Table of contents for September 2024 in Tech Advisor

Hacking into an account doesn’t always require deep expertise in exploiting vulnerabilities. Sometimes it’s a simple as taking leaked information and placing it elsewhere on the Internet. That’s why the release of massive password collections are dangerous – and why alarms are now sounding over a drop of nearly 10 billion passwords. First spotted in a forum on 4 July, RockYou2024 is a compilation of 9.94 billion leaked passwords. The massive password dump includes entries from the RockYou2021 collection, data from newer breaches and leaks, and data cracked by the person who posted it. RockYou2021 released with 8.4 billion password entries, including millions related to social media sites. For comparison, the Mother of All Breaches contained 26 billion pieces of personal data that included information beyond passwords. You can read…

There’s an enticing version of Windows 11 making its rounds on the internet right now, offering a slimmed-down design without any of the usual bloatware bogging down and bloating up the operating system. Dubbed ‘Windows 11 Government Edition’ (allegedly meant for government agencies and the like), the version seems tempting at first glance. But you shouldn’t fall for it! Because there are some risks. IS THE WINDOWS 11 GOVERNMENT EDITION REAL? This version of Windows 11 was apparently caught in a tweet by user Andy Kirby, who showed screenshots of the alleged government edition. He describes the Windows version as a “maximally deflated version with all telemetry and Microsoft apps removed and no hardware restrictions like the retail version. Just as god intended”. For many, this would be the dream.…

Price: £499 from fave.co/3yQdKri Google is back with another edition of its mid-range A-series smartphones and the Pixel 8a has been under the microscope for many reasons. For starters, Google pushed the price up by £50 to £499 in the UK meaning it’s positioned closer to the flagship Pixel 8. It’s one of the four reasons I said I might find it hard to recommend the Pixel 8a when it was announced, also citing the new colours, a storage issue and a lack of innovation in the charging department. Are these still problems now I’ve been testing the Pixel 8a as my daily driver for a few weeks? Let’s find out. DESIGN The design language of the Pixel phones has stayed largely unchanged for a few years now and the…

The smartphone market moves fast, and there seems to be almost no break between launches these days. How can you decide which is the best phone for you? Your first decision is between an iPhone or Android phone – both are included here. Then, how much are you willing to spend? Maybe a budget or mid-range phone will offer everything you’re looking for. But if you’re looking for the absolute best of the best, you’ve come to the right place. It’s difficult to whittle down the hundreds of phones we review each year to just 10, but that’s exactly what we’ve done here. We can easily recommend all the phones below, but each model stands out for individual reasons. Whether you’re looking for a phone with AI features, great cameras,…

On 25 June, Microsoft released KB5039302 for Windows 11, a patch that brings a few small improvements for users, which are fully described in the official changelog. This patch distinguishes between changes that Microsoft is gradually rolling out to users and improvements that the software company is rolling out to everyone in one fell swoop. THE GRADUAL ROLLOUT CHANGES First up, this update adds a new ‘Game Pass’ recommendation card to the Settings home page. The change affects both Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, but is usually only displayed if you’re logged in with your Microsoft account and actively playing. Emoji 15.1 support is also a new addition. Windows now supports the Unicode symbol-like shapes for various family constellations, plus several brand-new emojis (namely horizontal and vertical head…

Copilot AI is the future of computing – at least, that’s what Microsoft would like you to believe. They went so far as to stick the name on both their own new Surface PCs and other manufacturers’ laptops. So, why is it that it took them months and months to get the thing working on Windows 10 PCs with more than one monitor? Yes, Copilot on Windows 10 is weird. Chalk it up to the way Microsoft has been aggressively trying to get people off of Windows 10 and onto Windows 11, perhaps. But that’s not a great strategy to get most of your current userbase to engage with your shiny new AI system. (Despite Windows 11 coming out three years ago and Windows 10 going out of full support…

Price: £139 from fave.co/3WgeZJF The Watch Fit 3 sees Huawei take its fitness tracker and smartwatch hybrid and make it more smartwatch. Along with a revamped design and a bigger screen, the Watch Fit 3 gets new watch faces, richer sleep tracking, an improved heart rate sensor and now adds more sports modes. Crucially, it doesn’t budge from its very reasonable price tag that won’t see it measured up against the Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch or the Google Pixel Watch. Think more Xiaomi, Honor, Amazfit and CMF smartwatches. On paper, the Watch Fit 3 promises a whole lot for not a lot of your money and with no single smartwatch maker fully nailing things at the affordable end of the market, it’s there for Huawei to grab that best…

Microsoft, Qualcomm, and their PC-manufacturing partners are seriously hyping Copilot+ PCs. They’d have you believe that these ‘next-generation AI laptops’ are packed with AI smarts and useful features. But, while the hardware for AI tasks is ready in these laptops, the actual features built into Windows aren’t making full use of it. We’re in a weird position. We’re excited about these laptops because they’re the first seriously impressive Windows on Arm laptops. We’re excited about long battery life with snappy performance. And we’re excited that next-generation Intel Lunar Lake hardware is looking like a huge leap for traditional x86 laptops. But we’re not excited about all these at-launch AI features being pushed by marketing campaigns. Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs might be intriguing, but if you’re excited about an immediate AI…

As we report on page 7, Microsoft has released its KB5039302 update. While the update had some interesting stuff in it, it turns out that it can cause Windows 11 PCs to restart in a continuous loop. Specifically, Windows 11 versions 23H2 and 22H2 are affected by this bug. Windows servers are not affected. Fortunately, KB5039302 isn’t installed on all Windows 11 computers because it’s an optional update. (It’s a preview of the standard update for all Windows 11 machines that will be released on Patchday in July 2024.) In other words, KB5039302 will only be on your Windows 11 computer if you explicitly installed it. Microsoft wrote the following: After installing updates released on 26 June 2024 (KB5039302), some devices may not restart. Affected systems may restart repeatedly and…

Price: £1,049 from fave.co/4cVWAaz Microsoft desperately needs its new Surface Pro 11th Edition Copilot+ PC to be a success. It’s something like 80 percent of the way there. But the most important thing this Windows on Arm tablet does is point to what feels like an inevitable future for productivity PCs… someday. You’ve seen a Surface Pro before. Weirdly, this 13-inch tablet is the least interesting part of the whole affair. Inside is the key: how well does Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite work? Do the new AI experiences actually make a difference? And can Windows on Arm finally replace an X86 PC from AMD or Intel? I have answers. An expanding ecosystem of native Arm apps run great on this tablet, and when plugged in, the performance seems to…

Price: £3,499 from fave.co/4622CE7 Apple’s Vision Pro spatial computer, a VR headset with pass-through video, hand tracking and eye tracking, is not just another VR headset. It’s not just an expensive Meta Quest 3 with higher-quality displays. It’s those things, but it’s not just those things. There are moments when you really feel, in your gut, that you’re doing things that are going to be the way it is at some point in the future. After a week of using Apple Vision Pro every day, one thought keeps passing through my head. “This is going to be great…one day.” But that’s the rub. That greatness of this product feels like it is always just off in the distance somewhere. Really trying to use the Vision Pro as anything more than…

In 2024, just about all modern computers use SSDs as their primary data storage format (except for maybe budget Chromebooks). Maybe you’ve done research to get the best SSDs worth your money, equipping your desktops and laptops for utmost performance. Sadly, SSDs don’t last forever. Sure, their performance and durability have improved over the years, but even the ones with impressive terabytes written (TBW) ratings and long warranties still die eventually. You’ll know it’s coming before it happens, too. Here are some key warning signs that your SSD is at the end of its life and what you can do about it – if you can do anything at all. FIRST THINGS FIRST: READ THIS If you have even the slightest suspicion that your SSD might be dying, the first…