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For years my password strategy was a hacker’s dream. Every time a site asked me to update my password, I simply added another number to the name of my first teacher. I thought I’d be fine, unless someone in Mrs Boyle’s class, nearly 40 years ago, had grown up to be a hacker. Over time I strengthened my passwords, adding upper-case letters and obscure punctuation from keyboard buttons I otherwise barely bothered with. These days I use a password manager, but often feel that I’m making mistakes that hackers will exploit. Many readers have told me the same. So this issue’s Cover Feature tells you all you need to know about guaranteeing maximum password safety. Last year we invited readers to try a Wi-Fiboosting powerline kit from devolo in their…

Police have arrested four people in the UK following a two-year investigation into phone scammers who pretend to be part of Microsoft’s IT support team. Victims are usually told that their computer has a fault, and that they need to give the callers access so they can fix it. If they gain access, the scammers install malware, or download images that seem to show evidence of an infection. In most cases the scammers demand a fee from their victim, or simply steal money from their bank account. Sometimes scammers phone the victim again to say they are due a refund for the earlier theft. If they hand over their bank details a second time, more money is stolen. The inquiry, conducted by the City of London Police with Microsoft’s help,…

Dog owners may soon be able to train their pets to send text messages, as well as sit, beg and roll over. Researchers in America have built a tablet with a touchscreen especially designed for dogs’ noses. By touching it, the dog can send an emergency message saying that their owner needs medical help. It’s been developed by researchers working on a project named FIDO (‘Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations’), part of Georgia Institute of Technology. They have trained dogs to approach a large TV-sized touchscreen and use their nose to dial 911 (the US equivalent of 999) when their owner collapses, or when they hear the word ‘help’. The touchscreen displays ‘911’ in blue and yellow, colours that dogs can see (pictured above). Dr Melody Jackson (below left),…

This may be a controversial opinion, but surely Microsoft was wrong to release a fix for Windows XP (News, Issue 505, page 6). I know Microsoft doesn’t do this very often, and it said that the fix shouldn’t be seen as a change in policy. But that doesn’t mean many companies and organisations still using XP won’t see it as a change in policy. If I was head of an IT department that was strapped for cash, I would now think twice about upgrading, because I’d feel confident that Microsoft would protect me from ‘cybergeddon’. Does it go too far to call Microsoft’s action irresponsible? It may have prevented infection in the short term, but long term it could have disastrous consequences if it results in the continued use of…

Q A microwave I bought from Appliances Direct ( www.appliancesdirect.co.uk) arrived badly damaged. Initially, they told me I had no rights to a replacement or refund because I hadn’t told them within five days of delivery that it was damaged. It’s now been replaced, but I still had to pay £35.69 to return it. Is this lawful? Steve Hemborough A No, this five-day rule isn’t lawful. The Consumer Rights Directive gives you 30 days to reject damaged or inherently faulty goods. During this time you can ask for a full refund or a replacement. This is different to your rights under the Consumer Contracts Directive – commonly known as distance-selling regulations – which gives you 14 days to reject an item for any reason, such as simply changing your mind.…

A few years ago I bought a Microsoft Arc Touch Wireless Mouse ( www.snipca.com/24790, pictured) from my local supermarket, reduced to clear for £7. The mouse’s transceiver, being extremely small, got lost. It was totally my fault. I called Microsoft and explained the situation and asked if I could buy another one. They told me they didn’t sell them but instead sent me a new mouse free. Last month, the replacement mouse broke and, once again, Microsoft replaced it. I was amazed by this customer service because they had no legal obligation to do this. Their goodwill gesture has made me loyal to their company. This is in contrast to Sony, who wouldn’t replace my PlayStation controller after it broke, even though I have bought about 12 games over the…

www.snipca.com/24847 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 One-click programs don’t come much more powerful than PCMark 10. Click Run, then go off and mow the lawn for an hour while the program puts your PC through its paces, using dozens of tests to discover your system’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, it launches a dummy conference call to measure your PC’s video capabilities; loads mock news feeds to test web browsing; and launches its own versions of programs, including photo editor Gimp, to calculate a software start-up score. You can opt to save a detailed log of your scores, but there’s not much else you can do with them. The program isn’t a PC-tuner, simply a source of information, and we found it fascinating (if a little dispiriting…

What program will help me print large photos at home? Q I am a keen photographer, and would like to print my best photos at large sizes for framing. My home printer is good but it only goes up to A4. I hit upon the idea of printing separate sheets then joining them, but it’s very fiddly to do using photo-editing software. I’d rather not pay for professional printing. Can you help? Terry McNamara A A few websites claim to do this job for free. Block Posters (www.blockposters.com) is the best known. It’s easy to use, but it adds a watermark to your prints unless you pay a few pounds to remove it. Given that you’re printing your own photos, we doubt you’ll want ugly company branding slapped all over…

PHONE ? £449 from OnePlus www.snipca.com/24815 OnePlus specialises in selling phones direct to customers at lower prices than other brands. This latest model has the kind of feature list that could push the cost of a phone over £600, yet it’s a reasonable £449. This is the slimmest OnePlus phone so far, but not the most distinctive. The iPhone-like aluminium back panel (available in black or dark grey) has lost its previous symmetry to integrate a new dual camera. This can do the popular fake-bokeh effect (blurred background) by taking two pictures at once, which works reasonably well. It also gives you HDR (high dynamic range), which we found was very prone to glitching due to slight movements while shooting. The Pro mode has lots of extra features, but again…

According to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, he first had the idea for the iPad when he imagined typing on a glass screen. In reality, typing full-length documents on an unresponsive surface proved uncomfortable for most users, and other companies launched clip-on keyboards. With the arrival of the iPad Pro in 2015, Apple gave in and offered its own Smart Keyboard as an option. In principle, any iPad with a keyboard has the same hardware features as a laptop. In practice, though, many people find clip-on keyboards hard to use while out and about. The same goes for Microsoft’s Surface Pro (pictured), but it does run standard Windows 10 programs. The iPad Pro runs iOS rather than macOS (Apple’s equivalent of Windows). Some programs for PC and Mac, such as Adobe’s…

PC £1,300 from Yoyotech www.snipca.com/24807 It’s our job to point out the differences between desktop PCs, so you can pick the best one to buy. But more obvious are the similarities. Big black box on the outside. Intel processor on the inside. Add some drives, printed circuit boards and fans and you’ve got a PC. Beyond that, the devil is in the detail. Not so with the Yoyotech Redback N5. As befits the kind of splendidly silly Star Wars character model name that brightens up our day, it comes in a spaceship-style case, with a white plastic front that wraps around to the top and full-width smoked glass sides. “Lightning fast, expandable and great for multitasking” Peer inside (see image below) and the LED-lit CPU fan gently illuminates MSI’s version…

HARD DRIVE £120 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24885 If you have a desktop PC in a tower case, it should be fairly simple to add more storage internally. Having removed the cover, you’ll just need to identify a standard 3.5in drive bay, of which most systems will have at least one or two free, and power and data cables to attach the new drive to the PC’s SATA interface and power supply unit. If you’re replacing an existing drive, you just plug everything back into the new one, but it usually makes more sense to keep using it. For a summary of what’s involved, see the advice at www.snipca.com/24887 from the computer repair enthusiasts at iFixit.com. As long as you own a screwdriver or two, the only remaining question is which drive…

Win 1 of 2 iStorage diskAshur Pro2 1TB hard drives Winner of a ‘Great Pick’ award in Issue 505, iStorage’s new diskAshur Pro2 hard drive encrypts all data stored on it once you create a PIN using the built-in keypad. This means it can’t be intercepted by keylogging malware. It’s an excellent device for storing and transporting data that you need to keep confidential. It’s also very fast, particularly when recovering data. It’s also water and dust resistant so it will survive some water/dust damage. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘istorage’ in the subject line by midnight 1 August. The diskAshur Pro2 hard drive comes in three sizes: 500GB (£222), 1TB (£284) and 2TB (£374). It also comes as an SSD in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.…

ANDROID & iOS Play your photos as a slideshow on your TV One of the best ways to use your Chromecast dongle (www.snipca.com/24903) is to cast albums from your Google Photos, Facebook or Flickr account to your TV. Any photos within those accounts will then play (in random order) on your TV. To set this up, first ensure that your TV is on and switched to the HDMI input you use for your Chromecast. Now open the Google Home app (Android www.snipca.com/24888; iOS www.snipca.com/24889), tap the icon at the top right, the three dots at the top right, then tap Backdrop Settings. You’ll see various options for content you can cast to your TV (see screenshot below). Here, tap the source of your photos Google Photos, Facebook, Flickr, etc), log…

WINDOWS 7 Search the web from your Start menu If you use Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate, there’s an easy way to search the web from your Start menu. To check which Windows version you use, right-click Computer (on your desktop, Start menu or within File Explorer), then click Properties. You’ll see your Windows edition at the top. If you use Home Premium or Ultimate, open your Start menu, type gpedit.msc, then press Enter to open your PC’s Group Policy Editor. Here, navigate to the following folder by clicking the dropdown menus on the left: User Configuration/Administrative Templates/ ‘Start Menu and Taskbar’. Double-click ‘Add Search Internet link to Start Menu’ in the right-hand pane, select Enabled, then click Apply, followed by OK. Now type a search term in your…

Online planetarium The Sky Live (https:// theskylive.com) proved popular with readers when we covered it in our ‘Watch the World from your PC’ feature (Issue 504, page 60). Here are a few ways to get even more out of it. Edit your view of the galaxy then share it Navigating the planetarium view is fairly easy – zoom using the mouse wheel, and pan by dragging the mouse with the left button held down. In the 3D-simulator view you can also change the pivot point by using the right mouse button. But there are other ways to control what you see. For example, in the planetarium view, click the settings (spanner) icon (see screenshot below left) to access visual effects (Ground, Milky Way, Constellations, etc). To the left of the…

Q I bought an Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet recently and was told by the shop that I could use Alexa voice commands on it. I have tried all ways to do this, even on the Amazon website, but no luck. The supposed experts at the shop said that there may be an update coming out to fix it. The adverts for the Amazon Fire HD say that you can use Alexa, so what am I doing wrong? Peter Gillard A Your tablet should indeed work with Alexa voice commands, and the associated Alexa ‘companion’ app should be preinstalled. However, to be absolutely clear — and for the benefit of readers with older devices — Alexa is available on other Fire tablets. Specifically, it’ll work on the fourth-generation Fire HD…

Q I use your Jargon Buster page, so I know that SSD means solid-state drive and HDD means hard-disk drive. However, I’m afraid I’m still not really clear what the difference is. I’m old enough to remember claims of solid-state radios being better than old-fashioned wirelesses but that never meant much to me either. Why is ‘solid state’ (whatever that is) better than something that isn’t? And why are SSDs specifically better than HDDs? Harold Foster A Fundamentally, ‘solid state’ means a lack of moving parts — a device that’s all electronics, and nothing mechanical. So, an SSD means a drive where nothing inside moves. By contrast, a hard-disk drive (or HDD) has numerous parts that function mechanically, including disk platters that spin constantly and little read/write heads that dart…

Microsoft has said that the next major update to Windows 10 will contain new tools to protect computers from ransomware attacks. It plans to add to Windows Defender a tool called ‘Controlled folder access’, which will keep track of changes programs make to “certain protected folders”. With this setting switched on, you’ll receive a notification if a program “blacklisted” by Microsoft attempts to change files within these folders. It’s expected to arrive in the Fall Creators Update of Windows 10, scheduled for September. Writing on Microsoft’s blog (www.snipca.com/24912), software engineer Dona Sarkar said that you won’t be able to change the default list of protected folders, which includes Documents, Pictures, Movies and Desktop. However, you will be able to add other folders. Sarkar said this would be useful “if you…

Ofcom is investigating the fairness of Virgin Media’s policy to charge customers on fixed contracts earlytermination fees when they move home. The regulator said it will examine whether Virgin’s contracts for broadband, phone and TV packages comply with the Consumer Rights Act (CRA), following complaints from customers, including many Computeractive readers. Broadband companies are allowed to charge earlytermination fees as long as they are ‘fair and reasonable’. This lets them recoup lost revenue. But unlike other providers Virgin charges customers even when they move to an address where its service isn’t available. Virgin runs its own cable network, instead of relying on BT Openreach like other companies, limiting the number of homes it can provide broadband to. Should Ofcom decide that Virgin’s terms are unfair under the CRA, it will…

Dementia charities have questioned claims that a new ‘brain-training’ iPad app can help to reverse the early signs of the illness. Researchers at Cambridge University said that its Game Show app (pictured) improved the memory of patients with possible early dementia by 40 per cent. In the game, players win a gold coin by matching geometric patterns with different locations. Forty-two patients took part in the four-week study. Half played the game for two hours a week in a clinic, while the other half played no games. Memory tests at the end of the study showed that the app players made around a third fewer errors. One of the app’s co-inventors, Professor Barbara Sahakian, said that “there’s increasing evidence that brain training can be beneficial for boosting cognition and brain…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: EaseUS ToDo Backup Free At best, Chinese software firm EaseUS is a junk offender. It’s currently exploiting users’ fears about WannaCry and Petya ransomware to plug its backup software (www.snipca.com/24878, scroll down for the spiel), and then uses said software to ferry junk into PCs. Worse, it seems to be redirecting users to sites that may contain malware. I’ve slammed EaseUS before for peddling PUPs. A Yahoo search engine and the browser hijacker ByteFence were both bundled in the company’s installers (Named & Shamed, Issue 481). But that may be the least of its crimes. Reader Peter Comley wrote to us to say the EaseUS site forcibly redirected him to a third-party site (giftbundlestour.com) when he tried to download the installer for ToDo Backup Free.…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive Amazon’s growth will benefit us all I would like to present an alternative to Gerald Cowen’s dystopian vision of the world being run by Amazon in 2030 (Letters, Issue 505). I would urge readers to re-read that letter before reading mine. Fast-forward 17 years and every morning we’ll be woken by hi-tech alarm clocks that are cheaper than ever because competition from Amazon has driven down prices. We’ll then skip downstairs and open the front door to pick up our daily Amazon drone deliveries: newspapers (which are popular again thanks to Amazon’s reliable service), milk, box of cereal and bread. On the back of the cereal box are personalised adverts from local businesses that have flourished ever…

Q I’ve got an Orange pay-asyou- go SIM card that I use in an iPhone 6. I only top it up with £40 every nine or 10 months, so was surprised to find that Orange keeps taking 65p a day for GPRS services even though I’m not using any. I do keep getting a refund, but it continues to happen. Is this some sort of scam? Julian White A No, but it’s puzzling. After he first emailed us Julian told us that Orange has now sent him a new SIM card, and the 65p fee is no longer being taken from his account. But we’ve included his problem because it’s far more common that you might think, and so may help other readers Julian thought the phone had an app…

Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Please include both your phone number and address. Q Can you give me some advice on my recent renewal of a business contract for a landline phone with Unicom (http://switchingon.com) that my wife was pressurised into signing up to. We tried to cancel this three-year contract within 14 days, but Unicom said we’d have to pay a termination fee. Tony Smith A Tony isn’t able to use the 14-day cooling-off period because it exists only in the Consumer Contracts Regulations, which don’t apply to business contracts. But he can get help. First, he needs to write to Unicom’s complaints department (www.snipca.com/24787) about being pressurised into renewing his contract. If the contract is in Tony’s name, he should point out that…

What’s the threat? More people are being tricked online into buying goods that are never delivered, according to new figures from Citizens Advice. They show a 17 per cent rise in shoppers reporting being conned in the first three months of 2017. In these ‘phantom goods’ scams, fraudsters advertise items at extremely cheap prices on sites like Facebook, Gumtree and eBay. The listings often include fake positive reviews to indicate that the seller can be trusted. Scammers list a range of items, from physical goods like cameras and jewellery to services such as car insurance and driving lessons. On average shoppers lose £1,100. Citizens Advice gave one example of a woman who agreed a price of £5,000 with a person who had listed a houseboat on eBay. The seller emailed…

www.snipca.com/24853 What you need: Windows 8/8.1 or 10 Weed out the programs that are hogging your internet, using the latest portable tool from NirSoft. Developer Nir Sofer already makes several programs that lift the lid on your Wi-Fi. For example, there’s Wireless Network Watcher, which lists all the devices currently using it (your neighbour’s laptop, perhaps?). NetworkUsageView is only interested in software, not devices. Run the portable program as administrator (it doesn’t seem to work otherwise) to see a detailed list of programs and apps that are using your internet connection now (or recently). To spot bandwidth-hogs, scroll across to the Bytes Sent and Bytes Received columns, then drag the column headings to the left to make them easier to see. Right-click then select HTML Report to export the list…

New products tested by our experts PC | £500 from Gladiator www.snipca.com/24800 The last desktop PC we tested from this long-established British brand (see our review, Issue 492) made do with a modest Intel i3 processor to leave room in its £600 price for a brand new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card. This time they’ve left out the graphics card to squeeze a notably more powerful Kaby Lake i5 processor into an even tighter £500 budget. For general users who don’t need to play 3D games or boost the speed of graphics software, that’s on the face of it a much better deal. “All-round capability and lots of features at a reasonable price” The specific Intel processor used here, the i5-7400, produced mixed results in our tests. Its Achilles…

NFC What does it do? An NFC (near-field communication) chip allows a device to send and receive information wirelessly without the pairing process required by other digital radio technologies, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Why would I want it? If your phone has an NFC chip, you can let other devices communicate with it just by holding it close to them. This allows faster connection to NFCequipped accessories such as wireless speakers. More interestingly, it enables contactless payments. If your bank supports Apple Pay, Android Pay (pictured) or Samsung Pay, you can register your credit or debit cards with the payment app on your phone, then use it at cash tills. This only works on phones with a fingerprint reader, which you use to activate the payment. What’s the catch?…

360?DEGREE CAMERA ? £219 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24881 Samsung’s second attempt at a 360-degree camera is tiny – just big enough to grip firmly in your hand. Making it stand upright unattended is harder, so a little rubber ring is provided to steady it, which feels a bit silly. The rechargeable battery is supposed to last 2-3 hours, and it got us through an evening of off-and-on shooting, but no charger is supplied, only a USB Type-C cable to plug into an existing power adapter. Like a phone camera, the Gear 360 sets everything automatically, so the only thing to worry about is low light. You can increase the sensitivity (ISO) to capture more in shadow, but things get very grainy. If you’re not sure when something is going to happen,…

Epson MX-80 WHAT WAS IT? The MX-80 was one of the first printers cheap enough for personal or small business use, and in 1980 that was big news. Launched at under $650 (now about $2,000, or £1,500), it printed 80 characters per second and for years it was synonymous with ‘dot matrix’ printing. It worked with ‘micros’ like the Sinclair Spectrum, and with PCs. HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED? Dot matrix printers used the typewriter principle: the print head struck the paper through an inked ribbon. Each letter or number was formed within the 9x9-pin grid of the MX-80’s print head. The pins rapidly fired as the head zipped across the page, a loud clatter ensuing. Initially only ‘tractor’ paper was supported, fed using holes on perforated sheets. Primitive graphics printing…

What you need: Z-Cron, Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 30 minutes If you regularly copy or move files from one PC folder to another – or delete files from a particular folder – then it’s a good idea to automate this task. There are many free PC automation programs, but Z-Cron is by far the easiest we’ve used. All its automation tasks follow a similar pattern and you can set up each one within a few minutes. We’ll show you how to use it to copy, move and delete files automatically. STEP 1 Z-Cron is a zipped file, so you’ll need a filecompression program to install it (we recommend PeaZip www.peazip.org). To download the program, go to www.snipca.com/24906, then click the second ‘zcron.zip’ link 1 . Open…

Pocket Sense* Free Android: www.snipca.com/24893 Phone theft is a modern scourge, but this app could ensure you don’t become a victim. It lets you set a l oud alarm if your phone is taken out of a trouser or jacket pocket. It also sounds an alarm when someone unplugs your phone from the charger. Townske City Guides Free Android: www.snipca.com/24894 iOS: www.snipca.com/24895 New to Android, Townske contains over 6,000 guides covering over 500 cities. Unlike other travel apps, each guide is written by locals who describe the attractions, restaurants, cafes and shops worth visiting. It’s better than taking a bulky guide book. Flowkey: Learn Piano* Free Android: www.snipca.com/24896 iOS: www.snipca.com/24897 Piano lessons can be very expensive. Developed by professional pianists, this app contains simple lessons from only £15 per month.…

Windows 10’s Maps app has received some useful features with the Creators Update. It’s now much easier to monitor traffic congestion, keep track of existing or planned roadworks, and even locate speed cameras along your route. To use these features, open the Maps app on your PC. The icons at the top left let you search for a location and get directions for your journey. When you have your route mapped out, tap the stacked icon on the right (see screenshot). You can now select an Aerial view (3D bird’s-eye) or Road view (2D streetmap) by clicking the tiles at the top. Next, switch the Traffic slider on, then tick Incidents and Cameras. You’ll now see multi-coloured lines on your map – red for heavy traffic, yellow for moderate, and…

If accuracy is more important to you than simply viewing celestial objects in a 3D planetarium, then use NASA’s Horizons – the computer system that powers The Sky Live. It lets you generate the exact coordinates (also known as ephemerides) of space objects, so you can watch them through the lens of your telescope. To get the coordinates of an object, go to www.snipca.com/24760, then change the Target Body (under Current Settings) to the object you want to locate. Below that you also need to change the Observer Location to a point as near to your current location as possible. To add London, for example, click ‘change’ (next to Observer Location), click the dropdown menu (that says Observatories), select ‘non-US Cities’, then click the Display List button. Next, find and…

Q Is it possible to program my PC to create a restore point every day? I use Windows 10. Dave Carpenter A Yes, you can do this using the Task Schedule tool that’s part of Windows. Click Start, type task scheduler then click Task Scheduler. Next, use the far-left-hand pane to navigate to Microsoft\Windows\SystemRestore. Now, in the top-middle pane, doubleclick the entry labelled ‘SR’: this will open the SR Properties box. Here, select the Triggers tab and then click New (see screenshot 1 ). In the New Trigger dialogue, next to ‘Begin the task’ make sure that ‘On a schedule’ is selected. Then, under Settings, choose the Daily option (see screenshot 2 ). In the second box to the right of Start, type the time that you would like System…

President Trump has backtracked on plans for an “impenetrable” joint cybersecurity unit with Russia after harsh criticism from fellow Republicans, who said Vladimir Putin couldn’t be trusted. Trump discussed the idea with Putin in their first face-to-face meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. He suggested it could be used to prevent the hacking of elections, keeping them “guarded and safe”. But two days later he tweeted: “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a cybersecurity unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t [see screenshot].” The proposal had been widely ridiculed by US politicians, who asked why they should cooperate with Russia after it allegedly interfered in last year’s US election. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said: “It’s not the dumbest idea I have…

GOOGLE NEWS GETS MORE LOCAL Google has redesigned its News pages ( news.google.com), making it easier for you to find local stories. It has added a ‘Local’ tab to the top of the homepage, as well as a ‘For You’ tab which shows stories you’ve told Google you’re interested in. There’s also a Fact Check box that investigates claims made in news stories. Read more on the company’s blog: www.snipca.com/24809. WI-FI KIOSKS REPLACE BT’S PHONE BOXES BT has started to replace telephone boxes with ‘kiosks’ providing free Wi-Fi hotspots with speeds up to 1Gbps. They contain touchscreens showing city maps, transport updates and weather forecasts, though they don’t allow web browsing. The kiosks, called InLinks, also let you make free calls and charge your phone. They are being installed first…

More than half of the PCs used by London’s Metropolitan Police still run Windows XP, 16 years after the operating system launched, and over three years after Microsoft stopped supporting it. The force runs 18,293 XP machines, and has upgraded 14,450 others to Windows 8.1. Only eight have been upgraded to Windows 10. Around 19,000 computers were running XP in December 2016, meaning the Met has upgraded only 1,000 in the past seven months. The figures were uncovered by London Assembly member Steve O’Connell, who acts as the Greater London Authority Conservatives’ spokesman for policing and crime, through a written query to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. “The recent cyber attacks on Parliament and the NHS show what a serious matter this is,” O’Connell said. “The Met is working towards…

Amazon Shopping on Amazon can feel like wandering around a supermarket with the manager sitting in your trolley, rummaging through your items and shouting, “Here, you might like this too”. Just be glad you’re not shopping in one of Amazon’s bricks-and-mortar stores, which plan to snoop on customers’ phones and tablets – then kill their internet connections if they’re seen checking rival products or prices. All is unveiled in a patent application whose title would make George Orwell shudder. ‘Physical Store Online Shopping Control’ (www.snipca.com/24879) wants to weaken privacy, limit competition, and control users’ devices, all in one dystopian package. The good news for UK shoppers is that we don’t have physical Amazon stores yet. But we will. And the mooted rules will also apply to Amazon-owned shops such as…

The two sides of Facebook were neatly captured in Issue 505. In News (page 7) you reported on the rise of the so-called ‘social seniors’. Meanwhile, in her Star Letter Margaret Anderson lamented the dominance of “spiteful” people on Facebook. I’m one of these ‘social seniors’, having come late to Facebook. For years I thought it was populated by younger people discussing pop music, clothes and so on. I made this observation to my teenage granddaughter, who laughed and said that her friends had long since abandoned Facebook for “cooler sites that old people don’t use” (her words!). It was my daughter, in her forties, who suggested Facebook as a good way to keep in touch with our extended family. I have lots of cousins overseas who I now keep…

Q I’m a member of a local University of the Third Age group (U3A, www.u3a.org. uk). It is asking us to upload our personal details to a centralised cloudbased computer system it has set up. I’m concerned about the safety of the data, and also whether anyone in the group would be legally liable should there be a data breach. What’s the legal situation? James Watson A This is a very complex area of the law, but we’ll do our best to explain. Data privacy is governed by the Data Protection Act (DPA), which covers companies and organisations. Within these it’s the Data Controller who is responsible for any breaches. This is the person who decides why personal data is being stored. The Data Processor, who gathers and uploads the…

Lenovo finally fixes reader’s tablet, despite the silent treatment Some cases can close leaving us happy, but rather frustrated. A good example of this is Computeractive reader Mark Ingram’s complaint against Lenovo, which we reported in Issue 502. After a Lenovo tablet he bought from Argos stopped working, he sent it back to the company for repair under warranty. Lenovo told him that he would need to pay for the repair, even though the warranty still had 11 months to run. We asked Lenovo why it told Mark this, but we didn’t get an answer. The company may have been under the impression that Mark had caused the damage, which would have invalidated his warranty. Or perhaps the fault simply wasn’t covered by the warranty. It wouldn’t have taken much…

Firefox Focus www.snipca.com/24798 We understand that websites need adverts to survive, but why do they have to be so annoying? Why do they have to take over the web page with garish graphics and vulgar videos? Until these adverts stop invading our digital space, we’ll continue to recommend adblocking browsers like Firefox Focus, which has just launched on Android devices after arriving on iPhones and iPads last year. Firefox Focus blocks both adverts and their trackers, which follow you around the web, making web pages load slowly. To do this open the Settings section and make sure the ‘Block ad trackers’ slider is switched on (see screenshot). At a mere 3.5MB, it’s a strippeddown version of the PC version of Firefox, with no tabs or advanced multitasking tools, and so…

www.snipca.com/24850 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Remove unwanted programs, plug-ins and even dodgy toolbars, using the redesigned, improved new version of IObit’s popular uninstaller. This is a beta release that makes you one of the first users to test its experimental features, such as an Action Center that reveals which of your installed programs need updating. There’s also a ‘Toolbars & Plug-ins’ section, where you can remove multiple extensions and add-ons, including some you probably didn’t know you had. Use the Feedback button to help IObit improve these new features before the full release of IObit Uninstaller 7. The beta isn’t perfect – some tasks require more clicks than should be necessary – but I found it stable and useful enough to stick with, rather than rolling…

TABLET ? £50 from Asda www.snipca.com/24843 It’s one of the frustrations of technology that electronic components manufacturers use get cheaper over time, but the price we pay for products falls much more gradually – or even, as we’ve seen with phones, actually goes up. Manufacturers would rather sell us better models at higher prices. But there’s still a place for budget devices, and this is one of those. Our initial impressions of the Mercury 7L weren’t good. At 12.5mm thick, it’s very chunky, and if it feels comfortably light, that’s because it’s made of creaking plastic. We wouldn’t feel too confident about its ability to survive drops and scrapes. “It’s cheap, but it’s also chunky, clunky and lacking stamina” The small 7in screen – even phones go up to 5.7in…

TABLET ? £619 from Apple www.snipca.com/24808 Apple’s second iPad Pro (see our review, Issue 474) brought the size back down to 9.7in. Now it’s crept up to 10.5in, but in a case almost exactly the same size, thanks to narrower bezels. With even more pixels, the screen is still incredibly sharp, and it can now show the wider DCI-P3 colour range in apps that support it. Others display correctly in sRGB mode, and we found this covered 96 per cent of the sRGB range. As before, the screen goes very bright, with Apple’s True Tone technology cleverly taking ambient light into account, although you can turn this off. Unexpectedly, Apple has also upgraded another aspect of the screen: the refresh rate. It now updates 120 times a second, and not…

Should I get a hard drive or SSD? Q I have a large collection of photos on my desktop PC, but I sometimes want to access them from my laptop, especially when I go on holiday. I don’t want to use ‘the cloud’ – I want to keep control of my pictures and I don’t want to be constantly uploading and downloading. My laptop has an SD card slot but the biggest cards are 128GB, which isn’t enough. Do I need an external hard drive? Richard Evans A It does sound like a job for an external hard drive, but mechanical drives can react badly to being heavily knocked or dropped, which isn’t ideal for travel. A better solution would be an external SSD. These cost more per gigabyte, but…

A 360-degree camera is really two cameras, mounted back to back. Each takes a 180-degree ‘fisheye’ picture (see below), and software joins these together. The resulting pixels don’t represent a single flat scene, so ‘What does a 360-degree picture look like?’ has no answer: it depends on how you display it. Samsung’s app offers five image-viewing modes: 360, which is projected on to a sphere (like looking at a reflection in a bauble); Stretched, which resembles a very wide-angle photo; Round, dizzyingly combining both cameras into a top-down circular view; Dual, showing the Stretched view from each camera separately; and Panoramic, which distorts the full 360-degree view into a widescreen image. The best way to view a 3D scene is interactively. Using the Gear 360’s Round and Stretched views you…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2016 Back Issue CD: £15 from www.snipca.com/23209: LAPTOP Dell Inspiron 15 5000 £749 from www.snipca.com/24851 Tested: Issue 459 Now featuring Intel’s seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors, the Inspiron 15 is great value for a full-size laptop with i7 CPU, anti-glare Full HD screen, 4GB AMD R7 graphics and a 1TB hard drive. More basic models start at £429. ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenBook UX310UA This sleek (if slightly plasticky) 13in adds a super-sharp 3200x1800-pixel screen to i5 performance with a 256GB SSD. £700 from www.snipca.com/24852 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £600 from www.snipca.com/24140 Tested: Issue 501 Samsung’s new mid-sized tablet has a wonderful HDR screen and comes with a pen included, unlike Apple’s iPad Pro. But its processor isn’t the fastest and it’s…

What you need: Windows 8.1 or 10; Office 2013, 2016 or 365 Time required: 25 minutes Microsoft has released Dictate – a brilliant new Office add-in that lets you narrate text for emails (Outlook) and documents (Word) using your PC’s mic. The service uses speech-recognition technology to convert your words into text that you can edit. You can also tell Dictate to insert punctuation marks and start a new line. When we tested it, Dictate’s word-to-text conversion was 90 per cent accurate so required a little editing – but was much quicker than typing from scratch. It also translates text into over 60 languages in real time. STEP 1 The Dictate add-in works with Outlook, Word and PowerPoint but only in Office 2013, 2016 and 365. To check your Office…

Handy hints and tips from your fellow readers Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk As the manager of my local sports club, I’m always pretty busy and get lots of emails that I need to respond to immediately. Last week, I suddenly received a flurry of urgent emails but was unable to deal with them because of a family emergency. I needed a solution. After a little Googling, I found a way to grant a trusted person access to my Gmail account without giving them my password. To do this, log into your Gmail account on your PC, click the cog icon at the top right, Settings, then the ‘Accounts and Imports’ tab at the top. Here, click the ‘Add another account’ link beside ‘Grant access to your account’ (see screenshot).…

AGES 0?5 Josh & Emma Go to the Beach* Free www.snipca.com/24898 (iOS) This simple app will help your kids learn to read, count and recognise objects. They will hear the story of Josh and Emma’s day at the beach and descriptions of objects. Your toddler then needs to tap the relevant object and select the correct number of those objects when prompted. AGES 6?10 Baikoh* Free www.snipca.com/24899 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/24900 (iOS) Baikoh is a cross between Tetris and wordsearch. Random letters appear in tiles that move up the screen. The object is to stop the letters reaching the top by tapping them to form words, making them disappear. You can practice online, then test your skills against other players. AGES 11?16 Ultimate Tennis* Free www.snipca.com/24901 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/24902 (iOS) Of…

EXCEL Save charts as templates you can use again It’s easy to convert your Excel data into a chart, then customise it however you want. What’s more, you can save the chart you create as a template and apply it to other spreadsheet data in future. To create your chart, highlight the relevant data, click the Insert tab, move your cursor to the small down arrow in the Charts section (see screenshot), then click the All Charts tab. You’ll see a list of chart options on the left. Some offer further style options at the top (see screenshot). Click OK to add the selected chart to your spreadsheet. There are several ways to customise your chart. For example, the Design tab has a selection of ‘Chart styles’ that you can…

“It’s a megaconstellation of satellites beaming internet access across the world” What is it? An ambitious project to beam broadband around the Earth from a fleet of 2,000 satellites. These will form a “megaconstellation”, creating a network that will deliver internet access to the 50 per cent of the world’s population without a reliable connection, including to 2 million schools. When will they be launched? April 2018, if all goes to plan. In June, OneWeb’s main partner, European aerospace giant Airbus, started making the first satellites in Toulouse, France. More will be built in a huge factory in Florida. So all 2,000 will be in space this time next year? No, only 10 to begin with. But if they work well, 720 further satellites will launch in 2019. Alaska will…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk Q For a little over 10 years from the mid 1980s, I did all my personal accounting on a finance suite I’d created myself in dBase III, on an Osborne computer. This carried on to dBase III Plus, becoming ever more useful and complex, until I eventually switched to Quicken. I never converted the legacy files, because I didn’t need them often and because they were so big. When I did, I could run DOS on an old machine and get whatever I wanted That old PC is now defunct and I wish there was some other way of getting what I need. My solution is using Excel to pick up the raw data from the .dbf files, but it…

Why is Magix Music Maker’s amp greyed out? QYour Magix Music Maker Secret Tips (Issue 504, page 48) says that I can use a USB-to-audio jack cable to connect my electric guitar to my PC, then add effects using the Vandal SE digital amp. I connected my guitar but the Vandal SE option was greyed out. Any advice? Michael Brennan AThe first thing you should do is make sure Music Maker is properly set up to play back your guitar via your PC’s sound card. With your guitar connected to your PC, click File, Settings, then Audio Recording. When the ‘Audio recording’ pop-up message opens, choose Magix Low Latency from the ‘Audio line-in’ dropdown menu. Next, tick the Monitoring box, then click OK. Next, in Music Maker’s main window, click…

32bit A measure of how much info a computer can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. 720p Common resolution of highdefinition video: 1280x720 pixels. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. Add-in Microsoft’s name for tools compatible with Office software. ADF Automatic Document Feeder. A device that feeds sheets of paper into a photocopier or scanner, one by one. Anti-aliasing A graphical technique used to smooth jagged edges of 3D objects in PC software and video games. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a display. Traditional computer screens are…

KEN RIGSBY is Computeractive’s Mr Angry Did you know that the Windows Start menu is 22 years old next month? I remember vividly the first time I encountered it, in Windows 95. I’d just upgraded from Windows 3.1 and, while I’d read a bit about the latest operating system in magazines and newspapers, I didn’t really know what to expect. Then Windows 95 booted on my PC, the mouse pointer appeared and there was the Start button. I clicked it. For the first time ever the Start menu appeared on my screen and suddenly it seemed obvious that there should be a Start menu. Of course there should be a Start menu! Where had the Start menu been all my life? I fell instantly in love with the Start menu.…