Table of contents for 687 in Computeractive

I’m writing this a day or so behind schedule, and Robert Irvine is entirely to blame. He found so many fantastic things to download, watch and listen to in his Cover Feature that while editing I had to keep pausing to fight Daleks with Tom Baker, solve crimes with Lieutenant Columbo and hitchhike through the galaxy with Arthur Dent. These are all from the Internet Archive, which forms the bulk of Robert’s feature and is a true wonder of the web. You won’t find a bigger collection of free content anywhere. If none of the above appeal, how about The Goon Show, Rising Damp, Sherlock Holmes, Hill Street Blues, Just a Minute, Thunderbirds and The World at War? Robert recommends many more, providing links to each. These shortcuts are essential,…

A UK man is suing Apple for £5m because it didn’t delete messages he sent from his iPhone to prostitutes that were later seen by his wife, leading to an expensive divorce. He wiped the messages from his iPhone, but they weren’t deleted from the family’s iMac computer, where his wife discovered them. Apple automatically syncs messages you send from your iPhone with your Mac, if you’re signed in with the same Apple ID. This means messages stay on a Mac even if they’re erased from an iPhone. The unnamed man told The Times: “My thoughts are if I had been able to talk to her rationally and she had not had such a brutal realisation of it, I might still be married.” He’s now pursuing legal action against Apple…

WATCH OUT FOR… Free VPNs that leak your data What’s the threat? Almost 90 per cent of free VPN apps on the Google Play Store leak your data, according to a new study. The research, from VPN-testing site Top10VPN, also found that over two-thirds share your data with third parties – usually advertisers – while almost one-fifth are flagged as suspected malware by antivirus scanners. Worse still, almost one-third of VPNs actually collect your data and sell it for profit, defeating the purpose of using a VPN to stay private. The site spent months analysing the top 100 free VPN apps on the Play Store, which have been installed over 2.5 billion times worldwide. How can you stay safe? This is a phenomenal study from Simon Migliano, head of research…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Flashlight Pro’s intrusive data-sharing My heart sinks when I see some apps surging in popularity. These include free VPNs (see page 11), battery ‘savers’ and memory ‘optimisers’. Few of these are worth installing on your phone or tablet, but the most useless of all are flashlights. These apps promise to replace your built-in torch with something more powerful, but I’ve never found one that delivers. I’m happy to be corrected should I ever discover a flashlight more powerful than Portland Bill lighthouse. Perhaps Flashlight Pro: Super LED (www.snipca.com/51002) would be the one? The app had shot into the top 10 free tools as suggested by Google on the Play Store, possibly boosted by an update in June. Made by LightRain Global (no, me neither), it claims to “unlock…

LAPTOP Dell Inspiron 14 Plus £1,199 from www.snipca.com/50079 Tested Issue 683 Has the same processor (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H) as our previous favourite (Acer Swift Go 4), but manages to squeeze more speed out of it. Has 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a 14in 2240x1400-pixel screen. Excellent value overall. ALTERNATIVE Acer Swift Go 14 Still a fast and powerful laptop, with a great 14in screen. £849 from www.snipca.com/49733 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 £799 from www.snipca.com/50039 Tested Issue 667 With a much brighter screen than our previous favourite – the Galaxy Tab S8 – this is perfect for watching TV. It also has a faster processor, so tasks feel smoother, even with several windows open. £799 will get you the 128GB version. If you want 256GB you’ll need…

ONLINE STORAGE Use single-letter shortcuts to jump to documents Google Drive has added new keyboard shortcuts that let you hop straight to documents simply by pressing the first letter of its title. So, if your document is titled ‘Holiday itinerary’, you just need to press H, without needing to press a modifier key like Shift or Ctrl. Google says these shortcuts are being rolled out on 1 August to everyone – both free and paid-for accounts. But you can turn them on earlier by clicking the update button that should have appeared at the top of your Drive. To see all the shortcuts in Google Drive just press Ctrl+/(forward slash). Rose McIntosh KEYBOARDS Stick fluorescent letters on your PC keyboard Like Bob Vickery in Issue 685 (page 40), I found…

WINDOWS 11 Draw shapes in screenshots Microsoft has updated Windows 11’s Snipping Tool to let you annotate your screenshots with shapes that have different opacity levels and colours – features previously available only to Windows Insiders. Search for and open Snipping Tool, then click New – or press Windows key+Shift+S. Now click the Shapes button 1 then choose a shape in the bar that appears, and a colour in the Outline menu. You can also choose to fill the shape with a solid colour, which would be an effective way of redacting sensitive information. In our example, we drew a teal circle with no fill to annotate our screenshot 2. Note that you’ll need to be using Windows 11 23H2, updated to build 22631.3737. Check your version by typing About…

5G The latest generation of mobile networks. 7z A format for compressing files into an archive format. AAC Advanced Audio Coding. A type of music file. Active noise cancelling Method for reducing unwanted sound by adding a second sound specifically designed to cancel the first. AI Artificial intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. 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 screen. Traditional PC screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. AVI Audio Video Interleave. A type of video file. AVI is known as a container format, as it can hold many types of audio and video. Bandwidth A measure…

COMBINE VIDEO CLIPS WITH BLINK CAMS Blink cameras can now combine clips into a single longer video. The feature, called Blink Moments (pictured), works across different cameras, and can be shared with others via Blink’s app. However, it’s only available to customers on a Blink Plus Plan subscription, which costs £8 a month or £80 a year. For details visit www.snipca.com/51022. THREE ADDS 92 COUNTRIES TO ROAMING Mobile network Three has added 92 countries to its roaming scheme, including Barbados, Canada, Egypt, India, Jamaica, South Africa and Turkey. The package is called ‘Go Roam Around the World Extra’, and costs £7 a day. It already offers roaming plans for other countries and Europe. However, it’s not available to people who signed up before 1 October, 2021, and a fair-usage policy…

Two men have been arrested for using an illegal phone mast to send spam to people nearby. Illegal masts are called ‘SMS blasters’ because they send text messages that bypass spam blocks put in place by mobile networks. They can have a range of up to two miles. It’s thought to be the first time that a homemade mast of this kind has been used in the UK. These kinds of attack are called ‘SMS phishing’, or ‘smishing’. Police said thousands of messages were sent, impersonating banks and other official organisations. Officers worked with telecoms regulator Ofcom and the National Cyber Security Centre to investigate the attacks. Huayong Xu, 32, of Croydon was charged on 23 May with possession of articles for use in fraud and was remanded in custody.…

VIDEO CONVERTER Any Video Converter Free 9 www.snipca.com/51033 What you need: Windows 10 or 11 or macOS Any Video Converter (AVC) is an incredibly versatile program that does much more than just convert video files. Its many tools include useful options for downloading videos, burning them on to DVDs and recording what’s on your screen (for up to three minutes in the free edition). However, it’s AVC’s editing tools that we really love, and version 9 makes them easier to find and use. In previous versions, they were spread across several screens, which meant you needed to click back and forth to access specific options – or manually add your favourite features to the home screen. The interface has been redesigned so that everything is in one place, which means…

If the price of this machine looks a little steep, it’s worth remembering that it’s a PC and monitor in one handy package. The screen is a large one, too, measuring 32in across the diagonal. Most Windows all-in-one PCs come with 27in screens, such as the HP 27-cr0014na Full-HD All-in-One (£799 from www.snipca.com/49728, reviewed in Issue 681) or 24in, such as the Dell Inspiron 24 All-in-One (£549 from www.snipca.com/50769). “Good screen quality and performance, but they come at a price” That large screen has a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, which works out to a pixel density of 93dpi. That’s not as high as you’d see on a laptop screen, but because you’ll be sitting further away from it, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The good news is…

CHROME Reduce memory usage more aggressively Chrome’s ‘Memory saver’ feature reduces the amount of RAM the browser uses, by freeing up memory from inactive tabs. Located in the Performance section of Chrome’s Settings (type chrome://settings/performance in the address bar and press Enter), ‘Memory saver’ can currently be switched on or off but Google could soon give you more control over how it works. Chrome 126, released in June, introduces a new experiment that lets you “configure how aggressive Memory Saver is”. This means you can shorten – or extend – the length of time after which the browser deems your tabs inactive and releases RAM from them. To activate the experiment, type chrome://flags in the address bar and press Enter to load the Experiments page. Find the entry #memory-saver-aggressiveness, select…

MICROSOFT WORD Add a gutter margin to your document A gutter margin is a space outside the regular page margin – usually to the left or top of your document – that provides extra space for binding documents when printing, like manuscripts, books or manuals. This is useful if you’re printing your document and you want to make sure it will appear as you intended, meaning no text will be lost to binding. Add a gutter margin by clicking Layout on the toolbar (1 in our screenshot below) then clicking the arrow below the Margins button 2. Click ‘Custom Margins…’ at the bottom to open the Page Setup box. Here, in the text field next to ‘Gutter:’ add the size of your gutter margin. We chose 1.5cm in our example…

SECURITY FLAWS IN NETGEAR ROUTER Security experts have found several security flaws affecting Netgear’s WNR614 N300 router (pictured), which the company stopped supporting over three years ago. Canadian firm RedFox Security said the vulnerabilities included passwords stored in plain text. Netgear has discontinued the router, so it’s unlikely to update it with a security fix. For details visit www.snipca.com/50930. APPLE TO UPDATE iPHONES FOR FIVE YEARS Apple says it will update iPhones for “a minimum of five years” to comply with new UK law. The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act aims to give consumers more protection against hackers and scammers. It’s the first time Apple has committed to a period of time for updates – see the company’s statement at www.snipca.com/50932.…

Can retailers refuse refund if an item has been opened? Q Following Francis McDermott’s case in Issue 684 about a laptop lost by Royal Mail, am I right in thinking that if the packaging shows a picture or photo of the item inside, the retailer can refuse a refund if you’ve opened it to check the product? M Archer A This is a very good question, and some retailers will do their best to say this is the case. However, it’s a bit more complicated than that. The Consumer Contract Regulations let you return most goods bought at a distance – ie online, over the phone or from a catalogue – for any reason for up to 14 days. Usually, you’re entitled to a full refund, including original postage costs.…

Can I edit docs on my Samsung tablet? Q I use LibreOffice on my laptops and sync documents through OneDrive. I can read documents on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE tablet, but I can’t edit without subscribing to Microsoft Office. I don’t want to subscribe, so is there a free program you can recommend instead? Peter Shergold A Yes, try the free Collabora (www.snipca.com/50542), available for both Android and iOS. It offers cut-down mobile versions of LibreOffice Writer, Calc, Impress and Draw, and can handle both LibreOffice and Microsoft Office files. After installing, open OneDrive, locate the file you plan to edit, then tap the three vertical dots next to it. Now slide ‘Make available offline’ so it’s switched on. This step is important – it ensures the file…

Samsung may save its headline features for its premium S series phones, but it’s quietly maintaining its excellent mid-range A series too. The last of these models we reviewed was the Galaxy A04s, though this has since been replaced by the A05s (£99 from Samsung at www.snipca.com/50901). As you’ll see from the difference in price, the A35 is intended to be a step up from the budget A05s. The front and back of the A35 are made from sturdy Gorilla Glass, which gives it a luxury feel. At 209g and 8.2mm thick it’s fairly hefty, but in return you benefit from a large 6.6in AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and sharp 1080x2340-pixel resolution. As you’d expect from an AMOLED panel, the display is dazzling – with a maximum…

We’ve recently taken a close look at Kobo’s new colour ebook readers, the Libra Colour (£200 from www.snipca.com/50192 – see page 32) and the Clara Colour (£140 from www.snipca.com/50515, reviewed in Issue 685). Now Kobo has launched a new monochrome ebook reader, called the Kobo Clara BW – a follow-up to the Clara 2E. This has the same-sized case and screen as the Clara Colour and the raised bezels that provide just enough room to hold the tablet without accidentally touching the screen while reading. “It has a new screen that offers excellent contrast and responds better to your touch” The Clara BW is the first device to come fitted with E Ink’s new grayscale screen – the Carta 1300. While the resolution remains the same as the previous Carta…

We’re huge fans of the firewall GlassWire (www.glasswire.com), so when we learned it’s made its mobile app for Android completely free to use, we had to take a closer look. In this Workshop, we’ll show you how to use GlassWire toidentify apps that may be sharing more data online than they should, then block them using the built-in firewall. GlassWire doesn’t have a version for iPhones, so try the free Lockdown Privacy app (https://lockdownprivacy.com) instead. STEP 1 Visit www.snipca.com/50903 on your Android device, or open the Google Play Store and search for ‘Glasswire’. Tap the Install button and once that’s complete, tap Open. Tap ‘Get Started’ followed by ‘Go to Settings’ to open the Settings app. Find Glasswire in the ‘Usage access’ list and tap it, then turn the ‘Permit…

ANDROID Chat with Google’s AI assistant Gemini Several months after it was launched in the US, the Android version of Google’s AI assistant Gemini is finally available in the UK (www.snipca.com/50814). Originally called Bard, the chatbot is still at the ‘experimental’ stage and pretty basic compared with Microsoft Copilot, but it benefits from integration with other Google tools. When you install the Gemini app, it replaces Google Assistant as the default assistant on your Android phone, though it relies on the latter for certain tasks. You can tap ‘Not now’ to stop this happening, but you won’t be able to use Gemini without agreeing. To interact with the bot, either type a command or query, press the microphone button to speak one, or tap the camera icon (1 in our screenshot…

You’ve probably found plenty of ways to promote club events online, but one method you might not have tried is to create an animated flyer. This is much more eye-catching than a static graphic, and it’s no more complicated to create. We’ll explain how to do it using the superb PosterMyWall. Visit www.postermywall.com then click the Login button in the top-right, followed by ‘Sign up for free’. You can sign up using your Apple, Facebook or Google account, or provide your email address. The site offers paid-for subscriptions that give you unlimited high-resolution downloads, but the free version should be enough for most clubs. Choose a template and edit it Sign in, then click the blue Create button next to your profile icon, followed by ‘Browse templates’ under the Designs…

Do privacy extensions work on banking websites? Q When I installed the ClearURLs extension (www.snipca.com/50120) as you recommended in Issue 683’s Cover Feature on staying private online, I found that I could no longer log into my Lloyds bank account. I’ve now had to remove this extension. Shouldn’t you have mentioned that some privacy-focused extensions can restrict access to sensitive sites? Trevor Watkin A While ClearURLs is great at removing tracking elements from URLs, it’s true that it can affect the way some websites work, such as those that don’t allow ad blockers. That’s why we recommended clicking the Settings cog and switching off ‘Allow domain blocking’ when you encounter web pages that don’t load properly. But you’re right, we should have mentioned that extensions of this type can affect…