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Google, Facebook and their fellow tech giants can talk about strengthening privacy all they like, but it doesn’t alter this blunt truth: how much money they make depends entirely on how closely they track you online. They don’t make cars, mine gold or run hotels. They sell advertising space to companies that want to know everything about you, from the last link you clicked online to the last item you bought. They’ll never stop wanting more information because every lost piece of data means they make less money. I don’t mean this to be alarmist. Many people have made their peace with online tracking, accepting it as the price for free online services. But you have much more control over the degree of tracking than you think. In our Cover…

SEE GOOGLE PHOTOS IN NEW CATEGORIES The online version of Google Photos now categorises your photos and videos as People, Places and Things, mimicking how the Android and iOS app works. To see these, visit https://photos.google.com and click Explore on the left 1. There’s also a new Favourites section 2 where you’ll see all the photos and videos you’ve ‘starred’, which you can do by clicking the star icon at the top right. STARLINK EXPANDS UK SATELLITE BROADBAND Starlink has confirmed that its satellite broadband is now available in parts of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, adding to its service across southern England. It costs £89 a month, plus £54 for postage and £439 for the dish and router. Starlink says you should get speeds of between 50-150Mbps.…

Customer complaints to broadband providers and phone networks fell sharply during the first few months of the pandemic, according to research from one of the UK’s leading consumer organisations. Ombudsman Services, which helps to resolve customer complaints against broadband providers, phone networks and energy companies, said that 41 per cent of consumers became “more tolerant” of poor service between March and September last year, with only 10 per cent saying the opposite. Almost a quarter of customers were unhappy with a product or service during lockdown, but chose not to complain because they were “more willing to be lenient during a uniquely challenging time”. The results, taken from more than 10,000 interviews with customers between March and September last year, appear in the organisation’s Consumer Action Monitor report for 2020…

AMAZON TWEAKS ‘HITLER MOUSTACHE’ ICON Amazon has updated its new app icon after people joked on social media that the previous version resembled Adolf Hitler. It had redesigned the app in January to look like an Amazon brown box with ripped tape at the top (below left). But some said it brought to mind a ‘grinning Hitler’. The tweaked version (below right) uses a smooth, folded tape instead. MOVE PICS FROM APPLE TO GOOGLE Apple has launched a tool that makes it easier for iCloud users to move their pictures and videos to Google Photos. Once you’ve asked for it, Apple will take up to seven days to verify the request before transferring the data. These will be copies of your files, meaning your backups on iCloud won’t be affected.…

According to ‘Have I Been Pwned?’ (https://haveibeenpwned.com), the details of over 10 billion online accounts have been leaked online. That’s an awful lot of email addresses, usernames and passwords waiting to be abused, but hackers will always want more. It’s vital therefore to be warned when your passwords have been exposed in a data breach. Chrome has been showing warnings for over a year, and now Google has added them to Android. Whenever you create a new password in the Autofill service, or sign into an account using Autofill (ie, you don’t need to type your login details), Android will check whether the password has leaked online. If so, it will show a warning, with a link to ‘Check passwords’ (see screenshot). This takes you to the Password Manager page,…

Can TalkTalk charge me for a visit I didn’t request? LEAD CASE Q TalkTalk wants to charge me £65 for an engineer’s visit I never scheduled, and it also increased my monthly contract by over £10 without notice. TalkTalk acknowledged my complaint on 5 February, saying it would get back to me within three working days. I’ve heard nothing. What should I do now? Dr Ronald Fearn A Let’s take the engineer’s visit first. TalkTalk does charge for visits, but a maximum of £40, not the £65 it wants to charge Ronald. But that’s irrelevant because Ronald didn’t book this visit, and therefore he owes TalkTalk nothing. We’ll try to get the company to refund him. As for the price rise, Ronald should be able to cancel his contract and…

Research Met Police ancestors Reader Peter Terry knows that ancestor William Leonard Gue served in the Met Police between 1902 and 1928, but he doesn’t have any photographs of him in uniform. He’s also looking for a photo of his warrant cards, and details of cases he worked on. We were happy to help him find this information. Search Met Police pension records We started by searching the records held on Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) and Find My Past (www.findmypast.co.uk). This proved surprisingly simple, thanks largely to ‘Gue’ being a rare surname in the UK (32,731st out of about 45,000 in England - as revealed at www.snipca.com/37455). Both websites contain lots of useful information to paint a pretty complete picture of William’s life. He was born in Romford, Essex, in January 1881,…

What can I use to scan videos for movement? Q Could you recommend a program that scans for movement in video footage taken by security cameras? I’ve seen DVR-Scan mentioned online, but can’t get it to work. Geoff Burgess A DVR-Scan (www.snipca.com/37639) is actually the best tool for doing this, but it’s fiddly and the website is packed with jargon, so it’s no surprise that you’re struggling with it. The developer released a new version earlier this month, so this might fix any problems you’ve been experiencing with the previous release. Note that Chrome flags the new release as potentially dangerous because it’s not a commonly downloaded file, but VirusTotal (www.virustotal.com) confirms DVR-Scan is safe. Once installed, open File Explorer (press the Windows key+E) and navigate to the folder containing…

For months we’ve been told to protect the NHS, but it turns out coronavirus isn’t the only threat we need to defend the UK’s health service from. Emil Apreda attempted to blackmail the NHS last year in the middle of the pandemic, sending anonymous emails threatening to detonate bombs in UK hospitals unless he was paid $14m (around £10m) in bitcoin. The 33-year-old Italian-born Berlin resident sent his first threat in April last year, timed precisely to coincide with Covid’s first peak. He had previously targeted MPs on the anniversary of Jo Cox’s murder and threatened to bomb Black Lives Matter protests. Last month, he was found guilty of attempted extortion by Berlin’s District Criminal Court and sentenced to three years in prison.…

SMART SPEAKER WITH SCREEN | £240 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37545 The latest addition to Amazon’s range of smart speakers has a 10in, 1200x800-pixel screen built on a motorised base, which can automatically rotate the screen by 350 degrees. It uses clever computer-vision technology to follow you around the room, so you can be on a video call while making dinner in your kitchen, without disappearing off the edge of the screen as you move around. Video communications are clearly the focus of this device. Amazon has already added group calling to its other Echo devices, along with support for Skype. Zoom compatibility has been promised in the US but hasn’t been confirmed for the UK yet. “Amazon’s improved smart speaker and screen will follow your every move” Aside from this, the…

HEADPHONES | £80 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37593 This pair of active noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones are among the cheapest around. What’s more, they’re surprisingly impressive, providing three levels of effective noise cancellation, highly customisable audio and a decent selection of accessories. Included with the headphones are a carrying case, a USB-to-USB-C charging cable and a 3.5mm audio cable that can be plugged into the right earcup for wired listening. The headphones are mostly plastic, which gives them a budget look and feel, but once you put them on they sit very comfortably. At 265g they’re lightweight and the oval earcups fit perfectly over our ears. Anker could have been more generous with the amount of padding – they feel rather airy – but this doesn’t impinge on the seal or snugness. You…

LAPTOP Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 £849 from www.snipca.com/37348 Tested Issue 601 Weighing just 1.16kg, this is an excellent lightweight laptop with a great screen and an AMD processor faster than many Intel rivals. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a microSD card reader. Battery lasts nearly 16 hours. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £1,199 from www.snipca.com/36642 PRICE DROP ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite £299 from www.snipca.com/35795 Tested Issue 582 Competing with Apple’s cheapest 10.2in iPad, this slim aluminium tablet comes with an S Pen stylus and a generous 64GB of storage at a reasonable price. It’s less powerful, but a great buy if you prefer Android. ALTERNATIVE…

What you need: Plotaroute account (free); Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Time required: 30 minutes What better way to look forward to a summer free of restrictions (or at least fewer of them), than planning long walks in the countryside with friends. With a free Plotaroute account (ad supported – you can remove these with a Premium subscription at £17 per year), you can create your own detailed walking maps, then share them with others. Plotaroute doesn’t offer a mobile app, but the website works flawlessly on phones, and you can download maps for walks that take you away from mobile networks. STEP 1 Create a free Plotaroute account at www.snipca.com/37632. Once you’ve registered, click the Create dropdown menu 1 on the homepage, then select ‘Plot a Route’. If you…

ANDROID Stream 4K videos on lower-resolution screens YouTube now lets you select a video resolution that’s greater than that of your device’s screen. It then converts the video to a lower resolution in a process called downscaling. This results in an oversampling of the image, which makes the picture look sharper than your device is normally capable of (the effect is particularly noticeable on a tablet screen). For whatever reason YouTube has not made this feature available on all Android tablets and phones. You can, however, check if it works on your device (and make use of it) by opening the YouTube app and typing 4K into the search engine. Select a video with 4K in the title and tap the video when you’re ready to play. Tap the three…

WINDOWS 10 Trim your videos When you want to share only a short section of a video with someone, one option is to simply tell the recipient to jump to that specific point in the video. However, there are two problems with this: the program they use to view the video might not let them jump to a specific point, and the file you share will be unnecessarily large. Instead, use Windows’ built in video-clipping tool to trim the video down to only the relevant section. Locate your video in File Explorer (press Windows key+E), then double-click it to open the video in the Photos app (if you’ve chosen a different default app for viewing photos, right-click the file, select ‘Open with’, then Photos). Next, click the ‘Edit & Create’…

What is it? Google’s project to give you hearing ‘superpowers’ that let you isolate a specific source of noise so you can understand it more clearly. It would prove useful in a room full of people all talking at the same time, or where there’s loud and distracting background noise, such as in a factory. You’d be able to focus on just one conversation, ignoring everything else. This type of technology is called speech segregation. Would you have to wear a device? Yes, inside the ear. It contains sensors and microphones that use algorithms to identify which audio to pick up. Early designs were crude, covering the entire side of the ear, or sticking out above it. Since those prototypes, it seems that Google has shrunk the device so it…

UC Browser Owned by Chinese company Alibaba, UC Browser claims to keep you private and secure, but according to privacy-audit website Exodus it contains eight trackers and requires a shocking 78 permissions. Use DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Browser instead (see below). Clean Master This Chinese cleanup app was banned by Google Play in 2018, but is still available from other sources. It has 18 trackers and 81 permissions and is definitely best avoided (Android devices do a good job of cleaning up after themselves anyway). Turbo VPN VPN apps are supposed to protect your privacy on your mobile device, but they’re among the worst offenders for tracking you. Turbo VPN has a 4.6 rating on Google Play, but also has seven trackers. Stick with something trustworthy like Proton VPN (www.snipca.com/37551). Virus Cleaner…

Updated drivers don’t always work as planned - some cause your device to stop working, others can freeze your PC. The good news is that rolling back to a previous version is relatively easy. Open Device Manager by typing device manager into the Start menu and pressing Enter, then locate the relevant device and double-click it. In the window that opens, select the Driver tab, then click Roll Back Driver. If you’ve tried installing multiple drivers for this device, rolling back the driver may simply revert to one that also causes a problem. If this happens, click Uninstall Device, then tick the ‘delete the driver software for this device’ option. For USB devices, simply unplugging then reinserting them will tell Windows to look for the best driver online. For hardware…

Why can’t I view Bing’s Ordnance Survey maps? Q I was just reviewing the alternatives to Google and exploring what you wrote in Issue 597’s ‘Stop Using Google’ Cover Feature. I went to the Bing Maps website (www.bing.com/maps) and the maps came up on screen just fine. I also found the Road box mentioned on page 55. However, when I clicked it there was no Ordnance Survey option. Am I missing something? I am currently in the US, so I’m wondering if I have to be back in the UK for this feature to show up? David Jaggar A Yes, your location is the problem. If Bing Maps determines that you’re currently outside the UK, based on your PC’s IP address, then the Ordnance Survey option will not show. That’s…

Vodafone has launched a package that automatically switches to its 4G network should its fixed-line broadband connection go down. It says the Pro Broadband package provides “unbreakable” broadband by guaranteeing that you stay online, whether through home Wi-Fi or 4G. It uses a hybrid router that has a 4G dongle plugged in (pictured above right). Customers will receive “dedicated support” from Vodafone’s team of “WiFi Xperts”, as well as Wi-Fi extenders to boost signals into black spots. Customers who aren’t satisfied with their home Wi-Fi coverage will be offered the opportunity to leave their contract without paying a fee. Prices range from £35 a month for 35Mbps to £60 for 900Mbps (read more at www.snipca.com/37626). Vodafone’s launch comes a month after BT announced a similar ‘unbreakable’ deal that combines broadband…

TWITTER BANS USERS SPREADING VACCINE LIES Twitter will ban users who repeatedly post misinformation about Covid vaccines. Its new “strike system” means users will be permanently suspended after tweeting misinformation five times. Before that, they’ll be warned and given temporary suspensions of 12 hours followed by seven days. Read more at www.snipca.com/37569. PLUSNET ENDS ‘LINE RENTAL SAVER’ DEAL Plusnet has axed its ‘line rental saver’ option, which lets customers get a discount on their home phone line rental by paying £213.12 for the year upfront (equivalent to £17.76 a month). Existing customers will be switched to paying line rental monthly when their contract ends. This costs just over £30 more a year. Some Plusnet customers complained about the move on the company’s forums: www.snipca.com/37596.…

NI number was “compromised” Early one February morning I received an automated phone call telling me my National Insurance number had been “compromised”. As scams go it was predictable and crude, though I was half asleep and almost pressed 1 on my handset as it asked me to. Had I done so, I would probably have been put through to someone who would no doubt claim to be helping me but would attempt to ransack my bank account. Action Fraud reported it in January (www.snipca.com/37463), and several people in my computing club were targeted in late February, so it’s clearly still happening. You have been warned. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

PayPal finally seems to be waking from its pandemic slumber by clearing a backlog of cases. It has recently refunded reader Clive Bonner the £21.47 he spent last August on what he thought was a laser-cutting tool from Chinese company Letvioe. When the package arrived, it actually contained a small camera tripod made of plastic. After getting nowhere with the seller, Clive raised a complaint via PayPal’s Buyer Protection scheme. He was shocked though when PayPal rejected his claim, saying the seller had provided proof the item had arrived. We pointed out to PayPal that while Clive had received an item, it wasn’t what he’d ordered. It was a completely different product, not just a slightly different model. Clive’s case seemed so straightforward to us that we can’t believe PayPal…

I’ve now completed my tree using MyHeritage and Family Tree Maker, and I would like to send family members a copy on a CD that they can print. However, all I can find are options to export the tree as a GEDCOM file. Paul Rayner You could generate a tree in PDF format using the tools in FTM’s Publish section, but if you’d like to make the tree interactive, export it as a GEDCOM file and then use Ged2Web (free from www.snipca.com/37430) to convert it into a series of linked web pages, all housed in a single folder that can be burned to CD and shared with your family. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

Remember Sets? No, not the interlocking circles you used to draw at school. We’re talking about the Windows feature Microsoft proudly announced in 2018. Among other things, Sets was to revolutionise File Explorer by letting you have multiple folder tabs open in the same window, then quickly flick between them like websites on a browser. Things then went suspiciously quiet, before Microsoft effectively said it could no longer be bothered to finish developing the feature (you can check out what it would have looked like on YouTube at www.snipca.com/37617). The good news is that there are other ways to get tabs in File Explorer. My favourite is QTTabBar (www.snipca.com/37613 – click the ‘QTTabBar ver 1043 for 64bit’ link at the top). Unlike other File Explorer alternatives, such as Q-Dir (see…

LAPTOP | £829 from PC Specialist www.snipca.com/37563 PC Specialist is a UK PC-builder that lets you configure the computer you want without having to put it together yourself. As a result, you’ll sometimes see their PCs built with cases you might also find on other manufacturers’ devices and the 15.6in Lafité Pro is a typical example of this. It comes with a chassis from Clevo, a Taiwanese company that supplies a number of British manufacturers with bare-bones laptops, to which PC Specialist then adds its own components and finish. So, don’t be surprised if you see similar laptops from other manufacturers. “A powerful machine with a big screen, full-size keyboard and plenty of ports” The laptop weighs a hefty 1.7kg, so it isn’t something you’ll want to be lugging around…

PHONE | £660 from Xiaomi www.mi.com Xiaomi’s Mi 11 is the first phone we’ve seen with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 processor installed, which uses the same miniaturisation techniques that we’d previously seen only in Apple’s A14 Bionic and Samsung’s Exynos 2100 mobile processors. This makes everything on the chip smaller, so you can fit more on the same sized piece of silicon or make existing components smaller. In our Geekbench 5 tests, designed to push a processor to its limits, the Snapdragon 888 doesn’t quite match the performance of the iPhone 12’s A14, but it’s five per cent faster than the Samsung Galaxy S21, which uses the Exynos 2100. Considering both are more expensive, it’s an impressive achievement for Xiaomi. To further keep its rivals on their toes, there’s improved…

Q I’ve been a fan of Microsoft Flight Simulator for decades. I currently use Flight Sim X on my old HP desktop PC. I suspect it’s not powerful enough to play Flight Simulator 2020 (www.snipca.com/37610, pictured) so I’m tempted to buy a new computer. What would you recommend? Trevor Gibbs A Games usually list two specifications, ‘minimum’ and ‘recommended’, but Flight Simulator also has an ‘ideal’ spec. You can view all these at www.snipca.com/37597. The game should run on a PC with the minimum spec but to get the most from the program’s graphics, don’t go below the recommended spec. We struggled to find an off-the-shelf PC with the recommended components, because Intel i5 and Ryzen 5 processors are rarely paired with 16GB of RAM. We recommend going to a…

Winner of a ‘Recommended’ award in Issue 600, Grado’s GT220 True Wireless In-Ear Headphones come with a full range of dynamic drivers, Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connectivity and silicon eartips for the ultimate comfort. Sound quality is second to none, bringing out details of performances that rivals often miss. We tested them with a range of musical styles, from acapella sea shanties to punchy, bassy dance music, all of which it reproduced with exceptional clarity. The sound quality benefits enormously from the passive noise cancellation provided by the GT220’s twist-to-lock fit. Once you’ve wedged the tips into your ears and twisted them into position, they form a highly effective seal against external sound. They also have touch controls, while both Siri and Google Assistant are supported. They last for six hours…

Museum Alive £2.99 iOS www.snipca.com/37537 This stunning augmented-reality app lets you resurrect three prehistoric creatures – Smilodon (pictured), Opanina and Dimorphodon – so they can roam, swim or fly around your immediate environment. Find a flat open space and the action will begin, complete with narration from David Attenborough. You can also read information about how the animals might have looked and behaved within the app. Telegram Free iOS www.snipca.com/37518 Android www.snipca.com/37519 You can set the recently updated Telegram to automatically delete messages after a set period of time (24 hours or seven days). In iOS, press and hold a message, choose Select, then tap Clear Chat followed by Enable Auto-Delete. On Android, tap the three-dot menu then select Clear History. Next, choose one day or one week. The new…

MICROSOFT EXCEL Try Excel’s new web features Microsoft has just updated the online version of Excel (officially known as ‘Excel for the web’, www.snipca.com/37634), adding a range of new features that help bring it in line with the traditional offline version. One of the most useful is the ability to select multiple cells simultaneously – previously you could only select adjacent cells. Just as in the offline version, you have to hold Ctrl while selecting the cells. You can also now use many of the same Alt and Ctrl keyboard shortcuts as in the offline version. To view the available shortcuts, select the Help menu, then Keyboard Shortcuts. Be aware that these override similar shortcuts in your browser. For example, in Edge and Chrome, Ctrl+1 switches to the first tab…

It’s no secret that every time you go online, your activities are being watched. Trackers are endemic across the web, and it’s rare to find a site or app that isn’t embedded with at least one hidden spy. These invisible elements monitor how you use websites and mobile apps, and analyse that data to target you with customised content and adverts. This may seem harmless and even helpful, but when that information is passed to less trustworthy companies, or the trackers follow you to other websites and apps, it’s a flagrant invasion of your privacy. Most of us have been unnerved when adverts for Amazon products we’ve searched for appear on other sites, or when Facebook makes suggestions related to things we’ve mentioned privately. Even tools that are supposed to…

‘Windows update causes problems’ belongs to the ‘Dog bites man’ realm of wholly predictable headlines. What’s more surprising is that Microsoft’s video outlining how to fix the problem is well explained and shows clear instructions. Incredibly, it sounds like it was made by an actual human being who knows how to help other human beings. We’ve always argued that Microsoft should be judged less on update problems (assuming they’re not too severe), and more on how quickly and smoothly they’re fixed.…

A Microsoft-led team of scientists have backtracked on claims they found an elusive subatomic particle that could help develop more powerful computers. In a 2018 paper in the scientific journal Nature, they said they’d found evidence of Majorana particles, which have long been theorised about but never detected. The team hoped that the particles would lead to a breakthrough in quantum computing, in which ‘qubits’ of information can have a value of one and zero at the same time, based on the concept of quantum physics. This would vastly increase computing power, making it possible to perform complex calculations simultaneously. But the researchers now admit that they made mistakes, including mislabelling a graph and changing data unnecessarily. They’ve apologised for using “insufficient scientific rigour” in the research. The paper, which…

The TV licence might be scrapped when super-fast broadband is available in all homes, the media minister has said. John Whittingdale said there would “come a time” when the BBC would instead be funded by a Netflix-style subscription, but only when every home has fast enough speeds to stream TV online. He added that this may be the case by 2027, when the BBC’s charter is up for renewal, but until then the licence fee remained the best way of funding the corporation. Mr Whittingdale was responding in Parliament to a public petition, signed by 110,000 people, calling on the Government to “end the licence fee as soon as possible”. He said: “Young people are turning more and more to video-on-demand services. That does beg the question about whether or…

Many older people ‘not confident’ about using emails I don’t think we should be terribly shocked that email scammers go after older people more than younger (‘Question of the Fortnight’, Issue 601). It’s important to remember that scams have existed for centuries, and that older people have probably always been considered more gullible than younger people. In the years before the internet, there were lots of warnings about fraudsters going door to door, picking out the elderly. The big difference now of course is that scammers can ‘knock’ on millions of doors at once by sending an email. There’s also a technological difference. It doesn’t take any technical expertise to decide whether you should open the door to someone. Yes, you need your wits about you, but you’re in familiar…

My daughter, in her first year at university, bought an HP Envy laptop that you recommended a few years ago. Sadly, one of the hinges failed. Normally, she would have phoned me for advice, and I would have had to drive over to help fix the problem. But thankfully the HP Assistant service (www.snipca.com/37435, pictured), which was included for three years in the purchase price, has proved its worth and beyond. She managed the whole process online. HP sent a courier to her university residence with a transport box for returning it. She received a fully repaired laptop by the same courier five days later, with no fuss or nonsense. The first I heard was the conclusion of her story by phone. Thanks HP for providing support that was unexpectedly…

SYSTEM TOOL HWiNFO 7.00 www.snipca.com/37637 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Whether you want to find out more about specific hardware inside your PC or get a complete picture of all its components, HWiNFO is the tool to use (click the green Download button under Installer at the link above). Business users now need to pay to use HWiNFO (starting at £26.84), but it remains free for home users. The main screen divides your hardware into eleven categories. Open the Drives category, for example, and you’ll see all hard drives attached to your PC – select one to view information including its SMART status (this shows whether your drive is healthy or at risk of failure – see below). Click the Sensors button for real-time information, such as…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: PDFsam It seems there’s a plague of junk afflicting PDF tools these days. Two programs I tested last year – PDF Creator and PDF Shaper Free – attempted to flood my hard drive with junk, and now there’s PDFsam Basic (https://pdfsam.org), which pre-ticks as many boxes as it can during installation in the hope that you’ll accidentally agree to all kinds of unwanted software and settings. The installer’s initial screen includes an easy-to-overlook pre-ticked ‘Install PDFsam Enhanced…’ option, which gives the green light to install not only the Basic tool you asked for, but also a ton of stuff you didn’t. PDFsam Enhanced is a suite of tools that allegedly includes a PDF reader, editor and more. I say ‘allegedly’ because, as it happens, PDFsam…

PC | £699 from Currys PC World www.snipca.com/37514 HP’s Pavilion Pro TP01 comes in a choice of specifications, but the model we reviewed has an Intel Core i5-10400F processor and is available for £699. Every model in this series comes in the same case, so check the price and specs of any alternative configurations you explore, to make sure it’s the right model for you. “A powerful desktop PC with plenty of connections but little room for upgrades” This model has a generous 512GB SSD but it’s not as fast as we’d like. It’s still significantly faster than a traditional hard drive, but some speed has been sacrificed in favour of increased storage capacity. It also comes with a DVD writer, which is a rarity these days, but will come…

What does it do? Bluetooth is the popular standard for wirelessly connecting devices to one another. It was invented as a way to connect mobile phones to computers without needing a cable, but has found its way into a vast range of devices from headphones to smart watches. The unusual name comes from King Harald Bluetooth, a Viking King who famously united a number of Norwegian and Danish kingdoms into a single nation. How does it work? Data is carried over short-range radio waves. It’s similar to Wi-Fi, except it uses different frequencies. The range and bandwidth aren’t as great as Wi-Fi, so it’s not as fast and has a weaker signal. However, its huge benefit is that it requires less power. Bluetooth devices are usually powered by a battery,…

What is it? You’ve heard of folding phones, which open out into a bigger screen, but the Oppo X 2021 (pictured) is a rollable phone. It can be used in its 6.7in regular phone size, or stretched out one side into a squarer 7.4in tablet (watch it at www.snipca.com/37631). What does it do? The Oppo X 2021’s extra screen space is hidden inside the phone case when not in use. However, if you swipe the power button, it automatically unrolls to its larger size. Swipe again to contract it. What’s the catch? At the moment, Oppo has no plans to launch the screen and has only demonstrated a prototype. There are also a number of questions hanging over the robustness of the design, particularly with regards to dust and water…

What you need: TV set; desktop PC or laptop; various accessories Time required: 30 minutes The biggest screen in your home almost certainly isn’t on your PC or laptop. It’s sitting in your lounge – or possibly the kitchen or bedroom – and you use it to watch films and TV. Compared with a good desktop monitor, TVs are relatively cheap. That’s because while the surface area is larger, they have a lower resolution, as you’ll spot when you get up close to switch one off. While it’s impossible to see individual pixels on a modern laptop screen or desktop PC monitor, the pixels on even a high-resolution TV are much more visible. TV manufacturers can get away with comparatively lower resolutions for the same reason that companies who create…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Delete videos from dashcams to free up space With the increased popularity of dashcams, may I suggest that many readers will be unaware of a certain limitation with them? Thankfully though, it’s easily solved. Dashcams save recorded videos to microSD cards, overwriting the oldest recording when the card becomes full. However, if the camera feels any ‘jolting’, the current recording gets protected so that it can’t be overwritten, letting you access it later, possibly for insurance claims. This jolting may be severe braking or impact, but it could also be something as simple as going over a speed bump. As a result, the protected recordings build up and the amount of usable memory steadily decreases until the card becomes full. The easiest solution is to remove…

CeX iOS www.snipca.com/37539 Android www.snipca.com/37538 Like all three apps here, CeX offers you a price when you type an item’s barcode, or scan it with your camera’s phone. It gives you two options: a cash payment, or a higher-value voucher to spend in its store. Usefully, it also tells you how much it plans to sell the item for, giving you an idea of what you could get for it on eBay. Best For: Checking a value’s sell-on item Music Magpie Free iOS www.snipca.com/37540 Android www.snipca.com/37541 Music Magpie buys CDs, DVDs, books, games and electronic devices. You scan items as with CeX (above) except for devices which you select from a series of menus. These are added to your basket, ready for checkout. It also buys Lego, giving you a…

Create templates for your regular Zoom meetings Video-chat tools have been a lifeline for clubs during the pandemic, but setting up a new call for each meeting takes time. This is particularly true with Zoom, which offers a multitude of settings that you can apply to a group video call. To make things easier, Zoom lets you create meeting templates that let you set up regular online get-togethers in a matter of seconds. Select duration and how you admit members To create a meeting template, you need to first log into your Zoom account at www.zoom.us (if you don’t already have an account, click ‘Sign up, it’s free’ – all the features we cover here work in the free version). Once you’ve logged in, click Meetings (depending on the size…

An internet free of the hidden trackers used by tech giants sounds idyllic, but in practice it’s almost impossible to avoid their spying tricks. To prove this point, research institute Economic Security Project has created a tool called Big Tech Detective (BTD, https://bigtechdetective.net) that exposes trackers from Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft as you browse the web. It tells you when a site is sharing information with any of those four companies and (optionally) blocks your access. BTD isn’t available in add-on stores, but you can sideload it in Chrome. Download and extract the installation file, go to chrome://extensions and switch on ‘Developer mode’ in the top-right corner. Click ‘Load unpacked’, select the extension’s folder to install it, then click its extension icon (see screenshot). Choose which tech giants you…

If you have a streaming stick, you may not need a separate Bluetooth transmitter to listen wirelessly. Amazon’s Fire TV Sticks (including the Lite version – £29 from www.snipca.com/37564) let you listen via Bluetooth headphones by going to Settings, ‘Controllers and Bluetooth Devices’, then Other Bluetooth Devices. You can pair headphones with an Apple TV (£199 from www.snipca.com/37565) by going to Settings, ‘Remotes and Devices’, then Bluetooth. Roku provides a different method – you can listen to your TV’s sound wirelessly via the Roku mobile app (Android www.snipca.com/37532 iOS www.snipca.com/37533). Connect headphones to your phone or tablet, then tap the Private Listening button (headphone icon - see screenshot) in Roku’s app to stream audio. Roku sticks start at £27 for the Express version (www.snipca.com/37566). The only downside of these methods…

Q I have a Dell 19in E193FP monitor that’s quite old but operating perfectly. The Dell screen dimensions are 15in by 12in, which I calculate to be a 5:4 ratio. I would like to upgrade the monitor to 24in HD IPS widescreen, but I'm confused by the differences between screen ratios. For example, will a display with a 16:9 ratio give me a distorted or ‘stretched’ image? I use the PC mainly for basic web browsing and the occasional YouTube video. Neil Howells A There was a time when Windows wasn’t terribly well-equipped to deal with varying aspect ratios, as these width-to-height measures are often called. Connect a 16:9 widescreen display to an old Windows XP computer, for example, and you could expect either a stretched Windows desktop or one…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 1440p High-definition video of 2560x1440 pixels. 2160p High-definition video of 3840x2160 pixels. 32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. Active noise cancelling Method for reducing unwanted sound by adding a second sound specifically designed to cancel the first. Ad tech Companies such as ad agencies and marketing firms that use software to work out how best to advertise online. Add-on A program that adds extra features to your browser. Altimeter A sensor for measuring height about sea level. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting…