Table of contents for 686 in Computeractive

It might sound impressive that nearly 79 million people use Brave, but it barely registers on the global browser league table. Look at this chart from StatCounter (www.snipca.com/50742) and you’ll see Google’s Chrome way out in front, followed by Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Edge. Brave, unmentioned, is squeezed into the ‘Other’ category hovering at around one per cent. And yet those 79 million people know something other users don’t: it’s the best browser for staying private online. No ads, no trackers, no clutter. It’s fast too, and has loads of superb features. Robert Irvine reveals the best of these in his Cover Feature, and also explains why you should try Brave’s search engine – which similarly fails to make StatCounter’s chart (www.snipca.com/50743) – instead of Google. The fact is, it’s…

You’ll soon be able to cancel a rolling subscription simply by telling the company in an email, under a new law that significantly boosts your consumer rights. Previously, you had to follow a company’s process for cancelling, which was often difficult to complete or hidden on their website. The change is part of the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act, which passed on 23 May (www.snipca.com/50729). It aims to “stop technology businesses with strategic power from misusing their position to disadvantage competitors and consumers”. Retailers will have to give customers clearer pricing before they sign up for a subscription, ensuring that “unavoidable hidden fees” will be prominently displayed. Additionally, they’ll have to let them know when any trial period is coming to an end. The law also bans fake reviews…

SYSTEM ANALYSIS TOOL Glow 24.09 www.snipca.com/50749 What you need: Windows 10 or 11 Back in Issue 676 (page 19), we reported that Glow had reached its final version, but the popularity of the program has persuaded its developer to keep it going. That’s good news for us because the free system-information tool now receives frequent updates and continues to evolve and improve. Since we last wrote about Glow, it’s been updated six times and has added a host of handy features for analysing your PC. The most notable are two benchmarking tools, which test the performance of your processor and hard drive to ensure they’re working properly. These new options are in the Tools menu in Glow’s top-right corner. Select ‘CPU Benchmark Tool’ to benchmark your processor, then specify the…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Microsoft’s switch-to-Bing repair ‘tip’ Looking for a reliable PC-cleaning tool can feel like sticking your hand in a hornet’s nest. I’ve been stung enough times by tricks and junk from CCleaner, IObit and Auslogics to be wary of any new program offering to declutter my system with a single click. But I was hopeful that Microsoft’s much-hyped PC Manager (www.snipca.com/50492) would succeed in refreshing the parts other cleaners couldn’t reach. Yet when it launched earlier this year, it included the dubious option of deleting items from the Prefetch folder. This is a bad idea because these are files that make programs load faster. My hope was revived when the latest version added an effective file-removal tool (see Issue 685, page 46). But every silver lining has a cloud…

What are they? If you’ve ever used an ebook reader you’ll be familiar with E Ink screens, though most up to this point have been mono panels. These have low refresh rates, so are ideal for showing static information, such as a page from a book. They are not suitable for dynamic digital environments, such as operating systems on tablets and smartphones. E Ink screens don’t use much power because they only draw from the battery when moving from one page to the next. The latest innovation is colour screens, such as the E Ink Kaleido 3 panel on the Kobo Clara Colour (pictured, £140 from www.snipca.com/50515, reviewed in Issue 685). How do they work? Colour E Ink screens use filters built into the surface of the screen to make…

I find composite images particularly useful to show how things have changed. When you create them as described here, the two photos remain independent. If I ever want to recover the upper image, I can simply remove the mask I applied at the end of the process, while hiding that layer reveals the photo beneath. This is useful if I ever want to use the shots as non-composites. How do you intend to use composite photographs? Please let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

CHROME Hide unwanted elements in Google search results It’s hard to remember a time when Google presented its search results in a clean, minimalist way. Search for something these days, and your results include sponsored links, ads for related products on online stores, ‘people also ask’ suggestions and other distracting junk. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Google is now showing ‘AI overviews’ at the top of the results page, which often include misleading information – recent examples recommended eating rocks and putting glue in pizzas (www.snipca.com/50618). AI overviews are currently limited to users in the US, but the feature will roll out in the UK later this year. You can clean up your Google search results by installing the new Chrome extension ‘Bye Bye, Google AI’ (www.snipca.com/50619). This hides…

MICROSOFT EXCEL Hide the content of cells When working in Excel, you may want to keep the content of your cells hidden. This could be handy if you’re taking notes or making quick calculations that might clutter your spreadsheet. Right-click a cell then click ‘Format Cells…’. Now click Custom (1 in our screenshot) from the ‘Category:’ list, then in the ‘Type:’ field type ;;; 2 (three semicolons). Click OK. In our example, the text in A1 is hidden 3, but you can still see it in the function box at the top. MICROSOFT OUTLOOK Fix bug that stops you replying to emails Microsoft has suggested a temporary fix for a bug in the old version of Outlook that was preventing users from replying to encrypted emails. It showed the error…

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. 720p A resolution of highdefinition video: 1280x720 pixels. 7z A format for compressing files into an archive format. AAC Advanced Audio Coding. A type of music file. AES-256bit Advanced Encryption Standard. A form of encryption based on a key length of 256 bits. AI Artificial intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a screen. Traditional PC screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. Augmented reality Lets you view the real world on a screen and add…

BUY NEW MANHATTAN FREEVIEW BOXES Manhattan has released its T4 and T4-R Freeview Play boxes, to fill the gap left by the T3-R, which it stopped making last year. Both contain UK-based services like BBC iPlayer and ITVX, though only the T4-R lets you record shows. The T4 costs £70 (www.snipca.com/50759), while the T4-R costs £169 for 500GB (www.snipca.com/50760, pictured), £199 for 1TB and £229 for 2TB of storage. GET DISCOUNTS ON O2 REFURBISHED PHONES O2 is offering a £360 discount on selected refurbished phones as it relaunches its ‘Like New’ scheme. Existing customers can also get an extra £70 off certain phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S23 5G 256GB. Both offers – which can be used together – run until 7 August. For details visit www.snipca.com/50757. TOMORROW’S WORLD This…

What’s the threat? Scammers are tricking Android users with fake Google Play Store updates that contain malware. Installing the update gives the attackers access to the victim’s phone or tablet. First, the scammers send an email or text message claiming to be from Google, telling you to click a link to update the Google Play Store on your device. Doing so sideloads the malware, called Antidot, then shows a message with a five-step set of instructions and a purple ‘Continue’ button (1 in our screenshot). Clicking the button opens your device’s Accessibility section 2, where the malware asks you to ‘Use New Version?’ 3. Clicking OK lets the malware access your text messages, control the camera and screen lock, and track what you tap on your device. How can you…

You’re probably right to say that the decision to extend the copper network switch-off deadline to January 2027 was “inevitable” (Issue 685, page 6), but the more important point you made was that the network is “crumbling” and needs to be replaced. Very true. Over the past 20 years I’ve worked for various internet providers – regional and national – and have witnessed the decay of the copper network. Campaigners often warn that a new digital network would be vulnerable to power cuts, but it’ll still be more reliable than the copper lines we’re stuck with. Much of my work as an engineer was fixing faults in the copper cables that led to people having no phone line for several days – usually longer if the fault occurred on a…

I read with interest James Deviner’s case asking whether Hughes or Amazon was responsible for dealing with his broken TV (Consumeractive, Issue 684). If my experience is anything to go by, he’ll be well served by Hughes. I bought a TV from the company in March, but stupidly forgot to apply a £10 voucher code at purchase. It’s not a great saving, but every little helps. I emailed Hughes asking if I should re-order the TV with this discount or whether they could deduct £10 from the order somehow. To my pleasant surprise, they said it would be quicker to send a £10 ‘goodwill’ payment to my bank account. This arrived within 24 hours, and the TV – a Samsung 4K model – came soon after. It’s superb, too. Full…

Bitwarden Premium www.snipca.com/50763 Price: £10 per year Free trial: N/A What you need: Windows 10 or 11, macOS or Linux As we explained in our ‘Ditch your old passwords now’ Cover Feature in Issue 685, Bitwarden’s free plan offers “everything you’re likely to need” from a password manager. So why bother paying for a subscription? There are actually several good reasons. Bitwarden Premium has the same simple interface as the free version, but fits in lots of useful extra features. As well as sending encrypted messages, it lets you send encrypted files of up to 500MB in size, which can be set to delete after a set number of hours or days (see screenshot below), and gives you 1GB of secure storage for those files. In addition to storing passwords…

The idiot pictured here is Russian social-media ‘influencer’ Mellstroy, who it’s claimed challenged his followers to invade Wembley’s pitch during the Champions League final on 1 June. It seems he promised 30,000,000 rubles (around £260,000) as a prize to the first person who could dodge the stewards. The reason he could make such a generous offer is that somehow he has earned over $7m (about £5.5m) through videos on Instagram and TikTok, despite being convicted of abuse after attacking a model during a livestream. Three men did invade the pitch in the first minute of the game, each with Mellstroy’s logo printed on their T-shirts. They were all arrested by police. Frustratingly, the Moscowbased Mellstroy is likely to remain free to post his moronic drivel online.…

TABLET | From £599 from Amazon www.snipca.com/50636 Breezy does it Apple’s mid-range iPad Air has received a significant update. There are now two models, one with an 11in screen, like the previous generation, and a second model with a larger 13in screen. The new 11in model costs £599, while the 13in version costs £799. That’s much cheaper than the iPad Pro (£999 for the 11in model or £1,299 for the 13in), but quite a leap up from the basic iPad, which costs £349 for a 10.9in screen. Both sizes of iPad Air come with 128GB of storage as standard, while 256GB, 512GB and 1TB versions are available for an extra £100, £300 and £500 respectively. “A few welcome refinements make the Air better than ever” We tested the 13in model.…

SMART TV | £125 from Amazon www.snipca.com/50707 Set aside US company RCA is a newcomer to the budget smart TV market, but if this space-saving set – which costs just £125 and uses Roku’s excellent interface – is anything to go by it’s a very welcome entry. At 24in across the diagonal you’re not getting a huge screen, but if you’re looking for something to go in a spare room or on a kitchen worktop, it might be just the thing. The edges, rear panel and feet are all made from plain black plastic, and the bezels are wider than many current sets. It comes with a Roku remote contol (pictured below) that’s larger than those that accompany Roku’s plug-in devices, but otherwise uses the same layout. “An ideal second…

Twelve South’s HiRise 3 Wireless Charging Stand is a space-saving wireless charger that offers luxury charging for your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods. Place your iPhone on the MagSafe charger and adjust the angle of the screen to see notifications at a glance. Place your Apple Watch at the back, so it charges effortlessly. And finally, charge your AirPods or a second phone on the soft charging base. The HiRise 3’s vertical design saves precious space on your bedside table or desk. Everything, from the aluminium post to the matte black/white finish, has been designed to evoke quiet luxury. Round corners and smooth edges put the finishing touches to the modern design. The wireless charger at the back is not just for AirPods, but anything that charges wirelessly. In this…

ANDROID Identify songs by humming in YouTube Music The YouTube Music app for Android (www.snipca.com/50640) has added the useful ability to identify songs by humming, whistling or singing them. Tap the search button and press the new waveform icon that appears in the top-right corner. Give YouTube Music permission to access the microphone on your phone or tablet, then hum, whistle or la-la-la a few bars of the tune you want to identify. YouTube Music will display its best guess and let you tap the Play button to listen to the song, or Save to add it to your library (see screenshot below). You can also press the three-dot icon to save the track to a playlist and view more information about the artist, songwriter and album. The results are…

Last year, Brave added a VPN and firewall to its desktop browser (the feature was already available in its mobile app). Unlike the VPNs in Edge and Opera, which are really proxies, Brave’s tool encrypts everything you do online across your entire device – not just within the browser. Although the VPN is integrated with Brave and has a dedicated button in the top-right corner, it’s provided by a thirdparty company called Guardian. It costs more than most rival services, at £97.99 per year or £9.99 per month. There’s a seven-day free trial (see screenshot) but you need to enter your paymentcard details. The service covers up to five devices but only has servers in 13 countries and offers limited functionality. In contrast, Proton VPN’s Plus plan costs €59.88 (£51)…

McAfee expiring in ‘24 hours’? I have McAfee on my PC, so when I received an email claiming my subscription “has expired in 24H”, it caught my attention. I wasn’t sure what it meant – perhaps that McAfee would expire in 24 hours? The message said my PC would be “susceptible to many different virus threats”. The words ‘susceptible’ and ‘virus’ were both clickable links, as were others in the message. There was also a big red button urging me to ‘Reactivate My subscription’ – note the inconsistent capitals. There was a serial number at the bottom, and a countdown timer to get a discount. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Do I have to pay VAT for new power supply? LEAD CASE Q In August 2022 I bought a £34.99 Kolink power supply unit from Currys. It stopped working in March, since when I’ve been ping-ponged between Currys and Kolink in Germany. It’s still under warranty, but Currys says this has nothing to do with it. Kolink says it will replace the power supply, but that I’d have to pay VAT to have it delivered to me. Are they both right? Steve Cliffe A Yes, they are. As the retailer, Currys has a contract with Steve under the Consumer Rights Act, but it’s not responsible for rights given to the buyer under a manufacturer’s warranty. If Steve can prove this is an inherent fault, Currys must replace or repair the…

Before the middle of the 19th century, most people suffering from mental illness were cared for by their families or the local community, though wealthier families could pay privately for their relatives’ treatment at so-called ‘madhouses’. Despite the stigma surrounding mental health, there was growing recognition that more help was needed. This led to the first county lunatic asylums being built in England and Wales in 1808, while many more followed in 1845 after the passing of the Lunacy Act (1857 in Scotland). Access Bethlem records on Findmypast Originally, Bethlem Hospital (known as Bedlam) was the only public institution where patients could be treated without charge. Findmypast has digitised admission records and casebooks from 1683-1932. Subscribers can access them by visiting www.snipca.com/50469 and searching by name. You’ll find individual case…

PHONE | £449 from Amazon www.snipca.com/50688 Snappy apps The Google Pixel 8a is to the Pixel 8 what the Pixel 7a (our current favourite Android smartphone – see page 30) is to the Pixel 7. The ‘a’ at the end of its name tells us that it’s a pared-back version of the original, with corners cut to keep the price down. So why isn’t the 8a taking the mantle as our new favourite? Simply because the launch of the 128GB 8a for £449 has forced down the price of the Pixel 7a to £399, which makes it even more of a bargain than before. “An impressive compromise that handles apps well and offers more advanced photo modes” In performance tests the 8a, which uses the same Google Tensor G3 processor…

What is it? German company Machdyne has developed a USB stick that it claims can survive for decades. The Blaustahl Storage Device (pictured) costs around £26. What does it do? The stick uses FRAM (Ferromagnetic RAM) rather than standard RAM. Regular RAM needs refreshing every few years or the data can disappear. FRAM can store data for much longer. What’s the catch? It only has 8KB of storage, letting you store 8,000 characters – enough for four pages of a book. The reason is that FRAM is very expensive, restricting how much storage Blaustahl can offer. You could use it to save a few passwords, but not much else. So can I do without it? Yes. If you really want four pages of text to last 100 years, you’d be…

What you need: Smartphone, tripod, GIMP Time required: One hour Photographs usually capture a single moment in time, but that doesn’t always tell the whole story. If you want to present before and after shots, illustrate how something’s grown or show off the results of your handiwork, it can make more sense to create a composite shot: a single frame that contains two or more images, laid one on top of the other, and cropped. We sometimes use these in the magazine when we want to illustrate the effect of making changes to software or hardware. We did so recently in our feature on calibrating your monitor and printer to make sure the colours you see on screen are accurately reproduced on paper (see Issue 685, page 36). Here’s how…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Get alerts when you exceed the speed limit I agree with your assessment that all the recent changes to Google Maps have made it worse (Issue 684, page 63). I switched to Here WeGo (www.snipca.com/50387) a while ago and haven’t regretted it. I particularly like the way it can warn you when you’re driving faster than the speed limit. Tap the Settings menu followed by ‘Speed limit alerts’. Make sure ‘Alert when over limit’ is switched on, so the slider is blue (1 in our screenshot). Adjust the two sliders to alert you when you go over the limit by a certain amount. The top slider is for limits under 50mph 2, while the bottom one is for those over 50mph…

WINDOWS 11 Hide lock-screen widgets With the update KB5035942 in March Microsoft added widgets to the lock screen in Windows 11, showing information like weather forecasts and stock-market prices. You can disable these if you don’t want them. Press Windows key+I to open Settings, then click Personalisation (1 in our screenshot below) followed by ‘Lock screen’. Now click the dropdown menu next to ‘Lock screen status’ 2 and select None 3. WINDOWS 10 & 11 Paste copy as plain text using PowerToys Version 0.81 of PowerToys, released in May, added an Advanced Paste tool that lets you paste as plain text (ie, without any formatting) across any Windows system tool or program you’re working on. This is a more versatile equivalent of the Ctrl+Shift+V keyboard shortcut that pastes as plain…

What are they? Pages that have vanished from the internet. Around 38 per cent of all pages that existed in 2013 are no longer available, while a quarter of all pages that were published at some point since then have also disappeared. Even eight per cent of pages that were online last year have gone. Who discovered all that? Analysts at the Pew Research Center in the US, who looked at a sample of nearly one million pages (see www.snipca.com/50740). They found that clicking many links on important websites such as news sources, government and Wikipedia served up error messages such as ‘404 Page Not Found’ (see our main screenshot). What does that mean? It appears when the server can’t find the website you’re looking for and is a sign…

Brave’s free apps for Android (www.snipca.com/50673) and iOS (www.snipca.com/50674) offer the same features and protection as the desktop browser, including AI tool Leo and the optional VPN and firewall. Some of its tools are actually more beneficial on mobile devices, especially when compared with Chrome. For example, blocking ads and trackers conserves data and battery life, your screen won’t be obstructed by pop-ups and cookie-consent banners, and the app’s night mode reduces eye strain when you’re browsing in bed. The mobile app also expands the Privacy Stats feature on Brave’s New Tab page. As well as showing the number of ads and trackers the browser has blocked, it tells you their domains, so you can identify the worst offenders. On Android, tap the Privacy Stats card and choose ‘Turn on…