Table of contents for 734 in Computeractive

The moment you know you’ve truly escaped Google is when it no longer pops into your head as the default choice for a task. This has been a gradual process for me. Brave replaced Chrome as my favourite browser many years ago, followed soon after by DuckDuckGo becoming my first choice for searching the web. It’s been ages since I thought Google could do a better job. But it took longer to find serious alternatives to Gmail and Drive. I still use both every day, but email by email and file by file I’m shifting to rivals like Proton, Mailfence and Drime. Robert Irvine explains in his Cover Feature why they’re better than Google, and also recommends alternatives for Maps (now pointlessly cluttered) and Photos (too much AI). If the…

Amazon will soon stop owners of older Kindles from buying, borrowing or downloading books from theKindle Store. The decision affects eight Kindle ebook readers released between 2007 and 2012, including the very first Kindle and the first Paperwhite (pictured). Four Kindle Fire tablets released between 2011 and 2012 are also affected, including the 7in and 8.9in HD models. However, you’ll still be able to read existing ebooks on them, and manually load new content to them from your computer. Amazon estimates only three per cent of Kindle users still have one of these old devices. In an email to users it said: “These models have been supported for at least 14 years – some as long as 18 years – but technology has come a long way in that time,…

If you have Google Drive installed on your computer, it will now warn you if you upload a file that contains ransomware. First, you’ll see an alert urging you to ‘Take action’ (see screenshot 1). Click that and Google will say it has paused syncing the file to your online Drive 2 and that you need to remove the ransomware from your computer. The message also explains that Google Drive keeps old file versions for 25 days. If you restore your files before then following Google’s instructions, you won’t need to pay an exorbitant amount to the hackers. Google introduced the warnings last for its Workspace subscription, but has now added them to all accounts – free or paid-for. Read Google’s blog for more details (www.snipca.com/58589), and for instructions on…

In Issue 733 (page 9, pictured) you asked if weather apps are misleading. I believe they often are and so support Chester Zoo’s campaign to make them present forecasts more realistically. But the problem lies with the public too. As our attention spans shrink, so we no longer have the patience to sit through a detailed weather forecast on TV. Instead, we just glance at a rainy-cloud icon and assume it’s going to pour down all day. The design of modern apps has made us this way. App developers favour a clean design over detail, and so because there’s no simple way of condensing a mixed weather forecast into a single icon they just opt for a generic symbol. They also rely on algorithms too much. This divides the day…

In your Cover Feature on mini PCs (Issue 732) you mentioned the option of buying a cheap ‘barebones’ machine then adding components yourself. I took this route through Minisforum last year (buying the UM790 Pro), but when I tried to add some memory modules to it the machine wouldn’t recognise them. I raised this with Minisforum and they gave me some advice on fixing the problem, which worked well. They had also responded well to previous problems, including sending me a power adapter to replace one that was unreliable, and a new fan that was far quieter than the noisy blighter I was suffering with. I know it’s based in China, but its support team is superb. They speak excellent English and must work around the clock because they always…

AntiBrowserSpy www.snipca.com/58668 Price: £29.95 Free trial: 30 days What you need: Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11 AntiBrowserSpy protects your privacy online by identifying and tweaking browser settings that allow you to be spied on. It claims to offer an “arsenal of advanced mechanisms” for this purpose and has a simple, friendly interface. The main Dashboard gives you an AntiBrowserSpy score out of 100 (see screenshot) for the browsers you have installed, though it failed to detect Brave, Vivaldi and others on our PC. Click ‘Details’ to see how the score was calculated – for example, how your privacy settings are configured and how much browsing data you have stored. AntiBrowserSpy also lists the trackers it’s found in each browser, but many of ours were the harmless cookies that sites…

DESKTOP PC | £1,349 from PCSpecialist www.snipca.com/58538 This small desktop PC from British PC builder PCSpecialist is proof that you can have a powerhouse machine without a massive case and garish RGB lighting. It squeezes impressive amounts of computing and gaming prowess into an unobtrusive mini-tower, with a front fascia roughly the same size as an A4 sheet. It’s 443mm deep, so it still consumes plenty of desk (or floor) space, but it’s a fairly stylish unit. “More than fast enough to run office and creative programs, and even a little gaming” Slide off the side panel and the AMD Radeon 9060XT graphics card dominates the interior, but it only takes a couple of minutes and a Phillips screwdriver to remove it, at which point you have full access to…

TABLET ❘ £449 from Mi.com www.snipca.com/58566 Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi has built a successful phone and tablet business by offering premium device specifications at for lower prices. It’s done it again with the Pad 8 Pro, giving you a seriously speedy processor and an excellent screen for less than you’d spend on the basic iPad Air. “This is a strong performer that breezes through intensive apps and games” This year’s model is marginally thinner and lighter than last year’s, but its squared edges, narrow bezel and aluminium shell feel surprisingly luxurious. The rear has a slightly annoying raised camera, which stops it sitting flat on a desk, plus pogo pins for connecting to the optional Focus Keyboard (£179 from www.snipca.com/58572). This is similar to Apple’s Magic Keyboard, complete with built-in trackpad…

Q I want to buy a basic OCR pen that will let me convert lines of printed text into digital text in a Microsoft Word document. I don’t need the ability to translate into different languages or read aloud. Please can you recommend a suitable product that is simple but reliable. Gordon Tuff A There are some pretty cheap OCR pens you can buy on Amazon. They’re not particularly basic – translation and reading out aloud have become standard features – and most seem to share the same design and software. Independent reviews are few and far between, but the user reviews on Amazon are mostly positive. This Scan Reader Pen by Vutlace (£39 from www.snipca.com/58585, pictured) is a good example. For a more tried and tested option, look at…

MONITOR | £100 from Laptop Outlet www.snipca.com/58676 BenQ’s new budget 24in monitor gives you a decent Full HD screen with some useful extras and a design that keeps things simple but smart. There’s no height adjustment but you get 25 degrees of tilt, plus a standard VESA mount at the rear if you want to use a monitor arm instead. There is a height-adjustable model (GW2490TC) for £20 more (www.snipca.com/58675). Around the back, you’ll find one HDMI, one DisplayPort, and – unusually – a USB-C port, which will work with any laptop or tablet USB-C connection that supports the DisplayPort Alt mode. There’s no USB-PD uption here and no USB hub, and while it will supply around 7.5W of charge, that’s not much more than a slow trickle for current…

VIVALDI Automatically hide all toolbars Vivaldi 7.9, released at the end of March, introduces a clever feature called ‘UI Auto-hide’. This automatically hides the browser’s side panel, tab bar, address bar and status bar so you can focus on the content of the page. It’s handy for when you’re watching a video, reading an article or writing an email, and want maximum space and minimum distraction. Just press Ctrl+F11 or click the double-headed arrow icon on the status bar (see screenshot below) to make the current page fill the browser window. Move your cursor to an edge of the window to display a toolbar. Press Ctrl+F11 again to exit ‘UI Auto-hide’ mode. OPERA Add Google Translate to the sidebar Opera has updated the sidebar in its Opera One browser to…

ANDROID & iOS Transfer WhatsApp chats from iOS to Android WhatsApp now lets you transfer your chats from an iPhone to an Android phone without using a separate app. The transferrable data includes your account information, individual and group chats, your chat and call history, and photos and videos you’ve sent and received. To start the transfer, open WhatsApp’s Settings on your iPhone and choose Chats then ‘Transfer chat history’. Select ‘Transfer to Android’ (see screenshot below), tap ‘Continue’ and WhatsApp will prepare the chat data. On your Android phone, open WhatsApp and verify your account with the same number you use on your iPhone. When prompted, tap Allow to enable your devices to connect. Use your iPhone’s camera to scan the QR code and tap Join to connect to…

ONLYOFFICE Pin favourite documents and folders to home page OnlyOffice 9.3.0, released in February 2026, now lets you pin recently opened documents and folders to the home page. Open OnlyOffice and scroll down the home page until you see the ‘Recent files’ heading. Now hover over a file you want to pin and click the pin icon at the far right (1 in our screenshot). This will now be pinned at the top of your list. Click the three dots and you’ll see more options, including unpinning and removing from the list 2. To do the same for recent folders, click ‘Open local file’ 3. LIBREOFFICE WRITER Add hyperlinks by right-clicking You can now add hyperlinks to documents in LibreOffice Writer by right-clicking. The option was added to LibreOffice in…

Google is now so integrated with our lives that it’s difficult to imagine being without it. We ‘google’ for information online, access the web using its Chrome browser, send emails via Gmail, get directions from Google Maps, and much more. Those tools are popular for good reasons: they’re free, easy to use and cater perfectly to our daily needs. However, they also come at the cost of letting Google collect and monetise our personal data for advertising purposes. That’s hardly a revelation: Google settles several lawsuits every year for collecting users’ data without their permission. But we all continue to use its tools regardless, mainly because we never bother to look for alternatives. In the past few years, Google has ‘enhanced’ many of those tools with AI features. Some additions…

1080p High-definition video: 1920x1080 pixels. 1440p High-definition video: 2560x1440 pixels. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. Agentic Software that acts independently to plan tasks and make decisions. APK The file format Android uses to install apps. Augmented reality Lets you view the real world on a screen and add virtual elements.  Benchmarks Comparing software with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. BIOS Software built into every PC that connects components.  Bot Automated software designed to perform specific tasks.  Botnet A group of infected computers connected via the web, and used to infect other PCs. Buffering Downloading data before starting to play a video. Cache A temporary space for data. cd/m2 Standard unit of brightness. Chatbot An AI program designed to recreate…

For the first time the most recent version of Ubuntu needs more RAM than Windows 11. Ubuntu, which is the most popular Linux distro, is often touted as a lightweight alternative system to Windows. But Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, which was released on 23 April, requires a computer with at least 6GB of RAM (www.snipca.com/58637). This is 2GB higher than the previous LTS version of Ubuntu (24.04), released in April 2024. It’s also 2GB higher than Microsoft’s official requirements for Windows 11 (www.snipca.com/58636), though to run the operating system smoothly you need at least 8GB. Ubuntu’s other requirements are less severe. For example, it needs 25GB storage – less than half of Windows 11’s 64GB – and you don’t need the TPM 2.0 processor. But the jump to 6GB may prompt…

Redeem EE ‘rewards points’ In all my years as an EE customer I’ve never come across a ‘rewards points’ scheme, so I was sceptical of a text message that told me my points were expiring. I had to tap a link to ‘redeem’ them within a time period, which is a scam tactic as old as time. I double-checked online and EE actually has a page warning about the scam (www.snipca.com/58565). It says it will never “let you know about points via text message or email” nor use “time pressure” to nudge users into claiming points. EE customers can report scams by forwarding them to 7726. Gary Warner Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

HP has refunded reader Matthew Hanger the £1,600 he paid for a damaged HP Omen PC (see Issue 732), ending a frustrating three months of repeated delays. Matthew pre-ordered the PC on 28 November last year, with a delivery date of 23 December. However, it didn’t arrive until 10 January, and Matthew immediately saw it wasn’t in an acceptable condition. Whether this damage happened during manufacturing or transit wasn’t Matthew’s concern. He simply told HP and asked for a refund. Retailers have to pick up faulty goods within a “reasonable time” of being notified. HP would argue that the two weeks it took to collect the PC fell within this period, but it was still a long wait for Matthew because he wanted to buy a replacement laptop. Companies also…

Which search tool would find files on my messy PC? Q My PC files are a mess. It would be easier to find a flying penguin than what I need. Windows search doesn’t seem to have enough filters to help me, so could you recommend another program that uses more advanced tools? I’d like it to be free, but I don’t mind paying a small amount. Paul Hobbs A Give Listary a go – download it from www.listary.com. We’ve always found it to be the fastest, smartest and simplest way to track down files. Start typing a query into its search box, and the program will instantly display matching results in the main area below. You can filter results by file type – such as document, picture or video –…

What should you look out for? You can pick up an iPhone for under £200, but upping your budget to between £250 and £400 will get you a newer model with a better screen, superior camera and more processing power. Find one with a decent battery, and it should last years. What are the drawbacks? The battery is the biggest problem. Some will have a seriously reduced capacity after years of use, though the seller should give you some idea of its status before you buy. Otherwise, look out for software support – Apple usually provides this for five to eight years, but older models like the iPhone 11 are coming to their end of life. What are the best deals? The iPhone 14 is still a good buy, with…

SMART SPEAKER ❘ £299 from Sonos www.snipca.com/58638 Sonos’s new wireless speaker is a handy hybrid – it can work as a home speaker while sitting in the included charging dock, but is also ready to go mobile, thanks to a battery that keeps it playing for up to 24 hours. In our tests, it ran on and off for three days, though it’s a shame that Sonos doesn’t supply a 20W USB adapter to power the dock. The Play is a fully rounded Wi-Fi speaker, meaning it will operate as part of a multi-room setup with other Sonos kit, but can also stream over Bluetooth, AirPlay 2 or Spotify Connect. It has a microphone for voice commands through Amazon Alexa, and you can pair two speakers if you want a…

What is it? A customised iPhone 17 Pro Max from luxury brand Caviar. Called the ‘Jobs’, it has a fragment of the Apple co-founder’s trademark black turtleneck sweater that he wore at product presentations encased in the back and authenticated by certificate. What does it do? Absolutely nothing that the iPhone 17 Pro Max doesn’t do already, though given that it’s Apple’s most advanced smartphone, that’s quite a lot. Essentially, you’re paying extra for – in Caviar’s words – a “detail that elevates the smartphone into a museum-worthy collector’s piece”. What’s the catch? You’re spending up to $11,560 (£8,688). The iPhone 17 Pro Max costs between £1,199 and £1,999, so you’re paying a lot of money for a piece of material. So can I do without it? You’ll have to,…

CHATGPT Edit your image prompts ChatGPT now lets you edit prompts that have images attached to them. This is useful when you upload an image for the AI assistant to customise or analyse, but then change your mind about what you asked it to do. Rather than wait for ChatGPT to process the image, you can edit your original message without having to start again. You can also edit the prompt after ChatGPT has responded, without having to upload the file again. To use this new option after uploading an image to a chat, hover your cursor over the prompt and click the ‘Edit message’ (pencil icon – see screenshot below). Update the prompt, click Send and ChatGPT will alter its response accordingly. The feature is only available on the…

WATCH OUT FOR… Scammers befriending vulnerable older people What’s the threat? Scammers are pretending to befriend older and vulnerable people in order to extract money from them. The scam has been spotted by TSB, which warned of an increase in ‘friendship fraud’ where scammers exploit the loneliness of older people. The fraud typically begins on social media and online forums, where criminals posing as young people offer companionship to the elderly. But after gaining their victims’ trust through daily messages they start to ask for money. Often they claim it’s to pay urgent medical bills or to escape an abusive family, though some scammers are callous enough simply to threaten ending the friendship unless their victim pays up. TSB said one victim in their late 70s lost over £4,000 after…

LEAD CASE Is Jet2 allowed to ignore 14-day cooling-off period? Q I booked a holiday online through Jet2holidays (www.jet2holidays.com) but then we had a medical emergency in the family which prompted me to consider cancelling. However, Jet2 said travel companies don’t recognise the 14-day cooling-off period for cancelling purchases made online. Is this correct? James Fair A Yes, Jet2 holidays and other travel firms are generally exempt from the 14-day period given to shoppers under the Consumer Contracts Regulations, because it would be difficult for them to re-sell specific flights, accommodation, car hire and so on. Instead, they’re covered by the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 (www.snipca.com/58594), which set out specific rights, such as getting a refund if the organiser cancels the holiday or makes a significant change…

WEB BROWSER Samsung Browser www.snipca.com/58674 What you need: Windows 10 or 11 If you’ve ever owned a Samsung Galaxy phone or tablet, you’ll be familiar with the company’s Internet browser, which comes installed on those devices. It’s also available from the Google Play Store for non-Samsung Android devices (www.snipca.com/58673), and – in a cut-down version – on Samsung smart TVs. Samsung has now brought the browser (and dropped the ‘Internet’ from its name) to Windows PCs, to take on Chrome, Edge, Firefox and the rest. It’s based on Chromium so has a familiar design and features, augmented with Samsung’s own distinct touches. These include a built-in ad blocker that blocks most ads and trackers on web pages, and warns you about malicious sites. You can view how many it’s blocked…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Don’t install ‘Advanced Cleaner – PC Memory Optimizer’ In all my time working as a tech journalist I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say they want to “optimise” their PC. They simply want it to run faster and crash less often. Optimise is one of those clunky words marketing departments love yet real people rarely use. It’s why I’m always suspicious of programs that have it in their name, especially if combined with the similarly generic ‘cleaner’. So I wasn’t expecting much from ‘Advanced Cleaner – PC Memory Optimizer’ (www.snipca.com/58604). It appeared near the top of Microsoft Store’s results when I searched for ‘optimiser’, boosted no doubt by a recent update. It certainly wasn’t the 2.6-star rating that made it so prominent. First signs weren’t good. You…

PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYER ❘ £319 from AV.com www.snipca.com/58603 If you want more control of your music while getting the best audio quality, there are still plenty of good reasons to buy a portable music player. Sadly, there’s a shortage of great, affordable players, with most of the better ones costing over £500. FiiO’s M21 comes in for £319, yet it combines high-quality audio components with a charming retro style. Around the size of an elongated deck of cards, it has a slight Sony Walkman feel, and you can even have a virtual cassette tape displayed on its 4.7in touchscreen during playback. There’s more plastic and rubber here than the metals you find on more premium players, but it’s still scratch-resistant and robust. There are physical play/pause, skip track and volume…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Automatically download YouTube videos I was delighted to read that Vividl (www.snipca.com/58353) has made a comeback (Issue 732, page 19). I used it a few years ago to download YouTube videos, and always found it very straightforward. You mentioned pressing the plus sign to add a YouTube URL to download, and that works when you have a specific video in mind. But I prefer to automatically download videos simply by adding their URL to my clipboard. To do this, open Vividl then click Automate at the top followed by Configuration. Next, click the Advanced tab then select the Directly Download Videos box (1 in our screenshot) and click OK. Now browse on YouTube and paste a URL to your clipboard. These will automatically start downloading to…

Vivaldi Free Android www.snipca.com/58547 iOS www.snipca.com/58548 Vivaldi has updated its mobile browser with a Daily Image feature. This shows a visually appealing photo as the wallpaper for your Start Page, and changes it every day automatically. To activate this, tap the Customize button on the Start Page and switch on Use Daily Image. ScreenTally Free Android www.snipca.com/58542 ScreenTally tracks how long you spend each day using your phone and specific apps. If your usage seems excessive, you can set up daily screen-time limits for the benefit of your physical and mental health. Unlike similar apps, it doesn’t collect your data, show ads or require an account. Small Web Free Android www.snipca.com/58549 iOS www.snipca.com/58550 This new app aims to recreate the original spirit of the web by letting you browse content…

WINDOWS 11 INSIDER Use ‘Pointer Indicator’ to see where your cursor is Microsoft is continuing to roll out the Pointer Indicator on Windows 11, which uses four red lines coming from top, bottom, left and right to show where your cursor is (see screenshot below). This is useful for people with poor vision. To turn it on, press Windows key+I to open Settings, then click Accessibility on the left followed by ‘Mouse pointer and touch’ on the right. Now click the ‘Pointer indicator’ slider so it turns blue. Once activated, you can turn it on and off by pressing Windows key+Ctrl+Shift+X. It’s part of the Preview Build 26300.8085, released on 20 March, and is available only to Insiders on the Dev channel. If it works well, it’s likely to be…