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While I love getting my hands on new tech, I also derive much pleasure from keeping old devices alive for longer than many would deem normal. For example, I’ve been using the same alarm clock for 25 years. Its familiar ‘brrring!’ has accompanied me through many homes, only occasionally failing to rouse me. With such devices I need to ask just one question: does it still work? If yes, then I’ll carry on using it. What I never need to ask is whether it’s still safe to use. That’s the troubling question you always need to ask about software on your PC. You’re not being paranoid to think it. Hackers know when developers abandon programs, and will strike fast and hard. In this issue’s Cover Feature we expose once-great software…

Dutch privacy regulators have urged Microsoft to stop collecting data on how people use their Windows 10 PCs, saying it breaches the country’s data-protection law. Following an investigation, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) concluded that Microsoft must be more transparent about its telemetry system, which tracks some details of what you do on your computer. The regulator said that Microsoft has indicated it wants to end these “violations”, warning that it could face a “sanction” if nothing changes (read the verdict in full at www.snipca.com/25945). In April, Microsoft revealed what data it collects (www.snipca.com/25946). This includes your user settings, which websites you visit and which Windows Store apps you use. Microsoft says this data helps it to identify problems users are having with Windows 10. But Wilbert Tomesen, vice-chairman…

Amazon has launched its first waterproof Kindle, 10 years after the ebook reader went on sale. It’s a revamped Kindle Oasis, which Amazon released last year priced £270. The new model is £40 cheaper despite having a bigger screen – seven inches rather than six. As a result it shows 30 per cent more words per page. It has a waterproof rating of IPX8, meaning it will survive being submerged in two metres of water for an hour. Previous Kindles have proved popular as a way to read in the bath or by a swimming pool, but they’ve always been vulnerable to water damage. Other changes include a night mode that switches text to white on a black background, and more LEDs in the backlit screen, making it brighter. The…

What they say Mozilla CEO Chris Beard (pictured) www.snipca.com/25912: “Where we’ve been successful in the past is more as a provocateur – an agent of good representing the people. Just being that opposing force in the ecosystem can bring about good… We weren’t at that point a data-driven, agile, modern product-development, engineering organisation.” What they mean When Firefox began in 2002, it wasn’t very powerful. But hey, it was the people’s browser.…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive BBC will use viewer data for adverts In Issue 512’s Letters I.M. Williams asks why the BBC requests so much personal data when you sign up to the iPlayer. I suspect that the BBC’s bosses are already preparing for life beyond the TV Licence because they realise it’s becoming increasingly hard to justify, in this age of on-demand TV streaming. It feels inevitable to me that eventually the BBC will have to fund itself like all other media organisations do - through advertising. That’s when all the customer data will prove useful, and very lucrative. Martin Cartwell Holiday camp memories on BBC iPlayer Archive Thank you so much for recommending the BBC’s new iPlayer Archive (News, Issue…

Can BT switch my contract without my permission? Q When BT installed Infinity-fibre broadband in my area I got a discounted rate. However, this year BT didn’t inform me that my contract was expiring and the monthly cost was going up. Can BT just go ahead without notifying me? Can we cancel if we’ve not been informed? Edmund Hobby A No, BT can’t sign Edmund up to another contract without telling him. In 2012, Ofcom banned this practice, known as automatic renewing, for home users (not businesses). It said companies had a duty to remind customers when their contracts are about to end. It also ruled that automatic renewing was anti-competitive because it deterred customers from switching providers. BT has moved Edmund on to a basic rolling monthly contract, without…

WATCH OUT FOR… Botnet hackers infecting your PC What’s the threat? Nearly seven million web-connected devices worldwide were absorbed into botnets in 2016, according to research by Symantec. A botnet is a network of ‘zombie’ devices infected by malware that hackers can control to perform criminal actions, including sending spam and swamping websites with DDoS attacks. The device continues to work, albeit more slowly, so the victim often doesn’t realise they’ve been hacked. Symantec, which makes Norton antivirus, said the UK is the 11th worst affected country in Europe (Russia tops the table). Unsurprisingly, London is the UK city with the most botnets – around 35 per cent of the total. Manchester and Sheffield are in the top 10, but the remaining seven are relatively small towns, including Slough, Maidstone,…

BACKUP TOOL Macrium Reflect Free 7 www.macrium.com/reflectfree What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 Windows 10 has a built-in tool for backing up your PC - but it won’t be around for much longer. The System Image Backups tool has been ‘deprecated’ in the new Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, which means it will soon be ditched. So backup specialist Macrium has stepped into the impending breach with the latest free version of its excellent Reflect suite. Like the outgoing Windows tool, Macrium Reflect Free makes it easy to create system image files and then restore them if you need to. You can back up your entire PC or Windows in the free version, though only the paid-for version lets you back up files and folders. Version 7 (7.1…

The computer mouse WHAT WAS IT? Invented in 1964 at the Stanford Research Institute (known as Engelbart’s mouse, pictured), the mouse became familiar to the public in 1984 with the launch of the Apple Macintosh, the first popular computer based on a WIMP operating system. By the early 1990s, with the rise of Windows, a mouse was standard issue for every PC user. HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED? From 1968, mice were built around a rubberised ball, using rollers to translate its movement into digital signals. This tech was gradually pushed out by optical mice, which shine an LED or laser light on to the desk and detect what bounces back to calculate movement. The Macintosh mouse had only one button, while Windows settled on two. Later, a scroll wheel was…

PULL OUT &KEEP Issue 513 In this Workshop, we’ll explain how to turn your PC into a home media server using the brilliant free program Plex. This will let you stream films, TV shows, music and photos from your PC directly to your TV. We’ll also show you how to access your files from another PC and remotely download photos to your phone or tablet. STEP 1 First, go to www.plex.tv, scroll down and click the Get Plex For Free button. You need to create an account using your Google, Facebook or email account. Once you’ve done that, close the pop-up window prompting you to sign up for a Plex Premium Pass and click the Download Plex Media Server button. Next, select Windows 1 , click the Download button 2…

ANDROID Remove unwanted Google accounts from your device Whenever you log into an app or website using another Google account (other than the one you use to sign into Android), Google automatically syncs data from that account to all the Google apps on your device (ie, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Play Store, and so on). There’s an easy way to check which Google accounts are synced to your device. You can then choose to sync data from these accounts to only selected Google apps. Alternatively, you can remove any Google accounts you don’t want to sync to your device. First, open Gmail, tap the three lines at the top left, then tap the dropdown menu below your account name. You’ll see a list of all the other synced Google…

WINDOWS 10 Download tracks you’ve bought from the Windows Store Microsoft recently announced that it is closing the Groove Music Pass service (which costs £9.99 a month). The company now recommends you move your music from Groove Music to Spotify (follow Microsoft’s advice on how to do this at www.snipca.com/25906), where you’ll be eligible for a free 60-day Spotify Premium trial, provided you haven’t used the service before. After 31 December, you will no longer be able to stream or download music using your Groove Music Pass, nor will you be able to buy new music or download previous purchases from the Windows Store. If you have bought music from the Windows Store and don’t plan to use Spotify Premium, you should download these tracks to your PC, so you…

If you often use PayPal to send money to your family and friends, then you should install the PayPal add-in for Outlook.com. This lets you send money via email without leaving your inbox. First, go to the ‘PayPal for Outlook’ page (www.snipca.com/25901), click the Get It Now button on the left, log into your Outlook account in the pop-up window that appears, then click Continue. This takes you to the ‘Manage add-ins’ section in your Outlook.com’s settings. Here, click the Install button, then OK to install the PayPal add-in. Next, click the top-left back button to go to your inbox, open an email and fill in recipient’s email address, then type your message (explaining the payment you’re making, for example). Click the PayPal button at the bottom right of the…

1 OPENOFFICE Unlike LibreOffice, which is regularly updated and improved, OpenOffice’s (www.openoffice.org) ongoing development appears to have gone into steep decline. Steer clear of OpenOffice because a lack of developers has led to unfixed vulnerabilities. It was last updated over a year ago. 2 THUNDERBIRD Mozilla’s email client is a bit like the unloved sibling to the company’s favourite child Firefox. Thunderbird lost a large number of staff from its development team in 2012 and earlier this year Mozilla announced its intention to officially distance itself from the project. Thunderbird was updated to version 52.4.0 a few weeks ago, but its future looks very uncertain. 3 FLASH You still need Adobe’s Flash plug-in in order to watch some online video content and play certain games, but it’s becoming far less…

What price loyalty? Offering the best deals to new customers has long been a practice in many industries – not only broadband. But the degree to which loyal customers are being exploited by their internet service providers (ISPs) has reached record levels. Sign up for a broadband contract today and you could end up paying half as much again by the time that deal expires in two years’ time. And don’t expect your broadband provider to warn you of the hike. According to Citizens Advice figures, customers that don’t change providers or negotiate a new deal once their contract has expired can expect to pay an average of almost £10 a month more for the same service. Over the past six years, ISPs have increasingly looked to attract customers with…

Q I have a 32GB iPhone 7. I’ve taken loads of photos and videos and haven’t been very good at deleting the rubbish or unwanted ones. Recently, my phone ran out of space so I spent over an hour going through the photo roll deleting stills and videos. I was relieved when I finished, but dismayed to find that my iPhone still said there wasn’t enough storage for new photos! I have no idea what’s going on. Do I have to wipe the phone and start over? Kate Weston A No, you don’t need to wipe your iPhone. What’s happened here is that the deleted photos have been placed automatically into a folder called Recently Deleted. Photos in this folder won’t actually be deleted until 30 days have elapsed. The…

EQUIFAX HACK AFFECTS 700,000 BRITS Credit agency Equifax has now admitted that hackers stole data from 694,000 UK customers between May and July, much higher than its previous estimate of nearly 400,000. Data stolen included phone numbers, driving licence info and email addresses. It will send a letter to those affected offering help, and has set up a helpline: 0800 587 1584. The theft was part of a worldwide breach in which hackers stole the details of 146 million people in the US. 40TB HARD DRIVES ON THEIR WAY Western Digital (WD) has developed new technology that could lead to hard drives with a capacity of 40TB, almost three times the size of the current maximum. The company’s ‘microwaveassisted magnetic recording’ (MAMR) technique could replace ‘heat-assisted magnetic recording’ (HAMR), which…

ROKU LAUNCHES CHEAPEST TV STREAMER Roku has launched two TV-streaming players that plug into your TV’s HDMI port, letting you access on-demand TV services like BBC iPlayer and Netflix. Priced £29.99, the Roku Express is the company’s cheapest ever player, showing video at 1080p resolution. The Roku Streaming Stick+, priced £79.99, can play sharper 4K video on TVs that support it. See www.snipca.com/25913. GOOGLE: RUSSIANS BOUGHT TRUMP ADS Google says it has found evidence Russian spies paid for adverts in Gmail, YouTube and search results to influence last year’s US presidential election, though they don’t come from the same source that bought ads on Facebook. US intelligence agencies said earlier this year that Russia tried to sway the election in favour of Donald Trump, a claim denied by the Kremlin…

FIREFOX XP & VISTA SUPPORT TO END Mozilla has announced it will stop supporting its Firefox browser in Windows XP and Vista from June 2018. This means it will no longer receive security updates, making it unsafe to use on either operating system. Mozilla had initially indicated that support would end in September this year. Read its announcement at www.snipca.com/25864. HMRC TAKES OVER 75 SCAM WEBSITES HMRC has said that since January it has taken control of 75 scam websites that were conning people into phoning expensive helplines to access government departments that are free to contact. Anyone visiting the sites is now redirected to www.hmrc.gov.uk. So far, about one million people have been steered to this site, HMRC claims. It added that it has also requested the removal of…

Trolls I’m not talking about the plastic dolls with vertical hair. I’m talking about the cowards who use the internet as weapon and shield, viciously bullying people while hiding their own identities. Trolls get a laugh and a kick out of their abuse, but it destroys lives. Suicides among victims are depressingly commonplace, the latest being young mum Leanne Morrison, who died on her 23rd birthday in September. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has pledged to combat trolling with a new national online hate crime hub to offer support to victims and help drive up prosecutions (www.snipca.com/25918). But we’ve been here before. In 2012, the Government proposed changes to defamation laws to help unmask trolls. In 2014, it announced trolls would face two years in prison. In 2015, it launched an…

I would like to offer nocturnal equivalents of Larry Mitchell’s recommend apps (Letters, Issue 512) to use outdoors with kids. His apps are great for daytime use, but as the nights draw in you’ll need others to keep you occupied. The best one is called Night Sky (iOS www.snipca.com/25875, pictured), which I use on my iPad. If you hold the screen up to the sky, it shows you which stars, planets and constellations you can see. My grandchildren love seeing the stars magically transform into animals and mythical figures. Next there’s the ‘Moon’ app (iOS www.snipca.com/25878), which shows you the current phases of the Moon. It has helped my grandchildren understand how it appears to change shape, although explaining what “waxing gibbous” meant was totally beyond me! Finally, we also…

Greetings from Hallmark – here’s your refund for US-UK mix up We may send Computeractive reader Barry Whitaker a ‘Congratulations!’ card because he managed to get a full refund from Hallmark Cards. In July, Barry upgraded his copy of the company’s card-making software Studio Deluxe to the 2017 version (www.snipca.com/25899, pictured) for $35.95 (about £27). This was a good offer because buying the program separately would have cost £39. But after downloading it, he discovered that the designs were for US sizing (ie, imperial not metric), so he couldn’t use it. Hallmark does offer a 90-day money-back guarantee on its website, but Barry found it impossible to get through to anyone at the company. Technically, like all customers, Barry had 14 days to reject the software for a refund, but…

Google’s Chrome browser is like a bodyguard for the internet, protecting you from online threats. Since January, when version 56 launched, it has shown ‘Not secure’ warnings when you visit unencrypted sites (prefixed by ‘HTTP’, not ‘HTTPS’) that ask for your password or credit card. In Chrome 62, the latest version, this is being extended to HTTP sites that ask for any personal data, including your phone number and email address. You’ll see ‘Not secure’ appear to the left of the website address (see bottom of the screenshot). Eventually, Chrome will display this warning to all HTTP sites, whether or not they request data. The new version does this only when you’re online in Incognito mode - the private mode that doesn’t save your browsing history. Chrome is automatically updated,…

How can I transcribe my dictated stories? Q I would like to dictate short stories to my computer for subsequent editing in Microsoft Word or other compatible software. Can you recommend a program to do this please? Dave Sharpe A Transcription software used to be specialist and expensive, but the arrival of voice-recognition technology on all our PCs has changed all that. Long-established favourites such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking are still around, and it remains peerlessly accurate and powerful, but it’s not cheap (£79.99, www.nuance.co.uk/dragon). That’s expensive considering you can now use websites such as Dictation (https://dictation.io) to transcribe your words for downloading as plain text, completely free. All you need is a PC with a microphone. There are many happy-medium tools that can take your dictation without costing money or…

Samsung’s current headline-grabber is the £869 Galaxy Note 8, which it promises won’t catch fire this time. But we’re much more interested in the humble Galaxy J5. Launched in 2015 as a budget option across Asia, it reached the UK early last year (see our review, Issue 475) and impressed us with its excellent screen and long battery life. Its downsides? It had just 8GB of storage, a pretty poor camera, and didn’t come with the latest version of Android. “An excellent phone that won’t run out of juice before you do” This update fixes all those problems, and more. The new matt metal back, with its discreet stripes, is reminiscent of the iPhone 6, and likewise the home button on the front incorporates a fingerprint sensor supporting contactless payment.…

There are many video-editing programs, so you need to carefully choose one that suits your purposes. Adobe’s Premiere Elements 2018 (£87 from www.snipca.com/25834) has excellent easy-to-use options to turn phone or camcorder footage into exciting movies. For a broader range of tools, there are several decent, comprehensive programs around. Like PowerDirector, Corel VideoStudio Ultimate X10.5 (£70 from www.snipca.com/25831) now has 360-degree features and supports motion tracking, but only VideoStudio offers stop-motion animation. As does Pinnacle Studio 21 Plus (£90 from www.snipca.com/25832, pictured), which lacks motion tracking but has a solid set of features reflecting its origins with professional video company Avid.Magix Movie Edit Pro Premium (£60 from www.snipca.com/25833) brought multi-camera editing to consumer software and has good image stabilisation. With the demise of Windows Movie Maker, PC users don’t have…

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. £1000 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…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk WINDOWS 10 Swap your keyboard’s @ and “ keys I recently bought a second-hand Windows 10 PC. It works fine, but I noticed the @ and “ keys are the wrong way around on the keyboard. My son said the PC was purchased in the US, which explains why this is the case. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to press the @ key and type “ and vice versa, even though your keyboard buttons indicate otherwise. First, click the ENG button at the bottom right (near the time), then click ‘Language preferences’. In the window that opens, click ‘English (United Kingdom)’ in the Languages section, then click the ‘Set as default’ button. Next, click ‘English (United States)’, then click Remove (see screenshot). Now, click the…

Microsoft Outlook Free Android: www.snipca.com/25921 iOS: www.snipca.com/25922 Microsoft has updated Outlook with some some useful new features. You can now sync calendars people share with you, and view and edit events on the go. The new scheduling assistant lets you see when others are free, so that you can agree a convenient time to meet up. Enlight Videoleap* Free iOS: www.snipca.com/25923 The creators of the popular photo-editing app Enlight have developed a brilliant new video-editing app. As well as cutting and combining clips to create a montage, you can colour-correct footage, and add effects and text to each clip. The app includes useful video tutorials. *Contains in-app purchases Facebook Messenger Lite Free Android: www.snipca.com/25924 Most modern messaging apps come with lots of features that you probably neither use nor need.…

If you can’t open the Windows Store app, there are several things you can try to remedy this. First, you should turn off any VPN program and proxy server if you use them. Turn off your VPN (such as TunnelBear) within the program itself. To turn off your proxy server, open Settings via the Start menu, click ‘Network & Internet’, Proxy at the bottom left, then switch off the ‘Use a proxy server’ slider (see screenshot). Now try opening your Windows Store. If this doesn’t work, you should reset the Windows Store cache. Press Ctrl+R to open the Run box, type wsreset, then press Enter. You’ll see a Command Prompt window while the cache is being reset. When this window closes, try opening the Windows Store. If it still fails…

Organise your files using tags We covered some of the basics of Apple’s new Files app in Issue 512 (see Phone & Tablet Tips, page 44), but there’s lots more to it. For example, you can add tags to any folders and files, letting you group them even if they are stored across different online storage accounts (iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, and so on). To do this, long-press a file or folder, then tap Tags in the menu bar that appears (see screenshot below). Tap Add New Tag, type a name, then give it a colour. To see all files and folders assigned to a tag, tap the Tags section (on the left), then tap the tag’s name. Move multiple app icons at once You’ve always been able to…

Running old or rarely updated software puts your computer and personal data at risk. In theory, hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in any programs you use, letting them gain access to your files and take control of your PC. Most software developers combat this by continuing to release updates that fix security flaws. But sometimes programs are neglected by their developers or even abandoned altogether. The software may have reached the end of its natural life or the company behind it may have gone bankrupt. Often the program-makers are just plain irresponsible. Whatever the case, when programs are left without updates for years, they become unsafe to use - and that’s when you need to replace them. In this guide, we’re going to expose some of the worst culprits and explain…

“We sell customers bundles of broadband, calls and TV that need to suit their individual requirements and this means we are always keen to engage with our existing customers to discuss a new deal. We make it clear to customers when they originally sign up that they can contact us and agree another discounted deal before the end of their contract.” “At Sky we aim to give all our customers great value, whether they are new or have been with us for many years. That’s why we continue to offer a broadband service which delivers on speed, reliability and customer satisfaction – as well as introducing helpful new features available at no extra cost.” “We’re proud that we recognise the loyalty of our existing customers, and we work hard to…

One of the most enjoyable parts of editing Computeractive is reading the tips you send us every week. I’m always impressed by the ingenuity and breadth of your advice, whether you’re recommending a program, revealing a hidden feature, or sharing a fix to a particularly fiendish problem. Sadly, we don’t have space to include them all in our Readers’ Tips section (page 43). I’ve always regretted so many great ideas going to waste, so instead we’re planning a special Readers’ Tips Cover Feature featuring dozens of your best tips. If you want to share some tips with your fellow readers, please email them to me via editor@computeractive.co.uk, with ‘readers tip’ in the subject line. At the top of your email please tell me what the tip is about by writing…

A council in Essex has come under fire for scrapping face-to-face visits to elderly people in favour of video chats over Skype. In a trial funded by the NHS and the Local Government Association, Essex County Council is giving 40 pensioners a Samsung Galaxy tablet each so they can talk to carers online. John Spence from the council said it will let vulnerable adults live independently, giving them “something that is accessible from the comfort of their own homes”. But charities have criticised the trial. Cliff Rich, head of Contact the Elderly (www.contact-the-elderly.org.uk), said that while technology helps older people stay in touch with family and friends, “nothing can replace the essential human need for face-to-face interaction”. Leading doctors are also sceptical. Dr Helen Stokes- Lampard, chair of the Royal…

You may soon be able to cancel your broadband contract early without paying a fee if your speed falls below a guaranteed minimum, as part of a new range of consumer rights proposed by telecoms regulator Ofcom. It wants internet service providers (ISPs) signed up to its code of practice to clearly state what the minimum should be before a customer agrees to a contract. Ofcom has pledged to end the “mismatch” in speeds advertised. The changes could lead to ISPs publicising the minimum speed, rather than the ‘up to’ speed, which many customers find misleading. If the speed falls below the minimum, ISPs would have a month to fix it before allowing customers to switch contract without a fee (currently there’s no time limit). For the first time this…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: WindowTop and Microsoft Visual C++ Free Desktop-customisation tool WindowTop (http://windowtop.info) gets a C++ grade from me. It’s a case of nice program, shame about the coupon codes, extra software and Microsoft rubbish it brings along uninvited. I can forgive WindowTop its gaudy coupons and its offer to install Process Lasso. They’re irritating, but you’re opted out of both by default. What really got my eyes rolling was WindowTop’s insistence on chucking yet another version of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable into my poor old PC. You know C++. It’s the plug-in that makes your list of installed programs look like a school report (see screenshot). My PC is only one year old, but it already contains more versions of C++ than all my other installed programs…

I’m not convinced that the so-called ‘robot tax’ is a fair idea (‘Question of the Fortnight’, Issue 512). I don’t think companies should be penalised for introducing technological innovations, even if it does lead to job losses. It’s likely to backfire anyway. A tax probably won’t stop companies implementing automation because you can’t un-invent technology, but it may cost them money that they’d otherwise spend re-training their staff, or investing in new products. However, Jeremy Corbyn might be on to something when he says that automation could lead to shorter working weeks. During the end of my self-employed career, I found that computers – mostly the office software I ran on them – allowed me to do in four days what previously took more than five. I still earned a…

In March this year, I lost the adapter that connects my angled viewfinder to my camera. This is a small (30mm x 17mm x 5mm) piece of moulded plastic (pictured) without which the angled finder is useless. I tried several photographic dealers without success and had almost given up when one of them referred me to Kauser International Trading Ltd, based in Radlett, Hertfordshire. They were unable to help immediately but took my name and address and said they would “see what they could do”. I heard nothing for about a week but then an envelope containing the correct adapter dropped through my letterbox. I looked for an invoice but could find none – just a compliments slip. Such a change from the “can’t help, so not interested” attitude of…

£2,000 rebate for £79 ‘fee’ Over the years I’ve received many emails promising tax rebates. I know to delete and report them. It was more shocking recently to be phoned by a scammer claiming that he could get a £2,000 Council Tax rebate, for an upfront fee of £79. I wasn’t fooled, but the scammer spoke very good English and didn’t pressurise me, so I fear other people may fall victim. A £2,000 rebate is large enough to get your interest, and small enough to sound plausible. I would recommend readers visit Gov.uk’s site (www.snipca.com/25729) for a reminder of the tactics used by scammers. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

TABLET ? £136 from Amazon www.snipca.com/25798 A cut-price compact tablet We know what many people mistakenly expect from a budget tablet: chunky plastic case, dull screen, limited battery life, a processor that would embarrass a toaster. Well, nobody told Huawei. The MediaPad T3 8 has a solid aluminium back – much like the iPad mini – in an attractive dark grey. It feels slim and light, yet sturdy. Another nice touch is a front LED that confirms when it’s charging (much better than squinting for a tiny lightning symbol) and flashes when you’ve got a new message. Although the touchscreen’s 1280x800-pixel resolution is similar to other affordable models, it looks quite sharp, helped by good contrast and adequate if not generous brightness levels. True, the T3 8’s 1.4GHz Snapdragon 425…

What does it do? A slot for an SD card or microSD card takes a standard type of memory card. The storage chips inside these keep data even when the device’s power is off, and the card functions much like a PC’s hard drive. Why would I want one? Desktop PCs have big hard drives and are easy to upgrade. But phones, tablets and increasingly laptops use built-in solid-state drives (SSDs), which have less capacity. When so many of us take countless photos and videos, store music and movies, and install dozens of apps, it’s sensible to look for at least 64GB storage in a mobile device and 256GB in a laptop. Many still come with less, and there’s usually no way of increasing it later. That’s where an SD…

Can I change my phone’s OS? Q I have a Nokia Lumia 735 (pictured) running Windows Phone 8.1. Now that Microsoft is withdrawing support for Windows Phone, is it possible to switch the operating system (OS) to Android, or should I just buy an Android phone? Alf Wicks A A very good question. On a PC, you can install a variety of operating systems – so why not a phone? Well, back in the early 1980s, IBM decided to let anyone copy its PC specification, creating a whole industry of compatible systems. That never happened with smartphones. Apple launched the iPhone in 2007 as a closed system, and Google and Microsoft followed suit. As a result, a Windows Phone is always a Windows Phone, an iPhone is always an iPhone,…

Win 1 of 2 Creative iRoar Go Bluetooth speakers Creative’s iRoar Go Bluetooth speakers have five powerful speaker drivers that include a built-in subwoofer for audio that fills every inch of the room. It also has two amplifiers for balanced audio delivery, and multi-tasks as a built-in MP3/FLAC player, voice recorder, Bluetooth speakerphone, external USB Sound Blaster sound card and a battery bank. It’s waterproof too, so no splashes will spoil your fun. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘iroar’ in the subject line by midnight 7 November. Creative’s iRoar Go costs £159.99 from https://uk.creative.com. For more information on Creative’s products follow @creativelabs on Twitter, and ‘like’ its Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CreativeLabs.…

Whenever I have a problem on my PC, I take screenshots and send them to a friend or technician, so they can help me. I use the free program PicPick (www.snipca.com/25917). It lets you set your own keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots. To do this, click the File tab, Program Options, then click ‘Hot keys’ in the window that opens. Another useful feature is the option to blur sensitive details like email addresses, phone numbers and even my children’s faces (if I’m sending a screenshot to someone I don’t know). To do this, click the Select tool at the top, then click and drag your cursor to select the area that you want to blur. You’ll now see two useful buttons – Pixelate and Blur (see screenshot). Keep clicking Blur,…

AGES 0-5 Fixie Town* Free Android: www.snipca.com/25925 iOS: www.snipca.com/25926 With 14 mini-games, this app will entertain and educate your toddler. Our favourites involve tapping objects to tidy up a room, and finding Fixie characters hiding in a dark room. AGES 6-10 Aqueducts* Free Android: www.snipca.com/25927 iOS: www.snipca.com/25928 Tap to connect sections of a tunnel so that water flows seamlessly from one end to the other. As they improve, your child can try to complete the tunnel puzzle within a set number of moves or time limit. AGES 11-16 Stranger Things Free Android: www.snipca.com/25929 iOS: www.snipca.com/25930 This is an arcade-style retro game based on the popular Netflix TV series. You play its various characters and try to uncover clues by finding objects and people. It has no time limits, in-app purchases…

POWERPOINT Make your presentations fill the entire screen Most monitors these days are widescreen but, by default, PowerPoint presentations are set to play in the 4:3 aspect ratio. This means you’ll see black sections to the left and right of your slide when you switch to fullscreen mode to create your presentation. If you want your slides to cover the entire screen when presenting, you need to change your settings. Open your presentation, click the Design tab, then click Page Setup (see screenshot below). You’ll notice that the ‘Slides sized for’ dropdown menu is set to ‘On-screen Show (4:3)’. Instead, set the dropdown menu to ‘On-screen Show (16:9)’, then click OK. Next, press the F5 key on your keyboard to begin your slideshow. You’ll notice that your slides now cover…

Swipe up from the bottom of your screen and you’ll see your Control Centre (or double-tap the Home button on an iPad). In iOS 11, you can now customise the Control Centre to make it more useful for you. Tap Settings, Control Centre, then Customise Controls. You’ll see two sections, Include and More Controls. Tap the ‘+’ symbol next to anything in the More Controls section to add it to the Include section (and thereby add it to the Control Centre). For example, we added Notes and Screen Recording to give us quick access (see screenshot). If you struggle to read text on your iPad, it might be a good idea to add Magnifier and Text Size. To remove something from the Control Centre, tap the red minus sign (‘-’)…

Newer programs can be just as risky as older ones if they haven’t been updated for some time. Some programs automatically check for updates, but others don’t, and keeping all your programs updated manually is a hassle. Thankfully, there are tools that can do this for you, such as Kaspersky’s free Software Updater (www.snipca.com/25872), which detects your software and installs any available updates. But it’s also worth trying SUMo which may not have Kaspersky’s award-winning credentials, but updates a wider variety of programs. It’s free from www.snipca.com/25873 – click the blue ‘Download’ button (see screenshot), not ‘Get SUMo Pro’. Once the tool has scanned for installed programs, click Check, select the programs you want to update, then click Get Update.…

Some of the Fall Creators Update features Microsoft showed off at its Build 2017 conference in May are missing. Story Remix (see screenshot) seemed to provide a fun, user-friendly way to edit video – something that Windows 10 is sorely lacking. Unfortunately, it’s absent from the Fall CU, but will be added to the Windows 10 Photos app soon. Similarly, the Timeline tool, which provides a visual way to retrace your steps and make it easy to pick up tasks where you left off across multiple devices, has been delayed. Hopefully, these will make it into the next big update, codenamed Redstone 4, due March 2018.…

Who’s leaking my personal details? Q I’m hot on security, so I was annoyed to receive an email containing personal details, right down to my postcode. My question is how did these scam artists get my details? Are browser plug-ins capable of stealing personal details? I use Ghostery, HTTPS Everywhere and uBlock Origin. Is there any way to know if certain companies are selling my details? Jon Winchester A There’s no straightforward answer, and any one of your theories could be right. One clue, though, might be found in the formatting of your postcode in the phishing email that you forwarded to us. We noticed that the letters are in lower case, and it lacks a space between the two halves. Do you recall typing it this way recently into…

Q I own an old iPod that has over 1,000 photographs, with many duplicates. So, I was delighted to read Issue 509’s Workshop about Remo Duplicate Photos Remover (www.snipca.com/25252). Unfortunately, it seems the program won’t run on my iPod, as it requires iOS 8 or later, and this device is stuck on iOS 6. I have recently bought a more up-to-date iPod, with iOS 10.3.3, but this isn’t the one with the duplicated photos. Can you offer a solution? John Sneyd A If you trawl through the App Store for long enough you might find a duplicateremoval tool that hasn’t been updated in years, and will therefore work on iOS 6. But it’d be quicker to connect your iPod to a PC, drag and drop the photos into folder there…

Where’s the Create Map button in Google Maps? QI’ve tried to create a sightseeing tour in Google Maps as described in your article (Issue 510, page 58). However, when I click the three horizontal lines, ‘Your places’, then Maps as you describe, there’s no Create Map option. Am I doing something wrong? David Lewis AWe tested this tip in Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and all three browsers displayed the Create Map option – we’ve highlighted it in the screenshot below in case you’re simply overlooking it. You don’t state whether you’re trying to carry out the tip on your PC or a phone. Our tip is only applicable for a Windows PC, so it won’t work on your phone. There is a similar, albeit more basic feature in the Google…

• KODI’S BEST NEW TOOLS Essential add-ons, clever hacks and latest improvements • CUT YOUR PRINTER CORD Print wirelessly and remotely from anywhere • TAKE iPAD SCREENSHOTS Genius ways to capture your screen PLUS • DITCH YOUR ISP ROUTER Fastest new alternatives tested BACK IN STOCK! 5 - 18 August 2015 Broadband Deals In the next issue of our sister title Web User... Buy the Web User 2016 Back Issue CD on Amazon at www.snipca.com/23280 Next issue on sale Weds 1 November Subscribe to Web User at http://subscribe.webuser.co.uk…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 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 A common resolution of high-definition video: 1280x720 pixels. Add-in Microsoft’s name for tools that can be added to Office software. Add-on A program that adds extra features to your browser. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Most commonly used in smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a display. Traditional computer screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested.…

Ihaven’t touched an iPad for a while, but I know they’re simple to use because Apple’s marketing has repeatedly promised me that its products “just work”. I was glad about this because recently I had an urgent need to transfer a PDF on to an iPad – one I’d commandeered from Mrs Rigsby. I’d forgotten to charge my own Android tablet, and wanted to read the document on a larger screen on the train, which was departing in about an hour. So, already in a bit of hurry, I strung one of Apple’s laughably expensive Lightning cables between the iPad and my desktop PC, launched File Explorer and then… promptly hit a brick wall. It was only then I remembered that it’s not possible to simply drag and drop a…