on Windows 10 computers urging users to buy new Copilot+ machines running Windows 11. It has previously shown adverts encouraging people to buy new machines before it ends support for Windows 10 in October 2025, but this is the first time it has encouraged users to buy Copilot+ computers. This is a label Microsoft uses to describe a new range of laptops with powerful processors built for running advanced AI tasks. They’re also much more expensive than computers that don’t have specialised AI functions. The cheapest Copilot+ laptop Computeractive has reviewed so far is the Asus ExpertBook P5 (Issue 697, page 23), which costs £1,000. Most machines we’ve tested cost a couple of hundred pounds more than that, such as the Asus Vivobook S 15 (£1,299)…

Virgin Media’s broadband customers will pay an extra £3.50 on their monthly bills from next April, while O2 phone customers will pay £1.80 more for airtime. The company – now officially called Virgin Media O2 since merging in 2021-has become the latest to introduce a flat increase after Ofcom banned firms linking price rises to the rate of inflation. It calls the rise a new “pounds and pence structure”, saying it gives customers “even greater certainty about how their bills may change over the course of their contract” (www.snipca.com/52918). BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Vodafone have all announced a similar policy, though they’re increasing prices by a smaller amount (£3). Currently, Virgin and O2 increase prices by the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation plus 3.9 per cent. The RPI…

AVOID BITWARDEN ‘UPDATE’ ON FACEBOOK Scammers are posting fake adverts for the popular password manager Bitwarden on Facebook (pictured below). They claim your “passwords are at risk” because you’re using an outdated version of Bitwarden’s extension. Clicking it opens a fake web page impersonating the official Chrome Web Store, containing links that install malware. Read more at www.snipca.com/52901. STEAM TRAIN FIRST TO GET WI-FI Swanage Railway in Dorset says it will become the UK’s first heritage steam railway to have Wi-Fi when it’s installed in early 2025. It’s been funded by £163,000 from the Government’s Rural Connectivity Accelerator programme. The railway runs five miles from Norden to Swanage via Corfe Castle. PROTON RELEASES VPN FOR ARM PCs Proton has released a VPN for computers powered by ARM processors, such as…

No chance that BBC and ITV will disappear I agree with your verdict in Issue 697’s ‘Question of the Fortnight’ (pictured) that UK broadcasters will have to “move with the times”. But that doesn’t mean the BBC or ITV will be disappearing any time soon. Despite the rise of Netflix and the like, the BBC and ITV – and to a lesser extent Channel 4 – still dominate our cultural landscape. Just look at the headlines made recently by Gary Lineker announcing he’ll be leaving Match of the Day. The axing of a Netflix show or the departure of a Sky Sports presenter wouldn’t have made the front pages. I can easily imagine a time without the TV Licence, but without the BBC or a commercial rival (whether or not…

MINI PC | £989 from Geekom www.snipca.com/52684 Geekom’s GT1 Mega is an interesting rival to its stablemate and our current favourite mini PC, the £899 Geekom A8 (see page 32). Both come with 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage and the latest processors. However, whereas the A8 comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS chip, the GT1 Mega opts for an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H. “Offers surprising power and speed, with loads of ports” This choice of processor probably loads of ports explains why the GT1 is £90 more expensive. It’s a newer chip that enables close integration with AI-enabled features. However, when challenged neither processor conclusively outpaced the other in terms of speed or features. In our benchmark tests, the A8 was marginally faster in basic tasks…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Set traffic-delay times in Magic Earth I’m grateful for your recommendation of the Magic Earth app (www.magicearth.com) in Issue 696’s feature on more private alternatives to Google Earth (page 62). I’m particularly impressed by the number of options it has for customising the information you see when driving. One of these settings lets you see traffic delays that are longer than a set time. The default is just two minutes, but that’s too low when driving through big cities. I’ve moved it forward to 10 minutes, which is a proper delay rather than just ‘normal’ traffic. To access the setting, tap the top-left cog icon then Navigation. Now tap Car near the bottom and move the slider below ‘Show Traffic Delays Longer Than’ (1 in our…

What is it? A new podcast series that uses AI to bring the late, great Michael Parkinson back to life. Over eight episodes he’ll ‘interview’ celebrities who’ll talk to him as though he were still alive. Er, isn’t that a little creepy? It feels that way, but it’s fully supported by Parkinson’s son Mike, who called it a tribute to his father. He said: “I want audiences to marvel at the technology, the cleverness and the cheekiness of the concept, but mostly I want them to remember just how good he was at interviewing and enjoy the nostalgia and happy memories.” If he’s happy with it then who are we to argue? How does it work? It uses a system called Squark that’s been fed data from over 2,000 Parkinson…

DUCKDUCKGO SEARCH Restrict search results to just one website One of the oldest tricks on Google, DuckDuckGo and other search engines is to restrict results to just one site by typing site: followed by the URL and then a keyword. For example, type site:wikipedia.org D-Day and it’ll deliver results only from Wikipedia. DuckDuckGo has now added another option that requires less typing. Search as normal (at https://duckduckgo.com), then click the three horizontal dots at the top right of a result. Now click ‘Only include results for this site’ (1 in our screenshot below) and the page will refresh to remove results from all other sites. Click the grey ‘Clear Filter’ button to show all results again. There’s also an option to remove that site from search results 2. Note that…

Why can’t I change PayPal’s security settings? Q I wanted to strengthen my PayPal security settings after reading Issue 695’s ‘Named & Shamed’ (page 21). However, I can’t see the ‘MyPayPal’ option you mentioned. Where is it? Has PayPal changed its layout? Dick Greener A It looks like PayPal redesigned its website between us writing those instructions and you attempting to carry them out. And you’re right – there is no ‘My PayPal’ link on the PayPal homepage any more. Once you log into the website with your credentials, you’ll now be taken to your account page directly, from where you can click the settings cog at the top right. Now continue following the remainder of our instructions. Where’s download link for Lotus Organizer? Q I was delighted to read…

BBC iPlayer should soon be available on Google’s TV Streamer (pictured right) after the broadcaster approved the device. Google launched the TV Streamer in September without the iPlayer app, leading to criticism from users. It was one of the reasons Computeractive gave the device a two-star rating when reviewing it in Issue 695 (page 29). The BBC had said Google needed to submit the TV Streamer to its testers so it can check the iPlayer works on it. It does this for all new streaming devices and TVs, then adds them to its list of certified products at www.snipca.com/52942. Clicking the Google link there takes you to the ‘Google devices certified for BBC iPlayer’ page, where ‘Google TV Streamer 4K’ is now listed at the top (see screenshot above). It…

DON’T USE EDITPRO AI IMAGE EDITOR Fraudsters are tricking people into downloading a fake AI video and image editor called EditPro. They’re using false images of Joe Biden sharing an ice cream with Donald Trump (pictured) to demonstrate what the software is supposedly capable of. The tool is being promoted on social media and in Google search results. • Create AI images using Canva – page 48 APPLE AXES iCLOUD FOR OLD iPADS Apple iCloud will stop working on iPads and iPhones running iOS 8 or earlier from 18 December. Content on iCloud will be deleted unless backed up to a device running iOS 9 or later. Apple released iOS 8 in 2014 and iOS 9 one year later. Apple suggests alternatives for backing up at www.snipca.com/52920. • Apple sued…

Mobile network O2 has built an AI pensioner called Daisy to waste scammers’ time when they phone looking for victims. The tool tricks the fraudster into thinking they’re talking to a real person who appears to be a soft touch. But rather than follow the scammer’s instructions, Daisy frustrates them with “human-like rambling chat” that goes nowhere. O2 used a process called number seeding, which added Daisy’s phone number to a list used by scammers. The idea is that the more time scammers spend talking to Daisy, the less they’ll be able to target real people. Virgin claims Daisy is “indistinguishable from a real person”, and the video at www.snipca.com/52885 (pictured) shows scammers being fooled by it. Some swear at her as they grow increasingly exasperated. O2 claims some have stayed…

We all know the key events that have made the legend of Robin Hood so enduring. He fights Little John on a narrow bridge, splits an arrow in an archery contest, rescues Will Stutely from being hanged, and hacks thousands of Amazon Fire TV Sticks so football fans can watch the Premier League without paying anything to the Sheriff of Sky TV. That last strand of the story is a modern-day adaptation as claimed in November by the defence team of Jonathan Edge, 29, from Liverpool (pictured above right). He was on trial for fraud after the Premier League launched a private prosecution against him. “His sentence includes prison time for watching content illegally, not just selling hacked Sticks” Edge admitted hacking the Sticks at home, then advertising them on…

Track down missing birth records From July 1837, all births, marriages and deaths (BMD) had to be registered with the General Register Office (GRO) in England and Wales. The country was divided into registration districts and local registrars sent information four times a year (March, June, September and December). We’ll explain how to search these below. For Northern Ireland visit www.snipca.com/52812 and for Scotland visit www.snipca.com/52813. Search the index at FreeBMD Start at FreeBMD, where you can search births from 1837 to 1992 for free. Visit www.snipca.com/52788, then select a specific registration district and county – or click one, then click ‘Select all’ below the box (1 in our screenshot above right). To discover the registration district that covers a particular place visit www.snipca.com/52789. Now tick ‘Births’ 2, then add information…

LAPTOP | £1,200 from Scan www.snipca.com/52708 Given its price, the specification of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Studio is very impressive, particularly as it comes fitted with a standalone Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics card rather than assign this work to the hardware in its main processor. Add to that an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD and you have a combination of components that can do some serious work. It’s a slightly more current specification than the similarly priced Lenovo LOQ 15in (£1,199 from www.snipca.com/51681, reviewed in Issue 692), which also comes with RTX 4060 graphics, but is aimed solely at gamers. The Prestige is pitched at creative users looking to edit videos and photos. “An impressive screen, long battery life and strong…

PC MONITOR | £320 from Laptops Direct www.snipca.com/52767 Let’s start by making clear what this 27in monitor will and won’t do. The Samsung ViewFinity S80UD is a 4K monitor for people who want a high-resolution screen that handles everyday Windows tasks well. But with a refresh rate of just 60Hz it’s not ideal for the faster-moving requirements of gamers. “A high-resolution Windows monitor with an excellent stand, but not ideal for gamers” It also functions as a useful docking station, thanks to its USB-C port, which can supply 90W of power – more than enough charge for any connected laptops. There’s an Ethernet port, so you can cable it up to your home network and then pass that wired connection on to any attached laptop or PC. It has standard…

Apply animated winter wallpaper Like most people in the south of England, I no longer have any expectation of a white Christmas. Outside of festive films, Bing Crosby songs and John Lewis adverts, it just doesn’t happen any more, as global warming pushes the chance of snow back to February. According to the Met Office, the last time most of the UK experienced a white Christmas was in 2010 (www.snipca.com/52722), which – come to think of it – followed a month of freezing temperatures, travel chaos and stock shortages that meant everyone was sick of the snow by 25 December. “It’s nice to indulge in wintry romanticism before the reality takes hold” Nevertheless, it’s nice to indulge in a bit of festive romanticism before the reality of the season takes…